He has been besieged by birds, had 120m crabs try to crawl up his trouser leg and stayed cool beside an erupting Icelandic volcano. As David Attenborough turns 100, we celebrate his most extraordinary adventures

Today, David Attenborough turns 100. He is, without question, Britain’s greatest national treasure; a man who has devoted his career to helping the public engage with the natural world. But his story is also the story of television. Attenborough joined the BBC just as television ownership hit its biggest period of growth, then went on to shape the medium, both on and off camera, over the next decades. He is as important a figure in television as you will ever find, and here are his wildest moments.

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From devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales to councils and mayoralties in England, find out what happened in your area

• Latest news updates and analysis from election night

Their microtonal rock has been a huge viral hit – but are they really 333-year-old aliens inspired by Borneo monkeys? The Quebecois duo tell all

Recently, Angine de Poitrine had to get new heads. The alien-looking rock duo were not in fact born with the monochrome polka-dotted complexions and extruded faces that millions of listeners have obsessed over since they went viral this spring. Guitarist Khn has a long, twangable nose and double-necked guitar/bass; drummer Klek’s dangly proboscis bounces along to his stone-cold playing. Both are apparently 333-year-old time travellers primarily inspired by a solemn musical quartet of monkeys from Borneo. Over months of hard gigging, their handmade papier-mache masks had gone soggy from the musicians’ laboured breathing. “When I looked at mine, I was like: Jesus Christ, did I really play that much with this?” says Klek. “It was falling apart. It was like putting a Christmas box outside when it’s raining.”

But when the masks disintegrated, it was important that their more robust replacements still looked lived-in. “People have fallen in love with the band as it’s always been,” says Khn. “So we’re not gonna change everything [because] we have a bigger budget now. We’re emotionally attached to our old beaten-up costumes that have been in car accidents and are full of snot. We think people love the fact that you can feel they have lived.”

Some people wear elaborate clothes and spin their sabers like in the movies, but if you fight theatrically you’ll lose

I grew up in the suburbs around Paris and started fencing when I was five. I kept it up until I was about 22, but then began looking for something else. I started running marathons instead. The good thing about running is that you can go whenever you want – but that also means you can put it off all the time. I wanted a sport that had more structure.

I considered options like the canne de combat, a martial art in which people fight each other with a wooden cane. But then I listened to a podcast that mentioned plans to create a fighting sport using lightsabers. I thought: I’m a geek. I like Star Wars. I’ve done fencing. Let’s try it.

Universities in Britain rely on overseas applicants paying full fees, which has given rise to some unscrupulous recruiters and left many hopefuls and their families deep in debt

By Samira Shackle. Read by Dinita Gohil

A booming tech sector has disrupted translation jobs in publishing – but they could be needed for a while longer yet

In February 2022, while he was plugging away at rendering the US writer Dana Spiotta’s novel Wayward into French, the literary translator Yoann Gentric decided he needed a bit of light relief. He would test whether AI could put him out of work.

Gentric had been grappling with a short non-verbal sentence that described the book’s protagonist’s feelings upon opening a window: “Bright, sharp night air, bracing.” He put the prompt into DeepL, a neural-network-powered machine translation engine that regularly outperforms Google Translate in accuracy assessments.

Local council results are being announced in England; Scottish and Welsh parliament results are due from midday

• 2026 election results: latest from local, Scottish and Welsh votes

We’re getting statements from some of the political parties now as we wait for results.

For the Conservatives, party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said:

We have run an energetic and positive campaign, showcasing that we have a clear plan to get Britain working again and that we have the team to deliver it... We know that so soon after a historic general election defeat and contesting wards won during the Party’s polling highs, that this will be a difficult set of elections for us. But we will continue to rebuild and to show the public that we have changed, to demonstrate that only this new Conservative party is a credible alternative.

People are deeply disappointed with a Labour government that has been too timid to fix the country, but they are also appalled by the rise of Reform and Nigel Farage’s Trump-style politics. While those on the extremes of the right and the left want to burn everything down, Liberal Democrats want to fix what’s broken. Every Liberal Democrat local champion elected today will fight tirelessly for the communities they serve.

I’ve travelled across England and Wales and I’m hearing the same everywhere I go – confidence that we will win more councillors than ever before. The news from the doorstep is that we will be taking seats from not just Labour but the Tories and Lib Dems too, from all across the country. Voters are responding to the fact that Greens are the only party taking the cost-of-living crisis seriously, with real plans to cut bills, reduce rents and provide genuinely affordable homes, as well as tackling the climate and nature crisis.

Throughout this election, we have heard a clear appetite for change. People want a government that will stand up for Wales and focus relentlessly on the key issues affecting their lives. People have told us they have been inspired by Rhun ap Iorwerth’s leadership and driven by a desire for a positive alternative to Reform UK’s chaos and division.

Reform runaway winners in north-east, likely pushing Labour into opposition in Hartlepool, with other losses for Starmer in Chorley, Wigan, Redditch and Tamworth

• Election 2026 live: latest news updates

• Full results from England, Scotland and Wales

The scale of the electoral challenge facing Labour was laid bare overnight as the party haemorrhaged councillors at the local elections and Reform made significant gains.

Keir Starmer’s party went into Thursday’s local elections expected to lose up to 1,850 councillors, with senior figures describing the contest as “tough”.

Candidates from across spectrum report abuse online and in person before local and devolved elections in England, Wales and Scotland

• 2026 election results: latest from local, Scottish and Welsh votes

Candidates and political parties have described a climate of abuse in this year’s local and devolved elections, including death threats and intimidation while campaigning.

Politicians from a range of parties have reported abuse and harassment in the lead-up to the elections in England, Scotland and Wales, with the Green party describing this year’s campaign as the worst in memory.

Labour is resigned to losses but which party its voters switch to will be crucial in shaping new political landscape

Labour is braced for a brutal set of local, Scottish and Welsh election results that will define either the next phase of Keir Starmer’s prime ministership or bring about the end of it. Party strategists expect losses of close to 2,000 seats across England, Wales and Scotland but the damage could be a lot worse. The danger for the prime minister is not whether Labour loses heavily but where those losses come from and who those voters turn to.

Across England, Reform UK is hoping to turn public anger over immigration, living standards and distrust of Westminster into local power. In progressive cities, the Greens believe voters are ready to punish Labour from the left, while in parts of Blackburn, Birmingham and east London the independents are continuing to capitalise on anger over Gaza.

Donald Trump says the ceasefire remains in place despite the strikes, with Iranian TV saying the situation is ‘back to normal’

The US and Iran exchanged fire late on Thursday in the most serious test yet of their month-long ceasefire.

Iran accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships at the strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian areas, as the US insisted it struck in retaliation.

At least 29 passengers of 12 nationalities left the MV Hondius on 24 April after the first fatality

• Where did the cruise ship hantavirus come from and what happens next?

Authorities around the world are racing to trace dozens of passengers who disembarked from the cruise ship at the centre of a deadly hantavirus outbreak before isolation measures were implemented.

It emerged for the first time on Thursday that at least 29 passengers of 12 nationalities left the MV Hondius on 24 April after the first fatality, prompting a scramble to identify and track their movements since then.

Naturalist says he has been ‘overwhelmed by greetings’ as milestone is marked with event at Royal Albert Hall

David Attenborough said he had been “completely overwhelmed by birthday greetings” for his centenary on Friday and thanked wellwishers “most sincerely”.

The naturalist said he had hoped to celebrate his 100th birthday quietly. Instead, the milestone will be marked with a live event at the Royal Albert Hall broadcast on BBC One, featuring music from his programmes as well as stories and reflections from public figures and leading advocates for the natural world.

In a recorded audio message shared on Thursday night, Attenborough said: “I had rather thought that I would celebrate my 100th birthday quietly, but it seems that many of you have had other ideas.

Criminals are manipulating pictures found on school websites and social media to create sexually explicit images

UK schools should remove pictures of pupils’ faces from their websites and social media accounts because blackmailers are using them to create sexually explicit images, experts have said.

Child safety experts and the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) warn that criminals are using AI to manipulate photos of children and then demand cash not to publish them.

Spokesperson for Welsh singer shared further update on her health after she was rushed to hospital in Faro, Portugal

Bonnie Tyler has been placed into an induced coma to aid her recovery after emergency intestinal surgery, a spokesperson for the singer has said.

It was revealed on Wednesday that the 74-year-old had been rushed to a hospital near her home in Faro, Portugal, for the procedure, and was recuperating.

Ex-defence ministers, Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe both sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, among the most severe sentences in a years-long purge

Two former Chinese defence ministers were given suspended death sentences for bribery on Thursday, after being convicted by China’s military court, in some of the most severe punishments to be handed down in a years-long purge of the military.

Chinese state media Xinhua announced on Thursday that Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe were both sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, meaning that their sentences will probably be commuted to life imprisonment if Li and Wei demonstrate good behaviour.

Weeks before her death, Annabel Rook, 46, from Stoke Newington, left her sister a voice message about Clifton George’s abusive behaviour

The co-founder of a social enterprise who was fatally stabbed by her partner said he was “on the warpath” shortly before she died, in a voice message that was played during a murder trial.

Clifton George, 45, is accused of murdering 46-year-old Annabel Rook during an argument at their home in north London last June.

Trump also issues new deadline for EU to implement trade deal terms before raising tariffs to ‘much higher levels’

The US trade court on Thursday ruled against Donald Trump’s latest 10% global tariffs, finding across-the-board tariffs were not justified under a 1970s trade law.

The US court of international trade ruled in favor of small businesses that challenged the tariffs, which took effect on 24 February. The ruling was 2-1, with one judge saying it was premature to grant victory to the small business plaintiffs.

Exclusive: Until now nothing was known about ‘Jersey’, depicted with naval officer, but research raises hopes he may have won freedom

For hundreds of years, he was known only as “Jersey”, an enslaved boy of about 11 rendered in oil on canvas by the great 18th-century portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds.

But now the life of the youngster, believed to be Reynolds’ earliest depiction of a person of colour, has begun to emerge, thanks to a research project.

With transport set to be Australia’s top-emitting sector by 2030, officials have recognised the need to invest

At Penrith, a suburb on Sydney’s rural fringe 50km (30 miles) west of the central business district, you can catch a train to the city every four to eight minutes during the morning peak, and roughly every 10 to 15 minutes during off-peak hours before midnight.

On an express service, it takes 52 minutes to Sydney’s Central station, comparable to the journey by car, without factoring in the morning traffic on a tolled motorway.

Jonathan Freedland speaks to the law professor and author Leah Litman about the conservative-leaning court’s decisions this legislative session, cases to come and why some are arguing it is now a political institution, not a legal one

Archive: AP

From building an online community to losing long-term friendships, micro-influencer couples explain their experiences in age-gap relationships

When it comes to relationships with extreme power imbalances – say, professional hierarchies or underage participants – there is broad consensus on what’s acceptable. But a relationship between people whose ages differ by a decade or so confuses and intrigues people endlessly.

Generally, the wider the age gap and the younger one partner is, the greater the skepticism. Older men have long been side-eyed for dating substantially younger women. The reverse – older women with younger men – also remains somewhat subversive. But the latter dynamic is increasingly celebrated – last year, the Cut covered the trend of older women seeking younger partners, and last month, the New York Times released a podcast episode titled “Older Women Are in Demand by Younger Men”.

The actor on dealing with disruptive drinkers in his pub, what he’d ask Shakespeare, and being urged by Alec Guinness to withdraw from Stonewall

In more than six decades of acting, what has changed the most? eamonmcc
My first job, in 1961, was at the Belgrade theatre in Coventry, the first British civic theatre built after the second world war, with public funds and a subsequent Arts Council grant. My weekly wage was £8, enough to pay for my flat, which cost three guineas, and to eat well enough. Every city of similar size had a repertory company, presenting a new production every two weeks, and crucially providing employment for tyro actors in need of a prolonged apprenticeship in the company of senior players. You learned what you could and couldn’t do and what you could aspire to. Today, alas, there is not a single rep company in the UK and no comparable system for training new talent.

My Belgrade flat, built to house a member of the disbanded company, now holds the council’s office of outreach and education. What is unchanged since 1961 is the enthusiasm of audiences for lively theatre, classic or newly written. Going to live theatre is still one of the principal amusements in the UK.

Rush-released in the same year as Prince of Thieves blockbuster, this gritty British movie battled winter weather and chronic illness – and it still holds up

Thirty-five years ago, two films about the legend of Robin Hood – stealer from the rich, giver to the poor – met and duelled in cinemas; we all know who won, Kevin Costner’s big-budget blockbuster, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. But what about the other one? It was titled simply Robin Hood, directed by John Irvin and starring Patrick Bergin in the title role alongside a pre-Pulp Fiction Uma Thurman as Maid Marian.

“It was very much a stand-alone film with the aim of giving Kevin Costner’s version a good kicking if we could,” says Irvin, now 85. “The studio wanted to go immediately because they wanted to pre-empt the Costner.”

The Victoria Wood theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere
Marking 10 years since the late comic’s death, this affectionate show blends her songs with a time-slip tale of friendship, regret and middle age

This Lake District venue was called the Old Laundry theatre before it was recently renamed in homage to Victoria Wood. The late performer, writer and lyricist would surely have loved that former title: she made an art out of portraying female domesticity and the foibles of ordinary people with humour and compassion.

Marking a decade since Wood’s death, this new production interweaves 12 of her songs with a story about two women, disappointed in middle age, who meet in a diet club. Wood so often pilloried the weight-loss industry and this setup seems designed to showcase her song Don’t Get Cocky, about diet culture. Peggy (Sally Ann Triplett) and Lou (Ria Jones) reminisce over their school friendship and speak ruefully of the disappointments that followed in their lives. Then Peggy finds herself waking up in the past, aged 14 again. She decides to make better choices this time around.

Whoever leads Britain through the next three years may have to navigate a recession, even a war. The way we choose that person needs an urgent overhaul

This is going to be an ugly weekend for British politics. How ugly we won’t quite know until Saturday night, when enough votes will have been counted to judge whether Keir Starmer’s government has suffered merely a midterm kicking or a full-blown collapse, and what dark forces may have been unleashed in the process. For you needn’t be a Labour voter to worry about the implications of local elections in which so many candidates were caught expressing views so extreme they chill the blood.

It’s fear of what this means for Britain in the long term that explains, in part, why the prime minister’s enemies were gathering long before the polling stations closed.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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

As I bounced dangerously around a Sussex road, I was reminded of the parlous state of our highways – and the serious neglect of local issues

It’s the potholes, stupid. Despite the attempts of national politicians to pretend otherwise, the local elections should have been about potholes. Believe it or not, the state of our roads beat the cost of living, the NHS and immigration as the top election issue in the final YouGov poll. They ranked highest in the Local Government Association’s list of local service dissatisfactions. Voters knew what these elections were about, even if no politician was ready to agree.

Yet potholes featured barely at all in the election coverage. As party leaders queued up to be interviewed, they were not going to descend to street-level. British local politics has been nationalised for decades. To the BBC and the media generally, the elections have been seen as US-style midterms. The issues debated have been the cost of living, immigration and antisemitism. All very important, of course, but hardly something local councils have a great say over.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

This outdated system is destroying trust in politics. But there’s still time for Labour to follow Wales and Scotland’s example and introduce PR in the UK

Before a vote is counted, this much we know. More results than ever will involve the winning party getting a disproportionate amount of power, considering the number of votes cast for it; fewer people will get what they voted for. The ever more random roulette wheel of our voting system will produce wildly odd winners and losers.

Our never-fit-for-purpose first-past-the-post system breaks apart under the strain of having five or sometimes six parties bunched together with no more than 11 percentage points between them in the polls.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Decades of complacency cannot be magicked away by drilling in the North Sea – or even by hoping that renewables will quickly power everything

• Ewan Gibbs is a historian of energy at the University of Glasgow

First it was Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now it is the blockade of the world’s petroleum artery in the Gulf. For the second time in four years, Britain is facing an energy crisis that has been made much worse because of the absence of preparation by its political leaders.

The fact is that our energy politics were conceived for a world where convulsive, global events were a thing of the past. The notion that it would be difficult to access supplies of oil or liquefied natural gas from the international markets did not figure in the understanding of the politicians and officials who shaped our perilous current moment. But even today, the advocates of energy sovereignty on the left and right appear to lack knowledge, understanding or power over this very foundational matter.

Ewan Gibbs is a historian of energy, industry, work and protest at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland

The Australian pharmacy chain is coming to the United Kingdom. With its hectic and chaotic aesthetic, there’s no mistaking it for a Boots

We’ve all been there. You feel a slight headache coming on and decide to pop into the nearest chemist to pick up some Panadol. Chances are, if you’re in Australia, it’s a Chemist Warehouse – and the experience of shopping for the cure is about to make you feel sicker.

Outside, the stores give a hint about the chaos within. Signs scream “DISCOUNT” and “Australia’s Cheapest Chemist!!” The exteriors are painted with bright red, yellow and blue signage, and, for anyone confused, enormous arrows point towards the door.

Europeans must urgently seek to close their security gaps in case Russia attacks – and the US refuses to defend its allies

Donald Trump’s war in Iran and tirades against Nato allies are accelerating moves to develop a plan B for European security in case the US is no longer willing to help defend allies against a Russian attack. Europe must prepare for sudden vulnerability gaps if the fickle US president decides to pull out key military enablers before Europeans can develop their own alternatives.

European countries have already taken over financial and political responsibility for supporting Ukraine in its struggle against Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression, as Trump has increasingly sided with Moscow in trying to force Kyiv to hand over swathes of territory to Russia. After four years of war in Europe, most leaders have come to recognise Ukraine as a military and technological asset for European defence rather than a burden or a risk factor.

Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre

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

There will still be a need to have gas in the wings to keep the lights on, so the financials stack up on Severn plant purchase

The eye-catching non-Hormuz news in energy-land last month was that Great Britain is set for a record-breaking summer for wind and solar power generation. The national energy system operator even thought there could be periods – a sunny weekend or a bank holiday afternoon of low demand, for example – when more renewable power would be available than the electricity grid needed.

So, on the face of it, it is an odd moment for Centrica, the owner of British Gas, to fork out £370m to buy a 16-year-old combined-cycle gas turbine plant in south Wales. After all, the government’s clean power plan imagines that, come 2030, Great Britain’s entire fleet of gas plants will be used to generate only 5% of its electricity, down from 31.5% in 2025.

Turner’s original vision is under serious threat these days

Ted Turner, who died on Wednesday aged 87, was many things – a philanthropist, a conservationist, the one-time husband of movie star Jane Fonda, a yachtsman, and the owner of the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks.

He thought big and lived large.

Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture

The US is unlikely to pressure Benjamin Netanyahu to comply with truce terms. Europe must take action

The meaning of the term “ceasefire” should be self‑evident. Yet Israel’s strikes have killed scores of people in Lebanon since it agreed a truce with Hezbollah under pressure from the US, with the two sides trading fire. There was a strike on Beirut on Wednesday. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would be delighted to resume war with Iran. But it is wary of Donald Trump’s wrath as he seeks an exit from the conflict.

In Gaza, the Israeli military has killed more than 800 people since the truce there was declared in October, striking almost every day. This, too, is not a true ceasefire but a de-escalation, however necessary. Lethal Israeli attacks on an engineer and drivers transporting water have intensified the water crisis that is fuelling the spread of infectious diseases; Médecins Sans Frontières has called the weaponisation of water supplies a campaign of collective punishment. Never mind the estimated $70bn cost of reconstruction; homes are still being flattened. Families in tents face a rat infestation. Essential medicines are unavailable. Hospitals and schools lie in ruins. An analysis of the war’s impact on education described children feeling “like the living dead”.

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

Once again, digital tools are running ahead of regulators. Civil liberties must not be sacrificed to policing

It is a familiar story. Extravagant claims are made on behalf of novel computerised tools. The public are told that this or that digital application or system is going to change the world for the better. Efficiencies will be unlocked and problems solved as human limitations are overcome by networked devices plugged into vast stores of data. Anyone who questions the narrative is a pessimist or, perhaps, a criminal.

This appears to be the logic behind arguments put forward on behalf of one such tool – live facial recognition technology. Law-abiding citizens have “nothing to fear” from the police’s increased reliance on mounted cameras, said the Home Office minister, Sarah Jones, last month, after a high court challenge brought on human rights and privacy grounds failed. The use of AI-powered identification software, made by the Japanese company NEC, “only locates specifically wanted people”, she added. Last year, Ms Jones described the technology as “the biggest breakthrough for catching criminals since DNA”.

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

Readers respond to an editorial on the need to speed up the shift to renewables

Your editorial is spot-on (The Guardian view on the green transition: politicians should speed it up – and households too, 4 May). Sadly many of the policies implemented by politicians are counterproductive, based on the fear of public backlash. Fossil fuel tax cuts encourage climate harm and will exacerbate the coming shortages.

Nuclear power is a way to spend billions today that will have no impact for at least a decade, while readily available competitive solutions go begging. Fuel rationing and efforts to hasten the transition nudge us in the right direction, though they still lack a clear financial signal for the wider economy and households.

Vic Harper on why the government should ensure better access to fresh food

Your article on UK food prices being on track to be 50% higher by November 2026 (4 May), read alongside your editorial on unhealthy Britain (3 May) describes a single story from two ends. Food has become unaffordable and the households absorbing those price rises are getting sicker.

By the time poor health shows up in the data, families have been cutting food quality, quantity and variety for years. The Bread and Butter Thing runs affordable food clubs from Maidstone to Northumberland, supporting more than 10,000 households each week. Last week alone, 439 new members joined our network. Our 2025 survey of more than 8,500 members shows the mechanism playing out. Among households with £0-£25 left each month after housing and energy bills, 87% describe their overall health as not good.

Jean Coussins says a cross-party Lords committee has been tasked with coming up with a plan to normalise resilience in our everyday lives

Your editorial (Britain’s fragile systems: when global shocks hit your shopping bill, 1 May) makes clear that the public need to be more fully informed about global threats and actively engaged in a national resilience plan. The UK remains dangerously exposed to external shocks, whether from cyber-attacks, extreme weather triggered by climate change, or hostile state interference with our democratic processes and critical national infrastructure.

A cross-party House of Lords special inquiry committee, which I chair, has been set up to examine national resilience. “Keep calm and carry on” doesn’t cut it: a plan for the 21st century needs to recognise the interconnectedness of threats: a cyber-attack can quickly escalate into power cuts, transport chaos, supply chain disruption and the collapse of public services. And this is not a case of “what if”: hybrid warfare emanating from Russia, China or Iran as cyber-attacks, disinformation or the sponsorship of proxy terrorist attacks is already commonplace.

Ways to enjoy life | Butterfly sightings | Cutting speed limits | Bad actors | Rejecting the ‘old age’ label

At nearly 75, I have to sit on the front seat at the top of the bus like Justin Myers (49 ways to have fun right now!, 4 May). I have been known to let one bus go and wait for the next one if there are people in my seat. If it ever gets to the point where my legs won’t get me up there, I shall know that my time has come.
Liz Fairhurst
Banstead, Surrey

• Sara Hudston’s country diary (6 May) chimes exactly with the sightings on our weekly butterfly count for Yorkshire Wildlife, similarly on a dismantled railway siding, here in North Yorkshire. The holly blues are particularly numerous this year, but we have yet to see an adder. We have, however, had a huge Morel toadstool, which can occur where there are heavy metal deposits.
Gill Mawby
York

Argentinian kept his head as tempers raged around him to lead Villa towards an Istanbul showdown with Freiburg

Ollie Watkins running over to the Holte End screaming, fists pumping and head bandaged, will become an iconic image in this part of Birmingham but it was all thanks to the calmness of Emiliano Buendía’s quick feet and even quicker mind to create it. The Argentinian was the one able to keep his cool on a night of aggression and full-blooded football.

It was quintessentially English in this all-domestic Europa League semi-final, in a ground that has hosted Aston Villa since 1897, there was even royalty in the stands. The first quarter felt like a Premier League game on steroids, all thumping noise, tackles, aggression, set pieces, flags and the putrid smell of smoke. The eventual outcome would be down to which side could maintain composure in a fiery atmosphere, and Villa had the benefit of Buendía’s ice-cold mind.

A game to suit departing Stones, West Ham’s Pablo under scrutiny against Arsenal and Maddison can rouse Spurs

Liverpool have eased one self-inflicted headache by listening to their fans and scrapping plans to raise some ticket prices for the next three seasons. Anfield’s attention can now focus squarely on eradicating another as Arne Slot’s side seek to salvage a desperately poor season with Champions League qualification. Liverpool will secure a top-five finish should they beat Chelsea and Bournemouth fail to win at Fulham. Slot could not have hand-picked a better opponent to potentially complete the job than the shambles that is this Chelsea team, even taking into account his frontline injury-list. The visitors are a collection of individual egos who turn up when they feel like it, which is Wembley and the FA Cup on current evidence. Chelsea have lost seven successive league games only once in their history – from November to December 1952 – but could equal that unwanted record with defeat at Anfield. They have lost their last two away matches by a three-goal margin, conceded at least three times in four of their last five league games, and it would surprise no one if they decide to save themselves for the FA Cup final. Andy Hunter

Liverpool v Chelsea, Saturday 12.30pm (all times BST)

Brighton v Wolves, Saturday 3pm

Fulham v Bournemouth, Saturday 3pm

Sunderland v Manchester United, Saturday 3pm

As the song that has accompanied them on their maiden European adventure promised all along, Crystal Palace are on their way to Leipzig. Sixteen years after rescuing the club he supported as a child from administration, Steve Parish watched on with immense pride as Oliver Glasner’s side held off a spirited challenge from Shakhtar Donetsk to book a showdown with Rayo Vallecano in eastern Germany later this month.

There were ecstatic celebrations as Palace’s players completed a lap of honour in front of their adoring supporters who are still having to pinch themselves over the events of the past 12 months. Glasner may be set to leave after what will be the 60th game of a marathon season but whatever happens after this, he will always have a special place in the club’s history. One of the loudest cheers of the night came when the stadium announcer confirmed that Nottingham Forest – who controversially replaced Palace in the Europa League – had been thrashed 4-0 by Aston Villa in their semi-final.

• Bill Foley’s Cannae Holdings Inc expected to complete deal

• Billionaire Foley to provide ‘significant’ investment

Exeter’s members have voted in favour of selling the club to the American owners of AFC Bournemouth. Cannae Holdings Inc, part of billionaire Bill Foley’s investment empire which also includes the Black Knight Sports and Entertainment group, is now set to take full control of the Chiefs and provide “significant” multi-million-pound funding

Exeter, who rose from lower-league anonymity to claim a European and domestic title double in 2020, have previously been a members-owned club since their foundation in 1871. At a special general meeting, however, members voted by a comfortable majority to approve the club’s sale with long-time chairman Tony Rowe having negotiated a landmark deal with the new US backers.

• Wada looking into allegations relating to Rusada chief

• IOC recommends lifting of ban on Belarusians competing

Russia’s return to international sport has been delayed following allegations that its head of anti-doping was involved in covering up drug test results at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

While the International Olympic Committee said on Thursday that athletes from Belarus should now be free to compete under their own flag and anthem, it admitted it still had “concern” over Russia.

US star is still on rebel tour but the desired focus on teams is not something that is catching on with supporters

Moments before Bryson DeChambeau teed off to open LIV Golf’s first American tournament of the year, at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, the public address announcer bellowed “Long! LIV! Golf!” to try and electrify a modest crowd by the first tee.

The irony wasn’t lost on the devoted group who skirted work and school to enjoy a sunny afternoon just 25 miles outside Washington DC: this was the first tournament since the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund confirmed it would no longer fund the outfit that it once imagined as the world’s premier collection of professional golfers. Before that news was finalized, the league postponed a tournament scheduled to take place in New Orleans at the end of June.

• St Andrews club opened membership to women in 2014

• Dowling will serve as club captain from September

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews has appointed amateur player Claire Dowling as the first female captain in its 272-year history.

The club, based at the “home of golf” on the east coast of Scotland, opened its membership to women 12 years ago.

• Valverde accused Frenchman of leaking earlier argument

• Real play Barcelona on Sunday with title on the line

Real Madrid’s Fede Valverde was taken to hospital to have stitches after a second confrontation with teammate Aurélien Tchouaméni in two days, as the club’s collapse into chaos continues.

Players held an emergency meeting and Real have opened disciplinary proceedings after a physical fight, with blood being spilled and Valverde being taken for treatment.

• Individual seen in bushes was confronted on Thursday

• Echoes of Marcelo Bielsa’s 2019 ‘spygate’ affair

Middlesbrough believe they caught a Southampton analyst hiding in the bushes and allegedly recording their training session on Thursday morning, in a remarkable repeat of the 2019 Marcelo Bielsa “spygate” affair.

Boro have reported the incident to the English Football League as spying on opposition training is in breach of their regulations. The EFL is investigating the alleged misconduct and have requested Southampton’s observations regarding the matter.

Norfolk police charge 39-year-old from Suffolk, who will appear in court later

A man has been charged after allegedly threatening Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor near his new home on the Sandringham Estate.

The former Duke of York was out walking his dogs when the incident occurred in Wolferton, close to his Marsh Farm property, shortly after 7.30pm on Wednesday, the Telegraph reported previously.

Chi Leung Wai and Chung Biu Yuen convicted over surveillance of dissidents in ‘shadow policing’ operation

A UK Border Force officer and Hong Kong trade official based in London have been found guilty of spying for China and surveilling dissidents through a “shadow policing” operation.

Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 38, and Chung Biu Yuen, 65, also known as Bill, were found guilty at the Old Bailey of assisting a foreign intelligence service, making them the first people in British history to be convicted of spying for China.

The Ultimate Picture Palace opened in 1911 and is housed in a Grade II-listed building in need of renovation

The survival of one of the UK’s oldest independent cinemas is under threat while its landlord, the University of Oxford’s Oriel College, refuses to extend its lease to allow what its director says are vital renovations.

The Ultimate Picture Palace in east Oxford opened in 1911, and has entertained generations of students and residents, including the Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes. It sells tickets for its 106 seats through an old-fashioned box office window to patrons queueing on the street, and its screen is behind a manually opened curtain.

Defence ministers of Ukraine and Sweden talk Gripen fighter jet deal; verbal exchanges escalate over Victory Day parade. What we know on day 1,535

Ukraine’s military has struck a Russian Karakurt-class small missile carrier on the Caspian Sea off Russia’s distant Dagestan region, the Ukrainian general staff said on Thursday. The port of Kaspiysk where the ship was reportedly located is more than 1,500km from Kyiv – and closer to Tehran, the Iranian capital. The extent of the damage was being assessed, the Ukrainian general staff posted online. Among its armaments, the Karakurt class can fire Kalibr cruise missiles which Moscow has used to hit civilian targets in Ukraine.

Voldoymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, expressed satisfaction at the long-range attack and the second assault in eight days on a Lukoil-owned refinery in Perm, near the Ural Mountains. “In a mirror response to Russian strikes, we will continue our long-range sanctions. And in response to Russia’s willingness to move toward diplomacy, we will proceed along the path of diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine’s purchase of Saab-made Gripen fighter jets could be signed within months, Kyiv’s defence minister said on Thursday as he visited his Swedish counterpart in Stockholm. The countries last year signed a letter of intent that could see Sweden supply up to 150 Gripens. The first deliveries are estimated at three years away from any deal being finalised. “We have our plan how to finance it,” said Mykhailo Fedorov, the Ukrainian defence minister. The Swedish minister, Pal Jonson, said a deal to loan, sell or gift existing Gripens of an older model, to be delivered much faster, was progressing well.

Moscow has issued increasingly shrill protests and threats as its Victory Day parade on Saturday approaches. Foreign ambassadors have meanwhile rebuffed Russian warnings to evacuate their staff from Kyiv in case Moscow decides to attack. Ukraine has never directly targeted Victory Day commemorations, which this year will not even feature military equipment. Russian authorities have demanded a ceasefire and threatened direct strikes on Kyiv if the parade is attacked.

Britain’s Foreign Office said Moscow’s threats toward diplomats in Kyiv were “unwarranted, irresponsible and completely unjustified”, adding that any attack on a diplomatic mission would be a further escalation in the war. The German foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, told Bloomberg TV earlier that Berlin would not pull its embassy staff out Kyiv. Zelenskyy would stay in Kyiv over the weekend, a senior source close to the Ukrainian president told Agence France-Presse.

Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Moscow wanted a “permit” from Ukraine “to hold their parade, to go out on to the square safely for an hour once a year, and then continue killing, killing our people and waging war … The Russians are already talking about strikes after May 9. Strange and certainly inappropriate of the Russian leadership.” “We have also received messages from some states close to Russia, saying that their representatives plan to be in Moscow,” said Zelenskyy. “A strange desire … in these days. We do not recommend it.”

Throughout the war, Ukrainian drones have regularly harassed the regions around Moscow and cause shutdowns of its airports. On Thursday morning the Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said Russian air defence units intercepted more than 50 drones headed for Moscow over a period of about 15 hours. There was no way to confirm the claim. Zelenskyy said Russia had continued to flout a ceasefire starting from the night of 5-6 May that he had proposed in response to the self-declared Russian ceasefire for Victory Day. Ukraine, he said, had received “only new Russian strikes and new Russian threats”.

Russia complained to Armenia for hosting Zelenskyy this week at a summit of the European Political Community, which was set up after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Maria Zakharova, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, said Russians were “accustomed to considering [Armenia] a friendly, fraternal country”. The Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, told reporters on Thursday: “Back in 2022-2023 I already stated that, on the issue of Ukraine, we are not an ally of Russia.”

Ukraine’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, arrived in Miami for meetings with US negotiators on moving toward a peace accord, Zelenskyy said. Achieving peace in Europe was the best way to honour those who fought against Nazi Germany, said Ukraine’s president. “Just as 81 years ago, so now America can help peace with a just and strong stance against the aggressor,” he said. “And it is important that the American people now view Russia precisely in this way – as an aggressor.”

Holder went back to woman’s Cheltenham flat after night out and refused to stop assault even when she began crying

A co-founder of the clothing company Superdry has been jailed for eight years for raping a woman after a night out in Cheltenham.

James Holder, 54, had been due to get a taxi back to his home in the Cotswolds with a male friend. Instead, the pair got into the victim’s taxi and went to her flat in the Gloucestershire town, where Holder raped her.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

Bigger cars including electric can cause multiple harms, yet resistance to rise of US-style vehicles has had mixed support

On a brisk winter’s evening in Europe’s automotive heartland, a cyclist who had pushed for safer streets went out on his bike for a final time. Andreas Mandalka had documented dangerous driving and shoddy cycling infrastructure for years, measuring the margins at which cars zipped past him and posting videos of blatant violations. While quick to remind readers that only a small proportion of drivers behaved badly, the 44-year-old blogger in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, had grown frustrated with authorities for failing to act. He felt they viewed him as a nuisance.

As he cycled down a straight stretch of renovated road that runs parallel to a forest path he had flagged for poor quality, lights bright on his bike and helmet firm on his head, he was fatally struck from behind by a car.

Staunton Country Park, Havant: Against my black fleece, this arachnid is startlingly vivid. In the fresh green of the beech canopy, it disappears

The forecast had promised warm spring sunshine – ideal weather for a forest bathing class. Instead, a squally shower arrived without warning, and we ended up hugging tree trunks more out of necessity than mindfulness. In full leaf, the mature beech grove canopy would have kept us dry, but this early in the season, the leaves had only just unfurled, letting the rain through to saturate my jumper. For a while, we listened in silence as the foliage changed its voice, a dry whisper deepening into a steady, percussive patter.

Thankfully, the downpour passed as quickly as it had arrived. Light filtered through the leaves, and we drifted back along the path until the trees opened into a small clearing. The instructor suggested that we sit on a semi-circle of fallen trunks, urging us to feel the texture of the rough-stalked feather moss (Brachythecium rutabulum) cushioning our makeshift benches. Flasks were passed around, the nettle and chamomile tea offering a welcome warmth.

Powerful radar system is providing new data on city’s subsidence, which experts hope will draw more attention to it

Walking into Mexico City’s sprawling central Zócalo is a dizzying experience. At one end of the plaza, the capital’s cathedral, with its soaring spires, slumps in one direction. An attached church, known as the Metropolitan Sanctuary, tilts in the other. The nearby National Palace also seems off-kilter.

The teetering of many of the capital’s historic buildings is the most visible sign of a phenomenon that has been ongoing for more than a century: Mexico City is sinking at an alarming rate.

Oil firm seeks to reduce stake in carbon capture and storage projects in north-east of England after schemes fail to win over shareholders

BP plans to sell stakes in two flagship carbon capture and storage projects in the north-east of England as the company continues to retreat from the green agenda.

The oil company hopes to reduce its share in the Net Zero Teesside (NZT) project, which aims to develop the UK’s first gas power plant to be fitted with a controversial carbon capture system to remove its emissions.

Moscow steps up maritime presence in North Sea after UK threats to seize shadow fleet oil tankers

Britain’s Royal Navy tracked and followed a Russian frigate every day last month as it sailed from the Atlantic to the North Sea, as Moscow steps up its maritime presence after UK threats to seize shadow fleet oil tankers.

The Russian navy’s Admiral Grigorovich escorted six Russia-linked vessels during April, including at least three under economic sanction passing east through the Dover strait, while being watched continuously by four UK ships and helicopters.

Prosecution says Rico Gedel attacked Ian Watkins in HMP Wakefield then handed homemade knife to Samuel Dodsworth

A prisoner accused of murdering the disgraced former Lostprophets singer told guards they “could be talking to someone famous” after stabbing Ian Watkins in the head and neck with a homemade knife, a court has heard.

Rico Gedel carried out the attack on Watkins, who was serving a 29-year sentence for child sexual offences, in his cell at HMP Wakefield, a high-security prison, on 11 October, Leeds crown court heard.

Police see off gatherings of teenagers in London and Edinburgh after videos of similar stunts in US go viral

Hundreds of teenagers have attempted to “speed run” Scientology buildings in different parts of the UK as part of a TikTok trend that started in Los Angeles.

Scientology speed running is where people rush into buildings and see how far they can get before being ushered out by staff. The Church of Scientology said using its spaces for viral stunts was “trespass, harassment, and disruption of religious facilities”.

British Medical Association says review into gender identity services was ‘robust’ after previously rejecting findings

The trade union representing doctors across the UK has dropped its opposition to the findings of the Cass review of gender identity services across the NHS.

The British Medical Association (BMA) had previously rejected the findings of the landmark review of transgender healthcare, with the medical body refusing to endorse the report’s findings.

Towie star Hall, 35, found unresponsive with head wounds reportedly caused by shards of glass at villa on Spanish island

The Only Way Is Essex star Jake Hall has been found dead in Mallorca.

The former reality TV show personality was found unresponsive with head wounds reportedly caused by shards of glass at a villa on the Spanish island.

Skirmishes threw into question the viability of shaky ceasefire that had largely held for previous month– key US politics stories from 7 May at a glance

The US and Iran were supposedly close to a peace deal on Thursday, according to Pakistani officials. That was before the US military and Iranian forces exchanged fire in the strait of Hormuz.

Each side claimed the other shot first, with US Central Command saying its forces intercepted “unprovoked Iranian attacks” and responded with “self-defense strikes”. Iranian officials said the US vessels were attacked after the US “violated” the ceasefire by targeting two ships at the strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian areas.

Jeremiah Manele toppled after months of political upheaval in the nation seen as one of China’s closest partners in the Pacific

Solomon Islands prime minister Jeremiah Manele lost power in a no-confidence vote in the South Pacific country’s parliament, ending months of political uncertainty.

Parliament was adjourned to allow the governor general to make arrangements for the election of a new prime minister.

US secretary of state speaks with Leo and officials after tensions following attacks by Trump over Iran war

The Vatican has said it raised the “need to work tirelessly in favour of peace” in talks with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who is in Rome on a trip widely regarded as an effort to ease tensions after Donald Trump’s repeated criticisms of Pope Leo.

Amid unprecedented strain on relations between the Holy See and Washington, Rubio was received by the pope on Thursday at the Apostolic Palace, before holding a series of meetings with Vatican officials

Stansted passengers disagree that stopping airports serving alcohol before early flights will reduce bad behaviour

For most people, the idea of a pint with breakfast is pretty grim. But at the Wetherspoons in Stansted’s departure lounge on Thursday morning, it appeared to be the beverage of choice.

“It’s a holiday ritual,” said Dee Wood, 60, a waste policy officer, who was enjoying a pint while waiting to board her Alicante-bound morning flight. “It’s like the start of holiday,” said her friend Rachel Almond, 59, a community planner, who was treating herself to a lager. “We don’t get drunk, we just have a pint, say cheers and off we go.”

Exclusive: Documents show Modella Capital, which bought the chain last year, is so far owed £2.9m in royalty fees

The investment company that owns the former WH Smith high street stores is charging the retailer millions of pounds in licence fees for the right to use its widely derided TG Jones name, the Guardian can reveal.

Modella Capital, which bought the chain from WH Smith’s parent company last year, on Wednesday blamed weak consumer spending as it laid out a restructuring plan that could shut 150 of its 450 shops. It also said “the forced name change from WH Smith has also negatively impacted consumer awareness”.

Facebook and Instagram owner claims charges should not be calculated based on a company’s global revenue

Meta has launched a legal challenge against the UK’s media regulator over the fees and fines regime it is enforcing under landmark digital safety legislation.

The Facebook and Instagram owner is claiming that Ofcom’s methodology for calculating the charges is flawed and should not be based on a company’s global revenue. Breaches of the Online Safety Act can be punished by fines of up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue (QWR) or £18m – whichever is higher.

World is approaching point where no one can shut down a rogue AI, says director of body behind research

It’s the stuff of science fiction cinema, or particularly breathless AI company blogposts: new research finds recent AI systems can independently copy themselves on to other computers.

In the doom scenario, this means that when the superintelligent AI goes rogue, it will escape shutdown by seeding itself across the world wide web, lurking outside the reach of frantic IT professionals and continuing to plot world domination or paving over the world with solar panels.

Eilish and Cameron are mismatched in flashy pop documentary that misses the subtlety of her music

For a long time concert tour films were seen as a cash-in. Ask a music fan for their favorite, and they’ll probably answer with something that isn’t really a concert film at all, such as Madonna’s deliciously gloves-off documentary Truth or Dare or Stop Making Sense, Jonathan Demme’s high-concept performance art classic starring Talking Heads.

But in recent years the concert film has become a bona fide cinematic event for super-fans wishing to relive the experience as well as those who draw the line at paying a month’s rent to see their favorite musician. In 2023, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour became the genre’s biggest-grossing film of all time, taking over $250m at the global box office. (Swift herself took home an estimated third of that figure thanks to an exclusive distribution deal with AMC Theaters). Beyoncé’s Renaissance film extended her album as a cultural moment, while this year Baz Luhrmann’s Epic: Elvis Presley in Concert has packed out multiplexes and a concert documentary from the K-pop boyband Stray Kids topped the global box office.

A new show of this Welsh-born artist’s mesmerising portraits is worth visiting for one nude alone: a painting of an eyes-closed, long-legged, elegant brunette, inspired by Sleeping Venus

Sylvia Sleigh wouldn’t paint people if she didn’t find them interesting – and by interesting, I mean attractive. She didn’t idealise nudes like the old masters. Instead, the naked bodies she depicted were really, truly beautiful. Many were friends, among them artists and critics. Others were paid models. Scrolling through images of her radical, realist artworks online, I find myself humming along to the REM song: “Shiny happy people …”

It was surely part of the appeal of Johanna Lawrenson, the elegant brunette with enviably long legs who posed for the 1963 painting The Bridge. Few exhibitions are worth visiting for a single artwork alone, but this monumental canvas is special. Sleigh kept it until her death in 2010, at which point it was donated to a not-for-profit theatre company in New York. Now it’s for sale, and before it’s snapped up there’s a rare chance to see it on show at Malarkey, a small space overlooking Russell Square in London.

This astounding true story, written by Neil Forsyth, asks the question: what if the A-Team was comprised entirely of disgruntled customs officers?

Imagine The A-Team but instead of a band of wrongfully convicted US army commandos who become soldiers of fortune, it’s a group of dissatisfied baggage searchers and VAT investigators who have taken their ties off. Are you sold? Good! Because Legends is a six-part thriller by Neil Forsyth based on the true story of a group of ordinary men and women recruited from the rank and file of Her Majesty’s Customs in the early 90s, given three weeks’ training and sent undercover to infiltrate and bring down two massive drug cartels that were filling Britain’s streets with heroin and really pissing Mrs Thatcher – head of the party of law and order, don’t you know – off.

Steve Coogan – possibly in need of a spot of emotional relief after a career spent playing losers or Jimmy Savile-shaped villains – stars as former undercover police officer Don Clarke. He puts the team together for the home secretary (Alex Jennings – this is statutory) and HMC’s director of investigations Angus Blake (Douglas Hodge) despite neither of them seemingly offering any money or support for the project.

The late playwright was also a great actor and pianist who combined all three talents in Chasing the Moment, which flowed like real life

Jack Shepherd’s plays have such an easy way of doing things, a kind of structure I really hadn’t experienced before. I had seen and admired him directing his own play, In Lambeth, in 1989 at the Donmar Warehouse. So, in a spirit of entrepreneurship after we set up Southwark Playhouse in London in 1993, I asked him to come on board. He gave us – and acted in – Chasing the Moment.

What you see in the play is a group of jazz players arriving one at a time into the basement of a pub. The pianist is there already, this old geezer from Leeds called Les. Jack, who sadly died in November, was a pianist himself – he always played Les. Then we’re waiting for the old, slightly drugged up double bass player. His instrument is bigger than he is, coming down the stairs is slow. Then the drummer and his kit arrive, one piece at a time.

Eight birds play the lead in Hen – one for running scenes, one for pecking, one for staying still. And there’s even a cockerel love interest. Director György Pálfi explains why it’s his most normal movie yet

If oppressive regimes inadvertently give rise to striking artistic works of resistance, then Hen might just be a parting gift from Viktor Orbán’s far-right regime. This compelling, original film, told from the perspective of a hen, was only made because Hungarian film-maker György Pálfi could no longer create anything in his home country. Orbán’s 16 years of cronyism banished any chance of funding a film in Budapest, so Pálfi – who has directed eight wildly original films, from his near-wordless 2002 debut Hukkle to 2006’s visually striking and grotesque Taxidermia – was driven into exile. Searching for a universal story he could tell even when filming in a culture or country he didn’t fully understand, he and co-writer and partner Zsófia Ruttkay settled on a biopic of a factory-farmed chicken.

The hen escapes her gruesome, industrial birthplace in Greece and, through her naturally comic beady eyes, we witness the unfolding of a modern-day Greek tragedy, whereby a down-at-heel restaurateur is drawn into the brutal world of people-smuggling.

Sir David is joined by celebrity fans and cast members to give the much-loved sitcom a proper send-off. Plus: suspicion falls on a bride-to-be in Bergerac

8pm, U&Gold
The shop doorbell tinkles as David Jason steps on to the set of Open All Hours a whopping 50 years after the sitcom first aired. Diane Morgan narrates this two-hour special that looks back at the show with Jason, along with fans such as Johnny Vegas and cast members including Maggie Ollerenshaw. There’s also a new concluding scene that has been recorded to give the show a proper send-off. Hollie Richardson

Ahead of her new album, Bitch, we rate the best of a singer who expertly suffuses self-empowerment anthems with humour and party-starting energy

Lizzo’s contribution to the Barbie soundtrack fitted the film’s opening scene perfectly: fluffy, wilfully lightweight disco-pop, with lyrics that split the difference between being knowingly daft and offering a self-empowerment message. If you’re not in the market for high-camp positivity, try the Pink (Bad Day) version, which flips the track’s mood on its head.

This 15th-century royal romp of intrigue and courtly conspiracy is given extra charismatic verve by John Hollingworth’s rambunctious narration

It is 1483 and 10-year-old John Collan is living on a farm outside Oxford with his father, Will, and waging war on an aggressive goat that keeps trampling him. His mother is long dead and his older twin brothers, Oliver and Tom, have left home to begin apprenticeships. One morning John overhears the dairy maid Jennot discussing how Edward Plantagenet and his younger brother Richard, sons of the late King Edward IV, have been imprisoned in the Tower of London by their uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Later, a well-dressed man arrives on a chestnut horse for a meeting with his father. John learns that the man is his benefactor who has paid for him to be tutored. “A bright future!” Will tells his son. “But secret for now.”

A dramatic imagining of the true story of the royal impostor Lambert Simnel, Jo Harkin’s novel tells of a farmboy who is told that he is Edward V, 17th Earl of Warwick, rightful heir to the English throne and the elder prince in the tower. Having been tutored in great literature and courtly ways, our protagonist becomes a hapless pawn in the games of ambitious conspirators and is sent to Ireland where he becomes the figurehead of the Yorkist rebellion against the so-called usurper Henry VII.

(4AD)
Lyrics about naked owls and eating rocks might be irksome to some – but there’s no denying that the alt-rocker’s fifth album is beguiling, tightly written and richly melodic

Aldous Harding cuts a divisive figure in the world of alt-rock. To her devotees – and there are enough of them to warrant her playing three nights at London’s Barbican later this month – she is a strange and endlessly fascinating figure. Her lyrics are mysteries to be unpicked for deeper meaning, like dreams awaiting analysis. On Train on the Island, her fifth album, you’re invited to make some kind of sense of stuff about naked owls, having your face covered with bechamel sauce, seeing “the real John Cale” silently eating rice, “Sicilians reaching over the clams”, and the imponderable lines: “I’m saving myself by eating rocks and plants / I pray for the incel.”

The curious album covers; the uneasy stage presence and between-song non-sequiturs; the weird costumes; the videos filled with her pulling faces and engaging in awkward choreography; the preponderance of mannered vocal tics and funny accents when she sings, noticeable on Train on the Island’s Worms (vaguely Gallic vowel-stretching) and closer Coats (strangulated girlish voice); the halting, elliptical interviews: for fans, this is evidence of true originality in a cookie-cutter era.

(Sony)
The pianist binds Schubert’s D850 with Schumann’s Kinderszenen with playing of warmth and crystalline technique

Arcadi Volodos records infrequently, making each album something of an event. The two works here, both staples of the Romantic piano repertory, couldn’t be more different, and yet he manages to bind them together, bringing elasticity and a dash of fantasy to Schubert’s D major sonata, D850 while investing Schumann’s evergreen Kinderszenen with a dose of Schubertian longing.

In the sonata’s opening Allegro vivace, he’s far less headstrong than, for example, Alfred Brendel or Radu Lupu, but notably more flexible – daringly so at times. Measured phrases are shaded with supple rubato, the line enlivened with tiny dynamic emphases. The expressive slow movement, laced with musical question marks, exudes a calm benevolence. Volodos can be playful, too, with a mischievous take on the disorderly scherzo and a dainty finale that borders on the coquettish.

This novel told in vignettes and poetic fragments follows a woman who discovers that choice does not always equate to agency

Goodbye, My Love begins with a departure. Amina is leaving her childish, controlling husband, believing this will be the start of a new life; a new self. But of course, these things are seldom so simple.

Within the first few pages of Yumna Kassab’s sixth book, it becomes clear that much of Amina’s life has been led by the expectations of the people around her. The name we know her by is not really hers; Amina is actually an echo of her husband’s name, Amin, who once “declared they should change their names so they matched … so she agreed, ever so agreeable”. Even after their divorce, we continue to know her by his moniker.

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Goodbye, My Love by Yumna Kassab is out now in Australia (Ultimo, $34.99)

A dead poet’s cluttered mansion is the setting for a heady brew of magic, mystery and mushrooms

“Man,” says one of Will Maclean’s characters on catching sight for the first time of the titular Solace House. “Gothic always tries too hard.” Here, perhaps, is a self-deprecating wink in a novel full of them – a novel that throws the (ancient, sinister, rusted taps coughing a disquieting red-brown liquid) kitchen sink at the problem of writing a good old-fashioned piece of gothic-flavoured weird fiction.

The present of the novel – though as things proceed and what David Tennant’s Doctor Who would call “timey-wimey” stuff starts to happen, the phrase gets harder to sustain – is the summer of 1993. Alex Lane stays on alone in his university’s hall of residence after the other students take off for the holidays. He’s broke. He’s lonely. He’s a bit freaked out by a sinister pale boy who seems to be the only other student left on campus. He can’t go home because of an unspecified family trauma involving what he alludes to only as The Last Day and The Annihilator. And now he’s receiving warnings that he’s about to be kicked out and charged for overstaying.

O, uncountable span I now surpass,
Incessant grey hours, turgid.
Noble opportunity wasted. Gone, alas!
In nullity endless deserted.

Lerone Martin’s new book offers fascinating insight into the civil rights icon’s younger years

Lerone Martin, a prominent scholar of Black religious history, leads the Martin Luther King Jr Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. His new book, Young King: The Making of Martin Luther King Jr, grew from “professional and personal” roots.

Professionally, Martin “started coming across things that I had never seen before” about the civil rights leader’s childhood in Atlanta, his years at Morehouse College, and his time at Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Pennsylvania. One key episode happened in 1944, when King was 15. Travelling north from Georgia, he spent a summer working in the tobacco fields of Simsbury, Connecticut. It’s known as a transformative stay, vital in King’s eventual decisions to follow his father as a preacher and to fight for civil rights. Nonetheless, Martin found an underexploited resource.

The feverish interiority of a young woman abroad is captured with offbeat wit and disarming candour in the first novel from the translator of Butter

Without meaning any disrespect to the now defunct noughties R&B trio Mis-Teeq, one would be hard pressed to think of many novels that open with an epigraph from their oeuvre. “You know you wanna sing with us (baby). That’s why you know you should be scared of us (baby),” from their 2003 single Scandalous, greets readers of Polly Barton’s debut novel, What Am I, a Deer? It hints at several of the book’s central preoccupations – romance, the disquieting force of desire, and the devotional catharsis of belting out a pop song.

Barton has written two nonfiction books – Fifty Sounds, and Porn: An Oral History – but she is a writer readers are likely to have encountered by accident. Primarily a translator of Japanese fiction, her work includes bringing Asako Yuzuki’s bestseller Butter into English.

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

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

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

Enchanting and a little eerie, Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth is the second great game in as many years based on the classic children’s books

Sleepy, happy-sad, and imbued with the mildest peril, Tove Jansson’s Moomin stories may seem an unlikely fit for the action-heavy medium of video games. Rather than embark on swashbuckling adventures, these milk-white, hippo-esque creatures prefer to potter about Moominvalley, only venturing further if the weather conditions are just right.

Yet a small Norwegian video game studio, Hyper Games, is now on its second exquisitely charming Jansson adaptation. The first, 2024’s Snufkin: Melody of Moomin Valley, put players in control of the wily free spirit, Snufkin, as he dismantled overly ordered nature parks (and evaded authority-loving wardens). The latest, Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth, sees young Moomintroll wake up at night in the dead of winter. With his parents still hibernating, the creature is all alone, thrust into a cold and unfamiliar world.

James Bond games have always fallen short of capturing the precise feel of the classic movies. But Amazon’s first dip into the 007 mythology seems to have a character of its own

In the wake of the last James Bond movie, No Time to Die, there was a surge of articles asking whether it should spell the end for Ian Fleming’s secret agent. In that movie, Daniel Craig played the character as a fading force, mentally and physically exhausted, and out of touch. “The world has moved on,” Lashana Lynch’s younger agent told him at one point, and in a lot of ways she was right. A product of the cold war era, 007 was a sociopathic misogynist addicted to booze and amphetamines – Craig tried to play all that down, creating a more rounded character and, controversially, giving Bond the ultimate redemption arc at the end of his final outing.

But five years later, with the franchise’s new owner Amazon still trying to pull the next film together, we’re about to get what looks to be the best Bond game since GoldenEye. Created by the Danish developer IO Interactive, famed for its Hitman series of anarchic open-ended assassination sims, 007 First Light follows a fresh-faced Bond from his early career as an aircrewman to his first mission as a double-0 operative. The games press was recently given a three-hour hands-on demo to play, and reports suggest that it combines elements of the Hitman games (Bond navigating a gala event, either sleuthing or punching his way to the mission objective) with major set-piece shootouts, chase scenes and miraculous gadgets. (For more on its making, read this piece about how developer IO Interactive brought it together.)

More than a quarter of 20- to 34-year-olds still live with their parents. No wonder they are escaping into virtual properties that they can decorate and furnish as they like

Name: Cosy gaming.

Age: Has its origins in social simulation games such as Harvest Moon (1996) and The Sims (2000).

Theatre Royal, York
Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s story of high competition in a long family line of female stage tricksters loses its powers as it goes on

Sheila Gold, supposedly Britain’s most accurate psychic, wants to be taken seriously by her new clients. “This is not theatre,” she warns them, as she lights seven candles for a seance.

This is an insider joke. Theatre is exactly what it is.

Glee Club, Glasgow
The masc lesbian comic from New York delivers a superb set with big laughs and twisty logic

Old-school standup celebrating the traditional masculine virtues? It’s fallen a little out of fashion. But it’s a different story when a masc lesbian comic delivers that material – a story of gleeful iconoclasm, big laughs and twisty gender logic. Ashley Gavin was a jobbing standup who blew up online during the pandemic, and whose output – including viral “crowd work” clips and the podcast We’re Having Gay Sex – has secured an ardent, largely queer fanbase. She’s like their best pal or big sis tonight, recounting how a woman who dresses like a teenaged wannabe car mechanic (and who – tongue firmly in cheek – considers more feminine women to be “a bunch of pussy-ass bitches”) came to be freezing her eggs.

The pleasure is in how Gavin lays siege to gender convention, with one routine after another scrambling the signifiers of what we expect men, women, or indeed masculine lesbians, to do and be. The opener finds “lesbian with a Brazilian” Gavin submitting herself to a waxing treatment. Elsewhere, the New Yorker ventures the argument – while savouring the discomfort it generates – that the clitoris is essentially a “tiny dick”. Later, she muses on penetration (might it not equally be seen as “envelopment”?) and contends that two “boy lesbians” hooking up with one another is “against God”.

O2 Arena, London
The ambition of 2025 album Lux is scaled up even bigger by the Catalan megastar, delivered with operatic vocals and en pointe ballet moves as well as funny asides and glasses of wine

Wrapped in a vast white sheet, Rosalía is telling the audience a story about her youthful dreams of performing in London, undaunted by the fact that her English is, as she puts it “a little bit rat-a-tah”. It turns out her real ambition was to sing at the Royal Albert Hall – “which I’ve never done” – but no matter: “I have sold out two nights at the O2!” she cries triumphantly. “Crazy, crazy,” she adds, shaking her head.

You can understand the Catalan singer’s surprise. We are supposed to live in a hopelessly risk-averse era for pop, where what audiences are deemed to want is more of the same. While you might have expected her fourth album, Lux, to be greeted with critical hosannahs, the fact that she’s managed to fill one of the UK’s biggest venues twice off the back of a song cycle based on the lives of various female saints, sung in 13 different languages, and set to music that conjoined lavish orchestration with leftfield electronica – and provoked a debate about whether the results should be filed under classical rather than pop – seems pretty improbable.

Sadler’s Wells, London
Men in tutus and pointe shoes loving and parodying their art form never ages; it’s both simple and very sophisticated

Depending on how you look at it, drag ballet troupe the Trocks offer either lighthearted camp, an in-joke for dance megafans, or an existential question about the very nature of ballet and beauty. Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, to give the company its formal mouthful of a name, has been going since 1974, five decades in which the perception of drag, and of gender, has transformed. The 14-strong all-male company (or gender-skewering, they now usually say) dresses in tutus, pointe shoes and greasepaint, dancing mainly extracts from the classical ballet repertoire: Swan Lake, Paquita, etc.

They do it in a way that mixes slapstick comedy, hammed up to the hilt, with a deep love and knowledge of the art form. It is both broad and subtle, a bathetic tightrope act that apes and satirises the ideal of the ballerina; it mocks ballet tropes while also pulling off fouettés and arabesques and allegro pointe work. The technical feats are somehow more impressive because these aren’t otherworldly ballerinas but an assortment of bodies that feel real, imperfections and all. It’s a reminder how hard this stuff is, and that the drive to do it is really exceptional; we’re rooting for them.

She hit the big time with 4 Non Blondes, then penned hits for everyone from Christina Aguilera to Courtney Love. But as an intimate new film about her life shows, she’s had to confront illness, family trauma and an identity crisis

When Linda Perry agreed to let the director Don Hardy film her at work in her studio, she had no idea what she was getting into. Perry – the singer, producer and wildly successful songwriter-for-hire – had been friends with Hardy since she scored his 2020 film, Citizen Penn, about the actor Sean Penn’s charity work in Haiti. If nothing else, Perry hoped she might use some of Hardy’s footage as content on her Instagram account: “So he just started showing up and I soon forgot he was there.”

After a few weeks, Hardy told Perry he had edited 30 minutes of footage and shown it to colleagues. “He said: ‘We think there’s an incredible documentary to be made here,’” she recalls. “And so I said: ‘OK, go ahead but don’t talk to me about it. I don’t want to know anything. Just do what you’re going to do and if I said it or did it, I’ll stand by it.’ And then things just started to go cuckoo for me.”

A trip to a museum becomes an unexpected adventure in a new immersive family show by Theatre-Rites and Factory International

Exclusive: Taped conversations also cover playwright’s relationship with fame, self-doubt and communism

He was one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century and she was one of the greatest actors. In newly unearthed recordings made over a period of nearly three decades, Arthur Miller opened up about his short-lived marriage to Marilyn Monroe, saying she wanted a husband who was a “father, lover, friend and agent,” and the child she longed for would have been an “additional problem”.

In taped conversations with his friend and biographer Prof Christopher Bigsby, Miller said he had felt “death was always on her [Monroe’s] shoulder – always”. He had believed that if he did not “take care of her life” she would come to a “catastrophic end”.

What’s so life-affirming about collecting and trading miniature animals, keyrings, stickers and pins? We visit one of the 1,500 trinket exchanges to find out

I’m standing, holding a thumbnail-sized glass owl, in front of a pink box filled with a boggling kaleidoscope of colours, shapes and textures. There’s a plush elephant wearing a green and pink sombrero; a rubber oval that is part doughnut with sprinkles, part frog; a bubble tea keyring; stickers and pins; a sparkly tangle of bracelets and much more. My mission? To swap my owl to experience first-hand the buzz of trading at a trinket exchange.

Boxes filled with tchotchkes that visitors exchange for their own trinkets are popping up everywhere. Emerging in the US last autumn (Philadelphia had one of the first using a ready-made electrical junction box, a popular format), they’re a new iteration of a phenomenon that started with Little Free Libraries and diversified during the pandemic into myriad neighbourhood installations.

For 400 years, The Hare and Hounds in Bowland Bridge offered a warm welcome to locals and travellers. Then the rent doubled. With two pubs a day closing in England and Wales, can the community save this 17th-century gem?

The Hare and Hounds in Bowland Bridge, a few miles from Windermere, is exactly how you’d want a Lakeland pub to be. A pretty 17th-century stone building, whitewashed, with a couple of dormer windows poking up from the slate roof and a view of the fells, it was originally a coaching inn on the route from Manchester to Glasgow.

It is not, however, looking its best today. We arrive in a proper Cumbrian downpour. It should be warm and welcoming, with a place by the wood-burner to dry out and down a pint of Wainwright, perhaps. But the door is shut, the curtains drawn in one of the downstairs windows and no sign of life through the other. Attached to the front of the building is a sign; not a pub sign (the name of the pub is painted elegantly in grey over the door), this one has another message: FOR SALE.

Whether your skin is dull, dry or sensitive, these are our expert’s favourite formulas from her test of 25. Plus, dermatologists share their top tips

• The best eye creams for banishing bags, puffiness and fine lines

Moisturiser is a crucial step in any skincare routine. It supports barrier function and repair, helps protect your skin from environmental stress, and even forms the base of a flawless face of makeup.

However, the market is flooded with options – Boots has more than a thousand listings under facial moisturisers – and finding the right formulation for your needs can be a nightmare. Admittedly, I found the task of writing this page far more daunting than anything I’d tackled before.

Best face moisturiser overall:
Haruharu Wonder Black rice 5 ceramide cream

Best budget moisturiser:
Simple hydrating light moisturiser

Interactive or imaginative, educational or just plain fun – whatever toddler you know, these gifts are parent, kid and play-expert approved

• The best toys for one-year-olds: 25 fun, skill-building ideas

Children really start to become little people by the time they’re two, with strong opinions on what they do (and don’t) like. Most are walking and running around – often at high speeds – as well as climbing and pulling themselves up on anything they can get their hands on.

They’re also a lot of fun, constantly learning and developing physically, with fine and gross motor skills, along with verbally mastering new words every day.

Warm weather got you itching for new greenery? Our expert shares the dos and don’ts of plant shopping with the planet in mind

• The best places to buy plants online, according to top gardeners

With spring in full swing, it’s time to go shopping for plants. While adding to or creating a garden has obvious green credentials, some plants are more sustainable than others.

Whether it’s hidden peat, throwaway plants, high water and energy use, transport emissions or plastic pots that can’t be recycled, here’s what to avoid – and what is better to buy instead – for a truly sustainable plot.

Always wondered what everyday stuff celebrities buy, where they shop for food, and the basic they scrimp on? The actor talks well-brewed tea, never lending books, and the joy of dining at home with the Filter

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Kim Cattrall shot to fame when she played the sexually liberated Samantha Jones in the TV series Sex and the City. Her film roles span comedy, drama and thrillers including Police Academy, Mannequin and The Ghost Writer. She also appeared to rave reviews in stage productions of Private Lives and David Mamet’s The Cryptogram.

Born in Liverpool, she moved to Canada as a child and now divides her time between New York City, London and Vancouver. Cattrall is the face of a new Designer at Debenhams campaign, a collaboration between the retailer and the British designer Ashish.

An unadulterated, wobbly, joyous flan made the way it should be

I started the year in one of my favourite places: Mexico City. I’ve since become one of those annoying people who finds a way to bring it up in nearly every conversation, so please indulge me just this once! Each time I’ve been to Mexico, I develop a new fixation, and this year I ate a considerable amount of flan. It’s seen as a bit of a retro dish here in the UK, and perhaps a little divisive, but I love it.

Our changing diet, which increasingly revolves around vegetable, makes wine-matching a bit trickier, but there’s no need to overthink it

At a recent tasting, I got chatting to a winemaker from Australia’s Clare Valley as I bravely made my way through his wares: a ripe, leathery shiraz and a deep, dark cabernet sauvignon that put me in mind of blackcurrant bushes. These were serious wines – and good value, too. A generation ago, such gutsy New World reds were all the rage, but now, lamented the winemaker, gen Z was more interested in lighter, cooler-climate wines, lower on the alcohol and brighter on the palate.

He had two theories on this. One was vanity: no one on Instagram or TikTok wants to drink a red wine that stains their teeth, which is bad news for producers of high-tannin wines such as malbec and cabernet. And, two: it’s also to do with the changing western diet. Aussie shiraz is the archetypal sausage-on-the-barbie wine; Argentinian malbec is a steakhouse cliché; and, in France, malbec is mainly grown around Cahors in the south-west, land of heavy cassoulets and fat-tastic maigrets de canard. You need something with a bit of muscle to stand up to all that.

Softly braised vegetables combine with crisp-skinned chicken thighs in this reliable, versatile dish

The weather lately has been as temperamental as peas in pods. But peas are even harder to read than the sky: some pods contain sweet things no bigger than peppercorns, which explode when you bite them; the contents of others, however, are closer to small ball bearings, their size very likely a sign that all the natural sucrose has been metabolised and transformed to pea starch. The best thing for the tiny ones is to snack on them alongside a bit of cheese, whereas the path for big ones is the same as for dried peas, so pea and ham soup or a long-simmered puree.

Prepared for all the above, I first checked that there were frozen peas in the freezer. It was a packet I used to take for granted until my son, aged 14 (and having finished all the biscuits, crisps, cereal and milk) decided that peas were a decent late-night desperation snack. Fortunately, there was a packet, because I needed a good portion of it to make up for the pea shortfall caused by the huge and tiny ones found in one kilo of pods.

It’s all about finding bottles that speak the same language as the food, whether for sharp citrus salads, spiced lamb or lemon chicken

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I have been pouring a lot of wine over this past month, talking a lot about wine, and tasting my fair share, too – or perhaps a little more than my fair share. It’s one of the perks of opening a wine bar on London’s Great Portland Street, a project that’s been brewing (although fermenting may be a more appropriate term) for years.

For ages, my wife, Sarit, and I have been pondering what to serve with Middle Eastern food and, as more and more of us bring the flavours and spirit of this region to our homes, maybe that’s a question you’ve been asking yourself as well. The instinct has always been to match dish by dish but, as anyone who has ever sat down to a Levantine spread knows all too well, that doesn’t really work. A Middle Eastern meal is a rush of different flavours; it’s a table of contrasts, not courses.

Ronnie is using Billy’s name to register for free streaming services and gyms, which Billy objects to. You get to preside over this trial
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

Unlike the kettle or the wifi, my contact details aren’t for communal use. Plus it’s annoying

It’s OK to feel the loss, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. The fact that you do shows the devotion and care you’re capable of

My son is moving out. I’m happy for him but I’m bereft. I know “empty nest” is a cliche but it’s out of control and it’s ruining my relationship with him. It feels like grief. I’m tearful all the time. I can’t bear to look at old photos of us. I feel awkward around him, like I’m looking for the old connection when he was little that he’s rightly moved on from.

I wasn’t a happy person before him and without him I’m afraid I’ll go back to how I was. My partner is supportive but I hide how much I’m obsessing about this because there’s only so many times she can sit through my sobbing. He’s still present and wonderful; he needs to go and live his life and I know he’ll come back. How can I stop feeling so terrible about a thing that I know is good and right and natural?

When I became pregnant, all I wanted was a healthy baby. Discovering I would be having a son gave me a new perspective on the narratives around masculinity

At the 20-week ultrasound, because of the baby’s position, my partner and I didn’t get any proper pictures to take home. Instead, the sonographer printed us a shot of the genitals. So, there it was, in black and white: I was having a boy.

Growing up, boys were a slightly alien concept. Our household was female-heavy – a mum, two sisters, a dad with no interest in conventional “boy stuff”. We did have two male cats, neutered, extremely fluffy and ironically named Mr White and Mr Orange by my dad (“Reservoir Cats”).

Vibe Check, a free and anonymous alternative to AI, talks teens through consent, boundaries and apologies

Val Odiembo volunteers at her former high school a few times a month, teaching teens about consent and healthy relationships. Now a sophomore at Rhode Island College, 19-year-old Odiembo isn’t much older than the students she’s teaching – which she thinks makes it easier for the high schoolers to come to her with their questions. But she knows she isn’t the only source they’re consulting.

“A lot of them confide in AI,” she said. A recent UK study found that one in 10 young adults has consulted AI for sexual health information, and a 2025 Pew Research Center report showed that one in five teens have had a romantic relationship with a chatbot.

I’ve received 77 unpaid PCNs from TfL but it won’t accept they weren’t from my vehicle

Someone cloned my car number plate back in October and racked up £8,500 in Ulez fines. I appealed, but this was rejected.

Unfortunately, the cloned car is the same make, model and colour as mine. I’ve now received 17 “order for recovery of unpaid penalty charge” notices from Transport for London (TfL). The bailiffs will arrive next week, according to their letters.

Charges set out in a new contract for Aver Healthcare’s homes appear to contradict advice from the regulator

I hold power of attorney for my aunt who is in a care home run by Avery Healthcare. Avery recently sent relatives its new contract, which states that care home fees are payable for 14 days after a resident’s death, and levies an upfront £595 charge for “dilapidations” (damage or wear and tear).

These charges contradict advice given by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and are probably unenforceable.

After subscribing to the Claude chatbot, mystery payments started to appear on one family’s credit card bill. They are not alone

David Duggan* was so impressed with the ability of the Claude chatbot to answer medical questions and organise family life, that a $20-a-month (£15) subscription seemed like money well spent.

But then his wife spotted two $200 payments on his credit card bill for gift cards to use the artificial intelligence tool.

From a quintessential ‘chocolate box’ cottage to part of a grand stately home

Would you know how to respond if someone was taken critically ill? Experts explain the basic skills we can all learn and how to perform them with confidence

“If you learn one thing, it should be how to resuscitate,” says Richard Webber, an associate clinical director of St John Ambulance and practising NHS paramedic in the south of England. “We know that for every one minute delay in restarting the heart, there is a 10% reduction in survivability.”

A lot of fitness advice is based on research into people who don’t have periods, give birth or go through menopause. How much of it should be modified – or even thrown out?

I can’t remember when I first became aware of the phrase: “Women are not small men.” But once I’d heard it, I started hearing it everywhere. Fitness types on social media kept alluding to it. Friends would talk excitedly about the new strain of female-specific exercise research, which was smashing the template we had all held dear for years. And the originator of the phrase, Dr Stacy Sims, was suddenly on every podcast you cared to name. A highly credentialed sports scientist with a huge social media following, she’s hard to avoid, if your algorithms skew vaguely towards self-optimisation content.

While her stance remains divisive in the sports science world, it has the kind of splashy, audacious quality that mainstream exercise advice does not. As a result, it has taken hold in a big way. You might say that Stacy Sims is to women’s exercise what Dr Chris van Tulleken is to ultra-processed foods: changing the conversation almost single-handedly while undaunted by any pushback.

While some are using AI to tailor programs better suited to their needs, others warn ‘it can be wrong, confidently so’

People have mixed feelings about AI. While many people regularly use it – 62% in the US and 69% in the UK – trust in the technology is low. In the US, only 26% of people have a positive view of AI, according to one NBC poll, and in the UK, 78% say they worry about negative outcomes from AI.

So it is perhaps no surprise that readers’ responses to our callout about AI and fitness were varied. Some said they rely on AI to shape their workouts and diets while others said they refuse to use it at all because of its impact on the economy and the environment. And many were somewhere in between – they found it a useful tool, but were less than thrilled about the technology’s impact overall.

Scores of women have told how they were affected by placenta accreta spectrum for an awareness campaign

Women have had to undergo major emergency surgery, including a hysterectomy, when medical staff failed to detect they had a rare but potentially fatal complication of pregnancy.

Scores of women have come forward to tell their stories of how they were affected by placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) since the launch in February of a campaign to raise awareness among NHS staff and mothers-to-be of the dangers it poses.

The key lesson from Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s style is to keep the messaging simple

Carolyn Bessette Kennedy has been an insider style icon for ever, but this year she has flipped from under-the-radar reference to global phenomenon. Ryan Murphy’s Love Story, a glossy dramatisation of her doomed romance with JFK Jr, gave us nine delicious hours of lingering closeups of her white tank tops and jeans, her simple black dresses, perfect black oval sunglasses and tortoiseshell headbands. If you didn’t know you wanted to dress like CBK before you started watching, you did by the end.

Carole Radziwill, who was friends with Carolyn, has pointed out that copying CBK’s style is pretty much the least CBK thing you could do. Her friend, she told the Deuxmoi podcast, “pulled her hair back in a headband because she didn’t want to wash it every day. She did what felt natural to her and she dressed in things that made her feel comfortable and most like herself. Mostly jeans and button-downs and T-shirts. The takeaway is not to mimic her style, but to do and wear what feels most authentic to you. Be yourself. She was very much herself.”

Products that strike the right balance of wearable coverage with adequate sun protection

There are two things I invariably reach for at this lovely time of year: a trench coat and tinted sunscreen. The life-changing appearance of sunlight – if not quite blazing heat – means that most of us are venturing outdoors for longer periods while perhaps lightening our makeup load a little to be more seasonally appropriate. A tinted sunscreen in the right formula can kill two – or even three – birds with one stone, offering some makeup coverage, lighter moisture and high-factor sun protection in one portable product.

Garnier Ambre Solaire makes lots of terrific facial sunscreens at very good prices. The newish Vitamin C Wonder Tint SPF50 (£9.99) is among their best. Available in light, medium and dark, it’s a silky sunscreen that packs enough glycerin to moisturise skin as well as protect it, making it a good choice for drier skin types. The pocket-friendly bottle is compact and practical if, like me, you’re likely to throw on your makeup on the move. The three shades are inadequate, but give a sheer, natural-looking tint to most wearers.

Opening of ‘the dressed body’ show inspires Beyoncé, Kardashians and Skepta, as others pay tribute to fashion moments in art history

• Met Gala 2026 red carpet: the best looks in pictures

Two assets the modern 1% love to show off are their designer wardrobes … and their expensive bodies. The Met Gala opening of an exhibition about “the dressed body” presented an opportunity to do both, and it proved irresistible. The evening raised a record-breaking $42m (£31m) for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with the lead sponsors Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos thought to have contributed $10m, and individual guests writing cheques for up to $1m in order to make the Anna Wintour-approved final cut.

The official dress code was “Fashion Is Art”. But the golden rule in fashion, as in life, is that those with the gold make the rules, and this elite crowd bent Wintour’s diktat according to their will. The red carpet was divided between looks that paid tribute to famous fashion moments in art history, and others that celebrated the body itself as a very modern masterpiece.

There are many online techniques for self-cutting a fringe – but would I end up looking like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction or a low-budget Grimes?

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I have had a fringe since I was 15 years old. I will never forget this life-altering haircut. For years before it I had been suffering lingering effects from a bob cut I received unwillingly in primary school.

You were not a cool person if you had a bob as an adolescent in the early 2000s. But finally my hair had grown sufficiently for styling and I got it cut to sit neatly on my shoulders with front bangs.

The West Sussex village of Amberley, near Arundel, is easy to reach by train and offers great hiking in the national park, castles and a newly reopened pub with a focus on local food

Wisteria and clematis hang from weathered cottage walls. Tulips and pink apple blossom spill out of several gardens. Thatched animals decorate the rooftops. There’s a Norman church, a medieval castle and an 80-hectare (200-acre) nature reserve. Amberley is the kind of place people assume you can only reach by car, but the village has its own railway station with regular direct trains, along the scenic Arun Valley line, from Bognor, Horsham and London Victoria.

This spring, the Black Horse pub reopened in Amberley. The new owners are the gourmet Gladwin brothers, Oliver and Richard, returning to their Sussex roots near Nutbourne Vineyards. Having founded five Local & Wild restaurants in London, the Black Horse is their first country pub and first place with rooms.

Butcher’s shops and dive bars sit side by side in a district where you can swap the touristy beer halls of the city centre for raw creative energy

In the south-west of Munich, Schlachthofviertel is an area in flux; a jarring district that is home to a theatre, a techno club and a controversial active slaughterhouse.

This traditional neighbourhood ‘across the river’ is where the city’s creatives are heading as the centre heats up

Madrid’s current boomtown dynamics are driving the city centre way upmarket, pushing the average punter to outer barrios in search of cheaper rent. As seen in New York and elsewhere, the creative class is moving too – crossing the River Manzanares to open studios in the former factories and metalworks of Carabanchel. Now the city’s most populous district, this used to be a separate municipality, which was annexed to the capital in 1948 and built up into canyons of high-rise flats to house the postwar influx from the provinces, and later from Latin America.

After decades in the shadows, the residents of this historic quarter came together to launch local businesses and make the area an attractive proposition once more

My favourite way to enter Rione Sanità is by elevator: descending from a bridge into cobblestoned streets buzzing with mopeds and flanked by opulent but decaying 18th-century palazzi. Through the grand doorways of these once noble palaces are courtyards where bakers, butchers, cobblers and the odd contraband cigarette vendor do business.

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

Welcome to the Thursday news quiz, where it pays to listen carefully – although not necessarily to the extent of developing a question mark for an ear, as our illustration by Anaïs Mims may suggest. Have you been paying attention to the week’s events or just hearing half the story? Fifteen questions await on topical news, pop culture and general knowledge, generously sprinkled with some in-jokes. There are no prizes, but we always enjoy hearing how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 246

Inkpen, Berkshire: There is far less birdsong now than in Lillian Watts’s day, but it is down to her that there is any at all

Lillian Watts’s bench has fallen into disrepair, so instead I sit on Arthur’s Seat on the common. Warmth rises from the heath, even on this chilly spring morning, and a lizard creates curvaceous lines under the dry, still-dormant heather.

It is both Lillian’s and my birthday, though she died in 1989, aged 93. I play a recording of her from 1975, from the village’s history society. Poet, potter, English teacher, naturalist and formidable campaigner, she, along with villagers such as Arthur Cooke (1898-1980), saved this place from development. Lillian’s voice is measured, soft and annunciated, with the clipped vowels of her time.

The author has become acutely aware of how the climate crisis is affecting women – and, in her new book, she argues that it’s time for mainstream western feminists to join the dots

Natasha Walter is halfway through explaining how she came to be politically radicalised when a young woman approaches the cafe table. We two middle-aged women look like “the most trustworthy people here,” she says, so could we watch her baby while she grabs a coffee? Like the solid citizen she is, Walter doesn’t take her eyes off the pushchair parked by the cafe steps for the next five minutes, though all we can see of the occupant is a tiny swinging foot. Sorry, where were we? Ah yes, the groundbreaking feminist writer who famously argued in her 1998 book The New Feminism that Margaret Thatcher had broken down barriers for women was explaining why she no longer really believes it’s possible to be rightwing and a feminist, as Theresa May or Amber Rudd insist they are.

“I can’t support just any woman getting into power, because I think a system that leaves too many women in the shadows – that condemns too many women to poverty or worse – is not a feminist system, and I don’t think you can call yourself a feminist if you’re going to prop up that system,” she says, eyes still glued to the baby for whom we are briefly responsible. “It’s not my kind of feminism.” Her younger self, she admits, would have thought her too uncompromising. But something in her seems to have hardened, facing a world she sees as threatened by the rise of far-right authoritarianism on one hand and a climate emergency on the other. “In the past I always wanted to be a broad church, I always thought any woman can be a feminist, but now I really am feeling … maybe I’ve been radicalised.”

Demonstrators, angered by Russia’s inclusion at arts festival, shouted ‘Curated by Putin, dead bodies included’

The Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale was forced temporarily to shut its doors on the second day of the preview after the activist group Pussy Riot staged a chaotic protest against the country’s inclusion in the art festival.

Wearing pink balaclavas, the protesters ran towards the Russian pavilion where they gathered outside and lit pink, blue and yellow flares while playing punk music and shouting slogans, including “Blood is Russia’s Art”.

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

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

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

Julie, once a circus elephant, and Kariba, from a Belgian zoo, are to be moved to a former ranch in Portugal

Europe’s first large-scale elephant sanctuary, which is opening to offer a more natural environment for some of the 600 animals still held in captivity across the continent, is to receive its first arrivals.

Julie, Portugal’s last circus elephant, will be moved next month to the animal charity Pangea’s multimillion pound sanctuary in the Alentejo, 200km (124 miles) east of Lisbon, close to the border with Spain.

We would like to hear from people who converse with AI chatbots on a personal level

Lots of people now use chatbots as personal assistants, sometimes to the extent that they have formed an emotional attachment to them.

We would like to hear from people who converse with AI chatbots on a personal level. Have you formed an emotional bond to an AI chatbot?

If you’re affected by the National Savings and Investments lost funds scandal, we would like to hear from you

This month the state-backed National Savings and Investments (NS&I) bank will share its plan to reunite thousands of bereaved families with their missing money.

In March it emerged that 37,500 people faced delays because of problems tracing the premium bonds of deceased customers. The families are collectively owed nearly £500m.

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

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

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

Share a tip on a great train journey you’ve taken, whether long or short. The best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break

Whether it’s a short hop across the Channel on Eurostar or a long-distance adventure crossing several countries, more of us are rediscovering the excitement and romance of rail travel. We’d love to hear about your favourite train-based trips in Europe.

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

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