The Guardian

Abby, 25, a partnerships manager for film, meets Charlie, 26, a finance analyst

What were you hoping for?
A different kind of Friday night with good company and a fancy meal!

Christine Dawood found herself trapped on the ship, waiting for signs that the Titan submersible carrying her family would surface. She talks in detail for the first time about those harrowing four days

Walking into Christine Dawood’s kitchen, it’s impossible not to be drawn to the model Titanic in the centre of the room. Sitting in its own glass-fronted cabinet, the Lego ship is almost 1.5 metres long, constructed of 9,090 of the iconic plastic bricks. Dawood’s 19-year-old son Suleman spent almost two weeks building it. “People are always a bit shocked to see it,” she admits. “But what was I going to do? Break it up? Hide it away? Suleman put all those hours in. He’d been fascinated with the Titanic since we went to a huge exhibition when we lived in Singapore.“

I went to that same exhibition when it came to London, and remember marvelling at the china dinner plates that had survived intact; the unused lifejackets that had failed to save someone; the sheet music belonging to the orchestra who had supposedly bravely played even as the ship went down. Instead of a ticket, you were given a replica boarding pass with a real passenger’s name on it. At the end, you could find out who survived and who didn’t.

There is plenty of sunshine in this seductive, Sri Lankan-style potato curry that’s chock-full of evocative smells and flavours

I stitch myself up sometimes by planning on cooking something that’s native to a country – a Sri Lankan potato curry, say – then embellish it with my own desires (lemongrass, leeks, ginger) to such an extent that it can no longer really be called as such. But taste and memory work in mysterious ways. This recipe still evokes Sri Lanka for me: sunshine, spiced earth, the smell of cinnamon bundles and dense forest, and also the sound of the bread vans (playing Beethoven, curiously) and the distinctive squawk of the myna bird. I hope, if you cook it, it might evoke a little Sri Lankan sunshine for you, too.

The piccolo tune could only have been written to intentionally drive people completely crazy

I’m sitting in the kitchen with my phone on speaker, listening to an instrumental work featuring a repeated piccolo melody, as I have been for the last half hour. At first it seemed to be a composition without end, cagily constructed to fold back on itself, but after giving it close attention for some minutes I realise it’s just a short section of a larger piece – comprising the four bars before the drums kick in, and the four bars after – that lasts exactly 30 seconds. At the end of the loop it briefly cuts out before starting over again, leaving a silent gap that makes you think a customer service representative is about to speak. But that never happens.

Around the 45 minute mark I make a quick calculation – twice per bar, 8 bars per 30-second cycle – that suggests I have now listened to the repeated piccolo melody more than 1,400 times. It’s hard to imagine this work being devised with any intention beyond driving people – perhaps prisoners – insane.

Former US ambassador and Labour peer joins a long line of people who have gone out to meet awaiting paparazzi head-on

For a man at the centre of a storm that has rocked the political establishment, Peter Mandelson has spent the week looking remarkably relaxed. Day after day, as MPs have grilled civil servants over who knew what when about the former US ambassador’s security vetting, and police continue to investigate serious allegations over his own conduct, Mandelson has stepped out of his Regent’s Park mansion and pottered across the road to take his dog for a walk.

Smart-casually dressed in jeans and a jumper and holding in front of him a plastic ball-thrower, he has set off for the park like a weekending solicitor on his way to an egg and spoon race. There have been occasional small smiles for the photographers at his gate, but no comment. The message appears to be: I am insouciant, normal. Not in prison.

A century on from the first tournament in London, the table tennis world championships are back – with a fascinating history attached

The way Wang Chuqin plays, ping-pong is a physical impossibility. By the time you made it to the end of the first two words of that sentence, Chuqin, the men’s world No 1, has seen the ball, calculated its speed, direction, and height, judged whether it is travelling with topspin, backspin, left or right sidespin, or a combination of the four, decided how to return, forehand, backhand, attack, block, push, spin, and where to aim, shifted his weight, positioned his feet, rotated his hips, brought his racket into position, and hit the ball. By the time you got to that first full stop, he has done it all 12 times over.

You almost certainly didn’t know it, but Thursday was world table-tennis day. The England Federation set up a trail of golden tables around London to mark the occasion, and raise a little publicity for the World Team Table Tennis Championships, that are being held in the city for the first time since 1954. During a sunny lunch hour outside Temple Bar, underneath the walls of St Paul’s, city workers are playing during their break, pick-pock, pick-pock, and in among all the noise of the city there’s that familiar rat-a-tat-tat of a runaway ball skipping away from the table into some far corner while the players scurry after it.

The prodigious growth of running clubs, fuelled by young women, has seen the popularity of the event sky-rocket

There is always magic in the air on a London Marathon morning. But this year the event promises to dazzle and soar more than ever. A world-record 59,000 people will take part in Sunday’s race, raising close to £100m for charity while swallowing 93,024 Lucozade gels from Greenwich to the Mall. There are also whispers of a men’s world record attempt. But the biggest noise of all is coming from those hailing a new golden era of running.

The numbers are astonishing. The facts indisputable. More than 1.1 million people entered the ballot for this year’s race – 750,000 more than four years ago. Notably, a third of those were in the 18-29 category, with female entrants making up the biggest percentage of those under 30.

In February 2025, a cheap Russian drone tore through Chornobyl’s confinement shelter. Workers warn the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident is not safe yet

The dosimeter clipped to your chest ticks faster the moment you step off the designated path inside the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Step back, and it slows again – an invisible line between clean ground and contamination.

Above rises the “new safe confinement” (NSC) – the largest, movable steel structure ever built, taller than the Statue of Liberty, wider than the Colosseum, its arch curving overhead like an aircraft hangar built for giant planes.

Testimony emerges from Babak Alipour, who spent three years on death row before being taken to gallows in March

Writing from his cell in the Rajai Shahr prison in the northern Iranian city of Karaj, Babak Alipour wanted to tell his friends about those who had already gone to their execution.

There was Behrouz Ehsani, 69, the elder statesman of the group, who was “never angry” about their predicament. Then there was Mehdi Hassani, a 48-year-old father of three who he saw a couple of times in the prison hospital and who would ask him to pass on to the children the message that he was “fine”.

Iranian foreign minister has landed in Islamabad but his ministry says there will be no direct negotiations with the US envoy

The US said on Friday it had imposed sanctions on an independent “teapot” refinery in China for buying billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil, as Washington and Tehran head into another round of peace talks this weekend.

The Treasury Department targeted Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery, which it said is one of Iran’s largest customers of crude oil and petroleum products. The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said it also imposed sanctions on about 40 shipping companies and vessels that operate as part of Iran’s shadow fleet.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad late Friday. Earlier on social media, he wrote that he was travelling to Pakistan on a trip focused on “bilateral matters and regional developments.” He didn’t specify who he would meet.

Shortly after Araghchi touched down, the country’s government made it clear there would be no direct negotiations with American government representatives during this visit. Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmael Baqaei said on X that, “No meeting is planned to take place between Iran and the US”.

Instead, Baqaei said Pakistani officials would convey messages between the delegations. Baqaei thanked the Pakistani government for its “ongoing mediation + good offices for ending American imposed war of aggression.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had said in an interview on Fox News that Witkoff and Kushner would meet with Araghchi. “We’re hopeful that it will be a productive conversation and hopefully move the ball forward to a deal,” Leavitt said. She said vice-president JD Vance would not travel but that he remains “deeply involved,” and would be willing to go to Pakistan “if we feel it’s a necessary use of his time.”

The talks planned for Saturday come as much of the world is on edge over a war that has snarled crucial energy exports through the strait of Hormuz, clouded the global economic picture and left thousands dead across the Middle East.

The international community continues to denounce the humanitarian crises stemming from the conflict. European Council president António Costa said on Friday that the immediate opening of the strait of Hormuz without restrictions is “vital” for the world. Also, a World Food Programme representative today said that 45 million people will face food insecurity and malnutrition if the strait of Hormuz continues to be blocked.

Pakistan has been trying to get US and Iranian officials back to the table after Trump this week announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire with Iran, honouring Islamabad’s request for more time for diplomatic outreach.

That hasn’t lowered tensions in the strait, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas is shipped during peacetime. Iran has kept its stranglehold on traffic through the strait, attacking three ships earlier this week, while the US is maintaining a blockade on Iranian ports and Trump has ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines.