The Latest Breaking News from The Observer

“If the novelists P.G. Wodehouse, Jackie Collins and Naguib Mahfouz had been asked to pool their creative talents, they would have struggled to invent a character as bold and controversial as Mohamed Al Fayed,” said Andrew Anthony in The Observer.

The news is out, but how did the producers finally coax the one-time acting wannabe turned current affairs heavyweight onto Strictly Come Dancing? And will he embarrass his children?

The Crooked House pub – or the Siden House, in Black Country dialect – was one of the “must-see attractions” of the Dudley area, said Guy Kelly in The Daily Telegraph.

He makes you laugh, shares your woes and comes with no sexual strings attached. But why, wonders Caroline O’Donoghue, is the gay man/straight female friendship such a caricature in popular culture?

The Ffos-y-Fran coalmine was supposed to close last September. So why is it still operating? And how long will the local community have to put up with the noise, pollution and health impacts?

Prices will be sky high here courtesy of superstar chef Yannick Alléno, unless a fire alarm intervenes. By Jay Rayner

A new government inquiry will review evidence to establish exactly how many people died during the Nazi occupation of Alderney.

Government incentives and deregulation have brought digital nomads, Airbnbs and ‘golden visas’ – but steep housing costs for locals

Pre-release expectations were already “stratospheric”, but the unlikely pairing of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” around the world has “helped fuel the biggest collective weekend at the box office since the pandemic”, said Rebecca Rubin in Variety – music to the ears of their respective film studios, Warner Bros. Discovery and Universal,…