With the constant risk of being recorded, many young people are afraid of showing enthusiasm – let alone doing something so potentially embarrassing as dancing in public. Is there a way to set themselves free?

In a video posted to TikTok, where Katie Whitney has 2.5 million followers, she says to camera, bluntly: “This video is for Cynthia Erivo. If you’re not Cynthia Erivo … you can keep on scrolling.” Her demeanour then shifts, her voice becomes softer; more the way a person might talk to their puppy: “Hi Cynthia. Hi baby. Hey baby. How are you?” It’s toe-curling – or, in modern parlance, cringe – to watch. “I feel traumatised,” says one commenter. Others post photos of a stunned-looking Erivo and imagine: “What if the Wicked star were to actually watch this video?” Cringe!

Now 25, but having started making this kind of content – “weird skits” – at 20, Whitney is part of what is known online as CringeTok, a subsection of the internet that deals in content designed to make your toes curl. It’s in many ways a reaction to a fear of being “cringe”, which is seeping into all parts of life – from social media to classrooms to the workplace.

It will take more than blokeish affability to reach across the Brexit faultline that scars British politics

Andy Burnham’s stint as health secretary in the final year of Gordon Brown’s government was not especially memorable, although one observation from a senior civil servant in the department at the time has stuck in my mind. Working for Burnham, I was told, felt like “revising for exams with a mate who might turn to you and say: ‘shall we sack this off for a bit and play football instead?’”

It was meant as a compliment, mostly. The secretary of state didn’t defer government business for kickabouts on Whitehall, he just had the vibe of someone who was tempted. That image confirms everything Burnham’s Labour supporters and critics already think about him.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

Experts explain how small, regular sums can build wealth over time, from your 20s through to retirement

Thinking about investing? There are compelling reasons for moving at least some of your money away from standard savings accounts and into the stock market. There are also risks, but over the long term the rewards can be better.

Many people are put off by the idea that you need to be wealthy to start investing, or over a certain age. But even if you can only afford to set aside £50 a month, it is worth considering. And while there are important factors to consider before you start, it is rarely too early, or too late, to take the first step.

My ‘niblings’ gave me a positive reason to return to the home town where I’d experienced homophobia as a boy. Over time, they transformed my sense of family and self

When I found out I had become an uncle, I was 22 and on a year abroad as part of a languages degree, living in Madrid. I’d spent much of my time there having raucous fun on the city’s gay scene, dancing till the early hours then sloping off with Spanish men. It felt a long way from my family life back home in Bolton.

As this was 1997 – a time before mobile phones – calls from landlines had to be rationed to once a week. But my mum phoned to tell me my sister had gone into labour and then, two days later, the phone rang again with the news that I had a nephew. It felt like an abstract concept, not quite real.

The Cambrian Line hugs the shore, offering easy access to the Wales Coast Path, the Cadfan Way pilgrimage route and glorious Cardigan Bay

From the graveyard of St Michael’s in Ynys, Wales, the view was ravishing: the Italianate oddity of Portmeirion sparkled on the opposite shore; the peaks of Eryri (Snowdonia) rippled in the distance; and, within the River Dwyryd’s broad swirl, sat the tidal island of Ynys Gifftan. “No one’s lived there for years,” said a passerby pointing to the isle, “but it’s just been put up for sale – £350,000, if you fancy it.”

I rather did, but sadly my modest savings don’t stretch that far. Wales’s “armpit”, geographically speaking – which is how some people refer to that chunk of Gwynedd where estuaries perspire into Cardigan Bay before it curves round the outstretched Llŷn peninsula – looked like a spectacular place to be marooned.

In the first of a new series of dispatches, fans in US, Mexico and Canada tell us that they want visitors to have a good time but are angry about ticket prices, Fifa’s priorities and a lack of long-term thinking from politicians

The 2026 World Cup features 104 matches in 16 cities across Canada, Mexico and the USA, from Vancouver to Mexico City and San Francisco to Boston. Before, throughout and after the tournament we’ll be hearing from fans in those cities about their experiences – some shared and some different – in our “My World Cup” series. Here some of our correspondents share their first thoughts.

Sarah Jones appeals for calm after rioting over the death of Nowak, who was handcuffed while dying from stab wound

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, has a long record of criticising anti-racism initiatives in the police force. She was equalities minister in the last government and in that post she championed the controversial Sewell report, which played down the significance of, or even the existence of, structural racism and institutional racism. Badenoch essentially thinks that these are concepts that have been made up or exaggerated by leftwingers, and she was saying so before it became mainstream thinking in the Conservative party.

In recent days Badenoch has argued that the Henry Nowak tragedy vindicates her thinking. She has set this out in an article for the Daily Mail today.

Yes, a lot needs to be fixed. But Farage was completely wrong to say that the ‘rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities’.

This is simply the language of the Black Lives Matter movement in reverse – inflaming tensions, emphasising difference. It is toxic tribal politics that divides our country.

We will have to sweep out a lot of the historic, incoherent nonsense that has been brought in under the guise of anti-racism.

Notions of ‘white privilege’ and forcing ‘decolonisation’ narratives down the throats of children is not how we build a cohesive society.

It is essential that we police without fear or favour in keeping the peace and enforcing the law. We must do so to earn the confidence of all communities.

This historic and ongoing mistrust between the police and black communities risks, for example, people not reporting things to the police if they are in trouble, or aiding our efforts to catch criminals, fight crime and protect all communities.

Emergency services at scene of incident at Sourton Down, near Okehampton

A Royal Navy helicopter has crashed into a field in Devon, police have confirmed.

Emergency services are at the scene of the incident at Sourton Down, near Okehampton.

Johnson tells BBC documentary he played tennis in early 2016 with then prime minister to discuss EU referendum

• UK politics live – latest updates

David Cameron offered Boris Johnson a senior Cabinet position in return for campaigning for the UK to remain in the EU during the 2016 referendum, it has been revealed

In the event, and with four months to go before the vote, Johnson transformed the terms of the debate by announcing in February 2016 that “after a huge amount of heartache” he was throwing his weight behind the campaign to take Britain out of the EU.

US military says it struck tanker and sites on Iran’s Qeshm Island and defended Kuwait and Bahrain from missiles

Kuwait’s military said Iranian strikes that hit a terminal at its international airport caused significant damage and wounded several people. The attack came as the US and Iran exchanged fresh missile and drone strikes, further jeopardising efforts to secure a new ceasefire agreement between Washington and Tehran.

Overnight, US forces fired a Hellfire missile to disable a tanker attempting to break through the American blockade of the strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, and later said they repelled Iranian reprisal strikes in the region and attacked sites on Iran’s Qeshm Island.