The BBC have confirmed that the long-running sci-fi show will return to our screens. But with ratings falling and its Disney partnership ending, questions hang over its future

Sometimes the answer to one mystery only prompts more questions. That may well be the case with this week’s announcement from the BBC that Doctor Who will return to BBC One with a 2026 Christmas special and a new series to follow, but that the show’s international streaming partnership with Disney+ will end.

There was no indication of who might play the Doctor in next year’s special, which will be written by Russell T Davies and produced by Bad Wolf with BBC Studios.

Talk of ‘small boats’ may dominate politics and the media, but the cost of living crisis is what most adults spend their time worrying about

Wage increases finally began to outpace price rises in June 2023, so we could technically class the previous month as the height of the cost of living crisis. Certainly, May that year was when the headlines about butter peaked. Lurpak and Anchor, both owned by the same dairy co-op, Arla, had reduced the size of their standard butter pack from 250g to 200g. The price was brought down accordingly, in due course, but for a while, certain supermarkets were still charging half-pound prices for a “what would we even call 200g?” pack.

The problem was, butter units are universal. A half-pound of butter always weighs the same amount in your hand, regardless of the brand. Seeing the small version in a supermarket felt almost sci-fi, like a tiny off-key detail that alerts you to the fact you’ve been kidnapped by aliens into a simulacrum world. They would have gotten away with it, but for that tiny flaw. Forced by the outcry to release a statement, the brand said it was trying to make prices “more accessible” for consumers. One almost feels embarrassed for it, flailing around for cosy equality language that didn’t explain its butter-miniatures at all.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

A Halloween screening doesn’t have to mean being scared witless. From serene sushi-making to a shell with shoes on, we run down the finest films for those of a nervous disposition

Just so we’re all clear on the brief, tomorrow is Halloween. But some people do not like scary films. Some people do not like films where there are any intense emotional moments whatsoever. This is mostly a list of those films. So, for example, Up cannot be included in the lineup because its first 10 minutes are genuinely traumatising. Similarly, Finding Nemo cannot be included because it is a film about a grief-stricken father searching for a son he believes might be dead. But Cars, a film about some cars, can. The scariest that Cars gets is when a car has a near-miss with a train. Other than that, barely any jeopardy at all.

As she releases a new album, the soul and gospel legend answers your questions on Stax Records, duetting with David Byrne and the fight for civil rights

Can you speak about the array of songs and artists on your new record? What kind of message and lyrics do you want to sing at this point in your life? steve_bayley
The first song I got for the album was Human Mind, written by Hozier and Allison Russell, and that really set the tone for the entire record. It starts: “I deal in love baby, in good words from above … and I ain’t giving up.” I cried when I was trying to sing it for the first time. Then the next song was Beautiful Strangers by Kevin Morby. All the songs are part of me and what I’ve been singing about my whole life. There’s some about war, fighting, love … some about hard times, like the farmer whose losing his farm. Things that are going on in the world today, so Sad and Beautiful World is the perfect title.

I loved the documentary Summer of Soul. What was it like to play there [the 1969 Harlem Cultural festival] and sing alongside Mahalia Jackson? Same question for Wattstax [the 1973 Stax Records benefit concert in Watts, LA, to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 1965 riots]. snak3span

The discovery that affluent neighbourhoods have more diversity of nature has implications for human wellbeing – and sheds light on the structural injustices in cities

For a long time, ecology tended to ignore people. It mostly focused on beautiful places far from large-scale human development: deep rainforest or pristine grassland. Then, in the late 1990s, in the desert city of Phoenix, Arizona, scientists shifted their gaze closer to home.

A team of ecologists went out into their own neighbourhood to map the distribution of urban plants in one of the first studies of its kind. Equipped with tape measures and clipboards, they documented trees and shrubs, sometimes getting on all fours to crawl through bushes under the curious watch of local people.

An international study found cool people are extroverted, open, hedonistic, adventurous, autonomous and powerful. At best, I have three of these traits. Could I change that?

Who would you say is effortlessly, undeniably cool? Charli xcx, certainly. David Bowie, of course. Yoko Ono and Fran Lebowitz – or do they just wear a lot of black? I’m not cool and never have been. As a teenager, I was a swot at a school that prized sports. As an adult, I’m always wearing a backpack. I’m garrulous, risk-averse, lazy with my personal presentation and not convinced that any drug beats eight hours’ sleep. “Cool” feels to me like the stock market or Michelin restaurants: none of my business.

I’m not alone. In a recent YouGov survey, a third of respondents said they weren’t cool at school, with only 10% reporting that, yep, they actually were. Half claimed they were “somewhere in between”.

King’s brother will become known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, Buckingham Palace says, in latest fallout from Epstein scandal

Prince Andrew is to be stripped of his royal titles and will move out of his home at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, Buckingham Palace has announced.

King Charles has initiated a “formal process to remove the style, titles and honours of Prince Andrew”, who will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, the palace said.

Vote passes 51-47 in latest bipartisan effort to challenge tariffs, but House is unlikely to take any similar action

The US Senate took a stand against Donald Trump’s global tariffs affecting more than 100 countries on Thursday, voting to nullify the so-called “reciprocal” tariffs.

Four Republicans joined with all Democrats to vote 51-47 on a resolution to end the base-level tariffs that the president put into place via executive order.

Remains of Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch returned to Israel for burial after identification process, Israeli military said

Hamas handed over two bodies of deceased Israeli hostages on Thursday, a day after the tenuous Gaza ceasefire was shaken by deadly Israeli strikes across the strip.

The bodies of hostages Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch were returned to Israel for burial after an identification process was completed, the Israeli military saidlate on Thursday.

Agency says staff member offered to apply for licence to allow chancellor to rent out family home, but failed to do so

Keir Starmer appears to have escaped the huge political damage of potentially losing his chancellor weeks before the budget, after 24 hours of intense scrutiny over whether Rachel Reeves broke the law when she rented out her family home.

The Conservatives said Reeves must be sacked if she committed an offence by not obtaining a council licence before letting out her four-bedroom house in south London when the family moved into 11 Downing Street. No 10 was initially unable to explain why Starmer believed an apology from the chancellor was sufficient.