News, culture and style

Real violence

‘Social media is killing our children’

As the government prepares to announce on Tuesday if it will ban social platforms for under-16s, parents and police warn that the focus on young people’s mental health has overshadowed more extreme physical dangers

By Rachel Sylvester

Writes and wrongs

Was a prize-winning short story written by a bot? How real is the author himself? After interviewing him, Erica Wagner is still not sure. She writes that literary suspicions will be difficult to eradicate

Investigation

Political football

After three years of sleuthing, Gabriel Gatehouse believes the CIA could have poisoned goalkeeper Gordon Banks’s beer in Mexico, ruining England’s chance of being 1970 World Cup champions

The Observer Walk

Taking the long road

As she publishes her most personal novel yet, Hamnet author Maggie O’Farrell tells Alex O’Connell about family myths, the power of maps – and why she refused to brush her hair for the Oscars

For today

‘Utterly stupid, morally wrong’: Republican fury over Trump’s $1.8bn slush fund for Capitol rioters

Maga

Hugh Tomlinson

‘Utterly stupid, morally wrong’: Republican fury over Trump’s $1.8bn slush fund for Capitol rioters

Ebola

James Tapper

‘It’s shocking we’re going through it all again’: scientists race for vaccine as Ebola ravages Congo

Inside the vicious campaign to cancel the Southbank’s polarising boss

Cancel culture

Andrew Anthony

Inside the vicious campaign to cancel the Southbank’s polarising boss

Keir’s beers: Starmer considers ‘pavement pints’ to boost World Cup mood

Politics

Rachel Sylvester

Keir’s beers: Starmer considers ‘pavement pints’ to boost World Cup mood

Finding Marilyn

Celebrity

The Hollywood icon was once the world’s most photographed woman but, 100 years after her birth, do we really know the person behind the pictures?

Culture

‘Have you seen Club Kid yet?’ Why everyone in Cannes is asking the same question

Cannes film festival

Vanessa Thorpe

‘Have you seen Club Kid yet?’ Why everyone in Cannes is asking the same question

Vanessa Thorpe

Who’ll do it? Actors line up for the title role as BBC reboots Poirot

Games

Simon Parkin

Meet the new James Bond

Alan Cumming: ‘I can’t believe it’s my job to run this theatre’

Interview

Vanessa Thorpe

Alan Cumming: ‘I can’t believe it’s my job to run this theatre’

Weather

Hot, hot, hot!

The scorching weather has come at the right time for Britons holidaying at home due to rising costs, despite the amber weather warning and risk of wildfires