Digested week: Snakes alive! Depardieu smacks snapper while Sunak slips up | Emma Brockes

A venomous Arizona training course, Reese Witherspoon's book club and not remaining calm in the face of disaster

It's rattlesnake season in the American south-west, which, if average June temperatures of 40C (104F) don't deter you, might give you pause before planning a trip. This week, in Scottsdale, Arizona, the state's annual venomous snake training course got under way, a series of events that take place every spring as the weather warms up and the snakes start to stir from their slumber. Three broad groups of people attend this course: park and wildlife rangers; Arizona residents with experience of finding snakes in their homes; and reporters from New York on the regional-Americans-are-a-hoot circuit.