Acclaimed stage and screen actor has taken part in Washington DC’s Folger Shakespeare Library residency program during a troubling time for the Capitol

Addressing an audience at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, Adjoa Andoh acknowledged that some of her work might look “Black or colour-centric” but that is only because of the silos the world forces us into. She could just as easily be Leeds United football club-centric, she added.

“I am missing two crucial matches to be here with you this week,” the 63-year-old exclaimed, prompting laughter in the theatre. “I have tickets!”

Today it is a fundraising juggernaut, but when it was born 40 years ago this month, things were very different. Lenny Henry, Richard Curtis and more explain how they got the gang together for a good cause

A near-the-knuckle Spitting Image skit involving the former prince Andrew. The Young Ones performing their chaotic single Living Doll with Cliff Richard. Kate Bush somehow being coaxed on to a stage to duet with Rowan Atkinson. It was 40 years ago this month that Comic Relief staged its inaugural event at London’s Shaftesbury theatre, and while today it is a fundraising juggernaut (the 2026 event, held last month, raised £30m for charity), its origin story remains delightfully scrappy and exploratory.

In 1984, a year before Live Aid entirely recalibrated what a showbiz charity event could look like, there was a remarkable gathering of what was fast becoming the new British comedy elite at a tiny village in Hampshire. The location, Nether Wallop, was chosen seemingly on the basis of its amusing name, and the intention was to create a comedy alternative to the Edinburgh festival.

I had presumed I would love her instantly – but a traumatic birth led to devastating numbness

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I was waiting for an overwhelming rush of love, but when I looked at my newborn baby what I felt was utter despair. No matter how much I smiled at her, crooned at her, fed, patted, caressed and changed her, I was absolutely numb.

I had yearned for her. Growing up in Italy, I was surrounded by images of perfect motherhood. Every rural crossroad has its tiny shrine to the Madonna and Child. I was certain by the end of my teens that I wanted to have at least one baby.

As interest in the lives of celebrities has intensified, we have become acclimatised to them curating and mercilessly monetising their image

Last month, Ryan Gosling addressed an audience about to see his new movie. “It’s not your job to keep cinemas open,” he told them. “It’s our job to make things that make it worth you coming out. This movie’s for you. Enjoy the trip!”

Small wonder they applauded. This is a strategy radically different to that adopted in the immediate aftermath of the Covid crisis, when studios believed the best way to get people to leave their homes and buy cinema tickets was to hector them to do so.

The rival superpowers are ramping up preparations for a crewed lunar landing nearly six decades after the first moon walk

The world watched earlier this month as Nasa sent four astronauts around the moon – but to actually land on the surface the US is once again in a space race, this time with China. And China may well win.

Both countries plan to build inhabited lunar bases – the first settlement on another celestial body – as well as searching for rare resources and using the deep space environment to test technology for future crewed missions to Mars.

NHS chiefs fear rising costs and healthcare shortages due to the shipping standstill in the Gulf

The war in Iran has put the NHS on high alert amid fears about looming shortages and rising costs for medicines and medical products such as syringes, intravenous bags and gloves.

Much of modern healthcare is dependent on the petrochemicals now held up by the Gulf shipping standstill – whether for active pharmaceutical ingredients or to produce the millions of sterile single-use items, ranging from personal protective equipment (PPE) to catheters and diagnostic-device casings.

Todd Blanche says 31-year-old suspect will be charged with assault of a federal officer, discharging a firearm and attempting to kill a federal officer

• Suspected gunman at White House press dinner named

• ‘We went under the table screaming’: reactions from the White House correspondents’ dinner shooting

US Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi has confirmed that the officer who sustained injuries in last night’s attack had been released from hospital.

The BBC carries this statement:

I can confirm the officer has been discharged, and the ballistic vest helped us avoid a potential tragedy last night.

The defendant is now before a federal court, and comments at this stage will come from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

We’re still investigating a motive, and that’s something that will necessarily take a couple of days at least. We believe he was targeting administration officials in this attack, attempted attack, but that’s again, quite preliminary.

He barely broke the perimeter. And by barely, I mean by a few feet.

Men in tuxedos and women in dresses dove under tables, like a scene from a dozen Hollywood movies, but now it was happening to me

• White House correspondents’ dinner shooting – latest updates

Shocking. Unnerving. Unpredictable. Violent. For a decade I have been following the twists and turns of Donald Trump’s America with the privilege of journalistic distance. On Saturday night I felt the darkness come viscerally close.

Bang! Bang! What was that? Where was it? At 8.36pm panic and pandemonium reigned in the cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton hotel. There were men running and cries of “Get down!” and “Stay down!”

Exclusive: Investigation into campaigning materials for local polls in May challenges tactical voting claims

Election leaflets are providing “grotesque” information about how to vote tactically in the May elections, using national polling data, “dodgy” bar charts and doorstep surveys to support claims about parties’ chances of winning.

Leaflets distributed by local politicians across England are claiming that either only their party can win, or another party “can’t win here” when “there is no good evidence to show that’s true”, a Full Fact investigation for the Guardian has revealed.

Prime minister says his job is not at risk over Mandelson vetting as allies back him against claims of wrongdoing

Keir Starmer has said he will lead Labour into the next general election, as his Downing Street allies denied claims of any wrongdoing over the appointment and vetting of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.

Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday show: “No wrongdoing by the prime minister has been proven in relation to Lord Mandelson’s appointment,” adding: “The whole situation is regrettable.”