‘She is the daughter of immigrants,’ supporters of her cruel asylum policies say. ‘How can she be wrong?’ Let me put them straight

Over the past couple of weeks, Shabana Mahmood has launched not only her new asylum crackdown policy, but also her “story”. The two are inseparable: her story justifies the crackdown. It moralises the crackdown. And it silences criticism of the crackdown. Sold as an origin story from within an immigrant and racialised experience, the purpose is to imbue her politics with sacred authenticity – the credibility of the first person. It is clever and effective. It is cynical and disgraceful.

“I am the child of immigrants” is how Mahmood now starts her fable. Immigrants who came here legally. She goes on to tell us that immigration is tearing this country apart, and proposes policies that mean UK-born children, who have known no life anywhere else, will be deported. As she launches policies that will leave refugees homeless and without support, tear families apart, punish those legally in the country for claiming any benefits and make settlement and security a long and arduous process, Mahmood declares: “this is a moral mission for me”.

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist

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Our muscles, bones and organs are held together by a network of tissue that influences our every move. Is there a way we can use it to our advantage?

Fascia, the connective tissue that holds together the body’s internal structure, really hasn’t spent all that long in the limelight. Anatomists have known about its existence since before the Hippocratic oath was a thing, but until the 1980s it was routinely tossed in the bin during human dissections, regarded as little more than the wrapping that gets in the way of studying everything else. Over the past few decades, though, our understanding of it has evolved and (arguably) overshot – now, there are plenty of personal trainers who will insist that you should be loosening it up with a foam roller, or even harnessing its magical elastic powers to jump higher and do more press-ups. But what’s it really doing – and is there a way you can actually take advantage of it?

“The easiest way to describe fascia is to think about the structure of a tangerine,” says Natasha Kilian, a specialist in musculoskeletal physiotherapy at Pure Sports Medicine. “You’ve got the outer skin, and beneath that, the white pith that separates the segments and holds them together. Fascia works in a similar way: it’s a continuous, all-encompassing network that wraps around and connects everything in the body, from muscles and nerves to blood vessels and organs. It’s essentially the body’s internal wetsuit, keeping everything supported and integrated.” If you’ve ever carved a joint of meat, it’s the thin, silvery layer wrapped around the muscle, like clingfilm.

Musicologist Peter Wollny chanced upon the manuscripts in 1992 and authenticating them took half of his lifetime

The best fictional detectives are famed for their intuition, an ability to spot some seemingly ineffable discrepancy. Peter Wollny, the musicologist behind last week’s “world sensational” revelation of two previously unknown works by Johann Sebastian Bach, had a funny feeling when he chanced upon two intriguing sheets of music in a dusty library in 1992.

His equivalent of the Columbo turn, from mere hunch to unravelling a secret, would take up half his life.

It has been a difficult week for those working with refugees and migrants in the UK, after Labour announced controversial new plans. Sadly, Solomon is used to such turmoil. He discusses hostility, hope and asylum hotels

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, is at his home in London when I meet him. It’s the start of a gruesome week. The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has just announced that refugees could have their status revoked at any time if the country from which they fled is deemed safe; the pathway from being granted asylum to getting citizenship would increase to 20 years; AI would be used to establish a refugee’s age; and – a strikingly nasty idea – the jewellery of those arriving in the UK could be seized.

While media commentators puzzled over whether this would be enough red meat for Labour to see off Reform, this must surely have been a new low for Solomon? “There’s been lots of terrible weeks,” he says. “So I’m used to it.” He looks neat, open and determined, and his kitchen is incredibly yellow and cheerful, which I put down to sheer effort of will to look on the bright side.

In the pounding heat of a sweaty basement, revellers danced till 6am posing in lavish outfits and flexing their thigh-high boots. Liz Johnson Artur relives how she photographed the anything-goes spirit of this DIY oasis

For more than three decades, Liz Johnson Artur has photographed “the people I’m with” – a characteristically modest expression that belies the radiance, intimacy and unshowy brilliance of her pictures, an extraordinary archive numbering thousands of images that celebrate beauty, resilience, community and resistance. Intimate and alive, her photographs – often shot on the fly, in streets, nightclubs and living rooms – pull you right into the moment, just before it disappears for good.

PDA, the photographer’s latest book, celebrates a bygone London underground music scene. PDA was a popular queer club night that ran monthly in a Hackney basement from 2011 to 2021. The abbreviation PDA did not stand for a single phrase, apparently. Rather, the founders playfully suggested it could stand for many things, including Public Display of Affection, Please Don’t Ask, and even Pretty Dick Available.

Spurs punished for negativity, Dyche’s gameplan downs Liverpool and Wharton’s quality shines through again

• Top scorers: check the latest race for the golden boot

Amid Liverpool’s deepening crisis and the growing scrutiny on Arne Slot, it is only right that Nottingham Forest’s role in it is given some attention and acclaim. Back-to-back league wins at Anfield for the first time since 1963 deserves recognition, as does the willingness of Forest’s players to embrace the gameplan of the third different managerial voice they have heard this season. Sean Dyche’s instructions were implemented to perfection as Liverpool disintegrated. “We changed the tactical side today,” said Forest’s recently appointed manager. “I told the players: ‘We’re not passing it, we are going long, because Liverpool were going to press the life out of you’ – which is exactly what they did at the start. We dealt with that quite well and we mixed it tactically, which is credit to the players.” Forest’s tactics may have been straight out of the Dyche playbook but they were also encouraged, inadvertently, by Slot, who has regularly told opponents how to play his Liverpool team this season. He has meanwhile not found any solutions. Andy Hunter

Match report: Liverpool 0-3 Nottingham Forest

Match report: Newcastle 2-1 Manchester City

Match report: Arsenal 4-1 Tottenham

Barney Ronay: Eze finds his own plane just above ground level

Match report: Leeds 1-2 Aston Villa

Match report: Fulham 1-0 Sunderland

US and Ukraine say they have ‘updated framework’ for peace plan after weekend talks in Geneva

• US and Ukraine promise ‘updated’ peace framework after criticism of pro-Russian points in original plan

European Council president António Costa said he spoke with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy “to get his assessment of the situation” ahead of today’s informal EU leaders’ meeting on Ukraine on the sidelines of the EU-Africa summit.

“A united and coordinated EU position is key in ensuring a good outcome of peace negotiations - for Ukraine and for Europe,” he added.

Peter Kyle defends government as Reeves faces criticism about pre-budget briefings ahead of Wednesday announcement

Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is expected to release £14.5m in extra investment for the Grangemouth area on Wednesday to support faltering efforts to provide jobs after the closure of Scotland’s only oil refinery earlier this year.

We said we would stand squarely behind communities like Grangemouth, and we meant it. And we’re building on what we have done already by putting millions in as a starter to help put the community on a firm footing and strengthening its places as part of the clean energy revolution.

These investments will help deliver a fair transition for Grangemouth, securing jobs for local people way into the future.

When I visit business and ask them what most causes anxiety, yes, they do talk about the tax burden.

But the single most complained about measure in this government’s programme is not a tax rise. It is the employment rights bill …

Nobody did more to hammer business and employees than Kemi Badenoch did as business secretary. Her Tory party crashed the economy – leaving firms and families saddled with sky-high interest rates, rocketing energy costs, and higher prices. Yet they still haven’t apologised.

The Conservatives are clear: they’ve declared war on workers. Badenoch already described maternity pay as ‘excessive’ and her cruel plans would mean a return of fire-and-rehire and quashed wages for workers, while she drowns business in red tape all over again.

Exclusive: The Reform UK leader discussed far-right talking points in web TV and radio appearances between 2009 and 2018

Nigel Farage is facing calls to explain why he repeatedly aired tropes and conspiracy theories associated with antisemitism during interviews, after claims the Reform UK leader used racist language in his teens.

In appearances on US TV shows and podcasts earlier in his political career, Farage discussed supposed plots by bankers to create a global government, citing Goldman Sachs, the Bilderberg group and the financier George Soros as threats to democracy.

Planned overhaul of editorial guidelines committee would dilute influence of Tory board appointment Robbie Gibb

The BBC is planning to overhaul the way it investigates editorial concerns, in a move that will dilute the influence of a Conservative figure accused of trying to sway its political impartiality.

A new deputy director general post is also expected to be created to aid Tim Davie’s successor as director general, after concerns that the task of overseeing the corporation has become too big for one person.