Ana Viladomiu has been a ‘privileged’ resident of the once derided, now revered Barcelona apartment building for almost 40 years

Imagine that you live in an enormous, beautiful apartment designed by one of the world’s most admired architects in the most expensive street in Spain and for which you pay a derisory rent, with the right to live there until you die.

Meet the writer Ana Viladomiu, 70, the last tenant of Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Milà on the elegant Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona. Viladomiu is in fact the last tenant in any of Gaudí’s buildings, unless you include the peregrine falcons that nest in the Sagrada Família.

With Plaid Cymru set to end Labour dominance, activists say the Greens could hold the balance of power in the next Senedd

The church hall in Cardiff’s Canton neighbourhood was packed with Green party supporters who had spent Saturday canvassing ahead of next week’s crucial Senedd elections. Green party members from Northern Ireland, Sweden and Denmark had all joined the local campaigners, adding to the sense of momentum for the Welsh Greens.

After waiting for more than an hour, the crowd cheered when Zack Polanski, leader of the Green party of England and Wales, appeared from behind the nave, hugging the Wales leader Anthony Slaughter as he did so.

Is this the ultimate location for contemplative art? Our writer travels to the legendary island of Naoshima – and meets the great creator of its most spellbinding works. Will he step through the arch and find nirvana?

The island of Naoshima used to be heavily polluted and dominated by a Mitsubishi plant. Now, after being redeveloped by the billionaire Sōichirō Fukutake in 1989, it’s known as Japan’s “art island”. Boasting 3,000 inhabitants and rising up out of Seto Inland Sea, the island is studded with dim, concrete-walled galleries sunk into the hillsides. Designed by architect Tadao Andō, these have a contemplative, almost worshipful ambience and are filled with extraordinary paintings, sculptures and installations by artists ranging from Claude Monet to land artist Walter De Maria, although the real Instagram bait is the giant yellow-and-black spotted pumpkin deposited on a pier by Yayoi Kusama in 1994.

As all the retired American couples treating themselves to a trip of a lifetime would attest, Naoshima has become the ultimate destination for those seeking a transcendental visual experience. For many, this comes as they walk downhill to the coast and see a huge steel arch, 11m tall and 13m wide, pinned between two sand-coloured boulders. Underneath it is a long steel plate acting as a kind of runway, enticing visitors to walk through the arch towards the sea.

Both nations are tarred by irreconcilable crises that could unravel democracy itself – sanity and stability have never felt further from reach

A feature of living at the end of an era is that some events in the present already feel like future artefacts – things you expect to see in a school history book, or a documentary many years from now. Here is King Charles’s 2026 state visit to the United States, right between the chapters on the war on Iran and the global energy crisis. Here is an image of the entire constellation of Trumpland, dining on spring-herbed ravioli and dover sole. Look at this interesting antiquity of the time: the gold plates, the universal sign of a regime at the peak of excess. And there you see the foreign dignitary, making a speech that at the time felt like bold truth-telling, but as we all now know was little more than naive theatre while the whole world teetered on the precipice.

The cast of characters behind the era-ending crisis were present, helpfully concentrated in one place to illustrate to those in the future how it came to this, and by whose hands. The money men, the Lord Haw-Haws, the nepo babies, the quislings. Seven guests from Fox News, seven members of the Trump family, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and – a little treat for golf-loving Trump – the Masters champion, Rory McIlroy, who the president made stand up to show off, breaking away from his state address to say: “Congratulations! Very proud of you.” If you wanted a snapshot of the forces that underpin the Trump administration, indifferent to its colossal violations, here it was – billionaire-funded corporate media, big tech, private equity and stars just happy to be so close to so much power.

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist

The world often feels dominated by sadness and doomscrolling. But fun is still possible – and necessary. Here are tried and tested ways to enjoy yourself

Cartwheel. On the day we scattered my father’s ashes, we lightened the mood with some competitive gymnastics. I don’t know how it started, but in attempting a cartwheel, I was shocked at my own creeping decrepitude. Over the last year, I’ve been watching online tutorials and practising – and I can do a passable cartwheel now. For that joyful split-second, upside down and wheeling, I’m reconnected with my eight-year-old self. Emine Saner

Have a kitchen disco. Never underestimate the fun ready to burst out of your kitchen. The crucial ingredient? Good music, played loudly. Parcels are my new favourite – the whole family have become superfans since last summer’s awesome Glastonbury set. Tieduprightnow, Gamesofluck, IknowhowIfeel, Hideout, Safeandsound – so many danceable, joyful tracks. Patrick Barkham

Councils spend heavily on grisly yet ineffective methods. Why won’t they consider a proven, low-cost and humane strategy?

By some estimates there are almost 3 million pigeons residing in London, which has the highest pigeon population in the country. Known as “rats with wings”, “flying ashtrays” and “gutter birds”, pigeons do not have popular sentiment on their side. And cities in the UK have an extensive history of attempted pigeon pest control – having tried everything short of an exorcism to remove them – to no avail.

London’s best-known victory in the war against pigeons was self-declared, after an operation in Trafalgar Square in the early 2000s. Ken Livingstone’s city government flew two Harris hawks around the area to “deter” pigeons – although the hawks went further than that, killing 121 pigeons in what ended up being a years-long bloodbath. The blitz cost the city £226,000. Wildlife activists deemed it an act of unimaginable cruelty. And it did little to permanently cut down pigeon populations. Last year in Manchester at least 81 pigeons were shot and killed by pest control services – employed by Northern Trains – in early morning offensives at Manchester Victoria station. The event is known to some as the Manchester Victoria pigeon massacre.

Sydney Lobe is a freelance writer based between Vancouver and London

Earlier, the US president said the navy would ‘guide’ stranded ships out of the waterway

• Trump says US navy will ‘guide’ trapped ships from strait of Hormuz amid ‘very positive’ talks with Iran

We have a bit more of the statement from Maj Gen Ali Abdollahi, the commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central headquarters, who said earlier that the US or any other foreign armed forces would be attacked if they entered the strait of Hormuz (see post at 07.39 for more details). Abdollahi also said:

We will maintain and vigorously manage the security of the strait of Hormuz with all our might, and we inform all commercial ships and tankers to refrain from any attempt to transit without the coordination of the armed forces stationed in the strait of Hormuz, so as not to jeopardise their security.

Downing Street begins fightback against predictions of imminent challenge to Keir Starmer

Labour MPs are calling for a close to the “endless drama” of leadership speculation, as Downing Street begins a fightback against predictions of an imminent challenge to Keir Starmer.

Some backbenchers warned that repeated briefings about how and when the prime minister could be toppled were putting off voters, who similarly had disliked the Conservatives’ repeated shuffling of leaders when in power.

Injectable pembrolizumab can treat several types of cancer and can be administered in under two minutes

Thousands of patients across England each year will benefit from a new immunotherapy treatment that can be used for several types of cancer, the NHS has announced.

The injectable form of pembrolizumab, which can be administered in under two minutes, kills cancer cells by blocking a protein called PD-1, which acts as a brake on immune responses, allowing the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells.

Nigel Farage’s party proposed to place detention centres in places that vote for Green council leaders or MPs

Libby Brooks is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent.

The Scottish Greens’ co-leader, Ross Greer, has dismissed Reform UK’s plan to host migrant detention facilities in constituencies that have voted for Green representation (see 10.48am) as “pathetic” and “Trumpesque”. He said:

Reform are now openly threatening voters and not only that they’re threatening them with a power they don’t actually have. This is absolutely pathetic. People across Scotland are proud of the fact that this is a welcoming country that shows solidarity to people who need it.

Reform are essentially saying ‘If you don’t vote the way we want you to, we will punish you’. I think the people of Scotland and voters across the UK are not going to take kindly to that kind of Donald Trumpesque threat.

Reform know that absolutely bombed last week. The only thing they’ve got to move on to are open threats, not against the Greens but against voters across the country. It’s really quite sinister. This is exactly the kind of politics you see in Donald Trump’s America. People across Scotland are going to reject that on Thursday.

Another significant evolution in Reform’s style of politics. Its proposed internment camps will only be built in parts of the country that vote for its rivals.

This is a new departure for UK politics: rejecting the idea of PM-for-all and instead a new partisan style.

I think most British people believe in the basic principle that no matter who you vote for, the government will treat you equally under the law. Yusuf’s plan to put detention camps in Green voting areas violates that. It is trolling as public policy and I think will damage Reform

The practical and legal problems seem insuperable. No non Reform local council would agree to it. So it’s not really a serious policy.

The biggest concentrations of illegal migrants are almost certainly in the cities. You shouldn’t confuse them with the asylum seekers being accommodated in hostels. It’s likely that potential Green voters are already living among them.