With two single mothers, five kids and assorted lodgers and cats, our household was a commune in all but name. It made for some amazing memories

When I was a kid, my mum used to talk wistfully about living in a commune. But, looking back, there were times when there were enough of us and we were random enough – two single mothers, heaps of kids, lodgers, a guy in a caravan in the garden, more cats than had names – that it would have been a commune in anyone’s eyes. I don’t know what she was waiting for, some kind of hippy badge?

Anyway, for a while, we lived in the 80s version of a blended family, which is to say there were a lot of us – my mum, her friend, her friend’s three kids (one a bit older and twins) and me and my sister – with a world of wisdom and expertise, none of it in DIY.

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Experts scrambling to understand losses in hives across the country are finally identifying the culprits. And the damage to farmed bees is a sign of trouble for wild bees too

Bret Adee is one of the largest beekeepers in the US, with 2 billion bees across 55,000 hives. The business has been in his family since the 1930s, and sends truckloads of bees across the country from South Dakota, pollinating crops such as almonds, onions, watermelons and cucumbers.

Last December, his bees were wintering in California when the weather turned cold. Bees grouped on top of hives trying to keep warm. “Every time I went out to the beehive there were less and less,” says Adee. “Then a week later, there’d be more dead ones to pick up … every week there is attrition, just continually going down.”

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Many countries thought they were negotiating in good faith. The White House renewed its “reciprocal” tariff plan anyway, giving countries until Aug. 1 to make offers.

Children's Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza says one told her "in the night rats came and bit his face".

Senedd prepares to sign off tax plans that could see visitors pay extra £1.30 a night.

The Dinah Project, an all-women group, lays out "a legal blueprint for prosecuting these crimes", which Hamas has denied committing.

Tokyo had expected smooth tariff negotiations but is experiencing whiplash, becoming a central target of President Trump’s trade frustrations.

Since the late 1970s, the US’s most prolific concert poster artist Mike King has influenced how music lovers visualize their favorite artists. A new exhibition titled Copy/Paste/Print/Repeat features some of his rarer designs at New York’s Poster House through 2 November

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Known as koloniträdgårdar, they provide city dwellers access to nature, fresh produce and community.

The continent wants to reduce the risks of depending so heavily on China for the valuable minerals. The question is how.