Following her epic 50-day trek through the Amazon rainforest in Guyana, explorer Lucy Shepherd speaks to Annabel Grossman about her most challenging moments in the wilderness and the need to protect these fragile ecosystems

The Man Who Pays His Way: Plane problems spell fewer choices and higher prices for passengers

Keen to see more of the Czech Republic than just its romantic capital, Chris Wilson makes his way out to an ancient spa city to combine excitement and relaxation on a dual-destination break

As rental prices soar across the country and the market becomes increasingly fraught, Olivia Petter explores the darker realities of limiting our flatmate choices and living with total strangers

aSmell therapya is booming within care homes, with experts suggesting that artificial scents can reawaken memories in those with forms of neurodegenerative disease. Elizabeth McCafferty meets the people using aromas to spark joy

Laura Dern is the latest aBig Little Liesa star to get a much younger love interest in new Netflix romance, aLonely Planeta. Katie Rosseinsky takes a look at this new cinematic universe

About 70 colleagues have written to chancellor ahead of budget pleading for her to commit to rewriting fiscal rules

aC/ How Labour promises have left Rachel Reeves with a giant budget headache

Scores of Labour MPs are pleading with Rachel Reeves to embrace spending tens of billions more on ailing public services as part of an increasingly wide-ranging budget that could raise tax on employers and the wealthy.

In a huge gamble that comes after a rocky first 100 days in office and a Downing Street reset, the chancellor is closely examining an increase in employer national insurance contributions that could significantly fill a black hole in public spending.

Water firm Severn Trent accused of being in breach of environmental permits over pollution near Malvern Hills

aC/ Top-rated UK water firms adumped 1,374 illegal spills into riversa

Colwall, a village of less than 3,000 people on the border between Herefordshire and Worcestershire, is renowned for its spring water, which comes from the nearby Malvern Hills. An area of outstanding natural beauty, it has been favoured by the royal family for centuries, including Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria.

But the water at Colwall is now in the spotlight for very different reasons. The most recent data from Severn Trent Water, the company that covers the area, reveals that a sewage treatment works on Cradley Brook, near the village, spilled sewage for 1,756 hours in 2021 and 1,361 hours in 2022.

Military spokesperson demands that medics aavoid dealing with Hezbollah operativesa and claims ambulances used to transport weapons

Israel has ordered more evacuations in southern Lebanon and threatened to target ambulances, as a third UN peacekeeper was wounded in Israelas escalating conflict with Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Israelas military on Saturday ordered residents of 23 southern Lebanese villages to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, which flows from the western Bekaa valley into the Mediterranean.

Damning figures revealed in DWP report, which Labour says was suppressed by the previous government

Two-thirds of benefits claimants with debts have been unable to buy food, according to a damning official report that Labour says was suppressed by the previous government.

The report by the Department for Work and Pensions said some people had been driven into debt because they had not been able to access benefits, and 81% of universal credit claimants in debt ran out of money before their next payment aalwaysa or amost of the timea.

Fifteenth century exploreras true origins revealed after DNA analysis from samples buried in Seville Cathedral

The centuries-old mystery over Christopher Columbusas nationality has been revealed by scientists in a Spanish TV documentary after using DNA analysis.

The 15th explorer was Jewish and from Spain, according to Columbus DNA: His True Origin, a programme broadcast on national broadcaster RTVE on Saturday to mark Spain celebrating its national day and commemorating Columbusas arrival in the New World.

Republican presidential candidate refers to California as aParadise Losta while vice-president targets swing state

Donald Trump visited California on Saturday, a state he is almost certain to lose, in a bid to link Kamala Harris to her home stateas recent struggles with homelessness, water shortages and a lack of affordability.

aWeare not going to let Kamala Harris do to America what she did to California,a the former president said in the city of Coachella, best known for its music festival of the same name, referring to the state as aParadise Losta.

Kamala Harris on Saturday released a report on her health and medical history, which found that ashe possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidencya if voters elect her in November. A senior aide to Harris, 59, said the vice-presidentas advisers viewed the publication of the health report and medical history as an opportunity to call attention to questions about Donald Trumpas physical fitness and mental acuity.

Tightening poll figures triggered nervousness and anxiety in Kamala Harrisas presidential campaign, with Donald Trump making gains in the states where it matters most as the election race enters its climactic final phase. Amid a dramatic news cycle that has seen the US hit by two destructive hurricanes and rising fears of all-out war in the Middle East, the Guardianas 10-day polling average tracker showed the vice-president and Democratic nominee with a two-point nationwide lead, 48% to 46%, over her Republican opponent as of 10 October a tellingly, down from a 4% advantage she registered two weeks ago.

The far-right website the Gateway Pundit acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that there had not been any fraud during ballot counting in Atlanta in 2020 when Donald Trump lost the presidency. It was a significant concession from one of the most influential conservative sites that plays a key role in spreading election misinformation.

Tens of thousands of Christians poured on to the National Mall on Saturday in a pre-election event aimed at rescuing America from secularism. The rally was a collaboration organized by multiple far-right Christian leaders affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation, a movement on the political far right that seeks to establish long-term Christian dominion over government and society as well as get Trump a second presidency in November.

British scientists have developed simple ways for those in danger areas to make complex medical equipment quickly

Two shattering events played a critical role in British scientistsa efforts to develop technology that could transform the treatment of people who suffer traumatic injuries in wars or disasters.

The first was the blast that devastated Beirut on 4 August 2020, when a vast store of ammonium nitrate exploded in the city, killing more than 200 people and injuring 7,000. The second was Russiaas invasion of Ukraine, which has left hundreds of thousands of casualties have been inflicted since war erupted there in February 2022.

The group, proscribed as terrorists by the west, hands out food, cash and medicines to people displaced in the conflict

When the Sabra family fled Israeli bombardments in the southern Lebanese town of Marjayoun for Beirutas southern suburbs in October last year, a monthly stipend in dollars from Hezbollah meant they did not fear going hungry. When they were displaced a second time, to the mountains around the capital by a wave of Israeli attacks on southern Beirut, regular deliveries of meals, food parcels and even cleaning supplies from organisations connected to the group have kept them afloat.

aThey are taking incredible care of us even with everything that is happening. They never leave us alone,a said Hind Sabra, whose name has been changed. Their house of 14 people contains three families, each receiving a $200 (APS150) monthly stipend in cash as well as cut-price medications, and food parcels containing rice, oil, tuna and beans.

The oil giantas new focus on fossil fuels signals another defeat for environmental, social and governance aims and has angered campaigners

In early 2020, Bernard Looney had one clear goal as the incoming chief executive of BP: to convince the world to see the oil company differently. For a time, he did exactly that.

In a glossy, high-concept London campaign launch, the BP boss set out 10 new aims for the company, the most significant being BPas transformation to a net zero energy company by 2050.

Few actors are as endlessly versatile and compelling as Julianne Moore. Ahead of her extraordinary performance in the latest Pedro AlmodA3var film, she opens up about love, death and the complexity and richness of ordinary lives

Yesterday Julianne Moore was on the subway in New York, listening discreetly to strangers. aI was sitting there and I heard one woman say, aWell, I know thatas exactly what youad do, I know thatas what youare like.a And the other woman said, aItas true, I just donat like confrontation, I donat!aa Perhaps itas distracting, the idea that Moore, not only an Oscar-winning actor, but one whose airy beauty and long red hair (red hair that an early director warned would limit her career, ha) makes her one of the most recognisable people in the world, could pass unnoticed through a carriage of chattering commuters. But please remember a or trust me a that part of Mooreas talent is the ability to transform, to step back from herself. She is a 63-year-old character actor in the body of a movie star. Anyway: aIt was so amazing, because it was these two female friends,a Moore goes on, aand one was saying, aI know you, I see youa. And the other was affirming that she saw the right thing. It was fascinating. I thought, nobodyas gonna make a movie about these two, but thatas who most of us are. Right?a

In her 40-year career, which has spanned auteuras art films like the exquisite Safe, to huge blockbusters like The Hunger Games, as well as award-winning dramas like Still Alice (for which, after many nominations, she won her Oscar in 2014) and recent TV work like the audacious Mary & George, Moore has played characters who are defiant and struggling, sometimes deviant, trapped in an often-gorgeous prison of domestic horror.

Every dish from this superbly talented young cast deserves its moment in the spotlight

Stage, 31 Magdalen Road, Exeter EX2 4TA (01392 496700). Four-course lunch APS30, six-course dinner APS55, wine from APS26

Smart, creative people tend towards the ambitious. They know what theyare doing right now is good, but hope that at some point in the future they will do it better. They are forever striving towards a goal which is just out of reach. The risk is that, with their eyes on that future, they fail to clock what they have in the present. The coolly talented young team at Stage in Exeter are clearly ambitious, but I very much hope they are able to live as deeply in the present tense as possible. It would be a crying shame if, when they move on to the bigger and greater things that doubtless await them, they only realise in retrospect the brilliance of what they had going on now; here in this tiny 20-seater restaurant, where the walls are skirted with corrugated iron, the high wooden tables are built on black steel frames and the toasted cashews come crusted with something called apple sriracha.

Perhaps in trying to meet his needs, you have lost sight of your own

The question My partner and I have been together for more than 15 years, and we have children. We share a great emotional connection, but sex has always been a sticking point. I have a lower sex drive; I enjoy thinking about sex as well as masturbating, and I have no difficulty reaching climax, Iam just frequently underwhelmed by sex with my partner. He, on the other hand, says that he feels desire for me and would like to have sex more often. However, he also regularly mentions he finds sex with me routine or disappointing and he would like me to act more enthusiastically. He feels rejected.

Recently, weave tried to address it by scheduling date nights, so he doesnat have to worry about rejection and I donat have to worry about feeling pressured on other nights a although he has made advances on non-date nights, which have contributed to the point Iave now reached where I can no longer enjoy even non-sexual intimacy. I love him deeply, but I donat know how to get out of this impasse. Weave tried therapy and heas said that talking didnat seem to change things, and doesnat want to rehash old conversations that donat help. Iave written a letter to him and it helped a little, at least it led to us adopting the scheduling system. But itas too weird to keep writing to someone you live with.

While healthy eating and regular workouts are certainly good for us, many scientists now believe that genes rather than lifestyle are the determining factor in how long we live

Tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson is talking about 16th-century sailors. Back then, he says, circumnavigating the globe was the height of human achievement. But those sailors, some of whom were coincidentally hoping to find a mythical fountain of youth, left port without knowing what really lay ahead. The same is true for Johnson, 47, who sees himself as a modern-day explorer. Like those sailors, he too is pushing the bounds of what is humanly attainable. Not by circumnavigating the globe, but by circumventing death.

Johnsonas odyssey involves ingesting 111 pills a day, eating his last (vegan) meal of the day at 11am, staying teetotal, doing an hour of exercise daily and going to bed at 8.30pm. But is it scientifically possible to slow our ageing like this? Or is his plan more likely to end up shipwrecked by reality?

The singer and TV presenter talks about trouble with Refreshers age 16, watching box sets with her middle daughter, her full throttle week and expertise at cooking rice

Sundays growing up? My mum is Filipino so we were brought up Filipino Catholic. She was the church reader. My brother was an altar boy. My sister was in the choir. Dad would do the offering a and I was the church organist.

Favourite hymn? Iam a sucker for carols. You can pull out all the stops for O Come, All Ye Faithful or Hark the Herald Angels Sing. My father was a captain in the Royal Navy, so any hymns about the sea I would play loud a up until the day that I got fired.

The people who experienced the Enfield poltergeist retell the terrifying tale. Plus: Sophie Turneras jewel thief drama nears the end. Hereas what to watch this evening

10.20pm, BBC Two

• England defeated Canada 21-12 in the WXV 1 final in Vancouver
• Red Roses extend their winning streak to 20 with three-try victory

England has secured back-to-back WXV1 titles with a classy 21-12 comeback victory over Canada that clinches them a 20th successive victory and confirms them as the hot favourites for the 2025 Rugby World Cup next August. In a tightly-fought contest, the Red Roses outlasted the home side with three-tries and stout defence to prevail.

Canada took England close to the wire in the World Cup semi-final in 2022, and had defeated New Zealand to win the Pacific Four Series earlier this year. By notching big WXV victories over France and Ireland, they entered this showdown as world No 2. If anyone could beat England it was Canada, and if it was ever to happen, it was now.

After his controversial column last week, a former publisher tells the novelist his focus on ablood libela is blinding him to atrocities in Gaza

I write more in sorrow than in anger. Youave acknowledged that we are a adisputatious peoplea so I know you will take this response in the spirit in which it is offered. I have relished every book youave written since your very first novel, Coming from Behind, was published in 1983. Much of your writing has resonated: your acuity about campus politics, your refusal to disavow, nay your pride, in your particular ethnic version of the Mancunian working class and your fine satirical instincts.

In his memoir, the great inseminator has little good to say about the women around him

Women canat a surely a be the only ones curious to know how, after his well-documented career in sexual incontinence, Boris Johnson has managed to weave this dismal tale into Unleashed, a memoir largely about his parallel preoccupation, politics, and which his publishers describe as aunvarnisheda.

Will it feature some tribute, however glancing, to the young women he persuaded, when in one important job or another, to share the burden of his narcissism with the second Mrs Johnson and their children? Some of these women also became pregnant by Johnson, a father of at least eight, whose personal dedication to population growth remains, given the bookas rudimentary allusions to family life, a mystery. The only girlfriend to feature is, it turns out, aCarriea, the third Mrs Johnson, a person who, in a memoir otherwise bloated with irrelevant detail (Damian Lewisas abrother was in my rugby team at schoola) unexpectedly appears as successor to aMarinaa, herself identified by way of disambiguation as amy wife in 2016a.

Readers respond to Howard Jacobsonas article about the media coverage of violence in the Middle East

aTales of infanticidea is not what is happening in Gaza (aTales of infanticide have stoked hatred of Jews for centuries. They echo still todaya). These are real deaths and real children and real loss. The blood libel myth is a horrific example of how antisemitic propaganda was used to persecute, and eventually exile, the Jewish population of England. It is a shameful facet of British history but it is, and it is important that we strip its power by firmly establishing this, a myth. The killing and bombing and starving of Gaza children is not a myth. It is fact, it is continuing and it is irrevocably disrespectful to their memory and their families to suggest that their bodies are only a prop in an antisemitic narrative.

What is antisemitic is to equate an entire religion with one violent regime and occupier, which is precisely what Jacobson does in this article. The Jewish population and faith is diverse and there are many who do not support the Gazan occupation and genocide.
Esther Chauncy
London E7

Economic problems and the far right threaten the whole of Europe. Labouras isolationist approach must change

aThere ought to be not only a national esprit de corps, but a European esprit de corps.a

This plea by the renowned barrister and lord chancellor FE Smith a who became the first Earl of Birkenhead a was made in the wake of the devastation caused by the first world war. Birkenhead, a friend of Churchillas, died in 1930, shortly before the rise of Hitler and the subsequent outbreak of the second world war. Alas, no European esprit de corps in the 1930s!

We are losing in the fight against global warming, it is time to put effort into controlling what we pump into the atmosphere

The havoc unleashed by Hurricane Milton provided unambiguous evidence that we are entering a critical and alarming new phase in the planetas climate crisis. Rising fossil fuel emissions have triggered increases in ocean temperatures and sea levels to such an extent they are generating some of the most destructive storms ever experienced in Florida. Together with Hurricane Helene earlier, the lives of about 250 people have been claimed and thousands of homes destroyed. Florida has been left reeling and forecasters have warned there is more to come a a lot more.

It is a grim prognosis that should be galvanising Floridaas political leaders into taking urgent action to protect the state. Extraordinarily, this has not been the case. Despite the intensification of hurricanes and worsening flooding over the past decade, governor Ron DeSantis has consistently rejected the idea that global warming poses a threat to Florida or that the phenomenon exists at all. A few weeks ago, he signed a law erasing the words aclimate changea from state statutes and effectively pledged the stateas future to burning fossil fuels. Such behaviour is disturbing.

Russian military tried to oust Ukrainian troops in Kursk, Ukraine leader says; recruiters raid Kyivas nightlife in search of men for conscription. What we know on day 963

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

Russian foreign minister says final declaration not adopted because of attempts by US, Japan, South Korea, Australia and NZ ato turn it into a purely political statementa

Russia and China blocked a proposed consensus statement for the East Asia Summit drafted by south-east Asian countries, mainly over objections to language on the contested South China Sea, a US official said on Saturday.

A draft statement arrived at by consensus by the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations was put to the 18-nation East Asia Summit meeting in Laos on Thursday evening, the official said.

The Road to Somewhere author argues that the liberating impact of feminism has harmed our children in a book shot through with claims that donat stand up to scrutiny

It was mostly in the small hours that I first read David Goodhartas new book on caring. By coincidence, it arrived as I was trying to look after my dying father at one end of the country and my own family at the other, while simultaneously attempting to work. Well, thatas life: there are millions of us in the same boat, which is why a deeper exploration of care feels so very overdue. But perhaps it hasnat been Goodhartas life, exactly. When it came to his own four children and elderly parents, he confesses, like many men of his generation he aplayed a subordinate rolea to his now ex-wife and his sisters respectively. As a man tackling this topic now, he writes, heas braced for some flak. Well, yes; and perhaps particularly as the kind of man who writes that while the early days of lockdown might have been tough on women, athe story in the UK was also one of people finding domestic life unexpectedly rewardinga, which may not be exactly how parents of stir-crazed toddlers remember it. But anyway, back to the book.

This is the third in a trilogy that began in 2017 with the thought-provoking The Road to Somewhere, which immortalised the two warring tribes of Brexit as Everywheres (liberal, cosmopolitan, faintly haughty urban elites) v Somewheres (socially conservative, anchored in provincial towns, annoyed at being condescended to). This time his focus is family life and fertility, a hot topic for British Tories obsessed with the idea that millennials arenat having enough babies, but also for Trump-era Republicans and the European far right.

We all want glowy skin, but itas very easy to slip over into looking greasya|

Hereas the thing with glowy skin. In photographs, it is lost in translation. That glossy, glassy skin looks a bit too much and can simply look greasy. But whatas the alternative? Super-matte skin that makes you look dead? No, thereas a balance. Start with a makeup primer that gives a glow, but not too much. Avoid oily foundations. Only highlight key points, like the top of the cheekbones (no one needs a highlighted forehead) and always have a finely milled translucent powder to hand.

Bergamot Glow Prada Reset Rebalancing Setting Powder APS49, selfridges.com
Too Faced Born This Way Soft Matte Foundation APS38, boots.com
Byredo Matte Lipstick APS50, byredo.com
Dolce & Gabbana Bergamot Glow Primer APS42, dolcegabbana.com
Violette FR Bisou Balm APS30, violettefr.com

Autumnas here, so itas time to uncork a comforting CA"tes du RhA"ne

Palais St Vigni, CA"tes du RhA"ne, RhA"ne, France 2023 (APS5.49, Tesco) A dose of one of the spicy, robust, meaty red wines of the RhA"ne Valley is, in my opinion, the most reliably effective prescription for the rapid depletion in Vitamin D levels that comes with this nights-drawing-in moment. Warming and sustaining in themselves, they are also the perfect match for autumnal foods: for the first rich meaty stews and hearty soups of the year; for sausages and mash; for roasted squash and mushrooms. Happily, they donat have to be expensive, either: while it may not be the most expressive or refined of the regionas bottles, Tescoas Palais St Vigni, for example, is by far the best of the dwindling band of circa-APS5 red wines offered in the UKas supermarkets that Iave tried recently. Avoiding the usual cheap-bottle trick of stuffing the wine with sugar to mask the flaws and fill the palate, it is instead properly dry, and has a sprinkle of spice and some juicy berry flavours.

M&S Classics CA"tes du RhA"ne Villages, RhA"ne, France 2023 (APS9, Marks & Spencer) The vast CA"tes du RhA"ne appellation is one of Franceas biggest, and it covers a huge range of climates, soils and grape varieties from just south of Lyon down to the ProvenASSal south. In theory, wines with the CA"tes du RhA"ne Villages appellation are meant to be a step up in quality, with the grapes sourced from vineyards that the local wine authorities have deemed to be a cut above a and that does indeed appear to be the case in the M&S range, with the retaileras perfectly respectable CA"tes du RhA"ne outstripped in finesse by the stylish Villages, which just seems to have a little bit more clarity or focus to it. As ever with French wine, things are never that straightforward, however. Sometimes the producer transcends the appellation, with the rosemary-infused black-fruited succulence of Domaine Mabyas Variations CA"tes du RhA"ne 2021 (APS14.95, yapp.co.uk) putting many a Villages in the shade.

As Major League Baseballas final four take aim at the World Series starting on Sunday, playoff TV ratings are soaring thanks to big stars, memorable plays and unbridled fun

Weare just about halfway toward determining who will become baseballas World Series champions, which means there are just four teams remaining. The best-of-seven American League Championship Series between the Cleveland Guardians and the New York Yankees begins on Monday in the Bronx, while the New York Mets will be in Los Angeles to face the Dodgers on Sunday in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.

How did we get here? Simply put, with some of the more captivating early-round playoff baseball weave seen in some time. And the drama has been much welcome after last yearas early rounds included no fewer than six series sweeps, with series winners trouncing losers by 20 games to two, leaving all but the most hardcore baseball fans pining for preseason NBA games.

The Iranian photographer reveals the dangers posed to fishermen and farmers by the polluted water in which he used to swim

The worldas largest enclosed body of water, the Caspian Sea, is surrounded by jeopardies. Declining water levels from global heating have been exacerbated by increasing levels of extraction from the Volga and the Ural, the Russian rivers that flow into it. Satellite photographs show the sea shrinking at a dramatic rate. And each year increasing levels of pollutants from the five coastal states that border the Caspian contaminate it with spills from growing numbers of oil and gas fields, and with industrial and domestic waste from expanding coastal towns and cities, a magnet for internal migration.

The Iranian photographer Khashayar Javanmardi grew up on the shores of the Caspian Sea in northern Iran and used to count the hours at school before he could return to swim in it. He has spent the past few years, however, documenting the environmental decline along its coastline.

Caspian: A Southern Reflection is published by Loose Joints (APS44)

A waterproof shower pad, hoodie with a kangaroo pouch (for your cat), self-stirring mug, and 53 other items that are so odd they actually make too much sense.

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Whether you"re dealing with excess sweat, crusty feet, or ingrown hairs, you"ll find a solution for it in this post.

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This no-scrub, spray-on weekly shower cleaner is the hero of your aching back"s dreams.

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You can actually find style and comfort in these flats from Dansko, Frye, Vionic, and more.

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As rental prices soar across the country and the market becomes increasingly fraught, Olivia Petter explores the darker realities of limiting our flatmate choices and living with total strangers

aSmell therapya is booming within care homes, with experts suggesting that artificial scents can reawaken memories in those with forms of neurodegenerative disease. Elizabeth McCafferty meets the people using aromas to spark joy