Policing at a pro-Palestine marchSolving the climate crisisGreatness in baldnessPaint coloursThe best guitarists It is appalling that a police officer used the phrase “openly Jewish” when trying to move Gideon Falter away from a pro-Palestine march (Met apologises for calling antisemitism campaigner ‘openly Jewish’, 19 April). But it’s also ludicrous to suggest that being Jewish would be provocative. There have always been lots of “openly Jewish” people at the marches calling for a ceasefire, carrying signs such as “Jews say ceasefire now”, “Jews against Israeli militarism”, “Jews for justice ..read more

I run from room to room, touching things as if they’ll somehow transport me to the past. Not much has changed in the old weatherboard Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast Many years ago, a friend from university invited some of us to his mum’s beach house at Walkerville South. His mum had bought the house super cheap before the world had discovered that there was another impressive coastline in Victoria, far away from the more established houses of the Mornington Peninsula or the Great Ocean Road. The house was a weatherboard shack hidden in thick native ..read more

It’s easy to mock – and I fully intend to – but it takes real imagination to come up with something like Elephant’s Breath or Overcome Nymph’s Thigh Recently, I went on an adventure to an alien and intimidating place, a real no-go area: Belgravia’s interiors shops. My best friend is trying to buy a flat and to energise her for this grim journey of owner ghostings, asbestos, incompetent agents and outrageous prices, she needed a bit of escapist fun looking at chi-chi paints. Unfortunately, she brought me: a person with all the visual sensibility of a house brick (Terre D’Egypte? Porphyry Red ..read more

From renovating existing wood and plastic to scouring the local tip for anything that can be recycled Getting your garden ready for the warmer months is not only about planting. We take a look at how to furnish your outdoor space for less ..read more

Lock-ups are being reinvented and marketed as more than just storage amid overcrowding and record rent rises Forget the gym membership and juicing regime: the new must-have to boost personal wellbeing is a self-storage unit. At least, that is the call from a new company urging space-squeezed thirtysomething renters to accept that they cannot afford a home with enough cupboards in today’s housing system and instead sweep their clutter into a rented lock-up ..read more

UK debt advice charity warns that cost of living crisis and higher rents are pushing younger full-time workers into difficulties A rising number of people in full-time work, including those in jobs such as nursing, have been seeking advice on debt, amid warnings that a growing cohort of younger workers is struggling to make ends meet. Figures seen by the Observer suggest rising rents and the use of credit to cope with the cost of living crisis in recent years are driving more full-time workers to seek help ..read more

How do I know what soil I have? Do bulbs come back? And how did people garden before Google? As the growing season gears up, our experts are here with a barrowful of advice Few domestic gardens need work every weekend – whisper it, but they’re quite good at looking after themselves. Broadly speaking: new growth on twiggy, brown (or woody) stems is a fair sign to prune old growth back to encourage the new growth into a neater, fuller shape; a shift to spring and summer signals a need to feed plants; if your plants are romping away, your weeds probably will be too – pulling them out while they’r ..read more

Andy Leek, creator of Notes to Strangers, made the move after finding himself unable to afford rising rents in UK capital An artist who was made homeless after being evicted by his private landlord in London has started effectively commuting from Argentina where the rent is so much cheaper that it covers the cost of air fare. Andy Leek, 38, whose Notes to Strangers works are pasted on to walls and junction boxes across more than 20 British and European cities, has moved to Buenos Aires where the rents are several times cheaper and he travels back to the UK roughly every two months for work. Th ..read more

Royal Horticultural Society hopes punters will be inspired by Salford winner of pub garden competition Pub gardens often feature barren patios, characterless lawns and – worst of all – fake grass. Now, the Royal Horticultural Society is asking landlords across the country to plant up their patios, saying they are full of untapped potential for urban green space and wildlife ..read more

Rents are soaring, housebuilding is lagging and long-promised eviction reform has still not been enacted Artist cuts rent by commuting from Argentina Andy Leek’s escape to Argentina from Britain’s soaring rents is no doubt extreme. But the fact that this relatively successful artist feels he is better off paying transatlantic air fares than stumping up for ever-rising landlord demands is indicative of a crisis that only ever seems to get worse. Polls show 23% of voters now rank housing as the most important issue facing the country, up from 14% at the December 2019 general election. More peo ..read more