Last summer, a 14-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by an asylum seeker in Epping and this small community was engulfed in protest. Can it recover?

When Sherzod* moved to Epping in 2025, he was dreaming of a little garden, long dog walks in the forest and more space to breathe. At 20, he had moved from Uzbekistan to the UK to study law, then lived in north London for decades. In his mid-40s, after establishing himself in a media job, he began visiting the forest – 5,900 acres of green lung saved by the Epping Forest Act 1878. The pretty shops of the old south-west Essex town delighted him. “I just liked the high street, I liked the people,” he says. “The people were really friendly.”

Epping was created by the canons of Waltham Abbey in the 13th century as a market town on the road from London to Cambridge. Its high street is still thriving. There is a Gail’s bakery and an M&S Food shop; the four-bed semis in the estate agents’ windows are listed at just shy of £1m.

The beloved BBC sitcom is now a quarter of a century old. Ahead of two TV celebrations, here are 25 things you didn’t know about television’s funniest workplace mockumentary

Fetch the acoustic guitar and twiddle your TM Lewin tie because it’s the 25th anniversary of The Office. Yes, it’s a quarter of a century since we were introduced to Wernham Hogg paper company’s David Brent – a friend first, boss second, probably an entertainer third.

To commemorate the majestic mockumentary’s silver jubilee, actors Martin Freeman and Mackenzie Crook are reuniting to present a BBC documentary looking back at the show. Meanwhile, co-creator Ricky Gervais is releasing a retrospective special on his YouTube channel.

While the Reform leader casts himself as the victim questions about his finances are unlikely to disappear

• Farage quits as an MP amid scrutiny of his finances

For Nigel Farage, a year that was progressing quite nicely started to go wrong when the Guardian revealed he had received an undeclared gift of £5m from a crypto billionaire. Just 10 weeks later, he has been pushed into perhaps one of the biggest gambles of his political career.

That gamble is seemingly not with his role as an MP. Farage took more than 45% of the vote in Clacton in 2024, and the heavily Reform-friendly constituency was always likely to elect him again, even before the bulk of the other parties announced they would stand aside in a byelection they have dismissed as a stunt.

For years, we have sought ways to define and achieve national belonging. Surely the team and our attachment to it makes that possible

When the final whistle blew just before dawn, and England had beaten Mexico in that encounter now hailed as a World Cup classic, glasses were raised and strangers embraced in pubs across England that had been granted special permission to stay open. In living rooms and student flats too, millions of people experienced something increasingly rare in modern Britain: uncomplicated national joy.

For a few hours, the endless arguments over the national budget, the revolving door of British prime ministers and the country’s political malaise fell silent. England’s World Cup victory that night did not erase Britain’s divisions. But watching the team sing their anthem song, Wonderwall, to their cheering supporters reminded us of something every successful democracy depends upon: pride in a shared national story.

Maya Tudor is an associate professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government

As the History of Advertising Trust turns 50, our writer revels in its vast archive, remembering the bread boy on his bike, the suggestive coffee-drinkers and the Hamlet smoker adjusting his comb-over

Hanging over the toilet in the gents’ loos at the History of Advertising Trust’s archive in deepest Norfolk is a photograph of Ian Botham. It’s not just the cricketing great’s mullet that tells you this is 1986, but the fact that Beefy is smoking a cigar. The caption below answers the question that has troubled philosophers since Aristotle: “Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet.”

If the past is a foreign country, then the history of advertising is a whole alternate universe, one in which excitable metallic martians induced us to buy Cadbury’s powdered potatoes with the slogan: “For mash get Smash.” It’s a place where bowler-hatted chimps dressed as removal men wooed us into buying PG Tips tea, while legions of sports stars energetically advertised carcinogenic smokes.

Some of its amateur matches pull in bigger crowds than European leagues but are more of a spectacle than a pathway to the professional game, say experts

Michael Owen, a man who once quipped he had never drunk tea or coffee, isn’t known for his adventurous palate. Safe to assume, then, that the former England striker was out of his comfort zone sipping Roxburgh rose juice and eating chilli-wrapped rice noodle rolls during his recent visit to south-west China’s Guizhou province.

The 2001 Ballon d’Or winner dusted off his boots for a match in Rongjiang county, the birthplace of viral amateur football league Cun Chao, also known as the Village Super League. Scoring twice in a 4-3 loss for local side Rongjiang Niubi, Owen endeared himself to the thousands in attendance, even if some weren’t familiar with the former Liverpool and Real Madrid player.

Exclusive: Latest Guardian revelation about gift from cryptocurrency tycoon comes as Reform UK leader forces byelection

The £5m gift to Nigel Farage by a cryptocurrency billionaire was reported to the National Crime Agency by bankers who were concerned it may have been laundered money, the Guardian can reveal.

The disclosure will put further pressure on the Reform UK leader, who is awaiting a decision by the standards commissioner over whether his failure to declare the money breached parliamentary rules.

Latest attack in the strait of Hormuz marks ⁠first known US military strikes ​against ​Iran since late last ​month

• Full report: Iran accuses US of violating peace agreement after strikes target sites around strait of Hormuz

The US revoked a temporary sanctions waiver for Iranian oil after three tankers were struck in the strait of Hormuz. The move came before fresh US strikes on Iran today.

The US Treasury on Tuesday cancelled a licence that was announced in June that had allowed Iran to produce, sell and deliver crude oil and related products through 21 August.

Government’s former extremism adviser sounds alarm as idea that diversity is harmful becomes ‘mainstream view’

Two in five Britons believe Muslims cannot integrate into British society and more than half believe the country’s national identity is disappearing due to “diversity”, a report authored by a former government adviser on extremism has found.

Sara Khan, who stood down in 2024 as the UK’s first counter-extremism commissioner, said such views contrasted sharply with accompanying findings that showed 85% of Muslims “favour integration”.

Despite promises of successive governments, gap between richest and poorest areas consistent since 1997

Britain’s deep regional income divide has barely changed in 30 years despite the promises of successive governments to narrow the gap, according to a report showing the challenge for Andy Burnham.

As the prime minister-in-waiting prepares for government, the Resolution Foundation said almost no progress had been made since 1997 to tackle stark divisions in household income, before housing costs are taken into account, between the richest and poorest parts of the country.

Exclusive: Landmark review by disability minister will call for ‘dehumanising’ assessment system to be redrawn

• What is the Timms review into Pip and what is it likely to conclude?

Disability benefits in England and Wales are “not fit for purpose” and the entire assessment system must be redrawn as part of a radical welfare overhaul, the government’s landmark review of personal independence payments will say.

The Guardian understands the review will conclude that the points-based system of assessment is in effect worthless because of the rising number of new conditions – particularly relating to mental health – that can fluctuate considerably in severity.

The golden rule of football? Never write off Lionel Messi. Just when it looked like his dream of leading Argentina to the bicampeonato was in tatters, the 39-year-old came to his country’s rescue for the umpteenth time in spectacular fashion.

With 11 minutes to play and still reeling from Yasser Ibrahim’s early header and a second from Mostafa Ziko – named after the Brazil legend – Lionel Scaloni’s side were heading for the mother of all upsets against Egypt. Mostafa Shobeir – whose father, Ahmed, was the Pharaohs’ goalkeeper at the 1990 World Cup and whose time-wasting tactics against the Republic of Ireland resulted in the introduction of the back-pass rule two years later – seemed set to write a more positive chapter in his family’s history after a brilliant performance that saw him repel everything that the world champions could throw at him.

Man flown from France as part of legal entry programme decries effect on others ‘who may have a similar case’

An asylum seeker brought to the UK by the Home Office has said it feels unjust that he was allowed into the country only because someone else was deported.

The individual benefited from the “one in” part of the controversial “one in, one out” scheme, where one asylum seeker who reached the UK on a small boat is forcibly returned to France in exchange for another being brought legally to Britain.

UK consumer group says lives are at risk because platforms fail to prevent dangerous items reaching customers

Babies are being put at risk by dozens of potentially lethal infant products sold to UK parents on major online marketplaces, an investigation has found.

The consumer champion Which? identified 150 products, including self-feeding prop feeders that pose a choking risk and baby sleep pillows linked to suffocation.

Shoppers urged to seek quality products or alternatives as data shows demand surpassing least year’s total

Britons are expected to buy nearly 8m mini fans this year as they are “surging on to the market” in the hot weather – but almost half of those are expected to be low-quality products that end up in landfill within a year.

Waste managers and recycling campaigners have raised concerns as the number of online searches for electrically powered handheld fans, which sell for as little as £2, has already surpassed that seen in the whole of 2025 in the first six months of this year.

Growing number of farm outposts using violence to seize territory, a process seemingly enabled by radical elements in Netanyahu’s government

The attack in Ein Arik came in the middle of the night and was aimed at the rudiments of life: the earth, water, roots and seedlings.

Ilham Karajeh awoke on Friday last week to find her family allotment raided and ruined. The thin black irrigation pipes had been sliced, grape vines cut and 70 young olive trees, the embodiment of the family’s aspirations for the future, had been uprooted.

In the fifth of a series on nationalisation, we look at utilities – including the cost of ending private ownership

• Will Burnham ‘go big’ in expanding the role of the state?

• Atlee: the postwar blueprint that inspires Burnham

• How council housebuilding is central to Burnham’s vision

• How Burnham aims to shake up UK transport

When the former Undertones frontman turned campaigner Feargal Sharkey backed Keir Starmer for prime minister in 2024, he hoped that the Labour leader would be the man to clean up Britain’s polluted rivers and bring the water industry into public ownership – starting with troubled Thames Water.

Two years later, Sharkey has been disappointed. Now he is hoping that Andy Burnham will begin the job when he is confirmed as prime minister.

Europe’s longest and most dramatic canyon is replete with exotic wildlife, including kingfishers and beavers, ruined castles and architectural oddities

We’re sipping chestnut kir on a terrace overlooking the Tarn River in southern France when we hear excited voices from the table beside us: “Regards! C’est un castor!” Below us, a beaver the length of my leg is languidly swimming upstream. We don’t need our binoculars because the Tarn is so clean that almost every fish, frog, pebble and ribbon of weed can be seen with the naked eye, magnified by the clarity of the water. This meandering, jade-green river – which winds from its source in the Cévennes national park to Moissac, just north of Toulouse – is home to trout, perch, carp, otters, frogs, toads, kingfishers and herons. We add “beavers” to our list.

Above us, huge vultures have been drifting all day, cruising the thermals in groups of nine or 10. And when our eyes haven’t been on the river or the sky, they have been welded to the many orchids on the bank: including monkey, bee, military, butterfly, pyramidal and fragrant orchids. Later, we discover that 30 varieties have been recorded in this orchid hotspot.

From heads of state to foot-kissing knights, Hollywood romcoms to sex, a fascinating story of the gesture that for centuries has brought people together

If, on a European holiday, you get flustered greeting people – should you kiss? how many times? – spare a thought for Dutch theologian Desiderius Erasmus. Visiting England in 1499, he found a nation of enthusiastic kissers. “Wherever you go, you are received on all hands with kisses; when you take leave you are dismissed with kisses,” he wrote in surprise, or possibly, alarm. On the continent, the fashion for greeting with a peck on the lips had long fallen by the wayside (probably because of sexual propriety), but the English held firm. It didn’t matter if the other person was of the opposite sex, everyone puckered up.

Whether you like to snog, smooch, suck face or osculate (the scientific term), kissing seems so natural and instinctive, it’s hard to imagine it having a history at all. But just as kissing is not seen in all cultures, so, historian of emotions Katie Barclay writes, its meanings have changed across time too. From foot-kissing knights to baby-kissing politicians, to the “shut-up kiss” of Hollywood romcoms, this rich and fascinating history reminds us that kissing is, and always has been, a contested public gesture as well as a private pleasure.

London Palladium
The Eurovision star leads a glittery production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s blockbuster but this booming show lacks context and clarity

This amped-up version of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock opera is presented by the same triumvirate who near enough blew the critics – and crowds – to heaven with their 2016 revival. Tim Sheader is again director, designer Tom Scutt’s set has a similar scaffold structure (but with some audience members standing around it this time) and Drew McOnie is once more the choreographer.

The production, in spirit, goes back not just to the first century when Jesus of Nazareth rises to become an inspiring preacher, radical tearaway and thorn in the side of the temple clerics, but also to the 1970s era of hippy-dom and flower power from which the original show arose.

As a child, enduring break after break, I thought of myself as simply unlucky. Truth was, I needed to tune in to my aches, pains and well-founded fears

It was the first day of spring this year. I was topless, face-down on a foldaway travel table, as the masseuse uttered six words that brought my attempt at relaxation to an abrupt end: “I think your arm is haunted.”

I have broken my right arm seven times: seven breaks on seven separate occasions. Some years, my arm was in a sling more than it was out of one. The novelty of getting your mates to cover your cast in that 00s grafitti “S” and the relief of missing the bleep test at school quickly wore off.

⚽ All the latest as we look ahead to the quarter-finals
⚽ Player guide | Bracketology| Golden Boot | Email us

Greetings everyone. Welcome to the kind of day we’ve not had for four weeks – a day with no World Cup football! Time to finally tackle that pile of plates in the sink, that layer of dust on all work surfaces, that sock drawer. Or you could just stare blankly at the screen until the quarter-finals start on Thursday, or talk about it all here.

And we now know the identity of all those quarter-finalists after one of those days that all World Cups have – a thriller around which swirl rancour and accusations of bias towards big teams/players, followed by a frustrating, deadening 0-0 in which the side that missed the most presentable chances in 120 minutes inevitably lose the shootout. So commiserations Colombia and Egypt, and congratulations Switzerland – in their first quarter-final for 72 years – and Argentina.

The suspension of the USA striker’s red card after Trump’s intervention has shown what Gianni Infantino’s organisation is trying to turn the sport into: scripted entertainment

Frites 4 Cheats 1. Tintin 4 Tonto 1. Some good news here, perhaps. It seems Gianni Infantino was right after all. Football has united the world. Mainly football has united the world in gleeful satisfaction at the USA exiting its own World Cup tournament as soon as possible following the great and glorious Donald Trump Mr-Fix-It intervention.

This was the tone of the immediate global reaction to the USA’s invertebrate defeat in Seattle on Monday night, soundly beaten by a righteous and highly motivated Belgium: land of beer, waffles and sporting vigilante justice. Ghent 4 Bent 1. Antwerp 4 A twerp 1. Mayonnaise 4 May-have-interfered-in-due-process 1. I can go on. How long have you got?

Davinson Sánchez looked to the heavens. Cucho Hernández trudged back to his teammates. By the end, the pair’s penalty misses sent the Colombian team to the grass in anguish as Switzerland danced in front of their supporters, nearly alone in a sea of yellow. Switzerland had prevailed on penalties, 4-3, Ruben Vargas’s decider bringing an emotional end to more than two hours of tense, tentative, and ludicrously goal-free football in the World Cup last 16.

Switzerland advance to the quarter-finals for the first time since 1954, when that stage was the first in the knockout round of a Swiss-hosted tournament featuring a total of 16 teams. They will face a tall task to better that result, facing Lionel Messi and Argentina in Kansas City in four days’ time.

The 2022 semi-finalists have delighted fans at home as the continent’s other sides struggle with off-field problems

Over the past six decades, Morocco have achieved several performance milestones for Africa at the World Cup. The first country to qualify directly, for the 1970 finals in Mexico, they returned in 1986 and became the first team from the continent to make the last 16, then made that impressive semi-final run in Qatar four years ago.

Even if the Atlas Lions fail to match their 2022 performance, by losing to France on Thursday , they have made tournament history as the first African team to reach the quarter-finals at successive World Cups.

Plus: national team colours that are different from flags; Senegal’s goal difference record setters; and Scotland’s unbeaten 1974 tournament

• Mail us with your all of your questions and answers

“Neymar’s consolation penalty against Norway at the World Cup means his first international goal, scored on his first cap, was in the same stadium (MetLife) as his last international goal on his final cap,” writes Griffin Cant. “Are there any other players who have bookended their international career in a similar way?”

Over 77,000 people were at the MetLife Stadium on 10 August 2010 as Neymar made his Brazil bow in a friendly against the USA. The fresh-faced, dodgy-haircutted 18-year-old scored after just 28 minutes, a thumping header past Tim Howard in the USA goal. Nearly 16 years later, he rolled his penalty – his 80th goal for his country on his 130th appearance – past Norway’s Ørjan Nyland at the same end of the stadium as Brazil exited the World Cup in the last 16 and followed it by announcing his retirement from international duty.

A legal case on behalf of some 700,000 people against the country’s biggest housebuilders could be a catalyst for much-needed industry reform

Every new government – at least for the past decade or so – has come into office with a promise to build more homes. New ministers don a hard hat, take a trip out to a recently completed development and smile indulgently as a bright young couple get given the keys to a smart-looking new-build. Then follows a speech about aspiration.

The unspoken truth will be that it is not up to the minister how many new homes are built in his or her term. Instead, this decision is mostly made in the boardrooms of the largest developers, who together control the land and resources to dominate the market in this country.

Peter Apps is the author of Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen

The Reform UK leader’s ruse to head off scrutiny by forcing a byelection may work, but it’s all about him: no one else gains anything from it

Most people who closely follow British politics probably know the basics about Jaywick, an enclave of Clacton, on the Essex coast. A sprawling tangle of tracks, paths and old holiday shacks repurposed as permanent homes, it has been ranked as England’s poorest area several times since 2011, most recently in October last year.

I first visited in 2014, during the byelection campaign that would see the former Tory Douglas Carswell – remember him? – chosen as the UK Independence party’s first MP. “Look at us,” one man told me. “We’re a backwater no one gives a shit about.” He was one of many Nigel Farage fans I spoke to; in 2024, when local people elected the Reform leader as Clacton’s new MP, many presumably did so with hopes of Jaywick’s neglect coming to an end. I suspect, unfortunately, that Farage’s extra-parliamentary earnings and international gallivanting have rather been giving them the impression that Jaywick remains a backwater no one gives a shit about.

The Reform leader was determined to fight for the right to receive gifts from Thai crypto billionaires and convicted fraudsters

It’s the heavyweight contest of the year. The Establishment v the Establishment. Or as the former City worker who is given £5m trifles would like you to see it, Nigel Farage versus the Establishment. Yes, Nige has had enough and he’s not taking it any more.

He is the People’s Nige. The man who chose to resign as an MP and call a byelection as a matter of principle. And that principle is the right to receive gifts from a Thai crypto billionaire and benefits in kind from a convicted fraudster without declaring them.

It had seemed as if the Duke of Sussex’s visit to London could be a breakthrough in relations with his father. But not any more

Perhaps because it involves kings and princes, we can be forgiven for hoping that they were going to live happily ever after in the end, like in a fairytale. Unfortunately, this is real life.

Bearing in mind that the royal family are strangers, that despite all the whispers and briefings and rumours, we really don’t have any idea of what is going on behind closed palace doors, it’s almost comical how invested we are. And yet, this week, when news emerged that Charles had offered Harry the opportunity to stay at Buckingham Palace during his first trip to London with his wife and children in four years, it felt like a wonderful breakthrough. Finally, a glimmer of possibility that this sorry state of affairs between them could maybe be … if not entirely mended, at least taped over for a while, so they could spend some time together.

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.

Joy is unbounded and when it dies down perhaps the guilty will be held to account for cheating and facilitation: perhaps they won’t. Still, enjoy the moment

Oh dear. Such a shame to see the US lose at football after their insanely embarrassing president cheated for them. Still, it really brought the world together. The last time this many people cheered on a Belgian resistance, it was 1914 and the Germans had just crossed the Meuse. As you’ll be aware, the USA were dumped out of their own World Cup on Monday night by a wholly superior Belgium, after Donald Trump boasted that he’d personally intervened in three phone calls with Fifa president Gianni Infantino to get the red card shown to USA striker Folarin Balogun rescinded. Yes, the US cheats at football. Pass it on.

You’ve heard a lot about shithousery during this tournament. We have even, excruciatingly, seen a few American commentators attempt to use the word in conversation. Guys, please, just – no. It’s not for you. You have ’erbs, “a couple things”, and “a ways to go”. But let’s call the events of the past few days by the name they deserve in all the languages of the world: Whitehousery.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Marina Hyde’s new book, What a Time to Be Alive!, is out in September (Guardian Faber Publishing, £20). To support the Guardian, order your signed copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

Defence strategists fret about the next PM’s inexperience. But he knows about local resilience. That’s the kind of skill Nato urgently needs

I recently asked a senior Labour figure what Andy Burnham’s defence agenda might look like. “He doesn’t really have one,” came the reply – offered not so much as a criticism of the UK’s prime minister in waiting, as a statement of fact. Given that Keir Starmer’s resignation came after a mutiny within his own government over inadequate defence spending, some may view Burnham’s lack of direct defence experience as a worrying liability.

But beyond the UK, Starmer was at least viewed as a statesman for his commitment to the defence of Ukraine. Leaders in western Europe’s other capitals may now fear that Starmer’s untested successor will be more focused on “No 10 North” than on Nato and European security.

Jessica Berlin is a strategy adviser and a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis

The company’s target to hit £1bn profitability is intact. Why isn’t the board putting up a proper fight?

Some foreign takeover swoops on UK listed companies are easier to swallow than others. Sometimes it is hard to mount an argument that shareholders should stick to the virtuous path of independence and say no to an offer of hard cash at a fat premium. The current £10bn bid for Intertek, the FTSE 100 product testing and quality inspection firm that had been going sideways for a while, probably falls into that category. The bid premium on that one was about 60%.

EasyJet, on other hand, looks to be a case of a board giving up before it has put up a proper fight. The story so far at the budget airline is that three non-starter offers from Castlelake, a US private investment firm that is big in aircraft financing and leasing, were rejected in the standard manner as “fundamental” undervaluations. The last of those was at 625p. A fourth, at 650p a share, was dismissed in the softer language of “substantial”. Then “an agreement in principle” was reached at the weekend at 690p, or £5.5bn. Castlelake has until 3 August to put up or shut up.

The Reform UK leader wants voters to overrule parliamentary accountability. Labour should expose the trick, then offer a politics that works

Nigel Farage, Brexit’s snake-oil salesman, is at it again. The Reform UK leader is under investigation over whether he broke parliamentary rules by failing to disclose a £5m gift from a crypto billionaire shortly before announcing he would stand for parliament. He now faces questions over claims that George Cottrell, a Montenegro-based convicted criminal and longtime associate, helped fund his security and social media operation before the 2024 general election. MPs are required to declare potentially relevant gifts or donations received in the 12 months before entering parliament. Purely personal gifts do not need to be registered.

Rather than wait for the exoneration he insists is inevitable, Mr Farage says he will resign as MP for Clacton and stand again. He hopes to pull in the crowds like a carnival barker. His argument is a con: that the “establishment” should not judge him over million-pound gifts; only the voters should. But a byelection can decide only who represents Clacton. It cannot decide whether parliamentary rules were breached, whether donations or benefits were declarable, or whether electoral law was broken. That is up to parliamentary authorities and election regulators.

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.

Drugs and violence continue at disturbing levels. But a minority of jails show that progress is possible

Prisons in England and Wales are in an appalling state. In his last annual report before stepping down, Charlie Taylor, the head of the prisons watchdog, highlights good practice where it exists. One example is a strengthened focus on reading in some jails. Another is the work done to improve staff-prisoner relationships at HMP Low Newton, County Durham. But the overwhelming impression made by the document, published on Tuesday, is of profound and shocking failure.

The criteria on which inspectors judge prisons are safety, respect, preparation for release and purposeful activity. This serves as a useful reminder of what they are for. Unfortunately, they are failing on all fronts and especially the last. Only two men’s prisons out of 35 were judged as offering “good” work and education. In most places budgets and classes have been cut and attendance is poor. Even a gritty drama such as the BBC’s Waiting for the Out could be considered rose-tinted when compared with some real jails. In a survey for the inspectorate, 34% of male prisoners reported spending more than 22 hours a day locked in their cells.

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.

Solar, wind and water | French connection | Gianni Infantino | ‘Good athlete’ Trump | USA 1 Belgium 4

Your article (Why can’t Britain turn its green revolution into cheap energy? A visual analysis, 4 July) was an informative overview, yet I saw no mention of water power. If we are serious about building a resilient, low-carbon energy system, wave power, tidal power and hydroelectricity deserve to be part of the conversation alongside wind and solar.
Veronica-Mae Soar
Oldland, Gloucestershire

• Re your article (Mobile internet coverage in UK worse than any EU or G7 country, Which? says, 6 July), glancing at my mobile in the Square and Compass pub in Worth Matravers, a stone’s throw from Dorset cliffs, service is provided by Bouygues Telecom (France). Cherbourg is 58 nautical miles away.
Gill Scott
London

Richard Blows responds to an article by Tom Usher and recalls an evening that ended on a roof rack

Tom Usher and the British Medical Journal are surely correct that idiocy is a peculiarly male trait (Farewell to Jackass, the finest catalogue of male idiocy – it could only go on for so long, 4 July). Just reading the article made me laugh and reminded me that when my wife and I met, she could not understand how I could watch Jackass and cry with laughter at the madness of it. She remains bemused at my response to similar content on the internet.

The article also brought back to mind my one proper, fleeting act of idiocy. When much younger, our “designated driver” decided after a night in the pub that we should liven up the journey home. Our ride was a small red van with everyone (all male) piled in the back (probably not very sensible) and a frame roof rack.

Sara Robertson, Raisa McNab and John Worne fear that Britain risks becoming a monolingual island in a multilingual world. Plus letters from Dr Darren Paffey, Janet Fraser and Ilona Marchant

News that the University of Exeter is planning to cut 150 jobs (Fury over Exeter University plan to scrap dozens of humanities posts, 1 July), with a disproportionate threat to the teaching of humanities, is only the latest in a series of blows to the teaching of modern languages in the UK.

When universities close language departments, they reduce the pipeline of teachers, which further reduces school provision, leading to fewer students being able to study languages at university. Plus, regional closures disproportionately affect students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are more likely to study locally.

Readers respond to an article by George Monbiot about rightwing denial and call for government action

I agree with George Monbiot that newspaper articles dismissing concern about today’s increasingly hot weather with fond memories of the 1976 heatwave are unhelpful (When the right denies the true danger of heatwaves, ask yourself this: whose children’s lives is it willing to risk?, 1 July). While many rightwing writers remember “just getting on with things and enjoying the sun” during their childhood, what they neglect to mention is that data shows up to 26,364 deaths were recorded between 23 June and 8 July 1976 – 3,676 more than the previous five‑year average for the same dates.

The way that deaths increase during heatwaves, as we have seen repeatedly during the 21st century, is no coincidence. Temperature extremes exacerbate chronic conditions, including cardiovascular, respiratory and cerebrovascular diseases, mental health and diabetes-related conditions. The heat is a particular danger not just to children but also to elderly people, especially those living alone, and is an additional burden on pregnant women too.

• Novak Djokovic wins 7-6 (10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4)

• Serb lauds ‘one of the best matches in my career’

On Monday night The Odyssey, ­Christopher Nolan’s three-hour epic about one man’s heroic quest, had its world premiere in London. And 24 hours later at Wimbledon, 15,000 fans on Centre Court witnessed a tennis equivalent. A ­rugged hero: Novak Djokovic. A mighty quest: the hunt for a record-breaking 25th grand slam title. There was an injury scare. Multiple shifts in momentum. And ­numerous times where the ­Centre Court crowd stood up and started punching the air at what they were watching.

It amounted to pure box office. And after five hours and 15 ­minutes of extraordinary tennis, it was ­Djokovic who was again left standing after defeating Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6 (10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4).

• British wildcard takes on in-form Flavio Cobolli

• ‘I’m not going to change anything now – it’s working’

Arthur Fery said he won’t change a thing before the biggest match of his career on Wednesday, sticking strictly to the winning formula that has fuelled his fairytale Wimbledon run to the quarter-finals.

“I’m just going to stick to what I’ve been doing, just keep believing in myself, not letting go of matches, and we’ll see where that takes me,” Fery said. “I’m not going to change anything now. It’s working, I feel good.”

• Losses increase between 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons

• Transfer spend and lack of one-off sales account for rise

The combined pre-tax losses of Premier League clubs climbed from £135m in the 2023-24 season to £948m in 2024-25, according to Deloitte’s annual review of football finance.

This rise was attributed by Deloitte to transfer spending and the absence of significant profits from one-off sales. Net debt of Premier League clubs was up to £3.6bn in 2024-25, compared to £3.5bn the season before, Deloitte found.

• Former general manager says players ‘deserved better’

• Coach Morgan says he did not raise concerns with HR

Sheffield United let Maddy Cusack down and the women’s team’s transition from part-time to full-time status in the summer of 2023 was not “managed in the way that it should have been”, an inquest into Cusack’s death has been told.

Ian McCallum, general manager of the women’s team between February 2023 and the end of the 2022-23 season on a short-term basis, also told the court that the club had been “slightly naive about what needed to be in place” for full-time women’s football and that a “talented group of players deserved better”. McCallum said his frustration at the club’s approach to the women’s game had “played a part” in his decision to leave the role in the summer of 2023.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

• Third T20i: England, 201-7, beat India, 76, by 125 runs

• Hosts lead five-match series 2-0 with two to play

India tried to make hay, and succeeded in making history. They have never lost a T20 like this, not even nearly. England prevailed by the ludicrous margin of 125 runs, fully 45 more than their opponents’ previous record defeat, after shredding the most feared batting side in world cricket for just 76 runs and in fewer than a dozen overs.

“It was atrocious,” the India captain, Shreyas Iyer, said. “We played awful cricket.” And their innings had started so well.

• Norwegian was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2022

• Træen builds eight-minute lead on Pogacar in Foix

Emergency measures were implemented by the Tour de France organisers to combat the crushing heatwave that has settled on the race this year as the riders tackled stage four, at the end of which the cancer survivor Torstein Træen had stolen the yellow jersey and built an eight-minute lead on the four-time champion Tadej Pogacar.

The peloton was fried by 40C-plus conditions over 181 gruelling kilometres and four categorised climbs as they raced towards Foix through the Aude and Ariège regions.

• Suspension had been imposed after invasion of Ukraine

• Decision on Russian anthem and flag still unclear

The International Olympic Committee has lifted its suspension on Russia, paving the way for Russian teams to return to the Olympic fold before the Los Angeles 2028 Games.

Russia has been banned from competing at the Olympics under its own flag since 2016 because of state-sponsored doping offences and then the invasion of Ukraine. However, the IOC’s executive board has invited the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) back in from the cold after accepting that it no longer controlled sporting bodies in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

High court dismisses claims by group including Duke of Sussex that Mail publisher used unlawful methods to source stories about them

Prince Harry and six other prominent figures are facing a legal bill of up to £50m after losing their case against the publisher of the Daily Mail over claims it used unlawful methods to source stories.

In an emphatic ruling that is likely to signal an end to new litigation relating to the phone-hacking scandal era, the high court dismissed all the group’s claims, stating that the claimants had not proved that any information had been obtained unlawfully.

The test, which is being trialled by two NHS trusts, could replace the transvaginal ultrasound scan in some cases

Thousands of women could be spared having a painful intrusive exam for suspected cancer thanks to a new AI-powered blood test being trialled by the NHS.

Around 90,000 postmenopausal women a year in England are referred by their GP to be investigated for possible womb cancer because they are bleeding a lot.

President also threatens to pull all American troops from Europe and rails against Nato stance on Iran war

Donald Trump has revived his bid for the US to acquire Greenland, threatening to pull all American armed forces out of Europe after the continent repeatedly pushed back.

Arriving at the Nato summit in Ankara on Tuesday, the US president also suggested his commitment to defending Europe had been tempered by political decisions by leaders on immigration and energy.

French far-right leader announces decision after court orders her to wear ankle tag over embezzlement

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has announced she will run for the presidency in 2027 and will lodge an appeal to France’s highest court over her sentence to wear an electronic ankle tag for the embezzlement of European parliament funds.

“Tonight, I am a candidate in the presidential election,” Le Pen, 57, told TF1 television on Tuesday night.

Lawrence Bishnoi, who is in prison in India, is accused of orchestrating the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023

US authorities have announced charges against the leader of an Indian criminal group in connection with the political assassination of a prominent Sikh activist in Canada – a high-profile killing that strained diplomatic relations between Canada and India at the time.

Lawrence Bishnoi – the imprisoned head of an Indian criminal gang - and his childhood friend Satinderjeet Singh, are accused of orchestrating the assassination of a well-known Sikh independence activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was fatally shot outside a temple where he served as president in 2023. Bishnoi is in custody, but Singh has not been apprehended.

Scientists call for better land management alongside reduction in greenhouse gases causing the crisis

When storm after storm battered the Mediterranean at the start of the year, drowning fields and sending water spurting from plug sockets, few people were fretting about fires.

But just four months later, the murky brown floods that swamped towns and fouled homes across western Europe have given way to angry red blazes and choking black smoke. Rampant wildfires burned 28,000 hectares (69,160 acres) in France and 50,000 hectares in Spain as of 1 July, more than double the average for that time of year, and more land has been charred by bigger fires in the week since.

New Economics Foundation and Finance Innovation Lab suggest loan scheme backed by Bank of England could benefit up to 8m homes

Millions of UK households could save hundreds of pounds a year on their energy bills if the government were to approve low-cost loans for solar panel installation, research has found.

Solar panels with batteries are one of the cheapest ways to generate electricity and reduce energy bills, but with an upfront cost of about £6,000 they are still beyond the reach of most cash-strapped UK households while other countries forge ahead with installation.

Net-zero pledges of Google and Amazon slip out of reach, and struggling Meta makes frantic moves

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, the Guardian’s US tech editor, writing to you after a rodeo in rural Texas, where I celebrated Independence Day. Today in tech, we’re discussing how tech giants’ investments in AI are hindering their pledges of climate neutrality, Meta’s frantic search for new lines of business, and Americans’ anger at tech’s political influence.

Revealed: landmark Scottish AI project has no prospect of meeting renewables promise

US residents angry at datacenters ‘being shoved down our throats’ are recalling officials

Americans disgusted at Trump earning $1bn from crypto as president: ‘Obviously a grift’

Tesla sales surpass expectations for second quarter as Musk backlash seems to cool

3,000% bonuses but a growing wealth divide: South Korea grapples with its AI chip boom

China wants to solve the hardest problem in robotics – making hands

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

The scientific consensus is that burning fossil fuels drives the climate crisis, yet the world’s biggest oil companies are planning to increase production

As the world swelters in ever more dangerous heat, why are oil companies being allowed to turn up the gas instead of paying for the consequences of their greed?

That ought to be the question on everyone’s minds amid baking heat domes over much of the northern hemisphere, temperature records being smashed day after day, children dying in locked cars, hospitals filling with heatstroke victims and emergency services tackling wildfires.

Exclusive: health groups call on expected next PM to rip up agreement, which analysis suggests could lead to 229,000 excess deaths by 2036

Andy Burnham is being urged to scrap the UK-US trade deal on medicines as health organisations and doctors’ groups warn it is dangerous and prioritises pharmaceutical company profits over the lives of NHS patients.

Ministers have defended the agreement, signed last December, as a way of helping British drug exports to the US avoid tariffs and giving patients access to potentially life-extending drugs that would otherwise be denied.

Anonymous gift of nine Britannia coins worth nearly £30,000 was discovered in a bag beneath the altar

Unable to raise the £750,000 needed for urgent repairs, St Wilfrid’s church in the town of Melling, Lancashire, looked likely to shut its doors after more than 700 years.

But on Good Friday the church was saved from closure by the discovery, in a plastic bag hidden under the altar, of a box with nine gold Britannia coins worth nearly £30,000.

There will be an increased police presence in and around the area to support the investigation.

A murder investigation has been launched after a mother and her two children were found dead at a property near Bedford.

Bedfordshire police said they believed that the suspect, who was known to the victims, had fled the country.

Desks offering gift wrapping and bureau de change stations will be closed at dozens of stores nationwide

John Lewis has put 200 jobs at risk as it plans to shut down desks operating gift wrapping and foreign exchange services.

The 36-strong department store chain said it had begun a consultation on redundancies as it plans to close the desks that operate bureau de change services in 30 stores, and specialist gift wrapping in 25 stores.

Early flight data showed the K2 Airways plane with five crew on board possibly crashed into the sea ⁠southwest of Karachi

A Pakistan-registered Boeing 737 cargo plane with five crew members on board lost contact with air traffic control on ⁠Tuesday night after reporting a navigational ⁠system problem on ​its way to Karachi, Pakistan aviation authorities said.

Early flight data indicated the 27-year-old converted freighter operated by K2 Airways from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates possibly crashed into the sea ⁠southwest of Karachi after a series of sharp altitude changes, before a steep final descent, according to flight-tracking service Flightradar24.

Two people injured in Kyiv attack, while early strike on southern port of ​Odesa ​injured 10. What we know on day 1,596

Ukrainian drones have attacked a dozen tankers from Russia’s “shadow fleet” over the past two days that were delivering fuel to Crimea, Kyiv’s military said, as it intensifies efforts to isolate the Russian-occupied peninsula. Ukraine’s drone forces said they had struck eight vessels subject to sanctions in the Sea of Azov, each with a deadweight of about 7,000 metric tons. Two more tankers were hit later in the day, they added.

Ukraine’s capital ⁠Kyiv came ⁠under ​a Russian missile attack early on Wednesday, ⁠triggering fires and injuring at least two people, the city’s mayor, ⁠Vitali Klitschko, said. Klitschko ‌said strikes ‌in the capital caused ‌a fire in a storage area and a non-residential building. Two people were injured, with one ​requiring treatment in hospital. The air alert lasted for about an hour. The latest onslaught comes after Russian strikes – including multiple missile hits on Kyiv – killed 30 people in Ukraine on Monday.

A missile strike ⁠in the southern port of ​Odesa ​earlier in the ​evening injured 10 people, ​the regional ‌governor, Oleh ​Kiper, said. ​Eight were being treated in hospital.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made a fresh appeal for his country to be allowed to join Nato, saying his country’s armed forces are highly experienced and would boost the alliance’s defense capabilities. He highlighted Ukraine’s ability to strike deep inside Russia and hit oil refineries and other energy targets. He said Ukraine’s armed forces were “eliminating” on average 30,000 Russian troops every month. He is to meet with the US president, Donald Trump, on Wednesday in Ankara. “Frankly, we take no pride in this,” Zelenskyy said, noting that the war with Russia – now in its fifth year – is one “we did not seek but one we are forced to fight.”

When asked about his meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump said he had spoken to the Ukrainian president and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, before the ‌Nato summit about ending the war. “I think they both want to make a deal. It’s too bad it took so long … Something’s going to come out,” Trump said before the summit. “They both want to get it settled now.”

Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Ukraine had signed three more “drone ⁠deals” with Denmark, Estonia and the Netherlands, making available its expertise gained from more than ⁠four years of ⁠war ​with Russia. Ukraine has developed a highly sophisticated drone industry after having only ​limited expertise in the ‌sector when Russia invaded ‌its smaller neighbour in February 2022. The deals are unique to each country, but typically involve Kyiv providing blueprints for drone technology in exchange for royalties, investments and other military hardware.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry denounced ⁠as “troubling” the International Olympic ⁠Committee’s decision to ⁠lift ​the Russian Olympic Committee’s suspension and urged ⁠both countries and international sports bodies to ⁠maintain restrictions on Russian participation ​and ‌use of ‌state symbols. “The IOC’s decision ‌to cancel the recommendations on limiting Russian athletes’ participation is a troubling signal for the entire international ‌community,” the ministry said in a statement. It called ​on countries hosting competitions to uphold a ban on Russian state symbols ⁠as “under this flag an ​unprovoked ​war is continuing in ​Ukraine.”

Péter Magyar hails ‘end of propaganda broadcasts’ as Kossuth radio and M1 TV channels suspend transmission

Hungarian public media outlets close to Viktor Orbán have suspended broadcasting, the country’s prime minister said as he hailed efforts to dismantle the longtime nationalist leader’s control over information.

Péter Magyar, who ousted Orbán in a landslide election victory in April, wrote on Facebook: “A historic day. Today marks the end of propaganda broadcasts on public media platforms. They lied at night, they lied during the day, they lied on every wavelength. That is now over.”

Varenna’s authorities say wandering around the village shirtless or in swimwear is now banned

A fishing village by Lake Como has imposed fines of up to €200 (£170) for people who wander around with bare chests or in swimwear, in the latest attempt by an Italian holiday destination to crack down on uncouth tourists.

Varenna has been feeling the strain from an increasing number of visitors and so authorities were moved to introduce new rules aimed at preserving the village’s appearance and guaranteeing a smidgen of peace and quiet for its year-round population of roughly 650.

Retailer admits it struggled in June heatwave and also had to order more ice-cream to keep pace with demand

Marks & Spencer is investing in refrigeration equipment that can cope with weather as hot as 45C as the climate crisis is expected to drive regularly higher temperatures in the UK.

“There is no doubt we were struggling in the nine days of [recent] extreme heat,” Stuart Machin, the chief executive of the food, fashion, beauty and homewares retailer, told shareholders at the group’s annual meeting in London on Tuesday.

Forecaster says curtailing rising costs such as health and pensions ‘are today’s challenge, not just tomorrow’s’

Policymakers must act to prevent public debt rising unsustainably in coming decades as the population ages and defence spending rises, the government’s independent economic forecaster has said.

In a fresh illustration of the challenges facing the prime minister in waiting, Andy Burnham, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said that without government action “debt would move on to what would be an unsustainable, ever-upward path from around the 2040s”.

Central bank’s financial policy committee members voice concern on trimming big lenders’ financial buffers

The Bank of England is planning to loosen capital requirements for major UK lenders, even as policymakers expressed concern about the threat to financial stability from rapid AI developments and debt-fuelled stock investments.

The central bank said on Tuesday it was looking to remove and loosen some rules introduced after the 2008 financial crisis that determine the size of the financial cushion required to absorb losses and protect consumers and taxpayers when things go wrong.

Group of 100 investors still discussing £10bn rescue proposal with officials from regulator Ofwat, says report

Thames Water’s creditors are willing to pursue their bid for the debt-laden company even if the probable next prime minister, Andy Burnham, brings it into temporary nationalisation.

The group of 100 institutional investors, which hold about £14bn of Thames’s senior debt, are still discussing a £10bn rescue proposal for the struggling company with officials from the regulator Ofwat, and they have held meetings in recent days.

The author of Orangeboy, Indigo Donut and Is That Your Mama? plans to use her two-year term to ensure children isolated from reading get involved

When Patrice Lawrence got the call asking her to become the UK’s next children’s laureate, her first response was disbelief. “I was in absolute shock,” she says, laughing. She is only just beginning to process what it means to join a lineage that includes Jacqueline Wilson, Quentin Blake, Michael Rosen, Julia Donaldson, Malorie Blackman and, most recently, Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

“So many people who’ve gone before have had such an influence on my life,” she says. “Without Jacqueline Wilson, I wouldn’t write the kind of books that I do. She was such a trailblazer in social realism for children. And Malorie … well, Malorie only needs one name.”

New Legally Blonde prequel Elle features a lovely appearance from the late Dawson’s Creek actor. Here are some of television’s other fantastic post-death appearances

Those watching Amazon’s Legally Blonde prequel series Elle were treated to a surprise recently, as the show offered a posthumous appearance by James Van Der Beek. The actor, who died in February aged 48, had a fun little role as a crooked school district superintendent. As with most of his roles since Dawson’s Creek, Van Der Beek’s performance was bright and happily self-aware.

However, Van Der Beek is far from the only actor to have appeared on screen after their death. Here are some other standout posthumous performances.

Six strangers are sent into a traditional Amish community to see how they will fare – and it all feels highly dubious. There’s so little insight in this show it’s borderline impressive

Reality TV always has to negotiate the L’Oréal eyelash problem, that’s the thing. Do you remember the 2007 controversy or do you have a life and I need to explain? OK. The beauty brand was hauled over the coals after an advert for their “telescopic” mascara, starring Penélope Cruz, claimed that it offered 60% longer lashes. This, the ASA found, suggested actual growth rather than the optical illusion the product provided. Also, Cruz was wearing individual false lashes to fill in gaps (standard industry practice, L’Oréal said, to maintain the lash line under recording conditions) and this exaggerated the effect the product could achieve on natural lashes. L’Oréal was considered to have crossed the ineffable line between the amount of truth-bending that is an acceptable part of advertising into something like lying.

Reality TV now has to walk similar lines. How much shaping can it bear and still claim to be unscripted? How much manipulative editing can they get away with and how blatant can the setups to drive conflict be before it risks becoming contemptuous and an audience turns away?

Sumitra Peries’ 1978 film about teenage sisters and thwarted romance is laden with passions that can’t be spoken aloud

Here is a gem of South Asian cinema from 1978, by the Sri Lankan director and editor Sumitra Peries. With its lucid monochrome cinematography and calm, natural, unselfconscious performances, there is a freshness and warmth to this film. It is often on the brink of melodrama or soap opera, many shots having a tendency to slow zoom into the actors’ faces, and yet The Girls is in fact rather understated. A great deal of its poignancy resides in this very suppression of emotion. We are in a world of passions that can’t be spoken aloud. It is a story through whose entire running time I wistfully hoped for a happy ending, but that is what Peries ruthlessly withholds from her audience.

Kusum (Vasanthi Chathurani) is a studious, serious teen from a poor family with a scholarship to a very good school. Her father is seriously ill and her mother works hard to make ends meet. She has a rather tense, quarrelsome relationship with her sister Soma (Jenita Samaraweera), who is naughtier, flightier and always receiving letters from “pen pals” – boys. Kusum’s sobering story is triggered in flashback by the sight of a visiting local dignitary, the “divisional revenue officer”, being welcomed to her village.

The working-class lad who became a millionaire proposes a new annual tax. Plus: it’s 25 years of The Office. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Channel 4

Following the film’s premiere, critics are already calling the historical epic a best picture Oscar contender. Here’s what they had to say

The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s three-hour version of Homer’s epic poem, world premiered in London on Monday night, and critics who saw the film there and at early screenings in the US have been sharing their takes on one of the year’s most hotly anticipated films.

“Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is a colossal origin-myth story of postwar disillusion and a loss of innocence witnessed by the dead,” wrote the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, ahead of the reviews embargo lifting next Wednesday and next Friday’s worldwide release.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Collector of dream stories from across continent finds ‘surprising consistency’ in the way they are structured

A young woman discovers in a dream that she is responsible for the Holocaust and tries to come up with schemes to make amends – and then gets distracted by a business meeting. Another woman dreams she is being chased by murderers – and ends up chilling in front of the TV with them. A man gets to advise Emmanuel Macron on social policy – and talks to him about haircuts and dog training instead.

Dreams can turn our innermost fears and darkest fantasies into miniature dramas. But an anthology of recollected dreams harvested from online forums across Europe shows how the story arc of the subconscious often bends towards anticlimaxes.

This fantastical journey through family, folktales and a world beneath our feet is witty, uplifting and gorgeously written

Daniel Mason’s latest novel sees him return to the verdant New England landscape that so captivated readers of 2023’s acclaimed North Woods. This time, though, he hops the border from Massachusetts into Vermont – and effects a deeper shift in the process. Where North Woods was a foray into history, telling the tale of a house and its inhabitants over three centuries, in Country People Mason turns his attention to literature and mines the rich seams of text, from myths to Milton to Shakespeare to Tolstoy and all points in between, that make up his novel’s foundations. This is, at its core, a story about stories; a tale about the tales we tell each other, and our children, and ourselves.

It’s also a far simpler thing: the linear account of a year in the life of a contemporary family. On the surface, this might look like a step back from the scope and ambition of North Woods, which spooled out over hundreds of years in a polyphony of forms and voices. But if Country People teaches us anything, it’s that surfaces are only ever a fraction of what we’re dealing with – or, to borrow from one of its three, gloriously baroque epigraphs: “for every terrestrial stream, there run a thousand below the earth. For each pond, a hundred inner seas.” The book’s action is driven, in fact, by its characters’ compulsive need to dig deeper: to burrow into their physical and metaphorical landscapes for meaning, for inspiration, and on occasion just for the hell of it. Sometimes the digging in Country People is literal; often it’s metaphorical. And occasionally – well, occasionally, it turns out, the boundary between the two isn’t as solid as it might first appear.

A Financial Times journalist ponders the future of labour in world increasingly dominated by AI and automation

It’s never been easy to land and keep a decent job. But it feels like it’s getting harder. In June, the number of job vacancies in the UK fell to a five-year low; headlines warn of a looming AI-employment shock. What might the future of work look like – and who or what will shape its terms? In her new book, Sarah O’Connor goes looking for answers in the modern collision of artificial intelligence, automation, and human labour.

This clash between human and machine – and the fight to secure decent working conditions even as the pressure to maximise production mounts – is nothing new. Neither are concerns about the health risks of repetitive factory work or the loss of creative craftsmanship and independent judgment in the wake of mechanisation. O’Connor has been a reporter at the Financial Times for nearly two decades, and although We Are Not Machines looks to the future, many of the threats AI poses to workers’ dignity and safety look a lot like reconfigurations of old battles. The book takes its title from the signs striking Swedish miners carried in 1969 as they protested their employers’ new methods of monitoring their output. “Vi är ej maskiner”, their signs read: “We are not machines.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

V&A Dundee
When Kathryn Findlay and Eisaku Ushida joined forces, a sensual kind of architecture was born – resulting in a hairy blue pod in Tokyo and a starfish beach palace in Qatar

‘The future of architecture,” pronounced Salvador Dalí on meeting Le Corbusier in 1922, “will be soft and hairy.” Fast forward over 70 years to Tokyo, and his surrealist prophecy was the stimulus for the Soft and Hairy House, one of a series of startlingly expressive dwellings designed by the talented Scottish-Japanese architectural partnership of Kathryn Findlay and Eisaku Ushida. Melding diverse design cultures – Celtic coiling and Japanese “rawness” – overlaid by an interest in the natural world, as well as fractal geometries and chaos theory, the pair contrived a uniquely sensual and surreal architecture.

Completed in 1994, the Soft and Hairy House was based on a classic courtyard plan form, radically reworked for pre-millennial Tokyo, its softness accentuated by plumply rounded contours, its hairiness by a shaggy fringe of greenery embellishing the roof. A bright blue, porthole-percolated bathroom pod intruded into the courtyard like a giant fungal entity. The interior was suggestive of the glamorous dream space of a Hollywood star, with soft draperies and seductive lighting.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
Fans and cynics are putty in the boyband’s hands as the lads lark their way through a catalogue of tracks that ricochet from hard rap to buttery pop

The 2001 film Josie and the Pussycats is about America’s conflation of art and consumerism at the turn of the millennium. But it could just as easily be about the K-pop industrial complex, grinding out act after act to see what sticks (sometimes with a lack of care for the art or the artists). The film culminates with nefarious label execs selling branded headsets that broadcast subliminal advertising messages directly into fans’ brains.

It’s a film that comes to mind while watching BTS play their first UK show in seven years, an unbelievably enjoyable spectacle of pyro and panoptical staging, and the purest distillation of what makes a boyband precision-engineered to capture fans’ hearts. BTS are the biggest K-pop group in the world. With more than 40m albums sold, they have a fanbase so fervent it is called the Army. This is the band’s first tour since a three-year hiatus for each member to complete 18 months of compulsory military service – marked by a new album, Arirang – and it’s hailed by activations across the capital including a London Eye takeover. A cynical mind might think the in-the-round staging provides more opportunity to sell expensive pit tickets. A cynical mind might see the brands blacked out on the water bottles onstage and think … “clearly Fiji Water didn’t cough up sponsorship”. A cynical mind might behold the light-up “Army Bomb sticks” wielded by the crowd and think … “are those mind-control devices?”

TV writer who created the 1970s police drama The Sweeney and later worked on Juliet Bravo and The Chinese Detective

The writer Ian Kennedy Martin, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 90, created one of British television’s most realistic, groundbreaking television police dramas. With action shot on the streets of London, the 1970s series The Sweeney featured screeching tyres, punch-ups, officers who could be as violent as the criminals, and lines such as: “Get yer trousers on – you’re nicked!”

It began as Regan, a 1974 story in the ITV Armchair Cinema series, starring John Thaw as Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Dennis Waterman as Detective Sergeant George Carter, members of the Flying Squad (known in cockney rhyming slang as Sweeney Todd), a Metropolitan police section tackling armed robbers.

After a run in Nashville, Dolly: A True Original Musical is set to open in New York in December

Dolly Parton will celebrate turning 81 with the opening of a musical about her life on Broadway later this year.

Dolly: A True Original Musical is billed as “a remarkable journey through the life of this trailblazing woman” and is set to begin previews at New York’s St James Theatre on 7 December before opening on 19 January, the singer’s birthday.

The revered writer and political exile’s publisher says her ‘legacy in literary history can’t be compared to anyone else’s’

Shahrnush Parsipur, the celebrated Iranian writer whose subversive works of feminist fiction saw her repeatedly imprisoned, has died aged 80.

A pioneer of women’s literature in Iran, Parsipur excoriated the country’s patriarchal culture in novels including Women Without Men and Touba and the Meaning of Night. She was imprisoned four times, under the Shah and then the Islamic Republic.

Would you install 2.75 tonnes of reinforced concrete in your garden, a fragment of the most notorious symbol of the cold war? Herne Hill resident Steven Thorpe did – and the neighbours are not happy

Name: The Berlin Wall.

Age: Sixty-five years old.

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

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

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

Too hot to sleep? From temperature-regulating mattress toppers to a fan quiet enough for the bedroom, here are our best buys for sweaty nights – and what to avoid

• The best fans, tested

If there’s anything more uncomfortable than enduring a heatwave in Britain, it’s sleeping through one.

But hot nights are only going to get more common if the climate crisis continues its long march. While Britons are already accustomed to poor sleep – with the average adult getting just three days a week of good kip, according to the Mental Health Foundation – heat doesn’t help. Dr Allie Hare, consultant in sleep medicine and co-president of the British Sleep Society, says: “Being too hot during sleep can significantly reduce sleep quality and duration. In particular, it can reduce slow wave (deep) sleep, the stage of sleep that helps us awaken feeling rested.”

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

• The best suitcases – tested

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

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

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

• The best pizza ovens – tested

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

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

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

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

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

This comforting dish gives all the pleasure of stuffed vine leaves without the hours of labour. Serve alongside a lemony salad that’s rich with toasted seeds

I wanted the comfort of dolma without spending hours coring, stuffing and rolling. Traditionally, for this Iraqi dish of vine leaves, various vegetables are filled with fragrant rice and often with meat, too, making it a true labour of love. This pie captures all those familiar flavours but, by layering everything instead, the vine leaves become silky and tender. A bright, lemony spinach salad adds freshness and contrast.

Electronic scales are a non-negotiable, say connoisseurs. Add a pinch of patience, some trial and error, and you, too, can master the French press

What’s the best way to make coffee using a French press? Mine always ends up too watery or too strong.
Yoanna, St Andrews, Scotland
“Coffee is one of those rabbit holes where it really depends how much money and time you want to spend,” says Ben Kovar, head of coffee at Campbell & Syme Coffee Roasters in north London and Hertfordshire, but a little investment goes a long way. “A grinder will make a big improvement. If you’re just brewing for you and, say, your partner, I’d recommend a hand grinder, because you’re not then paying for the electronics – you’re just paying for a good set of burrs.” (Comandante is Kovar’s go-to.) Of course, adjusting the grind size allows you to make coffee in a host of ways, but if Yoanna plans to stick with a cafetiere and has a good local cafe, Kovar would be inclined to head there instead. “Obviously it’s nicer to grind fresh at home, but they’ll most likely be using a top-end grinder, so that’s probably going to taste better so long as you use up a bag every two weeks. Plus, it’s nice to have a dialogue with your local barista.”

The water you use will dramatically impact the taste of your coffee, too, Kovar says: “Filter coffee is 98% water, after all. You might have spent a lot on a grinder, but if you’re using London tap water, say, it’s going to be too hard and not very nice.” A filter jug is a good starting point, but the main thing is to soften the water slightly. And don’t use the kettle straight off the boil: “Wait 30 seconds, then use the very hot water.”

The other bit of kit you’ll want is a set of scales. “You need to know what the main variables are, so how much coffee you put in, how much water, and use a timer for the brew – if you buy bespoke coffee scales, they usually have one built in,” Kovar says. (If you don’t want to fork out, though, standard kitchen scales will work just fine.) Kovar uses 60g coffee for each litre of boiled water: “So, if you’re brewing 250ml, which is typically one cup, use 15g coffee.”

James Hoffmann, barista and author of The World Atlas of Coffee, then lets the coffee brew for four minutes. “Now grab a tablespoon and stir the crust that forms on top of the coffee. A lot of it will start to fall away, and you’ll be left with a few bits on top – some foam, some floating bits. Scoop those off and discard.” Then he does nothing at all for at least another five minutes. “When you do eventually push in the plunger, don’t plunge all the way to the bottom, otherwise you’ll stir up the sediment all over again.” You want the plunger to sit just on the surface of the coffee, then pour it gently. Ideally, decant the entire cafetiere in one go, Kovar adds, because, that way, you’ll get a consistent brew.

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Sweet, herby tomatoes on crisp puff pastry, followed by a dessert that’s both fruity and floral – this is seasonal eating at its most delectable

Summer has to be the favourite season of any chef. I am so spoiled for choice right now with the bounty of beautiful British produce over the warmer months that I change the menu almost daily, so I don’t miss out on the chance to use all of it. If only the weather would keep up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

David, 70, York

Occupation Retired modern foreign languages tutor at a university

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

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

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

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

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

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

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

You can keep temperatures down without the cost – or environmental price – of air conditioning. Here’s some tips and tricks

• The best fans to keep you cool in 2026 – tried and tested

In the UK we are used to worrying about our homes being warm enough, but after struggling to cope with high temperatures in May and June the race is on to cool them down before the next heatwave hits.

And while it might be tempting to swap your desktop fan for a portable air conditioner, there are lots of low-cost, more sustainable ways to stop rooms overheating.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Read more in the Antiviral series

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Storytelling collection opens with mousseline skirt suit and ends with simple black dress in spirit of label’s founder

The first model on the Chanel catwalk was wearing a sheer mousseline skirt suit and carrying a tiny century-old leatherbound book of fairytales that once belonged to Coco Chanel herself. With the Lord of the Rings soundtrack booming through a stage set of giant parasol-scale poppies and lupins as tall as giraffes, the clothes narrated the stories in the pages. A row of buttons on the spine of a dress began with an ugly duckling, and ended with a swan. A Goldilocks minaudière handbag was fashioned in the shape of a golden sleeping bear. The lining of a jacket was hand-painted with a scene from Puss in Boots.

But Matthieu Blazy, holding the same book in his hands backstage after the show, told reporters that his favourite fairytale was the rags-to-riches story of Coco herself. “She climbed the ladder to find her golden goose, by making clothes for real women. Her clothes were never parodies. They were rooted in life,” Chanel’s creative director said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This pretty little plant is carnivorous, so when placed next to plants affected by the insect pest it can be an effective living flypaper

The problem
The fungus gnat is the pest that just keeps coming. You dry out the soil, set up sticky traps, maybe even reach for the hydrogen peroxide, and just when you think you’ve have won, they’re back. The adults are harmless but maddening, drifting around your face and laying the next generation in any damp compost they can find. And most controls only deal with one stage of the cycle and leave the rest to carry on.

The hack
Butterworts are small carnivorous plants whose leaves are coated in a sticky mucilage that traps tiny flying insects, including fungus gnats. Keep one or two among your collection as living flypaper, catching adult gnats before they can breed.

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

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

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

How to start meditating

How to start weightlifting

How to start budgeting

How to start running

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

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

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

The answer to today’s puzzle

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

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

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

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

Residents and council say creating affordable housing is more urgent than ‘high-frequency trading’ in nearby City

Campaigners in east London are opposing plans for a datacentre in Brick Lane that they say will worsen the area’s housing crisis and drive long-term residents away.

The road, famed for its curry houses and 24-hour bagel shops, is the latest flashpoint in the rapid rollout of datacentres across the UK that aims to meet demand created by artificial intelligence.

As a non-monogamist, it’s refreshing to see a film that reflects modern attitudes to non-conventional relationships, instead of using them as a punchline or cautionary tale

What is the chief obstacle that must be overcome in most modern-day big-screen romcoms? Lack of attraction? Misaligning schedules? Or, perhaps, heteromonogamy? If that wasn’t the dominating norm of human relationships, many movie plots would be much swifter to resolve. What if Elizabeth Olsen didn’t have to choose between Callum Turner and Miles Teller in Eternity? Or Twilight allowed Bella to be in a throuple with Edward and Jacob? Even though both films have fantasy narratives, their predestined outcome is as real as it gets – a man and a woman (re)marry and live happily ever after.

For a long time, alternative relationship structures were relegated to fan fiction, undeserving of mainstream fictional representations where conflict and resolution are both inscribed in coupledom. Even the films that challenged mononormativity, such as Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, sustain the cautionary tale: opening up your relationship will eventually break it. As a practising non-monogamist, I yearn to see my values represented on screen as something more than a cautionary tale. Recently, the love triangles of Past Lives (implied) and Challengers (consummated) have suggested that perhaps Hollywood itself may be opening up. Then came The Invite, a poly-romcom just in time for the Week of Visibility for Non-monogamy.

The collision was catastrophic. Jane Ouartsi suffered a fractured collarbone, two spinal fractures, a broken femur that took three operations to fix, and she had to learn to walk again like a baby. Why has no one taken responsibility for her life-changing injuries?

As Jane Ouartsi walked across a pedestrianised square in central London, on a Friday evening in early August three years ago, she linked arms with her partner, Dave Mathias, and told him how much she had enjoyed the afternoon they had spent together, eating pizza in Soho and visiting an art installation. It was the last time she can remember feeling properly happy and relaxed.

“We were walking quite slowly, talking about the art. It’s hard to remember exactly, but I think I was saying what a lovely lunch, and then all of a sudden there was a horrific impact,” she says. “I felt my spine and body split and I thought my life was over.”

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

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

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

Our clothes can be one of the most powerful non-verbal communicators – tell us yours reflect who you are and what you do?

From uniforms to suits to tracksuits to costumes, clothes keep us warm and covered – but they are also one of the most powerful non-verbal communicators, a second skin which reflects who you are and what you do.

We want to hear from people about why they wear what they wear. Do your clothes help you in the workplace? Are they making a statement? Maybe you’re a waiter and have worn the same work uniform for years, or maybe your job involves wearing very little. Please tell us about yourselves.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The hills of the Hauts Plateaux near Lake Tanganyika have been the scene of fighting for decades between the army, rebel forces and ethnic militias. Pushed one way and another by the conflict are families just trying to survive