As Netflix’s quietly radical coming-of-age drama wraps up with a feature-length film, its stars discuss queer escapism, awkward love scenes and letting go of the characters that made them

In a house near Maidenhead in Berkshire, a group of sweaty teenagers are throwing a party. Vodka bottles line the staircase, snogs are shared on lumpy sofas and gossip is exchanged. The windows are covered with multicoloured fabrics to ward off prying eyes. Suddenly, as the vibes start to flag, the music cuts out and a voice bellows: “You’re having the time of your lives, remember!”

The voice belongs to the director Wash Westmoreland; the very real house – situated next to the noisy A308 – stands on the grounds of Bray Studios in Berkshire. As for the partygoers, well … they’re some of the most famous young faces on the planet.

It remains unclear how much of substance will change – and whether it will be enough to rebuild electoral coalition

On the final day of Labour’s party conference in 2023, when the public was still reeling from the brutal Hamas attack on Israel just days before, Keir Starmer took to the airwaves for the traditional broadcast round – but gave one interview that would have particularly damaging fallout.

Sitting down with LBC’s Nick Ferrari, the then opposition leader asserted Israel’s right to defend itself, a stance that was in line with the broad political consensus at the time. But then he also appeared to suggest it had “the right” to withhold power and water from Palestinian civilians.

Every year I spend six to eight weeks on board – it has brought new friendships and showed me how generous people can be

When I was a teenager in Denmark in the 1980s, my older brother drove me to Roskilde, a city with five original Viking ships. We started working with the Viking Ship Museum of Roskilde as volunteers to build one of the first replicas. Since then, Vikings have been in my life.

Until my retirement four years ago, I worked at an IT company, and on the side volunteered for the Oseberg Viking Heritage Foundation, in Tønsberg, Norway, which promotes Viking ships and handicrafts. I became chair in 2023.

Are the disappearances or deaths of 11 US scientists really linked in a nefarious plot? Or just a conspiracy theory with roots in a bizarre broadcast that rocked Britain in the 1970s?

In the last few years, 11 people allegedly tied to top secret US research have died or mysteriously disappeared, sparking a conspiracy that a clandestine operation is silencing those who know too much.

As Phil Tinline explains to Nosheen Iqbal, what began as a series of unrelated tragedies has morphed into a mainstream obsession and even triggered a federal investigation.

A misstep in the shallows led to physical torment and fraying tempers. Before this, I had been an angry teenager. Now, I was incandescent with rage

It is worth acknowledging, with the benefit of post-pubescent hindsight, that any holiday with 14-year-old me probably had the potential to become the holiday from hell. My self-esteem would have been at its lowest, my anger that “nobody understands me!” at its highest. In the summer of 2010 I can only imagine that my parents, who bore the brunt of my adolescent rage, were at their wits’ end. Little did they know that taking me (along with my 16-year-old sister and 11-year-old brother) to a paradise-like Greek island would have the opposite of a calming effect.

To be clear, we weren’t at each other’s throats all the time. Before catching a ferry from the Athens port of Piraeus to the tiny Saronic island of Agistri, I remember enjoying plates of moussaka and pastitsio in Athens, after sweatily traipsing around the city’s ruins. And on the island itself, we bonded as a family over card games at a beach bar, and giggled together when, on a boat trip, our pony-tailed captain stripped off, revealing a flame-shaped tattoo protruding from his Speedos.

Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich
While Britain boils in a heatwave, a new exhibition built around the much-reproduced canvas reminds us of the beauty of the natural world – and what we could lose

I first saw John Constable’s 1821 painting The Hay Wain as a postcard with cruise missiles brutally stacked in the wooden cart and pointing at the sky. Peter Kennard’s anti-nuke photomontage is just one of the many parodies and travesties this image of a seemingly eternal rustic Britain keeps provoking. A few months ago, a newspaper cartoon depicted a ballistic missile from Iran speeding through Constable’s painting. But when I visited Ipswich to see its Hay Wain exhibition at the start of the latest heatwave it was the climate making a scorching, ironic comment on this temperate scene.

Inside this Tudor house, grey, blue and brown masses of rain-promising cloud hung above Constable’s painted Suffolk fields, dappling them with shade. But outside the grass was straw yellow and the landscape around Dedham Vale and the River Stour, where Constable was born and in which The Hay Wain and many more of his works lovingly linger, appeared to have been blowtorched into oblivion.

George Cottrell’s mother, Fiona, at centre of criminal inquiry over potential evasion of restrictions on donations

Police are investigating donations worth £500,000 made to Reform UK by the mother of a convicted fraudster and ally of Nigel Farage.

The investigation concerns two donations of £250,000 made by Fiona Cottrell, whose son George has often accompanied Farage to Reform events and media appearances. The May 2024 donations are under investigation over whether they were intended to conceal a donation by an impermissible donor.

Wildfire comes as Spain suffers a heatwave, with scorching temperatures triggering orange weather warnings

Twelve people were reported killed in a wildfire in Almeria in southern Spain, as about 150 firefighters battled the blaze which broke out amid soaring temperatures.

“The number of people who died in the fire in Los Gallardos has risen to 12 after the confirmation of six more deaths,” the regional government of Andalusia said in a statement.

Exclusive: PM-in-waiting says party must ‘do better’ in approach to Middle East and he will put more pressure on Israel

• Analysis: Burnham’s apology marks ‘reset moment’ as Labour seeks to win back progressive voters
  

Andy Burnham has apologised for Labour’s initial response to Israel’s military action in Gaza, saying the party “didn’t get it right” and needs to “do better” under his leadership signalling a significant shift in the UK’s approach to the Middle East.

The prime minister-in-waiting told the Guardian he would put more pressure on the Israeli government, including through further sanctions on individuals and entities, as well as a potential ban on the trade of goods with illegal settlements.

Widdecombe was a prominent Eurosceptic and known for her socially conservative views

The former Conservative government minister Ann Widdecombe has died aged 78, her management have said.

Widdecombe, who served as an MP and an MEP during a lengthy and often controversial political career, also gained notoriety as a television personality in later life. Besides the Tories, she was also a member of the Brexit party and its successor, Reform.