Parties contesting the Makerfield by-election are “locked in a war of words” over how much support there is for insurgent “far-right” party Restore Britain, said Kitty Donaldson in The i Paper.

An early poll by Survation puts support for Rupert Lowe’s Restore at 7%, with Labour at 43% and Reform UK at 40%. Labour supporters hope that Restore could split the right-wing vote and usher in Andy Burnham, who is expected to mount a leadership challenge to Keir Starmer should he win the by-election.

For Nigel Farage, Reform’s leader and long the champion of the right, this situation is “ironic”, said Melanie Phillips in The Times. “The axiom that the revolution eats its own” is “generally associated with the left. Now it has arrived on the right.”

What did the commentators say?

A Farage pivot has already begun, said The Economist. To date, his “vision of ‘colour blind’ politics” has been a “success”. But following the recent reaction to the murder of Henry Nowak – Farage called for the public to respond “with pure, cold rage” and declared that “white lives matter too” – it is clear that the Reform leader has “embraced a new, uglier way of thinking”.

This “dark turn” seems to have been prompted by the “threat” posed by Lowe. The Restore leader said “the killer should be executed and his family deported” following his life sentence. “Targeting the angry, and making them angrier, could be a winning formula” for Reform in the new fragmented political landscape.

It is clear that Farage and his allies are “visibly rattled” by Restore, said Robert Shrimsley in the Financial Times. Though Farage may not fear being “superseded” by Lowe, a split on the right could “cost him seats”. A “confident” Farage would “have to hold his nerve” and tackle Lowe at the next general election.

Restore could even be a blessing in disguise for Farage. Lowe and Co. could serve as a “decontamination chamber” to rid his own party of more extreme voices, in turn making Reform more palatable and within the “admittedly shifting” boundaries of “political decency”. All of this, of course, hinges on “how frightened Farage feels. But the last thing an already polarised nation needs is a new bidding war on the anti-immigrant right.”

Restore’s “march into culture warzones” like climate change and social integration is “profoundly depressing”, said Rosa Prince in Bloomberg. The party is “heavily backed” by “racially fixated billionaire” Elon Musk, who “regularly shares” its posts on his platform, X. Indeed, it may have been Musk’s endorsement of Lowe to lead Reform that led to the birth of Restore. Clips from a YouTube interview with Maga figure Tucker Carlson have also been “viewed millions of times”, adding to Lowe’s more than 1.3 million Facebook followers. Digital “ubiquity” and a “splintering” political system have fuelled the rise of both Reform and Restore. “We’re all poorer as a result.”

“Then there is Lowe himself,” said James Heale in The Spectator. Though undoubtedly on the charge, he is not infallible. At 68, Lowe must now “do in a decade what Farage managed in three”. Farage has “withstood 30 years of muckraking and press sleuthing. Is Lowe ready for the same?”

Lowe is already under investigation by the parliamentary watchdog after a complaint was made against him, and there is a perceived discord between his “clubbable” character in person and his online persona. As his party’s prominence grows, Lowe will also face pressure to “disavow comments his activists have made”. With the belief that Reform’s immigration policies are “insufficiently robust” as one of the party’s founding principles, Restore will also “inevitably struggle to keep its base onside”.

What next?

“Restore hopes to provide more than just a distraction” in the Makerfield by-election, said Nick Gutteridge in The Telegraph. Though the official, albeit small-sample, poll put Restore at around 7%, data collected by 300 Restore activists and released by Lowe claimed that “almost a quarter of households” said they would vote for Restore. “The claims were met with incredulity online and dismissed by political opponents.”

“You don’t need to be John Curtice to see what this means,” said Brendan O’Neill on Spiked. “The 7% being hoovered up by Restore’s oddball door-knockers is thwarting a potential Reform win.” It may be a “two-horse” race between those who believe Andy Burnham can “resuscitate the corpse of Labour” and those who are “taking a punt on the populists of Reform”. Restore is, in fact, “shaving support from Reform, is giving the listless, dull-eyed horse of technocracy its best shot of winning”.

Support for Restore could make a “critical difference” to the result in Makerfield, said Phillips in The Times. Regardless, “whoever occupies No. 10 after this by-election”, and perhaps the general election, “will be presiding over a country that has become an explosive tinderbox”.

Most people don’t leave Ibiza feeling healthier. Sun, sea, sand and sangria have reigned supreme here for decades, from the hedonistic super clubs that provide its late-night soundtrack, to the beach bars overlooking its famous Balearic sunset.

Now, however, one of the White Isle’s most established hotels is hoping to turn that on its head, with a programme intended not only to make you feel better, but actually make you live longer. The Atzaró Agroturismo Hotel has long been known for the quality of its spa, but the team has pivoted to a novel approach, creating personalised longevity pathways using new technologies alongside long-standing organic and nature-focused treatments. And after a tough winter I arrive feeling like this is exactly what I need.

Personalised programme

The experience begins with a session on the 3D body scanner, which analyses your body’s composition, takes 14 measurements, assesses your flexibility and calculates your metabolic age. It’s slightly daunting, and my readings aren’t exactly ideal, but nonetheless the information is not only useful to have, it informs your personalised programme and is used to track your progress as well.

An individual programme is developed for each person based on this data, their health history and personal goals, using traditional treatments, nutrient IV therapies, and innovative technology-led sessions.

My own pathway uses several of these, and I begin with the hypoxia oxygen therapy, a guided breath and conditioning session using controlled low-oxygen intervals to boost efficiency, stamina and recovery. As I lie back with a mask strapped to my face, I settle in, uncertain what the treatment will feel like. But as the oxygen flows at different rates and I am treated to a reflexology session, I feel myself drift off into a dozy state. It’s designed to enhance cellular function, and while I can’t speak for this, I come back into the world feeling fresh and de-stressed

Next, I spend 20 minutes in the high-frequency infrared bed. Infrared is a trend that has swept social media, but it has strong evidence behind it, and this version is much stronger than the average mask you can use at home. The frequency can hit 900-plus, which, the team explains, can penetrate to the cellular level to energise and activate the mitochondria. It reduces inflammation and supports tissue recovery, and the warm bed immediately relaxes. It feels like a cocoon and my muscles feel supple afterwards.

This is followed quickly by a four-minute session in the cryotherapy chamber. I’m in my swimming costume but am given mittens and booties to keep the extremities warm. Overall, it’s cold but not cold like wild swimming in a British lake, so I am revitalised but not in pain. My programme ends with a massage by experienced technician Marina, who works the remaining knots out of my back and shoulders, and I leave the spa feeling like a different woman.

Nutrient-rich dining and a stand-out spa

Wellness is a recurring theme across the property, and during the rest of my stay I explore the estate. Atzaró Agroturismo Hotel opened in 2004, and is spread across 14 hectares of orange groves surrounded by lush hills. Life is slower here. It was originally a working farm and has been in the same family for more than 300 years. This heritage can be felt everywhere, from the original kitchen (now reception) where the current owners’ grandmother used to sit, to the enormous vegetable garden that supplies the kitchen each day.

When I take an early morning stroll one day I stumble across the staff selecting the veg for that night’s menu, as food plays a vital role in longevity too. To reinforce the spa’s work, the kitchen has designed a selection of nutrient-dense options, including anti-inflammatory salads and juices rich in polyphenols and amino acids. Of course, there is also a menu of indulgent treats like irresistible Iberico ham croquetas, and fresh locally caught corvina cooked on a Josper grill.

I spend the rest of my time doing lengths in the stunning 43-metre spa pool, relaxing in giant Bali beds among the herb gardens, and reading books in the outdoor hot tub. My room overlooks one of the nine pools, and I can watch the sunset from a cute Juliet balcony. The entire complex smells of lavender and orange blossom, creating a sensory experience that transports you to another world, and it feels like the whole place is designed with recovery in mind. The décor is local and rustic, with bathroom products made on site from the aforementioned herbs. Even the toothpaste is organic and sourced from the island.

The hotel is part of the Atzaró Collection, which includes Aubergine by Atzaró, a popular destination restaurant, and Atzaró Beach, an informal bar and restaurant in Cala Nova where you can swim in crystal water and enjoy views over Ibiza’s leafy cliffs. The family encourages visitors to get out and explore the island’s beauty. Soaking in its energy is all part of the package.

I end my stay feeling calm, refreshed and ready to go back to my ordinary life with a new vitality, a far cry from previous visits to the island. It’s important to remember that longevity isn’t just about living for ever, but living well, and if life feels this good then why wouldn’t you want more of it?

Jaymi McCann was a guest of Atzaró Agroturismo Hotel

With Russian and Ukrainian forces seemingly locked in stalemate on the ground, the war has increasingly become an aerial one with both sides turning to drones and “smart” missiles to try to gain an advantage.

What does that look like?

Over the past four years Ukraine has pioneered the use of both offensive and defensive drones. They have changed the face of war and helped narrow the advantage enjoyed by Russia when it comes to weapons and personnel.

These unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, “hit Russian targets every day” and have played “a huge role in Ukraine’s recent improvement in fortunes, together with other innovations in the country’s drone war”, said the Financial Times.

At the same time, Ukraine has built an “increasingly sophisticated, layered air defence system”, said the BBC’s defence correspondent Jonathan Beale. Kyiv is now able to successfully intercept the vast majority of Russian long-range drones and missiles before they can hit their targets. “Embracing innovation and technology is giving Ukraine an advantage”, with “software that tracks every glide bomb, missile and drone launched by Russia” being “at the heart” of its air defences.

While the “intensity” of air attacks “continues to increase”, Russian military expert Nikolai Mitrokhine told Le Monde, both sides are using different tactics. Russia carries out occasional but massive strikes to overwhelm Ukrainian air defences. It “sometimes fires nearly 1,000 drones a day – as was the case on 24 March – while Ukraine launches almost nightly attacks, between 250 and 400 drones”.

What weapons do they have?

Ukraine has been producing long- and medium-range FP-1 and FP-2 drones – known as “Drakosha” or “little dragons” – at scale and at speed at a cost of about €50,000 each. It has been “pouring resources” into “middle strikes” that target Russian air defences and military logistics as far as 180km (112 miles) behind the front line, said Reuters. These strikes cannot “turn the tide against Russia” alone, but are “having an additional impact by facilitating longer-range drone strikes that are damaging Russian oil infrastructure”.

And while Ukraine still relies on expensive US-made Patriot missiles to take down Russian ballistic missiles, cheap interceptor drones, such as the P1-SUN, are proving most effective in defending Ukraine’s cities from aerial attack. They are 3D-printed and cost just $1,000 (£750); more than 1,000 are produced every day by Ukraine.

They can, however, do little to stop Russian glide bombs. These are Soviet-era munitions fitted with cheap guidance kits that turn so-called “dumb” bombs into precision weapons. They can be launched from well inside Russian airspace and there is no reliable way to stop them. “For three years, they have been one of the most destructive weapons” used by Kremlin forces to level entire city blocks from Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia to Kherson, said The Telegraph.

Ukraine hit back last week, unveiling its first domestically produced glide bomb, named the Vyrivniuvach, or “Equaliser”.

How might this change the war?

The Equaliser is “one of the most significant additions to Ukraine’s home-grown arsenal since the war began”. It “could potentially accelerate the pace at which Russian forces are pushed back”, said Keir Giles, from the Chatham House think tank.

More generally, Ukraine’s long-range capabilities are “significantly changing the situation and, more broadly, the world’s perception of Russia’s war,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month.

“Fast-improving” Ukrainian drone capabilities are “hurting the invaders’ logistics behind the battlefield, and pounding oil infrastructure and military targets deeper inside Russia,” said The Wall Street Journal. “Having gained a tactical and technological edge” in the air, this summer will test whether Ukraine “can turn that slender advantage into a strategic turning point”.

With many parts of the world bracing for a scorching summer driven by the Super El Niño climate pattern, people might be spending more time indoors than they had expected. If so, they’ll have an impressive array of new and returning shows to help pass the time.

“Not Suitable for Work”

Last year brought two buzzy comedies aimed at the under-30 set, HBO Max’s “I Love LA” and FX/Hulu’s “Adults.” Now comes Hulu’s “Not Suitable for Work,” from the mind of creator Mindy Kaling (“The Mindy Project”).

AJ (Ella Hunt) and Abby (Avantika) are fresh-out-college Manhattan roommates embarking on their careers – AJ in finance, and Abby in fashion. They happen to live across the hall from a group of young men including Davis (Will Angus), who also works at AJ’s firm. If this kind of classic Kaling-esque plot conceit bothers you, this might not be the show for you because it’s full of them. The series is a “lightweight, frothy romp through a glossy, fictional Manhattan” whose “nimble pace, quick-enough wits and aspirational aesthetic” are enough to make up for its lack of realism, said Rachel Leibrock at The Wrap. (now on Hulu)

‘The Witness’

A two-timeline potboiler, “The Witness” stars Jordan Bolger (“This Town”) as André Hanscombe, whose 2-year-old son, Alex (Jahsaiah Williams as a child, Max Fincham as an adult), is the lone witness to the brutal 1992 murder of his mother, Rachel Nickell (Eleanor Williams). The arrest and successful prosecution of the alleged killer seemingly allows the family to move on, but years later the investigation is reopened, as are the emotional wounds. The “gripping but distressing” three-part series, based on a true story, shows a family working through “unimaginable trauma” while dealing with the long-term aftermath, said Phil Harrison at The Guardian. (June 4 on Netflix)

‘The Listeners’

A five-part limited series, “The Listeners” stars Rebecca Hall (“The Night House”) as Claire, a teacher who begins to hear a humming sound that no one else can. When doctors, friends and family can find no reason or meaning behind her ordeal, she turns to a student, Kyle (Ollie West), who says he can hear it too. A riveting exploration of how “people can fall off the map when it seems as if they have nowhere to turn,” director Janicza Bravo (“Zola”) “captures this sinking feeling” while staying “attuned to character in a way that feels deeply, disquietingly alive,” said Chase Hutchinson at The Wrap. (June 12 on Starz)

‘The Bear,’ season 5

FX’s Chicago-set restaurant drama, “The Bear,” returns for its fifth and final season. Syd (Ayo Edebiri), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Natalie (Abby Elliott) are left to pick up the pieces after Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) abruptly walks away following a tense baring of souls in the season 4 finale.

The group plans to pour everything into one final evening, with a massive storm bearing down on the city, in an effort to snag the Michelin star they need to survive. The fourth season told us that “if you’re tired, it’s okay to take a break” because “you can’t save someone else until you save yourself,” said Whitney Friedlander at Paste Magazine. The final season of creator Christopher Storer’s show is a slam dunk for fans and destined to be the subject of a thousand think pieces. (June 25 on Hulu)

‘Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness’

Though this may not have been the original intent, Larry David’s HBO Max sketch comedy series will function as a kind of counter-programming to the White House’s celebration plans for the Declaration of Independence’s 250th anniversary. Details are scarce, but the series is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, features the 44th president in the trailer and will comprise vignettes about America’s long history, as filtered through David’s distinct comedic aesthetic. David is “gearing up to take his ‘world’s most yelled-at man’ bona fides back into history,” said William Hughes at A.V. Club, to squeeze more content out of the “very simple premise” that “Larry David is, largely, to be loathed.” (June 26 on HBO Max)

The European Union could soon add a 28th member to its ranks, as Iceland is set to vote on potentially joining the bloc this summer. But not all Icelanders support EU membership, with polls split down the middle, and what happens in the referendum could have ripple effects on the international order.

‘Important for international security’

Icelanders will not be voting on whether to join the EU but on whether Iceland should resume negotiations about joining. If the referendum passes, a second vote would be held to officially make Iceland an EU member.

Icelanders are mostly at a stalemate on the issue. According to a recent survey “on behalf of the foreign ministry, 42% of Icelanders are in favor of reopening accession talks and 39% are opposed,” said The Guardian.

Icelanders who are in favor of restarting talks view joining the EU as “important for international security and an opportunity for better integration in Europe,” said The Guardian. There have been considerations for a while about Iceland joining the bloc, but the turbocharged referendum is “in part motivated by threats from the U.S., a longtime close ally of Iceland, to forcibly acquire its closest neighbor, Greenland.” The “international order that underpinned our security and prosperity for decades is under serious pressure,” said Icelandic Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir to the outlet.

The EU has “intensified a rethink of its Arctic strategy since Trump’s rhetoric over Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, reached a peak earlier this year,” said Mari Novik at the Financial Times. Iceland was previously at an impasse with the EU over regulations regarding fishing, a major industry in the country, but the organization could “offer Iceland a carve-out on fishing policy to accelerate the country’s potential bid to join the bloc.”

‘Half the country will be upset’

Not all Icelanders are eager to join the EU. Some feel the country is “locked in an existential fight for Iceland’s soul, where extreme measures might be justifiable,” said Elías Þórsson at Icelandic news magazine The Reykjavík Grapevine. Politics in Iceland “tend to be rather benign,” but there’s “something about the EU debate that stirs the pot" of public opinion. “About half the country will be upset with the result” of the referendum, no matter what side wins, according to polls.

Those who oppose becoming part of the EU hark back to a “well-known refrain in Icelandic political discourse” that the nation is “being betrayed, that some kind of treason is underway, that foreigners are being allowed to come and run everything in Iceland,” said political scientist Ólafur Harðarson to the Grapevine. Some feel that EU membership means “giving up Iceland’s sovereignty,” said Þórsson.

The aforementioned fishing industry may be what the referendum ultimately comes down to. Icelanders have “watched with alarm as Ireland, an EU member, has endured cuts to fishing quotas that have devastated its coastal communities,” said Amelia Nierenberg at The New York Times. And the citizens are fearful the EU could do the same thing to Iceland without a carve-out.

“People feel that they might be forced to pick a side,” said Eirikur Bergmann, a politics professor at Iceland’s Bifrost University, to the Times. And then there’s “really only one side to pick.”

‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane’ by Paul McCartney

★★★★

Paul McCartney is “acting his age and defying it too, which is kind of the best of both worlds,” said Chris Willman in Variety. On his 20th solo album, the 83-year-old former Beatle keeps it “fresh and lively, and occasionally even fiery, but not by pretending that he’s a youngster.” Named after the area of Liverpool where McCartney spent part of his childhood, The Boys of Dungeon Lane is a nostalgia trip—“mostly in the flagrantly commercial, engaging, oft-rocking style of a 1970s Wings record.” He duets with Ringo Starr on one track, while another looks back on his “platonic crush on George Harrison.” The “ode to friendship from the Cute One to the Quiet One is so romantic, you could almost swoon.” McCartney’s sheer joy “comes through in every chord change,” said Simon Vozick-Levinson in Rolling Stone. From “moving acoustic ballads” to a “trippy” ode to hiking and magic mushrooms, the artist’s “life force remains undimmed.” What’s more, the “simple, elegant arrangements” are mostly played by the man himself: He understands that what we want from a new McCartney solo album “at this stage in his career is more McCartney.”

‘Blue Morpho’ by Ed O’Brien

★★★

The second solo release from Ed O’Brien “feels like a do-over” that was very much worth the effort, said Ryan Reed in A.V. Club. The Radiohead guitarist and backing vocalist’s 2020 debut, Earth, was “a sonically rich album” that never quite found its footing; here, he taps into what that record got right and runs with it. Blue Morpho finds O’Brien “relying less on lyrics, leaning more into psychedelic atmospheres,” and embracing prog-rock catharsis on the final track, the nearly 10-minute “Obrigado”—a “genuinely affecting head trip laced with jazzy keyboards.” O’Brien is “out of his cocoon and in dazzling flight,” said Andrew Trendell in NME. In a reflection of the Brazilian butterfly that inspired the album’s name, the orchestral title track “floods the record with color,” with the guitarist drifting above the cinematic orchestration with “all the cool Zen of an Oxford-born Beck or a reborn Nick Drake.” On the funky “Teachers,” O’Brien delivers for “fans of the smoky, jazzier corners of Amnesiac, albeit with a lot more druggy euphoria.” This is a savory treat, full of “the secret sauce that O’Brien has always added to the Radiohead recipe.”

‘Little Wide Open’ by Kevin Morby

★★★

This is an album that, “in the best way, can’t quite work out what it thinks,” said Alexis Petridis in The Guardian. On Kevin Morby’s eighth release, the Midwestern singer-songwriter is grappling with “the weird push and pull exerted by one’s hometown,” impending fatherhood, and introspection born of middle age. (On “Javelin,” he ponders: “Am I a has-been? Am I a husband?”) He’s aided by an impressive artistic lineup: The National’s Aaron Dessner produces, while Bon Iver lends his voice as a quasi–tornado siren and Lucinda Williams joins for a Springsteen-flavored monologue. Morby has delivered his “most cohesive, tuneful, and cleanly drawn” album yet, said Will Hermes in Pitchfork. It’s satisfying to watch an artist evolve steadily over the years and emerge as one of the “long-game players.” Here the folk-rock artist offers a “meditation on what happens when things aren’t falling apart” to arrive at “a balancing act of personal and universal that suggests an inverted Blood on the Tracks.” Set firmly in Middle America, Little Wide Open is the portrait of a musician becoming “more soulful, not less, as his sound grows more polished and inviting.”

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With I Hear a New World, Alan Moore continues his five-novel Long London fantasy series, which spans the second half of the 20th century. Below, the author of Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell recommends six books that have influenced his work.

‘Pariah Genius’ by Iain Sinclair (2024)

A favorite book that looms in the same territory as I Hear a New World, Pariah Genius is a fiction conjured from the life and death of Soho photographer John Deakin. It unfolds in a glistening underworld peopled by Deakin’s subjects and associates—Dylan Thomas, Francis Bacon—and delineated with the diamond focus of Sinclair’s consciousness-expanding prose. Buy it here.

‘Mother London’ by Michael Moorcock (1988)

An essential London novel, infused with a deep love of place. We view the war-wounded city through the eyes of memorable characters connected by those airraid shelter nights. Buy it here.

‘The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman’ by Angela Carter (1972)

Carter is another favorite London author, and although her later work includes tremendous novels that are situated in the capital, it’s in earlier books like this, with their unrestrained exoticism, their delirious sensuality, and their steaming orchid forest writing, that I find the new flavor of fantasy my current offerings are aiming for. Buy it here.

‘Gormenghast’ by Mervyn Peake (1950)

I first read Peake’s Gormenghast books at 14, and although bowled over by them, I’d not realized until I was reading my grandsons the trilogy just how much Peake’s berserk use of language, with its lyric seizures, has affected my own style. So, yes, I’m blaming him for my excesses. Buy it here.

‘One Last, Mad Embrace’ by Jack Trevor Story (1970)

Along with all the horror, history, and phantasmagoria of the Long London series, I wanted it to be grotesquely amusing, and my benchmark for wretchedly funny English literary comedy has always been Jack Trevor Story, who, in works like One Last, Mad Embrace, perfectly illustrates Ian Dury’s admonition that “a sense of humor is required amongst the bacon-rind.” Buy it here.

‘I Got References’ by Gerald Kersh (1939)

An honorary Londoner, the awesome Gerald Kersh deserves acknowledgment as an influence, for his shrewd grasp of how the city works, for his pitch perfect evocation of its aura, and, in I Got References, for introducing me to the astounding Ras Prince Monolulu. Buy it here.

‘An Inconvenient Widow: The Torment, Trial, and Triumph of Mary Todd Lincoln’ by Lois Romano

“No first lady has been more demonized than Mary Todd Lincoln,” said Amy S. Greenberg in The New York Times. Even before her husband’s 1865 assassination, the former Lexington, Ky., socialite was portrayed as unhinged and unworthy of both the White House and Abraham Lincoln’s love. With An Inconvenient Widow, former Washington Post reporter Lois Romano seeks to rehabilitate Mary Todd’s reputation—“an ambitious project,” given that there’s “a kernel of reality” even in the over-the-top depiction of the first lady in the Broadway comedy smash Oh, Mary! She was erratic, vain, and, even during a deeply depleting war, a compulsive spendthrift. Though Romano at times goes too far in defense of her subject, she’s right that the demonization of Mary has been wildly disproportionate. “Whatever her faults, and they were many, she deserved better, and Romano deserves praise for granting her, at long last, a measure of grace.”

Romano’s ambition here isn’t new, said Thomas Mallon in The New Yorker. “Measured rehabilitation of the first lady’s character has been the dominant mode of Mary Lincoln biography for more than 70 years.” But in the popular imagination, untruths persist that should be corrected. First, she was not a traitor. Born in 1818 into a slaveholding family, Mary evolved into a committed abolitionist and an im­placable Unionist who poured time into caring for wounded Union soldiers. Earlier, because she was well-educated and witty, she sometimes impressed reporters covering the 1860 presidential campaign even more than her husband did. But opinion turned against her when she began lavishly redecorating the White House, and the death of a second young son, in 1862, didn’t win her lasting sympathy. Her reputation was buried when Abraham’s former law partner, William Herndon, began spreading lies about her shortly after the assassination.

Though Herndon would object, Romano “offers a persuasive portrait of a loving, mutually supportive marriage,” said Melanie Kirkpatrick in The Wall Street Journal. The author also “emphasizes the impact of grief on Mary’s mental health.” Three of Mary’s four sons died by 18, and in the wake of her husband’s death, she struggled not just emotionally but also financially, having to fight for years for a congressional pension. Meanwhile, her politically ambitious surviving son, Robert, was so embarrassed by the negative press she attracted that he had her committed to a mental institution, a decision she had to fight to reverse. She died of a stroke in 1882, and while she “won’t go down in history as one of the most congenial first ladies,” Romano’s “exemplary” examination of her life may ensure she’ll be remembered for both her flaws and her merits.

‘Lady C: The Long, Sensational Life of Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ by Guy Cuthbertson

“Obscenity lacks staying power,” said Dan Piepenbring in Harper’s. Some 65 years after Lady Chatterley’s Lover was widely derided as a book that might hasten the collapse of Western civilization, even pornographers aren’t bothering to invoke Lady Chatterley’s name or riff on the extramarital romps she engaged in with her paraplegic husband’s brooding, sweaty gamekeeper. But the book’s history is worth revisiting, because for decades, “it set polite society on edge,” even triggering landmark obscenity trials in Japan, India, the U.K., and the U.S. more than a generation after it was first published. Though “the most corrupted among us have long abandoned Lady Chatterley’s Lover as a totem of smut,” D.H. Lawrence’s 1928 novel lives on as a cultural milestone.

“There was always a great deal of hypocrisy amid the furor surrounding the book,” said Tim Bouverie in Air Mail. From the moment Lawrence had the first edition privately printed in Italy, American and British authorities confiscated copies that had been smuggled across their borders and secretly read the novel for pleasure. Even editions in which the sex scenes and four-letter words had been expurgated sold well in the 1930s. Cuthbertson “consistently informs and amuses” as he surveys the jokes and parodies the novel inspired, and he’s “fascinating” on various readers’ political interpretations of the tale. The 1960 trial in London that unleashed the unexpurgated paperback edition was “one of the great comic episodes in British cultural history,” and Cuthbertson’s account adds fresh color.

Readers of the novel today might be less offended by the sex than by Lady Chatterley’s antisemitism and her lover’s homophobia, said Blake Morrison in The Guardian. But Cuthbertson doesn’t dwell on that ugliness or Kate Millet’s famous attack, in 1970’s Sexual Politics, on the phallocentrism of Lady Chatterley’s sexual awakening. Lawrence himself thought of his final book, completed two years before his death at 44, as a serious novel about the sacred nature of sex. Others justifiably found humor in the way he conveyed that idea. So credit Cuthbertson for keeping his story light. “After all the moralizing that went with the book, it’s the right way to go.”

This week’s question: A Nebraska motorist was shot in the arm while waiting at a red light — and the shooter turned out to be a dog, which somehow set off a loaded shotgun while sitting in its owner’s truck. If a country musician were to write a song about this unfortunate and unlikely incident, what should it be titled?

How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to contest@theweek.com. Please include your name, address, and daytime telephone number for verification; this week, please type “Firearm Fido” in the subject line. Entries are due by noon, Eastern Time, Tuesday, June 9. Winners will appear on the Puzzle Page of the June 19 issue and at theweek.com/contest by June 12. In the case of identical or similar entries, the first one received gets credit. All entries become property of The Week.

The winner gets a one-year subscription to The Week.

Click or tap here to see the winner of last week's contest: Dated dentistry

For many retirees, Social Security is an essential source of income. But unfortunately, it is also one that may soon become less reliable as available funds dry up.

Per a recent projection by the Congressional Budget Office, “Social Security’s main retirement trust fund — formally known as the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund — will run out of reserves in 2032,” said Money Talks News. That would translate to “cuts starting at around 7% in 2032 and deepening to an average of about 28% per year from 2033 through 2036,” said the outlet, citing an analysis by Newsweek.

Cuts of that size would translate to a sizable difference in retirement income for many. Planning ahead by following these tips can help ensure they do not derail your retirement entirely.

1. Look for ways to cut expenses

Reviewing your spending is not the most fun exercise, but it can often reveal some opportunities to make a reduced retirement income stretch a little further. There are smaller tweaks you can make, like traveling less or canceling unused subscriptions, or you may consider more drastic moves, depending on the income gap you are facing.

For instance, “downsizing a home, eliminating a household vehicle or moving to an area with a lower cost of living can significantly reduce expenses for those willing to make larger lifestyle changes,” said U.S. News & World Report.

2. Delay claiming benefits

“Nervous retirees are already rushing to claim Social Security benefits early, convinced they should grab what they can before the system changes,” said Money Talks News. But in reality, “there’s no advantage to claiming early if cuts hit across the board,” and doing so just means the “system-wide cut applies on top of that smaller base.”

By waiting to claim Social Security, you can maximize the base amount you earn in benefits. For each year until age 70 that you wait to claim, your benefit will increase by 8%, which can go a long way toward making up for the projected shortfall.

3. Build other sources of income

This does not necessarily mean going back to work, though that is an option, whether in the form of a part-time job, gig work or consulting in your former field. Other options to close the upcoming income gap include buying a deferred income annuity “equal to the reduction,” which effectively “converts your savings into a guaranteed income stream beginning on a future date and continuing for the rest of your life,” said Kiplinger. Alternatively, you could “create a diversified bucket of mutual funds that is separate from your other investments” and intended specifically “to make up for that anticipated Social Security cut.”

New Jersey Congressman Tom Kean Jr. won his GOP primary election yesterday, a notable event given that he has not been seen in public for months. And the question of his whereabouts is drawing increasing scrutiny.

The mystery is “frustratingly unsolved,” said The New York Times. Kean last cast a vote in Congress on March 5, then was sidelined by what his aides vaguely described as a “personal medical issue” from which he is expected to recover. Voters, journalists and House colleagues “haven’t seen or heard directly from Kean” since then, and it is “still unclear” when he might return to work or the campaign trail, said CNN.

Kean is “focused” on “recovery” and expects to return to work “within a matter of weeks,” he said in a Tuesday night post on X. But his ongoing and mostly unexplained absence is “rattling” Kean’s GOP allies, who worry the “massive public relations failure” will damage the party’s ability to defend his “critical swing seat” in November, said CNN.

What did the commentators say?

Kean “owes voters” answers about “his mystery illness,” The Bergen (N.J.) Record said in an editorial. His absence has coincided with House debates about the “Iran war, funding for the Department of Homeland Security and other critical issues.” His team spent weeks creating the “illusion of a fully functioning representative” by sending out a “steady stream of first-person social media posts and news releases” before acknowledging his medical issue in late April. New Jersey voters deserve a representative “who is straight with people about his own capabilities.”

The lack of transparency is a “slap in the face to voters,” Max Burns said at MS NOW. Kean is one of several House members who have gone “missing in action” in recent years. Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) missed weeks of votes after undergoing eye surgery, then announced her retirement. Kean and Wilson “can’t be blamed for battling health issues,” but they owe more candor to their constituents. And if they are “unwilling or unable” to work, they should “make way for someone with the capacity to serve.” The duo has a “right to privacy” but also a “duty as public servants to represent their voters.”

What next?

The congressman’s absence has not interfered with the operation of his political machine. At least five speeches in his name “have appeared in the Congressional Record” during his leave from Congress, said Roll Call. While it is “not uncommon” for House members to publish speeches in the record they did not deliver in the chamber, Kean’s “frequent submissions” while he is away have “raised eyebrows.”

Kean’s congressional district is “among the country’s most competitive,” said The Washington Post. The GOP “cannot hold the majority without this seat,” an anonymous operative said to the outlet. Republicans urgently need to know if Kean is “capable of running for reelection and winning.”

Kean still snagged President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the midterms, said The Hill. Kean “will never let you down!” Trump said on Truth Social.

What happened

Newly installed “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton fired veteran CBS News journalist Scott Pelley late Tuesday, a day after Pelley told Bilton he had “slender qualifications” for the job and that CBS News editorial chief Bari Weiss “has no qualifications.” In his dismissal letter, Bilton accused Pelley of a “performative display of hostility” at the staff meeting and said he was “terminated for cause effective immediately.”

Who said what

“You hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications and my intentions,” Bilton, a former tech journalist with no TV broadcast experience, wrote to Pelley, who joined CBS in 1989. Pelley said in a statement he had resisted instructions from “new management” to “inject falsehoods and bias” into stories, but their “incompetence and unprofessionalism” had “become untenable.” With “the principles I hold dear” gone, he wrote, “I must leave as well.”

Pelley’s firing “deepened the turmoil at the nation’s most influential TV news program,” The Associated Press said. Current and former “60 Minutes” staffers “were outraged,” The Washington Post said. Without Pelley, “‘60 Minutes’ is gone,” one staffer said.

What next?

The viewers who have kept “60 Minutes” among the “highest-rated weekly broadcasts” for decades “are accustomed to familiar faces” like Pelley’s, The New York Times said. With last week’s firing of Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega and Anderson Cooper’s departure, only four correspondents remain.

‘Why people stopped having kids’

Shadi Hamid at The Washington Post

“Contrary to popular belief,” mothers “aren’t necessarily having fewer children compared with a decade or two ago,” says Shadi Hamid. It’s “that fewer women are becoming mothers in the first place.” A “fertility-rate crisis is a marriage crisis — and a marriage crisis is a dating crisis.” Houses of worship “have been a way for like-minded young people to partner up.” But the “catch is that even religiously conservative societies cannot fully escape the forces of secularization and modernization.”

Read more

‘Remembering Muhammad Ali’s message of peace’

Amina J. Mohammed at Al Jazeera

“Ten years after the world said goodbye” to Muhammad Ali, his “voice still echoes,” says Amina J. Mohammed. Ali “wrote words that still stop me in my tracks: ‘Service to others is the rent we pay for our room here on Earth.’” People “are living in a moment when peace feels increasingly fragile,” but Ali “speaks to something disarmingly simple: Peace remains possible, but only if we are willing to make it our personal responsibility.”

Read more

‘There are only four great powers’

Brendan Simms at Foreign Policy

In the “new era of great power competition, it’s important to identify the competitors,” but it has “always been easier to speak about the great powers than to define them,” says Brendan Simms. People can “distinguish the great powers by a set of common characteristics.” While the “United States and China are economically and militarily far ahead of Russia and the United Kingdom, all four states have attributes that mark them out from the next rung of major actors.”

Read more

‘America’s warcraft are aging and often mismatched to the task’

Robert Jordan at The Dallas Morning News

The war in Iran has “exposed significant weaknesses in America’s military industrial base,” says Robert Jordan. Part of the “problem is our dependence upon sophisticated systems that rely on supply chains with uncertain availability, especially considering the Iran war.” If the United States is “going on a wartime footing we can expect pressure to spend more,” and “for a nation already $39 trillion in debt, that could lead to significant fiscal challenges.”

Read more

What happened

President Donald Trump on Tuesday named Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director of national intelligence, replacing retiring DNI Tulsi Gabbard. A “real estate scion with no clear national security credentials,” Pulte will “continue in his post at FHFA” as well as coordinating the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, The Associated Press said.

Who said what

The 2004 law that created the nonpartisan DNI position says any nominee “shall have extensive national security expertise.” Trump said on social media that Pulte has “deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets.”

Democrats “offered wall-to-wall condemnation of the appointment,” Politico said, and Republicans “were cautious, if not downright skeptical.” Pulte’s only qualification is that “he has shown that he is willing to do anything that President Trump wants, legal or otherwise,” said Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. “We don’t need a weaponized DNI,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said. “We need professionals there.”

What next?

Warner said putting a Trump loyalist with a history of weaponizing financial records in charge of so much sensitive information would make it harder to reauthorize the Section 702 surveillance program before its June 12 expiration. Making Pulte the permanent DNI would require Senate confirmation.

What happened

Voters in New Jersey, Iowa and California on Tuesday picked their candidates for some of the most competitive congressional races in this year’s upcoming midterms. New Mexico Democrats nominated former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland for governor, putting her in reach of becoming the first Native American woman to lead any state, and Iowa Republicans snubbed President Donald Trump’s pick for governor, Rep. Randy Feenstra, in favor of first-time candidate Zach Lahn.

In California’s gubernatorial primary, Trump-backed Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra were leading the crowded pack as vote counting continued Wednesday morning. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) will face either conservative reality TV personality Spencer Pratt or progressive City Council member Nithya Raman in a runoff.

Who said what

In a New Jersey U.S. House race “that could decide control of the chamber,” The Associated Press said, Democrats picked former Navy pilot Rebecca Bennett to face Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R), whose “extended and unexplained medical absence” has given Democrats hope of flipping the seat. Iowa Democrats chose establishment-backed Josh Turek, a Paralympic gold medalist, to face Republican Ashley Hinson in the race to replace Sen. Joni Ernst (R). “Multiple race raters” last night shifted that race “from ‘likely’ to ‘lean Republican,’” Politico said.

What next?

With more than half the votes counted in California, Hilton had a slight lead and Pratt was in second place, but it’s “far too early to draw conclusions,” The New York Times said. The “‘red mirage’ is likely to shift significantly as mail-in votes expected to tilt heavily Democratic are counted over days, if not weeks.”

The war in Ukraine is unwinnable and could bring down the Russian economy. That’s the emerging assessment among Russia’s power brokers, as Vladimir Putin faces mounting challenges on the battlefield and at home.

Kremlin propagandists may still be “projecting confidence about the outcome of the war”, said Igor Gretskiy, of the Estonian-based International Centre for Defence and Security, but there’s been “a marked shift in mood” among Russia’s political and business elites. It’s no longer their “default assumption” that Russia will achieve its objectives.

What did the commentators say?

Setbacks have been mounting on several fronts, said Gretskiy. “First, the cracks in the Russian economy became impossible to ignore”, with the federal budget “deeply out of balance” and the deficit at the end of April nearly double what was planned for the whole of 2026.

“In the most serious sign of internal division” since Russia invaded Ukraine four years ago, senior Russian government officials have warned Putin that spending on the war “is on an unaffordable path”, said Bloomberg.

Then there is the military situation itself. Ukrainian drone attacks are causing severe disruption to Russia’s logistical networks and supply lines to the front, and long-range strikes have hit Russian oil-production infrastructure and even threatened Moscow. The Russian army is no longer able to grind out incremental capture of Ukrainian territory, and one million of its soldiers are thought to have been killed or wounded since hostilities began.

We’re in a situation where “the capabilities of both sides are comparable”, said Russian political scientist Vasily Kashin on Russia in Global Affairs. “Historically, such wars have only extremely rarely resulted in the complete destruction of one side.” Russia can have no hope “of annexing new large Ukrainian territories” when “it lacks the capacity to sustainably control and manage” them, and its goal of eliminating the Kyiv regime is “fundamentally unattainable at this stage”. The publication of such a damning analysis is “a further sign of growing dissent at the top of Russia’s political establishment”, said Catherine Belton, Russia reporter for The Washington Post.

“Sustaining the war machine” is also “eroding” the president’s “social base”, said anti-Putin activist Alexey Sakhnin in Jacobin. A recent poll by Moscow’s independent Levada Center suggests that 62% of Russians favour peace talks with Ukraine, with only 27% expressing support for continuing the war.

What next?

There are parliamentary elections in September, so the Kremlin will want to ensure that “increasingly evident war fatigue” doesn’t “affect the cohesion” of Putin’s system”, said exiled Russian politician Vladimir Kara-Murza in The Washington Post last week.

But if events continue to turn against him, Putin may feel he has not choice but to roll the dice and go for broke, Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Foundation told The Post’s Belton: “To a great degree, escalation is the only way to respond to a situation which you can’t control.”

“When a river is alive, it has a sound”, Angela Ortigara, a senior adviser at WWF Netherlands, told CNN. “You hear it trickling down the rocks. You see vegetation around it. It is this flow of life.” And, said the broadcaster, “across Europe, that sound is now beginning to return.”

Environmental coalition group Dam Removal Europe has calculated that a record-breaking 603 dams were removed across the continent last year, as countries embark on a “broader reassessment of how rivers function in an era of climate extremes”.

Natural course

A dam is a large barrier built across a river or stream to block, control or redirect the flow of water. They help with water storage, generate electricity, control floods and aid navigation for boats.

Dam Removal Europe found that the number of dams dismantled in 2025, along with other water-flow controls like weirs, culverts and sluices, grew by 11% from the year before. In the US, an estimated 100 dams were dismantled last year, while conservation projects in China have resulted in the removal of hundreds of dams on the Yangtze River in recent years.

The removals allow waterways to “resume their natural course” as part of a “global trend to restore rivers to help wildlife thrive”, said The Guardian. The damming of rivers “disrupts ecosystems, hinders the transport of sediments” and is believed to have contributed to a 75% fall in Europe’s freshwater migratory fish population in the past 56 years.

The 2,324 miles (3,740km) of European rivers that were reconnected through barrier removals last year bring the European Union a “step closer to its goal of restoring 15,500 miles to their natural state by 2030”.

Connectivity conundrum

The process is “rarely as simple as tearing down concrete”, said CNN. There can be “years of environmental assessments, engineering studies” and careful “negotiations with dam owners and local authorities”. Sediment levels must be “managed”, riverbanks need to be “stabilised” to prepare for the restored waterway, and ecosystems need to be “monitored after demolition” for unforeseen negative impacts.

The wide-scale dismantling of dams and water barriers has been criticised by some farming groups and policymakers who have raised concerns about potential impacts on land use and rural livelihoods. A study published last year found that the presence of dams could slow the spread of invasive species, while barrier removals may also allow new threats to travel from one part of a river to another.

But “with careful preparation, monitoring and long-term management, these risks can be minimised”, Ellen Dolan, a biologist at Queen’s University Belfast and lead author of the study, told The Guardian.

“No literary genre divides opinion quite like self-help,” said Josiah Gogarty in GQ. Some people love it, while others steer well clear. But the best personal growth books “cover a lot more ground than you might think”, spanning everything from deeply personal memoirs about grief to science-backed guides that could change your relationships. Here are our top picks.

Secure by Dr Amir Levine

It’s been 16 years since Dr Amir Levine and Rachel Heller published the bestselling “Attached”, which set out the “four main styles of bonding” in human relationships: anxious, secure, avoidant and fearful avoidant, said psychotherapist Philippa Perry in The Guardian. Now Levine is back with his keenly anticipated follow-up that’s also rooted in attachment theory. The psychiatrist lays out a “set of tools to help us feel more secure in all our relationships” – not just with romantic partners, but with friends, parents and “even with ourselves”. Firmly grounded in neuroscience and research, it’s an insightful read that can help you “know yourself better” and move towards “positive change”. Of course, you can’t just read the book: you must also be willing to “do the work and then keep up the practice”.

The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

This is “different from any other self-help book I’ve ever read”, said consultant psychiatrist Alex Curmi in The Guardian. Written in the format of a “philosopher talking to a young, frustrated student”, Kishimi and Koga introduce readers to Austrian psychoanalyst Alfred Adler’s ideas around the “separation of tasks, where you decide which tasks you are responsible for and then let other people get on with their own tasks”. This can be “extremely liberating” – especially for people pleasers.

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk

Published over a decade ago, this insightful book is one that “hasn’t wavered in popularity” and continues to “attract new fans with each passing year”, said Daisy Jones in Vogue. “It’s easy to see why.” The Dutch psychiatrist writes in a “persuasive” way that “rings true”. Backing his ideas with scientific research, he argues that “though the brain may work hard to suppress trauma, the body does not in fact forget”.

Atomic Habits by James Clear

“If you’ve ever wanted to change something about your life but found it overwhelming”, this transformative book provides a “step-by-step” guide to building small positive habits, said Tria Wen in Reader’s Digest. This is a “great book to gift”, helping readers “think about their goals in terms of little shifts they can make” that can be divided into “more manageable pieces”. By adding “one tiny” habit at a time, it’s possible to “create real and lasting change”.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Joan Didion is known for her “journalistic dispatches written in ice-cold prose”, said Gogarty in GQ. But following the sudden death of her husband in 2003, she “turned her unblinking analytical eye on her own life” in this powerful memoir. In it, she shines a light on her “debilitating grief”, transforming the nature of writing about bereavement. “Mourning is part of being human, and ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ has lessons for everyone.”

Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

The title of this book might sound “terrifying” (4,000 weeks is the average human lifespan) but beneath the cover there’s an “optimistic” message, said Gogarty in GQ. Instead of trying to encourage “unattainable levels of productivity”, Burkeman “urges you to accept your limits and make peace with your perpetual mountain of tasks”. His advice? To “stop sweating over your to-do list” and choose to focus only on what’s important.

“I came here to play tennis, not to put on a fashion show,” said Laura Siegemund, following her loss to Naomi Osaka in the first round of the French Open. “If other people want to do a fashion show, they can do that.”

Osaka came on court in a black corset and matching pleated skirt to face Siegemund. Though she eventually lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the fourth round in a landmark night session, Osaka’s “shimmering gold dress” became even “more eye-catching under the lights”, said The Guardian.

Known for her “elaborate” playing outfits, including a jellyfish-inspired outfit at the Australian Open, Osaka sparked concern that she may “serve as a distraction”. With Wimbledon around the corner, the tennis-fashion debate is likely to intensify.

‘Another language’

Osaka “really knows how to turn a tennis court into a catwalk” and has done so for years, said the Daily Maverick. Though her “court-ure”, which also included an Eiffel Tower-inspired outfit, has been labelled “problematic” by critics, her choice of fashion is “part of how she chooses to be seen”. For someone who has spoken openly about her struggles with anxiety, depression and public communication, her outfits have become “another language”.

The four-time grand slam champion has “never had average tastes when it comes to fashion”, said The Athletic. Her look at the Australian Open – a “dreamy, dramatic ensemble” that was meant to “evoke jellyfish” – “took over cultural discourse far beyond her match”.

Female athletes “don’t want to be known or judged for their outfits alone”, said The Independent, but with less prime-time coverage of their games than male players, it “can’t hurt to turn a few heads and garner extra attention using a bit of tulle and some sequins, right?”

I understand “how annoying it must be for Osaka’s opponents”, said The Times’ fashion director Anna Murphy. Her “ballroom skirt” and “spangled waistcoat” are “more usually seen in ‘Bridgerton’” and “Dancing on Ice”. I appreciate her angle: professional tennis “isn’t for the shy and retiring”, and if you’re on a rumoured $10 million sponsorship deal, “why not milk it”?

Wimbledon has indicated it will go along with Osaka’s “fancy-dress-adjacent thing”, provided what she wears is white. The restrictions are only on colour, not style, “so what’s it going to be for SW19? A snowman? A snowball? A snowballgirl?” But this sets a precedent that could turn the circuit into a “fancy dress party”, inviting others to follow suit. I am “not sure how even I, a fashion journalist, feel about that”.

Fashion ‘embedded’ in tennis

Tennis has “always been a runway” and fashion has “long been entrenched” in the sport, said the Daily Maverick. Osaka’s idols, the Williams sisters, used fashion as a “platform of empowerment”. Serena Williams’ “iconic” 2018 catsuit “became one of the most discussed outfits in tennis history”, while Venus’ “‘scandalous’ cabaret-inspired 2010 look” also “challenged conventions”.

Such pageantry has become commonplace in other sports too, with “paddock fashion” in Formula 1 and “tunnel walks” in US basketball. People are only noticing, and commenting, because Osaka is “using fashion as a form of self-expression on her own terms”.

Outfits worn by Osaka and Sabalenka have “crystallised how deeply luxury fashion has embedded itself in tennis”, said the Financial Times. “Indeed, the relationship between luxury and tennis isn’t new.” Many of the major stars will have a partnership with a high-end brand: Jannik Sinner and Gucci, Carlos Alcaraz and Louis Vuitton, Zheng Qinwen and Dior, British star Jack Draper and Burberry; the list goes on.

Professional tennis is a “visual theatre”, with increasingly viable commercial opportunities. Lacoste, Ralph Lauren and Rolex have all been “intertwined” with the sport, but there has been a dramatic shift in tennis’ “scale and visibility, both as a participatory sport and a spectacle”. Broader participation in the US (up by 54% since 2019, according to the US Tennis Association), and rising broadcast audiences mean tennis has become a “compelling stage” for marketing. Tennis offers a “rare opportunity to speak simultaneously to affluent buyers and aspirational young fans”.

Hampshire’s police and crime commissioner has called for a review of religious exemptions on the carrying of knives in public after the fatal stabbing of Henry Nowak last December.

Vickrum Digwa was jailed for life on Monday for stabbing the 18-year-old Nowak five times with what the judge called a “large Sikh dagger”. The prosecution told the jury that while Digwa was entitled to wear a small kirpan, a ceremonial sword or dagger worn by initiated Sikhs, under his clothing around his neck, he also chose to carry the much larger knife that was used to stab Nowak.

The law makes it illegal to carry most knives in public without a “good reason”, said the UK government. It is “illegal to use any knife or weapon in a threatening way”.

Are kirpans exempt from UK knife laws?

A template letter from The Council of Sikhs in Law that provides information for employers says the kirpan is “a ceremonial blade, carried by initiated Sikhs as one of the five articles of faith”. Worn by Amritdhari, or baptised Sikhs, it holds “a deep religious and symbolic significance for Sikhs, representing the duty to protect the oppressed and uphold justice”.

The Criminal Justice Act 1988 sets out “an exception in terms of carrying bladed articles in public places for particular religious and ceremonial reasons”, said Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds in response to Nowak’s death. The government has “been tightening up the law” in terms of buying knives online and by banning “things like terrible zombie knives”. But “the judge actually said that the minute that this perpetrator removed the blade from the sheath, you can forget any sense of there being some sort of exception to the law”.

What other uses are permitted?

As well as citing “religious reasons”, the law allows exemptions “as part of any national costume”, such as a sgian dubh, a small ornamental knife worn with Highland dress.

Matt Easton, an antique dealer and sword expert who consults with police and lawyers to navigate the law, said that under the so-called “samurai sword ban” only curved swords with blades over 50cm from hilt to point (measured in a straight line) are prohibited. Blunt blades or curved swords for the purposes of historical re-enactment or filmmaking or for sports such as fencing or martial arts are allowed (usually with proof of participation such as insurance document or club membership card). Curved swords “traditionally made by hand and/or with a hand operated machine” are also exempt as are antiques over 100 years old and most “vintage” swords made before 1954.

When else can you carry knives?

The law also states it is a defence for a person charged with carrying an illegal knife to prove that they had “good reason or lawful authority” for having the article with them in a public place. This can include travelling directly to and from a legitimate bushcraft course or woodland activity where a fixed blade is required, or for “use at work” covering farmers, conservation workers and other professions where a knife is an essential tool.

A 2019 court judgment, Garry v. Crown Prosecution Service, established that the offence of carrying an offensive weapon in a public place “imposes a strict liability burden on defendants to prove they have a reasonable excuse for carrying the weapon”, said the Magistrates’ Association. The court was also asked to consider whether any alternative non-offensive tools could be used to carry out the same work function and “whether there is a temporal connection between the time the defendant was found in possession of the weapon and their attendance at work”.

A class of synthetic drugs called orphines is throwing a new wrench into the ever-evolving opioid crisis in the United States. These drugs have tenfold the potency of fentanyl and have led to numerous overdose deaths in 2026. Experts say removing them from the streets, or even identifying them, could be extremely difficult.

What are orphines?

They are a “class of opioids that was created in the 1960s,” said The New York Times, as part of a project to find “rapid, safe pain relievers for surgery.” Orphines were developed by Paul Janssen, a Belgian doctor, the same man who originally synthesized fentanyl. It was soon discovered that “orphines had life-threatening side effects such as acute respiratory depression and were highly addictive,” which halted their development.

Orphines are generally considered to be at least “10 times more powerful than fentanyl, even in quantities no greater than a few sand-size grains,” said the Times. Like fentanyl, orphines can be “lethal with stunning speed, with victims slumping over abruptly, respiration shutting down, chest walls rigid.” Naloxone, a drug that reverses the effects of opioids, is effective against orphine, but “numerous doses may be required, many more than the one or two doses typically needed for fentanyl.”

Why are they prevalent now?

Orphines started to become ubiquitous among street drugs in the “wake of global crackdowns on fentanyl,” said the Times. The “emergence of orphines appears to follow regulatory actions targeting fentanyl analogues,” said the industry outlet Pharmacy Times, forcing dealers and users to pivot to new drugs. Most experts “believe the drug is produced at scale by international, multilevel drug distribution networks, likely originating from regions like South Asia or China,” and is then funneled to the U.S., said The Independent.

By the end of January 2026, orphine usage had been “detected in New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Illinois, Louisiana, Texas, Washington, Nevada and California,” said The Hill. Overdose deaths from the drug have been reported in nearly all these states. At least 41 deaths from an orphine called cychlorphine occurred in Tennessee alone between July 2025 and February 2026, according to the Knox County Regional Forensic Center.

What next?

Doctors and researchers are trying to find ways to stem the flow of orphines. Doing so is difficult because it is “not hard for labs to pump it out,” said The Hill. The drug isn’t simply coming from a bathroom brew made “from a couple of products or in the U.S.,” Timothy Wiegand of the American Society of Addiction Medicine told The Hill. It is coming from international “drug distribution networks, some of the cartels or other isolated networks.”

As orphines continue to plague U.S. cities, medical examiners have “become frontline drug detectives, pressing to identify the new substances causing deaths,” said the Times. Many are “coordinating with law enforcement and local health departments to swiftly warn communities about the latest killer in their midst,” though local medical examiners’ offices are often chronically underfunded.

These drugs represent a “dangerous shift in the opioid crisis,” Dr. Rachel Wirginis, an addiction medicine and family medicine physician at the Oklahoma State University Addiction Recovery Clinic, said in a press release. Physicians are “seeing increasingly powerful synthetic opioids that require rapid recognition and aggressive intervention to prevent fatal outcomes.”

“The era of the ‘10 blue links’ is over,” said Sarah Perez in TechCrunch. At its annual I/O conference two weeks ago, Google announced it is overhauling the search box in what the company described as “the biggest change to this entry point to the web in 25 years.” A new “intelligence search box” will respond to longer, more conversational queries and “drop users into AI-powered interactive experiences.” And soon, people will be able to dispatch “information agents” right from Google Search that can keep them abreast of changes for topics they’d otherwise have to search for, such as stock prices and clothing sales. “This shift means that ‘searching the web’ will increasingly be performed by AI agents rather than humans,” and links could soon “become an afterthought.”

Google was “all hype” for the unveiling of this tectonic development in front of an adoring crowd, said Tyler Lacoma in CNET. But for people in the real world, the news was “clear and disturbing.” The threat is existential “not just to developers, but to all online workers,” as well as small businesses who rely on search traffic to get customers. Google’s vision is that you no longer need to venture out onto the internet, said Katie Notopoulos in Business Insider. The internet will be “brought to you in a sanitized form by an intermediary.” That will totally ruin the experience. I love the internet and love searching around it for new things. These promised changes “give me an awful sinking feeling.”

But there are some genuinely great things about Google’s new AI-powered search bar, said Jason England in Tom’s Guide. It offers a “really nice, curated way to scythe your way through what is becoming an increasingly noisy internet.” You can easily plan a weekend, for instance, based on what Google “already knows about you,” letting it automatically “build a schedule that knows your tastes and availability.” I won’t miss the era of “10 blue links,” even if I worry about what happens to online sites once “a key referrer drops to zero.”

The problem is that Google seems to lack focus, said Dave Lee in Bloomberg. The company that was once criticized for “being too slow to ship AI products” has gone to “now not knowing when to slow down.” In addition to the new AI search tools, it announced new AI-powered Gmail features, updates to Google Pics (not to be confused with Google Photos) and Google Flow, and even a new pair of smart glasses. The slew of new technology is “dizzying” and could leave consumers overwhelmed and “more resistant as a result.” Google has the engineering expertise, capital, hardware, and customer base to win the AI race. But there is “such a thing as doing too much too quickly.”

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is under attack for the “unfathomable sin of having a diverse cast,” said Marlow Stern in Variety. Director Nolan has confirmed that Kenyan Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’o is playing Helen of Troy in his upcoming blockbuster film version of Homer’s epic. Critics of Nolan’s casting also claim, without confirmation, that trans actor Elliot Page is playing the warrior Achilles. Leading the anti-Odyssey charge is Elon Musk, the champion of “white-grievance campaigns,” who posted dozens of indignant screeds on X claiming Nolan had “desecrated” Homer’s story. He and other detractors “have not actually seen the film yet, mind you,” nor do they seem to care that Helen and Achilles are “fictional characters navigating a mythological fable” with a giant Cyclops and other monsters. For these “culture warriors,” a diverse Odyssey is an intolerable affront.

These detractors may whine about “accuracy,” said Peter A. Berry in Bloomberg, but they’re actually defending their “fantasy of the past.” Genetically Mediterranean, the ancient Greeks generally had darker hair and skin than the fair, blue-eyed Brad Pitt, who played Achilles in 2004’s Troy—a film that Musk extols. Homer described Helen as beautiful but without much detail, making any portrayal “an educated guess.” Whatever Homer imagined 2,700 years ago, said Rich Lowry in National Review, there’s “nothing inherently wrong with casting actors in roles that don’t match their ethnicity.” Liberals were equally misguided when they criticized Scarlett Johansson for saying she should be “allowed to play anyone” after starring as a traditionally Japanese character in 2017’s Ghost in the Shell. “What’s good for Lupita Nyong’o should be good for Scarlett Johansson, and vice versa.”

With an IPO for SpaceX looming, “you’d think Musk wouldn’t have the time or energy for this nonsense,” said Arwa Mahdawi in The Guardian. But the world’s richest man spends an “extraordinary” amount of time posting anti-immigrant rhetoric and “white genocide” conspiracies. On 26 of 31 days in January, he shared racially charged posts with his 240 million followers on X. Musk’s “whiny” race panic has become “boring,” said John DeVore in MS.now, and has zero impact beyond his reactionary base. The Odyssey is “already the most buzzed-about movie of the summer,” with brisk advance ticket sales. Musk is “losing the culture war; he just doesn’t know it yet.”

Across the nation, Democrats are waging a “war on wealth,” said the Washington Examiner in an editorial. In March, state lawmakers in Democratic-run Washington slapped a 9.9% levy on incomes over $1 million; Maine Democrats followed suit in April with a 2% surcharge. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is currently seeking a tax on second homes worth $5 million or more. And in November, Californians will vote on a referendum that could gouge billionaires with a one-time 5% levy; Minnesota, Hawaii, and Illinois are considering similar wealth taxes. It’s a short-sighted policy spearheaded by Democrats who wrongly “see billionaires not as engines of economic growth but as villains who should be punished.” And it belies the fact that the very rich “are paying their fair share, and arguably more.” The top 1% of earners take in about 20% of all income—but pay about 40% of federal income taxes.

That’s true of high-salary workers, said Nathaniel Meyersohn in CNN.com. But billionaires’ wealth often comes from the growing value of their stock holdings, and capital gains taxes—paid when stock is sold—are lower than income taxes. From 2014 to 2018, ProPublica found, the nation’s top 25 billionaires’ wealth rose by $401 billion, while their federal income tax rate was a mere 3.4%. But state wealth taxes “may backfire” if wealthy residents flee to lower-tax red states. It’s already happening, said Jonathan Turley in the New York Post. Wealth builders are bolting from Seattle, where they face both tax hikes and “hostility” from socialist mayor Katie Wilson, who casts them as “social parasites.” Seattle-based Starbucks, whose co-founder Howard Schultz blasted Wilson for “socialist rhetoric” that “vilifies employers,” is planning a $100 million headquarters in business-friendly Nashville.

To understand why wealth taxes make sense, look to California, said Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman in The New York Times. Over the past three years alone, its billionaires’ collective wealth rocketed by 144%, to over $2 trillion. But from 2019 to 2025, they paid, on average, only 0.26% of their wealth annually in state income taxes. Meanwhile, the state faces a budget gap worsened by the Trump administration’s cuts to Medicaid, and cities are cutting services. A one-time 5% tax on the “ultrarich”—who have “benefited from the state’s infrastructure, universities,” and business networks—would raise nearly $100 billion. It’s high time they “contribute in modest proportion to their gains,” and in November, “California’s voters should show the nation the way forward.”

While much has changed about the movie industry in recent years, the presence of a sci-fi blockbuster like director Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” early in the summer season feels like a throwback. The buzzy tentpole will be joined by several other intriguing — if less hyped — films this month in theaters, including a talky dinner party drama and a queer horror fable.

‘Disclosure Day’

Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg will turn 80 this December but seems in no hurry to slow down. “Disclosure Day” looks like his most ambitious science-fiction project since 2005’s “War of the Worlds.”

The plot remains mostly under wraps, but Emily Blunt (“A Quiet Place”) plays Margaret Fairchild, a Kansas City meteorologist who works with whistleblower Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) to blow the lid off of a government conspiracy to conceal the existence of alien life on Earth. It’s a “dense roller-coaster ride blending chase film, love story and mystery, all wrapped in sci-fi wonder” making up “Spielberg’s best film in 20 years,” said Gizmodo’s Germain Lussier on X. (in theaters June 12)

‘O Horizon’

Maria Bakalova (“Bodies Bodies Bodies”) is Abby, a neuroscientist who signs up for an experimental new app technology peddled by the delightfully goofy Sam (Adam Pally) to create an AI version of her recently deceased father, Warren (David Strathairn). But her new creation slips out of her control when “Warren” interferes with her budding relationship with Douglas (Avi Nash).

Though it sounds like the premise of a bleak “Black Mirror” episode, the movie has a bigger heart and is less cynical than most cinematic takes on AI. An “instant audience-pleaser,” director Madeleine Rotzler’s movie creates an “effective adult fairy tale, a kind of latter-day ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ in which the main character is sent down her own emotional rabbit hole,” said Greg Archer at MovieWeb. (in theaters June 19)

‘Maddie’s Secret’

Comedian John Early (“Search Party”) directs himself as Maddie, a chef who descends into eating-disordered hell after her husband, Jake (Eric Rahill), releases a video of her cooking that goes viral. It’s been a long time since a man played a woman like this in a mainstream feature, and it remains to be seen how audiences will react, but “Maddie’s Secret” boasts an impressive roster of comedic talent, including Kate Berlant (“A League of Their Own”) as Maddie’s close friend Deena. A “tricky, one-of-a-kind stunt” that’s “sure to be divisive,” Early’s film succeeds as a “tongue-in-cheek critique of influencer culture crossed with a sincere homage to the heyday of disease-of-the-week TV movies,” said Peter Debruge at Variety. (in theaters June 19)

‘Leviticus’

Director Adrian Chiarella’s first feature is an unusually poignant horror story set in rural Australia, where teenagers Naim (Joe Bird) and Ryan (Stacy Clausen) begin a halting romance. Then a local preacher (Nicholas Hope) curses the boys with a demon that visits them every night and takes the shape of whoever they desire the most.

The result most closely resembles a queer version of “It Follows” and feels perfectly timed as a critique of the authoritarian turn against kids struggling with their gender identities in the U.S. In a film that “takes a more restrained approach to horror tropes,” the demon turns their “love into a weapon against them” and “vividly visualizes” the church’s project of “converting desire into shame,” said Marshall Shaffer at Slant magazine. (in theaters June 19)

‘The Invite’

In director Olivia Wilde’s first feature since the divisive “Don’t Worry Darling,” Joe (Seth Rogen) is a down-on-himself music teacher whose moribund marriage to Angela (Olivia Wilde) is stress-tested when the pair invites their glamorous and seemingly blissful upstairs neighbors, Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pína (Penélope Cruz), over for dinner. The tense subtext is that Joe and Angela have been listening uncomfortably to their neighbors’ loud sex. Turns out Hawk and Pína may have accepted the invitation with more than a nice dinner in mind. “The Invite” intentionally recalls classic spiraling-marriage movies like “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” while the characters’ “interplay yields an entertaining, at times crackling evening that tries for a bittersweet note,” said Nicolas Rapold at Sight and Sound. (in theaters June 26)

Now we know what they were hiding, said Michelle Goldberg in The New York Times. Back in January 2025, Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, promised that by “spring” the DNC would release an analysis of Kamala Harris’ defeat in the 2024 election. Spring came and went, and in December Martin announced he was shelving the “autopsy” because “to dwell on the past” would be a “distraction.” Two weeks ago, the text finally leaked, and Martin released the autopsy himself, pre-apologizing that it “does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards.” On that, at least, Martin told the truth. Missing whole sections and riddled with typos and fact errors, the report’s most striking feature is its “utter lack of substance.” Nowhere in 192 pages of platitudes and wonkery will you find the words “Israel” or “Gaza,” while inflation and immigration—likely the biggest factors in Donald Trump’s re-election—are mentioned only in passing. The report is even silent on the catastrophic error of letting Joe Biden run for a second term at 81, which left Harris—nominated without a primary after Biden imploded—only 107 days to campaign. Commissioned as a plan to win back the White House in 2028, all this “ridiculous” document tells us about the Democratic Party’s future is that “Martin should be replaced.”

For all its flaws, the DNC autopsy gets some big things right, said Rich Lowry in National Review. Candidate Harris really should have done more to distance herself from Biden, as the report maintains, and make an “affirmative case” for her own presidency. Instead, she focused on Trump’s “unfitness,” as if voters weren’t already acquainted with him, while letting Trump define her as an “out of touch” California lefty—most notably in that devastating “She’s for they/them” ad. Democrats lost because their cultural extremism turned off working-class voters in swing states, said Evan Barker in The Free Press. Perhaps Martin and the authors of this report didn’t want to anger the Democrats’ progressive base with the “ugly truth”: The party’s Biden-era embrace of far-left insanity on trans and gender issues, policing, immigration, and race “has tainted the entire Democratic brand.”

Actually, Democrats “don’t need an autopsy” to teach them that lesson, said Andrew Prokop in Vox. Since their disastrous defeat by Trump, there’s been “a vibe shift” in the party. Its candidates are displaying a “laser focus on affordability,” and “quietly backing away” from “peak woke” positions. With this effort to be “more solicitous of the median voter,” Democratic candidates—moderates and progressives alike—have already racked up a string of wins in state and special congressional elections. Renewing the party’s brand will take time, said Ed Kilgore in New York, and Democrats have time. Trump’s cratering popularity should win them the House—at least—in November. They can then start choosing a message, and a candidate, for 2028. Democrats were also in the wilderness in 1992 and 2008 — until Bill Clinton and Barack Obama emerged.

Count on Democrats to screw this up again, said Ramesh Ponnuru in The Washington Post. They could offer a moderate immigration policy that includes strong border enforcement, but they’ll misinterpret their midterms success as proof they should run progressives who want to abolish ICE and offer other “boutique left-wing views.” The DNC autopsy could have been quite simple: Modern Democrats always “misread America.”

If you have ever taken out a mortgage, you’ll know there are a lot of requirements to meet. You may need to put down a certain amount and have a debt-to-income ratio below a certain threshold. You may also run into limits on how much you can borrow or what sources of income the lender will count.

These rules do not apply to all mortgages — just to conforming mortgages, which is what the majority of borrowers take out. However, mortgage lenders are increasingly offering what are known as nonconforming loans, or mortgages that do not “comply with every one of the strict standards put in place after the housing crisis,” said The Wall Street Journal. While “still a small portion,” the “share of mortgages using alternative lending practices” has “doubled in size over the past three years.”

What are nonconforming loans?

A nonconforming mortgage is a “type of home loan that doesn’t meet some or all of the guidelines that make them eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” said Bankrate. These are the government-sponsored entities that “support much of the secondary mortgage market in the U.S.,” meaning they often purchase resold mortgages.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have “federal rules that limit the purchase of loans deemed relatively risk-free,” said Investopedia. Loans that meet these guidelines are conforming loans; loans that do not are nonconforming. To be a conforming loan, a mortgage must fall under a certain loan amount, and the borrower must meet specific criteria when it comes to their credit score, debt-to-income ratio and loan-to-value ratio.

Effectively, any home loan that does not align with these stipulations is considered nonconforming. Examples include jumbo loans, government-backed loans, bridge loans and interest-only loans.

Why do people get them?

There are a wide range of reasons people may opt for a nonconforming mortgage. For one, “you may have no choice but to choose a nonconforming jumbo loan if you want to buy an expensive property,” said Rocket Mortgage. These loans can also provide more flexibility when it comes to the type of property you purchase, your credit score and your down payment amount.

Nonconforming loans additionally “offer an opportunity for home buyers who might not otherwise qualify for traditional loans because they are self-employed or hold their wealth in assets such as real estate,” said the Journal.

What are the drawbacks?

For starters, there are fewer lenders offering them “since they pose a higher risk to the bank or mortgage lender,” said Yahoo Finance. That said, availability can vary depending on the specific type, as “some nonconforming loans (like FHA mortgages) are common, while others (like USDA loans) can be harder to find.”

Nonconforming loans also “generally carry a higher interest rate for the borrower,” said the Journal, given the increased risk to the lender. Still, this can vary by loan type. For instance, “FHA, VA and USDA loans usually have lower interest rates,” while “less common nonconforming loans, such as bridge loans, often have higher interest rates,” said Yahoo Finance. There is also the possibility that a nonconforming loan “could have an unusual repayment schedule or other features that make it harder to repay,” said Bankrate.

CROSSWORD - June 12, 2026

SUDOKU - June 12, 2026

CROSSWORD - June 12, 2026

SUDOKU - June 12, 2026

‘AI chatbots have a Romance language problem’

Adam Aleksic at The Washington Post

People “use more Latin terms when we want to speak formally or authoritatively; we’ll use Germanic words to sound crass or casual,” and “AI chatbots have also inherited this proclivity,” says Adam Aleksic. AI researchers have “found consistent favoritism for words coming from Latin and French over those with Germanic etymologies.” People could therefore “be hoodwinked by prestige language, convinced that an AI model is saying something profound simply because it’s using French words like ‘profound.’”

Read more

‘Turkey’s democratic crisis is becoming a security crisis’

Ozgur Ozel at Newsweek

For “years, discussions about Turkey’s democratic decline were largely confined to the language of human rights, constitutional law and domestic politics,” and “international observers viewed the erosion of democratic institutions as a troubling but primarily internal matter,” says Ozgur Ozel. Now, “Turkey’s democratic crisis has evolved into something much larger.” It is “becoming a security crisis with implications far beyond our borders.” The “reason is simple: Turkey is too strategically important to become politically unstable.”

Read more

‘How did Spain’s unemployment rate converge with Finland’s?’

Sarah O’Connor at the Financial Times

A “decade ago, hardly anyone would have predicted that the unemployment rate in Spain — long plagued by chronically high joblessness — would converge with Finland’s,” says Sarah O’Connor. But “that is what has happened this year, with unemployment in both countries now roughly 10%.” Is “this a story of Spanish policymakers’ success or Finnish policymakers’ failure? Well, to some extent: both.” But it is “also a story about how much in economic policymaking depends on factors beyond governments’ control.”

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‘“Close reading” is a solution for students looking to live a good life’

Dan Sinykin at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Close reading is a “practice that turns details into evidence for arguments, beautifully made, about what a text means and how it works,” says Dan Sinykin. It “demands we recognize misunderstandings and correct them, because we must be accountable not only to ourselves, but to the text.” Teaching of skills is “directed toward an ultimate goal of economic growth,” but by “speaking instead of virtues we subordinate economic growth to the good life and human flourishing.”

Read more

One of the most storied news franchises in history has a fresh leader, as CBS News names journalist Nick Bilton the executive producer of “60 Minutes.” Bilton’s significant experience as a reporter likely made him an appealing choice for CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss. But others at the program are questioning how Bilton, who has never worked in television news, will run the iconic show.

‘Some of that kind of gonzo journalism’

Bilton wants to ensure that “‘holding people to account’ and ‘investigative journalism’ remain core principles” of “60 Minutes” under his watch, he told The Hollywood Reporter. But there may also be opportunities for “some of that kind of gonzo journalism stuff” that Bilton has personally become known for. Examples include “Fake Famous,” his 2021 documentary film about social media influencers, and “American Kingpin,” his 2017 book about the online black market Silk Road.

There are a “lot of parts of ‘60’ that are fantastic and work really well, and I think there are other parts of it that can be brought into the modern era,” Bilton said to The Hollywood Reporter. The core premise of the changes “appears built around extending ‘60 Minutes’ to the places where consumers primarily get their news,” potentially moving away from traditional television. The primary goal, which “has been the focus of the show since its inception, is the story,” Bilton told Axios.

There will now be an “emphasis on telling stories beyond the weekly show and experimenting with new voices from outside traditional broadcast news,” said The New York Times. These changes come amid a larger shift at CBS News itself. In addition to hiring Bilton, Weiss “also fired Cecilia Vega, the program’s first Latina correspondent, and Sharyn Alfonsi, whose segment on torture in Salvadoran prisons was pulled off the air abruptly last year.”

‘Fear what comes next’

Many are wary of what these changes mean for “60 Minutes” and its longstanding legacy of groundbreaking journalism. Particular criticism was levied at Bilton himself, a “credulous dope” who represents a “specific type of dolt from a bygone era,” said Defector. Some cited his 2015 article for The New York Times, which was “so factually f--ked, it now contains a 203-word editor’s note and a 98-word correction.”

Weiss is standing behind her decisions. Bilton is “one of the most entrepreneurial and ambitious journalists working today. I am thrilled that he is the next executive producer of 60 Minutes,” she said on X. But Weiss’ changes will “probably generate heat from the staff of ‘60 Minutes,’” who were fiercely loyal to prior executive producer Tanya Simon, said The Guardian. Many “viewed her promotion to executive producer last year as an indication that the new leadership of CBS News parent company Paramount wanted to preserve the show’s winning formula.”

Now some are cautious of the direction “60 Minutes” could be headed. “I very much fear what comes next,” Vega said in a statement after her ousting. Others have been even more blunt, including longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley. “‘She’s murdering ‘60 Minutes,’” Pelley said of Weiss in a heated meeting with Bilton, according to numerous sources. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.”

Colombian mercenary troops trained on United Arab Emirates (UAE) bases participated in atrocities committed by the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group during the ongoing Sudanese civil war, according to reports from the nonprofits Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Conflict Insights Group last month. Global Security Services Group, an “Abu Dhabi-based security company,” hired “hundreds of Colombian private military contractors” who allegedly aided the RSF’s assault on the North Darfur capital of El Fasher, where rebels “took over the city and committed widespread killings and rape,” said Human Rights Watch. The UAE has denied the reports, as rights groups call for further investigations and action.

What links the UAE with Colombian mercenaries?

HRW’s report is the latest evidence that the United Arab Emirates is “financially and militarily aiding the Rapid Support Forces” that have been “widely accused of committing atrocities amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide,” said The Associated Press. The report alleges “hundreds” of Colombian mercenaries were “trained by Emirati nationals at a military base” more than a hundred miles outside the capital of Abu Dhabi. They were then given further training “at another facility in Abu Dhabi, before being deployed to Sudan to fight alongside the RSF.”

The UAE has “long denied supporting the RSF,” said the BBC. The Conflict Insights Group’s report is the “first research where we can prove UAE involvement with certainty,” said the group’s Director Justin Lynch to the outlet. The investigation, which used “data obtained from tracking the mobile phones of the Colombian fighters,” makes public “what governments have long known. There is a direct link between Abu Dhabi and the RSF.”

The deployment of Colombian mercenaries is part of a “broader pattern” for Abu Dhabi, said Human Rights Watch researcher Joey Shea in an interview with Democracy Now!. The UAE has been “intervening in neighboring conflicts for over a decade” to “project its political and economic influence abroad.”

What is the broader context?

The beleaguered Sudanese government is “protecting Africa from external plots” by “confronting foreign interference” in the ongoing civil war, said Foreign Minister Mohieldin Salem to Al Jazeera in February. Sudan’s conflict “involves a large number of mercenaries and significant external intervention through funding and advanced weaponry.”

Last year, journalists investigated a captured convoy of weaponry intended for RSF forces featuring arms “manufactured in Bulgaria and bought by an Emirati company,” said France 24. Before their confiscation by allies of the Sudanese government, the weapons had passed through an eastern Libyan zone “controlled by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, an ally of the UAE.”

Researchers have also found “clear evidence that sophisticated Chinese-made guided bombs and howitzers have been used in Sudan,” said Amnesty International. The presence of Chinese munitions adds to a “growing body of evidence showing extensive UAE support to the RSF, in violation of international law,” said Brian Castner, the head of crisis research at Amnesty International.

Will there be consequences?

“Evidence collected” by humanitarian groups shows “UAE-supported mercenaries from Colombia in and around El Fasher as the town fell,” said the nonprofit Refugees International. The reports suggest the UAE backed “enhanced drone capabilities that helped the RSF to carry out deadly attacks on civilians.” The organization has since called for “immediate accountability” by strengthening existing embargos and treaties, asking that “prominent companies and organizations like the NBA, Disney and Warner Bros.” stop their business with the UAE “until it has ended its armed support for the RSF.”

This week, Britain’s Sky News ended its participation in a joint TV news venture with the UAE. Network executives have grown “increasingly concerned about the editorial position Sky News Arabia has taken on news in the region,” said The Guardian. Coverage of reported atrocities committed by the RSF was “accused of whitewashing genocide.” The network “produced a report claiming the security and humanitarian situation had stabilized” in El Fasher and filed stories “suggesting there was no evidence on the ground supporting satellite imagery and testimony from survivors of the atrocities.”

Sky will cede “full strategic and operational control” of the network to its Emirati partner, International Media Investments, said Middle East Eye. IMI, which will temporarily be allowed to continue using Sky News branding, is owned by Emirati Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

What happened

Florida on Monday sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, alleging that the company’s AI chatbot violates state consumer protection laws. “Altman and ChatGPT have chosen the AI race over the safety and security of our kids,“ Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) said at a news conference. “We’re going to make them pay for hurting our kids.”

Who said what

Uthmeier’s suit accuses OpenAI of a “litany of harms” driven by its “insatiable quest to win the AI arms race and amass large fortunes” regardless of known dangers, including abetting mass shooters, encouraging suicide and hooking minors on an unsafe tool. It’s the first state lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman, but the latest “broadside in a growing rebellion” against AI chatbots, The Wall Street Journal said.

Uthmeier has “emerged as a key antagonist” of AI since Florida’s GOP-led House “aligned with President Donald Trump” and blocked Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) “efforts to police” the technology, said Politico. Monday’s civil suit is separate from Ulthmeier’s ongoing criminal investigation into ChatGPT’s alleged role in planning a mass shooting at Florida State University.

What next?

Florida is seeking “more protections for children’s data and stronger parental controls” plus “financial penalties,” The Washington Post said. Uthmeier predicted other states will sue OpenAI as well.

What happened

President Donald Trump on Monday said Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to stop their fighting, hours after Iran signaled it was ending peace talks over Israel’s escalating campaign in Lebanon and Israel said strikes on Beirut were imminent. After a “very productive call” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “a very good call with Hezbollah” through “highly placed” intermediaries, Israel’s troops “turned back” from Beirut and Hezbollah “agreed that all shooting will stop” if Israel doesn’t “attack them,” Trump said on social media.

Who said what

Trump initially responded to reports Iran was abandoning peace talks by telling CNBC he “couldn’t care less” and thought they had “started to get very boring.” But he then said Iran’s “problem is with Israel” and he would ask Netanyahu “what’s going on with Lebanon.” Trump then “lashed out” at Netanyahu in an “expletive-laden call,” Axios said, citing three sources. One U.S. official summarized Trump’s remarks: “You’re f---ing crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”

What next?

Lebanon’s embassy in Washington confirmed that Hezbollah had agreed to the U.S.-proposed truce. Netanyahu said Israeli forces “will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon” and “will attack terror targets in Beirut” if “Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens.”

What happened

The Trump administration on Monday signaled a retreat from its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund after Senate Republicans reiterated that it jeopardized President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda and a pair of court orders imperiled its prospects. The Justice Department said it “disagrees strongly” with U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema’s decision to temporarily freeze the fund but “will abide by the court’s ruling.”

The fund, which bipartisan critics characterize as a scheme to funnel taxpayer money to Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, is “dead for now,” a senior administration official told Axios. “How dead it is is what’s being worked on,” an official told CNN.

Who said what

Senators returned to Washington on Monday, 10 days after Republicans scuttled a vote on a $72 billion filibuster-proof ICE-Border Patrol bill due to discomfort with the fund. Some administration officials “privately expressed relief” that Brinkema’s ruling offered a “way out of what most had seen as a mess of the Trump team’s own making,” The New York Times said.

But Republicans “cast serious doubt on whether the president would ultimately be willing to kill off the fund” and suggested they needed “firmer assurances that he would follow through,” said the Times. The “best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters, and killing the fund permanently “would be the ideal outcome.”

What next?

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told colleagues that “no matter what Republicans do, we will force them to vote” on shutting down the “slush fund before one cent goes out the door.”

Dating apps are “rooted in rejection and judgement” and that’s “not healthy”, Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd told Fortune. She had an “epiphany” during a 14-month leave of absence that users are just “hurt people hurting people”, and has vowed to bring “more joy and satisfaction” to her app.

Bumble is now shifting to matching-making driven by AI – and it’s not the only dating app to see this as the solution to increasing dating-app fatigue. But newcomer Breeze is taking another route: switching the focus to in-person experiences by reducing opportunities to chat in app, and sending only a time-specific, limited number of matches.

‘Payment and consequences’

“Breeze is a welcome disruptor in the dating app landscape,” said Isabella Silvers in The Telegraph. Since it launched in Europe in 2020, after winning investment from the Dutch version of “Dragon’s Den”, it has clocked up more than two million downloads. Users join “matching pools” that bring together “like-minded daters”, based on everything from hobbies (“outdoor lovers”) to niche interests (“rat owners/lovers”). To date, the app has arranged more than 737,000 dates, “resulting in 10 babies – that it knows of”.

Users receive a “select number of profiles” at 7pm every day and the key to the app’s success seems to be “payment and consequences”. Once you accept a match, you have to fill out your availability and pay a £9.50 deposit to secure a drinks date (or £4.50 for a “walk and talk”), “before being allowed to make a decision on anyone else”. The chat function for matched users is only opened up four hours before the date – prompting last-minute date confirmations, rather than “meaningless messaging”.

Breeze is “evidently working”, especially in the Netherlands where it’s “the third most popular and fastest-growing” dating app, said Lydia Spencer-Elliott in The Independent. “But can it save Britain’s dismal dating scene?” It can certainly save us from “boring convos generated by ChatGPT”, or being stood up or ghosted or “strung out” for weeks with no follow-through. But “what it absolutely can’t save” us from “is ourselves”. It’s ultimately “knackering” to keep “riding the rejection rollercoaster of the dating-app landscape” – and, sometimes, “the best remedy is to give it all a rest”.

‘Charming chatbots’

There is “rampant” dating-app burnout, said Catherine Pearson in The New York Times. As Bumble embraces AI-powered algorithms to re-engage those who “crave an experience that feels less overwhelming and more purposeful”, it’s also removing its swipe feature. It’s hoping to “end superficial, snap judgements” by altering “the dating habits of millions of users who have grown used to vetting partners with the flick of a finger”.

But the AI pivot comes with risk. Integrating AI features “sloppily” could “alienate” dating-app customers, said Tatum Hunter in The Guardian. Some users are already reporting “being plagued by AI paranoia, unsure whether the people they are messaging are real or charming chatbots”. The messaging from the industry is clear: “if we let AI take the wheel, this will all get less depressing”. But can a “smooth, mindless path toward connection” really make dating more joyful?

Evolutionary psychology reminds us that “only a signal that is difficult to fake can carry reliable information about the sender”, said Andrew King on Quillette. A rightward swipe behind a screen “communicates almost nothing about the sincerity of the person making it”. But making an approach in person at a bar or an event carries the potential for “public rejection”, and that cost is a signal of sincerity. These signals “matter” and “cannot be easily digitised”: “the discomfort is the point”.

Donald Trump “lashed out” at Benjamin Netanyahu last night in an “expletive-laden call” with the Israeli PM about the country’s actions in Lebanon, according to US officials speaking to news site Axios. The official paraphrased Trump’s remarks as: “You’re fucking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”

Trump himself described the call as “very productive”, saying he had demanded Israel abandon plans for a “major raid” and that Netanyahu had “turned his troops around” as a result.

The Israeli prime minister is caught between Donald Trump’s demands to end the bombardment of Lebanon, which threatens peace talks with Iran, and domestic pressure to escalate the campaign against Hezbollah, which has seen the Israeli army moving deeper into Lebanon and escalating air strikes.

What did the commentators say?

Since the 7 October attacks, Netanyahu has “struggled to assure Israelis he will keep them safe” against Iran and its proxies, said The Times. There was already “mounting frustration in Israel at the failure to defang Hezbollah”, said the Financial Times’ Jerusalem correspondent, James Shotter. Most polls suggest Israelis “favour more aggressive action” against the group, and Netanyahu’s “climbdown” to Trump provoked criticism from “across the political spectrum”.

National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, of his own coalition, urged him to ignore Trump’s demands and ratchet up the campaign against Hezbollah. “This is the time to tell our friend, President Trump – ‘no’,” Ben-Gvir wrote on X. Naftali Bennett, the right-wing former prime minister “widely regarded as one of Netanyahu’s main rivals” in the crucial upcoming election, accused him of “losing control over Israeli sovereignty”.

Netanyahu is also worried that any US-Iran deal will “leave Israel’s core concerns – Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, its ballistic missile program and regional proxy network – largely unaddressed”, said Tal Shalev of CNN’s Jerusalem bureau.

For more than three decades, Netanyahu has “defined himself as the leader who would confront Iran’s nuclear ambitions”. But a recent poll from Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies found that 45% of Israelis believe the situation with Iran has worsened compared to before 7 October; only 31% believe it has improved. Nearly half believe Israel will probably not win, or has already lost, the war against Iran.

“It’s hard to overstate how deeply Netanyahu views this moment as a possible personal and political defeat,” Danny Citrinowicz, senior researcher at the institute, wrote on X. “Mr. Iran” may be forced to accept an agreement that “not only legitimises the very regime he sought to weaken but also exposes the collapse of his long-standing Iran doctrine”.

Ultimately, Netanyahu has to defend his own citizens, said The Jerusalem Post in an editorial. Northern Israel is “under constant rocket and drone fire”. Hezbollah had used the ceasefire as a “tactical opportunity” to regroup and rearm. It has “no intention of genuinely ending hostilities”; its purpose remains the destruction of Israel. The ceasefire “prioritised a quick diplomatic achievement for Washington” over the security needs of Israel; extending it further would mean “trading Israeli lives for a few more days of quiet”. The US negotiations with Iran over Lebanon “are certainly not worth the lives of Israeli citizens”.

What next?

Just hours after Trump announced the ceasefire agreement, Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon resumed. At least eight people have been killed today, according to Lebanese state media.

In a statement, Netanyahu said that he had told Trump that Israel would continue its operations. “Our position remains the same,” Netanyahu wrote. The Lebanese government, which wants Hezbollah to disarm, has begun direct negotiations with Israel today.

Iran continues to insist that any ceasefire between the US and Iran hinges on peace in Lebanon, with a senior military officer saying today that resumption of war with the US is “inevitable”.

Forget “bleak dormitories with creaking iron beds and draughty communal spaces”, said Georgie Duckworth in The Guardian. A new generation of UK hostels offer a comfortable place to stay – without the hefty price tag that often comes with cabins, cottages and lodges.

As staycations boom in the face of uncertainty over the war in the Middle East and soaring airfares, holidaymakers are looking for affordable places to stay closer to home. But in prizing “seclusion” so highly, “have we lost the very essence of travel: the pleasure of meeting new people; sharing stories; hearing word-of-mouth tips; and stepping outside our familiar routines?”

That’s where hostels come in. These reasonably priced accommodations encourage “outdoor pursuits and socialising”, with a range of private rooms for families and communal rooms with bunk beds. One of the best is The Rocks in Pembrokeshire: a “bright and stylish” hostel with a cosy shared lounge, and firepits for “stargazing and marshmallow toasting” in the evenings. Rooms are “snug but smart” with “soft sheets and Welsh woollen blankets”.

The Youth Hostel Association offers rooms in a “beautiful building in a luxury location” for a fraction of the price of other staycations, said Catherine Lofthouse in The Sun. My “favourite” is Chester Trafford Hall: an “old Georgian mansion set in lovely grounds”. In a great “blend of city and countryside”, visitors can enjoy walks from the doorstep or “hop on the bus” to the city centre to “wander through the historic streets”.

There are plenty of completely “off-grid” escapes, too, for “wild adventurers” and “digital detoxers”, said Freya Parr on BBC Countryfile. Consider travelling off the beaten track to Ulva – a small Scottish island off the west coast of Mull. Here you’ll find the community-owned Ulva Hostel which sleeps just 14 people. Home to a comfy living area, shared kitchen, and sauna, with additional camping pitches available outside, it’s the “perfect spot” to explore the remote, car-free island.

Two controversial US political commentators accused of spreading anti-Israeli rhetoric have been barred from entering the UK.

Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker had been due to appear at the SXSW London culture and tech festival this week, but had their visas revoked by the Home Office on the grounds that their presence “may not be conducive to the public good”.

Who are they?

Turkish-American Cenk Uygur hosts the left-wing “The Young Turks” political talk show. Launched in 2002 as a satellite radio programme, since 2005 it has been hosted on YouTube, with episodes livestreamed every weekday to an audience of more than six million followers.

Uygur has repeatedly framed Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide”, “barbaric” and “savage” and accused Israel of using Jews as “human shields”. In 2024, he briefly campaigned to become the Democrat nominee in the 2024 US presidential election.

His nephew, Hasan Piker, runs his own stream, watched by more than 30,000 people each day. SXSW organisers described the 34-year-old as “redefining what political commentary looks like in the digital age”, but he has “faced a backlash over some of his comments”, said The Guardian, including reportedly saying in 2019 that “America deserved 9/11”.

He has stood by his characterisation of Hamas as “1,000 times better” than Israel, and his claim that he “would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time”, arguing he is not antisemitic but anti-Israel.

Why have they been banned?

According to The Times, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood decided to ban the pair “due to fears they could fuel antisemitism”.

Home Office decisions to refuse or cancel an electronic travel authorisation, which allows foreign nationals visa-free travel to the UK for up to six months, are “based on an assessment of the potential risk an individual may pose to UK society”.

In April, Mahmood launched a taskforce to identify extremists who were planning to come to the UK, so she could ban them before they travel. In May, 11 “far-right agitators” were barred from entering the UK to join Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally in London. Islamist hate preachers have also been prohibited from entering the country, as has US rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, due to his history of antisemitic remarks.

In the case of Uygur it was judged his presence would risk exacerbating antisemitism due to his rhetoric since the 7 October Hamas attacks in 2023, which “has included repeating classic antisemitic tropes”, such as the claim that Israel controls America, said The Times.

What has their reaction been?

In a series of posts on X, Uygur said he has been banned from the UK “for criticising Israel”, related in part to his claim that “Israel controls the American government through donations to 94% of Congress”.

“Are we free any more? This is oppression of Western citizens by our own governments on behalf of a different country!” he added.

Replying to Uygur, Piker said the UK has revoked his visa “all at the behest of Israel”. “The West is betraying ‘liberal values’ for a genocidal fascist foreign government. Soon we will all become Israel.”

Was a ban the right move?

Left-wing outlet Novara Media’s Ash Sarkar, who was due to chair a discussion with Piker at SXSW, said that the decision was evidence of an “authoritarian turn motivated by Labour’s fear of being called antisemitic, and fear of being called out for their position on the genocidal war on Gaza”.

“You don’t foster community cohesion by having the government ban people from speaking,” she said.

“We can argue about who should be allowed into the United Kingdom, and where the line between offensive opinion and public danger should fall,” said broadcaster Jonathan Sacerdoti in The Spectator. But while “we can disagree on individual cases”, there “must be a distinction between protecting open argument and importing those whose public role is to turn conspiracy into cash”.

At the end of a winding tree-lined driveway, this grand country house appears suddenly, like a dame at a ball. The late Victorian-era mansion, set in 66 acres of prime Hampshire parkland and gardens, certainly makes a statement.

When you step through the entrance archway onto the marble floor, you’re greeted with floor-to-ceiling walnut panelling that sweeps up the staircase, overlooked by gilt-framed portraits of past residents. This Grade II-listed hotel might boast a spa and award-winning restaurant, but it still feels like a grand country house (I imagine).

Why stay here?

Have you ever wanted to step into the pages of a Regency novel and be transported to a world of balls, halls and primogeniture? This is the place to do it. In fact, Tylney Hall is near many important Jane Austen sites. Her cottage, where she wrote “Pride and Prejudice”, is about a half-hour drive away, as is her grave, in the north nave aisle of Winchester Cathedral. The hotel itself feels familiar to fans of her work; you can imagine Mr Darcy brooding in a corner of the Library Room, or Elizabeth Bennet roaming the grounds.

Tylney Hall is the first of three Elite Hotels, an independent group that has carefully taken on some of the UK’s foremost historic homes. Tylney Hall has a fascinating provenance dating back hundreds of years, first as a home, then a First World War hospital, a school and the HQ of a shipping line. It’s worth reading the various information plaques dotted around the mansion and sprawling grounds. The Italian Lounge, for example, has a magnificent blue-and-gold ceiling imported from the Grimation Palace in Florence in the late 19th century.

Some of the 113 rooms are as you’d hope: fit for minor aristocracy. Think massive suites inside the mansion with four-poster beds, marbled bathrooms, and sitting rooms with views across the lawn. All that’s missing is a butler.

But some are located in the courtyard or gardens, and inexplicably furnished like student halls. To get to the spa, you have to walk back via gravelled pathways through the trees in your robe and slippers, braving inclement weather and darkness (there is zero lighting). Sneaking around like a scullery maid feels like a big ask on a spenny weekend break. Perhaps you’d do better to stay in the bathroom with the gorgeous Molton Brown toiletries.

Eating and drinking

The continental breakfast buffet is so comprehensive that I discovered a new type of jam. Dietary requirements are well catered for; every possible intolerance from celery to sesame is marked on the menu, and every milk substitute is available, which surprised me in an English country hotel. But the best items are à la carte – if you haven’t the space for the full English, with hand-linked, butcher-fresh pork sausages, go for the smoked salmon with perfectly poached eggs, or the filled pancakes with banana and crème fraîche.

The afternoon tea in the Grey Lounge is popular: a theatrical affair, with homemade pastries and silver teapots. Dinner is served in the opulent Oak Room Restaurant, and like the curtains, the menu skews towards rich, heavy and conventionally British. Mains like baked pork belly with rose harissa and coriander couscous, salmon poached in browned butter with mussel and cockle risotto, and a sharing Chateaubriand with chips are all presented with a flourish on white tablecloths, accompanied by the tinkling of a grand piano.

The beef fillet with wild mushroom gratin and autumn black truffle is the stand-out – but take care. The prices aren’t on the menu for a reason; lay off the starters and sides unless you want a hefty bill at check-out. I ended my evening with a stiff drink in the Library Bar, curled up in front of the fire like a Bridgerton earl.

Things to do

The outdoor pool, in pride of place within a walled Dutch garden, is a focal point in summer – weather permitting. The high trees shade half the sunbeds, so you’ll need to get up early to grab a good spot.

The indoor swimming pool area is beautiful; light floods in from the arched glass roof and through floor-to-ceiling windows. The problem is the acoustics. If you’re in there alone, the silence is funereal, but as soon as anyone opens their mouth for a chat, the noise is deafening. One hen party group nearly brought the roof down. Some low-fi chill, or generic spa music, would help the ambience. But otherwise, it’s a breathtaking bit of architecture.

You can fill your boots with genteel country pursuits: a game of golf or tennis, croquet, clay pigeon shooting and walking trails. Don’t miss the water gardens, designed by renowned horticulturalist Gertrude Jekyll, as well as lakes of Monet-style water lilies and a pond of fancy koi carp.

The verdict

Tylney Hall is conveniently located near Junction 5 of the M3, and a short taxi hop from the village station of Hook if you’re coming by train. But it feels like a world away from modern life.

It would be a shame to treat it as a spa-break destination, however – treatments are extortionately priced, and the facilities are limited. Consider it instead as a luxurious visit to a bygone era.

The jewel in its crown is the grounds: ancient trees, rolling hills, manicured formal lawns, rose and azalea flowerbeds, and an Italian garden complete with statues and a fountain. Follow the trails that wind through the gardens and orchard, then sit by the Boathouse Lake, taking in views of the house, and imagining the lives of those who once called it home.

Harriet Marsden was a guest of Tylney Hall Hotel and Gardens, part of the Elite Hotels Group

‘The White House is the new Green Zone’

Matt Viser at The Atlantic

The White House “can be thought of as the new Green Zone,” says Matt Viser, referring to Baghdad’s protected governmental area. The American capital’s centerpiece is “laced with fencing, sensors, jammers, cameras, armed guards, bunkers, drone interceptors, and surface-to-air missiles — all of which speak to how we now protect, and isolate, our leaders.” Iraq’s Green Zone “created a false sense of tranquility,” while the White House “still has a modicum of openness” but “only because of all the security protections that a visiting tourist can’t necessarily see.”

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‘A ceasefire alone won’t solve Lebanon’s mental health crisis’

Kelly Razzouk at Time

May was “Mental Health Awareness Month — and the Lebanese people have gone unnoticed,” says Kelly Razzouk. A “ceasefire would bring desperately needed peace and stability, but it will not heal the invisible wounds left behind or erase the trauma that so many in Lebanon now carry.” As in “all humanitarian crises, children pay the highest cost.” Governments “must ensure that people in conflict zones are not abandoned at the exact moment psychological trauma becomes most acute.”

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‘Kash Patel wrongly takes credit for falling crime rates’

John Pfaff at MS NOW

Falling crime rates “are unequivocally good news,” says John Pfaff. But FBI Director Kash Patel “found it necessary to include the overwrought self-aggrandizing commentary that characterizes announcements from this administration.” But the agency, no “matter its director or the presidential administration, has never been a major driver of crime trends.” The FBI “has never been large enough to exert a significant effect on crime rates, and under Trump and Patel, it has become smaller still and less focused on crime.”

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‘Rideshare win could bring big changes’

David Madland at The Progressive

Uber and Lyft drivers in Massachusetts “recently secured a major breakthrough in the struggle for union representation of rideshare drivers,” says David Madland. Similar laws “have spread to California and could soon be adopted in Illinois,” and “these laws would create a model of unionization that could improve other kinds of jobs and revive the labor movement.” While “rideshare companies have developed an industry in which it is particularly difficult to create good jobs, the new laws hold promise.”

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It is not too early to start picking out your summer reading list because a slew of new releases promise to keep June interesting. Standouts for the perfect summer beach read include a highly anticipated debut of a speculative fiction rising star and several historical-fiction options.

‘Land’ by Maggie O’Farrell

The bestselling author of “Hamnet” and “The Marriage Portrait” returns with a novel about Ireland in the 1860s, during the years before and after the Great Hunger. “Land” follows a man named Tomás and his son Liam as they work on the Ordnance Survey, a project to map the whole of Ireland for the British Crown.

Through its characters, the book “stages an argument about the virtues of various types of maps—those that are measured, those that are recollected, those that are dreamed,” said The New Yorker. In her latest work, “the facts ground the fiction, the fiction enlivens the facts,” and both “work together to suggest that the pursuit of resurrecting the past and the pursuit of telling a good story can, in some cases, be one and the same.” (June 2, $32, Penguin Random House, Amazon)

‘A Resistance History of the United States’ by Tad Stoermer

Historian Tad Stoermer reframes American history by revisiting past resistance movements, such as the Salem Witch Trials and the Underground Railroad. Through these examples, Stoermer “dismantles the mythologies that pass for American history — exposing the curated nostalgia, moral evasions and institutional silences that have long protected abusive power,” said the publisher. (June 2, $20, Penguin Random House, Amazon)

‘Sublimation’ by Isabel J. Kim

Isabel J. Kim has made a name for herself in the genre of speculative fiction. The winner of the Nebula, Locus and Shirley Jackson prizes for her short stories is publishing her debut novel about immigration and doppelgangers this summer.

Across “Sublimation,” immigration is explored through a science-fiction lens in a world where emigrating creates a second “instance” of the person who stays behind in their home country. The story follows Soyoung Rose Kang, a Korean immigrant in America, who comes face to face with her clone when she returns to South Korea for a funeral. Kim’s “pulls in historical, cultural and literary examples of ‘instancing’” before “recasting them all in the brilliant light of her imagination,” said The New York Times. (June 2, $29, Macmillan, Amazon)

‘Daughters of the Sun and Moon’ by Lisa See

Best-selling author Lisa See returns with another historical fiction novel that illuminates a dark era of American history. The story focuses on the real-life “Night of Horrors” massacre of 18 Chinese immigrant men and boys in post-Civil War Los Angeles in 1871.

The novel is told through the shifting narration of three Chinese women whose friendship helps them survive the chaotic time. See offers a “stunning piece of historical fiction based in truth,” said Library Journal. Her book will “touch readers with the characters’ resilience, heroism and devoted friendship.” (June 9, $29, Simon & Schuster, Amazon)

‘Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep’ by Paul Tremblay

Paul Tremblay’s near-future, genre-blending sci-fi horror novel explores timely themes of AI, reality and memory. Julia Flang, a semi-professional gamer, was tasked with chaperoning a man in a vegetative state, who happens to have proprietary AI implanted in his head. What follows is a humorous, surreal and terrifying journey across the country. For fans, it will not “come as a surprise that Tremblay ends it all on a nicely gory note,” said Kirkus Reviews. A “smart and smart-alecky tale of technology put to bad ends by bad people.” (June 30, $30, HarperCollins, Amazon)

Even before a Russian drone hit a Romanian apartment complex last week, European leaders were worried that Vladimir Putin is preparing to amplify his war beyond the Ukrainian territory he has failed to conquer.

There is “growing fear” that Putin will undo the current stalemate by “expanding the conflict to Europe,” said The Wall Street Journal. The Kremlin has made “increasingly bellicose threats” against neighboring Baltic states, and Russian drones approached Lithuanian airspace last month. Putin broadly aims to “threaten the whole European security architecture,” Benjamin Haddad, France’s minister for European affairs, said to the outlet. Russian leaders are encouraging such fears. European authorities “have unilaterally entered into a war with Russia” by supporting Ukraine, the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on X after the Romanian incident. “The peaceful sleep is over.“

What did the commentators say?

Putin might be “starting to think about the next war,” David Ignatius said at The Washington Post. He might see the opportunity to strike “before European nations fully rearm,” and while U.S. President Donald Trump is “treating NATO like a punching bag.” The Russian leader might soon decide that his moment to “challenge NATO and impose a new order is closing.” A continent-wide war is a “chilling prospect.“

A new Russian attack is “plausible,” and NATO is “vulnerable” unless member countries “get their act together,” Alexander Gabuev, the director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said at The New York Times. Putin sees NATO as a “major threat to Russia’s security.” The organization’s defense sector now “produces more tanks, shells and missiles” than before the Ukraine invasion. And Putin has surrounded himself with “sycophants” who are “afraid to speak the truth.” Europe is entering “the most dangerous period.“

Europe “needs to be united to fend off Russian aggression,” Tom Clifford said at the Kyiv Post. Ukraine’s defense against invasion is “protecting Europe,” but that does not mean Europe’s leaders “have secured the continent” from Russia’s war-making. Putin knows European opposition is “less than it should be.” The democracy embraced by Europe since World War II “always has to be fought for.”

What next?

The Russian drone that hit Romania on Friday “has only added to the wariness Europeans feel” as the war in Ukraine persists, said The New York Times. Moscow’s ongoing “campaign of cyberattacks and sabotage against critical infrastructure” is a warning to NATO countries and an attempt to force a conclusion to the war in Ukraine. Putin is attempting to “reestablish some form of dominance” to settle the war “from a position of strength,” Ivo Dalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said to the outlet.

Ukraine’s wartime success “should not lead us to underestimate Russia,” Peter Dickinson said at The Atlantic Council. Many Europeans seem “unimpressed” by the threat. But Moscow’s “expansionist agenda” and “well-armed military” signal that Russia will “remain a hostile power” as long as Putin is in charge.

Spencer Pratt is the latest entrant in the reality-TV-to-politics pipeline. Pratt made his name as the villain on “The Hills” during the late aughts. Now he is a contender to be the next mayor of Los Angeles.

Polls show Pratt “within striking distance” of incumbent mayor Karen Bass in Tuesday’s primary election, said CNN. AI-produced viral videos have powered his campaign, which is focused on “frustration with the city’s leadership” amid “overlapping crises” — wildfires, Hollywood’s decline, homelessness — that have left L.A. with “deep uncertainty about its future.” Pratt, who waded into politics after losing his home in last year’s Palisades fire, betrays little such uncertainty about his chances. “I’m for sure going to be mayor,” he said to Vanity Fair. The message and the messenger both remind observers of President Donald Trump, who last week endorsed Pratt’s campaign.

‘Shining a light’ on city failures

The novice candidate has “captivated a frustrated Los Angeles,” Susan Shelley said at The Orange County Register. Rather than running a vacuous vanity campaign, Pratt has been “shining a light on the visible failures of Los Angeles government.” Those failures have left the city residents mired in “crushing utility bills, unaffordable insurance, dangerous parks, unsafe sidewalks, homeless encampments” and other challenges. Pratt could be a mayor “who solves problems instead of preserving them to justify more funding.”

The reality star is “betting that infamy can be political currency,” Louis Staples said at The Atlantic. On “The Hills,” Pratt established himself as an “agitator” who found celebrity by “fighting with the other cast members and even with his own family.” That turned the show into “addictive viewing” plus taught Pratt a lesson about “narrative control.” TV stars and politicians both use tabloid leaks, social media and podcast appearances as part of a wide-ranging strategy to “influence how they’re perceived.” Pratt is a political newcomer, “but he’s been playing this game for years.”

Pratt is part of a line of mostly Republican stars who have “leveraged their reality TV fame into political careers,” Lorraine Ali said at The Los Angeles Times. Pratt and Trump can “push conflict, drama and personality” so far in the social media era that “no one will ask what exactly it is that you do beyond posting.” Pratt has accomplished that much. “But what about his ability to govern?”

‘Almost certainly toast’

Pratt’s strong polling probably “represents a consolidation of the small but very real conservative minority” of Los Angeles voters who see him as a MAGA candidate, Ed Kilgore said at New York. The city’s broader left-leaning electorate puts a “pretty firm ceiling on Pratt’s vote” that will make it difficult for him to win the mayor’s office in November. Instead, his candidacy “may be the best thing that could have happened to Karen Bass.” Pratt may well survive Tuesday’s nonpartisan primary election, but “he’s almost certainly toast against a Democrat in a general election.”

What happened

President Donald Trump will headline the “Great American State Fair,” a 16-day event on the National Mall to celebrate America’s 250th birthday, event organizers said Saturday. Freedom 250 — the public-private group he created to run semiquincentennial activities — said that Trump “will personally kick off this historic celebration,” hours after he suggested he replace the “highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists’” who dropped out due to the event’s partisan overtones.

Who said what

Trump early Saturday said on social media he wanted to hold “an AMERICA IS BACK Rally” where he — the “Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime” and “THE GOAT!” — would give a “major speech” to rally the country. He then posted that Freedom 250 should hold a “giant MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY, for 250, instead of having overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain.”

What next?

After Martina McBride, Young MC, Morris Day and the Time, the Commodores and Poison’s Bret Michaels pulled out, the only confirmed acts are Vanilla Ice, Flo Rida and Milli Vanilli’s Fab Morvan. A senior administration official told The New York Times that someone will likely be fired over the concert rollout “mess.”

What happened

A cancer drug decades in the making significantly extended and improved the life of patients whose metastatic pancreatic cancer had stopped responding to previous treatments, researchers reported Sunday in The New England Journal of Medicine and at an American Society for Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago. In a study of 500 last-stage pancreatic patients, those assigned Revolution Medicine’s daraxonrasib pill lived an average of 13.2 months versus 6.7 months for those undergoing chemotherapy. They also experienced fewer side effects.

Who said what

The “hotly anticipated” findings suggest researchers have “cracked one of the most stubbornly lethal cancers” by blocking mutated KRAS genes responsible for most pancreatic tumors, The Washington Post said. Daraxonrasib “ticks all of the boxes,” Dr. Rachna Shroff of the University of Arizona Cancer Center, who wasn’t involved in the study, told The Associated Press. “Having treated pancreatic cancer for 16 years, I actually started crying” at the results.

What next?

“Dozens of experimental drugs” targeting cancer-causing gene mutations are in development, stoking “optimism that this may be a turning point in the quest” for new treatment options, the AP said. Revolution Medicine is now testing daraxonrasib in earlier-stage cancer and in combination with other treatments.

What happened

Israel on Sunday said its military had captured Beaufort Castle, a 900-year-old hilltop fortress in Lebanon that served as an Israeli base from 1982 to 2000. The seizure of the strategic Crusades-era fortress was a “dramatic step” toward Israel’s new goal to “deepen and expand our grip on the places that were under Hezbollah’s control,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Who said what

Israel made its “deepest incursion inside Lebanon” since its 2000 withdrawal “despite a nominal U.S.-brokered ceasefire” and the first direct Israel-Lebanon talks in decades, The Associated Press said. Israel’s advance is also “complicating negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, which has made an end to fighting” in Lebanon “one of its conditions for a deal,” The Wall Street Journal. Netanyahu “has come under heavy pressure from critics who say he has allowed the U.S. to tie his hands in fighting” Hezbollah.

Military experts said capturing Beaufort “was unlikely to protect Israeli forces from Hezbollah’s cable-borne drones,” The New York Times said. And despite the “increasing domestic pressure to ramp up Israeli attacks in Lebanon,” Netanyahu’s options appear “limited to avoid totally derailing the talks with Iran,” a “higher priority” for President Donald Trump.

What next?

France requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday. “Nothing can justify the prolongation of Israeli military operations in Lebanon and its increasingly deep occupation of Lebanese territory,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

Nvidia has unveiled a new superchip for personal computers, marking its first entry into the lucrative consumer market.

“This reinvention of the computer is as big a deal as the reinvention of the phone into what we now know as the smartphone,” Nvidia’s chief executive Jensen Huang said, as he unveiled the RTX Spark chip at the Computex technology show in Taiwan on Monday.

‘Real game-changer’

Selling artificial intelligence chips used in enormous data centres has helped Nvidia become the world’s most valuable company, currently worth more than $5 trillion (£3.7 trillion). “Now it’s looking to put its technology in people’s homes,” said The New York Times’ Tripp Mickle.

The RTX Spark is a “new superchip for the era of personal AI agents – offering a new class of computer that moves from tool to teammate”, Nvidia said on its website.

Expected to be released in the autumn, it will power laptop and desktop computers from Dell, HP, Microsoft, Lenovo and others and is designed to run local AI systems that can sort files and quickly perform tasks.

The move into personal computing fires a “warning shot across the bow” of historic industry leaders such as AMD, Apple and Intel, said TechRadar, which described the move as a “real game-changer”.

Intel, Microsoft’s long-term partner, was once the “undisputed king of PCs”, but its performance has “slipped in key areas like battery life” in recent years, said Mickle. In 2021, Microsoft made it possible to run Windows software with processers from rival providers, creating an opportunity Nvidia has now exploited.

With the RTX Spark, the company will be hoping to move in on the growing market for AI computers that is currently dominated by Apple, which ditched Intel processors for its own hugely popular and powerful M-series chips in 2020.

“Apple more or less owns this market today,” Max Weinbach, a technology analyst at Creative Strategies, a tech research firm, told The New York Times. “Nvidia wants to build a laptop ecosystem for Windows that’s an alternative.”

An AI supercomputer in every home

The chip “lies at the heart of Nvidia’s push to embed AI directly into end-user devices, aiming to transform PCs into personal assistants which perform various tasks such as searching email, fixing coding bugs and accelerating generative AI features in software including Adobe Photoshop”, said Aqsa Qaddus Tahir on The News International.

Shohag Hossain, a digital creator, posted on X that the Nvidia-Microsoft partnership had “quietly built the hardware layer that makes AI run locally, privately, instantly, no cloud needed”. The result is your laptop “becomes an AI agent that works offline”, which means “no more sending your data to some server farm”.

“The real competition isn’t Apple vs Windows any more, it's who owns the AI that runs on your device.”

This new superchip could be the first step towards AI supercomputers becoming a common home appliance in the future, in the way that home theatres, large televisions, lawn mowers and dishwashers are not unusual, Huang told the conference in Taiwan.

“I could totally imagine someday there’s an AI supercomputer in your house,” he said. “It’s running all of your agents, it’s running all your assistants, and they’re doing all kinds of things for you all the time.”

Investigators have raided the headquarters of Spain’s governing party as part of a probe into the alleged misuse of party funds, the latest in a “blizzard of corruption scandals” to hit the reign of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, said Politico.

“Scandal after scandal” involving political allies and relatives of Sánchez have left him “on the ropes”, said the outlet.

What are the scandals? 

An investigating judge has accused the former PM, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, of leading a criminal network that used his influence to arrange a €53 million Covid-era government bailout for the Spanish Plus Ultra airline. He is accused of receiving a total of €2.6 million from the network, and has been charged with criminal organisation, influence peddling and falsifying documents.

Zapatero, who denies the charges, is a close ally of Sánchez, who was in government when the airline was bailed out, so the scandal has embroiled the current PM.

Sánchez’s number three, Santos Cerdán, and another party figure, José Luis Ábalos, have been caught up in a public contract kickback scheme. To make it worse, evidence also emerged that Ábalos paid prostitutes. Both men deny involvement in the kickback scheme.

In a separate case last autumn, the attorney general, Álvaro García Ortiz, a government selection, was found guilty of revealing secrets.

And a party operative, Leire Díez, has been accused of being paid to “carry out a campaign of misinformation” with the intention of “impeding” the legal cases connected to the party, said the BBC. She has also denied any wrongdoing.

What about his family?

Last month, Sánchez’s wife Begoña Gómez was charged with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of funds. She denies the charges and Sánchez has described this case as an “obscene farce”.

His brother, David, is on trial along with 10 other defendants, in an unrelated case, on charges of influence-peddling in his appointment to a musical director post in 2017. He denies the charges.

What does this mean for Spain?

Sánchez originally came to power on an anti-corruption ticket in 2018, after a corruption scandal brought down the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy. Although Sánchez has not been directly implicated in any of the investigations, questions over whether he knew about, tolerated, or benefited politically from the alleged actions of those around him are particularly damaging to his standing.

The tensions between the government and opposition parties on the matter are creating even deeper polarisation. With allegations that party operatives tried to undermine police officers or judicial investigations, broader questions are being raised about institutional independence and public trust in the courts, police and political parties.

Crucially, it is “increasingly awkward” for Sánchez’s allies to “stick with him” as the “scale” of the alleged corruption “comes into focus”, said Politico. Although officially Spain does not have to hold elections until next August, the prime minister “may be forced to move earlier”.

Meanwhile, he has dismissed the allegations as a right-wing plot to undermine his coalition, but the opposition conservative People’s Party said the government “stinks” of corruption.

When Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin first suggested blocking some international flights from cities that didn’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement during an April Fox News appearance, it “seemed more like a wild swing than a real plan,” said The Atlantic. Now, Mullin’s seemingly far-fetched pitch to remove immigration agents from certain airports and reroute flights to Republican-led cities feels increasingly plausible. If the plan is enacted, airline experts and officials warn the impact could be catastrophic across multiple vectors.

‘Devastating effect’

Removing Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents from international airports “would cause immediate and lasting harm,” said the U.S. Travel Association in a press release. A CBP drawdown may have a “devastating effect on the airline and tourism industries,” said trade association Airlines for America in a statement to CNN, causing “significant operational disruption to carriers, travelers and the flow of international cargo.”

The travel industry is “on edge” with worries that Mullin’s comments could “jeopardize international flights,” said The Associated Press. Major airlines “quickly condemned the idea,” and “even Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it doesn’t make sense to him.” The government “shouldn’t shut down air travel in a state that doesn’t agree with our politics,” said Duffy at a congressional hearing last month. Duffy also said he would “like to learn more about the context” of the proposal and “maybe ask Mullin a question about what he meant,” the AP said.

The Justice Department last month published a list of states and cities it claimed were “impeding U.S. immigration policies,” said CNBC. Among the locales listed were “major international air hubs” including Boston, Newark, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

‘Thin grasp of global-travel logistics’

Mullin is “pushing forward” with his plan despite concerns, said The Atlantic. Last month he convened a “small group of airline and travel-industry executives at DHS headquarters in Washington” and reportedly discussed reductions in CBP staffing at “major airports that serve sanctuary jurisdictions,” such as JFK in New York and Dulles in Washington, D.C. The secretary’s plans seemed to “reflect a thin grasp of global-travel logistics” and displayed an “inflated sense of the government’s ability to impose economic pain on specific cities.”

It’s “not clear” how Mullin’s goal to block international travel to certain cities would “work in practice,” said Time. The proposal is “actively insane,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, on X. Airlines would be forced to “cancel flights en masse,” which would cause “enormous economic damage” that extends “waaaaay beyond a few big cities that were the target.” It is also unlikely, said MS NOW, that officials in Democrat-run communities will be willing to “overhaul their approach to immigration policy” simply to “prevent Mullin from sabotaging many of the busiest airports in the Western Hemisphere.”