1. What training my chaotic dog taught me about power, control – and human beings

We are all familiar with the cliches of Britain as a ‘nation of animal lovers’, but we often overlook quite how weird and remarkable it is that we have, for the most part successfully, integrated a vast number of autonomous, non-human entities into a human system of rights and wrongs.

William Davies wrote about how a lovable yet unruly boxer, Dusty, forced him to wonder: if a dog has no morals, how do you teach it to be ‘good’?

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2. ‘Geldof started flicking Vs at Farage’: the story of the Brexit campaign, told by those with a front-row seat

Guardian journalists interviewed a range of MPs, officials and other key players to produce this multi-perspective account of the five months in 2016 that shaped the UK’s future, encompassing Boris Johnson siding with Vote Leave, Jo Cox’s murder and David Cameron’s resignation.

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3. ‘Degrading’: why did a US fighter pilot avoid British trial after strangling a woman in England?

Jacob Wulfson’s fellow airmen decided his fate after a court martial on a US airbase. Harry Davies and Rob Evans wrote this moving dispatch about one of several cases uncovered by the Guardian in which UK police and prosecutors appear to be ceding responsibility to their American military counterparts.

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4. Cory Doctorow on Elon Musk, the AI bubble and bosses’ cruel fantasies

You cannot make billions of dollars without hurting lots of people. And you can’t hurt lots of people without, in some sense, believing that they’re not really people.

The writer who coined the term ‘enshittification’ spoke to Zoe Williams about why AI will never live up to its promises – and why it still appeals so much to those in power.

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5. Europe’s heatwave: French struggle with heat-trap homes as climate inequality grows

My home is an oven, it’s unbearable. I can only use a fan for short bursts, for fear of electricity costs. I only get two hours’ sleep a night. I’m exhausted. The days feel endless trying to protect my son from the heat. 

In France, the impact of the heatwave has been made considerably worse by the fact that many buildings and much of the country’s infrastructure were not designed to cope with high temperatures. Angelique Chrisafis reported on how residents in low-income housing estates are bearing the brunt.

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6. Good food, good genes, good luck: how Ronaldo, Serena and other top athletes compete in their 40s

Across sport, careers that once seemed impossibly long are becoming increasingly common. Serena Williams, Lewis Hamilton and Cristiano Ronaldo are among the stars benefiting from advances in sports science, equipment and facilities. Linda Geddes asked whether athletes are really getting better with age or have they just become better at managing the ageing process?

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