Roger Wicker and Deb Fischer meet island’s president in Taipei as Beijing says trip sends ‘gravely wrong signal’

A visit to Taiwan by two US senators has drawn criticism from China, which claims the island as its own and objects to any contact between officials of the two sides.

The chair of the Senate armed services committee, Roger Wicker, and the Nebraska senator Deb Fischer arrived in Taipei on Friday for a series of high-level meetings with senior Taiwanese leaders. They plan to discuss US-Taiwan relations, regional security and trade and investment, according to the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington’s de facto embassy in lieu of formal diplomatic relations with the self-governing island democracy.

An X-Men reboot is in the works, but how will the studio integrate the alternate timelines? Will it use the Blip again? Some chaos magic from Scarlet Witch? The Celestials from Eternals even? Let’s consider the options

The news this week that the X-Men are finally heading to the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been predicted ever since Disney’s $71bn buyout of 20th Century Fox in 2019, when every comic book mutant back to Apocalypse suddenly became available to Kevin Feige and Marvel. But it remains to be seen when and how Jean Grey, Cyclops et al will finally make landfall on Earth-616, especially since nobody has yet explained how Marvel plans to smuggle them into a timeline that has spent the best part of two decades blissfully ignoring their existence.

In an interview with Empire magazine, Thunderbolts* director, Jake Schreier, describes the chance to oversee the X-Men reboot – which is unlikely to land before 2028 – as “an incredible opportunity with super interesting characters and internal conflict”, adding: “These characters are wrestling with their identity and place in the world – that’s inherently interesting and complex material.” Which, of course, is the usual guff film-makers blurt out when trying to reassure fans that they’re taking the project seriously, but tells us zilch about how it is all going to pan out.

Star couple’s engagement has all the hallmarks to follow for months. Plus, why September marks the true new year

It is not often that one conceives and fulfils a lifetime ambition all in one morning but today I achieved this momentous feat. To wit: over breakfast I read about the great sunflower fields at Westgate Farm near Walsingham, Norfolk, which for the two weeks that the mighty blooms are in mighty bloom across its 16 acres invites people to come and pick their own for a small fee. Have you ever heard of anything better? Desire – no, need – filled me.

Educating Yorkshire Part 2 shows inspirational teachers negotiating challenges in young people’s lives

“Basically, there’s summat wrong with me. I’m like … a psychopath. Genuinely!” A teenage girl with the face of an angel is confiding in Mr Wilson, one of the student managers. He listens solemnly, but his mouth twitches with the beginnings of a smile.

“I’m going to start by disagreeing with you,” he says with all the seriousness he can muster. “You’re not a psychopath.” The girl in the sky-blue hoodie relaxes and rewards him with a broad smile.

I’ve been playing Wheel World. It’s silly hipster fun, but I’d rather get on my real bike and ride. Where are the cycling equivalents of Crazy Taxi or Road Rash?

I have spent a week trying to save the universe. Not by leading a hardened team of oddball veterans in an assault on a despot’s intergalactic outpost, nor by completing a series of well-written tasks to build up my warrior mage so they can defeat some ancient malignant omnipotent deity.

I have done it by completing easy races on a bicycle. Sounds ridiculous? Welcome to Wheel World.

Mona Hatoum goes hammer and tongs with Giacometti, Andrew Geddes is revealed as a pioneer and Saint Nick rocks up four months early – all in your weekly dispatch

Encounters: Giacometti x Mona Hatoum
Second in a sparky series of shows comparing sculptors of today to the 20th-century legend who captured the slender survival of the human spirit in spindly simplified figures.
• Barbican, London, 3 September to 11 January