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Thousands of people were ordered to shelter in place at the Burning Man festival in the western state of Nevada on Saturday after heavy rains turned the desert site into a mud pit...

You don’t need me to tell you that the past few years have been taxing. From COVID rearing its head to skyrocketing inflation to increasing rates of loneliness and feelings of disconnect, it’s been tough to feel real unity among us, even as we all experience these hardships together. Another thing we all have in common, though, is our access to media — but feel-good stories about cute animals becoming friends and 90-year-olds giving dating advice aren’t what’s been getting me through this era of bad news. It’s hot celebrity gossip. And when that hot gossip is the unlikely pairing of Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet hard launching at a Beyoncé concert? I’m sitting front row, elbow deep in popcorn and ready for the show.

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walks give dogs a chance for them to explore and interact with the environment around them. Here's how to stop them from dragging you along for the ride.

By Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS The European Commission proposed a revision of its rules on genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

Pay day always seems too far away, but if you still want to eat like a king, we have it covered. As part of our Budget Bites column – where we’ve teamed up with Sorted Food to bring you easy, affordable, quick and (most importantly) tasty recipes once a month – we’ve brought you three seasonal dishes that make the most of your staple ingredients while keeping your fresh shopping list minimal. This month, we’re elevating chicken wings and pork mince to new heights across three meals that don’t skimp on flavour. We’ve also provided a handy shopping list for the ingredients (though hopefully most of it will be knocking about already), which are used across all recipes to ensure minimal food waste. You just need to decide where to shop, whether it’s locally or online. Shopping list 8 cloves garlic 20g fresh ginger 5 spring onions 1 lime 200g fresh spinach 150g frozen peas 250g pork mince 500g chicken wings 200g dried pasta (of your choice) 150g basmati rice 200g dried medium egg noodles 2 tbsp gochujang 1 tbsp tomato purée/tomato paste 2 tbsp vegetable oil 2 tbsp sesame oil 1 tbsp cider vinegar 3 tbsp fish sauce 1 tsp caster sugar Sticky Korean wings with pea and sesame rice Track down some good, Korean-branded gochujang from your local Asian supermarket. It makes all the difference! Serves: 2 Ingredients: 2 tbsp gochujang 2 tbsp fish sauce 1 tbsp cider vinegar 1 tsp caster sugar 2 clove garlic 500g chicken wings 5 spring onions 2 tbsp sesame oil 150g basmati rice 150g frozen peas Method: 1. Preheat: preheat the oven to 210C and line a large baking tray with baking paper. 2. Assemble the glaze: add 2 tbsp of gochujang, 2 tbsp of fish sauce, 1 tbsp of vinegar, and 1 tsp of sugar to a large mixing bowl. Peel, then finely grate in 2 cloves of garlic – we will use the rest later. 3 Mix and coat: add 500g of chicken wings to the bowl and give everything a good mix, ensuring the wings are well coated. 4. Tray em’ up: lay the coated wings onto the lined tray, ensuring they are well spaced. 5. Roast: roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until charred in places and cooked throughout. Get on with the rest of the dish in the next steps while you wait. 6. Chop chop: thinly slice 5 spring onions crossways, then peel and mince the remaining 2 cloves of garlic. 7. Preheat the pan: add 2 tbsp of sesame oil to a medium saucepan and place it over a medium-high heat. 8. Fry: once the oil starts to shimmer and loosen, tip in ¾ of the spring onions and all the garlic. Fry for 2-3 minutes, until fragrant. 9. Add the rice: wash 150g of rice in a sieve under running water, shake off any excess moisture, add it to the pan, and stir to coat. 10. Add the water: add 320ml of water to the pan along with a generous pinch of salt, then bring everything up to a boil. 11. Cook the rice: reduce the heat to low, cover with a lid and cook for 8-10 minutes, until the grains are nearly soft and almost all the water has been absorbed. 12. Add the peas: crack on with a bit of washing up! When the rice timer sounds, add 100g of peas, replace the lid, and steam them with the rice for another 2 minutes until they are both soft and all the water has been absorbed. 13. Serve: once the rice is ready, fluff the grains with a fork and divide between serving plates. Add the wings, scatter over the reserved spring onions, and serve. Cambodian-style pork and ginger stir-fried noodles Black pepper is key in this recipe for heat and depth, don’t go easy! Serves: 2 Ingredients: 2 tbsp vegetable oil 250g pork mince 5 spring onion 20g fresh ginger 3 cloves garlic 1 limes 200g dried medium egg noodles 200g fresh spinach 3 tbsp fish sauce 1 tsp caster sugar Method: 1. Preheat the pan: fill the kettle with water and put it on to boil, this will be for the noodles later. Add 2 tbsp of oil to a large frying pan and place it over a medium-high heat. 2. Fry the pork: once the oil starts to shimmer and loosen, tip in 250g of pork mince. Fry, breaking up occasionally for 10-12 minutes, until crisp and golden. Get on with the rest of the dish in the next steps while you wait. 3. Chop chop: thinly slice 5 spring onions crossways, then peel and mince 20g of ginger and 3 cloves of garlic. Cut 1 lime into 4 wedges. 4. Get the noodles on: add 200g of noodles to a medium saucepan, season with salt, and cover with boiling water from the kettle. Place the pan over a high heat. 5. Cook the noodles: cook the noodles for 5-6 minutes, until soft but still with a slight bite. Get on with the rest of the dish in the next steps while you wait. 6. Fry: once the pork is ready, add the spring onions, ginger, and garlic. Fry for a further 2-3 minutes, until fragrant. 7. Add the spinach: add 200g of spinach to the pan and fry for a further 1-2 minutes, until the leaves darken and wilt. 8. Add the noodles: once the noodles are ready, use tongs to transfer them into the pan. Toss to mix everything together. 9. Add some flavour: add 3 tbsp of fish sauce, 1 tsp of caster sugar, and a very generous grind of black pepper. Continue to fry for 2-3 minutes, tossing occasionally. 10. Serve: divide between plates and serve with the lime wedges. Gochujang pork ragu pasta This recipe also works really well with beef mince! Serves: 2 Ingredients: 2 tbsp sesame oil 250g pork mince 200g dried pasta 10g fresh ginger 3 cloves garlic 2 tbsp gochujang 1 tbsp tomato purée/tomato paste Method: 1. Get the kettle on: fill the kettle with water and put it on to boil – this will be for the pasta later. 2. Preheat the pan: add 2 tbsp of sesame oil to a large frying pan and place it over a medium-high heat. 3. Get the pork on: once the oil starts to shimmer and loosen, add 250g of pork mince. Fry for 8-10 minutes, breaking it up occasionally, until crisp and golden. Get on with the rest of the dish in the next steps while you wait. 4. Get the pasta on: add 200g of pasta to a medium saucepan along with a generous pinch of salt. Cover with boiling water from the kettle and place the pan over a high heat. 5. Cook the pasta: cook for 8-10 minutes, until soft but still with a slight bite. Get on with the rest of the dish in the next steps while you wait. 6. Chop chop: peel and cut 10g of ginger into thin matchstick-like strips, then peel and mince 3 cloves of garlic. 7. Fry: once the pork is ready, add the garlic and fry for a further 1-2 minutes, until fragrant. 8. Add the pastes: add 2 tbsp of gochujang and 1 tbsp of tomato paste to the pan. Continue to fry for a further 1-2 minutes, until sticky and darkened. 9. Add the pasta: once the pasta is ready, use tongs or a slotted spoon to transfer it into the pan with the pastes and pork. Reserve a mugful of pasta water for the next step. 10. Mix and toss: add a splash of the pasta’s cooking water and toss to coat. Add another splash to loosen if the mix looks a little thick – we are looking for a loose sauce that coats the pasta in a red glaze. 11. Serve: divide the pasta between plates and top with the raw strips of ginger for freshness. In response to the rising cost of living, we have teamed up with Sorted Food to bring you easy, affordable, quick and (most importantly) tasty recipes once a month. Find out more about Sorted and their nifty meal-planning app Sidekick at sortedfood.com/sidekick. Read More Marina O’Loughlin is wrong – there’s joy in solo dining Meal plan: Romesco chicken and other recipes to fall in love with School holidays sorted: Fuss-free and nutritious family dinner recipes A week’s worth of summery recipes (even when the weather is dire) The dish that defines me: Frank Yeung’s prawn wontons Discovering Sierra Leonean flavours in South London

July 31 is National Orgasm Day, and we've never been more ready to celebrate. The day is all about celebrating and educating the masses about female pleasure (which is something we can absolutely get behind). For example, did you know that over 50% of people with vulvas have reported faking their orgasms? Tons of factors play into the pleasure gap (mental pressures, lack of sexual education, performance anxiety, etc.), but a great way to combat those factors is...you guessed it...masturbation — especially learning what makes your clitoris feel good. Taking the time to figure out your body's turn-ons (and turn-offs!) is the surest way to unlock the knowledge you need to get you to the big O (both solo and with a partner).

Walking into a sex shop or browsing online can introduce you to an endless stream

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Joining the Dent family in 1985, our microwave had somewhat of a bad start. It arrived, fresh out the box from Comet, in the midst of an argument. My mam had not greenlit the purchase of this cumbersome stainless-steel cube, with a vivid orange door, that Dad and I were loading onto her already packed kitchen worktop. She did not share our enthusiasm for this magical, space-age item we’d seen on BBC’s Tomorrow’s World and knew would take our snacking into the future. She was mainly outraged at the whopping £100 sum I’d cajoled Dad into spending. “I don’t trust it,” said Mam, reeling off a list of concerns, including microwaved innards, catastrophic explosions and partially cooked food giving us rampant salmonella. The truth was a little less exciting: I remember us loading the first maris piper inside, pricked all over with a fork, blasting it on HIGH for seven minutes, hoping for a crisp, fluffy jacket spud, only to find a rock-hard lump with a thin, waxy skin that hissed and spat from the holes. “See? Useless!” said Mam. My dad and I were sheepish. But as the weeks went on, Mam’s attitude to the microwave softened. For a start, it was saving her a fortune on gas as we almost stopped using the hobs for tinned spaghetti, soup, baked beans, tinned custard. Plus, the defrost button meant we now had access to all those mystery items she’d deep-frozen months back. Potato became a thing of joy as we discovered “micro-mash” (real potato, already peeled, mashed and frozen). Mam and Dad worked, so now my brother Dave and I could rush home from school and warm up glamorous microwave meals we’d begged Mam for on the big Friday shop. Macaroni cheese in a plastic tray! Microwave chips in a box! We learned how to heat food thoroughly, stopping halfway to give it a stir, before lazing on the couch, watching Miami Vice with our microwave chicken chow mein, feeling like we were fully living the dream. Nowadays, I try to limit my intake of such shiny-packeted E-number-filled joys; but still, I can’t live without my small, sleek, silver microwave. Life is too short to use a pan for frozen peas or spaghetti hoops; and how would I live without a quick 800W blast to thaw and separate veggie sausages before hurling them in the air fryer, or to defrost frozen mince before whipping up a quick chilli? Some foodie types are snobbish about the microwave; I see it as a loyal friend who has had my back for over 30 years Watt’s on the menu? Make the most of your microwave to conjure up clever meals that save on time and energy use. These ingenious recipes are from Ocadolife. Easy perfect rice with smoked trout and broad beans If you have trouble boiling rice on the hob, you’re going to love this method. It’s super-easy and yields flawless results every time. Here, it’s teamed with a summery combination of pink fish, vibrant herbs and a zingy dressing. Serves: 4 Hands-on time: 15 mins | Total time: 20 mins, plus standing (based on an 800W microwave at full power) Ingredients, available from Ocado: 250g basmati rice, rinsed 500ml hot vegetable stock 300g frozen broad beans Zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon, plus extra wedges for squeezing 1 garlic clove, crushed or grated 2 tbsp olive oil handful of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped Small bunch of dill, roughly chopped 2 x 100g packs M&S Scottish Loch Trout Flakes Method: 1. Put the rice in a large microwave-safe bowl. Pour the stock over the rice; stir well. Cover (if using microwave-safe wrap, pierce to let the steam escape); sit the bowl on a microwave-safe plate to catch drips and microwave for 12 mins. Remove; leave to stand, covered, for 10 mins. 2. Meanwhile, put the broad beans in another microwave-safe bowl with a few splashes of water, cover with a microwave-safe plate and blast for 2 mins. Remove, tip into a colander and refresh under cold running water until cooled; drain well. 3. Stir the broad beans into the rice, with the lemon zest and juice, garlic, olive oil, most of the herbs and plenty of seasoning. Fold through the trout. Divide between 4 plates and scatter over the remaining herbs. Serve with lemon wedges for squeezing. Per serving: 428cals, 1 veg portion, 10g fat (2g saturated), 22g protein, 59g carbs, 2g sugar, 7g fi bre, 1.7g salt Saucy supper silky aubergine and courgette noodles Microwaving cooks food from the inside out, so you can say goodbye to spongy aubergines and hello to beautifully soft flesh that soaks up the marinade as it cooks. Serves: 4 Hands-on/total time: 20 mins (based on an 800W microwave at full power) Ingredients available from Ocado: 2 aubergines, each cut lengthways into 8 pieces 100g egg noodles 1 large courgette, peeled into ribbons Large handful of coriander, roughly chopped 1 red chilli, sliced 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted For the marinade: 4 tbsp soy sauce 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar 1 tbsp sesame oil 2 garlic cloves, crushed or grated 3cm piece ginger, grated 1 tbsp miso paste 1 tsp caster sugar Method: 1. Combine all the marinade ingredients in a large microwave-safe bowl. Add the aubergine; toss to coat. Cover (if using microwave-safe wrap, pierce a couple of times to let the steam escape); microwave for 12 mins, stirring halfway, until cooked through. 2. Meanwhile, put the noodles in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave to stand for 3 mins or until tender. Put the courgette ribbons into a sieve, then drain the noodles over them – the residual heat will soften the courgette slightly. 3. Divide the noodles and courgette between 4 plates. Top with the aubergines, spooning over any remaining sauce. Scatter over the coriander and chilli, sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds and serve immediately. Cover leftovers and chill for up to 2 days. Reheat in the microwave until piping hot. Per serving: 357cals, 1 veg portion, 5g fat (1g saturated), 13g protein, 60g carbs, 9g sugar, 9g fibre, 3.4g salt, £1.37 per portion Smoky bean chilli with cornbread and crispy bacon With no frying odours or splattered grease, bacon in the microwave is almost too good to be true – especially teamed with this delicious chilli and cheesy cornbread. Serves: 4 Hands-on time: 20 mins | Total time: 30 mins (based on an 800W microwave at full power) Ingredients available from Ocado: Six rashers dry-cured smoked streaky bacon For the cornbread: 2 tbsp unsalted butter, plus extra for spreading (optional) 5 tbsp plain flour 5 tbsp fine cornmeal or polenta 1 tsp baking powder 1 tbsp caster sugar 2 medium eggs, lightly beaten 6 tbsp natural yoghurt 1 green chilli, finely chopped (optional) 50g cheddar, finely grated For the chilli: 150g soffritto mix (we used Cook With M&S Frozen Soffritto Base, defrosted) 1 garlic clove, crushed or grated 2 tsp ground cumin 2 tsp smoked paprika 1 tsp dried oregano 1 tbsp olive oil 2 x 400g tins mixed beans, drained (splash of liquid reserved) 350g passata To serve (optional): Soured cream Handful of coriander, leaves picked 2 salad onions, chopped Method: 1. For the cornbread, put 1tbsp butter into each of 2 large mugs (preferably straight-sided). Microwave for 20 secs or until melted. Carefully swirl the butter around in the mugs so it greases the sides, then tip the excess out into a mixing bowl. Set the mugs aside. 2. Add the remaining cornbread ingredients to the bowl, reserving a little of the grated cheese. Season well, then stir until combined. 3. Divide the mixture equally between the 2 mugs and sprinkle over the remaining cheese. Microwave them separately for 1½-2 mins or until risen and springy. Run a knife around the edge of the cornbread to loosen; turn out onto a wire rack to cool. 4. For the chilli, put the soffritto, garlic, spices, oregano and oil into a large microwave-safe bowl. Cook for 3 mins, stirring halfway. 5. Add the beans (and a splash of liquid), passata and seasoning to the bowl; stir well. Cover (if using microwave-safe wrap, pierce a couple of times to let the steam escape), and cook for 5 mins, stirring halfway. Leave to stand while you cook the bacon. 6. Put 2 sheets of kitchen towel on a microwave-safe plate and lay the bacon in a single layer. Cover with another sheet of kitchen towel. Microwave for 1 min, then check to see if it’s crisp and starting to curl. If not, continue cooking in 20-sec bursts, being careful not to burn it. Break into shards. 7. Uncover the chilli (open it away from you to avoid the steam) and ladle into bowls. Top with a dollop of soured cream, the coriander and salad onions (if using), and the bacon. Serve with the cornbread, buttered if you like, for scooping. Leftover chilli will keep covered and chilled for 3 days. The cornbread is best eaten on the day of cooking. Per serving: 613cals, 2 veg portions, 29g fat (12g saturated), 30g protein, 54g carbs, 10g sugar, 9g fi bre, 2g salt, £1.60 per portion Read More How to shop for and cook Japanese food at home like a pro Forest Side, review: Cumbrian produce elevated to Michelin-starred proportions Showstopping BBQ main dishes for a hot grill summer 7 TikTok food hacks that actually work Saltie Girl in Mayfair will make you happy as a clam – as long as you can afford it Chef Ravinder Bhogal: Vegetables are the secret to saving money