Alex Garland’s new film “feels like the most honest depiction of modern warfare I can recall seeing”, said Robbie Collin in The Telegraph.

Co-written and co-directed by Ray Mendoza, a former US navy Seal (who served as a consultant on Garland’s film “Civil War”), it is based on his memories of a real-life incident: a botched engagement in the Iraqi city of Ramadi in about 2006.

In the opening scene, a group of Seals descend on a civilian home in the cover of darkness, terrifying its residents; the men then set up sniper-surveillance positions from which to give cover for a ground operation, and wait.

There’s no banter or chat about what they’ll do after the war, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian: just minutes of silence as they sit in a state of “hyper-alertness”. Then, in a flash, disaster strikes, and all is carnage and chaos.

“Warfare” is in some ways similar to the rash of war-on-terror films that came out 20 years ago, such as “The Hurt Locker”; but this film is “almost fierce in its indifference to political or historical context” (a resource that should be “more readily available” two decades on); and there is “almost no conventional narrative progression”.

Garland and Mendoza are “concerned only with the overwhelming, sensory journey that is conflict”, said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent. The film is all about the moment: the pain, fear and blood. In this work of “attempted neutrality”, there’s no musical score to manipulate viewers’ emotions; none of the characters have sympathetic backstories. But the violence depicted on screen didn’t erupt from nowhere; there was a path to it, and the film feels unmoored without that context.

In 2021, Charlie Colenutt left his job as a trainee barrister, which had come to feel meaningless during the pandemic, and “set out on an adventure”, said Christina Patterson in The Sunday Times.

“For the next two years, in coffee shops, pubs, kitchens and front rooms, he talked to 100 people about their jobs.” The result is “Is This Working?”, a “strangely gripping” oral history based on his interviews. The book is structured thematically, so a chapter entitled “Bodywork” is made up of interviews with a panel beater, a warehouse worker, a security guard and a sex worker, while “Talkwork” features a call-centre worker, an estate agent and a therapist. They reveal that while a few people love their jobs, the majority find them a grind.

One of the biggest complaints is the “erosion of autonomy”: the way many people are now “accountable” for every minute, and have to prove what they’ve done with endless box-ticking. A midwife must fill in a form every time she gives a back massage; a soldier-turned-teacher finds the bureaucracy so overwhelming that she remembers her time in Afghanistan as “less stressful”.

Colenutt – whose book is inspired by Studs Terkel’s 1974 bestseller “Working”, based on interviews with US workers – also discovers joy “in unexpected places”, said Ian Cobain in The Observer. A food delivery rider, while regularly exhausted, relishes the freedom of not being “strapped to a desk”. A cleaner describes the fulfilment she feels when looking back on a room she has cleaned.

As one might expect, this book is both “utterly fascinating and thoroughly depressing”, said Ian Sansom in The Telegraph. “By simply listening to people talk about their jobs, Colenutt has created something unique and unexpectedly moving: it’s a choral work of frustration, pride and despair.”

Russia is launching its largest conscription drive in more than a decade, expanding its military as talks stall over a potential ceasefire in Ukraine.

President Putin has ordered the call-up of 160,000 men aged 18 to 30. Neighbouring countries will be acutely aware that the Russian army has increased in size from roughly 1 million soldiers in 2022 to a force of 1.5 million in 2025, according to Russian state news agency Tass. The drafts happen twice a year, in the spring and autumn, and this campaign is an increase of 10,000 over last year’s spring conscription, and a rise of more than 25,000 compared to three years ago, said Tass.

What did the commentators say?

The Kremlin and the Russian Defence Ministry “both insist that Russian conscripts will not be deployed to combat and that the call-up is unrelated to the conflict in Ukraine“, said The Moscow Times. But “as the war drags on for a fourth year, many remain sceptical of the Kremlin’s promises”.

Russian authorities may claim this has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine, but “in the long term, it has everything to do with the conflict, and the wider geopolitical tensions”, said Sky News. Putin’s aim is to have a bigger army than America’s, with 1.5 million active personnel.

The latest conscription is “a result of this, and it’s a sign of Russia’s relentless militarisation. Whatever the outcome of peace talks, the Kremlin will remain on a war footing for some time yet.”

It certainly highlights that Putin is probably not expecting to sign up to – or abide by – a ceasefire in Ukraine any time soon, Ian Bond, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, told the BBC. Even if a long-term ceasefire is eventually agreed, Putin would be unlikely to stop there. “We can see what the Russian economy is being retooled to do,” says Bond. “And it ain’t peace.”

Russian conscripts were deployed in Ukraine, a decision that President Putin has previously referred to as a mistake. Where Ukraine “relies mostly on conscription”, said Alexander Hill, professor of military history at the University of Calgary on The Conversation, Russia has been increasingly reliant on volunteers in its war with its neighbouring country. “The death or injury of volunteers is far less likely to have a negative impact on wider morale than the death of conscripts.”

But “while the official stance is that conscripts are not sent to Ukraine”, said CNN, “reports have surfaced of conscripts being pressured or misled into signing contracts that result in their deployment to the front lines in Ukraine”. When Kyiv launched its incursion into Russia’s southwestern Kursk region in August 2024, at least 25 Russian conscripts were killed, according to the independent media outlet Verstka. The average age of those killed was 20.

What next?

Moscow wants “a one-on-one meeting between Putin and [President] Trump in which they hammer out a deal that stops the war in Ukraine for now – just as Trump wants – in exchange for provisions that leave Ukraine permanently weakened”, Alexander Gabuev and colleagues from the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center said on Foreign Affairs. At the same time, Moscow “was prepared to keep fighting before Trump won, and it remains so today”.

The threat from Russia is being felt beyond Ukraine too. Germany’s foreign intelligence service and the country’s armed forces believe that Russia views the West as a systemic enemy and “is building up its military power and preparing for a large-scale confrontation with NATO”, according to a report by German media organisations Süddeutsche Zeitung, WDR and NDR.

The intelligence report seen by the newspaper and broadcasters predicted that by the end of the decade, Russia is likely to have created all the necessary conditions to be able to wage a “large-scale conventional war”.

Barry Keoghan leads a “fab four” of actors who have been selected by Sam Mendes for his quartet of Beatles films, which Sony describes as the “first binge-able theatrical experience”.

All four films will be released in April 2028 but the project is already facing criticism of its format and casting, so it’s not clear how many of us will come together to watch it.

A hard day’s night

Do we “really need” four stand-alone Beatles biopics, asks Ed Power in The i Paper? Wondering if all four Beatles are “equally interesting”, he noted that we “have made it to 2025” without “thinking too deeply” about the “inner workings of Ringo Starr’s creative process”, and this might not need “urgent remedying”.

There’ll be “questions about the wisdom” of trying to tell the Beatles’ story from “top to tail”, because the best Beatles adaptations have “zeroed in on specific moments” from their career.

Sony’s description of a “bingeable” theatrical experience has caught the attention, but what this means is “kind of a mystery”, wrote Fran Hoepfner on Vulture. Are we “supposed to sit through them all back-to-back like people do for ‘The Lord of the Rings’“?

It could be a hard day’s night to watch all four films in a row, but the “at-home culture of binge-viewing” on streaming platforms means box-office receipts at UK cinemas are 22% below 2019 levels, said a leader in The Times, so “perhaps if cinema can’t beat the culture of bingeing”, it should instead “join it”.

No, no, no 

The castings of Keoghan, Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn and Harris Dickinson have caused a lot of heat, with some Beatles fans “angry” that the filmmakers went with “stereotypically ‘hot'” and famous actors rather than casting “unknown” actors who resemble the band members, said Clare Donaldson on The Daily Beast.

It “would have been wonderful” to see “some unknowns in the lead roles”, agreed Ben Lawrence in The Telegraph, so casting directors should have been “scouring local theatres” in search of “rough-hewn talent” to bring “famous Liverpudlian grit and humour” to the roles.

One person gently weeping at not being involved is Beatles biographer Philip Norman. In the Daily Mail, he said that he wrote to Sony “offering my help” but an assistant at the company “turned down my offer”, because “the great director” would “rather not be confused by facts” nor, “heaven forbid, pay someone for enlightening him”.

With a long and winding road of three years to go before the films hit our screens, might people calm down? It’s “not uncommon” for people who were “angry” over a casting announcement to “change their mind later”, said Donaldson, but the “attention and criticism” will probably “intensify” in the run-up to the release of the biopics.

A silent revolution is under way at Rolls-Royce. As the curtain falls on its exquisite V12, the marque ushers in a new era of electric power with the Spectre. Two years after its launch, the EV coupé has eclipsed expectations, becoming the brand’s best-selling model in Europe. It’s a defining moment for the 120-year-old brand, proving that electrification only amplifies the Rolls-Royce experience.

Reacquainting myself with the Spectre – this time the Black Badge – through Barcelona’s bustling streets, sweeping mountain roads, and even the race track, only reinforces its brilliance. The seamless, whisper-quiet power delivery aligns perfectly with Rolls-Royce’s DNA: it’s effortless to drive and luxuriously crafted. Little wonder, then, that the Spectre has become a runaway success.

A familiar yet elevated experience

With the introduction of the Black Badge variant, the Spectre embraces a bolder persona, its ‘darker side’ alter ego. Despite a price tag exceeding £320,000, demand is unlikely to be an issue. While many defining characteristics remain – the colossal 23-inch alloys, sleek silhouette, and the most refined ride of any luxury coupé – this version pushes boundaries further.

The Black Badge Spectre is now the most powerful Rolls-Royce ever built. Its dual electric motors produce 650 brake horsepower (bhp) and a staggering 1,075Nm of torque, launching this near-three-tonne grand tourer from 0 to 60 mph in just 4.1 seconds. These are supercar figures wrapped in an opulent, near-silent package.

Driving dynamics: engaging the infinite

At the Spectre’s launch in Napa Valley, its effortless driving experience stood out. Regenerative braking made one-pedal driving a breeze, perfectly suited for urban environments. The Black Badge, however, brings an extra layer of dynamism with “Infinity Mode”, engaged via an infinity-symbol button on the steering wheel – a signature of Rolls-Royce’s Black Badge models. Activating it unleashes the full 650 bhp, providing a sharper throttle response and a more engaging driving experience.

For those seeking an even more visceral thrill, “Spirited Mode” offers an additional burst of torque. By pressing the brake and throttle simultaneously before releasing the brake, the Spectre momentarily amplifies torque delivery. I tested this with a drag race on the track, and it’s astonishing how quickly this three-tonne grand tourer moves. The sensation is reminiscent of the power surges delivered by the legendary Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, which propelled the Second World War Spitfire.

With a claimed range of 306 to 329 miles – it’s fitted with the same 102kWh battery as the standard model – the Spectre Black Badge offers respectable real-world usability for a vehicle of this size and class.

Chassis and handling: the ‘Magic Carpet Ride’, reimagined

To match the Spectre Black Badge’s enhanced performance, Rolls-Royce engineers have fine-tuned the chassis. The steering weight has been increased to provide better feedback, while roll stabilisation has been adjusted to reduce body lean in corners. Upgraded dampers further refine body control, minimising squat under acceleration and dive under braking. When throwing it into corners on the track, it felt remarkably agile.

These changes ensure that, while the Spectre retains its hallmark “magic carpet ride”, it also offers a more responsive feel for the driver. Achieving this balance in a car of this scale is no small feat, yet Rolls-Royce has executed it with the precision we have come to expect.

Bespoke personalisation: crafting individuality

Customisation is at the heart of every Rolls-Royce, and the Black Badge Spectre raises the bar. Clients can select from 44,000 ‘prêt-à-porter’ paint colours or collaborate with Rolls-Royce designers to create an entirely unique hue. The introduction of the ‘waft’ coachline along the lower half of the coupé provides an additional personalisation touch, as well as subtly accentuating the car’s generous proportions.

Inside, Rolls-Royce’s SPIRIT operating system allows customers to tailor digital surfaces, meaning that both the physical and digital elements of the car match up. Whether it’s unique interior materials, contrasting leather upholstery, or personalised embroidery, the Black Badge Spectre accommodates individuality – it’s unlikely that there will ever be two alike.

Interior: a fusion of craftsmanship and technology

Stepping into the Black Badge Spectre is an experience in itself. The cabin is a masterpiece, blending traditional craftsmanship with modern innovation. The Technical Fibre Illuminated Fascia, featuring over 5,500 fibre-optic stars, forms an abstract representation of the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot intertwined with the Black Badge infinity symbol – a subtle but striking differentiator from the standard Spectre.

Materials are equally impressive. A distinctive carbon and fine metal-thread diamond-pattern weave adds depth and complexity to surfaces, while the upholstery is exquisitely detailed. Every element of the interior reaffirms Rolls-Royce’s commitment to the highest standards of craftsmanship, from the deep-pile carpets to the precision-stitched leather.

The verdict

From city streets to mountain switchbacks to the open track, the Black Badge Spectre remains every inch a Rolls-Royce: refined, beautifully crafted, and effortless to drive. With its bold styling, enhanced performance, and near-limitless customisation options, the Black Badge is perhaps the ultimate expression of electrified luxury.