For five years, our column has attempted to settle rows about the important little things … but what happens after the verdicts are in?

Since 2021, I’ve had one of the most brilliantly nosy jobs in journalism. Writing Saturday magazine’s You be the judge column has let me into the interior lives of others, lifting the lid on the everyday irritations that grind people’s gears in their closest relationships. It’s the pettiness that gets people going. I’ve interviewed couples at war over alarms and dishcloths, girlfriends disagreeing about dog care, and sisters who cohabit and argue about their sex lives.

With interviews conducted online and in person, I’ve accumulated domestic disputes from every corner of the globe which have also sparked heated debates online. Part small-claims court, part sociological experiment, You be the judge turns low-stakes grievances into battles that somehow feel life-or-death, and it’s fascinating to see which minor injustices ignite the fiercest debates.

Gemma Correll has suffered from anxiety and depression disorders since childhood, and at 16 she discovered a magical elixir that promised to make her feel better. In this extract from her new book, she shows how that promise was broken

In 2018, I was in my 30s and living in Oakland, California, having moved there from the UK in 2015. I had always struggled with anxiety and panic attacks, but I was doing fairly well – until suddenly I wasn’t. I started having back-to-back panic attacks, wandering the streets of Oakland and nearby Berkeley in a desperate attempt to shake them, without success.

This cute and jovial eatery is reason enough to make a break for the coast

As summer looms, and with it the urge to stampede towards the edges of Britain in search of paddling opportunities, I proffer another coastal dining idea: Willy’s in Margate – and, yes, that name does have about it something of the naughty seaside postcard. Tucked away in the back of Margate House hotel on Dalby Square, a few minutes’ walk from the seafront, Willy’s is a blur of frilly red-and-pink seaside adorableness. It’s cool, cute and jovial, with pork scratchings and apple chutney on the menu, as well as black pudding scotch eggs, sticky toffee pudding and Sunday lunches of beef rump and baked cauliflower cheese. This menu is short, intentional and hearty, rather than airy-fairy, and it chortles in the face of small plates.

But, for the foodie/sippy crowd, the signifiers are all here: there’s a paper plane and a penicillin on the cocktail menu, throwbacks to New York’s iconic Milk and Honey bar. There are three Olivier Pithon natural wines from Roussillon on the short list, which as a whole leans towards natural and low-intervention bottles from France, Spain and Italy. Most tellingly, the chef is Mark O’Brien, who worked with Robin Gill at the Dairy in London and at Samphire in nearby Whitstable before making this little nook his home, and who earlier this year reached the final three of MasterChef: The Professionals. Willy’s is clearly run by a team that knows about nice things.

When Vadym Lietunov spotted a fortified position after his own had been blown up, he didn’t realise it belonged to the enemy

The bombing began the morning after Vadym Lietunov arrived on the frontline. It went on for six or seven hours each day. The Russians hit the dugout where he was sheltering with kamikaze drones and mortars. After every strike, Lietunov and another Ukrainian soldier, Sasha, repaired the damage, extinguishing fires with bottles of urine and shoving clay-filled sacks back into position. “The enemy knew we were there. It was trying to kill us,” he said.

In late February Russian drone operators tried a new tactic. They sent in a Molniya drone carrying an anti-tank mine. It exploded next to the entrance, leaving the two soldiers concussed and shaking. There were several similar attacks before Lietunov heard an ominous buzz. This time, a mine fell on top of their foxhole. “I look up and we’ve got no roof. It blew everything up,” he recalled.

The actor has always been full of surprises – and now thanks to Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster he’s become a romantic lead. As the series returns, he talks about marriage, masculinity and meditation

Danny Dyer is dressed in white and carrying a huge bouquet of flowers when I drop in on his Guardian photoshoot. “Hello, baby,” he says to me in a voice so bad-boy East End, so fabulously filthy, that he sounds like a parody of Danny Dyer. We’ve never met before, but you wouldn’t guess.

Dyer has been in the limelight for 30 years, but never like this. As he approaches 50, he has become a middle-aged heart-throb. The week we meet, he’s on the front of Rolling Stone UK, and he can’t quite believe it. “I’m on it now, as we speak. And the cover before was Timothée Chalamet! Pretty cool! You know, I’ve had a long career and I couldn’t get on the cover of anything till now.”

GB News owner’s son, who wants Channel to be mined to stop migrants, is latest to have a go at transatlantic rightwing commentary

On a Los Angeles stage in 2011 Winston Marshall, then the banjo player for the folk rock band Mumford & Sons, could scarcely believe what was happening. Not only was he playing at the Grammys, he was playing alongside Bob Dylan, legendary composer of social justice anthems and one of his heroes.

About 15 years later, Marshall once again found himself stateside, this time on a very different stage. Appearing on Fox News in his new guise as a conservative YouTuber, Marshall advocated what he admitted was an “outlandish idea” to stop small boat crossings in the Channel.

Heidi Alexander criticises Green leader over retweet of post suggesting police used excessive force when arresting suspect

Trevor Phillips has asked Green party leader Zack Polanski “what on earth was going through your head” when sharing a social media post condemning the actions of police officers who arrested the suspect in the Golders Green attack.

Polanski, recognising the “bravery” of police officers who run towards dangerous incidents, said he apologised for his retweet because X was not an “appropriate forum” to make those comments (see post at 09.27 for more details). He told Sky News:

The first thing I did was recognise that this was a horrific crime and I showed solidarity to the victims and their families.

I then thanked the emergency responders for the brave work they did. I found it all very traumatic, especially as a Jewish person.

So I think here is the best person to lead our country through the period of extreme international volatility that we are experiencing at the moment.

I don’t think the public would thank us if the Labour Party turned into some sort of self indulgent debating society when there are pockets of the world that feel like they are going to hell in a handcart at the moment.

Exclusive: Resistance to equity, diversity and inclusion drives affects hiring chances of people with convictions, says charity

More than a third of HR decision-makers in the UK said they have faced pushback against equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives over the past year, according to new research.

The new YouGov poll, carried out for the national employment charity Working Chance, surveyed 565 HR decision-makers and found that resistance towards EDI was on the rise.

Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson and Robert Jenrick, among others, have sung the praises of the JCB PotHole Pro

Reform UK’s leading figures have repeatedly promoted a new pothole-fixing machine by the construction company JCB, while the party received £200,000 from the British digger maker, the Guardian can reveal.

Several Reform politicians including Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson, Robert Jenrick, Zia Yusuf and Richard Tice have sung the praises of the JCB PotHole Pro machine.

Iran says the ‘ball is in the United States’ court’ as Trump says he is likely to reject new proposal from Tehran

Donald Trump said on Saturday he was going to review a new peace proposal from Tehran but cast doubt over its prospects, saying Iran had not yet “paid a big enough price”.

Two semiofficial Iranian news outlets, Tasnim and Fars, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said Iran had sent the US a new 14-point proposal via Pakistan.