A fast-moving wildfire burning near Yosemite national park is threatening rural communities as millions of people in California and across the US west swelter under a brutal heatwave that is predicted to persist through the weekend.

The French fire broke out on Thursday and grew to more than 900 acres (364 hectares) by Friday afternoon. The fire is 15% contained with “multiple evacuations and road closures in place”, according to local fire officials.

Footage posted on social media showed flames and smoke billowing on Thursday night over the Gold-Rush era town of Mariposa, a community in the Sierra Nevada foothills about 40 miles outside the national park. The area is under an excessive heat alert with temperatures due to top 100F (38C) on Friday.

Bulldozers and crews built a line across the entire eastern side of Mariposa and are making progress in bringing the fire under control.

“Winds have calmed which has helped firefighters make progress overnight,” according to a status report from Cal Fire, the state’s wildfire agency.

The fire is one of more than a dozen burning across the state, including several that broke out on the Fourth of July. Further north, firefighters were gaining ground against the Thompson fire near the city of Oroville in Butte County, which has burned more than 3,700 acres and prompted evacuation orders for thousands of people.

On Friday, containment of the Thompson fire had increased to 29% and evacuated residents were allowed to return home as crews continue to battle the flames in scorching heat. Officials have warned of hot temperatures in the area that could hit 108F, with even hotter weather expected into the weekend.

California has faced a number of spring and early summer wildfires, thanks to a wet winter that left landscapes coated in grasses that were primed to burn as the summer heated up.

The excessive heat will only dry out the landscapes further, adding to the threat of an active wildfire season in the months ahead. Officials had feared that fireworks and other Fourth of July celebrations would add to the risks.

“The combination of events has presented a huge challenge for firefighters. It is so incredibly dry out there,” said Ed Fletcher, a public information officer with Cal Fire, this week.

Meanwhile, residents across the US west are dealing with stifling temperatures. About 108 million Americans will spend the remainder of the weekend under excessive heat advisories, with record-breaking temperatures forecast for many spots in California, southern Oregon and the south-west, the National Weather Service said.

“Numerous record-breaking temperatures can be expected through the next few days,” according to a NWS briefing. The west coast will hover 15 to 30F above average, with many towns and cities reaching close to 110F (43C) or above on Friday.

“Expect only subtle changes to our daily high temperatures through the weekend,” the National Weather Service in Flagstaff, Arizona, said on X.

“Where did you go, monsoon? Hurry back,” it said, referring to a recent bout of torrential rain in the area, which is usually bone-dry this time of year.

Some of the hottest spots will include Phoenix, where it is expected to be 115F (46C), and Palm Springs, California, where it will reach 119F (48C). Las Vegas is expected to hit 118F on Monday, potentially breaking an all-time record.

Elsewhere, ferocious heat will also prevail from Mississippi to Florida, and north along the east coast to Pennsylvania, where temperatures will exceed 100F (38C).

The National Weather Service warned that hot overnight conditions across the Mississippi Valley could lead to “a dangerous situation for those without access to adequate cooling”.

More on extreme heat and wildfires in the US

Robert F Kennedy Jr has made a startling pledge to not “take sides” with respect to the September 11 terrorist attacks if his long-shot presidential campaign vaults him to the White House.

“My take on 9/11: It’s hard to tell what is a conspiracy theory and what isn’t. But conspiracy theories flourish when the government routinely lies to the public,” Kennedy wrote on Friday in a post on X in reference to the deadliest terrorist attack ever aimed at the US. “As president I won’t take sides on 9/11 or any of the other debates.

“But I can promise … that I will open the files and usher in a new era of transparency.”

The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001 after terrorists hijacked and crashed passenger planes into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington DC and a field in Pennsylvania.

Kennedy’s decision to revisit one of the most traumatic subjects in American history came just three days after the noted conspiracy theorist responded to an allegation that he sexually assaulted a babysitter previously in his employ by saying: “I’m not a church boy” and “I am who I am.”

That allegation – reported in Vanity Fair – came amid growing scrutiny of his independent run for president, which has fueled worries among Democrats and Republicans that he could decide November’s election by pulling votes away from Joe Biden, Donald Trump or both in key states.

Friday’s statement on X was not the first time Kennedy had expressed dubiousness about the US’s official account of 9/11. In a podcast interview in September, he refused to say al-Qaida carried out the attacks – as the terrorist organization acknowledged and investigators determined long ago.

Kennedy wrote on Friday that he was prompted to speak out by a recent report from the CBS news program 60 Minutes which chronicled how a man identified by the FBI as a Saudi intelligence agent filmed locations in the center of Washington just three months before 9/11.

A court action from family members of September 11 victims, who contend that the Saudi government was complicit in the terrorist attacks, brought the footage to light. Saudi rulers deny the victims’ families’ claims.

For his part, Kennedy on Friday described himself as “agnostic” concerning 9/11, so-called UFOs “and other contentious topics”.

“My issue is transparency,” Kennedy added in a related follow-up post on X.

Kennedy is polling at less than 10% of the national vote and is highly unlikely to win the presidency, according to FiveThirtyEight’s average.

His relation to his father, Robert F Kennedy – the New York senator who was assassinated in 1968 – and uncle John F Kennedy, who was president at the time of his 1963 assassination, has afforded his campaign attention. So has his marriage to actor and comedian Cheryl Hines.

In addition to his 9/11 skepticism, peddling falsehoods about Covid-19 and vaccine safety has seemingly undermined Kennedy’s effort to attract wider support. And so have outlandish claims such as linking antidepressants to school shootings and asserting that certain chemicals in water make children transgender.

The 27 June presidential debate – marked by a calamitous Biden performance that left his party in a panic as well as Trump’s rapid-fire delivery of lies and half-truths – did little to improve Kennedy’s standing.

A recent HarrisX/Forbes poll found a paltry 18% of voters were more likely to vote for a third-party candidate after the debate.

“Whatever shaking of the box happened with the debate, these voters aren’t really yet thinking about RFK Jr or any of the third-party candidates,” HarrisX chief executive officer Dritan Nesho later said. “None of the tickets are prominent enough at this stage to be able to capture a good share of vote – at least that’s what we’re seeing in polls right now.”

Germany’s second summer fairy tale is over but Spain’s goes on, Stuttgart stunned at the last. With 65 seconds of extra time remaining, penalties looking inevitable and players ­pulling up all over the pitch, barely able to walk, Dani Olmo clipped in a ­glorious ball and there, deep in the penalty area, was Mikel Merino. A turn of the head, a twist of the neck and the selección were on their way to the semi-final, on the verge of finally defeating a tournament host at the tenth attempt.

On their way, which is not to say they were there just yet. Still they had to survive a scare – how could it be otherwise after an evening such as this, lived on the edge? – when Niclas Füllkrug headed past a post a ­minute into added time. And there was another one, four minutes beyond the 120, when with the very last kick of the game, the very last kick of Toni Kroos’s entire career, they faced one final delivery into their box. Manuel Neuer was up for that. So though was Unai Simón, clutching the ball and Spain’s place in the next round.

What an exhausting, bruising evening it had been, a game of 41 shots and 16 yellow cards, a red too right at the end when Dani Carvajal, as desperate as they all were, hauled down Jamal Musiala to set up what might have been a dramatic twist on the dramatic twist. It could have belonged to either of them. In the end, though, it belonged to Spain, who had resisted a modern Germany and the old Germany too.

They will have to count their men back in but there will be time to ­consider that, to work out how it had happened. For now what mattered was that they had made it. The hosts will ask the same question, from the other side. How? Twice they hit the post and there could been a late ­penalty too as inside this roaring, tense place, the feeling grew that this was one of those moments that mean you never write off the Germans. Behind early in the second half, they had pushed until they drew level on 89; with Spain either forced back, or taking refuge, they had seemed the more likely to win a wild, open game.

This had been presented as the best teams at the tournament ­taking a look in the mirror. Luis de la Fuente insisted on their similarities and so too had Julian Nagelsmann: two sides good in possession and ­transition, employing a high press and the ­counter-press; what awaited, ­Nagelsmann said, was a match “as interesting as everyone thinks.” What awaited, it turned out, was a bit of a battle too.

In the opening three minutes, while the smell of sulphur still ­lingered, Emre Can, Marc Cucurella and Pedri all went down. The first of those led to the first chance: by ­seeking the foul, Can allowed Spain to advance, Fabián Ruiz, Nico ­Williams and Álvaro Morata setting up a ­shooting position for Pedri. The last led to an early departure: Kroos sent Pedri flying, leaving the Spain midfielder limping off in tears.

Kroos had been fortunate to escape a booking then and a few ­minutes later he trod on Lamine Yamal, a glimpse of the intensity that ­Nagelsmann hinted at – even if the coach had quickly added that his team were not planning to kick Lamine Yamal “out of his socks”. On the touchline, De la Fuente was in the ear of the fourth official. On the pitch, the players were quick into each other, Antonio Rüdiger next into Olmo as he dashed through.

This was a game of moments, ­frantic, spaces only occasionally opening, chances hurried. Kroos could not control, Can lost the ball. In the chaos Rodri remained calm and Ruiz would emerge too. ­Williams could not be contained, but nor could he be decisive yet. Spain were quick to shoot, sometimes too quick. ­Germany worked a couple of chances for Kai Havertz: a header that Simón saved and then a scuffed shot from the edge of the area.

Spain almost led when Lamine Yamal found Morata who spun and struck over, and then did when the 16-year-old was next involved. Again, the fear could be felt, David Raum reluctant to be drawn too close. And so, Lamine Yamal slowed and set up Olmo, cool as you like. Arriving from deeper, the timing of the run as ­perfect as Lamine Yamal’s pass, Olmo swept past Neuer.

Füllkrug came on, gesturing to the fans. The noise rose, the style shifted. Florian Wirtz bent past the post. Spain were under pressure, the changes De la Fuente made speaking of resistance. ­Füllkrug was the target, a gravitational pull of his own. He set up Robert Andrich for a shot that Simón saved superbly and Havertz for another that Carvajal dived to block, then headed wide. When Wirtz escaped and crossed, he turned a shot against the post.

Simón then gifted an ­opportunity to Havertz who curled over him towards the open goal but over. Still, though, they came. This is ­Germany. A moment’s calm from Kroos, a superb cross from Max Mittelstädt and Joshua Kimmich’s header set up Wirtz with a minute to go and he struck in off the post to take them to extra time. There, Germany carried the weight of the game. The pitch felt huge, but so too was the effort to traverse it.

Mikel Oyarzabal flashed wide and Thomas Müller set up Wirtz but his shot spun past the post. Musiala’s goalbound shot was stopped by Cucurella’s hand, Füllkrug hit wide, and so did Oyarzabal, then Simon brilliantly saved Füllkrug’s diving header. And then came Merino’s moment, history made.

The opening scene of the popular F/X drama The Bear’s latest season opens with troubled chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto gazing at a deep scar in his hand. He vaguely explains its origin to his doctor girlfriend, Claire; the now-healed injury seems like nothing much to him. Attuned to what Carmy leaves unsaid, she asks if the wound hurt so much that he couldn’t feel it at the time.

That delayed pain applies to Carmy’s other wounds: the mental health damage sustained in an abusive kitchen and a harsh upbringing. But now he’s passing his trauma on to his own restaurant staff as he pushes them toward their breaking points.

The symbolism of Carmy’s scar is not limited to his chaotic past. It’s a direct example of the wellness of restaurant and hospitality workers. Because whether you are a dishwasher, pastry chef or prep cook, one universal truth of this work is its physically demanding nature.

I found this out firsthand 11 years ago during my first post-culinary school job. Like many of my fellow graduates, I was ambitious: while carrying a tattered copy of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, I devoured the industry’s Eurocentric standards and histories of chefs such as Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Jacques Torres and Daniel Boulud (who made a cameo on The Bear this season, among other elite chefs). I was hungry like a nursing infant, greedy for life in the kitchen.

At a New York City restaurant famous for brunch and celebrity sightings, I met a line cook who suffered an injury that made me gasp. She accidentally dropped a gas cartridge, used in commercial whipped cream dispensers, into a vat of boiling sugar. It exploded in her face, leaving a deep and profound scar puckering down her forehead to her chin.

The reality of what food service actually entails struck me when the line cook returned to work the day after her injury. I mulled the question all cooks contemplate at some time: do I have enough physical and mental endurance to make something of myself in this industry? Even as series such as The Bear show us the pressures of working the “back of house”, they rarely depict how a life in cooking can ravage a body. To the contrary, they tend to romanticize the daily corporeal struggle.

In reality, shifts are filled with hazards and the prospect of pain. Knuckles licked by flames. Slippery floors. Threats to limbs from the giant Hobart mixer. Repetitive motion injuries from butchering meat or segmenting overflowing bins of citrus. And looming over it all might be a belligerent chef who could verbally eviscerate the staff or even physically assault them over an unfortunate mistake.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 93,800 nonfatal injuries and illnesses were reported in full-service restaurants in 2019. And that number doesn’t include the experiences of laborers who bore their pain silently.

A month into my first season as a line cook, I was beat down from an exhausting day that started with a 5am commute and ended after 5pm. Fatigue was my constant companion. My feet felt as if they had been pierced by shards of glass. I developed golf ball-sized cysts that were later diagnosed as polycystic ovarian syndrome; the job didn’t cause them, but stress certainly aggravated them. Despite days of hard physical work, I was encouraged to skip “family meals” – the free work food offered to employees – to finish my prep. If I found a snack to quell my hunger, I was ordered to eat it crouched down and out of patrons’ view; the sight of a chewing chef is a big offense.

I was 21 and unable to navigate power in the kitchen or protect my wellbeing. We were taught to say “Yes, chef” automatically in culinary school. But we learned very little about how to work in a kitchen and live a healthy life at the same time.

I remember two pieces of candid advice from class: “Find a new hobby because now that your hobby is your career, you’ll need a new creative outlet” and “don’t lock your knees” when standing at your station for hours at a time. That was the extent of my “physical education” in culinary school.

Chef Dawn Sloan of Houston worked in fine dining restaurants in California and Spain; after returning stateside, she created the popular Soul Taco food truck, which she is planning to relaunch as a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

When I asked her for tips to stay healthy on the job, she said, more than a little seriously: “Buy your back brace now.” Still, she feels lucky to do something as risky as opening a restaurant because she once didn’t know if she would be able to work restaurants again after a health scare.

While running a flat-top grill in the middle of a shift at a legendary three-Michelin star Spanish eatery, she experienced an unexpected and serious health crisis. “I was warming something up to go out on a plate, and all of a sudden I couldn’t see. I thought it must’ve been because I was tired. But [the extreme blurriness] didn’t go away.” Her retina had detached from the back of her eye.

She continued to work, groping her way through service. Only after finishing food for about 100 patrons did Sloan share what happened with her colleagues and seek help. All the while, she was arguing with her peers. She told them, “Don’t call an ambulance. You don’t call an ambulance to a three-star restaurant” and disrupt its image of calm efficiency. What followed was months of surgeries and foreign hospital visits.

Why are chefs and other staff so willing to work through mental and physical afflictions in the kitchen? The main reasons are practical: low wages, lack of insurance, fear of losing their jobs or accusations that they just can’t cut it. And as chef Thérèse Nelson told me: “For a lot of folks who’ve been attracted to this profession through hyperstylized aesthetics in television shows, people are influenced to see the lack of self-care as a badge of honor.”

Her observation made me wonder: how can this change in a sector that essentially expects its workers to use their bodies like athletes do?

I found a bit of hope when I spoke to Christian Hunter. He’s co-owner and culinary director of Chicago restaurant Atelier, which has earned a coveted Michelin star and garnered him a nomination for a regional James Beard Foundation award for best chef in 2023. He said: “I’m very ambitious, but not at the cost of my team. I rely on them.”

Hunter offers intentional connection as a counter to the hypermasculine and hierarchical world of professional kitchens, whose organization is modeled after military brigades and often ruled by an eat-or-be-eaten philosophy.

“You need to ask yourself if you care about these people,” said Hunter. “I try my best to spend time with my team and connect outside of work.” He also monitors how much his team is working in an industry where 60-hour weeks are not uncommon. A rested laborer is less likely to hurt themselves or make mistakes, and just as a healthy animal makes for better meat, a healthy chef will make a better meal.

In Los Angeles, food stylist and culinary producer Alyssa Noui noticed a need to support industry workers experiencing duress from life in and outside the kitchen. Noui, who mostly deals with the “glamorous” side of food, hosts semimonthly industry check-in events with Southern Smoke Foundation, an initiative to provide food and beverage workers with free mental health services and access to an emergency fund.

“The check-in events have been a soft place to land within some of the discomforts the industry imposes while celebrating the passion that keeps us coming back to it,” she said.

Nelson, founder of the Black Culinary History project, understands both sides. She said: “The kitchen is one of the few places that I feel whole and able to test my own excellence.” But it also may be where she developed chronic asthma and “the lungs of a smoker” despite never having smoked a day in her life. The chef and author spent years working the grill station at hotel restaurants; she chose those restaurants intentionally because she found that large hospitality workplaces tended to have human resources departments, better hours and insurance that many independent, elite or small restaurants lack.

Nelson said restaurant workers’ health should be the concern of everyone who is a part of the operation. And every operation should have some kind of wellness plan that goes beyond its first-aid or emergency policy. Entrepreneurs who open and own these establishments “need to be mindful of their staff’s health and the financial investment of care plans”. Creating more humane workplaces costs money, and she added those same restaurateurs will need to factor such expenses into their profit models and be clear “with customers why the branzino might be $45” to support staff health.

Medical benefits are but one part of a wellness plan. It can also mean creating a work culture in which people have freedom to pause without shame.

Seattle restaurateur and James Beard emerging chef nominee Kristi Brown holds regular self-care check-ins with her staff at her noted eatery, Communion. Meditation is a part of manager meetings and also at a Sunday pre-shift meeting because she believes mindfulness aids “mental and spiritual clarity”.

Saying “it is my intention to give as many tools as possible for folks to take care of themselves”, Brown plans on backing up the breathing exercises with enhanced benefits. Her goal is to pay 100% of her staff’s insurance premiums within the next two years – up from the 50% she now covers for employees working at least 28 hours a week.

It ended as it began. With Downing Street under grey leaden skies. Someone’s idea of a cosmic joke. Only this time the rain had eased to a light drizzle rather than a torrential downpour. If you’re a Tory, you take your blessings where you find them on days like these.

First to leave was Jeremy Hunt. The walk of shame from No 11 with his wife and children into the back of a grey people carrier. No more government limos. The change of government can be brutal. No hiding place for the defeated. He managed the odd half-hearted smile towards the press. Nothing remotely convincing.

Only his dog looked thrilled to be returning to life in the home counties. The walkies are so much better in Godalming. Nicer smells. More sticks. Jezza may have been a distinctly average chancellor – the numbers and the spreadsheets were always beyond him – but his departure had been a model of graciousness. His winning speech at his declaration pitch perfect.

In time Jezza may get to appreciate the relative obscurity. Steve Baker claimed to be gagging for it. Couldn’t wait to be rid of Westminster. “I’m outta here,” he said. He’ll get 4 July tattooed on his arm. Hard to know if this was just another manifestation of his never-ending midlife crisis.

Meanwhile, Liz Truss departed this political life in a flurry of indifference towards her constituents. The feeling was mutual. She was slow hand-clapped at her count. A dismal end to a dismal prime minister. But I’ll miss her nonetheless. Where will Popular Conservatism be without the woman who made it so Unpopular? Her unknowing sense of the absurd was comedy gold.

Still, not entirely good news for the Tories. Much to the disappointment of his colleagues, Richard Holden won by 20 votes in Basildon and Billericay. No greater love hath any man than this, that he lay down his friends for his seat.

Shortly before Rishi Sunak stepped out of No 10 to make his own resignation speech, you could hear a faint ripple of applause from inside. It was either his staff showing their appreciation or an ovation for Larry the cat, who was adding yet another notch to the doorpost. This is the fifth prime minister he has seen off. Larry is one of politics’ great survivors. Been there, seen it, name on the T-shirt.

Near the security gates, you could just hear a few protesters outside singing “goodbye, auf wiedersehen, adieu”. It felt more like a Pavlovian response than heartfelt dissent. They were there because they were there because they were there. Not long after, Rish! appeared from No 10 for the last time. Followed by his wife. Being the partner of a high-profile politician can be demeaning. Reduced to the status of a trophy.

Nothing became Sunak quite so much as his departure. He began with an apology. Several apologies, in fact. To the country, for having messed up. For having allowed the division and decline to continue. To his Tory colleagues who had had their careers ended by his own shortcomings. Though, to be fair, many of them must also take responsibility for their actions. They knew the party was lurching to the unelectable right and yet they chose to do nothing.

There was a brief nod to his own achievements – mostly imagined, but we can allow him a spell of denial at such a time – before he reminded us of the destruction of the Boris Johnson and Liz Truss administrations. Realistically there was no coming back from them once Rish! had failed to disown them at the time.

Finally, some kind and thoughtful words about the innate decency of Keir Starmer and his pride in the country. Where had this Sunak been for the last 20 months? Had we seen more of this gentler Rish!, we might have been more inclined to give him a break. We might even have got to like him a bit. Instead he played the tetchy, rightwing provocateur and we all saw through him.

There was silence as he made his way to the waiting car. This was a personal grief on which no one wanted to intrude. “Oh dear, oh dear,” said the king as Sunak made his final trip to the palace. There wasn’t much else to say.

Two hours later, the union jack umbrellas were out in force as Labour staffers lined Downing Street. The media operation was in overdrive. This wasn’t just a landslide for those who had voted Labour on Thursday. This was a government for the whole country. No one would be left behind. Everyone was welcome. Fourteen years of austerity, infighting, partying, incompetence and division had come to an end. The country could once again be proud of itself. Allow itself to believe in a future. Give hope a chance.

Then the ultimate kick in the teeth for Sunak. The sun came out. Of course it did. Poor Rish! has never managed to buy an even break. Crowds lined the streets. Waved flags and cheered as Starmer returned from the palace after being invited to form the government. It was a moment when you just knew that England were going to beat Switzerland 3-0 in the quarter-finals of the Euros on Saturday. New Starmer, New England.

It took an age for Keir and his wife, Vic, to shake hands and hug his supporters inside Downing Street. Starmer even managed to break into the occasional smile. About as close to happy as he gets. Though his main emotion was relief.

This was the culmination of four and a half years’ hard work. Turning a beaten, unelectable party into a potential government. Power not protest. And for the last six months he had known he was so, so close. But not quite daring to believe. Now he could relax. Not just a majority but a super-majority. The moaners could moan but the numbers spoke for themselves. The country had got what it voted for. Dreams do come true.

This was to be a good day for speeches. You wait ages for one and three come along at once. Starmer was modest, inclusive. Not a hint of triumphalism. No “I told you sos”. His mission wasn’t to reach out to his supporters. It was to make the non-believers believe. Dignity, respect. Stability, moderation. A government unburdened by dogma, no more noisy performance. Keir would tread lightly on our lives. It’s been an age since we’ve heard a prime minister talk to us like that. He may have campaigned in prose. But in his first hour in office he had governed in poetry.

More hugs, more cheers. Then Keir and Vic went inside. There was work to be done. The future started now.

• Guardian Newsroom: Election results special. On Friday 5 July, 7.30pm-9pm BST, join Hugh Muir, Gaby Hinsliff, John Crace, Jonathan Freedland and Zoe Williams for unrivalled analysis of the general election results. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live.

Immersive research into the everyday lives of normal people conducted by the actor Kevin Bacon has revealed some startling results: it’s not as good as being a celebrity.

Speaking to Vanity Fair, Bacon said he had long hankered after the anonymity of the everyman, so commissioned a prosthetics specialist to enable him to do so.

“I’m not complaining,” he said, “but I have a face that’s pretty recognisable. Putting my hat and glasses on is only going to work to a certain extent.”

He continued: “I went to a special effects makeup artist, had consultations, and asked him to make me a prosthetic disguise.”

Kitted out with fake teeth, a different nose and a pair of glasses, the actor trialled his new look at a shopping mall in Los Angeles called The Grove. To his delight, he discovered that “nobody recognised me”.

Yet the newfound freedom soon palled as Bacon discovered the downsides of invisibility.

“People were kind of pushing past me, not being nice,” he said. “Nobody said, ‘I love you.’ I had to wait in line to buy a fucking coffee or whatever. I was like, This sucks. I want to go back to being famous.”

Bacon, now 65, made his screen debut 46 years ago, in National Lampoon’s Animal House, before starring in the likes of Diner, Footloose, A Few Good Men, JFK, The River Wild and Tremors. He has also featured in films such as The Woodsman, Patriots Day and TV series I Love Dick and City on a Hill.

His industry ubiquity spawned the parlour game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, which challenges players to trace anyone in showbiz back to Bacon in six names or fewer.

Other celebrities rumoured to have gone undercover using similar strategies include Ellen DeGeneres (as a keen shopper), Daniel Radcliffe (as a dog walker), Arnold Schwarzenegger (as a gym instructor) and Chris Pratt (as a Chris Pratt lookalike).

Meanwhile celebrities who have admitted how much they enjoy the trappings of notoriety include Noel Gallagher, Catherine Deneuve and Billie Eilish.

In 2019, Christina Ricci declared: “I’m not going to lie, I like being famous. I like being well respected. I like that people don’t laugh when they hear my name. I like being able to get tables at restaurants and discounts on clothes. My life is exactly the life that I wanted for myself.”

The former governor of Arizona, once a Trump surrogate in the swing state, is now speaking up to defend the state’s elections as election denialism continues to grip Republican politics.

Jan Brewer, the Republican governor from 2009 to 2015, signed an infamous anti-immigration law, which reverberated in state politics and affected the state’s reputation for years. She was secretary of state, which oversees elections, before becoming governor.

She is, by no means, a centrist, though those to her right now call her a Rino, a Republican In Name Only. She said she’s had enough of a spate of election lies coming from her party in recent years – though she’s also quick to note that Democrats have spread election doubts in the past, too.

In recent weeks, she wrote an op-ed in the Arizona Republic, the state’s largest daily newspaper, to call on Republicans to stop attacking elections, writing that she wants to “pull us back from the brink of election denialism, and get back to focusing on actual policy so we can win elections with our conservative ideas”.

She’s joined with two organizations, RightCount and the Democracy Defense Project, to publicly defend elections, alongside other Republicans and people across the political spectrum. She’s also endorsed Maricopa county candidates in Republican primaries who stood up to their party against intense pressure to overturn the 2020 election results.

“You have to stand up and defend the integrity of our electoral system, because that’s what unites us,” she said in an interview with the Guardian. “It’s so important that people understand that.”

Arizona remains a hotbed for election denialism, with major Republican primary candidates maintaining their elections were stolen in 2022 and Trump’s was stolen in 2020. The issue holds a grip on Republican activists, who can sway primaries. And groups like Turning Point USA, based in Arizona, fuel the distrust in elections.

The election situation in Arizona is “out of control”, Brewer said.

“I just hope that we get our state back together and that we preserve our democracy and we save our Republican party, because obviously this is destroying it,” she said. “And if they want Republicans elected, then they’ve got to accept that how that happens is through elections. And we’ve got to assure them, and they’ve got to realize, that our elections are fair, or we won’t have Republicans elected.”

Why speak out now?

We’re hearing these conspiracies, as far as I’m concerned, about elections being stolen, and it was wrong, and that there were terrible things taking place at the polls, and it just went on and on and on. As the prior chief of elections, I knew the procedures that are taken to prevent that. We wrote the election procedure manual. We did the [logic and accuracy] tests. It just was undermining our democracy. And I thought, well, somebody needs to stand up. Other people have stood up too, but I stood up and said a few things, and all of a sudden, everybody kind of listened. These false claims, widespread voter fraud, it just absolutely erodes our elections, and it undermines our democracy.

To be clear, do you think the 2020 election was stolen?

No.

And you have faith in how things are running in Arizona at this time?

There’s always been hiccups, but never to the extent of changing the numbers on the election. I mean, we’ve seen it over and over again, but you’re dealing with human error, you’re dealing with sometimes equipment error, but usually it is rectified immediately, and you can take care of it.

Why do you think doubting election results has become such a sticking point, especially for Republicans in recent years? Why is it still lingering?

Well, I think because they want to win. They want to be the winner, so if they can’t win the election, then they want to say that it was stolen from them. I don’t know, you’d have to ask them why they do it. I just believe that we just need to defend our electoral system, it’s as simple as that, from distrust. We need to speak up, and our politicians need to speak up, and whether it’s left or right, sowing that kind of mistrust and doubt is not good – it’s not good for us, it’s not good for the people out there running, it’s not good for the United States. It certainly is not good for free and fair and democratic elections.

Why do you think election denialism has been so big in Arizona? Is it just because Republicans have been losing in recent years?

I wish I could tell you. I don’t know. It’s just, it’s out of control. I don’t know why. It goes way back when, and it is on both sides. It’s been on both sides. Don’t lay it just on the Republicans, but that happens to be the people that are doing it currently, because we lost the presidency. We had some heated races in Arizona and some of the losers claimed that they were stolen, and they went through all these court cases and they didn’t win and they didn’t have the proof. And evidently, they don’t trust our judicial system either.

So have you seen this level of election doubt before?

No, no, never, no.

Is that why you’re speaking out now? It just reached a fever pitch for you?

I think so. I hope more people speak out. It’s so important.People need to know that they’re vote counts. I mean, none of the cases and the claims have been founded. Yeah, there was an issue with a machine or two breaking down. It got repaired. There was an issue, maybe, with the paper size, but it didn’t change the election. It wasn’t enough. So you have to be realistic. And they make up things. The people here, some of them want voter ID at the polls. Well, we have voter ID at the polls. I implemented that when I was secretary of state in the Help America Vote Act. So there’s just a lot of misinformation out there, misguided claims.

The claims are just outrageous. And the abuse of some of those elected officials, like the board of supervisors and the county recorder and the election workers at the polling places, it’s just been awful. Why would anybody want to serve?

What role do you think Trump plays in that? Isn’t that election denialism coming from the top?

He unfortunately planted the seed that his election was stolen. I didn’t agree with him. I thought that he lost.

Have you talked with him about it?

No.

What can be done to move forward? As a society, how do we move beyond this?

The only thing that I know that has to be done is we need people to stand up and talk about it and move on. This is ruining the Republican Party at this point in time. It’s undermining our elections, and if we don’t stop it, the end is that people won’t vote. And who will that hurt if they don’t vote? It will hurt the Republican Party. We need every vote that we can get at the polls.

For those people that believe in early voting, then they can vote early and trust the system that their vote is counted. I mean, I was not a big supporter way back when I was in the legislature, when they wanted to have early voting, I thought it was important that we go to the polls on Election Day. But as you get older and wiser, and the state grows, and people have more obligations and responsibility, people are sick, they can’t get there. We lead the country in early voting.

Are you going to vote for Trump again this year?

He’s our nominee.

Is that a yes?

Yes.

How do you reconcile that?

He did a lot of good when he was president. I just hope that if and when he wins, that it doesn’t all evolve again. Of course, if he wins, then I guess they’ll think the election is okay.

Does it seem like in Arizona, that there are Republicans who agree with you, who are just afraid of the wrath of the other Republicans?

I know that for a fact, because they talk to me. They’re afraid. You don’t hear people winning, saying it was a rigged election. Look at all the people that say that the presidential election was rigged, but the ones serving in the legislature, I guess your election was okay? It just doesn’t make sense.

Are you at all afraid of any repercussions from the Republican party in Arizona?

I’ve been around a long time. I’ve got a lot of friends. And I get some interesting text messages and stuff, [like] ‘our friendship goes back a long ways, I’m sorry we disagree, I think we can do it in a civil manner’ and try to talk people into seeing at least some of your points. If we keep that dialogue going and are able to talk to one another, and if they’re willing to listen, I’m willing to listen, maybe we can get above and around all of this.

The Labour party’s thumping general election victory, which ended 14 years of Conservative party rule in the UK, drew congratulations from leaders around the world – and reminded Keir Starmer of the complex global challenges he will have to navigate as prime minister.

Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, said he looked forward to cooperating with the new British government as the war in Gaza continues.

“As he prepares to enter Downing Street as prime minister, I look forward to working together with him and his new government to bring our hostages home, to build a better future for the region, and to deepen the close friendship,” he said.

Herzog also expressed his “deepest appreciation and gratitude” to the outgoing prime minister, Rishi Sunak, “for his leadership and for standing with the Israeli people especially during this most difficult period”.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, congratulated Starmer and said his country and the UK would continue to be “reliable allies through thick and thin”, adding: “We will continue to defend and advance our common values of life, freedom, and a rules-based international order.”

Zelenskiy also made a point of thanking Sunak for helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia.

Kaja Kallas, the prime minister of Estonia and who is poised to become the EU’s top diplomat, sent a message stressing the importance of “common security” – an allusion to the growing fears prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Congratulations on your historic election victory@Keir Starmer,” Kallas wrote on X. “Estonia and the UK are the strongest of allies and the closest of friends. The UK’s commitment to our common security is valued by every Estonian.”

The European Council president, Charles Michel, congratulated Starmer on his triumph, which came just over eight years after the UK voted to leave the EU.

“The EU and the UK are crucial partners, cooperating in all areas of mutual interest for our citizens,” he wrote on X. “I look forward to working with you and your government in this new cycle for the UK.” Michel said the shared challenges ahead included stability, security, energy and migration.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European commission, said she looked forward to working with Starmer in “a constructive partnership to address common challenges and strengthen European security”.

Emmanuel Macron – who faces his own day of reckoning on Sunday as France heads to the polls for the second round of the snap legislative elections on which he has gambled his political future – said he and Starmer would “continue the work begun with the UK for our bilateral cooperation, for peace and security in Europe, for the climate and for AI”.

The Irish taioseach, Simon Harris, stressed the importance of his country’s relationship with its neighbour and said it was time for “a great reset”. He added: “This morning from Dublin, I want to send a message to London that I will match Keir Starmer’s commitment and energy to our peace process and to our future potential in so many areas.”

Narendra Modi, who last month won a third term as India’s prime minister, offered Starmer his “heartiest congratulations and best wishes”, while Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, congratulated the new PM on a “historic victory” and urged him to roll up his sleeves.

“Lots of work ahead to build a more progressive, fair future for people on both sides of the Atlantic,” he said. “Let’s get to it, my friend.”

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said: “Congratulations to my friend and new UK prime minister on his resounding election victory – I look forward to working constructively with the incoming government.”

New Zealand’s prime minister, Christopher Luxon, said he was looking forward to “working on every opportunity together as prime ministers” and thanked Sunak for his “service to your nation and friendship to New Zealand”.

The election of a centre-left leader goes against the tide of recent European elections, in which the far right has made huge strides.

In last month’s European parliament elections, populist parties made significant gains in countries including Italy, France, Austria, Hungary and Germany, where Olaf Scholz’s Socialist Democratic party slid to its worst result in a national election.

In France, Emmanuel Macron called snap elections after his centrist alliance was trounced in the poll; Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is now on the cusp of becoming the biggest parliamentary party and potentially forming France’s first far-right government after gaining the most votes in the first round of the national election.

Thursday’s election in the UK also comes four months before Americans go to the polls to choose between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Starmer’s victory also led many international headlines on Friday morning. The New York Times offered a straight appraisal of the results, “Labour party wins UK election in a landslide”, but noted both Starmer’s “remarkable turnaround” of his party and the fact that Nigel Farage, “a supporter of Donald Trump and a driving force behind Brexit”, had won a seat.

Germany’s Die Welt offered a pithy precis – “Tories experience ‘massacre’, Labour have clear victory; ‘Mr. Brexit’ returns” – while France’s Le Monde said Labour’s “historic victory” was evidence of “the thorough reconstruction of the British political landscape”.

In Spain, where the far-right Vox is the third biggest party in parliament, La Vanguardia noted the strong showing by Farage’s Reform UK party: “Labour storms it while the far right makes spectacular gains in the UK.”

And, in an introduction to its Friday podcast, the online Spanish newspaper ElDiario was blunt in its appraisal of the state of the UK – and of Starmer’s Tory predecessors: “A country where nothing works like it used to, a historical power now full of cracks, a society that has fallen victim to its own decisions has voted for change after 14 years of Conservative rule, and for a progressive leader from a humble background without eccentricities.”

White storks could soon be wheeling in the skies above London and building their huge nests among towers, flats and spires as a result of new rewilding plans.

After the success of the charismatic birds’ successful reintroduction into southern England since 2016, a white stork working group has been established to seek out habitat and gauge the political will to reintroduce the birds to Greater London.

Citizen Zoo, a group specialising in community-led urban rewilding that helped establish the Ealing beaver project, which has just produced its first beaver kits, will examine places where the birds could be returned and engage with London boroughs and local community groups.

“We know we have habitat here, and there’s a lot of wetland restoration occurring across Greater London as well so hopefully the habitat opportunities are increasing over time,” said Elliot Newton, co-founder of Citizen Zoo. “We don’t know if it’s possible yet but how amazing would it be if white storks nested in St James’s Park, beside Buckingham Palace, as a symbol of ecological recovery in the capital?”

In 2020, storks bred in the wild in Britain for the first time since a pair was recorded nesting on the roof of St Giles’ cathedral in Edinburgh in 1416.

There have been 40 sightings of white storks visiting parts of the capital in recent years, and although the birds seek out insect-rich farmland and wetlands some nest on the fringes of large European cities including Munich and Lisbon.

In London, storks have been spotted at Beddington Farmlands nature reserve near Croydon and around Wandsworth Common.

White storks fly long distances as they migrate through Europe and more have been seen across southern and central Britain this summer. The increase in sightings in recent years is due to the success of the White Stork Project centred on the Knepp estate in West Sussex, 45 miles south of central London.

At Knepp, a flightless population of 30 birds brought over from a rescue centre in Poland has been used as a “magnet” to draw in wild storks flying overhead, and the birds have mixed and built nests in ancient oaks.

Last year saw the best-ever year for the storks, with 26 chicks fledging from 11 nests across the 3,500-acre estate. The British-born birds have dispersed widely along the south coast and into Europe, with one found breeding in the Netherlands.

The White Stork Project aims to establish a wider breeding population across Britain, and both it and Citizen Zoo see the birds, which are celebrated in many European cultures as symbols of good luck and fertility, as a way to reconnect urban people with wild species.

“White storks breed excitement,” said Newton. “We’re hoping to engage and motivate people to consider their reintroduction into London. It’s such a beautiful bird that people will recognise and see, and it can capture the imagination of people who might miss other species. It will be a symbol of ecological regeneration in urban spaces across the UK.”

Lucas Ruzo, chief executive of Citizen Zoo, said: “Their return will not only be about returning a species once lost, but also a poetic reminder of the bond between humanity and the natural world.”

Citizen Zoo has successfully led the reintroduction of the large marsh grasshopper into wetlands across East Anglia by encouraging hundreds of ordinary people to rear the insects in their houses for release into the wild.

Dressed in celestial white, her hair scraped back from her forehead, Tilda Swinton looks as serene and translucent as one of the aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The mothership has deposited her today on a striped cream sofa under a tree-filled window. “I’m in Scotland,” she tells me with crisply enunciated good cheer, before addressing the other face on our video call: Julio Torres, writer-director-star of the surreal new comedy Problemista, who just got back to Brooklyn after taking the film to Copenhagen and Guadalajara. “Julio, you probably don’t know where you are,” she says. “I’m fairly sure this is my apartment,” he replies, his youthful face and copper-tinted pixie-cut filling the screen.

The affinity between Swinton, the 63-year-old arthouse doyen and self-described “boyish, angular freak”, and Torres, the 37-year-old queer comic genius and ex-Saturday Night Live writer, is evident in the way they riff on each other’s gags, or swap favourite movie moments to mutual delight. Take it from me: you haven’t lived until you’ve heard Swinton spend two minutes painstakingly describing an old Austin Powers routine as Torres listens, wide-eyed and rapt.

They have gone from being online friends to collaborators and now besties (a week after our conversation, they are hanging out together at Glastonbury). Somewhere in between, they made Problemista, in which Torres transforms his experience of being a Salvadoran immigrant in New York City into a whirlwind comic fantasy with echoes of Jacques Tati, Terry Gilliam and Franz Kafka. Torres’s own visa declares him “an alien of extraordinary ability”, but the future looks shakier for his character, Alejandro, a budding toy designer who urgently needs a sponsor if he is to stay in the US. Failed applicants vanish instantly into thin air.

His potential saviour is the volatile art critic Elizabeth, played by Swinton with a West Country burr and a frizzy scarlet scare-do. She sees in this shuffling dogsbody the ideal assistant to help her mount an exhibition of egg paintings by her cryogenically-frozen late husband (played by Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA). As she dangles the promise of sponsorship, her demands on Alejandro become ever more onerous. She is, to put it mildly, a lot.

Swinton adores her. “One of the things I love about Elizabeth’s high-handedness is that we’ve seen this kind of autocratic behaviour before, but never out of the mouth of such a mess,” she says. “We’re used to that attitude coming from a perfect height, down a very clean slope, straight in the gullet.” Indeed, Elizabeth behaves as if she is Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, when in fact she is more like Meryl Streep in Ironweed. “She’s a wreck. There’s this rackety-ness to everybody in the film. They’re all hanging on by their nails.”

The character feels like a compendium of some of Swinton’s greatest hits: the bolshie magazine editor in Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck, the tyrannical deputy overlord in Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer and the alcoholic kidnapper in Erick Zonca’s thriller Julia. (“Oh, she was a hot mess,” Swinton agrees.) When Torres points out that Problemista is essentially a film about “a secondary character and a villain”, Swinton embraces the idea. “Not even a primary villain,” she adds, much to his giggly amusement.

Elizabeth is a woman of many grievances; something as minor as an abundance of walnuts on a cafe menu can set her off. Nothing like Swinton, then. “I’m hopeless at asking for what I want,” she says. “I have never, ever sent food back, and I never would. I’ve been with people who have, and it is mortifying.”

Torres shudders in sympathy. “It’s like, what do you do with your eyes?” he asks. “You just have to look down, right?” Swinton cringes back: “And then, what’s going to come out of the kitchen?”

The only time I’ve heard of Swinton displaying any remotely Elizabeth-like tendencies was on the set of Sally Potter’s groundbreaking Orlando more than 30 years ago. A mutual friend of ours, who happens to be American, erroneously referred to Swinton as English rather than British or Scottish; she responded by slapping him. “Well, I’ll slap myself on the back for that now,” she says. Then she warms to the schoolmarm image. “I mean, he should know better, Ryan. And you know these Americans: you’ve got to teach them. Quite right!”

That aside, she is all pussycat. It’s touching, for instance, to hear her describe Problemista as a love story. “Elizabeth and Alejandro are both exactly what the other needs, even though they’re a nightmare for each other,” she says. They certainly lack the supportive artistic communities which have nourished the actors who play them. Torres found his own tribe on the Brooklyn standup circuit: after his day job archiving the papers of the late painter John Heliker, he performed comedy routines in bars. “I would read abstract one-liners and stories from a notebook. Some of us who were worlds unto ourselves gravitated toward one another.” Today, he is a magnet for Hollywood’s more adventurous talent: Emma Stone produced Problemista; Fantasmas, his darkly bizarre new HBO series, stars Natasha Lyonne, Steve Buscemi and Paul Dano; Jon Hamm has called him “phenomenally gifted”.

For Swinton, it was becoming a muse to Derek Jarman, and joining his coterie, that made her feel she belonged. After starring in his 1986 masterpiece Caravaggio, she collaborated with Jarman almost exclusively until his death from Aids in 1994. “It was a way of life, not just a way of working. The conversations were the most important things. It was like: ‘Oh, this year we’re going to do Edward II’ and ‘next year, we’re going to do Wittgenstein’. The works came out of those conversations, which were all engendered around a kitchen table, usually in Dungeness. We made the films, but we didn’t sweat them. I think it was healthy because we were all interested in each other, and the works were just leaves off the tree.”

Torres wasn’t even born when Swinton met Jarman, but he has long been a fan of hers. For his 2019 live show My Favourite Shapes, he even produced a model of what he imagined her apartment to be like: there was a hive of pods for her guests to sleep in, and a giant egg-timer to tell them when to leave. “As you can see, that’s very accurate,” she says now, swivelling the laptop around to reveal her cosy, non-sci-fi surroundings, and a pair of black-and-white springer spaniels. Torres’s pod-based fantasy, though, taps into her otherworldly aura. When he asks whether she had trouble accessing an online link to watch Fantasmas, she replies: “There are elves in my house who do that for me.”

Despite admiring her, Torres was no expert. “I’m inept at knowing the lives of the people behind the things I love. Tilda for me was a fantastic actor and, frankly, a concept.” She places a hand to her face, and trembles with laughter. “I wish my parents were still alive, and I could tell them that I’m considered a concept,” she says, prompting yet more giggles from Torres. “But I think that’s beautiful!” he protests. “Better that than, like: ‘Oh, she’s the actress who dated that person, then got a divorce from this other person, and her kids hate her!’” Swinton accepts the distinction (“Ah, true”) and glows appreciatively.

What was her impression, in turn, of him? Even prior to Problemista, after all, there was ample evidence of a cuckoo sensibility in his supernatural comedy series Los Espookys, and his SNL sketches: Ryan Gosling as a man haunted by the naff Papyrus font used in Avatar; Emma Stone advertising a Fisher-Price wishing-well for sensitive boys; Harry Styles as a lovelorn social-media wonk who posts horny gay messages (“Wreck me daddy”) on the Sara Lee Instagram account he is meant to be managing.

“I was enchanted by Julio from the beginning,” says Swinton. “It’s good for us all, I think, the world of his mind. It’s so visionary and sophisticated.” Hearing himself described as “sophisticated”, Torres gently points out that he cast Swinton in the role of Toilet Water in Fantasmas. That in turn reminds me of his book for children, I Want to Be a Vase, in part about a toilet plunger with lofty dreams. “I do like toilets as concepts,” he concedes. “Being a toilet is a job that’s inherently demeaning, so humanising that is exciting to me.”

In exposing the whimsical secret underworld of our daily lives, Torres is like a benign David Lynch. But he insists that lending consciousness to inanimate objects – such as the snooty curtain that divides first class from economy on a plane in My Favourite Shapes – is something we all do. “When we decide which outfit is ‘too much’ and which one is appropriate, or whether a dress of certain proportions is serious or unserious, we’re projecting those qualities on to it, right?”

Running through all his work, including Problemista, is an authentic dread of the corporate and bureaucratic. Torres has spent his life avoiding credit, and even lived for a while without a bank account. How estranged is he today from the systems he abhors? “Well, that’s the comedy and the tragedy. The more you try to disentangle yourself, the more tangled you get. It’s inescapable. Any time I have to make an account for something, it feels like an impossible task.”

Swinton concurs: “It’s like that disgusting and brilliant South Park episode where you end up with your lips sewn on to someone’s arse, and you’ve got to eat shit because that was in the small print, and you signed the form. But we need a certain amount of connectivity so we turn a relative blind eye to all that. Otherwise we’d go nuts.”

About the corporate side, Torres sounds less forgiving, especially when talk turns to how companies only began displaying rainbow flags once it became fashionable to do so. “The beautiful thing about queer people – and I use that term broadly – is our innate quest for the ‘bite’,” he says. It’s a word Swinton had used earlier to denote the enduring frisson of queerness, its cutting edge. “I think we are not pacified by a bank putting up a Pride flag,” he continues. “I think we say: ‘You’re decades late, but thank you.’” Swinton nods, and offers her own addendum to the banks: “Moving on …”

“Exactly,” Torres says. “Moving on, what would make the banks and the corporations uncomfortable today? Because that is where the bite is.” Any suggestions? “I think there’s a million social issues. Companies are going to wait a decade or two before they put those flags up.” For now, Swinton and Torres can just keep flying their own freak flags. No problemo.