Would you want this to become sexual? If the answer is yes, then think about what might be holding you back

I don’t know whether I am in love with my friend or not. We hang out a lot, because we work together in the same university. My feelings developed over many months and it took us a long time to fit with each other as we do now. I don’t find him perfect; I sometimes don’t like his behaviour, especially when we are with other people. However, I want to be with him a lot: I imagine going on holiday with him and doing things together.

We do have physical contact sometimes – just things like touching arms. I appreciate that and have deep affection for him. So I wonder if this could be love or if I am mistaking great friendship with love just because he is a guy. I do not know whether he is a friend, almost like a brother, or more than that.

Local leaders are optimistic investment and regeneration plans will help make ‘ocean city’ an appealing place to live

Plymouth may only have been rebranded as “Britain’s ocean city” in recent years, but its role as a centre of UK defence can be traced back to the 16th century thanks to its strategic location on Devon’s south coast. Sir Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth on his circumnavigation of the globe and it was here the Pilgrims finally departed England for America on board the Mayflower.

In more recent decades, a dependence on the defence sector no longer seemed an asset, as spending cuts and the loss of dockyard jobs forced the city with a proud maritime history to square up to a new foe: economic uncertainty.

Clever, emotional – and well worth the hype

I couldn’t get a table at Skof for ages: it was too full, too booked up and far too busy. It seemed there’d be no lightly set miso custard with hen of the woods mushrooms and dashi for me. Jersey royals cooked in chicken fat with pickled walnuts? I’d only be able to admire those from afar. It was like catnip: in the spirit of Groucho Marx, I want to be inside any restaurant that doesn’t want me as a customer.

Skof opened in Manchester in May 2024 and by February last year already had a Michelin star, so it’s no wonder that, with only 36 seats, spaces evaporate rapidly. This capacious one-time drapery warehouse could easily accommodate two or even three times that number of covers, but Tom Barnes, formerly of L’Enclume in the Lake District, is not that sort of chef. His restaurant’s name comes from his dad, Barney, telling him rather unceremoniously as a child to “scoff” his dinner. What would Barney have made of his boy’s ornate, complex pre-dinner snacks of chalk stream trout and golden beetroot tartlet, or broad bean, pike roe and shiso on a Spenwood cheese biscuit? Both are hugely scoffable, incidentally. Barney, now deceased, is remembered at the end of every meal via his favourite tiramisu, of which more later.

Skof, like L’Enclume, is one of those intensely relaxed yet still ferociously fancy restaurants. Dress code is come as you are. Deodorant is a boon. As we ate, Aussie post-punk band Mental As Anything bled into Arctic Monkeys by way of Sam Fender, but then, bang, the first two courses proper arrived, each of them intricate and intentional: a soft, juicy Orkney scallop with barbecued kohlrabi and preserved tomato water, followed by that lightly set custard with truffle and mushroom dashi. Think of this custard as a quiche filling on steroids, and one that’s well worth garrotting people for in a buffet queue.

Many teams have fans abroad, but the bond between the north London club and ordinary Africans is on a different level. A continent expects

If Arsenal win the Champions League final later today, expect euphoria across Africa. Judging by the scenes after last week’s Premier League title win – their first in 22 years – the celebrations will be immense. Boisterous fans flooded city centres in Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Kampala and Lagos. In Nigeria’s Zamfara state, people celebrated in the streets despite rising insecurity as a result of Boko Haram’s terrorism.

For outsiders, the obvious question is: how did a club from north London become so deeply woven into African popular culture?

Sean Henry Jacobs is the founder of Africa Is a Country and edits the Eleven Named People newsletter

Solidarity between LGBTQ+ people and unions has saved an event denied ‘a single penny’ of council money

As the annual Pride parade weaved its way through Durham, the rainbow flags, trans rights placards and sequined cowboy hats filled the medieval city’s cobbled streets with a huge splash of colour.

But this year, the rainbow flags were almost matched in number by trade union banners, as miners, postal workers, and train drivers swelled the parade’s ranks in solidarity, making it the biggest in Durham Pride’s history.

More competition and loss-making sites are among the challenges for the new turnaround chief executive

With its comfy sofas and a menu of gourmet treats including Béarnaise smash burgers and trendy Whispering Angel rosé wine at £47 a bottle, Everyman has thrived as the go-to chain for a luxury cinema trip.

Yet a quarter of a century after reinventing the movie-going experience, growing from a single venue in Hampstead in London to a national player with 49 sites, the arthouse chain finds itself struggling as rivals ape its successful formula.

Jab brought ‘unprecedentedly strong responses’ in patients whose disease had become resistant to chemotherapy and immunotherapy

Doctors have hailed “unprecedented” trial results that show a triple-action cancer jab can eradicate entire tumours in patients.

In an international trial spanning 11 countries, the injection was offered to patients whose cancer had spread or come back and whose disease had failed to respond to other treatments.

It was a showpiece that held the football world in its grip, the tension mounting exponentially, everything on the line. For Paris Saint-Germain, there was the opportunity to make it clear that this is a dynastic team; the rarity of retaining a Champions League title.

For Arsenal, it was simple. Never mind the Invincibles. They stood to be immortal, a first victory in this competition to follow their first Premier League triumph since 2004. It was all set up to become the greatest season in their history.

Nawaf Salam says Israel collectively punishing southern Lebanon and forcing people ‘into exile’ but defends security talks with Tel Aviv

Lebanon’s prime minister accused Israel on Saturday of pursuing a “scorched-earth policy” in his country’s south, urging a halt to the fighting as Israel carried out fresh airstrikes and issued evacuation warnings for more than a dozen locations.

A day after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his forces had advanced deeper into Lebanon, his counterpart Nawaf Salam warned the country was facing a “dangerous” escalation, and called for “a swift and real ceasefire”.

Guardian investigation shows how US presidency blurs line between policy and enrichment of American ruling family and those around it

On a graffitied Sarajevo backstreet, a path leads past an overgrown patch of garden to a white door. Beyond is the registered office of a company that is on the brink of winning contracts worth more than $1bn.

AAFS Infrastructure and Energy is close to securing a concession to build and operate a pipeline across the Balkans to allow fossil gas shipped from the US to replace supplies that come from Russia. “This could be the most important infrastructure project ever in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” says one of the country’s top officials, who, like others, asks to remain anonymous to discuss sensitive negotiations.