After an agonising experience, I avoided checkups for four years. But a practice that assured a stress-free process for scared patients was transformative

I haven’t always been afraid of the dentist. If you had asked me a decade ago whether sitting in the dentist’s chair filled me with dread or made me break out in a cold sweat, I would have laughed and said no – what is there to be afraid of? It was only in 2021, after I had a filling without being properly numbed, that I understood why people are afraid of dental work. Despite telling him I was in excruciating pain, the dentist carried on with the procedure anyway, and I was left with a newfound and deep-seated fear.

At first, this was easily managed. I simply binned the reminders to book checkups, avoided their calls and carried on with my life. After a year, I told myself I’d see the dentist soon – just not yet. I firmly shoved the problem to the back of my mind.

Mainstream figures have been enabling anti-Muslim racism, creating the ideal conditions for the rise of hard-right political parties

Five years ago, many Muslims wondered if the prejudices they faced were set to fade away. The “war on terror” was dwindling in prominence, and new enemies such as Russia seemed to be displacing fears of Islamic terrorism. Yet Britain’s Islamophobia has only intensified since then. A poll published in July found that two out of five Britons believe Muslims cannot integrate into British society. Earlier in the summer, it was reported that more than half of Muslims in Britain had personally experienced anti-Islam prejudice in the last year, and a quarter in a public place.

The evidence of a worsening climate for Muslims has been mounting since two summers ago, when racist riots erupted across the UK, targeting mosques and asylum hostels. Watching videos of those events, I was disturbed by the parents who brought their young children to watch while mobs attempted, with apparently murderous intent, to break into the buildings. It was not only hardened far-right activists but a much broader cross-section of British society that was willing to participate in racist violence directed at Muslims or asylum seekers assumed to be Muslim.

Arun Kundnani is editorial director of Monthly Review Press

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A bloated ballroom, a six-storey military HQ, a helipad-cum-cocktail patio, a gilded angel on a giant arch honouring himself … our architecture critic deplores the decorator-in-chief’s mutilation of Washington

When you have a developer as US president, you might expect some zhooshing up of the capital. A few buildings renovated, maybe some parks replanted. But when you have a megalomaniac builder in charge, things can get out of hand. A decade ago, when Donald Trump was first elected, I asked what it might mean for the US to be led by a real estate tycoon whose career had left a trail of broken promises, angry buyers and endless lawsuits, with rules flouted, heritage trampled and the world pockmarked by a fleet of aspirational towers clad with a flimsy veneer of luxury. The answer is worse than I could have imagined.

With the air of a nightmarish Hollywood sequel, Trump 2 has seen the president’s true architectural ambitions unleashed: The Blingpire Strikes Back. As America’s self-styled decorator-in-chief, Trump has not only overseen the gilded mutilation of the White House, but embarked on the Mar-a-Lagofication of Washington DC itself, applying his gold paintbrush to statuary, daubing ponds with flaking pool liner, and brewing plans for a colossal triumphal arch – all procured in a blizzard of no-bid contracts. And, in true dodgy salesman style, this programme of bauble-building is turning out to be a high-profile decoy for deeper damage being wrought elsewhere.

Your rating is vital when taking on debt, but you could be in for a surprise as a big player changes its rules

Your credit score is the magic number that helps lenders decide whether or not to approve a mortgage, loan or credit card application.

Typically, the higher the number, the better your borrowing prospects. But a shake-up of the scoring system at TransUnion, one of the UK’s three main credit reference agencies, could mean a shock next time you log in.

A sharp analysis of the damage wrought by the reckless super-rich, and progressive toolkit for repairing it

The more power the radical rightwing nationalists of our age accrue, the greater the risk that their destructive brand of politics becomes normalised. We should not, for instance, regard it as normal that the man in charge of one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals casually promises “a whole civilisation will die tonight”. We should not accept that history’s first trillionaire is allowed to spread racist conspiracy theories to a hitherto unimaginable extent. We should be alarmed that, here in the UK, a party tipped to lead a potential future government is trying to cruise to power in the slipstream of this international movement.

In fact, we shouldn’t just be alarmed by such developments: we should stop them and urgently repair the damage already done. But how? And what is the nature of that damage? This bold, clarifying intervention from Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor provides some of the answers. “End times fascism” is their term for a convergence of interests that can broadly be understood as a response to the climate crisis. Faced with a world coming under unprecedented strain from environmental shocks and an unequal, resource-hungry economic system, today’s reactionaries are effectively saying: bring it on.

Going deep underground used to offer a refuge from the pressure to be constantly connected. That’s soon to change – and I’m not happy

Rejoice! For by the end of 2026, 4G and 5G mobile coverage is expected across the whole London underground network. After months of delays and setbacks, 121 subterranean tube stations will be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, joining Paris and Berlin in perma-connectivity bliss. But should we really be so happy about the rollout?

Going deep underground was once a way of escaping the incessant communications of this exhausting modern life. Emails to respond to? WhatsApp messages piling up? The tube used to be one of the last remaining bastions of resistance against the constant expectation to do. To optimise. A simpler place where you could justifiably and believably ignore messages and reply later with a “sorry, I was on the tube”.

Lucy Pasha-Robinson is a Guardian assistant Opinion editor

Some of the arguments inconsistent with ‘available evidence, science and established physiology’, say pair

Two leading experts have withdrawn from Lucy Letby’s defence team over concerns about the “scientific credibility” of some of its evidence.

The former neonatal nurse is challenging her convictions for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess of Chester hospital in north-west England.

In an interview about the donations, he said they are compliant with the law ‘today’

Andy Burnham has cancelled engagements today and tomorrow following the death of his father Roy, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s, the Press Association reports.

Burnham has spoken about his father’s illness which meant that he did not know his son had become prime minister.

[We] will continue bringing forward further reforms to strengthen confidence in our democracy.

Following on from the previous minister for democracy’s letter to you of 10 July 2026, we wanted to reiterate the government’s concerns, shared by many members of the public and parliamentarians, about the rise in the volume and concentration of money in UK politics. We have to limit the way financial power can end up dominating political power, to get to a politics that works for all people in all places.

We believe spending limits on parties and candidates are too high, and ought to be reduced.

UK prime minister had been due to speak at the TUC conference in Brighton

• UK politics live – latest updates

Andy Burnham has cancelled his engagements for Monday and Tuesday after his father, Roy, died.

Among other plans, the prime minister had been due to speak to the TUC conference in Brighton on Tuesday.

President hits out after Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX leaders back call to limit ‘reckless’ development

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Donald Trump has dismissed calls to increase controls on AI as a “sick conspiracy”, as stocks linked to the technology slumped after appeals from leading developers on the weekend for the industry to slow down.

The US president wrote on social media: “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the USA has that, in spades!”