The top 100 novels of all time published in English, as voted for by authors, critics and academics worldwide. How many have you read?

As continent faces tough headwinds, leaders are bearing brunt of delivering bad news to frustrated electorates

“People hate you,” the adviser informed his leader. A think-piece in a daily newspaper noted that “almost everyone agrees on one thing: they don’t like him”.

The recent disastrous set of local election results in the UK built on Keir Starmer’s longstanding reputational problem: only 11% of Britons believe he has been a good or great prime minister, and nearly 60% believe he has been poor or terrible, according to polling by YouGov.

Mikel Arteta’s side will be deeply unpopular champions, but this probably says more about us than it does about them

There was a minor stir a few years back when some American scientists bred a strain of “gene-edited” hamsters with the chemical that causes anger removed, presumably so they could achieve one of humanity’s historic goals: the dream of a more docile hamster.

Unfortunately the opposite happened. What the scientists created was a race of hyper-angry hamsters. These were described a little glibly in the media as Mutant Rage Monsters. But science is always more nuanced than this. We shouldn’t put angry hamsters in a box, even when we are literally putting angry hamsters in a box. Longer studies have shown more varied results. Sarcastic hamsters. Hamsters that hold grudges. Hamsters that retreat into silence on long car journeys. Even a subset of passive-aggressive hamsters who are, seriously, just fine with this. It’s pretty much what they expected from you, anyway.

Mismanagement and political campaigning have sucked the joy out of an event meant to bring people together

For the past two years, amid intensifying controversy over Israel’s participation in Eurovision, I and most other Eurovision superfans have stuck by the contest, despite clear misgivings.

This week, however, as the usual collection of power ballads and jokey songs compete in Vienna, we are not bonding over a common joy, but rather over our shared sense of sadness about the politicisation of the contest. This sadness pales in comparison to the trauma and grief experienced by the people affected by the wars fuelling this politicisation, but it is there nonetheless.

Dave Keating is a Brussels-based journalist and author of The Owned Continent: How to Free Europe from American Military, Economic and Cultural Dependence

From a stylish retreat in Norfolk to a remote hideaway on a Scottish island, these boltholes will make for a truly memorable stay

Tourism experts are predicting a bumper year for “staycations” with more of us choosing to holiday in the UK due to continuing uncertainty around jet fuel prices and possible flight cancellations. Holidaymakers are spoilt for choice with more than 350,000 UK self-catering listings on booking platforms, from rustic barn conversions to seaside villas with all mod cons for large family gatherings.

We’ve done some of the leg work and whittled down a selection of cottages which all offer something special, whether it’s a stunning location, a breathtaking view or a level of comfort and style that wouldn’t be out of place in a boutique hotel.

Heart of Midlothian are gaining temporary fans from other Scottish teams who resent Celtic and Rangers’ dominance

Edinburgh, a festival city, is preparing for a different kind of carnival this weekend. Roads will be closed, buses rerouted and trams will stop running down Princes Street. Civic leaders are preparing a reception at the city chambers.

It all depends on the result of a football match in Glasgow on Saturday.

Autumn conference in Liverpool targeted for victorious homecoming but Reform UK to fight hard in byelection

Andy Burnham will push to become prime minister in time to address Labour’s autumn party conference in Liverpool, his supporters have said.

The Greater Manchester mayor cleared his first hurdle to becoming the candidate in the Makerfield byelection on Friday when Labour’s ruling body gave him permission to stand for the seat.

Ahead of Nakba march, Sara Husseini says many feel they are being treated as suspects rather than victims of mass suffering

British Palestinians feel unable to speak openly about Israel’s war on Gaza, the director of the British Palestinian Committee has said, amid what campaigners believe is a growing climate of hostility around Palestinian identity and activism in the UK.

Some were afraid to wear Palestinian symbols at work or display Arabic jewellery and keffiyehs in public, Sara Husseini said.

Police investigate incident on Thursday after witness claims seeing Raise the Colours logo on side of vehicle

Police are investigating an incident where a man was run over by a van after a group of people were taking down union flags put up by Raise the Colours campaigners in Birmingham.

A man, in his 30s, suffered a broken leg that required surgery. He remains in hospital after the incident on Thursday evening in the Birmingham suburb of Stirchley, police said.

Exclusive: Commission says alert would trigger coordinated international response that could help avoid millions dying

The climate crisis should be declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization, or millions more people will die unnecessarily, leading international experts have said.

The independent pan-European commission on climate and health, which was convened by the WHO, concluded the climate crisis was such a worldwide threat to health that the WHO should declare it “a public health emergency of international concern” (Pheic).

As Keir Starmer endures a slow ousting as PM, former Labour leader Corbyn recalls his own expulsion and looks at the runners and riders

“Yeah, I do feel [sorry for him],” said Jeremy Corbyn, with only a little hesitation. “On a personal level it must be devastating. It is a horrible feeling. You suddenly realise that this person doesn’t trust you at all and really doesn’t wish you well at all, and you suddenly realise that any trust that was there actually disappears.”

There are few in politics who have had the experience of being the subject of a Labour party-style coup, the British equivalent of being dragged from your office to be put up against a wall. Letters of resignations from so-called political friends, condemnatory statements on social media, all dripped out for maximum effect with the end goal of pushing the target, once the subject of standing ovations and gushing plaudits, out on their tail.

Alina Burns, 19, who had said she wanted to ‘kill all Jews and Muslims’, attacked barber outside his shop

A neo-Nazi obsessed teenager who tried to behead a Kurdish barber with an axe because she wanted to “kill all Jews and Muslims” has been jailed for more than 15 years.

Alina Burns, 19, attacked Mohammed Mahmoodi, 27, with the weapon as he stood outside his shop in Bedminster in south Bristol in August last year.

Firms do not offer cover for some models, or charge more than for equivalent petrol cars, research finds

UK insurers are more hesitant to cover some hybrid and electric vehicles (EVs) from China than cars from other countries, research suggests.

While some drivers can save money by buying cars made in China, they may have more limited options to get insurance than those buying electric, hybrid and petrol cars from Europe, the US and South Korea.

US president calls Abu-Bilal al-Minuki ‘most active terrorist in the world’ and says he was eliminated in ‘very complex mission’

Donald Trump has said US and Nigerian forces killed the “second in command” global leader of the Islamic State.

“Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield,” the US president said on his Truth Social platform on Friday.

Rent donations on GoFundMe up 60% since 2022, with 100,000 donors helping people keep a roof over their heads

A record number of people in the UK are turning to crowdfunding to cover rent and household bills, with GoFundMe reporting more rent-related fundraisers were created in April than in any month on record.

The platform said donations towards rent support had risen by 60% since 2022, with more than 100,000 people a month contributing to help others meet their housing costs.

Inaugural festival aimed at bringing ‘less oy and more joy’ has events that span food, fashion, music and literature

Londoners may have spotted a giant green pickle bobbing through the capital, turning up at landmarks including the Tate Modern and Southbank Centre, with a simple message: the UK’s first Jewish culture month has been launched.

The celebration is aimed at bringing “less oy and more joy” after difficult years for the Jewish community.

Residents of al-Bustan district told to make way for Kings Garden, with knocking down own houses cheaper option

At the bottom of a steep and densely populated valley just below Jerusalem’s old city walls, the earth has been shaken in recent weeks by jackhammers and bulldozers.

These have been the sounds of Jerusalem for decades as the Israeli state has relentlessly sought to stamp a uniformly Jewish identity on to the occupied east of the city, while erasing its Palestinian character.

Week of leadership jostling has left Keir Starmer looking vulnerable and short of time – even though no challenger has officially come forward

It was a minute or so into his BBC interview on Friday morning, after being asked about “moves” to remove Keir Starmer, that Steve Reed ran out of patience. “There is no contest,” he interrupted. “‘Moves’ mean nothing. People need 81 nominations to stand against the prime minister.”

The housing secretary, a close ally of Starmer and a founding member of the Labour Together thinktank that catapulted him to power, was right, of course: no one has formally challenged the prime minister, let alone ousted him.

Frances, 77, a retired marketing manager, meets Eddie, 86, an activist

What were you hoping for?
A lovely evening with pleasant company.

Apple’s superbly twisty thriller about a beautiful camboy blackmailing a divorced mum is like the new No Country for Old Men – with added Nick from New Girl

I was drawn to this week’s show for the worst reason. That name is pure critic bait, and I like my fruit low-hanging. Other famously pre-roasted works include the films The Happening and Fantastic Four, and the Oasis album Be Here Now. (No, thanks.) In my schadenfreude-soaked soul, I wondered if Apple’s show might join them. Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed (Apple TV, from Wed)? Do I need the warranty?

It stars Tatiana Maslany, who also led the brilliantly titled, if widely slated, show She Hulk: Attorney at Law. No one doubts Maslany’s chops. She won an Emmy playing 17 distinct clones in the sci-fi series Orphan Black. Here she plays Paula, a divorced mother going through a custody battle. Paula’s only access to intimacy is with a young online sex worker named Trevor. Despite his name, Trevor is beautiful, like Jeff Buckley. I suppose Jeff isn’t the most exotic name either.

We have to drag the bins through the house because the garden door is jammed. Until a scary encounter with my old enemy, that is …

It’s still light out when my wife comes to me with bad news.

“It’s bin day,” she says.

The acclaimed author and poet talks about her new book, telling the true stories of patients at a derelict Victorian psychiatric hospital – a place in which she might have found herself at a different time

Doireann Ní Ghríofa wrote much of her first book of prose, A Ghost in the Throat, sitting in her car on the top floor of a multistorey car park, having dropped her children off at school in Cork city. Whatever works: her imaginative journey into the life and mind of 18th-century Irish poet Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill was so convincing and original that it captivated readers and won the James Tait Black biography prize and, in Ireland, the An Post book of the year award. Having published several well-regarded collections of poetry, it seemed as if this blend of biography, memoir and meditation had enlarged the way in which she could write about her abiding preoccupation: the ever-present past.

She returned to her car to work on her new book, Said the Dead. But this time, it was parked in front of a vast building high on a hill overlooking the river Lee, one half of it derelict and the other half transformed into apartments. Its history was long: originally referred to simply as the district asylum at the end of the 18th century, a grand gothic-revival building had been constructed during the 1840s, and named, after Ireland’s Lord Lieutenant, the Eglinton Lunatic Asylum; in the 20th century, it became the Cork District Mental Hospital and, in its last incarnation before closing in 1992, Our Lady’s Psychiatric Hospital. Many such institutions existed across Ireland, a patchwork of private and public mental health provision that operated against the backdrop of colonial rule, poverty and famine.

The case of a student who could lose hundreds of pounds after the UK changed travel advice points to wider problems for travellers

In February, when Lottie Cornwall booked a summer trip to Lebanon, she was excited at the prospect of introducing her boyfriend to her Lebanese extended family.

“My mum’s whole side of the family live there,” she says. “I last saw my grandmother and cousins in 2022. My heritage means everything to me, and this was a chance for my boyfriend to meet my family, and to show him where I come from and why I’m so in love with it.”

The style on the Croisette is off to a strong start

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

Bob Odenkirk’s a put-upon lawman in Ben Wheatley’s latest, and the SNL UK star is back out on tour

Normal
Out now
Ben Wheatley (Sightseers) returns with an action crime thriller starring Bob Odenkirk as a man serving as interim sheriff in the fictional little town of Normal, Minnesota, a place that turns out to have some unexpectedly big secrets involving the yakuza. Also starring Henry Winkler and Lena Headey.

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

Jilly Cooper’s over-the-top TV industry romp returns, and Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel make a bracing artistic double act. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

⚽ Your welcome to an ultra-busy footballing weekend
⚽ Today’s fixtures | Tables | Get Football Daily | Mail Emillia

Eddie Howe will look back on the season with mixed feelings after admitting it has been “a challenge” managing Newcastle. They will head into Sunday’s final home game of the Premier League campaign against West Ham knowing the Magpies, who reached the knockout stage in the Champions League and the Carabao Cup semi-finals, have underachieved. Howe’s side lies 13th in the table with two games remaining, 13 points adrift of the fifth place in which they finished last season.

Asked how he would look back on the campaign the 48-year-old, whose future has been called into question as a result, said: “I suppose time will tell, to a degree, but I think my initial thought now in response to that question is I will look back with probably mixed feelings.

Our photographer, Tom Jenkins, captures the discontent at both clubs after years of mismanagement as the trapdoor awaits one of them

Fury. Grief. Embarrassment. Horror. Resignation. The emotions run hot for supporters of West Ham and Tottenham right now as the two grand old clubs stare at potential relegation from the Premier League.

With their spiritual homes demolished at the altar of progress and profit, first Upton Park in 2016 and then White Hart Lane in 2017, both clubs had visions of glory days ahead. Instead they have been consumed by greed, mismanagement and false promises. Key perpetrators such as Karren Brady at West Ham and Daniel Levy at Spurs have exited the scene, but David Sullivan is still the Hammers chairman and the damage remains.

Pictured above: Home fans react to a missed chance during the Premier League match between West Ham and Everton at the London Stadium on 25 April 2026. Pictured below: The London Stadium, claret boots and caps, and signs from a protest against the club’s owners. All photographs by Tom Jenkins.

On Sunday the Red Roses chase an eighth straight Women’s Six Nations title, with hosts Les Bleues seeking a slam too

It all comes down to this, again. France have been runners-up to England in the Women’s Six Nations for the past six years, edging ever closer: last year’s decider was settled by a single point. But can François Ratier’s team not only end England’s dominance in this competition but also halt their 37-game winning run on Sunday? If they show up from minute one to 80, France can do it.

England will be favourites to lift their eighth straight Six Nations trophy but have been contending with a lot this tournament. Retirements, pregnancy and injury mean the team are without a wealth of talent including Zoe Stratford – the usual captain – Abbie Ward and Alex Matthews. They have continued to win with a depleted squad but their depth will be given its biggest test yet against an in-form France team.

Swedish firm Maurten’s high-carb drinks, bicarb sludges and hydrogels are giving super spikes a run for their money

Inside an unremarkable Gothenburg office building rented from the local university are a series of conference spaces named after the modern greats of distance running. There is the Eliud Kipchoge room, the Keely Hodgkinson room and, the latest addition, the Sabastian Sawe room, in homage to the man who recently redefined the limits of human endurance.

When Sawe last month in London became the first person to run an official marathon in under two hours, much of the coverage focused on the Kenyan’s carbon-plated shoes. But here, on the west coast of Sweden, a team of scientists, nutritionists and technicians believe another factor was just as significant, if not more so.

• FA Cup final will be 24th trip to stadium as City manager

• Spaniard aiming to win 17th major honour in decade

Pep Guardiola has described his ­decade managing Manchester City as “fucking fun”, and suggested Saturday’s FA Cup final against Chelsea might not be the last time he leads the team out at Wembley.

While Guardiola’s contract expires in summer 2027, there is increasing expectation that he will depart the club in the close season. Saturday’s final will be City’s 24th cup appearance at the national stadium under the Spaniard, with Guardiola aiming to claim the 17th major trophy of his 10 years in charge.

It almost felt like Aston Villa were trolling Liverpool as someone inside this throbbing stadium pressed play and the operatic Champions League anthem blared over the speakers. Villa had just qualified in style, a stirring victory superbly spearheaded by Ollie Watkins that exposed the kind of blind spots that have undermined Arne Slot’s meek title defence. For Villa, this was the perfect tonic before Wednesday’s Europa League final in Istanbul and for Unai Emery, arguably his greatest triumph yet given the financial muscle of their rivals. Well, for a few days at least.

Somehow, Emery was left off the Premier League’s six-strong manager of the season shortlist. Afterwards Villa basked in the achievement and Emery yelled into a microphone: “Up the Villa!” And then: “We’re going to Istanbul!” It was a rare break from Emery’s cold laser focus; after the final whistle he shook hands with Slot and clenched his left fist in celebration as he marched towards the tunnel.

• Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy lead on four under

• Rory McIlroy makes progress after poor opening day

“Golf should be a pleasure,” wrote Donald Ross, the man who designed Aronimink, “not a penance.” And a fine sentiment it is, too, even if it wasn’t immediately clear that any of the many men competing here for the PGA Championship were having very much fun doing it. Shane Lowry didn’t seem to be when he shanked the ball into the water at 17, nor did Scottie Scheffler when he threatened to slam down his wedge after hitting one thick on the 6th, and Justin Thomas and Keegan Bradley didn’t look too enthused when they were busy ranting at the rules officials who put them on the clock for slow play.

The pleasure, such as it was, seemed to be mostly in purists’ appreciation of the high standard of lag putting on show, and everyone else’s schadenfreude at watching the world’s best golfers endure the same sort of frustrations amateur hackers suffer every weekend.

• Wigan 24-4 Leeds

• Rhinos punished for sluggish start

This was not so much a crucial Super League victory as it was a statement to the rest of the competition. Six days on from Wigan’s dismantling of great rivals St Helens in the Challenge Cup semi-finals, Matt Peet’s team have now humiliated the side that were top of the table heading into this weekend.

If you did not know the first trophy of the season was on the verge of being handed out, you certainly do now. With their date against Hull KR just a fortnight away at Wembley, Wigan have clicked into gear at precisely the right time – just as they have done so many times over the past four or five seasons.

If there’s no proof of aliens, the president can blame the deep state. If there’s proof, he’s a hero. Either way, it helps his popularity

The US Department of Defense released the first batch of its UFO files last week at the direction of the president, Donald Trump, who promised to make them public “based on the tremendous interest shown”.

Trump’s right, of course. Nearly half of Americans believe aliens have visited Earth, and many believe that the government is hoarding the evidence in some shadowy laboratory or military base. This conspiracy began in 1947 at Roswell, New Mexico, when the Roswell army airfield issued a news release about the crash of a “flying disc”, and has never truly gone away.

It’s your life in their hands, but what kind of life is that? No wonder a wearied, confused public has mobilised into tribes – or just tuned out

On the basis that you’re never too cooked to get a new catchphrase, Keir Starmer has repeatedly warned this week that we are in a “battle for the soul of our nation”. I wish he’d stop saying it. The thought of your very soul being fought over by Nigel Farage, Keir Starmer, Zack Polanski, Kemi Badenoch and the others is like something out of a sealed section in Dante’s Inferno. If it was on an underworld menu, I think I’d choose the Satanic Flaying instead. Anyway: enter Andy Burnham.

Plus, we now have coordinates. The battle for the soul of the nation will take place not in the tenth circle of hell, but in Makerfield. Local MP and appalling little footnote Josh Simons has stood down so that the King in the North has a route to King’s Landing, where – I think? – he has to kill his auntie after accidentally shagging her. Labour party procedures are very arcane.

Labour must rise to a historic responsibility by choosing a leader who can win over the nation. The alternative is Farage on the steps of No 10

They’re looking like the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. Labour’s upper echelon, both the prime minister and his rivals, have served up a performance of such political ineptitude, walking into doors and tripping over their own feet, that it’s hard to argue with the cabinet minister who glumly told me this was the week when the government did itself damage that can never be repaired, if not the week that Labour confirmed its defeat at the next general election.

As so often, the lead was set from the top. Keir Starmer’s allies had billed his speech on Monday as a major address, one that would meet the scale of the moment and recognise the need for Labour to chart a new course, given the shellacking the party had suffered at the hands of voters in England, Scotland and Wales on 7 May.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

The decline of the glossy magazine industry as depicted in the sequel made me cry – but I shed no tears for how it was back then

I didn’t think The Devil Wears Prada 2 would make me cry, but it did. All the fashiony high camp, all the sharp one-liners of the first movie (“By all means, move at a glacial pace, you know how that thrills me”) deliquesce into melancholy for a struggling media industry in the second film. We meet the older Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) – the put-upon assistant of Runway editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) in the original movie – when she and her newspaper colleagues are receiving an award for investigative reporting. Except that at precisely that moment they are laid off, by text message. Perfectly realistic: swathes of the Washington Post, including Pulitzer finalists and correspondents in war zones, suffered a similar fate (in this case, sacking by email subject field) in February.

I didn’t think it would make me feel so nostalgic, either. The original Devil Wears Prada came out in 2006. Watching this thinly disguised portrait of American Vogue then was fun. I had served my apprenticeship at Condé Nast, at British Vogue and The World of Interiors, and I felt some vague kinship with Andy and her terrible blue jumper, who arrives a sceptic, goes native, then leaves for her true calling at a progressive newspaper. But now, 20 years on, other feelings crowd in. As my former Vogue colleague Louise Chunn wrote in the New Statesman recently, in the 1990s we had no idea we were working “at the high watermark of the circulation and power of the glossy magazine industry”. When those enormous, thick-papered tomes thunked down on our desks at Vogue House (which they literally did, hand delivered) they were so solid, so reassuring, so full of the promise of glamour and gorgeousness, that we thought it would go on for ever.

Britain’s embattled PM is beset by enemies. One reason is that Westminster has ceased to be a club and turned into a shambles

The Tories took years of Westminster turmoil to reach their Liz Truss moment. It has taken Labour only two. Britain has a weakened prime minister, a fatally divided government and a shambolic House of Commons. No one beyond Keir Starmer’s looming rivals can seriously believe the cure lies in his immediate toppling.

There is no leader in waiting obviously superior to Starmer, certainly not his former health secretary, Wes Streeting. Out of naked ambition, he has ditched a critical job in an extraordinary display of cabinet nastiness. As the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, suggests, the effect of a leadership change on the economy could be severe. Yet Westminster’s corridors are bubbling and seething, close to explosion. Something is very wrong with British politics.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

Site provides little in the way of actual support for pregnant women – but does direct them to deceptive pregnancy centers

On the website’s landing page, a photo of a heavily pregnant white woman is cropped below the head, so that she is faceless, anonymous, cradling her massive belly underneath the skirt of her yellow dress. She appears to be standing in a field of tall grass, the kind you can get ticks in. The photo is flanked on either side by chubby infant footprints – one pair in pink, another in blue – a clear nod to the anti-abortion movement’s preferred symbol of what they call “precious feet”. A banner at the top declares that the site, “Moms.gov”, which was launched by the White House on Mother’s Day, offers “Resources, Information, and Help for New and Expecting Mothers”, and advertises that it is “addressing the needs of mothers and fathers who face difficult or unexpected pregnancies” – that is, those who would often seek abortions. In fact, the site does little besides link to Option Line, a referral network of Christian anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers run by the anti-abortion group Heartbeat International.

The launch of Moms.gov was accompanied by an uncomfortable Oval Office press conference on Monday, in which members of the Trump administration and some of the more aggressively anti-choice Republican members of Congress gathered to tout the new website and cheer on the Trump administration’s pronatalist stance. Dr Mehmet Oz, the wellness influencer and one-time television personality who now holds a position in the Trump health department as the administrator for Medicare and Medicaid, lamented that Americans are, in his creepy personal parlance, “under-babied”. “One in three Americans are under-babied,” Oz asserted. “That means that you either don’t have any children or you have less children than you would normally want to have.” Oz asserted that the fertility rate has fallen below 1.5 (a Johns Hopkins study indicates that it is in fact a bit higher, and that the US population is not shrinking) and predicted a coming wave of “Trump babies”.

George Eliot’s masterpiece of provincial life still has much to teach us about sympathy and tolerance

Virgina Woolf declared Middlemarch “one of the few English novels written for grown-up people”. Henry James said that some of its scenes were the most intelligent in English fiction. Even Martin Amis, over 100 years later, called it “a novel without weaknesses”. Now this 900-page portrait of 19th-century provincial life has been voted the best novel of all time in a Guardian poll of writers, academics and critics.

George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans) was already a highly successful novelist by the time Middlemarch was published in instalments in 1871 and 1872. Beginning with a marriage, and a deeply unhappy one, it upends “the marriage plot” established by Jane Austen. Nineteen-year-old Dorothea Brooke has “a passionate desire to know and to think”, and a longing “to lead a grand life here – now – in England”. Unfortunately, that England didn’t afford many opportunities for women, and she misguidedly hitches her idealism to the desiccated scholar Casaubon. This is not the novel’s only disastrous marriage. The ambitious young doctor Tertius Lydgate makes an ill-suited match to the vain and shallow Rosamond Vincy.

The president’s meeting with Xi Jinping was superficially cordial, extending a truce borne of necessity

“American strength back on the world stage,” crowed the White House social media post: a curious remark, when the attached video showed the stars and stripes fluttering beneath a long row of Chinese flags, and People’s Liberation Army soldiers marching in unison.

This week’s visit to Beijing offered the kind of style that Donald Trump enjoys – parading troops, a banquet and a polite if not markedly enthusiastic welcome from a strongman he called “really a friend” – but little apparent substance. The public account of the encounter will be partial: Mr Trump’s former adviser John Bolton has claimed that in previous conversations the US president begged Xi Jinping for help to win re-election and urged him to “go ahead” with internment camps for Uyghurs in Xinjiang. But this meeting appears to have been about stabilising the relationship, not shifting it.

Readers respond to a long read article by editor-in-chief Katharine Viner on surviving the information crisis

Katharine Viner’s long read is excellent in its analysis of the challenges posed by unscrupulous leaders and rampant technology, and in its account of the good work being done by the Guardian (How to survive the information crisis: ‘We once talked about fake news – now reality itself feels fake’, 6 May). But I can’t help thinking that it is preaching to the converted: it is not Guardian readers, but those who might hold very different views, who need to be convinced of the arguments put forward.

Reading the article, I was hoping to hear more about efforts being made to reach out to those unlikely to share the values espoused by the Guardian. How can these values be communicated, for example, to Maga followers or, dare I say, readers of the Daily Mail? Here, a leaf can be taken out of the Guardian’s own “Dining across the divide” feature.

Salley Vickers and Carrie Eckersley respond to a letter on Richard Dawkins and his chats with AI bots

I was delighted to read Dr Simon Nieder’s cogent rebuttal of Richard Dawkins’s attribution of consciousness to the responses engendered by AI (Letters, 10 May). That human consciousness appears to have an innate tendency to project itself on to various othernesses has long been understood – John Ruskin termed it the pathetic fallacy – and that children animate their loved toys is readily observable.

But Wordsworth’s attribution of emotion to a mountain or my granddaughter’s lively conversations with Spice, her toy sloth, are, happily, unlikely to be dangerous. The conclusion that a widely harvested body of data on human response is equivalent to consciousness is naive and rather shocking in someone such as Prof Dawkins, who has founded his reputation and criticism of religious beliefs on a stringent rationalism.
Salley Vickers
London

Denis Hodžić was surprised to see a photograph of his favourite childhood hobby in his favourite paper

Your lovely article about Panini football stickers (Writers on their World Cup Panini collecting days: ‘We all remember the playground twerp’, 9 May) reminded me of my own sticker albums from the 70s and 80s. My favourite album and World Cup was Spain 1982.

I watched the games in Yugoslavia, where I grew up. We excitedly followed our own team, which in the end failed to live up to its reputation as the “European Brazilians”. The Brazilian Brazilians, meanwhile, had a fabulous team of their own, full of charismatic superstars who looked great on stickers and were the most valuable currency in the playground.

Maggie Rylance deployed a red spotted handkerchief in memory of her dad, while Terry O’Hara was tempted by the Parthenon

The letter (8 May) responding to Zoe Williams’ article about scattering her mum’s ashes brought back fond memories of Dad. He was a farmer and always carried a red spotted handkerchief in his pocket. When he was muck-spreading, he would get out of the tractor cab, hold the handkerchief up to check which way the wind was blowing, and make sure he drove in a direction that protected the cab from being covered in muck.

It was a family joke that we should use the same method when spreading his and Mum’s ashes. We saved a red spotted handkerchief and did exactly that. It worked well and no one got covered in ash.
Maggie Rylance
Winchester

Family and supporters had hoped the US president could help free the 78-year-old British citizen during summit talks in Beijing

Donald Trump raised the case of jailed Hong Kong democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai in talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping but was told it “is a tough one”.

Family and supporters of the 78-year-old British citizen had hoped the US president could help secure his release.

Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi appeared in US federal court to face six terrorism-related charges

The US justice department has arrested and charged an Iraqi national accused of involvement in nearly 20 alleged terror attacks and attempted attacks across the US and Europe.

The wave of violence attributed to Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi has caused huge concern in many European countries but especially the UK, where Jewish community centres, charities, synagogues and other sites have been targeted in recent weeks.

Group of MPs and peers in effect accuse government of failing to comply with parliament’s will over release of files

A powerful parliamentary committee tasked with reviewing files relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador has revealed that the government is withholding his vetting file despite not having the authority to do so.

In an extraordinary intervention, the intelligence and security committee (ISC) has criticised the government over its handling of the release of Mandelson-related papers and in effect accused ministers failing to comply with parliament’s will.

Chaotic week in which enforcer of ‘war on drugs’ flees senate building leaves government looking ‘incompetent’

The wanted man outran security agents, rallied protesters and even serenaded the media with a military hymn. Then, after a sudden exchange of gunfire, the Philippines’ most controversial lawmaker slipped out of the heavily guarded senate building in the middle of the night.

Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who is wanted by the international criminal court for crimes against humanity, is now nowhere to be seen.

The incident happened near Perth about 10am on Saturday, a St John WA ambulance service spokesperson says

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A man has died after being attacked by a shark at a popular Australian holiday island off Western Australia.

The incident happened at Rottnest Island, near Perth, about 10am on Saturday, a St John WA ambulance service spokesperson said.

Butterfly Conservation poll is open until 7 June with choice of 60 species from small tortoiseshells to purple emperors

Will it be the rapidly disappearing former garden favourite, the small tortoiseshell? Or the poet John Masefield’s “oakwood haunting thing”, the charismatic purple emperor? Or perhaps the brimstone, the ultimate harbinger of spring?

The question of which is Britain’s favourite butterfly is being put to a popular vote for the first time. The charity Butterfly Conservation is running the poll, which runs until 7 June, giving people the chance to choose their favourite from the 60 species that fly around Britain every summer.

Climate and transport organisations warn ministers not to ‘sleepwalk into crisis’ amid Iran war oil and gas shortages

Private jets should be banned and the speed limit on UK motorways reduced to 60mph as part of a pre-emptive effort to ease the looming fuel supply crisis, according to leading climate and transport organisations.

The group – including Greenpeace and Transport and Environment – are calling on ministers not to “sleepwalk into a crisis” that could lead to severe shortages of jet fuel and spiralling petrol prices at the pump in the coming months.

Record heat in North and Central America coincides with egg-sized hailstones in eastern China

Extreme weather across several parts of the world this week has brought record-breaking temperatures to Honduras, North America and Indonesia.

Honduras smashed its all-time May maximum temperature record earlier this month – only for it to be broken again on 13 May in Choluteca, known as the furnace of Central America. Temperatures climbed to 42.2C (107.9F), surpassing the previous record of 42.1C. With intense heat forecast to persist over the coming weeks, more records are expected to fall.

Glenn Murcutt pioneered architecture that was sensitive to its environment, and accomodating to changing temperatures and wildlife

The house teaches you things, Lynne Eastaway says. Today, a choir of cicadas fill the scrub with a rhythm that rises and falls. On other days, there may be visits from birds, goannas, echidnas, wombats, wallabies and kangaroos.

“The bush ends, and the house begins,” she says. “You’re not the centre; you’re just part of it. That’s the thing you learn.

Female muntjac given nickname of ‘lucky’ Lucy after being freed from department store’s moving staircase

“There’s a deer trapped in an escalator” was not a phrase anyone at Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norfolk was expecting to hear when staff at a Marks & Spencer department store in central Norwich called last Tuesday.

“In Norfolk, deers often get themselves in trouble,” said the sanctuary’s founder, Wendy Valentine. “They get stuck between walls and sheds, and in gates. It’s quite common for deer to get trapped … but ‘trapped in an escalator’ was a first.”

Lewis Waters, who attended Henley college in Oxfordshire, was one of three cases reported in Berkshire outbreak

The father of a college student who died after contracting meningitis has paid tribute to his “funny, sociable, kind-hearted” son.

Lewis Waters, who attended Henley college in Oxfordshire, was one of three cases reported in the outbreak in Berkshire, which also includes two school pupils in Reading.

All 46 Council of Europe members sign agreement ‘deplored’ by human rights organisations

The UK and 45 other European countries have signed an agreement that explicitly endorses plans to send unwanted asylum seekers to third country hubs.

A political declaration from the 46 members of the Council of Europe, the body that oversees the European convention on human rights (ECHR), said states had an “undeniable sovereign right” to control their borders.

Saffron Cole-Nottage became stuck headfirst in sea defence rocks as tide was coming in at Lowestoft

A woman who drowned after getting stuck headfirst in sea defence rocks might have been saved if the ambulance service had alerted the fire service more quickly, a coroner has said.

Saffron Cole-Nottage, 32, was walking the family dog with her daughteron the seafront in their home town of Lowestoft, Suffolk, when she fell as the tide was coming in on 2 February 2025.

Statement following ‘productive’ talks in Washington comes as Israel launches strikes on southern city of Tyre

Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 45-day extension of their ceasefire after another round of talks in Washington, the US state department has said.

It came after two “productive” days of talks, and more negotiations would be held from 2-3 June, the department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.

Muscat silent about plans – opposed by US – to charge fee and demand details on nationality of all transiting ships

Oman has been caught in geopolitical crossfire after Iran said it was coordinating with the Gulf state over the future management of the strait of Hormuz, including Tehran’s plans to impose fees on commercial shipping.

The Omani exclave of Musandam lies to the south of the contested waterway, which normally carries a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil traffic but has been blockaded for 10 weeks since the US-Israeli attack on Iran in February.

Researchers say daily exposure to cold activates brown fat and could help speed up body’s burning of calories

Wearing an ice vest or taking daily cold showers could help people lose weight, according to researchers.

Despite the growing popularity of cold-water swimming and freezing plunges, to date there is minimal data on the health benefits of cold exposure. But a study of 47 adults with obesity or overweight has found that regular exposure to cold temperatures led to fat loss.

President says three days of strikes will not ‘go unpunished’ and points to Ukrainian attack on Russian oil refinery. What we know on day 1,543

Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised retribution against Russia on Friday after laying red roses at the rubble of a Kyiv apartment building where a Russian missile strike killed 24 people, including three children. “Ukraine will not allow any of the aggressor’s strikes that take the lives of our people to go unpunished,” the president said after meeting top military and intelligence officials to discuss retaliatory long-range strikes. Zelenskyy said later in his nightly video address that retaliatory actions had already been approved, and pointed to an overnight attack on an oil refinery that the military said triggered a large fire in the central Russian city of Ryazan.

The strike on Ryazan’s huge oil refinery was part of a large-scale Ukrainian long-range drone attack targeting several regions in Russia after Moscow’s forces pounded Ukraine with three days of massive strikes with missiles and drones, reports Peter Beaumont. The scale of the attacks appeared to put paid to claims of Donald Trump that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine was close, after recent remarks by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, that the war might be approaching an end.

Trump told reporters that the strikes on Kyiv – launched hours after a three-day US-brokered ceasefire expired – could disrupt efforts to find a diplomatic resolution to the war.

A Russian court has ordered Belgian financial group Euroclear to pay about $250bn in damages over the freezing of billions of dollars’ worth of Russian assets in the EU since the Ukraine war. It was not clear how Russia intended to recover the funds, and Euroclear said it did not recognise the Russian court’s jurisdiction. The Moscow court said it upheld the Russian central bank’s claim, while Euroclear told Agence France-Presse the bank’s claims were “without merit”.

Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, doubling the number of oil refineries targeted since the start of the year, according to information posted on social media by Russian officials. The strikes have reduced Russia’s oil output – the world’s third-largest after the US and Saudi Arabia – adding pressure to Moscow’s federal budget.

Ukraine’s mental health crisis is palpable and growing amid the war, the World Health Organization said, warning the effects could be felt for generations. WHO’s latest data showed 71% of people “have episodes of anxiety, stress, sleepless nights”, said its representative in Ukraine, Jarno Habicht.

Greek investigators believe a military sea drone found on a Greek island last week went off course due to a technical failure and may not have travelled far, Reuters quoted sources as saying on Friday. The explosives-laden drone – which Greece says is Ukrainian, a claim Kyiv has denied – was discovered on the shores of Lefkada on 7 May, triggering diplomatic tensions between Athens and Kyiv.

A Russian attack struck a grain terminal at a Ukrainian port, injuring seven people and causing other damage, Ukraine’s development ministry said on X on Friday, without specifying the port.

German prosecutors said a German judge had enforced an arrest warrant against a Ukrainian national suspected of spying for Russia. The defendant, identified only as Sergey N, had been detained in Spain at the end of March and extradited to Germany on Thursday, the prosecutors added.

UK capital is perceived as work hub – but as youth unemployment soars, many feel exiled from job market

Westfield White City is the biggest shopping mall in the UK and it is no stranger to crowds of young people parading through its halls. But instead of swarming the retail shops for the latest exclusive fashion drop, the hundreds of people in attendance this weekend are in search of something even more sought after and rarefied: a job.

The London job show is the capital’s biggest career event. It is held every year and hosts a range of employers from the Metropolitan police to car valet services. This year, the event is particularly relevant as unemployment levels have soared, with young people bearing the brunt of the crisis.

Canada’s Intact Financial Corp is said to be exploring offer, as London-listed Tate & Lyle attracts US suitor

Shares in Hiscox surged to record highs on Friday as it became the latest UK takeover target after a flurry of overseas bids for British businesses this week.

Canada’s Intact Financial Corp, which provides property and casualty insurance, is said to be exploring a potential takeover of Lloyd’s of London insurer Hiscox, according to a report by the Insurance Post.

UK government borrowing costs jump amid political uncertainty and oil price rise that fuelled inflation worries

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The pound was heading for its worst week in 18 months on Friday as City traders anticipated that the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, could face a challenge from the Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, later this year.

After days of uncertainty over Starmer’s future, sterling dropped by about three cents, or 2.2%, during the week to $1.332 on Friday, a five-week low. That would be the largest weekly drop against the US dollar since Donald Trump’s election win in early November 2024.

Ken Murphy’s pay could rise even higher following scrapping of food waste target and weakness of rivals

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The boss of Tesco made £10.8m last year, about £1m more than the year before, as the UK’s biggest supermarket hit its highest share of the market in a decade.

Ken Murphy could make even more this year after being handed a 3% rise in basic pay to £1.54m and cutting food waste was scrapped as a target for his long-term bonus, according to Tesco’s annual report.

There’s a great deal of fun to be had in the director’s sly and surprisingly serious thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Henry Cavill and Eiza González

While the actual quality might never threaten to float him above a three-star rating, I’ve grown an odd, outsized fondness for Guy Ritchie’s recent run of solidly enjoyable lower-tier action films. Whether deadly serious (Wrath of Man), entirely unserious (Operation Fortune) or somewhere between the two (The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare), there’s been a real snap to them, one that’s usually missing from other recent films of that ilk. Ritchie is more deeply invested in the thought-through craft of making a B-movie than many of his peers and there’s a smooth sensuousness to how he moves, each of them looking, feeling and sounding like films he genuinely cares about.

If only audiences, and the companies releasing them, felt the same. While Wrath of Man, a more marketable Jason Statham revenge thriller yet containing more grit than one would expect, managed to make enough money overseas, he’s otherwise struggled to justify his unusually high budgets. Operation Fortune was renamed, resold and pushed around the schedule before misfiring at the box office (it went straight-to-streaming in many countries) while The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare couldn’t even make half of its budget back after another botched release. The trend may well continue with his latest In the Grey, another slick action thriller that was made back in 2023, bought and then sold by Lionsgate before being similarly redated three times, the film now heading for an underwhelming opening weekend (In the Red would be perhaps more appropriate). What’s strangest here is that even critics were kept away this time with no press screenings (I paid for a ticket), suggesting that even those reliable three stars might be out of reach for this one.

A late-night viewing of the Cabaret star’s appearance with Kermit and co set me on the path to the West End. I even have a tattoo of her on my thigh!

Bronzed, with winged tips and doused in Le Male, I clamped the baby pink GHDs to my hair until they sizzled and singed it. Emerging from a cloud of cheap hairspray, I was ready for the dancefloor. I was 18 and had grown up in Blackpool, a place synonymous with hedonism and fun. I came out in high school at the age of 14 and from 16 I studied performing arts at a local college. Underage, I was smuggled into clubs and in my spare time I watched shows in our many beautiful theatres. The bright lights of the illuminations, the showgirls, the feathers, sequins and rhinestones were intoxicating. Blackpool really was – and still is – extraordinary.

When the bar closed, a new adventure would begin. One night, as the sun was coming up (and as was I), a drag queen took me back to her place. I didn’t know the significance of what I was about to experience, but I was to receive an education no university course could ever match.

The Eurovision grand final kicks off in Vienna, with Graham Norton’s iconic commentary. Plus: Ncuti Gatwa takes SNL UK on a victory lap. Here’s what to watch this evening

8pm, BBC One

Doctors and nurses say hit drama paints a mostly realistic picture of the frontline of emergency medicine

It’s the hospital drama that is adored by critics and fans alike, with its hard-hitting, action-packed episodes binged the moment they’re released by HBO Max. The Pitt depicts events in the Pittsburgh trauma medical centre, where the waiting room is always overloaded, cases are more complicated than they first seem and the medical consequences of America’s many ills – fentanyl, shootings, vaccine denial – need urgent attention.

While medical dramas are much loved by the lay viewer, clinicians who are used to seeing fictionalised versions of their daily grind are notoriously hard to please. This, notably, is where The Pitt stands apart. In fact, doctors and nurses in UK A&E units are among some of the show’s most committed devotees.

Cannes film festival: Léa Seydoux is a wife and mother whose life unravels when police arrive to quiz her husband; Jella Haase is a detective dealing with her ailing father’s misdeeds

Marie Kreutzer is the Austrian director who created impressive and stylish pictures such as the psychological thriller The Ground Beneath My Feet and the Habsburg biopic Corsage. Now she brings us this coldly eloquent and disquieting Franco-German drama about two women who find themselves imprisoned by a duty of care and loyalty to the men in their lives. One discovers something terrible about her husband and immediately goes into a state of negotiated denial, the other loves her demanding job as a police officer, and is all the more dependent on the live-in cleaner/care worker who looks after her difficult elderly father.

Léa Seydoux plays the first, Lucy Weiss, a French musician who has built up an enthusiastic, though niche following for her experimental pop-classical hybrid performances. Her mother, played in cameo by Catherine Deneuve, was a more conventionally successful concert pianist. Lucy has a comfortable home in Munich with her German TV director husband, Philip (Laurence Rupp), and their lively nine-year-old son, Johnny (Malo Blanchet). But Philip has had a breakdown, collapsing sobbing in Lucy’s arms, apparently due to overwork and drug problems. She agrees to move to the countryside to soothe his emotional pain, and for a while things look better. Philip is evidently devoted to Johnny, playfully filming him and Lucy for some little personal project, and manfully building his son a trampoline in the garden.

Sexy dad swap, the anti-ageing cream so good everyone will think your husband should be in prison, and the long con to make King Charles look good … you can’t say Saturday Night Live UK hasn’t gone there! Here are the best skits

Saturday Night Live UK’s maiden voyage is almost complete: this Saturday, Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa will host the series one finale of the much-discussed spin-off of the American sketch institution. But it’s not goodbye – we already know the cast are returning in autumn for a bumper 12-week run, proof that Sky are pleased with how their pricey punt has turned out. As well they should be: predictions that SNL UK would be a national embarrassment have been categorically rubbished.

It hasn’t all worked. The opening monologues, in which celebrity guest hosts veer between gushing praise for the show and an eye-watering celebration of their own CVs, remain irredeemably American. And while the team have valiantly attempted to parody our current prime minister, mining comedic gold from Keir Starmer does seem to be an impossible task.

(OVO/Republic)
It’s possible that the world’s biggest rapper is using this epic content drop to get out of his record deal, but aside from some bright spots on Iceman, should the public really be subjected to it?

It is easy to over-estimate Drake’s fall from grace. True, he was unanimously declared the loser in the most high-profile rap beef of recent times, and is currently engaged in a protracted legal battle with his own record company over said rap battle that everyone except Drake and his lawyers seems to think smacks of the worst kind of bad loserdom. He is also fighting lawsuits alleging that he illegally misled viewers during gambling livestreams – pretending to bet his own money while actually using funds from an online casino he promotes – and that he furthermore channelled funds from said online casino into artificially inflating streaming figures (Drake has not commented on the allegations; Stake, the casino, described one of the lawsuits as “nonsense”). Also in the lawsuits is Adin Ross, a denizen of the manosphere who Drake has been palling around with, unbothered that the other guests on Ross’s stream have included Andrew Tate and Nick Fuentes.

Equally, Drake is still the most-streamed rapper in the world. Had all this really impacted on his mainstream popularity, his last album – Some Sexy Songs 4 U, 2025’s collaboration with PartyNextDoor – would have died at the box office, rather than entering the US charts at No 1 and going on to sell a million copies. If his public reputation is looking a little tarnished, well, we live in an era of short attention spans and shorter memories: it would probably only take one unequivocal banger – a One Dance or Hotline Bling 2.0 – for the slate to be wiped clean.

In this week’s newsletter: Sometimes they were enough to send our music critics and readers straight back out the door again – but mostly just noisy enough to make their clothes shake

Bowel-shuddering basslines. Drum fills that bounce off the walls like gunfire. Guitars resembling a pneumatic drill drilling into another pneumatic drill. A truly loud gig stays with you, figuratively and literally, as anyone who has spent the days after one accompanied by a troubling ringing in their ears can confirm.

Last week, prompted, strangely enough, by an old Alistair Cooke column suggesting that Janis Joplin’s group Big Brother and the Holding Company was noisy enough to cause permanent hearing damage in guinea pigs, we asked Guide readers to share their own loudest gig experiences. We had a huge response, with tons of you sharing memories of eardrum-piercing encounters with all manner of bands and artists, across genres and decades. So we thought we’d devote this week’s newsletter to your stories of extreme noise terror, along with a few from the Guardian’s music critics, who are often on the frontlines when it comes to aural assault.

Self-deprecating It Only Takes One Lion is partly inspired by team’s current song, Yes Sir, I Can Boogie

The lyrics came to Stuart Murdoch in the hazy aftermath of Scotland’s dramatic qualification for the World Cup.

The Belle and Sebastian frontman had watched his side’s playoff victory over Denmark through his fingers before deciding to write his own anthem to a team he has followed for more than 50 years. “Most people recognised instantly the next day that they’d witnessed the most important Scottish game ever,” says Murdoch. “That was our magic moment.”

The earworm wizard blends sample-heavy electronic beats with sugary vocal highs and bassy lows, giving authentic voice to England’s fringes

From London via Brighton
Recommended if you like Jawnino, Fakemink, Jai Paul
Up next Engine Heartbreak EP released 20 May

Not many can say that Björk has played their track while DJing at the Venice Biennale, but, as of last weekend, Rian Brazil is one of them. The Brighton-born producer, also praised by pop star Lola Young, is a master of earworms, which he weaves from the sample-heavy sounds of the UK underground (see his longtime collaborator, Fakemink producer Clearo) and the saccharine highs and bassy lows of his vocals. On first listen, you might mistake the huge range of his melodies for Auto-Tune, but this, impressively, is Brazil’s raw voice, modulated vocally to achieve deeply vulnerable performances that set his sound apart from his rap-focused peers.

Innovative and award-winning science-fiction writer whose novels extended to horror, fantasy and the Warhammer franchise

The author Ian Watson, who has died aged 82 after suffering from oesophageal cancer, established his reputation as an exhilarating, intellectually adventurous writer of science fiction with his first novel, The Embedding (1973), winner of the Prix Apollo in France. It was followed by The Jonah Kit (1975), winner of the British Science Fiction Association award. Reviewing his third novel, The Martian Inca (1977), JG Ballard described the author as “the most interesting British SF writer of ideas – or, more accurately, the only British SF writer of ideas”.

Many of Ian’s novels dealt with dauntingly complex, even unanswerable, questions about communication, language, perception and consciousness (human, animal, even alien minds), but others were lighter. Though he was always identified with science fiction, his range as a writer expanded to include horror, fantasy and “the great, lurid, Gothic fun” of the Warhammer franchise books.

The inspiring life of the Black American activist and legal scholar who changed the way the world thinks about race

Kimberlé Crenshaw’s memoir describes a life shadowed by Jim Crow segregation and racism, but lit up by hope. That the social conditions of her early life did not destroy her family, as they had so many others, must be credited to their extraordinary grit and determination. The journey that led Crenshaw to create the influential legal theory of “intersectionality” begins with the “well of thoughtless devaluation faced by little Black girls”. And for all who think those days have long gone, Backtalker is a must read.

“Backtalking” is how Crenshaw responds to anything that does not make sense. Whether as a five-year-old kindergarten student who was allowed to portray a witch but not a princess in a school play, or decades later, lobbying Harvard’s dean of law to hire Black faculty and being asked whether she wouldn’t prefer “an excellent white professor over a mediocre Black one”, Crenshaw talked back. For her, backtalking is about resilience in the midst of struggle, which sometimes painfully includes talking back to the ones we love.

Honey by Imani Thompson; Quite Ugly One Evening by Chris Brookmyre; The Final Chapter by CB Everett; The Hollow Boys by Tariq Ashkanani; Shrink Solves Murder by Philippa Perry

Honey by Imani Thompson (Borough, £16.99)
Thompson’s smart and incisive debut centres on Yrsa, a young Black woman studying for a sociology PhD and teaching undergraduates at Cambridge. Irritated by her solipsistic, over-privileged students and tired of situationships, she’s fed up with life, and men in particular. Her first killing – that of a much older supervisor who reneges on his promise to leave his wife for a colleague, and steals her research in the process – is an accident, but Yrsa, who has catastrophically poor impulse control, enjoys the sensation and, more importantly, gets away with it. “It’s theory in action”: as victims pile up, her academic research provides a spurious rationale for justifiable anger, as with Hugh, who used her for bragging rights (“Black girl magic, 20 points”). But somebody is on to her, and things are starting to spin out of control … The best kind of campus novel, satirical and razor-sharp, crossed with a crime story: Thompson is an exciting new voice.

Quite Ugly One Evening by Chris Brookmyre (Abacus, £22)
Thirty years after Brookmyre’s debut, his latest novel to feature journalist Jack Parlabane makes a tonal return to his earlier, more irreverent style. Now 60, Jack feels increasingly like a “Boomer Ambassador” to the younger colleagues who are snapping at his heels. With his job on the line, he agrees to investigate a cold case: the death, 40 years earlier, of an MI5 operative. It’s thought to be connected to the Maskyn family, creators of much-loved but now contentious Thunderbirds-style TV series The Imaginators, and Parlabane finds himself on the transatlantic cruise liner hosting the 60th anniversary convention as “several hundred emotionally stunted fanboy incels alongside an over-remunerated family of nepo babies, trust fund pukes and outright fascists” duke it out over The Imaginators’ legacy. Masterfully plotted and scalpel-sharp, this is a riotously good read that uses a Golden Age set-up to take aim at the culture wars, while also providing a thoroughly satisfying mystery.

This fascinating novel about 18th-century privateer Alexander Selkirk, abandoned on a tiny island in the South Pacific, becomes a revelatory meditation on humanity

It’s hard to think of many superficial affinities between Frank O’Hara, the queer poet and art critic whose urbane voice is synonymous with 60s Manhattan, and Alexander Selkirk, the 18th-century Scottish privateer whose marooning on a tiny island in the South Pacific would eventually inspire Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Yet, curiously, it is a line from O’Hara’s poem Mayakovsky that Francesca de Tores refits for Selkirk’s mouth at the opening of her new novel, Cast Away.

Selkirk insists that he is cast upon the island “only by the catastrophe of my personality” – “which is a sobering thing, even for a man used to being sober”. And while the O’Hara of Mayakovsky is famously content to wait “for the catastrophe of my personality / to seem beautiful again, / and interesting, and modern”, Selkirk – newly and utterly alone on “a stony blemish in the ocean”, 400 miles off the coast of Chile – spends his first three days and nights on the island blind drunk on the cask of flip left behind with him as a courtesy from his erstwhile crewmates, raging at his fate. This act of unexpected transhistorical ventriloquism is a suitably strange beginning to a surprisingly uncanny novel.

The open world driving sim has roared through locations from Colorado to Australia, its authentic feel resting on exhaustive research. But, as the team explain, this was the toughest challenge yet

Since the arrival of the original Forza Horizon in 2012, a game that revolutionised open world driving sims by setting players loose in a virtual Colorado, British developer Playground Games has promised authenticity with its settings. For each instalment, design teams are sent out on location to take thousands of photos, hours of video, even detailed captures of the sky, before construction of a virtual copy begins. It’s a huge undertaking. But it seems that for much of the past decade, one country remained slightly out of reach – an intimidating prospect. “Japan has been on our shortlist for several games now,” says design director, Torben Ellert. “But we just didn’t feel like we were ready to take on the challenge of building it.”

It’s not just about the sheer variety of the country’s landscape. There’s something else going on. Most video game players hold an image of what it is like to explore Japan. It may be inspired by the fictitious rural town of Inaba in Persona 4, or the busy docks of Yokosuka in Shenmue, or perhaps the neon-drenched Kabukichō district of Tokyo, which forms a regular backdrop in the Yakuza series. For decades, gamers around the world have been bombarded with images of the country that are often highly stylised and fragmented, but nonetheless potent and persuasive. As art director Don Arceta puts it, “with Japan there’s such an expectation [of] what gamers want - it’s a certain version of Japan that they picture.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

PS5, Xbox, PC, Switch 2; Annapurna Interactive
The nostalgic antics of a trio of tenacious teens make for silly yet undeniably enjoyable gameplay, framed by a playlist of bona fide bangers

The older we get, the more we tend to romanticise our teenage years. As bills pile up, we yearn for the simple days of drinking cider in parks. We often tend to forget the bad parts: the frustrating lack of autonomy, the unrequited crushes and the doofuses you’re forced to tolerate in the playground. But after four hours spent hanging out with the pretentious teens in Mixtape, I felt pretty relieved to be in my 30s.

Set in a nondescript town in northern California, Mixtape follows the exploits of tenacious trio Rockford, Slater and Cassandra as they head to a legendary party on their last day of high school. With Rockford about to leave her friends to move to the big city, she wants to immortalise the gang’s time together in musical form. Every song on a carefully curated mixtape triggers a totally tubular flashback to one of their shared memories.

Minerva theatre, Chichester
John Morton’s debut as a playwright is a finely crafted family drama with shades of Alan Ayckbourn

As a TV writer-director, John Morton specialises in the sort of English talk that either means nothing at all or something completely different from what was said. In the sitcoms Twenty Twelve, W1A and currently Twenty Twenty Six, the hesitations, repetitions and desperate metaphors – in conversations that sound improvised but are precisely written – reveal corporate conceit and deceit. But the stilted and stalled speech in Morton’s playwriting debut, Eclipse, represents unsaid and unsayable things among the gathered family of Edward, a late-stage cancer patient who has asked to die under “home hospice” care at an old rectory in Devon.

Edward, confined behind a door in the corner of the convincingly lived-in kitchen that dominates Simon Higlett’s set, is never seen or heard but feels completely real. That theatrical illusion recalls theatre’s genius of offstage characters, Alan Ayckbourn, as do many of those we see: bickering siblings Jonathan (Rupert Penry-Jones) and Sarah (Sarah Parish), diffident and assertive respectively, and the latter’s hapless, tactless husband, Graham (Paul Thornley). The pair of end-care nurses – gently attentive Karen (Selina Cadell) and self-consciously jolly Linda (Lizzie Hopley) – are also familiar English comedy types.

Britain seems to finally have an eye for art from the Asia-Pacific, with several big recent exhibitions, including the new Rising Voices show at the V&A. Why did it take so long?

An imposing new figure is greeting visitors inside the main entrance of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in South Kensington. Standing on one side of the domed hall, across from the galleries dedicated to medieval and Renaissance European art, is a lifesize, fibreglass sculpture of a burly bouncer. The Māori nametag hanging from his belt loop suggests he has travelled a long way from home.

This character, Kapa Haka (Whero) by Michael Parekōwhai from Aotearoa New Zealand, is a symbolic guardian for the exhibition Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Produced in partnership with the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Brisbane, the show includes more than 70 works which have never before been exhibited in the UK, by artists from 25 countries who have featured through the decades in QAGOMA’s Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT).

It’s the latest in a recent wave of shows that have brought works from Australian galleries to international institutions. Last year, Tate Modern hosted Emily Kam Kngwarray in collaboration with the National Gallery of Australia, and the National Gallery of Victoria’s exhibition The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art is now touring the US.

The fact a queer, working-class person of colour has won the Deutsche Börse prize is cheering, but what is on display at the Photographers’ Gallery resembles a student’s Tumblr feed

• Peterborough artist Rene Matić wins Deutsche Börse photography prize

At 29, Rene Matić is the youngest ever person to win the £30,000 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation prize. They were nominated for their solo exhibition As Opposed to the Truth at CCA Berlin – there is currently a much smaller reconfiguration representing part of the show at the Photographers’ Gallery in London. Matić was also the youngest artist ever to be nominated for the Turner prize last year.

There are things I like about Matić. I like the way they challenge what counts in life and art, and what counts as British. Their 2022 work, Upon This Rock (shown in Berlin though not in the current display in London) – a photographic installation and a film exploring the artist’s father, Paul, and his involvement with the skinhead movement – felt like it was breaking new ground, conceptually and materially. Matić’s yearning to understand masculinity and fatherhood as forces shaping national identity, and the way they incorporate new stories into the folds of Britain’s historical fabric, felt original and exciting.

Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff
Soloist Veronika Eberle brought sweet, pure tone tone to Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, with Jorg Widmann’s new cadenzas complementing the work perfectly. Music by George Benjamin and Strauss further revealed orchestra and conductor in their element

On the face of it, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, the opening work of this BBC National Orchestra of Wales concert, might have seemed unexceptional. Soloist Veronika Eberle immediately proved it otherwise. Sweet, pure tone, clarity of line and an almost reverential approach with not a trace of bombast distinguished her playing from the outset. The rapport with conductor Alexandre Bloch was implicit and, in the deeply reflective central Larghetto, the music was imbued with an air of serenity.

Yet what made for a wholly different experience here was Eberle’s use of new cadenzas in all three movements, boldly commissioned from her fellow German, Jörg Widmann. Widmann realised a balance between the expected virtuosity and a highly imaginative, improvisatory feel, references to key Beethoven motifs tightly embedded. Moreover, bringing first the timpanist then the principal double bass to collaborate with the soloist threw further elements into the dynamic mix, with Tom Aldren – leading the orchestra in this work – also duetting with Eberle. This verging on the subversive – interventions that extended an already long concerto – could have have been bothersome but, overall, the sheer bravado and vibrancy spelled riveting listening.

The film-maker, who won the Grand Prix for A Hero in 2021, condemned both the killing of protesters and the conflict’s bombing campaigns during a Cannes press conference

Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has described the deaths of civilians in Iran as “extremely cruel and tragic” during a press conference at the Cannes film festival.

Farhadi, whose new Paris-set drama Parallel Tales premiered on the Croisette on Thursday night, was asked about working free from censorship in France, the war involving Iran, the US and Israel, and the repression of protesters in his native country.

The performance artist was a brilliantly subversive pioneer whose work exposed the predicament of women living in a world that was not made for us
• Renowned feminist artist and film-maker Valie Export dies aged 85

Punk, intellectual, feminist, theorist, brave as hell, vulnerable, funny, Valie Export was a hero to many women. Since the 1960s, she was driven by a fierce conviction that art and media would play an essential role in women’s liberation: that women must picture their own reality in the name of social progress. In Women’s Art: A Manifesto (1972), she wrote that women must “use art as a means of expression, so as to influence the consciousness of all of us”. What she demanded was revolution.

I keep returning to her work. Can’t stay away. I have written about her in relation to violence in women’s art. Her work was heavy with explicit threat and pain, and she made evident the violence of forcing women’s bodies to inhabit structures that were not designed for them. For the 1973 performance Hyperbuliashe crept naked through a corridor of electrified wires, exposing herself voluntarily to shocks.

How did Lordi sing in a giant condom? How many sex lives has Epic Sax Guy helped? And what will push Graham Norton to retire? As Eurovision hits 70, legends of the song contest spill the beans

Not many 70-year-olds spend their nights with pop singers in sparkly catsuits. Or nightmarish monsters barking out heavy metal. Or 160,000 giddy Europeans staring at them as they get progressively more drunk. There’s only one, in fact – the Eurovision song contest. To celebrate its uniqueness, we’ve spoken to some of the most interesting people ever involved with the contest to tell their tales. Happy seven decades of Eurovision!

The Manchester City striker will feature in Viqueens, an animated film by director Harald Zwart, who described him as ‘powerful, fearless and uniquely Norwegian’

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland is to make his feature acting debut, in an animated film as the voice of a Viking – called Haaland.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Norwegian international is to play “an animated version of himself” in Viqueens, directed and co-written by Harald Zwart, the Dutch-Norwegian director of The Karate Kid and Agent Cody Banks.

A lighter risotto made with whizzed cauliflower as well as rice, but with a reassuringly rich cheese sauce

In series eight of Peep Show, Mark (David Mitchell) is working as a salesman in a bathroom shop when a customer asks him for a “modern but traditional” bathroom. Aghast, he tells the customer that these opposing styles can’t be married when his boss, Super Hans, swoops in to say they can: “Fancy taps but a rainforest shower head?” I was reminded of this silliness because here I’ve tried to create a risotto of opposing styles: lighter than a traditional one, because I’m using some blitzed cauliflower, while maintaining that richness you get from a cauliflower cheese. I think it works, but I’ll let you be the judge.

Joan Collins, Catherine Deneuve, Isabella Rossellini and Jane Fonda among those representing wider age diversity on red carpet

The Cannes red carpet is, without question, a home of glamour. But in 2026 that glamour has a different spin. The women gaining the most headlines for style are, for once, over 70.

Joan Collins, 92, walked the red carpet this week in a white sculptural strapless gown by Stéphane Rolland. Jane Fonda, 88, wore a floor-length sequined Gucci dress. Isabella Rossellini, 73, has been seen wearing a striking patterned two-piece, while Catherine Deneuve, 82, was chic in forest-green satin and hoop earrings.

Whether it’s sandals comfy enough for walking, linen trousers or timeless sunnies, the secret to great summer style is all about keeping things simple

Don’t overthink it. That’s the key to summer style. The best looks are the ones you reach for when you aren’t thinking about clothes, but about the sunny weather, the long evenings, the good times.

You’ll already have your summer anchors, the pieces you come back to every year. The sundress that always works. Denim shorts that only get better with age. A breezy linen shirt you can wear open over swimwear or tucked into just about anything. These are your personal treasures, the pieces that never let you down. But it wouldn’t be summer without a bit of personality thrown in. Suddenly there’s room for pieces that might have felt a bit “extra” a few months ago. Stripes, florals, a pop of red – they all work when the sun’s out.

There’s a perfect perch for every camper. Here are our favourites, from ultralight models to inflatable pods

• The best tents for camping: 10 expert picks for every outdoor adventure

Ready to carry on camping this summer? I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that a good collapsible camping chair can change your life. If you’ve never used one before, you’ll be astonished at how comfy a folding chair is, letting you sit off the cold ground when you’re cooking, eating or just chilling out around the fire, and making every evening at camp a social occasion.

There’s a folding camping chair out there to suit everyone, including wild campers who only carry the essentials, glampers and campervan fans who like a bit of luxury. I’ve tested 15 of the best folding camping chairs, from tiny portable stools that collapse to the size of a baguette to cushioned monster chairs that wouldn’t look out of place in your sitting room, at prices to suit all budgets and starting from just £15.

Best camping chair overall:
Montbell Base Camp chair

Best budget camping chair:
Mountain Warehouse folding chair

Our reviewer braved Peak District downpours to see which brollies – from budget to mini to windproof – stayed standing

• 10 stylish and practical ways to look good in wet weather

We Britons have loved brollies since about the turn of the 19th century. Previously an aristocratic luxury, today they’re a broad tent covering tight budgets and expensive tastes alike. You’ll see them sprout like mushrooms whenever rain hits the high street.

Most decent umbrellas will keep you dry(ish), but peek closer and you’ll find that not all are the same. Some have a stronger, smoother mechanisms; others are lighter and more comfortable to hold. The best stand out for thoughtful details: from polished wooden handles to gleaming tips, a brolly’s aesthetic finish can often be a clue to how long it will last.

Best umbrella overall:
London Undercover Classic

Best budget umbrella:
Doppler Zero 99

Agonising over what to buy the three-year-old in your life? Our writer enlisted a panel of mini testers to round up the best of the best

• The best gifts for two-year-olds

Three-year-olds are a unique breed. Growing in confidence and independence daily, they’re no longer toddlers, but they’re still a way off starting school. With both of my children, I’ve found three a funny yet challenging age. My youngest is three and is now determined to do everything by herself, despite not quite being able to, resulting in frequent tantrums. She’s forming new friendships and is full of curiosity and wonder at the world (we get extremely detailed and lengthy descriptions of the tadpoles living in her classroom).

Three-year-olds are into just about everything, with the confidence of someone much older – especially anything you put out of reach (my three-year-old just successfully opened several wrapped presents that weren’t for her) – but too much choice can be overwhelming for them.

Viral recipes and fibre awareness boost demand for sweet fruit amid shift towards healthier alternatives

Instead of a customary biscuit or a chocolate bar to combat the 4pm slump, people are reaching for a more natural sweet alternative: dates.

The sweet fruit has been thrust into the snacking spotlight by a combination of viral recipes on social media, growing awareness about fibre intake and increasing demand for alternatives to ultra-processed foods.

A daiquiri endowed with citrussy lemongrass syrup and a welcome waft of herbal shiso

A daiquiri is a cocktail that shows just how far you can get with only three ingredients: rum, sugar and lime. Our version includes fresh shiso leaves for herbal notes you don’t expect, but absolutely want with rum (and if you use red shiso, the vibrant pink colour it imparts just makes everything cooler). If you have time – even just half an hour – it’s worth chucking a few shiso leaves into the rum ahead of time, then giving it a good shake and leaving it to steep. The syrup can be made with white sugar, but soft light brown sugar will remind the rum of home, and add a warmer, richer finish that works well with the lemongrass.

Abie Lamin, general manager, Cafe Kowloon, London E8

Bring a taste of Thailand into your home with sweet, creamy, sticky coconut rice served with fragrant mango

Known as khao niao mamuang, this sweet, creamy coconut rice with ripe mango is one of Thailand’s most beloved desserts. The rice used is sweet glutinous rice, which is sometimes labelled sticky rice – a short-grain variety that turns tender, glossy and slightly chewy when steamed. Folded through warm coconut milk and served with slices of fragrant mango, it’s a simple but beautiful pudding. Don’t forget the salt, though; it is essential to balance the richness. Serve warm or at room temperature.

From James Bond’s breakfasts to the kimchi fried rice in Crying in H Mart, a book’s food can often linger longer in our memories than its characters or storylines

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When I first had the idea for my debut novel, The Underdog, which came out last week, I knew it had to include food. After all, the received wisdom is to write about what you know and, after almost two decades’ worth of recipes, features and restaurant reviews, it’s surely my specialist subject. Though a grumpy terrier threatens to steal the limelight, the book’s (ostensible) main character, Katy, is a newly qualified pastry chef who goes from turning out heritage duck egg and black garlic mayo sourdough sandwiches in a painfully pretentious London cafe, to making cheese scones with foraged sea buckthorn jam on the west coast of Scotland. Her journey also involves a Michelin-starred restaurant and a bespoke baking business (as well as a couple of disastrous run-ins with bitchy critics, including on a television gameshow involving Sue Perkins and a chocolate souffle challenge).

I had an absolute blast writing the book, and the food sections were definitely the most fun – thinking about what a starred restaurant might serve with a salted chocolate tart, say (Fergus Henderson’s recipe is here, but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t pair it with a beetroot sorbet and walnut crumb), or what a critic might order for lunch at Margot Henderson’s Rochelle Canteen (bitter greens, like our own Rachel Roddy’s, for a start). In fact, from the glistening, bronzed hunk of pork with salsa verde and pressed potatoes set in front of the UK’s most feared culinary taste-maker, to the merguez and chip baguette Katy eats on the pavement after kidnapping a dog she doesn’t even like, the food is the real star.

Can’t stand your friend’s other half? You could be walking into a minefield, warn experts. Here they share advice, from owning jealous feelings to blowing off steam (with the right person)

Years ago, my best friend fell in love with a man I disliked. He had a habit of looking over my shoulder when I tried to talk to him, and I thought he was too possessive. He spoke to her using a special high-pitched baby voice, and the worst thing was that my friend absolutely loved it, and would baby-talk right back. Thinking that our friendship was bound to outlive her infatuation, I made it obvious that I disliked him. I very pointedly made plans without him, and when I was forced to spend time in his presence I made so many private jokes I was essentially talking to my friend in a horrible baby language all of my own.

To no one’s surprise but mine, this behaviour didn’t have the desired effect. My friend started avoiding me. Her boyfriend won and eight years later he’s still winning. They are getting married next year, and I am not invited.

In antiquity, women were considered the more sexual sex – hornier, more libidinous and lust-fuelled than men. Why did that perception change?

All across the world, you will probably have read, people are having less sex. In Britain and the US, in France and Australia, frequency of sex has been on the decline (although Denmark appears to be bucking the trend). In 2018, the US magazine the Atlantic declared a “sex recession”, while last December the Telegraph ran a piece headlined “Sex is dying out. This is why it matters”.

As an ancient historian with a particular interest in the history of sex, this drought is fascinating to me – not least because some of the articles I have read seem keen to hark back to the historical period I spend most of my time researching. “Sex should be more wild and plentiful than it has been since ancient Greece,” reported the Telegraph. But antiquity was no bastion of sexual freedom – especially for women.

There are so many causes here that aren’t up to him, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. Rather than trying to change him, change the goal

• Read more Leading questions

I am in a relationship with a lovely man who I first dated when we were 19 and 20 years old respectively. Now in our mid-50s, we have been together for three years. We laugh a lot and enjoy doing lots of things together – his enthusiasm for travel matches mine.

The issue is he sleeps a lot – at least 10 hours a night but could be 12 hours. He could easily stay in bed until 1pm on any day off. This means when we are on one of our frequent trips away, we rarely get to do things together in the morning – a time I love. I’ve addressed it with him and he sometimes makes the effort, but then reverts back. We don’t live together and only see each other one day a week, so time is precious and I often end up waiting around for him to get up.

Mark is frustrated that Lucinda’s open-door policy allows mosquitoes into their flat. You decide who needs to get a handle on this issue

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

Closing them doesn’t take a huge amount of work; it takes seconds and stops heat and insects getting in

Keeping them open feels more relaxed and homey – plus, it’s better for the cat

We had booked a cruise for him and his carers, but we had a string of problems when we tried to change names

In November 2024, I booked a cruise for my wife, myself and our severely disabled son for this July. I’d booked well in advance to ensure an accessible cabin for my son. At home, he needs round-the-clock care from a rota of eight carers, so we made extra bookings for three to accompany him.

Because the care team has other commitments, I couldn’t confirm their names at the time of booking and was told to do so by this April, when the balance had to be paid.

If you are looking for a new account, there are some good rates around, but also pitfalls to watch out for

Earning as much as 7% on your savings sounds great – but what’s the catch? The top-paying accounts often come with strings attached, which could mean your money is not working as hard as you thought.

That’s important because there is a lot of cash sitting in fixed-rate savings accounts that are about to reach the end of their term. The total amount in accounts maturing between April and June is £90bn, according to the savings app Spring – and that money will need to find a new home.

Haringey council’s penalty seems extortionate – especially when other authorities charge lower amounts

I read your story about a man fined £500 for dropping a cigarette butt on the pavement.

I have been issued with a £500 fixed-penalty notice (FPN) by Haringey council for putting a butt in a refuse sack awaiting collection on the street.

Criminals exploit confusion or anxiety over new IHT rules by offering a ‘safe haven’ for savings pots

The caller pitches a great deal. Shift the moneysaved in your pension and reinvest it in a scheme overseas where you can avoid it being caught under next year’s changes to the UK’s inheritance tax (IHT) system.

From April next year, any money left in a defined contribution pension after your death, which is most workplace and all private pensions, will be pulled into the IHT net.

Researchers say risk comes from ‘other factors, including genetic predisposition to mental health conditions’

Taking antidepressants during pregnancy does not increase the risk of children going on to develop autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to an analysis of more than half a million pregnancies.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Hong Kong and published in the Lancet Psychiatry, analysed data from 37 existing studies that included 600,000 pregnant women who had taken antidepressants, and 25 million women who had no antidepressant use during their pregnancies.

Pioneering and controversial geneticist who was one of the first to sequence the human genome, in part by using his own DNA

At the international BioVision conference in Lyon in February 2001, the geneticist Craig Venter performed a remarkable piece of scientific barnstorming. Human beings possess far fewer genes than science had ever realised, he announced. We have about 30,000, far lower than previous estimates of 100,000.

Such lack of heritable material showed people are not prisoners of their genes but are shaped primarily by environmental influences, he added. “We simply do not have enough genes for this idea of biological determinism to be right,” said Venter, who has died aged 79. “The wonderful diversity of the human species is not hard-wired in our genetic code. Our environments are critical.”

Rather than bribery, or hiding carrots under ketchup, the key may be to expose foetuses to healthy flavours

It is an age-old battle with small children that most parents will recognise: please, please, eat your vegetables.

Some will read them books with titles such as The Boy Who Loved Broccoli. Others have been known to smother veg in tomato ketchup, or mix avocado and fruit with Greek yoghurt and call it icecream. Or resort to plain bribery.

Social media is awash with clips of people paying to be ‘bathed’ in sound. But what’s the science behind the practice?

• Read more in the Antiviral series

I, for one, am partial to a bath: what’s not to love about a dim room, candles and nary an electronic device in sight?

But a wellness trend that has emerged in recent years makes soaking in tepid water seem quaint: increasingly, people are paying to be “bathed” in sound.

From Nike Mind, with its pre-game benefits, to recovery shoes from Hoka, bulbous sporty footwear is moving into fashionable circles. Will we see it beyond the jogging track this summer?

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When the much-hyped Nike Mind shoes were released in January, I bought a pair. I was grabbed by the idea that the orange nodules on the sole could, supposedly, focus the mind. The futuristic look of the shoe also appeals. If walking on knobbly things took a bit of getting used to, it was worth it – if only for that irresistible fashion smugness of having something rare. In the last week, I have been stopped in the street and asked where I got the shoes. It turns out they are now out of stock and have sold for over £300 on resale site Goat.

The Mind is part of a wider trend in “exercise slides”, a pre-game shoe designed to ground you ahead of your chosen activity. Nike claim that the 22 nodules on the sole stimulate the mechanoreceptors on your feet, engaging the sensory area of your brain, meaning focus is heightened. Meanwhile, recovery slides made by brands such as Hoka and Oofos use cushioned soles and a shape that cradles the foot to helpfight foot fatigue after a lot of exercise. The Mind are worn by footballers including Erling Haaland and Reece James, runner Keely Hodgkinson and basketball players Victor Wembanyama and A’ja Wilson, while ballerina Francesca Hayward namechecks Hoka’s slides as part of her daily routine.

Designer suggests decision to stage show in Los Angeles is part of strategy to deepen label’s cinema presence

Like Christian Dior, the founder of the house he now leads, fashion designer Jonathan Anderson’s ambition is to be not just a Parisian couturier but a Hollywood power player. “We think of Dior as this romantic character, but he was also a very savvy businessman,” said Anderson before a blockbuster catwalk show in Los Angeles. Stage Fright, the Hitchcock caper-noir for which Dior dressed Marlene Dietrich, was the show’s origin story. “There is all this amazing correspondence between Dior, Dietrich and Hitchcock, which shows how he navigated the money that it cost to make that film. I think we underestimate how much negotiation Dior did with studio executives. He was very smart in that way.”

Anderson, 41, who was born in Northern Ireland but since being appointed to Dior splits his time between London and Paris, has his own Hollywood side hustle as the costume designer for Luca Guadagnino’s films, and is set on reinvigorating Dior’s relationship with the film industry.

Zeal for ‘the Hamptons of England’ has rubbed off on sales, with luxury British fashion brand back to a full-year profit

• Business live – latest updates

The luxury fashion brand Burberry has said a new £2,000 handbag named after the Cotswolds has bolstered sales, as the English region becomes increasingly popular with wealthy Americans.

Joshua Schulman, the company’s chief executive, said its tote bags – which mix leather and the signature Burberry check – had helped drive its best performance in bag sales since 2023.

In an unexpected turn of events, brooches have escaped from Granny’s jewellery box, climbed out the window and gone clubbing

I have arrived in my brooch era about two decades ahead of schedule. I had brooches earmarked for a later life stage, accessories that would chime with The Archers, gardening, possibly solving the odd crime in the village, that sort of thing.

But in an unexpected turn of events, I am already the correct age to wear a brooch. Not because I’m old, but because brooches have changed. They have cast off their church fete vibe and become cool. Zendaya wore a diamond serpent brooch pinned to the back of her white jacket to last year’s Met Gala. At a press conference before the recent Mexico City premiere of The Devil Wears Prada 2, Meryl Streep added no fewer than six brooches to the lapel of her pillarbox red Dolce & Gabbana suit. Pedro Pascal wore a silk Chanel camellia the size of a sunflower to the Oscars. The brooch has escaped from Granny’s jewellery box, climbed out the window and gone clubbing.

From Hadrian’s Wall to the locations of Happy Valley and Hot Fuzz, readers share their top discoveries

• Tell us about your favourite UK coast walk – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

“So this is where Officer Nick Angel [Simon Pegg] chased that swan.” As a fan of Hot Fuzz, I was excited to explore the cathedral city of Wells in Somerset, where much of the film was shot. This charming, compact and walkable city is awash with medieval architecture and magnificent buildings, such as the gothic cathedral, with one of the oldest working clocks in the UK (late 14th century) and the Bishop’s Palace and Gardens. Within easy reach of the Mendip Hills, Cheddar Gorge and the Wookey Hole Caves, Wells makes for a low-key alternative to tourist-soaked Bath.
Alison

There are few places where history can be felt more powerfully than these pathways, walked by explorer, author and TV presenter Nicholas Crane

How often do you look down and wonder who created the path your feet are following? Or ask the cause of its curves and dips? Formed over thousands of years, paths form an “internet of feet” – a web of bridleways and hollow ways, drove roads and ridgeways, coffin tracks, pilgrimage trails and city pavements. Whether you’re hiking a National Trail or pottering along a National Trust footpath, there’s a good chance you’re following ancestral steps.

It’s thoughts like these that led me on a journey to track the evolution of British paths for my book, The Path More Travelled. Eleven thousand years ago ice age hunter-gatherers arrived from Europe’s heartlands, moving through the wilderness along broad “routeways”, that later widened to tracks when horses and then wheels were adopted in the bronze age. For more than 2,000 years, traffic moved no faster than the speed of a horse, until the internal combustion engine drove pedestrians off the road just over a century ago.

Improve your mountain skills by day and party by night at the Arc’teryx Alpine Academy in Chamonix

After a day spent hiking across the Col d’Entrèves glacier, a sugar hit is required. I descend on the cable car and join the queue at the ice-cream counter. Above me, surrounded by jagged peaks, looms the huge white figure of Mont Blanc, serene and pure against a brilliant blue sky. Although it’s late afternoon, people are still heading up the mountain, and there are two clear groups. On one side are the tourists, who are about to be lifted into unfamiliar frozen realms at 3,375 metres (11,072ft), hoping to grab a picture and return. Mixed among them are the weathered faces of mountain experts: hikers confidently heading for a high-altitude hut, or climbers with coils of rope.

How many of those tourists, I wonder, are wishing they could be mountaineers, secretly regretting the twists of fate that kept them away from that path? But all is not lost. The aspiring adventurer, no matter what age or background, can begin the journey to competence in the mountains. The annual mountain festival I am attending aims to facilitate that by offering the chance to gain hands-on experience with experts.

The island of Samsø offers tranquil walks, biking, birding, distillery and pottery tours, and locally sourced fare – including citrusy ants

‘We have lammerullepøllse – lamb rolled sausage – today,” says Daniel Hesseldal-Haines, chef at Det Lille Sommerhotel on the Danish island of Samsø. “It tastes better than the translation sounds. And,” he gestures towards a woman sitting by the window, “the lamb is from Camilla’s farm.”

Camilla gives us a friendly wave, and my eyes fix upon her sweater, featuring row upon row of colourful motifs. Think Fair Isle but less orderly: each stripe holds a different design. “Oh, I made this,” she says. “It’s hønsestrik – chicken knitting. You can use it to tell your story – so this one is about hiking,” she adds, pointing to each section: “These are my footprints, this is my tent, my coffee flask …”

From Blue Sharks and White Wolves to the Zhurong vehicle, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Where did the Zhurong vehicle take a selfie in 2021?
2 Which artist claimed “the most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald’s”?
3 Which record company’s HQ had a sign reading Hitsville USA?
4 What carpet shark has an Australian Aboriginal name?
5 What, in 1970, was the last horse to win English racing’s triple crown?
6 Entered Apprentice and Fellow Craft are stages of membership of what?
7 What term for a reused document comes from Greek for “scraped again”?
8 In Japan, ama are women who seek what?
What links:
9 Booker prize, 1974, 1992 and 2019; best actress Oscar and Eurovision, 1969; best actor Oscar, 1932?
10 Plato; Francis Bacon; Aquaman; Patrick Duffy?
11 Alentejo; Dão; Douro; Porto; Madeira; Vinho Verde?
12 Walter Plinge; Alan Smithee; George Spelvin?
13 Alternate nostril; box; diaphragmatic; 4-7-8?
14 Chinese leader, 11; big clothes, 40; engine size, 200; audio format, 400; US capital, 600?
15 Blue Sharks; Blue Wave; Chivalrous Ones; White Wolves?

Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes

• ​Submit a question

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.

Cranbrook, Kent: The swarm has gathered in a plum tree, looking for a new home. And I have just the place

There comes this moment in May when I’m still anticipating the fresh green of spring, but looking up at the oak see it in a lustreless summer hue. A little rain would renew its sheen, but it’s been dry for weeks and there is no reprieve from this fleeting sense of loss.

Abruptly, there comes a noise, a rising hum almost mechanical in tone, but as I look for the contraption responsible, I see instead a mass of insects flowing over the line of hawthorns. The honeybee swarm swirls in a cloud before the queen, imperceptibly landing, triggering a leisurely implosion. Guided by pheromones, thousands of worker bees join her to form a solid ball, hanging precariously from the twig of a plum tree.

Property portfolio in spotlight as Reform UK leader faces official inquiry over money accepted from billionaire

A week ago, Nigel Farage was toasting Reform UK’s successes in the May elections, and bragging about his prospects of becoming prime minister.

But there is a saying about a week in politics – and it has been a long seven days for the party leader, who is now facing questions over a £5m gift and his extensive property portfolio.

In this age of crisis, technology is pulling us apart. At its best, journalism can bring us together again, writes Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner

I have a confession to make. It has taken me years to write this article.

For a long time, I have felt that something was missing in the public conversation about human connection and community and how they are being eroded. And yet I haven’t been able to articulate it. Thinking and writing have become harder. It’s as if the neurons in my brain don’t connect with each other in quite the same way. I go to check a fact and get instantly diverted by a hundred other distractions on my phone. I find myself unable to devote time to thinking and writing like I used to.

Filmgoers born after 1997 are reviving cinemas’ hopes of survival. They tell us about the social experience where ‘there’s absolutely no commitment to chat’

People born between 1997 and 2012 are now more frequent cinemagoers than some older age groups, according to a US-based survey by Fandango, with 87% having seen at least one film in a cinema in the last 12 months compared with 58% of baby boomers.

With this in mind we asked young people about why they love the cinema.

Tim Allen, Joan Cusack and Greta Lee join Hanks to answer your enquiries about the forthcoming animation and its previous instalments

Is there a more eagerly anticipated movie this year than Toy Story 5? For many people (with and without children), you can keep your Odysseys and Minotaurs and Place in Hells, because the return of Woody, Buzz and friends is what cinema is really all about. The series so far has made $3.3bn, and last year’s teaser trailer had 142m views in 24 hours – of which only 140m were my son pressing refresh.

The new film, which is released worldwide on 19 June, sees Jessie the Cowgirl (voiced by Joan Cusack) leading the gang in eight-year-old Bonnie’s room, with Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) her second-in-command, after the departure of Woody (Tom Hanks) at the end of Toy Story 4 to help abandoned toys find their owners.

As more childminders are quitting the profession amid concerns over costs, we’d like to hear why and from parents who’ve been affected

The number of childminders in England has roughly halved over the past decade, with many citing rising costs, low pay and increasing paperwork as reasons for leaving the profession. Childcare organisations have also warned that upcoming tax changes could push more childminders out of the sector.

Campaigners say the decline is making it harder for families to find flexible and affordable childcare, particularly in areas already struggling with shortages.

We’d like to hear how you’re adapting your expenditure as the cost of living rises amid the conflict in the Middle East

Rising prices and economic uncertainty linked to the conflict in the Middle East are putting pressure on household budgets across the world.

The International Monetary Fund has warned the conflict is pushing up the cost of energy and food, increasing borrowing costs and weighing on economic growth. Surveys suggest millions of households are already making changes to cope – cutting back, dipping into savings or taking on debt.

Whether it’s on the beach, along the prom or over dramatic cliffs, tell us about your favourite seaside walk – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break

The King Charles III England Coast Path, which launches officially this year, is opening up miles of previously inaccessible coastal terrain to walkers in England. We’d love to hear about your favourite coastal walks all around the UK, from the White Cliffs of Dover to the Western Isles of Scotland.

The best tip of the week, chosen by Tom Hall of Lonely Planet wins a £200 voucher to stay at a Coolstays property – the company has more than 3,000 worldwide. The best tips will appear in the Guardian Travel section and website.

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Russian drone attacks on Kyiv, Israeli strikes in Lebanon, Trump in Beijing and a mural of Lamine Yamal – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists