Public figures back commissioner’s call for government commitment to funding legal support for those affected

The singer and television personality Mel B has said she is “heartbroken” by the Windrush scandal victims’ fight for justice, as the Windrush commissioner urged ministers to commit to providing funding for legal support for those affected by the end of October.

In April, the Guardian revealed that the Home Office had refused to pay compensation in more than half the claims made by victims of the scandal, in which mainly Black Britons who came legally to postwar Britain were wrongly stripped of citizenship and settlement rights.

The newest judge on the culinary competition is a soothing presence who is the ideal complement to Paul Hollywood. Long may the show continue with her on it

There’s a very good argument to be made for requiring a national referendum on whether presenters of shows that are part of our cultural identity should be allowed to leave, followed by – if necessary – a vote on who should replace them. At the very least, this would avoid the parlous state of affairs we face right now: at the very moment the public is grappling with the new-look Strictly Come Dancing (Tess and Claudia replaced by Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe, three whole different people!) we are asked to cope with a change to the order of the tented universe too.

For The Great British Bake Off lineup has replaced Prue Leith (who stepped down after deciding that, at 86, she would quite like to go back to having holidays instead of filming the series all summer) with – the one! The only! – Nigella Lawson.

222 Meter breit ist er und entstanden, als niemand hinsah: Wissenschaftler nennen den Einschlag ein Jahrhundertereignis. Was man aus ihm lernen kann.

The domestic goddess is about to be let loose in the Bake Off tent. Nigella Lawson and Paul Hollywood spill the beans about bonding over dirty martinis, ‘Professor Precision’ – and why they call themselves the Salty Gang

Like the Cleopatra of cake, new Great British Bake Off judge Nigella Lawson reclines on a chaise longue throughout our interview, gently fanning herself. Fellow judge Paul Hollywood chuckles from a nearby armchair. “She’d sit like this between takes in the tent,” he says indulgently. “Reading a book and sipping a coffee while someone fed her grapes.” “Peeled grapes,” specifies Lawson with a grin.

After Prue Leith stepped down from soggy bottom-spotting duties in January – on the unarguable basis that “I’m 86, for goodness sake!” – there was widespread jubilation when Lawson was announced as her replacement. The arrival of the domestic goddess has created serious buzz around Bake Off’s upcoming series. A contest that was at risk of growing stale has become essential viewing again, thanks to the velvet-voiced, spatula-licking doyenne of culinary TV.

The author of Guns, Germs and Steel falters in this flawed study of whether individuals really make a difference

Early in this book, Jared Diamond proudly introduces “what I term ‘the Hamlet test’”, which helps decide whether prominent individuals really make a difference, or whether others might have done just as well. Among William Shakespeare’s contemporaries on the Elizabethan stage, he explains, were “Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe and John Webster. But not even their best plays remotely approach in quality Hamlet and Shakespeare’s other masterpieces.” It follows, for Diamond, that Shakespeare was indeed “uniquely talented”: “We can be confident that no Elizabethan other than Shakespeare could have written a masterpiece like Hamlet if Shakespeare hadn’t done so.”

One obvious problem with this is that Marlowe was stabbed to death in a pub in Deptford in 1593 at the age of 29, having already written the absolute bangers Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine, as well as – so it is now thought – co-writing the Henry VI trilogy with the up-and-coming Shakespeare. Shakespeare himself did not begin to compose his major tragedies, including Hamlet, until he was a decade older. So we can’t rule out the possibility that, had Marlowe lived another 10 years, he would have matched or even exceeded his colleague’s genius. Scholars widely agree that Hamlet and Shakespeare’s other masterpieces were possible only thanks to the outsized influence of Marlowe.

Am 28. August von 4.33 Uhr an verdunkeln sich große Teile des Monds. Warum auf eine Sonnenfinsternis häufig eine Mondfinsternis folgt – und wo man das Schauspiel am besten beobachten kann.

In this week’s newsletter: A tour through the moments when American celebrities crossed the ocean and landed somewhere entirely unexpected

Hurrah! Today is the Guide’s 250th instalment, an anniversary celebrated the world over, with concerts and ticker tape parades and 10-part documentaries about its historical significance. You’re probably already a bit exhausted by all the wall-to-wall coverage, in fact. Also tomorrow, the United States of America might be celebrating some birthday or other, though it doesn’t sound like anybody is terribly fussed about it.

To mark both anniversaries, this week’s Guide is a “special relationship” special, with 25 of the most unlikely US/UK pop-cultural crossovers – those moments where American celebrities find themselves rubbing their stardust, intentionally or otherwise, all over weird corners of British popular culture, or vice versa. Read on for tales of Orson Welles in Norwich and Matt Berry at the Oscars.

2027 soll der nächste astronautische Raumflug des US-Mondprogramms Artemis ins All starten. Doch die vier Astronauten werden nicht über den Erdorbit hinauskommen.

He was the burned-out bigwig who moved to a very big house. Now back with his first music for decades, he talks about signing the Proclaimers, being punched by Julian Cope – and his Scott Walker-inspired trio

David Balfe has had quite a life. In the Teardrop Explodes, he took amyl nitrate on The Old Grey Whistle Test and acid on Top of the Pops. As a music publisher he’s been involved with a multitude of bands from the KLF to the Proclaimers, and his record label signed Blur when they were called Seymour. However, he’ll probably be most remembered as the man immortalised in their 1995 smash Country House. “Balfey” actually lived “in a house, a very big house in the country.”

“That’s going to be the first thing mentioned in my Guardian obituary,” he chuckles. “I’m aware that the song isn’t exactly a paean to my greatness, but I’m genuinely proud about it. It’s the one thing you can casually drop into a dinner party and everybody goes, ‘What the fuck?!’”

Media tycoon vows to appeal after dismissal of action against Gambling Commission for awarding Allwyn the franchise

The media tycoon Richard Desmond has vowed to appeal after a resounding defeat in his claim for up to £1.3bn in damages from the Gambling Commission over its decision not to award him the 10-year licence to run the national lottery.

Mrs Justice Smith dismissed Desmond’s claim on Friday, in a sometimes scathing written high court judgment that reserved particular criticism for “inexcusable” failings on the part of Desmond’s legal team.

Kurz nach zwei Uhr am Samstagmorgen schwimmt die Artemis-2-Kapsel sicher im Pazifik. Damit ist auch der vielleicht heikelste Teil der Mission zu Ende. Wie die Landung ablief.

Von dort aus sieht man die Welt und vielleicht sogar die SPD mit anderen Augen – und entdeckt etwas, was man fast vergessen hatte.

In der Nacht auf Dienstag ist Orion hinter dem Mond entlang geflogen – die Aufnahmen, die die Besatzung mitbringt, sind atemberaubend.

Der interessanteste Teil des Flugs ist vorbei: die Kurve um die Mondrückseite. Wie sie ablief, welche Beobachtungen die Astronauten machen konnten und was das der Wissenschaft bringt – oder auch nicht.