Before Orange Is the New Black made her a star, Cox endured bullying, abuse, harassment and violence. She talks about the bad old days – and her fears they’re on their way back

Two days before she spoke to me, Laverne Cox had been at the premiere of a new, animated Animal Farm, in which she voices Snowball. The film is wildly controversial, for its absolutely unOrwellian, childish tone, complete with happy ending, but Cox had bigger things on her mind than film criticism.

“If we don’t wake up and don’t understand, trans people will be exterminated,” she said that day in April. “People’s rights are being taken away, people are losing their jobs, people are losing healthcare, people are being detransitioned in prison, gender-affirming care is being attacked, not just for children but also for adults. It’s never been about protecting women – it’s always been about creating a permission structure to scapegoat trans people, to dehumanise trans people, to take away our rights and to eliminate us from public life.”

When the artist came home from LA, it seemed like a retirement. But it heralded an astonishing new chapter. Our critic remembers their thrilling dinners together – and the dazzling new works that arrived in his inbox every morning

It was springtime in Paris and I was floating among young green leaves and white blossom – but I was not in a park. I was on an upper floor of the Fondation Louis Vuitton delighting, wallowing in several of David Hockney’s iPad paintings of his garden in Normandy. In one room, this green oasis was shown by the light of the silvery moon: the darkened chamber was alive with shining white lunar discs, blue clouds and the shadowy fingers of tree branches.

It was early April last year and this was the opening of David Hockney 25, a blockbuster show, curated with his close involvement, covering his entire career – but with an emphasis on his work this century. What a bold and bloody-minded spectacle it was, insisting that Hockney’s later pictures of straw bales and ponds are just as good if not better than his famous early swimming pools and sexy portraits. And what a triumph! With extraordinary aplomb, Hockney made his point. You went from gazing in awe at some of his greatest early paintings, basking in their Californian and swinging London light, to suddenly standing in Yorkshire fields in the early 21st century, taking in views of emerald hedgerows and purple trees. And it all suddenly made sense.

Amid fears the wreck will be more accessible to explorers – and new species – as the climate warms, conservationists want to create the region’s first underwater protected area

The harsh temperatures, treacherous currents and shifting pack ice of the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea, which crushed and sank his ship, Endurance, in 1915, led Ernest Shackleton to describe it as the “worst portion of the worst sea in the world”.

For more than a century, the inhospitable conditions, which present a challenge even for modern icebreaker ships, helped to protect the lost wreck, which was discovered in 2022, its structure still largely intact.

The European Commission has unveiled its plans for digital sovereignty. Its proposals betray a disappointing lack of vision

Beti Hohler is a Slovenian national who lives in the Netherlands. Like tens of millions of other Europeans, she uses Apple’s app store and has an Amazon account. When she travels for work or leisure, she may want to book a place on Airbnb or Booking, using a credit card issued by Visa or Mastercard, perhaps through PayPal.

But when the Trump administration sanctioned her last year for her work as a judge at the international criminal court (ICC), her ability to use any of these services vanished overnight. Her credit cards, her accounts with US companies – all gone. The sanctions against Hohler and some of her colleagues mean they live in “constant uncertainty”, she said.

Max von Thun is the director of Open Markets Institute Europe, an anti-monopoly thinktank

With an adaptation of Night and Day hitting cinemas, the pioneering author’s work continues to inspire audiences

She’s long been admired by students of English literature, but 85 years after her death, Virginia Woolf has broken out of the seminar room to become an unexpected cultural phenomenon.

The author of Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, whose innovative prose helped redefine the modern novel, is finding a new audience through a string of high-profile adaptations.

In a stark contrast to previous tournaments, and Baden-Baden in 2006 in particular, the players’ partners are set to keep a low profile while some may not travel at all

The BBC is not the only World Cup institution to have stayed at home.

As England make final preparations for their opening game of the tournament against Croatia on Wednesday, only around half of Thomas Tuchel’s squad can look forward to being reunited with their families in Dallas, with many having opted to skip the group stage.

Initial deal expected to be signed on Friday but questions remain over strait of Hormuz, Lebanon conflict and Iran’s nuclear program

• Peace deal between US and Iran announced, with strait of Hormuz expected to reopen

• Explainer: what do we know about the US-Iran peace deal?

The agreement between the United ⁠States and Iran should allow for the “immediate reopening” ⁠of the ⁠Strait ​of Hormuz, EU Commission President Ursula von ⁠der Leyen said on Monday.

“The priority now is ⁠its swift and full implementation ​by all parties,” ‌von der ‌Leyen said about the ‌announced deal.

Prime minister expected to unveil ‘Australia plus’ ban for under-16s on apps such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat

Good morning. In Downing Street officials reportedly refuse to talk about Keir Starmer wanting to establish a legacy. But it is hard for the rest of us to avoid the word, particularly on a morning when he has summoned reporters to Downing Street for an 8am press conference on his plans for a social media ban. In lobby terms, this counts as unconscionably early. The announcement could easily wait. But Starmer is heading to France for the G7 summit later, that will keep him busy until Wednesday night, and on Thursday it’s the Makerfield byelection. Starmer is determined to make this announcement before then because Andy Burnham seems on course to become an MP in the early hours of Friday and at that point UK politics may start to change drastically – and Starmer’s window for legacy making may swiftly close.

Last summer the UK government showed little interest in following the Australian government when it announced its social media ban for under-16s. Within months the view in government was changing, and by early 2026 Starmer said there would definitely be some sort of crackdown. But he suggested he was still undecided between a full social media ban for under-16s, and alternative measures to crackdown on the most harmful features of these apps.

It’s shameful that it’s taken the prime minister’s job to be on the line for the government to finally u-turn and ban social media for under 16s.

Three times Labour voted against a ban, failing to stand up to Big Tech and protect children from the extreme content they are exposed to every day.

‘Pointless’ reviews are wasting public money and ‘significantly harming’ the mental health of claimants, charity says

Disabled people with lifelong conditions are repeatedly being put through “pointless” benefit reassessments, contrary to official guidance, new analysis suggests.

A study by the anti-poverty charity Z2K has found that hundreds of thousands of disabled people are going through “unnecessary” personal independence payment (Pip) reviews, “wasting” public money and “significantly harming” the mental and physical health of claimants.

Dormition Cathedral of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, one of Ukraine’s most significant religious sites, and residential buildings hit across capital

Ukraine has come under a massive Russian missile and drone attack with waves of explosions echoing through the capital, Kyiv, in the early hours of Monday as air raids killed at least nine people across the country.

Among targets hit in the sustained wave of strikes were the city’s historic Dormition Cathedral within the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, one of Ukraine’s most significant religious sites, as well as residential buildings across the city.