The Guardian

The former US first lady says she’s in counselling after her daughters left home. She and Barack should run around the house naked. Yodelling. With antlers on their heads

Your kids are the greatest love affair of your life, and that love is unconditional … Although wait, on second thoughts, there are a few conditions. No child must ever be allowed to take up the bagpipes, drums or descant recorder. Come meal times there are two options – spag bol or adoption. No mother should have to teach a child to drive while simultaneously going through the menopause. And, most important of all, progeny must be out the door by 24.

The sly wit of this documentary shines through as it follows a toxically masculine fitness influencer who consumes so many raw animal organs you can almost taste the salmonella. It is frequently hilarious

For many young men, masculinity is sold as an obsession with protein, and a personality that answers the question “What if WWE was real, and all the time?” Which brings us to Netflix’s explosive new documentary. Untold: The Liver King (out Tuesday 13 May), real name Brian Johnson, is a fitness influencer who promotes “ancestral living” as the solution to enervating modernity. This includes a great deal of hollering and extreme workouts, saying the word “alpha” a lot, plus eating a carnivorous diet of raw animal organs, including an unfeasible amount of genitals.

From Barbarian invasions and lead poisoning to Saturday Night Fever and the shipping forecast, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 What did Thomas Austin notoriously introduce to Australia in 1859?
2 Which social media site’s founder is married to Serena Williams?
3 What shipping forecast area is named after a UK city?
4 What is the chemical formula for diamond?
5 Which literary character loved “life; London; this moment of June”?
6 Where did Eoka fight against British rule?
7 What contains 42 vowels and 56 consonants?
8 Which monarch commissioned and was depicted in the Wilton Diptych?
What links:
9 Do the Right Thing; Goodfellas; Moonstruck; Radio Days; Saturday Night Fever?
10 Lena; Mackenzie; Ob; Yenisey; Yukon?
11 Encyclopedia Britannica (2010); New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001); Oxford English Dictionary (1989)?
12 Air; butterfly; chef’s; French, Glasgow?
13 Barbarian invasions; Christianity; homosexuality; lead poisoning; plague?
14 Sarazen; Hogan; Player; Nicklaus; Woods; McIlroy?
15 Land; canton; oblast; vármegye; województwo?

As part of a Bafta TV special, the nominated actor talks about playing a dastardly lord in the small screen adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals, and whether he’d return to the Tardis

It is rare that TV shows are as much of a riot as Disney’s Rivals, the screen adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s 1980s bonkbuster about feuding media power players living in the Cotswolds. And David Tennant – as charismatic-but-dastardly TV boss Lord Tony Baddingham – is the show’s rioter-in-chief. In person, the 54-year-old is as charming as his character (if less wicked) – often hooting with laughter to emphasise a point. Rivals isn’t the Scottish actor’s first go at playing the bad guy. While the multi-award-winner is most famous for his stint in Doctor Who, he won an Emmy for his appearance as serial killer Dennis Nilsen in ITV’s Des and starred as a cheeky demon, alongside Michael Sheen, in Good Omens on Prime Video. Series one of Rivals ended with him getting walloped on the head with a TV award, but he promises he’s coming back for Rivals series two.

As he turns 99, the natural historian makes a passionate case for the planet’s oceans and the TikTok star returns with more pithy pop music. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Continue reading...

The rules-based world order is in retreat and violence is on the rise, forcing countries to rethink their relationships

In a week in which former allies in a redividing globe separately commemorated the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war, the sense of a runaway descent towards a third world war draws ever closer.

The implosion of Pax Americana, the interconnectedness of conflicts, the new willingness to resort to unbridled state-sponsored violence and the irrelevance of the institutions of the rules-based order have all been on brutal display this week. From Kashmir to Khan Younis, Hodeidah, Port Sudan and Kursk, the only sound is of explosions, and the only lesson is that the old rules no longer apply.

In 1929, Edgar Feuchtwanger was five years old and living with his family in Munich when Adolf Hitler moved into a flat opposite. At first, his parents thought they were safe hiding in plain sight – until they weren’t

The odds were against Edgar Feuchtwanger reaching the age of 100. He was born on 28 September 1924 into a time of poverty and political turmoil in post-first world war Germany. He was also born into a Jewish family in a society that was about to turn to National Socialism, an ideology that would ultimately be responsible for the murder of 6 million Jews. In 1929, when Feuchtwanger was five, something happened that made his long life even more unlikely. He got a new neighbour: Adolf Hitler.

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

Continue reading...

Imogen, 31, a commissioning editor for a publishing company, meets Sam, 28, a teaching assistant

What were you hoping for?
Not to have met him before, but to want to meet him again.

Continue reading...

Sweet, gooey soft cheese cased in flaky pastry is a cheese-lover’s delight. Serve with a pear and leaf salad for a weekend lunch

Imagine a cheeseboard in a tart, but one you can have as a main course rather than having to wait for pudding: that’s the brief I set for myself when I was thinking about today’s recipe. First, I needed an excellent cheese, which is where the sweet, tangy dolcelatte comes in. Then something crisp and flaky to eat it with – the pastry. And then something nutty, jammy and herby to break up the richness, hence the caramelised shallots and pine nuts. Serve with a sharp, vinegary and fruity salad for the full monty.