Exclusive: Planet is headed for at least 2.5C of heating with disastrous results for humanity, poll of hundreds of scientists finds

• aHopeless and brokena: why the worldas top climate scientists are in despair

Hundreds of the worldas leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) above preindustrial levels this century, blasting past internationally agreed targets and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet, an exclusive Guardian survey has revealed.

Almost 80% of the respondents, all from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), foresee at least 2.5C of global heating, while almost half anticipate at least 3C (5.4F). Only 6% thought the internationally agreed 1.5C (2.7F) limit would be met.

Exclusive: legislation creates a program to cancel all existing patient debt and block creditors from collecting past medical bills

Two prominent progressive lawmakers, the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and California congressman Ro Khanna, revealed on Wednesday a new bill aimed at eliminating medical debt.

The bill, introduced with Oregon senator Jeff Merkley and Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, would create a federal grant program to cancel all existing patient debt and amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to block creditors from collecting past medical bills. The legislation would also update billing requirements for medical providers and alter the Consumer Credit Reporting Act to prevent credit agencies from reporting information related to unpaid medical bills, alleviating the risk of such debt damaging patientsa credit histories.

US officials suggest already approved arms deliveries could be delayed and new shipments could face obstacles

Following the Biden administrationas decision to pause a weapons shipment to Israel over its plans for a Rafah invasion, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said:

Given the unprecedented humanitarian disaster that Netanyahuas war has created in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of children face starvation, President Biden is absolutely right to halt bomb delivery to this extreme, rightwing Israeli government. But this must be a first step.

The US must now use ALL its leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire, the end of the attacks on Rafah, and the immediate delivery of massive amounts of humanitarian aid to people living in desperation. Our leverage is clear. Over the years, the United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel. We can no longer be complicit in Netanyahuas horrific war against the Palestinian people.

• Champions League semi-final, 8pm BST kick-off (first leg: 2-2)
• Live scoreboard | Read Football Daily | And you can mail Scott

2 min: Sane tries to bring down a long pass but Mendy hassles him from behind and the Bayern man loses control.

38 sec: Kroos, making his 150th Champions League appearance tonight, sends in an aimless corner. Bayern clear their lines easily.

Vocalist, guitarist and producer for Nirvana, Pixies and PJ Harvey suffers heart attack at his recording studio

Steve Albini, the vocalist, guitarist and producer who was at the helm of a series of the most esteemed albums across the US alternative music scene, has died aged 61 from a heart attack suffered at his recording studio. Staff at his studio, Electrical Audio, confirmed the news to Pitchfork.

As well as fronting the bands Big Black, Rapeman and Shellac, who all pushed at the boundaries of post-punk and art-rock, Albini also produced a or, to use his preferred term, engineered a albums for dozens of artists including Nirvana, Pixies, PJ Harvey and Page and Plant. He was noted for his DIY and punk ethos, resisting streaming services and refusing to take royalties from the recordings he produced for other artists.

Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, indicted over death of nursing student whose body was found in February after she was reported missing

The suspect in the killing of the Augusta University student Laken Riley, 22, has been indicted on 10 charges, including malice murder and kidnapping.

Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, faces three counts of felony murder and several other accusations. Among the charges are new allegations that he intended to rape the student, and that he spied on a staff member at the University of Georgia on the same day Riley was killed.

Challenge cited California state law that allows plaintiffs and defendants to remove judge they believe canat grant impartial trial

The California judge presiding over Elon Muskas lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, has removed himself from the case. Judge Ethan Schulman on Monday sustained a challenge from Muskas lawyers, which cited a California state law that allows plaintiffs and defendants to remove a judge they believe cannot grant an impartial trial.

The law, known as California Code of Civil Procedure 170.6, does not require the person issuing the challenge to provide any factual basis for their claim that the judge is prejudiced against them. Each side in a case gets one such peremptory challenge, which is granted as long as it is filed with correct language and within a certain time frame.

Appeals court said it would allow Trump to challenge decision not to disqualify Willis over relationship with her deputy

The Georgia state court of appeals on Wednesday said it would consider an appeal from Donald Trump of an order allowing Fani Willis, the district attorney, to continue prosecuting his election interference case in Fulton county.

In a one-page order, the appeals court said it would allow Trump to challenge the decision not to disqualify Willis over her relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired to lead the Trump case. Scott McAfee, the trial judge overseeing the case, ruled in March that Willis could stay on the case as long as Wade resigned. Wade subsequently resigned the same day McAfee issued his decision.

Rasoulof is one of Iranas leading directors and his film The Seed of the Sacred Fig is due to premiere at Cannes film festival

The Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has been sentenced to eight years in prison, flogging, a fine and the confiscation of property, his lawyer has confirmed.

Writing on X, Babak Paknia, a human rights lawyer representing Rasoulof, said that the judgment was confirmed in a court of appeal and the case had now been sent for enforcement.

Former Spanish soccer federation chief faces one count of sexual assault and one of coercion for alleged actions in the aftermath

The former Spanish soccer federation chief Luis Rubiales will stand trial for his unsolicited kiss of the national team player Jenni Hermoso after a high court judge admitted the case, the court said on Wednesday.

Rubiales faces one count of sexual assault and one of coercion for his alleged actions in the aftermath of the kiss. The offences carry prison terms of one year and 18 months respectively.

Judge says case presents adeceptively complex question about the reasonable expectationsa of those that purchase such a flavor

Imagine you are at the ice-cream shop, an array of colorful flavors lie before you in a glass case. A flavor calls to you, its label reads apistachioa.

After your purchase, you look online at the ice-cream shopas website. Turns out, the pistachio ice-cream had no pistachios in it. Instead, it had apistachio flavoringa, made up of awater, ethanol, propylene, glycol, natural & artificial flavor, yellow 5 [and] blue 1a.

Itas less than six months until election day, and Donald Trump is choosing his running mate. Itas quite the spectacle

• Sign up for The Stakes: a free newsletter on the 2024 US presidential election

Hello there, and welcome to the Guardianas brand new US election newsletter. I hope youare having a nice week.

Itas less than six months until election day, and Donald Trump, when heas not in court or looking at racing cars, is spending time weighing his vice-presidential pick. Itas becoming quite the spectacle.

The decision to place a weapons shipment on hold sends a message to Netanyahu that the US dog is beginning to regain control of its tail

In placing a hold on a shipment of US-made bombs to Israel, and warning there could be more restrictions to come, Joe Biden is sending a message to Benjamin Netanyahu that his administration is no longer prepared to be a dog wagged by its own tail.

Netanyahuas repeated defiance of US warnings not to pursue an offensive on Rafah had been based on an assumption that curbing the US weapons supply could inflict more political damage on Biden than on the Israeli prime minister, and that Netanyahu could cause havoc for the president at home at the height of an election year.

Reliance on extremist allies such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich distancing prime minister from Israeli public

Israelas national security minister presented himself before the television cameras to make a statement on Sunday, shortly after leaving a meeting with the countryas prime minister.

Invoking divine support, Itamar Ben-Gvir said he had awarned the prime minister that if God forbids it, Israel will not enter a ceasefirea. He said Benjamin Netanyahu apromised that Israel would enter Rafah, that the war would not end, and promised that there will be no irresponsible deala.

Couples are holding smaller events, choosing alternative venues, or just running away together

The cost of living crisis. Mass layoffs. Inflation. To quote a meme: aYou want to have a wedding?! In this economy?!a

Actually, yes. Despite a challenging economic landscape and the average cost of a US wedding being $30,000 to $50,000, gen Z is still saying awe doa. (The average cost was $27,000 in 2006.)

The rappersa fiery diss-battle has raised allegations of domestic violence and sex abuse a but for the wrong reasons

Drake and Kendrick Lamar have been battling it out for days in a vicious diss-track feud, but what started out as a sparring of wits between two of the worldas biggest rappers has quickly devolved into an excruciating game of who can expose the most damning thing about the other.

On his songs Meet the Grahams and Not Like Us, Lamar addresses Drakeas well-documented history of disturbing and inappropriate alleged behavior with minors, while on Family Matters, Drake has revived years-old domestic violence accusations against Lamar. Both Drake and Lamar deny any wrongdoing.

Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist

A new biopic, starring Maya Hawke, sheds more light on the short but impressive life of the American writer

The film American Fiction opens in a university classroom with Monk, played by Jeffrey Wright, teaching the literature of the American south. On a whiteboard is written aFlannery OaConnora and the title of one of her short stories. A title that contains the N-word. When a white student objects, Monk, who is Black, tells her: aWith all due respect, Brittany, I got over it, Iam pretty sure you can too.a The student walks out in tears.

American Fiction leaves it there but anyone provoked to learn more about OaConnor is in luck. Wildcat, an independent movie directed by Ethan Hawke and starring his daughter Maya Hawke, dips in and out of the life story and imagination of the novelist and short story writer who defined southern Gothic literature.

Late-night hosts discuss former adult film star Stormy Danielsas testimony in Trumpas criminal hush-money trial in New York

Late-night hosts talked awkward moments and shocking revelation from Stormy Danielsas day on the witness stand at Donald Trumpas criminal hush-money trial.

All-male private membersa club in London has voted in favour of women joining after Guardian coverage

• Garrick votes to accept female members for first time

Londonas Garrick Club has finally voted to allow women to become members, 193 years after it first opened its doors.

The vote was passed at the end of a private meeting during which several hundred members spent two hours debating whether to permit women to join. In the end, almost 60% backed the move.

As brick-and-mortar retail stores compete with e-commerce, chains are spending heavily to immerse customers in bespoke fragrances

When Dallas Pratt worked at an outpost of Aesop in an outdoor shopping mall outside Chicago, one of her and her co-workersa favorite ways of drawing in new customers was making a concoction they called asidewalk teaa. They would put a few drops of scented lotion in a cup of hot water, and then they would pour it on to the slab of concrete outside the shop. As the water evaporated, the smell of the lotion would fill the air.

aIt drew people in,a Pratt tells me. aThey asked questions. They spent time.a And, crucially, they bought stuff.

Reviled by the band when it came out and widely thought of as miserable, the film a restored to its original format a actually offers light and insightful moments

The most surprising thing about the reissue of Let It Be is that it commences with footage shot not in 1969 but last year: an interview between Peter Jackson and the filmas director, Michael Lindsay-Hogg. If nothing else, this suggests that Lindsay-Hogg is a good sport, given that Jacksonas eight-hour 2021 docuseries The Beatles: Get Back substantially retold the version of events depicted in Lindsay-Hoggas film about the Beatlesa 1969 recording sessions at Twickenham Studios and in the basement of their Apple HQ.

Furthermore, Get Back made Lindsay-Hogg himself look like a bit of a ninny, ceaselessly cajoling the Beatles to perform a filmed live performance in an amphitheatre in Tripoli a aTorchlit! In front of 2,000 Arabs!a a undaunted by various Beatles telling him to stick his idea, and indeed the Beatles apparently splitting up in front of him: his reaction to George Harrison quitting the band midway through filming was to recommence badgering a shattered and tearful-looking Paul McCartney about the amphitheatre gig. No wonder Jackson introduces him with the line: aI guess people might be asking themselves why you might be here talking to me.a

Even in a country less keen on US pop, singeras arrival is a big deal, boosting business for everyone from hotels to bakeries

She may be the owner of a bakery in the centre of a city famous for its millefeuilles and religieuses, but in recent days Beth Bejias team has been fielding requests for a rather different sort of cake: a Taylor Swift-themed sweet treat.

aThere is a huge obsession with Taylor Swift and we see it in the orders coming in,a said Beji, of Clove Bakery. aWeave had a lot of orders for custom layer cakes, cupcakes, cookies featuring her. Weave had requests for Taylor Swift on a stage with a microphone in fondant, Taylor Swift riding a unicorn, Taylor Swift album covers, cakes with her face on them a| The orders are very specific in the details.a

With their green card expiring soon, Rouhollah Aghasaleh of Cal Poly Humboldt has been suspended after joining a protest

As dozens of law enforcement officers stormed California State Polytechnic University at Humboldt last week, Rouhollah Aghasaleh, a professor of education, was giving students a lesson on what teargas feels like.

The students were part of a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had occupied two buildings on campus for a week, part of a nationwide protest movement on college campuses over the war in Gaza and its mounting humanitarian crisis. Aghasaleh was the sole faculty member among the Cal Poly students.

Social networking company reported $575m in losses, but strong revenue and an increase in users buoyed investor confidence

Reddit shares rose more than 15% in after-hours trading on Tuesday following its first quarterly earnings since going public in March. The company reported overall losses of $575m, citing expenses from its initial public offering for the decline. But strong revenue and user increases boosted confidence in the company after its long-awaited public offering.

Reddit reported a revenue of $243m during the first quarter of 2024 a an increase of 48% from the previous quarter. It also posted record user traffic, with daily active users increasing 37% to 82.7 million from the previous three months. The report comes after its initial public offering saw a positive response, with shares up 48% on the first day of trading.

Animals were strolling through the backyard of a house when they decided to take a bit of a swim in the pool

As southern California warms up this month, everyone is looking to soak up the sun while staying cool a even the bears.

A family of bears in Monrovia, about 30 minutes from Los Angeles, took a stroll through a backyard on Monday afternoon, exploring their surroundings and investigating a pool. Video captured by the homeas occupant Rick Martinez showed a bear and her cubs roaming the property and scratching a tree. At one point the adult bear hopped into the pool and went for a swim while two tiny cubs watched on curiously.

Joe Biden signed a bill giving ByteDance up to 19 January 2025 to sell TikTok to an approved buyer or risk being banned from the US

TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have sued to block a law signed by Joe Biden just weeks ago that would force the sale of the short video app or ban it from the US.

The companies filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the US government in the court of appeals for the District of Columbia, arguing the law is unconstitutional and violates free speech protections.

The aveepstakesa see prominent Republicans discarding any last shreds of integrity to impress Trump. Itas a grim omen

Kristen Welker, the moderator of NBCas Meet the Press, did her best to pin down Tim Scott last Sunday.

Would the junior senator from South Carolina state that he will accept the results of the 2024 presidential election no matter who wins? Pretty basic stuff, youad think, but apparently not.

Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist

Ending an unsafe relationship does not always end abuse. In my experience, it has only escalated the efforts to control and destroy me

I left an abusive relationship almost a decade ago, but my abuser has kept a noose around my neck every day since.

At the time we had four young children, including a 12-month-old baby.

My very American toddler can pick up a lot of things from the cartoon porker a but not an English accent. I wish Iad known that 12,000 episodes ago

When I first moved to the US from the UK, having an English accent was an asset. Back in the pre-Brexit era, it signalled sophistication and intelligence. Now? Not so much. Still, for some deep-seated reason probably best discussed with a therapist, I desperately want my very American toddler to develop an English accent. So, a little while ago, I devised a cunning plan: elongate her vowel sounds via the power of Peppa Pig.

This, Iall have you know, was not a lazy excuse for sticking her in front of a screen. It was a science-based, data-driven decision: there is endless anecdata that suggests American children are acquiring British accents because of the hugely popular TV show. (Linguists have cast doubt on these claims, but who listens to experts, eh?) So why not give it a go? Not to mention, Peppa Pig initially seemed a lot less annoying than American shows such as Daniel Tigeras Neighbourhood, which are full of cloying life lessons about how to navigate your emotions. There donat seem to be any life lessons in Peppa Pig: she just calls her dad fat all the time and jumps in muddy puddles. And, more importantly, she pronounces ato-mah-toa correctly.

Exclusive: plans revealed in new leaked dossier sent to unions ahead of crunch meeting with Keir Starmer

Labour has vowed it will change the law to ban fire and rehire, after a war of words with unions who accused the party of watering down its pledges on workersa rights.

The plans are revealed in a new leaked dossier, which was sent to trade unions ahead of a crunch meeting with Keir Starmer and contains sweeping plans for an overhaul of workersa rights including on employment status, protection against unfair dismissal and union representation.

Exclusive: Planet is headed for at least 2.5C of heating with disastrous results for humanity, poll of hundreds of scientists finds

• aHopeless and brokena: why the worldas top climate scientists are in despair

Hundreds of the worldas leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) above preindustrial levels this century, blasting past internationally agreed targets and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet, an exclusive Guardian survey has revealed.

Almost 80% of the respondents, all from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), foresee at least 2.5C of global heating, while almost half anticipate at least 3C (5.4F). Only 6% thought the internationally agreed 1.5C (2.7F) limit would be met.

MP says many in party think rightwing Tory defector is avilea, while shadow minister asks: aAre we welcoming Farage next week?a

Keir Starmer is facing shadow cabinet anger for welcoming into his party a rightwing Conservative MP who has repeatedly attacked Labour over migration.

Natalie Elphicke became on Wednesday the second Tory MP in two weeks to cross the floor of the Commons, dealing another major blow to Rishi Sunak.

Vocalist, guitarist and producer for Nirvana, Pixies and PJ Harvey suffers heart attack at his recording studio

Steve Albini, the vocalist, guitarist and producer who was at the helm of a series of the most esteemed albums across the US alternative music scene, has died aged 61 from a heart attack suffered at his recording studio. Staff at his studio, Electrical Audio, confirmed the news to Pitchfork.

As well as fronting the bands Big Black, Rapeman and Shellac, who all pushed at the boundaries of post-punk and art-rock, Albini also produced a or, to use his preferred term, engineered a albums for dozens of artists including Nirvana, Pixies, PJ Harvey and Page and Plant. He was noted for his DIY and punk ethos, resisting streaming services and refusing to take royalties from the recordings he produced for other artists.

Rasoulof is one of Iranas leading directors and his film The Seed of the Sacred Fig is due to premiere at Cannes film festival

The Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has been sentenced to eight years in prison, flogging, a fine and the confiscation of property, his lawyer has confirmed.

Writing on X, Babak Paknia, a human rights lawyer representing Rasoulof, said that the judgment was confirmed in a court of appeal and the case had now been sent for enforcement.

Domestic abuse commissioner criticises lack of warning of policy to free prisoners in England and Wales up to 70 days early

Survivors of domestic abuse have been put in danger by ministersa failure to give notice of the early release from prison of their abusers, a Home Office adviser has said.

Nicole Jacobs, the independent domestic abuse commissioner, criticised the lack of warning of a new policy to free prisoners up to 70 days early from full jails.

Christopher Kirker tells members that normal waiting times will apply for most women as concerns raised about tokenism

The chair of the Garrick has told its members that the club may consider aallowing one or two exceptional a| lady membersa to join in the near future but that normal waiting times will apply for the majority of women.

A leaked email from Christopher Kirker to all members on Wednesday described Tuesdayas vote ending the London institutionas men-only rules as amomentousa and addressed questions about how quickly the club might move to admit women.

• Champions League semi-final, 8pm BST kick-off (first leg: 2-2)
• Live scoreboard | Read Football Daily | And you can mail Scott

2 min: Sane tries to bring down a long pass but Mendy hassles him from behind and the Bayern man loses control.

38 sec: Kroos, making his 150th Champions League appearance tonight, sends in an aimless corner. Bayern clear their lines easily.

Former Spanish soccer federation chief faces one count of sexual assault and one of coercion for alleged actions in the aftermath

The former Spanish soccer federation chief Luis Rubiales will stand trial for his unsolicited kiss of the national team player Jenni Hermoso after a high court judge admitted the case, the court said on Wednesday.

Rubiales faces one count of sexual assault and one of coercion for his alleged actions in the aftermath of the kiss. The offences carry prison terms of one year and 18 months respectively.

Third-party US presidential candidate says 2010 issue acaused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then dieda

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the third-party candidate for US president, said a health problem he experienced in 2010 awas caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then dieda, the New York Times reported.

The startling words were contained in a divorce case deposition from 2012 the Times said it obtained.

Dover MP, who claimed her now former husbandas seat in 2019, has been criticised in the past by Labour

• UK politics live a latest updates

Natalie Elphicke, who has become Labouras newest MP after her shock defection from the Conservatives, has a track record that places her firmly on the right of British politics.

A lawyer who specialised in housing policy, she succeeded her now former husband a the disgraced former Tory Charlie Elphicke a as the MP for Dover. He was convicted and jailed for sexual assault in 2020.

James Watt steered the brewer to great success but a private equity stake and attending Nigel Farageas 60th suggest the edginess is gone

• BrewDogas James Watt to step down as chief executive of beer company

The extraordinary success of the Scottish beer and bars company BrewDog owes much to a shrewd realisation on the part of its co-founder, James Watt.

The 42-year-old, who announced his departure as chief executive on Wednesday, realised early on that punk, once a subculture, could be turned into a lucrative marketing brand.

Reliance on extremist allies such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich distancing prime minister from Israeli public

Israelas national security minister presented himself before the television cameras to make a statement on Sunday, shortly after leaving a meeting with the countryas prime minister.

Invoking divine support, Itamar Ben-Gvir said he had awarned the prime minister that if God forbids it, Israel will not enter a ceasefirea. He said Benjamin Netanyahu apromised that Israel would enter Rafah, that the war would not end, and promised that there will be no irresponsible deala.

It started from scratch a and became one of the worldas greatest collections. As the National Gallery celebrates its 200th birthday, we pick five sublime works a from a serene statesman to Van Goghas blazing blooms

The National Gallery in London is 200 years old on Friday, but what makes it so special? Founded in 1824 when public museums of fine art were in their infancy, it was different from rivals such as the Louvre (founded 1793) and the Prado (1819) because they inherited royal collections. By contrast, the National started from scratch and has intentionally built up the worldas most systematic corpus of European paintings. In that same thoughtful spirit, the gallery and the Guardian have charted a timeline of 20 of its masterpieces. Here are five of those to take you on a trip through 600 years of insight, sensitivity and genius.

He tackled a murderer to the ground to protect the public. But the draconian licence conditions of his a99-year sentencea meant that the first person he called was his probation officer

Marc Conway was regarded as a model IPP prisoner. Perhaps the model IPP prisoner. He received an indeterminate imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence at 30 for armed robbery. Before that, he had committed a long list of crimes including driving without a licence, selling class A drugs and firearm offences. He had spent eight years in jail. Now, here he was, a free man, studying with students from the University of Cambridge, working for the Prison Reform Trust and delivering speeches to the great and the good.

The date was 29 November 2019. The occasion was the fifth-anniversary celebration of an educational project in which Cambridge students and prisoners learned together. Conway, who had taken part in the project, had been asked to give a speech at Fishmongersa Hall, a Grade II* listed building in the City of London. aIt was a lovely sunny day. You never get that weather in November in London,a he says. aWe had food, we was laughing, we was joking, we was patting each other on the back. I was getting a bit nervous, because Iad only been out a year and I was still new to public speaking.a

A quick win is a quick win for Keir Starmer. Never mind the politics, just feel that Tory majority weakening

Some things you just donat see coming. Defections from the Tory party may be very on trend: just last month it was Dan Poulter. Or Dan Who? to his friends. But when Natalie Elphicke took her place right behind Keir Starmer on the Labour benches for prime ministeras questions there were open mouths on both sides of the Commons. Penny Mordaunt had to do a quick double-take. Could it be? Surely not. It was. She dashed to the speakeras chair to warn the prime minister.

Elphicke is no ordinary defector. Not some Tory wet like Dripping Dan. So centre-right one nation that she may as well have been Labour anyway. Natalie is about as far to the right as you can get. Not only that, but with an unpleasant backstory too.

Passengers waited more than three hours for passport checks on Tuesday, as the countryas 270 e-gates malfunctioned

Thousands of passengers were left waiting in queues for more than three hours at airports, on Tuesday evening, after a nationwide failure of the electronic passport gate technology system.

Nearly all major British airports were affected as the countryas 270 e-gates, the automated facial recognition systems at the border, were closed for more than four hours.

Thanks to soil bioengineering in a village in north India, a submerged road was accessible in less than one week, according to officials

On 14 August 2023, heavy rainfall in north India triggered flash floods and landslides, devastating the region. Kishori Lal, the sarpanch (head) of the Kothi Gehri village in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, recalls the events of that day: aOur link road connecting to the state highway and a few homes along that road were completely devastated.a

Torrential downpours in nearby Rewalsar, a picturesque lake town popular with tourists, led to several water bodies bursting their banks. The subsequent flooding and landslides wrecked homes in Lalas village, necessitating the evacuation of hamlets and severing vital links to the outside world. With roads submerged, the ensuing closure of the Mandi-Rewalsar-Kalkhar Road and link roads left scores of tourists stranded and local communities isolated.

Amid this chaos, the resilience of Nog, a village in Bilaspur district, stands out. While roads across the region, including those in and around Kothi Gehri, remained closed, the road leading to Nog was accessible in less than one week, according to officials.

Even in a country less keen on US pop, singeras arrival is a big deal, boosting business for everyone from hotels to bakeries

She may be the owner of a bakery in the centre of a city famous for its millefeuilles and religieuses, but in recent days Beth Bejias team has been fielding requests for a rather different sort of cake: a Taylor Swift-themed sweet treat.

aThere is a huge obsession with Taylor Swift and we see it in the orders coming in,a said Beji, of Clove Bakery. aWeave had a lot of orders for custom layer cakes, cupcakes, cookies featuring her. Weave had requests for Taylor Swift on a stage with a microphone in fondant, Taylor Swift riding a unicorn, Taylor Swift album covers, cakes with her face on them a| The orders are very specific in the details.a

He has collaborated with an array of star directors, and is currently at work on James Mangoldas Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. He explains why US film-making is like the army, and British cinema is more like a factory job

Phedon Papamichael is sitting in a sparse hotel room in New York, huddled in a puffer jacket and glancing at the window as his fingers play with an unlit cigarette. Heas in town shooting A Complete Unknown, the highly anticipated Bob Dylan biopic starring TimothA(c)e Chalamet a and today, at least, he seems to be channelling its subject.

The film, he says, at the moment largely involves atravelling to every corner of New Jersey on a busa. For Papamichael, king of the road movie, this is a very good thing.

The bakery that gave the world the APS25 croissant has gone one better. But is the giant new pastry made to be eaten a or posed with?

Name: The APS28 pain au chocolat.

Age: Fresh out of the oven.

It was hailed as a triumph: it is anything but. It reveals a party thatas lost its moral compass

Siri, show me a hollow victory.

It is easy to imagine the glee felt by Keir Starmeras advisers when Natalie Elphicke MP let them know she was minded to defect from the Tories to Labour. After all, nobody can accuse Doveras parliamentary representative of being a Tory wet. If she hasnat passed over your radar before, and youare trying to place her politically, the better-known Jacob Rees-Mogg or Priti Patel would not be unfair comparisons. If Elphicke a Elphicke! a wants a spot in Labouras tent, then nobody can accuse Starmer of harbouring some secret lefty agenda!

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

Last nightas membership vote is a step in the right direction, but this remains a closed, elite institution

Britainas aold boysa cluba suffered a blow last night. The Garrick Club a an exclusive gentlemenas club in central London and relic of some 19th-century fantasy of male dominance a voted to allow women to become members for the first time in almost 200 years. About 60% of the votes were in favour.

In the 21st century, there is simply no legitimate justification for the exclusion of women. There actually never was. That the Garrick Clubas exclusionary policy has been so robustly defended in recent weeks speaks to a profound misogyny alive and well in Britain. What would including women do to the refined, rarefied air of the club? Contaminate it with our chit-chat? Our nagging? Would our feminine charms prove too much of a distraction?

The refrain of anothing to see herea is all too familiar to so many women. Itas not a work meeting, itas just a couple of holes at the golf course. Itas just blowing off steam. Itas just a couple of drinks with the guys. We didnat think you would want to come. But itas not plausible to say that work doesnat happen in spaces like the Garrick, and that these arenat places where, even loosely, critical decisions are made. Clubs like the Garrick are built for soft networking, the sidebar conversations where real power coalesces, uninterrupted by pesky women. A sense that you belong among its exclusive cohort is in and of itself a means of sustaining male power.

The proof is in the revelation of the names of about 60 of the Garrickas most influential members. Senior civil servants, politicians, the head of MI6 (who subsequently resigned from the club), even King Charles. These men quite literally reign over the most powerful institutions of our country, places where women are consistently underrepresented and underserved. Rhetorically, they are committed to driving equality. Some of them tweet on International Womenas Day. But these commitments ring very hollow when you realise that men in power choose to spend their spare time in a club that was founded in 1831, and has scarcely changed since.

We also have to consider what we lose when we keep women at the door. Do the 40% of Garrick members who voted against allowing women in believe that only men make worthy contributions to arts, politics, culture? These men would do well to consider what we miss out on when we fail to recognise women as equal contributors and thinkers, with the right and ability to converse, share ideas and shape culture. What might the world look like if women were treated as true equals in these conversations?

The question will be asked about women-only spaces. If men-only clubs must permit women, what of womenas clubs? But there is a key difference. Men gathering in influential places to the exclusion of women is profoundly status quo. Theyave been doing it for hundreds of years. When senior politicians and policymakers take lunch together at the Garrick, they are reinforcing power structures that have existed for centuries. There are plenty of women-only spaces that will continue to exclude men, but they do so to resist power, not to hoard it. (For the record, the Fawcett Society welcomes and encourages our male allies to join us).

Last nightas vote may be a step in the right direction, but of course there are still plenty of reasons for discomfort. The Garrick remains an elite club where only a chosen few are invited, and even fewer can afford membership. Thatas a conversation that we must have. But itas important that a majority of members have accepted that to continue to exclude women is harmful and self-defeating. Now the real work begins of actively including a diversity of women. And Garrick members, new and old, need to ask themselves what they are doing to share and distribute power fairly a not guard it among their own.

Jemima Olchawski is the chief executive of the Fawcett Society

My day-to-day fashion style is that of an unmade bed. One attempt to smarten up had horrible consequences

I hate getting dressed up. Watching the Met Gala red carpet makes my legs go all itchy. As a child, getting dressed up entailed putting on trousers which had wool in them. And wool made me itch like hell. Theyad be the same trousers Iad been forced into the last time Iad been dragged off, in an ecstasy of discomfort, to the wedding of a distant cousin. Alterations would be necessary. Iad stand there while my mum faffed away with pins, ignoring my wails of protest. They are PICKY, I would bleat. Even thinking about wool makes me itch like hell. Wool is my hell. In Room 101, all theyad have to do is put me in a tight-fitting, 100% wool boilersuit and their work would be done.

Eventually, perhaps embarrassed by a child behaving as if he had fleas, action was taken. Silk linings were sewn into the cursed, itchy, picky, scratchy trousers to shield my little legs from the misery. This helped, but only up to a point. Merely knowing the wool was there made me itch. This Little Lord Fauntleroy, covertly clad in silk, would still move gingerly, aching for the moment he could take the bloody things off.

The climate crisis is making the farming business unsustainable a and without support for us, food security will suffer too

• Guy Singh-Watson is the founder of organic veg box company Riverford

Farming has always been a risky business. To the chaos of Brexit and the relentless squeezing of the supermarkets, we can add the rapidly escalating threats associated with climate change. In most industries, at the point where risk is judged to outweigh the potential commercial reward, both capital and people tend to make a swift exit, following economist Adam Smithas ainvisible handa of self-interest.

The problem with farming is that most farmers are emotionally invested in their work. An exit is seldom considered a perhaps we should be more like the bankers, but they wouldnat be much good at growing potatoes.

With national leaders facing war, political division and economic crisis, backing the EU chief for a second term is their best hope of unity

As 400 million EU citizens prepare to cast their votes in Juneas European elections, a new poll shows that it is Ursula von der Leyen who has caught votersa attention like no EU chief before her.

Our survey suggests that a large majority of Europeans today are aware that she is the European Commission president, considered to be the most powerful political office in the EU. Previous EU chief executives have been largely unknown to the public. But almost 75% are able to correctly identify von der Leyenas name and recognise her face. Five years ago, her predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker, scored only 40% recognition.

Catherine De Vries is Generali chair in European policies and professor at Bocconi University in Milan

Isabell Hoffmann is senior expert on Europe at the Bertelsmann Stiftung

Activists doubt Labouras cautious strategy, but many voters are looking for a aWeetabix candidatea a reassuring and uncontroversial

Amid the cacophony of post-election analysis over the weekend, one item struck me as especially bleak for Rishi Sunak. It wasnat the byelection defeat or the seismic swing away from the Tories. It wasnat even in a news programme. It was an advert.

aBritain hasnat been so great of late,a says a pastiche scientist. aEconomical, societal and sporting performance has dropped.a The reason: not enough Weetabix.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist