Forget productivity! Author and consultant Bree Groff believes the true sign of a successful workplace is how much fun the employees are having. Is this the answer to post-Covid burnout and disengagement?

Who would say work was fun? Your job might be rewarding (some of the time). You may get on with your colleagues (some of them). But fun? It seems simultaneously too grand an ambition and too small.

After the work-centric “hustle culture” of the 2010s, then the backlash and widespread burnout brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the general feeling around work right now could be described as ambivalent at best. At worst, it’s openly combative, as evinced by frequent references to the “battle” over working from home. Managers want employees back in the office; employees want flexibility, and to limit work’s impact on their lives.

The Guardian’s former north of England editor returned to Morecambe after 25 years to discover the place where she grew up has even fewer amenities for young people – and the feeling of being ‘left behind’ is stronger than ever

Photographs by Polly Braden

If you had asked me as a teenager whether I saw my future in Morecambe, I’d have laughed you out of our faded seaside town. I’d been plotting my escape since I was 14. The sea was grey, the sand was treacherous and the wind was always messing up my hair. I was totally unmoved by the view across the bay of the Lake District fells.

It felt like half of the world was cut off. You could go left or right on the prom but never straight ahead, unless you wanted to end up stuck in mud waving frantically for the coastguard. A whole compass point was out of reach.

Feel like you don’t belong? Crave emotional independence? Constantly come up with original ideas? Like Frida Kahlo, Franz Kafka and Albert Einstein, you could have a distinct case of otroversion ...

Name: Otrovert.

Age: The term is brand new.

Club say they want to keep Isak but a move is now in both’s interests and Eddie Howe is best off chasing other targets

As a general rule, it is almost always best to sleep on things before making important decisions or reacting to provocations. So why, at close to midnight on Tuesday, did Newcastle rush out a seemingly kneejerk response to Alexander Isak’s incendiary Instagram post claiming that, amid broken promises, his relationship with the club was over?

In a statement reflecting an appreciably tougher tone than at any time during this summer saga, Newcastle insisted no promises had been broken and that their intention is to keep Isak. The message was that the Sweden striker’s attempt to force a move to Liverpool had failed and he would need to end his one-man strike before being welcomed back to first-team training. The only problem is that while you can lead a horse to water it sometimes really is impossible to make them drink.

I was working non-stop as a standup comedian, and thought I loved the hustle. But when I found myself sobbing into the carpet after a back spasm, I had to reassess everything

For as long as I can remember, I have been ambitious and desperate to prove myself. It started with a competitive spirit at school sports days, then a determination to land parts in local theatre productions, then a place at drama school. I was between acting jobs when a friend suggested I try standup. One gig and I was hooked.

I quickly decided comedy was my future and I would do whatever it took to make it work. The rest of my life went out of the window. I gigged constantly – often six nights a week – determined to hone my craft and establish myself as a comedian. I was always knackered, but I revelled in it, telling myself I loved the hustle. I trod the boards at comedy clubs, art centres, theatres … anywhere that would have me. I performed for six years at the Edinburgh festival fringe – the first two to very little fanfare (and audience numbers), but after that, things started to rev up. I was booked for bigger shows, sometimes abroad, sometimes on TV. I felt as if I was really hitting my stride.

Near Dobropillia new trenches are visible, drone attacks continue and there is no sign of the fighting easing

Over dinner on Monday, a simple barbecue of meat and roasted vegetables, the soldiers of Ukraine’s 150th reconnaissance and strike battalion have other things on their mind. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in the White House and Donald Trump has just promised to give Ukraine “very good protection”.

When this development is passed on to the group around, one of the soldiers pipes up “From who?” and laughs, such is the uncertainty about who the US really supports. But in reality the troops are not following the news closely. After three and half years, the war has its own momentum, technology and schedule.

Broxbourne council leader hopes to ‘go down same path’ as Epping, which has blocked people being housed in hotel

• UK politics live – latest updates

Councils across England are weighing up their own legal challenges after a high court ruling blocked people seeking asylum from being housed in an Essex hotel.

The Conservative-run Broxbourne council in Hertfordshire said it was taking legal advice “as a matter of urgency” on whether it could follow the example of neighbouring Epping Forest district council, which applied successfully for an injunction to stop asylum seekers being accommodated at the Bell hotel in the town.

Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov dismisses European diplomacy as ‘clumsy effort to sway Trump’

• Russia-Ukraine war – live updates

Moscow has said it must be part of any international talks on Ukraine’s security, as Russia continues to stall on Donald Trump’s push for a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Wednesday that Moscow must be included in any talks on Ukraine’s security guarantees, dismissing European diplomacy as “aggressive escalation” and a “clumsy effort to sway Trump”.

Use of cameras at Notting Hill carnival could have ‘chilling effect’ on people’s rights, says equality regulator

Scotland Yard’s plan to widen the use of live facial recognition technology is unlawful because it is incompatible with European laws, the equalities regulator has claimed.

As the UK’s biggest force prepares to use instant face-matching cameras at this weekend’s Notting Hill carnival, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said its use was intrusive and could have a “chilling effect” on individuals’ rights.

Decision on neighbourhood health centres expected in autumn but approach divides policy experts

Labour is preparing to kick off a new wave of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in England to build the neighbourhood health centres at the heart of its NHS 10-year plan.

Ministers will make a final decision in the autumn budget about whether to use the funding approach, which was put on pause eight years ago.