It seemed like a fait accompli that Hoyle would deny the application for a Commons vote – but he had other ideas

What the hell has Keir Starmer done to upset the speaker? Was it that row they had after prime minister’s questions a few weeks back, when Keir appeared to have taken objection to Lindsay Hoyle’s ad libbed remarks about not being responsible for Starmer not answering any of the questions? Has Hoyle finally had enough of the government announcing policy decisions in press conferences and media briefings, rather than in statements to the House of Commons?

Or is Lindsay just a bit bored? Perhaps he has decided to liven things up a bit in the dog days of the current parliament. Go out with a bang. Place himself centre stage. Lights. Camera. Action.

Equally inspired by childbirth manuals, Georgia O’Keeffe and her own hormones, pregnancy and motherhood, Hollowell paints beautiful anatomical abstractions. She opens up about her cosmic birth and out-of-body experience

‘It’s magical,” says Loie Hollowell. “It’s such good timing!” The artist, speaking via Zoom from her studio in Queens, New York, is referring to the Artemis II moon mission. Little did she know, when she named her latest painting series Overview Effect, after the term used by astronauts to describe the experience of seeing Earth from space and the profound feelings of awe and interconnectedness it provokes, that she’d be coinciding with this space odyssey. But she is not surprised anyone would want to leave Earth for a while. “We’re having so many problems here,” she says.

Overview Effect, currently at London’s Pace Gallery, features large-scale canvases combining twin concave and convex sculpted circles. If you folded the canvasses in half vertically, the halves would fit perfectly together. The works, which radiate outwards in rings of glorious colour that are both vibrant and soothing, are a continuation of earlier works focusing on pregnancy and birth through abstraction. Her Split Orb paintings and Dilation Stage series of pastel drawings responded to the difficult birth of her son in a New York hospital. Overview Effect is a result of her daughter’s easier arrival: a “cosmic” home birth that she found far more empowering.

On the runway at Gatwick, the visceral reality of forced removals was laid bare. If only more could see what is done in our name

It’s Gatwick airport, mid-afternoon, and on the runway there is turmoil. Public policy playing out in full view of the public. Voters, citizens, seeing what they don’t normally see.

“Murdaar, murdaaaaar,” screams the bucking, brawling, brawny man as a clutch of male security officials, with solid intent and hi-vis yellow jackets, collectively fight to pin him into a seat at the back of the airliner. “Me caaan go back a Jamaica,” he hollers, the visceral sound reverberating around the 777. “Dem kill me bredda. Dem a go kill me.”

Hugh Muir is executive editor, Opinion

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Hannah Khalil’s new play sprang from her surprise at seeing the great Egyptian actor had performed at the Festival theatre in the 1980s. She explains how it entwined with a story of her mixed-heritage identity

A few years ago the playwright Hannah Khalil was queuing for the loos at Chichester Festival theatre when she spotted Omar Sharif, in a prince’s costume, on the wall. The photograph was part of a gallery showing stars who had graced the Chichester stage. “I was like: ‘Omar, what the hell are you doing in Chichester?’” says Khalil. “I really wanted to know more.”

You could call that moment a bolt out of the loo: instantly, it set her on the trail of her latest play, Love Omar. When had the Egyptian actor visited Sussex and what had local audiences made of him? Khalil’s director husband, Chris White, hails from Chichester. “I began asking his parents because they have lived there for a long time,” she says. “They vaguely remembered him coming to do the show.”

After Donald Trump’s second election, I realised the insidious hold my phone had over my life. So I turned to something I’d loved in childhood to better occupy my attention

After a long day of looking at screens for work, I used to go to bed and stare at my phone until I fell asleep. When not doomscrolling news headlines, I’d crash out to hateful comments on social media or revisit workplace dramas via mobile versions of Teams and Slack. I was always plugged in.

It was a ritual that would start well before bedtime. As the evening wound down, I’d surf algorithms for hours on end, barely paying attention to whatever television programme was on in the background, only half-listening to conversations around me. Whether it was the incessantly dystopian news cycle, toxic opinions on pop culture, or posts railing against obtuse LinkedIn speak, there was always another online scab to pick.

Russian backing for the ruling junta has not stopped rebel fighters striking significant blows in recent days

• Mali in turmoil after insurgents seize towns and kill defence minister

When Assimi Goïta, the leader of Mali’s military junta, sat down with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in the Kremlin last summer, it symbolised Moscow’s commanding sway over Mali at the expense of the west.

As the two men spoke, roughly 3,500 miles to the south, about 2,000 Russian troops were propping up the regime in the landlocked desert country, as part of Moscow’s broader push for influence across the Sahel region.

Commons speaker grants application for vote on investigation into whether prime minister misled MPs

• UK politics live – latest updates

Keir Starmer will face a vote on whether to launch a standards investigation into his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, prompting senior party figures to call for restraint from Labour MPs.

The speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, has granted a debate on Tuesday after which MPs could vote to refer the prime minister to the privileges committee over claims he misled parliament over his decision.

King Charles and Queen Camilla visiting US for four days with any meeting between king and president to be off-camera to avoid awkwardness

• Trump said he ‘wasn’t worried’ during shooting

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email

Here’s more about the timing of King Charles’s visit today with Donald Trump at the White House.

According to Trump’s official schedule, the president will greet King Charles and Queen Camilla at the White House at 4.15pm ET. Shortly after, they’ll have tea and then tour a beehive at the White House.

Exclusive: Sources say chancellor is examining exceptional measures to protect household budgets

Rachel Reeves is considering imposing a one-year rent freeze on private sector homes amid growing alarm in government about the impact of the Iran war on voters’ budgets.

Landlords in England would be banned from raising rents for a limited period of time under the proposals, which are being debated within government as part of a major cost of living package to be launched in the coming weeks.

Exclusive: Some donations to 2024 Tory leadership campaign allegedly originated from US businessman in breach of electoral rules

Police are assessing evidence about donations to Robert Jenrick’s campaign to become Conservative leader in 2024 after a referral from the elections watchdog, the Guardian can reveal.

The information was passed on by the Electoral Commission, which the Guardian understands has been investigating allegations that almost £40,000 of donations to Jenrick’s leadership campaign before he defected to Reform UK, were from a foreign source in breach of electoral rules.

Sources say country wants US to end its blockade as part of proposal but has not addressed its nuclear programme

Iran is proposing that shipping companies should pay charges for specific services when they cross the strait of Hormuz, in a move that would enable it to raise money from shipping traffic without presenting the payment as a toll.

Iran’s framing is designed to maximise political and legal support for the plan it is developing with Oman. Iran has made a solution to its demands an essential precondition to winding down the conflict, including an end to its effective blockade of the Strait and the counter-blockade of Iranian ports being mounted by the US Navy.

British officials push for White House meeting to be held privately, wary of repeat of scenes involving Ukraine leader

• US politics live – latest updates

King Charles will be spared the potential humiliation of being upbraided in public by Donald Trump this week after the White House agreed that any meeting between the two men should be held off camera.

British officials have pushed for the Oval Office meeting between the monarch and the US president to be held off camera for fear of a repeat of the scenes when Trump berated the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in front of the world’s press.

Green party byelection winner says ‘you can smell the alcohol when people are in between votes’

• UK politics live – latest updates

When Hannah Spencer spoke of her shock that in Westminster “you can smell the alcohol when people are in between votes”, she may not have expected such a lively response.

The Green party MP, who won the Gorton and Denton byelection in February, made the comments in an interview with the Joe website, saying she was “really uneasy” about the drinking culture in parliament.

Ellen Mulvey ran up huge betting losses online and wrote ‘addiction is the worst disease’ before she died

A family is calling for wholesale reform of the gambling industry after an inquest heard details of the life and death of Ellen Mulvey, a “generous and caring” woman with a high-flying City job who also had a secret addiction.

Mulvey’s family believe she lost hundreds of thousands of pounds gambling without their knowledge, first via mainstream operators and then on unlicensed platforms.

UK diplomat says implication of foreign service ad could be that US is ‘watching carefully’ over Britain

A US state department post recruiting Americans to be its “eyes and ears” abroad – and featuring a picture of London – suggests “unease” in ties, say US and UK diplomats.

In an advertisement for the foreign service over the weekend, the state department invited Americans to “navigate great-power rivalries, defuse global crises, and protect Americans and their interests across the globe”.

Details about the shooting at the White House correspondents' gala have started to surface as the alleged shooter is set to be charged. The suspect was able to get close to where Donald Trump and many other senior officials were gathered, before law enforcement officers stopped him. It happened less than two years after the US president was the target of an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, and a subsequent attempt at a golf course in Florida. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian's Washington bureau chief David Smith, who was in attendance

MPs likely to question Starmer’s ex-chief of staff and former top official in Foreign Office on pressure, process and access

The evidence of two ex-officials on Tuesday morning will be a key moment in the growing crisis around Peter Mandelson’s vetting for US ambassador that threatens to bring down Keir Starmer’s premiership.

The prime minister will later face a crucial vote on a parliamentary inquiry into whether he misled MPs when claiming “full due process” had been followed.

Labour, Plaid Cymru, Reform, the Greens, the Tories and the Lib Dems set out competing plans but offer little detail on how they would pay for them

The parties most likely to win the Senedd election next month offer radically different futures for Wales, but all six are facing criticism for not being “upfront” in their manifestos about the fiscal challenges the next Welsh government will face.

Labour, Plaid Cymru, Reform UK, the Green party, the Conservative party, and the Liberal Democrats are standing for the Senedd, which is expanding from 60 to 96 seats under a more proportional voting system.

There is no wrong way to journal, say experts, and putting pen to paper can help with mental health and clarify thoughts and feelings

• How to start … anything: expert tips for trying something new

Humans have been jotting down their feelings and experiences for millennia. The earliest example of a diary is over 4,500 years old, written on papyrus by a mid-level official who helped in constructing the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Since then, other noteworthy diarists have included Lord Byron, Virginia Woolf, Albert Einstein, Audre Lorde and also me. (One guess as to which of those intellectual powerhouses recently journaled about getting a tummy ache after eating too many Swedish Fish.)

World-firsts still up for grabs include swimming the Pacific, leaping 9 metres and holding your breath for 30 minutes

Bad news for anyone who secretly fancies themselves every time they lace up their trainers: the two-hour marathon record has gone. Sabastian Sawe’s astonishing effort at the London marathon on Sunday – cruising across the finish line in the Mall in 1hr 59m 30s like a man who has just jogged a parkrun – shattered a record long seen as beyond human capability.

“They said it couldn’t be done!” roared BBC commentator Steve Cram. And then, 11 seconds later, Yomif Kejelcha did it too – and he’d never even run a marathon before.

Valentina was seven when Ivonne first went to jail in Ecuador for selling drugs. Nine years later, as Ivonne faces another prison sentence, they discuss the trauma of living apart – and their lasting bond

Six months ago, 16-year-old Valentina was watching TV with her cousin and younger brother at her home in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, when she received a call from her mother, Ivonne. She had been arrested again, and was in prison. She wouldn’t be coming home for a while.

The pair had been living together since Ivonne’s last prison sentence ended in 2023, and the thought of being separated again was devastating.

Valentina, aged seven, with her mother, Ivonne, at home in Quito, Ecuador in 2016. After Ivonne was jailed for marijuana possession she was unable to be with her daughter for three years

The search for work has become crushing for many, scrolling through limitless unsuitable job ads. Is there a way out of this cycle?

Name: Doomjobbing.

Age: Old, but increasing in frequency.

‘The label added ukulele and steel guitar without bothering to tell us. We couldn’t complain – it made the song a worldwide hit’

The Primitives formed in the summer of 1984 with a singer called Keiron, who brought me in to write songs. When he left, we pinned up an advert in Coventry library and Tracy, who I’d actually met before on a Youth Opportunity Programme, answered. At that point, we sounded more like the Birthday Party or the Gun Club, so I wrote three new songs – Through the Flowers, Across My Shoulder and Crash – to test a more pop direction. Crash was simple and noisy, with a basic guitar line that became the “Na na na” hook.

There’s no point searching for a saviour without a genuine change in direction. Real courage is necessary – because Labour still has time to fix what is broken

If not Keir Starmer, then who? That’s altogether the wrong question. What matters is not who but what comes next. A black cloud of near terminal despair has fallen upon Labour MPs, but seeking a saviour is a useless endeavour until they decide what it is they want to do.

The party is facing a cataclysm in next week’s local elections. MPs will watch their councillors, the backbone of their local parties, vanish. Can they avoid panic? In their slough of despond they need to stop and think. Look at it this way: they have three full years ahead with a vast working majority of 165. They have the power to do everything the country most needs. Sunk so low in the polls, they have nothing to lose and nothing to fear (but fear itself). This chance may never come their way again, and they will regret it for ever if they throw it away, vainly chasing lost popularity through overcaution, trying to appease everyone while pleasing no one. By starting again unconstrained they can regain some lost respect.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink?
On Thursday 30 April, join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss how much of a threat Labour faces from the Green party and Reform UK – and whether Keir Starmer can survive as leader. Book tickets here or at guardian.live

As Britons threaten to oust their fifth PM in seven years, maybe voters need to ask themselves whether it’s only the politicians who are to blame

At what point, as you consider the prime minister’s shortcomings more in sorrow than in anger, as you size up likely successors and try to wonder, idly, whose wallpaper we’re on in Downing Street, do you start to think that you, the electorate, are the problem? If Keir Starmer falls on his sword, we’ll be on to our sixth prime minister in seven years. “The first five guys were just the wrong five guys” starts to sound like the kind of thing Liza Minnelli would say, called upon to account for a life of torch songs. It’s the kind of thing Italy would say. Doesn’t there come a point in every electorate’s life that it has to splash some cold water on its face?

I think this is more or less where the grownups are landing, on the question of our present turmoil. Starmer is reportedly readying his MPs to vote down any prospective sleaze inquiry, which should be pretty straightforward, given the size of his majority. Finally, the guy discovers what his landslide is for: preventing a parliamentary process identical to the one he himself used to bring the last guy down. Sorry, the last guy but two. Seriously, people, if we reject all this, we make ourselves ungovernable, consign ourselves to the civic equivalent of a life on the shelf, always questing after some fresh bureaucrats, only to tear them apart when things get ugly.

The hit success of the critically reviled Michael Jackson movie shows that his fans only want to see the good – not the truth

It’s not unusual to see a gulf between the quality of a blockbuster hit as described by critics, and the greater acceptance of that film as determined by its viewing public. But it’s been a while since a movie quite as derided as Michael has been quite this big of a hit. This biography of pop star Michael Jackson is already one of the bigger-grossing musician biopics of all time; even with a steep second-weekend drop, it’s on its way to becoming one of the biggest global hits of 2026 so far.

Perhaps more notable, however, are the vast, chasm-sized reality gaps that have been opened up (or at least enlarged) by the film’s half-blessed, half-cursed existence. First, there’s the gap between the realities of Michael Jackson’s life and what this estate-approved biography is willing (and in some cases legally able) to depict – a disparity that’s part of any work of biographical fiction but that feels vaster here for a number of reasons. Scale over that one, and you might next encounter the related gap between the film that was originally planned, which was going to cover most or all of Jackson’s life, and the film that’s being released in theaters, which leaves off in 1988 before teasing a sequel. That change is owed in part to a bizarre snafu where the film-makers and estate didn’t realize they didn’t have the legal right to depict one of the people who accused Jackson of child molestation in 1993 (his estate claims this version of events to be “inaccurate and irrelevant”).

James Sherwin-Smith’s candidacy is a test of the building society’s commitment to mutual values

James Sherwin-Smith, who is aiming to become the first customer to be voted onto the board of Nationwide in nearly 25 years, deserves top marks for perseverance. A year ago his attempt to get his name on the ballot paper was stymied, or so it seemed, by data protection rules and so forth. This time, he has the necessary 250 nominations to be a candidate at the July annual meeting.

It is a development to welcome. As argued here a year ago, there is something of a democracy deficit at Nationwide. While the UK’s most important mutually-owned society understandably milks the fact it does not have to answer to beastly shareholders, ownership by the members does not always translate into giving those members a real voice in how the place is run.

The horror of sports lessons put three in 10 of British 50 to 65-year-olds off exercise for life. I wish I’d known sooner that movement can feel so good

Surprising news: three in 10 50- to 65-year-olds in a recent Age UK survey said school sports memories had put them off exercise “for life”. Only three in 10? When it comes to exercise, there are surely two kinds of people – the handful who enjoyed school PE lessons and everyone else.

I’m guessing the first category are out smashing their marathon PBs, meaning we indoor sorts can safely share war stories. Mine: forced to walk half an hour to the sports field in the tiny synthetic pleated skirt that was mysteriously designated mandatory sportswear, heckled by local perverts and youths shouting “jolly hockey sticks”, then skulking, motionless, in the mud, avoiding various projectiles while being shouted at by the sporty girls and contemplated with bafflement by (mostly benign) PE teachers.

Pa is a cheeky and playful person. He taught me how to joke, negotiate, heckle. His warmth is his immeasurable wealth

My grandfather, who I have always called Pa, is dying. He grew up working class in the north of England and went on to have a spectacular career, life and family.

Many of my friends have inherited tens of thousands of dollars when their grandparents have passed, often tied up in big suburban houses. This is part of the new phenomenon of intergenerational wealth. Rather than the “bank of mum and dad”, the “bank of grandma and grandpa” is how many young couples are now getting into housing. But many of the same friends seldom saw their grandparents or felt they couldn’t fully be themselves in front of them. And the spectacle of inheritance feels meaningless alongside real connection.

The monarch must do his best to wrest some diplomatic advantage from an ill-timed trip, which Donald Trump will treat as a personal tribute

When King Charles’s mother became the first British monarch to address the United States Congress in 1991, she spoke in the aftermath of the US-led response to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, in which more than 50,000 UK troops participated. Queen Elizabeth II used the occasion to celebrate the role of the transatlantic alliance in upholding the rule of international law: “Some people believe that power grows out of the barrel of a gun,” she told her Capitol Hill audience. “So it can, but history shows that it never grows well nor for very long.”

Different monarch, different times and a very different America. As the king embarks on a four‑day state visit to the United States, a foiled assault by a gunman believed to be targeting members of the Trump administration illustrated the extent to which political violence has become endemic in a deeply polarised country. Globally, Donald Trump’s illegal war in Iran (and prior to that the abduction by US special forces of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro) underlines that in the view of the present White House, the possessors of military might have the right to set their own rules.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Scrutiny of the impact of technology on children’s lives and education should be welcomed

A new law banning mobile phone use in schools in England, which ministers reluctantly agreed to last week, is on one level the result of political manoeuvring by Liberal Democrat and Conservative peers – who forced their hand by threatening to derail the schools bill. Until now, the government’s position has been that advice to headteachers was sufficient. But whether or not a ban turns out to be helpful, the campaign reflects deepening public concern about the degree to which powerful tech companies can be trusted.

From messaging platforms where pupils and teachers interact, to appointment-booking systems and research carried out in lessons and at home, digital technology is deeply embedded in education. This should not be expected to change. Classrooms rightly reflect the wider world that they are part of. But the current push towards stronger scrutiny of screens in schools – and in young people’s lives more broadly – is justified by accruing evidence about their impacts.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Andrew Watson and Phil Williamson respond to an article by George Monbiot about the weakening of a crucial Atlantic system

George Monbiot (A catastrophic climate event is upon us. Here is why you’ve heard so little about it, 23 April) notes that, according to a recent paper, some scientists believe that the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) is more likely than not to “collapse”, implying a complete cessation. This is important because the Amoc brings substantial warmth to western Europe.

In fact, the authors of the paper project an increased chance that the Amoc weakens by 50% by the end of the century under continued fossil-fuel emissions. Concerning as that is, they are projecting a slowdown, not a collapse. The outcome is not certain and with sustained efforts to reduce emissions there is still time to avoid the worst outcome.

Readers respond to the continuing saga around the appointment of the former US ambassador

Regarding Gaby Hinsliff’s article (Two men made mistakes over Mandelson – only one has lost his job. That should haunt Starmer, 24 April), most would concur that the prime minister has the most important job in the country. It is also one of the most demanding jobs, if it is to be done well. So would it not be better to help Keir Starmer instead of trying to hound him out of office for an error made in December 2024 that has been corrected?

Would it not be better to support him in the job we elected him to do instead of him having to spend time and energy defending himself against his implacable adversaries? Would that not be preferable to replacing him with someone chosen by a small contingent of the elected party? Can we not learn from the chaos caused by the last government in switching prime ministers?
Michael Goodhart
Grantchester, Cambridge

Poverty is far more pressing for many people, writes Lynsey Hanley. Plus letters from Martin Pitt and Michael Bulley

Reading Alexander Hurst’s column on the frictionless experience of life promised – or threatened – by AI algorithms, I was struck by how little I recognised the picture he painted of daily experience being stripped of the friction necessary to furnish it with meaning (To be human is to live with friction. That’s something AI boosters will never understand, 23 April). Rather, isn’t it the case that, bar the mega-rich, we’re all suffering from an excess of friction due to rising living costs, an avoidably dilapidated public realm, poor housing and innumerable related stresses?

I belong to a volunteer group that twice a week cooks hot meals for homeless and destitute people in central Liverpool. The hot meal they collect from us may be the only relief they get that day from the constant, grinding analogue hassles of invisibility, illness, disrespect and material poverty: the only recognition they receive that a degree of comfort is a prerequisite for survival. The specific depredations of AI, created and encouraged by men without souls, seem so distant in these cases as to be nonexistent.

Peter Mandelson’s walkies | Farage and Trump | EV charger issues | Bard brutality | Pay your taxes

I was interested to read that Peter Mandelson was seen going to the park to walk his dog “like a weekending solicitor on his way to an egg and spoon race” (Walking the dog and braving the paps, 25 April). Are there other professions known for their love of children’s games? Maybe a retired GP going to play musical chairs, or a pair of award-winning architects en route to a three-legged race?
Lesley Warner
Ilford, London

• Re Graham Head’s point about Nigel Farage (Letters, 23 April), if the job of the US ambassador is to be an obsequious boot-licker at the court of King Donald, Farage was eminently qualified. If he’d been appointed, he wouldn’t be where he is now. And we wouldn’t be where we are now either.
James Wilkinson
Shrewsbury, Shropshire

⚽️ Premier League updates from the 8pm BST kick-off
⚽️ Live scores | Table | Follow on Bluesky | Email Daniel

It seems like Benjamin Sesko is now installed as United’s first-choice centre-forward – though full confirmation will come next weekend, when Liverpool visit Old Trafford, as in previous big games, Carrick has deployed Mbeumo through the middle.

Ultimately, though, the club spent all that money on Sesko because the plan is for him to be a regular, so really, they need to build around him, which means better delivery from wide areas; I wonder if we’ll see whoever plays on the left whip balls for him to the front post, though I also think there’s hay to be made with Mbeumo coming inside to swing those in to the back stick.

Allegations of ‘sporting fraud’ against Gianluca Rocchi arrive at an especially messy moment for Italian football

This could have been the weekend when Inter sealed the Serie A title. Instead, it became one overshadowed by a refereeing scandal. On Saturday, Agenzia Italia broke the news that Gianluca Rocchi, the man responsible for designating match officials for Serie A and Serie B, was under investigation for “complicity in sporting fraud”. He suspended himself from his duties for the National Referees’ Committee for Italy’s top two divisions (CAN) the same day.

So did Andrea Gervasoni, the video assistant referee system (VAR) supervisor for the same body and implicated in the same investigation. Rocchi released a statement through the Italian Referees’ Association saying he wanted to minimise disruption to peers while the legal action took its course, but that he was confident he would “emerge unscathed and stronger than before”. Lawyers for both men suggested they were still unclear about the exact nature of the charges.

• Fans warned of uncertainty around protests and policing

• Lise Klaveness set to raise concerns over ICE with Fifa

This summer’s World Cup will be a “bonanza of sportswashing” according to human rights organisations, who claim the Trump administration is using sport as a political tool to “cover up abuses”.

With supporter groups warning they have “absolutely no clue” what will happen to fans if they do “stupid stuff” in the US during the tournament, the Sport and Rights Alliance (SRA), which includes Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, has called for more to be done to ensure the protection of individual rights at the World Cup, which begins in six weeks.

• ‘Signed, sealed, delivered,’ says promoter Eddie Hearn

• Joshua takes on Prenga in Riyadh warm-up in July

The most hyped and regularly ­postponed fight in recent ­British boxing history will apparently take place this year after Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury agreed terms to meet in the ring. Long in the ­making, and coming far too late in the faded careers of both former world heavyweight champions, the much-delayed showdown will be a guaranteed money-spinner for the fighters and their backers.

Eddie Hearn, who promotes Joshua, could barely contain his glee in an Instagram post that said: “Signed, sealed, delivered! AJ v Fury is on! The biggest piece of business we’ve ever done but more importantly the one we’ve always wanted. Biggest year of AJ’s career coming up, the comeback is on.”

• Berlin on agenda in September for new record holder

• Runner wants more drugs testing to show ‘we are clean’

Sabastian Sawe believes it is only a matter of time before he runs a ­marathon in one hour and 58 ­minutes after his superb sub-two hour ­performance in London on Sunday.

Sawe ran 1hr 59min 30sec to break the world record by 65sec and the 31-year-old Kenyan confirmed that he plans to race again in the autumn, although he has not decided where.

• Scot wins 13-12 in final-frame thriller at the Crucible

• Selby unhappy with table after 13-11 defeat by Wu

Ronnie O’Sullivan admitted he got what he deserved after seeing his bid for a record-breaking eighth Crucible crown shattered by a stunning comeback from John Higgins while Mark Selby branded the playing surface “horrific” after a 13-11 defeat by China’s Wu Yize.

O’Sullivan twice led by five frames but lost six in a row across the final two sessions, and Higgins fired three centuries on Monday before holding his nerve to get over the line in the decider and complete a memorable 13-12 win.

• Arthur is former head coach of South Africa and Pakistan

• Richard Dawson, Alan Richardson and Anthony McGrath also enrolled

Mickey Arthur, the former South Africa and Pakistan head coach, is one of four appointments to England’s new County Insight Group as the national team seeks to repair ­relations with the domestic game after last winter’s Ashes defeat.

Among the recommendations from the internal Ashes review that led to Rob Key and Brendon ­McCullum remaining as director of cricket and men’s head coach respectively was improved dialogue with the county game, not least regarding selection.

The Champion jockey fight could come down to a head-bobber here, a one-day ban there – or who wants it most

A little over a month after the Brocklesby at Doncaster launched the new season on turf, the Flat jockeys’ championship will finally be off and running at Newmarket on Saturday. For the first time since Oisin Murphy and William Buick took the race all the way to Champions Day in October 2021, there is a genuine chance of a contest that extends beyond the end of July.

It has the potential to be a historic contest too, and the bookies cannot agree on a favourite in what is likely to be a straight head-to-head between 20-year-old Billy Loughnane - who would be the youngest champion for more than a century - and Murphy, the reigning champion, looking to join Kieren Fallon as a six-time winner.

• World No 1 under pressure before 6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-2 victory

• Winner will face Hailey Baptiste in next round

Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1, overcame Naomi Osaka 6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-2 in a gripping battle on Monday to reach the Madrid Open quarter-finals. Sabalenka, who has claimed titles at Miami, Indian Wells and Brisbane this year, was tested by her Japanese opponent in the fourth-round match, but came back from a set down and a break down.

“I was just trying to take one ball at a time and my team was there for me. They really [pushed] me to keep fighting and I’m really happy I didn’t give up and I was pushing until the very last point,” said Sabalenka.

Exclusive: Mayor raises concerns about using public money to support firms ‘who act contrary to London’s values’

• UK politics live – latest updates

Sadiq Khan may oppose Scotland Yard using Palantir’s AI systems to process criminal intelligence because of his “concerns about using public money to support firms who act contrary to London’s values”.

The mayor of London’s office made the statement after the Guardian revealed last week that Palantir, whose software has been used in Donald Trump’s ICE immigration crackdown and by Israel’s military, has held talks with the Metropolitan police over a wide-ranging contract that could run into tens of millions of pounds.

John Edwards says he is fully cooperating with ICO’s independent inquiry into ‘HR matters’

The UK’s information commissioner has stepped back from his job after the data protection regulator launched an independent workplace investigation into unspecified “HR matters”.

John Edwards, the national watchdog for information rights, data privacy and transparency among public bodies, said he was cooperating with the investigation in a post on his LinkedIn account.

Top aide says SNP leader will seek approval to press for independence even if he fails to win majority on 7 May

John Swinney will call a vote seeking independence powers on the first day of the next Scottish parliament even if he fails to win an overall majority, his aides have said.

The Scottish National Party leader’s senior adviser indicated that if necessary, he would rely on support from the pro-independence Scottish Greens to win that vote in order to demand the UK government gives Holyrood the legal powers to hold a second referendum.

The Guinness World Record for the world's longest tiramisu has been broken in London after chefs assembled a 440.6-metre portion of the coffee and sponge dessert. A hundred Italian chefs gathered at Chelsea town hall at the weekend to whip up the tiramisu, which dwarfed the previous record set in Milan, at 273.5 metres.

As per Guinness World Record rules, the tiramisu was made live on site and assembled over five hours to form a single cake. Portions will be sold to raise money for charity

Lawyers for Avara Foods and Freemans of Newent say legal claim backed by 1,300 people is ‘entirely inferential’

Lawyers for one of the country’s biggest producers of industrially farmed chicken have attacked a claim that they are responsible for pollution in the River Wye and River Usk.

More than 1,300 people have signed up to sue Avara Foods, its subsidiary Freemans of Newent and the local sewage company Welsh Water for extensive and widespread pollution in the rivers and their catchment areas.

Global conference told benefits should not come at expense of well-protected environments

The energy transition must not be used as a fresh excuse to plunder Indigenous territories, delegates at a groundbreaking global conference on phasing out fossil fuels were warned.

High oil prices and war in the Middle East have boosted the attraction of renewable technologies in many parts of the world, but the economic, security and climate benefits should not come at the expense of well-protected natural environments, Indigenous leaders said at the weekend.

Widely dispersed wind farms and solar panels are harder to target than fossil fuel power stations, Michael Shanks says

Renewable energy will boost the UK’s national security and make the country more resilient against potential aggression or sabotage, the government’s energy minister has said.

Michael Shanks said widely dispersed wind farms and solar panels were much harder to target than large-scale fossil fuel power stations. They are also not vulnerable to supply shocks, such as the current oil crisis caused by the US-Israel war on Iran and the soaring gas prices that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

‘Coalition of the willing’ gathers in Colombia to try to bypass petrostate blockages of Cop summits and chart fresh path

The world’s first Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels conference, co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, takes place in Santa Marta, Colombia, from 24 to 29 April. A “coalition of the willing” – including 54 countries and various subnational governments, civil society groups and academics – will try to chart a new path to powering the world with low-carbon energy.

Long-running dispute could be resolved as improved offer is made to workers, who first began strike in January 2025

The end of the year-long Birmingham bin strike is now “within sight”, the city council leader has said after committing to an improved offer for refuse workers.

On Monday, John Cotton, the Labour leader of Birmingham city council, said a new, improved offer could be made to workers that he hoped would “end the strike once and for all”.

Sources say staff have been asked to pack up final stock and equipment after waves of closures

Jewellery and accessories chain Claire’s is closing its final UK stores on Tuesday with the loss of more than 1,000 jobs and ending three decades on British high streets.

Sources said staff at Claire’s, which had 154 stores when it collapsed in January, had been asked to pack up the final stock and equipment with the remaining outlets to formally close on Tuesday after successive waves of closures in recent weeks.

Mystery of identity of child – known as Baby Auckland – and how he died remains unsolved since discovery of body

A baby boy whose skeletal remains were found wrapped in a 1910 newspaper and with twine around his neck has, finally, been laid to rest.

The child has become known as Baby Auckland after he was found at a property in the centre of Bishop Auckland, County Durham.

Experts say counterfeits lack UV filters, increasing the risk of eye damage, and urge shoppers to check for safety marks

While many will be enjoying the spring sunshine, experts have cautioned against wearing fake designer sunglasses, warning they could do more harm than good.

As the College of Optometrists notes, sunglasses not only protect the eyes against glare on sunny days, but can also shield them from harmful ultraviolet (UV) light.

Rightwing Naftali Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid announce new party before Knesset vote expected later this year

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is facing the prospect of running against a rightwing-centrist super coalition in elections later this year after two of his most formidable political rivals combined forces in an attempt to oust him, inviting a third party leader to join them.

In a move that some analysts compared to the centre-right coalition that removed Viktor Orbán from power in Hungary, the former prime ministers – rightwing Naftali Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid – issued statements announcing the merger of their parties, Bennett 2026 and Yesh Atid (There is a Future).

Man, 57, was watching snake-charming show when reptile crawled into his trousers, say German police

A German tourist has died after a snake crawled into his trousers and bit him as he watched a show in Egypt on a family holiday, police in Germany have said.

The 57-year-old man was watching the snake-charming show at a hotel in Hurghada, a popular beach holiday destination on the Red Sea, in early April.

Critics hit out at ‘dire’ situation in the country which has the strictest laws around abortion in western Europe

Rights campaigners have affixed lockboxes containing abortion pills to sites across Malta, in a campaign designed to highlight the country’s near-total ban on abortion.

The 15 black boxes aim to provide practical help to women grappling with the EU’s strictest abortion laws; anyone who is less than nine weeks pregnant and in need of an abortion is invited to send an email to obtain the location and codes to access the pills.

China sold goods worth about $148bn to EU in first quarter of year, but imported just $65bn

The EU is experiencing a prolonged “China shock” as a flood of Chinese EVs into Europe helped push Beijing to a record surplus with the bloc.

New data showed China’s trade surplus – where its exports to the EU exceeded imports from the bloc – was $83bn (£61bn) in the first three months of 2026.

Deal comes five years after Shell sold its US shale business and is its biggest acquisition for a decade

Shell has agreed to buy Canadian shale producer ARC Resources for $16.4bn, five years after Europe’s biggest gas and oil producer sold its US shale business.

The deal, which includes $13.6bn in cash and shares and taking on ARC’s $2.8bn debt, would be Shell’s biggest acquisition since it bought BG Group a decade ago.

Critical week for global economy as banks expected to issue warnings over conflict driving up prices

• Business live – latest updates

The world’s most powerful central banks are poised to hold borrowing costs unchanged this week amid growing concerns over the unfolding inflation shock from the Iran war.

In a critical week for the global economy, each of the central banks in the G7 are expected to issue warnings over the risks from the Middle East war driving up prices for households and businesses.

Musk’s lawsuit accuses Altman of fraud, while OpenAI says that Musk is ‘motivated by jealousy’

A lawsuit between two of Silicon Valley’s biggest tycoons goes to trial on Monday in California, the culmination of a years-long bitter feud. Elon Musk has accused Sam Altman of betraying the founding agreement of the non-profit they started together, OpenAI, by changing it to a for-profit enterprise.

Musk accuses Altman, OpenAI, its president Greg Brockman, and its major partner Microsoft of breach of contract and unjust enrichment in the lawsuit. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Monday morning at a federal courthouse in Oakland, with opening arguments from both sides expected later this week. The trial is slated to last two to three weeks. Along with internal communications from Musk and key executives at OpenAI, the trial promises a who’s who of Silicon Valley on the witness stand, including Musk, Altman and the Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella.

Hundreds of senior staff in territory benefit from nearly £30,000-a-year grant per child not available to staff in group’s other hubs

• Business live – latest updates

HSBC is reportedly reviewing a perk that covers school fees for bankers in Hong Kong as part of a big overhaul of the bank under its chief executive, Georges Elhedery.

Europe’s largest bank is considering whether to scrap the perk for new employees or make changes to total compensation, Bloomberg News reported. No decisions have been made yet.

Even though she was unwell, the last surviving Ronette was full of poignant memories and saucy asides when I met her last year. And she had a rich life after pop success

• Nedra Talley Ross dies aged 80 – news

Nedra Talley Ross wasn’t a household name any longer, but she had been once upon a time. When she turned 18 in January 1964, George Harrison was among the guests who helped her celebrate. She and her cousins were feted, surrounded, adored. For she and her cousins were the Ronettes, the girl group above all others, the sound of teenage emotional extremity set to soaring, symphonic pop. Nedra was the last surviving Ronette and now she is gone.

Nedra’s cousins were Veronica and Estelle Bennett, and the three of them had sung and danced and played as long as they could remember. She was only a Ronette between 1963 and 1967, but in a few short years she was part of some of the greatest pop ever recorded: Be My Baby, Walking in the Rain, Sleigh Ride and the rest. Not that she was taken with Phil Spector, who produced them. “I wasn’t impressed by him, and he didn’t stir me with what he was saying, didn’t scare me with what he was doing,” Nedra told me when I interviewed her just before Christmas last year. “He was quite arrogant, and who wants to deal with an arrogant person?”

He found roaring success on Broadway with Torch Song Trilogy, then appeared in blockbusters Mrs Doubtfire and Independence Day. But notoriety had a cost. The 73-year-old stage legend talks recovery, grief and why he’s taking aim at Trump

I hear Harvey Fierstein’s inimitable rasp as soon as I enter Cotton Candy Fabrics quilt store in Connecticut. The walls are lined with vibrant fabrics and colourful quilts hang from the ceiling. On any given day you’ll probably find the 73-year-old five-time Tony winner here, among a chatty cast of crafty women and gay men.

Fierstein took up quilting in 2009, partly inspired, he says, by his enjoyment of the cable TV show Simply Quilts, but also because of the Names Project Aids Memorial Quilt. It was to be displayed in Washington DC, and he wanted to make panels for two of his close friends who had died of the disease. He has been prolific ever since. He shows me photos of his creations on his phone: an LGBTQ+ rights quilt featuring pink triangles, yellow stars of David – the “Jewish badge” – and Nazi-saluting skeletons; Fierstein with his two dogs; some horny, phallic trees he dreamed about; and an even hornier nude portrait of a young man (an Amazon delivery driver, apparently).

The Great Moose Migration has become a ‘slow TV’ sensation, keeping audiences worldwide glued to the beasts’ epic trek – even if they’re rarely spotted on screen. We go behind the scenes with its makers

On a crisp bright early spring afternoon on a small uninhabited island in the Ångerman river in northern Sweden, the stars of The Great Moose Migration are proving suitably elusive. Just as they do, for the most part, to viewers of the world’s biggest slow TV phenomenon – a three-week-long, 450-hour, free-to-view continuous livestream from the Västernorrland wilderness that has a global audience of millions mysteriously captivated every year, despite precious little happening at all.

Hardcore watchers will be lucky to spot an älg, as they are called in Swedish, making their annual crossing of the Ångerman en route to richer summer pastures north any more frequently on average than about once every 400 minutes. But among this landscape, which moose have traversed for 6,000 years, traces of the illustrious beasts are everywhere if you know where to look for them. After a bit of raking among some lingonberry bushes, The Great Moose Migration producer and co-creator Stefan Edlund eventually finds a firm round lump of dried moose dung to hand me. “It’s a bit gross,” he acknowledges, “but they only eat plants.”

Jackman plays the farmer in this Babe-style feelgood family film about plucky sheep who help solve a murder

Here is a murder mystery that’s like a cross between Babe and The Thursday Murder Club, in which instead of plucky underdog retirees solving crimes, it’s … sheep? With a touch of Watership Down somewhere in the mix, this film, for some, may be off-putting. Actually, it makes for a sweet-natured family comedy, and a spiky and amusing cameo from Emma Thompson certainly doesn’t hurt.

Screenwriter Craig Mazin has adapted the bestselling book Three Bags Full by German crime author Leonie Swann, and the Despicable Me veteran Kyle Balda directs, shepherding a boisterous herd of live-action stars and digitally created woolly performers. The setting is the English village of Denbrook, swathed in what looks like digitally enhanced Californian sunshine, where Hugh Jackman plays George Hardy, a shepherd who lives in an American-looking stainless steel trailer on his field. George controls his flock without recourse to the traditional dog, but rather with his instinctive relationship with them all. And he is dedicated only to raising sheep for their wool, not their meat – which is not exactly the attitude of the local agribusiness types who have designs on his land.

Aiming to subvert the all-American exploitation film with progressive comment and a touch of diversity, this horror soon reverts to hokey tropes and carnage

‘The world is changing. I can feel it – don’t you?” says black model Roxy (Adriane McLean), before donning her stars’n’stripes bikini and getting fabulous with white colleague Sunshine (Sarah French) for an American bicentenary magazine covershoot. This overcooked 1976-set slasher flick tries to bake in progressive political comment from the start, but it’s clear from the chainsaw-toting maniac in the prologue, and a reference to a then-recently released film, that director Marcel Walz really pledges allegiance to the flag of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – and that this will be essentially a throwback affair.

Makeup artist Sunshine is stepping in front of the camera after first-choice model Raquel (Gigi Gustin), seen ill-advisedly nosing around a set of desert tunnels with her girlfriend in the intro, fails to show. On the hunt for locations, the fashion squad – also including caftaned photographer Jordy (Adam Bucci), pothead driver Charlie (Robert Felsted Jr), and assorted hangers-on – stumble into prime ruin-porn in the wreckage-strewn outpost of Savage. The name prompts tittering meta chat about what things might happen to them there, and they ignore folksy bystander Mama Birdy (Dazelle Yvette) when she gives them the lowdown on the town’s violent past.

Viktor Nordenskiöld’s film follows Ukraine’s deputy minister Olha Stefanishyna as she negotiates her country’s path into the EU, but lacks some of the rigour needed

After the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukrainian deputy minister Olha Stefanishyna embarked on the herculean challenge of steering her country’s pathway into the European Union. Shot over the course of two years, Viktor Nordenskiöld’s documentary portrait closely chronicles her race against time, as the war escalates.

Always on the move, Stefanishyna is often seen on trains or in the back of cars, as she and her staff attend seemingly endless meetings with EU officials and other world leaders. Working towards the deadline of 14 December, 2023, the date on which the European Council would decide on Ukraine’s accession, Stefanishyna is under immense pressure at home and abroad. Around the same time that a proposed bill concerning national minorities hits a snag in the Ukrainian parliament, politician Viktor Orbán, then the prime minister of Hungary, publicly voices his opposition to the enlargement of the EU.

The Dutch ex-punk and Jim Jarmusch bandmate talks about his passion to free up a hidebound repertoire and make its strings ‘a real pop instrument’

Nobody can accuse Jozef Van Wissem of doing things by halves. The musician, very likely the world’s most notorious contemporary lutenist, owns a sonic arsenal of eight of the string instruments: some bespoke, and all boasting remarkable features. With them he has created a huge body of work, nearly 50 titles to date. Another album, This Is My Blood is released this May.

Each Easter, Van Wissem settles down to compose a new record. He finds the peace of Warsaw, where everyone has “gone away for the holidays”, more amenable for work than “noisy” Rotterdam, where he also has a flat.

The half-human, half-horse star has bounced back from the brink with a grass-themed album that’s ‘a love letter to Mother Earth’. Is it true she was discovered by Whitney Horseton?

‘I’m trilingual because I speak English and German – but also neigh. We could have done the interview in horsey.” Welcome to the world of DJ and pop provocateur horsegiirL, AKA Stella Stallion, the Berlin-based half-human, half-horse, whose potent mix of Eurodance, 90s techno, happy hardcore and gabba has polarised the dance music community. On one side of the paddock are her loyal fans, or “farmies”, who fully accept the horsegiirL lore – that she was born and raised in the idyllic Sunshine farms, surrounded by animal friends, and later discovered by local legend Whitney Horseton. Lurking on the other side, near the manure, are the dance bros who derided Stallion’s meteoric rise in 2022 – aided by viral sets at HÖR Berlin and Boiler Room – as a cheap gimmick that highlighted how far dance music had strayed from its roots.

“I don’t remember his name,” laughs Stallion, 26, “but some legendary DJ from, like, 1902, said, ‘This is the face of commercialisation.’” She’s speaking from Brazil, where she is currently shooting a video for That’s My Beach, a sunkissed pop gem taken from her forthcoming climate crisis-focused debut album, Nature Is Healing. “I had to laugh because at that point I was mainly playing small underground queer and trans raves. It just showed what they were actually protecting, which was a very different space to where I see myself.”

The broadcaster’s thoughtful new interview series is an impressive feat. Plus, former tennis champ Maria Sharapova fronts a new female-orientated chatshow

The acclaimed musician and former late night bandleader loves everything from Amyl and the Sniffers to Erykah Badu. So why can’t he stand Steely Dan?

The first song I fell in love with
I remember hearing Strokin’ by Clarence Carter because my dad would play it. I know every lyric, and at eight years old, I probably shouldn’t have. My earliest musical lessons came from my family. My Uncle Thomas would send me jazz recordings of Oscar Peterson, Milt Jackson, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, and he sent sermons, like the Book of Revelations. So, I would learn about a whole bunch of different music, and also study the word of God.

The first single I bought
I used to buy records from Blockbuster video, in the used CDs bin. I bought Michael Jackson’s Dangerous, Björk’s Vespertine, Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun and Common’s Like Water for Chocolate. Those are the first four records I bought.

The Girls creator has endured brickbats and breakdowns – but she doesn’t always make it easy to feel sorry for her

At the end of last year, Netflix released Too Much – a sickly, indie-sleaze romcom about an American transplant who falls for a troubled British muso. It was created by Lena Dunham and her musician husband Luis Felber, and apparently loosely based on the couple’s backstory. It felt, to many critics, like second-screen fare, decidedly Lena Dunham-lite. Was this really the same person who had given us the spiky, self-absorbed world of Girls, the millennial Sex and the City complete with brutal situationships, toxic besties and, er, one of the main characters accidentally smoking crack?

Famesick sheds almost all the Richard Curtis-isms to find that old, controversy-courting Dunham alive and – if not exactly well – then learning to cope with it. Her second memoir (Not That Kind of Girl was published in 2014) charts the chronic illness and seemingly unending stress that came to define her 20s and 30s after she had snagged her own HBO series aged just 24. The afflictions described across its 400 pages include – though are not limited to – OCD, colitis, the connective tissue disorder Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, endometriosis, early menopause, PTSD and addiction to both opioids and benzodiazepines. At one point, Dunham accidentally sets herself on fire; at another, she panics about how Vogue will cover up the impetigo on her face, “a waterfall of golden blisters, turning a sickly green as they dried”. The book is scattergun and sometimes lacking in self awareness (who cares that Dunham had to give her designer booties up, like contraband, when she entered rehab?). It’s also undeniably frank and exhaustive: a lifetime of therapy condensed into something you could conceivably rip through in a weekend.

Leaders have thrown up walls and barriers throughout history – but their effects are unpredictable

Four millennia ago, a Sumerian king, his frontier beset by nomadic tribes fleeing prolonged drought in their own lands, ordered the construction of the world’s first border wall: a 177km-long boundary laid in stone between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Since humanity’s earliest city-states and kingdoms arose in ancient Mesopotamia, walls, ditches and fences have defended territory, marked the edges of empires and projected political power across the void. But the world’s first border wall failed. It now lies buried beneath Iraq’s desert sands. Rome’s legions abandoned Hadrian’s Wall long ago, and the iron curtain’s razor-wire fences fell with the eastern bloc’s collapse in the late 1980s.

The Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton author branches out with the tale of a Massachusetts teacher haunted by trauma

The American author Elizabeth Strout famously persisted throughout years of rejection to publish her first novel when she was in her 40s, and the hard work has certainly paid off. She won a Pulitzer prize in 2009, and has been nominated multiple times for the Booker and Women’s prizes. The Things We Never Say is her 11th book.

Strout, who grew up in Maine and New Hampshire, writes mainly about small-town America and the mostly white, working-class people who inhabit it. She’s interested in the small details of ordinary lives: people’s joys and disappointments, marriages and infidelities, and the lasting effects of trauma. The fictional world of a Strout novel often extends into subsequent companion works: Olive Kitteridge, published in 2008, was followed by Olive, Again in 2019; the characters first seen in her 2016 novel My Name Is Lucy Barton reappeared in Oh William! in 2021 and Lucy by the Sea in 2022. In 2024, Strout took this world‑building to another level when Lucy, Olive and other recurring characters were brought together in Tell Me Everything. She has charted her fictional worlds so extensively across interlinked novels and stories that readers often think of her characters as their personal friends.

The reaction among officials in Germany to his bestselling novel has been hostile. As Mayfly Season is published in the UK, its author explains why

A few weeks after the German publication of his debut novel in 2024, author Matthias Jügler received a call from an employee at the German government agency tasked with investigating the human rights abuses of the socialist east.

The call wasn’t overtly threatening; Jügler was asked to explain what historical source material he had consulted for Mayfly Season and which period he was planning to tackle in his next book. But it came after another government official had accused him of traumatising some of his readership, and after the organiser of a reading had asked him to bring along documents proving the plausibility of his book’s plot.

Genki Kawamura’s eerie new film expands on a haunting video game that leaves players lost in endless subway tunnels. He explains how this makes viewers and players face their worst fears

Genki Kawamura is something of a polymath. A bestselling author, film-maker, script writer and producer – he is also a lifelong gamer who grew up playing and being inspired by the games of legendary Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto. His latest project Exit 8, now in cinemas, is a fascinating adaptation of the Japanese horror game, developed by a lone coder based in Kyoto, operating under the name Kotake Create. “I was captivated by its game design and the beauty of its visuals,” says Kawamura. “At the same time, I watched many streamers play it. As I did, I realised that although the game is incredibly simple, each player creates their own story, and each streamer brings their own unique reactions. It felt like a device that could reveal something fundamental about human nature.”

The concept behind Exit 8 the game is simple. The player finds themselves trapped in an endlessly looping section of a Tokyo subway station. Viewing the narrow, brightly lit corridors in first-person, you pass the same posters, the same silent commuter, the same locked doors over and over again. The only way to escape is to spot anomalies each time you pass through – maybe the eyes on a poster start following you, maybe the commuter stops and smiles – at which point you have to double back the way you came. Complete eight runs without missing an anomaly and you get to leave through the eponymous way out. There’s no story, no reason for it at all. The mystery is part of the appeal.

PlayStation 5; Housemarque/Sony
As a fast-firing spaceman, one minute you’re invincible, the next you’re dead – with every battle like watching a firework show through a kaleidoscope

On the planet Carcosa, mangled, blackened trees and crimson flowers take root next to the ruins of some ancient alien civilisation, flanked by statues contorted in pain, tearing at their marble skin. There are metallic tunnels deep underground, chasms of impossible size snaked with cables, so you feel as though you’re exploring the intestines of some giant machine. There’s a House of Leaves quality to these spaces, which shift and change and clearly weren’t built for humans.

You are Arjun Devraj (played by Rahul Kohli), a space security guy who’s on a mission to find missing colonists on an alien world before it all goes a bit Event Horizon and you become the next lost expedition. Classic. There’s some unethical space capitalism happening out here, and Devraj himself is a bit of a traumanaut who brought way too much mental carry-on luggage for this extremely long-haul flight. But it’s nothing that shooting some aliens won’t fix, right?

From mega hit Clair Obscur to the genius Blue Prince, the winners at this year’s event help me refocus on why games really matter

The 22nd Bafta game awards were on Friday, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took the biggest game prize. This makes it only the second game ever (after Baldur’s Gate 3) to win top prize at all five of the main awards shows: the Dice awards in Vegas; the Game awards in LA; the public-voted Golden Joysticks in the UK; the Game Developers Choice awards in San Francisco; and now London’s Baftas, the final event to celebrate the gaming output of 2025.

I’ll be honest: I was hoping for a different winner. Blue Prince, an eight-year project by the visual artist and former film-maker Tonda Ros, is the most extraordinary thing I played last year. It’s the game where you inherit a sprawling mansion that changes shape every day, and you must navigate its ever-shifting blueprint to find its secret room. I went so deep on this game that I was still playing it and thinking about it weeks after solving its initial mystery, piecing together bits of opaque lore from Reddit threads. I think it deserved at least one best game award (apart from ours).

The iconic game that came to define 8-bit programming still conjures flutters of nostalgia 40 years on – all thanks to a 15-year-old tea boy who worked a Saturday shift in a computer shop in Greater Manchester

If you were playing games on a home computer in the early 1980s, you knew about Chuckie Egg. No question. This simple-looking platform game had you wandering around a chicken shed, collecting eggs and avoiding the patrolling hens. But when you reached level eight, a large duck was suddenly let loose and would stalk the player like a feathery missile, completely changing the pace and tactics of the game. It was a boss battle before boss battles existed.

Everyone knew about Chuckie Egg because everyone could play it. Originally released on the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and Dragon 32 in the autumn of 1983, it immediately topped the charts, encouraging its publisher, A&F Software, to begin porting it to as many machines as possible. Around 11 conversions followed, including the Commodore 64, Amstrad and Acorn Electron. I first played it on the BBC computer in my school library, but I also had it on my C64 and a friend played on his Speccy. Like Manic Miner, Bruce Lee and Skool Daze, it was woven into the tapestry of British 8-bit gaming culture.

Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, Oxford
The Sohmen Concert Hall’s acoustics made Scottish Ensemble’s Shostakovich pinprick clear, while the Great Hall showcased Devlin and Muhly’s ‘choral installation’

In 1676 London musician Thomas Mace proposed a bold idea. Instead of enduring the “inconveniences of talking, crowding, sweating and blustering”, audiences should be able to enjoy music in a dedicated space: a “musick room … convenient and fit to perform in”. For the first time concert-going was open to anyone for the price of a ticket, though this hungry new audience had to wait until 1748 and the construction of Oxford’s Holywell Music Room – Europe’s oldest custom-built public concert hall – for the fulfilment of Mace’s vision and a room of their own.

Since then, concert halls have become a mirror to changing fashions, priorities and politics. Compare the gorgeous fantasy of the 19th-century’s Royal Albert Hall to the sleek postwar functionality of the Royal Festival Hall. In Oxford the Holywell has since been joined by several others, though none without their issues – until now.

Riverside Studios, London
Jeffrey Longford is pedantic and superior in Farine Clarke’s medical drama – griping at everything from hospital data systems to gender-neutral loos

Heartsinks, in doctors’ private and profane lingo, are difficult patients who conjure dismay in the hearts of the medical professionals they come to see. So Dr Jeffrey Longford (Aden Gillett) reminds his friend and fellow GP after dealing with a “fit as a flea” hypochondriac who returns, week after week, albeit always with a slice of cake.

Jeffrey becomes something of a heartsink himself when he turns from doctor to patient after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. The real-life cases of Paul Kalanithi (in When Breath Becomes Air) and Henry Marsh (in And Finally) show how difficult it is for doctors to adjust to the patient role. In the case of Jeffrey, it is simply annoying: he insists the oncology receptionist use his “doctor” moniker rather than her pet endearments of “lovey” and “poppet”; he is pedantic, superior and generally full of complaint in the waiting room, griping about the electronic medical data system, the hospital’s layout and its gender-neutral loos.

Sadler’s Wells East, London
At 67, the mercurial Lecavalier is in the I’ll-do-whatever-I-want phase of her career, choreographing solos that are worlds away from cosy retirement

Louise Lecavalier is known for dancing with David Bowie (on his Sound + Vision tour and Fame 90 video) and for being the face of Canadian dance company La La La Human Steps in the 1980s and 90s. She’s also known for being contemporary dance’s most athletic, acrobatic performer, hurtling through the air like a flying bullet, launching into barrel jumps, corkscrewing on a horizontal axis.

She’s always been an exceptional dancing body, and that still holds true at the age of 67, where Lecavalier seems to have entered the uncompromising, I’ll-do-whatever-I-want phase of her career, choreographing her own solos that are worlds away from any idea of cosy retirement.

Lecavalier comes scampering backwards on stage, dressed in long coat and hood (druid vibes). Skittish as she bounces on the balls of her feet, her body quivers and quirks with a febrile quality, playing out compulsive repetitions to the restless bpm of a techno soundtrack.

Lecavalier’s movement hints at echoes of dances past – wisps of a balletic port de bras, or some entrechat jumps; a burst of hip-hop footwork – but all through a blurred filter. She’s a distinctive, mercurial presence: somewhere between witchy raver, manic pixie dream grandmother and earnest artist of the avant garde.

Danses Vagabondes is inspired by Carlo Rovelli’s book Écrits Vagabonds, a collection of essays wandering through disparate topics, the thoughts of a roaming mind. Lecavalier, too, is in constant motion, scrolling through all these impulses with a tight, nervous energy that’s strangely engaging. Although when the tempo slows the wandering goes a little off course.

It’s hard not to marvel at the way Lecavalier’s body is still very much at her command – she can still kick her leg to her shoulder, but that’s by the by. It’s harder still not to marvel at this dancer’s unquenchable maverick spirit.

• At Sadler’s Wells East, London, until 27 April

Soho theatre, London
Christopher Brett Bailey reads his surreal novella and freewheels his way through extreme vice, erotic tension and dulled indifference

No one tells a story like Christopher Brett Bailey. One minute he’s buying eggs at a gas station and the next he’s careening down the highway with the devil, the car deliberately swerving to increase their body count. Though it doesn’t quite match the motor-mouthed intensity or blinding climax of his 2014 beat-poet monologue, This Is How We Die, this live reading of his surreal 2023 novella is a free-wheeling piece of storytelling, vividly and viciously told.

There’s no music nor much set. It’s just Brett Bailey reading from his script at a table, slurping and hissing and whispering into the microphone as he weaves a story of modern America and a man literally dancing with the devil. In a fringed leather jacket with snakeskin boots and his signature freshly electrocuted hair, Brett Bailey recounts with eerie calmness an accidental road trip with his overheated companion in small town America, “two miles north of hell”.

Teatro La Fenice says Beatrice Venezi let go for making ‘repeated offensive’ statements

• Europe live – latest updates

Teatro La Fenice, the prestigious Venice opera house, has fired its incoming music director after she insinuated its hiring practices were nepotistic, with jobs “practically passed down from father to son”.

After months of controversy over the appointment of Beatrice Venezi, La Fenice Foundation said on Sunday it had decided to “cancel all future collaborations” with the 36-year-old conductor and pianist.

The singer’s company filed three applications on Friday after Matthew McConaughey launched similar strategy

Taylor Swift has filed applications to trademark her voice and image in a move seemingly designed to protect against AI misuse.

On 24 April, Swift’s company TAS Rights Management filed three trademark applications, Variety reports. Two of these are sound trademarks that cover Swift saying the phrases “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift” and “Hey, it’s Taylor.”

Show curated by Edward Enninful will highlight era’s ‘do it yourself’ attitude and shift focus away from Cool Britannia

Steve McQueen’s first major film, a Chris Ofili painting in tribute to Doreen and Stephen Lawrence and images of clubbers at the Haçienda will be exhibited at Tate Britain as part of its 90s exhibition.

The show will explore art and fashion during a decade that reshaped Britain’s cultural identity and “established conditions that are still with us”, said Edward Enninful, the former editor of British Vogue who is curating the exhibition.

The US’s most famous road celebrates its centenary. The 2,400-mile highway crosses eight states and three time zones from Chicago to LA

The Mother Road, as the author John Steinbeck called it, has evolved over the years from an escape for poor farmers fleeing the devastating dust storms of the 1930s to perhaps the quintessential American road trip route that’s still delivering kicks.

Although there have been faster and more direct routes between the nation’s second and third largest cities for some time, Route 66’s neon still burns brightly and its vintage signs beckon travellers to restored motor lodges, classic diners and roadside attractions.

After her sister died, Victoria Bennett left Cumbria for the remote Scottish archipelago, where she learned to go with the ebb and flow of life

It was during her first winter in Orkney that the nature writer Victoria Bennett experienced the joy of baying into the sea during a storm. “There’s something very physically releasing about howling,” she says. “It’s quite animalistic and powerful.” On a stormy beach, when waves are crashing on the rocks, “you can really let rip”, she says. “The sound just disappears.”

Until that moment, Bennett had been struggling with her decision to move to the remote archipelago off the north coast of Scotland. “I was beginning to feel like I was in a fight against the sea, and against the weather.”

Before meeting my fluffy-eared friend, I had lost my brother and was exhausted by the hamster wheel of work. His zest has made me feel alive

My trip to South America in 2025 was something I’d been planning for a long time. I wanted to break up my mundane 9-to-5 life. Four months before I was due to leave, I broke my back and thought I might have to cancel. Luckily, I pulled through.

I was expecting breathtaking views, vibrant wildlife and memories to last a lifetime. What I wasn’t expecting was to fall in love with a fluffy-eared street dog and spend four months battling bureaucracy and world travel to bring him home. But I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

You told us your favourite subscriptions for cutting costs and reducing household waste. Plus, Anya Hindmarch’s shopping secrets and marathon essentials

• 33 easy plastic-free kitchen swaps

Whether they’re full of harmful chemicals or packaged in plastic, it’s no secret that many household cleaning products aren’t great for the planet. But “taking a more sustainable approach to washing and cleaning doesn’t have to be inconvenient”, said Hannah Rochell in her recent roundup of the best sustainable subscriptions. From vegan washing detergent in a natty recyclable tin to compostable scourers, her guide is full of delivery services that make greener living less effortful.

Her list wasn’t exhaustive, though, so we asked you for the subscription services you swear by for cutting costs, reducing household waste and making your life easier. (And no one has any commercial links to these companies – we always check.)

‘A cherry-cola colour and funky, acidic aroma’: the best supermarket balsamic vinegars, tasted and rated

The best fake tan for a sunkissed, streak-free glow – tested

Ditch power tools, build a hedgehog highway: how to create a nature-friendly garden

How I Shop with Anya Hindmarch: ‘I would label everything if I could’

The best hair straighteners for foolproof styling, tried and tested by our expert

Inspired to run your first 26.2 miles? Seasoned runners share their go-to kit, from race-day shoes to free apps (plus five UK marathons you can still enter)

• The best running shoes for every runner

When you first start running, the marathon – all 26.2 miles of it – seems like an impossible distance. Whether you’ve taken the plunge at your local parkrun or got round your first 10k, the thought of anything longer probably feels like it’s beyond you.

But this running milestone is more achievable than you think. My first marathon was Brighton in 2018, and on crossing the line, I knew I’d been bitten by the bug. Three more marathons and three ultra-distance events later, I’m gearing up for number five in Berlin this September.

Our resident product tester sips and puckers his way through a range of high-street balsamic vinegars

• The best supermarket gherkins

The old adage that you get what you pay for definitely applies to balsamic vinegar, no matter whether it’s an independent brand or a supermarket’s own-label. The best are made in Modena, Italy, and carry at least IGP (protected geographical indication) status. Though that’s not the strictest certification, it’s still a mark of quality, assuring the product has been made following certain guidelines.

None of the vinegars I tested had PDO (protected designation of origin) status, which is a more coveted certification with strict guidelines and a 12-year ageing process, and which explains why it can cost upwards of £1,200 a litre.

Whether you’re a beginner, an ultra-runner or a speed demon, our expert clocked up more than 50km in each trainer to find the perfect shoe, no matter your goal

• The best running watches, tested

Whether you’re just starting Couch to 5k or well on the way to the 100 Marathon Club, finding running shoes that suit your pace, physique and running style is mission-critical. The right shoes can help you run better, ward off injury and, most importantly, help you to build the consistency that unlocks the biggest fitness and mental health gains.

The first step out of the door is the hardest, and uncomfortable shoes are just another barrier between you and that sweet endorphin release. Yet with dozens of brands – from Hoka, Adidas and Nike to New Balance, Saucony and On – hundreds of styles, and enough tech jargon to make Susie Dent’s head spin, finding your solemate can be a challenge in itself.

Best running shoes overall:
Saucony Endorphin Azura

Best value running shoes for speed:
Kiprun Kipride Max

Literally a mix of white (blanc) and red (rouge) grapes, the light, fresh tipple is popping up in bars around the world. Move over rosé and orange wine ...

Twenty years ago, a winery could do well selling one white and two reds, says Konrad Pixner, a northern Italian winemaker who set up his vineyard, Domaine de L’Accent, in Languedoc, France, in 2019. But today, importers and bars always ask: “Do you have something new?” So up in the hills, surrounded by deep gorges and limestone plateaus, Pixner is constantly experimenting.

After a good harvest in 2023, Pixner walked into the shed he shares with other winemakers at 4am to find that his biggest vat of white wine, pressed from carignan blanc grapes, had overflowed during fermentation. He had run out of space, so he quickly “pumped the white juice into the tank where whole bunches of carignan noir were,” he says, and left them to ferment for 10 days together. In contrast to rosé, made from red grapes left for a short time with their skins on before being pressed, he created “blouge” – a light, fresh wine blended from white and red grapes that’s best served chilled. It has now caught on among creative vintners around the world.

A pasta bake combining tender chicken and hearty chickpeas, and a Middle Eastern spring salad layered with spices, refreshing herbs and sweet peas

My ideal way of entertaining is completely fuss-free, with everything prepared ahead of time so I can enjoy being with my guests rather than worrying about cooking. I like to put big, generous dishes in the middle of the table, such as this one-tray chicken, pasta and chickpea bake, alongside a fresh salad, so everyone can serve themselves and share a simple, delicious meal.

Impala is like no restaurant I’ve ever been to, yet it somehow has echoes of almost all of them

Late last month, Impala drove into Soho already flaming hot in the hype stakes: this was a sizzling booking to brag about even before executive chef and co-founder Meedu Saad had turned on the stoves. Impala, after all, is a Super 8 restaurant, the group that has, among others, Tomos Parry’s Brat in Shoreditch, which has been constantly, unfalteringly brilliant since 2018. It also runs Parry’s second baby, Mountain, which is likewise wonderful; sometimes weird, yes, but always wonderful. Long before that, back in 2016, they opened Kiln, the famed live-fire Thai counter hangout that cheffy boys in beanies have tried and failed to emulate all over Britain, while Super 8’s beginnings were with the boundary-pushing and much-loved Smoking Goat. That is nothing less than a litany of solid-gold bangers, and now they’ve unleashed Impala by Saad, the former head chef at Kiln.

In any normal restaurant review, it would have been common to have by now established what type of food Impala actually cooks – north African? Middle Eastern? Mediterranean? British?, etc – but in this odd, dreamy and defiantly dark nook in Soho (every single one of us in the room, even those with perfect vision, had our iPhone torches on just to read the menu), narrowing down its origin story is not quite that simple. “Bird’s tongue pasta braised with spiced oxtail?” someone asked over the loud jazz. “Molokhia, braised jute leaf and shoulder of cull yaw sheep?” queried someone else. It went on: aish baladi? Ftira? “Bird’s tongue pasta is the Egyptian name for orzo,” I ventured, adding that I thought molokhia might be a bit like spinach, but never have I been more ready for a server to turn up and ask: “Guys, may I explain the menu?”

We choose a beef tartare with a smoky, sweet Tunisian harissa and crunchy chunks of deep-fried bread as brittle as pork crackling. We scoop honey bread through an insanely good mush of pounded white beans topped with chunks of pungent bottarga. There are rustic pillows of that aish baladi, an Egyptian wholegrain bread that here comes with a fresh, rich harissa paste, and langoustine kibbeh and sun-dried wheat all wrapped in a neat perilla leaf cone.

From avocado to hemp, extra virgin olive and rapeseed, the shops are packed with various oils. But what is worth spending money on? And are any of them actually better for you?

The world of cooking oils is confusing. I keep spotting new ones on supermarket shelves, trumpeting their health claims. Cold-pressed avocado oil, extra virgin macadamia oil, organic coconut oil, premium hemp seed oil … Even familiar oils are mired in controversy. Is it OK to cook with olive oil? Should you avoid seed oils? Meanwhile, prices keep rising – earlier this month, Walter Zanre, the CEO of Filippo Berio UK, said supermarkets were “taking the mickey” out of customers over olive oil pricing. I asked the experts which oils are really worth splashing out on.

I had presumed I would love her instantly – but a traumatic birth led to devastating numbness

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I was waiting for an overwhelming rush of love, but when I looked at my newborn baby what I felt was utter despair. No matter how much I smiled at her, crooned at her, fed, patted, caressed and changed her, I was absolutely numb.

I had yearned for her. Growing up in Italy, I was surrounded by images of perfect motherhood. Every rural crossroad has its tiny shrine to the Madonna and Child. I was certain by the end of my teens that I wanted to have at least one baby.

The actor and producer on being a teenage model, making My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and the secret to long-lasting love

Born in Hollywood in 1956, Rita Wilson’s first role was in The Brady Bunch at the age of 15. She went on to appear in Frasier and The Good Wife, as well as romcom classics such as Sleepless in Seattle and Runaway Bride. She produced the highest‑grossing romcom of all time, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, as well as Mamma Mia! and A Man Called Otto, which starred her husband, Tom Hanks, and son Truman. Alongside her career on screen, she has released music since 2012. Her sixth studio album, Sound of a Woman, is out on 1 May.

My mum took this photo of me in Hollywood. I’d just started high school and was joyful, open and optimistic.

It feels as if your work and your identity are fused. You’ll get through this, but you may have to use this time to consider other careers

I’ve been a teacher for more than 20 years and loved it. I had promotions every couple of years and was happily making my way up the ladder. This year, however, I was made redundant because of restructuring and this has thrown me into a feeling of complete confusion. I have tried to find roles at the level I was working at, but have not been successful. It has left me feeling lost and unclear.

The last five years within education have felt fraught. I left the previous school I’d worked at because I felt the headteacher was unable to support me following the death of my mum. The school before that I left after whistleblowing on a senior leader for bullying. I am worried the repeat issues and feelings of being unhappy all come from me, and somehow I am seeking out conflict or issues.

Gillian Kennedy met Wade Freeman while working in a remote desert community. She was impressed by his playlists, and his generous spirit

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

In 2007 I’d been single for a few years and had just returned from a year volunteering in a village in Bangladesh. Six months after arriving home in Sydney I decided to take up a teaching job in Mulan Aboriginal community in the Kimberley, halfway between Broome and Alice Springs, population 120.

The first term was difficult. I got along well with my housemate, Kylie, and we’d met friendly nurses and people from the surrounding communities. But we didn’t have access to a vehicle so spent our weekends working. I felt quite lonely and isolated.

The airline refused a refund or credit for our group of 14 after a brain tumour diagnosis for my two-year-old child

We were organising our wedding for this June when the happiest period of our lives became a nightmare.

Our two-year-old daughter was diagnosed with an aggressive grade 4 brain tumour requiring immediate life-saving surgeries. The prognosis is devastating.

Secondhand car buyers urged to carefully inspect vehicles, while owners told to beware tests that are suspiciously quick

• Rise of the ‘ghost owner’: 18,000 UK vehicles in use without proper records

You have just bought a secondhand car. It was older than you wanted, but were reassured because it had recently passed its MOT.

Within a few days, you notice a problem with the steering and take it into a garage to be checked. As well as that issue, they find the tread depth of the tyres is so low it should not have passed the test.

Some people are put off by myriad investment options. Here is a guide to the key decisions to help you choose

• ‘Savvy Squirrel’ ad campaign looks to push Britons towards investing

The UK government is keen to encourage people to invest. If you are thinking of dipping your toe into the stock market, an Isa is often the best way, as it lets you protect any gains from tax. Here’s how to get started.

Lucy O’Brien was shocked when she discovered how high interest rates were leading to ballooning debt

Like many of my drowning-in-debt “plan 2” student loan comrades, I didn’t think twice about diving straight into a master’s degree, bright-eyed and fresh out of my undergraduate course in 2021.

To say I was naive to the additional financial burden would be an understatement. Even less did I think that, four years after finishing my master’s, I’d be using the savings money I’ve built up – which I’d planned to put towards a deposit to buy my first property – to pay back my postgraduate loan in full. And yet here I am.

Men tend to have a higher ratio of muscle to fat, but women respond just as well to resistance training

This is a common misconception, says Prof Leigh Breen, a muscle physiology specialist at the University of Leicester, though it’s easy to see where it comes from. Men typically have a higher ratio of muscle to fat than women, largely because of differences established during puberty, when testosterone levels rise significantly in males. Women, by contrast, tend to have a higher proportion of body fat – linked, in part, to oestrogen.

“Although there is a relationship between testosterone and the amount of muscle mass we have, this doesn’t determine how effectively we can build muscle with resistance training,” says Breen. “Women have much lower testosterone levels – around 15 to 20 times lower than men. There is a perception that men gain muscle more easily because of higher testosterone and more androgen receptors in muscle, but that’s not quite right. If you look at relative change – the percentage increase – men and women respond very similarly to training.”

Exclusive: Health Foundation says Britain is ‘going backwards’ compared with most other rich countries

• Findings on healthy life expectancy in UK shed light on its deteriorating health

People in the UK are spending fewer years in good health than a decade ago, prompting concern that the population’s health is “going backwards”.

The sharp decline in Britain’s healthy life expectancy, the amount of time someone spends free of illness or disability, is in sharp contrast to its recent rise in most other rich countries globally.

NHS struggling to cope with record numbers, which Cancer Research UK says puts progress on survival rates at risk

The number of people in the UK being diagnosed with cancer has reached a record high, with one person diagnosed every 80 seconds, a report reveals.

Cancer Research UK found that more than 403,000 people were being diagnosed with the disease each year. The rise is largely due to a growing and ageing population, as people are more likely to develop cancer as they get older.

Knowing the difference between hunger and appetite, and understanding the sensory cues behind them, can help us make better decisions about what we eat

Imagine you’re in a meeting room when someone brings out the biscuits – a packet of Jammie Dodgers, perhaps, or a nice little plate of custard creams. Maybe you want one and maybe you don’t, but the chances are the people around you are all responding differently: someone will grab a couple straight away, someone else will eat one without seeming to notice, another will barely be aware the biscuits exist, and someone will spend the whole meeting wanting one but not taking it. Our appetites and responses to food vary wildly – but what’s going on behind the scenes to govern them? And has modern food somehow hijacked the process? Grab a biscuit (or don’t) and settle in.

“First, it’s important to distinguish between hunger and appetite,” says Giles Yeo, a professor of molecular neuroendocrinology at the University of Cambridge and the author of Why Calories Don’t Count. “Hunger is a feeling – it’s what happens in the run-up to you deciding you need to eat something. Appetite is everything that surrounds why we eat – including hunger, fullness and reward, or how you actually feel when you eat. Those three sensations all use completely different parts of the brain, but they all work together.”

To celebrate the release of the film Mother Mary, starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel, in which a fashion designer creates a comeback dress for a pop star, we weigh up the best performative looks

“Dressed like a fabulously turned-out carrion crow,” is how our reviewer described the gothic, avian-like get-up PJ Harvey wore to perform her journalistic and theatrical ninth album, The Hope Six Demolition Project, in Brixton, south London, in 2016. The dress was the work of Harvey’s longtime friend, the Belgian designer Ann Demeulemeester, and epitomises the more dramatic stage looks – melodramatic but pared-back – that Harvey turned to for her later, darker albums. As she said of the clothes: “For me, it’s about the ability to meet the world. And it is a second skin, isn’t it? It’s protection, as well. It’s a very big part of clothing, the feeling of protection, particularly in Ann’s clothes.” Who would have thought that someone who earlier in their career took to the stage in Spice Girls co-ords and hot-pink catsuits would wind up in such serious Belgian high-fashion? Ellie Violet Bramley

Film sequel reveals how luxury brands have turned the tables on once-dominant magazine editors

The National Gallery was the grand setting for the party that followed The Devil Wears Prada 2’s London premiere this week. Donatella Versace held court in a roped-off area beneath Paul Delaroche’s The Execution of Lady Jane Grey.

Meryl Streep, reprising her role as Miranda Priestly – Anna Wintour’s fictional alter ego – wore a red satin Prada coat as a nod to the film’s title and black sunglasses as a wink to Wintour. Glossy magazine editors from Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, flown in for the night, nibbled on fried chicken served with caviar and dishes of mac and cheese presented theatrically under silver cloches.

Wiltshire town councillor Andrew Edwards, who has large collection of neckwear, is a regular at committee hearings

It was blockbuster viewing for politicos across the country: the livestreamed grilling of Olly Robbins. While the sacked Foreign Office civil servant was billed as the star of the show, for many he was upstaged by a well-dressed man wearing a cravat.

“I’ve got a big collection,” said Andrew Edwards, the scene stealer in question.

The 1980s band are being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year – but why does singer Sade Adu’s pared-back look still resonate in 2026?

Earlier this month it was announced that Sade, the British group fronted by Sade Adu that found fame in the 80s and 90s, would be inducted into the 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And although the music is indisputably worthy of such a distinction, if there were a similar accolade for style, Adu would have been inducted a long time ago.

With her scraped-back hair, red lipstick, hoop earrings and penchant for simple black dresses or denim and polo necks, she has become the last word in understated – but somehow unattainable – style.

Beyond the Tuscan capital, there are exquisite towns with Medici fortresses, stunning frescoes, Roman amphitheatres – and not a selfie stick in sight

First, it was Barcelona, Venice and Dubrovnik. Now, Florence has joined the most overtouristed destinations in the world: its 365,000 inhabitants shared their city last year with 4.6 million visitors. The director of the city’s Accademia gallery – home to Michelangelo’s David – talked in 2024 about “hit and run” tourism, describing visitors “on a quick in-and-out mission to take selfies … trampling the city without contributing anything”. Local author Margherita Calderoni describes Via Camillo Cavour, a street leading to the Duomo, as a “rancid soup” of chain restaurants and “shops selling plastic trinkets from who knows where”.

Although steps are being taken – the city council has introduced a ban on new short-term lets and is promoting sights in lesser-known neighbourhoods – tackling overtourism is a challenge. And other Tuscan cities, such as Siena and San Gimignano, are suffering too. But beyond these honeypots, Italy’s fifth-largest region is full of glories, with not a takeaway chain or selfie stick in sight. Here are six of my favourites.

Clear waterfalls, mountain meadows and high-altitude refuges are just some of the highlights of this less-visited part of the stunning range, shared in a new guide to the region

The “forgotten” Dolomites lie to the east, far from the crowds of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo and Val Gardena. Belluno is the main gateway, two hours north of Venice by train or a drive up the A27. From here, the upper Piave valley leads into the quieter Friulian mountains. The land rises gently, opening into pasture, then stone lifting into spires above the meadows.

Traditional local councils, the Regole di Comunità, still manage the land and forests collectively here, sustaining artisans and alpine farmers in scattered hamlets shaped by shared work and resilience. Pastìn (a minced, seasoned blend of pork and beef), malga cheeses and polenta, once staples for long days in the mountains, are still shared over grappa at the end of the day. Beyond the hamlets, paths lead towards Monte Pelmo or drift into the beech woods of Cansiglio, where deer call at dusk. It’s a fine place to experience mountain culture, and these are some of my favourite places.

From cycling in the Cinque Terre to sipping espresso at a secret spot overlooking the Colosseum, here are some of your Italian highlights

• Tell us about great beach bars and restaurants in Europe – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

When we visited Venice, we stayed in Padua. It’s half an hour to Venezia Mestre (Venice’s mainland suburb), trains are frequent and cheap, as long as you avoid expresses, and easy to book if you have the Trenitalia app. You’ll find accommodation and restaurants significantly cheaper if you are based in Padua and day trip into Venice, and Padua is worth exploring in its own right. There are also trains to Vicenza, Verona, Bologna and Bassano del Grappa – we found it the perfect base for a public transport trip in north-east Italy.
Fergal O’Shea

In the 1980s ‘the Antwerp Six’ put Flanders on the fashion map. Now a major new exhibition celebrates the designers’ legacy and provides the perfect excuse to visit Belgium’s vibrant second city

You know you’re in a city that takes its fashion seriously when even the Virgin Mary is dressed head to toe in couture. A short walk from Antwerp’s old town, with its ornate medieval guild houses and cobblestone streets, is the baroque church of St Andrews. Like many of the city’s Catholic churches, it has beautiful stained glass windows, an exuberantly carved wooden pulpit and more artworks by Flemish masters than you can shake an incense stick at. But we’re here to pay homage to an art form of a different kind.

In a quiet chapel, an elegant 16th-century wooden statue of the Madonna is clothed not in her usual blue cloak, but a dress of pale gauzy fabric, trimmed with a collar of white pigeon feathers, custom made by renowned Belgian fashion designer Ann Demeulemeester. It’s a bold statement but one that’s entirely in-keeping with a city where a love of fashion seems woven into the fabric of everyday life.

The solution to today’s puzzle

Earlier today I asked you this slippery question. Here it is again with the solution.

Snakes in a cage

The uptick in children focused on skincare has some experts concerned about body image and mental health. But others warn of the risks of rushing to ‘medicalise’ new trends or behaviours

Sephora stores are being overrun with tweens pumping product testers. Eight-year-olds film themselves on “Sephora hauls” and GRWM (get ready with me) videos, applying collagen boosting serums and retinol creams for their nonexistent wrinkles. And party bags are stuffed with face masks and fluffy headbands, instead of glitter and gummy bears.

The rise of “Sephora kids” is a widely reported issue but the uptick of children “obsessed” with skincare has some experts concerned about the long-term effects of age-inappropriate products and increased occupation with appearance at such a pivotal age.

A flavour-packed one-pan egg, noodle and green vegetable dinner in lime-spiked coconut milk

This might look like a shakshuka, but with lemongrass, ginger and lime, you couldn’t really get away with calling it one – particularly because the noodles make this an easy, flavour-packed one-pan dinner. The crunch of the peanuts is particularly good against the lime-spiked coconut milk – a perfect transitional “is it spring yet?” dinner.

One moved to the UK 20 years ago. The other is considering a vote for Restore Britain. Could they agree on national symbols and Brexit?

• Want to meet someone from across the divide? Click here to find out how

Caroline, 57, Plymouth

Occupation Professor of developmental psychology

He shot the YBAs boozing, canoodling – and shaking up the art scene. Now the photographer has found inspiration in some other unruly characters: his lurchers. We join him for walkies in rural Suffolk

‘Finn! Finn! FINN!” Johnnie Shand Kydd is having trouble keeping his inquisitive lurcher in sight. Finn may be an incredibly sweet-natured dog but he’s hard of hearing – and has previous for disappearing on this particular walk.

At least the photographer has experience in dealing with unruly characters. In the 1990s, he found himself embedded with the Young British Artists, granted free rein to shoot the hedonistic, chaotic and wildly creative art scene that birthed Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and more. Shot in black and white, these images upended the convention for artists posing in their studios, easels in hand. “I just wasn’t interested in that at all,” says Shand Kydd. Instead, his photographs capture Hirst balancing a tower of hats on his head, Emin in a rubber dinghy with Georgina Starr, a newly pregnant Sam Taylor-Johnson (then Taylor-Wood) and a whole load of partying, boozing and canoodling.

Men in tuxedos and women in dresses dove under tables, like a scene from a dozen Hollywood movies, but now it was happening to me

Shocking. Unnerving. Unpredictable. Violent. For a decade I have been following the twists and turns of Donald Trump’s America with the privilege of journalistic distance. On Saturday night I felt the darkness come viscerally close.

Bang! Bang! What was that? Where was it? At 8.36pm panic and pandemonium reigned in the cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton hotel. There were men running and cries of “Get down!” and “Stay down!”

With his stand against Trump, the pope has shown the far right doesn’t have a monopoly on Christianity. If people of good faith push hard, the future could be redefined

In the same way that America’s shambolic war on Iran has turned Donald Trump into the most effective EV salesman the world has ever seen, so his attempts to defend said war have produced another unlikely outcome: the rise of a genuine and global theological debate. Led by Pope Leo but extending across Christian denominations, it’s producing the sudden recognition that a kind of progressive Christianity long given over for dead seems to be stirring. Christ is risen, as it were – and if people of good faith push hard, the future could be redefined in powerful ways.

This story has developed so rapidly, with so many steps, that it’s hard to remember them all. When America launched its cruel attack, there was widespread reporting that some officers were exhorting to treat it as a prelude to the second coming. That provoked no pushback from the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, a representative of a tattooed Christianity (not that it matters, but have these people not read Leviticus?); indeed, with each press conference Hegseth edged closer to a revival meeting, invoking God’s blessing on his bombing and pillaging. “We are hitting them while they’re down, which is the way it should be,” he said.

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