My friends and I wanted to tell the story of Cuban life, without interference. Before long, I was being isolated, monitored and interrogated

• A version of this essay was previously published in the Dial under the title The Sneeze. Translation by Lily Meyer

One day, in the middle of 2014, my friend Carlos Manuel Álvarez asked me to join him on the newsroom’s balcony. Wind gusted in our eyes. Elbows on the railing, we stared at the sea as we talked. We were killing time because neither of us had a computer to work on. All of them were in use. At OnCuba, the magazine in Havana where we worked, only editors got their own computers. The rest of us had to share, which sometimes meant waiting an hour. Several of my university friends and I had lucked into contributing roles at OnCuba, and even though we weren’t on staff, we were always in the newsroom. It was a way to keep our group together.

Sometimes, over beers, we dreamed aloud about a newsroom coup. We wanted to topple Hugo Cancio, the publisher, and turn his resources – a giant office with multiple rooms and a balcony with sea views; computers and internet; money; connections – into the media outlet we wanted. Something with our imprint.

Everything you need to know (and more) about every squad member. Click on the player pictures for more information

Tony Blair’s departure as PM should have prompted a fresh start for Labour. But Starmer’s sad, backward-looking government remains in his thrall

Now half term is over, let’s have a quick quiz. Reading these lines, can you spot the common theme? Westminster has been mesmerised this week by the messages of a famous Blairite, Peter Mandelson, especially his damning exchanges with fellow carrier of the Blair torch, Pat McFadden. Last week’s big news was an essay written by Tony Blair himself. That was followed by a report on youth unemployment written by Blair’s former secretary of health, Alan Milburn. The story of this summer is shaping up to be a battle for the Labour leadership between Andy Burnham, whom Blair called “an outstanding member of my government”, and Wes Streeting, who is an outstanding member of his fanclub.

Catch it? That’s right: were little green men to visit Britain, they would think it under the control of some guy called Tony Blair. If not chief executive of these islands, he’s certainly the chair. If it’s not him in the spotlight, some other back number from the class of ’97 is hastily pressed into service. Just taken a massive tonking in the local elections? Better call Harriet Harman and Gordon Brown into No 10 for the photos. On it goes, through Jonathan Powell, Michael Barber, Liz Lloyd, Tim Allan. Need a walking contacts book to charm Donald Trump? Let’s call Peter … Oh dear.

Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist

In 2025, the tech journalist invited artificial intelligence to do nearly everything for her, including editing the book she was writing about the experiment. Some of it was useful, some not – but it was her time with a chatbot companion that really shook her

For a year, Joanna Stern decided to turn herself into a “lab rat” – the object of her own experiment. Throughout 2025, she invited artificial intelligence into “every corner” of her life. She let AI answer her texts, decide what she ate and cooked, mow her lawn, fold her washing, drive her places, parse her mammograms and even, in the darkness of a burner phone, be her lover. The resulting book, I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything, asks all the big questions, including: what happens when AI can do everything humans can do? And what comes after that?

If anyone can produce answers, surely it’s Stern. Last February, she ended a 12-year stint as a personal technology columnist at the Wall Street Journal. During her tenure, she won an Emmy for her short documentary E-Ternal: A Tech Quest to “Live” Forever, which explored digital legacies, and built a reputation for product reviews that were outlandishly creative and fiendishly stringent. She once took an Apple watch jetskiing on the Hudson river to evaluate its connectivity.

This look at the shocking 1992 murder of Rachel Nickell bravely gives you the unvarnished tale of her family’s struggles to deal with the tragedy – and the impossibility of coping with a living hell

All murders are shocking, but few unsettle a nation in the way that of Rachel Nickell did in 1992. She was stabbed 49 times while walking on Wimbledon Common during the day with her two-year-old son, Alex. The viciousness of the attack, in a public place and in front of a child, lingered darkly in the minds of the public, especially since Alex being the only witness enabled the killer to remain at large for years.

It is a crime that has been discussed, analysed and dramatised, but never quite in the way The Witness does. Across its three episodes, narrative emphasis rarely falls where we expect it to, because the main characters are not the police or the killer but the family Rachel left behind: Alex (Jahsaiah Williams, then Max Fincham as the older boy) and his devastated father André (Jordan Bolger). This harrowing new perspective proves to be rewarding.

Amid growing censorship at home under the rule of Xi Jinping, efforts to document the massacre of 4 June, 1989, are intensifying abroad

Discussions about the bloody crackdown on peaceful protesters that took place around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on 4 June, 1989 – and in cities across China – often dwell on the risk of forgetting the massacre.

The passage of time, with the world’s eyes soon drawn elsewhere, and suppression by authorities at home mean that the pivotal moment in Chinese history is at risk of fading into grey.

Senior police figures are pushing back against politicians they accuse of stoking tensions over Henry Nowak’s murder

Policing could be driven back to the 1960s by false claims officers are biased against white people, the leader of Britain’s black officers has said.

Ch Insp Andy George, president of the National Black Police Association, spoke out amid growing concerns that politicians such as Nigel Farage were stoking tensions around the murder of teenager Henry Nowak by making baseless and provocative claims.

Global report provides an alternative to climate breakdown, political extremism and economic tensions

• ‘Happiness is not just about GDP’: ambitious plan or utopia?

Humanity can raise living standards, reduce inequality and keep global heating within a 2C rise, according to a sweeping vision for planetary survival.

The report by the World Inequality Lab (WIL) aims to be the most comprehensive attempt yet to navigate the polycrisis that is pushing the world toward climate breakdown, political extremism and ever greater economic and social tension.

Nigel Farage’s party published the donations as part of its requirements with the Electoral Commission

Robert Jenrick, the Reform UK Treasury spokesperson, was doing a media round this morning. Asked to respond to Labour claims that Nigel Farage was stoking divison in his response to the murder of Henry Nowak, Jenrick said that was a “ludicrous” claim. He said:

I was absolutely stunned by those ludicrous comments. There’s nothing that Nigel Farage has done which has encouraged division.

He has simply shown leadership in setting out the course of action that now needs to be taken to make sure that we fix this problem and treat everybody equally before the law.

Government-ordered review reveals ‘routine ostracism’ of Jewish staff and patients in health service

The NHS is taking action to tackle antisemitism after a government-ordered report found that Jewish patients and staff face “routine ostracism” in the service.

Anti-Jewish hatred in the NHS means some patients hide their identity and staff “suffer in silence”, a review by Lord Mann, the government’s adviser on antisemitism, has found.