Comeuppance: how an orgasmic ‘cult’ ended in a prison term for its founder

Nicole Daedone, who promised spiritual wellbeing through her OneTaste enterprise, received a nine-year sentence but some question if freedom of thought is being criminalized

Clitoral stimulation as a path to spiritual connection, mental clarity and emotional wellbeing has been practiced for millennia. After being convicted on forced labor conspiracy charges related to the practice (and getting sentenced to nine years by a Brooklyn court last week), Nicole Daedone was given the opportunity to address the court.

Known as the “The Oracle” of OneTaste, a trademarked orgasmic meditation enterprise that extolled the benefits of hours of arousal, Daedone, 57, swiveled her chair toward the public gallery, smiled broadly, and said: “No.”

Published: April 5, 2026, 10:00 am

Joe Rogan and the influencers who built Maga are revolting over Iran. Was this an alliance doomed to fail? | Jason Okundaye

Unlike Trump’s cronies in the White House, outside voices are not so easily disciplined. There’s a lesson here for all future political movements

If you spend enough time swiping online, you may have seen skits by the American comedian and influencer Druski (real name Drew Desbordes), in which he parodies everything from Republican patriots to flashy mega churches. Once again, he has exploded on social media channels with a skit satirising “conservative women in America”, a nakedly targeted roast of Erika Kirk, now the CEO of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) after her husband, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated last year.

Predictably, it has drawn conservative backlash, with Ted Cruz calling the video “beneath contempt”. But Desbordes is far from the only one mocking Erika Kirk. Her entrances to the Charlie Kirk memorial and TPUSA’s AmericaFest have been widely memed online for their surreal, WrestleMania-like production and pyrotechnics. In fact, much of the opprobrium comes from her own side. Far-right live streamer Nick Fuentes has disparaged Kirk’s public appearances after her husband’s death (“she looks like she’s over the moon”), and commentator and conspiracy theorist Candace Owens, a former darling of TPUSA, repeatedly takes aim at her (Owens describes Druski’s skit as “hilarious”).

Jason Okundaye is an assistant Opinion editor at the Guardian

Published: April 5, 2026, 8:00 am

An AI bot invited me to its party in Manchester. It was a pretty good night

After forgetting the nibbles, refusing my costume requests and emailing GCHQ, ‘Gaskell’ did at least get us to show up

Two weeks ago, an AI bot invited me to a party it was organising in Manchester. It then promptly lied to dozens of potential sponsors that I’d agreed to cover the event, and misled me into believing there would be food.

Despite all this, it was a pretty good night.

Published: April 5, 2026, 7:00 am

I’m back in London after almost a decade in the US – and I’m feeling homesick | Bim Adewunmi

I’d forgotten how reticent Brits can be. Try to connect with strangers and they just recoil

I don’t know how accurate it is that the children of immigrants are themselves well suited to leaving home. But I do know my own experience – I first left home when I was 11 to go to boarding school, and I’ve barely looked back since. My most recent leaving happened at 33, when I moved from London to New York with a multi-year visa, clutching a receipt for the large brown boxes that would arrive some weeks after me.

I have the good fortune to root well in new soil. You’ve heard of the idiomatic fish out of water? I have strong evidence to suggest that I am not that fish – I am the fish that thrives outside the water, perhaps even astride a bicycle. I moved to New York in 2016, with the intention of staying exactly 12 months: to report on an electric election year – and then return home with a chapter (“My Brooklyn Year”) of my eventual memoir tucked away in my mind. Instead, I stayed for almost a decade. Much has changed: silvery streaks have appeared at the crown of my head. My palate has widened dramatically to accommodate the vast cuisines of North America. Sometimes, when I stand up from my desk, I make an involuntary sound. And now, I am back. Coming home, just as my older bones are discovering, is an experiment in friction.

Bim Adewunmi is a freelance journalist

Published: April 5, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘We’re home’: Even in a draw, Inter Miami’s stadium opener was a win for David Beckham

Nu Stadium’s first game of any kind saw the South Florida club accomplish a long-held goal barely under the deadline

Lionel Messi may have scored, captained the side and had a quarter of the new building named in his honor, but this was unmistakably Inter Miami co-owner Sir David Beckham’s night.

The inaugural game at Nu Stadium in Miami – an entertaining 2-2 draw with Austin FC – was the culmination of the former England captain’s arduous, thirteen-year odyssey to first establish an MLS team in Miami, then fill it with superstars, win major honors and, critically, build a world class arena for the team to play in.

Published: April 5, 2026, 12:52 pm

How Paris swapped cars for bikes – and transformed its streets

Under outgoing mayor Anne Hidalgo, the French capital added bike lanes, cut traffic and reclaimed public space, but not without resistance

When Corentin Roudaut moved to Paris 10 years ago, he was too scared to cycle. The IT developer had biked everywhere as a student in Rennes but felt overwhelmed by the bustling French capital. Cars were everywhere. Cyclists had almost no protection.

But once authorities carved out space for a segregated bike lane on Boulevard Voltaire near his home in the 11th arrondissement, Roudaut returned to the two-wheel commute and did not look back. He now volunteers with Paris en Selle, a cycling campaign group, and has watched with wonder as the city has shaken off its car-centric reputation.

Published: April 5, 2026, 7:00 am

Middle East crisis live: Trump uses expletive-ridden social media post to threaten Iran’s infrastructure

US president tells Iran: ‘Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell’

Iranian media has claims that a US aircraft was destroyed while searching for the crew member of a missing US F-15 fighter jet.

“An American enemy aircraft that was searching for the pilot of a downed fighter jet was destroyed by the fighters of Islam in the southern region of Isfahan,” the Tasnim news agency quoted Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as saying. The Guardian was unable to verify their claim.

Published: April 5, 2026, 1:36 pm

US rescues second crew member of downed F-15E fighter jet from Iran

Trump gives further details on rescue and threatens to bomb infrastructure if strait of Hormuz is not reopened

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The second crew member of a downed F-15E fighter jet has been rescued by US commandos overnight, ending a two-day search after the warplane crashed in south-west Iran.

The crew member, a colonel and weapons systems officer, had sustained some injuries but was successfully extracted by US special forces, Donald Trump said in a social media post soon after midnight EST.

Published: April 5, 2026, 1:13 pm

Secret Service investigates reports of gunfire near White House

No injuries reported and no suspect found after a search of park and surrounding area, agency says

The US Secret Service said on Sunday it was investigating reports of overnight gunfire near Lafayette Park, which is across the street from the White House.

No injuries were reported and no suspect was found after a search of the park and the surrounding area after midnight, the agency said in an online post.

Published: April 5, 2026, 12:51 pm

Trump’s mass deportation plan hits small US towns, leaving fear and disruption: ‘We have to take care of each other’

Immigration agents have spread into rural western Wisconsin, taking dozens of people from towns in more politically conservative areas

The Mexican restaurant where multiple workers were taken in February still sits dark, across the road from a travel plaza where people were also arrested by federal agents.

An Ecuadorian market in a nearby town targeted by immigration agents is back open again, with a sign on the door telling people to ring the bell before entering.

Published: April 5, 2026, 11:00 am

Satellite mirror plans could disrupt sleep and ecosystems worldwide, scientists say

Letters to US agency raise concerns over tech firms’ plans to use reflective satellites and expand numbers in low Earth orbit

Proposals to deploy reflective mirrors and up to 1m more satellites in low Earth orbit could have far-reaching consequences for human health and ecosystems, leading sleep and circadian rhythm researchers have said.

Presidents of four international scientific societies representing about 2,500 researchers from more than 30 countries are among those who have raised concerns in letters to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Published: April 5, 2026, 11:49 am

US health officials appear to shy away from anti-vaccine talk ahead of midterms

Elections seem top-of-mind for the Maha movement as key polling indicates anti-vaccine views are a liability

US health officials appear to be shying away from voicing negative views of vaccines in public as November’s midterm elections loom and key polling indicates anti-vaccine views are a liability.

Health officials have made unprecedented changes to routine vaccine recommendations in the past year – slashing one-third of the US childhood schedule, including the recommendation for hepatitis B immunization at birth. But even before a federal judge essentially invalidated these moves, officials haven’t championed their dramatic changes after Donald Trump’s pollsters recommended veering away from anti-vaccine ideology ahead of the midterms.

Published: April 5, 2026, 1:00 pm

Priest accused of coercing congregants for sex in Texas could have single trial for charges from three separate accusers

Prosecutors say Anthony Odiong exploited his parishioners’ emotional dependency to engage in sexual conduct with them

A Roman Catholic priest with ties to Texas and south-east Louisiana and criminally charged with abusing his position as a clergyman to pursue sex with three spiritually vulnerable female congregants faces being taken to trial on all of those cases at once.

The Texas district attorney’s office prosecuting Anthony Odiong filed a motion seeking to consolidate the three cases in late March, ahead of a trial date that the Guardian understands has tentatively been set for 4 May. Prepared by McLennan county first assistant district attorney Ryan Calvert, the motion notes that Texas state law allows “a defendant [to] be prosecuted in a single criminal action” if the crimes alleged “are connected or … are the repeated commission of the same or similar offenses”.

Published: April 5, 2026, 11:00 am

Uproar in Germany over law requiring men get military approval for long stays abroad

Ministry clarifies clause affecting those up to age 45 that is part of legislation that came into effect in January

A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has caused uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime.

The legislation, which went into effect on 1 January, aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription.

Published: April 5, 2026, 11:45 am

Mexican art world protests over plan to send Frida Kahlo masterpieces to Spain

Cultural figures sign open letter asking government for clarity on how long landmark collection will remain abroad

One of the world’s most important collections of 20th-century Mexican art, including works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, is set to be exported to Spain under an agreement with Banco Santander, sparking outrage among Mexico’s cultural community.

Nearly 400 cultural professionals have signed an open letter calling on the Mexican government to offer greater clarity on what the deal means for the masterpieces, particularly the works by Kahlo, which the Mexican state has declared an “artistic monument”.

Published: April 5, 2026, 9:00 am

I was the US soft power czar. Our popularity may never recover | Richard Stengel

Trump’s venal persona and his war on Iran will do untold damage to America’s ability to make a positive difference in the world

Early one Sunday morning in the summer of 2003, I drove into the center of a little South African beach town on the Indian Ocean to pick up the Cape papers. Local news agents still employed the English custom of putting front pages on A-frame stands on the sidewalk. It was during the first months of the Iraq war, and from two blocks away, I could see the headline, in big block type: “WHY BUSH IS WORSE THAN BIN LADEN.”

It was disheartening to see – especially so far from home – but it did correspond to something familiar: American favorability around the world tends to swing sharply with wars (especially ones America starts) and who the US president is. Within weeks of the American attack, the international support the US had after 9/11 was squandered.

Published: April 5, 2026, 1:00 pm

Rice’s whales predate modern humans. Now Trump could make them extinct

The US has invoked national security to remove protections for the endangered cetacean, of which only about 50 are left

Since before modern humans existed Rice’s whales have been diving to the depths of the ocean to gorge on fat-rich fish while growing to leviathan proportions, their bodies spanning the length of a bus and weighing as much as as six elephants.

Unfortunately for these grand creatures, their only home became a patch of the Gulf of Mexico that the oil and gas industry, much later, became highly interested in for drilling. Only about 50 of these baleen whales still exist on Earth, surrounded by clanging aquatic highways of boats and shifting drilling infrastructure.

Published: April 5, 2026, 11:00 am

A strategy ‘to make life intolerable’: Israeli settlers are driving Christians out of West Bank

The Taybeh community has survived crusaders and the Ottoman and British empires, but the latest attacks leave its future in question

Taybeh, a small hilltop town in the heart of the West Bank is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. After increasing attacks from Israeli settlers it now feels itself under siege and is fighting for its very existence.

The town’s ancient Greek name was Ephraim where, according to the gospels, Jesus hid with his disciples from the Jewish religious hierarchy, the Sanhedrin, before making his final fateful trip to Jerusalem.

Published: April 5, 2026, 5:00 am

Nasa’s Orion spaceship four days into Artemis II mission: in pictures

Artemis II, Nasa’s first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years, is a key step toward a long‑term return to the moon and future crewed missions to Mars

Published: April 5, 2026, 12:39 pm

‘I still think it’s one of the great films of all time’: All the President’s Men turns 50

In April 1976, the flawless Watergate film premiered in Washington – cast members and reporters share their memories of ‘the granddaddy of journalism movies’

The rustle of a notepad. The click of a pen lid. On a floral-patterned sofa sits Dustin Hoffman with long hair, big collar and a lean and hungry look. Opposite is Jane Alexander, wearing a blue button-down dress, cornered and nervous in the glow of a table lamp. In this taut, claustrophobic acting masterclass, no detail is too small.

“The makeup artists ran in because the sweat was pouring off Dustin’s face,” Alexander recalls with a laugh. “Gordon [Willis, cinematographer] said, ‘Don’t touch that, I’m lighting off his sweat!’ I love that.”

Published: April 5, 2026, 11:00 am

Life of Pi author Yann Martel: ‘I thought the Iliad was a book for old farts… then I started getting ideas’

The best-selling novelist explains why his new retelling of Homer’s epic offers the ideal antidote to the age of Trump

Yann Martel’s writing studio, where he sits while we talk over Zoom, is a mere 10ft by 12ft; beyond his treadmill desk lie the drifts of snow that separate him from the house he shares with his wife, writer Alice Kuipers, and their four children. Martel was born in Spain, but his father’s academic work took the family to places including Portugal, France, Costa Rica and Alaska; perhaps it’s no surprise that, after all that travelling, he’s been settled in Saskatoon, Canada, for many years. But his novels couldn’t be any less rooted, in time or place: from the sea-tossed raft of the Booker prize-winning Life of Pi to the Dante-inspired Beatrice and Virgil and the era-shifting triptych of The High Mountains of Portugal, Martel is clearly possessed of an itinerant imagination.

Now comes Son of Nobody, for which Martel has written what the novel’s dismissive professor would term “pseudo-Homerica”; a version of the Trojan war seen from the perspective of an unknown soldier, Psoas, and discovered by an eager researcher in present-day Oxford, Harlow Donne. The poem appears in full, with Harlow’s story – including the breakdown of his marriage and his relationship with his young daughter, Helen – presented via digressive footnotes, at times scholarly but just as often humorous and domestic.

Published: April 5, 2026, 11:00 am

This is how we do it: ‘The fact he’s comfortable enough with his sexuality to be intimate with other men is so hot to me’

Before Miguel, Sandra’s sex life was rather vanilla. When they got together, he suggested swinging – and all that changed

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

I never thought, when I was a pregnant Catholic teenager, that I’d have this lifestyle, but my God, it’s fun

She can’t get enough of hearing about my hook-ups, and I can’t get enough of the fact that she can’t get enough

Published: April 5, 2026, 10:00 am

‘I was beaten and tortured’: how a British father and son made a fortune in Dubai then became wanted men

As the Middle East is drawn into war, expats and influencers are under pressure to only share the positive side of the UAE. In reality many are at risk of being put behind bars, and often find the UK government has little interest in helping them get out

A four-metre barbed-wire fence runs through the desert at the UAE‑Omani border. In the early hours of 17 February 2021, Albert Douglas, 58, a British businessman, was creeping along it, looking for a way through. Douglas, who cuts a slight figure, wears spectacles and has a broad, earnest smile, never expected things to come to this. He’d been forced to abandon his home on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah, the tree-shaped archipelago lined with upmarket residences, and go into hiding. Usually he’d be driving around in a Rolls-Royce, now he was in a pickup truck, being chauffeured by people smugglers. They’d transported him to the edge of the Al Ain border, which neighbours Oman, in the dead of the night. It was incredible, really, how fast the life he once led could evaporate. All that mattered now was getting to the other side of that fence.

A few weeks earlier, Douglas had been sitting at home, watching his supreme court appeal via video link. He was being hounded by the Dubai authorities over debts incurred by his son Wolfgang Douglas’s company and, while Wolfgang was in the UK, Albert had been arrested. Albert was facing a £2.5m fine and a three-year prison sentence – this was his final chance for a reprieve. He had always believed the truth would prevail, but as he watched the hearing play out, his faith in the system deserted him. He decided to lie low in a friend’s apartment while he weighed his options. It soon became clear that he didn’t have any. “That’s when I decided to leave,” he says. “I left it not to the last minute, but the last second.”

Published: April 5, 2026, 5:00 am

How to use procrastination to your advantage

As medieval sages understood, putting things off – done well – can open the doors to creativity and purpose

A soft rain hammers at the window. I’ve pushed the couch to the other side of the coffee table because I need to get closer to my floor lamp. In front of me is a stack of 40 student essays, unopened and ungraded. The water I boiled for tea went cold an hour ago and I’m looking up the age of celebrities on Wikipedia. David Hasselhoff (born 17 July 1952). Dannii Minogue (born 20 October 1971). Has my afternoon been wasted? Is this … procrastination?

Today the P-word has a bad reputation. Psychologists link it with increased anxiety, diminished self-esteem and depression. And magazines (like the ones I just sorted into a date-ordered stack) feature articles with headlines such as “How to Stop Procrastinating, NOW!” Am I one of the 20% of the population with “chronic procrastination”, the lifelong tendency to avoid doing the things I should be doing? A few years ago, this would have alarmed me – but now I no longer worry. I embrace days like this. Because an obscure idea I discovered in a work of medieval theology has taught me how to relax.

Published: April 5, 2026, 11:00 am

Here are three ways we can turn anti-Trump solidarity into political power | Robert Reich

The No Kings protests affirmed widespread opposition to Trump’s actions. As the midterms approach, we have an opportunity

Last weekend, millions of us once again affirmed the foundation of the common good.

Across America, people showed their solidarity – in opposition to Trump’s ill-considered war in Iran, with immigrants being targeted by ICE and border patrol agents, with current and former public officials whom Trump is prosecuting, with the students and universities whose freedom to learn and speak continues to be threatened by Trump, in favor of the earth and stopping climate change, and with every American who’s determined to reject dictatorship.

Target vulnerable Republican senators and House members. Either get them to switch parties or become independents who caucus with Democrats, or flip their seats.

Republican majorities are razor-thin in both chambers, and some Republicans who represent purple districts and states are struggling to keep their Republican supporters behind them. (They’re also struggling with their own consciences in continuing to support Trump’s authoritarian fascism.)

Begin organizing and mobilizing now to get out the vote for November’s midterm elections – aiming for Democratic takeovers of both chambers of Congress by wide margins, which will severely limit what Trump can do after January 2027.

The key will be to get out the vote. Make a plan. Use phone trees. Write postcards. Arrange transportation for people who need it.

Root out and challenge any Trump Republican attempt to intimidate likely Democratic voters or manipulate the election process.

It’s important that neither Trump nor his state lapdogs diminish the turnout of likely Democratic voters in the weeks leading up to the November midterms – by stationing federal agents near polling places, interfering with the counting or certifying of ballots, or altering laws and rules to make it harder to vote.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK

Published: April 5, 2026, 11:00 am

Trump’s working-class support is waning | Jared Abbott and Dustin Guastella

Our survey finds that 20% of 2024 Trump voters are considering abandoning Republicans in 2028. But the picture isn’t rosy for Democrats either

A new survey offers some novel insight into Trump’s corroding coalition.

The survey, which I (Abbott) conducted with the scholar and author Joan C Williams, sampled about 1,940 Trump voters and captured the attitudes of the broad coalition that brought Trump to the White House in 2024. Respondents were asked if they intended to vote Republican in the 2028 presidential election and, in particular, their views on immigration – Trump’s strongest issue.

Jared Abbott is the director of the Center for Working-Class Politics. Dustin Guastella is a research associate at the Center for Working Class Politics and the director of operations for Teamsters Local 623

Published: April 5, 2026, 1:00 pm

The hill I will die on: Order be damned – a house full of clutter is a happy house | Robin Craig

Forget bare walls and clean lines. Give me curiosity and obsession. Give me evidence of a life well lived

I have a friend whose flat when I visit feels like stepping into someone else’s mind. It’s filled to the absolute brim with stuff: cupboards full of mismatched mugs, chintzy ceramic dogs adorning the shelves, piles of books everywhere and, most impressively, a display case lovingly filled with dozens of Kinder egg toys. The funny thing is, I always leave feeling calmer than I would in any stripped-back, magazine-ready living room.

Clutter gets a bad rap, but in a world where we’re told to optimise and streamline everything, its chaos feels stubbornly human. I think clutter, when done right, can be the clearest sign of a life being well lived. It shows that someone has character, taste and experiences they have grown from. I love seeing homes that look like people actually live in them. The worst feeling is entering someone’s house and being met with completely clear walls and countertops, perfectly matching dinnerware sets and shelves full of pristine, untouched books. It’s like stepping into The Stepford Wives.

Robin Craig is a freelance writer and journalist based in London

Published: April 5, 2026, 9:00 am

Higher energy costs from Iran war could threaten fragile economics of AI boom | Heather Stewart

Industry with business model not yet firmly established and investments financed by huge debts is particularly at risk

Donald Trump’s most immediate concern in demanding Iran reopen the strait of Hormuz may be rocketing US gasoline prices, but if the conflict drags on, higher energy costs will be felt far beyond the pumps.

Systemically higher power prices and fractured supply chains will squeeze industries and consumers worldwide. For the US, one consequence may be to threaten the fragile economics of the AI boom.

Published: April 5, 2026, 10:38 am

West Ham v Leeds buildup plus Scottish Premiership and Women’s FA Cup – matchday live

• Buildup to Sunday’s football action

• Get in touch: mail Simon and follow us on BlueSky

On the one hand, he did well to coax a title out of a squad whose best players are ageing; on the other, it was Jürgen Klopp’s team and it relied upon Mo Salah delivering half a season of dead-cat bounce brilliance that had little to do with anyone’s tactics.

And as for this season, who signed off on all the summer business? Changing five players is never going to be seamless, but ignoring the major weaknesses in the squad – the middle of defence and the middle of midfield – to splurge on an attack that didn’t need that level of refreshment, was a colossal error.

Published: April 5, 2026, 1:43 pm

‘Let’s do it’: Deontay Wilder targets Anthony Joshua fight after beating Chisora

• Former world champions may finally meet in the ring

• Eddie Hearn says Joshua is ready for fight after car crash

Deontay Wilder called out Anthony Joshua for a long-awaited matchup between the former heavyweight champions, after Wilder edged Derek Chisora to clinch a split-decision victory in London on Saturday.

Wilder came face to face with Joshua as he walked past the Briton after the fight. The two fist-bumped, and the American said: “Let’s do it. It wasn’t a few words, I dapped it up with him and I said, now let’s get it on. I’m ready for whoever, [as] long as these guys are in the heavyweight division, I am here. You can call me Mr Clean, because I want to clean up the whole division. The division is nothing without Deontay Wilder.”

Published: April 5, 2026, 12:50 pm

Spurs gamble on creative but combative De Zerbi conjuring up an escape plan

With seven games to save their status, Tottenham’s owners have taken risk on a gifted coach who favours tough love

It is ironic that the man who has appointed Roberto De Zerbi to be Tottenham manager, just as the club faces its most critical seven games this century, is also partially responsible for one of the most successful managerial recruitments in Mikel Arteta, albeit for north London rivals, Arsenal. And even that didn’t start well. Vinai Venkatesham was blindsided when photographs of him emerging from Arteta’s house at 1.20am were published in a newspaper at a sensitive stage in negotiations. The man who is now Tottenham’s chief executive only found out he had been rumbled when the pictures went online and was mortified.

Venkatesham was part of a committee that settled on Arteta as a replacement for Unai Emery, and while it was a huge gamble to entrust a novice to a club the size of Arsenal, it was at least inspired, which is more than can be said for his hiring of Igor Tudor, a coach with no Premier League experience, to save Spurs. Now Venkatesham, along with the sporting director, Johan Lange, has settled on De Zerbi, which is similarly high risk.

Published: April 5, 2026, 7:00 am

NCAA Tournament: Michigan rout Arizona to set up final against UConn

• Wolverines and Huskies will meet for championship

• UConn top Illinois to reach third title game in four years

Michigan overpowered Arizona early and humbled the Wildcats, turning the Final Four meeting, billed as the ‘Game of the Year’, into a 91-73 Wolverines highlight reel in Indianapolis.

Junior center Aday Mara scored a career-high 26 points and had nine rebounds, a dinged-up Yaxel Lendeborg had 11 points in 14 minutes and Michigan blew through their fifth straight March Madness opponent by double digits while becoming the first team to break 90 points five times in a single tournament.

Published: April 5, 2026, 3:49 am

Arteta says Arsenal must ‘look in the mirror’ after Southampton defeat

• League leaders fall to late strike in FA Cup

• ‘I love my players. I’m not going to criticise’

Mikel Arteta vowed to defend his players “more than ever” after a shock FA Cup quarter-final defeat at second-tier Southampton but the Arsenal head coach accepted his side must “look in the mirror” after successive losses for the first time this season.

Arteta insisted “the most beautiful period of the season” is on the horizon, with a Champions League quarter-final first leg at Sporting their next match on Tuesday.

Published: April 4, 2026, 10:41 pm

Geno Auriemma apologizes for ‘uncalled for’ behavior after tense exchange with Dawn Staley

• UConn coach’s outburst came after Final Four loss

• Auriemma: ‘No excuse for how I handled’ situation

• South Carolina coach says she is focused on title game

UConn coach Geno Auriemma has apologized for his actions during a heated exchange with Dawn Staley at the end of the Huskies’ loss to South Carolina in the women’s Final Four.

A visibly upset Auriemma went over to Staley in the final seconds of South Carolina’s 62-48 victory on Friday night and appeared to chastise her. Coaches from both teams had to separate them. When the game finally ended, Auriemma walked off the court to the locker room without going back to shake hands with anyone from South Carolina.

Published: April 4, 2026, 8:00 pm

Deontay Wilder beats battling Derek Chisora as epic bout goes the distance

• Wilder wins heavyweight contest on split decision

• British boxer earns hero’s reception in final fight

Deontay Wilder consigned the British heavyweight Derek Chisora to defeat in his final bout but only after an exhilarating fight-of-the-year contender at a raucous O₂ Arena. In the 50th bout of Chisora’s eventful professional career, Del Boy showed remarkable powers of recovery to come back from a punishing eighth round and take the former WBC champion the distance in south-east London.

After the American showed early on the power that once made him one of the most formidable punchers in heavyweight history, Chisora’s farewell threatened to turned into a nightmare during a one-sided start.

Published: April 4, 2026, 11:17 pm

Sydney Kings break Adelaide 36ers hearts in overtime thriller to win NBL Championship

• Kings defeat 36ers 113-101 in dramatic finals series decider

• Kendric Davis stars with 35 points and 13 assists in front of record crowd

The Sydney Kings have won their sixth NBL title with a dramatic 113-101 overtime defeat of the Adelaide 36ers in the decisive fifth game of the championship series.

Superstar Kings guard Kendric Davis starred with 35 points and 14 assists in front of an all-time NBL record crowd of 18,589 fans in Sydney on Easter Sunday.

Published: April 5, 2026, 7:07 am

Pepsi drops Wireless sponsorship amid criticism of Kanye West booking

Sponsor pulls out after Keir Starmer calls decision to book rapper who wrote song titled Heil Hitler ‘deeply concerning’

Pepsi has said it is withdrawing its sponsorship of a UK music festival that is due to be headlined by Kanye West after Keir Starmer joined criticism of the event.

The musician is understood to have not yet made an application to come to Britain and could be blocked under powers allowing the authorities to do so if his presence is deemed not conducive to the public good.

Published: April 5, 2026, 11:37 am

California protection crews contain parts of wildfire that burned 4,100 acres

Springs fire, which had spread quickly by windy conditions, at least 45% contained on Saturday, say fire officials

California fire protection crews on Saturday were getting a handle on the wildfire that broke out the previous evening in Riverside county, fanned by high winds that quickly spread the flames to more than 4,100 acres.

The Springs fire, about 64 miles (103km) east of Los Angeles, was at least 45% contained on Saturday, a fire department spokesperson said. It was 25% contained late on Friday evening.

Published: April 4, 2026, 6:13 pm

How a mother turned her drowned daughter’s passion into a thriving patisserie

Hamburg shop set up in tribute to aspiring pastry chef becomes ‘happy’ pilgrimage site for grieving parents

Johanna Orth was a fun-loving, determined little girl and later a purpose-driven young woman who revelled in making a creative mess in the kitchen. Her parents, Inka and Ralph, chuckle quietly as they remember the stacks of batter-covered bowls, spatulas and whisks repeatedly left in the sink.

With time, Johanna’s cakes and pastries grew more sophisticated and elaborate, guided by her grandmother, Marlies, who was also a talented baker. Marlies’ own ambition of opening a cafe one day had been thwarted by the demands of motherhood and postwar Germany’s rigid gender roles.

Published: April 5, 2026, 7:00 am

Man charged with impaired driving after after hitting Louisiana crowd celebrating Lao New Year

At least 15 people injured in incident with authorities saying some of the injuries believed to be serious

At least 15 people were injured on Saturday after an alleged drunk driver ploughed into pedestrians at a Louisiana parade celebrating the Lao New Year. Some of the injuries are believed to be serious, authorities said.

Louisiana State Police said a man had been charged with driving while impaired, 18 counts of first-degree negligent injuring and careless operation, after the incident in New Iberia.

Published: April 5, 2026, 2:30 am

Three-week-old mountain lion cub rescued by California biologists

Crimson, seen alone in Santa Monica mountains for days, gets care in Oakland zoo after mother nowhere to be found

It was an unusual scene. A lion cub alone for days in southern California’s sprawling Santa Monica mountains, emitting a noise that sounded like a cross between a purr and a light squeal, perhaps calling out for his mother.

Where was his mother?

Published: April 4, 2026, 9:10 pm

From early birds to emerging butterflies: UK shows signs of earliest spring on record

Citizen science data reveals early flowering, nesting and insect activity as global heating accelerate seasonal change

Bluebells are flowering, swallows are returning and orange-tip butterflies are flying in what could become Britain’s earliest recorded spring.

Records for early spring occurrences are being smashed as 2026 looks to be the earliest this century for frogspawn laying, blackbirds nesting, brimstone butterflies emerging and hazel flowering, according to Nature’s Calendar, which has logged citizen science records of seasonal change since 2000.

Published: April 4, 2026, 5:00 am

‘Horror movie’: officials investigate after 21 dead dogs wash up on Washington state shore

Carcasses wash ashore Guemes Island in ‘creepy mystery’, with authorities saying canines appear to be the same size

Officials are investigating after nearly two dozen dead canines washed ashore on a Washington state island, in what one local has compared to “the start of a horror movie”.

The Skagit county sheriff’s office said 21 canines had been found on the shoreline of Guemes Island, about 80 miles north of Seattle, between 26 March and Friday.

Published: April 4, 2026, 4:59 pm

Former US air force master sergeant pleads guilty to defrauding military out of $37m

Alan Hayward James, who called himself ‘Al Capone’, admitted to rigging bids for IT contracts with Pentagon

A former US air force master sergeant who nicknamed himself “Al Capone” has pleaded guilty to defrauding the military branch out of $37m by inflating the cost of IT contracts – and giving some of the extra money to an individual he called “Godfather”.

Alan Hayward James, from Texas, ran a nine-year scam, beginning in April 2016, which also saw him funnel excess funds to himself, his family and his co-conspirators.

Published: April 4, 2026, 2:43 pm

New Covid variant BA.3.2 detected across US, but experts urge vigilance over alarm

Strain found in 29 states and Puerto Rico carries spike mutations, but no data shows increased severity

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BA.3.2, an Omicron variant of Covid-19 with dozens of new spike mutations, has been detected in 29 US states and Puerto Rico, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but experts say there is not yet evidence it is more severe than other recent variants.

“The right response to BA.3.2 is serious attention, not alarm,” says Dr Jake Scott, a Stanford professor and infectious disease expert who authored a systematic review of Covid vaccines for the New England Journal of Medicine.

Published: April 4, 2026, 11:00 am

Ukraine war briefing: Slovakia PM calls on EU to lift sanctions on Russian oil and gas

Robert Fico said ending sanctions on Russian energy imports would help tackle the energy crisis stemming from the war in Iran. What we know on day 1,502

Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico has called on the European Union to end sanctions on Russian oil and gas imports in order to tackle the energy crisis stemming from the war in Iran. Fico said in a statement after a call with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán that the EU should renew dialogue with Russia so member states can get missing gas and oil supplies from all sources, including Russia. Hungary and Slovakia’s leaders are outliers in the EU for maintaining relations with Moscow. Oil prices have surged since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran on 28 February, holding up shipments from the Gulf and creating what the International Energy Agency has called the biggest oil supply disruption in history.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced greater security cooperation with Turkey after meeting his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Istanbul on Saturday, as Kyiv seeks to leverage its wartime knowhow on the international stage. “This applies above all to the areas in which we can support Turkey: expertise, technology and experience,” the Ukrainian president wrote on Telegram. Erdogan told Zelenskyy that Turkey would continue to support negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to end their war, the Turkish presidency said.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner could travel to Kyiv in April, the Ukrainian president’s top aide Kyrylo Budanov has said, amid efforts to revive peace talks with Russia which stalled after the outbreak of war in the Gulf. “Kushner, Witkoff, Lindsey Graham – those are the ones expected to come. Who else will be there, we’ll see,” Budanov told Bloomberg, adding that the meeting could take place shortly after Orthodox Easter on 12 April. Such a meeting would mark the first official visit to Kyiv for Witkoff and Kushner, who have previously met Ukrainian representatives in the US, but have travelled to Moscow for talks with Russia.

A Russian drone hit a covered market in the eastern Ukrainian city of Nikopol on Saturday, killing five people and wounding 25, officials said. Russia has been firing aerial broadsides at Ukraine throughout its more than four-year invasion, mostly at night, but in recent weeks it has stepped up daytime attacks. The market in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region, was hit at 9.50am local time, the local prosecutor’s office said. Regional governor, Oleksandr Ganja, said in a Telegram post that three women and two men were killed.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 286 drones overnight, of which 260 were intercepted. In the city of Sumy, not far from the border with Russia, a strike wounded 11 people, the national police said. In the capital, Kyiv, a drone strike caused a fire on the first floor of a three-story office and warehouse building, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. No casualties were reported. In the partially occupied Donetsk region, a Russian drone strike hit a civilian car, killing one woman and wounding another, according to the head of the local military administration.

The Russian-installed head of the occupied Luhansk region, Leonid Pasechnik, said Ukrainian forces hit railroad infrastructure in the region and private houses, killing a family of three – a couple and their 8-year-old child.

Published: April 5, 2026, 12:03 am

‘Feels like history is being made’: will young Hungarian voters oust Orbán?

The rightwing populist has been in power for 16 years but a new generation of voters are preparing to vote for his opponent, polls suggest

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

As he rushed to finish off his cigarette before heading to class, Ákos, 20, confessed that he has more at stake than most as Hungarians prepare to head to the polls in the coming days.

“If things remain the same, or get even worse, I can’t see a future here,” said the aspiring teacher. “There are many people who want to try living elsewhere, and that’s totally fine, but I’m not one of them. For so long I’ve dreamed of working and teaching here.”

Published: April 4, 2026, 11:00 am

Fugitive mafia boss wanted for murder arrested at Amalfi coast luxury villa

Roberto Mazzarella, head of a notorious Camorra clan, had been on the run for more than a year

An Italian mafia boss, who was one of Italy’s most dangerous fugitives, has been arrested on murder charges after more than a year on the run, Italian police said on Saturday.

Roberto Mazzarella was the head of the notorious Mazzarella clan of the Camorra – the Naples-based organised crime gang.

Published: April 4, 2026, 4:10 pm

Italian council buys Mussolini’s villa to keep it away from ‘fascist nostalgics’

Riccione’s leftwing mayor, Daniela Angelini, says public purchase is victory for town and ‘act of love and vision’

An Italian council has bought a villa where Benito Mussolini spent his summer holidays, partly to avoid the property falling into the hands of “fascist nostalgics”.

Daniela Angelini, the leftwing mayor of Riccione, a town close to Rimini along Italy’s Adriatic coast, said the acquisition of Villa Mussolini through an auction was “an act of love and vision” and that bringing it back into public hands was a victory for the entire town.

Published: April 4, 2026, 8:00 am

‘I was getting down with a guy and he decided to put on One Love. It was creepy’: Duncan James from Blue’s honest playlist

The Blue singer thinks Aqua deserve respect and his mum once did karaoke with a legend. But what record did he buy to please his nan - with mixed results?

The song I inexplicably know all the lyrics to
Can’t Help Falling in Love by Elvis – the song I sent off on tape as my audition to Blue.

The song I do at karaoke
I had my 30th birthday party in a karaoke bar above a Chinese restaurant. My mum was doing It’s Raining Men by Geri Halliwell, just as Geri herself walked in, so she grabbed her, brought her on stage, and went: “Sing. It’s your song.” I thought: “Mum. She’s just arrived. Chill out!”

Published: April 5, 2026, 8:00 am

‘Nobody would forgive me if I told the truth’: new film about pacifist turned Nazi collaborator divides France

In Les Rayons et les Ombres, Jean Dujardin plays a real-life press baron partying during the horrors of the second world war. Director Xavier Giannoli discusses bringing this still sensitive topic to light

Xavier Giannoli’s new film Les Rayons et les Ombres (Rays and Shadows) is told from the postwar perspective of Corinne Luchaire, a French actor who was once hailed as “the new Garbo” but grew too close to the Nazis during the German occupation years. As Luchaire records her thoughts on a borrowed tape recorder, she struggles to reconcile her unfaltering devotion to her father, the once-powerful press baron Jean, with his 1946 execution for treason.

Her wilful blindness collapses as the Jewish director who helped launch her career visits her cramped flat. When Corinne, played by newcomer Nastya Golubeva Carax, enquires after his sister, he reveals that she died in a concentration camp. “I didn’t know,” murmurs Corinne, only to be met with the devastating reply: “Did you even try to find out?”

Published: April 5, 2026, 5:00 am

Chess Mates: the fantastic true story of the sex toy rumour that buzzed around the world

It was the anal bead theory that caused a global sensation. Now, a new Netflix film tells the tale of two grandmasters, one scandal – and a whole lot of bad blood

Chess Mates (Netflix, Tuesday) has an unsettling early gambit: the face of Piers Morgan, looming via archive footage. “Have you ever used anal beads while playing chess?” Morgan asks down camera, as if prepping an ill-advised phone-in. “Your curiosity is concerning. Maybe you’re personally interested?” shoots back his interviewee, Hans Niemann (above). The minds of chess masters, as glimpsed in this fantastic documentary, are almost as compelling as any back-passage shenanigans on the table.

It’s worth looking up the whole clip, from when Niemann found himself at the centre of a cheating scandal. The 19-year-old had come from nowhere; in a match at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, he did the impossible and beat the Goat. That’s Norwegian Magnus Carlsen: an undisputed titan who sees lines of play like Neo sees the Matrix, and has held the world No 1 spot, unbroken, since 2011. Suspecting foul play, Carlsen withdrew from the competition. Ever since, suspicion has swirled round his American rival. Which is where the beads enter. So to speak.

Published: April 4, 2026, 6:00 am

‘Enough of this me me me’: Blake Morrison on memoir in the age of oversharing

From sad-fishing on Facebook to sensational Substack revelations – today’s readers don’t have to look far for confessional writing. Is this the end of autobiography?

Every day I meet strangers who share intimate details with me. It’s called reading. In a newspaper piece a former sex addict recalls her need for BDSM (“when a sexual partner hurt me, I felt seen”) and how she conquered her dependency. On Substack an actor describes her grief on losing a baby (“After the miscarriage, I became convinced my daughter was backstage. I would push back the costumes on the rack and almost expect to find her”). And then there are the published memoirs, first-person stories of trauma, displacement and heartbreak. It’s not just women who unburden themselves, of course. As Martin Amis says in his memoir, Experience: “We are all writing it or at any rate talking it: the memoir, the apologia, the CV, the cri de coeur.”

Recent memoirs have upped the ante, though. What was once a geriatric, self-satisfied genre (politicians, generals and film stars looking back fondly on long careers) is now open to anyone with a story to tell – “nobody memoirs”, the American journalist Lorraine Adams has called them. Candour is the key, no matter how fraught the consequences. “Most writers I know,” Maggie Nelson writes in The Argonauts, “nurse persistent fantasies about the horrible things – or the horrible thing – that will happen to them if and when they express themselves as they desire”. But she takes that risk, addressing the book to “you”, her fluidly gendered husband Harry (who’s angry when she shows him a draft), while exploring identity, pregnancy, motherhood and sexuality.

Published: April 4, 2026, 8:00 am

‘Occasionally a picture can change the course of history’: 33 scandalous photos that shocked the world

When it comes to scandal, seeing is believing – which is why these images caused such a stir

Words can tell a story, but it’s pictures that will make you believe in it. Such is the power of a photograph; the ability to strip away illusions, to illuminate something hidden, and sometimes force us to accept unpalatable truths. When it comes to scandal, seeing is believing – occasionally even to the point that a picture changes the course of history.

How might life have been different for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had he not been photographed clutching the midriff of the 17-year-old girl he would later claim he had never met? Without this haunting triptych of the former prince, the late Virginia Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein’s fixer, Ghislaine Maxwell, hovering in the background, there would have been nothing physical to connect the then prince with a trafficking victim. Though for years Andrew’s friends insisted that the photograph must have been doctored, buried within the Epstein files recently released by the US Department of Justice is a note from Maxwell that appears to confirm it is real.

Published: April 4, 2026, 5:00 am

Josh Thomas on his nemesis, men's shorts and fighting Harry Styles: 10 Chaotic Questions – video

Who is Josh Thomas's preferred celebrity body swap? What's the weirdest thing he has done for love? Michael Sun sits down with the comedian to talk the ideal length of men's shorts, fighting famous people and his most controversial pop culture opinion

Published: April 4, 2026, 8:00 pm

Jo Nesbø: ‘How often do I have sex? I only do it outdoors, so it depends on the weather’

The novelist on working on a trawler, his near miss rock climbing, and being jailed for indecent exposure

Born in Oslo, Jo Nesbø, 66, played for Norway’s premier league football team Molde before injury ended his career. After military service, he gained an economics degree, then worked in finance. He also formed the band Di Derre, which topped the Norwegian charts. In 1997, he released The Bat, the first of his bestselling Harry Hole novels. His work has been published in 51 languages and he has sold more than 60m books. In 2017, his novel The Snowman was made into a film starring Michael Fassbender. A new series, Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole, premieres on Netflix on 26 March. He has a daughter and lives in Oslo.

When were you happiest?
When Molde won the Norwegian premier league in 2011, the year the club was 100 years old.

Published: April 4, 2026, 9:00 am

Eminem’s 8 Mile helped me survive abuse – and opened my eyes to a world outside of orthodox Judaism

My upbringing denied me access to the arts and led to me bottling up my feelings about what was happening to me. Then I saw Eminem taking control of his destiny, and decided I needed to do the same

At 15, I had never been to the cinema, or even watched a movie. I grew up in a strictly Orthodox Charedi Jewish household, the daughter of a rabbi, in Glasgow, where we had next to no exposure to cultural influences beyond our religious world. The bookshelves were stacked with biblical texts and teachings, we sang in Yiddish and I only saw TV at my less religious grandparents’ house, where we could watch the end of the tennis if it was finishing as we arrived.

By my mid-teens, my parents had moved to Jerusalem and sent me to live in Manchester, with a scholar who would later abuse me. The abuse went on for six months while his family slept or when they were out. I had no one to turn to or tell; even if I had, no one had taught me the words for what was happening to me. It was a complicated, lonely time without adults to rely on.

Published: April 4, 2026, 6:00 am

Is the UK falling out of love with social media?

Ofcom data points to more passive consumption amid changes to apps and fears about mental health and past posts

Posting significant events in your life, from birthdays to weddings and promotions, is a social media staple. But Jenny, like many other Britons recently, has hesitated over contributing to the infinite scroll.

“I wouldn’t have even posted my wedding really,” she says. “But I had to because … There’s like an etiquette. Nobody else can post your wedding until you’ve posted. So my friends were like: ‘Please post, it’s been like a week.’”

Published: April 5, 2026, 5:00 am

My teenage daughter’s OCD keeps getting worse. What can I do? | Ask Annalisa Barbieri

Exposure response prevention may help her to cope with her anxiety and learn that she doesn’t need to respond to intrusive thoughts

My daughter is 15 and has lived with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) for some time. Her compulsions change – counting, repetitive actions such as flicking light switches a certain number of times, showering/brushing her teeth in a particular order, placing things in her bedroom in a certain way …

She has had two courses of private therapy, but neither seemed to help. Both focused on the compulsions – for example, they’d encourage her to tackle one ritual at a time and try to eliminate it. It felt as though they were addressing the symptoms rather than the cause – new rituals can come to her in the moment and if one ritual is eliminated, it will quickly be replaced.

Published: April 5, 2026, 5:00 am

No reservation required: our favorite restaurant dishes that ship to your door

I turned to my Filter colleagues to see how I can experience top foods from different places without traveling there

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Each week the Filter newsletter cuts through the noise to bring you smart, practical recommendations on how to live better – from what is worth buying to the tools, habits and ideas that actually last.

New Orleans’ gumbo can’t be beat. Maine’s fresh seafood is to die for. You haven’t tasted real coffee until you’ve made a trip to Portland.

Published: April 4, 2026, 2:15 pm

The moment I knew: he kissed me and it felt like I was standing on the edge of a whole new life

When Marisha Matthews first saw ‘cool minister’ Paul, she noticed his kind eyes and jewellery. Their growing relationship was a slow burn over many years

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

In the summer of 2014, I was living in Adelaide with my two young children in a very hot rental house with a low ceiling and a rat problem. It also had a slightly leaky pool, which was good for entertaining.

It was coming up to Australia Day, which I’ve always had mixed feelings about. I couldn’t stomach inviting people over for a plastic flag-fest, so I suggested my guests bring items to make a welcome package for refugees. As a first-generation Anglo Indian British Australian with Chinese siblings, and previously married to a Persian refugee, my family is full of the newly arrived.

Published: April 4, 2026, 8:00 pm

Blind date: ‘The restaurant shuffled our table around three times so we could keep chatting until they closed’

Rachel, 32, a consultant, meets Josh, 34, an accountant

What were you hoping for?
A lovely meal on a misty Saturday, hopefully with someone I’d like to see again.

Published: April 4, 2026, 5:00 am

‘Wild west’ reformer pilates boom is causing rise in injuries, experts warn

Lack of regulation for specialist classes leaves UK fitness enthusiasts at risk, say professional bodies

The boom in reformer pilates has created a “wild west” of studios where poor regulation has resulted in inexperienced teachers and a rise in injuries, professional standards bodies have warned.

Pilates is not formally or legally regulated, and as its popularity has surged, industry experts say, so too has the growth of packed reformer-based classes often led by instructors with limited training.

Published: April 4, 2026, 8:00 am

Friends, with recipes: how a love of food brought my husband and me together, and helped us part

Though we are no longer together, we talk food every time we speak and always ask what the other is having for dinner

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For our first date – a picnic on the grassy banks of the Molonglo River near Canberra – the man I would marry brought the tartan blanket (tick), the wine (tick), a crusty baguette (tick), the cheese (tick), and then the ka-boom of a chicken and grape salad he’d made from a recipe in a gourmet magazine. His score flew off the charts.

I’d met no other male who browsed gastro porn for inspiration. His culinary romance drew me to him, deaf to what would ultimately become the cautionary tale of too many cooks spoiling the broth.

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Published: April 4, 2026, 8:00 pm

A cruise through history on the Canal du Midi

Designed as a shortcut between the Atlantic and the Med, today the scenic waterway from Toulouse to Sète is seen as a living ‘work of art’

Centuries before Donald Trump started playing around with the world economy, “tariff” was a levy paid to Spain by ships using the strait of Gibraltar; it was named for Tarifa, the town near the strait’s narrowest point. France’s kings had long dreamed of a waterway linking the Atlantic to the Mediterranean: as well as depriving the Spanish monarch of easy money, it would save ships a long voyage around Spain and Portugal, risking storms and pirates.

From the Atlantic, vessels can reach Toulouse from the Gironde estuary (on the Garonne River), but not until the 1660s did anyone have a viable plan for the remaining 200km to the Med. Considered one of the biggest engineering feats of the 17th century, Pierre-Paul Riquet’s Canal du Midi (finished in 1681 and called the Canal Royal du Languedoc until the revolution) rewrote the history of transport and commerce in the south of France – for centuries it carried wheat and wine, people and post.

Published: April 5, 2026, 6:00 am

Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for Sichuan-style braised aubergines with tofu | The new vegan

A cheerful rice bowl fragrant with ginger, garlic and spring onion, and laced with a sprightly chilli bean sauce

With spring in the air, I want a dish that’s the equivalent of turning the key in the ignition, firing up the engine and riding off into the sun. In short: something with a bit of va-va-voom. That dish, for me, is these Sichuan aubergines, a take on the classic “fish fragrant aubergines” (so called because the same aromatics are often used to cook fish). Creamy to begin with, they’re layered with flavour by way of ginger, garlic, spring onion and, finally, laced with delight and good times owing to the bright chilli bean sauce and vinegar.

Published: April 4, 2026, 5:00 am

Tim Dowling: spring has sprung – and so has our tortoise

I’m on the sofa with a beer, watching a show where people always end up not buying property in Mediterranean resorts

I’m sitting in my office shed looking through the open door into the garden. It’s warm and sunny – the first spring-like day of spring.

Across the lawn I see my wife open the kitchen door and place the tortoise on the back step. Later it will be cold and he will have to come in, and I will not be able to find him. I make a mental note to start the search before dark. On my way to the kitchen an hour later, I notice he’s already disappeared.

Published: April 4, 2026, 5:00 am

Politics of Black hair: why grooming rules are under scrutiny across the diaspora

From schools in Ghana to workplaces in Britain, underpinned by the colonial roots of ‘respectability’, conversations around natural hairstyle persist

Last month a Jamaican woman said her teenage son had been pulled from lessons because school staff had deemed his afro hairstyle inappropriate.

“The dean of discipline called me to state that my son has been removed,” Michelle Scott said. “You’re telling me that you took him, a fifth-form student, out of classes to go and get a haircut?”

Published: April 4, 2026, 11:00 am

As a state visit looms … can King Charles tame Trump?

Royal visitors have long been popular in the US, and Charles has decades of diplomacy under his belt. But can soft power save the special relationship?

What’s the worst that could happen when King Charles visits Donald Trump in Washington at the end of this month? And what will be the best outcome from Keir Starmer’s point of view, since it is the prime minister who directed the visit to go ahead in the hope of improving our battered, supposedly special relationship? While the relationship is still apparently meaningful to Britain, to the US it appears to not mean so much – especially now.

The king goes where he is told, whether he would prefer to stay at home or not. This time to a land whose president denounces our aircraft carriers as toys and accuses us of cowardice, and whose defence secretary talks derisively of our Royal Navy. Perhaps Charles ought to wear his naval admiral’s uniform when he goes to the White House, medals and all.

Published: April 4, 2026, 5:00 am

Destruction in the Middle East and a view from space: photos of the weekend

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

Published: April 5, 2026, 12:20 pm