The far shorter Middle East war has rapidly revealed the strategic weakness of US firepower in an interconnected world

In a 1965 speech justifying the war in Vietnam, Lyndon B Johnson argued that the goal was to ensure “every country can shape its own destiny” since only in such a world could the US secure its own freedom. However, he also admitted “such were infirmities of man that force must often precede reason, and the waste of war, the works of peace”.

It was the kind of elegant justification of the country’s moral mission to which successive US presidential speechwriters have turned at times of war.

Many of those who love spending time in Britain’s green places say it is awe-inspiring, calming and therapeutic

As a recent study revealed almost half of UK adults now spend less than three hours a week in natural settings such as gardens, parks, fields or woods, we asked readers to tell us about what being outside means to them.

The replies – heartfelt and passionate – came flooding in, with some admitting they just did not have the words to say how important it is.

Fab Four are still making waves 60 years on – and upcoming Sam Mendes films are expected to turn the hype up to 11

If anyone needed a reminder of the enduring cultural clout of the Beatles, the past few weeks have provided a glut. Firstly, there’s the small matter of The Boys of Dungeon Lane, Paul McCartney’s 20th solo album, billed as “an adventurous and limber take on guitar music” by the Guardian.

When England announced their World Cup squad, the soundtrack was Come Together, played alongside a film of fashionable young people in New York and a clip of a young, puckish John Lennon. The same week Stephen Colbert was played off from his final episode of the Late Show by a Paul McCartney rendition of Hello Goodbye.

Reform and Maga are correct that ageing populations are storing up huge social problems, but our prosperity still rests on the hard work of migrants

A growing mountain of reports highlights one of the US’s most fascinating features: the fact that people in red states seem to breed far more than those in the blue ones, and are being newly encouraged to do so by high-profile figures who are desperate for a Maga baby boom. The vice-president, JD Vance, and his wife are expecting their fourth child, and Vance says he wants “more babies in America” – and, presumably, fewer of the people he derided as “childless cat ladies”. Elon Musk is reckoned to be a father of 14, and his views on reproduction reflect his contribution to the Trumpist procreation drive: “If people don’t have more children, civilisation is going to crumble,” he said in 2021. “Mark my words.”

In Europe, Italy’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, says she will somehow tackle a mixture of unprecedentedly low birthrates and ageing population known as the “demographic winter”. Before he was sent packing by voters, the infamous Viktor Orbán was on much the same page: “We need Hungarian children,” he said in 2019, announcing a lifelong exemption from income tax for women with four or more of them.

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

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

Would you want this to become sexual? If the answer is yes, then think about what might be holding you back

I don’t know whether I am in love with my friend or not. We hang out a lot, because we work together in the same university. My feelings developed over many months and it took us a long time to fit with each other as we do now. I don’t find him perfect; I sometimes don’t like his behaviour, especially when we are with other people. However, I want to be with him a lot: I imagine going on holiday with him and doing things together.

We do have physical contact sometimes – just things like touching arms. I appreciate that and have deep affection for him. So I wonder if this could be love or if I am mistaking great friendship with love just because he is a guy. I do not know whether he is a friend, almost like a brother, or more than that.

Whether it’s Hyrox or CrossFit, some of this century’s biggest exercise trends have one thing in common: combining cardio with strength training. Here’s how to do it

Tough Mudder. CrossFit. Hyrox. Some of this century’s biggest fitness trends have one thing in common: they require feats of both strength and endurance. People used to pick a side: either you used weights and resistance machines to build your muscles or you did cardio for the sake of your heart and lungs. Now everyone wants to be a “hybrid athlete”. So is this the best way to get fit – and where do you start if you’re a complete beginner?

Experts hail daraxonrasib as ‘gamechanger’ for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer

A daily pill can double survival time in patients with the world’s deadliest cancer, according to the results of a clinical trial that experts are saying is a “gamechanger” and one of the biggest breakthroughs in decades.

Currently, there are few treatments for pancreatic cancer, and most do little or nothing to help. For decades, scientists have worked relentlessly trying to find clever solutions for a form of cancer that is often found late. More than half of patients are only diagnosed after it has spread.

Defence minister announces seizure of fortress as advance against Hezbollah moves beyond Litani River

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Israeli troops have captured the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and its strategic ridge in southern Lebanon in a significant advance against Hezbollah that took them beyond the Litani River – their deepest incursion into the country in more than 26 years.

After days of intense fighting and airstrikes in nearby villages, the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said the military had captured the fortress, also known as Qalaat al-Shaqif, which the Israel Defense Forces used as a base during their previous occupation of southern Lebanon between 1982 and 2000.

Exclusive: Experts say homelessness is primary driver of crisis that led to 77 ‘avoidable’ deaths in 2025

• Falling through the cracks: ex-prisoners who died within two weeks of release

The number of people who die within two weeks of being released from prison in England and Wales has reached a record high, a Guardian investigation has found.

Seventy-seven people died within 14 days of being released from prison in 2025, 28% higher than the 60 deaths recorded the previous year and the highest since records began in 2021.

⚽ Hundreds of thousands attend London event (2pm BST)
⚽ PSG dash Arsenal’s Champions League dream | Mail John

It’s available at the top of the page, and with this link, too.

Labour leadership hopeful says NI reduction for firms could ‘incentivise’ hiring, particularly of younger people

Wes Streeting has called for national insurance cuts for businesses, and for the government to drill for oil and gas in the North Sea.

The former health secretary and potential Labour leadership candidate told the Sunday Times there should be a “targeted reduction” of employers’ national insurance contribution as a way to “actively incentivise” hiring, particularly of young people.

Former Scottish first minister says she will not apologise for actions of her ex- husband found guilty of embezzlement

Nicola Sturgeon has said feels like she is “serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit” after her former husband and former Scottish National party chief executive, Peter Murrell, admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the party.

Murrell pleaded guilty this week to embezzling the sum from the SNP between 2010 and 2022 to fund a lavish personal lifestyle.

Tribunal orders company to pay Shabin Shaji for care work he was not given after coming to UK, in landmark case

An Indian citizen who came to the UK to work as a care worker through the post-Brexit visa scheme has been awarded nearly £30,000 in a landmark case, because his employer failed to give him a single day of work for a year.

An employment tribunal ordered the care company Swan Care Solutions Ltd to pay Shabin Shaji wages for the work he was “ready, able and willing to do”.

Scottish family on low income receives £15,000 more a year than identical household in England

The emergence of “welfare nationalism” in the UK has created striking differences in benefit entitlement that result in a Scottish family on a low income receiving £15,000 a year more in state support than an identical household over the border in England.

A typical out of work couple with four children would have received £22,000 a year benefit income in York, compared with £32,000 in Belfast and £37,000 in Glasgow, according to new research on the impact of devolved welfare approaches

The insatiable horseshoe whip snake has become an existential threat to the Ibiza wall lizard

Irrefutable proof of what Spanish researchers and wildlife experts had long suspected, and long feared, finally presented itself in the form of a grainy video that was shot on a minuscule island in the Balearics in April 2024.

Ribboning its way through the turquoise waters that separate the east coast of Ibiza from the islet of Santa Eulària 450 metres away, came a pale and solitary horseshoe whip snake in search of new territory and fresh sustenance.

Australia is pioneering a revolution in home renewables and battery use, proving what is possible with the right policies

The timing was rich with symbolism. As intense heatwaves pummelled Europe and Asia, and oil markets around the world leapt and sputtered, the two big chimneys of one of Australia’s largest power stations were being demolished. Meanwhile, the Australian energy minister was holding a media conference to hail a fall of up to 10% in the benchmark electricity price in parts of the country.

Quietly, and with surprisingly little fanfare from the rest of the world, Australia is pioneering a revolution in home renewables and battery use, proving what is possible with the right policies. The country was already one of the global leaders in domestic solar power, with panels on one in three homes. It also remains, however, a major contributor to the climate crisis through its vast fossil fuel exports. But it is batteries that are giving Australia a new burst of speed.

Growing number of people in England and Wales are being released into homelessness with little support

• Deaths within two weeks of prison release hit record high in England and Wales

In the weeks running up to his release from prison, Robert Barraclough began feeling anxious about becoming homeless. He told staff that he feared having to sleep in a tent in the cold, and began to self-harm.

He had been serving a 19-month sentence for assault and criminal damage at HMP Nottingham, and initially told prison officers he was looking forward to seeing his family and working at his friend’s scaffolding business on release.

A new belief set is uniting some of the wealthiest men in the world around a ‘transhuman’ future – actual humanity be damned

Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, took to the Internet a few years ago to propose that homo sapiens would be the first species “to design our own descendants”. In his best case scenario, the “merge” between humans and artificial intelligence occurs at some point over the next 50 years. The alternative, where we remain simply human and the machines follow their own path, is more ominous. “If two different species both want the same thing and only one can have it – in this case, to be the dominant species on the planet and beyond – they are going to have conflict,” he wrote.

More recently, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who at one point last year was granted the power to reconfigure the US federal government, argued on his social media platform, X, that “it increasingly appears that humanity is a biological bootloader for digital superintelligence” – our role in the history of the cosmos reduced to that of the low level code that boots up a computer before you can run sophisticated programs on it.

It started as a hook-up, but before long they were parents. Now Sofia and León are finding new ways to be intimate

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

It just felt easy, like I’d already known him for a long time. I told León I loved him after two weeks

These compulsively snacky salt-crusted spuds are a Canary Islands favourite – and an unusual but excellent way to cook our own early-summer crop

If you’ve ever visited the Canary Islands, you’ll be familiar with papas arrugadas – often translated, somewhat unappetisingly, as “wrinkly potatoes” – which pop up on every menu there. And not, generally, as a side dish, but as a standalone snack to be enjoyed with drinks. I do love a place that takes the spud seriously, and perhaps it’s not that much of a surprise, given that the first potatoes to reach Europe passed through the Canaries on their way from Peru, which, along with the similarity between the rocky soils of the Andes and the islands, probably accounts for the long history of cultivation.

Though many unusual early varieties are still grown for local sale, the Canaries imports both seed and fresh potatoes from the UK (king edward and arran banner have become quinegua and arambana). Once upon a time, ships would leave the islands laden with winter tomatoes for the British market, and return full of tubers. For this recipe, however, you’ll need new season potatoes with thin, delicate skins, and small enough to cook whole. Cooked in salty water until the salt crystals cling to them like frost, they’re served with a fiery dipping sauce that reflects the strong Portuguese and African influences on Canarian cuisine: an unusual but excellent way to celebrate our own early-summer crop.

From a young age, the author was told that one of her ancestors had drawn some of the first maps of Ireland. Then she found a photograph, and embarked on a journey to discover his story

Every family has its myths. In mine, we were told that one of our antecedents had worked on the first maps of Ireland. As a child, I used to picture a solitary person in unspecified period dress – a tailcoat, perhaps some kind of cravat – striding pensively about fields and mountains, pen in hand. On summer holidays, I would stare out of the window of our red car as Donegal or Galway rolled by and wonder that such a task could be achieved. How did one man set about drawing a map of a whole country, of these towns and strands and trees and rivers?

All myths comprise a great deal of fanciful embroidery through which runs the distinct thread of truth: time and retelling will always refract reality. This mapper preyed on my mind. I thought about him, always, when I travelled around Ireland. I thought about him in my final year of school, when my geography exam required me to analyse a square of an unknown map. I wanted, as I often do, to know more, about his life, his work, who he had been and how he had mapped.

The comedian on coming out at 20, discovering she was funny, and the special moment she marked with a tattoo

Born in Portsmouth in 1986, comedian Suzi Ruffell trained at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London and began her standup career in 2008. As well as touring and appearing on Live at the Apollo, she hosts a podcast, Out With Suzi Ruffell, and co-hosts another, Like Minded Friends, with Tom Allen. She has also written a bestselling memoir, Am I Having Fun Now? Anxiety, Applause and Life’s Big Questions, Answered. She tours her show The Juggle until September.

This was taken in the living room of the house I grew up in, in Portsmouth. All the curtains were heavily patterned, as were the carpets. I was 10 years old and deep in my Spice Girls era – especially Mel C, who was on the roster of my early crushes, along with Kate Winslet and Jennifer Aniston.

Sorting, wearing and even reworking some of Mum’s wardrobe has given me a way to keep her close

Only my mum would insist on buying a designer swimsuit on her deathbed. She had always found emotional solace in clothes, but shopping for herself had become futile by that point. She was, after all, lying in a cancer hospital having been told there was no further treatment available for her relentless myeloma; she had exhausted all available options in the 11 years since her diagnosis. But my 37th birthday was coming up and there was no way terminal blood cancer was going to stop Rhona from buying me a present. She loved showering her family with gifts. I would reprimand her for spoiling us. “I can’t spend it when I’m dead, can I?” she used to respond.

Of course, there was only one thing I truly wanted that birthday, but I was being forced to come to terms with that being a deluded fantasy. Despite my protestations that I needed nothing, my mum insisted: “Something nice for your holidays, perhaps?”

The topic of global heating saw temperatures rise, but could they find common cause on asylum seekers?

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

Martyn, 44, Sheffield

Occupation IT nerd/solutions architect

The Guardian’s landmark poll of the greatest novels published in English required collaboration and innovation across multiple desks. This is the story of how it came together

Everyone was asking each other the same questions. How many have you read? Which ones are you going to read now? What must-reads do you think are missing?

Matt Freeman, a 46-year-old designer from London, resolved to finally get around to Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie: “I’ve had it on my shelf for years – a clothbound edition because I thought that if I invested in a really great copy, I’d read it. And now I’ll finally do so – it’ll mean I can tick another one off this list.”

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

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

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

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

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

⚽ FA Cup final updates from Wembley, kick-off 3pm BST
⚽ Vidosic driven by family tragedy | City target the double

The players walk out of the tunnel and into the sunshine of a gorgeous afternoon at Wembley. It’s time for the 2026 FA Cup final.

Andree Jeglertz talks to TNT Sports

[On City’s successful season] We had the players, we have the club behind us. When you haven’t won for a couple of years you almost need to build the trust that you are able to win important games. That’s maybe the biggest thing.

[On Bunny Shaw’s contract extension] She has delivered for many years for this club so we are very happy that she really, really wants to continue the journey with us.

Latest news from the fourth round at Roland Garros
Unhappy birthday for beaten Swiatek | Mail Daniel

Terrific return from Kostyuk, a backhand hooked on to the sideline for a winner … ruined by a forehand looped long; 15-all. A double follows, the misses by far enough to intimate nerves and reinforced by a wild forehand that donates two break-back points. And Kostyuk only needs one, a decent return forcing Swiatek to net, and she looks encouraged – rightly so, that felt like a tightening. It’s 5-5 in the first, and this might just mature into an epic.

“Every point is good, every point is high quality,” kvells Chrissy in commentary as murderous shots are traded from the back, Kostyuk overhitting to cede 15-40. But from there, she recovers to deuce, competing like an equal; for maybe the first time, she believes she can do this, a service winner raising advantage, but then she’s fractionally late on a backhand down the line and it’s just a little wide, Swiatek – whose return was good – nowhere near it. And from there, the birthday girl dominates the next point with forehands, making advantage, then elicits the error for the third break in row. At 5-4, she’ll now serve for the first set – just as Cirstea is at 5-3 in our other match, a netted volley ceding deuce.

Some struggle to love Mikel Arteta’s side but they went toe-to-toe with PSG in a gruelling, high-grade contest

It always seemed likely, somehow, that Arsenal’s season was going to come down to Gabriel Magalhães and a set piece. Just not, ideally, like this.

Football does love a note of dramatic irony. And while Arsenal may have lost this Champions League final on penalties to Paris Saint-Germain after three brain-mangling hours of unresolved jab, smother and counter-thrust in the humid green bowl of the Puskas Arena, this was also a brilliant, high-grade, dizzyingly tense game of football.

We look at the faultlines within Anfield and what is needed in the aftermath of the head coach’s sacking

Maybe Mohamed Salah’s style of communication was not the slickest but he was correct that Liverpool need to redefine the style of football they play. Everything on the pitch last season under Arne Slot felt very placid as Liverpool failed to dominate opponents and were often found overrun. The new head coach will want to demonstrate his plans and implement an attacking style to best use what is available to him. Anfield does not want to witness back-foot football, fans want to see a swagger to those in red. Supporters and Slot suffered from a disconnect in the final months. The Dutchman was hindered by not possessing the vivacious personality of Jürgen Klopp nor the results in the end, and the aforementioned tedious style. The successor will want to put fans at the forefront and build a strong bond between stands and dugout, built on a platform of attractive play.

Veterans such as Messi and Modric are much in evidence at the finals, but an obsession with celebrity may undermine Portugal

It turns out that 2022 wasn’t Lionel Messi’s last dance after all. He will turn 39 during the World Cup, but despite concerns over the “muscular overload” that led to him limping out of Inter Miami’s 6-4 win over Philadelphia Union on Sunday, he remains the figure on whom Argentinian hopes rely.

Messi won’t be the only veteran in Canada, the US and Mexico: Cristiano Ronaldo, aged 41, will also be there – inevitably, given how his career and Messi’s seem inextricably bound. So will Luka Modric and Edin Dzeko, plus the goalkeepers Manuel Neuer, Craig Gordon, Guillermo Ochoa and Vozinha, all of whom are 40. And there is one 39-year-old other than Messi: the Japan defender Yuto Nagatomo.

The reigning champions were beaten in an epic series by the San Antonio Spurs. There’s no reason to believe they won’t challenge for years to come though

Throughout the Western Conference finals, the San Antonio Spurs hoped that Victor Wembanyama could work enough magic while he was on the court to make up for the Oklahoma City Thunder annihilating them while he was off of it. Late in Game 7 on Saturday night, the Thunder must have been licking their chops. Wembanyama picked up his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter. The Spurs led by six at the next break in play, a lead that could disappear in minutes with Wembanyama’s backup, Luke Kornet, on the floor. But there was no choice – Wembanyama checked out rather than risk fouling out.

Immediately, Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein picked off a pass and bolted down the floor to lay the ball in. That would have cut the Spurs’ lead to four, but more importantly may well have set into motion a trend we had seen throughout the series: When Wembanyama sits, the Thunder feast.

In a rare interview the businessman discusses football, his ownership of the Azovstal steelworks and why he is optimistic about the future

It is the morning after Russia’s heaviest aerial raid on Kyiv in several months. At least 25 people have been killed and, as always, those emerging from a sleepless night are the lucky ones. Rinat Akhmetov meets the Guardian at the end of a paved driveway half an hour from the city centre. Shakhtar Donetsk’s owner rarely gives interviews and his whereabouts have been a subject of conjecture during the war.

But he is here in Ukraine, speaking to mark the 90th birthday of a club whose tribulations over the past dozen years have been unmatched. It is also 30 years since Akhmetov, the richest person in Ukraine and arguably eastern Europe’s most influential businessman, became president of Shakhtar. The club has been a labour of love, the straightforward face of a career whose complexities beyond football have been widely documented. Akhmetov’s influence spreads across the country and beyond, most visibly in the form of places such as Azovstal, the iron and steelworks that became symbolic of a nation’s resilience in 2022.

After a public holiday was declared to celebrate World Cup qualification, expect a physical Paraguay side well prepared for intense conditions

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

• CTE is caused by repeated blows to the head

• Family choose to donate brain for research

Claude Lemieux’s brain is being donated to the Boston University CTE Center to research the long-term effects of repetitive brain injuries, his family said Saturday in a statement released by daughter Claudia Lemieux Bishop.

Lemieux died by suicide at age 60 on Thursday, according to authorities, after earlier in the week serving as the Montreal Canadiens’ torchbearer before a playoff game. He played nearly 1,500 NHL games with six teams from 1983 to 2009 and was known for his hard-hitting style and ability to perform in big games while winning the Stanley Cup four times.

In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 and the domestic violence helpline is 0808 2000 247. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is 1800 737 732.

Serious health conditions are being misdiagnosed and pregnancies are missed while the internet swells with terrible advice and meno-products. Enough!

Ladies! Are you tired all the time, sweaty and hot, or headachy? Do you have a range of the vague complaints (laziness, hysteria, dissolute habits, general languishing) that would have seen you committed to a 19th-century asylum? Are you lacking in joie de vivre? Maybe you’re perimenopausal!

Or maybe you’re not: being tired, hot and over everything are also symptoms of simply being alive in spring 2026. That’s not what the internet wants you to believe, though: last week, experts issued a warning about the deluge of perimenopause and menopause misinformation online and the risks that can pose to women, including unwanted pregnancies and a failure to seek a diagnosis for serious health conditions.

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.

Alan Milburn says youth unemployment has no quick fixes – an idea with an important lesson for those thinking about how to rejoin the EU

Mainstream politicians are rarely direct. It is part of the reason why their populist counterparts thrive: they say it like it is. No nonsense. Let’s get things done. But last week Alan Milburn had a frank rebuttal: “Everybody goes for the bloody easy solution, don’t they? You can’t just go for the easy solution, OK? There are no easy solutions, guys. None. They’re all hard.”

Speaking at the launch of his review into Britain’s youth worklessness crisis, the former Labour cabinet minister was arguing that one tax U-turn could not fix a problem decades in the making.

Twin threats from east and west have clearly made the bloc more appealing – but its rule-bound institutions need urgent attention

Giant butter mountains, wine lakes and an apocryphal EU ban on bendy bananas formed the mythological backdrop to Britain’s 2016 Brexit referendum debacle. Yet while many Vote Leave claims were exaggerated, inaccurate or blatantly untrue, the EU’s capacity for laying itself open to ridicule is undiminished 10 years on. Take the strange case of the whingeing EU commissioners, annoyed that their officially provided electric vehicles cannot manage the time-consuming 280-mile journey between Brussels and Strasbourg without stopping to recharge.

This important issue, first reported by Politico, raises vital questions. Do these highly paid bureaucrats really need chauffeur-driven “company cars”? Surely they could catch a train, or fly, or cycle. EV use is mandatory for road trips. The vehicles are supplied in line with the EU’s Green Deal emissions-cutting policy, which commissioners might be expected to support, not carp about. So why is the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, allowed a petrol engine? The biggest question of all is why make these tedious Brussels-Strasbourg journeys in the first place?

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

As the writer, actor and hog owner Lena Dunham explained this week, pigs become entitled if you offer them unconditional generosity. Many humans are the same – but that doesn’t mean you have to put up with it

There are some events so momentous that you always remember where you were when you heard about them. They’re usually historic, frequently shocking, often profound. Well, adjust your records accordingly, because we need to add one to the list: where were you when you first learned about spoilt pig syndrome?

For many of us, it will have been this week, when Lena Dunham was a guest on Amy Poehler’s podcast, Good Hang. They were discussing how some people – “not just women, but a lot of women” – always overdeliver and as a result become exhausted and resentful. Dunham then started talking about her pet pigs, acknowledging that it sounded like a detour from the subject, but assuring listeners that it wasn’t.

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

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

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

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

The two hatreds have rarely been seen as related dangers. But they overlap even as Muslim and Jewish communities are pitted against each other

The shooting at a mosque and school in San Diego has forced Muslim Americans to ask themselves painful questions. After the killing of three people in an armed attack last week, they now wonder if other places of worship will be targeted next, whether they can still send children to school and trust that they will return home unharmed, and whether they can still safely walk the streets as people identifiable by their faith.

These are also questions that Jewish communities are reckoning with, most recently after the stabbings in London’s Golders Green neighborhood. Over the past three years, against the backdrop of wars in the Middle East, antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate have flared across the west, with each rising to record levels. But these two hatreds have rarely been seen as related dangers, let alone confronted as a common threat to societies.

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

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

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

Isabel Brooks is a freelance writer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Andy Burnham and the Reform candidate lead the polls, but issues such as flooding and the state of the high street are main concerns locally

The roads that connect the collection of towns and villages that make up this constituency in England are studded with turquoise banners declaring: “Makerfield needs Reform.”

Once at the heart of Wigan’s coal-mining industry, and represented by a Labour MP continuously since the 1900s, Farage’s party has gained a foothold here, and with any other Labour candidate installed, this parliamentary seat would almost certainly fall to Reform.

Yves Sakila died after being restrained by security guards ‘in broad daylight’

Irish authorities have agreed to a second postmortem on the body of a Congolese man who died after being restrained by shop security guards on a Dublin street, prompting an outcry and comparisons to the death of George Floyd.

A forensic pathologist from England is to conduct an independent postmortem this week on Yves Sakila, 35, an alleged shoplifter who was pursued and pinned to the ground in the city centre on 15 May. The police force, An Garda Síochána, is investigating.

Ballots are being cast in the first round of the South American nation’s presidential elections

Colombians are casting ballots in the first round of the South American nation’s presidential election, choosing between candidates with radically diverging visions for the future of peace in a country haunted by decades of armed conflict.

The vote on Sunday, seen as a referendum on outgoing President Gustavo Petro’s policies, comes 10 years after Colombia signed a historic peace pact with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

Survey finds frustration with connectivity to 4G or 5G, highlighting weaknesses in digital infrastructure

More than four in 10 people in the UK struggle to access 4G or 5G on their mobile devices for at least half the time they are on the move, according to a survey that highlights the poor state of the country’s digital infrastructure.

The poll of more than 2,000 users of digital devices found that 45% felt frustrated with mobile connectivity outside the home at least once a week. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, that figure rose to 57%.

In 2006 police took revenge for deadly prison riots by killing more than 500 people in alleged shootouts that others call executions. A court is to rule on compensation for victims

When authorities in the Brazilian state of São Paulo transferred nearly 800 suspected gang members to maximum-security prisons in May 2006, the crime group launched a wave of prison riots and attacks on law enforcement officers. Fifty-nine police and prison officers were killed.

In the following nine days, police officers took their revenge, killing more than 500 people in what were described as shootouts with “criminals”, but which human rights organisations and forensic studies attribute, at least in large part, to executions, including of innocent people.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Local leaders are optimistic investment and regeneration plans will help make ‘ocean city’ an appealing place to live

Plymouth may only have been rebranded as “Britain’s ocean city” in recent years, but its role as a centre of UK defence can be traced back to the 16th century thanks to its strategic location on Devon’s south coast. Sir Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth on his circumnavigation of the globe and it was here the Pilgrims finally departed England for America on board the Mayflower.

In more recent decades, a dependence on the defence sector no longer seemed an asset, as spending cuts and the loss of dockyard jobs forced the city with a proud maritime history to square up to a new foe: economic uncertainty.

The dire state of roads has provoked pothole vigilantes and become a political flashpoint from Manchester to Manhattan. How did we get here?

Sitting in St Albans crown court, waiting for his case to be called, Derek Bennett’s anger momentarily gave way to a sense of disbelief. “I mean, there’s rape and murder cases going on,” he says. “I couldn’t believe I was there, with this stupid subject.”

Initially, neither could the judge, whom Bennett says remarked that such issues were surely a matter for the magistrates. But Bennett, a 68-year-old construction consultant who has spent decades navigating building rules and regulations, had read the law carefully. Section 56 of the UK’s Highways Act 1980 clearly states the “highway authority or other person” responsible for a road in Britain is liable to maintain it, and should it fall into “disrepair”, a member of the public may apply for a crown court order to fix it. The other crimes would just have to wait. Bennett was here about potholes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sky News Arabia to retain name in brand licensing deal after criticism of its coverage of atrocities in Sudan

Sky is exiting its TV news joint venture with the United Arab Emirates, Sky News Arabia, which has been criticised for its coverage of the war in Sudan, with accusations of genocide denial.

Sky and its partner IMI – the investment vehicle controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the vice-president of the UAE and owner of Manchester City – have announced a new commercial deal in which the UK-based broadcaster will relinquish all strategic and operational ownership of the 24-hour Arabic language news and current affairs service.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Midos Management denies ties to property group accused of making millions from bogus prayer rooms

A property investor who sells temporary accommodation to local councils is part of a family accused of avoiding tax by hosting bogus prayer sessions, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

Publicly available records raise questions about the business interests of members of the Schreiber dynasty, who preside over a nationwide commercial property portfolio via a “family-owned” investment vehicle, Midos Group.

Premier Group Recruitment went into administration with debts of £2.9m – including £647,000 owed to HMRC

A recruitment executive – who was allowed to buy back the assets of his bust company in instalments despite it accumulating almost £3m of debt – has fallen behind on promised payments after pledging to send staff on an all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas.

The development is the latest case to raise questions about the practice of “phoenixism”, accounting’s controversial art of liquidating companies to allow directors to rise from the ashes with a new entity, free of debts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Forget dirty nappies. In Silicon Valley, there’s increasing chatter about virtual offspring

A few months ago, an AI researcher from Europe attended a dinner party in Silicon Valley. During one of the many courses, the host addressed his guests, all of whom worked in AI. The researcher paraphrased his message like this: “Isn’t it amazing that we are the last generation of humans who will need to think about procreating biologically? We were lucky enough to be born at a time where we can simply upload our consciousnesses instead.”

“I didn’t see that coming,” the researcher told me. “I was just enjoying my fish.”

Alan Cumming and David Morrissey star in the gripping Manchester-set series. Plus, a wild tale of charity shenanigans involving One Direction. Here’s what to watch this evening.

9pm, Channel 4
A harrowing scene on a regular residential street in Manchester ropes you into this new drama by Russell T Davies. It then rewinds a few weeks to tell the lively story of how the main characters – Canal Street bar owner Leo (Alan Cumming) and electrician Clive (David Morrissey) – ended up in such an awful situation. With the executive producer and director of It’s a Sin working with Davies again, the team have created a powerful, nuanced and urgent look at the modern state of culture wars in LGBTQ+ communities. As one of Leo’s friends from the gay club puts it: “I used to walk into a room and go: ‘Ta-da!’ Now I tiptoe, just in case …” Hollie Richardson

In the newsletter: Our global writers share the shows captivating local audiences, from Côte d’Ivoire’s hottest soap to the next best thing out of Canada since Heated Rivalry

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It’s high time for another of our occasional glances at what the world is watching; the TV popular on the beats covered by some of the Guardian’s many global correspondents. Last time we asked our reporters in Brazil, Jamaica, Japan, Nigeria and Poland, and heard about everything from telenovelas to Caribbean breakfast TV. This time we’ve commissioned a different set of correspondents to tell us about what’s driving the watercooler conversation in the countries they currently call home. Read on for Chinese microdramas, a worthy follow-up to Heated Rivalry and the show that has the hair salons of Côte d’Ivoire abuzz.

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

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

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

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

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

The Radiohead guitarist once serenaded a girl with the Smiths and thinks George Michael was a genius. But what is his favourite football song?

The first single I bought
Ally’s Tartan Army, the 1978 Scottish World Cup song, because England hadn’t qualified. I loved that Scottish team – Alan Rough, Martin Buchan, Gordon McQueen, Kenny Dalglish – and the 10-year-old me got completely swept up in World Cup fever.

The first song I fell in love with
When I was 17, I fell in love with a girl called Mary, who was this huge Smiths fan. I bought Hatful of Hollow so I could serenade her with William, It Was Really Nothing. I don’t think she adored me quite as much as she adored the Smiths.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Curated edits mean people are treating museums as stand-alone shopping destinations rather than simply exit points

First it came for bookshops. Then your favourite coffee shop. Now there is a new frontier when it comes to upping your merch game: museums.

Instead of art print postcards and coffee table books, you are now more likely to find everything from slogan T-shirts to coffee mugs when you “exit through the gift shop”, as museums look to merch-maxx in order to boost revenue

There is hope that a change to building regulations could resurrect music clubs, which have been hit by rising rents, social shifts and noise disputes

A move by the German government to reclassify nightclubs to distinguish them from amusement and adult entertainment facilities could give a much-needed boost to the country’s struggling nightlife, industry advocates say.

Under a fundamental change to building regulations approved by Friedrich Merz’s cabinet last week, nightclubs will be formally recognised as providing cultural and artistic value, making it more difficult for developers to evict venue operators in favour of new construction.

Magazine’s editor Michael Gove will welcome performer who described Conservative party leader as ‘iconic’

The American rapper Azealia Banks said she had been invited to the Spectator magazine summer party in London.

The performer, known for her social media feuds with numerous celebrities including Nicki Minaj, Zayn Malik and Lana Del Rey, wrote on X on Saturday: “Ill be in London July 3 for @spectator.”

Her message received a response from Michael Gove, the Spectator editor and former Conservative cabinet minister, who replied: “Looking forward!”

The annual Spectator summer party is traditionally held in the garden behind the magazine’s offices in Westminster featuring prominent figures across UK politics, media and culture.

In May, Banks and fellow rapper Minaj publicly supported the Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch.

Banks wrote on X at the time: “Sorry i made fun of you guys in Britain, i rolled over and realized its actually no longer a laughing matter and I shouldnt be making jokes. I hope you all vote conservative and Listen to Kemi Badenoch.”

In a later post, the 32-year-old said of Badenoch: “She is a star.”

In April, Banks shared a clip of the Conservative leader speaking in the House of Commons on X, with the message: “Kemi Badenoch is f**king iconic. World leaders will respect her Professionalism alot more than goofball Nigel [Farage].”

The artist is known for her forthright political views and on Saturday posted a link to an article entitled “Congress advances unprecedented U.S.-Israel military integration plan” and wrote on X: WE WON!!!!! PULL OUT OF NATO NOW!”

The New York rapper won wide acclaim for her debut single 212 which appeared on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

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

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

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

Clever, emotional – and well worth the hype

I couldn’t get a table at Skof for ages: it was too full, too booked up and far too busy. It seemed there’d be no lightly set miso custard with hen of the woods mushrooms and dashi for me. Jersey royals cooked in chicken fat with pickled walnuts? I’d only be able to admire those from afar. It was like catnip: in the spirit of Groucho Marx, I want to be inside any restaurant that doesn’t want me as a customer.

Skof opened in Manchester in May 2024 and by February last year already had a Michelin star, so it’s no wonder that, with only 36 seats, spaces evaporate rapidly. This capacious one-time drapery warehouse could easily accommodate two or even three times that number of covers, but Tom Barnes, formerly of L’Enclume in the Lake District, is not that sort of chef. His restaurant’s name comes from his dad, Barney, telling him rather unceremoniously as a child to “scoff” his dinner. What would Barney have made of his boy’s ornate, complex pre-dinner snacks of chalk stream trout and golden beetroot tartlet, or broad bean, pike roe and shiso on a Spenwood cheese biscuit? Both are hugely scoffable, incidentally. Barney, now deceased, is remembered at the end of every meal via his favourite tiramisu, of which more later.

Skof, like L’Enclume, is one of those intensely relaxed yet still ferociously fancy restaurants. Dress code is come as you are. Deodorant is a boon. As we ate, Aussie post-punk band Mental As Anything bled into Arctic Monkeys by way of Sam Fender, but then, bang, the first two courses proper arrived, each of them intricate and intentional: a soft, juicy Orkney scallop with barbecued kohlrabi and preserved tomato water, followed by that lightly set custard with truffle and mushroom dashi. Think of this custard as a quiche filling on steroids, and one that’s well worth garrotting people for in a buffet queue.

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

• The best face moisturisers for every budget

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

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

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

Best budget face SPF:
E45 Sensitive Sun face cream

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• The best portable neck and handheld fans

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

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

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

Best fan for cooling:
Dreo TurboCool misting fan 765S

The cuisine is booming in the UK, with more places than ever to try bibimbap, bulgogi or tteokbokki. Here’s what to eat – and where to find it

From sizzling bowls of comforting bibimbap to crispy, hot, sweet pancakes, Korean food is exploding in popularity in the UK. Demand is rising for the country’s bold and punchy flavours, which feature soy sauce, sesame oil, the tangy, fermented kick of kimchi, raw napa cabbage and gochujang, a sweet and spicy chilli paste that elevates dips and gives an umami boost to sauces.

Last year, Waitrose reported that sales of gochujang had increased by 71% since 2024. Jamie Oliver uses it to flavour his chicken burgers while Nigella Lawson adds it to her pasta sauce. In March, Korean fried chicken was named one of Just Eat’s top 10 takeaways of 2026, while there were long queues this month at Jung, a Korean food festival in London.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Urgent renewal emails and huge discounts figures are used to pressure people to hand over their data

You have had McAfee antivirus software installed on your laptop for years after becoming fearful that your computer would be infected. So when an email arrives to say your protection is about to expire, you are not surprised. Better still, there is a “renewal discount” of 89% if you pay on the same day.

“Once the expiration date has passed, your computer becomes susceptible to many different virus threats,” the email warns.

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

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

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

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

• Business live – latest updates

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Read more in the Antiviral series

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If an alien landed and asked you: “What is this thing you call music?” what would you play for them? And why? Heather, Kent

Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday.

Due to a production error, a new Notes & Queries question was not published on 24 May.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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