As the singer and former Canadian PM get together, we look at the history of romances between artists and politicians

His dad dated Barbra Streisand and his mother partied with the Rolling Stones, so perhaps it is no shock to see the former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau romantically linked with the American singer Katy Perry.

But it is a surprise. “This was NOT on my 2025 bingo card,” posted the entertainment news site Tyla in July, when the couple were first spotted together in Montreal. Grazia magazine this week labelled them “2025’s most surprising couple”.

A man with no experience of government is to prepare the party … to govern. What could possibly go wrong?

Nigel Farage too Marmite for you? Lee Anderson too Lee Andersony? Richard Tice too smooth? Sarah Pochin a bit too racisty? Don’t worry. These things happen. But all will be well, because Reform have just the MP for you. Someone who can be passed off as a safeish pair of hands. Someone who won’t frighten the horses. Too much. Step forward Danny Kruger. Just don’t look too close into his eyes. Not even Danny knows quite who Danny really is. Sometimes you have to judge a man by the company he keeps.

Kruger is the latest Reform recruit, having jumped ship from the Tories just over a month ago. Not necessarily a huge loss to Kemi Badenoch as Danny has proved time and again that his judgment is anything but infallible. But that hasn’t put him off. Because even when he’s wrong, Danny manages to convince himself that he’s right. Put simply, he’s not nearly as bright as he believes himself to be. Yet still somehow clever enough to convince Nige that he be admitted as one of the brains of the Reform operation.

A year in Westminster: John Crace, Marina Hyde and Pippa Crerar. On Tuesday 2 December, join Crace, Hyde and Crerar as they look back with special guests at another extraordinary year, live at the Barbican in London and livestreamed globally. Book tickets here.

The Bonfire of the Insanities by John Crace (Guardian Faber Publishing, £16.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

A nuclear clear up, a bloody massacre, an extremely fraught game of marbles … From The Bear to Blue Lights, here are television’s most heart-pounding outings

• Tell us: what is the most intense TV show you have seen?

Television is supposed to be relaxing. Flop on the sofa, lose yourself in your favourite show and feel your shoulders unknot themselves. Yet sometimes the best episodes are the most stress-inducing. Nerves jangle. Anxiety levels spike. Before you know it, you’re perched on the edge of your seat, quietly whimpering and clutching a cushion for comfort.

We select the dozen most intense TV episodes of all time – two of which aired in the past fortnight. Well, it’s been a turbulent time. Press play and feel those knuckles whiten …

Forget Halloween! Real scares can happen to actors any night of the year. Big name performers, including Zachary Hart and Harmony Rose-Bremner, recall their worst moments – and how they overcame their fears

Derek Jacobi had a bout of it during a world tour of Hamlet. Bill Nighy wrestled with it in the run-up to The Vertical Hour opening on Broadway. Juliet Stevenson has likened it to “a disease”. It has even caused some to take flight: Stephen Fry disappeared from Cell Mates, while Lenny Henry left the stage during Educating Rita. “I’ve completely gone,” he said – although he did return to finish the show.

Stage fright can cause the shakes but it can also trigger a complete physical freeze-up, to say nothing of a total verbal drying up – all right under the spotlight. So how and why does it take grip? Can it be overcome? And what does it feel like to be seized by the actor’s nightmare?

Whether it’s Parton’s Jolene, Beyoncé’s Becky with the good hair and now Madeline on Allen’s new album, the ‘other woman’ is everywhere – but gossip risks spoiling these songs

So, to quote Lily Allen – who the fuck is Madeline? As mysteries go, this one didn’t seem to last long. On Friday, Allen released her new album West End Girl, which appears to concern her divorce from US actor David Harbour, with its highly detailed evisceration of an open marriage destroyed by a husband’s emotional affair with a woman called Madeline. By Sunday, the press had already declared they’d found Madeline: the Mail on Sunday printed an interview with a woman claiming she and Harbour had had a relationship. “Of course I’ve heard the song,” they reported her as saying. “But I have a family and things to protect … It’s a little bit scary for me.” (Harbour, for his part, has not responded to the album’s contents or to the Mail’s claims.)

On the song Madeline, Allen (or her character) sings about messaging a woman her husband has been sleeping with, explaining her worries that emotions are now involved: “We had an arrangement / Be discreet and don’t be blatant / There had to be payment / It had to be with strangers / But you’re not a stranger, Madeline.” She then recites text messages sent by Madeline – “He told me you were aware this was going on and that he had your full consent / If he’s lying about that, then please let me know” – which the Mail claims were pulled from real messages.

In July 1988, the North Sea oil platform ignited. As it melted around him, Joe Meanen knew there was only one possible, but highly perilous, way out for him

It took Joe Meanen about six seconds to hit the North Sea, after jumping 175ft (53 metres) off the burning wreckage of the Piper Alpha oil platform. The fall seemed to last for ever, during which time, he says, his first thought was: “What the fuck have I done?”

Piper Alpha stood about 120 miles off Aberdeen, on the north-east coast of Scotland. On 6 July 1988 it suffered multiple catastrophic explosions and collapsed, killing 167 of the 228 men on board, and a further two men from the rescue crew.

Hurricane causes property damage and uproots after hitting Jamaica as category 5 storm before weakening to a still dangerous category 3 cyclone

• Hurricane Melissa makes landfall in Jamaica

• Visual guide to Hurricane Melissa

• Tell us if you’ve been affected

Hurricane Melissa is predicted to be the most powerful hurricane to hit Jamaica on record and is reported to be the strongest storm anywhere on Earth so far this year when measuring wind speeds and central pressure.

Its maximum sustained winds are 175 mph (282km/h), according to the National Hurricane Center, as of 2pm ET.

We urge the public to exercise extreme caution: activities such as climbing roofs, securing sandbags, or cutting trees may seem manageable, but even minor mistakes during hurricane conditions can result in serious injury or death.

Driving through flooded roads or areas with debris is also extremely hazardous. Health centres remain closed, but hospitals are open and attending to storm-related injuries. Please be wise, stay safe, and protect yourself and your family during this storm.

Biggest analysis of its kind finds millions are dying each year because of failure to tackle climate crisis

Rising global heat is now killing one person a minute around the world, a major report on the health impact of the climate crisis has revealed.

It says the world’s addiction to fossil fuels also causes toxic air pollution, wildfires and the spread of diseases such as dengue fever, and millions each year are dying owing to the failure to tackle global heating.

Exclusive: Fiscal watchdog predicts productivity downgrade will leave chancellor with £20bn gap to fill in budget

• Too many want to do Britain down – Labour will defy the doomsayers and beat the forecasts

Rachel Reeves has said Britain can defy gloomy economic forecasts after the fiscal watchdog infuriated ministers by predicting a productivity downgrade would leave her with a £20bn gap to fill in her forthcoming budget.

The chancellor said she was “determined not to simply accept the forecasts” – which increase the likelihood she will break a key Labour manifesto pledge not to raise income tax – but would instead prove the predictions wrong.

Government defends prospect of paying more for barracks, saying people ‘don’t want asylum seekers in hotels’

Downing Street has defended the prospect of paying more to house asylum seekers in disused barracks instead of hotels, arguing that quelling public disquiet was worth any extra cost.

As refugee organisations and local politicians described plans to house tens of thousands of people in ex-military sites as “fanciful” and “too expensive”, No 10 said that “communities don’t want asylum seekers housed in hotels, and neither does the government”.