While most hospitality venues are struggling, there has been an enormous rise in ‘competitive socialising’. But why? And could I find the answer while dressed in a prison jumpsuit and drinking a daiquiri?

British hospitality is in crisis. In the first quarter of 2026, three hospitality sites closed every day, while one in five remaining businesses fear collapse over the next year owing to rises in tax and employment costs. For those venues struggling to make ends meet in London in particular, there is the added worry of increasingly stringent licensing rules and influential lobby groups making once-thriving areas such as Soho a ghost town after 11pm.

And yet one hospitality niche seems to be bucking the trend: themed bars. Blending booze with, say, axe-throwing, darts, immersive theatre or adult-sized ball pits, these experiential venues have seen a boom in recent years. A report from Savills estate agents found a 58% increase in “competitive socialising” venue openings in 2025 compared with 2018, while another survey found one in three adults had visited one of these venues in the UK in 2024-25. Photo-friendly interiors have made many of them a hit on social media, too.

His church thinks electric guitars are the devil’s work. But Father Tabakis is on a mission to change that – with Paradise Metal, a religious dubstep album that outdid Daft Punk and Aphex Twin

‘The guitar was made by God,” says Father Dionysios Tabakis, sitting in the living room of his flat in Nafplio, a city on Greece’s Peloponnesian coast, surrounded by a huge assortment of musical instruments and religious icons. Dressed in long black robes and sporting a fine grey wispy beard, Tabakis sounds as if he could be speaking from the pulpit when he adds: “The devil cannot create something. God has created all.”

His favourite is an adapted Harley Benton R-457. Bought for only €135, it’s a striking electric guitar, yielding chords that are more wobbly and atonal than those of an ordinary guitar, but also warmer. Tabakis likens the sound to the “waves” of the human voice.

Reasons for increase not clear but experts say it could be welcome sign marine ecosystem is becoming healthier

The Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast have long drawn fans of the natural world keen to catch sight of the resident guillemots and puffins.

But as recently as last week, another much bigger black-and-white animal has been delighting wildlife spotters. Orcas have been appearing more regularly than ever before.

She radiated love as the narrator of Gogglebox, created one of the most emotional sitcom moments of all time and asked Debbie McGee a question she’ll never forget. Ten years on from her untimely death, we remember the TV legend

It’s 10 years since the tragic loss of TV genius Caroline Aherne. The brilliant but too brief career of the actor, comedian, writer and director was cut heartbreakingly short on 2 July 2016 when she died at 52 from lung cancer.

A decade on, we pay tribute by selecting 10 Aherne highlights. From The Royle Family to rude nuns, here are her best bits …

This shadowy treaty on medicine imports will cost the NHS billions and take funding away from doctors, nurses, cancer scans and the rest

For all the crowd noise and heavy-breathing match analysis, British democracy is a simple sport. We elect politicians to serve our interests. They direct the vital services that look after our families and communities, such as our healthcare and our schools. The entire political system rests on one basic premise: they work for us.

Believe that, as I do, and this week is one of vast democratic failure. Rather than working for us, Keir Starmer and his ministers are acting against us. They have rammed through parliament a sweeping law that will, independent experts agree, harm the public; and they have done so without even coming clean on the costs or the consequences. What’s worse, MPs and the press have failed to put this under scrutiny.

Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist

The pop and football giants’ combined star wattage will be united in matrimony this weekend – probably – in an event shrouded in secrecy. But here’s what we’ve gleaned

After an agonising 10 months’ wait, the wedding of the century is apparently here: if the reports are true, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce will be tying the knot this weekend, uniting the houses of sports and entertainment in holy matrimony. When the couple announced their engagement on Instagram in August, as part of a carefully coordinated album rollout/podcast promotion tie-in, it shattered platform records, drawing 14m likes in its first hour. (It’s now up to 37.4m.)

Yet it’s remarkable, given the couple’s profile and the investigative horsepower apparently dedicated to cracking this wedding wide open, just how little we know for sure in this, the (purported) week of the event. We’ve sifted through all the speculation, sources “close to the couple” and scarcely concealed grumbling from spurned guests to answer the burning questions.

Analysis reveals extent of impact on NHS of placating Donald Trump over price of British medicine exports

The NHS will have to divert £45bn from essential services to pay for new medicines under the terms of the UK-US trade deal agreed last December, leading to more than 200,000 avoidable deaths of patients, analysis has found.

Ministers have defended the deal as a way of helping British drug exports to the US avoid tariffs, and giving patients in England access to potentially life-extending drugs that would otherwise be denied.

Thomas Tuchel’s mission to put a second World Cup star on the England shirt did not look as though it would reach the second knockout round. On a fraught and chaotic occasion in Atlanta, his team flirted aggressively with disaster. For 75 minutes, England mixed loose defending with an inability to take their chances. Which were plentiful. The Democratic Republic of the Congo goalkeeper, Lionel Mpasi, had the game of his life. Who needs Lionel Messi?

It was easy for England’s long-suffering fans to feel their minds being taken to dark places. Iceland 2016, anyone? They had only ever lost once to an African team – to Senegal in a friendly in June last year. The DRC, who have brought the romance to this tournament, a team to unite a war-torn nation, led through Brian Cipenga’s seventh-minute goal. They were primed to do something utterly extraordinary.

Exclusive: Poll shows policies such as rent control and higher wealth taxes could fend off Reform UK in key seats

Andy Burnham is being urged to adopt an “economic populist” approach to combating the cost of living crisis if he becomes prime minister, as a detailed opinion poll shows radical policies could help Labour to retain its majority at the next election.

Senior figures advising the Makerfield MP have been circulating a seat-by-seat poll showing Labour’s majority could be demolished at the next general election with the party on course to win fewer than 100 seats.

Multiple explosions heard in Kyiv with a hotel and several residential buildings on fire

Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with missiles and drones overnight into Thursday, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens more.

The intense strikes hit residential ⁠buildings and ⁠triggered ​a fire in a hotel on a central boulevard.

Parents and grandparents charged as police say case in Hamden not human trafficking but ‘intra-family situation’

Sixteen children were rescued from a dilapidated home in rural Ohio after being confined to just one room in “deplorable conditions” for much of the past four years, authorities said on Wednesday.

The children, who officials said are from the same family and were living in squalor with human waste all around, ranged in age from one and a half to 18 and included boys and girls. Some of them were unable to speak and one – an 18-year-old who was developmentally disabled – could not even spell her name.

Consortium led by Michał Sołowow planning enough SMRs to power equivalent of 8m homes for more than 60 years

A consortium led by the billionaire industrialist Michał Sołowow has announced plans to build 14 small modular nuclear reactors on three sites across the UK, including the location of a former nuclear plant in Gloucestershire.

The Polish entrepreneur and rally driver plans to use £35bn of private capital to roll out enough small modular reactors (SMRs) to power the equivalent of 8m UK homes for more than 60 years, or even power datacentre investments alongside Google.

Wildlife at risk as demand for cropland and water grows to feed 50% rise in farmed animals, campaign alliance says

The number of mammals and poultry farmed worldwide has increased by half in the last two decades, research shows, and the amount of cropland used for feeding livestock has increased by about a quarter.

These increases are putting rising pressure on natural systems, threatening wildlife and plant species and adding to the climate crisis.

Free choice of repertoire and an increased upper age limit part of the changes in a competition that will emphasise individuality and imagination

The Leeds International Piano Competition is to be relaunched under the artistic direction of Sir Stephen Hough. The pianist is leading significant reforms to the triennial contest that first began in 1963. He will also chair an international jury that includes fellow pianists Piotr Anderszewski, Lucas Debargue, Yeol Eum Son, Kathryn Stott and Master of the King’s Music, composer Errollyn Wallen.

The 2027 competition will have its upper age limit increased to 35, and competitors will have complete free choice over the music they perform, be it Couperin or Copland, Boulez or Busoni.

Andrés Hurtado found work by Joaquín Sorolla after its owners mislaid it, before responding to theft alert

The mystery of a small and very valuable picture by the Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla that vanished over the weekend has been solved after a man told police he had mistaken the painting for junk when he found it on a Seville street but rescued it because he liked the frame.

Rather than being entranced by the painting’s subject matter – two boats off a beach – Andrés Hurtado was instead captivated by its handsome gold frame.

Plan to move part of Whitehall to Manchester wins praise but would involve major logistical challenges and costs

• ‘It’s a stellar idea’: readers on Andy Burnham’s No 10 North plans

It first found fame as the centre of Manchester’s textile industry and later as the home of celebrated nightclub Sankeys. But now Ancoats, on the northern edge of Manchester city centre, could become the somewhat unexpected heart of British government.

The site of a disused retail park, which was once home to Toys R Us, Argos and JD Sports, has been earmarked to host the new No 10 North that prime minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham has pledged to set up.

Security checks due to new digital entry and exit system have caused delays and missed flights for holidaymakers

Travellers to the EU have faced additional border security checks since the launch of the digital entry and exit system (EES) last October.

The new system means that most non-EU citizens, including those from the UK, have to register their biometric information at the border. The checks are causing huge delays and airlines and airports are calling for it to be suspended during the peak summer holiday period, saying some flights are leaving half full and passengers are facing queues of up to five hours.

China has denounced Japan’s ‘reckless new militarism’, while Tokyo has protested what it claims are Beijing’s defensive incursions, as relations sour

Relations between Tokyo and Beijing have ebbed and flowed in the decades since the second world war, but hit an undeniable low this week.

Denouncing what it proclaimed was Japan’s “reckless pursuit of ‘new militarism’”, this week China imposed new export controls on 40 Japanese companies over dual-use items, or items that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

More jaguars are killed in Bolivia each year by poachers than in any other country, driving the population to critical levels. But a recent successful release from captivity could radically increase the jaguar’s chances of survival

A tentative paw emerged from a steel cage on to the sandy riverbed deep in the Bolivian rainforest. Then, another. Slowly, the female jaguar looked right, left and right again, as if waiting to cross a busy road. Then, muscles stiff from the long journey, it strolled away and disappeared into the undergrowth.

Yaguara had been in captivity since August 2024, after being orphaned as an eight-month-old cub amid Bolivia’s worst recorded wildfire season. As the fires raged, burning more than 10% of the country’s surface area, authorities handed the cub over to a team of veterinarians from the Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi (CIWY), a wild-animal rescue centre.

Harry Styles, Zoë Kravitz, Sarah Pidgeon … celebrities love stretching out on Britain’s lawns and meadows. But with the tick-borne Lyme disease on the rise, is it safe for any of us?

Do we need to worry about ticks in the UK? How serious are the risks associated with the diseases they can carry? Should we avoid rolling around in long grass à la Charli xcx in the video for her latest single, Wink Wink?

These are questions that have been circulating on social media this week, after the release of the pop star’s video, filmed in Essex, and sightings of celebrity couples Zoë Kravitz and Harry Styles and Sarah Pidgeon and Joe Alwyn lounging in the long grass on Hampstead Heath in London.

We’re asking people from around the world to nominate their favourite spineless species for our third Invertebrate of the Year competition

Step aside World Cup heroes, there’s a bigger global competition in town. The whistle has been blown to launch the third Invertebrate of the Year contest.

We want you to nominate your favourite spineless creature for the hugely popular annual Guardian jamboree which celebrates the wonder and importance of the world’s invertebrates.

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

Sweltering heatwaves do nothing to deter the Thursday quiz. Well, OK, maybe a bit. The laptop is too hot to touch. The local animals are screeching and barking in a frenzy. People are playing their music too loud. But still, the quiz persists. Fifteen questions await you on topical news, general knowledge, popular culture and for some reason maths with goths, who are inevitably having a really hard time during such a hot summer. Anyway, let us know how you get on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 254

The abortion debate – the language of life, choice and rights – severs women, and their pain, from history. I don’t want to forget my abortion and I don’t want to forget theirs

The physical fact of my abortion caught me off guard. I had been so accustomed to defending abortion as an abstract right – as a right to privacy, to healthcare, to autonomy – that when it came to having one, I was surprised by the brutality of it. Fasting for hours before. Clammy and light-headed, my hands freezing and damp, in the clinic waiting room. Waves of contracting pain afterwards, the blood and the vomit from the anaesthesia, the days of cramping and bleeding. Soaking through pads. Cold sweat. I thought having an abortion would feel like the exercise of the hard-won autonomy of generations of feminists before me. But mostly it just hurt.

What do you do with the brute fact of pain? Of what Annie Ernaux describes, writing about her own abortion before legalisation in France, as an experience that sweeps through the body? I could not translate it easily into a feminist politics, into a slogan, into something I could shout or wanted to shout. It did not feel like the exercise of bodily autonomy; it did not feel like a choice, though of course, in some formal and factual way, I did choose to have an abortion. It’s just that the choice seemed to be the least important and least interesting part of the whole experience, totally unmemorable when it came up against the violence and urgency of the body, reeling and revolting against the sudden transformation from pregnancy to unpregnancy. Nor did the sensations of aborting feel like the making of an abortion story, like the raw material for an anecdote that could be compressed and publicised on social media, piled up with the others to make some kind of aggrieved claim. There was no real plot – but feeling.

Captain played in deep horror of Iceland defeat and he rescued an England team who were sliding towards disaster

Well maybe, you’re gonna be the one that saves me. On a wild, boisterous, often agonising afternoon under the giant Victorian railway dome of the Atlanta Stadium, the Democratic Republic of Harry Kane progressed to the last 16 of the World Cup.

With England playing like a team terrified of their own feet and 1-0 down to an excellent DR Congo, Kane decided something else was going to happen, scoring two goals in 11 minutes towards the end to turn disastrous defeat into joyful relief. In the process he also saved Thomas Tuchel’s job and perhaps the jobs of his bosses at the Football Association. Because England really had gone at points in this game.

The US had their hands on their heads. Weston McKennie’s face betrayed a look of total disbelief. Mauricio Pochettino waved his hands towards the sky, incredulous.

Folarin Balogun had been sent off after a seemingly innocent collision with Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Tarik Muharemović that saw the US striker land a foot on his opponent’s ankle. Just like that, the US’s high-flying World Cup journey had the feel of impending doom. The temperature had soared on a previously cool, sunny evening at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium. And it wouldn’t fall until Malik Tillman had his say.

This time Senegal’s players did not depart the field prematurely owing to a burning sense of injustice, as they did in the Africa Cup of Nations final in January, but they did exit another knockout match aggrieved after Belgium advanced to the last 16 deep in extra time. The winning goal, a nerveless Youri Tielemans penalty which capped an extraordinary comeback from 2-0 down, came with 124 minutes and 44 seconds on the clock, cementing its place as the latest goal in World Cup history.

A penalty shootout appeared all but a formality until the referee, Saíd Martínez, wandered towards the video review monitor, an audience of players awaiting the verdict on Lamine Kamara swiping Tielemans’s left ankle in the seconds before Dodi Lukebakio skimmed the crossbar. Romelu Lukaku bounced the ball on the edge of the box as Senegal’s players swamped the penalty spot; Pathe Ciss curled in a heap in an attempt to delay the spot-kick for as long as possible. Rudi Garcia could not watch, turning his back on the sidelines before Tielemans seized on Belgium’s get out of jail card to tee up a last-16 meeting with the USAhere on Monday (Tuesday 1am BST). A tearful Kamara was inconsolable at the final whistle, his green shirt still covering his face as he headed down the tunnel.

Germany’s third early World Cup exit in a row is not down to a lack of talent or the name of the coach, but not knowing how they want to play

I am stunned. Germany have been eliminated early from a World Cup for the third time in a row. I need time to recover from this. The key word that needs to be discussed is continuity – something the national team have lacked for a decade. German football hasn’t decided how it wants to play. There are constantly new ideas, and time and again new players in new positions. Julian Nagelsmann has experimented too much, and not just during this tournament. Yet developing a team takes years.

Germany have always been successful when player roles were clearly defined, the hierarchy was established and the team had a clear concept of how to attack and defend. That conviction was completely missing. At this World Cup, the team didn’t look as if they had gone through the process that every team must undergo.

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

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

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

Grief is universal, but being able to mourn is a privilege. For those dying in wars from Gaza to Sudan, there is no shroud, no grave, no funeral

It was the early-morning phone call that so many of us dread. My mother was in the emergency ward of her local hospital. She was struggling to breathe. I went into automatic mode, booking the first available flight to Karachi. I threw clothes into a bag, grabbed my passport and headed for Brussels airport with a heavy heart.

Only 12 hours earlier, we had spoken on the phone. It was my birthday. She was her usual cheerful self, her signature laugh ringing out as she regaled me with stories from my childhood. She asked about my granddaughter – her great-granddaughter, whom she adored – and wanted to know what I was working on and where I planned to travel next.

Keir was angry and he no longer cared that much – and Kemi, for the first time in her life, backed down from a fight

The search for the perfect present to welcome Andy Burnham to No 10 has been a worry for Keir Starmer. What do you give the man who seems to have everything? The support of his own MPs. The belief that Nigel Farage is beatable. The sense of being at ease with himself. Comfortable with who he is. The charisma. The ability to hold a room. Everything Keir would have wanted.

He needed a small Welcome to Downing Street gift, a token of friendship. To show there was no bad feeling about losing his job. And then he had it. A £4.7bn shortfall in the defence investment plan. What better start to his time in office could the king of the north expect? It would be their own private billet-doux. Definitely no hard feelings. The very idea.

Potus pocketed over $2.2bn last year – but with an algae-filled reflecting pool and his State Fair a fiasco, what price happiness?

From certain angles, it might appear as if President Trump is having a tough month. He messed up the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, which he blamed on acts of vandalism no one has been able to stand up. The supreme court rejected both his bid to appeal against the $5m (£3.8m) civil judgment against him for defaming and sexually abusing E Jean Carroll, and his executive order to end birthright citizenship. And the war with Iran keeps rumbling on. And yet, after Trump’s mandatory financial disclosure report was released on Tuesday, headlines drew attention to the fact the president made more than $2.2bn in revenue in 2025 – more than three times what he pulled in the year before his inauguration. Contrary to appearances, perhaps everything is going exactly to plan.

It is always a question with Trump as to how much the wealth he has accrued in his second term in office is the spoils of strategy rather than the lucky result of his scattergun but industrial-scale hustle. Looking at the numbers in his financial report, one is reminded that before he became president, Trump piloted a series of failed businesses – six of which declared bankruptcy – and gave every indication of being a lousy businessman. It’s often pointed out that if Trump had simply invested the vast inheritance left to him by Fred Trump, his father, in a standard tracker fund, he would’ve made more money than through his lacklustre business career, and there’s nothing to suggest this was likely to change.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Parliament, media and thinktanks are united in their view that more military spending is still not enough. But sacrificing domestic projects to pay for it is indefensible

Britain should spend less on defence. It is a waste of money and should be reduced so more could be spent on supporting employment, welfare and growth.

Why is there no such debate? Why should “defence” be awarded an almost religious invulnerability? At present, parliament, broadcasters, print and social media, thinktanks and pundits all admit to only two points of view. One is that Britain should spend more on defence, the other is that it should spend far more.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Supreme court rulings, and revelations of the president’s enrichment since his return to office, show that he has turned back the clock

Donald Trump is not known for his reverence for the US constitution. But in his second term, he is doubling down on his claim from the first: that the text grants him “the right to do whatever I want as president”.

This is, to put it mildly, an extremely unusual interpretation of article 2. But it is the thread that draws together the headlines dominating recent days: a spate of supreme court rulings, mostly to his benefit, and the revelation that he has raked in $2bn since returning to office, half of it from cryptocurrencies.

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.

Legislation drafted around an agenda of proving ‘toughness’ is a method that was tested to destruction by the Tories

An act of parliament changing the UK’s immigration and asylum system has been passed every year since 2022. This activity has not increased public confidence that the nation’s borders are well managed, nor has it stopped the rise of radical rightwing parties running anti-immigrant campaigns.

There is no reason to expect yet another law to buck that trend, but the Home Office is giving it a try. Measures contained in a bill published this week include a new body to handle asylum decision appeals outside the existing court system; a means-tested scheme to charge asylum seekers for state-provided support they receive; narrowing the terms under which claims can be made under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which guarantees the right to private and family life.

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.

Mal Williams thinks private equity should be excluded from essential services, while Ian Graham draws attention to dental practices. Plus letters from Rob Harrison, Tony Fletcher and Michael Moore, who defends private equity’s role

Your timely investigation into private equity’s penetration of public services is important, but the response cannot be merely to “manage” the problem better (‘Financial pandemic’: £1 in every £11 spent on UK public contractors goes to private equity, 28 June). Private equity should be excluded from essential services funded by the public.

This is not ordinary business investment. Too often it is leveraged extraction. A company providing care, health, transport, waste, childcare or education is bought with borrowed money, and the debt used to buy it is then loaded on to the company itself. In plain English, the company is made to buy itself on credit. Staff, service users, suppliers and taxpayers carry the cost, while investors pursue fees, dividends, refinancing gains and resale profits.

Anne Rogers writes that adoption can be the best outcome for some children, even when it goes against the wishes of birth parents. Plus letters from Cat Bracey and Graham Whitaker

Christine Hayes (Letters, 22 June) is right to remind us all that the reason so many babies were adopted in the 1960s (and earlier, before birth control was available to women) was because society condemned single mothers, even though sex outside of marriage was nothing remotely new.

But I will not accept the implication that forced adoptions were shameful to everyone. I feel no shame to have been adopted as a baby in 1948. It allowed me to grow up without those societal prejudices, in a loving family who made no secret about my adoption. I am sure I am not alone in this experience.

Readers respond to an article about Erin Brockovich’s battle against datacentres and voice their fears for the environment

What are the benefits obtained from AI’s massive use of electricity and water (‘We’re up against forces that have all the money in the world’: Erin Brockovich on her battle against AI datacentres, 29 June)? Analysis shows that the top four uses of AI are “therapy/companionship”, “technical assistance and troubleshooting”, “fun and nonsense”, and “fan fiction and storytelling”.

AI use for therapy, and due to loneliness, appears not to reduce loneliness. AI provides affirmation, but at the expense of reducing the social skills needed to interact in the real world. Teachers report that students’ use of AI reduces their capacity for critical thinking.

Neil Mackenzie on the environmental impact of the Loch Kemp project

Your article (First major hydropower projects in Great Britain in 40 years given go-ahead, 26 June) describes the proposal to build three pumped storage schemes in the Scottish Highlands. But it does not mention the huge environmental cost.

One scheme, the Loch Kemp project, will draw water from Loch Ness and pump it into the upper reservoir created by enlarging Loch Kemp. A giant power station is to be built in protected ancient woodland on the shores of Loch Ness. This woodland is a special area of conservation, an internationally recognised site, and will be partly destroyed by the power station and access road.

• Italian wins 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-4 in second round

• Next faces the unseeded American Jenson Brooksby

Jannik Sinner is not making it easy for himself this year. Matches he would have expected to sprint through here have become mini-marathons and there is the small matter of another ­heatwave arriving in London this weekend, which, as we saw in Paris, is his kryptonite.

More worrying, as Sinner ­admitted after reaching the last 32 with a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-4 victory over the world No 48, Nuno Borges, his game is still falling short. The forensic analysis started when the Italian was asked whether his forehand was as good as it could be.

• American recovers from 7-4 down in deciding tie-break

• Top seed says Netflix documentary is inspiration

It hardly seems possible that seven years have passed since a 15-year-old Coco Gauff announced herself on the world scene with a brilliant victory here over Venus Williams in the first round. Gauff has since won two grand slam titles and been ranked as high as world No 2.

Her form has been up and down, her serve and forehand occasionally brittle, especially when the pressure is ramped up. But there is no better scrapper in the game and invariably, even when things go awry, she finds a way to dig deep.

• Midfielder will cost Spurs an initial £92.5m

• Spurs agree £50m deal to sell Vuskovic to Brighton

Newcastle have agreed to sell the Italy midfielder Sandro Tonali to Tottenham in an initial £92.5m deal that could rise to £100m should the north London side achieve serial Champions League qualifications.

Providing the transfer’s formalities proceed as planned it will represent a club record for Tottenham, who on Tuesday agreed to pay £85m for the West Ham midfielder Mateus Fernandes.

• Francesca Carr says move to full-time status felt ‘rushed’

• Cusack was found dead at her home in September 2023

Sheffield United did not have sufficient resources in place during the summer of 2023 to look after their women’s team players, their former physio has told an inquest into the death of Maddy Cusack.

Cusack was found dead at her family’s home in Derbyshire on 20 September 2023, at the age of 27, just weeks into United’s first season since switching to training on a full-time basis. Francesca Carr, who worked as the women’s team physio between 2021 and 2024, told the court that the club’s transition from part-time to full-time status felt “rushed” and staff were carrying out multiple roles beyond their remit, such as making lunch for the team.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

• Captain returns to face South Africa at the Oval

• ‘Everything has gone to plan,’ she says

Nat Sciver-Brunt will return to ­captain England in their T20 World Cup semi-final against South Africa at the Oval after being “put through recovery paces”.

The 33-year-old missed the last three matches of the group stage after retiring hurt against Ireland with a recurrence of the calf injury she ­sustained in April.

Elizabeth Warren and colleagues demand tighter rules on political figures’ crypto dealings, citing disclosures of large-scale Trump family profits

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Donald Trump has again been accused of “brazen crypto corruption” after financial disclosures revealed his family’s cryptocurrency ventures generated more than $1bn in his first year back in the White House.

A 927-page disclosure, released on Tuesday by the US Office of Government Ethics, showed that the US president had been paid more than $2.2bn last year in total, from real estate, golf resorts, branded merchandise, licensing deals and court settlements.

Boy, 16, in hospital with gunshot wounds after incident in Alum Rock area

A teenage boy sustained “potentially life-threatening” gunshot wounds in a shooting near a mosque in Birmingham, police have said.

Officers were called to reports of an incident on Bowyer Road, near St Saviours Road in the Alum Rock area, shortly before 5.30pm on Wednesday.

Yorgen Fenech, heir to property empire, on trial for alleged involvement in murder of journalist, which he denies

One of Malta’s wealthiest businessmen plotted to kill the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, paying €150,000 (£130,000) for three hitmen to carry out the murder, a jury has heard.

Yorgen Fenech, the 44-year-old heir to a property empire that includes the Hilton Malta hotel and casino, is on trial for the 2017 murder.

Watchdog criticises ‘lack of proactive, effective casework quality assurance’ but says CCRC ultimately fit for purpose

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) must urgently improve its investigations to avoid a repeat of failings such as those in the Andrew Malkinson scandal, a watchdog has found.

Anthony Rogers, the chief inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service, delivered the warning after carrying out an independent inspection of casework by the body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice.

AI-generated overview found to gloss over allegations of sexual harassment and describes hotel being sued over hygiene as ‘spotless’

A hotel being sued for mass food poisonings was described as “spotless” and a resort where guests complained of sexual harassment by staff was praised for “friendly” service by an AI intended to summarise millions of Tripadvisor reviews.

The overviews of customer feedback downplayed serious complaints, ranging from the stench of mould to a lack of mains water, according to an investigation by the consumer campaign organisation Which?

New study on fluazinam’s neurotoxicity comes up with different findings from earlier report based on manufacturer’s data

Researchers who re-ran a crucial fungicide study on neurotoxicity have come up with significantly different findings, and campaigners argue that the substance should now be withdrawn from the market.

In 2005, a study conducted by Huntingdon Life Sciences on behalf of ISK, the manufacturer of fluazinam, on the development of neurotoxicity of fluazinam in pregnant rats concluded there were no statistically significant effects in relation to brain development in the rats’ offspring.

Within minutes of walking on a San Diego beach, marine ornithologist Tammy Russell found the feathered carcasses – one after another.

Some were mixed in with washed up kelp. Others were under rocks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prime minister has said his successor in No 10 should use fiscal headroom to fund a £4.7bn gap in defence spending

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Keir Starmer has suggested Andy Burnham borrow billions more to cover the hole in the government’s defence investment plan (Dip), in a move economists say would severely reduce the likely next prime minister’s headroom against his fiscal rules.

The prime minister said on Wednesday that his successor – who is very likely to be the Makerfield MP – should use the headroom to fund a £4.7bn gap in defence spending over the next four years.

Body of 18-year-old man located after search involving Mountain Rescue, police and the fire service

A student has drowned while on a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) trip in Wales, police have said.

Emergency services were called to the River Wye in Glasbury, Powys on Tuesday evening after it was reported an 18-year-old male had entered the water and could not be found.

Reports say up to 80,000 people waiting by mid-afternoon for chance to see historic artwork at British Museum

People keen to see the Bayeux tapestry faced online queues of up to nine hours when tickets went on sale for the first time on Wednesday morning.

The British Museum, which is hosting the wool-on-linen artwork from September, saw huge traffic to its ticketing website as a scramble for access began.

Unions pleased with rise above forecast inflation but concerned nearly a third of it will come from school budgets

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Teachers in England will receive a 3.5% pay rise from September and a further 3% next year, with extra school funding to meet most but not all of the higher wage bill, the government has announced.

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said the government would accept the pay recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), which were substantially higher than the government’s initial proposals.

Law comes into effect that critics fear will further erode rights of Uyghurs and Tibetans, as well as allow Beijing to pursue dissidents abroad

A new ethnic unity law has come into effect in China despite warnings from Taiwan, the United Nations and rights groups that it could threaten freedoms, especially for minorities.

The Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress aims to forge a “shared” national identity among ethnic groups, for example by strengthening the status of Mandarin as the official language. But overseas campaigners have argued it will further degrade the rights of ethnic minorities, such as Uyghurs and Tibetans, that Beijing is accused of persecuting.

Language commission hails normalisation of te reo Māori after years of work in identifying frequently mispronounced words

For years, Māori placenames have been distorted into nearly unrecognisable sounds by Google Maps in New Zealand. For those with attuned ears, it can be grating or offensive.

Now the Māori language commission – Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori – has collaborated with Google to fix it, launching a New Zealand-accented voice for its navigation tool that can correctly pronounce Māori words. It is the culmination of a project that has been years in the making.

Proposed development of protected shorelines and wildlife zones violates EU environmental policy, says MEP

MEPs have warned Albania that EU accession talks are at risk if the government does not “change course” over plans for a luxury resort backed by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Tineke Strik, the Dutch MEP heading a European parliament fact-finding mission to the Balkan nation, said Albania’s leadership was “playing with fire” by pursuing the €1.4bn (£1.2bn) real-estate venture that would, she said, wreak havoc on virgin coastline.

Jury also finds Riad Bouchaker guilty of assaulting two other children and a childcare worker in 2023 stabbings

A man has been found guilty of attempting to murder three children during a stabbing attack in Dublin in 2023, a crime that horrified Ireland and triggered a riot in the capital.

A jury at the central criminal court on Wednesday also found Riad Bouchaker, 52, guilty of assault causing serious harm to a childcare worker, Leanne Flynn, and of assaulting two other children and a teenager.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Economic squeeze and anti-immigration raids have hit Hispanic communities, prompting people to shop online and reuse oil

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The US cooking oil market is shrinking and unlikely to improve soon because of economic and immigration enforcement pressures on Latino households, the owner of the Mazola brand has said.

George Weston, the chief executive of Associated British Foods (ABF), told City analysts that cooking oil sales had suffered as “our heavy use consumer is that Hispanic population who are under financial pressure, who are under pressure from Ice [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and are feeling a bit miserable”.

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

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

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

Italian academic and author who challenged traditional approaches with his pursuit of microhistory

It would be no exaggeration to claim that the Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg, who has died aged 87, revolutionised the practice and understanding of history. In particular, in a series of books published in the 1970s – above all, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller (1976) – he embraced a new field of study called microhistory, which challenged traditional ways of understanding the discipline of which he was part.

Far from the overarching theoretical approaches of Marxism or liberalism, Ginzburg emphasised the edges, the marginalised, the detail rather than the bigger picture. The chance discovery of Inquisition trial documents in archives in Udine opened a way to an understanding of a society and culture through one individual previously ignored by history.

Documentary traces the career of the shape-shifting Tilda Swinton. Plus: a grimly absorbing day on the crime frontline. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Sky Arts
Tilda Swinton is endlessly versatile, as this engaging deep dive into her career shows. The tone is set by an astonishingly self-possessed early interview in which she is scornful towards career progression for its own sake: “What I am working towards is what I’m doing now.” What follows, from her work with Derek Jarman to her more mainstream ventures, seems consistent with the vision of this enigmatic and engaging actor. Phil Harrison

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aviva Studios, Manchester
The artist’s latest show is a staggering takedown of colonial history, warfare and the migrant crisis, featuring buttons by the tonne and richly perfumed tea

History has repeated itself all over Ai Weiwei’s vast exhibition of monumental sculpture in Manchester. The flags of long-lost nations hang from the ceiling, bronzes looted by dead empires have been recast and reclaimed, dilapidated ancient ruins have been rebuilt. Everywhere you look here, you will find death, exploitation, greed and suffering from across human history, brought back to life and put morbidly on display. The first thing you see is a black glass chandelier made of skeletons – The Human Comedy – and a wall covered in images of the most powerful bombs ever invented. Like a head on a stake, this is art as warning.

This massive, ambitious exhibition is the Chinese artist at his most monumental, and as a result at his most effective. His subject matter works best at enormous scale, blown up, expanded, shoved in your face. Lining the back wall of this warehouse is a giant inflatable dinghy, 100 metres long, filled with figures in lifejackets. Think you can ignore the migrant crisis? Not here you can’t, because Ai has taken everyday, normalised tragedy and made it into a monument. He spent years interviewing hundreds of refugees, meeting people desperate for safety and a new life and produced a huge amount of work about it. This is the culmination of that project. Is it a good-looking work of art? Not really, but it makes a point, and makes it loudly.

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

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

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

Royal Opera House, London
Bellini’s tale of Roundheads vs Cavaliers requires vocal gymnastics on an Olympic scale. Lisette Oropesa rises effortlessly to the challenge in Richard Jones’s detailed new production

Forget Puccini and Nessun Dorma: the right opera composer for a World Cup has to be Bellini. The extreme high notes, the agility, the endurance involved as the singers spin endless melodies before firing off vocal curlicues like a gymnast swinging round and round the bars – it’s the closest there is to opera as sport. Getting the right players together at this level isn’t easy, which is surely one reason why it’s been nearly 35 years since Bellini’s final opera, I Puritani, was last staged at Covent Garden.

There’s enough fantastic singing in the Royal Opera’s new production to satisfy anyone who sees opera singers as elite athletes. But there’s more to it than that, thanks partly to the conductor Riccardo Frizza, in his house debut. Bellini’s 1835 opera may be a singer’s showpiece but it’s the orchestral detail that really makes this score shine, and Frizza lays it out superbly, creating buoyancy without ever pushing the voices and a spinning visceral momentum from Bellini’s pulsing accompaniments.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best wellies overall:
Barbour Bede wellington boots

Best budget wellies:
Mountain Warehouse Mucker neoprene long boots

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

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

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

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

• The best gifts for six-year-olds

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

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

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

• The best sunglasses with UV protection

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

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

Sarawak peppercorns add their woody, citrus aroma to shellfish steamed in wine and served with crisp fries

Black Sarawak peppercorns have a soft, woody smell, like a forest floor mixed with lemon zest. Those things come through in the taste, too, along with a fruity sweetness. But then peppercorns, the tiny black balls I take for granted (and often forget about), are berries, which is something I didn’t know until I did a pepper tasting at my local spice shop, Emporio delle Spezie.

I also learned that the spice I have always considered one thing, black pepper, is in fact a species, Piper nigrum, a flowering vine in the vast Piperaceae family. Native to south-west India and Sri Lanka, Piper nigrum spread, taking on different characteristics according to wherever it took root: Sarawak pepper, Penja pepper, Lampong pepper, Kampot pepper, Malabar pepper, Madagascar pepper …

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

• Melissa Thompson’s summer barbecue recipes

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

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

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

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

Istanbul
Özlem Warren (Quadrille, £28)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Distance up to 74 miles
Duration 3-9 days

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Name: The sunset stipulation.

Age: About six months.

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

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

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

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

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

Figure is more than five times the widely used 600,000 figure widely cited in apologies by king and politicians

At least 3.3 million people were enslaved in the Netherlands during the transatlantic slave trade, research claims – more than five times the 600,000 figure widely used in history books and cited in apologies by the king and politicians.

King Willem-Alexander referred to the more than 600,000 people who were brought from Africa on Dutch ships to be sold as enslaved people when he apologised three years ago for the role of the Netherlands in the transatlantic slave trade.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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