The UK could’ve been a true tech leader – but it has cheerfully submitted to US dominance in a way that may cost it dear

Two and a half centuries ago, the American colonies launched a violent protest against British rule, triggered by parliament’s imposition of a monopoly on the sale of tea and the antics of a vainglorious king. Today, the tables have turned: it is Great Britain that finds itself at the mercy of major US tech firms – so huge and dominant that they constitute monopolies in their fields – as well as the whims of an erratic president. Yet, to the outside observer, Britain seems curiously at ease with this arrangement – at times even eager to subsidise its own economic dependence. Britain is hardly alone in submitting to the power of American firms, but it offers a clear case study in why nations need to develop a coordinated response to the rise of these hegemonic companies.

The current age of American tech monopoly began in the 2000s, when the UK, like many other countries, became almost entirely dependent on a small number of US platforms – Google, Facebook, Amazon and a handful of others. It was a time of optimism about the internet as a democratising force, characterised by the belief that these platforms would make everyone rich. The dream of the 1990s – naive but appealing – was that anyone with a hobby or talent could go online and make a living from it.

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© Illustration: Elia Barbieri/The Guardian

© Illustration: Elia Barbieri/The Guardian

© Illustration: Elia Barbieri/The Guardian

With daft jokes and experimental wordplay, the first comprehensive translations of his lesser-known stories show Anton Chekhov in a new light

Few writers are as universally admired as Chekhov. As Booker winner George Saunders puts it, “Chekhov – shall I be blunt? – is the greatest short story writer who ever lived.” Novelists from Ann Patchett to Zadie Smith cite him as an inspiration. His plays The Seagull, Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Orchard still pack out theatres internationally. In the past year alone, Andrew Scott wowed audiences in his one-man Vanya for London’s National Theatre and Cate Blanchett took on the role of Arkadina in The Seagull at the Barbican. But how much did you know about his silly side?

Anton Chekhov: Earliest Stories offers the first comprehensive translation in English of the stories, novellas and humoresques that the Russian author wrote in the early 1880s. And it is supremely juvenile in the best way. The reason many of these stories are now appearing in translation for the first time is because, explains editor Rosamund Bartlett, they have never been regarded by commercial publishers as “worthy” of Chekhov’s reputation. They are too childishly comical. During the translation process, she says, “we would just collapse in fits of giggles”.

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© Photograph: Mondadori Portfolio/Mondadori/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mondadori Portfolio/Mondadori/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mondadori Portfolio/Mondadori/Getty Images

Musical sequel Wicked: For Good, enchanting audiences across the world, arrives as the 1939 fantasy continues to dominate pop culture

Most of the biggest streaming services are notoriously neglectful of any movie released before the 1990s (and in some cases, before the turn of the millennium). Even the big theatrical nostalgia screenings are starting to creep into the 21st century, as movies that, to the older among us, don’t seem ready for a multi-decade anniversary. (Did Batman Begins really just turn 20?! Is Mean Girls seriously old enough to drink?) So it’s all the more impressive that one of the hottest properties of the past few years has been ... The Wizard of Oz, a movie far closer to its 100th anniversary than its 25th.

Of course, The Wizard of Oz as (shudder) intellectual property dates well before the 1939 release of the beloved MGM musical. L Frank Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at the turn of the previous century, in 1900. It spawned 13 increasingly eccentric sequels, which Baum wrote with what seemed like some reluctance right up until his death in 1919. His final Oz book was published posthumously, and the series continued on without him.

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© Photograph: Allstar Picture Library Limited./Alamy

© Photograph: Allstar Picture Library Limited./Alamy

© Photograph: Allstar Picture Library Limited./Alamy

When my quest to make a cliche-free film about one of America’s most notorious cold cases fell apart, I ended up investigating something entirely different – our own morbid curiosity

If you think true crime is inescapable when you’re browsing Netflix or making small talk with your co-workers, try working in the documentary industry. As you traipse from one commissioning meeting to the next, pitching your passion project on the history of mime or the secret life of snails, you can almost hear the words before they’re spoken: “Got any other ideas?” Preferably something with a body count.

I had just begun making documentaries in 2015, when the double whammy of HBO’s The Jinx and Netflix’s Making a Murderer brought true crime back to the dead centre of popular culture. Positioned as social justice projects as much as murder mysteries, those shows seemed to herald a new beginning for the genre. Soon enough, though, they gave way to a steady stream of interchangeable offerings, many of them organised into reproducible formats such as Netflix’s Conversations With a Killer franchise, each season of which is built round a long-lost interview with a notorious serial killer, unearthed to order.

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© Illustration: Joan Wong/The Guardian

© Illustration: Joan Wong/The Guardian

© Illustration: Joan Wong/The Guardian

The soul star and Prince collaborator could hardly reach the counter when she bought her first record, but which Busta Rhymes song gets her moving?

The first song I fell in love with
God Will Open Doors by Walter Hawkins. I grew up on the Hawkins gospel family. They were my teachers. I was raised by my grandparents, and my auntie fell in love with the gospel sound and imported records from America – although my grandparents thought it was a bit too secular, even though it was gospel.

The song I inexplicably know every lyric to For some reason, out of all his songs, Adore by Prince always speaks to me.

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© Photograph: Jack Alexander

© Photograph: Jack Alexander

© Photograph: Jack Alexander

News was confirmed on Saturday’s live Blackpool show following advice from medical experts

© BBC

Aardman’s tale of a group of plucky hens standing up to their pie-making masters was a favourite in our house, and – I realised – incompatible with my taste for burgers

By the age of 15, I was already torn between my love of animals and the deliciousness of a 99p McDonald’s Mayo Chicken. As a child I was a fussy eater, with meat and carbs being the mainstays, but as I got older I found it harder to justify eating meat. A lifelong animal lover and one of those annoying people who jokes about their “connection to animals”, I never missed an opportunity to pet a neighbourhood dog or say hello to a group of cows in a field.

So, going into my teenage years, I knew that eating meat was not really compatible with my way of thinking. But like most I found it easy enough to put those concerns to one side when I was scoffing a Greggs steak bake. Until at 15 I got the nudge I needed to take the leap into vegetarianism.

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© Illustration: Martin O'Neill/The Guardian

© Illustration: Martin O'Neill/The Guardian

© Illustration: Martin O'Neill/The Guardian

The world’s longest running photography awards recognise significant bodies of work, with the most prestigious honour – the RPS centenary medal – this year going to British photographic artist Susan Derges

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© Photograph: Omar Victor Diop/Courtesy The Royal Photographic Society

© Photograph: Omar Victor Diop/Courtesy The Royal Photographic Society

© Photograph: Omar Victor Diop/Courtesy The Royal Photographic Society

The Oscar-nominated musician is back with her superb second album, ‘Woman of Faces’, but getting here hasn’t been easy. She talks to Roisin O’Connor about feeling compelled to speak up, the demands of the music industry, and ‘coming back to exist as herself, again’

© Erika Kamano

The 1998 film ‘Rushmore’ marked the beginning of Murray’s longstanding creative partnership with Hollywood’s most impeccably dressed auteur – one forged in unease and volatility, writes Clarisse Loughrey

© THA/Shutterstock

Édités par Fayard, qui a basculé à droite toute, essais politiques et figures médiatiques s’imposent au sommet des ventes dans les librairies. La vague populiste remodèle le paysage éditorial.

Édités par Fayard, qui a basculé à droite toute, essais politiques et figures médiatiques s’imposent au sommet des ventes dans les librairies. La vague populiste remodèle le paysage éditorial.

À Beauregard, tiers-lieu paysan des Corbières (Aude), agriculteurs, voisins et bénévoles ont bâti une « base arrière » pour aider les sinistrés. Mobilisation record, chantiers solidaires, semis d’automne : l’entraide s’organise après les incendies d’août 2025, qui ont ravagé près de 17 000 hectares de garrigue. Nicolas Mirouze, vigneron et cofondateur du tiers-lieu Beauregard, revient sur cette mobilisation hors norme.

À Beauregard, tiers-lieu paysan des Corbières (Aude), agriculteurs, voisins et bénévoles ont bâti une « base arrière » pour aider les sinistrés. Mobilisation record, chantiers solidaires, semis d’automne : l’entraide s’organise après les incendies d’août 2025, qui ont ravagé près de 17 000 hectares de garrigue. Nicolas Mirouze, vigneron et cofondateur du tiers-lieu Beauregard, revient sur cette mobilisation hors norme.