Evening all,

It’s Imogen here, manically racing to the Friday finish line to bring you our Weekend Edition after a week juggling work, summer holiday childcare and hitting refresh every five minutes to find out what Andy Burnham did next in his action-packed first five days as PM (all while I try to avoid being triggered by the discourse about his wife’s outfit choice). Can you keep up? 

Luckily help is at hand! In this week’s excellent column Stewart Lee is responding to Burnham’s first five days inside “the poisoned door of Downing Street” and the hot political question so many of us want answered: “Which way [will] Andy “Burn Them!” Burnham jump regarding North Sea oil drilling licences, the abandonment of net zero commitments, and the death of all life on Earth in exchange for short-term political gain?”

What’s more, because the Edinburgh festival is just around the corner and the universe therefore demands that life should be full of standup comedy, fun times and biting wit, we’ve also got the brilliant comedian, presenter and artist Joe Lycett answering the Nerve Q&A. It’s a cracking read on Celebrity Traitors, people asking if he’s Count Binface and how his toddler has started heckling Reform UK’s deputy leader, Richard Tice (talk about a fabulously choice first word). Like Stewart, Joe is also raging about inaction in the face of the climate crisis. “We are all cooking and knowingly doing it to ourselves. There doesn’t seem to be any political appetite to unravel it. It makes me angry, scared and ultimately sad. We’d rather buy a new jacket every five days than preserve the awe-inspiring world around us.”

As Natasha Walter said in her column about climate fatalism on Tuesday, “It’s telling that Andy Burnham mentioned ‘power’ 15 times in his first speech as Labour leader, but did not mention climate once.” I for one am hoping that he decides to put the planet ahead of short-term political gain in his policy announcements going forward: now that would be something worth hitting refresh for.

Here are the links to today’s stories:

“Of all the contrived culture war red herrings, North Sea oil is so red it’s virtually a red mullet,” writes Stewart. Nonetheless, he fears that Andy Burnham is going to double down on fossil fuel extraction – even though it will do little to cut bills or raise funds for the Treasury. “In the face of heat and urban wildfires, is Andy ‘Burn Them!’ Burnham really going to approve more oil drilling? So much for net zero”. Read his column here

Best known as a comedian and TV presenter Joe Lycett is also an artist, and now his name’s going up in lights: he’s opening the first major solo show of his works in Birmingham next week. “There’s a giant sculpture in the middle of the room, plus lightboxes, taxidermy, all sorts,” he tells Michael Hogan in this week’s Q&A. (It’s not giving too much away to reveal that one of the exhibits is a gigantic Creme Egg.) In addition to the art, taking part in Celebrity Traitors, a new TV show and a new tour, Joe says he’s also enjoying life as a parent: “I feel very hashtag blessed. Hashtag live, laugh, love. Just preferably not in 40-plus degrees, please.” Read the interview here

With more than 4,000 shows slated for next month’s festival, it’s difficult to know where to start. So we asked Fergus Morgan, theatre critic and festival veteran (an impressive 12 visits under his belt – he even met his now wife at the Fringe) to pick out 10 shows worth spending your money on. His tantalising selection ranges from Bubble Schmeisis, where the audience sit in a sauna, to an adaptation of Andrew O’Hagan’s novel Mayflies staged in a warehouse in Leith and a trio of shows produced by Francesca Moody, who’s got a great eye for a winner (for example, Fleabag and Baby Reindeer). Read our top tips for the festival here

Where do you go after you’ve created Brat Summer? In the wake of 2024’s zeitgeist-defining album, the polymathic British singer has taken a radical and rocky direction for her new release, writes our music critic Kate Hutchinson. “Inhaled in one go, Music, Fashion, Film is a short, sharp, 29-minute joyride. In a way, that makes it the perfect confection to come after Brat – a sonic evolution, songs written in time snatched between catwalk shows and film premieres". But is it all just a bit, well … shallow? Read Kate’s full review here.

In her debut cookery book Big Veg Energy, the chef Christina Soteriou extols the vegan way of life, putting plants at the heart of her recipes. Christina says her cooking is inspired by her Greek-Cypriot roots and “shaped by the big bold flavours of the Mediterranean and the Middle East”. Here she shares a delicious spicy mushroom recipe which she promises is “easy to love”. Get the recipe here.

Our events programme is filling up and if you head over to our members’ page on the website there are four new events to book. First up, we’ve got the documentary Steal This Story, Please! which profiles the veteran US journalist Amy Goodman (host of online news channel Democracy Now!), showing her confronting soldiers, politicians and corporate media in the pursuit of the truth. We will co-host a preview screening at Bertha Dochouse in London on 12 August followed by a conversation with Amy and the Oscar-nominated directors – Tia Lessin and Carl Deal – moderated by co-founder Carole Cadwalladr. Tickets here.

There’s also award-winning writer Omar El Akkad, author of the acclaimed book on Gaza One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, who will be talking to Ramita Navai (the reporter, presenter and producer who was part of the Bafta-winning team behind Gaza: Doctors Under Attack) on 23 September in Bristol.

Full details of all events are on our members’ page, with discount code for Bristol event (visible only to members) below.

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading! We are grateful to have an ad from Proton again so it would be wonderful if you could spare a moment to click on it – below – to help us earn some money towards our journalism. Have a great weekend.

Imogen

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