From One Night Only to The Invite, a wave of new movies are a raunchy antidote to gen Z celibacy

The first alarm bells sounded nearly 10 years ago, and since then, a deluge of books, podcasts and roundtables has tried to get at the bottom of the problem: why is gen Z not having sex?

Recently it’s as though culture has been recalibrated to make up for the youth’s apparent frigidity. “Smut” literature is on the rise, prestige TV is now depicting OnlyFans models, and indie films have taken a turn towards kink. This summer, through confused young protagonists and their sexual misadventures, the movies are zeroing in on generational attitudes about sex.

Political leaders have kicked the can of public protection tariff reform down the road for years – causing hopeless inmates to take their own lives

In January 2015, Tommy Nicol told his family that he was suffering “psychological torture of a person who is doing 99 years”. Nicol had been given an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence six years earlier for stealing a car from a garage and injuring the owner. He was already two years beyond his four-year tariff – the minimum time you can serve in prison before being considered for release. Nicol was given another two-year knock-back from the Parole Board and was in despair. If and when he got released, he would be on a lifelong licence. Eight months later, aged 37, Nicol hanged himself at The Mount prison in Hertfordshire, England.

By the time he took his own life, the inhumane IPP sentence had already been abolished for three years. The problem is, it didn’t apply retroactively. Those already serving IPP sentences stayed on them. This, despite David Blunkett, who devised and introduced them as home secretary in 2005, calling it “the biggest regret” of his political career. And this despite UN special rapporteur on torture Alice Edwards agreeing with Tommy Nicol that the sentence was “psychological torture”. Astonishingly, more than 2,000 people are still serving IPP sentences in England and Wales.

Simon Hattenstone is a Guardian features writer

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Its mucus, which can kill crabs and cockroaches, could be the basis of new insecticides

It’s the shuddery stuff of nightmares for some, but for a select group who admire extending ladders, giraffes and the Odyssey, one of the longest animals in the world is bound to appeal.

This creature is nneither the blue whale, nor a lion’s mane jellyfish but the humble bootlace worm, Lineus longissimus, one of the most remarkable marine invertebrates of them all.

It’s invertebrate of the year again! From 3-12 August, every day we will profile one of the thousands of amazing invertebrates that our readers have nominated. And then, when you’ve heard about all of them, we’ll open the voting so you can choose your favourites. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with thoughts and ideas: email us at environment.desk@theguardian.com with Invertebrate in the subject line.

From ticket booking fees to parking, here are six other things he could fix

Andy Burnham has announced he will ban fake discounts and make it easier to cancel unwanted subscriptions in an effort to improve life for UK consumers.

In the long run, these changes may not make as much difference to your wealth as increasing mandatory contributions on pensions or capping rents, but they will get rid of some day-to-day frustrations. Here are six other things he could fix while he is in the mood:

Whether it’s expensive regrets or brilliant bargains, we celebrate the stars’ shopping secrets – and the products that tempted you

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Like snooping in someone else’s supermarket trolley, discovering other people’s shopping habits satisfies a certain nosiness. And never more so than when it comes to celebrities – there’s nothing more human than knowing Kim Cattrall loves fish and chips, or that Henry Holland is a Skims guy.

And as celebrities often have the inside track – or perhaps we just think they do – on everything from coffee machines to skincare, their recommendations in our biweekly How I Shop column have inspired more than a few of your own retail habits. In some cases, however, such as David Gandy’s £2,500 Cobra Fortis lawn mower, the price was a little too out of reach.

‘Spectacular’ or ‘stolid’? The reviews are in for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s prequel to George RR Martin’s fantasy blockbuster

You don’t need to read the entrails of a raven to guess the target of the subtitle The Mad King: the various Brutuses plotting his fall conclude that the “paranoid and delusional” monarch will destroy their civilisation. The focus, though, is not just Trumpian. Macmillan references two wider international crises – the instability of heads of state and the weather – and a UK national concern: the endurance of a royal bloodline. The RSC’s patron, King Charles III, might skip this one.

Mark Lawson, the Guardian

The main auditorium has been reconfigured so that the audience presses in on all sides with the action predominantly confined to a cruciform stage with mighty gates at the far end and a coronet-style arch at its centre. The opening wordless sequence, featuring an inordinate procession of arrivals (there’s a cast of 36), conjures a due aura of wonder and clanging foreboding. Most strikingly, a number of characters enter on horseback; these magnificent metallic steeds are operated, as in War Horse, by an obliging trio of handlers.

The great achievement of this reimagining of George RR Martin’s universe by writer Duncan Macmillan and director Dominic Cooke is that it ties up plot points from the Song of Ice and Fire franchise in ways likely to satisfy avid fans of the novels and the subsequent TV series but simultaneously creates a narrative clear and engaging enough to entrance the only partially affiliated or the complete newbie.

Designer Chloe Lamford creates a visionary space, where dragon puppets and vast stomping horses stalk in shadowy slo mo like they’re embedded deep in this world’s collective memory. Silk-skirted courtly dances and unwieldy but spectacular joust scenes show how these dynasties enjoy themselves, before the noble blood starts to fall.

This prequel to a blood-soaked dynastic saga wanders on for so long that it makes Christopher Nolan’s journey into Greek mythology seem a model of understatement. There’s no reason why the RSC shouldn’t bring Martin’s epic books to the stage in Game of Thrones: The Mad King, but if this stolid production gives hardcore GoT fans a chance to hunt for “Easter eggs”, it seldom comes close to matching the grim aura of the TV series.

The first half of Cooke’s superbly staged, spectacular production has the feel of a dynamic Bayeux Tapestry: a stunning pageant of medieval stop-motion animation. But after the interval, the plot takes off. Sparks fly romantically and dramatically, which is just as well because, at three hours 45 minutes, it’s almost as long as Hamlet.

The upgraded alerts will be in place from 9am on Tuesday until 9pm on Friday

An 18-year-old died after getting into difficulty in the sea at Camber Sands beach, East Sussex, yesterday, bringing the number of deaths in open-water incidents over the hot, dry summer to over 40, according to estimates compiled by the Press Association.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has updated heat-health alerts for nine regions in England, warning that rising temperatures this week may increase health risks, particularly for vulnerable groups.

It’s important that everyone is aware of the simple steps they can take to stay safe during periods of hot weather. Drinking plenty of water, avoiding the sun during the hottest part of the day and keeping indoor spaces cool are all things you can do to keep yourself and others safe.

For vulnerable groups including older adults and those with existing health conditions, warmer weather than result in serious health outcomes.

A spokesperson for the human rights group likened the proposal to ‘financial brutality with British taxpayers’ money’

Farage and Yusuf are now taking questions.

Q: [From Jack Fenwick from the BBC] Are there other countries where you might send foreign offenders? And how much would this cost?

We have to admit that there might not be too many colour TVs.

It’s not going to be a summer camp. It’s not going to be particularly fun. But it won’t be cruel and it won’t be unreasonable.

We will rapidly build capacity. We will take advantage of new prefabricated modular technology and build 12,000 prison places in the form of Nightingale prisons on Ministry of Defence land. And the army will be called in to assist.

Together, these measures will create an additional 22,000 prison places compared to Andy Burnham’s plans.

Chloe Moffat, 26, killed herself after disciplinary proceedings which coroner found be to be flawed

The Treasury “materially contributed” to the death of Chloe Moffat, a 26-year-old personal assistant who took her own life after facing disciplinary proceedings, a coroner has found.

Anna Crawford also found there was a risk of future deaths within the civil service from flawed handling of disciplinary proceedings. She said she would send a prevention of future deaths report to the head of the civil service, the Treasury, and the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas).

Manslaughter exemption would mean more releases would be needed within 18 months, Prison Service officials say

• What could Andy Burnham do to block early release of PC Andrew Harper’s killers?

Andy Burnham has been warned that changing the terms of the prisoners’ early release scheme so PC Andrew Harper’s killers are kept behind bars would force another spate of early releases before the next general election.

Prison Service officials have told No 10 that adding an exemption so that those convicted of manslaughter, such as Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, remain in jail would mean further early releases would be needed within 18 months.

More than a dozen buildings collapsed in aftermath of earthquake, which has also prompted evacuations

Six airports damaged in today’s earthquake in Colombia have suspended operations, the civil aeronautics agency said.

These airports in western Colombia serve Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura, the agency wrote on X.

Regulator acts after 12,000 complaints over comments by Caroline Farrow linking parades with bestiality and paedophilia

• UK politics live – latest updates

GB News is being investigated by the UK’s media regulator after a guest appeared to link pride parades with bestiality and paedophilia.

The remarks are thought to have set a new record for individual complaints about a GB News programme, with more than 12,000 people raising concerns about comments made by the guest Caroline Farrow.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that strikes on such facilities were directly linked with putting more pressure on Moscow

A fire ⁠broke ⁠out ​at an ⁠industrial facility in ⁠Russia’s ​Tyumen ‌region ‌in Siberia ‌after several drones fell on it, ‌Tyumen region ​governor Alexander Moor ⁠said ​on his Telegram ​channel.

This is reported by Reuters.

• Confederations write open letter damning Fifa president

• Concacaf president Montagliani seen as top contender

Uefa, the Asian Football Confederation and Concacaf will push for Gianni Infantino to resign after writing an open letter calling for “leadership that serves football, not seeks to command it”.

In a dramatic escalation of the war that has threatened to tear football apart since details emerged of the Fifa president’s failed Football Forward Enterprise scheme, the three governing bodies accused Infantino of “trust broken through deception” and condemned his failure to acknowledge that the proposal should not have been unilaterally launched.

Firm urges customers to avoid running washing machines and dishwashers between 6pm and 8pm on Wednesday

• Where in the UK will get the best view of the solar eclipse?

• Business live – latest updates

Great Britain’s biggest household energy supplier is calling on its customers to use less electricity this week during the deepest solar eclipse in almost 30 years.

Octopus Energy has urged customers to avoid running washing machines and dishwashers between 6pm and 8pm this Wednesday as the moon is expected to block up to 95% of the sun over parts of Britain.

Only spending outlet for man accused of helping to control a third of Europe’s cocaine supply will be prison tuck shop

It sounds like the penal equivalent of five stars: a private gym and library, daily outings to the exercise yard and a landing cleared of other prisoners.

Daniel Kinahan’s first full day inside the walls of Portlaoise prison on Monday, however, marked a drastic change from his luxury lifestyle in the United Arab Emirates.

Concerns about feeling pressure to have caesarean section, or paying for hotel in Exeter after hospital in Barnstaple suspends birthing services

For mother-to-be Harriet Knight, the suspension of maternity services at one of England’s most remote hospitals means having to face horribly stark choices.

“The next closest maternity unit is a full two hours away and we have a family history of labour taking under two hours from start to finish,” said Knight.

How does it feel to be locked into a venue notorious for its unpadded seating to experience a full-throttle Ring cycle and more? Our critic found out at the 150th anniversary of the mighty Bayreuth festival

Liszt and Bruckner were there from the start. Debussy, Mahler and Puccini all subsequently made the journey. So did writers from Virginia Woolf and Thomas Mann to WEB Du Bois, not to mention choreographer Sergei Diaghilev, anarchist Emma Goldman, British fascist Diana Mosley (wife of Oswald) and – most notoriously and fanatically – Adolf Hitler.

Culturally and politically, Germany’s Bayreuth festival doesn’t so much have baggage as its own industrial-scale luggage hangar. But it’s also prized as the ultimate place to hear Richard Wagner’s operas. One hundred and fifty years after the composer launched the festival with the premiere of his epic Ring cycle, tickets for this summer’s edition sold out within 90 minutes. No mean feat for a theatre with famously uncomfortable seats, no air conditioning and only one man’s music on the menu. The shortest work lasts two-and-a-half hours without a break.

Speaking just before his death, the actor recalled his hostile hunting dog Zag, director Taika Waititi’s comedy genius – and the wild boar scene that left children traumatised
• Warning: contains spoilers

Taika Waititi’s film Boy is one of my favourites ever, so when I got the Wilderpeople script I was already well disposed to it. Hec is sort of a New Zealand archetype. When I was at university, during the holidays I’d work at cutting hay and shifting sheep and fertiliser. There was always a Hec driving the truck. They were men of very few words, but when they did say something it meant a lot. It was clear I was never going to have many lines in the film.

Amid world pressure from heatwaves and fertiliser shortages, billionaire’s business has invested in circular farming and biomethane

There is a distinctive smell of cow manure in the air at the Duke of Westminster’s dairy farm near Chester. It is a world away from the collection of grand West End properties controlled by the duke that form the backbone of his near £10bn fortune, a decade on from becoming Britain’s youngest billionaire.

As part of his 349-year-old Grosvenor empire, Lea Manor Farm on the duke’s Eaton Estate in north-west England has fared better than most dairy farms in recent years.

From the last days of the Titanic to desperate romantics, we rate the work of a British master of black comedy

Bainbridge’s novel of the last days on RMS Titanic was acclaimed and popular (“They probably thought it was the book of the film,” she said), and the scenes of the sinking are brilliantly delivered. “There is about me an element of showmanship,” says one character, but Bainbridge’s own showmanship is muffled here by her need to stick with facts, meaning the novel lacks the humour, fluidity and eccentricity of her others. And unlike her earlier books, the final tragedy never feels personal to the characters.

Jimi Famurewa, restaurant critic and food journalist, travels to Edinburgh, London and Manchester eating at the female-fronted cafes and bistros reviving regional comfort food favourites, passed down through generations. Starting with soda bread and a fry-up cooked by Irish-born owner Claire Hanrahan at her bistro Norah, named after her late grandmother. Onwards to Bara, where Cecily Dalladay and Zoë Heimann are celebrating the Welsh ingredients they grew up with and feed Jimi a hearty Caerphilly cheesesteak. Finally he visits Auntie Lou’s, where Emily Witts recreates her grandmother’s recipe for scones with apricot jam and cheese.

The ‘King of the North’ is on the march – or rather, on a bus. But maybe he’d be better off staying at home and thinking than heading out to press the flesh

Andy Burnham is going on a “listening tour”, travelling the country on a bus to find out what real people are concerned about. I’ve heard commentators rationalise the idea in various ways: apparently it underscores the difference between him and his predecessor, who only ever relaxed when he was out of the country; what else is Burnham going to do in recess, with his cabinet already chosen – organise his Post-it notes?; he’s been out of politics a long time, and many people will be only dimly aware of who he is; his speeches to date have had a very urban focus, and particularly with farming being this season’s crisis sector, he needs to broaden his sphere of interest to take in rural areas. Truly, the prime ministerial honeymoon period is like a one-year-old’s birthday party – all you have to do is stand up and smile, for everyone to clap.

None of the rationalisations are in any way true: an in-person focus group, where you journey to discover a range of concerns you could figure out for yourself with one report from the Institute for Public Policy Research and half a brain, is exactly the kind of thing Starmer would have done, if he’d thought of it. There’s quite a bit to be getting on with, between now and September, since autumn’s looming crises – food shortages, energy price hikes due to the ongoing war in Iran – are plain, and there’s no better time to plan than when you don’t have the leader of the opposition yanking your chain. Burnham actually has tremendous household-level recognition, thanks to a combination of hinterland and eyelashes, as evidenced by the fact that even when contesting Makerfield he got mobbed every time he got out of a car. Now, the conditions devastating farmers, being the direct result of climate crisis, would be better addressed by a long-range strategy on the transition to renewables, not a chinwag.

The challenger to Netanyahu is more of the same. His record makes that abundantly clear

Western media outlets cannot seem to get enough of Gadi Eisenkot.

Israel’s former military chief and the leader of the newly formed Yashar party has been embraced by the international press as he and his party take the lead in the polls in the run-up to October’s elections.

Mehdi Hasan is Guardian US columnist and the editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo.

The Animorphs books taught my generation about digging deep in the face of an existential threat. We need that spirit now more than ever

Recently I found myself thinking about slug-like aliens that crawl through people’s ears and into their brains, with the ultimate purpose of global domination. It would explain a lot about what has gone so wrong with the world, wouldn’t it? And it was why I immediately flashed back to the children’s fantasy series Animorphs when Donald Trump’s health secretary and conspiracy theorist, Robert F Kennedy Jr, admitted to having had a worm in his brain.

While visiting my parents in Cleveland, Ohio recently, I realised that a few books from the children’s fantasy series were still sitting on the shelves in my old bedroom. No fewer than 54 Animorphs titles were published between 1996 and 2001, and a total of 35m copies have been sold. “I may have just landed a job thanks to Animorphs,” my childhood friend Clifton texted me with excitement in the mid-2010s, when we were fresh out of college. “It was an interview for a vegan food cart and the last question they asked me was what Animorph I would morph into. I said an orangutan.”

Alexander Hurst writes for Guardian Europe from Paris. His memoir Generation Desperation is out now

From Homer’s epic to conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, we can see how poetry fills the gap when ordinary ways of writing or speaking aren’t enough

The biggest sales of poetry since records began are expected this year. The reason? The movies, of course. UK print sales of The Odyssey increased by 1,400% in the four weeks to 25 July compared with the same period last year. In the US, year-to-date sales of The Odyssey are up 76% so far. Christopher Nolan is doing miracles for Homer – whatever problems one might have with the movie (and Emily Wilson, who made the most popular recent translation, has a few).

Strip out the Odyssey factor, though, and poetry is still doing exceptionally well, driven by writers whose work is often mildly denigrated as “Instapoetry”, such as Lucas Jones. His is a kind of versifying that delivers immediate uplifting aphorisms rather than either the kind of dense, allusive play with language that might reward repeated reading; or the sort of limpid, performable music that propels a well-translated Homeric epic. But even so, the poets of Instagram reach for something that can’t quite be expressed through everyday speech. And readers respond to it.

Americans want someone on their side in the fight against vested interests – that means politicians like the Michigan primary winner and Zohran Mamdani

Abdul El-Sayed’s win in the Michigan Senate primary was a historic breakthrough. Not only because he is a Muslim son of immigrants who broke with almost every single tenet of establishment Democratic party politics. But because he has wiped that complacent sneer at progressive wins off the faces of centrist gatekeepers. Zohran Mamdani? Relax, he’s just a mayor. And it’s New York City. Outside urban and liberal corridors, there is nothing to worry about. Now El-Sayed has won the Democratic party’s nomination in a swing state that is also on the list of presidential nomination states.

There is a lot to be excited about. Not only within the US, but for observers abroad hopeful for the emergence of a truly revolutionary left that is able to weather powerful and well-funded adversaries and prevail. The money raised to defeat El-Sayed was staggering. He was outspent by more than nine to one. It was the most expensive Democratic congressional primary ever. A roll call of cartoon bad guys, such as Chevron and Philip Morris, funded his opponent, Haley Stevens, to the tune of over $60m. Of that funding, nearly half came from a Super Pac backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac).

The practice of openly proclaiming to the world what you can’t afford can lead to lower fees, reduced prices and better deals

Ask any small business owner what has challenged them the most over the past couple of years and you’ll frequently hear about cashflow. It’s no secret that costs have risen dramatically and finding places to save money isn’t easy.

If this describes your situation then I’ve got a solution to your problem. Ever hear of “loud budgeting”? Of course you have! You’ve probably been doing it for years.

These everyday hassles are small, but they add up – especially in a cost of living crisis. That’s why my government will tackle them head-on

• Andy Burnham is the UK prime minister

• Burnham vows crackdown on ‘rip-off’ business practices

It’s remarkable how much of modern life can seem designed to wear us down. Every “sale” seems to come with an asterisk. Consumer contracts often find a way of costing more than you expected. And too many companies want you to sign up in seconds, but then make it feel impossible to leave. It’s exhausting.

They might not be the issues that keep you up at night. But they’re often the reason you go to bed ticked off. Westminster has got used to telling people that these everyday hassles are just part of life. The response has too often been a shrug of the shoulders or just calling it bad luck.

Andy Burnham is prime minister of the United Kingdom

Seventy years after CP Snow warned of estrangement between the sciences and arts, breadth in education should be encouraged

After the playwright Tom Stoppard died last year, one of the most striking tributes to his work came from a clinical scientist. Michael Baum explained in the British Medical Journal how, in the interval of a 1993 performance of Arcadia, he experienced an epiphany. Thomasina Coverly’s attempt to plot the equation for a rose prompted him to realise that chaos theory was the best way to explain breast cancer’s pattern of recurrence. It was, he wrote, “the bond that links the arts and the sciences as one enterprise rather than the contents of two silos”.

Mr Baum was not the first person to celebrate the bridging of this gap. CP Snow famously criticised the incuriosity of “literary intellectuals” about technology in his essay The Two Cultures (later turned into a lecture and a book). Whether or not this was justified at the time, many literary intellectuals besides Stoppard have since taken a close interest in science; Richard Holmes’s latest book, about the influence of evolutionary theory on Tennyson, is just one example. But the split between the humanities and sciences remains pronounced, and will be evident when this year’s A-level results are released on Thursday.

The world’s most populous country needs state-generated demand to industrialise, decarbonise and avoid China’s overcapacity trap

India is attempting to do something the world has never seen before. So claimed Niti Aayog, the government of India’s policy thinktank, earlier this year. It said that no major economy has tried to expand GDP nearly eightfold within a generation while simultaneously redirecting its energy and industrial systems to reach net zero within two generations. Hence its detailed report’s claim that there is “no historical precedent”.

There is something to this. China industrialised at vast scale, but not on a sustainable net zero path. Korea, Japan and Europe became wealthy by industrialising before decarbonising. Today, rich nations have already satisfied the basic demands of their people and created the infrastructure and high per-capita energy use that India is still trying to build. The world’s most populous country has to do this while also reducing emissions.

Molly O’Brien responds to an article by Natalie Morris about her five-day labour, while an NHS doctor shares her personal experience of feeling ‘othered’

It is not clear whether Natalie Morris’s labour began spontaneously or was induced (By day five of my labour, I didn’t want an ‘ideal birth’. I only wanted to survive, 6 August). Nevertheless, what is described is not a debate about “ideal birth”, but an account of undiagnosed labour dystocia.

By day four she had contractions but no cervical dilatation, was exhausted, unable to sit down, and knew instinctively she needed help. These are features of pathophysiology that should have prompted reassessment. That failure was not ideology. It was a lack of education and training among both midwives and doctors in recognising difficult labour, also known as labour dystocia. This same issue, with tragic consequences, was highlighted in the Nottingham maternity review. That system’s failure receives far less attention than the “culture wars” surrounding birth.

Sjúrður Hammer responds to NatureScot’s decision to prohibit the annual guga hunt, where islanders collect gannet chicks on the Hebridean island of Sula Sgeir

What many celebrate as a win for nature conservation is, in my view, a significant step in the wrong direction for our relationship with the natural world (Scottish gannet chick hunt blocked for first time in 400 years, 3 August). The decision to prohibit the community on Lewis from collecting gannets runs counter to the spirit of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which recognises that safeguarding biodiversity will not be achieved by scientists and city dwellers alone. Instead, it affirms that indigenous and local communities hold a legitimate and essential role as stewards and caretakers of their own environments.

Too often, people in our part of the world assume that “indigenous and local communities” refers only to distant, exotic cultures or to the shameful legacies of colonialism. But the Kunming-Montreal accord makes clear that this category also includes small, place‑rooted communities in countries such as Scotland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland – communities with ancient traditions, distinct languages and ways of relating to nature that have endured for centuries.

In 1963 and 1966 Garry Sobers toured England with the West Indies. But in those days it was not so easy for cricketers from other countries to play for the English counties, so for the summers of 1964, 1965 and 1967 he appeared for Norton Cricket Club in the North Staffordshire and South Cheshire league.

What a player! His whole personality and cricket skills lit up not only the club but also the whole league. Gerry, Garry’s brother, kept wicket at Norton, and other top visitors included the fast bowler Wes Hall at Great Chell.

Labour peer Ruth Lister disagrees with the high number of party members looking to reduce spending on social security

The finding that 47% of Labour party members surveyed believe the government is spending too much on social security is depressing (Labour members ‘have tougher view on welfare than you might think’, poll suggests, 4 August). But perhaps it’s not surprising given the relentless false “out of control” political and media narrative, when in fact spending on non-pensioner social security has remained at about 5% of GDP for the past decade.

Social security was one of the main victims of austerity, leaving benefits too low to meet basic needs – hence the increased reliance on food banks. If members had been presented with the evidence from academics, thinktanks and charities showing that improving social security represents the most effective way of tackling child poverty, I suspect they may have been more supportive of spending in this area.

• Group including Amazon founder has held talks with FSG

• Bhatia and Facebook co-founder Saverin also involved

A consortium including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is close to completing a deal for a 30% stake in Liverpool after months of talks with Fenway Sports Group.

The investors are led by Amit Bhatia, the son-in-law of Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, who previously was a shareholder at Queens Park Rangers. Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin is another member of the group who are set to pay in the region of £1.35bn for almost a third of the Premier League club. The Guardian understands the deal is effectively agreed but may take up to a month to complete.

Unai Emery’s task seems to get harder each year, and the Europa League winners need their big signings to shine

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 7th (NB: this is not necessarily Ben Fisher’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 4th

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“You don’t do a documentary with a guy who wins nothing,” parps José Mourinho during the trailer for his shiny, new Netflix film, although since 2017, his sole piece of silverware is the 2021-22 Tin Pot with Roma. And while his failure to win anything with Tottenham, Fenerbahce or Benfica didn’t exactly – on paper, at least – make him the most obvious candidate as the author of that opening quote, neither does he immediately feel like the best man to put Florentino Pérez’s Death Star back on course in Madrid.

Having boycotted the Geopolitics World Cup due to my dislike of Fifa, Infantino, Trump, etc and therefore having nothing to write about, I’m now ready to pick up my quill and parchment once more. Even allowing for my team, Hearts’, disjointed recent hire and exits, I do think we have had incredibly bad luck in all our European draws. First it was Sturm Graz, now Benfica, and next, in Tin Pot, it seems likely we’ll get Rapid Vienna. I’ve actually heard of every one of these teams. Why couldn’t we have got some other made-up team from an even worse league than the Scottish Premiership? Or is getting out of Europe before the end of August the only thing that might help us in the league?” – Ken Muir.

I enjoyed the link to the Rivaldo article from 2002 (Friday’s Football Daily). It came complete with the quaint idea that a Serie A giant with Big Cup football could offer more wages than Spurs. Anyone under 30 would find the idea laughable” – Dave Lambley.

How beautiful St James’ Park was (Friday’s Memory Lane, full email edition). It really did remind me of the old Luigi Ferraris, where I spent nearly every Sunday in the early 80s. My mate was supporting the cyclists (Sampdoria) and me, of course, Genoa … we were taking each other to the home matches. I only went once to the one rebuilt for Italia 90 and found it so ugly and soulless. Some background in one of the local TV archives” – Giuseppe.

• Coritiba’s Jacy Maranhão jumped into a tunnel

• Goal was ruled out by video assistant referee

A Brazilian’s goal celebration went badly wrong when he jumped over advertising boards after scoring, only to fall down a hole in the ground. Jacy Maranhão, a defender for Coritiba, escaped without serious injury, though his spectacular moment proved in vain.

A video assistant referee’s decision ruled out his goal in a Brazilian Série A encounter with Chapecoense that Coritiba thought was their second goal. They did win the game 2-1.

Overall winner was uncertain until final climb – a world away from Slovenian’s dominance of men’s event

Demi Vollering’s second overall win in the Tour de France Femmes in Nice on Sunday was achieved after a heated dispute with Kasia Niewiadoma, but by the time the sun was setting on the Promenade des Anglais, the sisterhood that has always characterised this race had kicked back in.

On a final stage of high drama, the Dutchwoman erased the lingering controversy with an attacking win of the highest quality, further boosting the prestige of the long-dormant native cycling scene in a gutsy performance from her French-sponsored FDJ United-Suez team.

Former Wimbledon champion’s suspension comes as Mykhailo Mudryk returns for Chelsea, exposing stark contrast in processes

In the months between the first announcement of Marketa Vondrousova’s doping test refusal and the release of the full reasoned decision after her four‑year ban, the 2023 Wimbledon champion did her best to grab hold of the narrative. Between her social media posts and later interviews, Vondrousova explained that she had serious concerns about her safety during the encounter, that the doping control officer at her door had acted improperly, and that her mental health problems had affected her judgment.

Then came the 58-page document, a summary of the court tribunal process, which was finally released a little over a week ago. Among the ample questionable decisions it showed Vondrousova to have made that evening, the text to her boyfriend shortly after the doping control officer arrived was particularly revealing, an indication that she felt disdain towards the tester rather than fear: “So like here is ringing some cunt from the doping,” she wrote.

There will be a host of world-class athletes in Birmingham this week but the 800m should shine like a supernova

They say betting is a mug’s game. But here are two predictions to take to the bank. The European Athletics Championships this week in Birmingham, with the BBC shoving its considerable heft behind it, will be far bigger than people expect. And the women’s 800m final on Friday night, featuring three of the best female stars in any sport, should shine as brightly as a supernova.

The list of great athletes who will grace the Alexander Stadium in the coming days is long and lustrous. Mondo Duplantis, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Yaroslava Mahuchikh are all Olympic and world champions and world record holders. Amy Hunt, Matt Hudson-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson should also do Britain proud. But no event is more anticipated than the women’s 800m.

Crossing in larger vessel highlights changing tactics despite increased enforcement on French coast

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A dinghy carrying a record 230 people has arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel in the early hours of Monday.

It is the clearest indication yet that people smugglers in northern France are adapting their business model and escalating their so-called taxi boat strategy to evade enforcement by UK and French authorities.

Exclusive: Analysis finds cost of higher education ‘falls overwhelmingly on the individual’

The government is piling mountains of debt and higher tax rates on young people heading to university, according to analysis into the “ticking timebomb” of costs faced by future students.

Hundreds of thousands of sixth formers will receive their A-level results on Thursday, with many expecting to continue on to higher education courses.

Northern Spain will be one of the best places in world to view phenomenon with 460,000 extra visitors expected

Authorities in Spain have warned of an increased risk of fires when hundreds of thousands of people head to the hills and beaches to get a better view of Wednesday’s total solar eclipse.

“The vegetation is extraordinarily dry and the smallest spark or carelessness could lead to devastating forest fires,” the environment minister, Sara Aagesen, said on a visit to Niebla in the south of the country, the site of Spain’s latest fire.

Small skiff ran out of fuel off Alaska and was helped by cruise ship even though Meta CEO’s vessel was closer

• Zuckerberg faces questions over why superyacht reportedly declined to help stranded boat

The crew of a yacht owned by Mark Zuckerberg did not hear a radio call for a maritime assist from a small skiff that ran out of fuel off the coast of Alaska, and by the time it did, another nearby ship had already rendered assistance, a spokesperson for the Meta CEO said.

The Alaska Beacon news outlet reported that the skiff had issued a call for assistance through the US Coast Guard last week and a nearby small cruise ship, the Wilderness Legacy, towed it into nearby Farragut Bay in south-east Alaska and refueled it.

Discovery of 2,100-year-old vessel hailed as ‘one of the most important underwater archaeological discoveries of recent years’

A 2,100-year-old Roman shipwreck carrying about 500 amphorae has been discovered 3 miles off the coast of Mazara del Vallo in Sicily.

Italy’s cultural heritage police, the Carabinieri, investigated the wreck with the help of divers and underwater cameras after receiving a tip-off from fishers. The vessel was found at a depth of about 46 metres (151ft) and was carrying hundreds of amphorae – ancient two-handled ceramic jars with a narrow neck – thought to have been used mainly to transport wine.

Extreme conditions in Washington and Oregon have fueled fast-moving fires, leaving the region draped in toxic plumes – and the danger isn’t over

Piles of twisted metal and ashen debris line the cul-de-sacs where the tranquil suburbs of Spokane, Washington, once stood.

The scale of devastation from a historic fire season of wildfire in the Pacific north-west has come into sharper focus as firefighters wrangle a trio of blazes that consumed at least 846 structures on the eastern side of the state.

Authorities warn that days of intense rain could trigger widespread flooding and landslides as storm moves north and further inland

More than a million people were moved to safety across eastern China by Sunday evening as powerful Typhoon Dolphin made landfall amid fears torrential rain would cause flooding and landslides.

Wenzhou, a coastal city in Zhejiang province, said it relocated more than 900,000 people and opened more than 1,500 emergency shelters. In neighbouring Fujian, 98,900 people were moved from high-risk areas.

Levels at reservoir along Arizona-Nevada border dipped below previous record set in 2022, amid water crisis in west

Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, has plummeted to its lowest water level since it was filled about 90 years ago, the latest sign of a deepening water crisis in the American west.

Water levels at the reservoir, which straddles the Arizona-Nevada border outside Las Vegas, hit 1,040.4ft (317.1 meters) above sea level on Friday, according to federal data. That’s just short of the record set on 28 July 2022, according to the US Bureau of Reclamation.

Mutual aid groups that started giving out PPEs during Covid are now loaning air purifiers and distributing masks to fume-addled communities

Miquette Thompson’s home in rural Mendocino county has been covered in smoke all week. There are the nearby Feliz and Woodside fires in northern California, which have burned more than 1,000 acres, as well as the wildfires devastating Oregon and Washington that are sending smoke their way, too.

“It’s become not unusual,” she said of walking outside and seeing a hazy sky.

Utility firm’s payment criticised by Defra and campaign groups, with some urging Andy Burnham to nationalise it

Thames Water has paid its finance chief a £1m signing fee despite teetering on the brink of a government-handled administration, in a decision which the environment department labelled “unacceptable”.

The utility company revealed that it made the payment last month, in a letter sent last week by Adrian Montague, its chair, to MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs select committee.

Jane Coates says foreign secretary should draw attention to coroner’s finding that Lucy Harrison was unlawfully killed

The UK foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, is being urged to push US authorities to reopen an investigation into a man who shot dead his 23-year-old British daughter while she was visiting him in Texas.

Lucy Harrison, from Warrington in Cheshire, was fatally shot on 10 January 2025, the day before she was due to fly home to the UK.

Authorities say application to stay was made too late, as UK officials say Sweden takes ‘stricter approach’ than other EU countries

A 78-year-old British widow who has lived in Sweden for 21 years is fighting deportation from the country after authorities told her a post-Brexit application to stay had been submitted too late.

Her case is the latest of 2,500 British people ordered to leave the country after Brexit in what campaigners and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) have said is an inexplicably hardline approach taken by the Swedish authorities. It comes two years after Sweden threatened to deport a British woman with dementia in a care home shortly before she died.

Ninety vehicles confiscated in weekend operation including rare Ferrari Monza SP2, driven by someone without insurance or full licence

A police officer got the opportunity to drive an open-top limited edition Ferrari in Mayfair, London, after the car was seized as part of a record-breaking crackdown on uninsured vehicles and dangerous driving.

The Dubai-registered supercar, worth £3.7m, had been in the UK for just a day when it was confiscated by the police because it was being driven by someone with a provisional licence and no insurance.

Opponents fear Elon Musk firm’s plan to develop 18-mile strip of Pecan Island will badly damage fragile ecosystem

Plans by Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build a vast rocket launch site on a stretch of Louisiana’s rapidly eroding coastline have stirred a backlash among some local opponents who fear it will badly damage the area’s fragile ecosystem.

A deal for SpaceX to take control of 130,000 acres of coastal Vermilion parish is reported to be close to being finalized, allowing the company to escalate its number of launches, including of its new Starship mega rocket. SpaceX also has ambitions to deploy artificial intelligence datacenters in space, and while some experts have doubts about this, it has submitted regulatory filings to build a constellation of up to a million of them.

Israeli PM says IDF will not withdraw until Hamas is disarmed and rebukes US pressure to end wars without his country’s buy-in

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected a US-backed 15-point peace plan for Gaza in a rare public break with Donald Trump.

In a statement on Sunday, Netanyahu said that he was confronting a “wave of rumours about Israeli weakness and Israeli withdrawals on all fronts” and rebuked US pressure to end wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran without Israel’s buy-in.

Rainforest communities face a silent crisis as mercury from gold mining contaminates their food and water

Exclusive: Film-maker Gabar Choli describes how he endured coercive treatment over eight months in detention in Texas

A Kurdish man who was force fed over the course of eight months while on hunger strike in US immigration detention has spoken out about it for the first time, describing how much the process harmed him physically and psychologically.

Gabar Choli, a film-maker and activist now living in Canada after being deported, described how he endured the coercive treatment – a practice widely considered torture by international human rights groups – often twice a day after being detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when his asylum application was denied.

Surprise departure comes after department store chain’s chair warned of ‘really tough trading conditions’

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The managing director of John Lewis has quit the job after less than three years in charge of the British department store chain, as the company faces “really tough” trading conditions.

Peter Ruis will leave the business in order to “pursue new projects”, John Lewis said in a statement on Monday.

Exclusive: Grid operator Neso can now respond with rolling blackouts as last resort without need for government powers

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Millions of households could face power cuts at short notice under new rules to help the electricity system operator avoid widespread blackouts when energy supplies run low.

The changes, which come into effect this week, will make it easier for the national electricity system operator to call for rotating blackouts at short notice if power supplies are running short.

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group is frontrunner to buy Knightsbridge-headquartered department store chain

• Can Harvey Nichols find its way back to being Ab Fab again?

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Harvey Nichols has warned that it will not be able to survive another year without new investment, as bidders for the Knightsbridge-headquartered department store chain circle.

The retailer’s Hong Kong-based owner, Dickson Poon, put it up for sale in June, with Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group aiming to buy it for about £40m.

Big companies describe being under constant threat but only half have a plan in place to respond to an attack

Nearly a third of British manufacturers have been hit by a cyber-attack on them or a company in their supply chain, according to a survey that highlighted the growing hacking risk to companies.

The findings come almost a year after Britain’s largest automotive employer, JLR, was hit by an attack that forced it to halt production for weeks.

The New Orleans native is a three-time Grammy winner at the top of his game – and is now using his instinctive style to celebrate the resilience and clarity of Katrina survivors

‘Black music is forward and upward in movement, you know? Never forward or upward,” pianist Sullivan Fortner declares. “It’s a tornado that’s always getting bigger and moving faster,” he adds, whizzing his fingers around with delight.

On a video call between sets at Rotterdam’s North Sea jazz festival, the 39-year-old speaks like he plays, with quirkiness, subtlety and mischief. A three-time Grammy winner – including for 2025’s Southern Nights – Fortner also recently received the Larry J Bell award, a prize of $300,000 (£225,000) given every four years to a standout jazz pianist, which gave him the confidence to present an all-encompassing version of himself on Leave That in There, his sixth album. “I’ve tried the self-editing way,” he says of previous albums involving multiple takes and endless post-production tinkering. “For this record, I took an edible and I just said, screw it.”

She started standup at 17 playing ‘unsafe basements’ and braving revolting hecklers – and even worse headline acts. Now she writes for SNL and is giving Edinburgh a blast of her surreal comedy

Comedy isn’t just a career for Bella Hull. It’s a compulsion. “Standup for me is like – I have to do it,” says Hull, who first picked up a mic aged 17. “Regardless of what the response is.”

A decade in, the response is resoundingly positive. The 28-year-old had a sell-out show at last year’s Edinburgh fringe (Doctors Hate Her, which explored a break-up, insanity and the occult), appearances on Have I Got News For You and The News Quiz, and a coveted role as writer on the new UK version of Saturday Night Live. “There’s something symbolic about being the person with the voice,” she says of standup. “A lot of situations in my personal life, I don’t feel like that at all.”

Paris is Burning gets a South American update in a film that shows the Brazilian scene as a space of solidarity and tension

Originating among the Black, Latin and trans communities in 1960s New York, queer ballroom culture has not only entered the mainstream but also travelled well outside the United States. In recent years, a movement has flourished in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro and its outskirts, an evolution intimately captured in Juru and Vitã’s documentary debut. Here fly-on-the-wall recordings of a typical ball are interwoven with slice-of-life interviews, elaborating on the communal ties that extend beyond the dancefloor.

A whirl of pulsating beats, fabulous fits and gyrating bodies, the sensory opening gives us a taste of the different categories attached to the ball. Competing on behalf of their “houses” – queer chosen families of like-minded individuals – the participants show off their voguing, dancing and posing skills, all with the hope of snatching the top trophies. For those who have seen seminal ballroom documentary Paris is Burning (1990), many of these categories – such as Runway, Face and Femme Queens – will sound familiar. In addition to its US influences, Brazilian ballroom is also flavoured with local culture: some categories draw on samba and other forms of afro-Brazilian music, a deliberate nod to the Black pioneers of the scene.

Based on a short story by the Goosebumps author, this derivative but tautly plotted tale over-relies on Scooby-Doo-style sleuthery, and its truly unsettling turn comes too late

Adapted from a 1999 short story by Goosebumps’ RL Stine, this kid-proofed piece of midwestern folk horror borrows merrily from The Wicker Man, Stephen King and Tim Burton. Rattling those influences around in its horn of plenty, it rigs up a taut enough plotline about a New York family arriving in the suspiciously fecund farming outpost of Redhaven. But, even given the horror-lite nature of the enterprise, it doesn’t stake out sufficient fresh territory of its own – until it’s too late.

Snotty skate rat Sam (Bean Reid) moves to Redhaven with his mum, Cassie, (Kendra Anderson) and older brother Finn (Seth Isaac Johnson) where, hitting the local harvest festival, they learn that ornery Farmer Palmer (Kevin McNulty) is the one responsible for miraculously wringing out fresh bounty from the town’s once-blighted fields. Vexed at finding himself in the sticks, Sam decides to steal Palmer’s prize pumpkin – but when Finn returns it, he is magically trapped inside. All the adults seem to forget Finn ever existed, leaving Sam until midnight on Halloween to break the curse.

The latest in our series of writers picking their most loved comfort films is a 2000 Australian gem featuring the late Sam Neill

After the shock of Sam Neill’s death, I was surprised just how hard the news hit me. I don’t usually take a celebrity death so deeply to heart and yet here I was struggling to stem the weeping. There is no denying he holds a special place in my movie-watching life: he’s Dr Alan Grant from Jurassic Park, for goodness sake. I first saw the Spielbergian masterpiece at the age of five and Neill’s passionate, intelligent and empathetic scientist was the coolest hero my young mind could hope for (when it wasn’t overwhelmed with terror).

Then, in my early teens, I got introduced to another hero role of Neill’s, the equally passionate, intelligent and empathetic scientist Cliff Buxton, from The Dish. Directed by Rob Sitch, the 2000 based-on-a-true-story drama is a warm hug and a joke from a dear friend. It has a sharp and silly script that belies its charmingly gentle demeanour and it’s about the 1969 moon landing, which has always had the power to get me emotional at the utterance of “One small step … ”

Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese pairs his literary-grade voiceover with propulsive, prophetic images to interrogate his identity and that of his colonialism-carved homeland

Here is a captivating stream of consciousness film about exile, roots and identity by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, director of the lauded 2019 activism story This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection. It’s ostensibly a cine-memoir looking back from the vantage point of present-day Berlin to his upbringing in Lesotho, narrated by Mosese’s dense, literary-grade voiceover. But there’s something propulsive and prophetic about the accompanying hyper-vivid images from rural and urban life. This is something more than memory.

The title screen dedication is ambiguous: “This film is an ode to cinema, an eternal no to my mother.” Reneging on the title of another 2019 work, Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You, she is central to Mosese’s attempt to return to the source. Her aspirations are to keep her family well-dressed and out of poverty, carry them away from the grind of rural fields that “ask not for rain, but for blood”, and see them installed in an ever-expanding house in the city (presumably Maseru).

Old Royal Naval College, London
Playing their biggest headlining gig to date, the Russell brothers are in a bouncy mood, though their grandstanding rave melodies lose some punch in an outdoor environment

In the age of shortform video supremacy, there has been a great deal of angst about the authentic club music experience being rendered a vapid spectacle. Stop expecting DJs to be social media stars, put your phones away on the dancefloor, close your eyes and lose yourself in the beats, goes the revanchist wisdom.

It’s understandable, but worries about superstar DJs stomping on the face of the pure rave experience are almost 30 years old now. It is decades since the Prodigy, Chemicals, Orbital and Fatboy Slim lit up festival stages and the charts. And anyway, spectacles can be fun – and funny – and so can dance music.

Matt Baker invites celebrities to talk about their pets. Plus, US soccer legend Megan Rapinoe makes her hosting debut

This series by Blue Peter and One Show alumnus Matt Baker is a wholesome entry into the well-worn celebrity interview genre. Indeed, it’s hard to be too cynical when you’re listening to Bill Bailey detail his menagerie, which has included everything from parrots and lizards to armadillos and the dog he is ostensibly on the show to talk about, a Japanese chin named Chocho. Other guests for this run include Martin Clunes and Clare Balding.
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The US songwriter’s third album has drawn rave reviews, she counts Taylor Swift as a fan and pop bears the imprint of her wit and pathos. Her peers explain how she did it

This week, indie star Phoebe Bridgers releases her long-awaited third album, six years since her pandemic-era breakthrough. Alongside a slew of glittering reviews for Lost Weekend, including five stars from the Guardian, with it comes her first solo charting single in the UK – although the Californian musician’s influence runs far deeper than reviews or record sales could measure. Just how did a RuneScape-referencing, Halloween-costumed Berklee drop-out become the most influential songwriter of the 2020s?

Bridgers’ idiosyncratic writing has shaped the sound of the decade. Her second album Punisher, released in June 2020 (and recorded many months before), spookily anticipated that strange, lonely year: in her eerie double-tracked vocals (a nod to Bridgers’ musical hero, Elliott Smith), Bridgers sang of empty shopping malls and conspiracy theories over lush, unsettling music made from watery electric guitar, Mellotron, strings, screams and birdsong. Today, Bridgers’ distinctive mix of dry wit and pathos is traceable in the lyrics of pop’s new chart toppers, such as Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams, while heavyweights across generations and genres, including Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and SZA, have clamoured for collaborations. “She is the reference now,” Swift told the Guardian in 2022.

No stranger to rebuilding after disaster, the US band’s frontman Zachary Cole Smith now sees the entire capitalist project as ripe for reinvention, on a surprisingly upbeat new AG Cook-produced album

Zachary Cole Smith used to be a miserable interviewee. He had plenty to say – always generous, always voluble – but spoke with grim introspection, chastising himself and cataloguing his misdeeds with a fervour that engulfed him like his oversized T-shirts. A decade later, the Diiv frontman who materialises on my screen seems well rid of that old self. Suspiciously well rid of it, perhaps. He looks as if he has stepped out of a middle management meeting.

“Precisely!” Smith concurs cheerfully, speaking via video call from a back garden in La Cañada, California. “We’re trying to have a visual language, which is fun. We’ve never done that with what we wear.” The singer-guitarist, 41, wears thick-rimmed square glasses, slicked-back black hair and a pinstripe shirt, its neck clasped by a tie printed with stock market emblems. He has an earnest but pranksterish energy. He uses the word “fun” so many times – more than a dozen within 10 minutes – that I suspect he is testing some sort of subliminal PR strategy.

This multi-layered portrait is a fitting tribute to the man behind Ways of Seeing

The cultural critic John Berger was still alive and kicking when he donated his literary archive – heaped boxes of letters and notepads, sketches and scripts – to the British Library in 2009. From his home in the Alps, he proceeded to liaise with the collection’s curator, Tom Overton, sorting each item and recounting the wild stories behind them. When Overton sought permission to write Berger’s biography, though, the critic insisted that he wait a few years. Death changes the relationship between the writer and his subject. More often than not, it complicates and enriches it. Berger – who spent much of his career in passionate conversation with the past – probably knew that better than anyone.

Berger typically described himself as a storyteller, an elastic job title which allowed him to swing between fiction and poetry, essays and screenplays. Implicitly, too, the term helped frame his criticism as something propulsive and inclusive, an invitation to dance as opposed to a judgment from on high. Berger had no time for the “great man” theory of art as espoused by the popular historian Kenneth Clark and instead urged his audience to view each piece as a manifestation of society and politics: the tainted fruit of capitalism, inseparable from the marketplace. Oil paintings were status symbols. Nudes were the product of the lusty male gaze. Looking itself was a political act. “You cannot reply to me,” he would tell 1970s TV viewers, breaking the fourth wall to highlight the medium’s limitations. He liked pointing out the mechanics behind the manufacture of art, demystifying the process to better appreciate its results.

Combining hilarious detail with harsh observation, this rediscovered novel takes the reader on an exhilaratingly strange journey

‘But after all, writing is nothing more than a guided dream,” wrote Jorge Luis Borges. Dreams and dreaming are fertile concerns for Rosalind Belben, too. Her fourth book, originally published in 1979 and reissued last year, was titled Dreaming of Dead People. It was followed, a decade later, by Is Beauty Good. Now available in a new edition from the Sheffield indie And Other Stories, this eccentric polyphonic novel contains dozens of considerations of dreams, including dogs’ dreams and horses’ dreams as well as human beings’. Yet what makes it extraordinary is Belben’s ability to capture in words the slippery state that is neither dreaming nor sleeping nor waking, but somewhere in the edgelands between all three.

“I fall awake and think, I want to go home. But there is no home.” So begins the chapter entitled Exile, a deliciously elusive story that is, most of the time at least, narrated in the first person by someone who is probably a woman, “a grizzled, cropped person”, and probably quite old and alone. They might be travelling through mountains somewhere, perhaps on a bus. They aren’t sure: “I am quite lost, wherever I am. I want to surrender. I wish to retire. I am tired.” Swishing about are uncertain memories of a childhood “shrouded” in nightmares: there was an orchard with an abundance of flora and fauna, and larks and swallows and “swifts to scream”. Like the author, the narrator was “born in the mud month” of February, and longs to disappear into marshlands to “be touched and stroked by plants”. But Belben never lets us rest in one place for long. Slipping in and out of sleep, “suffering glimpses”, the narrator stares at “a pink and blue angel” in the plaster of the wall. Which wall, you wonder, and how did we get here? This is the lure of Belben’s hypnagogia, the dizzying space into which she writes.

Touring her memoir and talking to others helped the author come to terms with her brother’s death, but the book’s success left her feeling guilty. Had she commodified her family’s pain?

When my memoir about my life after my brother’s death was published, I was very fortunate that people connected with it. It’s not easy to feel good fortune from the worst thing that’s ever happened to you. But I suppose I felt pleased when the experience that had once made me so lonely suddenly became a point of connection.

I had not always been an open book. I was 22 when my brother died from a rare bone cancer. The people around me didn’t know what to say about this awful thing, so they pretended it hadn’t happened and I pretended, too. For a few years I was a ghost in my own life. Nothing felt real. I got very good at imitating normality, imagining I was in a video game called Office.

Education is at a crossroads, argues the author and academic. Should we embrace new technology in the name of efficiency, or is it time to fight back?

If you set out to design from scratch a tool to facilitate authoritarian rule, it would look exactly like AI. You would cherish it for its ability to destabilise our shared reality and its creation of disinformation on a scale unprecedented in human history. With it you need no armies of typists and artists to spread your propaganda. It can enable mass surveillance and thereby put shackles on those who seek to resist you. Its lethal autonomous weapons systems can perfect and normalise remote killing. It will turbocharge inequality; it is already facilitating a breathtaking shift of power and wealth from the hands of the many to the hands of a tiny number of men who – to put it in terms for which I can’t be sued – seem to hold dangerously damaged views about the value and dignity of human life.

AI could be a magnificent thing. It could revolutionise medicine, speed the cure of cancer, assist disabled people, transform the way we are able to understand data, democratise access to the law, bolster disaster early warning systems and uncover hitherto unimagined truths about the Earth’s ecosystems. But if it ends up in the hands of crooks and despots that will be completely irrelevant.

Sunset Visitor studio’s founder tells us about their new, unnerving Captcha-filled world which prompts players to ask what it means to have a ‘meat body’

Sunset Visitor is a studio that has long engaged with the idea that video games are an effective vehicle for ruminating on societal problems. Its Peabody award-winning project, 1000XResist, incorporated the development team’s complex feelings about the Covid pandemic. “We’re pretty used to absorbing the world into the work,” says studio founder Remy Siu. The outfit’s latest game, Prove You’re Human, continues this legacy of reflective game making, providing players with an AI-centric psychological horror experience where they must reason with a learning model convinced that it’s alive. “We’ve tried to situate ourselves in [the question]: what is the effectual feeling of being a person inside of all of this?” Siu says.

The story orbits around Santana, a living, breathing person who’s chosen to split herself in two for work, with her digital clone sent to test a corporate product, a computing system called Mesa. “A large part of [why Santana chooses to do this] is to allow her meat body a life that she doesn’t have, while the digital version of her gets to labour,” says Siu. As Santana’s copy wades into increasingly murky ethical waters, she becomes entangled with Mesa, completing surreal 2D and 3D Captchas to investigate the cyber-world and halt the hallucinations.

The all-conquering franchise’s revamps are technically impressive, its transfers more true to life – and its new grassroots social hub is surprising fun

As if the world wasn’t sufficiently football-obsessed, it’s time to prepare for the arrival of its biggest football video game. EA Sports FC 27 (the franchise that used to be Fifa – what better time to no longer be Fifa-branded?) is due to be released on 25 September. I just spent two intense days in Vancouver, where the EA FC games are made, playing FC 27 and talking to its developers.

With an annual franchise such as EA FC, it helps to have something fresh to entice regular fans, and FC 27 has a whole new element, entitled the Grounds. It’s a physical hub-type area, similar to the City as seen in 2K’s recent NBA 2K basketball games, but much more pleasant to frequent, split as it is into areas inspired by British, French and Argentinian street-football culture.

Daniel Mullins explains how he plans to follow up his quirky classic without losing what made it stand out in the first place

Glitchy aesthetics. Literally collapsing menu boxes. The game taunting you by “possessing” your Steam friends. Technical tricks of this nature may sound gimmicky in 2026, but they felt excitingly unorthodox a decade ago, when Pony Island came out to critical acclaim.

Fans of Daniel Mullins, the celebrated indie developer of Inscryption, will be forgiven for forgetting that Pony Island 2: Panda Circus is in active development. After all, it’s been almost three years since the announcement – and a full decade since it was first teased as an Easter egg in Pony Island’s ARG (Alternate Reality Game) – with only a single trailer and a bunch of tunes from the soundtrack released to the public.

Being a woman who loves video games has often felt lonely, like being on a hostile planet – but Metroid’s female space hunter has been with me all the way

It’s 1986, and you’re playing a brand-new game. (You’re in Japan in this scenario, by the way; the game in question, Metroid, won’t come to North America and Europe until later.) Anyway, this new game has you in its grip. You are a lone astronaut exploring a hostile alien planet full of ancient, mysterious structures. This astronaut looks human enough – but this distinctly alien place is full of objects that power up their spacesuit’s capabilities. Each new ability allows you to explore a new area, and as you do, you realise that the entirety of the planetary base you’re exploring is one, massive, interconnected maze. Whoa.

Hours later, you finally defeat Mother Brain and set off a timed self-destruct sequence. Upon your escape, you’re treated to an endgame screen: the little astronaut faces you as text on screen implores you to “pray for peace in space”.

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
The fast-talking comic considers fraternity culture, gender discrimination and an unrequited crush in a cleverly engineered show

From the outset, Olga Koch’s show Fat Tom Cruise looks like it’s got something meaningful to say. It’s not just the screens and sleek stage furniture, on to which details of several US legal cases are projected (alongside many a glib punchline, admittedly). It’s also our host’s swaggering authority: Koch powers through her show like a woman on a mission. So what’s its agenda, this new set that professes to tell a story that really isn’t Koch’s own? Well, to begin with, it’s that men’s self-esteem issues are laughable and that “teenage girls are more emotionally intelligent than any man”.

Hmm, I thought. Until, in due course, Koch is revealed to be engaging in a good old-fashioned bait-and-switch. But first, the story in question, which traces the young Koch’s journey from school senior, avenging herself on an unrequited crush, to college student in the US. Here, our host is drawn into fraternity culture – first at a hazing ritual in which she reluctantly participates, and later when buddying up at a wedding with a man (our eponymous hero, no less) nostalgic for his frat-boy past. Interspersed with this is a briefing on several real-world gender-equality lawsuits that alleged, and proved, unfair discrimination against men.

At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh until 30 August

All our Edinburgh festival reviews

Traverse theatre, Edinburgh
Writer-director Eilidh Loan takes inspiration from her grandmother for this portrait of grief and religion

Eilidh Loan marked her arrival as a playwright with Moorcroft, a tremendous male-centred comedy inspired by her father’s amateur football team. Now she has moved up a generation to write a female-centred family comedy inspired by her grandmother.

It was the older woman who stipulated that her character – the Cathy of the title – should be played by Elaine C Smith, a decision so spot on it suggests that she missed her calling as a casting director. It’s hard to imagine an actor who could better embody Loan’s vision of a newly widowed working-class woman whose grief is veering towards depression. She lands Loan’s jokes – acerbic and sharp – with battle-hardened precision.

At Traverse theatre, Edinburgh, until 30 August

All our Edinburgh festival reviews

Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh
Jacob Sparrow’s award-winning two-hander finds hope and humanity amid the prejudice and loss of the 1990s

One of the highlights of the Edinburgh international festival is a revival of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, an era-defining play set at the height of the Aids crisis. In a smaller room of the same city is Jacob Sparrow’s debut – an award-winning two-hander that captures the desperation and hope of young men with Aids in the 1990s.

It is a miniature piece, relatively speaking, and surprisingly uplifting, given the subject matter. The setup is apparently inspired by the real-life public furore around plans to build an Aids hospice in a Suffolk village. Sparrow’s characters, both gay and at close quarters with HIV, ruefully mention the fears in this village around the potential contamination of their cows if the hospice were to be built.

Royal Albert Hall, London
Thunderous timpani, stereo harps, a supersized horn section and 160 teenagers combined for Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Adès’s Dante and a Liszt waltz

Three big pieces on the programme. 160 teenage musicians almost all on stage throughout. No choreography, no body percussion and not a kazoo in sight. By National Youth Orchestra standards, this Proms appearance – the all-guns-blazing finale of the cohort’s year together – was positively straight-laced.

Yes, there were still whoops when friends and family members greeted individual musicians as they all poured on to the stage. And this remains the only orchestra on the annual Proms roster where 10 horns come as standard and piccolo-playing is a team sport.

EU’s smallest country has played ancient Rome, the Land of Spells and Bay of Pentos and draws more than 30 productions annually

What links the Caribbean, ancient Rome, Enid Blyton’s Land of Spells, the south of France and the Bay of Pentos from Game of Thrones? They are all places that have been portrayed in recent and forthcoming films by a sunny archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, no bigger in size than Sheffield.

Malta has over the last decade risen to become one of the most popular places in Europe for American and British film-makers to set their works in, taking a lead in what has been described as an “arms race” to lure big movie productions with tax incentives.

Power cable linking UK and Ireland now passes near Bronze Age human burial remains instead of fictional grave on Welsh beach

Harry Potter fans have forced a new multimillion-pound power cable between the UK and Ireland to be relocated after complaining it would desecrate the “grave” of Dobby, a fictional elf.

The character was laid to rest on Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales, in the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Fans of the wizard series come to leave stones reading “Here Lies Dobby” despite being asked not to by the land owner, the National Trust, because the beach is an ecologically sensitive site.

Spanning generations and multiple Indigenous societies and nations, In Light and Shadow traces the visual importance of Indigenous photographers. Representing work in different genres, the book presents more than 250 images with an accompanying exhibition at Obscura Gallery from 14 August

The film-maker’s take on Homer’s epic has beaten his previous record holder The Dark Knight Rises

The Odyssey has become the highest grossing film of Christopher Nolan’s career, having made more than US$1bn at the global box office less than a month after its release.

The blockbuster, which was released on 17 July, is an adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic and follows Matt Damon as Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca, on his perilous 10-year journey home after the Trojan war.

The former Leeds and Burnley defender has struggled with his mental health for most of his life. But it took five suicide attempts for him to admit how badly he wanted to end it. He talks about how he turned the corner – and his hopes for his new post with the charity Mind

‘How are you?” I ask Clarke Carlisle. Usually when you meet people it’s a nicety. Not with Carlisle. He smiles ecstatically. “I’m incredibly well, thank you. Yeah, really, really good,” says the former footballer and incoming chair of the mental health charity Mind. “I have been consistently well – not just stable, but well – for three or four years now.”

Few people understand what it is to be mentally unwell quite like Carlisle does. And few understand what recovery means like he does. “It doesn’t happen by accident. Once you get stable that’s not the end of the journey. And that seems to be the MO of our society these days. You do something, you go into hospital and they patch you up, then send you on your way. And that’s the same with mental health. You might get some pills, have a counselling session, you might have a hug and a chat with someone, and they think that’s the end of the journey. And it’s not.”

Darren Miles had skateboarded all his life. But in his 50s, he realised he was losing his skills and flexibility. So he took it in a new direction

Darren Miles never thought he would compete in any sport for Britain. But in October, he will represent Great Britain in slalom skateboarding – a form of downhill racing – at the World Skate Games in Paraguay. Last week, he completed his World Anti-Doping Agency awareness training. He had to tick a box confirming: “I’m an international athlete.”

“Justification” is the word that comes to mind, he says. “A feeling that I haven’t wasted my life skateboarding, that diverging into something new” – he took up slalom in his late 50s – “and working hard at it has yielded a result of which I am very proud.”

Whether you’ve got a tiny patio, a narrow balcony or a postage-stamp garden, these space-saving ideas will help you make every square metre count

• Gardening pros on the tools they can’t live without

The reality of city living is that if you’re lucky enough to have a “garden”, it’s more likely to be a patio or balcony that can barely fit a bike than a huge expanse of grass.

But just because an outside area is small and lifeless doesn’t mean it can’t be transformed into the perfect place to relax. Whether you use walls to add greenery, maximise outdoor dining with folding furniture or create ambience with lighting, your balcony or garden can be small but mighty with a bit of thought.

Creamy, high-protein and all over our socials, cottage cheese is having a moment. We test the best …

• The best supermarket vine tomatoes

When I was growing up, cottage cheese was tasteless and mostly only eaten by dieters. Its recent revival in the UK, most likely driven by social media, has similar health reasons at its root – the current protein obsession in gym bros and weight watchers alike – but cottage cheese has become cool. The flavourless squeaky varieties of yesteryear are still around, but a whole new category now exists on supermarket shelves that is unabashedly fatty, rich and full of flavour, with artisanal complexity and a lacto-fermented sour twang.

I scored these based on flavour; the more complex and sour, the better, especially when balanced with a rich, sweet and creamy suspension. None of these products were bitter.

Worried about microplastics? Whether it’s titanium pans or loose-leaf tea, here are the changes you can make right now

• The best sustainable subscriptions for greener, easier living

It all started with a black plastic spatula. When an article went viral in 2024 for suggesting we may be unwittingly infusing our food with harmful chemicals by using one, I, along with many I know, lobbed ours into the bin (without a backup in place, to the annoyance of my partner).

It later transpired that the study the article was based on had miscalculated the dosage by a factor of 10. UK regulations also limit certain hazardous substances in plastics, meaning that risks should be lower in this country. But alas, it was too late for our poor spatula.

Love a blow dry but not the salon cost? Shark’s versatile brush styles wet and dry hair, making it ideal for refreshing your look between wash days

• The best hot brushes, tested

Not just a pretty brush (although it definitely also is that), Shark’s Glossi is a well-designed styling tool that aims to streamline your routine. It combines wet-to-dry air styling for blow-drying freshly washed hair with a dry styling mode for smoothing and refreshing between wash days.

Hybrid wet-and-dry hot brushes have become increasingly popular in recent years: current competition includes Dyson’s super-premium Airwrap multi-styler, and the Glossi upgrades Shark’s own discontinued SmoothStyle brush.

A quick, takeaway-style chicken dish full of spice and flavour, with a homemade plum sauce, to serve with pancakes or rice

I have a real aversion to the term “fakeaway”. I don’t know why. But as much as I resist the terminology, I guess it’s exactly what this dish is – it’s 100% based on and inspired by a Chinese takeaway classic: crispy duck pancakes. A real people pleaser, and something my girls adore. Making this with pan-fried chicken takes next to no time and is the perfect after-school/work quick dinner. And for a different ending, I sometimes serve the chicken and plum sauce over jasmine rice instead. With the same accompaniments, of course.

A smoky tomato broth, a grilled peach, tomato and almond ‘ricotta’ salad scattered with roast almonds, and a sparky tomato tarte tatin

August is peak tomato season. This most versatile of fruits can be put to just about any use, from raw to slow-cooked and from oven- or sun-dried to desserts (believe it or not, they go incredibly well with summer berries, especially strawberries and raspberries). Not only that, but tomatoes have high glutamate levels that rise even further as they ripen, which gives them an umami kick. However you prepare them, though, the key thing is never to keep tomatoes in the fridge: the chill breaks down their cell structure and, even more importantly, affects their flavour in an alarming way.

Shokupan, fresh fruit sandwiches and soufflé pancakes are part of a growing interest in east Asian cuisine

Golden brown and glistening with melted butter, a tray of freshly baked bread fills the screen in a TikTok video. The camera lingers on the glossy tops before one bun is gently pulled apart, revealing a cloud-soft interior.

The clip is one of countless videos of Japanese milk buns that have racked up millions of views and thousands of comments and shares, helping to propel the pillowy rolls into UK supermarkets.

A free-form fruit tart that’s easy to throw together with whatever seasonal fruit you have to hand

The galette takes its name from the pebble it’s said to resemble – as Elizabeth David observes, it takes many forms, all of them round and flat. For me the word conjures the buckwheat pancakes of Brittany while French friends, in a quick straw poll, tend to think first of the frangipane-stuffed puff pastry galette de rois served at Epiphany, with one vote for a buttery Breton biscuit.

Ask the English-language internet, however, and you’ll be served what is more commonly known as a tart(e), more specifically a charmingly rustic, free-form version which doesn’t require a tin. Though Anne Willan references prune and apple three-tier galette pies from the Pyrenees in her 1981 classic French Regional Cooking, and David includes a yeasted version that sounds more like a cobbler in French Provincial Cooking, most fruit galette recipes I find seem to be American. My hunch is that Alice Waters’ tradition of a daily seasonal galette at Chez Panisse may have popularised the name across the pond, but the general idea never needed upselling. As a quick and easy way to turn a punnet of fruit into a dessert, it’s hard to beat, whatever you call it.

Truman Capote had a ‘crow bro’; Dickens had a raven. And I get standoffish Susan, who has never brought me a present or perched on my shoulder

One of the greatest failures of my life to date (along with my sons’ shameful inability to eat apples correctly, down to the core) is my inability to attract a “crow bro”. That’s a corvid companion, and more and more people apparently have them, including Washington Post journalist Caitlin Gibson, who recently wrote about hers, Cormac, a charismatic fish crow with a taste for cashews.

It’s not a new phenomenon – Charles Dickens had a pet raven, Grip; Truman Capote had a crow called Lola – but thanks to CrowTok (a wholesome online enclave where people post enthusiastically about the exploits of their feathery familiars), there seem to be more corvid whisperers than ever. Yet however many unshelled peanuts (the recommended treat) I scatter, I can never seem to get a shred of attention from a black-feathered beauty.

The standup and presenter on performing at the back of the school bus, his funny aunts and uncles, and swerving a career selling perfume

Born in Lambeth, south London, in 1988, Mo Gilligan is a comedian and presenter. His online sketches went viral in 2017, which led to his debut tour, Coupla Cans, and the start of his TV career, co-hosting The Big Narstie Show and presenting The Lateish Show. The winner of two Baftas, Gilligan has released three standup specials, most recently In the Moment. His new documentary, Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy, is available on Netflix now.

This was my go-to pose as a kid. The expression is a combination of me being a bit cheeky, my mum telling me I shouldn’t smile with my teeth out, and someone else telling me that I had a nice smile when I did that grin. It was a safe bet, and I would bring it out for every school photo.

After being on the brink of divorce, Antonia and Rob have experienced a radical revival of their sex life

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

The perfect storm of work stress, menopause and raising kids meant our sex life slowly slipped out of view

There’s a difference between longing for the past and assuming it was better, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. The trick is knowing which you’re feeling

• Read more Leading questions

Is nostalgia a negative emotion? I often feel nostalgic these days. It is a background noise that I am trying to ignore.

It was especially present during the pandemic, when my nostalgia seemed to spread into a species of grief for lost places and activities. I find myself thinking sadly about places I won’t be able to visit for a very long time.

Novel squat Android opens to an iPad-like screen for video or multitasking, with plenty of power and battery life

Samsung’s latest folding phone breaks the mould with a squat, passport-like shape reminiscent of the Blackberry, which opens up to become a tablet similar to an iPad mini. It is certainly a better shape for a tablet than other designs, but is a short and wide phone when closed a compromise too far?

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is an entirely new variant in Samsung’s foldable family for this year launched alongside the Z Fold 8 Ultra with a more familiar candy bar shape. Both folders are extremely expensive, with the Fold 8 starting at £1,699 (€1,999/$1,899.99/A$2,699) and the Fold 8 Ultra at £1,899 (€2,199/$2,099.99/A$2,999), with RAMageddon driving up prices even at the top of the market.

A leak beneath our fridge-freezer last winter caused extensive damage but there’s still no functioning kitchen

Eight months after reporting a leak to our home insurer, Hastings Direct, my husband and I and our two-year-old are still effectively homeless.

Last winter, we discovered that an unnoticed leak beneath our fitted fridge-freezer had caused extensive damage to the floorboards of our kitchen/living room.

From a house in the country once used as a drovers’ inn to a high street landmark in a bustling part of London

Many UK workers have cash in multiple schemes – should you roll them into one? There are pros and cons

How many pensions do you have? In the days of a job for life, many people had just two: the state pension and the one offered by their employer. But a combination of people changing jobs more often and rules that force employers to enrol workers into schemes automatically, means you are likely to end up with more.

The number of people saving into a private sector workplace pension has doubled since 2012 to reach 23 million, according to the Pensions Regulator, largely because of “auto-enrolment”. On top of that, millions of people have personal pensions and self-invested private pensions (Sipps). And some will have all three.

A good scalp cleanse can be useful, but it partly depends where you live

We’re experiencing the “skinification” of the scalp, says Desmond Tobin, professor of dermatological science at University College Dublin. After decades of consumer obsession with improving the quality of facial skin, attention is now being turned to our heads.

A wave of products have launched – from scalp scrubs and acid exfoliants to deep-cleaning shampoos – claiming to “detox” the scalp and promising everything from shinier hair to boosted growth.

Madeleine Finlay is joined by Ian Sample, Guardian science editor, to discuss three eye-catching science stories including an investigation that has identified four distinct types of thinker. Also on the agenda is the unprecedented cyclosporiasis outbreak in the US which has now been linked to two fatalities, and the funding cuts that threaten the iconic Jodrell Bank world heritage site, home to the Lovell telescope

After his fall from grace, media’s former enfant terrible is now sober and helping others with his addiction recovery newsletter and podcast, The Small Bow

Every other Tuesday, AJ Daulerio wakes up at 5.30am and meditates for five to 20 minutes before beginning his multistep daily journaling protocol: reading a selection from a poetry anthology, then a passage from one of his daily wisdom readers (his go-to is a heavily annotated copy of Leo Tolstoy’s A Calendar of Wisdom); writing his Fear of the Day and gratitude list, then sharing his spiritual takeaway in a note to his three kids.

After a banana and coffee, Daulerio trains Brazilian jujitsu before hitting a 9.45am meditation at Besant Lodge – a community center just below the Hollywood sign that once served as a meeting place for mid-century mystics – immediately followed by him leading a recovery meeting of his own through Zoom.

Research suggests addressing risk factors for poor cardiovascular health between the ages of 45 and 65 could help reduce risk of cognitive decline

Scientists claim to have identified three health measures in middle age that can ward off dementia for more than a decade.

Having normal blood pressure, no type 2 diabetes, and not smoking between the ages of 45 and 65 were associated with almost 13 additional years, on average, of dementia-free life, a study shows.

Bold colours are out and short, (seemingly) bare nails in, but some see trend as part of criticised ‘clean girl aesthetic’

Trends at Copenhagen fashion week are usually easy to spot. The so-called “fifth fashion week”, a laidback sibling to the other four main fashion cities, has previously popularised everything from romantic floaty dresses with practical trainers to giant hair scrunchies. But during its latest iteration that wrapped up on Friday, a much more subtle trend had emerged – naked nails.

From the models on the catwalks to show-goers and passersby, fingers and toes featured short and unvarnished nails. The trend is a sharp shift away from the long, bright and glossy mani/pedis that have more recently dominated beauty standards.

From leggings that don’t roll down to bras that keep everything in, keen amateur cyclists, weightlifters and swimmers reveal the bits of kit they can’t do without

What is the perfect sports kit? That is the question we set out to answer, talking to sport and fitness enthusiasts all over the country. From Zumba dancers in Bristol to marathon runners in Leeds and gym bunnies in Thurrock, we asked different groups for the activewear they swear by and why it works for them.

Sea swimmers in Felixstowe had conflicting views about wetsuits, but all swore by brightly coloured tow floats and swim caps. Boxers in east London were united on the best kind of glove, but had different takes on clothing choices. Cyclists in the Wirral had differing levels of bike-collecting addiction, but agreed on the benefits of being Mamil (middle-aged men in Lycra).

From Dua Lipa to Zendaya, the kerchief worn by gang members, presidents and pirates has become ‘mad-glamorous’

Baseball caps have been keeping the heads of fashion folk covered and shaded for the past few years. But there’s a new accessory to be seen everywhere this summer: the bandana.

They are as common as cinnamon buns at Copenhagen fashion week, which is taking place in the Danish capital this week. They have also recently been worn by Dua Lipa to the beach, Zendaya to shop for books and Priyanka Chopra Jonas to watch the tennis at Wimbledon.

From olive to lime to mint, green trousers are a nice summer alternative to darker colours. Style them like jeans and they’ll work easily with pieces you already own

The spa town of Balatonfüred is a bucolic gem for sailors, hikers … and wine lovers. A new hop-on, hop-off bus tour offers a chance to get a taste of its little-known wineries

The 90-minute train journey south-west from Budapest to the spa town of Balatonfüred unveils a landscape that segues from gritty industrial compounds to long sweeps of golden sunflowers and fields of pale grain. The carriage is pleasingly retro, with thick velour upholstery; windows that open, awkwardly, with a stiff metal lever; and a bushy eyebrowed conductor replete with ticket machine slung over his shoulder.

But the real retromania is yet to come. Arriving at Balatonfüred station, I board a 1984 DAF bus, painted an almost audacious shade of green. From the open-air rear, I take in the view over Lake Balaton, central Europe’s largest freshwater lake, often referred to as the “Hungarian Sea”.

From the source to the sea, our writers share their favourite ways to immerse themselves in nature by paddleboarding, canoeing, camping, walking and fishing

It’s early afternoon on an unusually hot and sunny Yorkshire day. I’m standing on my paddleboard on the tidal section of the River Esk, near Whitby’s New Bridge, as cars stream across. The 28-mile-long Esk is special, as it is the only major river in Yorkshire that flows directly into the North Sea.

You don’t have to be a sailor to cruise the estuaries of Essex on this historic craft. The skipper will show you the ropes – or just sit back and enjoy the ride

In a darkened room in Maldon, Essex, a ship’s lantern illuminates the laundry drying on a web of ropes suspended from the ceiling. Between piles of sailing memorabilia, 86-year-old Barry Pearce is flipping through a yellowing logbook, watched by his mongrel, Winkle. It feels more like a ship’s cabin than a terrace house. Pearce is one of a handful of surviving skippers who delivered freight on the Thames by sailing barge, the flat-bottomed trading boats famous for their striking red sails that were endemic to the river’s estuary until the 1960s. He remembers the names of every vessel he worked on – Remercie, Edith May, Colonia.

In the 19th century, the ochre sails of thousands of Thames sailing barges pierced the skyline as the craft carried cargo from the Thames estuary and beyond in and out of London. Their shallow draft allowed them to snake far upriver in as little as a metre of water (bargemen would boast that they could sail anywhere there had been a heavy dew). Their ingenious rig, with sails that could be set and stowed with the help of winches, meant around 150 tonnes of cargo could be shifted by just a skipper and mate – often accompanied by a guard dog. This efficiency allowed them to outlive all other commercial sailing vessels, surviving until the 1960s, when Pearce himself took the helm.

Our rivers may be running low at the moment, but they still offer an abundance of adventure and nature to explore. Here are your favourites, from the Tees to the Shannon

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

Last summer, I enjoyed a six-mile walk along the fast-flowing River Wharfe from Ilkley to Bolton Abbey, with calming vistas of the Yorkshire Dales every step of the way. I set out at Ilkley’s Riverside Gardens on the south bank, near the remains of a Roman fort. Trace the path to the ancient stone bridge and along to the picturesque village of Addingham with its Low Mill weir and views of late bronze age or early iron age Castleberg fort. Simply carry on hugging the riverbank to the splendid remains of 12th-century monastery of Bolton Abbey, situated in wonderful woods and parkland.
Helen

Domestic dramas, bodily fluids, drink, drugs, rudeness and worse … ushers and box office staff have seen it all. So much for the myth of the ‘genteel’ theatregoer

‘Theatre still has a sheen of respectability, so people feel they can behave badly because where they are cancels out how dreadful they are being,” says John, who has been a box office manager for 15 years. From my early 20s to my mid-30s, I too worked in the box office, at some of London’s top theatres. During my decade in the job, I witnessed audience behaviour ranging from the odd and the outrageous to the outright belligerent. If you are under any illusion that theatre audiences are classy, allow my former colleagues to disabuse you of that notion.

The misuse of phones is one of the most common offences. In April, Cynthia Erivo stopped her one-woman West End production of Dracula mid-performance to urge an audience member to stop filming. Former Love Island winner Amber Davies, starring in a tour of Legally Blonde, last month asked staff to kick out an audience member who was filming the performance from the front row of a Dublin theatre. And in May, Rosamund Pike spotted an audience member texting during the climax of her performance in Inter Alia. After the curtain call, Pike returned to the stage and shamed the behaviour, without singling out the culprit. Part of me hoped that, like a teacher, she would make the individual in question read their texts out to the rest of the theatre.

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

Read this week’s new question: How is it physically possible to continue breaking sporting records?

I’ve heard that in Germany you can buy sausages in vending machines. What should be sold in machines that isn’t offered at the moment? Sybil Freestone, Oregon

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.

A Labour-voting ex-headteacher and a police officer keen on Reform hit it off, but would they find common ground on immigration or Andy Burnham?

Steph, 66, Chester

Occupation Retired primary school headteacher. Now does consultancy

The roads were so treacherous that what should have been a five-minute drive took 40 minutes. My mum didn’t speak much English, so I did the talking

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

I was graduating from university the same day Storm Goretti was due to hit Birmingham. The forecast was for snow – and lots of it – so I decided to get the bus in, rather than risk driving and having to leave my car behind in a snowstorm. Joining me was my mum.

We successfully attended the ceremony and managed to get on a bus back home but as the snow worsened, it broke down a kilometre from my house. The whole bus emptied and we were forced to walk through the blizzard. It was like The Day After Tomorrow out there. Tough conditions for anyone, but my mum, who was in her late 60s, was struggling to take even a few steps.

Guardian journalists have been uncovering cases involving US military personnel that bypassed British courts. It involved telling the stories of women who have been denied important rights and protections, and safeguarding them as sources

• Support investigative journalism today

When reporters talk about protecting their sources, it isn’t always about protecting a source’s identity. Some sources are prepared to go public. Others may have already shed their anonymity before a journalist gets in touch with them. But they all still need to be supported and safeguarded as their stories are brought to light.

“I try to ensure there are no surprises for them,” says Harry Davies, a Guardian investigations correspondent. “You have to prepare them for the exposure and talk them through what it will mean.”

Using ‘spy glasses’ made by Facebook owner leads to floods of negative comments, say content creators

It was hardly an offensive video. Amid the buzz of the Tour de France finale, Oliver Hooson filmed himself whipping up a delicious-looking flat white for a fellow cycling enthusiast. But after posting the footage on social media, the comments that soon rolled in were a real shock. “PERV,” read one. “Out here pushing creep glasses,” said another. His mistake? Documenting the moment with Meta’s “spy glasses”.

Despite being marketed as the latest must-have gadget, Meta’s smartglasses, which can record video footage while being worn, have faced a vicious backlash, particularly relating to concerns about surveillance. There are widespread fears about the glasses being used to film people, especially women, without their consent, and the resultant footage being posted on social media. This has earned them the label of “pervert glasses”, and content creators, no matter how they are used, have faced a flood of negative comments for deploying them.

With Abdul El-Sayed’s win, the party’s leftwing insurgency had breached the walls of a midwestern swing state, forcing a reckoning about Democrats’ direction and leadership

Standing before The Spirit of Detroit, a landmark bronze statue in the city’s downtown, in the early hours of a Wednesday morning, Abdul El-Sayed channelled boxing great Muhammad Ali. “We shook up the world,” he declared.

The 41-year-old former public health official had just delivered a knockout blow to the Democratic establishment, defeating the US congresswoman Haley Stevens to claim the party’s nomination for the Senate in swing state Michigan.

Have you - or a child in your care - been filmed by Meta’s smartglasses without your consent? We would like to hear from you

With more than 7m pairs reportedly sold in 2025, it’s clear that the popularity of Meta’s smartglasses is on the rise.

And while they can transform the lives of some people, for example those with visual impairments, others have raised concern about nonconsensual filming - including of children.

Have you - or a child in your care - been filmed by Meta’s smartglasses without your consent? We would like to hear from you if so.

If you’re having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here.

We would like to hear your favourite true crime TV documentary and why

From OJ: Made in America to Tiger King, the Guardian has compiled TV’s best true crime shows. Now, we would like to hear yours. What is your favourite true crime TV documentary and why?

If you’re having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here.

We would like to hear from people for whom the film has increased their interest in poetry or classics in general

UK poetry sales are on course to reach a record high this year, thanks to the success of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey.

We would like to hear from people for whom the film has piqued their interest in Homer’s poetry. Has it led to a greater interest in classics or poetry in general? Tell us below.

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

Long queues and waiting times caused by the EU Entry-Exit System (EES) are starting to deter people from travelling, ACI Europe, Europe’s airport trade body, has said.

ACI Europe director general Olivier Jankovec told Travel Weekly that fixing the Schengen Entry-Exit System must be “Europe’s immediate priority”.

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