NRA holds annual meeting in Texas under cloud of controversy

Texas governor backs out of in-person appearance as protesters descend on gun-rights group’s event

The National Rifle Association held its annual convention in Houston on Friday, three days after 19 children and two adults were shot dead at a school in Uvalde, as protesters gathered outside and high-profile speakers, including the governor of Texas, withdrew their attendance.

The event took place under a cloud of controversy and put in stark relief America’s deep divisions on gun control. As demonstrations swelled in Houston, attendees inside the convention – including Donald Trump – continued to deny that guns were the problem and put the emphasis on school safety and mental health.

Depp-Heard trial: jury to resume deliberations on Tuesday

Closing arguments ask jurors to consider what their verdict in defamation case will mean for domestic abuse victims

The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial headed toward its conclusion on Friday as the dueling parties offered closing arguments after a seven-week trial that has gripped public attention and become something of a litmus test for the state of gender relations.

Seven of 11 impaneled jurors selected for the trial when it started in April spent a couple of hours beginning to deliberate a verdict after the conclusion of those closing arguments, but they won’t return a verdict for a few days at least. They were sent home Friday afternoon until Tuesday in advance of Monday’s Memorial Day holiday.

Depp v Heard: the key turning points in the gripping seven-week trial – video

• The following video contains strong language and themes some viewers may find distressing.

The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial headed toward its conclusion on Friday as the duelling parties offered closing arguments after a seven-week trial that has gripped public attention and become something of a litmus test for the state of gender relations. Each side was given 61 hours over the 47-day televised trial to present their case, with dozens of witnesses and experts weighing in on Depp and Heard’s tempestuous 15-month marriage

• Heard-Depp trial: jury begins deliberations after gripping seven-week trial
  

Texas police made ‘wrong decision’ waiting outside classroom, says official

A timeline suggests about 78 minutes passed from when the gunman entered the building to when officers breached the classroom

The head of the Texas department of public safety admitted on Friday afternoon that “of course it was the wrong decision” for armed police to wait for an extended period outside the classroom where the gunman in Tuesday’s school shooting was killing children and teachers, without storming in.

Police’s updated timeline suggests that roughly 78 minutes passed from the time that the gunman entered the building to when officers finally entered the classroom where he was located. Meanwhile, students trapped inside a classroom with the gunman repeatedly called 911, including one who pleaded, “Please send the police now” as officers waited in the hallway for more than 45 minutes.

Sam Levin contributed reporting

Barassi and Couilloud lead Lyon to Challenge Cup final win over Toulon

• Lyon 30-12 Toulon
• Lyon dominate to secure club’s first European trophy

Toulon had been hoping to replicate the old glory days of Jonny Wilkinson and co but it was Lyon who emerged with the Challenge Cup spoils on a warm night in the south of France. This is the first European title ever claimed by the up-and-coming Top 14 side and, with their confidence now boosted, it is unlikely to be the last.

They might have won by an even wider margin, having been denied at least three more potential first-half tries, but were still good enough to turn a slender 10-7 half-time advantage into a 20-point cushion by the start of the final quarter. Lyon’s coach Pierre Mignoni, ironically, is returning to Toulon this summer and will hope this outcome has a suitably galvanising effect on the losers.

Twenty photographs of the week

The school shooting in Uvalde, mortar explosions in Lysychansk, protests in the Philippines, the Australian election and Boris Johnson reacting to the Sue Gray report: the most striking images from around the world this week

Iran seizes two Greek tankers amid rising tensions in the Gulf

IRGC forces swoop on ships in what appeared to be a reprisal for Greece’s role in earlier seizure of Iranian oil tanker

Iran has seized two Greek tankers in helicopter-launched attacks in the Gulf amid a dramatic rise in tension and violent incidents in the region.

Forces from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) descended on the tankers – one of which was named as the Prudent Warrior – in helicopters in what appeared to be a reprisal for the Greek government’s role in assisting the US seizure of an Iranian oil tanker in the Mediterranean in a sanctions-enforcement action earlier in the week.

Pellet gun recovered after Toronto police shoot dead man ‘carrying rifle’

Five local schools were placed under lockdown after several 911 calls about a man walking with a rifle in Canadian city

Investigators have recovered a pellet gun from the scene where Toronto police shot and killed a man suspected of carrying a rifle, an incident that prompted five nearby schools to be placed under precautionary lockdowns.

Police went to the Scarborough neighbourhood on Thursday after receiving several 911 calls about a man walking with a rifle and located him shortly after, Ontario province’s special investigations unit (SIU) said in a statement on Friday. The man, 27, was pronounced dead about 20 minutes later.

Kevin McCarthy refuses to comply with January 6 attack panel subpoena

The Republican minority leader sent an 11-page letter appearing to demand materials from the committee related to his questioning

Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the House, indicated on Friday to the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack that he would not cooperate with a subpoena unless he could review deposition topics and the legal rationale justifying the request.

The California congressman’s response adopts an adversarial position similar to other subpoenaed Republican Congress members, and it sets a conundrum for the panel over whether to entertain the requests that also challenge the January 6 inquiry’s legitimacy.

‘K9 is your guardian angel’: how Karim Benzema transformed himself and Real Madrid

France forward has saved his club in every knockout round and could claim his fifth Champions League title in Paris

A grin spreads across Rodrygo’s face. Standing by the training pitch at Valdebebas, he is discussing his Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema, the four-times European Cup winner 13 years his senior who “always talks to me before games” and “helps us a lot, on and off the pitch”, someone “I always try to listen to”, when he is asked: So what’s the best advice he has ever given you? The answer is immediate. “To play the ball to him,” Rodrygo replies. There is laughter, but it is sound advice. “Every time I give him the ball, it works out,” he says.

In the 96th minute of the semi-final against Manchester City, Rodrygo played the ball for Benzema, delivering the cross from which Real Madrid got the penalty that could put them in the Champions League final and secure another absurd comeback. The Brazilian had scored two in a minute to take them to extra time and Benzema offered him the penalty to complete his hat-trick. “No, you have to take it, Karim,” Rodrygo replied. “Well, of course: after the season he’s been having …” he said afterwards.

‘Please tell me that is not your penis!’ New Zealand’s Shortland Street in 14 key moments

Country’s longest-running soap opera marks 30 years on air this week. Here we celebrate some of its most infamous scenes

It’s the scene that tackled the issue of sexting and made waves all the way to Jimmy Kimmel in the US, who spoofed it on his talk show, with Alec Baldwin parodying Dr Chris Warner. Warner confronts his son Harry, whose phone is synced to the family tablet. A red-faced, puffed-up Warner barks incredulously, “Please tell me that is not your penis!” just as the cliffhanger drumbeat from the closing credits dramatically kicks in.

Trent Alexander-Arnold: ‘I always feel I can see things others can’t see’

Liverpool’s right-back on the pain that drives him, parallels with Michael Jordan and the lessons of losing a final to Real Madrid

‘Wow!” Trent Alexander-Arnold exclaims before, slowly, he repeats the question out loud. “When was the last time I was genuinely nervous?” His eyes open wide as if this simple query might be one of the most probing he has heard in a long time. Alexander-Arnold falls silent as he dredges through a memory which is pin-prick sharp when recalling intricate details from Liverpool games or describing his past emotions.

We have talked for 40 minutes, with Alexander-Arnold offering riveting company, and he has spoken incisively about much more complex subjects. He has discussed the mentality of Michael Jordan and the same “ache” he feels in his desire to improve and keep winning. We have considered the lessons of defeat and the way in which Alexander-Arnold believes that, on the pitch, “I can see things others can’t see”.

Making the cut: Australians bid to dominate world of woodchopping | Emma Kemp

Big axes and even bigger saws will be the focus of attention this weekend in Vienna when Australia’s finest timbersports athletes contest the World Trophy

Brad De Losa does not travel light. When he checked in for his flight to Austria to last week, his luggage included six axes and two saws. It sounds like an airport security nightmare, and maybe it is. But De Losa has a sound explanation – he is an athlete and this is his equipment. “It takes a bit of organisation,” he says, “to get it all packed up so it travels safely.”

He’s a lumberjack, and he’s OK. More than, actually. The Australian is a Stihl Timbersports world champion, and a three-time World Trophy winner. This weekend, at Vienna’s Rathausplatz, he is attempting a fourth.

What happened in the Russia-Ukraine war this week? Catch up with the must-read news and analysis

Moscow gaining the ‘upper hand’ in Donbas … the horrors endured by Mariupol’s survivors … Russia’s use of cluster bombs and unguided missiles

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

Every week we wrap up the must-reads from our coverage of the Ukraine war, from news and features to analysis, visual guides and opinion.

A pivotal moment: Pacific faces a choice over China that will shape it for decades

Pacific countries in the centre of a geopolitical tug-of-war between China and the US and its allies face a big decision this week

It was the week that everything changed. For years, security analysts and politicians have warned of the rise of China in the Pacific. Officials representing Beijing have been working slowly and, for the most part, quietly in the small island nations that dot the vast Pacific Ocean – cementing allies, funding infrastructure projects, conducting concerted person-to-person diplomacy.

But this week Beijing upped the tempo.

Archaeologists discover ancient Mayan city at Mexico construction site

Researchers estimate the city, which features the Mayan Puuc style of architecture, to have been occupied from AD600 to 900

Archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of an ancient Mayan city filled with palaces, pyramids and plazas on a construction site of what will become an industrial park near Mérida, on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula.

The site, called Xiol, has features of the Mayan Puuc style of architecture, archaeologists said, which is common in the southern Yucatán peninsula but rare near Mérida.

Trump loses bid to thwart New York inquiry into his business practices

The ex-president had sued attorney general Letitia James to block the three-year investigation, which is proceeding

Donald Trump, the former US president, on Friday lost a bid to stop the inquiry by the New York state attorney general, Letitia James, into his business practices, allowing the three-year investigation to move forward.

Trump sued James in federal court in upstate Albany, arguing the civil investigation into whether the Trump Organization misled banks and tax authorities about the valuations of its assets should be halted because he felt James, a Democrat, was using the case to further her political career.

Nadal and Djokovic remain on collision course for French Open quarter-finals

• Rafael Nadal beats Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3, 6-2, 6-4
• Cameron Norrie out after losing to Karen Khachanov

Rafael Nadal continued to build momentum at the French Open as he moved into the fourth round by easing past Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. In the process, Nadal set up a notable encounter against Félix Auger-Aliassime, the ninth seed, who coolly navigated three tight sets to beat Filip Krajinovic 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2), 7-5.

Since last April, as he has risen up the rankings to become a top 10 player, Auger-Aliassime has been working closely with Nadal’s uncle, Toni, who was the Spaniard’s primary coach from his childhood until 2017, and played a defining role in so much of his success. Toni Nadal remains the director of the Rafa Nadal Academy, meaning he is essentially employed by both players.

Mother and Son review – moving immigrant drama goes from Ivory Coast to Paris

A son reflects on the struggles he faced with his brother and wayward mother after they moved to France from Africa, in a meditative coming-of-age story

Here is a film about a very complicated and painful kind of coming of age, or maybe a meditation on “coming of age” as something that never actually happens; it also examines the illusory dividing line between childhood and adulthood, innocence and experience, present and past.

A son remembers his single mother: her wayward passions, her boyfriends, her yearning unhappiness – which he can see now but couldn’t then. He and his brother experienced the toughest of upbringings with her, as immigrants from Ivory Coast in 1990s France (two other brothers were mysteriously left behind). It is a narrative that is to end with mother and son meeting as adults, although these two people will perhaps never be able to see each other as such; never be able to decide if this a grownup moment for forgiveness or accusation, or if the burden of silence imposed by love has finally lifted.

Russia is guilty of inciting genocide in Ukraine, expert report concludes

Report by 30 internationally recognised scholars finds ‘reasonable grounds to conclude’ Moscow in breach of Geneva Convention

Russia is guilty of inciting genocide and having the intent to commit genocide in Ukraine, legally obliging other countries to stop it, according to a new report by more than 30 internationally recognised legal scholars and experts.

The report, compiled by two thinktanks, the New Lines Institute in Washington and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights in Montreal, found that there were “reasonable grounds to conclude” that Russia is already in breach of two articles of the 1948 Genocide Convention, by publicly inciting genocide, and by the forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia, which the report notes is itself a genocidal act under article II of the convention.

Monkeypox patients advised to avoid contact with pets for three weeks

UK experts urge confirmed cases to avoid handling household pets as precautionary measure

People with monkeypox have been told to avoid contact with their pets for three weeks amid concerns the animals could become infected and pass the virus on to other people.

Monkeypox is caused by a viral infection and can be found in animals including rodents and monkeys, as well as in humans. It is typically found in central and western Africa, however in recent weeks there has been a surge in human cases in countries where the disease is not endemic, including the UK.

Canada supreme court rules life without chance of parole is ‘cruel’ and illegal

Decision setting parole eligibility at 25 years could give hope to at least 18 mass killers serving multiple life sentences

Canada’s supreme court has ruled that life sentences without the chance of parole are both “cruel” and unconstitutional, in a landmark decision that could give more than dozen mass killers who committed “inherently despicable acts” the faint hope of release in the future.

The court unanimously determined on Friday that sentencing killers to lengthy prison terms with little hope of freedom risked bringing the “administration of justice into disrepute”.

Andy Fletcher obituary

Keyboard player and business brain of Depeche Mode who pushed the electronic band to long-lasting success

Bands could not function without a member designated the quiet standard bearer, and in Depeche Mode that was Andy Fletcher, who has died suddenly aged 60. Constitutionally modest, he was lucky inasmuch as the group had two members – singer Dave Gahan and guitarist Martin Gore – who were comfortable with being Depeche Mode’s public face. That allowed Fletcher, universally known as Fletch, to get on with being their backbone.

He was crucial to their makeup, pushing the band to achieve, chivvying them to get into the studio or on the road. Without his tenacity, exercised over 42 years, Depeche Mode would have splintered long before they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.

Ray Liotta obituary

Actor whose charred handsomeness and mercurial qualities led to magnetic performances in Goodfellas and Something Wild

“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” Those words, delivered with lingering fascination by the actor Ray Liotta, who has died unexpectedly aged 67, ushered audiences into Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990), one of the most dynamic pictures made about the criminal life and its enticements.

Liotta, playing the real mobster-turned-informant Henry Hill, has just been seen taking part in the fatal knifing of a mob rival when the camera zooms on to his face, bathed in the infernal red glow of a car’s brake-lights. Seductive and terrifying, he exudes a charred handsomeness and a chilling self-belief. Though Goodfellas was only his fourth major screen role, Liotta was seen (and heard, in a matter-of-fact voiceover) for much of the movie’s two-and-a-half-hour running time.

French prosecutor says antisemitism suspected in murder of elderly man

René Hadjadj, 89, died after being pushed out of the window of his 17th-floor apartment in Lyon

An 89-year-old French man who was pushed out of his 17th-storey window by a neighbour may have been killed because he was Jewish, a prosecutor has said, after several antisemitic murders in France over recent years.

The body of René Hadjadj was found at the foot of his building in Lyon, south-east France, on 17 May and his 51-year-old neighbour was arrested. Investigators did not initially charge him with a racist crime.

‘We’re going to lose, we deserve it’: the view from inside the Tory party

Senior Conservatives fear that, whether the PM stays or goes, the opinion poll deficit is not now recoverable

It’s supposed to be make-up-your-mind time for Conservative MPs. But having waited six months for Sue Gray’s report into law-breaking parties across Westminster, many are still grappling with whether to clear Boris Johnson’s path to the next general election – or oust the man who won them an 80-seat majority.

What is already clear is that boastful proclamations from Johnson’s supporters this week claiming the prime minister’s position was safe have proved premature. The drip of no confidence letters has continued, while dozens have kept their silence as they consider following suit next week.

America, how long will you sacrifice your children on the altar of gun worship? | Jonathan Freedland

This devotion to the right to bear arms is horrifyingly outdated. It brought terror to Texas – and it will happen again and again

America’s great appeal to the world was its promise of possibility. It presented itself as virgin territory, a tabula rasa where a society could form anew, free of the past, and where individuals might do the same, reinventing themselves, renewing themselves, starting over. It was a myth, of course: it took no account of those people who were already there, and whose lives and lands were taken, or of those who had been brought to America in shackles. But it was a powerful myth all the same, one whose grip on the global imagination lives on: witness the success of the stage show Hamilton in seducing yet another generation into the romance of a new world and its revolutionary creation.

But now we see something else: a country uniquely burdened with the dead weight of its past, and therefore powerless either to deal with a danger in its present or to make a better future. The land of possibility stands paralysed, apparently unable to make even the smallest change that might save the lives of its young.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Giro d’Italia: Carapaz holds firm as Bouwman wins after final-corner drama

• Koen Bouwman collects second stage of this year’s race
• Ecuadorian leads home GC rivals Hindley and Landa

Richard Carapaz held on to the pink jersey as Koen Bouwman won stage 19 of the Giro d’Italia, a mountainous 178km ride from Marano Lagunare to Santuario di Castelmonte, in bizarre fashion on Friday.

Carapaz held a three-second lead over Jai Hindley in the general classification going into Friday’s stage, and was joined by three Ineos Grenadiers teammates in a packed peloton right up until the final few kilometres.

A punk singer and fake European Cup: how Klopp got Liverpool back on track

Recovery from 2018 Champions League final defeat began with Liverpool’s manager and an old friend drowning their sorrows

There were tears, there was a fake trophy presentation with Steven Gerrard’s vase and a famous German singer lay in the rain outside Jürgen Klopp’s home after Liverpool last encountered Real Madrid in a Champions League final. It goes without saying that the Liverpool manager wants a different ending in Paris. But as a starting point for the recovery of a team that could win a second Champions League in four seasons on Saturday, there is a strong, sozzled case to be made for those moments in Formby on the morning of 27 May 2018.

Liverpool would prefer to forget the 3-1 defeat in Kyiv the night before – Sergio Ramos, Mohamed Salah, Salt Bae, Lorius Karius and Gareth Bale is a sufficient recap – and the morning after might have gone the same way for Klopp but for a video of him partying with the lead singer of Die Toten Hosen going viral.

Johnny Sexton and Ronan O’Gara test rivalry to the limit in Champions Cup final

Leinster’s No 10 and the La Rochelle coach have put a ‘tricky relationship’ behind them before Marseille showdown

Forget the Cannes film festival which has been running all week. If people want to enjoy absorbing, character-heavy drama they need only venture down the Mediterranean coast to the Stade Vélodrome where a brooding, Shakespearean-style duel awaits. For Romeo and Tybalt, read Johnny Sexton and Ronan O’Gara.

Because while Saturday afternoon’s Champions Cup final is nominally between Leinster and La Rochelle, there should be a twinkling neon sign outside the ground with the strapline: “When Johnny met ROG”. Two great Irish No 10s, two of rugby’s most relentlessly competitive men, only one winners’ podium.

Andrew Fletcher: the pop-loving everyman who held Depeche Mode together

As well as a keyboard player, Fletch was a facilitator – and someone whose cheerleading demeanour helped fans feel closer to the band they loved
• Depeche Mode’s Andrew Fletcher dies aged 60

Andy Fletcher was the last person to tell you why he was vital to Depeche Mode. In 101, the classic 1989 tour documentary directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he said: “Martin’s the songwriter, Alan’s the good musician, Dave’s the vocalist, and I bum around.” He knew there was much more to it than that, but the man they all called Fletch felt no need to shout about it.

Depeche Mode are one of the most popular and influential British bands of all time but nothing about them makes sense in conventional terms. It should not be possible to lose your chief songwriter (Vince Clarke) after just one album and then get bigger and better. There was no precedent for a synth-pop group evolving into a stadium rock band without actually playing rock music. It is unusual, if not unique, for one person to write the songs (Martin Gore) and another to sing them (Dave Gahan) with such conviction that it is hard to believe they are not autobiographical. They have sold more than 100m albums and had dozens of hit singles while retaining the outsider allure of a cult band – arguably the world’s largest, with no fewer than three documentaries made about their fandom. And all this from Basildon.

Russia’s ‘cauldron’ tactic may be tipping Donbas battle in its favour

Analysis: smaller encirclements that are pounded with artillery are forcing exhausted Ukrainian forces to yield

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

After several weeks of deadlock, Russia’s military appears to have found a way to advance in the Donbas – pounding it with such intense, unsophisticated artillery that Ukraine’s exhausted defenders are having to yield.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy rarely gives casualty figures but Ukraine’s president said last Sunday that “50 to 100 Ukrainian troops die on Donbas frontlines each day”, meaning perhaps 3,000 a month in the grisly war of attrition.

Caretaker of stately home gave away £5m Tudor panel because ‘it was rotten’

Brian Wilson tells tribunal he tossed overmantel from Seighford Hall on to a pile of firewood, before giving it to an antiques dealer

The caretaker of a stately home in Staffordshire gave away a rare Tudor carved panel worth up to £5m because he thought it was rotten, an employment tribunal has heard.

Brian Wilson took the 450-year-old overmantel from the Grade II-listed Seighford Hall and tossed it on a pile of firewood, before giving it to an antiques dealer who later tried to sell it.

Antonio Conte agrees to stay as Spurs manager after crunch meeting

• Manager held talks in Turin over future with Fabio Paratici
• Targets include Perisic, Bastoni and Spence and new Kane deal

Antonio Conte has agreed to stay as Tottenham’s manager after a meeting on Friday in Turin with Fabio Paratici, the managing director of football.

Conte has a contract to the end of next season, with an option to extend, but wanted to ensure his and the club’s ambitions were aligned before he committed to continuing.

‘Music is my journey’: Brazil’s Milton Nascimento bids farewell to the stage

His falsetto has been called ‘the voice of God’ and, now 79, Nascimento reflects on Bolsonaro, Ray Charles and an extraordinary life

His otherworldly falsetto has led many to describe Milton Nascimento’s music in spiritual terms.

“[My mom once said that] if God had a voice, it would be Milton’s – and she is absolutely right,” said the Brazilian singer Maria Rita, the daughter of one of his closest musical collaborators, the late singing legend Elis Regina.

Last Salem ‘witch’ pardoned 329 years after she was wrongly convicted

Massachusetts lawmakers formally exonerate Elizabeth Johnson Jr, who was sentenced to death in 1693

It took more than three centuries, but the last Salem “witch” has been officially pardoned.

Massachusetts lawmakers on Thursday formally exonerated Elizabeth Johnson Jr, clearing her name 329 years after she was wrongly convicted of witchcraft in 1693 and sentenced to death at the height of the Salem witch trials.

Kevin Spacey film producers respond to sexual-assault charges: ‘There are those who wish for him not to act’

The team behind Spacey’s new film, Peter Five Eight, has said their production is ‘for fans who care more for the art than the scandal’

The producers of Peter Five Eight, a new thriller starring Kevin Spacey, have responded to the authorisation of sexual assault charges against the actor on Thursday.

“While it’s unfortunate that increased negative press is timed with Kevin returning to work,” the statement reads, “it’s also to be expected. There are those who wish for him not to act, but they are outnumbered by fans worldwide who await an artist they have enjoyed for decades returning to the screen.”

Boris Johnson accused of changing ministerial code to ‘save his skin’

Rewritten rules remove need to resign – instead ministers can apologise or temporarily lose pay for breaches

Boris Johnson has been accused of changing the ministerial code to help “save his skin” ahead of a new Partygate inquiry that could publish more photos and subject him to a public grilling by MPs.

The prime minister faced a barrage of criticism after he amended the rules on Friday to make clear that ministers will not always be expected to resign for breaching the code of conduct. Under new sanctions, they could apologise or temporarily lose their pay instead.

No drive, no spine, very little vision: even science can’t explain the creatures clinging on to Johnson

It takes a very weird bunch to stay loyal after the damning Sue Gray verdict on Partygate. They are that bunch

For followers of British politics, this week was probably best understood in terms of quantum physics. For the past six months, the prime minister and his cabinet explained that they couldn’t comment on the Partygate scandal because they were waiting for the Sue Gray report. Then, the very day that report was published, they explained it was in the past now and it was time to move on.

I know what you’re thinking: then WHEN?! When was the permitted moment to get some actual accountability?! Well, scientists estimate there were four picoseconds of liminal time on Wednesday when lawbreaking by lawmakers was an appropriate subject on which to challenge said lawmakers. It was hoped some challengers would be able to enter this witching moment without getting drawn into a black hole, and somehow extend the moment to try to work out what the hell the answers were.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for rhubarb and elderflower traybake | The sweet spot

Comforting, unshowy and perfect for feeding a crowd, traybakes are a vital addition to any baker’s repertoire, and this rhubarb and elderflower number celebrates spring

Traybakes always remind me of school cake sales: homely, warm and unpretentious. They’re the go-to bake if you’re feeding a crowd, and I love that they don’t require too much by way of decoration – just a drizzle of icing or swirl of buttercream, and you’re good to go. This rhubarb and elderflower number is an easy one to put together, and has a really light and airy spring-time feel.

UK readers: click to buy these ingredients from Ocado

What’s with all the new dog breeds? We ask an expert

Evolutionary biologist Frank Hailer on how the human obsession with cute-looking canines is affecting the species

The animal charity Blue Cross is campaigning to stop pugs and French bulldogs being featured in advertisements. It hopes to slow demand for thea flat-faced pooches where “overbreeding” is causing breathing and walking difficulties. Yet new breeds of dogs are introduced each year. How are there so many? And what does this mean for dogs? I asked evolutionary biologist Frank Hailer.

Is it true that all dogs are descended from one line of wolf?
All dogs derive from a one-time domestication event – a single wolf that became a companion animal. And there’s no genetic evidence of other wild species except the grey wolf contributing to modern dogs. At the same time, it’s probably more complex.

‘It’s the best way to live!’: International Booker winners Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell

The Indian novelist and her translator scooped the £50,000 prize with Tomb of Sand, a novel about death – but with laughs. The morning after their triumph they talk about fun, feminism and famous ancestors

“If you handle a heavy thing with lightness, you actually increase the poignancy, and it puts a different kind of focus on it.” Geetanjali Shree is talking to me about her novel Tomb of Sand, which, in its translation from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell, won the International Booker prize on Thursday. It’s now early Friday morning and Shree and Rockwell join me from London’s Groucho Club – bright, fresh and talkative despite the night’s festivities (Rockwell was still tweeting about it at 2am).

Shree has been writing for more than 30 years, and three of her previous books have been translated into English. Why did this one strike such a chord with readers and judges? “I think it speaks to the pluralism of the world, the polyphony of the world, and that somehow captures the imagination of people. I also think there’s a lot of inventiveness in the language, which seems to have appealed.”

115 Russian national guard soldiers sacked for refusing to fight in Ukraine

Cases involving Rosgvardia, known as Vladimir Putin’s private army, are clearest sign yet of dissent in Russian ranks

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

More than 100 Russian national guardsmen have been fired for refusing to fight in Ukraine, court documents show, in what looks to be the clearest indication yet of dissent among some parts of security forces over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The cases of the 115 national guardsmen, a force also known as Rosgvardia, came to light on Wednesday, after a local Russian court rejected their collective lawsuit that challenged their earlier sacking.

Britain is paving the way for gene-edited food – will the public stomach it?

Twenty years ago, the anti-GM movement had wide backing. Experts say the current mood on gene editing is softer

At the height of the anti-GM movement, in 1999, the then head of Greenpeace UK, Peter Melchett, was charged with theft and criminal damage after scything down a field of genetically modified maize.

In a decisive victory for the anti-GM movement, Lord Melchett and 27 fellow activists were acquitted by a jury in what many took as a measure of the profound negative public sentiment towards GM technology.

My 13-year-old son is being exposed to porn – how can I protect him? | Ask Annalisa Barbieri

Not being pro-or anti-porn is the best stance to have for young people, so you don’t encourage them, nor shame them

I have a 13-year-old boy who has just started going through puberty, and is becoming more exposed to the topic of pornography and harmful language about women.

I understand his curiosity, and that an interest in porn is natural, but, apart from discussing it with him, how can I ensure that when he eventually goes looking for porn, the porn he is exposed to is safe and not using “dangerous” language towards women? Are there any safe spaces or sites I can show him to prevent this from happening?

Showing your midriff is back, but it’s now more Beyoncé that Britney | Jess Cartner-Morley

Baring your belly used to mean sucking in your tum and freezing your kidneys. But the new ‘kissing crop’ gives the look with none of the drawbacks

It started, as things often do these days, at the gym. Bare midriff mania, I mean. A few years ago I noticed that the women around me started showing up to classes in leggings and just a sports bra, or just a crop top. Just like that, the vests that used to go over the sports bra had … vanished.

Mysterious, I thought. I mean, it’s not as if it was high summer or anything. There was, to my knowledge, no national shortage of tank tops. Everything was the same, except that there was bare skin where the bottom half of a T-shirt usually goes. And this wasn’t just about the impulse to flex the flattest and most toned abdomens. What intrigued me was that these women wandering about naked round their middle weren’t sucking their tummies in, or covertly side-eyeing their reflection every two minutes. A midriff gap had begun to look almost normal.

Well, it most definitely is now; the top and bottom halves of an outfit are no longer required to meet. In fact, it’s considered much smarter if they don’t. What began in the changing room quickly took over the red carpet, where a naked midsection has become the modern cleavage, with Zendaya the Sophia Loren de nos jours. (Cleavage now being terribly 20th-century.)

Shireen Abu Aqleh: killing of reporter referred to international criminal court

Lawyers announce that Abu Aqleh’s death earlier this month has been added to case submitted in April

The family of the killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh has allowed her death to be added to a legal complaint being taken to the international criminal court, arguing that Israeli security forces have been systematically targeting Palestinian journalists in violation of international humanitarian law.

The case originally submitted in April by Bindmans had focused on four Palestinian journalists wearing press helmets and vests, two of whom were maimed and two shot dead. It also covers alleged attacks on Gaza media infrastructure in May 2021.

Star Wars, fireworks and a Banksy: Friday’s best photos

The Guardian’s picture editors select photo highlights from around the world

‘Astonishing’ errands: Old Enough's Japanese creator on the child star TV hit

Junji Ouchi says show grew out of tradition of sending toddlers off on their own to do simple but challenging tasks

Three decades after it first aired on Japanese TV, international audiences are discovering why Old Enough, a show that makes stars of children as young as two, has enjoyed such enduring popularity.

Described by the Guardian’s Stuart Heritage as “an absolute rollercoaster of emotions that leaves you in tatters”, the programme follows a simple, crowd-pleasing format.

Pebbles, 22, unseats TobyKeith the chihuahua as world’s oldest dog

Terrier’s family contacted Guinness World Records after learning younger dog had received honor

The world’s oldest dog has been crowned – stealing the throne from another dog who was only recently making headlines.

Pebbles, a toy fox terrier, was awarded the Guinness World Record this month. Born on 28 March 2000, Pebbles is 22 years old – making him older than TobyKeith, the 21-year-old chihuahua from Florida who was only recently named the champion.

Russian forces close to encircling Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine

Situation in Donbas ‘even worse than people say it is’, says Ukraine’s foreign minister, as Kremlin makes further gains

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

The besieged Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk appears to be almost completely surrounded by attacking Russian forces, as the Kremlin continued to make incremental gains in its offensive in the Donbas region, backed by withering shell fire.

“The Russians are pounding residential neighbourhoods relentlessly,” regional governor, Serhiy Haidai, wrote in a Telegram post on Friday. “The residents of Sievierodonetsk have forgotten when was the last time there was silence in the city for at least half an hour.”

Mr Banksy, I presume: the councillor who quit over claims he has a secret

When rumours went viral, Billy Gannon had ‘an existential crisis’, joining a list of those denying being the enigmatic artist

To be clear, Billy Gannon is not Banksy. Or at least – that’s what he says.

“The problem I have is that when I say to people, ‘I am not Banksy,’ I can see this look in their eyes, and they say, ‘That’s what Banksy would say,’” says the 58-year-old from Pembroke Dock, west Wales. “Every time I deny I am Banksy … a significant number of people in the town [decide] that I am, or could possibly be, Banksy.”

‘The sex montage is just so freeing!’ The stars of Everything I Know About Love reveal all

With its wild passion, big dreams and 5ive dance routines, Dolly Alderton’s hit memoir thrilled millennial women. Ahead of the BBC’s adaptation, its stars pull on their peplum tops and talk booze, besties and beef stroganoff

“Living with your friends is a sacred, special time that can never be forgotten.” So says actor Bel Powley, who spent most of her 20s living with her best friend Lola, chalking up plenty of “verrrrry terrible stories”, before buying a house with her boyfriend and deciding: “I couldn’t bear to say goodbye to Lola – so I just brought her with.”

It’s exactly the right attitude for one of the leads in Everything I Know About Love, BBC One’s much-anticipated adaptation of Dolly Alderton’s memoir of the same name. Alderton was already well known as a chronicler of the female millennial experience – as a Sunday Times columnist and co-host of the successful High Low podcast – when she published her coming-of-age story in 2018. Warm, funny and for many women the definition of #relatable, Everything I Know About Love was a publishing phenomenon, selling more than 300,000 copies in the UK, mostly through word of mouth. Appetite for Alderton’s big-hearted, sometimes hard-won wisdom was such that a later edition was published with an additional chapter of “everything I know at 30”.

One of UK’s rarest corals set to expand its range as climate change warms seas

Pink sea fan, at risk from bottom-trawling, predicted to spread northwards around coast up to Scotland as sea temperatures rise

It is one of Britain’s rarest and most threatened species, primarily due to bottom-trawling fishing, but researchers have found that the pink sea fan coral could expand its range in the climate crisis.

A slow-growing coral found in shallow waters from the western Mediterranean to north-west Ireland and south-west England and Wales, the pink sea fan (Eunicella verrucosa) is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Apricity, London W1: ‘The menu will send vegetarians doolally with joy’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

‘Though there are meat dishes, too, we didn’t order them because the vegetable offerings just felt instinctively better’

Restaurants such as today’s always give me a sense of disquiet before I set off. Perhaps it’s their sense of gentle righteousness that puts me on the back foot. We all, roughly speaking, would love planet Earth not to die, choking in an oily fire slick littered with drowned polar bears, but how many of us actually do anything truly useful about it?

Then along comes a place like Chantelle Nicholson’s Apricity, staffed by mellow, thoughtful, industrious types who genuinely care about how the restaurant scene affects our planet. Suddenly, terms such as hyperseasonal, foraged, zero waste and low intervention enter the ether, which are all lovely concepts, obviously, and then I’m nine courses in and having the arse end of a reclaimed turnip-top fricassee explained to me, blinking in submission as the server explains how the chef rose at dawn to drain sap from trees. And, yes, the fricassee does taste a bit fizzy, doesn’t it? It’s at this point that I think guiltily about the punnet of Moroccan blueberries I ate that morning before hurling the plastic carton in the recycling, like some sort of planet-hating sociopath.

Horizontal Falls accident: 12 seriously injured after boat capsizes at Western Australia beauty spot

Tourist boat is believed to have capsized at Talbot Bay, about 250km north-east of Broome

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Investigators are probing what caused a serious jet boat incident in one of Western Australia’s most remote locations as rescuers worked into the late afternoon to winch injured tourists off a pontoon at Horizontal Falls.

The boat Falls Express was carrying 26 passengers and two crew when it ran into trouble at the tourist hotspot in the Kimberley region of WA at 7.15am on Friday.

Horizontal Falls is touted as one of the greatest natural wonders of the world with huge nine-metre tides that surge through narrow cliffs cut into two gorges in the McLarty Ranges. Jet boats ride the “horizontal” rivers created by the fast-moving tides.

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Spain and Morocco feel the heat as unseasonal snow falls on Colorado

Analysis: high temperatures affect southern Europe, while in US state mercury rapidly drops more than 30C

Extremely hot and mostly sunny conditions have been experienced across southern Europe this week. Parts of Spain have had record-breaking temperatures for the month of May, with the southern city of Jaén in Andalucia recording 40.3C (104.5F) on Friday 20 May, according to the Spanish weather agency Aemet. Meanwhile, in the nearby town of Andújar, temperatures exceeded 42C two days in a row.

Intense heat also affected northern Africa, with Sidi Slimane city in Morocco recording its hottest day in recorded history, reaching a scorching 45.7C. Although one particular weather event cannot be directly attributed to the climate crisis, scientists believe the severity and duration of heatwaves are expected to increase in the future in response to a warmer global climate.

Britain’s Kafkaesque boycott of Russian culture plays straight into Putin’s hands | Simon Jenkins

Banning sports stars and musicians perfectly fits the Kremlin’s narrative that the war in Ukraine is one of national survival

Wimbledon’s decision to ban Russian tennis players, including world No 2 Daniil Medvedev, is Russophobia gone mad. It implies that Britain regards all Russians as colluders in the actions of the Russian state and in Vladimir Putin’s outrages in Ukraine. This follows several European countries halting visas for Russians. The west appears so in thrall to Putin that it is abandoning its proclaimed liberal values and behaving like a pale shadow of the Russian leader himself.

The Russian civil rights academic Dmitry Dubrovsky has been declared a “foreign agent” by the Russian state, putting him at risk of imprisonment and worse. He was in Prague with his family at the time of the invasion of Ukraine. His travel permit expires next month, but each country to which he has applied for residence, including Britain, either limits his stay to weeks or orders him to return to Russia to reapply.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

Interviewing Ray Liotta was a unique experience - he was an actor without pretence

The Many Saints star was impervious to my attempts to butter him up – maybe his lack of air-kissing pretension is what stopped him becoming a leading man after Goodfellas

• Peter Bradshaw: Liotta had boyish radiance

When I phoned Ray Liotta last September, to interview him about his genuinely astonishing performance in the (underrated!) Sopranos prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark, I was braced for the worst. Phone interviews are pretty thankless at the best of times, as it’s impossible to get a sense of a person down the phone line, and Liotta was rumoured to be difficult, truculent, rude. I didn’t care, because I was such a fan of his acting, but his acting provided few reassurances, at least from an interviewing point of view. He was ominously convincing playing psychopaths in movies such as Something Wild, Goodfellas and The Many Saints. But he was just as convincing as Gary Figgis in Cop Land and the mysterious ghost of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson in The Field of Dreams. With some movie stars – Tom Hanks, say, or Meryl Streep – we may not know what they’re REALLY like, but you’re pretty safe assuming that they’re going to give you a good interview. With Liotta, I had no idea what to expect. His baffling career (why HADN’T he become a leading man after Goodfellas?) only added to the mystery. Who was this guy?

Well, after talking with him on the phone, I can say this: he was, and probably always was, totally himself. This might sound like a bit of a non-answer, but it’s very rare to interview an actor who doesn’t bullshit you a little. After all, they’re trained to perform, to be liked, to get applause. Liotta was utterly uninterested in any of that to an occasionally comical extent. I asked, attempting to butter him up, if he was aware of his amazing screen presence. “Nah, not really.” He was adopted but found his birth mother as an adult – did that change his sense of self? “Not really.” What’s his approach to acting? “Just play pretend.”

Eighteen-year-old Americans can’t drink. Why can they buy assault rifles? | Ross Barkan

The solution to mass shootings isn’t increased policing or an expanded surveillance state or runaway anti-terrorism legislation. It’s making it harder to buy a gun

The mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers, was a reminder of all the ways the United States has failed its people. A nation that still retains promise, America is now held captive by political polarization and a fanatical gun lobby. There are more firearms in the US than people.

It’s important to remember, as these mass shootings continue to occur, that the problem is guns: all of them, not just assault rifles, but handguns too. The assault weapon ban, which lapsed in 2004, should be renewed. Somehow, it must become much harder in this country to buy a weapon. No 18-year-old, especially one with such a deeply troubled history as the alleged Texas gunman, should be able to buy a firearm.

Ross Barkan is a journalist based in New York City. He is the author of Demolition Night, a novel, and The Prince: Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus, and the Fall of New York

German judges visit Peru glacial lake in unprecedented climate crisis lawsuit

Rising greenhouse gases have caused Lake Palcacocha to swell in size which makes the area at risk for a devastating outburst flood

In a global first for climate breakdown litigation, judges from Germany have visited Peru to determine the level of damage caused by Europe’s largest emitter in a case that could set a precedent for legal claims over human-caused global heating.

Judges and court-appointed experts visited a glacial lake in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca mountain range this week to determine whether Germany’s largest electricity provider, RWE, is partially liable for the rise in greenhouse gases that could trigger a devastating flood.

‘No way to prevent this’: why the Onion’s gun violence headline is so devastating

After the latest mass shooting in Texas, the site, known for satire, opted for a layout that was ‘not a belly-laugh type joke’

After each mass shooting in the US come the familiar rituals: the thoughts and prayers, the presidential visits, the flood of media coverage – and a darkly memorable headline from a fake newspaper.

“No way to prevent this, says only nation where this regularly happens.”

Ouch! Is it all over for the underwired bra?

Lockdowns saw us switch to crop tops or even going braless. Will we ever go back to the discomfort of underwiring?
12 of the best underwire-free bras

It’s spring 2022. Running late for the school pickup is stressful at the best of times, let alone when you’re not wearing a bra. I knew I could make it if I ran, but while I’m petite, I wear a D cup, so jogging along a main road mid-afternoon involved pinning my forearms to my chest like a T rex as if this was somehow less ridiculous than clutching my boobs. Everyone is looking at me, I thought. Everyone is looking at me and they know I’m not wearing a bra.

Of course nobody noticed or cared whether I was wearing one, yet I continued to walk with my arms folded against my chest. Lockdown may have long lifted but my lockdown habits – which began with forgoing smart clothes, then tights and eventually, inevitably, underwired bras – persist.

Monkeypox: what is it and how worried should we be? – video explainer

More than 100 confirmed cases of monkeypox - a disease usually found in central and western Africa - have been detected in countries from the US to Australia and France to the UK, causing alarm after two years of a pandemic. With cases identified in more than 15 countries, it feels eerily similar to reports of coronavirus in 2019 – but is it? We speak to Guardian science correspondent Nicola Davis to find out more about the situation and whether it is cause for concern

• Monkeypox may have been circulating in UK for years, scientists say
  
• Monkeypox outbreak was waiting to happen, say scientists
  

Lizards or snakes? The stark game of survival playing out in Ibiza

The growing trend for imported olive trees has brought hoards of invasive snakes to the Spanish island, threatening the future of its wall lizard

Far below the Ibiza sun, a solitary lizard fidgets across the baking rocks on the southern tip of the island, happily oblivious to what may lurk ahead.

After 6m years of isolated evolution, the Ibiza wall lizard, whose scaly finery runs from cobalt blue to acid green, is facing an existential threat summed up in the Catalan phrase sargantanes o serps: lizards or snakes. Over the past two decades, the wall lizards have completely disappeared from some areas of Ibiza and the neighbouring island of Formentera thanks to the rapid proliferation of invasive, non-venomous horseshoe whipsnakes and ladder snakes.

A bison range homecoming: Native tribes reclaim a Montana nature preserve

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes celebrate the restoration of lands they had stewarded for thousands of years

• This piece was first published by Montana Free Press

The sound of drumming filled the rolling hills of the National Bison Range.

Members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes (CSKT) and neighbors gathered under a large tent to sing and dance in celebration of a historic event: the tribes’ reclamation of management of the bison range after more than a century of federal management and nearly two decades of negotiations.

You be the judge: should my flatmate iron and fold the laundry – including the tea towels?

They are best friends but one is crumpled chaos, the other neat and tidy. You decide how to smooth things over

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or be a You be the judge juror

Zara shoves towels into drawers and most of her clothes are crumpled. It’s madness

Putin’s bombs were supposed to break us in Ukraine. They are doing the opposite | Nataliya Gumenyuk

Amid the horror, we Ukrainians have become kinder towards each other. We are planning ahead – and still determined to win

For the last three months, 600 people have slept in the Heroiv Pratsi metro station in Kharkiv, north-east Ukraine. The city lies just 40km (25 miles) from the Russian border and has been heavily shelled since the first day of the invasion. Last week, the mayor of Kharkiv urged the temporary residents of Heroiv Pratsi to return to their homes. I first visited Heroiv Pratsi in mid-March, and recently returned to the metro station a few days before the mayor’s announcement. I was amazed by how well-maintained people’s temporary sleeping areas had become since my previous visit. Bouquets of lilac and daffodils had been placed next to almost every mattress.

Nina Maksymivna, an 80-year-old woman who had been staying in Heroiv Pratsi on my last visit, was still sleeping by the stairs in the same place where I had met her in March. Aside from very brief forays outside, she had barely left the underground in two months. It’s still possible to hear sounds of distant explosions in the area. For her, they were too close to feel safe. The Ukrainian army pushed the Russians back from Kharkiv’s outskirts in early May, but local fighting continues.

Nataliya Gumenyuk is a Ukrainian journalist specialising in foreign affairs and conflict reporting, and the author of Lost Island: Tales from the Occupied Crimea (2020)

The week in wildlife – in pictures

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including hungry seagulls, a puffin census and a shy stingray

Clamour on the Croisette: Cannes film festival – in pictures

The street photographer Andy Hall turns his lenses on the hustle and bustle – as well as contradictions – as movie world descends on the French Riviera city

‘It’s all preventable’: tackling America’s workplace suicide epidemic

The US suicide rate is the highest of any wealthy country and the pandemic highlighted work stress’s effect on mental health

At about 4.30am on 18 January this year, 27-year-old Michael Odell, a travel nurse who was working at Stanford hospital in Stanford, California, walked off the job during a night shift. Two days later, after his roommate reported him missing, Odell’s body was found by the Alameda county sheriff office’s dive team in the water near the Dumbarton Bridge in San Francisco, along with his car.

His roommate, Joshua Paredes, said he witnessed Odell’s declining mental health. Odell was working long hours, had recently moved to the area after the death of his mother and was having trouble finding a new therapist after a lapse in his health insurance coverage.

How the climate crisis upturned Australian politics – podcast

The rightwing coalition that has run Australia for most of the past decade has been ejected from power by voters sick of its inaction on the climate crisis, says Lenore Taylor

For years, Australia’s Liberal prime ministers have denied the need for action on the climate crisis and then delayed taking it. Last Saturday, it helped propel them to one of the worst election defeats in Australian political history.

Guardian Australia’s editor-in-chief, Lenore Taylor, tells Michael Safi that while it was not the only issue that led to Scott Morrison’s downfall as prime minister, his inaction on climate change was a major factor.

People in US and UK face huge financial hit if fossil fuels lose value, study shows

Strong climate action could wipe $756bn from individuals’ pension funds and other investments in rich countries

Individuals in rich countries face huge financial losses if climate action slashes the value of fossil fuel assets, a study shows, despite many oil and gas fields being in other countries.

The researchers estimated that existing oil and gas projects worth $1.4tn (£1.1tn) would lose their value if the world moved decisively to cut carbon emissions and limit global heating to 2C. By tracking many thousands of projects through 1.8m companies to their ultimate owners, the team found most of the losses would be borne by individual people through their pensions, investment funds and share holdings.

A tightrope walker and a living wall: Thursday’s best photos

The Guardian’s picture editors select photo highlights from around the world

Showers of colour: Chelsea flower show in pictures

Impressions of gardens, gardeners, plants, visitors and dogs from photographer Sarah Lee as she visited the horticultural event of the year at RHS Chelsea

The network of organisations seeking to influence abortion policy across Europe

The ultra-Christian, anti-abortion and far-right network is allegedly seeking to replicate anti-choice efforts in the US

A network of ultra-Christian, anti-abortion and far-right organisations is building momentum in its quest to influence abortion policy in Europe as the US supreme court considers striking down Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalised the procedure in America.

Elements of the network originally came together under the name Agenda Europe, holding yearly summits across the continent between 2013 until at least 2018, by which time it had grown to comprise 300 participants, including politicians and Vatican diplomats.

Sue Gray day: the Partygate finale – podcast

The Partygate saga culminated with a report on Wednesday on the extent of rule-breaking in Downing Street during lockdown. Peter Walker and Jonathan Freedland analyse what it means for the PM

For months, Sue Gray’s report on rule-breaking at the heart of Downing Street during the Covid pandemic has hung over Boris Johnson’s government like a dark cloud. Every time a new picture leaked or another allegation surfaced, there was one message from No 10: wait for Sue Gray’s report. Even as members of the government – including Johnson – and the civil service were being issued with police fines, the message stayed the same.

On Wednesday, it finally arrived. As our political correspondent Peter Walker tells Nosheen Iqbal, the day felt an important one from the very start. As the report landed on desks around Westminster, it was clear that the details were damning for Johnson’s government.

‘Zero asylum seekers’: Denmark forces refugees to return to Syria

Under a more hostile immigration system, young volunteers fight to help fellow refugees stay – but their work is never done

Maryam Awad is 22 and cannot remember the last time she had a good night’s sleep. It was probably before her application to renew her residency permit as a refugee in Denmark was rejected two years ago, she says.

Before 2015, Awad’s family lived in a small town outside Damascus, but fled to Denmark after her older brother was detained by the regime. The family have been living in Aarhus, a port city in northern Denmark, for eight years.

‘They won’t accept us’: Roma refugees forced to camp at Prague train station

Humanitarian crisis grows as Ukrainian Roma families stuck at Czech train station say they are not treated like other refugees

Prague’s central railway station seems a picture of normality amid warm spring sunshine and the return of legions of tourists, who had been largely absent at the height of Covid. On the platform one weekday morning, two German sightseers gaze curiously at the statue of Sir Nicholas Winton, the British stockbroker who helped 669 mostly Jewish children escape from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the second world war.

Yet just yards away, hundreds of Roma people are sheltering in the only place available to them since they joined the millions of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion.

Five key takeaways: the US midterm elections

Races from Georgia to Texas were a litmus test of Trump’s hold on the Republican party with some significant losses

Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, defeated former senator David Perdue, who had been endorsed by Donald Trump. Perdue’s loss marked a significant defeat for Trump’s reputation as a kingmaker in the Republican party, as the former president has used the power of his endorsement to wield influence over candidates and lawmakers.

How worried should we be about monkeypox? – podcast

An outbreak of monkeypox in the UK is ‘significant and concerning’, but for now it poses a low risk to the public, says science editor Ian Sample

It can begin with a fever, a headache or muscle aches. You might notice a rash develop usually starting on the face before spreading to other areas of the body. These are symptoms that may well point towards monkeypox, a disease now spreading in the UK with more than 50 cases identified this month.

The Guardian’s science editor and host of the Science Weekly podcast, Ian Sample, tells Nosheen Iqbal that monkeypox has been endemic in central and west Africa for decades, but this outbreak in the UK and across Europe and north America is unusual. In the vast majority of cases, an infection does not lead to a serious illness. The strain believed to be spreading in the UK has a mortality rate of between 1% and 3.6% globally

‘We had too much to do to be scared’: the couple who fled Irpin with 19 dogs

Anastasiya Tikha and her husband, Arthur Lee, fought their way through bombs and gunfire to save the array of animals in their care

• Ukraine-Russia war: latest updates

The image of a windswept young woman holding tight to the leads of nine dogs under an ominously dark sky spread far and wide at the time of the Battle of Kyiv.

The apparent bravery of the woman, who was attempting an audacious evacuation across a broken bridge targeted by Russian fire, and the vulnerability of the animals, some of whom were strapped into dog wheelchairs, epitomised to many the cruelty of the war being waged by Vladimir Putin and the dignity of the Ukrainian response.

Finland and Sweden: how do you feel about your countries and Nato membership?

We would like to hear from those in Finland and Sweden about their countries intentions to apply for Nato membership

After Finland confirmed its intention to join Nato on Sunday, the Swedish prime minister Magdalena Andersson said Sweden intends to do the same.

We would like to hear from those living in Finland and Sweden on their thoughts about their countries intentions to apply for Nato membership. How do you feel about it? What are your views on the Russia-Ukraine war?

Russians: tell us what the mood is like in your country

We would like to the views and experiences from Russians at this stage of the Russia-Ukraine war

More than 80 days after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, we would like to hear from those living in Russia on what the mood is like in the country.

How are you, family and friends feeling about the situation at the moment? What are your thoughts on the developments? We would also like to hear from Russians living in the UK, US or elsewhere.

'Half of America deprived of hope': thousands rally for abortion rights across the US – video

Thousands of people took part in protests across the US to decry the supreme court’s expected reversal of the landmark 1973 law that made abortion legal in America, Roe v Wade. Organisers said there were more than 380 protest events in cities – including major ones in Washington DC, New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago – to demand that the right to an abortion is not stripped away by the court, which is dominated by rightwing justices. Concerns that Roe is in jeopardy surged following the leak of a draft ruling by the nine-member court's six conservative justices that repeals constitutional protections for abortion and leaves the matter to be decided by the 50 individual states

• ‘We will not go back’: thousands rally for abortion rights across the US

'Historic day': Finland's leaders confirm intention to join Nato – video

Speaking at the presidential palace in Helsinki, the Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, and prime minister, Sanna Marin, formally declared that the country would apply for Nato membership. The Finnish parliament is expected to endorse the decision in the coming days. The Nordic country is abandoning decades of military non-alignment following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, with which it shares an 800-mile border

• Finland formally confirms intention to join Nato

Rain of munition cascades on to Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine – video

A shower of white, brightly burning munitions cascades down on the the Azovstal steelworks in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol in a video released by a pro-Russian separatist commander on Sunday. The video shows projectiles bursting into showers of burning material. Reuters was able to confirm the location, but not the time or date this video was taken. It was posted on the Telegram messaging app by Alexander Khodakovsky, a commander of the pro-Russian self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk. 'If you didn't know what it is and for what purpose – you could say that it's even beautiful,' Khodakovsky said in a message accompanying the video

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news

'Any victory is important, so let's cheer': Ukraine wins Eurovision 2022 – video report

Ukraine won the Eurovision song contest 2022 with a song mixing rap with elements of Ukrainian folk music. A tidal wave of public support saw the entrants, Kalush Orchestra, move from eighth place after the jury votes to first place, as they were awarded a staggering 492 points. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed the victory, and said the country would 'do its best' to host the contest in the port city of Mariupol one day. Zelenskiy and Kalush Orchestra said any victory was meaningful for Ukraine at this time. The UK also had an exciting night, as Sam Ryder had a considerable lead at the halfway point and placed second overall with his song Space Man. This is the highest the UK have ranked since 1998

• Ukraine wins 2022 Eurovision song contest as UK finishes second in Turin

Israeli police ​attack funeral procession of killed journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh – video

Israeli forces have stormed a Jerusalem hospital grounds as the coffin containing the body of a journalist shot dead earlier this week emerged before the burial, with police saying they acted against people 'disrupting the public order'. Footage showed Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Aqleh’s coffin almost falling to the ground as police grabbed Palestinian flags from the crowd outside Saint Joseph’s hospital in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem

• Shireen Abu Aqleh: thousands attend state memorial in West Bank
  

‘They want to destroy our culture’: Russian strike hits museum in Ukrainian town – video

Locals in the Ukrainian town of Skovorodynivka dig through the rubble to piece together what remains of the museum dedicated to the poet and philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda, which was hit by Russian shelling. Skovoroda was of Ukrainian Cossack origin and spent the last years of his life in the town, which was renamed in his honour

• Russia-Ukraine war: conflict taking ‘heavy toll’ on Russian units, says UK; US defends passing intelligence to Ukraine – live

Made in London: Solidarity Britannia - video

Lynda Ouazar set up a food bank for undocumented people in the first lockdown, supporting those who lost their jobs and houses overnight, and who were unable to seek official help. She joined the Guardian for this collaborative film-making project, Made in Britain, to try to unearth some of these hidden stories in her part of east London 

This is the fourth episode of Made in Britain, a community-based video journalism project looking at poverty, inequality and the challenges our communities face in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The aim is to put the individuals who are typically under-represented in the media in front and behind the camera 

Tell us: how have you been affected by the situation in Ukraine?

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