A daughter who gave up full-time work to help look after her mother reveals her emotional and financial struggle

• Unpaid UK carers ‘face financial hit that can last decades’

We’re in the haematology department at the hospital and they call my mum in. We go inside, sit down and the doctor tells us the results of the test: she has myeloma – blood cancer – but will need a bone marrow test to confirm it.

I nearly faint, my heart sinks and I can see my mum’s face filled with sadness. Everything we hear after that is a blur but I know from that point things will be tough and that I am about to become a carer.

Love Islanders have it, daters want it and TikTok influencers will teach you how to get it – but rizz (a close cousin of charisma) is hard to fabricate

At the end of 2023, the Oxford University Press chose “rizz” as its word of the year. Rizz, which topped a shortlist that included “Swiftie”, “parasocial” and ‘“situationship”, is defined by the OUP as a noun denoting “style, charm, or attractiveness; the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner”. It can also be used as a verb, often linked with the word “up”, as in “to rizz up”.

Etymologically, rizz is said to be derived from charisma, although the person directly credited with popularising rizz – the American YouTuber Kai Cenat – has said that, as far as he knows, it is not.

Students are exempt during their course but as soon as they finish their final year they are liable to pay

Final-year university students have been urged to check that they do not owe council tax for the last few weeks of their rented accommodation.

While students are exempt from the tax during the course, they are liable to pay as soon as they finish their final year.

We thought our country had become tolerant and inclusive, but the state still regards a woman’s safety as secondary to a man’s job

Ireland loves its strong women, as long as they’re dead or they never lived at all. It’s the walking, talking, breathing ones who are bothersome. There is hardly an Irish person who hasn’t heard of the sexually insatiable Queen Medb, famed for stealing her neighbour’s prized bull, or of Grace O’Malley, a real-life sea pirate, or of the darling of them all, Caitlín Ní hUallacháin, the mythical personification of Ireland.

Until a week ago, most people had never heard of Natasha O’Brien. The country had been going about its business contentedly thinking itself modern and progressive, unaware that a 22-year-old soldier had previously pleaded guilty in the circuit court to violently assaulting her. The 24-year-old had been walking home from her job in a Limerick pub when she happened upon Cathal Crotty yelling “faggot” at passersby on the city’s main street. When she asked him to stop, he punched her to the ground and punched her twice more until she blacked out. Then he ran away and gloated on Snapchat: “Two to put her down, two to put her out.”

Justine McCarthy is an Irish journalist and the author of An Eye on Ireland: Writings from a Changing Nation

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Loss of income, curbs on benefits and soaring bills are piling pressure on people caring for family members

People who look after family members free of charge are taking a huge hit to their finances which could continue into their retirement as they find themselves unable to balance paid work with their caring commitments.

Recent analysis of official figures by the financial firm Just Retirement found seven in 10 people who were receiving carer’s allowance were not in paid work, and missing out on earnings and private pension contributions.

Investigation details industry campaign including legal threats and charm offensive aimed at Tory MPs

Rishi Sunak abandoned his “legacy” policy to ban smoking for future generations amid a backlash from the tobacco industry in the form of legal threats, lobbying and a charm offensive aimed at Conservative MPs, an investigation reveals.

The UK had been on course to become the first country to ban smoking for future generations, via the tobacco and vaping bill, which Downing Street hoped would help define Sunak’s place in British political history.

Public servant who spearheaded the regeneration of post-industrial Manchester as the city council’s chief executive

In the staid world of local government, where town halls were traditionally seen by ministers as supplicants of Whitehall, Sir Howard Bernstein stood out as a rare public servant determined to break the mould of civic passivity.

As chief executive of Manchester city council for 19 years, Bernstein, who has died aged 71 after a short illness, was instrumental in transforming his native city from what he once called the doldrums of the post-industrial 1980s into Britain’s second biggest commercial and business centre, pulling in billions of pounds in investment.

The so-called toughest vape laws in the world are unfair and might create a new black market, seasoned vapers say

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While many might see vaping as a grotesque threat to the health of young people, and will welcome the so-called toughest vape laws in the world, seasoned vapers beg to differ.

Mark* has been vaping for more than 15 years. He used the device to break a 15-year, two-pack-a-day addiction to cigarettes. He loves his vapes. Mark says the new laws, which kick in on 1 July, are infantilising, contradictory and a backwards step.

Demonstrators from popular destinations such as Granada and Seville to join protest amid anger at lack of housing

Thousands of people from across southern Spain are expected to take to the streets of Málaga on Saturday in the latest in a series of protests against mass tourism.

Demonstrators from the popular Andalusian destinations of Granada, Seville and Cádiz will join others in the Mediterranean city following recent protests in the Canary and Balearic islands, with another scheduled for a week later in Barcelona.

Betting on election date merits serious investigation but it is not an offence for MPs to bet on themselves winning

Until the past few weeks, online casinos and bookmakers have made handy villains for an under-pressure government.

Ministers could legitimately claim to be cleaning up Labour’s mess with reforms that partially roll back the permissive regulatory regime ushered in under Tony Blair.

Leaked documents from Philip Morris reveal ‘secret’ strategy to market its heated tobacco product IQOS

The tobacco company Philip Morris International has been accused of “manipulating science for profit” through funding research and advocacy work with scientists.

Campaigners say that leaked documents from PMI and its Japanese affiliate also reveal plans to target politicians, doctors and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as part of the multinational’s marketing strategy to attract non-smokers to its heated tobacco product, IQOS.

Viral video of Prince William prompts experts to laud benefits of men ‘communicating their hormones’, from lifting mood to boosting trust

In his early 20s, Prince William was often seen stumbling out of night clubs after a night of grooving. Now, however, as though a clock has struck 12, this youthful cavorting appears to have transformed into something altogether more cringeworthy: dad dancing.

In a viral video captured at a Taylor Swift concert, the heir to the throne was filmed with his arms aloft, chest shimmying swiftly – and somewhat stiffly – to the beat.

I recoiled in horror: I could see a thick black body hanging out of my nostril

It was September 2014. I’d just started working front of house in a fancy hotel in Edinburgh. I spent most of my shifts with a paper napkin pressed to my nostril, as I had been getting lots of nosebleeds. I would soon find out why.

A few weeks earlier, I’d been travelling in Vietnam. I had rented a moped and had the time of my life driving around. I soon crashed but luckily was wearing a helmet, so only got a small bump on my head.

Full-body swimsuits, ‘no hat, no play’ – avoiding the sun is a national pastime. At this point I’m more suncream than skin

Britain has been experiencing something of a heatwave this week, obliging me, as an Australian, to harangue its people on the subject of sun protection. I lived in the UK for 10 years, so I can broadly understand why Britons are hapless with their skincare. In Australia, the seasonal cues to cover up are well defined: in autumn, winter and spring you get sunburnt; in summer everything’s on fire and the coral dies. And you get sunburnt.

In Britain, I guess it’s difficult to muster a terror of the sun when its light is so rare that you’re trained from birth to run immediately for the nearest park, sit down and get drunk the moment a warm ray hits your face. The only thing that ever moved to Britain for the weather is mould.

Van Badham is a Guardian Australia columnist

We would like to hear your experience of antisocial behaviour in your small UK town or village

Villages, like Whalley in Lancashire, have become a premier drinking destination during the warmer months and bank holiday weekends.

Residents have complained of anti-social behaviour including vehicles being damaged, people urinating outside homes or in gardens and loud music shaking houses until the early hours.

The party’s pledge for the NHS is ‘hugely ambitious’, says one expert, though others are more optimistic.

• UK election live – latest updates

Labour appears poised to win a historic election victory on 4 July. In the series Life under Labour, we look at Keir Starmer’s five key political missions and ask what is at stake and whether he can deliver the change the country is crying out for.

“If they came into power, the Labour party would inherit a really terrible set of problems in the NHS that are both broader and deeper than the ones they faced in 1997. This feels a lot worse,” says Siva Anandaciva, the chief analyst at the King’s Fund thinktank.

Photographer Dan Dennison has documented three families around the UK from Manchester, Wiltshire and London and their struggles due to the two-child limit to benefits

At the other end of the playing fields, Matthew’s friends are at a Saturday morning football practice, but he can’t go. “My son really misses football,” his mum, Carol​*, says. “He keeps asking when can I go back?’ I don’t think he quite gets the money situation.”

Carol’s eldest son Matthew.

More than half of international medical graduates questioned say NHS induction inadequate

Many doctors from overseas are left feeling lost, anxious and not ready to care for patients after joining the NHS because they are not properly looked after, research has found.

Many international medical graduates (IMGs) feel the NHS does not help them prepare for life as a doctor in the UK and the practicalities of moving to a new country, according to a survey.

38% said they had too little time to shadow other doctors to gain valuable insights.

45% were not trained on cultural differences between the NHS and their country of origin and what is acceptable in the UK compared with in their home nation.

48% said their induction did not involve being given enough knowledge or training before starting to work clinically.

51% did not receive help or advice with practical issues after moving to the UK such as finding a place to live, opening a bank account, registering with a GP or paying council tax.

41% said they were left feeling alone and isolated.

38% questioned their decision to work in the NHS.

Amid rising crimes against women, Meenakshi Raghavan is dedicated to passing on the ancient skills of Kalaripayattu

Today the pupils are mostly schoolchildren, aged from seven up to teenagers. The teacher is an 82-year-old woman known to all as Sword Granny. Inside her martial arts school – a large hall with walls adorned with trophies and mementoes – in Vatakara, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, the session begins with prayers and warmup exercises.

Then Meenakshi Raghavan takes the class through the precise movements of Kalaripayattu, India’s oldest martial art, their bare feet padding across a floor of red dust mixed with medicinal herbs.

Labour talked tough on regulation in its manifesto, but questions have been raised about how it will proceed with legislation if it comes into office

In February 2020, with the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader heating up, Keir Starmer’s office received a helping hand.

Peter Coates, the head of the dynasty behind Stoke-based online gambling company Bet365, donated £25,000 to Starmer’s office.

Early onset ischaemic stroke more likely to affect adolescents with low cognitive function, study finds

Teenagers with lower levels of mental ability may be three times more likely to experience a stroke before the age of 50, research suggests.

The association held true even after accounting for a range of factors, prompting experts to say more comprehensive assessments beyond traditional stroke risk factors were now needed to ward off disability and death.

Exclusive: Shadow health secretary discusses plans for waiting lists and patient safety if Labour wins election

NHS managers who silence and scapegoat whistleblowers will be banned from working in the service, the shadow health secretary has said, as part of a determined drive by Labour to eradicate a culture of cover-ups.

In an interview with the Guardian, Wes Streeting pledged to push through the formal regulation of NHS managers and warned the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that its inspectors must get much better at exposing risks to patients’ safety in order to regain the confidence of frontline staff.

The doctors should get a pay rise, but they are not the only public servants with a case for better terms

Junior doctors deserve a pay rise. Entry requirements are among the most competitive of all professions, and even were the health service not on its knees, the early years of a medical career would be demanding. Looking after people who are ill or injured is difficult and high-stakes work. Under current conditions, with vast waiting lists, workforce shortages, a rising population of chronically unwell people and, in some places, buildings that are not fit for purpose, it can be a punishing job.

It is two years this month since the British Medical Association voted for pay rises of up to 30% over five years. Consultants agreed a deal with the government last year, as did nurses. But junior doctors, who make up about half of all NHS doctors in England, have held out. In March, in a further ballot, 98% opted to keep striking in pursuit of a 35% pay rise, on a 62% turnout. The five-day strike that started on Thursday is their 11th. When it ends they will have been on strike for a total of 44 days since they first walked out in March last year. At least 1.3m cancelled appointments have been among the results.

Almost 12,000 rough sleepers were seen by outreach workers in 2023-24, a 19% increase on the previous year

Rough sleeping in the capital has hit the highest level in a decade, with more than 1,100 people living on London’s streets for the first time because of evictions.

The number of new rough sleepers seen for the first time by outreach workers between April 2023 and March 2024, surged 25% to 7,974 people – the highest in at least four years. Almost one in 10 people living on the streets was aged 25 or under – including 13 children.

Readers respond to a long read on how Britain’s libraries provide much more than books to local communities

I volunteer at my local library in Richmond, North Yorkshire, in the prime minister’s constituency. It’s a lovely place, staffed by committed librarians who rely on a group of willing volunteers. I feel privileged to be able to work there. I visit libraries wherever I go and am always charmed.

I read with interest Aida Edemariam’s long read on libraries (‘If there’s nowhere else to go, this is where they come’: how Britain’s libraries provide much more than books 25 June) and recognised many of the situations she described. As I was reaching the conclusion, I received an email from our volunteer coordinator who was trying to find someone to fill a shift on Saturday. If a volunteer can’t be found to support the librarian, the library has to remain closed. Sadly, this scenario occurs occasionally.

Wendy Shillam and Prof Roger Brown reflect on the party’s proposals to tackle the housing crisis

I enjoy the Guardian’s Today in Focus podcast series as it gives a bit more air to issues of immediate importance. The episode on Labour’s housing plan (24 June) got me thinking. I used to work on Gordon Brown’s eco-towns project and found that the biggest objection was that new towns had failed in the past. We need to convince people that this programme signals change. This time, we need to do better.

Surely the best way is to use the new new towns to repair some of the less successful old new towns. Take Livingston, near Glasgow – not a disaster, but a “could do better”.

I haven’t even experienced this when orgasming alone and wonder if this is normal for a woman. Does sex need to be more intense?

I have recently been seeing someone who is very curious about making me ejaculate. I usually only have orgasms via clitoral stimulation and when I do nothing ever comes out of me. I have never experienced female ejaculation. Is that normal? Does the sex need to be more intense? I also use vibrators on my own and have orgasms via clitoral stimulation, but still no ejaculation.

Please tell your recently met partner to leave his female ejaculation fantasies in the realm of his late-night pornography viewing where they belong. There is nothing wrong with you, and it is entirely unreasonable for him to put pressure on you to achieve something that – if it genuinely exists – is extremely rare. Instead of allowing him to make you question your “normality”, change your expectations for him and be clear that you need him to appreciate you for who you are. You do not have to try so hard to please him. Instead, think about what you would really like from him, how he could please you further – and make those requests!

With differing views on striking junior doctors and Brexit, could a lunch and ‘proper conversation’ lead to common ground?

Matt, 24, Southampton

Occupation Medical student

Rights groups protesting at Modi government’s view that criminalising sexual assault violates ‘sanctity’ of marriage

Campaigners angry that marital rape is not to be criminalised under India’s long-awaited new penal code have been promised a ruling on the issue by the supreme court next month.

Human rights organisations, including the All India Democratic Women’s Association, have been petitioning India’s supreme court to make it a criminal offence. The court has in turn asked the government for a response.

Two cancer patients call on election winner to end options of suffering, death at Dignitas, or taking their own lives

Two women with incurable cancer are urging the next UK prime minister to allow a vote on assisted dying in the first 100 days of the new parliament and free them from fear of a painful death.

Sophie Blake, 51, a former Sky Sports reporter, and Helen Skelton, 56, a psychotherapist, who both have stage 4 cancer, said the next prime minister should make a free vote a priority to stop people having to choose between unnecessary suffering, going to Dignitas in Switzerland, or taking their own lives at home.

Five-day strike by junior doctors is the 11th action in their long-running pay dispute

“I’m itching to get back to work, to get back to the grindstone,” says Matthew Alexander, a junior radiology doctor. “Nobody wants to be here, nobody wants to be on strike.” Alexander, 30, is one of about 50 junior doctors on a Thursday morning picket line at the Friarage hospital in Northallerton, a bustling market town in Rishi Sunak’s sprawling North Yorkshire constituency.

It’s a sunny day; there’s cheerful, enthusiastic chanting and lots of support from drivers who honk their horns, but it is abundantly clear that only Betty, a laid-back 11-year-old jackapoo, is anywhere approaching happy to be here.

Half a century before women could vote, Butler took on the patriarchy. Since the murder of Sarah Everard, her campaigning has never seemed more relevant

What went through the mind of Josephine Butler in 1869 as she decided to throw herself into a stormy national debate? When she agreed to lead efforts to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts – CD Acts for short – she was in her early 40s, had lost her only beloved daughter in a tragic accident and was already involved in what was known as “rescue work”; she had employed a woman freed from Newgate prison after serving a sentence for infanticide.

In her memoir, Personal Reminiscences of a Great Crusade, Butler described her deliberations as filled with angst. She and her husband, a headteacher in Liverpool, knew it would harm his career. But neither was in doubt that the acts had to be fought. They gave the police the power to carry out compulsory genital examinations of women they believed to be prostitutes – but not their male customers. If the women refused to be checked, they were sentenced to jail with hard labour. If found to have a venereal disease, they were forcibly detained in a “lock hospital”.

It’s complicated. Sometimes I still want people to take my illness into account. And then there is the regret of all I’ve lost by returning to everyday life

On Thursday, I saw off my family to school and work, deliberated over what to wear, then cycled the five-ish miles to the Guardian office in the sunshine. I checked emails and chatted to colleagues about plans for the day. It was all very much like 27 June 2022, with one major difference: at lunchtime I didn’t pop out to the hospital and come back with a breast cancer diagnosis.

Realising it’s already two years on from that day is a shock, but what’s weirder is to think of the same day a year ago. I had finished my chemo and radiotherapy and had had my surgery but I was still on targeted drugs and felt absolutely exhausted – just the thought of getting on my bike made me need a sit-down. My hair was thin and several different lengths, I looked strangely grey and I was working just two days a week.

Hilary Osborne is the Guardian’s money and consumer editor

Mar Gunnarsson, swimmer and Manchester student who is due to compete at the Paris Games, says his career is at risk

A Paralympic swimmer due to compete in this summer’s Games has said his career is at risk after a post-Brexit policy change barred him from flying in and out of the UK with his guide dog.

Mar Gunnarsson, a visually impaired Icelandic national studying in Manchester, has been unable to fly to sporting championships to represent his country because his guide dog is not recognised as a service animal by the UK authorities.

The Marches, Shropshire: With the glory of summertime comes hayfever, which we are only making worse

Purple and silver: the solstice grass flowers. This is the first year that the whole five acres of Brogyntyn park has been left uncut, and Oswestry has designated it a wildflower meadow. The transformation is enchanting. The many buttercups, ox-eye daisies and few orchids have privilege, but the grasses are the liberated proletariat that have never realised its full potential before.

Common grass names have an earthy poetry: fescue, false oat, foxtail, fog, bent, brome, couch, cocks foot, timothy, rye, sweet vernal, squitch. For a couple of days it stops raining and warms up a bit. When the sun comes out, so does the pollen. VH, a red sign on the weather map, announces a very high pollen count (more than 150 grains per cubic metre of air). About half of the people in the UK report hayfever symptoms – allergic rhinitis. It can mean itchy eyes, runny noses, sore throats and sneezes for millions, but for some the reaction can be deadly serious. Dogs, cats and horses are also affected, as if sacrificing an immune system is a trade-off for domestication.

GambleAware says government has ‘overlooked’ the problem and calls for pre-watershed advertising ban

The UK’s leading gambling charity has called on the next government to ban betting advertising at sports events and on pre-watershed television, citing research that indicates strong public support for stricter controls.

The survey, for GambleAware, which comes amid the usual marketing frenzy that accompanies a major football tournament such as Euro 2024, found that two-thirds of people in the UK think there are too many betting adverts.

UPFs should also be heavily taxed due to impact on health and mortality, says scientist who coined term

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are displacing healthy diets “all over the world” despite growing evidence of the risks they pose and should be sold with tobacco-style warnings, according to the nutritional scientist who first coined the term.

Prof Carlos Monteiro of the University of São Paulo will highlight the increasing danger UPFs present to children and adults at the International Congress on Obesity this week.

Introduction of new syllabus may be reason number of girls taking subject more than halved in eight years, academics say

The number of girls in England studying for a GCSE in computing has more than halved in less than a decade, prompting warnings about the “dominance of men in shaping the modern world”.

The sharp decline in female participation follows government qualification changes that led to the scrapping of the old information communication technology (ICT) GCSE and its replacement with a new computer science GCSE.

Research discovers the cost of some healthcare products fluctuates wildly, according to time of year you buy them

Dentists agree that brushing twice a day is the best way to look after your teeth. But depending on what month it is, dental hygiene can be a dramatically more expensive habit to maintain.

New research has shown that the cost of a tube of toothpaste at some times of the year can be double its price at other times. The price of other popular health products such as Gillette razors can also double depending when they are bought.

Beset by the doctors’ strike, the prime minister swelters under the glare of a shining Keir Starmer

Throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s, Mike Abrahams travelled the country photographing National Front marches, prison life and people’s everyday struggles

Exclusive: Welsh politician Russell George told by Gambling Commission he is part of inquiry as Tories drop Craig Williams and Laura Saunders

A Conservative politician has become the fifth party figure to be investigated by the gambling watchdog for allegedly placing a suspicious bet on the general election date, as the developing scandal continued to overshadow Rishi Sunak’s campaign.

The Gambling Commission has informed Russell George, a Tory member of the Welsh parliament who represents the same constituency as Sunak’s closest parliamentary aide Craig Williams, that he is part of its inquiry.

Gerard Gorman faced unimaginable horror as an 11-year-old boarder in County Armagh. The pain haunted him for decades – then he took on the church

It was November 1970 and Northern Ireland was sliding into the Troubles, but for Gerard Gorman, a new pupil at St Colman’s College, the horror of that era began when Fr Malachy Finegan summoned him into a room, closed the door and told him to sit on a sofa.

Gorman was 11 years old and small for his age, with big blue eyes. Two months earlier, he had started as a boarder at the Catholic boys’ school in Newry, County Armagh. Staff tended to be aloof or intimidating, except Finegan, the religious education teacher, who was solicitous and avuncular.

When Naissa tells his mother Daniela that he identifies as a trans man she struggles to understand. Through candid personal letters exchanged over three years, Dear Mamma follows Naissa as he stands firmly for his independence and identity, and Daniela as she wrestles with her fear of losing a child. As Naissa embarks on his professional dance career and proudly embodies his gender, his mother also embarks on a journey of understanding and acceptance of her son’s choices