Feminism exposed the ubiquity of child abuse, rape, sexual harassment and domestic violence – and helped fight that culture

I was there. I kept the receipts. I remember how normalized the sexual exploitation of teenage girls and even tweens by adult men was, how it showed up in movies, in the tales of rock stars and “baby groupies”, in counterculture and mainstream culture, how normalized rape, exploitation, grooming, objectification, commodification was.

The last Woody Allen movie I ever saw was Manhattan, in which he cast himself as more or less himself, a dweeb in his mid-40s, dating a high school student played by Mariel Hemingway. She was my age, 17, and I was only too familiar with creeps, and the movie creeped me out, even though it was only long afterward that I read that she said he was at the time pressuring her to get sexually involved with him in real life.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell’s Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology

I was afraid to be near people for two-and-a-half years, but then I got a chance to meet the band I loved – and the experience changed everything

I have always had a degree of health anxiety, but when Covid hit, it really spiked. At home with the family, I made sure we washed all our food and even then I didn’t feel safe eating it. I would bring in the post and then be worried about touching the front door. I’d shower for ages, trying to wash the virus away.

I’m a journalist, so before the anxiety set in I was a pretty outgoing and adaptable person. But from the start of lockdown until September 2022, I didn’t go anywhere indoors other than home or the hospital. I didn’t even walk down a street for a year and a half, for fear of passing too close to someone.

In this week’s newsletter: Live performances offering authentic human connection are drawing crowds to the stage, as AI-driven drivel worms its way into other creative industries

Last year, more than 37 million people settled their behinds into the red-velvet upholstery, plastic chairs or wooden “I’ll only tolerate this because it’s the Globe” benches of a theatre. West End attendance has reportedly grown by 11% and regional audiences have increased by 4% since 2019 – pretty impressive amid a cost of living crisis and after a pandemic that had us all locked in our houses.

The increase in attendance can be chalked up to all sorts of reasons: the post-Covid return of tourists to the UK, schemes offering more reasonably priced tickets, and big films such as Wicked leaving people wondering what that Defying Gravity note sounds like live. But I’d throw another contender into the mix: the rise of AI.

As coming-of-age drama nears its end, part of its appeal is nostalgia for the noughties shows viewers grew up with

It was billed as a show for teenagers, but you would be hard pressed to find a millennial woman who has not watched – and become mildly obsessed with – The Summer I Turned Pretty.

The coming-of-age drama, based on Jenny Han’s novel trilogy of the same name, has quietly grown into a global phenomenon for Prime Video. The first two episodes of its third and final season drew 25 million viewers, triple the audience of its debut.

My novel explores the consequences of extreme longevity. Meanwhile, Putin and Xi are pondering immortality in real life

I was in bed scrolling on my phone when I read the headline: Hot mic catches Xi and Putin discussing organ transplants and immortality. It took me a long time to get to sleep after that. Not yet, I thought. I pride myself on my prescience, but I wasn’t ready for the future I had imagined to arrive so soon.

Since 2017, I’ve been thinking about the implications of longevity research, sketching out possible futures – the shifts in society, the complications and subcultures. This year I published the result of my thought experiment, Who Wants to Live Forever, a speculative literary novel. It follows Yuki and Sam, a couple at a crossroads at the same time that a new drug, called Yareta – which extends the human lifespan by 200 years and preserves youth – becomes available. Sam takes it, Yuki doesn’t, and the novel follows the fallout as the world changes around them. The story ends in 2039. Naively, considering the billions being poured into longevity research by the likes of Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos and Bryan Johnson (subject of this year’s Netflix documentary Don’t Die), I thought that was how long it might take for my fiction to become reality.

Hanna Thomas Uose is a writer and strategist. She is the author of Who Wants to Live Forever

From Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers to rollers, tunnellers and dwellers, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Which German state sent its own team to the 1952 Olympics?
2 Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece is what story-telling genre’s all-time bestseller?
3 Which halogen is widely used as an antiseptic?
4 Which band was formed by Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers?
5 What type of beetles are categorised as rollers, tunnellers or dwellers?
6 Who sits on the Woolsack?
7 Nicknamed the “big hoose”, what is Scotland’s largest prison?
8 Who appeared in both film versions of West Side Story?
What links:
9 Australia; Canada; Eastern Caribbean; Jamaica; New Zealand; US?
10 Northern; southern; Masai; reticulated?
11 Dorothy Ashby; Alice Coltrane; Brandee Younger; Amanda Whiting?
12 Korea, 1945; Vietnam, 1954; Aldi supermarket, 1960?
13 John Hannah; Ken Stott; Richard Rankin?
14 Castello; Cannaregio; Dorsoduro; San Marco; San Polo; Santa Croce?
15 Awesome (Nile civilisation); Vicious (Norse raiders); Terrible (1485-1603); Gorgeous (1714-1830)?

In statement Friday, Erika Kirk says ‘evildoers responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done’

• Trump declines to call for unity after Charlie Kirk killing in stunning move

Erika Kirk, the widow of rightwing activist and provocateur Charlie Kirk, said in a statement Friday evening that her late husband’s message and mission will be “stronger, bolder, louder and greater than ever” and that her “cries will echo around the world like a battle cry”.

“I loved knowing one of his mottos was ‘never surrender’,” she said of her late husband. “We’ll never surrender.”

As Swiss glaciers melt at an ever-faster rate, new species move in and flourish, but entire ecosystems and an alpine culture can be lost

• Photographs by Nicholas JR White

From the slopes behind the village of Ernen, it is possible to see the gouge where the Fiesch glacier once tumbled towards the valley in the Bernese Alps. The curved finger of ice, rumpled like tissue, cuts between high buttresses of granite and gneiss. Now it has melted out of sight.

People here once feared the monstrous ice streams, describing them as devils, but now they dread their disappearance. Like other glaciers in the Alps and globally, the Fiesch is melting at ever-increasing rates. More than ice is lost when the giants disappear: cultures, societies and entire ecosystems are braided around the glaciers.

The Aletsch glacier viewed from Moosfluh, looking towards the Olmenhorn and Eggishorn peaks

With his government mired in scandal, an operation to dethrone Starmer is now under way

There has been a joke going around Labour MPs over the past week about three envelopes in Soviet Russia. “Whenever you run into trouble, open them in order,” the instructions go. Envelope one says: “Blame your predecessor.” So he does – and it works. The party officials are satisfied. A year later, problems arise again. He opens envelope two. It says: “Restructure the organisation.”

He does a big reshuffle, changes some titles, and again buys himself some time. Finally, another crisis comes. He opens envelope three. It says: “Prepare three envelopes.”

The oedipal thriller with Robin Wright raises the household temperature to nail-biting, while Jade Thirlwall goes solo with groove. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

I thought I had found someone, but my wife wants to know if he’s any good – and if he’s ever killed anyone

The quote we receive from the roofer seems surprisingly reasonable, although it’s possible that in anticipation of the quote I was simply letting my paranoia run wild. The truth is, I had no idea how much a new flat roof should, or could, cost.

But my wife wasn’t home when the roofer came round, climbed out on the roof, and said: “That’s really bad.” She didn’t hear his wholly convincing explanation of what was wrong, and what must be done to put it right. She was not impressed by my version of those explanations. And she probably hadn’t worked herself up into expecting a quote at double the price. In any case, she has reservations.

He was the young, gay, mixed-race leader labelled a ‘badass’ by Matt Damon who unexpectedly quit. He talks about the ‘likability’ of rightwing populists – and his fears for the future of politics

Leo Varadkar suggests we do the ­interview at his house in Dublin. It’s unusual for ­politicians to invite you into their home, but Ireland is famous for its hospitality. The house looks impressively humble – a tiny, ­unprepossessing terrace. A woman answers. “Hi,” I say. “Does the taoiseach live here? “No,” she says.

I start to panic. Our interview is due to start in two minutes.

Martha, 30, an analyst, meets Jack, 26, a primary school teacher

What were you hoping for?
A fun evening, a free meal, a story and the fun of appearing in the Guardian. But deep down, to meet someone that I really want to be with.

Mille Colling and Emma Aalto given go-ahead to compete in qualifier for national championships next month

A British ice dancer and her skating partner are to become Finland’s first same-sex team to take part in a competition after a rule change by the country’s skating federation.

Millie Colling, 20, who was born in Gateshead and moved to Finland at the age of six, and Emma Aalto, 19, will compete in a qualifier for the national championships next month after pressing for an amendment to the rules to allow them to enter as a team.

After disastrous week, some MPs predict challenge against PM likely if local and Welsh elections go badly next May

Keir Starmer has been warned that time is running out to repair his faltering leadership, with Labour MPs beginning to ask whether he could be challenged as prime minister.

After a disastrous week in which Angela Rayner resigned and Peter Mandelson was sacked as ambassador to Washington, a number of MPs said a challenge was likely if local and Welsh elections went badly next May. Some said the one thing now protecting Starmer was the lack of an agreed replacement.

• Wallabies lose second Test to Pumas 26-28 in Sydney

• Any thoughts? Get in touch with Jonathan Howcroft

After turning out last week top to toe in navy blue, Argentina revert to their traditional albiceleste (white and sky blue).

It is one of my favourite uniforms in international sport, and here’s why. The colours are beautiful, soft, and complementary. Le Coq Sportif is uber cool and carries association with shaggy haired French soccer players of the 1980s. The golden Puma is unfussy. The sponsor is top-tier and occupies the correct amount of real estate. My only criticism is the absence of a collar, recent iterations of this jersey were elevated further by a crisp white fold.

President sought to cast people on the left as sole problem of US politics, while widow of Charlie Kirk said her ‘cries will echo around the world like a battle cry’ – key stories from 12 September at a glance

Donald Trump on Friday advocated for the death penalty in the killing of his close associate Charlie Kirk, as the widow of the rightwing activist spoke publicly for the first time since the shooting.

The president told Fox & Friends in an interview – during which he also announced that a suspect was in custody – that he hopes the shooter “gets the death penalty”. He added: “Charlie Kirk was the finest person. He didn’t deserve this”.

Fitch downgrade to lowest level on record complicates new prime minister Sebastien Lecornu and President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to control France’s finances

The Fitch agency downgraded France’s credit rating on Friday, as President Emmanuel Macron struggles with political instability and disagreements on how to put the country’s strained public finances in order.

The US rating agency, one of the top global institutions gauging the financial solidity of sovereign borrowers, downgraded France on its ability to pay back debts, from “AA-” to “A+”, the country’s lowest level on record at a major credit rating agency.

Phillips’ three children were rescued from the wilderness this week as the complex case stirs emotions and questions remain over how it unfolded

In a dark, grimy dugout in the middle of the freezing New Zealand bush, the three Phillips children lived with their father. Childhood is measured in increments; birthdays, lost teeth, certificates, a felt tip on a height chart. In the version of reality Tom Phillips created and controlled for his children, it’s hard to know how time was marked. But from 9 December 2021, when their father took them from their mother and the rest of their family, it would be 1,368 sleeps before the children were rescued.

This week, after almost four years on the run, Phillips was found on his way back from a robbery with one of his children. He was shot dead after being stopped by road spikes and opening fire on police, shooting an officer in the head and shoulder. This sparked an urgent search for the two children remaining in the bush. They were found with the help of the other child just a few hours before nightfall the same day, bringing an end to a dark chapter.

The far right have co-opted ancient Norse mythology to create a grab bag of symbols that allow them to continue to signal their white supremacy

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At far-right rallies in several Australian cities, neo-Nazis were photographed brandishing megaphones with unusual markings on them – ancient runic symbols, some with associations to white supremacism, while others meant “birch trees”.

Far-right extremists are continuing a Nazi tradition of co-opting ancient Norse mythology to create a grab bag of symbols, allowing them to continue to signal their white supremacy now they can no longer legally display the Hakenkreuz (swastika) or the Nazi salute.

Countries like Australia that continue to dig up, export or burn fossil fuels, must take action or be held accountable

I often talk about my childhood in the Reef Islands, a special place on the far eastern seas of Solomon Islands. It is there that I learned to fish, to plant root crops and to hunt. I came to understand how to read the weather and which plants could be used for injuries and cuts. Above all, I was taught the importance of caring for the land and the ocean.

During bedtime, the spiritual connection to the land was taught to me through kastom stories. How did this land come about, how did that island come about, why is the river shaped like this or why is there a big rock near that waterfall? These stories taught me to respect and understand the natural world.

The mandatory program, which required 8,000 facilities to report their release, will be ended to reduce ‘bureaucratic red tape’

The US Environmental Protection Agency proposed on Friday a rule to end a mandatory program requiring 8,000 facilities to report their greenhouse gas emissions – an effort the agency said was burdensome to business, but which leaves the public without transparency around the environmental impact of those sources.

The agency said mandatory collection of GHG emissions data was unnecessary because it is “not directly related to a potential regulation and has no material impact on improving human health and the environment”.

• Forward refused to play to force Anfield move

• ‘If a player wants to leave us then we would sell’

Arne Slot has defended Alexander Isak over his decision to go on strike in order to force a move away from Newcastle and insisted the same situation would never arise at Liverpool because they would sell any player who made it clear they wanted to leave the club.

Isak secured a transfer from St James’ Park to Anfield on deadline day for a British record £125m fee and could make his debut for the Premier League champions at Burnley on Sunday, albeit he is unlikely to start having missed pre-season and the first three games of the season after refusing to train while still at Newcastle, claiming promises made to him there had been “broken”.