(Island Records)
​The controversy-courting star is in perfect alignment with producer Jack Antonoff, on detailed and utterly delightful tracks that make her previous hit album seem rudimentary in comparison

In June, Sabrina Carpenter announced her seventh album, Man’s Best Friend; its artwork depicts Carpenter on her hands and knees, an unseen man grasping a handful of her hair. It instantly caused an uproar online – most notably among Carpenter’s young fans, who weren’t on Tumblr in 2015, or weren’t aware of the way the Sun newspaper wrote about Madonna every day of the 1990s and 2000s, and therefore didn’t realise that discourse around whether pop stars should or shouldn’t be allowed to sexualise themselves is older than pop music itself, and almost always inane.

Anyone hitting play on Man’s Best Friend in search of another barrel-full of ragebait might be alarmed, not because it is particularly provocative, but because it is strangely old-fashioned. Carpenter is fond of blue turns of phrase (“Gave me his whole heart and I gave him head”), and the wordiness of her lyrics is indicative of someone who grew up in an era of constant stimulus. But Man’s Best Friend makes it clear that she regards pop music as a craft as much as it is an art.

Trump’s dictator-like behaviour is so brazen, so blatant, that paradoxically, we discount it. But now it’s time to call it what it is

If this were happening somewhere else – in Latin America, say – how might it be reported? Having secured his grip on the capital, the president is now set to send troops to several rebel-held cities, claiming he is wanted there to restore order. The move follows raids on the homes of leading dissidents and comes as armed men seen as loyal to the president, many of them masked, continue to pluck people off the streets …

Except this is happening in the United States of America and so we don’t quite talk about it that way. That’s not the only reason. It’s also because Donald Trump’s march towards authoritarianism is so steady, taking another step or two every day, that it’s easy to become inured to it: you can’t be in a state of shock permanently. And, besides, sober-minded people are wary of sounding hyperbolic or hysterical: their instinct is to play down rather than scream at the top of their voice.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Kim Cotton says laws, little changed since being rushed through in response to her pregnancy in 1985, are ‘dinosaur’

Much has changed since Kim Cotton became the UK’s first surrogate 40 years ago, when she was forced to flee hospital on the floor of a car under a blanket, such was the level of media frenzy around her story.

She describes it as a harrowing experience and wishes much of that surrogacy journey had been done differently. “It wasn’t the right way to do surrogacy, but it was the only thing that was offered,” she says.

Mike Figgis’s documentary takes us on to the set of the director’s passion project to give as raw and intimate a portrait of an auteur at work as we’ve had for some time

‘Do you know why I’m doing this movie? What do I get out of it?” an exasperated Francis Ford Coppola asks Shia LaBeouf on the set of Megalopolis. “I don’t get money. I don’t get fame; I already have fame. I don’t get Oscars, I already have Oscars. What do I get that I want?” LaBeouf eventually gives up. “Fun!” Coppola says. “I wanna have fun!”

Making Megalopolis doesn’t look like most people’s idea of fun as Coppola attempts to corral actors, crew, costumes, locations, lavish sets and special effects all in service of a sprawling sci-fi-meets-ancient-Rome story that no one fully understands. Throw in the fact that the film-maker spent $120m of his own money on the passion project by selling off part of his winemaking business to raise funds, having spent nearly 50 years trying to get it made, and that the production was beset with delays, technical headaches and bust-ups, and you feel this is more than most 83-year-olds should have to go through.

From coveted Kryptonite locks to lightweight and combination designs, these are the bike locks our experts swear by – as well as tips for keeping your bike safe

• In the US? Check out our top-rated bike locks there

Few among us do not have a tale of a stolen bike: you leave work with your helmet fastened or come out of a shop after picking up some milk, and your bike has disappeared.

Tens of thousands of people reported a bike theft to police in England and Wales in 2024, so having the right lock is crucial to protect your two-wheeler. But just as everyone has their own preferred bike, choosing the right lock, from ultra-secure bolts to lightweight devices, is very personal.

Best affordable lock:
Halfords 23cm D Lock

This humanitarian catastrophe is barely of passing interest to Donald Trump. The curse of our times is how little we can do about it

Day 222 of Donald Trump’s presidency, and Russia’s war in Ukraine – which he promised to end on day one – shows no sign of having got the memo. This was not a single-use Trump promise; he made it at least 53 times. Yet the US president has failed to keep it, either literally or in his favourite manner: figuratively. Can you figuratively end a war? Not even, apparently.

What his most recent round of failure means, however, is that Trump is pivoting back to another war, the grotesquely horrifying and unlawful humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. Not the way he’d phrase it, possibly. This week he swerved commenting on either Israel’s invasion of Gaza City or the mounting declarations that famine and starvation are clearly under way in the territory, and instead announced: “I think within the next two, three weeks, you’re going to have a pretty good, conclusive ending.” Righto. Trump’s recipe for an ending to the horror has hitherto seemed to resemble the famous business plan of the South Park gnomes. Phase 1: Collect Underpants. Phase 2: ?. Phase 3: Profit.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

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Judges say decision to allow injunction was ‘seriously flawed’ and contained several ‘errors in principle’

• UK politics live – latest updates

More than 130 people seeking asylum will be allowed to remain in the Bell hotel in Epping after the court of appeal overturned a high court ban on housing them there, with police braced for further angry protests.

While the decision was a technical victory for the Home Office, as other local councils could have brought legal challenges against the use of hotels, it has already been seized on by Labour’s political opponents.

Ferrari and property owned by Arif Patel, tax fraudster who has been on the run since 2011, will be sold at auction

A self-styled clothing tycoon who sold counterfeit socks and pants while operating an extensive fraud ring will have all his UK assets seized after the Crown Prosecution Service won a court order to confiscate up to £90m worth of property and luxury cars.

Arif Patel, 57, from Preston, Lancashire, who has been on the run since 2011, will have homes and business premises he owned taken from him after a confiscation order granted by a judge at Chester crown court on Thursday.

Michaela Baldwin was given stepfather’s supposed ashes before his remains were found at Legacy undertakers in Hull

The family of a man whose body was found in a Hull funeral home after he was supposed to have been cremated have said it is “easier to open a funeral directors than it is a sandwich shop”, as they urged the government to regulate the industry.

Michaela Baldwin said she had assumed funeral directors were subject to some regulation when her family used one in Hull after the death of her stepfather, Danny Middleton.

Durham council says strong rope on bunting was found to be a risk, amid controversy over flag-flying across England

A Reform-led council has started to remove flags and bunting displaying the St George’s cross and the union flag after concerns were raised that they could cause accidents.

Durham county council issued a statement on X on Friday saying that while the council “understand and respect the community’s desire to express national pride, celebration, or remembrance, it is important to ensure such expressions do not compromise public safety”.