He has been besieged by birds, had 120m crabs try to crawl up his trouser leg and stayed cool beside an erupting Icelandic volcano. As David Attenborough turns 100, we celebrate his most extraordinary adventures

Today, David Attenborough turns 100. He is, without question, Britain’s greatest national treasure; a man who has devoted his career to helping the public engage with the natural world. But his story is also the story of television. Attenborough joined the BBC just as television ownership hit its biggest period of growth, then went on to shape the medium, both on and off camera, over the next decades. He is as important a figure in television as you will ever find, and here are his wildest moments.

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From devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales to councils and mayoralties in England, find out what happened in your area

• Latest news updates and analysis from election night

You never change the pilot halfway through a flight, says a clearly rattled David Lammy. Can’t he see that his party is in a tailspin?

A couple of days ago on a Swiss flight from Seoul to Zurich, a pilot experienced a medical emergency. Three doctors on board assisted, one of the other pilots assumed the controls, and the plane ended up landing without harm to life. Like me, you will be absolutely appalled that David Lammy wasn’t also on the passenger manifest, hammering furiously on the cockpit door and offering that timeworn advice: “You don’t change the pilot during a flight!”

I mean … don’t you? Ever? I’m quite a nervous flyer and can definitely envisage a fairly significant number of situations in which you would, in fact, very much change the pilot mid-flight.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

After Zelenskyy, Robert Brovdi is Moscow’s top assassination target owing to his long-range attacks deep within Russia

Vladimir Putin has told Russians that victory against Ukraine is inevitable. But on Saturday no tanks or missiles will rumble over the cobbles of Moscow’s Red Square. For the first time in almost 20 years the annual celebration of the allies’ victory over Nazi Germany will take place without military hardware. The reason: the Kremlin is afraid of a Ukrainian attack.

The man who has arguably done more to spook the Putin regime this weekend than anyone else is Robert Brovdi, the head of a Ukrainian military drone unit, Madyar’s Birds, named after his call sign. In recent months it has carried out a series of long-range strikes against targets deep within Russia, including ports, oil refineries and missile factories.

Their microtonal rock has been a huge viral hit – but are they really 333-year-old aliens inspired by Borneo monkeys? The Quebecois duo tell all

Recently, Angine de Poitrine had to get new heads. The alien-looking rock duo were not in fact born with the monochrome polka-dotted complexions and extruded faces that millions of listeners have obsessed over since they went viral this spring. Guitarist Khn has a long, twangable nose and double-necked guitar/bass; drummer Klek’s dangly proboscis bounces along to his stone-cold playing. Both are apparently 333-year-old time travellers primarily inspired by a solemn musical quartet of monkeys from Borneo. Over months of hard gigging, their handmade papier-mache masks had gone soggy from the musicians’ laboured breathing. “When I looked at mine, I was like: Jesus Christ, did I really play that much with this?” says Klek. “It was falling apart. It was like putting a Christmas box outside when it’s raining.”

But when the masks disintegrated, it was important that their more robust replacements still looked lived-in. “People have fallen in love with the band as it’s always been,” says Khn. “So we’re not gonna change everything [because] we have a bigger budget now. We’re emotionally attached to our old beaten-up costumes that have been in car accidents and are full of snot. We think people love the fact that you can feel they have lived.”

Some people wear elaborate clothes and spin their sabers like in the movies, but if you fight theatrically you’ll lose

I grew up in the suburbs around Paris and started fencing when I was five. I kept it up until I was about 22, but then began looking for something else. I started running marathons instead. The good thing about running is that you can go whenever you want – but that also means you can put it off all the time. I wanted a sport that had more structure.

I considered options like the canne de combat, a martial art in which people fight each other with a wooden cane. But then I listened to a podcast that mentioned plans to create a fighting sport using lightsabers. I thought: I’m a geek. I like Star Wars. I’ve done fencing. Let’s try it.

The Reform UK leader said Labour is being ‘wiped out by Reform in many of their traditional areas’ as results paint a bleak picture for the prime minister

• 2026 election results: latest from local, Scottish and Welsh votes

We’re getting statements from some of the political parties now as we wait for results.

For the Conservatives, party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said:

We have run an energetic and positive campaign, showcasing that we have a clear plan to get Britain working again and that we have the team to deliver it... We know that so soon after a historic general election defeat and contesting wards won during the Party’s polling highs, that this will be a difficult set of elections for us. But we will continue to rebuild and to show the public that we have changed, to demonstrate that only this new Conservative party is a credible alternative.

People are deeply disappointed with a Labour government that has been too timid to fix the country, but they are also appalled by the rise of Reform and Nigel Farage’s Trump-style politics. While those on the extremes of the right and the left want to burn everything down, Liberal Democrats want to fix what’s broken. Every Liberal Democrat local champion elected today will fight tirelessly for the communities they serve.

I’ve travelled across England and Wales and I’m hearing the same everywhere I go – confidence that we will win more councillors than ever before. The news from the doorstep is that we will be taking seats from not just Labour but the Tories and Lib Dems too, from all across the country. Voters are responding to the fact that Greens are the only party taking the cost-of-living crisis seriously, with real plans to cut bills, reduce rents and provide genuinely affordable homes, as well as tackling the climate and nature crisis.

Throughout this election, we have heard a clear appetite for change. People want a government that will stand up for Wales and focus relentlessly on the key issues affecting their lives. People have told us they have been inspired by Rhun ap Iorwerth’s leadership and driven by a desire for a positive alternative to Reform UK’s chaos and division.

Zoë Garbett says ousting of Labour mayor in east London borough after 24 years is just the beginning for party

• Election 2026 live: latest news updates

• Full results from England, Scotland and Wales

The Green party has unseated Labour from mayoral power in the east London borough of Hackney after 24 years.

The new mayor, Zoë Garbett, told reporters she was “elated” and promised that Hackney was just the beginning for the party after it won with 35,720 votes to Labour’s 26,865.

Leader defiant in face of calls from some of his MPs to quit but admits ‘results are tough, and there’s no sugarcoating it’

• Election 2026 live: latest news updates

• Full results from England, Scotland and Wales

Keir Starmer has vowed to fight on as prime minister despite early results in local elections showing his party suffering heavy losses, many at the hands of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Starmer struck a defiant note on Friday morning in the face of calls from some of his MPs to quit, insisting he remained as determined as ever to deliver the promises on which he was elected less than two years ago.

Results are undoubtedly bad but expectations had been set even lower, and any potential challengers are quiet for now

• Elections 2026 – live updates

• Full results from England, Scotland and Wales

As the local elections results rolled in, a trickle of voices were calling for Keir Starmer to quit – a couple of MPs, a trade union leader, and a Labour peer.

The numbers are undoubtedly bad for Labour, with Reform making sweeping gains across pro-Brexit heartlands in the north and midlands. These could even be the party’s worst losses for 50 years with more than 1,000 councillors gone and the potential loss of control of the Welsh parliament.