A personal exploration of the sounds that defined a community, from Soul II Soul to Dizzee Rascal The year 1989 was a landmark in Black British music: Soul II Soul were on their way to conquering America and Sade had already become a global sensation, while A Guy Called Gerald and Nightmares on Wax had the entire Hacienda dancing to their tunes. It’s a fitting moment for Jesse Bernard (who was born in that year) to start his excellent memoir-cum-cultural history, Escaping Babylon. Structured like a mixtape, it skips between skits and short interludes of fiction and poetry, via the loose narrative of Bernard’s own life as he matures from naughty schoolboy (he was expelled for sticking rotten fish in the school’s radiators) to musical explorer, DJ and journalist. Bernard’s musical education started in his parents’ car, with Mica Paris, Soul II Soul and Carol Wheeler a constant accompaniment. It continued with Craig David performing 7 Days on Top of the Pops in 2000, one of the first times Bernard saw a “distinctly British R&B” singer. Personal memories like this are described alongside interactions with the artists he’s met over the course of his journalistic career to build an argument about the origins and direction of Black British music. Former Saxon sound system emcee Tippa Irie’s observation that reggae is a tree and that all UK sounds are branches that spring from it informs his approach. Through Bernard we meet and engage with many of that tree’s descendants – from UK funky to grime, jungle and drill. Continue reading...

Some are bright and cosy, others are starkly depressing – these images of rooms used to pump breast milk expose the sometimes grim reality of being a new mum in the US Continue reading...

Southwark Playhouse Borough, London Writer-performer Jordan Luke Gage delivers a charming, funny and devastating story of two gay men in 18th-century Bristol Queer history is made up of bad news. The official documents record the raids, the arrests, the executions. The rest – all the raging love and snatches of joy – is largely left for us to imagine. In Jordan Luke Gage’s impressive Redcliffe, the writer-performer fills in the gaps of the lives of William Critchard and Richard Arnold, two men who collided in mid-18th-century Bristol. Inspired by true events romanticised into a musical, this open-hearted production gives them the kind of grand love story that history rarely wrote down. Gage plays William, a shy local boy whose chemistry crackles with arrogant sailor Richard (Daniel Krikler), docked and staying in the area of Redcliffe for a few days. While there’s a little too much 21st-century mentality to their meet-cute, it’s hard not to fall for their charm and dogged optimism as the pair attempt to carve out a tiny patch of freedom in a world that shuns them for their desires. At Southwark Playhouse Borough, London, until 4 July Continue reading...

As the UK experiences some of its hottest ever May weather, five people share their concerns – and tips for keeping cool The UK is experiencing some of the hottest May weather ever recorded, with temperatures surpassing 35C in parts of England on Tuesday. Campaigners have warned that Britain’s public buildings are dangerously unprepared for rising temperatures, calling for better cooling systems in hospitals, care homes and other spaces used by vulnerable people. Continue reading...

A guided walk in the primeval wildwood of Perućica, where wolves, chamois and the elusive brown bear roam ‘I know this bear. He knows me. We’ve met several times.” Our guide for the day points to a damaged sign in Sutjeska national park, at the beginning of the trail that descends to the forest of Perućica in south-east Bosnia. The wooden post is covered in scratches from large claws. “Bears are the sharks of the land, because they have the keenest sense of smell on the mountain. They are highly intelligent. I’m deeply persuaded that they know who is a friend and who is a foe. I come often to the forest, so this guy knows my smell. But there was one incident, a hunter who came here to kill, and a bear peeled off his face like an orange.” With that image, Dejan Elez commands our full attention. A Bosnian Serb law graduate turned ranger and now mountain guide, he is a born storyteller and raconteur. My travel companion, Chris, and I are rapt as he describes the famous battle that was fought near here, when Yugoslav partisans broke through a German encirclement in 1943, taking the Wehrmacht by surprise under cover of a violent storm – “the wind was rising and the lightning was like a strobe” – but after that, Dejan’s narrative leads much further back in time, into the depths of one of Europe’s most ancient forests. Continue reading...

Crisp 27in 5K Mac monitor is packed with features and some of the best HDR performance you can get for work or play Apple’s new 27in Studio Display XDR is its best monitor yet, with an exceptionally bright and gorgeous 5K screen that wants to be the pro display for Mac-wielding content creators everywhere, with a price tag to match. Built to be paired with the latest or high-end Macs, the Studio Display XDR costs from £2,599 (€3,099/$2,899/A$4,799), although it is a cool £3,000 if you want it with a stand. It sits above the standard £1,499 Studio Display and is £2,000 cheaper than the 2019 Apple Pro Display XDR it replaces. Continue reading...

Waltham Forest in the east of the capital has seen a wave of industrial action in schools, with more to come The gates to South Grove primary school in Walthamstow were closed to pupils last week. Teachers were on strike as part of a disparate wave of industrial action by members of the National Education Union (NEU) in schools across the borough of Waltham Forest in east London. Continue reading...

Rescuers say extraction efforts complicated by low oxygen supplies, dark and narrow spaces, plus more rain After five of seven people trapped in a flooded cave in Laos were found, footage showed one of the men putting his head in his hands in gratitude at his rescuer’s appearance after a week of uncertainty in the dark chamber. The mission to find them was itself fraught, but so too will be the extraction. Continue reading...

Sam Campbell’s show-within-a-show is like Changing Rooms but for would-be film directors. Plus, the transformation of Vladimir Putin. Here’s what to watch this evening 10pm, Channel 4 Created and written by Last One Laughing’s breakout star Sam Campbell, and directed by Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared’s Joe Pelling, this new comedy about a director who turns ordinary people’s movie ideas into reality is inevitably absurdist fun. First up is Mick, who pitches a man and a woman who can turn into snakes. Cue real snake auditions, a creepy intimacy coordinator called Sebastian and a great pan pipe theme tune. Hollie Richardson Continue reading...

When an Inner Mongolia farmer sought two herders to tend his 3,000 sheep, he was swamped with applicants including graduates, factory labourers and white-collar workers A Chinese farm owner’s recruitment drive for shepherds has ended in success after his job advert seeking people to work on his Inner Mongolia ranch went viral, drawing the attention of city dwellers struggling to find work and highlighting growing strains in China’s labour market. Zuo Xiaoyong posted an advert on Chinese social media in late April seeking two shepherds, preferably a couple, to take 3,000 sheep out to graze on a 2,000ha pasture in the summer. The shepherds would also undertake indoor feeding and cleaning during the winter when temperatures can drop below -30C at his ranch roughly 300km from Xilinhot city, near the Mongolian border. Continue reading...

These crunchy ‘cupboard biscuits’ from central Italy are just made to be dunked, be that in a cuppa or in wine Considering that the word tozzetto means an irregular and rounded piece, and is the diminutive of tozzo, which refers to something with excessive thickness and width in relation to its height, my tozzetti are not faithful. In fact, the proportions I gave them mean they are more Janet McTeer than Danny DeVito. Fortunately, their length doesn’t compromise their texture and Terry’s Chocolate Orange flavour, or their status as biscotti da credenza (cupboard biscuits). Today’s recipe is adapted from one by the Neapolitan food writer Simona Mirto, who, since 2011, has built an exceptional website of recipes called TavolArteGusto. Her pie, savoury tart, cake and biscuit recipes and notes are particularly effective. It is from Simona that I learned tozzetti are found in central Italy, particularly in Lazio, with its epicentre in the Tuscia Viterbo area, as well as in Umbria and Abruzzo; and that they originated between the 18th and 19th centuries as cupboard biscuits, designed to use simple, easily available ingredients: flour, eggs, sugar (or honey, which gives a chewier texture) and dried fruit. I have adjusted her tozzetti quantities slightly, to take into account the addition of orange juice as well as the orange zest she suggests. The dough, while slightly sticky, should be firm enough to shape into loaves (the form is rather like small ciabatta), so you may need to add a little more flour (cautiously) or simply work with flour-dusted hands on a well-floured work surface. Continue reading...

Industry figures warn of national security risk and call for ministers to address impact of extreme weather, inflation and Iran war Britain is “sleepwalking into a food crisis” caused by extreme weather, inflation and the impacts of the Iran war – and the government is failing to take the threat seriously, food experts have said. Farmers are facing severe strain from the current heatwave following a dry spring, with many crops likely to yield less as temperatures rise beyond their tolerance. Livestock are also suffering heat stress and there is a rising risk of wildfires. Economic losses are likely to be measured in the hundreds of millions of pounds. Continue reading...

Some argue that quitting the platform formerly known as Twitter cedes the space to malign actors. But it’s an open sewer, beyond redemeption You can read the Tottenham striker Richarlison launching a defiant broadside at the newly crowned champions. “Next season, we will compete for the title,” he says. “Arsenal won’t be winning it again for the next 22 years.” You can read the outgoing Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, throwing shade at his Arsenal counterpart, Mikel Arteta. You can see the Liverpool full-back Andy Robertson warning his coach, Arne Slot, that “things have got to change if he wants to stay”. You can see the television pundit and former Manchester United player Gary Neville deriding the club’s playmaker Bruno Fernandes as a “stat-padding talisman” who pales in comparison with the City legend Kevin De Bruyne. Incendiary stuff, and huge if true. Also, as it turns out, huge if not true. On a regular Monday morning on the world’s 15th-most-popular social media platform, these were just a few of the football-related tweets doing big numbers, getting shared and discussed and punted up the X algorithm to be discussed even more. That none of them were actually real quotes was the most minor of inconveniences. After all, when the whole point of the site is simply to argue over things, to relitigate existing beefs and reinforce existing prejudices, does it even matter if they were real or not? Jonathan Liew is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Investigators are still searching for what caused the recent deaths of a mother and her calf, but conservationists say the animal’s shrinking habitat may be the first place to look The two elephants were found dead in the Indonesian province of Bengkulu, in an area of “production forest” in southern Sumatra. The mother and her calf were lying side by side with their tusks still intact. Unlikely to be poachers, the cause of their deaths – and that of a tiger nearby – at the end of April is still being investigated but conservationists say this is not an isolated case. It is estimated that seven wild elephants have died in Bengkulu since 2018. Continue reading...

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare? Amid a heatwave here in the UK, the scorpion of knowledge, drawn by Anaïs Mims, once again scuttles out to challenge you to the Thursday news quiz. Fifteen questions on topical news, popular culture and general knowledge, with the excitement that “Derren Brown” and “Simone Biles” are joining us today for new regular rounds. There are no prizes, of course, but there may yet be a sting in the tail. Have fun! Allons-y! The Thursday news quiz, No 249 Continue reading...

The WasteBar food truck hopes the eye-catching deal will change people’s attitude to waste in the Netherlands Using cigarette butts to buy buttery Dutch pancakes? That is the deal one food truck is offering at festivals in the Netherlands as a way to get people thinking about litter. Cigarette butts are the most common form of plastic waste in the world, with more than 4.5tn butts produced every year. In the Netherlands the estimated figure is in the hundreds of millions. Continue reading...

Former England defender on why he walked out on Arsenal, their chances in the Champions League final and Tuchel wielding the axe “They’ve got a wonderful group of players and a great manager in Mikel Arteta but having come so close three times on the bounce I felt these guys needed it,” Sol Campbell says of Arsenal winning the Premier League for the first time in 22 years since, in 2004, he was the cornerstone of their defence for the Invincibles. His team remained unbeaten throughout that historic league season, but the pressure on his successors has been immense. “The wait has been so heavy and it was all pent up, building year after year, always coming so close but never getting over the line,” he says. “That’s why you saw such an outpouring of joy and togetherness. It’s been incredible because we’ve been waiting such a long time.” Continue reading...

Musician says ‘we’ve lost that direction for our energy’ as his play The Last Ship returns to West End The fact many men no longer use their hands and physicality on a daily basis may be driving some of the toxic traits in modern masculinity, according to Sting. The singer, who on Wednesday announced that his musical about the last days of a shipyard was coming to the West End this autumn, told the Guardian that one of the byproducts of deindustrialisation was the loss of physical productivity for men. The Last Ship will be at Theatre Royal Drury Lane from 22 Sep to 3 Oct. Tickets go on sale from midday on 28 May. Continue reading...

Be more strident and ambitious, take on economic inequality, and progressive voters will reward you as they have the UK’s Greens Tarik Abou-Chadi is a professor of European politics at the University of Oxford European Green parties have been through a phase of stagnation and crisis in recent years. Long gone seem the days of the “green wave” across Europe. Back in 2019, Green parties secured their best-ever result in the European parliament elections, with 74 seats. In the same year, Green parties also scored record results in Switzerland, Belgium and Austria. Shortly after, they were part of governing coalitions in Finland, Germany, Ireland and Austria. But more recently, there has been much discussion of a “greenlash”: a backlash against climate policies and other green projects throughout Europe. Across the continent, Green parties dropped out of nearly all government coalitions, and these parties’ recent election results have often failed to meet expectations. With apparently declining enthusiasm for the climate movement, and the decreasing salience of climate breakdown at the ballot box, Green parties are debating how to turn their fortunes around. Tarik Abou-Chadi is a professor of European politics at the University of Oxford Continue reading...

Volunteers head to Dorset countryside to restore the figure, but increasing heat means techniques have had to be adapted For centuries, the custodians of the Cerne Giant have clambered up the dizzyingly steep hill every decade or so to rechalk the outline, making sure the hulking figure can be seen far and wide across the rolling Dorset countryside. But the painstaking job, which involves hacking out the grubby old chalk by hand and packing in fresh, felt all the more urgent this week because effects put down to the climate emergency are making the giant a little duller and perhaps a touch more fragile. Continue reading...

Fairyland is a bittersweet film about a girl brought up by her gay father in a blizzard of glitter and feather boas in 1970s San Francisco. Its makers discuss its resonance, its tragedies – and their own boho childhoods When Sofia Coppola logs on to our video call, her friend and fellow film-maker Andrew Durham – whose directorial debut, Fairyland, she has produced – is telling me about being nine or 10 years old, and accidentally outing his father as gay. “Have you heard this story, Sofia?” he asks breezily from Los Angeles. “About Pietro? The Italian guy that my dad was maybe having an affair with when we lived in England?” At home in New York, Coppola furrows her brow. “Uh, yeah. A long time ago, I think. I forgot …” Continue reading...

Global temperature record could be broken as soon as 2027, with El Niño expected later this year A record-breaking hot year is almost certain by 2030 as the climate crisis intensifies, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization has warned. With an El Niño event expected later this year, the global temperature record could fall as soon as 2027. Continue reading...

After 88 days of near-total blackout, first reactions to the return of partial connectivity were not celebratory After 88 days of near-total internet blackout in Iran, long-delayed messages, images and poems flooded phones and social media feeds at about 5pm on Tuesday, when still-limited connectivity flickered back to life. The first reactions, however, were not celebratory. Many new posts were threaded with scepticism, anxiety and anger. Continue reading...

She made millions as a tween and teenager by posting clips of herself and her friends on YouTube. Then the business collapsed amid acrimony. What does her success in the adult industry, at 18, say about surveillance, social media and sexualisation? ‘Honestly, the answer is kind of gross,” says Piper Rockelle, in a recent TikTok video, reflecting on why she is so popular on OnlyFans. In the clip, she fidgets her fingers and swings in her swivel chair. “It’s because I look so young. I mean, I am really young. I’m literally like fresh turned 18 … and people kind of like that, unfortunately.” This is an accurate and honest assessment. At the end of last year, not long after turning 18, the former child star and teen influencer began an online countdown, telling her millions of followers on TikTok and Instagram that she would be launching herself on OnlyFans on 1 January. Every day or so since, she has posted pictures of herself on the platform, sometimes posing in a typical teenager’s bedroom – a pink cuddly stuffed pig on the bed behind her, fairy lights on the wall – wearing teddy-bear-themed pants and bras, or fluffy underwear decorated with bunny-rabbit faces and floppy ears. Continue reading...

Socialist leader insists no wrongdoing by family and backs former prime minister, but has much to contend with Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, is facing a long and difficult summer as corruption cases involving his brother, his wife and his predecessor José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero come before judges over the coming days and weeks. The socialist leader – who took power eight years ago after using a vote of no confidence to topple the corruption-mired government of the conservative People’s party (PP) – has insisted there has been no wrongdoing by his family. He has also defended Zapatero and his right to the presumption of innocence. Continue reading...