AI ‘twins’, Mar-a-Lago lookalikes, Melania impersonator conspiracies … doubles proliferate in today’s culture – and nowhere more so than in a series of unsettling new novels that draw on a rich gothic tradition to tap into our paranoid times

‘He was after me. Always had been. Why else would he target me months ago? Infiltrate my flat, my supposed safe space? Question was, what did he want from me. Who, for that matter, did I mean by me?” Isabel Waidner’s fifth novel, As If, opens with the meeting of two bedraggled strangers, Aubrey and Lindsey. Lindsey has materialised on Aubrey’s doorstep and Aubrey has asked him in, noting with pained curiosity how alike they look. “He had dark brown hair not unlike mine,” Aubrey tells us. “My unremarkable eyes they were looking back at me.” With this unsettling opener, the tone is set for a disquieting read, one that I found all the more uncanny as it overlaps so unnervingly with my own new book, Lean Cat, Savage Cat.

Both books draw their protagonists from the lower rungs of showbiz, both utilise the language of fashion in deliberately off-putting ways, both bring the sybaritic myths of artistic life into direct conflict with the realities of housing insecurity and wage instability. Both novels look at how unprocessed grief can fracture the psyche, and – crucially – they both centre on a mysterious pair of doubles. They were also published on the same day. All of which prompts me to ask: does my book have its own doppelganger?

With voting now closed, the months-long campaign for Oscar glory is over – but industry insiders are still dissecting every award-season clue in a tight best picture race

Voting for the Oscars closed at 5pm PT on Thursday, meaning that the months-long campaigns of the favoured films have hung up their spurs: the red carpets have been rolled up, hospitality pavilions shut down, the PR minders putting their feet up until the Oscars ceremony itself takes place. The prefatory campaign – on-stage Q&As, special-screening paparazzi shoots, the string of lesser awards ceremonies – is over, and there is now nothing for the nominees to do but kick back and count the days.

Over the long haul of awards campaigning, which can reasonably be said to start with the near-simultaneous late summer film festivals in Venice, Telluride and Toronto and hits its peak in mid-February as Oscar voting opens, reading the runes has become a full-time activity across the entire film industry, and an absolute obsession for Hollywood insider publications such as Variety, the Hollywood Reporter and Deadline. Every ebb and flow of the process – a critics-awards nomination here, a trade-guild snub there – is endlessly picked over for what it might mean for the end result.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

No algorithm, no endless playlists, no podcasts on demand. Just a handful of albums, wired headphones and a lot of silence

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I stared at the thing sitting atop my dresser with dread. For an entire week, I was going to use an MP3 player to listen to music. I’d never tried one before. In elementary school, I used various iterations of iPods, and since my Bieber-obsessed tween years, I’ve almost exclusively relied on streaming services for music and podcasts. Thanks to my Spotify Premium subscription, I’ve listened to 64,186 minutes of music in recent years.

Since the company’s debut in the US 15 years ago, Spotify has made listening to music frictionless. The streaming platform possesses roughly 31% of the world’s music subscribers, making it practically interchangeable with the music streaming industry itself. Its powerful algorithm defines how so many of us listen to music (and podcasts and audiobooks), thanks to features like Smart Shuffle, the AI DJ X and the mood-based Daylist all recommending creepily accurate songs based on your listening history. You can also sort playlists by mood (sad boy anthems), micro-genre (indie twang) and most recently, even by BPM.

‘The first thing is: Where are we? And how much fuel have we got and where do we need to go?’, Australian veteran pilot says

Keith Tonkin has flown a Boeing 747 towards airspace where missiles were being fired, and knows the pressure pilots have been under this week.

“You’re stuck in that airplane until you land safely,” the veteran Australian pilot says.

Amy Wallace spent years helping Giuffre write her life story. Now she reflects on what the survivor would have thought of the release of the Epstein files

There are many reasons why Amy Wallace wishes Virginia Roberts Giuffre was still alive. Some are personal. Some are practical. But at its heart pulse the reverberations of a child sex trafficking scandal that reaches into palaces and courtrooms across the globe.

Wallace is the now very visible ghostwriter behind the posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl, by Jeffrey Epstein’s best-known accuser.

Researchers identify sharp rise to about 0.35C every decade, after excluding natural fluctuations such as El Niño

Humanity is heating the planet faster than ever before, a study has found.

Climate breakdown is occurring more rapidly with the heating rate almost doubling, according to research that excludes the effect of natural factors behind the latest scorching temperatures.

He’s got a three point plan

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Experts say US influence over South American neighbour will be hard to replicate in country with deep and long-standing antipathy to the west

First, the CIA tracks the head of an oil-rich, US-baiting nation to a heavily guarded compound at the heart of his country’s mountain-flanked capital.

Then, that leader is removed from power with a deadly and irresistible show of US military force.

Didn’t you know? True British patriots are the ones who want to join an obviously disastrous war on behalf of Israel and Donald Trump

Have you heard enough pant-wetting about Britain’s “reputation” this week? Honestly, I don’t think any of us can bear the social embarrassment of not getting immediately involved in an obviously disastrous war in the Middle East. The awks of it. How will good old Britannia hold her head up high if she isn’t an instant ride-or-die for a US administration described by a former senior Nato commander as “gung-ho nutters” with “no clear understanding of how this thing is going to end”? You should be simply unable to stand it. You should have Middle East-catastrophe FOMO.

Opposition party leaders and politicians seem genuinely excruciated by the fact that Earth’s pettiest man, Donald Trump, sniffed earlier this week of Keir Starmer: “This is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with.” Boo-hoo for you, pal. We’re having to deal with the Cheeto FDR, so everyone’s making sacrifices.

Two women who have lived almost all their lives in UK, but whose British fathers were not married, tell how they are having to battle for British citizenship

Two women who have lived almost all their lives in the UK have had their lives thrown into chaos due to the new border control rules for British dual nationals because their French mothers were not married to their British fathers.

Both women have been forced to prove their right to British passports as a result of archaic laws, which did not accord automatic citizenship to the children of unmarried British fathers in dual national relationships until the law was changed in 2005.

• Ohtani grand slam sparks 10-run second inning

• Japan crush Taiwan 13-0 under mercy rule

• Bad Bunny, Timothée Chalamet among crowd

Shohei Ohtani blasted a home run to ignite Japan’s World Baseball Classic campaign as the defending champions thrashed Taiwan 13-0 in their tournament opener in Tokyo on Friday.

Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Ohtani’s grand slam homer set the tone as Japan scored 10 runs in the second inning alone in front of around 42,000 fans at the Tokyo Dome.

Republican congressman Tony Gonzales had repeatedly denied affair with former aide who later died by suicide

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Texas Republican congressman Tony Gonzales is ending his bid for re-election but said he will serve out his term, following his admitting, after repeated denials, that he had an affair with a former staff member who later died by suicide.

Gonzales announced his plan late on Thursday after facing calls from party leadership to withdraw from the race for re-election this November. Others in Congress had called on him to resign his seat.

• Aicher trims Vonn’s downhill lead to just 14 points

• Pirovano wins first race in 125th World Cup start

• USA’s Johnson third as overall title race tightens

With neither injured Lindsey Vonn nor Mikaela Shiffrin starting a World Cup downhill on Friday, Emma Aicher seized her chance to cut the American superstars’ leads in the season-long standings.

Aicher, the Olympic downhill silver medalist, placed second – just 0.01 behind first-time winner Laura Pirovano, pushing Olympic champion Breezy Johnson down to third – and reduced Vonn’s lead in the downhill points race to just 14 with two races left.

US military officials briefed on investigation make disclosure, while Pentagon has confirmed only that inquiry is under way

• Minab school bombing: how the worst mass casualty event of the Iran war unfolded – a visual guide

Military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reached a final conclusion, according to two US officials.

Reuters was unable to determine further details about the investigation, including what evidence contributed to the tentative assessment, what type of munition was used, who was responsible or why the US might have struck the school.

The Scandal star made history as the first Black woman to lead a TV show in 40 years. Now, she’s back in the hot seat with starry thriller Imperfect Women, and she’s determined to keep shaking up the industry

As double entendres go, to say Kerry Washington acts with teeth isn’t a bad one. There’s the literal meaning: Washington’s dramatic facial expressions have become internet canon, immortalised as various reaction gifs and as a favourite of online impressionists. But there’s also the roles themselves. The characters Washington plays have bite – they’re complex women that defy neat categorisation. Her role as Olivia Pope, the sleek political fixer in ABC’s Scandal, became a global sensation – and was the first time a Black woman led a network show in nearly 40 years.

Now Washington is back with a new project offering not just one complicated leading lady but three. Imperfect Women, Apple TV’s adaptation of Araminta Hall’s novel, brings Washington together with Elisabeth Moss and Kate Mara in a glossy murder mystery that puts female friendship – its love, loyalty, secrets and rivalry – at the heart.

Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, crushes our people and calls it freedom. We want engagement, not escalation

The day that will be remembered as one of the darkest days of the long and troubled US-Cuban relationship is 29 January. That was the day that Donald Trump declared Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security, introduced a full-scale fuel blockade around the island, and turned off the lights for their home, schools and hospitals.

For Cubans Americans like me, the consequences of Trump’s declaration are not abstract. They are immediate, and devastating. Our families are running out of food. Our friends are unable to access medicine. While Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, speaks in the name of our “freedom”, he actively starves our communities of their most basic needs.

Danny Valdes is an activist from Miami and co-founder of Cuban Americans for Cuba

Let’s ratchet up the spice in your Saturday brunch …

I love a bloody mary as much as the next person, but sometimes Saturday brunch needs spicing up just that little bit more.

Ash Anand, bar manager, Chet’s at the Hoxton, London W12

Masoud Pezeshkian says any talks must address ‘those who underestimated the Iranian people and ignited this conflict’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has said for the first time that some countries have begun mediation efforts to end the war with the US and Israel, without identifying those countries, adding that any talks should address those who started the war.

Qatar, Turkey, Egypt and Oman have all offered to mediate at some point since US and Israel launched joint strikes last Saturday. Two days ago, Iran’s foreign ministry said it was a time for defence of the country, not for diplomacy.

Police have decided former minister is not a flight risk, but he remains under investigation

Police have released Peter Mandelson from his bail conditions after deciding he was not a flight risk, the Guardian has learned.

Sources say the Metropolitan police have decided to drop the conditions they applied after arresting him on suspicion of misconduct in public office last month, though he remains under investigation.

After years of court action and complaints, trademark office in Spain rules name is counter to ‘public order and morality’

A Spanish restaurant chain called The Mafia Sits at the Table may soon have to change its name after the country’s patent and trademark office heeded objections from the Italian government and ruled that the brand’s nomenclature ran counter to “both public order and morality”.

Italy has pursued its claim against the chain – known in Spanish as La Mafia se sienta a la mesa – through various courts and official bodies over the past few years, alleging that the name trivialises both organised crime and efforts to fight it.

We’d like to hear your stories about the ways you’re using chatbots to assist with your social life or important life decisions

Lots of people now use chatbots as personal assistants, not just for work but in everyday life and social interactions. We want to hear your stories about the ways you’re using chatbots to navigate your social life or significant life decisions.

Have you ever drafted a breakup text using AI? Or crafted a message to delicately cancel plans? Have you consulted AI on whether to take, or quit, a job? Or sought advice from a chatbot on a tricky friendship or relationship?

From dipping biscuits in mugs filled with baked beans to singing about eating custard, Look Mum No Computer’s Eins, Zwei, Drei is trying to win through novelty value. Will it backfire?

What is to be done about Britain’s lowly standing in the Eurovision song contest? It’s a question to which the obvious answer is: who cares? We’re led to believe millions across the UK are rendered livid on an annual basis by our poor showing – we’ve made the top 10 in the final once in the last 16 years – but you somehow never actually meet anyone who gives a monkey’s, despite the BBC’s Stakhanovite efforts to convince us that Eurovision is the musical event of the year. In 2023, Radio 2’s coverage involved broadcasting not merely the final itself, but a documentary, a Eurovision after-party show, both semi-finals, a show involving Sophie Ellis-Bextor playing non-stop Eurovision winners, a show involving Sophie Ellis-Bextor playing tunes from Eurovision celebrities, a show involving Sophie Ellis-Bextor playing Eurovision runners-up and an all-request Eurovision party: it is unrecorded if the latter was deluged with requests to make it stop.

It’s tempting to suggest that ranks of people who don’t care much about Eurovision either way includes those responsible for deciding Britain’s entry. Our solitary success in recent years was Sam Ryder coming second in 2022, a feat pulled off via the cunning new approach of equipping our entrant with a relatively memorable song, a well-written Elton/Bowie pastiche called Spaceman. You might have thought there was a lesson in there, but no. Normal service was resumed the following year. Try humming the chorus of Mae Muller’s vaguely Dua Lipa-ish Wrote A Song (2023), or Olly Alexander’s Dizzy (2024), or Remember Monday’s country-hued What The Hell Just Happened (2025), the latter pair scoring zero in the public vote. You can’t, can you?

Exhibition at Victoria and Albert Museum celebrates Italian designer’s moment-making approach to fashion

When Kylie Jenner stood on the marble steps of the Petit Palais in 2023, a fake lion head attached to her off-shoulder dress, even by the standards of the youngest member of the Kardashian clan, the outfit looked a bit much.

Hand-painted for lifelike realism, the Schiaparelli head and dress were designed by the Texan Daniel Roseberry. Although already four years in the role of artistic director, the look was transformative – earning Jenner front row seats at the biggest shows and propelling the nearly century-old Paris fashion house, long overshadowed by Chanel, Balenciaga, and Dior, into viral ubiquity.