The comfort-food staple has been given a culinary glow-up and is suddenly the toast of the town. What’s not to like?

A dispatch from the menus of the capital’s fancier pubs, Instagram restaurants and wine bars: there’s a new favourite dish in town. Though maybe “new” is the wrong word. Cropping up in the types of establishments where you’ll easily pay a fiver for olives is the humble but universally beloved cheese toastie.

I’d call it a renaissance, but that would ignore the fact that the toastie is and has been for decades a staple of busy lunches, sick days and CBA dinners, when all you’re after is instant satisfaction. Let’s say instead, then, that the cheese toastie has had a bit of a culinary glow-up.

Lauren O’Neill is a culture writer

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Exploitation fears as people in extreme poverty perform stunts and beg for virtual gifts

Three young children huddle in front of a camera, cross-legged and cupping their hands. “Please support me. We are very poor,” says a boy, staring down the lens.

They appear to be in a mud-brick hut in Afghanistan, living in extreme poverty. But their live stream is reaching viewers in the UK and worldwide – via TikTok Live.

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The viral response to US influencer Ashton Hall’s morning routine shows that the manosphere is now mainstream

How does the perfect morning begin? With gentle stretching, a coffee in bed? It could be a walk in the sun, a hot breakfast or simply managing to spend the first 20 minutes off your phone before spending the next 20 on Instagram. Lately, it may feel like the answer is being more productive.

The optimised morning routine has become a near-mythical ideal for young people, sold by fitness influencers posting obsessively about their 5.30am starts, claiming to finish their weight training, macronutrient-rich meals and emails before our first alarm – promising that everything in your life would be better if you, too, had the discipline to just get up early.

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Anonymous donations made to Molly Rose Foundation, set up after Molly Russell, 14, took her own life after viewing harmful material on social media

Meta and Pinterest have reportedly made significant donations to the Molly Rose Foundation, a charity set up to campaign for internet safety.

The foundation was set up in the name of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who took her own life in 2017 after viewing harmful material linked to suicide and self-harm on social media platforms.

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Deadline set by US president was supposed to be Saturday, with Trump now considering decreasing tariffs to get deal

Donald Trump on Friday afternoon extended by 75 days a deadline for the Chinese technology company ByteDance to sell US assets of the popular short-video app TikTok to a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban that was supposed to take effect in January under a 2024 law.

“The deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed,” the US president said, explaining why he was extending the deadline he set in January that was supposed to expire on Saturday. “We hope to continue working in good faith with China, who I understand is not very happy about our reciprocal tariffs.”

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Sam Jones, who left Australia on Friday, posted a 900-word statement questioning outrage in country where ‘slaughter of wombats’ is permitted

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A US hunting influencer who caused outrage in Australia after grabbing a baby wombat from its mother says she is sorry for the incident but was only trying to ensure its safety by removing it from a road.

Sam Jones left the country on Friday morning after the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said immigration authorities were checking if she had breached the conditions of her visa.

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Reddit has shown a growing commitment to promoting ads on its platform, especially since going public a year ago. But in the interest of not completely alienating customers with incessant, irrelevant, or personally offensive ads, the social media company is giving users the ability to block advertisers for a year.

In a Reddit post last night, a Reddit employee known as cozy_sheets said that clicking “Hide” on an unwanted ad on Reddit will soon result in Reddit automatically hiding “future ads from that advertiser account for at least a year (you can re-hide the ad after that period of time).” The change will debut on the Reddit website and Reddit’s iOS and Android app throughout “the next several weeks,” according to the announcement.

Reddit didn't detail what limits it will use to ensure that users don't block every single advertiser for an ad-free Reddit. Some users have already reported seeing a daily limit for hiding ads, though.

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Headteachers’ conference to be told that rise in bullying, abuse and malicious use of deepfakes is being reported

Social media operators must be “brought to heel” for the misery and disruption they are causing to the lives of students, teachers and parents, according to a senior school leader.

Manny Botwe, the president of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), will tell the association’s annual conference that teachers are reporting increased bullying, abuse and the malicious use of “deepfakes” against pupils and staff through social media.

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Montana-based hunting influencer flew out of Australia on Friday after home affairs minister said he couldn’t ‘wait to see the back of this individual’

A US hunting influencer who caused outrage in Australia after grabbing a baby wombat from its mother has left the country after the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said immigration authorities were checking if she had breached the conditions of her visa.

A government source told the Guardian that Montana-based Sam Jones had left the country on Friday morning.

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