2 h. ago Apple’s new MacBook is ‘best in the world’ & I’m loving posh screen upgrade that will make everyone stop and stare

APPLE is running rings around the laptop industry – and the new MacBook Pro is its star athlete. I’ve been trying out the new MacBook Pro M5, which is now so powerful that it’s actually hard to describe. But I’m going to do my best because, for some of you, this is the best laptop...

Politics

3 h. ago Dave: The Boy Who Played the Harp review – it’s clearer than ever what a stunningly skilled rapper he is

Returning with his first album in four years, the arena-filling UK rapper is still such a smart, sharp lyricist as he explores a series of existential crisesAs Dave notes, a few minutes into his third album, he’s been conspicuous by his absence for “a couple summers”. Four years separate The Boy Who Played the Harp from his last solo album, the platinum-selling We’re All Alone in This Together. Perhaps more strikingly, it’s been two years since he released Split Decision, the collaborative EP with Central Cee that spawned Sprinter: not just the longest-running UK rap No 1 in history, but the track that finally did the thing that it seemed increasingly unlikely a UK rap track would ever do and became a hit in the US, selling a million copies and even winding up on Barack Obama’s annual playlist. But rather than attempt to capitalise on its US success, as Central Cee did – jumping on tracks by big names ranging from J Cole to Ice Spice to Jung Kook from BTS; releasing a debut album th...

Events

5 h. ago ‘Am I doing this right?’: how to master the lost art of flirting

Making a romantic connection with a stranger in real life means levelling up one’s game. The good news is, it is possible to learn how to be a good flirtGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailFrom his birds-eye position in the booth, DJ Rakish has noticed a blue light disco effect on the dancefloor when he plays at “straightish” nightclubs. “If people aren’t already in groups, you definitely see the boys hanging around together and the girls hanging around together,” he says. There might be furtive glances here and there but, “particularly with younger people, game just doesn’t seem to exist at the moment”.Rakish is not alone in noticing a lack of casual flirting between strangers. Clinical psychologist and UCLA professor Dr Elizabeth Laugeson says: “There is some evidence that young adults today are engaging in less traditional dating behaviour, compared to previous generations.” Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago DWP urges state pensioners awaiting triple lock boost to claim possible extra £4,000

State pensioners are set to receive a 4.8 per cent pay rise next year, but the DWP has warned that people should review their finances now

Economics

7 h. ago THE GREYHOUND DIARY by Judy Montagu Edited by Anna Mathias: Rip

- and then turned down a suitor worth $100 million

Politics

7 h. ago Hotel review: Mallory Court Country House Hotel & Spa, Leamington Spa

Mallory Court is the perfect example of a cute, wholesome hotel in the English countryside.

Society

8 h. ago West End Girl by Lily Allen: A masterpiece album of betrayal

Lily Allen’s first album in seven years is a searing takedown of a dying relationship that reminds us all how confessional pop is done best: with actual confessions

Politics

10 h. ago The Ordinary’s foaming cleanser left our skin ‘feeling soft and smooth’ for less than £10

It has been made with oilier skin types in mind

Economics

10 h. ago THE SURGEON, THE MIDWIFE, THE QUACK by Alanna Skuse: Think you're having a baby? Bite your husband's bottom

Kathryn Hughes dives into the farcical and dangerous world of early modern medicine.

Politics

10 h. ago Dazzling debut fiction: Flat Earth by Anika Jade Levy, Boy from the North Country by Sam Sussman, Our Precious Wars by Perrine Tripier

Sara Lawrence reviews the best debut fiction out this month

Events

10 h. ago Shockingly good literary fiction: MONA'S EYES by Thomas Schlesser, LOVE DIVINE by Ysenda Maxtone Graham, VAIM by Jon Fosse

Stephanie Cross reviews some of the best literary fiction out this month

Events

10 h. ago Keira Knightley takes on Kid's Fiction: BEAR'S NAP by Emily Gravett, I LOVE YOU JUST THE SAME by Keira Knightley, THE LONE HUSKY by Hannah Gold

Sally Morris reviews the best children's books out this month

Politics

10 h. ago Criminally good Classic Crime: Scandalize my Name by Fiona Sinclair, Beattie Cavendish and the White Pearl Club by Mary

Barry Turner reviews Classic Crime

Events

11 h. ago I’m a Barcelona destination expert and these are the best cheap hotels

Budget-friendly Barcelona is best explored from these top hotels that won’t break the bank

Politics

11 h. ago Mohinder Kaur Bhamra: Punjabi Disco review – rediscovery of an 80s trailblazer

(Naya Beat)Punjabi folk vocals backed by hammering electronic percussion, disco basslines and fizzing synth melody: a key predecessor to the Asian dance music explosionIn 1982, London-based Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra recorded a true oddity. Accompanied by her son Kuljit on an early Roland synthesiser and drum machine, the pair laid down nine tracks of Punjabi folk vocals backed by hammering electronic percussion, disco basslines and fizzing synth melody. Only 500 copies of the resulting album, Punjabi Disco, were pressed; it was released to confusion from a diaspora audience used to the bombast of bhangra. In the decades since, rare LPs have appeared on resale sites, but Kuljit’s recent rediscovery of the master tapes has now made the record widely available for the first time.The blipping electronic toms and rattling shaker of opening number Disco Wich Aa set the tone, gradually building a swaying groove over siren-like synth melody before Mohinder’s falsetto vocal...

Politics

12 h. ago Jennifer Walton: Daughters review – a stylish and painful debut

(Local Action)Fiction, folk and a devastating diagnosis feature in the producer and DJ’s literary penmanship, her gentle, gothic vocals thick with morbid, magical thinkingMiss America, the centrepiece of Jennifer Walton’s stylish, painful debut record, sits us down in a hotel room near JFK airport, watching on as Walton learns that her father has been diagnosed with cancer. The Sunderland-born musician had been touring the US for the first time, drumming with indie band Kero Kero Bonito, and now grief greys everything out. Faltering piano and hushed strings accompany gothic dispatches from the tour van: “Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks.”Walton’s gentle vocals are deadpan, with the record’s tension brought by her penmanship (encompassing fiction, folksy sayings and blunt diary entries) and her sharp, surprising maximalism. Few songs this year have stronger novelistic flair than Shelly, which witnesses the killing of a deer and spirals into a pe...

Politics

13 h. ago A Mind of My Own by Kathy Burke review – a brilliant, blunt and beautiful memoir

The actor on being called ugly, telling Johnny Rotten to F-off, and striking gold at CannesKathy Burke’s mother, Bridget, died of stomach cancer when she was 18 months old; she writes that it made her “feel dead famous” in her community. She was raised by her older brothers, John and Barry, who were 10 and eight when it happened, and sometimes by their father Pat, an alcoholic for many years, violent with it, who struggled to care for his family. Pat and Bridget had moved to London from Ireland, and the Burkes lived on an estate in Islington, where the other families played a vital role in raising and feeding the children. On his deathbed, in 1994, Pat asked Kathy to do two things: to give up smoking, and to write more. It has only taken her 30 years, she says, but she’s finally done the latter.The entertainment industry is top-heavy with people from middle-and upper-class backgrounds who have a limited understanding of lives that don’t resemble th...

Science

14 h. ago Josh Barrie On the Sauce at Kruk: Drink in the gap yah nostalgia

Drinks are jazzy and the food hot and herbal, says Josh Barrie

Politics

14 h. ago Demi Lovato review, It’s Not That Deep: Plenty of human heart pumping beneath the bangers

If the hooks and vocal commitment feel so steel-cored, it’s perhaps because the pop star is hanging onto them for dear life

Politics

20 h. ago West End Girl by Lily Allen: Betrayal concept album is like The Streets writing Lemonade

Lily Allen’s first album in seven years is a searing takedown of a dying relationship that reminds us all how confessional pop is done best: with actual confessions

Politics