Boom in races such as Hyrox driven by younger people seeking connection as well as competition

For people looking to get in shape with a new exercise regime, slow and steady used to be the received wisdom for long term change.

But judging by fitness trends which are sweeping across the parks, streets and gyms of the UK, the solitary morning jog is giving way to something more high octane. More gym-goers are signing up for fitness competitions, ranging from obstacle courses to high intensity competitions and races, which combine cardiovascular exercise and strength training.

Set up in the 1980s, Giroscope has morphed into a social agency running neighbourhood services and creating jobs

Forty years ago, a small group of students and university dropouts living rough had a novel idea. What if they pooled meagre savings and jobless benefits for a modest terrace house, rather than rent a run-down flat?

They raised a deposit for a £3,200 mortgage on a neglected two-bedroom property in the Victorian terraces of west Hull, running down to the quayside of a once-thriving fishing port, from where boats used to trawl the north Atlantic.

Despite threadbare resources, actors Suzanne Fulton and Michael Coombes elevate this film about a woman hoping to avenge her father’s violent death

Here is a crime drama from director-cinematographer-editor Jonathan Zaurin in which Abigail (Suzanne Fulton) is mourning the violent murder of her father while entertaining hopes of revenge against his killer. Meanwhile, two very different brothers navigate reconnection after one is released from prison: Matt (Michael Coombes), the younger brother, is a shy, soft kind of guy, while ex-con Ewan (Pete Bird) is confident and cocky and seemingly determined to head straight back down the kind of path that led to him getting banged up in the first place. Only this time, perhaps he’ll drag his little brother along for the ride.

Derelict is self-evidently a low-budget affair – it reportedly took as little as £35k to film on location in Herefordshire, and that lack of resource can’t always be concealed. There are also a fair few instances of sequences that presumably felt realistic on the page but strike a false note on the screen: for example, it will never be convincing to have one actor stand still while yelling “come back!” as another actor walks away from them. It might sound pedantic but it’s the kind of thing that gives a telenovela feel to a film aiming for gritty realism. Some of the acting is likewise variable in its plausibility.

In its allegations against the Maryland man, the Trump administration is claiming authority over reality itself

In a way, you could think of the brief stint that Kilmar Ábrego García spent in a Tennessee jail after his return from a Salvadorian prison camp in June as a kind of protective custody. Ábrego, a Maryland resident who had never been charged with any crime either in the US or in his native El Salvador, became a symbol of the Trump administration’s ambitiously sadistic anti-immigration efforts when he was kidnapped by I agents in March and sent without due process to Cecot, a massive prison in El Salvador from which few detainees are ever released, as a result of what representatives for the Trump immigration authorities called an administrative error. Ábrego became a symbol for the several hundred men who had been deprived of their liberty and deported to the distant foreign prison without due process and in defiance of both American and international law.

It was only after extensive public pressure on the issue – including visits to Cecot and demands to see Ábrego from prominent Democratic politicians, including Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland senator – that Ábrego was returned to the US. The Trump administration ginned up a fake, face-saving excuse for his return, claiming Ábrego needed to be tried for alleged crimes in the US. But that was never anything but a cover, a lie to avoid admitting that they were bringing him back under political pressure and that such pressure could make them cave again. Still, Maga does not forgive Ábrego for his innocence; its adherents decided to make an example of him. Now, released from jail on those trumped-up and unproven allegations, Ábrego has been arrested again by Ice. This time, the Trump administration says it plans to deport him to Uganda – a country he has never been to – as part of a new third-country deportation scheme recently blessed by the supreme court.

This umami sauce is great on crumpets, eggs, even sandwiches, so there’s no excuse not to polish it all off

I love XO sauce and use it on rice (plain and fried), noodles and steamed fish. But I often struggle to finish a jar – any advice on other ways of using it?
Chris, via email
“I’m absolutely stunned that Chris has any problem finishing a jar of XO sauce,” says Fuchsia Dunlop, author of Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food. “You can literally eat the stuff by the spoonful straight from the jar, although that would feel quite extravagant.” This, of course, is because the umami condiment, said to have been invented in Hong Kong’s Spring Moon restaurant at the Peninsula hotel in the mid-1980s, is something of a luxury. As Jenny Lau, author of An A-Z of Chinese Food, explains, XO sauce “must contain three core ingredients: dried shrimp, dried scallop and preserved ham”, which don’t come cheap. “Anything else, though, and it will be an imitation.”

The powerhouse sauce, which also features chillies and alliums, is used both in cooking and as a table condiment. “It basically makes anything taste more interesting,” Dunlop says, and Chris is on the right track with what he’s been doing with it. “One of the best ways to appreciate XO sauce is to have it with plain rice; you taste that lovely, chewy texture, the delicious savouriness of the scallops and the kick of chilli heat.” And, because it’s oil-based, XO works brilliantly in fried dishes, too, although that doesn’t include fried rice in Dunlop’s book: “While it is delicious, I feel that’s a bit of a waste,” she says. “I’d rather use dried shrimp in fried rice and keep my XO sauce for having bits in your chopsticks to enjoy.” That might be in stir-fried noodles, say, or spooned into veg: “I once had some amazing stir-fried king oyster mushrooms with XO sauce in Hangzhou,” Dunlop says.

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Campaigners accuse Yorkshire Water of negligence and say plan to top up reservoirs will kill the river’s fish

With its pebble beach and shallow areas for paddling, the River Wharfe at Ilkley has long been a popular swimming location in the pretty Yorkshire town. But plagued by sewage and agricultural runoff, the river has been designated as “poor” quality, and a sign has been put up warning people against bathing in it. And now, the health of the river has been put further at risk with emergency drought plans by Yorkshire Water to suck water from it to top up its reservoirs.

A drive by campaigners and wild swimmers led it in 2021 to be the first in the country to get designated bathing status – meaning the government tests it for the harmful E coli and intestinal enterococci bacteria.