Singer, songwriter, actor and punk pioneer best known as the frontman of New York Dolls

On the day that the New York Dolls appeared on the BBC music show The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973, they were openly derided by the host, Bob Harris. “Mock rock,” he opined to camera.

For all his snarling attitude, the band’s singer, David Johansen, who has died aged 75, might well have agreed. The last thing he expected was for his band to be taken seriously. The Dolls took their lead not from the “adult-oriented” rock and earnest singer-songwriters dominating the US album charts, but from the glam rock scene making headway in the UK singles charts. British acts from the Sex Pistols to Morrissey would later repay the compliment, citing the band as a key influence.

When the dust finally settled on a tie featuring two red cards and an endless stream of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it drama crowned by Danny Welbeck’s extra-time winner, Brighton were in the quarter-finals.

Newcastle’s Anthony Gordon, meanwhile, was out of this month’s Carabao Cup final after being shown a straight red card deep in a second half that also featured Alexander Isak’s late withdrawal, accompanied by a physiotherapist, just to exacerbate Eddie Howe’s worries.

The 90-year-old designer can be relied on to provide a consistent style serenity whatever the political weather

With his usual Sunday slot falling on the last day of Milan fashion week, Giorgio Armani always has the last word after a week of shows. As the collections played out against a particularly tumultuous political backdrop this season, his parting sentiment seemed more significant than ever.

“I wanted to imagine new harmony because I believe that is what we all need,” said the 90-year-old designer on Sunday afternoon.

Charity calls for help to be speeded up as research shows families incur on average £700 a month in extra expenses

Young people with cancer in England are waiting an average of seven months before receiving disability benefits to support their treatment, research shows, prompting calls for people with a diagnosis to qualify for help immediately.

Research by the charity Young Lives shows the families of children with cancer on average face almost £700 each month in additional expenses during their treatment.

Instead of bowing to rightwing populism, Starmer should take it on by rebuilding towns – and giving people the jobs and homes they crave

The south Welsh town of Pontypool doesn’t quite suggest a crucial political frontline. The town centre is full of imposing 19th- and 20th-century buildings that were created in a spirit of pride and optimism but have long since lain empty; local people talk about the shadow of the old iron and coal industries, and the fact that precious little ever came along to take their place. On the Monday afternoon I visited, the most forlorn sight was a huge mural of a local rugby crowd, lovingly sprayed on the exterior of a former discount store: a two-dimensional throng, put there to “inspire people to remember what Pontypool could be like as a thriving community”.

Despite appearances, a significant watershed moment happened here recently. Like so much of south Wales, Pontypool has long been seen as a loyal Labour redoubt – but on 13 February, Reform UK gained its first Welsh councillor in a byelection for the local borough council. The victor was a former army major who won 457 votes to Labour’s anaemic 259, and claimed, when greeting his win, that there would now be no Labour councillors, MPs or members of the Senedd, the Welsh parliament, who could confidently think they represented safe seats. Reform UK is set on banishing the lingering idea of south Wales as a staunch socialist heartland: Nigel Farage intends to make the 2026 devolved Welsh elections “by far our biggest priority”.

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

With relations between Washington and Kyiv in tatters, we examine what can realistically be achieved for Zelenskyy

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Britain and France are trying, with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to develop a peace plan to end the fighting in his country, in the aftermath of his disastrous White House summit with Donald Trump.

However, the initiative announced by Keir Starmer on Sunday raises questions about whether peace is possible, and on what terms, in the face of continuing Russian hostility and uncertain US intentions.