Since her arrival at the Wall Street Journal, British editor-in-chief Emma Tucker has shaken up not only her own newsroom but also the White House

The danger posed to Donald Trump was obvious. It was a story that not only drew attention to his links to a convicted sex offender, it also risked widening a growing wedge between the president and some of his most vociferous supporters. The White House quickly concluded a full-force response was required.

It was Tuesday 15 July. The Wall Street Journal had approached Trump’s team, stating it planned to publish allegations that Trump had composed a crude poem and doodle as part of a collection compiled for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday.

It wasn’t the first hit memoir to tell a story of redemption inspired by the great outdoors – but could it become one of the last? Authors and publishers assess the damage

When The Salt Path came out in 2018, it was a publishing phenomenon, going on to sell more than 2m copies globally. As even those who haven’t read it are likely to know by now, the book charted Raynor Winn and her husband Moth’s emotionally and physically transformative long-distance walk along the South West Coast Path in the wake of utter disaster: a financial collapse that cost them their home, and Moth’s diagnosis with an incurable neurological disorder. Winn followed it with two further books in a similar vein, The Wild Silence and Landlines, also bestsellers. Earlier this year came a film of The Salt Path, starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. That original book by a first-time writer had become what writers, editors and booksellers all dream of: a bestselling, spin-off generating brand.

But it wasn’t the first nature memoir to top the charts, by any means. In 2012, Wild by Cheryl Strayed described the 26-year‑old’s hike across the west coast of America in the wake of her mother’s death and the end of her marriage, and after soaring up the book charts it was made into a film starring Reese Witherspoon two years later. That same year, H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald was a surprise bestseller, telling the story of a year spent training a Eurasian goshawk as a journey through grief after the death of their father. In 2016, Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun saw her return to the sheep farm on Orkney where she’d grown up in order to recover from addiction through contact with nature; it was also recently filmed, with Saoirse Ronan in the lead role. Meanwhile, in last year’s bestselling Raising Hare, foreign policy adviser Chloe Dalton describes moving to the countryside, rescuing a leveret and rediscovering her relationship with the land.

An experienced clinician in prosthetics, Jim Ashworth-Beaumont found himself the perfect guinea pig for a radical new option for amputees

When the air ambulance brought Jim Ashworth-Beaumont to King’s College hospital in south-east London, nobody thought he had a hope. He had been cycling home when a lorry driver failed to spot him alongside his trailer while turning left after a set of traffic lights. The vehicle’s wheels opened his torso like a sardine tin, puncturing his lungs and splitting his liver in two. They also tore off his right arm. Weeks after the accident, in July 2020, Ashworth-Beaumont would see a photo of the severed limb taken by a doctor while it lay beside him in hospital. He had asked to see the picture and says it helped him come to terms with his loss. “My hand didn’t look too bad,” he says. “It was as if it was waving goodbye to me.”

Ashworth-Beaumont, a super-fit and sunny former Royal Marine from Edinburgh, would go on to spend six weeks in an induced coma as surgeons raced to repair his crushed body. But as he lay on the road, waiting for the paramedics, his only thoughts were that he was dying. He did not have the wherewithal to consider the irony of his predicament.

A good crisp should be dangerously moreish – but which were perfectly seasoned and crunchy, and which weren’t worth their salt?

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‘What I’ve learned today,” says my friend Lucy, stepping firmly away from the crisp buffet, “is that you can have too much of a good thing.” My volunteer testers and I were enthusiastic about the prospect of tasting our way through 10 types of lightly salted, crisply fried potato, but we all agreed, once they were laid out side by side in anonymous bowls, that it was surprisingly hard to differentiate between them. That said, good news: every single one had its cheerleaders, so there were no real duds in this sample.

To outline what I’m looking for from a salted crisp, it should be crisp, obviously. To this end, all the bags were opened at the same time, just before the blind tasting. Salt levels are a matter of personal preference, though it should be upfront rather than a mere seasoning, while, in an ideal world, the potatoes themselves would be the primary flavour, rather than a mere texture. They should be cooked long enough that they crunch, rather than melt between the teeth, but it’s a delicate balance: too long in the oil and they’ll be bitter. And that oil – if you can taste it at all – should be pleasant: too strong a flavour, even of the best fat, will overpower the spuds. Last, crisps should be dangerously moreish: if you can eat one and stop, they’re not good crisps.

An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

“We can’t put a date on Doomsday, but by looking at the 5,000 years of [civilisation], we can understand the trajectories we face today – and self-termination is most likely,” says Dr Luke Kemp at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge.

“I’m pessimistic about the future,” he says. “But I’m optimistic about people.” Kemp’s new book covers the rise and collapse of more than 400 societies over 5,000 years and took seven years to write. The lessons he has drawn are often striking: people are fundamentally egalitarian but are led to collapses by enriched, status-obsessed elites, while past collapses often improved the lives of ordinary citizens.

Andy Farrell’s side targeted becoming the ‘best Lions ever’ but by putting up barriers, they will not be the most popular

A clutch of players are seen taking it easy on branded bean bags. Bundee Aki is keeping warm on the exercise bike. Tom Curry is on his phone, Finn Russell is scrolling too before giving a cheeky grin but the British & Lions’ performance manager, David Nucifora, decides enough is enough and puts a towel over the camera inside the dressing room, spoiling the fun. These Lions can be hard to love sometimes.

They may one day come to realise that giving spectators at home a glimpse of how players spend a 38-minute break in play could just encourage them to stick with this match. Given the pictures coming from the Australia dressing room portrayed a side taking things a touch more seriously, perhaps the Lions did not want the public to see what they were up to. The stoppage was perfectly in keeping with this chaotic finale to the Test series, enthralling and farcical in equal measure, but the shutters were pulled down. Another example of this sport failing to help itself.

Conflict monitoring group Action on Armed Violence says Israel is seeking to create a ‘pattern of impunity’

Nearly nine out of 10 Israeli military investigations into allegations of war crimes or abuses by its soldiers since the start of the war in Gaza have been closed without finding fault or left without resolution, according to a conflict monitor.

Unresolved investigations include the killing of at least 112 Palestinians queueing for flour in Gaza City in February 2024, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said, and an airstrike that killed 45 in an inferno at a tented camp in Rafah in May 2024.

Defending industry over consumers sends ‘really bad message’, says Treasury committee member Bobby Dean

Rachel Reeves’s efforts to intervene in the supreme court case on the car finance scandal were “unprecedented and disgraceful” and send a “really bad message” to consumers that the government is willing to defend wrongdoing by banks, Treasury committee member and Lib Dem MP Bobby Dean has said.

While the supreme court largely sided with finance companies on Friday – helping lenders avoid a £44bn compensation bill – Dean said the chancellor had gone too far to show she was on the side of business.

Change to border security bill will also make it a crime to advertise fake passports, visas and work opportunities

Ministers are to outlaw social media adverts promoting journeys on small boats across the Channel to asylum seekers.

The government will create a UK-wide criminal offence that could lead to perpetrators being sentenced for up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.

• Talks deadlocked over asking price of rail terminal site

• Freightliner’s £400m demand could delay £4.2bn build

Manchester United’s plans to build a 100,000-seat stadium next to Old Trafford are facing delays due to a standoff over the price of land needed to begin work on the construction of the proposed ground Sir Jim Ratcliffe has called “the Wembley of the North”. The club want land used as a rail freight terminal to complete the Old Trafford Regeneration Project, which they claim will bring £7.3bn a year to the UK economy.

United have held talks with Freightliner, the haulage company that owns and operates the terminal, about buying the land, but negotiations are deadlocked due to a disagreement over the price.