The actor Paul Hilton brilliantly inhabits the character of a ranting working-class academic in this debut novel

Some books feel so suited to the audio format that they could have been written with the voice in mind. All My Precious Madness is one of those. Mark Bowles’s debut novel, which won the audiobook fiction category at the inaugural British Audio awards (where, full disclosure, I was a judge), is a deliciously sweary monologue from a middle-aged malcontent.

A sideways reflection on working-class identity and masculinity, the novel gives voice to Henry Nash, a man of little patience. Sitting in a London coffee shop and trying to write a monograph of his father, he rains judgment on the other patrons whose obnoxious phone calls he can’t help but overhear. An Oxford graduate turned writer and academic, Nash lives in a Soho flat where he has been known to furtively drop eggs on passersby who disturb him with their drunken racket.

Climate Cabinet supports candidates in state and city races as the federal government ignores the climate crisis

With a president who has called climate change a “hoax”, refused to send a delegation to international climate talks, and packed the federal government with former fossil fuel industry employees, this can feel like a dark moment for climate action in the US. But shifting one’s focus to local and state law makes for a very different outlook.

Analysts have estimated that 75% of the commitments that the US made at the Paris climate agreement – which Donald Trump pulled the nation out of as soon as he took office – can be reached entirely without federal support.

The Nash Ensemble
(Onyx)
The chamber group’s all-Ravel CD is an impeccable farewell to its much-missed founder

This all-Ravel recording by the Nash Ensemble was the final project of Amelia Freedman’s extraordinary 60 years as artistic director, and it’s a fitting farewell to the group’s much-missed founder, who died in July. It includes all three larger chamber works plus the composer’s own two-piano arrangement of his orchestral masterpiece La Valse: Alasdair Beatson and Simon Crawford-Phillips are a polished team in this, sounding wonderfully louche early on and then dispatching fistfuls of notes and long glissandos with seeming ease, all while catching the music’s increasingly sinister nature.

The 1905 Introduction and Allegro was a commission from a harp manufacturer, intended to make their instrument sound good – which it duly does as played by Lucy Wakeford, although what is most striking is the way the seven instruments coalesce and separate to create kaleidoscopic textural interest. Indeed, as confirmed by their quicksilver, sometimes excitably fierce String Quartet and especially by their vibrant performance of the Piano Trio, it’s the attention to the details of colour and tone that really makes these performances take flight, the instruments combining to catch the dazzling light and intriguing shade that are such intrinsic features of Ravel’s music.

Move follows Guardian revelations of Israel’s mass surveillance of Palestinians using Microsoft cloud

Irish authorities have been formally asked to investigate Microsoft over alleged unlawful data processing by the Israeli Defense Forces.

The complaint has been made by the human rights group the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) to the Data Protection Commission, which has legal responsibility in Europe for overseeing all data processing in the European Union.

The box office smash of Halloween 2023 gets a shoddily made follow-up written carelessly and devoid of an actual ending

The ghost-possessed family-restaurant animatronics of the Five Nights at Freddy’s movies lumber around with such heavy-footed gaucherie that it’s hard to figure out how they’re physically able to move from place to place as quickly as they’d need to for a proper killing spree. In what could be mistaken for a case of form following function, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 moves the exact same way. It’s so ostentatiously awkward that it constantly draws attention to its inept imitations of actions that other movies, even bad ones, intuitively understand – like making transitions between scenes or locations.

For example, when faced with the need to isolate a mean science teacher (Wayne Knight) so that he can be vengefully murdered by one of the aforementioned animatronics, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 bafflingly cuts to him walking down a school hallway (during a science fair that has inexplicably run far into a Saturday evening), having a cell-phone conversation about how he needs to visit his office to retrieve his keys. The keys themselves, the location of his office, and the unseen person on the other end of the phone have no meaning in the greater story, not even nominally. They’re just a jumble of elements that the film-makers grasp at, under the assumption that it will add up to something that looks and sounds like a movie should.

From Ewan Roy in Succession to Sideshow Bob in The Simpsons, here are 15 truly unforgettable characters who elevated their shows – when they eventually turned up

Mike Hannigan was the only character to truly feel like a seventh Friend. He was the perfect match for Phoebe, a lightning rod for her kookiness and providing the solid family she’d never had. It wasn’t just the fact that he was played by Paul Rudd that managed to win over the viewers. His profile was nowhere near what it would later become, so the audience weren’t responding to star power in the same way they had, say, to Bruce Willis, Tom Selleck or Reese Witherspoon. Mike had to play the long game, put in the graft and win Phoebe’s trust, and won ours in the process. AJ, London

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

• Spinner ‘pretty gutted’ after Australia choose all-pace attack

• Crawley praises Root’s first away Ashes ton as ‘one of his best’

Nathan Lyon admitted he was furious after being dropped by Australia for the first time in 13 years of home Tests as the battle for the Ashes got back under way in Brisbane on Thursday.

In his absence Joe Root plundered the home side’s all-seam attack for an unbeaten 135 on the first day at the Gabba, his 40th Test century and his first on Australian soil, an effort Zak Crawley acclaimed as “one of his best”.

Bombs were placed near both Republican and Democratic party HQs in Washington DC the night before US Capitol attack

US authorities have made an arrest in connection with pipe bombs that were planted outside the headquarters of both the Democratic and Republican parties in Washington DC on the eve of 6 January 2021, according to reports on Thursday morning.

Explosive devices were placed at night and then, on the afternoon of 6 January, the US Capitol attack occurred, when a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters stormed Congress in an effort to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election.

As society becomes increasingly weird, birthdays are a chance to build connection. Even if it means 300 attempts at conversation with other tired parents

When my beautiful firstborn turned one, about 70 people came to the pub to celebrate. There were drinks, there were meals, there were balloons, there was singing. They were celebrating me. Since then his birthdays have become about him and his friends and the quality of the event has spiralled precipitously.

These days, with two kids out in society, kids’ birthday parties dominate our family’s schedule. Barely a weekend goes by without a scramble to find a gift that’s appropriate, I’m getting increasingly desperate for some form of wrapping apparatus, and I have long given up on cards.

The actor on playing Draco Malfoy, all-night fishing with his brother and taking a beating from Chadwick Boseman

Who is your favourite other school bully: Donovan from The Inbetweeners, Biff Tannen from Back to the Future, Heather Chandler from Heathers, Nelson Muntz from The Simpsons or Gripper Stebson from Grange Hill? Dr_J_A_Zoidberg
I have so much compassion for Draco [Malfoy], knowing that he is the result of piss-poor parenting on his father’s side. I know James Buckley from The Inbetweeners very well. His character is an example of a comedic bully. But as a lifelong fan of The Simpsons, I’m going to have to say my favourite is Nelson Muntz.

What’s the biggest fish you’ve ever caught? TopTramp
A 37lb 4oz common carp caught on the St Lawrence river in New York state 15 years ago. Chris, my older brother, got me into fishing, while he was my chaperone on Harry Potter. My mum chaperoned me for the first film, and my grandfather for the second. He looked so much like a wizard that [director] Chris Columbus cast him at the teachers’ table next to Dumbledore. Then my brother was commandeered. He was one of the worst chaperones in history – all he seemed to do was sleep the entire day – but that’s probably because we’d been up all night, fishing. Some days we’d leave set at 6pm, drive two hours back to Surrey where we lived, go straight to a lake, cast our rods, set up a tent, sleep – barely – for a few hours, wake at 6am, pack up, and head straight back to Hogwarts. It was a great introduction to a lifelong passion of being outdoors, fishing and walking the dogs.

Anthony Hopkins and Kathy Burke on acting, Jacinda Ardern and Nicola Sturgeon on politics, plus Margaret Atwood on a life well lived

Not all memoirists are keen to share their life stories. For Margaret Atwood, an author who has sold more than 40m books, the idea of writing about herself seemed “Dead boring. Who wants to read about someone sitting at a desk messing up blank sheets of paper?” Happily, she did it anyway. Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts (Chatto & Windus) is a 624-page doorstopper chronicling Atwood’s life and work, and a tremendous showcase for her wisdom and wit. Helen Garner’s similarly chunky, Baillie Gifford prize-winning How to End a Story (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) is a diary collection spanning 20 years and provides piquant and puckish snapshots of the author’s life, work and her unravelling marriages. Mixing everyday observation and gossipy asides with profound self-examination, it is spare in style and utterly moreish.

In Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me (Hamish Hamilton) and Jung Chang’s Fly, Wild Swans (William Collins), formidable mothers get top billing. In the former, The God of Small Things author reveals how her mother, whose own father was a violent drunk, stood up to the patriarchy and campaigned for women’s rights, but was cruel to her daughter. Describing her as “my shelter and my storm”, Roy reflects on Mary’s contradictions with candour and compassion. Fly, Wild Swans is the sequel to Chang’s bestselling Wild Swans, picking up where its predecessor left off and reflecting how that book was only made possible by the author’s mother, who shared family stories and kept her London-dwelling daughter apprised of events in China.

At 88, the Canadian reflects on a golden era of underwater discovery and how shipwrecks and the cruel sea are the ‘greatest of all teachers’

Joe MacInnis admits there are simply too many places to begin telling the story of life in the ocean depths. At 88, the famed Canadian undersea explorer, has many decades to draw on. There was the time he and a Russian explorer and deep-water pilot, Anatoly Sagalevich, were snagged by a telephone wire strung from the pilot house of the Titanic, trapping the pair two and a half miles below the surface.

Another might be the moment he and his team stared in disbelief through a porthole window at the Edmund Fitzgerald, the 222-metre (729ft) ship that vanished 50 years ago into the depths of Lake Superior, so quickly that none of the crew could issue a call for help. MacInnis and his team were the first humans to lay eyes on the wreck.

MacInnis diving in Lake Huron, off Tobermory, Canada, in 1969. Photograph: Don Dutton/Toronto Star/Getty Images

Vehicle hire firms have struggled to succeed in London but other European countries offer examples to follow

Rotherhithe Community Kitchen in south London has been delivering hundreds of cooked meals a week for the last two years to pensioners and vulnerable residents. Yet the volunteer group’s plans have been thrown into disarray by the news that they will not have access to cars and vans on New Year’s Day.

The group had relied on Zipcar, the car-sharing company that offered customers the ability to access its fleet of vehicles from the street using an app. The company caused shock across London on Monday when it said it would shut down UK operations from 1 January.

He’ll be forever known for his festive hit, but Wood was virtually the face of 70s glam rock – writing and performing stomping hits with the Move, ELO and Wizzard

Roy Wood occasionally wrote for others – psych fans should check the Acid Gallery’s splendid 1969 single Dance Round the Maypole – and the single he made with girlfriend Ayshea Brough, an early 70s TV presenter, exemplifies his idiosyncratic pop skills and his kitchen-sink approach to arrangement: kettle drums! More oboe!

Any Lucia López Belloza, 19, was detained at Boston airport while on the way to see family in Austin for a surprise trip

Any Lucia López Belloza had not seen her parents and two little sisters since starting her first semester at Babson College, near Boston in August. A family friend gave her plane tickets so she could fly home to Austin and surprise them for Thanksgiving.

The 19-year-old business student was already at the boarding gate at Boston airport when she was told there was an “error” with her boarding pass; when she reached customer service, she was handcuffed and arrested by what she believed were two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Unbeaten in Europe and with eight wins in eight games domestically, the club are aiming high after name change

When the Olympique Lyonnais women’s team officially became OL Lyonnes on 19 May, they came with a new mantra: “New story, same legend”. The eight-time European champions, now owned by Michele Kang and part of Kynisca – a multi-club ownership group dedicated to women’s sports that also already includes the Washington Spirit – are a “new project” with the aim of “developing as a women’s club with our own model”. As Kang put it: “The women’s team cannot just be a little sister to the men’s section.”

The OL Lyonnes era kicked off on 7 September, coinciding with the Lyon’s 1,000th match in the French women’s top division, against Marseille. Kang was present, alongside Mikel Zubizarreta, Kynisca’s global sporting director, who was poached from Barcelona Femení last year. On the pitch, new recruits snatched from other European clubs this summer – Jule Brand, Lily Yohannes, Ashley Lawrence, Ingrid Engen, Korbin Shrader and Marie-Antoinette Katoto – discovered what it will be like to play at the Groupama Stadium, where the men’s team plays, for the entire season.

From homemade puddings to neighbourly tipples, the quiet exchange of festive treats reveals a world of kindness

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A guest at our restaurant recently told me about her mother’s seasonal side hustle, though no one would have dared call it that out loud: in the weeks before Christmas, she became a quiet merchant of puddings. The proper kind of pudding, too: all dense but not leaden, heavy with prunes and warm with careful spicing.

As December crept in, forgotten cousins and semi-estranged uncles seemed to find reasons to drop by her place. She never advertised the fact, of course, but everyone knew that if you came bearing even a modest offering, you might just leave with a pudding wrapped in waxed paper and still warm with possibility. The exchanges were subtle. One neighbour would “pop by for coffee” and just happen to bring two dozen mince pies; a friend would promise to collect the Christmas turkey from the butcher and bring it round, saving this lady the schlep across town. Nothing was said, no ledger kept, but the pudding always travelled in the right direction.

Touted as a cure for everything from wrinkles to autism, the treatment has been hyped by Robert F Kennedy Jr and various celebrities. Experts say it needs to be regulated

• Warning: this article contains distressing content

It was the kind of cold, damp morning that makes it hard to get out of bed, much less get a child out the door. The sun had not even risen when five-year-old Thomas Cooper and his mother, Annie Cooper, arrived for an appointment on 31 January at the Oxford Center in Troy, a northern suburb of Detroit, Michigan.

Thomas was an exuberant child with a button nose and pinchable cheeks – a little kid who loved running fast, playing Minecraft and watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, according to a GoFundMe set up by his family. He had just received money in a special red envelope for lunar new year, and he planned to spend it later that day with his little brother. But first, he was going to receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy for his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and sleep apnea.

German magazine Der Spiegel has reported the warning, quoting a leaked note from a recent call between the European leaders

But on a more serious note, we are hearing that German chancellor Friedrich Merz has postponed his planned visit to Norway scheduled for Friday and will travel to Brussels instead.

Merz will travel to Belgium for a private dinner with Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, his spokesperson said in comments reported by Reuters.

NYT accuses Pentagon of infringing on the constitutional rights of its journalists

A new Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics survey takes a look into the crowded race for California governorship, in which more than 95 candidates have so far submitted paperwork indicating their intention to run.

The poll found that Republican Chad Bianco, Republican Steve Hilton, Democrat Eric Swalwell (12%) and Democrat Katie Porter are currently leading the June 2026 primary. Of those polled, 13% said they were voting for Bianco, 12% for Hilton, 12% for Swalwell and 11% for Porter. In all, 31% of voters are undecided.

Lord Evans of Watford and other directors of investment firm deny claims made in lawsuits they say are ‘meritless’

A peer suspended by the House of Lords for breaking lobbying rules is now facing claims that he received at least $1m (£760,000) from an allegedly corrupt deal.

Lord Evans of Watford, a longtime Labour peer, was found last week by the House of Lords watchdog to have broken its rules four times after undercover reporting by the Guardian, and will be suspended for five months.

President orders pause on asylum claims and extra scrutiny of migrants from 19 countries after Washington shooting

Donald Trump is seizing on the shooting of two national guard members, allegedly by an Afghan man, to press his immigration crackdown still farther. In the aftermath of the attack, which left guard member Sarah Beckstrom dead and colleague Andrew Wolfe in critical condition, Trump directed US Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause all pending asylum applications.

USCIS followed up that announcement with more seismic shifts to immigration policy. This is how the White House is reshaping the process for requesting asylum, green cards and citizenship.

From income to home ownership and public services, everybody is disgruntled – but for different reasons

The British economy has endured a series of setbacks in recent years: austerity, Brexit, the global pandemic, soaring energy prices and an increasingly fractured and uncertain world. The early optimism that accompanied Labour’s election victory faded quickly, with a recent poll ranking Rachel Reeves as the worst chancellor in modern history.

But is this fair? Is the economy really in as bad a shape as people feel?

Jonathan Swarbrick is a lecturer in economics at the University of St Andrews Business School