Basmati rice tossed with sweet onions and chickpeas, then mixed with green herbs and salty feta, and dotted with a spicy, lemony, pine nut sauce

Spring has a split personality. The idea of it is nice: frolicking through carpets of bluebells while wearing pastel-coloured trousers, etcetera. But the reality is that it’s often dicey and unreliable: hot one minute, cold and/or tipping down with rain the next. This is a recipe that has a foot in both sides of spring. There’s the warm comfort of basmati rice woven through with sweet onions, harissa and chickpeas, as well as the light frivolity of green herbs and the salty freshness of feta. All the flavour and freshness of spring with none of the unpredictability.

Thriving punk culture seen as response to frustrations at unemployment, urban violence, police brutality and deprivation

As black-clad police combatants charged into the hillside favela and opened fire, a black-clad punk scurried out of the community in the opposite direction, his hands trembling from fright.

“Holy shit! All those guns! Things are getting ugly!” spluttered Rodrigo Cilirio, the founder and bassist of one of Rio’s most enduring punk bands, as he took cover behind a tree.

When DNA test results shattered everything Lavinia and Michelle thought they knew about their family history, they also revealed something never before documented in the UK

I like being a twin. It defines who I am,” Lavinia Osbourne tells me on the 49th birthday she shares with her sister, Michelle. “It’s amazing to have a twin and have a built-in friend for ever,” Michelle says. “I’ve been really blessed to go through this journey with someone else.”

Lavinia and Michelle know that those of us who haven’t shared a womb with a sibling can be fascinated by twins: their similarities, how they differ, whether there’s any kind of mysterious synergy between them.

With a fast-expanding membership and electoral gains in sight, the Israel–Palestine debate is testing party unity

A Green party member for more than 30 years, Elise Benjamin admits to bittersweet feelings even as fellow activists anticipate a historic breakthrough in next week’s elections.

Benjamin was involved in drawing up the party’s guidance on antisemitism, which she describes as comprehensive. But the former Green councillor in Oxford now wonders whether further guidance is needed: “Now that we have such a large membership, I think there needs to be an urgent review of how to make our complaints process fit for purpose.”

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

Josh, 30, a video game designer, meets Hannah, 31, an architectural lighting designer

What were you hoping for?
A fun evening and easy chat with an interesting and unique human being.

The social and economic impact of people living longer and having fewer babies is hitting countries worldwide. Adaptation is key

In Japan, there are now companies that specialise in cleaning the apartments of elderly people who have died alone and gone undiscovered for weeks or months, while adult incontinence pads have outstripped nappy sales for more than a decade. In Italy, depopulating villages are selling homes for €1 to attract new residents and keep services running. In the UK, falling pupil numbers are already closing schools and classrooms in parts of London.

These are not isolated curiosities, but signs of a broader shift taking place across much of the developed world. “In the EU in 2024, 21 of 27 countries had more deaths than births,” said Prof Sarah Harper, the director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing. Across Asia and the Americas, too – from Japan and South Korea, to Cuba and Uruguay – many countries are seeing the same pattern.

From celebrity cameos to lucrative brand partnerships, The Devil Wears Prada 2’s approach to maximising revenue is worthy of Runway’s finest

For a film that serves as a commentary on the perilous economics of today’s media landscape, it’s fitting that promotion for The Devil Wears Prada 2 has been so frank about its finances.

Speaking ahead of the New York premiere, Meryl Streep revealed she initially turned down the role of withering fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly in the 2006 original in a bid to extract more money from its producers.

None of the audience are laughing at my jokes. Until …

The band I’m in is on a spring tour, 16 dates across the UK, from Tavistock in Devon to Edinburgh by way of Birmingham, Norwich and Liverpool. The first gig is in South Petherton, a village in Somerset where we played once 10 years ago.

Here’s what I remember about last time: we arrived after dark and loaded our stuff into a chilly village hall with a high ceiling and a narrow stage. Normally I set aside time to learn a few local facts in order to ingratiate myself with the audience, but on this occasion there was no phone reception.

Nederlanders blijven voorzichtig met het boeken van hun zomervakantie. Reisbranchevereniging ANVR ziet dat mensen wel op vakantie willen, maar door wat onrust rondom vliegen meer voor zekerheid gaan.

"Nederlanders lijken wat terughoudend te zijn met boeken van vliegvakanties. Bijvoorbeeld door het nieuws rondom de kerosinetekorten", zegt ANVR-directeur Frank Radstake. "Meer klanten informeren naar wat er gebeurt als het misgaat. Ze willen zekerheid."

De bestemmingen voor de reizigers maken ook een kleine shift. Door de oorlog is het Midden-Oosten uiteraard minder populair. Mensen kiezen volgens Radstake nu vaker voor bekende Europese bestemmingen rond de Middellandse Zee. Voor verre bestemmingen kiezen mensen vaker voor Kaapverdië en Curaçao.

Europese bestemmingen

De laatste harde cijfers dateren van maart, vanuit de boekingsmonitor van ANVR. In die maand was de oorlog in het Midden-Oosten al wel begonnen, maar de dreiging van kerosinetekorten leek nog ver weg. Ten opzichte van dezelfde periode een jaar eerder werden er 1 procent minder vakanties geboekt.

Dat kleine verval kan te maken hebben met de voorzichtigheid en mede daarom kiezen consumenten ook voor zekerheid, zien ook reisorganisaties. Van een dip in de boekingen willen zij echter niet spreken. "Nederlanders bezuinigen op veel, maar niet op de zon", aldus een woordvoerder van Sunweb op basis van eigen cijfers. "In een markt die zwaar wordt beïnvloed door geopolitieke onrust en stijgende prijzen, kiezen steeds meer Nederlanders voor alles-in-één-vakanties. Vooral onder jongeren is zekerheid heel populair."

Corendon ziet naar eigen zeggen geen twijfel bij de boekers van een zomervakantie, maar volgens de organisatie is er wel sprake van een verschuiving in bestemmingen. De aanbieder merkt dat mensen in de vakanties meer voor Europese bestemmingen kiezen. "De mediterrane bestemmingen zijn populair. Daarbij is vooral Turkije bezig aan een inhaalslag." Ook Corendon ziet een stijging in boekingen richting de Nederlandse Caribische eilanden.