In the happiest and tastiest of accidents, what began as an experiment in reinventing the caesar salad turned into a quick favourite supper

I was thinking of billing this as a caesar salad with an extreme makeover. One night, I started making a caesar salad, then wondered what would happen if I made a coriander-pesto mayonnaise and mugged off the anchovies in favour of chorizo. Then I thought about turning it into a full meal, at which point it stopped being anything like a caesar salad. If you’d prefer a vegetarian version, choose a vegetarian parmesan and omit the chorizo in favour of a heaped teaspoon of smoked paprika and a scant teaspoon of sea salt flakes.

‘You’ve got to be where the electorate are,’ says Luke Evans, the sixth-most followed UK politician on the platform

Politicians are at risk of ignoring a large chunk of the electorate because of their reluctance to communicate on TikTok, according to a Tory MP who has one of the biggest followings of any UK politician on the social media platform.

Luke Evans, who is the sixth-most followed UK politician on TikTok, said his colleagues were missing out on engaging particularly with young voters because of security concerns and a lack of knowledge about the platform.

Bramham Park, Leeds
Thousands of post-GCSE teens join acts from pop-poet Antony Szmierek to rap megastar Travis Scott, before Hozier blazes and Wunderhorse go off like a rocket

‘You’re at the start of what might be the best weekend of your life,” Manchester’s dance-grooved “pop poet” Antony Szmierek tells a cheering audience, capturing the buzz which brings tens of thousands of teenagers (and older) to Leeds festival (and its Reading counterpart). The former rock festival is a post-GCSE rite of passage, a place for many to don a daft hat, wear as little as possible, toast results or drown sorrows. Two years ago, Szmeriek – imagine the Streets’ Mike Skinner with a ’tache and trackies – was a special needs teacher before becoming a dazzling wordsmith, so draws on his backstory (and gets another cheer) when he tells the kid in the front row who failed all his exams: “It doesn’t matter. You will be someone.”

Other hits include Skye Newman’s raw soul, dance producer Sammy Virji and besuited, sunglasses-wearing New York one-man electronic band Harrison Smith AKA the Dare, whose brilliantly jerky set is like watching Jarvis Cocker fronting LCD Soundsystem. Kids waiting for rap at the main stage look bewildered by Amy Taylor’s raucous, shouty Aussie punks Amyl and the Sniffers. Trippie Redd’s affecting blend of the plaintive and unsettling is beautifully illustrated when a father plays football with his toddlers as the American raps about putting someone in their casket. Otherwise, with fewer stages and big names than previous years, the first day feels somewhat undersold and underpowered. US rap superstar Travis Scott’s headlining set builds in intensity as pyro and fireworks erupt around him, but ends abruptly 35 minutes early, without explanation, to a smattering of boos.

Royal Albert Hall, London
The masterly Amsterdam ensemble were at the Proms for two concerts with their Chief Conductor Designate Klaus Mäkelä. In works by Berio, Mahler, Mozart, Prokofiev and Bartók there was dazzling playing and immaculate attention to detail

The 2025 Proms are turning towards the final stretch. That means it’s time for more visiting orchestras. The Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Melbourne Symphony are among this week’s arrivals. But the past weekend belonged to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. No visit by Amsterdam’s finest is to be missed, but these two Proms in less than 24 hours brought something more – the starry presence of Klaus Mäkelä, who becomes the RCO’s chief conductor in 2027 and who currently has the musical world at his feet.

The obvious challenge in judging whether the two will become a perfect fit is that the RCO are simply so good. The warmth and precision of the Amsterdam string sound is legendary, while the RCO offers listeners wind playing to die for. So strong is the squad that, like a top football club, many principals who played in the visit’s first concert of Berio and Mahler were rotated in the second, consisting of Mozart, Prokofiev and Bartók.

Serie A champions show fresh tricks in opening win but Milan suffer at hands of Schwarzenegger-inspired defender

The new Serie A season was 17 minutes old and already it had started to look like the previous one: Matteo Politano crossing and Scott McTominay scoring, just as they did in Napoli’s title-sealing victory over Cagliari three months ago. Even their positions were practically identical, the Italian cutting in from the right as the Scotsman attacked the six-yard box.

McTominay’s finish was less dramatic this time around, a header instead of a scissor-kick, but he dispatched it with equal conviction. Serie A’s Most Valuable Player in 2024-25, scoring the league’s first goal of 2025-26. “Winning the Scudetto changes nothing,” he had said in one interview earlier this month. “We need to recapture and maintain that mentality we found last year.”

Maximalist designer from London discusses how he became one of town’s fiercest advocates – and curator of 146-year-old event

When the pop star Olly Murs switches on Blackpool’s famous Illuminations next weekend, it will continue a tradition that has endured for almost a century and a half.

The Lancashire town was first lit up by twinkling bulbs 146 years ago – 12 months before Thomas Edison even patented the electric lightbulb.