Wakelyns needs £1.2m to save its diverse organic crops and ‘micro’ enterprises including a bakery and honeybee hives

The aerial view of Wakelyns matches the experience of visiting it at ground level: in a region dominated by prairie fields of industrial agriculture, here lies a vivid green lung of land. Its sounds and sights in summer – the sleepy purr of the turtle dove, the vivid pink flash of a bullfinch – have vanished from most of the British countryside.

But Wakelyns is not a nature reserve – it is a thriving farm, a “living laboratory” for agroforestry and a hub for innovation and business. It is also under threat, and its owners must raise £1.2m to turn it into a charitable community benefit society.

With bosses at the BBC prioritising social media platforms over radio, things feel apocalyptic at the broadcaster’s flagship news show – especially given the lack of diversity. Is this it?

For Radio 4’s Today programme, last week’s biggest story was off-air: a BBC News edict that the corporation’s correspondents should in future prioritise platforms such as TikTok and Instagram over traditional TV and radio franchises, including Today.

This policy serves to “chip away the relevance of Today to the life of the nation. This is an act of vandalism pure and simple,” foamed a show insider to the Guardian anonymously. (Although there is a lively media parlour game in guessing which presenter the quote most sounds like.)

Always wondered what everyday stuff celebrities buy, where they shop for food and the basics they scrimp on? The skincare expert talks vinyl, McDonald’s tea and the body lotion she buys on repeat with the Filter

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Caroline Hirons started her career working at the Aveda counter in Harvey Nichols before launching her successful skincare blog in 2010, which has since amassed more than 160m views.

Her debut book, Skincare, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Caroline launched her skincare app, Skin Rocks, and her skincare brand of the same name in 2022.

Drop to 10% for pubs and eateries would be in line with most of Europe, but critics say it favours multinationals

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Nearly a quarter of hospitality businesses are losing money, new data has shown, reigniting calls among chefs, pub owners and restaurateurs for their sector to be handed a reduced rate of VAT.

It may seem like a no-brainer because the measure would ease pressure on the ailing sector and put the UK in line with most European countries. But critics say the measure would be extremely costly and reward big multinational businesses, without necessarily helping to spur growth.

We are surrounded by sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures – and most of it barely registers. Time to slow down and take it all in …

What was the last thing that made your body feel good? Maybe it was the first sip of tea or blast of water in your morning shower, the warm silk of a cat’s back arching to meet your fingers, pulling on a T-shirt softened by repeated washing or the moment you align the numbers on your bike lock and it releases with a weighty clonk? Maybe somewhere you encountered a paper coffee cup with a cardboard sleeve embossed with ridges that offered “a surprisingly gratifying tactile delight”? Maybe you’ve never considered paper cups much; I hadn’t before I read that in Ian Bogost’s The Small Stuff: The Sensory Enchantment of Everyday Life.

The Small Stuff is a manifesto for tuning into the tiny opportunities for gratification being human offers, even in increasingly frictionless, AI-enabled, automated lives. Starting from that paper cup, Bogost – an interdisciplinary academic at Washington University, video game designer and writer – explores how we’ve become what he calls “dematerialised” and how to fight back, analysing the idiosyncratically pleasing qualities of plastic drinking fountain tumblers, using “steel-crank-roll paper towel dispensers” and – don’t tell me this one doesn’t resonate – peeling the plastic protective film off, in his case, a wooden knife block (I have happy memories of doing this on our microwave door).

Since 2017, Iason Gabriel has worked at the tech giant, trying to anticipate – and think through – the impact of AI. But as commercial and geopolitical pressures escalate, can ethicists make any difference?

In 2017, a 33-year-old political philosopher named Iason Gabriel was told by a friend that he ought to apply for a job at DeepMind, the London-based subsidiary of Google where much of its AI research was concentrated. The suggestion was not an obvious one.

Gabriel was a cheerful but intense junior academic with a passion for Vipassana meditation and what his brother calls “enthusiastic” rock climbing. The eldest son of a Greek management professor and a British documentary maker, Gabriel split his time between teaching and international development work. At the University of Oxford, where he was a fellow at St John’s College, Gabriel taught courses on political theory and wrote papers on the moral contortions of “yuppie ethics” and the ethical blind spots of effective altruism. When he wasn’t there, he did crisis work for the United Nations Development Programme in Sudan and Lebanon.

PM unveils long-awaited defence investment plan, which he says will mean hit to road, housing and energy schemes

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Keir Starmer has warned his successor not to borrow more to pay for defence as he raided energy, transport and housing projects to plug a military spending deficit with an extra £15bn over the next four years.

The prime minister revealed his long-awaited defence investment plan (Dip) on Tuesday, after an 11-month government row that cost him a defence secretary and arguably contributed to his downfall.

Exclusive: Pentagon files suggest some new facilities will store nuclear arsenal, with $163m also earmarked for secretive spy base

More than $4bn (£3bn) is to be spent upgrading the US government’s military and spy bases in the UK, according to official documents that shed light on the UK’s apparent role as a secretive site for American nuclear weapons.

The construction plans include building new bunkers in Suffolk, which will seemingly be used to store nuclear weapons, and modernising facilities to help covert units run secret operations.

Ruling to uphold birthright citizenship is blow to Trump’s agenda in a supreme court season that largely went his way

• Supreme court upholds birthright citizenship in blow to Trump agenda

• Justices allow states to ban trans women from female sports and strike down limits on federal campaign spending

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The supreme court’s decision to reject Trump’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook yesterday is part of a long-running battle over the independence of the central bank.

Trump repeatedly attacked former chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates fast enough, calling him a “moron” on social media. Powell’s term ended in May this year, and he was succeeded by Trump nominee Kevin Warsh.

Prime minister-in-waiting is seeking an interim base in the city centre before Ancoats site is completed in 2028

A civil service base that is under construction in Manchester has been earmarked for Andy Burnham’s No 10 North, according to reports.

The northern centre of government will be in Ancoats, on the outskirts of Manchester city centre, but the site is not due to be completed before 2028, according to the Manchester Evening News.