In the 1980s, she had to show her work in a corridor by the ICA’s toilet. Now she’s representing Britain at the ‘art Olympics’. So is the artist feeling a bit establishment? Quite the reverse

The Venice Biennale opening is just days away but Lubaina Himid isn’t in a rush. The artist, who will represent Britain at the “Olympics of art”, is at home in Preston, where there’s an air of calm. Her wife and frequent collaborator Magda Stawarska is making a pot of tea. Gardeners are moving paving slabs in the back yard.

We wander around her beautiful Victorian terrace to the house directly behind. Himid bought it, knocked down a wall between the two properties and has almost finished turning it into a studio. It’s airy, light-filled and serene. Works on canvas are dotted around; paintbrushes sit neatly in custom-made cabinetry. Everything is in its right place.

Decades of advice on what to eat and what not to might have been missing one key ingredient, according to new research

Reduce your calories. Eat more vegetables. Limit soft drinks and junk foods. For years, even decades, this has been the advice for those wanting a healthy body weight, lower blood pressure and better markers of metabolic health. Most weight-loss advice has focused on either what to eat (and what to avoid), or how much to eat. Think of dietary pyramids produced by government agencies, calories on food packaging and meals, and typical nutritional advice.

It’s all true, to a certain extent: it’s obviously better to eat a healthier, nutritionally balanced diet, and yes, lower body weight is broadly linked to reducing calories. But this type of approach can be hard to sustain. Even as a personal trainer who knows what I “should” be eating according to government dietary advice and has heard too much about calorie deficits, I take a slightly different approach to food. I think we need to bring nuance and a balanced approach to food and what we eat.

Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, and the author of How Not to Die (Too Soon)

My girlfriends and I have more fun, more adventures, more independence than ever before. And as for the sex …

I met my boyfriend when he was playing Bach in the park. I was taking my usual jog past London zoo and around the Regent’s Park boating lake when I was stopped in my tracks by the most beautiful music. Wafting across the rose garden was an exquisite guitar rendition of Bach’s prelude in E major. When the final notes hung in the air like gossamer, I congratulated the musician. A twinkly-eyed bloke smiled up at me. “Ah, no bother,” he said in a soft Irish burr.

At the sound of his mellifluous, velvety voice, my heart beat so loudly I felt as though it was coming through stereo speakers. His eyes seemed to smoke their way into me. I stared at him for what I estimate to be about, oh, a decade, but was probably only two seconds, before asking him for coffee. Pathetic, I know. A romcom “meet-cute” like this is not just cheesy; it’s deep-fried Brie in a bechamel sauce on a bed of melted cheddar.

The Room Next Door star on overnight success, ‘sneaky follows’ from politicians and how internet commenting has dragged society down

How did you get into comedy?
I was submitting sketches to Spitting Image when I was 17 and making my own sketches pre-internet. But I guess in terms of my actual break, that didn’t happen until [online political sketch series] The Room Next Door.

Was that an overnight success?
I was watching a particularly bad interview with Boris Johnson and jotted down the concept of an adviser next door who was pulling his hair out over what was being said. I then filmed it after dinner, posted it before I went to bed and the next morning it was in the millions. So that is literally an overnight success, isn’t it?

One in four late-night venues went out of business between 2020 and 2025. Those that remain are struggling to pull in customers. Maybe a night out in Birminghan will reveal why

The £5 entry is a good start. So is the loud, lively music booming down the nightclub’s stairway. But when I finally reach the dancefloor, hidden behind a curtain, my hopes for a wild night out in Birmingham are dashed. Despite the roving disco lights and blaring pop bangers, it is entirely empty, aside from a few bartenders milling around, tending to no one.

This isn’t 9pm on a random Tuesday. I am hitting the town on Saturday night, when the city’s bars and clubs should be in full swing, but Birmingham is looking like a bust.

In December 1982, South African Rodney Wilkinson walked four bombs into Koeberg power station – the crown jewel of the apartheid state – pulled the pins and then left on his bicycle. How did he do it?

At 21, Rodney Wilkinson was the best fencer in South Africa: national champion in foil and sabre, second in epee. He had toured Europe and Argentina. He had not stood on the Olympic podium, because South Africa was banned. The apartheid state had taken that from him, along with everything else it took from everyone.

One evening in August 1971, Wilkinson stood in the gym at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, foil in hand. He was facing his coach Vincent Bonfil, a 25-year-old Englishman who had represented Britain as a reserve at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, and who was now in Johannesburg finishing a master’s thesis in metallurgy. They were working on a technique in which both fencers lunge simultaneously, and the one who reads the other’s move a split second earlier wins the point. They came at each other. Wilkinson’s foil caught the edge of Bonfil’s sleeve. There was a pop.

Iranian speaker says ‘new equation of the strait of Hormuz is in the process of being solidified’

• Donald Trump sends warships to break Iran’s strait of Hormuz blockade

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, is travelling to Beijing later today for talks with his Chinese counterpart “on bilateral relations and regional and international developments”, his ministry said on its Telegram account.

While Beijing condemned the initial US and Israeli strikes on Iran which started the war in late February, China has largely adopted a posture of neutrality ever since and has urged for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict.

Minor damage to gates is believed to have been caused by fire that CCTV shows was started deliberately, Met says

Counter-terrorism officers are investigating a suspected arson attack at a former synagogue in east London, the Metropolitan police have said.

The Jewish security charity Shomrim said fire crews were called out to the building in Nelson Street, Whitechapel, in the early hours of Tuesday.

Steve Reed urges MPs not to move against Keir Starmer and says most people are ‘sick and tired of all this psychodrama’

Labour should not be “doomscrolling” through leaders like the Conservatives, the communities secretary, Steve Reed, has said, urging MPs not to move against Keir Starmer after the May elections.

MPs who fear Starmer cannot lead the party into the next general election because of his unpopularity are understood to have been discussing whether to lay out a timetable for his departure to present to the prime minister.

Quintessentially almost quadrupled staff in Middle East and Asia less than year before wealthy began to flee Gulf

The embattled luxury concierge service co-founded by Queen Camilla’s nephew Ben Elliot embarked on what appeared to be an inopportune hiring spree in the Middle East and Asia before wealthy individuals began fleeing the region because of the US-Israel war on Iran.

Quintessentially almost quadrupled staff in the regions from 22 to 84 during its financial year to 30 April 2025, according to newly released annual accounts, which again reported multimillion-pound losses and warned of “material uncertainty” about its future.