Six great reads: 90s parenting, ‘mistress dispellers’ and the summer’s biggest booze trend

1. ‘We would love to enter Eurovision!’ The boy who saw some unclaimed land – and founded his own country

Independent spirit … Daniel Jackson, president of the Free Republic of Verdis, in Dover, UK. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

“Daniel Jackson was only 14 when he and a group of friends decided they ‘wanted to do something that was unique’. While most others their age were scrolling TikTok, Jackson and his friends scoured maps, and discovered an unclaimed strip of forest that falls outside the borders of Croatia and Serbia. They thought it would be fun to see if they could make it into a country, and named it Verdis.”

Lucy Knight told the fun story of Jackson’s bold attempts to acquire sovereignty over his country, which have included forming a government, establishing laws and planting a flag. But will he and his 400 hopeful citizens be able to build a new nation now he has been exiled, thanks to a lifetime ban from entering Croatia?

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2. Blockbuster, board games and boredom: why everyone’s parenting like it’s 1999

Back to the future … teens are increasingly interested in the retro tech of their parents. Composite: Getty/Alamy

With parents across the world worried about their kids’ access to smartphones and the internet, a new trend for older, less all-encompassing technology is giving an unlikely rebirth to landline phones, board games and, for one parent at least, an entire at-home replica Blockbuster video store, as Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett discovered.

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3. ‘A climate of unparalleled malevolence’: are we on our way to the sixth major mass extinction?

Armageddon … mass extinctions are mainly due to an overload of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Composite: Alex Mellon for the Guardian/Getty Images

“While ours is a sturdy planet,” wrote Peter Brannen in this chilling extract from his new book, “resilient to all manner of unthinkable insults to which it is regularly subjected, once every 50-100m years, something truly very, very bad happens.”

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4. ‘They’re not chic!’ How did BuzzBallz become the undisputed drink of the summer?

Convenient but quite silly … BuzzBallz. Composite: LIVPIX/BuzzBallz/Linda Nylind

BuzzBallz have grown from the brainchild of a broke Texan teacher in 2009 to becoming the US’s biggest-selling single-serve premixed cocktail, and the fastest-growing ready-to-drink brand in terms of sales volume in the UK. Emma Russell spent a day speaking to students, lawyers and a group of festivalgoers, all swigging the vividly coloured drinks, to see how they became so popular.

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5. If your husband’s having an affair, this woman will get rid of her: the gripping film about China’s ‘mistress dispellers’

‘An incredibly graceful way of resolving a conflict’ … Teacher Wang in Mistress Dispeller.

Available for hire, professional persuaders deceive their way into the lives of cheating men – and see off the extra lover. Amy Hawkins met the maker of a jaw-dropping documentary about a growing phenomenon in China as it grapples with falling marriage rates, rising divorce rates and an increasing number of young people refusing to wed altogether. In fact, an entire “love industry” aimed at promoting and protecting the institution of marriage has emerged.

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6. ‘Glass chopping boards should be illegal’: how to look after your kitchen knives

Cut above … care for your kitchen knives for years of excellent slicing and dicing. Photograph: Анатолий Тушенцов/Getty Images

A good knife is probably the most important bit of kit you’ll buy for your kitchen. But, if you don’t look after it, it will end up being replaced when it doesn’t need to be. Writing for the Filter, Guardian food writer Anna Berrill spoke to experts to find out how, from sharpening to cleaning, you can keep your kitchen knives on point.

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