With some demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza and others with Israel, students waved flags and chanted slogans

Students demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza waved Palestinian flags and keffiyehs and chanted anti-war slogans during the University of Michiganas commencement ceremony on Saturday.

Videos on social media showed students donning their graduation gowns as they appeared to chant: aIsrael bombs, UMich pays!a and aHow many kids have you killed today?a One photo showed a plane appearing to carry a sky banner over the university with the message: aDivest from Israel now! Free Palestine!a

Flood watch in effect through Sunday with evacuations in some areas as more rain forecast for already soaked region

The Houston area was under threat of worsening flood conditions on Saturday, a day after heavy storms slammed the region a and authorities warned those in low-lying areas to evacuate ahead of an expected acatastrophica surge of water the likes of which havenat been seen since Hurricane Harvey.

A flood watch remained in effect through Sunday afternoon as forecasters predicted additional rainfall on Saturday night, bringing another 1-3in (2.5-7.6cm) of water to the soaked region and the likelihood of major flooding.

Egyptian and US mediators report signs of compromise, but many analysts remain pessimistic

• Middle East crisis a live updates

Hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza rose on Saturday as a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to continue indirect talks, with what is believed to be a response to a new proposal, reportedly agreed by Israel, to halt fighting for an initial 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Egyptian and US mediators have reported signs of compromise in recent days and Egyptian state news channel Al-Qahera said on Saturday that a consensus had been reached in the indirect talks over many of the disputed points but gave no further details.

As she tries to limit the fallout from her dog- and goat-killing anecdotes, factual inaccuracies in her book are coming to light

As she entered a second consecutive weekend trying to manage fallout from revelations in her upcoming memoir that she shot her dog to death, South Dakotaas governor, Kristi Noem, had conceded that she would need to correct multiple factual inaccuracies in other parts of the book.

Meanwhile, a Republican fundraiser which Noem was supposed to headline had to be canceled after threats against the event staff, hotel venue and governor, according to organizers.

Berkshire Hathaway CEO stressed relationship at annual meeting attracting Apple CEO Tim Cook, Bill Gates and Bill Murray

The billionaire investment tycoon Warren Buffett has stressed his empire will remain a key investor in Apple after it sold billions of dollarsa worth of shares in the iPhone maker.

Thousands of shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway, Buffettas sprawling conglomerate, have flocked to Omaha, Nebraska, for the firmas annual meeting a dubbed Woodstock for Capitalists a this weekend.

Hundreds of cities across Rio Grande so Sul hit by floods with 32,000 people displaced and infrastructure destroyed

The death toll from rains in Brazilas southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul has risen to 57, local authorities said on Saturday afternoon, while dozens still have not been accounted for.

The stateas civil defence authority said 67 people were still missing and more than 32,000 had been displaced as storms affected nearly two-thirds of the 497 cities in the state.

Shug the pinstriped pony, who hoofed it as her trailer stopped on a highway, was eventually found horsing around

A zebra that escaped from her owner in Washington state and went on the run for nearly six days has finally been rescued.

In a statement released on Friday, the regional animal services of King county (Raskc) announced that the zebra a whose name is Shug a was captured near North Bend after roaming in the foothills of the Cascades for the better part of a week.

Kyiv says Moscow forces have gained afootholda in area north of Donetsk city after pounding depleted defenders

• Putin on our doorstep: Ukrainians watch as the frontline edges closer

The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by the Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

Russian troops have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyivas depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs. Ukraineas military has acknowledged that Russia has gained a afootholda in Ocheretyne, which had a population of about 3,000 before the war, but says the fighting there is continuing.

Last yearas deadly Maui wildfire revealed the extent of short-term rentals and their contribution to the stateas housing shortage

Hawaii lawmakers have voted to put limits on short-term rentals such as Airbnbs. On Friday, the governor, Josh Green, signed a bill that would give counties the power to regulate short-term rentals and even phase them out to become long-term housing for local residents.

The move on short-term rentals was one of several legislative decisions to come out of Fridayas meeting of the state legislature. It also appropriated $1bn to go toward the ongoing recovery from the Lahaina fire on 8 August, including more than $120m in rental assistance for people who are ineligible for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and $500m for emergency housing for residents who remain displaced, according to ABC News.

Jerry and Rita Alter, now deceased, are suspected of having stolen artworks in the 80s, including Willem de Kooningas Woman-Ochre

The mystery of a nondescript, middle-aged couple who hung a stolen $150m Willem de Kooning painting behind a bedroom door in their Cliff, New Mexico, home may be closer to being resolved after the FBI agreed to assist in tracking down two other paintings that had been in the coupleas possession.

A new twist to the story of Jerry and Rita Alter, a pair of New Mexico teachers who somehow funded a life of travel and adventure to the point that they are suspected international art thieves, emerged recently when the USas top federal law enforcement agency confirmed it was getting involved in the case.

Court hears effects of 2021 leak, in which thousand of gallons of fuel seeped into drinking water supply from US navy storage tank

Military and civilian families told a federal judge this week they continue to be sickened, more than two years after a US navy underground fuel storage facility leaked thousands of gallons of jet fuel into Pearl Harboras main drinking water and caused a water crisis in the Pacific.

United States district court judge Leslie Kobayashi heard testimony from nearly a dozen impacted families suing the US government over the leak from the second world war era storage tanks that has resulted in vomiting, diarrhea, rashes and other ailments. Plaintiffs said the illnesses are connected to the tainted water serving the nearly 93,000 residents in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

Effects of heat are expected to worsen after bill prohibiting municipalities from enacting shade and water protection is passed

For Javier Torres and other workers whose jobs are conducted outdoors in south Florida, the heat is unavoidable. A new law recently signed by Ron DeSantis, Floridaas Republican governor, that prohibits any municipalities in the state from passing heat protections for workers ensures that it is likely to stay that way.

Torres has seen a co-worker die from heatstroke and another rushed to the emergency room in his years of working in construction in south Florida. He has also fallen and injured himself due to heat exhaustion.

With the ex-president punished for violating a gag order, the third week of the hush-money trial resembled his fraud case

It was deja vu for Donald Trump at his Manhattan criminal trial this week in more ways than one.

Six months ago a New York judge threatened to throw a former US president in prison for violating a gag order. Remarkably, in a courthouse up the street just six months later, Trump was again threatened with jail time.

The seaside tourist community, like the southern state as a whole, has seen huge demographic change since 2020

The area around Wilmington, North Carolina, was once rock-ribbed Republican red. No longer. Itas contested territory in what may be the most contested state in the country this year.

Donald Trump had planned a rally in Wilmington earlier this month but was rained out at the last moment. Trump promised to return with a bigger and better rally later. Joe Biden visited Wilmington on Thursday, after a detour to Charlotte to meet with the families of four law enforcement officers killed on Monday while serving an arrest warrant. It was his second visit to North Carolina this year and is unlikely to be his last.

Many say the bill would help survivors be heard, broadening the range of people able to petition to see their sentence reviewed

In 1995, on the day before Kelly Savage-Rodriguez planned to flee her abusive husband, she ran some final errands while her children, ages three and one, napped. She hoped to take them on the early morning Amtrak from Porterville, California, to Los Angeles and stay with her brother, but when she returned, she said, she found that her husband had beaten and killed her three-year-old son, Justin. She called 911. The police arrested her along with her husband.

Savage-Rodriguez was jailed as she awaited trial, and said her lawyer did not have training in advocating for clients who suffered domestic violence. The judge used her history of abuse against her, she said, and said she was equally at fault for her sonas death under Californiaas afailure to protecta charges that can criminalize the non-abusive parent in a domestic violence case because she had not fled. She was later convicted and sentenced to life without parole, same as her abuser.

The troubled child actor turned chatshow host faces flak for her toe-curling interview with Kamala Harris. But oversharing is all part of her shtick

An office-style desk was once the key prop on a television chatshow a a standard piece of kit beloved of Johnny Carson and David Letterman, not to mention Britainas Jonathan Ross. Then the comfy sofa took over and guests began to scooch along, making room for each other. Now, though, under the auspices of Drew Barrymore, host of a daytime show on CBS, itas the lowly rug that is taking centre stage.

Barrymore, who is still best known internationally for her childhood role as the little girl in ET, likes to interact with her guests on a fluffy rug in the middle of her set in New Yorkas Broadcast Center. She has prostrated herself upon it more than once in front of her studio audience and prefers it to the showas pink satin armchairs.

The emergence of trillions of cicadas is under way in parts of the US a what should you do when theyare around, and what on earth are azombiea cicadas?

The cicadas are arriving. The periodic emergence of trillions of cicadas, on a scale not seen in several hundred years, is under way in parts of the US, with several states reporting the orange-eyed insects are bursting from their underground dormancy.

Cicadas have started arriving earlier than expected in Illinois, a cicada hotspot this year, while there are reports of swarms emerging in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, along with some other states.

For two years, a viral joke mocking the singeras dancing threatened to overshadow her record-breaking success a but the laser-focused star had the last laugh. And now she has her sights set on building a media empire

The London hotel room is huge, with a grand piano in one corner. In the middle is a stash of crisps, nuts and drinks, laid out as if we were in a high-end store. And on a sofa I can just about make out Dua Lipa, lost in the vastness. She could be a top footballer a red hair tied back, fresh-faced, wearing black tracksuit bottoms and a striped top. Iam trying to think what club it is. Barcelona?

She laughs. aNo, I designed it. Itas merch.a I look closely. On the front, it says Training Season a the title of the second single from her forthcoming album, Radical Optimism. Ah, that makes sense; she is playing for FC Dua Lipa. Over the next hour, Lipa makes it clear that sheas a devoted fan of FC Dua Lipa, gives her all to it, and can only see it growing exponentially. Something I wouldnat dare to disagree with.

Russian forces are advancing in the countryas eastern regions, but the recent arrival of US arms could help turn the tide

It was a perfect May evening. Daria Karpinska and her friends sat in the corner of a five-a-side pitch and played cards. Nearby was their school. Swifts had returned to their village of Hrodivka and screeched in a sunny blue sky.

Suddenly, a loud whoosh-whoosh noise interrupted the teenagersa game of afoola: the sound of a Grad missile. Seconds later came the boom of artillery. aItas louder today than yesterday,a said 14-year-old Karpinska matter-of-factly.

The US academic on why the Mr Burns caricature of rich people is wrong, the double-edged sword of godlike technologies, and why young people shouldnat follow their passion

Scott Galloway is an American professor of marketing at New York University Stern school of Business. He has founded and sold several tech firms, and served on the board of directors of companies such as the New York Times and Urban Outfitters. With tech journalist Kara Swisher he co-hosts the hugely popular tech and business podcast Pivot. He is a fierce critic of tech companies and their business models and he has written five books, the latest of which is The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula for Economic Security.

You spend a lot of time with wealthy and successful people. Do they have any common habits?
Well, the most common attribute Iave registered is they were born at the right place at the right time. What Iave found is that the majority of peopleas success is not their fault. And I think something that plagues people, especially tech bros, is they conflate luck with talent. But across those who excel, the thing I have found is that if you want to be successful, you need to collect allies along the way. Thereas this cartoon of Monty Burns in The Simpsons, the guy who owns the power plant, who has no friends, who lights cigars with a hundred dollar bill. But what I have found is that really wealthy people are constantly put in rooms of opportunities, because from a young age theyave acquired allies.

Beset by hurricanes and rising insurance prices, the city saw people leaving in droves a but a program is encouraging jazz artists to move to the amost exciting musical city in the worlda

Hammered by hurricanes, rutted streets and rising insurance rates, the metro New Orleans area saw 45,000 people leave between 2020 and 2023 a a 4.3% outmigration worse than any other US urban area.

Those departures seemed a surreal idea as vast crowds streamed into the annual two-week Jazz and Heritage festival sponsored by Shell, set to conclude Sunday. Thursday marked the main event at the sprawling array of stages and food booths at the Fair Grounds race track a the Rolling Stones concert, sold out at $225 a ticket.

Covid vaccines, chemtrails, the Great Reset a| Why do people invent false conspiracies when there are so many real ones to worry about? Thereas only one way to find out: ask a believer

I am a conspiracy theorist. I believe that groups of people conspire secretly against our interests to line their pockets, cover their backs or achieve political goals. By this definition I suspect you are, too. We see evidence of these conspiracies every day. We see them in the Horizon scandal, in which the Post Office kept prosecuting innocent operators. We see them in the governmentas use of a aVIPa lane for procuring PPE from friends and donors at extortionate prices. We see them in the Windrush scandal, in which people were denied their legal rights and unlawfully deported by the UK government. In the Cambridge Analytica scandal: a secretive micro-targeting campaign likely to have influenced the Brexit vote. In the Panama Papers and the Pandora Papers, showing how the ultra-rich hide their money from taxes and legal scrutiny.

All these are conspiracies in the true sense: hidden machinations that advance particular interests while causing harm to others. A theory is a rational explanation, subject to disproof. If you accept these scandals are the result of hidden machinations, which they evidently are, you are a conspiracy theorist.

Protests are part of nationwide movement pushing universities to divest from businesses that support the war in Gaza

As the sun rose on a campus littered with wreckage, pro-Palestine protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles, were still facing off with lines of riot cops and chanting aWeare not leaving!a

Police had cleared UCLAas student encampment in a late-night operation, and arrested at least 200 pro-Palestine demonstrators early on Thursday morning . The schoolas student newspaper said ahundredsa had been arrested, including students and faculty.

Tourists delighted as pinnipeds congregate at cityas Pier 39, apparently attracted by feast of anchovies

More than 1,000 sea lions have gathered at San Franciscoas Pier 39 this spring, the largest herd in at least 15 years.

Mounds of floppy, delightfully ungraceful marine mammals have plopped themselves on to rafts along the cityas pier, displaying themselves to the thousands of tourists who pass by the area each day.

Researchers visited the Chicago Cafe to find out if itas really 121 years old a and entered a chop suey parlor filled with memories

On a warm morning in March, a group of researchers entered an unassuming chop suey parlor in the Sacramento suburbs for a rare field trip.

The six history enthusiasts affiliated with the University of California, Davis, had gathered at the Chicago Cafe in Woodland, California, with one goal in mind: to determine the exact age of what may be the oldest Chinese restaurant in the country.

Workers removed remnants of the Gaza encampment while pieces of plywood painted with aWe love you Gazaa lay about

At the University of California in Los Angeles on Thursday morning, staff were picking up the pieces after two nights of violence that shocked the urban campus.

A loader heaved the remnants of the Gaza protest encampment that law enforcement had forcefully cleared early in the morning into a large grey dumpster. Pieces of plywood spray-painted with aWe love you Gazaa and aACABa (aall cops are bastardsa) still lay about.

Please, listen to us a not political figures, radical fringes and misguided media

On Tuesday night, we watched in horror as hundreds of riot police flooded our beloved campus and brutalized our classmates. The next day, students awoke with swollen faces, bruised wrists, and lacerations a all results of inhumane police treatment. The past two weeks have been tumultuous, marked with mass arrests of student demonstrators, an encampment on our lawns, national media attention, and vile acts of hatred. Countless have spoken on our behalf. But by speaking over us, media outlets and politicians have created a distorted narrative a one which unfairly characterizes our community.

Now, it is time to elevate student perspectives, the ausa, rather than the athema. The traumatic environment and militarization of our campus are not the sole product of ill-intended protestors or reckless non-affiliates as claimed by administrative emails; rather, they are the fault of the senior administration themselves. For months, this crisis has brewed as administrators neglected student and faculty voices. We must be clear: the administration has put our studentsa safety at risk and has failed to ensure a conducive learning environment. As student leaders, it is time for our voice to be heard.

The buzzy coming-of-age film, about teens obsessed with a schlocky TV show in the 90s, makes for a haunting allegory

As a trans teen in the 1990s, I well remember the flickering glow of the TV screen. Late nights, once everyone else in the house had gone to sleep and I could have a measure of privacy, were the main time in which I could access something even remotely resembling my true self.

Watching the trans film-maker Jane Schoenbrunas new film, I Saw the TV Glow, took me right back to this period of my life. As the title would indicate, Schoenbrunas movie is all about the small screen and what it means in the lives of two queer teens growing up in the 90s.

Reticence over the seizure of Russian state assets in Europe betrays a fatal underestimation of the threat Moscow poses

Europe has plotted an elegant decline that suits the needs of its ageing population, and the Ukraine war cannot be allowed to interfere with that plan.

That is how it seems when EU countries consider circumventing the financial rulebook to offer Ukraine what it needs to overcome waves of drones and break the deadlock on its eastern front.

All praise to a classical singer for last weekas rebellion against a sea of illuminated screens

It was after the third song in Brittenas Les Illuminations that Ian Bostridge decided head had enough. Wheeling round to face the constellation of screen lights that dotted Birminghamas vast Symphony Hall, the tenor called the show to a halt. Could everyone please turn off their phones? It was extremely distracting.

After the performance, which was two weeks ago, Bostridge was surprised to find his phone-happy audience had been perfectly within their rights. More than that: theyad actually been encouraged to video him. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) had last year decided to drop aany perceived arulesa of a traditional concerta in a bid to achallenge conventionsa and get ayoung peoplea interested. Signs in its venues now ask ticketholders to abring drinks into the auditorium. Clap whenever they like. Wear whatever makes them feel comfortable. Take photos or short snippets of film (and share them with us).a

The online world was meant to be an open system but has become dominated by huge corporations. If we are to revive it, that must end

Browsing through a history of online public messaging last week, I came across a magical photograph from 1989 or 1990. It shows the worldas first web server. It was Tim Berners-Leeas NeXT workstation in Cern, the international physics research lab, where he worked at the time. On the case is a tattered sticky label, on which is scribbled, in red ink, aThis machine is a server DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!a

Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, had come up with the idea for a aworld wide weba as a way of locating and accessing documents that were scattered all over the internet. With a small group of colleagues he envisaged, designed and implemented it in the late 1980s and eventually put the whole thing a protocols, server and browser software, HTML specification, etc. a on one of Cernas internet servers, and in doing so changed the world.

As elections loom across the continent, Italyas prime minister and the commissionas president are in a dubious alliance

Itas rare that an Italian prime minister tops the table in Europe. But with Germanyas Olaf Scholz and Franceas Emmanuel Macron facing red cards at home, Spainas Pedro SA!nchez briefly stretchered off, and relegated Rishi Sunak sulking on the bench like Liverpoolas Mo Salah, Giorgia Meloni a post-fascist poster girl turned star centre-forward of the new right a is shooting at an open goal.

Itas Melonias moment. In the words of one conservative commentator, she has become aEuropeas essential leadera. And her influence is set to expand next month when up to 450 million eligible voters in 27 countries pick a new EU parliament. Hard-right and far-right nationalist-populist parties, including Melonias Brothers of Italy, are poised for sweeping gains at the expense of the left and the greens.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk

Students across the US are forging bonds in the face of brutal power structures. You might say theyave already won

Teaching an undergraduate class on democracy at Princeton Universityas School of Public and International Affairs this semester has felt urgent and clarifying. In the classroom, weave been looking at backsliding and the slow corrosion of democratic norms in so-called democratic countries. Meanwhile, whatas been happening outside the classroom in more than 120 universities around the US and the world tells us a more ominous story about democracy.

For two weeks, we focused on the United States; there were lively discussions on political polarization, January 6 and the threat posed by supporters of Donald Trump, as well as how robust or fragile US democracy currently is. Looking at each democracy involved criticism of the state. In the class on Israel, we examined, among other areas, controversial proposed judicial reforms, as well as the incarceration of Palestinian minors held in administrative detention, as examples where democratic values might be defined as absent.

Instead of defending the right to protest, many centrists are delegitimizing students, despite the value of what theyare doing

Three things are certain: antisemitism is on the rise; hatred of Muslims is increasing; and everyone a but especially those at universities with time to reflect a should be very, very troubled by this. Without taking account of the hate waves, it is impossible to understand why the seemingly mundane act of pitching a tent on campus has become so high stakes: is it announcing a desire to annihilate Israel, or is it a perfectly legitimate way to protest against particular US (and university) policies?

University administrations are not supposed to take a stance on the content of student activism, but many have declared encampments as such to be unsafe. If anything, though, student (and professor) safety seems to have been endangered by police brutally coming after peaceful protesters.

Erling Haalandas sixth Premier League hat-trick, completed in the opening 45 minutes and featuring two penalties, signalled the goalscoring phenomenon is back in ruthless mood at the very best of times for Manchester City.

After this crushing victory, in which Haaland added a peach of a fourth after the interval, City can do what Arsenal have been doing to them: pile the pressure on in this tightest of title races by winning at Fulham next Saturday, move ahead two points and make the Gunners think before kicking-off at Manchester United 24 hours later.

There are two main stumbling blocks to ridding boxing of PEDs: motivation and cost. Saudi Arabian power broker Turki Alalshikh is uniquely situated to surmount these obstacles

Itas a matter of record that Iave expressed misgivings about the migration of major boxing matches to Saudi Arabia. But I recognize that the Kingdom will be a dominant force in boxing for the foreseeable future.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia, through its General Entertainment Authority (GEA), has hosted an increasing number of high-profile fights. On 18 May, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will battle at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world. This summer, the GEA will extend its reach to fight cards in Los Angeles and London.

Thomas Hauseras email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book a a memoir titled My Mother and Me a is now available in stores. In 2019, he was selected for boxingas highest honor a induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

• Red Bull driver faster than Ferrari duo Leclerc and Sainz
• McLarenas Norris qualifies fifth with Hamilton eighth

Max Verstappen remained determinedly very much on top of qualifying, continuing his unbeaten record for the season with another comfortable pole for the Miami Grand Prix. But in his wake Fernando Alonso is set to square up with Formula Oneas governing body, the FIA. Alonso was angry and frustrated that they had failed to punish Lewis Hamilton after a controversial incident in Saturday morningas sprint, claiming Hamilton had aruined a lot of peopleas racesa.

For Sundayas GP Verstappen once more holds all the cards with his sixth consecutive pole this season, beating the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz into second and third by just over a tenth of a second, having already taken victory in the sprint race.

• Clark scores team-high 21 points as Dallas beat Indiana 79-76
• No 1 draft pick scores first pro basket on 28-foot three-pointer

More than three hours before Caitlin Clark made her WNBA debut with the Indiana Fever in an exhibition game against the Dallas Wings on Friday night, some fans among the sellout crowd were lined up outside the arena dressed in No 22 University of Iowa jerseys.

And Clark put on a show.

• Mavericks beat Clippers 114-101 in Game 6 to clinch series
• Dallas advance to face top seed Oklahoma City in West semis

Luka DonAiA had 28 points and 13 assists, Kyrie Irving scored 28 of his 30 points in a second-half surge and the Dallas Mavericks advanced to the second round of the playoffs with a 114-101 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night.

DonAiA pushed through another rough shooting night with his ailing right knee to do what the Slovenian superstar couldnat three years earlier a close out the Clippers in Dallas in Game 6 of a first-round series.

• Kim makes crucial birdie at last in CJ Cup Byron Nelson
• English teenager is son of former LGPA player Ji-Hyuh Suh

English teenager Kris Kim became the youngest player to make the cut on the PGA Tour in 11 years after a birdie at the last saw him get through to the weekend of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Texas with a shot to spare.

Amateur Kim, the son of former LPGA player Ji-Hyun Suh, made a second-round four-under-par 67, which included a run of five birdies and one bogey over his front nine.

• Zak Brown claims aan increase in CVs coming our waya
• Max Verstappen on pole for Miami GP sprint race

The McLaren team principal, Zak Brown, has said Adrian Neweyas departure from Red Bull has Ainstigated a spate of applications from Red Bull personnel to join McLaren and that the British designer may be only the first domino to fall in an exodus he has precipitated.

Newey, the most successful car designer of the modern era, announced on Wednesday he was Aleaving Red Bull after almost two decades with the team. On AThursday Red Bullas world champion driver Max Verstappen Asaid he would prefer that Newey was not going and that he had played anA Aintegral part in Red Bullas success since the engineer joined the team in 2006, a year after they were formed.

The even-keeled Michigan native, who was sacked as the Lakersa head coach on Friday, was hired for his ability to manage personalities. Once he lost his playersa trust, it was only a matter of a

The date is 31 January, less than two months removed from the Los Angeles Lakersa inaugural NBA Cup championship, and the Lakers are nosediving precipitously, racking up loss after loss in late December and into January. In a competitive Western Conference, being sub-.500, even by a game or two, simply will not get the job done for a championship hopeful. And the team does have a right to be among those hopefuls, buoyed by a shockingly healthy tandem of a freshly-39-year-old LeBron James and injury-prone big man Anthony Davis, who, to this point, have missed a combined eight games and are playing at an All-NBA level. But something clearly isnat working, and time is of the essence. No one knows this better than foe of father time himself, LeBron: that night, after yet another demoralizing loss, he tweets out, simply, an hourglass. A single emoji has never loomed larger.

At the time, there is frantic speculation in regards to what, or to whom, the primitive timepiece is referring. Is it Jamesa underperforming supporting cast, with the trade deadline hovering in the immediate future? Is it the Lakersa front office, who are no doubt aware of his player option looming in the coming offseason? Is it his own NBA mortality, to which he has admitted he will likely succumb sooner rather than later, despite no significant drop-off in production?

Governments issue health warnings as schools shut and crops fail, with fears that worse is to come as heatwave tightens grip

Extreme heat has gripped much of south and south-east Asia over recent weeks, killing dozens of people, forcing millions of students to miss school and destroying crops.

Both the Philippines and Bangladesh shut schools due to the unbearable heat last month, while governments across the region have issued health warnings. In Thailand, at least 30 people have died from heatstroke since the start of the year.

More frequent heatwaves mean bees are unable to thermoregulate their hives a further endangering a species already in decline

Bumblebee nests may be overheating, killing off broods and placing one of the Earthas critical pollinators in decline as temperatures rise, new research has found.

Around the world, many species of Bombus, or bumblebee, have suffered population declines due to global heating, the research said. Bumblebee colonies are known for their ability to thermoregulate: in hot conditions, worker bees gather to beat their wings and fan the hive, cooling it down. But as the climate crisis pushes average temperatures up and generates heatwaves, bumblebees will struggle to keep their homes habitable.

Science Advances report also finds people of color and low-income residents in US disproportionately affected

Using a gas stove increases nitrogen dioxide exposure to levels that exceed public health recommendations, a new study shows. The report, published Friday in Science Advances, found that people of color and low-income residents in the US were disproportionately affected.

Indoor gas and propane appliances raise average concentrations of the harmful pollutant, also known as NO₂, to 75% of the World Health Organizationas standard for indoor and outdoor exposure.

Florida wildlife corridor will spearhead climate resilience if allowed to evolve and essential preparatory work done, study says

Climate predictions in Florida, for the most part, make pretty grim reading. Rising oceans threaten to submerge most of the state by the end of the century, and soaring temperatures could make it too hot to live here anyway.

But new research by a coalition of prominent universities paints a more upbeat picture of Floridaas future as a thriving state for humans and wildlife, with natural resources harnessed to mitigate the worst effects of the climate emergency generally, as well as extreme weather events such as hurricanes and floods.

Ex-presidentas former communications director says Access Hollywood tape awas a crisisa for his campaign

Hope Hicks, Donald Trumpas 2016 campaign press secretary, broke into tears on Friday while testifying in the ex-presidentas New York criminal hush-money trial, hours after she described his complete control over the campaign.

Hicks, who cut a skittish figure in Judge Juan Merchanas courtroom, is a key prosecution witness. She described Trump campaign staffersa panic when a recording emerged in which Trump bragged about groping women. aThis was a crisisa for his presidential bid, she said, describing the sentiment among the campaign staff.

Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota urged the Texas congressman to step down after charges against him were unveiled

The Minnesota congressman who unsuccessfully challenged Joe Biden in the Democratic presidential primary became the first member of their party to call on fellow US House representative Henry Cuellar to resign after federal bribery charges were unveiled against the Texas politician on Friday.

In a post on X, Dean Phillips urged Cuellar to step down, along with other politicians faced with pending criminal cases a including Bidenas presidential predecessor and Republican rival Donald Trump as well as Democratic US senator Bob Menendez.

The man, Marc Shultz, posted multiple comments last October under two separate YouTube livestream videos

A California man has been charged with sending death threats to Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney who is overseeing the Georgia prosecution against Donald Trump over his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state.

The man, Marc Shultz, suggested that Willis awill be killed like a doga in one of several comments he posted under two separate YouTube live streams, according to the US attorneyas office for the northern district of Georgia.

Nine-year-old Branson Baker ran more than a mile for help after parents wounded when twister flung familyas vehicle into trees

A nine-year-old boy is being hailed as a hero for saving his parentsa lives when an Oklahoma tornado tossed the familyas truck into surrounding trees, after reportedly telling them aMom, Dad, please donat die, I will be backa before sprinting for help.

The latest incident comes as at least four people in Oklahoma, including an infant, were killed and dozens injured after multiple tornadoes hit the state.

Heather Pressdee admitted to intentionally injecting excessive doses of insulin into 22 patients across the Pittsburgh area

A former Pennsylvania nurse has been sentenced to life imprisonment after admitting she intentionally injected nearly two dozen of her patients with excessive doses of insulin, killing three of them.

Heather Pressdee was sentenced on Thursday in a Butler county state courthouse near Pittsburgh, where nearly 40 of her victimsa family members spoke about how her crimes upended their lives, according to a news release that prosecutors issued at the conclusion of a case that highlights how frighteningly vulnerable patients can be in healthcare settings.

Actor brings force of Hollywood to trumpet Bidenas legislative record in briefing that both delighted and bemused journalists

aYou will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.a But enough about Washington. The Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, who once saw off gangsters at a fictional spaceport, came to the US capital on Friday for a meeting with Joe Biden.

Quite why he was in the Oval Office, and what was talked about, remained something of a mystery. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Biden was riding high in the opinion polls but now, perhaps, he is in need of added star power.

South Dakota governor says she met North Korean dictator in same book in which she describes killing her dog

The South Dakota governor, Republican vice-presidential hopeful and self-confessed dog-killer Kristi Noemas bizarre claim in a new book to have met the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has been dismissed by experts as adubiousa and not aconceivablea.

The Dakota Scout first reported Noemas claim, which is in her forthcoming book, No Going Back: The Truth on Whatas Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward.

Justices say they will not reconsider contentious February ruling that said frozen embryos are considered children under state law

The Alabama supreme court on Friday declined to reconsider a controversial ruling that said frozen embryos are considered children under a state law.

Justices in a 7-2 decision without comment rejected a request to revisit the ruling that drew international attention and prompted fertility clinics to cease services earlier this year.

Aprilas figure was lower than forecast and unemployment rate ticked up over the month but still market remains strong

Hiring in the US slowed in April with the workforce adding another 175,000 jobs and wage growth slowing.

The news cheered investors hoping that a cooling labor market will prompt the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates a which have been driven to a 20-year high as the US fights stubbornly high inflation. All the major US markets rose on the news.

BF Borgers agrees to $12m civil penalty and owner Benjamin Borgers agrees to pay $2m

The auditor for former president Donald Trumpas Trump Media was accused of running a amassive frauda and a asham audit milla by the USas top financial regulator on Friday.

BF Borgers and its owner Benjamin Borgers, whose clients include Trump Media, were charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with a fraud that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings. Borgers has also acted for financial tech and crypto companies, SEC filings show.

Chinaas president arrives as EU anti-subsidy investigations and tensions over espionage, Ukraine and Taiwan continue

Chinaas president, Xi Jinping, is to visit Europe next week for the first time in five years, in a tour that will take in the unlikely trifecta of France, Hungary and Serbia.

The visit comes as China pushes to avoid a trade war with the EU, while attitudes towards Beijing in the bloc are hardening after multiple spying scandals and Chinaas ongoing support for Russia in the war in Ukraine.

The Home Office last week launched a nationwide operation to round up asylum seekers, leaving many fearful and confused

At 2.37pm on Thursday news that a man had adisappeareda rippled through Londonas raid-resistance WhatsApp groups. The asylum seeker had walked into the Home Office immigration reporting centre in Hounslow, west London, for a routine appointment, as many people seeking refuge in Britain are required to do. His brother waited outside.

But the man did not come out. Ten minutes passed, then 20, then an hour, then three. The brother waiting outside went in, and came out with bad news: his sibling had been detained and told he faced being deported to Rwanda.

Labour incumbent beat Tory candidate Susan Hall, despite inaccurate claims by aexcited Toriesa that she might run him close

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Sadiq Khan has been elected mayor of London, winning a historic third term after a dramatic contest.

Khan was declared the winner over the Conservative candidate, Susan Hall, on Saturday afternoon, with 43.8% of the vote.

Diplomatic spat began when Spanish minister suggested Javier Milei had taken asubstancesa while campaigning

Spain has denounced comments by Argentinaas presidency that accused the Spanish government of bringing apoverty and deatha to its own people.

The office of the Argentinian president, Javier Milei, had published a statement on X, accusing the prime minister, Pedro SA!nchez, of damaging Spainas economy and stability.

Interior minister Nancy Faeser promises atough actiona to protect democracy as political assaults rise

The German interior minister Nancy Faeser has vowed to fight a surge in violence against politicians after a German member of the European parliament had to be taken to hospital following an attack while he was campaigning for re-election.

Matthias Ecke, 41, a member of Faeseras Social Democrats (SPD), was hit and kicked by a group of four people while putting up posters in Dresden, capital of the eastern state of Saxony, police said. An SPD source said his injuries would require an operation.

For 30 years, Brian McNeill hunted the worldas second-biggest fish from small boats off the wild west coast of Ireland. Now the species has made a recovery so rapid it has astounded scientists

The ambush was simple. A spotter on a hill would scan the sea and when he saw the big black fins approach, he would shout down to the boatmen. They would ready their nets and quickly row out to the kill zone.

When a shark got tangled in the mesh, Brian McNeill would wait a minute or two while it struggled, then steady himself and raise his harpoon. This was the crucial moment. The creature would be diving and thrashing, desperate to escape. If the blade hit the gills blood would spurt, clouding the water. The trick was to hit a small spot between the vertebrae.

As the war stretches on indefinitely, there are few eager recruits and Kyivas armed forces are short of soldiers

Anton* was on his way to work as a civilian volunteer in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv 10 days ago. Several men stopped him. They asked: aHi, who are you?a And: aCan you show me your documents please?a One of the officers produced a tablet and scrolled down a list. He found Antonas name. A single word was written next to it in red capital letters: ukhyliant, or draft dodger. The men took him to the nearest conscription office.

That morning, Anton and his colleague Serhii were due to drive a truck full of humanitarian aid to a frontline zone. The two men a aged 32 and 31 a had been checked twice before, once outside a metro station, and on a second occasion while waiting for a tram. They received pieces of paper. The first was a polite request to register details. The second an official summons to report to a recruiting centre as soon as possible.

Inadvertent poisoning of scavengers across Indian subcontinent is forcing some communities to give up ancient custom

Traditional Zoroastrian burial rites are becoming increasingly impossible to perform because of the precipitous decline of vultures in India, Iran and Pakistan.

For millennia, Parsi communities have traditionally disposed of their dead in structures called dakhma, or atowers of silencea. These circular, elevated edifices are designed to prevent the soil, and the sacred elements of earth, fire and water, from being contaminated by corpses.

Siblings Callum and Jake Robinson and US citizen Jack Carter Rhoad were travelling on a surfing holiday when they were reported missing

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Three bodies have been found in an area of northern Mexico where two Australian brothers and an American friend are missing.

Perth siblings Callum and Jake Robinson, both in their 30s, were travelling in the region on a surfing holiday, with their friend Jack Carter Rhoad, a US citizen. The trio was reported missing when they failed to check into pre-arranged accommodation near the city of Ensenada last weekend.

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Third-party hospitality packages are outlawed, yet agency part-owned by associates of Rafael Nadal and LeBron James promises access to top events as well as to stars

Members of the global super-rich are spending as much as $500,000 (APS400,000) on aultra-exclusivea packages for the Paris 2024 Olympics that promoters claim include meeting athletes, access to the athletesa village and athe chance to be part of the opening ceremonya.

GR8 Experience, an ainternational experience agencya part-owned by the business manager of the basketball star LeBron James and the PR manager of the tennis player Rafael Nadal, is selling Olympic packages that it claims include tickets to 14 events such as the menas 100m finals and the opening ceremony for $381,600.

Sofie Hagen loves sex a so why has it been 3,089 days since sheas had any? (1m27s); A flat white can now set you back up to APS5.19 a but should we swallow it? (25m13s); and psychotherapist and Observer columnist Philippa Perry addresses a readeras personal problem (43m51s).

Advances in fields such as spectrometry and gene sequencing are unleashing torrents of new data about the ancient world a and could offer answers to questions we never even knew to ask. By Jacob Mikanowski

With the threat of famine and the invasion of Rafah looming over Gaza, the leaders of Israel and Hamas are discussing a ceasefire deal. Julian Borger reports

The outlook in Gaza appears bleak. A famine looms if not more aid is brought in, while Israel has said it is preparing to invade Rafah, the southern city where half the civilians in Gaza are sheltering. But there is a glimmer of hope.

In Cairo a deal between Israel and Hamas has been tabled and the two sides are discussing whether to accept it. Julian Borger explains how such negotiations happen, what the deal includes and why there is pressure on both sides to make it happen.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair and Archie Rhind-Tutt as Dortmund beat PSG 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final, while Chelsea slip up in a WSL thriller

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today: Dortmund beat PSG in front of the Yellow Wall. So many brilliant performances for the Bundesliga side but, in particular, Jadon Sancho. The panel try to figure out what happens to him this summer.

Glioblastomas are an extremely aggressive type of brain tumour, which is why the news this week of a vaccine that has shown promise in fighting them is so exciting. And this comes right off the back of the announcement of another trial of the worldas first personalised mRNA vaccine for melanoma, a kind of skin cancer. Ian Sample talks to Prof Alan Melcher of the Institute of Cancer Research about how these vaccines work and whether they could one day be used to target cancer before it is even detectable on scans

Clips: BBC

Read more about the personalised cancer vaccine for melanoma

The electric carmakeras Cybertruck was recalled last month after safety concerns emerged over the accelerator pedal. Kari Paul reports

Last month Tesla recalled its Cybertrucks after malfunctions involving the accelerator pedal were reported. It is the latest blow for the US electric carmaker, which has been hit by a series of embarrassing failures since the Cybertruck was delivered to customers late last year.

Kari Paul, a technology reporter for Guardian US, talks to Michael Safi about Teslaas recent struggles, from safety issues to supply-chain delays. Can the companyas embattled chief executive, Elon Musk, turn its fortunes around?

The Guardianas political editor, Pippa Crerar, and the political correspondent Kiran Stacey help you kick off your week with the stories you need to know from inside Westminster

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At 84, The Handmaidas Tale author is as outspoken as ever. She talks about aging, culture wars - and why athe orange guya canat be allowed back into the White House

aIam the great sage on top of the mountain,a Margaret Atwood says with a smile, on a video call from her home in Toronto. aIf youave lived to a certain age people think you know something because they havenat got there yet.a

At 84, most writers could be forgiven for taking it easy, but especially Atwood, after a tumultuous few years that have seen The Handmaidas Tale become a hit TV series; the publication of its long-awaited sequel The Testaments, joint winner of the Booker prize in 2019; and the death of her partner of nearly 50 years, novelist Graeme Gibson. He died of a stroke two days after the UK launch of the novel, and Atwood, with typical grit, carried on with the tour.

The author of bestseller Yellowface on her agentas fears about publishing the novel, the joys of a social media purge and being a workaholic who gets bored easily

Rebecca F Kuang, 27, is an American writer. She and her family emigrated to the US from Guangzhou, China, when she was four; she grew up in Dallas, Texas. Her first novel, The Poppy War, a grimdark fantasy with a plot drawn from elements of the second Sino-Japanese war, was published in 2018. Two sequels followed. A fourth novel, the bestselling Babel, set in 1830s England, came out in 2022. Kuang followed this with a controversial departure: Yellowface. A contemporary melodrama in which a white author steals the manuscript of a dead, far more successful Asian-American novelist and passes it off as her own, it wickedly satirises identity politics in the world of publishing. It comes out in paperback this month. Kuang has postgraduate degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and is currently a doctorate student at Yale.

Is it true that your agent cautioned against publishing Yellowface when you first told her about the idea?
Yes, thatas true. She was a bit stunned, caught off guard. aIam really worried itas going to offend people,a she said. But I was convinced both by its strength as a story, and by what I was trying to say, so I asked her to get second reads from other people at her agency a and to her credit, she did. She really stuck her neck out.

(Haggis)
The third album from this classy Bristol quintet keeps things fresh with funky rhythms, moody moments, a bit of rap and one live duet

This Bristol quintet are champions a or adefendersa a of the hard bop heritage of greats such as Horace Silver and Art Blakey, players who shaped the golden age of Blue Note records back in the 1950s and 60s. They are not, however, mere nostalgists a their material is original and varied. Their third album crackles with energy and glistens with skill. At its heart is much-travelled keyboard player George Cooper, who produces and composes most of their material. Opener Meanderthal sets the template: funky rhythms and a joint sax and trumpet motif followed by solos that are never indulgent.

Driven along by Kasabian drummer Ian Matthews, the tempo tends to be high a Snakebite Playfight is a high-wire act, a piece of sinuous ensemble playing a but there are moodier moments such as Take a Minute, with Cooper on vibraphone, and an engaging rap outing by Doc Brown, Rolling on a High, redolent of Guruas Jazzmatazz. The liner note writes of athe joy that live music can bringa, and the album closes with a contemplative seven-minute duet between piano and bass recorded last year, a contrast to everything thatas gone before. A class act.

Brody and Luke Mullins offer an exhaustive, telling, mesmerising chronicle of the biggest business in US politics

Donald Trump decries the proverbial Washington swamp. Congress does next to nothing. The band plays on: lobbying remains big business. In 2023, the industry hit a $4.3bn payday. This year shows no end in sight to the trend. As the US gallops toward another election, The Wolves of K Street befits the season.

Brody Mullins, a Wall Street Journal investigative reporter and Pulitzer prize winner, and his brother, Luke Mullins, a contributor at Politico, deliver a graduate seminar on how lobbying emerged and became a behemoth, an adjunct of government itself, taking its collective name from the street north of the White House where many of its biggest earners sit.

The combined star power of Gosling and Emily Blunt canat lift Bullet Train director David Leitchas action-heavy spectacle into meaningful entertainment

Like the Lee Majors-starring 80s TV show on which this bombastic action comedy is based, The Fall Guy is pitched as a celebration of the work of the stunt crew: the unheralded men and women who take the movie-set risks so that the stars can take the credit. But in fact the film tumbles into the same pitfalls as any other enthusiastically pyrotechnic, action-heavy extravaganza: the sheer volume of stunt sequences means that the skills on show start to lose all meaning. Individually, the shots of a tiny figure dangling from a bucking, spinning, malfunctioning helicopter are impressive. But the relentless pace at which director (and former stuntman) David Leitch (Bullet Train) works through his ostentatious action set piece checklist means that it all turns into empty noise; spectacles strung together by a dizzy, slapdash screenplay that feels as though it has sustained a few too many bumps to the head.

Ryan Gosling is curiously half-baked as Colt Seavers, a top stunt professional whose career and burgeoning romantic relationship are both derailed by a broken back from a botched fall. Now Jody (Emily Blunt), the ex-girlfriend he ghosted after the incident, is directing her first movie (an absolutely shocking-looking sci-fi western titled Metal Storm). And Colt is tempted out of retirement at her express request. Except she didnat ask for him and she wants nothing more to do with him. Meanwhile, the filmas star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), is missing and the fate of Jodyas debut hangs in the balance. Itas up to Colt to do his best work a heas repeatedly kicked in the face, ignited and shot at a in the name of bad art. Which, I suppose, neatly sums up the stunt performer paradox.

In UK and Irish cinemas now

Sheas set to depose Taylor Swift from No 1 and has the most-streamed song in the world this week a the culmination of a decade of slow-burn success

Capped with one of the most brilliantly nonsensical chorus lines in pop history a aThatas that me, espressoa a Sabrina Carpenteras Espresso is the most streamed song in the world this week, deposed Taylor Swift as the UKas No 1 single yesterday and is shaping up to be the criticsa pick for the song you wonat be able to escape this summer.

Since its release in mid-April, this irresistible shot of nu-disco has been steadily climbing the charts to become one of the only tracks holding its own against the tidal wave of songs from Taylor Swiftas double-disc The Tortured Poets Department. Carpenter was recently released from Swiftas Eras tour juggernaut, having supported the superstar on her dates in Latin America, Australia and Singapore. Anointed by Swift as a asweet angel princessa, she is now rising through the ranks to become pop royalty in her own right.

A rocky patch in Ava and Loganas marriage forced them to talk openly about their desires a and now theyare having their best sex ever

How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

We watch porn frequently, which is a positive thing we do together. Iave learned new things about my own body

Watching Gemma advocate for a vulnerable client, Sam Elkin knew he could tell her about his desire to transition a and that shead always have his back

Gemma and I were both junior lawyers working at a Melbourne legal aid office, providing free advice to disadvantaged people facing eviction. Having experienced housing insecurity myself as a young person, it was a dream to give back to my community by helping others in the same situation.

Our office romance began in 2017 after we both attended a colleagueas apocalypse-themed house party in Brunswick West. Gemma had gone to a lot of effort to dress up as Octavia Blake from the sci-fi show The 100, while I only managed to find an aged, pilled black hoodie for the occasion. Over a few too many dirty martinis, I fessed up to my raging crush on her and we spent the rest of the night canoodling in the back yard on a structurally unsound velvet couch.

I love intercourse a so why has it been so long since I actually had any?

I first had sex when I was 16; I have since had quite a few people inside my body. Some were more welcome than others a like the surgeon who removed my inflamed appendix, and that incredibly hot Dutch photographer in a Utrecht Airbnb, to whom I would have given my appendix, had he asked. Others have only penetrated me with their words or in my fantasies. Some of the experiences feel unreal, like the guy who referred to himself as aBig Mikea and claimed that he was moving to Finland the next day, despite there being no packed moving boxes or suitcases in his house. I wouldnat be able to pick him out of a lineup today.

I am torn between two different versions of that story. In one, I was twentysomething, wild, confident and single. I met a hot guy in a bar and we went back to his place. He read me some of his poems, I elegantly undressed and we had sex. Twice. The next day, when I was deliciously hungover, I revelled in the fact that we didnat even exchange phone numbers, as if I was in Sex and the City.

Pizzas, aperitivos and a big sandy beach add to the offbeat charm of this Adriatic resort town

I hadnat heard of Pesaro before my ex-flatmate sent me there in summer 2018. I was writing a book at the time, and Giulia reckoned the best place for me to do such work was in her grandadas old flat, a modest unit in a block put up in 1946, during the short reign of Umberto II. It had lain empty since her nonno a Dottor Spinicci a died of liver failure, having failed to take his own medicine.

The flatas balcony looked on to a hot and dusty courtyard shared with the local police station. When, on my first morning in the flat, I discovered a faded handwritten recipe for ragA1 alla bolognese that didnat involve tomatoes, I was tempted to head down to the cop shop and report it as a thoughtcrime.

My kids are all absent, but hereas a transatlantic phone call with my brother and our extremely deaf and elderly father to fill my Saturday afternoon

It is a recent tradition that our adult children spend the night back at home with us the day before they travel anywhere far away. As parents we may have a diminishing relevance in their lives, but we remain very handy for the airport.

I hear the middle one pull the front door shut behind him at 5.45am on Saturday morning, off on a week-long business trip. When I next wake up itas almost 9am, and the house seems emptier than ever.

Adaptability and ease is the order of the day for this tinned fish crostata with chermoula topping and conchiglie with smoked oyster sauce

My cupboards are rarely without a tin or two (or three) of tinned fish. Sardines, anchovies, tuna, smoked oysters: theyare all usually on standby, and Iam crazy about all of them. I find them very reassuring, too, because they mean Iam never more than about two minutes from a meal, whether theyare just spread on toast, or mixed with a little Tabasco and lemon juice, perhaps, or some soured cream and herbs. I also use them to dial up all kinds of other dishes a pizza and pasta, say, delight in tinned fish as much as toast does, as do potato salads a and they can even be the main reason to make a particular dish. Starring role, not standby.

We would like to hear from students on US campuses that have seen protests

Hundreds of police officers entered Columbia University and arrested dozens of students on Tuesday night, clearing out an academic building that had been occupied as part of a pro-Palestinian protest.

In Los Angeles, police have had to intervene after clashes erupted between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Israel supporters on the University of California campus.

Whether itas working out or being creative, wead like to know how active you are with your commute

Commuting isnat normally associated with being fun or energetic, but some people have been taking a different approach to their journey to work by cycling, running or skiing.

We would like to know how you make your commute productive or fun. Do you run or rollerblade into the office even though it takes longer than public transport? What prompted you to change how you commute? How does it improve your mental and physical health?

We would like to hear from professional musicians about how they make a living from their work and the obstacles they face

Musicians playing smaller venues are facing low fees, high costs, and frequent losses. We would like to hear from professional musicians of all levels about how they make a living from their work and the obstacles they face.

Have you experienced issues with the costs of playing live or recording? Have you found a way to get around it? Tell us all about it below.

Wead like to hear from people who have been purchasing luxury goods and experiences in recent years, and how they feel about their spending habits

Weare interested to hear about peopleas spending habits in the area of upmarket or luxury goods, services and experiences, and whether they are generally happy with their spending on non-essentials.

Wead like to know whether you have spent money on expensive non-essential items such as designer clothing, high end housewares, luxury holidays, expensive beauty or wellness treatments, or exclusive dining, for instance, in the past year, and if so, whether you have struggled to afford this.

I have survived an abusive relationship, stalking and sexual assault a| yet even I was stunned at the revelation of men using smart fridges to threaten women

In the wake of more, more, more reports of lethal male violence against women in Australia a and the protests demanding actions that have followed them a Michael Salteras analysis of the problem is refreshingly clear. aEducation and public awareness are important but they are not, in themselves, a cure,a the academic wrote last week. aWe need a strategic, coordinated, practical approach that integrates many different responses and listens closely to frontline workers and community members.a

Australiaas public conversation about male violence has never been so loud. Weave arrived at a moment when the community is screaming for action. Even Sky News reports that Australians awant immediate change to combat the domestic violence crisisa.

Only women can rid the club of the guardians of the Y-chromosomeas aweave always done it this waya misogyny

Hereas a surprise: the Garrick Club is a really lovely place.

Itas full of lively and fascinating people. The staff are superb, the food is great, the wine list divine. The library is to die for (or in), we have the finest theatrical portraiture in the world, sumptuous sitting rooms and chic bedrooms a walletas throw from the Royal Opera House.

Tory council representation has imploded, but Labouras gains have not been seismic. These charts show what this may signal for a general election

• Local and mayoral election results a live
• Full 2024 council results for England
• UK general election opinion poll tracker

Conservative representation has collapsed to its lowest level since 1998 in the areas that voted in Thursdayas local elections, according to a Guardian analysis.

The Tories now control 19% of seats in the 98 council areas that had announced results by 20:40 on 3 May a their lowest level since Labouras Tony Blair swept to power in the late 1990s.

Ruben Gallego, taking on Kari Lake in key Arizona race, focuses on acommunity eventsa to reach those who have slipped away

When one of the most celebrated Mexican boxers in history, Canelo Alvarez, steps into the ring against the undefeated Mexican fighter Jaime MunguAa on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, excitement will be through the roof at a campaign event just 280 miles away.

Thatas because the Democratic congressman Ruben Gallego, caught in one of the most critical US Senate races in the country against the former TV anchor Kari Lake, will be holding a watch party for the fight at JL Boxing Academy in Glendale, Arizona, complete with big screens inside, and a truck serving birria tacos and Mexican Cokes outside.

Consequences of sharing nude images and subsequent threat of blackmail can be devastating. Talk to your child, say experts

aIam naked on cam now Iall call you. Answer the call donat be shy.a

The teenage boy did as he was told by the girl he had been chatting with over social media. The next message was chilling: aIf you donat want to get into trouble, you better listen. Iave enough to destroy you.a

Residents of manufactured housing parks typically own their homes a but not the parks themselves, which can be incredibly lucrative. Now some residents are forming cooperatives, and taking control

• This story is co-published with the Lever, a reader-supported investigative news organization

Bev Adrian, a retired career placement counselor for people with disabilities, lives in Woodlawn Terrace, a mobile home park just outside Minneapolis, Minnesota. The nearby streets are full of bustling local businesses a a Sota Boys Smoke Shop, a Pump N Munch Gas a but Woodlawn is a quiet park tucked away under maples and pines.

Adrian moved there four years ago, coincidentally right as Woodlawnas owner was looking to sell. Woodlawnas landlord was well liked, but for years the parkas residents had been hearing rumors about possible sales to much less friendly owners.

Athletes are breaking their silence about their experience of eating disorders and disordered eating. Why is this happening in an arena celebrated as the epitome of health?

Elite sport has long been consumed with the idea of the superhuman. Pushing the capabilities of the human body to its extremes in the hopes of uncovering the blueprint to engineer bodies that can jump higher, run faster and endure longer. And, as professionalism has increased, so too has the optimisation of athletesa bodies in the quest for peak human condition.

But recent revelations that former Australian womenas cricket captain Meg Lanning cut her international career short due to struggles with disordered eating have exposed some of the cracks that have long been forming in the elite sport system.

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Researchers and Silicon Valley are using tools powered by AI to read what had long been thought unreadable

More than 2,000 years after Plato died, the towering figure of classical antiquity and founder of the Academy, regarded by many as the first university in the west, can still make front-page news.

Researchers this week claimed to have found the final resting place of the Greek philosopher, a patch in the garden of his Athens Academy, after scanning an ancient papyrus scroll recovered from the library of a Herculaneum villa that was buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79.

Implications of the lawsuit could extend beyond Cochise county, if local officials try similar tactics in November

In a courtroom in Phoenix, Arizona, two elected officials who allegedly tried to subvert the countyas 2022 election tried to get a lawsuit against them thrown out in a case one of their defense attorneys called both asillya and ascarya.

The Cochise county supervisors, Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, appeared in court virtually, to defend themselves against charges of attempted election interference for their initial failure to certify the countyas election results.

His youth support declining, the president needs ato be where the people area. His account regularly mocks Trump a but remains silent on Gaza

In Joe Bidenas TikTok debut, timed to the Super Bowl in February, the president answered rapid-fire questions like aChiefs or Niners?a (neither, he picked the Eagles because his wifeas a aPhilly girla) and flashed the Dark Brandon meme. He got more than 10m views, so by pure metrics, the video was no flop. But to use one of TikTokas favorite disses, for many gen Z viewers it felt acringea a even pandering. Worse still, the TikTok, captioned alol hey guysa, made the rounds after Israel struck Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza strip. Bidenas jokes infuriated users who flooded the post with the comment aWHAT ABOUT RAFAH?a

aI donat want my president to be a TikTok influencer,a read the headline of one USA Today editorial. One (actual) influencer told CNN the presidentas attempt at meme-ing felt aperformativea. A warm welcome to the app, it was not. But Bidenas team kept posting.

Ex-central banker Lady Shafik, the universityas president, now faces calls to resign due to her handling of campus unrest

Steering Columbia University through the choppy waters of anti-Israel student protests was never going to be easy for Minouche Shafik, a member of the UK House of Lords who took over as president of the university in New York after a period of relative calm running the London School of Economics.

During her tenure as LSE director between 2017 and last year, academics largely refused to join the industrial action that dominated campuses across much of the UK.

US president Joe Biden said the US wasn't an authoritarian country and the right to protest was protected but 'vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows' would not be tolerated during an address from the White House on the student campus Gaza protests. 'We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people and squash dissent a| but neither are we a lawless country,' said Biden

• US campus protests

Eruptions at a remote Indonesian volcano have forced more than half a dozen airports to close, with ash spreading as far as Malaysia, according to officials, while authorities rushed to evacuate thousands due to tsunami fears. Mount Ruang erupted three times on Tuesday, spewing lava and ash more than 5km (three miles) into the sky and forcing authorities to issue evacuation orders for 12,000 people. A rescue ship and a warship were dispatched to help move people from neighbouring Tagulandang island north to Siau island because of fears parts of the volcano would fall into the sea, potentially causing a tsunami

• Indonesia volcano eruption spreads ash to Malaysia and shuts airports

The far right are on the march in Germany and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany has become the most popular party in several states. Immigration and a sense of being economically left behind have been driving factors in the rise in popularity but the Green party and the federal governmentas climate policies have also borne the brunt of public anger. The Guardian travelled to GAPrlitz, on the German border with Poland, to find out to what extent Germanyas green policies are fuelling the far right

aC/ How climate policies are becoming focus for far-right attacks in Germany

Police made arrests after clashing with demonstrators participating in student-led protests against Israel's war in Gaza. The arrests came amid a wave of demonstrations at campuses across the US, which began last week after students at New Yorkas Columbia University set up encampments calling for the university to divest from weapons manufacturers with ties to Israel. The House speaker, Mike Johnson, jumped into the fray on Wednesday with a visit to Columbiaas campus, where he faced jeers from the pro-Palestinian protesters

• Police arrest protesters amid crackdown on student rallies across US campuses

Four horses escaped from a military barracks during an exercise in central London, injuring multiple people. The horses were filmed galloping through the city, where they crashed into taxis and buses until they were stopped and recovered

• Four taken to hospital after military horses break loose in central London

Palestinian authorities said at least 14 Palestinians had been killed during a two-day raid in the occupied West Bank on Saturday. Israeli forces began the raid in the early hours of Friday in the Nur Shams area, near the flashpoint city of Tulkarm, where they exchanged gunfire with armed fighters.

Israeli forces said a number of militants were killed or arrested during the raid and four soldiers injured. It marked one of the heaviest casualty totals in the West Bank in recent months

• Middle East crisis a live updates

Away from the back-and-forth of the campaign trail, thousands of students are taking part in pro-Palestinian encampment-style protests at more than 50 university campuses across the US

• Sign up for The Stakes: a free newsletter on the 2024 US presidential election

Hello, and welcome to the Guardianas brand new US election newsletter.

I moved to the US from the UK as a keen but inexperienced reporter in 2011, and was immediately plunged into covering the 2012 presidential election, despite having next to no knowledge of American politics. After the ignominy of travelling to a Newt Gingrich campaign event and having to ask an audience member who Newt Gingrich was, I decided I needed to learn more.

Trumpas trial got moving again with testimony from the attorney representing Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in hush-money negotiations

• Sign up for our free Trump on Trial newsletter

Donald Trumpas trial got moving again on Tuesday with testimony from the attorney who represented Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in their hush-money negotiations.

Practical advice, expert insights and answers to your questions about how to live a good life

Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, weave got something for you.

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An end-of-season wobble has ended any hopes of a dream send off. But itas characteristic of Kloppas managerial career

• Sign up to Jonathanas weekly newsletter here

And so there will be no glorious farewell for JA1/4rgen Klopp. Saturdayas 2-2 draw with West Ham, coupled with victories for Manchester City and Arsenal, means any realistic hope of a second Premier League title is effectively over. Klopp is exhausted, his team is exhausted and the manic emotional energy that gripped the side during the League Cup final and immediately after has dissipated.

There will be questions about the wisdom of revealing when he did that he would be leaving. This has been a truism if English soccer since Alex Ferguson announced in 2001 that he planned to quit Manchester United. Do that, even if youare as fearsome a figure as Ferguson, and the danger is that authority wanes. Something similar seems to have happened with Emma Hayes, who will leave Chelsea Women in the summer after a hugely successful 12-year stint to take charge of the USWNT. Would Saturdayas touchline spat with Mohamed Salah have happened had the Egyptian thought that Klopp would still be his manager next season? (It now seems likely that Salah, who has only a year left on his contract, will also leave in the summer).

Artist Selena Kearney was raised on the Chehalis reservation in Washington state and began photographing fake native regalia after a chance encounter with a young woman in a grocery store on Halloween. aShe was wearing a skimpy faux-Native American costume,a she says. aI couldnat begin to understand how that cheap outfit had anything to do with me, or my heritage.a Curious about the power of these objects, she started to collect and consider them, sourcing sports paraphernalia, traditional headdresses and vintage and new costumes from eBay and Amazon. Over the course of five years, Kearney photographed them and the resulting series is now featured in a book, Every Object Has a Ritual (published by Minor Matters), and an exhibition at the Suquamish Museum in Washington state (Object/Ritual, 18 May-January 2025). aCollecting masks felt the hardest of all,a she says. One featuring a woman with two braids was particularly unsettling. aA parody of me, looking back at me.a

The photographer on an ambiguous image inspired by Greek, Roman and Egyptian art

aA former mentor, Elinor Carucci, recommends taking pictures daily as a sort of gym for the photographic mind,a Esteban Kuriel says.

On this day, Kuriel was staying at St Erminas hotel in London and had visited the Sir John Soaneas Museum, which houses a collection of Greek, Roman and Egyptian figurative sculptures. aThe fragmented, contorted bodies inspired me, and I returned to my room to make this image. Photographing daily trains my eye, just as one trains their body at the gym, so I must play with what is available. In this case, it was this space and its furniture.a

The Guardianas picture editors select photographs from around the world

War in Gaza, US campus protests, missile strikes in Kharkiv and floods in Kenya: the last seven days as captured by the worldas leading photojournalists

Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing

Since 2014 Spanish photographer Daniel Ochoa de Olza has been portraying the girl participants in a spring festival held in Colmenar Viejo outside Madrid. His portraits bear witness to his fascination with the enduring nature of Spainas rituals

With obscure origins in pagan customs and dating back to medieval times, the festivities of La Maya offers a strange and colourful spectacle celebrating the arrival of spring. Every year on 2 May the families of girls aged between seven and 11 gather to decide which of them will be chosen to be that yearas aMayasa.

Lucia Corrales Alfonso

The best of this weekas wildlife photographs from around the world

With some demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza and others with Israel, students waved flags and chanted slogans

Students demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza waved Palestinian flags and keffiyehs and chanted anti-war slogans during the University of Michiganas commencement ceremony on Saturday.

Videos on social media showed students donning their graduation gowns as they appeared to chant: aIsrael bombs, UMich pays!a and aHow many kids have you killed today?a One photo showed a plane appearing to carry a sky banner over the university with the message: aDivest from Israel now! Free Palestine!a

Flood watch in effect through Sunday with evacuations in some areas as more rain forecast for already soaked region

The Houston area was under threat of worsening flood conditions on Saturday, a day after heavy storms slammed the region a and authorities warned those in low-lying areas to evacuate ahead of an expected acatastrophica surge of water the likes of which havenat been seen since Hurricane Harvey.

A flood watch remained in effect through Sunday afternoon as forecasters predicted additional rainfall on Saturday night, bringing another 1-3in (2.5-7.6cm) of water to the soaked region and the likelihood of major flooding.

Egyptian and US mediators report signs of compromise, but many analysts remain pessimistic

• Middle East crisis a live updates

Hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza rose on Saturday as a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to continue indirect talks, with what is believed to be a response to a new proposal, reportedly agreed by Israel, to halt fighting for an initial 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Egyptian and US mediators have reported signs of compromise in recent days and Egyptian state news channel Al-Qahera said on Saturday that a consensus had been reached in the indirect talks over many of the disputed points but gave no further details.

As she tries to limit the fallout from her dog- and goat-killing anecdotes, factual inaccuracies in her book are coming to light

As she entered a second consecutive weekend trying to manage fallout from revelations in her upcoming memoir that she shot her dog to death, South Dakotaas governor, Kristi Noem, had conceded that she would need to correct multiple factual inaccuracies in other parts of the book.

Meanwhile, a Republican fundraiser which Noem was supposed to headline had to be canceled after threats against the event staff, hotel venue and governor, according to organizers.

Berkshire Hathaway CEO stressed relationship at annual meeting attracting Apple CEO Tim Cook, Bill Gates and Bill Murray

The billionaire investment tycoon Warren Buffett has stressed his empire will remain a key investor in Apple after it sold billions of dollarsa worth of shares in the iPhone maker.

Thousands of shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway, Buffettas sprawling conglomerate, have flocked to Omaha, Nebraska, for the firmas annual meeting a dubbed Woodstock for Capitalists a this weekend.

Hundreds of cities across Rio Grande so Sul hit by floods with 32,000 people displaced and infrastructure destroyed

The death toll from rains in Brazilas southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul has risen to 57, local authorities said on Saturday afternoon, while dozens still have not been accounted for.

The stateas civil defence authority said 67 people were still missing and more than 32,000 had been displaced as storms affected nearly two-thirds of the 497 cities in the state.

Shug the pinstriped pony, who hoofed it as her trailer stopped on a highway, was eventually found horsing around

A zebra that escaped from her owner in Washington state and went on the run for nearly six days has finally been rescued.

In a statement released on Friday, the regional animal services of King county (Raskc) announced that the zebra a whose name is Shug a was captured near North Bend after roaming in the foothills of the Cascades for the better part of a week.

Kyiv says Moscow forces have gained afootholda in area north of Donetsk city after pounding depleted defenders

• Putin on our doorstep: Ukrainians watch as the frontline edges closer

The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by the Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

Russian troops have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyivas depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs. Ukraineas military has acknowledged that Russia has gained a afootholda in Ocheretyne, which had a population of about 3,000 before the war, but says the fighting there is continuing.

Last yearas deadly Maui wildfire revealed the extent of short-term rentals and their contribution to the stateas housing shortage

Hawaii lawmakers have voted to put limits on short-term rentals such as Airbnbs. On Friday, the governor, Josh Green, signed a bill that would give counties the power to regulate short-term rentals and even phase them out to become long-term housing for local residents.

The move on short-term rentals was one of several legislative decisions to come out of Fridayas meeting of the state legislature. It also appropriated $1bn to go toward the ongoing recovery from the Lahaina fire on 8 August, including more than $120m in rental assistance for people who are ineligible for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and $500m for emergency housing for residents who remain displaced, according to ABC News.

Jerry and Rita Alter, now deceased, are suspected of having stolen artworks in the 80s, including Willem de Kooningas Woman-Ochre

The mystery of a nondescript, middle-aged couple who hung a stolen $150m Willem de Kooning painting behind a bedroom door in their Cliff, New Mexico, home may be closer to being resolved after the FBI agreed to assist in tracking down two other paintings that had been in the coupleas possession.

A new twist to the story of Jerry and Rita Alter, a pair of New Mexico teachers who somehow funded a life of travel and adventure to the point that they are suspected international art thieves, emerged recently when the USas top federal law enforcement agency confirmed it was getting involved in the case.

Court hears effects of 2021 leak, in which thousand of gallons of fuel seeped into drinking water supply from US navy storage tank

Military and civilian families told a federal judge this week they continue to be sickened, more than two years after a US navy underground fuel storage facility leaked thousands of gallons of jet fuel into Pearl Harboras main drinking water and caused a water crisis in the Pacific.

United States district court judge Leslie Kobayashi heard testimony from nearly a dozen impacted families suing the US government over the leak from the second world war era storage tanks that has resulted in vomiting, diarrhea, rashes and other ailments. Plaintiffs said the illnesses are connected to the tainted water serving the nearly 93,000 residents in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

Effects of heat are expected to worsen after bill prohibiting municipalities from enacting shade and water protection is passed

For Javier Torres and other workers whose jobs are conducted outdoors in south Florida, the heat is unavoidable. A new law recently signed by Ron DeSantis, Floridaas Republican governor, that prohibits any municipalities in the state from passing heat protections for workers ensures that it is likely to stay that way.

Torres has seen a co-worker die from heatstroke and another rushed to the emergency room in his years of working in construction in south Florida. He has also fallen and injured himself due to heat exhaustion.

With the ex-president punished for violating a gag order, the third week of the hush-money trial resembled his fraud case

It was deja vu for Donald Trump at his Manhattan criminal trial this week in more ways than one.

Six months ago a New York judge threatened to throw a former US president in prison for violating a gag order. Remarkably, in a courthouse up the street just six months later, Trump was again threatened with jail time.

The seaside tourist community, like the southern state as a whole, has seen huge demographic change since 2020

The area around Wilmington, North Carolina, was once rock-ribbed Republican red. No longer. Itas contested territory in what may be the most contested state in the country this year.

Donald Trump had planned a rally in Wilmington earlier this month but was rained out at the last moment. Trump promised to return with a bigger and better rally later. Joe Biden visited Wilmington on Thursday, after a detour to Charlotte to meet with the families of four law enforcement officers killed on Monday while serving an arrest warrant. It was his second visit to North Carolina this year and is unlikely to be his last.

Many say the bill would help survivors be heard, broadening the range of people able to petition to see their sentence reviewed

In 1995, on the day before Kelly Savage-Rodriguez planned to flee her abusive husband, she ran some final errands while her children, ages three and one, napped. She hoped to take them on the early morning Amtrak from Porterville, California, to Los Angeles and stay with her brother, but when she returned, she said, she found that her husband had beaten and killed her three-year-old son, Justin. She called 911. The police arrested her along with her husband.

Savage-Rodriguez was jailed as she awaited trial, and said her lawyer did not have training in advocating for clients who suffered domestic violence. The judge used her history of abuse against her, she said, and said she was equally at fault for her sonas death under Californiaas afailure to protecta charges that can criminalize the non-abusive parent in a domestic violence case because she had not fled. She was later convicted and sentenced to life without parole, same as her abuser.

The troubled child actor turned chatshow host faces flak for her toe-curling interview with Kamala Harris. But oversharing is all part of her shtick

An office-style desk was once the key prop on a television chatshow a a standard piece of kit beloved of Johnny Carson and David Letterman, not to mention Britainas Jonathan Ross. Then the comfy sofa took over and guests began to scooch along, making room for each other. Now, though, under the auspices of Drew Barrymore, host of a daytime show on CBS, itas the lowly rug that is taking centre stage.

Barrymore, who is still best known internationally for her childhood role as the little girl in ET, likes to interact with her guests on a fluffy rug in the middle of her set in New Yorkas Broadcast Center. She has prostrated herself upon it more than once in front of her studio audience and prefers it to the showas pink satin armchairs.

The emergence of trillions of cicadas is under way in parts of the US a what should you do when theyare around, and what on earth are azombiea cicadas?

The cicadas are arriving. The periodic emergence of trillions of cicadas, on a scale not seen in several hundred years, is under way in parts of the US, with several states reporting the orange-eyed insects are bursting from their underground dormancy.

Cicadas have started arriving earlier than expected in Illinois, a cicada hotspot this year, while there are reports of swarms emerging in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, along with some other states.

For two years, a viral joke mocking the singeras dancing threatened to overshadow her record-breaking success a but the laser-focused star had the last laugh. And now she has her sights set on building a media empire

The London hotel room is huge, with a grand piano in one corner. In the middle is a stash of crisps, nuts and drinks, laid out as if we were in a high-end store. And on a sofa I can just about make out Dua Lipa, lost in the vastness. She could be a top footballer a red hair tied back, fresh-faced, wearing black tracksuit bottoms and a striped top. Iam trying to think what club it is. Barcelona?

She laughs. aNo, I designed it. Itas merch.a I look closely. On the front, it says Training Season a the title of the second single from her forthcoming album, Radical Optimism. Ah, that makes sense; she is playing for FC Dua Lipa. Over the next hour, Lipa makes it clear that sheas a devoted fan of FC Dua Lipa, gives her all to it, and can only see it growing exponentially. Something I wouldnat dare to disagree with.

Russian forces are advancing in the countryas eastern regions, but the recent arrival of US arms could help turn the tide

It was a perfect May evening. Daria Karpinska and her friends sat in the corner of a five-a-side pitch and played cards. Nearby was their school. Swifts had returned to their village of Hrodivka and screeched in a sunny blue sky.

Suddenly, a loud whoosh-whoosh noise interrupted the teenagersa game of afoola: the sound of a Grad missile. Seconds later came the boom of artillery. aItas louder today than yesterday,a said 14-year-old Karpinska matter-of-factly.

The US academic on why the Mr Burns caricature of rich people is wrong, the double-edged sword of godlike technologies, and why young people shouldnat follow their passion

Scott Galloway is an American professor of marketing at New York University Stern school of Business. He has founded and sold several tech firms, and served on the board of directors of companies such as the New York Times and Urban Outfitters. With tech journalist Kara Swisher he co-hosts the hugely popular tech and business podcast Pivot. He is a fierce critic of tech companies and their business models and he has written five books, the latest of which is The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula for Economic Security.

You spend a lot of time with wealthy and successful people. Do they have any common habits?
Well, the most common attribute Iave registered is they were born at the right place at the right time. What Iave found is that the majority of peopleas success is not their fault. And I think something that plagues people, especially tech bros, is they conflate luck with talent. But across those who excel, the thing I have found is that if you want to be successful, you need to collect allies along the way. Thereas this cartoon of Monty Burns in The Simpsons, the guy who owns the power plant, who has no friends, who lights cigars with a hundred dollar bill. But what I have found is that really wealthy people are constantly put in rooms of opportunities, because from a young age theyave acquired allies.

Beset by hurricanes and rising insurance prices, the city saw people leaving in droves a but a program is encouraging jazz artists to move to the amost exciting musical city in the worlda

Hammered by hurricanes, rutted streets and rising insurance rates, the metro New Orleans area saw 45,000 people leave between 2020 and 2023 a a 4.3% outmigration worse than any other US urban area.

Those departures seemed a surreal idea as vast crowds streamed into the annual two-week Jazz and Heritage festival sponsored by Shell, set to conclude Sunday. Thursday marked the main event at the sprawling array of stages and food booths at the Fair Grounds race track a the Rolling Stones concert, sold out at $225 a ticket.

Covid vaccines, chemtrails, the Great Reset a| Why do people invent false conspiracies when there are so many real ones to worry about? Thereas only one way to find out: ask a believer

I am a conspiracy theorist. I believe that groups of people conspire secretly against our interests to line their pockets, cover their backs or achieve political goals. By this definition I suspect you are, too. We see evidence of these conspiracies every day. We see them in the Horizon scandal, in which the Post Office kept prosecuting innocent operators. We see them in the governmentas use of a aVIPa lane for procuring PPE from friends and donors at extortionate prices. We see them in the Windrush scandal, in which people were denied their legal rights and unlawfully deported by the UK government. In the Cambridge Analytica scandal: a secretive micro-targeting campaign likely to have influenced the Brexit vote. In the Panama Papers and the Pandora Papers, showing how the ultra-rich hide their money from taxes and legal scrutiny.

All these are conspiracies in the true sense: hidden machinations that advance particular interests while causing harm to others. A theory is a rational explanation, subject to disproof. If you accept these scandals are the result of hidden machinations, which they evidently are, you are a conspiracy theorist.

Protests are part of nationwide movement pushing universities to divest from businesses that support the war in Gaza

As the sun rose on a campus littered with wreckage, pro-Palestine protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles, were still facing off with lines of riot cops and chanting aWeare not leaving!a

Police had cleared UCLAas student encampment in a late-night operation, and arrested at least 200 pro-Palestine demonstrators early on Thursday morning . The schoolas student newspaper said ahundredsa had been arrested, including students and faculty.

Tourists delighted as pinnipeds congregate at cityas Pier 39, apparently attracted by feast of anchovies

More than 1,000 sea lions have gathered at San Franciscoas Pier 39 this spring, the largest herd in at least 15 years.

Mounds of floppy, delightfully ungraceful marine mammals have plopped themselves on to rafts along the cityas pier, displaying themselves to the thousands of tourists who pass by the area each day.

Researchers visited the Chicago Cafe to find out if itas really 121 years old a and entered a chop suey parlor filled with memories

On a warm morning in March, a group of researchers entered an unassuming chop suey parlor in the Sacramento suburbs for a rare field trip.

The six history enthusiasts affiliated with the University of California, Davis, had gathered at the Chicago Cafe in Woodland, California, with one goal in mind: to determine the exact age of what may be the oldest Chinese restaurant in the country.

Workers removed remnants of the Gaza encampment while pieces of plywood painted with aWe love you Gazaa lay about

At the University of California in Los Angeles on Thursday morning, staff were picking up the pieces after two nights of violence that shocked the urban campus.

A loader heaved the remnants of the Gaza protest encampment that law enforcement had forcefully cleared early in the morning into a large grey dumpster. Pieces of plywood spray-painted with aWe love you Gazaa and aACABa (aall cops are bastardsa) still lay about.

Please, listen to us a not political figures, radical fringes and misguided media

On Tuesday night, we watched in horror as hundreds of riot police flooded our beloved campus and brutalized our classmates. The next day, students awoke with swollen faces, bruised wrists, and lacerations a all results of inhumane police treatment. The past two weeks have been tumultuous, marked with mass arrests of student demonstrators, an encampment on our lawns, national media attention, and vile acts of hatred. Countless have spoken on our behalf. But by speaking over us, media outlets and politicians have created a distorted narrative a one which unfairly characterizes our community.

Now, it is time to elevate student perspectives, the ausa, rather than the athema. The traumatic environment and militarization of our campus are not the sole product of ill-intended protestors or reckless non-affiliates as claimed by administrative emails; rather, they are the fault of the senior administration themselves. For months, this crisis has brewed as administrators neglected student and faculty voices. We must be clear: the administration has put our studentsa safety at risk and has failed to ensure a conducive learning environment. As student leaders, it is time for our voice to be heard.

The buzzy coming-of-age film, about teens obsessed with a schlocky TV show in the 90s, makes for a haunting allegory

As a trans teen in the 1990s, I well remember the flickering glow of the TV screen. Late nights, once everyone else in the house had gone to sleep and I could have a measure of privacy, were the main time in which I could access something even remotely resembling my true self.

Watching the trans film-maker Jane Schoenbrunas new film, I Saw the TV Glow, took me right back to this period of my life. As the title would indicate, Schoenbrunas movie is all about the small screen and what it means in the lives of two queer teens growing up in the 90s.

Reticence over the seizure of Russian state assets in Europe betrays a fatal underestimation of the threat Moscow poses

Europe has plotted an elegant decline that suits the needs of its ageing population, and the Ukraine war cannot be allowed to interfere with that plan.

That is how it seems when EU countries consider circumventing the financial rulebook to offer Ukraine what it needs to overcome waves of drones and break the deadlock on its eastern front.

All praise to a classical singer for last weekas rebellion against a sea of illuminated screens

It was after the third song in Brittenas Les Illuminations that Ian Bostridge decided head had enough. Wheeling round to face the constellation of screen lights that dotted Birminghamas vast Symphony Hall, the tenor called the show to a halt. Could everyone please turn off their phones? It was extremely distracting.

After the performance, which was two weeks ago, Bostridge was surprised to find his phone-happy audience had been perfectly within their rights. More than that: theyad actually been encouraged to video him. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) had last year decided to drop aany perceived arulesa of a traditional concerta in a bid to achallenge conventionsa and get ayoung peoplea interested. Signs in its venues now ask ticketholders to abring drinks into the auditorium. Clap whenever they like. Wear whatever makes them feel comfortable. Take photos or short snippets of film (and share them with us).a

The online world was meant to be an open system but has become dominated by huge corporations. If we are to revive it, that must end

Browsing through a history of online public messaging last week, I came across a magical photograph from 1989 or 1990. It shows the worldas first web server. It was Tim Berners-Leeas NeXT workstation in Cern, the international physics research lab, where he worked at the time. On the case is a tattered sticky label, on which is scribbled, in red ink, aThis machine is a server DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!a

Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, had come up with the idea for a aworld wide weba as a way of locating and accessing documents that were scattered all over the internet. With a small group of colleagues he envisaged, designed and implemented it in the late 1980s and eventually put the whole thing a protocols, server and browser software, HTML specification, etc. a on one of Cernas internet servers, and in doing so changed the world.

As elections loom across the continent, Italyas prime minister and the commissionas president are in a dubious alliance

Itas rare that an Italian prime minister tops the table in Europe. But with Germanyas Olaf Scholz and Franceas Emmanuel Macron facing red cards at home, Spainas Pedro SA!nchez briefly stretchered off, and relegated Rishi Sunak sulking on the bench like Liverpoolas Mo Salah, Giorgia Meloni a post-fascist poster girl turned star centre-forward of the new right a is shooting at an open goal.

Itas Melonias moment. In the words of one conservative commentator, she has become aEuropeas essential leadera. And her influence is set to expand next month when up to 450 million eligible voters in 27 countries pick a new EU parliament. Hard-right and far-right nationalist-populist parties, including Melonias Brothers of Italy, are poised for sweeping gains at the expense of the left and the greens.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk

Students across the US are forging bonds in the face of brutal power structures. You might say theyave already won

Teaching an undergraduate class on democracy at Princeton Universityas School of Public and International Affairs this semester has felt urgent and clarifying. In the classroom, weave been looking at backsliding and the slow corrosion of democratic norms in so-called democratic countries. Meanwhile, whatas been happening outside the classroom in more than 120 universities around the US and the world tells us a more ominous story about democracy.

For two weeks, we focused on the United States; there were lively discussions on political polarization, January 6 and the threat posed by supporters of Donald Trump, as well as how robust or fragile US democracy currently is. Looking at each democracy involved criticism of the state. In the class on Israel, we examined, among other areas, controversial proposed judicial reforms, as well as the incarceration of Palestinian minors held in administrative detention, as examples where democratic values might be defined as absent.

Instead of defending the right to protest, many centrists are delegitimizing students, despite the value of what theyare doing

Three things are certain: antisemitism is on the rise; hatred of Muslims is increasing; and everyone a but especially those at universities with time to reflect a should be very, very troubled by this. Without taking account of the hate waves, it is impossible to understand why the seemingly mundane act of pitching a tent on campus has become so high stakes: is it announcing a desire to annihilate Israel, or is it a perfectly legitimate way to protest against particular US (and university) policies?

University administrations are not supposed to take a stance on the content of student activism, but many have declared encampments as such to be unsafe. If anything, though, student (and professor) safety seems to have been endangered by police brutally coming after peaceful protesters.

Erling Haalandas sixth Premier League hat-trick, completed in the opening 45 minutes and featuring two penalties, signalled the goalscoring phenomenon is back in ruthless mood at the very best of times for Manchester City.

After this crushing victory, in which Haaland added a peach of a fourth after the interval, City can do what Arsenal have been doing to them: pile the pressure on in this tightest of title races by winning at Fulham next Saturday, move ahead two points and make the Gunners think before kicking-off at Manchester United 24 hours later.

There are two main stumbling blocks to ridding boxing of PEDs: motivation and cost. Saudi Arabian power broker Turki Alalshikh is uniquely situated to surmount these obstacles

Itas a matter of record that Iave expressed misgivings about the migration of major boxing matches to Saudi Arabia. But I recognize that the Kingdom will be a dominant force in boxing for the foreseeable future.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia, through its General Entertainment Authority (GEA), has hosted an increasing number of high-profile fights. On 18 May, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will battle at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world. This summer, the GEA will extend its reach to fight cards in Los Angeles and London.

Thomas Hauseras email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book a a memoir titled My Mother and Me a is now available in stores. In 2019, he was selected for boxingas highest honor a induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

• Red Bull driver faster than Ferrari duo Leclerc and Sainz
• McLarenas Norris qualifies fifth with Hamilton eighth

Max Verstappen remained determinedly very much on top of qualifying, continuing his unbeaten record for the season with another comfortable pole for the Miami Grand Prix. But in his wake Fernando Alonso is set to square up with Formula Oneas governing body, the FIA. Alonso was angry and frustrated that they had failed to punish Lewis Hamilton after a controversial incident in Saturday morningas sprint, claiming Hamilton had aruined a lot of peopleas racesa.

For Sundayas GP Verstappen once more holds all the cards with his sixth consecutive pole this season, beating the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz into second and third by just over a tenth of a second, having already taken victory in the sprint race.

• Clark scores team-high 21 points as Dallas beat Indiana 79-76
• No 1 draft pick scores first pro basket on 28-foot three-pointer

More than three hours before Caitlin Clark made her WNBA debut with the Indiana Fever in an exhibition game against the Dallas Wings on Friday night, some fans among the sellout crowd were lined up outside the arena dressed in No 22 University of Iowa jerseys.

And Clark put on a show.

• Mavericks beat Clippers 114-101 in Game 6 to clinch series
• Dallas advance to face top seed Oklahoma City in West semis

Luka DonAiA had 28 points and 13 assists, Kyrie Irving scored 28 of his 30 points in a second-half surge and the Dallas Mavericks advanced to the second round of the playoffs with a 114-101 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night.

DonAiA pushed through another rough shooting night with his ailing right knee to do what the Slovenian superstar couldnat three years earlier a close out the Clippers in Dallas in Game 6 of a first-round series.

• Kim makes crucial birdie at last in CJ Cup Byron Nelson
• English teenager is son of former LGPA player Ji-Hyuh Suh

English teenager Kris Kim became the youngest player to make the cut on the PGA Tour in 11 years after a birdie at the last saw him get through to the weekend of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Texas with a shot to spare.

Amateur Kim, the son of former LPGA player Ji-Hyun Suh, made a second-round four-under-par 67, which included a run of five birdies and one bogey over his front nine.

• Zak Brown claims aan increase in CVs coming our waya
• Max Verstappen on pole for Miami GP sprint race

The McLaren team principal, Zak Brown, has said Adrian Neweyas departure from Red Bull has Ainstigated a spate of applications from Red Bull personnel to join McLaren and that the British designer may be only the first domino to fall in an exodus he has precipitated.

Newey, the most successful car designer of the modern era, announced on Wednesday he was Aleaving Red Bull after almost two decades with the team. On AThursday Red Bullas world champion driver Max Verstappen Asaid he would prefer that Newey was not going and that he had played anA Aintegral part in Red Bullas success since the engineer joined the team in 2006, a year after they were formed.

The even-keeled Michigan native, who was sacked as the Lakersa head coach on Friday, was hired for his ability to manage personalities. Once he lost his playersa trust, it was only a matter of a

The date is 31 January, less than two months removed from the Los Angeles Lakersa inaugural NBA Cup championship, and the Lakers are nosediving precipitously, racking up loss after loss in late December and into January. In a competitive Western Conference, being sub-.500, even by a game or two, simply will not get the job done for a championship hopeful. And the team does have a right to be among those hopefuls, buoyed by a shockingly healthy tandem of a freshly-39-year-old LeBron James and injury-prone big man Anthony Davis, who, to this point, have missed a combined eight games and are playing at an All-NBA level. But something clearly isnat working, and time is of the essence. No one knows this better than foe of father time himself, LeBron: that night, after yet another demoralizing loss, he tweets out, simply, an hourglass. A single emoji has never loomed larger.

At the time, there is frantic speculation in regards to what, or to whom, the primitive timepiece is referring. Is it Jamesa underperforming supporting cast, with the trade deadline hovering in the immediate future? Is it the Lakersa front office, who are no doubt aware of his player option looming in the coming offseason? Is it his own NBA mortality, to which he has admitted he will likely succumb sooner rather than later, despite no significant drop-off in production?

Governments issue health warnings as schools shut and crops fail, with fears that worse is to come as heatwave tightens grip

Extreme heat has gripped much of south and south-east Asia over recent weeks, killing dozens of people, forcing millions of students to miss school and destroying crops.

Both the Philippines and Bangladesh shut schools due to the unbearable heat last month, while governments across the region have issued health warnings. In Thailand, at least 30 people have died from heatstroke since the start of the year.

More frequent heatwaves mean bees are unable to thermoregulate their hives a further endangering a species already in decline

Bumblebee nests may be overheating, killing off broods and placing one of the Earthas critical pollinators in decline as temperatures rise, new research has found.

Around the world, many species of Bombus, or bumblebee, have suffered population declines due to global heating, the research said. Bumblebee colonies are known for their ability to thermoregulate: in hot conditions, worker bees gather to beat their wings and fan the hive, cooling it down. But as the climate crisis pushes average temperatures up and generates heatwaves, bumblebees will struggle to keep their homes habitable.

Science Advances report also finds people of color and low-income residents in US disproportionately affected

Using a gas stove increases nitrogen dioxide exposure to levels that exceed public health recommendations, a new study shows. The report, published Friday in Science Advances, found that people of color and low-income residents in the US were disproportionately affected.

Indoor gas and propane appliances raise average concentrations of the harmful pollutant, also known as NO₂, to 75% of the World Health Organizationas standard for indoor and outdoor exposure.

Florida wildlife corridor will spearhead climate resilience if allowed to evolve and essential preparatory work done, study says

Climate predictions in Florida, for the most part, make pretty grim reading. Rising oceans threaten to submerge most of the state by the end of the century, and soaring temperatures could make it too hot to live here anyway.

But new research by a coalition of prominent universities paints a more upbeat picture of Floridaas future as a thriving state for humans and wildlife, with natural resources harnessed to mitigate the worst effects of the climate emergency generally, as well as extreme weather events such as hurricanes and floods.

Ex-presidentas former communications director says Access Hollywood tape awas a crisisa for his campaign

Hope Hicks, Donald Trumpas 2016 campaign press secretary, broke into tears on Friday while testifying in the ex-presidentas New York criminal hush-money trial, hours after she described his complete control over the campaign.

Hicks, who cut a skittish figure in Judge Juan Merchanas courtroom, is a key prosecution witness. She described Trump campaign staffersa panic when a recording emerged in which Trump bragged about groping women. aThis was a crisisa for his presidential bid, she said, describing the sentiment among the campaign staff.

Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota urged the Texas congressman to step down after charges against him were unveiled

The Minnesota congressman who unsuccessfully challenged Joe Biden in the Democratic presidential primary became the first member of their party to call on fellow US House representative Henry Cuellar to resign after federal bribery charges were unveiled against the Texas politician on Friday.

In a post on X, Dean Phillips urged Cuellar to step down, along with other politicians faced with pending criminal cases a including Bidenas presidential predecessor and Republican rival Donald Trump as well as Democratic US senator Bob Menendez.

The man, Marc Shultz, posted multiple comments last October under two separate YouTube livestream videos

A California man has been charged with sending death threats to Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney who is overseeing the Georgia prosecution against Donald Trump over his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state.

The man, Marc Shultz, suggested that Willis awill be killed like a doga in one of several comments he posted under two separate YouTube live streams, according to the US attorneyas office for the northern district of Georgia.

Nine-year-old Branson Baker ran more than a mile for help after parents wounded when twister flung familyas vehicle into trees

A nine-year-old boy is being hailed as a hero for saving his parentsa lives when an Oklahoma tornado tossed the familyas truck into surrounding trees, after reportedly telling them aMom, Dad, please donat die, I will be backa before sprinting for help.

The latest incident comes as at least four people in Oklahoma, including an infant, were killed and dozens injured after multiple tornadoes hit the state.

Heather Pressdee admitted to intentionally injecting excessive doses of insulin into 22 patients across the Pittsburgh area

A former Pennsylvania nurse has been sentenced to life imprisonment after admitting she intentionally injected nearly two dozen of her patients with excessive doses of insulin, killing three of them.

Heather Pressdee was sentenced on Thursday in a Butler county state courthouse near Pittsburgh, where nearly 40 of her victimsa family members spoke about how her crimes upended their lives, according to a news release that prosecutors issued at the conclusion of a case that highlights how frighteningly vulnerable patients can be in healthcare settings.

Actor brings force of Hollywood to trumpet Bidenas legislative record in briefing that both delighted and bemused journalists

aYou will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.a But enough about Washington. The Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, who once saw off gangsters at a fictional spaceport, came to the US capital on Friday for a meeting with Joe Biden.

Quite why he was in the Oval Office, and what was talked about, remained something of a mystery. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Biden was riding high in the opinion polls but now, perhaps, he is in need of added star power.

South Dakota governor says she met North Korean dictator in same book in which she describes killing her dog

The South Dakota governor, Republican vice-presidential hopeful and self-confessed dog-killer Kristi Noemas bizarre claim in a new book to have met the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has been dismissed by experts as adubiousa and not aconceivablea.

The Dakota Scout first reported Noemas claim, which is in her forthcoming book, No Going Back: The Truth on Whatas Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward.

Justices say they will not reconsider contentious February ruling that said frozen embryos are considered children under state law

The Alabama supreme court on Friday declined to reconsider a controversial ruling that said frozen embryos are considered children under a state law.

Justices in a 7-2 decision without comment rejected a request to revisit the ruling that drew international attention and prompted fertility clinics to cease services earlier this year.

Aprilas figure was lower than forecast and unemployment rate ticked up over the month but still market remains strong

Hiring in the US slowed in April with the workforce adding another 175,000 jobs and wage growth slowing.

The news cheered investors hoping that a cooling labor market will prompt the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates a which have been driven to a 20-year high as the US fights stubbornly high inflation. All the major US markets rose on the news.

BF Borgers agrees to $12m civil penalty and owner Benjamin Borgers agrees to pay $2m

The auditor for former president Donald Trumpas Trump Media was accused of running a amassive frauda and a asham audit milla by the USas top financial regulator on Friday.

BF Borgers and its owner Benjamin Borgers, whose clients include Trump Media, were charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with a fraud that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings. Borgers has also acted for financial tech and crypto companies, SEC filings show.

Chinaas president arrives as EU anti-subsidy investigations and tensions over espionage, Ukraine and Taiwan continue

Chinaas president, Xi Jinping, is to visit Europe next week for the first time in five years, in a tour that will take in the unlikely trifecta of France, Hungary and Serbia.

The visit comes as China pushes to avoid a trade war with the EU, while attitudes towards Beijing in the bloc are hardening after multiple spying scandals and Chinaas ongoing support for Russia in the war in Ukraine.

The Home Office last week launched a nationwide operation to round up asylum seekers, leaving many fearful and confused

At 2.37pm on Thursday news that a man had adisappeareda rippled through Londonas raid-resistance WhatsApp groups. The asylum seeker had walked into the Home Office immigration reporting centre in Hounslow, west London, for a routine appointment, as many people seeking refuge in Britain are required to do. His brother waited outside.

But the man did not come out. Ten minutes passed, then 20, then an hour, then three. The brother waiting outside went in, and came out with bad news: his sibling had been detained and told he faced being deported to Rwanda.

Labour incumbent beat Tory candidate Susan Hall, despite inaccurate claims by aexcited Toriesa that she might run him close

• UK politics a latest updates

Sadiq Khan has been elected mayor of London, winning a historic third term after a dramatic contest.

Khan was declared the winner over the Conservative candidate, Susan Hall, on Saturday afternoon, with 43.8% of the vote.

Diplomatic spat began when Spanish minister suggested Javier Milei had taken asubstancesa while campaigning

Spain has denounced comments by Argentinaas presidency that accused the Spanish government of bringing apoverty and deatha to its own people.

The office of the Argentinian president, Javier Milei, had published a statement on X, accusing the prime minister, Pedro SA!nchez, of damaging Spainas economy and stability.

Interior minister Nancy Faeser promises atough actiona to protect democracy as political assaults rise

The German interior minister Nancy Faeser has vowed to fight a surge in violence against politicians after a German member of the European parliament had to be taken to hospital following an attack while he was campaigning for re-election.

Matthias Ecke, 41, a member of Faeseras Social Democrats (SPD), was hit and kicked by a group of four people while putting up posters in Dresden, capital of the eastern state of Saxony, police said. An SPD source said his injuries would require an operation.

For 30 years, Brian McNeill hunted the worldas second-biggest fish from small boats off the wild west coast of Ireland. Now the species has made a recovery so rapid it has astounded scientists

The ambush was simple. A spotter on a hill would scan the sea and when he saw the big black fins approach, he would shout down to the boatmen. They would ready their nets and quickly row out to the kill zone.

When a shark got tangled in the mesh, Brian McNeill would wait a minute or two while it struggled, then steady himself and raise his harpoon. This was the crucial moment. The creature would be diving and thrashing, desperate to escape. If the blade hit the gills blood would spurt, clouding the water. The trick was to hit a small spot between the vertebrae.

As the war stretches on indefinitely, there are few eager recruits and Kyivas armed forces are short of soldiers

Anton* was on his way to work as a civilian volunteer in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv 10 days ago. Several men stopped him. They asked: aHi, who are you?a And: aCan you show me your documents please?a One of the officers produced a tablet and scrolled down a list. He found Antonas name. A single word was written next to it in red capital letters: ukhyliant, or draft dodger. The men took him to the nearest conscription office.

That morning, Anton and his colleague Serhii were due to drive a truck full of humanitarian aid to a frontline zone. The two men a aged 32 and 31 a had been checked twice before, once outside a metro station, and on a second occasion while waiting for a tram. They received pieces of paper. The first was a polite request to register details. The second an official summons to report to a recruiting centre as soon as possible.

Inadvertent poisoning of scavengers across Indian subcontinent is forcing some communities to give up ancient custom

Traditional Zoroastrian burial rites are becoming increasingly impossible to perform because of the precipitous decline of vultures in India, Iran and Pakistan.

For millennia, Parsi communities have traditionally disposed of their dead in structures called dakhma, or atowers of silencea. These circular, elevated edifices are designed to prevent the soil, and the sacred elements of earth, fire and water, from being contaminated by corpses.

Siblings Callum and Jake Robinson and US citizen Jack Carter Rhoad were travelling on a surfing holiday when they were reported missing

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Three bodies have been found in an area of northern Mexico where two Australian brothers and an American friend are missing.

Perth siblings Callum and Jake Robinson, both in their 30s, were travelling in the region on a surfing holiday, with their friend Jack Carter Rhoad, a US citizen. The trio was reported missing when they failed to check into pre-arranged accommodation near the city of Ensenada last weekend.

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Third-party hospitality packages are outlawed, yet agency part-owned by associates of Rafael Nadal and LeBron James promises access to top events as well as to stars

Members of the global super-rich are spending as much as $500,000 (APS400,000) on aultra-exclusivea packages for the Paris 2024 Olympics that promoters claim include meeting athletes, access to the athletesa village and athe chance to be part of the opening ceremonya.

GR8 Experience, an ainternational experience agencya part-owned by the business manager of the basketball star LeBron James and the PR manager of the tennis player Rafael Nadal, is selling Olympic packages that it claims include tickets to 14 events such as the menas 100m finals and the opening ceremony for $381,600.

Sofie Hagen loves sex a so why has it been 3,089 days since sheas had any? (1m27s); A flat white can now set you back up to APS5.19 a but should we swallow it? (25m13s); and psychotherapist and Observer columnist Philippa Perry addresses a readeras personal problem (43m51s).

Advances in fields such as spectrometry and gene sequencing are unleashing torrents of new data about the ancient world a and could offer answers to questions we never even knew to ask. By Jacob Mikanowski

With the threat of famine and the invasion of Rafah looming over Gaza, the leaders of Israel and Hamas are discussing a ceasefire deal. Julian Borger reports

The outlook in Gaza appears bleak. A famine looms if not more aid is brought in, while Israel has said it is preparing to invade Rafah, the southern city where half the civilians in Gaza are sheltering. But there is a glimmer of hope.

In Cairo a deal between Israel and Hamas has been tabled and the two sides are discussing whether to accept it. Julian Borger explains how such negotiations happen, what the deal includes and why there is pressure on both sides to make it happen.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair and Archie Rhind-Tutt as Dortmund beat PSG 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final, while Chelsea slip up in a WSL thriller

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today: Dortmund beat PSG in front of the Yellow Wall. So many brilliant performances for the Bundesliga side but, in particular, Jadon Sancho. The panel try to figure out what happens to him this summer.

Glioblastomas are an extremely aggressive type of brain tumour, which is why the news this week of a vaccine that has shown promise in fighting them is so exciting. And this comes right off the back of the announcement of another trial of the worldas first personalised mRNA vaccine for melanoma, a kind of skin cancer. Ian Sample talks to Prof Alan Melcher of the Institute of Cancer Research about how these vaccines work and whether they could one day be used to target cancer before it is even detectable on scans

Clips: BBC

Read more about the personalised cancer vaccine for melanoma

The electric carmakeras Cybertruck was recalled last month after safety concerns emerged over the accelerator pedal. Kari Paul reports

Last month Tesla recalled its Cybertrucks after malfunctions involving the accelerator pedal were reported. It is the latest blow for the US electric carmaker, which has been hit by a series of embarrassing failures since the Cybertruck was delivered to customers late last year.

Kari Paul, a technology reporter for Guardian US, talks to Michael Safi about Teslaas recent struggles, from safety issues to supply-chain delays. Can the companyas embattled chief executive, Elon Musk, turn its fortunes around?

The Guardianas political editor, Pippa Crerar, and the political correspondent Kiran Stacey help you kick off your week with the stories you need to know from inside Westminster

Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts

At 84, The Handmaidas Tale author is as outspoken as ever. She talks about aging, culture wars - and why athe orange guya canat be allowed back into the White House

aIam the great sage on top of the mountain,a Margaret Atwood says with a smile, on a video call from her home in Toronto. aIf youave lived to a certain age people think you know something because they havenat got there yet.a

At 84, most writers could be forgiven for taking it easy, but especially Atwood, after a tumultuous few years that have seen The Handmaidas Tale become a hit TV series; the publication of its long-awaited sequel The Testaments, joint winner of the Booker prize in 2019; and the death of her partner of nearly 50 years, novelist Graeme Gibson. He died of a stroke two days after the UK launch of the novel, and Atwood, with typical grit, carried on with the tour.

The author of bestseller Yellowface on her agentas fears about publishing the novel, the joys of a social media purge and being a workaholic who gets bored easily

Rebecca F Kuang, 27, is an American writer. She and her family emigrated to the US from Guangzhou, China, when she was four; she grew up in Dallas, Texas. Her first novel, The Poppy War, a grimdark fantasy with a plot drawn from elements of the second Sino-Japanese war, was published in 2018. Two sequels followed. A fourth novel, the bestselling Babel, set in 1830s England, came out in 2022. Kuang followed this with a controversial departure: Yellowface. A contemporary melodrama in which a white author steals the manuscript of a dead, far more successful Asian-American novelist and passes it off as her own, it wickedly satirises identity politics in the world of publishing. It comes out in paperback this month. Kuang has postgraduate degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and is currently a doctorate student at Yale.

Is it true that your agent cautioned against publishing Yellowface when you first told her about the idea?
Yes, thatas true. She was a bit stunned, caught off guard. aIam really worried itas going to offend people,a she said. But I was convinced both by its strength as a story, and by what I was trying to say, so I asked her to get second reads from other people at her agency a and to her credit, she did. She really stuck her neck out.

(Haggis)
The third album from this classy Bristol quintet keeps things fresh with funky rhythms, moody moments, a bit of rap and one live duet

This Bristol quintet are champions a or adefendersa a of the hard bop heritage of greats such as Horace Silver and Art Blakey, players who shaped the golden age of Blue Note records back in the 1950s and 60s. They are not, however, mere nostalgists a their material is original and varied. Their third album crackles with energy and glistens with skill. At its heart is much-travelled keyboard player George Cooper, who produces and composes most of their material. Opener Meanderthal sets the template: funky rhythms and a joint sax and trumpet motif followed by solos that are never indulgent.

Driven along by Kasabian drummer Ian Matthews, the tempo tends to be high a Snakebite Playfight is a high-wire act, a piece of sinuous ensemble playing a but there are moodier moments such as Take a Minute, with Cooper on vibraphone, and an engaging rap outing by Doc Brown, Rolling on a High, redolent of Guruas Jazzmatazz. The liner note writes of athe joy that live music can bringa, and the album closes with a contemplative seven-minute duet between piano and bass recorded last year, a contrast to everything thatas gone before. A class act.

Brody and Luke Mullins offer an exhaustive, telling, mesmerising chronicle of the biggest business in US politics

Donald Trump decries the proverbial Washington swamp. Congress does next to nothing. The band plays on: lobbying remains big business. In 2023, the industry hit a $4.3bn payday. This year shows no end in sight to the trend. As the US gallops toward another election, The Wolves of K Street befits the season.

Brody Mullins, a Wall Street Journal investigative reporter and Pulitzer prize winner, and his brother, Luke Mullins, a contributor at Politico, deliver a graduate seminar on how lobbying emerged and became a behemoth, an adjunct of government itself, taking its collective name from the street north of the White House where many of its biggest earners sit.

The combined star power of Gosling and Emily Blunt canat lift Bullet Train director David Leitchas action-heavy spectacle into meaningful entertainment

Like the Lee Majors-starring 80s TV show on which this bombastic action comedy is based, The Fall Guy is pitched as a celebration of the work of the stunt crew: the unheralded men and women who take the movie-set risks so that the stars can take the credit. But in fact the film tumbles into the same pitfalls as any other enthusiastically pyrotechnic, action-heavy extravaganza: the sheer volume of stunt sequences means that the skills on show start to lose all meaning. Individually, the shots of a tiny figure dangling from a bucking, spinning, malfunctioning helicopter are impressive. But the relentless pace at which director (and former stuntman) David Leitch (Bullet Train) works through his ostentatious action set piece checklist means that it all turns into empty noise; spectacles strung together by a dizzy, slapdash screenplay that feels as though it has sustained a few too many bumps to the head.

Ryan Gosling is curiously half-baked as Colt Seavers, a top stunt professional whose career and burgeoning romantic relationship are both derailed by a broken back from a botched fall. Now Jody (Emily Blunt), the ex-girlfriend he ghosted after the incident, is directing her first movie (an absolutely shocking-looking sci-fi western titled Metal Storm). And Colt is tempted out of retirement at her express request. Except she didnat ask for him and she wants nothing more to do with him. Meanwhile, the filmas star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), is missing and the fate of Jodyas debut hangs in the balance. Itas up to Colt to do his best work a heas repeatedly kicked in the face, ignited and shot at a in the name of bad art. Which, I suppose, neatly sums up the stunt performer paradox.

In UK and Irish cinemas now

Sheas set to depose Taylor Swift from No 1 and has the most-streamed song in the world this week a the culmination of a decade of slow-burn success

Capped with one of the most brilliantly nonsensical chorus lines in pop history a aThatas that me, espressoa a Sabrina Carpenteras Espresso is the most streamed song in the world this week, deposed Taylor Swift as the UKas No 1 single yesterday and is shaping up to be the criticsa pick for the song you wonat be able to escape this summer.

Since its release in mid-April, this irresistible shot of nu-disco has been steadily climbing the charts to become one of the only tracks holding its own against the tidal wave of songs from Taylor Swiftas double-disc The Tortured Poets Department. Carpenter was recently released from Swiftas Eras tour juggernaut, having supported the superstar on her dates in Latin America, Australia and Singapore. Anointed by Swift as a asweet angel princessa, she is now rising through the ranks to become pop royalty in her own right.

A rocky patch in Ava and Loganas marriage forced them to talk openly about their desires a and now theyare having their best sex ever

How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

We watch porn frequently, which is a positive thing we do together. Iave learned new things about my own body

Watching Gemma advocate for a vulnerable client, Sam Elkin knew he could tell her about his desire to transition a and that shead always have his back

Gemma and I were both junior lawyers working at a Melbourne legal aid office, providing free advice to disadvantaged people facing eviction. Having experienced housing insecurity myself as a young person, it was a dream to give back to my community by helping others in the same situation.

Our office romance began in 2017 after we both attended a colleagueas apocalypse-themed house party in Brunswick West. Gemma had gone to a lot of effort to dress up as Octavia Blake from the sci-fi show The 100, while I only managed to find an aged, pilled black hoodie for the occasion. Over a few too many dirty martinis, I fessed up to my raging crush on her and we spent the rest of the night canoodling in the back yard on a structurally unsound velvet couch.

I love intercourse a so why has it been so long since I actually had any?

I first had sex when I was 16; I have since had quite a few people inside my body. Some were more welcome than others a like the surgeon who removed my inflamed appendix, and that incredibly hot Dutch photographer in a Utrecht Airbnb, to whom I would have given my appendix, had he asked. Others have only penetrated me with their words or in my fantasies. Some of the experiences feel unreal, like the guy who referred to himself as aBig Mikea and claimed that he was moving to Finland the next day, despite there being no packed moving boxes or suitcases in his house. I wouldnat be able to pick him out of a lineup today.

I am torn between two different versions of that story. In one, I was twentysomething, wild, confident and single. I met a hot guy in a bar and we went back to his place. He read me some of his poems, I elegantly undressed and we had sex. Twice. The next day, when I was deliciously hungover, I revelled in the fact that we didnat even exchange phone numbers, as if I was in Sex and the City.

Pizzas, aperitivos and a big sandy beach add to the offbeat charm of this Adriatic resort town

I hadnat heard of Pesaro before my ex-flatmate sent me there in summer 2018. I was writing a book at the time, and Giulia reckoned the best place for me to do such work was in her grandadas old flat, a modest unit in a block put up in 1946, during the short reign of Umberto II. It had lain empty since her nonno a Dottor Spinicci a died of liver failure, having failed to take his own medicine.

The flatas balcony looked on to a hot and dusty courtyard shared with the local police station. When, on my first morning in the flat, I discovered a faded handwritten recipe for ragA1 alla bolognese that didnat involve tomatoes, I was tempted to head down to the cop shop and report it as a thoughtcrime.

My kids are all absent, but hereas a transatlantic phone call with my brother and our extremely deaf and elderly father to fill my Saturday afternoon

It is a recent tradition that our adult children spend the night back at home with us the day before they travel anywhere far away. As parents we may have a diminishing relevance in their lives, but we remain very handy for the airport.

I hear the middle one pull the front door shut behind him at 5.45am on Saturday morning, off on a week-long business trip. When I next wake up itas almost 9am, and the house seems emptier than ever.

Adaptability and ease is the order of the day for this tinned fish crostata with chermoula topping and conchiglie with smoked oyster sauce

My cupboards are rarely without a tin or two (or three) of tinned fish. Sardines, anchovies, tuna, smoked oysters: theyare all usually on standby, and Iam crazy about all of them. I find them very reassuring, too, because they mean Iam never more than about two minutes from a meal, whether theyare just spread on toast, or mixed with a little Tabasco and lemon juice, perhaps, or some soured cream and herbs. I also use them to dial up all kinds of other dishes a pizza and pasta, say, delight in tinned fish as much as toast does, as do potato salads a and they can even be the main reason to make a particular dish. Starring role, not standby.

We would like to hear from students on US campuses that have seen protests

Hundreds of police officers entered Columbia University and arrested dozens of students on Tuesday night, clearing out an academic building that had been occupied as part of a pro-Palestinian protest.

In Los Angeles, police have had to intervene after clashes erupted between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Israel supporters on the University of California campus.

Whether itas working out or being creative, wead like to know how active you are with your commute

Commuting isnat normally associated with being fun or energetic, but some people have been taking a different approach to their journey to work by cycling, running or skiing.

We would like to know how you make your commute productive or fun. Do you run or rollerblade into the office even though it takes longer than public transport? What prompted you to change how you commute? How does it improve your mental and physical health?

We would like to hear from professional musicians about how they make a living from their work and the obstacles they face

Musicians playing smaller venues are facing low fees, high costs, and frequent losses. We would like to hear from professional musicians of all levels about how they make a living from their work and the obstacles they face.

Have you experienced issues with the costs of playing live or recording? Have you found a way to get around it? Tell us all about it below.

Wead like to hear from people who have been purchasing luxury goods and experiences in recent years, and how they feel about their spending habits

Weare interested to hear about peopleas spending habits in the area of upmarket or luxury goods, services and experiences, and whether they are generally happy with their spending on non-essentials.

Wead like to know whether you have spent money on expensive non-essential items such as designer clothing, high end housewares, luxury holidays, expensive beauty or wellness treatments, or exclusive dining, for instance, in the past year, and if so, whether you have struggled to afford this.

I have survived an abusive relationship, stalking and sexual assault a| yet even I was stunned at the revelation of men using smart fridges to threaten women

In the wake of more, more, more reports of lethal male violence against women in Australia a and the protests demanding actions that have followed them a Michael Salteras analysis of the problem is refreshingly clear. aEducation and public awareness are important but they are not, in themselves, a cure,a the academic wrote last week. aWe need a strategic, coordinated, practical approach that integrates many different responses and listens closely to frontline workers and community members.a

Australiaas public conversation about male violence has never been so loud. Weave arrived at a moment when the community is screaming for action. Even Sky News reports that Australians awant immediate change to combat the domestic violence crisisa.

Only women can rid the club of the guardians of the Y-chromosomeas aweave always done it this waya misogyny

Hereas a surprise: the Garrick Club is a really lovely place.

Itas full of lively and fascinating people. The staff are superb, the food is great, the wine list divine. The library is to die for (or in), we have the finest theatrical portraiture in the world, sumptuous sitting rooms and chic bedrooms a walletas throw from the Royal Opera House.

Tory council representation has imploded, but Labouras gains have not been seismic. These charts show what this may signal for a general election

• Local and mayoral election results a live
• Full 2024 council results for England
• UK general election opinion poll tracker

Conservative representation has collapsed to its lowest level since 1998 in the areas that voted in Thursdayas local elections, according to a Guardian analysis.

The Tories now control 19% of seats in the 98 council areas that had announced results by 20:40 on 3 May a their lowest level since Labouras Tony Blair swept to power in the late 1990s.

Ruben Gallego, taking on Kari Lake in key Arizona race, focuses on acommunity eventsa to reach those who have slipped away

When one of the most celebrated Mexican boxers in history, Canelo Alvarez, steps into the ring against the undefeated Mexican fighter Jaime MunguAa on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, excitement will be through the roof at a campaign event just 280 miles away.

Thatas because the Democratic congressman Ruben Gallego, caught in one of the most critical US Senate races in the country against the former TV anchor Kari Lake, will be holding a watch party for the fight at JL Boxing Academy in Glendale, Arizona, complete with big screens inside, and a truck serving birria tacos and Mexican Cokes outside.

Consequences of sharing nude images and subsequent threat of blackmail can be devastating. Talk to your child, say experts

aIam naked on cam now Iall call you. Answer the call donat be shy.a

The teenage boy did as he was told by the girl he had been chatting with over social media. The next message was chilling: aIf you donat want to get into trouble, you better listen. Iave enough to destroy you.a

Residents of manufactured housing parks typically own their homes a but not the parks themselves, which can be incredibly lucrative. Now some residents are forming cooperatives, and taking control

• This story is co-published with the Lever, a reader-supported investigative news organization

Bev Adrian, a retired career placement counselor for people with disabilities, lives in Woodlawn Terrace, a mobile home park just outside Minneapolis, Minnesota. The nearby streets are full of bustling local businesses a a Sota Boys Smoke Shop, a Pump N Munch Gas a but Woodlawn is a quiet park tucked away under maples and pines.

Adrian moved there four years ago, coincidentally right as Woodlawnas owner was looking to sell. Woodlawnas landlord was well liked, but for years the parkas residents had been hearing rumors about possible sales to much less friendly owners.

Athletes are breaking their silence about their experience of eating disorders and disordered eating. Why is this happening in an arena celebrated as the epitome of health?

Elite sport has long been consumed with the idea of the superhuman. Pushing the capabilities of the human body to its extremes in the hopes of uncovering the blueprint to engineer bodies that can jump higher, run faster and endure longer. And, as professionalism has increased, so too has the optimisation of athletesa bodies in the quest for peak human condition.

But recent revelations that former Australian womenas cricket captain Meg Lanning cut her international career short due to struggles with disordered eating have exposed some of the cracks that have long been forming in the elite sport system.

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Researchers and Silicon Valley are using tools powered by AI to read what had long been thought unreadable

More than 2,000 years after Plato died, the towering figure of classical antiquity and founder of the Academy, regarded by many as the first university in the west, can still make front-page news.

Researchers this week claimed to have found the final resting place of the Greek philosopher, a patch in the garden of his Athens Academy, after scanning an ancient papyrus scroll recovered from the library of a Herculaneum villa that was buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79.

Implications of the lawsuit could extend beyond Cochise county, if local officials try similar tactics in November

In a courtroom in Phoenix, Arizona, two elected officials who allegedly tried to subvert the countyas 2022 election tried to get a lawsuit against them thrown out in a case one of their defense attorneys called both asillya and ascarya.

The Cochise county supervisors, Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, appeared in court virtually, to defend themselves against charges of attempted election interference for their initial failure to certify the countyas election results.

His youth support declining, the president needs ato be where the people area. His account regularly mocks Trump a but remains silent on Gaza

In Joe Bidenas TikTok debut, timed to the Super Bowl in February, the president answered rapid-fire questions like aChiefs or Niners?a (neither, he picked the Eagles because his wifeas a aPhilly girla) and flashed the Dark Brandon meme. He got more than 10m views, so by pure metrics, the video was no flop. But to use one of TikTokas favorite disses, for many gen Z viewers it felt acringea a even pandering. Worse still, the TikTok, captioned alol hey guysa, made the rounds after Israel struck Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza strip. Bidenas jokes infuriated users who flooded the post with the comment aWHAT ABOUT RAFAH?a

aI donat want my president to be a TikTok influencer,a read the headline of one USA Today editorial. One (actual) influencer told CNN the presidentas attempt at meme-ing felt aperformativea. A warm welcome to the app, it was not. But Bidenas team kept posting.

Ex-central banker Lady Shafik, the universityas president, now faces calls to resign due to her handling of campus unrest

Steering Columbia University through the choppy waters of anti-Israel student protests was never going to be easy for Minouche Shafik, a member of the UK House of Lords who took over as president of the university in New York after a period of relative calm running the London School of Economics.

During her tenure as LSE director between 2017 and last year, academics largely refused to join the industrial action that dominated campuses across much of the UK.

US president Joe Biden said the US wasn't an authoritarian country and the right to protest was protected but 'vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows' would not be tolerated during an address from the White House on the student campus Gaza protests. 'We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people and squash dissent a| but neither are we a lawless country,' said Biden

• US campus protests

Eruptions at a remote Indonesian volcano have forced more than half a dozen airports to close, with ash spreading as far as Malaysia, according to officials, while authorities rushed to evacuate thousands due to tsunami fears. Mount Ruang erupted three times on Tuesday, spewing lava and ash more than 5km (three miles) into the sky and forcing authorities to issue evacuation orders for 12,000 people. A rescue ship and a warship were dispatched to help move people from neighbouring Tagulandang island north to Siau island because of fears parts of the volcano would fall into the sea, potentially causing a tsunami

• Indonesia volcano eruption spreads ash to Malaysia and shuts airports

The far right are on the march in Germany and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany has become the most popular party in several states. Immigration and a sense of being economically left behind have been driving factors in the rise in popularity but the Green party and the federal governmentas climate policies have also borne the brunt of public anger. The Guardian travelled to GAPrlitz, on the German border with Poland, to find out to what extent Germanyas green policies are fuelling the far right

aC/ How climate policies are becoming focus for far-right attacks in Germany

Police made arrests after clashing with demonstrators participating in student-led protests against Israel's war in Gaza. The arrests came amid a wave of demonstrations at campuses across the US, which began last week after students at New Yorkas Columbia University set up encampments calling for the university to divest from weapons manufacturers with ties to Israel. The House speaker, Mike Johnson, jumped into the fray on Wednesday with a visit to Columbiaas campus, where he faced jeers from the pro-Palestinian protesters

• Police arrest protesters amid crackdown on student rallies across US campuses

Four horses escaped from a military barracks during an exercise in central London, injuring multiple people. The horses were filmed galloping through the city, where they crashed into taxis and buses until they were stopped and recovered

• Four taken to hospital after military horses break loose in central London

Palestinian authorities said at least 14 Palestinians had been killed during a two-day raid in the occupied West Bank on Saturday. Israeli forces began the raid in the early hours of Friday in the Nur Shams area, near the flashpoint city of Tulkarm, where they exchanged gunfire with armed fighters.

Israeli forces said a number of militants were killed or arrested during the raid and four soldiers injured. It marked one of the heaviest casualty totals in the West Bank in recent months

• Middle East crisis a live updates

Away from the back-and-forth of the campaign trail, thousands of students are taking part in pro-Palestinian encampment-style protests at more than 50 university campuses across the US

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Hello, and welcome to the Guardianas brand new US election newsletter.

I moved to the US from the UK as a keen but inexperienced reporter in 2011, and was immediately plunged into covering the 2012 presidential election, despite having next to no knowledge of American politics. After the ignominy of travelling to a Newt Gingrich campaign event and having to ask an audience member who Newt Gingrich was, I decided I needed to learn more.

Trumpas trial got moving again with testimony from the attorney representing Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in hush-money negotiations

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Donald Trumpas trial got moving again on Tuesday with testimony from the attorney who represented Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in their hush-money negotiations.

Practical advice, expert insights and answers to your questions about how to live a good life

Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, weave got something for you.

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An end-of-season wobble has ended any hopes of a dream send off. But itas characteristic of Kloppas managerial career

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And so there will be no glorious farewell for JA1/4rgen Klopp. Saturdayas 2-2 draw with West Ham, coupled with victories for Manchester City and Arsenal, means any realistic hope of a second Premier League title is effectively over. Klopp is exhausted, his team is exhausted and the manic emotional energy that gripped the side during the League Cup final and immediately after has dissipated.

There will be questions about the wisdom of revealing when he did that he would be leaving. This has been a truism if English soccer since Alex Ferguson announced in 2001 that he planned to quit Manchester United. Do that, even if youare as fearsome a figure as Ferguson, and the danger is that authority wanes. Something similar seems to have happened with Emma Hayes, who will leave Chelsea Women in the summer after a hugely successful 12-year stint to take charge of the USWNT. Would Saturdayas touchline spat with Mohamed Salah have happened had the Egyptian thought that Klopp would still be his manager next season? (It now seems likely that Salah, who has only a year left on his contract, will also leave in the summer).

Artist Selena Kearney was raised on the Chehalis reservation in Washington state and began photographing fake native regalia after a chance encounter with a young woman in a grocery store on Halloween. aShe was wearing a skimpy faux-Native American costume,a she says. aI couldnat begin to understand how that cheap outfit had anything to do with me, or my heritage.a Curious about the power of these objects, she started to collect and consider them, sourcing sports paraphernalia, traditional headdresses and vintage and new costumes from eBay and Amazon. Over the course of five years, Kearney photographed them and the resulting series is now featured in a book, Every Object Has a Ritual (published by Minor Matters), and an exhibition at the Suquamish Museum in Washington state (Object/Ritual, 18 May-January 2025). aCollecting masks felt the hardest of all,a she says. One featuring a woman with two braids was particularly unsettling. aA parody of me, looking back at me.a

The photographer on an ambiguous image inspired by Greek, Roman and Egyptian art

aA former mentor, Elinor Carucci, recommends taking pictures daily as a sort of gym for the photographic mind,a Esteban Kuriel says.

On this day, Kuriel was staying at St Erminas hotel in London and had visited the Sir John Soaneas Museum, which houses a collection of Greek, Roman and Egyptian figurative sculptures. aThe fragmented, contorted bodies inspired me, and I returned to my room to make this image. Photographing daily trains my eye, just as one trains their body at the gym, so I must play with what is available. In this case, it was this space and its furniture.a

The Guardianas picture editors select photographs from around the world

War in Gaza, US campus protests, missile strikes in Kharkiv and floods in Kenya: the last seven days as captured by the worldas leading photojournalists

Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing

Since 2014 Spanish photographer Daniel Ochoa de Olza has been portraying the girl participants in a spring festival held in Colmenar Viejo outside Madrid. His portraits bear witness to his fascination with the enduring nature of Spainas rituals

With obscure origins in pagan customs and dating back to medieval times, the festivities of La Maya offers a strange and colourful spectacle celebrating the arrival of spring. Every year on 2 May the families of girls aged between seven and 11 gather to decide which of them will be chosen to be that yearas aMayasa.

Lucia Corrales Alfonso

The best of this weekas wildlife photographs from around the world

Labour has secured mayoral victories in London, Greater Manchester, Salford, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Liverpool today

• Local elections 2024: full council results for England

Rishi Sunak is braced for the result of key mayoral elections in London and the West Midlands, after the Conservatives were trounced in the first day of local election results.

As Fridayas result declarations closed, the Conservatives had suffered a net loss of 371 seats, and lost control of 10 councils.

Cheshire

Dorset

Hertfordshire

Kent

Merseyside

Sussex

Thames Valley

Warwickshire

West Midlands

Wiltshire

Keir Starmer says the prime minister has no option but to call a general election

Rishi Sunak was dealt a series of shattering blows last night as Labour won a knife-edge battle to seize the West Midlands mayoralty from the Conservatives and Sadiq Khan trounced his Tory rival in London to secure a third term.

The results, along with decisive victories for Labouras Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester, Steve Rotheram in Liverpool and Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire, left Labour in charge of most of Englandas mayoralties.

Britain has turned out in force to vote for change. Whenever the Tories go to the country, we will be ready to provide it

Rishi Sunak might have been too scared to put his name on the ballot this week, but voters sent him a clear message in the local elections anyway. Across the country, people turned out to vote for change a from the manufacturing heartlands of Derby to industrial Redditch and Thurrock in Essex. In Aldershot, home of the British army, Labour won Rushmoor borough council, ending 24 years of Tory rule. Ten more police and crime commissioners a which, as a former chief prosecutor, makes me incredibly proud. And in York and North Yorkshire, the first Labour mayor, in the prime ministeras back garden.

Victories in traditional Tory territory across the country are important to me. Itas not just about the numbers, though of course they matter: itas the choice of the electorate to turn their back on 14 years of decline and division, and embrace national renewal with Labour.

Rishi Sunakas government tries to limit the damage as the Conservativesa worst fears prove correct in the English local elections

Keir Starmer was advised by his team to get an early night on Thursday before the first election results started to come through at dawn the next day.

They booked the Labour leader into a hotel at a secret location in the north-west, so he could be bright and breezy when celebrating an anticipated parliamentary byelection win in Blackpool South.

Devastating defeats give Tory MPs more reasons to fear what will befall them when the country delivers its verdict

The mayoral elections demonstrated that there is a way to win for a Conservative. This is to make out that you have nothing to do with the Tories.

Of the metro mayorships that were up for grabs, just one has been bagged for the Conservatives. The re-election of Ben Houchen in Tees Valley is being used as a human shield by Rishi Sunak to fend off any attempt to depose him from Downing Street. Heas relying on this sole glimmer of cheer for his party to convince it that a disastrous general election defeat is not inevitable and to blunt the daggers of those in his own party who want him gone.

Union to campaign against single-phrase Ofsted judgments, threatening possible strike action

Headteachers in England are to launch a campaign for the abolition of ainhumane and unreliablea single-phrase school inspection judgments, threatening legal challenges and possible strike action if the government refuses reforms.

Delegates to the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) annual conference committed the union ato explore all campaign, legal and industrial routes to secure necessary changes to inspection to safeguard leadersa lives,a after the suicide last year of the headteacher Ruth Perry.

Egyptian and US mediators report signs of compromise, but many analysts remain pessimistic

• Middle East crisis a live updates

Hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza rose on Saturday as a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to continue indirect talks, with what is believed to be a response to a new proposal, reportedly agreed by Israel, to halt fighting for an initial 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Egyptian and US mediators have reported signs of compromise in recent days and Egyptian state news channel Al-Qahera said on Saturday that a consensus had been reached in the indirect talks over many of the disputed points but gave no further details.

Firms said food and plant checks and Latin names causing costly delays with lorries waiting hours in first week of post-EU regime

Of all the effects of Brexit, probably the least anticipated was that flower exporters and customs officials would have to learn Latin.

But that is one of the problems that confronted British businesses in the first week after the government introduced physical checks on some food and plants from the EU.

Daniel Rooney stood in at 30-minutesa notice on Friday night when Mursa flight from London was cancelled

A Scottish singer has said he is astill on a higha after being plucked from obscurity to replace Olly Murs as the opening act for Take That at the last minute.

Murs was due to open for Take That at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow on Friday but had to pull out after getting stuck in London when his flight was cancelled.

Kyiv says Moscow forces have gained afootholda in area north of Donetsk city after pounding depleted defenders

• Putin on our doorstep: Ukrainians watch as the frontline edges closer

The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by the Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

Russian troops have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyivas depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs. Ukraineas military has acknowledged that Russia has gained a afootholda in Ocheretyne, which had a population of about 3,000 before the war, but says the fighting there is continuing.

Family say they are adevastateda by fatal stabbing of 14-year-old, as his favourite football team, Arsenal, remember him at Emirates Stadium

The family of Daniel Anjorin have issued a statement paying tribute to their son, who was fatally stabbed as he walked to school, as Arsenal football club led tributes to the teenager.

Daniel, a 14-year-old football fan, was attacked with a sword in Hainault, east London, and suffered fatal wounds to his neck and chest.

Banned dogs found on allotment where officers described conditions as aappallinga

More than 20 dogs have been seized after police raided a suspected illegal XL bully breeding farm in Sheffield.

Twenty-two animals were seized from an allotment on Thursday, including mothers and puppies, which were being kept in what officers described as aappalling conditionsa.

Interior minister Nancy Faeser promises atough actiona to protect democracy as political assaults rise

The German interior minister Nancy Faeser has vowed to fight a surge in violence against politicians after a German member of the European parliament had to be taken to hospital following an attack while he was campaigning for re-election.

Matthias Ecke, 41, a member of Faeseras Social Democrats (SPD), was hit and kicked by a group of four people while putting up posters in Dresden, capital of the eastern state of Saxony, police said. An SPD source said his injuries would require an operation.

UK medicines regulator says information on boxes of montelukast will alert users to risk of mood and behaviour changes

More than 500 adverse neuropsychiatric reactions have been reported in children under the age of nine involving an asthma drug which is to get new warnings over its risks.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced last week that more prominent warnings would be added to the information provided on boxes of the asthma drug montelukast, sold under the brand name Singulair.

Government investigation into wartime atrocities on Channel Island will ask why Nazi perpetrators never stood trial in Britain

The government inquiry into Nazi wartime atrocities on the Channel Island of Alderney has been extended to investigate why none of the Nazi perpetrators responsible for the crimes was put on trial in Britain, the Observer can reveal.

Originally set up to review the number of victims in camps on the island, the inquiry will release a report later this month revealing the full scale of the aunspeakable and unimaginable brutality and sadisma that occurred on British soil.

The Home Office last week launched a nationwide operation to round up asylum seekers, leaving many fearful and confused

At 2.37pm on Thursday news that a man had adisappeareda rippled through Londonas raid-resistance WhatsApp groups. The asylum seeker had walked into the Home Office immigration reporting centre in Hounslow, west London, for a routine appointment, as many people seeking refuge in Britain are required to do. His brother waited outside.

But the man did not come out. Ten minutes passed, then 20, then an hour, then three. The brother waiting outside went in, and came out with bad news: his sibling had been detained and told he faced being deported to Rwanda.

Russian forces are advancing in the countryas eastern regions, but the recent arrival of US arms could help turn the tide

It was a perfect May evening. Daria Karpinska and her friends sat in the corner of a five-a-side pitch and played cards. Nearby was their school. Swifts had returned to their village of Hrodivka and screeched in a sunny blue sky.

Suddenly, a loud whoosh-whoosh noise interrupted the teenagersa game of afoola: the sound of a Grad missile. Seconds later came the boom of artillery. aItas louder today than yesterday,a said 14-year-old Karpinska matter-of-factly.

More than 1,400 people have been arrested as police dismantle campus encampments a but are the tactics used too brutal?

More than 1,400 people have been arrested across the US during a week of intense police crackdowns on a sprawling campus movement of pro-Palestine student demonstrations.

As Joe Biden defended studentsa free speech rights but warned them that adissent must never lead to disordera, colleges across the country brought law enforcement to campus to arrest dozens or even hundreds of protesters and clear away their encampments.

From the Turkish Riviera to the Ale de RA(c), we select quiet and unspoilt places to stay for sun, sand, snorkelling a or just snoozing

Thereas something quite particular about small but perfectly formed Assos a butterscotch and rose-pink houses line a horseshoe bay, with Venetian ruins scattered between the narrow alleys. There are two small beaches, but the real joy is to rent a motor boat and discover the small bays and coves that fringe this part of the Cephalonian coast. Walkers can follow the path out on to the headland to the ruins of Assosas 16th-century castle; thereas not a huge amount to see, but the views make the walk worth it. Roi Suites is a bougainvillaea-clad cluster of well-equipped studio flats in a waterfront neoclassical building, with gorgeous sea views from the pool terrace.
Doubles from APS117 (minimum seven nights), roisuites.com

The troubled child actor turned chatshow host faces flak for her toe-curling interview with Kamala Harris. But oversharing is all part of her shtick

An office-style desk was once the key prop on a television chatshow a a standard piece of kit beloved of Johnny Carson and David Letterman, not to mention Britainas Jonathan Ross. Then the comfy sofa took over and guests began to scooch along, making room for each other. Now, though, under the auspices of Drew Barrymore, host of a daytime show on CBS, itas the lowly rug that is taking centre stage.

Barrymore, who is still best known internationally for her childhood role as the little girl in ET, likes to interact with her guests on a fluffy rug in the middle of her set in New Yorkas Broadcast Center. She has prostrated herself upon it more than once in front of her studio audience and prefers it to the showas pink satin armchairs.

Girona briefly promised the unlikeliest of triumphs but the sheer variety in Ancelottias side made them a cut above the rest

Over two hours had passed since the final whistle went on Real Madridas 3-0 victory over Cadiz and some of their players were still inside inside the Santiago BernabA(c)u watching on TV when they officially found out they were champions, but they had known for a long time. The title, eventually delivered by Gironaas 4-2 victory over Barcelona 681 kilometres to the north-east and confirmed at 8.30pm on the 34th Saturday of the season, did not see them board an open-top bus down the Castellana to Cibeles, although fans did gather by the goddess of fertility. There was more to do a Bayern Munich come on Wednesday night a and, besides, this was already done.

It had been for some time. Two weeks earlier, Jude Bellingham had scored a 94th-minute goal to win the clA!sico, their last remaining contenders eliminated, if you could truly call Barcelona that. Two months earlier they had put four past the nearest thing they had to genuine challengers, effectively eliminating Girona too: they were the most exciting, the most surprising team but they would not be champions. As for AtlA(c)tico Madrid, the only team to defeat Real all season, they had eliminated themselves even sooner, gone by Christmas. This hadnat been a race; ultimately, it had been a parade.

At 84, The Handmaidas Tale author is as outspoken as ever. She talks about aging, culture wars - and why athe orange guya canat be allowed back into the White House

aIam the great sage on top of the mountain,a Margaret Atwood says with a smile, on a video call from her home in Toronto. aIf youave lived to a certain age people think you know something because they havenat got there yet.a

At 84, most writers could be forgiven for taking it easy, but especially Atwood, after a tumultuous few years that have seen The Handmaidas Tale become a hit TV series; the publication of its long-awaited sequel The Testaments, joint winner of the Booker prize in 2019; and the death of her partner of nearly 50 years, novelist Graeme Gibson. He died of a stroke two days after the UK launch of the novel, and Atwood, with typical grit, carried on with the tour.

The DJ, 45, on her fan Prince William, improving lesbian representation, recovering from cancer and why colostomy bags are nothing to be ashamed of

Silence doesnat sit well with me. Iam the eldest of six children, so my early years were chaotic. Every day was an adventure; the house was filled with music, laughter and chat. If Iam home alone now, I always have the telly on.

Racism was everywhere when I was a kid. Mumas parents were from Barbados, Dad was white English: mixed relationships werenat common in the late-70s. Home, in Stockport, felt safe, but away from home theread be abuse. For a while we lived in Skem [Skelmersdale] a I heard the N-word every day.

Mum and Dad are grafters. She was always helping people on the estate and he worked on building sites from dawn to dusk to provide. I used to feel guilty, working in the media. DJ-ing is wonderful, but itas pressing buttons. I couldnat shake the idea that I should work harder for the wonderful life I have.

A private school scholarship changed my life. I saw how others lived, was offered opportunities and learned whatas possible. We could never have afforded it a even my uniform was paid for by a bursary. I was never treated differently there, though Iam not sure anyone quite understood where I was from.

Stubbornness is my worst habit. I donat back down. Slowly, Iam learning to admit Iam wrong once the moment is over, but in the heat of it I still canat.

Getting my BBC pass felt like a real moment. Mum and Dad finally accepted that being a DJ wasnat a phase Iad grow out of. That I wasnat going back to finish uni. That day, I knew they were proud.

My GP told me I was too young for cancer. She sent me for tests anyway, which saved my life. I was 42, fit and in my prime when I got my diagnosis. While I waited to hear how serious it was, I made a promise: if I survived, Iad tell the tale. Reading other peopleas stories comforted me while I was struggling. Sharing my own is the least I could do.

Being told I was cancer-free was the most beautiful moment. A yearas worth of worry, pain and fear rushed out my body. Cancer made me a better person. Iave stopped worrying about the silly things. I appreciate the privilege of being healthy. Iave traded my brattiness for gratitude.

Lesbian representation in the media still has a way to go. Often, inclusivity means a gay man a we need more space for the rest of the LGBTQ+ letters.

I regret not spending enough time with Mum. She passed away earlier this year. I left Radio 1 to be with her, and we had an amazing summer together. For years, I sacrificed that for my career. I shouldnat have.

Prince William used to text me regularly. Will and Kate came to Radio 1 to wish me luck before I ran the London marathon. He told me when he worked on the air ambulances, he used to listen to me on the early breakfast show, and would sometimes message in with a fake name asking for a shout-out.

Thereas a Lauryn Hill lyric: aIt could all be so simple, but youad rather make it hard.a That was my approach to past relationships. Then I met my girlfriend, Kate, and realised you just know when itas supposed to be a it now feels like the easiest thing in the world. Lots of aYes dearsa also help.

My stoma is called Audrey. Naming it helps you bond and get used to it. Mine looked like the plant from Little Shop of Horrors: Audrey II. She keeps me alive a and thatas beautiful. Iam determined to be loud and proud about her a so many people are made to feel ashamed of theirs.

Personal Best by Adele Roberts is published by Hodder Catalyst and is out now

So a Michelin-starred chef said he loathed our one truly globally renowned dish. I beg to differ

Across Britain today, hundreds of thousands of us will tuck into one of the worldas most perfect dishes. Crispy batter encasing flaky fish; a steaming pile of chips, some soft, some crunchy, some large, some merely a scrap; acidic condiments and sides to balance the salt and fat.

Yet the Michelin-starred chef Dominic Chapman, of eponymous restaurant in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, caused a stir last week by claiming in an interview with Restaurant magazine that fish and chips a specifically afrom a fish and chip shopa a was his most overrated food. Chapman didnat provide a reason, but the dish is by no means ubiquitously loved. Writing in the Guardian a few years back, the journalist Alexi Duggins called it aa dreadful, dreadfula meal and a aconceptual disastera. To many itas a grease-on-grease, mush-on-mush assault on our digestion.

(Warner)
Talk of a new musical direction proves unfounded as the Grammy-winning singeras third album shares more retro-inspired dance pop and lessons from her love life

Dua Lipaas last album, 2020as Future Nostalgia, moved the cultural dial. Released into the pandemic, it was ubiquitous, neon-hued and life-affirming, winning two Brits and her third Grammy overall, confirming Lipa as an international superstar. It also kicked off a disco revival boom echoed through numerous other artists, not least dance-pop veteran Kylie Minogue, RA3isAn Murphy and Jessie Ware. Even BeyoncA(c) went disco for her Renaissance (2022), saluting Black queer culture.

But in the video for Lipaas Barbie soundtrack hit of 2023, Dance the Night, a mirror ball shatters. And the messaging around Lipaas third album, Radical Optimism, has been keen to fast-forward her into a new era, establish the requisite fresh narrative and, perhaps, move the dial again.

A rocky patch in Ava and Loganas marriage forced them to talk openly about their desires a and now theyare having their best sex ever

How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

We watch porn frequently, which is a positive thing we do together. Iave learned new things about my own body

• Striker scores four in 5-1 win over Wolves
• aThe second and fourth were unbelievablea

Pep Guardiola believes Erling Haaland is aback to businessa after the strikeras four-goal haul in Manchester Cityas 5-1 defeat of Wolves, with the manager urging the champions to win their final three Premier League games to ensure a record fourth consecutive title.

Haaland scored a first-half hat-trick, including two penalties, and added his fourth following the break to take his Premier League tally to 25 at the Etihad Stadium. Victory kept City a single point behind Arsenal a but Guardiolaas side have a game in hand. If they beat Fulham next Saturday and Mikel Artetaas side lose at Manchester United the following day, City can retain the championship by beating Tottenham on Tuesday week.

• Leinster 20-17 Northampton
• Irish side survive late fightback after Loweas superb hat-trick

They were not given much of a chance a and sure enough, for most of the match they did not have one. But Northampton, having looked completely lost in front of the 82,000 spectators at Croke Park, burst into life in the final quarter to give Leinster something of a scare.

The home side, though, are too packed to the rafters with international quality to have lost from such a position. They have had their wobbles in the recent past, but letting slip a 20-3 lead early in the first half would really have been too painful to contemplate. As it is, with James Lowe a one of the very best players in the Six Nations, let alone the Champions Cup a bagging a hat-trick, they march on to London for the final at the end of the month.

• World no 1 wins epic 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7) in three hours and 11 minutes
• Swiatek saves three match points to earn first title in Madrid

Iga Swiatek may still be in the early years of her career, still in the process of learning her craft, gaining new tools while yet to reach her peak, but at the same time she continues to make her mark in tennisas history books at a startling pace.

At 22, Swiatek has now won every single significant clay court event on the WTA tour, an achievement she earned on Saturday evening by outlasting Aryna Sabalenka in an incredible battle of the highest quality between the two best players in the world. After three hours and 11 minutes in Madrid, Swiatek saved three match points and emerged victorious in a match that will go down in history for its greatness, defeating Sabalenka 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7).

Someone has brought an actual tractor. Someone has brought a flag the height of a small house. Someone has brought about two dozen smoke bombs and is letting them off one by one, like rounds of gunfire. Someone is holding a giant drum and someone else is beating it with all his might. A wheelchair emerges out of the blue fog, crushing the broken glass and discarded canisters and empty MadrA cans under its wheels.

Itas 11am and already the centre of Ipswich feels like a battlefield being looted and pillaged. There are thousands gathered here, descended from the Suffolk villages and the Essex commuter towns and the London suburbs, some with tickets and some without: all here on the promise of joy, trying to grasp and gulp and plunder as much of it as they can.

• Welshman battles past former champion Stuart Bingham 17-12
• Wilson beats David Gilbert 17-11 to reach a second Crucible final

Jak Jones sealed his status as one of the unlikeliest of World Snooker Championship finalists after completing an attritional 17-12 triumph over former champion Stuart Bingham at the Crucible.

The world No 44, who has never previously reached a ranking final, will face Kyren Wilson in the two-day final starting on Sunday after Wilson overcame David Gilbert 17-11.

• Red Bull driver faster than Ferrari duo Leclerc and Sainz
• McLarenas Norris qualifies fifth with Hamilton eighth

Max Verstappen remained determinedly very much on top of qualifying, continuing his unbeaten record for the season with another comfortable pole for the Miami Grand Prix. But in his wake Fernando Alonso is set to square up with Formula Oneas governing body, the FIA. Alonso was angry and frustrated that they had failed to punish Lewis Hamilton after a controversial incident in Saturday morningas sprint, claiming Hamilton had aruined a lot of peopleas racesa.

For Sundayas GP Verstappen once more holds all the cards with his sixth consecutive pole this season, beating the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz into second and third by just over a tenth of a second, having already taken victory in the sprint race.

• Ecuadorian rider wins stage with time of 3hr 14min 13 sec
• Maximilian Schachmann in second with Tadej Pogacar third

Ecuadoras Jhonatan NarvA!ez won a sprint finish to claim victory for Ineos Grenadiers on stage one of the Giro daItalia.

Starting at Venaria Reale, Saturdayas 136km stage featured a category two climb on the Colle della Maddalena before ending in Turin.

Mikel Arteta had wanted something less stressful than Arsenalas previous home win over Bournemouth and he got his wish. In March of last year, his team had needed a 97th-minute Reiss Nelson goal to complete a wild 3-2 victory from 2-0 down.

Here, there was glory in the general sense of comfort and control, Arsenal moving to 83 points, doing everything they could to ask the question of the defending champions, Manchester City, in the race for the Premier League title.

As elections loom across the continent, Italyas prime minister and the commissionas president are in a dubious alliance

Itas rare that an Italian prime minister tops the table in Europe. But with Germanyas Olaf Scholz and Franceas Emmanuel Macron facing red cards at home, Spainas Pedro SA!nchez briefly stretchered off, and relegated Rishi Sunak sulking on the bench like Liverpoolas Mo Salah, Giorgia Meloni a post-fascist poster girl turned star centre-forward of the new right a is shooting at an open goal.

Itas Melonias moment. In the words of one conservative commentator, she has become aEuropeas essential leadera. And her influence is set to expand next month when up to 450 million eligible voters in 27 countries pick a new EU parliament. Hard-right and far-right nationalist-populist parties, including Melonias Brothers of Italy, are poised for sweeping gains at the expense of the left and the greens.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk

All praise to a classical singer for last weekas rebellion against a sea of illuminated screens

It was after the third song in Brittenas Les Illuminations that Ian Bostridge decided head had enough. Wheeling round to face the constellation of screen lights that dotted Birminghamas vast Symphony Hall, the tenor called the show to a halt. Could everyone please turn off their phones? It was extremely distracting.

After the performance, which was two weeks ago, Bostridge was surprised to find his phone-happy audience had been perfectly within their rights. More than that: theyad actually been encouraged to video him. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) had last year decided to drop aany perceived arulesa of a traditional concerta in a bid to achallenge conventionsa and get ayoung peoplea interested. Signs in its venues now ask ticketholders to abring drinks into the auditorium. Clap whenever they like. Wear whatever makes them feel comfortable. Take photos or short snippets of film (and share them with us).a

Victory for the Tees Valley mayor should show the way for the Tories to refind their election mojo

Rishi Sunak will have been relieved when Ben Houchen was declared the winner in the Tees Valley mayoral election, but he canat disguise the fact that these were very bad election results.

Council elections are difficult to interpret a there are a host of local factors at play. The best thing to look at is what is known as national equivalent vote share. The BBCas estimate at the time of writing is that Labour got 34% and the Conservatives 25%.

The prime minister has been trying to put a brave face on the Toriesa heavy losses, but thereas nowhere left to hide
aC/ You can order your own version of this cartoon

New research has found that every pound saved in closing police stations costs the rest of us APS3

Every government looks to save money. Sometimes, itas a priority to reduce spending, as with post-2010 austerity. Even when overall spending is rising, politicians may reduce spending in one area to make progress on a priority elsewhere. Doing things more efficiently is always a good idea.

But announcing a spending cut is not the same as reducing spending, let alone achieving value for taxpayersa money. That is a key lesson of the austerity years. Cuts announced in haste in one area today have repeatedly led to costs ballooning elsewhere tomorrow.

Reticence over the seizure of Russian state assets in Europe betrays a fatal underestimation of the threat Moscow poses

Europe has plotted an elegant decline that suits the needs of its ageing population, and the Ukraine war cannot be allowed to interfere with that plan.

That is how it seems when EU countries consider circumventing the financial rulebook to offer Ukraine what it needs to overcome waves of drones and break the deadlock on its eastern front.

Please, listen to us a not political figures, radical fringes and misguided media

On Tuesday night, we watched in horror as hundreds of riot police flooded our beloved campus and brutalized our classmates. The next day, students awoke with swollen faces, bruised wrists and lacerations a all results of inhumane police treatment. The past two weeks have been tumultuous, marked with mass arrests of student demonstrators, an encampment on our lawns, national media attention and vile acts of hatred. Countless have spoken on our behalf. But by speaking over us, media outlets and politicians have created a distorted narrative a one which unfairly characterizes our community.

Now, it is time to elevate student perspectives, the ausa, rather than the athema. The traumatic environment and militarization of our campus are not the sole product of ill-intended protesters or reckless non-affiliates, as claimed by administrative emails; rather, they are the fault of the senior administration themselves. For months, this crisis has brewed as administrators neglected student and faculty voices. We must be clear: the administration has put our studentsa safety at risk and has failed to ensure a conducive learning environment. As student leaders, it is time for our voice to be heard.

Itas far less bother to stream romcoms, like the latest Anne Hathaway film, into my living room than play them out in real life

Anyone for a toyboy? The hit of the season has been The Idea of You, the film adaptation of Robinne Leeas bestseller in which a woman in her 40s (played by Anne Hathaway) falls mutually in something-or-other with a pop idol in his 20s (played by Nicholas Galitzine).

On the one hand, I bristle at the idea that being fortysomething is particularly old. Or that a rich, beautiful, successful, intelligent woman is making some sort of wild transgression in having a sexy love affair with an available male character who is equally blessed in every way, but for the fact that heas younger.

After this weekas terrible results for his party, the only honourable thing to do is let voters decide his fate

Rishi Sunakas government began last week by triumphantly announcing that a man whose asylum claim had been rejected had volunteered to take up to APS3,000 cash in exchange for agreeing to take a commercial flight to Rwanda a plus the provision of housing, food and healthcare there for five years at a cost of APS150,000 to the taxpayer. Sunak bookended it with some of the worst-ever English local election results for the Conservatives, and the shock loss of the West Midlands mayoralty to the Labour party.

A direct line can be traced from this preposterous claim of success to electoral disaster. During 14 years in government, the Conservatives have eroded the welfare safety net, sabotaged the quality of public services through underfunding and neglect, and imposed a huge economic hit in the form of a hard Brexit. Child poverty has gone up, the NHS is blighted by record waiting lists and understaffing and social care services for the vulnerable have been adversely affected.

These were intensely domestic polls. But it was foreign affairs that caused Sir Keir Starmer trouble

The results from local elections across England suggest that the Tories are on course to lose power to Labour when voters elect a new parliament. Sir John Curtice, the eminent pollster, set the tone by telling the BBC that he was alooking at one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 yearsa. The fault ultimately lies with Rishi Sunak, the prime minister. He conceded that the results were disappointing. That seemed an understatement when the Tories were losing half the council seats they were trying to defend.

Voters have stopped listening to the Conservatives. The public is fed up with rising bills that the government did not do enough to insulate them from. The shabby state of the public realm is offensive to most people. Mr Sunak might point to the re-election of Ben Houchen as Tees Valley mayor as proof that Conservatives could defy the odds. But if the swing to Labour was replicated in Tees Valley parliamentary constituencies at a general election, Sir Keir Starmer would win them all.

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Readers on the governmentas plans to move away from financial support for those with mental health conditions given through personal independence payment

Perhaps we shouldnat be surprised that the government has continued to attack amental health culturea (Mentally ill people being used as apolitical footballa, campaigners say, 29 April). The publication of its disability green paper, in which the government says it wants to move away from financial support for those with mental health conditions given through personal independence payment (Pip), is greatly concerning. It comes after the prime minister labelled the UK as being amid a asicknote culturea and said that society shouldnat be aover-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of lifea by diagnosing them as mental health conditions.

Such language is outdated and fails to promote open discussions about mental health or encourage those in need to seek expert advice. We must not minimise the mental health challenges that people face every day. Everyone living with a mental health condition deserves support. This includes gaining financial security, and Pip is therefore a vital lifeline for those who rely on it.

Readers were inspired by Hilary Bradtas experiences and recall their own

As I recuperated from surgery, my spirits were much lifted by the memories evoked by Hilary Bradtas article (Confessions of an 82-year-old hitchhiker, 27 April).

As a hitchhiker in the 1960s and early 70s, I, like Bradt, experienced wholly positive interactions with those willing to offer a lift: interesting conversations over the course of a few miles, company over a shared meal in otherwise soulless service stations, occasional overnight hospitality with the driveras family, and even offers to set up my first lift of the next day with a afriend of a frienda who was heading in my direction.

More frequent heatwaves mean bees are unable to thermoregulate their hives a further endangering a species already in decline

Bumblebee nests may be overheating, killing off broods and placing one of the Earthas critical pollinators in decline as temperatures rise, new research has found.

Around the world, many species of Bombus, or bumblebee, have suffered population declines due to global heating, the research said. Bumblebee colonies are known for their ability to thermoregulate: in hot conditions, worker bees gather to beat their wings and fan the hive, cooling it down. But as the climate crisis pushes average temperatures up and generates heatwaves, bumblebees will struggle to keep their homes habitable.

Environmental campaign groups took joint action against decision to approve carbon budget delivery plan

The UK governmentas climate action plan is unlawful, the high court has ruled, as there is not enough evidence that there are sufficient policies in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, will now be expected to draw up a revised plan within 12 months. This must ensure that the UK achieves its legally binding carbon budgets and its pledge to cut emissions by more than two-thirds by 2030, both of which the government is off track to meet.

More than 23,000 people forced to leave homes after heavy rains in southern Rio Grande do Sul prompt record-breaking floods

Heavy rains in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul have killed 37 people, with another 74 still missing, as record-breaking floods devastated cities and forced thousands to leave their homes.

It was the fourth such environmental disaster in a year, following floods in July, September and November that killed 75 people in total.

Researchers find many countries unprepared for influx of new species and will be vulnerable to bites

Climate breakdown is likely to lead to the large-scale migration of venomous snake species into new regions and unprepared countries, according to a study.

The researchers forecast that Nepal, Niger, Namibia, China, and Myanmar will gain the most venomous snake species from neighbouring countries under a heating climate.

Staff offer support to protesters as locals donate food, drink, bedding and books

The collection of 12 tents pitched in a soggy garden at the heart of Bristol universityas campus is on a much smaller scale than the Palestine solidarity encampments sweeping the US. But the outrage at what this new generation of student activists regard as the complicity of education institutions in Israelas assault on Gaza is just as raw.

aIt makes me feel sick to my stomach,a said Olivia [not her real name], a second-year student at the university, outside the camp on Friday. aI feel deeply disgusted and ashamed. This protest is absolutely the least I can do for someone studying at a university that is so complicit.a Like many of the students involved in the protest, she doesnat want to share her name. aThere could be academic repercussions [for students taking part]: anything from being banned from university buildings to suspensions and expulsions,a she said. aThis has happened in the UK, but not at this university so far.a

Local election results in England justify the decision to focus on Conservative areas, claim party strategists

The Liberal Democrats are increasingly confident that they will claim more than one Tory abig beasta at the coming general election, pointing to local election results putting them ahead in a series of true blue constituencies.

Ed Daveyas party has been criticised for failing to improve its polling performance in recent months, while its 17% projected vote share from last weekas local elections was down slightly on last year.

Resounding victory in London mayoral race came despite media reports suggesting it would be a close contest

Sadiq Khanas election victory as London mayor has abucked the trenda of Muslim voters turning away from Labour over the partyas stance on the war in Gaza, party figures said.

The 53-year-old won a third term as the capitalas mayor on Saturday, without seeming to have lost the support of large numbers of Muslim voters a unlike Labour candidates elsewhere in England last week.

Water bottle stations set up in St Leonards-on-Sea and part of Hastings as Southern Water customers face days without service

Southern Water was criticised this weekend for overseeing a adebaclea after a mains pipe burst, leaving 31,000 properties in Hastings and St Leonards without water.

There were long traffic queues leading to just four bottled water stations after supplies were cut off on Thursday. Businesses are expected to lose thousands of pounds, with the firm likely to face compensation claims.

Campaigners are calling for public inquiry into high number of patient fatalities over a decade at crisis-hit service

More than 30 patients died after risks were not acted on in the decade following a controversial service redesign at a crisis-hit NHS mental health trust, according to an analysis by campaigners.

The report by the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk also logged nearly 20 patients of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) who have died since 2013 after communication failures, while family concerns were ignored in 15 cases.

With public finances in a worse position than expected, chancellor Jeremy Hunt is considering pushing back further pledges

Jeremy Hunt and his team are considering not holding another tax-cutting autumn statement before the next election, amid uncertainty about the public finances.

The chancellor has already hinted that he plans to pledge further tax cuts a including another down payment on Rishi Sunakas ambition to abolish national insurance a before a general election, which is expected to be held in the autumn. He also remains under pressure from the right of the party to lower taxes.

This Morning presenter told his friend not to moan and gave him advice that ultimately proved fatal

Gyles Brandreth has said he blames himself for the death of Rod Hull, the entertainer who fell to his death as he was trying to adjust the TV aerial on the roof of his home.

Hull, 63, famous for his antics with his puppet Emu, fell from a ladder outside his bungalow in Winchelsea, East Sussex, in 1999.

The set of folios published by John Gould will be presented at Firsts book fair in London in mid-May

John Gould was one of the most sought-after taxidermists in 19th-century London, commissioned by King George IV to stuff the first giraffe to arrive in England.

But Gouldas lasting legacy is birds. He travelled the world documenting and cataloguing as many avian species as he could find, many of them never seen before, earning him the nickname the Bird Man and the appointment as official abird stuffera to the Zoological Society.

The UK is expected to come out of recession, but it would be wise not to expect a reduction any time soon

It would come as a shock to most economists if the Bank of England opted to cut interest rates at its policy meeting this week.

Financial markets, which were baying for a cut last May, are these days betting that August or possibly September will be the point at which the Bank starts to lower interest rates from their current level of 5.25%.

Even products marketed as aorganica may be toxic, say campaigners, with risks for the wider ecosystem

Gardeners are inadvertently killing scores of earthworms with soil conditioners marketed as aorganica, experts fear, as they call for tighter regulation on products that poison the invertebrates.

Earthworms may appear humble, but Charles Darwin thought their work in improving soil structure and fertility was so important he devoted his final book to them and said: aIt may be doubted if there are any other animals which have played such an important part in the history of the world as these lowly organised creatures.a

Rightwing media have seized on campus protests to portray the president as weak. Will it have an impact in November?

At the height of the tensions on US campuses this week, with Republicans gleefully seizing on student unrest as an election issue that could propel Donald Trump back into the White House, Joe Biden tried to steer a middle path.

Weighing the democratic right to peaceful protest and the political necessity to stem disruption, Biden declared that aorder must prevaila.

Hundreds of cities across Rio Grande so Sul hit by floods with 32,000 people displaced and infrastructure destroyed

The death toll from rains in Brazilas southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul has risen to 57, local authorities said on Saturday afternoon, while dozens still have not been accounted for.

The stateas civil defence authority said 67 people were still missing and more than 32,000 had been displaced as storms affected nearly two-thirds of the 497 cities in the state.

For 30 years, Brian McNeill hunted the worldas second-biggest fish from small boats off the wild west coast of Ireland. Now the species has made a recovery so rapid it has astounded scientists

The ambush was simple. A spotter on a hill would scan the sea and when he saw the big black fins approach, he would shout down to the boatmen. They would ready their nets and quickly row out to the kill zone.

When a shark got tangled in the mesh, Brian McNeill would wait a minute or two while it struggled, then steady himself and raise his harpoon. This was the crucial moment. The creature would be diving and thrashing, desperate to escape. If the blade hit the gills blood would spurt, clouding the water. The trick was to hit a small spot between the vertebrae.

As she tries to limit the fallout from her dog- and goat-killing anecdotes, factual inaccuracies in her book are coming to light

As she entered a second consecutive weekend trying to manage fallout from revelations in her upcoming memoir that she shot her dog to death, South Dakotaas governor, Kristi Noem, had conceded that she would need to correct multiple factual inaccuracies in other parts of the book.

Meanwhile, a Republican fundraiser which Noem was supposed to headline had to be canceled after threats against the event staff, hotel venue and governor, according to organizers.

As the war stretches on indefinitely, there are few eager recruits and Kyivas armed forces are short of soldiers

Anton* was on his way to work as a civilian volunteer in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv 10 days ago. Several men stopped him. They asked: aHi, who are you?a And: aCan you show me your documents please?a One of the officers produced a tablet and scrolled down a list. He found Antonas name. A single word was written next to it in red capital letters: ukhyliant, or draft dodger. The men took him to the nearest conscription office.

That morning, Anton and his colleague Serhii were due to drive a truck full of humanitarian aid to a frontline zone. The two men a aged 32 and 31 a had been checked twice before, once outside a metro station, and on a second occasion while waiting for a tram. They received pieces of paper. The first was a polite request to register details. The second an official summons to report to a recruiting centre as soon as possible.

Siblings Callum and Jake Robinson and US citizen Jack Carter Rhoad were travelling on a surfing holiday when they were reported missing

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Three bodies have been found in an area of northern Mexico where two Australian brothers and an American friend are missing.

Perth siblings Callum and Jake Robinson, both in their 30s, were travelling in the region on a surfing holiday, with their friend Jack Carter Rhoad, a US citizen. The trio was reported missing when they failed to check into pre-arranged accommodation near the city of Ensenada last weekend.

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Flood watch in effect through Sunday with evacuations in some areas as more rain forecast for already soaked region

The Houston area was under threat of worsening flood conditions on Saturday, a day after heavy storms slammed the region a and authorities warned those in low-lying areas to evacuate before an expected surge of water the likes of which havenat been seen since Hurricane Harvey.

A flood watch remained in effect through Sunday afternoon as forecasters predicted additional rainfall on Saturday night, bringing another 1-3in (2.5-7.6cm) of water to the soaked region and the likelihood of major flooding.

Diplomatic spat began when Spanish minister suggested Javier Milei had taken asubstancesa while campaigning

Spain has denounced comments by Argentinaas presidency that accused the Spanish government of bringing apoverty and deatha to its own people.

The office of the Argentinian president, Javier Milei, had published a statement on X, accusing the prime minister, Pedro SA!nchez, of damaging Spainas economy and stability.

Palestinian restauranteur speaks from Bethlehem, where food stalls are sparse as farmlands are under attack

Fadi Kattan looked forlornly at the stalls inside the Bethlehem vegetable market bearing small quantities of oranges, watermelons and cauliflowers. aThis stall should be heaped with products, he said. aAnd over there should be piles of aubergines and courgettes.a

The watermelons from Jenin looked too small for the season, while he wasnat sure where the boxes of oranges were from. They would normally be from Gaza. At Um Nabilas stall in the West Bank market where Kattan is a regular customer, she told him she could no longer afford to bring in the best small local cucumbers or piles of green cherries from her village of Artas.

Third-party hospitality packages are outlawed, yet agency part-owned by associates of Rafael Nadal and LeBron James promises access to top events as well as to stars

Members of the global super-rich are spending as much as $500,000 (APS400,000) on aultra-exclusivea packages for the Paris 2024 Olympics that promoters claim include meeting athletes, access to the athletesa village and athe chance to be part of the opening ceremonya.

GR8 Experience, an ainternational experience agencya part-owned by the business manager of the basketball star LeBron James and the PR manager of the tennis player Rafael Nadal, is selling Olympic packages that it claims include tickets to 14 events such as the menas 100m finals and the opening ceremony for $381,600.

The author of bestseller Yellowface on her agentas fears about publishing the novel, the joys of a social media purge and being a workaholic who gets bored easily

Rebecca F Kuang, 27, is an American writer. She and her family emigrated to the US from Guangzhou, China, when she was four; she grew up in Dallas, Texas. Her first novel, The Poppy War, a grimdark fantasy with a plot drawn from elements of the second Sino-Japanese war, was published in 2018. Two sequels followed. A fourth novel, the bestselling Babel, set in 1830s England, came out in 2022. Kuang followed this with a controversial departure: Yellowface. A contemporary melodrama in which a white author steals the manuscript of a dead, far more successful Asian-American novelist and passes it off as her own, it wickedly satirises identity politics in the world of publishing. It comes out in paperback this month. Kuang has postgraduate degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and is currently a doctorate student at Yale.

Is it true that your agent cautioned against publishing Yellowface when you first told her about the idea?
Yes, thatas true. She was a bit stunned, caught off guard. aIam really worried itas going to offend people,a she said. But I was convinced both by its strength as a story, and by what I was trying to say, so I asked her to get second reads from other people at her agency a and to her credit, she did. She really stuck her neck out.

The theatre adaptation of Studio Ghiblias beloved animation sold out in Japan in four minutes. As it comes to the UK, we meet the international team of creatives bringing its giant dragons and tiny soot sprites to life

The dragon stirs to life as Toby OliA(c) plucks it up by its tail. He spirals it through the air and, quick as ripping off a plaster, tears the creature in two. aEven when he was curled up on the floor,a the puppet designer says, undoing another of the dragonas joints, ahe took up too much space.a OliA(c) sticks the body back together, a little shorter but more malleable now, and the tail wriggles back into being.

Best known for his work on War Horse, OliA(c) is holding a miniature prototype for Haku, a boy who transforms into an enormous serpentine dragon. Haku is one of the leading characters in Hayao Miyazakias exquisite animation Spirited Away, which has been adapted into a major stage production. For the last four years, the creative team have been conjuring, tweaking and perfecting Miyazakias world of gods and monsters in three dimensions. The full-sized dragon, for whom OliA(c) took inspiration from fan art as well as close studies of the film, is now more than four metres long, with 4,000 hairs inserted individually down his spine, ears that pin back when heas scared, and a body powerful enough to carry a child on his back as he flies.

The ninth and final series of the ever-inventive black comedy is packed with stars and cements its status as a classic. Itas such a shock America hasnat tried to copy it yet

Oh, so weird. I thought they were meant to be more careful with these. Anyway Iave been given a leaked script from the new a and final a series of Inside No 9 (8 May, 10pm, BBC Two), so I suppose it is my duty as a journalist to publicly leak it. Shame to spoil the series but that is part of the job. I take no pleasure in reporting this.

STEVE PEMBERTON DRESSED AS A WOMAN: Ooh, are we doing a growing sense of horror in this one or a ludicrous farce? Oooooh!

The novelist on a comedic TikTok sensation, the importance of a good suit and his favourite educational app

Andrew OaHagan was born in Glasgow in 1968, grew up in a working-class Ayrshire family and studied English at Strathclyde University. His first book was The Missing (1995), which told the story of people who disappeared. In 2003 he was included on Grantaas list of best young British novelists. He has written 10 books, including Our Fathers and Mayflies, with three of his novels being Booker nominated. His most recent, Caledonian Road, a state-of-the-nation tale, is published by Faber. He will be talking at Hay festival on 30 May.

The combined star power of Gosling and Emily Blunt canat lift Bullet Train director David Leitchas action-heavy spectacle into meaningful entertainment

Like the Lee Majors-starring 80s TV show on which this bombastic action comedy is based, The Fall Guy is pitched as a celebration of the work of the stunt crew: the unheralded men and women who take the movie-set risks so that the stars can take the credit. But in fact the film tumbles into the same pitfalls as any other enthusiastically pyrotechnic, action-heavy extravaganza: the sheer volume of stunt sequences means that the skills on show start to lose all meaning. Individually, the shots of a tiny figure dangling from a bucking, spinning, malfunctioning helicopter are impressive. But the relentless pace at which director (and former stuntman) David Leitch (Bullet Train) works through his ostentatious action set piece checklist means that it all turns into empty noise; spectacles strung together by a dizzy, slapdash screenplay that feels as though it has sustained a few too many bumps to the head.

Ryan Gosling is curiously half-baked as Colt Seavers, a top stunt professional whose career and burgeoning romantic relationship are both derailed by a broken back from a botched fall. Now Jody (Emily Blunt), the ex-girlfriend he ghosted after the incident, is directing her first movie (an absolutely shocking-looking sci-fi western titled Metal Storm). And Colt is tempted out of retirement at her express request. Except she didnat ask for him and she wants nothing more to do with him. Meanwhile, the filmas star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), is missing and the fate of Jodyas debut hangs in the balance. Itas up to Colt to do his best work a heas repeatedly kicked in the face, ignited and shot at a in the name of bad art. Which, I suppose, neatly sums up the stunt performer paradox.

In UK and Irish cinemas now

Sue Mitchell pursues a notorious people-smuggler; Romesh Ranganathan settles into Claudia Winklemanas seat; and Danny Robins takes his search for the paranormal to the US

To Catch a Scorpion Radio 4 | BBC Sounds
Romesh Ranganathan Radio 2 | BBC Sounds
Uncanny Series 4, Case 1: The Flood Radio 4 | BBC Sounds

Sue Mitchell is an audio documentary-maker of high standing and experience. She made the excellent podcasts Million Dollar Lover and Girl Taken, and the Aria award-winning Radio 4 series The Smugglersa Trail. The last two tell stories of asylum seekers coming over to the UK, and Mitchell takes up the same topic for her latest BBC Sounds podcast, To Catch a Scorpion.

Buying refurbished tech might feel risky if youave never done it before a but weare here to tell you, itas the future. Hereas what you need to know ...

Whether itas eating less meat, swapping your car for a bike or saying no to single-use plastic, many of us are making lifestyle switches to live more ethically. However, fewer of us are aware of the huge environmental impact of something we use every day a our smartphone a and what we can all do to reduce it. Keen to know more? Here are five reasons why your next smartphone should be refurbished a|

Keep your carbon footprint in check
The metal extraction, shipping and production that take place before a smartphone ends up in your hands create carbon emissions a and carbon emissions are the number one cause of the climate crisis. Metal mining and the manufacturing of smartphones, which predominantly take place in the global south, are also very polluting and therefore damaging to delicate ecosystems. Extending the lifespan of a smartphone can help to reduce this impact a the longer a smartphone is in use, the less damage is done to the planet. Obviously itas not always possible to avoid needing a new phone, so this is why buying a refurbished one a and selling or recycling your old phones a is a more sustainable choice.

Thanks to its innovative payback scheme, the giffgaff community has raised more than APS1m for good causes since 2010. Here, we spotlight three projects the mobile phone provider has supported so far

Community projects around the UK are bringing vital relief and support to people and animals in need. There are thousands of community organisations, charities and groups across the country offering their services around the clock, and many of them rely entirely on fundraising and donations.

Fortunately, there are lots of ways we can all get involved and help out a sometimes with very little effort on our part at all. Enter the mobile phone company giffgaff. One of more than 2,000 UK companies with B Corp status, it has been certified as a company thatas dedicated to being accountable and improving its social and environmental impact a and one of the ways it ensures itas improving its social impact at grassroots level is through its payback scheme.

When it comes to picking a mobile, there are many things that sway customers a from finding the best deal on the phone you want, to having full control of your bills every month. But now, consumers are increasingly looking to make a decision that considers their impact on the planet and society

Unboxing a new mobile phone always feels like a thrill. But how often does getting a new phone or mobile contract make you feel like youare doing good?

As a certified B Corp, mobile network provider giffgaff comes with a host of perks that not only benefit you, but also wider society. Intrigued? Here are seven reasons why choosing giffgaff is the right call a|

Phone provider giffgaff has joined the UKas fast-growing community of B Corps thanks to its responsible practices. Julianne Robertson takes a closer look at this badge of honour and asks: what difference does it make to me and my mobile?

Did you know that giffgaff is an ancient Scottish word that means amutual givinga? You thought it was a made-up, catchy brand name, didnat you? Well, it turns out that the business is giffgaff by name, giffgaff by nature. Now a certified B Corp, giffgaff is legally accountable for its impact on people and the planet, which is locked into the DNA of the company. In other words, itas committed to being aup to gooda.

Now youare nodding sagely. Yes, B Corp. Very cool. But, in fact, maybe you donat really know what a B Corp is. If thatas the case, youare in the right place. Hereas everything you need to know a|

Numbers of specialist makers are dwindling but one charity plans to save this vital part of our cultural heritage

Nick Malyon was seduced by neon lighting at the end of the 1980s while travelling in America. He left home after failing his A-levels and doing a disastrous four-year stint as a vintage car salesman in London.

aI was introduced to a sign painter and a neon signmaker, and it seemed like an alternative lifestyle to the one Iad left behind. On my return to the UK, I was probably attempting to carry on some American dream by training, but I loved the weird alchemy of illuminating a piece of bent glass tubing a the change from nothing to something.a

I love intercourse a so why has it been so long since I actually had any?

I first had sex when I was 16; I have since had quite a few people inside my body. Some were more welcome than others a like the surgeon who removed my inflamed appendix, and that incredibly hot Dutch photographer in a Utrecht Airbnb, to whom I would have given my appendix, had he asked. Others have only penetrated me with their words or in my fantasies. Some of the experiences feel unreal, like the guy who referred to himself as aBig Mikea and claimed that he was moving to Finland the next day, despite there being no packed moving boxes or suitcases in his house. I wouldnat be able to pick him out of a lineup today.

I am torn between two different versions of that story. In one, I was twentysomething, wild, confident and single. I met a hot guy in a bar and we went back to his place. He read me some of his poems, I elegantly undressed and we had sex. Twice. The next day, when I was deliciously hungover, I revelled in the fact that we didnat even exchange phone numbers, as if I was in Sex and the City.

Use them liberally (and within a year), keep them in a dark place and donat be afraid to experiment

If you were an amateur cook (me), would you buy spices whole or ground? Would you keep them for a month or a year? And how would you use them? Add them at the beginning or mainly at the end? Merci beaucoup!
FranASSois, Paris, France

Bonjour! The short answer is: all of the above, not least because spices are so easily available, and a very economical way of adding layers of flavour to your cooking.

The founding members of the band on early gigs, a magical brush with a Beatle, and being lifelong friends

Tom Chaplin and Tim Rice-Oxley are childhood friends and founding members of Keane, a group from Battle, East Sussex. The band formed in 1995 and released their debut album, Hopes and Fears, in 2004. It won them a Brit award, and became one of the bestselling albums in UK chart history. The band took a hiatus in 2013, with Chaplin releasing a solo album and Rice-Oxley forming side project Mt Desolation. To celebrate 20 years of Hopes and Fears, the band tour the UK this spring and summer.

Scott, 26, a teacher, meets Maria, 30, a freelance graphic designer

What were you hoping for?
Small plates and big chat.

Lilyas bringing in six figures but Michelle earns less than half that. Who needs to change their ways? You decide whoas in the wonga
More money disputes where you can be the judge

Sheas richer, more money-focused, and a bit obsessive over spending

We would like to hear from students in the UK and other countries in Europe attending universities where demonstrations are taking place

Students at UK universities are protesting over the war in Gaza, following a wave of demonstrations on US campuses that have been met with police crackdowns.

With students at universities including Sciences Po in Paris staging a number of protests over the war, we would like to hear from students at universities in the UK and other countries in Europe where protests are taking place. We would like to hear from those who are participating as well as those who are not a how do you feel about what is happening at your university? What has your experience of it been?

We would like to hear from adults in the UK who have recently had to move in with their parents

We would like to hear from adults in the UK between the ages 28-42 who have recently had to move in with their parents. Why did you make the move? How has the experience been? Tell us all about it below.

Share your recent photos and tell us where you were and why that scene resonated with you

The Guardian Weekly is our international news magazine, featuring the best of the Guardian, the Observer and our digital journalism in one beautifully designed and illustrated package.

Weare now on the lookout for our readersa best photographs of the world around us. For a chance to feature in the magazine, send us a picture you took recently, telling us where it is in the world, when you took it and why the scene resonated with you at that particular moment.

Try to upload the highest resolution possible. The limit for photo uploads is 5MB.

Landscape images are preferable due to the page design

Tell us as much as you can about when and where the photo was taken as well as what was happening

When we publish an image we want to credit you so please ensure that we have contact information and your full name

We would like to hear from people who have been affected by postponements and cancellations at the Co-op Live arena

The Co-op Live arena has postponed or cancelled several of its music and comedy shows in recent weeks due to technical problems at the venue. Olivia Rodrigo, Peter Kay and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie are among the performers whose gigs have been disrupted.

We would like to hear from people who have been affected by the disruptions at the Co-op Live arena. Had you planned to travel to see the show? Will you make it to a rescheduled show?

Governments issue health warnings as schools shut and crops fail, with fears that worse is to come as heatwave tightens grip

Extreme heat has gripped much of south and south-east Asia over recent weeks, killing dozens of people, forcing millions of students to miss school and destroying crops.

Both the Philippines and Bangladesh shut schools due to the unbearable heat last month, while governments across the region have issued health warnings. In Thailand, at least 30 people have died from heatstroke since the start of the year.

With the ex-president punished for violating a gag order, the third week of the hush-money trial resembled his fraud case

It was deja vu for Donald Trump at his Manhattan criminal trial this week in more ways than one.

Six months ago a New York judge threatened to throw a former US president in prison for violating a gag order. Remarkably, in a courthouse up the street just six months later, Trump was again threatened with jail time.

CEO is making a surprise exit after successfully slimming down the global bank and winning over its tough chair

HSBCas chief executive, Noel Quinn, is seen by many as ending his five-year tenure on a high note. The 62-year-old stunned the banking world this week by saying he planned to retire after an aintensea five years in the role to get a better work-life balance.

Quinn has slimmed down a sprawling global bank, paid out $19bn (APS15bn) to shareholders last year and successfully staved off calls to break up the lender.

Researchers and Silicon Valley are using tools powered by AI to read what had long been thought unreadable

More than 2,000 years after Plato died, the towering figure of classical antiquity and founder of the Academy, regarded by many as the first university in the west, can still make front-page news.

Researchers this week claimed to have found the final resting place of the Greek philosopher, a patch in the garden of his Athens Academy, after scanning an ancient papyrus scroll recovered from the library of a Herculaneum villa that was buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79.

On Friday, Hicks took the witness stand to testify against her former boss

• Sign up for our free Trump on Trial newsletter

Hope Hicks spent more time with former president Donald Trump than perhaps anyone else, from the launch of his political career through the end of his time in the White House.

Stateas fall as the last bastion of access to the procedure in the deep south means women will have to travel farther for care

Rose hadnat even missed her period when the thought hit her: aI need to take a test.a

The Florida resident, who has two kids, had given birth just three months ago. She thought that she and her husband were being careful. But the pregnancy test confirmed her suspicion: she was pregnant and, she realized, didnat want to be.

Covid vaccines, chemtrails, the Great Reset a| Why do people invent false conspiracies when there are so many real ones to worry about? Thereas only one way to find out: ask a believer

I am a conspiracy theorist. I believe that groups of people conspire secretly against our interests to line their pockets, cover their backs or achieve political goals. By this definition I suspect you are, too. We see evidence of these conspiracies every day. We see them in the Horizon scandal, in which the Post Office kept prosecuting innocent operators. We see them in the governmentas use of a aVIPa lane for procuring PPE from friends and donors at extortionate prices. We see them in the Windrush scandal, in which people were denied their legal rights and unlawfully deported by the UK government. In the Cambridge Analytica scandal: a secretive micro-targeting campaign likely to have influenced the Brexit vote. In the Panama Papers and the Pandora Papers, showing how the ultra-rich hide their money from taxes and legal scrutiny.

All these are conspiracies in the true sense: hidden machinations that advance particular interests while causing harm to others. A theory is a rational explanation, subject to disproof. If you accept these scandals are the result of hidden machinations, which they evidently are, you are a conspiracy theorist.

Our inadequate electricity network is stopping the building of thousands of new homes. And the necessary move to low-carbon heating and cars is only increasing demand

Oxford has a severe housing problem. With house prices 12 times the average salary, it has become one of the least affordable cities in the country. Its council house waiting list has grown to more than 3,000 households, with many having to live in temporary accommodation.

An obvious solution is to build more homes, but those trying to do this face a big barrier: electricity.

Tuesdayas debate on whether the existing rules do not in fact bar women comes amid rising resignations and threats

In May 1924, the Manchester Guardian revealed a arecent innovation in the Garrick Club to admit ladies to one of its roomsa meant that the queen of Romania would be lunching at the club during her visit to London. aWhat would Queen Victoria have said about such a notion!a the article wondered.

A hundred years later, the clubas lethargic advance towards allowing women into the building on equal terms with men continues. On Tuesday, members will once again vote on the matter.

Tom Bakeras scarf! Jodie Whittakeras cupboard! David Tennantas gifs! As Ncuti Gatwa picks up his sonic screwdriver for the new series of Doctor Who, we rate every two-hearted Time Lord so far

It is too soon to place the Fifteenth Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, in the pantheon of actors to take on one of British TVas most beloved characters, but to whet your appetite before his debut series lands on 11 May, here is a top 20 of actors to have owned the Tardis since William Hartnell first emerged from a police box in 1963 a|

Hundreds of protesters prevented an attempt to collect asylum seekers from a south London hotel and transfer them to the Bibby Stockholm barge. The Guardian witnessed crowds blocking the bus and the road outside the Best Western hotel in Peckham before police were able to move in and break up the protest. The bus eventually left the area after seven hours, with no asylum seekers onboard

London protesters block transfer of asylum seekers to Bibby Stockholm

Ahead of the byelection in Blackpool South, the Guardian takes the temperature in the once prosperous northern coastal town, with many voters expressing complete apathy and disdain for the state of politics.

The area is going to the polls because the former Tory MP Scott Benton resigned after being found guilty of breaching standards rules in a lobbying scandal. Labour is hopeful of taking back the seat, which Benton won with a majority of 3,690 in 2019

• Polls open in Englandas local elections with Tories braced for heavy losse

• Analysis: Will Tories dump Rishi Sunak if election results worse than expected?

The far right are on the march in Germany and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany has become the most popular party in several states. Immigration and a sense of being economically left behind have been driving factors in the rise in popularity but the Green party and the federal governmentas climate policies have also borne the brunt of public anger. The Guardian travelled to GAPrlitz, on the German border with Poland, to find out to what extent Germanyas green policies are fuelling the far right

aC/ How climate policies are becoming focus for far-right attacks in Germany

Flashbangs could be heard as police moved in on an encampment of pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the UCLA campus. The overnight law enforcement effort came after officers spent hours threatening arrests over loudspeakers if people did not disperse

• US campus protests a live updates

Arne Slot caught the eye of Liverpoolas recruitment team with his track record of improving young talent, success on a relatively modest budget, European experience and a style of play that is not a dramatic departure from JA1/4rgen Kloppas. The Feyenoord coach has earned a reputation for high intensity on the pitch and has led his team to success multiple times.

Since joining the Rotterdam club from AZ Alkmaar in 2021, Slot has won the Eredivisie in 2022-23 and the KNVB Cup this season. He also led Feyenoord to the Europa Conference League final in 2022, where they lost to JosA(c) Mourinho's Roma.

• Arne Slot: the overachiever and agood guya who can spark a revolution

Sofie Hagen loves sex a so why has it been 3,089 days since sheas had any? (1m27s); A flat white can now set you back up to APS5.19 a but should we swallow it? (25m13s); and psychotherapist and Observer columnist Philippa Perry addresses a readeras personal problem (43m51s).

Advances in fields such as spectrometry and gene sequencing are unleashing torrents of new data about the ancient world a and could offer answers to questions we never even knew to ask. By Jacob Mikanowski

With the threat of famine and the invasion of Rafah looming over Gaza, the leaders of Israel and Hamas are discussing a ceasefire deal. Julian Borger reports

The outlook in Gaza appears bleak. A famine looms if not more aid is brought in, while Israel has said it is preparing to invade Rafah, the southern city where half the civilians in Gaza are sheltering. But there is a glimmer of hope.

In Cairo a deal between Israel and Hamas has been tabled and the two sides are discussing whether to accept it. Julian Borger explains how such negotiations happen, what the deal includes and why there is pressure on both sides to make it happen.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair and Archie Rhind-Tutt as Dortmund beat PSG 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final, while Chelsea slip up in a WSL thriller

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today: Dortmund beat PSG in front of the Yellow Wall. So many brilliant performances for the Bundesliga side but, in particular, Jadon Sancho. The panel try to figure out what happens to him this summer.

Glioblastomas are an extremely aggressive type of brain tumour, which is why the news this week of a vaccine that has shown promise in fighting them is so exciting. And this comes right off the back of the announcement of another trial of the worldas first personalised mRNA vaccine for melanoma, a kind of skin cancer. Ian Sample talks to Prof Alan Melcher of the Institute of Cancer Research about how these vaccines work and whether they could one day be used to target cancer before it is even detectable on scans

Clips: BBC

Read more about the personalised cancer vaccine for melanoma

The electric carmakeras Cybertruck was recalled last month after safety concerns emerged over the accelerator pedal. Kari Paul reports

Last month Tesla recalled its Cybertrucks after malfunctions involving the accelerator pedal were reported. It is the latest blow for the US electric carmaker, which has been hit by a series of embarrassing failures since the Cybertruck was delivered to customers late last year.

Kari Paul, a technology reporter for Guardian US, talks to Michael Safi about Teslaas recent struggles, from safety issues to supply-chain delays. Can the companyas embattled chief executive, Elon Musk, turn its fortunes around?

The Guardianas political editor, Pippa Crerar, and the political correspondent Kiran Stacey help you kick off your week with the stories you need to know from inside Westminster

Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts

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

Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, weave got something for you

Be the first to see our latest thought-provoking films, bringing you bold and original storytelling from around the world

Discover the stories behind our latest short films, learn more about our international film-makers, and join us for exclusive documentary events. Weall also share a selection of our favourite films, from our archives and from further afield, for you to enjoy. Sign up below.

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From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break a whether in the UK or further afield a with twice-weekly emails from the Guardianas travel editors. Youall also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.

From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break a whether in the UK or further afield a with twice-weekly emails from the Guardianas travel editors.

Youall also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.

A weekly email from Yotam Ottolenghi, Meera Sodha, Felicity Cloake and Rachel Roddy, featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideas

Each week weall send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. Weall 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.

Sign up below to start receiving the best of our culinary journalism in one mouth-watering weekly email.

The photographer on an ambiguous image inspired by Greek, Roman and Egyptian art

aA former mentor, Elinor Carucci, recommends taking pictures daily as a sort of gym for the photographic mind,a Esteban Kuriel says.

On this day, Kuriel was staying at St Erminas hotel in London and had visited the Sir John Soaneas Museum, which houses a collection of Greek, Roman and Egyptian figurative sculptures. aThe fragmented, contorted bodies inspired me, and I returned to my room to make this image. Photographing daily trains my eye, just as one trains their body at the gym, so I must play with what is available. In this case, it was this space and its furniture.a

Our photographer Tom Jenkins was at Portman Road to witness the scenes as the Tractor Boysa victory meant a return to the Premier League for the first time since 2002

Artist Selena Kearney was raised on the Chehalis reservation in Washington state and began photographing fake native regalia after a chance encounter with a young woman in a grocery store on Halloween. aShe was wearing a skimpy faux-Native American costume,a she says. aI couldnat begin to understand how that cheap outfit had anything to do with me, or my heritage.a Curious about the power of these objects, she started to collect and consider them, sourcing sports paraphernalia, traditional headdresses and vintage and new costumes from eBay and Amazon. Over the course of five years, Kearney photographed them and the resulting series is now featured in a book, Every Object Has a Ritual (published by Minor Matters), and an exhibition at the Suquamish Museum in Washington state (Object/Ritual, 18 May-January 2025). aCollecting masks felt the hardest of all,a she says. One featuring a woman with two braids was particularly unsettling. aA parody of me, looking back at me.a

War in Gaza, US campus protests, missile strikes in Kharkiv and floods in Kenya: the last seven days as captured by the worldas leading photojournalists

Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing

The Guardianas picture editors select photographs from around the world

Since 2014 Spanish photographer Daniel Ochoa de Olza has been portraying the girl participants in a spring festival held in Colmenar Viejo outside Madrid. His portraits bear witness to his fascination with the enduring nature of Spainas rituals

With obscure origins in pagan customs and dating back to medieval times, the festivities of La Maya offers a strange and colourful spectacle celebrating the arrival of spring. Every year on 2 May the families of girls aged between seven and 11 gather to decide which of them will be chosen to be that yearas aMayasa.

Lucia Corrales Alfonso

Labour has secured mayoral victories in London, Greater Manchester, Salford, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Liverpool today

• Local elections 2024: full council results for England

Rishi Sunak is braced for the result of key mayoral elections in London and the West Midlands, after the Conservatives were trounced in the first day of local election results.

As Fridayas result declarations closed, the Conservatives had suffered a net loss of 371 seats, and lost control of 10 councils.

Cheshire

Dorset

Hertfordshire

Kent

Merseyside

Sussex

Thames Valley

Warwickshire

West Midlands

Wiltshire

Keir Starmer says the prime minister has no option but to call a general election

Rishi Sunak was dealt a series of shattering blows last night as Labour won a knife-edge battle to seize the West Midlands mayoralty from the Conservatives and Sadiq Khan trounced his Tory rival in London to secure a third term.

The results, along with decisive victories for Labouras Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester, Steve Rotheram in Liverpool and Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire, left Labour in charge of most of Englandas mayoralties.

Britain has turned out in force to vote for change. Whenever the Tories go to the country, we will be ready to provide it

Rishi Sunak might have been too scared to put his name on the ballot this week, but voters sent him a clear message in the local elections anyway. Across the country, people turned out to vote for change a from the manufacturing heartlands of Derby to industrial Redditch and Thurrock in Essex. In Aldershot, home of the British army, Labour won Rushmoor borough council, ending 24 years of Tory rule. Ten more police and crime commissioners a which, as a former chief prosecutor, makes me incredibly proud. And in York and North Yorkshire, the first Labour mayor, in the prime ministeras back garden.

Victories in traditional Tory territory across the country are important to me. Itas not just about the numbers, though of course they matter: itas the choice of the electorate to turn their back on 14 years of decline and division, and embrace national renewal with Labour.

Rishi Sunakas government tries to limit the damage as the Conservativesa worst fears prove correct in the English local elections

Keir Starmer was advised by his team to get an early night on Thursday before the first election results started to come through at dawn the next day.

They booked the Labour leader into a hotel at a secret location in the north-west, so he could be bright and breezy when celebrating an anticipated parliamentary byelection win in Blackpool South.

Devastating defeats give Tory MPs more reasons to fear what will befall them when the country delivers its verdict

The mayoral elections demonstrated that there is a way to win for a Conservative. This is to make out that you have nothing to do with the Tories.

Of the metro mayorships that were up for grabs, just one has been bagged for the Conservatives. The re-election of Ben Houchen in Tees Valley is being used as a human shield by Rishi Sunak to fend off any attempt to depose him from Downing Street. Heas relying on this sole glimmer of cheer for his party to convince it that a disastrous general election defeat is not inevitable and to blunt the daggers of those in his own party who want him gone.

Union to campaign against single-phrase Ofsted judgments, threatening possible strike action

Headteachers in England are to launch a campaign for the abolition of ainhumane and unreliablea single-phrase school inspection judgments, threatening legal challenges and possible strike action if the government refuses reforms.

Delegates to the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) annual conference committed the union ato explore all campaign, legal and industrial routes to secure necessary changes to inspection to safeguard leadersa lives,a after the suicide last year of the headteacher Ruth Perry.

Egyptian and US mediators report signs of compromise, but many analysts remain pessimistic

• Middle East crisis a live updates

Hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza rose on Saturday as a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to continue indirect talks, with what is believed to be a response to a new proposal, reportedly agreed by Israel, to halt fighting for an initial 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Egyptian and US mediators have reported signs of compromise in recent days and Egyptian state news channel Al-Qahera said on Saturday that a consensus had been reached in the indirect talks over many of the disputed points but gave no further details.

Firms said food and plant checks and Latin names causing costly delays with lorries waiting hours in first week of post-EU regime

Of all the effects of Brexit, probably the least anticipated was that flower exporters and customs officials would have to learn Latin.

But that is one of the problems that confronted British businesses in the first week after the government introduced physical checks on some food and plants from the EU.

Daniel Rooney stood in at 30-minutesa notice on Friday night when Mursa flight from London was cancelled

A Scottish singer has said he is astill on a higha after being plucked from obscurity to replace Olly Murs as the opening act for Take That at the last minute.

Murs was due to open for Take That at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow on Friday but had to pull out after getting stuck in London when his flight was cancelled.

Kyiv says Moscow forces have gained afootholda in area north of Donetsk city after pounding depleted defenders

• Putin on our doorstep: Ukrainians watch as the frontline edges closer

The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by the Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

Russian troops have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyivas depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs. Ukraineas military has acknowledged that Russia has gained a afootholda in Ocheretyne, which had a population of about 3,000 before the war, but says the fighting there is continuing.

Family say they are adevastateda by fatal stabbing of 14-year-old, as his favourite football team, Arsenal, remember him at Emirates Stadium

The family of Daniel Anjorin have issued a statement paying tribute to their son, who was fatally stabbed as he walked to school, as Arsenal football club led tributes to the teenager.

Daniel, a 14-year-old football fan, was attacked with a sword in Hainault, east London, and suffered fatal wounds to his neck and chest.

Banned dogs found on allotment where officers described conditions as aappallinga

More than 20 dogs have been seized after police raided a suspected illegal XL bully breeding farm in Sheffield.

Twenty-two animals were seized from an allotment on Thursday, including mothers and puppies, which were being kept in what officers described as aappalling conditionsa.

Interior minister Nancy Faeser promises atough actiona to protect democracy as political assaults rise

The German interior minister Nancy Faeser has vowed to fight a surge in violence against politicians after a German member of the European parliament had to be taken to hospital following an attack while he was campaigning for re-election.

Matthias Ecke, 41, a member of Faeseras Social Democrats (SPD), was hit and kicked by a group of four people while putting up posters in Dresden, capital of the eastern state of Saxony, police said. An SPD source said his injuries would require an operation.

UK medicines regulator says information on boxes of montelukast will alert users to risk of mood and behaviour changes

More than 500 adverse neuropsychiatric reactions have been reported in children under the age of nine involving an asthma drug which is to get new warnings over its risks.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced last week that more prominent warnings would be added to the information provided on boxes of the asthma drug montelukast, sold under the brand name Singulair.

Government investigation into wartime atrocities on Channel Island will ask why Nazi perpetrators never stood trial in Britain

The government inquiry into Nazi wartime atrocities on the Channel Island of Alderney has been extended to investigate why none of the Nazi perpetrators responsible for the crimes was put on trial in Britain, the Observer can reveal.

Originally set up to review the number of victims in camps on the island, the inquiry will release a report later this month revealing the full scale of the aunspeakable and unimaginable brutality and sadisma that occurred on British soil.

The Home Office last week launched a nationwide operation to round up asylum seekers, leaving many fearful and confused

At 2.37pm on Thursday news that a man had adisappeareda rippled through Londonas raid-resistance WhatsApp groups. The asylum seeker had walked into the Home Office immigration reporting centre in Hounslow, west London, for a routine appointment, as many people seeking refuge in Britain are required to do. His brother waited outside.

But the man did not come out. Ten minutes passed, then 20, then an hour, then three. The brother waiting outside went in, and came out with bad news: his sibling had been detained and told he faced being deported to Rwanda.

Russian forces are advancing in the countryas eastern regions, but the recent arrival of US arms could help turn the tide

It was a perfect May evening. Daria Karpinska and her friends sat in the corner of a five-a-side pitch and played cards. Nearby was their school. Swifts had returned to their village of Hrodivka and screeched in a sunny blue sky.

Suddenly, a loud whoosh-whoosh noise interrupted the teenagersa game of afoola: the sound of a Grad missile. Seconds later came the boom of artillery. aItas louder today than yesterday,a said 14-year-old Karpinska matter-of-factly.

More than 1,400 people have been arrested as police dismantle campus encampments a but are the tactics used too brutal?

More than 1,400 people have been arrested across the US during a week of intense police crackdowns on a sprawling campus movement of pro-Palestine student demonstrations.

As Joe Biden defended studentsa free speech rights but warned them that adissent must never lead to disordera, colleges across the country brought law enforcement to campus to arrest dozens or even hundreds of protesters and clear away their encampments.

From the Turkish Riviera to the Ale de RA(c), we select quiet and unspoilt places to stay for sun, sand, snorkelling a or just snoozing

Thereas something quite particular about small but perfectly formed Assos a butterscotch and rose-pink houses line a horseshoe bay, with Venetian ruins scattered between the narrow alleys. There are two small beaches, but the real joy is to rent a motor boat and discover the small bays and coves that fringe this part of the Cephalonian coast. Walkers can follow the path out on to the headland to the ruins of Assosas 16th-century castle; thereas not a huge amount to see, but the views make the walk worth it. Roi Suites is a bougainvillaea-clad cluster of well-equipped studio flats in a waterfront neoclassical building, with gorgeous sea views from the pool terrace.
Doubles from APS117 (minimum seven nights), roisuites.com

The troubled child actor turned chatshow host faces flak for her toe-curling interview with Kamala Harris. But oversharing is all part of her shtick

An office-style desk was once the key prop on a television chatshow a a standard piece of kit beloved of Johnny Carson and David Letterman, not to mention Britainas Jonathan Ross. Then the comfy sofa took over and guests began to scooch along, making room for each other. Now, though, under the auspices of Drew Barrymore, host of a daytime show on CBS, itas the lowly rug that is taking centre stage.

Barrymore, who is still best known internationally for her childhood role as the little girl in ET, likes to interact with her guests on a fluffy rug in the middle of her set in New Yorkas Broadcast Center. She has prostrated herself upon it more than once in front of her studio audience and prefers it to the showas pink satin armchairs.

Girona briefly promised the unlikeliest of triumphs but the sheer variety in Ancelottias side made them a cut above the rest

Over two hours had passed since the final whistle went on Real Madridas 3-0 victory over Cadiz and some of their players were still inside inside the Santiago BernabA(c)u watching on TV when they officially found out they were champions, but they had known for a long time. The title, eventually delivered by Gironaas 4-2 victory over Barcelona 681 kilometres to the north-east and confirmed at 8.30pm on the 34th Saturday of the season, did not see them board an open-top bus down the Castellana to Cibeles, although fans did gather by the goddess of fertility. There was more to do a Bayern Munich come on Wednesday night a and, besides, this was already done.

It had been for some time. Two weeks earlier, Jude Bellingham had scored a 94th-minute goal to win the clA!sico, their last remaining contenders eliminated, if you could truly call Barcelona that. Two months earlier they had put four past the nearest thing they had to genuine challengers, effectively eliminating Girona too: they were the most exciting, the most surprising team but they would not be champions. As for AtlA(c)tico Madrid, the only team to defeat Real all season, they had eliminated themselves even sooner, gone by Christmas. This hadnat been a race; ultimately, it had been a parade.

At 84, The Handmaidas Tale author is as outspoken as ever. She talks about aging, culture wars - and why athe orange guya canat be allowed back into the White House

aIam the great sage on top of the mountain,a Margaret Atwood says with a smile, on a video call from her home in Toronto. aIf youave lived to a certain age people think you know something because they havenat got there yet.a

At 84, most writers could be forgiven for taking it easy, but especially Atwood, after a tumultuous few years that have seen The Handmaidas Tale become a hit TV series; the publication of its long-awaited sequel The Testaments, joint winner of the Booker prize in 2019; and the death of her partner of nearly 50 years, novelist Graeme Gibson. He died of a stroke two days after the UK launch of the novel, and Atwood, with typical grit, carried on with the tour.

The DJ, 45, on her fan Prince William, improving lesbian representation, recovering from cancer and why colostomy bags are nothing to be ashamed of

Silence doesnat sit well with me. Iam the eldest of six children, so my early years were chaotic. Every day was an adventure; the house was filled with music, laughter and chat. If Iam home alone now, I always have the telly on.

Racism was everywhere when I was a kid. Mumas parents were from Barbados, Dad was white English: mixed relationships werenat common in the late-70s. Home, in Stockport, felt safe, but away from home theread be abuse. For a while we lived in Skem [Skelmersdale] a I heard the N-word every day.

Mum and Dad are grafters. She was always helping people on the estate and he worked on building sites from dawn to dusk to provide. I used to feel guilty, working in the media. DJ-ing is wonderful, but itas pressing buttons. I couldnat shake the idea that I should work harder for the wonderful life I have.

A private school scholarship changed my life. I saw how others lived, was offered opportunities and learned whatas possible. We could never have afforded it a even my uniform was paid for by a bursary. I was never treated differently there, though Iam not sure anyone quite understood where I was from.

Stubbornness is my worst habit. I donat back down. Slowly, Iam learning to admit Iam wrong once the moment is over, but in the heat of it I still canat.

Getting my BBC pass felt like a real moment. Mum and Dad finally accepted that being a DJ wasnat a phase Iad grow out of. That I wasnat going back to finish uni. That day, I knew they were proud.

My GP told me I was too young for cancer. She sent me for tests anyway, which saved my life. I was 42, fit and in my prime when I got my diagnosis. While I waited to hear how serious it was, I made a promise: if I survived, Iad tell the tale. Reading other peopleas stories comforted me while I was struggling. Sharing my own is the least I could do.

Being told I was cancer-free was the most beautiful moment. A yearas worth of worry, pain and fear rushed out my body. Cancer made me a better person. Iave stopped worrying about the silly things. I appreciate the privilege of being healthy. Iave traded my brattiness for gratitude.

Lesbian representation in the media still has a way to go. Often, inclusivity means a gay man a we need more space for the rest of the LGBTQ+ letters.

I regret not spending enough time with Mum. She passed away earlier this year. I left Radio 1 to be with her, and we had an amazing summer together. For years, I sacrificed that for my career. I shouldnat have.

Prince William used to text me regularly. Will and Kate came to Radio 1 to wish me luck before I ran the London marathon. He told me when he worked on the air ambulances, he used to listen to me on the early breakfast show, and would sometimes message in with a fake name asking for a shout-out.

Thereas a Lauryn Hill lyric: aIt could all be so simple, but youad rather make it hard.a That was my approach to past relationships. Then I met my girlfriend, Kate, and realised you just know when itas supposed to be a it now feels like the easiest thing in the world. Lots of aYes dearsa also help.

My stoma is called Audrey. Naming it helps you bond and get used to it. Mine looked like the plant from Little Shop of Horrors: Audrey II. She keeps me alive a and thatas beautiful. Iam determined to be loud and proud about her a so many people are made to feel ashamed of theirs.

Personal Best by Adele Roberts is published by Hodder Catalyst and is out now

So a Michelin-starred chef said he loathed our one truly globally renowned dish. I beg to differ

Across Britain today, hundreds of thousands of us will tuck into one of the worldas most perfect dishes. Crispy batter encasing flaky fish; a steaming pile of chips, some soft, some crunchy, some large, some merely a scrap; acidic condiments and sides to balance the salt and fat.

Yet the Michelin-starred chef Dominic Chapman, of eponymous restaurant in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, caused a stir last week by claiming in an interview with Restaurant magazine that fish and chips a specifically afrom a fish and chip shopa a was his most overrated food. Chapman didnat provide a reason, but the dish is by no means ubiquitously loved. Writing in the Guardian a few years back, the journalist Alexi Duggins called it aa dreadful, dreadfula meal and a aconceptual disastera. To many itas a grease-on-grease, mush-on-mush assault on our digestion.

(Warner)
Talk of a new musical direction proves unfounded as the Grammy-winning singeras third album shares more retro-inspired dance pop and lessons from her love life

Dua Lipaas last album, 2020as Future Nostalgia, moved the cultural dial. Released into the pandemic, it was ubiquitous, neon-hued and life-affirming, winning two Brits and her third Grammy overall, confirming Lipa as an international superstar. It also kicked off a disco revival boom echoed through numerous other artists, not least dance-pop veteran Kylie Minogue, RA3isAn Murphy and Jessie Ware. Even BeyoncA(c) went disco for her Renaissance (2022), saluting Black queer culture.

But in the video for Lipaas Barbie soundtrack hit of 2023, Dance the Night, a mirror ball shatters. And the messaging around Lipaas third album, Radical Optimism, has been keen to fast-forward her into a new era, establish the requisite fresh narrative and, perhaps, move the dial again.

A rocky patch in Ava and Loganas marriage forced them to talk openly about their desires a and now theyare having their best sex ever

How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

We watch porn frequently, which is a positive thing we do together. Iave learned new things about my own body

• Striker scores four in 5-1 win over Wolves
• aThe second and fourth were unbelievablea

Pep Guardiola believes Erling Haaland is aback to businessa after the strikeras four-goal haul in Manchester Cityas 5-1 defeat of Wolves, with the manager urging the champions to win their final three Premier League games to ensure a record fourth consecutive title.

Haaland scored a first-half hat-trick, including two penalties, and added his fourth following the break to take his Premier League tally to 25 at the Etihad Stadium. Victory kept City a single point behind Arsenal a but Guardiolaas side have a game in hand. If they beat Fulham next Saturday and Mikel Artetaas side lose at Manchester United the following day, City can retain the championship by beating Tottenham on Tuesday week.

• Leinster 20-17 Northampton
• Irish side survive late fightback after Loweas superb hat-trick

They were not given much of a chance a and sure enough, for most of the match they did not have one. But Northampton, having looked completely lost in front of the 82,000 spectators at Croke Park, burst into life in the final quarter to give Leinster something of a scare.

The home side, though, are too packed to the rafters with international quality to have lost from such a position. They have had their wobbles in the recent past, but letting slip a 20-3 lead early in the first half would really have been too painful to contemplate. As it is, with James Lowe a one of the very best players in the Six Nations, let alone the Champions Cup a bagging a hat-trick, they march on to London for the final at the end of the month.

• World no 1 wins epic 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7) in three hours and 11 minutes
• Swiatek saves three match points to earn first title in Madrid

Iga Swiatek may still be in the early years of her career, still in the process of learning her craft, gaining new tools while yet to reach her peak, but at the same time she continues to make her mark in tennisas history books at a startling pace.

At 22, Swiatek has now won every single significant clay court event on the WTA tour, an achievement she earned on Saturday evening by outlasting Aryna Sabalenka in an incredible battle of the highest quality between the two best players in the world. After three hours and 11 minutes in Madrid, Swiatek saved three match points and emerged victorious in a match that will go down in history for its greatness, defeating Sabalenka 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7).

Someone has brought an actual tractor. Someone has brought a flag the height of a small house. Someone has brought about two dozen smoke bombs and is letting them off one by one, like rounds of gunfire. Someone is holding a giant drum and someone else is beating it with all his might. A wheelchair emerges out of the blue fog, crushing the broken glass and discarded canisters and empty MadrA cans under its wheels.

Itas 11am and already the centre of Ipswich feels like a battlefield being looted and pillaged. There are thousands gathered here, descended from the Suffolk villages and the Essex commuter towns and the London suburbs, some with tickets and some without: all here on the promise of joy, trying to grasp and gulp and plunder as much of it as they can.

• Welshman battles past former champion Stuart Bingham 17-12
• Wilson beats David Gilbert 17-11 to reach a second Crucible final

Jak Jones sealed his status as one of the unlikeliest of World Snooker Championship finalists after completing an attritional 17-12 triumph over former champion Stuart Bingham at the Crucible.

The world No 44, who has never previously reached a ranking final, will face Kyren Wilson in the two-day final starting on Sunday after Wilson overcame David Gilbert 17-11.

• Red Bull driver faster than Ferrari duo Leclerc and Sainz
• McLarenas Norris qualifies fifth with Hamilton eighth

Max Verstappen remained determinedly very much on top of qualifying, continuing his unbeaten record for the season with another comfortable pole for the Miami Grand Prix. But in his wake Fernando Alonso is set to square up with Formula Oneas governing body, the FIA. Alonso was angry and frustrated that they had failed to punish Lewis Hamilton after a controversial incident in Saturday morningas sprint, claiming Hamilton had aruined a lot of peopleas racesa.

For Sundayas GP Verstappen once more holds all the cards with his sixth consecutive pole this season, beating the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz into second and third by just over a tenth of a second, having already taken victory in the sprint race.

• Ecuadorian rider wins stage with time of 3hr 14min 13 sec
• Maximilian Schachmann in second with Tadej Pogacar third

Ecuadoras Jhonatan NarvA!ez won a sprint finish to claim victory for Ineos Grenadiers on stage one of the Giro daItalia.

Starting at Venaria Reale, Saturdayas 136km stage featured a category two climb on the Colle della Maddalena before ending in Turin.

Mikel Arteta had wanted something less stressful than Arsenalas previous home win over Bournemouth and he got his wish. In March of last year, his team had needed a 97th-minute Reiss Nelson goal to complete a wild 3-2 victory from 2-0 down.

Here, there was glory in the general sense of comfort and control, Arsenal moving to 83 points, doing everything they could to ask the question of the defending champions, Manchester City, in the race for the Premier League title.

As elections loom across the continent, Italyas prime minister and the commissionas president are in a dubious alliance

Itas rare that an Italian prime minister tops the table in Europe. But with Germanyas Olaf Scholz and Franceas Emmanuel Macron facing red cards at home, Spainas Pedro SA!nchez briefly stretchered off, and relegated Rishi Sunak sulking on the bench like Liverpoolas Mo Salah, Giorgia Meloni a post-fascist poster girl turned star centre-forward of the new right a is shooting at an open goal.

Itas Melonias moment. In the words of one conservative commentator, she has become aEuropeas essential leadera. And her influence is set to expand next month when up to 450 million eligible voters in 27 countries pick a new EU parliament. Hard-right and far-right nationalist-populist parties, including Melonias Brothers of Italy, are poised for sweeping gains at the expense of the left and the greens.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk

All praise to a classical singer for last weekas rebellion against a sea of illuminated screens

It was after the third song in Brittenas Les Illuminations that Ian Bostridge decided head had enough. Wheeling round to face the constellation of screen lights that dotted Birminghamas vast Symphony Hall, the tenor called the show to a halt. Could everyone please turn off their phones? It was extremely distracting.

After the performance, which was two weeks ago, Bostridge was surprised to find his phone-happy audience had been perfectly within their rights. More than that: theyad actually been encouraged to video him. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) had last year decided to drop aany perceived arulesa of a traditional concerta in a bid to achallenge conventionsa and get ayoung peoplea interested. Signs in its venues now ask ticketholders to abring drinks into the auditorium. Clap whenever they like. Wear whatever makes them feel comfortable. Take photos or short snippets of film (and share them with us).a

Victory for the Tees Valley mayor should show the way for the Tories to refind their election mojo

Rishi Sunak will have been relieved when Ben Houchen was declared the winner in the Tees Valley mayoral election, but he canat disguise the fact that these were very bad election results.

Council elections are difficult to interpret a there are a host of local factors at play. The best thing to look at is what is known as national equivalent vote share. The BBCas estimate at the time of writing is that Labour got 34% and the Conservatives 25%.

The prime minister has been trying to put a brave face on the Toriesa heavy losses, but thereas nowhere left to hide
aC/ You can order your own version of this cartoon

New research has found that every pound saved in closing police stations costs the rest of us APS3

Every government looks to save money. Sometimes, itas a priority to reduce spending, as with post-2010 austerity. Even when overall spending is rising, politicians may reduce spending in one area to make progress on a priority elsewhere. Doing things more efficiently is always a good idea.

But announcing a spending cut is not the same as reducing spending, let alone achieving value for taxpayersa money. That is a key lesson of the austerity years. Cuts announced in haste in one area today have repeatedly led to costs ballooning elsewhere tomorrow.

Reticence over the seizure of Russian state assets in Europe betrays a fatal underestimation of the threat Moscow poses

Europe has plotted an elegant decline that suits the needs of its ageing population, and the Ukraine war cannot be allowed to interfere with that plan.

That is how it seems when EU countries consider circumventing the financial rulebook to offer Ukraine what it needs to overcome waves of drones and break the deadlock on its eastern front.

Please, listen to us a not political figures, radical fringes and misguided media

On Tuesday night, we watched in horror as hundreds of riot police flooded our beloved campus and brutalized our classmates. The next day, students awoke with swollen faces, bruised wrists and lacerations a all results of inhumane police treatment. The past two weeks have been tumultuous, marked with mass arrests of student demonstrators, an encampment on our lawns, national media attention and vile acts of hatred. Countless have spoken on our behalf. But by speaking over us, media outlets and politicians have created a distorted narrative a one which unfairly characterizes our community.

Now, it is time to elevate student perspectives, the ausa, rather than the athema. The traumatic environment and militarization of our campus are not the sole product of ill-intended protesters or reckless non-affiliates, as claimed by administrative emails; rather, they are the fault of the senior administration themselves. For months, this crisis has brewed as administrators neglected student and faculty voices. We must be clear: the administration has put our studentsa safety at risk and has failed to ensure a conducive learning environment. As student leaders, it is time for our voice to be heard.

Itas far less bother to stream romcoms, like the latest Anne Hathaway film, into my living room than play them out in real life

Anyone for a toyboy? The hit of the season has been The Idea of You, the film adaptation of Robinne Leeas bestseller in which a woman in her 40s (played by Anne Hathaway) falls mutually in something-or-other with a pop idol in his 20s (played by Nicholas Galitzine).

On the one hand, I bristle at the idea that being fortysomething is particularly old. Or that a rich, beautiful, successful, intelligent woman is making some sort of wild transgression in having a sexy love affair with an available male character who is equally blessed in every way, but for the fact that heas younger.

After this weekas terrible results for his party, the only honourable thing to do is let voters decide his fate

Rishi Sunakas government began last week by triumphantly announcing that a man whose asylum claim had been rejected had volunteered to take up to APS3,000 cash in exchange for agreeing to take a commercial flight to Rwanda a plus the provision of housing, food and healthcare there for five years at a cost of APS150,000 to the taxpayer. Sunak bookended it with some of the worst-ever English local election results for the Conservatives, and the shock loss of the West Midlands mayoralty to the Labour party.

A direct line can be traced from this preposterous claim of success to electoral disaster. During 14 years in government, the Conservatives have eroded the welfare safety net, sabotaged the quality of public services through underfunding and neglect, and imposed a huge economic hit in the form of a hard Brexit. Child poverty has gone up, the NHS is blighted by record waiting lists and understaffing and social care services for the vulnerable have been adversely affected.

These were intensely domestic polls. But it was foreign affairs that caused Sir Keir Starmer trouble

The results from local elections across England suggest that the Tories are on course to lose power to Labour when voters elect a new parliament. Sir John Curtice, the eminent pollster, set the tone by telling the BBC that he was alooking at one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 yearsa. The fault ultimately lies with Rishi Sunak, the prime minister. He conceded that the results were disappointing. That seemed an understatement when the Tories were losing half the council seats they were trying to defend.

Voters have stopped listening to the Conservatives. The public is fed up with rising bills that the government did not do enough to insulate them from. The shabby state of the public realm is offensive to most people. Mr Sunak might point to the re-election of Ben Houchen as Tees Valley mayor as proof that Conservatives could defy the odds. But if the swing to Labour was replicated in Tees Valley parliamentary constituencies at a general election, Sir Keir Starmer would win them all.

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 on the governmentas plans to move away from financial support for those with mental health conditions given through personal independence payment

Perhaps we shouldnat be surprised that the government has continued to attack amental health culturea (Mentally ill people being used as apolitical footballa, campaigners say, 29 April). The publication of its disability green paper, in which the government says it wants to move away from financial support for those with mental health conditions given through personal independence payment (Pip), is greatly concerning. It comes after the prime minister labelled the UK as being amid a asicknote culturea and said that society shouldnat be aover-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of lifea by diagnosing them as mental health conditions.

Such language is outdated and fails to promote open discussions about mental health or encourage those in need to seek expert advice. We must not minimise the mental health challenges that people face every day. Everyone living with a mental health condition deserves support. This includes gaining financial security, and Pip is therefore a vital lifeline for those who rely on it.

Readers were inspired by Hilary Bradtas experiences and recall their own

As I recuperated from surgery, my spirits were much lifted by the memories evoked by Hilary Bradtas article (Confessions of an 82-year-old hitchhiker, 27 April).

As a hitchhiker in the 1960s and early 70s, I, like Bradt, experienced wholly positive interactions with those willing to offer a lift: interesting conversations over the course of a few miles, company over a shared meal in otherwise soulless service stations, occasional overnight hospitality with the driveras family, and even offers to set up my first lift of the next day with a afriend of a frienda who was heading in my direction.

More frequent heatwaves mean bees are unable to thermoregulate their hives a further endangering a species already in decline

Bumblebee nests may be overheating, killing off broods and placing one of the Earthas critical pollinators in decline as temperatures rise, new research has found.

Around the world, many species of Bombus, or bumblebee, have suffered population declines due to global heating, the research said. Bumblebee colonies are known for their ability to thermoregulate: in hot conditions, worker bees gather to beat their wings and fan the hive, cooling it down. But as the climate crisis pushes average temperatures up and generates heatwaves, bumblebees will struggle to keep their homes habitable.

Environmental campaign groups took joint action against decision to approve carbon budget delivery plan

The UK governmentas climate action plan is unlawful, the high court has ruled, as there is not enough evidence that there are sufficient policies in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, will now be expected to draw up a revised plan within 12 months. This must ensure that the UK achieves its legally binding carbon budgets and its pledge to cut emissions by more than two-thirds by 2030, both of which the government is off track to meet.

More than 23,000 people forced to leave homes after heavy rains in southern Rio Grande do Sul prompt record-breaking floods

Heavy rains in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul have killed 37 people, with another 74 still missing, as record-breaking floods devastated cities and forced thousands to leave their homes.

It was the fourth such environmental disaster in a year, following floods in July, September and November that killed 75 people in total.

Researchers find many countries unprepared for influx of new species and will be vulnerable to bites

Climate breakdown is likely to lead to the large-scale migration of venomous snake species into new regions and unprepared countries, according to a study.

The researchers forecast that Nepal, Niger, Namibia, China, and Myanmar will gain the most venomous snake species from neighbouring countries under a heating climate.

Staff offer support to protesters as locals donate food, drink, bedding and books

The collection of 12 tents pitched in a soggy garden at the heart of Bristol universityas campus is on a much smaller scale than the Palestine solidarity encampments sweeping the US. But the outrage at what this new generation of student activists regard as the complicity of education institutions in Israelas assault on Gaza is just as raw.

aIt makes me feel sick to my stomach,a said Olivia [not her real name], a second-year student at the university, outside the camp on Friday. aI feel deeply disgusted and ashamed. This protest is absolutely the least I can do for someone studying at a university that is so complicit.a Like many of the students involved in the protest, she doesnat want to share her name. aThere could be academic repercussions [for students taking part]: anything from being banned from university buildings to suspensions and expulsions,a she said. aThis has happened in the UK, but not at this university so far.a

Local election results in England justify the decision to focus on Conservative areas, claim party strategists

The Liberal Democrats are increasingly confident that they will claim more than one Tory abig beasta at the coming general election, pointing to local election results putting them ahead in a series of true blue constituencies.

Ed Daveyas party has been criticised for failing to improve its polling performance in recent months, while its 17% projected vote share from last weekas local elections was down slightly on last year.

Resounding victory in London mayoral race came despite media reports suggesting it would be a close contest

Sadiq Khanas election victory as London mayor has abucked the trenda of Muslim voters turning away from Labour over the partyas stance on the war in Gaza, party figures said.

The 53-year-old won a third term as the capitalas mayor on Saturday, without seeming to have lost the support of large numbers of Muslim voters a unlike Labour candidates elsewhere in England last week.

Water bottle stations set up in St Leonards-on-Sea and part of Hastings as Southern Water customers face days without service

Southern Water was criticised this weekend for overseeing a adebaclea after a mains pipe burst, leaving 31,000 properties in Hastings and St Leonards without water.

There were long traffic queues leading to just four bottled water stations after supplies were cut off on Thursday. Businesses are expected to lose thousands of pounds, with the firm likely to face compensation claims.

Campaigners are calling for public inquiry into high number of patient fatalities over a decade at crisis-hit service

More than 30 patients died after risks were not acted on in the decade following a controversial service redesign at a crisis-hit NHS mental health trust, according to an analysis by campaigners.

The report by the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk also logged nearly 20 patients of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) who have died since 2013 after communication failures, while family concerns were ignored in 15 cases.

With public finances in a worse position than expected, chancellor Jeremy Hunt is considering pushing back further pledges

Jeremy Hunt and his team are considering not holding another tax-cutting autumn statement before the next election, amid uncertainty about the public finances.

The chancellor has already hinted that he plans to pledge further tax cuts a including another down payment on Rishi Sunakas ambition to abolish national insurance a before a general election, which is expected to be held in the autumn. He also remains under pressure from the right of the party to lower taxes.

This Morning presenter told his friend not to moan and gave him advice that ultimately proved fatal

Gyles Brandreth has said he blames himself for the death of Rod Hull, the entertainer who fell to his death as he was trying to adjust the TV aerial on the roof of his home.

Hull, 63, famous for his antics with his puppet Emu, fell from a ladder outside his bungalow in Winchelsea, East Sussex, in 1999.

The set of folios published by John Gould will be presented at Firsts book fair in London in mid-May

John Gould was one of the most sought-after taxidermists in 19th-century London, commissioned by King George IV to stuff the first giraffe to arrive in England.

But Gouldas lasting legacy is birds. He travelled the world documenting and cataloguing as many avian species as he could find, many of them never seen before, earning him the nickname the Bird Man and the appointment as official abird stuffera to the Zoological Society.

The UK is expected to come out of recession, but it would be wise not to expect a reduction any time soon

It would come as a shock to most economists if the Bank of England opted to cut interest rates at its policy meeting this week.

Financial markets, which were baying for a cut last May, are these days betting that August or possibly September will be the point at which the Bank starts to lower interest rates from their current level of 5.25%.

Even products marketed as aorganica may be toxic, say campaigners, with risks for the wider ecosystem

Gardeners are inadvertently killing scores of earthworms with soil conditioners marketed as aorganica, experts fear, as they call for tighter regulation on products that poison the invertebrates.

Earthworms may appear humble, but Charles Darwin thought their work in improving soil structure and fertility was so important he devoted his final book to them and said: aIt may be doubted if there are any other animals which have played such an important part in the history of the world as these lowly organised creatures.a

Rightwing media have seized on campus protests to portray the president as weak. Will it have an impact in November?

At the height of the tensions on US campuses this week, with Republicans gleefully seizing on student unrest as an election issue that could propel Donald Trump back into the White House, Joe Biden tried to steer a middle path.

Weighing the democratic right to peaceful protest and the political necessity to stem disruption, Biden declared that aorder must prevaila.

Hundreds of cities across Rio Grande so Sul hit by floods with 32,000 people displaced and infrastructure destroyed

The death toll from rains in Brazilas southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul has risen to 57, local authorities said on Saturday afternoon, while dozens still have not been accounted for.

The stateas civil defence authority said 67 people were still missing and more than 32,000 had been displaced as storms affected nearly two-thirds of the 497 cities in the state.

For 30 years, Brian McNeill hunted the worldas second-biggest fish from small boats off the wild west coast of Ireland. Now the species has made a recovery so rapid it has astounded scientists

The ambush was simple. A spotter on a hill would scan the sea and when he saw the big black fins approach, he would shout down to the boatmen. They would ready their nets and quickly row out to the kill zone.

When a shark got tangled in the mesh, Brian McNeill would wait a minute or two while it struggled, then steady himself and raise his harpoon. This was the crucial moment. The creature would be diving and thrashing, desperate to escape. If the blade hit the gills blood would spurt, clouding the water. The trick was to hit a small spot between the vertebrae.

As she tries to limit the fallout from her dog- and goat-killing anecdotes, factual inaccuracies in her book are coming to light

As she entered a second consecutive weekend trying to manage fallout from revelations in her upcoming memoir that she shot her dog to death, South Dakotaas governor, Kristi Noem, had conceded that she would need to correct multiple factual inaccuracies in other parts of the book.

Meanwhile, a Republican fundraiser which Noem was supposed to headline had to be canceled after threats against the event staff, hotel venue and governor, according to organizers.

As the war stretches on indefinitely, there are few eager recruits and Kyivas armed forces are short of soldiers

Anton* was on his way to work as a civilian volunteer in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv 10 days ago. Several men stopped him. They asked: aHi, who are you?a And: aCan you show me your documents please?a One of the officers produced a tablet and scrolled down a list. He found Antonas name. A single word was written next to it in red capital letters: ukhyliant, or draft dodger. The men took him to the nearest conscription office.

That morning, Anton and his colleague Serhii were due to drive a truck full of humanitarian aid to a frontline zone. The two men a aged 32 and 31 a had been checked twice before, once outside a metro station, and on a second occasion while waiting for a tram. They received pieces of paper. The first was a polite request to register details. The second an official summons to report to a recruiting centre as soon as possible.

Siblings Callum and Jake Robinson and US citizen Jack Carter Rhoad were travelling on a surfing holiday when they were reported missing

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Three bodies have been found in an area of northern Mexico where two Australian brothers and an American friend are missing.

Perth siblings Callum and Jake Robinson, both in their 30s, were travelling in the region on a surfing holiday, with their friend Jack Carter Rhoad, a US citizen. The trio was reported missing when they failed to check into pre-arranged accommodation near the city of Ensenada last weekend.

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Flood watch in effect through Sunday with evacuations in some areas as more rain forecast for already soaked region

The Houston area was under threat of worsening flood conditions on Saturday, a day after heavy storms slammed the region a and authorities warned those in low-lying areas to evacuate before an expected surge of water the likes of which havenat been seen since Hurricane Harvey.

A flood watch remained in effect through Sunday afternoon as forecasters predicted additional rainfall on Saturday night, bringing another 1-3in (2.5-7.6cm) of water to the soaked region and the likelihood of major flooding.

Diplomatic spat began when Spanish minister suggested Javier Milei had taken asubstancesa while campaigning

Spain has denounced comments by Argentinaas presidency that accused the Spanish government of bringing apoverty and deatha to its own people.

The office of the Argentinian president, Javier Milei, had published a statement on X, accusing the prime minister, Pedro SA!nchez, of damaging Spainas economy and stability.

Palestinian restauranteur speaks from Bethlehem, where food stalls are sparse as farmlands are under attack

Fadi Kattan looked forlornly at the stalls inside the Bethlehem vegetable market bearing small quantities of oranges, watermelons and cauliflowers. aThis stall should be heaped with products, he said. aAnd over there should be piles of aubergines and courgettes.a

The watermelons from Jenin looked too small for the season, while he wasnat sure where the boxes of oranges were from. They would normally be from Gaza. At Um Nabilas stall in the West Bank market where Kattan is a regular customer, she told him she could no longer afford to bring in the best small local cucumbers or piles of green cherries from her village of Artas.

Third-party hospitality packages are outlawed, yet agency part-owned by associates of Rafael Nadal and LeBron James promises access to top events as well as to stars

Members of the global super-rich are spending as much as $500,000 (APS400,000) on aultra-exclusivea packages for the Paris 2024 Olympics that promoters claim include meeting athletes, access to the athletesa village and athe chance to be part of the opening ceremonya.

GR8 Experience, an ainternational experience agencya part-owned by the business manager of the basketball star LeBron James and the PR manager of the tennis player Rafael Nadal, is selling Olympic packages that it claims include tickets to 14 events such as the menas 100m finals and the opening ceremony for $381,600.

The author of bestseller Yellowface on her agentas fears about publishing the novel, the joys of a social media purge and being a workaholic who gets bored easily

Rebecca F Kuang, 27, is an American writer. She and her family emigrated to the US from Guangzhou, China, when she was four; she grew up in Dallas, Texas. Her first novel, The Poppy War, a grimdark fantasy with a plot drawn from elements of the second Sino-Japanese war, was published in 2018. Two sequels followed. A fourth novel, the bestselling Babel, set in 1830s England, came out in 2022. Kuang followed this with a controversial departure: Yellowface. A contemporary melodrama in which a white author steals the manuscript of a dead, far more successful Asian-American novelist and passes it off as her own, it wickedly satirises identity politics in the world of publishing. It comes out in paperback this month. Kuang has postgraduate degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and is currently a doctorate student at Yale.

Is it true that your agent cautioned against publishing Yellowface when you first told her about the idea?
Yes, thatas true. She was a bit stunned, caught off guard. aIam really worried itas going to offend people,a she said. But I was convinced both by its strength as a story, and by what I was trying to say, so I asked her to get second reads from other people at her agency a and to her credit, she did. She really stuck her neck out.

The theatre adaptation of Studio Ghiblias beloved animation sold out in Japan in four minutes. As it comes to the UK, we meet the international team of creatives bringing its giant dragons and tiny soot sprites to life

The dragon stirs to life as Toby OliA(c) plucks it up by its tail. He spirals it through the air and, quick as ripping off a plaster, tears the creature in two. aEven when he was curled up on the floor,a the puppet designer says, undoing another of the dragonas joints, ahe took up too much space.a OliA(c) sticks the body back together, a little shorter but more malleable now, and the tail wriggles back into being.

Best known for his work on War Horse, OliA(c) is holding a miniature prototype for Haku, a boy who transforms into an enormous serpentine dragon. Haku is one of the leading characters in Hayao Miyazakias exquisite animation Spirited Away, which has been adapted into a major stage production. For the last four years, the creative team have been conjuring, tweaking and perfecting Miyazakias world of gods and monsters in three dimensions. The full-sized dragon, for whom OliA(c) took inspiration from fan art as well as close studies of the film, is now more than four metres long, with 4,000 hairs inserted individually down his spine, ears that pin back when heas scared, and a body powerful enough to carry a child on his back as he flies.

The ninth and final series of the ever-inventive black comedy is packed with stars and cements its status as a classic. Itas such a shock America hasnat tried to copy it yet

Oh, so weird. I thought they were meant to be more careful with these. Anyway Iave been given a leaked script from the new a and final a series of Inside No 9 (8 May, 10pm, BBC Two), so I suppose it is my duty as a journalist to publicly leak it. Shame to spoil the series but that is part of the job. I take no pleasure in reporting this.

STEVE PEMBERTON DRESSED AS A WOMAN: Ooh, are we doing a growing sense of horror in this one or a ludicrous farce? Oooooh!

The novelist on a comedic TikTok sensation, the importance of a good suit and his favourite educational app

Andrew OaHagan was born in Glasgow in 1968, grew up in a working-class Ayrshire family and studied English at Strathclyde University. His first book was The Missing (1995), which told the story of people who disappeared. In 2003 he was included on Grantaas list of best young British novelists. He has written 10 books, including Our Fathers and Mayflies, with three of his novels being Booker nominated. His most recent, Caledonian Road, a state-of-the-nation tale, is published by Faber. He will be talking at Hay festival on 30 May.

The combined star power of Gosling and Emily Blunt canat lift Bullet Train director David Leitchas action-heavy spectacle into meaningful entertainment

Like the Lee Majors-starring 80s TV show on which this bombastic action comedy is based, The Fall Guy is pitched as a celebration of the work of the stunt crew: the unheralded men and women who take the movie-set risks so that the stars can take the credit. But in fact the film tumbles into the same pitfalls as any other enthusiastically pyrotechnic, action-heavy extravaganza: the sheer volume of stunt sequences means that the skills on show start to lose all meaning. Individually, the shots of a tiny figure dangling from a bucking, spinning, malfunctioning helicopter are impressive. But the relentless pace at which director (and former stuntman) David Leitch (Bullet Train) works through his ostentatious action set piece checklist means that it all turns into empty noise; spectacles strung together by a dizzy, slapdash screenplay that feels as though it has sustained a few too many bumps to the head.

Ryan Gosling is curiously half-baked as Colt Seavers, a top stunt professional whose career and burgeoning romantic relationship are both derailed by a broken back from a botched fall. Now Jody (Emily Blunt), the ex-girlfriend he ghosted after the incident, is directing her first movie (an absolutely shocking-looking sci-fi western titled Metal Storm). And Colt is tempted out of retirement at her express request. Except she didnat ask for him and she wants nothing more to do with him. Meanwhile, the filmas star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), is missing and the fate of Jodyas debut hangs in the balance. Itas up to Colt to do his best work a heas repeatedly kicked in the face, ignited and shot at a in the name of bad art. Which, I suppose, neatly sums up the stunt performer paradox.

In UK and Irish cinemas now

Sue Mitchell pursues a notorious people-smuggler; Romesh Ranganathan settles into Claudia Winklemanas seat; and Danny Robins takes his search for the paranormal to the US

To Catch a Scorpion Radio 4 | BBC Sounds
Romesh Ranganathan Radio 2 | BBC Sounds
Uncanny Series 4, Case 1: The Flood Radio 4 | BBC Sounds

Sue Mitchell is an audio documentary-maker of high standing and experience. She made the excellent podcasts Million Dollar Lover and Girl Taken, and the Aria award-winning Radio 4 series The Smugglersa Trail. The last two tell stories of asylum seekers coming over to the UK, and Mitchell takes up the same topic for her latest BBC Sounds podcast, To Catch a Scorpion.

Buying refurbished tech might feel risky if youave never done it before a but weare here to tell you, itas the future. Hereas what you need to know ...

Whether itas eating less meat, swapping your car for a bike or saying no to single-use plastic, many of us are making lifestyle switches to live more ethically. However, fewer of us are aware of the huge environmental impact of something we use every day a our smartphone a and what we can all do to reduce it. Keen to know more? Here are five reasons why your next smartphone should be refurbished a|

Keep your carbon footprint in check
The metal extraction, shipping and production that take place before a smartphone ends up in your hands create carbon emissions a and carbon emissions are the number one cause of the climate crisis. Metal mining and the manufacturing of smartphones, which predominantly take place in the global south, are also very polluting and therefore damaging to delicate ecosystems. Extending the lifespan of a smartphone can help to reduce this impact a the longer a smartphone is in use, the less damage is done to the planet. Obviously itas not always possible to avoid needing a new phone, so this is why buying a refurbished one a and selling or recycling your old phones a is a more sustainable choice.

Thanks to its innovative payback scheme, the giffgaff community has raised more than APS1m for good causes since 2010. Here, we spotlight three projects the mobile phone provider has supported so far

Community projects around the UK are bringing vital relief and support to people and animals in need. There are thousands of community organisations, charities and groups across the country offering their services around the clock, and many of them rely entirely on fundraising and donations.

Fortunately, there are lots of ways we can all get involved and help out a sometimes with very little effort on our part at all. Enter the mobile phone company giffgaff. One of more than 2,000 UK companies with B Corp status, it has been certified as a company thatas dedicated to being accountable and improving its social and environmental impact a and one of the ways it ensures itas improving its social impact at grassroots level is through its payback scheme.

When it comes to picking a mobile, there are many things that sway customers a from finding the best deal on the phone you want, to having full control of your bills every month. But now, consumers are increasingly looking to make a decision that considers their impact on the planet and society

Unboxing a new mobile phone always feels like a thrill. But how often does getting a new phone or mobile contract make you feel like youare doing good?

As a certified B Corp, mobile network provider giffgaff comes with a host of perks that not only benefit you, but also wider society. Intrigued? Here are seven reasons why choosing giffgaff is the right call a|

Phone provider giffgaff has joined the UKas fast-growing community of B Corps thanks to its responsible practices. Julianne Robertson takes a closer look at this badge of honour and asks: what difference does it make to me and my mobile?

Did you know that giffgaff is an ancient Scottish word that means amutual givinga? You thought it was a made-up, catchy brand name, didnat you? Well, it turns out that the business is giffgaff by name, giffgaff by nature. Now a certified B Corp, giffgaff is legally accountable for its impact on people and the planet, which is locked into the DNA of the company. In other words, itas committed to being aup to gooda.

Now youare nodding sagely. Yes, B Corp. Very cool. But, in fact, maybe you donat really know what a B Corp is. If thatas the case, youare in the right place. Hereas everything you need to know a|

Numbers of specialist makers are dwindling but one charity plans to save this vital part of our cultural heritage

Nick Malyon was seduced by neon lighting at the end of the 1980s while travelling in America. He left home after failing his A-levels and doing a disastrous four-year stint as a vintage car salesman in London.

aI was introduced to a sign painter and a neon signmaker, and it seemed like an alternative lifestyle to the one Iad left behind. On my return to the UK, I was probably attempting to carry on some American dream by training, but I loved the weird alchemy of illuminating a piece of bent glass tubing a the change from nothing to something.a

I love intercourse a so why has it been so long since I actually had any?

I first had sex when I was 16; I have since had quite a few people inside my body. Some were more welcome than others a like the surgeon who removed my inflamed appendix, and that incredibly hot Dutch photographer in a Utrecht Airbnb, to whom I would have given my appendix, had he asked. Others have only penetrated me with their words or in my fantasies. Some of the experiences feel unreal, like the guy who referred to himself as aBig Mikea and claimed that he was moving to Finland the next day, despite there being no packed moving boxes or suitcases in his house. I wouldnat be able to pick him out of a lineup today.

I am torn between two different versions of that story. In one, I was twentysomething, wild, confident and single. I met a hot guy in a bar and we went back to his place. He read me some of his poems, I elegantly undressed and we had sex. Twice. The next day, when I was deliciously hungover, I revelled in the fact that we didnat even exchange phone numbers, as if I was in Sex and the City.

Use them liberally (and within a year), keep them in a dark place and donat be afraid to experiment

If you were an amateur cook (me), would you buy spices whole or ground? Would you keep them for a month or a year? And how would you use them? Add them at the beginning or mainly at the end? Merci beaucoup!
FranASSois, Paris, France

Bonjour! The short answer is: all of the above, not least because spices are so easily available, and a very economical way of adding layers of flavour to your cooking.

The founding members of the band on early gigs, a magical brush with a Beatle, and being lifelong friends

Tom Chaplin and Tim Rice-Oxley are childhood friends and founding members of Keane, a group from Battle, East Sussex. The band formed in 1995 and released their debut album, Hopes and Fears, in 2004. It won them a Brit award, and became one of the bestselling albums in UK chart history. The band took a hiatus in 2013, with Chaplin releasing a solo album and Rice-Oxley forming side project Mt Desolation. To celebrate 20 years of Hopes and Fears, the band tour the UK this spring and summer.

Scott, 26, a teacher, meets Maria, 30, a freelance graphic designer

What were you hoping for?
Small plates and big chat.

Lilyas bringing in six figures but Michelle earns less than half that. Who needs to change their ways? You decide whoas in the wonga
More money disputes where you can be the judge

Sheas richer, more money-focused, and a bit obsessive over spending

We would like to hear from students in the UK and other countries in Europe attending universities where demonstrations are taking place

Students at UK universities are protesting over the war in Gaza, following a wave of demonstrations on US campuses that have been met with police crackdowns.

With students at universities including Sciences Po in Paris staging a number of protests over the war, we would like to hear from students at universities in the UK and other countries in Europe where protests are taking place. We would like to hear from those who are participating as well as those who are not a how do you feel about what is happening at your university? What has your experience of it been?

We would like to hear from adults in the UK who have recently had to move in with their parents

We would like to hear from adults in the UK between the ages 28-42 who have recently had to move in with their parents. Why did you make the move? How has the experience been? Tell us all about it below.

Share your recent photos and tell us where you were and why that scene resonated with you

The Guardian Weekly is our international news magazine, featuring the best of the Guardian, the Observer and our digital journalism in one beautifully designed and illustrated package.

Weare now on the lookout for our readersa best photographs of the world around us. For a chance to feature in the magazine, send us a picture you took recently, telling us where it is in the world, when you took it and why the scene resonated with you at that particular moment.

Try to upload the highest resolution possible. The limit for photo uploads is 5MB.

Landscape images are preferable due to the page design

Tell us as much as you can about when and where the photo was taken as well as what was happening

When we publish an image we want to credit you so please ensure that we have contact information and your full name

We would like to hear from people who have been affected by postponements and cancellations at the Co-op Live arena

The Co-op Live arena has postponed or cancelled several of its music and comedy shows in recent weeks due to technical problems at the venue. Olivia Rodrigo, Peter Kay and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie are among the performers whose gigs have been disrupted.

We would like to hear from people who have been affected by the disruptions at the Co-op Live arena. Had you planned to travel to see the show? Will you make it to a rescheduled show?

Governments issue health warnings as schools shut and crops fail, with fears that worse is to come as heatwave tightens grip

Extreme heat has gripped much of south and south-east Asia over recent weeks, killing dozens of people, forcing millions of students to miss school and destroying crops.

Both the Philippines and Bangladesh shut schools due to the unbearable heat last month, while governments across the region have issued health warnings. In Thailand, at least 30 people have died from heatstroke since the start of the year.

With the ex-president punished for violating a gag order, the third week of the hush-money trial resembled his fraud case

It was deja vu for Donald Trump at his Manhattan criminal trial this week in more ways than one.

Six months ago a New York judge threatened to throw a former US president in prison for violating a gag order. Remarkably, in a courthouse up the street just six months later, Trump was again threatened with jail time.

CEO is making a surprise exit after successfully slimming down the global bank and winning over its tough chair

HSBCas chief executive, Noel Quinn, is seen by many as ending his five-year tenure on a high note. The 62-year-old stunned the banking world this week by saying he planned to retire after an aintensea five years in the role to get a better work-life balance.

Quinn has slimmed down a sprawling global bank, paid out $19bn (APS15bn) to shareholders last year and successfully staved off calls to break up the lender.

Researchers and Silicon Valley are using tools powered by AI to read what had long been thought unreadable

More than 2,000 years after Plato died, the towering figure of classical antiquity and founder of the Academy, regarded by many as the first university in the west, can still make front-page news.

Researchers this week claimed to have found the final resting place of the Greek philosopher, a patch in the garden of his Athens Academy, after scanning an ancient papyrus scroll recovered from the library of a Herculaneum villa that was buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79.

On Friday, Hicks took the witness stand to testify against her former boss

• Sign up for our free Trump on Trial newsletter

Hope Hicks spent more time with former president Donald Trump than perhaps anyone else, from the launch of his political career through the end of his time in the White House.

Stateas fall as the last bastion of access to the procedure in the deep south means women will have to travel farther for care

Rose hadnat even missed her period when the thought hit her: aI need to take a test.a

The Florida resident, who has two kids, had given birth just three months ago. She thought that she and her husband were being careful. But the pregnancy test confirmed her suspicion: she was pregnant and, she realized, didnat want to be.

Covid vaccines, chemtrails, the Great Reset a| Why do people invent false conspiracies when there are so many real ones to worry about? Thereas only one way to find out: ask a believer

I am a conspiracy theorist. I believe that groups of people conspire secretly against our interests to line their pockets, cover their backs or achieve political goals. By this definition I suspect you are, too. We see evidence of these conspiracies every day. We see them in the Horizon scandal, in which the Post Office kept prosecuting innocent operators. We see them in the governmentas use of a aVIPa lane for procuring PPE from friends and donors at extortionate prices. We see them in the Windrush scandal, in which people were denied their legal rights and unlawfully deported by the UK government. In the Cambridge Analytica scandal: a secretive micro-targeting campaign likely to have influenced the Brexit vote. In the Panama Papers and the Pandora Papers, showing how the ultra-rich hide their money from taxes and legal scrutiny.

All these are conspiracies in the true sense: hidden machinations that advance particular interests while causing harm to others. A theory is a rational explanation, subject to disproof. If you accept these scandals are the result of hidden machinations, which they evidently are, you are a conspiracy theorist.

Our inadequate electricity network is stopping the building of thousands of new homes. And the necessary move to low-carbon heating and cars is only increasing demand

Oxford has a severe housing problem. With house prices 12 times the average salary, it has become one of the least affordable cities in the country. Its council house waiting list has grown to more than 3,000 households, with many having to live in temporary accommodation.

An obvious solution is to build more homes, but those trying to do this face a big barrier: electricity.

Tuesdayas debate on whether the existing rules do not in fact bar women comes amid rising resignations and threats

In May 1924, the Manchester Guardian revealed a arecent innovation in the Garrick Club to admit ladies to one of its roomsa meant that the queen of Romania would be lunching at the club during her visit to London. aWhat would Queen Victoria have said about such a notion!a the article wondered.

A hundred years later, the clubas lethargic advance towards allowing women into the building on equal terms with men continues. On Tuesday, members will once again vote on the matter.

Tom Bakeras scarf! Jodie Whittakeras cupboard! David Tennantas gifs! As Ncuti Gatwa picks up his sonic screwdriver for the new series of Doctor Who, we rate every two-hearted Time Lord so far

It is too soon to place the Fifteenth Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, in the pantheon of actors to take on one of British TVas most beloved characters, but to whet your appetite before his debut series lands on 11 May, here is a top 20 of actors to have owned the Tardis since William Hartnell first emerged from a police box in 1963 a|

Hundreds of protesters prevented an attempt to collect asylum seekers from a south London hotel and transfer them to the Bibby Stockholm barge. The Guardian witnessed crowds blocking the bus and the road outside the Best Western hotel in Peckham before police were able to move in and break up the protest. The bus eventually left the area after seven hours, with no asylum seekers onboard

London protesters block transfer of asylum seekers to Bibby Stockholm

Ahead of the byelection in Blackpool South, the Guardian takes the temperature in the once prosperous northern coastal town, with many voters expressing complete apathy and disdain for the state of politics.

The area is going to the polls because the former Tory MP Scott Benton resigned after being found guilty of breaching standards rules in a lobbying scandal. Labour is hopeful of taking back the seat, which Benton won with a majority of 3,690 in 2019

• Polls open in Englandas local elections with Tories braced for heavy losse

• Analysis: Will Tories dump Rishi Sunak if election results worse than expected?

The far right are on the march in Germany and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany has become the most popular party in several states. Immigration and a sense of being economically left behind have been driving factors in the rise in popularity but the Green party and the federal governmentas climate policies have also borne the brunt of public anger. The Guardian travelled to GAPrlitz, on the German border with Poland, to find out to what extent Germanyas green policies are fuelling the far right

aC/ How climate policies are becoming focus for far-right attacks in Germany

Flashbangs could be heard as police moved in on an encampment of pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the UCLA campus. The overnight law enforcement effort came after officers spent hours threatening arrests over loudspeakers if people did not disperse

• US campus protests a live updates

Arne Slot caught the eye of Liverpoolas recruitment team with his track record of improving young talent, success on a relatively modest budget, European experience and a style of play that is not a dramatic departure from JA1/4rgen Kloppas. The Feyenoord coach has earned a reputation for high intensity on the pitch and has led his team to success multiple times.

Since joining the Rotterdam club from AZ Alkmaar in 2021, Slot has won the Eredivisie in 2022-23 and the KNVB Cup this season. He also led Feyenoord to the Europa Conference League final in 2022, where they lost to JosA(c) Mourinho's Roma.

• Arne Slot: the overachiever and agood guya who can spark a revolution

Sofie Hagen loves sex a so why has it been 3,089 days since sheas had any? (1m27s); A flat white can now set you back up to APS5.19 a but should we swallow it? (25m13s); and psychotherapist and Observer columnist Philippa Perry addresses a readeras personal problem (43m51s).

Advances in fields such as spectrometry and gene sequencing are unleashing torrents of new data about the ancient world a and could offer answers to questions we never even knew to ask. By Jacob Mikanowski

With the threat of famine and the invasion of Rafah looming over Gaza, the leaders of Israel and Hamas are discussing a ceasefire deal. Julian Borger reports

The outlook in Gaza appears bleak. A famine looms if not more aid is brought in, while Israel has said it is preparing to invade Rafah, the southern city where half the civilians in Gaza are sheltering. But there is a glimmer of hope.

In Cairo a deal between Israel and Hamas has been tabled and the two sides are discussing whether to accept it. Julian Borger explains how such negotiations happen, what the deal includes and why there is pressure on both sides to make it happen.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair and Archie Rhind-Tutt as Dortmund beat PSG 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final, while Chelsea slip up in a WSL thriller

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today: Dortmund beat PSG in front of the Yellow Wall. So many brilliant performances for the Bundesliga side but, in particular, Jadon Sancho. The panel try to figure out what happens to him this summer.

Glioblastomas are an extremely aggressive type of brain tumour, which is why the news this week of a vaccine that has shown promise in fighting them is so exciting. And this comes right off the back of the announcement of another trial of the worldas first personalised mRNA vaccine for melanoma, a kind of skin cancer. Ian Sample talks to Prof Alan Melcher of the Institute of Cancer Research about how these vaccines work and whether they could one day be used to target cancer before it is even detectable on scans

Clips: BBC

Read more about the personalised cancer vaccine for melanoma

The electric carmakeras Cybertruck was recalled last month after safety concerns emerged over the accelerator pedal. Kari Paul reports

Last month Tesla recalled its Cybertrucks after malfunctions involving the accelerator pedal were reported. It is the latest blow for the US electric carmaker, which has been hit by a series of embarrassing failures since the Cybertruck was delivered to customers late last year.

Kari Paul, a technology reporter for Guardian US, talks to Michael Safi about Teslaas recent struggles, from safety issues to supply-chain delays. Can the companyas embattled chief executive, Elon Musk, turn its fortunes around?

The Guardianas political editor, Pippa Crerar, and the political correspondent Kiran Stacey help you kick off your week with the stories you need to know from inside Westminster

Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts

Style, with substance: whatas 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: whatas 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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Be the first to see our latest thought-provoking films, bringing you bold and original storytelling from around the world

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From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break a whether in the UK or further afield a with twice-weekly emails from the Guardianas travel editors. Youall also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.

From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break a whether in the UK or further afield a with twice-weekly emails from the Guardianas travel editors.

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A weekly email from Yotam Ottolenghi, Meera Sodha, Felicity Cloake and Rachel Roddy, featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideas

Each week weall send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. Weall 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 photographer on an ambiguous image inspired by Greek, Roman and Egyptian art

aA former mentor, Elinor Carucci, recommends taking pictures daily as a sort of gym for the photographic mind,a Esteban Kuriel says.

On this day, Kuriel was staying at St Erminas hotel in London and had visited the Sir John Soaneas Museum, which houses a collection of Greek, Roman and Egyptian figurative sculptures. aThe fragmented, contorted bodies inspired me, and I returned to my room to make this image. Photographing daily trains my eye, just as one trains their body at the gym, so I must play with what is available. In this case, it was this space and its furniture.a

Our photographer Tom Jenkins was at Portman Road to witness the scenes as the Tractor Boysa victory meant a return to the Premier League for the first time since 2002

Artist Selena Kearney was raised on the Chehalis reservation in Washington state and began photographing fake native regalia after a chance encounter with a young woman in a grocery store on Halloween. aShe was wearing a skimpy faux-Native American costume,a she says. aI couldnat begin to understand how that cheap outfit had anything to do with me, or my heritage.a Curious about the power of these objects, she started to collect and consider them, sourcing sports paraphernalia, traditional headdresses and vintage and new costumes from eBay and Amazon. Over the course of five years, Kearney photographed them and the resulting series is now featured in a book, Every Object Has a Ritual (published by Minor Matters), and an exhibition at the Suquamish Museum in Washington state (Object/Ritual, 18 May-January 2025). aCollecting masks felt the hardest of all,a she says. One featuring a woman with two braids was particularly unsettling. aA parody of me, looking back at me.a

War in Gaza, US campus protests, missile strikes in Kharkiv and floods in Kenya: the last seven days as captured by the worldas leading photojournalists

Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing

The Guardianas picture editors select photographs from around the world

Since 2014 Spanish photographer Daniel Ochoa de Olza has been portraying the girl participants in a spring festival held in Colmenar Viejo outside Madrid. His portraits bear witness to his fascination with the enduring nature of Spainas rituals

With obscure origins in pagan customs and dating back to medieval times, the festivities of La Maya offers a strange and colourful spectacle celebrating the arrival of spring. Every year on 2 May the families of girls aged between seven and 11 gather to decide which of them will be chosen to be that yearas aMayasa.

Lucia Corrales Alfonso