Why M John Harrison’s The End of Everything won the Booker prize

This profoundly destabilising and richly rewarding novel speaks to the crises of our age

✍️ @Tom_Gatti
bit.ly/4eKeKzt

Nigel Slater’s recipe for leek and cauliflower soup

A soul-soothing soup, topped with a crunchy scatter of lemon-scented toasted breadcrumbs

✍️ @NigelSlater
bit.ly/4zCkpjf

Why Everton are the real fairytale of this Premier League season

David Moyes’ side started this season with only 18 senior players – their early-season success deserves to be celebrated

✍️ @RorySmith
bit.ly/4AoWrIh

My newsletter this week is on William Nordhaus's classic paper on the price of light, and how it relates to modern debates about how to measure the economic impacts of AI.

From Babylonian oil lamps to LEDs: modern statistics can’t keep up

The Nobel prize-winning economist William Nordhaus used the miracle of light to show how official figures struggle to measure living standards

✍️ @BenZaranko
bit.ly/4iLZOC4

Exclusive: French police raid Ritz Paris in Fayed abuse investigation

Officers from the Met were present as two further properties also searched in connection to sex-trafficking allegations
✍️ Claudia Williams
bit.ly/4kC9jGk

‘My ankles can’t be trusted in high heels’: Hannah Crosbie’s life choices

From the Royal Ballet’s Manon and supportive ribboned heels to noise-cancelling headphones and the genius of Stefan Golaszewski’s Mum

✍️ Hannah Crosbie (@han67787)
bit.ly/4iHvfNI

‘Who was I if I wasn’t rescuing him?’ The fallout from falling in love with an addict in @ObsMagazine

After ending a relationship with a man battling drug addiction, Anna Byrne wanted to heal. But his next girlfriend’s obsession with her brought it all back
bit.ly/3VelwGY

My week as a cookiecutter shark bit.ly/4iBZmGd

The far-right Gen Z agitators vying to be Britain’s Charlie Kirk

Thomas Moffitt and Montgomery Toms are conducting combative campus debates modelled on those of the assassinated US activist
bit.ly/4iul9kq

No more Mr Untouchable? Why Netanyahu may have run out of road

Israel’s president has asked the longest-serving PM’s rival to try to form a government. If he succeeds, corruption trials await

✍️ @XAMGreenwood
bit.ly/4k8mAX4

Parliament’s scanners failed to spot ‘security risk’ smart glasses bit.ly/4zdC7Zx

Nigel Slater’s recipe for baked nashi pears with maple syrup marmalade bit.ly/4iIldvB

Nigel Slater’s recipe for leek and cauliflower soup bit.ly/4zfyMZY

Tomos Parry: Venison salad and leeks with laverbread bit.ly/4BPbRXS

Who dares write the book on Janet Malcolm? bit.ly/4AB86UH

The Observer guide to the 2026 Booker prize

Predicting the victor is notoriously difficult. Here’s what to read on the shortlisted books while the judges thrash it out
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Smart glasses could be used for covert filming throughout the Houses of Parliament, allowing users to read documents on ministers’ desks and map routes to their offices.

A joint investigation by The Observer's @CatNeilan and BBC Radio 4 showed that the airport-style security scanners that visitors must pass through before entering parliament did not detect two different brands of AI-enabled glasses.
bit.ly/4fmTiAz

BREAKING: Russell Brand sentenced to 10½ years for rape and sexual assault

The judge called the disgraced comedian a ‘sexual predator’ who had told ‘a series of lies’ during his four-week trial
bit.ly/4AeLjh0

Parliament’s scanners failed to spot ‘security risk’ smart glasses

MPs fear the AI-enabled glasses, which go undetected by airport-style scanners, could help would-be terrorists ‘case the joint’ for attacks

✍️ @CatNeilan
bit.ly/4fmTiAz