Waves of protests expose debt crisis faced by French government, but political wrangling is stalling an escape plan. Is there a way out?

Eight years have passed since rising fuel prices brought the gilets jaunes (yellow vest) demonstrators to the streets of France, prompting the first big crisis of Emmanuel Macron’s time in the Élysée Palace.

As the French president contemplates his exit next year, turmoil has again gripped the streets in the form of student protests, but this time the financial markets are unhappy too.

Food businesses and the government must make redistribution a key policy to address food insecurity. We know the surplus food is out there

• Charlotte Hill is chief executive of the food redistribution organisation Felix

How often does this happen? You open the fridge and find some ingredient you meant to use but didn’t get round to, and even though it’s still edible you think perhaps it’s just easier to throw it away. In the UK it’s estimated that an average household wastes about three meals a week, or 156 meals a year.

Household fridges are one thing. But across the food sector more than 1bn meals’ worth of easily accessible surplus food is wasted each year in the UK for the same reason: because it is easier to throw it away. That equates to 470,000 tonnes – enough to feed every child in the UK three meals a day for a month. When so many people are struggling to afford food, that is a staggering amount, and what’s even more shocking is that it is good quality and nutritious.

Charlotte Hill is chief executive of the food redistribution organisation Felix

Wirral mother among renters turning to food banks as gap between a two-bed and housing benefit hits £158 a month – rising to as much as £324 in London

Do you prioritise paying the rent, putting food on the table or keeping the house warm in winter? In practice, says Laura Braddock, a single mum from Wirral, Merseyside, you always pay the rent first and improvise the rest. “If I’ve got a roof over our head, then everything else I can muddle through.”

The pressing problem for Braddock, 39, is that muddling through is getting harder. The monthly rent for her two-bedroom flat far outstrips the local housing allowance (LHA) she receives – and the gap may widen.

Revelation comes after it was disclosed that Reform UK backer had paid for spying on prominent journalist

The businessman and Reform UK backer Arron Banks commissioned a private intelligence firm to dig into the Conservative party chair, in addition to having paid for an investigation into a prominent journalist.

Banks, a former Reform UK candidate and leave campaign donor, appeared to confirm on Sunday that he was behind an investigation into Kevin Hollinrake.

Asked whether he targeted reporter who investigated party finances, Brexit campaigner says: ‘When you live by the sword, you die by the sword’

The prominent Reform UK member and Brexit campaigner Arron Banks is said to have set private investigators on a Sunday Times journalist after he broke a series of stories about Nigel Farage.

Banks is alleged to have paid for the services of investigators to examine Gabriel Pogrund, editor of the paper’s Insight investigations team.

Magazine’s editor Michael Gove will welcome performer who described Conservative party leader as ‘iconic’

The American rapper Azealia Banks said she had been invited to the Spectator magazine summer party in London.

The performer, known for her social media feuds with numerous celebrities including Nicki Minaj, Zayn Malik and Lana Del Rey, wrote on X on Saturday: “Ill be in London July 3 for @spectator.”

Her message received a response from Michael Gove, the Spectator editor and former Conservative cabinet minister, who replied: “Looking forward!”

The annual Spectator summer party is traditionally held in the garden behind the magazine’s offices in Westminster featuring prominent figures across UK politics, media and culture.

In May, Banks and fellow rapper Minaj publicly supported the Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch.

Banks wrote on X at the time: “Sorry i made fun of you guys in Britain, i rolled over and realized its actually no longer a laughing matter and I shouldnt be making jokes. I hope you all vote conservative and Listen to Kemi Badenoch.”

In a later post, the 32-year-old said of Badenoch: “She is a star.”

In April, Banks shared a clip of the Conservative leader speaking in the House of Commons on X, with the message: “Kemi Badenoch is f**king iconic. World leaders will respect her Professionalism alot more than goofball Nigel [Farage].”

The artist is known for her forthright political views and on Saturday posted a link to an article entitled “Congress advances unprecedented U.S.-Israel military integration plan” and wrote on X: WE WON!!!!! PULL OUT OF NATO NOW!”

The New York rapper won wide acclaim for her debut single 212 which appeared on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Deep-rooted problems of food inequality are hidden behind area’s affluence and beauty

• Rural Britain is becoming ‘food desert’ for lower-income families, study finds

What does a “food desert” look like? In the case of the modestly affluent Cotswolds village of Kempsford, very pretty. When I visit the sun is shining from cloudless blue skies on to lovely honey-coloured stone houses, some draped in purple wisteria.

Aside from the loud hum of US air force planes revving up at the nearby Fairford airbase it’s a picture of rural calm. There’s a primary school and a pub. A house on the main street is called “The Old Bakery”. But there is no shop selling food for miles.

DC Universe supremo Gunn’s thinly conceived debut feature gets a glossy repackaging for seemingly no other reason than his later success

This grotesquerie-heavy exercise in comic body horror was writer-director James Gunn’s first feature in 2006; a commercial flop at the time, it was Gunn’s crack at the big time, made long before he went on to direct the likes of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, the most recent iteration of Superman and take over as head honcho for the DC cinematic universe. His subsequent success (apart from that time he got briefly cancelled for ill-advised tweets) might partially explain why this early work is getting a glossy repackaging now. It’s the film industry equivalent of a reputational glow-up, as if a flawed, underwhelming early work should now be considered a misunderstood work of genius.

Sadly, Slither is by no stretch of the imagination a work of genius. Its science fiction elements are thinly conceived, while the use of rubbery practical effects and lame jokes feel much closer to the work of the Troma brand where Gunn got his training wheels. The main conceit here is that an alien lifeform, whose larvae look like flaccid phallic worms with severe sunburn, crash lands on Earth via an asteroid and then proceeds to take over a small South Carolina town. The first to be possessed is Grant (Michael Rooker, a Gunn regular ever since), a good ol’ boy with a unhealthy obsession with his wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks, displaying her typically professional comic chops); she still has a soft spot for local head of police Bill (Nathan Fillion). One by one, members of the town are penetrated through various orifices by the worm larvae, some of them becoming evil minions and some, like unlucky area woman Brenda (Brenda James), turning into hideously swollen incubators for further larvae.

Milan-based bank plans to up its near-30% stake in German lender to trigger formal talks despite strong opposition from Berlin

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Two European banking powerhouses have become embroiled in a €35bn (£30bn) takeover battle after Italy’s UniCredit stepped up its long-running pursuit of German lender Commerzbank, despite strong opposition from the German government.

UniCredit first took a stake of 9% in Commerzbank in September 2024 and has since built up its holding to just under 30%. It said on Monday it was pushing to increase that holding further and push the rival lender into formal merger talks.

Analysts and investors voice caution about tech valuations and Trump’s influence on the US central bank

Investors expect global stock markets to keep rising in 2026, despite fears that the AI bubble could burst, and anxiety about chaos engulfing the US central bank.

Wall Street strategists broadly expect the S&P 500 share index of US-listed companies to continue to rise over the next 12 months, but said it could be a volatile year if geopolitical tensions increase and inflation fails to fall.