FilmReviewIt’s hard to imagine who will enjoy this convoluted animated tale of furry creatures called ‘flummels’ Even if you can get over the inherent weirdness of furry little doughnut-shaped creatures with holes in their middles, there’s a lot to puzzle over with this family animation, which manages to be both surreally baffling and wearyingly derivative. The doughnut creatures are called “flummels”, and they exist on a remote Galápagos island, rolling around like wheels and picking flowers.

Exhibitions This article is more than 1 year oldHow fearless Alice de Rothschild put her stamp on a grand country retreatThis article is more than 1 year oldLegacy of 19th-century socialite known for ‘Miss Alice’s rules’ in focus at Waddesdon Manor She was everything expected of a fabulously wealthy woman of the 19th century: musical, well read, a polyglot, an accomplished horse rider. But she was also everything unexpected: independent, commanding, fearless, unmarried.

GazaUnemployment in the Gaza Strip stands at 44% but since 2021 permits to work in Israel have been issued in small numbers There’s nothing quite like the Erez crossing, the only civilian route between Israel and the blockaded Gaza Strip, anywhere else in the world. The Israeli side looks like an airport terminal, but is in fact a fortress: surveillance balloons and motion sensors monitor above and below the sea and land that make up Gaza’s de facto borders, while semi-autonomous robots, equipped with machine guns, patrol the buffer zone.

LGBTQ+ rights This article is more than 4 months oldNashville elects Tennessee’s first openly transgender politicianThis article is more than 4 months oldOlivia Hill, 57, a military veteran, joins the Nashville city council in historic election A transgender woman won election to a seat on Nashville’s city council, becoming the first openly transgender person to be voted into political office in Tennessee. Olivia Hill, 57, secured one of the four open at-large seats on the metro council of Nashville, a politically liberal city in an overwhelmingly conservative state.

Laughing stock: the week in comedyComedyIn this week's roundup, Spike Milligan's gravestone joke takes a serious turn, the US samples HIGNFY and a new website gives black British comedy a pushThe famous epitaph on Spike Milligan's gravestone, "I told you I was ill", has been added to , at the end of a bitter feud between the ex-Goon's family members. The comedian died in 2002, aged 83, and was buried at St Thomas's Church in Winchelsea, East Sussex.

FictionReviewThe country set confront the realities of the second world war in this sweeping historical epic The title sounds like a metaphor, but there really is a theatre made of a whale’s ribcage in this sweeping historical epic. It stands on a grassy headland on the Dorset coast, draped in scenery, the creation of young Cristabel Seagrave, whose passion for amateur dramatics ropes in family and servants alike at the Chilcombe estate.

TV tonightTelevision & radioNever-before-seen footage shows the terrifying reality of what happened in 2021. Plus: Jon Snow reflects on his incredible career. Here’s what to watch this evening Evacuation9pm, Channel 4This haunting three-part documentary about the evacuation of Kabul in 2021 runs throughout this week. It uses excellent never-before-seen footage shot by combat camera teams and interviews with servicemen and women and British and Afghan citizens. “I need to come to terms, personally, with some of the stuff that I did,” says one soldier in the opener.

US military This article is more than 12 years oldUS soldier admits killing unarmed Afghans for sportThis article is more than 12 years oldJeremy Morlock, 23, tells US military court he was part of a 'kill team' that faked combat situations to murder Afghan civiliansAn American soldier has pleaded guilty to being part of a "kill team" who deliberately murdered Afghan civilians for sport last year. Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, 23, told a military court he had helped to kill three unarmed Afghans.

BooksWhen the novelist first read Gretchen Gerzina’s 1995 book Black England, she discovered the complex and unexpected lives of black people in England before the abolition of slavery. Two decades on, the stories still have the power to astonish I can say precisely where and when I first read Black England because I made a note of it on the flyleaf: Zadie Smith NW2 ’99. I was in the habit back then of using the books I bought as a record of the places and times of my life.

How we madePop and rock‘When the label told us it was going to be the lead track, I said: “You can’t do that. We’re a serious band”’ Sue Drew, former vice-president of A&R, Reprise RecordsI joined Reprise Records in 1995, based in New York, and was assigned to help Barenaked Ladies make their fourth record. I had just signed They Might Be Giants, who I considered to be the cream of the smarty-pants, alternative music scene.