A new kind of survival story: Scientists discovered a star that came near a black hole and lived to tell the tale – at least temporarily.

For the first time since 2011, NASA will launch astronauts into space from U.S. soil. It will also be the first time ever a private company will get them there.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and sits on an axial plane tilted at a jaw-dropping 97.7-degree angle. And yes, Uranus does actually stink.

From a kidult superhero movie to a spooky period melodrama, these films will provide entertainment for all the family

Kidult superhero movies are nothing new, but this 2018 animated splinter off the Sony-Spidey combine does something really smart with the money-spinning multiverse concept. In Rodney Rothman, Bob Persichetti and Peter Ramsey’s version, Spider-Man is reborn across the dimensions – as Gwen, as a private eye, as a pig – and the result is a fruitfully mind-bending recalibration of the entire mythos.

As authors from Chaucer to Hollinghurst have shown, sex reveals our emotions, instincts and morals. The question is not why write about sex, claims author Garth Greenwell, it’s why write about anything else?

There is a widely held belief, among English-language writers, that sex is impossible to write about well – or at least much harder to write about well than anything else. I once heard a wonderful writer, addressing students at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, say that her ideal of a sex scene would be the sentence: “They sat down on the sofa …” followed by white space. This is a prejudice I can’t understand. One of the glories of being a writer in English is that two of our earliest geniuses, Chaucer and Shakespeare, wrote of the sexual body so exuberantly, claiming it for literature and bringing its vocabulary – including all those wonderful four-letter words – into the texture of our literary language. This is a gift not all languages have received; a translator once complained to me that in her language there was only the diction of the doctor’s office or of pornography, neither of which felt native to poetry.

More than this, surely it is absurd to claim that a central activity of human life, a territory of feeling and drama, is off-limits to art. Sex is a uniquely useful tool for a writer, a powerful means not just of revealing character or exploring relationships, but of asking the largest questions about human beings.

The latest in our series of writers recommending hidden films available to stream is a invite to travel back to 1932 for a brutal thriller

Some film tropes get wheeled out so often they create their own furrow. Perhaps that’s why the timeworn premise of “man hunting man” has evolved into its own disreputable but seemingly indestructible mini-genre. This year has already seen the deferred release of scattershot satire The Hunt, a button-pushing thriller from the Blumhouse production line in which snooty US liberals kidnap and stalk blue-collar “deplorables” in a customised paddock sited far from flyover country.

Related: 'My favourite forgotten film' – you recommend your best streaming gems

Shriver’s contentious views on diversity thread through the story of a couple’s strained relationship with exercise

Lionel Shriver’s scabrously funny 15th novel presents a dyspeptic view of people in thrall to exercise. In 2013 Shriver’s own daily regime involved “130 press-ups, 200 side crunches, 500 sit-ups and 3,000 star jumps … The jumps take 32½ minutes, or three every two seconds”. The Motion Of The Body Through Space was written, she recently revealed, after she realised that she may be more dedicated to her exercise than to her writing.

The protagonist, Serenata Terpsichore (“rhymes with chicory”), is a 60-year-old woman from upstate New York with a beguiling voice and ruined knees. The former she puts to lucrative use as a voiceover artist and narrator of audiobooks. The latter are the result of a lifetime’s adherence to the doctrine of working out; in particular the belief that 10-mile runs are the key to longevity and good health.

First there was crowded Bondi, then the deserted beaches, cordoned off with police tape. If you look closely, a whole nation can be read on the sand

A country reveals itself in a crisis. Americans are buying a record number of guns, in the UK Boris Johnson was reluctant to implement a full lockdown because he baulked at the idea of closing the pubs. In Australia, it is our beaches that are the metaphorical hills that we are metaphorically dying on.

Yeah, we want to beat this virus, but we also want to get a swim in.

Lockdown Britain has embraced the sausage, with sales up 33%. But there’s much more you can do with them than fry-ups, sandwiches and casseroles

When you Google famous quotes about sausages (say you need an opener for an article), one of the first comes from Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who apparently once said: “Sausages are just funny. I don’t know why. I can’t explain it.”

Waller-Bridge is not wrong. Sausages are inherently funny. But their comedic value is also what holds them back. In the kitchen, no one takes sausages seriously. You very rarely see anyone serving sausages on Come Dine With Me; it would be an act of self-sabotage. You cannot win with sausages. They’re a culinary joke, unrefined, a bit naff.

In the past year Australia’s energy minister has been swept up in two scandals. The past week has brought developments in both. Anne Davies explains what questions he has yet to answer

You can read Lisa Cox’s and Anne Davies’ latest updates on the Jamland grass poisoning here and more on the doctored document saga here.

8 May marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe. Parts of the destruction that resulted from the fight for Berlin are still visible decades later

A selection of archive photographs to mark the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day

A serious concern since the emergence of Covid-19 has been whether those who have had it can get it a second time – and what that means for exiting this crisis.

The Guardian’s science correspondent, Hannah Devlin, looks at how our bodies fight coronavirus when infected, how we develop immunity and if we can get reinfected with Covid-19

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To mark 250 years since British explorers landed in Australia for the first time, authorities are planning to unveil new memorials at Captain James Cook's landing site in Botany Bay, while a replica Endeavour sailing vessel will circumnavigate Australia – when Covid-19 restrictions allow. But one Aboriginal elder, who grew up on the shores of Botany Bay and has spent years involved in the resurrection of his Indigenous Dharawal culture, explains why Aboriginal people will not be celebrating

• Paul Daley: Commemorating James Cook’s arrival, Australia should not omit his role in the suffering that followed

With comedy festivals cancelled around the world, Amazon Prime is releasing 10 original Australian standup specials to tide you over. Filmed at Melbourne's Malthouse theatre during the Before Times, the biweekly series has featured names like Celia Pacquola, Zoë Coombs Marr and Dilruk Jayasinha – with Tom Gleeson, Anne Edmonds and Tom Walker coming up soon. A few minutes of each is being published exclusively on Guardian Australia, and this week we have Judith Lucy, from her 2019 tour Judith Lucy vs Men

• Two Amazon Original standup specials will be released each week from 10 April. Amazon Prime is offering a 30-day free trial here

With comedy festivals cancelled around the world, Amazon Prime is releasing 10 original Australian standup specials to tide you over. Filmed at Melbourne's Malthouse theatre during the Before Times, the biweekly series has featured names like Celia Pacquola, Zoë Coombs Marr and Dilruk Jayasinha – with Tom Gleeson and Anne Edmonds  coming up soon. A few minutes of each is being published exclusively on Guardian Australia, and this week we have the exceptionally odd new show from Tom Walker, which was directed by Zoë Coombs Marr.

• The full version of Tom Walker's Very Very is released today. Amazon Prime is offering a 30-day free trial here

With comedy festivals cancelled around the world due to the coronavirus crisis, Amazon Prime is releasing 10 original Australian standup specials to tide you over. The biweekly series was filmed at Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre and has featured Celia Pacquola, Zoë Coombs Marr and Dilruk Jayasinha. A few minutes of each is being published exclusively by Guardian Australia and this week we have eventual Gold Logie winner Tom Gleeson's show Joy. Come to hear about the disgusting wonders of parenting; stay for the killer punchline 

• The full version of Tom Gleeson's Joy is out now. Amazon Prime is offering a 30-day free trial here

The chief prosecutor will seek capture of Jordan Goudreau as well as two US-based advisers to opposition leader Juan Guaidó

• How the plot to invade Venezuela fell apart

Venezuela’s chief prosecutor has ordered the arrest of a former Green Beret and two opposition figures living in the United States for their purported role in a botched operation aimed at removing Nicolás Maduro from power.

Tarek William Saab said Venezuela will seek the capture of Jordan Goudreau, a military veteran who has claimed responsibility for the attack, as well as Juan José Rendón and Sergio Vergara, two US-based advisers to the opposition leader Juan Guaidó.

Shareholder vote in favour of global mining giant adopting binding targets grew sixfold since last year

Shareholders in global miner Rio Tinto have rebuked the company over its climate stance, with 37% voting at a meeting in Australia for a resolution that would require it to set binding emissions targets.

While the resolution did not pass, its sponsor, environmental group Market Forces, said it attracted six times as much support as an identical one put up at the same meeting last year.

Corporate watchdog’s move comes after a court earlier banned Mayfair 101 from advertising two other products

The corporate watchdog is looking into a new investment product issued by Mayfair 101, the group that has bought the cyclone-ravaged Dunk Island resort, after alleging in court that it had misled people by comparing its previous offerings to bank term deposits.

On Thursday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission issued a general warning against advertisements that compare fixed-interest products to bank term deposits as part of a broader crackdown on potentially misleading marketing by investment groups.

Huge losses driven partly by fall in valuation of Australian pay TV service Foxtel and decline in news advertising revenue

Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire, News Corp, lost US$1bn in the three months to the end of March and is expecting more financial pain as the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis continues.

The chief executive, Robert Thomson, said there was a fresh wave of cost-cutting ahead for the group, including a “strategic review of our Australian newspaper holdings” that could signal further job losses at the company’s smaller mastheads.

Nicholas David Weston found guilty of four counts of rape of 19-year-old woman during her 2017 stay at his city apartment

An Airbnb superhost has been jailed for raping a young woman in Melbourne while she was visiting the city with her friend.

Nicholas David Weston was found guilty of four counts of rape of the 19-year-old woman over the horror stay at his Melbourne CBD apartment in November 2017.

NSW Health assessment the cruise ship was ‘low risk’ introduced ‘an unfortunate element’ into his decision-making

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A New South Wales harbour master has told an inquiry he “did not understand” an email that told him to treat the Ruby Princess “as if it has a positive Covid-19 result” when it came into Sydney Harbour on 18 and 19 March.

Cameron Butchart, who was the duty harbour master on 18 March, said NSW Health’s assessment that the ship was “low risk” introduced “an unfortunate element” into his decision-making.

Victoria Cross recipient’s suit against Nine newspapers can’t be held until in-person hearings resume after coronavirus

The highly anticipated defamation trial brought by Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith against the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald will not go ahead next month after the federal court ruled a remote hearing under Covid-19 rules may breach national security.

The delay in the case came as justice Anthony Besanko said he had to consider whether to delay the trial despite a submission that Roberts-Smith and his family are suffering from the ongoing publication of articles by the Nine newspapers.

‘Sophisticated’ identity theft attack leads to Australian Tax Office stopping early super withdrawals until Monday

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Allegations of identity theft involving 150 Australians have forced the government to pause the early release of superannuation, after police froze $120,000 believed to have been ripped off from retirement savings.

On Friday the assistant treasurer, Michael Sukkar, announced the Australian Tax Office would pause requests for early access of superannuation until Monday “out of an abundance of caution” to consider further anti-fraud protection.

A 16-year-old Aboriginal boy was forced to remove his shorts and squat during a search, but disciplinary action has not been recommended

A New South Wales police watchdog investigation into seven strip searches including one in which a 16-year-old Aboriginal boy was physically forced to remove his shorts and squat has found that all of them were unlawful.

But the watchdog has been criticised for “not going far enough” in its findings, with Sarah Crellin, a principal solicitor at the Aboriginal Legal Service, saying she was “deeply disappointed that there have been no recommendations for disciplinary action” against individual officers.

Exclusive: Documents show department has stopped recommending assessment of ‘key threatening processes’ affecting native wildlife

The federal government has stopped listing major threats to species under national environment laws, and plans to address listed threats are often years out of date or have not been done at all.

Environment department documents released under freedom of information laws show the government has stopped assessing what are known as “key threatening processes”, which are major threats to the survival of native wildlife.

Australian National Audit Office evidence to Senate appears to contradict Morrison’s claim that he provided no authorisation

The prime minister’s office asked Bridget McKenzie to seek Scott Morrison’s “authority” for intended recipients of $100m of sports grants and coordinate the announcement with Coalition campaign headquarters, according to new evidence to the sports rorts inquiry.

The evidence from the Australian National Audit Office to the Senate inquiry contradicts Morrison’s claims that McKenzie, the former sports minister, was the ultimate decision-maker for the grant program, and that changes were not made after parliament was dissolved.

Queen guitarist says ‘I won’t be able to walk for a while’ after injury during lockdown and lambasts Boris Johnson over coronavirus

Brian May has complained of “relentless pain” after he was taken to hospital following a gardening injury that tore muscles in his buttocks – and, while in recovery, made a sustained attack on Boris Johnson’s preparedness for coronavirus.

Writing on Instagram, the Queen guitarist said: “I managed to rip my gluteus maximus to shreds in a moment of overenthusiastic gardening. So suddenly I find myself in a hospital getting scanned to find out exactly how much I’ve actually damaged myself. Turns out I did a thorough job – this is a couple of days ago – and I won’t be able to walk for a while … or sleep, without a lot of assistance, because the pain is relentless.”

Three decades on, the controversy-courting concert tour is still shaping the ways female artists express their sexuality

• Modern Toss on Blond Ambition tour ...

In Toronto, Madonna simulated masturbation on a velvet bed under the watchful eye of the Canadian police, who threatened her with arrest if her show went ahead. In Italy, unions called for a general strike if Madonna performed, and Pope John Paul II declared her concert “one of the most satanic shows in the history of humanity”. The Blond Ambition tour, which turned 30 years old last month, remains among the most controversial tours of all time.

Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips

The comic essayist on crying over Olive Kitteridge, his love for Richard Yates and the books that make him laugh

The book I am currently reading
Hidden Valley Road. It’s a nonfiction book about a family with 12 children, half of whom turn out to be schizophrenic. In the opening pages the mother sews a live bird’s eyes shut. And she’s one of the few who isn’t mentally ill!

The book that changed my life
Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions. A friend read it out aloud to me when we were hitchhiking across America in 1976, and it made me think: “That’s right – books!” After high school I had forgotten about them. As soon as I got a stable address, I secured a library card, and started making up for lost time.

Word of mouth turned the riches-to-rags show into a sleeper hit. Its creator and stars explain why it is going out at its peak

Schitt’s Creek was always going to be a hard sell. There is that title for a start; an off-putting pun that instantly sets the comedy bar below ground level. Couple that with a hackneyed fish-out-of-water premise involving a rich family forced to slum it in a backwater town and you’ve got a one-season sitcom at best. Co-created by and starring Dan Levy, best known as a presenter on MTV Canada, and his dad Eugene, most famous for playing Jim’s embarrassing dad in the American Pie films, it was rejected by HBO and Showtime, eventually finding a home on the little-known US pay-to-view channel Pop. Even its main draw, the great Catherine O’Hara, was initially unenthused by the project, turning down the role of the Rose family’s self-obsessed matriarch Moira, citing her own laziness.

Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips

Too many connection drop-outs, too many missed cues: at least phone calls are intimate

This week, a parcel presumed lost arrived. It was from my mum. Inside was a mask she’d sewn; sunflower seeds to plant; an Easter egg and a card: “To my lovely daughter, I miss you so much!” it read. “Absence truly makes the heart grow fonder. But indifference doesn’t. Video call me. Mum xx”

My mum and I are very close. We speak most days and would usually visit weekly; if it were up to her, it would be more. Her dream is to have all her children, our partners and someday grandchildren living under the same roof. One big happy family, bonded by love, loyalty, south Asian melodrama and unsolicited comments about weight.

Ugly makeup is imperfect, sloppy, chaotic – and only worn to please the wearer, against social expectations

In 2018, Rosanna Meikle felt like a failure. She was toiling through beauty school, and she hadn’t been able to find much work nor garner much attention for her creations online. She was exhausted from the sameness she saw around her, “a sea of beautiful girls, smoky eyes and plumped lips”, she remembers. “My school was in an expensive area of Auckland, which made me feel so out of place. I couldn’t afford the products or the clothes, my kit wasn’t ‘professional’ enough and neither was my look.”

Related: ‘It makes me feel human’: 11 women share their lockdown beauty regimens

Weekly meat tray giveaways, craft beer deliveries and trivia held over Zoom. As pubs stand empty, those that run them look to the internet

Across Australia, pubs stand empty because of the Covid-19 lockdowns. Some venues have shut entirely, others have pivoted to takeaway businesses, and the majority have had to make changes to their staffing.

While the future of physical pubs remains very uncertain for the coming months, the entertainers, brewers and chefs that rely on pubs for their livelihood are finding ways to recreate pub experiences in patrons’ homes.

Around the 19-minute mark, I noticed something odd; it wasn’t that I felt any less out of breath than normal, but I felt detached

Mindfulness is the last thing I want to practise while running. When I’m really up against a wall (which is to say, after four minutes), the only thing that keeps me going is listening to Maniac and imagining I’m that gorilla in a paddling pool. So I approached this with a closed mind, and discarded a lot of podcasts because they were too woo-hoo, or because you had to listen to them before you run (“no headphones” is a typical mindful runner’s instruction), or because the person had an annoying voice. Finally, I settled on The Milestone Pursuit podcast, by a likable blokey Londoner, Steve Hobbs. He didn’t sound at all spiritual; he sounded like a person who would help you with your bike if your chain came off.

He has one mindful episode that I’ve listened to seven or eight times. Total convert. But full disclosure: I’ve never got to the end. It lasts 36 minutes, and I still don’t run for that long. So it’s partly suspense that keeps me going back.

My immediate reaction was fear. I bent down and shouted at him. He bolted upright, spluttering and looking a bit wild

It was early on a Monday morning, about 5.30am, and I’d got up to use the toilet. Afterwards, I nipped into the kitchen to get a drink. As I stood at the sink, I could hear snoring from the living room. At first I thought it was the dog. Then I realised it wasn’t. I went into the room to find a stranger asleep on the sofa. He was wearing a grey Adidas tracksuit and, bizarrely, only one shoe. I stood there in my shorts and T-shirt, staring at him.

My immediate reaction was fear. I live in a modern block of four flats on a busy road in Kilmarnock, about 20 miles south of Glasgow. The main door to the block is a buzzer-entry, secure entrance. My front door is also locked and the dog, a labradoodle called Molly, normally barks like anything when anyone comes through the door. You’d have to really know what you were doing to break in.

Is it all moot because of the deadly virus infecting Australia and no I don’t mean the National party ahahaha

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Those less convinced in Australia cast doubt on source of Wuhan lab ‘intelligence’. Plus: Trump and Jennifer Hawkins

The origin of the coronavirus has opened up a new battlefield between the Murdoch press and just about everyone else – and given the Daily Telegraph’s Sharri Markson an international platform on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News.

Following in the footsteps of her colleague Miranda Devine, who also made it onto Fox News, Markson told Tucker Carlson Tonight the “bombshell dossier” she had uncovered showed some of the world’s foremost intelligence agencies were investigating whether the virus was linked to a lab in Wuhan.

News Corp is campaigning full-bore for the US president, with reports of a Wuhan lab ‘intelligence’ dossier being seeded across its empire

In liberal democracies, the integrity, impartiality and professionalism of intelligence agencies matters. That’s why it is essential that intelligence agencies remain aloof, not only from the political debates of the day, but also from the policy decisions that individual governments may take. The intelligence community’s core task is to provide brutally realistic analysis on the threat environments we face so that governments can then make the best-informed policy decisions possible to preserve our common security.

The failures of the intelligence community before the Iraq war, the gullibility of much of the western media, as well as the cynical manipulation of both by the political class of the day, provide us with a stark reminder of what can go radically wrong. On 8 September 2002 the New York Times published one of this century’s most consequential news articles. The front-page story, supplied by the Bush administration, claimed that Saddam Hussein had stepped up his quest for weapons of mass destruction by acquiring key components for a nuclear weapon. In the UK, the Blair government’s “dodgy dossier” compounded the error. John Howard did the same in Australia. The problem was that it just wasn’t true. These were over-egged stories designed to soften the public up for what would become a disastrous war.

• Ronaldo Souza pulled from event after positive coronavirus test
• UFC 249 scheduled for Saturday night with no fans in building

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has withdrawn a bout from Saturday’s card in Jacksonville after middleweight Ronaldo ‘J’acare’ Souza and two of his cornermen tested positive for coronavirus, the mixed martial arts promotion said.

Related: UFC 249: Ferguson faces Gaethje as Dana White touts only game in town

A Derek Underwood-inspired England – assisted by the Oval’s resourceful spectators – beat the final-day flood, clock and Australian resistance to start my lifelong obsession with cricket

I was clearing out some old papers a while back when a small pink slip fell out. Even after 50 years I knew instantly what it was because it had been stuck to my bedroom wall when I was a teenager: indeed the old brown shadows of the tape were still there. It was the ticket for my first day’s Test cricket: the fifth Test against Australia at the Oval on 22 August 1968: Derek Underwood’s match and the game that started a lifelong obsession.

We joined my friend Matthew and his mother – two teenagers, what were we thinking of, taking our mothers? – and caught an early train from deepest Berkshire. London was a big, strange place where we rarely ventured and never as far south as SE11. We were square to the wicket and the players were so distant as to be indistinct, almost lost against the crowd.

• Alex Wurz calls measures to deal with coronavirus ‘immaculate’
  
• ‘F1 can be pioneer’ for other sports to follow, says GPDA chief

The Grand Prix Drivers’ Association is confident the precautions being taken by Formula One mean the sport stands every chance of resuming as planned in Austria on 5 July.

Alex Wurz, chairman of the GPDA, will reassure his members that Formula One has put the safety of everyone involved at the forefront of its plans to return to racing after attending a meeting with F1 and the FIA on Friday.

From hosting the remainder of the Premier League season in Perth to the UFC Fight Island concept, ideas have ranged from bold to crazy

“When you’re going through hell, keep going.” Winston Churchill might not have had the coronavirus pandemic in mind when trotting out that particular gem, but trust him to find the right words almost a century before the fact. The Churchillian equivalent of “keep calm and carry on” is a mantra embraced by much of society right now, and sport is no different.

While health remains the primary concern in all walks of life, sporting bodies the world over have found themselves engaged in sessions of radical thinking to stave off looming economic ruin. In what predicament other than a global crisis could the term “NRL Island” be anything other than a genius concept for reality television?

The app will ask for your name (or pseudonym), age range, postcode and phone number. Scott Morrison says the Australian government’s covid safe tracking app won’t be mandatory to download and install, but its uptake numbers could play a part in easing Covid-19 restrictions

• Authorities admit app is not working properly on iPhones
  
• How Australia’s Covidsafe compares to other countries’ contact tracing technology
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The Australian government has launched Covidsafe, an app that traces every person running the app who has been in contact with someone else using the app who has tested positive for coronavirus in the previous few weeks, in a bid to automate coronavirus contact tracing, and allow the easing of restrictions.

Here’s what we know about the app so far.

Is Australia flattening the curve? We bring together all the latest Covid-19 confirmed cases, maps, stats and graphs from NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA, Tasmania, ACT and NT to get a broad picture of the Australian outbreak and track the impact of government response.

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Due to the difference in reporting times between states, territories and the federal government, it can be difficult to get a current picture of how many confirmed cases of coronavirus there are in Australia.

Here, we’ve brought together all the figures in one place, along with comparisons with other countries.

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has detailed a gradual opening up of society with the timing the stages to be determined by the states

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• Coronavirus Australia maps and cases: live numbers and statistics

Scott Morrison and the chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, have laid out a three-step plan to reopen Australia after the coronavirus crisis. Morrison said he hoped step three could be achieved in July, but it would be up to each state and territory when they moved from one step to the next.

Below are some of the areas that will be opened up at each stage, according to the plan – and you can see the timeline for easing restrictions in each state here.

The morality brigade loathed the hit teen horror on release but hockey mask-wearing villain Jason Voorhees has been with us ever since

Before production on the teen slasher A Long Night at Camp Blood had even started, before a final draft of the screenplay had even been submitted, thirtysomething writer-producer-director Sean S Cunningham decided to make an audacious statement. Not only would he use an advert in the industry paper Variety to confirm an inarguably ingenious title change but he would also use it to declare that his next film would be the most terrifying ever made, after a decade that saw The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Last House on the Left (which he also produced), The Exorcist and Halloween.

Related: Final Destination at 20: the bleakest teen horror film ever made?

It’s certainly a sometimes food – but if you already cook with animal fat, you’ll save money and prevent waste by rendering it yourself

Let’s talk about the four letter f-word: fats. Over the past 60 odd years they’ve been drenched in confusing controversy – to eat or not to eat, what kind should we eat, and according to who?

Animal fats have the worst reputation of all. I’m not here to argue the health facts – but please take the time to look at the research regarding what we replaced many old fashioned animal fats with, namely hydrogenated vegetable oils. Nutritionists suggest neither should play a major role in your diet – but many people who happily reach for margarine still flinch at lard.

Harry, 32, a TV producer from London, meets Jayson, 25, a journalist from Hong Kong, in our latest virtual date

What were you hoping for?
A fun chat that didn’t involve a quiz.