Immerse yourself in this week's Life & Arts stories, and enrich your weekend with fresh perspectives and cultural discovery.

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Appetites is your go-to hub for food and drink coverage, led by our all-star roster — including Tim Hayward, Jancis Robinson, Marina O'Loughlin, and Jay Rayner. Featuring recipes, destination dining and expert guides, explore the hub on FT.com or find the latest articles in Food & Drink on the FT app.

The only scone recipe you’ll ever need — with options and embellishments

A Honey & Co formula for scone success

A food tour of Flushing, Queens, America’s biggest Chinatown

Free edibles: foraging in London with a top chef

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon: ‘I am perfectly adapted to France’

The firebrand politician on stoking a ‘citizen revolution’, the effects of US policy — and whether he will run for president in 2027

Ex-NHS boss Amanda Pritchard: ‘You can’t change your mind every five minutes’

The case for Trump’s tariffs

The best books of the week

The 160bn-clicks-a-day ‘like’ button that changed the internet; how Dubai became an aspirational metropolis; a biography of tennis superstar Rafael Nadal; Rutger Bregman’s manifesto for success while doing good; sublime short stories from Graham Swift; a time-hopping epic by Madeleine Thien; Berlin-set novels by Nell Zink and Leif Randt; a cold war Anglo-Soviet true love story — plus Alex Clark’s pick of audio books

The Warrior: Rafael Nadal and His Kingdom of Clay — the making of a tennis great

Christopher Clarey traces how the Spaniard came to dominate the French Open, among his 22 Grand Slam titles

Allegro Pastel — Leif Randt’s brilliant distillation of millennial precarity

The German writer’s first novel to be translated into English tackles young hopes, lives lived online — and the angst of turning 30