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

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

Her breakup memoir and Vogue column made her the voice of modern dating. As her debut is published, she talks about single life, oversharing and why she still believes she’ll find love

There is a scene in Annie Lord’s novel that will be instantly familiar to any young person who has spent time at a pub or nightclub recently. Daisy and Maya, two best friends in their mid-20s, are lamenting the paltry state of the dating market.

“It’s just shit out there,” Daisy says. “Every time we go out there’s, like, one decent single guy and then about 40 gorgeous women with master’s degrees and shag haircuts and what’s even the point in trying.”

These financiers want to remodel the UK into a form that suits them – one that could threaten to erode the barriers between crime and business

This coming Tuesday, the government’s representation of the people bill comes back to the House of Commons for its third reading. It bundles up a multitude of measures, including an extension of the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds and welcome changes to voter registration. But thanks to the continuing furore around Nigel Farage and his extremely wealthy friends – such as the Thailand-based crypto-investor Christopher Harborne, who gave Farage a £5m “lottery win” personal gift and has donated in excess of £22m to Reform UK – the aspects of the legislation that have suddenly become its headline measures are focused on big-money donations.

The government has already implemented a moratorium – but only a moratorium – on political donations in cryptocurrencies, the encrypted digital assets that, to quote the Electoral Commission, “present particular challenges and risks in meeting electoral law requirements in identifying donors and ensuring they are permissible”. There is a new annual £100,000 limit on donations from British citizens living abroad. Other legislative moves will now take the form of amendments to the bill: they include new checks on whether companies making donations are above board by measuring their profit as well as their revenues, and a requirement for parliamentary candidates to declare any donation above £2,230 (although “personal gifts” will continue to be exempt).

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

When Mark Lanier and his young client Kaley faced the tech giants in an LA courtroom earlier this year, it seemed a bigger battle than David v Goliath. But they scored a landmark victory, proving that the social media giants had created ‘addiction machines’ that harmed mental health. How did they pull it off?

When Mark Zuckerberg walked into a Los Angeles courtroom on 18 February flanked by an entourage bedecked in Meta Ray-Bans, some people laughed. If this was an attempt at product placement for the company’s newest range of smart glasses, it was jarringly ill-judged: Zuckerberg was about to testify before a jury in a landmark lawsuit that sought to prove that Instagram and YouTube are addictive by design, and he had passed a throng of bereaved parents on his way into the courthouse. But the prosecution team, led by Mark Lanier, were not laughing.

This was a serious trial. For the first time, the most powerful names in social media were being held to account for the inherent design of their platforms, rather than the content hosted on them. They were accused of deliberately and maliciously building products that keep children hooked, with disastrous consequences for the mental wellbeing of young people. It was a landmark case – a big tobacco moment for big tech.

Christopher Nolan’s take on the Odyssey is set to break box-office records. What made the director so determined to adapt the ancient Greek epic? And why does a poem from 600BC hold a vice-like grip on pop culture? Warning: contains 2,600-year-old spoilers

Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey movie has all the hopes of a summer blockbuster pinned to it, and all the promise – as the trailers have showed – of magnificent effects, shocks and thrills. You will be taken inside the cave of the terrifying one-eyed giant, the Cyclops Polyphemus, who likes to dine on human flesh. You will visit the dim and misty shores of the land of the dead, where no warm-blooded human should ever tread. You will flee the pounding tread of cannibals. You will be tossed on stormy seas sent surging by vengeful gods.

And all of this spectacular adventure, for sure, is part of the Odyssey, one of the first great works of world literature, which was written down soon after the Greeks acquired the technology to do so, probably in the 600s or 500sBC. The ancient Greeks attributed the poem to a man called Homer, often described as a blind bard from the island of Chios.

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

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

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

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

Officers say they are not looking for anyone else after arrest of man, 28, on suspicion of murdering ex-Tory politician

Police have said there is nothing to suggest the death of Ann Widdecombe was politically motivated.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday morning, the assistant chief constable of Devon and Cornwall police, Matt Longman, said detectives were open-minded about the motive for the killing, but stressed there was no evidence to suggest it had been politically motivated. He also said it was not being treated as terrorism.

• World No 1 beats German 6-7 (7), 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-4

• Sinner secures second Wimbledon triumph

Jannik Sinner took slightly more time to prepare for his serve as he trailed 15-30 and 1-2 in the fourth set of his second Wimbledon final. In a serve-dominant match that had produced just one break for over three hours, this was a pivotal moment in the contest, but the gusty wind was completely out of control. The wind had only slightly settled down when Sinner stepped up to the baseline, but he still offered a decisive response under immense pressure: service winner, service winner, service winner. Hold.

Sinner delivered this supreme level of serving for the entirety of a bruising three hour, 46-minute contest between the two best players at Wimbledon and alongside his unimpeachable mental toughness, it allowed the world No 1 to brilliantly recover from a bruising first set to defend his Wimbledon title by defeating Alexander Zverev, the second seed, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-4.

Exclusive: Party’s average registered donation was £137, 496 last year, almost six times that of Labour or Tories

Reform UK would have held just 15% of the donations it received last year if a proposed £100,000 cap on political donations had been in force, according to analysis shared with the Guardian.

The analysis by Friends of the Earth using Electoral Commission data highlights the party’s reliance on a handful of wealthy backers in advance of a showdown over political funding.

Exclusive: Deputy PM says opponents have ‘no solutions’ to possible collapse of justice system in England and Wales

• Drugs, drones and heat: Amber Rudd and David Lammy begin search for answers to prisons crisis

Opponents of plans to release rapists and sex offenders early from prison have “no solutions” to halt the criminal justice system’s possible collapse, David Lammy has said.

Under pressure from Labour MPs – including the former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips – to curb the early release scheme, the deputy prime minister said failing to implement it could leave no capacity across jails in England and Wales in November.

Timing of Devon switchoff ‘could not be worse’, says board, as members face an estimated £2m in lost revenue

Britain’s biggest community solar project has been forced to shut for the duration of its first summer by the government’s energy system operator to avoid overloading the local grid with renewable energy.

The north Devon solar farm was ordered to shut weeks before record high temperatures across Europe led to power supply warnings, due to concerns that the large amount of rooftop solar in the area could destabilise the power grid by triggering a “thermal overload”.

Pair airlifted to hospital in two-hour rescue operation after Guardia Civil searched area for survivors

A British couple have been found badly burned and semi-conscious in a Spanish ravine amid deadly wildfires that have swept through the country’s Almería province, according to local media reports.

The couple were on holiday in the region and were thought to be out hiking when they were caught up in the wildfire, which has so far killed 12 people and burned more than 6,000 hectares (14,800 acres). At least 23 people are missing.

• England head coach scathing after win against Norway

• Captain says comments will keep players on their toes

Harry Kane has insisted Thomas Tuchel’s strong criticism of England’s performance after their quarter-final win against Norway in Miami was driven by their failure to bring their excellence from the training ground into matches.

The England captain also suggested that Tuchel’s words had been designed to keep the players on their toes before the semi-final against Argentina in Atlanta on ­Wednesday because “he knows as much as ­anyone that it’s not as simple as that … he’s trying to drag it out of us”.

Ceasefire at the point of collapse after almost a week of tit-for-tat exchanges escalate tensions across Gulf region

Donald Trump has rejected Iranian claims to have closed off the strait of Hormuz as both sides battled for control over the waterway, leaving a ceasefire agreed last month at the point of collapse.

US forces said they had attacked 140 targets in Iran on Saturday night and Sunday morning after Tehran struck and disabled a container ship in the strait, whose transit it said had not been approved. In a statement, US Central Command (Centcom) said its targets had included missile and drone sites, naval facilities, ammunition depots, communication networks and surveillance locations.

Stalled legislation aims to prevent cover-ups and help families seek justice after major disasters

Keir Starmer is expected to use his final week in office to push the Hillsborough law through its remaining stages in the Commons after months of delays.

This bill aims to strengthen support for families seeking justice after major disasters and create new offences for officials who deliberately mislead the public or seek to block accountability.

Discontent with Trump-backed government mounts as Chávez heirs struggle to respond to disaster for which they seem ill-prepared

Even before two powerful earthquakes reduced the OPPE 25 government housing project to an anarchy of shattered concrete and broken lives, the foundations of Hugo Chávez’s populist “Bolivarian” revolution were shaking in what was once a hotbed of support.

Gabriel González remembers his elation when, in 2013, he received the keys to his freshly completed apartment in one of the 12-floor tower blocks El Comandante had ordered to be built in an affluent corner of the resort town of Caraballeda.

Environmental and refugee groups have joined forces to benefit lives and wildlife in Wales and elsewhere

Shielding his eyes from the blinding midday sun, Abdullah, a Sudanese asylum seeker, gazes out at the expanse of green in Tŷ Mawr country park in north Wales.

“This place is so beautiful,” he says. “It feels a very long way from the Home Office.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The former world champion swimmer turned BBC commentator on 5am starts with his mum, a Jaws epiphany, and why he struggled to come out

Born in Billericay, Essex, in 1970, Mark Foster is a former competitive swimmer and winner of 51 major international medals, including six world titles, two Commonwealth Games golds and 11 European titles. He represented the UK at five Olympic Games, and broke eight world records. He works as a commentator for the BBC during major sporting events. Foster’s memoir, My Double Life, is out now.

This was taken in a park in Southend, presumably – as the trunks suggest – near a swimming pool. I would have been with both of my big sisters and my mum. I was always stupidly smiley and never took life seriously.

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

This week’s question: Why is there no rugby culture in Germany?

I would like to know why we build solar farms over green space, when we could just put them over massive car parks as a popular current internet meme suggests. Chris, Middlesbrough

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.

A comms director and a charity worker disagreed on taxation, but how did they fare on the climate crisis?

• Want to meet someone from across the divide? Click here to find out how

Emma, 34, London

Occupation Thinktank comms director

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

Dwayne Johnson and Catherine Laga’aia star in the latest Disney animation to get the live-action treatment, and the model-actor-singer proffers more of her signature lush soft rock

Moana
Out now
The 2016 Disney animation gets the “live action” treatment with a more-or-less remake starring Dwayne Johnson and newcomer Catherine Laga’aia, joined by, as you’d expect, animated versions of various critters, including Tamatoa the coconut crab (once more voiced by Jemaine Clement).

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

The octogenarian rock legends return with a new record continuing their creative renaissance, while the K-pop behemoths bring their latest album to global stadiums. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

The latest episode of Thomas versus Jude does not have to descend into a drama and team cannot afford to be distracted heading into the World Cup semi-final

Thomas Tuchel lobbed a grenade into the mix. Jude Bellingham picked it up and threw it back. There was an explosion of honesty in Miami, where everyone was struggling to maintain composure in the stifling humidity, and it needs to be dealt with before England try to reach a men’s World Cup final for the first time on foreign soil.

It is time for cool heads. Tuchel was searing in his immediate analysis of England’s quarter-final win over Norway, telling ITV’s Gabriel Clarke that the performance was sloppy, not fast enough and full of technical mistakes. Praise for the side’s mentality was there but slightly lost in the noise. It was the criticism that Bellingham was asked about and the way he responded, punching back at Tuchel’s comments with some forthrightness of his own, ran the risk of England’s campaign falling down because of a public disagreement between the head coach and the star player.

We assess the teams who played in the last eight as the business end of the tournament approaches

Didier Deschamps has seen it all before and certainly does not fear even the lowest of blocks. It is clear everyone is afraid of Les Bleus, which is understandable, and they are using it to their advantage. It is admirable how teams keep France quiet for lengthy periods but the game is too long to completely silence Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé. Against Morocco an hour of patience was required but these forwards are used to it and Mbappé produced the magic that has powered this run, following it up with an assist. In a tournament defined by individuals, France has the best of a talented bunch.

Real Madrid forward is thriving on the global stage as the first player to score twice in consecutive knockout matches at the tournament since Maradona in 1986

England’s World Cup journey has rapidly become the Jude Bellingham show. He scored twice to see off Norway on Saturday having also bagged a double in the previous round against Mexico. The 23-year-old attacking midfielder loves delivering on the biggest of stages.

This is the greatest era of World Cup goal scoring, aided by the expansion of the tournament. The two leading scorers of all time are still in the 2026 edition, with Lionel Messi (21 goals) and Kylian Mbappé (20) joined by Harry Kane (14) in the top six. Erling Haaland scored seven times in only five matches, meaning he may be in the upper reaches of the chart by the time he retires, too.

• ‘Definitely ​an issue that will be examined and discussed’

• Fifa president calls 48-team tournament a ‘huge success’

Fifa officials will look at the possibility of expanding the World Cup by another 16 teams before the ⁠2030 event, Gianni Infantino said in an interview. The Fifa president told Bluewin, a Swiss media outlet, that growing from 48 to ⁠64 teams could make ⁠sense.

“That’s definitely ​an issue that will be examined and discussed in the relevant committees after this World Cup,” Infantino said. “When organising ⁠a World Cup, it’s important to organise it for the whole world – not just Europe and South America – but effectively the ⁠entire world.

Midfielder got England back on level terms in fine fashion but pictures suggest illegal interference in the buildup

Norway’s goalkeeper, Ørjan Håskjold Nyland, launches a goal-kick down the pitch two minutes into stoppage time at the end of the first half. The ball falls just inside England’s half, near the touchline, where Elliot Anderson is able to gather possession and drive forward.

Gillian Anderson, Rose Byrne, Melinda Gates: there’s no getting away from these passionate and prominent figures. Even I feel more exposed than I’d like to be

Am I, a middle-aged woman, invisible? There’s a picture of me near these words; can you see it, or am I a blur, like a perp on Traffic Cops who wouldn’t sign a release? Anecdotal evidence from last week is mixed: seeing a friend my age on Thursday night, we got served easily and the waiting staff were politely attentive, even though – or because – I was radiating heat-induced derangement. (At one point, I told a waiter, wild-eyed: “I’m dying – I’m from the north.”) The next morning, I had to dodge a massive sandbag thrown by a man in the gym who definitely didn’t see me, but he was so locked in I doubt he would have noticed Zendaya doing star jumps.

I’ve been wondering, because I recently read the cultural commentator Mireille Silcoff in the New York Times rebuffing the idea that, at 53, she is invisible. “I am not vanishing,” she wrote. “I even feel, quite regularly, that I am in some kind of prime.”

If Keir Starmer won’t act then his successor should – by restricting the power of a small group of mega-donors

Just as Nigel Farage kicks off a summer of “arguing with a bin”, as the chancellor, Rachel Reeves called it, Labour’s bill to clean up politics returns to the House of Commons this week.

As more questions emerge about the financing of Reform UK and Farage’s mega-donor chums – through the brilliant reporting of Guardian colleagues – MPs should seize the opportunity to toughen it up.

Larger vehicles crowd our roads and are far more dangerous to pedestrians. Let’s curb them before they do even more damage

We need an Ozempic for cars. They are growing at a phenomenal rate, wreaking havoc on the roads, squeezing out smaller vehicles in car parks and endangering pedestrians.

Like ever-hungry teenagers, cars in Europe are growing, on average, a centimetre wider every year, according to new research reported by the Guardian. And fewer than half of new cars in the UK can fit into a conventional parking space. As there is, remarkably, no width restriction for cars, no law can stop this growth until they reach the size of HGVs – that is, 2.55m wide – which are restricted.

Christian Wolmar is a transport commentator and author of The Liberation Line, the story of the railwaymen who rebuilt the railways in Europe after D-day

I love busting out a French subjunctive in pursuit of better restaurant service, so it’s a joy to discover there’s a neuroscientific upside to being multilingual

It’s hard to pick a favourite PG Wodehouse line, but the one I’m perhaps most fond of is this: “Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to speak French.”

It’s funny, but it also succinctly captures something that I have long felt about language acquisition, which is that in order to truly embrace learning another tongue, you have to be prepared to look foolish and vulnerable. (Why that can be so difficult for the English – a monoglot minority on a largely bilingual planet – is another article entirely.) More people will perhaps be prepared to endure that humbling process now, as new research has found that learning another language can slow ageing in the brain by up to 13 years. Multilingualism, it is thought, promotes brain connectivity and slows its decline with age.

The White House is working to change electoral rules in its favor. Protectors of democracy must have a counterplan

The second Trump administration is systematically eroding the institutional foundations of competitive elections without formally abolishing them. They have a plan to achieve what scholars of democratic backsliding call “electoral subversion”: changing electoral rules in their favor. Protectors of democracy must have a counter-plan of their own.

The White House’s approach to electoral subversion has multiple fronts. The administration has rewarded those who used violence to disrupt the last transfer of power, disabled the federal agencies charged with protecting election integrity, moved to extend executive control over voter registration, and threatened to withhold terrorism prevention funding from states who do not change their voting rules.

Trump’s immigration architect calls the supreme court’s decision ‘outrageous’ as he pushes for policy rooted in genetics, not law

Neither of the supreme court majority opinions in Trump v Barbara, the 5-4 decision upholding the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, mention the true architect of the case. Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14160, which would deny citizenship to children born on American soil if their parents are undocumented immigrants or on temporary visas, is extensively noted, but not the man responsible for it. The omission of Stephen Miller is like Dracula without Dracula.

The vampire identified is chief justice Roger B Taney, author of the Dred Scott decision of 1857, though his notorious statement at the heart of his ruling went uncited: that the framers believed that Black people “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect”, that they were excluded from the Declaration of Independence’s principle that “all men are created equal” because of racial inferiority “too clear for dispute,” and that rendered them no different from “an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic.”

We have a Victorian attitude to child offenders. It is harmful to them – and, when they reoffend, damaging to everyone

• Kirsty Brimelow KC is chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales

It is said that there can be no truer revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children. The Bar Council of England and Wales has just concluded an expert review of the minimum age of criminal responsibility. At 10, it is the lowest in Europe. We recommend that it is raised to 14.

Society should have moved on since the 1800s, when Charles Dickens railed against the storm cloud of unfairness that gathered over children. However, Dickens’s anger at the law and society, and the harsh treatment of children, remains familiar today. England and Wales are outliers in bringing the criminal justice system to bear on young children who cause harm.

Kirsty Brimelow KC is chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales

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

Strikes and bluster on both sides, with Israel urging on Washington, are endangering the progress made

The cycle’s familiarity should not obscure the gravity of the consequences as the US and Iran return to threats, strikes and a futile search for an exit from war via escalation. On Sunday, Tehran said that it had closed the strait of Hormuz again. The World Food Programme is already feeding 1.5 million fewer people this year owing to the illegal war launched by the US and Israel. Vulnerable countries are suffering most as existing crises are compounded: an extra 2.5 million people in Somalia and 2.3 million in Afghanistan are struggling to meet basic food needs.

Even de-escalation would not fix this humanitarian crisis. The full impact on food production has yet to be felt. The strait was key to global fertiliser exports; as prices soared, many farmers cut back on use. The drying up of remittances from migrant workers in the Gulf hurts Asian as well as African nations.

The author of the bestselling young-adult novel Orangeboy is ideally suited to address the crisis of teenage masculinity and reading

In 2017 there was outrage when the Carnegie medal, the UK’s oldest and most prestigious children’s literature prize, had no minority ethnic authors on its longlist, despite nominations for Noughts & Crosses author Malorie Blackman and Patrice Lawrence for her widely acclaimed young adult novel Orangeboy. At that point, no writer of colour had ever won. Nearly a decade later, Lawrence has become the UK’s 14th children’s laureate.

“I wanted to write lovely young men of colour,” Lawrence has said of Orangeboy, which tells the story of 16-year-old Marlon, who finds himself caught up in an underworld of drugs and violence. “I wanted to explore what makes lovely people do not very nice things.” Although dealing with gang culture rather than internet radicalisation, Orangeboy speaks to current anxieties surrounding boys growing up, captured in the award-winning TV series Adolescence. Toxic teenage masculinity is also the subject of a debut play, Physical Education, that opened in Swansea last week.

Prof Myles Allen, Stephanie Loo and Toby Lockwood, and Olivia Powis, respond to an article by George Monbiot about ‘the great carbon capture con’

George Monbiot suggests that we can solve climate change without carbon capture and storage (The great carbon capture con: behold the wasted billions Burnham could claw back, 8 July). Physics says otherwise. The world is going to generate more carbon dioxide than we can safely dump into the atmosphere, and we can’t rely on our stressed biosphere and oceans to mop up the excess. Stopping global warming will therefore require capturing and durably disposing of carbon dioxide on a huge scale, which right now means injecting it back underground.

Where George does make a good point is in questioning whether carbon dioxide disposal should for ever be paid for using public money. Why should private companies be allowed to make large profits taking carbon out of the ground while the taxpayer foots the bill to put it back? The obvious solution: require those who extract fossil fuels to pay for the disposal of the carbon dioxide their products generate. If the fraction they store rises to 100% by mid-century, fossil fuel use would cause no further warming thereafter.

Too many people with assistance dogs are routinely denied access to businesses and services, writes Eleanor Briggs

Joanne Hewitson from Hartlepool only wanted to enjoy breakfast at her local pub, accompanied by her guide dog, Rosie. Instead, a member of staff wrongly and repeatedly demanded identification for her guide dog, making her feel so unwelcome that she felt she had to leave (Blind woman ‘livid’ after Wetherspoon’s pub asks for guide dog’s ID, 7 July).

Joanne’s experience is not unique. Guide dog owners are refused entry or told to leave pubs, places to eat, taxis, shops and essential services right across the UK, despite businesses’ own policies stating that assistance dogs are welcome.

As deadly blazes sweep across Europe, Jane Burston warns of the longer-term dangers of black carbon

The wildfires sweeping across Europe are damaging precious habitats, destroying property and taking people’s lives (Fast-spreading wildfire kills at least 12 in southern Spain, 10 July), yet they are even more devastating to human health once the flames have died down because of the huge amount of air pollution they generate.

As well as releasing carbon dioxide, wildfires also emit huge amounts of black carbon – often known as soot – into the atmosphere. Black carbon harms people’s health and is a major cause of the 7.9 million premature deaths annually attributed to air pollution. Witness the impact of toxic particles from Canadian wildfires in 2023, which killed 82,000 people, with the pollution stretching across Canada, the US and Europe.

Short shrift for stature comment | Fifa orange card | Basic decoding | Naming the PM | Memory test prep | Bayeux tapestry

You describe the 5ft 9in Arthur Fery as of “diminutive stature” (Report, 8 July). At 5ft 7in, Lionel Messi is even smaller than Fery, but I have never heard commentators describe him as diminutive. Closer to home, the previous Wimbledon winners Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver were of a similar height. Diminutive? You cannot be serious.
Derek Carline (5ft 4in)
Chorlton, Manchester

• After Donald Trump’s interference in sendings-off in the World Cup (Trump confirms he asked Infantino for review of Folarin Balogun red card, 6 July), perhaps it’s time to have an orange card for those who are sent off but have friends in high places.
Dr Colin Bannon
Crapstone, Devon

• ECB moves after Ben Stokes’s retirement

• McCullum will stay on as white-ball coach

Brendon McCullum has been sacked as the England men’s Test head coach, with the England and Wales Cricket Board opting for a completely fresh start for the side following the recent retirement of the red-ball captain, Ben Stokes.

The decision came one day after McCullum guided England to the top of the T20 rankings, and he will continue to coach the men’s white‑ball teams.

• India 341-7; England 130-6. England need 327 runs with 4 wickets remaining

• Two women claim first Test milestones at Lord’s

India are poised for victory in their Test at Lord’s after reducing England to 130 for six in their second innings, having spent the first two sessions of the day batting them out of the game.

Yastika Bhatia became the first woman to score a century in a Lord’s Test, as India piled on the runs across the morning and afternoon sessions before declaring on 341 for seven, with England needing 327 runs to win. Yastika underwent anterior cruciate ligament surgery last year, and the wicketkeeper had to rebuild her leg muscles from scratch; here was just reward for months of hard rehab.

• Pogacar wants calendar changed to avoid worst of heat

• Van der Poel wins ninth stage shortened amid high temperatures

Tadej Pogacar called for radical change to the professional racing calendar after another day of stifling temperatures, as Mathieu van der Poel won the shortened ninth stage of the Tour de France from Malemort to Ussel, with Tom Pidcock finishing third.

“If I had the power I would change all the calendar and not race in July and August in hot places,” Pogacar said. “I’d do a completely different calendar, but it’s not something I can do.”

If Steve Borthwick is to emulate Thomas Tuchel he must fully embrace the attacking talent which tore Fiji apart

Next year Steve Borthwick would love to be where Thomas Tuchel is now. A World Cup semi‑final in prospect, an entire nation transfixed and a team with another gear in it. Swap Atlanta for Sydney and Jude Bellingham for Henry Pollock and the same essentials will be required: big-match players, smart man management and the absolute belief that decades of disappointment can be overcome.

Tuchel and his staff even paid a visit to their rugby counterparts in March, albeit in the week the latter lost against Italy in the Six Nations for the first time. Borthwick has long been interested in how England‑based coaches deal with the sheer weight of expectation and has spoken to a number of Premier League managers on the subject.

Unmoved by the trappings of success, the new women’s champion is keen to use her enhanced status to help those less fortunate

Most new Wimbledon champions have a bucket list of things they want to do, gifts they would like to buy themselves or family, or even future goals of winning more grand slam titles. But Linda Noskova is not your average first-time major winner.

The 21-year-old Czech is surely the first woman to win Wimbledon with a nose ring – “I was maybe counting a little bit [on] someone having some things to say about it, but no one said anything bad” – but she intends to use her newfound platform for good.

• Bout with Holloway in Las Vegas finishes in first round

• UFC chief Dana White: ‘We’re assuming a blown ACL’

• Irish star’s last fight before Saturday was five years ago

Conor McGregor’s return against Max Holloway at UFC 329 in Las Vegas ended after just 69 seconds of the first round because of a knee injury.

Fighting for the first time in more than five years, the 37-year-old McGregor flew across the ring with a left roundhouse kick when the bout started and landed awkwardly on his right knee.

Plucky defeats decorated with patches of excellence will not cut it for Australia with a home World Cup now looming large

The camera found Joe Schmidt shortly after France had completed a 22-point swing. Australia’s coach had seen a 21-12 half-time lead obliterated in 16 brutal minutes. Schmidt, one of rugby’s sharpest minds, looked short of answers. The trouble was that the questions confronting him had obvious answers but almost impossible solutions.

Why had Australia’s discipline deteriorated? Because they were under pressure. Why had their tackle intensity and ruck speed fallen away? Because France had introduced fresh power from the bench. Why had the Wallabies gone from a nine-point half-time lead to a 13-point deficit in barely a quarter of an hour? Because one team had more large, skilful, Test-quality rugby players than the other.

Republican served in Senate since 2003 and was sharp Trump critic before becoming one of his most loyal backers

• Lindsey Graham dies aged 71 – latest updates

• US politicians and foreign leaders pay tribute to Graham

Lindsey Graham, a longtime US senator and key ally of Donald Trump, has died from a sudden illness, his office said on Sunday. He had just turned 71.

Graham’s abrupt death will send shock waves through Washington and the Republican party. He had served in the Senate since 2003, representing South Carolina, and was running for re-election in November.

Disruption at Channel crossings expected to rise amid new fingerprint and facial recognition checks

France and the UK have agreed to increase staffing at border controls in response to warnings of travel chaos caused by new fingerprinting and facial recognition checks.

Disruption at Channel crossings is expected to rise sharply next weekend at the start of the summer holiday season, with MPs saying there would be “utter chaos and miles of tailbacks” unless the EU’s entry-exit system (EES) is fixed or checks are suspended.

Vital maritime corridor closes after 90 vessels – including shadow fleet oil tankers – are attacked in under a week

Russia has been forced to suspend shipping in the Sea of Azov after 90 vessels were targeted by Ukrainian drones in less than a week.

Ukraine’s drone forces chief, Robert Brovdi, said on Sunday that his units had hit 10 tankers and four ferries overnight, as well as a major oil refinery in the city of Syzran. There had been several strikes on electricity substations in occupied Crimea, he added.

Owner Christina Bluhme feared the worst after Tokyo began to lose consciousness while climbing the UK’s tallest mountain

A dog has been rescued from Ben Nevis after falling ill from eating cannabis discarded on the mountain trail.

Christina Bluhme was halfway up the UK’s highest mountain last weekend when her black labrador, Tokyo, lost the use of her legs and began drifting in and out of consciousness.

Ambassadors for Gencore Global directed followers to Telegram channels promoting steroids, prescription medicines and experimental peptides

• ‘I felt dizzy’: body builder recalls how drug abuse caught up with him

• UK becoming ‘wild west’ for experimental peptides, expert warns

Fitness influencers who publicly represent a global wellness brand are involved in running an illegal steroid market on social media, the Guardian can reveal.

Gencore Global presents itself as a UK-based health and wellness company and has recently appeared at FitXpo North West, a fitness event in Greater Manchester. It has also sponsored a racehorse, launched a UK combat sports and influencer boxing promotion, and is set to attend the National Running Show in Birmingham next year.

Byelection winner says heatwaves are causing ‘absolute chaos’ and workers need protection from unsafe conditions

The Green MP Hannah Spencer is to introduce a bill in parliament that would pave the way for a maximum workplace temperature in the UK, as the country grapples with increasingly frequent heatwaves.

If passed, the legislation will create an independent body to recommend maximum safe workplace temperatures and set out how those recommendations should be implemented.

Weather cycle threatens harvests worldwide, adding to inflation already fuelled by the Iran war

Economists are warning that a “super” El Niño weather cycle this year could cause a severe shock to global food prices lasting into 2028.

As the Iran war pushes up world food prices to the highest level in three years, economists said supply chains faced “two shocks at once” stoked by extreme weather linked to global heating.

Dozens of projects are in development across US despite concerns over environmental and health risks

The plan to bury carbon under remote Indiana farmland is supposed to be a slam dunk for the climate, according to its supporters – all generously funded by US tax dollars.

But as far as Melissa Harrison and some other residents of Clymers, Indiana, are concerned, it just might be the end of their town. “This is our place,” she says. Generations of her family are buried in the cemetery, and she is raising her five grandchildren in one of several dozen white-clapboard homes among corn fields and industrial plants serving the farming industry.

As Nigeria braces for another season of devastating rains, people affected describe the mental toll of repeatedly rebuilding their lives

Murky water first tore down a perimeter fence, then bubbled into the yard before spilling into every room. Within minutes, electronics, kitchen appliances, furniture, documents and academic certificates lay submerged.

With the water rising rapidly, Daniel Ebiesua evacuated his home in the Shogunle area of Lagos, with his wife, their two-week-old baby, four-year-old son and his mother-in-law to a neighbour’s upstairs apartment. There they stayed trapped for four hours, helplessly watching the flood swallow the streets below.

Ed Davey voices concern about the Musk family foundation taking the far-right activist on a visit to Moscow

The UK must do more to defend its democracy after it emerged that Elon Musk’s family foundation had taken the far-right activist Tommy Robinson to Russia, Ed Davey has said.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was brought to Russia by the Musks, the billionaire tech mogul’s father told the Guardian.

Exclusive: Campaigners voice concerns over rising costs of £11bn Essex to Kent road tunnel

The UK’s public spending watchdog has said it plans to investigate the Lower Thames Crossing, as campaigners voice concerns over the rising costs of one of the UK’s largest infrastructure projects.

The head of the National Audit Office (NAO) said he anticipated the agency would “examine and report” on the planned £11bn road tunnel between Kent and Essex, and that work to monitor the project had already started.

Man in 20s also found with stab injuries after incident over which 44-year-old is being held on suspicion of murder

A man has been arrested after a 24-year-old woman was killed and a man in his 20s was injured in a stabbing in west London, police have said.

Officers found the woman with stab injuries after being called to a property on Uxbridge Road in Hayes on Sunday morning. The man in his 20s was found outside the property with stab injuries. Police are awaiting an update on his condition.

Gallery director says collection of 140 paintings will offer a more balanced view of Manchester painter’s work

A new exhibition of work by LS Lowry will “bust a few myths” about the Mancunian artist, who the show’s co-curator says is still wrongly derided for being “naive and uncultured”.

LS Lowry: the Theatre of Life features 140 paintings by the artist, who captured working-class life in the industrial north-west of England during the early and mid 20th century.

Colt Gray, now 16, expected to change plea after pleading not guilty to 55 criminal counts in Apalachee shooting

The teenager accused of killing two students and two teachers during a 2024 shooting at Apalachee high school in Georgia has been scheduled to appear in court later in July for a “non-negotiated” plea hearing, according to records.

Documents filed on Friday in Barrow county superior court in Winder, Georgia, show that Colt Gray is expected to change his plea at a hearing on 24 July, with the court scheduled to hold proceedings for both the plea and sentencing, as the Associated Press reported.

Tensions between progressive and moderate camps of Democratic party on display in key Senate race in Michigan

The Israel-Gaza war created gaping divisions in the Democratic party and contributed to a resounding loss in a critical presidential election year in 2024. Two years later, the issue continues to dominate races across the country, as progressives try to seize on Israel’s falling popularity and a broad anti-war sentiment ahead of November’s midterms.

A recent debate among two Democrats vying for one of the most competitive US Senate seats in the country openly displayed the tension between progressive and moderate camps of the party.

Foreign ministers will discuss options on Monday but decision on imports is not expected for months

The EU has been accused of dragging its feet over upholding international law, on the eve of a long-awaited debate about banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday will discuss a possible ban on imports from the settlements, against an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where a UN inquiry found Israel to be committing a genocide, and surging state-backed violence in the occupied West Bank, which has killed at least 235 children.

Lillard, of Oklahoma, contracted polio when she was five and slept inside cylindrical metal device to help her breathe

The last known US person living with polio and relying on an iron lung has died aged 78.

Martha Lillard, who contracted polio at age five and spent most of her life dependent on an iron lung machine that helped her breathe, died on 26 June in Oklahoma, according to an online obituary.

Software engineering was one of the best-paying professions in the US in 2022, but the advent of AI has disrupted it, leading to several layoffs and underemployment

Every weekday, Matt, a software engineer, looks forward to his four-hour train commute to Pawling, New York. It’s time he uses to work on his own project: a browser-based video game for which he writes every line of code himself.

“I am actively trying to keep my axe sharp,” said Matt, who did not want to use his actual name, to protect his employment. In the last six months, Matt’s job has increasingly shifted away from coding, problem solving and software architecture towards reviewing code generated by artificial intelligence. Convinced that the shift will weaken his skills, he’s doing what he can to keep them intact. “I am trying not to leverage AI where I can.”

Microsoft, Amazon and Google say they still aim to achieve net zero output despite construction boom

Microsoft, Amazon and Google’s collective carbon emissions have increased by nearly a fifth in the past year, driven largely by datacentre construction.

In the financial year ending March 2026, the three tech companies emitted 119m mTCO₂e (metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent), or about a third of those of France.

Meta was criticised for feature launched on Tuesday that automatically lets users generate images using content from public Instagram accounts

Meta has said ⁠it is discontinuing an AI feature launched this week that allowed users to generate images using public Instagram ⁠accounts, after drawing widespread ⁠criticism over ​privacy concerns, including from a Hollywood union.

“Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control ⁠over whether their public content could be referenced in this way,” Meta said in a statement.

Direct oversight of ‘critical third parties’ such as Oracle and Microsoft given to ensure resilient cyber-defences and help safeguard UK economy

The Bank of England has been handed powers to regulate important tech firms including Amazon and Google from next week, amid fears that system failures could threaten financial stability and harm consumers.

From Monday, the Bank and fellow City regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will be in charge of ensuring that four large-scale providers of cloud and tech services to banks are resilient and actively reducing the risk of cyber-attacks and major outages that could disrupt services for millions of people and businesses across the UK.

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

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

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

National Geographic explorers create dive lab after finding too few black film-makers telling African wildlife stories

When Pragna Parsotam-Kok and Noel Kok made a wildlife series for South African TV in 2015, they were struck by how challenging it was to access animals to film and how few other African wildlife documentary makers there were.

Their response was to set up the not-for-profit Nature Environment and Wildlife Conservation Trust (NEWF) and to host a conference for African wildlife film-makers, the first taking place in 2017.

Laura Donnelly and Helen Baxendale star in ITV’s gripping series The Dark. Plus: Claudia Winkleman’s new search for a great pianist. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, ITV1

Expect bloody chaos in this drama about a real-life 80s Irish-American gang – featuring JK Simmons as a gang leader – and their dealings with an Italian-American crime family

The Peaky Blinders effect lingers on. More than a decade after Tommy Shelby’s debut, TV still loves a real-life gangster crew, especially with Blinders creator Steven Knight having recently repeated the based-on-truth trick with A Thousand Blows. What other IRL historical crime crews are still available? All this time, the Westies, an Irish-American gang operating in 1980s New York in a fractious alliance with the Italian-American Gambino crime family, were right there. It’s the Irish mafia and the actual mafia in a two-for-one deal.

Along with co-creator Michael Panes, the man to score this apparent open goal by making Peaky Sopranos is Chris Brancato, a showrunner whose resume includes Narcos and the quietly excellent Godfather of Harlem. With some sturdy players in the cast, The Westies is … OK. It’s fine. It’s good! Whaddaya want from me, uh? I said it was fine.

It’s exciting, propulsive and not based on the same old threadbare franchises … this adaptation of a French comic book series is a steampunky tale of a secret experiment to inject wounded first world war fighters with a serum

The alternate history show has long been a TV mainstay, be it For All Mankind (what if the Soviets had won the space race?), The Man in the High Castle (what if the Axis powers had won the second world war?) or even Blackadder (what if Tudor history was essentially all nonsense?). The Sentinels enters this crowded, often conflict-heavy genre with a wartime premise of its own: what if, during the first world war, the French army had groomed a secret cabal of doped-up super soldiers, capable of incredible feats of violence?

An unapologetic mashup of postapocalyptic, steampunk action and old-timey war drama with a distinctly Gallic (and Germanic) feel, this eight-part series – adapted from a comic book series by Enrique Breccia and Xavier Dorison – is an intriguing entry to the “what if?” genre. And if it sounds a little too on-the-nose (bad historical event plus major anachronisms equals … TV gold?!), know that The Sentinels is so confident in its worldbuilding that it manages to work not just as an alternate history, but as a solid sci-fi thriller.

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

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

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

Yankee Stadium, New York City

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

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

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

After beating Leonard Cohen to Canada’s biggest music prize and splicing dembow with classical, the cross-cultural artist is now confronting Colombia’s new president

When I speak to the Colombian Canadian musician Lido Pimienta, it’s in the run-up to Colombia’s presidential election, and she is worried. One of the two remaining candidates, Abelardo de la Espriella, “is so rightwing he wants to open up our beautiful country to fracking and the influence of the US,” she says – and at one point in his campaign, De la Espriella said he wanted to “disembowel” the left. He later waved that away as a mere figure of speech, but Pimienta fears that leftwing artists like her “would be target number one” for a De la Espriella presidency. He ended up winning in a narrow victory that brought praise from Donald Trump and a promise of “a new era, a change of order”.

Despite the potential risks, the singer-songwriter has never shied away from speaking her mind. Since the release of her breakthrough second album, 2016’s La Papessa – which beat Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker, the last album released during his lifetime, to win Canada’s prestigious Polaris prize – 39-year-old Pimienta has made ebullient, genre-defying records that hiss with indignation at racism, colonialism, misogyny and music industry expectations.

Housesharing brought the south London trio’s sounds – classical vocals, violin, clubby production – together as they bled through the walls, to shapeshifting effect

From South London
Recommended if you like FKA twigs, James K, Anysia Kim
Up next Debut album Underlight out now

There are many ways to deconstruct club music. On Bristol label Illegal Data, releases might take explosive approaches to scary (Ship Sket) and whimsical (Mun Sing) extremes. More recently, the same label finds Stolen Velour, Floco and Aria SL filling the club chest-high with liquid: you hear elements sink, dissolve, or float past serenely on the surface.

From novels by James Baldwin and Han Kang to a guide to quantum physics – a former Booker prize judge recommends immersive one-sitting wonders

A one-sitting read is typically the domain of the short story – a form that largely depends on a reader’s pure, unbroken attention. But there is some­thing special about the intensity of beginning and ending an entire book in a single day. Of all my reading experiences, these have been among the most memorable.

As a judge for last year’s Booker prize, faced with 153 books and just over six months in which to read them, it was my task to try to turn every novel into one that could be read in a day. While I loved the experience, it wasn’t exactly a recipe for satisfying reading.

The actor and activist tells the story of her brutal childhood in the deep south with eloquence and defiance

When Laverne Cox was eight years old and growing up in Mobile, Alabama, she saved up her pocket money and bought herself a fan decorated with Japanese geishas. The fan became her favourite plaything, a prop to be used while dancing in imaginary music videos or recreating scenes from Gone With the Wind in which she cast herself as Scarlett O’Hara. “I lit up, animated, whenever that fan was in my hand,” she recalls in her memoir.

But when Cox, who was raised as a boy, began fanning herself with it at school, her teacher, Mrs Ridgeway, yanked her furiously out of the classroom, paraded her and her new accessory in front of the other teachers, and then phoned her mother, Gloria. When Gloria came home that evening, she exploded with fury. She said Mrs Ridgeway had told her she too had a son who had been an effeminate child who was now living on the streets of New Orleans and wearing a dress. “You want to be in a dress on the streets in New Orleans?” shouted Gloria, who would habitually call Cox a “sissy” and other homophobic slurs. She then signed her up for conversion therapy, which duly failed. It did, however, reinforce the message that there was something deeply wrong with Cox and that she was ultimately unlovable. Three years later, she tried to kill herself.

Sublimation by Isabel J Kim; Last Day of a Prior Life by Andrés Barba; Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay; The Carrier by Ruth Newton; Time to Burn by Ellery Lloyd

Sublimation by Isabel J Kim (Picador, £18.99)
This debut novel from an award-winning Korean-American short fiction writer is a fantastical reimagining of the immigrant experience. Here, anyone who crosses a border not intending to return creates an “instance”: a duplicate self who continues life at home. Reintegration into one body is possible, but after years of separate experiences, Soyoung wonders if it might be the psychological equivalent of murder. This idea shocks her friend Yujin, who speaks with his instance in New York every day, waiting for him to be granted the dual citizenship that will allow them to share a privileged life between two countries. The story of these two pairs is told in the second person, a destabilising choice that gradually immerses the reader in a world of doppelgangers. As in our reality, travel is hedged around with bureaucratic systems designed to codify identity and control immigration. A brilliantly realised, imaginative and compelling work of literary speculative fiction.

Last Day of a Prior Life byAndrés Barba, translated by Lisa Dillman (Scribe, £10.99)
The latest novel by the Spanish author of Such Small Hands is a gentler, more unusual approach to the ghost story. An estate agent encounters a child in the empty house she’s trying to sell, and realises she’s met a ghost. The experience causes her to think about her closest relationships and to act in ways she never has before. Knowing it could be dangerous, she goes back to the house, determined to try to help the child from another time who is trapped there. A short, subtle, eerie tale that hides depths beneath a surface simplicity.

The Scottish author on loving The Hobbit, fairytales, Frankenstein and the shock of A Clockwork Orange

My earliest reading memory
Fairytales. I was obsessed. I took fairytales very seriously as moral lessons. I soon knew that I’d always help any old lady cross the road, it really is always best to do so.

My favourite book growing up
The Hobbit was my favourite book while growing up. It expanded my understanding of what could be achieved in fiction. I found JRR Tolkien’s world transformative. I felt as if I knew the hobbits, and I so wanted to see the elves. I could hear the crack of fireworks as they turned into dragons that flew overhead.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Garsington Opera, Stokenchurch
Gerald Barry’s take on Wilde’s comedy is even wittier and zanier in Jack Furness’s hyperactive staging – complete with a grand piano on stilts, a herd of cows and a kangaroo that meets a grisly end

Anyone who has seen the opera before will recognise the tall rack of white dinner plates, stacked and primed for you-know-what. Anyone who knows Oscar Wilde’s play will recognise its punchlines, transposed by composer Gerald Barry into a kind of staccato mashup between speech and singing. But in Jack Furness’s new production of Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest for Garsington Opera, familiarity is otherwise avoided.

Barry has already transformed Wilde’s “trivial comedy for serious people” into what he calls “an opera of delirium”. Singing offers another layer of perversity, orchestral scoring another source of wit, and stage business a further level of zaniness. Furness’s additions include a grand piano on stilts, a kangaroo that meets a nasty end, an enormous chaise longue-cum-slide (which suffers one of the play’s mysterious explosions during the dinner interval), a dirt floor and working hose to allow the protagonists to be mud-smeared and soaked through in alternation, and a herd of miniature cows. The result is a kind of hyperactive nightmare, its pace slowed by all these efforts to shock, the comedy turned sour.

The playwright has long been considered one of the country’s most famous exports, but not an ‘Irish writer’. An ambitious new season of plays explores his complex relationship with his homeland – and tickets are already on sale for 2036

In 2036, the actor Samuel West will take to the stage to perform Krapp’s Last Tape – Samuel Beckett’s pensive monologue in which an old man, hunched over a reel-to-reel recorder, listens back to the voice of his younger self. West will be 69, the age of Krapp in the play. And remarkably, the tape he plays will feature the sound of himself as a younger man, recorded in 2006, when he was 39 – the age Krapp was on the night he made the recording. Two years later another actor, Richard Dormer, will do the same, using a similar recording that’s currently locked away in a BBC vault.

These are the most improbable commissions of the Samuel Beckett Biennale, which promises to deliver experimental “performed readings” of the playwright’s works in pockets of Ireland and Britain over the next 12 years. It is organised by Seán Doran and run through his cross-border organisation Arts Over Borders. Events will unfold at locations of significance to Beckett’s life and legacy – from Enniskillen, Belfast and Dublin to Folkestone, Reading and Snodland – tracing his footsteps across Britain and Ireland.

The genre-bending R&B artist’s new album finds fresh focus for her uncompromising vision, blending soul, sex and shoegaze

More than most musicians on a typical promo cycle, Kelela has been appearing on my social feeds in increasingly surreal combinations. In one clip, she blows kisses to an enormous crowd of onlookers on the streets of Soho New York; another sees her posing for fans against a fog-strewn background somewhere between South Central and survivalist video game Silent Hill. In the video for idea 1 the singer saunters down a corridor with windswept silver hair, looking like Storm if the X-Men movies had been directed by Hype Williams. In a widely circulated tribute/parody, the track is synced uncannily well to a cut of RuPaul in the 90s strutting her stuff to the song’s throbbing guitar, while sporting a remarkably similar sleek, platinum blonde wig.

“If there were a fan competition amongst artists, I feel like I would win,” the actual Kelela tells me when we meet at a recording studio in east Williamsburg, New York. “No shade to nobody!

We try to pin down definitions and enforce rules – but often what we’re really arguing about is character

In January 2015, two members of al-Qaida gunned down cartoonists at the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo in retaliation for their publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. In the following weeks, my Facebook page split in two. Many of my childhood friends (I grew up in France and went to school near Paris) expressed their sadness at the death of artists they had been familiar with for decades, their anger over religious extremism and their fear about the waning of free speech.

Meanwhile, many of my British and American academic colleagues, who were discovering Charlie Hebdo and its garishly offensive cartoons for the first time, worried about the stigmatisation of French Muslims and cast doubt on the wisdom of publishing the images in the first place; one reposted a link to a blog that described the murdered cartoonists as “racist assholes”.

Jodie Foster hated her 6am starts, Parker couldn’t stop swearing, Dexter Fletcher was traumatised by his haircut … There was as much drama off-screen as on during the making of this classic movie

When Bugsy Malone was released 50 years ago, no one had seen anything like it. The wise-talking, rip-roaring spoof poked fun at gangster films with extravagant musical numbers, a cast made up entirely of child and teen actors, and “splurge guns” shooting cream instead of bullets. It was hilarious, startlingly original and a delight to watch.

Scott Baio played plucky Bugsy, a broke boxing promoter who gets tangled up in a turf war between two rival gangs led by Fat Sam (John Cassisi) and Dandy Dan (Martin Lev). Jodie Foster, the most experienced of the cast, played the femme fatale Tallulah. Most of the other young actors were unknown, although many would go on to become celebrated TV and film stars.

After years of one-sided commitment, revisiting her hit song Casual finally gave me a reality check

‘Sadie,” I say. “I would call our daughter Sadie. Or I like Leo for a boy.” I’ve been on the phone for two and a half hours, speaking about our hypothetical children to a man who has explicitly said that he does not want a relationship. At the same time, he’s said things like: “I told my mum about you. She wants to meet you.” When he makes those comments, I can’t help dreaming – in the words of a certain song – of us in a year: maybe we’ll have an apartment, and he’d show me off to his friends at the pier?

That’s the fantasy Chappell Roan imagines in her 2022 hit Casual. My own vision looks a little different: instead of a pier there is an apartment (where the now familiar sound of his key in the door still excites me), and his friends say things like: “I’ve never seen him act like this with anyone else before.” But crucially, in this fantasy, we’ve made a commitment to each other. The first time I heard Casual, I was in a committed relationship. I listened to it often, singing along loudly in the bedroom I shared with my boyfriend to “Knee deep in the passenger seat, and you’re eating me out”. (Roan was nervous about that line – “it’s crass,” she said – but fans loved it.) I also loved the song’s sense of unrequited yearning, but I couldn’t really relate to it. Not yet.

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

• The best LED face masks

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

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

Before they left, the receptionist delicately straightened my father’s collar. I knew then they would be just fine

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

The food poisoning hit like a tsunami. I remember being out at a dumpling restaurant, grabbing a heap of napkins and just vomiting directly into them. I’ve never been sick like that in my life.

I was travelling in Xi’An, China, with my father, who was then aged 88 or 89. I really should have been in hospital but I didn’t feel I could leave my dear dad on his own. Instead I retreated to my hotel room, where I spent the night projectile vomiting. A horrible, embarrassing experience.

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

• The best (and worst) supermarket dark chocolate

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

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

Electric models are selling out fast, so keep cool like the fashion crowd with an old-school concertina hand fan

• How to sleep in a heatwave

You must have noticed that portable fans are everywhere right now: on sweaty commutes, in stuffy meetings, and at shadeless sporting events. As the hot weather continues, neck fans, handheld electronic fans, and fans that spritz water are selling out fast.

But even if you can get your hands on one, they come with drawbacks: electric designs consume energy; they can run out of battery. And most are made from plastic, with concerns over how many poor-quality models will end up in landfill once the summer’s over.

They promise smoother skin with less regrowth – but which of these tools are worth the money?

• The best epilators – tested

Tired of waxing, bored by shaving and fed up with ingrown hairs? In the past few years, a quiet revolution has been taking place in the hair removal market, promising to banish stubbly regrowth and take away the pain of waxing and epilation. I’m speaking of the growing number of IPL (intense pulsed light) and laser devices suitable for home use.

Put simply, IPL uses pulses of light to make the hair go into its resting phase (stop growing) and fall out. IPL isn’t a permanent hair-removal solution such as electrolysis, but you should see a significant reduction in hair regrowth over time. With the right device, it’s also simple to do at home, fairly quick and almost completely painless.

Best IPL device overall for face and body:
Philips Lumea 9900

Best budget IPL device:
Bondi Body v2 laser @home

From thermal blinds to putting your knickers in the fridge, here are the clever – and surprising – ways Filter readers are keeping cool as the UK swelters

• How to sleep in a heatwave

After record-breaking June temperatures, parts of the UK are in the throes of another heatwave. So with more uncomfortably hot days and sweaty, sleepless nights in store, we asked how you keep cool when the temperatures soar.

Some of you shared tips for keeping your homes cool, others on avoiding overheating on the go, and some on ways to exercise safely. From thermal blinds and fans to sunscreens and UV-protective hats, here are your, and our, favourite hacks to beat the heat – and some of them are free. (And no, none of you has any commercial links to these companies or products – we always check.)

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

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

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

The meal is like being handed a succession of phones showing memes you don’t understand

A couple of months ago, Nigel Ng, the Malaysian comedian better known as his alter ego, Uncle Roger, opened his first UK restaurant in the heart of London’s Chinatown. He’s a man who has built a global YouTube following of more than 10 million subscribers via pithy, endearing videos on how, for example, to make exemplary fried rice, not to mention why Jamie Oliver’s take on that classic dish turns his stomach. Big numbers such as “more than 10 million” make investors very excited, not least because 10 million viewers might potentially equal 10 million bums on seats eating “Chinatown fried rice”, which at Kawan comes with crispy XO chilli and Cantonese lap cheong, and costs £15.90 a bowl. What’s 10 million multiplied by £15.90? OMG! £159,000,000!! Everyone’s a winner. Let’s open a novelty restaurant! It is wonky business logic such as this that has led to Kawan.

On a Thursday lunchtime, six weeks after opening and with Roger having long since had his photo taken on the steps and already departed, Kawan is largely deserted, other than its poor staff, who are pleasant as heck, but who have about them the air of stewards rearranging the Titanic’s sun loungers. There are precisely zero avid Gen Zers queuing to spend their money on the “firecracker rolls”, and no Gen X parents handing over their hard-earned to please their Uncle Roger-addicted offspring with the barbecued pork “aji-no-bun”. What few customers there are, meanwhile, are mostly couples in their mid-40s peering at the “choco-orange ribs” glazed with orange and chocolate, then wok-seared, and “inspired by Uncle Guga”, who is, apparently, one of Roger’s collaborators. That’s just one problem with creating a restaurant out of in-jokes: it’s like being handed a succession of phones showing memes you don’t understand. Or, worse, memes that you thought were funny nine months ago, but are now photocopied in the parish newsletter.

These easy bakes are packed full of the good stuff, and will keep kids fuelled all summer long

My children are mostly vegetarian, which means that at home I’m always searching for what we call “rollercoaster foods” due to their obsession with being allowed on Mandrill Mayhem at Chessington World of Adventures. In other words, food that will help both of them reach the next level on the rollercoaster height chart – that is, food packed full of the good stuff (protein, wholegrains, healthy fats and nutrients). This muffin was created with that in mind: tasty (crucially) without tasting worthy, high in protein (9g per muffin), and mindful of sugar. It’s a mix-in-a-bowl job or, you could say, child’s play.

This spicy gin and citrus combo has a kick that belies its modest size

Gimlets may be on the small side, but they tend to make up for that by packing a pretty decent punch. This gently spiced, citrus-forward example is no exception, and makes for a gloriously summery aperitif.

Harneet Baweja, owner, Empire Empire, London W11

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nearly a quarter of market traders now hold master’s degree, PhD or medical doctorate, research shows

One in five young market traders now holds a master’s degree, PhD or medical doctorate, according to exclusive figures shared with the Guardian, in a sign of how Britain’s markets are attracting an unexpected new generation of highly educated entrepreneurs.

Separate data from Kerb, the street food collective behind some of London’s best-known food markets, points in the same direction. Almost three-quarters of its founders have university degrees, including one in four with postgraduate qualifications. About 95% work in their businesses full-time rather than treating them as weekend side hustles.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There are more than 3,000 conditions in dermatology, experts warn – and chatbots’ recommendations can be flaky

• Read more in the Antiviral series

Who among us has not, in a moment of panic or curiosity, consulted the internet in search of solutions to a medical ailment?

Increasingly, people are turning to AI for health advice, and skincare is no exception. Purpose-built apps promise to identify that rash, while people are sending selfies to AI chatbots seeking “full skincare analysis” and personalised regimens of treatments. On Reddit forums, people post before and after shots of the results from their AI-recommended skin routines.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reputation for frumpiness is over as M&S wins over younger audience with shows at Silverstone, Ibiza and now LFW

This autumn’s London fashion week boasts plenty of familiar labels, from Burberry to Alexander McQueen, ready to show off their wares. But on Wednesday there was an unexpected addition: Marks & Spencer is joining the luxury lineup.

The British high-street retailer will celebrate its 100th anniversary in the fashion industry by staging a catwalk show in September highlighting its latest women’s and menswear collections.

Excited to be away from home for the first time, we spent a riotous week partying, while the owner and his elderly parents understandably – and often audibly – seethed

Twenty British 16-year-olds rent a remote Sicilian villa for a week of partying and late-night binge drinking. It sounds like a holiday host’s nightmare. Well, anyone’s nightmare. Add in the fact that the host was staying on site with his elderly Italian parents, as the teenagers partied on without a care for their own welfare or anyone else’s. This wasn’t a holiday from hell for my teenage self, but I’m pretty sure it was for our hosts.

It was 2013 and, for many of us, it was the first time we had been away just with friends. Let loose from familial constraints, it was easy to get carried away. I arrived a few days later than the others but was the main contact with our host, Pablo. This meant that, before I even set foot in the villa, I received a string of messages threatening to kick us out. The police had apparently already been called after two late nights of nonstop boozing.

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

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

Bishop Auckland is abuzz with culture and family fun, thanks to the vision of Auckland Palace’s owners – and the new Kynren show featuring birds of prey, Viking raids and mythical beasts, which opens next week

Booming Hans Zimmer-style cinematic music reaches a crescendo, shaking my bones. Two turquoise macaws swoop within an inch of my hair and join a sky filled with nearly 250 birds. Hawks, kites, pelicans, and an owl soar and swoop around a pagan-looking wooden circle. Peacocks fuss at the makeshift river below, coaxed by two actors telling the story of humans’ relationship with nature. Grey clouds roll in, dark with rain. After all, we are risking an open-air performance in north-east England. I’m at a preview of Kynren: the Storied Lands, the latest gloriously unrestrained project in the market town of Bishop Auckland, 12 miles south of Durham.

I grew up near Bishop Auckland, which was once an important coal-mining and railway town. Last time I was here, its centre was dominated by discount stores. If, in 2003, you’d told teenage me that the high street would become an ode to art, history and culture, I would have laughed. Well, I would have grunted and turned up the Nu metal on my MP3 player.

The owners of Teffont House are aiming for modern rural hospitality that puts guests at the heart of village life

Walking into the Orangery at Teffont House during the golden hour, the restaurant is glowing. Sunlight falls across cocktails the colour of spun sugar, spills on to a terrace trailing constellations of fleabane, and bounces off spoons sinking into raspberry trifles. What really gives the room its sparkle is none of these things, however, but the fact it’s packed with local people. On a warm June evening this new hotel, 10 minutes’ drive from the Wiltshire village of Tisbury, already feels embedded in village life.

It’s the latest venture of the Beckford Group, which runs a small clutch of West Country inns and restaurants, including the Talbot Inn in Mells and the Beckford Canteen in Bath. The company has carved a niche in modern rural hospitality, teaming unflashy furnishings (all chalky pink and moss green paintwork framed by antiques and contemporary art) with menus designed for greedy locavores and pricing that delivers an unstuffy demographic. Underpinning all of this is an ability to tap into local communities to create soul. With this, the Beckford Group’s first hotel, it is making that connection more explicit by labelling it as a village, rather than a country house, hotel.

Embarking on a girls’ trip to Greece, I was ready for unlimited fun in the sun. Instead, I ended up on a hospital ward where all the medics could say was: ‘Oh shit!’

In the heady days post A-levels, it felt like a great idea to spend all my hard-earned Saturday job wages on a girls trip to Corfu. I felt sure that what lay ahead was the classic rite of passage holiday of sun, sea and Sex on the Beaches. What happened next may not sound so surprising this side of a global pandemic, but in 2009 it felt like something out of a sci-fi horror film.

I didn’t feel great on the drive to Bristol airport, but explained it away as motion sickness; I tried to sleep it off on the plane, ready to start the party when we landed. At Greek passport control, there were heat-sensitive cameras to check for anyone with a temperature, due to the growing swine flu pandemic. As my friends walked through, they appeared on the screen as shadowy grey figures. I showed up lurid green, indicating a high temperature. Immediately, it was panic stations. I was rapidly ushered into a side room alone, then rushed away in an ambulance. The party, it appeared, would not be starting.

Surfers nicknamed it in the 90s, but this rugged coastline is becoming a hotspot for contemporary art lovers too

The North Sea wind is buffeting my body and face, shaking me awake after a six-hour journey from Copenhagen on buses and trains to this rugged stretch of the Danish coast. From my high vantage point on the grassy dunes, overlooking what feels like an endless sea, there is hardly another soul to be seen, save for the specks of a few surfers who are trying their luck on the crashing waves.

Surfers, windsurfers and paddleboarders flock to this stretch of north-west Jutland, which is playfully known as “Cold Hawaii”. The phrase was coined in the 1990s by the international surfing community, and popularised by world champion windsurfer Josh Stone, to describe this laid-back shoreline and its 31 official surf spots running for around 30 miles (50km) from a little north of the industrial harbour of Hanstholm down to the sandy beaches of Agger.

I do occasionally contemplate getting my toolbox out. But these are idle urges – I’m only too aware of the harm my past interventions have caused

It would be fair to say that none of the maintenance issues I’ve faced this year have fixed themselves. But many of them have become conveniently irrelevant – a testament to my DIY philosophy: First, Do Nothing.

The collapsed brick wall is now overgrown with ivy, and all but invisible. The partially collapsed pergola remains in the same condition, but the wisteria it was holding up died, so it can carry on collapsing for all I care.

From the Battle of Santiago and The Miracle of Bern to Nasa and Woman in the Moon, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Which 90s duo only released three singles, all chart toppers?
2 Betsy Ross is traditionally credited with designing and making what?
3 Based in Cambridge, which geographical research organisation is the BAS?
4 Which wetland sedge is important in the history of writing?
5 What did Nasa borrow from the 1929 Fritz Lang film Woman in the Moon?
6 What 1,000-year-old Sherwood Forest resident died in 2026?
7 Which country’s national museum burned down in 2018?
8 Which magazine was named after the sound of a “guitar being struck with force”?
What links:
9 E, H, I and S; June Brown; Kendrick Lamar, formerly?
10 White (bow); red (sword); black (pair of scales); pale (nothing)?
11 Robert Mitchum, 1962; Robert De Niro, 1991; Javier Bardem, 2026?
12 Hetty Feather; Tom Jones; Oedipus; Oliver Twist; Superman?
13 Cadbury Castle; Danebury; Maiden Castle; Vespasian’s Camp?
14 Abhakshya; haram; tabu; treif?
15 Maracanaço; Miracle of Bern; Battle of Santiago; Disgrace of Gijón?

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

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

How the celebrity-backed legal action against one of Britain’s most powerful newspapers fell apart

On 26 January 2015, Hugh Grant entertained an unusual guest at an exclusive venue in one of London’s most affluent neighbourhoods. A few weeks earlier, the disgraced former tabloid journalist Graham Johnson had been contemplating starting the year behind bars. Now, he found himself opposite the Hollywood actor in the rather more comfortable surroundings of the KX Gym in Chelsea, which doubles as a private members’ club where fees cost more than £600 a month.

It was on that day, 11 years ago, that one of the seeds of Prince Harry’s doomed court battle with the publisher of the Daily Mail was sown.

Reports of falling sperm counts and testosterone levels have fuelled fears over chemicals, pollution and modern lifestyles. But how much do scientists agree on what is affecting male fertility?

The world is unwittingly walking into a male reproductive crisis, scientists warned this week as they presented data that revealed an apparent halving of average male testosterone levels over the past 50 years.

“It is mind-blowing that testosterone has declined by 50%,” Prof Hagai Levine, who led the work, told the Guardian. “This is a lot. Wake up people. Wake up.”

Nigel Farage foresaw a summer stroll to glory when he forced a byelection – but now risks his career being trashed

The votes were being counted and the media had gathered for the moment that Andy Burnham, his sights on Downing Street, would be elected as the MP for Makerfield in greater Manchester. But Nick the Flying Brick, a candidate on numerous occasions for the Monster Raving Loony party, could not help but be distracted. How could it be that the candidate across the Edge Conference Centre with a silver bin on his head had managed to secure the 10 local nominations necessary to stand?

The Flying Brick, real name Nick Delves, 60, who is also treasurer for the Loony party, had knocked doors-a-plenty to get the nominations for his veteran candidate, Howling Laud Hope. Yet, the Flying Brick hadn’t seen any chaps on the streets with bins on their heads. Certainly not in recent days. Not a single one.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We would like to hear from young people in the north of England about their experiences of looking for work

About 1 million 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK are not in employment, education or training (Neet), according to a report published in May, which warned that the figure could rise to 1.25 million by the early 2030s without urgent government action.

We are particularly keen to hear from young people living in northern England who are not currently in work or education, or who have been struggling to find a job.

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

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

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

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