Layby hookups are all in a day’s work for Romola Garai in her steamy new drama Adultery. She talks faking orgasms, keeping secrets – and making audiences pass out

In a raging storm in the Peak District last winter, a blue Toyota Yaris was parked in a remote roadside spot with a sex scene being filmed inside it. “It can pose challenges, depending on the size of the car,” chuckles Romola Garai. “Me and Dominic [Cooper] got in this hatchback and asked: ‘How far do these seats go back?’ Soon there was a gale blowing outside. We were in the car, ready to shoot, but outside the entire film crew were being buffeted by high winds. They said: ‘You guys stay in there, don’t get out!’ while all the lights were getting blown away.”

What did the co-stars do while the camera crew battled the elements? “What actors always do in these situations – have a long, gossipy conversation about people in the industry. While everyone else was trying to save the show, we were sitting in the car, like: ‘Well, I’ve heard he’s a total nightmare!’”

In the UK, one in five families are affected by permanent estrangement – it’s not a decision to be taken lightly. These are the questions experts suggest you ask yourself before cutting a relative out of your life

It’s important to be certain you aren’t walking away because it feels more manageable than addressing challenging issues. “Sometimes estrangement is exactly what’s needed for safety and healing. Other times it functions as an attempt to avoid grief, conflict, disappointment or the painful acceptance that a parent cannot become the person one longs for,” says Joshua Coleman, a clinical psychologist and the author of Rules of Estrangement. “Distance alone doesn’t resolve those emotions.”

Zack Polanski has lost the Holborn and St Pancras byelection to Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali. Despite the Greens increasing their vote share from 2024, Polanski had the cloud of the ‘Zionism is racism’ row hanging over his head.

Now there are questions over his leadership and whether he can steer the party through the ongoing Zionism row. Will the Greens remain a fringe party?

When her sons died the Book of Goose author turned to Grief Lessons, Carson’s translation of four plays by Euripides. She reflects on the ‘life sustaining’ work of an extraordinary writer
• Where to start with: Anne Carson
• ‘Delights await!’: Margaret Atwood and other writers on Anne Carson

It is preposterous to agree to write a short piece on Anne Carson’s work. The task is impossible, akin to that of solving the mathematical problem of dividing zero by zero. If one had the power to solve it, perhaps one would have some confidence in attempting to write about Anne Carson’s work. Attempting, I say, not succeeding. In attempting to do so, I shall emphasise that all words fall short in extreme situations, which not only include unfathomable losses (of children, in my case) but also include articulating anything about Anne Carson’s work.

One could start with Carson’s words. “Words, if you let them, will do what they want to do and what they have to do.” (Autobiography of Red) But to let the words exist in their own desires and yearnings and frustrations and confusions, to let the words scream with inarticulable pain or tell a riddle with a twinkling smile or make love to one another – how many of us have achieved that kind of mastery of words? But, oh no, mastery is the wrong word here. Only the minor and the greedy and the power-thirsty writers want to be the masters of the words. Carson does not subjugate or manipulate her words. She lets them be; and lets herself be led by the words – hers, and the ancients’ translated into unforgettable English by her.

Fixing the broken education system will be just the start. The biggest challenge for an aloof political class is to finally pay attention to an abandoned generation

When adolescents protest that the government is failing to uphold their right to an education, and the government’s response is to send in riot police, the government has lost the plot. People outside France may have spent the past week watching the student protests in Paris and other cities, and thought, “Well, France has a long tradition of insurrection” or, “That’s just the French being French.”

But the situation that has provoked the high-school walkouts and teenage anger is most likely not one they would immediately associate with the France of their imaginations. In place of its lost plot, the French government has a collection of anecdotes and statistics that it should be ashamed of: 27th place in the most recent OECD education rankings, schools with ceilings collapsing and rats in classrooms and, in a school in Bagnolet, no drinkable water; an increase in the average number of students per class from 27 in 2010 to over 30 today; half of primary and high schools missing teachers at the start of the school year – many of them with no substitutes or replacements.

Alexander Hurst writes for Guardian Europe from Paris. His memoir Generation Desperation is out now

Whether it’s a super-glowy serum or a cult gardening tool, here are our writers’ favourite buys from the past year

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The Filter is turning two! To celebrate, we asked our contributors for their favourite products from the past year, and rounded up the team’s picks too.

From handbag-sized umbrellas and stylish yet practical wellies to reading lights and luxurious duvets, these are the products that stood out.

Vivien Lichtenstein urges party leader to quit over ‘Zionism is racism’ policy – but could face no-confidence motion herself

The chair of the Jewish Greens has called for Zack Polanski to step down as pressure increases on the Green leader to acknowledge anger within the party over a new policy that equates Zionism with racism and calls for the state of Israel to be abolished.

The comments by Vivien Lichtenstein come after Caroline Lucas, the Greens’ former leader and first MP, criticised Polanski for a lack of leadership in missing the debate and vote at the weekend that resulted in the policy being passed.

Ex-prince was granted £302,000 in compensation for early end of lease and king has reportedly contributed to costs

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor faced a £1.8m bill to cover repair and restoration of his former Royal Lodge home in Windsor after the lease was officially surrendered.

But the former prince was granted £302,000 in compensation for giving up the lease early on the 98-acre property, meaning his total costs came to £1.5m.

Condemnation comes amid fierce backlash from US lawmakers who branded the move ‘grotesque’ and compared it to actions of some terror groups and oppressive governments

• Analysis: Plan to livestream execution puts US in dubious company

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In a statement to the Guardian, Robin M Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said that her group is “not aware of any regulation or precedent for a military execution to be livestreamed on the internet or otherwise made widely available to the public”.

She added that “public executions are typically held in authoritarian countries to instil fear in the population, and to show the power and control of the government.”

‘The climate issue is the security issue,’ says Turkish minister at Pacific pre-Cop summit in Fiji

Wealthy countries should spend far more on dealing with the climate crisis than the 5% of GDP promised by Nato members for defence because “the climate issue is the security issue”, the host of the next UN summit has said.

But, in comments that are likely to prove contentious, the Cop31 president-designate, Murat Kurum, hedged on whether countries should try to repeat a previous agreement to “transition away from fossil fuels” – the primary cause of the climate crisis – when they meet in Turkey next month.