Drones intercepted in at least 13 regions including Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv and Odesa, according to Ukrainian authorities

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to give a press conference this afternoon at about 14:30 GMT. We will bring you the latest lines from the briefing once its begins.

The Russian government has supported comments made by US President Donald Trump about Volodymyr Zelenskyy - such as calling the Ukrainian leader a “dictator� - are “understandable� after Zelenskyy made “inappropriate remarks� about Trump.

Conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz could unseat chancellor Olaf Scholz but threat of gains by far-right AfD looms large

Berlin correspondent

In the run-up to today’s vote, the Guardian’s Kate Connolly travelled more than 850 miles on trains across Germany to hear what its citizens have to say about the state of their nation.

Campaigners give evidence on principle under which black defendants are 16 times more likely to be prosecuted

Reform of joint enterprise laws can help to solve the crisis facing the justice system, a review of the criminal courts has been told by experts.

Lord chancellor Shabana Mahmood launched the independent, “once in a generation� inquiry into criminal courts in December, seeking “bold thinking� on tackling the record crown court caseload.

‘Cruel and disrespectful’ request to employees sparks confusion across key government agencies

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been given little more than 48 hours to explain what they accomplished over the past week, sparking confusion across key agencies as the tech billionaire Elon Musk expands his crusade to slash the size of government.

Musk, who serves as President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting chief, telegraphed the extraordinary request on his social media network on Saturday.

Unions have accused UK government of failing to act quickly enough to save jobs, but Labour says it took time to build credible proposal

Keir Starmer has announced £200m in funding to boost investment at Grangemouth oil refinery, which is closing down with the loss of more than 400 jobs.

The prime minister said the national wealth fund would provide £200m in state investment for up to five companies who moved to Grangemouth, where several thousand jobs in the wider supply chain are also at risk. He said that should leverage up to £600m more in private investment.

Hezbollah’s former leader was killed in Israeli strike last September; Israel suspends release of 600 Palestinians

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said the group would keep following the path of slain chief Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday during a televised speech broadcast at his massive funeral on the outskirts of Beirut.

“We will uphold trust and walk on this path, we will uphold your will,� Qassem said referring to Nasrallah, adding: “you are still with us: your... path and struggle live within us� and “I am loyal to the legacy Nasrallah�.

Charities across the country highlight the rising demand for emergency accommodation as costs spiral to care for those most in need

Holly Udobang is packing the last bag: a sleeping mat, gloves, woolly hat, waterproof poncho, hand warmers. It’s the sort of kit that teenagers might need for a Duke of Edinburgh trip.

But this bag is for young homeless people, to give them a fighting chance of getting some sleep on the streets of London. Holly and her colleagues at the New Horizon Youth Centre are packing them to give to the young people they now have to turn away every day, as an increasing number of emergency shelters shut their doors.

More than 2,000 cultural figures challenge Whitehall’s eagerness ‘to ­wrap our lives’ work in attractive paper for automated competitors’

Original British art and creative skill is in peril thanks to the rise of AI and the government’s plans to loosen ­copyright rules, some of the UK’s leading cultural figures have said.

More than 2,000 people, including leading creative names such as Mark Haddon, Axel Scheffler, Benji Davies and Michael Rosen, have signed a ­letter published in the Observer today calling on the government to keep the legal safeguards that offer artists and writers the prospect of a ­sustainable income.

Pontiff had fallen into critical condition, receiving high flows of oxygen and blood transfusions in hospital as he battles complex lung infection

Pope Francis had a “restful night� in hospital, the Vatican said on Sunday morning, after announcing on Saturday that he was in critical condition following a prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis linked to pneumonia and a complex lung infection.

The 88-year-old pope received “high flows� of oxygen to help him breathe, it was announced on Saturday. He also received blood transfusions after tests showed low counts of platelets, which are needed for clotting, the Vatican said in a late update.

Soon we can all read the late author’s private notes about her therapy. But should we?

In 1998, the late journalist Joan Didion wrote a scathing essay about the posthumous publication of True at First Light, a travel journal and fictional memoir by Ernest Hemingway, 38 years after the author killed himself. “This is a man to whom words mattered. He worked at them, he understood them, he got inside them,� Didion wrote. “His wish to be survived by only the words he determined fit for publication would have seemed clear enough.�

Just over a year later, in December 1999, Didion began writing her own journal about her sessions with a psychiatrist. She addressed these notes – detailing her struggles with alcoholism, anxiety, guilt and depression, a sometimes fraught relationship with her adopted daughter Quintana and reflections on her childhood and legacy – to her husband, John Gregory Dunne.

Emboldened and exultant, speakers put less emphasis on baiting liberals and more on spreading the Maga gospel

What do you give the man who has everything? A ballroom full of cheering conservative activists found out this week when Elon Musk was presented with a chainsaw by Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, who has used the power tool as a symbol of his push to impose fiscal discipline.

Wearing sunglasses, a black Maga baseball cap and a gold necklace, Musk giddily wielded the chainsaw up and down the stage. “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy!� he declared. Members of the audience shouted: “We love you!� Musk replied: “I love you guys, too!� And he quipped: “I am become meme.�

Following last week’s US-Russia talks, the mood in Moscow suggests many are beginning to think about what a post-war reality might look like

After three years of war and western isolation, Russians are starting to hope that the recent flurry of US-Russia diplomacy could offer a path to peace in Ukraine – and restore the sense of normality lost when their leader sent tanks across the Ukrainian border.

Last Tuesday’s US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia have sent the country’s propagandists and political establishment into euphoria, celebrating what they see as a real chance of achieving Russia’s goals in the war at the expense of Ukraine and its European allies, which have been sidelined from discussing the future of the invaded country.

The series of shows draws on threads of Kenyan history, tackling disenfranchisement, colonialism and oppression while inspiring the country’s young people to participate in its future

On a recent Saturday at an auditorium in Nairobi, a rapt audience of more than 600 people held their breath as the revered Kenyan statesman and independence activist Tom Mboya walked out of a pharmacy with his friend Mohini Sehmi.

Gunshots rang out. “Did you hear that?� a panicked Sehmi asked Mboya, who slowly collapsed to the ground. “Tom! Tom! Tom!� she called frantically, realising that he had been hit.

From bullets to rabbits to wand vibrators, our sexual wellbeing expert demystifies what’s available, and rates her top 16 models (she tested 53)

I could write here about how almost a fifth of women surveyed by Durex said using a sex toy was the most dependable way for them to climax. Or I could point out how Kinsey Institute research suggests regular masturbation can help relieve and prevent symptoms of menopause, such as vaginal atrophy. I could even tell you that studies demonstrate a significant correlation between intimate toy ownership and greater satisfaction – not only with sex but also with life itself.

But the potted version is that orgasms and erotic pleasure are glorious, and top-class toys can help you savour more of both. So here are the best vibrators available. Scroll to the bottom to find out how I selected these vibrators from the 53 I tested for this piece.

Best bullet vibrator overall:
We-Vibe Tango X
_{£79 at We-Vibe}

Best rabbit vibrator overall:
Je Joue Hera Flex
_{£87.20 at Je Joue}

Best wand vibrator overall:
Doxy Die Cast By You
_{£174.99 at Doxy}

What started as curiosity would turn into an emotional investment – and eventually, a lifeline

A few nights ago, my phone lit up with a TikTok notification: “WE’RE PREGNANT�. The message wasn’t from a friend. It was from an Australian couple, complete strangers. But social media knows me well because I felt something sharp and bright – joy and relief – for people I will never meet.

It’s strange to feel deeply for someone you’ve never spoken to, whose life is about as geographically far from yours as possible. But I was thrilled to see this pregnancy announcement, shared with millions, from someone I only knew through a few carefully curated moments. As someone who is fundamentally nosy – I will never not notice a “baby on board� badge or make up backstories for strangers – social media has always offered an irresistible window into other people’s lives.

The star of Baywatch and The Last Showgirl answers questions from Observer readers and famous fans including Stella McCartney, Liam Neeson, Ruby Wax and Naomi Klein

Pamela Anderson, makeup-free and beautiful in a floral Westwood suit, is making a fuss of my dog. My dog likes her. I’m not a particular believer in the idea that animals are great character judges but, in this case, me and the dog are aligned. I like Anderson too. She combines openness with a kind of vulnerability, and you warm to her immediately.

Settled on a sofa in a small dressing room off a photography studio, she asks for a coffee and promptly spills it everywhere. “I strive for imperfection,� she jokes. “I strive for it, and I just hit it every time.� Cortado mopped, she takes a breath, before talking excitedly of a new phase in her eventful life. “A door opened, and I walked through,� she says. “It’s hard to believe.�

Amateur furniture restoration is a social media phenomenon – with DIY enthusiasts showing how to save mid-century and other antique furnishings from the dump

A coffee table lies discarded on a grassy kerb. Thick black paint obscures how chipped and decrepit the wood underneath might be. Passing by, the best thing for it seems like the local tip. But along comes a young woman. She takes it and, with a healthy dose of sanding, stripping, wood-filling and revarnishing, turns what was a bit of street junk into a beautifully restored mid-century treasure. It’s sold on for a healthy profit.

Welcome to the world of online furniture flipping – where interiors enthusiasts show how they have transformed pieces obtained for little or no money back to their original glory. Some are so good at it, they have quit their jobs to do it full-time.

One of Erin Shuford’s projects

From a taste of Brazil in Manchester to the rise of the choc ice

***

UK food producers plan more protests over inheritance tax changes ahead of this week’s NFU conference in London

The suits and black cabs which typically dot the streets around Westminster have been frequently replaced by the wellies, tweed jackets and tractors of aggrieved farmers of late. The next protest in London by the nation’s food producers is expected on Tuesday morning, ahead of the annual get-together of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU).

Farmers have regularly swapped their fields for the city since October, when changes to inheritance tax (IHT) for agricultural businesses were announced by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, angrily protesting and waving banners.

The former Green MP on patriotism, protest and and why Labour is much less ambitious than its voters

It’s tempting to think of Caroline Lucas as a kind of spirit of place in Brighton. She has arrived first at Food for Friends, the oldest vegetarian restaurant in the city, and there is something almost mythical in seeing the pioneering Green MP in its window seat, facing the Lanes, framed by trailing foliage. She has been coming here for as long as she can remember, she says – the restaurant opened in 1981 and used to have folk queuing around the block. She recommends the blueberry and ginger “nojito�, orders the Thai noodle salad and crispy tofu, and half apologises for still being “a vegetarian on the road to veganism� without quite yet arriving at that destination.

It’s nine months since Lucas stepped down after 14 years in parliament as her party’s first and, in that time, only MP. I sense that she is still getting used to this kind of thing – leisurely lunches on a weekday, without somewhere to dash off to. She is, rightly, adamant that she has not retired. Far from it: she remains a tireless activist on the issues she cares about – the environment and the climate crisis, and Britain’s return to Europe (among several other patron and ambassador roles she is co-president of the European Movement with the former attorney general Dominic Grieve). She is writing a children’s book, and has an acclaimed adult one already out – called Another England, and one reason for our lunch. It’s about the idea of England, and “how to reclaim our national story�.

Pin-prick blood tests that detect possible precursors of Alzheimer’s disease are becoming available – but is it right to label people who will never develop the disease?

It’s difficult to say when he first began noticing the signs, says Chris. He was living abroad and communicated with his parents on Skype. During these calls, his mother would sometimes repeat herself, asking the same question just minutes later. “We didn’t think much of it, we assumed it was due to technical problems.� Then his father mentioned that there was something wrong with her memory. “Mum being only 63, I didn’t believe him.� But two years later, during a Christmas break abroad, when his mother went upstairs to use the toilet and couldn’t find her way back down, they knew there was something up.

Shirley was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 67 by a GP using a cognitive test that includes drawing a clock with a certain time on a piece of paper. She received the diagnosis via a letter that consisted of only one line. “I look at that letter and I am appalled by it,� says Chris. “My mother never saw a neurologist. It was such a thin diagnosis. We thought this can’t be right, she’s too young.�

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Go off without incident. Cute children in white T-shirts look absolutely thrilled to be mascots. India huddle, and Babar and Imam stroll out.

“Morning Tanya.� Good morning Krishnamoorthy v!

• Minute-by-minute from the 3pm GMT kick-off
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The French are going for power over panache as Fabian Galthié has loaded his bench with seven forwards.

There are four changes from the team that started in the defeat to England with Thibaud Flament making his first appearance of the tournament in the second row alongside Mackael Guillard who came off the bench in Twickenham two weeks ago.

National supporters will see their heroes play against each other when Manchester City meet Liverpool on Sunday

The rivalry between Manchester City and Liverpool has grown in recent years thanks to the coaching of Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp turning it into a battle for the title over numerous seasons. The fixture has become significant around the world but in one north African nation it has a new edge as their rising star and their national hero come face-to-face.

Omar Marmoush arrived in Manchester in January after City paid £59m to buy him from Eintracht Frankfurt. The Egypt forward built his reputation in Germany and has added to it in the Premier League after a hat-trick against Newcastle followed some promising performances to indicate he is up to Guardiola’s high standards. Marmoush is a beacon in a disappointing season for City but has some way to go to match his compatriot Mohamed Salah, the man leading Liverpool towards a second Premier League title. From Alexandria to Zagazig, eyes in Egypt will be on the Etihad on Sunday as the country’s heroes do battle.

Spaniard on the ‘pain and anger’ of his sacking at West Ham and rejecting an immediate return to management

“And then suddenly they sacked me.� Julen Lopetegui is running through the reasons to be cheerful – safety secure, 17 shots at the Etihad and the physical stats, an identity emerging, a winter window and a kinder calendar coming – when he uses one of only two English lines in as many hours, delivered as if the final page of a story. The other, not entirely incidentally, is “no comment�, and a smile accompanies both. Five weeks from his sacking at West Ham, the anger and hurt has subsided, on the surface at least. The period of mourning, as he puts it, is over.

“My father died and, although you can’t compare them, personal and professional mourning came together,� Lopetegui says. Offers arrived, but it was too soon. Instead he headed to Mexico, where he is building a hotel with his brother Joxean, a former pelota player, and as he arrives at another hotel, this time in Madrid, it is clear getting away from it all was good for him. Heading in, he bumps into Rafa Benítez and conversation begins, back to football again. “Slowly, you start to feel that enthusiasm,� Lopetegui says. “You step back, see things clearly, get closer to reality.�

It was not pretty but Steve Borthwick’s side continued their newly discovered habit of winning tight Six Nations games

Another week, another one-point win. This was an ugly, bloody and basic victory, as pretty as Steve Borthwick’s broken nose, but funnily enough the 80,000-odd England fans inside the stadium didn’t seem too fussed about that when England bundled the ball into touch at the final whistle. It’s been eight years since they last saw England win a Calcutta Cup game here at Twickenham, and if it was Scotland who filled the highlights reel, and outscored England by three tries to one, well, England’s one workaday try, along with a conversion and three penalty kicks, added up to more than enough to shout about.

It was a match that was characterised, in the large part, by the dogged efforts of England’s proud pack of forwards. They crushed every scrum, clattered into every ruck and reached, over and again, right down into the dark and nasty places, returning, often as not, with the ball in hand. They won 14 turnovers in all the chaos, and a couple of them, by Ben Curry and Maro Itoje, were crucial in turning back the course of the match at points when Scotland were threatening to run away with it.

• American puts injuries behind her to win in Sestriere
• Shiffrin is first skier ever to reach 100 World Cup wins

Mikaela Shiffrin secured the 100th Alpine skiing World Cup victory of her career on Sunday, winning the slalom event in Sestriere.

The American finished 0.61 seconds ahead of Croatia’s Zrinka Ljutic to extend her record tally of wins at the event and become the first skier, male or female, to reach triple digits in World Cup race victories.

• Pair combine for 57 points in dominant 123-100 win
• DonÄ�ić says he is finding his form for new team

Luka Don�ić scored 32 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, dished out seven assists and stole four passes while leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a 123-100 wipeout of the Denver Nuggets, who had won nine consecutive games, on Saturday night.

“Finally feel like myself a little bit,� Don�ić said. “Playing this game, this is what I love. Just finally being myself a little bit, that’s why I was smiling all game.�

So was LeBron James, who chipped in 25 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three blocks – and several times was on the receiving end of Don�ić’s long passes for fastbreak buckets as the Lakers led wire-to-wire against their recent nemisis.

“I am a natural-born wide receiver and he’s a natural-born quarterback,� cracked James.

Don�ić said his chemistry with the Lakers, James included, is still budding. “This is my fourth game,� Don�ić said. “Chemistry takes time. You saw today that it’s getting better. Every day, it’s getting better. ... Hard, different, but I’m happy to be playing basketball. Every day is going to get better for me. I’m happy to be here. I’m happy for the new journey.�

The genius of UK Conservatism used to be how it responded to chaos using the balm of tradition. Secondhand Trumpism will only alienate its voters further

What times these are. As Donald Trump’s sellout of Ukraine gains pace, there are reports that Keir Starmer will flatter the president by inviting him to address parliament. Meanwhile, Trump’s British admirers continue to offer flimsy excuses and undimmed admiration. Before Trump paid tribute to Nigel Farage – a “great guy� – in his address to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) gathering in Washington, the MP for Clacton used his time at the same event to “hail� Trump’s “progress� with Vladimir Putin, and salute him as “simply the bravest man that I know�. By way of bathos, the dependably ridiculous Liz Truss had by then told a much smaller crowd that the country she ran for a month and a half is “failing�, and needs its own Trumpian insurgency.

At the top of the party Truss so briefly led, Kemi Badenoch cannot resolve a familiar contradiction – between a dazzled liking of Trump’s ideology, and the political inconvenience of what it means in practice. Late last week, she parroted the obligatory half-arsed rebuttal of Trump’s attack on the Ukrainian president. “President Zelenskyy is not a dictator,� she said, as if that were a revelation. But any observer of her recent engagements will know where her heart really lies.

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

The stakes couldn’t be higher and the risks couldn’t be greater when the prime minister visits Washington this week

For British prime ministers, with their ideas about the world shaped by the histories of Churchill and Roosevelt, Maggie and Ronnie, and the rest of the folklore about the transatlantic alliance, the prospect of a visit to the White House usually causes tingles of excitement. One of our senior diplomats once offered me an explanation of the allure: “The red carpet is laid out, the national anthems are played, all that stuff is very seductive.� This will be customarily accompanied by ritualistic words about the importance and invincibility of the “special relationship�.

Number 10 lobbied hard to get Sir Keir Starmer across the Atlantic early in the second term of Donald Trump and, until recently, Downing Street people were telling themselves that an encounter between the two men needn’t be a disaster and might even turn out to be a success. In the weeks since Trump’s re-election as US president, UK policy might be summarised by the phrase “Don’t poke the beast�. Keep the temperature cool. Ignore provocations. Attempt to trade on British heritage – golf, the royal family – with which this US president has an affinity. Put David Lammy out there to suggest that there is lots to respect about the man whom the foreign secretary used to call a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath�. Softly-softly was the doctrine and they thought it was bearing fruit.

Celebrities are now injecting salmon sperm into their faces, while gen Z buys into ‘prejuvenation’. But I’m hopeful the tide may soon turn

Totally neutral question, no right or wrong answer: how do you feel about salmon sperm?

It’s not a Nordic culinary microtrend or a sex thing, but a beauty treatment, in which “Polydeoxyribonucleotides (PDRN) derived from purified fragments of DNA extracted from yes, ‘salmon sperm’� are injected into your face. It does seem to work: proper research has found PDRN has wound-repairing properties in hard-to-treat contexts such as diabetic ulcers and deep burns. Good news (unless you’re a male salmon). But what is it doing in healthy faces?

This weekend’s vote will show how far xenophobia has been driving even some traditionally progressive parties

When I think of German democracy, I think of the Larsen B ice shelf: a vast Antarctic structure that remained stable for 10,000 years until – in just over a month, to the horror of shocked onlookers – it collapsed catastrophically.

This weekend, Germany is going to the polls. The coalition led by the centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD), born in hope, has fallen apart, thanks in no small measure to the continual attempts at sabotage by the Free Democratic party (FDP), its most junior member. That last successful effort resulted in the dissolution of the government.

Startling evidence of the dangers to birds and rivers from over-the-counter drugs should be a wake-up call for owners to press for alternatives

When I was 10, I succeeded in my campaign for a family dog. Part of her care, and our joy as owners, was the monthly application of spot-on worm and flea treatment. With veterinary medicine on my mind as a career, I relished the theatre of vets-at-home. We bought doses over the counter, scheduling the dog’s treatment on the calendar like a five-a-side.

We applied these drugs to our dog because every other owner did. Because it was encouraged, because it was easy, because it felt right.

Sophie Pavelle is a writer and science communicator

For the US president’s cheerleaders, the whitewashing of the deaths of ten of thousands of Ukrainians is a small price to pay for sticking it to the wokerati

Was it really only a month ago that the pole-dancer patron, fridge explorer, Brexit get-doer, model bus maker, sofa-strainer, wall-spaffer, current Daily Mail columnist and former British prime minister Boris Johnson eulogised the inauguration of Donald Trump in the Mail, recounting how, as the “invisible pulse of power surged� from the battered bible into the hand of Trump: “I saw the moment the world’s wokerati had worked so hard to prevent.�

I hope Johnson is pleased with the way things have worked out. Because now the foolish wokerati have been schooled beyond Johnson’s wettest dreams. It’s the Trump-Putin-bin Salman party! An adjudicated sex offender and convicted fraudster, and a man who sanctioned a chemical warfare hit, killing a British citizen on British soil, have met at the luxury Saudia Arabian hotel of another man, who, according to the US, reportedly approved the murder and subsequent dismemberment of a journalist, to discuss the similarly brutal dismemberment of Ukraine, without consulting either Ukraine itself or the countries most directly affected by the legitimisation of Putin’s territorial anxieties. Don’t worry, Poland! Stable genius Trump has got this covered, so break out the bone saws, pop the cork on the novichok and grab the girls by the pussy! There are 1970s Italian slasher films with less gruesome plotlines. Well said, Boris Johnson! That’s certainly stuck it to the wokerati!

Stewart Lee tours Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf this year, with a Royal Festival Hall run in July. He appears in a benefit show for Just Stop Oil at Walthamstow Trades Hall, London, on 8 April

Bucket-loads of political capital and cash will be used to reconfigure English councils’ two-tier set-up, but the benefits could be huge

Across England a quiet rebellion is brewing. In Rutland, locals have started a campaign to save the tiny county from abolition. Villagers in High Peak, rural Derbyshire, worry they could be bundled in with Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester. Nottingham is expanding, Medway wants to become a city, and Surrey will have a mayor.

Flick through your local newspaper (if one still exists), or fight past the online pop-ups and chances are there will be a story about Labour’s plans for the biggest shake-up of local government since the 1970s.

An argument about Rishi Sunak’s identity reveals how ideas of ethnicity and race have become conflated

‘They think they’re English because they’re born here. That means if a dog’s born in a stable it’s a horse.� That was a staple of the comedian Bernard Manning’s routine back in the 1970s. Enoch Powell had, a decade earlier, expressed the same sentiment in more refined language: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact he is a West Indian or an Asian still.�

Few today would laugh along with Manning or take seriously the claim that only white people can be English. Britain has transformed over the past half-century and most English people now embrace Ian Wright and Idris Elba as being as English as David Beckham or Joanna Lumley.

Thanks to Donald Trump, a new era of great power imperialism fuelled by authoritarianism and hyper-nationalism is unfolding

A torrent of abrupt US policy reversals, resets and revisions since Donald Trump returned to the White House last month has left America’s friends and enemies struggling to keep up. Trump’s desire both to upend and dominate the established international order, and in particular his undermining of the postwar transatlantic alliance, is feeding talk of a watershed moment akin to 1989, when the fall of the Berlin Wall signalled an end to the cold war.

His behaviour has strengthened a consensus, current among western politicians, diplomats and analysts, that the world is reaching a turning point, that the UN-led, rules-based, multilateralist system is crumbling, and that a new era of great power imperialism fuelled by authoritarianism, hyper-nationalism and left- and rightwing populism is unfolding.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk

Creating more hoops will mean some people will be kept alive in agony

I am 81 and in good health, but it is statistically likely that I could find out that I am suffering from a disease from which I will die. If I find that I am going to lose my greatly valued independence and suffer increasingly intolerable pain, I wish the option to end it. I would like that option without having to go to a soulless clinic in Switzerland, causing any relative who in any way assists me to possibly be subject to criminal investigation.

But Sonia Sodha is concerned about the possibility of what she calls “wrongful� deaths; of people who have chosen to die, but might have been influenced to do so (“Voices that oppose the assisted dying bill aren’t ‘noise’. They are vital scrutiny�, Comment). To remove that risk, she proposes creating more hoops than those already in the bill through which someone has to pass before being allowed by the state to die when they choose. And if they don’t satisfy the judge, they will be kept alive and in agony despite their clear wishes. If such a law is an improvement on what we have now, I don’t see how.
RBL Owen
Chetnole, Dorset

2024 YR4, a lump of rock the size of a building, may be heading our way, but don’t start stockpiling the tinned carrots yet

Following the possible trajectory of 2024 YR4 – AKA the scariest asteroid ever detected – is not for the nervous of disposition. Is it going to hit us, or not? Every day, a different answer.

Last Tuesday, Nasa calculated it had a 3.1% chance of hitting Earth in 2032, and so some people set to worrying. Twenty-four hours later, however, the agency provided an update. New observations, made since the passing of the full moon, show it now has a 1.5% chance of impact. Time to exhale? Not necessarily.

Readers respond to Adrian Chiles’s article about seeing an image of his late father on Google’s mapping tool

All the overwhelming opposing emotions that Adrian Chiles went through happened to me too when I casually looked at our street on Google Maps (My dad died a year ago – and a photo of him on Google Street View brought me up short, 19 February). There was the palliative care nurse at our front door waiting to be let in, standing by our small red car. My husband had terminal cancer and this amazing nurse was incredibly supportive to all of us. The car was his little runaround while he was still able to drive. The picture must have been taken in 2017, not long before he died. An innocuous picture for those filming, but full of heft for my family.
Susan Denning
Stroud, Gloucestershire

• Adrian Chiles’s comments about seeing a picture of his dad on Google Maps chimes with my own experience. My first wife died 10 years ago this week. Four or five years afterwards, while searching the area where we used to live, I came across a picture of Sue, about to cross our old road. Like Adrian, my first reaction was shock, followed by surprise and then by a smile. His article prompted me to check to see if she’s still there – she is.
Ian Horton
Llanbradach, Caerphilly

In Buriticupu, about 1,200 people risk losing their homes, and residents have seen the problem escalate in 30 years

Authorities in a city in the Brazilian Amazon have declared a state of emergency after huge sinkholes opened up, threatening hundreds of homes.

Several buildings in Buriticupu, in Maranhão state, have already been destroyed, and about 1,200 people of a population of 55,000 risk losing their homes into a widening abyss.

Fast fashion and drinks cans among technological-age matter most likely to endure as fossils, say scientists

As an eternal testament of humanity, plastic bags, cheap clothes and chicken bones are not a glorious legacy. But two scientists exploring which items from our technological civilisation are most likely to survive for many millions of years as fossils have reached an ironic but instructive conclusion: fast food and fast fashion will be our everlasting geological signature.

“Plastic will definitely be a signature ‘technofossil’, because it is incredibly durable, we are making massive amounts of it, and it gets around the entire globe,� says the palaeontologist Prof Sarah Gabbott, a University of Leicester expert on the way that fossils form. “So wherever those future civilisations dig, they are going to find plastic. There will be a plastic signal that will wrap around the globe.�

US government stripping funds from domestic and overseas research amid warnings for health and public safety

The Trump administration is stripping away support for scientific research in the US and overseas that contains a word it finds particularly inconvenient: “climate.�

The US government is withdrawing grants and other support for research that even references the climate crisis, academics have said, amid Donald Trump’s blitzkrieg upon environmental regulations and clean-energy development.

In oceans and on land, from the north to the south pole, records were smashed for the monthly average temperature

Two-thirds of the world’s surface was scorched by a month or more of record-breaking heat, Guardian analysis of satellite data can reveal.

In oceans and on land, from Colombia to China, and from the north to south pole, records for the monthly average temperature were smashed time and time again last year – in some cases, by as much as 5C (9F) hotter than the previous record.

The UK leader has been advised to choose his words carefully at this week’s crucial White House meeting

• Keir Starmer lays down Ukraine peace demand ahead of Trump talks

When Keir Starmer is advised on how to handle his crucial meeting with Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, he will be told by advisers from Downing Street and the Foreign Office to be very clear on his main points and, above all, to be brief.

“Trump gets bored very easily,� said one well-placed Whitehall source with knowledge of the president’s attention span. “When he loses interest and thinks someone is being boring, he just tunes out. He doesn’t like [the French president, Emmanuel] Macron partly because Macron talks too much and tries to lecture him.�

As the education secretary announces the first primary schools to offer free breakfasts, Labour MPs question the commitment to fighting poverty

The government is trumpeting its policy of introducing free breakfast clubs into all primary schools in England as key to its efforts to cut child poverty, as ministers appear to have ruled out meeting the estimated cost of £3bn a year to end the two-child cap on benefits.

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, announced the first 750 schools that will become “early adopters� of breakfast clubs, saying that 67,000 of the 180,000 pupils set to benefit come from the most dis­advantaged areas of England.

Official sent email to charity that suggested Home Office had data on ‘hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting Britons’

The Home Office has been accused of collecting data on “hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting British citizens� while conducting financial checks on migrants.

A report by a private contractor for a routine immigration application was mistakenly sent to a charity by a government official, and contained information on more than 260 people including their names, dates of birth and electoral roll data.

Mark Mynett of Plague of Angels says there is also a classist undertone to outrage at band’s concert at York Minster

A heavy metal band whose show at York Minster has been called an “outright insult� to Christianity has said the church is “sleepwalking� into oblivion unless it becomes more open-minded.

The English rockers, Plague of Angels, provoked a backlash last month from parishioners who described the concert in April as “shocking and deeply inappropriate� and threatened to protest outside the 800-year-old cathedral.

All 24 jobs at Dundee University’s Leverhulme research centre could be axed because of £30m budget deficit

Dundee University’s world-leading forensic science research centre, which inspired the hit BBC drama Traces, is under threat of closure as the institution attempts to plug a £30m budget deficit.

It is feared all 24 jobs will be axed at the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, the largest interdisciplinary team in the UK dedicated to improving the science used to investigate crimes and prosecute those responsible.

Prosecutors in England and Wales are failing to obtain orders requiring the deletion of intimate content shared without consent, analysis reveals

Perpetrators of “revenge porn� offences are being allowed to keep explicit images of their victims on their devices, after a failure by prosecutors to obtain orders requiring their deletion.

An Observer analysis of court records in intimate image abuse cases has found that orders for the offenders to give up their devices and delete photos and videos are rarely being made. Of 98 cases concluded in the magistrates courts in England and Wales in the past six months, just three resulted in a deprivation order.

Campaigners urge overhaul of system for prioritising hearings as less serious crimes move ahead in queue

Changes must be made to the way court cases are prioritised, barristers and victims’ advocates have said, with some trials already being scheduled into 2028.

The existing system means judges must schedule trials for defendants who are held in custody within six months of arrest unless a legal application is made, regardless of the severity of their alleged offence, while those on bail have no set time limit. This means victims of serious crimes including rape face years-long waits for trials, while less serious crimes are bumped ahead in the queue.

Freedom of information requests show that female prisoners are three times more likely to suffer gestational diabetes

Pregnant women in prison in England are three times more likely to be ­diagnosed with gestational ­diabetes than those on the outside, according to “alarming� new data.

Figures obtained through freedom of information (FoI) requests to NHS trusts providing healthcare to women’s prisons in England found 12% of women receiving care relating to pregnancy in 2023 were diagnosed with the condition, triple the national figure of 4%.

Charities warn of ‘significant risk’ that victims of coercive control could be put under pressure to end their lives under assisted dying legislation in England and Wales

There is a “significant risk� that victims of coercive control could be put under pressure to end their own lives using assisted dying legislation, charities have warned.

The Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) and Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse were among expert organisations that made submissions earlier this month to the committee examining the assisted dying bill, warning that the plans in their current form could endanger victims of coercive control.

Drivers had told Avon and Somerset officers that there was something on the road between junctions 20 and 21

Police have discovered human remains on a motorway carriageway near Bristol and have shut parts of two motorways in both directions.

A number of drivers called the police and reported seeing something on the road between junctions 20 and 21 of the M4 at 6.40pm on Saturday.

John Feeley launches stinging critique of US president’s bully-boy approach to Latin America

The former US ambassador to Panama has launched a stinging critique of Donald Trump’s approach towards Latin America, comparing his conduct to that of the ruthless and egotistical fictional mob boss Tony Soprano.

In the first month of his presidency, the US president has shocked some observers with his aggressive focus on a region many expected him to largely ignore. Early steps have included threatening to “take back� the Panama Canal, accusing Mexico’s government of being in cahoots with narco-traffickers, sending an envoy to meet the Venezuelan dictator, Nicolás Maduro, and clashing with Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, over deportation flights.

Accident happened in Siem Reap province that saw heavy fighting in 1980s between government soldiers and Khmer Rouge

A grenade believed to be more than 25 years old killed two toddlers when it blew up near their homes in rural Cambodia, officials said.

The accident happened on Saturday in Siem Reap province’s Svay Leu district, where there had been heavy fighting in the 1980s and 90s between Cambodian government soldiers and rebel guerrillas from the communist Khmer Rouge. The group had been ousted from power in 1979.

Exclusive: Home Affairs tells the Guardian consular assistance is ‘severely limited’ in Syria, where Mustafa Hajj-Obeid remains in custody

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The Australian government should repatriate, monitor and investigate any crimes committed by a member of Islamic State who was wounded in the extremist group’s final battle, according to multiple security and international law experts.

Last week, the Guardian revealed an Australian man whose fate was not publicly known was alive and in custody in a prison in north-eastern Syria, run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

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Eliya Cohen spent more than 500 days in captivity fearing Ziv Abud had died in Hamas attacks in 2023

An Israeli hostage only discovered his fiancee had survived the 7 October attacks after his release on Saturday, Israeli media has reported.

Eliya Cohen had spent more than 500 days in captivity fearing his bride-to-be, Ziv Abud, was dead. The last time they had seen each other, they were hiding in a shelter with relatives and friends after attending the Nova festival.

Ahead of a career retrospective, Sue Williamson tells how the US pair are dragging her country ‘through the mud’

For more than 50 years, Sue Williamson’s art has been shining a light on South Africa’s problems – first to campaign against the apartheid state, and then to question how far the country has progressed in reconciliation and remembrance.

But as she prepares for her first retrospective exhibition, the 84-year-old artist has a new pair of targets in sight: US president Donald Trump and his billionaire, South African-born adviser, Elon Musk.

Bybit platform appeals to ‘brightest minds’ in cybersecurity for help after attacker transfers Ethereum currency

The cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has called on the “brightest minds� in cybersecurity to help it recover $1.5bn (£1.2bn) stolen by hackers in what is thought to be the biggest single digital theft in history.

The Dubai-based crypto platform said an attacker gained control of a wallet of Ethereum, one of the most popular digital currencies after bitcoin, and transferred the contents to an unknown address.

Cúcuta imposes curfew as National Liberation Army (ELN) clashes with army in province bordering Venezuela

Residents of a violence-torn province in northern Colombia are bracing for further bloodshed as a conflict between rival armed groups spread to a regional capital in scenes residents said they had not witnessed since the cartel unrest of the 1990s.

The mayor of Cúcuta imposed a 48-hour curfew on the population of 1 million inhabitants in the hope of regaining control of the city after combatants of Colombia’s largest armed group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), attacked police stations with assault rifles and grenades and destroyed toll booths with car bombs.

Scrim the tramp terrier, known for his many getaways, now has a home and an extended family to look over him

Calling King Solomon.

The wiry terrier named Scrim who had virtually all of New Orleans looking for him while he spent most of the previous year on the run – enduring a hurricane, a historic snowfall and other perils – landed in the middle of an adoption controversy among those who recently brought him to heel again and then wanted to keep him.

A probe to be launched this week aims to pinpoint sites of lunar water, which could help plan to colonise the Earth’s satellite

Space engineers are set to launch an unusual mission this week when they send a probe built by UK and US researchers to the moon to map water on its surface. Lunar Trailblazer’s two year mission is scheduled to begin on Thursday when the probe is blasted into space from Florida on a Space X Falcon rocket.

Its goal – to seek out water on the lunar surface – may seem odd given that the moon has traditionally been viewed as an arid, desiccated world. However, scientists have recently uncovered strong hints that it possesses significant quantities of water. It will be the task of Lunar Trailblazer to reveal just how much water there is near the lunar surface and pinpoint its main locations.

‘Horrendous’ eight-year long project has ended with final fact check, leaving a legacy ‘nobody can argue’ with, says researcher

• The Killing Times map of sites where violence occurred on the Australian frontier
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The final findings of the “horrendous� eight-year long “massacre map�, tracing the violent history of the Australian colonial frontier have been released.

The Colonial Frontier Massacres Digital Map Project, spearheaded by the late emerita professor of history at the University of Newcastle, Dr Lyndall Ryan, officially concluded in 2022.

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At least 10,657 people were killed in at least 438 colonial frontier massacres.

10,374 of them were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people killed by colonists.

Only 160 of those killed were non-Indigenous colonists.

There were 13 massacres of colonists by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people.

The most intense period of massacres was from the late 1830s into 1840s, with a pivotal point being the Myall Creek massacre in 1838 – the first time any perpetrators had been punished.

After the Myall Creek convictions, the government could no longer involve the military and new “police� forces were created, which set a pattern for the rest of the conflict.

About half of all massacres of Aboriginal people were carried out by police and other government agents. Many others were perpetrated by settlers acting with tacit approval of the state.

Some perpetrators were involved in many massacres.

Adrian James’s copper-clad, energy-generating new home on the outskirts of Oxford is a triumph of style and sustainability

We’re used by now to buildings that declare their greenness; that proudly display their timber construction or hemp panels or wind turbines for the world to see; that make an architectural story out of their care for the atmosphere. And why not. But a striking aspect of Copper Bottom, a new house by the architect Adrian James, is that, apart from being in the most literal sense coloured green, it gives little sense of its sustainability. It looks at first sight like a carefree exploration of built form – a WTF YOLO 3D doodle; a fun folly conceived with no particular thought for the environment.

James once worked for the brilliantly original British postmodernist John Outram, since when he has been ploughing his own distinctive furrow in Oxford. He and his practice design housing, commercial and education buildings, single private houses, a yoga studio. Nearly 30 years ago he announced himself with a full-bodied, barrel-vaulted Thameside house in the city, with notes of ancient Egypt and warehouse construction, for himself and his wife, Sarah. Now, having raised a family there, they have built Copper Bottom for the next stage of their lives. It sits on the very edge of the city (a 15-minute bike ride from the centre), just where a lush part of Oxford’s green belt starts, with views back to the dreaming spires.

He has a prolific career and extensive portfolio, with his images of British life especially iconic. At 72, he tells Miranda Sawyer, he’s still thinking about what to shoot next

About 20 years ago, I was on a judging panel for a photography competition, and one of the other judges was Martin Parr. He was charming and affable, almost teddy bear-ish. He was also utterly ruthless. When it came to deciding which photographs were worthy of a prize, he went through the selection swiftly – no, no, yes, no – without hesitation or doubt. His eye was impeccable.

Has he always known what makes a good photograph? “Oh yes,� says Parr. “Right from the beginning. Total conviction. I knew I would be a photographer from the age of 13, 14, and I knew what was good even then. I was obsessive about photography. All artists are obsessive, I think.�

We are in his agent’s office, a small upstairs flat on a market street in east London. Parr owns the building, and this room used to be packed with his work as well as Parr-type things: his collections of Saddam Hussein watches, Soviet-space-dog ephemera, Spice Girls merch. He was obsessed with gathering all sorts of daft stuff, but he’s stopped now to concentrate solely on his work. Though as he says, “photography is a form of collecting.�

His obsession now is the Martin Parr Foundation, headquartered in Bristol, which he established in 2017 and which is where all of his photos have been moved to (along with the watches, space dogs and Spiceys). The foundation is a collection of documentary photography of the British Isles, his own and other people’s. Alongside maintaining Parr’s huge archive, it buys work by lesser-known photographers, gives bursaries to those who are just starting out, has a library and gallery, curates shows, and is Parr’s legacy, what he’s most proud of. He’s 72, is in cancer recovery and is conscious of his age. “Hopefully it will be of some benefit,� he says. “I’m not going to say I’m saving the world. I never expect photography to change anything.� Perhaps not, but the Foundation is clearly a good thing: the website is great and the current show, featuring Siân Davey’s photos of family life, is excellent.

“Have you been to visit it?� he asks. I haven’t. He looks a bit miffed. He’s quick to pick up on things he thinks I’ve missed about what he does. When we go for a coffee after the interview, he says, almost triumphantly, “You just missed me taking a photo with my phone, of that wall!�

In my defence, there is so much of Parr’s work to see that you could spend your whole life looking at his photographs. He’s been working since the 1980s, has had well over 80 exhibitions all over the world, has published more than 145 photography books. He is madly prolific, with an archive that’s endlessly recategorisable. “If you want me to do a book on dogs, no problem,� he says. “I can come up with 100 pictures straight away. Or cigarettes. I’ve just done a book called No Smoking, using my archive, edited by my gallery here in London.�

Is he constantly thinking about work?

“More or less, yes. I’m either thinking about things I haven’t shot, or things I’ve done. What’s got to be done. What can I do next? Where can I go?�

The British actor Gugu Mbatha-Raw has worked with Reece Witherspoon and Oprah Winfrey, been awarded an MBE and told stories that have challenged perceptions around race. So what, asks Rhik Samadder, keeps her so grounded?

Early on in Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s career, an older, white actor advised she change her name to something easier to pronounce. She declined – a strong choice for a young actor. “I don’t think it’s that strong,� rebuts Mbatha-Raw. She likes her name. Besides, “it means ‘Our Pride’ in Zulu. To change that would be the antithesis of its meaning.�

Mbatha-Raw is known for choosing roles that combine art and social advocacy. She’s won awards, been honoured with an MBE, appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Refugee Agency. People still mispronounce her name, though. The most extreme example she recalls was in Norway, when a host announced her from a piece of paper. “Gucci… Matthew… Ray? I was like, ‘I guess that’s me!’�

In The Pardon, the bestselling legal author holds a master class on the controversial presidential power, focusing on Ford’s pardon of Nixon

“When it comes to pardons, presidents are kings,� Jeffrey Toobin writes in his new book, The Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy. “No other provision of the constitution replicates royal authority with such precision.�

The constitution expressly confers upon the president the “Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment�.

The Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy is published in the US by Simon & Schuster

The American novelist on James, his Booker-shortlisted retelling of Huckleberry Finn, working with Steven Spielberg and the silliness of the Oscars

Percival Everett’s ingenious novel James was indisputably one of the books of 2024: it was the winner of the National Book Award for fiction in the US and shortlisted for the Booker prize in the UK. The plot is a retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, except this time round the narrator is Jim, Huck’s enslaved sidekick. James cranks up the ever-swelling appreciation for the 68-year-old Everett: his 2021 book The Trees was also Booker-shortlisted and an earlier novel, Erasure, was adapted into the Oscar-winning 2023 film American Fiction. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the novelist Danzy Senna, and two children, and we caught up with him in his workshop, where he writes and also repairs guitars.

James is such a brilliant concept. Do you remember the moment when you came up with it?
Deciding to write a book, it never feels like a great idea. It’s always like knowingly entering a bad marriage. If you had any sense, you wouldn’t do it, but you know you’re going to do it. But my wife, who is smarter than I am, said: “This is a great idea.� She was behind the book from the beginning, but I still am not so sure about it.

This by-numbers documentary of a glittering goalkeeping career only really kicks off when the footballer and his father get talking

In Denmark it’s actually pronounced “Schmy-shell� — but that’s the extent of the stunning revelations provided by Owen Davies’s worshipful and rote sports doc about the former goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, now 61. Footage of all his amazing saves – the ones that won Euro 92 for the Danish national side, or led Man U to the treble in ’99 – impressively affirm the Great Dane’s greatness. The question though is how? And why?

At 6ft 4in tall, his imposing physicality obviously had something to do with it (“The span was like an aeroplane!� marvels Sir Alex Ferguson). Schmeichel’s competitive edge and total inability to abide weakness are attributed to the parenting of a tough, Polish-born father who was orphaned at a young age by the second world war; their story of estrangement and reconciliation is worthy of soap opera. But it’s the insights that the Schmeichels, senior and junior, offer into the tao of the goalie – that “position of ultimate responsibility� – which are most interesting, especially when delivered in that delightful Manc-Danish accent.

In UK and Irish cinemas

Whose soup is a chunky triumph? And whose is a sludgy mess? Felicity Cloake tries out supermarket takes on chilled, ready-made chicken and vegetable soup

• The best blenders to blitz like a pro, tried and tested

As a small child, my dream was to open an underwater restaurant (no, me neither), and the short menu I painstakingly wrote out for said venture started with chicken and vegetable soup. Which is to say, I have history with this dish. It feels familiar, comforting and overwhelmingly wholesome, yet I don’t often eat it these days, not least because I’ve never found one commercially that makes any welfare claims for the chicken concerned (and I’m generally too cheap to make it myself).

So I was quite excited about this particular taste test – and perhaps inevitably disappointed that even the most expensive samples gave so little information about the provenance of their meat. That said, with a handful of exceptions, the standard was pretty high flavour-wise, and Aldi, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s all at least note that they use British chicken, which is a start.

From feather-free to vegan down, we tested (and tussled with) 17 pillows to reveal the best

• The best mattresses: sleep better with our six rigorously tested picks

We spend about a third of our lives sleeping – or trying to do so – and feeling comfortable and well supported during slumber is crucial. But all too often, our pillows let us down. I can’t be the only person to have bought a comfy-feeling pillow from a reputable brand only to feel it becoming increasingly flat or lumpy with time, or after putting it through the wash.

Synthetic pillows are touted as a squishy yet supportive alternative to traditional feather and down pillows, and they’re versatile and easy to clean. Plus, they’re a great option for people with asthma, or dust and feather allergies, like me.

Best synthetic pillow overall:
Brightr Nox vegan down pillow
_{£79.99 at Brightr Sleep}

Best pillow for side sleepers:
Hanse Select feather-free pillow
_{From €99 (about £82) at Hanse}

Best pillow for back sleepers:
Richard Haworth Soft micro-down hypoallergenic pillow
_{£26.36 at Richard Haworth}

From fancy olive oil to jazzy tea towels, skip the obvious and surprise your host with one of these creative dinner party gifts

I’m convinced that the same bottle of Whispering Angel and box of Lindor chocolates have been doing the rounds among my friends for two or three years now. It’s not that we don’t like them (what’s not to like?); it’s that they are such easy gifts. Every host saves them for when they’re next a guest, in an unspoken game of Pass the Provençal Rose.

Yet the reason wine and chocolates are such popular dinner party gifts is the same reason they get passed around: they’re often generic. They’re not thoughtless per se, but they rarely suggest a huge amount of thought for the personality or taste of the host.

Whether you’re searching for a lamb’s wool layer or a stylish sweater vest, upgrade your knitwear with these instant classics

• The best boots for men: 14 favourites, from Chelsea to brogues to western

Knitwear, like most menswear, is best done classic. As with other staples – denim, T-shirts, tailoring et al – it’s an investment that will go beyond any trend or season. So, if you buy the right pieces, you’ll likely wear them for years to come.

With that in mind, there are a few things to consider when hitting the shops. Above all, it’s best to choose jumpers you know are made well, using good fabrics. That means you should go for brands you can trust in terms of craftsmanship and stick to natural fibres, such as cotton, wool and cashmere. Unlike human-made textiles, these are naturally breathable and temperature-regulating so they’re more comfortable and better for your skin. This sometimes means the price is a little higher than a fast-fashion buy, but they tend to last longer – just be sure to keep them protected when moth season hits.

Dishes that are easy, all in one and soon to be your new favourite midweek meals

I love this combination, but feel free to switch up the black pudding for some nice herby pork sausages, or a decent handful of firm chestnut mushrooms, if you’d like to keep it all about the veg. Once you’ve added the batter, don’t be tempted to open the oven door for at least 20 minutes, as this will help things rise as they should.

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

Why are bananas so cheap to buy in the UK? In a big supermarket, a single banana costs about 15p, but presumably it has been shipped thousands of miles at some expense. Other individually sold fruit – even the stuff grown in the UK – seems to cost two or three times as much. Magdalena, by email

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.

Faithlessness doesn’t only have to take the form of infidelity. It can be the slow erosion of trust and care

The question My wife and I live in different countries and see each other once a year. The last time we saw each other we argued all the time and slept in separate beds. I’ll be going to see her soon and I’m worried she’s seeing someone else, although I have no proof. She will expect sex from me, and I think I should protect myself by wearing a condom. How should I broach the condom suggestion without upsetting her, especially if she is actually being totally faithful?

Philippa’s answer It seems that your marriage is not in great shape. Rather than worrying about condoms, I think you need to think and talk about your relationship together. It sounds like you’ll need time to adjust and get to know each other again, and gradually find a place that feels natural and comfortable for both of you.

What does it take to scratch a living in the UK today? We questioned workers, from copywriters to cam girls, cab drivers to cops, and the answers were surprising

Between 2021 and 2023, I spoke to 100 strangers about their jobs. I asked them, what do you do all day? Why do you do it? And do you like it? Their answers filled a book, Is This Working? It is a record of life and work in the listless British economy of the early 2020s, a “services economy� in which 85% of us, from the cam girl to the accountant, spent our days producing intangible products.

It’s a vague idea, the services economy, but it does at least capture the growing sameness of modern work. One theme in the book is the spread of administrative work. Time and again, my interviewees spoke of workdays being consumed by admin tasks that had little to do with the jobs they had signed up for. As the matron I interviewed put it, “Things you did routinely but never wrote down now take five pages [of forms] on a computer.�

We’re here for a ‘culinary journey’ apparently, but where on earth to?

Gilgamesh, 4a Upper St Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9NY. Small plates £7-£19, large plates £9-£42, desserts £9, wines from £38

A Monday lunchtime, and my phone pings. There’s a text. “Gilgamesh London. It’s our Birthday! ONE milestone gift to you,� it says, with a dizzyingly random use of capital letters. “50% OFF A la Carte Menu. Online bookings.� Which is all very nice. Except I’m already booked to go to Gilgamesh. The next day I’m served up a trio of their ads across this paper’s homepage online, offering “3 courses for £20�. It could be described as pathologically needy were that not an insult to needy people.

As much as we need to stay informed, that relentless ping of potential horrors can’t be good for us

How are you not going mad?� is a thing I’ve heard recently. “How are you not talking about this all the time, how are you merrily, some say stupidly, going about your business as if the world did not feel like a coin in an arcade 2p machine, being pushed slowly but definitely off the edge and tasting of blood?� My answer: I’ve turned off breaking news alerts. More than that, I’ve dramatically limited the news I read. How am I not going mad? This is how I’m not going mad.

Perhaps turning away from the news is a silly and job-endangering thing to admit to as somebody employed by a news organisation. Perhaps it’s unattractive or exposing, as somebody living in a time when news is currency and ignorance is fatal. But I have seen the red-eyed horror of people immersed, I have felt the heat of anxiety, that burning shiver of the spine, and I’ve lain awake beside scrolling thumbs that dig deeper and deeper into algorithms that know us better than our own mothers, and are just as likely to shape who we become.

We would like to hear how you have found them useful and if you have any concerns

The AI chatbot market has grown exponentially in recent years, with more than 1.4 billion people worldwide estimated to be using them.

While tools such as ChatGPT and customer service assistants are most prevalent, millions of people are turning to personified AI chatbots, such as Replika and My AI (Snapchat), which look to imitate human interactions. Some are using these personified chatbots for platonic or romantic companionship, while others are using them for support with managing their wellbeing and mental health.

We’re keen to hear how Ukrainians feel about the Trump administration-led peace negotiations with Russia, as well as the prospect of elections in Ukraine

US and Russian officials have agreed to explore the “economic and investment opportunities� that could arise for their countries from an end to the war in Ukraine after talks in Saudi Arabia that amounted to a tectonic shift in the United States’ approach to Moscow.

US president Donald Trump pushed back against president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s objections to being excluded from talks between the US and Russia in Saudi Arabia aimed at ending the war. He also seemed to suggest that Ukraine was to blame for a war that began only after Russia invaded.

Whether it was a city break or wildflower-strewn hiking trip, tell us about your favourite spring break – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break

As Europe starts to shake off the dark days of winter, it’s time to start planning a spring break. We’d love to hear about your favourite European trip (excluding the UK) – perhaps you discovered a less-known city that’s warming up nicely in spring, or a landscape that’s at its most magical between winter and summer. Tell us why you loved it for a chance to win a £200 holiday voucher.

If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words that will be judged for the competition.

We want to hear from people who have been helped by Macmillan as well as people who have worked for or with the charity

Macmillan Cancer Support (MCS) has axed a quarter of its staff, downgraded its helpline and scrapped its flagship hardship scheme providing millions of pounds in grants to thousands of patients, the Guardian has revealed.

The charity, one of the biggest and best known in Britain, said a tough financial environment meant it had no choice but to make drastic changes in order to permanently safeguard its future.

Despite conflicting laws, a wave of amateur homesteaders have started keeping fowl in the spirit of self-sufficiency

Katie Whalen’s backyard in the Florida city of Port St Lucie is testament to her journey towards a life of self-sufficiency. She grows mangoes, avocados, starfruit, jackfruit and coconuts. She is cultivating a tropical tree spinach known as chaya.

What she really wants, however, is a chicken coop and hens to provide eggs that are becoming increasingly unaffordable in stores. As bird flu worsens across the US and commercial suppliers struggle to keep up with demand, the keeping of fowl and production of eggs in home environments, has surged in popularity, and Whalen is keen to join the revolution.

The tiny former Soviet republic’s determination not to be cowed by the Kremlin could provide a template for the west on how to hold back the tide of subversion and corruption

How can a democracy defend itself from an attacker who does not respect any democratic rules?

When your assailant uses corruption, blackmail, economic war, cyber attacks, covert campaigns and street violence – while all you have are inefficient courts and even slower international institutions. Can you lose your sovereignty by being too soft? If you respond with censorship or even cancelling elections, don’t you lose your values?

Numbers of animals once hunted as vermin are rising across the continent. But scientists worry about how we are going to get along with these predators

Europe’s carnivores have had a remarkable change in fortune. After tens of thousands of years of persecution that wiped out sabretooth tigers, hyenas and cave lions, there has been a recent rebound in the continent’s surviving predators.

Across mainland Europe, bear, wolf, lynx and wolverine numbers have risen dramatically as conservation measures introduced several decades ago have begun to make an impact. There are now about 20,500 brown bears in Europe, a rise of 17% since 2016, while there are 9,400 Eurasian lynx, a 12% increase.

The prospects of peace and the return of Russian gas looks likely to serve the interests of Donald Trump

The Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago has reverberated through the global energy industry; unravelling Europe’s decades-long reliance on gas imported via pipelines from Russia, and triggering a global squeeze on gas markets that unleashed a cost of living crisis still felt today.

The prospect of a peace deal has many wondering whether the energy industry could be upended once again; this time giving way to a market serving the interests of the US president hoping to broker the deal.

As the US upends decades of foreign policy, those watching the war unfold from miles away resolve to stand strong

Members of New York’s large Ukrainian community expressed a mix of disillusionment, betrayal, defiance and acute uncertainty about what the future holds for Ukraine after tensions escalated this week between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Geopolitical events in the last week have shocked Ukrainians at home and overseas as well as US lawmakers and allies, as the US president appeared to heavily favor the Russian president Vladimir Putin to dictate peace terms on the eve of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Southern Ocean waves are growing larger and faster, threatening coastlines. But some scientists think they could help turn the tide in the climate crisis

In his remarkable memoir of his life chasing breaks in far-flung corners of the globe, Barbarian Days, the writer William Finnegan describes the “spooky duality� of waves, the way that, “when you are absorbed in surfing they seem alive. They each have personalities, distinct and intricate, and quickly changing moods, to which you must react in the most intuitive, almost intimate way – too many people have likened riding waves to making love. And yet waves are of course not alive, not sentient, and the lover you reach to embrace may turn murderous without warning.�

This idea of duality is difficult to avoid when thinking about waves. In them we see energy and matter collapse into each other, find fluidity with structure and form, and the eternal in the transient, apprehend both beauty and symmetry and violence and terror. Likewise, the physics of waves are simultaneously very simple and impossibly complex, the non-linear nature of fluid dynamics meaning they can remain relatively regular or combine without warning into rogue waves capable of sweeping people off rocks and sinking ships.

They are beloved by A-listers and surging in popularity. But claims that NAD+ infusions are a fix for addiction are unproven, risky – and possibly illegal, an Observer investigation reveals

It is billed as a “miracle� treatment that can reverse ageing and regenerate brain cells. And getting hooked up to IV drips containing NAD+ has surged in popularity, with record Google searches and celebrity fans such as Kendall Jenner and Joe Rogan.

Now NAD+ is being touted in the UK as a treatment for substance ­misuse. Infusions of NAD+, which is derived from vitamin B3, are being sold across the country as a ­“clinically proven� and “effective� way to quit drinking or get off drugs.

Transgender teenager Brianna Ghey was stabbed to death by two 15-year-olds. The killers had been radicalised on the dark web, while the victim was trapped in an online world of her own. Now her mother has become friends with the parent of one of the murderers

The first thing I notice about Esther Ghey is a blossom tree trailing down her left arm to her hand. There is one pink flower on the tattoo. Pink was her daughter Brianna’s favourite colour. If Brianna had got her way, the whole world would have been pink. And just after she was murdered by two teenage schoolchildren in February 2023, Ghey says, the world did briefly turn pink. The local blossom trees filled with the blossomiest blossom she had ever seen. “It really felt she was with us and that she was sending us a sign she was OK,� she says.

Now Ghey has written a book, Under a Pink Sky. It’s a memoir of her and Brianna’s lives, and a manifesto of sorts; a shocking exploration of how deadly smartphones and online spaces can be. It’s also one of the most unflinching, inspirational autobiographies I’ve read, a remarkable cry of hope from the depths of despair.

An explosive succession trial and an astonishing interview with one of Rupert’s sons have exposed the paranoia and hatred at the heart of global media’s most powerful family. This could get messy…

When some of the mind games and manoeuvres that turned a Murdoch family “retreat� into an ordeal appeared in Succession, the TV drama about squabbling family members of a right-wing media company, members of the real-life family started to suspect each other of leaking details to the writers. The truth was more straightforward. Succession’s creator, Jesse Armstrong, said that his team hadn’t needed inside sources – they had simply read press reports.

Future screenwriters have been gifted a whole load of new Murdoch material in the past few days, after two astonishing stories in the New York Times and the Atlantic lifted the lid on the dysfunction, paranoia and despair at the heart of the most powerful family in global media.

Like the soldiers they battle to save, combat medics in Ukraine are under constant attack. Three years after the invasion, one NHS doctor bears witness

“The frontline here is cold, hard, true war. My comrades and I had more than 40 bombs dropped on us by drones over two hours. You can’t hide from drones in a trench, but you can’t outrun them either. Your only hope to live is to zigzag, to be cleverer than the drone.�

A gaunt 28-year-old former IT worker sits patiently beneath a window barricaded with sandbags, awaiting his turn on the operating table, cloaked in dust. Now an infantryman in the Ukrainian army’s Third Assault Brigade, “Sasha� (not his real name) has shrapnel embedded in his shoulder after the Russian assault on his foxhole. “When you hear a drone, you run as fast as you can and see if you can reach any trees,� he says. “If you’re out in the open, you try to get the drone behind you, so it won’t destroy your face. It’s not panic, this running; it’s a professional response. You know what you have to do to save your life and you do it.�

Two years ago, transgender teenager Brianna Ghey was stabbed to death by two 15-year-olds. The killers had been radicalised on the dark web, while the victim was trapped in an online world of her own. Now her mother has become friends with the parent of one of the murderers. On the second anniversary of Brianna’s death, Esther sits down with Simon Hattenstone to discuss her daughter’s murder and her own extraordinary response.

Victor Pelevin made his name in 90s Russia with scathing satires of authoritarianism. But while his literary peers have faced censorship and fled the country, he still sells millions. Has he become a Kremlin apologist? By Sophie Pinkham. Read by Olga Koch

Today in Focus presenter Helen Pidd hits the road in Germany before Sunday’s federal elections, talking to voters across the country about the rise of the far right

This Sunday, millions of Germans will head to the polls to vote in the country’s federal elections – historic not only because they will determine who will be the next chancellor, but because they come at a time when the far right in Germany is polling better than in any other period since the second world war.

Regardless of the result, it is a remarkable development for a country so haunted by its Nazi past.

In a matter of days, Donald Trump completed the most radical shift in US foreign policy in decades, bringing Putin back into the fold while sidelining Europe. He claims to have brought the end of the war in Ukraine in sight, but with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the rest of Europe excluded from the US-Russia talks, are we really any closer to peace? And, at what price?

Jonathan Freedland speaks to veteran US diplomat Kurt Volker, who served as Trump’s special representative for Ukraine during his first term, and the Guardian’s US live news editor Chris Michael

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