• New Zealander suffered multiple concussions

• Police called to his Nelson home on Wednesday morning

Shane Christie, the former Māori All Blacks player who had wanted his brain to be studied after suffering from the effects of multiple concussions, has died aged 39.

The New Zealand rugby player had campaigned for greater awareness in rugby of the impact of repeated blows to the head. After retiring from the game in 2017, Christie reportedly suffered from headaches, memory lapses, speech problems, depression and mood swings consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Employees at two public bodies reported less work-related stress and one organisation had drop in sick days

Increased productivity and improved staff wellbeing were among the results of a year-long trial of the four-day week by the Scottish government.

Two public bodies, South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) and Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB), took part in the pilot, which was launched by Holyrood in early 2024.

Sweet sandwiches have been a big trend in shops this summer. Here is how to make your own, from strawberries and cream to apple pie panini

Tesco’s recently introduced birthday cake sandwich – an unholy assemblage of jam, soft cheese, frosting and sprinkles, stuffed between two slices of brioche – may well be the world’s most depressing foodstuff, a cake designed to be eaten in one go, possibly on your birthday, probably alone.

The birthday cake sandwich follows hard on the heels of M&S’s strawberries and cream sandwich – a UK version of the fruit sandwiches, or furutsu sandos, sold in convenience stores in Japan. The M&S sandwich received a certain amount of criticism, along with some surprisingly good reviews. But both sandwiches were controversial, not least from a nutritional standpoint (the Tesco sandwich contains 31.5g of sugar, over a third of the recommended maximum daily intake for an adult), but also because they upset our notion of what a sandwich is. Aren’t they supposed to be savoury? Aren’t they supposed to be lunch, rather than dessert?

With the government facing defeat in a confidence vote, the nation’s economic problems will still need to tackled

France is stuck in economic limbo, without a budget and soon, possibly, without a government. The prime minister, François Bayrou, has called for parliament to hold a confidence vote on 8 September and, now that parties of the left and far right have pledged to bring down the government, on paper he doesn’t have the numbers to win.

On Tuesday, the Socialist party (PS) added its voice to the dissenters, allying it with the Greens and the far-right National Rally.