On their new album, Smith is subverting their singer-songwriter roots to tell a queer love story. They talk about their shifting fanbase, the nasty undercurrents of fame – and finding sanctuary in New York City

Sam Smith logs on to our video call with the username “Lily of the Valley”, the May-born singer’s birth flower. It sets a serene tone. They’re in Guadalajara, Mexico, for the latest stop of a residency tour, titled To Be Free, in support of their fifth studio album. Instead of Smith’s usual jet-lagged arena itinerary, this lower-key excursion stops at smaller venues in only six cities and sheds the ostentatious theatricality of their last outing.

On stage on their last tour, “I was flailing around on a massive gold bum and had, like, seven costume changes,” Smith says with a chuckle. It’s intimacy they’re after now, the ability to satisfy their “craving to look at people again”, which matches the romantic feeling of their fifth album, Hazel Eyes. But for Smith, whose genre-shifting stardom has been accompanied by harsh controversies, it’s also a chance to observe who’s still in their corner: “There’s some wonderful people that have stayed, but it’s a completely different room than it was with In the Lonely Hour,” their 2014 debut.

The joy, disbelief and shock of discovering I had a brother the same age as me came with a million questions. How were we separated and why?

In 1975, my parents saw an advert in their local Australian newspaper. With the Vietnam war coming to an end, thousands of orphaned children were being evacuated. As part of the American-led Operation Babylift, the Australian government was looking for families who would adopt them. My parents decided to do it.

I arrived in Adelaide in April in a shoebox. I was so tiny that my umbilical cord was still attached. My parents knew that the document they were given, with a January birthday and the name Le Thi Ha, couldn’t be mine. But with the chaos of the evacuation there was no way to find out more.

Ethics experts and Democrats express alarm as Trump uses office to grow his personal fortune to ‘unprecedented’ level

Donald Trump’s use of his second presidency to grow his personal fortune has alarmed legal and ethics experts and congressional Democrats as he has reaped an “unprecedented” $2.2bn in 2025 revenues by amassing big cryptocurrency holdings, benefiting from wealthy foreign interests, expanding his Truth Social business and more, while federal oversight of his actions has waned.

Trump last year raked in at least $1.4bn from his crypto ventures according to financial disclosure forms he filed in June. Simultaneously, about one million investors in a Trump crypto scheme suffered almost $3.8bn in losses as their volatile crypto holdings tanked in value.

It is not enough now for war to kill, it must eradicate a people’s cherished and precious heritage too

Wars may not take summer holidays, but they do sometimes see exhaustion. As drones race back and forth across Ukraine and the strait of Hormuz, a grim stalemate seems to have invaded the earth beneath. Aerial bombardment knows limited resistance and even less victory or defeat. Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Iran and their allies seem able to defy diplomacy and drop bombs on each other for ever.

At which point the outside world can merely count some of the costs. Vladimir Putin’s known desire to eliminate Ukraine’s historical identity has led to its cultural devastation. Two weeks ago Unesco reported the destruction or dereliction of 545 of its historic buildings, including 156 religious sites and 43 museums. The attempted eradication of what Putin himself claims to be an intrinsic part of Russia’s own history is sickening.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Sophie Woods speaks about the challenges she overcame while completing the notorious Via Alpina across eight European countries

A couple of weeks into her record-breaking 2,000km run through Europe’s alps, Sophie Woods feared she might die. Woods and her photographer had just scaled a peak in Switzerland, when a severe thunderstorm engulfed them.

“The lightning was going off around us ... there was nowhere to shelter in place [and] all the rocks around us were conductive,” Woods tells the Guardian, from her home in Andorra, nearly two weeks after she became the fastest person ever to run the Via Alpina, a rollercoaster network of alpine trails through eight countries.

Readers recall the breathtaking sight and community spirit of the rare celestial treat – and the handmade contraptions they saw it through

On Wednesday evening, millions of people in Europe watched a rare solar eclipse. We asked some of them to share their photographs and experiences of this celestial treat.

Here are some of their responses.

Reform UK leader says result ‘speaks for itself’, as Essex police deny that the warned him not to attend vote count

• Farage wins Clacton byelection in contest boycotted by every other major party

This election is a novelty with a record 34 candidates, including Howling Laud Hope of The Official Monster Raving Loony Party and Marcus White from the Everyone is God Party.

They have pounded the streets of Clacton over the past few weeks as they seek to win the support of about 80,000 voters.

Grassfire covering about 16 hectares near golf course in Stourbridge was one of several large blazes in region

Four people have been taken to hospital and several homes damaged as fires tore through residential neighbourhoods in the West Midlands.

A 16-hectare (40-acre) grassfire near a golf course in Stourbridge was one of several significant fires in the region on Thursday – the UK’s hottest day of the year.

Additional nine passengers sustain less serious injuries and major disruption to services reported

Two people have been seriously injured after a passenger train derailed between Haywards Heath and Lewes in East Sussex on Thursday.

The South East Coast ambulance service said two people were taken to major trauma centres with severe injuries.

DHS sent undercover agents to meetings and infiltrated chats of groups opposing Trump’s immigration crackdown

Newly disclosed records reveal the US government extensively spied on prominent leftwing organizations and on protesters as part of a vast operation into groups opposing the immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year.

Internal investigative reports show the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent undercover agents to community meetings in the Twin Cities and New York City, infiltrated Signal chats and obtained financial records of mainstream unions and left-leaning non-profit groups.