A multimillion-pound industry has sprung up promising it can detect sensitivities to certain ingredients with a simple remote finger prick test. But the results can be misleading – and even dangerous

My kitchen table is littered with tiny test tubes, envelopes and plastic lancets. At one end of the table, I have a parcel containing everything I need to take a food intolerance blood test, sold by one of the best-known companies in this market, as well as one of their food and environmental allergy tests, a package deal that cost me just over £200.

At the other end, I’ve arranged everything I need to do a top-of-the-range ALEX2 allergy blood test, which I got from the allergy clinic run by Dr Helen Evans-Howells, a GP and allergy specialist who runs clinics in Hampshire, Belfast and online. This costs £295 and comprises two lancets, which I will soon be using to puncture tiny holes in several of my fingertips; a blood tube; disinfecting wipes; and a return envelope. In the middle of the table, I have a large bowl of hot water, in which my left hand is soaking. I’ve also cut off a lock of my hair, which is now in a sandwich bag ready to be sent to a lab tomorrow for bioresonance testing. My plan is to compare the three sets of results, all from samples taken on the very same day. Given that I don’t have any food or environmental allergies or intolerances, all three tests should show exactly the same thing: nothing.

Industry experts say booking of controversial US rapper was calculated risk that has implications for all festivals

The fallout over Wireless announcing Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) as its 2026 headliner was both swift and considerable.

Last Sunday, major sponsors of the three-day festival, including Pepsi and Diageo, began to withdraw their involvement in the face of a significant backlash to Ye’s shocking pronouncements on the Jewish community and the Holocaust. UK Jewish groups threatened to protest if the shows went ahead. Keir Starmer called the decision to book the rapper who wrote a song titled Heil Hitler “deeply concerning”.

The British may not have the most sophisticated palates, but we are adorable in our culinary urges

As we sit awaiting the beef rib trolley in the Grand Divan dining room at the whoppingly sized Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, we fizz with ideas of how to describe its wildly unfettered quaintness. “It’s all a bit Hogwarts, isn’t it?” I say to my friend Hugh.

He’s been four times already, but then, Simpson’s is that kind of place: a handy-as-heck, posh canteen a short stroll from Covent Garden. There’s a twinkly, ye olde cocktail bar upstairs as well as Romano’s with its more European-style menu. But, for now, let’s concentrate on the Grand Divan. “It’s all very Samuel Pepys’ London,” Hugh says.

As a young mother, Tareena Shakil fled with her toddler from the UK to Syria and joined Islamic State. Now she’s giving dating advice on TikTok. How did she get here?

If you met Tareena Shakil today, you would have no idea that the person in front of you had served time in prison for terrorism offences and holds the dubious distinction of being the first British woman convicted of joining Islamic State. Now 36, Shakil is glamorous, heavily made-up with long, tousled hair. When we meet at a plush hotel in Birmingham, she wears a sharply tailored dress, waist cinched in with a wide leather belt, and carries a Louis Vuitton handbag. She is bubbly and warm, with a disarmingly open demeanour. In short, this isn’t what springs to mind when you hear the words “terrorism conviction”.

What Shakil actually looks like is an influencer – which is fitting, because that’s what she is trying to be. She has gained most traction on TikTok, where her profile has about 50,000 followers. She gives relationship advice, usually sitting in her car and talking straight to camera. Her content is a mix of humour (“Muslim men who go to the gym while fasting – brother, the world needs more people like you”) and advice about the dating game (“Men are natural born hunters … they love the chase” in one video; “When they block you, it’s a punishment because they know it’s going to hurt you” in another). In among this are videos that hint at something darker (“If your partner hits you, you must leave, it doesn’t matter how much they cry or say they’ll never do it again”). She never directly references her own complicated past but, she tells me: “There’s an element of my own experience in most of the videos I make.”

The first lady has put the Barbra Streisand effect in overdrive with a PR nightmare of her own making

You’ve probably heard of the Barbra Streisand effect: the phenomenon where attempts to censor information end up drawing more attention to it.

Now we might soon be referencing the Melania Trump effect: the phenomenon where holding a surprise press conference to state that you did not have a relationship with a dead paedophile, and would like people to please stop speculating about the matter, immediately causes people to start speculating about the matter.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist

An exclusive extract from Famesick, her new memoir

• ‘I got everything I dreamed of … ’: read an interview with Lena Dunham

Rehab doesn’t happen to you. You happen to rehab. That’s something I kept thinking when, at night, I wept myself to sleep in the tastefully appointed room where I could not keep any sharp objects, not even tweezers, and did not have a lock on my door.

I realised it the moment I walked in and they demanded I remove my Marni booties, in keeping with their no-shoes policy, and I began to argue, muttering something about how I was self-conscious about my feet (a lie). I realised it when they asked me what sorts of things I liked to eat, and I considered it briefly, then said “goat yoghurt” like it was normal. I realised it when the woman who was tasked with watching me pee into a cup through a cracked door looked like I was giving her much more anxiety than she was giving me.

US and Iranian delegations fail to reach common ground after 21 hours of negotiations, with both sides blaming the other for unreasonable demands

• JD Vance and US delegation leave Pakistan after failing to reach deal with Iran

• US officials claim Iran unable to find mines it laid in strait of Hormuz

As US negotiations with Iran were hitting an impasse, the US president attended a UFC fight, Associated Press reported.

Donald Trump entered the Miami venue alongside UFC president Dana White and several members of the Trump family soon after 9pm local time. As a Kid Rock song blasted from the speakers, Trump walked to his seat, where secretary of state Marco Rubio was waiting. Also nearby was Sergio Gor, the US ambassador to India.

Her death led to landmark ruling that sustained domestic violence can make an abuser criminally responsible for their victim’s suicide

On the night of 27 July 2023, Kimberly Milne jumped to her death from a road bridge.

Her suicide came after months of mental health crises, compounded by a campaign of domestic abuse at the hands of her former partner. In this regard, to the officers who attended the scene, Kimberly’s was a depressingly familiar story.

Rosemary Adaser, 70, would lose £1,000 a month in benefits, while her twin brother in Ireland got full amount with no penalty

A twin sister and brother were separated from their parents in Ireland’s mother and baby home scandal – but only one of them can be compensated without being penalised.

Rosemary Adaser, 70, of Ealing, west London, was among tens of thousands of children placed in abusive institutions for being born out of marriage in Ireland.

Exclusive: US state is targeting corporate heavyweights in the UK with subsidies and incentives

• Y’all Street: Bullish Dallas aims to steal New York’s crown

The US state of Texas is putting UK businesses in its crosshairs with the launch this month of a dedicated London office to lure jobs and investment to the low-tax Lone Star State.

Texas recently secured approval for the new site, adding to a growing list of international offices from which it can try to draw corporate heavyweights across its borders.