She may not realise she’s experiencing domestic abuse, or may not be ready to talk about it yet. Let her know you’re there for her no matter what

• Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a problem sent in by a reader

My daughter has gradually withdrawn from family events. She lives far from us all and doesn’t come home any more after being a real homebird. She hasn’t visited for over a year and didn’t see any of us at Christmas or my birthday, which is not like her.

When I visit her, it’s becoming clear she isn’t making choices for herself any more – even the simplest ones are made by her partner and she concedes to everything he wants. He is also jealous of any other male family member who is spoken about positively.

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Mariah Reynolds and her workout buddy were at a restaurant in their sweaty gym gear. By the end of the meal, it felt like a romance novel

• Find more stories from The moment I knew series

Moe and I met at an obstacle course race in south-western Sydney in 2015 when I was 21. He’s a naturally charismatic guy and, while I wasn’t immune to his charms, I didn’t think of him again until nearly a year later when I saw him on a dating app.

I swiped to say hello and he invited me to go rock climbing. I chickened out at the last minute but a few months later Moe joined the same gym as me. We became fast friends, regularly training and trail running together.

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Whether Nazi-punching your way through an Indiana Jones sequel or losing yourself in a beautiful fantasy world, you told us your best video game experiences of the first half of the year
• The best video games of 2025 so far

Enshrouded is a beautiful combination of Minecraft, Skyrim and resource gathering that makes it at least three games in one. My daughter told me I would love it and I ignored her for too long. I’ve tackled Elden Ring, but much prefer the often gentler combat of Enshrouded. It sometimes makes me feel like an elite fighter, then other times kicks my arse in precisely the right measures.

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The US president has made Los Angeles his deportations battleground

The US president has made Los Angeles his deportations battleground

Drawing on electronica and deep house, the duo’s intimate soundscapes take the listener to Ibiza via Sri Lanka and Wales

From Greater London
Recommended if you like The Starseeds, Sun Electric, the Orb
Up next Beaming Backwards out now on Test Pressing Recordings

Welding dubbed-out instrumentals with dreamy vocals and cosmic flourishes, ddwy’s music captures the spirit of a 90s Ibiza chillout set. In fact, their last label joked that their tracks were “perfect for Balearic DJs”. But the project actually has its roots far away from the flurry of the white isle: many of the songs were made from a kitchen table in a Greater London suburb where the duo are based.

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We want to hear the experiences of scientists, researchers and students after hundreds of research grants have been abruptly cancelled

The Trump administration is dismantling the National Science Foundation (NSF), which critics say risks losing a generation of scientific talent and jeopardizes the future of US industries and economic growth.

The NSF, founded in 1950, is the only federal agency that funds fundamental research across all fields of science and engineering. It has contributed to major scientific breakthroughs and innovations.

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Skip the preamble to find all the reasons the current president has failed to uphold our democracy.

Hallé Orchestra/Adès
(Hallé)
This brings together new works of his own and by composers he admires that Thomas Adès has conducted at Bridgewater Hall during his residency with the Hallé

Since 2023 Thomas Adès has been artist-in-residence with the Hallé Orchestra. He has featured as composer, conductor and pianist in his appearances with the orchestra, and all his concerts have included new or nearly new works, both his own and by composers he admires. As the residency comes to an end, this collection brings together pieces he has conducted in Manchester; there are four by Adès himself, alongside William Marsey’s Man With Limp Wrist and Oliver Leith’s Cartoon Sun.

Of the four pieces by Adès, only one is substantial. Aquifer, which he wrote last year for Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, is a densely packed 17-minute movement, which contains enough ideas to power a symphony at least twice as long, before being brought to a halt by the most common-or-garden of cadences. Tower – for Frank Gehry is a fanfare, and both Shanty and Dawn, composed during lockdown in 2020, are pieces that work wonders with repeated phrases. Marsey’s musical narrative, in eight “scenes”, is a strangely evocative succession of musical ghosts, inspired by paintings by Salman Toor, while Leith’s wacky processional, punctuated by enormous climaxes, leaves an exhilarating impression.

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The country is in crisis, and I wouldn't be so angry about it if I didn't feel so strongly about the place.