Reverse decluttering is here, prompting a shudder from me and my fellow neat freaks. Why would you want to be surrounded by mementos when you could be perfectly tidy?Older doesn’t always mean wiser. Jo Whiley has spoken about a home hack she picked up from – clang! – Dame Judi Dench, and I’m afraid I’m…

The maker of indie classics Kids, Swoon and Poison on daring to have a temper in the 90s, what some producer credits mean – and what happened between her and Joaquin PhoenixTrailblazing producer Christine Vachon bestrides the world of US independent cinema like a colossus. She has championed idiosyncratic American…

A weak yuan guarantees Beijing massive trade surplus even as the White House tries tamp down on Chinese importsSince China offered a truce in the trade war last October following its threat to deprive the United States of rare-earth magnets, the Trump administration has been happy to stop escalating. After all…

The English language can seem designed to trip us up, whether we’re greeting a colonel or travelling to Worcestershire. Here are some of the biggest stumbling blocksName: Açaí.Age: First imported to western countries from South America as freeze-dried pulp in the 1990s. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Bridget Phillipson’s comments show her party feels voters have been alienated by Reform net zero attacksRichard Tice should apologise to firefighters for his comments this week urging British people to “enjoy” this summer’s extreme heat, according to the Labour party chair.Bridget Phillipson has…

Midfielder has been a target for Italians since JanuaryJones in the final year of his contract at AnfieldInter are in talks with Liverpool over a deal for Curtis Jones, with the 25-year-old expected to leave his boyhood club should the Italian champions offer around £30m. Jones has been a target for Inter since…

The hard-working action hero gives us exactly what we expect, and often want, in this sturdy cargo ship-set caperThe dog days of August have already seen the trotting out of some usual suspects from a junky Eli Roth horror to a belated nostalgia comedy sequel to a Mike Pence-approved Ronald Reagan drama. This weekend…

Uninteresting mythology and junky effects push a once-promising horror franchise further from what it once wasWhen the Insidious franchise started in 2010, it felt like a liberating moment for director James Wan and writer (and later director) Leigh Whannell, the Australian duo who captured the zeitgeist with the…

USA striker missed no matches after sending-off‘Far too often now decisions are viewed as corrupt’Howard Webb was “really troubled” by the decision of Fifa’s disciplinary committee to suspend Folarin Balogun’s ban for a red card during the World Cup, warning of a growing belief in refereeing conspiracies…

Star’s extreme proximity to Sagittarius A* means it could open new window onto black hole’s fundamental propertiesAstronomers have detected the fastest known star in the Milky Way, hurtling around the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy.The star, called S301, travels at around 25,000km per second…