Gielgud; Southwark Playhouse, London
Lionel Bart’s great musical is a gift for Matthew Bourne; a nifty reworking of Shaw’s comedy would surely have pleased him; and a fresh start for Welsh theatre

Oom-pah-pah! Plenty of that – with enough emphasis on Fagin as a surrogate papa to suggest a pun in this most boisterous of numbers. Oliver! is, after all, a show about families, lost, restored and invented. Yet there is also plenty of swirling darkness. The London fog and the rain that daggers down outside the workhouse. The song, cut from the 1968 film , delivered among coffins with Addams family glee. The sobbing anger, the desperate self-persuasion with which Shanay Holmes as Nancy delivers As Long As He Needs Me – immediately after Bill Sikes (a clenched Aaron Sidwell) has hit her.

Much of Matthew Bourne’s production, first seen last year at Chichester, is glorious: a celebration of the switchback swell of Lionel Bart’s music and lyrics; a proof of what a boon Bourne is to the stage. It is more than 30 years since he first choreographed Oliver! and staged the Swan Lake that revolutionised ballet and the way men think of themselves. He revisits both shows this year, with changes – minor but effective.

The outgoing US president rallied support for Ukraine but his stance on Gaza delighted no one

When asked about his foreign policy doctrine in 2014, Barack Obama described it as an attempt to “avoid errors”.

“You hit singles, you hit doubles; every once in a while we may be able to hit a home run,” he said.

It’s still cold enough for a big dish of soul-warming potatoes, in a pie or piled high with beans

There is a tiny room in the basement with walls of whitewashed brick and stone shelves as thick as a bible. I have never known its original use, but it is where I keep cake tins and baking sheets, casseroles and bun tins. As you open the creaking door, you are greeted by a teetering pile of tart tins.: A cheap enamelled dish with a wide rim, a thin blue line running around its chipped edge; a deep fluted tin with a loose base for tarts of frangipane and stone fruits; and a wide, shallow, cast-iron tart tin, which I use for chicken or mushroom pies, open-faced treacle tarts and, today, a pie for the coldest of days, thick with potatoes, crème fraîche, rosemary and mustard.

Such double-carb suppers – let us not pretend this is anything but comfort food – are welcome on a freezing night, when you have been blown home by an icy wind. The pastry and potatoes offer sustenance, the cream solace and the mustard will warm cold bones. If a pie seems too much trouble, then I will bake a potato or two and slather them not with butter, but with a ragu of butter beans, tomato and chillies. Either will send me into a blissful, end of winter’s day slumber.

Truce in effect as Hamas names hostages to be freed: Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31

• Israel-Gaza war – live updates
• How will the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal work?

The long-awaited ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has finally come into effect, behind schedule by almost three hours, during which Israeli forces continued to strike Gaza, blaming the militant group’s failure to release the names of the hostages due to be released on Sunday.

The ceasefire finally started at 9.15am GMT, after Hamas posted the names of the three hostages on its social media channels.

• British No1 forced to retire on match against Alcaraz
• ‘I had tendinitis in my hip … it hasn’t gone away’

Jack Draper called his hip injury at the Australian Open a “ticking time bomb” and insisted that he must prioritise his recovery to avoid a long-term injury after being forced to retire from his fourth round match against Carlos Alcaraz.

After battling through three brilliant five-set wins to reach the second week for the first time in his career, Draper was forced to retire against Alcaraz on Sunday while trailing 7-5, 6-1. “I had tendinitis in my hip, which I had to get MRI looked at and stuff,” he said. “I have had a history of problems in that area. It hasn’t gone away. I’m still dealing with that. Obviously in the preseason, it [went] into my back and I couldn’t walk and it was really difficult. I have come here and I have been managing that.

As yet another review is launched, a single council is offering an alternative to rationing support for the most needy

Florence Mahon spent a decade running around after peers at the House of Lords. As head housekeeper, she was responsible for problems such as cleaning up messes or sorting out broken lamps, until ill-health forced her to retire in her 50s.

Her eyes gleam a little as she talks about which of their lordships she liked and which ones she didn’t. “I didn’t want to go,” she says. “I hate being retired.”

Hosts Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann tell us why their comeback coincides with Trump’s second act – and how they now feel like the punks of the speech-audio world

Gentle podcast-listeners, cast your minds back. To a time before The Rest Is … anything, back when Radio 4 ruled speech audio in an era when any podcast discussion included phrases such as “but what is a podcast?” and “it’s like a radio show on the internet”. Return, in fact, to 2 January 2007, when the first episode of Answer Me This! With Helen & Olly came out.

Answer Me This! – a podcast that had 26-year-old Helen Zaltzman, a book reviewer and comedy club promoter, and 25-year-old Olly Mann, a researcher on BBC Two’s The Culture Show , answering offbeat questions from listeners – might have launched at a time when few people knew what a podcast actually was, but it was a success from the off. There was something about the combination of Zaltzman and Mann’s personalities – Mann, a giggler with a vast knowledge of Disney and musicals; Zaltzman, a more alternative and acerbic wit – that appealed to anyone searching for a funny substitute to radio’s phone-ins or scripted comedy. Like a next-generation The Adam and Joe Show , Answer Me This! was nerdy and warm, celebrating what were then still seen as cult interests, such as Star Wars , with an equal co-host dynamic far from the serious male and giggling female cliche of the time.

Exclusive: Social housing finance ‘crisis’ has already led 37% of local authorities to cut back on repairs and maintenance

More than a quarter of English councils expect to have to sell homes to balance their housing budgets while over a third have cut back on repairs and maintenance in what has been described as a crisis in social housing finance.

Based on responses from 76 stockholding councils, which manage their own social homes, the study found that nine in 10 expect to use emergency funds to try to balance the books in the next few years, and 71% say they are likely to delay or cancel ongoing housing projects.

Observer analysis finds unregulated products being promoted as contraception despite concerns about their accuracy

Apps promising to help women “take control” of their sex lives by predicting the days when they are fertile are putting users at risk of unplanned pregnancy by making misleading claims.

Millions of women in the UK – including 69% of 18-24-year-olds – have used smartphone apps that track their periods. Many also tell them their “fertile window”: the days when they are most and least likely to get pregnant.