Young people living by the sea are often in some of the most deprived areas of the country, but they say they want the chance to thrive. The Guardian is embarking on a year-long series to tell their stories

• Young people in the UK: share your experiences of living in a coastal town

On the beach in Weston-super-Mare, on the south-west coast of England, there is a hint of a chilly breeze in the air but the sun is out and the clouds are faint, whispy streaks across a pleasantly blue canvas. A couple of fishing boats are tethered to the harbour wall and a lone man with a metal detector wanders slowly along the sand. A small shop selling ice-creams has a few takers, despite the nip in the air.

Yet behind its low-key but welcoming seafront lies the evidence of a cloudier, more complex reality.

From bucket hats to Man City socks and the band’s logo everywhere, gig-goers in Cardiff talk us through their outfits – and explain why Liam is still a style icon, even with shorter hair

In the weeks leading up to their first gig for 16 years, Oasis have been busy when it comes to merch. They opened pop-up shops and announced collabs with Levi’s, Adidas and Next. The results are plain to see on the streets of Cardiff the afternoon before the long-awaited gig. If they say you are never more than six feet away from a rat in a city, here you are never more than six inches away from that famous Oasis Helvetica Black Oblique logo.

It’s on bucket hats, football shirts, tracksuit tops, T-shirts and, every so often, someone’s face. The fanbase goes across generations and demographics. There are those who were there the first time, and teenagers who grew up on their music. Some have travelled for miles – from Italy, Spain, Portugal and the US. If the crowd is largely white, there’s a contingent of fans from east Asia.

From left: Ash Parker, Marcus Long and Joe Gallagher in their brand new T-shirts

In her 20s, the actor says, casting directors didn’t rate her. In her 60s, she got her big break. She discusses fun, family, optimism, regrets – and wild sex on screen with Daniel Craig

Anne Reid wants to get one thing straight from the off. She adores working with the director Dominic Dromgoole. “He treats actors like grownups. Some directors feel as if they’ve got to play games and teach you how to act. But a conductor doesn’t teach a viola player how to play the blooming instrument, does he?” She talks about directors who get actors to throw bean bags at each other and go round the room making them recite each other’s names. “Blimey! I want to be an adult. I think I’ve earned it now.” She pauses. Reid has always been a master of the timely pause. “You can’t get more adult than me and be alive really, can you, darling?”

Reid turned 90 in May. She celebrated by going on a national tour with Daisy Goodwin’s new play, By Royal Appointment. I catch up with the show at Cheltenham’s Everyman theatre. She’s already done Bath. Then there’s Malvern, Southampton, Richmond, Guildford and Salford. I feel knackered just thinking about it, I say. She gives me a look. “Oh, they send me in cars. I don’t have to toil much!”

They had portholes, cutting edge mod cons – and the ultra luxurious models even came with a free calculator. As Japan’s beloved Nakagin Capsule Tower resurfaces, we celebrate an architectural marvel

Looking like a teetering stack of washing machines perched on the edge of an elevated highway, the Nakagin Capsule Tower was an astonishing arrival on the Tokyo skyline in 1972. It was the heady vision of Kisho Kurokawa, a radical Japanese architect who imagined a high-rise world of compact capsules, where people could cocoon themselves away from the information overload of the modern age. These tiny pods would be “a place of rest to recover”, he wrote, as well as “an information base to develop ideas, and a home for urban dwellers”. Residents could peer out at the city from their cosy built-in beds through a single porthole window, or shut it all out by unfurling an elegant circular fan-like blind, all while remaining connected with the latest technology at all times.

Launched to critical acclaim, the Nakagin tower’s 140 capsules quickly sold out, and became highly sought after by well-heeled salarymen looking for a place to crash when they missed the last train home. Never intended to be full-time housing, the pods came stuffed with mod cons: en suite bathroom, foldout desk, telephone and Sony colour TV. But, 50 years on, after a prolonged lack of maintenance and repairs, and disagreements among owners about its future, the asbestos-riddled building was finally disassembled in 2022. The creaking steel capsules of Kurokawa’s space-age fantasy were unbolted and removed from the lift and stair towers, pod by pod.

Noise has been building about restricting help for kids who badly need it. As a special needs parent, I can tell you: it’s terrifying

What will Keir Starmer and his colleagues learn from the disaster of their attempt to cut benefits? Most speculation so far has been focused on the prime minister’s prospects, and other ministerial careers. But there are soon going to be more big decisions to make, which will have massive consequences for people’s lives.

One policy area in particular is about to return the political conversation to the subject that defined last week’s fiasco: disability. Once again, Labour MPs from all wings of the party are feeling anxious and restless. Campaign groups and charities – not to mention the huge numbers of people who will be directly affected – fear the worst. With the wounds from the welfare bill fiasco still raw, there is a grim sense of a possible reprisal of the same story.

A time of opportunity seemed to lie ahead in 1975, but has PNG and its leaders lived up to that promise?

In the early 1970s, Dame Meg Taylor remembers a sense of immense optimism as Papua New Guinea stood on the brink of independence. At that time she joined the staff of Sir Michael Somare, who would later become the country’s first prime minister.

“There was a lot of hope,” said Taylor, diplomat and former secretary general of the Pacific Islands Forum.

ADHD UK says over-25s wanting assessment with Coventry and Warwickshire board have no choice but to pay privately

A charity supporting people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is preparing a legal challenge against a regional NHS board that has temporarily stopped accepting referrals for adults over 25.

Coventry and Warwickshire integrated care board said any new referrals for people over 25 would be paused from 21 May to reduce waiting lists for children.

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 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Exclusive: Experts call for stricter regulation as current rules set in 1989 require testing for only a few heavy metals

Millions of tonnes of treated sewage sludge is spread on farmland across the UK every year despite containing forever chemicals, microplastics and toxic waste, and experts say the outdated current regulations are not fit for purpose.

An investigation by the Guardian and Watershed has identified England’s sludge-spreading hotspots and shown where the practice could be damaging rivers.

Staff at former UK PM’s institute took part in calls as proposal led by US consulting firm and Israeli business people evolved

Tony Blair’s thinktank worked with a project developing a postwar Gaza plan that included the creation of a “Trump Riviera” and a manufacturing zone named after Elon Musk.

The project, led by Israeli business people and using financial models developed by the US consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG), was developed against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s vision of taking over the Palestinian territory and transforming it into a resort.

Farage says any errors in the runup to the 2024 general election cannot be laid at his door as he was not party leader at the time

The Conservatives will try to change the government’s welfare Bill to tighten up access to personal independence payments (Pip) and universal credit, PA Media reports. PA says:

Kemi Badenoch will pledge that the Tories are “now the only party committed to serious welfare reform” after Keir Starmer shelved plans to restrict eligibility for Pip in the face of a backbench revolt this week.

The Tories will look to lay amendments to the legislation – set to be renamed the universal credit bill – and party leader Badenoch is due to deliver a speech on welfare on Thursday.