‘Horrendous’ eight-year long project has ended with final fact check, leaving a legacy ‘nobody can argue’ with, says researcher

• The Killing Times map of sites where violence occurred on the Australian frontier
• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The final findings of the “horrendous” eight-year long “massacre map”, tracing the violent history of the Australian colonial frontier have been released.

The Colonial Frontier Massacres Digital Map Project, spearheaded by the late emerita professor of history at the University of Newcastle, Dr Lyndall Ryan, officially concluded in 2022.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

At least 10,657 people were killed in at least 438 colonial frontier massacres.

10,374 of them were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people killed by colonists.

Only 160 of those killed were non-Indigenous colonists.

There were 13 massacres of colonists by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people.

The most intense period of massacres was from the late 1830s into 1840s, with a pivotal point being the Myall Creek massacre in 1838 – the first time any perpetrators had been punished.

After the Myall Creek convictions, the government could no longer involve the military and new “police” forces were created, which set a pattern for the rest of the conflict.

About half of all massacres of Aboriginal people were carried out by police and other government agents. Many others were perpetrated by settlers acting with tacit approval of the state.

Some perpetrators were involved in many massacres.

Contemptuous and sure of himself, the US president boasted of his victories and taunted his enemies

God save the king. Drunk on power, Donald Trump spent Saturday afternoon before adoring fans, boasting of his victories, taunting his enemies and casting himself as America’s absolute monarch, supreme leader and divine emperor rolled into one.

Trump’s appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the National Harbor in Maryland began with country singer Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA and raucous cheers in a crowded ballroom that included January 6 insurrectionists.

• Bivol wins rematch by MD 12 (114-114, 116-112, 115-113)
• As it happened: Bryan Graham’s round-by-round report

Dmitry Bivol became the undisputed light heavyweight champion of the world after he outpointed Artur Beterbiev in another absorbing and magnificent contest of great technical skill and profound courage. Bivol, who narrowly lost a majority decision to the 40-year-old former champion just over four months ago, won the rematch and the sweetest redemption in the early hours of Sunday morning in Riyadh.

The scores were exactly the same as they had been in October – with one judge ruling it a 114-114 draw and the two other officials reaching verdicts of 116-112 and 115-113 – but the key difference was that the winning margins were announced in favour of the deserving Bivol.

Jony Ive, the man behind the look of Apple’s iconic brands says the firm’s co-founder specifically asked him not to consider ‘what Steve would do’

Sir Jony Ive, the innovative designer of Apple’s iMac, iPhone and Apple Watch, and a close friend and ­collaborator of the late Steve Jobs, says he still often asks himself: “I wonder what Steve would do?”

Ive told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs on Sunday that he does so despite the fact that Jobs had specifically told him not to before his death in 2011, aged 56.

The cropped trench is an outerwear hero worth bookmarking for spring

A jacket thrown over layers is the best option for the changeable weather, so set your attention on transeasonal outerwear. There’s an array of jacket trends around, but top of the list is the cropped trench coat, which manages to be both classic with a twist and undeniably chic. The shorter, chopped length adds a fresh silhouette, perfect as the final layer, while working easily with your existing wardrobe staples to create a different proportion, with its boxy shape.

On the catwalk, Burberry led the way with a relaxed cropped jacket inspired by its iconic trench, made from shower-resistant gabardine. This spring-ready jacket is all over the high street already. River Island’s beige short bubble hem trench works well styled with boyfriend jeans and a cropped rugby shirt (8), or try it with wide-leg, relaxed tailored trousers and loafers. Mango’s double-breasted khaki style looks sleek styled with an elegant dress or paired with a fit-and-flare skirt (1). H&M’s denim version (2) adds an urban edge to the trench. But if you want to have a go at a bit of do-it-yourself, why not pick up a charity shop preloved trench and customise it yourself?

Knitwear knowhow, cheerful undies and Alexa Chung’s Barbour edit

• ‘I just don’t know how that’s a penalty,’ says head coach
• Steve Borthwick: ‘They found a way to win the game’

Scotland’s coaches and players believe two key officiating decisions potentially denied them another historic Calcutta Cup victory. Gregor Townsend feels his team were unlucky to concede the crucial second-half penalty kicked by Fin Smith that ultimately proved decisive and doubts have also been raised over the solitary English try, scored by Tommy Freeman.

Townsend was particularly unhappy about the crucial penalty given against Rory Darge and Tom Jordan for lifting Ben Curry out of a ruck. “I’m going to go through the game two or three times to see whether we could have got better decisions,” said Townsend, the head coach. “I did feel the decision that counted against us for the winning three points where we cleared someone out of the ruck … I just don’t know how that’s a penalty.

Eliya Cohen spent more than 500 days in captivity fearing Ziv Abud had died in Hamas attacks in 2023

An Israeli hostage only discovered his fiancee had survived the 7 October attacks after his release on Saturday, Israeli media has reported.

Eliya Cohen had spent more than 500 days in captivity fearing his bride-to-be, Ziv Abud, was dead. The last time they had seen each other, they were hiding in a shelter with relatives and friends after attending the Nova festival.

National supporters will see their heroes play against each other when Manchester City meet Liverpool on Sunday

The rivalry between Manchester City and Liverpool has grown in recent years thanks to the coaching of Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp turning it into a battle for the title over numerous seasons. The fixture has become significant around the world but in one north African nation it has a new edge as their rising star and their national hero come face-to-face.

Omar Marmoush arrived in Manchester in January after City paid £59m to buy him from Eintracht Frankfurt. The Egypt forward built his reputation in Germany and has added to it in the Premier League after a hat-trick against Newcastle followed some promising performances to indicate he is up to Guardiola’s high standards. Marmoush is a beacon in a disappointing season for City but has some way to go to match his compatriot Mohamed Salah, the man leading Liverpool towards a second Premier League title. From Alexandria to Zagazig, eyes in Egypt will be on the Etihad on Sunday as the country’s heroes do battle.

• Beterbiev defends all four belts in blockbuster rematch
• Parker fights late replacement Bakole on undercard
• Stevenson stops Padley to retain WBC lightweight title
• Reach Bryan on Bluesky at @BryanAGraham or email

“When I came back to the corner, [trainer Andy Lee] gave me the instructions just to be patient,” Parker says. “And when the overhead right comes, when he walks in and attacks, that’s when you have to take your shot. And that’s the best way, is to catch them when they’re coming in.”

He adds: “Martin Bakole, thank you very much for accepting the challenge and flying all the way here on short notice to give me a good fight. I just went out there and listened to Andy [Lee], stay calm, structured, composed, and got the victory.”

This fun, gory tale of women trying to set up a nightclub in the 1918 Soho underworld is lively – even if it tries to cram too much in. Shame about the ropey vocal affectations …

The Peaky Blinders comparisons have been flying around ever since filming on Dope Girls began, so it sounds as if the BBC was hoping that it might have a successor on its hands. Certainly, there are some superficial similarities between the two. Dope Girls is set in 1918 and deals with the aftermath of the first world war, as the surviving men return. But here, it’s the women who are in the spotlight, as the female workforce of the past four years suddenly find their newfound social status has been relegated once again. In mood and tone, however, it is less a return to Small Heath, and more of a predecessor to Cabaret.

Kate Galloway (Julianne Nicholson) is a businessman’s wife and wartime butcher, who falls on hard times after a family tragedy. Destitute and homeless, she heads to London, where Armistice Day is looming and the party of the century is about to kick off. With the help of a bright dancer named Billie (Umi Myers), who is as talented as she is troubled, Kate finds her way into the clubland underworld of Soho, where she spies the potential to apply her previous workplace-based knowledge, and sets the ball rolling on building a new empire of nightlife.

US president’s 75-minute tirade of repeated false claims ranges from voter fraud and stolen-election lies to foreign wars

Donald Trump launched into his speech by assailing “the fraudsters, liars … globalists and deep-state bureaucrats” that he said “are being sent back”.

“We’re draining the swamp and restoring government by the people for the people,” he said before going on to his oft-repeated claims of Washington DC being controlled by a “sinister group of radical-left Marxist warmongers”.

Open letter from some of the country’s most distinguished artists ‘strongly protests’ at the removal of Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Living artists who have represented Australia at the Venice Biennale over the past five decades – and the estates of a number of now deceased artists who have done the same – have signed an open letter to the board and chief executive of Creative Australia to reinstate sacked artist Khaled Sabsabi and his curator Michael Dagostino.

Some of Australia’s most distinguished living artists, including Imants Tillers, Mike Parr, Susan Norrie, Fiona Hall, Judy Watson, Patricia Piccinini and Tracey Moffat have signed the petition, as has the estate of Howard Arkley who represented Australia in Venice more than a quarter of a century ago.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

A pair of of stunning catches to dismiss dangerous England batters helped set Australia up for making record run chase

Catches win matches? Well, they certainly help set them up. Alex Carey’s brace of afternoon wonder-grabs sent the dangerous duo of Phil Salt and Harry Brook trudging back to the sheds blinking not from the afternoon Lahore sun but in disbelief.

Carey’s acrobatic, sinew straining exertions in the outfield (gloves? who needs ’em) exemplified a razor sharp Australian performance in the field that kept England’s progress constantly in check and eventually paved the way for a historic run chase, the highest ever in International Cricket Council tournaments no less. The Aussies can turn it on in major tournaments, who knew?

Accident happened in Siem Reap province that saw heavy fighting in 1980s between government soldiers and Khmer Rouge

A grenade believed to be more than 25 years old killed two toddlers when it blew up near their homes in rural Cambodia, officials said.

The accident happened on Saturday in Siem Reap province’s Svay Leu district, where there had been heavy fighting in the 1980s and 90s between Cambodian government soldiers and rebel guerrillas from the communist Khmer Rouge. The group had been ousted from power in 1979.

• Soto hits solo shot in first spring training game
• Why the Mets agreed to pay Juan Soto $765m

Juan Soto wasted little time in showing off his power for his new team. Again.

Soto homered in his first spring training at-bat for the New York Mets, hitting a solo shot to left-center field in the first inning against Houston on Saturday. The Mets went on to win 6-2.

• Recovering Shiffrin misses first cut in GS since 2012
• Italy’s Brignone wins second straight on home snow

Mikaela Shiffrin is not yet competitive in her tentative return to racing in giant slaloms. Federica Brignone is currently close to unbeatable.

In just her second GS race Saturday three months after a serious crash, Shiffrin did not qualify for a second run for the first time since 2012 by placing outside the top 30.

Unai Emery recently graded Aston Villa’s season as a seven out of 10, acknowledging while their progress in Europe has been eye-catching, they badly needed to kick-start their Premier League campaign to bank another Champions League adventure. Approaching the 89th minute, Villa’s season appeared to be stalling, a third consecutive draw incoming. Then the Chelsea goalkeeper Filip Jörgensen made a mess of a routine save, allowing Marco Asensio’s lukewarm volley from Marcus Rashford’s cross to squirm through his gloves.

Rashford’s half-time arrival proved inspired given he also laid the ball on for Asensio to cancel out Enzo Fernández’s early strike. This was a big result for Villa after taking four points from their previous five matches and one that squeezes the order towards the top. Chelsea can vouch for that. Villa are now seventh, a point behind fifth-placed Bournemouth and sixth-placed Chelsea, though those above and below Emery’s side have at least one game in hand.

When contraception has stagnated for decades, it is hardly surprising it’s fallen victim to culture wars and a wellness cult

Something is changing when it comes to contraception. Lots of people aren’t using it. Last week we heard that this includes a third of young Irish people. Meanwhile, there has been a significant rise in abortions in England and Wales. Prescriptions for the contraceptive pill in England dropped from 432,600 in 2014 to 188,500 in 2021. And this month data from abortion clinics found that demand is being fuelled by women coming off the pill and using natural methods instead.

When the study compared contraception used by women seeking abortions in 2018 and in 2023, it found that the proportion using smartphones to track their menstrual cycle had increased from 0.4% to 2.5%. The use of hormonal contraception among this group fell from 19% to 11%, while the group not using any form of contraception when they became pregnant increased from 50% to 70%.

Andrew Duarte of West York borough police department was slain Saturday at UPMC memorial hospital in York

A police officer was killed Saturday after responding to a shooting at a central Pennsylvania hospital, officials said.

The officer slain in the shooting at UPMC memorial hospital in York was identified as Andrew Duarte of the West York borough police department. He had been responding to a mutual aid call, the department posted on its Facebook page.

Guardian staff contributed reporting

Kyiv ‘must be at the heart of negotiations’ says PM as foreign secretary announces new Russia sanctions

Keir Starmer has raised the stakes before a crucial meeting in Washington with the US president, Donald Trump this week, by insisting that Ukraine must be “at the heart of any negotiations” on a peace deal with Russia.

The prime minister made the remarks – which run directly contrary to comments by the US president last week – in a phone call on Saturdaywith Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which he also said that “safeguarding Ukraine’s sovereignty was essential to deter future aggression from Russia”.

Macron says knife attack is ‘without any doubt an act of Islamist terrorism’

A 69-year-old man who intervened when a suspected terrorist attacked police officers with a knife shouting “Allahu Akbar” has died in eastern France.

Two police officers were also seriously injured in the suspected Islamist terrorist act, which took place in the city of Mulhouse during a demonstration in support of the Congo on Saturday afternoon. Three other police officers were lightly wounded.

• England 16-15 Scotland
• Russell puts conversion wide after Van der Merwe try

At long last England have shaken off their Calcutta Cup blues. Never in the previous 153 years of this fixture had Scotland managed five ­successive wins over the auld enemy and another tartan triumph really would have had them dancing in the streets of Galashiels in Bill MacLaren’s ­memory. This was a desperately tight old battle though, with a second ­gripping home victory in consecutive Six Nations games only secured right at the death.

In the end it all hinged on whether Finn Russell could land the angled conversion following Duhan van der Merwe’s 79th-minute try. Up went the ball, end over end, and for the first half of its flight it seemed Scotland might be ­celebrating once more. Agonisingly for the visitors, though, it then curved just wide of the left upright to leave a below-par English side, to their immense relief, still alive in the title race.

Southern Ocean waves are growing larger and faster, threatening coastlines. But some scientists think they could help turn the tide in the climate crisis

In his remarkable memoir of his life chasing breaks in far-flung corners of the globe, Barbarian Days, the writer William Finnegan describes the “spooky duality” of waves, the way that, “when you are absorbed in surfing they seem alive. They each have personalities, distinct and intricate, and quickly changing moods, to which you must react in the most intuitive, almost intimate way – too many people have likened riding waves to making love. And yet waves are of course not alive, not sentient, and the lover you reach to embrace may turn murderous without warning.”

This idea of duality is difficult to avoid when thinking about waves. In them we see energy and matter collapse into each other, find fluidity with structure and form, and the eternal in the transient, apprehend both beauty and symmetry and violence and terror. Likewise, the physics of waves are simultaneously very simple and impossibly complex, the non-linear nature of fluid dynamics meaning they can remain relatively regular or combine without warning into rogue waves capable of sweeping people off rocks and sinking ships.

Trent Dalton had a crush on his sophisticated colleague Fiona. The lead singer of his favourite band helped him find the words to tell her

• Find more stories from The moment I knew series here

On 10 January 2000 I started my first job in journalism at the Brisbane News. I was 20 years old, a starry-eyed rube from suburban Bracken Ridge who didn’t even know what a flat white was.

On my first day my editor had the rest of the journos join us at a cafe to welcome me to the team. That’s when I met Fiona. Fi. She’d been out on assignment and arrived late; the only seat left was right next to me. She was so natural and warm in the way she chatted with me. What was just polite small talk felt to me like an enormous show of generosity; like a light shining on me. She also reminded me of my childhood screen crush Toni Pearen. I was instantly taken with her.

The electronic producer and DJ Norman Cook talks about learning the violin with Keir Starmer, his love for his label maker and crossing swords with Moby

• Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email

You did violin lessons with Keir Starmer when you were a child. Who was better at violin?

I can’t actually remember the violin lessons. But I was in the same class at school as Keir for five years, so I remember him well. He must have been better at the violin than me, because I did it for about one term. My parents could take no more noise, so I would say Keir was better. It is quite weird when one day you see someone on the telly and go, “Oh look, it is Keir Starmer from 4B.” I think he’s one up on me by becoming prime minister.

Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Pontiff in hospital for complex lung infection and has received high flows of oxygen and blood transfusions

Pope Francis was in critical condition on Saturday after he suffered a prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis while being treated for pneumonia and a complex lung infection, the Vatican said.

The 88-year-old pope, who remains conscious, received “high flows” of oxygen to help him breathe. He also received blood transfusions after tests showed low counts of platelets, which are needed for clotting, the Vatican said in a late update.

• Red Bull duo jeered at season launch in London this week
• FIA: ‘It was disappointing to hear the crowd’s reaction’

Formula One’s rulers have condemned the “tribalist” booing of Max Verstappen and Christian Horner at the sport’s season launch in London.

Both world champion Verstappen and his Red Bull team boss Horner were subjected to jeers by some of the 15,000 fans inside the O2 Arena earlier this week. The FIA was also targeted with boos, and on Saturday the sporting federation moved to stand up for the pair.

The US president, on a Russian leash, holds talks that exclude the invaded country

You can buy a copy of this cartoon

The Hungarian-English author on addressing what it’s like to be a male body in the world, learning the tricks of literature from Frederick Forsyth, and the feeling of nearly winning the Booker

David Szalay, 51, grew up in London and now lives in Vienna with his wife, having previously moved in 2009 to Hungary, his father’s birthplace. In 2016 he was shortlisted for the Booker prize with his fourth novel, All That Man Is, nine separate stories “self-assembled in the reader’s mind into a sort of collage-novel” (London Review of Books). His new novel, Flesh, follows the fluctuating fortunes of a young Hungarian ex-convict who makes his life in the UK after serving in Iraq.

Tell us how Flesh came to be.
I decided to abandon a book I’d started in 2017. It just wasn’t working, so it felt like a weight off my shoulders; nevertheless, I was under contract and had to come up with something. Literally nothing in Flesh is directly autobiographical, but it started with my underlying experience of being poised between two places and feeling not 100% at home in either of them. I no longer really feel like a native of London, but nor do I feel entirely Hungarian. Even for the decades I lived in London, just by virtue of the name that I have, there was always a sense of being... outsider is too strong a word; I was more of an outsider in Hungary, certainly, but a kind of insider-outsider, because I come from a Hungarian background but don’t speak Hungarian very well. That sort of grey zone interests me.

The novel implies that all the tumult of the protagonist’s life begins with the shock of puberty. What made you want to dramatise that idea?
My aim was to try to be as honest as possible about what it’s actually like to be a male body in the world – to be a body that has its own demands, and how you manage, accommodate, satisfy and fail to satisfy those demands, and what experiences that leads you into.

Money is pivotal to the story, as it tends to be in your work.
It structures our society in a deep way. I say that as someone who’s not Marxist or anything like that; anyone can see that money exists as a way of distributing power. The need for money, or wanting more money, or just sort of having to have money, is central in all our lives. Often it’s underplayed in the same way as physical experience – a bigger part of our existence than you’d think from reading fiction.

In form and style, Flesh resembles Turbulence [2018] and All That Man Is, which seemed to mark a break from your first three novels.
With my earlier books, I was doing something completely different after each one. Looking back, that was born out of not yet having found what really works for me. I enjoy books made of free-standing units of writing that are somehow in dialogue with one another, where what happens in the gaps is as important as the chapters themselves. The way that the reader has to do their own imaginative work means they might come away with a sense of having read a book that covers a large amount of human experience, without having to plough through a 1,000-page 19th-century novel. I don’t think anyone’s seriously going to deny that we live in an era of short attention spans, which probably isn’t good, but we’re going to have to work with it the best we can.

Flesh is published on 6 March by Jonathan Cape (£18.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

His friendship with the president dates back to a late-night encounter in a deli. Now he is a loyal envoy brokering the Gaza ceasefire and peace talks on Ukraine

With the first phase of the ceasefire nearing its end, an American property developer has emerged as a key figure in determining whether Gaza attains a more enduring peace or slips back into war.

Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s typically idiosyncratic pick as special Middle East envoy, has also found his way into the midst of talks with Russia over Ukraine’s future, sitting opposite Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, instead of the official special envoy for the region, Keith Kellogg.

Epicenter of latest outbreak had one of state’s highest immunization exemption rates for 2023-24 school year

The measles outbreak in Texas has grown to at least 90 cases, reaching historic levels, according to officials.

Since late January, 90 cases of measles have been identified in the South Plains region, the state’s department of state health services (DSHS) reported Friday. At least 16 patients have been hospitalized as a result.

• Group B: Australia 356-5 bt England 351-8 by five wickets
• Highest successful run chase in ICC tournament history

They say good things come to those who wait and, after nearly three decades without a global tournament in their city, the people of Lahore saw their patience rewarded. A good number in the crowd were too young to remember the 1996 World Cup but they will not forget Australia’s five-wicket victory over England in a hurry.

Set 352 to win this Group B encounter after Ben Duckett’s sublime 165 from 143 balls – the highest individual score at a Champions Trophy – Australia duly pulled off a record run chase at an ICC event. It was barely even a nail-biter by the end, Josh Inglis guiding his colleagues home in the 48th over when he whipped Mark Wood over midwicket for his sixth six of the night and walked off a cool 120 not out.

Prosecutors in England and Wales are failing to obtain orders requiring the deletion of intimate content shared without consent, analysis reveals

Perpetrators of “revenge porn” offences are being allowed to keep explicit images of their victims on their devices, after a failure by prosecutors to obtain orders requiring their deletion.

An Observer analysis of court records in intimate image abuse cases has found that orders for the offenders to give up their devices and delete photos and videos are rarely being made. Of 98 cases concluded in the magistrates courts in England and Wales in the past six months, just three resulted in a deprivation order.

Some afternoons come like a kick in the teeth. Not only did Ipswich suffer a fourth successive home defeat in a game that never felt as one-sided as the scoreline ultimately suggested but fourth-bottom Wolves inflicted on Bournemouth only their second defeat in 16. After weeks of bubbling along in touch with the last safe spot, Ipswich find themselves five points adrift and survival is becoming an ever more distant prospect.

There was no sense in which this was an undeserved win for Spurs, some sort of smash-and‑grab to offend notions of dignity and propriety, but equally it was not entirely convincing. Not for the first time this season, there was a feeling that if only Ipswich had been able to seize their opportunity, it might have been very different.

So it turns out Arsenal should have signed a striker. Fourteen months after they last put a major dent in Arsenal’s title aspirations, Jarrod Bowen secured West Ham’s second successive Premier League away win over their north London rivals as Mikel Arteta’s side saw their hopes of maintaining the pressure on Liverpool evaporate.

To compound Arteta’s misery, the substitute Myles Lewis-Skelly was shown a straight red card in the second half as Arsenal – who had toiled all afternoon with Mikel Merino again filling in as a makeshift attacker – struggled to find an equaliser against a defence that would have done Graham Potter’s predecessor David Moyes proud. Yet while this was a welcome triumph for Potter, it also laid bare the deficiencies in Arsenal’s squad caused by so many injuries to forward players that has made their task of overhauling Arne Slot’s side almost impossible. A first defeat in 15 league games – a run that had stretched back to the start of November – almost leaves them needing snookers, regardless of the fact Liverpool have to play Manchester City and Newcastle in their next two matches.

The lives of Beethoven, Haydn and co enthral; Audrey Gillan updates her award-winning rough sleepers series. Plus, a choir of cicadas and bathtime fun with Amy Adams…

Facing the Music Radio 3/BBC Sounds
Tara and George: Last Rights Radio 4/BBC Sounds)
Why Is Amy in the Bath? Grab Bag Collab & Because It’s True Productions
Between the Ears: A Symphony of Cicadas Radio 3/BBC Sounds

“It’s almost midnight,” purrs Dominic West, all honey and velvet, straight after we hear the famously doomy, four-note opening to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The wild-eyed composer is in a cart, West tells us energetically, his latest piano sonata getting ruined by the rain, after throwing some coins at the driver and growling his preferred destination. West relishes every syllable of it: “Vi-ennnn-a!”

As the Austrian capital honours the legacy of its dance king, the race is on to attract the most punters

The music of Johann Strauss streams through Vienna like the stately Danube. Even the syllables of the composer’s name beat out the rhythm of a waltz, as all Austrian dance teachers know. In their lessons, the words “Jo-hann Strauss” are often swapped in to replace the conventional “one, two, three” step count.

Viennese children learn to waltz just like they learn to ride a bike, so the muscle-memory never leaves them. Just as well, because the city is still famous as the home of a 19th-century dance craze that shaped its international image. In this 200th anniversary year of the birth of the “waltz king”, there are rival bids jostling to become the focus of the swirling celebrations.

There are whole chapters in cookbooks dedicated to it and now an endless variety of new things to spread on top, including butters with a waiting list

My subject today is toast, which is much on my mind right now, a buttery ticker tape that calls me constantly to the kitchen. Our boiler has packed up, the new one won’t be installed for a week, and though it’s only the central heating that’s down (the cooker’s fine), the freezing cold has turned me into a toast monster. It’s all I want, a feeling I haven’t had since I was a student and living in a house that was so badly insulated, we sometimes had to break the ice on the water in the loo. How many loaves can a person get through in a week? Come back to me in a few days for an answer. I’ll give you a tour of my chilblains at the same time.

What is amazing about toast is the way it has lately become so pimped. This started a few years ago: I first noticed it in Moro Easy by Sam and Sam Clark, a cookbook that came out in 2022 and whose opening chapter is devoted to the matter (toast with pepper, anchovy and chopped egg; toast with chorizo, tomato and chilli; toast with crab, oloroso sherry and alioli). The Clarks’ book came out of the lockdown, so this fixation made a lot of sense; these were recipes born of enclosure and experimentation. But since then, it has become a thing. Go to a certain kind of restaurant, and something-on-toast is a dead cert as a starter.

For 25 years, Hamburg-based collector Jochen Raiß scoured flea markets for historical amateur photographs. After finding a photo of a woman smiling in a tree, he started to notice this was a recurrent theme, especially popular between the 1920s and 1950s. Over the years he accumulated 91 such photos, now collected into a book, Women in Trees. “A number of the photographers have created images that possess a remarkable depth and beauty,” he wrote in the book’s introduction. “The women exert a great effort to hold on to these trees without losing their balance. Their Sunday dresses and fashionable shoes stand in stark contrast to the nature around them.”

• Women in Trees by Jochen Raiß and Johanna Adorjan is out now (Hatje Cantz, £18)