Ferocious flames continue to rage in parts of France and Spain, with no sign of abating. We chart the destruction in graphics and pictures

The hellish infernos that have torn through parts of France and Spain have caused deaths, the evacuation of 330,000 people from their homes, widespread destruction and clouds of toxic smoke. Records have already been smashed and with the fourth heatwave of the European summer setting in, there are few signs of the waves of wildfires ending.

France has already surpassed the worst previous year for the size of the area burned, with August, usually the hottest month, yet to come.

Thousands of students are graduating into an employment crisis, leaving them feeling hopeless and overqualified, as well as dealing with enormous debts from tuition fees. When higher education was transformed, teenagers were offered a deal - pay £9,000 a year and secure a ‘bright future’. But as the Guardian’s economics commentator Aditya Chakrabortty accurately predicted, for many the reality has been very different.

Jimi Famurewa, restaurant critic and food journalist, journeys  across London to track down some of the best bakeries where ancestral recipes and ingredients meet contemporary British baking. First stop: Panadera in Soho, for a Filipino-inspired leche flan Danish. Then it’s south-east London and Bunhead, where the owner folds together the flavours of her Palestinian and British heritage into a chocolate, date and smoked salt bun. Finally, Farha in east London, a Middle Eastern-inspired cafe selling out of its banana brûlée.

Episode 1 of Feed with Jimi Famurewa — sampling the UK’s tastiest food trends

To coincide with a new exhibition in London about the Davies brothers, we rate the best of a band who brought a sociologist’s eye to hard rock, gentle pastoralia and so much in between

The quality of Kinks albums declined precipitously from the late 80s: you sensed their hearts weren’t really in it. Even so, Ray Davies couldn’t stop himself writing the occasional gem: from their final studio album Phobia, Scattered is a sweet, sad reflection on the Davies family’s complexities, powered by jangling guitars.

(American Dogwood/Empire)
Beneath the Hollywood narrators, Pink Floyd-y interludes and accompanying comic books lies songwriting that proves the Tipsy singer’s breakout success was no fluke

It’s fair to say that if Shaboozey never released another note of music, his place in history would still be assured.

He wasn’t the only Black country-leaning artist brought to a wider audience by a guest appearance on Beyoncé’s 2024 album Cowboy Carter, but no one else capitalised on the exposure quite so remarkably. Released two weeks after his guest appearance on that album’s Spaghettii, his single A Bar Song (Tipsy) unexpectedly eclipsed Beyoncé’s success, becoming the biggest-selling country single of the year – more than 1.75bn streams and counting on Spotify – and for a time, the joint longest-running US No 1 of all time. He’s received three nominations at the Country Music awards, an event traditionally resistant to artists of colour. The accompanying album, Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going, was by far the most successful sustained attempt to fuse hip-hop and country, two genres that have been warily circling each other for some time, spawning the occasional novelty hit such as Nelly and Tim McGraw’s Over and Over Again, the Ludacris-featuring 2010 remix of Jason Aldean’s Dirt Road, and Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road; the baleful, rap-influenced spectre of bro country; and the deep underground sub-genre of hick-hop, a hidden world of Maga politics, confederate flags and festivals held at Georgia mud holes. The album is still on the US chart, 112 weeks after its release.

With most monuments in London made by men, Claire Mander envisaged the Artist’s Garden as a way to redress the balance. Now, she says, it could be turned into a generic space for VIP events and cocktails

Ten years ago, when Claire Mander was studying for an art history MA at the Courtauld Institute in London, she stumbled upon the neglected roof terrace of nearby Temple underground station. She found herself strangely drawn to the overgrown expanse with its stunning views of the Thames and the London Eye.

“It was dirty, abandoned and a magnet for antisocial behaviour,” recalls Mander, now director and curator of theColab, an arts charity and incubator specialising in large-scale outdoor sculptures. She researched the history of the abandoned space, which was built as part of the Victoria Embankment in 1870. Before that, the ground beneath the site housed a 17th-century sculpture garden created by the Countess of Arundel.

The Labour party released a statement after Robert Jenrick tried to minimise the latest revelations about donations to Reform

Q: [From ITV’s Romilly Weeks] You say that Reform UK followed all the rules in relation to donations. But why did George Cottrell give $2m to his mother shortly before she made substantial donations to the party?

Jenrick said Reform was certain all the rules were followed. Any questions for Cottrell would have to be directed to him, he said.

It does seem curious that in this case the police have chosen not to take action.

We’ll see whether they take action against the individual who posted the original tweet, who wore the T-shirt. I’m hearing today that the police may have closed that investigation as well. [See 9.20am.]

Major incident declared, Sizewell B power station closely monitoring blaze and RSPB nature reserve closed to visitors

A holiday park with about 200 caravans has been evacuated after a wildfire broke out on the Suffolk coast, and the nearby Sizewell B nuclear power station has said it is closely monitoring the blaze.

A major incident has been declared as firefighters battle a large heathland fire at Dunwich Heath near Leiston, about 3 miles from Sizewell B.

• Fifa’s 25-page sales deck produced by JP Morgan

• Reference made to doubling global tournaments

Fifa’s sales pitch to persuade members to approve the sale of the World Cup’s commercial rights clearly states that their plans for financial growth will be achieved by staging more tournaments, having higher ticket prices and debt financing.

A 25-page sales deck titled “Fifa Forward Enterprise Member Materials”, which has been seen by the Guardian, makes the case for the creation of a new company to run Fifa’s commercial operations, 20% of which would be sold to Joshua Kushner, a US investor who is the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Polish PM confirms the missile that crashed in Poland was a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile and says he is in touch with EU and US leaders

Poland’s defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz confirms it’s “most likely” it was a Kh-101 air-launched cruise missile.

“That’s the most probable hypothesis,” he says.