I am pretty fussy about cookies. I like them to have that bakery-level softness while maintaining a satisfyingly crisp exterior; I want thick, gooey cookies, ideally eaten warm with melted chocolate and sea flakes.

There are, of course, steps you can take to ensure these features. Resting cookie dough overnight helps to prevent the biscuits from spreading in the oven, which I find leaves them too thin.

And adding some inverted sugars, like golden or maple syrup, alongside granulated kinds goes a long way to keeping them sumptuously soft.

Personally, I swear by the New York Times’ recipe, though I replace about 10g of the brown sugar with maple syrup.

I’ve been making a batch on the weekend, freezing the dough, and baking one in the oven nightly for the past couple of weeks. But recently, partly because baking takes so long and partly because I hated using that much energy on a single biscuit, I switched appliances.

The results were gooier, crisper, faster, and easier to make; I haven’t gone back since.

Though I was happy with the results from my oven, I found that the air fryer left a much crisper top layer on the brownies with a truly gooey underneath. It makes them a little like a very good brownie.

When I bake them in the oven, meanwhile, they often end up getting a little caught and chewy on the ends. My oven probably heats up too slowly, which would explain the thin, lacy edges, where sugar melts into a slightly too hard layer, and the heat doesn’t blast the fat quickly enough to prevent spreading.

Not so with the air fryer, which cooks the cookie much faster (I put a frozen cookie in at 150°C for about 11 minutes, vs the oven’s 20 minutes plus preheating time).

And because air circulates in a much smaller area in my air fryer than it does in the oven, I feel it makes the craggy parts of my cookie crunchier and more golden while still maintaining a fudgy middle.

Perhaps it’s no wonder that baking legend Jane’s Patisserie likes the trick, too.

I wouldn’t go that far. I’m in a specific situation here: I cook one or two cookies at a time, and I much prefer warm cookies to cooled ones. I also make taller cookies, and I think a thinner one could run a little too crisp quite quickly.

If you’re less interested in gooeiness and/or are cooking a lot of cookies at once, an oven will almost certainly be your best bet. I would not, for instance, use this for a bake sale.

But I probably would lob a huge scoop of cookie dough into my air fryer for something like a movie night dessert or a post-dinner cookie cake for friends (just be sure to carefully line your basket with baking paper: this is mandatory, of course, no matter what size cookie you’re making).

And I have stuck to the appliance every night since I first tried it. It’s faster, easier to clean, makes it much easier to check the doneness of your cookies, and makes mine taller, gooier, crisper, and more delicious.

It may have been one of the worst-kept secrets in pop, but Madonna still definitely managed to make a big impression when she made an unannounced guest appearance during Sabrina Carpenter’s Coachella set.

On Friday night, Sabrina headlined the second week of the US music festival, whizzing through her biggest hits in an elaborate show that really pulled out all the stops.

Towards the end of her set, the Grammy winner performed a rendition of fan-favourite track Juno, teasing fans with the line: “Wanna try out some freaky positions? Have you ever tried this one?”

At that moment, the stage went dark, with Madonna entering the stage as her signature hit Vogue played, after which she and Sabrina gave their new duet – thought to be taken from the Hung Up singer’s upcoming album Confessions II – its debut.

Madonna being Madonna, she wasn’t going to let the moment pass without some unscheduled chaos, launching into a slightly meandering speech that included her giving the crowd an Astrology lesson (including pointing out that Sabrina is a “stubborn” Taurus), giving an impromptu blast of her criminally underrated single Get Together and pointing out she was wearing much of the same outfit she first wore on the Coachella stage almost 20 years ago to the day.

She and Sabrina then ended the moment with a performance of Like A Prayer, after which Madonna disappeared under the stage, declaring: “You guys didn’t know this but she’s a magician. She’s going to make me disappear!”

Immediately after the performance, Madonna released the opening song from Confessions II, I Feel So Free, to streaming services, after first teasing it last week.

Confessions II will serve as a spiritual sequel to Madonna’s hit album Confessions On A Dance Floor, featuring production from her frequent collaborator Stuart Price.

As well as being her first studio album since 2019’s Madame X, it is her 15th studio album overall, and is scheduled for release on 3 July.

Chances are you’ve heard of “gentle parenting,” a method of raising children which avoids taking an overly authoritarian or possessive approach.

It involves approaching each other’s emotions and problems with empathy and curiosity, as a team.

“Gentle partnering is not about one person agreeing all the time or being submissive, it is about recognising our individuality,” said Rogers.

“It is not about power and control but being part of a team and a united front… Having differences of opinion can strengthen a relationship; it is how these differences are communicated to each other that is the key.”

Toxavidi described the approach as one which centres “open communication, emotional regulation, dealing with conflict and feeling loved and supported”.

It aims to “eliminate power and control [and set]… clear and consistent boundaries, which is another essential element that needs to be present and cultivated within healthy relationships.”

Try using “I” statements, try listening to their concerns rather than trying ot immediately fix them, accept your differences with respect, and accept each other’s individuality, Rogers told us.

Apologise, genuinely, when needed, recognise and own your feelings, and show affection regularly.

“All it involves is truly hearing and seeing your partner respectfully communicating your needs and feelings, but also considering and validating your partner’s needs and feelings, even if you do not agree. It is being firm, fair, respectful and maintaining your boundaries.”

Toxavidi said, “When partners can see their differences as opportunities for growth rather than as sources of conflict and disagreement and their different emotional tantrums around different relational issues with compassion and understanding, then a deeper bond and authentic connection can be built.”

Like Rogers, she said it’s important to focus on active listening, “acknowledging and validating someone’s behaviours or efforts,” setting boundaries that can “foster self-respect, safety and open communication,” and extending empathy.

“When someone is actively listening to their partner in order to understand where they are coming from with a deep curiosity of what is all about the other person opposite of them, and listens in order to respond and not to react from an ego place, creates a safe space for the other where defensive behaviour is eliminated and open expression and true intimacy and connection can take place,” she ended.

This week (April 20-27), multiple Tube strikes are scheduled across London.

These are expected to cause “significant disruption,” Transport for London (TfL) says on its site.

It’s the first of six scheduled strikes planned to take place in the city.

• Midday Tuesday, 21 April until midday Wednesday, 22 April,
• Midday Thursday, 23 April until midday Friday, 24 April.

• Midday Tuesday, 19 May until midday Wednesday, 20 May,
• Midday Thursday, 21 May until midday Friday, 22 May.

• Midday Tuesday, 16 June until midday Wednesday, 17 June,
• Midday Thursday, 18 June until midday Friday, 19 June.

However, while all planned strikes are set to run from 12:00pm on their first day to 12:00pm midday the next, TfL warns that disruptions are expected to continue into the afternoons and evenings following these periods.

On Wednesdays and Fridays, any services that do run are expected to start later than usual, with no service planned before 7:30am.

And on Tuesdays and Tuesdays, services will finish early: “you should aim to have completed your journey by [8pm]”.

No service is expected on the Picadilly and Circle lines.

There isn’t expected to be any service on the Metropolitan line between Baker Street and Aldgate, or on the Central line between White City and Liverpool Street.

“Elizabeth line, DLR, London Overground, and tram services will be running normally on strike days,” said the TfL.

The strikes will have knock-on effects on the whole Tube network, they added. While a “reduced service” will run on most lines, “significant disruption is expected”.

The strike involves RMT members, but only half of the London Underground drivers are part of that group. 2025′s strikes involved both the RMT and Aslef, which meant almost all lines were affected.

It follows the introduction of a voluntary four-day working week, which would mean that drivers could elect to work longer days, but with fewer overall hours and over fewer days.

The current standard is a five-day work week across 36 hours. This option includes four working days and 35 hours, though their contractual hours won’t change thanks to paid work breaks.

It’s being tested on the Bakerloo line on a voluntary basis at the moment.

RMT says this would make the working day too long, which might make workers fatigued and risk safety.

Instead, they have asked for a 32-hour week across four days. TfL have responded saying that the current four-day option is voluntary.

RMT London’s transport regional organiser, Jared Wood, said that after first seeming interested in a discussion, the TfL have since said they’re “not prepared to discuss with us any further changes.

“It’s left our members in a position where they feel there is absolutely no alternative but to proceed with the strike action.”

Claire Mann, TfL’s chief operating officer, said the optional changes would bring the London Underground in line with the working practices of other train services, making them more flexible and reliable.

“The changes would be voluntary, there would be no reduction in contractual hours, and those who wish to continue a five-day working week pattern would be able to do so.”

If bingeing your way through the most recent season of Beef cut close to home at any point, that’s probably because creator Lee Sung Jin was inspired by incidents from real life when putting the new episodes together.

The second iteration of the award-winning Netflix series focusses on two couples – played by Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac, Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny – on opposite sides of a generational and class divide, who become embroiled in a feud that takes over all four of their lives.

Speaking to People, writer and director Lee admitted that the “springboard” of the whole season was a “real-life incident” in which he overheard “a ‘heated debate’ coming from a couple’s home”.

It was only when retelling what he heard to people of different generations and backgrounds that he realised this could form the basis of a new season of Beef.

“Younger people reacted like Ashley and Austin,” he recalled. “Whereas my similarly-aged or older peers were like, ‘It’s a fight. I mean, who among us [hasn’t had one like it?]’.”

But that’s not the only part of the new season that took inspiration from the real world.

The Emmy winner also spoke about how a trip to A&E inspired the scene in which Charles and Cailee’s characters are in a hospital waiting room.

“I literally just wrote down in my notes app everything that happened, dialogue I overheard, and pretty much copied and pasted it and wrote it in a day,” he admitted. “So that episode is not an exaggeration. That is the state of [the American] health industry at the moment.”

He concluded: “I’d love to get to a point where society isn’t what it is, so we can write about something other than class. But until then, [we’ll] just keep trying to shout it from the mountaintops.”

Beef’s second outing has once again been a hit with both critics and Netflix users, many of whom are now speculating about whether a third run could be on the cards.

Netflix is remaining tight-lipped for the time being, but the screenwriter has made it clear that he originally envisaged Beef as a three-season anthology series, each focussing on a different cast of characters and central feud.