The Reform MP was driven ‘mad’ by the number of black and Asian people on the telly. What totally settled non-issue will her party tackle next?

Does it matter what colour the people in a sofa advert are? I can’t help feeling it doesn’t. Certainly, after next month’s budget, our political class might find it has more pressing concerns than skin pigment in fictional families convened to flog you something comfy in chenille. In fact, if some of the even bigger global financial storm clouds on the horizon end up bursting, we might well end up thinking it doesn’t even meaningfully matter which big house/two slightly smaller houses Prince Andrew lives in. Impossible to conceive of in the current news vortex. And yet: a possibility.

Either way, this week we are talking about Reform MP Sarah Pochin’s turn in a TalkTV phone-in, where she responded to a caller’s gambit on advertising “demographics”. Declaring the caller was “absolutely right”, Pochin explained that “it drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people”. Mad? Listen, she said it. Contrary to initial positive assessments of Sarah’s talents when she was elected, she is starting to come across as an armchair short of a three-piece suite. But on reflection, I think the mad she is talking about is the angry kind. The kind where if you see another non-white face in a 15-second spot for a product you don’t need and are under precisely zero obligation to buy, you will literally lose your mind.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

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 …

The 4,000-capacity Eutopia is independently owned and run by clubland veterans – and despite being on the city’s eastern fringe, clubbers say they’re prepared to trek

Between redevelopment, inflation, licensing and noise complaints, keeping a nightclub afloat in London can be tricky: earlier this month Corsica Studios in Elephant and Castle joined the more than 50% of UK clubs which have been lost since 2013.

Given that context, this weekend’s opening of Eutopia, a 4,000-person independently owned nightclub and cultural venue in a former haulage warehouse in Barking, feels worth celebrating. But music fans who have been burned by the recurrent loss of the capital’s best dancefloors, from Plastic People to Printworks, might also be sceptical. Is Eutopia here to stay, or another false dawn? And are people really going to trek out to the very eastern edge of the city, 12 miles from the West End, to go to a club across a river from a sewage treatment works?

Ploughing through my to-do list felt great until I hit a wall. Were we really meant to work without watching any vertical videos first?

After 33 years, it’s time to admit: I’ve never quite got the hang of myself. Am I a morning person or a night owl? What actually motivates me? Where exactly do I work best?

I often find myself thinking: “I hope I eat some vegetables today” or “I hope I reply to that email,” as though that’s up to someone else. I have no idea how to make myself do things in the consistent, reliable way that others seem to: work out, get dressed, cook a “veg bowl”, book appointments.

A charismatic, tweed-wearing grower from Perthshire falsely claimed to be able to create thriving tea plantations in Scotland. His elaborate deception took in luxury hotels, media outlets and tea growers across the country

With its large silver pouch, artistic label and delicate leaves, Dalreoch Scottish white tea might be expected to grace elegant cups with saucers, perhaps with a scone served on the side. Instead, it is nestled with an array of numbered polythene packets in a room just off a laboratory at the University of Aberdeen.

This is not an ordinary afternoon tea but evidence in a crime that science helped solve.

Tired of a two-day commute to see her overworked doctor, my mother turned to tech for help with her kidney disease. She bonded with the bot so much I was scared she would refuse to see a real medic

This essay was originally published on Rest of world

Every few months, my mother, a 57-year-old kidney transplant patient who lives in a small city in eastern China, embarks on a two-day journey to see her doctor. She fills her backpack with a change of clothes, a stack of medical reports and a few boiled eggs to snack on. Then, she takes a 90-minute ride on a high-speed train and checks into a hotel in the eastern metropolis of Hangzhou.

At 7am the next day, she lines up with hundreds of others to get her blood taken in a long hospital hall that buzzes like a crowded marketplace. In the afternoon, when the lab results arrive, she makes her way to a specialist’s clinic. She gets about three minutes with the doctor. Maybe five, if she’s lucky. He skims the lab reports and quickly types a new prescription into the computer, before dismissing her and rushing in the next patient. Then, my mother packs up and starts the long commute home.

Hurricane makes landfall in Jamaica as a category 5 storm, the strongest direct hit to the island in 174 years

• Jamaicans take shelter as Melissa bears down

• 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.

Benjamin Netanyahu orders IDF to carry out strikes on Gaza after accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire

Israel has launched at least three air strikes, says the Gaza civil defence. Israeli media has described it as a “wave” of strikes.

There is yet to be any comment from the IDF.

Exclusive: Organisations warn using the barracks in Sussex and Inverness may be more expensive than hotels

• UK politics live – latest updates

Refugee organisations have described plans to house thousands of asylum seekers in two disused military sites as fanciful and too expensive as local discontent grows.

The Home Office has confirmed that two barracks: Cameron in Inverness and Crowborough training camp in East Sussex, will be used to house about 900 men temporarily. Officials are working to identify more sites.

Rapid Support Forces accused of killing more than 2,000 unarmed civilians in El Fasher in recent days

Reports of ethnically motivated mass killings and other atrocities are emerging from El Fasher after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took control of the city in Sudan’s western Darfur region over the weekend.

Video released by local activists showed a fighter known for executing civilians in RSF-controlled areas shooting a group of unarmed civilians sitting on the ground at point-blank range.