If you could increase the lifespan of your pet dog or cat, would you? And what is the real cost of doing so?

Last November, my family brought home a puppy. Frankie was eight weeks old when he came to live with us, and right now, watching him bound around with my seven-year-old son, I don’t want to imagine ever saying goodbye to him. Well, maybe I won’t need to, or rather, I can at least kick that day into the long grass, and buy Frankie some extra time. After all, scientific understanding of the mechanisms of ageing has never been better; there is a plethora of longevity products to choose from and more in the pipeline, including a kind of diet pill for dogs; and, thanks to research into lifespan expansion for pets over the last decade, prescription-based longevity interventions that are now approaching FDA approval. All I have to do, it seems, is put in the time, care and (lots of) cash.

But should I do so? Don’t our pets live long enough already? And whose needs would I be serving – my own or my pooch’s? In the UK, the life expectancy for a dog is just over 11 years , while cats average 14 . As a working cocker spaniel, Frankie should be with us for 12-15 years – old enough that he’ll still be around when my son leaves home, just not long enough to see me into my dotage.

In attempting to contextualise the murky evolution of freedom of expression, the British historian has instead given encouragement to authoritarians of all stripes

The top blurb on Fara Dabhoiwala’s new book describes it as a “remarkable global history of free speech”. But it isn’t, and throwing in an interesting chapter on the press in British-occupied India, a tedious one on 18th-century Scandinavian free-speech laws and referring to the French Revolution doesn’t really make it one.

No, it’s a polemical account of the evolution of American first-amendment exceptionalism (which the author, as we shall see, regards as an entirely bad thing), with most of the globe entirely omitted. You suspect the author all the way through of having what Keats called “palpable designs” on you, but you don’t fully catch up with his intentions until towards the end.

• Australian bounces back from Melbourne dismay
• Russell third for Mercedes, with Verstappen in fourth

Oscar Piastri won the Chinese Grand Prix with a dominant run from pole position for McLaren, once again demonstrating the team have a fearsomely quick car in the second race of the new season. He secured a comfortable one-two, with his teammate Lando Norris in second. George Russell was third for Mercedes but 11 seconds down the road from the McLarens, with Max Verstappen fourth for Red Bull and Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in fifth and sixth for Ferrari.

Piastri controlled what was very much a processional race, with a flawless drive from pole, with Norris moving up to second from the start and McLaren then in a commanding position from which they were not threatened. Tyre-wear management dominated a somewhat prosaic affair but Norris did well to survive a late-race brake problem to claim second, while Ferrari switched Hamilton and Leclerc mid-race but they could make no impression on the leaders.

US and Ukrainian officials to meet in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, ahead of US-Russia talks on Monday

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine .

At least three people were killed, including a five-year-old child, after Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

Thirty years after the film, the musical version makes no excuses for being a nostalgia-fest

Who needs to learn to park? “Everywhere you go has valet!” Cher Horowitz, teen heroine of 1995 cult movie Clueless , is one of the most spoilt and entitled characters ever to have appeared on screen. She is also, with her irrepressible urge to solve other people’s problems and her coltish steps towards self-knowledge, one of the most endearing. Millennial women like me, who grew up watching the movie again at every sleepover, will defend her against all comers.

Now, Clueless is the latest millennial coming-of-age movie to hit the West End as a stage musical, opening to critics last week at Trafalgar Theatre. It follows Mean Girls and The Devil Wears Prada, both of which opened in London last year, each built to replicate the success of the repeatedly revived Legally Blonde: The Musical . (Sadly, Jennifer Coolidge has yet to cameo.)

At the 1968 Olympics, Foreman’s flag-waving was seen as deference if not betrayal. But the reaction to it reveals the limited ways we allow Black athletes to express themselves

When a teenager from Texas named George Foreman waved a tiny American flag in the boxing ring after winning Olympic gold in 1968 , he had little awareness of the political minefield beneath his size 15 feet. The moment, captured by television cameras for an audience of millions during one of the most volatile periods in American history , was instantly contrasted with another image from two days earlier at the same Mexico City Games: Tommie Smith and John Carlos, heads bowed and black-gloved fists raised in salute during the US national anthem, a silent act of protest that would become one of the defining visuals of the 20th century. Their message was unmistakable: a rebuke of the country that had sent them to compete while continuing to deny civil rights to people who looked like them. Their action was seen as defiant resistance, Foreman’s as deference to the very systems of oppression they were protesting.

Foreman’s flag-waving, unremarkable in almost any other context, became a lightning rod. For many, especially those aligned with the rising tide of Black Power, the gesture felt tone-deaf at best, an outright betrayal at worst. How could a young Black man, representing a country still brutalizing his own people, celebrate it so enthusiastically? But that reading, while emotionally understandable amid the fevered upheaval of 1968, misses something deeper – about Foreman, about patriotism, and about the burden of symbolic politics laid on the shoulders of Black athletes.

In Germany, tariff-hit car factories are being repurposed for defence. In Britain, American academics are queueing up for jobs. The west will be different as a result of Trump – but will it be worse?

The German ­electronics firm Hensoldt has a backlog of orders for its technology, ­including radars that protect Ukraine from Russian airstrikes. Meanwhile, Germany’s car industry is struggling with low European demand and competition from China.

As Europe worries about how it can weather the economic and ­political turmoil unleashed by Donald Trump, executives from Munich and Düsseldorf say they have at least a partial answer.

Claims of sexual violence made against other asylum seekers and staff include case of a 14-year-old who was allegedly raped

Women and girls seeking asylum in Britain have alleged that they were raped, sexually assaulted and harassed after being placed in mixed Home Office accommodation.

An Observer investigation has uncovered claims of sexual violence at multiple Home Office hotels including allegations against fellow asylum seekers as well as hotel staff.

England midfielder’s simple, repetitive talent can make all the difference for Thomas Tuchel. We need to go with it

The deception begins before he has even received the ball. As Ezri Konsa steps forward, Jude Bellingham leans towards his marker, Ylber Ramadani, and intimates he wants the pass in behind. Ramadani steps across to cover. On this, Bellingham immediately switches direction and takes two quick paces towards Konsa. The pass comes, as it was always going to do. But Bellingham’s sleight has earned him five precious yards of space.

The striker Myrto Uzuni now drops in to close him down. Myrto, meet Jude. Pull up a chair. You’ve played against him before at Granada, you’re familiar with his work, and you want to help, you really do. You try to get around his body to where the ball is, only to find that body and ball have mysteriously vanished: a quick swivel and then off in the other direction, beyond your despairing grab, in the general direction of your penalty area. Four seconds later, England will score.