The prime minister is promising to crack down on ‘rip-off’ business practices

Andy Burnham has announced he will ban fake discounts and make it easier to cancel unwanted subscriptions in an effort to improve life for UK consumers.

In the long run, these so-called “everyday fixes” may not make as much difference to your wealth as increasing mandatory contributions on pensions or capping rents, but they will get rid of some day-to-day frustrations. Here are six other things he could fix while he is in the mood:

From One Night Only to The Invite, a wave of new movies are a raunchy antidote to gen Z celibacy

The first alarm bells sounded nearly 10 years ago, and since then, a deluge of books, podcasts and roundtables has tried to get at the bottom of the problem: why is gen Z not having sex?

Recently it’s as though culture has been recalibrated to make up for the youth’s apparent frigidity. “Smut” literature is on the rise, prestige TV is now depicting OnlyFans models, and indie films have taken a turn towards kink. This summer, through confused young protagonists and their sexual misadventures, the movies are zeroing in on generational attitudes about sex.

Political leaders have kicked the can of public protection tariff reform down the road for years – causing hopeless inmates to take their own lives

In January 2015, Tommy Nicol told his family that he was suffering “psychological torture of a person who is doing 99 years”. Nicol had been given an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence six years earlier for stealing a car from a garage and injuring the owner. He was already two years beyond his four-year tariff – the minimum time you can serve in prison before being considered for release. Nicol was given another two-year knock-back from the Parole Board and was in despair. If and when he got released, he would be on a lifelong licence. Eight months later, aged 37, Nicol hanged himself at The Mount prison in Hertfordshire, England.

By the time he took his own life, the inhumane IPP sentence had already been abolished for three years. The problem is, it didn’t apply retroactively. Those already serving IPP sentences stayed on them. This, despite David Blunkett, who devised and introduced them as home secretary in 2005, calling it “the biggest regret” of his political career. And this despite UN special rapporteur on torture Alice Edwards agreeing with Tommy Nicol that the sentence was “psychological torture”. Astonishingly, more than 2,000 people are still serving IPP sentences in England and Wales.

Simon Hattenstone is a Guardian features writer

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Amid world pressure from heatwaves and fertiliser shortages, billionaire’s business has invested in circular farming and biomethane

There is a distinctive smell of cow manure in the air at the Duke of Westminster’s dairy farm near Chester. It is a world away from the collection of grand West End properties controlled by the duke that form the backbone of his near £10bn fortune, a decade on from becoming Britain’s youngest billionaire.

As part of his 349-year-old Grosvenor empire, Lea Manor Farm on the duke’s Eaton Estate in north-west England has fared better than most dairy farms in recent years.

Its mucus, which can kill crabs and cockroaches, could be the basis of new insecticides

It’s the shuddery stuff of nightmares for some, but for a select group who admire extending ladders, giraffes and the Odyssey, one of the longest animals in the world is bound to appeal.

This creature is nneither the blue whale, nor a lion’s mane jellyfish but the humble bootlace worm, Lineus longissimus, one of the most remarkable marine invertebrates of them all.

It’s invertebrate of the year again! From 3-12 August, every day we will profile one of the thousands of amazing invertebrates that our readers have nominated. And then, when you’ve heard about all of them, we’ll open the voting so you can choose your favourites. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with thoughts and ideas: email us at environment.desk@theguardian.com with Invertebrate in the subject line.

Whether it’s expensive regrets or brilliant bargains, we celebrate the stars’ shopping secrets – and the products that tempted you

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Like snooping in someone else’s supermarket trolley, discovering other people’s shopping habits satisfies a certain nosiness. And never more so than when it comes to celebrities – there’s nothing more human than knowing Kim Cattrall loves fish and chips, or that Henry Holland is a Skims guy.

And as celebrities often have the inside track – or perhaps we just think they do – on everything from coffee machines to skincare, their recommendations in our biweekly How I Shop column have inspired more than a few of your own retail habits. In some cases, however, such as David Gandy’s £2,500 Cobra Fortis lawnmower, the price was a little too out of reach.

Four more regions given drought status, putting 27 million people under restrictions on water use

Almost three-quarters of England is now in drought, as much of Europe braces for its fifth climate crisis-driven heatwave this summer.

Four more regions of England have officially been declared to be in drought: the East Midlands, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, Kent and East Sussex, and Solent and the South Downs.

More than a dozen buildings collapsed in aftermath of earthquake, which has also prompted evacuations

People remain trapped in Cali, one of Colombia’s largest cities, ​after more than two dozen structures ‌collapsed, mayor Alejandro Eder said. ‌

He added that the city had asked authorities in Bogota and Medellin to send disaster teams ‌to support rescue efforts.

Police looking into whether Joshua Kerry linked to alleged attempted burglary last year at Reform leader’s then home

Police are investigating whether Joshua Kerry, the man charged with the murder of the former Reform UK and Conservative politician Ann Widdecombe, had any role in an attempted burglary last year at the then London home of Nigel Farage.

Kerry, 28, from Rotherham, was charged with the murder of Widdecombe, 78, who was killed at her Devon home in July, after an investigation by counter-terrorism police.

US president’s statement is latest sign that negotations to end war and reopen strait of Hormuz have stalled

Donald Trump has said he will demand that Iran pay compensation for the deaths of thousands of US soldiers and Iran’s own civilians killed in recent decades in the latest sign his negotiations to end the war and reopen the strait of Hormuz have reached an impasse.

The US president is trying to end conflicts in Iran, Gaza and Lebanon, and his additional demands of Iran are likely to provoke anger in Tehran at the same time as Israel has rejected Trump’s terms for a 15-point roadmap to end the war in Gaza.