In this week’s newsletter: A new wave of post-apocalyptic dramas ​are serving up disaster tales shaped by the cultures they come from, and the results are fascinating

I’m scandalously late to The Eternaut (El Eternauta), the Argentinian dystopian thriller that was released way back in April on Netflix. I inhaled all six episodes of the show’s first season only a few weeks ago, after a glowing review on the podcast The Watch (which was also fairly late to it, making me feel a little better about my own finger-off-the-pulseness). Anyway, it’s absolutely terrific, an end-of-the-world chiller that is vividly, realistically rooted in the socio-politics of the country in which it is set. This despite a premise that sees Buenos Aires beset by an unseasonal flurry of what turns out to be killer snow.

That specificity, as anyone familiar with The Eternaut will know, is mixed into the story’s foundations. The show is based on Héctor Germán Oesterheld’s 1957 comic strip of the same name, which proved eerily predictive of the civil unrest and lurch into authoritarianism that would beset the country in the following decades. Of course, the reason for said unrest is very different: in the show and comic, an alien invasion causes the snowfall, while in real life it was in response to the installation of a military dictatorship. But the effects are similar: distrust between communities, paranoia and violence. Indeed, Oesterheld would be a victim of the turmoil he imagined in his strip: having joined a leftist group opposed to Argentina’s ruling military junta, he, as well as his four daughters (two of them pregnant) and four sons-in-law, were disappeared in 1977, and a new appeal to find the family members was launched in the wake of Netflix’s adaptation.

From chicken jockey to swearing consultant, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Which singer was officially declared a national hero of Barbados in 2021?
2 What made a landfall on 29 August 2005 near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana?
3 Which film immortalised the phrase “chicken jockey”?
4 What is the oldest surviving work of Islamic architecture?
5 Ian Martin was the swearing consultant on which TV series?
6 What are China’s two special administrative regions?
7 Skeet and trap are disciplines of which Olympic sport?
8 What organisation did Harry Pollitt lead for almost 30 years?
What links:
9 An American Tragedy; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Mrs Dalloway; The Great Gatsby; The Trial?
10 The Beatles; John Travolta; John Lennon; Frankie Goes to Hollywood; Madonna; Ariana Grande?
11 Reeves; Reeve; Cain; Routh; Cavill; Corenswet?
12 Iquitos; Leticia; Manaus and Macapá?
13 Adam and Eve; Four Horsemen; Praying Hands; Rhinoceros; Young Hare?
14 Giuseppe Savoldi (Napoli) and Olivia Smith (Arsenal)?
15 1960s TV witch; daughter of Prospero; North Carolina’s largest city; Stephen King’s first novel?

From a retired British colonel to a Catholic priest, half of the 532 people arrested in Parliament Square were 60 or older. Many believe they had a greater share of responsibility to take in defending the right to free speech

In recent weeks, hundreds of people have been arrested for taking part in demonstrations organised by the campaign group Defend Our Juries. Their alleged crime is calling for an end to the ban against Palestine Action, which has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Yvette Cooper, the home secretary.

One striking detail among those detained is their age. Half of those arrested at the largest protest yet, in Parliament Square in London on Saturday, were 60 or older. Some said they had taken part to give a voice to younger people who have more to lose by breaking the law, some simply felt they must challenge the government’s stance.

Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes

• ​Submit a question

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and the new Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book.

Our panel responds: the more we know about this technology, the more it is the source of hope and worry. We have views that must be heard

• The panel was compiled by Sumaiya Motara and Saranka Maheswaran, interns on the Guardian’s positive action scheme

Olly Alexander’s stage presence and his band’s lyrics pulled together the two sides of my nature, and accept my desire for men

I first discovered Olly Alexander, of Years & Years, by accident. I was teaching English as a foreign language in South Korea, and I showed a video of a BBC Glastonbury roundup on the projector as part of the lesson. I remember glimpsing an incredibly cute blond guy on stage, and being transfixed. I knew immediately that he was gay because the way he moved was unashamedly fluid and graceful. He was doing a pirouette.

The clip was so short there wasn’t even a mention of the name of the band, so I had to do some detective work. I Googled something ridiculous like “bleached hair gay man Glastonbury 2015” and trawled through hundreds of search results until I found him.

A sweeping, hilarious family saga told in multiple timelines from the 50s to the present day. Yes, that’s right – it’s basically Bluey meets Tolstoy

Like schoolboys, my friend Charlie and I send each other coded messages. One of these is “Am back on the horse”, which means “Rewatching BoJack Horseman”, which means “Having a mental health crisis”. The recipient knows to go to the other’s house with Danish pastries and some grass to touch. That show changed my life. The Simpsons had redefined what a cartoon could be, Ren & Stimpy and South Park were transgressive thrill-rides. But Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s tale of a washed-up actor chasing redemption wasn’t just adult; it was profound.

So I was worried, approaching the new animated series from that show’s creators. It’s not about celebrity. There are no talking dogs or porcupines, or underwater worlds. No Will Arnett. How could I watch without expectation? It feels unfair yet unavoidable to keep an artist’s previous work in mind. Isn’t that like comparing a current partner with an ex?

As part of the hugely successful girlband, she had to contend with an eating disorder, racism and a hostile tabloid press. Now JADE the solo artist is conquering the charts with her unorthodox pop bangers and unfiltered attitude

It’s customary for former girlband members to shun their manufactured roots the second they go solo. But now that Jade Thirlwall is no longer a member of Little Mix, she’s become their biggest fan. “I look back and I’m gagged at us!” she tells me, eyes wide with delight. “I still watch our music videos or performances and wonder how we weren’t even bigger, because we were fucking amazing.

“Before I released my first solo song, I listened to Little Mix’s entire discography and cried. I was this young lass from South Shields who just wanted to make it as a singer, and I went on to be in the best, coolest girlband ever.” And now? “Now I get to have a bonus round, doing my own songs,” she beams.

Buckland Abbey recreates music telling of medieval life in extraordinary discovery

Almost five centuries ago a community of monks in the West Country of England gathered to sing, imploring their God to help them endure the challenges of medieval life.

Thanks to an extraordinary discovery of music that survived Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in the early 16th century, the songs created by the Buckland Abbey monks were ringing out again across the hills and woods of the Tavy valley in Devon this weekend.

The University of Exeter Chapel Choir will perform the music live in Buckland Abbey’s medieval Great Barn on 16 and 17 August.

Just-announced album already looks like it will make singer and partner Travis Kelce hysterically famous at a new level – and that may be precisely their plan

Taylor Swift’s podcast interview with her American football player boyfriend, Travis Kelce, this week yielded plenty of tidbits for fans. Across two hours of loose chat on New Heights, the show Kelce helms with his brother Jason – also a football player – Swift revealed she was obsessed with sourdough and lurked on baking blogs. The couple spent the summer with her family, caring for her 73-year-old father, Scott, after he had a quintuple heart bypass. She gave Kelce a lesson on Hamlet and taught him how to avoid internalising speculation about their two-year relationship. You could call them the tentpoles of the 35-year-old pop star’s brand: literary passions and professional self-awareness.

One surprising revelation came near the end. Until the record-breaking 149-date Eras tour that Swift mounted from 2023-24, she said she had “never allowed myself to say: ‘You’ve arrived. You’ve made it.’” Being the only artist to win the Grammy for album of the year four times hadn’t done it; not the records broken, the acclaimed shifts from country to mainstream pop to indie. Nor her staggeringly successful campaign to re-record her first six albums to devalue their master recordings, sold by her first record label to an industry nemesis, and then on to a private equity company. “But the Eras tour,” she said, “I was like, this is nothing like what I’ve experienced before. It was so much better than anything else.”

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

Jonah, 31, a data analyst, meets Sunny, 30, an arts and lifestyle journalist

What were you hoping for?
Someone fun to share the sunny evening with.

For the final flourish on our latest record, we’ve wheeled in a harmonium. If only I knew how to play it …

I’m in a recording studio with two other members of the band I’m in, listening to stuff we’ve recorded, with an eye toward finishing touches. But really it’s a last chance to fix mistakes: ropey backing vocals; mistimed bass notes; a banjo part played with an out‑of-tune B string.

“I can easily redo it,” I say, thinking: I don’t even remember playing it in the first place.

A warming, Sri Lankan-style risotto-alike that’s perfect for a cool summer’s evening

Some recipes are easy to describe, a variation on this or that. Others, such as this one, are more challenging. But imagine this: seared aubergines cooked with sweet onions and tomatoes, spiced with aromatics such as cardamom, chilli, mustard seeds and smoky curry leaves, then melted into a pot with rice, water and time, until wetter than a risotto but less homogeneous than a congee. A perfect meal to cook on a cool summer’s evening to slow yourself down, both to stoke an appetite and to warm the belly.

The terrifying space monster makes its TV debut, while Celine Song’s new relationship drama has us rooting for Dakota Johnson’s love life. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Liam and Noel used to be taken for summer holidays with relatives in Mayo and kept returning after finding fame

Emigration ripped the heart out of Charlestown: generations of young people took the boat to England and left behind derelict homes and shuttered shops, a hollowing chronicled in a landmark 1968 book, The Death of an Irish Town.

Some returned to this corner of County Mayo for summer holidays – with children who were growing up with English accents and city ways – before vanishing back across the Irish Sea and leaving Charlestown to its decay.

Temperatures did not drop below 36C in Sedom, Israel on Tuesday night, while several parts of Jordan stayed above 35C on Monday

Jordan and Israel have suffered through their hottest nights on record, with nocturnal temperatures in the Levant well above levels that scientists consider “hellish”.

Temperatures on Monday night did not go below 35C (95F) in Ghor es-Safi and Aqaba in Jordan, while in the capital, Amman, they stayed above 31.8C.

• Simpson played 62 Tests over more than two decades after debut in 1957

• Australia’s first full-time coach helped guide team’s re-emergence

Former Australia cricket captain and coach, Bob Simpson, has died in Sydney aged 89.

Robert Baddeley Simpson was an influential figure in Australian cricket for more than four decades as a player, captain and coach, and also made his mark on the game as a law-maker, referee and commentator.

US president says Chinese counterpart told him ‘I am very patient and China is very patient’

The US president, Donald Trump, has said that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, told him China would not invade Taiwan while Trump is in office.

Trump made the comments in an interview with Fox News on Friday, ahead of talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Exclusive: Prime minister Feletei Teo says Tuvalu may withdraw from crucial meeting after key countries such as Taiwan were barred from attending

Tuvalu’s prime minister Feletei Teo said his country may pull out of the region’s top political meeting next month, after host nation Solomon Islands moved to block all external partners – including China, US and Taiwan – from attending.

The Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting will be held in Honiara in September. On 7 August, Solomon Islands prime minister Jeremiah Manele told parliament that no dialogue partners would be invited to the annual gathering.

Scottish goldminers first brought the sport to Central Otago and the traditions live on as farmers sweep stones and catch up on the ice

On a July evening in Alexandra, a small town in New Zealand’s South Island, the temperature is a chilly 3C. While most of the town is in quiet darkness, at Ice Inline Molyneux Park, the lights are on and the banter is abundant. It’s a social curling night, and the shouts of “sweeeep!” can be heard from the car park. Players from teams with names such as the “Plonkers”, “Too Dam Cold” and “Doome and Broom” gather on the outdoor ice rink, sweeping furiously as 11kg curling stones move across the ice.

L-R: A collection of enamel badges from curling competitions and tournaments. Curling stones ready to be put away after a Thursday night social curling game in Alexandra.

• Former Wimbledon champion races to 6-1, 6-4 victory

• She defends previously banned coach Stefano Vukov

Elena Rybakina has described herself as satisfied by the return of her coach Stefano Vukov as she produced an imperious performance at the Cincinnati Open, dismantling Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1 and defending champion, 6-1, 6-4 to reach the semi-finals.

Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, put together a performance of the highest quality on Friday afternoon as she served efficiently and completely overpowered one of the most destructive shotmakers in the world.

Utterly absorbing Slovenian debut reinvents the cliched idea of a Catholic girl’s sexual awakening, and proves that no teacher can be as cruel as a music teacher

This elegant and mysterious debut from Slovenian director Urška Djukić, with its superb musical score and sound design, reinvents the cliched idea of a Catholic girl’s sexual awakening. It’s also proof, if proof were needed, that no teacher in the world can be as cruel and abusive as a music teacher. We have already seen JK Simmons’ terrifying jazz instructor in Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash and Isabelle Huppert’s keyboard monster in Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher; now there is Slovenian actor and musician Saša Tabaković playing a demanding, yet insidious choirmaster in charge of a group of talented, vulnerable teenage girls. The film incidentally has a lesson for any teenage person watching: if a music teacher asks you to sit next to them on the piano stool with no one else in the room and murmurs “You can confide in me” … you can’t.

The English title is taken from Sonic Youth’s Little Trouble Girl, but otherwise this is strictly a matter of holy music. (The Slovenian original is Kaj Ti Je Deklica, which means “what’s wrong with you girl?”). Lucija (played by newcomer Jara Sofija Ostan) is a shy 16-year-old who is a member of her Catholic school’s female choir; with her sexy, worldly, mercurial best friend Ana-Marija (Mina Švajger) she joins the choir’s special trip across the Italian border for a week in Cividale del Friuli near Trieste; they rehearse in a nunnery, a lovely building with a courtyard featuring an olive tree, which is to assume a poetic quality as Lucija gazes at it during sleepless nights.