11 h. ago Have the Tate to yourself: the best art exhibitions in London for summer 2025

The must-see London art shows this summer - with some minus the crowds

Politics

11 h. ago Why summer’s a time to pass the port | Hannah Crosbie on drinks

When the sun’s out, try using port as a mixer and surprise yourself with a port tonic or any number of citrus punchesSome drinks are so inexorably tied up with specific seasons and circumstances that it’s hard to imagine them anywhere else. Like bumping into a teacher outside school or witnessing someone take off their shoes during a flight. It’s legal, sure, but there’s always a moment of deep discomfort and confusion before acceptance. And that’s pretty much how I imagine many people feel about drinking port in summer. Or, indeed, at any time of the day that isn’t evening, or served alongside anything that isn’t an intriguing, veiny cheese.Consider Porto, the city responsible for bringing the drink to the rest of the world – do you think that, when the temperatures creep up, everyone there stops drinking the stuff? No, they find new ways to enjoy it. Improvise, adapt, overcome. Continue reading...

Politics

12 h. ago The search for the drink of summer 2025 is over – and it’s Lonkero

Sorry, BuzzBallz, spicy paloma, Hugo spritz, Suntory –196 and Tiramibru, but nothing hits the spot like gin mixed with grapefruit sodaIdeally, to qualify for the title, the drink of the summer – like the song of the summer – should be obvious and undeniable, emerging some time in mid-June before spreading, as though on the breeze, to be inescapable by August.You should have never even heard of this beverage before the temperature hits 20C, then you shouldn’t be able to imagine life without it. You might return to it years later, and even enjoy it – but it should never hit quite the same way as it did that first summer it was everywhere. Continue reading...

Politics

31 h. ago I Know What You Did Last Summer review – fun 90s slasher revival hooks us back in

Jennifer Love-Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr return for a gory, slickly made legacy sequel stuffed with fan serviceRushed into production after the surprise success of 1996’s Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer has forever lived, and suffered, in the same bracket. Sure it’s another slasher with another cast of unblemished faces and sure it’s also written by Kevin Williamson but it’s always been a far simpler, straighter, sillier film. Scream was trying to reinvent the wheel while I Know What You Did Last Summer was just trying to keep it going.As a franchise, it then quickly became the very thing Williamson was poking fun at in the first place with a rubbishy Bahamas-set sequel (I Still Know What You Did Last Summer!) and, at the time, an inevitable, tossed off, straight-to-video follow-up (I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer!). People quickly gave up caring what anyone had been up to during any summer on record and as the subgenre died, it wisely followed. But as Hollywood ...

Politics

32 h. ago Met Office gives heatwave verdict on summer holidays and when 'very warm' weather will hit

The summer of 2025 is twice as likely to be hotter than normal

Society

66 h. ago Superman shows we were all wrong about the blockbuster summer of 2025

James Gunn’s new film has shrugged off ‘superhero fatigue’ to become one of the biggest and brightest blockbusters of the year. When it comes to mainstream filmmaking, there’s a lot of doom-mongering – but Louis Chilton sees reasons to be cheerful

Politics

4 d. ago Summer loving: how America fell head over heels for Love Island

The all-consuming dating competition has become the most talked about show of the summer in the US even as it suffers viewer disinterest in the UKOn the surface, there wasn’t anything particularly different about this season of Love Island USA.It’s another hot idiot parade. The villa is the same, overly lit and filled with dumb neon signs, looking like it was exclusively decorated by Target (the contestants are still obliged to call it beautiful as they enter, leaving audiences wondering if they are told by producers to do so). There is the same introduction of personalities that at first seem complex and different, only for everyone to fall into a high school trance once they start vying to be chosen. There is the same suspension of any kind of reality for the most part, in which the contestants rarely discuss the real-world implications of their lives, such as their jobs and living situations. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Golden sand beach with a 'nostalgic pier', just a day trip from London

If you're struggling to find the perfect beach spot for summer 2025, look no further

Politics

6 d. ago New Writing Sets Sail: Shortlisted Playwrights Celebrated as Theatre@Sea Heads to Dundee

Two playwrights from across the UK are preparing to see their work brought to life in a most unexpected setting — aboard a cruise ship, as it docks near Dundee this summer as part of the Ambassador PEEL Playwriting Challenge 2025.

Culture

6 d. ago Panting, gular fluttering and sploots: how Britain’s animals try to keep cool

From cows and cats to squirrels and birds, all have their own methods but may need more help as heatwaves intensifyWith the UK bracing for its third heatwave of the summer, 2025 is on course to be a record-breaking year for temperature. As people retreat into paddling pools and beneath the breeze of pedestal fans, a quieter and less visible struggle is playing out across the country’s fields, forests and hedgerows. So how are Britain’s animals weathering the heat?From cows and cats to herons, horses and even earthworms, each species has evolved its own tactics for staying cool – some more effective than others. But as extreme heat events become more frequent and intense, scientists are beginning to question the longer-term resilience of UK wildlife, and what we can do to help. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Exclusive look inside the Charlotte Tilbury’s highly coveted Mystery Box, back for summer 2025

Discover the four items inside this year’s Mystery Box

Politics

7 d. ago Why is my hay fever so bad this year? Pollen count rises in latest heatwave

The Met Office’s pollen forecast predicts very high pollen counts for swaths of England, Wales and Scotland on Saturday

Politics

7 d. ago Beaches and borrowing: 10% of UK adults ‘putting summer 2025 holiday on credit’

Financial insights company TransUnion also found that 7% of people are using credit to partly fund their summer getaway this year.

Politics

7 d. ago Rachel Roddy’s recipe for roast summer vegetable, herb and pearl barley salad | A kitchen in Rome

Not many salads come with a byproduct that can be transformed into a delicious cooling drinkIt is the time of year when the fruit syrups get moved to a more accessible shelf at our local supermarket. They have a range of eight to 10 flavours, but the two that dominate are mint and orzata, luminous green and cloudy white syrups respectively, that need diluting with fizzy water and maybe topping up with ice. I have mentioned orzata here before, how popular it is in Italy and how the name means a drink made from orzo (barley), and also how at some point the barley was replaced by almonds; then, at another point, the almonds were replaced by deacidified benzoin, which is a balsamic resin obtained from trees of the genus Styrax from south-east Asia. Deacidified benzoin is actually delicious and I become dependent on orzata at this time of year, and the sound of the ice clanking against the side of the glass as I walk my cold, cloudy drink back to my hot desk is the sound of summer.Howeve...

Politics

8 d. ago At American summer camps, kids get a glimpse of their future. That’s what made the horror in Texas so crushing | Emma Brockes

As news of the floods began to break, for so many parents the scene at Camp Mystic was intimately imaginableAmong the many dreams that the US offers its citizens, there’s this: that the American child, around the age of eight, will go to sleep-away camp a few hours from home and begin one of the key formative experiences of their life. They will return every summer. They will learn independence. They will form bonds with people who will one day godparent their children. As an adult, a friend of mine – no kidding – returned to the hallowed ground in Pennsylvania where her summer camp once stood, bought a piece of land and built a house there. Whenever we visited, she’d point out the ruins of the old dining hall down by the lake and get a haunted look on her face.I mention this because, among the many devastated reactions to the flash floods in Texas last week, there is one that is particular, and particularly acute, to millions of Americans: a gut-level blow of unfathomable loss stri...

Events

8 d. ago At US summer camps, kids get a glimpse of their future. That’s what made the horror in Texas so visceral | Emma Brockes

Camps are a rite of passage for American parents and children. That’s why the tragedy at Camp Mystic was intimately imaginableAmong the many dreams that the US offers its citizens, there’s this: that the American child, around the age of eight, will go to sleep-away camp a few hours from home and begin one of the key formative experiences of their life. They will return every summer. They will learn independence. They will form bonds with people who will one day godparent their children. As an adult, a friend of mine – no kidding – returned to the hallowed ground in Pennsylvania where her summer camp once stood, bought a piece of land and built a house there. Whenever we visited, she’d point out the ruins of the old dining hall down by the lake and get a haunted look on her face.I mention this because, among the many devastated reactions to the flash floods in Texas last week, there is one that is particular, and particularly acute, to millions of Americans: a gut-level blow of unfa...

Events

8 d. ago Scottish airport crowned best in the UK for summer 2025 and it's not Edinburgh

Two airports in Scotland are included on the roundup - but our biggest hub didn't make the cut.

Politics

8 d. ago Met Office map reveals UK areas set for official heatwave ahead of 'long

Temperatures could rise into the low 30s as the Met Office forecasts the third heatwave of summer 2025

Politics

9 d. ago Trafford Centre's funfair, beach and £3.30 splash park returning this summer 2025

This year you can buy a wristband for unlimited rides throughout the school holidays

Society

9 d. ago Glasgow Pride 2025 set to shine with parade, parties, and Pride hub

Scotland’s biggest celebration of LGBTQ+ life and culture returns this summer as Glasgow Pride 2025 rolls out the rainbow carpet from Friday, July 18 to Sunday, July 20, drawing tens of thousands of locals and international visitors to the city.

Politics