Exclusive: UK willing to placate Trump with lower digital services tax rate also encompassing non-US companies

Big US technology companies have been offered a significant tax cut by Keir Starmer in return for lower tariffs from Donald Trump’s administration as the UK braces itself for a global trade war.

The Guardian understands the UK government is willing to reduce the headline rate of its digital services tax (DST) in an attempt to placate the US president, while at the same time applying the levy to companies from other countries.

London PhD student convicted of 10 rapes may have 60 more victims, force fears

More than 20 women have contacted police to say they fear they may have been attacked by the serial rapist Zhenhao Zou, with detectives fearing there may be even more victims to come.

Zou, 28, was convicted last month of raping three women in London and seven in China between 2019 and 2024.

In speech that began Monday night, Democratic senator warns of ‘grave and urgent’ danger of Trump administration

• US politics – latest updates

Cory Booker, the Democratic US senator from New Jersey, has broken the record for longest speech ever by a lone senator – beating the record first established by Strom Thurmond, who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Booker’s speech eventually ran to 25 hours and five minutes. Having begun at 7pm on Monday night, was not a filibuster but instead an effort to warn of what he called the “grave and urgent” danger that Donald Trump’s presidential administration poses to democracy and the American people.

Senior doctor who saw bodies says men appeared to have been ‘executed’, adding to evidence of potential war crime

Some of the bodies of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, killed by Israeli forces and buried in a mass grave nine days ago in Gaza, were found with their hands or legs tied and had gunshot wounds to the head and chest, according to two eyewitnesses.

The witness accounts add to an accumulating body of evidence pointing to a potentially serious war crime on 23 March, when Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance crews and civil defence rescue workers were sent to the scene of an airstrike in the early hours of the morning in the al-Hashashin district of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.

Financial literacy lessons to be given to pupils at primary and secondary schools

Pupils in England are to be taught how to spot the risks of in-game purchases as well as to scrutinise the claims of influencers in a new suite of lessons designed to improve their financial literacy.

The package of 80 lessons is aimed at teaching pupils aged five to 16 how to navigate online spending, after reports of children spending large sums of their own or their parents’ money online, often inadvertently.

Government wants to spur economic growth and drive housebuilding but charities say nature should be priority

Wildlife groups have expressed alarm after ministers promised a radically “streamlined” approach to UK environmental regulation intended to drive economic growth and speed up new housing, as well as major projects such as airports.

While officials said the plans should boost nature conservation overall, the removal of what one called “bat by bat” decisions, a reference to the £100m bat shelter constructed for part of HS2, could water down individual protections.

Tony Blair Institute says enforcing stricter licensing rules for copyright-protected material will threaten national security interests

Tony Blair’s thinktank has urged the UK to relax copyright laws in order to let artificial intelligence firms build new products, as it warned a tougher approach could strain the transatlantic relationship.

The Tony Blair Institute said enforcing firm copyright measures would strain ties with the US, which is poised to announce tariffs on UK goods on Wednesday.

Dissatisfaction also at record 59% in Great Britain, with A&E, GPs and dentists causing the most discontent

Public satisfaction with the NHS is at a record low and dissatisfaction is at its highest, with the deepest discontent about A&E, GP and dental care.

Just 21% of adults in Britain are satisfied with how the health service runs, down from 24% a year before, while 59% are dissatisfied, up from 52%, the latest annual survey of patients found.

Trevor Lock tackled leader of 1980 siege and saved life of SAS soldier after he was among 26 taken hostage

A police officer who received a medal for bravery for his heroics during the Iranian embassy siege in London in 1980 has died aged 85.

Trevor Lock and 24 of the hostages were freed after a six-day standoff between members of a dissident Iranian group and the SAS at the building in Kensington.

Research highlights link between low LDL cholesterol and reduced dementia risk, with statins offering additional protection

Lowering your levels of bad cholesterol could reduce the risk of dementia by 26%, a study suggests.

People with low levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in their blood have a lower overall risk of dementia, and a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease specifically, according to research published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

Senators propose ‘hard-hitting’ secondary sanctions and say ‘Russia is the aggressor’; ‘coalition of the willing’ moves forward. What we know on day 1,134

Defence secretary’s trip to Asia shows the Trump administration is engaged with the region, but analysts warn Taipei to tread carefully

On Tuesday China’s military launched joint drills around Taiwan, sending ships, planes and some bizarre propaganda videos across the strait to both warn and punish Taiwan’s government over what Beijing calls “separatist activity”.

The purported provocation was recent assertiveness by Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, who in March designated China a “foreign hostile force” and announced 17 measures to counter its espionage and influence operations.

Andry José Hernández Romero sent to an El Salvador prison after claim ‘crown’ tattoos proved he was a gang member

For as long as anyone can remember Andry José Hernández Romero was enthralled by the annual Three Kings Day celebrations for which his Venezuelan home town is famed, joining thousands of fellow Christians on the streets of Capacho to remember how the trio of wise men visited baby Jesus bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh.

At age seven, Andry became a Mini King, as members of the town’s youth drama group Los Mini Reyes were known. Later in life, he tattooed two crowns on his wrists to memorialise those carnival-like Epiphany commemorations and his Catholic roots.

It’s not fun to realize you may be an ‘always welcome but never invited’ pal. But experts say it’s not all bad

We’re hiding behind a dining table, waiting for the birthday girl to arrive.

The door creaks open. “Surprise!” we shout.

Locals are feeling the impact of the more than 17,000 tonnes of uncollected rubbish in the city’s streets

“I’m afraid to open my front door, they’re everywhere,” said Mary Dore, eyeing the ground outside her house in Balsall Heath suspiciously. “They run out from under the cars when you get in, they’re going in the engines. They chewed through the cables in my son’s car, costing him god knows how much.

“There’s one street I can’t walk my dog because they come running out of the grass and the piles of rubbish. One time I screamed.”

The far-right leader has been banned from running for office for five years after an EU parliament fake jobs scam

After a nine-week trial, the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was this week found guilty of the embezzlement of European parliamentary funds through a fake jobs scam of an unprecedented scale and duration. She was banned from running for office for five years with immediate effect, which could prevent her making a fourth bid for the French presidency in 2027.

She has said she will appeal against the verdict and sentence, which also included a four-year prison term – with two years suspended and two to be served outside jail with an electronic bracelet – and €100,000 (£84,000) fine.

As she reveals her tougher side in a Liverpool gangland drama, and fearfully prepares to tread the boards in New York, the actor talks about body image, big hair and the blind faith that has always driven her

Saoirse-Monica Jackson has done some dramas where everyone was quite sober and all her jokes fell flat. But This City Is Ours was different, not least because of the number of Scousers on set, the Derry Girls star explains. “It wasn’t, like, so serious,” she says. “We had craic off-camera.” However, while it was fun to make the buzzy new BBC crime drama (the female cast members named themselves the Muffia) the end result isn’t fun – although it is gripping. Featuring betrayals, love and a lot of violence, the show stars Sean Bean as a Liverpool drugs boss, while Jackson plays Cheryl Crawford, the wife of one of his underlings.

Cheryl is on the periphery, though her voice-of-experience warnings ring loud. “There’s nothing good about our men,” she tells Diana, the partner of a senior gang member. Jackson has lived in Liverpool for a couple of years now – which helped with the accent – and it was a treat to be back in her own bed at the end of a day’s filming. A lot of hair extensions helped with the look. “It was so heavy, so hot, to be under it every day,” she says with a laugh. “Our amazing hair and makeup designer, Adele Firth, really wanted to get the picture across of some girls in Liverpool – they take such pride in themselves. Every occasion is an occasion to really get dolled up.” Jackson found herself intrigued by Cheryl. “I think if, like her, you grow up around these types of people, or they’re adjacent to your family, that can blur the danger for you.”

A press conference at Tory HQ at least had some entertainment value even if there was nothing of importance to say

There was a time when you knew where you were with a press conference. You would go along on the assumption that the person or organisation who had called it had something important to say. Something that might approximate to news.

But we live in ever more confusing days. So now we’ve reached the point where Kemi Badenoch and Mel Stride will do almost anything for attention. Where a press conference is just another excuse for a therapy session where they can unload their familiar grievances on to journalists. It’s the only way they can get anyone to listen.

Could I discover an order that would mark me out as intriguing, charming and strangely sophisticated? I spent a week trying everything from chocolate milk with rum to apple cider vinegar with prosecco to find out

In the little we know of Materialists, the forthcoming film from Past Lives director Celine Song, Dakota Johnson plays Lucy, a successful matchmaker who is herself perennially single and jaded about love. When an as-yet-unnamed suitor (Pedro Pascal) approaches her at a wedding and asks to buy her a drink, Lucy’s response is not so much a request as a challenge.

“Sure,” sighs Johnson, with that hypnotically flat delivery that saw her named worst actress at this year’s Razzies. “Coke and beer.”

New Zealand’s docile, solitary and elusive ‘god of ugly things’ does wonders for the forest-floor ecosystem

Are you sick of throwing yourself on the altar of unrealistic beauty standards? Do you long to celebrate the delightfully monstrous, to give the spiny stuff of shadows their day in the sun? Then consider the mighty wētāpunga – an endemic New Zealand insect so revered for its unconventional beauty its name means “god of ugly things”.

This forest behemoth is thought to be the heaviest adult insect in the world, with a female weighing as much as a mouse or a sparrow. Its body can grow up to 10cm long (nearly 4in) and its leg span can be as wide as 20cm. Once found across parts of the North Island, the vulnerable wētāpunga – the largest of 70 wētā species – now resides entirely on a smattering of predator-free islands near Auckland.

Between 24 March and 2 April, we will be profiling a shortlist of 10 of the invertebrates chosen by readers and selected by our wildlife writers from more than 2,500 nominations. The voting for our 2025 invertebrate of the year will run from midday on Wednesday 2 April until midday on Friday 4 April, and the winner will be announced on Monday 7 April.

It’s time for a reset! Our fashion guru reveals how you can shake up your wardrobe for the new season

• The best Chanel-style jackets to rival the real thing

In the winter months, I crave the comfort of repetition. I want to make a vat of soup to keep in the fridge and have a bowl for lunch every day. I long to discover a TV drama that I have somehow missed and have seasons to catch up on so that I can watch an episode every night. Hibernation, essentially.

Then, after months of that, the clocks go forward and – like clockwork – I get an itch for novelty. Yesterday I went to refresh the water in a vase of flowers on the mantelpiece; 15 minutes later all the stems were piled up around me on the floor and I was curating a whole new arrangement. Change is good! In the mood to shake something up? Out with the old. In with the newness! Read on for some hot-off-the-press thoughts.

As claims pile up about the charity he founded, he’s learning that smiling and biting your lip can be quite painful. Hear, hear, as the Windsors might say

Straight faces, please, as we try to look charitably at the toxic row engulfing Prince Harry’s charity. Are you up to speed with this everyday story of giving folk? I’m in such a muddle with it all that I can’t remember if I’m allowed to say that purely from my observations of her telly interviews, Sentebale chair Sophie Chandauka does seem like a right old loose cannon.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, so let’s do a quick recap. Sentebale is a charity to help children and young people with HIV and Aids in Lesotho and Botswana, and was set up almost two decades ago by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, in honour of their mothers. Its current chair is Chandauka, a Zimbabwean lawyer, and something about her stewardship of the charity has provoked its entire board of trustees to judge that their relationship has broken down irretrievably. Accordingly, they have all resigned. Chandauka in turn has said that the charity was riddled with “poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny [and] misogynoir”, and accused Prince Harry of “harassment and bullying at scale”.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Forcing the abandonment of commonsense, evidence-based guidelines is a new low for a party that once prided itself on justice reform

A progressive sentencing guideline that was due to come into force today has been shot down in the crossfire of the culture wars. This is devastating news for people whose lives would have been changed by the guideline, such as pregnant women and mothers.

The Sentencing Council’s updated “imposition of community and custodial sentences” guideline signalled a change in sentencing. It would have required magistrates and judges to consult a pre-sentence report before deciding whether to imprison someone of an ethnic or religious minority, alongside other groups including young adults, abuse survivors and mothers. It would have taken into account structural disparities in sentencing outcomes, such as the high risk of stillbirth that pregnant women face in prison and the damage caused by separating mothers from children. It would also have introduced measures to combat racism in courts. The UN has described our justice system as systemically racist, and a 2017 review conducted by the now minister David Lammy acknowledged its “racial bias”.

Janey Starling is the co-director of gender justice campaign group Level Up

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.

So many people and organisations are capitulating to the US president, from Silicon Valley to the Democrats, legal firms and elite universities. How realistic is the prospect of Trump 3.0?

Hell is empty and all the devils are in Washington DC. And, what with devils being immortal and all, it looks as if they might stay there indefinitely. Now, before I seamlessly segue from fun devil facts into talking about Donald Trump threatening to run for a third term, the current political climate compels me to make a few things clear. I recently had to submit my US green card for renewal (impeccable timing!) so I’d like to explain to any United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers reviewing my file that the first line of this piece was just riffing on Shakespeare. I’m absolutely not comparing Trump, the greatest man to walk this Earth, to Satan. Nor am I suggesting evil people seem to live long lives.

On the contrary, I am thrilled that our 78-year-old president has suggested he is looking into “methods” that will allow him to serve this wonderful country longer. And it’s a shame my enthusiasm isn’t universally shared. I mean, to quote JD Vance (who is up there next to Shakespeare in the words department), have any Trump detractors SAID THANK YOU ONCE? Trump could be relaxing with his billions; he could be playing golf every day. Instead, the poor man only gets to play golf every few days – costing taxpayers millions of dollars – and has to spend most of his time sorting out the US. The economy doesn’t just crash itself, you know? So thank you, Mr President. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Despite social media hype, there is little evidence that the therapies, marketed as pills, shots and IV infusions, have any effects on ageing

The fountain of youth is an enduring legend. Different iterations of the fabled spring – which is said to give anyone who drinks or bathes in its waters the power to defy ageing – have echoed across cultures for thousands of years.

In the modern age, this quest for youthfulness is known as “biohacking” – where individuals take a do-it-yourself approach to enhance their biology, often through supplements – and the latest trend is NAD boosters.

Why the anger? Doubling council tax on holiday homes in England is a sensible, revenue-raising policy for communities in serious need

Should you have the world’s tiniest violin to hand, prepare to play it. This week, English councils gain the power to double council tax on second homes, and the holiday-cottage-owning classes are fuming. “Nothing but a racket,” thundered the Daily Telegraph, dismissing a supposedly “vindictive” raid on weekenders that was (gasp) “socialist” to boot.

Its Sunday sister paper further tugged on readers’ heartstrings with tales of homeowners who had inherited a second place somewhere lovely from their parents, and bridled at being asked to pay a few thousand pounds more a year to keep it in the family. In the Times, a retired barrister who felt forced to give up the seaside pad she had bought in her mother’s native St Davids complained of the tax “destroying generations of community-building”, as though houses sitting empty all winter were the one thing really guaranteed to bring a thriving community together. To which one can only say: people, learn to read a room(s). You’ve certainly got enough of them.

Last week, he moved to end collective bargaining rights for 1 million people. And would anyone who cared about workers hire this staff?

If any workers are still holding on to the notion that Donald Trump is pro-worker or pro-union, his move last week to terminate union bargaining rights for 1 million federal workers should disabuse them of that notion. As a candidate Trump often wooed workers by promising to fight for them, but ever since he returned to the White House, he has taken dozens of anti-worker and anti-union actions.

In an unprecedented anti-union action last Thursday, the president moved to end collective bargaining for a million federal employees and scrap union contracts nearly that number, while attacking their unions as “hostile” merely because they were doing what unions are supposed to do: battling to save the jobs of tens of thousands of union members whom Trump and Elon Musk had summarily fired.

Football manager Gary Caldwell thinks he sounds too ‘aggressive’. But as a fellow Scot, I know the answer isn’t to ‘Englify’ ourselves

The worst job I had was in a bank in Sydney, dealing with a life insurance policy called Lite Life Direct. It was tedious, repetitive and oddly stressful, and involved a lot of time on the phone. What made the situation particularly frustrating was that almost no one could understand my Scottish accent.

“Lite Life Direct,” I would say, three, sometimes four times down the line to no avail. Then I would cave: “Loight Loif Direct.” With my faux-Australian pronunciation, suddenly me and the caller would be simpatico.

Catriona Stewart is a Glasgow-based journalist and broadcaster specialising in politics and home affairs

The US president wields tariffs not as a policy tool but as an instrument of pressure, rewarding loyalty and punishing defiance – even among allies

Donald Trump has probably not read much Michel Foucault. But he appears to embody the French philosopher’s claim that “politics is the continuation of war by other means”. Nowhere is this more apparent than in his fondness for tariffs. He presents taxing foreign imports as a way to rebuild the American economy in favour of blue-collar workers left behind by free trade and globalisation. Yet he plainly thinks that politics is not about truth or justice. It is about leverage and supremacy.

Britain is learning first-hand that Mr Trump, with his us-versus-them framing and taste for spectacle, is an accidental Foucauldian – using tariffs as tools of loyalty and dominance, even against allies. If Mr Trump follows through on his threat to impose a 20% tariff on all imports, UK growth will suffer. The effect depends on the response. No British retaliation would mean GDP 0.4% lower this year and 0.6% next. A global trade war would push that to 0.6% and 1%. Either outcome would wipe out the government’s fiscal headroom. But while British policymakers fret over the shrinking margins of fiscal rules, Mr Trump sees no need to cloak power in objectivity.

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.

The arrest of vice-president Riek Machar takes the country closer to a second civil war

After less than a decade and a half in existence, the world’s newest country, South Sudan, appears to be sliding towards a second civil war. A 2018 power-sharing deal between President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, the first vice-president, put an end to five years of fighting. But last week’s arrest of Mr Machar effectively ended that agreement, his party says. The United Nations warns that his house arrest, along with mounting military clashes and reports of attacks on civilians, has brought a fragile peace closer to collapse, posing a direct threat to millions.

The fear is not just of a battle between factions, but of ethnic cleansing and civilian massacres. Political violence in South Sudan has previously descended into intercommunal conflict between the Dinka ethnic group (to which Mr Kiir belongs) and the Nuer (to which Mr Machar belongs).

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.

Readers agree with Simon Jenkins’ view that the US is ‘moving fast and breaking things’ – but do not see any positive outcome

Simon Jenkins is right: Donald Trump is certainly moving fast and, two months in, the sound of things breaking is cacophonous. His contention that the end result might be a better US, however, is beyond contrarian (27 March).

In rejecting his argument, I would cite the work of several American commentators and academics: the constitutional and legal experts Marc Elias and Joyce Vance, the widely acclaimed historians Timothy Snyder and Heather Cox Richardson, and the Yale philosopher Jason Stanley are all full of apprehension for the future of the country they love. None suggests an upside; all anticipate a long and difficult fight. The risk is existential.
To take two examples of how serious the challenge to American democracy is, I would draw attention to Mr Trump’s relentless efforts at voter suppression and the willingness of his officials both to break the law and to disobey direct judicial instructions. Beyond this, there is the trashing of decades-old alliances, the coddling of Vladimir Putin, the betrayal of Ukraine, the ludicrous appointments, the barefaced lying, the reduction of politics to spectacle and the full-frontal assault on the structures of the federal state. So no, I find it impossible to see how any of this will have the positive outcome Mr Jenkins anticipates.
John Bailey
Farnborough, Hampshire

Readers respond to the forced entry of a place of worship and arrest of six people at a Youth Demand meeting in London

I represent a non-Quaker spiritual group with a longstanding arrangement to meet twice a week at the Westminster Quaker meeting house in London, from which building six female members of a youth protest group were recently arrested by means of violent forced entry (Report, 30 March).

A symptom often felt by people who are burgled is that their personal space has been invaded. When those who commit violence are those whose role is to protect us, it is doubly shattering. We were not present when the forced entry took place, yet the manner of it leaves us with a feeling of devastation and destruction of so much of what we have created. Of course it will be argued that the invasion of the space was a necessary evil, but I have to state with force that what we now suffer is real hurt, whereas the prevention of resistance in London is harm as yet not done.

The Arsenal fans had come to see Bukayo Saka and when he took off his tracksuit, primed to enter as a 66th‑minute substitute, red shirt vividly lighting the scene, it is fair to say there was a reaction. It was mainly release. The three months without Saka have been hard, ­Arsenal’s Premier League title challenge slipping away as he recovered from a ruptured hamstring.

There was certainly a script to be written and, Saka being Saka, he set about it. Arsenal have an incredible home record in the league against Fulham – 24 wins, seven draws and no defeats before this. They were on their way to another victory thanks to Mikel Merino’s heavily deflected goal on 37 minutes, the latest return from the club’s makeshift No 9.

At the weekend the lasting shot was Ryan Yates haring towards the Nottingham Forest supporters in celebration and here another episode at breakneck speed earned victory. This time the subject was Anthony Elanga, who tore up the City Ground turf, eating up 85 metres in nine exhilarating seconds, to score the only goal of the game against his former club and maintain Forest’s unlikely push to qualify for the Champions League.

The other moment that Forest may look back on as pivotal if they go on to earn a place in the game’s grandest club competition arrived six minutes and 18 seconds into stoppage time. Harry Maguire, thrown up front as an unconventional striker, a needs-must move by Ruben Amorim, prodded the ball goalwards but Murillo hacked it off the line with almost the last kick of the game. A few seconds later, with Forest’s first league double over United since 1991-92, when Brian Clough was in charge, secured, Rockin’ All Over the World blared over the speakers and the locals set off a round of fireworks that soared into the sky above Trent Bridge.

• Loans scrutinised by public accounts committee
• ‘Gap in oversight’ over £123.8m paid to rugby teams

There remains a “high degree of uncertainty” over whether tens of millions of pounds paid to rugby union clubs and other sports teams during the Covid-19 pandemic will ever be repaid, the House of Commons’ public accounts committee has warned.

In a report published on Wednesday, the committee also criticised the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for being “overly optimistic” in believing it will recover most of the £474m it paid out to 120 organisations in the sport and culture sectors to help them survive the impact of the pandemic.

Surrey look primed to make it four titles in a row and Lancashire have enough to jump back to Division One

“Three points means three beers,” according to Vítor Pereira. The Wolves head coach and fans can enjoy a few righteous pints after his side moved 12 points clear of the relegation zone with a hard-fought victory over West Ham.

Jørgen Strand Larsen scored the only goal to open up a greater gap on the drop zone. It was easy to see what the result meant to Pereira and his staff. They spent the final minutes of injury time demanding more noise from the home supporters to see Wolves over the line. At the final whistle the head coach leapt in the air and on to the pitch to celebrate, while the stands erupted, embracing each one of his players to thank them for their endeavours.

• Gjert Ingebrigtsen was secretly recorded by son Henrik
• Former coach denies all allegations of violence

The father of the double ­Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen accused his sons of a “perfect ­character assassination” on a secret recording made after they fired him, a court has been told.

Gjert Ingebrigtsen also claimed that he had been dragged “down to hell” after he was referred to child services following an incident in January 2022 where he was accused of whipping his daughter, Ingrid, in the face with a wet towel.

Appointing a coach whose world revolves around women’s cricket is an ideal first step after a woeful Ashes

Last time the England head coach role became available, in August 2022, Charlotte Edwards did not even apply: she believed that she did not yet have enough experience under her belt. Less than three years later, the England and Wales Cricket Board has concluded that she is such a perfect candidate for the job that it expedited her application, somehow condensing the period between firing one coach (Jon Lewis) and hiring another into the space of three weeks.

Edwards’s record as head coach now speaks for itself: since domestic women’s cricket entered its professional era in 2020, she has led Southern Vipers to five out of nine available titles. She has also won the Women’s Hundred, coached a side to the final of the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia, and (less than three weeks ago) won her second Women’s Premier League in India. It is sometimes said that brilliant players do not translate into brilliant coaches, but Edwards – who during her 20-year playing career won a 50-over World Cup, a T20 World Cup and lifted the Ashes five times – is a notable exception to the rule.

• Turf at Turnberry’s Ailsa Course ripped up by protesters
• Course has been closed since October due to renovation

Turnberry’s famous Ailsa Course will not open as planned on 1 May after serious damage caused to the Ayrshire venue – owned by the US president, Donald Trump – by a pro-Palestine group. Tour operators and those with individual bookings at Turnberry are in the process of being informed it will be June before the Ailsa, which is routinely ranked among the finest golf courses in the world, is available for play.

The clubhouse at the Ayrshire resort was daubed with graffiti and red paint in the early hours of 8 March. More significant in respect of the championship course – that has staged the Open on four occasions – was the ripping up of greens and on turf approaching them. The course has been closed since October due to planned renovation of the 7th and 8th holes.

Northern Ontario is seeing a ‘shorter window’ for ice roads that deliver vital supplies to remote First Nations

At first there was no answer on the satellite phone. But on the third call, Donald Meeseetawageesic heard his sister’s voice. “We need somebody to come and tow us out,” he told her.

It was a warmer-than-normal night in early March and Meeseetawageesic, the elected band councillor for Eabametoong First Nation, was stranded in a 4x4 truck on the dark winter road leading to his community. The tyres were stuck in the deep snow and the temperature outside was below freezing. Help was about 60km (37 miles) away.

Experts say previous economic models underestimated impact of global heating – as well as likely ‘cascading supply chain disruptions’

Economic models have systematically underestimated how global heating will affect people’s wealth, according to a new study that finds 4C warming will make the average person 40% poorer – an almost four-fold increase on some estimates.

The study by Australian scientists suggests average per person GDP across the globe will be reduced by 16% even if warming is kept to 2C above pre-industrial levels. This is a much greater reduction than previous estimates, which found the reduction would be 1.4%.

South Africa’s Marion Island is a breeding ground for the birds, but their chicks are being eaten alive by rodents. Now, the world’s largest operation to eradicate the invasive species is about to get under way

By 2015, scientists knew from camera trap evidence that mice were attacking albatross chicks on Marion Island, but no one had ever witnessed it first-hand on the small volcanic outcrop off the coast of South Africa. So, when researchers Stefan and Janine Schoombie came across a badly wounded wandering albatross chick in a relatively accessible part of the island, they resolved to return at night. After hiking for 30 minutes in the dark, Stefan started quietly setting up his camera equipment behind a rock. “We were expecting to have to stalk, but the mice were climbing all over us,” he says.

It didn’t take long for the mice to start feeding on the albatross chick. “The bird was a complete fluffball,” says Janine. “So, they just climbed up its back and started nibbling at its head. We could see their teeth going into its flesh.” The bird, too young to walk let alone fly, could only shake its head in irritation. “As scientists our job is to not intervene,” says Stefan. “But we really wanted to help that bird.”

Annual peak is lowest on record, covering 5.53m sq miles – about 30,000 sq miles below the previous low in 2017

Winter sea ice in the Arctic has reached a record low in 2025, according to Nasa and the US’s National Snow and Ice Data Center. The annual peak, recorded on 22 March, was the lowest since records began 47 years ago, with sea ice covering just 5.53m sq miles – about 1.1m sq miles less than last year – and 30,000 sq miles below the previous low in 2017. The Gulf of St Lawrence had almost no ice, while the Sea of Okhotsk experienced notably lower than average sea ice extent.

In late January, sea ice extent in the Arctic unexpectedly decreased, losing an area the size of Italy (more than 115,000 sq miles). This can be attributed to cyclones pushing southerly winds in the Barents and Bering seas, causing ocean waves that broke apart and melted thin ice at the edge of the ice sheet. Temperatures up to 12C above normal were recorded between northern Greenland and the north pole.

Lucy Osborne tells high court she was ‘taken aback’ at number of people in contact over the actor’s alleged sexual misconduct

A Guardian journalist who has worked on high-profile investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct by men said the volume of fresh leads received after writing about Noel Clarke was the most she had ever witnessed.

Lucy Osborne, who, with Sirin Kale, carried out the Guardian’s investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against the Doctor Who actor, told the high court that she was “taken aback” by how many people got in touch after publication of the first article.

Group of MPs are concerned bill’s return to the Commons on 25 April will clash with final week of campaigning

A group of Labour MPs are trying to push back a vote on the amended assisted dying bill later this month, over concerns it will clash with their final week of local election campaigning.

The bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales will return to the Commons on 25 April for debate and a vote on its amendments, if time allows, before it is sent to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.

Legal action claims policy breaches rights of children with SEN whose requirements cannot be met by UK state schools

Adding VAT to private school fees discriminates against children with conditions such as autism whose needs cannot be adequately met by UK state schools, the high court has been told.

The legal action against Labour’s policy is being taken by parents claiming that VAT on school fees is a breach of human rights law and discriminatory on grounds including religion, nationality, disability and mental health.

How the wave of increases will hit your household finances – and what you can do about it

• Millions of Britons brace for across-the-board bill rises
• Will bills continue to rise and what does it mean for Labour?
• ‘It’s relentless’: Britons react to April bill rises

Millions of households face sharp rises in everything from council tax to water from Tuesday, in what has been labelled “Awful April”.

The exact amount extra that consumers will pay will depend on where they live and their personal circumstances. Despite some respite – including an increase in the minimum wage and a modest rise in most benefits – budgets are expected be squeezed.

Exclusive: State department said to have raised concerns over whether new act infringes on freedom of expression

US state department officials have challenged Britain’s communications regulator over the impact on freedom of expression created by new online safety laws, the Guardian understands.

A group of officials from the state department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) recently met Ofcom in London. It is understood that they raised the issue of the new online safety act and how it risked infringing free speech.

Recovery mission under way after 11-year-old entered water near London City airport on Monday

An 11-year-old girl who is missing after entering the River Thames in London on Monday has been named by police as Kaliyah Coa.

Kaliyah, who had been playing during a school inset day, entered the water near Bargehouse Causeway near London City airport in east London.

Ministerial revision of privacy rules could allow targeting of voters with political messaging, rights groups fear

Privacy campaigners have warned that voters’ personal data could be used to target them with political messaging under new laws.

In a letter written to Chris Bryant, the data protection minister, and the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, campaigners said there was “potential for abuse of new powers” in the data protection legislation, which was introduced to parliament at the end of 2024.

CMA found car firms chose not to compete when advertising what percentage of their vehicles could be recycled

Ten leading car manufacturers – plus two automotive trade bodies – have been fined more than £77m by a UK regulator after admitting breaking competition law in relation to advertising their green credentials.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation after a tipoff from Mercedes-Benz, which allowed the German marque to avoid financial penalties despite also being involved in the cartel.

Officers responded to reports of person carrying firearm, Thames Valley police say as IOPC launches investigation

A man has been shot dead by police responding to reports of a person carrying a firearm at Milton Keynes railway station.

Thames Valley police (TVP) officers were called to the station by members of the public at 12.55pm on Tuesday. The man was shot by police in the station square outside the building and died at 1.44pm.

UK energy firm ceases trading, blaming ‘perfect storm’ of soaring wholesale prices and squeezed customers

A UK energy supplier with about 90,000 customers has gone bust, blaming a “perfect storm” of soaring wholesale prices and squeezed customers, on the day households face another increase in gas and electricity bills.

Rebel Energy, which serves about 80,000 households and 10,000 business customers, will cease trading immediately and leave the industry regulator to find a new supplier for its customers.

Torrential rains are expected next month, but many at the epicentre in Mandalay and Sagaing are still sleeping in the streets

The death toll from the worst earthquake to hit Myanmar in a century is expected to surpass 3,000 on Wednesday, as humanitarian agencies urged other countries to ramp up aid ahead of the monsoon rains.

Close to the epicentre, in the decimated cities of Mandalay and Sagaing, traumatised survivors slept in the street, with the stench of corpses trapped under the rubble permeating the disaster zone. Water, food and medicine are in short supply, and the monsoon could hit in May.

Rolling Stone interviews with 10 people reveal claims that Jeremy Lewin threatened a girl with a knife and openly shared racist views

• US politics live – latest updates

An employee of Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), who was parachuted in as a senior manager at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as it was being wound up, has been accused of a history of misogyny, racism and violent outbursts.

The claims against 28-year-old Jeremy Lewin were made following an investigation by Rolling Stone magazine, which said it was based on interviews with 10 people who know him.

Mangione, 26, accused of carrying out ‘premeditated assassination’ of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson

Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the man accused of fatally shooting the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, outside a Manhattan hotel on 4 December, the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said on Tuesday.

Bondi said in a press release that she had “directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty” for Luigi Mangione, 26, because he allegedly committed “a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America”. The move, Bondi notes, was in an effort to “carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again”.

The detailed relics were found in a necropolis and experts believe the woman depicted could have been an important priestess

Two almost lifesize sculptures of a man and woman, who was believed to have been a priestess, have been found during the excavations of a huge tomb in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

The detailed funerary relics adorned the tomb containing several burial niches built into a wide wall in the necropolis of Porta Sarno, one of the main entrance gates into the ancient city. Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79.

Moscow’s refusal highlights the limited progress Donald Trump has made on his promise to end the war

Moscow has described the latest US peace proposals as unacceptable to the Kremlin, highlighting the limited progress Donald Trump has made on his promise to end the war in Ukraine since taking office in January.

Sergei Ryabkov, a foreign policy adviser to Vladimir Putin, said some of Russia’s key demands were not being addressed by the US proposals to end the war, in comments that marked a rare acknowledgment from the Russian side that talks with the US over Ukraine had stalled in recent weeks.

Senior figures also reject claim verdict against Le Pen on embezzlement charges was ‘political and partisan’

French ministers have condemned threats against the judges who convicted the far-right leader Marine Le Pen and banned her from public office for five years as the chief judge was placed under police protection after receiving death threats.

France’s prime minister, François Bayrou, told the Assemblée nationale the trial judges had his “unconditional support” after they found Le Pen guilty of embezzlement charges, threatening her 2027 presidential run and throwing France into political chaos.

Woman’s lawyer says verdict proof of ‘patriarchal’ justice system and does not rule out taking case to European court of human rights

A Cyprus court’s acquittal of five men accused of abducting and raping a British woman in the resort of Ayia Napa has been met with outrage as calls mount for the verdict to be challenged.

Dismissing the charges on Monday, the three-member district court in Paralimni ruled the testimony of the 20-year-old had not been credible because it “lacked coherence and contained numerous substantial contradictions”. The defendants, Israelis aged between 19 and 20, claimed sexual contact with the woman had been consensual.

No 10 says deal to cede UK’s last African colony now being finalised after months of doubt

Donald Trump has signed off the UK’s handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, Downing Street has indicated, paving the way for the UK to cede sovereignty over its last African colony after a six-month standoff.

Under the terms of the deal, the UK will give up control of the Chagos archipelago while paying to maintain control of a joint US-UK military base on the largest island, Diego Garcia, under a 99-year lease.

Conservatives bid to overturn liberal majority on Wisconsin supreme court while Florida votes to replace Mike Waltz

US voters are headed to the polls on Tuesday in Wisconsin and Florida in elections that some see as a test of Donald Trump’s popularity and the political clout of his billionaire ally Elon Musk.

In Florida, voters are casting ballots in two special elections to fill vacancies in the first and sixth congressional districts – solid Republican areas that may be surprisingly competitive. But the most closely watched contest is a battle for a seat on Wisconsin’s seven-member supreme court.

Grant Paterson, 54, from South Lanarkshire, was pulled out from rubble on final day of visit

A Scottish tourist who suffered severe burns in a suspected gas explosion at a building in Rome has died of his injuries.

Grant Paterson, 54, was admitted to hospital on 23 March after the explosion and subsequent collapse of the block of flats where he was staying, in the Monteverde district.

Exclusive: Independent TV producers say they discussed 2021’s Bank Job with the Welsh actor’s team and he later presented a similar programme

A team of independent TV producers who spent their life savings developing a documentary about the UK debt crisis, which they had pitched to the actor Michael Sheen, have questioned the originality of a separate project the Welsh star later made with Channel 4 on the same issue.

Lawyers for the film-makers Daniel Edelstyn and Hilary Powell have written to Sheen and the makers of his show Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway, which aired three weeks ago, raising the similarities it bears with their 2021 project Bank Job.

The US-Canadian dual citizen speculates he may be ‘barred or put in jail to sleep on a cement floor’ after his European tour, after years of speaking against Trump

Neil Young has shared his concerns of being barred from the US after his European tour later this year, thanks to his outspoken critiques of Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, on his website Neil Young Archives, the 79-year-old musician – who has dual Canadian-American citizenship – wrote of his fears after the recent spate of people being detained and deported upon entering the US. These incidents have been credited to vague or unspecified visa issues, but have frequently affected individuals who have criticised the Trump administration either publicly or in messages on their phone read by immigration officers.

It’s impossible to dislike Joe Swash. But his utterly chaotic approach to looking after five kids turns this reality show into a nightmarishly stressful watch

Oh man. I really thought this was going to be the one. I thought Stacey & Joe, the new reality show starring Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash and their 800 children (five) would let me escape and forget the troubles of the world. Because I like Joe Swash (for it is impossible to dislike Joe Swash. I mean, disliking Joe Swash is not a thing. You won’t. You can’t.) and I absolutely love Stacey Solomon. Her wit, kindness, radiant energy and endless charisma, plus her ability to bring order out of chaos in Sort Your Life Out heals something deep in my soul.

So I was greatly looking forward to seeing them all live in their gorgeous, fully storage-solutioned house in Essex, a peek into a life running – unlike mine – along well-ordered lines, with a place for everything and everything in its place.

Irish publisher receives award for small presses for Gaëlle Bélem’s There’s a Monster Behind the Door

Irish publisher Bullaun Press has won the Republic of Consciousness prize for small presses with the book There’s a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem, translated from French by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert.

There’s a Monster Behind the Door is a “rollicking, sardonic picaresque”, said judge Houman Barekat. “The novel has important things to say about colonialism and society, but it’s also tremendous fun – darkly funny, acerbic, energetic.”

After Mark O’Sullivan’s My Sexual Abuse: The Sitcom helped him move past his childhood trauma, he’s launched a tearful, joyful new show – about creativity’s power to rebuild lives

Mark O’Sullivan is still buzzing from winning a Royal Television Society (RTS) award for his documentary, My Sexual Abuse: The Sitcom. “I’m grinning like a mid-party Michael Gove,” he chuckles. “It’s lovely for it to be recognised as an important and powerful piece. I just got a message from someone I knew years ago to say they’d seen the news about the award, watched the show and finally felt able to say they were also abused. That moved me to tears. Again!”

Comedian and writer O’Sullivan – co-star of cult Channel 4 sitcom Lee & Dean and creator of ITV teen drama Tell Me Everything – is now launching the weekly podcast Making Lemonade. It explores the healing power of creating something positive out of negative experiences, after his own life was radically transformed by his deeply personal film, confronting the abuse he suffered as a child. When he was 12, O’Sullivan began to be sexually assaulted by a member of his extended family. He reported it to the police when he was in his 30s. The culprit was convicted, imprisoned and has since died. Last May’s Channel 4 documentary followed O’Sullivan’s attempt to make mirth from what he endured, by creating an 18-minute TV comedy about his experiences, which was available online on Channel 4. It made for audacious TV, by turns heartbreaking and darkly hilarious.

So Sam Mendes has cast his Beatles tetralogy, but none are from Merseyside. Don’t worry, I’ve just invented the Beatles Cinematic Universe

Sam Mendes has announced the cast for his colossal four-film Beatles extravaganza: Harris Dickinson as John, Paul Mescal as Paul, Barry Keoghan as Ringo and Joseph Quinn as George – and to tumultuous acclaim he brought his Fab Four on stage at the CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, a now well-established affair in the film world, incidentally, satirised in a forthcoming episode of Seth Rogen’s TV comedy The Studio.

I’m sorry to say, however, that Sam has almost entirely ignored the casting suggestions that I made in February last year. For what this is worth, I went with Leo Woodall as Paul, Finn Wolfhard as George, Harry Melling as Ringo and Barry Keoghan as John (though Barry got Ringo in the end). But I like to think that Sam Mendes and his producer Pippa Harris were thinking on more or less the same lines as me. Interestingly, there are no American actors doing Brit accents – just the kind of well-trained British or Irish actors who can fabricate perfect American accents for American roles elsewhere.

We asked the experts about keeping luggage as light as possible (and still being ready for anything)

• The best travel-size toiletries for your next trip

Packing is a fine art. No one wants to lug heavy bags around transport hubs or arrive at the other end to a chaotically stuffed bag full of creased clothes. But we all have our “essentials” to cram in. For some, that’ll be a full skincare routine or a semblance of a wardrobe; for others, it’ll be sports equipment (though you really should leave the weights at home). So whether you’re flying on an airline offering ever-dwindling luggage limits, trying to cram a car for the whole crew, or rushing between trains with a backpack, it really does pay to travel light.

But what are the secrets to lightening the load without compromising? To find out, we’ve asked world travellers for all their best hacks and buys. Whether it’s the travel writer who’s been solo backpacking for more than 20 years or the hotel designer who has to dress smartly while zipping to locations across Europe, our globe-trotters shared their tips for everything from the ultimate wear-everywhere shoes to the best tech cheats.

This week: your March favourites; gifts for new mums; and how to make your smartphone last longer

Never has the term “fool’s spring” been more fitting. When the sun came out early in the month, many of us began to prepare for the summer that felt just around the corner. Hundreds of you, like me, bought the most genius overnight bag for the weekends away that were surely about to happen, and the perfect nail colour for the new season.

But let’s be real: it’s not summer yet. A fact evidenced by just how many of you were also buying practical raincoats, stay-in-all-day satin pyjamas and – less glamorously – microwave rice cookers. Here are the Filter recommendations you loved the most this month.

Stick vacuums are a convenient alternative to corded designs, but which model wins for overall cleaning prowess? Our expert reveals all

• The best robot vacuums to keep your home clean and dust free

Choosing a cordless vacuum isn’t a decision that should be taken lightly. You’re likely to keep a vacuum cleaner for years, relying heavily on its ability to suck up dust, crumbs, mud, pet hair and any other dry spillages or sheddings that end up on your floor. Choosing the right model can be the difference between an effective cleaner that’s a delight to pull out of the cupboard and a dud that you dread having to unblock, detangle and clean after every use.

In this review, I took 10 of the leading cordless vacuum cleaners from a range of manufacturers and at various prices and inflicted the same cleaning tests on each one. That takes all the guesswork out of picking your next cleaner: I can tell you exactly which ones picked up the most mess.

Best cordless vacuum cleaner overall:
Shark PowerDetect Clean & Empty IP3251
_{£369.91 at John Lewis}

Best budget cordless vacuum cleaner:
Vax HomePro Pet-Design
_{£317 at Amazon}

Best cordless vacuum for deep cleaning:
Dyson Gen5detect
_{£649 at John Lewis}

Best cordless vacuum for clean emptying:
Henry Quick Pro
_{£399 at Amazon}

Best handheld cordless vacuum cleaner
Dyson Car+Boat
_{£199 at AO}

Whose brand tastes like a tropical ambrosia, and whose tastes like soapy gunk? Restaurateur Ravinder Bhogal dives in …

• The best rice cookers for gloriously fluffy grains at home

Coconut milk is always found front and centre in my pantry because it is a cornerstone of so much of my cooking. I buy it in bulk and rely on it to bring a voluptuous, fragrant, dairy-free creaminess to so many of my favourite dishes, from curries and dals to soups and rice dishes. It’s also indispensable for puddings for vegan friends, and for my sweet-toothed, lactose-intolerant husband. It mellows out spices and pulls a dish together, adding a silkiness to sauces and a sweet, nutty richness to cakes, batters and vegan custards.

I appreciate the convenience of the canned stuff because making coconut milk from scratch, as my mother used to do when I was growing up in Kenya, is laborious: a mature brown coconut has to be broken, its flesh grated, then soaked in hot water, before being strained and squeezed several times through a cheesecloth.

It could be that you really dislike a song, or perhaps the person who sings it. Either way, your DJ needs to know

Name: “Do not play” lists.

Age: It’s probably been a thing for pretty much as long as playlists have been a thing, but it’s now more officially a thing because there was just a New York Times article about them.

This versatile spice has long outgrown its Spanish and Hungarian roots to bring richness, warmth, colour and flavour to a host of dishes

Sweet, smoked, hot … What’s the difference between the various paprikas? And are there any substitutes?
“Paprika brings warmth, it brings colour and it brings another layer of flavour,” says Monika Linton, founder of Brindisa. “Even just a sprinkling over goat’s cheese on toast, hummus or any kind of dip, along with a bit of olive oil, will bring it to life.” Crucial to both Spanish and Hungarian cuisines, paprika is made by drying peppers (generally speaking, Hungarian varieties are air-dried whereas the Spanish stuff is smoke-dried) and grinding them to a fine powder. The taste, meanwhile, depends on the variety of pepper used, although, as Linton points out, not all tins of paprika specify that.

“Paprika brings a certain richness,” says Jeremy Salamon, author of Second Generation and chef/owner of Hungarian restaurant Agi’s Counter in New York. “It has this unique, vegetal, unripe fruit-like quality, and lends itself in different ways to different dishes.” While he generally has sweet (“to use as a flavour base to build on with other spices”) and smoked (“to whip into butters”) to hand, hot paprika always comes out tops: “I like the kick it adds, so I’ll use it in chicken paprikash or in a pimento cheese dip.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Supercharge your search and beat the screening, sharpen your speaking skills and boost your negotiating position

The fear that artificial intelligence (AI) will replace millions of jobs is widespread. But equally, in today’s tough job market, not using AI wisely as part of your search could mean you miss out. It’s a tricky balancing act to harness the technology’s power without losing the human touch.

We live under mutual surveillance, asked to leave public ratings for every purchase, meal, taxi ride or hair appointment. What is it doing to us?

‘Alexlilly1999* has left you feedback!” pings the Vinted notification. My stomach flips as the app loads and I open my review: “Quite good.” A gut punch. I sit in shock, scrutinising the words in front of me. “Good” is a bit uninspired but “quite” feels both passive-aggressive and viciously spiteful: quite good. Alexlilly1999 has also given me just four stars. It’s a lukewarm write-up considering the dress I sold them was good quality, a brilliant price and shipped quickly. I glare at the review. And then another notification pops up: do I want to leave feedback for the buyer? Well, yes, actually, I do.

It’s likely we’ve all, at some stage, been asked to leave feedback online. Called your electricity provider with a query? Please answer a few quick questions about the service you received. Had something delivered by a courier? Please rate your experience. Often, the promise of prizes – from £200 worth of high street vouchers, to spa trips and luxury hampers – is dangled in exchange for our appraisals. We’re asked to judge the people who serve us coffee; drive us in taxis; cut our hair; extract our teeth. A friend of a friend was recently asked to leave feedback for an interview process just moments after the company had rejected them for the role.

The contrast of hot, sticky chilli with the sweet, ripe mango and tomatoes is extraordinary

Thinly slice 2 large tomatoes – I use beefsteak – and put them in a mixing bowl. Scrub, peel and very thinly slice a couple of small beetroot (a golden or candy-stripe variety is a colourful addition, but any sweet beet will do). Add to the bowl with the tomato.

Peel 1 medium-sized, ripe mango. Cut thin slices of flesh from each side of the stone and add them to the mixing bowl. Squeeze the fruit in your fist into the bowl to extract as much juice as possible, then discard the stone.

I like to eat this as soon as it is dressed, to get the mixture of hot, cold, sweet and sour.

In hot weather, I have been known to swap the beetroot for cucumber, peeled and thickly sliced and, on occasions, have tossed in a few cooked prawns and a big handful of coriander.

From spinning off the coast of East Sussex to camping a rod’s length from a Scottish loch, the author of a new guide to wild angling chooses beautiful spots to fish affordably

Winchester, Hampshire
Grayling are prolific along the stretch of the River Itchen between Wharf Mill and City Mill, and offer the best chance of a catch. To be able to fish the River Itchen for free is a gift; this is the same river that Frederic Halford and GEM Skues fished more than 100 years ago, starting fly-fishing as we know it today. Shrimp and caddis patterns work best for fly fishing here. It’s rare to see rising trout in these town waters except during the mayfly season so time your fishing trip appropriately if it’s trout you’re after. The mayfly season is not exact but it tends to run between late May and early June here.
winchester.gov.uk

We’re curious to hear whether the ways in which people have experienced housing have affected or even changed their outlook and politics, and if so, how

As housing – the lack, cost, and quality thereof – continues to dominate political agendas globally, we’re keen to hear how the experience of housing may have affected people’s politics and general views.

Has your experience of housing been rather positive or negative? Has housing been a problem that has shaped other parts of your life, or have you experienced housing that has provided opportunities? Have you experienced housing only as a consumer, or also as a business? Have any of these or other experiences changed your political thinking or values, your habits or your outlook on the world? Tell us.

We’d like to hear from UK renters who have been asked to pay a fee or higher rent because they owned a pet

MP Taiwo Owatemi’s £900 expense claim for a landlord’s surcharge to let her keep her dog in her London flat has prompted ministers to ask the Commons authorities for a review of allowance rules.

The MP, who has a cockapoo called Bella, made her expense claim last August and it was accepted by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa). But security minister Dan Jarvis said on Sunday he would not have made such a claim, and criticised the rules that allowed his Labour colleague to do so.

We’d like to hear your memories of the retail store and how you might be affected by its sale

The 233-year-old brand, WH Smith, is to sell its 480 retail stores to the Hobbycraft owner, Modella Capital.

The high street business, which employs 5,000 staff, will disappear from the high street after a “short transitional period” but will retain its brand for its travel shops. The other retail stores will be rebranded as TGJones.

Tell us about your favourite coastal place to eat and drink – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break

Eating fish and chips by the beach, slurping ice-cream close to the waves, sipping cocktails as the sun sets over the sea … a foodie treat always adds to a trip to the seaside. Whether it’s a cool bar right on the beach, a favourite coastal chippie or a great cafe, we’d love to hear about your tasty beside-the-sea discoveries in the UK. Tell us where it is and why you love it for the chance to win a £200 holiday voucher.

If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words that will be judged for the competition.

These creatures evolved over millenia to create nature’s finest circular economy, but are now struggling to survive

There’s no preparing for a first encounter with a thriving coral reef: your attention ricochets between dramas of colour, form and movement. A blaze of fire coral, darting clown fish, crimson sponge, electric blue ray … a turtle! Your heart soars, your head spins. Nowhere else will you encounter such density and diversity of life.

Corals are the architects of all this splendour. Their immobile forms suggest plants, but they’re animals – solar-powered ones. Each is a colony of thousands, sometimes millions, of tiny coral polyps, each resembling a slimmed-down sea anemone, just millimetres tall.

Between 24 March and 2 April, we will be profiling a shortlist of 10 of the invertebrates chosen by readers and selected by our wildlife writers from more than 2,500 nominations. The voting for our 2025 invertebrate of the year will run from midday on Wednesday 2 April until midday on Friday 4 April, and the winner will be announced on Monday 7 April.

Whether it’s driving solo from London to Lagos, a month on a motorbike, or vanlife in east Africa, these influencers are sharing their adventures – and helping others to negotiate the difficulties of a ‘weak’ passport

Joy Ebaide was riding her motorbike along a deserted dirt road in rural Tanzania when a black mamba, Africa’s deadliest snake, lunged at her. “It was about two inches away from me, and that’s an experience I’ll never forget,” she says.

Encountering a highly venomous snake was a heart-stopping moment, but it did not put her off travelling. If anything, it made her more determined, and left her feeling that “impossible is nothing”.

Suspected criminal gangs are leaving pigeon racers bereft after a spate of thefts in aviaries across the country

When champion pigeon racer Tom Van Gaver walked into one of his lofts one morning last November, he immediately knew something was wrong. Part of the door had been smashed from the inside. He soon realised it was no accident: thieves had broken into his aviary in Moortsele in Flanders and stolen five birds, including Finn, one of his most renowned breeders. Father and grandfather to many champions, Finn was “the Mona Lisa of the pigeon world”, Van Gaver said.

The five birds, he estimates, were worth €750,000 (£625,000), but like da Vinci’s masterpiece, it is hard to tell, because he had no plans to sell. He had ordered a retirement loft so his oldest birds could live out their days under more sun. Instead, CCTV footage shows one of the thieves snatching Finn and bundling the delicate jade-necked dark bird into a plastic bag.

Attempts to seal porous borders through which guns, drugs and fuel flowed in Assad times are turning local tensions deadly

Hidden trails snake through the mountains in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa valley, the furrowed earthen paths veering off before entirely disappearing into the mountainside scrub. “That’s Syria,” said Haidar, a smuggler using a pseudonym, tracing with his finger the contours of a route that if followed for about half a mile would cross the borders of Syria and Lebanon with authorities being none the wiser.

In the remote Lebanese village of Qasr, borders are just a suggestion. The town sits a stone’s throw from Syria and save for three soldiers manning an army checkpoint at the entry to the village, the presence of the Lebanese state is minimal.

As floodwater flows past towns and cattle and sheep stations – normally isolated by desert – many now sit as islands amid a muddy sea

Many are those rescued from Munga-Thirri-Simpson Desert – in what is normally the dust bowl of outback Queensland – who have sunk wheels in a sand dune, busted tyres upon gibber rock or even been bogged in the mud left by a sudden downpour. But Tony Woolford is among a far more exclusive club.

In fact, the 66-year-old South Australian may well be the first person ever plucked by helicopter in this, one of the driest places on Earth, from flood waters.

In an international survey last year, 39% of respondents said they selectively avoid news to some degree

When Deborah Turness, the head of BBC News, informed her staff recently that she was shaking up how they worked as part of a drive to combat “the growing trend of news avoidance”, she had in mind the likes of Dave Ayres, a handyman from Leeds.

“I used to have the news on the TV every morning for an hour or so as I got the children ready for school and completed my household tasks,” he said. “Now it has literally been switched off and unplugged. I can’t cope with it any more. It’s just too much and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

At 18, Saraya-Jade Bevis had a rags-to-riches signing that took her from Norwich to the largest wrestling promotion in the world. A few years later, she hit rock bottom. Here is how she started over

It’s hard to know where to start with champion wrestler Saraya-Jade Bevis. Do we start in the same place as her memoir, at rock bottom aged 25 when a sex tape of Bevis taking part in a threesome was leaked and went viral? At that time, Bevis was suspended from wrestling, addicted to alcohol and, she says, snorting so much cocaine that her nose was spraying out blood.

Or do we start with her childhood in Norwich, raised by a family of wrestlers, ex-cons and alcoholics, living in a council house where, she says, the rent was always due and dinner might be mashed potato sandwiches. The childhood sexual abuse that she had kept hidden for most of her life? Her rags-to-riches signing at 18 to WWE, the largest wrestling promotion in the world? Her new life in the US, when she was enjoying success as champion wrestler Paige, but feeling lonely, homesick, vulnerable? She met some very bad men. She partied too hard. She fractured her neck. She spent five years in recovery before returning to the ring. Her memoir is called Hell in Boots: Clawing My Way Through Nine Lives for good reason. “There’s actually a lot I had to leave out as I couldn’t fit it all in,” Bevis says of the book. “How am I only 32?”

Hundreds of projects supported by USAID have been thrown into doubt, as fears grow of an increase in crimes such as poaching and trafficking

When the guns finally fell silent in 1992, little was left alive in Gorongosa national park. During the 15 years of Mozambique’s civil war – in which more than a million people died – the country’s wildlife also paid a terrible price. Poaching for meat and ivory was so intense that the small surviving elephant population rapidly evolved to lose their tusks. Leopards, wild dogs and spotted hyenas had all disappeared. Populations of zebra, buffalo and other herbivores had collapsed.

In the following years, a huge effort to restore the park took shape. Led by the philanthropist Gregory Carr and Mozambique’s government, it was the start of the park’s journey to becoming one of Africa’s most celebrated wildlife conservation success stories. Today, elephants, lions, hippos, antelope, painted wolves, hyenas and leopards all thrive in the park once again – thanks to work that for the past 20 years has been supported by a long-term partnership with USAID.

‘It’s become a sort of folk song. It’s played at weddings and funerals. Dundee United play it when we win. I’ve met people who’ve told me, “I was a worker for the council for 20 years” – just like the guy in the song’

I was a teacher in Glasgow but I wanted to start a band and write songs that meant something to people. Dignity began life during a holiday in Crete in 1985. I bought Sounds magazine at the airport. Morrissey was on the cover and the headline “Home thoughts from abroad” got me thinking about Glasgow. I was living in a tenement flat in Pollokshields, from where I’d see the cleansing department guys sweeping the road. So I started writing about a “worker for the council, has been 20 years” who dreamed of sailing away on a “ship called Dignity”.

We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.

This week, from 2022: In northern Norway, trees are rapidly taking over the tundra and threatening an ancient way of life that depends on snow and ice

By Ben Rawlence. Read by Christien Anholt

The parliamentary leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, has been banned from public office for five years for embezzlement, ruining her chance of a presidential run. Angelique Chrisafis reports

It is a sentence that has prompted anger among rightwing leaders across the world and led to accusations that democracy is being threatened. This week, Marine Le Pen, the parliamentary leader of the National Rally (RN), the largest opposition party in the French parliament, was banned for five years from public office for embezzlement. Along with more than 20 others, she was found to have used money for European parliament assistants to pay party workers.

The shock sentence could end Le Pen’s hopes of running for president in 2027. She is now appealing and has hit back furiously, as have her supporters and allies. Some of her support could hurt her more than it helps, however. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said in response that “more and more European capitals are going down the path of violating democratic norms”. While Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán have also weighed in.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Emma Sanders and Tom Garry to discuss a dramatic week for the women’s game

On this week’s Guardian Women’s Football Weekly: the panel discuss both Arsenal and Chelsea’s progression into the semi-finals of the Champions League.

With the international break looming, the relegation battle is on. Liverpool lost at home against Aston Villa, who moved out of the drop zone and four points clear of Crystal Palace.

While other diet fads come and go, the ultra low carbohydrate Keto diet seems to endure. But as scientists begin to understand how the diet works, more is also being discovered about its risks. To find out more, Madeleine Finlay speaks to Javier Gonzalez, professor in the department of health at the University of Bath, with a special interest in personal nutrition. He explains how the diet works, what it could be doing to our bodies and what could really be behind the weight loss people experience while on it

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company has been targeted by protests across the world

“It felt like you were driving in this future dream car,” says Mike Schwede, an entrepreneur based between Zurich and London. For him, driving a Tesla used to feel special.

“People on the streets really liked it,” Schwede says. “I got so many thumbs-up.”

Invertebrates may be the unsung heroes of the planet but they have received a lot of love and recognition from Guardian readers. A dazzling array of nominations have flown in for insects, arachnids, snails, crustaceans, corals and many more obscure creatures for our invertebrate of the year competition. Natural history reporter Patrick Barkham reviews this year’s shortlist of 10

• Vote for the beast that may be as ruthlessly predatory as us – the fen raft spider

Red Cross officials have said Myanmar faces a humanitarian crisis after the deadly 7.7-magnitude earthquake. About 1,700 people have died and at least 300 people have been reported missing

Rescue efforts are entering their third day and attempts to find survivors are intensifying after a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar and Thailand, killing at least 1,600 people and injuring more than 3,400. At least 139 others are missing. The initial quake struck near Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, collapsing buildings, downing bridges and buckling roads, causing mass destruction in Myanmar's second largest city

• Myanmar earthquake: search for survivors continues as UN warns over medical supply shortage – latest updates

• Aftershocks frighten Myanmar survivors while death toll from Bangkok high-rise collapse rises

Net zero is a target that countries should be striving for to stop the climate crisis. But beyond the buzzword, it is a complex scientific concept – and if we get it wrong, the planet will keep heating.

Biodiversity and environment reporter Patrick Greenfield explains how a loophole in the 2015 Paris climate agreement allows countries to cheat their net zero targets through creative accounting, and how scientists want us to fix it

Members of the Trump administration, including the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, routinely vilified Hillary Clinton's use of a private server for classified emails, before and after Trump defeated her in the 2016 presidential election. Hegseth and Rubio, as well as CIA director, John Ratcliffe, and national security advisor, Mike Waltz, were all in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen to which a journalist for the Atlantic was inadvertently added. Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton reacted to the leak by saying on X: 'You have got to be kidding me'

• White House inadvertently texted top-secret Yemen war plans to journalist

• Exploitable flaws: what US adversaries could learn from White House security failure

• Outrage after White House accidentally texts journalist war plans: ‘Huge screw-up’

As droughts become more prevalent, corporate control over our drinking water is threatening the health of water sources and the access people have to them. Josh Toussaint-Strauss explores how foreign multinational companies are extracting billions of litres of water from natural aquifers to sell back to the same communities from which it came – for huge profits

• ‘It’s not drought - it’s looting’: the Spanish villages where people are forced to buy back their own drinking water

• Foreign firms taking billions of litres from UK aquifers to make bottled water

The prison population in England and Wales has doubled in the last 30 years, with overcrowding now endemic across the system. But the government's strategy of easing this pressure by granting early release to thousands of offenders has had a knock-on effect. With many lacking stability on the outside, reoffending rates are high, exacerbating the existing problem. The Guardian visited Wales to see this playing out on the streets of Bridgend; and the Netherlands, to find out how the Dutch have managed to close more than 20 prisons in the past 10 years, seemingly in complete contrast to the struggles in Britain

With thanks to Prison Escape Utrecht and Tap Social Movement

A pod of dolphins were seen swimming near a SpaceX capsule after it splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico carrying US astronauts Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams and Nicholas Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Wilmore and Williams had been stuck aboard the International Space Station for nine months due to an issue with a new Boeing capsule

In Sudan, fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, appear to have filmed and posted online videos of themselves glorifying the burning of homes and the torture of prisoners. These videos could be used by international courts to pursue war crime prosecutions.

Kaamil Ahmed explains how the international legal system is adapting to social media, finding a way to use the digital material shared online to corroborate accounts of war crimes being committed in countries ranging from Ukraine to Sudan

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

For many Israelis, military service is a rite of passage that lasts two to three years. Being such a formative part of the social contract in Israel, it is unusual for eligible young people to refuse their draft orders. Every year some ask for exemptions, but only a handful openly declare themselves as conscientious objectors, commonly known as refuseniks. However, since 7 October and the war in Gaza, refusenik organisations say the number of people refusing the draft has risen, even though during wartime punishments are harsher. The Guardian’s Middle East correspondent, Bethan McKernan, spent time with Itamar Greenberg, an 18-year-old who has been in and out of military prison for almost a year as a result of his refusal to serve

Plastics are everywhere, but their smallest fragments – nanoplastics – are making their way into the deepest parts of our bodies, including our brains and breast milk.

Scientists have now captured the first visual evidence of these particles inside human cells, raising urgent questions about their impact on our health. From the food we eat to the air we breathe, how are nanoplastics infiltrating our systems?

Neelam Tailor looks into the invisible invasion happening inside us all

Mazyouna, a 13-year-old girl from Gaza, lost the right side of her jaw in an Israeli attack on her home in Gaza that killed her brother and sister. She was denied access by Israel to life-altering surgery abroad for more than six months. Only after the publication of a Guardian article condemning her treatment were Mazyouna, her mother and her surviving sibling granted permission to leave - her father was not permitted to join them. Their evacuation and specialist surgery at the El Paso children's hospital in Texas was facilitated by FAJR Scientific, an organisation that evacuates children in need of medical treatment from war zones.

Last month, the World Health Organization urged a rapid scaling-up of medical evacuations from Gaza where thousands remain in critical condition

The shape of the Trump 2.0 White House has spurred serious concerns about public health and reproductive rights, and left military leaders 'stunned' and former intelligence experts 'appalled'. From a vaccine skeptic in charge of running the department of health, to a wrestling mogul in charge of the country's education, and even a ‘deep state conspiracy theorist’ becoming head of the FBI, the Guardian US live news editor Chris Michael takes us through the six most controversial members, and what their appointments could mean for the country

• Tracking Trump cabinet confirmations – so far

• Trump’s first full cabinet meeting celebrates government-shrinking effort led by Musk

On 21 February, 12-year-old Ayman al-Hammouni was killed, shot by Israeli fire, video footage seen by the Guardian suggests. Two cameras recorded the circumstances of Ayman's death. The Guardian has used this footage to tell the story of the child’s last moments

• Gunshots and a surge of panic: footage shows last moments of boy, 12, killed in the West Bank

China has dramatically increased military activities around Taiwan, with more than 3,000 incursions into Taiwan's airspace in 2024 alone. Amy Hawkins examines how Beijing is deploying 'salami-slicing' tactics, a strategy of gradual pressure that stays below the threshold of war while steadily wearing down Taiwan's defences. From daily air incursions to strategic military exercises, we explore the four phases of China's approach and what it means for Taiwan's future

A GP surgery in one of the most deprived areas in the north-east of England is struggling to provide care for its patients as the health system crumbles around them. In the depths of the winter flu season, the Guardian video producers Maeve Shearlaw and Adam Sich went to Bridges medical practice to shadow the lead GP, Paul Evans, as he worked all hours keep his surgery afloat. Juggling technical challenges, long waiting lists and the profound impact austerity has had on the health of the population, Evans says: 'We are seeing the system fail' 

Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, direct to your inbox every Thursday

Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday

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Each week we’ll send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. We’ll also send you the latest recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi, Nigel Slater, Meera Sodha and all our star cooks, stand-out food features and seasonal eating inspiration, plus restaurant reviews from Grace Dent and Jay Rayner.

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The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

She dressed up as a bullfighter, sat in a window with two magpies and flew colossal flags of warning. We go inside a fascinating new exhibition of photographs by multimedia artist Rose Finn-Kelcey

Worshippers offered Eid al-Fitr prayers across the world, marking the culmination of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan

By grazing between trees and removing potential wildfire fuel, wild horses help protect Galicia’s delicate ecosystems, but Europe’s largest herd has declined to just 10,000

The actor best known for his roles in TV shows including Dr Kildare and The Thorn Birds has died aged 90. We look back at his career on stage and in film and television

• ‘King of the miniseries’ dies aged 90
• Richard Chamberlain – full obituary

The beautiful and hardy herds of the Welsh valleys act as a counterpoint to three decades of change in photographer Ken Grant’s images

Ken Grant’s Cwm: A Fair Country, a collection of nearly 30 years of landscape photography in the South Walian valleys, begins with a moving prologue. It mentions a painting he’s known since his Liverpudlian childhood, still sitting above his 92-year-old father’s mantelpiece: “Dapple-bruised Welsh horses, painted in a loose herd, are imagined beneath a sky that promises rain.”

From 1998, on commutes from Liverpool to the University of Wales, Newport (where he led a documentary photography degree), he noticed similar horses – completely by coincidence. “I didn’t seek them out at first, but on my drives, I soon got aware that they were there. Sometimes up a valley’s road, you’d see packs of 40 or 50.”