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Saturday Night Live UK
Joke’s on you
Launching a British version of the US comedy show was a gamble, but cynicism and fears about the exorbitant cost have given way to wary surprise. Simon Parkin goes behind the scenes
Venice Biennale
Drowning in crises
A deserted US pavilion, a missing Iranian one. Picturesque whitewash from Russia and Israel. Politics is all-consuming at the 61st art expo, but it can’t put the best in the shade, writes Laura Cumming
Health
The sepsis spiral
Weeks after a routine laser operation at a private clinic, Andrew Anthony was shaking feverishly in the grips of the life-threatening condition, and no one was answering the phone...
For today
Art
Lily Isaacs
The Venice Biennale shows it is impossible to keep politics out of art
Local elections
Patrick Kidd
Labour faces its Dunkirk moment as Reform banks on despair to smash the ‘red wall’
Media
Matthew Bishop
Remembering Ted Turner, CNN’s eccentric billionaire founder
Essay
Natasha Walter
A manifesto for a new feminism
Time well spent
Further listening
The defining election tracks
As the country goes to the polls, our critic picks the best campaign music
Further watching
From Legends to Berlusconi
The best new shows airing and streaming
Further reading
From Paul Auster to Douglas Stuart
Your essential guide from The Observer’s books desk
Ideas
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Politics
Keir Starmer
We have a choice – sink into division or rise together, stronger
Antisemitism
Kenan Malik
Escalation in anti-Jewish violence exposes a wider breakdown in moral clarity
Flights and feelings
Brad Gray
Spooked investors could ground Heathrow’s third runway
Viral video
Kate Maltby
Croon if you want, Damian Lewis. Everyone deserves a midlife wobble
National
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Media
Lily Isaacs
Pope backs investigative journalists against Trumpian ‘Tower of Babel’
Politics
Rachel Sylvester
Judgment day is here, for Keir Starmer and his critics alike
National
Eva Wiseman
‘Is this still my home?’ – the painful question confronting every British Jew
Brexit
Giles Whittell