Middle East crisis live: US to block Iranian ports for ‘as long as it takes’ and is ready to restart combat if talks fail, Hegseth warns

Pentagon chief said that the US is ‘reloading with more power than before’ and Iran has choice of ‘the easy way or the hard way’

• US and Iran in indirect talks to extend two-week ceasefire

Iran has stopped all petrochemical exports to prioritise domestic supply and prevent shortages of raw materials, Reuters reported.

The state-owned National Petrochemical Company ordered firms to suspend exports until further notice.

Airline CEOs urged by lawmaker to lower fares if fuel prices come down

Airlines have raised airfare, fuel surcharges and baggage fees this year to help cover a surge in fuel costs since the Iran war started on Feb. 28.

Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax kills wife, fatally shoots self, police say

Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax shot and killed his wife and then turned the gun on himself what police described as a murder-suicide in their home in Annandale, Virginia, police said Thursday.

My friend keeps sending me unsettling social media videos. How do I tell her to stop? | Leading questions

People down the rabbit hole don’t always realise their experience isn’t universal, advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith writes. You might have more luck trying a new tactic

• Read more Leading questions

My friend of 30 years keeps sending me social media posts and videos that I either don’t find funny or are disturbing. We live far away and rarely see each other, so we communicate through a messaging app. I’ve told her many times that I prefer positive or cute things, and I don’t follow American politics.

Her life is difficult and I understand why she spends so much time on social media. Last week she sent me multiple videos each day that were not of interest to me at all, including one with women slapping each other. She often buys into conspiracy theories until I disprove them. All of it upsets me. It’s like she doesn’t know who I am. I’m not replying to any of these messages but she keeps sending them.

Gout Gout may be bigger than Cathy Freeman, but he alone is not athletics’ elixir

Sprint sensation captures the imagination of fans around the globe but even amid Australia’s athletics revival, large crowds have not always followed

The video – shared millions of times across social media – is irresistible, showing Gout Gout recording the fastest 200m time by a teenager, ever, on Sunday at the national athletics championships in Sydney. Witness the moment in person, and it was one of Australian sport’s unforgettable days.

Yet look at the background behind the teenager, and you see an almost empty grass hill. As Gout turns and celebrates, saluting the crowd, he does so to a half-empty grandstand.

I thought hell would freeze over before I agreed with the pope. But in a world riven by cruelty, that day has finally come

It’s a relief to see the pontiff decrying brutality, because it seems most current world leaders lack the necessary spine

I have never been a religious or spiritual person, even though I grew up in a religious area and had friends (and strangers) throughout school and university trying to lure me into whatever prayer disguised as organised fun they were up to. I did try it out shortly for a desperate period when I was young, attempting to pray to a god I didn’t really believe in to make me not gay, but blessedly he never answered.

Despite my resistance to organised religion, I have always had a soft spot for nuns and their counterparts. The girlies.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

House set to break with Trump, vote against ending deportation protections for Haitians

All House Democrats and four Republicans forced a vote on a measure to stop the Trump administration from ending temporary deportation protections for more than 300,000 people from Haiti.

Mamdani says he and Trump "are in touch," have "one place of agreement"

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he and President Trump are "honest, direct about the fact that we have many disagreements," but they agree on their love for New York City.

Trump admin set to launch tariff refund portal. Here's what to know.

A federal agency will open a portal on April 20 that lets businesses apply for a refund for Trump tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court.

Europe could run out of jet fuel in 6 weeks, IEA warns

The International Energy Agency warned Thursday that Europe is going to run out of jet fuel in as soon as six weeks.

New Jersey governor hits out at Fifa over reported $100 World Cup train tickets: ‘They should pay’

• Mikie Sherrill says taxpayers should not carry burden

• Costs at World Cup have come under increased scrutiny

New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, has hit out at Fifa after reports her state’s transport system will charge $100 for a return ticket to World Cup matches this summer.

New Jersey Transit lists the price for a round-trip ticket from New York’s Penn Station to MetLife Stadium, which will host eight World Cup matches this summer, including the final, as $12.90. The new pricing, reported by The Athletic earlier this week, puts the return ticket at more than $100 with no reductions for children, seniors or people with disabilities. NJ Transit told Fox 5 New York that the price has not been finalized. A decision is expected in the coming days.

Caine warns "we will use force" if Iran does not comply with blockade

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday thatthe U.S. military can "make the transition" from the blockade to "major combat operations."

Historic flooding and hail pummel parts of Midwest: "We can't catch a break"

Severe weather slammed parts of the Midwest for a third day in a row. Flash flooding left drivers stranded in Milwaukee, and in Cheboygan County, Michigan, river levels rose to new record highs. Rob Marciano has more.

Justin Fairfax, ex-lieutenant governor of Virginia, kills wife and himself

Police say the couple’s teenage children called 911 after a domestic dispute at their Annandale home during divorce

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

Justin Fairfax, a former lieutenant governor of Virginia whose tenure was upended by allegations of sexual assault, shot and killed his wife Cerina Fairfax on Thursday before killing himself, police said.

Kevin Davis, the chief of the Fairfax county police department in Virginia, said at a press conference that the murder-suicide took place in the context of “an ongoing domestic dispute surrounding what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce”. The shooting took place at the Fairfaxes residence in Annandale, Virginia, and police arrived on the scene after receiving a 911 call from one of their teenage children shortly after midnight.

Anthropic unveils plans for major UK expansion after OpenAI announces first permanent London office

The move follows a U.K. campaign to court the U.S. company following its fallout with the Pentagon.

Football Daily | Bayern and Madrid produce a gourmand feast before the tantrums

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!

While a church bell clanged intermittently and bits of tumbleweed blew across the pitch at the Emirates Stadium, the Allianz Arena hosted a ding-dong battle that pretty much had it all on Wednesday night. For the second evening in eight days, it was left to Bayern Munich and Real Madrid to pull out all the stops and provide the box-office entertainment as Arsenal once again Arsenaled their way past Sporting in a bore draw to earn their place in Bigger Cup semi-finals. More or less picking up where they’d left off at the end of the first leg, Bayern and Madrid served up a gourmand feast of slapstick goalkeeping, a see-sawing scoreline, much better goalkeeping, near-misses, goals of an at times absurdly high quality, several red cards and no end of post-match salty Spanish tears and recriminations. While Madrid have little or no chance of pipping Barça to this season’s La Liga title, they certainly thrashed them in the ungracious Bigger Cup exit stakes.

The image of Fermín López getting the boot from Juan Musso (yesterday’s Football Daily) clearly shows technique learned from English players. Admittedly, López’s head appeared to be at a dangerous level and one might expect an element of risk from crouching like that. As a life-long Hearts fan, I haven’t forgotten the approximation of a tackle attempted by English full-back Jason Talbot, then ‘playing’ for Livingston, on poor young winger Sam Nicholson in 2015. This was one incident in a match which, I believe, carries the accepted term ‘feisty’ (ie five goals, eight yellow cards and one red). And no, this wasn’t the red” – Ken Muir.

Re: your almost-spot-on analysis of Southampton’s chances of automatic promotion (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition), what you and – to be fair – every other publication I’ve read about this in, have omitted to mention is that Ipswich’s game in hand is away to Saints during the week before the last games of the season. Rather pertinent, I’d say” – Stuart Ainsworth.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

PepsiCo earnings beat estimates as Doritos, Lay's price cuts win back shoppers

PepsiCo's quarterly earnings and revenue topped Wall Street's expectations.

At least 17 people killed in Russia’s deadliest attack on Ukraine this year

More than 100 injured across country after Russia launches nearly 700 drones and dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles

• Europe live – latest updates

Russia has carried out its deadliest attack against Ukraine this year, killing at least 17 people, and injuring more than 100, in a wave of drone and missile strikes across the country.

Nine people died in the southern port city of Odesa, with four killed in Kyiv, including a 12-year-old boy. There were three fatalities in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Another person died in Zaporizhzhia oblast.

Red hair gene favoured by natural selection over last 10,000 years, study finds

Scientists suggest red hair and fair skin were favoured for vitamin D efficiency in study focused on whether human evolution plateaued after advent of agriculture

People with red hair who have put up with teasing or “fiery” stereotypes may be pleased to learn that they appear to be winners from an evolutionary perspective. A large genetics study has revealed that, in Europe, the gene for red hair has been actively selected for more than 10,000 years.

The study did not aim to uncover the reasons for the trend, but focused on the broader question of whether human evolution has plateaued since the advent of agriculture. By analysing DNA from nearly 16,000 ancient human remains and more than 6,000 living individuals, the scientists provided compelling evidence that, in fact, biological evolution has continued apace.

NPR receives $113 million in charitable gifts

"My hope is that this commitment provides the stability and the spark NPR needs to innovate boldly and strengthen its national network," says Connie Ballmer, who gave $80 million of the $113 million.

DJ Shadow: ‘Kraftwerk are a touchstone for every phase of my career’

The hip-hop producer, remixer and crate-digger on staying fresh creatively, the influence of David Lynch and giving away his most valuable record

Can you share any regrets or missed opportunities from your career? nnagewad
In 1999, I was approached by Deftones to work on White Pony, but I had just come off of Unkle’s Psyence Fiction album. I was nursing a hip-hop image and reputation, so I was wary of working with anything that felt like it was too alternative or rock-oriented. So I missed out on being a part of a pretty seminal album. I wouldn’t say it’s a regret, necessarily, because I feel like my rationale was sound, but it’s kind of a missed opportunity.

Was your move towards sample-free production on your recent albums driven by the headache and costliness of sample clearance, a desire to keep the creative process fresh, or a bit of both? EditorialJoe
Definitely both. There have been times in my career where I’ve wondered: at the end of the day, am I going to own only 15% of my catalogue because of all the samples? So that was part of it. But equally, I became known as somebody who was trying to be on the vanguard of making music with samples but I always knew I would want to make music in as many different ways as possible.

Revealed: Mandelson failed vetting but Foreign Office overruled decision

Guardian investigation uncovers decision by UK security officials to deny clearance before Mandelson took up role as US ambassador

• Officials debate withholding Mandelson vetting documents from parliament

• Five key questions: Who overruled the decision to deny Mandelson security clearance?

Peter Mandelson failed his security vetting clearance but the decision was overruled by the Foreign Office to ensure he could take up his post as ambassador to the US, an investigation by the Guardian can reveal.

According to multiple sources, Mandelson was initially denied clearance in late January 2025 after a developed vetting process, a highly confidential background check by security officials.

The Possibility of Tenderness by Jason Allen-Paisant audiobook review – meditations on nature and belonging

The poet reconnects with the landscape of the May Day Mountains in Jamaica where he grew up in a personal story of migration, race and rural life

An award-winning poet living in Roundhay Park, Leeds, Jason Allen-Paisant spent his early childhood living with his grandmother in Coffee Grove, a hilly rural district of Jamaica which was cut off from basic amenities such as electricity and water. Seen through the eyes of a child, Coffee Grove was, he notes, “both a tiny place and a huge planet”. There he developed a close relationship with the local plant life through climbing trees, picking fruit and helping his grandmother harvest yams on the “grung”, the local name for their small plot of land.

Allen-Paisant later yearned for pastures new, moving first to Paris and then to Britain to study at Oxford. His dream of upward mobility had become a reality, yet in the UK he noticed his interactions with nature were few and far between. He came to realise “just how much class keeps people in Britain from the privileges of land and soil and also keeps them from the tenderness that comes with forming kinship with the earth”.

Samuel Hasselhorn: Schubert Hoffnung review – timbral and emotional flexibility is in ample supply

Hasselhorn/Bushakevitz
(Harmonia Mundi)
The German baritone’s all-Schubert disc with pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz is full of communicative diction and poetic phrasing

Now in his mid-30s, German baritone Samuel Hasselhorn is a major player in a veritable rat-pack of high-flying young lieder singers. His growing discography includes an ongoing series with pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz, part of Harmonia Mundi’s Schubert 200 project to record all the composer’s songs, from 1823 onwards, ahead of the 2028 bicentenary of his death.

The year 1826 found Schubert in affirmative mood, a torrent of lieder reflecting a newfound sense of optimism. The album, appropriately entitled Hoffnung, the German word for hope, opens with a nuanced account of the expansive Im Freien. The combination of Hasselhorn’s communicative diction and Bushakevitz’s poetic phrasing brings a rapt intimacy to this six-minute celebration of nocturnal beauty.

Now you can break up with big tech at a bar: ‘cybersecurity disguised as a party’

These digital security organizers bring the fight for online privacy to dance parties, wine meetups and reading groups

Imani Thompson shows up at Wonderville Bar in Brooklyn looking ready for a DJ set, or to drink, or to dance the night away with friends. While she’ll probably do the latter, she’s also a cybersecurity organizer leading the evening’s event.

Thompson is the host, along with the New York City-based tech organizing coalition Cypurr Collective, of Break Up With Google. Its purpose isn’t a mystery; the main goal is to help attenders understand how to mitigate their vulnerability to surveillance through major tech services. But it’s also important for people to have fun while they do it, Thompson said – hence the DJs playing until the wee hours of the morning.

New York Fed President Williams worries war will slow growth, aggravate inflation

Williams noted that the conflict has "intensified the uncertainty" around national and local conditions.

Pope says ‘world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ amid feud with Trump’s White House

Pontiff denounces leaders who invoke religion to justify war, after US bishops offer him support after Vance remarks

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

Pope Leo XIV has said that the world is being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants” who spend billions on war, in comments that will be seen as another sharp escalation in his almost week-long feud with the White House over the US-Israel war on Iran.

The first American-born pontiff did not mention Donald Trump by name, but used his speech in Cameroon on Thursday to denounce world leaders that invoke religion to justify violence against other nations.

The power of the Dunst: Kirsten’s best film performances – ranked!

As she approaches her 44th birthday, we celebrate an actor who can move from dreamy psychodrama for Sofia Coppola to gritty angst for Jane Campion

An elegant, sun-soaked Patricia Highsmith adaptation with fine work from Viggo Mortensen as a con man and Dunst as his wife, holidaying in early 1960s Athens when they meet an American tour guide (Oscar Isaac). It seems tantalisingly unclear at first whether his designs are on the chirpy young bride or her shady older husband.

Woman detained by ICE says she's worked legally in U.S. for decades

Meenu Batra came to the U.S. nearly 35 years ago. Batra and her lawyers say she has always worked and lived legally in the U.S. But one month ago, the courtroom interpreter and mother of four was detained by ICE agents. She and her family spoke exclusively to CBS News.

Alex Manninger, former Arsenal goalkeeper, dies aged 48 after road accident

• Austrian was capped 33 times for his national team

• Manninger won Premier League during Arsenal spell

Alex Manninger, the former goalkeeper who helped Arsenal win the Double in 1998, has died in a car accident in Austria, aged 48.

His first club, Red Bull Salzburg, broke the sad news on Thursday. The Austrian Bundesliga club said in a post on its official X account: “We mourn our former goalkeeper Alexander Manninger, who tragically lost his life in a traffic accident. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. Rest in peace, Alexander.”

World's biggest chocolate maker issues profit warning as cocoa prices collapse; shares plunge 17%

Swiss chocolate maker Barry Callebaut on Thursday lowered its operating profit outlook, citing supply concerns and industry overcapacity.

U.S. Navy stopped 13 ships from passing Iranian port blockade, Pentagon says

The U.S. has signaled optimism about the prospect of reaching a diplomatic end to the Iran war.

First trailer released for western starring AI version of Val Kilmer

Footage of As Deep As the Grave screened in the US, featuring an authorised visual deepfake of the actor who died in 2025

A trailer has been released for the first film to star an authorised generative AI version of a major Hollywood actor.

Val Kilmer was cast in western As Deep As the Grave before his death in April 2025. Production delays meant he never shot any scenes, but the creative team worked with UK-based company Sonantic to create an AI speaking voice based on his old recordings.

The Mummy review – classic monster gets dug up for unravelling resurrection

Irish director Lee Cronin follows his Evil Dead reboot with what feels like another Evil Dead film but without a real sense of humour

Warner Bros would prefer that you referred to their new hard R take on The Mummy as Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, a bafflingly grandiose insistence that has earned some deserved ridicule online over the past few weeks. It’s partly to separate it from Universal’s upcoming return to the 90s-00s franchise (Blumhouse, the horror hit-makers behind the film, on X posted: “BRENDAN FRASER IS NOT IN LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY” last week) as well as what those films represented – safe, family-friendly and easily theme park-able. It’s also an attempt to capitalise on our pop auteur moment, one that Warners has helped to create with Ryan Coogler and Zach Cregger both front and centre of the campaigns for their hit genre films last year (The Mummy’s trailer notably heralds it as “from the studio who brought you Weapons” as if that were to mean all that much).

While it is refreshing to see a studio focus on pushing a director over an actor (the last attempt at a Mummy movie relied on the star power of Tom Cruise, a decision that couldn’t stop the film from losing a considerable amount of money), it also speaks to an unearned indulgence and an expedited crowning of a genius before one has really had the chance to prove oneself (a lose-lose of-the-moment trend we need to move away from and one that, to his credit, Cronin was unsure about being a part of). Cronin, an Irish film-maker who has made just two films to date (The Hole in the Ground and Evil Dead Rise), is an undeniable visual talent but his Mummy is also absurdly, watch-checkingly overlong (134 minutes is an unacceptable length for a genre film as thin as this), tonally unsure and, fatally, not all that scary. It’s also, for something so clearly attributed to just one person, a film so deeply influenced by the work of many, many others. It might not feel like a Mummy movie you’ve seen before but it’ll feel like a great deal else.

Palestine FA officials denied entry to Canada for Fifa pre-World Cup meeting

• Three officials have had applications for visas rejected

• Fifa Congress will take place in Vancouver on 30 April

Officials from the Palestine Football Association have been denied entry to Canada ahead of a pre-World Cup meeting of Fifa’s member associations to be held in Vancouver this month.

Three officials have had applications for visas to enter Canada rejected, with the association subsequently asking Fifa to intervene with immigration authorities on their behalf. It comes amid concerns over the ability of some nations to travel freely to this summer’s 48-team tournament, which will be held across the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Mamdani: Democratic socialism "can flourish anywhere"

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani spoke with "CBS Mornings" on Thursday and reflected on his first 100 days in office.

Manchester City captain Bernardo Silva confirms he will leave club at end of season

• 31-year-old has been at club for nine years

• Portuguese says he will be ‘a City supporter for life’

Bernardo Silva has confirmed he will leave Manchester City in May, with the captain saying he will cherish the legacy he helped build in nine years at the club, winning the 2022-23 treble and a record four consecutive titles.

Silva joined City from Monaco in July 2017 for £43.5m and has been a key member of the generational success of Pep Guardiola’s team, winning six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, five League Cups, the Champions League and two Fifa Club World Cups. Including the Community Shield, the Portuguese has 19 honours with City

James Bond studio heads urge patience over casting announcement

Executives from Amazon MGM are no closer to revealing who is lined up for the coveted role, saying, ‘We’re taking the time to do this with care and deep respect’

The new James Bond studio heads have attempted to calm fans about who will play the British spy in the new film.

Speaking at trade show CinemaCon in the US on Wednesday, executives from Amazon MGM studios – which bought the series rights as part of an $8.45bn (£6.9bn) deal in 2022 – indicated that an abundance of caution on their part meant the role was not yet cast.

Questions swirl over future of Spirit Airlines amid rising jet fuel costs due to Iran war

Spirit Airlines could soon be forced into liquidation. As the price of jet fuel has nearly doubled this year, driven by the Iran war, sources say some of Spirit's creditors question the budget airline's ability to make debt payments or return to profitability. It filed for bankruptcy last year. Kris Van Cleave reports.

Behind the bluster, Donald Trump desperately needs a peace deal with Iran. Here's a solution | Rajan Menon

Washington and Tehran will have to make compromises and the current deadline must be extended. But with the will there’s clearly a way

The failure of the Islamabad talks to end the US-Israel war on Iran was hardly surprising, given the stark differences between Washington’s 15-point proposal and Tehran’s 10-point equivalent. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which capped Iran’s uranium enrichment, took more than two years to negotiate, and its roots actually reach back to 2003. The US vice-president, JD Vance, spent less than a full day in Islamabad for negotiations that included the nuclear question and several others.

The surprise was Vance’s explanation for the failure – that Iran rejected the terms presented by the US. The American side was not in a position to dictate terms because Iran stood firm when the 8 April ceasefire took effect. But Vance seemed to believe, as does his boss Donald Trump, that the Iranians had been defeated and the US didn’t have to budge.

Rajan Menon is professor emeritus of international relations at Powell School, City University of New York, and senior research fellow at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies

Puerto Rico’s rainforest center reborn: in pictures

After two devastating hurricanes, El Yunque national forest has built a new visitors center that hosts a vibrant arts festival

A water fight in Laos and a coal-fired Fiat: photos of the day – Thursday

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

Why Jerome Powell — not Trump — will decide when the Fed chief steps down

President Trump would love to be finally rid of Fed Chair Jerome Powell. But firing him would kick up a legal firestorm and roil financial markets, experts said.

Church warden jailed for life for murder of lecturer has conviction quashed

Retrial ordered in case of Benjamin Field, found guilty in 2019 of murdering Peter Farquhar, 69, in Buckinghamshire

A church warden who was jailed for life for the murder of a university lecturer has had his conviction quashed at the court of appeal and a retrial has been ordered.

Benjamin Field was jailed for at least 36 years in 2019 after being found guilty of murdering 69-year-old Peter Farquhar in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire.

Asha Bhosle obituary

One of the great Bollywood singers whose thousands of songs ranged from ghazals to dance tunes and pop

Asha Bhosle, who has died aged 92, was the best-known singer in India, an extraordinary artist whose career spanned over eight decades, during which she recorded about 12,000 songs.

She first became famous as a playback singer – recording songs that would then be lip-synced by actors in Bollywood movies. Though she was not on screen, her voice made her even more celebrated than those pretending to sing her songs. She also recorded extensively under her own name, and after establishing her reputation in Asia became known to western audiences first through Brimful of Asha, the 1997 tribute song by Cornershop, and then through her collaborations with musicians as varied as Boy George, Kronos Quartet and, most recently, Gorillaz.

South African politician Julius Malema given five-year jail term for gun offence

Leader of leftwing Economic Freedom Fighters was convicted last year for firing rifle in the air at 2018 rally

The South African leftwing politician Julius Malema has been sentenced to five years in prison for firing a rifle in the air at a political rally in 2018.

Lawyers for the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, South Africa’s fourth largest political party, immediately appealed, and Malema will remain free while the appeal proceedings are under way.

Pilot forced to "slam on the brakes" to avoid truck at Charlotte airport

An American Airlines pilot told Air Traffic Control at Charlotte International Airport that his plane "nearly hit" a truck speeding past on the concourse Wednesday, forcing him to slam the brakes.

Paula Rego review – tantalising drawings with the shoeprints left on them

Victoria Miro, London
Mischievous, moving and troubled tales of female oppression unspool across the largest ever exhibition of the artist’s drawings, which show an intuitive touch her paintings lack

When Paula Rego was nine, she drew her grandmother sitting comfortably in a chair. The old woman’s hair is pinned back, and she wears dangly earrings and thick-rimmed glasses on a chain. She might be reading or sewing – it’s hard to tell. Whatever it is, she’s absorbed in the task at hand. Just like the young artist, who, even as a child, diligently signed and dated her work, in neat script shooting up from the tip of her grandmother’s shoe like a flare in a night sky.

This small, tender sketch is part of the largest exhibition of the Portuguese-born artist’s drawings to date. Curated by her son, Nick Willing, the show features works on paper from the 1950s, right around the time that she settled in Britain, to her death in 2022. Unspooling from lines in pencil, pastel, pen and ink are tantalising tales of people and places real and imagined, and periods in Rego’s own life when she felt afraid, inspired or fierce. Sometimes the tales intertwine. Sometimes they stand alone. They can be mischievous, moving, troubled. All are full of feeling.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster illegally monopolized big concert venues, jury rules

The lawsuit involved dozens of states that alleged Live Nation undermined competition and drove up ticket prices.

Europe has only six weeks’ supply of jet fuel left owing to Iran war, says energy chief

There will be flight cancellations ‘soon’ if oil supplies are not restored in coming weeks, says head of IEA

• Business live – latest updates

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Europe has only six weeks’ supply of jet fuel left before shortages will hit because of the Iran war, according to the head of a global energy watchdog.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, said there would be flight cancellations “soon” if oil supplies from the Middle East were not restored within the coming weeks.

Sens. Warren and Blumenthal investigate NLRB decision to drop charges against SpaceX for retaliatory firings

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., are investigating the NLRB after it dropped charges against Elon Musk's SpaceX in February over retaliatory firings.

More than 100 writers quit French publisher in protest against rightwing owner Vincent Bolloré

Tycoon’s media empire accused of pushing far-right ideas, as writers say: ‘We refuse to be hostages in ideological war’

• Europe live – latest updates

More than 100 writers have quit the historic French publishing house Grasset in protest at its conservative billionaire owner, Vincent Bolloré, whose media empire has been accused of promoting reactionary and far-right ideas.

In an unprecedented walkout, dozens of writers including the acclaimed punk feminist novelist Virginie Despentes and the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, signed an open letter against Bolloré, 74, who is close to far-right figures.

Just the tonic: why it’s more than a mixer

Tonic is much more than a bit player in a G&T. A lot of it’s good enough to drink solo

If a tonic is something that “makes you feel stronger and happier”, my tonics come in the form of good wine, bad chocolate and an ageing whippet called Ernie. Recently, though, I’ve found myself craving the OG tonic – tonic water – which started life as a malaria treatment in the age of the British empire.

In the 17th century, Jesuit missionaries brought quinine, a bitter compound found in the bark of American cinchona trees, to Europe. They knew that indigenous people had been using it to treat fevers, and by the 1700s it was routinely being used as an antimalarial in tropical colonies. But there was a snag: quinine is unpalatable. To offset its impossible bitterness, it was combined with water and sugar to make a drink that enabled those stationed in the tropics to self-medicate every day. By the Victorian times, that self-medication had taken on a different aspect; not only had tonic water become fizzy, but it was routinely combined with gin for a drink now emblematic of the British Raj.

A Polymarket trader made $300,000 betting on Biden's pardons, a new analysis shows

In the final hours of President Biden's term, an anonymous prediction market trader placed lucrative bets on who would be pardoned even as the odds were nearly zero.

Iran War timeline continues to shift. And, jury rules Live Nation acted as monopoly

Trump continues to try to declare victory in Iran as the timeline for the war's end shifts. And, a jury determined that Live Nation acted as a monopoly and overcharged ticket buyers.

How Giorgia Meloni’s cosy relations with Donald Trump turned sour

With an eye on elections in 2027, Italy’s far-right PM appears to be making a tactful pivot away from US president

• Europe live – latest updates

Six months ago, Italy’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, stood surrounded by men on a stage in Sharm el-Sheikh, where world leaders had gathered to discuss the Gaza peace deal.

In front of her, Donald Trump showered praise and insults on the assembled leaders, before describing Meloni as a “beautiful young woman”. Turning towards her, he added: “You don’t mind being called beautiful, right? Because you are. Thank you very much for coming.”

Mediators are pushing to extend the U.S.-Iran ceasefire

Pakistan said it expected to host a second round of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran to end the war, but did not say when or where the meetings would take place.

Pedro Pascal v Pedro Piscal: actor in legal battle with Chilean spirit brand

Pedro Piscal pisco is latest Chilean brand to resemble a Hollywood name – and others have fought off the lawsuits

The actor Pedro Pascal is waging a legal battle against a Chilean pisco merchant who has chosen a cheeky name for his brand of the country’s national spirit: Pedro Piscal.

David Herrera registered the brand name with a Chilean commercial regulator in 2023 and began selling his pisco in off-licences and restaurants.

LIV Golf insists season will go ahead ‘at full throttle’ amid doubts over future

• Scott O’Neil sends rallying cry to staff after reports

• McGinley says PGA Tour could now ‘play hardball’

LIV Golf has insisted the tour intends to continue “uninterrupted and at full throttle” this season amid claims its Saudi Arabian backers will imminently withdraw having funded the breakaway league to the tune of $5bn (£3.68bn).

The future of the rebel tour was mired in confusion on Wednesday following an executive meeting in New York and publication of a new Saudi investment strategy that did not mention sport and emphasised sustainability.

Jessie Ware: Superbloom review – Table Manners host dishes up more disco – but where are the bangers?

(EMI)
The podcaster’s third sequin-festooned album in a row is her most retro, with its slightly cringe moments balanced by unerring quality control and opulent arrangements

Recent episodes of Table Manners, the podcast Jessie Ware co-hosts with her mother, Lennie, have begun with a brief advert for Ware’s new album: listeners, it advises, can get 10% off by preordering Superbloom using a special code. The fact that the advert is directing traffic from Ware’s podcast to her music feels slightly telling. As side hustles go, Table Manners has proved extraordinarily successful, attracting A-list guests: Margot Robbie, Jeremy Allen White, Paul McCartney, Robert De Niro. Indeed, it’s proved so successful that it scarcely seems like a side hustle at all: in 2026, Ware is probably better known as a podcaster than a singer. Hats off to her: in an uncertain era, when rock and pop artists are well advised to have a backup plan, there’s something hugely impressive about how big Ware’s has become. Still, there lurks the danger of her music seeming an afterthought: like the 10% off ad, something to get out of the way before the more serious business of enjoying banana bread with Lisa Kudrow.

You can hear the impact of Table Manners on Superbloom in a literal sense: a track called Automatic features a deep-voiced spoken-word appearance from Euphoria star Colman Domingo, previously a guest on the podcast. It’s also an album marked by a sense of doubling down. Ware’s third album in a row to mine a disco-pop hybrid, it’s also the most straightforwardly retro of the trio, sanding away the sheen of futuristic electronica found on 2020’s What’s Your Pleasure? and 2023’s That! Feels Good! in favour of lush orchestration: even the most synth-heavy tracks here speak less of the present than they do the early 80s post-disco boogie genre.

Setback for ex-U.S. Marine pilot accused of illegally training Chinese aviators

An Australian judge turned away an appeal by former U.S. Marine pilot Daniel Duggan to avoid extradition to the U.S. over allegations that he illegally trained Chinese military aviators more than a decade ago.

Regulators are reportedly zeroing in on suspicious trades ahead of market-moving Trump post

The information sought includes so-called Tag 50 identifiers, which can be used to determine who was behind the trades.

MSC’s ‘blue tick’ scheme creates illusion of ethically sourced fish, study claims

Sustainability certification by Marine Stewardship Council may be obscuring labour abuses in seafood supply chains, say researchers

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which operates a “blue tick” scheme to indicate the sustainability of fish, has been accused of creating an “illusion” of ethical sourcing, after a study reported that widespread labour abuses have taken place on the fishing vessels it approves.

One in five vessels where the crew reported abuses to the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) over the last five years took place on ships catching seafood certified as sustainable by the MSC, researchers found.

In the footsteps of Linnaeus: scientists share their passion for species from tiny wasps to hairy plants – in pictures

For his project ‘De Oförtrutna’ (The Relentless), photographer Christer Björkman pictured Swedish scientists working in the spirit of Carl Linnaeus, the botanist who created the modern taxonomic system that classifies organisms based on appearance. Each scientist brought to the shoot a book and an item of importance to their work

How seals' whiskers make them master underwater hunters

Their sensitive facial hair may be the harbor seals superpower for tracking fish, scientists are learning.

Piteå IF feel the pinch as Swedish football’s outlier: ‘It’s an impossible puzzle’

Thirteen of the Damallsvenskan’s 14 teams are based in the south. For Piteå IF, rising costs are now the priority

Piteå IF are entering their 17th season as a top-division side in Sweden’s Damallsvenskan, but the challenge for them is getting tougher and tougher every year.

And it is not a small budget compared to clubs such as Hammarby and Häcken who have, in recent years, been able to rely on the support of major men’s club, or the rejuvenated Malmö FF side, but geographical issues which have put a strain on club finances.

Eddie Howe faces familiar foes with Newcastle reign at a crossroad | Louise Taylor

Newcastle face Bournemouth on Saturday with the manager under increasing pressure at St James’ Park

Eddie Howe has reason to believe that April really is the cruellest month. This time last year Newcastle’s manager was hospitalised with pneumonia and, 12 months later, he can barely switch on a radio or glance at a newspaper without receiving yet another reminder he is “under pressure”.

As fans and pundits debate whether Cesc Fàbregas, Xabi Alonso, Andoni Iraola, Oliver Glasner or AN Other might perform a superior job, one thing is clear: Howe has six games to reassure Newcastle’s hierarchy that he remains the right man to lead his 14th-placed team through what promises to be a significant summer rebuild.

Move over matcha: how ube cocktails and coffees are hitting the UK’s sweet spot

Brightly coloured yam, long enjoyed in east Asia, has been appearing in drinks, desserts – and, of course, TikTok feeds

Bright purple coffees and cocktails made with a root vegetable called ube have hit the high street in the UK after the yam’s striking hue caused a sensation on social media. Many are calling ube the “new matcha”, and it has a nutty, creamy, sweet taste, like a mix between coconut and vanilla.

Ube coloured and flavoured drinks became popular in the US last year, after an earlier boom in Australia. Farmers in the Philippines, where the root vegetable is often sourced, have been struggling to meet demand.

Indonesia's capital of the future faces doubts in the present

Indonesia is racing to build a new capital, promising a greener, futuristic city. But many citizens aren't convinced it will live up to the vision.

A journalist filmed an ICE protest at a Minnesota church. Then federal agents showed up at her door

After Georgia Fort and Don Lemon reported from a church whose pastor reportedly works for ICE, agents arrested Fort in front of her children

When federal agents arrived at Georgia Fort’s front door to arrest her, she knew what to do: be a journalist.

Fort, an independent Minnesota reporter who faces criminal charges after covering a protest inside a St Paul church, took out her phone and spoke directly to the camera, livestreaming to her audience that her lawyer advised her to go with the agents. Her three kids were in the house at the time, she said.

I was one of Lena Dunham’s haters. I want to say I’m sorry | Dave Schilling

The truth is, we were all just jealous

To Lena Dunham, I need to say that I’m sorry. I’m sure she’ll never read this, since she doesn’t seem like the kind of person who Googles herself. If I was Lena, I certainly wouldn’t. The internet is full of mockery, sarcasm and outright cruelty. I’ve been part of the problem, too. Lena and I were starting off our careers at the same time, those halcyon days of the 2010s, when people still subscribed to cable TV and social media was just a fun new tool to post random thoughts and photos of your brunch. Now, if you post a photo of a meal, people will scream at you for bragging that you can afford food.

Fourteen years since HBO’s Girls turned Dunham from an indie film darling into a mainstream superstar, the writer/director is now releasing a memoir that reflects on her time in the cultural crosshairs. The headline of a New York Times interview reads: “Lena Dunham Is Still Trying to Figure Out Why People Hated Her So Much.”

As Iran war drives up fuel prices, states are hesitant to suspend gas tax

As the conflict in the Middle East drives up prices at the pump, experts say suspending gas and diesel taxes isn't the easy fix it may appear to be.

'Dear America': HUD workers say they're being blocked from doing their jobs

A website with anonymous employee letters accuses the Trump administration of undermining work on housing discrimination. HUD says it's restoring "sanity" to fair housing enforcement.

Jet fuel prices double, leading airlines to increase baggage fees, raise fares

Airlines are facing higher costs, and one airport group in Europe has warned of the risk of a "systemic jet fuel shortage" if traffic through the Strait of Hormuz doesn't normalize by the end of this month.

UK could face gaps on supermarket shelves by summer if Iran war continues

Ministers drawing up contingency plans for ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ if supply of CO₂ is disrupted

• Business live – latest updates

The UK could face some gaps on supermarket shelves this summer if disruption caused by the Iran war continues, with shortages of carbon dioxide potentially hitting supplies of chicken, pork and fizzy drinks.

Government ministers are drawing up contingency plans for a “reasonable worst-case scenario” if the key shipping lane of the strait of Hormuz does not reopen, disrupting supplies of the CO₂ required by the food industry.

Wildings in Newport, Wales: the grand department store that became an illicit cannabis farm

For decades, Wildings was the poshest shop in town. But since it closed down in 2019, the storied building has fallen into disrepair and been commandeered as a drug den and a skate park. What happened?

I’m standing outside a lift in a department store in Newport, Wales, looking at the sign, wondering where to go. Stay on the ground floor for shoes, giftware and presents, ladies’ accessories and Estée Lauder? Or up to the first floor for furniture and ladies’ fashions – Annabelle, Tigi-Wear, Autonomy? It’s the second floor for cookshop and homeware. Lingerie is on three, plus Alfred’s coffee shop and tea room. Maybe I’ll go straight there for a cappuccino and a ponder …

But nothing happens when I press the button. The panel is hanging from the wall by its wires and doesn’t look safe. I’d be nervous about stepping into this lift. Plus, it’s dark. I’m using the torch on my phone to read the sign. There’s no giftware on this floor, no presents, no cosmetics counter. Once, this floor would have smelled of perfume; now, it’s musty, cold and empty. Because, on 19 January 2019, after 144 years of trading, this department store, Wildings, closed its doors for ever.

Norway’s state telecoms firm accused of helping Myanmar regime seize activists

Lawsuit in Norway alleges Telenor passed on data helping Myanmar military arrest 1,200 activists, some in safe houses

When even two weeks of torture could not force Aung Thu to betray his fellow anti-coup activists, his military interrogators in Myanmar tried something different: they asked a Norwegian telecoms company, Telenor, then the largest one operating in the country, for its data on him.

The company – whose majority shareholder is the Norwegian government – had first entered Myanmar in 2013 as it was transitioning to democracy, promising to connect users who had been isolated from the world.

‘A feeling of ecstasy’: how Anne Hathaway and FKA twigs created the thunderous Mother Mary soundtrack

The stars of David Lowery’s psychodrama on the secrets behind creating music for a fictional pop diva

As David Lowery, the director, was writing the fictional pop star Mother Mary for his new film of the same name, he spent a lot of time studying the last 25 years in music. He listened to Taylor Swift (whose Reputation concert film inspired the performances in the film), Lorde and FKA twigs, who appears on screen as a medium named Imogene. But as the film’s haunted love story between Mary (played by Anne Hathaway) and her former best friend and designer Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel) emerged, his listening habits shifted.

“The pop music fell away and other music started to enter that sphere,” he says in A24’s New York offices. He’s sitting beside twigs and Hathaway the day after the trio attended the film’s premiere in the city. “James Blake and Aldous Harding really captured the emotion that I was trying to type out between Sam and Mother Mary. They began to help me channel the feeling of the movie itself.”

We watched 2 focus groups of Georgia swing voters. They're not happy with the Iran war

None of the 13 focus group participants — who all voted for President Trump in 2024 — said they would describe the military action in Iran as going well so far.

3 things to know about naval blockades as U.S. begins patrols in the Strait of Hormuz

The White House says it wants to choke off Iran's oil export revenue. But experts say that blockades are often unpredictable and difficult to enforce.

Miroirs No 3 review – Christian Petzold’s elegantly unnerving mystery of grief and family dysfunction

There’s a hint of PD James about this cuckoo in the nest story starring Paula Beer as a depressed pianist

German director Christian Petzold, the Chabrol of modern European cinema, delivers an elegant and disquieting psychological mystery of the sort that doesn’t interest today’s British film-makers, though this one appears to have more than a taste of PD James or Ruth Rendell. There’s also a hint of Joseph Losey’s Accident. It is about family dysfunction and grief and unnervingly lays out the aftermath of a sudden violent trauma. The faint suggestion that the film itself has gone into a kind of shock could have layered the proceedings with something infinitesimally dreamlike and unreal, an atmosphere often to be found in Petzold’s films. What makes this film interesting is that it isn’t heading for a macabre twist or chilling denouement but something positive and even redemptive.

Petzold’s longtime female lead Paula Beer plays Laura, a brilliant pianist studying music in Berlin, clearly in a fragile and depressed state. We are ultimately to see her on stage performing the third movement of Maurice Ravel’s Miroirs, the dreamily rippling A Boat on the Ocean, which gives the film its title. Paula is stuck in an unhappy relationship with boorish would-be music mogul Jakob (Philip Froissant), who one tense afternoon loses control of his open-topped sports car in the Brandenburg countryside. The results are catastrophic for Jakob, but Laura, thrown clear from the passenger seat, miraculously survives with hardly more than a scratch.

UK economy showed surprise 0.5% growth before Iran war

ONS figure for February suggests Britain was gaining momentum before conflict dashed hopes of recovery

• Business live – latest updates

UK GDP expanded by a stronger than expected 0.5% in February, official figures show, suggesting the economy was gaining momentum before the onset of war in the Middle East dashed hopes of recovery.

The jump, reported by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), was significantly bigger than the 0.1% forecast by economists. January’s flatlining figure was also revised up, to 0.1% growth.

Pragmata review – soulful sad dad saga in stunning outer space

PlayStation 5 (version tested), Xbox, PC, Switch 2; Capcom
Engineer Hugh is sent from Earth to investigate a malfunctioning research station and meets a young android who helps him fend off murderous mechs

When Pragmata was announced alongside the PlayStation 5 in 2020, its shiny trailer promised slick sci-fi action in outer space. While it certainly delivers those futuristic thrills in spades, what I didn’t expect was a tender tale of paternal love. This is Capcom’s belated, surprisingly soulful first entry into gaming’s sad dad genre.

In this near-future fiction, a corporation named Delphi has established a research station on the moon’s surface to experiment with advanced 3D printing tech, using “Lunafilament” to easily recreate everything from tools to entire buildings. Predictably, things soon go very wrong. As the station suddenly goes dark, engineer Hugh is sent from Earth to investigate.

Pragmata is out April 17; £49.99

Geelong fire: blaze at one of Australia’s two oil refineries extinguished after 13 hours as fuel supply fears remain

Petrol production hit and full extent of damage unknown after ‘unprecedented’ fire at Viva plant in Corio

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Geelong oil refinery fire: what we know so far

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

An explosive fire at a Geelong oil refinery – which supplies half of Victoria’s fuel and 10% of Australia’s – has been extinguished, with the impact on petrol production and the extent of the damage still unknown.

The blaze at the Viva Energy facility in Corio – one of two refineries left in the country – broke out just after 11pm Wednesday, with Fire Rescue Victoria alerted to the blaze by multiple calls to triple zero reporting explosions and flames.

Stella McCartney launches sustainable collection with H&M

British designer aims to bring eco-friendly awareness to the high street in second collection with retailer

Stella McCartney, the luxury fashion designer who refuses to use leather, fur or feathers, is returning to the high street for a sustainable collection with H&M.

The collaboration between the British designer and the Swedish retail company will go on sale in May.

Beef season two review – the best show on TV becomes an unlovable White Lotus rip-off

Carey Mulligan and Oscar Isaac are a miserable couple who run a country club and get blackmailed in a rich v poor potboiler that has been done so much better before – not least in the stunning first series. What a shame

We may have to start calling it White Lotus Derangement Syndrome. This is a condition spreading through the television commissioning system since Mike White debuted his brilliant anthology series five years ago, whereby drama is produced by setting poorer Americans alongside richer Americans in a location the latter choose to come to and the former can’t escape. In The White Lotus, they are the staff and guests at a variety of luxury resorts. In Sirens, the personal assistants of kabillionaires. In whatever Nicole Kidman is in they can be single mothers with children at assisted places at schools with the cashmere-clad elite, servants to expats nursing secret sadnesses in luxurious apartments, masseuses and other service providers at exclusive spa retreats, or exploited or sexually harassed nannies to people who think nothing of exploiting or harassing their nannies. In non-Kidman derivatives, the dogged blue collar viewer-avatars can also include cops, struggling novelists or academics. Unless the academic is a tenured professor, in which case the underdog becomes a sexually harassed student, who should probably unionise with the nannies.

Now we have the second season of Beef to join the throng. The first, starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong both doing career-best work, played out to near-universal acclaim as the story of a minor altercation in a car park between their two characters that gradually transformed credible pettiness into a credible psychodrama that built to an operatic climax. The new one stars Carey Mulligan and Oscar Isaac as a married couple who oversee the running of a luxury country club. Josh is the general manager (with a penchant for gambling and camgirls), Lindsay is the interior designer-cum-hostess (with a penchant for restoring the social status she had as a posho in her native England and an icily ruthless streak). They are both frustrated with where life has led them – so close to real money, but so far from having it themselves.

90s rock icon Bob Mould: ‘When Cobain died, I pulled the plug – there was nothing worth saving’

Mould’s fearsomely loud power trio Sugar rode the wave of grunge, but called it quits when the scene lost its innocence. Now the band are reuniting – before it’s too late

The beating heart of Sugar was always the sound of Bob Mould’s guitar: a colossal, metallic, thunderous thing, like a sonic boom you could whistle. “It was incredible, being engulfed by that wall of sound,” remembers bassist David Barbe from his office at the University of Georgia, weeks before the group are due to play their first shows in more than three decades. “Bob was so loud, there were times on stage when I could see Malcolm drumming, but I couldn’t actually hear him.”

“I didn’t wear earplugs when I started playing with Bob,” adds Malcolm Travis, the aforementioned drummer, from his home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. “But soon afterwards, I did. It was just deafening.” And while everyone involved is 30 years older than the last time they played together, age has not withered them; anyone who’s caught Mould playing solo in recent years will attest that his guitar is still fearsomely loud.

Meghan’s Sydney wellness retreat promises ‘a girls’ weekend like no other’ – but what does a $3,200 ticket buy?

The top-secret program for the Her Best Life event at a beachside luxury hotel has been leaked. But is it legit?

Hi Caitlin. The top-secret program for Meghan’s Her Best Life retreat in Sydney has reportedly been leaked – but is it legit?

Hi Daisy. Well, maybe. Social media and news outlets kicked into a frenzy after the apparent full itinerary was published online this week, partially because so much of the women’s wellness retreat has remained a mystery.

Artists, clowns, runaways: a stay at the Chelsea Hotel – in pictures

Patti Smith lived there in ‘creative chaos’, while others paid their bills with paintings. Fellow guest Albert Scopin unpacked his camera to capture the iconic New York hotel and its clientele

Colombia’s history-making VP blames racism for four years of frustration

Francia Márquez, the country’s first Black vice-president, opens up about the strains in her relationship with the president and the obstacles she has faced: ‘The Colombian state is a racist state’

In the historic centre of Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, a gallery of portraits at the vice-president’s official residence displays the faces of all former vice-presidents since the country became a republic in 1886. All of them are white.

When the current president and vice-president leave office in August, the wall will include an Afro-Colombian face for the first time: Francia Márquez, 44, the first Black woman to become vice-president in a country where at least 10% of the population is Afro-descendant.

‘Bath, Harrogate … Woodhall?’ A short break in one of the UK’s most forgotten spa towns

The Lincolnshire village, the height of fashion a century ago, offers fascinating history, a woodland cinema, excellent cycle routes and a deeply restorative feel

It was 6.30am, the cockcrow slot at Jubilee Park lido, and still not quite light. I hadn’t wanted to come this early – it was the only time I’d been able to book. But as I slid into the pool – heated to a delicious 29C – I realised it was a gift. Vapours rose dreamily into cool air laced with owl hoots and the whiff of dewy blooms, and I swam into a sunrise that became more vivid with every stroke. A man in the next lane paused to admire the reddening dawn too; he was hungover, he said, but had come to do his morning lengths nonetheless. A cure of sorts.

Bath, Harrogate, Buxton – Woodhall? This Lincolnshire village isn’t one of Britain’s headline spa towns. Most probably don’t know where it is – 18 miles (29km east of Lincoln, for the record. But at the turn of the 20th century, Woodhall Spa was among the most fashionable places to be seen, to be healed.

Northern Marianas brace for weeks without power after super typhoon Sinlaku

Officials report severe flooding in Saipan hospital, fierce winds and toppled utility poles in wake of Super Typhoon Sinlaku

Some hard hit areas of the Northern Marianas could be without power and water for weeks after the Pacific Ocean islands were battered by a super typhoon, an official has said.

The only hospital on Saipan, a US territory that is the largest of the Mariana Islands, experienced severe flooding and on Thursday there had been reports of big resorts losing backup generators, said Ed Propst, a former lawmaker who works in the governor’s office.

Thursday news quiz: Trump is unwise, an emperor dies and a €1m raffle prize

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

It is time for the Thursday news quiz, where even the most distinguished appearances can conceal a lingering doubt. A perfectly groomed moustache may suggest authority – until, thanks to our illustration from Anaïs Mims, it starts curling into a question mark of its own. Fifteen questions await – frankly rather more on the general knowledge side than topical news because the quiz master has been on holiday in Brighton and wrote most of it in advance, but it is what it is. There are no prizes, but we always enjoy hearing how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 243

Justin Trudeau at Coachella? That’s just wrong: at a certain age, things must change | Emma Brockes

If you have to consult the Reddit thread ‘am I too old for Coachella?’, then the answer is probably ‘yes’

This morning, over breakfast, in the course of discussing the week’s news, I happened to say the word “Coachella” in front of my two scornful 11-year-olds, whose heads snapped up from their screens in unison. “How have you heard of Coachella?” said one in amazement. “How have you heard of Coachella?” I replied. They exchanged a look with which I’ve become increasingly familiar – namely, the “here we go” look reserved by the very young for the very middle-aged. “What is Coachella, then?” I said, to which they replied: “It’s where influencers go.”

This is, of course, an accurate summary of what the California music and arts festival has become in the 27 years since its inception, but that’s not why I bring it up. The festival, which is running this week, has featured Jack White, FKA Twigs and Sabrina Carpenter, but most of the publicity has gone on the audience; specifically, on the attendance of Justin Trudeau, the former prime minister of Canada, who, along with his girlfriend, Katy Perry, was photographed dancing to Justin Bieber and squatting chairless on a kerb, red plastic cups perched on their knees.

Rachel Roddy’s ‘high-ranking’ penne with potatoes, cabbage, butter and cheese – recipe

Penne may be the default short pasta all-rounder, but this variation on an alpine classic is soft, warming and a bit special

In December 2023, the magazine La Cucina Italiana ranked Italians’ favourite pasta shapes, according to data gathered by Unione Italiana Food (“the leading association in Italy for the direct representation of food product categories”). I love this sort of thing. According to the UIF, by processing NielsenIQ data (comprehensive market research, consumer intelligence and retail measurement), they identified the five most popular shapes from over 500, and examined how preferences vary in different regions.

In first place was spaghetti, while penne came in second, with these two shapes – which also takes in thinner spaghettini, chunkier spaghettoni and both ridged and smooth penne – accounting for 78% of all pasta sold in Italy in 2023. The regional variations of three, four and five are as follows: in the north-west and north-east, fusilli, short pasta and mixed pasta for broth or minestra; in central Italy, short pasta, fusilli and rigatoni; in the south, mixed pasta for broth or minestra, short pasta and tortiglioni. It has to be said that the regional variations are a bit baggy, considering that short pasta takes in eight shapes: conchiglie, farfalle, mezze maniche, orecchiette, pasta mista, penne again (which is confusing), paccheri and trofie. All of which is justification for calling this week’s column the second highest-ranking pasta shape in Italy with potatoes, cabbage, butter and cheese (while also noting that you can instead use the shapes ranked number three, four and five).

The surprising value of boring chats, ‘super El Niño’ and Alzheimer’s evidence reviewed – podcast

Madeleine Finlay sits down with co-host and science editor Ian Sample to discuss three eye-catching stories from the week, including a review into the effectiveness of a new class of Alzheimer’s drug that was once hailed as a game-changer in slowing the progress of the disease. Also on the agenda is the news that the world could be heading for a ‘super El Niño’ this summer and a study exploring whether conversations about dull topics really are as boring as we expect them to be

Hate small talk? You may enjoy that ‘dull’ chat more than you think, say researchers

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

‘Fame quickly became a nightmare’: Preston on Big Brother, falling from a balcony – and reforming the Ordinary Boys

‘Trauma-bonding’ with his future wife on Big Brother, selling their wedding pics to OK!, walking off Buzzcocks, writing hits for stars like Kylie and Olly Murs … as the singer returns, he looks back at a tumultuous career

‘I hated being famous,” Samuel Preston says. “I hated, hated, hated it.” Twenty years ago, Preston, who presented himself by his surname to emulate Morrissey, was experiencing a very intense type of notoriety. He had been NME-famous with Worthing band the Ordinary Boys, whose socially conscious ska-influenced indie-punk had a strong cult following known as the Ordinary Army, thanks to hits such as Boys Will Be Boys. But his stint in the 2006 edition of Celebrity Big Brother, and the national interest in his will-they-won’t-they relationship with fellow contestant Chantelle Houghton – the fake “celebrity” sent in to dupe the B-listers – was what sent his profile through the roof.

After leaving the show, he says, “I was on loads of Prozac. I was in a weird space.” Now, after years living on-off in the US, becoming a successful songwriter for hire (to the likes of Kylie Minogue, Cher, Olly Murs, Liam Payne and Jessie Ware), and surviving a near-death experience and OxyContin addiction, Preston is making a comeback with the Ordinary Boys. The band’s new single Peer Pressure is their first music since 2015 (not counting a Christmas single with Olly Murs).

Can you stop malaria crossing borders? One nation’s bid to wipe out the disease

Informal migration, plus climate change and rising numbers of cases globally, are complicating the tireless efforts of the landlocked African country to eradicate the killer disease

The freezer is filled with blue-lidded tubes of cows’ blood, ready to be defrosted and used to feed the colony of mosquitoes. “Also, you can use your arm,” says Nombuso Princess Bhembe, who tends the mosquitoes at Eswatini’s national insectary, an unremarkable building in the town of Siphofaneni, part of the southern African country’s push to eliminate malaria.

But the landlocked nation of 1.2 million people, formerly known as Swaziland, is facing headwinds from not only the climate crisis, aid cuts and insecticide resistance but also economic migration from countries with higher case numbers.

Sotomayor apologizes for criticizing Kavanaugh over ICE arrests

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor apologized Wednesday for publicly criticizing Justice Brett Kavanaugh, comments she said were "hurtful" and "inappropriate."

3 killed in latest U.S. strike on alleged drug boat in eastern Pacific, Pentagon says

President Trump has said the U.S. is in "armed conflict" with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the U.S.