The Reform funding scandals could yet bring down its leader – and give Andy Burnham a head start. The biggest pitfall would be complacency

No politician is greater than their party. However bright you shine, you’re never so indispensable that you couldn’t be replaced tomorrow – or so, at least, convention has it. But there’s one man at Westminster to whom convention rarely applies, and that’s why the multiple funding scandals now engulfing Nigel Farage are such a watershed moment in British politics. For without him – should it ever come to that – what exactly would be left of Reform UK?

We’re getting ahead of ourselves here, obviously. But no further ahead than most of Westminster, now agog with speculation over Farage’s future. The parliamentary standards commissioner has yet to rule on whether the Reform leader should have declared the £5m the Guardian revealed he had taken from the British-Thai crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, never mind the extra wedge he is now alleged to have received from “Posh George” Cottrell, a longstanding sidekick formerly jailed for wire fraud in the US. (For the record, Farage insists he broke no rules because he wasn’t active in politics at the time, though the Cottrell money was allegedly spent in part on staff to beef up Farage’s social media, and MPs are obliged to declare significant benefits of a non-personal nature for a year prior to getting elected.) Perhaps the commissioner’s ruling, when it comes, can help shed some light on whether Farage simply has a lot of rich friends anxious for him to live his best life and perfectly oblivious to what he could do for them in power, or whether something rather seedier might have been going on.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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

After five goals, two penalties and a 4am finish, it was a bleary-eyed start to Monday for pupils and workers

So we survived. We made it out the other side. After all the strategising about where, when, if and how we would watch England take their World Cup fight to Mexico, we pulled it off, stepping out bleary eyed into the dawn just about intact.

And boy was it worth it.

Angie did her best to not say anything controversial in a presenting gig on LBC. Let’s hope it was a one-off

It’s been quiet. Too quiet. There was a time, not so long ago, when Angela Rayner was being widely tipped to be the UK’s next prime minister after Keir Starmer. Not least by sources – ahem – extremely close to Ange herself. Just as soon as she had settled her outstanding tax bill to HMRC.

Then along came Andy Burnham. The momentum seemingly unstoppable. And Angie faded into the background. Her leadership challenge consigned to the dustbin of Westminster gossip. She was happy where she was. Turning down Keir’s offer of becoming health secretary while hoping for a more permanent promotion under Andy. They also serve who only stand and wait.

Between enemies-to-lovers and ‘shadow daddies’, BookTok has fallen in love with the spicy stories combining romance and fantasy. But there is more to the subgenre than sex, say the fans who queued for hours outside the brick-and-mortar Oxford store

‘We left Warrington at 5.15am this morning to get here,” Emma tells me, standing in a queue that stretches down Walton Street. It is just after 9am on a Saturday in Oxford, the students are still in bed and the tourists have yet to descend on the city, but this corner of Jericho is already buzzing.

Oxford is rarely short of literary pilgrims. Every year, visitors flock to the colleges and libraries that shaped writers including JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and Iris Murdoch. But this crowd is here for something a little different. Instead of queueing for the Bodleian, they’re swapping recommendations for dragon riders and faerie kingdoms. Women clutch tote bags emblazoned with quotes like “hot girls read smut”, and compare their favourite “morally grey” heroes.

Volunteer force flocks to devastated region, infiltrating collapsed buildings with little more than hand tools

As the sun rose above Venezuela’s shattered northern coast, a motorbike mechanic nicknamed Culebrita (Little Snake) lowered himself into a chaotic mesh of concrete and steel and began crawling towards his objective.

“I’m not afraid – but you need to be brave to do this,” said Darwin Rodríguez, a slender 32-year-old who earned the serpentine moniker because of his ability to slither in and out of minuscule spaces.

Britain’s religious right is fuming over a document suggesting the monarch wants to be defender of all faiths. I’m with Charles: what does that make me?

We need to talk about King Charles and specifically this: is the British monarch basically a traitor? Dr Gavin Ashenden is a former chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, and he says he may be. The king is attempting to change the job description of the British monarch from “defender of the faith” to the more inclusive “protector of the space for faith within the multifaith nation”, and you can see why someone who regularly appears on GB News to lament the “woke takeover” of the church and who suggests that Islam is inherently and uniquely violent would object to this. And then some.

“While the monarch cannot technically be a traitor, we might take refuge in grammar and find that the verb carries our feelings even if the noun cannot,” spluttered Ashenden. “Parliament and the oath it presented to the king as a condition of being crowned are betrayed; the Church of England is betrayed. The constitution is betrayed; Anglicans are specifically betrayed. And Christians in general will legitimately feel abandoned at the very least. Some of them too will feel betrayed.”

Nigel Farage urged to clarify ‘dependence’ on Cottrell, who also joined Reform leader in Abu Dhabi in December

Nigel Farage has been accompanied by his friend George Cottrell, a convicted fraudster, to numerous Reform events and fundraisers and a trip to Abu Dhabi, raising questions about the claim that he has no official role in the party.

Labour has called on Farage to clarify his “personal and financial dependence” on Cottrell, who also has been supporting his lifestyle through accommodation and security before the election.

• Trump says he asked Fifa to review red card

• Infantino confirms Trump called over Balogun

• US president insists he did not pressure Fifa

Donald Trump said on Monday that he personally asked Fifa president Gianni Infantino to review the red card shown to USA striker Folarin Balogun, saying he believed the dismissal was unfair but insisting he did not pressure football’s governing body to overturn the suspension.

The intervention by the president of a World Cup host nation has thrust Fifa’s disciplinary process into the spotlight and prompted an angry response from Belgium, who face the USA on Monday night for a place in the quarter-finals.

PM stepped in over proposal to shift World Cup match to an earlier time, amid concerns it would benefit Mexico

Keir Starmer intervened through diplomatic channels to oppose Fifa’s plan to bring forward England’s World Cup game against Mexico, amid concerns the change would hand the hosts an unfair advantage, it is understood.

The prime minister instructed officials to argue against proposals to move the kick-off from 1am UK time (6pm local time) to earlier after being alerted by the Football Association that it would reduce England’s time to acclimatise to the high altitude in Mexico City.

Exclusive: Initial figures are yet to be confirmed by DfE, which said schools were ‘at the heart’ of the celebration

About 332,000 fewer children were in school on Monday morning than a week earlier, according to initial figures, as attendance fell after England’s 3-2 World Cup win over Mexico.

School registers were down more than three percentage points on last week, after England manager Thomas Tuchel advised parents to “write an excuse for school and let them watch”.

Militant group’s statement makes no promise to disarm unilaterally as Israel and the US have demanded

Hamas has announced its intention to hand over governing authority in Gaza after two decades in power, and has invited a US-backed interim administration to take over the running of the Palestinian territory.

It was not immediately clear how far Monday’s announcement would go towards strengthening an only partially observed ceasefire in Gaza or improving conditions in the besieged coastal strip which is still in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.

Fresh row erupts over Duke of Sussex’s trip, the buildup to which has been overshadowed by security dispute

It was about 9am when the news broke that a significant rapprochement had finally been reached: Prince Harry, once referred to as the royal family’s “wayward son”, had accepted an invitation to stay with his relatives at Buckingham Palace during his visit to the UK this week.

After years of bad blood, marked by allegations that brother had briefed the press against brother, it appeared to mark the beginning of a new era of relative peace among the royals.

Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron sent nearly £200,000 to school in Hebron – where Israel has been accused of imposing apartheid – between 2019 and 2024

A British charity is funding a religious school at the heart of expansion plans for the illegal Israeli settlement in the Palestinian city of Hebron.

Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron sent nearly £200,000 to the school between 2019 and 2024, the last year for which accounts are publicly available on the website of the Charity Commission, the charity regulator for England and Wales.

ECHR rules that prosecutor’s remarks perpetuated ‘sexist stereotypes’ and downplayed gender violence

The European court of human rights has ordered the Italian state to pay compensation to a woman whose allegations of repeated rape by her partner were dismissed by a prosecutor as “normal” for men who struggle to overcome resistance from “tired” women.

The court ruled that the remarks perpetuated “sexist stereotypes” and downplayed gender violence, resulting in the woman being subjected to further victimisation.

⚽️ Kick-off time: 2pm local, 3pm EDT, 8pm BST, 5am AEST
⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology| Golden Boot | Email Scott

The great pennant showdown. Spain have managed to pull off a feat previously considered almost impossible, by producing a pennant with an even more boring design than England’s. Not sure what we’ll do should the two teams meet in the final. Maybe just quietly drop this feature. Probably for the best all round.

Portugal’s is rather nice, though! This isn’t the one Ronaldo will be handing over to Rodri today, they didn’t take a photo of that, but you get the gist. One of the great recognisable crests. A couple of points docked for lack of edge-cushioning tassels; a sudden gust of wind at the coin toss and you could have someone’s eye out with that.

As Nigel Farage awaits the findings of a standards watchdog investigation into a £5m gift he received from the cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne, fresh allegations about his finances have emerged related to benefits received from the crypto entrepreneur George Cottrell, who has previously been convicted of fraud.

The Reform UK leader says he is the victim of an ‘establishment hit job’ and that he has ‘done no wrongdoing’.

Lucy Hough speaks to senior political correspondent Peter Walker.

• Ministers to crack down on political donations as Farage faces calls for second inquiry

Would-be prime minister has made basic missteps in pitches to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Andy Burnham’s devolution promises are yet to impress sceptical Celtic administrations hoping for a reset with Westminster, sources in Cardiff and Edinburgh have said.

Burnham, who is expected to take over from Keir Starmer as prime minister on 20 July, has made much of his support for the devolution of power and resources in England, pledging in an agenda-setting speech last week to make a new “No 10 North” the “nerve centre of a rewired Britain”.

I used to think my phone helped me to relax. But setting strict limits on my usage has improved my mood and my relationships

I am a psychotherapist who works with frazzled, snappy parents, and spend my days writing about why we struggle to find calm. I also used to pick up my phone hundreds of times a day, failing to realise that it was making me a snappier, more irritable, less present mother.

My phone was my office, my income, my means of communication. Every time I checked it, there was something to action, a notification of something new, something that told me I was useful and productive, giving me dopamine hits that motherhood didn’t offer. It had become my coping mechanism.

Nonchalance is out, as dating apps report a surge of interest in its opposite. So be more like the world’s most famous new bride, and wear your passions on your sleeve

Name: Chalant dating.

Age: New as a concept.

Our reviewer’s quest for the best pizza oven was no picnic. Plus, Jess Cartner-Morley’s July essentials and running backpacks, tested

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In improv, actors are taught to say yes and figure out the details as they go. I felt a similar way about reviewing pizza ovens. Say yes! And work out the logistics later.

Never mind that my garden is full of obstacles. Never mind that there are steps everywhere, and that the wooden decking is so dry and prone to scorching. All easily overlooked when contemplating the delights of homemade pizza. I mean, who doesn’t like pizza? A Eurobeat-style German pop song called We Like Pizza says it best.

Your swimwear is probably made from plastic. Here are 11 more responsible alternatives

‘Real heritage and quality’: the best (and worst) supermarket mozzarella di bufala Campana, tasted and rated

The best running backpacks for long runs, commutes and multi-day adventures

Jess Cartner-Morley’s July style essentials: statement jackets, happy stripes and the chicest white T-shirt

The best wellies for everyone, tried and tested on countless muddy strolls

The best toys and gifts for seven-year-olds, chosen by parents and kids

How I Shop with Caroline Hirons: ‘I like a proper knicker’

‘In the early days, we hopped on every bandwagon going – punk, ska, mod, everything. Fantastic Day was always there, just in different styles. The original was more Talking Heads. I preferred that’

If I’d been sitting down when I wrote Fantastic Day, it would have been a different song, but I was standing up in front of a chocolate-brown wall with the names of all my favourite punk bands scribbled on it. I was envisioning the future. It was 1978, and my family had moved across London to a place called the Ski Club of Great Britain where my parents ran the bar. We lived in the basement and I had a tiny room that was like a ship’s cabin.

This late-night escapade became a word-of-mouth festival favourite. The show’s creators discuss the method behind its madness – and why you’ll laugh without knowing why

Deep within the cavernous Banshee Labyrinth in Edinburgh’s Cowgate, robed monks stand ominously on stage after midnight. It’s 2024, halfway through the Edinburgh fringe, and nobody really knows what’s happening. But in this dungeon-like sweatbox we’re about to experience a work in progress that is equal parts joyous and utterly unhinged.

Two years on, Underground Monk Show is back. While some shows arrive at the fringe with a clear elevator pitch, this one is still impossible to define. “It’s so funny because that’s constantly what we ask ourselves,” laughs co-creator John Norris, also the brains behind the absurdist comedy gem Mr Chonkers. If you were to attempt to explain what happens, you might say that the show follows the whimsical monks who, over the course of an hour, each experience a spiritual awakening of sorts, spurred on by a magical body of water that turns their visions into reality. There are flashbacks, dream sequences and a portal into another world as the performers shuffle up and down the aisles, moving together as one unit.

As the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum turns 50, an expansive exhibition celebrates how art has coincided with space

Wearing a shiny silver spacesuit, Alan Shepard clutches his helmet and looks like an archetypal blue-eyed American hero. The 1961 portrait by Bruce Stevenson paid tribute to the first US astronaut in space. It also planted a seed.

James Webb, the then administrator of Nasa, saw the painting and was inspired to start the space agency’s own art programme, believing that artists could bring a unique perspective to exploring the cosmos. From 1962 to 1974 it was led by James Dean, who then became the first art curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

My daughter’s scruffy little pet would fall asleep with me on the sofa, stilling my racing mind. And then he changed my life in an even more significant way …

I never wanted a hamster. My eight-year-old daughter, Lily, on the other hand, had folders. Habitat drawings and wheel specifications – a case for ownership of such rigour it bowled me over. As a boy I’d had a hamster, Jerry, and remembered him as fine – but nothing more than that. So I went to a Cardiff pet shop on a cold January morning in 2021 with no plan whatsoever to fall in love.

At the back of the enclosure was a scruffy one nobody else wanted. Skinny. A bit unkempt. When the staff member lifted him out, he yawned and looked at Lily as if he’d been expecting her. She named him Popcorn Sushi and took him home in a pink carrier.

⚽️ World Cup news and reaction as the last 16 continues
⚽️ Uefa accuses Fifa of ‘crossing red line’ over Balogun
⚽️ Mexico 2-3 England | Player guide | And email us

We haven’t even mentioned Balogun-gate yet. The Belgian FA, and you can assume a large proportion of the football world, has been left “astonished” by Fifa’s decision after lobbying by Donald Trump to reverse the suspension given to the striker for his red card in the team’s win over Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is now free to play in the last-16 game against Belgium.

Sources have told the Guardian that Trump made three calls to Fifa, starting from Wednesday, to ensure that the change was made.

• Tuchel critical of ‘unreliable’ officiating against Mexico

• Victory at the Azteca ‘fuels our belief we are here to stay’

Thomas Tuchel called the standard of refereeing at the World Cup unreliable and erratic as he insisted England are capable of going all the way following their dramatic 3-2 victory against Mexico.

Tuchel fumed after his side held on with 10 men at the Azteca stadium on Sunday night, saying that officials across the board have not been up to scratch at the finals tournament. The German, who was unhappy with Jarell Quansah being sent off for a bad tackle after a review following a recommendation by the video assistant referee, claimed that players do not know what to expect during games and he warned that teams are at risk of being knocked out because of poor refereeing decisions.

The long-serving centre-back came off the bench to help 10-man England preserve their lead against Mexico and feels the entire squad is laser-focused on reaching the final

John Stones had to know the question was coming. With Mexico vanquished after one of the great England nights, the focus had turned in part to the quarter-final against Norway in Miami on Saturday and some bloke up front with a ponytail. Stones knows Erling Haaland, having spent the past four seasons with him at Manchester City, but this was not a time for him to engage on the nitty-gritty of how to stop him.

At one point, as Stones spoke at the Azteca Stadium after England’s epic 3-2 win on Sunday, he claimed to have only just been told who his team play next. Come on, John. Norway beat Brazil to advance well before England stepped out against Mexico. In many respects, it was classic laid-back Stones, living only in the moment. The central defender did, of course, talk of his respect for Haaland and Norway.

Parts of 2018’s Golden Generation still remain, but there are more than enough good players in this Belgian side to give the US headaches

• Predict the winner | Daily podcast | Download our app

The whiff of unfulfilment lingers around Belgium. The Golden Generation – and the fact it never quite achieved what it might have done – has dominated coverage of their last three tournaments. This perhaps isn’t quite fair – either on those who were part of that group or those who have followed.

Beating Brazil in the quarter-final to reach the semi-final in Russia 2018 was a fine achievement, but that side featuring Vincent Kompany, Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois, Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne then lost 1-0 to France in the semi. The squad was good enough to win a tournament, but that was as close as they came. Courtois, Lukaku, De Bruyne, Axel Witsel and the right-back Thomas Meunier have all endured since 2018. The 2026 Belgium squad is not, as 2022 felt, the Golden Generation redux, just a little bit older and a little bit more tired. A new wave is emerging and, while the likes of Leandro Trossard, Youri Tielemans, Jérémy Doku and Charles De Ketelaere may not have quite the star quality of the previous generation, they’re still decent players – perhaps not World Cup winners, but certainly not to be dismissed. And remember, this is Belgium, a country of just under 12 million; it’s not realistic to think it can consistently produce potential world champions.

This is an extract from Soccer Desk: World Cup edition, a newsletter from the Guardian US that will run regularly during the tournament. Subscribe for free here.

Carlo Ancelotti and his players have been lambasted for their ‘shameful’ and ‘embarrassing’ World Cup exit

The wait for the hexa – the record-extending sixth World Cup – continues. Brazil’s 2-1 loss to Norway in the last 16 of the World Cup on Sunday means they have gone six tournaments in a row without being crowned champions. Some in Brazil are calling it the reverse hexa.

As you would expect, the reaction back home has been scathing. Neto, the former international who is now a pundit on Radio Bandeirantes, laid into the current crop of players. “It’s a generation that won fuck all,” he said. “There are six players who won one Copa América and that’s it. It was embarrassing from the beginning and everything that happened before that game. It was a shameful campaign and these guys are losers. It’s a generation of lies.”

Years of unremitting disasters have convinced me not to go to sleep with hope in your heart. But that footballing victory took me back to more innocent times

When I went to bed on Sunday, football commentators were killing time waiting for the England match by talking about Donald Trump, Fifa president Gianni Infantino and Folarin Balogun’s red card, waived for the US because of reasons. None of the available words – “unacceptable”, “cheaty”, “absolutely stinks” – covered it. There’s no chance of Trump’s US playing nicely in an international tournament, especially when it’s hosting most of it. Does the US just get the trophy, whatever happens? Do they fashion two trophies, one for the winner and one for most winning host?

It was all a big deal for geopolitics, but for the more immediate matter of how to take seriously a competition in which there were no longer rules, it wasn’t the end of the world. Whatever happened, it definitely wouldn’t end in a showdown between the US and the UK, fixed in advance by a president determined to celebrate 250 years in style. Because, by tomorrow, I thought, England would be out. If we’ve learned anything from the past decade, it’s not to go to sleep waiting for news. Whatever the dawn breaks over will be bad.

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.

Quite aside from all the convolutions, it’s clear the government is ignorant of the reality for young people like me hoping to get on the property ladder

I need to talk about money. Specifically my finances and trying to buy a house as a young person. I hope you’ll forgive me if I sound like I don’t know what I’m talking about, but that’s because I’m going to try to make sense of the government’s reforms to personal savings accounts, known as Isas.

These products have become significantly overcomplicated in recent years, with the government continually refreshing what were conceived of as simple tax-free savings accounts with new rules, allowances, products and age restrictions. I’m not alone in feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. As the deputy money editor of the i newspaper, Callum Mason, put it: “It’s hard enough to understand if you cover money for a living – I don’t know how the general public is supposed to do so.”

Jason Okundaye is a Guardian Opinion assistant editor

While everyone agrees the deal is the end of an era, it was also unavoidable in the era of Netflix and Disney+

A generation ago, ITV was regarded as such a precious jewel in the UK broadcasting firmament that there was outrage when BSkyB, as it was, bought a 17.9% stake to stop anybody else getting their hands on the business. After a drawn-out saga, the then Murdoch-controlled Sky was forced by regulators to divest in the interests of plurality. Politicians breathed a sigh of relief.

That was 2006. To say the UK television game has changed since those days is to understate matters grossly. As ITV unveiled its £1.6bn deal to sell its broadcasting business – but not its more valuable programme-making studios operation – to Sky, now under the ownership of US group Comcast, it was hard to detect any political uproar that might threaten the deal.

Andy Burnham’s rise has stoked talk of the terms for a future British return – but this is the wrong question

The question of the UK’s relationship with the EU has resurfaced with Keir Starmer’s premiership drawing to a close and Andy Burnham, his likely successor, preparing to enter No 10. Wes Streeting, until recently one of the contenders for the top job and now a possible future chancellor of the exchequer, went as far as to say recently that Britain should be back in the EU.

The “rejoin” debate in the UK has focused squarely and, parochially, on two things. The first is the cost imposed by Brexit on the UK economy, the second is the price of rejoining – in other words, whether the UK would be able to win back its previous opt-outs from the Euro and Schengen areas.

Mujtaba Rahman is the managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm

I love gardening, hate cooking. After five years learning how to grow fruit and veg, I’m now stuck with, well, a load of fruit and veg. Can I get my own tradwife to make them edible?

I’ve spent much of the last week picking, then sorting through berries, making, straining and freezing various compotes and conserves, washing and batch-cooking chard and spinach, podding and shelling broad beans. I’m not having a granny summer, a Sydney Sweeney summer or a nun girl summer (all of which I’ve seen suggested as themes for 2026); I’m having a tradwife summer. It’s basically Ballerina Farm here, without the rosy-cheeked, tousle-haired children, raw milk or plane-company-heir husband – and my tomatoes aren’t even ripe yet.

It’s taken me five years as the genuinely grateful, happy guardian of a garden to fully appreciate the issue with growing fruit and vegetables: once you’ve done it, you have lots of fruit and vegetables. I understand that’s a privilege, not a problem – and indeed, the whole point of the enterprise. And some produce is pure, easy pleasure: strawberries and raspberries, mangetout and lettuce (at least if, like me, you accept the occasional surprise protein bonus in your salad, thanks to slapdash washing). But other stuff that thrives here requires prepping and cooking to be edible, and with my family and friends dodging my calls offering my various gluts, I find myself resignedly donning an apron and doing what I imagine my ancestors spent centuries wishing they could avoid.

The city of El Obeid faces catastrophe. Governments are shirking their duty to challenge all those sustaining this war

“This is not a drill. It is a red alert,” said the UN rights chief, Volker Türk, on Friday. He was warning that catastrophe was unfolding in the strategically important Sudanese city of El Obeid in north Kordofan. Near-siege conditions are tightening, relentless drone attacks continue and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allies are massing around it.

Two decades ago, after the genocide in Darfur, the world said “never again”. But it is happening again, and few are even paying attention. The alarm was raised repeatedly last year as the starvation siege of El Fasher in north Darfur deepened. Tens of thousands of people were killed in the subsequent massacre, with one witness describing “a scene out of a horror movie”. UN investigators reported “the hallmarks of genocide”, including explicit calls to eliminate non-Arab communities. Civilians who fled were raped and murdered; so were those who stayed. Before El Fasher came a killing spree in Geneina by RSF-allied forces.

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.

Existing staff are taking too much of a fund intended for new recruits. Ministers must take charge of redirecting it

For the roughly 64% of young people who do not go to university, apprenticeships are vital gateways to the world of work. The way that funding has flowed away from them and towards older workers in recent years was flagged as a problem in the interim report from Alan Milburn’s review on young people and work in May. Mr Milburn’s recommendations are still some months off. Apprenticeships are not solely for school‑leavers: people of all ages should be able to apply for paid trainee posts. But it is clear that the way incentives in the system have tilted against younger adults is one reason behind the huge rise in the number who are not in education or jobs.

The positive signs are that ministers will not wait for Mr Milburn to do something about this. A letter from Jacqui Smith, the skills minister, to the recently formed agency Skills England, last month, asked for urgent advice about which apprenticeship programmes should receive funding increases. It also announced an ambition for 50,000 more young apprentices, annually, by March 2029 – reversing almost half of the decade-long decline.

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.

Readers respond to an article by Simon Jenkins that said sacrificing domestic projects is indefensible

Simon Jenkins is right to ask why the debate on defence spending is limited to a question of more or far more expenditure (There is no immediate military threat to Britain. We should spend less on defence, 1 July). Two countervailing points are notably absent from parliamentary discussion and media reporting.

First, while Vladimir Putin’s Russia undoubtedly poses a serious security threat to countries in mainland Europe, ever higher defence spending is not necessarily the answer. The defence budgets of all the European Nato members are already far in excess of Russia’s. The central issue is therefore not more money but more political resolve, in particular, among the European members – where do they draw their red lines and what is their plan to bring Putin’s illegal war to an end?

Readers respond to letters about testing mental capacity

Re memory tests (Letters, 1 July), my mother was taken to hospital some years ago after an infection overwhelmed her. She was confused and stressed. A doctor wanted to check her mental capacity and gave her paper and a pencil, asking that she write down a sentence with a subject, an object and a verb.

I was trying to find the words to say that this was unfair, given her health. A lot of people might not even know what was meant by a subject and an object. But my mother wrote: “I will not do this”, giving us a withering look.
Ross Bradshaw
Nottingham

Rolling Stones | Bonnie Prince Charming | Knitted swimsuit | Keir Starmer’s dreams

There was a time when the Rolling Stones were denounced as a threat to civilisation. These days, they’re more likely to outlive it (The Rolling Stones: Foreign Tongues review – stomping blues and anti-Musk politics make this another late triumph, 4 July). Their output has now spanned vinyl, cassette, CD, streaming and whatever comes next when Spotify is eventually superseded. The only safe prediction is that the format will change before the band does.
Stuart Harrington
Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset

• I particularly enjoyed the corrections and clarifications column on Friday, which referred to errors in the previous weekend’s crossword. But I think they are eclipsed by the quiz in our local free paper, which gave the answer to the question “Whom did Flora MacDonald rescue?” as “Bonnie Prince Charming”. At least their grammar cannot be faulted.
Ruth Eversley
Paulton, Somerset

Oliver Mason, Katie Williams and Molly Berry respond to an article by Ajit Niranjan on how small but wealthy countries claim they cannot stop extreme weather events worsening

Thank you for Ajit Niranjan’s article (‘But we’re just 1% of emissions’: do smaller countries’ climate efforts matter?, 30 June). This helpfully examines arguments frequently used to undermine the UK’s and other nations’ plans for emission reduction. In my opinion this article misses an important counter-argument: carbon emissions per capita. This shows that, for example, the UK emits 4.5 tonnes of carbon per person per year, China 8.7 tonnes, United States 14.2 tonnes, India 2.2 tonnes and Vietnam 3.7 tonnes.

Many smaller European nations have similar or greater emissions per person than the UK, while remaining within about 1% of global emissions. If we accept the argument that smaller nations don’t need to limit their emissions because they only contribute a small proportion of global emissions, we are saying that small, wealthy nations with long histories of carbon emissions can carry on, but larger, poorer, recently industrialising nations such as India and China need to take all the costly and difficult measures to limit their emissions.

Updates from Monday’s play at the All England Club
Osaka stuns Sabalenka | Sinner through | Mail Daniel

“I feel like I still cannot process this happening,” says Kostyuk, also noting how hot it is. “The longer you stay on this surface, the worse you feel.” She adds that the court wasn’t easy given the heat and wind, especially against an opponent on a roll having played 17 consecutive matches on grass – more than Kostyuk in her entire career. So it was very difficult and she still can’t believe it.

She was struggling to break the whole match so is really happy with the last two service-games she faced, and then thanks the crowd for their contribution.

• Fans were banned from stage three finish due to fire risk

• Tour organisers insist stage four goes ahead in 40C heat

Tour de France organisers have insisted that Tuesday’s fourth stage, from Carcassonne to Foix, will go ahead, despite furnace conditions in southern France and predicted temperatures of over 40C (104F).

The 182km stage, scheduled to run through the heat of the afternoon, comes after the Tour’s third stage to Les Angles was held without the usual publicity caravan and only small numbers of fans, to avoid increasing the risks posed by wildfires raging in the eastern Pyrenees.

Fans were denied thrilling finale as Charles Leclerc won behind safety car but there are no easy solutions

The British Grand Prix ending under the safety car and denying a potentially thrilling finale was a controversial, but also complicated incident. It raised issues from the sport’s past and questions over what it may yet address for the future.

The Silverstone victor, Charles Leclerc, of course said he would rather have done it in more style than with taking the flag behind the safety car. The scenario does not happen often, but whenever it does, almost no one finds it a satisfactory way to conclude a race.

• Slegers says Germany forward will be ‘great addition’

• OL Lyonnes confirm signing of Chelsea’s Kaneryd

The Arsenal head coach, Renée Slegers, has said Selina Cerci is a “great addition” after the Germany forward joined the club from TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.

Cerci scored 34 goals in 47 appearances for Hoffenheim in two seasons. She becomes the second player Arsenal have signed from the Frauen Bundesliga this summer, following Georgia Stanway from Bayern Munich, also on a free transfer.

• Club record signing wowed by Roberto De Zerbi’s plans

• Wages could rise to £275,000-a-week over six-year deal

Sandro Tonali has completed a record-breaking transfer to Tottenham from Newcastle for an initial £92.5m, the Italian claiming he was powerless to resist Roberto De Zerbi’s “magic” sales pitch.

“I spoke to the head coach [De Zerbi] for close to two hours about the club, the fans, the stadium and our football. It was like magic because I knew immediately I had to sign for Tottenham. I can’t wait to start the season,” said Tonali, whose fee could potentially rise to £100m should Spurs achieve serial Champions League qualifications, something that would also see the midfielder’s wages rise to around £275,000-a-week over a six-year contract.

MPs are to discuss the potential impact of the government’s relaxation of planning regulations with one of racing’s most historic venues in peril

The “future of British horse racing” – and perhaps most immediately, the future of Kempton Park – will be the subject of a debate in Westminster Hall on Tuesday afternoon after Lincoln Jopp, the Conservative member for Spelthorne, secured parliamentary time for MPs to discuss the potential impact of the government’s recent relaxation of planning regulations on the country’s second-biggest spectator sport.

There are 58 active British racecourses, or 59 if you count Newmarket’s Rowley Mile and July courses separately. Plenty are situated on land that could be much more attractive to developers after the introduction of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, which aims to accelerate the planning (and appeals) process and release Green Belt land for development when planning authorities cannot meet housing targets elsewhere.

Rhinos beat Bradford 50-16 to maintain a four-point Super League lead, leaving the chasing pack to jostle for second

Magic Weekend’s move to later in the seasonwas a chance not only for the competition to put itself in the spotlight on a big stage by the banks of the Mersey, but to double up as moving day for the business end of the campaign.

With 10 rounds remaining, the runners and riders are beginning to jostle for position. This record-breaking edition of Magic – with more than 80,000 fans attending, more than 13,000 up on the previous best a decade earlier – had plenty of talking points and a real feeling of the sport finding a new home.

Exclusive: Campaigners argue news channel’s attacks on climate action ‘work in financial interests’ of Sir Paul Marshall

The hedge fund run by the co-owner of GB News almost tripled its investments in fossil fuel companies in the first quarter of 2026 to $2.8bn (£2.1bn), the Guardian can reveal.

Critics have accused Sir Paul Marshall of “cashing in on climate chaos” and have claimed the news channel, which frequently attacks climate science and action, was “working in its owner’s financial interests”.

Airline’s board to recommend offer of £6.90 a share in deal analysts say shows UK firms are being bought on the cheap

Shares in easyJet surged nearly 10% after the airline agreed to a £5.5bn takeover at the fifth attempt, but analysts said that it showed UK firms were being bought on the cheap.

The low-cost carrier’s board will recommend shareholders accept an offer price of £6.90 a share from Castlelake, a US private equity firm, after rejecting four previous bids of as little as £5.60 per share. EasyJet shares closed at 610p.

Tour de France spectator ban as country along with Spain, Portugal and Greece faces ‘powder keg’ after heatwave

• Europe live – latest updates

Wildfires raging across southern Europe have forced thousands to flee their homes and prompted officials to ban spectators from a stage of the Tour de France, amid warnings of “powder keg” conditions after a record-breaking early summer heatwave.

Hundreds of firefighters are tackling blazes that have burned through almost 20,000 hectares (49,500 acres) in Portugal, Spain, France and Greece. Strong winds are forecast to fan the flames and temperatures are expected to rise again this week.

Zelenskyy calls for ‘strong decisions’ at talks after attack on Kyiv and surrounding region exposes air defence gaps

A wave of Russian missiles and drones has struck across Ukraine, killing 21 people, and heavily damaging apartment blocks and other buildings, in an attack on the eve of a Nato summit in Turkey that has exposed widening gaps in Ukraine’s air defences.

Fifteen people were killed in Kyiv, Russia’s main target, and 56 others were injured in the attacks early on Monday, according to the city’s administrative head, Tymur Tkachenko.

Villagers in Awoye in the Niger Delta say the ongoing pollution is causing sickness and environmental destruction, while pleas for help go unanswered

Perched on a narrow hospital cot across from her son, Bodunwa Orugbemi can hear the distant Atlantic Ocean and smell the stench of crude oil on the air drifting in from the shore. For days, her 21-year-old son has been lying in this hospital in the Niger Delta, swallowing small spoonfuls of food without being able to speak.

Seventy‑year‑old Orugbemi says Ijadopin started coughing one evening in May, inside their small wooden home in Awoye on Nigeria’s Atlantic coastline. After a few days his cough intensified, then he developed a skin irritation, followed by difficulty breathing.

Arrival of endangered cats, including rare white cub, revitalises team straining under fuel and medicine shortages

For the Cuban zookeeper Ángel Cordero, the sight of four Bengal ⁠tiger cubs playing in a cage at the Cuban national zoo is a small miracle on an island stifled by shortages ⁠of fuel, medicine and ⁠days-long power outages.

The ​birth of these endangered big cats – including an exceedingly rare white tiger – has revitalised a team of zoo workers, he said.

Climate crisis and warming waters have attracted long-toothed pufferfish to new parts of the Mediterranean

From his deckchair, his arms thrown above his head, his feet sliding back and forth in the sand, Pavlos Beleyiannis watches his grandchildren bathe in his favourite bay. It’s an idyllic scene, infused with a serenity that the newly retired truck driver attributes squarely to a sense of security.

For the first time, a floating barrier has been installed across the bay. Ducking, splashing and larking about, the children have not ventured beyond it. “Thank god it’s there to protect them,” he says with evident relief. “There weren’t such dangers in these seas when I was a child.”

Organisation says objects consistent with ‘debris from a foreign rocket body that recently re-entered the atmosphere’

The Australian Space Agency has said the six so-called “space balls” found in north Queensland were likely from a “foreign rocket body” that had recently re-entered the atmosphere after being in orbit.

The six mysterious objects were found by the public washed ashore in the Forrest Beach area, north of Townsville, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and were suspected of containing hazardous chemicals.

Handmade creations distributed to raise funds for charity prompt complaints to police

At first, the cute paper hedgehogs seemed like a kind gesture. An older man had crafted the little creations from donated books to raise money for charity, handing them to children in local shops.

But on closer inspection, some parents were horrified to discover the hedgehogs had been made from the pages of an erotic novel.

US ambassador to Nato has called for all allies who are ‘lagging behind’ to step up immediately

Keir Starmer is likely to face a diplomatic row at his final major international summit this week after Washington’s ambassador to Nato called for alliance members who are “lagging behind” on defence spending to step up.

The prime minister is due to arrive in Ankara on Tuesday for the annual Nato summit, where the UK commitment will be under scrutiny following the release of the government’s defence investment plan (Dip) last week.

Case of Mark Nelson, 46, is one of first since new measures were announced in last week’s immigration bill

A Jamaican man who has lived more than half his life in the UK is facing deportation to his home country in one of the first cases since new anti-immigration measures were announced in last week’s immigration bill.

Mark Nelson, 46, came to the UK in 2000 and set up his own car mechanic business. He has five British children and a British partner. In 2017, he received a four-year prison sentence for growing cannabis plants, something he said he did after his business experienced financial problems. He has not committed any further offences.

Thousands of people begin receiving their first deliveries of once-a-day medication made by Novo Nordisk

• Business live – latest updates

A once-a-day Wegovy weight-loss pill has gone on sale at high street and online pharmacies in the UK, but is not yet available on the NHS.

Thousands of people began receiving their first deliveries of the pill, made by the Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, on Monday. It contains the same active GLP-1 ingredient as the Wegovy jab, semaglutide, and is similarly effective, according to studies.

Tropical storm causes extreme flooding in south of the country with heavy rainfall expected in coming days

A tropical storm has killed two people, caused dam breaches and forced tens of thousands to evacuate in southern China.

Typhoon Maysak killed two people in Nanning, in China’s southern Guangxi province. Maysak, which lashed Vietnam and China’s southern island province of Hainan over the weekend, will dump the water it sucked up on its way ⁠across the South China Sea as it weakens and heads inland, meteorologists say.

Impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the US imposed a blockade in January

Cuba on Monday suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, the state electricity company said.

The impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the US president, Donald Trump, imposed an oil blockade in January, which has depleted the already dwindling supply of fuel for Cuba’s power plants.

Crowds swelled through Tehran as mourners dressed in black carried flags proclaiming: ‘We will rise’

A crowd of “millions” assembled on Monday for the funeral procession of Iran’s assassinated supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.

The scale and depth of the march, however engineered, represents an extraordinary turnaround for a country that only seven months ago was gripped by street protests at which thousands of people were killed by government security forces.

Carroll was awarded damages after New York jury concluded Trump sexually abused her, then defamed her after she publicly described the attack

Donald Trump’s latest attempt to delay payment of a $5.8m judgment for defaming a magazine columnist whom a jury determined he sexually abused has been emphatically rejected by a federal court judge.

In a single-sentence 4 July order, US district Judge Lewis Kaplan denied the president’s request for more time to pay the civil judgment owed to E Jean Carroll, who was awarded the damages after a New York jury concluded that Trump sexually abused her in 1996 – then defamed her after she publicly described the attack in 2019.

Researchers say small changes in drafting could spread rapidly and create long-term shifts in public opinion

AI tools are twisting online messages on sensitive political topics about everything from abortion to climate change in ways that could snowball to reshape long-term public opinion, experts have said.

As tech companies push AI tools as convenient ways to redraft and summarise the massive influx of daily messages, many inject their own political biases – some leaning distinctly rightwing, others more liberal, according to a study from Oxford and Potsdam universities.

Axel Springer boss has ‘bold vision’ for the media group, but identifying a gap is no guarantee of stateside success

As he addressed staff at the London headquarters of the Telegraph Media Group last week, Mathias Döpfner, the German chief executive of Axel Springer and latest proprietor of the most traditional of conservative British newspapers, referred to his company’s decades-long pursuit of the venerable titles.

As staff nibbled Axel Springer-embossed biscuits, Döpfner also exchanged some distinctly European ribbing with the Daily Telegraph’s editor, Chris Evans, about Germany’s World Cup exit. However, it was clear to all that Döpfner’s ambitions for the titles were focused on another country and another continent.

Exclusive: Government and developers privately acknowledged Lanarkshire datacentre site had power provision ‘issue’

• ‘It’s smoke and mirrors’: hope turns to fear in Scottish village chosen for AI datacentre

• What are Britain’s AI growth zones and are the plans feasible or ‘complete bunk’?

A landmark AI development billed as delivering jobs and prosperity has misrepresented its plans to channel a nuclear reactor’s worth of power to a site in rural Scotland, a Guardian investigation has found.

When it was announced in January, the government promised that an £8.2bn AI datacentre complex in Lanarkshire – built by the US firm CoreWeave and the Scottish company DataVita – would be powered entirely from on-site renewables and built by 2030.

Campaign group calls on watchdog to investigate sector amid claims of anti-competitive practices elbowing out independents

• Business live – latest updates

Big brewers are misleading drinkers about their products’ “craft” credentials and geographical origin, the ale enthusiasts’ club Camra has claimed, as it called on the consumer watchdog to investigate the beer market.

Camra asked the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) to launch a review of whether small breweries are being unfairly elbowed off the bar by larger rivals’ anti-competitive tactics.

What’s it like to catch a gig so great it goes down in history? Our writers relive incredible performances by everyone from Amy Winehouse at the North Sea jazz festival to Kanye West at Glastonbury

Talking Heads, the Rock Garden, London, 13 May 1977

This new panel show from Romesh Ranganathan’s production company features comics airing their worst opinions – and it feels completely unnecessary

‘You know who we don’t see enough of on British TV? Romesh Ranganathan,” said no one ever. That’s not meant as a slight to the man – who this year has hosted programmes for the BBC, Amazon and Sky, recorded another run of Parents’ Evening for ITV and is to appear on The Celebrity Traitors – but he truly is inescapable. There is an obvious reason for his cameo on this new comedy panel show, which is that it is made for TLC by his production company Ranga Bee. And what an appearance it is. If you have ever wanted to see Ranganathan go full misanthrope and refuse to give an exhausted NHS midwife £500 because the royal family needs it more, then roll up: you’re in the right place.

Unacceptable is – for reasons that aren’t totally clear – a panel show in which comedians defend their worst opinions in front of a studio audience, who are unlikely to agree with their horrible (and horribly confected) views. Ed Gamble hosts, putting in a typically professional stint, but then again Gamble is as unflappable as Ranganathan is ubiquitous, a whirlwind of sarcastic ad libs and hairspray.

Karlovy Vary film festival
Writer-director Mads Mengel’s film about a seaside christening disrupted by a previously shunned relative is shot in the spirit of Dogme 95

Danish actor Trine Dyrholm gives a magnetic performance with all guns blazing in this intensely painful, uncomfortable but also sometimes uncomfortably funny film from writer-director Mads Mengel; it is about a dysfunctional family and is shot in a freewheeling handheld style with lots of looming extreme closeups, a film in the spirit of Thomas Vinterberg’s Dogme 95 classic Festen.

Karl (Simon Bennebjerg) and Emilie (Mette Klakstein) are a young Danish couple with a new baby, and have just arrived at a hip seaside hotel where they are hosting a secular-humanist christening “naming ceremony“ for a large crowd of relatives, one of whom has actually brought along a guitar to perform a song for the infant - a rather Richard Curtis touch. Karl’s sister (Josephine Park) is there, and so are Emilie’s parents (Petrine Agger and Peter Gantzler). The one person who isn’t is Karl’s formidable, emotionally volatile mother Vibeke (played by Dyrholm) who has bipolar disorder and has already been sectioned once.

She won the battle but can there ever be peace in House of the Dragon? Plus, it’s Kim Kardashian’s turn in Secrets of the Celebrity Sex Tapes. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Sky Atlantic
With the thunderous warships v dragons Battle of the Gullet and its smouldering aftermath, season three of the Game of Thrones prequel has rapidly chalked up an impressive butcher’s bill of main cast casualties (plus hundreds of barbecued bystanders). Having sacrificed so much to claim the Iron Throne, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) must now figure out what sort of ruler she wants to be at a time of kingdom-wide unrest. Graeme Virtue

A reminder of Steven Spielberg’s prowess and speed in the latest in our series of writers highlighting their go-to comfort watches

Steven Spielberg was never much of a radical. While Francis Ford Coppola made Apocalypse Now and even George Lucas attacked the Vietnam war with Star Wars, the nervy new Hollywood hotshot was more interested in moviemaking’s toys than its politics. In Peter Biskind’s bestselling book of Tinseltown gossip, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, the actor Kit Carson remembers running into Spielberg at a party when the tumult of an eventful 1968 presidential campaign was at fever pitch. “Everybody was up,” Carson remembered. “The revolution was about to happen.” All the young director wanted to talk about was how to get a shot while throwing a camera off a roof.

In the end, it took him 40 years to produce his own broadside against the US foreign policy of his youth. In uncharacteristically political style, he spent most of it drawing parallels to the then current resident of the White House.

Two couples start to fall apart during a midwinter break, involving a lot of shouty dialogue that’s neither realistic nor funny

The interesting premise in this laborious and dispiriting relationship dramedy sadly leads nowhere; all we get is strained shouty dialogue and mugging performances in a film which succeeds neither in being funny or realistic.

Alexandra Daddario (from TV’s The White Lotus) is Debs, a book editor with dreams of being an author herself; her platonic best pal from college is Mitch (Josh Gad), a schlubby guy climbing the ladder in investment banking, and maybe nursing feelings for Debs he can never admit. They go to a cosy, picturesque woodland cabin for New Year’s with their respective partners; Debs is with hunky nature photographer Josh (Daveed Diggs) and Mitch is with Melanie (Ashley Park), uptight author of a bestselling cookbook called Emotional Eating (a good title, actually).

Norah Jones hosts the legendary rock stars as they return to the studio for a new album. Plus, mindfulness meditation with the Getty Museum

This official Rolling Stones podcast is hosted by Norah Jones and released across six weeks, with each chapter charting the making of the band’s upcoming studio album, Foreign Tongues. Unsurprisingly, it’s a polished exercise in PR for one of the world’s biggest acts. Its first episode is also something of a tribute, as it considers how Mick, Keith and Ronnie returned to the studio following the death of drummer Charlie Watt in 2021. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Adams’ maximal minimalism was framed by Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and Joan Tower’s parallel feminist statement, with Florence Price’s The Heart of A Woman adding a Broadway flourish

Orchestras have thrown themselves on this year’s anniversary of American Independence (or “Freedom 250” as the marketers are catchily dubbing it) with an eagerness born of a repertoire of big names and broad appeal. A year of Gershwin, Barber and Bernstein, Adams and Glass? Full halls all round. You can even throw in John Williams and Duke Ellington (just go easy on the Carter and Crumb) and you’re on to a winner. Just ask Kazuki Yamada and the audience of Friday night’s generously filled Symphony Hall.

Harmonium – John Adams’ 1980 landmark experiment in maximal minimalism – was the advertised centrepiece (and will travel down to the Proms with the CBSO later this month), but the framing was the curiosity here: conceived by Yamada as two facing musical panels.

The England and Arsenal player grew up with Enrique Iglesias on repeat, and knows the Bridget Jones soundtrack by heart. But what football song gives her goosebumps?

The first song I fell in love with
I used to have a cassette player with these fuzzy foam headphones, and only two cassettes: Hero by Enrique Iglesias and How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes. I would play them over and over.

The first single I downloaded
Michaela Strachan by Scouting for Girls. I thought it was fascinating that they’d written a song about her, even though I wasn’t quite sure who she was until I saw her on telly.

O2 Academy, Glasgow
In her first UK headline show in 16 years, Jett has a terrific knack for a cover version, though she’s a touch nonchalant – and there’s a real misstep

‘I’m not a very good storyteller,” shrugs Joan Jett, sporting black leather and trademark poker face. If you’ve come expecting something as sappy as sentimental anecdotes at this anniversary tour celebrating 45 years of her career-defining albums Bad Reputation and I Love Rock’n’Roll, you’d better jog on.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer isn’t here to chat, or pat herself on the back. This first UK headline show in 16 years delivers straight-shooting hard rock, from early cuts with the Runaways to her most recent releases with the Blackhearts. At 67, Jett’s voice is still deep and commanding – if time has added more gravel, it’s only for the better – and the Blackhearts’ current iteration as a simplified three-piece play hard and fast. It’s all real rock history, but it comes across more like history than it should: even the adrenalised teenage terror of Cherry Bomb is delivered with cool, even stiff, nonchalance.

The story of a lifelong friendship between two art-world mavericks from the working-class midwest is disappointingly pious

Dave Eggers, the author of more than a dozen novels as well as a steady stream of children’s and nonfiction books, grew up wanting to be an artist.As a child he took lessons with a Japanese watercolourist, studied painting at college, worked as a magazine cartoonist and illustrator, even curated a New York show entitled Lots of Things Like This featuring pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Marcel Duchamp. He is soon to open a project in San Francisco that he has been hatching for a decade – Art + Water, an amalgam of art school, affordable studios, exhibition galleries and local gathering point.

Cricket Dibb, the cloyingly named hero of Contrapposto, would love a place like Art + Water. He’s 10 years old, a working-class midwestern kid who passes raccoons and broken tractors on his way to school. His stepfather, Robert, thinks nothing of beating his mother, calling her “a gimpy whore”, stealing any money she’s saved. Cricket hates him, not least on aesthetic grounds – “his ugly gold watch, his mouth full of black fillings, his bony bald head, his pockmarked face, his tiny black eyes”. Cricket’s life is erratic, his future unpromising. His grandfather, though, spots him drawing: “You can produce beauty there in your notebooks, from scratch. And harmony. Chaos outside, order on your paper.”

Sedaris plays up the curmudgeonliness in a collection that nevertheless entertains

I’ll confess my heart sank slightly at the prospect of reading David Sedaris’s new volume of essays, some of them previously published in the New Yorker, and which, relative to his earlier output, strike me as increasingly shticky and reliant on anecdotes too thin for their weight. (From the essay Little America: “Few things drive me crazier than people who put their feet up on the furniture.”) After nine previous volumes, Sedaris would seem to be suffering from a problem that comes to all writers in the end, and memoir writers in particular, which is a dearth of useable material. What can there possibly be left in the Sedaris backstory that the writer hasn’t already mined?

Well, as it turns out, there is still lots of useable stuff, as well as some an editor could have put a red line through, although Sedaris, who has sold more than 16m books, may well consider himself part of the post-editing elite. (I was reminded while reading of a line from a profile of JK Rowling several years ago in which, referring to The Casual Vacancy, Ian Parker wrote: “Some sentences cause you to picture a Little, Brown editor starting to dial Rowling’s number, then slowly putting down the handset.”) And perhaps it doesn’t matter; as long as Sedaris’s superfans keep coming, both for the books and events, why mess with the formula? For less committed followers, however, reading Sedaris is a glitchier experience than it was.

One hundred years after Virginia Woolf explored the limitations of language in On Being Ill, the Piranesi author reflects on the power of storytelling to shape our experience of sickness

In October 2016 I was in hospital. I had been ill for 11 years with something I called chronic fatigue syndrome, but in the previous six weeks I had been overtaken by a strange, sudden crisis. I was unable to eat – a day when I managed a couple of biscuits was a good day; at times I trembled so violently that my voice shook; at night I was overwhelmed by dread.

In the hospital ward a consultant gastroenterologist appeared.

For Ross and Rachel Menzies, making peace with our smallness can help us navigate the challenges of human existence

Ross G Menzies is, by his own admission, “a very old man” by the standards of the human species. A century and a half ago the average life expectancy was in the 30s, “so how can I whinge if I develop something today and [get] told that I’ll be dead by Christmas?” he jokes.

“If I can see that I am just one of the 107 billion that have lived, and that I will go to dust like all those before me, it is easier to face the difficult times that we are in.” He pauses. “Diminishing the self is one of the most important things that we can do.”

With players leaving EA’s series once life there felt like a grind beset by ethical concerns, this quirky new sim promises a better life elsewhere

For 26 years, the life-sims genre has been dominated by one series: The Sims. Originally designed by Will Wright, creator of Sim City, EA’s virtual dollhouse series has grown into a $5bn [£3.8bn] empire with the constant release of new games, expansion packs, and collaborations cementing its place among the bestselling video game franchises of all time. But things are beginning to change. New contenders are emerging and turning the heads of even loyal players in The Sims community.

The most recent, and promising, of these is Paralives, once the solo project of indie designer Alex Massé, who is now employing a small team of developers. Released on the PC games platform Steam in May 2026 as an early access title (meaning it’s technically unfinished and looking for user feedback), it sold 250,000 copies in just eight hours. On that first day, the concurrent player count hit 78,603 – not far off The Sims 4’s all-time peak of 96,328 in 2022. While Paralives is a small project, this success is understandable. Following the news of EA’s controversial acquisition by a Saudi-backed business consortium, some simmers are looking for what they see as a more ethical alternative. But this is only part of the game’s appeal. The real draw is the game’s focus on creativity over realism: the quirky details that made many fans fall in love with The Sims in the first place.

Nintendo/TNX; Nintendo Switch
A joyful collection of vibrant rhythm games includes catching veggies in mid-air, practising dance choreographies and speaking to an alien

It has been a strange decade for the rhythm game genre. The legendary progenitors Rock Band and Guitar Hero are seemingly gone, yet companies are manufacturing plastic guitars again. Tango Gameworks, a studio best known for delivering survival horror hauntings, made Hi-Fi Rush and it ruled, but Microsoft sold the studio. Indie titles such as Sayonara Wild Hearts and Rift of the NecroDancer have done well on the margins, but now Epic Games has swept in, adding a rhythm action mode to Fortnite so now its mainstream again. All these titles have reinforced the ideas laid out by their forefathers: rhythm can intersect with video games as much as it already intersects with our everyday lives.

Few series hold this ethos to heart as strongly as Rhythm Heaven. Dormant since 2015, a new entry, Rhythm Heaven Groove (known as Rhythm Paradise Groove in Pal territories), doubles down on the concept of offering bitesize, rhythm-based experiences where you follow auditive cues to perform all manner of increasingly exhilarating actions with just a few buttons. Whether you’re catching veggies in mid-air, practising dance choreographies, or speaking to an alien, each mini-game is intended to be a vibrant, micro cacophony with its own rules.

With the much-anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto VI only available as download, Sony is following suit

Sony said on Wednesday that it would stop releasing new video games for the PlayStation console on disc in January 2028 following a shift in consumer preferences.

“Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only,” the company said on its official PlayStation blog.

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

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

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

Broadway, Catford
Justice Ezi tackles racism, belonging and the sometimes-shadowy business of sport in this well-paced and plotted drama with a genuinely nail-biting final shootout

Entering the small studio tasked with containing this ambitious livewire of a football drama, the action is already in full swing. Charlton Athletic’s Victory and Youssef, in Nigeria to try out for the last two spots on the country’s World Cup squad, are doing drills, while their coach (a buoyant Jerome Ngonadi) collars audience members to take penalties. I miss spectacularly; the production does quite the opposite.

Part of the Ryan Calais Cameron season – the Olivier-nominated playwright chose three early-career Black and Global Majority writers to receive financial backing and mentorship – its writer, Justice Ezi, is a clear talent, asking expansive questions about racism, belonging and the sometimes-shadowy business of sport through the experiences of three men and, in particular, their relationships to their Nigerian heritage.

Fruit Market, Hull
Assigned roles as the unlucky inhabitants of a remote village audience members must avoid ending up on the pyre in this high-camp game of smut and survival

‘But is it theatre?” you might keep asking as you experience the latest offering from Silent Uproar. It’s theatrical; there’s a set and lighting design. There’s an atmospheric sound design by Eddi Pickard and a singular central performance. There’s a script and a director.

The question arises from the form: The Night of the Werewolves involves the audience playing a version of the game Mafia (or whatever you call the game on which the BBC’s The Traitors is based). The performance begins with Alex Mitchell welcoming us, setting parameters and talking a lot about consent; the game is rated 18+ and we’re encouraged to be as smutty as our imaginations allow. We’re each given a card with a character who lived in a village nearby. Among others there’s an innkeeper, butcher, a chandler and the brothel owner and we’re asked to name them. I was Chanandler Bong (candlestick maker).

Lowry, Salford
These lonely travellers overlap with Bowie’s Maj Tom, Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary or Spielberg’s Disclosure Day as they contemplate our place in the vastness of the void

From David Bowie’s Maj Tom and Elton John’s Rocketman via Capt Oates in Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers to this summer’s Ryan Gosling movie Project Hail Mary, the astronaut who may be unable to come home has been a recurrent cultural character since Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth in 1961.

Another lonely floater is the pivotal figure in Ransack Theatre’s Life Out There by Tim Foley, a regular writer in the Doctor Who universe. Cmdr Isaacs, one of five explorers on a mission to find an alternative Earth after the first one was destroyed in unspecified but guessable ways, has vanished on a solo shuttle flight. But he is still a presence in the main capsule as a voice (Jack Myers) that may be AI recreation, memory or ghost from the viewpoints of his four crew mates as they contemplate landing on galactic location SQ356, a candidate for humanity’s second Eden.

The first time I saw a show, I felt like I had discovered a new language. It’s since become one of my greatest pleasures

When I was a young girl living in suburban London in the early 1960s, I was looking for ways to find excitement. The first time my mother took me to see the London Festival Ballet (now the English National Ballet), I felt a sense of rapture as I realised that the body could say things words could not.

I was yearning for more, and that night at the Royal Festival Hall, I saw glimmers of the world out there waiting for me. Watching the dancers, I felt something shift in me. It was like discovering a new language, one that I immediately wanted to speak.

Director of current affairs programmes who was a pioneer of drama-documentaries on British television

The film-maker Leslie Woodhead, who has died aged 88, helped to establish the hard-hitting ITV current affairs programme World in Action, and was a pioneer of drama-documentaries on British television. He invented the format as a way of telling the stories of those behind the iron curtain during the cold war between the Soviet Union and the west, when direct access for journalists and film crews was difficult. “For us, the dramatised documentary is an exercise in journalism, not dramatic art,” he explained.

The first was The Man Who Wouldn’t Keep Quiet (1970), which told the story of the Russian dissident and former Soviet army general Petro Grigorenko, who was being held in a psychiatric hospital, portrayed by actors.

Even though most of their instruments have been destroyed, teachers are restarting classes, using music to give relief to traumatised people

The three tents line a stretch of overcrowded, windswept sand, their windows open on to a view of the breaking waves of the Mediterranean. From inside comes the sound of singing, a strummed guitar, a violin and then a flute.

But if the music evokes calm and harmony, the surroundings do not: rows of crowded makeshift shelters swelter in Gaza’s summer heat, young children picking their way through rubble, battered cars and pony carts clogging a potholed road. Above, Israeli military drones hum and buzz.

McCartney reportedly played Beatles No 1 hit at star-studded reception at Madison Square Garden

Paul McCartney performed the beloved Beatles No 1 hit I Want to Hold Your Hand for the first time in 60 years at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding.

McCartney performed the number at the star-studded reception at Madison Square Garden in New York on Friday, People magazine reported. The track was the Beatles’ first American No 1 hit, sparking Beatlemania in the US and the wave of British bands’ success nicknamed “the British invasion”.

Digital publishers struggle to reinvent business model after algorithm is changed in favour of promoting creator content

‘When I look back at 15 years of growth, it is a tough pill to swallow and disappointing,” says Alexander “Solly” Solomou. The chief executive of the digital publisher behind popular brands including LadBible is bemoaning the City’s reaction to a sharp drop-off in traffic after algorithm changes made by the owner of Facebook and Instagram.

The change by Meta to more heavily promote creator content has sent a chill wind through digital publishers – from Solomou’s LBG Media to the owners of Marie Claire and the Daily Mail – which had relied on its platforms to promote clickable content and now face a scramble to reinvent business models that had flourished from relationships with Big Tech.

Hot on heels of creating Taylor Swift’s wedding dress, designer brings his re-energising razzmatazz to Paris catwalk

The one person in the fashion industry who doesn’t want to talk about Taylor Swift’s as-yet-unrevealed wedding dress is the man who actually knows what it looks like. “It was a big honour,” was all that Dior’s Jonathan Anderson would say about dressing America’s de facto royal wedding. “But no, I can’t tell you anything about it. It will all come out in due course. It was a joy to work with her and we became very good friends. It is an emotional thing, doing someone’s wedding.”

Instead, Anderson wanted to talk about a very different American artist, sculptor Lynda Benglis, whose sensual slumped hunks of smelted metal inspired his haute couture collection. A wooden pavilion built for the show in the gardens of the Rodin Museum was soundtracked with the flutter of paper fans along the front row, and the haughty silhouettes of couture seemed liquefied in the city heat. A skirt of silver-foiled petals lapped and shimmered like molten lava. A tailored Bar jacket trailed threads of chiffon at the hem like drips of ice-cream down a cone.

Common misconceptions are that you don’t have the right skills, or you need to make a huge time commitment

Many people want to do good in the world. They want to connect and give back to their communities. But volunteering, much like Sunday meal prep or morning meditations, often ends up at the bottom of the to-do list – a nice idea we’ll get to when we have more time.

“For many people, volunteering is something they feel positively about, but don’t always prioritize or think they have time for,” says Matt Bertram, vice-president of volunteer services for the American Red Cross.

How to start meditating

How to start weightlifting

How to start budgeting

How to start running

Snack packs, swim fins, and a foundation brush for applying sun cream … we asked you for the one thing worth making suitcase space for

• The best suitcases – tested

Counting down until your next getaway? We thought so. It’s peak holiday season, so to help you get in the mood (and get a head start on packing), we asked you for the essentials that always make it into your suitcase.

From tried-and-tested luggage and day-to-night sandals to long-journey entertainment for kids, our reader recommendations and Filter favourites will provide lots of inspiration for your next trip.

Spacious enough to cook two pizzas at once and simple enough for beginners, Gozney’s gas-and-wood-fired oven is an impressive piece of kit – if you have the budget

• The best pizza ovens – tested

Whether you like yours thin-crust, deep-dish, simply margherita or loaded with extras, for pizza-lovers everywhere, there’s nothing more satisfying than making your own. And while a compact or mid-size pizza oven will more than suffice for a weekly family pizza night or casual entertaining, if you’re serious about pizza – and I mean super-serious about pizza – you’ll need a big oven, such as the Gozney Dome Gen 2.

Spacious inside, back-strainingly heavy, and complete with an all-singing, all-dancing display and control panel, the Gozney Dome will cook two 10in pizzas at once (or a single 16in one). Its size allows it to handle full meals, too: an included pair of meat probes means you can roast anything from a whole chicken or fish to lamb chops or a joint. More versatile than its first-gen gas-only predecessor, the Gozney Dome Gen 2 can cook with hybrid fuel. Add the optional wood-fire control kit (£174.99), as I did in my testing, and even smoky, authentic flavours are at your fingertips.

From serums to hand soap, fragrances to hair stylers, here are the beauty buys that justify the price tag and the ones you can happily get on a budget

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Walk down any beauty aisle, and you’ll be told every product is essential, transformative and worth hocking a kidney for. For every £300 miracle cream that claims to somehow change your entire facial structure, however, there’s someone – usually on social media – insisting you can buy a perfect dupe of a cult luxury fragrance. It can feel bewildering.

After more than 15 years working in the industry – and testing hundreds of products a year – I can confirm that beauty is rarely as simple as luxury v high street. But there are a few insider realities about how beauty products are made, priced and marketed that are worth knowing before you decide which are worth the spend – and which ones aren’t.

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

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

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

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

Best wellies overall:
Barbour Bede wellington boots

Best budget wellies:
Mountain Warehouse Mucker neoprene long boots

This summery dish takes the spicy seafood and cheese of a meze favourite and works them into a filling, tomato-rich salad

If you have spent any time in Greece, chances are you’ll have tried prawn saganaki. It’s a much-loved dish, especially across the islands in summer. Featuring juicy king prawns that are pan-roasted with tomato and a little chilli, then finished with feta, it’s something of an anomaly where the marriage of seafood and cheese are undisputed. I adore these as part of a meze, with fresh bread to mop up the sweet, spicy and feta-laced juices. However, here I’ve taken the key flavours of prawn saganaki and turned them into something a little more robust: a panzanella-style salad.

The distinct spices of their respective regions make these approaches to runner beans uniquely different, but equally flavourful

I always look forward to runner bean season, and especially to cooking them in stir-fries with Indian spices. Today’s recipes are very different from each other, not least because they hail from two very different regions, namely Rajasthan and Kerala, respectively, both of which have their own distinct spices and flavours.

This is no theme bar, and not remotely a joke: they really are doing proper Appalachian regional cooking on a side road near Old Street

Appalachia, newly opened near Old Street, London, is unlike anywhere else in town. It serves grits, pork rinds, collard greens, kilt salad, chow-chow relish and pot liquor. Ali Borer, formerly of Smoking Goat and Guy Ritchie’s Lore of the Land pub, and not remotely Appalachian himself, is cooking the food of yesteryear Scots-Irish mountain settlers who made their home in this sparse region of the eastern United States. Appalachians smoked, pickled and preserved just about any edible item they could get their hands on, because, well, needs must. London’s dining scene has ignored all this porky, liquory stuff until now, mainly because, let’s be frank, most British people’s understanding of Appalachia begins with the Burt Reynolds film Deliverance and ends with those guys from O Brother, Where Art Thou? stealing a chicken. Not only that but, just as many people would be unable to locate the Appalachian mountain region on a map, you might find it equally challenging to locate Nile Street, because it’s hidden away on the borders of Shoreditch, just around the back of Hackney.

The room itself is quite patentlya reclaimed old saloon bar, and you sit up at that bar watching Borer make your cornbread madeleines. And, holy heck, they’re good: cheddary, fiery, served hot with a nod to the cast-iron skillets of the mountain kitchen. The space isn’t terribly comfy and, much like Tollington’s Fish Bar and many other similarly hip indie spots, Appalachia feels more like a restaurant that’s simply making the best of its surroundings rather than truly inhabiting them. The downstairs space, meanwhile, has been turned into a whiskey and cocktail bar called Lowcountry, named after South Carolina’s coastal region, and each time you order a banana pudding sazerac made with brown butter-washed rye and absinthe, or a fat fashioned comprising bacon fat-washed bourbon and maple syrup, a server bearing a tray materialises from below, almost as if they’re ascending from a very well-stocked basement cupboard. The entire drinks list, by the way, is heaven for the non-drinker and for those who like to sway and wake with headaches. The former can enjoy Jörg Geiger’s fruit fermentations, Saicho sparkling teas and a really extraordinary olive lemonade; I also highly recommend the alcohol-free paloma, too.

Its origin story may be full of holes, but there’s no disputing this American classic’s status as a world beater when it comes to a tasty, satisfying salad

According to the US Institute for Culinary Education, the cobb salad is an embodiment of “the spirit of American ingenuity”, thanks to a strangely familiar creation myth involving a restaurateur (in this case, at Hollywood’s Brown Derby) throwing it together for a late-night snack. It’s also perfect game-day food: satisfying, flavour-packed and, crucially, easy to eat while all eyes are on the pitch.

Prep 30 min
Cook 30 min
Serves 4, and easily scaled up or down

An English Democrats voter and a retired university tutor had different ideas about whether it’s OK to fly flags, but could they find something to agree on?

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

David, 70, York

Occupation Retired modern foreign languages tutor at a university

One immediately called an ambulance, another went looking for my younger son. And I still remember the small face of the girl who held her arm around me

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

I was at the park with my two young boys, aged five and seven, riding scooters along a wide path that looped around the grass. My eldest has cerebral palsy, so my husband had modified a scooter with a large base so that we could ride it together. My son stood at the front and I stood behind him. It meant he could join in just like other kids, and he loved it.

When you have boys, you need to run them like dogs – the goal is to burn as much energy as possible every time you’re out of the house. So even though it had started to drizzle, we set off on another loop of the park on our scooters. But when we hit a puddle coming round the bend, the scooter slipped out from under me. We fell sideways, landing on the ground. I realised my son wasn’t conscious. In that moment all I felt was sheer terror.

You are dealing with a lot right now. Lean on loved ones, and try not to look too far ahead

My husband recently died. It was a protracted illness, but in the three weeks between him being very ill and him passing I did not get to speak to him about death. We had spoken about it earlier in our relationship and he wasn’t frightened. He was the sort of man who didn’t want a fuss and I never lingered by his bedside; I just did what was needed, had a chat and moved on to running the home. I have cried every day since he died.

I have so many recriminations on my part: feelings of not looking after him, not taking the time … We had planned to move in with my daughter part-time, in another part of the country, splitting our time between her house and ours. Now my husband has died, I will be doing this on my own. My dog, who has been such a companion since I lost my husband, died suddenly. He got me through the past six months. I am not equating the profound loss of my husband to my dog, but I feel overwhelmed with grief.

Rebecca ‘Darl’ Ritchie ticked all the boxes for musician Jack Ceriani. Then one morning his eye ruptured – and she was a calming force

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

About eight years ago some mutual friends put Darl and me in touch, thinking we’d be a good match. We’d talked on the phone a bit, but hadn’t found the time to meet in person. I lived in Busselton, Western Australia, and she lived about a 30-minute drive away.

Then on St Paddy’s Day my mates and I invited some friends around to the Star hotel, which was what we called our share house at the time. It was a bit of a bachelor pad with a bar set-up, and I made some really bad mojitos. But when Darl arrived, they improved a lot – she knew what she was doing behind the bar.

My elderly parents’ home was left uninhabitable, and they are owed £3,300 for repairs they had to fund themselves

My elderly parents spent much of last year dealing with what should have been a straightforward insurance claim after a dishwasher installation by John Lewis caused a leak.

Instead, it became a year-long ordeal, marked by repeated failures and an almost total absence of accountability.

‘Home fee’ qualification ends in 2028, leaving those hoping to study in UK not now eligible for British loans

British teenagers living in the EU could be priced out of UK universities in two years’ time as a Brexit rule change means they face the double whammy of paying costlier international fees, while losing access to student finance.

British passport holders living in the EU still qualify for “home fee” status at UK universities. But this will no longer be the case when the grace period ends in 2028, meaning the first wave to be affected are starting their A-levels, or equivalent, this autumn.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yes, digesting food requires energy, but you need to do more than snack for a meaningful impact

It helps to understand what people mean when they talk about “metabolism”, says James Betts, professor of metabolic physiology at the University of Bath. Usually, they’re referring to metabolic rate; the amount of energy your body burns in a given time. This is largely determined by factors such as your size, age, sex and body composition.

Your daily energy expenditure comes from three main sources: your resting metabolism (the energy needed to keep your organs and tissues functioning), the calories burned processing food, and physical activity. Of those, exercise and movement are by far the most variable.

Study finds those who speak two languages have brains that appear around six years younger than those who speak one

Learning another language could slow ageing in the brain by up to 13 years, according to research.

People who speak more than one language seem to have younger brains and the more languages you speak and the earlier you speak them, the better, according to findings from a study being presented at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies conference in Barcelona.

Sweat has important functions, including cooling you down when it’s hot outside. Here’s what science says about using antiperspirants and deodorants

Every day, 5 billion people around the world reach for deodorant. Many of us assume that managing, modifying and hiding sweat is an absolute necessity – and not just in your armpits.

Routine underarm antiperspirant and deodorant use are unlikely to cause harm. But do you know what sweat is actually for, and what these products actually do?

Cortisol is bad. Testosterone makes you aggressive. Melatonin helps you sleep. Experts bust common hormone myths

False The main puberty hormones are oestrogen and progesterone for girls and testosterone for boys. “They are active in the womb during foetal development and in infancy in a phase called mini-puberty,” says Sasha Howard, clinical reader and honorary consultant in paediatric endocrinology at Queen Mary, University of London and Barts Health NHS trust.

Naomi Osaka leads way in making bold sartorial statements just before a tennis match – but she is not alone

At Wimbledon this week, Naomi Osaka walked on to court wearing frills, a bustle, outsized bows and extended sleeves. Based on Japan’s ceremonial dress, as well as Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, the pieces designed by Hana Yagi conformed to the all-white Wimbledon dress code but the first one was so high-fashion that it debuted on Vogue before it was seen near a tennis court.

Osaka, who in January went viral at the Australian Open for wearing an outlandish design with mega-pleats based on the look of a jellyfish, is leading the way when it comes to experimental “walk-on fits”. But other players have also used the moment to make sartorial statements, not least Frances Tiafoe who did a surprise reveal – dramatically ripping off his trousers to show the shorts underneath.

With her kaftans and her headbands and even the odd paper hat, snobbish Margo stole every scene in the sitcom The Good Life. This was what colour TV was made for

Penelope Keith died this week at the age of 86. A formidable actor who came across in real life as grounded, humble and charming, she was known for playing brittle, status-obsessed characters on stage and screen. And none were more memorable than The Good Life’s Margo Leadbetter, whose command of a room depended as much on her diva-level wardrobe as on her pristine home counties vowels. Here was someone who refused to accept the concept of being overdressed, even when answering the hallway telephone. From the moment we first see Margo (in episode two – she is only heard off-screen in episode one), in a screamingly loud chiffon tangerine kaftan, it is obvious that she is the one to watch – first and foremost for her style.

In the 2025 documentary The Good Life: Inside Out, now on Apple TV, celebrating 50 years of the 1970s sitcom, Keith explains that most of the series’ costume budget went on Margo because of her frequent outfit changes: “And people couldn’t wait to see what Margo would wear next.” Keith used to spend Mondays – “my one day off” – in Harrods (“occasionally Harvey Nichols”) trying on pieces: “All those hours in there I spent, trying on those lovely floaty clothes …”. Here are a few of her best looks.

It’s been dubbed ‘an American royal wedding’, so who will win the bridal commission of the century? We’ve whittled it down to nine lucky contenders (including one for the groom)

Ever since Taylor Swift announced her engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce via an Instagram post last August, fans have been gripped by a near year-long frenzy of sleuthing and speculation over the wedding plans.

This week the couple will finally be tying the knot. With guests reportedly signing NDAs and dates flying around Reddit, the facts are scant – but it’s been reported that the couple have rented out Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden, an arena which can hold more than 19,000 people, for celebrations on July 2 and 3.

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

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

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

The island has a culinary tradition as old as its ancient olive trees. Our writer savours its family-run tavernas, village bakeries and local produce

As someone with Cypriot roots and distant Greek heritage, I’m often asked the question: which is the best island? People lean in, expecting a secret – some tiny, untouched haven, known only to locals. My answer is always the same: Crete. With its fiercely proud identity, warm communities and exceptional food, it feels both deeply Greek and entirely itself.

For our anniversary weekend, my husband and I head to Lassithi, in the island’s far eastern corner. As a chef and food writer, I’m drawn to the area’s reputation for exceptional produce: Sitia extra virgin olive oil, creamy xigalo cheese, mountain honey and an abundance of excellent tavernas.

Discover where supplicants consulted Apollo in Delphi, the infant Hermes hid stolen cattle and where Poseidon created a love nest for a sea nymph

Some stories never get old. The poems and songs from Greek mythology – tales of tragedy, love and loss, war and revenge, jealous gods, magic and monsters – have been retold through the ages for good reason. Like all stories that really resonate, they deal in the flawed nature of humankind.

To the ancients, though, they were far more than legends; they explained the universe. From the Earth’s origins and the stories of constellations to ideas of justice and morality, they shaped the arts and sciences, and carved a shared cultural identity. Visiting Greece today, it’s clear how deeply rooted the myths still are in modern culture. From the capital (named after wise Athena) and beyond, this is a country steeped in legends.

In his new book, Jack Thurston cycles the quieter roads and forgotten hill tracks of Scotland, exploring Britain’s most remote and rugged terrain

There aren’t many roads in Britain where you can pull over to cook breakfast and finish it without seeing a single car. While my friend Ben got the stove going, I wandered around the ruins of Dun Dornaigil, an iron age broch (stone roundhouse) more than 2,000 years old. Above us, low cloud drifted across the dark cliffs of Ben Hope. This was exactly the kind of lost lane we’d come to Sutherland to ride.

Our journey had begun the day before, in Lairg – the traditional “crossroads of the north”. With its Spar shop, hotel, train station and a population of about 800, Lairg is the largest inland settlement in one of the most sparsely populated regions of Europe. Sutherland – literally, the “southern land” of the Vikings, who held sway over the far north of Scotland from their stronghold on Orkney – tests life to its limits: bare mountains, impassable peat bogs and one of Britain’s wildest coastlines.

A quest for the settings that inspired Homer – and Hollywood’s latest blockbuster – turned into a personal voyage of discovery

Swimming ashore from the boat I can see a narrow shingle beach covered in driftwood. There are logs, bamboo canes and the sundried planks of an old shipwreck. The steep climb up the hill behind is not easy. I skirt thick clumps of thorn and abandoned ancient olive trees, scrambling over jagged outcrops of limestone. Every time I curl my fingers into a rocky niche I think about snakes. The only residents, however, are spiders. Their webs are strung between the trees, and so thick and strong that I grab a stick to slash through them. No one has been here for a long time.

Near the hilltop I stumble on a ruined stone building. Who lived here, I wonder? And where have they gone? A few steps further and the land abruptly ends in a vertical white cliff that plummets into an improbably blue sea. Far away, in the haze, there is a stack of Ionian islands and one of them, I know, must be Ithaca.

The actor spent almost a decade fighting monsters – and making friends – on the hit Netflix show. Then, last year, it all came to an end. How’s he adjusting?

Finn Wolfhard is remembering his first experience of celebrity. It was 2016 and he was 13. The first season of Stranger Things had aired that summer, and he returned to his high school in Vancouver as if nothing had changed. But things had changed. “People didn’t know how to treat me, especially the teachers. Kids that didn’t even look at me before were paying attention to me or wanting to hang out.” He remembers a girl in the year above who really wanted a photo with him. “And I was like: ‘Oh, I can’t really take photos at school.’ And she wasn’t listening to me and pulled me into, like, a side hug. I remember thinking: ‘Shit, man. I have no control over this. This seems crazy.’ So, it was definitely weird at first, and something I still haven’t totally grasped.”

How strange it must be to have spent such a large part of your life playing a character that half the world knows, and has watched grow up on screen, turning from a wide-eyed, gawky, nerdy kid to a sharp-cheekboned (but still quite gawky) action hero. Nobody could have predicted how huge Stranger Things would become or how long it would last, fuelled by popular demand, then stalled by the pandemic. It concluded a decade later, at the end of last year, having reached the point where it was no longer sustainable for twentysomethings like Wolfhard to pass as high schoolers.

The answer to today’s puzzle

Earlier today I set you this puzzle about an imaginary game show.

At the end of the show two people will be chosen and each placed in a separate booth.

Jesús Piñero grew up with the sound of gunfire, but thought he would be safe on the bus taking him to his home in Caracas. Then a mugger came for his phone …

As he rushed up the stairs from the Palo Verde metro station and jumped into the camioneta (small bus) for the five-minute ride to his home in Caracas, Jesús Piñero’s head buzzed with projects and ideas. It was 25 March 2016, and Venezuela was in meltdown, but the 22-year-old was upbeat. Exam results, parties and family awaited after a day with friends shaking a tin on the street for money to buy lightbulbs for the university history department where – in a first for his working-class family – he was a promising student.

His white Blu phone – only $80 (£60) but his most expensive and valued possession – did not stop pinging. His mother, Elisa, was worried. “When are you getting home?” She had been messaging all afternoon. A cake was ready for his brother and sister, who had birthdays that week. The family was gathering. It was getting dark. Street crime was horrendous.

Premium Bluetooth noise-cancelling cans combine comfort with extensive connectivity and a user-replaceable battery

Sennheiser’s latest Momentum Bluetooth headphones build on the German audio specialist’s renowned sound quality with improved noise cancelling, exceptional comfort and a user-replaceable battery to keep pace with rivals.

The Momentum 5s cost £330 (€400/$400/A$749) and directly replace their three-year-old predecessors, facing strong competition from Bose, Sony and Sonos.

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.

Little-known abroad, Andy Burnham has a chance to define a new era of US-UK relations. Should he seek to charm or bargain with the bully in the White House – or treat him ‘like a poorly informed constituent’?

If, as expected, Andy Burnham becomes the British prime minister later this month, one of his first telephone calls is likely to be with Donald Trump.

Trump’s mother was Scottish and he has a nostalgic fascination with Britain. But managing a relationship with the erratic, transactional and demanding US president has been a diplomatic minefield for Burnham’s predecessors.

Race to develop ‘embodied AI’ focuses on creating dextrous hands to transform humanoid robots from gimmicks into useful products

Human hands – nimble, nerve-filled appendages that are the most flexible part of the human skeleton – are exceptionally complex. Many tasks that most people can do largely without thinking, from tying a pair of shoelaces to buttoning up a shirt, in fact require a complex set of neurological instructions and precise choreography. In thousands of years of human history, no machine has been able to truly replicate human’s greatest tool.

But now, as artificial intelligence (AI) races forwards, some companies think they are close to surpassing this final but most difficult hurdle in robotics. Most of them are in China.

Farage is under pressure over £5m gift, byelection losses and rise of rival Restore but allies say exit speculation is ‘wishful thinking’

“Of course he’s tired. He’s just done two months campaigning every day on the road, it would be weird if he wasn’t. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to quit,” says one friend of Nigel Farage who has spent time with him in recent weeks.

Westminster has been ablaze with rumours that Farage is growing weary in the job of leading Reform UK after the bruising scandal around his decision to accept a £5m gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. He is now also facing further questions about whether his lifestyle has been partly funded by George Cottrell, his close friend and a convicted fraudster.

Where and how did you watch the match? If you had to stay up late, did you get any sleep and how will you cope with the tiredness today?

England have beaten Mexico in one of their finest World Cup knockout wins since 1966. Despite concerns about altitude and being reduced to 10 men when Jarell Quansah was sent off, England won 3-2 in Mexico City to book a quarter-final against Norway.

Did you stay up for the game? Where and how did you watch it? What are your thoughts on the performance? If the match was broadcast live very early in the morning where you are, did you get any sleep? Are you going to work? How will you get through the day? We would like to hear from you.

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

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

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

We would like to hear about the animals who have attained star status where you live

Wildlife officials have warned people to give Neil the seal space during his visit to Tasmania, where he has been crushing fences, blocking traffic and bashing into parked cars, in what experts say is play-fighting behaviour.

Neil, a 1,000kg southern elephant seal, was born – unusually – in Tasmania in October 2020. Most of his kind live thousands of kilometres south on the subantarctic Macquarie and Heard islands.

We would like to hear how parents feel following guidance from the UK National Crime Agency about sharing photos of their children publicly online

The UK National Crime Agency has recommended parents should not put photos of their children on public display online as part of landmark guidance to tackle the rise of AI-generated sexual abuse material.

Advice issued by the NCA and the Internet Watch Foundation suggests parents and guardians make their social media accounts private or share pictures of their children through a “close friends” group.

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