The leader of Macron’s party wants to tackle teenage screen addiction, ban headscarves for girls under 15 and bring France closer to Britain. On a visit to London, he discusses Ukraine, immigration – and his presidential intentions

• Europe live – latest updates

In the conference room of a hotel in Kensington, the man who would be France’s next head of state is sharing his views about Brexit. Microphone in hand, Gabriel Attal is here to meet activists and expatriates. Once 270,000 strong, London’s French community has dwindled in recent years. The 36-year-old leader of Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party is doing his best to gee them up.

“We are waking at the moment from a long sleep when we talk about relations between France and the UK,” he says. In the face of war in Ukraine and turmoil in the US, old alliances are reforming. “Many thought the channel would become an ocean. And that all the ties that bound us had to be cut. But we are emerging from this sleep because in some measure we are forced to.”

• Updates from Monday’s play at Headingley

• Email Daniel | Sign up for the Spin | County cricket live

“Beautiful test but India will be disappointed with themselves,” reckons Arul Kanhere. “With all due respect to Shardul, who has rescued both India and Mumbai from dire straits … India need a player who can get in on his primary skill and be handy with the secondary one. Shardul is helping with none at the moment." This could always come back to bite me in the ass if the top order collapses and Lord Thakur scores a century … beautiful game.”

“Maybe Sunil Gavaskar is still cheesed off at the Australia-India trophy being called Border-Gavaskar rather than Gavaskar-Border,” suggests Andy Flintoff, “because, obviously, he has the better record (AB averages 50.56, SG averages 51.12).”

Prime minister says 10-year industrial strategy marks ‘turning point for economy’ as energy secretary says government will cut electricity costs for businesses

By the way, if you actually wanted to read the Modern Industrial Strategy document published by the government today, you can find it here.

The government has just pushed out a joint statement from business leaders welcoming it, which says:

The Industrial Strategy launched today marks a significant step forward and a valuable opportunity for the business community to rally behind a new vision for the UK – boosting confidence, sentiment, and enthusiasm for investment.

From start-ups and small businesses to large corporates, businesses need a more attractive, stable environment that enables faster, easier, and more certain investment decisions.

For too long high electricity costs have held back British businesses, as a result of our reliance on gas sold on volatile international markets.

As part of our modern industrial strategy we’re unlocking the potential of British industry by slashing industrial electricity prices in key sectors.

Like a sleep divorce, where couples sleep in separate beds, separating screens means that you both get to watch what you want on the TV

Relationships are all about compromise, but there are some areas where it’s simply impossible. Then it becomes about a mutually beneficial workaround instead. A poll has revealed that 55% of couples regularly argue over which TV show to watch: hot on the heels of the sleep divorce (different bedrooms) are we headed for the screen divorce (different tellies)?

Don’t mean to boast, but my husband and I are one step ahead of this trend – screen separated, if you will. In the Venn diagram of programmes we enjoy, the intersection is big enough to fit the words Taskmaster and The Traitors, and that’s about it. He’s tried to lure me into his televisual world, I’ve tried to tempt him into mine, but no dice. Eventually, we realised one of us was always watching through gritted teeth, while the other felt guilty. And so, just like the courageous pioneers of the sleep divorce, who made the decision to prioritise healthy rest above convention, we needed to take action. To divide and conquer.

Michael Grimmett’s documentary, which focuses on a lower-limb amputee’s struggle to gain approval from boxing authorities, will leave you furious

This hour-long documentary about disabled life and ableism co-directed by campaigner Michael Grimmett isn’t merely “inspirational”; it’s also an articulate catalogue of persisting prejudices against disabled people in the UK today, thanks to contributions from influencer Isaac Harvey, Tanni Grey-Thompson and Grimmett himself. What’s ironic about the many instances detailed here of how daily life still excludes them is that being part of daily life is exactly what most disabled people wish to be; not visible, not exceptional.

That said, Fighters does choose a focal point: the struggle of lower-limb amputee boxer Matt Edwards to gain approval from sport’s authorities to take part in amateur boxing bouts. Training and sparring have been a lifesaver for him; after losing a leg aged 19 in a road traffic collision, he fell into addiction. But with the boxing authorities refusing to let him compete, Edwards is forced to sweat it out – elegantly pivoting on his prosthetic limb – in white-collar bouts.

Stunning pictures from Vera C Rubin observatory in Chile released at start of 10-year survey of cosmos

Spectacular views of distant galaxies, giant dust clouds and hurtling asteroids have been revealed in the first images captured by a groundbreaking telescope that is embarking on a 10-year survey of the cosmos.

The stunning pictures from the $810m (£595m) Vera C Rubin observatory in Chile mark the start of what astronomers believe will be a gamechanging period of discovery as the telescope sets about compiling the best view yet of the universe in action.

There are more than 3,000 performances to choose between at this year’s giant pan-genre jamboree. From pop A-listers to underground ones-to-watch, here are our picks

‘Not a vintage year,” came the usual grumbles about the Glastonbury lineup when it was announced in March – and it’s perhaps only in England where people would moan about the lack of quality on offer at a festival with more than 3,000 performances across five days. In reality, Glastonbury remains stacked with varied, progressive, boundlessly vital artists, and the real challenge is picking your way through them: here are some of our tips.

• Defender’s representatives pushing for higher basic wage

• Fears at Anfield over running down deal that ends in 2026

Ibrahima Konaté is stalling on signing a new deal at Liverpool, raising fears at the club that another key player could run down his contract after this summer’s departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold.

The French defender enters the final year of his deal next month and is understood to have rejected Liverpool’s initial offer of an extension.

As my friends started getting married and having kids, I’d have to wait for anyone to be free to go away with me. So, I started booking solo jaunts and I’ve not looked back

I used to find airports stressful. I mean, I still do – I’m the sort of person who glides mindlessly through security only to be swiftly apprehended (“Er, madam, why is there a litre of water and four bottles of sun cream in your bag?”). But I find them a little less stressful these days. I put it down to the fact that I mostly travel alone. I can arrive as early or as late as I want, drink as many overpriced coffees as I fancy and not go into total unadulterated panic mode when I grossly underestimate the distance to the gate. Because this is my holiday – and my holiday only!

Travelling solo is a pleasure, a tonic, and occasionally a character-building experience (more on that later …). I started doing it by accident. I was 29 when a friend couldn’t make a trip to Paris at the last minute. I went anyway, and also decided to make my life 500% harder by only speaking French, which I hadn’t done since I’d left university several years earlier. Having this goal also distracted me from the fact that I was visiting museums, galleries and restaurants alone, something that can seem almost taboo in a world set up for couples, pairs and groups.

The emergence of Hawk Trump dismayed some of his Maga base but students of US adventurism were unsurprised

So the military parade that brought tanks to the streets of Washington on Donald Trump’s birthday was more than just an authoritarian ego trip. It was a show of strength and statement of intent.

Exactly a week later, sporting a “Make America great again” (Maga) cap in the situation room, the American president ordered the biggest US military intervention in decades as more than 125 aircraft and 75 weapons – including 14 bunker-busting bombs – struck three Iranian nuclear sites. Trump called it a “spectacular military success” – but it remains unclear how much damage had actually been inflicted.

Esther Phillips says her poetry’s ‘ultimate goal’ is to achieve justice for those who suffered at hands of European colonisers

Esther Phillips, the Barbados poet laureate, grew up next to Drax Hall Estate, once one of the Caribbean’s notoriously violent slave plantations, where tens of thousands of Africans are said to have died in terrible conditions during the transatlantic slave trade. But she was well into her career when the harsh realities of slavery hit home.

The poet began writing at a young age, and was inspired at first by the “trees, flowers, birds, the smells of the plants or shrubs, the air, the cane fields” she encountered as she walked to school.

A generous and warm ecofeminist vision of the labours of motherhood

The Song of Arachnid

Webs are small and spacious as simplicity,
See-through as a summer’s day, old-fashioned as
A slip of butter-muslin, girlhood’s own, or
A cotton hanky.

The latest in our series of writers recommending their go-to comfort watches is an ode to Paul Feig’s 2015 comedy starring a never-better Melissa McCarthy

It has a plot and a cast that seem cooked up during a hallucinatory fever dream. It shouldn’t work, but it does – and so splendidly, too. In Paul Feig’s comedy Spy, Melissa McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, a timid CIA desk agent who gets sent out into the field by her fearsome boss (Alison Janney) after the death of her slick Bond-like colleague, Bradley Fine (Jude Law, in a rare comedic turn). The cast is full of delightful surprises. Rose Bryne is a stiletto-clad Oxford-educated villainess with quips so brutal that she makes Regina George look like Barney. Peter Serafinowicz does a game turn as an – admittedly very pre-#MeToo – cringey Italian pervert figure named Aldo (“like the shoe store found in American malls”).

And in the film’s most magnificent twist, Jason Statham parodies the hard-as-nails action leads he’s played over the years as a hard-edged buffoon with “a habit of doing things that people say I can’t do: walk through fire, water-ski blindfolded, take up piano at a late age”. That’s not even to mention whatever it is that’s going on between English comedian Miranda Hart, who stars as Susan’s best friend and co-conspirator, and American rapper 50 Cent, who plays himself.

The punishing but enduring ‘too posh to push’ fallacy is still prevalent and judgment abounds. This has to change

There was nothing about giving birth that didn’t feel personal, from the agony of my 30-hour induced labour to my eventual journey to the operating theatre where my son was delivered by emergency caesarean section. At that point, I had no idea that I was part of an upward trend in the number of C-sections. Rates of the procedure are rising globally, but it is particularly stark in the UK. When I gave birth in 2017, 29% of births in England took place by C-section. In 2025, that figure stands at 42%.

Why is this happening? There are leading voices within obstetrics, some of whom I spoke to while researching, who put it firmly down to rising levels of obesity, and the increased risks that come with it – including being more likely to need a C-section. But obesity intersects with other risk factors for pregnancy and birth complications, such as social deprivation. And then there is the fact that so many of us are having our babies later than previous generations – age being yet another risk factor for complications during pregnancy and birth, including a higher likelihood of having a C-section. Evidently, it’s a complex picture, and there is not one clear answer.

Hannah Marsh is the author of Thread: A Caesarean story of myth, magic and medicine

Debut from Muhammad Hamdy, who won an Emmy for his cinematography, features dramatic chiaroscuros and panning shots to rival Antonioni

Muhammad Hamdy’s debut feature is what you might call an Egyptian stoner flick – if Cheech and Chong were a pair of exhausted, poetry-spouting revolutionaries roaming a broken-down necropolis. Hashish is the means of dulling painful memories and, apparently, preventing subcutaneous eruptions of mint, in this distinctive and stubborn-headed post-Arab-Spring reckoning which comes with magic-realist overtones.

Bahaa (Alaa El Din Hamada) is a disaffected doctor who, on hearing a woman’s complaint about being unable to stop her dead son manifesting, passes her a joint. Wandering through a set of decrepit apartments in a becalmed nocturnal purgatory, pursued by sprinting shadows and bemoaning his lost love Dalal, it seems he and his friend Mahdy (Mahdy Abo Bahat) have joined the ranks of the ghosts themselves. These ruins are psychological as much as anything: their dealer, a former Black Block activist, laments the failed revolution. Another acquaintance laments the 171 bullets that ended his life. There is much lamentation.

• Premier League likely to ratify sale within four weeks

• Move expected to clear way for Palace to play in Europe

Woody Johnson has agreed a deal to buy John Textor’s stake in Crystal Palace, with a sale to the New York Jets owner likely to be ratified by the Premier League within four weeks.

In a move that could be a major boost to Palace’s hopes of playing in next season’s Europa League, it is understood that Johnson’s offer of £190m for Textor’s 44.9% stake was signed on Sunday evening in the United States. The 78-year-old, who has owned the Jets since 2000 and missed out on buying Chelsea in 2022 after making a $2bn offer, mustpass the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test before he can complete the purchase. But it is understood that with Palace under pressure from Uefa to comply with its regulations on multi club ownership, the league is expected to act swiftly to aid their cause.

We want to hear about your search for a home in this competitive market. How long have you been looking and are investors outbidding you?

• Australia news live: latest politics updates

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

Australia has one of the most unaffordable property markets in the world, arguably made worse by tax breaks for investors.

The share of investors buying homes has consistently grown over the past 25 years at the expense of prospective owner-occupiers. That trend threatens to accelerate again as younger buyers get priced out of the market amid another surge in property prices.

Foreign affairs council discusses Ukraine after another night of heavy Russian attacks as Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits UK

For more updates on the Israel-Iran war, including US president Donald Trump’s call to “make Iran great again”, you can also follow our live blog here run by Jane Clinton:

Let’s stop for a moment on that question of the EU-Israel association agreement, which sees Spain calling for immediate suspension of the deal, while Germany appears to be distancing itself from it.

Today’s fluff is embracing rain

The tears seemed very real from Emiliano Martínez after a win over Tottenham last month because his Aston Villa future is not certain. Despite being the world’s best goalkeeper, according to some golden trinket, Villa might need to sell him to please the calculator botherers. Manchester United, where Martínez was gloriously sent off on the final day of the season, are eager to find a goalkeeper who does not make fortnightly errors. Even though United are pretty terrible and Villa set for another European adventure, Martínez is actually quite tempted by a move to Old Trafford. Another man on the Ruben Amorim radar is Fiorentina striker Moise Kean who has a £44.5m release clause.

After missing out on Florian Wirtz and potentially Nico Williams, Bayern Munich are having to look elsewhere for a new attacking threat. One potential option is Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli. The Gunners are potentially looking to clear the decks in an attempt to stop finishing second. If the Bundesliga champions are to lure the Brazilian away from North London, it will cost them more than £50m. Alternatively, Bayern could make a move for Chelsea target Jamie Gittens of Borussia Dortmund.

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

• The strait of Hormuz: what is it, and why does it matter to global trade?

• Price of oil could spike after Iran’s parliament votes to close key shipping route

The eurozone economy has continued to flirt with stagnation this month, with little growth in its key sectors.

The latest survey of purchasing managers across the euro area, just released by S&P Global, shows that the eurozone services sector is stalling this month, while factory growth slowed.

“The eurozone economy is struggling to gain momentum. For six months now, growth has been minimal, with activity in the service sector stagnating and manufacturing output rising only moderately.

In Germany, there are signs of a cautious improvement in the situation, but France continues to drag its feet. The momentum evident in the official growth figure of 0.6 percent for the first quarter is unlikely to have carried over into the second quarter, especially since special factors such as Ireland’s unusual jump in growth inflated this figure.

Chest-thumping speech before the 2013 series decider is part of Lions lore and can be the head coach’s mantra for his 2025 tourists

The logistics involved in touring Australia with the British & Irish Lions have changed slightly over the years. On the first Lions tour in 1888 the 22 selected players were away from home for 249 days and, in addition to 35 games of rugby, were also required to play 19 games of what we now know as Australian rules football.

It took 46 days by boat to reach their destination and attempts to hone their skills on the SS Kaikoura had to be abandoned after all the squad’s rugby balls disappeared over the side. The ship, as chronicled in the beautifully updated official history of the Lions, even had 300 stoats and weasels on board as part of a plan to deal with the rabbit population in New Zealand, their first port of call, where they played nine matches.

Bach’s successor is already making a positive impression but will need all her resolve at mammoth organisation

A new day has broken, has it not? For several reasons, Tony Blair’s 1997 election victory speech comes to mind on what will be a historic and symbolic day for sport. Because in Lausanne on Monday, after plenty of handshakes and platitudes, the 41-year-old Kirsty Coventry will become the first female and first African president of the International Olympic Committee in its 131-year-old history.

It has been, by any measure, a dizzying ascent. In 2016, Coventry stepped out of an Olympic pool for the final time in Rio. Now, nine years later, she is the most powerful person in sport. Yet as she takes charge, there are some who suspect that the new dawn will look rather like the old one – and that her predecessor, Thomas Bach, and his administration, will remain puppet masters behind the throne.

How has Motherland writer Helen Serafinowicz followed up her TV hits? With a rollicking, sub-Game of Thrones epic based on a Liverpudlian legend. Will the happy couple go and see it?

The benefits of hosting Eurovision are contested. But Liverpool has that song contest to thank, improbably enough, for wooing an exiled writer back to her native city. Helen Serafinowicz is the co-writer of BBC sitcoms Motherland and, more recently, Amandaland. The world of TV, you might think, is at her feet – but instead she’s returning to Merseyside with a debut theatre show, a swords-and-sorcery pastiche about the relationship between Wayne and Coleen Rooney, rejoicing in the title The Legend of Rooney’s Ring.

“I’ve started reconnecting with Liverpool recently,” says Serafinowicz, scouse accent unmistakable as she dishes up a cuppa at her home in Norwich. “And I was invited to the Eurovision song contest in the city a few years ago.” While there, she went to see her friend, the actor Keddy Sutton, in a Jonathan Harvey play called A Thong for Europe at the Royal Court theatre. This was where teenage Helen used to watch heavy metal bands: elitist middle-class theatre the Royal Court is not. “It seems to have opened itself up to everyone.” And the play? “It was mad, but very funny. It showed that you can be very silly and true to Liverpool without taking the piss. That unlocked a lot of stuff for me. I began to think I might have some ideas.”

Striking a superhero stance is unlikely to change your emotions, but it could help conquer those difficult moments

You may have noticed it before: someone standing feet apart, hands on hips, chest out. Or maybe you’ve done it yourself before a job interview or big presentation. This is “power posing” – the idea that striking a bold posture can make you feel more confident and improve performance. But does it work?

The concept took off in the early 2010s. “A few studies seemed to show if you expanded your body position, it would change your psychological state,” says Professor Ian Robertson of Trinity College Dublin and author of How Confidence Works. “Other studies showed that it could alter testosterone levels, boosting motivation.”

Questions about questions

For readers who answered “yes”, you are correct.

For readers who answered “no”, you are also correct.

Jaw-dropping formal invention turns this witty heist tale of endangered snails and ‘mail-order’ brides into an urgent dispatch about writing during conflict

Maria Reva’s dexterous and formally inventive debut novel is impossible to review without giving away a major surprise. I do this with a heavy heart: one of the pleasures of this book is the jaw‑dropping coup de théâtre that comes halfway through. Until that point, Endling offers its readers the pleasures of a more or less conventional novel.

The central character is a misanthropic obsessive called Yeva who drives a converted campervan around the countryside of her native Ukraine, rescuing endangered snails. She’s hoping to get them to breed, but some turn out to be endlings – the last living member of a species. First coined in the 1990s, the word was unknown to me before I read this book, but the tragic biological checkmate it describes is older than history. Aurochs, dodos, quaggas, mammoths and Tasmanian tigers must all have culminated in an endling.

Snails weren’t pandas – those oversize bumbling toddlers that sucked up national conservation budgets – or any of the other charismatic megafauna, like orcas or gorillas. Snails weren’t huggy koala bears, which in reality were vicious and riddled with chlamydia. Nor were snails otters, which looked like plush toys made for mascots by aquariums, despite the fact that they lured dogs from beaches to drown and rape them.

From bustling Free Huey rallies to private moments smoking with Angela Davis, Stephen Shames’s photographs tell the revolutionary organisation’s incredible story

The children’s book author spent the precious long Nordic days in simple, off-grid cabins on small dreamy islands – a tradition many Finns still follow

It’s after 10pm and the sky has only just lost the high blue of the day. Sitting by the Baltic Sea, toes in the water, I gaze at distant, tree-covered islands as gentle waves lap over the long, flat rocks. I follow a rough, winding path back to my cabin, through woods so quiet you can hear the pine needles fall.

I’m in Santalahti woods, near Kotka on the south-east coast of Finland, on the trail of Finnish author, novelist, painter and illustrator Tove Jansson (1914-2001). Best known as creator of the Moomins, and for her love of island living, Jansson also wrote for adults. Last year, her first novel, The Summer Book, was made into a film starring Glenn Close and directed by Charlie McDowell. One film critic has described it as “an ode to Finnish archipelago nature”.

Exclusive: Analysis by Royal Society for Public Health suggests obesity rates will rise in 90% of the country

The majority of children will be overweight or obese in nine areas of England by 2035, according to “deeply concerning” projections showing child obesity rates are set to worsen across 90% of the country.

More than a third of primary school children (36%) are already overweight or obese, figures from the government’s national child measurement programme show.

TJ Dominguez opens up about his extraordinary life doing drug runs for Pablo Escobar. Plus, the incredible story of Hollywood legend Hedy Lamarr

Two days after his release from prison, TJ Dominguez opens up about a life where he ran the largest Lamborghini dealership in the world by day, then by night made $100m a month flying cocaine for Pablo Escobar. Host Jonathan Walton’s rapport-packed interview with him makes for a wild story – of how Dominguez only ended up there after being conned, desperately needing to make a quick buck to fulfil his late dad’s last wishes. Alexi Duggins
Widely available, episodes weekly

In an endearingly whimsical road trip documentary, Floriane Devigne takes calls from her interview subjects in the last remaining phone boxes dotted across rural France

The humble telephone box, a souvenir from the days of analogue, can also be an intriguing cinematic locus. Floriane Devigne’s road trip documentary begins with such a relic: the last public phone booth in Paris, which also appears in Jacques Rivette’s mesmerising 1981 film Le Pont du Nord. Unlike their Instagrammable British counterparts, French phone boxes are usually painted in a demure grey and blend seamlessly with their surroundings.

As it moves from the capital city to more remote areas, Devigne’s film observes the vanishing of a formerly essential utility as her cross-country odyssey sparkles with an endearing whimsicality. Instead of using talking heads, Devigne ducks into various phone boxes scattered across France, as she takes calls from her interview subjects. Stories of love and longing fill these unassuming booths, themselves once the location of secret rendezvous and romantic trysts. The interiors of these facilities are now caked with dirt and graffiti; the lovers of yore are long gone.

Linda Pitcher was so self-conscious after cancer surgery that removed part of her nose, she wouldn’t even answer the front door. Now, at 61, she’s a successful artist showing her work in public

For many months after skin cancer surgery, Linda Pitcher couldn’t leave the house. She avoided answering the front door, and if she had to go into her local village, she wore a hat and pulled it low. Now, at 61, she is taking part in her first major ceramics exhibition, at London’s New Designers next month, where she will look visitors in the eye. “It’s nerve-racking. But I’m going,” she says.

Pitcher has not only had to overcome cancer, but also post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) triggered by the surgery, which entailed removing a large part of her nose. When the bandages were unwound after her first skin graft, the nurse held up a full-length mirror. “I fainted. I was sitting down, but I fell to the right. Half my nose had gone. Then you’ve got to walk out to your life and see people. No, no,” she says. “There was no support. I was so self-conscious.”

Coalition government loosened requirements for its Active Investor Plus visa in bid to boost flagging economy

Wealthy Americans are leading the charge in applications for New Zealand’s “golden visas” after rules on applying were relaxed.

New Zealand’s coalition government in February loosened the requirements for its Active Investor Plus visa – commonly known as the golden visa – offering residency to wealthy foreigners in a bid to boost the flagging economy.

Scale of death and destruction in Gaza, and the violence of settlers in the West Bank, has shifted public opinion in the EU

In Israel, it can seem like only one other place really matters. Washington DC is on the other side of the world but provides Israel with weapons, the backing of the most powerful military in the world, and a critical diplomatic shield in forums like the United Nations.

Yet the country’s economy is bound far more closely to Europe than to the United States. A third of its trade is with the European Union, key academic work is supported by grants from the EU’s multi-billion dollar Horizon research fund, and it is the top destination for Israelis who want to travel.

About 220,000 patients expected to receive Mounjaro over three years as GPs can prescribe the drugs for the first time

Thousands of patients in England will be able to access weight-loss jabs via their GP from Monday for the first time.

The mass rollout on the NHS means family doctors will be allowed to prescribe the drugs for the first time. About 220,000 people with “greatest need” are expected to receive Mounjaro, also known as tirzepatide and made by Eli Lilly, on the NHS over the next three years.

Attacks on both sides ramp up as US president questions if regime change in Tehran could ‘make Iran great again’

• Live coverage: region braces for Iranian response to US strikes

• US-Iran crisis: what we know so far

Iran and Israel have launched intense waves of attacks and missile strikes after Donald Trump raised the prospect of regime change in Tehran, further provoking a situation that was drastically inflamed by US strikes on nuclear sites over the weekend.

Israel’s military said on Monday it was attacking around Iran’s western city of Kermanshah. It said 15 fighter jets had struck missile launchers and storage sites close to the border with Iraq. One of its drones was downed during an operation, it said.

A Tunisian-style vegetable quiche that’s perfect for taking on a picnic

Rule one of a good picnic: don’t bring anything that needs a knife and fork, or a fridge. Rule two: nothing too crumbly (we’re looking at you, filo). Rule three: bonus points if it gets better after a few hours in a sealed plastic container in the sun. Today’s Tunisian-style quiche passes that test with flying colours: it’s sturdy, green, and full of spice and charm. Bake it, slice it, pack it. Eat with your fingers, chase with cold lemonade. And if you drop a piece? Rule four: pretend it never happened.

The political centre sees the US and Israel’s war on Iran as a crisis to be managed, while the gap between their detached rhetoric and bloody reality widens

Since the war on Gaza started, the defining dynamic has been of unprecedented anger, panic and alarm from the public, swirling around an eerily placid political centre. The feeble response from mainstream liberal parties is entirely dissonant with the gravity of the moment. As the US joins Israel in attacking Iran, and the Middle East heads toward a calamitous unravelling, their inertness is more disorienting than ever. They are passengers in Israel’s war, either resigned to the consequences or fundamentally unwilling to even question its wisdom. As reality screams at politicians across the west, they shuffle papers and reheat old rhetoric, all while deferring to an Israel and a White House that have long taken leave of their senses.

At a time of extreme geopolitical risk the centre presents itself as the wise party in the fracas, making appeals for cool heads and diplomacy, but is entirely incapable of addressing or challenging the root cause. Some are afraid to even name it. Israel has disappeared from the account, leaving only a regrettable crisis and a menacing Iran. The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, has called for de-escalation. But he referred to the very escalation he wishes to avoid – the US’s involvement – as an alleviation of the “grave threat” posed by Iran, all the while building up UK forces in the Middle East.

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist

Research suggests younger drinkers socialise for longer and embrace bolder, boozier options as drinks companies pivot to catch up

You can tell a lot about a generation from the contents of their cool box: nowadays the barbecue ice bucket is likely to be filled with hard seltzers, non-alcoholic beers and fluorescent BuzzBallz – a particular favourite among gen Z.

Two decades ago, it was WKD, Bacardi Breezers and the odd Smirnoff Ice bobbing in a puddle of melted ice. And while nostalgia may have brought back some alcopops, the new wave of ready-to-drink (RTD) options look and taste noticeably different.

Funerals are held for Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira and there is hope that the election of President Lula will mean new protections for the Amazon – and that the killers of Dom and Bruno will face justice. But organised crime is widespread and deep-rooted. The investigative journalist Sônia Bridi tells the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips about a man who allegedly not only may have helped plan the killings but may have ordered them. A man whose name strikes fear across the region