The acclaimed musician and former late night bandleader loves everything from Amyl and the Sniffers to Erykah Badu. So why can’t he stand Steely Dan? The first song I fell in love with I remember hearing Strokin’ by Clarence Carter because my dad would play it. I know every lyric, and at eight years old, I probably shouldn’t have. My earliest musical lessons came from my family. My Uncle Thomas would send me jazz recordings of Oscar Peterson, Milt Jackson, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, and he sent sermons, like the Book of Revelations. So, I would learn about a whole bunch of different music, and also study the word of God. The first single I bought I used to buy records from Blockbuster video, in the used CDs bin. I bought Michael Jackson’s Dangerous, Björk’s Vespertine, Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun and Common’s Like Water for Chocolate. Those are the first four records I bought. Continue reading...

Inspired to run your first 26.2 miles? Seasoned runners share their go-to kit, from race-day shoes to free apps (plus five UK marathons you can still enter) • The best running shoes for every runner When you first start running, the marathon – all 26.2 miles of it – seems like an impossible distance. Whether you’ve taken the plunge at your local parkrun or got round your first 10k, the thought of anything longer probably feels like it’s beyond you. But this running milestone is more achievable than you think. My first marathon was Brighton in 2018, and on crossing the line, I knew I’d been bitten by the bug. Three more marathons and three ultra-distance events later, I’m gearing up for number five in Berlin this September. Continue reading...

⚽ News, discussion and buildup before day’s action ⚽ Things to look out for | Fixtures | Mail us here Hsve Liverpool seen the last of Mohamed Salah? At least Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz scored for Liverpool against Crystal Palace, a belated downpayment or two. What a battle at the bottom, West Ham and Spurs both looked down at one point. Amd yet there’s still four games to go, and so much to play for. Continue reading...

Updates as runners head from Greenwich to the Mall Why I’m running dressed as a badger | Get in touch After some incredible weather for the past seven days, the week in the capital is ending on a high note with the 2026 London Marathon. The elite field is stacked, as always. On the men’s side, Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe is hoping to defend his title after a victory in 2025 with a time of 2:02:27. He faces tough competition against Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo, the half marathon world record-holder and Ethiopia’s Deresa Geleta, who became the 20th fastest marathoner in history with a time of 2:03:27 at the 2024 Seville Marathon. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Samaritans call for mandatory training for firefighters amid rise in incidents Suicide-related callouts to fire and rescue services in England have tripled in the last decade, with Samaritans now calling for mandatory training for firefighters, who they say are struggling to deal with the increase in traumatic incidents. New figures show that fire services in England attended 3,250 suicide callouts in the year ending September 2025, the equivalent to 62 callouts a week. This was up from 997 callouts in 2009-10 when records began. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

In this exclusive book extract, the former Italy goalkeeper describes a moment of crisis before a game against Reggina If I have to identify the most important moment of this crisis, it was just before a Juventus-Reggina match in February 2004. It was an evening game. We were six points off the top of the table. There were 13 games left in the season, so anything could still happen, but there was an air of negativity, as if the season was already over. We had just had two crazy and very different games. In our previous league match, we had conceded four goals to Totti and Cassano’s Roma, while in midweek we had won the Coppa Italia semi-final against Inter at San Siro, on penalties. Although we were still in the running in the Champions League and perhaps even a little in the league, inside me I was certain that in that season everything was lost. It was a classic winter Turin evening, wet and cold, and the stadium was half-empty. The speakers played a song that I only heard as an annoying buzz. During the warm-up I prayed and performed my usual pre-match routine, but it felt as if something was wrong with my muscles. After two minutes I put on my gloves, I stood in the goal and I realised that I was struggling to breathe. I stood there, staring at the pitch, and I felt slightly dizzy. What scared me, however, was the tightness I felt in my diaphragm, between chest and stomach, as if I had been hit. Continue reading...

Discrepancy in forecasts raises questions over government planning for net zero One vision of the UK’s future involves a decarbonised economy powered by clean, renewable energy. Another involves making the UK an AI superpower. The government departments responsible for these two visions do not appear to have agreed on their numbers. Continue reading...

They’re just the latest stars whose banal pronouncements have triggered a wave of controversy. Surely no one, in their heart of hearts, cares that much Do you have an opinion on the state of contemporary ballet or keeping cats as pets? There are no right or wrong answers here, only differences of opinion. It is hard to imagine being upset by someone expressing an alternative view on either topic – unless, of course, they are a celebrity and you are on the internet. The celebrity outrage cycle has never been especially edifying, but lately it has become faster paced and even more stupid. Let’s return to those questions. The actors Timothée Chalamet and Jessie Buckley landed themselves in hot water in the run-up to the Oscars: him for disparaging opera and ballet, her for disliking cats (and, more specifically, pressing her now-husband to get rid of his pair). Elle Hunt is a freelance journalist Continue reading...

Health secretary’s ‘power grab’ to override Nice comes amid growing concern move may be illegal and benefit big pharma Dozens of MPs are opposing Wes Streeting’s decision to award himself power to dictate what the NHS pays for drugs amid growing concern the move may be illegal. Thirty-one MPs have signed a House of Commons motion voicing their disapproval of the health secretary being handed the power to override the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (Nice) judgment on how much the NHS should spend on individual medicines. Continue reading...

The rival superpowers are ramping up preparations for a crewed lunar landing nearly six decades after the first moon walk The world watched earlier this month as Nasa sent four astronauts around the moon – but to actually land on the surface the US is once again in a space race, this time with China. And China may well win. Both countries plan to build inhabited lunar bases – the first settlement on another celestial body – as well as searching for rare resources and using the deep space environment to test technology for future crewed missions to Mars. Continue reading...

NHS chiefs fear rising costs and healthcare shortages due to the shipping standstill in the Gulf The war in Iran has put the NHS on high alert amid fears about looming shortages and rising costs for medicines and medical products such as syringes, intravenous bags and gloves. Much of modern healthcare is dependent on the petrochemicals now held up by the Gulf shipping standstill – whether for active pharmaceutical ingredients or to produce the millions of sterile single-use items, ranging from personal protective equipment (PPE) to catheters and diagnostic-device casings. Continue reading...

Secondhand car buyers urged to carefully inspect vehicles, while owners told to beware tests that are suspiciously quick Rise of the ‘ghost owner’: 18,000 UK vehicles in use without proper records You have just bought a secondhand car. It was older than you wanted, but were reassured because it had recently passed its MOT. Within a few days, you notice a problem with the steering and take it into a garage to be checked. As well as that issue, they find the tread depth of the tyres is so low it should not have passed the test. Continue reading...

While emerging technology is banned from the Palme d’Or, an upstart movement is gaining investment and attention In Cannes’ darkened screening rooms, the supposed future of cinema flickered into life this week and it was strange. The first edition of the World AI film festival (WAIFF) showcased visions of men with fish scales erupting from their necks and seaweed from their mouths, a heroine with a heart beating outside her body and so many massed armies of AI-generated tanned men sweeping across battlefields that David Lean would have blushed. Last week the Cannes film festival, entering its 76th year, banned the emerging technology from its Palme d’Or competition, insisting “AI imitates very well but it will never feel deep emotions”. But this week the Croisette was taken over by the upstart AI film movement and their big-tech backers amid increasing investment and attention from the Hollywood studios. A “nouvelle vague”, they said, is coming. Continue reading...

Beyond the Tuscan capital, there are exquisite towns with Medici fortresses, stunning frescoes, Roman amphitheatres – and not a selfie stick in sight First, it was Barcelona, Venice and Dubrovnik. Now, Florence has joined the most overtouristed destinations in the world: its 365,000 inhabitants shared their city last year with 4.6 million visitors. The director of the city’s Accademia gallery – home to Michelangelo’s David – talked in 2024 about “hit and run” tourism, describing visitors “on a quick in-and-out mission to take selfies … trampling the city without contributing anything”. Local author Margherita Calderoni describes Via Camillo Cavour, a street leading to the Duomo, as a “rancid soup” of chain restaurants and “shops selling plastic trinkets from who knows where”. Although steps are being taken – the city council has introduced a ban on new short-term lets and is promoting sights in lesser-known neighbourhoods – tackling overtourism is a challenge. And other Tuscan cities, such as Siena and San Gimignano, are suffering too. But beyond these honeypots, Italy’s fifth-largest region is full of glories, with not a takeaway chain or selfie stick in sight. Here are six of my favourites. Continue reading...

Early birds were like ‘T rex reincarnated’, says scientist who believes avian skulls offer insight into dinosaurs’ behaviour T rex is often depicted as more brawn than brains, but now scientists are hoping to probe just what was going on inside its head, drawing on findings from another kind of dinosaur: birds. Scientists have previously found some species of bird not only make and use tools, but are able to plan ahead and show basic forms of empathy – with laboratory tests suggesting emus can recognise other birds might have different experiences to themselves. Continue reading...

A struggling mum join forces with a recovering addict in brilliant new series The Cage. Plus: a campy Irish murder drama. Here’s what to watch this evening Sunday, 9pm, BBC One Continue reading...

Soaring cost of building materials, lack of affordability and planning bottlenecks are some of the obstacles thwarting housing target At South and City College in Birmingham, dozens of young people clad in hi-vis vests and hard hats are building mini-walls and plastering half-formed rooms. Some weave in and out of stacks of bricks with wheelbarrows, while others use spirit levels to check the walls are straight and flat. In a few days time, these walls will be demolished and the plastering scraped away, for a new class to come in and try their hands. Continue reading...

For most of his life, John Robins assumed he got more out of alcohol than it took from him. Now he knows it was the other way round • ‘I picked up the bottle of wine and drank straight out of it. I was seven’ Read an exclusive extract from his new memoir The comedian John Robins has always loved talking about booze. In his standup, he used to portray himself as a bon viveur who knew how to give himself the best of times; a larky drinker out for a laugh; a nerdy tippler who recorded nights out in Sherlock Holmes-themed notepads – arrival time, drinks consumed, percentages of alcohol, pub atmosphere. He also had a routine about contracting gout, even though he never has done in real life. On the radio, he hosted a show with his friend Elis James in which they meticulously detailed pub crawls and coined the phrase “Keep it session”, encouraging listeners to stick to low-alcohol beer when out for the whole evening. If anybody was in doubt about his love of booze, Robins then devised a podcast series called The Moon Under Water, named after George Orwell’s 1946 essay describing the perfect pub. In it, Robins and his co-host Robin Allender invited guests to design their dream watering hole. Yet, despite dedicating so much time to the discussion of booze, Robins could never find the right word to describe his relationship with it. Then in 2023 he finally discovered it: alcoholic. Continue reading...

Impala is like no restaurant I’ve ever been to, yet it somehow has echoes of almost all of them Late last month, Impala drove into Soho already flaming hot in the hype stakes: this was a sizzling booking to brag about even before executive chef and co-founder Meedu Saad had turned on the stoves. Impala, after all, is a Super 8 restaurant, the group that has, among others, Tomos Parry’s Brat in Shoreditch, which has been constantly, unfalteringly brilliant since 2018. It also runs Parry’s second baby, Mountain, which is likewise wonderful; sometimes weird, yes, but always wonderful. Long before that, back in 2016, they opened Kiln, the famed live-fire Thai counter hangout that cheffy boys in beanies have tried and failed to emulate all over Britain, while Super 8’s beginnings were with the boundary-pushing and much-loved Smoking Goat. That is nothing less than a litany of solid-gold bangers, and now they’ve unleashed Impala by Saad, the former head chef at Kiln. In any normal restaurant review, it would have been common to have by now established what type of food Impala actually cooks – north African? Middle Eastern? Mediterranean? British?, etc – but in this odd, dreamy and defiantly dark nook in Soho (every single one of us in the room, even those with perfect vision, had our iPhone torches on just to read the menu), narrowing down its origin story is not quite that simple. “Bird’s tongue pasta braised with spiced oxtail?” someone asked over the loud jazz. “Molokhia, braised jute leaf and shoulder of cull yaw sheep?” queried someone else. It went on: aish baladi? Ftira? “Bird’s tongue pasta is the Egyptian name for orzo,” I ventured, adding that I thought molokhia might be a bit like spinach, but never have I been more ready for a server to turn up and ask: “Guys, may I explain the menu?” We choose a beef tartare with a smoky, sweet Tunisian harissa and crunchy chunks of deep-fried bread as brittle as pork crackling. We scoop honey bread through an insanely good mush of pounded white beans topped with chunks of pungent bottarga. There are rustic pillows of that aish baladi, an Egyptian wholegrain bread that here comes with a fresh, rich harissa paste, and langoustine kibbeh and sun-dried wheat all wrapped in a neat perilla leaf cone. Continue reading...

As the interest in the lives of celebrities has intensified, we have become acclimatised to the fact that they will now curate and mercilessly monetise it Last month, Ryan Gosling addressed an audience about to see his new movie. “It’s not your job to keep cinemas open,” he told them. “It’s our job to make things that make it worth you coming out. This movie’s for you. Enjoy the trip!” Small wonder they applauded. This is a strategy radically different to that adopted in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, when studios believed the best way to get people to leave their homes and buy cinema tickets was to hector them to do so. Continue reading...

Speaking to career thieves as part of my research, I learned that childhood abuse, a life in care and little education has led them to this place Emily Kenway is a social policy doctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh and author of Who Cares: the Hidden Crisis of Caregiving and How We Solve It Ryan* is 25 and he’s a shoplifter. He’s good at it too – about four times a week, he makes “no small money” by stealing and reselling goods from large department stores where security is limited. He’s strategic: he makes sure he’s clean and tidy, and keeps aware of CCTV. He usually steals just one or two high-value items to limit the risk of detection – designer garments or a small speaker, which he slips into a bag as he walks around the shop, before browsing a little longer and exiting. His actions are part of recent record highs in shoplifting offences. From March 2024 to March 2025, there were 530,643 offences recorded in England and Wales. This is a 20% rise on the previous year and the highest figure since current police recording practices began in 2003. There has been ample media coverage of this spike, helped by the recent scandal of a Waitrose worker being sacked after confronting a man stealing Easter eggs. Retail workers are suffering on the frontline; in its 2026 crime survey, the British Retail Consortium found that theft was “a major trigger for violence and abuse of staff”, leading the trade union for retail workers to warn that “shoplifting is not a victimless crime”. Meanwhile, the claim that Britain’s shoplifting “epidemic” symbolises a wider descent into “lawlessness” has become a familiar one in the media. Emily Kenway is a social policy doctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh and author of Who Cares: the Hidden Crisis of Caregiving and How We Solve It Continue reading...

It feels as if your work and your identity are fused. You’ll get through this, but you may have to use this time to consider other careers I’ve been a teacher for more than 20 years and loved it. I had promotions every couple of years and was happily making my way up the ladder. This year, however, I was made redundant because of restructuring and this has thrown me into a feeling of complete confusion. I have tried to find roles at the level I was working at, but have not been successful. It has left me feeling lost and unclear. The last five years within education have felt fraught. I left the previous school I’d worked at because I felt the headteacher was unable to support me following the death of my mum. The school before that I left after whistleblowing on a senior leader for bullying. I am worried the repeat issues and feelings of being unhappy all come from me, and somehow I am seeking out conflict or issues. Continue reading...

Of all the traditions humans thoughtlessly adopt, being socially obliged to touch someone when introduced to them is one of the worst. Good on young people for refusing Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. A person, place or thing you perhaps took for granted exits your existence, and only then do you appreciate what they meant to you, how important they were. This is not one of those times. New research has revealed that the handshake is in danger of becoming extinct, and surely we’re united in planning to dance on its grave, shouting “Good riddance!” and spraying champagne, Grand Prix-style. A survey of 2,000 parents and their teenage children, by ACS International Schools, provides much hope for the future, as today’s teens seem to have their priorities correct. An impressive 59% “go to lengths” to avoid small talk; 28% don’t like answering the door or phone if they don’t know who’s calling; and 24% find giving a handshake excruciating. It would be interesting to find out the percentage of adults who agree – 98%? The other 2% being those who consider Sun Tzu’s The Art of War a business manual, and are focused on putting their free hand on top of the handshake to assert dominance, before the other party can beat them to it. Continue reading...

Lawmakers and reporters in shock after Washington press event abruptly ends following gunshots Trump evacuated after shots fired at White House correspondents’ dinner – what we know White House correspondents’ dinner – latest updates Lawmakers and journalists were in shock after a Washington media tradition turned violent on Saturday night, halting the White House correspondents’ dinner while the first course of burrata and greens sat on their plates. “We thought that some of the plates for the dinner fell, and next thing you know, we all went under the table screaming,” said Jamie Raskin, a Maryland congressman who was among the 2,000 attendees gathered to celebrate press freedom. It was the first time that Donald Trump chose to attend the annual Washington event. Continue reading...

Ethel Barrymore theatre, New York Debbie Allen’s revival of the 1984 drama boasts a compelling cast, led by Taraji P Henson and Cedric the Entertainer, but too many notes are off Earlier this year, Viola Davis excitedly quoted August Wilson’s play, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, while announcing Michael B Jordan’s Oscar win. “You are shining, Herald Loomis,” she beamed, “shining like new money!” It was a touching acknowledgment of the actor’s long-awaited recognition, and the glory that awaits him. For most of Wilson’s 1911-set piece, Loomis is a man weary from an endless walk through the shadow of the valley of death, his spirit all but broken by systemic racism. Salvation is hardly guaranteed, but flickers in the distance. So it goes in Debbie Allen’s uneven Broadway staging, the play’s third since its 1984 premiere. Part of his monumental Century Cycle of 10 plays representing each decade of the 20th-century Black American experience, Wilson’s play has undeniable lyricism but needs pitch-perfect direction to make its magical realism sing. Its Pittsburgh boardinghouse setting is suitably liminal – halfway between north and south, stability and transience – and none who pass through are more than a generation removed from the horrors of slavery. Wilson reflects on this dizzying flashpoint by refracting his characters’ mysticism, religion and worldliness, honoring each even as they collide. Continue reading...