News

My week as a Lion’s mane jellyfish

Each week Simon Barnes hears what the last seven days has been like for a member of the animal kingdom

Elon Musk’s space unicorn has a scam problem

Cybercriminals are stealing the identities of investment firms to con millions out of would-be SpaceX investors

New laws to limit the ECHR would be no silver bullet

Data shows that the convention is not a block on meaningful immigration policy

The case for… Bad photos of ourselves

What the heck is this bog-eyed, court-sketch-artist slap in the face?

Ricky Hatton, Mancunian everyman and world champion

Boxer’s popularity spoke of an affinity for the values of relatability and rootedness

PSG blaze bright while other clubs are left in the fog

Forced to sell their brightest prospects to make ends meet, other French teams are less and less competitive

Facing headwinds, Apple may have bitten off more than it can chew

New devices are unlikely to fix the tech giant’s problems

Big pharma’s cash pull-out lands blow to UK economy

Merck’s decision to scrap a £1bn investment follows the health secretary’s refusal to negotiate UK drug prices

Gabriele Finaldi, the National Gallery’s ambitious director

A gifted fundraiser, he has attracted £375m in donations and expanded the museum’s remit to contemporary art

Harry Potter teacher needs pension magic

The Observer’s consumer champion solves your problems

Barclays may whinge, but paying more tax won’t break the banks

Despite their objections to paying higher taxes, British banks are beneficiaries of government stimulus

Ellison the Almighty, 81, sets his sights on Oxford

The Oracle founder, who briefly overtook Elon Musk this week as the world’s richest man, has spent hundreds of millions to fund a new tech institute

Murdoch, Agnelli – it’s the season for family feuds

Expensive battles this past week have kept investors on their toes – but family businesses often enjoy longer-term stability

Tories are ‘over’, says MP Kruger as he defects to Reform

In a major blow to the Conservatives, the former shadow minister has become the first sitting MP to switch to Farage’s challenger party

Israeli airstrikes rattle Qatar’s image as the region’s peace broker

The attack on Doha last week, which killed five Hamas leaders, has undermined the country’s diplomatic ambitions and sense of security

Mandelson has made things go from bad to worse for Starmer

It was only 14 months ago that Labour was celebrating a landslide majority

Botanists unlock the Chilean medical marvel that Charles Darwin missed

Vaccine properties of the soapbark tree to be cultivated in days rather than years by new process

‘Don’t dismiss the daylight between us – use it well’

As Starmer prepares to welcome Trump, both leaders would do well to remember that disagreement is essential to democracy, writes former US ambassador Matthew Barzun