Melting Antarctic ice is releasing cold, fresh water into the ocean, which is projected to cause the slowdown

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In a high emissions future, the world’s strongest ocean current could slow down by 20% by 2050, further accelerating Antarctic ice sheet melting and sea level rise, an Australian-led study has found.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current – a clockwise current more than four times stronger than the Gulf Stream that links the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans – plays a critical role in the climate system by influencing the uptake of heat and carbon dioxide in the ocean and preventing warmer waters from reaching Antarctica.

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An erudite exploration of the female writers who influenced the celebrated 19th-century author brings to light neglected or forgotten but often captivating literature

It would be easy to mistake Rebecca Romney’s Jane Austen’s Bookshelf for one of the many books produced annually by the Jane Austen industrial-entertainment complex: Jane Austen at Home, Jane Austen: Her Homes & Her Friends, Jane Was Here: An illustrated Guide to Jane Austen’s England. So much cultural real estate has been built off those six published books of Austen’s, it’s a wonder someone hasn’t thought before to do a little detective work into the authors that influenced her: Ann Radcliffe, whose 1794 gothic thriller The Mysteries of Udolpho peppers every other conversation in Northanger Abbey; Elizabeth Inchbald, whose 1798 play Lovers’ Vows is rehearsed by the characters in Mansfield Park; and Frances Burney, whose third novel, Camilla (1796), originated the phrase “pride and prejudice”. “There are two Traits in her Character which are pleasing,” Austen once wrote of a friend, “namely she admires Camilla, & drinks no cream in her Tea.”

To her chagrin, Romney had not even heard of Burney, despite being a self-confessed Austen fanatic and a rare book dealer to boot, but she soon found she was not alone. Burney is not even mentioned on Austen’s Wikipedia page and merits only dismissive mentions in most histories of the period, such as Ian Watt’s The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding (1957), which concluded, condescendingly, “it was Jane Austen who completed the work that Fanny Burney had begun”. And this despite the Georgian era being the first time in English history more women published novels than men. It wasn’t that Burney wasn’t any good, it was that she wasn’t as good as Austen, even though Richardson or Fielding are never asked to pass the same test. “When Burney loses, that’s it: she’s off those canonical reading lists,” writes Romney, crisply. “Between women writers, you have to beat the best or you don’t get to play at all.”

The country is home to some of the world’s best modern cuisine, and these trailblazers serve inventive dishes at affordable prices

Since 2002, Spain’s gastronomic year has kicked off at Madrid Fusión, a jamboree where top chefs from all over the world show-cook, share dishes of rarefied ingredients and outline new culinary concepts. Wrapping up the three-day event is the crowning of Spain’s best young chef (often a duo) or “revelation”. This year’s seven candidates ranged from restaurants as far afield as Galicia in the north-west to Tenerife, Seville and Madrid. Most cook at intimate spaces with few tables, and offer ingredients and cooking techniques you would be hard-pushed to find on a British menu without breaking the bank.

We start in Galicia, with the winners of the best emerging chefs for 2025.

The one-time White House intern is incredibly candid as she talks about how to reclaim what’s been taken from you. Plus: London’s most famous cafe spills the tea

The star of new thriller Paradise loves musicals and feels mild shame at enjoying Vengaboys. But which star made him realise he could sing?

The first song I fell in love with
I was in elementary school and If I Had No Loot by Tony! Toni! Toné! was getting a lot of play on BET – Black Entertainment Television. I love the vibe. It has a good bounce. I like things that make me move and this is one song you can’t help but move to.

The first single I bought
I remember buying Don’t Be Cruel by Bobby Brown because everybody was jamming out to Prerogative. I bought it from Streetside Records in St Louis, Missouri, where you could listen to albums on headphones before you bought them.

I spent a year in shock after my marriage collapsed. Then I realised how much pleasure I could wring out of life

As part of her training to be a counsellor, Jill Le Jeune gave a presentation about sex. Her group had worked with people who had experienced trauma, low mood, suicidal ideation. “And everyone was very comfortable around these difficult subjects,” she says. But talking about sex made them squirm. “I thought: actually, I’d rather talk about sex than suicide.” She decided to specialise in the subject and, at the age of 60, started to practise as a sex therapist.

But why? “There was a curiosity,” she says, sitting in her office in Clapham, south-west London.