Mexico’s avenging Mother Courage, an interview with the king of horror movies and why middle-aged women have rediscovered raving

1. ‘She was almost a Batman figure’: Mexico’s avenging Mother Courage

Illustration: Harol Bustos

After her son disappeared, Isabel Miranda de Wallace swore she would bring the culprits to justice. She became a national hero. But did she go too far? Sam Edwards told the gripping story about one of Mexico’s most shocking miscarriages of justice of recent years.

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2. ‘Everything I know about evil I learned in that small town’: John Carpenter on terrifying the world with Halloween, The Thing and The Fog

John Carpenter. Photograph: Philip Cheung/The Guardian

If you really want to know the truth about alien encounters, I think that my movies are more realistic about what will happen. Think of the settlers who came to the United States and their encounters with the Indians. It didn’t really go so well for the Indians, OK?

Steve Rose interviewed the king of horror and sci-fi movies who, at 78, is as much of a rebel as ever. They discussed creativity, compromise, aliens and how he became addicted to movie-making.

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3. The rave secret: why middle-aged women are larging it – and seeing big health benefits

Dancing all night can be a panacea. Photograph: Posed by models; Dan Dalton/Getty Images

When you go into an inclusive dance space, you can enter a liminal space where time dissolves and everybody is treated as an equal. Doesn’t matter if you’re a CEO, a road sweeper, a woman or a man, if you’re 25 or 55, you can access that space, and that gives you a sense of belonging.

For those who are burned out, perimenopausal, or both, dancing all night can be a panacea. It’s great exercise, lowers stress, boosts energy and provides connection. No wonder so many are doing it. Amy Fleming went clubbing till the small hours to re-experience raving.

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4. ‘I felt Holden was talking to me alone’: The Catcher in the Rye at 75

JD Salinger. Photograph: Hoberman Publishing/Alamy

An older reader sees Holden’s isolation. Behind the teenage mouthiness is a roiling mass of neurosis. Jealous, insecure, frightened, frustrated, Holden has suffered terrible losses

JD Salinger’s wry, subversive classic inspired novelist Joseph O’Connor to be a writer. To mark the 75th anniversary of the novel’s publication, he reflected on why this story of a disaffected teenager remains as fresh and transgressive as ever, and how it alters its meanings depending on the reader’s age.

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5. ‘Liberate the lidos!’ Who will win the war over Italy’s private beaches?

A lido beach at Miseno. Photograph: Gianni Cipriano/ The Guardian.

Almost all of the sandy stretches on the country’s 8,000km of coastline are run for profit. Sometimes you have to walk for a mile or two before finding a spiaggia libera, a beach free of private lidos where bathers are allowed to put their towels on the sand and plant their own parasol. Those “free beaches” are invariably in the remote and less attractive areas, with no lifeguards or loos. Tobias Jones spoke to the “free beach” campaigners who are fighting back against the mafia, the military and those profiteering from sun loungers and cocktails.

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6. ‘It’s only going to get worse’: wildfires forcing firefighters to make impossible choices

Firefighters tackle the flames of the Vouzela wildfire in Portugal, in early July. Photograph: Paulo Cunha/EPA

It’s not just about having more fires to fight, it’s the risk of operational collapse. When two or three fires break out simultaneously, we are forced to make immediate triage decisions.

As the climate crisis fuels more intense blazes, pushing them to new parts of the world, those tackling them are forced to ration resources and decide which to fight. Ajit Niranjan and Caroline Davies reported on the shift from fighting all fires to picking battles.

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