Christine Dawood found herself trapped on the ship, waiting for signs that the Titan submersible carrying her family would surface. She talks in detail for the first time about those harrowing four days

Walking into Christine Dawood’s kitchen, it’s impossible not to be drawn to the model Titanic in the centre of the room. Sitting in its own glass-fronted cabinet, the Lego ship is almost 1.5 metres long, constructed of 9,090 of the iconic plastic bricks. Dawood’s 19-year-old son Suleman spent almost two weeks building it. “People are always a bit shocked to see it,” she admits. “But what was I going to do? Break it up? Hide it away? Suleman put all those hours in. He’d been fascinated with the Titanic since we went to a huge exhibition when we lived in Singapore.“

I went to that same exhibition when it came to London, and remember marvelling at the china dinner plates that had survived intact; the unused lifejackets that had failed to save someone; the sheet music belonging to the orchestra who had supposedly bravely played even as the ship went down. Instead of a ticket, you were given a replica boarding pass with a real passenger’s name on it. At the end, you could find out who survived and who didn’t.

The White Lotus actor on an awful audition, an important lesson and her first kiss with Leo Woodall

Born in Massachusetts, Meghann Fahy, 36, understudied for the musical Next to Normal in 2008 and went on to play a principal character on Broadway from 2010 to 2011. On television she was cast in the soap One Life to Live in 2010 and starred in the comedy drama The Bold Type from 2017 to 2021. She appears in The White Lotus season two, The Perfect Couple, Sirens and the forthcoming The Good Daughter. Her films include the thriller Drop, and Rebuilding with Josh O’Connor, in cinemas now. Her partner is the actor Leo Woodall and she lives in New York City.

When were you happiest?
When I realised that I could get myself through anything that came my way.

Former US ambassador and Labour peer joins a long line of people who have gone out to meet awaiting paparazzi head-on

For a man at the centre of a storm that has rocked the political establishment, Peter Mandelson has spent the week looking remarkably relaxed. Day after day, as MPs have grilled civil servants over who knew what when about the former US ambassador’s security vetting, and police continue to investigate serious allegations over his own conduct, Mandelson has stepped out of his Regent’s Park mansion and pottered across the road to take his dog for a walk.

Smart-casually dressed in jeans and a jumper and holding in front of him a plastic ball-thrower, he has set off for the park like a weekending solicitor on his way to an egg and spoon race. There have been occasional small smiles for the photographers at his gate, but no comment. The message appears to be: I am insouciant, normal. Not in prison.

Many people are taking action now, from taking family on holiday to paying off grandchildren’s student loans or giving tax-free gifts

Many of us are still getting our heads around the price increases and tax tweaks that took effect this month, but you might want to give some thought to next April.

Some big changes to pensions, savings and investments are coming down the track, and there are things you can do now and in the coming months to get ready for them.

In February 2025, a cheap Russian drone tore through Chornobyl’s confinement shelter. Workers warn the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident is not safe yet

The dosimeter clipped to your chest ticks faster the moment you step off the designated path inside the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Step back, and it slows again – an invisible line between clean ground and contamination.

Above rises the “new safe confinement” (NSC) – the largest movable steel structure ever built, taller than the Statue of Liberty, wider than the Colosseum, its arch curving overhead like an aircraft hangar built for giant planes.

Abby, 25, a partnerships manager for film, meets Charlie, 26, a finance analyst

What were you hoping for?
A different kind of Friday night with good company and a fancy meal!

A crypto tycoon is giving record-breaking amounts to Farage’s party. But little is known about his motives

Shortly before Christmas 2022, Chakrit Sakunkrit, owner of the Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary on the Thai island of Koh Samui, invited 200 guests to spend a few days celebrating his 60th birthday. One sultry afternoon, Sakunkrit and a small group gathered around a table near the shore, surrounded by the burgundy foliage of Good Luck plants. To his right, dressed down in a polo shirt, sat Nigel Farage.

Since Brexit marked the achievement of his life’s work three years earlier, Farage had fizzled. Even some of his supporters had pronounced him finished. Now, with the Conservatives in disarray after Liz Truss’s disastrous budget that September, Farage was hinting at a still more ambitious project: to make himself prime minister.

Exclusive: Advanced practitioners are being deployed to cover doctor rota gaps across the NHS, figures show

UK hospitals are using nurses to cover for doctors because of an NHS-wide shortage of medics, raising fears that “substitute doctors” may provide inferior care.

Health professionals known as advanced practitioners – who are mainly senior nurses – are undertaking roles usually performed by doctors in A&E, neonatal units, critical care and other areas.

Jets flew from bases in Romania but did not open fire as potential targets stayed within Ukrainian airspace

Two RAF Typhoons have been scrambled from a Romanian air base to engage Russian drones close to Nato airspace, although they did not open fire.

British defence sources said the fighter jets did not enter Ukrainian airspace, contradicting reports that Russian drones had been shot down by the RAF there, an event which would have represented a major escalation in hostilities between the western alliance and Moscow.

Voters in Barnsley, Sunderland and Wakefield express frustration with party amid strong Reform UK challenge

When millions of voters across Great Britain go to the polls on 7 May, the result will have a profound impact on the future of Keir Starmer’s government.

In Wales and Scotland, nationalist parties are expected to be in charge for the first time simultaneously, joining Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland. In London and the cities, the Greens are on the charge.