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Food
How to turn leftover cooked new potatoes into a spicy Indian snack – recipe
Tom Hunt
Wed 20 May 2026 14.00 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 10.41 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/may/20/how-to-turn-leftover-cooked-new-potatoes-into-a-spicy-indian-snack-recipe-samosa

A s with asparagus , I get completely seduced by the arrival of new potato season and cook and eat them with wild abandon. Any leftover cooked potatoes, meanwhile, are a kitchen gift with infinite possibilities, from a simple crushed potato salad to these spicy, Punjabi-inspired samosas.

New potato samosas

One of my favourite lunches is a samosa: it’s not too big, but it sure hits all the right spots. My favourite is filled with potato, peas, spices and cashews, which I’ve included as an optional extra in this recipe. If you have less than 200g leftover cooked potatoes, consider making up the weight with other cooked root vegetables such as diced carrots, or with onions or extra peas. I had only a small amount of oil left in the house, so I rather unconventionally decided to shallow fry my samosas. Then again, I often shallow fry foods that are usually deep-fried, not least to save having to strain the oil, then storing it for re-use.

Makes 6

For the dough (makes about 300g; optional – use shop-bought puff instead, if you prefer) 180g flour – I use a mixture of wholemeal and plain ½ tsp fine sea salt 50ml oil , or melted ghee

For the samosas 200g boiled new potatoes 1 tbsp oil , or ghee 1 tsp cumin seeds ½ tsp garam masala 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger 1 green chilli (optional) 100g garden peas (frozen or leftovers) 50g cashews (optional) Sea salt 4 sprigs coriander , finely chopped from stem to leaf ¼ lemon , ideally organic and unwaxed 250g samosa dough (see above and method), or shop-bought puff pastry

If you’re making your own dough, mix the flour with the sea salt, then add the oil and rub into the flour for a few minutes, until the mix resembles breadcrumbs and holds its shape when pressed (alternatively, pulse in a food processor). Add 75ml water a little at a time to create a firm but malleable dough, then knead for a few minutes, until smooth. Cover with a damp cloth and leave to rest for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the samosa filling. Crumble the cooked new potatoes into chunks. Put a frying pan on a medium heat and add the oil. Stir in the cumin seeds, garam masala, grated ginger and the finely sliced green chilli, if using, stir-fry for a minute, then add the peas, the optional cashews, the crumbled potatoes and a generous pinch of sea salt. Fry for two minutes, then take off the heat and stir in the chopped coriander and lemon juice (if the lemon’s organic, add the finely grated zest, too). Adjust the seasoning to taste, divide into six equal portions and leave to cool.

Divide the dough into three equal pieces and roll into balls. Roll each ball into a 20cm x 15cm oval, then cut in half into two long semi-circles. Working with one dough semi-circle at a time, wet the straight edge, fold it into a cone shape and press firmly at the join to seal. Push one portion of filling into the cone, wet the open edges, fold over to close and press again firmly at the join to seal.

To shallow fry the samosas, heat 1cm oil in a frying pan to 170C, or until a small pinch of dough bubbles gently and rises slowly to the surface. Fry the samosas for three to five minutes on each side, until golden brown all over, then transfer to a rack to cool a little, or completely, and tuck in.

Global development
Just what the doctor ordered: Brazil’s drive to ditch UPFs from hospital menus
David Cox
Wed 20 May 2026 10.00 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/may/20/brazil-ditch-upf-ultra-processed-food-hospital-school

E very month a few dozen staff from some of São Paulo’s leading hospitals take time out of their busy schedules to visit food fairs where stallholders from more than 50 local farms display their produce. The aim is to strike deals that will supply the hospitals with organic vegetables, homemade bread and other locally made foods.

Started in October 2023, the fairs are part of a revolutionary scheme in São Paulo state to phase out ultra-processed foods (UPFs) from hospital menus in favour of healthier alternatives. “It’s not only cooks, nutritionists, meal planners and hospital management who attend the fairs but also nurses and doctors,” says Weruska Davi Barrios, a specialist in hospital nutrition at the University of São Paulo, the institution that has initiated the project.

These events represent an opportunity for hospitals to fill their order books for vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices, and also to sample artisanal delicacies made from lesser-known plant species unique to Brazil’s remarkably diverse ecosystem. Many of them have been threatened by the degradation of rainforests and saved by the farmers.

While Brazil’s hospitals have always attempted to use fresh vegetables and natural foods where possible, UPFs have increasingly worked their way into hospital menus in recent decades, despite accumulating evidence that they actively worsen health. One 2019 study estimated that 57,000 premature deaths in Brazil every year were being caused by UPFs .

In the eyes of Ana Duran, an epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Campinas, the availability of UPFs in hospitals is troubling. “We’re using our money from the national health system to buy ultra-processed foods,” she says. “It shouldn’t be something that we accept.”

Yet it’s also a complex problem to address. Transitioning to freshly grown foods requires building hospital kitchens, investing in cold storage, creating transportation networks to deliver the food from farms, and running educational programmes to explain the benefits to overworked staff and bemused patients. Some of this has already begun, but it remains a work in progress. “Change is gradual, and as more local foods become part of the purchasing plan, fewer ultra-processed foods will be needed to compose patients’ diets,” says Barrios.

The idea has now gained political backing in other states. Speaking at the recent Partnership for Healthy Cities conference held in Rio de Janeiro, Daniel Soranz, the secretary of health for Rio de Janeiro, said that the city is aiming to completely eliminate processed foods in all of its hospitals over the next eight years.

“From now on, we will hire people [to prepare on site], we will buy food – and as the contracts expire between hospitals and [outside contract] companies, we will replace with this new logic. In two years, 30% of our hospitals will no longer use ultra-processed food,” Soranz says.

Such measures could soon be enshrined in federal law. A new bill prohibiting the offering of UPFs in hospital meals is working its way through the senate.

While hospitals in other countries, such as Hayek Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, have replaced UPFs with a plant-based diet, this would represent one of the first examples of such a policy being implemented on a national scale. Doing so would require overcoming immense logistical challenges, quelling opposition from the food industry and winning over the public.

But there are reasons to be optimistic. Over the last few years, Brazil has already implemented one world-leading food policy, which is drastically reshaping the nutritional intake of the nation’s children.

Beginning in 2020, both federal and local governments progressively enforced increasingly stringent restrictions on the availability of UPFs in schools – a new law introduced last year requires 45% of school funding to be used for purchasing food from local farmers. As of 2026, UPFs must comprise no more than 10% of any school menu, while in Rio de Janeiro and the state of Ceará, their use has been completely banned.

A few years ago, the standard meals at EDI Gabriela Mistral primary school featured packaged cookies and bread, along with ready-made chocolate milk. Now, according to Marluce Fortunato, who coordinates the Brazilian National School Feeding Program (PNAE) in Rio, pupils are fed a mixture of rice and beans, fruit, oatmeal and homemade bread. “We have a vendor who comes and cooks the bread on site, and it’s served to the whole network of schools [in Rio],” says Fortunato.

As with hospitals, the move was not universally popular. Renata Couto, executive director of the Desiderata Institute, a non-profit dedicated to tackling child obesity in Brazil, describes conversations with school principals concerned about the costs and practicalities of storing fresh food for several days.

According to Duran, school cooks argued that children would refuse to eat anything that didn’t have the palatability and intense flavours they were accustomed to – an outcome the UK is currently grappling with as it tries to transition to healthier school meals. Surprisingly, the most intense opposition came from parents themselves, who were concerned that healthier school meals would create expectations of healthy food at home.

Duran’s explanation is that the marketing, easy availability and low cost of UPFs have seen them become entrenched in the minds of parents as an everyday solution. “We’ve heard a lot of mothers saying: ‘I don’t have time to cook and create meals,’” she says.

Couto believes that perceptions in Brazil that being overweight is a positive thing for child health are also playing a part. “Brazil has a recent history of hunger and malnutrition,” she says. “So while obesity is a major public health issue, people can’t see the urgency.”

But despite the pushback, there are already positive signs. Duran’s research suggests that children who attend schools that comply with the regulations are more likely to consume fewer UPFs overall, even at home. While it’s still too soon to know whether this is beginning to improve child health, Soranz says that officials in Rio will commence an initial assessment later this year.

According to Carlos Monteiro, the nutrition professor at the University of São Paulo who coined the term ultra-processed foods in the early 2000s, it has arisen out of necessity. Brazil was grappling with a rising tide of diet-related chronic diseases, with a study revealing that the numbers of overweight five- to nine-year-olds had risen from 13.4% in 1989 to 33.4% in 2008.

“My colleagues and I were observing this transformation in real time and trying to make sense of what traditional nutrient-based approaches could not fully explain,” says Monteiro.

Paula Johns, co-founder and director of the Rio-based non-profit ACT Health Promotion, believes that more can be done to reduce the consumption of UPFs among the Brazilian population. In particular she would like to restrict their marketing, but implementing this would be highly politically challenging as it would have an impact on the profits of many industries – television networks, advertising agencies and newspapers all receive a considerable portion of their income from food adverts.

“It’s a huge market,” Johns says. “No one’s advertising broccoli. Our ambition would be for any ultra-processed food to have marketing restrictions – that would be our gold standard. But it would require a very strong parliamentarian [to get such a bill passed] – a powerful one that has a lot of influence in congress. So far we haven’t really found a champion that could take it.”

Instead Johns and others are hoping to further limit the exposure of children to UPFs through other means. Couto’s organisation is attempting to force through a law in Niterói, a municipality adjacent to Rio, which would prohibit any UPFs from being exhibited on supermarket shelves below a height of 1.5 metres.

“They are always at children’s eye level, and there’s a reason for that,” she says. “To create a healthy food environment, we have to push back against all of this manipulation. Why don’t they expose fresh fruit in these shelves?”

As with Brazil’s schools and now hospitals, she is not anticipating that it will be easy, but she believes it’s another step which can make a big difference to public health.

“We’re starting in Niterói because it’s a small city,” she says. “And then if we can get it approved, we can move to Rio, and say: ‘How come the capital of the state hasn’t approved this yet?’ Politicians and governors have pride – they want to keep up with the latest policies. Vanity is something that we have to use.”

Arsenal
The 10 numbers that sum up how Arsenal won the Premier League

Thu 21 May 2026 09.00 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/may/21/numbers-sum-up-arsenal-won-premier-league

A rsenal have done it. Finally. After 22 years, they are champions of England once again. Manchester City’s 1-1 draw at Bournemouth on Tuesday night means Arsenal hold an unassailable lead at the top of the Premier League with one game remaining. It’s their 14th top-flight crown overall, their fourth Premier League title, and their first since the Invincibles campaign of 2003-04.

The defining number for that team was zero. Zero defeats across an entire league season. But what numbers best define this Arsenal side? Here are 10 that tell the story of their title-winning campaign.

A defining characteristic of Arsenal under Mikel Arteta has been their dominance from set pieces. It has always been a focus of their play, but it has been particularly pronounced this campaign. They have scored 28 of their 68 league goals from dead-ball situations, three more than any other side.

They have been most dangerous from corners, scoring 18 goals from them in 2025-26, which is a new Premier League record. It says a lot about the direction of the Premier League that the record – overtaking the 16 scored by Oldham Athletic in 1992-93 – has been broken twice this season. First by Arsenal, who have the outright record, and then by Tottenham, who have scored 17 goals from corners this season.

Arsenal’s effectiveness from corners has, at times, been used as a stick with which to beat them. Critics say their reliance on set pieces makes their football predictable and overly functional. There may be some truth to that perception, but elite sides have long understood the value of marginal gains. Arsenal have simply become better than everyone else at exploiting them.

With his clean sheet against Burnley on Monday night, David Raya moved on to 19 shutouts for the season. That drew him level with the most ever recorded by an Arsenal goalkeeper in a Premier League campaign, matching David Seaman’s totals from 1993-94 and 1998-99. If he manages another one on the final day against Crystal Palace, Raya will set the outright record for the club.

The Spaniard was awarded the Golden Glove award for a third consecutive season and is only the fourth goalkeeper to win the award in three successive seasons, after Pepe Reina (Liverpool), Joe Hart (Manchester City) and Ederson (Manchester City). Raya is now one Golden Glove away from equalling the all-time record of four, jointly held by Petr Cech and Hart.

Arsenal’s title triumph has been built on their defensive strength. They have conceded just 26 league goals this season, at least six fewer than any other side, and the second-fewest they have conceded in a Premier League campaign behind 1998-99 (17).

That rock-solid rearguard has come to the fore in the run-in. Since their 2-1 defeat at Manchester City a month ago, they have won four games in a row without conceding a goal.

The underlying numbers are just as impressive. Arsenal have allowed chances worth only 0.74 expected goals per game this season. As far back as Opta have advanced expected goals data (2012-13), that is the fourth-best figure ever recorded in a Premier League campaign. Arsenal have conceded just 8.2 shots per game and 2.4 shots on target per game, the best figures across Europe’s top five leagues this season.

At the heart of Arsenal’s defensive excellence has been their centre-back pairing of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães. They have started together in 26 league games this season, with Arsenal winning 17 of them. That total is joint-highest in the division alongside Liverpool duo Ibrahima Konaté and Virgil van Dijk, despite the latter pair starting together a lot more frequently (35 matches).

Among centre-back pairings to start together more than five times this season, Saliba and Gabriel have comfortably the best clean sheet rate. Arsenal have kept 15 clean sheets in their 26 starts together, averaging one every 1.7 games.

For much of Arteta’s tenure, Arsenal did not really have a problem competing with the teams at the top of the table. Since the start of the 2022-23 season, the first of Arsenal’s three consecutive second-placed finishes, they have taken more points (76) against fellow “big-six” rivals than anyone else. They have lost just six of 40 such games.

The teams they should have beaten have been the real problem. In 2023-24, when they last went toe-to-toe with Manchester City in a title race, there were back-to-back defeats against West Ham and Fulham over Christmas that derailed their chances. The season prior, there was a limp defeat away to Everton in February, and then two crazy draws in consecutive games against West Ham (2-2) and Southampton (3-3) in April.

This season, however, Arsenal have been ruthless against weaker opposition (at least in league table terms). They’ve won 17 of their 19 matches against teams currently in the bottom half of the table, taking 53 points and conceding just six goals in those games. They’ve taken an average of 2.8 points per game against bottom-half sides this season, which is by far the best rate of any team, and comfortably exceeds Manchester City’s 2.3, who come next.

It was quite fitting that a tense but resolute 1-0 win over relegated Burnley ultimately sealed the title.

Arsenal have been no strangers to leading across the last four seasons. The problem has been remaining there when the music stops. Come the end of the season on Sunday, they will have led the league for 238 days this season, 204 more days than Liverpool and a huge 229 more days than City. This time they have made it count.

That hasn’t always been the case. In 2022-23, Arsenal spent 232 days top of the league, 206 more than eventual winners Manchester City (42), but could not get over the line. That is still the record for the most days spent top by a side who’ve failed to go on to win the title.

In fact, since the start of 2022-23, Arsenal will have spent 562 days top of the Premier League at the end of this season, 207 more than any other club. Until now, they had little reward to show for it.

As these numbers lay bare, Arsenal’s title has been built on defensive dominance rather than free-flowing expansive attacking football.

Still, summer signing Viktor Gyökeres has enjoyed a productive debut season, scoring 21 goals in all competitions, and 14 in the Premier League. He is the first player to score 20-plus goals in all competitions in his first Arsenal season since Alexis Sánchez (25 in 2014-15). Before that, only Thierry Henry had achieved it in the Premier League era (26 in 1999-2000).

Yet, 14 league goals is an unusually modest tally for the top scorer of title winners. Only two Premier League champions have had a top goalscorer finish with fewer goals: Frank Lampard scored 13 for Chelsea in 2004-05, and İlkay Gündoğan scored 13 for Manchester City in 2020-21. With one game to go, Gyökeres finds himself level with Eric Cantona, who scored 14 in Manchester United’s 1995-96 title-winning campaign.

It felt fitting that Arsenal’s final game before the title was mathematically secured ended in a 1-0 victory. They have won by that scoreline eight times in the league this season, their highest total since 1998-99, when they recorded nine such wins.

Since their defeat to Manchester City a month ago , Arsenal have won four straight games without conceding a goal. Three of those wins have come by a 1-0 scoreline. Their defensive resilience has defined the season, but it has been especially crucial during the run-in.

Physicality has always been central to Arteta’s vision for Arsenal. The club’s recruitment under him has consistently prioritised height, athleticism and physicality alongside technical quality. However, that is reflected not only in Arsenal’s set-piece dominance, but also in their running metrics.

Remarkably, Arsenal have covered more distance than their opponents in 35 of their 37 league games this season, more than any other side in the division. Leeds United rank second, having done so 32 times.

Usually, high running numbers are associated with teams that spend long periods without possession. That’s not quite the case here, though, as Arsenal average 56.1% possession, the fourth-highest figure in the Premier League. When the going has got tough, they’ve been able to ride the athleticism and work rate of figures like Declan Rice to get them over the line in tight matches.

Finally, a word for the man who made all of this possible. Arteta’s transformation of Arsenal has been gradual, demanding and, ultimately, hugely impressive. Comparing the team he inherited to the side that beat Burnley highlights just how extensive his rebuild has been.

At 44 years and 54 days old, Arteta becomes the second-youngest manager to win the Premier League. Only José Mourinho was younger when he guided Chelsea to the title in both 2004-05 (42 years and 94 days old) and again in 2005-06 (43 years and 94 days old).

With Pep Guardiola leaving Manchester City at the end of the season, Arteta will become the longest-serving manager currently in the Premier League. Having already spent more than six years at Arsenal, it is easy to forget just how young he still is. That could be worrying for rivals – how many more campaigns does the Spaniard have in him?

This is an article by Opta Analyst

Ukraine
Ukraine war briefing: Fresh threat of attack from Belarus front, warns Zelenskyy
Warren Murray
Thu 21 May 2026 03.11 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/21/ukraine-war-briefing-fresh-threat-of-attack-from-belarus-front-warns-zelenskyy

Ukraine will send reinforcements to its northern regions and step up diplomatic pressure on Belarus to counter what Kyiv believes are Russian plans to launch a new offensive north of the capital, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. Kyiv knew of five scenarios Russia had drawn up, Ukraine’s president added. “We analysed in detail the available data from our intelligence agencies on Russia’s planning of offensive operations in the Chernihiv-Kyiv direction ,” Zelenskiy said. “Our forces in this sector will be increased.”

Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top army commander, said Kyiv had data that the Russian general staff was actively calculating and planning offensive operations from the north. The dictator Alexander Lukashenko allowed Russian troops to march on Ukraine from Belarus in 2022. Zelenskyy said it was “already tiresome that there is constantly such a threat to Ukraine that the Russians may at some point drag Belarus into an expansion of the war. They should understand there will be consequences for them and they will be significant .”

In the initial full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine successfully repelled a huge Russian armoured column that attempted to attack Kyiv from the north. Ukraine’s border guards spokesperson, Andriy Demchenko, told Ukrinform news agency on Wednesday: “As of now, we haven’t detected any movement of equipment or personnel directly at our border, but of course, we can see the pressure Russia is putting on Belarus .”

Virtually all major oil refineries in central Russia have been forced to halt or scale back fuel output following Ukrainian drone attacks in recent days, Reuters has reported, citing official data and its own sources. The combined capacity of refineries that have fully or partially shut down exceeds 83m tonnes per year, or about 238,000 tonnes per day , accounting for around a quarter of Russia’s total refining capacity . The share of the refineries in Russia’s fuel output is over 30% for gasoline and about 25% for diesel. Moscow has introduced a gasoline exports ban, while the Ukrainian strikes have reduced Russia’s crude oil exports – adding pressure to Moscow’s federal budget , where oil and gas accounts for roughly a quarter of revenue.

Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, spoke to Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday as the UK government scrambled to reverse a public relations disaster over its latest package of sanctions on Russian oil and gas . After a storm of negative publicity and a row in parliament, Starmer and ministers were forced to spend Wednesday explaining why the package initially exempts diesel and jet fuel made in other countries using Russian oil. Starmer insisted sanctions on those products would be phased in to keep the market stable.

However, Ukrainian officials expressed disappointment , write Peter Walker and Luke Harding . One former senior government figure described western sanctions policy against Russia as “too little too late”. They added: “I’m not sure I understand the logic behind this British decision. The only way Ukraine can stop the war is to put physical sanctions on Russia and destroy its infrastructure.”

Zelenskyy said Ukraine had been in contact with Britain on Wednesday and said the issue of sanctions was “always very sensitive … We conveyed our signals on the matter to London . We expect that everything will be discussed this week on a bilateral level.” Zelenskyy later posted that he had spoken to Starmer by telephone and thanked him for the support provided for Ukraine. The two sides were “working to reinvigorate substantive diplomacy”. No 10 said Starmer had “reaffirmed the UK’s steadfast support for Ukraine”. A spokesperson added that “as a result of the UK’s actions to date, there will be less Russian oil on the market, with Russia weaker as a result”.

The EU is set to disburse €3.2bn to Ukraine next month , the first such payment under a giant loan approved in April, Brussels said on Wednesday.

Enhanced Games
Competing in the pro-doping Enhanced Games – podcast
Nosheen Iqbal
Thu 21 May 2026 04.00 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2026/may/21/competing-in-the-pro-doping-enhanced-games-podcast

The swimmer Max McCusker set an Irish record for the 100m butterfly in 2024 and competed at the Paris Olympics, but his career didn’t take off in the way he thought it would.

“Pretty much straight after the Paris Olympics, I retired due to mainly financial reasons,” Max tells Nosheen Iqbal . “So I just decided that, you know what, I’ve made my childhood career dream, and I had to go work in the corporate world for a bit.”

Then last year a former teammate contacted him and suggested he should compete in the inaugural Enhanced Games , where performance-enhancing drugs are allowed. “I was always clean my whole career. I never failed a drug test. I never would even dabble in it,” he says. But the opportunity came with large financial incentives and the chance to compete again.

“For me, it was getting back into swimming, right? Getting back into something that I loved. And you spend the best part of 15 years, maybe more, of honing a skill that’s pretty specific, right? So it’s, if someone gives you an opportunity, you’re going to be supported for once and in every way, and see what’s the most potential you can get out of yourself in this sport.”

The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency has called the games dangerous and irresponsible. The Guardian’s chief sports reporter, Sean Ingle, tells Nosheen why.

Support the Guardian today: theguardian.com/todayinfocuspod

Natural History Museum
Tentacles, pointy teeth and the T-rex of the sea: the Natural History Museum on beasts that once ruled the oceans
Matthew Pearce
Thu 21 May 2026 07.01 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 11.07 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/21/natural-history-museum-jurassic-oceans-monsters-of-the-deep

D eep in the bowels of the Natural History Museum , Kate Whittington is standing in front of the skeleton of a 23ft plesiosaur, one of prehistoric Earth’s most fearsome marine reptiles, explaining how it would eat us for dinner, were it still around today.

“Its long neck allowed its head to get a head start on its body,” says the museum’s exhibition and interpretation manager. “So it could sneak up on prey and grab it [with its mouth] before its body and flippers created a disturbance in the water.”

The bones of this immense predator are among the centrepieces of Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep , an immersive exhibition showcasing fossils, casts and 3D-printed sculptures of the marine creatures that ruled the oceans while dinosaurs roamed the land more than 66m years ago.

As we walk past ancient crocodile-like creatures and colossal squid tentacles, Marc Jones, the exhibition’s curator, is explaining what the world’s waters used to look like and, despite aeons passing, the parallels between ancient oceans and today’s deep blue depths.

“[In the Jurassic era], the sun was slightly dimmer, about 2% less powerful,” he says, “but the planet was much warmer, much more humid, because there was a lot more CO2 in the atmosphere.” That meant there were no permanent ice caps, so sea levels were higher, with more of the planet covered by water, he adds. Indeed, at the beginning of the Jurassic era, nearly all land was joined together in the supercontinent Pangaea, surrounded by a single global ocean known as Panthalassa. “Because that ocean was so vast and slow moving, circulation was limited in many places,” Jones says.

Particularly well suited to these conditions were ammonites, a group of soft bodied, shell-dwelling creatures related to modern cephalopods such as octopus, squid and nautilus. “There’s evidence that squids are doing really well because the oceans are getting warmer,” Jones says. It makes sense, he adds, because “their relatives did really well in this warmer, slightly more stagnant ocean”.

The exhibition also shows how dramatically marine ecosystems have changed over time. In today’s oceans, sharks are among the dominant hunters, but 200m years ago “they were middle predators”, says Jones, as we pass remains of their ancestors lining the walls. “They were very effective hunters, but they would also have been preyed upon by marine reptiles.”

Larger animals lurk deeper in the exhibition, including ichthyosaurs, a family of vicious long-snouted marine reptiles. “Ichthyosaurs probably have the largest eye of any vertebrate animal,” says Jones. “It shows that it had areas that were very developed in processing movement, vision and scent, which reinforces what we know about it being a very speedy predator that relied on vision as one of its strategies.”

A bottlenose dolphin skeleton is on show to demonstrate how similar their body shapes and hunting tactics are to ichthyosaurs. Jones says this is an example of convergent evolution – two species independently evolving similar anatomy.

“Animals that live in similar environments and have evolved to eat similar prey tend to develop the same adaptations to achieve the same goal, but completely separately,” says Jones. “So they’re completely unrelated, but they’ve ended up, through natural selection, evolving the same features to do the same thing, but at completely different times in life.”

Unlike other marine reptiles, which were almost entirely wiped out by an asteroid crashing into Earth at the end of the Mesozoic era, ichthyosaurs are thought to have become extinct much earlier, due to the diminishing availability of prey related to natural changes in the climate.

Ammonites were a “kind of high energy snack for them”, says Jones. “It might be that, as the climate changed and ammonites started to die out, the ichthyosaurs couldn’t adapt fast enough to recover from one of their main food sources declining.”

It is the same climate story depleting marine life today . Ocean warming, acidification, and deoxygenation threatens phytoplankton, the base of a food chain that feeds bigger species. “We’ve added more than 2,000 gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere in less than 200 years, and that has consequences,” Jones says. “That’s going to affect ecosystems.”

The grand finale of the exhibition centres on the skull of a mosasaur. Known as the “T rex of the sea”, these large predators ruled the oceans in the Cretaceous period, which ended about 66m years ago. “It has these big pointy teeth on the outside, but it also has teeth in the roof of its mouth to help it grip on to prey,” says Whittington.

“When dinosaurs were living on the land, you had all these amazing things living in the oceans, like giant marine reptiles, that we don’t really have equivalents of today,” adds Jones. “We do have saltwater crocodiles and big turtles, but [the role] of predator is dominated by mammals.”

However, this is not the only change to have happened in our oceans. Today, more than 90% of the heat trapped by carbon emissions is absorbed by the ocean, and almost every year since the start of the millennium, a new ocean heat record has been set.

For Jones, looking back offers a stark warning. “There is lots of evidence of the climate changing during the prehistoric era and that being associated with changes in the fauna, the ecosystem and the environments,” he says. “Some of those changes took place over millions of years and yet they still had a big impact on what was alive then and the type of ecosystem that was around. It’s the speed of the changes happening today that is the problem. Many animals can’t keep up.”

Australian food and drink
Fry off: did New Zealand invent the sausage sizzle? Australian claims hit a snag
Isabella Lee
Wed 20 May 2026 05.25 CESTLast modified on Wed 20 May 2026 19.34 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/may/20/which-country-invented-sausage-sizzle-australia-new-zealand

A thin sausage wrapped in a slice of white bread with cooked onions on top shouldn’t work as well as it does. But walking past any school fair, open-air market or Bunnings on the weekend, if the bangers are frying, there will be a line.

Sausage sizzles are a cherished part of Australian culture. Anni Turnbull, a Powerhouse collection curator specialising in the Australian culinary archive says democracy sausages – sold outside polling booths on election day – in particular are an edible manifestation of the idea of “a fair go”.

The only snag? Sausage sizzles may not be an Australian creation. First reported in The Spinoff , the New Zealand publication argued the nation had not only held the world’s first sausage sizzle but also invented the humble snack .

This isn’t the first time the two countries have clashed over claims of gastronomic appropriation. See: lamingtons , pavlovas and flat whites . The origins of the sausage sizzle may have legitimate roots in Aotearoa’s soil, based on archival New Zealand and Australian newspapers.

The earliest documented use of the term “sausage sizzle” to refer to a charitable event in Australia was in 1946 , where members of the Forbes Junior Country Women’s Association organised a “Full Moon Sausage Sizzle” to bring non-perishable supplies in exchange for a sausage. These were to be sent to England to help postwar recovery efforts.

This was four years after New Zealand’s first use of the phrase. In 1942 Beryl Menzies threw a “Popular Girl sausage sizzle”, in an attempt to become “Hamilton’s most Popular Girl”. Popular Girl contests were community-run events used to raise funds for wartime charities.

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Barbara Santich, author of Bold Palates: Australia’s Gastronomic Heritage, says New Zealand’s claim as the sausage sizzle’s place of origin isn’t entirely unfounded. But she points out that: “Australia was doing the same thing under the American borrowing of ‘barbecue’.”

Jacqui Newling, culinary historian and curator at the Museums of History NSW, adds: “Often it’s not who did it first, it’s who wrote it down first.”

A sausage sizzle not in name but in spirit, was first reported in 1939 in Australia. Referred to as a “sausage buffet”, it was part of a Guy Fawkes celebration in Adelaide, raising funds for the Winston Dugan camp. Although the event’s news clipping describes “sausages sizzling”, a buffet is not the same as a sizzle. “It’s got to have the terminology,” says Newling.

Says Turnbull: “When I think of a sausage buffet, I just see a table filled with sausages and jelly.”

At the very least, Australians can wholeheartedly stake a claim to democracy sausages. In New Zealand, the election day sandwiches are not as commonplace, and are usually offered for free by community groups – though the government has vowed to enforce a ban on free food within 100 metres of a polling booth.

Newling enjoys the way these conversations show the commonalities between the “two across the ditch”. Only in Australia and New Zealand would people expect a sausage in a slice of bread as opposed to a roll. There is also a distinct antipodean role sausage sizzles play in building community. “You don’t kind of go out and have a sausage sizzle on your own,” says Newling.

While this certainly won’t be the last time Australia and New Zealand squabble over a basic dish, Newling says that these debates keep shared food heritage alive. “I think it’s a really lovely thing.”

Italian food and drink
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for ricotta and breadcrumb balls in tomato, chilli and basil sauce
Rachel Roddy
Thu 21 May 2026 07.00 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/may/21/ricotta-and-breadcrumb-balls-polpette-recipe-tomato-chilli-and-basil-sauce-rachel-roddy

T o begin with, the situation looks far from promising. Having given up its protein for cheese, the whey that has been returned to the huge pan is thin, opaque and not unlike cloudy washing-up water. The situation changes slightly when whole milk is added to the whey, along with rennet, and it’s then reheated, or re-cooked ( ri-cotta ). For a while, nothing happens. Then follows a slight, just perceptible wobbling, before, quite suddenly, like scud ding clouds moving into view, scraggy clumps of coagulated protein, albumin and globulin appear on the surface. These are lifted out in the same way as foam from a pan of broth: scooped off with a large slotted spoon. At least that is how it is done by Filippo Privitera at Caseificio Privitare in Castellana Sicula in the province of Palermo. The coagulated protein, otherwise known as ricotta, is then dropped into perforated plastic tubes on a slanting surface so it can drain some more, before being eaten in many ways.

For the Feast newsletter a few weeks ago , I wrote about the many ways to eat ricotta. Like many, I have long known what a useful ingredient it is, but, going through decades of archives, I was reminded just how versatile ricotta is, moving with ease between savoury and sweet, and both straight from the pot and cooked. However, since writing that newsletter, things I forgot to mention have also scudded into my head: how good ricotta is in pastry (a roast pumpkin, mushroom and chestnut pie is especially good); that it can be whipped with coffee for Anna Del Conte’s quick pudding; mixed with flour for sweet fritters; or made into polpette di ricotta e pane (ricotta and breadcrumb balls), which can be deep-fried or simmered in a rich tomato, basil and chilli sauce.

Another thing that arose from the newsletter were suggestions from readers as to ricotta produced in the UK. As well as Westcombe Dairy in Somerset, which makes it with the whey left over from cheddar and caerphilly, there’s Yorkshire Pecorino , which is based in Otley; La Latteria in London; and Nettlebed Creamery in Oxfordshire. I will repeat a note from the newsletter here: while there is no doubt that fresh ricotta and the pasteurised sort found in supermarkets are entirely different creatures – and I feel glad to have both – fresh is full-flavoured with a pleasant saltiness and unique, granular texture, while processing creates a more regular product – creamy and with a smoother texture. That said, with adequate seasoning and care, both are suitable for today’s recipe.

Ricotta and breadcrumb balls in tomato, chilli and basil sauce

Serves 4 1 egg 2 tbsp whole milk 100g soft white breadcrumbs 250g ricotta 2 tbsp finely grated parmesan , or other hard, seasoned cheese Nutmeg , grated, to taste Salt and black pepper 1 small handful flat-leaf parsley , finely minced (optional) 4 tbsp olive oil 2 garlic cloves , peeled, gently bashed but left whole 800g tin whole plum tomatoes 1 small, minced red chilli, or 1 tsp red chilli flakes 1 big sprig basil

In a bowl, lightly beat the egg and milk, then add the breadcrumbs. Mix well and leave to sit for 15 minutes.

Add the ricotta and parmesan to the bowl, then use a spoon or your hands to mix (squeeze) the mixture together. Taste and add nutmeg, salt and black pepper as required, and the minced parsley, if you wish, then mix again.

Working with wet hands, roll walnut-sized lumps of mixture into smooth balls, then leave to rest in the fridge while you get on with the sauce.

In a deep frying pan on a medium-low heat, warm the olive oil and garlic until fragrant, then add the tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes. Use a potato masher to break up the tomatoes, then add the chilli and basil and simmer for five minutes more.

Carefully lower the ricotta balls into the gently simmering sauce and poach for 12 minutes, shaking the pan gently and often, so they don’t stick together, and turning with a spoon halfway. Pull off the heat, leave to sit for 10 minutes, then serve with greens and bread.

Spring
Country diary: The bluebells are back and the ferns are rampant
Virginia Spiers
Thu 21 May 2026 06.30 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 06.41 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/21/country-diary-the-bluebells-are-back-and-the-ferns-are-rampant

R ain in early May has helped alleviate the dearth of April showers. Along narrow lanes, the drifts of bluebells, interspersed with cow parsley, campions and seeding stitchwort, are already overwhelmed by ferns. The succession of buckler , lady, hart’s-tongue, male, scaly male and soft shield – the latest to unfurl from its crozier-like fronds – will soon be topped by rampant bracken, now entwined in bryony.

Swags of hawthorn blossom overhang neglected uncut hedgerows, and landmark clumps of beech have lost that initial pellucidity of luminous foliage. Like linear stunted woods, the battered, regularly shorn deciduous growth on hedgebanks sprouts a diversity of greenery.

Before breakfast, I mooch around our cool woodland garden, where the melodious song of blackcaps now joins that of chiffchaff, competing with the piercing song of wren. The exceptionally thick blossoms of cherry, pear and apple are all finished, much of it blown off in cold east winds before the end of April. Short-lived but particularly beautiful was the white foam of bullion cherries and the delicate pink of the venus pippin apple.

A sparse set of little green fruits shows on the 30ft-high blizzard burcombe cherry (named after a tree that survived the 1891 storm), one of the first to be grafted by James, my brother-in-law, before he and my sister Mary established their own orchard of local top fruit varieties.

In the adjoining fruit cage, I remove tufts of bulbous grass and mulch compost around the blueberry, blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes. Cowslips thrive here, along with alpine strawberries, columbine and alkanet , and I dig some for spreading about the garden. Meanwhile, a large grass snake lies coiled in warmth beneath black plastic covering last year’s heap.

Beyond the garden, where abundant blooms of wisteria, red hawthorns, azaleas and the judas tree seem better than ever, and the last tree to leaf is the mulberry, South Devon cattle have been rotated since mid-April on their summer keep opposite. Across the parish, pastures for bullocks and sheep, first-cut silage fields and germinated cereals await more rain for productive growth.

Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024, is available now at guardianbookshop.com

Victoria
Terror on the hairlines: laser hair removal device sparks evacuation of Victoria’s Avalon airport
Nick Visser
Thu 21 May 2026 06.30 CESTFirst published on Thu 21 May 2026 03.37 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/may/21/laser-hair-removal-device-sparks-bomb-scare-evacuation-melbourne-avalon-airport-ntwnfb

A security scare that sent Victoria’s Avalon airport into partial lockdown and caused a series of flight delays was caused by a laser removal hair device, police say.

Victoria police said the discovery of a suspicious item had sparked a safety check at the airport shortly after 6am on Thursday.

The airport, near Geelong, was partially evacuated and an area was cordoned off as a precaution as police investigated.

After the airport fully reopened, police said: “The Bomb Response Unit conducted checks on an item, and it was determined to be a laser hair removal device.”

Insp Nick Uebergang said a man had been detained after the package was found inside a bag on a conveyor belt during a security check.

“It was an electrical laser hair removal and a cardboard-cylinder hot chocolate container,” he told reporters on Thursday.

“It’s fair to say that the person that had the bag probably wasn’t too co-operative with us to start off with, which made things more difficult.

“It probably could have averted things, and we could have got out of here a lot quicker. He wasn’t giving us too much information at all on what was in his bag.”

No charges have been laid, and the man was free to go.

An Avalon airport spokesperson said the “response demonstrates the vigilance of the screening and security processes” and precautionary measures were “taken immediately to ensure the safety of passengers, staff and the broader community”.

It came after an airport spokesperson said a suspicious item was found during the screening process, prompting the police response.

Several travellers called talkback radio stations to discuss their snarled travel plans.

One man, David, told 3AW Breakfast that he arrived on the scene before a schedule flight to Brisbane, but he couldn’t get in the terminal.

“There’s people queued up for miles,” the man told the radio station. “They blocked it off at the entrance way where the roundabout is, people actually walking out on foot from the airport. They’re sort of blocked us off.”

A flight to Brisbane was delayed, according to Lisa, who was due to fly out of the airport just before 9am.

She described the situation as “a bit of mayhem”, telling ABC Melbourne that “no one knew what was going on”.

“We knew something was fairly significant, lots of police cars going into the airport,” Lisa added.

The airport expected additional delays throughout the day.