Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

Sabah, 38, a publicity director, meets David, 36, a PhD candidate

What were you hoping for?
In an ideal world, my last first date. Failing that, an entertaining voice note for my pals.

Emerald Fennell’s film brings the raunch to Brontë’s romance, while Nintendo’s beloved plumber stars in a colourful, family-friendly sports game

Wuthering Heights
Out now
Out on the wily, windy moors, writer-director Emerald Fennell has constructed a new interpretation of the Emily Brontë classic. Margot Robbie is Cathy while Jacob Elordi takes on Heathcliff, and as you might expect from the film-maker behind Saltburn, the passionate pair are set to leave no height unwuthered.

A stylish high-stakes armed robbery thriller with Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo, and a gentle supernatural comedy from Mackenzie Crook. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Ukraine-Russia war high on the agenda at Munich Security Council; France’s Macron says world must not accept Ukraine defeated. What we know on day 1,452

Democratic representative also condemns US capture of Nicolás Maduro, Trump’s threats to annex Greenland and US support for Israel’s war on Gaza – key US politics stories from Friday, 13 February at a glance

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has accused Donald Trump of tearing apart the transatlantic alliance with Europe and of seeking to introduce an “age of authoritarianism”, as she condemned his administration’s foreign policy in front of its allies’ top policymakers at the Munich security conference.

Speaking at a panel on populism on Friday, the New York representative outlined what she called an “alternative vision” for a leftwing US foreign policy, challenging the Trump administration’s shift to the right in front an audience of US allies who have grown increasingly wary of the US’s increasingly nationalist – and militaristic – global posture.

Readers respond to Sangeeta Pillai’s objection to Britons’ ‘pointless stream of politeness’

I do not agree with Sangeeta Pillai (The hill I will die on: Britons love saying thank you – I think we should ban the phrase, 7 February). I do not like sarcastic or passive aggressive “thank yous”, but what is wrong with thanking people in the service industry for the service they give? I do not believe that it is overworked or meaningless. I love to thank baristas, shop assistants, bus drivers or other people because they more often than not provide a very good service. They work hard and are not paid a lot of money. They are often people doing jobs that are difficult for one reason or another.

Why not be kind and appreciative? Isn’t there enough hardship and negativity in these febrile times?
Deirdre Breen
Dublin, Ireland

Readers respond to Sammy Gecsoyler’s article about his week without bank and contactless cards

I welcome Sammy Gecsoyler’s article (My week of only using cash: could a return to notes and coins change my life?, 10 February) while noting that he is young, employed and living in a city, and that he commented about the older cash-payers seen in charity shops.

I am one of the many who live rurally. We rely on access to cash. Our lives still include paying small sums – £2.50 for entry and a coffee at our many village societies (open to all), or £5 for lunch provided fortnightly by volunteers – and varying sums to sponsor fundraising or village facilities, or small amounts to travel on our community bus.

Francis Bown says its grey concrete and childlike composition expressed the fatalism and despair of the time, while Helen Keats reflects on other brutalist builds

Fiona Twycross, the heritage minister, is to be congratulated for finally giving London’s Southbank Centre Grade II listing (Campaigners welcome ‘long overdue’ listing of brutalist Southbank Centre, 10 February).

I remember being shocked when I first saw it in the 1960s, but it has become a remarkable symbol of the zeitgeist.

Beehive socialism | Ratcliffe’s apology | Tommy Cooper’s dream | Valentine’s Day | Love boat

The beehive may not be quite the utopian dream it first appears to be (Letters, 9 February). Worker bees need to be so active during the summer months that they typically only survive for about four to six weeks. Drone bees’ longevity is not much better. The lucky ones may get to service the queen, but die as a consequence. Unsurprisingly, the queen fares much better.
Tom Challenor
Ealing, London

• So Jim Ratcliffe is sorry for his choice of language use in relation to immigration (Report, 12 February). What about being sorry for his sentiments? Could I suggest that he spends a week as a bed-bound inpatient in a NHS hospital before he makes a judgment about the contribution of immigrants?
Liz Thompson
Oxford

Emails show Kathy Ruemmler had close ties to convicted sexual abuser she called ‘Uncle Jeffrey’

Kathy Ruemmler, the top lawyer at Goldman Sachs and former White House counsel to Barack Obama, has announced her resignation in the wake of emails showing a close relationship between her and Jeffrey Epstein, whom she referred to as “Uncle Jeffrey”.

Ruemmler said in a statement on Thursday that she would “step down as Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of Goldman Sachs as of June 30, 2026”.

Elordi and co-star Margot Robbie walked the carpet at Sydney’s State Theatre on Thursday night for Emerald Fennell’s lavish, hyper-stylised adaptation of Emily Brontë’s doomed romance

Physics research drives technological innovation, from medical imaging to data processing, write Dr Phil Bull and Prof Chris Clarkson; plus letters from Tim Gershon and Vincenzo Vagnoni, and Prof Paul Howarth

Your article (UK ‘could lose generation of scientists’ with cuts to projects and research facilities, 6 February) is right to highlight the serious consequences of proposed 30% funding cuts on the next generation of physics and astronomy researchers. The proposals also risk a generational destruction of the country’s ability to produce skilled graduates, retain specialist knowledge, and support physical science in industrial and educational settings.

This comes against a backdrop of wider threats to university finances, from rising costs to declining international student numbers. An estimated one in four UK physics departments are already at risk of closure, and recent cuts and delays to Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) grants have further depleted finances and will result in the loss of some highly skilled technical staff.

Government action is needed before it is too late, writes Jill Fitzgerald-O’Connor

Re Larry Elliott’s article (How can Britain regain its manufacturing power?, 5 February), the basis for the revival of our manufacturing industry requires first a shift in attitude that brainwork is superior to manual labour.

Changes to the curriculum are needed so that technically oriented students can pursue courses that are a first option rather than second best. Part of my training as a designer-pattern cutter involved a placement in a factory, an experience now rarely available to fashion students. In the 1980s, the government set up the Enterprise Allowance Scheme to encourage innovation, but there was no follow-on support to encourage production; successful entrepreneurs had to apply for personal loans from banks, limited to the value of their houses.

Conservation efforts to improve red squirrel numbers in mid Wales are being undermined by developers, writes Lorna Brazell of the Cambrian Mountains Society

I was interested to read about the efforts being debated to conserve England’s embattled red squirrel population (‘On a knife edge’: can England’s red squirrel population be saved?, 6 February). In view of the inexorable spread of the greys across Great Britain, it was actually a surprise to learn there are still reds anywhere as central to the island as the Lake District. But it was also a disappointment to find that the article overlooked Welsh red squirrels entirely – despite the significant success of efforts to conserve them on Ynys Môn and the presence of a significant, genetically distinct population here in the Cambrian Mountains.

Reds are, as you mention, the most-missed threatened mammal species of Great Britain, so we cannot afford to ignore any of their few remaining fastnesses. Ideally, we would also be taking concrete steps to protect those places from further erosion of habitat or human disturbance.

Bar blockers | Unlikely book recommendation | Ask AI | The proliferation of potholes | Divine intervention

Queues in pubs (Letters, 6 February)? Hallelujah! Now perhaps elderly women of 5ft 1in will be able to get a drink. I’m not sure which are worse, the big blokes who wave their £20 notes over your head or the ones who, having bought a drink, just stay leaning on the bar. Queueing? Bring it on. Mine’s a large house red, please.
Rosemary Chamberlin
Bristol

• Paul Dacre’s characterisation of a certain book as “written to appeal to a certain section of the Guardian readership” was presumably intended as a put-down, but I took it as a recommendation (Flashes of anger but Paul Dacre keeps his head before court cut-off, 11 February). Can we get more of the same from this unlikely source of advice?
Mark de Brunner
Harrogate, North Yorkshire

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