Whether you are starting from scratch, or have a well-honed routine, moving can help us feel happier and healthier. Experts share their one essential exercise and how to get the most out of it

Many of us, regardless of our age or fitness levels, know that we should be doing more exercise but are unsure where to start. So what is the ultimate exercise for improving health, longevity and general wellbeing? Here, personal trainers share the best moves, whatever your individual needs or abilities.

PM’s former chief of staff looked far from happy when forced into the open to face Commons committee

He walks! He talks! He breathes! For most people, Morgan McSweeney is a quasi-mythical creature. A being that exists almost entirely in the shadows. If at all. Away from the public gaze. The legendary slayer of the Labour left, rumoured to have been shaped in the dark arts by Peter Mandelson, who went on to become the eyes and ears of the prime minister. Possibly even his brain. It was often said the only ideas Keir ever had were ones he had been force-fed by Morgan the Mighty.

But on Tuesday morning, Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff was forced out into the open, summoned to Westminster to give evidence to the foreign affairs select committee about the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador. McSweeney looked far from happy at the exposure. Head down, no eye contact with the public as he sped down the corridor. Maybe he was worried about being out and about in daylight. The darkness has been kind to his skincare regime. He looks far younger than his 49 years.

He was the burned-out bigwig who moved to a very big house. Now back with his first music for decades, he talks about signing the Proclaimers, being punched by Julian Cope – and his Scott Walker-inspired trio

David Balfe has had quite a life. In the Teardrop Explodes, he took amyl nitrate on The Old Grey Whistle Test and acid on Top of the Pops. As a music publisher he’s been involved with a multitude of bands from the KLF to the Proclaimers, and his record label signed Blur when they were called Seymour. However, he’ll probably be most remembered as the man immortalised in their 1995 smash Country House. “Balfey” actually lived “in a house, a very big house in the country.”

“That’s going to be the first thing mentioned in my Guardian obituary,” he chuckles. “I’m aware that the song isn’t exactly a paean to my greatness, but I’m genuinely proud about it. It’s the one thing you can casually drop into a dinner party and everybody goes, ‘What the fuck?!’”

Mare of Easttown meets Schitt’s Creek in this rich, wonderful and laugh-out-loud series, in which a put-upon mayor tries to turn a cursed New England island into a tourist hotspot

What do you do if you want your charming little island off the coast of New England to become the next Martha’s Vineyard, but it’s full of legends about local cannibalism, sea hags, clown killers, poison fog and boogeymen who slaughter teenage girls in their beds? And what if it is full of sea hags, poisoned fog and clown killers, which doesn’t bode well for the mythical status of the cannibalism and boogeyman tales?

Such is the dilemma posed by Widow’s Bay for its mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), in a 10-part series that in the very best way defies categorisation. Horror may be its most obvious element, but it is so much more than that. Still, for fans of that genre, the writer-creator Katie Dippold and Hiro Murai, the director of the first five episodes, which set the tone, deliver the goods, lovingly covering most of the tropes.

US president has all but declared war on nature but that will not stop Charles quietly pressing his case during state visit

Of the many clashes in worldview between King Charles III and Donald Trump, the greatest is on an issue the White House has sought to silence: the future of the planet.

For more than 50 years, as the Prince of Wales, the environmentally minded Charles spoke out often, addressing UN summits and closed gatherings alike, to urge better guardianship of nature and strong action on the climate.

A cottage industry of women are selling courses aligned with a conservative movement that claims feminism is the source of women’s discontent

A thirtysomething woman with the easy smile of your favorite neighbor sits in her earth-tone living room, natural light washing over a gray couch so long it could easily fit four children. The woman speaks of a friend, a married mother, who was frustrated that she had to constantly remind her germophile husband to wash his hands. Hearing this, the woman cautioned her friend: “I think it would be better for your entire family to get the black plague and die … than for you to continue treating your husband like a toddler by reminding him to wash his hands.”

Welcome to Wife School, a video masterclass led by Tilly Dillehay, a 38-year-old Baptist writer, podcaster and pastor’s wife who teaches women how to “become the kind of woman who inspires a godly leader”. That means molding them into the wives she says that husbands want: smiling, attentive and submissive, women who know not to nag – even if it means risking the bubonic plague.

Remarks marking 250th anniversary of American independence tell US lawmakers: ‘The actions of this great nation matter’

King Charles has extolled the importance of Britain’s “special relationship” with the US in a speech to Congress that made pointed reference to the importance of Nato, the defence of Ukraine and the climate crisis.

In a speech that will be read as a veiled plea to Donald Trump to return to the US’s traditional European alliances and restore his country’s role as a defender of liberal values, Charles said: “America’s words carry weight and meaning, as they have since independence. The actions of this great nation matter even more.”

No 10 deploys full weight to block parliamentary inquiry bid as MPs warn PM running out of political capital

Keir Starmer has seen off a major Labour rebellion over a bid to force a parliamentary investigation into his appointment of Peter Mandelson, but many of his own MPs warned he was running out of political capital.

After Downing Street deployed its full weight to force Labour MPs to block a referral to the privileges committee over the scandal, some angrily accused Starmer of leaving them facing accusations of a “cover-up”.

Case centers on a photo prosecutors allege was a threat to Donald Trump, while Comey says he is ‘still innocent’

• US politics live – latest updates

• Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email

The justice department filed new criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director, on Tuesday.

Comey was charged in federal court in the eastern district of North Carolina over a picture he posted on Instagram while on vacation last year in which sea shells were arranged to say “86 47”. The post was taken as a threat to Donald Trump. The number 86 can be used as shorthand for getting rid of something, and Trump is the 47th president. Comey subsequently deleted the post and apologized, saying he didn’t realize the numbers were associated with violence. “It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” he wrote on Instagram.

Latest ONS figures also suggest lower population growth in coming decades than previously expected

Deaths are projected to outnumber births in the UK every year from 2026 and the population is expected to grow at a slower rate over the next few decades than previously reported, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

About 1.7 million people are projected to join the population between 2024 and 2034, pushing the total up 2.5% from 69.3 million to 71 million, before it starts to decrease in the mid-2050s.