As a new academic year begins providers say national insurance rises and food price inflation has forced up prices

Parents across England are facing higher prices for school lunches as the new school year begins, with caterers blaming the government’s national insurance increase alongside rising food and energy costs.

Lunch providers say increases in staffing costs, including employer national insurance contributions announced by the chancellor last year, have added “significant extra pressure” to their budgets.

The dogs are barking, the woman’s screaming and the man’s swearing … it’s the kind of scene you see in a park and think: I’m glad that has nothing to do with me

When I walk into the house with the dog ahead of me, I already know what I’m going to say when my wife asks, “How was that?”

I’m going to say: “It was just awful.”

This fresh spin on a traditional poké bowl borrows ideas from all over the world

This recipe is too off-the-beaten-track from a traditional Hawaiian poké for me to call it such and live with myself, but it is loosely based around the idea of one. It starts with seasoned sushi rice (which I could eat just by itself) and is topped with a variety of fun things to munch on such as salt- and lime-seasoned cabbage, edamame beans and glazed pieces of barbecued tempeh, all bound together with a gentle but perky sriracha sauce. Like many of us today, it borrows ideas from all over the world and is, I think, all the more delicious for it.

A TV recreation brings gobsmacking courtroom drama, and gorgeous melodies meet languorous funk on Blood Orange’s latest album. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Toxic algae cases in Northern Ireland’s Lough Neagh have tripled since last year, as local fishers’ incomes plummet

The UK’s largest lake, Lough Neagh, is on course to record its worst year of potentially toxic algal blooms to date, as rescue plans remain deadlocked.

As a ban on eel-fishing in the lake is extended yet again, with local fishers’ incomes falling by 60% since 2023, there have so far this year been 139 detections of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) growths recorded at the lough and its surrounding watercourses, according to a government pollution tracker. This is more than treble the number for the same point in 2024 (45). The data covers the 400 sq km freshwater lough, its tributaries, and smaller peripheral bodies of water, including Portmore Lough and Lough Gullion.