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Activists say the swift release of older and immunocompromised prisoners is necessary and could potentially save hundreds of lives. Composite: Guardian Design/Courtesy of the familiesThe women survived abuse, war and cancer, and are now held in California prisons with rising Covid-19 outbreaks by Sam Levin in Los AngelesCalifornia’s governor, Gavin Newsom, is facing mounting pressure, including from a top state official, to grant clemency to dozens of elderly and vulnerable women who are serving long sentences in prison and are at high risk of death from coronavirus.

BooksReviewNever mind the twists, just savour the joy of the prose in Ann Patchett's Run, says Patrick NessRun by Ann Patchett 295pp, Bloomsbury, £14.99 Warmth is an underrated literary quality. So readily does it congeal into schmaltz, so quickly can it become as insufferable as those wretched Mitch Albom books about the people you'd hope to avoid when you died, that its absence has become almost a prerequisite to be taken seriously as a literary writer.

Film This article is more than 22 years oldBetween faking it and making itThis article is more than 22 years oldMark LawsonWhen big screen sex and jealousy move out of the realm of fantasy.One of the best trick beginnings in modern fiction is the narrator's assurance at the start of Julian Barnes's Before She Met Me that the protagonist didn't mind at all the first time he saw his wife committing adultery.

Around 66 million Americans believe that aliens landed at Roswell, New Mexico Photograph: The Ronald Grant ArchiveAround 66 million Americans believe that aliens landed at Roswell, New Mexico Photograph: The Ronald Grant ArchiveAn apple a dayHealth & wellbeingPsychologists are trying to determine why otherwise rational individuals can make the leap from “prudent paranoia” to illogical conspiracy theories According to a Public Policy Polling survey, around 12 million people in the US believe that interstellar lizards in people suits rule our country.

BastilleInterview‘I’ve been expecting things to fall apart at any moment’: Dan Smith on 10 years of body dysmorphia, burnout and BastilleChris GodfreyHe has found critical and commercial success, while behind the scenes the frontman has battled with his self-confidence and severe stage fright. He explains why he still loves being in the band Dan Smith doesn’t know how to switch off. In the decade or so that he has been the creative heart, and frontman, of the band Bastille, he has thought about music constantly.

Books interviewFictionInterviewWilliam Brewer: ‘The Red Arrow isn’t a drug book, but…’Anthony CumminsThe American author on how his own experience of psychedelic therapy sparked his debut novel, and his poems about the opioid epidemic William Brewer, 33, is the author of I Know Your Kind (2017), a collection of poems about poverty and drug addiction in West Virginia, where he was born and grew up. Selected for the prestigious National Poetry Series in the US, and cited as an inspiration by Ocean Vuong, he has been described by New York magazine as “America’s poet laureate of the opioid crisis”.

ObituaryChang Hsueh-liangThe Dorchester's 'dancing despot', under house arrest for 53 yearsIn 1936, Chang Hsueh-liang, also known as the "young marshal" and the "dancing despot", who has died aged 101, changed the history of China and the world. His reward was to become the longest-serving political prisoner in history. Chang was the instigator of the Sian Incident. He kidnapped the Chinese nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-shek, and forced him to end the civil war against the Chinese Communists to form an alliance against the Japanese invaders.

Canada This article is more than 2 months oldDisabled man drags himself off plane after Air Canada fails to offer wheelchairThis article is more than 2 months oldAirline was forced to apologize to Rodney Hodgins who flew to Las Vegas with his wife to celebrate their anniversary in August Air Canada has been forced to apologize after a man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off a plane when the flagship carrier failed to provide a wheelchair for him.

Israel-Gaza warGaza activist tells of beating and abuse in Israeli detentionHuman rights worker Ayman Lubbad is among the Palestinian prisoners claiming abuse in Israeli custody, where six have died The Gaza-based human rights activist Ayman Lubbad has not seen his wife and three children for more than a month, since he was ordered to strip to his underwear in the street outside his home, then driven away with other Palestinian men for a week of abuse and detention.