New hosts Grace Dent and chef Anna Haugh have shaken off the show’s crusty, stale feel. They’re a real improvement on John Torode and Gregg Wallace

MasterChef is back, emboldened by the strange and giddy euphoria of an enforced refresh. For nigh on 20 years, the BBC’s premier cookery contest was judged by John Torode and Gregg Wallace and was just sort of … there. Not bad, but not very exciting either. That the hosts might have become a little crusty and stale wasn’t widely noticed or discussed.

One unsavoury year of allegations, investigations and cancellations later, not one but both of the show’s long-serving overlords have abruptly departed. Yet there’s something freeing about an unplanned change and MasterChef, happily, has embraced that by hiring two relatively low-profile women to replace the old men: season 22 is brought to you by Myrtle chef patron Anna Haugh and Guardian restaurant critic Grace Dent.

Sacked civil servant told Commons committee there was pressure from No 10 to approve appointment of Mandelson

Well, what would you do? You’re a top civil servant with more than 25 years of government service. You’ve worked for Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May. You went through Brexit hell as a lead negotiator. You were sacked by Boris Johnson and were then brought back by Keir Starmer.

You land a plum job as permanent undersecretary in the Foreign Office and do your boss a favour by appointing his man as ambassador to the US. You’ve already got a knighthood; that peerage is only a matter of time away. Then it all blows up in your face and the prime minister sacks you and trashes your reputation in parliament.

Analysts say next boss John Ternus should diversify tech giant away from iPhones and raise its game in AI

John Ternus takes over from Tim Cook as chief executive of Apple in September. A company insider, Ternus is moving up from his role as head of engineering to take control of the entire $4tn (£3tn) business.

Apple is a vast, successful tech company and one of the most recognised brands in the world. But it faces challenges nonetheless. Here is a look at Ternus’s in-tray.

Richard Gadd’s at it again. His unforgiving new drama tackles the damage men do to each other head on, by pulling out his insides and smearing them everywhere. Every man should watch this queasy masterpiece

We have known for some time, I think, that men are not OK. Richard Gadd’s new drama, conceived before his astounding, semi-autobiographical creation Baby Reindeer sent his reputation stratospheric, and now broadcast in the slipstream of that success, is a fiercely intelligent, unforgiving, harrowing attempt to show us how and why.

Half Man begins in the present, with two men circling each other in a dark barn. One, Niall (Jamie Bell), is in full Scottish wedding fig. The other, Ruben (Gadd), is stripped to the waist and has his hands wrapped like a sparring boxer. The fight that is surely about to come does not seem a fair one.

Knowing the difference between hunger and appetite, and understanding the sensory cues behind them, can help us make better decisions about what we eat

Imagine you’re in a meeting room when someone brings out the biscuits – a packet of Jammie Dodgers, perhaps, or a nice little plate of custard creams. Maybe you want one and maybe you don’t, but the chances are the people around you are all responding differently: someone will grab a couple straight away, someone else will eat one without seeming to notice, another will barely be aware the biscuits exist, and someone will spend the whole meeting wanting one but not taking it. Our appetites and responses to food vary wildly – but what’s going on behind the scenes to govern them? And has modern food somehow hijacked the process? Grab a biscuit (or don’t) and settle in.

“First, it’s important to distinguish between hunger and appetite,” says Giles Yeo, a professor of molecular neuroendocrinology at the University of Cambridge and the author of Why Calories Don’t Count. “Hunger is a feeling – it’s what happens in the run-up to you deciding you need to eat something. Appetite is everything that surrounds why we eat – including hunger, fullness and reward, or how you actually feel when you eat. Those three sensations all use completely different parts of the brain, but they all work together.”

Our Legacies of Enslavement team has found humanity and dignity, not blame or guilt, are at the heart of the conversation

Guardian owner heralds next phase in Legacies of Enslavement restorative justice plan

There’s an image, a feeling, that I haven’t been able to get out of mind since my last visit to the Sea Islands, US, in March. That of living in a small box, compressed on all sides. From above, your basic services are being neglected or withheld; from the sides, your ability to find a job or make a living is cut away; from below, a steady assault on your self-esteem as you are criminalised, ignored, gaslit or made to feel invisible. And imagine having to raise a family, make ends meet, maintain your physical and mental health in that box. At some point the air is going to thin out.

Occasionally, a glimpse of something offers respite. A flock of birds against the sky. The sway of the Spanish moss on the oak tree that has binya (“been here”; a Gullah Geechee term used to describe Sea Islands natives) for hundreds of years, that has seen Jim Crow, Reconstruction and maybe even enslavement. You hear the flow of the water as it laps against the dock. The water that represents a passage to the motherland. And life feels worth living.

Declaration comes amid intense efforts to bring two sides together in Pakistan for new round of talks

Donald Trump unilaterally announced an extension of the two-week ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday amid frantic efforts to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table.

Hours after announcing that he “expected to be bombing”, the US president said he would extend the ceasefire until Iranian negotiators submitted a proposal for peace.

Sacked civil servant acknowledges ‘debate’ about release of documents after question about alleged ‘cover-up’

Olly Robbins responded to a question about an alleged “cover-up” on Tuesday by confirming that government officials had considered withholding Peter Mandelson’s secretive vetting documents from parliament.

Robbins, who was sacked by Keir Starmer as the Foreign Office’s top civil servant last week, appeared to confirm a report in the Guardian that senior officials were debating whether to withhold from parliament sensitive documents that revealed the vetting agency did not believe Mandelson should get clearance.

Not using capital punishment ‘really a requirement’ for Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly, says president

Israel’s observer status at the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly could be suspended over the country’s new law mandating the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of some offences, the president of the body has said.

Petra Bayr, an Austrian Social Democrat and president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace), said not using the death penalty was “really a requirement” of having observer status at the pan-European human rights body, which has no connection to the EU.

Officials warn a conflict situation could cause disruption similar to recent major ransomware incidents

The UK could face “hacktivist attacks at scale” if it becomes embroiled in a conflict and the impact could be similar to recent high-profile ransomware incidents, according to the head of the country’s online security agency.

Richard Horne, chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), will warn today that nation states now account for the most significant incidents the NCSC deals with.