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

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

The actors Lindsay Duncan and Charles Dance, alongside director Peter Webber, pay tribute to a practical joker, unpretentious craftsman and ‘very cool guy’

• Sam Neill’s final interview

• Sam Neill’s 20 best performances

• A life in pictures

• Obituary

Lindsay Duncan, co-star, Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983) and Blackbird (2019)

Last week’s Timms report shows how disability is still vilified. But some pragmatic fixes would help both claimants and the economy

“Broken Britain” has become the favourite narrative of the right in recent months. The playbook goes like this: politicians and pundits alike exploit genuine concerns about squeezed services and living standards to propagate a sense of division and despair. Meanwhile, the parts of the state that actually need radical change are then either ignored or misrepresented, if only because their worst impact tends to be felt by the very marginalised communities the hard right scapegoats.

Few areas demonstrate this more than the disability benefits system. Reading the damning Timms report – the government’s landmark review into the personal independence payment (Pip) in England and Wales – last week, I was struck by the gulf between reality and rhetoric. The disability benefits system is “not fit for purpose” and “dehumanising” for claimants, the report found, yet scroll through a news site or switch on talk radio and there’s tumbleweed when it comes to substantive ideas to reform it, especially from figures typically eager to declare the nation’s institutions at risk of imminent collapse.

Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist

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

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

• This piece first appeared in the Dial

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

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

Along with the rice fields, a centuries-old infrastructure that treated water as a gift to be shared is disappearing

I Putu Partayasa pushes his fingers into the soil as he squats at the edge of a rice terrace. They come up dry. His field has water; his neighbour’s does not. “We have a big problem in the dry season,” he says. “Fifteen years ago, we have water every day. But today it’s getting less.”

The 52-year-old, who goes by the name Parta, is lucky because his plot sits high enough in the irrigation system so that he still gets his share of water. He fears he knows where the rest is going. “Companies take our water,” he says, “and bring it to the tourism places.” He gestures at the terraces below, a patchwork of green and brown that was once all green. “The forest is getting smaller. The springs are drying.”

The new BBC documentary is so wondrous and awe-inspiring it will make you feel like a child again – and in Chris Packham, it has a presenter for the ages

Evolution is a coronation. With this new, five-part BBC nature documentary, the presenter Chris Packham is effectively crowned the successor to David Attenborough. And a worthy one, I think most would agree.

Packham has all the great man’s passion for his subject and the willingness and ability to share his knowledge as accessibly as possible. He treads the line between assuming nothing and not infantilising his audience as nimbly as Attenborough does.

UAE says Iranian cruise missiles hit two oil tankers in strait, killing a crew member and wounding eight

• US launches third night of strikes on Iran as Trump announces Hormuz blockade

Resurgent oil and fuel prices could cement a fourth interest rate rise in Australia this year if Donald Trump’s renewed conflict with Iran is not resolved within a week, economists warn.

US missile strikes on Iran and Trump’s announcement of a new maritime blockade has lifted oil prices to their highest point in the month since the two countries agreed to a peace deal.

Shock development based on ‘new information and evidence’ renews debate over security of politicians

British counter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation into the death of the former MP and Reform spokesperson Ann Widdecombe in a shock development that has renewed the debate over the security of politicians.

Widdecombe’s body was found with serious injuries by the ambulance service at her home in Haytor Vale, Devon, at 11.40am on Thursday. A 28-year-old man from Rotherham is being held in custody on suspicion of her murder.

The head of Reform UK refused the security, which was a similar level to that received by the leader of the opposition, because he considered it inadequate

Today MPs are expected to pass the so-called Hillsborough law bill – which is officially known as the public office (accountability) bill – after the government dropped its insistence on provisions that would in practice have given the security services an opt-out. Before it becomes law, the bill will still have to go through the Lords.

Libby Brooks has a good account of what led up to this in her First Edition briefing.

We have shown that true power belongs to ordinary people.

We did not stay silent, we were not ground down, we were not afraid to speak truth to power.

Exclusive: Analysis of nearly 2,500 articles finds almost three-quarters made no reference to global heating

Most of the UK media stories about the record-breaking heatwave that struck in June failed to mention the climate crisis, analysis has found.

Nearly 2,500 articles about the extreme heat – when temperatures topped 37C, a record for the time of year – appeared in the UK’s nine main national daily media publications. But nearly three-quarters of them – about 72% – left out any mention of global heating or the climate, according to the analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).

Legal challenges launched over accommodation ‘adequacy’ as UK government closes more asylum hotels

Huda and her two children aged 10 and 12 had been living in two rooms in a London hotel for six months when they were told with just a few days’ notice they would be moved. The 41-year-old engineering graduate from Tunisia fled death threats from extended family and is waiting for an asylum application to be processed.

The Home Office had decided that Staycity, the hotel the family was staying in, would be closed as part of a government pledge that asylum seekers would be moved out of hotels and into military barracks or other forms of shared housing. The move followed protests by anti-migrant activists, with many arguing hotels were too luxurious to accommodate asylum seekers.

Some names have been changed.

Government has been forced to pay back duties to companies that imported goods into the US that were hit by Trump’s tariffs

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The US government has already paid back tens of billions of dollars in tariffs it collected before the supreme court ruled them illegal, according to budget figures released on Monday.

Tariffs – taxes on imported goods – have been a key part of Donald Trump’s economic plan since he took office again last year.

BBPA wants content definition for beer to be considered non-alcoholic to be changed from 0.05% to 0.5%

Pubs and brewers are being prevented from capitalising on Britons’ record-breaking thirst for alcohol-free beer because of over-strict regulation, a trade body has warned.

More than 64m pints of low- and no-alcohol beer is forecast to be sold over the summer, an increase of 8m compared with 2025, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said, citing the figures as proof that the category is “not just a fad”.

Threat of social unrest rises as public indignation at lack of disaster aid comes on top of fallout from US military intervention

• A revolution in ruins: fury amid the rubble of a housing project in quake-hit Venezuela

Public anger at what many perceive as the Venezuelan government’s botched response to twin earthquakes that killed nearly 4,500 people is growing, with one grieving mother caught on camera berating the son of former president Nicolás Maduro.

Maduro’s politician son received a hostile reception while visiting a semi-destroyed social housing project named after his father’s late mentor Hugo Chávez.

Palaeontologists warn before auction at Sotheby’s in New York that super-rich collectors are harming research

With its dagger-like teeth, bone-crushing bite and behemothic size, the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex ruled western North America during the late Cretaceous period. Now its fossilised remains are about to dominate the auction house, with a price tag to terrify punters.

On Tuesday, one of the largest and most complete T rex skeletons discovered to date is to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York with an estimated sale price of $20m-$30m (£15m-£22.4m).

Kyiv’s decision to honour second world war fighters who killed about 100,000 Poles has revived simmering tensions

In the aftermath of Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022, Polish-Ukrainian solidarity emerged as one of the most heartwarming subplots of the Kremlin’s brutal war. Millions of Poles, remembering their country’s own tragic history with Russia, mobilised to help Ukrainian refugees with food, shelter and support as they crossed the border in huge numbers to flee the conflict.

Four years later, that outpouring of generosity and solidarity is a distant memory, as the two countries find themselves locked in a bitter dispute over history that has led to angry rhetoric, mutual mud-slinging and a threat from Poland to block Ukraine’s EU accession until it gets its historical house in order.

As general election looms, survey shows twice as many men as women support far-right Sweden Democrats

One is led by Sweden’s first female prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, and has promised smaller school-class sizes, more housing and free dental care for young people. The other, led by Jimmie Åkesson, has neo-Nazi roots and has pledged to lower taxes, improve public safety and treat “anti-Swedishness” as a hate crime.

In the run-up to Sweden’s general election in September, the Social Democrats and the Sweden Democrats are placed first and second respectively in the polls, and between them are expected to scoop up more than 50% of the vote.

To kick off Making Love, our new series in which the stars behind TV’s hottest relationships relive their romances, Mathew Horne and Joanna Page talk about meeting the one, snogs with strangers – and saving people’s lives

It’s a classic romcom story: Essex boy from Billericay meets Welsh girl from Barry, they declare their love in a coach station, he proposes in a train station before being dragged away by police and – with the help of a fake-vegetarian mum, a crackin’ friend who had a fling with John Prescott and a top-secret fishing trip – they win the hearts of the nation.

Gavin & Stacey was the 2007 love child of Ruth Jones and James Corden, following the ordinary couple played by Mathew Horne and Joanna Page. Their mates Nessa (Jones) and Smithy (Corden) became the “will they/won’t they?” relationship of the show – and Gavin’s parents, Pam (Alison Steadman) and Mick (Larry Lamb), were proof of everlasting love – but Gavin and Stacey were the pair we could all relate to. So much so that they are regularly voted one of Britain’s ultimate TV couples.

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

• The best camping mattresses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our cartoonist sets the scene before the semi-finals, with Thomas Tuchel’s team taking on old rivals Argentina

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Anchored by an indelible André Holland performance, the film finds tenderness and warmth amid its gritty Washington DC backdrop

In the lineage of Creed and Million Dollar Baby, They Fight makes yet another compelling case for why boxing remains a timeless allegory for the human condition. This time it’s Walt (André Holland) who’s staring up at a 10-count. Once a luminary on Washington DC’s boxing scene, Walt saw his promising career derailed by the city’s drug trade. After an extended prison stint, he is paroled and intent on reuniting with his old flame (Samira Wiley) and their young son.

Walt trudges back to the disregarded after-school gym where he first found his footing in the sweet science, hoping to chart a new path forward, only to be drawn into its revival by the resident counselor, Slim (Wendell Pierce), and a trio of boys spoiling for a fight. But it’s best friends Quincey (Toussaint Francois Battiste) and Peanut (Anthony B Jenkins) who wind up on a collision course for a national title belt as their futures, Walt’s reintegration into society and the gym’s place in DC’s rapidly changing Ward 8 hang in the balance.

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

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

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

⚽️ Latest news before first of the semi-finals in Dallas
⚽️ Player guide | Golden Boot | Football Daily | Email us

Atlanta police are increasing staffing and resources for Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final between England and Argentina.

The department says additional officers will be deployed around the stadium and across the city’s entertainment and high-traffic areas, with large crowds expected before and after the match:

As Atlanta prepares to host an upcoming World Cup semi-final match and welcomes increased numbers of residents and visitors, the Atlanta Police Department has enhanced its citywide public safety and security posture. Additional personnel and resources are already deployed and will continue to be strategically assigned in and around the event venues, entertainment districts, and other high-traffic areas to help ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone. These proactive measures are designed to protect the public, deter criminal activity, and ensure residents and visitors can safely enjoy this historic event.”

The Spain winger says three-year-old Keyne ‘means everything to me’ – and fans have taken him to their hearts

He’s become a social media staple; captured on camera blowing kisses, joyfully cheering on his team and careening through the stands of stadiums. Standing at just a few feet tall, the tiny toddler has become the unexpected breakout star of Spain’s World Cup run.

“This time around, the biggest sensation of the competition isn’t an athlete, the goals, or even the trophy itself,” was how Hola! – Spain’s version of Hello! magazine – summed it up. “It’s Keyne, Lamine Yamal’s three-year-old brother, who’s taking the tournament by storm with his hilarious moments.”

• Squad perform one last ‘Viking row’ on palace steps

• Parade briefly halted by low-hanging overhead cables

More than 100,000 fans flooded the streets of Oslo, Norway’s capital, to give their team a warm welcome, turning the heartbreak of their World Cup exit into ⁠a massive national celebration.

A 2-1 ⁠extra-time defeat by England on ​Saturday brought Norway’s historic run to an end in the quarter-finals, shattering their dreams of a place in the last four. However, it did not stop the country celebrating their heroes. Massive crowds under ⁠the Norwegian summer sun filled the grounds of the Royal Palace early on Monday afternoon, with an unofficial turnout estimated at more than 100,000 people.

• Rice expected to overcome illness for semi-final

• Jordan Pickford: ‘We can’t focus solely on Messi’

Declan Rice is set to overcome illness and retain his place for England’s World Cup semi-final against Argentina on Wednesday.

The Arsenal midfielder was substituted at half-time of England’s win over Norway in the quarter-final, with Thomas Tuchel revealing that he had spent most of the previous three days in bed due to illness. But it is understood that Rice has been feeling much better after England returned to their base in Kansas City for the final time before departing for Atlanta on Tuesday and the 27-year-old is expected to start alongside Elliot Anderson in midfield against the reigning world champions.

After forming an almost paternal relationship with Lionel Messi and providing a rare sense of stability, Argentina’s unheralded saviour is on the verge of World Cup history

On Lionel Messi’s ill-fated international debut in Budapest in 2005, when he was (very harshly) sent off 45 seconds after coming off the bench for swinging an arm at the Hungary defender Vilmos Vanczak, he received only two passes. Both came from Lionel Scaloni. It may not be much, but those two passes were the first contact in a relationship that may culminate in Argentina becoming only the third nation to successfully defend the World Cup.

Messi has spoken of Scaloni as one of the first members of the squad to truly welcome him. After he had scored against Serbia and Montenegro in the World Cup group stage in 2006, when at the age of 18 years and 357 days he became the youngest player to play for Argentina at the tournament, the first player to come up to Messi in the tunnel, grabbing him from behind in a congratulatory hug, was Scaloni. The former West Ham full-back is only nine years Messi’s senior but there has been an almost paternal aspect to their relationship ever since.

World Cup victory for England next week could raise expectations the likely new prime minister can’t live up to

Andy Burnham yesterday got himself clear of the magic number – the 323 Labour MPs who had to support him to make any leadership challenge mathematically impossible. Half a week had gone by in limbo, his endorsements standing at 322, everyone knowing he was the next prime minister, nobody able to call it anything more than “likely”. What were those last MPs waiting for? Maybe they were just in it for the atmospherics.

You can’t run a coronation like a slam dunk; it needs choreographed suspense, a sense of ceremony. In an ideal world, the last names would have arrived in the form of a wax-sealed letter, carried by a horse or a bird.

Extreme exposure should be avoided, but we’ve gone too far the other way – enjoyed safely, the sun can have enormous health benefits

High summer has returned to the UK, and with it, the usual warnings about the dangers of sunlight and reminders to seek shade and cover up. After years of such advice, most members of the public naturally assume that the science connecting sun exposure to poor health is well established, so people are often shocked to learn that the opposite is true: those who spend more time in the sun tend to be healthier. A lot healthier.

I know because I began researching the subject nine years ago after stumbling upon some studies – and I’ve stayed on the case ever since, now summarising everything we know in my new book, In Defense of Sunlight. It contains good news for many people: we don’t have to fear the sun nearly as much as we thought. In fact, most of us could benefit from a bit more exposure.

Rowan Jacobsen is a former Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a media fellow at the Nova Institute for Health in Baltimore. His book In Defense of Sunlight: The Surprising Science of Sun Exposure is published this month

After a wild attack on the media, Reform’s deputy leader joins other MPs in the Commons offering tributes rather than speculation

This is the third murder of either a sitting or former MP that I’ve covered in the last 10 years. It doesn’t get any easier or less shocking. Every death diminishes us all. The least you would hope is for politicians to behave with dignity. To set an example. For those who knew Ann Widdecombe to express their personal loss, for party leaders and ministers to convey the horror of her death and offer their condolences to her family and friends. Probably best for everyone else to say as little as possible for now.

The police have asked for everyone to refrain from speculating about the motives of the suspect, who, as of Monday lunchtime, was still being questioned by counter-terrorism officers, and not to politicise the murder if possible. A time for our political class to behave like grownups. And the overwhelming majority have done that. Just for now, even Nigel Farage has stopped acting as if he were the detective leading the investigation by offering his insights to every passing TV crew, and has fallen silent.

Federal agents showed up at reporters’ homes, targeting journalists for doing exactly what the first amendment protects

To non-journalists, receiving a government subpoena is a serious thing but probably not a violation of basic rights.

To journalists, it’s quite a different matter – an attack on a foundational right to gather information in the public interest and to provide confidentiality to sources.

Mr Blobby, the Liz Truss lettuce, Boaty McBoatface … the Clacton hopeful is part of a rich tradition – and a reminder that it’s laughter that defines us, not hate

Nigel Farage’s pointless byelection in Clacton, in which he will stand against Count Binface, has inadvertently pitted two versions of Britain against one another. In one corner we have those who will argue that we are divided, cynical and jaded, that Britain isn’t what it once was and there is little to celebrate. And in the other corner we have the lovers of nonsense, ready to bind us back together with the unifying force of laughter.

Count Binface symbolises what I like to call Silly Sausage Britain. The Britain that has a laugh and doesn’t take itself too seriously, but is underpinned by self-deprecation, our kindness toward each other and fairness. This is the Britain of comedians such as Victoria Wood and Bob Mortimer, Romesh Ranganathan and Daisy May Cooper, Elis James and Meera Syal. It’s the adverts for Yorkshire Tea, Tango and Irn-Bru and it’s the Liz Truss lettuce. It’s 2p arcade machines and queen of “hun culture” Alison Hammond’s laugh.

Success against antisemitism in the UK will be achieved when schools and synagogues don’t need police protection. Let’s build bridges between communities

When arsonists attacked Finchley Reform Synagogue earlier this year, the physical damage was mercifully limited. The fear travelled much further.

For years, it was my community: I sang at Friday night services, taught b’nai mitzvah students, and its former rabbi officiated at my wedding. Seeing it targeted felt painfully personal, part of a pattern that has led to British Jews changing routines, concealing symbols of our identity and wondering whether the places we gather in can be kept safe.

David Davidi-Brown is chief executive of the New Israel Fund

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It’s sparking some interesting conversations

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Grooming gang victims have been treated appallingly and are rightly angry. But the loss of confidence in the criminal justice system goes wider

The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is not personally responsible for the mess that the government finds itself in with regard to the release from prison of Shabir Ahmed, who was a ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang, earlier this month. Ahmed, who has spent most of his life in the UK, was stripped of British citizenship soon after his conviction for rape and sex trafficking in 2012.

His victims were led to believe when the Tories were in power that he would be deported to Pakistan on his release. They and their supporters now want this pledge to be honoured. The home secretary has announced that the law will be changed to enable this to happen. Whether or not she keeps her job under Andy Burnham, the signs point to the deportation going ahead if Pakistan’s government can be persuaded to give up demanding the return of Pakistani dissidents as its price.

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.

Robust action is needed to protect European industries from unfair competition. The alternative is social strife amid growing insecurity

According to a recent analysis, China enjoys a surplus in its manufactured goods trade with the European Union that is roughly equivalent to Italy’s national income. That trade disparity, it is estimated, continues to grow by about 30% each year. The stark implication, according to a paper from Centre for European Reform, is that Europe, with Germany in the frontline, risks “deindustrialisation at China’s hand”.

The gravity of the threat was grimly evident in the car industry last week, as Volkswagen’s supervisory board met to discuss radical proposals to cut 100,000 jobs – around a sixth of the company’s global workforce – and close plants. Taking into account indirect as well as direct employment, the automotive sector is responsible for around 3m jobs in Germany. But manufacturers in the country’s flagship industry have found themselves in a triple bind.

Susan Randall on Stephen Timms’ Pip review and those with longstanding mental illness and Ruth Lister on why social security spending shouldn’t be called ‘welfare’. Plus letters from Luke Howard and Katie Medd

With reference to your editorial (The Guardian view on disability benefits: Pip must not become another route for cuts, 10 July), and speaking as someone who has contributed to Sir Stephen Timms’ review on behalf of family carers dealing with those with serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, I fully support a substantial revision of the whole approach to personal independence payment (Pip) assessment.

The assessment process is currently a daunting one for those who are justifiably applying for this much‑needed support.

Katie Kempen says victims are bearing the brunt of a broken prison system, while Frances Crook believes there are good reasons for early release

Hearing that their perpetrators may be released months or even years earlier than expected will strike fear into the hearts of many victims and survivors (Lack of safeguards over prisoners’ early release puts abuse victims at risk, Lammy warned, 8 July). Worse still, unless eligible for the victim contact scheme, which few are, most victims have no way of finding out in advance if they are affected.

Fixing the prisons crisis is essential, but victims and survivors must not be an afterthought in the government’s plan. A failure to get it right could irreparably damage victims’ sense of safety and trust in the justice system. Once again, victims are bearing the brunt of a broken system. Every victim deserves to be listened to, treated with respect and given the timely support and information they need.
Katie Kempen
Chief executive, Victim Support

Jane Lawson says it would be good to hear men’s stories and for them to perhaps accept some accountability

Lots of tears have been shed and lots of blame apportioned to various institutions about forced adoptions (Letters, 8 July). But women have always been blamed for “getting themselves pregnant”. This comes principally from men in authority – from politicians to priests and the men at the head of the household. Always, it was the young mother who was shamed and left to bear the baby, and then lose it for ever.

I’m left wondering why the fathers of these babies seem to have been removed from the narrative of blame. Many were married and their denials were believed. Some were frightened young men without the courage or means “to make an honest woman of her” and sadly some were men in high office, or even priests, whose transgressions were quietly covered up.

Humility for runners | Carspreading and ESVs | Reform UK and Nathan Gill | Party rebrand for Count Binface | Ernő Rubik

I was delighted by Alan Martin’s article on taking part in parkrun (I’ve completed 355 parkruns – here’s what you need to get started, 8 July). As a parkrun obsessive (252 runs and 126 volunteering sessions at 88 different venues) with a respectable personal best time of 20:05, I have learned that you only really need one thing to participate: the humility to accept that you’ve just been overtaken by a fellow runner pushing a buggy.
Ralph Fyfe
Newton Abbot, Devon

• Regarding Christian Wolmar’s article on large cars (Britain’s cars and SUVs are growing bigger – but there is a way to stop this deadly ‘carspreading’, 12 July), isn’t part of the problem that many SUVs are bought and driven as ESVs: emotional support vehicles?
Martyn Wilson
Malvern Link, Worcestershire

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2nd over: England 8-0 (Duckett 4, Bethell 0) Prasidh Krishna is sharing the new nut and he runs in to bowl to Jacob Bethell. His first ball keeps low, scuttles under Bethell’s bat and beats the keeper too. Prasidh is nippy and there is movement through the air and off the pitch. Bethell defends and misses an attempted pull. Nowt more off the over.

1st over: England 4-0 (Duckett 4, Bethell 0) Bumrah’s first ball snakes off the pitch, Duckett watches it closely, defending into the off side. He plays and misses at the next one… and the next! Bumrah gives Duckett a cheshire cat smile, he’s getting some big movement away to the left hander with the new white ball. Inswinger coming surely… sure enough a booming inducker is next up and it smashes into Duckett’s shin! BUT it pitched outside leg, so no dice.

Live mountain stage updates from 12pm BST/1pm CEST
Pogacar urges Tour overhaul amid heatwave | Mail Luke

There is an old Tour de France adage that riders never quite know how their legs will feel after a rest day. Some might feel relatively refreshed and ready to tackle seven categorised climbs on today’s 166.6km route. But after a punishing and fiendishly hot first week, others will merely be looking to survive: especially the sprinters, whose reward for grinding through 3,800m of vertical ascent today is a flat stage tomorrow.

The mountainous terrain between Aurillac and Le Lioran on stage 10 looks ripe for a strong group of climbers to escape the peloton’s clutches and battle for victory. But Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG were shutting down attacks down left, right and centre in the first week, aiming to keep things under close control for the race leader and his lieutenant, Isaac del Toro.

Only time will tell if the former Leverkusen manager will become yet another victim of the constant churn at Stamford Bridge

If Xabi Alonso arrived at Chelsea under any illusions about the expectations awaiting him, they were staring out from picture frames hung around Stamford Bridge’s Drake Suite. During his unveiling as Chelsea’s new manager, on either side of the room hung large, gleeful photos of José Mourinho and Antonio Conte holding Premier League trophies.

Chelsea’s last two managers, Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior, were not afforded the Drake Suite treatment previously reserved for Mauricio Pochettino and Frank Lampard before them. But the blue carpet was rolled out once again for one of the most decorated midfielders of his generation, an integral part of Spain’s victories in two European Championships and one World Cup and a coach who has made a strong start to converting that talent to the touchline.

Filipino sensation has been embraced by her nation yet star power outweighs her career achievements … so far

In the opening week at Wimbledon queues snaked around the grounds as fans lined up for the chance to catch one of the 32 second-round matches. Afterwards, they thronged the exit of Court 3 so densely that the eventual winner was preceded by two men in suits and panama hats struggling to clear a path. You’d be forgiven for thinking that, if you peered through the mass of bodies, you might catch a glimpse of a former grand slam champion or leading British player such as Katie Boulter. But the figure that emerged, signing notebooks, balls, and whatever fans waved blindly in her direction was 21-year-old Filipino sensation Alexandra Eala.

Eala’s Wimbledon run was one to note. Already the highest-ranked Filipino player of all time, after winning on Court 3 she went on to upset the defending champion, Iga Swiatek, in straight sets on Centre Court to achieve her deepest grand slam run before bowing out against Jasmine Paolini in the fourth round. She’s been billed as the star turn of September’s WTA 500 Singapore Open and features on the poster for the upcoming Mubadala Citi DC Open. Her company on the publicity material? Four-time grand slam champion Naomi Osaka, former world No 1 Venus Williams, and current world No 10, Elina Svitolina, among a host of equally decorated players.

• FA could follow Fifa precedent with 12-month suspension

• Manager to face media on Saturday in pre-season friendly

The future of Southampton’s manager, Tonda Eckert, remains shrouded in uncertainty as he waits to learn the outcome of a lengthy and detailed Football Association investigation into last season’s spygate scandal.

In May the English Football League expelled Southampton from the Championship playoff final against Hull after finding that a club intern engaged as a first-team analyst had spied on a key Middlesbrough training session before the semi-final first leg at the Riverside.

Yorkshireman, who admitted feeling the stress with six holes to go, won by one shot with his fiancee as his caddie

A greenside bunker shot that landed like a butterfly with sore feet. A knee-knocker of a 4ft putt, thumped into the back of the hole. Joe Dean did not win the Open Championship on Monday – and inevitably will not on Sunday, either – but the drama produced by the former delivery driver from Sheffield fully justified R&A innovation.

It has long seemed unsatisfactory that focus shifts towards those beginning their Open buildup as a tournament concludes elsewhere. Scottie Scheffler missed the cut at the Scottish Open on Friday yet the world No 1 drew eyeballs at here on Sunday as he plotted a Claret Jug defence.

As the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game take over Philadelphia, we take a spin around the majors with an awards watch, an Ohtani update and lots in between

With more than half of the MLB season in the books, the baseball world has convened in Philadelphia for the annual All-Star festivities. What better time for owners and players to engage in Brotherly Love and figure out how to avoid the widely predicted 2027 labor strife that could cancel next season? Considering the storm clouds gathering, a near-term resolution seems unlikely, so we’d better soak in the season we’re having. How’s that going? Glad you asked.

Issue must be addressed with ‘even greater rigour’, says government spokesman, after New York Times report on how it has become a spy hub for Vladimir Putin

Japan has said it recognised the need to counter foreign intelligence better after the New York Times reported that Russia had turned the country into a “den of spies” and key source of weapons components.

The newspaper, in an investigation published on Sunday, reported that thanks to “weak espionage laws”, Moscow was using Japan as a key hub for intelligence gathering and procurement of dual-use technology needed for its war in Ukraine.

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

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

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

Ofwat says repeated errors led to ‘real disruption and hardship for residents and businesses across many years’

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South East Water will pay £30.5m after a series of supply interruptions, customer failings and for breaching its licence, the regulator Ofwat has said.

The watchdog said the redress package concluded three investigations into the supplier and included a previously proposed £22m fine for water supply failures between 2020 and 2023 affecting more than 286,000 people.

Lobby appeals to prospective PM’s reindustrialisation agenda as it pushes for Rosebank and Jackdaw approval

The UK’s North Sea oil industry has made a last-ditch attempt to curry favour with the Labour government by appealing to Andy Burnham’s reindustrialisation agenda just days before he is expected to become Britain’s next prime minister.

Industry lobbyists have written to more than 400 Labour MPs to call on the government’s new leaders to allow more oil and gas drilling in UK waters to support homegrown energy and show “a commitment to UK manufacturing, industrial capability and the skilled workforce that has powered the nation for generations”.

Northern Territory force reopens evidence boxes in attempt to close investigation after 25 years

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Northern Territory police have reopened evidence boxes to reveal several previously unseen photographs from the investigation into the murder of the British backpacker Peter Falconio and attempted abduction of his girlfriend, Joanne Lees.

Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of the outback disappearance, which still resonates as one of Australia’s most horrific and culturally defining crimes. It carries unanswered questions for Falconio’s family.

Eyam Moor, Derbyshire: I go in search of a leveret, which is a tricky business. For them, subterfuge is key to survival

High on Eyam Moor, there was no shortage of things to look at. Meadow vetch and lady’s bedstraw had turned the trackside a vibrant yellow. The moor itself glittered white with heath bedstraw, over which small heath butterflies fluttered restlessly. The rich and ceaseless accompaniment to this was a skylark overhead, and as I approached the farmhouse and the stand of sycamores beyond, the saccharine flourish of goldfinches.

All that was missing was the creature I’d come to see. It had recently departed, leaving just the impression of where it had lain. Near the farm, close by a gritstone field wall, the long grasses had been flattened into a rough circle, or “form”, where a leveret had spent its early weeks. Its human neighbours had alerted me, but I had waited too long to visit, and now, like a ghost, the hare had vanished. Never mind. Despite the disappointment, there was something thought‑provoking, even moving, about this fragile refuge.

More than 90 residents have expressed interest in contamination claim against AGC Chemicals Europe

A Pfas factory in Lancashire has announced plans to close down, just days after the Guardian revealed that more than 90 residents had signed up to be involved in a potential legal claim over contamination of the local area.

AGC Chemicals Europe is consulting with employees and their union representatives about plans to cease operations at its manufacturing plant in Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire. The consultation is expected to last for at least 45 days.

Critics accuse ministers of failing to take control of nature crisis and leaving it to private landowners to act voluntarily

The government’s plan to protect and restore nature in England by 2030 has been condemned as “pathetic” and “completely insufficient” in the face of the spiralling environmental crisis.

The long-awaited plan published on Monday calls for landowners to voluntarily opt to protect and enhance nature, rather than creating legal protections for nature across more of the country’s land, critics say.

As US water wars rage, a tributary of the Colorado River faces unprecedented pressure. Visitors worry how long this aquatic ‘relict’ will last

On an early morning in mid-May, a group of near strangers shoved camping gear and clothes into waterproof bags, slathered on sunscreen, and ambled into the bright-yellow rafts that would carry them down one of the last free-flowing rivers in the American west.

Unhindered by large dams or diversions, the Yampa curves across 250 miles (400km) of alpine tundras, cottonwood forests and ancient red-rock canyons, rising from Colorado’s Rocky mountains to where it joins with the Green River in Utah, much in the way it has for millions of years.

Additional 27 nominations mean it is impossible for any other candidate to launch leadership challenge

Andy Burnham is to become Britain’s next prime minister after winning the backing of 349 Labour MPs, including all eligible members of Keir Starmer’s current cabinet, making it impossible for any rival to secure enough nominations to challenge him.

The new MP for Makerfield received an extra 27 nominations on Monday, taking his total from 322 last week to 349. With only 54 MPs yet to back him, including Starmer and Shabana Mahmood, who cannot nominate because of her role as national executive committee (NEC) chair, no other candidate can now reach the 81 nominations needed to enter the contest.

General Synod hears that Project Spire has not been abandoned but staff have received ‘vile abuse’ from critics

• What is Project Spire and why is it dividing the Church of England?

The Church of England is facing a legal challenge over Project Spire, its £100m plan to further reparative justice for historical links to enslavement, as staff come under “vile abuse” from critics.

At the General Synod in York over the weekend, Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, defended the project as a “work of healing, justice and repair”.

Three of those arrested were detained on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, say counter-terrorism police

Twelve people have been arrested, including three on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, over a suspected far-right threat against an Islamic event held over the weekend, police have said.

Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation, which they said was related to “extreme rightwing terrorism” targeting an event held at Shrubland Hall in Suffolk.

Pilot took off from Liverpool and spent 20 minutes tracing out phrase that was captured on flight-tracking website

A mischievous airline pilot spelled out his tedium by skywriting “I’m bored” over an estuary on the border between England and Wales.

The message was captured on the airline tracking website Flightradar24.

Bar owner offers ‘deepest apologies’ as police investigate whether exits were either blocked or hard to access

The Bangkok pub that became the scene of the city’s deadliest blaze in 17 years has said it will cooperate with an investigation into alleged negligence, as the death toll rose to 30.

The local district office said on Tuesday that three more people had died after the devastating fire that broke out in the early hours of Monday. An initial assessment by disaster officials found an electrical short ‌circuit in an air conditioner located in the ‌ceiling had caused the fire.

Vote will allow Israelis to pass judgment on Benjamin Netanyahu and his handling of conflicts in Gaza and Iran

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Israel will hold national elections on 27 October, giving its citizens their first chance to pass judgment on the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his coalition since the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023.

The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, will be dissolved on Friday. With just a few days left in session, the most far-right government in Israel’s history is now rushing to pass several controversial laws in an attempt to bolster its position before polling day.

Nordone was 13 when brother became her legal guardian – and was a key presence as he rose in the Republican ranks

When Lindsey Graham was in college, his parents died, just over a year apart. But he worried most about his sister, who, at 13, was suddenly an orphan. Graham became her legal guardian – and later adopted her so she could receive his benefits through his service as an air force lawyer.

On Tuesday, following Graham’s sudden death, that sister, Darline Graham Nordone, was set to be sworn in to serve the remainder of her late brother’s Senate term.

Claudia Sheinbaum says Mexicans ‘outraged’ over killing last week of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by agents in Houston

Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Monday that Mexico would be filing criminal complaints in the US for the deaths of more than a dozen Mexican migrants in immigration detention and those killed in anti-migrant operations.

The deaths include last week’s killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, whom Sheinbaum said was “practically murdered”.

Despite spending increase in June, Barclays says most people still pessimistic about economy

Relentless sunshine and the World Cup coaxed consumers to spend more on beer and online shopping last month, with purse strings expected to remain loose as England fans gear up for Wednesday’s semi-final.

Most people remain pessimistic about the UK economy, according to data from Barclays Bank based on debit and credit card transactions.

Oliver Blume tells staff restructuring proposal includes ‘controversial decisions’ but he has broad support

The chief executive of Volkswagen has confirmed plans to cut 50,000 more jobs despite the carmaker’s supervisory board rejecting his plan to shut four factories in Germany.

Oliver Blume told staff on Monday that proposals for a sprawling restructuring was “the most comprehensive realignment in the company’s history” and revolved around “12 initiatives, approximately 150 pages and 45 individual resolutions” for change.

Record numbers find there is little demand for their skills, as entry-level tech roles are hit by AI and automation

This time of year is graduation season in China: traditionally a bittersweet period of solemn goodbyes and family celebrations as university students transition from campus life into adulthood. Now it also increasingly represents trepidation about the future.

Each year, millions more graduates are thrust into China’s already saturated jobs market. The situation for this year’s cohort, flooding into an increasingly crowded pool of applicants fighting for an insufficient number of positions, is arguably the bleakest yet.

Roaming charges also scrapped and trading terms continue for medicines, cars, art, jewellery and other goods

British nationals can expect shorter passport queues at Swiss airports and border crossings after a £5.2bn trade deal was sealed by Keir Starmer, likely his last big international agreement as prime minister.

As part of the deal they will be able to use e-gates from later this year, starting with exit checks at Zurich airport and with Basel and Geneva, a leading airport for business and winter sports travel, to follow next year.

From scientific tricks to stop turtle traffickers to stranded seals and displaced workers, these images all scooped prizes at this year’s Earth Photo awards

A combination of fact and fiction leaves the celebrated documentarian’s puzzling project about software training wanting for depth

Marc Isaacs’ new film is a curious, intriguing, semi-sincere affair that I couldn’t make friends with. It is an odd, shallow piece of work about artificial intelligence that is itself exasperatingly artificial, a self-aware docudrama hybrid. Isaacs is, or rather pretends to be, licensing the vivid characters from his previous, acclaimed documentaries to a fictional AI research lab called Synthetic Sincerity at the fictional University of Southern England, so that the lab’s software can be “trained” in the creation of AI human figures on screen.

The lab’s research staff are played by actors, or at any rate people acting; these include Lebanese independent film-maker Lynn El Safah. Isaacs has amusing scripted conversations about this project with a disapproving AI avatar on screen, like Max Headroom of old, whose face is digitally modelled on Romanian actor Ilinca Manolache, from Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. The film, however, does not show the process by which Manolache was approached and her face transformed into an AI figure.

Renny Harlin’s disaster movie brings aquatic mayhem along with suspense and schadenfreude as aircraft passengers battle to survive hungry sharks

If done right, a disaster movie can scratch a cinematic itch like nothing else, serving up sentimentality, suspense and schadenfreude in tidy parcels of action. Deep Water, in which an American plane full of minor movie stars crashes in shark-infested waters, knows exactly what it’s doing even as it nods towards a number of predecessors.

For starters, the poster pays homage to, or steals from, Jaws with its images of tiny swimmers up top and a big toothy shark heading up from the depths below. Later on, an older woman is jokingly likened to Shelley Winters, a the Oscar-winning actor remembered for swimming for her life in the disaster classic The Poseidon Adventure. Best of all, the film brazenly eggs viewers on to wish and pray that the schlubby, obnoxious and constantly cigarette-seeking US guy (Angus Sampson, a hoot) will get to become shark chum before the credits roll.

A Mexican student’s post-exams night out becomes a heady voyage of self-discovery in this slight but joyful coming-of-age drama

This queer coming-of-age drama from Mexico feels a little familiar, with its story of 18-year-old Eduardo, a small-town boy finding himself in the big city. And yet nothing about it feels forced or fake – it is upfront about pleasure and desire, Eduardo’s teenage horniness and his intense need to be in the gay world. There are terrific performances from its young cast too.

Alejandro Quintana plays Eduardo, a studious kid who arrives in Mexico’s second largest city, Guadalajara, in a sensible button-up shirt to sit a university entrance exam. His phone pings constantly with messages and calls from his mum, whose harsh tone suggests a tension, possibly around his sexuality. After the exam Eduardo meets student Mario, a Caravaggio-esque beauty who invites him back to his house. But when they arrive – surprise! – Mario’s family have thrown him a birthday party. Which only briefly interrupts the hookup, since Mario is totally accepted at home.

Faithless is an erotic series based on Ingmar Bergman’s 2000 film. Plus: the final chilling part of the Pike County Murders. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Sky Atlantic
The Swedish drama about film director David and actor Marianne reflecting on their decades-old affair continues. In the present, the pair reconnect with regrets, and flashbacks to 1978 show a sizzling bond as they shoot an erotic movie together. But Marianne’s young daughter has her own crush on David, while her husband perhaps finds the performance a little too convincing. Hollie Richardson

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

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

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

Food writer and music enthusiast Ruby Tandoh details a tender picture of the existential threat to the lute. Plus, a joyous celebration of the great outdoors with Caitlin Moran and Adam Frost

This indie “audio magazine” brings together documentaries of all stripes, the common thread being a sense of experimentation. The third issue features food writer Ruby Tandoh detailing a quietly beautiful portrait of the lute, an instrument on the brink of extinction, while Jess Shane revisits a groundbreaking experiment that gave children the tools to turn their reality into poignant poetry. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly

The Cribs man had a youthful Bee Gees obsession and loves one particular 80s power ballad. But which song does he say is too rude for his funeral?

The first song I fell in love with
Only You by the Flying Pickets – at least according to my mother, who says [my twin brother and bandmate] Ryan and I would sing along to it on the Christmas Top of the Pops. We now use it as our walk-on song and it makes my mum quite emotional.

The first single I bought
Somewhere in My Heart by Aztec Camera, from Boots in Wakefield in 1988, after hearing it at the disco on a holiday at Pontins in Morecambe.

Yankee Stadium, New York City

The rapper celebrates 30 years of his classic debut album Reasonable Doubt with eye-popping visuals and special guests in a love letter to hip-hop culture

The beauty of watching Jay-Z live is more than just watching him calmly spit bars that effortlessly prove why his career has been this long and brilliant; it’s also the complex but lovely feeling of watching an audience (and the artist himself) relive the past. It’s almost unfathomable that 30 years ago, Jay-Z was starting out as a relatively unknown rapper from Brooklyn chronicling his life as a hustler. Quite possibly the greatest pure MC of all-time – encompassing flow, patience, humor, live ability and his taste as an auteur – Jay built a career on restrained tales of wide-eyed dreams and braggadocious stanzas about financial gain.

His 1996 debut album, Reasonable Doubt, was the start of that career, and on Friday night, I’m at New York City’s Yankee Stadium as Jay-Z performs the album’s tracks in order, front to back, making it impossible to forget its legacy in a visually stunning show that splits the difference between close connection and grand spectacle. At times, with a wide, movie-like screen backing Jay that shows funerals of presidents, footage of Mike Tyson, or his wife, Beyoncé, cutting his hair at the ballpark, the show feels influenced by previous tours like Watch the Throne mixed with the street romance of the 2002 movie Paid in Full. Yet the care and attention to detail ensures that the 50,000-capacity venue feels intimate, for the folks who heard the album and felt seen through its songs of regret and paranoia.

The novelist issues a inspiring call for artists to exercise their autonomy in a world of gatekeepers

In 1988, the late Ghanaian writer and filmmaker Kwesi Owusu edited Storms of the Heart: An Anthology of Black Arts & Culture, a collection of writings and images by Black artists in Britain, including Ben Okri on Shakespeare, Shobana Jeyasingh on Indian dance theatre, Jacob Ross on decolonising language, an interview with Ntozake Shange, and early pieces from the artist Sonia Boyce. Its intention was to document the advances made in Black diasporic arts in postwar Britain, to give voice to the creative and political concerns of practitioners, and importantly, to push back against the routine ghettoisation and marginalisation of their work. As a young writer aware of such realities, it was a huge inspiration for me.

Courttia Newland’s essay collection The Art of Opposition is entirely his own work, but it has a similar impact, mainly because of its provision of a space for Black or “othered” creatives to feel supported and understood in their endeavours, and as a counter to the pressures of the mainstream. Newland, a novelist, screenwriter and playwright, is no stranger to these pressures himself, his work is sometimes subject to the dismissiveness of an industry that expects writers to serve commercial imperatives. In these erudite, fierce and clear-minded essays, he draws on his substantial experience and cultural knowledge to emphasise “the greater goal of saying what we mean”.

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

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

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

Therapy brings childhood trauma to light in this ambitious tale of family rupture – a smash hit in Italy that fails to live up to its hype

A son leaves home for university and goes on to pay fortnightly visits to his parents for 20 years, dreading every encounter because of the oppressive control exerted by his father and the self-effacing passivity of his mother. Then one day, he changes his phone number and cuts off all contact. Andrea Bajani’s The Anniversary is written from the perspective of this son, 10 years after the rupture. The intervening decade has been, he says, the happiest period of his life.

The Anniversary has won Italy’s top literary prize and sold in the hundreds of thousands. It’s been lauded for shattering taboos, revealing families to be breakable structures and sons capable of defying their parents – even in Italy, where a Godfather-like idea of the absolute nature of family loyalty still pervades political and civic life. I came to it expecting some of the lurid revelation found in Knausgård or Houellebecq. What I found was something much simpler and quieter, exposing truths I thought we already knew: fathers can be oppressive and patriarchal; mothers can be occluded and powerless; children can be damaged, and therapists can help. Therapy aside, this was all material I recognised from neorealist Italian fiction of a much earlier era. Natalia Ginzburg, for example, showed vividly how totalitarianism seeped into the family through its patriarchal fathers, with mothers becoming hollow and timid in their wake.

Essays by the great and the good address the legacy of Brexit, but ignore the nationalist elephant in the room

This massive collection of essays by 43 different authors, including seven lords, four baronesses, one dame and three knights of the realm, may be the nearest we will ever get to a semi-official reflection on the causes and consequences of Brexit. Its editor, Sir Anthony Seldon, is honorary historian at 10 Downing Street and has written definitive works on successive 21st-century British administrations.

Yet the phrase “English nationalism” appears precisely once in its 600 pages – in a glancing reference to the line taken by the Daily Mail during the referendum campaign of 2016. Strikingly, while there is a fine essay by Aileen McHarg called On Scotland, there is none called On England. There is no attempt to provide even a broad overview of the tensions, contradictions and anxieties within the part of the UK where Brexit was won: non-metropolitan England. For much of the political and intellectual establishment, it seems, Englishness is still the condition that dare not speak its name.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sony’s announcement spells the end of a whole ecosystem built by superfan collectors – and signals a troubling shift in the industry

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Sony’s decision last week to quietly announce the end of physical games production for the PlayStation in 2028 is one of the most perfect PR disasters in recent gaming history – and considering what has been happening with Xbox, that’s saying something.

First, there was the timing. Sony posted the news of its decision on the PlayStation blog, less than a week after admitting that it would be deleting 550 movies from the digital libraries of PlayStation owners due to the end of a licensing deal – thereby perfectly illustrating the dangers of purchasing digital products. (Surprise! You never actually owned them!) The move is in stark contrast with the company’s stance on this very issue back in 2013. When Microsoft was attempting to push Xbox One as a digital-first console with strict controls on the sharing and reselling of its games, Sony brilliantly mocked its rival with a short video on how easy it was to lend physical games to pals on the PS4. Oh dear.

The massively multiplayer online role-playing game has grown into a virtual social space and part of daily life for thousands of players

In a small stone chapel, on the edgelands of a medieval wilderness, two women are getting married. The attenders are draped in rainbow capes, glowing armour and top hats. A scantily clad, muscular man with angel wings officiates the ceremony. Over the heads of the two brides hover the words “I do” in bright yellow text. This is RuneScape, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (or MMO) set in the Tolkienesque realm of Gielinor. Turning 25 this year, it has, over its lifetime, become a crucial virtual social space and part of daily life for thousands of players.

Lancashire-born Amelia, one of the pixelated newlyweds, met her wife on a dating app but first bonded through their love of the game. “Our first and second date was pretty much exclusively talking about RuneScape,” she recalls. Four years later they were married, shortly followed by their in-game ceremony. Morgan – a 26-year-old from the Midlands – is one of Amelia’s closest friends. They met through the game and run UWU Girls together, a RuneScape clan that Morgan founded in a bid to cater to players across the gender spectrum. “We do IRL meetups, and for a lot of these women, it’s been their first meetings with strangers online – and that’s the same for me.”

Royal Albert Hall, London
Shiny-suited and slick, the US standup fired off peppy and sometimes taboo-teasing gags about his cultural identity, married life and visits to a fertility clinic

You can’t say Aziz Ansari doesn’t know his audience. He begins Saturday night’s gig with a promise to finish well before the England kick-off. And his ending is underscored by a performance of national anthem-elect Wonderwall on the organ that looms above the stage. In between, we get a slick hour-long account of where Ansari’s life is at: three years into a cross-cultural marriage, partly resident in London (which may explain his feeling for the locals’ priorities), and trying, so far in vain, to start a family. In the hands of a hugely gifted comic who makes funny look easy, it all zips by – entertainingly, if a little glibly.

In that respect, it’s a return to pre-scandal Aziz, the gilded Parks and Recreation star who made it into the comedy big league with whip-smart social commentary so smooth it barely touched the sides. There is less sign here of the more troubled, later-career Ansari, whose work grew markedly less sunny after he was publicly accused of sexual misconduct. (He said he had apologised to the woman after learning of her discomfort, having believed the encounter was consensual.) Here, in a suit so shiny Ben Elton might blush, he fires off peppy and often provocative gags that skate eye-catchingly over the surface of his life, and our times, without ever carving too deep a furrow.

Nottingham Playhouse
The camaraderie and eccentricities of some model railway enthusiasts make for an endearing group portrait in William Ivory’s well-gauged comedy

Before the play begins, a tiny LNER InterCity zips in front of us. Our eyes follow it from one side of the stage to the other. Miniatures fascinate, and the train reminds us of the appeal.

It means that when we meet the old boys of the Market Deeping model railway club, celebrating a second victory in Stamford’s regional exhibition, we are sympathetic to their niche hobby. Yes, it may be eccentric to spend years perfecting an OO scale motive power depot, but look at the detail and gasp!

Royal Exchange, Manchester
A celebration of the cartoonist’s sexual awakening and queer identity as well as an investigation of darker family dynamics, this soulful show wears its heart on its sleeve

The “fun” in the title is short for funeral, a reference to the family undertaking business inherited by Alison Bechdel’s father. But there is some fun, too, in this heart-filled musical adaptation of the cartoonist’s illustrated memoir. First seen in the UK in 2018 and now revived by director Sarah Frankcom in a fluid in-the-round staging, it brings a light touch to a story freighted with emotion.

Published in 2006, the graphic novel describes the author’s sexual awakening – she kissed a girl and she liked it – one that coincided with the discovery of her father’s clandestine gay life. In the musical adaptation by Lisa Kron (book and lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori (music), it becomes a layered reckoning of past and present, as the 43-year-old Bechdel (Jodie McNee) reflects on her student self (Alice Audrey O’Hanlon) reflecting on her childhood self (Felicity Moore at my performance).

Braboeuf Manor, Guildford
Elegantly stitching the plays into two parts of the same continuing story, Tom Littler’s sunny al fresco productions play every possible tragicomic note

Two Shakespearean comedies dated to the last decade of the 16th century each seem to lack something. Love’s Labour’s Lost (c 1595) feels in need of a sequel, ending abruptly, with the usual climactic marriages suddenly deferred to the future. Much Ado About Nothing (c 1598) could use a prequel: there is clearly a tantalising backstory to the harsh sparring between Beatrice and Benedick.

By double-billing the plays, director Tom Littler explores the scholarly hypothesis (well advanced by HR Woudhuysen) that they may be, in Hollywood terms, parts 1 and 2. Some believe that a Shakespeare play, Love’s Labour’s Won, listed in documents but now missing, may have been Much Ado, which contains a possible Shakespeare in-joke about things seeming clearer “when you have seen the sequel.”

Cinephiles are crossing oceans to see the film at its highest possible resolution – and only 41 cinemas in the world are equipped to do it

In Homer’s Odyssey, the hero Odysseus embarks on an epic journey spanning oceans, monsters and gods to return home to his family. In a remarkable parallel, Christopher Nolan’s fans are embarking on epic journeys of their own to see his adaptation of The Odyssey in one of the few surviving Imax 1570 cinemas around the world, the Oscar-winning film-maker’s preferred format.

Nolan has long been a champion of Imax 1570 film, the highest-resolution film format in existence, named for the width of the film stock (70mm) and the 15 perforations on each frame. The Odyssey is the first feature film ever shot entirely on 1570 cameras, which are notoriously heavy, loud and require frequent reloading; the film stock had to be changed every three minutes during the Odyssey shoot, with Nolan working with Imax to develop a soundproofing “blimp” to house the 180kg camera to make it quiet enough for him to record dialogue on 1570 for the first time.

Love’s Labour’s Lost offers a heady mix of passion and death – which makes the Spanish art form a perfect match, says director Indiana Lown-Collins. Our writer joins the theatre’s flamenco bootcamp

On a heatwave day in London, Shakespeare’s Globe has turned into a fiesta. Hard-heeled boots strike the wooden boards with rat-a-tat rhythm, skirts swish, a guitar strums, voices rise along with the temperature. Perched in front of the stage is director Indiana Lown-Collins, who is zhooshing up one of Shakespeare’s wordiest plays with a hot flourish of flamenco.

Lown-Collins is half-Spanish and grew up in Spain where flamenco was her way into the arts. Working as resident associate director at the Globe a few years ago, she fell in love with the building and its acoustics and couldn’t stop thinking how well flamenco would work on its oak stage, ringing around the circular space. “I just knew it would sound incredible,” she says.

The new Alejandro González Iñárritu film sees Cruise playing an eccentric oil baron on a mission to save the world

The first full length trailer for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s hotly anticipated comedy-drama Digger has been released, and with it audiences’ first look at Tom Cruise’s least recognisable role since he donned a fatsuit and prosthetics for 2008’s Tropic Thunder.

The film will be released worldwide in early October and stars Cruise as Digger Rockwell, “the most powerful man in the world” on a mission to save the world from an ecological disaster.

Thailand’s urban and rural environments are home to a vast population of stray animals whose safety depends on delicate networks of care. Photographer Jackson Morrow spent three years with the Soi Dog Foundation documenting the systems that shape their survival.

• Some readers may find these images distressing

It’s after midnight and Dr Bow is already awake when her phone starts to ring. She sleeps lightly when she is on call, and she knows who is calling before she picks up the phone.

Two dogs, recently rescued from an illegal dog meat trade sale, breathe through holes cut into canvas sacks as a trader kneels before the local police chief following an enforcement operation in Bulacan, Philippines.

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

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

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

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

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

Planning a summer camping trip? From spacious family-size tents to festival-friendly pop-ups, these are our top picks for a pitch-perfect holiday

• The best camping mattresses and sleeping mats

Sleeping under canvas is a simple, affordable and joyful experience. A good camping or festival trip lives or dies by one thing, though: a decent tent. You need somewhere roomy, waterproof and comfortable to sleep and hang out in, especially if the weather isn’t looking so balmy.

Tents come in many shapes and sizes, from one-person models aimed at wild campers to more palatial shelters that will sleep the whole family in different bedrooms. Even if you’re bringing a teeny-tiny tent backpacking, bikepacking or wild camping, it needs to be comfortable and weatherproof, with room for all your kit. I’ve selected 10 of the best camping tents to suit just about every adventure, from ultralight backpacking tents to spacious family tents.

Best tent overall:
MSR Hubba Hubba NX

Best budget tent:
Coleman Darwin 3 Plus

After 356 parkruns, our writer shares the joys of being a perfectly average runner. Plus, top tips for sleeping in a heatwave and cool boxes for camping

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I remember my first parkrun: Wimbledon in November 2014. I also remember the words I said to a friend at the end: “never again”. That was a promise that I didn’t so much break as grind into dust: I would complete 355 more of the free community 5ks over the next 12 years.

My modest running achievements are nothing to brag about: I’ve never run further than 10km, and my times are middling. In fact, the world record for running 5km while juggling (a niche sport delightfully known as “joggling”) beats my non-juggling PB by more than eight minutes.

With five light modes targeting everything from fine lines to blemishes and pigmentation, CurrentBody’s latest mask promises a lot – and so does its price tag

• The best LED face masks

I’ve been testing LED masks for a couple of years now, and the CurrentBody Series 2 red-light face mask has long been my favourite option for anti-ageing. It’s comfortable, offers excellent coverage and powerful deep near-infrared treatments. Sadly, it doesn’t work for other skin concerns. It’s a one-trick pony.

So, when I heard that CurrentBody had launched its Multi Light Therapy mask with five different modes, I was interested to see how it would stand up to the stellar performance of its predecessor. As someone with hormonal acne, I was especially keen to try the mask’s “clearing” mode, but it also offers a calming “restoring” mode, a pigmentation-reducing “brightening” mode, and a distinctive “complete” mode, as well as the “anti-ageing” mode.

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

• The best (and worst) supermarket dark chocolate

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

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

This colourful platter makes a simple shared meal feel like a special occasion

There’s something festive about bringing a whole roast feta to the table, and even more so when it’s thickly covered in toasted pine nuts. Tenderstem broccoli is a real treat in this dish, and my top tip is to blanch the spears in boiling water before you roast them – it really improves their texture. Crunchy, lemon-dressed radishes and spring onions add freshness, making this a lovely dish for a meze with friends.

A growing supplements market may be trying to capitalise on this claim, but the truth is we still don’t know what a truly healthy gut microbiome really looks like

The idea comes from a 2018 study involving more than 10,000 people in the US, UK and Australia. Participants submitted stool samples and reported what they typically ate. Researchers analysed the microbes in those samples and found that people who consumed more than 30 different plant foods a week tended to have a more diverse gut microbiome than those who ate fewer than 10.

But that doesn’t mean 30 is a magic number. Whether you eat 25 plants a week or 30 is probably less important than some would have you believe.

Vibrant, big-flavoured chakalaka and sweet but fiery mango chicken are always a smash at family summer barbecues

For me, chakalaka is the ultimate South African classic. It’s one of those dishes that reminds me of summer braais (barbecues) and big family get-togethers, and the combination of peppers, onions, tomatoes and spices is so vibrant and full of flavour that it enhances any meal you add it to. The mango chicken wings, meanwhile, are among my all-time favourites, and I often make them whenever I want something a little different for a braai. They’re always a hit at gatherings, and I never seem to make enough!

Wildly popular across China, these addictively fiery street food snacks spiced with cumin and chilli are yours for the making

One of the most welcome developments in the mind-bogglingly, gloriously diverse world of London dining options in recent years has been the proliferation of restaurants serving the food of the vast, automonous north-western Chinese region of Xinjiang, known by many of the predominantly Turkic-speaking Muslim Uyghur population as East Turkestan. As this fact suggests, Uyghur cooking has many similarities with other Turkic cuisines, including a love of lamb and mutton, and an aptitude for generously spiced kebabs so good that they’re now an “iconic street snack” in the Chinese capital, albeit some 3,000 miles east, in the time-honoured colonial fashion, and renamed as “old Beijing skewers”, according to that city’s own Maggie Zhu. (In Uyghur, they are, I believe, kawap, though I’d be glad to have that transliteration confirmed.)

Happily, however, you don’t need to go to Beitun or Beijing to enjoy them – or even to Golders Green – because they’re incredibly easy to recreate wherever you are, as long as you have access to a smoking hot grill. I declare this the summer of the skewer!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After meeting in then-Zaire in the 1980s, Steve Sherwood and Martha Meares became good friends. But when she planned to leave for England, he decided he wanted something more

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

It was 1986, I was 26, had been travelling for two years, and was making my way through Africa. I was camping in the grounds of a run-down hotel, the only campsite in Kisangani, a city in what was then known as Zaire. On my first day in town I asked when the next River Congo ferry would leave. Tomorrow, they said.

Overland trucks would arrive and spend two to three days in town. A truck travelling from Kenya to the UK came, and its passengers put their stools in a circle to eat dinner. I asked to sit with them. Martha from Sydney sat beside me on the last spare stool. We spent most of that night chatting and laughing and got on really well.

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

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

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

Fraudsters create false articles that appear to be from publishers such as the Guardian to share on social media

The Guardian article looks interesting. It says the billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has stormed out of a BBC interview after presenter Laura Kuenssberg revealed details of his personal financial affairs – and now the episode has been removed from iPlayer.

Among the detail in the piece is that Ratcliffe has been using an online investment platform to make money. The report says although the site has been kept secret, other people have used it too, and they have made a fortune. There is a link to the site where you can trade cryptocurrency, stocks and shares.

Experts say there will still be opportunities ahead in everything from teaching to hotels and the law

Entering the world of work often brings some uncertainty, but now there is another question: how can I AI-proof my career?

We asked people from across various industries what they think the impact of AI will be on careers, and which jobs may be less affected. While it is still early days for the tech, many had ideas about how you can best prepare yourself for a successful career in this new world.

The airfare for a baby on your lap could cost more than your own ticket. Here’s how airline charges and travel taxes can hit you

Ryanair recently stopped making parents pay to sit next to their children but depending on the airline the hidden extra costs involved in flying with children can be substantial. In some cases, you can even end up spending more for the baby on your lap than you paid for your own flight.

Your baby might not need a seat, but you are still likely to pay fees for them to travel. Some airlines offer discounts for children over two, while others whack families with the cost of a full-grown adult.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not everyone experiences heat the same way, and studies show aggression, violence and road rage increase on hotter days

Recently, my husband and I embarked on what should have been a pleasant spring errand: a stroll to the local farmer’s market. But a passing heatwave had made it unseasonably hot outside. I cut him off on the sidewalk and he snapped at me, so I snapped at him for snapping at me. We spent the rest of the excursion in sweaty, stony silence. When we were almost home, he said, miserably: “I’m sorry! It’s just so hot.”

Our grouchiness was not simply a weakness of spirit. “Heat doesn’t just affect your body,” said Dr Susan Albers, clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic. “It affects your mood too.”

For young people, flaunting eye bags and bed rotting has become a cheeky rebuttal of body optimization culture

Picture a typical hangover: a morning spent curled under a comforter, chugging Gatorade and shame spiraling about what you might have said at the bar the night before.

Not so for the young people who are “romanticizing” their hangovers on TikTok and Instagram. Instead, they are flaunting their dark eye circles and raging headaches as the aftereffects of a good time, broadcasting their bad decisions to the world with a glowy sheen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

With the singer sporting an array of ties on stage, fans have been customising, repurposing and even creating whole garments from the office neckwear staple

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When Harry Styles kicked off his Together, Together tour in Amsterdam in May, he bounded on to the stage in navy pleated trousers and a blue shirt, topped off with a colourful floral printed tie from Celine.

Four days later, Styles paused mid-set at the same stadium to take in the crowd. “There’s a lot of ties in the audience tonight. I see you queens, I see you,” he said.

Maria Grazia Chiuri returns to city of birth with haute couture inspired by kimono shapes and draping the body

“This is a cultural problem, and a political problem,” said Maria Grazia Chiuri before her first haute couture catwalk show for Fendi.

The problem, as the designer sees it, is Italy’s unwillingness to acknowledge fashion’s role in culture by giving it space in museums. To challenge this, Chiuri has bookended her Rome catwalk event with two fashion exhibitions in the city.

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

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

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

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

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

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

These cool, cheap bars in old abandoned buildings became popular in the 2000s – and then tourists moved in. I went hunting for the bohemian spirit of the originals

‘Many ruin bars seem to be just tourist traps now,” says artist István, standing outside Instant-Fogas complex, which calls itself Europe’s biggest ruin pub, but looks more like a mammoth nightclub with several dancefloors.

“These bars were a hot topic 20 years ago, but many have become really commercial now,’ says István. “Ruin bars being expensive actually ruins their purpose. I’m a student, I like beers that are under 1,000 forints [about £2.50], and the big commercial ruin bars are typically much more expensive.”

From the Fanad peninsula in Ireland to the forested beaches of Finland, these are your favourite escapes without the fear of getting frazzled
• Tell us about your favourite food festival – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

Saulkrasti’s long beaches and scented pine forests are an hour from Riga on the frequent local train. The forests come right down to the long, long sandy beach and the relaxing and well-marked trail takes you the 4km from Saulkrasti station through the trees to the big dune and blue river at Balta Kapa. We enjoyed a July picnic in the forest and occasional dips in the Mediterranean-warm Baltic, before returning happy to Riga.
Bruce

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phil Yates had never cut anyone’s hair before he decided to retrain at the age of 60. Yet inside the dissatisfied executive a ‘rocking barber’ was waiting to emerge

Phil Yates was nervous about telling his dad he wanted to be a barber. “Get a trade! Don’t leave a job unless you’ve got another job lined up!” were his mantras. Therefore, he says: “I was expecting the worst.” But when Yates plucked up the courage to tell him: “I’m kicking marketing down the road. I want to do this,” his dad replied: “That’s fantastic. Life’s so short.”

Yates was 60. Did parental approval really matter? “It almost made me cry,” he says. His father, a fishmonger turned factory worker, had lived on the streets as a child. “It was huge for him to drop the whole thing about being safe and secure and say: ‘Go and do what you really want.’”

Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60?

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

From a seventysomething standup comedian to the founder of a highly successful spice business, seven people reveal why it’s never too late to embark on the life of your dreams

Many of us feel stuck in a job we dislike and midlife is a common time to reassess what you are going to do with the rest of your years, especially when finances require us to work into older age. How can you make a change, follow your dreams and finally do what you always wanted? Late bloomers share the secrets to having a stunning second act.

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.

Indonesia’s government is grappling with how to manage waste at Bantar Gebang – Jakarta’s largest landfill – which supports the livelihood of thousands of waste pickers

On the outskirts of Jakarta, huge rolling peaks of rubbish stretch across more than 100 hectares (247 acres), towering over nearby villages. Each day a convoy of trucks plough in and dump more garbage into one of Asia’s largest landfills.

Here, thousands of people live on the fringe of the site and make their income picking through the waste and salvaging scraps for resale. The work is dangerous – earlier this year seven people died after one of the massive trash mounds caved in, burying them alive.

In 2019 Eric Lampaert woke up unable to recognise his friends, his parents, even his own name. After decades of anxiety, abandonment and bullying, was his mind just trying to shield him from his past?

On the day his life changed, Eric Lampaert woke up and saw his hands. What amazed him was that they were moving in front of him, and he appeared to be the person in control of them. We’re drinking coffee in the Groucho Club in London, and at this point he lets go of his cup and wriggles his fingers. Lampaert is an actor and standup whose work has a strong clowning dimension. His hands always seemed to have minds of their own – and, sometimes, strong differences of opinion. But as he got out of bed that fateful morning, marvelling at the magical things on the ends of his arms, he felt only wonder. What he didn’t yet know was that he had lost his memory, and his life would no longer feel like his own.

That was seven years ago, on 17 March 2019, Lampaert says, a date not so much stamped in his memory as retrieved from his journal and recommitted. It was a knock on the door that told him “there were other things out there” beyond his bedroom: the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles, housemates in the home he’d once shared with his estranged wife, and the downstairs neighbour who’d knocked to collect a bottle of bleach. Lampaert had borrowed it to clean coffee stains from the sink, but now he didn’t know the person at the door or the housemate wandering by. “Eric?” his neighbour said. “And I went: ‘I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know …”

The TV presenter – who has died aged 68 – worked for the BBC, ITN and Channel 4 and announced the death of Diana, Princess of Wales

• TV presenter Dermot Murnaghan dies of prostate cancer, aged 68

A successful television presenter requires some combination of dependability, affability, ego and ambition. Dermot Murnaghan – who has died aged 68, after revealing a diagnosis of late-stage prostate cancer on screen last year – had some of the higher scores in the business on the first two metrics but among the lower on the others.

The reliability made him one of the few to have anchored news slots on the first four major UK networks – Channel 4, ITV, the BBC and Sky News – while the relative reticence held him back from the absolute front rank of TV journalistic celebrity, although he had sufficient sympathetic recognition for cameos on quizzes (Pointless Celebrities, The Weakest Link), as well as a spell shuffling the question cards himself on the BBC’s Eggheads. Looking and sounding like an anchor should, he was also regularly employed to announce fake news – not in the Trumpian sense, but headlines within dramas – on shows including Absolute Power and The Gunman and in the film Wimbledon.

We would like to hear your tributes and memories of celebrated actor Sam Neill – whether you met him, or appreciated his work

The death of actor Sam Neill was announced today. He was 78.

Known to many for his role as Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, he also starred in The Piano and Peaky Blinders.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Has the pill format prompted you to consider GLP-1 medication for the first time? Have you already started taking it? Or has weight loss medication changed your lifestyle in other ways?

A once-daily Wegovy weight-loss pill has gone on sale at high street and online pharmacies in the UK, offering an alternative to injectable GLP-1 medications.

We’d like to hear from people who are considering taking a weight-loss pill, have recently started one, or are planning to switch from injections.

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