The volume and choice of liquid is important, say our experts, as is turning up the heat – but, after that, you really can just flavour to taste

Why are my scones always dry and tough? And any fun flavour ideas?
Paul, by email
It mostly comes down to applying a light hand, so touch the dough only as much as is strictly necessary. “Also, although it sounds old-fashioned, always use a knife to cut in whatever fat you’re using,” says Verena Lochmuller, head of product development at Ottolenghi. “It’s OK to have a few lumps, too.” Though it might seem obvious, it’s worth checking your leavener as well: “If it’s old, get a new one,” says Lochmuller, who goes for baking powder plus baking soda or bicarb. “You’ll get more air bubbles from the bicarb, but you need something to react with it.” Her liquid of choice is buttermilk, kefir or soured cream let down with a little water.

Insufficient liquid is another possible culprit for Paul’s scone plight, says Anna Higham of London’s Quince bakery and the soon-to-open Clementine. “Depending on the weather and how old your flour is, it will absorb different amounts of liquid on different days,” she says, so it’s not a case of simply following a recipe: “It’s also about how the dough feels.” Generally speaking, the wetter it is, the better, Lochmuller says. “People think if it’s wet, it’s going to be heavy, but it’s actually the opposite.” But don’t be daft and pour all the liquid in at once – instead, go slow.

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

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An antithesis of the doom and gloom docs about environmental destruction, Cumberbatch and expert contributors look at how we can all help to protect it

There is value in a documentary about the environment and the climate crisis that does not simply indulge in hand-wringing, anger and despair. Fredi Devas’s film, presented by Benedict Cumberbatch in London’s National History Museum and composed of segments from different contributors, focuses on real, positive measures that individuals and communities can take – or begin to take – to make a difference. I’m agnostic about the sometimes touchy-feely tone of the film which can feel like a schools educational programme rather than something intended for adults, and occasionally also about the surging score which is there to tell us when to feel hopeful and when to feel euphoric. But there is food for thought here.

The film revives the issue about meat eating, which requires colossally destructive land clearance for the cattle involved, but it doesn’t simply try to make people feel guilty for liking meat. Plant-based substitutes for meat like mycelium are not good enough yet, we hear, but improvements are being made all the time. Bio-investment initiatives are discussed – business models which are linked to regenerating the natural world, the source of raw materials. The film interviews a forest healing instructor in South Korea who uses woodland spaces for therapy; of course, it’s tempting to do jokes about “tree hugging” and yet who can doubt that these natural places are indeed restorative? Naturalist and broadcaster Dan O’Neill is shown visiting Singapore and instead of throwing up his hands in horror at this turbo-capitalist place where people can reputedly be severely reprimanded for spitting gum on the pavement, he praises its policy of integrating green spaces into the urban environment.

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It’s 10 years since Brexit – and it’s also another one of those weeks in British politics … Guardian columnist Rafael Behr will be here at 5pm to answer your questions about Burnham, Starmer, Brexit and more.

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Welcome to our latest Q&A with a Guardian journalist. Raf will be joining us at 5pm. We have originally asked him to take questions about Brexit as we mark 10 years since the UK’s vote to leave the EU. But … you may well have questions about the last 48 hours as Andy Burnham looks certain to become the next prime minister.

In the meantime, though, Andrew Sparrow is covering another busy and dramatic day in Westminster on the politics live blog and here’s some more on the end of Keir Starmer’s premiership:

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Three months after Bergen-Belsen was liberated, Britten and Yehudi Menuhin performed there. Survivor and cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was ‘transfixed’ – as she told the composer when they played together decades later

In 1945, the violinist Yehudi Menuhin was on a short tour of Germany, offering recitals to survivors of the concentration camps. On Friday 27 July 1945 he reached Bergen-Belsen, liberated three months earlier, and gave two concerts, in the cinema at the camp. The experience had a profound impact. “I shall not forget that afternoon as long as I live,” said Menuhin. “After Belsen, Yehudi was never the same again,” his sister Yaltah Menuhin reported. Anita Lasker, a survivor of Belsen, was present at one of those concerts. Nineteen years old, and a cellist, as a child she had been at Auschwitz, where she played in the women’s orchestra, under the direction of Alma Rosé, the niece of Gustav Mahler.

Lasker wrote to her cousin about the concert. “Who would ever have believed that Belsen Camp would hear Yehudi Menuhin playing? A wonderful evening”, which included “the Bach/Kreisler Prelude and Fugue, the Kreutzer Sonata, Mendelssohn’s Concerto, something by Debussy and several smaller, unfamiliar items”.

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With an extra weekend between the Barcelona-Catalunya and Austrian Grand Prix, here’s a recap of everything the F1 drivers have been up to.

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Vooropgesteld: het is - zoals het een film van regisseur Duitse Uwe Boll betaamt - geen goede film. Sterker nog, het voelt naar goed gebruik bijna alsof het schrijfwerk opzettelijk te nadrukkelijk is, en voor de cinematografie hoeven we ook niet te kijken. Maar daar gaat het dus niet om. Waar het wel om gaat is dat dit de eerste film in decennia is die een dáádwerkelijk taboe doorbreekt, en daarmee voor de verandering eens geen fotonegatief van de werkelijke dader/slachtoffer-verdeling presenteert. Dat komt neer op: islamitische (immigranten) en andere uitheemse vervangers zijn de daders van seksueel (groeps)geweld, inheemse meisjes en vrouwen zijn de slachtoffers van seksueel (groeps)geweld, en inheemse rechters laten de daders er stelselmatig te makkelijk mee weg te komen.

En ja, dan, DAN, kopt de grootste publicatie in de filmindustrie, namelijk Variety, ineens: "‘Citizen Vigilante’ Review: Uwe Boll Does Armie Hammer No Favors With This Morally Bankrupt Thriller". Zo'n kop lijkt futiel, maar het is ons morele universum in het klein. En om exact die reden is de hele film dus verboden (!) in Duitsland.

En, moet echt even vermeld, hoofdrolspeler Armie Himmer is inderdaad niet de minste. Sterker nog, het was een echte A-lister voordat hij in 2021 werd beschuldigd van een hele reeks aan seksueel wangedrag en aanvullende ophef door zijn eigen appjes waarin hij beweert een kanibaal te zijn. Zijn grootste rol was die in 2017 als deuteragonist (look it up sweetie in Nederland spreken we Nederlands) naast superster Timothée Chalamet in hun homoseksuele zomerromance Call Me by Your Name. Maar goed, hij kreeg dus 5 jaar lang geen enkele rol meer en zei zelfs "f*cking reclames voor kattenvoer" te willen doen als hij daarmee weer aan de slag kon.

Maar in plaats van kattenvoer werd het VOER VOOR EXTREEMRECHTS en de tussenstand is nu: viraal op rechts Twitter, 91% op Rotten Tomatoes door honderden publieksleden, slechts 2 reviews door 'erkende critici' waarvan de inhoud zich laat raden, en regisseur Uwe Boll die zich tot Elon Musk wendt en zegt: "Everybody is watching Citizen Vigilante and it is exactly your movie. (...) It's the movie that goes against anybody in the film industry, and showing the crimes of migrants in Europe. And that we are in an existential crisis, exactly how you say it the whole time," en zo monoloogt hij nog wat verder - zie helemaal onderaan topic.

Afijn, daadwerkelijke transgressie. Was dat ooit niet de functie van kunst? Veel meer beeld na de breek.

De scène die voorafging aan de bovenstaande executie

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Een rechter krijgt het

Most savage moment in the entire movie:

“The laws are meant to protect the victims… not the perpetrators.”

Then he looks the judge who let six boys walk after gang-raping a 14-year-old in the eyes and says:

“You are the cancer that is killing society.”

This clip is why… pic.twitter.com/isyZcRqIwU

— paseq (@xpaseqx) June 22, 2026

Subtiel

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"commercially and artistically"

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Regisseur tegen Elon

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Hier gebeurt veel. "This Morally Bankrupt Thriller"

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Eens in de zoveel jaar raakt in de Grote Oceaan een kwetsbare balans verstoord. Dat heeft gevolgen voor de hele wereld: droogte, overstromingen en nieuwe hitterecords.

Britney Spears is het symbool van hoe een kapitalistische industrie een individu kan vermorzelen. Corpus Britney van Dominique De Groen gaat over de zangeres, en toch ook weer niet. Wat verzonnen is en wat niet loopt dwars door elkaar, in een duizelingwekkend en onophoudelijk fascinerend romandebuut.

Original Mastodon Post

Letters from England (1925) by Karel Čapek — the Czech writer known for giving the world the word “robot” — relates in vivacious style a tour he took around Britain, all adorned with the author's own sketches: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/karel-capek-letters-from-england