Former England goalkeeper reveals full story behind her international retirement, her problems with eating and alcohol, and why she’d struggle on The Traitors

• Read an exclusive extract from Mary Earps’ book

“I’ve learned a lot about what truly matters in life,” Mary Earps says on a quiet and cloudy afternoon as, at Paris Saint-Germain’s training centre on the outskirts of the French capital, the former England goalkeeper reflects on the achievements and drama of her last five years. “My life has accidentally come into the court of public opinion. People talking about your performance comes with the territory but when it starts to become about your character, and assumptions people make about you, that can be really, really challenging.”

Between 2020 and 2023 Earps overcame depression, a drinking problem, eating issues, won the Euros with England, forced Nike to change their attitude to female goalkeepers, saved a penalty in a World Cup final and won the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.

The British actor stars in three major films over next few months and it is rumoured he’s even being considered for the next James Bond

He came to prominence with his portrayal of Prince Charles in The Crown, and now it seems that Josh O’Connor might be primed for his own coronation.

The British actor is in three major films between now and January – better known to film-lovers as awards season.

Will our survey of supermarket meatless sausages reveal hearty but healthy veggie bangers or rubbery tubes mechanically stuffed with joyless compost?

• The best (and worst) vegan cheese, tested

I was vegetarian in the 1980s, so I know how far meat-free sausages have come. In fact, some now taste almost identical to their ultra-processed meaty counterparts. Whether that represents progress depends on your perspective: are we creating healthier, more sustainable alternatives or simply replicating the industrial food system’s problems in plant form?

Veggie sausages split into two main categories. The first are what I call meat analogues, which are usually made with pea protein isolates (plant-based protein) or textured vegetable protein (TVP), a byproduct of the soya bean oil extraction process, and designed to imitate processed sausage meat. The second are made from mashed whole foods, such as chickpeas and vegetables, and are a less processed and more textural veg-love affair.

How did a former Mormon bishop end up pleading guilty to taking bribes to make statements in favour of Russia in the European parliament?

The first thing most people recall about Nathan Gill is his imposing height.

At 193cm (6ft 4in), the one-time Reform UK leader in Wales towered over colleagues and opponents – and he was taller still in his favourite cowboy boots.

It was only years later, when I heard the word workaholic being used seriously for the first time, that I wondered whether I had a problem

Have you ever heard a word that jolts you to attention? That word, for me, was “workaholism” – and when I heard it through my headphones earlier this year, listening to an audiobook on the tube, I felt a pang of something between recognition and panic. It transported me back to the worst time in my life.

In May 2016, when I was nearly five months pregnant, I travelled to rural Norway to make a short documentary for the Guardian. The Norwegian government was making asylum seekers – from mostly Muslim countries – take cultural education classes about women’s rights. I’d been invited to a class in Moi, a town by a lake framed with pine trees, 100km south of Stavanger.

At 86, she’s a literary seer and saint – and queen of the Canadian resistance. So what does the writer make of our dystopian world?

• ‘From (finally) being given the Booker prize to the day her partner died’: an exclusive extract from Margaret Atwood’s memoir

Margaret Atwood is doing her grocery shopping in her local supermarket in Toronto, and it is taking longer than usual. This is not because The Handmaid’s Tale author turns 86 this month, but because she is checking the provenance of every item before it goes in her trolley: California satsumas out; Canada spuds in. Atwood is a passionate environmentalist, but at the moment she is more worried about boycotting anything that comes from over the border in the US than air miles. “Elbows up!” she declares, taking a furious stance in the fruit and veg aisle.

Back in her kitchen she shows me a YouTube skit of Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and comedian Mike Myers in the national hockey kit to explain the significance of “Elbows up”, a growing gesture of Canadian resistance. “Oh, they’re angry. They’re furious,” she says of the reaction to President Trump’s proposed plans to make Canada the 51st state of America. “We’ve not got a very big army. If they wanted to invade they could do so. But I don’t think they would. Do they have any idea what it would be like to try to occupy a hostile Canada? It would not be a joke.” Trump would have to deal with Atwood, for starters.

Publication of 2010 correspondence comes two days after Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his titles

The former Duke of York told Jeffrey Epstein “it would be good to catch up in person” months after the convicted sex offender was released from prison, newly released emails reveal.

The publication of the correspondence comes two days after Andrew Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his titles and struck from the official roll of the peerage in an attempt by Buckingham Palace to halt the damage caused by the former duke’s spiralling scandals.

Plans for ‘settling-up charge’ predicted to raise £2bn and would follow policy in place among most G7 countries

Rich people quitting the UK could be required to pay a 20% tax on their business assets as part of plans reportedly being considered by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

The Treasury has drawn up plans for a “settling-up charge” on assets; a move that would bring the UK into line with most other G7 nations and raise a predicted £2bn for the public coffers, according to the Times.

Exclusive: Labour peer calls for change in the law after company terminates contracts of strike ‘ringleaders’

The delivery firm DPD has been accused of “revenge” sackings after workers spoke out against a plan to cut thousands of pounds from their earnings, including their Christmas bonus.

The company, which reported pre-tax profits of nearly £200m last year and plays a significant role in the festive rush to have gifts and parcels delivered, has even threatened to withhold money from some staff to pay for the cost of replacing them, the Guardian has learned.

Council data obtained by the Guardian shows 345 children have gone missing in recent years, many probably taken by traffickers

More than 50 lone child asylum seekers who disappeared soon after arriving in the UK and while in the care of the authorities are still missing, according to data obtained by the Guardian.

Many of the missing children arrived in small boats or hidden in the backs of lorries and are thought to have been taken by traffickers. Kent is often the place where they arrive.