Solidarity between LGBTQ+ people and unions has saved an event denied ‘a single penny’ of council money

As the annual Pride parade weaved its way through Durham, the rainbow flags, trans rights placards and sequined cowboy hats filled the medieval city’s cobbled streets with a huge splash of colour.

But this year, the rainbow flags were almost matched in number by trade union banners, as miners, postal workers, and train drivers swelled the parade’s ranks in solidarity, making it the biggest in Durham Pride’s history.

Many teams have fans abroad, but the bond between the north London club and ordinary Africans is on a different level. A continent expects

If Arsenal win the Champions League final later today, expect euphoria across Africa. Judging by the scenes after last week’s Premier League title win – their first in 22 years – the celebrations will be immense. Boisterous fans flooded city centres in Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Kampala and Lagos. In Nigeria’s Zamfara state, people celebrated in the streets despite rising insecurity as a result of Boko Haram’s terrorism.

For outsiders, the obvious question is: how did a club from north London become so deeply woven into African popular culture?

Sean Henry Jacobs is the founder of Africa Is a Country and edits the Eleven Named People newsletter

More competition and loss-making sites are among the challenges for the new turnaround chief executive

With its comfy sofas and a menu of gourmet treats including Béarnaise smash burgers and trendy Whispering Angel rosé wine at £47 a bottle, Everyman has thrived as the go-to chain for a luxury cinema trip.

Yet a quarter of a century after reinventing the movie-going experience, growing from a single venue in Hampstead in London to a national player with 49 sites, the arthouse chain finds itself struggling as rivals ape its successful formula.

Mothers with PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder) explain how it has affected their relationship with their families

Laura Daly was six the first time she suspected something was wrong with her mum, Wendy. Furious at locking herself out of the house, Wendy reversed and rammed the car into their garage door once, twice, then three times, as Laura cowered silently in the back, her head flopping forwards with each smash. On the seventh smash, the garage door contorted just enough for Laura to squeeze under, get into the house and fetch the keys.

“It was like I was watching myself,” Wendy Barker, 56, says of this moment now. “Nothing would’ve stopped me.”

St Mary’s Stadium, Southampton
Elephants, clowns, aerialists hanging by their hair … the Big Top concept doesn’t let up at this hugely enjoyable outing for a boy band with hits to spare

Take That have never been shy when it comes to repackaging their past. In 2018, they followed two official best-of collections with Odyssey, a Stuart Price-produced curio in which they “re-imagined” their greatest hits. Around the same time, band captain Gary Barlow – now overseeing just two teammates, Mark Owen and Howard Donald – was brutally honest about the band’s standing as a legacy act more focused on ticket sales than streams. “Even if [the album is] a flop, we’re still going to go on tour next year and play to 600,000 people.”

Fast forward eight years and the band have sidestepped the studio time and are instead lightly “re-imagining” an entire old tour. And not just any tour. When it first played stadiums in summer 2009, Take That Presents The Circus became the fastest selling jaunt in UK history, making more than £40m in profit. Without an obvious anniversary peg, on paper this unusual reboot of a widely seen show (even the DVD release broke sales records) has the feel of profit-obsessed businessmen stuck in a creative cul-de-sac.

The actor on his fear of pigeons, his dashed boyband hopes, and having a crush on the entire male cast of Neighbours

Born in London, Hugh Skinner, 41, trained at Lamda and appeared in the BBC’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles in 2008. From 2014 to 2017, he played Will in the comedy series W1A; he also appeared in Fleabag and The Windsors. His films include Les Misérables and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. In 2024, he starred in The Importance of Being Earnest at the National Theatre. He reprises the role of Will in Twenty Twenty Six, and stars in the new BBC drama Two Weeks in August. He lives in London.

What is your greatest fear?
Pigeons. One got stuck in my flat once for quite a long time and it really changed how I feel about them.

Jab brought ‘unprecedentedly strong responses’ in patients whose disease had become resistant to chemotherapy and immunotherapy

Doctors have hailed “unprecedented” trial results that show a triple-action cancer jab can eradicate entire tumours in patients.

In an international trial spanning 11 countries, the injection was offered to patients whose cancer had spread or come back and whose disease had failed to respond to other treatments.

It was a showpiece that held the football world in its grip, the tension mounting exponentially, everything on the line. For Paris Saint-Germain, there was the opportunity to make it clear that this is a dynastic team; the rarity of retaining a Champions League title.

For Arsenal, it was simple. Never mind the Invincibles. They stood to be immortal, a first victory in this competition to follow their first Premier League triumph since 2004. It was all set up to become the greatest season in their history.

Guardian investigation shows how US presidency blurs line between policy and enrichment of American ruling family and those around it

On a graffitied Sarajevo backstreet, a path leads past an overgrown patch of garden to a white door. Beyond is the registered office of a company that is on the brink of winning contracts worth more than $1bn.

AAFS Infrastructure and Energy is close to securing a concession to build and operate a pipeline across the Balkans to allow fossil gas shipped from the US to replace supplies that come from Russia. “This could be the most important infrastructure project ever in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” says one of the country’s top officials, who, like others, asks to remain anonymous to discuss sensitive negotiations.

Zack Polanski and Caroline Lucas say party must seek to understand why disenfranchised electorate were attracted to Nigel Farage’s party

The current and former leaders of the Green party have warned that the party should listen to the concerns of Reform UK voters in order to confront inequality.

Zack Polanski and Caroline Lucas said on Saturday that the Greens needed to understand why voters affected by the cost of living crisis were attracted to Nigel Farage’s party.

Key part of Marc Bolland’s government advisory role will be to help disabled or depressed young people find training or job

A former chief executive of Marks & Spencer has been appointed as a government jobs adviser in its latest attempt to tackle the growing youth unemployment crisis.

Marc Bolland, who oversaw the retail chain from 2010 to 2016, will lead a summit of business leaders, amid warnings that the country risks a “lost generation” without urgent intervention.

Chiedza Nyanjowa, who wanted to be a nurse, died in hospital after getting into difficulties in the sea

A 15-year-old girl, who died after getting into difficulties in the sea off the coast of Merseyside, wanted to be a nurse so she could “give back”, her family said in a tribute.

Chiedza Nyanjowa, from Cheshire, was taken to Alder Hey children’s hospital after swimming at Formby beach on bank holiday Monday, Merseyside police said.

President in ‘excellent’ health, despite ‘lower leg swelling’ and hand bruising after fourth hospital visit in second term

Donald Trump has been grappling with “lower leg swelling” as well as “benign” hand bruising but remains in excellent health, the US president’s physician said in a memo released by the White House.

Citing the results of a recent examination, the memo from Dr Sean Barbabella said Trump “remains in excellent health, demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological and overall physical function”.

Former England and Chelsea star arrested on M3 on Thursday under suspicion of driving while unfit through drugs

Raheem Sterling has been made to feel “disposable” after a decade at the top of football, a source close to the former England star has said, after his arrest on suspicion of driving “whilst unfit through drugs”.

The source said the former Man City and Chelsea winger, who is now playing for Feyenoord in the Netherlands, had been suffering from “immeasurable” psychological strain after an “extremely tough couple of years”.

Reggio Emilia prefect stops gig after Jewish community ‘concerns’ over rapper’s previous antisemitic remarks

A Kanye West concert in Italy has been cancelled over “public order and safety issues”.

The 48-year-old rapper, who changed his name to Ye in 2021, was due to perform at the Pulse of Gaia festival at the RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia on 18 July, but the city’s prefect, Salvatore Angieri, stopped the gigs after “concerns” from the local Jewish community over previous antisemitic remarks by West.

Supporters filling north London pubs said they were already gratified by Premier League win

The streets of Holloway, usually bustling with families and trolly-dragging shoppers, were uncharacteristically quiet on Saturday afternoon. But shortly after the clock struck 5pm, loud roars echoed through the north London high street, located a short walk away from the Emirates stadium, as Arsenal walked on to the pitch for the Champions League final.

While the team, still basking in the glory of their Premier League win last week, were in Budapest for their final showdown against Paris Saint-Germain, Gunners – or Gooners, as they are colloquially known – came out to support the team on their home turf.

Once associated with wealth and celebrity, cosmetic treatments to defy ageing have become more commonplace. What is it doing to beauty standards?

Mary Munson’s first non-surgical cosmetic treatment wasn’t the result of a plan, or a concrete decision. She describes it in terms of sating her curiosity. Munson, 41, was visiting a clinic to extend her lashes when a woman working there spoke to her about a procedure that she referred to as “baby Botox” – which was, in fact, Botox. Since deciding to try it, she hasn’t looked back.

“It was just a starter to see what it was like, and I realised that I enjoyed it. And to be honest I don’t feel like I see a huge change,” says Munson, who was 37 when she started treatments. While she thinks her Filipino and Scottish genes “give me good skin”, Munson started getting other treatments alongside regular Botox injections, including platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy (sometimes referred to as a vampire facial, in which platelets are drawn from a patient’s own blood), as well as platelet-rich fibrin (PRF), a similar treatment that stimulates collagen.

Family criticises police handling Brella’s claims of abuse by Pankaj Lamba before she was killed in 2024

When Sonia Dabas described her younger sister, she spoke with tears in her eyes and a visceral sense of heartbreak. “We completed each other,” the 30-year-old said. “I always guided her. She always shared everything with me, her problems … Without her, no one can understand me. She is the only one.”

It has been 18 months since Harshita Brella, a 24-year-old Indian national living in the UK, was found dead in the boot of a Vauxhall Corsa in east London on 14 November 2024.

In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org.

Carmen Pavlovic had always wished to become a mother but a family wasn’t on the cards for Pete. Then one night in Beijing, he made his ‘outlandish statement’

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

In 2003 I was in my early 30s, working for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s company The Really Useful Group in Sydney. I don’t remember who introduced Pete and me but I’d seen several shows he’d designed and really liked his work. We immediately got on and I invited him to drop past my office to show me his portfolio.

A few weeks later he did. It was a balmy evening and after I’d looked over his work we decided to grab a beer and sit on the office stairs, where we chatted for ages. Between meeting him and him stopping by I’d unexpectedly taken a job in London, but I was genuinely interested in putting him forward for some projects so we agreed to stay in touch.

Stew Peas focuses on obeah, an enduring African magic practice in Jamaica banned by colonisers in the 1700s

A new movie from award-winning Jamaican film-maker Sosiessia Nixon shines a spotlight on Jamaica’s enduring west African-based magic and spiritual healing tradition known as obeah.

Nixon’s tense, feature-length suspense, Stew Peas, tells of the story of Jamaican detective Tessa, who is obsessed with an old murder case.

Our resident food product tester gives supermarket veggie burgers a good grilling to find out which made him flip and which couldn’t take the heat

• The best (and worst) meat-free sausages, tasted and rated

This was an interesting and varied test, with a range of burgers from classic, 1960s-style bean patties to ultra-processed meat analogues. Even though the latter have become far more convincing of late, I find it hard to trust the more processed examples, because they’re made with a blend of dozens of ingredients and synthetic additives designed to deceive the palate, rather than offer genuine flavour.

As a result, I’ve marked down patties based on their processing levels and synthetic additives, though I do understand their value and purpose. Ultimately, the lesser-processed burgers stood out, not least for their incredible value: flavour-packed and textural, with a good bite and ingredients lists bursting with nutrition.

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

A horror film takes on the internet craze for user-generated paranormal tales, and Macca returns with his most affecting songs in years

Backrooms
Out now
People have enjoyed spinning spooky yarns about uncanny spaces since before the advent of the written word, and this A24 horror (starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve and Mark Duplass) capitalises on that fascination via a big-screen version of the internet phenomenon of Backrooms. That is, an infinite empty limbo where you might find yourself condemned to endlessly wander, hoping not to encounter any of the Entities that inhabit the Backrooms. Spooksome.

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

Sam Campbell’s meta sitcom might well be the funniest show of the year, and Bob Mould and co return to the live stage as loud and joyous as ever. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

• ‘We will have to improve to try to get a different outcome’

• Manager unhappy Arsenal not given extra-time penalty

Mikel Arteta spoke of his heartache after a skied penalty from Gabriel Magalhães in the shootout against Paris Saint-Germain ended Arsenal’s hopes of being crowned European champions for the first time, but emphasised the need to take that pain “and turn it into fuel”.

Kai Havertz’s early strike and a defensive masterclass in the first half of the Champions League final that frustrated the holders had Arsenal supporters dreaming of a double after their first Premier League title for 22 years. But PSG hit back in the second half through Ousmane Dembélé from the spot before Arsenal thought they should have had a penalty of their own at the end of the first half of extra time.

Coach did not deserve the vitriol, FSG’s recruitment was flawed, but Anfield boos meant executives needed to act

Mohamed Salah’s parting shot was to demand the return of heavy-metal football at Liverpool and, in their reasoning for sacking Arne Slot, the club’s hierarchy have concurred. It is a brutal, but understandable decision to remove Slot on the basis that Liverpool’s style must evolve, though responsibility for this season’s regression does not rest with the coach alone.

Liverpool have never sacked a title-winning manager on their title-winning watch before now. Sir Kenny Dalglish’s dismissal came in his second, League Cup-winning spell in charge. That underlines the scale of the decision to sack a head coach who won the club’s record-equalling 20th league title 13 months ago and who handled the unprecedented trauma of Diogo Jota’s death with dignity and professionalism last summer.

Optimism is not high for Mauricio Pochettino’s co-hosts, who are under pressure to justify fans’ considerable outlay on tickets

This article is part of the Guardian’s 2026 World Cup Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 48 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from three countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 11 June.

• 2nd T20i: Eng, 168-5, bt India, 142-9, by 26 runs

• India’s decision to retire out Bhatia in run chase backfires

Freya Kemp smashed an unbeaten 39 from 13 balls as England finally unleashed some batting firepower to post 168 for five and beat India by 26 runs in the second T20 international. Kemp found able support from Dani Gibson as England’s two finishers added 39 from the final two overs to level the series.

The pressure told on India’s fielders, who – after offering Sophia Dunkley a life on nought – twice let the ball slip through their fingers, as Kemp and Gibson showed off their athleticism between the wickets. But mostly the runs came courtesy of good placement and huge power hitting, as Kemp in particular let loose her arms, smashing two sixes and four fours down the ground. “As a team we’ve spoken a lot about finishing off well at the death and trying to put pressure on the opposition, so it’s nice to do that,” she said.

• No 28 seed Potapova stuns Gauff with 4-6, 7-6 (1), 6-4 win

• Sinner’s conqueror beats Landaluce in six-hour epic

Coco Gauff rued an inability to take her opportunities under pressure as her reign at Roland Garros ended in a shock third-round loss at the hands of a stellar Anastasia Potapova, who recovered from a set down before holding her nerve in the final stages of a bruising match to win 4-6, 7-6 (1), 6-4.

Gauff, who had reached at least the quarter-finals of the French Open for the last five editions, led by a break in the final set before losing five of the final six games. The American, the fourth seed, said she felt she had failed to perform under pressure in the decisive moments: “[I was] just not capitalising on certain shots. I mean, at 3-all [in set three] I had a couple of break points and missed, I think, two backhands or three backhands, which just can’t happen in that scenario.

• Wigan 40-10 Hull KR

• Sam Walters dismissed for dangerous tackle late on

Ellery Hanley, Andy Gregory, Jason Robinson, Martin Offiah. The roll call of Wembley heroes for Wigan is almost endless and they now have another name to add to the list as they lifted the Challenge Cup once again.

All eyes were firmly fixed on the Wigan bench when it was confirmed their maverick playmaker, Bevan French, was included six weeks ahead of schedule after a hamstring tear. It was all a distraction; by the time French arrived on the scene the final had been decided, in no small part due to the heroics of the man who replaced him.

• Prem Rugby: Saracens 26-12 Harlequins

• Bonus point gained in final minute

Not exactly a blaze of glory to send off Mark McCall on his last home match, but to win a good old-fashioned London scrap in such a way will no doubt be its own source of satisfaction. All the more so in that it means Saracens attain the top four for the first time since October with one round to play. All the more so given the bonus point that looked for 75 minutes as if it were a distant luxury.

Two tries in a crazy last few minutes meant one of those accrued too, to make the sweltering afternoon perfect, if not quite glorious. Theo Dan steered an attacking lineout over the line with the clock in the red to set off the faithful of a sold-out crowd with the final delirium of knowing they have two points’ grace over Exeter, who play at Leicester tomorrow.

In the early stages, Scotland looked to be opting for something different. That is, heading to a major tournament while completely unburdened by expectation. Little Curaçao were embarrassing Steve Clarke and his team. Scottish Football Association big wigs, who handed Clarke a four-year deal in recent days, were shuffling uncomfortably in the plush seats. Excitement was surely raising in Haiti, Scotland’s first World Cup opponents.

That Scotland played against 10 men for more than a half must be factored in to analysis of their recovery. Nonetheless, the response was stirring enough to raise optimism among a supporter base who will shortly grace a World Cup for the first time in 28 years. The Tartan Army remained in place to afford Scotland a rousing send-off for the US. Victory had ultimately proved as comfortable as should have been the case. However, the optimism was soured by the news later on Saturday night that Billy Gilmour had been ruled out of the finals by a knee injury.

Brighton’s head coach has led team to Wembley date with Manchester City despite losing his father four months ago

Growing up in Brisbane with a big time difference to London, Dario Vidosic loved being allowed to stay up past his bedtime to watch a big Wembley final on television next to his father, Rado, before trying to recreate a great goal with him in the garden the following day.

On Sunday, Rado will not only be in the Vidosic family’s thoughts but in the hearts and minds of everyone associated with Brighton as the team walk out at Wembley for the Women’s FA Cup final against Manchester City to try to win their first major trophy, four months after Rado – who was working as the women’s team’s head of coaching – died from cancer.

They often boast thousands of great works – but who needs that? I can only really engage with one or two before feeling exhausted

Visiting an art gallery always goes the same way for me. I look at one artwork. I look at the next artwork. And then the next. What was the first one again? Was it of a farm? Who knows? I reach the inevitable conclusion: there are simply too many paintings. After about 15 minutes I’ve had enough and don’t want to look at any more art; by the time I reach the gift shop I have a powerful urge to lie face down on the floor and go to sleep.

To be clear: I like art. I grew up drawing and painting, did GCSE art and still paint now. But when I go to a gallery now, hoping that this time I’ll feel something, I’m dismayed by the sheer volume of what’s on offer. The National Gallery displays more than 2,400 artworks and the Louvre up to 4,500 paintings. The New York Met boasts tens of thousands of artworks, but I wouldn’t know. When I visited, the rooms were so monotonous and numerous that I got lost, couldn’t find my friends, asked a security guard for help, went up and down in a lift, sat on a bench and then left early. I do not recall a single piece of art. Seeing as the average viewing time is only 27 seconds, that means an hour’s trip exposes you to a whopping 133 paintings. No wonder I can only remember a handful I’ve seen over the years (and those ones are already famous).

Isabel Brooks is a freelance writer

As Daniela Klette is jailed after three decades in hiding, it’s clear that good strategy, and principally democracy, beat the terror, bombs and guns

In 1972, the great German novelist Heinrich Böll described the campaign of violence launched by the Red Army Faction (RAF) since its foundation two years earlier as a war of “six against 60 million”. The writer was vilified for the phrase, accused of sympathy for bombers and murderers. But Böll had highlighted the most important factor in the eventual defeat of the group, of whom one of the last surviving alleged members, a 67-year-old called Daniela Klette, was sentenced last week to 13 years in prison for armed robberies.

At the time Böll was writing, the RAF’s bombings, abductions and shootings had brought about the most acute crisis of West German democracy since the second world war. Dozens were killed, more injured, wanted posters and police checkpoints went up all over the country, huge state resources were devoted to counter-terrorism. Sporty small BMW cars were so favoured by the group that they were dubbed Baader-Meinhof Wagen, a reference to the RAF’s most famous founder leaders, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof.

Jason Burke is the author of The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists who Hijacked the 1970s, and the Guardian’s international security correspondent

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As its third season ends, Sam Levinson’s HBO show reflects the grim future that gen Z faces. Its rage-bait is precisely the point

The third season of Euphoria has been almost impossible to ignore for anyone with a smartphone. The HBO drama, which started off in 2019 following a group of hedonistic, privileged teens, has evolved into television’s answer to rage-bait, creating moments that are specifically designed to dominate the news feed with memes and outrage. Even before we reach the season finale, we’ve seen OnlyFans storylines, pup play, sugar daddies, mummification fetishes, a disastrous wedding, fingers and toes being sliced off, venomous snake attacks, cockatoo assassinations (RIP Paladin), gangster shootouts and (several) characters being buried alive.

In season three, Euphoria picked up its story five years after the characters graduated from high school. At times, the show has felt lost outside of the high school setting, exploring a confusing mishmash of genres and plots, some of which have been called out for glamorising misogyny and violence. Yet despite these criticisms, the show has a track record of taking bold artistic risks, which is becoming rarer in a content landscape that values quantity over quality. It turned Sam Levinson, its creator, into one of Hollywood’s most exciting (and polarising) visionaries, and catapulted a new generation of actors into the A-list to the point where it now seems like they have outgrown the show). As season three concludes, Euphoria represents a strange – and very “2026” – contradiction, where it feels both ridiculous and undeniably influential.

His poll numbers with the demographic are plummeting. But Democrats don’t seem to have learned anything from all this

Donald Trump has been facing a lot of allegations that he’s snoozing on the job. But we should give the poor man a break: he must be exhausted by his unceasing efforts to make life better for us all. At this very moment, for example, the Trump administration is spending $5m to cover four bronze horses near the Lincoln Memorial in thick gold leaf. No longer will passersby be subjected to subpar equine aesthetics. Finally, the American people will have the glimmering horse statues they deserve.

Meanwhile, the US has been fighting a war with Iran that, by one expert’s estimate, is costing $2bn dollars a day and will probably end up with a price tag of at least a trillion dollars. This may seem like a colossal waste of money to some, but real patriots understand that this is simply the cost of making America great again.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

The self-proclaimed master dealmaker can’t seem to stop sabotaging his own negotiations

For weeks, Donald Trump has tried to find a way to end the war he started with Iran – a deal that would allow him to declare victory and move past the conflict before it causes severe damage to the global economy and sinks Republican chances in the US midterm elections. But the self-proclaimed master dealmaker can’t seem to stop sabotaging his own negotiations or to acknowledge that Iran is now in a better position to demand concessions than it was before the war.

Over the Memorial Day holiday, Trump skipped his eldest son’s wedding in the Bahamas and canceled plans to spend the weekend at his New Jersey golf club. The last-minute changes heightened speculation that Trump was ready to unveil a deal to end the war. Trump then announced that he would hold a cabinet meeting on Wednesday at Camp David, the presidential compound in Maryland that has been the site of historic diplomatic summits and pronouncements. But that meeting was moved back to the White House, as it became clear that Trump had not been able to close a deal he could announce with great fanfare at Camp David.

He insists he is so right but gets so much badly wrong, not least the absurdity that the UK should have joined Donald Trump in the quagmire that is Iran

Give the man credit. Tony Blair has achieved a goal that even a week ago seemed impossible, and which he scarcely managed in office: he has brought the Labour party together in sweet, harmonious unity. Thanks to him, Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting and the man they hope to replace, Keir Starmer, are singing in unison, joined in a chorus of denunciation – of one T Blair.

Give the triple election-winner further credit. This is a political professional who still knows how to command the news cycle. Cannily timing the release of his nearly 6,000-word essay on the future of Britain, and the failings of Labour, to coincide with the parliamentary recess, he secured for himself massive coverage across all platforms over several days.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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As Donald Trump looks for peace with Iran, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government escalates elsewhere – and Europe stands by

“He’ll do whatever I want him to do,” said Donald Trump, addressing his discussions with Benjamin Netanyahu over their illegal war on Iran. The US president said on Friday that he was making his final determination on a deal – of sorts – with Tehran. As chief ally, funder and arms supplier for Israel, the US can rein in its prime minister. But with his hands tied on Iran, Mr Netanyahu seems bent on rekindling war elsewhere. Israel’s brutal escalation in Lebanon may be an attempt to gain ground while it can, or perhaps to destabilise the Iran peace initiative. The prospects for Gaza are grimmer.

As Mr Trump talks up a new peace deal in the Middle East, Mr Netanyahu is trashing Mr Trump’s last effort. Israel this week killed another Hamas military chief, but this war has failed in its stated aim of destroying the group, while visiting untold horror on civilians. Israeli forces have expanded far beyond the half of territory they agreed to hold, attack Palestinians in an undefined zone around their positions and carry out airstrikes deeper into Gaza. Yet Nickolay Mladenov, the top diplomat for the Trump-appointed Board of Peace, has blamed Hamas for the stalling of the purported ceasefire. Now Mr Netanyahu says he has ordered the military to take control of 70% of Gaza. That would force more than 2 million Palestinians into less than a third of what was already overcrowded territory.

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

The first mistake was appointing the peer despite his links to Jeffrey Epstein. The next would be claiming his security risks were properly managed

It is telling that the person who first floated the idea of Peter Mandelson as the next UK ambassador to America was probably himself. He seems to have looked at his global contacts and thought: this is why I’m useful. Whitehall’s security vetters, UKSV, looked at the same contacts and thought: this is why he’s not. The latest revelations illustrate something rotten about modern politics. What the wealthy and connected think makes them an asset is exactly what makes them a risk.

In late 2024, Lord Mandelson was announced as the UK’s ambassador to Washington by Sir Keir Starmer. That posting ended in disgrace last year after US files exposed the depth of his links to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But UKSV advised against giving security clearance to Lord Mandelson, flagging concerns over links to China’s finance minister, a sanctioned Russian oligarch, a former Israeli military intelligence chief and a British individual described as potentially compromising, as well as a £1m loan connected to an Israeli startup investment.

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

Readers respond to coverage of an essay by the former Labour prime minister attacking the party’s current leadership and policies

Wouldn’t it be great if Tony Blair kept his mouth shut about the Labour party (Tony Blair tells Starmer and rivals: abandon net zero and move closer to Trump, 26 May)? Since he entered his messianic phase, his utterances have undermined the leadership while attempting to push the party ever further to the right. He’s entitled to his views, but if he is still a party member, his are no more valid than anyone else’s.

Does he think that the millions he has earned by leveraging his former office will protect his grandchildren from horrendous climate change if we abandon net zero ambitions? Having led us into one illegal war through becoming too close to a US president, does he think that going into another illegal Middle East war alongside the deranged inhabitant of the White House is really a good idea? Does he think that criticising the Employment Rights Act while decrying the change to non-dom status is a vote-winning strategy?

The perception of teachers and nurses as boundlessly, selflessly resilient is a classic example of survivorship bias, says Dr Jenny Andrew

Gaby Hinsliff’s article about the Green MP Carla Denyer refers to “angry men on radio phone-ins asking why politicians can’t handle ‘a few emails’ without needing a lie-down when nurses and teachers just have to soldier on regardless” (The curse of burnout Britain affects politicians as much as everyone else: give Carla Denyer a break, 26 May).

I have useful insight into how teachers cope with burnout, because I was one of the many who couldn’t. The perception of teachers and nurses as boundlessly, selflessly resilient is a classic example of survivorship bias – you just don’t hear from those of us who fall short; we don’t stay teachers or nurses for long.

Edward Leigh says there must be no cutting corners when rebuilding roads; Anthony Millett says if you are going to do something, do it once and do it properly

Esther Addley (The pothole puzzle: the bumpy ride to fixing Britain’s broken roads, 23 May) quotes Phill Wheat, a professor of transport econometrics at the University of Leeds, describing the “spiral that we could get into” if funding for road maintenance is not increased. In truth, many highway authorities are already well down that spiral.

Once holes and cracks start appearing in a road, they grow and proliferate quickly. Vehicle wheels act like jackhammers around every bump and dip. Once the surface starts breaking up and water loosens the lower layers of the road structure, the opportunity to dress or replace the surface soon passes, and rebuilding at much greater expense becomes unavoidable. So repair costs rise rapidly in the short term and multiply in the long term.

Readers respond to Jonathan Freedland’s article on Arsenal and one of its most famous fans

Congratulations to Arsenal on winning the Premier League. However, I fear that Jonathan Freedland’s allegiances have led him to a flawed attempted analogy (Arsenal’s title win should be studied by politicians everywhere – and especially Keir Starmer. Here’s why, 22 May). Keir Starmer has already achieved success after a long period in the wilderness – winning a landslide victory in the 2024 general election.

The analogy goes further: both achieved success by being boring – Starmer by avoiding radical ideas, Arsenal by shutting up shop and relying on set-piece goals. Both also took advantage of their main rivals’ weakness. The Tory party was in disarray, while both Manchester City and Liverpool have underperformed – achieving fewer points than usual or expected this season. Mikel Arteta and Starmer took advantage of structural advantages: Labour relying on first past the post and Arsenal the lax refereeing of fouls at corners.
Peter Breitenbach
London

Minister at Singapore defence summit also reveals Australia to buy only second-hand Aukus submarines from US

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The defence minister, Richard Marles, has said the “seabed is a battlefield” in a combative speech urging Beijing to be more transparent about its maritime operations, and taking aim at weak international controls over so-called “shadow-fleet” vessels.

The warning came as the US, UK and Australia announced a new Aukus project to develop new underwater drone technology to protect undersea cables.

Former safeguarding minister calls for sentencing guidelines review and fears crime now seen as ‘content for an eyeball economy’

The former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has said victims of sexual offences committed by children are being asked to “suck it up” for the sake of their attackers’ rehabilitation and called for a review into sentencing guidelines.

In the past month, cases of teenage boys given lenient sentences after being convicted of rape and sexual assault have provoked public outrage.

A Newark detention center has been at the forefront of anti-ICE protests – and now counterprotests

Protests continued on Saturday in front of the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey, as a hunger and labor strike inside reached its ninth day, with detained immigrants demanding improved conditions and medical care.

On Saturday morning, a small group of rightwing counterprotesters in Trump hats began demonstrating outside the facility waving signs and chanting slogans in support of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The protesters supporting the detained immigrants and the counterprotesters supporting ICE yelled at each other across barricades set up by state police.

Campaigners had hoped to buy property from Nottingham Trent University to maintain public access

Bramley apples are a staple in supermarkets across the UK and it all started in a house in Nottinghamshire. But now the future of the original fruit-bearing tree is in question after the garden where it stands has been sold by Nottingham Trent University (NTU).

The news has left campaigners aiming to turn it into a heritage site “gobsmacked”.

Emails appearing to show Mountbatten-Windsor shared confidential information were handed to Buckingham Palace in 2020, says BBC

Emails handed to Buckingham Palace six years ago appear to show that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor shared confidential information while he was a government trade envoy, it has been reported.

The BBC said on Saturday that an archive of more than 30,000 emails was handed to the lord chamberlain, the most senior officer in the royal household, in 2020.

Despite government pledges, more than 20 authorities will not allow gullies, citing safety, legal and parking concerns

The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has said charger gullies to connect electric cars parked on streets will help cut costs for drivers, yet millions of UK households may be unable to use the simple technology because their local councils will still not allow charging cables to cross the pavement.

Despite government promises to “slash red tape” and make it easier to put in gullies, more than 20 local authorities appear to be holding out against them.

The births, fledgling flights and even first dates on Robert Fuller’s site are about to hit a million global subscribers

Having enjoyed setting up bird boxes with his father as a child, the wildlife artist Robert Fuller wanted to go one step further. While he happily spent hours making the boxes and dotting them around the Yorkshire Wolds, he found it tantalising that he was unable to see exactly what the nesting owls, kestrels and kingfishers were up to.

It transpires Fuller was not alone in his curiosity. His YouTube channel, which livestreams footage from his artificial habitats and documents his love of British nature, is about to hit a million global subscribers. His channel now generates on average 2.8m monthly views.

Survey shows 44% increase on RSPB reserves of bird that almost became extinct in England in the 60s

More than half a century after the Dartford warbler almost vanished from the English countryside, the charismatic heathland bird appears to be staging a comeback.

A survey has revealed the highest number of Dartford warblers ever recorded on reserves run by the bird conservation charity RSPB, with 264 pairs counted in 2025, a 44% increase in five years.

The 15-week-old triplets get their first swimming lesson from their mum, Bonita, and dad, Manu. The two boys, Uca and Yali, are named after an area of the Amazon rainforest and the second largest region in Peru. The female pup is named Yara, which means ‘river spirit’ in Brazilian folklore. Endangered giant otters face an uncertain future as conservationists estimate that only a few thousand remain across South America. The pups have been born as part of the international conservation breeding programme in European zoos that is working to safeguard them from extinction

Actor among protesters in central London highlighting laws in 29 countries where same-sex relationships remain illegal

Ian McKellen has joined a march against the criminalisation of LGBTQ+ people in Commonwealth countries, calling it an “appalling situation”.

The Lord of the Rings star and activist joined protesters in central London on Saturday to highlight laws in 29 Commonwealth countries where same-sex relationships remain illegal.

Former chancellor also tells Hay festival ‘good riddance’ to Tory MPs defecting to Reform

Sajid Javid said that supporting Liz Truss in the Conservative leadership contest that ultimately made her prime minister was his “biggest mistake in politics”.

Speaking at the Hay festival in Wales while promoting his memoir, the former chancellor, who is no longer an MP, said there were friends in the Conservative party he remained in contact with.

Exclusive: Local authority asked what steps it is taking after hordes of splashing revellers seen disturbing nesting birds

Ministers have written to the City of London demanding it stop people from swimming in a protected pond on Hampstead Heath, after disturbing scenes of cygnets and eggs being disrupted went viral on social media.

Swans and their 12-day-old cygnets were disturbed by hordes of splashing revellers in the north London park on Monday as temperatures reached a record 35C in the capital. In one video, a swan was seen poking an unhatched egg with its beak after it fell into the water during the chaos.

A blue micromoon is a rare spectacle, though it’s not as blue or as micro as you might imagine

This weekend the night skies will feature a rare spectacle – a blue micromoon. We take a look at what the phrase means and how to catch a glimpse of the event.

Two still missing as divers make their way deeper into cave through muddy water and sharp rocks to find them

Four more miners who were trapped in a flooded cave in Laos for 10 days have been freed by divers, but two people are still missing as rescuers continue to crawl through narrow, deluged tunnels and sharp rocks to find them.

The first of the party of seven men was rescued on Friday in a perilous rescue mission which has required teams to drain water from the cave and navigate collapse hazards.

Results presented at oncology conference in Chicago show Galleri test failed to reduce late-stage cancer diagnoses

A blood test for more than 50 types of cancer that was billed as the holy grail of oncology has failed to achieve its main objective in a major clinical trial, according to data presented at the world’s largest cancer conference.

The goal of the study involving 142,000 NHS patients in the UK was to assess whether adding the multi-cancer early detection test Galleri to standard screening could shift diagnoses to earlier, more treatable stages.

Russia’s recent assault killed two people, injured 90 more and significantly damaged many of the capital’s museums

For four years, Vitalina Martynovska and her team had been working on a complete transformation of Kyiv’s National Chornobyl Museum.

The new sleek displays were designed to tell a fresh story about the reactor explosion of 26 April 1986 – the most serious nuclear accident in history, a factor that contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and an event that continues to shape Ukraine’s identity today.

Four were part of seven-person group that had traveled to US to ascend North America’s tallest mountain

Three people have died after falling while climbing Alaska’s Mount McKinley, according to officials. A fourth climber has been rescued.

The four were part of a seven-person group that had traveled to the United States to ascend Mount McKinley, also known as Denali, North America’s tallest mountain, according to information released by the Latvian Mountaineering Association.

People with coeliac disease say inflation and shrinking ranges are making food staples unaffordable

Gluten-free versions of everyday staples such as bread and biscuits are becoming a luxury, with shoppers complaining that a “decent” small loaf now costs nearly £4.

Consumers have always paid a premium for these specialist foods, making any price increases a source of concern, particularly for people who follow a gluten-free diet for medical reasons.

James Sherwin-Smith says field tilted against him after decision to give members ‘quick vote’ against candidacy

A Nationwide customer seeking election to the building society’s board has criticised the lender for “unfair” treatment and undermining democratic governance after it said it would tell members to vote against him.

James Sherwin-Smith said Nationwide had tilted the field against him after it confirmed it would give members a default “quick vote” option that included a vote against his candidacy at the annual meeting in July.

Inflation can be tolerated above 2% target for now ‘given context of softness in real economy’, governor says

The Bank of England is in no rush to raise interest rates while the outcome of the Iran war remains uncertain and the UK’s growth rate stays weak, its governor, Andrew Bailey, has said.

In a signal that borrowing costs will remain at 3.75% at least during the summer, Bailey said it was tolerable for inflation to stay above the Bank’s 2% target during the current crisis. However, that would change if a more permanent increase in prices began to take effect, he said.

Brent crude futures down 19% since end of April amid hopes of US-Iran peace deal, while stock markets rally

Oil prices are on track for their biggest monthly fall since 2020, as investors hoped for an end to the US-Israel war on Iran.

The price of Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, was down 1.3% on Friday at about $92 and 19% since the end of April.

From The Twits to The Gruffalo and an angry bear in search of his hat… Quentin Blake, Cressida Cowell, Axel Sheffler, Lauren Child and more reveal how they bring children’s books to life

Spread across a sprawling 17th-century industrial complex in London’s Clerkenwell, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, which opens next month, is being billed as the largest institution of its kind anywhere in the world: a permanent national home for an art form that shapes everything from children’s books and political cartoons to animation, fashion, advertising and digital culture. Part museum, part gallery and part creative laboratory, the centre represents an extraordinary attempt to drag illustration out of the margins and finally place it at the heart of British cultural life.

Eventually the centre will become home to Blake’s own enormous archive: 40,000 drawings created by one of the UK’s best-known and most immediately recognisable artists. Now 93, Blake has spent three-quarters of a century bringing the words of some of our most beloved authors to life. Roald Dahl is the big one, of course – it’s impossible to think of Dahl without seeing Blake’s energetic, dip-pen pictures – but the list also includes Michael Rosen, John Yeoman, Sylvia Plath and Voltaire, as well as Blake’s own books. In other words, it’s difficult to find anyone with the same authority.

When my mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, one remark in Jilly Cooper’s romp made me realise how much my happiness is tied to her wellbeing

As a longtime Jilly Cooper fan, I lapped up the TV adaptation of Rivals. There were so many fantastic moments: Maud O’Hara arriving at her own party dressed up to the nines, riding on a camel; David Tennant, as TV mogul Tony Baddingham, smashing up the Corinium Studios set when his arch enemy Rupert Campbell-Black scores a key point in their rivalry. My most memorable scene, however, had nothing to do with shoulder pads and parties. First, some backstory.

My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in January 2025, though for the previous few months it had become clear to me that she had some form of dementia. It came on fast, triggered by a bowel illness. Suddenly she sounded confused on the phone, though it was hard to tell even this because she stopped calling so often. She and I had been accustomed to speaking daily, phoning just to chat, check a recipe, gossip – but now she stopped initiating those calls. Her WhatsApp messaging became so erratic on a family group chat that my cousin offered to go round after work to check Mum’s phone for a virus.

Javier Bardem and his co-star are brilliant as the duelling pair at the heart of a dread-packed psychological drama – where evil lurks in plain sight

The 1991 revenge thriller Cape Fear boasts many famous moments. A teddy bear rigged with fishing wire. A drowning man speaking in tongues. But the image I cannot shake is the back of a sailboat, piloted by a lawyer who is being hounded by Max Cady, a rapist he once sent to jail. The boat is called Moana. It makes sense – throughout Polynesia, moana means “ocean”. However, watching now, I can’t help but wonder if the Rock is going to appear and save the day with his magical pec tattoo.

Martin Scorsese’s classic was a remake of a 1962 film, which was based on a 1957 novel. Recycling IP can feel depressing, but Cape Fear always stirs the pot. The 60s film, starring Gregory Peck as a morally upright man tormented by a senselessly evil one, had a Book of Job mystery to it. Scorsese’s version introduced sympathy for the devil, and a jaundiced view of its protagonist: a lawyer who buries evidence that might exonerate his client, whom he believes should go to jail. The high-water mark, though, is probably Cape Feare, the Simpsons parody featuring Sideshow Bob. (Best. Episode. Ever.)

How the IRA got their hands on the world’s most valuable horse. Plus, dancers and jugglers ahoy in the grand final of Britain’s Got Talent. Here’s what to watch this evening

8pm, Channel 4
“Somebody comes up with the idea that they’re going to kidnap a racehorse.” In 1983, Shergar was the most valuable horse in the world, worth about £10m. But with the IRA in need of funds, three men in balaclavas with machine guns stole him and demanded a ransom. The extraordinary story is told by racing insiders including commentator Derek Thompson and journalist Lissa Oliver. Hollie Richardson

Buzzy new thriller Backrooms takes us on an unknowable journey through liminal spaces, the latest film to turn a building into a horror villain

When architect turned furniture store owner Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) finds a portal to a mysterious realm of “backrooms” in the basement of his showroom, he struggles to explain it to his therapist, Dr Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve).

“I found a place …”

The actor’s alleged clashes with colleagues have sparked rumours about his future on the hit show – which others dispute. But these aren’t the first accusations of him being a tricky colleague

If you’re at all familiar with the Paramount+ series MobLand, these past few days will have come as an absolute revelation. At long last, just when everyone thought it wouldn’t ever be possible, something exciting has happened. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen onscreen.

Instead, rumours are swirling that Tom Hardy has been fired. Almost a week ago, Puck reported that Hardy had departed the MobLand set after clashing with cast and crew. As things currently stand, that has been walked back a little – partly because Paramount has yet to greenlight a third series at all – but the takeaway remains the same: Tom Hardy sounds like an absolute nightmare to work with.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, his MobLand behaviour has involved a greater insistence on creative control – delivering script notes to producer Jez Butterworth and creator Ronan Bennett – while generally arriving late and locking himself in his trailer for hours on end. “He kept the cast waiting, [which is] a power play,” a source told the outlet. “Keeping Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren and others waiting is career suicide, I would wager.” This appears to be a wager that the source has lost, given that Mirren posted a photo of Hardy’s face on Instagram last night, captioned “Love you now and always”.

In this week’s newsletter: Yes, it’s technically still spring, but with garage already pumping out and the 00s legends making a comeback, it’s time to celebrate the often-overlooked women who defined the genre

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Hello everyone. I’m Coco Khan, covering for Gwilym this week, and I’m officially calling it. Summer is here.

No, I’m not a meteorologist or an astronomer – rather, I rely on a measure I’ve developed over many summers: the UKG Index. The more UK garage you hear – through passing car windows, pumping out of festivals, or floating on the breeze from a nearby barbecue – the more likely the mercury is climbing. And this year the sound of summer has arrived early, and with some exciting news: a Mis-Teeq reunion.

There’s nostalgia to the New York/London duo’s lo-fi laptop sound, but their second album pushes them into vivid, weirder new territory

From Hudson valley, New York, and London
Recommended if you like the Books, Leila, Worldpeace DMT
Up next Rumspringa released 29 May

Jonah Paz and Yaelle Avtan recorded their first ever track as Ear on an iPhone in the Bard College library. That song, Nerves, pits their murmuring voices against weightless strings and barely perceptible drums. Just as it seems poised to float away altogether, the track is suddenly overtaken by a blaring bass synth that cleaves the first act’s aching plea into an emotionally fraught, black-lit banger.

(Platoon)
The Chilean-German producer’s shapeshifting vocals stir Latin rhythms, ghetto house, trance and more into a playful party

Over the past two decades, Chilean-German vocalist and producer Matías Aguayo’s mutable, instinctive singing has been an instantly identifiable ingredient of leftfield electronic music. On Battles’ 2011 track Ice Cream, he squealed and tripped through syllables against a thunderous synth backing, while Japanese synth-pop group Crystal’s 2017 track Kimi Wa Monster saw Ayuayo singing a keening, childlike melody over instrumental. His own releases featured layered chants and scatter-gun vocal rhythms over pulsing Afro-Latin beats. While his last record, 2019’s Support Alien Invasion, marked his first foray into instrumental music, Anenoa heralds Aguayo’s welcome return to the mic across a selection of hard-hitting, dancefloor-focused arrangements.

The fast-paced syncopated Latin rhythm of opener Sentimientos Encontraos sets the ebullient tone, with Aguayo’s nonchalant repetition of the title creating a hypnotic motif as bubbling and kinetic as the beat. Sprechgesang gives way to soulful falsetto on the ghetto house-influenced Asuka, Rock, Roll, while vocal processing transforms Aguayo’s party chants into a growling baritone on thumping trance number Avestruz en Veracruz. On the 80s-styled synth-pop of La Heredera, he croons delicately alongside featured Latin American singers Iarahei and Camille Mandoki.

(Island)
The daughter of Foo Fighters’ Dave does a serviceable line in 90s throwback sounds, though the nostalgia is too reverent

‘I’ll eat your liver,” Violet Grohl threatens on 595, a scuzzy, slasher-inspired alt-rock single that feels made for 90s MTV. Arch, deadpan verses give way to a big, bluesy, intentionally sleazy chorus, finished with blown-out guitar and squealing feedback: part Veruca Salt, part Queens of the Stone Age. Despite just turning 20, Grohl has the rock’n’roll credentials for her throwback sound. The eldest daughter of Foo Fighters’ Dave, Violet fronted a rare Nirvana reunion aged just 13 – her coolly authoritative vocals making it more symbolic than a mere family favour.

While it’s true that her dad linked her with taste-making producer Justin Raisen (Kim Gordon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sky Ferreira) for this debut album, and its grungy tracks haven’t been road-tested in sticky dive bars that music like this usually demands, Grohl is admirably direct about her nepo status. “Decide for yourself if I’m worthy,” she told the Forty-Five.

The Women’s prize-shortlisted novelist on taking inspiration from John Steinbeck, Joan Didion and Jhumpa Lahiri, and weeping through Little Women in her 30s

My earliest reading memory
I’m not sure what we were reading – The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams or the poems in Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein – but I was undoubtedly with my sister, two years older, who set the example for me to be a reader. I picture us in the back of our family car or laying across our twin beds in the room we shared.

My favourite book growing up
I loved mysteries and fantasy worlds. I read so many of the Nancy Drew books, and The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner. And I loved the Narnia stories and The Wind in the Willows. I loved books about things that can’t exist. I suppose it’s all escapism – crimes solved by children, talking animals, time travel, people two inches tall. I always loved to slip into another, better world.

A British and American film crew descend on the Northern Irish city to film a drama about the Troubles, in a keenly observed and snappily written debut

The premise of Séamas O’Reilly’s brilliant debut novel is that a Hollywood actor has flown into Derry to star in a new TV series about the Troubles called Dead City, then mysteriously disappeared. But its real interest lies in what happens when a place becomes defined by a particular historical moment, to the extent that stories told about it lapse into formula. As one character says of the TV series: “A young lad coming of age in a time of violence, will he get caught up in everything or find another way through blah blah blah.”

O’Reilly is determined to show us that the people of Derry are not so easily stereotyped. He uses Dead City as a starting point to circle through different characters connected to the series, from a stressed scriptwriter to a local historian who wonders, “How do you talk about the past as a person still living it, in a place that barely survived it?” As we move through the novel, we discover the links between them, creating a patchwork portrait of the city, similar to the way Tommy Orange’s novel There, There used a chorus of voices to explore the lives of Native Americans.

Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami; All Flesh by Ananda Devi; The White Desert by Luis López Carrasco; The Home of the Drowned by Elin Anna Labba

Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami, translated by Laurel Taylor and Hitomi Yoshio (Picador, £16.99)
Kawakami’s latest opens with a bang, as narrator Hana learns that her old friend Kimiko has been charged with abduction. This MacGuffin takes us to their friendship in late-1990s Tokyo, when teen Hana and the older woman open a bar called Lemon: “Yellow attracts money.” But it’s a turbulent ride and soon Hana is in a world of organised crime. “The world is crazy. I feel like I’m living in a manga.” She’s not the only one, and you need an appetite for Kawakami’s style, which prefers to explore rather than explain – people come and go, buildings burn down, cancer is diagnosed, almost at random – but the relentless rush means there’s no time to get bored. At its best – as in a scene where Hana’s unreliable mother wants to borrow 2m yen for investment in lingerie that helps “your spine and organs move back to where they’re supposed to be” – this is a story both absurd and horrifying.

All Flesh by Ananda Devi, translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman (Pushkin, £12.99)
“Forgive me for starting this story with bodily, unpalatable origins.” You may as well – it’s all like that. In an unnamed European country, a schoolgirl “born with no urge but to consume” is getting bigger and bigger. “My gut, my ass, my thighs – they were all set on reaching the farthest corners of the world.” She blames her gluttony on the need to silence the voice of her dead twin sister, who was “absorbed into my tissues” in the womb. She hates school, where other kids mock her, as though her own self-disgust weren’t enough. After a blackly comic scene where she gets stuck in her bedroom doorframe like “an uncooperative cork”, she falls in love with the lonely carpenter who arrives to widen the door – but there are more twists to come. This powerful story is deeply physical, but driven by a compelling voice describing the torment of a girl who is “the psychical mirror of our time … immoderation made manifest”.

From Frederick Douglass to Obama, Ben Rhodes shares the speeches that explain the US in his new book, All We Say

Donald Trump “has proven Jeremiah Wright correct about a lot of things”, said Ben Rhodes, a former speechwriter and deputy national security adviser to Barack Obama and still a close aide to the ex-president.

“If you look at the things that Jeremiah Wright was kind of canceled for, it was saying America was a nation founded on racism. Well, it’s a fairly common view these days. 9/11 was the chickens coming home to roost? I make versions of that argument every time I write for the New York Times: that American foreign policy has blowback.”

When Ben Elton didn’t distract from the pain of moving my body, I found the perfect solution – the interactive smartphone game Zombies, Run!

At 56, I am running my first marathon, an old, fat, bald dad surrounded by millennials in body-hugging Lycra and smiles that look AI-generated. But I am ahead of them. For they are only competing for positions and personal bests, and I am being chased by zombies.

The black dog of depression hit me around the time of my last birthday. I didn’t feel I had achieved anything of note for an eternity. I used to work out but, for years, work kept getting in the way. I decided to kill two circling, carcass-sniffing vultures with one stone and run my first marathon.

Infinity Ward’s new game in the storied shooter genre embraces change with a potentially controversial real-world setting

There was a time when Call of Duty (CoD) regularly courted controversy. In 2009, Modern Warfare 2’s infamous “No Russian” mission saw players (optionally) shooting screaming civilians in a Moscow airport. In 2022’s entry, a drone strike mission that drew chilling parallels to the real-world US assassination of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani two years earlier was featured. The series has not always been straightforwardly palatable.

In recent years, however, the world’s most popular shooter game has largely swapped grit for melodrama, following the misadventures of a troop of larger than life elite soldiers. For 2026’s Modern Warfare 4, however, Activision’s shooter series and its developer Infinity Ward are back in tabloid-baiting territory.

A gentle daily puzzle is quietly becoming the most joyful part of my morning routine​ and reminds me that not every win needs to be epic

There’s been some pretty big news in the last couple of weeks in video game world: the long-running space shooter Destiny 2 is winding up after almost nine years, PlayStation appears to have decided to stop releasing its flagship single-player games on PC, and Microsoft wants us to look like we’re shouting every time we type XBOX. But the biggest news for me is that I have found my new favourite word game. I am going to be so bold as to call it the new Wordle.

Ribbit is one of the varied suite of daily games on Puzzmo, an online puzzle platform. It launched at the beginning of January, but I only recently discovered it because I have been unwell, bored, and spending too much time on my phone. Puzzmo’s daily hits include a satisfying shape-arranging game, variations on chess that make me feel extremely stupid, and pleasing word games, which are my favourites. Circuits has you making connections between the beginnings and ends of phrases (eg “stone cold > cold medicine > medicine cabinet”) as fast as you can. Bongo gives you a bunch of letter tiles and asks you to arrange them for a maximum score.

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

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

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

Kings Place, London
The US singer Thomas Hampson paired with accordionist Ksenija Sidorova to perform highlights from Schubert’s Winterreise alongside Weill and Piazzolla. Alas much of this disappointing evening felt like a vanity project

Schubert’s Winterreise – the composer’s great psychodrama in song – ends devastatingly. Der Leiermann conjures a chilling vision of a hurdy-gurdy man. Alone beyond the village he plays his melancholy tune, luring the narrator to him – perhaps also to his death? The haunting song, with its anchoring drone, begs for colours the piano can only suggest. Presumably that was the seed for this unusual collaboration between veteran US bass-baritone Thomas Hampson and Latvian accordionist Ksenija Sidorova.

You can see the logic that swaps piano for accordion and frames the Schubert with songs by Kurt Weill and a tango by Piazzolla: this is street music with its face washed and hair brushed, invited into the salon, the cabaret, the opera house.

British landscape painting from Gainsborough to Hepworth, Wendy McMurdo’s uncanny portraits and Jack White’s debut exhibition – all in your weekly dispatch

British Landscapes: A Sense of Place
The romance and mystery of Britain’s green and pleasant land, as captured by artists from Gainsborough to Hepworth.
• Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, from 30 May to 1 November

Pitlochry festival theatre
This stripped-down show with a maudlin set of songs makes for the most reluctant of musicals, but this is a production that has the confidence to be silent or stately

When Once opened on Broadway in 2012, later to enjoy a run in London’s West End, it was greeted with a degree of surprise. You can see why. In terms of the Great White Way, it is an anti-musical.

Based on the 2007 film by John Carney, with a book by Enda Walsh and songs by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, it is unusual not just in being given a stripped-down production by John Tiffany on a barroom set by Bob Crowley that is all scuffed mirrors, wooden panelling and gloomy corners. And not just in its folksy atmosphere, with its preshow singalong and an ensemble of actor-musicians who muck in without fanfare.

The Perimeter, London
Testicles have faces and a fox licks a phallus as the French artist mixes online anxiety, family life and saucy erotica in works charged with meaning

Camille Henrot used to deal with the vast and unknowable. She used to ask the big questions. Who are we? Where do we come from? Why do we do what we do? Her 2014 show at the Chisenhale in London was about the origins of humanity and Darwinism, and her film Grosse Fatigue is about the creation of the universe. But in her latest work, the French artist has turned towards the introspective, the quiet, small and mundane.

Here in this little private museum on a mews, the one-time winner of the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale has done away with the hypercomplex, ultra-ambitious chaos of her installations and films. Instead, she has pared back, gone minimal and taken a long, hard look at herself.

The French photographer’s brand-new loafers take centre stage in this colourful rotated image of a well-known bar

As his una caña (small beer) was served, Olivier Lei put his feet up on a nearby bar stool. The French photographer, now Barcelona-based, had spent a few hours exploring the city with his phone, alert for potential shots. He’d usually do so in white trainers, or Vans; as a full-time freelance photographer, he was often on his feet. On this occasion, however, he was wearing his brand-new black loafers.

“I got them on sale; I think they were about $20,” he says. “I didn’t want to spend too much money because I didn’t know if this style would suit me.”

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Now in its 10th year, the £1,000 competition is held by publisher 4th Estate and the Guardian, and open to Black, Asian and minority ethnic writers in the UK and Ireland

The 4thWrite prize, an annual short story competition for Black, Asian and minority ethnic writers run by publisher 4th Estate and the Guardian, has opened for submissions.

The winner will receive £1,000, a one-day publishing workshop at 4th Estate and publication of their story on the Guardian website. The shortlisted stories will be published on the 4th Estate website. The prize is open to writers aged 18 and over living in the UK or Ireland.

Submissions can be made at www.4thEstate.co.uk/prize, where full terms and conditions are available. Any queries can be sent to 4thWritePrize@harpercollins.co.uk

At 83, McCartney is looking back for his 18th solo LP, to formative flirtations, family singalongs, even his own birth – and the febrile times that mirror our own. It’s given him ‘every hope that we’ll get through’

• Alexis Petridis reviews The Boys of Dungeon Lane: ‘At 83, his gift for melody still astounds’

‘How far do you want to go back?” In his office overlooking Soho Square in London, Paul McCartney and I sit together on a small sofa, reminiscing. The room smells deep and resinous and faintly ecclesiastical. There is a large green glass candle on the windowsill, and beyond, a view of plane trees, a flood of early afternoon sunlight.

The building was bought by McCartney in 1974, and has long served as a home for his publishing company and other enterprises. On another floor, two members of his team survey prints of his late wife Linda’s photographs, spread out on the boardroom table. An assistant is busy arranging a bagel order, while in the small lift, someone is ferrying a trolley full of drinking glasses up to the kitchen, a convivial clink-clatter echoing through the floors.

Ailsa, 31, a systems engineer, meets Mike, 35, a paralegal

What were you hoping for?
Good conversation with someone interesting.

As a child, I didn’t understand the ancient food decaying in my grandmother’s cupboard. Now I’m beginning to

“This oregano is best before 1985!” my sister cries, adding it to the pile on the laminate bench. It’s Hervey Bay circa 1991. My family is staying in Gran’s retirement villa, my sisters and I on camp stretchers in the garage. A single pedestal fan brings short bursts of breeze, rotating relief from the December heat.

The town is not yet on the backpacker circuit. There aren’t any cafes, shops or streaming services, and there are only so many games of Scrabble we can take.

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Whether you want a stick, a spray or a tinted cream, our expert’s favourite formulas can provide year-round sun protection

• The best face moisturisers for every budget

There’s nothing quite like the warmth of the sun on your face after a long, dreary winter. But before you bask in it, you should always apply an SPF. That’s especially true if you use vitamin C and retinol serums, which can increase your vulnerability to sun damage. If you’re not wearing an SPF every day, you might as well toss the rest of your skincare out of the window.

As well as the risk of sunburn, UV rays cause longer-lasting, deeper skin damage, resulting in age spots, pigmentation and premature ageing. But if the thought of slathering sticky sunscreens on your face every day makes you want to spend your life in perpetual shade, you’ve come to the right place.

Best face SPF overall:
Beauty of Joseon relief sun rice + probiotics

Best budget face SPF:
E45 Sensitive Sun face cream

Crisp 27in 5K Mac monitor is packed with features and some of the best HDR performance you can get for work or play

Apple’s new 27in Studio Display XDR is its best monitor yet, with an exceptionally bright and gorgeous 5K screen that wants to be the pro display for Mac-wielding content creators everywhere, with a price tag to match.

Built to be paired with the latest or high-end Macs, the Studio Display XDR costs from £2,599 (€3,099/$2,899/A$4,799), although it is a cool £3,000 if you want it with a stand. It sits above the standard £1,499 Studio Display and is £2,000 cheaper than the 2019 Apple Pro Display XDR it replaces.

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

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

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

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

• The best portable neck and handheld fans

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

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

Best quiet fan for the bedroom and best overall:
AirCraft Lume

Best fan for cooling:
Dreo TurboCool misting fan 765S

If you’re more of a ‘wet’ food fan than a ‘dry’ one, this sweet and spiced, milk-soaked sponge will tick all your boxes

Margot Henderson once described herself as a “wet” over a “dry” food person, and the world, seen in those terms, suddenly made more sense to me. I’m also a “wet” food person (I need a sauce with every meal), and I’d wager that the same goes for most Indians, especially with savoury food, but also with sweet. Rasmalai, gulab jamun and jalebi are all Indian desserts for which batters or doughs are cooked and then soaked in syrup or milk. I wanted to make a “wet” cake in that same tradition – a classic sponge soaked in spiced, sweet saffron and cardamom milk – and in doing so have taken a little inspiration from Mexico’s tres leches cake.

Cancoillotte is low in fat, high in protein and – until recently – little known outside of a village in eastern France

At the cheesemakers in the village of Franois, eastern France, a stream of what looks like runny, beige gloop is being potted, packaged and dispatched for delivery as fast as it can be made. The freezer room, normally piled high with pallets of the product, is almost empty.

For what must be the first time in the history of cancoillotte – a cheese product that until recently was little known outside the eastern Franche-Comté – there was talk of a “rupture” in supplies, and an unprecedented shortage.

A margarita with an aromatic kick from south London’s coolest Caribbean eatery

Don’t be put off by the name, because this isn’t blow-your-head-off hot – the scotch bonnet infusion is quick, so the flavour is subtle and aromatic, rather than aggressive. The chilli-infused base would also work in other classic tequila cocktails, especially a spicy vampiro.

Nathaniel Mortley, chef/owner, 2210 by Natty Can Cook, London SE24

Pleasingly sour gooseberries are easily tamed in a compote that’s baked in a pie filled with smooth almond cream

Gooseberries require a little patience. Firm, pale and stubbornly sour, they don’t offer the easy sweetness of other berries, but give them something warm and soft to lean against, and watch them shine. Almond cream feels a natural companion: gently sweet and tender, cushioning the sharpness without dulling it. Baked in muffin tins, these small pies feel informal yet generous, plus all the components can be made up to three days ahead and assembled just before baking.

Amy is worried about microplastics. Melanie says she can’t bin everything. Whose argument is toxic? You decide
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

I want to live a healthier life too, but removing all plastics is unrealistic and unaffordable

When you’re separating from a partner you’ve lived with, dividing up your shared belongings isn’t always a priority. There are ways to navigate this emotional and financial minefield, though

When wandering around Ikea arm-in-arm, most newly cohabiting couples are too excited about their new sofa, or Billy bookcase, or the enormous house plant they are about to wrestle into an Uber, to think too deeply about what might happen to those items were their relationship to sour. But at a time when many young couples can’t afford to buy property or have children, furniture can end up being the only thing to fight over at the end of a relationship. And, as the cost of living rises, having to replace furniture after a breakup can have a huge impact on people’s finances.

“It took me a couple of years to recover financially,” says Becca of her 2022 breakup. The 35-year-old, who is based in Leeds, had been in a relationship for about a year when her then-girlfriend invited her to move in to her house. At the time, Becca was renting her own flat, which was “amazing: big garden, really bright and lovely”, she says. But being what she describes as “young, stupid and in love”, she left that behind to move in with her partner. Becca reluctantly agreed to get rid of all the furniture she had bought for her flat, since her girlfriend didn’t want any of it in her place.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whether first-time buyers, in between homes or refixing, people tell of impact of higher mortgage rates on housing

Prospects of cuts in UK interest rates in 2026, which were widely expected at the start of the year, were rapidly extinguished when the Iran war started at the end of February. The renewed threat of inflation means the Bank of England is now expected to raise rates at least once this year, with mortgage costs staying higher for longer.

The boss of Britain’s largest housebuilder said on Thursday it was the most challenging time to be a first-time buyer since the 2008 financial crisis.

Barratt Redrow boss says rising interest rates, higher student debt and squeeze on wages hitting property dream

• Business live – latest updates

The boss of Britain’s largest housebuilder has said it is the most challenging time to be a first-time buyer since the financial crisis, as the dream of home ownership moves increasingly out of reach for many young people.

A combination of rising interest rates, higher levels of student debt and the squeeze on wages is making it “challenging, very, very difficult” for young people to get on the housing ladder, according to David Thomas, the departing chief executive of Barratt Redrow.

In this competitive market, gen Z has started to turn to untraditional ways to land a job – including dating apps

Sibusisiwe Khupe, 26, entered the job market once again in September after a wave of unexpected layoffs at London marketing agency Wieden+Kennedy.

She knew landing her next full-time role was not going to be easy. Young workers have been hit hard by the weakening UK job market as vacancies fall and unemployment climbs to a five-year high.

Finance podcaster Jannese Torres says even finding an extra $50 to $100 a month can put kids on a path to future financial stability

• A finance coach unpacks how she retired at 40 – and the money advice she finds ‘irresponsible’

Growing up, Jannese Torres only saw the men in her family making financial decisions.

“The women managed the day-to-day budget and made sure all the bills got paid, but the men were the ones who had the ‘grown-up’ conversations,” she said. Financial products were something to be feared – her parents had gone into credit card debt in their 20s, forcing them to file for bankruptcy.

A lack of confidence can prevent us from trying new things or going after what we want – but it’s never too late to change our beliefs

When I was in middle school, my father told me 80% of how people see you is how you see yourself. This was terrible news at the time, because I was deep in the depths of puberty, self-loathing and figuring out how to part my hair.

Though he pulled that number out of thin air, in the intervening years I’ve found he was on to something – projecting confidence can sometimes be the key to success, professionally and personally. But how does one actually cultivate confidence? And what if our understanding of what confidence is skewed?

I started kickboxing 20 years ago in a bid to be like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but thought I could never manage all the punching and jumping. It turns out I could handle much more than I thought

At 14, I decided to learn a martial art. I told my parents it was to defend myself on the mean streets of Congleton – a market town in Cheshire largely devoid of danger – when, in truth, it was because I wanted to be like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I joined a kickboxing club, and what could have been a passing phase became a thrice-weekly commitment spanning four years. I was a model student, picking up a different coloured belt every few months to mark my progression through the grades. I grew strong and flexible, swapping puppy fat for muscle. I routinely fought men without fear and found a confidence in my body I have never experienced before or since.

Without strong evidence, or at least one decent trial, we cannot know whether shining red lights on to your skin does anything

• Read more in the Antiviral series

The world of wellness is constantly expanding. There are new fads coming out almost every week, from the weird new mushroom powders that are suddenly essential for everyone’s health to the newest diet that is supposed to shave kilograms off your figure. It’s a quagmire of unproven, disproven and almost certainly ineffective things that grows every day.

But one mainstay is red light therapy. While red lights are seeing a massive renewed surge in popularity – it’s hard to go on TikTok or Instagram without being assaulted by at least one very confusing video of a person wearing what appears to be a horror mask shining red light on their face – they’ve been around for quite some time. You can find people discussing red light and its possible benefits all the way back to the 1990s.

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

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

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

The New York mayor scored a range of responses attending Eid prayers in an outfit combining football and faith

Since Arsenal won the Premier League for the first time in 22 years this month, the visibility of the club’s shirts has soared, with celebrities including Romeo Beckham and the singer Mahalia wearing them.

One particularly notable fan moment occurred when Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York, wore a kurta made out of the team’s 2025-26 away kit to attend Eid al-Adha prayers in the Bronx.

From sardines and sprats to crabs, marine life-themed fashion and homewares are making a splash

Three years after declaring the death of florals, John Lewis has discovered a new print that is making a splash among shoppers. At the launch of its new high summer collection, the retailer said fish were quickly becoming its customers’ catch of the day.

From sardines and sprats to crustaceans including crabs, its latest haul across fashion and homeware is rich in fish prints and shapes. Sales of starfish-shaped earrings are up 300% month on month, while high demand for a silky blue skirt smothered in shoals of fish has resulted in a waiting list. In homeware, sales of a set of glass tumblers that stack together to form the shape of a fish are up 400%, while a “gluggle jug” – a ceramic pitcher shaped like a fish that makes a gurgling sound as the water is poured – is becoming an outdoor dining essential. Sales of versions from Wade Pottery are up 129% month on month.

The strappy dress comes into its own on a hot day. Smart accessories like a woven bag and statement glasses add the cool factor

With a new film about the model out this week, it’s the perfect excuse for some Mosstalgia

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There are models, there are supermodels and then there is Kate Moss. Scouted aged 14 while waiting for a flight at New York’s JFK airport, the Londoner quickly went on to define the fashion aesthetic of the 90s. There have been countless magazine covers including 43 issues of British Vogue, scads of advertising campaigns spanning Calvin Klein to Chanel and Tom Ford and hundreds of catwalk moments including, most recently, a thong-baring appearance at Demna’s Gucci debut.

She’s been sung about by Pete Doherty and Playboi Carti, sculpted by Marc Quinn and painted by Chuck Close, Banksy and Lucian Freud. The latter is now the subject of a new film, Moss & Freud. Directed by James Lucas and executive produced by Moss, it explores the model’s friendship with the then – 80-year-old painter during 2002 when she sat, pregnant, for him. That lifesize naked portrait later sold for £3.5m. Ahead of the film’s release on Friday, our writers reflect on their Mossy memories from the nineties to now.

The 2,700-mile route covering the entire English coastline is almost complete. We walked less trodden sections big on scenery and history

Day one Circular walk of Lindisfarne (4 miles)
Day two Budle Bay to Bamburgh to (5 miles)

From a vinyl-focused music exhibition to beloved record stores, ‘listening bars’ and clubs, the Victorian capital’s fondness for wax reverberates in every corner of the city

When the needle drops, Elias Rahbani’s 1972 album Mosaic of the Orient (Näi, Buzuk & Guitar) cascades out from a Technics SL-1300GE-K turntable and a colossal pair of Tasmanian-made Pitt & Giblin Superwax speakers. I’m in the Listening Room – a temple for audiophiles, and to the vinyl record – in Melbourne’s Acmi, as part of Rising festival’s new exhibition The Vinyl Factory: Reverb. The gear sounds extraordinary – and it is only one story in a room filled with countless more.

Rising music curator and Triple R host Yasmine Sharaf remembers the moment she spotted that rare Rahbani record, on a 47C day at a Cairo market. “Record shopping is really hard in Egypt. Everything usually has no cover and is covered in dust. It was sitting on the very top in complete sun. Somehow in perfect condition, not warped or melted. You’d think it would just be a puddle. I feel I was supposed to find it and save it.”

From the wilds of Galloway and spectacular Pembrokeshire to the cockle sheds of Southend, you share your favourite seaside walks
• Tell us about a European road trip – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

With an impressive mix of mountain and sea views, the 130-mile Anglesey Coastal Path is a must-do for those who love a good walk. But like most locals, my perennial favourite is the offshoot trail out to the tidal island Ynys Llanddwyn. Having grown up on Ynys Môn but now living in London, for me it has become something of an annual pilgrimage in the summer months. The mile-long walk along the main beach to the island is manageable and fun for grandparents and grandkids alike – with the white-washed lighthouses offering a rewarding end viewpoint. Pack a picnic, swim in the clear waters and relax – just make sure you’ve checked the tide times!
Lavinia Brydon

A guided walk in the primeval wildwood of Perućica, where wolves, chamois and the elusive brown bear roam

‘I know this bear. He knows me. We’ve met several times.” Our guide for the day points to a damaged sign in Sutjeska national park, at the beginning of the trail that descends to the forest of Perućica in south-east Bosnia. The wooden post is covered in scratches from large claws. “Bears are the sharks of the land, because they have the keenest sense of smell on the mountain. They are highly intelligent. I’m deeply persuaded that they know who is a friend and who is a foe. I come often to the forest, so this guy knows my smell. But there was one incident, a hunter who came here to kill, and a bear peeled off his face like an orange.”

With that image, Dejan Elez commands our full attention. A Bosnian Serb law graduate turned ranger and now mountain guide, he is a born storyteller and raconteur. My travel companion, Chris, and I are rapt as he describes the famous battle that was fought near here, when Yugoslav partisans broke through a German encirclement in 1943, taking the Wehrmacht by surprise under cover of a violent storm – “the wind was rising and the lightning was like a strobe” – but after that, Dejan’s narrative leads much further back in time, into the depths of one of Europe’s most ancient forests.

My toes are sore from buying the wrong size online, and my walk back from the shoe shop is fraught with peril

Some years ago I made myself a simple rule based on experience: never buy footwear online. I have proved the worth of this rule several times since, by breaking it. But I never learn the lesson. Last year I paid a substantial sum for a pair of smart black shoes which raise a blister the size of a 10p coin on my right heel whenever I walk more than a hundred metres in them. Luckily I only wear these shoes to funerals, which are largely seated affairs. One day I may build up a tolerance to them, but I don’t know how many more people will have to die before that happens.

My wife and I are going on a holiday with an itinerary that calls for walking shoes. It is a matter of some debate whether we actually own walking shoes.

Madley, Wye Valley, Herefordshire: A day of nervous excitement as we invite all-comers to this unveiling. But does everyone know the chimes will continue through the night?

The clock chimes had not rung for two years. A wire had snapped, cogs had broken and the weights had crashed to the floor. We applied for grants and found specialist engineers, and now, finally, they’re ready to ring again.

It’s 11.55 on a Saturday morning and the bellringing chamber of Madley parish church is filled with wellwishers and regulars from the congregation. I splash the clock mechanism, the main bell ropes and the gathered company with water and proclaim a trinitarian blessing. Mike, one of our lead ringers, unhooks a couple of wires that releases the hammers on the eight bells. We wait a slow, nervous minute till noon. Would they really sound again after all this time? Then, 12 distinct “dongs”. We hear the Saturday Social Club raise a cheer from the ground floor.

From Akkadian and Babylonian to ‘ancient, morbid and toxic’, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 The UK’s video recorders were reset in 1997 in advance of what?
2 Which tree is described by the Woodland Trust as “ancient, morbid, toxic”?
3 Which Midwest university has the biggest sports stadium in the US?
4 Henry and Edward are the title characters of what 1886 novella?
5 Which Hollywood star couldn’t abide wire hangers?
6 In 1413, whose body was moved from King’s Langley Priory to Westminster Abbey?
7 Which races are held over the 37-mile Snaefell Mountain Course?
8 Which soft drink was originally launched as Pickup’s Appetiser?
What links:
9 Cecily stained glass; Meiping vase; Rodin’s Thinker; Temple Pyx fragment; Wagner garden carpet?
10 The King and I; Boy on a Dolphin; My Fair Lady; West Side Story?
11 Fátima; Guadalupe; Knock; La Salette; Walsingham?
12 Sumerian; Akkadian; Babylonian; Assyrian?
13 Bayern’s Müller and WBA’s Brown; middleweight Graham; Air Marshal Harris?
14 I Am Maximus; Tiger Roll; Reynoldstown; Poethlyn?
15 Archaea; Bacteria; Eukarya?

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.

The Netherlands has the lowest rate of young people not in education, employment or training in the EU

A shock government-backed report this week warned of the danger of a “lost generation” of young people in Britain, as the number of 16- to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training (Neets) rose to more than 1 million.

According to official UK statistics, roughly 13.5% of young people are not in work or college. Among 18- to 24-year-olds the share rises to 15.8% – nearly one in six.

Exclusive: Sofie is devoted to the baby who was removed from her family, but she and advocates say the situation speaks to a desperate crisis in Victoria’s child protection system

The baby arrived at Sofie’s house at 7pm on a Friday night, along with a few bags of clothes, toys, nappies and food. No one had fed her since that morning. The case worker sat on Sofie’s couch, commenting on the decor.

Sofie*, an early childhood educator, did not know the baby well. The Melbourne childcare centre where she worked had agreed to enrol the then months’ old baby after a request from child protection, who hoped daycare would provide some stability while they worked with the baby’s mother. The baby had only attended a handful of days. Sofie had occasionally given her a cuddle in passing.

Bereaved relatives say they were ignored by authorities as they searched for answers over suicide forums and kits

• Canadian man admits sending ‘suicide packets’ to hundreds of people around world

Monday would have been Aimee Walton’s 25th birthday. But in 2022, the lover of music and art from Southampton took her own life after being groomed by another user on an online forum that glorified and enabled suicide. On Friday, 3,500 miles away, the man who sold her a toxic substance pleaded guilty in a Canadian courtroom to his part in 14 other fatal poisonings.

Kenneth Law, 60, is linked to at least 131 deaths worldwide, after using a collection of digital storefronts to target vulnerable youth. Investigators in the province of Ontario say Law shipped more than 1,200 packages – many containing a toxic substance – from his local post office to people in more than 40 countries; the vast majority went to the United Kingdom and the United States.

We would like to hear from people who are facing water supply disruptions due to warm weather in the south east of England

Thousands of properties in the south east have been affected by water supply issues caused by the warm weather, according to South East Water (SEW).

After water outages for hundreds of homes across Kent and Sussex over the last three days during record temperatures, the firm has asked customers to only use water for essential purposes like drinking, washing and cooking.

We would like to hear your stories of nightmare holidays that wouldn’t be out of place on screen

With the release of Two Weeks in August, along with new series of Four Seasons and White Lotus, it seems we can’t get enough TV about holidays from hell.

With this in mind, we would like to hear your own stories of holiday mishaps. Do you have a nightmare holiday story that could have inspired a TV show? Tell us all about it below.

How has the search for work been for you? How many job applications have you made?

The number of young people not in work or education in Britain could rise to 1.25 million by the early 2030s without urgent government action, a landmark report has warned.

Alan Milburn, the leader of the review into why so many young people are economically inactive, said the UK risked opening up a “generational fault line” between young and old without urgent steps to overhaul schools, the health service, the welfare system and the jobs market.

If you’re a millennial aged between 31 and 45, how do you feel about growing old in the UK?

If you’re a millennial aged between 31 and 45, how do you feel about growing old in the UK? We would like to hear about your experiences of the UK healthcare system, housing and income, and your thoughts on the future.

Healthcare: In your experience, has healthcare been reliable and efficient? Have you ever experienced significant delays in A&E for procedures, operations, or referrals?

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Russian strikes in Kyiv, the Ebola outbreak, Eid al-Adha in Gaza and Sinner at the French Open – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists