Some say project Iran is a disaster, but as a get-out-of-jail-free card it’s a winner. He did say he was smart, didn’t he?

How far would you go for your son? For Donald Trump, the answer is simply: “The Bahamas? That is way too far! Why can’t you just get married on the golf course we buried your mother in? Or better still, the one I’m being carted to the second I get off the reinforced toilet I’m typing this on.” And so it was that the president cordially flaked on the latest marriage of his large adult son Don Jr, which took place somewhere in the Bahamas last weekend. If the world felt somehow different to you on Sunday morning, you were right. We now live in a post-troth society.

In other ways, though, the world would have felt quite samey. Those whose notional protest placard reads “IRAN DEAL WHEN?” remain fobbed off round the clock by a US administration that is always “close”, looking at a “pretty solid thing on the table” and debating “specific language in the initial document”. The Iranian government, meanwhile, is laying mines in the strait of Hormuz, expressing “resolute” support for Hezbollah and saying gnomically trolling things like how the two sides are both “very close and very far”. The president loves to imply that deals are always like this, once again confusing commercial Floridian real estate with the fanatical remnants of a dysfunctional regime in whose interest it is to play him.

Marina Hyde’s new book, What a Time to be Alive!, is out in September (Guardian Faber Publishing, £20). To support the Guardian, order your signed copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

The Lincolnshire seaside town is often written off by YouTubers as a place defined by deprivation and decline. But for many young people it's a place they love and are proud to call home, even though high unemployment limits their opportunities. The Guardian follows 19-year old Cohen, who is desperate to find a permanent job while running a mascot hire company and chasing his dream of becoming a professional wrestler

• This video is part of a year-long project, Against the tide, from the Guardian’s Seascape series, reporting on the lives of young people in coastal communities across England and Wales

Rafe Spall will play Conan Doyle’s super sleuth in a huge new drama next year. While some fans fear ‘Sherlock fatigue’, others – including Stephen Moffat – insist he will always make great telly

In 1893, in The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter, Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes’s older brother, Mycroft. Meeting Dr Watson for the first time, Mycroft shakes his hand and sighs: “I hear of Sherlock everywhere since you became his chronicler.”

Spare a thought for the rest of us, Mycroft. More than a century later, Sherlock Holmes has achieved a level of near-ubiquity that would alarm even the great detective himself – spawning ever more elaborate spin-offs that stretch his life backwards, forwards and sideways.

The country is positioning itself as Latin America’s next technology hub, but communities are pushing back

The Andes mountains frame what was once a wetland – now a stretch of dry, yellowed grass. Rodrigo Vallejos, a final-year law student, noticed the change five years ago while observing the Quilicura wetland, on the northern outskirts of Santiago. One of Chile’s largest swamps, spanning 468.4 hectares (about 1,200 acres) and partially protected, was drying up right before his eyes.

“What you see here is a wetland without water,” says Vallejos, who has investigated the causes alongside activists from the group Resistência Socioambiental de Quilicura. “I discovered that Quilicura is home to the largest concentration of datacentres in Latin America.”

People sleep outside because their houses are too hot to inhabit, water is scarce and supermarkets are for the wealthy

If you think the temperature uncomfortable today, let me take you to the last day of July 2052, the rays of the climbing sun reveal a city still sweltering in the residual heat of the day before. From the air, London resembles a colossal refugee camp. Streets, gardens and parks are teeming with tents and cobbled-together shelters, within which the city’s residents have spent another uncomfortable night away from the heat traps that their houses and flats have become. After six days when the temperature peaked at about 40C, another scorcher is on the way.

Half-hearted attempts to upgrade insulation across the country’s housing stock ran out of steam and cash decades earlier, and most homes still have few barriers to the infiltrating heat. Almost all the country’s electricity is now from renewables, which has brought the cost down, but the relentless onslaught of extreme weather has driven an ever-deepening economic depression across the world. Many now have air conditioning, but can’t afford to run it.

Suresh Singh has turned his memories of growing up in Spitalfields among diverse communities – and the far right – into a walking tour

Suresh Singh never uses the word multiculturalism. “It’s nonsense to me,” he said. “What matters is your actions. What does ‘multicultural England’ mean, when we still build our little castles and don’t even ask anyone round for a cup of tea?”

Singh, also known as “the Cockney Sikh”, has walked the streets of Spitalfields in east London for six decades. A teacher, architect, musician and author, he is often spotted in his three-piece suits and Lock&Co hat. This week he organised a nostalgic walking tour of the area, showing visitors its history.

Exclusive: Police data shows 21% of the 949 people detained in England and Northern Ireland were later accused of violence against intimate partner

One out of every five people arrested after their participation in the 2024 summer riots has since been reported to the police for domestic abuse, the Guardian can disclose.

Police data released under freedom of information (FoI) laws shows that 21% of 949 people arrested for taking part in the violent disorder have been reported for crimes associated with intimate partner violence since August 2024.

Heat warning now in place until 5pm on Thursday, with Tuesday temperatures on track to break May records

• Tell us: how are you coping in the UK heatwave?

An amber health warning has been extended by 24 hours for several regions in England as temperatures are expected to soar to 35C (95F) on Tuesday, on what could be the hottest May day since records began.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said amber alerts for the south-west, south-east, London, East and West Midlands and the west of England would remain in place until 5pm on Thursday, along with yellow alerts for the north-west and north-east.

Keir Starmer announces review after boys were given non-custodial sentences for rape of two girls

The court of appeal will review the non-custodial sentences given to three teenage boys for the rape of two girls, Keir Starmer has announced.

The boys, two of whom were 15 and one 14 at the time of sentencing, were given youth rehabilitation orders after the judge in the case said he wanted to “avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily” and support their reintegration into society.

Janice Nix convicted of manslaughter after brother of Andrea Bernard alters account of incident in 1978

A woman has been found guilty of killing her five-year-old stepdaughter by punishing her in a scalding hot bath almost 50 years ago.

Andrea Bernard’s death in 1978 in Thornton Heath, south London, was treated as an accident until her older brother, Desmond Bernard, went to police in 2022 with a new account of what happened, Isleworth crown court heard.

Two children among dead after incident at level crossing near town of Buggenhout in Flanders

• Europe – latest updates

An investigation is under way after four people, including two children, were killed when a school minibus collided with a train in northern Belgium.

Five children were injured in the crash at a level crossing near the small town of Buggenhout in Flanders on Tuesday.

The US military said it carried out strikes on Monday against targets including boats attempting to lay mines and missile launch sites

• US strikes Iran missile sites and mine laying vessels

Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on his Telegram channel that Gulf powers will no longer be a shield for US bases and the US will no longer have a safe haven in the region, as Tehran and Washington discuss a framework to end their three-month-old war, Reuters reports.

The post follows overnight attacks on Iran by the US, testing the ceasefire agreed in April. The strikes came as Iran’s top negotiator and its foreign minister were in Qatar for talks with Qatar’s prime minister over the potential deal to end the war.

Some analysts question whether design of Luce, starting at $640,000, lives up to sportscar brand’s heritage

Ferrari’s share price has dropped after it revealed a long-awaited first electric vehicle, with a minimalist look created by the former Apple design chief Jony Ive that departs from the Italian manufacturer’s petrol sportscars.

The Luce, starting at $640,000 (£545,000), has a range of 329 miles (530km) thanks to its battery capacity of 122 kilowatt hours, the company said, with four motors that can accelerate from 0 to 100km/h in 2.5 seconds, with a top speed of more than 310km/h (193mph).

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

• Full story: BP removes chair Albert Manifold over ‘serious’ governance and conduct concerns

• Middle East crisis live: US attacks Iran missile sites as Tehran negotiators hold talks in Qatar

• Rachel Reeves tells ministers to ‘buy British’ in four key industries

The economic consequences of the spike in oil and gas prices since the Iran war started will be brought home to British households tomorrow.

Energy regulator Ofgem is due to set the latest price cap at 7am on Wednesday, dictating the maximum a supplier can charge for the July-September quarter.

Former deputy Labour leader says Nigel Farage could say Manchester mayor is a ‘usurper’ and he may seek his own mandate

• UK politics live – latest updates

The UK may find itself “tipped into a general election” if Andy Burnham replaces Keir Starmer as prime minister, Labour’s former deputy leader Harriet Harman said on Tuesday.

If Burnham replaces Starmer as prime minister in the coming months, he may feel he needs to secure his own mandate, partly because Nigel Farage would accuse him of being a “usurper”, she told an audience at the Hay literary festival.

Seven years after Lisa Wiese went missing, a police raid on the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light has given her family a glimmer of hope

As he watched the footage of a convoy of police vehicles driving through the security gates of the headquarters of a religious sect, AbdelRahman Hashem felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe now his two children would get answers to what happened to their mother.

The last time the children heard from her was seven years ago. In an email sent from a budget hotel in India, she had written: “Mommy loves and misses them so much, so very much … they are both my best friends and my favorite people in the whole world.” Two days later, she disappeared.

Errors and delays in tracing accounts at the trusted savings institution have compounded the stress of relatives losing loved ones

“It has been more than a year of hell,” says Kate Constable about the time it took to claim £46,000 in premium bonds belonging to her late mother.

The process was drawn out because National Savings and Investments (NS&I) rules mean anyone claiming a savings pot of more than £5,000 must obtain probate first.

High unemployment and a lack of support mean life can be tough in Grimsby, but 19-year-old Cohen is determined to make the best of life in this coastal town

It’s mid-afternoon in the Lincolnshire seaside town of Cleethorpes and Cohen is sitting in the back seat of a car putting on an Easter bunny outfit. A group of teenagers nearby stare in amusement. Cohen isn’t fazed. He is hoping we can take some new photographs that he can use to advertise his mascot business for the upcoming holidays.

Cohen, 19, lives with his parents a couple of miles down the road in neighbouring Grimsby and set up Co Co Mascots last year as one of his many attempts to find work. People can hire him in one of the outfits for birthday parties, events and doorstep surprises for children. He’s done a few paid gigs so far, which has been a boost for his confidence, he says, but what he really wants is a permanent job.

Cohen, who is looking for a permanent job, makes money as a mascot at birthday parties and events

Is the promotion to the big screen of Star Wars’ breakout Disney+ show just a delightful distraction – or exactly what the franchise needs?
• This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

Star Wars, with its fondness for grand emotional crescendos, mythic reversals and violent turns of fate, is perhaps cinema’s purest example of space opera. Even the oft-derided prequels, those overheated tales of democracy collapsing, forbidden love and angst-ridden space monks, are intensely Wagnerian. The Mandalorian and Grogu, despite being a warm, funny, rollicking tale of outer rim adventures, ingenious aliens and surprisingly touching surrogate fatherhood, is not really on that scale. Which is probably why it’s getting such a lukewarm reaction from critics.

This is a movie that zips along pleasantly, offers up plenty of cute “Baby Yoda” moments, delivers more than enough badass Mando action sequences, and even quietly reimagines what some of its most infamous alien creatures are capable of as a species. It is not so much space opera as cosmic picaresque, wandering frontier serial, intergalactic side-quest cinema. And that’s just not what we’re used to after the best part of 50 years of Star Wars on the big screen. Here’s what makes this new adventure so different from what came before.

PC, Xbox, PlayStation 5; IO Interactive
The stealth masters behind Hitman go loud for this game about Bond’s brilliant beginnings

Given that we’ve not had a great James Bond video game in decades – or any Bond film at all in five years – there’s a lot of pressure on 007 First Light to reinvigorate a British cinematic hero. But developer IO Interactive has been auditioning for this role for some time. It’s there in the globetrotting nature of its Hitman assassination games, starring a besuited hero who knows how to turn a soiree to his deadly purpose; then there’s the developer’s evident eye for corporate opulence and brutalist architecture. Even their in-house game engine, Glacier, sounds like a secret codename cooked up in a Bond villain’s lair. All it would take is a slight shift in Hitman’s moral compass – more old boys club, fewer old boys clubbed – to turn IO’s familiar series into a Bond game with minimal fuss.

007 First Light refuses that easy route. We join young Bond in his pre-00 days, as a petulant, belligerent rule-breaking trainee. Actor Patrick Gibson begins as a cookie-cutter insubordinate, but warms to the role once he’s bouncing off M (herself a green leader looking to make her mark), and an enjoyably urbane Q who drops the frustrated quartermaster routine and introduces Bond to the wonders of vinyl. A scene where he teaches our agent to tie a bow tie is a perfect bit of prequelcraft: arriving at an iconic look through a lovely character touch.

Wigmore Hall, London
The veteran chamber music venue kicked off a celebratory two-week festival with a starry lineup of performers playing works that had featured on the first ever programme

In May 1901, Wigmore Hall’s inaugural concert began, of course, with God Save the King – the words sounding novel to an audience who, until a few months earlier, had been singing it for Queen Victoria. The programme continued with a starry lineup including the composer and piano virtuoso Ferruccio Busoni performing Beethoven and the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe playing unaccompanied Bach. A partial recreation of that evening kicked off the hall’s fortnight of celebrations of its 125th birthday, and once the national anthem was out of the way - dispatched from the platform by soprano Louise Alder and pianist Joseph Middleton – it felt less like a historical exercise than a celebration of what this venue has always been good at.

The concert was billed as a gala but was less formal, shorter and tighter than that might have suggested, partly thanks to being broadcast live: no indulgent speeches, just short links from Radio 3’s Ian Skelly filling us in on the venue’s history. The hall was originally built in 1901 by Bechstein, the piano manufacturer, whose showrooms were next door on Wigmore Street, and was intended as a place where audiences could hear the finest pianists of the day showcasing the company’s instruments.

The practice is not entirely serious – but it raises awareness of the many sexist tropes built into everyday life

When Tori Dunlap writes a letter or email to a heterosexual couple, she puts the woman’s name first in the greeting. When her good friend got married, Dunlap waited until the name-change documents were officially signed to update her surname in her phone contact. These tiny rebellions are not activism. They are “microfeminisms”, or what Dunlap, 31, describes as “little actions for women’s equality, as opposed to going to a protest or donating to a cause you believe in”.

Dunlap, a Seattle-based author and podcast host who focuses on promoting women’s financial literacy, posted on TikTok last year asking her 2.4 million followers: “Tell me your most unhinged way that you practice microfeminism.” The comments section filled with niche – and not entirely serious – answers, such as starting every work presentation by saying “hello ladies and sons of ladies” and “immediately assuming men are talking about women’s sports instead of men’s”.

The content creators behind channels like Chloe VS History are using AI tools to ‘bring history to life in a really visceral way’

“I have just arrived in Tudor London, 1536,” a young woman in a green puffer jacket tells the camera. “I’m going to check in at my room in the inn, get into the market. Then, later I am meeting the actual king – yep, Henry VIII – in person.”

On YouTube and other social platforms, users are flocking to watch AI-generated “history influencers”, characters that vlog their travels to historical settings.

Our cartoonist reflects on the Gunners ending their 22-year existential crisis to become English champions again

• Buy a Squires cartoon | David’s favourite works of 2025

• And his latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

His detractors say he shouldn’t be making pop music in times of war and destruction. His millions of fans say he has given them permission to celebrate their culture and their cause

The first time I heard a song by Saint Levant, only three years ago, was in a world that does not exist any more. Gaza’s buildings were intact, as were its schools and roads and markets and mosques. My home city of Khartoum in Sudan was standing, as it had for centuries. Back then, I could scroll for fun, not in dread. I could stumble, say, in late 2022, upon an arresting clip on TikTok of a song by an Arab artist with a pun for a name; Saint Levant, a play on Saint Laurent – the icon of western style had been Arabised in homage to the Middle East’s Levant region.

I began to see the same song all over my social media. In the video, Saint Levant, then 22, is in a white vest and brown trousers. A gold pendant chain dangles on his chest, a tattoo encircles his left arm. He starts by rapping in English, telling the woman he is wooing that “he’s not toxic, he’s broken baby”. And then, the twist, as he switches to Arabic, then French, then English again. Like a wholesome boy next door, he tells her to send his regards to her grandmother and her brother. Then says that he wants to make her forget about her ex, he wants her overthinking all her texts, he wants the neighbours to hear her yell. “Lover boy Levant is back in the building,” he declared.

The Green MP’s decision to take time out has angered some – but many more will see endemic stress and anxiety as a blight we must address

Carla Denyer is taking some time out.

The Bristol Central MP and former Green party co-leader says she is suffering from burnout after trying to juggle health issues on top of the job and has been advised by her doctor to take a break. In an ideal world, most people would just wish her a swift recovery and get on with their lives, as quite a lot of MPs from normally rival parties duly did, on the grounds that you never really know what is going on under the surface of someone else’s life. But Denyer’s call for an “open conversation” about burnout has inevitably also resulted in the usual spasm of online venom, snark and angry men on radio phone-ins asking why politicians can’t handle “a few emails” without needing a lie-down when nurses and teachers just have to soldier on regardless. (Though given that mental health issues are the most common cause of days off in the NHS in England, while teachers apparently claim the highest levels of work-related stress, depression and anxiety in Britain, Denyer might be right to suggest in her statement that they’re the ones most likely to understand.)

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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

More people regret knee surgery than abortion. So why is the patriarchy still scaring us with lifelong torment?

Ireland’s parliament, the Dáil, voted down a reproductive rights amendment bill this month that would have abolished the country’s mandatory three-day waiting period for access to an abortion. Supporters of the unsuccessful reform bill, tabled by the Social Democrats, argued that the delay serves no medical purpose.

As the bill moved through political debate and media coverage, those defending the requirement to wait three days from the time of requesting an abortion before care can be accessed barely attempted to argue otherwise, instead structuring their opposition to reform around the idea that women cannot be trusted to know what they want. The waiting period, which is not required in most European countries, was repeatedly described as “a cooling off” period; time to “reflect”, “reconsider”, “rethink”. Supporters of the status quo spoke extensively of wanting to save women from feelings of regret.

I stared into the abyss, and the abyss stared back – mouldily. This is what happens when you forget basic hygiene

In my 20s, I cohabited with a man who thought you didn’t need to wash towels because you used them when you were clean. This was someone, I should add, who graduated from both Oxford and Cambridge and now has a very high-powered job. (Not that any of that means you have an ounce of common sense, of course.) Anyway, I obviously teased him mercilessly about this. What a nitwit, I thought.

But now I have a terrible confession to make. I too am a nitwit. You see, about a year ago, I replaced my trusty clear plastic water bottle, which was super easy to clean, with one of the trendy brands made of stainless steel and silicone that everyone in my gym has. What with the gasket and the straw and the various bits you couldn’t stick in a dishwasher, it was a faff to wash. So I wasn’t very diligent about cleaning it. After all, it was just water inside, right? And water’s clean, right? I had put flavoured electrolytes in it a couple of times, but I didn’t think much about the fact that they are a tasty meal for bacteria.

I never dreamed it would be so hard to put together a playlist for my friend’s 60th

For any birthday party with a zero at the end, the music is supposed to be very simple: you just pick a banger from the year the person was born and work towards to the present day on that basis. Some people are bound to be unlucky. I myself am the victim of a freak event as in 1973, no good songs were released anywhere in the world. But mostly it works on all kinds of levels, because it means that in the early part of the night it’ll be songs that your parents liked, as that’s how you came to be born in the first place, and for the music that was released last year and of which you are entirely unaware, it’ll be the end of the night, and you won’t care.

This is all great until you’re making a playlist for your dear friend who is 60. Even Claude AI was whining about the sheer size of this dataset. The parents would prefer a tea the day before and no longer want to go to a party, so the whole first two decades are playing to no one. (That’s actually unfair: everyone likes the Beatles. But the number of years in which the hit was something Ernie-the-Fastest-Milkman-in-the-West-adjacent is truly shocking.) Realistically, all your favourite songs were released in the same year, which is 1989. If you took a long, hard look in the mirror, you’d admit that you haven’t kept on top of the charts for roughly 20 years, and could no more distinguish early from late Beyoncé than you could correctly identify Mesolithic from Neolithic by looking at a stone tool. The songs you genuinely like definitely did not chart, and it would be antisocial to expect people to join you in knowing all the words; instead, looking for the crowd-pleasers, there’s a whole segment in the middle when you might as well be listening to Magic FM.

Proportional representation can rescue Britain’s warped politics. It could stop Nigel Farage arriving at No 10 with less than 30% of the vote

Here comes the prospect of redemption, a second chance for Labour to start over. A victory for Andy Burnham in the Makerfield byelection not only opens the door to No 10; a leadership contest also allows him and Wes Streeting to finally stretch their wings. Ideas currently firmly chained up in a Downing Street dungeon could be freed. Land value tax? Wealth tax? No more children in temporary accommodation? A national care service? Why not?

Not to be outdone, the government itself has unleashed a burst of activity, with Rachel Reeves’s summer of fun, as well as speeding up a deal with the EU and online protection for children. Expect renewed effort on nearly a million Neets (young people not in education, employment or training) with radical plans from Alan Milburn this week.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Regulator could do us all a favour with clear multi-year forecasts and breakdowns of electricity pricing

It is easy to predict where the energy regulator will set the next quarterly price cap on Wednesday. It’s just a matter of tracking wholesale prices in Ofgem’s relevant backward-looking “observation period”. Energy consultant Cornwall Insight thinks the typical household bill be £1,850, an increase of £209 from the previous quarter. It will be surprising if it is out by more than a few quid.

One can also make a fair guess at the regulator’s messaging. It will talk about the unavoidable impact from the surge in energy prices that followed the closure of the strait of Hormuz. It may also say the increase would be even greater than 13% without the additional wind and solar generation on the system these days. Fair enough. Gas sets the wholesale price of electricity only 60% of the time now, down from 90% not long ago.

Rehabilitation of young offenders is vital. But victims should not leave court wondering why they bothered

The decision to review the sentences of two teenage boys convicted of raping two girls, aged 15 and 14, in separate incidents in November 2024 and January 2025, and a third boy who took part in the second rape, is correct. A knife was used to threaten the second victim, and the attacks were filmed with footage later uploaded to social media. Given the severity of the crimes, and the fact that having raped one girl, two of the boys went on to rape another two months later, the non-custodial sentences handed down last week by a judge in Southampton look like a serious mistake.

Fortunately, the law in England and Wales allows for overly lenient sentences to be revised by the court of appeal. In this case, a dramatic request came from one of the victims herself. In a BBC television interview on Sunday, she said that the youth rehabilitation orders issued by the judge felt like “a rock straight in my face”. She said the outcome had made her question the point of reporting the crimes in the first place, and going through a distressing trial. Such comments should alarm everyone concerned with prosecuting rape. Her mother made a public plea to the prime minister: “Please help.”

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.

In calling for regulation of the digital revolution, and foregrounding human dignity, the pontiff has contributed to a crucial ethical debate

When the present pope adopted his regnal name, he explained the choice by reference to a 19th-century predecessor who used the papacy to address the great social question of his time. In the 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum (Of New Things), Pope Leo XIII analysed the social forces unleashed by the Industrial Revolution, and outlined principles for a just settlement between the forces of capital and labour. Leo XIV hopes to do something similar in relation to the accelerating digital upheaval of our own age.

As anxiety grows over big tech’s impact on how we work and live, such ambition should be applauded. The early fruits of the pope’s work were presented in the Vatican on Monday after the publication of his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity). In 42,000 or so words the document itemises the daunting challenges posed by developments in artificial intelligence, and urges political leaders to safeguard human dignity as new technologies emerge at a pace which is outstripping ethical regulation and control.

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.

Prof Mark R Sanderson says the council is Britain’s most effective instrument of soft power and should be funded properly, not hollowed out

The hollowing out of the British Council across Europe should alarm anyone who cares about the UK’s standing in the world (Soft power sell-off: anger as British Council announces sale of historic Madrid building, 22 May). For decades, it has been one of Britain’s most effective instruments of soft power, teaching English, supporting cultural and scientific exchange, and building long‑term goodwill that no advertising campaign could buy.

The proposed sale or downsizing of long‑established teaching centres with the huge loss of dedicated skilled staff in Madrid, Milan and Naples would be an irreparable loss. These buildings were acquired when city‑centre property was affordable; replacing them would be impossible at anything like the same cost. We have already seen the disappearance of the council’s excellent libraries in Paris, Rome, Athens and Lisbon – collections built up over many decades and once central to Britain’s cultural presence in Europe.

Nick Moss, Derrick Joad and John Wilkinson respond to an article by Sacha Hilhorst on why voters are turning to the party

Sacha Hilhorst is right to highlight the fact that many Reform UK voters are disillusioned with the political status quo because their lives are ever less secure (I’ve interviewed Reform UK voters – and they’re much more progressive than you might think, 18 May). The issue at the heart of rightwing populism is an existential one: taking back control, as daily life feels insecure and out of control. But the essence of what Reform and the rest do is to swerve the causes of, and solutions to, this lack of security. Instead of looking at housing, welfare, rising prices, failing healthcare and, consequentially, failing health, they talk of control over borders.

The Reform project is to offer a racial solution to a class problem. It is not alone in this. Substituting race for class has been part of the agenda of the Labour party and the Tories whenever they have come under pressure. But bussing asylum seekers out of hotels or tightening border controls changes nothing. If we go back to those communities that fought to “empty the hotels” they are no more secure now and still just as poor.

The education system should not just be about passing exams, writes David Selby. Plus a letter from Mara Musso

Two quotes in your article (Schools are ‘pipeline’ to joblessness for many people, says ex-Labour adviser, 21 May) struck a chord with me: “a joyless education system that focused too heavily on passing exams” and “the level of vitriol and hatred these young people used when talking about schools”.

I worked on the government’s Youth Opportunities Programme and Youth Training Scheme several years ago, and latterly on the Youth Offending Scheme as a volunteer for more than 20 years – and the quotes did not surprise me in the least. It was bad enough in secondary modern schools, where the majority of children took no exams at all. In the comprehensives and latterly in the academies, every effort is made to show off the school through its exam results, watched at a distance by those students with little or nothing to show for about 10 years of schooling.

Readers respond Devi Sridhar’s call for the world to act now over the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Devi Sridhar is right that this Ebola outbreak needs urgent attention (Ebola in the DRC needs the world’s attention now – if your neighbour’s house is on fire, you don’t wait and watch, 19 May). Present an engineer with a problem needing a build or fix and you will often hear: “You can have it good, fast or cheap – pick two.” In global outbreak responses, we learn too late every time that we must pick “fast” first.

Having worked on the west African Ebola outbreak in 2014-16 and on smaller Ebola responses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2018-2020, I have seen the same failure pattern repeat. We think too long before going in, despite knowing what is needed, and we overestimate the complexity of what must be accomplished.

Updates from the third day’s play at Roland Garros
Players tackle heat in test of endurance | Mail Daniel

Kouame holds for 6-6 in the first; he and Cilic will now play a first-set tiebreaker, and I’d not be at all surprised if the 17-year-old took it. I’m almost tempted to post one of my school reports from the same age just to make clear how ridiculous what he’s doing is.

On Chatrier, Sabalenka and Bouzas Maneiro are ready to start. Can the world no 1 win a major on a non-hard surface? I’m sure the answer is yes, but equally, I’m not sure it’ll be this one, this year.

The Premier League season is over, but what did Guardian football writers enjoy, dislike or marvel at over the last nine months?

Goalkeepers never usually get a mention for this award but David Raya played an integral role in Arsenal finally getting over the line, winning the Premier League’s Golden Glove award for a third year in a row thanks to 19 clean sheets. Declan Rice and Bruno Fernandes were the outstanding outfield players. Ed Aarons

• David Sullivan understood to be less sure over Nuno

• Jarrod Bowen apologises to fans and says he feels ‘pain’

West Ham’s board are split on Nuno Espírito Santo’s future, opening the possibility of the manager staying after relegation from the Premier League.

Nuno was called in for crisis talks on Monday and a decision is expected before the end of the week. It remains likely West Ham will part company with the Portuguese, although the situation is not as straightforward as first appeared. A source said that Daniel Kretinsky, the Czech billionaire and the club’s second-largest shareholder, wants Nuno to stay. David Sullivan, the largest shareholder, is said to be less sure.

The former Manchester City manager is always interested in fresh challenges. Taking on another continent could be tempting as he embarks on a new chapter

Where do you go after Lionel Messi, Major League Soccer? ?

This is not just a question MLS will ponder, but one soccer in general has been thinking about for some time. It has led to a desperate trend of labelling every promising youngster the ‘next Messi’, but such was (and remarkably still is) the Argentinian’s quality, that there may not be another player at his level for decades. There may never be one.

Veteran scrum-half had to watch from the sidelines after a season-ending knee injury in the opening Six Nations game

Mo Hunt came into this season cresting perhaps the highest peak of her career. The scrum-half had added a second World Cup medal to her collection when England defeated Canada in front of a record home crowd in September, carrying that form into Premiership Women’s Rugby, where Gloucester-Hartpury are chasing a fourth consecutive title.

Gloucester secured a home semi‑final before the league paused for the Women’s Six Nations and have not lost in the competition since November 2024. But just as another trophy-filled season looked within reach, Hunt’s campaign came to a sudden halt.

New format is coming in for under-sevens next season, giving children more chance to express themselves

There are six different colours of bib strewn across the indoor pitches of St George’s Park. There’s an equally vibrant kaleidoscope of disc cones marking out small pitches, and there are collapsible goals at each end. Amid it all are a load of youngsters, largely unattended, trying skills, dribbling past opponents, shifting from pitch to pitch and forming new teams. It’s 3v3 football: a bit messy, a little unstructured and, the Football Association hopes, a key development in ensuring the future of the game.

From next season, as part of a new strategy for youth football, the youngest cohort in the game – the under 7s, which is six- and seven-year-olds – will play three-a-side instead of five-a-side. When they’re under-eights, they will shift back to five-a-side. It’s a small tweak that lasts for just 12 months, but the FA believes a window of exposure to this new form of the game will help improve young players’ technical ability and decision-making on the pitch. There are also quieter hopes that 3v3 may make some positive changes off the field, too.

• Manchester United captain says words twisted by Keane

• Keane appears to respond with post about donkey

Bruno Fernandes has accused Roy Keane of telling a “lie” about his pursuit of the Premier League assists record. Manchester United’s captain secured the outright record for assists in a season by taking his tally to 21 in Sunday’s 3-0 win at Brighton.

The 31-year-old had equalled the previous record, shared by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne, a week earlier during United’s 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest. Keane suggested Fernandes was prioritising individual glory over the team’s interests, describing him as being at the centre of a “circus act”.

• Gkolomeev’s time in men’s 50m freestyle disputed

• Organisers launch defence of timing apparatus

The Enhanced Games has dismissed suggestions by online sleuths that a world record set in Sunday’s event was mistakenly timed, calling them “completely unfounded internet drivel”.

Some accounts on Instagram had noted that the Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev appeared to touch the wall after his time of 20.81 seconds in the men’s 50m freestyle flashed up on screen.

Benafsha Hashimi fled the Taliban to Australia in 2021 and is determined to fight for the ICC to follow Fifa’s lead and recognise Afghanistan’s exiled players as the national side

Benafsha Hashimi’s calling is cricket. She was contracted by the Afghanistan Cricket Board when a women’s national side was in development, just before the return of the Taliban in 2021. She subsequently fled as an 18-year-old to Australia where most of her teammates also went, forming a team in exile. Hashimi was part of the Afghan Women XI that played their first game last year in Melbourne. While the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan continue to disappear, Hashimi and her teammates have defied the regime from abroad.

The exiled cricketers were joyous last month, celebrating the transformative news for another set of Afghan athletes. At a council meeting in Canada, Fifa approved the return of the Afghanistan women’s football team to international competition. “Finally, one of the girls’ teams did it because both of us, football and cricket, have been fighting since we came to Australia,” says Hashimi.

Ursula von der Leyen visiting Lithuania amid drone incursions as diplomats are called over Russian requests for envoys to leave the Ukrainian capital

Back to Ukraine, the EU has summoned Russia’s top diplomat in Brussels over Russian warnings telling foreigners and diplomats to leave Kyiv amid planned new strikes on the Ukrainian capital.

EU’s foreign policy spokesperson Anitta Hipper said on X:

“[Russian] threat to foreign citizens & diplomats to leave Kyiv is an unacceptable escalation. @eu_eeas summoned the Chargé d’Affairs, calling to stop hitting civilians & [Russia] to engage in genuine peace talks starting with a full and unconditional ceasefire.

@EUDelegationUA stays in Kyiv.”

“[The threat] shows once more, actually, one thing that we already knew, that Russia is absolutely not interested in any peace and has a total disregard for all the efforts towards the peace.”

Broadcaster describes Robert Kenyon, who is standing in Makerfield byelection, as a misogynist and a ‘cowardly man’

• UK politics live – latest updates

Carol Vorderman has demanded an apology from the Reform UK candidate in the upcoming Makerfield byelection for “disgusting comments” he made about her on social media in the past.

The broadcaster and former Countdown numbers expert described Robert Kenyon, who Reform has backed to face Andy Burnham in next month’s vote, as a “cowardly man” for a series of offensive posts made by the Wigan councillor that have since been deleted, along with his account.

US president, who turns 80 next month, frequently casts himself as fit but recent photos have added to questions about his health

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Donald Trump, who turns 80 next month, will undergo his routine annual physical on Tuesday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, after a year of public attention on apparently minor health issues.

The US president frequently casts himself as more energetic and fitter than Joe Biden, his Democratic predecessor who left office last year at age 82 after facing questions about his fitness for the job.

Seamus Maguire believed to have been killed and buried in County Antrim by republican paramilitaries in 1976

Half a century after Seamus Maguire was abducted and became one of the “disappeared” of Northern Ireland’s Troubles, a search for his remains has begun in two acres of County Antrim farmland.

A team of forensic experts started the dig on Tuesday in the Derryclone townland where republican paramilitaries are believed to have killed and secretly buried the 29-year-old in 1976.

Jonathan Andic says he is temporarily standing aside as vice-chair of fashion chain after being named a suspect in death of Isak Andic

Jonathan Andic, son of the Mango founder Isak Andic, is stepping down temporarily as the fashion group’s vice-chair after being named a suspect in the investigation into his father’s death.

In an open letter published on Tuesday, Andic strongly protested his innocence, saying the accusation bore “no relation to reality”, but that “dismantling it” would take a long time.

Campaign comes as Duchy of Cornwall announces plan to expand small pockets of ancient woodland at two sites

Along a steep-sided valley, with the West Okement River roaring at its floor, the woodland emerges like an oasis in a closely grazed bare landscape.

Squat, tightly clustered, with root systems heavily covered in thick lichens and mosses, the oak trees of Black-a-Tor copse are a tiny surviving cluster of European temperate rainforest dating back to the bronze age.

The EPA said it was cutting Biden-era regulations on Pfas in drinking water, but advocates say the move will harm public health and benefit industry

A new Trump administration plan to ditch Pfas drinking water regulations and instead attempt to destroy “forever chemicals” on a wide scale tears a page from the fossil fuel industry’s carbon capture playbook, and will benefit the industry while harming public health.

The US Environmental Protection Agency last week announced it is moving to kill strong Biden-era drinking water limits around four Pfas compounds, and delaying implementation for two more. It represented a blow to public health – advocates say strong limits and a dramatic cut in the production of the dangerous chemicals are imperative.

Trump campaign accelerating climate crisis as officials move migrants to detention jails and deport them from US

US immigration enforcement flights are producing hundreds of thousands of metric tonnes of climate-damaging carbon emissions as officials shuttle unprecedented numbers of people to detention centers far from home and deport them to countries across the world.

Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign has spurred at least an 80% increase in such flights year over year, accelerating the climate crisis by emitting massive amounts of carbon dioxide, according to data analysis shared exclusively with the Guardian.

Animal and Plant Health Agency forced to release reports showing scale and cause of deaths on some fish farms

Millions of fish deaths caused by accidental poisoning and suffocation on Scottish salmon farms have been revealed after the inspection agency was forced to share its reports.

The UK government’s Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) had refused to release inspection reports, claiming it would cause “significant detriment” to companies, including to their reputations.

Peer’s comments come as Milburn report is likely to find government has failed to tackle youth unemployment

• Business live – latest updates

The boss of Next has sounded the alarm about a “dramatic fall” in the number of entry-level jobs in the UK that is driving up youth unemployment, saying the retailer now receives twice as many applicants for each role than two years ago.

Lord Wolfson said the clothing and homeware chain, where he has been chief executive since 2001, typically received 10 applications for every job in its shops in 2024 but that number has now risen to 19.

Revelation that policing and state agency figures were in secret policymaking group angers victims’ groups

The British security services were involved in formulating the controversial Legacy Act, which offered an amnesty to soldiers and paramilitiaries despite MI5’s role in many killings during the Northern Ireland Troubles, it can be revealed.

The presence of policing and state agency figures among a secret policymaking group involved in devising the act – a fact established through an investigation by Belfast-based newsletter the Detail and shared with the Guardian – has angered victims’ groups already critical of the legislation.

Former DUP leader faces charges spanning 21 years in case that triggered political earthquake in Northern Ireland

The trial of former Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson for alleged sex offences is set to begin in a case that triggered a political earthquake in Northern Ireland.

Donaldson, 63, is charged with rape, gross indecency and other sexual offences spanning 21 years. His wife, Eleanor Donaldson, 60, is charged with aiding and abetting rape and indecent assault and will be subject to a trial of facts.

Ciaran Martin says Reform UK leader’s allegation over Guardian report on £5m gift ‘entirely unsubstantiated’

Nigel Farage’s claim that a Russian hack was behind a Guardian report on the £5m gift he received from a crypto billionaire has been described as “without any merit” by a former head of the National Cyber Security Centre.

Ciaran Martin, founding chief executive of the agency, which is part of GCHQ, said Farage’s allegation, if true, would have major implications for UK policy towards Russia but that the Reform UK leader had yet to provide “a shred of evidence”.

Measure could ease concerns from countries – such as France – that are sceptical about bringing in more members

• Europe live – latest updates

The EU could deny future member states veto rights for several years in an attempt to make enlargement more politically acceptable as the bloc undergoes a push to admit new countries before the end of the decade.

Under plans being considered by the European Commission, prospective member states – such as Moldova and western Balkan countries – would not, on joining the EU, have the automatic right to veto foreign policy decisions or other issues agreed by unanimity, such as taxation.

Democrat Andy Kim says he saw ‘chaos’ at the New Jersey ICE facility amid ‘standoff’ between protesters and agents

Andy Kim, a Democratic senator, said he was pepper sprayed by federal agents on Monday during a protest at a New Jersey detention facility.

Video posted on social media showed Kim receiving help from a volunteer who is seen pouring water in his eyes outside Delaney Hall in Newark, where detainees are reportedly staging a hunger strike against poor conditions and denial of medical care.

In Cairo’s Faisal district, those who fled conflict at home say they face violence and uncertainty, making a voyage across the Mediterranean their only hope

• Words and photographs by Simon Ruisch

There are an estimated 1.3 million Sudanese refugees living in Cairo. Most have fled from neighbouring Sudan after the outbreak of civil war in April 2023. Instead of the safety and security they had hoped to find, they say life in the Egyptian capital has turned into a horror story.

“The situation here is so hopeless that I am now preparing for a second crossing [to Europe]. I haven’t told my mother yet as I don’t know if she would survive losing a second child,” says Nadir*, 26. Like other Sudanese people interviewed for this story, he prefers not to be identified by his real name.

‘Here in Egypt, you are confined like a criminal,’ says Nadir

Team hope the UPatch – at present a proof-of-concept device – will aid early detection of complications and prevent stillbirths

Scientists have created a wearable ultrasound patch that can continuously monitor babies in the womb, with the hope that such devices could aid the early detection of complications during pregnancy.

The team behind the work say ultrasound-based techniques in place now have drawbacks: continuous monitoring of the baby’s heart rate and contractions of the womb using current methods leads to a high rate of false alarms, while the use of more conventional handheld devices for imaging is limited to a small number of scans during pregnancy, and must be carried out by a skilled operator.

Prediction sites, which allow bets on all topics from weather to politics, may be in breach of country’s rules

Spain’s ministry of consumer rights has blocked access to Polymarket and Kalshi while it investigates whether the leading prediction market sites are violating Spanish law by operating without a gambling licence.

On Tuesday the ministry said it had launched disciplinary proceedings against the two platforms, which allow users to bet on everything from the weather to political events, amid allegations that they lacked the “necessary administrative authorisation” to operate in Spain.

Streaming platform says remix tool agreed with Universal Music Group will protect artists from piracy

Spotify’s chief executive has defended the company’s move into AI-generated music, claiming it offers users and creators a better alternative to piracy and unregulated AI slop.

Last week, the platform announced a new feature in which premium users will be allowed to create their own, AI-generated remixes and song covers using music from participating artists.

As SpaceX and OpenAI race toward IPOs, a tiny circle of tech leaders tightens its grip on AI’s future

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian. Let’s recap a whirlwind five days that may determine the future of AI.

SpaceX reveals plan for $1.75tn stock market debut that could make Musk a trillionaire

Mars colony and Grok warnings: five strange details in SpaceX’s pitch to investors

The main takeaways from Elon Musk’s plans for $1.75tn SpaceX flotation

Meta is rapidly reorganizing its workers’ jobs around AI: ‘Transfers aren’t optional’

Nvidia’s revenue blows past Wall Street expectations as AI boom accelerates

Incoming Ofcom chair vows to take on ‘tech bros’

OpenAI makes breakthrough on 80-year-old maths problem

Meta settles major social media addiction lawsuit with school district

Tesla Cybertruck pulled from Texas lake after attempting ‘wade mode’

Recent college grads are not very fond of commencement speakers hyping up a technology they see as a threat to their career prospects

When Jacob Pagel graduated from Middle Tennessee State University this spring, predictions about artificial intelligence already had him questioning the value of his degree. Then a music executive started preaching about AI’s transformative power during a commencement speech.

“This industry will change on you in a heartbeat. It has already changed more in the last 10 years than in the 50 years prior … AI is rewriting production as we sit here,” said Scott Borchetta, CEO of the record label Big Machine. After a few stray boos from graduates, he doubled down: “Deal with it.”

Penises, vaginas and breasts abound in the Indian painter’s work. As the son of a Hindu priest, he says his orgasmic scenes give us a way to consider religion

T Venkanna’s paintings land like a sucker-punch. At the centre of his first institutional solo show is an overbearing altarpiece, modified by two squat side panels to take the overall shape of a juvenile dick drawing. Perched at the bottom, on either side, are Adam and Eve. Their backs are turned as they look out on an orgasmic thicket of desire. A female figure is pleasured by another’s nose, someone copulates with the hindquarters of an animal and others fondle in a kaleidoscopic blur of colours and styles that make Hieronymus Bosch look restrained.

But carnal enjoyment is merely the footnote. “It is a way to consider many things, including the myth of religions,” says Venkanna. Scattered within this longing landscape are stony figures redolent of India’s pantheon of gods and goddesses. Women worship a topiary lingam – the aniconic depiction of Shiva – and a man caresses a statuesque woman’s breast (while drinking from her vagina). Graphic? “That is what you see in ancient temples,” says Venkanna. “People touch the breasts of sculptures so that over time they become very smooth and shiny.”

The British-born maestro will replace Gustavo Dudamel as the orchestra’s chief conductor

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has announced that Daniel Harding is to be its next music director.

The UK-born Harding, 50, will begin his tenure in the 2027/28 season, with an initial contract for six years. Gustavo Dudamel, the orchestra’s music director since 2009, leaves the role in August 2026 – the Venezuelan conductor is heading east to become music and artistic director of the New York Philharmonic, but he will retain close connections with the Los Angeles orchestra as its artistic and cultural laureate.

Life is tough on the autonomous territory – not least for its footballers, as this documentary testifies

As the football-industrial complex churns out ever more eyeball-aimed product, precision engineered to trigger either triumphalism or nostalgia (or both), there’s occasionally room for stories like this about Greenland’s eight team championship playoff: scrappy chronicles of big-hearted underachievers in obscure corners of the football universe. (One of them, about perennial losers American Samoa, even got turned into a feature film directed by Taika Waititi.) Could Greenland’s strugglers and strivers end up as characters in a big-screen comedy? Stranger things have happened and, after the country’s surprise arrival in the geopolitical spotlight, this might yet be the best way for outsiders to get some understanding of the place.

As it is, one of the main virtues of this film is to convey just how tough life is in the world’s largest island (an “autonomous territory”, part of the kingdom of Denmark). We see the team captain, Patrick Frederiksen (a charismatic presence and one of the documentary’s main characters), moodily hunting for seals, giant icebergs floating yards away from the edge of a football pitch, and the non-appearance of half the team for the week-long playoffs due to cancelled flights (travelling by boat takes longer, but is more reliable). The team in question is the slightly unmemorably named B-67, who hail from Greenland’s capital Nuuk; they appear to have an Old Firm-ish sort of rivalry with Nagdlunguak, from the island’s third largest town, Ilulissat. The shortness of the playing season, it is regularly pointed out, is one of the main factors hampering Greenland’s football, as there are only a few short summer weeks where the place thaws enough for outdoor matches. The aforementioned travel issues mean, moreover, it’s almost impossible to arrange games against anyone other than local sides.

From Paris to Mexico, Leonora Carrington’s extraordinary life is retold with intelligence and restraint, though not quite enough imagination

At the age of 20, debutante Leonora Carrington ran away from London to be an artist in Paris, living with the surrealist Max Ernst, who was married and more than twice her age. But you won’t notice the uncomfortable age gap in this biopic, in which Carrington is played by Olivia Vinall, who is in her late 30s and portrays the artist for a decade or so, from Paris until Carrington settled in Mexico in the 1940s. Vinall’s performance is pleasingly spiky, fierce and uncompromising, fit for a woman who did not seek anyone’s approval – and does some heavy lifting in this otherwise tepid film.

It’s adapted from a biographical novel by Elena Poniatowska. We meet Carrington arriving in Paris, where she discovers that the surrealists’ circle is another male-dominated world, with its own objectionable attitudes to women. Carrington, though, gives short shrift to men such as André Breton and Salvador Dalí, drivelling on about woman as the divine muse to be worshipped. The dialogue clunks along unconvincingly, such as one line spoken to Ernst (Alexander Scheer): “I don’t want to be your wife. I want to be your lover.” The pair move to southern France, where they seem to work productively – portrayed in slightly dull scenes – until the outbreak of the second world war in 1939, when Ernst, a German citizen, is imprisoned.

The Hollywood star brings his knowledge of the second world war to the small screen. Plus: Zoe Ball goes in search of distant relatives. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Sky History
“When I was a kid, every adult I knew shared one thing in common.” Tom Hanks has established himself as Hollywood’s prominent second world war storyteller (Band of Brothers, Masters of the Air), and his epic new documentary series feels like a very personal project. He executive produces, introduces and narrates, as experts give a breakdown of all aspects of the war, starting with Hitler’s rise in Germany and invasion of Poland. Hollie Richardson

Does the footballer have any regrets? This documentary doesn’t care to ask deep questions. Still, his colourful career from midfielder to movie star is an undeniably great story

Do not come to the Untold UK documentary series about some of our greatest – or at least most famous – or at least most infamous – footballers looking for insight, interrogation, reflection, analysis or contemplation. Come for energetic hagiography and celebration. Or fuck off, as its latest subject, Vinnie Jones, would almost certainly put it.

Even if you have never watched an entire football match – despite your dad and his friends’ best efforts as they solemnly lined up cans of Boddingtons and commandeered the living room every FA and World Cup final, perhaps – you will have heard of Vinnie Jones. For most of the 90s he was hard to miss – first as a player, then as a liability making endless tabloid headlines, and then as a film star. His beetle-browed, charismatic, menacing face would have stared out at you between the crossed shotguns resting over his shoulders when the Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels marketing campaign briefly took over the world.

Untold UK: Vinnie Jones is on Netflix

The presenter meets remarkable public figures, starting with a lovely talk with writer-actor Meera Syal. Plus, a vital deep dive into US supreme court justice Neil Gorsuch

(Warp)
The Scottish electronic duo remain hugely influential – but their new album’s interrogation of religion is dubious, and the drum programming is worse still

This is the first album in 13 years from Boards of Canada, and from the opening notes – an analogue synth rising and falling like a sound effect in a forgotten 1960s radio play – you’re thrust back into one of the most instantly recognisable worlds in electronic music.

From 1995 debut EP Twoism onward, across four LPs and four more EPs, the Scottish duo – brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin – used the heavy gait of classic hip-hop beats to trudge through spectral ambient vistas, like spacemen sent through a time portal while still being tethered to the present. By grabbing samples from old public television and other vintage sources, they looked back at the utopian promise of the mid-20th century, while teasing out the latent kitsch and creepiness of these sounds.

In a collapsing world, artists like Slayyyter and Cobrah are chasing extreme highs with hyperactive music and debauched lyrics. Is their trashy vibe emancipating – or a bit contrived?

If any year demanded a soundtrack of self-aggrandising female mayhem, it’s 2026. Amid the terrors of war, AI and the climate crisis, women are expected to be symbolic vessels of order and stability: thin, beautiful and perpetually 25 – a state of perfection newly available for purchase thanks to weight-loss drugs and the deep plane facelift.

Covered unironically in leopard print and rhinestones, a cohort of young female pop stars are defying this familiar con with brash electronic pop, shamelessly hedonistic lyrics, anarchic sexuality and an obsession with what was once dismissed as “white trash”. It’s an aesthetic embraced by performers such as Slayyyter, Kim Petras, Cobrah, Demi Lovato, Snow Strippers’ Tatiana Schwaninger, Tove Lo and returning scene godmother Kesha.

The five-piece combine traditional musical styles with mountains of synths and hurried drums – rejecting computerised production in a pointed anti-AI statement

From João Pessoa, Brazil
Recommended if you like Hermeto Pascoal, Mr Bungle, King Crimson
Up next Celestial album released 7 August, touring the UK and Europe from 15 August

Thanks in part to its famed music department at the local Federal University of Paraíba, João Pessoa – the easternmost city in South America – is a hotbed of artists playing different folk styles from all over the continent. Papangu sound like all of them at the same time. The five-piece blend a long list of genres: bossa nova, the circle-dance song ciranda and forró, with its dry-tuned accordion and pulsing rhythm section, plus the more ubiquitous progressive rock and extreme metal. The band’s virtuoso chops and intensity keep their songs from buckling under the weight of those ideas, from the hurried drums to the mountains of synthesisers and pianos.

The polarising translator of the Odyssey and the Iliad sets out her philosophy in this fascinating collection

Emily Wilson’s translations of the Odyssey in 2017 and the Iliad in 2023 are now the standard English-language versions, acclaimed for their conciseness and fluency. Her infatuation with Homer began at the age of eight, when her primary school put on a production of the Odyssey, with her in the role of Athena, and the excitement hasn’t worn off. You can question some of the choices she makes in her translations (she questions them herself), but you can’t doubt the months and years she has spent finding the “least bad” compromises.

Her new book is a series of essays on the challenges of translation and the pleasures and insights to be gained from reading the classics. She is fascinated by how far the ancient world intersects with the modern. Aeschylus, Demosthenes, Catullus and Aristophanes are here but so are Spike Lee, Erica Jong, PG Wodehouse’s Jeeves (a last link to the clever servants in Roman comedy) and Boris Johnson (“an incompetent drunkard” who somehow passed as an intellectual “on the basis of his ability to parrot a few garbled lines of Homeric Greek”). Wealthy white men in Silicon Valley get a look-in, too, for embracing Stoicism (not to be confused with stoicism) in “a watered-down form”. Continuities between then and now pile up: war, cruelty and political turmoil. But there are also important contrasts and she scolds those who look back on antiquity as “a mirror in which we always find ourselves”, even when we’re not there.

Williams follows her prize-winning debut with a gothically overstuffed tale of a cynical young woman in a crumbling university town

Missouri Williams’s darkly absurd and wilfully grotesque debut novel, The Doloriad, concerned itself with the aftermath of a world-shattering catastrophe. Her second takes place in what feels like the beginning of one. The Vivisectors is set in an ancient and unnamed university town – we could call it Oxford or Cambridge, but let’s not – which is rapidly being overwhelmed by vegetation: avenues lined with “orange columns of flamevine and purple bougainvillea”, arches “dripping with wisteria”, the inescapable “stink of a distant magnolia”. A fraternity of mysterious gardeners seek to keep the chaotic foliage in check, but they are hamstrung by a bitter dispute with university officials. Power games and proxy battles ensue. It is a hot summer and decay is rampant: revolution is in the air.

As in recent work by Sophie Mackintosh or Julia Armfield, this verdant backdrop casts an ominous glow over the action, though Williams writes with a singular brand of Ballardian ferocity – she revels in the wretched and the craven. The locus of the novel’s intensity is its narrator, Agathe, an alarmingly cynical young woman. She views everyone she meets as a tragic case, and knows that nothing lies between her and the same sad designation but her ability to see through the stories they’re telling themselves. She rejects self-expression and desire, refusing anything that might compromise her sense of separation and superiority. Her judgments are swift, conclusive and brutal.

A psychologist wades into controversial territory in this counterintuitive study of nature, nurture and gender

According to the evolutionary psychologist Steve Stewart-Williams, almost everyone gets sex wrong. Traditionalists tend to exaggerate the natural differences between men and women. Progressives tend to minimise them, and to assume that nurture and socialisation play a decisive role. He wants to promote a more nuanced, scientifically rigorous public conversation about why and how men and women differ to guide better policymaking.

Some sex differences are relatively pronounced, he claims, such as whether you’re primarily attracted to men or women, upper body strength, height, the likelihood you’ll murder someone and occupational interests. Many, such as ability in maths, or conscientiousness, are much more modest. Such differences are best visualised as two overlapping bell curves. To illustrate this, consider height: the shortest humans are almost all women, the tallest are men, the average man is taller than the average woman, but there is considerable common ground. Knowing that someone is 5ft 8in won’t enable you to guess with any confidence whether they are a man or a woman, for instance.

After visiting an island brothel in Bangladesh, the novelist was inspired to write an imagined uprising. She explores the radical fictional worlds where women have the power

In the spring of 2024, I am finally able to visit Banishanta, the island in southern Bangladesh that has been haunting my dreams. When I arrive I find it is little more than a long patch of grey mud, with a string of flimsy huts lining a craggy shore. Thirteen years earlier, I was on a boat on my way to the Sundarban mangrove forest when a guide casually pointed out the island and told me it was a state-licensed brothel that had been there since the time of the British.

When I went home, I didn’t want to think about Banishanta, because if I did, I would have to imagine the terrible things the women there were enduring while I lived a life of casual entitlements many thousands of miles away. Yet the women squatted in my imagination, refusing to leave. I resolved to never write about them, because it would say things about the world I didn’t want to know. It was only when I decided I could write a novel, set on a fictional island, about a rebellion of women, that I allowed them in.

Driving sims were overtaken by open world fantasy adventures, but new upgrades show how much joy there is in the genre

I have spent the last week careening around Japan in a Porsche 911, seeing the sights, racing other cars and occasionally veering off the road to plummet through an ancient bamboo forest. You all know what’s coming next … this wasn’t in real life, folks – it was in Forza Horizon 6, the latest instalment in Microsoft’s series of open world driving games set in authentic-looking, real-world locations.

Reviewing this game (which is out now on Xbox and PC, and coming to PS5 later in the year) has reminded me of the sheer fun and exhilaration that driving games can provide. It’s easy to forget, but this was the biggest genre in town from the 1990s to the early 2000s. Consoles were sold on how good their racing games were: the original PlayStation had Ridge Racer, the Sega Saturn had Daytona USA. Later came the dirt-track thrills of Colin McRae Rally, the chaotic destruction of Burnout, the sophisticated realism of Gran Turismo. They were the bestsellers of the era, showcasing the future of real-time 3D visuals.

Why are Nintendo releasing a straight-up remake of the space-flight shooter – with many of its original limitations – rather than a fresh new take?

The Nintendo 64 was not my first video game console, but it was my formative one. Getting to grips with 3D movement in Super Mario 64 with that weird three-pronged controller is one of my most visceral childhood memories; the long, long wait for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was the background noise to a huge chunk of my youth. But back in the 1990s (in the UK at least), it felt as if nobody had an N64. When everybody had a PlayStation instead, I felt I was the only kid in my whole city who cared more about Banjo-Kazooie than Crash Bandicoot.

If even Zelda seemed comparatively niche in Europe in the 90s, Lylat Wars (known elsewhere as Star Fox 64) was a real deep cut. It’s a 1997 space-flight shooter starring Fox McCloud and his squad of animal pilots laser-blasting across different planets in nimble crafts called Arwings. I played this game to absolute death in 1998, when I got it for my birthday alongside the fabled Rumble Pak, which made your controller vibrate and shudder whenever something cool was happening on screen (fun fact: Lylat Wars was the first console game to feature controller rumble). But I really hadn’t thought about it much since. Then, last week, Nintendo announced a Switch 2 remake.

Microsoft; PC, Xbox Series X/S (PS5 due later)
Dreamy vistas of the country’s natural beauties are stunningly delivered – but won’t distract from thrilling high-end driving adventures

The Forza Horizon games have always been about drama. Not just the tension and excitement of racing, but also the sensory impact of the natural environment – the sun rising over a dense city, rain clouds hovering above a valley floor. There are moments in this game – perhaps after emerging from a dense forest, or coming up from an underpass – where Mount Fuji briefly appears in the distance, hazy yet majestic, the Platonic ideal of a volcano – and it almost takes your breath away. Fans of this series have been waiting years for Japan and now here it is, the whole country, reduced, remixed and repackaged as a driving paradise.

In many ways, Forza Horizon 6 is a continuation of what this series has always been about. You enter a festival-style driving competition then drive around a vast map splattered with various races and challenges, earning reputation by competing well and buying new vehicles for your extensive garage. There are slight changes this time – you start as a rookie not an established legend, so you have to qualify to enter the festival, and Playground has re-introduced the need to unlock successive levels of competition bringing back the sense of progression from the earliest titles in the series. You start out clattering about in slower C-class vehicles on easier circuits and have to work hard to start lining up against super cars such as the Ferrari J50 or Lamborghini Huracán.

Previously prohibited use of websites such as Omoggle that connect a streamer to a stranger’s video feed now allowed

Last week, at 4am, 19-year-old Sammy Amz was scrolling through X when something caught his eye: a popular Twitch streamer was competing in a 1v1 “mog-off” with a stranger, and losing.

The next day he opened the Omoggle gaming website and began to play. Quickly he matched with another user – green dots appeared on their faces onscreen, as the website began to compare their measurements: canthal tilt, palpebral fissure ratio, nose-to-face width ratio and so on.

Trumpeter Robyn Steward thought clubs weren’t for her until she encountered Fabric’s accessible upgrade – the new home for her radically inclusive, space-themed night

Until May last year, trumpeter Robyn Steward had never been in a nightclub space, save for playing trumpet with Lancaster duo the Lovely Eggs at London’s Heaven, and a few nights in a university hall that doubled as a lunch room. Steward is autistic and has multiple disabilities including cerebral palsy. “Sometimes strobes can trigger migraines for me, or feel a bit overwhelming,” she says. “I feel like my body’s a bit lost.”

When she wanted to see a gig at Fabric nightclub in London, she asked a friend to go with her as a carer. “I was amazed at how accessible it was,” she says. Subtle touches integrate multiple access needs into the space. “The mezzanine level meant that I didn’t have the strobes in my face. There was a rail that I could hold on to, and there was seating opposite the balcony so I could sit and watch the gig.” She also noticed Fabric’s recently upgraded sensory dancefloor, which deliberately transforms sound into tactile vibrations to better cater for the hearing impaired. “I could see that the lights were strobing and everything, but I felt safe,” Steward says.

The hallowed radio show is celebrating 75 glorious years – by stepping out of the studio and on to the stage. We sent the Guardian’s food writer (and Ambridge obsessive) along to meet her heroes and find out more

I’m very careful not to betray my true levels of excitement when I speak to The Archers actor Susie Riddell, before a nationwide theatre tour to mark the rural radio drama’s 75th anniversary. I may be an Ambridge superfan but I still don’t want to scare the horses (nor indeed the cows, pigs or sheep). Riddell’s character Tracy Horrobin (who will be appearing with husband, Jazzer, local lush Lilian and cravat-wearing criminal Brian) is not one to hold back however: “It’s like a dream come true for me too!” she confides, slipping easily into broad Borsetshire. “I never thought I’d see the day that I was interviewed by the Guardian. I’ve seen it in the Bull!”

The Bull, for the uninitiated, is a half-timbered pub on the village green offering ale, artisanal food and, it seems, copies of the Guardian. It’s a thrilling thought: I briefly entertain the idea of rock star turned vegan baker turned wedding caterer turned pub chef Fallon sitting in the snug, poring over my pie recipes in the Guardian. But it’s stretching credibility to believe an old-fashioned village boozer would find room for any reading material more substantial than Farmers Weekly. Riddell concedes the point. “Maybe Helen left it behind?”

Sadler’s Wells, London
The late choreographer heightens Ophelia and Gertrude’s stories yet squanders some speeches in an intense hour

Words, words, words. Can Hamlet retain its tragic force without using most of them? This hour-long dance-theatre remix by the late South African choreographer Dada Masilo preserves few speeches and its opening is not auspicious, crashing straight into “To be, or not to be” shorn of context and characterisation.

There follows, as is customary, a meeting between the prince and Ophelia, but Masilo replaces the usual cruel encounter with stolen moments amid a ceremony, as if they are meeting anew like Romeo and Juliet at the Capulet ball. Matching each other’s movements, amid clapped hands, thrusting shoulders and rippling chests, they grow closer with a hint of tango footwork. From this flashback, Masilo practically fast-forwards their choreography with a sense of doom.

Mercury theatre, Colchester
This musical from the company behind The Play That Goes Wrong unearths the invention of acting in ancient Greece – and finds little has changed

The Mischief theatre company has been making fun of actors’ foibles for years, especially in the deliriously amusing Goes Wrong series. Its first musical asks if all those rampaging egos, heated rivalries, creative differences and hammy activities can be dated back to the world’s very first acting troupe. Did the proto-thespians in ancient Greece contend with one-star reviews and attract superfans? Maybe they even played Zip, Zap, Boing and over-dwelled on their motivations?

Little is known about the real Thespis, father of tragedy in the sixth century BC. Co-writers and lyricists Jonathan Sayer and Ed Zanders introduce him on the drought-plighted island of Ikaria and chart his odyssey to Athens, where he competes in a Eurovision-style prayer competition at the whim of a merciless tyrant and ends up founding the art of acting with his pals. Opa!

Touring until 18 July

Book containing early versions of the Merlin and Grail legends has remained in private hands for 700 years

In one illustration, painted on vellum and decorated with gold leaf, the sorcerer Merlin is depicted as a powerful shape-shifter who has transformed into a talking stag. In another, the Knights of the Round Table are shown returning, victorious, from battle.

The illustrations appear in one of the earliest manuscripts to tell the tale of King Arthur and the search for the holy grail – a richly illuminated medieval tome which, for more than 700 years, has been in private hands.

One of the last stars of the bebop generation, Rollins was a genius of melodic invention and improvisation, working with Davis, Monk, Coltrane and others

• Sonny Rollins interview from 2022: ‘I was so close to the sky. It was spiritual’

Sonny Rollins, one of the greatest jazz saxophonists of all time, has died aged 95.

His death was announced on his website on Monday, “with deep sorrow and profound love”. His publicist Terri Hinte also confirmed the news.

Andrew Durham’s tender adaptation of Alysia Abbott’s book finds warmth, humour and heartbreak in an unconventional family unit shaped by love and loss

For anyone familiar with the Bay Area in the 1970s and 80s, this offers a glorious wallow in nostalgia, from the grainy archive footage of San Francisco Gay Freedom parades to the novelty of sushi at a book launch and the new wave hairstyles. But this film is not just about the set dressing and the costumes; at the story’s core is what was then a new kind of family. A gay father raises his young daughter in San Francisco after his wife, her mother, is killed in a car accident; they live first in a squalid commune in the Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood and later move to slightly more bougie digs. The dad, Steve (Scoot McNairy), is a man with his foot only half out of the closet when the tragedy happens. He loves his daughter Alysia (Nessa Dougherty, then Coda’s Emilia Jones as a teen) deeply and turns down an offer from his ultra-straight mother-in-law (Geena Davis) to raise the little girl.

Nevertheless, Steve is also a bit selfish and neglectful, likely to convince himself that he’s teaching Alysia independence when, for example, he tells her to get a bus across town instead of picking her up from school. There are echoes of the parenting techniques showcased in Marielle Heller’s adaptation of The Diary of a Teenage Girl which was set in a similar period, except that Alysia ends up a little less damaged than the heroine of that story. In fact, she turns out as independent and resilient as her father hoped she’d be, even if she never learned to ride a bicycle.

Lifesize avatar of former Black Sabbath frontman will be created by tech companies Hyperreal and Proto Hologram

A year after his death, Ozzy Osbourne is set to be recreated as a lifesized AI-powered avatar, his family have announced – but fans aren’t entirely happy.

The late rocker’s son Jack and his wife, Sharon, announced on 20 May at Licensing Expo, an event for brands in Las Vegas, that the family had partnered with tech companies Hyperreal and Proto Hologram to create an Ozzy Osbourne avatar.

Like so many Britons, I usually consult a weather app before venturing out of the house – and often cancel plans if I don’t like what I see. Here’s what happened when I went cold turkey for a week

When I heard on the radio that more than half of British people would consider cancelling an outing if they saw a 40% chance of rain all day on their weather app, I felt seen. I, too, am a slave to my app. Not that I would ever make a decision based on one whole-day percentage. I pore over three-hourly breakdowns for chances of rain versus minutes of sunshine. If rain is on the cards, I check the probable millimetres. Less than one? I may well throw caution to the wind. Speaking of which, wind speed and direction must also be considered, along with overall and “feels like” temperatures. For the cherry on top, I’ll compare notes with a loved one’s app if they use a different one, quietly mistrusting theirs, and simmering in silent rage if theirs wins.

I’ll admit, though, that my compulsion to check my app (I long ago chose WeatherPro, which I knew nothing about, but liked its layout and name) is borderline neurotic; I fret over probabilities and outfit appropriateness, when I could simply step outside for real-time hyper-local accuracy. I can lose procrastinatory hours consulting long-range forecasts, or checking the weather in Melbourne (where my sister lives) and holiday destinations I have no immediate plans to visit.

Biebrza marshes, Poland: It’s not just the abundance of elks, orchids and eagles that sets the mind racing, it’s the wild interactions between the ‘exotic’ and the familiar

Have I made a mistake in visiting Biebrza national park? Not that I mind encountering more bird species in a day than I do in a year at home. Nor do I regret meeting a young elk, all gangle and improbable proportions; or kneeling before a clump of lady’s slipper orchid in jaw-droppingly ostentatious bloom among Solomon’s seal and a carpet of lily of the valley. I definitely appreciate the homely clatter of the neighbourhood white storks, and the constant soundtrack of cuckoos and golden orioles. I certainly have no objection to watching the sunset from a wood-fired hot tub, listening to corncrakes as bats emerge and a beaver cruises past.

But something shifts in me when, in the space of a few minutes in an observation tower, we watch three species of marsh tern hanging like precision-engineered angels to tweezer insects from the water’s surface, and a white-tailed eagle hunting greylag geese then settling with its mate in a dead tree to watch a train of common cranes in the field below meeting a lone fox, all leaping as if in mock surprise, before going unconcernedly on their way.

Whether it’s giving florals a twist or wearing a rented number, here are our top tips for decoding the dress code

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The invitation thumps on to your doormat – or, as likely, into your inbox – and rather than feel excitement for the ensuing nuptials, you feel dread. What on earth to wear?

Weddings are full of sartorial pitfalls. If there’s no dress code, the limitless options can feel daunting; if there is, it can feel a different kind of daunting, but with a useful guide to prevent you from feeling overwhelmed.

As temperatures soar across the UK, chill your space – and avoid energy-guzzling aircon – with our pick of the best fans, from tower to desk to bladeless

• The best portable neck and handheld fans

Our world is getting hotter. Summer heatwaves are so frequent, they’re stretching the bounds of what we think of as summer. Hot-and-bothered home working and sweaty, sleepless nights are now alarmingly common.

Get a good fan and you can dodge the temptation of air conditioning. Aircon is incredibly effective, but it uses a lot of electricity … and burning fossil fuels is how we got into this mess in the first place. Save money and carbon by opting for a great fan instead.

Best fan overall:
AirCraft Lume

Best budget fan and best desk fan:
Devola desk fan – stock expected at end of May

Secateurs, pizza ovens and sparkling rose in a tin … whatever your plans for the long weekend, here’s how to make the most of it

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Reasons to be cheerful #271: a warm, sunny bank holiday weekend. Here at the Filter, we need no excuse to kick off our shoes, grab a cold drink (and some SPF) and head outside.

To help you make the most of the long weekend, we’ve rounded up some of our favourite things. Whether it’s tools to spruce up your outdoor space, tipples to sip in the garden, a fake tan to jump-start your summer skin or fashion for warmer weather, summer starts here.

From luxury Simba and Otty mattresses to brilliant budget buys, here’s what we recommend – and how to know if you’ve found a good deal

• The best mattresses for back pain
• The best mattress toppers, tested

A good mattress improves your sleep, say mattress makers – and they would, wouldn’t they? But they’re right. The older I get, the more I know it. When I was 20, I could sleep anywhere: a friend’s floor, a sofa – even a phone box one night. These days, I won’t get a single one of 40 winks if I’m not lying on a decent mattress. Comfy but firm, cosy but breathable, and with lots of cool spots for my feet.

Today’s best mattresses promise all this and more. Pocket springs are still around, but they face stiff – well, medium-firm – competition from hybrid mattresses that combine springs and memory foam for the ideal balance of comfort and support.

Best mattress overall:
Otty Original Hybrid

Well, maybe not quite a thousand, but when life gives you bald lemons, make lemon ice cubes or indeed any of these super suggestions from our panel of lemonheads

I regularly use lemon zest, but the result is that I often have two or three bald lemons hanging around going mouldy. What can I do with them?
Bel, by email
“We use a lot of zest and peel in our cooking at the restaurant,” sympathises Chris Shaw of Toklas in London, “so we also end up with a load of peeled lemons.” Not that that’s a hardship, mind, because no matter what you’re making, you’re almost always going to need acid in some shape or form. As Jad Youssef, author of Lebnani, says: “If something’s flat, lemon juice is usually the fix. In Lebanon, we always have cut lemons on the table, ready to squeeze over pretty much every meal.”

To be a bit more specific, though, Bel’s first port of call might be dressings, particularly at prime salad time. “Whisk the juice with olive oil, a pinch of salt, maybe a bit of garlic, and a drizzle of pomegranate molasses,” Youssef says. That would then mingle nicely with all manner of things: tomatoes, radishes, cucumber, or grilled courgette or aubergine.

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

A fresh, fragrant tart and a vibrant, crunchy salad to accompany it – flavours of the season, and of home

The first taste of English asparagus always feels like a quiet celebration, and those fresh, green spears snap with promise after the long winter. That same thrill echoes in the hills of Palestine, where foraging for wild asparagus becomes a small adventure. Eyes scan the ground for slender shoots hiding among thorns, and each find is a victory. At home in the UK, however, I’m obsessed with encasing them in pastry and turning the season’s simplest treasure into a showstopper. I like to serve that with fattoush, and I can’t help but groan whenever I think of my mum’s one; nothing quite matches that comforting bowl with its tangy buttermilk dressing. It’s the version I grew up on, and it’s the one still made across our family. This take has its own charm, though: vibrant, crunchy, herby, and full of tomatoes, cucumbers and toasted pitta.

Simple and spicy, this dish is adaptable enough to become a firm favourite with all the family – and it will fill lunchboxes the next day, too

This is one of those rare dishes that I can make both for us and for the children – reserving the kimchi topping and chilli peanuts for the adults, of course. I also like to add the kimchi just before serving for freshness (this helps to keep all the good stuff in it from deactivating, too). Leftovers are excellent in lunchboxes the next day, so it’s well worth making the full quantity and popping the excess in the fridge.

Two recipes that transform lunch or dinner from simple pleasures into magic moments

Every day, no matter what it brings with it, gives us at least three opportunities to clock out and have a moment of pure bliss. We’re talking about breakfast, lunch and dinner, of course, and we’re not factoring in snacks and tea time, either, because those are bonus opportunities. It doesn’t need to be complicated, it doesn’t need to be a big ceremony; in fact, most days, it’s the humble little treats, the simple, delicious things, that bring us the most happiness. Honey & Co. Daily is our cafe in Bloomsbury, central London, and now also the name of our latest cookbook, and we want both of them to be a haven, a place where you can go to get a simple, delicious moment.

Mindfully curated possessions evoke the most potent memories of those who have gone. Two specific objects bring me particular comfort – though I never stop too much to ponder why

Sometimes it seems like my world is inhabited by ghosts, such are the remnants and reminders of past lives all around me.

The dead dogs are everywhere. On a coatrack on the hallway wall just near the front door outside my study hang their sun-bleached and harbour-rusted collars and leads, memorial stalactites to much-loved animals who’ve never really left us. Their tags are clipped on the fridge and one is screwed into the tree in the back yard under which its wearer is buried.

This fluffy menace was harder work than either of our babies. But she did show us how to nurture a creature you can’t reason with

Tilly wasn’t our first choice: my wife and I had fallen for a grey lop-eared charmer in a local shop who was unexpectedly pulled from sale. But we were now determined to acquire a rabbit, so we traipsed from store to store around south-west London, until we saw this tiny ball of brown and white fluff. Suddenly we could imagine no other bunny.

Tilly was many things. When our landlord was around, she was at a friend’s. To the kale producers of Britain, she was a lifeline. To us, she was affectionate, but with a strong sense of personal space – you could tell when she wanted to be touched and when she did not.

When Lucia’s libido dropped, she found imaginative ways to reignite her spark with Edwin

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

I felt guilty because I love him and want to make him happy

From single mothers to fathers of autistic children and fellow adoptees – some relationships come along just when you need them the most

Lucy Crowe and Mikayla Jolley, London

The tax office is quick to demand money owed and threatens fines, but is slow when giving refunds

When my mother died, there was a four-year delay in achieving probate owing to financial complexities. During this time my father paid inheritance tax (IHT) on the advice of his solicitor, to prevent interest accruing.

It turned out that the solicitor’s estimate of the amount was wildly out.

The uncertain interest rate outlook is making tracker deals popular again. We look at the pros and cons of both types of loan

With some experts warning that we may have to brace ourselves for interest rate rises later this year, it might seem odd to suggest considering a tracker mortgage.

But, amid the economic chaos caused by the Iran war, for some people looking for a home loan or to remortgage, a tracker – where the rate you pay moves up or down in line with the Bank of England base rate – could be a good bet.

From a farmhouse with a wildflower meadow to an award-winning London flat with a neat garden for al fresco dining

Parents can can claim up to £2,000 a year for each child – but many are put off by the clunkiness of the scheme

Any parent who has ever used the UK government’s tax-free childcare system knows what a painful experience it is. Each month when I log into my account, I feel a sense of dread and frustration. Why is something that is such a lifeline for so many parents so difficult to use?

The scheme gives working parents an extra £2 for every £8 they spend on childcare. You can claim up to £2,000 a year for each child (or up to £4,000 a year for a disabled child).

The supplement is a proven sports performance enhancer, but research is ongoing and for most people it’s an optional extra, not an essential

Once the preserve of bodybuilders and sprinters, creatine is now being touted as everything from a brain booster to a healthy-ageing essential. But should we all be taking it? Not quite.

“There’s really substantial evidence of creatine being effective,” says Bethan Crouse, a sports nutritionist at Loughborough University. “From a sport perspective, it’s probably one of the more well-researched supplements in terms of actually having a performance impact.”

If I’d been taught this way of thinking as a child, I can’t begin to imagine how much easier things could have been

In 1981 the CD was born and so was I. Both arrivals were surprising and have drifted in and out of fashion ever since. As a baby, my majestic “chonk lord” status was cause for celebration and an indication of prosperity. But from a young age I noticed that my presence seemed to offend other people. When I was seven, I remember asking to have a go at skipping, after having turned the rope for everyone else. One child enlightened me on why I couldn’t: I was too fat to skip.

Children learn hierarchy from adults and then their peers. Who belongs, who doesn’t and why. My classmates learned from adults to see me as something to mock and despise. Even my own well-meaning father once sat me down and told me that nobody would love, trust or employ me due to my body shape. This didn’t shock me; I’d already picked up what everyone was putting down.

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Guardian Australia joins ultrarunner Joanne Walker in an excruciating race through the Blue Mountains, where men outnumber women four to one

Somewhere before the finish line the body starts to break down, Joanne Walker says.

“The pain starts in your feet but before long it moves up to your knees and eventually you feel like you just can’t move your legs any more.”

After 30 hours with no sleep, running alone through the cold darkness of the Megalong Valley, the brain can break as well.

“At one point, I did not even know where I was going; I was swerving all over the shop,” she says.

From infections and allergies to brain diseases and autoimmune disorders, a wave of trials offers hope

Clinical trials of immunotherapies have rocketed in the past decade as researchers have turned their understanding of the body’s defences into powerful new treatments. Leading the pack are cancer therapies, but researchers have other conditions in their sights, from infections and allergies to brain diseases and autoimmune disorders. Here, we explore how these therapies work.

As La Croisette closes for another year, here are the most memorable looks from its final week

Growing numbers of people are seeking improbable cosmetic surgery based on chatbots’ recommendations

Plastic surgeons are increasingly concerned about the rise of “AI face”, as more and more clients arrive in their offices with unrealistic AI-generated visions of what they want to look like.

Dr Nora Nugent, a cosmetic surgeon from Tunbridge Wells, has seen this first hand. Clients have started coming to her office with photos of themselves beautified by AI and a false expectation that those results are achievable with surgery. She is also the president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, and says many colleagues are having similar experiences.

Does Puerto Rican star’s debut collection for Zara spell the end of short shorts?

Men can breathe a huge sigh of relief this week, thanks to Bad Bunny, whose debut collection for fast fashion company Zara includes a pair of shockingly normal mid-thigh shorts.

While for the last few years, short-shorts have threatened to make every day a leg day, the sight of the Puerto Rican star wearing shorts that come comfortably to within a few inches of the knee will signal a welcome shift for many.

Take your lead from Harry Styles and go for short shorts, or dig out your favourite knee-length pair

Forget queuing at the Louvre or the Uffizi. You’ll find a fresh perspective on everything from medieval to modern art in places like Lille, Verona and Zurich

Zurich may be known as a financial centre, but it has a creative side, too. The Kunsthaus Zürich became the biggest art gallery in the country when its David Chipperfield-designed extension opened in 2021. Its collection spans 800 years of art, and includes old masters, Swiss artists such as Giacometti, works by Monet, Cézanne, Picasso, Van Gogh and Warhol, and contemporary artists.

The reopened Train de Merveilles route takes passengers from the glamour of Nice to a grandiose alpine landscape

Nine-thirty on a sunny Tuesday morning, and the platforms at Nice-Ville station are buzzing. Office workers nudge their way past backpackers, passengers clamber on to trains heading east to Monaco and Italy, or west to Antibes and Cannes. My husband and I, however, are heading away from the glittering coastline and boarding the Train des Merveilles (Train of Wonders) into the Alpes-Azur mountains.

Back on track last December after a programme of major works closed the line for a year, it’s one of the most spectacular train routes in Europe, a two-hour journey that climbs 1,000 metres in 100km, linking Nice with the medieval town of Tende, surrounded by the soaring peaks of the Mercantour national park.

Travellers warned to beware of debit card cons after one was charged £1,500 for a kebab and another £3,000 for corn on the cob

When Lisa Selby* used her debit card to pay for two slices of barbecued cheese from a beach vendor in Rio de Janeiro, she expected to pay 40 reais (£5.90) for the snack.

But shortly after the payment had gone through, she realised that she had been charged 4,000 reais (£590) after the vendor added two extra zeros to the card reader.

Photographer Lorenzo Grifantini looks at how the Italian capital’s historic centre has gradually reorganised itself around the uninterrupted flow of visitors and the expectations projected on to it

By mid-morning, the area around the Trevi fountain is already difficult to cross. Visitors stop suddenly to take photographs while tour groups gather behind raised umbrellas, and security staff redirect the flow of people through temporary barriers placed around the monument. Nearby, souvenir kiosks sell rosaries, plastic gladiator helmets, bottled water and magnets in the summer heat.

Tourists pose for photographs in front of the Trevi fountain

I tried everything from gong baths to junk food and intermittent crying as I attempted to deal with my grief. Nothing helped – until I started tuning in to what my body was telling me

I didn’t think I could survive the death of my husband, Graham. We met at university when I was 18, and for 35 years we made a great team. We both worked full-time and, while I organised our many marathon and backpacking trips abroad, and pursued my ambition of becoming an author and hypnotherapist, he supported me by taking care of most of the domestic chores and DIY. When he was seconded to Bahrain for eight months in 2003, he left me a typed, two-page instruction manual explaining how to operate the dishwasher, washing machine and TV (in fairness, it wasn’t simply a matter of pressing “on”).

When, in 2017, Graham was diagnosed with asbestos-related lung cancer and given between 18 months and five years to live, the shock was profound. But, once the initial terror had subsided, we made a choice: to live in hope, not fear. We vowed to make the most of whatever time Graham had left, rather than mentally rehearse or fear his death. We both continued working, travelling, running half marathons and seeing friends as much as we could.

After years of procrastination, even the most trivial task felt like climbing a mountain. Then I discovered the pomodoro technique – and how much I could achieve in just 25 minutes

Long before I knew what a 9 to 5 was, I struggled to get things done. When I was a child, I avoided showers for as long as possible and put off brushing my waist-length hair. My mum ended up cutting it into a bob to help me manage it.

During my degree, this tendency to procrastinate meant I was regularly pulling all-nighters in the library, writing 3,000-word essays in single evenings, fuelled by energy drinks and snacks. I told myself that I worked better under pressure – and in a way I did, since it always got done. But the relief of submitting work was always overshadowed by the same question – why had I put myself through that again?

I was primed to sweat my way through a high-stakes procedure. But once the patient was sedated, a welcome warmth entered the room

• Read more in this series here

I’ve had quite a few surgical procedures over the years but one always sticks in my mind. The 7am arrival to hospital, the injustice of being deprived a morning coffee in the name of “fasting”, the apprehension as I lay on the operating table waiting for it to begin. It was my second spinal operation in a few months because the surgical team had operated on the wrong part of my spine the first time around. As you can imagine, my nerves were frayed.

Even under normal circumstances there’s a gravity to surgery for patients. It can be one of the most serious and important things to happen in your lifetime. It’s also the most vulnerable you can get as a patient, trusting a group of strangers to sedate you and alter or remove parts of your body, hoping you’ll end up better off than you were before. I spent the next couple of years healing from that first surgical error through rest, rehabilitation and a lot of engagement with medical and allied health services. In my downtime, I decided to apply for medical school to see what I might contribute as a doctor.

As the series reaches its 5,000th entry, one of its regular writers reveals what it’s like to put together this cribsheet of the modern world – and the bizarre topics he’s never been able to forget

Beginning is often the hardest part: the rigid and long-established format of Pass Notes requires the writer to begin with Age. If the day’s subject is Nigella Lawson or Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a number is readily available. If it’s Jar Jar Binks, the answer may be obscure but still obtainable (born in 52 BBY – before the Battle of Yavin). But what if the subject is bees, or office temperatures, or “peak curtains”, or God? Some days you get stuck on the first line.

If the subject was Pass Notes itself, you’d have the same problem: it originated in the short-lived Sunday Correspondent, which ceased operations in 1990. The orphaned idea was then adopted by the Guardian’s newly launched G2 print section in 1992, scrapped after a redesign in 2005, and resurrected in 2009. But if we can’t put down anything for age, we can still supply a number: 5,000 examples, and counting.

Yolanda Saldana Feliz was stabbed 40 times by Miguel Angel Florentino, after Lauris Saldana’s emails to Met police went unanswered

Lauris Saldana has visible scars on her face, neck, arms, hand – and many, many more hidden beneath her clothing. They are a reminder of the horrific attack in 2022 at the hands of her ex-partner that she narrowly survived, an attack in which her mother, Yolanda Saldana Feliz, was killed.

It was an unlawful killing that would have been preventable, a coroner ruled, had the Metropolitan police taken Lauris’s domestic abuse case seriously. Had they come to her aid when she repeatedly begged them for help with evidence her estranged husband was a violent stalker, her “superhero” mother would probably still be alive today.

Rail minister Peter Hendy says fast rollout shows reforms are working as questions over reliability remain

South Western Railway’s newest train, wrapped in union jack-inspired Great British Railways livery, may divide opinion on aesthetics, but the interior is certainly an upgrade: air-conditioned carriages, more space and greater passenger capacity.

For ministers, the fact that it is the 45th Arterio model brought into service since the SWR network was nationalised is vindication of the GBR approach.

Two new poetry collections tackle themes of trauma, exile, resistance and love amid conflict in Gaza

Poetry may not be the best response to aerial bombardment, but for many Palestinians it has become a line of defence amid the rubble and ongoing killings in Gaza.

“Poetry keeps hope alive. Even in the darkest moments, Palestinian poetry continues to imagine a future,” Nazmi al-Masri, professor of languages at the Islamic University of Gaza, says at an online poetry event held by his students.

We want to hear how people are dealing with the hottest May temperatures on record

The UK recorded its hottest ever day in May on Monday, with an all-time high of 34.8C recorded at London’s Kew Gardens.

Temperatures above 33C were recorded across the south-east of England, while Wales also provisionally broke its May temperature record. The heat is expected to persist through the week, with a 35C peak forecast on Tuesday.

We would like to hear about what you love about the great outdoors

As summer comes and our gardens, parks and woodlands burst into life, many of us are heading outdoors.

Scientific evidence shows how vitally important greenery and the natural world are for our mental and physical wellbeing.

Wherever you’re planning to watch the matches – we’d like to hear from you

The men’s World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada is nearly upon us, kicking off on 11 June.

Amid the excitement around the tournament, there has been controversy over Fifa’s ticketing process, the cost of travel, and security concerns for fans travelling to the US.

The Pensions Commission said 15 million people were currently not saving adequately for their retirement

Fifteen million people are currently not saving enough for their retirement, according to the Pensions Commission, who have warned this could rise to as many as 19 million without action.

The independent group of experts warned as many as 45% of working-age adults were not saving into a pension at all, despite nearly half of them being in work.

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