This year’s flu season has begun more than a month earlier than usual, with a mutated strain spreading widely among younger people and expected to drive a wave of hospital admissions as it reaches the elderly. Science editor Ian Sample speaks to Madeleine Finlay about what we know so far and Prof Ed Hutchinson of the University of Glasgow explains how people can best protect themselves and each other

UK hospitals bracing for once-in-a-decade flu surge this winter

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Between 2022 and 2023, as many as 170 rare and valuable editions of Russian classics were stolen from libraries across Europe. Were the thieves merely low-level opportunists, or were bigger forces at work?

By Philip Oltermann. Read by Daniela Denby Ashe