US kids are falling prey to a sophisticated network of scammers who extort thousands – and push some victims to suicide

A TikTok video shows a young man fanning out a stack of $100 bills. A second flexes his designer clothes. Another man posts a video of himself dancing and wearing a heavy gold chain. They boast to their eager followers about their path to wealth.

“BM got me a new car,” states one caption on a video. “$5,000 in a few hours.”

She said, ‘Come and stay at my house. I’ll look after you and we’re going to get you into rehab’

• Read more in the Kindness of strangers series

By the time I was 19, my life had spiralled out of control – I was homeless and destitute, my infant son was living with my abusive mother and I was addicted to heroin. I’d had a pretty dodgy childhood; my father died when I was very young and I was left with my mother. At 16, already very traumatised by what I’d experienced at home, I ran away and ended up living in Sydney. It was 1996.

I was pretty much living with whoever I could take drugs with at the time, until that situation became unstable, and then I would go somewhere else. I wound up with this guy I met using. Together we came up with this grand plan to end our lives because we were both in hopeless situations. That didn’t work, obviously. He ended up in intensive care in a very bad way and I ended up in the psych ward, with nowhere else to go.

In Australia, Lifeline offers 24/7 crisis support available on 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

Angela Williams is the author of Snakes and Ladders, published by Affirm Press

What is the equivalent of a Couch to 5k or parkrun for swimmers? Do I need loads of expensive gear? And should I join a club? Here’s how I learned to love the pool

Mine is a familiar story: I used to hate even the idea of running. But, in 2020, when gyms closed their doors, I downloaded the Couch to 5k app, and ran approximately three times a week for the next four years, culminating in a half marathon in 2024 – and, predictably, an injury.

Physios treating my persistent hip pain didn’t tell me to stop running – but they did suggest I might want to explore other, lower impact options, such as swimming. But where to start? What’s the aquatic version of Couch to 5k or parkrun?

Trump can have his ‘victory days’. I want something to commemorate Britain’s love of Judi Dench, or its hatred of a sleepless night

I’m not being deliberately contrarian – I am a person of peace – but I’ve decided bank holidays are rubbish. They are on my mind because May is peak season for them, but also because handsome and intelligent President Trump (listen, my son is moving to the US this summer and it would be nice to visit occasionally) has recently announced two new public holidays. Not that he wants anyone to take time off for them, of course.

Inspired by this blue-sky stable genius thinking, I think we should do something radically better with ours. Because the current Monday bank holiday system is unfit for purpose. The last one was, I think we can agree, dismal: pewter-skied and joyless, fit only for a trudge around B&Q and an abandoned barbecue followed by a listless sofa double-screening.

The dramatic results of weight-loss drugs often come with a side order of stigma, as though it’s ‘cheating’ not to stick to willpower, diet and exercise alone. Is that why so many are telling no one – not even their partners?

Every Friday night, Claire, a 50-year-old woman in Berkshire, waits until her husband and son have gone to bed. When she is sure the house is quiet, she tiptoes out to her garage, and over to a tin tucked away in the corner. It is chilly out there, but she doesn’t mind; that’s the point. Inside the tin, away from the prying eyes of her family, is a vial of the GLP-1 medication Mounjaro, which needs to be kept at about 8C. Claire has been taking it without them knowing for several months. “It would have been harder to get away with in summer,” she says.

As weight-loss medications have become more and more popular, lots of people in the public eye have been dramatically changing shape, walking the red carpets or hosting TV shows in bodies half the size they once were. But as the jabs have become cheaper and more readily available, so, too, have ordinary people been disappearing before our eyes. And many are choosing not to disclose just how this weight loss is happening. Like Claire, these “secret jabbers” are keeping it private even from their closest family and friends.

Under pressure from Reform and from the former PM, Keir Starmer is facing a series of tests of his resolve on green policy

Populist politicians are striking a chord with the public in their attack on “the green agenda” because they are right – climate policies are elitist. So says the man standing to be the next leader of the Green party in England and Wales.

“We should all be angry about net zero,” argues Zack Polanski, currently the Greens’ deputy leader. “The poorest people in our society are being expected to step up to tackle the climate crisis. But it’s the government’s fault, not the people’s fault.”

Exclusive: RCN’s Nicola Ranger says nurses could ‘bare our teeth’ as they seek restoration of lost earnings since 2010

Nurses deserve a major pay rise to counter the 25% real terms erosion over the last 15 years and may go on strike again unless ministers dramatically improve their “completely unacceptable” 2.8% offer to NHS staff, the profession’s leader has said.

Prof Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said nurses wanted full restoration of lost earnings and could “bare our teeth” in pursuit of that goal.

Celebrations held in both countries while Kashmir residents beg for long-term solutions over disputed territory

India and Pakistan have both claimed victory after a ceasefire was declared over the weekend, which brought the two nuclear-nations back from the brink of war.

After days of escalating clashes that culminated in both sides launching missile and drone strikes on each other’s major military bases – the closest they had come to full-scale war in decades – the ceasefire between India and Pakistan was declared by Donald Trump on Saturday evening.

Ukrainian president proposes face-to-face meeting after Russian leader suggests he is open to talks in Turkey

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has challenged Vladimir Putin to meet in person for peace talks in Istanbul on Thursday and urged Russia to accept a 30-day truce, in a dramatic turn after a weekend of diplomatic flurry.

His comments came after the US president, Donald Trump, pressured him to agree “immediately” to Putin’s offer of negotiations this week with Russia, but upped the stakes by suggesting the enemies meet “personally”.

News of present from royal family ignited accusations of bribery and corruption, as well as criticism against president

Donald Trump is reportedly ready to accept a luxury plane described to be a “palace in the sky” being offered to the US president as a gift from Qatar’s royal family, almost immediately igniting accusations of bribery and corruption as well as commensurate criticism.

On Sunday, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, ABC reported that the Trump administration was girding itself to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8, a jumbo jet from the Qatari royals that was estimated to be about $400m. Trump would then use the 13-year-old plane as the new Air Force One until shortly before the conclusion of his second Oval Office stint, at which point it would be transferred to his presidential library foundation no later than 1 January 2029.