Ruling coalition continues its crackdown on LGBTQ+ people under its ‘child protection’ legislation

Hungary’s ruling coalition is continuing its crackdown on the country’s LGBTQ+ community, as members submitted a bill to parliament that would ban the popular Budapest Pride event and allow authorities to use facial recognition software to identify people attending.

The bill, presented on Monday, is almost certain to pass as the coalition has a two-thirds majority in parliament.

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The physical impact alone has been seismic, but has the pandemic also altered how we see ourselves and the world?

In the strange, scary days of early 2020, with the world suddenly upended by the outbreak of a terrifying new virus, there were times when it seemed certain every aspect of society would be hugely altered by the experience.

Five years on, the physical impact has been profound. More than 220,000 people have died in the UK , out of 7 million worldwide . Many more have been left with a devastating post-viral illness .

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A group set up to oppose developers is the subject of this painstaking documentary, which shows the importance of manual work – and hope

In France, ZAD – “zone to defend” in English – refers to plots of land occupied by radical activists with the aim of blocking planned development projects. Formed in opposition to a governmental proposal for a new airport , the ZAD in the Notre-Dame-des-Landes region is the most famous example of this subversive practice. With sublime patience and care, Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell’s immersive documentary takes us into the day-to-day life of this extraordinary commune, where more than 150 people live, work and organise for change.

The popular image of the militant activist in mainstream media is generally reduced to one of joyless aggression and childish petulance; what makes Direct Action particularly invigorating is how it diverges from such sensationalist reporting. While the film briefly begins with videos of violent clashes between police and protesters, much of its 212-minute runtime is dedicated to the unseen pleasures and hardships of collective action. Rendered tactile on textured 16mm film, quotidian routines of kneading bread, cultivating vegetables or tool-making merge into a hypnotic stream of images. Labour emerges not merely as a chore but as the glue that holds the whole community together.

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In our rainbow family, there are two dads and a mum – but the law in the Netherlands only recognises two of us

Our daughter is very much on board with the idea that, unlike her, many other five-year-olds don’t have two fathers and a mum. “Only has one dad,” she’ll remark in a confidential tone of a newly made friend at the trampoline park or the swimming pool.

My husband and I live in Amsterdam, a short cycle from our daughter’s mum, who is a longstanding mutual friend. Our daughter’s time is split between the two households. We are just one of many rainbow families in the Netherlands, where parents (often, a gay male couple and a single woman, or a lesbian couple) choose to have and raise children in constellations of more than two adults. The Dutch have a proud history of championing gay rights – it was back in 2001 that Amsterdam’s then-mayor presided over the world’s first same-sex marriages – and families such as ours have long been embraced here. And yet, from a legal point of view, we are unseen and, consequently, disadvantaged.

Mark Smith is an Amsterdam-based writer

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here .

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Fragrant rice with crunchy almonds and a crisp fried egg = dinner in less than half an hour

This lovely rice dish is my dad’s recipe; he specialises in those involving rice, potatoes or both (carbs on carbs is a cultural thing). You get an incredible flavour from the onion, which are slowly melted in butter with cloves, cardamom and my addition of a handful of flaked almonds, plus a fried egg on top for balance. If your house is anything like mine, there are always peas in the freezer, rice in the cupboard and eggs on the counter, so this is the perfect store-cupboard meal.

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From the earthquake-defying joints that support a 13th-century temple to the delicacy of sashimono puzzle boxes, a new exhibition shows off the myriad possibilities of this centuries-old craft

Do you know your ant’s head from your shell mouth? Or your cogged lap from your scarfed gooseneck? These are just some of the mind-boggling array of timber jointing techniques on display in a new exhibition spotlighting the meticulous craft of Japanese carpentry. The basement gallery of London’s Japan House has been transformed into a woody wonder world of chisels and saws, mortises and tenons, and brackets of infinite intricacy, alongside traditional clay plastering, shoji paper screen making and tatami mat weaving. It is a dazzling display of the phenomenal skills behind centuries of timber architecture and joinery, celebrating elite master carpenters with the spiritual reverence of a high priesthood.

“In Japan we have a deep respect for our forests,” says curator Nishiyama Marcelo, who heads up the team at the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum in Kobe, a temple to the history of Japanese joinery. “If a carpenter uses a 1,000-year-old tree, they must be prepared to take on more than 1,000 years of responsibility for the building that they create.”

It is a momentous duty, and one we should heed. As debates around the embodied carbon of the built environment dominate the construction industry, there could be no more timely exhibition to remind us of the importance of designing with longevity, care and repair in mind. Numerous specialist tools have been shipped over from the Kobe museum, along with a team of master carpenters who have built a remarkable series of structures in the gallery, replicating parts of buildings that have lasted for hundreds of years in the face of wind, rain, snow and earthquakes.

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The Netflix four-parter has touched many a nerve with its gut-punch power and staggering performances – but it’s also a vital call to action for parents and their teens

The arrival of searing new series Adolescence could hardly be more timely. The drama dropped on Netflix just as it emerged that crossbow killer Kyle Clifford had searched online for misogynistic podcasts and watched Andrew Tate videos hours before murdering three female members of the Hunt family . Then again, such stories hit headlines with depressing regularity. Perhaps Adolescence would have felt unnervingly on-the-nose whenever it launched.

The initial idea came to its star, Stephen Graham , after a spate of distressing violent crimes. In 2021, 12-year-old Ava White was fatally stabbed by a 14-year-old boy in Graham’s home city of Liverpool. In 2023, 15-year-old Elianne Andam was attacked with a kitchen knife by 17-year-old Hassan Sentamu outside a Croydon shopping centre.

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This week: how you’re ridding your life of plastic; refillable beauty products; and top chefs on their favourite gadgets

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When we asked readers of the Filter to tell us how they use less plastic, it’s fair to say few were quite as dedicated as Helen Mann. “I only buy Clipper teabags [which are plastic-free ],” she told us, “and I grow my own nettles, nasturtiums, dandelions and mint, then dehydrate them and use the leaves in organic cotton teabags.

“I have replaced plastic soap dispensers with glass ones, and other household items such as clothes horses with wooden ones. My washing-up bowl is stainless steel. I buy bamboo dish cloths and use wooden brushes to wash up. I use aluminium-free bicarbonate of soda and distilled vinegar to clean the house; fresh lemon juice and bicarb for the floors.

‘It just wasn’t very buttery’: the best (and worst) unsalted butter, tasted and rated

The best steam cleaners and mops for a sparkling home, tested

Everything you need to make great sourdough – and the kit you can do without

A century of chic: the best Chanel-style jackets to rival the real thing

The best rice cookers for gloriously fluffy grains at home: nine tried and tested favourites

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Patrick Schick swooped to secure a 4-3 win that rescued his side’s identity as elite salvagers of lost causes

They did little wrong, but fortune refused to shine on them. Lukas Hradecky spread himself with authority, denying Ermedin Demirovic’s finish, but his block cannoned straight into the onrushing Granit Xhaka and the ball nestled in the net in front of the Cannstatter Kurve . Bayer Leverkusen have been bowed far more often than is habitual in the last few weeks, and now they looked to be down and out. It was one of those actions, one of those days, one of those runs, that said it’s just not your season.

In fact, it wasn’t even the first time they’d appeared to be cooked on Sunday evening. That was when Stuttgart’s Nick Woltemade, the throwback striker who has been one of the season’s low-key revelations, slotted a tidy finish past Hradecky for 2-0 less than three minutes into the second half. We have seen Leverkusen react what feels like a hundred times from this – just not in the last week and a half.

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