7 h. ago London has had the Lena Dunham treatment. I’m relieved to say it’s a triumph | Barbara Speed

Once you get past the Mr Darcy fantasies, her new show Too Much is an affectionate sendup of the capital in all its variety and strangenessI have watched all six series of Girls at least four times. I watched it as it was castigated for its unlikable characters, lack of diversity, supposed misogyny and sex that wasn’t “fun” enough, and I’ve watched it during its recent gen Z-fuelled renaissance. I never thought Lena Dunham’s show was perfect, or a window on to all of humanity. But as an arch portrait of a handful of upper-middle-class twentysomething women in New York, thousands of miles away from my reality, I’ve always believed that it couldn’t be bettered.Then Dunham moved to London and released a new show, this time about me? Too Much’s protagonists are thirtysomethings living in London: Jessica (played by Megan Stalter) moves over from New York after a breakup; her love interest Felix (Will Sharpe) is a Londoner jaded by years of struggling as a session guitarist. The stakes fe...

Politics

7 h. ago I loved Girls – but could I trust Lena Dunham to write about London? | Barbara Speed

The risk of cringe British stereotypes felt high. But Mr Darcy fantasies aside, her new series Too Much is an affectionate sendup of the capitalI have watched all six series of Girls at least four times. I watched it as it was castigated for its unlikable characters, lack of diversity, supposed misogyny and sex that wasn’t “fun” enough, and I’ve watched it during its recent gen Z-fuelled renaissance. I never thought Lena Dunham’s show was perfect, or a window on to all of humanity. But as an arch portrait of a handful of upper-middle-class twentysomething women in New York, thousands of miles away from my reality, I’ve always believed that it couldn’t be bettered.Then Dunham moved to London and released a new show, this time about me? Too Much’s protagonists are thirtysomethings living in London: Jessica (played by Megan Stalter) moves over from New York after a breakup; her love interest Felix (Will Sharpe) is a Londoner jaded by years of struggling as a session guitarist. The stak...

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16 h. ago I was in bed with my boyfriend and ready for sex... until my body betrayed me thanks to this little

Imagine a life where sex remains as difficult as it was that first time - or worse, completely impossible.

Politics

30 h. ago I've spent two decades battling this hidden skin disorder that affects thousands of women. It's taken a huge toll on my life and this is what triggers it: JENNIFER BARTON

The scene I wake up to is a familiar one: my pillowcases and sheets are dotted with droplets of blood. I hurry to strip the bed and hide my shame before my husband walks in.

Events

34 h. ago Heroic images: 20 years of France’s ‘punk’ photo agency – in pictures

From tearful scenes in war-torn Ukraine to the photo diaries of immigrants making treacherous journeys, French agency MYOP have spent two decades taking the pulse of our era Continue reading...

Culture

35 h. ago From ayahuasca rituals to a birthday in the favelas: Arles photography festival takes us on a trip

This year’s French photo extravaganza showcases stunning images from across Latin America. There’s also selfie addicts, anonymous fetishists and a pharmacist taking pictures of his customers without their consentArtists have always been fascinated with imagining the invisible – but few have taken it quite as far as Musuk Nolte. The 37-year-old Mexican photographer has spent a decade working with the Indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon region – and found inspiration there by taking ayahuasca with a shaman called Julio.Nolte tells me he first took ayahuasca when he was five years old – with his mum, an anthropologist who studied the psychedelic brew. The powerful hallucinogenic visions he experienced while with the Shawi community in their ancestral homeland, the Paranapura basin, have been translated into a series of images titled The Belongings of the Air, presented as small suspended light boxes, glowing like fireflies in a darkened room. They are unconventional documents, no...

Culture

3 d. ago Do not eat warning issued as major supermarket is ordered to recall grab

A popular sweet pastry sold in supermarkets across Britain has been urgently recalled over fears it could trigger life-threatening allergic reactions.

Events

3 d. ago Do not eat warning issued as major supermarkets are ordered to recall grab

A popular sweet pastry sold in supermarkets across Britain has been urgently recalled over fears it could trigger life-threatening allergic reactions.

Events

5 d. ago Why thousands of women diagnosed with ADHD could really be suffering from iron deficiency

For as long as Josie Heath-Smith can remember, she has suffered from brain fog, fatigue and an inability to concentrate.

Politics

5 d. ago Major Texas city braces for huge torrent of devastating flood water surging towards it as death toll hits 27

A 27-year-old father, Julian Ryan, died saving his family after water flooded their home of the Guadalupe River.

Events

6 d. ago Wales Women v Netherlands Live: Updates as thousands gather ahead of Euro 2025 match

Almost 4,000 Welsh football fans are set to fill Allmend Stadion in Lucerne.

Politics

6 d. ago Twist after 'completely evil' killer who served 19 years behind bars after strangling his ex

A killer who spent nearly two decades in jail for the brutal murder of his teenage ex-girlfriend has been charged with assaulting a second woman in a hotel room.

Events

8 d. ago Biggie, Tupac, Suge: How Diddy became the last man standing in the East Coast

Diddy has spent over three decades at the pinnacle of hip hop

Politics

1 week ago Rita Ora says fortune teller 'changed her life' with one piece of advice

The 34-year-old singer and actress admitted her workaholic lifestyle was taking a huge toll

Politics

1 week ago Rita Ora changed her life after seeking advice from a fortune teller

The 34-year-old singer and actress admitted her workaholic lifestyle was taking a huge toll but it was only after speaking to a fortune teller, who only works with high- profile clients, that she decided to make some changes.

Politics

1 week ago US Catholic school fires teacher after husband’s obituary reveals his marriage to a man

Mark Richards says a parent complained to New Orleans’ St Francis Xavier school after reading his late husband’s obituaryA longtime music teacher at a Catholic school in the New Orleans area recently lost his job when it was revealed to an evidently “disgruntled” parent that he was another man’s widower, igniting a scandal within an archdiocese that has otherwise largely been occupied with trying to reorganize its finances in federal bankruptcy court after its clergymen spent decades sexually molesting children.In an email to community members at the archdiocese-run school from which he was dismissed, Mark Richards explained that he had been fired because a parent notified officials about an obituary for his husband, who died of a heart attack in September 2023. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago ‘If things were bad before, they will be worse’: can families recover from the stress and strain of war?

In Ukraine, three years of war have taken a huge toll on the relationships of those in combat– and experts say society must start to address the problemPhotographs by Anastasia VlasovaWhen her husband went off to help defend Ukraine against Russia’s invasion in 2022, Yulia stayed at home with their toddler. She describes being overcome by a feeling of “numbness”.“I’d been left alone with a small child. The worst thing for her was the thought that her father had left her and would never come back. The worst time was when she blocked her father when he tried to call. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Starmer’s welfare cuts could leave thousands of disabled women trapped with abusers, campaigners warn

Exclusive: The prime minister’s controversial welfare cuts would deepen economic insecurity for disabled women and make them more vulnerable to abuse, a new report has warned

Events

2 w. ago ‘No plans ever to retire’: why Steven Spielberg and the movie brat generation just won’t quit

Spielberg, 78, has announced he’ll keep making films till he dies – and he’s a spring chicken next to Coppola, Scorsese, Werner Herzog and Ridley Scott, all still working in their 80s. What makes directing a job for life?If life behaved in the same way as movies, then The Fabelmans would have been Steven Spielberg’s last film. He spent the previous five decades writing the rulebook of modern cinema, and then The Fabelmans was the rare work of art that wrapped everything up with a neat little bow. Part autobiography and part tutorial, it was like the work of a man looking back on his life with a sense of satisfied completion.But real life doesn’t behave like that, and Spielberg has just announced that he is never going to retire. In fact, he announced it twice. In a speech he gave during a star-studded event unveiling a new Steven Spielberg Theater on the Universal lot last night, the 78-year-old said: “I’m making a lot of movies and I have no plans ever to retire.” And then, talking...

Politics

2 w. ago Anna Wintour has spent decades dictating a certain look for the super

The Bezos-Sánchez wedding is rewriting the fashion rules. And there’s nothing the outgoing Vogue editor can do about itHow neat that Anna Wintour’s resignation as editor-in-chief of American Vogue should occur bang in the middle of Lauren Sánchez and Jeff Bezos’s wedding extravaganza in Venice. Top takeout? Anna’s revolution is over. She lost. Not personally, of course – she accrued significant riches herself, and her name is literally hewn into stone over a chunk of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Just don’t call her Ozymandias! But the things she represented are over, and nothing illustrates it in quite such withering fashion as the gathering on the Grand Canal of Instagram’s apex predators.Don’t worry – this isn’t going to be another article over-egging the fact that someone has unfurled some protest banner or something on a Venetian church. Very little needs refreshing quite as desperately as the eat-the-rich genre, which has started to feel even smugger than the sup...

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