Prime minister’s comments were about ‘ministers from previous government who sat in office for years and did nothing’, says No 10 spokesperson

• Starmer launches new grooming gangs investigation

In his interview on the Sky News this morning Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said that Keir Starmer should apologise for saying in January that those calling for a national inquiry into grooming gangs were jumping on a far-right bandwagon. Kemi Badenoch, his party leader, is also quoted today in an Daily Express splash story saying Starmer should apologise, but she is saying he should apologise for not agreeing to hold a national inquiry earlier.

At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the No 10 spokesperson was asked if Starmer still thought that people who backed a national inquiry in January were joining a far-right bandwagon. In response, the spokesperson defended the phrase, and insisted that it only applied to Tories who were now demanding an inquiry they never set up when they were in government.

The prime minister’s comments about bandwagons were specifically about ministers from the previous government who sat in office for years and did nothing to tackle this scandal. As the prime minister has said, we will not make the same mistake.

The point the PM has made is that those spreading lies and misinformation were not doing so in the interest of victims. And those cheerleading for Tommy Robinson, who was almost who was jailed for almost collapsing a grooming case, are not interested in justice.

When politicians, and I mean politicians who sat in government for many years, are casual about honesty, decency, truth and the rule of law, calling for inquiries because they want to jump on a bandwagon of the far right, that affects politics because a robust debate can only be based on the true facts.

While some people had positive experiences to share, a worrying number [of veterans] felt that the covenant had been ineffective—or worse yet, had been disregarded—when they had cited it. As a result, many continued to face disadvantages as a result of their service in areas like healthcare, education, employment and welfare ….

We welcome the government’s intention to extend the covenant legal duty, which currently requires some public service providers to give due regard to the covenant’s principles when providing certain housing, healthcare and education services. We conclude that this duty should be extended to all central government departments and the devolved administrations, and should cover the breadth of areas in which the Armed Forces community regularly experiences disadvantage.

The covenant is a solemn commitment that the servicemen and women who place their lives on the line for us should face no disadvantage due to their service – we need to make sure every part of government lives up to that commitment.

A ringside seat at Roy Williams’ Sucker Punch inspired a teenager to switch career plans from law to theatre

My mother has always been my champion and has pumped culture into me for a very long time. Theatre and the arts were part of our bonding. She used to say, if you see a show that you like the look of, I’ll get tickets. So I’d go on the Royal Court website and if there were many black people in the cast, I’d want to go because I could see myself.

I would have been around 16 when I saw Sucker Punch by Roy Williams. It’s about two young men who know that their bodies can be a kind of tool to better themselves so they fall into boxing. An aspiring white promoter zeroes in on their talent. It is about rivalry, but also about how community works together, and is a really good investigation of masculinity and the ownership of black bodies.

Rather than retiring to Greece, 71-year-old Ruth Miller created ‘a sanctuary of hope and healing’ in a refugee camp

Where do you see yourself in your 70s? Perhaps on a Greek island, a long way from home with a good book or two.

That’s where Ruth Miller is right now, although there’s a twist to the usual tale.

Watching mild-mannered schoolgirls overcome serial killers such as Freddy Krueger and emerge as survivors spoke to my younger self in a way no other films could

I have always been morbidly obsessed with the horror film genre. As a small child, I’d gaze up at the posters of Freddy Krueger or Pinhead in our local video rental shop with a curious mix of fear and desire. I wanted to be scared, and I also did not. I was 11 when Channel 4 screened A Nightmare on Elm Street. My poor mum, assuming it couldn’t be that bad if it was on TV, let me record it. I watched through my fingers, drunk on anxiety, the anticipation of the kills almost unbearable. There is, I would argue, something quite queer about this complicated urge. Horror is titillating.

The golden age of the slasher movie was the 1970s and 80s. I’m sure film-makers were inspired by the cultural austerity of the Reagan era, the Moral Majority and the unfolding Aids crisis. But, as a child, I was blissfully unaware of those things or my burgeoning queerness. I just knew I wanted to watch these films.

Based on the true story of the brutal murder of a teenage shepherd, Lotfi Achour’s sombre film honestly attempts to encompass the unbearable grief suffered by the family

A low cloud of misery and horror settles on this sombre movie from Tunisian writer-director Lotfi Achour, inspired by a brutal event in his country from 2015. A teenage shepherd called Mabrouk Soltani was murdered and beheaded on Mount Mghila in central Tunisia by members of Jund al-Khilafah (“soldiers of the caliphate”), the Tunisian branch of Islamic State, which habitually hides out in that remote, rugged region. They videoed their grotesque homicide, claiming the boy was an army spy and ordered his terrified 14-year-old cousin, who was with him, to carry the severed head back to his village as a brutal “message” – and this boy obeyed, in a stricken state of trauma that can only be guessed at. This horrifying event was to assume the status of national scandal in Tunisia two years later when the victim’s elder brother was also murdered by IS in the same place and on the same pretext. (Four jihadis were convicted in 2019 and another 45 in absentia.)

Achour’s film centres on the first event, while anticipating the second. Achraf (Ali Helali) goes up the mountain with his older cousin Nizar (Yassine Samouni), who brings his goats there because it is the only place with water for the herd to drink – and because it is beautiful. The nightmarish attack ensues and the village goes into deep shock; the head is kept in a refrigerator and despite the obvious danger of another attack, Nizar’s brother grimly resolves to lead a party of volunteers, including Achraf, back up into the mountain to recover the rest of the body so Nizar can be given a proper burial. All the while the heartless and prurient press gather at his home.

Experts say Asian needle ant ‘not especially dangerous’ but warn some people have gone into anaphylaxis

Last year, Dan Suiter, a professor of urban entomology at the University of Georgia, received at least three calls from people who had been stung by an Asian needle ant – or knew someone who had been – and went into anaphylaxis, an allergic reaction that can be life-threatening.

While there is no new evidence on the continued spread of the ants in the US – detected now in 20 US states – Suiter and his colleagues are determined to raise public awareness of the risks the species poses.

Once you’ve left them to marinate, you could be enjoying these luscious, spicy chicken skewers in just 10 or so minutes

I’ve been on a quest for the perfect tandoori marinade (without the E numbers or red food colouring) for years, and tweak my recipe on every repeat. This one is easily my favourite so far: the cloves lend a wonderful smokiness, and if you can pop the chicken in the marinade in the morning, it will have taken on an amazing depth of flavour by the evening. This would work just as well on a barbecue – just scale up the amount of chicken and the marinade ingredients as needed.

The administration lied to obscure a genocide. Now a former spokesperson is revealing the disconnect between words and reality

Politicians lie, and the people around them do too. When it’s convenient – when the whole world is pulsing with revulsion, for example – they begin to reveal flavors of the truth.

The Biden administration lied more than most, its public-facing members particularly. Its policy in Palestine was to embrace the Israelis in a “bear hug” – to smother them with love. And there’s thin cover for a genocide beyond lies.

Ahmed Moor is a writer and fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace

Excavation crews begin sealing off site in Tuam, Co Galway, before full-scale dig starts on 14 July

Preliminary work aimed at identifying the remains of nearly 800 infants is starting on the site in Tuam, Co Galway, as Ireland continues to wrestle with the traumatic legacy of its mother and baby homes scandal.

Catherine Corless, a local historian who first sounded the alarm about the dark past of the institution run by nuns from the Bon Secours order, uncovered the names of 796 infants who are believed to have been buried there between 1925 and 1961, some in a disused subterranean septic tank. There were no burial records.

Nicola Green, 42, speaks out after significant legal victory against department that accused her of fraud

• UK politics live – latest updates

The mother of a teenager with cerebral palsy has demanded an end to the “sickening harassment” of unpaid carers after a significant legal victory against the government.

Nicola Green, 42, was pursued by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for more than a year after she was accused of fraudulently claiming nearly £3,000 in carer’s allowance.

Cold drop, upper-air trough and heat dome combine to create severe weather and 85mm hailstone

Severe thunderstorms swept across France last Friday, killing one person and injuring another. Two systems were involved, prompting orange weather warnings: the first came from the west via Brittany and hit the north of the country, and the second arrived via Spain and affected south-west France.

More than 30,000 lightning strikes were recorded between midnight on Friday and early Saturday. Eure, north of Paris, was worst hit with 4,326 strikes. Strong winds lashed Normandy – Rouen recorded a 76mph (123km)/h) gust that broke the 64mph record set in 2019. Hail affected several areas, leading to infrastructure and crop damage.

Staging of Boris Godunov explores the effects that Putin’s regime and war in Ukraine is having on the Russian public

On the stage of the Amsterdam opera house, a Soviet-era block of flats is sliced open in a cross-section. In almost every apartment, a television set shows images of crowds at a rally, cheering a vast Russian flag emblazoned with the Z pro-war symbol.

Meanwhile, police bang on the doors looking for dissidents, while another big screen on the stage shows very different images, evocative and melancholic photographs of provincial Russia. As the lights go down at the end of the performance, the final image is of a van in a lonely parking lot, a coffin loaded into the back.

Adam Harrison, 30, died in tandem dive with Belinda Taylor, 48, near Dunkeswell aerodrome on Friday

A second person who died in a tandem skydiving incident in Devon has been identified as Adam Harrison, 30, from Bournemouth.

Emergency services were called to the area around Dunkeswell aerodrome in the Blackdown Hills on Friday after concerns for the welfare of two people.

• Red Sox land pitchers and outfield prospect in return

• Devers signed $313.5m deal with Red Sox in 2023

The Boston Red Sox traded slugger Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday in a deal that could shake up pennant races on both coasts.

San Francisco sent right-hander Jordan Hicks, lefty Kyle Harrison, outfield prospect James Tibbs III and minor league righty Jose Bello to Boston for the 28-year-old designated hitter, who had bristled at his demotion from third base this year.

Her rhyming tales have enchanted children and parents the world over – but which is the best? From a busker’s cat to a greedy rat, it’s time to rate the hits

• Parents: what is your child’s favourite Julia Donaldson book?

Although Julia Donaldson is best known for her work with Axel Scheffler, her books made with other illustrators yield their own delights. Illustrated by Rebecca Cobb, 2012’s The Paper Dolls has an irresistible sense of childlike wonder, following a string of cut-out dolls as they explore a house while trying to avoid scissors.

Bitcoin, internet, EVs, private dinners for hire – the list of pay-for-play and quid quo pro goes on, and on … and on

The South Lawn of the White House had never seen anything like it. The president of the United States was posing for the world’s media against a backdrop of five different models of Tesla, peddling the electric vehicles with the alacrity of a salesman on commission.

“I love the product, it’s beautiful,” Donald Trump said as he sank into the driver’s seat of a scarlet Model Y. With the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, beside him, he went on to enlighten the American people that some Tesla models retail for as little as $299 a month, “which is pretty low”.

Second black box from flight AI171 was found on Sunday, days after disaster in which at least 279 people died

• Business live – latest updates

Investigators are preparing to study the pilots’ last words for clues as to the cause of last week’s Air India plane crash, after recovering the cockpit voice recorder from the wreckage.

The voice recorder was in the Boeing 787 aircraft’s second black box, which Indian authorities said they had found on Sunday. The first, containing the flight data recorder, was located within 28 hours of Thursday’s disaster in Ahmedabad, in which at least 279 people died.

Lawyers for the music mogul deny allegations of sex trafficking or coercion, asserting that all sexual encounters were consensual and part of a ‘swingers lifestyle’

The high-profile federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs is entering its sixth week in federal court in Manhattan on Monday as the government continues presenting its case against the 55-year-old music mogul.

Combs, who was arrested in September, faces charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.

We go to all sorts of lengths, often unconsciously, to hide from what has hurt us. But only by attuning to pain can we hope to heal

We can try as hard as we like to build a better life for ourselves and our loved ones, but the truth is that sometimes things happen that are very difficult to recover from. Terrible, traumatising, crushingly painful things. If you are someone who has experienced abuse; lost a loved one too young; lost a baby or a child; wanted a child and not been able to have one for whatever reason; suffered irreparable injury to your body and your mind; or survived any tragedy that has left you drowning in despair, a better life may feel absolutely and irredeemably out of your grasp.

I understand this. I have seen it many times in my consulting room, and although I have been very fortunate in my life, I have also known that feeling of certainty that there are some traumas that you just cannot recover from. When you’re in the middle of it, or stuck in its aftermath, that is all there is.

From Hurley to Amanda Holden to Jennifer Aniston and Martha Stewart, women over 50 in the public eye are increasingly taking their clothes off and posing artfully on Instagram. It strikes me as a lot of hard work

Many thoughts came to mind on seeing Elizabeth Hurley’s recent 60th birthday Instagram post, where she is sitting smiling in a meadow, in as she writes, her “birthday suit”. Like, where will this older celebrity nudity arms race end? Jennifer Aniston did a birthday shoot at 40 for GQ; Gwyneth Paltrow posted nudes three years running, culminating in one painted gold at 50; Amanda Holden posed naked on some rocks (ouch) at 53. Now here’s Hurley. In the era of Martha Stewart (now 83) posting semi-clad thirst trap pics, I’m half expecting to see Sir David Attenborough mark his 100th with his modesty preserved only by a strategically placed aardvark (though the patriarchy seems to have ensured men don’t feel compelled to do this).

I also found myself thinking: yes, she looks incredible, but it must be such a slog to look that good, and why bother? There are upsides to the terrifying rise of artificial intelligence – surely one of them is being able to celebrate qualifying for a senior railcard by enjoying a cream tea while fully clothed as a robot creates a sexy nude of you to post? Any candid paparazzi shots seeming to contradict this could also be credibly dismissed as AI-generated.

Foo has to rescue his family from some very, very bad guys in this formulaic and fun-lacking man-on-a-mission thriller

Our hero just wants a quiet life, but when terrorists committing a bank robbery take his wife and child hostage, Michael has no choice but to go up against the lot of them – battling both the bad guys and the incompetent good guys who can’t handle the situation. Sounds a lot like Die Hard, right? Yippee ki-yay, knock-off merchants. Jon Foo plays a down-to-earth ex-special forces soldier whose day watching cartoons on the sofa is ruined when the villainous Cooper (Clayton Norcross) marches his goons into a downtown bank and rounds everyone up, including Michael’s incredibly annoying wife and child. (In fact they are so irritating that you may find yourself wondering uncharitably if Michael shouldn’t just let the baddies get on with their day in peace.) Cue a man on a mission movie with a couple of twists but very few actual surprises up its sleeve.

The acting and script is, to put it kindly, uneven. The problem with ripping off Die Hard is that it’s not that easy: the underlying formula may be simple, but if you cut all of the action scenes out of Die Hard, you would still have an entertaining film. If you cut out all the action scenes from Last Resort, you would have an unholy mess. Moreover, the dialogue feels Trumpian, in the sense that it feels as if they are making it up as they go along. (Here’s a verbatim quote from the shouty lead villain: “Your daddy murders people! He kills them in cold blood! He cuts their feet! He cuts their hands! He tortures them! Oh no, he’s not so nice. He’s bad! He’s very, very bad! He’s bad!”)

IADB’s proposals involve lenders using public money to buy up renewable energy loans in poor countries

An innovative plan to use public money to back renewable energy loans in the developing world could liberate cash from the private sector for urgently needed climate finance.

Avinash Persaud, a special adviser on climate change to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), who developed the proposals, believes the plan could drive tens of billions of new investment in the fledgling green economy in poorer countries within a few years, and could provide the bulk of the $1.3tn in annual climate finance promised to the developing world by 2035.

After Israel’s surprise attack on Iran on Friday, there have been days of escalating strikes between the two longstanding enemies

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Conflict in Middle East likely to dominate agenda at meeting in Canada’s Rocky Mountains

A federal judge is set to consider on Monday whether to extend an order blocking President Donald Trump’s plan to bar foreign nationals from entering the United States to study at Harvard University.

US District Judge Allison Burroughs during a hearing in Boston will weigh whether to issue an injunction barring Trump’s administration from implementing his latest bid to curtail Harvard’s ability to host international students while the university’s lawsuit challenging the restrictions plays out.

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Over at the Paris Air Show, a row has broken out after four Israeli company stands at the trade fair were shut down.

According to Reuters, French authorities ordered that the four stands should be closed for “displaying offensive weapons”, after not complying with an order from a French security agency to remove offensive or kinetic weapons from the stands.

“This outrageous and unprecedented decision reeks of policy-driven and commercial considerations.

“The French are hiding behind supposedly political considerations to exclude Israeli offensive weapons from an international exhibition - weapons that compete with French industries.”

Alaa M accused of torturing detainees at military hospitals during Syrian civil war under former ruler Bashar al-Assad

A Syrian doctor has been sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity in his home country – including murder and torture – by a German court.

The 40-year-old man, whose identity was only disclosed as Alaa M, worked as a junior doctor in an army hospital and a military intelligence prison in Homs and Damascus in Syria, in 2011 and 2012, in the early phase of the civil war.

• Gjert Ingebrigtsen acquitted of Jakob charges due to ‘reasonable doubt’

• Handed suspended 15-day sentence and fined for abuse of Ingrid

The father of the double Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen has been found guilty of hitting the Norwegian runner’s younger sister, Ingrid, with a wet towel, and handed a 15-day suspended sentence.

However, Gjert Ingebrigtsen, who coached his Jakob to 1500m gold at the Tokyo Games in 2021 before an acrimonious split a year later, was acquitted of charges of physical and verbal abuse against Jakob after a court in Norway found there was “reasonable doubt” about the accusations.

Spectacular violence like Trump’s military parade and real violence like Melissa Hortman’s assassination are part of a growing trend

America reached its apex of self-parody shortly after 7pm on 14 June 2025. In that moment, the background band at Donald Trump’s military parade segued from Jump by Van Halen to Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival, just after the announcer explained that M777 howitzers are made out of titanium.

Nobody, apparently, had considered the lyrics: “Some folks are born, made to wave the flag, they’re red, white and blue, and when the band plays Hail to the Chief, they point the cannon at you.” If this was some kind of surreptitious protest by the musicians, I salute them, but given the time and the place, sheer obliviousness is a better explanation. The crowd, pretty thin, did their best imitation of a cheer.

The latest in our series of writers drawing attention to their mood-lifting favourites is a robustly made Oscar winner from 2015

Halfway through Spotlight, Tom McCarthy’s understated retelling of the Boston Globe’s investigation into child abuse in the Catholic church in Boston, is a moment that, even 30-plus rewatches later, still chills me. Spotlight editor Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton) travels to Providence to interview a fellow Boston College high school alumnus, where he and the victim, Kevin (Anthony Paolucci), make pleasant small talk about bygone school days. When the subject turns to the school’s hockey coach, Father James Talbot, however, the tone abruptly shifts. Kevin’s face hollows, his eyes deaden, and we see his soul drain from his body. “How’d you find out?” he says in a level, diminished tone that rings with years of trauma.

It is a measure of how polished every aspect Spotlight is that, in a cast boasting Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, world’s second-best Shrek Brian d’Arcy James, and criminally underappreciated performances from Liev Schreiber and Stanley Tucci, it’s a few moments from Paolucci (who has 12 credits on IMDb, all for small parts like this) that shows Spotlight at its most harrowing.

Gifts sent from a loved one abroad at first bring warmth and joy, then grave alarm

This Year Her Present

wasn’t a book —
my shelves sag under the weight of volumes
she’s given me over the last two decades
since I moved from Ukraine to Ireland;

In my teenage years I had an eating disorder and a voice in my head criticised everything I did. But then I took control

I wish I could say that if my teenage self had a window to the future, she would be proud of the person I’ve become. But, in truth, I think she would dislike me just as much as she disliked herself. Back then, I could have spoken for hours about all of the reasons I hated the person I was. And that wasn’t something I believed would change. I used to be all-consumed by my inner critic: the critical voice in my head was much louder than any rational thoughts or words of affirmation others offered me.

I had an eating disorder. Each day was a monotonous cycle of exercising as much as possible and eating as little as I could get away with. I was miserable, and it was all because of the cage I’d built within my own mind. This is not something unique to people with eating disorders. I’ve realised, after sharing my story online, that so many people have this unkind voice in their heads, critiquing their every move. And that when you start to talk back, your life improves in ways you wouldn’t expect.

• He hopes Europa League win will liberate former club

• ‘We have to be thankful,’ LAFC keeper says of Postecoglou

Hugo Lloris has expressed surprise at Tottenham sacking Ange Postecoglou after their triumph in the Europa League.

The former Spurs captain praised Postecoglou for an “amazing achievement” and said he was delighted to see his old team end their 17-year wait for a trophy when they beat Manchester United in Bilbao last month. But the Los Angeles FC goalkeeper, speaking before facing Chelsea in the Club World Cup on Monday, was not expecting victory in the final against United to be followed by a managerial change.

On 1 June, Ukraine launched a daring attack on Russian military bases, inflicting billions of dollars of damage using inexpensive drones in a secret operation codenamed Spiderweb. Smuggling 117 drones into Russian territory over 18 months, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, proved he still had cards to play in the war. The Guardian's Russian affairs reporter, Pjotr Sauer, explains how the daring operation will make military commanders across the world rethink national security

• Operation Spiderweb: a visual guide to Ukraine’s destruction of Russian aircraft

• ‘He’s a bulldog’: the man behind the success of Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb

• Ukraine launches major drone attack on Russian bombers, security official says

Drag is a tool of self-expression and of protest in this kaleidoscopic portrait of the city’s vibrant underground art

The queer defiance of Fil Ieropoulos’s kaleidoscopic documentary manifests not only through its subject, but also through its form. Centring on a group of drag performers and gender-nonconforming artists in Athens, this shape-shifting film celebrates a vibrant underground scene that thrives in a homophobic system, rife with state-sanctioned discrimination and violence. Introduced through an episodic structure, figures from the community light up the screen with their artistry and activism as they carve out a safe haven of their own.

In each of the vignettes, we get a glimpse of both the joy and the peril of navigating the city as a queer person. Decked out in extravagant costumes and makeup inspired by Leigh Bowery, Kangela Tromokratisch struts in towering high heels, while her drag performances, with their vaudevillian feel, parody heteronormative ideals of motherhood and marriage. Equally irreverent is Aurora Paola Morado, who weaves her Albanian heritage into her act as she takes aim at xenophobia in Greek society. For them and other artists featured in the film, drag is both a form of self-expression and a tool of protest.

She has created bronzes of herself with toned legs, tiny horns, a dissolving head and a monstrous tail. The Parisian artist and DJ, who is the inaugural artist of Tate’s Infinities Commission, explains why

‘When I was a girl at high school,” says Christelle Oyiri, “we didn’t talk about plastic surgery. Now it’s normal for 18-year-olds to talk about what kind of lip-fillers they’re going to have. Something extraordinary has happened over the past 10 years.”

What has changed? It’s not simply about keeping up with the Kardashians, though Oyiri recognises that the reality TV sisters have revolutionised the desires of some. “Kim Kardashian,” she says, “made it fashionable for women to want to look like how I and other black women look naturally because of genetics.”

The manager knows the summer tournament in the US can provide a blueprint for success after a trophyless season

Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, 18 June, 5pm local time: when Manchester City wander out for their opening Fifa Club World Cup Group G game against Wydad AC, the 2025-26 campaign begins for Pep Guardiola.

The Premier League’s opening day may be 16 August but if the Club World Cup exists in a quasi-no-man’s land of post-season, close-season or pre-pre-season, for the Catalan the inaugural 32-team tournament fires the starting pistol on next season, an attempt to fix the wrongs of 2024-25, and a push to reestablish City as a relentless force. As he says: “I’m pretty sure next season we’ll be better.”

Feeling the burn is your body’s way of signalling effort, but you don’t always have to suffer to make progress

The words may have been printed on gym vests for decades, but is “no pain, no gain” actually true when it comes to the benefits of exercise, such as improved cardiovascular health or increased muscle mass?

“Not strictly,” says Dr Oly Perkin from the University of Bath’s Centre for Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism (CNEM). “A better way of putting it is that you may make more gains if you experience a bit of pain.”

Women will really have the right to choose if politicians vote to revoke this Victorian-era legislation

Ziauddin Yousafzai and Ranjit appear in a new film in which they discuss fatherhood, courage, gender justice and bringing up strong daughters

The day Ranjit’s daughter was born, he distributed sweets to the entire village – not just because he was thrilled to be a father for the first time, but because he was father to a girl. “God heard my heart and granted my wish,” he says. His devotion to baby Kiran* was immediate and unshakeable. He would rush home from his work in the fields to spend time caring for her.

Millions of fathers around the world will relate to the joy Ranjit felt, but in deeply patriarchal rural India publicly celebrating the arrival of a girl is an unusual, even defiant, act.

We would like to hear what poem you would read - or have read – at a wedding and why

Weddings are constantly being reinvented, from small to huge, camp to Star Trek-themed. But many of us are still reading out the same old Shakespeare sonnets.

Have you come up with an alternative? What do you think are the best poems for modern marriages? We would like to hear what poem you would read – or have read – at a wedding and why.