From crumbles to cheesecake, sticky toffee to tiramisu – the sweetest ways to finish any meal

“For god’s sake, someone make me a proper dessert and quick,” Jay Rayner wrote in his paean to puddings in OFM, bemoaning the lack of care restaurants often give this essential course. There’s no question for us: the best, most comforting desserts, the ones that really hit that sweet spot, are made at home. Here you’ll find some of our favourites. Classics such as steamed pudding, creme brulee and profiteroles. Custard pie takes Greek form as galaktoboureko, rice pudding meets Indian spices, and Nigerian puff-puffs are the only kind of doughnut we want. We have the River Cafe’s famed lemon tart and Saltine’s should-be-famous sticky apple cake. Nigel Slater infuses jelly and ice-cream with grown-up flavours. These may not all be quick to make, but they are all proper. Grab a spoon.

Challengers for Champions League come from Saudi Arabia as AFC officials privately admit rules need examining

Cristiano Ronaldo has yet to win a major trophy – the Arab Club Champions Cup does not count – since signing for Al-Nassr in December 2022 and the 40-year-old’s best chance this season is the AFC Champions League Elite. The Riyadh club are nine points off the top of the Saudi Pro League but should get past Esteghlal of Iran in the last-16 of the continental competition next week. With the games from the quarter-final stage onwards taking place in Saudi Arabia, this could be the year.

Head coach Stefano Pioli has not quite brought the fluency required to a team that still rely too much on individual talent in individual moments but in a cup competition perhaps that will be enough, especially when you add Jhon Durán. The Colombian has already shown his goalscoring prowess and could make the difference for the club and Ronaldo, who scored six goals in the group stage.

Perth theatre, Scotland
Nicola Werenowska’s enterprising adaptation tackles DH Lawrence’s novel back to front

Adapting a novel is rarely straightforward and playwright Nicola Werenowska takes a particularly enterprising stab at it in her version of the DH Lawrence classic. Where this multigenerational novel luxuriates in lengthy interior monologues, full of poetic meditations, sexual longing and self-questioning, Werenowska pulls the focus sharply on its three central women and their passage towards modernity.

Her prime interest is in Ursula (Rebecca Brudner), the early 20th-century girl who takes strides towards the kind of independence longed for by her mother Anna (Jessica Dennis) and impossible to imagine for her grandmother Lydia (Kate Spiro), a Polish immigrant who stepped down the social ladder to settle in rural Nottinghamshire.

In 1995, 30,000 women from all over the world gathered near Beijing for what became a seminal moment in the women’s rights movement. Some of those who were there reflect on what has been achieved since

In September 1995, tens of thousands of women from around the world gathered in a sleepy town nearly 40 miles (60km) north of Beijing. The original plan had been to meet in the capital but, unnerved by such a large number of women, the Chinese authorities had insisted they stay a safe distance from the city in the settlement of Huairou, much of which was still under construction.

The government’s distrust ran deep: hotels were provided with extra blankets in case the women decided to stage an impromptu naked protest; movement between Beijing and Huairou was strictly controlled; and the unseasonal rain was blamed on a concentration of women menstruating.

The new administration appears to be taking a position that Ukrainian and European leaders aren’t hearing – or are trying to alter

A high-stakes transatlantic miscommunication is unfolding, with the potential to produce far worse consequences than the Oval Office contretemps between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In the past month, the Trump administration has delivered several strong and sometimes conflicting messages to America’s allies and partners in Europe. Discerning the signal in the noise isn’t easy, but amid the zigs, zags and bombast, the new administration appears to be taking a position that Ukrainian and European leaders aren’t hearing – or are trying to alter.

Stephen Wertheim is a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author of Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of US Global Supremacy

A new show of visceral, violent and anxiety-strewn drawings reveals a history of expressionist artists seeking to make the world a better place

German expressionism has rarely gone out of fashion since its emergence in the early years of the 20th century, but something about it feels particularly of the moment today. Perhaps that’s not so surprising for a movement that sought to define, graphically represent and challenge a time fraught with the threat of war, economic uncertainty and cultural conflict that often shaded into misogyny.

A large exhibition of work by the Blue Rider group occupied Tate Modern in London for much of last year and is now followed by a more focused show at the Courtauld Gallery. With Graphic Intent seeks to examine expressionism’s engagement with some of these heightened themes through one characteristic aspect of activity. “Their work on paper was central to the project,” says Niccola Shearman who, along with co-curator Emily Christensen, has brought together work from the Courtauld’s own collection and some prestigious loans. “Whether through pencil drawing or ink brush, work in colour or monochrome, woodcuts and prints, there is a visceral immediacy that matches the subject matter.”