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Ready for your stunning second act? The 11 secrets of starting again – from successful late bloomers

From a seventysomething standup comedian to the founder of a highly successful spice business, seven people reveal why it’s never too late to embark on the life of your dreams

Many of us feel stuck in a job we dislike and midlife is a common time to reassess what you are going to do with the rest of your years, especially when finances require us to work into older age. How can you make a change, follow your dreams and finally do what you always wanted? Late bloomers share the secrets to having a stunning second act.

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Sun, 12 Jul 2026 09:00:14 GMT
The Tech Billionaire Takeover review – a surprisingly fun look at the crypto bros threatening democracy

This documentary about the billionaires who want to rip up society’s rules in favour of CEOs somehow manages to be more entertaining than terrifying. Although at times it’s a close call …

Matt Shea’s documentary is bookended by two stark facts. One is that the wealth of the world’s 12 richest people is equal to that of the poorest 50% of humanity (you can argue about whether 12 is exactly right, but it’s certainly a horrifyingly small number). The other is that in recent US election cycles, the fossil fuel industry has been replaced as the biggest political donor by a new force: cryptocurrency.

In an hour that manages to be more entertaining than terrifying despite sailing into very murky waters, Shea explores how a fresh breed of tech billionaires are looking to make a bold new move. He shows that in a traditional western democracy, the principle that citizens all have an equal vote and are all equally beholden to the law is heavily compromised by a tiny minority of rich citizens. These people influence what the electorate votes for, by bankrolling politicians and owning media companies, as well as using their wealth to ensure rules do not properly apply to them. But plutocrats still find this system frustrating, thanks to those pesky elections and that annoying rule of law. What’s next?

Tech Billionaire Takeover aired on BBC Two and is on iPlayer

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Sun, 12 Jul 2026 21:00:28 GMT
‘People treat each other as disposable’: dating columnist turned novelist Annie Lord on love and sex in the age of apps

Her breakup memoir and Vogue column made her the voice of modern dating. As her debut is published, she talks about single life, oversharing and why she still believes she’ll find love

There is a scene in Annie Lord’s novel that will be instantly familiar to any young person who has spent time at a pub or nightclub recently. Daisy and Maya, two best friends in their mid-20s, are lamenting the paltry state of the dating market.

“It’s just shit out there,” Daisy says. “Every time we go out there’s, like, one decent single guy and then about 40 gorgeous women with master’s degrees and shag haircuts and what’s even the point in trying.”

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Sun, 12 Jul 2026 11:00:17 GMT
Nigel Farage is just one strand in the tangle of rightwing politicians and crypto investors | John Harris

These financiers want to remodel the UK into a form that suits them – one that could threaten to erode the barriers between crime and business

This coming Tuesday, the government’s representation of the people bill comes back to the House of Commons for its third reading. It bundles up a multitude of measures, including an extension of the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds and welcome changes to voter registration. But thanks to the continuing furore around Nigel Farage and his extremely wealthy friends – such as the Thailand-based crypto-investor Christopher Harborne, who gave Farage a £5m “lottery win” personal gift and has donated in excess of £22m to Reform UK – the aspects of the legislation that have suddenly become its headline measures are focused on big-money donations.

The government has already implemented a moratorium – but only a moratorium – on political donations in cryptocurrencies, the encrypted digital assets that, to quote the Electoral Commission, “present particular challenges and risks in meeting electoral law requirements in identifying donors and ensuring they are permissible”. There is a new annual £100,000 limit on donations from British citizens living abroad. Other legislative moves will now take the form of amendments to the bill: they include new checks on whether companies making donations are above board by measuring their profit as well as their revenues, and a requirement for parliamentary candidates to declare any donation above £2,230 (although “personal gifts” will continue to be exempt).

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

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Sun, 12 Jul 2026 11:00:17 GMT
‘This was a righteous case. A holy war’: the lawyer who took on Meta and Google – and won

When Mark Lanier and his young client Kaley faced the tech giants in an LA courtroom earlier this year, it seemed a bigger battle than David v Goliath. But they scored a landmark victory, proving that the social media giants had created ‘addiction machines’ that harmed mental health. How did they pull it off?

When Mark Zuckerberg walked into a Los Angeles courtroom on 18 February flanked by an entourage bedecked in Meta Ray-Bans, some people laughed. If this was an attempt at product placement for the company’s newest range of smart glasses, it was jarringly ill-judged: Zuckerberg was about to testify before a jury in a landmark lawsuit that sought to prove that Instagram and YouTube are addictive by design, and he had passed a throng of bereaved parents on his way into the courthouse. But the prosecution team, led by Mark Lanier, were not laughing.

This was a serious trial. For the first time, the most powerful names in social media were being held to account for the inherent design of their platforms, rather than the content hosted on them. They were accused of deliberately and maliciously building products that keep children hooked, with disastrous consequences for the mental wellbeing of young people. It was a landmark case – a big tobacco moment for big tech.

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Sun, 12 Jul 2026 11:00:16 GMT
Dermot Murnaghan dealt in affability, reliability and authority – not ego

The TV presenter – who has died aged 68 – worked for the BBC, ITN and Channel 4 and announced the death of Diana, Princess of Wales

A successful television presenter requires some combination of dependability, affability, ego and ambition. Dermot Murnaghan – who has died aged 68, after revealing a diagnosis of late-stage prostate cancer on screen last year – had some of the higher scores in the business on the first two metrics but among the lower on the others.

The reliability made him one of the few to have anchored news slots on the first four major UK networks – Channel 4, ITV, the BBC and Sky News – while the relative reticence held him back from the absolute front rank of TV journalistic celebrity, although he had sufficient sympathetic recognition for cameos on quizzes (Pointless Celebrities, The Weakest Link), as well as a spell shuffling the question cards himself on the BBC’s Eggheads. Looking and sounding like an anchor should, he was also regularly employed to announce fake news – not in the Trumpian sense, but headlines within dramas – on shows including Absolute Power and The Gunman and in the film Wimbledon.

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Sun, 12 Jul 2026 16:11:49 GMT
Police warn Widdecombe murder speculation is ‘unhelpful and distressing’

Politicians should not comment before facts established, says ex-chief constable, as Farage calls killing ‘premeditated murder’

Senior police figures and politicians have warned against speculation during the murder investigation into Ann Widdecombe’s death, after detectives said there was “nothing to suggest” political motivation following an intervention from Nigel Farage.

Devon and Cornwall police said on Sunday the killing investigation was not being treated as terrorism nor as politically motivated. Officers said they remained open-minded about the motive and urged the public not to speculate, warning it was both unhelpful to the investigation and distressing for Widdecombe’s family.

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Sun, 12 Jul 2026 20:07:42 GMT
Jannik Sinner powers past Alexander Zverev in four sets to retain Wimbledon title
  • World No 1 beats German 6-7 (7), 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-4

  • Sinner secures second Wimbledon triumph

Jannik Sinner took slightly more time to prepare for his serve as he trailed 15-30 and 1-2 in the fourth set of his second Wimbledon final. In a serve‑dominant match that had produced just one break in more than three hours, this was a pivotal moment in the contest, but the gusty wind was out of control. It had only slightly settled when Sinner stepped up to the baseline, but he still offered a decisive response under immense pressure: service winner, service winner, service winner. Hold.

Sinner delivered this supreme level of serving for the entirety of a savage 3hr 46min contest between the two best players at Wimbledon and alongside his unimpeachable mental toughness it allowed the world No 1 to recover from a bruising first set to defend his Wimbledon title by defeating Alexander Zverev, the second seed, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-4.

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Sun, 12 Jul 2026 19:19:03 GMT
Reform would have received a fraction of £26.7m donations haul under a £100,000 cap, analysis shows

Exclusive: Party’s average registered donation was £137, 496 last year, almost six times that of Labour or Tories

Reform UK would have held just 15% of the donations it received last year if a proposed £100,000 cap on political donations had been in force, according to analysis shared with the Guardian.

The analysis by Friends of the Earth using Electoral Commission data highlights the party’s reliance on a handful of wealthy backers in advance of a showdown over political funding.

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Sun, 12 Jul 2026 18:44:38 GMT
Trump rejects Iran’s strait of Hormuz closure claim as fight for control goes on

Ceasefire at the point of collapse after almost a week of tit-for-tat exchanges escalate tensions across Gulf region

Donald Trump has rejected Iranian claims to have closed off the strait of Hormuz as both sides battled for control over the waterway, leaving a ceasefire agreed last month at the point of collapse.

US forces said they had attacked 140 targets in Iran on Saturday night and Sunday morning after Tehran struck and disabled a container ship in the strait, whose transit it said had not been approved. In a statement, US Central Command (Centcom) said its targets had included missile and drone sites, naval facilities, ammunition depots, communication networks and surveillance locations.

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Sun, 12 Jul 2026 18:49:08 GMT

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