Bridge theatre, London
Ibsen’s mysticism and mermaids are thrown out as director Simon Stone amps up the 1888 play’s psychological intensity with his eco-focused update

Writer-director Simon Stone is known for his rock’n’roll takes on the classics. This is a characteristically high-octane version of Ibsen’s play: loud, modern and led by screen stars Alicia Vikander and Andrew Lincoln. Yet his script, again created in the rehearsal process, retains all of Ibsen’s layers and adds some of its own in the updating.

All mystical talk of the sea and mermaids is excised. The production brings a sharply lit realism to the privileged yet complex family at its heart that seems to be slowly drowning: Ellida (Vikander), as the young, second wife of neurologist Edward (Lincoln), is caught between life with her husband and a long lost, formative ex-lover, Finn (Brendan Cowell), who makes a reappearance. Ellida’s stepdaughters, Hilda (Isobel Akuwudike) and Asa (Gracie Oddie-James), are trying to stay afloat amid grief for their biological mother, who killed herself.

Trump was in his own Truman show, everyone else satellites to his ego – even the PM, who was just another beta male

It takes all sorts. Standing around under gun-metal skies watching soldiers isn’t many people’s idea of fun but world leaders are a different breed. No bit of pageantry and flattery goes unnoticed. So why not give Donald Trump the full Disney treatment he craves? After all, it wasn’t as if he was going to be allowed to stray outside the Windsor Castle compound and it was better than making the king sit indoors and watch Fox News.

But if Wednesday was the softening up – “You’re great, you’re the best, the world would stop without you. We’ve never done anything like this for anyone else” Thursday was very much the business end of the state visit. And the one moment of real danger for the US president and Keir Starmer. The Chequers press conference at which everything could go tits up. The one bit of the trip that wasn’t entirely scripted.

Palestinian musicians were joined by stars including Neneh Cherry and Louis Theroux for a massive four-hour fundraising concert in London. Their artistry revealed the strength and breadth of a culture under siege

It’s a muggy midweek afternoon when a trail of people draped in black and white keffiyeh scarves, Palestine flags and Free Palestine slogan T-shirts begin to trickle into Wembley Arena. In the foyer of the venue, 56-year-old Kiran has just arrived from her home in Milton Keynes.

“I’d never protested in my life before October 2023,” she says. “It’s been so horrific to see what’s happening in Gaza, I felt I had to do something since if you don’t make a stand now, when would you ever? Things might feel futile but this is a way to show the world we care and that we stand together more than we are torn apart.”

Neneh Cherry performs with Greentea Peng

The sporting superstar walked away from success and adulation at 26 – much to everyone’s bemusement. He opens up about his secret life and the depression, cocaine, overdoses and aggressive cancer that almost killed him

‘I’m a person who doesn’t say very much,” Björn Borg says with a wry smile. Which may be the understatement of the century. Borg, the greatest tennis player of his day, has spent 42 years saying nothing since he announced his retirement at the age of 26.

When he broke that news in 1983, it was one of the biggest shocks in the history of sport. Not simply because he was at his peak, but also because he was the rock star tennis player – beautiful, mysterious and followed by a flock of teenybopper fans. When Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz triumphed in the US Open earlier this month, aged 22, he became the second youngest player to have won six major tournaments. Borg beat him by four months.

The late actor was a paragon of masculine cool and a sartorial chameleon, able to take any aesthetic trope and make it shine with easy authenticity

The pantheon of men’s style icons is surprisingly compact. There are scores of uniquely handsome and stylish actors, pop stars, sportsmen – but when it comes to their decades-long influence and a sense of permanence unaffected by trends in fashion, three square-jawed American boys next door stand out: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen – and Robert Redford, who died yesterday at 89.

Redford’s death is, obviously, a loss to cinema. In the latter half of the 20th century, few actors so roundly embodied the soul of American film-making, or perhaps even the US itself. During a decade-long, career-defining run of hit movies, Redford established the archetype of the modern leading man. He was impossibly handsome and warmly charismatic, of course, but also scrappy, soulful, athletic, bookishly intelligent and politically aware. A matinee idol who could fix your car while reciting Walt Whitman.

Redford played with style, able to flit between macho tradition and 70s femininity, and always with innate sex appeal

She was the first female president of the supreme court, causing a ruckus when she ruled against Boris Johnson’s suspension of parliament. Now she has written an insider’s take on the UK’s underfunded, overwhelmed justice system

When a supreme court judge is a household name, it’s either because they’re very outspoken on a hot topic, or because you’re living in choppy times, and there are so few grownups left among the legislators that the law has to put its hoof down. Brenda Hale, the right honourable Baroness Hale of Richmond (she doesn’t stand on ceremony, but she’d be annoyed if you got it wrong, preferring things to be right) emphatically doesn’t fall into the first camp, but was thrown into the spotlight in 2019. This was when she found Boris Johnson’s suspension of parliament – which meant his government could evade scrutiny in the run-up to Britain’s exit from the EU – unlawful.

Now retired, she was then head of the supreme court and boy could she accessorise. She handed down that ruling wearing a spider brooch with a body as big as a plum, and one headline that week ran: “Spider woman takes down Hulk: viewers transfixed by judge’s brooch as ruling crushes PM.” Johnson, of course, was not crushed, but got his miserable deal through and survived to make a complete, self-serving hash of the next crisis. “I’m not going to make any comment about Brexit,” she says, slightly incredulous that I would ask. I can’t help it, unfortunately. It’s like a tic.

US president ends second state visit with warning that illegal migration could destroy the UK

Donald Trump has told Britain it should “call out the military” to control its borders during a tightly controlled summit in which Keir Starmer ducked major flashpoints with the US president.

During a potentially difficult two-day state visit for the government, Trump has for the most part avoided exploiting tensions, although he described the UK’s plan to recognise a Palestinian state as “one of our few disagreements”.

Move comes after Israel fails to meet UK conditions that would have postponed step

The UK is preparing to recognise the state of Palestine as early as Friday, after Israel failed to meet conditions that would have postponed the historic step, including a ceasefire in Gaza.

Keir Starmer insisted the timing of the UK announcement had nothing to do with Donald Trump’s visit, even though the US president said at a press conference that he disagreed with Britain’s decision, without elaborating.

Analysis reveals 24% of guilty doctors handed suspensions but are allowed to keep working in medicine

UK doctors who are guilty of sexual misconduct are not being appropriately sanctioned due to weak disciplinary processes, research reveals.

Nearly a quarter (24%) of doctors found guilty of sexual misconduct were handed suspensions but allowed to continue working in medicine, according to analysis of fitness to practice tribunals by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS). This is despite the regulator, the General Medical Council (GMC), recommending they be struck off the medical register.

A little over 24 hours before kick-off, Hansi Flick spoke about how lucky he felt to have acquired Marcus Rashford on loan from Manchester United.

Barcelona’s manager was not remotely bothered that the forward’s stock had fallen so far at Old Trafford. Rashford, he said, was a player he had long admired and could help improve.