Welcome to Y’all Street: bullish Dallas aims to steal New York’s financial crown

Texas city believes loose rules and low taxes will make the US’s biggest banks come running – can it pull it off?

As the warm sun rises over the Dallas skyline, SUVs and pickup trucks whiz past an unassuming construction site that is helping cement the city’s Texas-sized financial ambitions.

Nestled between towers claimed by Bank of America and JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs has cordoned off 800,000 sq ft for a new Dallas campus able to host more than 5,000 staff. But the $700m (£530m) project is more than a regional expansion plan by one of America’s largest banks. It is another win for the lobbyists behind Dallas’s “Y’all Street” – the Texan city’s aggressive push to steal New York’s financial crown.

Published: April 10, 2026, 6:00 am

Trump’s war and Melania’s Epstein statement, with US editor Betsy Reed – The Latest

Melania Trump made a surprise appearance at the White House on Thursday to announce that she ‘never had a relationship’ with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. Her address has seemingly put Epstein back on the political agenda when focus had been firmly on the US and Israel’s war in Iran. The intervention came at a difficult time for her husband, Donald Trump, as the fragile ceasefire agreed between the US and Iran seemed to be at risk of falling apart, and as US lawmakers are raising the alarm over the president’s mental stability. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian US editor, Betsy Reed

Published: April 10, 2026, 4:51 pm

Pete Hegseth’s holy war: the militant Christian theology animating the US attack on Iran

The Bible-thumping US defense secretary is overseeing another strategic disaster in the Middle East. Is this a war or a crusade?

Nine months and six days before a Tomahawk missile tore through the gaily decorated classrooms of the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, Iran, ripping apart the bodies of schoolchildren, teachers and parents, the personal pastor of the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, delivered a sermon at the Pentagon.

“There’s a temptation to think that you’re actually in control and responsible for final outcomes, especially for those who issue the commands and do the aiming and the shooting,” preached Brooks Potteiger, Hegseth’s closest spiritual adviser, at the first of what have become monthly Christian worship services at the Department of Defense. “But you are not ultimately in charge of the world.”

Published: April 10, 2026, 12:00 pm

Artemis II crew splashes down safely off California coast, capping historic Nasa moon mission – live updates

Nasa confirms ‘textbook splashdown’ at 5.07pm PT; Reid Wiseman, the Artemis II commander, reports ‘four green crew members’

• Artemis II crew splashes down in Pacific Ocean, ending record-breaking moon flyby

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The scheduled splashdown of Artemis II in the Pacific Ocean, at 8.07pm ET (5.07pm PT; 12.07am GMT), is now just under three hours away.

The Orion spacecraft has completed its third and final return trajectory correction burn (RTC), a nine-second, precise firing of its thrusters to maintain a correct course for Earth.

Published: April 11, 2026, 12:58 am

Power up! Could force be the secret to supercharging your fitness?

Mobility, cardio and strength are important, but power – generating force quickly – is the workout element that will help you stay active for longer, say health and fitness experts

Chasing after your dog, catching yourself before you fall, jumping over a big puddle. These activities all have something in common, and it’s not just that they’re the makings of a very bad day. They rely on power: the ability to generate force quickly. It’s an often overlooked part of the fitness menu that experts think deserves more attention.

Mobility, cardio and strength all help us stay active and healthy as we get older. Strength training in particular has boomed in recent years, as the importance of building muscle mass to keep us strong, protect our bones and help us stay mobile as we age becomes more widely recognised. But when it comes to activities such as pushing yourself up from a chair or moving your arms quickly to break a fall, the size of your muscles will only get you so far. You also need power.

Published: April 10, 2026, 2:00 pm

Bullying might work when you’re 12. Does it work when you’re president? | Dave Schilling

Trump’s missile-rattling isn’t helping anyone. At least that makes it easier to explain the world to my kid

Were you bullied as a child? If so, congratulations. You are probably pretty interesting, or maybe you have an extreme body odor problem. Either way, you were noticeable enough to warrant being picked on by someone with extreme self-loathing or an even worse body odor problem. That’s the nature of bullying, though. The fact that you’re a target at all is a sign that something about you is remarkable. Total feckless duds don’t get bullied; they fade into the background, then become Democratic senators.

The aim of the bully is to bring down someone they’re threatened by, to assert their dominance over a person who reflects their insecurities back on them so that they might feel more powerful while applying a vicious wedgie. I wasn’t bullied so much as teased verbally for being eccentric, biracial, vegetarian and not particularly tough. I also had a lisp thanks to having a gap in my front teeth for years prior to my parents mercifully getting me braces in middle school. I was an easy punchline for anyone looking to score points during lunch in the quad.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

Published: April 10, 2026, 12:00 pm

JD Vance warns Iran against trying to ‘play’ the US in peace talks

US vice-president flies to Islamabad for negotiations as Iranians insists Israel end its offensive in Lebanon

• Middle East crisis – live updates

JD Vance has warned Iran not to “try and play” the US at talks planned for Saturday in Islamabad, while Tehran said it would not take part until Israel stopped bombing of Lebanon.

The US vice-president made the comments as he boarded a plane to Pakistan for negotiations that could determine whether a ceasefire holds or the war on Iran resumes with grave implications for the global economy.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:20 pm

Calls mount for California governor candidate Eric Swalwell to quit after multiple women accuse him of sexual assault – live

An ex-staffer of Swalwell and three other women allege sexual assault or misconduct in news reports as the US representative’s gubernatorial campaign implodes

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On Truth Social, Donald Trump issued a cryptic message this morning that appeared to be in reference to the upcoming negotiations in Islamabad, but remains unclear.

“WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL RESET!!!” he wrote.

Published: April 11, 2026, 12:55 am

Survivors of Epstein’s abuse accuse Melania Trump of ‘shifting burden’ on to victims

Outrage from survivors follows first lady’s statement calling on Congress to hold public hearings with victims of Epstein’s abuse

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More than a dozen survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse have accused Melania Trump of “shifting the burden” on to them after she called on Congress to hold public hearings with victims of Epstein’s abuse.

“Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein have already shown extraordinary courage by coming forward, filing reports, and giving testimony,” said a group of 13 people and the brother and sister of the late Virginia Giuffre, who was one of the most vocal Epstein accusers, in a statement. “Asking more of them now is a deflection of responsibility not justice.”

Published: April 10, 2026, 11:01 pm

Trump administration releases new renderings of so-called ‘Arc de Trump’

Triumphal arch would be 250ft tall, featuring a 60ft golden Lady Liberty, at the foot of Arlington Memorial Bridge

The Trump administration on Friday released new renderings of the triumphal arch the president wants to install in Memorial Circle at the foot of the Arlington Memorial Bridge.

As part of Donald Trump’s legacy-building quest during his second term in office, the so-called “Arc de Trump” would stand 250ft tall, feature a 60ft golden Lady Liberty, and include a viewing deck. The phrase “One Nation Under God” would stretch across the top of the structure, according to the latest plans from Harrison Design.

Published: April 10, 2026, 8:11 pm

Kamala Harris ‘thinking about’ running for president again in 2028

Former vice-president teases White House bid while Pete Buttigieg also suggests he may launch campaign

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Kamala Harris said she is “thinking about” running in the 2028 presidential election.

“I might, I might. I’m thinking about it,” the former vice-president and 2024 candidate told the crowd at a gathering of the National Action Network (NAN), a civil rights organization founded by Al Sharpton, on Friday in New York City.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:27 pm

Former New York City mayor Eric Adams obtains Albanian citizenship

Adams was granted citizenship and a passport from Balkan country by a special decree from the republic’s president

Eric Adams has obtained citizenship and a passport from Albania, the Balkan country which received effusive compliments from the former New York City mayor during a visit there relatively recently.

The Albania Daily News first reported on Friday that Adams had requested both and was granted them by a special decree from the republic’s president, Bajram Begaj. A spokesperson for Adams then confirmed that development in a statement distributed to the news media, and it was evidently chronicled in Albania’s official government journal.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:44 pm

Worker who allegedly set fire to California warehouse compares self to Luigi Mangione

Chamel Abdulkarim was charged with felony and state arson counts after allegedly destroying property worth nearly $600m

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An employee who allegedly burned down a California warehouse compared himself to Luigi Mangione in a message to co-workers after setting the fire, according to authorities in a Friday press conference, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Chamel Abdulkarim, 29, has been charged with several counts of felony and state arson after a massive fire destroyed the Kimberly-Clark paper products warehouse in Ontario, California, about an hour outside of Los Angeles.

Published: April 10, 2026, 8:19 pm

California coffee chain faces backlash after pledge to remove Pride flags

Petition with 4,000 signatures decries ‘slap in the face’, saying Philz made fortune off LGBTQ+ community

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Philz, a popular coffee chain with locations across California, is facing growing criticism after news broke that the San Francisco-based company planned to remove Pride flags from its stores.

The move is part of an effort to “[create] a more consistent, inclusive experience across all our stores, including removing a variety of flags and other decor”, Mahesh Sadarangani, the company’s CEO, said in a statement to the Guardian.

Published: April 10, 2026, 8:16 pm

‘A story that needs to be told’: the Manacillos festival of Colombia – photo essay

Ever Andrés Mercado won a World Press Photo award for his work on the Manacillos festival, which takes place among the Afro-descendant community of Yurumanguí. Here he talks about the ancestral ritual and why it’s so important

Every year, hundreds of Afro-Colombians climb into wooden boats and set sail down the Yurumanguí River. They navigate dense rainforest, scramble through mangroves, and battle charging river currents, to disembark about 12 hours later in the remote village of Juntas.

It is here that they reunite and gather for an ancestral ritual: the Manacillos festival.

People living in the Juntas village of Yurumanguí use the festival as a way to unite and attract more people who, for years, had to flee the territory.

Published: April 10, 2026, 11:00 am

‘This is as important as your teeth’: are you skipping this key part of mouth hygiene?

Dentists say ‘everyone needs to be educated about cleaning the tongue’. Here’s how it’s done

It’s drilled into us from a young age: brush your teeth twice a day. But when it comes to oral health, experts say we’re leaving out something important.

“Everyone needs to be educated about cleaning the tongue,” says Dr Maria Figueroa, a dentist and program director at NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln. “This is as important as your teeth.”

Published: April 10, 2026, 7:42 pm

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair review – the TV magic they’ve created here is absolutely miraculous

This revival does the impossible: it’s effortlessly funny and refreshing, and Bryan Cranston’s performance is unmissable. They have to make more

At this point, Bryan Cranston is firmly entrenched as one of the world’s finest actors. He has seven Emmys, two Tonys and a Golden Globe to his name. History, quite rightly, will remember him as one of the greats. That said – and this really wasn’t a sentence I expected to write a couple of hours ago – there is a distinct possibility that the greatest work of his entire career might be the scene in the Malcolm in the Middle revival where he thrashes around naked as he is overcome by a drug-induced ego death.

Perhaps this does make some small amount of sense. Although Malcolm in the Middle became best known as an absurd counterpoint to Breaking Bad – the sheer dramatic intensity of the latter playing against the generic sitcom daddery of the former – those of us who always loved the show knew that Cranston spent a lot of it going full throttle.

Published: April 10, 2026, 4:00 am

‘Butter Birkin’: popcorn plastic It bag in demand by Devil Wears Prada fans

Coveted £20 accessory to be marketed as part of sequel’s ticket deal – and is already being touted for resale from £130

In a recent trailer for the highly anticipated The Devil Wears Prada sequel, the cast are seen parading through the streets of New York City carrying an array of designer handbags, including clutches and satchels from Chanel and Valentino.

But among fans of the film there is a very different type of It bag in demand: a popcorn bucket shaped to resemble a structured tote bag is quickly becoming a coveted accessory.

Published: April 10, 2026, 4:55 pm

Experience: my house was taken over by 70,000 bees

My daughter complained of monsters in her closet – at night she could hear a hum in the wall

It started in September 2023, when my daughter Saylor was three years old. She began having trouble sleeping, and said there were monsters in her closet. She could hear a hum in the wall. We thought it was because she loved the movie Monsters, Inc, given it’s about monsters who visit children’s bedrooms at night. We calmed her down by giving her a bottle of water, which we called monster spray.

But soon she was scared again. By February, she was back in our room. Later that month, I saw a giant cluster of bees buzzing by the attic laundry vent outside the house. I was pregnant with our third child, exhausted, and thought I was hallucinating.

Published: April 10, 2026, 4:00 am

Kimmel on Trump: ‘He talks about war like he’s bragging about women with Billy Bush’

Late-night host covered Trump’s latest social media posts on Iran and Melania’s surprise statement on Jeffrey Epstein

Jimmy Kimmel expressed frustration over Donald Trump’s confusing statements on Iran while also expressing shock over Melania Trump’s surprise statement.

The ABC host spoke about the ongoing war in Iran that is happening “for reasons known only to Donald Trump” and how we remain unsure over the strait of Hormuz and whether it is or isn’t open.

Published: April 10, 2026, 1:56 pm

Toxic putdowns, brutal zingers ... and an unexpected love story – inside the joyful climax to brilliant sitcom Hacks

Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder are TV’s funniest and nastiest odd-couple in this Emmy-winning smash hit. But co-creator and star Paul W Downs discusses why things are a lot sunnier and sillier for the pair in its final series

It hit the Vegas Strip running. Since it crashed on to our screens in 2021, Hacks has been a critical darling. This tale of a pair of extremely different comics who end up working together takes the classic sitcom set up, injects it with some HBO gloss, and gives us a grippingly watchable central relationship that is frequently adorable – while also featuring some of TV’s most venomous putdowns. It has a 99% Rotten Tomatoes score, 12 Emmy wins, including outstanding comedy series in 2024, and has propelled its cast into the stratosphere. And it’s about to enter its final season ever.

There’s nothing new about its ending, though. “The concept came to us in 20 … 15?” says Paul W Downs, who created the show with his wife, Lucia Aniello, and their creative partner Jen Statsky. They even had the ending in mind at the first meeting at which they pitched the show to HBO in 2019. “We really had it fully fleshed out, including the final episode, which we pitched to most networks.”

Published: April 10, 2026, 12:00 pm

Week in wildlife: an ostrich on the lam, a tortoise crossing a road and surfing seals

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Published: April 10, 2026, 7:00 am

Netanyahu-ism has achieved nothing for Israelis – and come at a monstrously high price | Jonathan Freedland

It is the voting public in Israel that will settle their PM’s fate later this year. But all they have heard are promises of ‘total victory’ that prove to be hollow

It is a record of abject failure. I am not speaking of Donald Trump, though I could be. Instead, I am talking about his partner in this terrible war.

Naturally, Trump has been the star of the show. He has been the face of the 40-day war on Iran, whether dialling up the threats against the country in foul, bloodthirsty language – “a whole civilisation will die tonight” – or announcing on his own social media platform a two-week ceasefire and the talks that are supposed to begin this weekend in Islamabad. But Trump has had an ally at his side, who only now is entering the spotlight. That ally is Benjamin Netanyahu.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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Published: April 10, 2026, 5:03 pm

Anthropic’s new AI tool has implications for us all – whether we can use it or not | Shakeel Hashim

Claude Mythos’s apparent superhuman hacking abilities are alarming experts as the Trump administration remains blinded by hostility

In June 2024, a cyber-attack on a pathology services company caused chaos across London’s hospitals. More than 10,000 appointments were cancelled. Blood shortages followed and delays to blood tests led to a patient’s death.

Lethal cyber-attacks like this are thankfully rare. But a new AI release could change that – plunging us into a terrifying new world of chaos and disruption to the digital systems that we rely on.

Shakeel Hashim is the editor of Transformer, a publication about the power and politics of transformative AI

Published: April 10, 2026, 5:31 pm

Why is anyone surprised by the US and Israel’s latest war? It’s only what the world allowed them to do in Gaza | Owen Jones

The price of silence from western politicians and media outlets over Israel’s actions in Palestine is now being paid by Iranian and Lebanese civilians

The president of the United States threatened this week to commit genocide against Iran. As Israel engages in continued bombing in Lebanon, killing more than 200 people in a single day, that fact must never be scrubbed away, not least because there is no guarantee the threat will not be revived. But as we descend towards the abyss, we need to understand where our fall began.

“A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Donald Trump wrote on Tuesday. Just over a year ago, he announced: “A civilisation has been wiped out in Gaza.” The connection is not hard to trace. Trump knew Gaza had been razed by Israel, insisting it was “not a place for people to be living”. When he joined forces with the perpetrator of that genocide in an illegal war on Iran, the apocalyptic rubble of Gaza became a template.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

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Published: April 10, 2026, 9:48 am

Martin Rowson on Middle East peace talks – cartoon

Continue reading...

Published: April 10, 2026, 4:28 pm

Pete Hegseth is a disaster of a defense secretary. It’s no surprise | Margaret Sullivan

The former Fox host has misled the public, prayed for violence and clashed with the press. This is not a serious military leader

With his jawline firm and his hair coiffed, Pete Hegseth was a good fit as a Fox News personality.

As the defense secretary – or secretary of war, as his boss, Donald Trump would have it – he’s disastrous.

Published: April 10, 2026, 10:00 am

The Guardian view on Trump’s civilisational threats: the words that fuel war must be condemned | Editorial

Military euphemisms can be deadly. Yet the brutal rhetoric of the US and Israel is proving still more lethal

“Metaphors can kill,” the linguist George Lakoff wrote in an influential essay on the Gulf war. “The use of a metaphor with a set of definitions becomes pernicious when it hides realities in a harmful way.” He described the effects of the US employment of business cost-and-benefit analogies, sporting comparisons and the fairytale of the just war with heroes and villains.

All veiled the reality of conflict. Euphemism was long the preferred choice for the US military. Spokespeople discussed “collateral damage” rather than civilian deaths and “surgical strikes”, framing destruction as both precise and part of a necessary and ultimately healing process. Donald Trump chooses naked menace instead. This week he issued a genocidal threat against Iran, having previously threatened to bomb it “back to the stone age” and destroy bridges and power plants – schools and medical facilities having already been pulverised. He said that he was “not at all” concerned about potential war crimes.

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Published: April 10, 2026, 5:17 pm

The Guardian view on dystopias for our times: the American nightmare | Editorial

Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments and the Oscar-winning film One Battle After Another are grim parables of today. But they are not without hope

As Margaret Atwood has said, all dystopian fiction is “really about now”. No wonder the genre is flourishing. This week Atwood’s bleak vision of a future America as a patriarchal theocracy returned to TV screens with the adaptation of her prize-winning 2019 novel The Testaments, the long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, set in a chillingly recognisable militarised America, swept the Oscars last month.

Back in 1984 when Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale, she feared that its central premise – that the US could be transformed from a liberal democracy into Gilead, a theocratic dictatorship after a coup – was too outrageous to convince readers. She need not have worried. By the time the novel was made into the award-winning TV series in 2017, it was all too believable. Arriving just after Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and the rollback of women’s rights, the show felt made for the moment. Atwood was hailed as a prophet. The red-and-white handmaid robes became a symbol of female defiance across the globe. “For a long time we were going away from Gilead and then we turned around and started going back,” Atwood said of her decision to write a follow-up more than 30 years later.

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Published: April 10, 2026, 5:13 pm

Rory McIlroy surges into six-shot Masters lead with stunning second-round flourish

• Six birdies in final seven holes for defending champion

• Burns and Reed at -6, Rose, Lowry and Fleetwood at -5

After spending 16 years as the hunter, Rory McIlroy is relishing his position as the hunted. The defending Masters champion has reached the halfway point of the 2026 staging in a style that asserts his desperation to hang on to the Green Jacket. Elk, served as sliders in the 36-year-old’s champions dinner on Tuesday evening, were seen diving for cover in mountainous regions as McIlroy placed daylight between himself and pretenders to his throne.

McIlroy won at Augusta National in 2025 and eventually discovered that was not his final career destination after all. He is now 36 holes from becoming only the fourth man in history to back up a Masters win with a Masters win. McIlroy’s distinctly relaxed state of mind means only the bold will back against him from here. Even the prospect of falling short is unlikely to perturb McIlroy. He did quite enough of that in earlier years before rebounding in ferocious fashion. A grand slam winner has a mindset to match.

Published: April 10, 2026, 11:04 pm

Ichiro Suzuki statue unveiling goes awry as bronze bat snaps during ceremony

• Mariners unveil Ichiro statue at Seattle ballpark

• Bronze bat snaps as curtain drops at ceremony

• Suzuki laughs off mishap with Mariano joke

Oh, snap.

The unveiling of Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki’s statue had an unforced error on Friday – a broken bat.

Published: April 10, 2026, 11:16 pm

Justin Rose struggles to keep his cool in the heat but Masters dream lives on | Andy Bull

Three-time runner-up throws his putter after missing birdie chance on the 4th as he seeks Augusta glory after long wait

Hot days and hard greens at the Masters. It was up in the mid- 80s by lunchtime on Friday, and that was if you were underneath the trees with a Georgia peach ice-cream sandwich. Out there on the other side of the ropes it looked a whole lot hotter again. The world’s best golfers sweated away chasing after Rory McIlroy’s lead in conditions which, they all agreed, could yet get as tough as they come at Augusta National. By midway through the afternoon McIlroy loomed over the tournament like the Augusta sun, and you worried players who made the mistake of looking right at the big white leaderboards might burn their eyes on the numbers he was running up.

A way up ahead along the course, Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth were each doing their best to just stay focused on their own game. There was a time, and not so long ago, when both Spieth and Koepka had a claim to be even better than the man they were now trailing, and Rose, of course, played one of the very best rounds of his life to finish runner-up to McIlroy here last year. They have won nine majors between the three of them, but with McIlroy in this sort of form, it was hard work just to stay within a short iron’s distance of him over the weekend.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:32 pm

A lower-round AJ Brown to a 306lb missile: the 2026 NFL draft’s under-the-radar prospects

Fernando Mendoza will almost certainly go No 1 overall. But who are the players that teams may take a swing on after the big names have gone?

You have to go back to 2000 to find a year in which fewer than four quarterbacks were selected in the top 100 picks. But in this year’s mediocre quarterback class, the fourth quarterback may not go off the board until day three. After Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza and Alabama’s Ty Simpson, it’s unclear who will even be the third taken. There is a chasm from the top two down to LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, Penn State’s Drew Allar and Miami’s Carson Beck. All three are flawed. The most tantalizing mid-round quarterback is Payton, a one-year, lefty starter out of North Dakota State.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:00 am

Potential US host cities for 2031 Women’s World Cup games mull withdrawal over Fifa concerns

• Chicago and Pittsburgh decline to enter running

• Some cities opt to focus on men’s Rugby World Cup

• Bid approval delayed by reported government holdups

A number of American cities named in the running to host games at the 2031 Women’s World Cup are considering withdrawing over concerns related to Fifa’s handling of this summer’s World Cup.

The Guardian has learned that several cities are exploring whether to focus solely on winning the right to host matches at the men’s 2031 Rugby World Cup. The US will also stage the women’s rugby tournament two years later.

Published: April 10, 2026, 1:43 pm

US inflation soars in March as war on Iran drives economy into uncertainty

Prices were up 3.3% over the year, adding to the unpredictability that first came with Trump tariffs

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US inflation soared in March amid the US-Israel war with Iran, with prices up 0.9% compared with last month and 3.3% over the year, according to new data released on Friday.

The spike in the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the price of a basket of goods and services, is the largest in nearly two years and the first official measure of how the conflict has affected US consumer prices, particularly as Iran blocked the strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas would typically pass.

Published: April 10, 2026, 12:37 pm

Multiple people face charges, including murder, in California fireworks blast

Massive fire followed explosion at 5,000-sq-ft warehouse near Esparto, an hour from Sacramento, on 1 July

Multiple people have been charged with murder in connection to a fatal fireworks-warehouse explosion in California that killed seven people and injured two others in July.

The explosion at the 5,000-sq-ft warehouse sparked a massive fire near the small town of Esparto, about an hour outside Sacramento. The explosion took place on 1 July; local celebrations to commemorate the Fourth of July holiday were cancelled that year.

Published: April 11, 2026, 12:22 am

Ex-NYPD sergeant jailed for up to nine years over man’s death on scooter

Erik Duran in 2023 threw cooler at fleeing suspect Eric Duprey, who then crashed his motorized scooter and died

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A former New York police department sergeant has been sentenced to three to nine years in prison for tossing a picnic cooler full of ice and drinks at a fleeing suspect, who then crashed his motorized scooter and died.

Erik Duran, 38, was convicted of manslaughter in the 2023 death of 30-year-old Eric Duprey. The ex-sergeant said he was trying to protect other officers from the approaching scooter. He is the first former NYPD officer sentenced to prison for an on-duty death in at least two decades.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:52 pm

Prince Harry sued for defamation by charity he co-founded

Legal action follows war of words with Sentebale chair after Duke of Sussex’s resignation as patron

The Duke of Sussex is being sued by Sentebale in the latest twist in the bitter fallout over the African charity he co-founded.

The charity has lodged papers in London’s high court over defamation claims naming Prince Harry and the former Sentebale trustee Mark Dyer as defendants.

Published: April 10, 2026, 5:41 pm

Repurposed drug may extend survival in aggressive ovarian cancer, trial shows

Relacorilant, typically used to treat Cushing’s syndrome, could improve outcomes in platinum-resistant cases

A drug originally used to treat a rare disease could extend the lives of patients with an aggressive form of ovarian cancer, according to a clinical trial.

Platinum-resistant ovarian cancer occurs when the disease progresses within six months of starting platinum-based chemotherapy. This form of chemotherapy is different from other types because it uses compounds that contain platinum to destroy cancer cells by preventing them from dividing.

Published: April 10, 2026, 7:55 pm

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home targeted with molotov cocktail

Suspect arrested but not identified and has allegedly made similar threats to OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters

A 20-year-old man allegedly tossed a molotov cocktail at the home of Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, before the sun rose on Friday, according to statements from San Francisco police.

The suspect, who allegedly threw the fire bomb at the $27m North Beach residence around 4.12am, has been arrested but not identified. The same person allegedly threatened to torch OpenAI’s headquarters in the city. No injuries were reported.

Published: April 10, 2026, 7:08 pm

Human rights groups decry US plan for Guantánamo camp for Cuban migrants

Exclusive: Dozens of organizations write to Congress after general announced plan to ‘deal with’ those fleeing any humanitarian crisis on the island

Dozens of US and international human rights organizations are decrying the Trump administration’s plans to establish a migrant “camp” for fleeing Cubans at the Guantánamo Bay military base if the island nation’s crisis worsens under pressure from the US, according to a letter to members of Congress on Friday.

The 85 groups plan to submit the joint letter, exclusively shared with the Guardian, to US senators and House representatives, expressing their “profound concern” with comments made last month by a top Department of Defense commander, and describing any prospect of further migrant detention at the base as “deeply troubling and unacceptable”.

Published: April 10, 2026, 2:02 pm

Wyoming man who injured wolf, taped its mouth shut and then killed it receives probation

Cody Roberts received widespread opprobrium for his ‘disturbing’ treatment of gray wolf but avoided jail time

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A grisly encounter in which a Wyoming hunter ran over a gray wolf, took pictures of the creature at a bar and then killed it has ended with the hunter avoiding prison but facing probation, fines – and widespread outrage.

A state judge in Pinedale, Wyoming, handed down an 18-month probation sentence to Cody Roberts, 44, about two years after he hit the wolf with a snowmobile, restrained the wounded animal by taping its mouth shut, brought it into a rural bar and ultimately killed it.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:25 pm

Texas court overturns sentence for man on death row for nearly 50 years

Clarence Curtis Jordan was convicted in 1978 but hadn’t had a lawyer for over 30 years

The Texas court of criminal appeals has overturned the death sentence of Clarence Curtis Jordan, a 70-year-old man with intellectual disabilities, who spent nearly 50 years on death row – much of that time without a lawyer.

Jordan was convicted in 1978 for the murder of Joe L Williams, a 40-year-old grocer in Houston, and was sentenced to death. In the years that followed, courts determined that Jordan, who has intellectual disabilities, was “incompetent”, making him ineligible for execution under constitutional standards.

Published: April 10, 2026, 2:11 pm

‘Illegal’ forest service overhaul risks causing ‘chaos’ across US public lands, union claims

The restructuring will close all regional offices, which manages 193m acres of land, roughly the size of Texas

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US public lands will “pay the price” of a drive by Donald Trump’s officials to restructure the agency that oversees them, union leaders have warned, accusing the administration of forcing workers to decide whether to relocate or resign.

All regional offices of the US Forest Service, which manages 78m hectares (193m acres) of land – roughly the size of Texas – are set to close as part of an overhaul launched by the Trump administration. The service has already shed hundreds of staff members since Trump returned to power last year.

Published: April 10, 2026, 10:00 am

Argentina just ripped up its pioneering glacier law. What does this mean for millions of people’s drinking water?

Javier Milei’s reforms to the law will open up high-altitude areas to mining and risk water reserves already strained by the climate crisis, say activists

Saul Zeballos was born and raised in Jáchal, a community tucked into the foothills of the Andes in Argentina, drinking water from the river that bears the town’s name. That changed in 2005, when the Veladero gold and silver mine started operating in San Juan province.

A decade later, a major cyanide spill from the mine polluted the rivers in the San Juan region, raising fears it could affect waterways downstream in the Jáchal basin, although further studies have shown that cyanide levels remained at safe levels. Two further spills were reported in 2016 and 2017 and are still under investigation.

Published: April 10, 2026, 10:00 am

A rare sign of hope as mountain gorillas welcome two sets of twins in Africa

In this week’s newsletter: Once close to extinction, the species is rebounding due to years of conservation work

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I will never forget the moment I first saw a mountain gorilla. It was early on Mount Muhabura in Uganda, and I had spent the morning stumbling up the slopes of the inactive volcano in the Virunga range, which also spans Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Just when I thought my lungs could not take it any more, I noticed the silhouette of a creature picking leaves off a branch in a forest clearing. It was not alone. Nine mountain gorillas – all members of the Nyakagezi family – were having their breakfast around me.

I was with Ugandan park rangers and veterinarians from the NGO Gorilla Doctors, who have helped oversee one of the most remarkable turnarounds in the fortunes of an endangered species in the past century – and I was excited to learn more about how they did it.

As Iran war exposes global dependence on fossil fuels, the biggest emitters are reaping the rewards

‘A surrender to special interests’: alarm as Utah shields fossil-fuel companies

‘All we can do now is pray they continue’: Maasai welcome the first rains but know that drought is far from over

Published: April 10, 2026, 6:00 am

Meta must face Massachusetts lawsuit over youth social media addiction, court rules

Ruling by state’s top court comes as 34 other states are pursuing similar cases against Meta in federal court

Meta Platforms must face a lawsuit by the Massachusetts attorney general alleging that as the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, it deliberately designed social media features to addict young users, the state’s top court ruled on Friday.

The ruling by the Massachusetts supreme judicial court marked the first time a state high court has considered whether a federal law that generally shields internet companies from lawsuits over content posted by their users would also bar claims that companies like Meta knowingly addicted young users.

Published: April 10, 2026, 5:38 pm

’He’s mentally unstable’: Iranian American in Congress condemns Trump’s war and pushes for his removal

Democratic representative Yassamin Ansari says the war has only more deeply entrenched the Iranian regime

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Donald Trump is an “evil human being” who “wants to be an emperor” and should be removed from office over the war in Iran, Yassamin Ansari, an Iranian American member of the US Congress, has told the Guardian.

Ansari, the daughter of Iranian immigrants who decades ago fled the regime, spoke out after the president threatened to wipe out Iran’s civilisation before backing down and announcing an uncertain two-week ceasefire.

Published: April 10, 2026, 10:00 am

Trump posts graphic video of woman’s killing in Florida

President’s post on Truth Social is in keeping with a pattern of using shocking video to sow fear about immigration and justify mass deportation

Besieged by questions about his war on Iran and his wife’s statement on Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump tried to shift the national conversation back to his immigration crackdown by posting a graphic, distressing video of a woman in Florida being killed last week by a man he described as an “illegal immigrant” from Haiti.

The video, taken by a surveillance camera outside a Fort Myers gas station, showed a man identified by authorities as a Haitian immigrant using a hammer to bludgeon to death the woman, who was reportedly a clerk at the gas station.

Published: April 10, 2026, 7:25 pm

Canadian mother held by ICE with daughter, 7, speaks out on families ‘suffering greatly’ in detention

Tania Warner and her daughter were detained in Texas facilities deemed ‘unsafe and degrading’

When Tania Warner and her seven-year-old daughter, Ayla, were released after nearly three weeks of detention by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Canadian mother’s joy at regaining her freedom was tempered by the knowledge of the many families who remained incarcerated.

“They were wonderful people. I just loved them and I cried so hard when I left, I just wanted to take them all with me,” she said.

Published: April 10, 2026, 11:00 am

Met police accused of favouring Tommy Robinson far-right rally over Palestine march

Celebrities including Annie Lennox and Miriam Margolyes sign letter to force after pro-Palestine march route rejected

Annie Lennox and Miriam Margolyes are among artists who have accused the Metropolitan police of giving preferential treatment to a far-right demonstration led by Tommy Robinson over a pro-Palestine protest in London on the same day.

The pro-Palestine movement has had its preferred route through central London for its annual commemoration of Nakba – the mass expulsion of Palestinians – rejected by the Met, while the “Unite the Kingdom” demonstration will take place on the same date in Kingsway, the Strand, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and Parliament Square. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, posted on X: “London is ours on May 16th.”

Published: April 10, 2026, 3:08 pm

Orbán and Magyar trade accusations in last days of Hungary election campaign

Polls suggest lead for opposition candidate before vote on Sunday as both allege enlistment of foreign interference

• Hungary elections: what is at stake and who is likely to win?

Viktor Orbán and his centre-right rival, Péter Magyar, have traded accusations of enlisting foreign interference in a high-stakes election that polls suggest could mark the end of the nationalist Hungarian prime minister’s 16 years in power.

As the two leaders’ campaigns entered their final stages before this weekend’s vote, which is being watched as keenly in Brussels, Moscow and Washington as in Budapest, Orbán said on social media on Friday that his opponent would “stop at nothing to seize power”.

Published: April 10, 2026, 4:33 pm

Bafta apologises for events surrounding John Davidson’s Tourette’s outburst

An independent review found ‘weaknesses’ in the organisation’s planning and crisis procedures

Bafta has apologised “unreservedly” for the events surrounding John Davidson’s Tourette’s outburst at this year’s ceremony, after an independent review found “weaknesses” in the organisation’s planning and crisis procedures.

Davidson, an executive producer on the Bafta-winning film I Swear, dominated headlines for weeks after involuntarily shouting the N-word as Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage.

Published: April 10, 2026, 12:02 pm

Concerns raised about motorbike tourist trail after death of British teenager in Vietnam

Local people say road conditions are rugged and weather unpredictable, while some say it has become too congested

The recent death of a British gap-year student on the Ha Giang loop, a popular motorcycle tour through the mountains in north Vietnam, has heightened concerns about a trail reputed to be one of the most dangerous in the country.

Orla Wates, 19, from Surrey, was riding as a pillion passenger when she fell off and was hit by an oncoming truck, according to local media. She was taken to hospital in Hanoi, where she died from her injuries last week.

Published: April 10, 2026, 5:20 pm

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Crisis in the Middle East, Russian shelling in Ukraine, Artemis’s lunar flyby and World Press Photo winners – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Warning: this gallery contains images some readers may find distressing

Published: April 10, 2026, 6:26 pm

‘The biggest, baddest, saltiest chick you would ever see’: why no one sang the blues like Big Mama Thornton

Gay, fearless and utterly unique, Thornton had a hit with Hound Dog before Elvis – but was then fleeced and forgotten. One hundred years after her birth, a new documentary sets the record straight

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton exuded uncompromising intensity. Her voice conveyed struggle and defiance, fury and hurt, like few others. Standing at 6ft 2in, with an imposing physique and a razor-scarred face, she was a Black, gay multi-instrumentalist who refused to let a racist society or a rapacious industry confine her.

Thornton should be ranked alongside the likes of Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, but instead she is little more than a footnote in the histories of Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin as the original voice behind songs they would make famous. A new documentary, Big Mama Thornton: I Can’t Be Anyone But Me, aims to right this wrong.

Published: April 10, 2026, 7:00 am

‘I’m not a commercial director – I’m not even a professional film-maker’: Jim Jarmusch on the seven-year journey to make his new film

The 73-year-old has been at the cutting edge of US independent cinema since the 1980s. As Father Mother Sister Brother opens in the UK, he talks about grief, greed and ‘doing crazy shit’ with Steve Coogan

In 1991, Jim Jarmusch was casting for his anthology film Night on Earth. The premise was simple: five taxi drivers in five cities pick up passengers, set to a soundtrack by Tom Waits. The writer-director wanted Gena Rowlands to play a passenger, but she took some persuading. “Night on Earth was the first film she’d made since losing John [the director John Cassavetes, her husband] and she wasn’t sure. Eventually she said: ‘OK, I’ll be in this film for you.’” Jarmusch does a perfect impression of Rowlands, as he does with everyone he quotes – it’s quite a talent.

In the first vignette, Winona Ryder picks up Rowlands, who plays a casting director. Ryder, chewing gum, baseball cap on backwards, lights a cigarette; Rowlands, all old-school Hollywood elegance, sits in the back, asking Ryder about her hopes and dreams. Ryder turns down Rowlands’ offer of potential stardom, declaring that her dream is not to act, but to be a mechanic.

Published: April 10, 2026, 4:00 am

‘There’s no shortage of terrifying technology’: how AI became TV drama’s new go-to villain

Will artificial intelligence save us or destroy us? According to a growing band of thriller scriptwriters, we should be very afraid indeed

Maybe the “H” in Line Of Duty will turn out to stand for “hard drive”? After all, AI has become TV’s go-to villain, as proven once again in last week’s penultimate episode of BBC stablemate The Capture. Sinister puppet-master Simon was unmasked at long last and – spoiler – he wasn’t a person.

“Wait, Simon’s a computer?” asked a baffled agent. “He’s a bit more than that,” replied a smug army bigwig. “We’re using AI to support, map, execute and command ops. Simon factors in more risks and variables than you lot on the ground are capable of knowing. Tell him your objective and he’ll calculate your mission and recalibrate it for you in real time. The stats don’t lie. Simon saves lives.”

Published: April 10, 2026, 2:16 pm

Critics assemble! Here’s my list of the greatest superhero movies of all time

Creating a definitive Top 10 list never fails to spark endless debate – but who doesn’t want to give it a shot? Don your capes and shields, and let the arguments begin …

Putting together a Top 10 list of the best superhero movies of all time may just be the critical equivalent of trying to herd thunder through a spreadsheet. Are we rating the best-made movie, the most influential or the most emotionally ruinous? The genre has exploded over the past 20 years to the point where it long ago swallowed cinema whole: we have crime sagas (most Batman flicks), family comedies (The Incredibles, Guardians of the Galaxy), cultural and political allegories (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-Men, Black Panther), pop-art fever dreams (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and even tales of Wagnerian apocalypse (Watchmen, Avengers: Infinity War).

The sense is that these movies are too varied, the emotional criteria too slippery, the personal attachments some of us have to them too embarrassingly primal, to be placed in a clear hierarchy. Is the No 1 comic book movie of all time the film that made fangirls and boys whimper into their crumpled copies of Amazing Fantasy #15? In which case we might be looking at Spider-Man: No Way Home. Or is it the picture that’s so good it appeals to filmgoers who don’t actually like superhero flicks? That would be The Dark Knight. Is Matt Reeves’ gloriously offbeat, Fincher-esque The Batman too weird and languid to make the list? And does Patty Jenkins’ breezily old-fashioned Wonder Woman get downgraded because it was part of a superhero universe that ultimately tanked?

Published: April 10, 2026, 12:39 pm

Death of a Salesman review – Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf hypnotize in revival

Winter Garden Theatre, New York
Arthur Miller’s 1949 autopsy of the American dream finds new urgency in a stripped-back production

Somewhere in New York, in the middle of the night, a tired man returns home from work. His shoulders are hunched, his gait shuffling and weary. Given the retro coupe he drives, the style of his briefcase and the fact that this is Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller’s 1949 classic play, he’s seemingly in the midst of America’s postwar boom, that “great” era so many would like to return to. But the stage at New York’s Winter Garden Theatre appears curiously period-agnostic. The salesman’s home is not a house but a garage, whose sheet metal door and pockmarked pillars bring to mind any number of industrial storefronts still visible throughout Brooklyn. In this revival of the great American tragedy, with stage design by Chloe Lamford, the Loman family shuffles and agonizes and rages about a “home” of benches, a table and that car in ashy grayscale. Their feet stir up literal dust. Even in sepia-hued, nostalgia-tinted flashbacks, they persist within decay.

I’m as skeptical of the voguish turn toward theatrical minimalism as the next person, but the purgatorial effect of this tremendous new Death of a Salesman, directed by Joe Mantello and starring Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf, is appropriately unsettling, at once an updated reading of the mid-century text and an answer to the outstanding question of why it is arriving on stage again, and so soon. Though Miller’s masterwork has been canon since long before I, like many US high school students, wrote compulsory essays on the failures of the American Dream, it has only been revived six times on Broadway – in part, because the three-hour play is a massive ask of audiences as well as its Willy Loman, a role that has challenged such venerated actors as Dustin Hoffman and Philip Seymour Hoffman. And in part, perhaps, because the play’s long arc toward utter humiliation is maybe not the message New York theater audiences want to hear.

Published: April 10, 2026, 2:00 am

Coachella 2026: Justin Bieber launches a major comeback in the desert

Stars including Sabrina Carpenter, Karol G, David Byrne and Addison Rae also head to the desert for the first of two sold-out weekends of live music

Justin Bieber is set for a major live performance comeback at this year’s sold-out Coachella with rainy weather set to be a possible spoiler.

The Canadian singer will face his biggest live stage since he abandoned his 2022 tour over health concerns. Bieber was experiencing “full paralysis” on one side of his face after being diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome. “I wish this wasn’t the case but obviously my body is telling me I gotta slow down,” he said at the time.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:00 am

Add to playlist: the beautifully dazed, countrified indie-rock of Tracey Nelson and the week’s best new tracks

Pushing his winsome songwriting into rootsier territory with a little help from co-producer MJ Lenderman, the New Yorker’s debut album is primed to soundtrack your summer

From New York City, New York
Recommended if you like The Clean, This is Lorelei, The Feelies
Up next Debut album Hercules out 10 July

Tracey Nelson’s self-titled 2025 debut EP was one of the year’s best lesser-heard gems: Five tracks of sparkling, winsome indie-rock that recalled classic antipodean jangle bands the Clean, Twerps and Dick Diver. Tracks such as New Years Flowers and Just Shoot Me Now suggested that Austin Noll – the NYC-based singer-songwriter behind the project – was a classicist with a keen sense for bright melodies and self-deprecating one-liners.

Published: April 10, 2026, 11:00 am

Reckonwrong: How Long Has It Been? review | Safi Bugel's experimental album of the month

(New Year)
Londoner Alex Peringer breaks from his intriguing and outlandish dance music with this debut album of charming bedroom-pop ballads

A decade ago, Londoner Alex Peringer intrigued underground club circles with his outlandish take on dance music. Structured around dizzying time signatures and wry tales of unfulfilling lovers and pills gone wrong, his tracks referenced everything from UK funky to new wave and sea shanties. Then came several years of near silence – now broken by this self-released debut album, How Long Has It Been? The record acknowledges this break not just in the title, but also in its sound. On first listen, it couldn’t seem more different to Peringer’s early work, with those discordant constructions now replaced by the warm tinkering of the Rhodes electric piano and ostensibly earnest sentiment. But traces of that eccentricity still linger in this collection of atmospheric bedroom-pop ballads.

The record takes winter as its theme, though it feels fitting for this transitional time of year, with its stories of introspection and dodgy weather set against soft, simple arrangements. A handful of subtly wonky elements stop it from sounding overly polished or guileless: Before and After slips in a reference to a “fateful bong”; on the dreamy duet Two Lovers, glitches cut through the twinkling keys and mumblecore guest vocals. Elsewhere, the chords waver on Black Keys, one of several gorgeous and forlorn instrumentals.

Published: April 10, 2026, 8:30 am

Holly Humberstone: Cruel World review – Taylor Swift fave trades gothic melancholy for pop glow-up

(Polydor)
The British singer-songwriter replaces introspection with euphoric choruses, 80s synths and even happy hardcore on her vivid second LP

As a profession, pop stardom has been in existential crisis for some time. It used to be simple – a hit single was the only real qualification – but in a post-monocultural world, the job title is often bestowed as a result of more piecemeal success: a Brit rising star award and Taylor Swift support slot here, 4m monthly Spotify listeners and a Top 5 album there.

This, specifically, is the CV of Lincolnshire’s Holly Humberstone, who has established herself in the pop sphere without ever troubling the singles chart. While an undeniable banger has eluded the 26-year-old, her sound is faultlessly chart-friendly. Like Swift, Humberstone delivers earnestly wordy lyrics in intimate, near-ASMR tones atop 80s synth-pop decorated with a deluge of hooks. For this second album, she has dropped the hint of gothic melancholy that accompanied her debut, Paint My Bedroom Black. Cruel World is peppy bordering on euphoric: inordinately sunny break-up song To Love Somebody is powered by a stadium-ready pre-chorus, while the brilliantly catchy White Noise plugs into nostalgically naff disco to channel imperial-phase Kylie.

Published: April 10, 2026, 7:30 am

Go Gentle by Maria Semple review – a joyfully clever New York romcom

A Stoic philosopher navigates midlife in this madcap comedy from the author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette

What would Marcus Aurelius have made of the Kardashians? Would Seneca have been amused by mindfulness apps? These were questions I had never consciously pondered before reading Maria Semple’s new novel. Neither, in my irrational and unvirtuous state, had I spent much time considering the application of Stoic philosophy to any other key aspects of modern life.

Semple, best known for her exuberant, ingenious bestseller Where’d You Go, Bernadette?, here presents us with Adora Hazzard, Stoic philosopher and divorcee. Adora lives a contented life on New York City’s Upper West Side, spending her days tutoring the twin sons of an old-money family in philosophy and seeking to live according to Stoic virtues, without recourse to destabilising “externals”. But her settled life is soon disrupted by that most classic of externals, the handsome stranger. “Curse these alluring men who throw us off our game!” (Marcus Aurelius, paraphrased.)

Published: April 10, 2026, 6:00 am

The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup

Loss Protocol by Paul McAuley; Night Babies by Lucie McKnight Hardy; Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell; Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker

Loss Protocol by Paul McAuley (Gollancz, £22)
In a Britain racked by the effects of climate change, about 50 years from now, Marc Winters’ quiet life as a ranger on a nature reserve in Essex is about to be disturbed. Counter-terrorism officers arrive to question him about events from eight years before, when a cult his sister Izzy was part of had self-immolated. He’d hardly been aware of this group of “deep dreamers”, who thought they could change the world through a sort of mental time travel enabled by psychotropic mushrooms. But now both government agents and deep dreamers alike think Izzy must have passed some vital information to her brother, whether he knows it or not. With no idea of the existential danger he faces, Marc sets out to investigate. Beautifully written, blending close attention to the natural world with hallucinogenic dreams and a mind-boggling premise, this is an eco-thriller like no other from one of Britain’s best SF writers.

Night Babies by Lucie McKnight Hardy (John Murray, £18.99)
When their house is flooded, Astrid and her husband take the refuge offered by her friend Flora in the Brecon Beacons. Astrid was particularly affected by the flood, which damaged paintings intended for her first solo exhibition at a prestigious London gallery. The old chapel her friend is renovating becomes her new studio. But instead of working to salvage her portraits, she becomes obsessed with painting the landscape of lake and sky. She tries to shrug off her bad dreams, strange physical sensations, missing items and the dirty, child-sized handprints on the walls, but disturbing facts about the chapel’s history emerge, and she’s not the only one affected by what appears to be a malevolent haunting. She’s haunted, too, by memories of a student art trip to Florence, a significant turning point in her friendship with Flora. Astrid is her own worst enemy, but her issues – ambition, envy, ambivalence about motherhood – will resonate with many readers. A sophisticated, chilling tale that works both as supernatural and psychological horror.

Published: April 10, 2026, 11:00 am

Super Mario what?! The seven best obscure Mario games

As The Super Mario Galaxy Movie storms the box office, we look back at the best forgotten games inspired by Tetris, Lemmings and … vitamins?

It should be no surprise that the latest Super Mario movie is smashing box office records – despite the, let’s say mixed, reviews. Nintendo’s iconic plumber has been a pop culture staple for 45 years, starring in some of the bestselling video games ever made, from the original Donkey Kong through to the joyous Super Mario Bros Wonder and the chaotic Mario Kart World.

But as with any storied showbiz career, there have been some lesser works. Who can forget – or actually remember – Hotel Mario, a door-shutting puzzle game for the doomed Philips CD-i console? Or what about Mario Teaches Typing, a 1992 educational game for the PC in which players navigate the Mushroom Kingdom by … correctly inputting words. Yet there have also been genuine treasures lost along the way. Here, then, are seven of our favourite much-overlooked Mario odysseys.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:00 am

Who was Hilma? Af Klint exhibition to highlight exclusion of women from abstract art

Swedish artist, now regarded as predecessor to Kandinsky and Mondrian, died thinking world was not ready for her work

The Swedish artist Hilma af Klint died believing the world was not ready for the mystical paintings that would shock the art world half a century later.

The painter, now credited with pioneering the abstract art movement, did not seek recognition after peers rejected her avant garde works. Instead, she ordered that they be hidden for 20 years after her death and never sold.

Published: April 10, 2026, 12:40 pm

Filthy fossil fuels, a dizzying debut and the ominous side of the moon – the week in art

Digital wizard John Gerrard on the energy industry, Michaela Yearwood-Dan’s first UK museum exhibition and a foreboding view from Artemis II – all in your weekly dispatch

Extraction
This ominous exhibition takes a look at the filthy world of oil, gas and petroleum, all seen through the lens of artists such as biomorphic sculptor Marguerite Humeau and digital wizard John Gerrard.
• Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, 11 April to 26 July

Published: April 10, 2026, 10:42 am

‘Tranquil, natural and barely a tourist in sight’: readers’ favourite hidden gems in Spain

Your top off-the-beaten track discoveries, from gorges in Galicia to vineyards in La Rioja
• Tell us about a trip to Italy – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

Recently travelling from Madrid to San Sebastián, we spent three days in picturesque Briñas in La Rioja, staying at the beautiful Finca Torre de Briñas (doubles from €189 B&B). The neighbouring town, Haro, reached via a 40-minute walk by the Ebro River, hosts several of the largest wine producers in the region (CVNE and Muga are recommended). You can stop in and sample them, before heading into the town centre, which has several tapas spots to fuel the walk back to the hotel. Bliss.
Tom Dickson

Published: April 10, 2026, 6:00 am

I used 30lbs of fresh produce testing 10 juicers - just half were worth the squeeze

With machines from $150 to $770, I used 30lbs of fresh produce to find the cold-press juicers most worth the squeeze

• The best blenders in the US: five favorites for smoothies, soups and frozen drinks

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

If you’re sick of spending $12 a pop for a daily juice on the way to work (or $20, if you’re hooked on Erewhon’s viral smoothies), let me take your hand and gently say: life doesn’t have to be this way. You can sip customized, antioxidant-packed juice without leaving the house … if you invest in the right home juicer.

Juicers can conjure images of clunky machines with huge countertop footprints, jammed parts, countless components to clean and – perhaps most onerous – hefty price tags. But many of today’s models trade these pitfalls for graceful, efficient and minimalist designs, little mess, low noise and few, easy-to-clean parts.

Best overall juicer:
Nama J2 Cold Press Juicer

Published: April 10, 2026, 2:15 pm

Orthodox Easter and Ladies Day at Aintree: photos of the day – Friday

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

Published: April 10, 2026, 12:36 pm