Euphoria season three review – grubby, desperate and absolutely not worth the wait

What a relief that this is the end for Sam Levison’s grim drama. A show which was once blackly funny is now humourless torture porn

To say that season three of Euphoria is long-awaited would be something of an understatement. HBO’s high school drama debuted in 2019, when it garnered a fanfare of attention with its heady mix of grinding trauma, heavenly eyeshadows and cheap/daring (delete as appropriate) feats, including a locker room scene starring 30 penises. In the years since, it cemented itself as a show with much to say about gen Z’s relationship to sex, drugs and mental health, and pushed Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney and former Disney teenybopper Zendaya to the A-list. It has also released a mere 18 episodes in that time, a victim of everything from the Covid pandemic to the Los Angeles fires. Like a new Rihanna album, Euphoria season three has – in time – become shorthand for a pop culture mirage that would maybe, possibly arrive sometime before 2030. At least, we hoped, before most of the cast were in their 30s.

Excitement, too, has waned over time. Rumours of rifts between the cast and creator Sam Levinson have only grown since its return was confirmed last autumn, and the press tour that followed has had a distinct flavour of “contractual obligation” about it (social media posts from the cast were few and far between, while Zendaya, in an interview with Variety, ambiguously described filming as a “whirlwind”). It brings me no pleasure, then, to report that, based on the three episodes released for review, Euphoria’s third (and probably final) run was absolutely not worth the wait. It’s a grubby, humourless work of torture porn that’s obsessed with and repulsed by sex work.

Published: April 13, 2026, 2:00 am

Viktor Orbán is gone. What does his fall mean for Europe? Our panel responds

Hungary’s return to democracy will be hard. But the impact of Péter Magyar’s decisive victory could be profound, inside the country and beyond

Published: April 13, 2026, 8:49 am

Coachella 2026: Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, Sombr – in pictures

Carpenter is fired out of a car on water jets, David Byrne wears head to toe orange, and the reclusive Bieber steps into the limelight

Published: April 13, 2026, 5:00 am

The one change that worked: in a hectic world, taking up jigsaw puzzles calmed my mind

Every time I successfully place a piece, I get a little rush and a sense of achievement. How could I have thought puzzles were only for children?

Until last year, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done a jigsaw puzzle. It must have been at least 20 years ago. As far as I was concerned, puzzles were for children. There were always other more exciting, interesting and productive things to do – or so I thought.

While rummaging around at home on a rainy autumn afternoon, however, I stumbled upon a jigsaw puzzle that had been lying untouched since my husband and I were given it a few years ago. I’m not sure what came over me – perhaps it was because my husband was watching a film that didn’t particularly interest me – but I decided to give it a go. I was immediately hooked.

Published: April 13, 2026, 9:00 am

‘Hungary has chosen Europe’: EU leaders jubilant after Péter Magyar’s victory over Orbán

Congratulations pour in from across EU, with leaders from Spain, Poland, France, Britain, Denmark, Romania, Sweden and beyond hailing a new chapter

• Full report: Hungarian opposition ousts Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power

EU leaders heaped praise on Péter Magyar after his decisive election victory in Hungary against the long-serving prime minister Viktor Orbán, who many saw as a direct threat to Europe’s peace and prosperity.

The outpouring reflected a deep frustration with Orbán across the EU’s 27 member states and its institutions.

Published: April 13, 2026, 4:42 am

Rory McIlroy ignores Jack Nicklaus’s advice and tames the deadly 12th at Augusta | Andy Bull

Tom Watson wants to fill in the creek in front. The Golden Bear says play safe if the pin is on the right. McIlroy defied conventional wisdom and won

There’s hot and then there’s the back nine on Sunday here when there are five players within two shots of the lead. The TV weathermen reckoned it was 30C, but then they weren’t at Amen Corner when Rory McIlroy was standing on the tee at Augusta National’s 12th hole, that little rinky-dink 155-yard par three, tied for the lead and waiting for the wind to drop long enough that he could get his shot off.

Four days ago, they asked Tom Watson the one change he would make to the course if he could. He didn’t blink. “I’d fill in that creek in front of No 12.” “Touché” said Gary Player. “Good move,” added Jack Nicklaus.

Published: April 12, 2026, 11:24 pm

Middle East crisis live: US plans blockade of Iran’s ports as Pope Leo says he has ‘no intention to debate’ Trump over war

Centcom says blockade in the strait of Hormuz to begin at 10am ET

• Full report: Trump says US will blockade strait of Hormuz after Iran peace talks fail

• Planeloads of negotiators and too little time: US and Iran’s 21 hours of talks

Circling back to Donald Trump’s coming naval blockade, the US military said it would block all Iranian Gulf ports on Monday at 10am ET on Monday (5.30pm in Iran and 1400 GMT), effectively seizing control of maritime traffic in the strait of Hormuz.

“The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,” US Central Command said on X.

This is like a game of chicken. It’s who caves first. The Iranian regime is hoping that Trump will cave. Today, he showed he’s not.”

Published: April 13, 2026, 12:56 pm

Hungarian election winner Magyar vows to rebuild EU relationship after stunning defeat of Viktor Orbán - Europe live

The Tisza leader said the electorate voted ‘not just for a change of government but for a change of the regime’

in Brussels

The EU will start work with the new Hungarian government “as soon as possible” to make progress on issues including energy and the release of frozen European funds, the head of the European Commission has said.

“We will start working with the government as soon as possible on the topics you mentioned and much more to make a swift and overdue progress to the benefit of the Hungarian people.”

“I think moving to qualified-majority voting in foreign policy is an important way to avoid systematic blockages as we’ve seen in the past. And we should use the momentum now really to move forward on that topic.”

Published: April 13, 2026, 1:30 pm

Eric Swalwell quits California governor race after sexual assault allegations

Democratic congressman, running to replace Gavin Newsom, has faced multiple accusations

Representative Eric Swalwell, the Democratic frontrunner in the fiercely contested race to be governor of California, has suspended his campaign amid a series of sexual assault and misconduct allegations by a former staff member and at least three other women.

The woman who worked for Swalwell said the California congressman had sexually assaulted her twice when she was too inebriated to consent, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle, which was published on Friday.

Published: April 13, 2026, 1:08 am

Bernie Sanders warns ‘worst is yet to come’ in rallying cry against billionaires

US senator appears at Manhattan rally alongside New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, who cautioned that AI is ‘coming for human jobs’

Bernie Sanders has sounded an alarm over the US economy, warning “the worst is yet to come” unless workers overcome a “ruling class” of billionaires.

The US senator spoke at a rally in Manhattan on Sunday alongside Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, who cautioned that artificial intelligence was “coming for human jobs” amid mounting concern over the technology’s rapid development.

Published: April 13, 2026, 1:18 am

TikTok psychic seeks relief from $10m verdict for false claims in Idaho student murders

Tarot card reader Ashley Guillard, who falsely accused history professor Rebecca Scofield, plans to appeal

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A self-proclaimed psychic who in TikTok videos falsely accused a University of Idaho professor of being involved in the murders of four of the school’s students in 2022 is appealing for relief after a civil court jury ordered her to pay $10m in damages to the educator.

In a recent legal filing that she prepared herself, tarot card reader Ashley Guillard called the case brought against her by history professor Rebecca Scofield “fraudulent” and asked the federal court in Idaho where a jury delivered a verdict against her to set aside the judgment.

Published: April 13, 2026, 9:00 am

Five killed in strikes on alleged drug boats in eastern Pacific, US military says

Attacks on Saturday bring number of people killed in boat strikes by US military to at least 168

The US military said that it blew up two boats accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing a total of five people and leaving one survivor, as the Trump administration pursues its campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America while preparing a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

The attacks on Saturday bring the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes by the US military to at least 168 since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in early September.

Published: April 13, 2026, 1:00 pm

Sticker shock: LA residents alarmed by price of 2028 Olympics presale tickets

LA28 set aside tickets for LA and Oklahoma City residents, but some say they faced exorbitant prices and high fees

Since tickets for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles went on sale for local residents on 2 April, excitement for the Games has given way to sticker shock among some Angelenos over what they describe as exorbitant prices and an unexpected service fee.

LA28 had made a wave of slots in the presale ticket lottery available for residents throughout southern California, where the majority of contests will take place, and in Oklahoma City, which will host the canoe slalom and softball events. Tickets ranged in price from $28 into the thousands.

Published: April 13, 2026, 11:00 am

Elon Musk’s X cuts payments to users who post clickbait

Platform says it will reward original creators as it penalises ‘aggregators’ for flooding timelines with ‘stolen posts’

• Business live – latest updates

Elon Musk’s X has reduced payments to users who post clickbait and recycle news stories as it warned account holders against “flooding the timeline” with low-quality content.

Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, wrote on the social media platform that all “aggregators” – users who quickly repackage and repost news from other accounts – had received less money from the creator revenue sharing programme.

Published: April 13, 2026, 11:55 am

Britney Spears enters rehab after March DUI arrest

Singer voluntarily enters facility after erratic driving incident, where she was found to have drugs and alcohol in her system

Britney Spears has entered a rehab facility after her arrest in March for driving under the influence.

The pop singer was stopped by police in Ventura county, California, after driving erratically, and was found to have drugs and alcohol in her system. She was briefly detained, and her manager called Spears’ actions “completely inexcusable. Britney is going to take the right steps and comply with the law and hopefully this can be the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life.”

Published: April 13, 2026, 9:01 am

Don’t mention the climate: Trump creates ‘beyond absurd’ situation at global finance talks

Developing countries face possible shelving of crucial green action plan at IMF and World Bank spring meetings

Governments desperate for cash to protect their citizens from the growing impacts of the climate crisis are being put in a “beyond absurd” situation this week at global finance talks: they are being urged not to mention the climate, even as they address the current oil crisis.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) spring meetings take place this week amid a fragile ceasefire in Iran and upended geopolitics. One of the priorities was to forge a new “climate change action plan” (CCAP) for the world’s biggest provider of funds to developing countries, to replace the current strategy, which expires in June.

Published: April 13, 2026, 1:00 pm

Donald Trump brands Rory McIlroy a ‘legend’ after second Masters triumph

• US president praises 36-year-old’s victory under pressure

• McIlroy held nerve to beat world No 1 Scheffler by a shot

Donald Trump called Rory McIlroy a “legend” as the United States president congratulated the Northern Irishman on his second Masters title.

McIlroy held on for a one-shot victory over America’s world No 1 Scottie Scheffler, becoming only the fourth player in the tournament’s 90-year history to win successive titles at Augusta.

Published: April 13, 2026, 10:01 am

Trump news at a glance: president renews threat to Iranian power plants and bridges after talks fail

Donald Trump has said the US will begin blockading the strait of Hormuz in an attempt to take control of the strategic waterway. Key US politics stories from Sunday 12 April at a glance

Donald Trump has said the US will begin blockading the strait of Hormuz in an attempt to take control of the strategic waterway from Iran in the aftermath of failed peace negotiations between the countries in Pakistan.

The US president also threatened to bomb Iran’s water treatment facilities as well as its power plants and bridges, repeating an earlier threat, if Tehran did not agree to abandon its nuclear weapons programme – the key sticking point between the two sides.

Published: April 13, 2026, 1:59 am

Ex-CIA director calls for ousting Trump: ‘25th amendment was written with him in mind’

John Brennan says president who made volatile remarks about destroying Iranian civilization ‘is clearly unhinged’

The former Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan has added his name to growing calls for the president to be ousted on grounds that he is unfit for the job, arguing that the US constitution’s 25th amendment addressing involuntary removal from office was “written with Donald Trump in mind”.

Brennan, who served as head of the spy agency during Barack Obama’s presidency, told MS Now on Saturday that Trump’s recent volatile remarks about destroying Iranian civilization and the danger he posed to so many lives merited his removal from the Oval Office.

Published: April 12, 2026, 2:26 pm

Are we heading for ‘super El Nino’ – and what could we expect?

Experts say climate pattern could supercharge extreme weather events and push temperatures to record highs

There is a high likelihood that the phenomenon known as “El Niño” will emerge this summer – and it could be exceptionally strong. A so-called “super El Niño” could supercharge extreme weather events and push global temperatures to record heights next year if it develops, according to experts.

Meteorologists are keeping a close eye on the climate patterns developing in the Pacific Ocean that will enable stronger predictions about what’s to come in the year ahead.

Published: April 13, 2026, 11:00 am

‘The perception is Carney is a wartime leader’: why Canada’s PM could secure a majority

As Trump’s actions spark a desire for stability, analysts say Carney is in effect assembling a union government

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, is on the brink of securing a majority government, with his Liberal party poised to win at least two closely watched byelections and courting an “almost unprecedented” string of defections from rival parties.

Carney’s ability to turn a strong minority into a narrow majority through electoral gains and floor crossing has strengthened his reputation as a pragmatic leader above the cut and thrust of partisan politics. But his efforts to bring in lawmakers from across the political spectrum has also sparked a fierce internal debate over the Liberals’ values and the risks of consolidating more power.

Published: April 13, 2026, 10:00 am

Troubled Lake Erie is being transformed into a vast water research facility

For long a dumping ground for pollutants, the Great Lake is being seeded with sensor buoys to make it the world’s largest digitally connected body of freshwater

There was a time in the 1960s that the lakes and rivers around Cleveland were so polluted with petrochemicals and other contaminants that they frequently caught on fire.

While water quality on Lake Erie today has improved since the days of it being used as a large-scale industrial dumping ground for steel mills and chemical plants, it still struggles with poor water quality.

Published: April 13, 2026, 11:00 am

The US small town coffee shop that created a viral drink: ‘I still don’t understand how it went so far’

The raspberry danish latte is making its way around the world after its inventors decided to share the recipe

A viral coffee drink created by a little college town coffee shop on the outskirts of Minneapolis is now making its way around the world after its inventors decided to give the recipe away for free.

After Little Joy Coffee’s raspberry danish latte, a spring seasonal drink, went viral in March, the shop’s owners decided to encourage coffee shops to rip off the recipe directly and add it to their menus.

Published: April 13, 2026, 11:00 am

‘Endearing and enduring’: why Hot Fuzz is my feelgood movie

The latest in our ongoing series of writers highlighting their go-to comfort watches is a journey back to 2004 and the unusually violent village of Sandford

With the endless library of films we all have at our fingertips, in our DVD collections and on whatever the cloud is, finding your top feelgood movie can be a deceptively hard task. Though it seems obvious now, mine was so familiar to me that somehow it managed to hide in plain sight. Eventually, I had to ask my partner what she thought my comfort movie was. She answered decisively: Hot Fuzz. And she’s absolutely right. How could it not be?

Hot Fuzz is Edgar Wright’s second entry in his Cornetto trilogy, preceded by the cult classic Shaun of the Dead and followed by pub crawl alien invasion adventure The World’s End. I’m not convinced Hot Fuzz is Wright’s best film – it’s not even my favourite. But as far as feelgood movies go, it’s unbeatable.

Published: April 13, 2026, 9:00 am

Is it true that … having a diverse microbiome stops you from getting sick?

Having diverse microbes in the gut has been promoted as a way to boost immunity, but studies suggest it’s more complicated than that

The trillions of microorganisms that live in and on our bodies – known as the microbiome – have been hailed as the key to better immunity. “Lots of studies correlate the types of bacteria in your microbiome with health and disease across almost every mental and physical condition,” says Prof Daniel M Davis, head of life sciences at Imperial College London and the author of Self Defence: A Myth-busting Guide to Immune Health. “But most of that evidence is correlative, and we still need to understand exactly how the microbiome affects health.”

Scientists often look at one measure: diversity. In other words, how many different species of microbes live in the gut. “The more diverse your microbiome is, the more it seems to correlate with not being ill.”

Published: April 13, 2026, 7:00 am

‘A cauldron of people with their tops off!’ Goldie, Estelle, Courtney Pine, Flo and more pick great moments in Black British music

For its inaugural show, the V&A’s east London outpost is celebrating 125 years of Black music-making in Britain. We asked top performers to pick their favourite exhibit

Goldie: Kemistry and Storm (The Diptych) by Eddie Otchere (1995)

Published: April 13, 2026, 4:00 am

The pet I’ll never forget: Chilly, the kitten I saved from freezing to death

I found Chilly literally frozen to the spot beneath a Detroit dock, warmed her up and took her home. She’s now part of the family

Earlier this year, I was walking along the marina in the Jefferson Chalmers neighbourhood in Detroit, Michigan. It was a terribly cold winter; the water had frozen over and everything was coated in a thick layer of frost. Suddenly, a sound caught my ear – the loud cries of a tiny animal.

I didn’t know what it was at first, or where exactly it was coming from, but I kept hearing it – so I decided to turn around and walk towards the wailing. Suddenly I spotted a little kitten, trapped between the wooden dock and the plank of metal underneath it. I realised its paws were stuck, frozen to the metal, and it had been crying out to be rescued.

Published: April 13, 2026, 10:00 am

Feminists began raising the alarm about the manosphere decades ago – and we were ignored | Laurie Penny

We were told we couldn’t take a joke, and that social media isn’t real life. Now the misogyny of early chatrooms and Gamergate has reached the White House

Why has it taken so long for us to treat misogyny as a political problem? The modern manosphere has been metastasising for many years – and for years, mainstream culture has responded with a helpless shrug. There was nothing unusual about men hurting women, even if the technology was new.

In the early aughts, angry and alienated men began indulging in recreational misogyny online, bombarding women and girls in the public eye with threats, insults, harassment, hacking, and hideous “revenge porn”. Strange as it may now sound, though, “the internet” was still seen as separate from “real life”.

Laurie Penny is a journalist, author and screenwriter. They write the substack Force of Culture

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.

Published: April 13, 2026, 7:00 am

This week saw humanity at its worst. Artemis II told the opposite story | Flynn Coleman

We send the voice of the dead across space as an act of continuity and care, while on Earth we tally the bodies. Which do we choose to become?

Four people are sleeping 19,000 miles from the moon when the voice of Apollo 13’s commander arrives.

“Hello, Artemis II. This is Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell. Welcome to my old neighborhood.”

Flynn Coleman is an international human rights lawyer, political scientist, and the author of A Human Algorithm

Published: April 13, 2026, 12:00 pm

Social media was once a great global conversation. Now it’s just individuals locked into their own private worlds | Tom Whyman

I met the mother of my children on Twitter – and made lasting friendships. But now social media isn’t so social

I used to post an awful lot on Twitter. I couldn’t tell you how many times a day exactly – but after discovering the platform in late 2010, I became intoxicated by the feeling that I was able to participate in a sort of global conversation. Here, I felt, was a platform that anyone could join, and on which anyone could be listened to. Twitter seemed to connect people: commentators spoke in enthused terms about the role Twitter played in the Occupy movement; the student fees protests; the Arab spring.

I posted, I made friends, I met people, I talked to people who I would never have been able to connect with otherwise. The relationships I made on Twitter shaped my values, my politics, my life. The “weird Twitter” style of humour gave me a fair few phrases that will never stop rattling around my brain: every time I walk into a pharmacy, I think about buying some ear medication for my sick uncle “who’s a model by the way”. Whenever I read something about Watergate, I imagine Richard Nixon condemning the movie Fantastic Mr Fox on the basis that its lead character wears “a [expletive] corduroy suit”.

Tom Whyman is an academic philosopher and a writer

Published: April 13, 2026, 11:13 am

I have just one secret from my husband. If he reads this, even that will be gone | Emma Beddington

I know that hidden depths are sexy and intriguing – but after 30 years together, we effectively share a single brain

How bad are secrets in a relationship? That’s what I’ve been wondering ever since I saw The Drama, the slightly silly if slickly entertaining Zendaya and Robert Pattinson vehicle about what happens when you discover an unimagined side to someone you thought you knew completely.

We all keep secrets – a small study published in January found that respondents had, on average, nine types of secret squirrelled away (stuff you’d expect: lies they’d told, romantic desires, sexual behaviours, money). The most important ones crossed their minds on average every two hours, with a potentially negative effect on psychological wellbeing.

Published: April 13, 2026, 10:00 am

Fifteen bucks a signature: the crisis of money in US politics is growing | Katrina vanden Heuvel

The fight over California’s billionaire tax is just the latest symptom of a crisis that has escalated since 2010

There’s money to be made in California this spring, no startup pitch or buzzy screenplay required. Instead, signatures are one of the state’s most coveted commodities: campaigns are paying $15 apiece to those willing to collect them.

Petition distributors can thank Sergey Brin for this pay bump. In an effort to kill California’s proposed billionaire tax, the Google co-founder and other local tycoons are funding a political group that has hiked the going rate for signatures collected in support of countermeasures. In all, foes of the wealth tax are expected to spend $75m in their attempt to quash the proposal. Brin himself has donated $45m to the cause – a sum that suggests he just might be able to afford a higher tax bill.

Published: April 13, 2026, 10:00 am

The Guardian view on US-Iran talks: Trump’s diplomacy falters as risk of war grows | Editorial

An American blockade in the strait of Hormuz raises energy-market dangers after failed negotiations – pushing a fragile ceasefire closer to collapse

As the US vice-president, JD Vance, took to a podium in Pakistan after 21 hours of diplomacy and said no deal had been reached to end the war with Iran, his boss Donald Trump was in Miami watching a mixed martial arts fight. The contrast was stark. Just when the outcome of a war and the stability of global markets hung in the balance, the president chose spectacle over engagement. Mr Trump may intend to project strength. But the impression he creates – in Tehran and among America’s allies – is of a president less interested in the substance of diplomacy than in the politics surrounding it.

The talks in Islamabad didn’t fail accidentally; the US and Iran were talking past each other. Washington’s position is that Iran must abandon its capacity to develop a nuclear weapon, while Tehran insists it is not seeking one and has the right to a civilian nuclear programme. The US vice-president’s “final and best offer” would have required Iran to give up that capacity altogether – terms that looked less like the basis of a negotiation than an attempt to impose the conditions of victory.

Published: April 12, 2026, 4:43 pm

The Guardian view on AI politics: US datacentre protests are a warning to big tech | Editorial

In both Republican and Democratic states, scepticism and hostility towards an unregulated construction boom is growing

When blue-collar Trump voters and Maga-friendly midwest states join the same cause as Bernie Sanders and liberal California teachers, something novel is afoot. Last month it was the turn of the Republican party in Texas to express forthright opposition to the construction of datacentres for artificial intelligence, pending adequate environmental safeguards for local communities. Across the United States, similar campaigns are being waged, as voters from across the political spectrum rail against the outsize influence and power of big tech.

For the White House, which has made the rapid rollout of datacentres a priority in its AI action plan, the scale of the protests is an unwelcome surprise. One of Donald Trump’s first acts on returning to office was to authorise the deregulated “build, baby, build” approach demanded by the Silicon Valley backers who helped to fund his campaign. Industry giants such Amazon and Microsoft are driving an estimated $710bn worth of investment in datacentres this year, as they stake their future on staying ahead in the AI race.

Published: April 12, 2026, 4:42 pm

WNBA draft 2026 predictions: Will Azzi Fudd or a Spanish prodigy go No 1 overall?

Our writers take a look at the best prospects coming out of college, select their lower-round gems to watch and take a look at the expansion draft

• Sign up for WNBA 30: a limited run women’s basketball newsletter

For the past three years, the No 1 pick has been a foregone conclusion: Aliyah Boston in 2023, Caitlin Clark in 2024, Paige Bueckers in 2025. This year has much less certainty. Will the Dallas Wings go for a big or a guard? How did UConn’s exit and UCLA’s triumph affect the stock of their stars? It’s a toss-up, but I’ll go with Awa Fam. She’s only 19, but her athleticism and pick-and-roll game will make her a strong complement to Bueckers in Dallas. EB

Published: April 13, 2026, 10:00 am

Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action

De Zerbi looks past Simons, Arsenal fans are not helping their team and Ngumoha can give PSG something to think about

Football is such that, when you’re down, there’s a good chance the game boots you in the solar plexus, and that’s exactly what happened to Tottenham at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland’s winner coming by way of a deflection. But you can also take steps to help yourself and, though Roberto De Zerbi’s midfield setup made some sense – he picked three hard-runners in order to compete with Sunderland’s physicality – even pre-match, it wasn’t clear who would create their chances. It’s true that Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison and Mohammed Kudus are out injured, but in that context, it is surely even more important a place in the XI, whether in midfield or out wide, be found for Xavi Simons, left on the sidelines until the 85th minute. Simons is not perfect, but of the players De Zerbi has available he is the only one with the imagination and technique to make things happen. He may lack physicality, but what Spurs need more than anything is quality. Daniel Harris

Match report: Sunderland 1-0 Tottenham

Match report: Arsenal 1-2 Bournemouth

Match report: Chelsea 0-3 Manchester City

City improve in good weather, says Guardiola

Published: April 13, 2026, 7:00 am

As Bologna thrive, sister club CF Montreal have been left in the dust

The MLS weekend saw the Timbers capitalize on a rotated LAFC and Bruce Arena continue his second-season magic in San Jose

When the then-Montréal Impact rebranded as Club de Foot Montréal in 2021, their fans weren’t shy about showing their disdain.

“It is the dismantling of a dream,” one supporters’ group statement read in part. “We are becoming a bland club, just as many others have become.”

Published: April 13, 2026, 11:00 am

Ghanaian winger Dominic Frimpong killed at age of 20 in attack on team bus

• Armed men fired at Berekum Chelsea bus on Sunday

• Frimpong dies of wounds at hospital

Berekum Chelsea winger Dominic Frimpong was killed in an armed robbery on his team’s bus as they returned from a match on Sunday, the Ghana Football Association said.

Berekum Chelsea said six “masked men wielding guns and assault rifles” had blocked the road as the team returned from their Ghana Premier League match against Samartex.

Published: April 13, 2026, 12:17 pm

Welcome to Pep in April – the serial title avenger with Arsenal in his sights | Barney Ronay

Manchester City’s unbeaten April record in the past four years bodes well for their end-of-season pursuit for glory

“I have a particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. I may stumble a little in the autumn. I may get a little caustic with a TV camera crew or sarcastically applaud a referee. But I will pursue you. I will hunt you down. I will, in all likelihood, narrowly pip you to the line in an agonising title chase.”

Welcome to Pep in April, the franchise. In which a furiously intense, bald, skinny man becomes a serial springtime league title avenger. At the finish of what was by the end a celebratory, one-hand-on-the-wheel 3-0 win at Stamford Bridge, Manchester City’s record in April in the past four years reads: played 23, won 19, drawn four across all competitions.

Published: April 12, 2026, 8:25 pm

Sergio García warned after breaking club in Masters meltdown before carrying Jon Rahm’s bag

• 2017 champion tears up tee box after poor shot

• ‘Next question’: Spaniard shuts down interviewer

A winner on day four of the Masters was not even part of the remaining field. Robert MacIntyre, somewhere, surely raised a smile.

The Scot was the recipient of widespread criticism on Thursday after offering a single-fingered salute to Augusta National when en route to a nine at the 15th. A range of expletives and a whack of the sacred turf also featured in his first round. MacIntyre’s passionate approach to his profession is admirable but this was all over the top. In time, he will surely realise as much.

Published: April 12, 2026, 4:40 pm

‘This is not serious leadership’: Donald Trump and Marco Rubio watch UFC in Miami as Iran talks fail

• President has long been a fan of mixed martial arts

• Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr also at event

Donald Trump and US secretary of state Marco Rubio attended a UFC event in Miami night on Saturday night as peace talks with Iran failed on the other side of the world.

Trump entered the Kaseya Center shortly after 9pm alongside several members of his family and UFC chief Dana White, who has been a supporter of the president since his first term. Seated nearby was Rubio as well as the US ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, the rapper Vanilla Ice and former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino.

Published: April 12, 2026, 7:25 pm

Kratom poisonings soar in US as experts blame synthetic versions and caution against bans

Experts say natural kratom may offer benefits and blame synthetic derivatives for surge in poisonings noted by CDC

A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report shows that kratom poisonings have soared in the US, but experts say this is probably due to synthetic derivatives like 7-OH, and that blanket kratom bans could harm people using natural kratom to aid pain management or addiction recovery.

Walter Prozialeck, a pharmacology professor at Midwestern University, said he was unsurprised by the report, which found that kratom-related poisonings went up by about 1,200% over the last decade, with a marked surge in 2025.

Published: April 13, 2026, 12:00 pm

Booking.com warns customers of hack that exposed their data

Undisclosed number of names and contact and reservation details accessed in latest cybercrime attempt

• Business live – latest updates

The accommodation reservation website Booking.com has suffered a data breach with “unauthorised parties” gaining access to customers’ details.

The platform said it “noticed some suspicious activity involving unauthorised third parties being able to access some of our guests’ booking information”.

Published: April 13, 2026, 10:57 am

Brazil’s Lula, 80, livestreams workouts before election against rival half his age

President contrasts his health with challenger Flávio Bolsonaro, who fainted during a TV debate

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is seeking to lunge and leg press his way to a historic fourth term, as the octogenarian politician uses a flurry of workout videos to convince voters he is fighting fit ahead of October’s crunch election.

Lula looks set to face off against a senator almost half his age in what will be the leftist’s seventh presidential campaign since he first sought Brazil’s top job in 1989, when he was 44.

Published: April 13, 2026, 12:35 pm

€1m Picasso painting to be won for €100 in charity raffle

Number of tickets to win Tête de Femme will be capped at 120,000 and proceeds will go to Alzheimer’s research

A raffle in France is offering the chance to win a portrait by Pablo Picasso for the price of a €100 (£87) ticket, with proceeds going to Alzheimer’s research.

Picasso painted the gouache-on-paper Tête de Femme (Head of a Woman) in 1941. The raffle organisers’ online sales platform says the number of tickets will be capped at 120,000, meaning the draw could net €12m if they are all sold.

Published: April 13, 2026, 4:00 am

Southport attack blamed on ‘catastrophic’ failures by agencies and killer’s ‘irresponsible’ parents

Official report says system ‘completely failed’ because some form of violence by Axel Rudakubana had been ‘unambiguously signposted over many years’

• Southport attack inquiry report – latest updates

Axel Rudakubana was able to carry out the Southport atrocity because of “catastrophic” failures by multiple agencies and the “irresponsible and harmful” role of his parents, a damning inquiry has found.

Sir Adrian Fulford condemned the “inappropriate merry-go-round” of state bodies passing the buck and their “frankly depressing” refusal to accept responsibility, saying: “This culture has to end.”

Published: April 13, 2026, 10:59 am

One dead and six wounded after mass shooting at Chick-fil-A in New Jersey

Officials say ‘no arrests made at this time’ and that shooting ‘does not appear to be a random act of violence’

Seven people were shot, including one fatally, at a fast-food chain restaurant in Union Township, New Jersey, on Saturday night, according to authorities.

The Gun Violence Archive, a nonpartisan reference resource, listed the reported shooting at the Chick-fil-A restaurant in the 2300 block of Route 22 as the 100th mass shooting documented in the US this year, as of Sunday. The archive defines mass shootings as cases in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.

Published: April 12, 2026, 7:19 pm

Ex-police commissioner on how his taskforce ‘broke the case’ and found the Gilgo Beach serial killer

Rodney Harrison formed taskforce that later identified Rex Heuermann as a suspect in the string of New York murders

Rodney Harrison was not in the courtroom in Riverhead on New York’s Long Island last week when serial killer Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to the murders of seven women and volunteered that he’d also murdered an eighth.

But as the New York police department’s former chief of detectives, who was brought in to be police commissioner of Suffolk county – the area where Heuermann had dumped his victims – it was Harrison who pulled together a taskforce that came to crack the case.

Published: April 12, 2026, 11:00 am

‘I feel helpless’: college graduates can’t find entry-level roles in shrinking market amid rise of AI

Young American graduates expressed frustration over fewer job openings and longer searches

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American college graduates are facing the worst entry-level job market since the pandemic, with the underemployment rate reaching 42.5% – its highest level since 2020.

Several young graduates told the Guardian about their struggles navigating a job market shaped by tightening opportunities, the rise of AI and shifting employer expectations.

Published: April 12, 2026, 11:00 am

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

Participants reported enjoying the human connection regardless of whether they thought the topic was dull

The human aversion to dull experiences was nailed by the author Paulo Coelho when he declared: “I can stand defeats, pain, anger. But I can’t stand boredom.”

But the natural desire to avoid boring conversations comes at a cost, according to researchers, who found that people enjoyed chatting about tedious topics far more than they expected.

Published: April 13, 2026, 1:00 pm

Mauritius vows to ‘decolonise’ Chagos Islands after Starmer shelves handover

Mauritian foreign minister pledges to ‘spare no effort’ to regain control of islands, as US fails to give approval of deal

A senior official in Mauritius’ government has vowed that the Chagos Islands will be “decolonised” after Keir Starmer was forced to shelve legislation to hand the islands back to Mauritius.

On Friday, UK government officials acknowledged that they had run out of time to pass legislation within the current parliamentary session, which ends in the coming weeks, after a lack of support from Donald Trump.

Published: April 12, 2026, 4:33 pm

Nigerian airstrike targeting jihadists reportedly kills at least 100 civilians

Officials confirm misfire as Amnesty gives death toll after speaking to survivors of strike on market in Yobe state

A Nigerian air force strike targeting jihadist rebels hit a market in north-east Nigeria, killing more than 100 people and injuring many others, Amnesty International and local media have said.

Officials confirmed a misfire had occurred but did not provide details.

Published: April 12, 2026, 5:16 pm

Artemis II crew on their moon flyby: ‘Earth was this lifeboat hanging in the universe’

Astronauts make first remarks at jubilant welcome home event in Houston after their record-breaking mission

Still marveling over their moon mission, the Artemis II astronauts received a thunderous welcome home on Saturday from the hundreds of colleagues who took part in setting a record for deep space travel during the US space agency Nasa’s lunar comeback.

The crew of four arrived at Ellington Field near Nasa’s Johnson Space Center and Mission Control in Houston, flying in from San Diego, where they had splashed down just offshore the evening before.

Published: April 12, 2026, 6:11 pm

Bollywood classics, rave bangers and Michael Stipe duets: 10 of Asha Bhosle’s greatest recordings

After her death aged 92, we look back on the vast and varied catalogue of one of India’s greatest vocalists, who brought actorly skill to her Bollywood playback performances

• Indian music legend Asha Bhosle dies aged 92

With more than 12,000 songs to her name, Indian playback singer Asha Bhosle is one of the most recorded and well-known voices in Bollywood cinema. Born into a musical family, with her father Deenanath Mangeshkar working as a singer for regional Marathi theatre and film throughout the 1920s and 30s and her older sister Lata Mangeshkar becoming a Bollywood playback singer in her own right, Bhosle entered the industry at just 10 years old with this debut performance in the Marathi film Maze Baal. Duetting with Lata, Bhosle’s melismatic falsetto in the song gives voice to the playful innocence of the film’s central love-child. Keening and crystal-clear, her vocal immediately cuts through the rollicking instrumental and already displays the yearning emotion that would become her signature as her voice matured.

Published: April 13, 2026, 1:12 pm

Gusheshe against the grain: South Africa’s car spinning culture – in pictures

In post-apartheid Johannesburg, car spinning, known locally as gusheshe, has grown from a township pastime into one of South Africa’s most striking homegrown sports. The practice began in the 1980s, with Soweto’s gangster scene, where stolen cars were spun at funerals as acts of tribute. By the early 1990s, as the country teetered on the brink of racial conflict, young Sowetans began experimenting with spinning outside criminal circles. Their focus was the BMW 325i. A drive to excel laid the foundations for a culture now recognised across the country

Published: April 13, 2026, 6:00 am

Titaníque review – delightfully campy Céline Dion musical shows bigger isn’t always better

St James Theatre, New York
The hilariously deranged riff on Titanic loses some scrappy charm in its Broadway transfer

According to its creators, the idea for Titaníque, the extremely campy Céline Dion jukebox musical now open on Broadway, originated as a drunken riff between friends – what if the Québécois Queen of Feelings not only sang the theme song of the movie Titanic, but sincerely believed she survived the disaster? A Céline-ified Titanic is an appropriately silly concept – possibly no one has provided the world as much camp sincerity as the 90s power ballad pioneer, and the beloved movie could use some unserious updates. Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and Tye Blue, the co-authors, made the show extra zany, extra gay, extra “kooky crazy” (to quote the truly inimitable Dion) and set sail in the theatrical equivalent of a rowboat; the first staging of Titaníque took place in the basement of a shuttered Manhattan grocery store. Adaptable and very meta, the show upgraded to a series of ever-larger craft: a buzzy, post-pandemic Off-Broadway run, a world tour, then an acclaimed West End stint.

Though, to my deep regret, I missed out on the original Off-Broadway run, I found myself nostalgic for those humble beginnings while attending the new-and-improved Titaníque at the too-cavernous St James Theater, where the jazzed-up show now has the budget and scale befitting an ocean liner. Or, more accurately, a corporate reality TV show; the tiered risers, on-stage band (who, it should be noted, sound great) and, most evocatively, neon-red stage lights look less like Titanic, even a very loosely interpreted one, and more like The X Factor, as Mindelle joked in one of her many asides as the singer. Why? Who’s to say. Self-awareness counts for a lot in the very funny Titaníque, though not an explanation.

Published: April 13, 2026, 2:00 am

Ghost-Eye by Amitav Ghosh review – a climate-crisis novel let down by its prose

A reincarnation mystery drives this exploration of spiritual interconnectedness in a globalised world

What happens when a novelist cares more about their plot, or their message, than their prose? Plot and message have this much in common: they travel smoothest on the lubricating oil of cliche. Thus you might find yourself enjoying, at the level of story or argument, a novel that trundles along via lumps of workhorse novelese like the following: “manicured gardens”, “apple of their father’s eye”, “venerable patriarch”, “Little did I know then”, “keeping a weather eye”, “money was tight”, “Barely had the words left her mouth”, “engulfed by civil strife”, “I was taken aback”, “a piercing cry”, “an ear-splitting cacophony”, “a lick of paint”, “It was a marvel to behold”, “It was as though she were a woman possessed”, “The ceremonies went off without a hitch”, “She and I were polar opposites” …

This is, for much of its length, the experience of reading Amitav Ghosh’s 11th novel, Ghost-Eye. The plot has been quite intricately worked out. It seeds the reader’s curiosity, especially in the first half, with all sorts of intriguing mysteries. The subject – the various collisions of global and local in the post-second world war age – is important. But much of the prose is dead on arrival. I say this with regret. Like many readers, I think of Ghosh with gratitude: not just for the narrative riches of his Ibis trilogy (Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire), but for the work of intellectual framing he performed in his 2016 polemic The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. Ghosh is at least partly responsible for the arrival of the climate emergency as an urgent subject in literary fiction over the last decade. He woke us from our slumbers.

Published: April 13, 2026, 11:00 am

Meta‘s AI glasses and the dawn of wearable tech - podcast

Elle Hunt on her month wearing Meta’s smart glasses and the privacy concerns around the technology

According to Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s AI-powered glasses are “personal super intelligence” that “let you stay present in the moment”.

Journalist Elle Hunt reports on her time wearing them for a month. Elle tells Nosheen Iqbal about the highs and lows of the experience, the features that could be transformative for people with vision impairments or hearing loss, and the risks wearable tech poses to our privacy.

Published: April 13, 2026, 2:00 am

Wandering Star – a photo essay

Photographer Vanessa Vettorello’s project Wandering Star investigates double vision, an often misunderstood and complex condition that is rarely discussed openly

Imagine a world where judging distance is a daily struggle and the simple act of pouring water into a glass requires intense concentration. At a school volleyball game, you see the ball and run for it, but you are always a moment too late.

Diplopia means double vision. It’s a medical term and it’s defined as seeing two images of a single object when you’re looking at it. The most common cause of binocular double vision is eye muscle misalignment. Strabismus may be present all the time (constant) or occur on and off (intermittently). Usually, if strabismus starts in early childhood, double vision does not occur. Children will typically learn how to ‘turn off’ or ignore the double image when the eye misalignment is present. This is called suppression. In my case, even if it started very early, my vision was double and blurred, like in this image I created (above).

Published: April 12, 2026, 6:00 am

‘I just want to feel like me again’: the women still waiting for breast reconstruction years after lockdown

At the height of Covid, hundreds of cancer patients had mastectomies without the reconstruction that would normally accompany them. They would eventually get the surgery, they were told – but for many that promise feels more meaningless by the day

Every time she lifts her arms to get dressed or hang out her washing, Julie Ford gets a painful reminder of one of the most terrifying experiences of her life. At 7am one day in April 2021, she had gone into hospital, alone and wearing a mask, to have her right breast and lymph nodes removed in a bid to stop breast cancer from spreading. Later that day, still groggy from the anaesthetic, in pain and with surgical drains hanging from both sides of her chest, she had staggered to the door with the help of two nurses. She was eased into a friend’s car and driven home to fend for herself.

While Julie’s breast had been removed, it was not reconstructed. Usually, both procedures are carried out in the same operation. But as reconstruction using tissue from the patient’s abdomen is a complex, eight-hour procedure requiring a large surgical team, it was considered “non-essential” and paused by most NHS trusts during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Published: April 13, 2026, 4:00 am

My search for the perfect bodega in Madrid

Good wine, cheap tapas, ramshackle decor and a sense of history are the key ingredients of these Madrileño institutions. I went on a bar crawl to find my favourite

The first hurdle to overcome when searching for the Spanish capital’s top bodegas is the correct interpretation of the word “bodega”. It is defined as a warehouse, winery, wine cellar and wine shop or bar specialising in wine. In Spanish slang it can also mean a convenience store.

I asked several people working in the Madrid wine trade, and they all struggled to define exactly what a bodega is – and sometimes disagreed with each other. For example, while La Bodega de los Reyes fits the description because it has a wine cellar, a nearby bar owner said it couldn’t be classed as a bodega as it was just a wine shop.

Published: April 13, 2026, 6:00 am

The kindness of strangers: The Ashes heat was unbearable. Then a Barmy Army member offered his seats in the shade

I’m clearly Australian – I had my Adelaide cricket cap on – but that Pommy bloke still lent a hand to someone from the opposition

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

We’re great enemies in cricket, England and Australia. So when the Ashes returned this past summer, my son and I travelled from Ballarat to Adelaide to see the showdown in the third Test. It’s a long drive but we made it a boys’ trip, stopping in at pubs and all that nonsense on the way.

It was a great start to the essential cricket pilgrimage. The problem was when we got to the Adelaide Oval, the temperature was a gruelling 40C. Worse still, by the middle of the day, the sun was beaming directly on to our seats. There was no shade and no reprieve.

Published: April 12, 2026, 3:00 pm

I’ve spent 20 years treading water and fear that I’ve wasted so much time. Am I depressed? | Ask Annalisa Barbieri

Turn your attention to your internal landscape rather than the next building project. Make your next project yourself

My wife and I are in our late 60s. The past 20 years have felt like treading water, as all my funds are tied up in a property that, for complex reasons, I am unable to sell. We are both creative. Over the past year or so I’ve made some improvements to our house, things that make people say wow. I enjoy seeing their pleasure, but their praise isn’t hugely important to me. In fact, I am somewhat reclusive. I do not enjoy being part of a wider community and I’m content with a handful of close friends.

Last year my father died, and after a period of despair, during which I found myself contemplating suicide (I did not share this with my wife), I turned first to Samaritans, then a therapist.

Published: April 12, 2026, 5:00 am

This is how we do it: ‘I love the idea of only knowing one person intimately for the rest of my life’

Studying on different continents is a challenge for Veronika and Fabio … Can their young love go the distance?

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

There have been days when we’ve been on the phone for 10 hours at a stretch

When I’ve flown back to see her, we’ve tried to make up for lost time

Published: April 12, 2026, 10:00 am

‘They’re all junk, and should be banned’: the trouble with at-home food intolerance tests

A multimillion-pound industry has sprung up promising it can detect sensitivities to certain ingredients with a simple remote finger prick test. But the results can be misleading – and even dangerous

My kitchen table is littered with tiny test tubes, envelopes and plastic lancets. At one end of the table, I have a parcel containing everything I need to take a food intolerance blood test, sold by one of the best-known companies in this market, as well as one of their food and environmental allergy tests, a package deal that cost me just over £200.

At the other end, I’ve arranged everything I need to do a top-of-the-range ALEX2 allergy blood test, which I got from the allergy clinic run by Dr Helen Evans-Howells, a GP and allergy specialist who runs clinics in Hampshire, Belfast and online. This costs £295 and comprises two lancets, which I will soon be using to puncture tiny holes in several of my fingertips; a blood tube; disinfecting wipes; and a return envelope. In the middle of the table, I have a large bowl of hot water, in which my left hand is soaking. I’ve also cut off a lock of my hair, which is now in a sandwich bag ready to be sent to a lab tomorrow for bioresonance testing. My plan is to compare the three sets of results, all from samples taken on the very same day. Given that I don’t have any food or environmental allergies or intolerances, all three tests should show exactly the same thing: nothing.

Published: April 12, 2026, 5:00 am

‘It feels as if I’ve made a new best friend’: my experiment with AI journalling

What’s it like to have a diary that talks back to you, offering comments and advice on your hopes, fears and lunch plans? I spent two months finding out

Ever since I was a teenager, I have kept some form of diary. These days I favour a paper one for creative brainstorming, and the Journal app on my iPad where I do a speedily typed brain dump every morning. I have always found it a great way to impose some sort of order on my random thoughts, a form of meditation.

But I had never even heard of AI journalling until a Google search led me down a rabbit hole where I encountered people enthusing about two apps, Rosebud and Mindsera. It sounded as if Mindsera’s minimalist design was the best for writers. Out of curiosity, never intending to stick with it, I downloaded a free trial.

Published: April 12, 2026, 1:00 pm

Charlotte Riley: ‘The girl in the photo would be thrilled I’m an actor’

The TV star and writer on soundtracked car journeys with her dad, why she took a break from acting, and her husband Tom Hardy’s ‘cracking’ cup of tea

Born in Grindon, County Durham, in 1981, Charlotte Riley is an actor and writer. She studied English at Durham University before training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda). Riley first came to prominence with her portrayal of Cathy in Wuthering Heights in 2009, and has since appeared in series such as Peaky Blinders and Press, as well as on stage. In 2017, she founded The WonderWorks, a network of childcare support options for people involved in the TV and film industry. She has two children and a stepson with her husband, the actor Tom Hardy. Riley stars in the BBC’s new series Babies, Trying on Apple TV+ and the forthcoming Tomb Raider Amazon series.

I was always described as cheeky and smiley as a kid, and this photo of me in my dad’s office in Teesside proves exactly that. It was my first time going to work with him, so I wanted to wear a jumper that was just like the one he usually wore. I have vivid memories of the room smelling of drip coffee, and I know that I was happy, even though it was a super boring place to be.

Published: April 12, 2026, 1:00 pm

Time-travelling in Cantabria: from the stone age to Sartre via the ‘prettiest town in Spain’

On the north coast of Spain you can see some of the world’s oldest art, explore a stunning medieval village, then watch surfers ride Atlantic swells

Exploring the area west of Santander feels like being in a time machine. Within a half-hour drive of the Cantabrian capital on Spain’s green northern coast, you can stumble upon prehistoric cave art, a perfectly preserved medieval town and a laid-back beach resort.

When I began my weekend trip, it was raining, so my journey started in the Upper Paleolithic period, at the Cave of Altamira, a Unesco world heritage site, staring up at some of the oldest art on Earth. Well, almost. The original cave was largely closed to the public decades ago to protect the fragile paintings, so we were inside the Neocueva, a painstakingly reconstructed replica built beside it that costs just €3 to enter.

Published: April 12, 2026, 6:00 am

The United States is destroying itself | Rebecca Solnit

The daily news can’t adequately convey the administration’s sabotaging of our government, economy, alliances and environment

The United States is being murdered, and it’s an inside job. Every department, every branch, every bureau and function of the federal government is being fatally corrupted or altogether dismantled or disabled. All this is common knowledge, but because it dribbles out in news stories about this specific incident or department, the reports never adequately describe an administration sabotaging the functioning of the federal government and also trashing the global economy, international alliances and relationships, and the national and global environment in ways that will have downstream consequences for decades and perhaps, especially when it comes to climate, centuries.

Across the branches of government, the services that are supposed to protect us – nuclear stockpile monitoring, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism – are being undermined, understaffed or trashed. A different kind of protection that consists of public health, vaccination programs, food safety, clean air and water, social services, civil rights and the rule of law is also under attack. The federal government that serves us is being starved while the federal government that serves the Trump agenda and the oligarchy is glutting itself on taxpayer money, including the grotesque sums dumped on the Department of Homeland Security and the US military now being warped into Pete Hegseth’s twisted vision of a ruthless mercenary force. Hegseth has reportedly stood in the way of promotions for more than a dozen Black and female officers.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her newest book is The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change

Published: April 12, 2026, 10:00 am

Blue city, red state battle: Kansas City feuds over ‘colonial’ police system

Democratic city does not control its police force – and reform attempts have been thwarted by Republicans

Quinton Lucas said he thinks his city’s police department “is a colonial system”.

“I think it is anti-Black. I think it is anti-immigrant. I think it is anti-almost everything we stand for in terms of making sure that diverse populations in major cities have a voice in terms of navigating it,” the Kansas City mayor said.

Published: April 12, 2026, 12:00 pm

Spring clean in Seoul and tribute to an Indian music legend: photos of the day – Monday

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

Published: April 13, 2026, 1:11 pm