You don’t need to be a super athlete to take part in parkrun. Whether it’s pacing yourself or picking the perfect shoes, here’s how to find your feet at the UK’s favourite 5k

• The best running shoes for every runner

I have a gym membership and walk everywhere, but I’m not what you’d typically picture when you think of a fitness writer. Compared with the Guardian’s running experts, I’m a not-particularly-enthusiastic amateur.

But what I lack in speed, stamina, and gazelle-like grace, I make up for with dogged persistence. Since 2014, I’ve run 355 parkruns in 63 locations. That’s a lot of hours – especially given my finishing times.

‘Perhaps it’s all a fever dream,’ suggests parody candidate, expected to be Reform leader’s only challenger for seat

Count Binface had been looking forward to a relaxing journey back to his home planet of Sigma IX when Nigel Farage dropped a political bombshell on Tuesday.

Instead, Britain’s hottest new political property said he was left with no choice but to perform a swift intergalactic handbrake turn when news broke that Farage had resigned as MP for Clacton, triggering the possibility of a byelection in the English coastal constituency he has represented since 2024.

Johnson reprises his role from the original animation and has fine rapport with his young co-star Catherine Laga’aia, but the whole enterprise feels cynical and pointless

Disney’s animated super-hit Moana from 2016 – having been followed up by a dull sequel two years ago – now gets a competent but basically pointless and unexciting back-to-basics live-action remake. Screenwriter Jared Bush modifies his original script, Broadway stage veteran Thomas Kail makes his movie directing debut and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s songs are revived. Nineteen-year-old Australian Samoan actor Catherine Laga’aia takes the role of Moana, the headstrong teen daughter of a Polynesian chief; her wise and kindly grandma Tala, who recognises Moana’s heroic leadership destiny, is played by New Zealand actor Rena Owen.

Moana has to go on a quest to restore the heart of the goddess Te Fiti, the lack of which is causing an eco-crisis on her home island of Motunui. To do this, she must join forces with the swaggeringly arrogant demigod Maui, in which role Dwayne Johnson returns in his own actual person, which is almost as cartoonishly muscly and vast as the animated version. Maui has a spurious quest of his own, to retrieve the hook which is the source of his power and to do this he must confront his own nemesis. This is the giant crab Tamatoa, which as before is voiced by Jemaine Clement and is a character which is of course just a 3D animated version of the 2D cartoon original, like Heihei, Moana’s less-than-hilarious pet chicken.

The Frenchman is a footballer, flautist and a thespian. There’s no question he is the most thrilling and compelling figure at this year’s tournament

This has been the World Cup of characters, bold fashion statements, and bantz: we’ve had Thomas Tuchel rubber-banding around the England dressing room like a teen at his first all-ages rave, and Iván Barton booting Miguel Almirón from the field as if sentencing him to death. Mauricio Pochettino and his $500 overshirt have brought fresh energy and inspiration to the wardrobes of convex middle-aged men the world over. Jokester Javier Aguirre’s avuncular “fuck you” at Anthony Gordon has pushed bilateral relations between Mexico and England to their warmest point since the British-brokered peace that ended the Pastry War of 1839.

Erling Haaland has shown it’s possible to be Jaws in front of goal and Scooby Doo once the ball is in the back of the net, that there’s nothing about football so important that it can’t make way for some silly bit of online comedy. Even Harry Kane, a man who often seems like he was media trained in the womb, has squeaked thrillingly, if briefly, to life.

Reform keeps Tice on the bench, sending in attack specialist Yusuf in effort to take back control as byelection stunt unravels

You can often tell when Reform is running scared and losing control of the political narrative, because that’s when Richard Tice is put back in his box. Everyone but Dicky knows that Dicky is a halfwit. A man whose very life force is dependent on Nigel Farage’s continued existence. Without Nige there would be no Dicky. He is the tick with no autonomous nervous system. Just a kneejerk response with too much money. Dicky likes to boast of his small fortune. Mainly because he started with a large one.

At times like these, Reform goes for its pet rottweiler: Zia Yusuf. No Nige-like temper tantrums for Zia. That’s because he lives in a constant state of extreme perma-rage. It must be as exhausting for him as it is for us to experience. There is nothing that doesn’t make him angry. Most politicians do a nice line in passive aggression. Zia’s USP is active aggression. He is the aggressive’s aggressive. The self-made millionaire who is always unhappy and feels let down by others. The man with so much money that he can afford to do politics as a hobby. He longs to be a professional politician but will only ever be an amateur.

The US president is in combative mood as Nato leaders meet for a two-day summit in Ankara. There are divisions over Russia’s war in Ukraine, defence spending, and the US-Israel war in Iran with signs of the fragile ceasefire collapsing. 

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is holding talks with leaders as he rallies the European cause against Russia’s war that has reached the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, as Nato allies present an increasingly united front against an unreliable US.

Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent Shaun Walker

Exclusive: The details behind the financial transactions that bankers have flagged up to the National Crime Agency

The rise in public support for Reform UK – and Nigel Farage’s own prediction that he expects to be the UK’s next prime minister – has put the party and its leader in unfamiliar territory.

Their policies and candidates are coming under greater scrutiny, and now, so is their funding.

Iranian state media report explosions in several locations hours after Donald Trump threatened further military action at Nato summit

• US carries out another wave of strikes on Iran

Wednesday’s strikes against Iran expected to be ​greater in number than those carried out on Tuesday, an unnamed U.S. official told Reuters.

Sahar, a 34-year-old teacher in Tehran who uses only one name to protect her identity, said the latest attacks have left families worried about new strikes on the residential areas. “Every night we remain alert, in fear, and charge our phones, keep our packed bags near the doors, and sleep lightly because we do not know when we will have to rush and leave the house,” she said. “People here are tired and fed up; we want peace, dignity, and a normal life, not another unending war decided over our heads.”

Meena, a 29-year-old graphic designer, said the fresh strikes have deepened a sense of uncertainty among young Iranians already struggling with economic crisis and limited freedoms. “My generation has grown up with sanctions, protests, internet shutdowns, and now missiles,” she said. “We are not statistics. We are people trying to work, study, love, and plan a future, but every crisis pushes that future further away.”

• British wildcard stuns the No 9 seed 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-0

• Fery will face Alexander Zverev for place in men’s final

It would have been perfectly reasonable for Arthur Fery to have finally betrayed a few nerves as he stood a point away from establishing a two-set lead in his first grand slam quarter-final. Any tension or fear he may have felt, however, was completely overpowered by his unwavering self-belief and certainty that has defined the greatest fortnight of his life.

Leading by a set and 6-4 in the second set tie-break, Fery leapt forward to meet Flavio Cobolli’s second serve on the rise, and he immediately followed up his sweet backhand return by sweeping forward to the net. Fery’s subsequent backhand drop volley stopped dead on the grass, killing the second set in the process.

Extension comes as government encourages first nuclear power projects in a generation to meet UK’s growing need for electricity

Britain’s most recently completed nuclear power plant will continue generating electricity until 2055 after the government granted the power plant, which was first synchronised with the National Grid in 1995, a 20-year life extension.

Sizewell B in Suffolk was due to shut down within the next decade, but under a deal with the government its lifetime will be extended to 60 years to help meet the UK’s growing demand for low-carbon electricity.