The elegant towns of Cascais, Estoril and Sintra have plenty to offer, from romantic royal palaces to the best of Portuguese cuisine

On a blue-sky Saturday morning, I joined a foraging hike in Sintra-Cascais nature park, a former municipal wasteland and now thriving ecosystem on the outskirts of Cascais in Portugal. Progress was deliciously slow, thanks to our passionate guide – ecologist Fernanda Botelho, Portugal’s foremost herbalist and wild forager. We’d barely made it out of the park’s welcome centre when she lunged at a bush and held a spiky leaf ahoy.

“Sow thistle,” she proclaimed. “Pigs love it. It’s good for salads, but it too often gets confused with the dandelion.” Everything has its uses, she said, from pine needles for sauces and honey to ash trees for flour and berries of the Peruvian Pink Pepper tree – “planted as an ornamental tree, but it combines very well with chocolate”.

Francesca Osowska, the outgoing chief executive of NatureScot, says more needs to be done for Scotland to hit target of restoring 30% of natural environment by 2030

Scotland faces a significant challenge to meet its pledges on protecting nature without more funding and a shift in attitudes, a senior conservation figure has warned.

Francesca Osowska, the outgoing chief executive of the agency NatureScot, said greater urgency and action was needed to meet a promise to restore 30% of Scotland’s natural environment by 2030.

From weighted blankets and de-puffing masks to sunrise alarm clocks, our self-care buys are sure to brighten your mood

A new year brings fresh starts, but after the indulgent and languid festive season, we’re usually not feeling so hot. Without the twinkly lights and social gatherings to counteract the short days and Baltic temperatures, it’s also natural to feel a little down.

And while Blue Monday has long been discredited as a ruse to sell holidays, many of us will probably find the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration a little more depressing than your typical first day of the week. Either way, when it’s cold and dark outside, it’s a great time to focus on self-care to brighten your mood.

Whether you’re looking for a small indulgence or want to invest in something that will genuinely better your day-to-day, these are my favourite self-care buys right now. Many are aimed at improving your health and wellbeing, while others will simply help you feel warm and cosy.

James Mangold’s handsome portrait of the enigmatic singer’s stratospheric early career boasts a barnstorming lead performance yet often slips into heavy-handedness

It’s a remarkable performance. Star of the moment Timothée Chalamet inhabits the loose-limbed, live-wire physicality of the young Bob Dylan and makes an impressively good fist of capturing the frayed hessian of his distinctive voice. Acoustic guitars are plucked and harmonicas honked with the effortless fluency of someone who learned to play almost before they could walk. Chalamet’s Dylan sucks so fervently on his cigarettes it’s as though he’s breathing in the genius of the musical heroes who came before him. But while he radiates insouciant charisma and channels the once-in-a-lifetime talent, he reveals next to nothing about Dylan as a person. This is not necessarily a failure in Chalamet’s acting. It’s a deliberate choice – the film is called A Complete Unknown , after all, and it’s a manifesto as much as a title. But it does mean that this is more a movie about Dylan the phenomenon than Dylan the man; a picture that peers at the folk legend through the distorting lens of fame and fan worship.

As such, there’s a curious kinship between this handsome if formulaic period piece by music movie veteran James Mangold (he also directed the Johnny Cash portrait Walk the Line ) and Michael Gracey’s recent Robbie Williams-as-monkey biopic, Better Man . Gracey’s film and A Complete Unknown both explore the impact of sudden and stratospheric celebrity on very young artists. Like Williams, Dylan is shown as a fully formed talent but a half-grown man. But while Williams mainlines fame like a drug and then bares his damaged soul to all, Dylan builds barricades against the encroaching tide of celebrity and protects himself with layers of assumed identities – an idea previously explored by Todd Haynes’s formally daring but frequently infuriating 2007 Dylan film I’m Not There . The sunglasses, the Triumph motorbike, the studied disinterest, the sneer – it’s all, A Complete Unknown suggests, part of the wall that Dylan constructs to protect the vulnerable part of himself, if indeed it exists.

When you’re presiding over a flatlining economy, every error is magnified and there is little credit for the things you’re doing right

Rachel Reeves was making her way to Prime Minister’s Questions when we bumped into each other last week. She is now routinely described as “embattled” or – even more dreaded label – “beleaguered”. So I thought it polite to ask how she was feeling. “I’m very well, actually,” she responded and hit me with a smile so wide and beaming that she could find alternative employment advertising toothpaste.

Being chancellor is not just a numbers game. It is as much, if not more, a confidence game. The chief financial officer can never afford to look rattled about the balance sheet or fretful about the vultures circling their position. The more reason they have to feel anxious, the more imperative it is that they look nerveless. That she understands. “It’s a tough gig, but there’s no one tougher than Rachel,” says one of her admirers in the cabinet.

• Draper forced to retire at 7-5, 6-1 down to No 3 seed Alcaraz
• Three consecutive five-setters catch up with British hope

After an unforgettable week filled with frantic comebacks, limitless adrenaline and the satisfaction of pounding past old mental and physical barriers, defeat came quickly for a physically ruined Jack Draper on the vast, lonely surrounds of Rod Laver Arena.

Across from a special young player on the path towards an all-time greatness, Draper’s brilliant Australian Open run ended with a retirement in the fourth round as he was defeated 7-5, 6-1 ret. by Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday afternoon.

Allegations of sexual misconduct are proving hard for fans and friends of the ‘geek royalty’ author to process

Perhaps uniquely in the history of #MeToo, the women now alleging sexual misconduct on the part of the fantasy writer Neil Gaiman would appear to have their alleged perpetrator’s full support. Back when this movement seemed full of potential, in 2018, Gaiman urged the public to believe women like Christine Blasey Ford, whose allegations of sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh were then being trashed.

“On a day like today it’s worth saying,” Gaiman wrote. “I believe survivors. Men must not close our eyes and minds to what happens to women in this world.”

Beijing has prepared for increased tariffs but its actions will not be enough to offset falling demand from the US

When Donald Trump enters the White House for the second time on 20 January, the view from the Oval Office will look very different to the one he encountered in 2017. A pandemic, the war in Ukraine and a trade war with China have caused ripples through the global economy that are still being felt midway through the decade.

Beijing will be watching closely. Trump has promised to impose tariffs of up to 60% on Chinese imports, partly in retaliation for the flow of fentanyl from China to the US .

Facilities giant called ‘uncaring’ by low-paid cleaners, who believed they were covered by a fair-pay pledge

Low-paid cleaners have accused the Living Wage Foundation of giving accreditation to an “uncaring” outsourcing company paying less than the living wage.

Facilities services giant OCS is accredited under a bespoke scheme for outsourcing firms. But the company has only committed to paying a living wage to its centrally employed staff. The scheme does not cover the majority of OCS’s 50,000 workforce, who are tied to external contracts.