The past lives again at an unusual immersive hotel housed in the cave dwellings of Italy’s oldest city, once ruled by ancient Greece

Diners fall silent as the haunting sound of the aulos – a double-piped wind instrument from ancient Greece – echoes through the vaulted breakfast room. The musician, Davide, wears a chiton (tunic), as do the guests; the mosaic floor, decorated vases and flicker of flames from the sconces add to the sense that we’ve stepped back in time.

This is Moyseion, a one-of-a-kind hotel-museum in the famous troglodyte city of Matera, in Basilicata, known for its sassi – cave dwellings carved into the limestone mountainside. Every detail has been carefully designed to transport visitors to Magna Graecia, as this area of southern Italy was known when it was ruled by the ancient Greeks from the 8th-6th century BC.

From Brick, Chancery and Hangar to Flat Holm, Lundy and the Wolves, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Which country music legend was almost killed by an ostrich in 1981?
2 Sarah Mullally has been named as the 106th what?
3 What first met at Thingvellir in Iceland in 930?
4 In the power industry, what is EfW?
5 Lacryma Christi wine comes from vineyards on which mountain?
6 What BBC sitcom has been running for 19 years?
7 Whose report led to the adoption of all-seater stadiums in the UK?
8 Which chess piece was originally known as the vizier?
What links:
9 Brick; Chancery; Hangar; Leather; Park; Pudding?
10 Sierra de Urbión; Tordesillas; Zamora; Porto?
11 Son of Cush; ninth musical variation; maritime patrol aircraft; Iranian embassy siege?
12 Caldey; Denny; Flat Holm; Lundy; Stert; The Wolves?
13 Boxing; chariot racing; discus; javelin; long jump; pankration; wrestling?
14 James Bond; Alec Leamas; Alden Pyle; Adolf Verloc?
15 Cate Blanchett; Penélope Cruz; Diane Keaton; Mira Sorvino; Dianne Wiest?

Anne Wood says algorithms bypass ‘the responsibility of art’ and have failed to support high-quality children’s content

Lots of programmes for children on YouTube are “empty” and do “nothing to encourage the imaginative life of children”, the Teletubbies creator has cautioned parents.

Anne Wood, the veteran children’s producer who devised the popular TV show for preschool children, said children’s television had long been undervalued and she feared “we’re losing a tremendous amount and nobody can see it because it’s not considered important”.

A chance viewing of the comic’s World Tour of Scotland made me swap Australia for the Highlands, although things didn’t quite go to plan …

I was 23 and thought I had found my path in life. I’d always wanted to work with animals, and I had just landed a job as a vet nurse in Melbourne. I was still learning the ropes, but I imagined I would stay there for years, building a life around the work. Then, five months in, the vet called me into his office and told me it wasn’t working out. “It’s not you,” he said, “I just really hate training people.” His previous nurse had been with him for decades; she knew his every move. I didn’t. And just like that, I was out of a job.

I drove home crying, feeling utterly adrift. I wasn’t sure whether to try again at another vet clinic or rip up the plan entirely and do something else. After spending a few days floating around aimlessly, trying to recalibrate my life, I turned on the TV, needing something to take my mind off things. And there he was: Billy Connolly, striding across a windswept Scottish landscape in his World Tour of Scotland documentary.

A huge cleanup effort has seen volunteers working to remove beads by hand and machine. They can only wait and see the extent of damage to wildlife and dune habitat

Just past a scrum of dog walkers, about 40 people are urgently combing through the sand on hands and knees. Their task is to try to remove millions of peppercorn-sized black plastic biobeads from where they have settled in the sand. Beyond them, a seal carcass grins menacingly, teeth protruding from its rotting skull.

Last week, an environmental disaster took place on Camber Sands beach, on what could turn out to be an unprecedented scale. Eastbourne Wastewater Treatment Works, owned by Southern Water, experienced a mechanical failure and spewed out millions of biobeads on to the Sussex coastline. Southern Water has since taken responsibility for the spill. Ironically, biobeads are used to clean wastewater – bacteria attach to their rough, crinkly surface and clean the water of contaminants.

Camber Sands is one of England’s most popular beaches, with rare dune habitat

Alex, 31, an academic, meets Rachel, 28, a university caseworker

What were you hoping for?
A good plotline, a fun evening and the chance of a connection.

After Tim Davie’s resignation, the next director general will face internal strife, external noise and looming talks over the corporation’s existence and purpose

As BBC senior editors arrived at its New Broadcasting House headquarters in central London on Monday, the most pressing question was what had convinced Tim Davie, the corporation’s director general, to quit suddenly. Like any good BBC drama, it was a plot twist no one had seen coming.

As they assessed the brutal pressures that had finally proved too much for Davie, a second question soon arose. Was running the BBC now simply an impossible job?

Sydney Sweeney has become the poster child of a predicted rightwing cultural domination. So why is no one watching her films?

I was on a walk around my local area in London when I was stopped in my tracks by a young man sauntering past me, wearing stone-wash jeans, a pair of shades and a “Reagan-Bush ’84” T-shirt. He gave off an incredibly smug air but, to be fair, he did look good. It’s a nice T-shirt, not like those garish Reform-branded football kits, so I could see why it might be appealing. A quick search informed me that for gen-Z rightwingers in the US, it has become the “conservative take on a band shirt or the once-ubiquitous Che Guevara tee”.

That casual display of conservative aesthetics reminded me of something else too: a much discussed cover of New York magazine from earlier this year, after Trump 2.0’s inauguration, which showed young rightwingers celebrating as they “contemplate cultural domination”.

Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys star in a taut psychological two-hander, and the Nobel prize winner delivers another miracle. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Swamped by lobbyists and hobbled by a lack of urgency, there are fears Cop could become a sprawling spectacle that betrays those who depend on it most

Thousands of diplomats, activists, journalists and lobbyists are gathering in the sweltering, tropical heat of Belém, at the mouth of the Amazon, for the Cop30 climate talks.

Since Brazil was awarded the hosting duties three years ago, hopes have been high that the Amazonian Cop – taking place in the country that hosted the Earth summit where the global fight for the climate first began – could be a turning point in the fight against climate breakdown.

Embattled Hungarian leader says he won an indefinite reprieve from sanctions on oil and gas from Russia, but the US has since disputed this

As Viktor Orbán would tell it, he had the perfect meeting with Donald Trump.

After visiting the White House last week, the embattled Hungarian prime minister quickly declared victory, saying he had secured an indefinite exemption from US sanctions on oil and gas imported from Russia. The deal would shield Hungarians from skyrocketing energy prices ahead of parliamentary elections next year and potentially boost Orbán’s chances of extending his 15-year rule.

It’s basically a mushroom omelette, but cooked Chinese-style and served on buttered rice

• Share your questions for Meera Sodha, Tim Dowling and Stuart Heritage for a special Guardian Live event on Wednesday 26 November.
  

Egg foo yung is a type of omelette that perhaps began life as a type of egg dish in Guangdong province, but has since the early 1900s been a staple on American and British Chinese takeaway menus. I like to order it at Yau’s in Broughton near Scunthorpe or Chi’s in Kenton in Devon, where it arrives as a small, fluffy, delicate omelette, barely able to hold itself together for the amount of vegetables woven into it. Over rice, it is a form of heaven on a Saturday night. I haven’t tried to replicate that specific joy here, but this is a homespun version, for those Saturdays when neither Chi’s nor Yau’s are within range.

Join Meera Sodha at a special event celebrating the best of Guardian culture on Wednesday 26 November, hosted by Nish Kumar and alongside writers Stuart Heritage and Tim Dowling, with Georgina Lawton hosting You be the judge live. Live in London or via livestream, book tickets here.

The table is laid by 12.30pm and we’ve even ironed the napkins. At 1pm the meat is resting. At 1.30pm it’s time to make a phone call …

My wife and I are having people to lunch – another couple; old friends. It’s supposed to be an informal affair, but it’s necessarily been a long time in the planning because, unlike us, our guests are busy people, and hard to nail down.

Besides, if you have weeks to plan a lunch it can’t be that informal – you don’t want to make it seem as if you woke up that morning still having no idea what you were going to cook, even if that is the case.

She’s Hollywood’s biggest character actor who terrified a generation of men with her ‘bunny boiling’ turn in Fatal Attraction. Now, Close alternates the glamour of the red carpet with living in a red state. She talks about the joy of her ‘undefined’ life

Most of us don’t live our lives in accordance with a governing metaphor, but Glenn Close does. The 78-year-old was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, a town in the north‑east of the US that, to the actor’s enduring irritation, telegraphs “smug affluence” to other Americans. In fact, Close’s background is more complicated than that, rooted in a childhood that was wild and free but also traumatic, and in an area of New England in which her family goes back generations. “I grew up on those great stone walls of New England,” says the actor, chin out, gimlet-eyed – Queen Christina at the prow of a ship. “Some of them were 6ft tall and 250 years old! I have a book called Sermons in Stone and it says at one point that more energy and hours ran into building the New England stone walls than the pyramids.”

If the walls are an image Close draws on for strength, they might also serve as shorthand for the journalist encountering her at interview. Close appears in a London hotel suite today in a military-style black suit, trim, compact, and with a small white dog propped up on a chair beside her. For the span of our conversation, the actor’s warmth and friendliness combine with a reserve so practised and precise that the presence of the dog in the room feels, unfairly perhaps, like a handy way for Close to burn through a few minutes of the interview with some harmless guff about dog breeds. (The dog is called Pip, which is short for “Sir Pippin of Beanfield”. He is a purebred Havanese and “they’re incredibly intelligent”. Most dog owners in the US have the emotional support paperwork necessary to get them on a plane but, says Close, laughing, “That’s really what he is!”)

• Michael Neser added to first Test squad already missing Pat Cummins

• England’s Mark Wood available after being cleared of hamstring injury

Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the first Ashes Test after a second scan on the hamstring injury he initially reported during the recent Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Victoria found a low-grade tear.

The news came hours after England announced that scans on Mark Wood, whose own participation in the opening Test had been thrown into doubt after he reported stiffness in his left hamstring on the first day of their warm-up game against the Lions at Lilac Hill, had found no injury.

• Australia lose 1-0 to La Vinotinto as Jesús Ramírez scores in 38th minute

• Debutant goalkeeper Patrick Beach impresses in friendly in Houston

Houston, do we have a problem? After starting the Tony Popovic-era with an 11-game unbeaten run, an experimental Socceroos lineup fell to their second-straight defeat, going down 1-0 to Venezuela at Houston’s Shell Energy Stadium. While there was a certain level of fight to their 2-1 loss to the United States last month, this was a much more passive, flatter defeat.

Just 20 minutes in, the 50th-ranked Venezuela had three-quarters of possession, which only fell to 66% at game’s end. It was a sharp contrast between the approach of interim boss Fernando Aristeguieta and his predecessor Fernando Batista, who was sacked after they failed to qualify for the World Cup with an average possession rate of just 39% during the qualification campaign.

Ukrainian minister says more than 800 attacks recorded since start of year as Moscow seeks to destroy country’s logistical capabilities

Ukraine has recorded a threefold increase in the number of attacks on its railway system since July, according to a senior minister, as Moscow seeks to scupper one of Kyiv’s key logistical systems.

Oleksii Kuleba, a deputy prime minister with responsibility for infrastructure, said attacks on the network since the start of 2025 had caused damage totalling $1bn (£760m).

Observers say that welcoming of guests including Cate Blanchett, Monica Bellucci and Spike Lee is a move to raise pontiff’s profile

A host of Hollywood celebrities will meet Pope Leo on Saturday, a gathering Vatican observers say is aimed at giving some star power to the pontiff, who is the first US pope in the history of the Catholic church.

Cate Blanchett, Monica Bellucci, Chris Pine and Adam Scott are among the actors who will join a special audience with Leo at his Apostolic Palace residence, along with the Oscar-winning directors Spike Lee, George Miller and Gus Van Sant.

Survey finds 60% of key cities councils are planning to sell assets to meet costs of adult and children’s social care

English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books, according to a survey of local authorities.

The key cities group of councils, which represents second-tier cities in England, said 60% of councils were planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care.

This back yard creature must be kept under constant chemical constraint, or it risks becoming more liability than asset

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I’ll call him Bruce. He’s any of the 3.1 million Australians living in a house with a pool or spa. Over my long career in hardware, listening to the woes of so many Bruces, I’ve discovered that owning a pool is not all fun and bubbles at cocktail hour.

In the beginning, it wasn’t so bad. On first viewing his bayside property, Bruce already believed the agent’s claim that by far the most desirable addition to any home is a pool. It did look nice, glistening blue in the back yard. And weren’t the kids rapt. But now, years later, Bruce isn’t.

Late-night host spoke about growing discontent among Republicans after issues over both policy and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal

Seth Meyers spoke about rising tensions within the Republican party with Donald Trump losing support from his base over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

The Late Night host spoke about yesterday’s dramatic meeting in the situation room to discuss Epstein, an ongoing crisis that has seen the president becoming “wildly unpopular”.

• Updates as the Socceroos play La Vinotinto in Houston

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7 mins: The Socceroos are making all the attacking as their front three continues to find space on either flank. Nestory Irankunda stands alone at the top of the penalty box but just as the teenager is about to unleash a rocket a Venezuela defender intervenes. Lewis Miller perhaps fortunate to avoid a caution in the build up.

5 mins: Toure gets another shot away after shrugging off the Venezuela defender. The powerful strike would have tested the keeper Contreras but it crashes into the side netting.

Sanae Takaichi says the use of force against Taiwan could warrant a military response from Tokyo

China has advised its citizens to avoid travelling to Japan, escalating a diplomatic feud sparked by comments from Tokyo’s new prime minister about a hypothetical attack on Taiwan.

Sanae Takaichi told Japan’s parliament on 7 November that the use of force against the self-ruled island claimed by China could warrant a military response from Tokyo. Japan has since said its position on Taiwan – just 100km from the nearest Japanese island – is unchanged.