The superstar DJ and producer parties to Candi Staton and secretly loves Pantera, but what weird Brian Eno epic does he find perfect for romance?

The first song I fell in love with
I have flashes of The Reflex by Duran Duran, but the first song I had a really emotional reaction to was Can’t Find My Way Home by Blind Faith, from the soundtrack to this really cheesy 80s movie called 1969 with Robert Downey Jr, Winona Ryder and Kiefer Sutherland. It was the cliche of stopping you in your tracks, so I had to sit on my bed and experience it. I still find it completely haunting.

The first single I bought
It was my 12th or 13th birthday and my stepdad [Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones] gave me 20 bucks, so I went and bought four 12-inches from Tower Records on 66 and Broadway, including (Nothing Serious) Just Buggin’ by Whistle and Let’s Go All the Way by Sly Fox.

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By putting techno, punk, funk and more on an even footing, the Scottish DJ – who has died aged 57 – fearlessly united factions in underground music

One of the Scottish music scene’s great quirks is its wealth of down-to-earth heroes – and one of the most heroic was Keith McIvor, AKA JD Twitch, who died yesterday after a short, terminal illness. In life and in death, Twitch’s aura was well earned; as Optimo (Espacio), with his DJ partner JG Wilkes, Twitch’s irreverent humour, political action and renegade attitude shifted the axis of good taste on to a broader, wilder plain and inspired generations of clubbers.

In the early 1990s, Twitch co-founded the Edinburgh club night Pure. With Jeff Mills’ first UK gig, he effectively (alongside Glasgow’s Rubadub) brought Detroit to Scotland, side-stepping the decade’s Madchester obsession in favour of a weirder palette of acid house and techno. When Pure ran its course, Twitch switched to Glasgow and formed Optimo (Espacio) with Wilkes in 1997 – and having had a decade of techno dominance, they decided they had other ideas.

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An investigation into the extent of greed and deception in PPE provision. Plus: weird drama Coldwater goes off the rails. Here’s what to watch this evening

10.15pm, ITV1

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More than half of people in the UK exaggerate, fabricate or downplay what they watch and pretend they’re into documentaries or serious drama. I am as guilty as they come

There are some small details that tell you everything you need to know about who a person really is. How they vote. If they give a nod of thanks to drivers who have stopped for them at pedestrian crossings. Whether they have a cat or a dog.

So it is unsurprising that a nationwide survey has discovered that more than half of British people lie about what they watch on television. A conclusive 54% owned up to “exaggerating, fabricating or downplaying” their TV truth, pretending to be into documentaries, crime thrillers and historical biopics to sound “smarter”, “cooler” or “more in the know”.

Polly Hudson is a freelance writer

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The ballroom blockbuster is back for 2025, featuring 15 new celebrity contestants. But which pros will they be paired with? Whose moves will wow and whose footwork will fall flat?

It’s not been as bad as last year’s Great Unpleasantness (aka The Bullying Inquiry That Must Not Be Mentioned) but it’s certainly not been an ideal build-up to Strictly’s comeback. Wynne Evans and Jamie Borthwick were both relieved of their BBC duties after being caught making unsavoury comments and an ableist slur respectively.

The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into reports of on-set cocaine use and also arrested a former Strictly star on suspicion of rape and non-consensual intimate image abuse. Even longtime co-host Tess Daly hadn’t escaped criticism, with complaints about her cashing in on her profile with lucrative commercial deals.

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The barely there iPhone Air is in line with trends in tech, design and art – unsullied by thought, risk or humor

There’s a new iPhone. Again. Improbably, we are on the 17th iteration ( give or take ) of the product that single-handedly ruins our lives every day with incessant vibrations alerting us to some horrifying calamity, plus every song in the Bruce Springsteen back catalog. Coming up with new features for the never-ending information machines we all keep in our pockets isn’t easy, but this time, Apple managed to develop a big (or should I say small) one. There’s now a thinner iPhone Air, which is being marketed as the thinnest iPhone ever . These gadgets have never exactly been gargantuan, so it’s kind of like identifying the tiniest grain of sand in the desert. Still, people around the world are fascinated by the sheer lack of phone here.

Technology, design, and art are all trending toward a certain scarcity model, prepping us for a lack of bells and whistles, as though both your parents are unemployed and they want you to expect fewer trips to Disneyland. Life on Earth feels more and more like the experience of entering a Sweetgreen – beige, spartan and unobtrusive. Sure, iPhones haven’t gotten cheaper, but they have certainly gotten … lesser. The iPhone Air is so small, I feel like I’ll sit on it and it will slide seamlessly up my rectum, never to be seen again. For some, I’m sure losing your device inside your bowels might be a feature, but I think it’s a rather uncomfortable bug.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

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From JFK to Bill Clinton, US presidents have long accepted the relentless punchlines of late-night hosts as part of the job – until now

What is US late-night TV if it isn’t riffing on the political news of the day? Since ABC made the decision to indefinitely suspend comedian Jimmy Kimmel from his late-night talkshow after on-air remarks about the killing of Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump has encouraged further action against other late-night hosts.

Yet, such topical humor has been a feature of late-night TV since NBC launched the format in the mid-1950s. In fact, throughout modern history, presidents in particular have understood the cultural value of late night TV and dutifully played their part in this uniquely American symbiosis – from JFK to the present-day politicians.

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The producer and DJ, real name Keith McIvor, had been diagnosed with an untreatable brain tumour earlier this year

JD Twitch, the Scottish DJ and producer celebrated as one half of the duo Optimo, has died aged 57.

The artist, whose real name was Keith McIvor, had been diagnosed with an untreatable brain tumour , which he announced in July. He died on Friday in Glasgow’s Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice, his DJ partner Jonnie Wilkes (AKA JG Wilkes) announced .

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The Young Vic artistic director tells why she wanted to reframe the story of girls lured to Syria to join Islamic State

In Nadia Fall’s debut feature film, Brides, two teenage girls run away from Britain to join Islamic State in Syria, after being lured by social media posts promising freedom. If the story sounds familiar, it’s because it was inspired by real-life events.

Fall, the artistic director of the Young Vic, said: “I was doing a play with the writer Suhayla El-Bushra at the National [Theatre], and we were approached about making a film.

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