Got battered at the polls? No problem. Just act like voters want more of what you’re selling – not considerably less

As David Lammy put it on Thursday in a dispatch from Gorton and Denton: “Only Labour can stop Reform.” And listen, stopping them by taking third place and haemorrhaging half your support from a general election that took place 19 months ago in an area where you haven’t lost an election for almost 100 years is definitely an intriguing way to do it.

Only the Tories sound more furniture-munchingly insane after the Green win last night, announcing the result shows that “only the Conservatives have the experience, the plans and the team to ensure a stronger economy and a stronger country”. Guys? Your candidate LOST THEIR DEPOSIT. Your candidate pulled in the worst ever English byelection result in Conservative party history. This is a bit like the German military surfacing the morning after Operation Bagration in 1944, surveying the wreckage of the eastern front and declaring: “Lads, we’ve got this. Trust the process!”

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Arsenal and Liverpool will fancy their chance of making the quarter-finals, while Manchester City and Newcastle face tougher routes

The Club World Cup final victory over Paris Saint-Germain last summer was probably Enzo Maresca’s finest hour as Chelsea manager. He devised a gameplan, pinging balls over Nuno Mendes for Cole Palmer to chase, backed up by Malo Gusto, that tore the European champions apart in the first half. Liam Rosenior may try to exploit the same vulnerability, but this is a Chelsea that look weary, their exertions in the US perhaps having left them fatigued.

A growing number of parents are letting their young children train with weights. But is it a good – or safe – idea? We ask the experts to weigh in

Most parents remember the first time their baby smiled or when they took their first steps. Eve Stevenson recalls different milestones. “Watching my daughter, Madison, deadlift 35kg at the age of six was pretty cool,” she says, grinning with pride from her living room in south-west London.

As a personal trainer (PT) and former British weightlifting champion, her daughter’s achievements shouldn’t really be that surprising. Still, Stevenson has been on the receiving end of some harsh opinions about her daughter and three-year-old son, Beau, doing resistance training with her. “People tell me it will stunt their growth or that it’s dangerous,” she says. She is also often accused of forcing her children to train, when actually it all started the other way round. “What child doesn’t look at their parents and want to do what they’re doing?” she asks. And although to many people the idea of a small child strength training or competing might feel jarring, Stevenson is among a growing number of parents who see value in helping their children build muscles.

With most Scots supportive of reintroducing the wild cat, charities are focusing on those whose jobs could be affected

Could lynx, the elusive wild cat driven to extinction in Britain more than 1,000 years ago, become the new Loch Ness monster? “Whether Nessie’s there or not, she draws tourists,” said Margaret Luckwell, a resident of Moray, Scotland. “It would be the same with lynx. I’d love to see a lynx in the wild.”

Luckwell’s view is a majority one among local people gathering at village halls across the Highlands, as a painstaking consultation slowly gathers momentum for the apex predator’s return to Scottish forests.

The Emmy-winning singer and actor was so struck by the standup’s autobiographical one-man show Sugar Daddy that he signed on as producer. The pair discuss ‘bears’, blood sugar and bridging the divides between generations of gay men

Sugar Daddy is a one-man show about “love, grief and insulin” by the 31-year-old standup Sam Morrison. An autobiographical monologue that turns tragedy into comedy, it tells of how Morrison fell in love with Jonathan, who was 24 years his senior, after meeting him at a gay bear festival in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In 2021, two and a half years into their relationship, Jonathan died from Covid.

For the last four years, Morrison has been performing Sugar Daddy around the world; next month he brings an updated version to London’s West End. The co-producer is Billy Porter, 56, the Emmy-winning singer, actor and director whose credits include Pose, American Horror Story and Cabaret.

Tapalpa deserted and scared by day of terror when military raid brought feared drug lord’s reign to an end

Two days before one of the world’s most powerful drug lords was killed while trying to flee a chalet in the hills outside Mexico’s second biggest city, the Tapalpa Country Club posted an advert on Instagram inviting lovers to visit a place where they could “inhale peace [and] exhale stress”.

“Date idea: Escape to Tapalpa,” read the message, advertising romantic private cabins, picnics with spectacular lake views and a golf course “to have fun together”.

Scale of defeat to Greens has plunged party into fresh despair and again raised prospect of leadership challenge

Keir Starmer is facing an ultimatum from his own party to change direction or risk a leadership challenge within months after the Greens humiliated Labour with a historic byelection victory in Gorton and Denton.

Overturning a 13,000 Labour majority from the general election, Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and Green councillor, became the party’s fifth MP on Friday. Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin was second, just ahead of the Labour candidate, Angeliki Stogia.

Party billed it as a two-horse race with Reform but Greens’ Hannah Spencer connected with voters in a way it could not

From the outset of the Gorton and Denton byelection, Labour strategists were desperate to say the party was on course to win, but the trouncing at the hands of the Greens has made this look laughable in hindsight.

Hollie Ridley, Labour’s general secretary, sent a note to No 10 at the end of January saying it was “clearly a two-horse race” with Reform UK, and only 3% of voters were saying they would stick with the Greens.

Nigel Farage says his party was victim of ‘cheating’ in Gorton and Denton byelection, although Manchester council says no issues reported

Reform UK and the Conservatives have asked the elections watchdog to investigate allegations of corrupt voting in the Gorton and Denton byelection as Nigel Farage claimed there had been “cheating”, despite limited evidence of wrongdoing.

The reports to the Electoral Commission come after an election observers group, Democracy Volunteers, said they had witnessed “concerningly high levels” of so-called family voting, where one family member dictates how others cast their ballot.

Matt Goodwin claimed cheating in Gorton and Denton, Angeliki Stogia fled, Keir was tin-eared and Kemi brought the comedy

It could have been a flash of arrogance. Hubris for the ages. On Thursday morning, when most pundits were still calling the Gorton and Denton byelection a three-way fight that was impossible to call, the Green party sent a note to journalists. Come to the first press conference of Hannah Spencer MP tomorrow. And while you’re about it, stay on to join her for her first constituency surgery. What could possibly go wrong? As it happens … absolutely nothing.

In the end it wasn’t even close, with the Greens getting 40% of the vote and Reform trailing a long way behind in second on 28%. Labour came a distant third on 25%. About the worst possible result for them, leaving in tatters the idea that they were the only progressive party on the left that could defeat Reform. For the Greens, this was a night of undiluted triumph. The first byelection victory in their history. In a seat they had never previously targeted. Life couldn’t be more sweet.

Winner of Gorton and Denton byelection was driven into politics by growing gap between super-rich and the ‘rest of us’

Above the college workbench where Hannah Spencer has been training to be a plasterer, her fellow students recently added a sign: “Ministry of Plastering and Plumbing – Hannah Spencer MP”.

Four weeks ago, the title might have felt faintly ridiculous to a 34-year-old plumber, who only entered politics in 2023. Now, it is very real after Spencer was elected as the first Green party MP in the north of England, overturning a large majority in a once-safe Labour seat in a win that could reshape British politics for years to come.

Former president tells House oversight committee he is cooperating in the Epstein investigation out of love of country and desire for victims to heal

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James Comer, the chair of the House oversight committee, said the committee’s list of questions for Bill Clinton grew longer after Hillary Clinton’s deposition yesterday, where she deferred a host of questions to her husband.

“So we already had a big portfolio of questions for him, and that increased yesterday,” Comer said at a press conference outside the building where the closed-door deposition was set to begin shortly.

Home secretary will defy ‘plain wrong’ calls from unions and leftwing MPs that she is alienating Muslim voters

Shabana Mahmood will press on with hardline immigration policies despite calls for a reversal from unions and left-leaning Labour MPs after the Green party’s byelection victory.

Senior Labour sources insisted that the home secretary would continue to roll out changes to asylum policy, dismissing as “plain wrong” claims that it would further alienate Muslim voters.

As tensions between two countries reach new highs, US president says regime is ‘talking with us’

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Donald Trump has suggested the US could carry out a “friendly takeover” of Cuba as tensions between Washington and Havana reach a new high following the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

As he left the White House for a campaigning event in Texas on Friday, Trump said: “The Cuban government is talking with us. They’re in a big deal of trouble.”

US president accuses Tehran of failing to ‘negotiate in good faith’ over its nuclear programme

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Donald Trump says he has not made a final decision on whether to launch strikes on Iran but is “not happy” with the situation and military force – including regime change – remains an option.

The remarks came at the White House on Friday after talks between the US and Iran on Tehran’s nuclear programme ended inconclusively, with a suggestion that further discussions would be held next week.

Wave of strikes comes after Taliban forces attack Pakistani border troops following earlier action from Islamabad

Pakistan has bombed major cities in Afghanistan including the capital, Kabul, with Islamabad’s defence minister declaring that the hostile neighbours were in a state of “open war” as a cycle of retaliatory attacks escalated further.

Witnesses in Kabul and Kandahar, the southern Afghan city, reported explosions and jets overhead until dawn, while the Taliban government said later that Pakistani surveillance aircraft were still flying over Afghanistan.

Brown, 62, third member of hit HBO series to die since December, was trying to jumpstart car at home at time of blaze

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The Wire actor Bobby J Brown died recently in a barn fire at his Maryland home, making him the third cast member of the acclaimed HBO show to pass away since December.

According to authorities and a statement on social media from his daughter, Reina, the 62-year-old Brown had gone into a barn at his residence in the St Mary’s county community of Chaptico at about 10pm on 24 February to try to jumpstart a car. It evidently ignited during the attempt, and Brown asked his wife for a fire extinguisher.

Investigation under way after vehicle ploughs into building

A tram derailed and crashed into a building in Milan on Friday, killing two people and injuring 38 others.

One of the dead was hit by the tram as it derailed while the second victim was a passenger, the city’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, told reporters at the scene.

Robert Easom violently assaulted Trudi Burgess, from Chorley, when she threatened to leave him

A “violent and controlling bully” who broke his partner’s neck, leaving her paralysed and her life “destroyed”, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Robert Easom, a landscape gardener, violently assaulted Trudi Burgess, a schoolteacher and former singer, when she threatened to leave him after enduring eight years of coercive, controlling behaviour.

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

Musician died after being rushed to hospital in Los Angeles on Friday, with his family remembering him as a ‘true rock and roll legend’ and ‘inspiration to millions’

Neil Sedaka, the singer-songwriter behind Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, Oh! Carol, Calendar Girl and Bad Blood as well as many hits performed by other artists included Stupid Cupid and Love Will Keep Us Together, has died aged 86.

A representative confirmed his death to Variety on Friday, hours after he was reportedly rushed to hospital in Los Angeles. No cause of death was given.

Military reckoned ‘good’ Afghan insurgents were separate from ‘bad’ Pakistani insurgents but distinction has blurred

Days after the Taliban swept to power in 2021, Pakistan’s then spymaster appeared in Kabul on what looked to many like a victory lap. Sipping tea in the lobby of the Afghan capital’s fanciest hotel, Lt Gen Faiz Hameed told reporters: “Don’t worry, everything will be OK.”

This week it became clear just how badly Pakistan had miscalculated how it could rely on the Taliban, as Islamabad unleashed airstrikes in Afghanistan and troops from both countries fought each other on the border.

The Green party has pulled off a landmark victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection in a major blow to Keir Starmer. Hannah Spencer, a local plumber, was elected as the party’s first MP in northern England, with Labour pushed into third place behind Nigel Farage’s Reform UK despite having a 13,000-vote majority. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s north of England correspondent Hannah Al-Othman, who lives in the constituency and was at the count overnight

As the actor’s hi-tech conspiracy thriller returns for a third series, she spills the beans on her worst stunt injury – and why the police are now ‘dressing like the cops on the telly’

You’ll never wheel your suitcase through an airport in the same way again. Hit techno-conspiracy drama The Capture makes its long-awaited comeback with a chilling, thrilling opening sequence at Heathrow Terminal 5. When a hostile Russian asset lands in the UK, he hacks CCTV cameras and uses real-time image manipulation to bypass border controls and passport checks. He’s travelling under a deepfake avatar – and let’s just say he’s not in London to visit M&M’s World or see the Paddington musical.

Written and created by former documentary-maker Ben Chanan, The Capture’s ripped-from-the-headlines mix of government AI usage, state-sponsored cyber-attacks, dark web data analytics and deepfake doppelgangers will make you fear for the future. The show’s star Holliday Grainger compares it to “a longform Black Mirror”.

Years of singlehood, dating apps and humiliating set-ups left me skeptical. But Calling in the One – surprisingly – worked

In January 2023, a friend recommended I read a dating self-help book with her. “I think we need to read this,” she said. “My friend did it and that’s how she met her husband.”

But when the book arrived, I discovered it wasn’t a recommendation so much as an enlistment.

Smooth, brighten and rejuvenate your undereyes with these hard-working buys for every budget

• The best mascaras for longer, fuller and fluttery lashes

‘The eyes are the window to the soul,” as the saying goes. Yet as well as communicating what we’re thinking and feeling, they can also reveal clues about our age, lifestyle and health – presented as some of the most common eye concerns, including puffiness, dark circles, fine lines and wrinkles.

The good news is that today’s eye cream and serum formulations can go a long way to address those issues when used as part of a daily skincare routine. Many products do more than simply hydrate the area around the eyes; next-generation formulas work harder and smarter, combining science-backed ingredients with skincare tech.

Best eye cream overall:
Medik8 Crystal Retinal Ceramide Eye

Best budget eye cream:
The Inkey List Caffeine eye cream

Popped collar worn by Duchess of Sussex and Rama Duwaji is rising in popularity, with searches at John Lewis up 1,000%

Shoppers are avidly searching for jackets that cover half your face – so much that searches are up 1,000% year on year at John Lewis.

The funnel-neck jacket is boxy, generously cut and comes with a permanently popped collar, between 9cm and 14cm high running from clavicle to nose; high enough to cover your mouth, low enough to see out – just.

Fearful of returning to their home countries and unable to continue north, many asylum seekers now face eviction as Mexico starts to demolish the camps set up to house them

The road to the “nation of immigrants” has radically changed course over the past months for those hoping for a new life in the United States. A series of executive orders by the US president, Donald Trump, has drastically shifted migration across the Americas.

In the early morning in Mexico City, people living at Vallejo informal migrant camp get ready for the day. It is one of the last of six camps formed to house growing numbers of people arriving mostly from Venezuela and Honduras after changes to US legislation in 2022. Other camps were recently dismantled

Volatility and unusual structure at Stamford Bridge leave club’s young manager with a big test to rebuild like his rival has at Arsenal

Arsenal’s journey under Mikel Arteta has long been a reference point for Chelsea’s owners. It is part of the club’s shift towards youth and potential after the Roman Abramovich era. Chelsea have built with a long-term view and, seeing how Arteta has reversed Arsenal’s decline since his appointment as manager in December 2019, have been keen to find a young coach capable of becoming a similarly galvanising force at Stamford Bridge.

It is not an easy task. Chelsea briefly thought they had their rising star when they hired Graham Potter in September 2022, only for his reign to end after seven months. Now there is hope that Liam Rosenior can become Chelsea’s answer to Arteta. Rosenior is young, confident, talented and a little unconventional in the way he presents himself. It is early days but the 41-year-old has made an encouraging start, winning eight of his first 12 games, and has transmitted enough authority to keep jibes about his inexperience at bay so far.

• Super 8s: England, 161-6, bt New Zealand, 159-7, by 4 wkts

• Late flurry of runs from all-rounders proves crucial

A game played on a turning wicket and dominated by spin was decided, appropriately, after a decisive, savage twist. Just as it looked as if England’s unconvincing progress through the World Cup was the one thing destined to remain on its predictable path Rehan Ahmed and Will Jacks spun the game, and the group, in their team’s favour.

England’s pursuit of a target of 160 was appearing increasingly forlorn until its 18th over, bowled by Glenn Phillips, which started with them needing an improbable 43 off 18 and ended, two sixes and a couple of fours later, with a manageable 21 required off 12. Ahmed started the next with another boundary to keep the momentum going and before the penultimate delivery the batters conferred. “I said: ‘I’ll get a single and you just have a free hit,’” Jacks said; he got his single and Ahmed deposited the final delivery into the stands. “That six pretty much won us the game,” said Jacks.

Brighton’s yoga-mad, teetotal veteran on the secrets to his longevity after 24 seasons in the English top flight

Being teetotal, always asking questions and taking up yoga in his early 30s after a recommendation from Gareth Barry have played their part. But if one thing inspired James Milner to break the Premier League’s appearance mark then it is a trait honed during his formative years in Yorkshire: sheer bloody-mindedness.

“Some things don’t change,” Milner says with a chuckle when asked whether his desire to prove people wrong was as strong as ever after his 40th birthday last month. “There’s people who are always going to doubt you but that’s always something that’s been at my forefront: to prove them wrong.”

• Newcastle v Barça; Liverpool get Galatasaray rematch

• Spurs take on Atlético Madrid; Arsenal meet Leverkusen

The draw for the Champions League last 16 has produced some intriguing, heavyweight clashes featuring the renewal of old rivalries. If Manchester City’s meeting with Real Madrid arguably ranks foremost among them, Chelsea’s engagement with the holders, Paris Saint-Germain, and Newcastle’s duel with Barcelona are certainly not lacking in glamour.

Or, in the case of Chelsea and PSG in particular, edge. The tie is a repeat of last summer’s Club World Cup final in New Jersey, which Chelsea won 3-0 thanks to two goals from Cole Palmer and with a team under the management of Enzo Maresca.

• Sales for this year’s event ahead of 2025 at same stage

• ‘Overall we are moving in the right direction’

Ticket sales for the 2026 festival meeting at Cheltenham are ahead of the levels at the same point 12 months ago and there is growing confidence at the track that attendance will be up at next month’s showpiece meeting after sharp declines over the past three seasons.

This year’s festival, which opens on 10 March, will be the second since Guy Lavender took over as Cheltenham’s chief executive at the start of 2025, but the first at which it should be possible to assess the effect of a range of initiatives to improve the customer experience that have been introduced over the last 15 months.

• RFU council approves change from 2026-27 season

• ‘The professional game must evolve if it is to thrive’

English rugby has adopted a franchise system for the first time with promotion and relegation from the Prem scrapped from the end of this season.

In the biggest change to the club game since the introduction of a formal league in 1987, the Rugby Football Union’s council voted overwhelmingly in favour of proposals to ringfence the existing 10-team Prem on Friday, with a view to expanding to 12 clubs in 2029-30.

Hull KR face Leeds in Sin City on Saturday, with the supporters they bring in tow illustrating the league’s value to the global game

Rugby league’s greatest ride returns to Las Vegas this weekend with Super League nestled firmly in the sidecar. Two NRL fixtures kick off the Australian season while Hull KR and Leeds Rhinos open up the Allegiant Stadium action on Saturday. More than 12,000 English fans are expected to make the trip and add plenty of colour, flair and, most importantly, value.

This has been a strong start to 2026 for the game in England, evidenced last week by Hull KR’s triumph over Brisbane Broncos in the World Club Challenge. It is handy for Super League that the Robins are one of two clubs in Vegas representing the competition this week and they have even flown over the trophy to hammer home the point that Super League holds the cards when it comes to the best club side in the game.

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La Liga has El Clásico, France has Le Classique, and Argentina goes full gun with its Superclásico. English football has no true equivalent, with Liverpool and Manchester United fans unable to agree on a name for their grand-slam meetings. Up in the land of fitba, there’s this weekend’s 450th Old Firm/Glasgow derby (delete as applicable according to your stringency on Scottish company law). And Germany has Der Klassiker, between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. The Bundesliga marketing suits have been out in force this week for the one game, played on Saturday evening, that brings extra eyeballs. Though questions are often raised over whether this is a true, classic rivalry; Dortmund have not won a league title since Jürgen Klopp was making his rounds in 2012.

I just hope the hapless Dortmund defender Ramy Bensebaini (yesterday’s Football Daily) does not follow my path. I too was directly responsible for four opposition goals in one game: one came from my taking a corner that curved behind every one of my teammates, allowing five of the other lot to advance on our puffing centre-back; another was me slicing a clearance so badly that instead of arcing down the touchline, it went at 90 degrees, landing at the feet of an opponent with enough time and space at the edge of our box for his own Grand Designs project. I never again played any form of competitive sport” – Michael Hann.

I feel compelled to point out that Ramy Bensebaini played left-sided centre-back of a back three against Atalanta rather than left-back (yesterday’s Football Daily). I noticed this because of the body language of his teammate Daniel Svensson each time Bensebaini recklessly served a goal up on Wednesday. Svensson was the recovering left wing-back at the Algerian’s side, head bowed and shoulders increasingly drooping” – Matthew Parham.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the collection of words at the bottom of Football Daily’s full email edition (that rarely makes any sense to me) are a form of the popular location app what3words and give the venue of that evening’s secret ‘drinks’ for the hard-working hacks. It hasn’t escaped me that, when there are more than three words, my theory sheds more water than something that sheds water” – Shaun.

Regarding yesterday’s last line ‘Hot Parents’ Chat Ahoy’ (full email edition), am I the only one wondering if it is the chat or the parents that are hot? Pray tell” – Martyn Shapter [neither – Football Daily Ed].​​​​

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

By refusing to fold in Germany, O’Neill’s side showed the resilience that could serve them well in Sunday’s derby at Ibrox

A European occasion that appeared ominous for Celtic instead provided evidence that it is never wise to write off Martin O’Neill. His side exited the Europa League in Stuttgart but the scale of spirit and togetherness visible during their 1-0, playoff second-leg victory emphasised that tales of their demise may be overstated.

Celtic’s key attribute during a critical week, which begins at Ibrox on Sunday, is course and distance specialism. The shortcomings within, and patched-up nature of, O’Neill’s squad are blindingly obvious. This is, however, a club that has become accustomed to dominating Scottish football over more than a decade. Much earlier, O’Neill had demonstrated he could emerge successful from title scraps. Contrary to giddy analysis, there is nothing miraculous or remarkable about O’Neill’s work during his second short-term stint of the season. It is, though, immediately striking how a 73-year-old can achieve such buy-in from players. Faith in O’Neill within Celtic is absolute.

Starmer called the byelection a battle for the nation’s soul. This result shows Labour has lost that – and I think it will lose much more

It wasn’t even close. The scale of victory of the Green party’s Hannah Spencer in Gorton and Denton changes everything. For years, British politics has oscillated between snuffing out hope and stoking fear. The main parties converged around an economic model that irretrievably broke in the crash of 2008, then encouraged understandably furious voters to blame foreigners for the wreckage. In south-east Manchester, thousands of people just revolted against that wretched consensus.

The Greens’ campaign will be studied for years. Less than two years ago, they limped into third place in the constituency on just over 13% of the vote, with barely any ground operation to speak of. They started this contest with scant data and little local infrastructure, up against a Labour machine that had dominated the area for generations and, in 2024, secured more than half the vote and a majority north of 13,000.

Greens first, Reform second, Labour trailing – and the Tories losing their deposit. This felt like a rejection of the status quo

Three-part docudrama makes notion of going into the sea in the UK terrifying – much as Jaws did for Americans in 1975

Since I was a child I’ve been going to the same beach on the south coast and never given a second thought to its safety. Swimming in the US, you have the occasional panic about sharks. In South Africa I got stung by a jellyfish. But the English seaside, give or take the odd riptide and the constant threat of hypothermia, has always seemed benign in its outlook, a dull, unthreatening sea.

The latest rush of docudramas seems to suggest that anyone in the public eye must expect a degree of intrusion. But where does that end?

Was that really Peter Mandelson getting into a police car on Monday? Was it really the same Mandelson who had supposedly been about to flee to the British Virgin Islands, the man called “a traitor” to his country and the buddy of a sex trafficker of girls? Was he really to be questioned for nine hours by the police over “misconduct in public office”, an offence few people have ever heard of? For a moment, I thought it must be a trailer for a new Epstein docudrama “inspired by real-life events”.

For two months, news desks on both sides of the Atlantic have been trawling through the Epstein files, daily releasing sensational details. This one story – now years old – is crushing out many others. The name of Jeffrey Epstein this past week has claimed precedence over Donald Trump, China, Iran and Ukraine. Each night’s BBC television news has demoted Keir Starmer, the NHS, tax reform and student loans. Preference is relentlessly ceded to Epstein, with bit parts for the former prince Andrew, Mandelson, Bill Gates, the Clintons and a galaxy of billionaires and celebrities.

I am, like millions of others, dutifully fasting from dawn to dusk this month. My faith does not define me. It refines me

• Nazir Afzal is chancellor of the University of Manchester and a former chief prosecutor

As Ramadan begins, Muslims across Britain prepare for a month of fasting, reflection and charity. For most of us, it is a time of spiritual discipline and generosity. For too many of us, it is also a time when the drumbeat of anti-Muslim hatred grows louder.

I have never liked the word “Islamophobia”. It sounds abstract, almost clinical. What we are dealing with is not a vague fear. It is hostility. Suspicion. Discrimination. Abuse. So, I call it what it is, anti-Muslim hatred.

Nazir Afzal is chancellor of the University of Manchester and a former chief prosecutor

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The supreme court has deferred to executive power for decades. Its decision on tariffs is a long-overdue warning

After two decades of deferring to executive authority and eroding anti-bribery laws, the supreme court has suddenly limited presidential power in a way that could make one ugly form of political influence a bit more difficult to pull off. Last week’s ruling did not merely strip one president of his executive power to unilaterally impose levies across broad swaths of the economy – it makes it harder for any president to transform tariffs from a broad economic policy into a personal political cudgel that muzzles criticism and enforces fealty.

“A Supreme Court otherwise inclined to endlessly expand Trump’s authority just restricted his go-to tool, ruling that U.S. presidents do not have the power to unilaterally deploy tariffs and dole out punishment and favor to specific companies and economic sectors, friends and family, and entire countries,” said Lori Wallach of Rethink Trade.

The Washington Post reported that Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, dumped $1m into Trump’s inauguration, cultivated relationships with Trump officials, and “refrained from publicly criticizing the president or his policies on national television” – just before securing tariff exemptions for his company’s products.

ProPublica reported that the administration approved a tariff exemption for a thermoplastic made by a company “owned by a pair of brothers who have donated millions of dollars to Republican causes”.

A tariff exemption for electronics conveniently benefited Tesla and, by extension, its CEO, Elon Musk, who bankrolled a multimillion-dollar campaign to re-elect Trump.

The sugar behemoth Florida Crystals, which has lobbied on tariff policy, gave $2m to the main pro-Trump Super Pac, Maga Inc, ahead of Trump slapping tariffs on imported sugar. Reynolds American likewise delivered $2m to the same Super Pac while successfully pushing Trump to crack down on imports of Chinese tobacco products.

Trump relaxed export controls on the microchip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) after the company gave $1million to Maga Inc.

Trump reduced tariffs on Vietnam and removed that country from the United States’s export controls list after the Hanoi government approved his family business’s $1.5bn golf course and real estate project.

The president and his allies have never been interested in helping or elevating female athletes. His true feelings were exposed on Sunday

This past week Team USA won gold in both the women’s and men’s ice hockey at the Winter Olympics, presenting Donald Trump with a golden opportunity. Instead of seizing the easy political points, he embraced his chance to ingratiate himself with the boys by inviting them to the State of the Union address. He followed up his offer of a military jet shuttle to Washington DC with a lament that he would have to also invite the women’s team. It was a bit that lit up the locker room with laughter.

The women’s gold medal had been a prime opportunity for Trump to live up to his stated commitment to “protect opportunities for women and girls to compete in safe and fair sports”, a claim made last February when he sought to position himself as the figure saving women’s sports. Instead, he decided to make a joke at the expense of Olympic champions.

Hannah Spencer’s win was more than protest. It signalled that Labour’s moral language and coalition are up for grabs in its safest terrain

The Greens have every reason to celebrate their victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection. From a standing start in a Manchester constituency, Zack Polanski’s team tripled his party’s vote to capture a seat that had effectively voted Labour in every election but one since 1906 – the year Labour was born. Labour coming third behind Reform UK is not routine midterm turbulence. A 20-point collapse in the party’s vote is extraordinary.

Sir Keir Starmer was abandoned by a coalition of young progressives, working-class former Labour voters and Muslims. May’s Scottish and Welsh parliamentary as well as English council elections will paint the map in many colours. Not a lot of it will be red if this result is anything to go by. Labour’s vaunted ground game can’t save it if the ground has shifted. The party can’t turn out voters who’ve already tuned out.

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

The president’s cuts have defunded and alienated thousands of American scientists. Europe can benefit, if it makes the right offer

Donald Trump has spent much of his second term at war with science and scientists. He is cutting staff at institutions such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by a third, and has cancelled or frozen up to 8,000 federal research grants. This hasn’t just hurt individual research programmes, it has damaged America’s credibility as a reliable partner in the scientific community. It is not surprising that many researchers – one poll last year by the journal Nature gave the number of 75% – say they are considering leaving the US entirely.

However, it is one thing to express dissatisfaction, and quite another to up sticks and leave. If the UK and EU want to attract elite scientific talent, their approach must be twofold: appealing directly to scientists concerned with political interference in their research, and offering stable, ringfenced money.

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.

Guardian readers respond to the government’s education white paper setting out changes to provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities

I am a special educational needs and disabilities (Send) coordinator in a mainstream primary school, a governor at a special school, and have two children with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) who attend special schools. I have read the Send reform white paper, and like it (Send support for schoolchildren in England to be given £4bn overhaul, 22 February). There are areas that need clarity, but on the whole I find it purposeful and comprehensive both as a professional and as a parent.

But one element has sat uncomfortably with me all day. Under the section on “experts at hand” it states that, with expert advice, schools can develop “immediate, cost-neutral actions that the school can take, such as introducing sensory circuits … and lunchtime calm clubs”. These examples are not cost-neutral – quite the opposite. They require adult mediation which is very high-cost. The example exposes the authors’ underlying assumption that schools have general support staff, which is not the reality. Classes of 30 children are taught by one teacher, with no “general” teaching assistant. Resources are so stripped that teaching assistant hours are wholly allocated to deliver EHCP provisions, which are legally-bound for specific children.

Nick Merriman supports free entry for all, while Hugh R Craig and Peter Fordham suggest small charges for international visitors

I believe that national museums should be free for all. Your report (Is the UK’s golden era of free museum entry coming to an end?, 21 February) quoted me from a Daily Telegraph article that selectively used parts of a much longer interview. I said in principle that people would be willing to pay; however, I then outlined all the reasons this would not work financially, practically and ethically. I do not wish to be represented as a mouthpiece for those who wish to introduce charges.
Nick Merriman
Hastingleigh, Kent

• There is an easy answer to the budget difficulties faced by many UK art galleries and museums: identity cards. UK citizens could continue to receive free access to the nations’ artworks, which we own, and foreign nationals could be charged an entrance fee, as UK citizens are abroad. Many people enjoy visiting art galleries regularly, which could continue, but international visitors would tend to make only one visit during their time in the country which would continue, even if chargeable, as these are popular tourist sites to visit.
Hugh R Craig
Edinburgh

The picture was akin to Joan Miró’s sculpture Sa majesté le roi, writes Dr Lalith Chandrakantha, while Peter Lowthian praises the snapper for his talents

Fay Bound-Alberti’s analysis of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as a “ghost behind glass” (From handsome prince to a ghost behind glass, Andrew’s face tells the story of his downfall, 20 February) finds a striking, if unintended, visual precedent in the work of Joan Miró. In 1974, the Catalan artist created Sa majesté le roi (His Majesty the King), a towering figure constructed not from the traditional marble or bronze of royal monuments, but from weathered wood, scrap iron, and found objects.

Miró’s “king” was a deliberate act of irony – a “royal” figure stripped of its finery to reveal the mundane, everyday materials beneath. The entire concept of hereditary monarchy relies on the myth that those of “royal blood” are inherently “other”, yet Miró’s work suggests that “majesty” is merely a hollow assembly. The recent photographs of a diminished Andrew represent the same “crashing down” of this concept. When the “handsome prince” is stripped of his symbolic armour, we are left with the raw, unpolished reality of a human being. Miró knew 50 years ago what the British public is only now seeing through a car window: that there is nothing “special” about the person behind the title – only the scrap materials of a common humanity.
Dr Lalith Chandrakantha
Northampton

Stone lifting | A good result | Gorton and Denton lessons | Metres v millions

I must disagree with Prof Gray (Letters, 20 February) as to the origin of the rounded shapes of the boulders used in the ancient sport of stone lifting in Ireland. They are unlikely to be glacial erratics. Blocks frozen in glacial ice generally retain their initial angular shape and are not abraded. In contrast, rock fragments carried by rivers or located along marine coasts may be rolled and dragged by currents, forming characteristically rounded boulders, cobbles and pebbles.
Dr Alan Woolley
Weybridge, Surrey

• Millions of us woke up to Friday morning’s result in Gorton and Denton (Green party wins Gorton and Denton byelection, pushing Labour to third place, 27 February) and were given a sense of optimism, excitement and hope that, if our stale and moribund two-party politics is indeed coming to a deserved end, there is a future for compassion, fairness, and social justice rather than division, bigotry and tired nostalgia.
Richard Bryant
London

Ofcom says that after provisional ruling it could apply to courts to demand internet providers stop access to site

A suicide forum linked to deaths in Britain has been ruled provisionally in breach of the Online Safety Act after it failed to properly block access to UK users when ordered to do so last year.

Ofcom, the online regulator, said it could now apply to the courts to demand internet service providers block access to the site in the UK. This will depend on how the site, which also faces fines, responds over the next 10 days.

Darren Connor denies possession of offensive weapon in a public place without lawful authority or reasonable excuse

A man accused of entering a mosque in Manchester with an axe, a hammer and a knife also allegedly took in zip ties and a balaclava, a court has heard.

Darren Connor, 55, appeared on Friday at Manchester magistrates court, where he denied possession of an offensive weapon in a public place without lawful authority or reasonable excuse.

Law demanding IDs must match ‘sex at birth’ invalidated the driver’s licenses of about 1,700 trans people in the state

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Two transgender men are suing Kansas over a new law that invalidated their driver’s licenses and about 1,700 others for reflecting people’s gender identities and not their sex assigned at birth, arguing that the measure is “dehumanizing”.

The men filed their case Thursday, the same day the law took effect, and argue that it violates rights to privacy, personal autonomy and due legal process guaranteed by the Kansas state constitution. The men also are challenging the law’s tough, new enforcement provisions for the state’s three-year-old policy of barring transgender people from using public restrooms or other single-sex facilities associated with their gender identities.

Mary Walsh, leaving after 46 years, says staffers told to ‘aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum’

A veteran CBS News producer who is leaving the network after 46 years has suggested that political bias is at play at the network in a farewell memo sent to colleagues on Friday afternoon.

“We’ve been reading a lot of goodbyes lately and here I am headed out the door. It’s too soon, even after 46 years,” Mary Walsh wrote in the memo, which was obtained by the Guardian. “But maybe it’s for the best. We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum. Honestly, I don’t know how to do that.”

Attorney general Pam Bondi says 39 people now charged over January protest and warns ‘more to come’

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Federal authorities have arrested more people on Friday for their alleged involvement in a protest at a church in Minnesota in January, following earlier arrests of organizers and journalists that were demonstrating amid sweeping, and often violent, immigration enforcement efforts in the state.

Attorney general Pam Bondi said the justice department unsealed an indictment that charged 30 more people for the demonstration. Of those charged, federal agents have already arrested 25 of them, Bondi said, with “more to come”. The latest arrests bring the total number of people charged to 39.

Researchers find that across 195 US cities, winters are on average nine days shorter than they were in 1970-1997

For the millions of people across the United States who have spent the last month digging themselves out of above-average levels of snow and ice, this winter has felt especially long and harsh. But the typical winter is actually getting shorter in 80% of major US cities scrutinized by researchers, according to new data released by Climate Central, an independent climate science and communication group.

Researchers found that across 195 US cities, winters are on average nine days shorter today than they were from 1970 to 1997, as the climate crisis progresses.

Local river defenders force U-turn by occupying grain terminal operated by one of US powerhouses of world trade

“A victory for life.” That was the triumphal message from Indigenous campaigners in the Brazilian Amazon this week after they staved off a threat to the Tapajós River by occupying a grain terminal operated by Cargill, the biggest privately owned company in the United States.

“The river won, the forest won, the memory of our ancestors won,” said the campaigners in Santarém when it was clear their actions had forced the Brazilian government into a U-turn on plans to privatise one of the world’s most beautiful waterways and expand its role as a soy canal.

The annual competition draws thousands of entries from across the world and brings together images from below the water’s surface that show the diversity and challenges of subaquatic life

• All photographs courtesy of Underwater Photographer of the Year 2026

EPA rolls back rules as chemical firms claim provisions in RMP protection system too expensive to implement

The Trump administration is slowly dismantling the federal disaster management system that protects the nation from chemical catastrophes, such as fires and explosions at high-risk facilities.

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s Response Management Program (RMP) requires more than 12,500 high-risk facilities to develop protocols to prevent catastrophes, or limit fallout, and was largely designed to protect workers, first responders, and fence-line communities.

FoI request reveals some people sent home despite BMIs below 15 – considered to be ‘severe malnutrition’

Patients with eating disorders are being discharged from mental health units even though they are still very thin and have “dangerously low” body mass index levels.

Some hospitals are sending home people whose BMIs are as low as 12.5, despite usual clinical practice in the NHS seeking to wait until a BMI of 18 or 19 has been achieved.

Average life satisfaction still below pre-pandemic peak despite improving economic outlook, reports ONS

The proportion of people in the UK who feel dissatisfied with life has failed to improve since the pandemic despite the economic outlook improving, official figures show.

The Office for National Statistics said a survey of personal wellbeing in the UK showed average life satisfaction remained below its pre-pandemic peak, despite the rate of gross domestic product per person rising since 2021.

Rhun ap Iorwerth tells party conference Labour and Tories ‘slipping away’ and Reform UK is main threat

The leader of Plaid Cymru has claimed the Welsh parliament elections in May will be a straight fight between his party and Reform UK, which he billed as a choice between “culture or ignorance, humanity or indifference”.

Speaking at the party’s biggest ever conference, Rhun ap Iorwerth, the clear favourite to be the next Welsh first minister, said the Gorton and Denton byelection showed Labour and the Tories were “slipping away”, and he promised Plaid had a radical plan to improve Wales’s fortunes.

Parents opposing plans told they can home school their children if they object to sending them to state schools

The court of appeal has rejected the latest challenge to the addition of VAT to private school fees, telling parents they have the option to home school their children if they object to sending them to state schools.

The appeal was launched by families and leaders of four independent Christian faith schools, aiming to overturn a high court ruling last year by arguing that the decision to add 20% to fees would make small faith schools unviable and unaffordable, depriving children of their right to an equivalent education.

Plans to return humans to the moon will come in later mission as agency grapples with delays and glitches

Nasa announced on Friday radical changes to its delayed Artemis III mission to land humans back on the moon, as the US space agency grapples with technical glitches and criticism that it is trying to do too much too soon.

The abrupt shift in strategy was laid out by the space agency’s recently confirmed administrator, Jared Isaacman. Announcing the changes on Friday, he said that Nasa would introduce at least one new moon flight before attempting to put humans back on the lunar surface for the first time in more than half a century, in 2028.

Shares in company increased over 20% as investors were encouraged by CEO’s assertion that cuts will drive profits

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Fintech company Block announced that it would be laying off 4,000 of its 10,000 employees because of gains in AI productivity.

“Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,” Jack Dorsey, Block’s CEO, said in a letter to shareholders on Thursday. “We’re already seeing it internally. A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better. And intelligence tool capabilities are compounding faster every week.” Block is the parent company for online payment platforms such as Square and Cash App.

Foreign minister says 272 Ghanaians are thought to have been drawn into battle since 2022, after he visited Kyiv

At least 55 Ghanaians have been killed in Russia’s war with Ukraine after being “lured into battle”, Ghana’s foreign minister has said after a visit to Kyiv in which officials raised the issue of Russian recruitment of African people.

Reports of African men being attracted to Russia by promises of jobs and ending up on Ukraine’s frontlines have become more frequent in recent months, creating tensions between Moscow and some of the countries involved.

World Health Organization report also finds one in seven adolescents across continent use vapes and e-cigarettes

Teenage girls in Europe have the highest rate of tobacco use in their age group around the world, while one in seven adolescents across the continent use vapes and e-cigarettes, figures show.

The data, based on analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO), shows that Europe is on course to maintain its status as the world’s biggest consumer of tobacco up to 2030, and reveals “particularly concerning” trends of tobacco use among women and young people.

Department of Defense and artificial intelligence company were unable to reach agreement before deadline

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Donald Trump said Friday he will direct all federal agencies to “IMMEDIATELY CEASE” all use of Anthropic technology.

The Department of Defense and Anthropic hit an impasse with neither side backing down as a deadline for an agreement lapsed on Friday afternoon. The Pentagon had demanded the artificial intelligence company loosen ethical guidelines on its AI systems or face severe consequences.

Deal signals feverish pace of AI investment with multibillion-dollar backings from Nvidia, Amazon and more

OpenAI said on Friday it is raising $110bn in a blockbuster funding round that would value the ChatGPT maker at $840bn, in a deal that signals the feverish pace of investment in artificial intelligence.

It’s more than double the amount the company raised last year, when it racked up $40bn in the largest private tech deal on record.

Head office job losses part of plan for more separation between supermarket and Argos businesses

Sainsbury’s is cutting 300 head office jobs as it restructures its technology team and Argos delivery network, creating more separation between the two businesses.

The London-based retail group said most of the job cuts would be in technology and data, where it was “consolidating routine reporting tasks” and creating dedicated teams for Argos and the supermarket.

IAG reports record operating profits on margins of more than 15% at British Airways and sister airline Iberia

British Airways’ owner, International Airlines Group, has announced a sharp rise in annual profits to almost £4bn despite a slight fall in passenger numbers in 2025.

Pre-tax profits across IAG increased by 20% to €4.5bn (£3.9bn), with record operating profits on margins of more than 15% at BA and its sister airline Iberia.

Hollywood actor for more than five decades best known for 1980s cult film Revenge of the Nerds and the teen comedy series Lizzie McGuire

Of the four sons who followed their father, John Carradine, into acting, Keith had the most prestigious career, David netted the largest audience thanks to his early-1970s TV series Kung Fu, and the little-known Bruce amassed a meagre handful of minor credits. The youngest, Robert Carradine, acted continuously without ever becoming a star. He has taken his own life aged 71, after suffering from bipolar disorder, which was exacerbated by David’s death in 2009.

He had small roles in Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets (1973), where he was the long-haired gunman who shoots dead the drunk played by David, and as a tracker in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2012). He also joined David and Keith as the three Younger brothers in Walter Hill’s western The Long Riders (1980), which populated its cast with other sets of real-life siblings, such as James and Stacy Keach playing Frank and Jesse James. Carradine’s aptitude with a gun led to him competing under the alias Bob Younger in quick-draw competitions organised by the Single Action Shooting Society.

Six movies in, the series about characters linked to the web-slinger is looking ever ropier. More are on the way – but with no sign of the obvious way refresh the franchise

The old adage goes that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The news this week that Sony is planning to reboot its once much-vaunted, now completely risible “Spider-Man Universe”, shows there must be a few Hollywood executives who still believe in it.

Speaking on The Town podcast this week, the studio’s chief executive and chair Tom Rothman was asked about the future of the bafflingly superfluous superhero franchise that gave us three lukewarm Venom films, the odious Morbius and the tonally anaemic Madame Web. Despite scant clamour for more movies, he confirmed that the saga will live to fight another day. “Is the larger Spider-Verse dead?” Rothman was asked. “No,” he replied. “Are you going to go back to those at some point?” asked his interviewer. “Yes,” Rothman said. “But it’ll be a fresh reboot?” “Yes.” “New people?” “Yes, yes.” Rothman then added: “Scarcity has value … you got to make the audience miss you.”

The fourth season of TV’s once underrated drama has maxed out on everything – sex, nastiness, nihilism – and it’s been a major miscalculation

There’s a lot of talk about growth on Industry, the hit HBO/BBC drama concerning the ruthless world of London finance. Characters wax poetic and soothingly incoherent (to the layperson) about stocks and shorts, asset values and private funds. Charismatic entrepreneurs peddle the latest groundbreaking green energy company or democratized bank or, to quote one particularly foul-mouthed character in a show full of scoundrels, “the Paypal of bukkake”. All espouse and consecrate the profit motive.

Naturally, there’s a lot of hot air; in the show’s caustic nexus of business, politics and global media – not so much a fun-house mirror as a high-budget, impressionistic rendering of five minutes scrolling X – your worth is not in dollars or pounds but in narrative confidence. “We don’t need proof,” says one short-seller out for the kill, “because we finally have a good story to tell”. Cooked books can be explained as “simply a misalignment between the velocity of my vision and the velocity of regulation”, according to the slippery fintech entrepreneur Whitney Halberstram, played with reptilian cool by Max Minghella, in the fourth season’s most recent episode. The gap in between is “where smart people have always made money”.

The director of an Oscar-nominated documentary that goes into the bedrooms of children killed in US school shootings on why it was his most daunting challenge to date – and the hard task of encouraging people to see it

Steve Hartman has been a CBS correspondent since 1996. In the US, he is known for his feelgood human interest stories. This month he has reported on the retirement of a well-loved New Jersey postman after 33 years on the job and a truck driver who has spent two decades building a balsa wood scale replica of New York City.

But since 1997, Hartman has also been reporting on school shootings, which have become a horrifyingly common feature of American life. (CNN reports that there were at least 78 in 2025, though there is no universal definition of a school shooting, which means that numbers vary depending on the source. Other reports suggest a much higher figure.)

With poor Sam Claflin virtually banished from screen, it’s up to the Big Bang Theory star to keep this woefully formulaic show afloat – and it’s a losing battle

Buckle up, buttercups! Three hours of overstuffed nonsense split into four 45-minute bursts is about to come atcha, and fast.

Vanished stars Kaley Cuoco, who found fame in The Big Bang Theory from 2007-2019, then starred in The Flight Attendant a few years back. Cuoco played an ordinary, if functionally alcoholic, stewardess who found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time, and enmeshed in an ever-deepening mystery, then mortal peril. She found unexpected reserves of courage and resourcefulness and managed to stay half a step ahead of the bad guys until it was time for vanquishings and comeuppances all round.

Vanished is on Prime Video now.

Based on footage made by a devastated father in the aftermath of the school shooting, this heartbreaking documentary speaks to those still dealing with the loss. You wonder how some are still standing

Thirty years on, the Dunblane massacre remains almost unbelievable and the grief of the families unfathomable. In a terrible way, it is almost harder to see them now, three decades on; three decades lived without the children who should now be grown up, with families of their own.

On 13 March 1996, a man called Thomas Hamilton shot dead 15 primary schoolchildren aged between five and six and their teacher Gwen Mayor in their gym as they were beginning a PE lesson. Some of them he shot at point-blank range when they were incapacitated by earlier bullets. A 16th child died on the way to hospital.

(Atlantic)
Harking back to Oye Como Va, Move On Up and other 20th-century classics, Mars’s homages are beautifully performed but bereft of new ideas

It is 10 years since Bruno Mars last released a solo album. An eternity in pop music, and yet you’d struggle to describe the follow-up to the umpteen-platinum 24K Magic as eagerly awaited: not for reasons of snark, but simply because the world has hardly been starved of Bruno Mars in the intervening decade.

With Anderson .Paak, he co-piloted Silk Sonic’s hit album An Evening with Silk Sonic. He variously collaborated with Cardi B, Gucci Mane, Sexy Redd and Ed Sheeran. Die With a Smile, 2024’s soft rock duet with Lady Gaga went on to become the most streamed song of last year. Meanwhile, he also recorded the most globally successful song released in 2025, the infernally catchy APT., with Blackpink’s Rosé. There have been two world tours, two Las Vegas residencies, the opening of his own Vegas bar, an appearance on online game Fortnite and the 2026 ambassadorship for Record Store Day.

After drummer Neil Peart died in 2020, many thought the Canadian prog legends would never reform. As they book a mammoth global tour, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson explain how their lifelong bond drew them back together

The two men on the sofa, Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, have known each other for 60 years now. “When we first met in junior high school, we sat beside each other, and we laughed,” says Lee, the elder by a month. “He’s the funniest guy I’ve ever known, and I make him laugh, too.” Lifeson, who has been gazing at his friend happily, nods vigorously. “Yeah!” The two of them gently tease each other, and speak of each other with such happy admiration, that I feel suffused with warmth from the off. “Everybody wants to have a bestie like this guy!” Lee says at one point, beaming.

It’s only because they like each other so much that they’re in this posh London hotel suite. Lifeson came over to Europe for some health checks, and Lee decided to come with him. Once they were here, they decided they may as well talk to some journalists about Rush’s upcoming R50 reunion tour, and the decision to add 24 European and South American shows to the 58 arena dates they’d already announced for North America (they’ll play the UK in March 2027). The interviews were meant to be separate, but they decided it would be more enjoyable to speak together. Honestly, if you ever want to see a model for male friendship, spend time with Rush and feel cleansed.

He gets more streams than Taylor Swift or Bad Bunny, thanks to a shamelessly corny and cannily timeless style. Close collaborators and industry experts explain his secret

Sixteen years since his sugary debut Just the Way You Are became a megahit, Bruno Mars is the most-streamed musician in the world. Last year, the Hawaiian-born 40-year-old became the first (and still only) artist to reach 150m monthly listeners on Spotify, and his staying power shows little sign of waning: Mars now has more listeners than even Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift. His latest, funk-inspired single I Just Might – which he performed at the Grammys earlier this month, with a brass band, slick suit and his trademark bandana – shot to the top of the US Hot 100, making him only the fourth male soloist in chart history to achieve 10 No 1 singles there, after Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Drake.

“We always say, I don’t know when that happened,” laughs Philip Lawrence, the songwriter and producer who has helped shape Mars’s story, when asked about their huge success together. The two musicians were introduced in 2006 and bonded over a shared dream to get signed and get on stage. “That was our connection – let’s perform!”

(Out of Your Head)
The cellist reunites with guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Jason Roebke and drummer Tomas Fujiwara for five stunning tracks that are boundary-pushing yet populist

US cellist and composer Tomeka Reid and her frequent guitar soulmate Mary Halvorson have collected so many compliments for their jazzily genre-loose innovations over the past decade and a half, that they don’t need to waste a moment proving anything to anybody. These two fearless musicians have played alongside the tough, cerebral Anthony Braxton, and Reid has been part of that great Chicago avant-jazz institution, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). But if they ever considered extending a conciliatory hand to the jazz-averse, it might sound like this entrancing and aptly named set.

This is the fourth release by Reid’s quartet featuring Halvorson, bassist Jason Roebke and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. Over five tracks and almost 50 minutes, they race and cruise through jiving swingers, fast brush-shuffles, Latin-jazzy harmonies, hip-hoppish fuzz-guitar burn-ups, and sensuous acoustic-cello reveries.

Francis Spufford, Manish Chauhan and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

I’ve been reading a very short book by Claire Baglin, translated by Jordan Stump, On the Clock. Set on the edge of somewhere in Brittany, all run-down blocks, dual carriageways and drive-in eateries, it’s a dark, sometimes funny story of a working-class family and a young woman starting work in a fast-food restaurant. Through a few short scenes we get a real insight into the quotidian soullessness of the work.

The Egyptian queen has fascinated me from childhood, but following the archives led only to ancient gossip and Roman propaganda. Fiction was the way to liberate her from misogynist myth

Witch, whore, villain – there are few women who have been as vilified through history as Cleopatra VII. The disdain of ancient sources that sought to dismiss her as exotic and seductive has corrupted her legacy. But I take pleasure in knowing that her name has permeated through time with far more recognition than the men who wrote about her. Ask a 10-year-old child who Plutarch is and they’ll scrunch up their brows – but Cleopatra? Their eyes light up with glee.

Mine did when I was tasked by my schoolteacher to draw Cleopatra. My small hands searched through the box of crayons. I picked up the brown, its tip pristine from lack of use. It was the loneliest colour in the box, used only to draw mud or bark. The face I drew reflected my own in features and colour.

The British-American author on arguing about Jane Austen, the joys of Jerome K Jerome, and revising his opinion of Philip Roth

My earliest reading memory
I used to read Donald Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown stories with my mother. It’s a classic American kids’ series about a boy detective and his brilliant sidekick, Sally, who protects him as they tackle their arch enemy, Bugs Meany, a kind of high school bully version of Professor Moriarty. We’d sit in the kitchen together and try to solve the crimes. Of course, for me it was also an opportunity to hang out with my mom. I’m one of five kids; attention was hard to come by. But I was also drawn to the picture Sobol paints of small-town all-American life, which I don’t think I ever felt a part of. We moved around too much.

My favourite book growing up
I remember finishing JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings at elementary school and already feeling sad about the fact that I’d never be able to read it again for the first time. I have a dim memory that I was in school, because the feeling has something of the flavour of the school hallway and the bright lights on the shiny tiled floors, and the general sense of being shut in for the rest of the day. Some of my older brother’s friends had already introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons, which shaped the next few years of my life. Most of my favourite novels started with the idea of some lonely figure wandering out into the world to see what the world would do to him. (Later, Alexandre Dumas’s The Three Musketeers was another favourite.)

A former ranger tells the story of how the UK’s forests intimately shaped – and were shaped by – its people

It may not sit well with the politicians who now seek to govern it, but Britain has always been a land of immigrants – our “native” fauna and flora among them. More than 10,000 years ago, in the wake of retreating ice sheets, trees from the warmer south began to re-colonise this chilly north-western fringe of Europe: first birch, then hazel, elm, oak and alder. By the time rising sea levels submerged the marshy lowlands connecting it to the rest of the continent, the new British mainland was covered in a luxuriant tangle of forest. In this primeval wildwood, a squirrel could leap tree-to-tree from north coast to south, east coast to west.

Or so one story goes. In Ancient, woodland expert Luke Barley sets out to tell a more complex and fascinating tale of our forests and the people that have lived with and made use of them. His title points back to the post-ice age woodland and its forerunners in sweltering or wintry deep prehistory, but it also holds a more specific meaning. Under classifications drawn up in the 1970s, a UK wood is considered “ancient” if it was already in existence by 1600 (in Scotland, by 1750), as shown on the earliest accurate maps. These are our last links to the wildwood, places where the undisturbed soil still supports a rich and intricate ecosystem that no human ingenuity can recreate.

With original dialogue in Turkish, this shuffling of potential partners in a sequence of meaningless encounters ranks with the finest auteur movies

I spent Valentine’s Day not with my wife but with 18 Turkish women. No, wait, I can explain. It’s a new game called Speed Dates – Winter Edition, which I only chanced upon when I searched “Winter Games” on Xbox Live hoping for some Olympics fare. And boy, did I find it!

The game is in Turkish, with English subtitles. It already feels arthouse; like those films Channel 4 used to show with a red triangle in the corner of the screen.

Fear, fights and feverish fanservice collide in this celebration of Resident Evil’s recent and retro legacy
PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2; Capcom

There’s often an undercurrent of existential fatigue in games that look back at their legacy. Dark Souls III’s dying kingdom, Metal Gear Solid 4’s decrepit Snake. So when Capcom showed us an ageing Leon Kennedy entering the ruins of the police station that marked the start of his journey from rookie cop to hardened veteran, it felt tinged with ennui as much as nostalgia. That self-reflective swansong for this 30-year series may still happen one day, but Requiem isn’t it. Even at its dourest and most pensive, this is less a song for the dead, more a knees-up in honour of the rocket launchers and typewriters that came before. Leon may be getting on a bit, but this is Capcom as energised, devious and goofy as ever.

Leon’s old scars will have to wait, anyway. Requiem’s new blood is FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft. Equal parts tenacious and nervous, she’s a fitting lens on the horror portion of Requiem’s split focus between disempowered terror and cathartic action. The story opens with Grace – more acquainted with desk work than field ops – tasked to go over a crime scene at a gutted hotel. She knows the place well, since it holds some horrific memories for her. Still, she heads off with little more than a flashlight and a pistol you’ll never find quite enough ammunition for to feel safe.

With ​i​ts longtime figureheads stepping aside, Microsoft’s gaming division faces a pivotal moment​, raising questions about whether ​i​t can still balance creative ambition with corporate strategy​ in the age of AI

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And so it’s all change at Xbox. Last Friday it was announced that the CEO of Microsoft’s gaming division, Phil Spencer, is to retire, while its president Sarah Bond is resigning. In their place, a new partnership: Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty is promoted to chief content officer, while the new CEO is Asha Sharma, who moves from her post as president of Microsoft’s CoreAI product.

In a company-wide email, Spencer stated that he would stay on until the summer in an advisory role before, “starting the next chapter of my life”. For her part, Bond issued a statement on her LinkedIn account: “I’ve decided this is the right time for me to take my next step, both personally and professionally.” It was all extremely good natured, but its doubtful these airy missives tell the full tale.

Glowfrog Games; PC
Short but very sweet tale asks the player to compile a scrapbook of mementoes telling the story of a heartfelt bond that frays over time

There are few things sadder than the end of a close friendship. Whether it happens in a sudden moment of betrayal or after years of gradual separation, the feelings of loss can stay with you for a lifetime.

This is the theme of Pieced Together, a quiet, charming narrative game about best pals Connie and Beth, who meet at school in the 1990s and form an immediate, seemingly inseparable bond. Through the ingenious medium of an interactive scrapbook, we play as Connie, glueing in photos, notes and memories of her friend after years of separation. The game begins with several attempts to write Beth a letter, before we cut-out, stick and sort the story of their lives together.

Royal & Derngate, Northampton
Emerging playwright Samson Hawkins takes on toxic influencers in an exuberantly directed drama with echoes of TV’s Adolescence

The audience enters through a graffitied tunnel at one corner of the foyer. Inside, the auditorium is a life-size skate-park. It is a feat of set design by Rebecca Brower and tremendously atmospheric. The play is a blast of freshness, too. Written by local emerging talent Samson Hawkins, it is a dark comedy about toxic masculinity and the lure of misogynistic online influencer culture for young men struggling to find their place in the world. In this case, it is 18-year-old Aidan (Daniel Rainford) who is languishing in low-paid jobs and feeling powerless while his secretly adored friend, Mia (Fanta Barrie), prepares for university and begins a romance with the taller, richer Charlie (Finn Samuels).

At its centre is an Andrew Tate-style alpha misogynist turned social media svengali, Hugo Bang (Danny Hatchard, of EastEnders fame). Dressed devilishly in a slick red suit, he emerges from among the snippets of social media that Aidan scrolls past, and which are dramatised, but slowly begins to gain his attention until he is in nose-to-nose dialogue with Aidan.

Cadogan Hall, London
South African soprano Rangwanasha proved she is the real deal in a performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs that’s let down by the RPO’s oddly pinched, poorly tuned backing

‘We’re here for her,” the man next to me says, pointing to Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha’s name on the programme. He’s not alone. The South African soprano – winner of the song prize at 2021’s Cardiff Singer of the World and more recently the Salzburg festival’s starry Herbert von Karajan prize (fellow laureates include Daniil Trifonov, Janine Jansen and Lise Davidsen) – is the real deal: a singer with a voice of sumptuous, indecent beauty, and serious musicality. So the chance to hear her join the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for Strauss’s Four Last Songs brought out a healthy midweek audience.

And with good reason. Rangwanasha’s Strauss is still under construction, still finding the ebb and flow of these autumnal farewells to life, art and love, but there are the makings of a generational performance here. Youthful and wide-eyed in Frühling, an airy wonder in her delivery, she brought a backlit glow to the central songs, before allowing it to suffuse and engulf the texture in the welcome release of Im Abendrot.

Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
The Radiohead guitarist joined the orchestra for the premiere of his rather formless Violin Concerto – but other repertoire was gripping, and showed off a world-class string section

Amid the sea of musicians clad in concert black, his baggy white trousers inevitably stood out. And for an orchestra that has been a fixture of the classical mainstream for well over 150 years, the choreography was awkward: lengthy resets between pieces, a second half that threatened to begin before the audience was seated, a celebrity guest who fled having barely acknowledged the applause. Yet despite all that, this collaboration between the Hallé and Jonny Greenwood – Radiohead guitarist and award-winning composer – was musically compelling.

In Steve Reich’s Pulse, Greenwood stood behind the Hallé musicians, his body at a slant and chin jutting nonchalantly, as he provided some of the work’s vital chugging on electric bass. His playing was subtly expressive, his plectrum featherweight, the bass’s occasional excursions away from repeated notes a stylish release as the Hallé’s wind and string players worked through Reich’s Copland-esque melodic lines. Under conductor Hugh Tieppo-Brunt it was a cool, understated performance.

Tabard theatre, London
The actor shines as Hitler’s favourite film director, who flirts and finagles her way through a fictional interview with an alcoholic, philandering journalist hiding his own shame

Since Peter Morgan’s Frost/Nixon 20 years ago, pieces about celebrated TV interviews have trended – James Graham’s Best Of Enemies, Doug Wright’s Goodnight, Oscar and two TV dramas about Emily Maitlis and the sweat-less then Prince Andrew. A play about Michael Parkinson’s studio bouts with Muhammad Ali is in preparation.

Now A Thing Of Beauty by Wendy Oberman and Jonathan Lewis imagines Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler’s propagandist film director (Triumph Of The Will) and rumoured lover, in London in 1972 to talk to the BBC. Or partly imagines: she made a programme with the corporation that year, although the interviewer was the admirable journalist-playwright Keith Dewhurst rather than, as on stage, Harry Adams – an alcoholic philanderer with a grim private shame – who the playwrights presumably invented to allow historical falsifications such as Adams’s spectacular crossing of an ethical boundary.

Hungarian artist and teacher whose avant-garde works ranged from painting and photography to performance

Talking to the Art Newspaper in 2019, Dóra Maurer made a surprising claim. Her work, she told the interviewer, benefited “from a lack of market”.

It seemed an odd thing to say. The Hungarian artist, who has died aged 88, was about to have her second show at White Cube in London. If an exhibition at Jay Jopling’s fabled gallery was the stuff of dreams – its stable includes such multimillion-pound giants as Anselm Kiefer and Damien Hirst – this was not, however, reflected in Maurer’s own prices. One of her paintings had been auctioned at Sotheby’s three years earlier for £8,000 – a bargain basement figure for a major contemporary artist.

Emin reminds us of the deep power of art, Ramses II parades his megalomaniac gold and Rose Wylie’s witty paintings finally get their due – all in your weekly dispatch

Tracey Emin: A Second Life
The most serious and intelligent, as well as passionate, artist of her generation proves art can still touch us all and express what it is to be alive.
• Tate Modern, London, until 31 August

A shout of ‘racist’ could also be heard during the segment at France’s version of the Oscars

A tribute to Brigitte Bardot at the Césars, France’s version of the Oscars, on Thursday was greeted with boos. In a video clip posted on social media, boos can clearly be heard among the applause as the tributes, and a shout of “racist!” is also audible.

Bardot, who died in December aged 91, became arguably the most celebrated figure in postwar French cinema for films such as And God Created Woman and Contempt, but after quitting acting in the early 1970s her later years were marred by increasing political activity on the far right, resulting in a string of convictions for inciting racial hatred.

Exhibits pay homage to Ukrainians’ resilience and bring home the reality that war is going on in Europe

Descending into the windowless basement of a second world war air-raid bunker built for civilians in central Berlin is arguably an eerie enough evocation of what it means to endure life in a conflict.

But in a modern twist, before they have even walked into the first room of the city’s new Ukraine Museum inside the bunker, visitors are “targeted” by a Russian drone just before its operator prepares to release the lethal shot, and see themselves in the firing line on the screen of the weapon’s camera.

Designer’s first catwalk for the brand in Milan flirts with bad taste with short, tight dresses and a diamante G-string

Demna is fashion’s dark lord of apocalyptic streetwear. Gucci is the glossy sex kitten of Milan. Put the two together, and what do you get? Sex appeal that flirts with bad taste.

At Demna’s first Gucci catwalk show, staged in Milan on Friday afternoon in front of an audience including Donatella Versace and Paris and Nicky Hilton, dresses were so short and tight that Emily Ratajkowski periodically yanked down a handful of disco-ball sequins to cover her bottom as she walked. There were lapdance-bar tinsel hair extensions, and Kate Moss in a diamante G-string. A certain sketchiness in the roll of the hips, a model who pulled his phone out of his bumbag and scrolled his way down the catwalk.

Newly elected Gorton and Denton MP taps into colour meme of the moment with statement waistcoat

• UK politics live – latest updates

Of course the Green candidate wore green, though the correct term – the 2026 TikTok one – is “gross green”.

Coined by New York magazine, and seen all over the high street as well as on the cover of Caro Claire Burke’s forthcoming satirical novel Yesteryear, it’s actually chartreuse. But where’s the fun in calling it that? And it’s not so much a colour as a mood.

Whether you want moisturiser or mascara, serum or nail polish, our expert shares her go-to skincare and makeup. Plus, top tips for buying cruelty-free

• The best refillable beauty products

Thanks to a growing demand for ethically produced products, vegan and cruelty-free beauty has improved dramatically in recent years. An increasing number of brands are now vegan – in particular newer brands, which have prioritised ethical credentials. By the same token, many use recyclable, compostable or refillable reusable packaging, and donate to environmental causes.

Vegan beauty products are ones that avoid commonly used animal-derived ingredients, such as beeswax, lanolin (derived from sheep’s wool), snail mucin, keratin (found in some nail polish and nail treatments) and non-vegan collagen, which is generally derived from the connective tissues, skin, bones and cartilage of cows or fish.

Whether it’s beans or machines, grinders or pods, the Filter’s coffee expert Sasha Muller answered readers’ questions

• The best coffee machines, tested

Want to know how to make a barista-style brew at home or maybe where to buy the best coffee beans – or even which espresso machine is best? The Filter’s coffee expert, Sasha Muller, has been answering your questions.

Sasha has tested coffee machines, cafetieres, espresso machines and more for the Filter. You asked him about pretty much everything – from which decafs actually taste nice to the best grinders to use – and whether it’s possible to be too much of a coffee nerd.

Bean to cup coffee machines with dual hoppers do tend to cost a hefty premium, but one slightly more affordable option is the De’Longhi Rivelia. I do mean slightly, though – the most basic model which uses a manual steam wand is currently £575, and the fully automatic version I’ve tested in recent months is £675. It’s a great machine that justifies the premium over cheaper models – both in terms of its coffee brewing, which is superb, and its design. The masterstroke here is that the Rivelia comes with two plastic swappable bean hoppers which twist and lock into place. You do still end up with some beans left in the mouth of the grinder when you swap them over, but the Rivelia’s touchscreen gives you the option to purge the beans, or brew one last caffeinated (or decaffeinated) cup. And if only two types of beans isn’t enough then you can buy replaceable bean hoppers for £18 a pop.

It really depends what kind of coffee you like – and how you’re brewing it – but sadly I’ve struggled to find any real bargains. I’ve tried a bunch of the cheapest beans from the likes of Aldi and Lidl in recent months in the interests of science (and saving cash), and they’ve mostly been fine – but none of them have really hit the spot. It’s definitely worth looking out for time-limited deals on supermarket own brand beans and ground coffees – they can be surprisingly decent – but you’re partly at the mercy of how long the bags have been sitting on the shelves. With no roast dates on these coffees, they could be months old and past their best. It’s impossible to tell.

One of my guilty penny-pinching options is a big 1kg bag of Lavazza Rossa beans or similar. These occasionally come up on a deal for around £10 to £12, and although they’re by no means a refined pick – the experience is akin to someone smearing burnt toast and intensely bitter chocolate all over your taste buds – they make a mean Italian-style espresso and similarly potent cappuccino.

Keep dry in outerwear that’s been put through its paces in showers indoors and out

• How to choose a waterproof jacket
• The best men’s walking boots for every type of hiking adventure

I didn’t think it was possible for my cat to respect me less. That was until he caught me testing a waterproof jacket in the shower. Him, motionless in the hallway, a textbook look of feline disapproval painted across his face. Me, slowly rotating behind a glass screen like a Gore-Tex doner kebab.

What he doesn’t understand is that modern rain gear makes braving the elements far less miserable. Gone are the clammy rubberised raincoats of old. Today’s lightweight shell jackets incorporate clever fabric technologies that keep the rain sealed out without leaving you steaming inside.

Best waterproof jacket overall:
Montane Torren

Always wondered what everyday stuff celebrities buy, where they shop for food and the basic they scrimp on? The anti-consumerist guru talks pencils, fancy tea and Niwaki gardening tools with the Filter

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Patrick Grant is an outspoken advocate for radical change in the fashion industry. His campaigning brand Community Clothing supports local clothing and textile manufacturers across the UK.

He is a regular on TV and radio, best known for his role on the hit BBC series The Great British Sewing Bee. His book Less was published by HarperCollins in May 2024 and was an instant Sunday Times bestseller.

Honey and cinnamon bring a warming, Istanbul-inspired spin to a classic

The scent of honey and warm pastry that spills out of the late-night baklava shops on Taksim Square in Istanbul is the inspiration for this twist on the classic old fashioned. The honey, cinnamon and walnut slip in perfectly without overpowering proceedings.

Andrea Ena, bar manager, Nora, London E22

The classic cake reimagined as a cookie

When it comes to British cakes, coffee and walnut is such a staple that if there isn’t one present at a bake sale or coffee morning, I’ll raise an eyebrow. I’ve taken the classic combination and put them in a cookie for something fun and quicker to make. Full of toasty walnuts and a hit of that very nostalgic instant coffee flavour, I finish them off with a white chocolate button as a nod to the sweet, creamy icing.

From a Sichuan-inspired lasagne and a simple macaroni cheese to pasta al forno with meatballs, here are a few easy, inspired recipes to enjoy hot from the oven

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The other day, I climbed the communal stairs and opened the front door to the smell of cheese on toast. A welcome aroma made even more welcome when I realised that it was actually the tips of pasta tubes turning golden among grated cheese and creamy bechamel sauce. To add to the pleasant scene, my partner, Vincenzo, was washing up. Because that is the thing about pasta al forno – baked pasta – the time between finishing the construction and the eating is around about 25 minutes. That is, exactly the right amount of time to wash up and wipe up, or delegate those tasks to someone else while you make a salad and open a bottle of wine. There are few things as beautiful, inviting and complete as baked pasta and a clean kitchen.

The baked-pasta galaxy is a big one, with many stars. Ann and Franco Taruschio provide a brilliant recipe for a classic lasagne bolognese, made with fresh pasta, a rich (but not tomato-rich) ragu and parmesan-enriched bechamel. While their recipe is undoubtedly written for fresh pasta – either homemade or bought – it can and should be adapted for dried pasta, too. Just remember to plunge the dried sheets in boiling water for 30 seconds before using them, even if the packet instructions say not to soak them. Also, make the bechamel slightly more liquid by increasing the milk by 100ml. Meanwhile, for a lasagne recipe specifically written for dried pasta and with a juicy, tomato-rich meat sauce, look to Katie Stewart via Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Alternatively, Tamal Ray has a fantastic-sounding Sichuan-inspired lasagne made with pork mince, fermented bean ragu, bechamel and chard (pictured top).

There’s depth, complexity and nuance to this fortified wine that’s worth its own moment in the spotlight

I like to think of vermouth as the Nile Rodgers of drinks, a backbone of good times known more for big hit collaborations than for its solo work. It is a foundation of any self-respecting cocktail cabinet (though it should be kept in the fridge), and also a family of drinks with many individual talents, which are now at long last being more widely recognised – Waitrose’s most recent Food & Drink report even touted vermouth as a 2026 trend, with searches for the stuff up by 26%.

A fortified wine that originated in 19th-century northern Italy, vermouth is most associated with western Europe, but these days it’s produced in or close to many wine-producing regions across the world. It is made by aromatising a base wine with botanicals – traditionally wormwood, from which it takes its name (wermut in German), but also gentian, citrus peel, herbs, spices and others – before that’s bolstered by grape spirit or brandy, generally taking the ABV to between 15% and 18%. This is a gladiator of a wine: it has brawn, but also plenty of complexity.

Emily wants Ananya to load the machine methodically. Ananya is happy with her more random approach. Whose argument stacks up? You decide

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

There is a correct way to load a dishwasher. Ananya’s haphazard method makes no sense

My method works fine. By dictating how it should be done, Emily is being superior and controlling

Forget fear of public speaking. A lot of people now shy away completely from speaking to anyone in public. But if we learn to do this it’s enriching, for ourselves and society

It started with two incidents on the same day. In a fairly empty train carriage, a stranger in her 70s approached me: “Do you mind if I sit here? Or did you want to be alone with your thoughts?” I weighed it up for a split second, conscious that I was, in effect, agreeing to a conversation: “No, of course I don’t mind. Sit down.”

She turned out to be an agreeable, kind woman who had had a difficult day. I didn’t have to say much: “I’m sorry to hear that.” “That’s tough for you.” She occasionally asked me questions about myself, which I dodged politely. I could tell she was only asking so the conversation would not be so one-sided. Some moments are for listening, not sharing. I sensed, without needing to know explicitly, that she was probably returning to an empty house and wanted to process the day out loud. I didn’t feel uncomfortable, as I knew I could duck out at any moment by saying I needed to get back to my phone messages. But instead we talked – or, rather, I listened – for most of the 50-minute journey. I registered that it was an unusual occurrence, this connection, but thought little more of it. A small part of me was glad this kind of thing still happens.

A new relationship in their 50s brought adventure, curiosity and freedom for Alexandra and Laurent

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

I love how committed and loyal Laurent is. For him, I’m at the top of the pyramid

My fellow Brits seem weighed down by endless swiping – I went to the Europeans for a fresh perspective

Last year, I went through a breakup and threw myself into internet dating. I started experimenting with mirror selfies, and spent whole evenings trying to take artful photographs of my own bum. I agonised over my three-line bio. I even put a notebook by my bed with the Hinge prompt “most spontaneous thing I’ve done” written on the first page, so if the answer came to me in a dream, I’d have a pen and paper handy.

I’d spent my early 30s trying to cling on to a failing relationship, which had made me feel stuck in a holding pattern. As if I was fated to have a slightly different version of the same argument every night until I was dead. The thrill of scrolling on Hinge, when I first started dating, was that it felt like shopping for an alternate future. I’d pore over pictures of men cradling small dogs and swinging tennis rackets, and get high on the thought of all the tiny dogs and tennis games we would enjoy together. I started hiding my phone in a cupboard in the kitchen before I went to sleep, because when I kept it in my room, I could feel all my new lives calling to me. Sometimes, when I got up to hide it, I had motion sickness from scrolling so hard and so fast.

What is behind the growing anger over plan 2 student loans and what could reforms mean for graduates?

Pressure is building on the government to reform the student loans system, with politicians and campaigners piling in, and a minister conceding there are “problems” with the current set-up.

Yesterday the consumer champion Martin Lewis – who last month locked horns with Rachel Reeves – became engaged in a war of words with Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, on live TV.

BNPL can be a fee-free way to manage cashflow for an essential purchase but keep track of the payment schedule

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is a form of credit that lets you spread payments for everything from clothes, jewellery and white goods to concert tickets, hotel rooms and takeaway meals.

I’ve been without a hob in my new kitchen for three months after an emergency engineer was forced to disconnect it

When Wickes installed my new kitchen, I noticed an odd, worsening smell that I put down to the ongoing works.

It was nearly two months later that I realised it was gas. My supplier dispatched an emergency engineer, who discovered a leak in the newly fitted hob and categorised it as an immediate danger. The gas supply to the hob was disconnected and Wickes sent a replacement, but no one came to install it.

Insurers say cases of scammers manipulating people into staging crashes and filing bogus claims are under-reported

Romance fraud typically evokes images of people being tricked out of their life savings by partners they meet on dating sites, but some scammers use a different tactic: recruiting unsuspecting victims into fake insurance claims.

The scam involves a fraudster convincing their partner, or a person they are dating, either to say they have witnessed a car accident, or to take out an insurance policy and file a bogus claim in order to secure a payout.

Study shows lower risk for multiple myeloma as well as pancreatic, prostate, breast and kidney cancers

Vegetarians have a substantially lower risk of five types of cancer, a landmark study on the role of diet has revealed.

The research, using data from more than 1.8 million people who were tracked over many years, found that vegetarians had a 21% lower risk of pancreatic cancer, a 12% lower risk of prostate cancer and a 9% lower risk of breast cancer compared with meat eaters. Combined, these cancers account for around a fifth of cancer deaths in the UK.

It’s hard to know what people can see in their own mind’s eye. But for Maddie Thomas there was no doubt: she had especially vivid mental imagery

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I close my eyes and picture a boat making its way towards the mainland. Lit only by moonlight, a silhouette walks towards a post box and mails three letters, one by one. Then, the familiar tune of ABBA’s Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) starts to play, and the musical begins.

Sometimes as a child I had trouble falling asleep. But from age 11 and through my early teenage years, recreating the film Mamma Mia! in my head frame-by-frame was my remedy. Running each line of dialogue through my mind and bringing to life the colour of the characters’ clothes, usually by the time they arrive flustered from their journey, I would drift off.

Treating the underlying acne can help. But stress relief measures like meditation can too – and may depend on the severity

Hi Ugly,

I tend to get pimples, especially around my period. This is fine and normal. What’s not fine is that I cannot stop picking at them, making my skin irritated and red.

Why is this column called ‘Ask Ugly’?

How should I be styling my pubic hair?

How do I deal with imperfection?

My father had plastic surgery. Now he wants me and my mother to get work done

I want to ignore beauty culture. But I’ll never get anywhere if I don’t look a certain way

Experimental therapy of applying stem cells during surgery could be ‘major milestone’ in treatment of birth defects

Giving stem cells to unborn babies diagnosed with spina bifida while they have in utero surgery could be “a major milestone” in the treatment of birth defects, doctors say.

A trial in the US found that applying stem cells from the mother’s placenta to her baby’s spine while it was being repaired was safe and improved the child’s mobility and quality of life.

Speaking at Milan fashion week, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons presented a more concentrated, but relatable, show

Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, the co-designers of Prada, said backstage at Milan fashion week that fashion’s greatest challenges were inequality and artificial intelligence.

An interesting perspective, since Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire owner of Meta, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, sat next to Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada’s husband, in the front row.

It’s almost time to swap your chunky winter jumper for a knitted polo top. Here are three ways to style it

It was once reserved for office workers and Rishi Sunak, but now pop stars and supermodels can’t get enough of the preppy look

My favourite kind of fashion moment is not a Met Gala headline-maker or a Paris catwalk extravaganza. Nope. My favourite fashion moment is when one piece of clothing is suddenly everywhere for no obvious reason, which is what is happening right now with the quarter-zip sweater.

The jumper with a chin-to-breastbone zip, which has been around for ever, is the breakout main character of the 2026 wardrobe. At a Chanel catwalk show held in New York recently, a quarter-zip knit was the star of the show, worn with a fancy cocktail-hour skirt and diamond drop earrings. Charli xcx teamed a Saint Laurent one with sunglasses and shorts on her last trip to Paris fashion week. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta wears stealth-wealth dark merino ones in the dugout, rapper Central Cee wears a cream Ralph Lauren one on TikTok – and the man opposite you on the train right now, taking a Zoom call on his AirPods while eating Pret porridge, is probably wearing one too.

Instead of being obvious like a dark foundation, these tints will make you look as if you’ve had a touch of summer sun

Having one’s foundation match one’s skin tone exactly is a classic case of beauty industry dogma v popular opinion. The truth is that many people seek a little more warmth in their complexion – not only but especially come winter – and are disinclined to use another method such as tanning drops or bronzer to achieve it. And I’m always for whatever someone wants to do with their own face. All that concerns me is recommending the right product for the job.

A full coverage foundation in too dark a colour stands out like a sore thumb. The key to subtly deepening, or “warming up”, any skin tone is in choosing a sheerer base with clear pigment better able to “stretch” across any disparity in tone between skin and makeup.

From magical swimming spots to museums and pizza joints, our readers share their top Welsh discoveries

• Tell us about a favourite break on an island in Europe – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

I’m a fan of the lesser-known beaches along the dramatic and rugged Glamorgan Heritage coastline; Wick, Monknash and Nash Point. One of my favourite routes requires a scenic hike across fields and a precipitous scramble down Cwm Bach ladder. The reward is a gorgeous expanse of rocky beach with only the occasional distant naturist and huge stepped cliffs absolutely full of fossils, including some enormous ammonites. The nearby ancient Plough & Harrow feels like a step back in time and you’re being served beer in someone’s living room.
P Thomas

This former industrial quartier is now getting noticed for its community-focused art spaces, lively local bars and inexpensive north African food

On a hill that rises up between Belleville’s Chinatown and Père-Lachaise cemetery, Ménilmontant was once a rural hamlet with vines and farms, before becoming more industrial in the 19th century. The quartier boasts a united, colourful community whose working-class Parisian roots have long been integrated with a strong north African diaspora. Bohemian, arty and socially committed, it remains off the tourist trail with no notable museums or monuments; it’s just a genuinely Parisian neighbourhood. The locals were bemused to learn that Time Out made Ménilmontant one of its World’s Coolest Neighbourhoods for 2025, though tourists who do venture here to discover a glimpse of a fast-disappearing Paris are sure of a warm welcome.

It took Ellen Baum about 16 hours to finish clearing one section of hair ties, condoms and tissues woven into the fencing

On a blisteringly cold day earlier this month, Ellen Baum was not in the best mood as she walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to meet some friends in Manhattan.

“I had read particularly horrible news that morning about, you know, the general state of the world,” said Baum, who is 37 and works in tech. And then there was the garbage. Baum stared at the dirty tissues, hair ties, trash bags and socks affixed to the suspension bridge’s frame – sometimes she even sees condoms and tampons woven into the fencing – and had a thought. “I can’t do anything about some of these big problems that the world and the city are facing. But I can do one modicum of something nice.”

This picturesque corner of the East Midlands is a well-kept secret and it’s great for exploring by public transport

Fallow deer are grazing under ruined brick walls in the house where Lady Jane Grey was born. It’s a moody spring day at Bradgate Park in Leicestershire and there are few visitors. Instead, there are fieldfares in the hedges and skylarks singing in the mist. I’m walking, through bracken and craggy outcrops, towards Old John Tower, a folly that looks like a giant beer mug on the hill ahead.

It sometimes feels as though England’s much-photographed beauty spots get more booked up and overpriced every day. But there are scenic corners of the country that still fly under the insta-radar and Charnwood, around Loughborough, is one of these. The largest borough in Leicestershire, Charnwood is the area between Leicester and the Nottinghamshire border. Its gentle wooded hills and well-kept villages offer country walks to gourmet pubs and cafes. It’s like a cheaper, quieter Cotswolds with better transport links.

Kendrick Lamar has sampled my track. I’d love to ask him if he knows my story

Growing up in North Miami Beach in the 1980s was a lot of fun. We might not have had TikTok, but we weren’t bored: we would ride our bikes around and blast music from our boomboxes all weekend. In my mid-teens, I did a work placement at a record store. I loved it, and became something of an expert in R&B and rap, listening to Grandmaster Flash, Run-DMC and 2 Live Crew on repeat.

One day in 1984, when I was 17, a record producer named Tony Butler – better known as “Pretty Tony” – came into the store. He heard me speak and asked me whether I wanted to make some music. I thought, “Why not?!”

A handful of companies monopolise the web, with unprecedented access to our data. But there are many more ethical – and often distinctively European – alternatives

There’s not much to love about big tech these days. So many ills can be laid at its door: social media harms, misinformation, polarisation, mining and misuse of personal data, environmental negligence, tax avoidance, the list goes on. Added to which, Silicon Valley’s leaders seem all too keen to cosy up to the Trump administration, to shower the president with bribes – sorry, gifts – and remain silent about his worsening political overreach. And that’s before we get to the rampant “enshittification”, as the tech writer Cory Doctorow describes it, which means that by design many big tech products have become less useful and more extractive than they were when we originally signed up to them.

We’ve entered into a Faustian pact with these companies: “While it’s brilliant to have access to high-quality products and software, very often for ‘free’, it’s important to remember that there is a trade-off involved – often of our personal data and privacy,” says Lisa Barber, tech editor at Which? We give these companies our attention and our information, which they then turn into big bucks and apparently unassailable monopolies.

Knowing how much water and warmth different seeds need to germinate will improve your changes of getting a great crop of vegetables

Many of our minds will soon – if they haven’t already – turn towards sowing seeds. While germination appears to happen willy-nilly in the wild, this process requires a certain set of factors to take place. Different seeds require different conditions, and knowing what your seeds need will mean more successfully germinate and fewer are wasted.

To an unimaginative eye, a seed looks inert. Yet they are packed with genetic information and biological processes poised to unfold. All it takes is the right configuration of signals and stimuli from the environment to let them know it’s time to dare to grow.

From a former fisher’s cottage a stone’s throw from the water, to a majestic Arts and Crafts house near a path to the beach

Ukrainian soldiers are sent to The Forest Glade – Ukraine’s first centre for the treatment of psychological trauma – before returning to the frontline. After spending over three years in Russian captivity following the battle for Mariupol, 25-year-old Kyrylo Chuvak spends three weeks at the centre, a brief opportunity for rehabilitation. Hidden in the pines near Kyiv, this modest building offers soldiers psychological therapy as well as tango, archery, guided breathing, medieval games and quiet conversations over tea. After four years of war, and with waning international attention, the battle is not only taking place on the frontline but in the mind

He has been in prison for 41 years for killing five members of his family – despite no DNA linking him to the crime. New analysis of the crime scene photographs for the Guardian suggests the prosecution’s central argument may have been wrong

On 7 August 1985, five people were found dead at White House Farm in Essex, England: 28-year-old Sheila Caffell (familiarly known as Bambi); her six-year-old twin sons Daniel and Nicholas; and her adoptive parents, June and Nevill Bamber. All five had been shot with a rifle. Caffell’s 24-year-old brother Jeremy Bamber, who was also adopted, had alerted Essex police to a disturbance inside the farmhouse – he said his father had called to tell him – and had been outside with the police for four hours before the bodies were discovered. Caffell, who had recently been hospitalised with schizophrenia and is said to have feared her children were going to be taken into foster care, was found with the rifle lying on her chest, pointing towards her neck. There were two gunshot wounds to her neck and chin, and a bloodied Bible by her side.

The case was initially thought to be open and shut, a tragic murder-suicide committed by Caffell. But a month later, Jeremy Bamber was arrested. He has now been in prison for 41 years, and questions have always swirled regarding the safety of his conviction. These have grown recently. The proper body to examine this is the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), but it is in disarray; it has already taken the CCRC four years to consider less than half the evidence that Bamber has submitted to them. In a short series we are considering discrete pieces of evidence, with analysis from forensic experts.

With polls and membership at an all-time high, the Green party are having a moment – and it’s largely down to their charismatic (if slightly cheesy) new leader. Can he really pull off a socialist revolution?

17 JANUARY 2026

Daniel Siad, facing allegation of rape in France, appears in more than 1,000 documents in latest declassified files

“In This busyness I feel like fisherman some time I cache quick, some time no fish,” Daniel Siad, a model scout, wrote to Jeffrey Epstein in July 2014, explaining the frustrations of his work scouring the world for future models.

In this exchange, released in the latest batch of US Department of Justice documents, Siad was annoyed with Epstein, who had failed to turn up for a planned meeting.

Many experts and women living with the disease say the name polycystic ovary syndrome is reductive and misleading

More than one in 10 women of reproductive age have a hormonal disorder which can have wide-ranging health effects, including on metabolism, skin, mental health and the reproductive and cardiovascular systems.

Despite these diverse symptoms, the condition is known as polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS. It is a name many experts and those living with the disease says is reductive and misleading, prompting a global initiative working to formally rename PCOS to something that more accurately reflects the disease.

As Pokémon turns 30, we would like to hear what the franchise means to you

It is 30 years since the game Pocket Monsters was released for the Nintendo Game Boy in Japan. Many more video games, trading cards, toys, an animated series and films followed as the franchise became a worldwide hit. With this in mind, we would like to hear what Pokémon means to you after three decades.

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We want to hear how people across the UK are managing their money as Rachel Reeves prepares to set out the latest economic outlook

Next Tuesday the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will update the country on the state of the economy when the spring forecast is delivered to parliament.

The government is not expected to make major announcements on taxes and spending but will include the latest forecasts for growth, details of the UK’s financial position and hint at the changes we might expect in future.

The UK will phase out traditional home phones by 2027, but the switchover has been stressful for some. How do you feel about the change?

UK telecoms companies are retiring traditional landline services and replacing them with internet-based home phone connections.

The industry has set a deadline of January 2027 to complete this switch with roughly 3.2 million homes still to move over. While the digital switchover has been straightforward for most households, for some vulnerable customers, such as those with telecare devices, it has been very stressful.

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Russian airstrikes in Kyiv, Ramadan in Gaza, Trump’s State of the Union address and snow in New York City – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists