Social media is filling up with influencers telling us how to become much more intellectual. A great, enriching idea – or just another cue to show off?

Name: Disgustingly educated.

Age: About 18 months.

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

Critics draw ‘direct line’ between content by Nick Sortor and similar figures and violent actions of federal agents

A rightwing influencer, who appeared to admit that he recently drove his truck at protesters in Minneapolis, has for years cooperated with the Trump administration even while he has been repeatedly accused of escalating conflict for video content he pumps out to 1.2 million followers on X.

Nick Sortor has received full-throated support of the Trump administration after an October arrest in Portland, and attended an October 2025 White House influencer roundtable on “antifa”.

William Brock fatally shot Lo-Letha Toland-Hall in 2024 after wrongly assuming she was involved in plot to rob him

An 83-year-old Ohio man faces sentencing on Tuesday after being convicted of murder in the shooting of an Uber driver who he wrongly thought was trying to rob him.

William J Brock fatally shot the driver after wrongly assuming she was in on a plot involving scam phone calls that deceived them both to get $12,000 in supposed bond money for a relative, authorities said.

Associated Press contributed

Jenny (left), 27, a gallery assistant, meets Sara, 29, a researcher

Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some great new paperbacks, from a Renaissance romp to an ode to optimism

In the week that we mourn the death of the Guardian’s long-serving classical music critic, composers, performers, colleagues and others who knew and worked with him pay tribute to a writer whose passing is a huge loss to the music world

I owe Andrew Clements big time. He wrote so positively about my music early in my career and the last article he wrote was singling out my opera Festen for special praise. He did seem to go off me a bit in mid career but he was such a serious and thoughtful critic that I often agreed with him. I got to know him very well in the late 90s as he was the partner of the librettist and translator Amanda Holden. He had such a broad knowledge of music and a great enthusiasm for new music which he wrote and spoke about with such warmth and humour. We spent many evenings in Highbury talking about Stravinsky, politics and Arsenal football club – he cared about the most important things in life. Mark-Anthony Turnage, composer

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Nesrine Malik delivers your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world

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