How KFC, AKA Korean fried chicken, took over the world

The dish, adapted from one brought by US soldiers after the Korean war, has sparked thousands of variations and sits at the forefront of the K-food wave

Inside a teaching kitchen south-east of Seoul, I coat a whole chicken – cut into eight parts – in batter and dip the pieces carefully into a bowl of powdered mix until covered in a light, fluffy layer.

A chef watches intently. “Don’t rub it,” he says. “Keep it delicate.”

Published: April 8, 2026, 11:32 pm

The Iran crisis is far from over – instead we are entering a new and uncertain phase | Sanam Vakil

The ceasefire is welcome but fragile. Friday’s talks in Islamabad must address Iran’s nuclear programme and avoid sidelining the rest of the region

The ceasefire announcement between the US and Iran has been met with understandable relief. Talks are now set to take place in Islamabad on Friday, offering a chance to step back from the immediate danger of a wider war. This moment should not be mistaken for a resolution – not least as on Wednesday afternoon, fresh news emerged that Iran has not re-opened the strait of Hormuz. It should, more accurately, be understood as a pause – an opportunity to test pathways towards a difficult but necessary political settlement.

Despite claims of success from all sides, the reality is that no party was winning the war. President Donald Trump has framed the conflict as both a military victory and a step towards regime change in Iran. Yet the war was ill-conceived, built on the assumption that it would be quick and decisive. Instead it proved far more costly and damaging to US credibility. It did not produce regime change. Rather, it led to the promotion and consolidation of new, untested harder-line leadership at the head of the same political system. The structure of the Islamic Republic remains intact, demonstrating its capacity to absorb shock and consolidate its authority.

Sanam Vakil is the director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House

Published: April 8, 2026, 3:56 pm

‘Masquerading as a university’: inside the brazen rightwing plan to conquer American schools

As teachers eagerly adopt its free lesson plans and the White House boosts its videos, PragerU is intent on one goal: attracting young people to conservatism

In the fall of 2013, a silver-haired conservative radio host named Dennis Prager flew to Texas to woo a pair of rightwing billionaires. A few years earlier, Prager had co-founded a digital education non-profit, Prager University, which created snappy five-minute videos that promoted capitalism and “Judeo-Christian values”. The billionaires, fracking tycoons Dan and Farris Wilks, were big fans.

Inside Farris Wilks’ home theater, the brothers and more than 20 members of their family sat transfixed as Prager outlined a plan to transform PragerU from a niche internet oddity into a mainstream media empire. He just needed a lot more cash.

Published: April 8, 2026, 12:00 pm

Are OnlyFans models the best way to explain the climate crisis?

Actor Megan Prescott has joined with Adam McKay in the hope that showing bite-size web videos of women undressing will persuade us to save the world. Will it work?

The world, as we know, is in trouble. The last three years have been the hottest ever recorded. Global emissions are still at record highs. The planet is now consistently flirting with the 1.5C limit it promised not to cross. Increasingly, it feels as if we need a genuine miracle to stop us from sleepwalking into catastrophe. Could that miracle be an environmental warning from a woman in her pants?

This is the stated desire of Headline Newds, a new series of web videos by actor Megan Prescott, film-maker Bree Essrig and “climate narrative strategist” Jessica Riches. Released through the not-for-profit Yellow Dot Studios – belonging to Adam McKay, creator of movies The Big Short and Don’t Look Up – Headline Newds is made up of bite-size videos in which the climate emergency is broken down and raunchily explained to us by a variety of OnlyFans models.

Headline Newds is available via Youtube, Instagram and OnlyFans.

Published: April 8, 2026, 2:35 pm

‘Coming out in the 90s? You might as well say ‘I love cock!’’ Nathan Lane on gay life, Broadway and defying stereotypes

The brassy actor’s performance in Death of a Salesman is the crown jewel in a life spent on stage. He says it could be his last Broadway role

“It’s, like, 10 minutes. I pee, I have a cup of tea, I put the jacket back on and I go out and fight my way to the death.”

The way Nathan Lane describes spending the intermission of Death of a Salesman – the nearly three-hour play in which his character flails and ultimately fails through an epic depression – reflects the actor’s own spirit: practical, lightly fatalistic, artfully hyperbolic and very, very funny. Today he is in fine form, nestled into a corner table in New York’s classic Upper West Side haunt Cafe Luxembourg. When I ask him if Salesman marks his first time performing at the Winter Garden Theatre, he responds without missing a beat: “Yes, except when I took over in Mame.”

Published: April 8, 2026, 9:00 am

‘I have to betray them to save them’: how undercover film-makers exposed a sinister polygamous cult

In Netflix’s Trust Me: The False Prophet, documentarians in disguise help bring down a cult leader now serving a 50-year sentence

Film-making effects change. Director Rachel Dretzin, a former investigative journalist for Frontline, will testify to that.

“These films that I’m making,” says Dretzin, “that other documentarians are making, are often more effective than the legal system at effecting change; psychological change and also sometimes systemic and criminal change.”

Published: April 8, 2026, 2:45 pm

Middle East crisis live: Red Cross ‘outraged’ as Israeli strikes kill at least 254 people in Lebanon; strait of Hormuz impasse continues

As Israel attacks on Beirut continue, Abbas Araghchi points to announcement that says ceasefire includes Lebanon while JD Vance says US never promised that

• Middle East ceasefire in serious doubt as Israel assaults Lebanon and Iran blocks oil tankers

• Will shipping in the strait of Hormuz – and oil prices – return to normal?

A genocidal threat, and then the US president, Donald Trump, blinked – without any apparently meaningful concessions from Iran. As in so much concerning the second Trump administration, the two week ceasefire “deal” that will see the strait of Hormuz reopened – if it can be described as such – is maddeningly vague and short on detail, apparently kicking the can on key issues down the road.

Iran’s nuclear issue, Trump said, would be solved “perfectly.” “It was a big day for world peace”, Trump posted on Truth Social. “Iran can start reconstruction” he added. “Big money” could be made. Yada. Yada. Yada.

Published: April 9, 2026, 2:04 am

Nato chief says Trump ‘clearly disappointed’ by US allies’ refusal to join Iran war

Mark Rutte praises ‘very frank’ talks but declines to say if president discussed potential withdrawal from alliance

Mark Rutte, the secretary general of Nato, has said Donald Trump was “clearly disappointed” that the US’s allies had refused to join its war against Iran, following a closed-door meeting in Washington on Wednesday.

Speaking to CNN after his private meeting with the US president, Rutte declined to say directly whether Trump raised his threat to withdraw from the military alliance over the Iran war, but described the exchange as a “very frank, very open” discussion between “two good friends”.

Published: April 9, 2026, 12:53 am

Newly created Polymarket accounts win big on well-timed Iran ceasefire bets

Customers make hundreds of thousands of dollars as records show substantial bets made before announcement

A group of new accounts on the prediction market Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the US and Iran would reach a ceasefire on Tuesday, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for these new customers.

These bets were made even though, in the hours before a two-week ceasefire was announced on Tuesday, Donald Trump’s rhetoric had escalated sharply and there were few signals that a ceasefire deal was imminent. Early in the day Trump had issued a warning on social media that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran did not meet his demand to open the Ssrait of Hormuz by his 8pm ET deadline.

Published: April 9, 2026, 12:11 am

Trump may be using Nixon’s ‘madman theory’ – and similar infamy may await

Nixon’s Vietnam strategy appears at play in Trump’s Iran threats, but he may want to ponder the ex-president’s fate

Donald Trump has made no secret of his admiration for Richard Nixon, Watergate and leaving office in disgrace be damned.

But the president has taken his tribute act to new levels in threatening to erase Iran as a civilization, only to step back from the brink when the Tehran regime agreed – at a price – to reopen the economically vital strait of Hormuz.

Published: April 8, 2026, 4:52 pm

US ignoring evidence Russia is helping Iran because it trusts Putin, says Zelenskyy

Ukraine’s president tells podcast he has tried to draw White House’s attention to collaboration between Moscow and Tehran over strikes on US bases

• How the Ukraine and Iran wars are starting to overlap

The US has ignored compelling evidence that Russia has been helping Iran to target US bases in the Middle East because it “trusts” Vladimir Putin, according to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Speaking in an interview with Alastair Campbell on The Rest is Politics podcast, Zelenskyy said he had tried to draw the White House’s attention to the close collaboration between Moscow and Tehran.

Published: April 8, 2026, 11:00 pm

Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann pleads guilty

New York architect admits to murdering eight women, whose remains were mostly found along Long Island’s coast

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Rex Heuermann, a Long Island architect accused of seven murders known as the Gilgo Beach killings dating back to 1993, pleaded guilty on Wednesday – and added an eighth murder to his gruesome tally.

Heuermann, who has been held in custody since he was arrested on a Manhattan street in July 2023, appeared in court in Riverhead, Long Island, New York, and changed his plea to guilty in the murders of women whose remains were found years after they disappeared.

Published: April 8, 2026, 5:00 pm

‘Ketamine Queen’ sentenced to 15-year prison term for role in Matthew Perry’s death

Jasveen Sangha had pleaded guilty last year to selling the Friends actor a fatal dose of the drug

Jasveen Sangha, who pleaded guilty last year to selling a fatal dose of ketamine to actor Matthew Perry, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday.

Known as the “Ketamine Queen”, Sangha was the fifth defendant to take a plea deal and admit guilt in the case and received the harshest sentence. Federal prosecutors had asked for the 15-year sentence for her role in Perry’s death and that of another individual, citing the “far-reaching scope of defendant’s illegality [and] her callous response to the deaths she helped cause”.

Published: April 8, 2026, 7:13 pm

Pam Bondi will not appear at scheduled House hearing on Epstein files, DoJ says

Justice department says Bondi will not appear for House deposition since she was ousted as US attorney general

Former US Attorney General Pam Bondi, the former US attorney general, will not appear next week for a scheduled deposition before the House oversight and government reform committee to answer questions about the justice department’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and its release of the Epstein files, the committee said.

In a statement on Wednesday morning shared with the Guardian, a spokesperson for the House oversight committee said: “The Department of Justice has stated Pam Bondi will not appear on 14 April for a deposition since she is no longer attorney general and was subpoenaed in her capacity as attorney general.”

Published: April 8, 2026, 6:16 pm

‘Non-survivable’: heatwaves are already breaching human limits, with worse to come, study finds

Analysis of six extreme heatwaves found when temperature and humidity were accounted for, all were potentially deadly for older people

Extreme heat is already creating “non-survivable” conditions for humans in heatwaves that have killed thousands and likely many more, according to new research that warns people are more susceptible to rising temperatures than first thought.

Scientists re-examined six extreme heatwaves between 2003 and 2024 and found that when temperature, humidity and the body’s ability to stay cool were accounted for, all were potentially deadly for older people.

Published: April 8, 2026, 3:00 pm

JD Vance claims US is not interfering in Hungary election

US vice-president says on visit to Budapest ‘we had to show’ support for Viktor Orbán, as opposition leads polls

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

JD Vance has pushed back against claims that the US is interfering in Hungarian politics, describing the accusations as “darkly ironic”, as a set of polls suggested the opposition Tisza party could win a supermajority in the forthcoming elections.

After spending his first day in Budapest excoriating the EU and accusing it of being behind one of the “worst examples” of foreign interference, the US vice-president spent part of Wednesday morning speaking at a thinktank and educational institution linked to Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orbán.

Published: April 8, 2026, 5:18 pm

Teens accused of bombing attempt at Mamdani home openly discussed plans to kill

Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi were arrested 7 March with alleged homemade devices at Gracie Mansion in New York

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Two teen alleged Islamic State supporters accused of trying to detonate explosive devices during a protest outside the home of New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, freely discussed how many people they might kill, with one remarking: “I want to start terror, bro,” according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday.

The teenagers, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, were arrested on 7 March for allegedly igniting two improvised explosive devices during an anti-Islam protest outside Gracie Mansion. Authorities claim that Balat, 18, lit one device and threw it in the direction of the protesters.

Published: April 8, 2026, 6:20 pm

Ohio man becomes first to be convicted under new AI statute for sexually explicit images

James Strahler II pleaded guilty to cyberstalking, producing obscene images and digital forgeries of child sexual abuse

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An Ohio man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to cybercrimes involving real and AI-generated “sexually explicit images”, becoming what the Department of Justice claims is the first person convicted under a new federal AI statute.

James Strahler II, 37, admitted to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse, and publication of digital forgeries. The last charge relates to the Take It Down Act, which “prohibits non-consensual online publication of intimate visual depictions and AI forgeries”.

Published: April 8, 2026, 10:13 pm

LA teen loses eye after being shot by US agent at No Kings march, lawyer says

USC student Tucker Collins’s attorney accuses homeland security of ‘overt act of repression’ at Los Angeles protest

A freshman at the University of Southern California has lost an eye after he was shot last month with a “less-lethal” projectile by a Department of Homeland Security agent at a No Kings march, according to his attorney.

On 28 March, Tucker Collins, 18, took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles to photograph throngs of protesters, who held signs and chanted slogans denouncing the Trump administration’s policies, his lawyer V James DeSimone said in a statement on Wednesday.

Published: April 8, 2026, 11:21 pm

Kvaratskhelia caps victory for dominant PSG as cautious Liverpool cling to hope

The rout anticipated at Parc des Princes did not materialise, at least not in terms of the scoreline, but the gulf in quality between Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool was laid bare all the same. Arne Slot’s side leave Paris with a scintilla of hope, having arrived with none, and will need to conjure a stunning Anfield recovery on Tuesday just to lay a glove on European champions worthy of the name.

A deflected strike from Désiré Doué plus a superb second from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia gave the holders a deserved advantage in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final. It should have been much more. Ousmane Dembélé missed a hat-trick of openings, striking the outside of a post with his final effort, Nuno Mendes and Doué squandered gilt-edged chances and Liverpool survived two penalty claims. A fine display from the visiting goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili also helped keep the margin of defeat respectful.

Published: April 8, 2026, 9:07 pm

How Pakistan secured ‘biggest diplomatic win in years’ with Iran ceasefire

Analysts say Pakistani officials’ efforts led to breakthrough that has helped avert catastrophe, at least for now

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Pakistan’s leaders had almost lost hope. After more than two weeks of frantic negotiations, phonecalls and diplomatic summits to try to end the US-Israeli war with Iran, it looked like the conflict might instead be escalating into Islamabad’s worst nightmare.

In a cabinet meeting held at about 5pm on Tuesday, Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, was morose. “We should brace ourselves for the impact of the war,” he told his cabinet ministers. “The situation has really become very bleak. The chance of peace has become dim.”

Published: April 8, 2026, 6:09 pm

He was sentenced to death despite not pulling the trigger. An unlikely coalition saved his life

In an act transcending politics, tens of thousands successfully banded together to make the case against executing Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton in Alabama

With all of his appeals exhausted, Charles “Sonny” Burton had already chosen the last meal he would have before being put to death by nitrogen gas at Alabama’s Holman correctional facility: barbecue chicken, banana cake with ice cream, and sweet tea – all things he hadn’t been able to enjoy in years with his diabetes.

The writing seemed to be on the wall. His fate was in the hands of Kay Ivey, Alabama’s governor and a staunch supporter of capital punishment who has presided over more than 25 executions – more than any other Alabama governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Her office had been repeating the same line for weeks: “Governor Ivey has no plans to grant clemency.” But on the morning of 10 March, just two days before Sonny was to be put to death, Ivey commuted his sentence to life without parole.

Published: April 8, 2026, 11:00 am

​Twin corruption trials cast a shadow over Spain’s main parties ahead of key elections

With former ministers and party heavyweights ​b​eing dragged into court, the country is once again confronting the unresolved legacy of political ​g​raft and ​shady backroom deals

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Easter will not have been a particularly celebratory time for Spain’s two biggest political parties. In a quirk of judicial fate, both the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) and the conservative People’s party (PP) are bracing themselves after two high-profile trials involving former senior figures from each party began in Madrid this week.

Though vastly different, both cases have the potential to seriously dent each party’s claims of having zero-tolerance for corruption as voters in Andalucía, Spain’s most populous autonomous community, prepare for next month’s regional election. That will be followed by a general election next year.

Published: April 8, 2026, 2:30 pm

These $50 sweatpant jeans ‘tricked nearly everyone’ – and were as comfy as the luxury pair

Can you can feel snug and still look put-together? I tested sweatpant jeans that are comfy, yet have a tailored look from Rag & Bone, Gap and Halara

For the days you can’t be bothered to slip into restrictive “real pants” but want to look put-together, sweatpant jeans are here to save the day. Not quite sweatpants and not quite jeans, sweatpant jeans are a happy medium, offering a printed-on denim aesthetic in that same plush sweatpant feel many of us know and love.

Their current popularity seems linked to gen Z’s insistence that leggings and straight-leg jeans are no longer cool, and to celebrity sightings and endorsements from the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Lawrence and Margot Robbie. But trust me on this, too: I’ve spent the last three years living in them.

The pair to beat:
Rag & Bone Miramar Sofie Ankle-Length Pants

A cosy and cheaper alternative:
Gap Heavyweight Easy Baggy Sweatpant Jeans

Published: April 8, 2026, 10:30 pm

A moment that changed me: I saw a big cat on Dartmoor – and no one believed me

Larger than any dog, let alone a house cat, the beast swaggered through the Dartmoor mist. My schoolfriends and I were entranced – until the adults who had slept through everything told us we were lying

I was 11, with a handful of friends on a school trip to Dartmoor. We’d set up our tents near the edge of a camp, which was mostly empty.

The first morning, our tent woke before the teachers. We stole out to find another group of boys already on the dewy grass, standing hands in pockets, together in nature. The sun was just coming up. The last of the night-time mist was peeling away.

Published: April 8, 2026, 5:45 am

‘We’d all be in the destruction zone!’ Can anything stop today’s nuclear free-for-all?

The Lib Dems’ Sue Miller has spent most of her life trying to reduce the risk of nuclear war. And it’s not going well. Why are so few people talking about non-proliferation, let alone disarmament?

Almost the mildest remark that Sue Miller makes about nuclear weapons is also the scariest: “The last people to take a big interest in any of this were Gordon Brown and Margaret Beckett.” Those people seem such a long way away – Brown, of course, still campaigns valiantly against poverty, and Beckett is a working baroness, but as voices against the global buildup of nuclear arms, theirs are so historical as to be almost nostalgic.

Yet the Doomsday Clock, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ symbolic representation of how near the world is to destroying itself, has never been closer to midnight than it is now: 85 seconds (and this was prior to the current war in Iran). Russia has been making thinly veiled threats of “tactical” use since its invasion of Ukraine, while its drone incursions into Nato nations have “heightened European threat perceptions” (as the bulletin puts it), without those perceptions driving anyone’s thoughts towards nuclear de-escalation, let alone disarmament. Meanwhile, non-nuclear European nations are talking about developing “nuclear latency” – building the ability to develop nuclear capacity at speed.

Published: April 8, 2026, 9:00 am

Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s Iran threats: ‘The most dangerous episode of the Celebrity Apprentice yet’

Late-night hosts discussed Trump’s threat ‘a whole civilization will die tonight’ hours before a ceasefire

Late-night hosts reacted to a late-stage ceasefire with Iran, after Donald Trump promised “a whole civilization will die tonight” in an extremely alarming post.

Published: April 8, 2026, 3:30 pm

Israel got away with targeting healthcare in Gaza. It's no surprise it is doing it in Lebanon too | Seema Jilani

As a doctor who has worked in a conflict zone, I’ve seen spaces that were once considered sacrosanct become fair game in war. This has to end

Easter weekend marked one of the most intense moments so far of Israel’s war on Lebanon. At around 2pm on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces bombed a densely populated, residential area near the Rafik Hariri University hospital, Lebanon’s largest public hospital, killing at least five people and wounding 50 others.

When I worked at the hospital in 2020, I treated the most vulnerable people in Lebanese society: migrant workers, stateless Palestinians, Syrian refugees. What happened on Sunday is consistent with what seems to be Israel’s broader strategy in Lebanon: human rights organisations and medical workers say the IDF is crippling healthcare infrastructure, targeting hospitals and medics, sometimes when they are sitting in ambulances or in first aid centres. Israel is also forcing the displacement of civilians on a large scale, rendering parts of the country unlivable, while Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the two-week Iran ceasefire doesn’t apply to Lebanon tells us that this is far from over.

Seema Jilani is a paediatric physician based in Texas and a member of the Council of Foreign Relations

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 8, 2026, 5:02 pm

The US stepped back from the precipice in Iran. But what happens next? | Rajan Menon

The chasm between the two sides remains vast. A mega-deal remains the only path to averting a return to full-scale war

Donald Trump styles himself as a peerless tough guy who never backs down. But he doesn’t always make good on his threats. Consider his demand that Denmark hand over Greenland, or his threats to hike tariffs on trade partners. He has even found ways to extend his deadlines for Tehran to reopen the strait of Hormuz, claiming, without evidence, that Iran was “begging” for a deal.

On Monday, Trump outdid himself. He gave Tehran until Tuesday at 8pm ET to reopen the strait – or “a whole civilization will die tonight”. The president’s public threat to commit genocide sent shockwaves through the United States. Some Democratic leaders concluded that “Trump has lost his mind”. More than 70 Democratic members of Congress called for his removal from office. Some politicians and media personalities sympathetic to Maga did the same or roundly rebuked him. Some commentators reminded soldiers that they were required to disobey flagrantly illegal orders. Never in American presidential politics has a spectacle matched this one.

Published: April 8, 2026, 6:48 pm

How do you convince Americans to eat fish? Disguise it as meat, of course | Arwa Mahdawi

To tackle the US’s woefully low seafood consumption, drastic measures are being taken. Enter tuna that looks like chicken nuggets and salmon masquerading as beef jerky

The seafood industry is trying to tackle a slippery problem: the US has never developed a taste for fish. Americans will eat canned cheese product and put marshmallow “fluff” on their sandwiches, but they seem to balk at eating fish. The average American consumes about 19lb (under 9kg) of the stuff a year, while the global average is 45lb. Over in Iceland, they’re really getting their omega-3s in: they lead the world with around 200lb of seafood a year.

Still, the tide may be turning: Big Fish has come up with a cunning plan to crack the US market. You know how there are sneaky ways of hiding veggies in recipes for picky toddlers? That’s basically the strategy. Except instead of hiding spinach in a chocolate pancake, the plan is to make fish look like meat. Think tuna that looks like chicken nuggets and salmon sticks that look like beef jerky. It’s not quite fake meat – it’s Fishy Meat™. Yum.

Published: April 8, 2026, 10:00 am

It’s finally happened: I’m now worried about AI. And consulting ChatGPT did nothing to allay my fears | Emma Brockes

A highly alarming New Yorker feature on the machinations of Sam Altman drove me to test his AI for myself. The results were, well, highly alarming

A corollary of the truism “don’t sweat the small stuff” is, by implication, “do sweat the big stuff”, but it can be hard to pick which big stuff to sweat. For example: since the 1970s, as the world has worried about inflation and rolling geopolitics, the big stuff we should have been sweating more urgently was the climate crisis. Last year, the top trending search on Google in the US was “Charlie Kirk”, with several terms relating to the threat posed by Donald Trump also popular, when the focus should arguably have been the threat posed by AI.

Or, per my own Googling this week after reading Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz’s highly alarming lengthy piece in the New Yorker about the rise of artificial general intelligence: “Will I be a member of the permanent underclass and how can I make that not happen?”

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Published: April 8, 2026, 1:36 pm

Why do elite Democrats fear Hasan Piker? | Bhaskar Sunkara

The party establishment rushed to condemn the Twitch streamer after news of his alliance with a Michigan Senate candidate

Gas has topped $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022. The president’s approval rating just fell below 40%. The war in Iran is entering its sixth week, with thousands dead and no end in sight. The strait of Hormuz is blockaded, food prices are climbing and US households are staring down hundreds of dollars in added living expenses.

So naturally, the Democratic party has found something truly urgent to focus on: a Twitch streamer.

Published: April 8, 2026, 10:00 am

Europe cannot bet on a post-Trump US turning back to sanity | Rafael Behr

If the president’s first term didn’t inoculate the American body politic against tyranny, there is no guarantee that a second dose will work

Donald Trump is a despot and the US is a democracy. These things can be true simultaneously but not indefinitely. There is now deadlock in the struggle between a president who would be king and a constitution drafted in repudiation of monarchy. But it is a battle to the death. Tyranny will either break the spirit of the republic or be quelled by it.

Since the US is the world’s paramount power, the outcome of this contest has epic consequences for countries, such as the UK, that depend on Washington for security.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink?
On Thursday 30 April, join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss how much of a threat Labour faces from the Green party and Reform UK – and whether Keir Starmer can survive as leader. Book tickets here or at guardian.live

Published: April 8, 2026, 5:00 am

Rebecca Hendin on Artemis II and Donald Trump – cartoon

Continue reading...

Published: April 8, 2026, 11:19 am

The Guardian view on Trump, Iran and the ceasefire: a devastating war has only losers | Editorial

The Middle East’s best hope may be that the US president continues to rebadge strategic defeat as success

Both the US and Iran claimed victory on Wednesday morning. Both were lying. The two-week ceasefire announced by Donald Trump the night before is not the triumph that he declared. It may not be an end to the war, as welcome as the pause is, or even last the fortnight. Mr Trump said that Iran has gone through regime change. It has not. If anything, less experienced, less readable but more hardline figures are now in charge. He said that the strait of Hormuz would be open; Iran said that ships would pass through with permission, and at a price.

By Wednesday evening, Iranian state media said that the strait was closed after Israel unleashed a brutal assault on Lebanon: about 100 strikes in 10 minutes. Iran had insisted that Lebanon was part of the deal, while Mr Trump disagreed. This conflict has killed thousands in the region, including children, and left many more exhausted, terrified and traumatised, while the aggressors have openly boasted of their intent to commit war crimes.

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 8, 2026, 6:02 pm

How Augusta National outwitted ticket resellers and kept door closed on Trump | Andy Bull

One of the great lessons of the Masters is money only goes so far, with strict rules designed to keep out ticket touts

Jeffrey Epstein’s web of influence stretched from European palaces to Ivy League universities and Wall Street banks, but there was apparently at least one little corner of the establishment that seems to have been beyond his reach: Augusta National. In July 2019, Epstein sent an iMessage to Steve Bannon asking for his help with a particularly difficult problem. “Need to work magic to get brad Karp admitted to augusta golf club,” Epstein wrote. “The head of Paul Weiss Brad Karp?” Bannon replied. “Yes.”

Karp, the former chair of the legal firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, stepped down from his position in February because of his ties with Epstein.

Published: April 8, 2026, 8:00 pm

Nike’s high-tech 2026 World Cup jerseys have a shoulder problem

The sportswear giant says it’s aware of the strange seam on some of the new shirts, and is looking into how to address it

When Nike rolled out its collection of World Cup kits in late March, fans and pundits alike largely approved. The US men’s national team got arguably their most distinctive pair of shirts in decades, while other federations – France, England, Canada and Uruguay among them – earned strong reviews.

Over the last international break, when players took the field in the kits for the first time, many fans couldn’t help but become fixated on one singular detail of the new shirts: a somewhat unsightly bulge along the shoulder seam.

Published: April 8, 2026, 11:00 am

Barcelona on the brink after red card and Alvarez stunner sparks Atlético win

When the final whistle went, the man in black disappeared out of sight and set off running up the tunnel. For the first time since he took over at Atlético Madrid 15 long, transformative years ago, Diego Simeone had just led his team to a victory at the Camp Nou, reviving the dream of taking them back to a European Cup final a decade later.

In 2014 and 2016 Atlético knocked out Barcelona en route to Lisbon and Milan and while there is much to be done at the Metropolitano in six days’ time, they have put themselves in a superb position to repeat that in 2026, maybe even to finally lift the trophy that resists them.

Published: April 8, 2026, 9:30 pm

Medvedev smashes racket then bins it during 6-0, 6-0 loss in Monte Carlo

• World No 10 suffers heavy loss to Matteo Berrettini

• Russian committed 27 unforced errors

Daniil Medvedev smashed his racket several times and placed the remnants in a courtside dustbin during his humbling 6-0, 6-0 loss to the Italian wildcard Matteo Berrettini at the Monte Carlo Masters on Wednesday.

It was the world No 10’s first tour-level defeat without winning a game and he capitulated in 49 minutes, failing to earn a game point on his own serve and committing 27 unforced errors. Berrettini will face João Fonseca in the last 16 after the Brazilian teenager beat Arthur Rinderknech 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

Published: April 8, 2026, 10:53 pm

‘Every accident at high speed is a shock’: F1 rules guru on response to Bearman crash

As talks begin over fixing the controversial regulations, the FIA’s Nikolas Tombazis says changes to ‘specific aspects’ are needed, not a total overhaul

Formula One has endured a somewhat turbulent opening this season under the sport’s new regulations. Amid the sound and fury of some driver dissatisfaction with the new formula and safety concerns brought sharply into focus by a huge accident at the Japanese Grand Prix, three races in there is now an opportunity to propose changes, with the man who has been at the heart of the process since it began quietly confident that F1 can adapt successfully.

Nikolas Tombazis is the single-seater director for F1’s governing body, the FIA, and has been with the organisation since 2018. He was there when the very first discussions of the 2026 regulations took place in January 2021 and has been central to their evolution since. In his calm and articulate fashion, Tombazis says the noise around the new regulations is overstated.

Published: April 8, 2026, 5:08 pm

Wrongful-death lawsuit in LA police killing of 14-year-old girl to begin trial

Valentina Orellana-Peralta was shopping with her mother at a Burlington store in when she was struck by a bullet

A wrongful-death lawsuit filed against the Los Angeles police department for an officer’s fatal shooting of a 14-year-old girl in a clothing store is set to begin trial on Wednesday.

Valentina Orellana-Peralta was shopping for Christmas clothes with her mother at a Burlington store in the San Fernando valley’s North Hollywood neighborhood on 23 December 2021, when she was struck by a bullet that had gone through the dressing room wall.

Published: April 8, 2026, 5:22 pm

Trump news at a glance: a tale of two ceasefires as US and Iran claim different terms

US and Iran can’t seem to agree on much of their fragile two-week ceasefire agreement – key US politics stories from Wednesday 8 April at a glance

The two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran, brokered by Pakistan within hours of Donald Trump’s threat of civilization-level destruction, is hanging by a thread – and possibly some key misunderstandings.

Washington and Tehran have given decidedly different versions of what was agreed as the Trump administration and Iranian leaders each claim victory.

Published: April 9, 2026, 1:04 am

Florida woman accused of killing her newborn baby allegedly had images of Casey Anthony on her phone

Anne Mae Demegillo, 20, was charged with murder in death of infant; Anthony was charged with murdering her child in 2008 but acquitted

A 20-year-old woman charged with killing her newborn daughter had images of Casey Anthony on her phone, suggesting “searches on the death of a child and subsequent investigation”, the Flagler county, Florida, sheriff’s office alleged this week.

Anne Mae Demegillo, who was arrested on 6 March, was indicted on Monday on charges of first-degree premeditated murder, aggravated child abuse, and failure to report death of a person with intent to conceal the death or alter the evidence or circumstances surrounding such death, in the death of her infant.

Published: April 8, 2026, 3:17 pm

Roughly half of New Yorkers approve of Zohran Mamdani as he approaches 100 days as mayor – poll

Marist poll shows that 48% of city residents approve of Mamdani’s performance while 55% view him favorably

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As New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, approaches his first 100 days in office, a new survey shows that roughly half of city residents approve of his performance so far.

The poll, conducted by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion and released on Wednesday morning, found that 48% of residents say they approve of the job Mamdani, 34, is doing, while 30% disapprove and 23% remain unsure.

Published: April 8, 2026, 1:24 pm

California sheriff who seized ballots ordered to halt election investigation

Attorney general says court ruling against Chad Bianco ‘reins in the destabilizing actions of a rogue sheriff’

The California supreme court on Wednesday ordered a county sheriff and gubernatorial candidate who seized more than half a million 2025 election ballots to pause his investigation into election fraud allegations while the judges review the legal challenge against it.

The order came after the California attorney general, Rob Bonta, last month asked the court to step in, arguing the sheriff has no authority over election materials. A voting rights group is also challenging the ballot seizure.

Published: April 8, 2026, 6:18 pm

‘It’s not AI, it’s real’: shock as RSPCA releases images of 250 dogs found at property

Dozens of dogs were found crammed into single living room space at property in undisclosed location in UK

More than 250 dogs have been found at a property in scenes so shocking that the RSPCA was forced to deny allegations that the images were faked by artificial intelligence.

The animal welfare charity said it took in 87 dogs from the property at an undisclosed location in the UK and the remainder went to the Dogs Trust, another charity.

Published: April 8, 2026, 5:56 pm

Several US airlines raise baggage fees as Iran war sends fuel costs soaring

Delta, United and JetBlue hiked rates even as Delta announced $1bn pre-tax profit in quarter ending June

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Several major US airlines have raised their baggage fees in recent days, blaming ongoing volatility in oil markets caused by the US-Israeli war in Iran that has almost doubled jet fuel prices.

On Tuesday, Delta followed the lead of United Airlines and JetBlue, which announced last week that they were hiking baggage prices because of the ongoing war.

Published: April 8, 2026, 2:37 pm

Chile’s far-right government rips up plan for memorial at Pinochet torture site

New administration reverses expropriation of property founded by ex-Nazi Paul Schäfer, leaving victims in limbo

With its Germanic crosses and colourful toy-town facades, the village square of the tiny Chilean settlement of Villa Baviera gives little indication of the horrors of its past.

Until 1991, this cattle town of a few hundred people was a compound known as Colonia Dignidad. Its leader, Paul Schäfer, a former Nazi and weapons smuggler, bought a swathe of land in the valley in 1961, eventually holding as many as 300 people in a fenced enclave with minimal contact with the outside world. He sexually abused and even tortured the children in the camp.

Published: April 8, 2026, 1:00 pm

Genetics may help explain why results from weight-loss jabs vary, say scientists

Data on almost 28,000 patients suggests understanding gene variations could improve treatments for obesity

Scientists have discovered how genetics may help explain why weight-loss jabs work better for some people than others.

Variations in two genes involved in gut hormone pathways, which regulate appetite and digestion, may help account for different weight-loss results or side-effects when taking glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) medicines.

Published: April 8, 2026, 5:29 pm

Trump’s EPA chief Zeldin gives keynote speech at climate-denying group’s event

Lee Zeldin opens conference for Heartland Institute, which once compared climate advocates to the Unabomber

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Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), gave the keynote speech at a conference on Wednesday morning, one which was hosted by a prominent climate-denying thinktank that previously compared those concerned about the climate crisis to the Unabomber on billboard posters in 2012.

“No longer are we going to rely on bad, flawed assumptions instead of accurate, present-day facts, without apology or regret,” Zeldin said at the Heartland Institute’s conference on climate change in Washington DC, referring to well-established climate science.

Published: April 8, 2026, 3:58 pm

Britain breaks solar energy record twice as UK’s biggest solar farm gets approval

Record high set on Monday and raised on Tuesday, with 14.4GW of electricity generated in sunny spring weather

Britain’s sunny spring weather powered the grid to new solar energy records on two consecutive days this week.

Solar farms in England, Wales and Scotland generated 14.1GW of low-carbon electricity at lunchtime on Monday, surpassing the previous high of 14GW in July last year.

Published: April 8, 2026, 5:35 pm

‘The water is no longer our friend’: how dredging is pushing Lagos Lagoon towards ecosystem collapse – photo essay

Taking sand from the Nigerian city’s lagoon to supply a building boom harms more than fish – it affects the entire food chain, erodes coastlines and is depriving fishing communities of their livelihoods

Before dawn, when the noise of Lagos’s danfo buses fills the air and generators rumble to life, the city’s lagoon is already stirring. Not from fish splashing or canoes gliding, but from the long suction pipes of the dredging machines, pulling up the lagoon bed and spitting out wet sand that will be used in the construction of high-rise blocks, housing estates and flyovers.

Sand dredging is regulated by the Lagos state government and the waterways authority but in a city of more than 20 million people, where sharp sand has never been in higher demand, not all dredging is being done by the book.

Dredging leaves its mark on the landscape along the shores of the Lagos Lagoon in Epe

Published: April 8, 2026, 10:00 am

Anthropic keeps latest AI tool out of public’s hands for fear of enabling widespread hacking

AI company says purpose of its Claude Mythos model is to bolster defenses against hacking in common applications

Anthropic on Tuesday said its yet-to-be-released artificial intelligence model called Claude Mythos has proven keenly adept at exposing software weaknesses.

Mythos has laid bare thousands of vulnerabilities in commonly used applications for which no patch or fix exists, prompting the San Francisco-based AI startup to form an alliance with cybersecurity specialists to bolster defenses against hacking and withhold wide distribution.

Published: April 8, 2026, 10:10 pm

Family of man killed in shooting at Florida State University to sue ChatGPT and OpenAI

Lawyers for Robert Morales’s family said chatbot ‘may have advised the shooter’ on how to carry out shooting

The family of a man who was killed at Florida State University last year plans to sue ChatGPT and its parent organization, OpenAI, for allegedly telling the accused gunman how to carry out the mass shooting.

Lawyers for the family of Robert Morales wrote in a statement they had learned the shooter was in “constant communication with ChatGPT” ahead of the shooting, and that the chatbot “may have advised the shooter how to commit these heinous crimes”.

Published: April 8, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘His last gift’: father dies saving two of his children from drowning off Florida coast

Maine family was on vacation when Ryan Jennings died saving his son and daughter from rip current off Juno Beach

A Maine family is grieving after a father died recently saving his son and one of his daughters from drowning off the coast of Florida, where they were on vacation.

The selfless nature of Ryan Jennings’ actions has gained widespread attention online – and inspired his widow, Emily, to write a heartbreaking social media post which read: “His last gift to me was returning my children alive.”

Published: April 8, 2026, 10:00 am

ICE agents shoot man in car in northern California

Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez hospitalized after shooting in rural Patterson as officials say investigation under way

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents shot a man in a vehicle in northern California on Tuesday.

ICE agents conducted a vehicle stop in Patterson, a rural agricultural town in California’s Central valley about 80 miles east of San Jose, to arrest Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, ICE’s director, Todd Lyons, said in a statement.

Published: April 8, 2026, 1:16 am

Ukraine war briefing: Kremlin threat to countries over Ukrainian drone transit

Warning after strikes on Russia’s Baltic oil ports – but Russia has repeatedly sent its own drones through Nato and European airspace. What we know on day 1,506

Published: April 9, 2026, 1:52 am

Greece announces social media ban for under-15s, citing anxiety and sleep problems

PM says ban will come into force in January if it is backed by parliament and calls for united action across EU

Greece has announced a social media ban for under-15s from 1 January, with the country’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, citing rising anxiety, sleep problems and the addictive design of online platforms – although he acknowledged it may incur the wrath of some children.

“We have decided to go ahead with a difficult but necessary measure: ban access to social media for children under 15 years old,” he said in a TikTok video intended to address a young audience.

Published: April 8, 2026, 3:52 pm

British computer scientist denies he is bitcoin developer Satoshi Nakamoto

New York Times report claims London-born Adam Back is creator of the cryptocurrency after comparing writings

A British computer scientist has insisted he is not the elusive developer of bitcoin, after a report claimed to unmask him as its creator.

A story in the New York Times details a years-long effort to unmask Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious author of the bitcoin white paper which laid the theoretical foundations for modern digital currencies.

Published: April 8, 2026, 5:35 pm

The tiny Queensland town of Cooladdi, population two, has a pub and a post office. It could be yours for $400,000

The new owner will serve as the Australian town’s postie, publican, cook and shopkeeper

In the heart of outback Queensland, more than 800km west of Brisbane, sits a town with its own postcode and exactly two residents. Now, the entire population of Cooladdi is packing up – and the town is officially on the market.

For $400,000, buyers will get the Foxtrap Roadhouse, a four-bedroom home, and the keys to the town. It’s a far cry from the $935,000 median price for a cramped Sydney unit.

Published: April 8, 2026, 10:21 am

Charli xcx’s Brat movie marks the moment the mockumentary died | Zach Schonfeld

Spoof documentaries once skewered subjects by dialling comic ingenuity up to 11, but the genre has stagnated – replaced by showbiz puff pieces and right-wing provocations. Has their time passed?

In the satirical mockumentary The Moment, Charli xcx fears (and eventually embraces) the death of Brat summer, the cultural sensation that made her sixth album a phenomenon. But the film – which stars the singer as a fictionalised version of herself – strains to land jokes out of Charli’s identity crisis and lacks the giddily intoxicating rush of that 2024 album. Watching The Moment shortly after its lukewarm reception at Sundance, I sensed something dying, but it wasn’t Brat – it was the mockumentary style itself.

How did mockumentaries grow so … tiresome? Once a novel narrative format brilliantly deployed by directors such as Christopher Guest and the late Rob Reiner, the mockumentary now feels nearly as stale as the formulaic films it aims to lampoon. It’s a sad state of affairs. For much of the last half-century, faux-documentary film-making flourished under the perverse minds of countless comedy greats, from Monty Python’s Eric Idle, who lampooned Beatlemania with 1978’s wackily irreverent mock-doc The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, to Albert Brooks, who made his directorial debut with 1979’s proto-reality television spoof Real Life.

Published: April 8, 2026, 9:47 am

Segregation stories: Gordon Parks in the US south – in pictures

The great photographer documented black family life in postwar Alabama – and the dignity and resilience people showed under discriminatory Jim Crow laws

Published: April 8, 2026, 6:00 am

The Testaments review – brace yourself for a bloody sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale

Don’t be fooled by the lighter tone of Margaret Atwood’s follow-on. June’s daughter is now grown up in Gilead, where daily horrors are still in full swing – and Aunt Lydia is back

I had to give up on the TV adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale quite early on – the mass mock execution scene did for me – because it was too relentlessly bleak, too full of dread, too awful, too true. Margaret Atwood’s future-dystopia tale, published in 1985, drew on nothing that had not already occurred in totalitarian and tyrannical regimes around the world. Translated to the screen, the visceral terror of it all was almost too much from the very beginning.

Now, the sequel Atwood published in 2019, The Testaments, has come for us, created by The Handmaid’s Tale’s showrunner, Bruce Miller. Brace yourselves.

Published: April 8, 2026, 6:00 am

The Boys season five review – it’s the final outing for this gory splatterfest

As the extraordinary superhero satire comes to an end, a mighty showdown has terrifying parallels with modern America. What a horrifying pleasure it has been to watch

The Boys is back in town, for its fifth and final season. There’s too much to recap in full for those who have not yet had the pleasure of the satirical superhero show created by Eric Kripke from the comic books written by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. Or who have not yet been horrified by the gory splatterfest (courtesy of all kinds of body fluids) of the preceding 32 episodes, which have seen orifices and appendages put to extraordinary use, and some of which have rightly entered what we will very carefully spell as the annals of TV history.

So, let’s just say that the new season finds us set for a showdown between an increasingly power-mad (“Have you seen the memes about me? Posting them should be a crime”) – or, as the voices of angels start speaking to him, possibly just mad – Homelander (Antony Starr) and the Butcher crew. The former is now overlord of the US, with the president and, apparently, Sage (Susan Heyward) at his beck and call. But the gang has just succeeded in screening – in front of a Maga … I mean, Homelander-loving … rally – the long-buried footage of him leaving the passengers on Flight 37 (as he did all the way back in season one when he was just a little baby villain) to die.

Published: April 8, 2026, 4:00 am

Cats: The Jellicle Ball review – ingenious musical revival goes full queer ball

Broadhurst Theatre, New York

After a disastrous 2019 movie, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s easily ridiculed 80s smash hit has now been transformed into something thrillingly new

One criticism lobbied at the 2019 film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats was that it tried to dress the show up in too much extra stuff. Garish CGI and inelegant sets distracted from what is meant to be the core mission of Cats: to watch talented performers sing and dance as cats. The trick is to keep the show – which is mostly just a song cycle cataloging various felines as described in whimsical poems by TS Eliot – as streamlined as possible, highlighting powerful voices a’blare and lithe bodies in motion. Realism and narrative should not be of chief concern.

But what if there was another way to present Cats that still honored the main principles of the piece while adding further context, even further meaning? That is the feat pulled off by directors Zhailon Livingston and Bill Rauch with Cats: The Jellicle Ball, a bright and winsome reimagining of Webber’s 45-year-old musical. First premiering in a downtown space, the Jellicle Ball has now transferred to Broadway, inviting a wider audience into its celebration of queer ball culture.

Published: April 8, 2026, 1:00 am

Stand By Me review – Rob Reiner’s nostalgic look at friendship and the loss of innocence still grips tight

The 40th anniversary re-release of the coming-of-age drama about four boys on a quest to see a dead body is a masterclass in directing, storytelling and acting

Rob Reiner’s film, adapted by screenwriters Raynold Gideon and Bruce Evans from Stephen King’s novella The Body, transformed King’s story into a glorious, mainstream American classic like something by Mark Twain. The film was released in 1986; since 1993 its added poignancy had resided in the fact that one of its actors, River Phoenix, died of a drug overdose. But now there is a terrible new layer of sadness superimposed on the film’s themes of innocence and death: the murder in 2025 of Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner.

One hot summer day in the late 50s, remembered in flashback with narrative voiceover, four boys go on what amounts to a secret, secular pilgrimage in search of the corpse of a missing kid their own age rumoured to lie next to some distant railway tracks, having been hit by a train. The resulting adventure – bizarre, mysterious and moving – is about lost youth and the recovery of innocence through writing and memory. It is also one of those vanishingly rare films where child actors have to carry almost the entire drama.

Published: April 8, 2026, 8:00 am

British novelist Gwendoline Riley wins a $175k Windham-Campbell prize

Awarded to writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama, other recipients include S Shakthidharan, Adam Ehrlich Sachs and Kei Miller

British novelist Gwendoline Riley is among eight writers set to receive $175,000 (£130,000) each in recognition of their life’s work.

Australian playwright S Shakthidharan, known as Shakthi, is also among those selected for this year’s Windham-Campbell prizes, which award $1.4m annually to writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama, with the aim of enabling them to focus on their work free from financial pressures.

Published: April 8, 2026, 6:15 pm

The Writer and the Traitor by Robert Verkaik review – the strange case of Graham Greene and Kim Philby

Sex, booze and subterfuge in the story of an extraordinary friendship at the heart of MI6

At the Café Royal in Regent Street in 1944 three intelligence officers bent over their plates while Europe held its breath. Outside, London braced for D-day. Inside, Graham Greene announced that he was resigning from MI6.

Kim Philby, his chief in Section V, MI6’s counterespionage arm, blinked. Educated at Westminster, converted to communism at Cambridge and by then securely installed as Moscow’s man at the heart of the British establishment, he had helped orchestrate the deception on which Operation Overlord depended, persuading Hitler that the allies would land at Calais rather than Normandy. Greene had played his part in tending the illusion. Yet here he was, strolling off-stage before the curtain rose.

Published: April 8, 2026, 12:48 pm

Modern heroes and a ravaged Earth: reboot of 1950s space comic Dan Dare has liftoff

Beloved characters reinvented in graphic novel coming later this year – just as interest rockets in all things space

Sufferin’ satellites! The quintessential British space hero Dan Dare is back, 76 years after he first appeared in iconic comic magazine the Eagle.

With all eyes on Nasa’s Artemis II moon mission, and with the big-screen adaptation of Andy Weir’s science fiction novel Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling, going stratospheric at the box office, our love affair with space has been reignited.

Published: April 8, 2026, 5:00 am

The Black Death by Thomas Asbridge review – a medieval horror story

A magisterial history of one of the worst ever pandemics focuses on the individuals caught up in the chaos

In Venice, authorities tried to enforce social distancing by closing all the bars, and banning the sale of wine by merchant boats plying the canals. In Gloucester, the powers that be attempted to lock down the city by banning anyone travelling to and from Bristol, 40 miles south. But fights broke out among thirsty Italians, and Gloucester’s quarantine was broken – whether it was by people simply going on a trip to check their eyesight has, alas, gone unrecorded. In London, there was a dramatic rise in the sale of personal protective equipment, in the form of gloves.

The story of the Black Death, as historian Thomas Asbridge shows in this magisterial survey, contains many such echoes of the Covid-19 pandemic, but it also shows just how relatively lucky we were a few years ago. The plague was far more lethal, and in the areas it spread between 1346 and 1353 it killed half the population. About 100m died: it was, Asbridge remarks, “the most lethal natural disaster in human history”. If a pathogen with a similar case fatality rate were to erupt worldwide today, billions might die.

Published: April 8, 2026, 6:00 am

How games capture the awe and terror of cosmic isolation

As real astronauts vanish behind the moon, games have long tried to evoke the fragile quiet of drifting through space

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Last week’s launch of the Artemis II space mission was a stunning spectacle, the 17-storey-high rockets erupting into cacophonous life before wrenching the craft through the Earth’s atmosphere. But the images that have come since hold just as much impact: the tiny Orion craft and its four-person crew drifting silently through space, further and further from home.

In his autobiography, the Apollo astronaut Michael Collins described this feeling perfectly. Left in the command module as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the lunar surface, he wrote: “I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God knows what on this side.”

Published: April 8, 2026, 11:40 am

‘We wanted to put a mark on the world’: the sweaty, singular indie music scene of early-00s Brighton

From Bat for Lashes to Brakes and the Pipettes, misfits on the south coast made fearless music amid cheap rents and salty air. Could this ever happen again?

It’s any given night in 2002. We’re at the Free Butt in Brighton, a small pub with a stage and an anything-goes spirit that serves as an extended living room and rite-of-passage workplace for aspiring musicians. Natasha Khan – not yet Bat for Lashes, still a Brighton University art student – is dancing on top of the bar while Yeah Yeah Yeahs are tearing through their first UK tour. Guy McKnight, the lead singer of the brutally underrated Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, has just finished pulling pints, his day job when he’s not the city’s greatest frontman. Steve Ansell of Cat on Form, soon to form Blood Red Shoes, is the in-house sound engineer. Joe Mount from Metronomy is watching this week’s buzziest local support band. The atmosphere is charged with the feeling that anyone in the room might be about to become someone known beyond our city’s limits. Often, they did.

In the early 2000s, music scenes tended to have stories that bands and media could rally around: a shared silhouette, a signature sound, a shaped mythology. New York City gave us the Strokes and Interpol with their tight black denim and wiry riffs; Libertines-era London had its own sticky churn of style, press and parties. Yet Brighton was rarely described as a scene, despite being home to Nick Cave and Paul McCartney and hothousing a surge of remarkable young talent that’s still thriving more than 20 years later. In this seaside enclave, rock bands sounded and looked so unlike each other, they never needed to jostle for a single narrow lane.

Published: April 8, 2026, 10:18 am

Carnival celebrations at a Hungarian retirement home: János Bődey’s best photograph

‘I asked them the secret to a happy life. “Good genes,” replied Magdolna, who was 87. “Avoid borrowing money,” added Irén, 86’

When I saw these two elderly ladies dressed as bride and groom in a retirement home in Páty, near Budapest, my first thought was to wonder why they had chosen those particular costumes. I took their picture in the home’s lounge and afterwards we had a long conversation. I asked them about their lives, what they believed was the secret to a long life, and how to preserve a love of life in old age. They both emphasised a long and happy marriage. Magdolna, 87, on the left, lived with her husband for more than 50 years, and 86-year-old Irén for 62, until their spouses died.

In Hungary, the average pension is the equivalent of about £500 a month. It takes the talents of a magician for a pensioner to stretch that beyond basic needs and make any room for leisure, culture or travel. The health of Hungarian pensioners also falls short of what is typical in the west. And it’s really hard to get into a retirement home in Hungary. You have to wait for years for a good place.

Published: April 8, 2026, 1:26 pm

An irresistible adventure activity for New Zealand visitors? Delivering the mail by boat

In the sparsely populated Queen Charlotte Sound, tourists can accompany the skipper-come-postman as parcels are dropped off via the scenic route. No heart rate check required

For a travel destination famous for offering the adrenaline rush of extreme sports, from bungee jumping to the parachute drop, it’s an unlikely tourist activity – but an irresistible one. If you’re travelling in New Zealand, don’t miss out on the chance to deliver the mail. By boat.

It happens in the Queen Charlotte Sound, part of the Marlborough Sounds in the stretch of water that separates New Zealand’s North and South Islands. For over 160 years, New Zealand Post has ensured the handful of families who live on the bays and inlets of the sound receive the same mail service as every other resident of the country, no matter that they live in isolated homes accessible only by boat. Six days a week, the mailboat leaves from Picton, the skipper doubling as postman for the three- or four-hour voyage – and these days passengers can come along for the ride.

Published: April 8, 2026, 3:00 pm

‘This is about people’s livelihoods’: how surging tool thefts are leaving tradespeople penniless and afraid

More than 80% of the UK’s tradespeople have had tools stolen. Some have lost months of work as a result. With thefts up 16% in a year, can the police and the government do anything to protect them?

If you’re on social media and have even a passing interest in home improvement, there’s a good chance you will have seen Kevin Tingley’s work. The 39-year-old decorator is known as Paint Warrior – and has millions of followers across TikTok and Instagram. He’s in demand, highly skilled, generous in sharing tips from his many years of experience and even has his own range of products on sale in the UK and the US.

But even with his social media army and branded brushes, he’s still not immune to the biggest threat faced by British tradespeople: tool theft. “It was Boxing Day morning,” Tingley says. “I was still in bed, my wife was on her way to the gym. She came running back in and told me that all the doors of my van were open.”

Published: April 8, 2026, 4:00 am

Sali Hughes on beauty: delicious designer scents without the exorbitant price tag

At last … creative perfumes at half the cost of most niche fragrances, with a wide range of beautifully balanced options

The business of modern perfumery can stink. While I accept that the cost of everything is now troubling, large sections of the niche fragrance sector seemingly pluck their prices from the sky. It’s not unusual for a bottle costing £300-odd to launch without any accompanying explanation as to why. An unknown name, a needlessly quirky bottle, an egregious price tag – all serve to underline the assertion that this is a “niche” fragrance for people who take their scents seriously, who should be too in the know to question its calibre.

And so when I see a brand doing things honestly, authentically and with great care, I must give due credit. Essential Parfums is new to John Lewis (and available directly from the brand online) and its aim is to democratise creative perfumery. What this means in practice is an open brief to perfumers, who include such big hitters as Dominique Ropion and Anne Flipo; their total creative freedom; sustainable and mostly natural ingredient sourcing, development and manufacturing processes (using biotech, simple refillable bottles and cardboard packaging containing no glue or plastic); and a fair price – around £86 for a whopping 100ml, which, millilitre for millilitre, is less than half the cost of a pretty average designer fragrance enjoying little of the same treatment, and about a quarter of some of the nonsense I’m pitched regularly.

Published: April 8, 2026, 9:00 am

‘The vast wooded wilderness doesn’t look like England’: exploring Northumberland’s Kielder Forest

England’s largest forest has an aura reminiscent of parts of Canada or Finland. This year it celebrates its centenary with new trails and dark sky events

Deep in Kielder Forest, on the northern side of the vast Kielder Water stands Silvas Capitalis, a giant, two-storey timber head, one of the most striking of the 20 sculptures tucked between the pines. It’s an eerie sight, almost shocking; its mouth ajar, as if astounded by all it sees. It’s my first visit to Kielder, and my face has been wearing a similar expression since I stepped out of the car at the lakeside trying to take in the scale of the landscapes unfolding around me.

Kielder doesn’t look like England – at least, not the England I know. For a start, it’s vast; 250 sq miles (648 sq km), with 158m trees, mostly sitka spruce conifers planted by hand. And even though it’s a plantation, there’s a wilderness feel that reminds me of Finland or Canada; a great swathe of nature at its most intense. It’s a working forest, involving 500 full-time jobs (not including tourism) and 2026 marks the centenary of the very first plantings, when the UK was in need of timber reserves after the demands of the first world war.

Published: April 8, 2026, 6:00 am

Birdwatch: Climbing to 4,400 metres to spot a rare rufous-bellied seedsnipe

Our writer travels to the eastern Andes in search of one of Ecuador’s most elusive birds

I’m out of breath – and not just because I’m desperate to see one of Ecuador’s most elusive birds, the rufous-bellied seedsnipe. To have any chance of success, I’ve come to Cayambe Coca national park in the eastern Andes. At 4,400 metres (14,400 feet), this is the highest altitude I have ever experienced.

Fortunately the skies are clear, the sun is shining, and my guide, Juan Carlos, is optimistic. I don’t tell him I have a track record of missing nailed-on certainties.

Published: April 8, 2026, 5:00 am

What’s behind the worrying rise in anti-LGBTQ+ laws across Africa?

Rooted in colonialism, legislation backed by governments eager for popularity is obstructing real progress for queer minorities

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Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. It’s Morgan here, covering for Nesrine this week. There has been a recent rise in anti-LGBTQ legislation across a number of African countries that already have strict sexuality laws.

I spoke with LGBTQ+ people and activists fighting against the narrative that their identities are an imported “western” creation to better understand the impact of these new laws, why they are happening, and how foreign lobbying groups are pushing for more draconian laws.

Published: April 8, 2026, 11:38 am

Tehran rallies and a Dutch digital detox: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Published: April 8, 2026, 11:40 am