When did care homes come to be seen as recession-proof investments? And who pays the price?

On a spring morning in 1987, a 30-year-old man named Robert Kilgour pulled up beside a row of foamy cherry trees in the town of Kirkcaldy, on Scotland’s east coast, to visit an old hotel. The building was four storeys of blackened Victorian sandstone. Kilgour was a big man, a voluble Scot with a knack for storytelling. He already owned a hotel in Edinburgh but wanted to branch into property development and was planning to turn this old place, Station Court, into apartments. A few months after he completed the purchase, however, the Scottish government scrapped a grant for developers that he had been counting on. He had just sunk most of his personal savings into a useless building in a sodden, post-industrial town. He urgently needed a new idea.

Care homes weren’t so different from hotels, Kilgour thought. And the beauty was, their elderly residents were unlikely to get drunk, steal the soap dispensers or invite sex workers back to their rooms. Turning Station Court into a care home seemed like the best way out of a bad situation. Kilgour arranged a bank loan and in June 1989 he launched Four Seasons Health Care, taking the name from a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan where he had once dined.

It’s unclear what happened in São Paulo. But our obsessive culture has created a fraught dance between stars and their fans

Last week, the former Chelsea footballer Jorginho made a post on social media claiming that, after his daughter walked past the singer Chappell Roan’s table at a restaurant and smiled at her, a security guard accosted the girl. The security guard apparently spoke “in an extremely aggressive manner”, causing her to be “extremely shaken and [cry] a lot”.

If the story is true, it doesn’t look good for Roan. This wasn’t creepy paparazzi or red carpet hecklers; it was a child. Roan has apologized, adding that the man involved in the incident in São Paulo was not her personal security, and that she didn’t see the girl.

Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist

With an egg-cellent roster on offer, which chocolate treats are the most moreish and which aren’t worth shelling out on?

• The best novelty hot cross buns

At the age of 45, my Easter egg hunt is about seeking out quality, transparency and flavour, rather than just finding the most eggs. Then again, I haven’t been on one for about 35 years, and my tastes have since changed, as has the market. Beyond those foil-wrapped novelties of yesteryear, there’s now a genuinely impressive selection of thoughtfully made, handcrafted chocolate eggs aimed at those with a more mature palate.

As with all chocolate, certifications matter: Fairtrade guarantees a minimum price, fairer working rights and investment in climate resilience, while the Rainforest Alliance focuses on environmental standards and farm sustainability. The quality and processing of the chocolate is also important. Most eggs contain the likes of invert sugar syrup, soya lecithin and E471, so rather than highlight every additive, I’ve instead flagged products with minimal processing, as well as those that use palm oil. I haven’t marked down for high sugar content – it is Easter, after all – but I have included the percentage of sugar.

Experts say paid participants are using automated tools to generate unreliable survey responses at scale

If you had been keeping tabs on the news about church attendance in Britain lately, you would be forgiven for thinking the country was in the midst of a Christian revival.

Stories of swelling congregations, filled with young people returning to the flock, spurred on by everything from social media to a rise in bible sales appeared to be confirmed by a 2024 report from the Bible Society.

As a child, Brown was underestimated, infantilised and dismissed by specialists and teachers. Now 28, he has written an acclaimed debut novel set in an adult day care centre that gives people like him a voice

‘May I say that I’m very glad to meet you,”  Woody Brown taps on his word board. Brown is formal, funny and strikingly eloquent. He has a formidable ability to tell stories that reach into the mind of his characters and express what they are thinking, and what they think others are thinking about them. Brown is also autistic and non-speaking.

His first novel, Upward Bound, tells the story of everyday life at the eponymous adult day care centre in southern California. The title is ironic – the young adults, referred to as clients, are anything but upward bound. By and large, they are stifled, patronised, unheard and unseen. Despite their shortcomings, the staff are portrayed with a surprising tenderness.

Ruling that Meta and YouTube deliberately designed addictive products marks possible watershed moment for social media

The young woman at the heart of what has been called the tech industry’s “big tobacco” moment was on YouTube at six and Instagram by nine. More than a decade later, she says, she still can’t live without the social media she became addicted to.

“I can’t, it’s too hard to be without it,” Kaley, now 20, told a jury at Los Angeles’ superior court. This week, five men and seven women handed down a verdict on the design of two of the world’s most popular apps that vindicated Kaley’s position.

Escalation represents dangerous spread of war and brings threat of even more damage to the global economy

• Middle East crisis – live updates

• Parents of Iran school bombing victims describe their worst day

The US-Israeli war with Iran has expanded with the entry of Houthi forces in Yemen, representing a dangerous spread of the conflict and bringing with it the threat of more damage to the global economy.

Pakistan has said it would host a meeting of Middle Eastern powers on Monday in an effort to find a regional approach to ending the conflict. But the talks, bringing together foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt did not appear to include any of the warring parties, casting further doubt on persistent US claims of diplomatic progress.

Hours before the world learned that a US missile had hit Shajareh Tayyebeh school, parents were already searching the rubble for their sons and daughters. In this exclusive report, four families describe the events of 28 February

When Marzieh heard the first bang, an almighty crash that rattled the room, her first thought went to her youngest son, Mohammad. He must have got out on to the balcony and discovered a new game, she thought: using all of his small might to smash its sliding doors closed. Marzieh stood up from where she was working at her sewing machine, and shouted for him to stop.

Secretary of state Marco Rubio repeats administration’s belief that US can achieve its aims without a ground war

Amid tentative White House efforts at diplomacy to end the war in Iran, US troops have also been arriving in the region to deliver what Donald Trump has hoped could be a knockout blow if he can’t negotiate a ceasefire with Tehran.

Thousands of US marines aboard navy amphibious ships from the 31st and 11th expeditionary units have been deployed to the Middle East from Asia. Another 2,000-odd paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne are also being sent to the theatre – they are tasked with deploying worldwide within 18 hours of notification and execute parachute assaults, including against a “defended airfield” to prepare for further ground operations.

Tens of thousands are marching through central London to show their rejection of the rise of the far right

Some protesters have spoken to PA earmarking opposition to Reform UK, support for Palestine and anti-racism as drivers for their attendance.

Paige Horsford, 34, a media and English teacher from New Romney, Kent, said she joined the Together march because she has witnessed racist incidents at her school.

Concern that supply chain disruption could hit health essentials – and prices – from painkillers to cancer treatment

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Britain is “a few weeks away” from medicine shortages ranging from painkillers to cancer treatment if the Iran war continues, according to experts, while drug prices could also rise.

The conflict has disrupted the supply of a myriad of crucial raw materials, including oil, gas, crop fertiliser and helium – and health essentials could be next.

Murder investigation launched after man, 26, killed in central London on Friday night

The Metropolitan police have launched a murder investigation after a man was stabbed in central London on Friday night.

Officers were called to Abbey Orchard Street, Westminster, at 10.17pm after receiving reports that a man had been stabbed. The scene of the incident is near Parliament Square and Westminster Abbey.

Exclusive: Findings cast doubt on claims new drilling would help cut bills and boost energy security, researchers say

Hundreds of licences granted for new oil and gas projects in the North Sea under the Conservatives have so far produced only 36 days’ worth of gas, according to analysis.

Research by the energy consultancy Voar and the campaign group Uplift found that between 2010 and 2024, the government handed out hundreds of new North Sea oil and gas licences in seven licensing rounds.

Survivors tell coastguard smugglers ordered victims to be thrown overboard after running out of food and water

22 people hoping to reach Europe from north Africa have died off the coast of Greece after six days at sea in a rubber boat, survivors told the Greek coastguard.

The coastguard said on Friday that 26 people, including a woman and a minor, were rescued by a European border agency vessel off the island of Crete.

Amanda Smith was reunited with her mother, Michele Hundley Smith, on Thursday after decades-long search

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A North Carolina woman whose mother was missing without a word for 24 years before authorities managed to locate her – alive and well – has reunited with her and says she forgives her.

“I know everything is not black and white – there’s a whole gray area,” Amanda Smith said of her mother, 62-year-old Michele Hundley Smith, after they embraced in front of a courthouse on Thursday. “And so I mean, look – life’s too short for me to hold a grudge against her because she’s my mom.”

Members of the UK public join the search after specialist dog units and thermal drones have yet to locate her

Barely 24 hours after nine-month-old capybaras Samba and Tango were brought to Marwell zoo near Winchester, they had made a break for it through a hole in their temporary enclosure. The siblings were transferred to Hampshire from Jimmy’s farm and wildlife park in Suffolk on 16 March after being outshone by other capybaras.

Tango was quickly found, but her sister Samba remains at large, and the mission to find her has attracted national and international coverage.

‘Looksmaxxer’ influencer and his girlfriend are suspected of involvement in attack on 19-year-old woman, officials say

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The social media influencer known as Clavicular has been arrested in Florida on battery charges.

Braden Eric Peters, who maintains a controversial online presence among “manosphere” circles as a so-called “looksmaxxer”, was taken into custody on a warrant issued by the Osceola county sheriff’s office, according to local jail records and media reports.

Competition watchdog will launch cost comparison website and has ordered vets to cap written prescription prices

The UK’s competition watchdog has ordered vets to cap written prescription fees at £21, and practices will have to publish price lists in a crackdown on rising fees.

The Competition and Markets Authority also said a costcomparison website would be introduced to increase competition and drive down costs.

Prime minister is scrambling to clean up her government after youth vote powered a damaging referendum defeat

Filippo Michelini was having a drink at San Calisto, a popular bar in Rome’s Trastevere neighbourhood on Wednesday night. As he chatted to his friends, Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government was reeling from a failed referendum, and her beleaguered tourism minister, Daniela Santanchè, had just resigned.

Michelini, a 29-year-old computer scientist who lives in Brussels, was spending a few days in the Italian capital after returning home last weekend to cast his ballot in the plebiscite on judicial changes.

Shops and restaurants once bustling with tourists now struggle for survival as Canadians think twice about crossing the border

On a warm March weekend in the American border town of Lewiston, New York, bakery owner Aimee Loughran is putting the finishing touches on a special order: a state trooper badge-shaped cake for a local officer’s retirement party.

It should be the last task of a busy Saturday at her Just Desserts shop, which sits just 20 minutes north of the rushing waters of Niagara Falls. Dotted with cafes, restaurants and historic buildings from the 1800s, the Lewiston strip is usually catnip for tourists, including the Canadians whose homes can be seen from the banks of the nearby Niagara River.

Adam, 25, a civil servant, meets Tina, 26, who works in advertising

What were you hoping for?
Good food, good company and hopefully a bit of romance.

More use of two-way charging will earn money for owners and could avoid the need to expand North Sea oil drilling

The Iran war has sent petrol and diesel prices to their highest levels in years, sparked warnings of fuel rationing across Europe and triggered calls for Britain to drill more North Sea oil and gas. But analysis suggests the UK is looking for solutions in the wrong places – and that one of them is sitting on people’s driveways or parked in the street.

If more drivers switched electric vehicles, Britain would sharply reduce its petrol and diesel consumption, with every car charged from the grid rather than the pump extending the country’s fuel reserves – and experts say the potential impact goes far beyond that.

This pricey infrared therapy mat claims to help mood, sleep and muscle recovery. It felt more like a glorified heating pad

• Plastic-free cutting boards and $17 bike lights: 11 things you loved in March

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I have a $1,400 mat stashed under my pink velvet couch.

It’s my roommate’s PEMF and infrared therapy mat, and yes, it costs nearly as much as my monthly rent. Measuring 6ft in length, made of vegan leather, layered with bright-blue amethyst and obsidian crystals and weighing as much as a Siberian husky, the HigherDose mat makes my basic yoga mat feel like a flimsy slab of cardboard.

The Swedish musician decided to pursue motherhood alone, and found it came with a surprising sexual awakening – a story she lays out on her new album, her first in eight years

Robyn sits silently, eyes closed, for what feels like a full minute. “Wow,” she says. “This is really deep” It has been eight years since this elder stateswoman of alt-pop released music. She is talking about how, since then, her life has fractured and reassembled. The 46-year-old Swede’s previous album, Honey, was finished in the afterglow of repairing her engagement to director Max Vitali. Now, she’s no longer in that relationship, she’s raising a three-year-old son, Tyko, whom she had by IVF, on her own, and she has also reckoned with the scars of her own childhood, growing up in an exploitative music industry.

We meet in a breezy attic above a recording studio in London to talk about her new album, Sexistential – an ode to letting your guard down and feeling things deeply. “Defending my right to be myself and be vulnerable,” she says. She’s wearing biker boots and a mesh hoodie, and has tucked a bomber jacket, two overflowing handbags and a black leather sailor hat into the nooks and crannies of the sofa as if constructing a nest around herself. She’s thrilled to be back. “I’ve never released an album as a parent, so it’s really exciting to work.” She laughs, flashing a chipped tooth. “When I do get time for myself, it’s liberating and fun.”

More than one in eight of all those born between 1997 and 2012 don’t believe retirement will even be an option

Mehjabin, 23, is a supply teacher who lives with her parents in London. She does not know whether she will ever be able to stop working.

She works for a teaching agency, and for a full week she could typically earn about £650. However, sometimes she only gets two or three days a week.

The Strictly dancer on impostor syndrome, having his trousers split on stage and his dancefloor rival

Born in South Africa, Johannes Radebe, 38, was South African Amateur Latin Champion three times and won the Professional Latin Championships twice. He spent two seasons on Strictly Come Dancing South Africa before joining the UK version in 2018. In 2023 he published his memoir, Jojo: Finally Home. Having toured the UK and Ireland in the Olivier-, Grammy- and Tony-winning musical Kinky Boots, he reprises the role of Lola at the London Coliseum until 11 July. He is single and lives in London.

When were you happiest?
When my UK citizenship was approved. It’s taken me eight years and lots and lots of money. I was at home in South Africa when I received the news and my mum said, “I am so happy for you because this is your glitterball.”

⚽ Latest updates from Manchester derby at 1.30pm (GMT)
⚽ Glut of derbies could have diluting effect | Email Xaymaca

The away supporters are making all the noise in the early stages here. A blue sky has emerged above our heads all of a sudden and the league leaders are hoping for another sky blue day of celebration on their march towards their first title since 2016. ‘City, City, the best team in the land and all the world’ is their chant.

3 min: It’s all Manchester City at the moment. Manchester United give the ball away carelessly and Miedema capitalises on the mistake. She slips ball in for Aoba Fujino who drives into the box but the Asian Cup winner drags her shot wide.

• Italian finishes 0.298sec ahead of British teammate

• Verstappen ‘beyond frustrated’ after finishing 11th

Kimi Antonelli demonstrated he intends to be front and centre in the Formula One world championship battle after claiming a commanding pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix, driving his Mercedes with an assured confidence beyond his tender years.

The 19-year-old delivered a hugely impressive lap on a Suzuka circuit that rewards drivers who can push to the edge and beat his teammate George Russell into second by 0.298sec. This was no little feat despite the British driver struggling with setup issues on his car.

• Former Burnley and Forest manager linked with Spurs

• Igor Tudor under pressure after dismal run of results

Sean Dyche has quashed rumours he is in talks with Tottenham but described the relegation-threatened Premier League team as a “brilliant club” amid speculation over Igor Tudor’s position.

Spurs are without a fixture until 12 April but a run of five defeats in seven matches under the interim head coach Tudor has placed his job at threat, with their league position a precarious one.

Portugal head coach, who describes the country as a ‘football school’, explains why he is ready to take risks in pursuit of World Cup glory

‘You get there and the mountain is so big, you have no objective other than survive.” It was summer 1995, Roberto Martínez was 21, he had made one brief appearance for Real Zaragoza and just completed military service while playing regional football back in his home town of Balaguer. A complete unknown, he was heading to Wigan, wherever that was, and didn’t speak a word of English. He was also heading to the Third Division, where whatever they played it wasn’t football, not as he knew it. “There is fear: ‘No,’” he says. “But my attitude was always: ‘Why not?’”.

Martínez now stands in the hallway at the Portuguese federations’s base in Oeiras near Lisbon, arms out in a warm welcome. Trophies sit in cases, the Nations League the latest addition. Only one cup is not there, which is why Martínez is. Seventy-five days until the World Cup starts, he takes Portugal into their final pre-tournament international break with matches against two of the co-hosts, Mexico and the United States. The man whose favourite goal was against Scunthorpe at Springfield Park leads a team who are among the favourites to triumph this summer, willing to dream precisely because he never dreamed any of this.

England were disjointed against Uruguay but no wonder – the head coach’s team selection was an act of self sabotage

Before this game Thomas Tuchel had said he would base his starting XI on what he saw on the training ground. Halfway through an evening at Wembley Stadium that felt like being stabbed very slowly through the eyes with a butter knife made entirely from death, ear wax and empty corporate leisure product, it was tempting to wonder about this.

What exactly had the players left out done in training to be deemed ineligible for this England team? Turn up naked? Vomit into a traffic cone? Attempt to stage a game of Cluedo during set-piece practice? Perhaps Adam Wharton had killed a crow and stapled its innards to the dressing‑room door.

• British rider went off road after misjudging corner on Friday

• Bone and ligament damage to his right knee and wrist

Tom Pidcock has been withdrawn from the Volta a Catalunya because of injuries sustained in a crash during the fifth stage on Friday. The British rider went off the road after misjudging a corner, suffering what he described as a “horror” crash down a ravine.

Although the Pinarello-Q36.5 rider was able to get back on his bike and complete the stage, after medical assessments with his team and also at hospital, it was determined Pidcock could not resume the race.

• Tiger Woods arrested after Florida rollover crash

• Golfer charged with DUI after Jupiter Island incident

• Woods to be held eight hours under Florida DUI law

• Trump laments arrest of ‘close friend’ in remarks

Tiger Woods was released on bail on Friday, hours after the golf star’s Land Rover clipped a truck, rolled onto its side and he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, according to officials.

Martin County sheriff John Budensiek said Woods was driving a Land Rover that overturned after attempting to overtake a truck on a narrow two-lane road shortly before 2pm near Woods’s residence on Jupiter Island. The vehicle clipped a trailer, veered off and came to rest on its driver’s side after sliding along the roadway.

Britain’s heavyweight prospect puts his unbeaten record on the line against Jermaine Franklin on Saturday

Moses Itauma might represent the glittering future of heavyweight boxing but right now he is locked in the present. In the back seat of a car, while being driven from one swanky hotel to another in Manchester, the 21-year-old turns to me and says: “Let’s get going.”

I know how much Itauma dislikes interviews and so the only sensible option is to resist this blunt invitation to rush through our 45 minutes together. On Saturday night, in Manchester, Itauma fights Jermaine Franklin, the tough American who should provide his first notable test after he has won all 13 professional fights so far, with 11 ending in brutal stoppages. So he nods, just a little grudgingly, when I suggest we wait until we are sitting face to face.

Club’s financial crisis meant exclusion from the RFL Championship this season, and it could be a long way back for one of the sport’s storied names

Sunday afternoon in Featherstone. The first shoots of spring are creaking through the skyline and the Railway pub is bustling with rugby league supporters as the town’s pride and joy, Featherstone Rovers, prepare to face Swinton Lions.

Or at least, that is what should have happened last weekend. Instead, streets of this West Yorkshire town built on coal mining were deserted. The Railway, just a few hundred yards from Rovers’ Post Office Road home, was largely empty and the gates of the stadium chained shut.

There’s a system that creates and condones these toxic restaurant environments – and too often it’s rewarded by institutions such as Michelin

• Lauren Joseph is a writer and chef

The fine-dining world has been closely watching the fallout at Noma since chefs spoke out about the physical violence and emotional abuse that the head chef, René Redzepi, subjected them to at his Copenhagen restaurant. There were protests in Los Angeles before a four-month pop-up of the restaurant opened there this month, and Redzepi, in an Instagram video in which he failed to fully assign himself blame (“I’m sorry everyone is in this situation,” he begins), then announced that he has stepped away from the business. The LA pop-up, however, remains and the question lingers: will this be the reckoning an ultra-pressured group of restaurants has long avoided?

It depends on whether we allow ourselves to be distracted by Redzepi and what comes next. I hope every chef who was allegedly intimidated, punched and threatened gets the reparations they seek. Then the story should move on. No waiting for the public redemption arc – but also, no useless vilifying of this man, whose past transgressions have previously been accepted.

Lauren Joseph is a writer and chef

The defense secretary prayed for ‘overwhelming violence’ against enemies in Iran. He seems to delight in it

Is it woke to wash your hands? Pete Hegseth seems to think so. Back in 2019 when he was still just a Fox News host rather than the guy in charge of “the Department of War”, Hegseth said on-air that he hadn’t washed his hands for 10 years because “germs are not a real thing.” He added: “I can’t see them; therefore, they’re not real.”

Hegseth later claimed he was joking. But even if he was, the defense secretary is never going to be able to wash the blood from his hands. The 45-year-old, one of the strongest backers of the war on Iran, has said he wants “maximum lethality, not tepid legality” to the be the hallmark of the US military, and he’s been making good on that promise. Under his watch, a defense department program aimed at reducing civilian harm has been dismantled, and experts who provide guidance on keeping military operations in line with international law have been fired. And, of course, a school full of little girls has been bombed.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

The assault on freedom with Mehdi Hasan and Arwa Mahdawi
On Monday 8 June, join Mehdi Hasan and Arwa Mahdawi to discuss the current seismic changes in geopolitics, the alarming rise of populism and nationalism, and its global implications. Live in London and livestreamed worldwide. Book tickets here or at guardian.live

Turkish immigrants to Germany in the 60s were seen as temporary labour, not people. Today’s government in Berlin is at risk of repeating the mistake

A few weekends ago, I went to the flea market in Bomonti, a neighbourhood on the European side of Istanbul. I go there regularly, and over the years I’ve accumulated a small collection of things: embroidered napkins, records, old issues of House & Garden, earrings, candle holders. It is usually on the days when you are not looking for anything in particular that you find the most interesting things – or, as the Turkish writer Sabahattin Ali once wrote, “some things we never know we need until we find them”.

That particular Sunday, strolling through the stalls, I came across a book from 1965 titled Türkler için Almanca – Deutsch für Türken (German for Turks). It was among the first language textbooks of its kind, widely distributed to the so-called Gastarbeiter – “guest workers” – who came to West Germany in the 1960s and 70s. The economic boom of the 1950s had created an acute labour shortage, prompting the recruitment of workers from abroad. A bilateral agreement with Turkey, signed in 1961, facilitated the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Turkish men and women to come and work in German factories. Officially, their stay was meant to be temporary. Workers came alone; families stayed behind. A copy of the language book I found 60 years later at a flea market in Istanbul would have been in the suitcases of many of these workers.

Carolin Würfel is a writer, screenwriter and journalist who lives in Berlin and Istanbul. She is the author of Three Women Dreamed of Socialism

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.

Do we really need a McDonald’s CEO fronting ads or a Gianni Infantino Panini sticker? No. But in the age of Trump, the boss class feels emboldened

A few weeks ago, the CEO of McDonald’s appeared in a video sampling the chain’s new “Big Arch burger”. In the clip, Chris Kempczinski, or “Chris K” as he casually calls himself, labelled it a “product”, matching the sterile tone of the review – all harsh lighting, corporate office backdrop and an awkward man talking and eating while wearing a shirt fitting uneasily under a light wool V-neck.

Why would McDonald’s, with its huge marketing budget and commercial success, choose to platform this guy? His stilted efforts were mocked and memed, with executives at Burger King and Wendy’s posting their own versions – what fun. Inevitably some market watchers claimed it drove engagement and sales. But to me, it seems to be just the latest flagrant example of CEOism: when CEOs/founders/heads of organisations centre themselves in the action – just because they can.

Larry Ryan is a freelance writer and editor

The US court verdicts declaring Meta liable for getting people addicted and ruining lives must be just the start of a global fightback

Good news is so rare these days, you don’t quite know how to take it. You want to celebrate, but a rival instinct tells you it’ll be pulled back somehow, the same feeling you get when your team scores a late winner, but you’re filled with instant dread that the goal will be overturned on a video replay.

I confess that is how I responded to the double legal blow dealt this week to Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, when two US juries on successive days found against it in a pair of landmark cases. First came a verdict in New Mexico, fining the company $375m (£280m) for enabling harm, including child sexual exploitation, on its platforms and for misleading consumers about their safety. Twenty-four hours later, jurors in California awarded $6m in damages to a young user who had argued that Meta (along with YouTube) had deliberately designed addictive products that had hooked her from childhood, causing her grave harm.

Girlguiding’s response to last year’s supreme court ruling is not the humane option – and changes the organisation’s identity

Great work, Guides; you’ve taken some members you had no idea even existed, and expelled them from your organisation with effect from September. This gives trans girls a humane half-year to extricate, because that’s definitely what kids want: to participate for six months in a uniformed, voluntary, social organisation that has explicitly kicked them out, while they look for somewhere more welcoming.

“Like every charity, we have to follow the law,” Girlguiding says in an online info pack whose FAQs are almost comically Stasi-lite. “Will volunteers be expected to carry out additional checks or ask for proof?” (The good news, folks, is that they won’t; the mind boggles at what those additional checks might be that didn’t breach at least some safeguarding protocols.) “How should volunteers check that trans girls have left?” (Some sort of dunking stool? In actuality, again, they won’t check.)

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

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

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.

Two court cases have shown how companies can be forced to take responsibility for their impact on public health

Debate about online harms has tended to focus on abusive and hateful content. But the form in which content is delivered is at least as important. That point is central to this week’s momentous decisions against Meta and YouTube, by two US juries. It will take more than these cases to loosen big tech’s tight grip on much of the world’s attention. But the fact that both companies were found liable in California, for deliberately designing addictive products that harmed a child, is a massive win for the coalition of campaigners aiming to use the US courts to force the platforms to change their products.

The second case against Meta, in New Mexico, found it liable over the use of Facebook and Instagram for child sex trafficking, with a Guardian investigation cited in the complaint. The jury ordered it to pay $375m in civil liabilities; the state’s attorney general is seeking platform changes and financial penalties.

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.

Adaptations of hit novels like One Day and Trainspotting help keep the genre in tune with the times

Singin’ in the Rain it will never be, but Trainspotting the Musical is not as improbable as it seems. The yellow-brick road from cult novel to film to blockbuster musical is so well trodden that it was only a matter of time before an all-singing, all-dancing adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s gritty 1993 novel about a bunch of heroin addicts in Edinburgh hit London’s West End. Danny Boyle’s 1996 film, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last month, had already established Trainspotting as a story with a soundtrack. The musical will have specially written songs too.

From Oliver! and Les Misérables to Matilda, Wicked and The Devil Wears Prada, many of the biggest hitters in the West End today started out as books. Even the global hit Hamilton was inspired by a hefty 800-page biography of the 18th-century American founding father Alexander Hamilton. Last autumn, Paddington the Musical joined their ranks. A musical version of another hit novel about the 1990s (although published in 2009) – David Nicholls’s One Day – opened in Edinburgh this month. The romance between Emma and Dexter might be more typical musical fare than the drug-fuelled antics of Trainspotting’s Renton, Sick Boy and Spud, but that doesn’t mean that the latter don’t belong in a musical. Welsh has revealed that this latest incarnation will “broaden” to include contemporary addictions to mobile phones and the internet.

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.

Zaki Cooper and Susan Saffer respond to Jonathan Freedland’s article on antisemitic attacks, and John Reizenstein and Liz Fewings to an article by David Davidi-Brown

Jonathan Freedland writes a timely article about the dangers facing Jews in the diaspora (Attacks on synagogues and Jewish shops in the UK, Europe and the US don’t hurt Netanyahu. They just hurt ordinary Jews, 20 March). Antisemitism has always been a light sleeper – and it is stirring once more in modern Britain.

Modern antisemitism draws from several sources: the far right, the extreme left, often obsessively focused on Israel, and Islamist‑inspired hatred. Like a virus, it has infected a number of public-facing institutions.

A country is judged not only by its laws, but by how it enforces them, writes Aurelia Maynard; plus letters from Mike Rogers and Paul Maguire

I am writing in response to your article about immigration enforcement visits to restaurants (‘They singled out non-white, foreign-born workers’: the restaurants raided by Britain’s version of ICE, 24 March). While public debate often becomes quickly polarised on this issue, I believe most people would agree on two simple principles: the law should be upheld, and people should be treated with dignity.

It is reasonable for any government to enforce immigration and employment law, and businesses should operate within those laws. However, enforcement methods matter greatly. When enforcement appears intimidating, targeted or publicly disruptive, it risks creating fear not only among those breaking the law, but also among lawful workers, customers and communities.

It’s not just men who need help with thinning hair, writes one female reader

The article on hairpieces (The remarkable return of the toupee, 26 March) only mentioned men, but they are a godsend for women with thin hair. Baldness may be acceptable for a man, but a visible scalp is never a good look on a woman. I have always had thin, fine hair that has been the bane of my life, but after menopause this got so much worse.

I have been wearing a topper of some description for a couple of years now, and never been happier with my appearance – they have made me much more confident. I began with a not-too-thick synthetic clip-on topper, but have just had a thicker, real hair glue-on one fitted: it is wonderful! The gradual change felt easier for me than an “overnight transformation”. They are not just for men and if anything are more valuable to women.
Name and address supplied

Don’t assume all Today listeners enjoy the same things, writes Eve Orange. Plus a letter from Henry Fryer

For better or worse, Radio 4 has (unwittingly) served as the auditory backdrop to much of my existence, with the comforting journey through the headlines, the papers, thought for the day, weather and sport, and the enduring race against the pips characterising my mornings for as long as I can remember.

While some argue that, at 27, I am far from a seasoned listener, I do think that this experience gives me some skin in the game when it comes to the BBC’s flagship Radio 4 show.

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the past seven days

Enid Blyton’s classic kids’ fantasy novel gets the big-screen treatment, while the Aussie boyband hit the UK’s arenas

The Magic Faraway Tree
Out now
A family relocate to the countryside where they find a magic tree that transports them to a fantasy realm in this family adventure. Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2) adapts the Enid Blyton series for the big screen, with Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy starring as Mr and Mrs Thompson.

Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports

John Wells’ stellar medical drama arrives on this side of the pond, while Sergei Loznitsa’s haunting film is a terrifying tale of bureaucratic evil. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Female named Rounder surrounded by family members when about to give birth to her second calf

Scientists have managed to film a sperm whale giving birth while other female whales worked together to support the mother and her newborn.

A team from Project Ceti, an international effort seeking to understand how whales communicate, was in a boat near a pod of 11 whales off the coast of the Caribbean island of Dominica on 8 July 2023.

IFS analysis also finds male-managed companies were more likely to have victim of abuse leave company

Companies who employ more women in senior roles are much more likely to dismiss men accused of sexually or physically abusing their colleagues, according to analysis of international and UK data.

Men were more likely to get sacked for abusing a male colleague rather than a female colleague, according to a recent Finnish study, cited in research about the economic impact of violence against women and girls gathered by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

Party announces Corey Edwards’ decision to quit Senedd election campaign on grounds of mental health

A Reform UK candidate for the Welsh Senedd elections in May has announced he is standing down because of his mental health, after a photograph emerged of him apparently making a Nazi salute as an imitation of Adolf Hitler.

The announcement by Reform comes a day after Nigel Farage defended Corey Edwards, its lead candidate for the Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg constituency, saying he may have instead been impersonating the John Cleese character Basil Fawlty.

Reform’s lead waning, Labour struggling and Badenoch doing well at PMQs all boost mood but is disaster inevitable?

“The Conservative party is coming back,” Kemi Badenoch declared at her party’s local election launch last week, surrounded by cheering supporters. And it’s fair to say that many of her MPs are, relative to their mood in recent years, quite cheery.

To others in the Conservative family, though, this optimism appears disconnected from the reality of the situation facing the party. Even the MPs backing Badenoch agree that the Tories face heavy losses on 7 May, not just across English councils, but particularly in votes for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments, where in both they are expected to be reduced to a handful of seats.

Political veteran says she faced ‘French misogyny and machismo’ while making Paris greener and more peaceful

On a sunny spring morning, the highway along the right bank of the Seine is packed with joggers, cyclists, families out for a stroll, roller skaters, dog walkers, picnickers and others taking the air.

In a few months, sand will be spread along a stretch to create the annual artificial Parisbeaches, enjoyed by all but especially city dwellers struggling to make ends meet and unable to afford the real thing.

University’s botanic garden will use study materials created by John Stevens Henslow, the naturalist’s mentor, 200 years ago

Plant specimens and teaching materials that inspired Charles Darwin and qualified him to work as a naturalist on HMS Beagle have been unearthed from an archive in Cambridge and will be used for the first time to teach contemporary students about botany.

The fragile specimens, ink drawings and watercolour illustrations of plants belonged to Darwin’s teacher and mentor, Prof John Stevens Henslow, and have been stored in Cambridge University’s herbarium for nearly 200 years.

A project on Dartmoor to reprofile the landscape aims to return the springy bog – and carbon store – to its natural condition

At one of the most remote spots in southern England, Al West skilfully tilts and rotates the bucket of a small digger, like a giant mechanical hand. He lifts turf, and pats it down gently on to the rich, dark brown peat beneath. Above him, the granite stack of Fur Tor looms above the vast, boggy, wild expanse of northern Dartmoor.

It is repetitive, delicate work, which West carries out with dexterity and care. Within a boundary of white flags, he takes from a borrow pit and fashions a peat embankment across each ditch and depression covering the land, to restore it to its natural smoothness and to stop the rainwater running off down the valley.

Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway: Once nearly extinct in Scotland, they are now widespread, and these ones have such beautiful views to enjoy

Up on the old logging roads near Kirkennan estate, I saw some wild roe deer. They are one of only two deer species that are native to Scotland, as well as red deer. Back in the 1700s, they were almost extinct here, but they can now be found across the country.

When we were walking the air smelled like fresh rain and wood. The deer were about 100 metres up the hill from us, resting in long, wiry grass and shrubs. From below, we could see their short mahogany fur blending into the vegetation. As we went up the hill we came to their resting place – the deer had gone, but we could see their hazel fur caught in the shrubs and indentations in the grass where they had been lounging.

Driving fast is in ‘the German DNA’, say lovers of the speed-limit free Autobahn, but support in the country for a restriction is growing

Death-defying thrills are not what draws Lutz Leif Linden to zip down the Autobahn faster than a plane taking off. Instead, the feeling of freedom and an appreciation of technological mastery play a part in his “almost loving relationship” with driving cars faster than most people can imagine.

The top speed he has reached on the road in Germany, the world’s only democracy without a blanket speed limit on motorways, is 400km/h (249mph). “It’s like an airplane,” said Linden, the president of the Automobile Club of Germany (AvD). “You are faster than an Airbus at start.”

Study backed by Jamie Oliver finds pupils are foregoing sit-down meals for often less healthy, convenient options

Pupils in England are routinely eating pizza slices, sausage rolls and paninis for lunch as school canteens become dominated by a “grab-and-go” culture of unhealthy food.

Convenience foods eaten on the move are ousting sit-down meals as the main way secondary pupils in England refuel during lunch breaks, a report backed by the TV chef Jamie Oliver found.

Claimants say lost documents hide scale of alleged unlawful information gathering at publisher of the Daily Mail

The amount of lost or destroyed documents relating to the Daily Mail publisher’s use of private investigators is “stark in the extreme”, the high court has heard.

However, the thin surviving evidence of payments to private investigators contains “conspicuous and often shocking evidence”, according to lawyers for a group of claimants accusing the publisher of using unlawful techniques.

Campaigner criticises ‘shortsighted and self-defeating’ decision and says it increases risk to the UK public

The polio virus was detected in London sewage for the second time this year, days before ministers withdrew funding for global polio eradication efforts.

Its detection reveals the spending cuts to be “shortsighted and self-defeating”, campaigners said. Polio is an extremely infectious viral disease, which typically affects young children under five. It can cause paralysis by damaging nerves in the spine and base of the brain, and can be life-threatening if it affects muscles used for breathing.

Pete Wilcox says point of investigation into infamous 1984 clashes with police is to ‘enable communities to move on’

Former miners will finally get the chance to speak the truth about their experiences after four decades of silence during a public inquiry into infamous clashes with police at Orgreave, the inquiry’s chair has said.

Pete Wilcox, the bishop of Sheffield, said only an inquiry could help South Yorkshire move on from the events of 18 June 1984, when striking miners unexpectedly found themselves in a pitched battle against thousands of police officers brought in from forces across the UK.

Kristi Noem was replaced by Markwayne Mullin as DHS secretary and Gregory Bovino was demoted, signally a change in tone even as arrests have continued

Throughout last year, Donald Trump delivered on his signature campaign promise of mass deportation in draconian and theatrical style. Hardline figures such as Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Gregory Bovino, the border patrol commander, became the face of Trump’s crackdown, defending a strategy of large-scale raids that sent immigration agents flooding into US cities, terrorizing communities and clashing with protesters.

Then in January, immigration officers killed two US citizens, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, in a matter of three weeks. The killings spurred a sweeping backlash that has led Democratic members of Congress to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for more than a month in an attempt to rein in ICE. Even Trump said “maybe we could use a little bit of a softer touch”.

Decision to choose small, wealthy – but very Catholic – state for first European trip has baffled some Vatican observers

Pope Leo will travel to Monaco, the semi-enclave famous for casinos and superyachts, on Saturday on his first European trip since being elected pontiff, causing bemusement among some Vatican observers, not least because it comes 488 years after the last papal visit.

Leo will travel from the Vatican by helicopter for the one-day trip, and will be greeted at Monaco’s heliport by Prince Albert and his wife, Princess Charlene, before being taken to the palace, which has been the residence of the Grimaldi dynasty since the 13th century. It is the first time a pontiff has visited Monaco since Pope Paul III in 1538.

AI-generated footage depicts group of men performing a corrido, singing phrases including ‘return to your roots’

An AI-generated video from the US embassy in Mexico encouraging migrants to “self-deport” has sparked disbelief and outrage online.

The video posted this week on official embassy social media accounts depicts a group of men wearing black caps and sporting tattoos performing a kind of traditional Mexican ballad known as a corrido.

Mayor of Hartford has fired a white police officer who fatally shot a Black man in a mental health crisis nine times

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A white Connecticut police officer who fatally shot a Black man 30 seconds after arriving at the scene, where three fellow officers had spent several minutes trying to de-escalate the situation, was fired Friday.

Arunan Arulampalam, Hartford’s mayor, said in a statement that he terminated Officer Joseph Magnano effective immediately in connection with the 27 February shooting of Steven Jones, who was on a city street holding a knife. The killing came eight days after a different Hartford officer fatally shot another man in a mental health crisis.

Exclusive: Research finds sharp rise in models evading safeguards and destroying emails without permission

AI models that lie and cheat appear to be growing in number with reports of deceptive scheming surging in the last six months, a study into the technology has found.

AI chatbots and agents disregarded direct instructions, evaded safeguards and deceived humans and other AI, according to research funded by the UK government-funded AI Security Institute (AISI). The study, shared with the Guardian, identified nearly 700 real-world cases of AI scheming and charted a five-fold rise in misbehaviour between October and March, with some AI models destroying emails and other files without permission.

From 6 April, low-income families can claim universal credit payments for all children living in the household

The two-child benefit policy has been described as a “cap on childhood” and as it comes to an end, Claire* hopes to throw a birthday party for her son.

It is a celebration most children may take for granted, but Claire and her partner run out of money at the end of every month, skipping meals so that their three children can eat. Her son, now in his final year at primary school, has never had a party.

AI images of people – such as women in military contexts – are making money and serving as propaganda, researchers say

Online content creators are not just building fake images and videos of prominent public figures, they are also fabricating people and using them in military contexts, which can make them money and even serve as effective propaganda, according to artificial intelligence researchers.

Some of these online avatars are sexualized images of women wearing camouflage garb that have generated a significant audience and helped create an idealized image of political figures like Donald Trump, even if the viewer knows the content is not real, according to experts.

Ban includes two exceptions: AI can still be used for translations, and to make minor copy edits

Wikipedia has banned the use of artificial intelligence in the generation or rewriting of content for its voluminous online encyclopedia.

In a recent policy change, Wikipedia said that the use of large language models (or LLMs) “often violates” its core principles and will not be allowed. The English language version of Wikipedia has more than 7.1m articles.

In this week’s newsletter: From singers to YouTube stars and TV hosts, more famous faces are treading the boards. Some insiders think it’s killing the industry, but for others it opens up theatre to a wider audience

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Timothée Chalamet might have smirked his way out of an Oscar. Sabrina Carpenter might have been roundly snubbed at the Grammys. But there’s one place both would be welcomed with open arms: the UK theatre scene.

It seems we can’t get enough of celebs on stage (acting chops preferable but not mandatory). This week alone, London’s West End features Stranger Things star Sadie Sink, singer Self Esteem and Strictly cutie pie Johannes Radebe. Meanwhile, Mischa Barton, best known for playing Marissa Cooper in the 00s TV series The OC, is touring the UK and Ireland in a new adaptation of James M. Cain’s crime novel Double Indemnity.

A police raid in Dublin triggers unrest in Belgium as the Hidden Assets cops begin another gripping case. Plus, the feverishly awaited grand final of Gladiators. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, BBC Four
The third series of this hit criminal assets thriller is set between Dublin and Belgium, and it starts with one hell of a stressful opener once more. When DS Claire Wallace (Nora-Jane Noone) conducts a raid on a wealthy family home in Ireland, it ends in tragedy – and triggers a case of drugs, diamonds and a series of bombings in Belgium. Hollie Richardson

Westminster insiders try to get to the bottom of Starmer’s awful unpopularity and frequent blunders – but fail to consider less palatable possibilities

Why is Keir Starmer so unpopular? The basic question is easily answered by political broadcaster Lewis Goodall in his investigation of our prime minister’s historically awful approval ratings. In several elections and one big referendum, Goodall says, Britons have voted “for economic change, for material improvement in their lives”, but it hasn’t come. Starmer toured the UK in a campaign bus with “CHANGE” written on the side, yet life as an ordinary citizen has only got harder.

The extent of the national disgruntlement is well known, but the programme underlines it by revealing the results of a shiny new survey – which is something documentaries of this kind like to commission because it guarantees them news coverage. Those headline-grabbing findings: a majority of respondents say Starmer should resign, that he has been too slow to make change, that he does not have a clear plan. Asked to describe him in one word, punters’ top responses were “incompetent”, “useless” and “weak”.

This HBO series about Italy’s top TV host (and his feathered friend) getting embroiled with the mob sounds genius … and yet it’s troublingly tedious

Had a little wager with myself this week, regarding whether HBO Max’s new series is about the west London vintage market, a mushroom, or a coastal suburb of Edinburgh. Even spread-betting, I got cleaned out. Portobello is actually the true story of Enzo Tortora, former host of Italy’s top TV show, who was falsely accused of being a member of the Camorra. How was I supposed to guess that?

At its height, Portobello the variety show had a staggering audience of 28 million, a national cross section from nuns to prison inmates. Among the latter, Giovanni Pandico: a froggy-looking Camorrist and clinical paranoid who becomes fixated, Stan-like, on Tortora. He believes he communicates with the presenter via telepathy, as well as mind control of a parrot which guest-stars on the show. Bizarrely, the mob criminal posts Tortora 20 lace doilies to sell on his show (in a segment actually called Portobello Market, which really spun me out).

Before he was Paddington’s dignified dad, the star nailed British awkwardness in Bafta-winning satire Twenty Twelve. Now he’s back as long-suffering manager Ian Fletcher, taking on Trump, the World Cup – and his foolish old intern

When Hugh Bonneville was first asked to reprise the role of Ian Fletcher – protagonist of John Morton’s Bafta-winning workplace satires Twenty Twelve and W1A – his feelings were mixed. “I was on the one hand absolutely delighted,” says the actor, now most famous for playing dignified patriarchs in Downton Abbey and Paddington. “On the other hand, I was terrified because it’s the most painful and horrible experience I’ve ever had on television.”

In Twenty Twelve, Fletcher flexed his managerial muscles as “Head of Deliverance of the Olympic Deliverance Commission,” guiding his team through the chaotic run-up to the 2012 London Games. In W1A, he landed a job as “Head of Values” at the BBC, where he waded through a series of absurd disasters. Nine years on, a weary Fletcher is back in back-to-back meetings as the “Director of Integrity” of a nameless international football organisation hosting a nameless international football tournament (its blindingly obvious real-world basis is never identified due to “an overabundance of caution on the production’s part,” says Morton).

As I sat in a park during the pandemic, listening to the Evermore album on my headphones, one song finally released the grief that I’d pent up for five years

When the pandemic hit in 2020, it had been five years since my sister, Emily, had died. She had lived with cystic fibrosis her whole life, yet we were a close, tactile family. We laughed, hugged and sang often. When Emily died, relatively suddenly, aged 30 (I was 27), I coped with it as well as anyone could. In fact, I prided myself on how outwardly resilient I seemed: I spoke to a therapist, started a new job. I poured myself into a packed diary and a big city.

It wasn’t until time stopped, in a way, in 2020, that I really sat with my grief. I was forced to – made redundant like so many others that summer, my days had no shape. Like many people living in city flatshares, my one little freedom was a daily walk.

After a nine-year come-up, the self-described ‘worst girl in America’ is having a breakthrough

For the past several months, nothing has gotten me through this brutal New York winter quite like Crank, a fiendishly chaotic concoction by the electropop artist Slayyyter. The track is deliriously overstimulating; the singer tweaks out over record-scratches and squelches and ferociously barrels through a chorus that sounds – and I mean this as a sincere compliment – like a plane crash. In these times of global catastrophe, I have found this soothing.

Slayyyter’s new album Worst Girl in America scratches a similar anarchic itch. Immediate, vertiginous and diabolically cheeky, the after-hours record finds her channelling a ferality that feels rare in our slop-ified pop culture (cue the rock-tinged Cannibalism), and has garnered breathless hype among those in the know. All five singles released from the project to date have the jet propulsion of someone fueled on years of pop star study and frustrated by, as she bluntly puts it, “my ninth year on the up-and-coming list”.

With her acoustic guitars and trip-hoppy beats, the London musician recalls a particular era of polished 00s boho-pop, from Nelly Furtado to Corinne Bailey Rae

From London
Recommended if you like All Saints, Frou Frou, Nelly Furtado
Up next EP out now; on tour with After in May

The first time I heard Gianna’s Shadow of a Bird, I was instantly transported to a place that smelled of Impulse body spray. It is a track that has perfectly nailed the polished boho-pop of early 00s Nelly Furtado, All Saints and Corinne Bailey Rae – the sort that features arpeggiated acoustic guitar, vaguely trip-hop beats and a gently distinctive voice swooping through them.

(ECM)
Jack DeJohnette and Michel Portal – both of whom died recently – are phenomenal foils for the Weather Report alumnus’s classical-influenced jazz

Czech double bass virtuoso and composer Miroslav Vitous must by now have shrugged off any residual irritation about the oft-circulated fact that he was a founding member of the legendary jazz-rock fusion band Weather Report in 1970. Vitous’s dislike of the band’s drift away from improv toward electric music and popular global funk saw him leave as their star was rising. His CV would turn out just fine: Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Jan Garbarek, John Surman and Jack DeJohnette were among his many classy playing partners. Seven years in the making, with Vitous now 78, Mountain Call reflects a lifetime’s immersion in classical music alongside jazz, and the balance of spontaneity, nuance and cinematic atmospherics that offered him.

Across multiple improv dialogues and two suites (all short, Vitous being no fan of loquacity), the set prominently features DeJohnette, who died in October, with Esperanza Spalding, saxophonist Bob Mintzer and the phenomenal French clarinettist Michel Portal, who died in February. Eight duo tracks for Vitous and Portal (mostly all-improvised) are worth the album alone, for their ever-shifting mix of mellow lyricism and challenging curiosity. In four improvisations on a standard clarinet, Portal segues graceful swoops, plaintive queries and staccato punctuation against Vitous’s turbulent undercurrent of muscular plucked runs and percussive accents. On bass clarinet, the Frenchman sweeps from resonant deep sounds to breathtaking glissando ascents hurtling to the upper register.

1970s and 80s New York are viscerally evoked in this potent memoir of the ‘no wave’ scene

You won’t necessarily have heard of Adele Bertei: she was a member of experimental jazz-punk band the Contortions from 1977 and recorded the pop-house single Build Me a Bridge. But her memoir is an essential slice of New York’s bohemian pizza pie, and works in part because she is a relative unknown, not weighed down by her own cultural baggage.

Following a troubled, itinerant upbringing, she arrives in Manhattan in 1977 to find a city on its knees. The big apple was in the red, both literally (fires were a regular occurrence) and monetarily (there was a municipal debt crisis). But pre-Aids and post-Warhol’s avant garde grip, it was also a place that was creatively open.

Musical inspiration from Corinne Bailey Rae; danger in a magical academy; the adventures of an otter pup; a YA queer gothic fantasy, and more

The Bear and the Seed by Poonam Mistry, Templar, £12.99
When Bear’s glorious forest disappears, he finds hope in a tiny seed – but he needs help from other animals to tend it in this inspiring picture book, filled with spellbinding geometric art.

Little Passenger by Deirdre Sullivan and Jessica Love, Walker, £12.99
This poetic, beautiful picture book features a mother talking to her growing baby throughout pregnancy (“You are a full stop, a pea, a single grape”). Love’s lustrous ink and watercolour illustrations marry the delicate tendrils of developing plants with the intricate stitches of a sampler.

The author on the Steinbeck novel that moved him to tears, how becoming a father inspired him to reread Marilynne Robinson, and the culinary comforts of James M Cain

My earliest reading memory
When I was eight, my mother bought me Stanley Bagshaw and the Short-sighted Football Trainer by Bob Wilson. I grew up thinking he was the same Bob Wilson who played in goal for Arsenal and presented sport on ITV. That wasn’t true, but it has never dampened my appreciation of this brilliant rhyming picture book, which ought to be reissued to inspire more kids to read. My sons adore it.

My favourite book growing up
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck had a profound effect on me in secondary school. I was amazed by how vividly a writer could evoke a landscape in words. It was also the first novel that moved me to tears, and stories that can do that will always stay dear to me.

This kindly and companionable story of a man returning to 50s England after living in Canada offers a colourful evocation of the times

Towards the end of Love Lane, elderly protagonist Harry Cane becomes a figure of twinkly-eyed mischief. Gossiping with his granddaughter Pip, he advises her that “people without secrets … are like people with very tidy houses: usually not worth knowing”.

Dangerously buried secrets are very much the order of the day in Patrick Gale’s 18th novel. We start as we mean to go on: Love Lane opens with a recounting of the clandestine relationship between widower Harry and his bachelor brother-in-law Paul Slaymaker, Englishmen who separately emigrated to Canada around the turn of the last century. We first meet them as homesteaders in the unforgiving Saskatchewan wilds; Gale aficionados who encountered Cane in 2015’s A Place Called Winter remember the dark cloud of scandal that hastened his departure from Britain. The “steady tenderness” between Harry and Paul, which is passingly reminiscent of Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain, gives the men succour as their neighbouring farms weather the bitter economic vicissitudes of the 1920s and 30s, but their wordlessly powerful bond is for ever altered by the arrival of Dimpy, a woman down on her luck, and her hard-hearted son, Davy.

Retail sims aren’t my thing, but the tactile, nostalgic pleasures of hit indie title Retro Rewind have me yearning for the era of physical media, smoking indoors and uncomplicated geopolitics

It’s early doors, but 2026 may be the biggest bin fire of a year in my lifetime. Wars starting, then ending, then starting again in the course of a week. People running their cars on hopes and dreams because a tank of petrol costs more than the vehicle. Manospheric morons making millions. Several depressing celebrity deaths before I’ve so much as eaten my first Creme Egg of the year.

I had no idea that the antidote to my anxiety and rage would be a cheap little title, made by two French blokes, in what I usually regard as the most turgid gaming genre. Retro Rewind is the moment’s indie darling, selling more than 100,000 copies on Steam in a week. In it, you run a video rental shop in the 90s. You need to buy videos. Display them well. Drop flyers. Serve your customers. Buy more stuff. It’s no different from any other retail sim out there, and I normally shun them because I play video games to escape the boring world of work and into an exciting one of dragons, aliens, and being brilliant at sports.

As physical media makes an unlikely comebac​k​ among younger gamers, the humble VHS emerges as an unexpected archive of gaming’s messy, magical evolution​ that I saw first time around

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As I am nostalgic and of a certain age, I recently bought a VHS video recorder, just for the retrospective thrill of it; then I won a 32-inch CRT television at an auction in Shepton Mallet. Partly, this was to play a few old videos I had found in my loft, including one of me appearing in a 1990s youth TV show talking about sexism and Tomb Raider. (I was against the sexism, to be clear). But it was also because I wanted a new way of spending my money on fragile video-game nostalgia.

The rise of the games industry in the 1980s and 90s coincided with the explosion of the home-video business, and the two crossed paths in lots of interesting ways. There are the obvious treasures I want to get hold of: VHS copies of Street Fighter: The Movie and the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie, naturally, as well as early games-inspired hits such as The Last Starfighter, The Wizard and WarGames. I rented most of these from my local video shop in the 80s – which, like many others, also sold computer games by the budget publisher Mastertronic, another interesting (at least to me) crossover between these two entertainment formats.

Huge cuts announced this week show that truly no developer working in games is safe from corporate whims

The video game industry is currently experiencing a seemingly endless bout of ruinous deja vu. Every month, another publisher posts an all too familiar statement about job losses in its development studios. There will be airy expressions of regret and platitudes praising the skill and contribution of the imminently jobless; it is all filtered through layers of corporate doublespeak intended to disguise the human cost of downsizing.

On Tuesday, it was the turn of Epic Games, creator of Fortnite, one of the most successful titles on the planet. In a note posted online, CEO Tim Sweeney announced that more than 1,000 jobs would be lost – this followed the cutting of 830 staff in September 2023.

From owing a debt to obscure Japanese horror Sweet Home to the influence of Aliens and Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the franchise continues to petrify players three decades on

To many of us playing and writing about video games in the 1990s, Resident Evil seemed to come out of nowhere. The emerging PlayStation and Saturn consoles were all about slick, bright arcade conversions – the shiny thrills of Daytona and Tekken – and Japanese publisher Capcom was in a rut of coin-op conversions and endless sequels to Street Fighter and Mega Man. Scary games were rare at the time and mostly confined to the PC. So when the news of a horror title named Biohazard (the Japanese name for the series) started to emerge in 1995, it caught the attention of games journalists as it seemed radically out of step with prevailing trends. Games were about power, but as early demos quickly revealed, Resident Evil was about vulnerability.

Thirty years later, it’s still here. The series has sold more than 180m copies worldwide, with 11 core titles and dozens of spinoffs and remakes, as well as film, television and anime tie-ins. Its characters and monsters are icons, its tropes now embedded in game design practice. What has allowed it to not only survive but flourish in such a rapidly changing industry? Why do we still let it scare us?

Bristol Old Vic
The Reduced Shakespeare Company returns with a frantic mix of pratfalls, audience participation and lightning-flash characterisations

A classical actor who appeared in a recent production of Othello told me that the cast was alarmed by the murders being met on many nights by blasts of laughter. This may be due to audiences having seen the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s 1987 show The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) during its long West End runs or world tours. Or other examples of the trend for carved-up Bard that this “RSC” founder Adam Long started, including Spymonkey’s The Complete Deaths, making central an incidental aspect of Long’s shortening: the climactic body pile-ups.

At Long’s revival, it is apparent, from interval conversations, that many who were taken to The Complete Works as teenagers are now bringing their own. Topical tweaks acknowledge this. Louis Theroux, a sixth-former when the original version premiered, has grown up to get a gag in this iteration, as have other contemporary phenomena, including Ozempic.

At Bristol Old Vic until 28 March. Then touring until 11 July

Royal Court theatre, London
A class on The Crucible unearths troubling parallels for a group of teen girls in Kimberly Belflower’s play set in the wake of the Weinstein scandal

Kimberly Belflower’s revisionist take on Arthur Miller’s classic The Crucible re-spins the witch-hunts for the #MeToo generation. A classroom of teenagers – mostly girls – want to set up a feminist club, which is sparked, you assume, by the news headlines. Set in 2018, it is an original way to deal with adolescent girlhood in the direct fallout of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, although the play takes a while to gather power.

Beth (Holly Howden Gilchrist) is the class swot; Ivy (Clare Hughes) has a father accused of inappropriate behaviour at work; Nell (Lauryn Ajufo) is the new girl; Raelynn (Miya James) is a pastor’s daughter whose ex-boyfriend cheated on her with Shelby (Sadie Soverall). The last of these is key to proceedings but is absent from school – and this play – for quite a while.

London Palladium
The musical-theatre megastars fall in and out of love, in opposing timelines, in a stirring production of Jason Robert Brown’s musical

After her electrifying Evita, Rachel Zegler is back at the Palladium – although not on its balcony – joining Ben Platt for a 25th-anniversary concert of Jason Robert Brown’s two-hander. A few nights earlier, Lily Allen was on this stage performing her blistering broadside West End Girl, about love turned sour. The Last Five Years has an equitable approach to its own curdled marriage as a couple give their perspectives through alternating solos. Its masterstroke is to have one of them chart the story in reverse, beginning wearily post-breakup, while the other goes chronologically from first infatuation. Halfway through they duet at their wedding.

Brown directs and conducts from the piano on a set by Bretta Gerecke that separates out the band on to various levels, with central staircases, evoking the apartments and urban spaces where the story unfolds. Novelist Jamie (Platt) and actor Cathy (Zegler) enter from opposite sides and meet in the middle for an embrace, foreshadowing the show’s midway union. Platt retreats, to a plangent string accompaniment, and Zegler sings her stark opener, Still Hurting, staring at the way he went. Absences are accentuated throughout the semi-staged production and Zegler painfully captures the frustration of a partner whose unfinished business goes unheard by a departed ex.

Linbury theatre, London
Natalie Abrahami and Michael Levine’s imaginative production is brilliantly creepy and insightful. A first-rate cast of adults and children do not put a foot wrong

Are you sitting comfortably? Britten’s opera The Turn of the Screw begins with the tenor as storyteller, giving us the facts – something that will be in short supply later in this evasive ghost story. In the Royal Opera’s new production, this happens in absolute blackout. All the better to focus our attention on the words, you might think – but then, slowly, you realise that the singer is moving around in the darkness, impossible to pin down. Something is wrong. That’s one unsettling effect even before the lights have gone up – and there are many more in this insightful, brilliantly creepy staging by the director Natalie Abrahami and designer Michael Levine.

The set gives us the suggestion of a traditional country house: doors, beds, the Governess’s haunted desk. Duncan McLean’s videos appear on an otherwise invisible screen in front, often showing us faces from hidden viewpoints: the children gazing out of the window, excited to see their new governess arrive, but also secretly looking for someone else; Flora as she lies on her front on the jetty, dangling her doll in the lake and dipping her own face into the water.

The Late Show host is co-writing a new JRR Tolkien adaptation to be produced by Peter Jackson

Typically, when a famous comedian ventures into writing, it’s in service of a book of humorous essays or a screenplay for a starring vehicle. Stephen Colbert, the comic actor turned beloved talkshow host, is preparing a more unusual pivot: he’ll be working on the screenplay for a new Lord of the Rings movie, to be produced by franchise impresario Peter Jackson, who directed the original trilogy of films based on the JRR Tolkien fantasy novels, as well as a trilogy based on Tolkien’s book The Hobbit. To casual viewers of his about-to-end Late Show on CBS, or those who remember his years as a contributor to Comedy Central’s irreverent The Daily Show, this might seem like an odd fit; Tolkien isn’t known for his satirical edge. Colbert, however, is known for his love of Tolkien – among other things.

Befitting his eventual gig as a political satirist, Colbert was born in Washington DC, the youngest of 11 children in a Catholic family that subsequently lived in Maryland and South Carolina. The family suffered a major loss in 1974 when two of Colbert’s brothers and their father were killed in a plane crash. Colbert was only 10 and became withdrawn after the tragedy, retreating into books – especially fantasy books like the works of Tolkien – and games like Dungeons & Dragons, which he played heavily for four years. This provided some early training in acting and improvisation without him entirely realizing it. “For somebody who eventually became an actor, it was interesting to have done that for so many years, because acting is role-playing,” he told the AV Club in 2006. “You assume a character, and you have to stay in them over years, and you create histories, and you apply your powers. It’s good improvisation with agreed rules before you go in.”

Will the great TV writer ever top his mega hit? He talks us through his new series about the CIA’s attempts to weaponise LSD – and reveals why James Gandolfini called him ‘Satan’

Last week, a plush London hotel became a temple to HBO Max. Pictures of Carrie Bradshaw lined the corridors, HBO Max cushions dotted every chair in sight, and a heaving roster of A-list talent – Lisa Kudrow, Noah Wyle and Steve Carell – were poised and ready to hustle for the streamer’s UK launch.

However, you could argue that this whole circus was constructed because of one man. A few decades ago, HBO was a little-seen backwater of sport and standup. One show propelled it to the forefront of prestige television. That show was The Sopranos. The man who created it is David Chase.

Film and theatre producer who made The Audience the starting point for The Crown, and was behind Another Country, The Lady in the Van, Iris and Notes on a Scandal

Scion of one of the great theatrical dynastic families, Robert Fox, who has died aged 73, was a producer on stage and screen over a period of 50 years. He started out as an apprentice stage manager at the Royal Court theatre in London in the early 1970s and soon made telling creative relationships with the elite of British actors and writers.

His crowning glory was, well, The Crown (2016-23), the Netflix television blockbuster series on which he was an executive producer alongside his British counterparts Stephen Daldry and Matthew Byam Shaw.

Sylvia Grant-Dalton disliked house so never modernised it – putting her energy into gardening, floral displays and art

Sylvia Grant-Dalton was the custodian of a grand Victorian house that she never liked and never modernised, failing to replace peeling wallpaper, fraying carpets or broken shutters.

Nor was she able to sort out rampant rising damp or multiple pest infestations. For all of that, English Heritage is profoundly grateful.

Luckily, I have learned two phrases that express my helplessness very efficiently

The middle one, the youngest one and I are at a car hire desk in an Italian airport. It has taken us a while to get this far, because we had to take a bus to a different terminal. But we’re here now, some way into the process.

“You are not skiing?” asks the woman behind the desk.

Join the Famous Five in Dorset, relive Springwatch in the Peak District … our selection of Easter treats will keep all the family entertained

Spring has arrived at Wicken Fen, one of Europe’s most important wetlands, and with it the first summer migrants. Chiffchaffs are usually the earliest, with their rhythmic song ringing out across the fens. Then, if the weather is mild, blackcaps and willow warblers might join them. Listen closely, especially early morning or at dusk, for the foghorn-like calls of the booming bittern across the reedbeds. There’s a pushchair- and wheelchair-friendly boardwalk around Sedge Fen, and wheelchair-accessible wildlife hides. Look out for the electric blue flash of a kingfisher, and male marsh harriers performing their dramatic sky-dancing flights as the breeding season gets under way, before the cuckoos arrive in late April.
From £10 adults, £5 children (under-5s free), nationaltrust.org.uk

Keep your lawn neat – and avoid petrol models – with our pick of the best electric mowers, from cordless to budget-friendly to rented options

• How to create a more eco-friendly lawn: six things you can do right now

Leaving your lawn to develop naturally into a meadow of pollinator-friendly wild flowers is the best option from an ecological perspective, but many of us still like to have at least a small area of grass, whether it’s to break up your flower beds or provide a space for the kids to play. And every lawn needs a mower.

Your family’s lawnmower might have been a fossil fuel-guzzling petrol beast, but today, an electric model is far more energy-efficient and kinder to the planet. I’ve tested electric mowers from five manufacturers to find out which are the best.

Best overall and best cordless lawnmower:
Makita DLM432PT2

Best budget lawnmower:
Einhell GC-EM 1600/37

Playful dressing is back, and our menswear expert has picked his top staples and styling tweaks for the new season, from stripes to moustaches

• How to buy secondhand clothes online that you’ll actually wear

Over the past couple of years, the runways have felt hushed: classic colours, minimal silhouettes, understated accessories. This season feels like a gear change: the mood has lifted, and designers are getting playful again. We’re talking colour, stripes, brooches, bandanas, resort wear, jewellery, denim jackets, even pyjamas … Personality and feelgood dressing are back on the agenda.

I’ve put together a list of 50 tips and tricks to get you on top of your fashion game for the upcoming season. For spring, your best investments will be transitional layers that wake up your wardrobe – think denim jackets, long-sleeve bretons and argyle knits.

Always wondered what everyday stuff celebrities buy, where they shop for food and the basic they scrimp on? Henry Holland talks Labubus, vintage Prada and swapping Calvins for Skims with the Filter

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Henry Holland rose to prominence in 2006 with his collection of “fashion groupie” T-shirts, displaying rhyming slogans referencing fashion icons (such as “I’ll Show You Who’s Boss Kate Moss”), and founded his own brand, House of Holland, in 2008.

He discovered a passion for ceramics during the pandemic, and in 2021 launched the lifestyle brand Henry Holland Studio, selling handmade ceramics and homeware.

Our kitchen expert spent weeks chopping to find the blades that cut it. Plus, how to travel with kids, and the best tools for a home and garden spring reset

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Many budding chefs among us have blamed a bad knife for a poor dinner. But how do you know which ones will make light work of slicing tomatoes gossamer thin – and which will leave you hacking away at the waxy skin?

Here at the Filter, we decided it was high time to find the best kitchen knives. In collaboration with the newly launched Guardian Food Quarterly, we recruited a professional to put 14 knives through their paces. The professional in question was Ben Lippett, former chef turned home cook and food writer, and author of How I Cook, who describes himself as “opinionated”. “I know what I like, and I’m not a sucker for style over substance,” he writes.

The best foundations for every skin type – from glowy to full coverage, tested

Everyday essential or kitchen clutter: do you really need an air fryer?

The best electric toothbrushes for every budget – tested

‘Alive, fruity and with a soft texture’: the best supermarket frozen peas, tasted and rated

This is simply some deliciously spicy, baked grated potatoes, with an egg on top and a moreish chutney to go with it – you can thank us later

Eggs are very Easter-appropriate, and some of my favourite egg recipes come from the egg-obsessed Parsis (descendants of Persian Zoroastrians, who emigrated to India thousands of years ago). Their obsession extends beyond the kitchen, too: achoo-meechoo, for example, is a custom where an egg is waved around a person’s head (six times clockwise, once anti-clockwise), then broken to ward off evil. When it comes to cooking, meanwhile, Parsis will put an egg on anything, and one favourite dish is kanda papeta par eeda, or eggs on potatoes, which I ate when staying with friends in Mumbai’s Malabar Hill and which inspired today’s recipe.

Show up, speak up … and just be nice. Here is one anonymous server’s advice for a happy meal

Hospitality is in a right state at the moment, what with the seemingly never-ending shitshow of rising rents and rates, extortionate VAT, higher staffing, produce and utility costs, and all those other well-documented socioeconomic pressures (don’t mention the Bre*it word, please). So the last thing those of us who work in this beleaguered industry need right now is to be kicked in the proverbials by the very people we rely on perhaps more than anyone. And, yes, by that I mean you, our lovely customers. So here is some advice on how to avoid infuriating your serving staff.

Turn up …
Pre-Covid, most restaurants didn’t have the balls to take card details or charge for late cancellations and no-shows, but that’s all changed now (thank God). If you buy a ticket to the football or a gig, say, you’ll be out of pocket if you can’t be arsed to turn up. Why should restaurants be any different? What’s more, even if we have charged you a cancellation fee, remember that we’ve still lost out on drink sales and service charge.

As told to Bob Granleese

From alcohol-free fizz to sips as dirty and spicy as they come – quench your seasonal thirst with these twisted classics

From alcohol-free kir royal at the top to punchy pours toward the bottom, we have all your spring sips covered.

This labor-intensive way of eating isn’t for everyone – and I’m not sure it’s for me. It requires planning and flexibility

When I called Robin Greenfield, an environmental activist and author, his assistant answered. “We’re stopped really quick,” Marielle said, adding “he is harvesting a ton of wild onions right now. He’ll be on in just a minute.”

I waited, curious to see his haul and bemused by his willingness to delay an interview for wild vegetables. I had called Greenfield, who wrote Food Freedom about the year he grew and foraged 100% of his food, to talk about how possible, or hard, it is to do just that.

One minute, Dennis Biesma was playing with a chatbot; the next, he was convinced his sentient friend would make him a fortune. He’s just one of many people who lost control after an AI encounter

Towards the end of 2024, Dennis Biesma decided to check out ChatGPT. The Amsterdam-based IT consultant had just ended a contract early. “I had some time, so I thought: let’s have a look at this new technology everyone is talking about,” he says. “Very quickly, I became fascinated.”

Biesma has asked himself why he was vulnerable to what came next. He was nearing 50. His adult daughter had left home, his wife went out to work and, in his field, the shift since Covid to working from home had left him feeling “a little isolated”. He smoked a bit of cannabis some evenings to “chill”, but had done so for years with no ill effects. He had never experienced a mental illness. Yet within months of downloading ChatGPT, Biesma had sunk €100,000 (about £83,000) into a business startup based on a delusion, been hospitalised three times and tried to kill himself.

Rita wants Martin’s novelty ashtrays to stay in the garden. He likes to give them pride of place on the shelf. Whose argument is a smokescreen? You decide

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

Martin says his novelty ashtrays are decor and will spoil in the rain, but ash in our home is gross

I’ve already compromised and cut down on smoking – plus they’re more like collector’s items

My eternally exiled father was dying and witnessing a siege on Gaza. Afterwards I could go home – but he couldn’t

The last fight we ever had, my father and I, occurred on a night in May 2021 on the eve of his first chemo treatment. At this point in our story, I was a new mother, and he was a year and a half from his death. To treat his stage four prostate cancer, he had been given a series of experimental hormone treatments, which had put him in a sort of male menopause and which had just begun to fail. This last fight of ours also happened to fall right in the middle of that previous siege of Gaza (before the more recent one none of us will ever forget), which itself resulted in the destruction of 40 schools and four hospitals.

That night in May, we were in the rented ranch house in Arizona, the one with the broken dishwasher and the blue pool slide that had not been functional for decades, the house with its view of the sky and faint hint of the McDowell mountains. Though my father had lived in Palestine, Syria, Kuwait and Italy, he had fled to the Sonoran Desert after going bankrupt in New York in the early 1990s and loved the dramatic landscapes of the west with a fealty he had for nowhere else. Whereas I missed New York like a lover. I felt unmoored, restless. Exiled.

Her job was to tackle slugs in the garden, but she soon found a way into my home – and my heart

Harriet came into my life after I told my vet about my problem with slugs and she found me Harriet, who had been nursed back to health at a wildlife hospital, to release into the garden. Harriet was rather shy. I brought her home in a cardboard box and put it on the ground, on its side. She poked her nose out and, as soon as she saw me, scuttled off to hide in a corner of the garden.

Harriet settled in well and did her job efficiently, eating all the slugs. She slept in an old compost bag in the garden, to which I added some dried leaves to make a bed for her. One day, sitting on the sofa with my legs stretched out, I felt something touching my bare toes. It was Harriet, examining them. She had come in through the cat flap.

From a former wartime ‘shadow factory’ in London to converted country mansion in Yorkshire, homes with open living

Mid-range handset gets chip, storage and MagSafe upgrades to offer more essential iOS features for less

The cheapest new iPhone has been upgraded for this year with a faster chip, double the storage, automatic portraits and MagSafe, providing even more of the core Apple smartphone experience for less.

The iPhone 17e is an upgraded version of the mid-range “e” line launched last year with the first iPhone 16e and is the latest member of the iPhone 17 family. It starts at £599 (€699/$599/A$999), undercutting the iPhone 17 and iPhone 16 by £200 and £100 respectively to be the cheapest new iPhone sold by Apple.

Screen: 6.1in Super Retina XDR (OLED) (460ppi)

Processor: Apple A19 (4-core GPU)

RAM: 8GB

Storage: 256 or 512GB

Operating system: iOS 26

Camera: 48MP rear; 12MP front-facing

Connectivity: 5G, wifi 6, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C, Satellite and GNSS

Water resistance: IP68 (6 metres for 30 mins)

Dimensions: 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.8mm

Weight: 170g

Fraudsters exploit isolation and search for human contact to often devastating effect. These are steps you can take to avoid them

As you have got older, retirement has left you with more time on your hands. Loneliness has set in. Luckily, you have found a friend through one of the online motoring groups you are in, and a close bond has blossomed over your common interest in cars.

But your new friend has found themselves short when it comes to paying for their university textbooks, and has asked you for £50. It’s not much, and you get on so well that you agree to pay via bank transfer.

Those planning for uni in England and Wales this autumn can apply for student loans from Monday. Here are the options for families worried about debt

Our child is heading to university soon – should we try to pay their tuition fees upfront so they are not saddled with a debt for decades?

Our child is a recent graduate and their student loan debt is ballooning – should we help pay off some or all of it?

The popular fitness trend is all over social media, and curious, I tried a few classes – they left me totally out of air

I have spent years in and out of the gym, trying the latest fitness trends. Consequently, my social media feed often populates with shirtless, sweaty men promising to transform my workouts.

Then it started. First, it was the occasional video of athletes grinding through a series of herculean tasks: pushing plate-laden sleds, collapsing over rowing machines, sprinting laps and throwing weighted balls at a wall inside of what looked like an aircraft hangar. That trickle became an avalanche, and I became curious.

At 59, I was at last an orphan. I woke up with the most complete feeling of liberty and personhood I’d ever experienced

Looked at one way, the modern longevity narrative is an inspirational story of human scientific and social progress. Looked at another you could say that we are now condemned to longevity – our own and other people’s. It’s placing a massive economic, social and psychological burden on us as individuals and as a society.

There are now so many old people that new categories of demographic definition have been created to describe them. Those considered the “young old” are aged between 55 and 65. That’s me: At 63 years of age, I’m a young old. By all the rules of human history, I should have been dead for years. Instead, when I look 20 years into the future, I foresee an even older me who will need to plan for the outside possibility that I may have another 20 years to go. This is not necessarily, in my view, a glorious prospect.

Need for abstinence before fertility treatment questioned as study finds sperm deteriorates as it stays in body

Encouraging men to have more frequent ejaculations may boost their fertility, according to researchers who found that sperm deteriorates over time as it remains in the body.

The longer men went without sex, the more their sperm showed signs of DNA damage and oxidative stress, and the more tests rated the sperm as less viable and poorer swimmers.

We’re told that sleep is a superpower, making us smarter, healthier and happier. But how much is enough? And is insomnia as bad for us as we think?

‘Once, after I did a presentation, someone came up to me and said, ‘I don’t get eight hours of sleep a night. Am I going to die?’” says Prof Russell Foster, head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford. “And I said, ‘Well, yes, you’re going to die. But, you know, we all die eventually.’”

This exchange is, hopefully, comforting, but it also shouldn’t be too surprising. Over the past decade or so, we’ve been repeatedly told that sleep is everything from a legal performance-enhancer to an actual superpower – and, conversely, that if we don’t get enough shuteye we’re risking an early start to our eternal slumber. But how bad is a lack of sleep, really? And if we seem to be coping fine on six hours a night, is there a chance we’re still setting ourselves up for problems further down the line?

Prepare for bouclé jackets, quilted chain-link bags galore and an outfit formula that is proving to be consumer catnip

Just six months after Matthieu Blazy unveiled his debut collection for Chanel, and a week after it landed in stores, excitement over the new designer has reached fever pitch. There have been queues outside shops, grapples at the tills and dozens of social media posts bragging about purchases. Now, Blazy’s Chanel effect is coming for the high street. Prepare for bouclé jackets and quilted chain-link bags galore.

“It is a good sign that it has become immediately a reference point for the high street,” says Mario Ortelli, a managing partner at the luxury advisory firm Ortelli & Co. “When a new product and new creative direction is successful it is copied by the high street. If not, it means it is not relevant or is only relevant for a niche set of consumers.”

Show draws almost entirely from collection of Lancashire schoolteacher Peter Smithson, a fan since he was 10

Peter Smithson’s wife, Belise, has never minded when he receives a corset from Japan or a pair of fur-trimmed knickers and they are not for her.

“No, she’s never seen it as strange,” said Smithson, a chemistry teacher and Vivienne Westwood supercollector. “She has never judged it. She gets it. She knows it is part and parcel of who I am.”

From flannel shirts to herringbone tailoring, Pep Guardiola’s stylistic pivot hint​s at a man renegotiating his identity ​in the twilight of ​his footballing era

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Last Tuesday, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola lost to Real Madrid in a £270 shirt.

The grungy flannel number from the cult Swedish menswear brand Our Legacy was so noteworthy it consumed more post-match oxygen than the news that Manchester City had been dumped out of the Champions League before the quarter-finals. Never mind that Guardiola is beginning to look bereft of ideas for the first time in his career. All anyone cared about was whether he’d hired a stylist.

It will come into its own in summer. Until then, try layering it with spring-ready jackets and chill-proof knitwear

Your top tips for seasonal outings from birdwatching to gorgeous gardens, amazing architecture and more
• Tell us about a trip to Spain – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

Last April, I based myself in Oban and took my teenagers puffin-watching at Lunga, off Mull, in the Treshnish Isles, with an organised tour (Staffa Tours) by ferry and foot. It was a real delight. The guides were brilliant and helpful, especially with my mobility issues, and we were surprised and amazed at how tame and friendly the puffins were – allowing us to get great views of their faces from as near as 5ft or so. Next spring, we are going again as this is the best time to see them arriving in their thousands.
April

The Which? travel editor on the unexpected joys and considerable savings of house swapping. Plus top tips on how to do it

Imagine cutting the cost of accommodation on your next holiday to about £5 a day. You can have a whole house, rather than just a bedroom. And you can go almost anywhere in the world and stay as long as you like, within reason. Welcome to house swapping.

You’re sceptical, I know. I was, too. Our terrace house was too small. Too overflowing with stuff. The 1980s kitchen was too old (and battered). We aren’t in a nice enough neighbourhood. Who would want to stay here? Lots of people, it turned out.

The ancient city – with its gardens, hammams and Moorish architecture – comes alive in spring and its Holy Week processions are among the most authentic in Andalucía

As I turned the corner on a narrow, cobbled street in Granada, I felt as if I had stumbled upon a slightly sinister re-enactment society. Mysterious men dressed in white robes and tall, conical, face-covering hats with slits for their eyes were followed by women in black dresses and mantillas, holding pillar candles and crosses, then children wearing caped cloaks, carrying baskets of prayer cards.

It was indeed a re-enactment of sorts, but deeply rooted in Catholicism, representing the Passion of Christ, staged during Holy Week (Semana Santa), which runs from 29 March to 5 April this year. Easter processions are held across the country, but this Andalucían city hosts one of the most authentic in Spain.

It isn’t only climbers who get misty-eyed about the awe-inspiring mountains and ancient pinewoods of Britain’s first national nature reserve, created 75 years ago

The waymarked quartzite path glimmers in the sun, flanked by amber-gold grassland. Beyond, one of Scotland’s finest landscapes opens up before me, a woodland of ancient Caledonian pines leading my eye to the metallic glint of Loch Maree. On the other side of the water, a winding river separates the steep, stacked rocks of Beinn a’Mhùinidh from Slioch, one of the great mountains of Wester Ross, rising to a knuckle ridge of Torridonian sandstone.

I’m walking the four-mile mountain trail looping through Beinn Eighe national nature reserve (NNR), Britain’s first NNR, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. In a crowded list, you’d be hard pushed to find a more soul-stirring landscape in all of Scotland.

The Filipino photographer was delighted to see his usually serious daughter getting muddy with her young cousin

When Mark Linel Padecio is at home in Danao City, Cebu, in the Philippines, family life lies “within a rhythm of schedules, studies and screens”. His 10-year-old daughter, Xianthee, is shaped by the city. “Her days are filled with lessons and responsibilities, and she’s a diligent, serious student, so smiles from her are rare and often reserved,” Padecio says.

Along with his wife, Padecio owns a small farm in Dapdap, a 30-minute drive away. After a fleeting rainfall ended a long and punishing drought last year, the family paid a visit. “Rivers frequently dry up for months, forcing families to suffer crop failures, to ration and face heightened risks of illness,” Padecio says. “So even if the river only trickles briefly, it feels miraculous, instantly transforming hardship into relief and hope.”

Meet the influencers encouraging us to stop buying new

Anna Kilpatrick doesn’t have a bedroom. Or even a bed. The a 52-year-old content creator from East Sussex sleeps on a wide shelf in her hallway so that her two children, 21 and 18, can have their own rooms. And yet, she says, she has “enough”. She doesn’t hanker after a bigger house or shinier car. “Having fewer things is freedom,” she says. Kilpatrick, who shares such ideas with her 104K Instagram followers (@not.needing.new), is part of a small but growing community of “enough-luencers”. The concept is similar to deinfluencing – where content creators discourage followers from buying into trends – but is also about celebrating already having enough, and, crucially, feeling happier for it.

In her new book, Not Needing New: A Practical Guide to Finding the Joy of Enough, Kilpatrick lists the benefits of living with less: “An increased sense of calm, less anxiety through clutter, free time away from maintaining the home, a healthier bank balance and reduced debt, children who are learning how to manage delayed gratification.”

Dartmoor, Devon: This one is an early-arriver after spending winter in sub-Saharan Africa, and it’s keen to show off its ‘white arse’

The first signs of spring shine through the shadow of Haytor Rocks, a granite guard of Dartmoor’s natural secrets. The sun’s heat warms the granite, the first bumblebees thrum over the gorse. After months of mizzly rain, it was freeing to be out on the moor again. The trees were awakening, early emergers blackthorn and willow, stalwarts of Emsworthy Mire – an old friend.

With binoculars pressed tight to my eyes, I scan the valley, searching for any sign of returning migrants. Mid-March is too early for some, but the more proactive species love to start the season early. A raven cronks overhead, a sound as welcoming as it is unnerving.

From blackjack and knobkerrie to a ‘shivering’ footballer, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Which 1970s TV hit was based on the writings of Suetonius and Tacitus?
2 Which footballer trademarked his “shivering” goal celebration?
3 Which planet is lashed by winds exceeding 1,200mph?
4 Used to measure chilli peppers, what are SHU?
5 Which poetic couple married on Bloomsday in 1956?
6 Bees and wasps have how many eyes?
7 What is the highest peak in the Pennines?
8 Which chemical element is named after a New Zealander?
What links:
9 Iquitos, Peru; Juneau, Alaska; Norilsk, Russia?
10 1; 11; 21; 1211; 111221; 312211?
11 Embla; Eve; Lilith; Mashyana; Pandora; Shatarupa?
12 Blackjack; knobkerrie; persuader; shillelagh?
13 Billy Connolly; Alex Ferguson; Peter the Great; Lech Wałęsa?
14 Mamdani; Adams; de Blasio; Bloomberg?
15 Spotlight; 1815 battle; distress signal; Italian exclamation; Kathy Burke sitcom?

Dedicated to Laurie Stott

Abel Ortiz was brought from Mexico to LA when he was just two months old and has been​ living undocumented​ ever since. Now 38, he has a full life​ cutting hair, building a community, loving​ a city that has never fully loved him back.​ ​In a time of escalating ICE raids and the ache of uncertainty, Abel has made a radical decision: he’s leaving – not because he has to, but to escape perpetual limbo and be free to see the world

Former talent agency boss had closer relationship with sex offender than thought, and supported him after 2009 arrest

A female executive at the top of the modelling industry had a close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and introduced him to women on the agency’s books, a Guardian investigation has found.

Until last November, Faith Kates ran Next Management modelling and talent agency, which has represented the likes of Alexa Chung, Milla Jovovich and Billie Eilish, a position she held for decades as the founder of the business. She stepped down quietly just weeks before the first major Epstein files were released, saying she intended to focus on charity work.

18 July 2009 10.18am

I am and will always be your friend...Unconditionally...will always be there for you.

5 September 2009 7.47pm

Thinking of you a lot and hoping you are finally enjoying some please [sic] and quiet..know you are always in my thoughts and prayers. You are a good friend my dear friend..

5 September 2009 7.54pm

thanks,, lets get back to work.

Analysts fear Iran has played a weak hand well and the US has blundered into a defining strategic failure

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Four weeks into a war that was going to take four days, and that has so far cost the US about $30-40bn and Israel $300m a day, Washington is further away from a diplomatic agreement with Iran than it was in May 2025.

Not only has the war failed to persuade Iran to agree to dismantle its nuclear programme in the comprehensive and irreversible way the US demanded in a 15-point paper that it tabled on 23 May last year, Washington is now having to negotiate to reopen the strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway that has been open ever since the invention of the dhow, with a short exception of a tanker war in the 1980s between Iran and Iraq.

Undercover reporter gets a taste of the sprawling fraud industry in which cryptocurrencies play a crucial role

• Five firms including Autotrader and Just Eat investigated over fake review failings

The holiday flat near(ish) the Roman ruins of Pompeii was “disgusting”, and smelled of “a mix of dampness and sewage”, according to one reviewer on Google Maps. I never visited, but I gave it five stars.

I did the same for a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel across the River Thames, an Ibis budget hotel in east London that is part of the Accor group, a central Travelodge and the nearby Hyatt Place – some of the best-known hotel brands in the world. Scattered in there were requests for reviews for hostels and B&Bs in Genova, Naples, Maastricht, Krakow and Brussels. For a few days I had a new job: writing fake reviews on Google Maps in exchange for cryptocurrency.

As some landlords introduce bans or restrictions, we want to hear from pub-goers about their experiences and views

A growing number of pubs in the UK are restricting or banning children, with some landlords citing safety concerns, changing atmospheres and lost trade. Others argue that pubs should remain welcoming community spaces for people of all ages.

We want to hear from pub-goers, both parents and non-parents, about their experiences and views.

Were you surprised by your bill? How did you manage the cost? We would like to hear from you

The UK’s competition watchdog has ordered vets to cap prescription fees at £21 and proposed a cost-comparison website.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said public satisfaction with the cost of services was “low” after a two-and-a-half-year investigation that found “there is not strong competition between veterinary businesses”.

We’d like to speak to people in the UK who are cutting back on fuel use after the increase in petrol and diesel prices linked to the war in Iran

We’d like to speak to people in the UK who are cutting back on fuel use after the increase in petrol and diesel prices linked to the war in Iran.

Are you taking fewer journeys or using alternative modes of transport? Are you still travelling to work the same number of days a week? Have you cited fuel costs as a reason to work from home?

We’d like to hear from volunteers who have experienced a charity closing

Across the UK, many small charities face increasing financial pressures, forcing some to shut their doors. When this happens, it can leave the people who relied on those services without support - and volunteers and communities trying to step in and keep things going.

We’d like to hear from volunteers who have experienced a charity closing. Have you or others tried to continue the work informally and what were the challenges of doing that? Did you try to keep it going - and what difficulties did you face? What happened to the people who depended on the service?

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Crisis in the Middle East, a Russian drone attack in Lviv, cherry blossom in Tokyo and the return of BTS – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists