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Rapper Giggs’s new school for neurodivergent children, the return of Moomins and more uplifting stories
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Good morning.
When the rapper Giggs discovered that his three older children were autistic, he found himself fighting a system that he felt was failing them. He knows the struggle first-hand: getting his own autism diagnosis took years, while securing the assessments and support his children needed became a battle.
“It was a mess. I thought, well, I’ve got to do something,” he says. Now, the London MC has co-founded a specialist school and assessment centre in Kent for neurodivergent children. The 75-pupil school aims to help families navigate the Send educational system, while making it easier for parents to get the support their children need.
The Guardian newsletters team
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The battle to save the dying heart of rural France: the village bistro
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 Customers in the Au Bon Accueil restaurant in Saint-Martin-sur-Ouanne. Photograph: Ed Alcock/The Guardian
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“In bistros and cafes, people don’t just eat and drink, they catch up with each other, meet new people, debate, laugh, read, write and sometimes fall in love,” said Alain Fontaine of Paris’s Le Mesturet bistro. Yet where once there were an estimated 500,000 cafe-bistros dotted throughout France, there are now only about 30,000 to 40,000. But one group of local campaigners in the northern Burgundy community of Saint-Martin-sur-Ouanne has saved one such establishment, and in the process, made their village livable again.
After a successful community-led campaign to reopen it, Au Bon Acceuil cafe-bistro has been brought back to life – and every table is taken. As the village mayor, HervĂ© Chapuis, put it: “Our aim is to keep this kind of business open to support the social fabric. It’s part of village life and people missed it. Now, village life has returned to its proper rhythm.”
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The Feast app: your most useful kitchen utensil
Get inspired with more than 7,000 recipes from our world-class cooks and smart, exclusive features to make cooking a breeze.
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Birds don’t see flying as a chore – they seem to enjoy it
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A study of galah cockatoos found that flying lifted their mood and boosted optimism. Photograph: Florence Gabrie/GuardianWitness
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Do birds actually enjoy flying? Or is it just a thankless journey they take from A to B, the ornithological equivalent of your morning commute? Jorg Massen, a behavioural biologist at Utrecht university, has an answer. In his study of 17 captive cockatoos kept in a bird park in the Netherlands, he found that the birds chose to fly on virtually every occasion. When they flew on consecutive days, they were more likely to display behaviours related to positive emotions, and become more “optimistic”.
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A moment that changed me: I felt hugely self-conscious about my skin – until I had a revelation
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Natalie Ambersley, pictured in 2025. Photograph: Courtesy of Natalie Ambersley
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For years, Natalie Ambersley felt that her vitiligo controlled her life. She was three years old when she first developed vitiligo, and by the age of six, 70% of her skin was covered. As a teenager, she hid her skin condition with makeup, hoping people wouldn’t notice.
But at a London comedy club last December, she decided to joke about her skin condition, dating experiences, and how children react to her unfiltered skin in her standup set. Initially a nerve-racking performance, it became a liberating experience, as she realised she could own her story – and feel proud of the skin she once wanted to hide. “The cheers felt like the biggest sign of approval; as if I was educating the audience and advocating for vitiligo while standing under a spotlight and owning it,” Ambersley writes.
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A sketch for Tove Jansson’s book Princessan Glittergull (1922). Photograph: ©️Tove Jansson Estate
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Previously unseen drawings by Moomins author Tove Jansson to go on show in London
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The Moomin books about lovable trolls with hippopotamus snouts are coming to life in a new London exhibition, featuring previously unseen drawings by their creator, Tove Jansson.
Opening in November, the show will include more than 100 works, from early Moomin sketches to photographs and films, celebrating Jansson’s enduring themes of nature, friendship, tolerance and being yourself.
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Beyond Bradford and the BrontĂ«s – new walking trail shows West Yorkshire’s natural beauty
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The Twelve Apostles stone circle on Burley Moor, West Yorkshire. Photograph: Mark Sunderland Photography/Alamy
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West Yorkshire’s moors include beautiful pinks and purples; boast rich biodiversity and a variety of flora and fauna; and play an important part in tackling the climate crisis. Before now, much of the area’s rural beauty might have gone unnoticed by the wider public.
But, on Saturday morning, the Bradford Pennine Gateway Trail will open, the first reserve of its kind in West Yorkshire. It will showcase the area’s astonishing landscape, and it is hoped that it inspires people to explore more in the region.
Writer Chris Moss described a trip to the area as embodying a “ local, low-carbon, cheap-as-chips tourism before the jet age” kind of throwback vibe, adding that the new route could offer “a model for how we travel in the future”.
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