An exhilarating account of Bowie’s spirituality and the quasi-religious nature of his work, from Space Oddity to Blackstar

It has become a tired cliche among fans to say that everything went wrong in the world after Bowie died in 2016. It also misses the point: rather than being one of the last avatars of a liberal order that has crumbled around our ears, Bowie prophesied the mayhem that has replaced it.

In his later years, he thought that we had entered a zone of chaos and fragmentation. This is what allowed him to be so prescient about the internet – not its promise, but its menace. There is no plan and no order. There is just disaster and social collapse. Those looking for reassurance should not listen to Bowie (please listen to something, anything, else). His world, from Space Oddity through to the background violence of The Next Day and Blackstar, was always drowned or destroyed or incinerated: “This ain’t rock’n’roll, this is genocide” as he exclaims at the beginning of Diamond Dogs.

Whether at home or abroad, the pattern of ducking difficult arguments and calling it pragmatism is the same

There comes a point in a prime minister’s career when foreign travel offers respite from domestic trouble. Even when relations with the host country are tricky, as Britain’s are with China, the dignifying protocols of statecraft make a beleaguered politician feel valued.

Next comes the phase where missions overseas feel dangerous because plotters can organise more openly against absent leaders.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

This gem of a series, about an actor with superpowers, is a clever, tender take on male friendship and the film industry. It’s a triumph of storytelling – and a masterclass in acting

We are back in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you feel fatigue stealing over you already, banish it! It’s going to be OK. Even though Wonder Man is (by my incredulous reckoning) about the 30th MCU series produced by Marvel Television and companions – from the dizzying heights of WandaVision to … well, She-Hulk – it is a little gem.

And it is quite little, in MCU terms. Not only are the eight episodes only around half an hour long but they also eschew spectacle in favour of storytelling. It’s a radical idea, but you never know, it might catch on.

Everything felt like it was swelling, and despite my diligent consumption of water and Hydralyte, I couldn’t quite escape the persistent, low-level nausea. Even thinking took longer

My mother grew up in Warracknabeal, a speck of a town four hours from Melbourne, Australia, in the wide, wheat country of the Wimmera – that part of Victoria where the sky starts to stretch, where you can see weather happening 100 kilometres away.

Once or twice a year, our family would pack into the rattling old LandCruiser and drive up to visit my grandmother. It can’t always have been blistering weather but my memories of those trips are shot through with summer heat: the peeling paint of my grandmother’s house, the blasted-dry grass of the reserve over the road and its ancient metal monkey bars, so hot they burned your hands. Once, a dust storm blew up while we were there, engulfing the small weatherboard house in howling dirty orange.

The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, co-directed by Daniel Roher, delves into the world of AI through the lens of personal anxiety

Are we barreling toward AI catastrophe? Is AI an existential threat, or an epochal opportunity? Those are the questions top of mind for a new documentary at Sundance, which features leading AI experts, critics and entrepreneurs, including Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, with views on the near-to-midterm future ranging from doom to utopia.

The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell and produced by Daniel Kwan (one half of The Daniels, the Oscar-winning duo behind Everything Everywhere All At Once), delves into the contentious topic of AI through Roher’s own anxiety. The Canadian film-maker, who won an Oscar in 2023 for the documentary Navalny, first became interested in the topic while experimenting with tools released by OpenAI, the company behind the chatbot ChatGPT. The sophistication of the public tools – the ability to produce whole paragraphs in seconds, or produce illustrations – both thrilled and unnerved him. AI was already radically shaping the filmmaking industry, and proclamations on the promise and peril of AI were everywhere, with little way for people outside the tech industry to evaluate them. As an artist, he wondered, how was he to make sense of it all?

English clubs stroll through Champions League group phase but fatigue tends to take its toll by the spring

Has there been a great game in the Champions League group stage this season? Probably not. Even if there had been, it almost certainly didn’t mean all that much. But that’s the way of the modern game: an extremely protracted clearing of the throat before the real business begins.

Uefa will proudly tell the world that only six teams have nothing to play for in the final round of games on Wednesday, but whether it was worth 126 games to get to the mild peril of Napoli or Club Brugge possibly going out, or the questionable thrill of finding out whether Tottenham or Atalanta will have to endure the playoff round, is debatable.

The prime minister may also discuss the fate of the Uyghurs with the Chinese leader

• ‘Very low bar’: analysts say Starmer faces slim pickings in China

Keir Starmer has said he will “raise the issues that need to be raised” on human rights with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as he arrived in Beijing for the first trip to the country by a UK leader in eight years.

The prime minister has come under pressure from rights groups to try to secure the release of Jimmy Lai, the jailed former media tycoon and one of Hong Kong’s most significant pro-democracy voices.

Report emerges as Trump signals he may reduce the surge of ICE and other federal agents in the state

As federal immigration crackdowns in Minnesota continued on Tuesday, an initial report to Congress from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) obtained by various news outlets indicates that two officers fired their guns at Alex Pretti during his fatal shooting.

The report emerged as Donald Trump signals he may begin reducing the surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents in the state.

Exclusive: the 613 most deprived areas will see higher crime rates and worse unemployment under current funding schemes, report says

The country’s most deprived neighbourhoods will have higher crime rates and worse unemployment by the end of the parliament, according to a report written at the request of N 10.

The forecasts from the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods (Icon) show crime rates and unemployment will rise until the next election in England’s 613 most deprived neighbourhoods, despite the government’s promises to invest in local communities.

Joël Guerriau sentenced to four years in prison after spiking lawmaker’s champagne with ecstasy

A French court has found a former senator guilty of drugging a female lawmaker with ecstasy with intent to sexually assault her.

Joël Guerriau, 68, was sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday, of which 18 months must be behind bars.

In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html