Ask a few gentle questions, and do it face to face. But it’s not your responsibility to fix things
• Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a problem sent in by a reader

I started high school last year with some friends I’ve known for a long time. One of those friends has started to act toxically with other people.

I have been distancing myself from her for a while, but nothing seems to work. She is really sensitive and has a history of dishonesty, which makes confronting her about my feelings incredibly difficult. She talks badly about many people, but pretends to them that they are the problem.

While both working in Fiji, Will Hamilton was certain he and Stef were more than an aid-world fling. Then Covid came and the pair were separated for nine months

• Find more stories from The moment I knew series

At the end of 2019 I was 15 months into a contract working in Fiji. The project was coming to an end and I was ready to head back to the UK when Stef showed up and changed everything.

Working in international development, especially in more remote locations, means those in the sector tend to gravitate towards each other. Whenever a new crop of personnel show up, everyone gets together. It was Stef’s third night on the island when we all descended on a local curry house in Suva to welcome her and the other volunteers. I arrived straight from work in a rather fetching sulu (Fijian sarong) and sandals. I was seated next to Stef and sparks flew instantly. She was clearly super bright, very funny and matched me in stacking away large quantities of chicken tikka butter masala (it’s a thing and it’s very good). We made plans to meet the following day and quickly began spending a lot of time together.

Pauline Eyre once judged serves from the likes of Jimmy Connors and has watched this year in exasperation

The cloth cap and blazer-wearing line judges of Wimbledon are as much an icon of this famous old sporting event as the manicured lawn courts. But this, the 138th tournament in its storied history, was the year SW19 took a leap into the 21st century – replacing some of their judges with an electronic line-calling system that was supposed to put an end to human error.

Now, as the sun sets on this new era at Wimbledon, many of the headlines have been about just that. Mistakes have been blamed on the people operating it, much to the ire of players forced to replay points that were sabotaged by the faltering Hawk-Eye.

The retro Swedish dessert is popping up on US menus and TikTok feeds. The story of how we got here is as layered as the marzipan confection itself – and surprisingly subversive

This spring, something strange started happening at the Fillmore Bakery in San Francisco, which specializes in old-school European desserts.

Excited customers kept asking the bakery’s co-owner, Elena Basegio, “Did you see about the princess cake online?”

The billionaire says the America party will challenge the system, but third-party bids rarely make it far in the US

“You want a new political party and you shall have it!” Elon Musk declared in early July.

The world’s richest man is never one to shy away from grandiose statements, and he continued: “When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”

Fill July and August with awesome activities for less than a fiver a head – 24 of them won’t cost a thing!

Organised by wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation, the Big Butterfly Count is an annual citizen science programme that asks the public to help build up a picture of the UK’s butterfly population. Running from 18 July to 10 August, it’s open to anyone in the UK. Pick a spot and spend 15 minutes looking for butterflies and moths, then log your findings on the website or the Big Butterfly Count app.

Exclusive: Latest poll comes as Wes Streeting urges medics to call off ‘unnecessary and unfair strikes’

Public support for strikes by resident doctors has collapsed, with barely one in four voters now backing their campaign of industrial action, according to the latest polling, which reveals the deepening unpopularity of further NHS strikes.

Previously strong approval by voters for strikes by junior doctors – as resident doctors were known until last year – has halved from 52% a year ago to just 26%.

Exclusive: Party talks up sums that can be saved by cutting DEI jobs, but there are only a handful of such roles across the 10 councils it runs

Councils run by Reform UK have an average of fewer than 0.5 diversity and equality roles each, it has emerged, calling into question the party’s stated aim to save significant sums of money by cutting such jobs.

According to freedom of information requests, across the 10 Reform-run English councils there was a combined 4.56 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs connected to equality and diversity, not including roles required by law such as those for inclusion in education, including for pupils with disabilities.

British ambassador to US believes universal levy unlikely to change but there is ‘scope’ for negotiations in some sectors

The 10% tariffs on most UK goods imported into the US are likely “here to stay”, according to Lord Mandelson.

The British ambassador to the US said the “universal 10% tariff” was unlikely to change but that there was “scope” for negotiations in different sectors and industries, such as technology.

Main points from the preliminary report on the 12 June crash in which 260 people died

A preliminary report from investigators looking at the Air India Flight 171 crash, which killed 260 people on 12 June, has been published.