From a body-building Arnie to a weeping Frenchman, these 39 groundbreaking images have upended assumptions about how men behave, dress and project power. Introduction by Luke Kennard

I have an image of myself in 2011, pushing my newborn son in a big red buggy because he would only nap when in motion. As I traversed the streets of suburban Birmingham, I felt observed, glanced at, commented on in a manner that ranged from pity to reproach to disproportionate admiration. Daft that it should be a remarkable sight, I thought, but there we go. Probably I’d have felt less self-conscious if I’d followed David Bowie’s example and – as in one of the images showcased here – worn what looks like a dress.

On depictions of men and women in art history, John Berger famously stated that “men act, women appear”. Men were portrayed demonstrating their physical power and readiness for action; to assert their dominance. Just turning that gaze around and using the lens to capture masculinity feels subversive, maybe even a little undermining.

Whether it was youngsters proving their skills or state sabotage, Europe’s most hacked country was left with a mountain of waste after food began cooking in freezers

Shortly before midnight last Sunday, the digital thermostats controlling hundreds of supermarket cold aisles across France began to flicker and rise.

In a “bizarre and unprecedented” cyber-attack, hackers had remotely overridden the temperature settings on thousands of freezers, fridges and chiller cabinets pushing them from as low as -27C (-16.6F) to well over 50C (122F).

On Saturday Night Live last week, comedian Shane Gillis made a pathetic ‘joke’ about the clothes women wear to the gym. It was puerile – but also pernicious

I’ve spent the morning doing Shane Gillis’s work: checking out women in the gym. If you’ve avoided Gillis thus far, apologies for enlightening you – he’s a “comedian” who recently told a “joke” on Saturday Night Live that began: “I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dressed like whores now.”

Well, reporting for duty from the weight room, here’s the clothing tally: eight women in leggings and T-shirts; six in T-shirts and trackie bottoms; five in shorts and vest tops; one in a crop top and leggings. It’s not exactly the Folies Bergère – there’s not much, I would have thought, to cause Gillis to blush. But maybe I’m wrong – how undressed, exactly, constitutes whorish? Is a glimpse of a female forearm a distracting provocation? Should we pull up our socks to avoid inflaming male passions with our slutty ankles when we’re doing step-ups?

The former Republic of Ireland international on growing up in a community still reeling from the Troubles and the controversy that scarred his career

“The perception of me is that, basically, I am a madman,” James McClean says calmly. “I’m outspoken. I’m a loudmouth. I’m very opinionated and I hate all things British. That’s from people who don’t know me. The reality is quite the opposite. I’m pretty boring. I go training, go home and switch off. A lot of my days are quite bland, quite basic.”

McClean sounds as sane as he looks gaunt on a bleak Monday in Derry. He spent 14 years in English football and the fact that he is now at war with his own club, Derry City, can’t obscure the fact that he is the fifth-most-capped Republic of Ireland international, having played 103 times. “People define success in different ways,” he says, “but I’m the only footballer from the north of Ireland to win over 100 caps for Ireland. I played 150 Premier League games over five seasons, 800 professional games and won a lot of individual accolades. I count that as success and don’t look back with regrets.”

As Andy Burnham talks up closer alignment with the EU and a poll suggests half in UK would rejoin, the B-word is back on the agenda

In February 2016, days after David Cameron announced the UK would hold a referendum on leaving the EU, he told workers in Slough not to imagine they could change their minds a few years down the line if they did not like how things panned out. Voting to stay in or leave was a once in a generation thing, he said. “This is a decision that lasts for life.”

Well times change, as the last prime minister but five could testify. A decade after Britain told Brussels where to go, Brexit is back on the political agenda. After years in which many politicians avoided any mention of the B-word, Andy Burnham broke the omertà in his party conference speech last month, saying he would look again at Britain’s relationship with Europe.

For more than three decades, Michael Gove has been a leading figure in British Conservatism. As a journalist, government minister and now editor of the Tory bible, the Spectator, he has helped shape the right even as it has moved further rightwards. In the latest episode of Radical Thinking, Gove joins Aditya Chakrabortty to discuss the future of the right, his record on Brexit and austerity, and the Spectator’s position on Islam.

Aditya’s suggested reading:

• To read the fruits of Michael Gove’s dalliance with the Marxism Today gang, look up his essay in a 1998 collection called The Moderniser’s Dilemma: Radical Politics in the Age of Blair.

• For a slalom ride through Michael Gove’s years in power, read The Demented Dalek by the historian Richard J Evans in the London Review of Books.

• To learn more about what’s become of the British right, there’s a column by me for the Guardian.

• Phil Burton-Cartledge examines why Britain's most successful political party is now failing in his book The Party’s Over: The Rise and Fall of the Conservatives from Thatcher to Sunak.

• Phil also writes a very good blog on British politics, which keeps a close eye on how each party is trying to marshal a coalition of voters. Here he is on Kemi Badenoch.

• Geoffrey Wheatcroft offers an entertaining short narrative in Bloody Panico!: or, Whatever Happened to The Tory Party

• For more on the economics of the Cameron years, this paper examines how the Tories failed to move the UK away from being a country of renters towards a country of makers. Two of its authors will join us for a podcast later in the series.

• And if you want to read how Brexit may have cost the UK 8% of GDP, read this paper based on data from the Bank of England.

• Finally, on the Spectator, read Nesrine Malik’s recent column in the Guardian: Why has Britain’s oldest political magazine become such a rabid cheerleader for Islamophobia?

President signed the legislation championed by late senator Lindsey Graham last month but has waived the restrictions as they were due to come into effect

Donald Trump has put on hold a sweeping new sanctions package targeting the Russian economy, telling Congress the pause on the legislation passed by both chambers was in the national interest.

In an executive order on Friday, the US president said he was waiving many ⁠sanctions, restrictions and duties ⁠on Russia, in a move that comes as he has been publicly criticising ⁠Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, including suggesting that Ukraine needs a ​new leader.

Exclusive: health bodies across country say controversial US firm’s data platform no better than systems already in use

NHS organisations that care for millions of people in England are rejecting Palantir’s patient data technology, according to freedom of information responses that reveal health bosses believe they can find better or equal alternatives in many cases.

Some health bodies said the £330m federated data platform (FDP) operated by the controversial US company had made it easier to manage waiting lists and has improved surgery scheduling. But, from Gateshead to Truro, others said they were declining to use it or had carried out trials and reverted to old systems. A Suffolk trust said other systems “supercede” the FDP’s functionality, while Greater Manchester’s care board called the Palantir system “duplicative” and “retrograde”.

British father would like to take his family to Lancashire to see ill relative but officials refused visa for his partner, a refugee from Myanmar

The Home Office has denied a great-grandfather from Lancashire the chance of meeting his five-month-old British great-grandson, who lives abroad.

William Cross was born in Thailand on 30 April to parents Matthew Cross, 31, who is from Burnley in Lancashire, and Khin Thant Zin, known as Jue Jue, also 31, a refugee who fled persecution in Myanmar to Thailand.

Families have been scattered, fathers separated from their children, and couples unable to reunite and marry

Wijdan Abu Matar, 43, was forced to leave Gaza in November 2023 with her eight children for medical treatment, while her injured husband, Hatem, remained behind.

Wijdan and her family were living in the Nuseirat refugee camp when the Gaza war began with the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Ten days later, on 17 October that year, an Israeli strike hit the al-Muhandseen tower, near their home, injuring Wijdan and every member of her family.