Far from 1978’s morally noble colossus, Gunn’s Man of Steel is a flawed being – but perhaps he can allow us to hope for a better world

In the 1960s, Marvel comics made its name by dragging superheroes down to street level. Peter Parker worried about his homework. The Fantastic Four bickered like flatmates. Even the Hulk, a walking nuclear tantrum, was really just a green and muscular guy having a bad day. Over at DC, though, the heroes remained clean, polished and largely unbothered – moral titans gazing down from above, solving problems without ever really having any of their own.

Superman was the prototype of that ideal: an all-powerful alien whose only weakness was a glowing space rock and an unshakable sense of duty. He wasn’t like us – he was better than us. And that was the point. When Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane first meets the man of steel in 1978’s Superman, she is almost impossibly awestruck by the presence of this walking, talking, flying god. Lois’s wide-eyed vulnerability is a stark contrast with the condescension she doles out to his alter ego, Clark Kent. The two sides of the Last Son of Krypton might be exactly the same person, but it’s virtually impossible for anyone to recognise them as such, because one radiates impossible power while the other can barely hold on to his briefcase.

Ex-girlfriend details sexual and physical abuse as defense zeroes in on text messages about so-called ‘freak-offs’

Singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a former girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs and a key witness in the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial of the music mogul, is returning to the stand on Friday for further examination by Combs’s legal team.

Ventura, who is eight and a half months pregnant, has been on the stand since Tuesday afternoon, and has detailed years of sexual and physical abuse she alleges she endured during their decade-long relationship.

In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid . In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org .

Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh
Martin Green’s play, set in a village still traumatised by the miners’ strike, follows a young musician under pressure from all sides

Towards the end of Martin Green ’s brass-infused play for the National Theatre of Scotland, there is a resonant metaphor. It makes the connection between directing the breath to play a wind instrument and dealing with life’s stresses.

“The skill is in controlling that pressure,” says Keli, a 17-year-old tenor horn player who knows all about pressure. On her plate is a thankless job in a supermarket, a mentally ill mother and a solo spot in a national brass band competition.

Los Angeles police open investigation after lawsuit filed against Motown singer alleging sexual assault of four former housekeepers over many years

Los Angeles police have opened a criminal investigation into Smokey Robinson, after allegations of sexual assault made by four of his former housekeepers, which he denies.

The unnamed women filed a lawsuit last week alleging that the Motown star was a “a serial and sick rapist” who had assaulted them on numerous occasions between 2007 and 2024, across three residences. Robinson and his wife, Frances, are also accused of labour violations, including the failure to pay the women minimum wage and overtime. The women are seeking financial damages.

Photo from Vietnam war is now at centre of controversy after documentary claimed it was taken by someone else

The World Press Photo group has suspended the attribution of authorship for one on the most famous press photographs ever taken, after a new documentary challenged 50 years of accepted journalism history.

The photo, officially titled The Terror of War but colloquially known as Napalm Girl, remains one of the most indelible images of the US war in Vietnam. Since its publication in June 1972, it has been officially attributed to Nick Ut, a Vietnamese photographer working with the Associated Press in Saigon.

Strictly Limited/Giants Software; Mega Drive
It may be seem horrendously old-fashioned, but the seemingly dull repetition of working your wheat fields has a nostalgic pull like a combine harvester

When I got my first job in games journalism 30 years ago, I arrived just too late to review games for my favourite ever console: the Sega Mega Drive. Although a few titles were still being released for the machine in 1995, the games magazine world had moved on and all anyone wanted to read about were the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn. It was a bitter blow.

Fast-forward to 2025 and a resurgent interest in producing new games for vintage home computers and consoles has led to Farming Simulator: 16bit Edition – a Mega Drive instalment in the hugely successful agricultural sim series. The passion project of Renzo Thönen, lead level designer and co-owner of Farming Simulation studio Giants Software, the game has been written using an open-source Mega Drive development kit, and manufactured in a limited run of genuine Mega Drive cartridges. Slotting this brand new release into the cart of my dad’s ancient Mega Drive II console felt ridiculously moving and I thought the game could only be a letdown after that. But I was wrong.

A delightful animation about a shipwrecked robot, plus an extraordinary documentary about a revolt at the only US college for deaf students … after they tried to put a hearing person in charge

Chris Sanders’s delightful family animation attains Wall-E levels of poignancy in its tale of a shipwrecked robot that learns how to feel. Washed up on a remote island populated only by animals, service unit Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) finds it has no one to serve. That is until it falls on to a goose’s nest, killing all its occupants apart from runt of the litter Brightbill (Kit Connor) – who imprints on Roz as his mother. Assisted by Pedro Pascal’s cynical fox Fink, the ever helpful machine reprogrammes itself to rear the gosling well enough so he can migrate with the other geese. The Disney-style anthropomorphising is a bit overdone, but it’s a film full of warmth and wit.
Friday 23 May, 9.10am, 6.10pm, Sky Cinema Premiere

At 26, Venezia Hardcore co-founder Giacomo Gobbato was killed while protecting a stranger on the streets of Venice – a death that’s become a rallying cry for a city in crisis

As you enter the Centro Sociale Rivolta, a former confectionary factory in the industrial neighbourhood of Marghera in Venice that has been occupied by squatters for the last 30 years, a large banner spells out two words: “Jack lives”. More than 2,000 people will see the banner this weekend when they arrive at Venezia Hardcore, a festival that began in a rehearsal room among friends and has become one of the most important counterculture events in Europe.

This year’s event will feature Jivebomb’s furious hardcore from the US, Violent Magic Orchestra’s techno black metal from Japan, and Italian bands such as cult screamo outfit La Quiete, political street punk four-piece Klasse Kriminale and local heroes Confine. But the star of the festival will stand out due to his absence: 2025 will be the first edition of Venezia Hardcore without Giacomo “Jack” Gobbato, a musician and activist who was stabbed to death in September by a robber who had attacked a woman Gobbato was trying to defend.

Sir Nicholas Serota says continued public investment is vital to draw in private funding to maintain cultural centres

Arts and cultural centres across England are at a “tipping point” as many face closure or restricted operations without continued public investment, the chair of Arts Council England has warned before next month’s government spending review.

Sir Nicholas Serota, who runs the body that distributes public funds to arts organisations ranging from national institutions to community-based ventures, said it would be a tragedy if people outside big cities were denied access to the arts.