German Doner Kebab aims to open at 25 new sites this year with self-service screens and healthy options aimed at gen Z

They are already packing our groceries and delivering shopping. Now robots are coming to the kebab shop, alongside self-service screens and loyalty apps, as takeaways look for ways to tackle rising costs.

German Doner Kebab (GDK), a perhaps surprisingly British-owned chain that has been springing up across the country, has turned to technology to keep its fast food business buzzing in the face of rising costs and tough times on the high street.

Royals have always prized their images as ways to assert their lineage and authority. Now this pathetic photograph will define the former prince

You will have seen the photograph by now: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly a prince, slumped in the back of a car outside Aylsham police station in Norfolk. His face is corpse-like – his lips tight, stare fixed, eyes turned red by the camera flash. It’s a far cry from Randy Andy, the handsome prince with the big teeth and the easy grin, whose face was once plastered on china cups and plates and commemorative tins, pressed into the soft metal of national affection.

Never the heir, but less of a spare than Harry somehow, Andrew’s face was once memorialised in the way that only royalty, Jesus and the saints were: endlessly reproduced as public property. Andrew’s face was part of his – and the royal family’s – brand; he was the warrior prince, the helicopter pilot, the man who had served. He had sweated for us, so much in fact, that he could never sweat again.

Dr Fay Bound-Alberti is a writer and professor of modern history at King’s College London. Her book The Face: A Cultural History is published by Allen Lane on 26 February

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From never arguing to knowing exactly what the other thinks, the signs your relationship is in trouble aren’t always obvious. Experts reveal what to watch for – and how to get the spark back

You would think this is a sign of perfect harmony. Not so if you have stopped arguing completely. “Stopping disagreeing isn’t a sign of peace, it points to emotional withdrawal,” explains Simone Bose, a relationship therapist at Relate. It happens, says Bose, because couples are “likely protecting themselves from feeling disappointed or from conflict itself, but are becoming emotionally numb”. Clinical psychologist and Couples Therapy star Dr Orna Guralnik agrees, noting that “some people don’t argue because they’ve come to a state of acceptance of who each other are, but some don’t argue because they’ve given up. It’s a cold, detached form of not arguing – a resignation.” For Oona Metz, a social worker, psychotherapist and the author of Unhitched: The Essential Divorce Guide for Women, “Couples who stop arguing even when they have major disagreements are on a collision course towards either an unhappy marriage or a divorce.” This is because “unresolved issues get swept under the rug and eventually come out in some other way”.

From the dire Hathaway and Franco double act to the charming Fey and Poehler combo, the choice of MC is vital to a show’s success. With Alan Cumming set to helm the Baftas on Sunday, here’s what he needs to know

No modern film awards show is complete without a wisecracking host, who has the tricky job of compering the evening, bringing people on and off stage in rapid succession, keeping a restless audience entertained, and coming up with a decent comedy routine themselves. Hence the attention that is paid to the annual announcement of the Baftas, Golden Globes and Oscars hosts; they are gigs that can flourish in the cultural memory, such as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s multiple turns at the Golden Globes, or become infamous, such as Anne Hathaway and James Franco’s double act at the Academy Awards in 2011, which saw them castigated as “children” and “spectacularly unwatchable” by the media.

In December, the Baftas announced that Scottish actor Alan Cumming was to host of the 79th edition of the event, which takes place on Sunday; he takes over from fellow actor and Scot David Tennant, who occupied the berth in 2024 and 2025. Tennant was given a middling review for his efforts last year by the Guardian’s Gwilym Mumford, who called him “a game host, a willing song and dance man, but he definitely needs more help from whoever’s writing his gags” – but that was glowing compared with the notices that arrived for Absolutely Fabulous star Joanna Lumley after her turn in 2019; in an article headlined “Is Joanna Lumley the worst Baftas host of all time?” the Guardian said: “Watching it on TV was excruciating. Not only were the jokes bad, but the Bafta audience responded with a total, ominous silence.” Following the Lumley debacle, Bafta managed to claw back some credibility by hiring Graham Norton in 2020 (“a safe pair of hands”) and a well-reviewed Rebel Wilson in 2022 (“rescues Baftas”).

Bravery on display has been inspirational, but behind the glamour and the glory it’s the humanity that captivates us

Milano Cortina has been the first Games where I’ve been around town, not just being whisked from the sliding centre to the athletes’ village. It has given me the chance to really be present and feel the excitement and anticipation that sport brings, not to mention the importance it has in giving us something else to focus on in difficult times.

As a TV pundit, it was hard to keep my emotions in check watching Great Britain’s skeleton success because I knew what it meant to Matt Weston and Tabby Stoecker to become Olympic champions – Matt twice, of course. Their achievements are not only historic but the day-to-day impact will be so meaningful to both of them. I remember seeing kids’ drawings of me and people dressing up as “Lizzy” and now I’m seeing it from a different perspective. I’m incredibly proud of them.

A group of largely authoritarian world leaders and a few observers joined Donald Trump in Washington for the inaugural meeting of the newly established Board of Peace. Guardian Europe reporter Jakub Krupa looks at who attended the organisation's first meeting and what it means for the future world order. The body was created to implement the US president's vision for Gaza’s future after the territory was destroyed by Israel, but Trump has widened its scope, calling it 'the most consequential international body in history'

• Troops for Gaza and money top agenda as Trump’s Board of Peace meets

• Authoritarians, strongmen and dictators: who is on Trump’s Board of Peace?

President called justices who blocked his tariffs a ‘disgrace to the nation’ while praising three justices who dissented

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump on Friday railed against the supreme court justices who blocked his use of tariffs, calling the decision a “disgrace to the nation” and claiming he planned to impose even more tariffs under other statutory authorities.

“It’s my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than people would ever think,” the president said during remarks from the White House. He cast that influence as social and cultural. “I’m ashamed of certain members of the court. Absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country.”

Officers being asked to ‘consider carefully whether anything they saw or heard’ may be relevant to review of Epstein files

Scotland Yard has announced it is expanding its inquiry into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor by approaching all his former protection officers and reviewing records of flights at London’s airports to see if they were used for human trafficking.

The disclosure by the Metropolitan police is separate to the inquiry that led to the former prince’s arrest on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office, but underlines the complex nature of the multiple investigations now focused on King Charles’s brother.

Exclusive: Nigel Farage understood to have known of grievance against byelection candidate, whose lawyer described it as resolved ‘minor workplace matter’ of miscommunication

Matt Goodwin, Reform UK’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection, was accused by a young woman working at GB News of making inappropriate comments which she viewed as sexually harassing, the Guardian can reveal.

The junior staffer complained to HR last year alleging Goodwin had made inappropriate comments, one regarding her appearance, sources say. Goodwin, 44, volunteered an apology after the complaint had been raised.

Nasrallah Abu Siyam shot dead in occupied West Bank as UN human rights office accuses Israel of war crimes

Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank shot and killed a Palestinian American man during an attack on a village, the Palestinian health ministry and a witness have said.

Raed Abu Ali, a resident of Mukhmas, said a group of settlers came to the village on Wednesday afternoon where they attacked a farmer, prompting clashes after residents intervened.

Narendra Modi’s thirst to supercharge economic growth is matched by US desire to inject AI into world’s biggest democracy

India celebrates 80 years of independence from the UK in August 2027. At about that same moment, “early versions of true super intelligence” could emerge, Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI, said this week.

It’s a looming coincidence that raised a charged question at the AI Impact summit in Delhi, hosted by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi: can India avoid returning to the status of a vassal state when it imports AI to raise the prospects of its 1.4 billion people?

Study set to delay recruitment after warning participants should be a minimum of 14 years old

A clinical trial into puberty blockers for children has been paused after the medicines regulator warned it should have a minimum age limit of 14 because of the “unquantified risk” of “long-term biological harms”.

Discussions between the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the trial sponsor, King’s College London, will begin next week to discuss the wellbeing concerns, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said on Friday evening.

Exclusive: David Blunkett and Estelle Morris among those calling plans a ‘once in a generation chance’ to fix system

Five former education secretaries have made a joint appeal to Labour MPs to back the overhaul of special education provision in English schools, calling it “a once in a generation chance” to fix a failing system.

The open letter is signed by David Blunkett, Estelle Morris, Charles Clarke, Ruth Kelly and Alan Johnson, who between them held the post for a decade from 1997.

Cherish Bean, 15, and Ethan Slater, 17, were discovered at a rental property in Little Eden Holiday Lodge Park on Wednesday

A teenage couple who died from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning at an East Yorkshire holiday park have been named by police.

Cherish Bean, 15, and Ethan Slater, 17, were discovered at a rental property at Little Eden holiday park, near Bridlington, on Wednesday.

Subspecies driven to extinction by hungry whalers returns after ‘back breeding’ programme using partial descendants

Giant tortoises, the life-giving engineers of remote small island ecosystems, are plodding over the Galápagos island of Floreana for the first time in more than 180 years.

The Floreana giant tortoise (Chelonoidis niger niger), a subspecies of the giant tortoise once found across the Galápagos, was driven to extinction in the 1840s by whalers who removed thousands from the volcanic island to provide a living larder during their hunting voyages.

Drawing on more than 100 interviews with senior intelligence officials and other insiders in multiple countries, this exclusive account details how the US and Britain uncovered Vladimir Putin’s plans to invade, and why most of Europe – including the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy – dismissed them. As the fourth anniversary of the invasion approaches and the world enters a new period of geopolitical uncertainty, Europe’s politicians and spy services continue to draw lessons from the failures of 2022

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been released under investigation after police questioned the former prince in relation to allegations he shared confidential material with Jeffrey Epstein. Officers searched Mountbatten-Windsor’s Sandringham residence as well as his former home at the Royal Lodge in Great Windsor Park after arresting him on Thursday. The former prince has denied any wrongdoing. But what were the police searching for and what could happen next? Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s police and crime correspondent, Vikram Dodd

The decision adds to economic uncertainty, as deals Donald Trump struck with other countries are upended

It is refreshing to witness the US supreme court recover its spine and stand up to Donald Trump’s most extreme caprices. The 6-3 decision on Friday to strike down his barrage of tariffs on imports from virtually everywhere based on the preposterous argument that they addressed national emergencies will reassure the world that the US’s system of government – based on the separation of powers, checks and balances, and the rule of law – has not collapsed entirely.

But let’s hold the (imported) champagne. The court’s ruling will not restore the United States to its former place as a reasonable, trustworthy player in the world economy. The rules-based economic architecture that underpinned the integration of the world economy over the decades that followed the second world war remains fractured. Trump is still intent on its disintegration. And he retains power to do so.

Campaign launched amid fears land in heart of Kent town that has been put up for sale could be turned into flats

Tunbridge Wells locals still talk about the time Arrested Development played at the minuscule music venue on the edge of its picturesque commons. The hip-hop stars enjoyed a picnic beside the spectacular rocky outcrop on the leafy 106 hectare (256-acre) common land in the heart of the Kent town.

“Now we want development arrested for the commons,” said John Barber, a local resident and the former chair of the Friends of Tunbridge Wells and Rusthall Commons charity.

She might have the same producer as Graham Norton, but will Claudia Winkleman’s new series succeed? Seasoned pros from Esther Rantzen to Kirsty Wark reveal their tips and tricks for creating interview gold

Claudia Winkleman’s new chatshow will land next month, and its enthusiast army are already excited. Winkleman herself, who doesn’t come off at all breathy, said: “I can’t quite believe it and I’m incredibly grateful to the BBC for this amazing opportunity.” Kalpna Patel-Knight, who commissioned The Claudia Winkleman Show, observed: “Claudia is a true national treasure – warm, witty and endlessly entertaining.” Graham Stuart, long-term producer/buddy of Graham Norton, who runs So Television, which produces both, said of his new venture: “How can you possibly follow [Graham Norton]? By booking a host equally as brilliant. So we have.”

And if anything proves how hard it is to create great chat, it’s those quotes. If anyone was ever that bland and blow-hard on one of their chatshow sofas, most TV people would punch themselves in the head. No wonder so many chatshows struggle when they first come out – it’s not that the expectation is too high, exactly, so much as the fanfare is too boasty. Brilliant as she is, then, the success of Claudia’s new series is far from given. But how exactly do you go about creating chatshow magic?

Amateur climber’s conviction over girlfriend’s death could put people off activity, say experts

• Climber convicted of manslaughter after leaving girlfriend on Austria’s highest peak to seek help

The decision of an Austrian court to convict an amateur climber of manslaughter after he had left his girlfriend behind to die on an Alpine peak in winter is certain to be examined closely throughout Europe.

In his decision in Innsbruck, the judge, Norbert Hofer – a climber, and an expert in Austrian law relating to the mountains – ruled that the “galaxies-wide” disparity in experience and skills between Thomas P and his late girlfriend Kerstin G meant he had been de facto acting as her mountain guide “as a favour” despite no financial arrangement having been involved.

British labels move focus from innovation to style as names drop off show schedule owing to financial pressure

“London fashion has leant too much into being theatrical. Drama is great, but style is a huge piece of why we buy fashion,” said Mario Arena, the creative director of Joseph, at its first catwalk show in eight years.

Arena has a subversive idea to re-energise London fashion week. More polish, less pantomime: clothes that sell, rather than clothes that scream.

Mopping floors, dressing up as kids’ entertainers and fishing unmentionable things from swimming pools: the Dyers’ new TV show sees them investing in a caravan park. Can they revive the UK’s love of them?

“You wouldn’t see Olivia Colman doing this bollocks would you?” jokes Danny Dyer as he clears up a dustbin at Priory Hill & Nutts Farm Holiday Park in Kent.

But over the past year – around filming the return of the hit Disney+ series Rivals – the actor, and his daughter Dani, have been spending weekends on the Isle of Sheppey, filming The Dyers’ Caravan Park (Sky One) in an attempt to boost the fortunes of Priory Hill and make caravanning cool.

Royal Exchange, Manchester
Director Selina Cartmell delivers a giddily theatrical take on Jim Cartwright’s slice-of-life portrait

Selina Cartmell’s vision for Jim Cartwright’s play is big. Too big to be contained within the regular loop of the auditorium, even when the director uses the full height of the in-the-round space, sending her actors up ladders and getting them to pop out from the upper level. More than that, before the show and in the interval, her production spills into the wider building.

Leslie Travers’s set is scattered like so much post-industrial debris into corners where, if you get there early and time it right, you will see actors perform sketches of working-class life: some pre-party preening; a boozy game of darts; a lost soul wandering with her shopping trolley.

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

There was a backlash when No 10 invited online content creators inside its doors. But in a fast-changing media landscape, this solves two problems at once

Last year, No 10 took an unprecedented step: it invited content creators to cross the threshold of Downing Street.

Naturally, the creators all filmed themselves outside the famous door. Once inside, their most treasured possessions, their phones, were taken from them and exchanged for government-approved devices, so they could continue to take photos and record video without breaching security guidelines. At the reception, creators from areas as wide as science, education and travel took part in a networking session at the heart of government.

Kirsty Major is a deputy Opinion editor for the Guardian

After speaking to locals, I still can’t predict the result, but a big, combined effort will be needed. Without a united front the left may splinter and lose

You don’t have to be in Gorton and Denton for long to know that next week’s byelection really matters. If Labour wins in what has been an over-50% solid red-voting area since the second world war, that will calm nerves on its febrile back (and front) benches. If Labour loses, heavy blame will fall on Keir Starmer for fixing the party’s ruling NEC to bar Andy Burnham’s selection, ensuring he couldn’t challenge for the leadership without a Westminster seat.

Few doubt the popular Greater Manchester mayor would have won next week in Gorton and Denton on his home patch. Blocking him is widely seen as grubby Westminster politicking that has weakened, not strengthened, Starmer’s grip on the leadership. For many erstwhile supporters that jiggery-pokery was a turning point, as Starmer seemed willing to risk Reform UK scoring another win in order to stop Burnham, though “stop Farage” has to be Labour’s overwhelming priority.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Western governments have put elite bargains before civilian lives. If El Fasher is to mean anything, this approach must change

The latest report from the UN independent fact-finding mission on the fall of El Fasher in Sudan reads like a postmortem of a preventable tragedy. The report details what it calls the “hallmarks of genocide”: mass killings, systematic sexual violence and ethnic cleansing targeting non-Arab communities by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The atrocities in El Fasher should have surprised no one in the international community. Western governments were warned repeatedly by civil society, humanitarian organisations, investigative journalists and their own agencies. In Britain, a whistleblower last year accused the Foreign Office of censoring internal warnings about imminent genocide. The US state department and members of the UN security council received continuous reporting from the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab documenting the RSF’s military buildup and preparations to overrun the city. Senior US officials warned the Biden administration that El Fasher was at imminent risk. A security council resolution in 2024 called for an end to the siege. None of this prevented the city from being strangled.

Husam Mahjoub is co-founder of Sudan Bukra, an independent non-profit Sudanese TV channel

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In a university ecosystem that breeds hunger for status, Epstein made scholars feel like celebrities

The Jeffrey Epstein story is often told as the intersection of two obsessions: sexual abuse and money. The recently released emails certainly contain significant evidence of both. But after more than two decades as a professor at Harvard, Cornell and Cambridge, I am most struck by the limitation of that frame – in part because it fails to explain why academics show up so consistently in these files.

Certainly, money played a role in Epstein’s university connections. A rich man using donations and access to burnish his ego and legitimacy is a well-worn script, from Andrew Carnegie’s libraries more than a century ago to Bill Gates’s more recent global health philanthropy. As a college drop-out, Epstein clearly craved “respect” from high-profile academics. Universities, meanwhile, are perpetually fundraising and institutions that rely on donations often avoid asking hard questions about where the money came from. As the Bard College president, Leon Botstein, put it when defending his Epstein connections: “Among the very rich is a higher percentage of unpleasant and not very attractive people.” Institutions sometimes learn to stop asking hard questions about where the money came from.

Christopher Marquis is the Sinyi professor of management at the University of Cambridge and author of The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profits and Socializes Costs

This age is already marked by a departure from the rational. Systemic failures to protect innocents and hold people accountable are adding even more fuel to the fire

Not so long ago, if you said there was a shadowy cabal of elites who were involved in the sex trafficking of young women and girls and that some of the most famous people in the world were allegedly involved, then you would have been dismissed as a conspiracy theorist.

On a certain level, it feels psychologically safe to “other” people who have conspiracy theories – Jon Ronson even wrote a book called Them about extremists and conspiracy theorists.

The youth minimum wage is set to rise over this parliament, but it’s putting off employers from hiring people into their first roles

When Keir Starmer was 14 years old, he got a part-time job clearing stones from a local farmer’s field. At 16, Kemi Badenoch was flipping burgers and cleaning toilets in McDonald’s. Me, I waitressed at weekends from the age of 15 in an Essex pub owned by an ex-paratrooper with two formidable rottweilers roaming behind the bar, which was a life lesson all of its own.

But whatever your first job may have been, there’s a reasonable chance it combined the thrill of hard cash with several mortifying mistakes and a crash course in handling stroppy customers, taking criticism more or less gracefully and moaning about it only out of earshot. Though teenage starter jobs have been in decline for decades – for reasons varying from academic pressures on sixth-formers to the rise of side hustles on Vinted that don’t show up in official statistics – everyone still has to start somewhere, even if it’s now more likely at 18 than 14. But getting that start is becoming harder than it was.

Joint patrols are being mounted to protect undersea cables from Russian sabotage: localised cooperation is our best hope for now

• Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council thinktank

When European countries in the Baltic Sea region joined Nato for protection against Russia, they were not anticipating their most powerful Nato ally would be the one threatening to seize territory from them. The shock of the Greenland crisis may have faded from the headlines, but Donald Trump’s US has also suggested it may decide not to defend Europe. And Russia continues to be a nuisance in the Baltic Sea.

Luckily, the vulnerable Baltic nations have launched an impressive string of initiatives to keep their mini-ocean safe. As the US sheds responsibility for Europe’s defence, these efforts could provide a model for the future of Nato itself.

Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council thinktank. She is the author of Goodbye, Globalization: The Return of a Divided World and The Defender’s Dilemma: Identifying and Deterring Gray-Zone Aggression

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As aid trickles into Gaza, Washington channels $10bn into a body chaired by the president. Peace in the region rests on law and sovereignty, not ego and brinkmanship

In Gaza, aid still trickles in at levels relief agencies say are far below what is required. Temporary shelters are scarce. Reconstruction materials are restricted by Israel’s controls on goods entering the territory. Conditions, say the UN, remain “dire”. The violence has not stopped: Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed about 600 people since the ceasefire began. The announcement that the US would transfer $10bn to President Donald Trump’s newly convened Board of Peace is hard to reconcile with the reality on the ground. Even worse is that Washington has paid only a fraction of its UN arrears – $160m against more than $4bn owed.

This raises the obvious question: why is a private initiative being capitalised so heavily while existing UN mechanisms remain severely cash-strapped? Funnelling state funds into a body chaired by Mr Trump suggests foreign policy is serving private interests, not the public good. The board has ambitious plans. Rafah is to be rebuilt within three years with skyscrapers. Gaza is to become self-governing within a decade. An International Stabilisation Force is expected to begin deployment, eventually numbering 20,000 troops. These are dramatic claims. But their delivery is largely notional.

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The decision to grant listed-building status to the brutalist arts complex was bold. Now artists need support to match it

The granting of Grade II-listed building status to the brutalist concrete Southbank Centre, comprising the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Hayward Gallery and Purcell Room, is a bold embrace by the government of this London landmark. It is also timely. Seventy-five years ago, the 1951 Festival of Britain transformed the South Bank. Of its buildings, only the Royal Festival Hall remains.

From its postwar beginnings, the South Bank has grown into a cultural landmark recognised far beyond London. The section of the Thames Path taking in the Southbank Centre, BFI cinemas, Royal National Theatre, Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe is the flourishing successor to the Victorian precinct of the Kensington museums and the Royal Albert Hall. The festival was designed to help the nation to recover from the traumatic years of the second world war, and to look forward to a better future. This month’s decision to protect the 1960s component of the Southbank Centre is a vindication of that vision of hope.

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Readers respond to an article by Lucy Pasha-Robinson about being shoved in the street by an angry man

Re Lucy Pasha-Robinson’s article (A man pushed me in the street, he wanted to teach me a lesson. Is that OK now?, 17 February), I noticed many years ago how almost all women move aside, unconsciously, out of the path of oncoming men. Sit at a cafe watching – it’s shocking once you realise that this happens all day every day.

I decided to challenge myself to hold my line when walking, and the results are amazing. Men simply presume I am going to move away, and look shocked at me when I don’t. Luckily for me, I am almost 6ft tall and in my 60s, so perhaps I am less vulnerable to the usual aggression. I look like I might verbally “hit back”.

Dr Dave Dawson and Paul Roberts advise on how to combat pigeon invasions – but Nicholas Milton says we should celebrate these remarkable birds and David Jobbins suggests letting nature takes its course

Your feature reminds us that debates over feral pigeons are not new (The Norwich pigeon wars: how birds are dividing a UK city, 17 February). They are the archetypical pest. I studied them as an introduced pest on crops of garden peas in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, in the 1960s, and again for Ken Livingstone, who misguidedly ignored pigeon friends in Trafalgar Square in the 2000s.

As an animal population ecologist, I asked why the pigeons’ repertoire made them so successful. They’re smart and mobile, flocking to each distant source of food and moving just far enough away to avoid harm when scared.

Readers respond to an editorial on the funding threats to a vital source of information and comfort provided by the BBC

Your editorial on the predicament facing the BBC World Service (The Guardian view on the BBC World Service: this is London calling, 13 February) rightly stresses the strategic importance of this national asset at a time when the global order is under unprecedented attack, not least from an erstwhile ally.

But some home truths need to be stated. It was the Conservative-Liberal coalition government that set in train the withdrawal of the bulk of government funding, previously provided through a grant-in-aid from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Is it too cynical to see this as not simply a desire for cost savings, but also as an attempt to saddle the domestic BBC with the burden of financing the World Service?

Prof Murray Gray on the origin of the boulders used in the sport of stone lifting, and Mo Heard on her great-great-great-grandfather’s work as a ‘ballast-getter’

Your article on the ancient sport of stone lifting in Ireland (14 February) didn’t explain the historic origin of the rocks. Most of these boulders are glacial erratics, eroded and transported by Irish ice sheets during which the rocks have their edges worn down as they grind against other rocks. This explains their rounded appearance.
Prof Murray Gray
Queen Mary University of London

• My great-great-great-grandfather, born in Ireland in 1824, was living in Wapping in 1861, working as a “ballast-getter”. Henry Mayhew’s London Labour and the London Poor (1851) said these were “men employed in raising ballast from the river by bodily labour … they are all very powerful men … mostly very tall, big-boned and muscular.”
Mo Heard
Bexhill, East Sussex

After stepping away from figure skating, the US star climbed back on her own terms. Her journey culminated in a medal, but it was about much more than that

Alysa Liu made her way through a mixed zone teeming with hundreds of reporters at a quarter past midnight early Friday morning, an Olympic gold medal draped around her neck, the sequins in her color-coordinated dress glimmering beneath the klieg lights and crush of television cameras. The 20-year-old from West Oakland had just become the first American woman to win figure skating’s biggest prize in 24 years, drilling seven clean triples to leapfrog a pair of Japanese rivals from third place after Tuesday’s short program and gatecrash her sport’s most rarefied air. But to hear Liu tell it, her second gold in 12 days was merely a passing footnote in a Milan fortnight she doesn’t want to end.

Liu’s carefree mindset should and will be studied in the weeks, months and years after these Olympics – especially these Olympics – as a counterpoint to the results-obsessed mindsets that have shattered the mental wellbeing of so many athletes thrust into the pressure-cooker of the world’s biggest sporting event. She spoke candidly and insightfully on how her unique journey from child prodigy to burnout case to second-act skater gave rise to an indifference to scores or placements. All she wanted in the end was a chance to make the US team and share her artistry on the world stage.

• Opponent’s blade slices above Kamila Sellier’s eye

• Polish skater was given stitches at arena

• Collision occurred during 1500m quarter-finals

Short-track speed skater Kamila Sellier of Poland was immobilized on a stretcher and wheeled out of the Milano Ice Skating Arena on Friday night after a competitor’s blade sliced her above her left eye during the women’s 1500m at the Milano Cortina Olympics.

Sellier went down along with 14-time Olympic medalist Arianna Fontana of Italy and American skater Kristen Santos-Griswold, who was penalized for an illegal lane pass that contributed to the accident. That kept Santos-Griswold from advancing through the quarter-final round.

• 31-year-old adds to his 2018 silver and 2022 bronze

• Estonia’s Sildaru, Canada’s Mackay round out podium

American freeskier Alex Ferreira won the men’s halfpipe final at the Milano Cortina Winter Games on Friday to complete his collection of Olympic medals.

The 31-year-old Ferreira won with a third and final run worth 93.75 points, adding the gold medal to his silver from Pyeongchang in 2018 and bronze from Beijing in 2022.

• Olympic freeski star was born in San Francisco

• VP suggested US-born athletes should compete for US

Olympic freeskier Eileen Gu has responded after vice-president JD Vance appeared to criticise her choice to represent China on the international stage instead of the United States.

With five medals, the 22-year-old Gu is the most decorated female freeskier in Olympic history. She won two golds and a silver at the 2022 Beijing Games and has claimed two silvers at the Milano Cortina Games, with one more medal event set for Saturday in the halfpipe.

Steve Borthwick needs a charge of electricity after the power cut in Scotland and team’s 21-year-old forward could fire up title challenge

The third weekend of the Six Nations used to be a time for contemplation and reflection. After the fury of the first two rounds, everything would stop for a much-needed fallow week in which to restore energy levels. And now? The battle-scarred gladiators are about to “go again”, putting their bodies on the line out on the pitch or, in the case of travelling supporters, in the pub.

Player welfare rules OK? That debate still rumbles on but certain other areas – fitness, mental resilience, squad depth – traditionally reserved for the tournament’s closing fortnight are increasingly front and centre. The rhythm of this year’s championship is subtly different, particularly for sides such as England with only two home fixtures. Slip up for a second successive Saturday and that’s it, folks, until November in terms of high-profile Twickenham opportunities.

Playmaker, out of favour under Mikel Arteta, has scored 18 of his 38 Premier League goals at business end of the season

Eberechi Eze was asked in an interview this week if there is a motto that he lives by and his answer was most revealing given how things have been going for him at Arsenal recently. “It’s not about now. It’s the long game,” he told the Men in Blazers podcast before Sunday’s north London derby.

Remaining patient has been a recurring theme throughout Eze’s career ever since he was released by Arsenal at 13 and then rejected by several other clubs before finding a home at Queens Park Rangers. Yet having made an immediate impression after a £67.5m dream move back to his boyhood club from Crystal Palace that peaked with a memorable hat-trick against Tottenham at the end of November, the goals have dried up completely as Mikel Arteta has seemingly lost faith in the England forward.

• Trainer Nicky Henderson shocked by Southwell victory

• ‘We will have to think long and hard about his future’

The mercurial career of Constitution Hill took a dramatic upward turn on Friday as the 2023 Champion Hurdle winner turned his belated Flat debut into a procession up the Southwell straight, coming home nine and a half lengths clear of the runner-up, with Oisin Murphy, the champion jockey, motionless in his saddle.

Even those closest to Constitution Hill were left astonished by his performance, which may make it increasingly likely that the champion jumping horse who had famously forgotten how to jump will now switch to racing on the Flat full-time.

• Lando Norris second fastest; Max Verstappen third

• Aston Martin completed just six laps after problems

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took the bragging rights with the quickest time at the final Formula One test before the season proper begins in Australia in just two weeks, while Aston Martin endured a horror show.

At the end of the final day of the third test, some of the cars were let off the leash to put in some runs on soft tyres with lower fuel loads and Leclerc looked very much at home as he hurled his Ferrari around the circuit in Bahrain. He set a time of 1min 31.992sec, eight-tenths clear of the second-placed McLaren of Lando Norris and a second up on Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ George Russell.

Fourth-tier team, the lowest-ranked left in the competition, and their Cup-winning manager are hoping to stun Birmingham

Old-school sweet dispensers stand tall pitchside at the Bauvill Stadium, almost as if watching the action. Behind them, Bobby’s bar is bustling and above the club logo on a wall behind one of the goals are four unmissable words: “If I can dream …” Helping to manifest that dream is the shiny Women’s FA Cup trophy, temporarily on display in the boardroom. The group of players who have just finished a day’s work are about to begin their training session at 8.30pm.

Chatham Town Women, the lowest-ranked side in the fifth round of the Women’s FA Cup and one of only two sides remaining from below the second tier, are preparing for the game of their lives, against big-spending Birmingham City at St Andrew’s on Saturday, live on television, vying for a place in the quarter-finals. Chatham cover their players’ expenses but do not pay football salaries, unlike their full-time opponents.

• Fans turned on manager during match on Thursday

• Club decide against change with big games coming up

Crystal Palace have decided against sacking Oliver Glasner despite his latest public outburst on Friday when the manager said he was “just not good enough” to turn around the club’s fortunes.

Glasner has announced he will leave Palace at the end of the season, but the club’s chair, Steve Parish, considered bringing forward the Austrian’s departure after supporters turned on the manager during Thursday’s 1-1 draw at Zrinjski Mostar in the Conference League. Parish is believed to have been disappointed with Glasner’s reaction in Friday’s press conference to preview Sunday’s home game against Wolves when the 51-year-old said he was unsure whether he would see out the season.

With Cheltenham fast approaching, the Ladbrokes Trophy Handicap at Kempton on Saturday provides a fascinating field

With pre-Cheltenham purdah fast approaching, the Ladbrokes Trophy Handicap Chase at Kempton on Saturday could well be the most competitive betting heat for the next two and a half weeks and Emmet Mullins’ decision to field two runners in the 13-strong field adds a further layer of complexity to the puzzle.

Mullins has a well-earned reputation for sliding contenders into handicaps at Cheltenham and Aintree on very competitive marks, but his Kempton record – three wins from five runners – is not too shabby either.

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So much for the glory game, for daring to do. For Tottenham Hotspur, this season’s highest aspiration – beyond an unlikely Bigger Cup triumph – now rests on That Lot From Down The Road/Woolwich FC (delete as applicable according to historical pettiness) blowing their title challenge again. Following Wednesday’s events at Wolves, the north London derby has now become AN EVEN BIGGER GAME. Igor Tudor, Tottenham’s new interim manager, has an instant chance to write himself into Spurs history. Or perhaps infamy. Winning the derby would be a dream holiday in other people’s misery, to misquote lifelong Gooner John Lydon. Arsenal’s collective collywobbles have permeated to their fans, a collective now wracked by anguish. A bit like the regulars in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, actually.

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Club’s relegation could be sealed at Bramall Lane on Sunday but long-term future is of most concern to supporters

When crisis intrudes into everyday lives, personal worlds shrink and important events are reduced to near irrelevance. Sheffield Wednesday supporters understand that better than most. They have endured so much misery for so long that even Sunday’s potential relegation-sealing Steel City derby has lost some of its old significance.

“If you win it’ll be like kicking a cat,” Dan Fudge, host of the Wednesday Week podcast and YouTube channel says to Nick Wylie from the Sheffield United Way in this week’s broadcast. “We’ve got bigger things to worry about than bragging rights.”

Completion of glass cross brings Antoni Gaudí’s church to maximum final height of 172.5m, 144 years after work began

The final piece of the central tower of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia has been laid in place, bringing the church to its maximum final height 144 years after work began.

After several days when it has been too windy to work, the upper section of the 17 metre-high four-sided steel and glass cross was winched into position at 11am on Friday, completing the tower dedicated to Jesus Christ. At 172.5 metres, the Sagrada Familia, to which the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí devoted the later part of his life, is Barcelona’s tallest building and the world’s tallest church.

Class-action suit accused Epstein’s lawyer and accountant of aiding and abetting his sex trafficking, filing says

Jeffrey Epstein’s estate has agreed to pay as much as $35m to resolve a class-action lawsuit that accused two of the disgraced financier’s advisers of aiding and abetting his sex trafficking of young women and teenage girls, according to a court filing.

Boies Schiller Flexner, a law firm representing Epstein victims, announced the settlement in a brief filed in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday.

Ex-investigations editor Paul Henderson says allegation he was link for corrupt private investigators is an ‘absolute lie’

A former Mail on Sunday journalist has denied being the “handler” of a private investigator alleged to have bugged homes and tapped the phones of his targets, the high court has heard.

Paul Henderson, who was the Mail on Sunday’s investigations editor and briefly its news editor, said it was surreal to be described as having a close relationship with Gavin Burrows, a private investigator whose disputed confessions provide the most serious accusations of unlawful information gathering against the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.

Administrator Jared Isaacman cites ‘major progress’ since earlier discovery of liquid hydrogen leaking from rocket

Nasa said on Friday it was planning to launch its delayed Artemis II moon mission on 6 March after successfully completing a fueling test that had caused it to stand down earlier this month.

Jared Isaacman, the space agency’s newly confirmed administrator, cited “major progress” since the original so-called wet dress rehearsal in which engineers discovered liquid hydrogen leaking from the space launch system (SLS) rocket on its Florida launchpad at Cape Canaveral.

Legislation responds to concerns that immigration officers could interfere with voting during November midterms

A bill introduced this week by California lawmakers would ban federal immigration agents from being stationed outside polling places, responding to concerns that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers could interfere with voting during the November midterm elections.

The legislation was introduced on Thursday by state senator Tom Umberg and co-authored by state senator Sabrina Cervantes. Umberg said the measure aimed to safeguard voters from “ruthless intimidation” near polling locations.

Environmental groups warn that weakening air toxics and mercury standards will lead to higher health-related costs

The Trump administration announced on Friday it would roll back air regulations for power plants limiting mercury and hazardous air toxics at an event in Kentucky, a move it says will boost baseload energy but that public health groups say will harm public health for the most vulnerable groups in the US.

Donald Trump’s EPA has said that easing the pollution standards for coal plants would alleviate costs for utilities that run older coal plants at a time when demand for power is soaring amid the expansion of datacenters used for artificial intelligence.

Kraków’s ban on burning solid fuels plus subsidies for cleaner heating has led to clearer air and better health

As a child, Marcel Mazur had to hold his breath in parts of Kraków thick with “so much smoke you could see and smell it”. Now, as an allergy specialist at Jagiellonian University Medical College who treats patients struggling to breathe, he knows all too well the damage those toxic gases do inside the human body.

“It’s not that we have this feeling that nothing can be done. But it’s difficult,” Mazur said.

C M Taylor’s book, which will raise funds for charity, follows teenagers whose favourite swim spot is contaminated

A water company discharges sewage into a river with impunity and the government fails to stop them. The story may sound familiar, but this one is different: there’s a satisfying comeuppance all round.

The ongoing saga of sewage being pumped into the Thames has inspired a new YA (young adult) novel, Floaters – and when its limited first edition is published later this month, 50% of all profits will go to the conservation and campaign charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS).

Government announces tougher measures to tackle unlicensed sites as ‘prolific waste criminal’ is ordered to pay £1.4m

A new 33-strong drone unit is being deployed to investigate the scourge of illegal waste dumping across England, the government has announced.

The improvements to the investigation of illegal waste dumping – which costs the UK economy £1bn a year – come as the ringleader of a major waste crime gang was ordered to pay £1.4m after being convicted at Birmingham crown court.

Under Shabana Mahmood’s proposals, wait for settled status would double to 20 years if public funds used while in work

Families claiming in-work benefits face giving them up and enduring hardship to avoid being “punished” under a planned government migration crackdown, experts have said.

More than 200,000 people living legally in the UK are on the 10-year route to settled status, which requires legal migrants to renew 30-month visas four times – at a cost of £3,908.50 including healthcare costs per renewal – before they can apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR).

ONS tells broadcaster that depiction risks undermining interviewers’ ‘delicate relationship’ with the public

Best known for its depiction of City traders as drug-addled, sex-crazed adrenaline junkies, the BBC hit series Industry has unexpectedly attracted criticism for its portrayal of doorstep data collectors.

The head of the Office for National Statistics has written to the BBC criticising a recent episode in which characters falsely impersonate ONS employees on someone’s doorstep.

Exclusive: Josh Simons pressed intelligence officials to investigate reporters, in emails described as ‘McCarthyite smear’

A Labour minister who claimed to be “surprised” and “furious” at a PR agency’s work to investigate journalists on his behalf had been personally involved in naming them to British intelligence officials and falsely linking them to pro-Russian propaganda, the Guardian can reveal.

Josh Simons, who was running the thinktank Labour Together at the time, was also involved in telling security officials that another journalist was “living with” the daughter of a former adviser to Jeremy Corbyn. Officials were told by Simons’ team that the former adviser was “suspected of links to Russian intelligence”.

Man in 60s also faces charges of raping and sexually assaulting his wife over period of 20 years

A man has appeared in court accused of conspiring with others to drug his wife and rape her while she was unconscious.

The man, in his 60s and from the Stockport area of Greater Manchester, is also charged with raping and sexually assaulting his wife over a 20-year period.

New head will face decisions crucial to movement’s future, such as how far to cooperate with Trump’s Gaza plan

Hamas has reportedly begun holding leadership elections among its members at a time when the militant Palestinian movement faces imminent decisions which will be critical to its own continued existence and the potential for peace in Gaza.

According to the BBC and press reports in the Gulf, Hamas members in Gaza have already voted. Those in the West Bank, in Israeli prisons and the diaspora are also expected to cast ballots for delegates to the movement’s 50-member general Shura council, which ultimately chooses its politburo and a new interim leader. The process could last weeks.

Reported issues at Amazon Web Services raise questions about firm’s use of artificial intelligence as it cuts staff

Amazon’s huge cloud computing arm reportedly experienced at least two outages caused by its own artificial intelligence tools, raising questions about the company’s embrace of AI as it lays off human employees.

A 13-hour interruption to Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) operations in December was caused by an AI agent, Kiro, autonomously choosing to “delete and then recreate” a part of its environment, the Financial Times reported.

Authorities suspect renowned astronomer Carl Grillmair was shot by 29-year-old man arrested for nearby carjacking

A renowned California Institute of Technology (Caltech) scientist who studied distant planets and other areas of astronomy for decades was recently shot to death at his home in a rural community outside Los Angeles, authorities said.

Carl Grillmair, 67, died from a bullet wound to the torso on Monday in Llano, an unincorporated community in the Antelope Valley, according to information from the LA county medical examiner’s office. The county sheriff’s department said it had arrested a suspect in Grillmair’s slaying, identifying him as 29-year-old Freddy Snyder.

Dozens of the animals in Chiang Mai region first began to show signs of illness earlier this month

A highly contagious virus is believed to have caused the deaths of 72 captive tigers in northern Thailand this month, with officials racing to contain the outbreak.

Teams are urgently disinfecting enclosures and preparing to vaccinate surviving animals.

Chip manufacturer to invest in return for stock after previous ‘circular’ $100bn deal dissolved earlier this month

Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, is reportedly planning to invest $30bn (£22bn) in OpenAI’s next funding round, after a $100bn deal between the two dissolved earlier this month.

The maker of ChatGPT is expected to be valued at $730bn in the funding round, almost twice the valuation of Anthropic, one of its main rivals, which raised $30bn earlier this month.

French utility company EDF says operations in Somerset will start a year later as delay costs firm €2.5bn

Britain’s first new nuclear plant in a generation at the Hinkley Point C site will face further delay, at a cost of €2.5bn to the French utility company EDF.

EDF said the first reactor at the site in Somerset will begin operations in 2030, a year later than planned – almost 13 years after construction work began – after a series of delays to the project.

Record public finances accompany stronger retail sales and business activity but some analysts express caution

The economic backdrop to Rachel Reeves’s upcoming spring statement appeared to brighten on Friday after a trio of reports painted a better-than-expected picture of the UK economy.

Record monthly public finances, a surge in retail spending and accelerating business activity offered the most coherent picture of recovery since last autumn, economists said, and provided the chancellor with a more positive narrative before her 3 March statement.

Global Counsel stops trading after clients cut ties over former ambassador’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein

The consultancy co-founded by Peter Mandelson has collapsed into administration, after a number of clients cut ties with the company over the former ambassador’s relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Global Counsel, which Mandelson co-founded in 2010, said on Friday that it had stopped trading and its staff in the UK were being made redundant.

Fans celebrate unmatched talent on screen, while those who met the actor in person remember his kindness

Another one of the greats has passed. What a career. I sincerely believe Duvall was the best actor in a generation of best actors: De Niro, Pacino, Hoffman, Nicholson and more. What made Robert stand above these other figures was how he disappeared into a part. There was no Duvall persona. He was invisible. There were just the characters he played. He could do loud and angry – see his sublime turns in The Great Santini or his seminal Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now. Yet I loved his quieter performances more, which would slowly sneak up on you, pull you close and then blow you away with the brilliance of his choices and the risks he took.

The actor, comedian and raconteur, who would have turned 100 on Sunday, could play humble or haughty, cheeky or Chekhov – but always stole the show

When standup comic Tom Allen received Attitude magazine’s comedy award last year, he used his acceptance speech to salute the subversive wits who paved the way for freedoms now enjoyed by queer people in Britain. Joining Oscar Wilde and Noël Coward on the list was an actor and raconteur singled out by Allen as “a big hero of mine”, and feted by everyone from Orson Welles to Judy Garland, Maggie Smith to Morrissey.

“I wanted to mention Kenneth Williams because he was so profound,” Allen tells me. “And yet, because he was also funny, that profundity hasn’t been acknowledged. As a child, I connected with his outsiderness. Rather than trying to fit in, he went in the opposite direction. Not only did he not apologise for being different, but he was queer in every sense, truly at odds with the world in which he found himself.”

By portraying the young woman Heathcliff abuses as a sexily willing participant in her own degradation, Fennell’s adaptation betrays the book, and her audience

Tragedy is the beating heart of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights; it’s a gothic novel that takes place in a society built on hierarchy and oppression, and exposes the fragility of love and how easily it is distorted into dangerous obsession. Unsurprisingly, there is no happy ending.

Although every character in the novel is stalked by tragedy, few suffer as much as Isabella Linton. Unaware of Heathcliff’s vindictive motives, she becomes trapped in an intensely abusive marriage, one she is only freed from by fleeing to London. While she is undoubtedly a victim, in the end the character also has agency; Isabella is able to escape her abuser, though not without considerable scars. It’s a pivotal moment for her character, and one that she’s been stripped of in Emerald Fennell’s quote-unquote “adaptation”.

Anthony Chen offers up a forthright but warm film that navigates romantic crises and Singapore’s infatuation with the rich

The warmth, richness and approachability of this lovely film from Singaporean director Anthony Chen, a graduate of Britain’s National Film and Television School, returns him to the family drama style of his 2013 debut Ilo Ilo; with care and connoisseurship, he again draws on the influences of Edward Yang and Tsai Ming-liang, but Chen’s instincts are less oblique. He dots the I’s and crosses the T’s; the film-making is forthright and wholehearted though not unsubtle.

The film is set in Singapore, criticising the city-state’s conformism and infatuation with the rich and western prestige, and satirically showing the high-wire dangers of its entrepreneurialism, as attempted by the poor. Koh Jia Ler plays Junyang, a goofy, good-natured but shiftless twentysomething guy who lives with his widowed father Boon Kiat (Andi Lim) in a cramped rented flat. Junyang is about to finish his military service and now needs to figure out what to do with his life – but he certainly doesn’t to work on his dad’s noodle stall, that humble business that puts food on their table. His girlfriend Lydia (Regene Lim) is far more aspirational, a gifted pianist with her sights set on university. Lydia’s stern, churchgoing single mother – hardened by her own husband walking out on them both – does not approve of Junyang one bit.

As the film-makers behind the seemingly neverending river of Tolkien adaptations seek to wring every last drop of story from Middle-earth, it risks running the whole thing into the ground

Now in his 80s, Ian McKellen appears to have taken a strategically sedentary route for his appearance as Gandalf the Grey in the next year’s Lord of the Rings weird-quel The Hunt for Gollum. You’ve probably heard about this thing: it’s the new movie that’s based on bits and pieces of JRR Tolkien’s esteemed high-fantasy epic that were only mentioned in passing during the three original three-hour movies, and didn’t get much more of a mention in the extended cuts that came out later.

In the original novels, Gandalf reveals to hobbit Frodo Baggins that he and Aragorn, AKA Strider, AKA the future King of Gondor and Arnor, searched for decades for the creature Gollum in an effort to find out what might have happened to the ring he once held. In the new movie, though, things will be different. According to McKellen, Aragorn will take charge of the quest to find Gollum, while Gandalf will operate more like a wizardly mission controller. “The script is designed to appeal to people who like Lord of the Rings,” McKellen told the Times. “It’s an adventure story, Aragorn trying to find Gollum with Gandalf directing operations from the sidelines.”

“Before the Fellowship, one creature’s obsession holds the key to Middle-earth’s survival – or its demise. In The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, we meet young Sméagol – an outsider drawn to trinkets and mischief – long before The One Ring consumed him and began his tragic descent into the tortured, deceitful creature Gollum. With the ring lost and carried away by Bilbo Baggins, Gollum finds himself compelled to leave his cave in search of it.

Gandalf the Grey calls upon Aragorn, still known as the ranger Strider, to track the elusive creature whose knowledge of the whereabouts of the ring could tip the balance toward the Dark Lord Sauron. Set in the shadowed time between Bilbo’s birthday disappearance and the Fellowship’s formation, this perilous journey through Middle-earth’s darkest corners reveals untold truths, tests the resolve of its future king, and explores the fractured soul and backstory of Gollum, one of Tolkien’s most enigmatic characters.

A witty, optimistic tale of a father-daughter bond. Plus, a fascinating documentary about an ex-Beatle’s attempt to find himself as a solo artist

Charlotte Regan’s delightful debut feature takes a slice of social realism and gives it a topping of whimsical wit and touching optimism. Lola Campbell is a real find as 12-year-old Georgie, who secretly lives by herself on her east London estate after her mum’s death, stealing bikes with best mate Ali (Alin Uzun) to pay her way. She’s a resourceful, artful dodger so is mightily put out when her long-absent dad, Jason (Harris Dickinson), turns up to take care of her. The development of a parental bond is slow and painful: Jason struggles with the mysteries of fatherhood, while Georgie – despite her brave front – is still wrapped up in grief. With this charmer of a drama, Regan is one to watch.
Friday 27 February, 11pm, BBC Two

Puerto Rican singer sells out concerts in Portuguese-speaking Brazil with breakthrough ‘anti-American agenda of emancipation’

There is a saying in Brazil that Brazilians realise they are Latin only when they travel to the US or Europe.

Among the many reasons for this is that the largest country in Latin America is also the only one in the region where Portuguese is spoken rather than Spanish.

The 22-year-old singer is up for two Brit awards thanks to her frank songs about family strife and predatory men. She explains why she’s fighting for her fellow council estate kids

Although she is on course for pop stardom, with two nominations at next week’s Brit awards, 22-year-old Skye Newman lives in a cabin at the bottom of her sister’s garden in London. It’s the backdrop for the music video to her song Hairdresser, which has 7.5m views on YouTube. In the clip, she is made up, her hair in rollers, lounging with a gaggle of friends. Licking her fingertips to roll a joint, she laments a one-sided friendship with another woman: “When I’m needed, know I’ll be there first / You don’t reciprocate and, girl, that hurts.”

It’s typical of Newman’s songcraft: ballad-driven contemporary soul that goes beyond romantic heartbreak to cover all kinds of pain and recrimination.

The enigmatic Bradford producer is moving into eerie new territory informed by folklore and delivered with a tangibly menacing low end

From Bradford, UK
Recommended if you like Adrian Sherwood, Kris Baha, Guerilla Welfare
Up next New EP Don’t Forget the Ritual released on 28 February

Miles J Paralysis maintains a low profile, with just a handful of releases available on Bandcamp and a sparse, faceless Instagram presence. The enigma suits the music he has been making and sharing under the alias since early last year: dark, dubby and complete with obscure vocal samples and titles such as Always Liked Scarecrows and Cursed Moor.

(Cuculi)
The Bristol-based folk ensemble travel widely on their first album, exploring global influences with sparkling, springlike warmth

Hedera are a band of five tightly knit friends – violinist Lulu Austin, violin/viola player Maisie Brett, violinist/double bassist Beth Roberts, accordionist/harpist Tamsin Elliott, and clarinettist Isis Wolf-Light – named after the Latin botanical term for ivy. The group’s debut album combines influences from Bulgaria to Bali, Ireland to Georgia, and establishes its mood of knotted, hypnotic locked groove from its opening track, Sterretjie (named after an Afrikaans word for the coastal tern bird, which also means “little stars”). Brett’s violin passes the track’s melody to Wolf-Light’s clarinet and Elliott’s accordion with a bright, sparkling swiftness.

Many other moments of joy, lithe and spring-like, lift these 12 tracks. Roberts’ waltz about a Cornish meadow, Mayflies in June, travels from minor key to major and back again, buoyed along by Elliott’s harp-playing. (Elliott similarly impressed on 2023’s So Far We Have Come, her Anglo-Egyptian album with oud player Tarek Elazhary.) Sekar Jagat (Balinese for “flower of the universe”) twitches sweetly into life on prepared harp and plucked strings, then makes hay with a melody originally written for gamelan; on Shen Khar Venakhi, a 1,000-year-old Georgian hymn that survived Soviet purges, all five women’s voices join together in a dense, glowing mass.

The Barbecue at No 9 by Jennie Godfrey; A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage by MK Oliver; A Bad, Bad Place by Frances Crawford; Holy Boy by Lee Heejoo; A Stranger in Corfu by Alex Preston

The Barbecue at No 9 by Jennie Godfrey (Hutchinson Heinemann, £16.99)
Most of the action in Godfrey’s second novel takes place during the Live Aid concert on 13 July 1985, at a barbecue hosted by the Gordon family in a new-build cul-de-sac in an unspecified part of England. As neighbours arrive and music plays, we gradually learn the backstories of the main characters, from teenage Hanna, who is planning to run away from her pale, preoccupied father and house-proud, socially ambitious mother, to mysterious Rita, newly arrived from Australia to begin a new life, and shell-shocked ex-soldier Steve, whose paranoia is exacerbated by the shadowy figure watching the street. Like Godfrey’s debut, The List of Suspicious Things, this is not so much a whodunnit as a wonderful slow-burn story about friendship, community, and secrets within families, the choices we make and the lies we tell to protect ourselves and others, with the bonus of a terrific built-in soundtrack and a nostalgic vibe.

A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage by MK Oliver (Hemlock, £16.99)
Former headteacher Oliver’s first novel centres on yummy mummy Lalla Rook, who lives with her banker husband Stephen and their young children Nelly and Nathan in the leafy north London suburb of Muswell Hill. It’s a privileged existence, but Lalla, who is not only admirably resourceful but also manipulative and utterly lacking in empathy, has her eye on a larger house in considerably pricier Hampstead as well as a place at an exclusive school for Nelly, who is already demonstrating that the antisocial apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Murder, body disposal, blackmail – Lalla will stop at nothing to achieve her ends, but things get complicated when it begins to looks as if the intruder she dispatched with a kitchen knife minutes before the start of four-year-old Nathan’s birthday party was trying to uncover her murky past. Told with gusto, plus wonderfully twisty plotting and lashings of lifestyle porn, this satirical thriller is the perfect antidote to the winter blues.

Leaving behind Cumbria for Oxford in the late 1950s, Bragg navigates class and culture in a world on the brink of change

It’s October 1958, and a nearly 19-year-old Melvyn Bragg is on the platform at Wigton railway station, saying goodbye to his childhood sweetheart, Sarah. He is off to read history at Wadham College, Oxford, one of the youngest in his cohort because national service is being phased out. Another World starts here, picking up the story left off in Back in the Day, Bragg’s previous memoir about his childhood and youth in this small Cumbrian town.

Oxford to Bragg seems “more a theatre than a city, a spectacle rather than a habitation”. After his prelims, the weeding-out exams in his second term, he is left alone until his finals. He discovers Ingmar Bergman and has many earnest pub conversations about whether Pasternak will get the Nobel prize, or jazz is superior to rock’n’roll. He goes on the Aldermaston march and joins the anti-apartheid movement – although in hindsight he sees this as inspired by a residual faith in empire, with South Africa as Britain’s moral responsibility. Even after Suez, he owns a pencil sharpener in the shape of a globe on which the empire is “a continuous governing blur of pink”.

The Bulgarian Booker winner on the letter he wrote to JD Salinger, the allure of Homer’s Odyssey and the magic of Thomas Mann

My earliest reading memory
I was taught to read quite early, at five or six, probably so that I would sit quietly and not be a nuisance to the adults. And it worked. Once I’d entered a book, I didn’t want to come out. I remember how Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl turned my heart upside down. I was living with my grandmother at the time, and I cried under the blanket, terrified that one day she, too, would die.

My favourite book growing up
I read greedily and indiscriminately, picking books at random from my parents’ library. Thomas Mayne Reid’s adventure novels were favourites, especially The Headless Horseman. Jack London’s Martin Eden, too. Clearly, the idea of being both a hero and a writer appealed to me. Writers were not usually heroes. I also loved a textbook on criminology, which explained how to make invisible ink, what traces criminals leave behind, and so on – matters of extraordinary importance to any 10-year-old boy.

The dark past of a seemingly perfect couple is gradually revealed in this observant debut of obsession and control

Glimpse them chatting in a restaurant or posing on Instagram, and you might think they have it all. The pair live in London but often travel, drawing the eyes of other guests, their skin glowing, their limbs artfully at ease. She writes affirmations on hotel stationery; he claims to taste notes of bark and tobacco in his chianti. As Sean Gilbert’s dark, observant debut opens in Istanbul, this apparently perfect couple bicker and sweat, for secrets lurk behind their facade – and one of them might be murder.

An unexpected reunion gets their sightseeing off to a shaky start. The unnamed narrator and his wife, Elle, have not seen Benny for 15 years when they cross paths outside the Hagia Sophia. An irksome university acquaintance who has become a second-rate rapper, Benny has the grip of a limpet. As the trio browse stalls and pull on saliva-slicked shishas, talk turns to the past.

The updated QuickShot II brings retro gameplay into the modern era while preserving the no-frills button smashing and endearing flaws that fans loved

Nostalgia is big in the modern games industry. It’s ironic that the most technologically obsessed art form on the planet is just as watery-eyed about the past as cinema and music. And to prove it here is the new version of the legendary QuickShot II, a plasticky joystick from the early 1980s that wasn’t even that good the first time round. It was, however, cheap and it resembled an actual fighter plane control stick with its multiple fire buttons and ergonomic shaft. If you wanted a rugged and precise controller you’d go for the Competition Pro, but that one didn’t let you pretend to be in Star Wars or Airwolf. Plus, the QuickShot II had suckers on its base so you could stick it to your cockpit control panel – sorry, I mean MDF computer table.

The new QuickShot II from Retro Games and Plaion Replai is almost an exact replica in terms of its dimensions. You can grasp it in your fist and wrap your thumb and forefinger around its large red buttons. Yes, you can stick it to your table; the designers have even included the original auto-fire switch at the rear for players who weren’t prepared to hit the fire button repeatedly while playing Green Beret.

Nintendo Switch 2; Nintendo
This ruthlessly competitive game will have everyone from your granny to semi-pros trying to set fire to their opponent’s side of the court with powered-up ‘fever rackets’

Tennis has been a regular hobby of Mario’s for the past 30 years, beginning with the headache-inducing Mario’s Tennis on the Virtual Boy and most recently resurfacing as the surprisingly complex Mario Tennis Aces on the Switch. Now he’s back in his whites (and reds) with a charming new take on the sport that dials back the difficulty level and adds lots of fun modes and features, aiming to appease complete newcomers and Djokovic-esque veterans.

At first, the range of options is almost bewildering. You can opt to play in one-off matches with up to three other players or NPCs, or enter a more structured tournament of singles or doubles play. Then there’s the extremely fun Mix It Up, which offers a range of fun tennis derivatives. These include Forest Court where piranha plants appear and gobble any balls that get close, and Pinball where bumpers and barriers pop up as you play. Trial Towers, meanwhile, presents a tower of increasingly tough tennis challenges which all have to be completed to open the next two buildings; fail more than three times and you’re sent back to the beginning – yes, it’s Mario Tennis: The Roguelike.

Milano Cortina​ has cutting‑edge replays, chase‑cam drones and exuberant commentary ​bringing a wave of unexpected nostalgia for anyone who grew up on 90s extreme‑sports games

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As someone whose childhood holidays consisted of narrowboating along the Grand Union canal or wandering the harbour-side at Whitby looking for vampires, I have never been on a skiing break. The idea of plummeting down a hill on anything but a plastic sledge is totally alien to me. And yet, my wife and I have been gripped by the Winter Olympics, especially the snowboarding and freestyle skiing events. And I think I know why. Those events are really channelling the look and feel of the wintery sports sims I’ve always loved – especially those that arrived during a golden period in the mid-1990s.

This was the era in which snowboarding was exploding in popularity, especially among twentysomethings with disposable incomes and no responsibilities – which coincidentally was the games industry’s target market at the time. Perhaps the first title to take advantage of this trend was Namco’s 1996 arcade game Alpine Surfer, which challenged players to stand on a snowboard-shaped controller and swoop as quickly as possible down a mountainside – it was one of the most physically exhausting coin-ops I ever played. Later that year came the self-consciously hip PlayStation sim Cool Boarders, and then in 1998, my absolute favourite, 1080° Snowboarding on the N64, with it’s intuitive analog controls and incredibly authentic sound effects of boards cutting through deep, crisp snow.

We explore the cosy world-building spin-off with Game Freak’s Shigeru Ohmori and his fellow developers – and learn how it began with a Pokémon-hunting dream

Pokémon is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month, and everybody knows what to expect from these games by now. The concept is simple: head into a cartoonish paradise full of whimsical creatures, capture them in red-and-white balls and assemble a team of warriors from them, before battling other aspiring Pokémon masters. But the latest entry in the series is different – a game that’s more about building than battling.

In Pokopia, a refreshingly pacific twist on the series, players are dropped into a virtual world where Pokémon are freed from their spherical prisons and happily roam their natural habitats. There’s one minor caveat – you have to create those habitats by hand, building them from what you can find.

Yin Xiuzhen builds cities from donated clothing while Chiharu Shiota weaves found objects into vast webs of thread. Now the two are exhibiting their massive, moving installations in two parallel exhibitions

These clothes are not “secondhand”, says Yin Xiuzhen, the Beijing-born artist known for creating large-scale installations out of found garments and keepsakes. “I prefer to call them ‘used’ or ‘worn’,” she explains. “Clothes that have been ‘worn’ carry a lot of information … like a second skin, imprinted with social meaning.” In some of Yin’s works the clothes are her own, telling a personal story. In others, the clothes are collected, stained and stretched across towering steel frames resembling planes, trains or organic forms.

Yin is showing a selection of these works in Heart to Heart, an exhibition occupying the lower floor of London’s Hayward Gallery. “Worn clothing acts as a narrator in my work … the lived experience is embedded in the fabric,” she says.

Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
After a book, a film and a Ted Talk, William Kamkwamba’s heroically inventive response to floods, drought and starvation is now delivered with energetic songs and dancing

William Kamkwamba’s extraordinary story has been told many times. It deserves to be heard again, for its remarkable feat of resourcefulness, prodigious child’s intelligence and great, against-the-odds narrative arc. A Malawian boy living through a climate of floods and drought that left his village facing famine, he built a wind turbine out of scraps, as a 13-year-old, to life-saving effect for his community.

Following Kamkwamba’s memoir, co-written with Bryan Mealer, and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s film, along with a much viewed and celebrated Ted Talk by Kamkwamba, this musical version of the story is its own distinct thing. Directed by Lynette Linton, it is an exuberant creation, filled with warm light, humour, a gorgeous grass-roofed set design by Frankie Bradshaw as well as vivid costumes (patterned fabric, bright colours, great headdresses) and vibrant African sounds and movement.

Milton Court, London
The pianist’s recital was a masterful essay in sound where the Hungarian composer’s short piano works were woven into and out of Debussy, Liszt and Bach

You could mark György Kurtág’s 100th birthday with one of the Hungarian composer’s large-scale works – the monumental 1994 elegy Stele, his Beckett-based debut opera Fin de partie (premiered in 2018 when the composer was 92), or the violent surrealism of 2003’s Concertante – but that would risk misunderstanding the genius of “the master of the miniature”, a musician at his truest in economy, brevity, provisionality. Luckily, pianist Tamara Stefanovich had something else in mind.

Titled Labyrinth, Stefanovich’s recital proposed an essay in sound in which Kurtág’s short piano works (many from ongoing series Játékok) were woven into and out of works by Debussy, Liszt and JS Bach. Performing this 90-minute cycle without pause, smudging the edges between pieces, Stefanovich paid homage to a composer whose sound world is alive with musical ghosts, drawing out its echoes and exposing its palimpsests.

Catalonia’s most celebrated son kicks off his centenary in style, Derek Walcott energises his friend Doig and the Colombian great gets her first UK retrospective – all in your weekly dispatch

Beatriz González
A survey of this Colombian political painter and mixed media artist who died in January.
• Barbican, London, from 25 February to 10 May

Actor who set pulses racing as Mark Sloan – nicknamed McSteamy – in the TV medical drama Grey’s Anatomy

The American actor Eric Dane, who has died of motor neurone disease aged 53, found fame and sex-symbol status as the brilliant plastic surgeon Mark Sloan in the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, which went to the top of the TV ratings in the US and attracted big audiences worldwide.

The character first appeared in 2006, in the second series of the show, as a one-off visitor to the fictional Seattle Grace hospital, to which his former best friend, the neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd (played by Patrick Dempsey), had moved following Mark’s affair with his wife. Mark’s flirting with Derek’s new girlfriend, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), leads his old pal to punch him in the face.

It caused a scandal in imperial Russia, then became a staple of popular art in the USSR. But when I spied a copy of Ivan Kramsky’s portrait in the film Sentimental Value, it opened a door to an untold case of life imitating art

Sentimental Value is one of those films you have to watch very closely. In the Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s latest work, which swept the board at the European film awards and is nominated for eight Baftas and nine Oscars, stories are hidden in closeups, half-tones and peripheral objects. Some of these stories are so well hidden, in fact, that they aren’t even apparent to the people who made the film.

In one scene, roughly an hour in, the camera glides down a corridor, and suddenly there she is: a woman’s portrait on the wall. Anyone who grew up in the Soviet Union and later Russia between the 1950s and 2000s, like me, would recognise her instantly. She has been endlessly reproduced: as prints, embroideries, portrait medallions, even on boxes of chocolates. In Britain, people may have encountered her on the covers of various editions of Anna Karenina.

Jazz musician whose virtuosic abilities with the clarinet and tenor saxophone straddled traditional and modern jazz

The principal claim to jazz fame of Ken Peplowski, who has died suddenly aged 66, came from his mastery of the clarinet, an instrument that seemed to struggle for a role once bebop became the lingua franca of the genre. Clarinettists who could cope with both the harmonic and technical demands of this more advanced genre were rare, as were opportunities, so much so that Peplowski seemed destined to follow a more traditonal route in Dixieland jazz, where good clarinet players were still in demand.

Having arrived in New York as a 21-year-old from Cleveland, Ohio, and with a considerable reputation, he threw off these restrictions and flourished. His solo career blossomed, nationally and internationally, so much so that the BBC’s Russell Davies described him as “arguably the greatest living jazz clarinettist”, the evidence captured on over 70 “name” albums, and many more on which Peplowski appeared as a sideman.

Twenty-three years ago, a collective of 24 photographers agreed to document New Year’s Day for the following 24 years. Each artist has been given one hour to document, advancing by one hour each year, creating a cumulative, time-shifting narrative

• This year’s exhibition will run for 24 days from 21 February to 16 March in Soho Square, London

I cut small trees around Offa’s Dyke, then shape the wood by hand

I never wanted to be part of an unsustainable society. I’ve always tried to live as peaceful a life as I can, outside the big cities. Now I am the last person left in England making clogs by hand. I spend most days in my studio in Kington, Herefordshire, carving green sycamore wood that I collect myself, hand-dyeing the leather and making sure the soles are as near perfect a match to someone’s foot as possible. I don’t think you can have a more peaceful life than that.

I grew up in Ceredigion, surrounded by sheep. There were no jobs in the area and in 1976 I had to go on benefits. I developed extreme anxiety after breaking up with my first girlfriend. Convent schooling and boys’ boarding schools weren’t the best places to learn to develop relationships and I needed to find something therapeutic to do.

​T​he backwards cap, a 90s accessory once dismissed as juvenile​, is emerging as the latest shorthand for laid‑back confidence

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Within the first 20 minutes of Love Story, Ryan Murphy’s new take on the often tumultuous relationship between John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette, the youngest son of the former US president is depicted wearing five different caps. They include a Kangol flat cap as he cycles to a newspaper kiosk in uptown NYC to read the latest headlines about himself, a Yankees cap as he runs topless on a treadmill and a navy baseball cap as he joins his mother, Jacqueline, for dinner, where she promptly reminds him “no hats at the table, please”.

For Kennedy Jr, hounded by the paparazzi and tabloid press who nicknamed him “The Hunk” and more often than not “The Hunk Who Flunked”, you might think this penchant for peaked caps was thanks to the fact that they let him go somewhat incognito. But he preferred to wear his backwards, pulling the cap downwards over his signature flop of lush black hair, and leaving his full face on view.

If you’re aiming to heat the human, not the home – or just love snuggling under something cosy – these are our best buys from our test of 24

• The best heated clothes airers to save time and money when drying your laundry

Aside from hugging a fluffy hot-water bottle, sipping whisky and ramping up the thermostat, an electric blanket or heated throw is the best way to ward off the winter chill.

When you consider that more than half of a typical household’s fuel bills goes on heating and hot water, finding alternative ways to keep warm – and heating the person, rather than the whole home – seems like a good idea. Many of the best electric blankets and heated throws cost about 2p to 4p an hour to run, so it’s hard to ignore their potential energy- and money-saving benefits.

Best electric blanket overall:
Carmen C81190 fitted electric blanket (king)

Best budget electric blanket:
Slumberdown Sleepy Nights (double)

Whether you’re hanging a picture or putting up a shelf, we’ve drilled down to find the best tools for every DIY job

• 11 clever home storage hacks

There’s immense possibility in a good cordless drill, electrically and functionally. These tools can be creators, destroyers and connectors, with functions (depending on the type of drill) including screw driving, hammer-drilling into brick or stone, mixing building materials, and plain-old drilling.

Most DIY drills are powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery – so there’s no cause to swear at an innocent power cable as you accidentally yank it from the plug socket. Usually, the same battery can also be used across a brand’s range of tools, including Bosch, Makita and Ryobi.

Best cordless drill overall:
Makita DHP490Z 18V LXT brushless combi drill

Best budget cordless drill:
Guild 18V cordless impact drill with 100 accessories

Simplify your ironing routine with our pick of the best steam irons, from powerful cordless options to compact travel models

• The best heated clothes airers

Hands up if your favourite way to spend a Sunday afternoon is tackling a mountain of ironing? No takers? Shocking. Faced with crumpled cottons and crinkled collars, there won’t be many who approach the ironing board with anything resembling excitement – and if you do, honestly, what’s wrong with you?

I am certainly no fan of ironing. In fact, I’d be happy with a wardrobe full of everything “stretch”. But when my children were in school uniforms, I faced a daunting pile of creased clothing every week – and found the only way through it was to arm myself with the right tools.

Best iron overall:
Breville DiamondXpress VIN401

Best cordless iron:
Tefal Freemove Power

Our expert rounds up the best waterproof jackets and raincoats for everything from a drizzly coffee run to hiking in the wilderness

• The best umbrellas for staying dry in the wind and rain

In the words of Alfred Wainwright, “there is no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing”. When you live in boggy Britain, where it rains more than 150 days a year, waterproofing is a serious business – and a great waterproof jacket is a year-round wardrobe staple.

Whether you’re climbing a mountain or heading out on the commute, it’s worth investing in a decent jacket that’s fully waterproof, breathable and fits you properly. I’ve put 15 through their paces in rainy hike conditions to find the very best women’s waterproof jackets.

Best waterproof jacket overall:
Montane Torren

Best budget waterproof jacket:
Craghoppers Caldbeck II

Taking inspiration from Chile’s traditional borgoña, this red-wine cocktail makes for a great aperitif

A Chilean twist on a wine cocktail: elegant, vibrant and built on the balance between the depth of pinot noir and the bright sweetness of cherries. It takes inspiration from Chile’s traditional borgoña, a drink where red wine meets fruit (usually strawberries), but layers in cherry liqueur and soda for a modern, effervescent edge. I sometimes add a few drops of fresh lime juice to sharpen the sweetness and make the fruit flavours really pop. It’s refreshing yet sophisticated, and a great aperitif.

Nico Einersen, head chef, Mareida, London W1

A bright, fruity pudding topped with a toasted pebbly crumb

Rhubarb brings its late-winter brightness to this favourite pudding, while ripe, buttery pears soften the edges and add a gentle creaminess. Instead of the traditional rubbing-in method, the crumble is made by pouring warm browned butter straight into the dry ingredients, creating a pebbly topping with a deeper toasted flavour. Leave out the crushed fennel seed, if you prefer, but this small addition, bloomed briefly in the butter, gives the whole thing a subtle aromatic lift.

As pancake day and Orthodox Maslenitsa – or cheesefare week – overlap, I’m leaning into halloumi scones, oozy taleggio galettes, and sweet and savoury crepes

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In terms of religious food festivals, this week is kind of a double whammy. First up was pancake day, which is always a whole-day affair in our kitchen, with both sweet and savoury stations, crepe pans and all the toppings (you can always rely on Felicity Cloake for a foolproof recipe). And, because of the way the calendars fall this year, we are also celebrating Orthodox Maslenitsa, or cheesefare, week at the same time.

OK, so the sentiment is pretty much the same (it’s the week before the start of Lent, when people ease into their strict fasting period), but these two celebrations can often be weeks apart (blame the battle of the Gregorian and Julian calendars). For those of Orthodox faith, last week was all about eating meat, and this week is all about dairy. Essentially, you are trying to consume all the animal products and get them out of the house in preparation for the 40-plus-day fast. And, whether or not you are religious, in my book any tradition that means you get to eat loads of cheese is a win.

Dubbed ‘the holiest of holies’, produce from this former Soviet republic today boasts a variety and deftness that’s sending sales surging

France, Italy and Spain purport to be the best-loved classical wine regions, but if you’re in the market for the real old-world deal, look no further than Georgia, which has more than 8,000 years of winemaking prowess. There’s something about this place on the lush intersection of the silk roads between Europe and Asia that gets under the skin. Perhaps it’s the combination of unpolished authenticity paired with profound generosity (guests are considered a gift from God and fed accordingly), all while being gently rocked in a cradle of civilisation, that make Georgian wine so beguiling. (My first visit in August 2023 – a khachapuri-fuelled reconnaissance for my book, Drinking the World: A Wine Odyssey – lingered in my mind long after my flight touched back down on British tarmac.

What I find most refreshing is that the country, and its wine, is completely itself, despite being hemmed in by empires with a proclivity for invasion (Persians, Turks, Mongols et al), as well as the decades spent under USSR rule, which between 1922 and 1991 switched the grape-growing focus to yield over quality. Today, you really feel the Georgian delight at flipping that old Soviet diktat on its head.

Victoria Brzezinski is co-author of Drinking the World: A Wine Odyssey, published by Pavilion Books/HarperCollins at £22. To order a copy for £19.80 go to guardianbookshop.com

While other countries are deep in a sex recession, the Danish drive shows no signs of stalling. How do they stay so frisky?

Copenhagen on the Thursday before Valentine’s Day is intoxicatingly romantic. That’s not hyperbole – you could breathe in and be drunk on it. The canals have frozen over, which only happens about once every 13 years, and couples are skating on them. You can see cosy bars from miles away because they’re strung with fairy lights – apparently not just a Christmas thing here. Everyone is beautiful.

But none of that comes close to explaining why young Danes in Denmark, unlike gen Z across the developed world, are still having sex. Winter isn’t even their frisky season. “You feel the atmosphere in the springtime,” says Ben, 35, half-British, half Danish. His friend Anna, also 35, originally Hungarian, says: “Post-hibernation fever, you can feel the sexual energy. Everyone is on. Everyone swims in the canals, a lot of the women will be topless – they’re like herrings.” (Which is to say: they are typically Danish, they love the water and they don’t wear clothes … I think.) Ben and Anna are millennials, of course, rather than gen Z: they provide the outsiders’ perspective.

It is reasonable to avoid hurt after such a big betrayal, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith, but don’t mistake isolation for safety

• Read more Leading questions

I was in a relationship for 26 years, married for 17, and my husband had an affair. It was hidden, long term and denied until discovery. I divorced him but that was delayed and I had to live with him for a further two years. I spent a year alone in my new house with my now adult sons. Now I am a little over a year into a new relationship and suddenly panicking about it. I’m scared to go forward. I’m not sure I can commit to long term again, and if I see him looking at other women (we work together in a predominantly female workplace), I panic! I’m older than him by nine years and I feel like I want to end things to prevent getting hurt. But then I feel I’m being cowardly. How can I stop going down this road in my head?

Eleanor says: On behalf of everyone everywhere, let me say: what a schmuck thing for your husband to do. That is such a big betrayal. And the cruelty you’re living through now is that as well as teaching you to be mistrustful of others, betrayal on that magnitude teaches you to be unsure of yourself. If I misread things once …

Marta wants her scent to be unique, but Elsa thinks copying her friend is just sharing the joy. Do you smell a rat?

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

My individuality is very important to me and I like to keep my style and my scent unique

I’m not trying to copy her whole identity. Friends having similar tastes is just sharing the joy

He didn’t look like a stereotypical ‘drug addict’, but when he fled to South Africa with all our savings it was obvious that is what he had become

When I tell people that a drug addiction nearly killed my dad, I know what most of them are thinking. Heroin. Crack. Maybe meth or ket. Those substances that steal your soul and slowly wreak havoc on your body. They’re imagining Trainspotting; too-skinny frames and protruding hip bones, the physical effects of addiction that are impossible to miss.

But that isn’t how it played out in my family.

New technology has workers spooked, but experts say it’s creating an opening for a resurgence in worker power

In 2026, it’s a scary time to work for a living.

Gone are the days of quiet quitting, the Great Resignation, and the highly visible union-organizing battles that began the decade and signaled that perhaps worker power was on the rise again in the US. Instead, much of that momentum is being crowded out of our minds by anxieties: a worsening affordability crisis, geopolitical instability and the specter of artificial intelligence looming over the workplace.

Spending on gear, travel and race fees can easily add up – here’s how to make getting to the start line affordable

Before you enter a race, it’s vital to think about whether you’re in shape to make it through the training. For a marathon, you’ll probably need to be a regular runner who has completed several 10ks or the half distance.

Its ‘fibre checker’ tool confirmed I could have a connection, but a month later it changed its mind

My internet provider informed me by email that full fibre broadband had become available for my property, confirmed by Openreach’s “fibre checker” tool.

After a month, Openreach declared the connection uneconomical due to blockages in the conduits below the road.

Fraudsters use stolen personal details to send out products, then post a fake verified and positive online review

A package arrives but you can’t remember ordering anything.

When you open it, you find some cheap, flimsy jewellery.

Making choices can be difficult when options are not clearly better or worse than each other – how does one even begin to decide?

I love cats. I’d been idly keeping an eye out for a less allergenic breed, when bam – a kitten became available. Suddenly I had to decide whether to take the leap.

Even though I’d been considering cat ownership for a while, I felt anxious. I mulled over all the responsibilities: vet bills, stubborn allergies, years of commitment. One big sticking point was travel. Having a cat would be rewarding, but did I want it right now if it meant I couldn’t decide on a whim to book a cheap last minute flight to another city? Did I want to buy Fancy Feast, or stay fancy-free?

With more than 200 possible symptoms, long Covid isn’t easy to treat and diagnose. Rolled-back federal funding has led longhaulers to ask: is this all in my head?

I am 30ft below the surface of the Blue Grotto, a crystalline diving hole in central Florida. Between the water’s embrace and the restriction of my wetsuit, my blood pressure finally stabilizes. The long, deep breaths I pull from my respirator keep my heart rate nice and low.

I feel lighter than I have since April 2022, when I first contracted long Covid. I feel childlike at the fact that I can do this at all – get scuba certified – when on land I’m often confined to a wheelchair or a walker.

The average person does not need to be adding anything to their water

• Read more in the Antiviral series

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Attitudes towards hydration have become another faultline in the generational divide: while the giant “emotional support” water bottle is ubiquitous among gen Z, those of the writer Ian McEwan’s vintage find the modern obsession with hydration “deranged”. McEwan and his ilk will be even more perplexed then that even those guzzling from their Stanley Cups throughout the day are being told they are still not sufficiently hydrating themselves.

Influencers are telling their followers they “don’t understand what hydration is” if they’re not adding electrolytes such as sodium and chloride (salt) as well as magnesium and potassium to their water to help their cells “hold on to and use” it. Often spruiking the sachets wellness companies are selling, they claim these fancy salt formulations are essential to avoiding migraines and muscle cramps, anxiety and mood swings. Some TikTokers are adding sachets alongside other ingredients such as coloured ice cubes, edible glitter and fruit into the aforementioned massive cup in a trend known as “loaded water”.

The hit podcaster, author and former GP says a failure to regulate big tech is ‘failing a generation of children’. He explains why he quit the NHS and why he wants a ban on screen-based homework

A 16-year-old boy and his mum went to see their GP, Dr Rangan Chatterjee, on a busy Monday afternoon. That weekend, the boy had been at A&E after an attempt at self-harm, and in his notes the hospital doctor had recommended the teenager be prescribed antidepressants. “I thought: ‘Wait a minute, I can’t just start a 16-year-old on antidepressants,’” says Chatterjee. He wanted to understand what was going on in the boy’s life.

They talked for a while, and Chatterjee asked him about his screen use, which turned out to be high. “I said: ‘I think your screen use, particularly in the evenings, might be impacting your mental wellbeing.’” Chatterjee helped the boy and his mother set up a routine where digital devices and social media went off an hour before bed, gradually extending the screen-free period over six weeks. After two months, he says the boy stopped needing to see him. A few months after that, his mother wrote Chatterjee a note to say her son had been transformed – he was engaging with his friends and trying new activities. He was, she said, like a different boy from the one who had ended up in hospital.

The increasingly popular shade has appeared on fashion week catwalks and award season red carpets

On the fashion colour wheel, green has long carried a reputation for being “tricky” – a shade that clashes with others and flatters only certain skin tones. Yet this year, a particular apple green has been steadily gaining popularity. It has appeared on catwalks and even on the red carpet, defying the old adage that red and green should never be seen.

Arriving at the Berlin film festival, Pamela Anderson wore an apple-green wrap by Carolina Herrera over a dress in tonal pinks and greens. Amal Clooney chose a green gown by Versace for a Golden Globes afterparty, while Rose Byrne wore green Chanel for the ceremony itself. With award season in full swing, there is speculation the shade could make a strong showing at the Baftas this Sunday.

This is the season when dressing is dictated by logistics – safety first and function-led. But don’t let that put you off adding the odd flourish

My very first girlcrush is still my ultimate winter style icon. Miss Bianca, star of the 1977 film The Rescuers, is Disney’s most underrated princess. As the Hungarian delegate to the Rescue Aid Society, an international humanitarian organisation run by mice with a secret headquarters in the walls of the UN building in New York City, Miss Bianca travels the world rescuing children in peril, and never allows being a mouse to stop her either from feats of bravery – commanding meetings of international delegates, rescuing children from flooded caves – or from rocking a look. She has a nice line in shawl-collar trapeze-line coats (think mid-century Balenciaga), but her real style signature is her glamorous scarves and hats. In a violet pillbox hat with a matching scarf tied in a bow, or dashing shades of mustard, Bianca makes cosy winter dressing look delicious. She might be a mouse, but she is never, ever mousey.

A cartoon mouse is an unusual place to begin an article about winter accessories. It is also an unusual point from which to draw a line to a former first lady of the US, but while pairing a tiny animated rodent with Michelle Obama as co-style icons is a mismatch on paper, it is not so in spirit. At the 2009 inauguration, Obama wore a lemongrass coat and dress by Isabel Toledo, offset by olive-green leather gloves. Her daughters, Malia and Sasha, were chicly bundled in scarf-and-glove sets chosen to contrast with their coats. Their clothes were elegant, but it was the accessories that made the look memorable. The family looked comfortable, relatable, and quietly joyful: no small feat on a freezing day dense with symbolism and expectation.

No need to get in a lather – there are plenty of stylish-looking, premium-feeling options at a reasonable price

Please can we all admit that on occasion, when we’ve been gifted and subsequently drained a posh-looking hand wash, we unscrew the luxury cap and pour in something from Asda? And that those of us privileged enough to have a downstairs loo that visitors see, routinely leave the posh soap there while the resident family rely on a bumper dispenser of Carex? Surely no one is above such behaviour.

An illicit bargain refill last autumn inspired a hunt for stylish-looking and luxury-feeling hand soaps that, while not weekly-shop cheap, feel at least like a justifiable luxury. I’ve rarely enjoyed my research more.

Given the average British woman may change dress size more than 30 times in adult life, flexibility is one route to feeling at home in a fluctuating body. But that’s not all it’s good for

I always think that the most stylish woman in a room is the one who looks the most comfortable. She might be nonchalant in a pair of wide trousers and a loose white shirt, or stroll in casually wearing the butter-soft leather loafers she’s had for years. It was a longing to be more like one of those women, as opposed to one who fell over regularly in public because I couldn’t balance in platforms, which made me give up wearing heels for good in 2012. So it was a natural progression, a decade later, to shunning another wardrobe constraint that was making me fidget in social situations: the waistband.

I’m about to turn 49 and in the past eight years I’ve been fluctuating between sizes 10 and 14, which is hardly surprising when you consider that the average British woman may change dress size a whopping 31 times in her adult life. I attribute my own yo-yo-ing partly to the hormonal changes that a body in its 40s inevitably goes through, but I should also acknowledge that during lockdown, I developed a taste for the elasticated tracksuit bottoms that working from home allowed, as well as a macaroni cheese, or two, each week.

The best places to seek respite from the wintry UK weather in France, Italy and Germany

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Saint-Jorioz in Haute-Savoie will provide a springtime lift for your spirits. On the shore of Lake Annecy, it’s a short bus ride from the city of Annecy, but less busy and with superior lake and mountain views. Hike to the surrounding peaks, towards the lesser-known Col de l’Arpettaz, or cycle on the excellent greenways. Relax by the cool blue alpine water. Behind you lies the underrated Les Bauges Unesco Geopark. The department only joined France in 1860, and has its own Italian-influenced regional cuisine.
Brian Lowry

A trail named after a brutal marcher lord passes through tranquil countryside between Shropshire and Herefordshire but is rich in reminders of the area’s turbulent past

In the UK, there is a proud tradition of naming long-distance walking paths after talented reprobates. I mean the various opium fiends, international terrorists and child murderers who make up our colourful national tapestry (see the Coleridge Way, Drake’s Trail and the Richard III Trail). So perhaps a 30-mile weekend walk dedicated to the Mortimers, and their most notorious scion, Sir Roger, is an appropriate addition to the weave.

After all, this is the man who allegedly slept with a reigning queen (Isabella), probably killed her husband (Edward II), and certainly became de facto tyrant of the realm for three turbulent years in the 1320s, feathering his own nest relentlessly during that time. They don’t make world leaders like that any longer, do they?

A century ago, the Serra da Estrela mountains were Portugal’s answer to the Swiss health resorts of St Moritz and Davos. Now, a historic sanatorium has been given a 21st-century makeover and is drawing people back to the hills

Navigating the high slopes of Portugal’s Serra da Estrela in midwinter requires serious negotiation with the elements, but my guide, João Pedro Sousa, makes it look simple. Angling his lean frame into the wind, he digs his plastic snow-shoes into a steep drift and pauses, scanning the white ridgeline. He’s looking for mariolas – small cairns of rocks, fused by ice, that will indicate our onward trail. “The landscape changes every day so you have to learn how to read it afresh,” he says, setting off again. “At this time of year, nature is a true artist.”

I plod inelegantly in his wake, still clumsy in the frames clipped to my boots to keep me from sinking into the powder. At a quartzite outcrop rippled with rose and amber, we pause and drink in the view. Below us, cupped in the glacial scar of the Zêzere valley, is the terracotta-roofed town of Manteigas – founded in the 12th century and today the modest hub for tourism in the region. Ahead, on the horizon, João Pedro points out mainland Portugal’s highest peak, the 1,993-metre Torre, home to a small ski resort suited to beginners. “This region is full of surprises,” he grins.

A cabin on a farm near Hawick, known for its whisky and woollens, offers wild seclusion – and a great base for exploring an overlooked region

The tiny, off-grid cabin looked almost unreal: made of repurposed oak it stood by a private lochan, with separate cedar sauna, cold outdoor shower, sunken hot tub, and a jetty with two hammocks and a pair of paddleboards. It screamed Finland or Sweden, not a sheep and deer farm in the Scottish Borders. It was the sort of isolated location that would set Ben Fogle’s heart racing in New Lives in the Wild. Two swans bugled my arrival. I felt a little embarrassed that all of it was mine.

Sometimes, we need to escape to a place where the phone coverage is bad enough to make you believe you’re somewhere truly wild. Tiny Home Borders, hidden in rippling foothills 10 miles east of Hawick, is such a place. Last August, owners David and Claire Mactaggart opened a second two-person cabin on their farmland (the first opened in 2022) and I jumped at the chance to stay, swim, soak, and – crucially – switch-off.

From a former Georgian hospital in a Scottish Borders town to a converted greenhouse in the Kent countryside

Monty Don loves these harbingers of spring, and I’m beginning to think he is on to something

When I was a child I was always mystified by the walks around the garden that my father and grandfather would undertake shortly after the latter arrived to visit. I’d see them as I was playing outside, or through the window from inside, and be baffled. What could they possibly be looking at?

Fast-forward three decades and I’m the one pinching my mum’s clogs to inspect my parents’ dinky and beautifully appointed garden. My dad’s complaining about the hellebores, which haven’t naturalised as well as in the garden I used to watch him walk his father around. It’s something else that catches my eye: the bold, bright green crown of leaves of a primrose (Primula vulgaris to come. In the midst of a drizzly, gloomy month, there it was: a beacon of hope.

Sydney’s Qing Fong dance troupe undergoes intensive training for their busiest period of the year, when they will perform more than 100 times and earn ‘lots of pats’ from the crowd

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Drums and cymbals echo across Mingyue Lay temple’s sun-baked concrete car park. Lion heads made out of papier-mache are dotted around the lot and pairs of kids are jumping on to poles, tables or each other’s shoulders – all while connected at the hip.

It’s a sticky night in Sydney’s west, but the 33C heat doesn’t faze these lion dancers, who are gearing up for their busiest period: lunar new year. The festivities continue well past the day itself, with more than 100 performances across three weeks. On the eve of lunar new year, the studio will start their performance at the temple in Bonnyrigg at 9pm and finish well past midnight.

Above: Team instructor Jenny Cao and Long Huynh outside the hall
Below: Costumes wait to be put on for dance rehearsals

Israeli police raid compound, arrest staff and curb Muslims’ access as Ramadan begins

A six-decade agreement governing Muslim and Jewish prayer at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site has “collapsed” under pressure from Jewish extremists backed by the Israeli government, experts have warned.

A series of arrests of Muslim caretaker staff, bans on access for hundreds of Muslims, and escalating incursions by radical Jewish groups culminated this week in the arrest of an imam of al-Aqsa mosque and an Israeli police raid during evening prayers on the first night of Ramadan.

From TikTok deepfakes to smears put out by the White House, fake videos modeled on Black archetypes are running rampant - putting Black users at risk

Late last year, as a US government shutdown cut off the Snap benefits that low-income families rely on for groceries, videos on social media cast the fallout in frantic scenes. “Imma keep it real with you,” a Black woman said in a viral TikTok post, “I get over $2,500 a month in stamps. I sell ’em, $2,000 worth, for about $1,200-$1,500 cash.” Another Black woman ranted about taxpayers’ responsibility to her seven children with seven men, and yet another melted down after her food stamps were rejected at a corn-dog counter.

Visible watermarks stamped some videos as AI-generated – apparently, too faintly for the racist commentators and hustlers more than happy to believe the frenzy was real. “You got people treating it like a side hustle, selling the stamps, abusing the system,” the conservative commentator Amir Odom whinged. Fox News reported on the Snap deepfakes as if they were authentic, before issuing a correction. Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt claimed people were using Snap “to get their nails done, to get their weaves and hair”. (Lost in the outrage was a basic fact: white Americans make up 37% of Snap’s 42 million beneficiaries.)

Graham Readfearn enters a simulation to investigate how heatwaves affect the human body

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A diner in a Sydney restaurant has been caught on CCTV sprinkling armpit hair into their food “in attempt to get a free meal”. After confronting the head chef, the man allegedly then left without paying, having ordered the most expensive items on the menu.

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The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Ramadan in Gaza, Russian airstrikes in Odesa and flooding in France – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists