After grief brought Dev Hynes home, he reconsidered the county that shaped him. The result is a masterful new album – made with a little help from Lorde and Zadie Smith

Devonté Hynes is telling me how he came to be living back in his childhood home in Ilford, east London, at the age of 37, after his mother had fallen ill. “It was a surreal experience,” he says of the sudden move from Brooklyn, where he makes music as Blood Orange, to sleeping in the bedroom where he once put up posters of David Beckham and the Smashing Pumpkins. “Physically, you’re bigger: your shape has changed. But the space is the same. The memories are the same.”

Hynes came back to England to be by the bedside of his mother in hospital, and stayed at home a while after she died in 2023. This tragic disruptionproduced his fifth full-length release, Essex Honey, a clear contender for album of the year. It’s a record grounded by grief but fizzing with the memory flashes that came with returning home to the edge of Essex; the record that sounds most like the place he left almost two decades ago.

My work as a TV and film extra was a dream come true. My look – skinny and not too good-looking – was in high demand

I have always been a television addict. As a young boy growing up in Bath, I’d devour programmes such as Doctor Who, desperate to know how they were created. At 16, I dared to tell a school careers adviser that I wanted to work in TV; she laughed and said a career in television was for people who went to university. She suggested I get a job in retail. Dejected, I reluctantly took on a job at a supermarket, but made my way up through the ranks. They had a budget for making corporate films, and I ended up directing and producing their training videos.

Then, in 1998, I saw an advert in a sci-fi magazine for unpaid extras for Auton, a Doctor Who spin-off. I dashed off an application and was thrilled to get a call weeks later, offering me a role as a villager.

Children will help judge the new prize along with children’s laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce

• ‘The Children’s Booker prize will tell kids that they matter’: Frank Cottrell-Boyce

The Booker prize foundation has launched a major new literary award, the Children’s Booker prize, offering £50,000 for the best fiction written for readers aged eight to 12.

The new award will launch in 2026, with the first winner announced in early 2027. It will be decided by a mixed panel of adult and child judges, a first for a Booker award. The inaugural chair of judges will be Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the children’s author and current children’s laureate. He will be joined by two other adult judges, who will help select a shortlist of eight books before three child judges are recruited to help decide the winner.

The timing of the Strictly Come Dancing presenters’ exit is odd: do they know something we don’t? Or did they just get sick of all the scandal?

When long-serving presenters leave a seemingly timeless franchise, two questions immediately arise. Why are they going? And who will replace them?

On the first point, the BBC will hope that the joint departure of Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly from Strictly Come Dancing will be attributed to longevity – Daly has served a 21-year term, Winkleman 11 as a main co-host – and the impact on family life of a weekend gig.

Millions of people across the US attended No Kings protests against Donald Trump last weekend. The president publicly denied he wanted to be a king, but he posted an AI-generated video of himself dressed as one, flying a fighter jet and dumping excrement on protesters.

Jonathan Freedland speaks to the political scientist Barbara Walter about the tactics the Trump administration is using against protesters

Archive: CBS News, CBS News Chicago, PBS Newshour, CNN, WHAS11, Global News, KREM 2 News, Inside Edition, Today

Four out of five secondary school teachers surveyed say they have heard perplexing viral phrase called out

• Teachers: how are you coping with the ‘six-seven’ craze?

Teachers call it “the most brain dead meme” but six-seven slang has invaded classrooms across the UK, with students even painting the numbers on their faces and leaving staff perplexed.

A survey of 10,000 teachers found that four out of five working in secondary schools had heard the viral phrase called out last week, with the percentage soaring to 90% among younger teachers.

Rhun ap Iorwerth’s party, which wants Wales to become independent, seizes Senedd seat after Reform UK challenge

• Caerphilly byelection result – live updates

Plaid Cymru has won the Caerphilly byelection in south Wales, a dramatic result signalling a sharp realignment in Welsh politics with repercussions for the whole of Britain.

Rhun ap Iorwerth’s party, which wants Wales to become independent, seized the Senedd (Welsh parliament) constituency from Labour and resisted a fierce challenge from Reform UK.

Exclusive: Treasury discussions include possibly adding 1p to basic rate or raising higher or additional tax rates

Rachel Reeves is considering raising income tax at next month’s budget to help reduce a multibillion pound shortfall, sources have told the Guardian.

The chancellor is in active discussions over breaking one of her party’s main manifesto pledges as she looks for ways to clear an estimated shortfall of more than £30bn, according to three sources close to the budget process.

Exclusive: In fresh controversy, the women write to Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood to speak up for safeguarding minister

• UK politics live – latest updates

Five survivors invited on to the child sexual exploitation inquiry panel have written to the prime minister to say they will continue working with the investigation only if the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, remains in post.

The women have contacted Keir Starmer and the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, outlining a range of conditions for their continued participation. They say Phillips has “devoted her life to hearing and amplifying the voices of women and girls who would have otherwise been unheard”.

Highly unusual court application alleges more than 10 individuals breached foreign enlistment laws

A human rights group has launched an attempt to mount a private prosecution alleging British citizens unlawfully went to fight for Israel.

An application to a magistrates court for a summons against a named individual was lodged on Monday.