Iran's foreign minister awaits U.S. delegation to Pakistan for peace talks

Iran's Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad on Friday, as the White House confirmed Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will travel there Saturday to try to "move the ball forward towards a deal."

UK schoolboys’ fatal hike remembered in Black Forest 90 years on

Relatives of London pupils and German villagers mark anniversary of ‘English misfortune’ that Nazis turned into propaganda coup

On 17 April 1936, the bells of St Laurentius church in the Black Forest rang out to guide to safety a group of London schoolboys trapped in deep snow on a mountain hike gone very wrong. Ninety years on to the day, as the bells sounded again, there was hardly a dry eye in the congregation of British relatives and German villagers remembering the night that had brought together their parents and grandparents.

The people of Hofsgrund risked their lives heading out with sledges and lanterns in the deadly weather to rescue the party of 27 and their teacher after two boys, fumbling though fog and frozen to the bone, had reached a farmhouse and told its startled inhabitants there were many more of them strewn over the Schauinsland mountain.

The Daily Sketch from 20 and 29 April 1936

Why are red apples sweet and green apples sour? The kids’ quiz

Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes

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Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.

This Is Not a Murder Mystery: cosy-crime meets art in an irresistibly surreal Belgian drama

Famous artists including Magritte are suspects in this glossy, grisly whodunnit – and it’s loads of fun

I don’t know about art, but I know what I like: cosy crime. I’m excited by Flemish series This Is Not a Murder Mystery (U&Drama, Wednesday, 8pm, and streaming on Channel 4), which offers a classy shot of both. Silent movie credits tell us the year is 1936. An English aristocrat is hosting a private show of surrealist artists, who are all on the cusp of major celebrity. Following a wild party a week before the show, we see René Magritte wake up in bed, next to a dead woman. Their heads have been wrapped in shrouds, in a ghoulish recreation of his own painting The Lovers. Fame can lead artists to lose their heads, but this is something else.

The beak arrive in the double-act form of DCI Thistlethwaite and DC Quant. They lock down the estate, along with its bohemian guests: Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Man Ray, performance artist Sheila Legge and the American war photographer Lee Miller. Magritte is determined to clear his name, but as the show approaches, the theatrical murders mount up. Each crime pays twisted homage to the masterpieces of the artists present, who are also suspects.

How the Walsall rapist John Ashby exposed his misogyny rapping online

The 32-year-old jailed for life for a racially motivated sex attack on a Sikh woman had a collection of hate-filled uploads

John Ashby is a man who did not hide his hatred of women.

In fact, the rapist, who was sentenced this week to life in prison with a minimum of 14 years for a racially motivated sex attack on a Sikh woman, vented his misogyny online for all to see.

LeBron James rescues Lakers in overtime thriller and pushes Rockets to brink

• James’ late three-pointer forces overtime in win

• Lakers can complete sweep in Houston on Sunday

LeBron James scored 29 points, including a tying three-pointer with 13 seconds left in regulation, Marcus Smart had eight points in overtime and the Los Angeles Lakers took advantage of a Houston Rockets team missing Kevin Durant for a 112-108 win Friday night to take a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference first-round series.

The Lakers rallied from a six-point deficit with under 30 seconds remaining and can sweep the series Sunday night in Houston.

I witnessed the dying days of Boris Johnson’s premiership. Keir Starmer’s position is uncannily similar | Simon Hart

For all his sins, Johnson didn’t sacrifice others to save himself. That’s not leadership – and Starmer may learn that all too soon

• Simon Hart was government chief whip from 2022 to 2024

Sitting at the back of the public gallery watching Olly Robbins give his evidence to the foreign affairs select committee hearing on Tuesday felt horribly like the summer of 2022 all over again. Back then, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, had seen off numerous attacks on his integrity – most of them from Keir Starmer, for what it’s worth – mainly on the back of Partygate, but with the final blow being struck by the resignation of the little-known deputy chief whip after allegations of sexual misconduct.

The similarities are not lost on anyone like me who has witnessed all of this from relatively close quarters. In Johnson’s case, the main plank of his defence was either that he had been told nothing at all, or that what he was told (by officials or advisers) was selective at best. The trouble was that no one really believed him. He was PM and with that came the expectation that irrespective of the whys and wherefores, the buck had only one place to stop.

Simon Hart was government chief whip from 2022 to 2024, and is author of Ungovernable

Blind date: ‘Most awkward moment? When he nearly set the menu alight’

Abby, 25, a partnerships manager for film, meets Charlie, 26, a finance analyst

What were you hoping for?
A different kind of Friday night with good company and a fancy meal!

Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for leek, potato and coconut curry | The new vegan

There is plenty of sunshine in this seductive, Sri Lankan-style potato curry that’s chock-full of evocative smells and flavours

I stitch myself up sometimes by planning on cooking something that’s native to a country – a Sri Lankan potato curry, say – then embellish it with my own desires (lemongrass, leeks, ginger) to such an extent that it can no longer really be called as such. But taste and memory work in mysterious ways. This recipe still evokes Sri Lanka for me: sunshine, spiced earth, the smell of cinnamon bundles and dense forest, and also the sound of the bread vans (playing Beethoven, curiously) and the distinctive squawk of the myna bird. I hope, if you cook it, it might evoke a little Sri Lankan sunshine for you, too.

Victorian parlours, whiff-whaff and a Soviet spy: ping-pong’s coming home

A century on from the first tournament in London, the table tennis world championships are back – with a fascinating history attached

The way Wang Chuqin plays, ping-pong is a physical impossibility. By the time you made it to the end of the first two words of that sentence, Chuqin, the men’s world No 1, has seen the ball, calculated its speed, direction, and height, judged whether it is travelling with topspin, backspin, left or right sidespin, or a combination of the four, decided how to return, forehand, backhand, attack, block, push, spin, and where to aim, shifted his weight, positioned his feet, rotated his hips, brought his racket into position, and hit the ball. By the time you got to that first full stop, he has done it all 12 times over.

You almost certainly didn’t know it, but Thursday was world table-tennis day. The England Federation set up a trail of golden tables around London to mark the occasion, and raise a little publicity for the World Team Table Tennis Championships, that are being held in the city for the first time since 1954. During a sunny lunch hour outside Temple Bar, underneath the walls of St Paul’s, city workers are playing during their break, pick-pock, pick-pock, and in among all the noise of the city there’s that familiar rat-a-tat-tat of a runaway ball skipping away from the table into some far corner while the players scurry after it.

Inside Chornobyl: 40 years after disaster, nuclear site still at risk in Russia’s war

In February 2025, a cheap Russian drone tore through Chornobyl’s confinement shelter. Workers warn the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident is not safe yet

The dosimeter clipped to your chest ticks faster the moment you step off the designated path inside the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Step back, and it slows again – an invisible line between clean ground and contamination.

Above rises the “new safe confinement” (NSC) – the largest, movable steel structure ever built, taller than the Statue of Liberty, wider than the Colosseum, its arch curving overhead like an aircraft hangar built for giant planes.

Hanged under the cover of war: letters and videos tell stories of Iran’s death row victims

Testimony emerges from Babak Alipour, who spent three years on death row before being taken to gallows in March

Writing from his cell in the Rajai Shahr prison in the northern Iranian city of Karaj, Babak Alipour wanted to tell his friends about those who had already gone to their execution.

There was Behrouz Ehsani, 69, the elder statesman of the group, who was “never angry” about their predicament. Then there was Mehdi Hassani, a 48-year-old father of three who he saw a couple of times in the prison hospital and who would ask him to pass on to the children the message that he was “fine”.

Lily Allen’s ‘revenge’, Harry Styles’ Dorothy and Debbie Harry’s T-shirt – 20 onstage dresses ranked!

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

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

Justice Department to allow firing squads for executions in move to ramp up capital punishment

The Justice Department will adopt firing squad as a permitted method of execution as the Trump administration moves to ramp up and expedite capital punishment cases.

Altman apologizes after OpenAI failed to alert police before fatal Canada shooting

OpenAI said the company had identified an account using abuse detection efforts, but determined at the time it didn’t meet threshold for legal referral

The head of OpenAI has written a letter apologizing that his company didn’t alert law enforcement about the online behavior of a person who shot and killed eight people in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia.

In the letter posted Friday, Sam Altman expressed his deepest condolences to the entire community.

NFL draft 2026: Eagles trade for Greenard as edge rusher lands $100m deal

• Minnesota add extra third-round picks in deal

• Eagles sign edge rusher to $100m extension

• Move signals Vikings’ long-term roster reset

Once considered a potential top pick, Carson Beck became the first player selected in the third round of the NFL draft as a busy second night featured a flurry of defensive selections and a notable veteran trade.

The Arizona Cardinals took the polarizing Miami quarterback with the 65th overall pick on Friday night. He joins a quarterback room that includes veterans Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew under rookie coach Mike LaFleur.

UK position on Falklands will not change, No 10 says after leaked Pentagon memo

Internal email proposes US should reassess support for UK claim to islands because of lack of support for Iran war

• UK politics live – latest updates

Downing Street has been forced to insist that Britain will not yield sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, after a leaked Pentagon email proposed the US should reassess its support for the UK’s claim on the islands because of a lack of British support over Iran.

The memo reflected ways in which the Trump administration could punish Britain for failing to follow the US lead in bombing Iran, and comes before a potentially fraught three-day state visit to the US by King Charles.

How a 9-year-old girl found a confidence-changing role model in a Denver soccer star

"I didn't want to be known as the girl with one arm that plays soccer," Denver Summit FC player Carson Pickett told CBS News. "I just wanted to be known for the girl that plays soccer."

Australian women and children leave Syrian detention camp for Damascus – and potentially home

Repatriation attempt comes after group was turned around when leaving camp in February. Albanese government says it’s not assisting cohort

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Four Australian women and nine of their children and grandchildren have left al-Roj camp in north-east Syria, seeking to return to Australia.

The group is reportedly travelling across Syria by road to the capital Damascus, under the control of the Syrian government.

How a girl born without most of her arm was inspired by a Denver soccer player just like her

Nine-year-old Hayden Stine was born without most of her right arm. When she went to a Denver Summit women's soccer home opener, she saw a player, Carson Pickett, just like her. Steve Hartman goes "On the Road" with a story about the importance of role models.

As U.S. re-arms during ceasefire, long-term concerns emerge about munitions supplies

The Trump administration has sought to project confidence in the U.S. military's munitions stocks after more than a month of war with Iran, but long-term supply questions remain.

DOJ reinstates firing squads, pentobarbital for federal executions

The Justice Department announced Friday it would readopt the death penalty protocols for lethal injection and firing squads.

Arrest made in case of missing USF doctoral students, 1 found dead

Zamil Limon's remains were found on the Howard Franklin Bridge in Tampa. His roommate was in custody, officials said.

California mom charged after teen son critically injures Vietnam vet

A California teen on an electric motorcycle critically injured a pedestrian, and now the boy's mother could now face years in prison. Jonathan Vigliotti explains.

Oklahoma tornado destroys homes, forces Air Force base to close

A powerful tornado in Oklahoma ripped roofs off buildings, destroyed homes, knocked down utility poles and forced an Air Force base to close.

One of 2 missing Florida doctoral students found dead, roommate in custody, police say

One of two doctoral students who went missing from a Florida campus more than a week ago has been found dead along a major bridge, and the victim's roommate is under arrest. Cristian Benavides reports.

Trump administration now permits death by firing squad for federal cases

Death by firing squad is now reinstated in U.S. federal cases, according to a new policy announced on Friday by the Trump administration.

Top Trump envoys head to Pakistan for more peace talks with Iran

Just over two weeks into the ceasefire with Iran, there was more trouble in the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister arrived in Pakistan ahead of potential face-to-face talks with the U.S. Ed O'Keefe has more details.

Wildfires torch dozens of homes in Georgia

In southern Georgia, several wildfires have destroyed homes and forced evacuations. Mark Strassmann reports from the disaster zone, and Rob Marciano has the forecast.

Tornado clusters roar through Oklahoma homes

At least six tornadoes barreled through northern Oklahoma on Thursday night. Lana Zak reports on the damage and destruction.

White House mulls using Defense Production Act in Spirit Airlines takeover

President Trump is open to some type of federal action, several sources told CBS News, and he has said publicly he'd "do it to save the jobs."

Nvidia stock closes at record, pushing market cap past $5 trillion

Nvidia's stock closed at its first record since October, as a rally in Intel pushed chipmakers higher.

4/24: CBS Evening News

Tornadoes barrel across the Middle of the country; historic wildfires burn out of control.

European football: Betis and Bellerín deny Real Madrid, Eta’s Union lose at Leipzig

• Late leveller is fresh blow to Madrid’s faint title hopes

• RB Leipzig’s 3-1 win is marred by online sexism row

Héctor Bellerín struck deep into stoppage time to earn Real Betis a 1-1 draw against Real Madrid on Friday, dealing another blow to the visitors’ fading title hopes.

Álvaro Arbeloa’s side appeared on course for a narrow win after taking the lead in the 17th minute. Federico Valverde let fly from outside the box and the Betis goalkeeper, Álvaro Valles, could only parry the ball into the path of Vinícius Júnior, who reacted swiftly to guide a neat finish just inside the right post.

Special Forces Sgt. in Polymarket Maduro raid bet case released; Kalshi says it blocked him

Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke was involved in planning the raid to capture Nicolás Maduro even as he allegedly made Polymarket bets that paid off from that raid.

Pirro could reopen Fed probe at any time, Democratic senators warn

Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Dick Durbin, in a letter obtained first by CNBC, question Jeanine Pirro's mention of reopening a probe of Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Appeals court rules that Trump's asylum ban at the border is illegal

A U.S. appeals court ruled Friday that immigration laws allow people to apply for asylum at the border, and the president cannot bypass this. The decision stems from Trump declaring the border situation an invasion and suspending asylum.

From night life in Egypt to rice farming in Vietnam, the war in Iran is a drain

Fuel costs more. Food is harder to get. Jobs are evaporating. And in Cairo, cafes and restaurants are ordered to close at 9 p.m.

Microsoft plans first-ever voluntary employee buyout for up to 7% of U.S. workforce

Microsoft's inaugural voluntary buyouts will be open to workers at the senior director level and below whose years of employment and age add up to 70 or more.

Nottingham Forest soar towards safety as Anderson caps rout of Sunderland

Vítor Pereira had promised ­Nottingham Forest would approach this assignment with a “Champions League mentality” and his players did not disappoint him.

A fabulous attacking performance featuring four different scorers (plus an own goal) and a clean sheet not merely succeeded in denting a shell-shocked Sunderland’s European ambitions but also lifted 16th-placed Forest to 39 points.

Clock ticks on Spirit Airlines as bondholders weigh Trump bailout. Here's what could happen next

President Trump has said the government could buy Spirit.

4/24: The Takeout with Major Garrett

Second round of U.S.-Iran peace talks expected this weekend; U.S. soldier charged for allegedly using confidential info to bet on Maduro's removal.

Kushner, Witkoff — not Vance — heading to Pakistan for 'direct talks' with Iran, White House says

President Donald Trump said he is in no rush to make a peace deal, claiming the Iran war has harmed stocks and oil prices less than he expected.

‘What the hell do you say?’: elder son of Rob Reiner speaks out on parents’ murders

Jake Reiner calls parents ‘center’ of his life and says brother being at ‘center’ of loss is ‘almost too impossible to process’

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The elder son of beloved director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Reiner, eulogized his parents, who were “the center” of his life, in a Substack essay published Friday, four months after the pair were found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home.

Nick Reiner, the couple’s younger son, who long struggled with drug addiction and mental illness, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection to their deaths, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

Mother ends life at Swiss clinic four years after son’s death

Wendy Duffy died at Pegasos clinic in Basel as assisted dying bill in England and Wales fails to pass

A grieving mother has ended her life at a clinic in Switzerland four years after the death of her only child.

Wendy Duffy, 56, a physically healthy woman, died at the Pegasos clinic in Basel after struggling to cope with the death of her 23-year-old son, Marcus.

Oil prices mixed as U.S. and Iran expected to hold talks in Pakistan

The talks would come after a previous efforts at negotiations fell apart.

The Iran war's economic hit could linger through 2026, economists say

Economists say Americans should expect elevated prices at the pump and rising grocery costs in the months to come.

Teen arrested in deadly shooting at Mall of Louisiana

Police said the shooting appeared to have happened after two groups of people got into an argument in the mall's food court.

Jim Furyk to lead US Ryder Cup team after Tiger Woods’s withdrawal

• Furyk set for second stint as US captain

• Woods steps aside after arrest and treatment

• Europe chasing third straight win in Ireland

Jim Furyk is returning as US Ryder Cup captain for the 2027 matches in Ireland, the PGA of America announced Friday, as the Americans try to get back on track against a European team that has dominated the last three decades.

Furyk is the fourth US captain to get a second chance dating to 1979, considered the modern era of the Ryder Cup when continental Europe became part of it.

A real-life Kraken stalked the seas of the late Cretaceous

Researchers discovered evidence of enormous Kraken-like creatures who hunted in the seas some 100 million years ago, competing with large apex predators.

Study reveals the college majors that new grads regret the most

One in five recent grads regret their college major, a ZipRecruiter report finds.

Planning a summer flight? Book now before prices surge, airline experts say.

"If you haven't booked for this summer, get busy," Atmosphere Research Group Airline industry analyst Henry Harteveldt told CBS News.

Analysis: The threat to the Fed's independence isn't over

President Donald Trump has waged a long campaign to rein in the Fed. Prosecutors' decision to drop an investigation into Jerome Powell isn't the end.

Trader Joe's customers sue over coffee's caffeine levels

Consumers allege that Trader Joe's improperly advertised a coffee product as fully caffeinated when it was not.

Will he stay or will he go? With criminal probe over, Fed Chair Powell faces big decision

The decision could have important ramifications for policymaking at an especially delicate time.

New US exhibition explores power of monuments – with help from Rocky

Statue – one of city’s most popular tourist attractions – on steps of Philadelphia Museum of Art key plank of new show

A statue of Sylvester Stallone’s fictional boxer Rocky Balboa is the focal point of an examination of the power of monuments opening at the Philadelphia Museum of Art this weekend that marks two millennia of boxing and celebrity.

The statue, placed on the “Rocky Steps” of the museum in 1982, six years after the the 1976 film Rocky made Stallone a star, is one of Philadelphia’s most popular tourist attractions, visited by an estimated 4 million people annually.

DOJ ends Powell probe, lifts hurdle for Trump’s Fed chair nominee Warsh

President Donald Trump's nomination of Kevin Warsh to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell had been effectively blocked because of the investigation.

Appeals court blocks Trump's asylum crackdown at U.S.-Mexico border

A three-judge appellate panel agreed with a lower court ruling that the Trump administration can't put aside laws allowing individuals to apply for asylum.

Arsenal second, Spurs facing relegation: is there really panic on the streets of north London?

Fans of both sides are feeling similar levels of stress at different ends of the Premier League table

Zadie Smith once wrote that “the square mile around Arsenal’s stadium could be a suitable surrogate for the whole wide world”. Perhaps you only really glimpse this on a match day, when the jerk chicken grills and paella pans fire up and belch delicious smoke across the rows of terraced houses, when the locals in weathered replica shirts brush shoulders with tourists bearing selfie sticks, when a small group of dedicated volunteers at a kiosk by the Ken Friar Bridge accepts non-perishable donations for the Islington food bank.

And you shall scoff, and you shall sneer, because there is a north London of the popular imagination, and Islington in particular, which has become a surrogate for something else entirely. A slur, an insult, a byword for privilege and entitlement and metropolitan effeteness, the place of Blair and Corbyn and Starmer and a shrink on every street corner. North London is elite, north London is out of touch, north London looks down on the rest of you while eating plates of £16 pasta.

US millionaire big-game hunter dies after being crushed by elephants

Ernie Dosio, a 75-year-old vineyard owner, was hunting an antelope species in Africa when the incident occured

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An American millionaire big-game hunter has died after being crushed by a group of elephants during a hunting expedition in Gabon.

Ernie Dosio, a 75-year-old vineyard owner, was hunting yellow-backed duiker, an antelope species, in the central African country of Gabon when the incident occurred last Friday. While in the Lope-Okanda rainforest, he and his guide unexpectedly came across five female elephants accompanied by a calf.

US won’t give unredacted Epstein documents to UK police without formal request

Police investigating allegations Mandelson and former prince Andrew passed sensitive info to Epstein will struggle to make charges stick without files

British police investigating the former prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson are preparing to start interviewing witnesses in royal and government circles.

It comes as police fear that prosecutors will be “reluctant” to bring charges unless the Trump administration agrees to hand over the original documents from the Epstein files.

This week on "Sunday Morning" (April 26)

A look at the features for this week's broadcast of the Emmy-winning program, hosted by Jane Pauley.

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Crisis in the Middle East, Russian strikes in Dnipro, blackouts in Karachi and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Michael B Jordan to take on big-screen adaptation of hit video game Battlefield

Oscar winner set to produce, and possibly star in, film of war game series with Christopher McQuarrie at the helm

Michael B Jordan is following up his Oscar win with the announcement of another new project: a big-screen adaptation of the hit video game series Battlefield.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Sinners star will produce, and possibly star in, a film based on the long-running war series which is being hyped as the year’s most in-demand project to date in Hollywood

Is the Justin Bieber renaissance upon us? Eight things you need to know

After years in the wilderness, the Canadian’s artfully restrained Coachella performances – now known as “Bieberchella” – have seen him elevated to the status of pop elder

You could be forgiven for having lost touch with Justin Bieber. The defining teen idol of the 2000s was discovered on YouTube, anointed by R&B stars Usher and Drake and enormously famous by his 16th birthday. But Biebs’ monumental fame as a floppy-haired, baby-faced singer presaged a difficult coming of age in the spotlight and a string of very 2010s controversies. (Who could forget Mally, the pet monkey seized by German customs in Munich in 2013?)

In recent years, Bieber has pivoted to more mature R&B, kept a lower profile and focused on his health and family. But his headlining sets at Coachella this month – collectively dubbed “Bieberchella” – have sparked a renewed appreciation for Bieber’s music and his turbulent path to becoming a respected pop elder.

IEA says Iran war will keep the natural gas market tight for two years

The conflict is expected to crimp global natural gas supplies due to damage to liquefied natural gas facilities in Qatar.

Zack Polanski calls for ‘nuance’ when discussing antisemitism in rebuke of PM

Green party leader attacks Keir Starmer’s ‘silly games’ after prime minister accused him of playing down recent incidents

Zack Polanski has called on politicians to treat antisemitism with “consideration, care and nuance” as he accused Keir Starmer of trying to play political games with the issue.

The Green leader’s comments come after the prime minister accused him of playing down recent antisemitic incidents. Polanski’s party is facing increasing scrutiny over recent comments by some candidates and members.

Syria arrests suspected leader of Tadamon massacre

Amjad Youssef is one of most-wanted fugitives in relation to slaughter of estimated 288 civilians under Assad

A Syrian former regime official suspected of leading a notorious civilian massacre revealed by the Guardian – and who became one of the country’s most-wanted fugitives after the fall of Bashar al-Assad – has been arrested by security forces, Syria’s interior ministry announced.

Amjad Youssef was captured in the Ghab plain area about 30 miles (50km) outside the city of Hama and had “been taken into custody following a carefully executed security operation”, the interior minister, Anas Khattab, said in a social media post on Friday.

Justice Department drops probe into Fed Chair Jerome Powell

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said that the Federal Reserve's inspector general will investigate cost overruns in project to renovate the central bank's headquarters.

TikTok and Visa launch debit card to speed payouts to UK creators

Creator card is designed for people making money through TikTok Live, some of whom complain of payment delays

TikTok and Visa have launched a debit card for content creators in the UK which they say will allow people to quickly access their earnings from the platform.

The creator card is designed for the growing numbers of people making money through TikTok Live, a livestreaming feature where creators receive virtual gifts from viewers that are later converted into cash.

It’s no surprise Trump has met his match in Pope Leo – the US president represents the polar opposite of Christianity | Jonathan Freedland

Name the deadliest of sins – cruelty, deceit, avarice – and Trump will both exhibit them and celebrate them

It’s no accident that the figure emerging as the global challenger to the might of Donald Trump is a priest in white, known as Pope Leo XIV. In recent weeks, the pope has issued a string of barely coded denunciations of the US president, unfazed by the insults that have come his way in return. It’s no longer fanciful to imagine that what an eastern European pontiff, John Paul II, did by confronting the Soviet empire in the 1980s, an American-born pope may do in the 2020s by daring to speak truth to the would-be emperor in the White House.

Of course, several heads of government have stood up to Trump too. Canada’s Mark Carney has done it most explicitly, while his European counterparts have taken a stand by refusing to join the president’s reckless, wrong-headed war on Iran. But none has the global reach of the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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.

Officials hugely underestimated impact of AI datacentres on UK carbon emissions

Revised figures increase fears about energy-intensive datacentres worsening climate emergency

The UK government vastly underestimated the climate impact of artificial intelligence, it has emerged, after officials raised their estimate of carbon emissions from AI by a factor of more than 100.

According to new data quietly published this week, energy use by AI datacentres in the UK could cause the emission of up to 123m tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) – about as much as generated by 2.7 million people – over the next 10 years.

Bessent defends U.S. dollar swap lines as Iran war harms global finances

President Donald Trump, asked on CNBC's "Squawk Box" this week about a possible UAE swap line, appeared to say he is in favor of it.

MPs vow to bring back assisted dying bill after ‘undemocratic’ Lords block

Labour’s Kim Leadbeater tells of plan to table identical bill that peers would be unable to stop

MPs and peers who led the assisted dying bill have promised to bring it back to parliament after it ran out of time in the House of Lords.

Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who tabled the private member’s bill, said the plan would be to table an identical bill in the next parliamentary session, which would prevent peers blocking it again, as the Lords cannot stop the same bill twice.

The Guardian view on Germany, Japan and the end of the postwar order: as US alliances crumble, a new world emerges | Editorial

Developments in Berlin and Tokyo show how far the strategic environment has shifted in response to authoritarian threat and American unpredictability

When Donald Trump hosted Sanae Takaichi, the Japanese prime minister, last month, he could not resist a gratuitous reference to Pearl Harbor. The US president is impelled to trash longstanding alliances. He has done more than anyone to demolish the postwar global order.

This week alone, the Polish president, Donald Tusk, questioned whether the US would be “loyal” to Nato if Russia attacked. A Pentagon memo reportedly floated suspending Spain from Nato and reviewing support for the British claim to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. And a report said US officials believe that it has depleted munitions so rapidly in Iran as to put in question contingency plans to defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion in the near future.

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.

Police across the US worry officers are being misidentified as ICE, records show

Exclusive: Emails and internal memos reveal concerns immigration enforcement is interfering with police work

Law enforcement and local government officials across the US have over the last year expressed concerns that immigration operations were interfering with police work and leading to threats to officers, according to internal emails and briefings shared with the Guardian.

The development comes as the US public has become afraid and distrustful of officers in their communities due to the Trump administration’s aggressive and at times indiscriminate immigration crackdown.

‘Look, no hands’: China chases the driverless dream at Beijing car show

As domestic sales slow, manufacturers are investing in AI and seeking growth in technology and in overseas markets

At the world’s biggest car fair, which opened in Beijing on Friday, there were hundreds of manufacturers, more than 1,000 vehicles, hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts – and hardly anyone behind a wheel.

China’s car companies have cornered the domestic electric vehicle market, and are increasingly visible on the global stage. Now they are turning their attention to what they are betting is the future of mobility: autonomous driving.

Carlos Alcaraz pulls out of French Open title defence due to wrist injury

• Alcaraz suffered injury in Barcelona Open first round

• ‘Tennis needs Carlos’, says fierce rival Jannik Sinner

Carlos Alcaraz has been forced to withdraw from the French Open due to the injury to his right wrist that he sustained last week in his first-round match at the Barcelona Open.

Alcaraz, a two-time French Open champion, had begun the clay-court season this month favoured to win his third successive title in Paris. After losing in the Monte Carlo Masters final to his great rival Jannik Sinner, who leapfrogged the Spaniard with his victory to reach No 1 in the rankings, the 22-year-old travelled to the Barcelona Open where he competed in his first-round match against Otto Virtanen two days later. The load on his body proved too much and he injured his wrist in the straight sets victory before withdrawing from the tournament a day later.

Rob and Michele Reiner's son, Jake, speaks out about his parents' deaths: "My world, as I knew it, had collapsed"

Jake was at the funeral for one of his closest friends when he learned of his parents' deaths, he said.

From Michael to Back to Black, authorised music biopics are becoming bland, blatant propaganda. Audiences deserve better | Simran Hans

Swerving the child abuse allegations, the new Michael Jackson film is yet another revisionist music movie in a long line. We know what’s in it for their subjects. What about the viewers?

As a giant glittering ferris wheel dissolves into a closeup of Michael Jackson’s face, legendary producer Quincy Jones explains to him that what people want is “pure escapism”. Michael, a new biopic about Jackson’s rise to fame directed by Antoine Fuqua, is certainly that: a fantastical greatest hits playlist scrubbed clean of the darkness that tarnished the singer’s reputation. The songs, which were licensed by Sony and the Jackson estate, remain glorious, transporting and indelible.

Michael is the latest addition to a new canon of authorised music biopics including films about and featuring the official music of Elton John, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse, Bob Marley, Robbie Williams, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. The genre was revived by the success of the 2018 Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, which was made with Queen’s involvement and took home four Oscars and $911m at the box office. Never mind that it was dismissed by critics; the boost it gave to the band’s streaming figures set a new precedent for hungry estate holders keen to cash in – and to control the narrative.

A star reborn: ‘America’s sweetheart’ Sandra Bullock returns to the spotlight

After backing out of public sight, the versatile and enduringly bankable actor has turned up on Instagram trading quips with Nicole Kidman as hype begins for Practical Magic 2 this autumn

She had long refused to join social media, preferring to eschew the machinery of celebrity. So if Sandra Bullock’s arrival on Instagram last week says anything, it’s that the Oscar-winning actor – once routinely dubbed “America’s sweetheart” – is ready to embrace the spotlight again.

After years of near-total retreat from public life, Bullock is suddenly everywhere: making her first major convention appearance in years at CinemaCon, teasing Practical Magic 2 alongside Nicole Kidman, and using her first Instagram post to revive one of the most beloved moments of her career – the “midnight margaritas” scene from the original 1998 film. Kidman quickly welcomed her to the platform in the comments, turning Bullock’s debut into a miniature Practical Magic reunion before the sequel’s press campaign had properly begun.

Justice Department drops probe into Fed Chair Jerome Powell

The move paves the way for the Senate to confirm Kevin Warsh, the president's nominee to head the central bank.

They all survived Jeffrey Epstein. They have something to tell you

Saturday marks one year since Virginia Giuffre’s death – and other survivors are making a public reckoning possible

Saturday will mark one year since the death of Virginia Giuffre, one of the first women to surrender her anonymity, detail her experiences and publicly call for criminal charges against convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. For other Epstein survivors such as Liz Stein and Jess Michaels, Giuffre’s public reckoning made it possible to finally name what had happened to them.

“I saw myself in Virginia, in [Epstein survivor] Maria Farmer, in all of them,” said Danielle Bensky, who was pulled into Epstein’s orbit when she was 17. “And I thought: if they can be victimized, anyone can be. I was not alone. I finally understood that we were not going to be silent any more.

‘The damage is done’: global oil crisis has changed fossil fuel industry for ever, IEA chief says

Exclusive: International Energy Agency’s Fatih Birol, the world’s leading energy economist, also says UK should largely forgo North Sea expansion

The oil crisis triggered by the Iran war has changed the fossil fuel industry for ever, turning countries away from fossil fuels to secure energy supplies, the world’s leading energy economist said.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), also said that, despite pressure, the UK should forgo much of its potential North Sea expansion.

Decades-old, newly restored Smithsonian carousel reopens — to children's delight

The carousel was first desegregated when part of Gwynn Oak Amusement Park outside Baltimore in 1963. It was moved to the National Mall after the park closed.

Behold the riches to riches tale of Lauren Sánchez – the girlboss Cinderella who bought the ball | Marina Hyde

She’s already taken Paris and Venice – now, with husband Jeff Bezos, she’s stormed New York’s Met Gala. And for a mere $75,000, you can be there with her

We live in an age when the most successful revolutionaries are not the peasants but the Silicon Valley billionaires. They are the true disrupters, the victorious radicals and the people who have successfully ripped up legacy systems and replaced them with themselves. Revolutionaries used to rebel against governments, but the techlords are now so powerful that meaningful revolt against them could really only come from governments. Governments are the new peasants. The erstwhile peasants, meanwhile, are in endless thrall to the technologies of their overlords, each one carrying in their hands a device pretty much guaranteed to distract them from doing anything other than clicking impotently – and only when they remember – on “change”. Never mind televised; their revolution will be narcotised.

Anyhow: I can’t believe Lauren Sánchez hasn’t gone with the above paragraph as the theme for the Met Ball that her husband, Jeff, bought her. Maybe it was too long for the invitations. Either way, we are just over a week away from the biggest event in the fashion calendar, which, like his own fairy godfather, the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, has purchased the honorary chairmanship of for himself and his wife. Cinderella and her Cinderfella shall go to the ball. You cannot imagine how much Silicon there’s going to be at the event.

Marina Hyde’s new book, What a Time to be Alive!, is out in September (Guardian Faber Publishing, £20). To support the Guardian, order your signed copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Procter & Gamble earnings beat estimates as sales grow 7%

The company reiterated its full-year forecast for earnings and sales.

Regeneron inks drug pricing deal with Trump, will offer new hearing-loss therapy for free

Regeneron is the latest in a string of major drugmakers to make pricing concessions for new and existing medicines under agreements with Trump.

Berlin culture minister resigns over irregular distribution of funds to fight antisemitism

Auditor found Sarah Wedl-Wilson approved payments of public money to groups that had not been fully vetted

Berlin’s top culture official, British-born Sarah Wedl-Wilson, has stood down over a funding scandal involving the the irregular distribution of €2.6m in public money for programmes to fight antisemitism.

As culture senator for the Berlin regional government, Wedl-Wilson had already sacked a state secretary in her department, Oliver Friederici, over the affair this week, but the opposition called him a mere scapegoat.

US special forces soldier who won $409K on Maduro bet is arrested

The soldier allegedly bet on Nicolás Maduro's removal as president of Venezuela before news of the raid was reported, sources told CBS News.

Food for thought: Is your diet ageing you?

From cooking at too high temperatures to consuming too little fat, what and how we eat can have a big impact on the way we age. Here’s what you might be doing wrong – and how to fix it

One of the challenges with the sheer availability of food in today’s world is that lots of us end up spending many of our waking hours eating. Whether it’s full meals, snacks or desserts, scientists have found that it’s not uncommon for us to be mindlessly grazing at some point during all of our 16 or so waking hours.

Florida officials investigate planned ‘Sloth World’ attraction after 31 sloths die in warehouse

Languorous tree dwellers from Guyana and Peru died from ‘cold stun’ in warehouse with no power or running water

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Wildlife officials in Florida said in a newly released report that dozens of sloths taken from South American rainforests for display at a controversial new tourist attraction in Orlando died in the care of their new owners.

An incident report from the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) said that 31 of the mammals procured from Peru and Guyana by the owners of a forthcoming attraction called Sloth World perished in a storage warehouse more than a year ago, between December 2024 and February 2025.

Backlash against ‘blatant’ Asian stereotype in The Devil Wears Prada 2

A social media clip released before the film hits cinemas, which introduces new character Jin Chao, has been greeted with furious reactions online

A minor character in fashion-magazine comedy The Devil Wears Prada 2 has sparked a major backlash online, before the film has even reached cinemas.

A 38-second clip released on social media by 20th Century Studios on 16 April was designed to showcase “the former assistant’s new assistant” Jin Chao, played by Helen J Shen; she is shown introducing herself and speaking to Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs, who is newly returned to work at the fictional Runway magazine.

EU leaders look to little-known mutual assistance pact amid Trump Nato jibes

Members to plan how to assist each other in event of attack as transatlantic alliance faces worst crisis in its history

Brussels officials will draw up a plan on how to use the EU’s little-known mutual assistance pact in the event of a foreign attack, as Donald Trump’s criticism of Nato intensifies.

EU leaders have agreed that the European Commission “will prepare a blueprint” on how the bloc will respond if the mutual assistance clause is triggered, according to Nikos Christodoulides, the president of Cyprus, who is hosting the talks.

Spirit Airlines' cash won't 'last for very much longer,' but Trump says government could buy carrier

President Trump confirmed the government could provide a rescue package for Spirit Airlines or buy the carrier outright.

Death of the gatekeeper: Devil Wears Prada 2 depicts a revolution in the fashion world

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

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

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

Meta will adopt hundreds of thousands of AWS Graviton chips in latest AI infrastructure grab

The Amazon deal comes weeks after Meta made $48 billion in AI commitments with CoreWeave and Nebius.

How Pittsburgh — host of this year's NFL draft — became a sports mecca

The Pennsylvania city is hosting the draft for the first time in almost 80 years. Pittsburghers say the city's passionate fanbases and winning teams make the selection a natural fit.

‘I hope it got disinfected!’ Matthew Rhys on bravery, banter and wearing a prosthetic penis

He is one of the most chilling actors around. Yet Matthew Rhys is now playing a Basil Fawlty type in comedy horror Widow’s Bay. He talks about fluffing his James Bond audition, unzipping in Girls – and why he almost jacked in acting to join the army

‘What an absolute twat!” cries Matthew Rhys, clutching his face in both hands. He has just been reminded of a remark he made in 2000, when he was playing the Dustin Hoffman role in the West End stage version of The Graduate. He was 25, not long out of Rada, and was asked if he could imagine being middle-aged like his Mrs Robinson, Kathleen Turner, who was 45 at the time. His response? “Yes – and it’s frightening. I wonder – will I still be acting?”

Perhaps the “frightening” part merits derision. But acting is a precarious business, so no wonder he questioned his career’s potential longevity. “It is precarious,” he says, grateful for the off-ramp. He is wearing a black T-shirt and speaking over video call from the Brooklyn home he shares with the actor Keri Russell, their 10-year-old son and her two teenage children from a previous marriage. “It was after The Graduate that I had my longest stretch out of work. I thought I’d made it, and then I was like, ‘Nope’.” His prospects were so dire back then that he applied to join the army, only to be rejected by a recruiting officer convinced that he was merely researching a role. “I remember him looking down my CV at the list of acting jobs and saying: ‘I’m very confused …’”

Kushner and U.S. envoy Witkoff will head to Pakistan for new Iran talks

Iran's foreign minister arrived in Islamabad, and the White House says Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will go there Saturday to try to "move the ball forward towards a deal."