Why is the Maga project teetering? Because not even Trump supporters voted for this dysfunction | Moira Donegan

The president’s fixation on culture-war grievances is a colossal misreading of voters who just want prices to come down. He has forgotten why he was re-elected

In a carefully coordinated publicity stunt last week, Donald Trump received a McDonald’s takeaway order from delivery driver Sharon Simmons, a 58-year-old grandmother of 10 from Arkansas. Simmons, a Trump supporter and advocate of his “no tax on tips” policy, testified before Congress last year that she began working as a delivery driver for the takeout app DoorDash in order to help cover the cost of her husband’s cancer treatment.

The photo opp should have been a slam dunk for Trump: a simple way to promote one of his policies in the company of a sympathetic advocate and beneficiary. But Trump, in characteristic fashion, could not resist the urge to insert a non sequitur about one of his own grievances: trans women athletes. “Do you think men should play in women’s sports?” Trump asked Simmons. “I really don’t have an opinion on that,” she replied, showing considerably more message discipline than the president. “I’m here about ‘no tax on tips’.”

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Published: April 21, 2026, 9:00 am

On the trail with the hunters who believe shooting big game can save Africa’s wildlife

One way to pay for wildlife conservation is to allow the rich to bag a few animals for high prices. But critics see this approach as an exercise in neocolonialism

You can kill almost anything if you’re willing to pay. Big or small. Land, water or air. Ten a penny or one of the last of its kind. There’s nearly always a way, though it might not make you popular. The Niassa special reserve, a vast reservation larger than Switzerland, stretches for 190 miles along the northern rim of Mozambique, taking in 4.2m hectares of woodland and rivers. The reserve, one of the world’s largest protected areas, is home to elephants, leopards, hyenas, zebras and about 1,000 wild lions.

That word, however: protected. It applies to some, but not all, of its animal inhabitants. Each year, a specific number are set aside for sacrifice, for the greater good. Not long ago, I joined an expedition in Niassa, with one of Africa’s top game-hunting companies.

Published: April 21, 2026, 4:00 am

Hope, love and trumpets: young Venezuelans – in pictures

She left after being held up at gunpoint. Now Silvana Trevale wants to show a different side to the ‘wounded’ country – with a photography project about the resilience of its youth completed last year

Published: April 21, 2026, 6:00 am

‘We were terrified they were going to kill us’: fishers who survived US boat strike speak out

An Ecuadorian fishing crew describe their ordeal as victims of Trump’s purported war on ‘narcoterrorists’

By 4pm, the light was softening over the Pacific, and the crew of the Don Maca were finishing a long day hauling in lines of swordfish and albacore. Down in the hold, the mood had settled into the familiar rhythm of a fishing day drawing to a close.

“We were just working, waiting for the last trawler to return,” Jhonny Sebastián Palacios, one of the fishers, told the Guardian. “Everything was perfectly fine.”

Published: April 21, 2026, 11:00 am

AI job scams are booming – and I was fooled by one. Here is how to avoid them

Fraudsters are using the promise of fake roles to trick job-seekers out of money, personal information or both, and with the help of AI they are more convincing than ever. But there are ways to spot them

There were clues from the start that it was too good to be true. A headhunter emailed me with a job prospect – a journalist role with “a leading US technology and markets editorial team”. The opportunity, she said, was part of a confidential expansion and hadn’t been publicly posted.

My spidey-sense was tingling, but the timing was auspicious. I was on the lookout for new work as my maternity leave was coming to an end. Initially, the email seemed legitimate. When I Googled the sender, I found a headhunter with the same name and profile picture on LinkedIn, and the message was clearly tailored to me: It referenced several roles I’d previously held and identified my specific areas of expertise. “Your focus on the real-world impacts of AI, digital culture and the gig economy aligns perfectly with an internal, high-priority mandate I’m managing,” the headhunter wrote.

Published: April 21, 2026, 4:00 am

Nine lessons for the US from Viktor Orbán’s defeat | Kenneth Roth

As US elections approach, the Hungarian prime minister’s loss is a reminder that history does not march relentlessly toward autocracy

Viktor Orbán’s electoral loss was a slap in the face for Donald Trump and JD Vance, who had enthusiastically endorsed Europe’s most visible autocrat but proved unable to salvage his candidacy. But Hungarian voters’ 12 April rejection of Orbán also holds important lessons for Americans who hope to resist Trump’s own autocratic tendencies. As the November midterm elections approach, here are a few takeaways:

Prioritize opposition unity. Orbán was defeated by a broad coalition led by Péter Magyar under the banner of his new Tisza party. The opposition’s unity mattered. As some Democrats remain wedded to purity tests, refusing to make common cause with people who reject one or more progressive tenets, Hungarians from across the political spectrum joined hands in the shared goal of defeating Orbán. For them, the debate between right and left paled in importance compared to the need to redeem Hungary’s democracy. Some political parties even refrained from fielding candidates, sacrificing their immediate interests to avoid dividing the anti-Orbán vote.

Published: April 21, 2026, 10:00 am

Middle East crisis live: Iran claims it has ‘new cards for battlefield’, and weighs talks in Pakistan

Iranian official stresses no decision made on taking part, as US vice-president JD Vance is set to travel to Islamabad for negotiations

• JD Vance to lead US delegation in Pakistan if Iran agrees to talks

Iran’s armed forces are ready to deliver an “immediate and decisive response” to any renewed hostile action by its adversaries, Ali Abdollahi, commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, was quoted by the Tasnim news agency as having said.

He said Tehran had the upper hand militarily, including in the management of the strait of Hormuz, and would not allow Donald Trump to “create false narratives over the situation on the ground.”

Published: April 21, 2026, 10:37 am

‘Uber for nurses’: gig-work apps lobby to deregulate healthcare, report finds

Growing use of AI tech comes at expense of workers’ rights, protections and pay, report warns

Billion-dollar tech platforms are aggressively pushing for deregulation of the “Uber for nursing” industry in an effort to expand gig work in the healthcare sector, according to a report published Tuesday.

The report from the AI Now Institute, Uber for Nursing Part II: How Gig Nursing Companies Are Lobbying States to Deregulate Healthcare, examines the use of artificial intelligence to staff hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

Published: April 21, 2026, 10:00 am

Israeli soldiers using sexual assault to force Palestinians out of West Bank, report says

Experts say attacks, also carried out by settlers, are leading girls to quit school and enter early marriages

Israeli soldiers and settlers are using gendered violence and sexual assault and harassment to force Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank, human rights and legal experts say.

Palestinian women, men and children have reported attacks, forced nudity, invasive and painful body cavity searches, Israelis exposing their genitals, including to minors, and threats of sexual violence.

Published: April 21, 2026, 5:00 am

Palantir manifesto described as ‘ramblings of a supervillain’ amid UK contract fears

Alarm caused by posts of Alex Karp, tech firm’s CEO, championing US military dominance and of AI weapons

The US spy tech company Palantir published a manifesto extolling the benefits of American power and implying some cultures are inferior to others – in what MPs have called “a parody of a RoboCop film” and “the ramblings of a supervillain”.

“Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive,” wrote Palantir in a 22-point post on X over the weekend, which also called for an end to the “postwar neutering” of Germany and Japan.

Published: April 21, 2026, 5:00 am

Trump’s Federal Reserve chair pick to face lawmakers at key confirmation hearing – US politics live

The hearing marks a key hurdle Kevin Warsh must overcome in order to succeed Jerome Powell when his term ends on 15 May

President Donald Trump and many of his leading Christian supporters and top Republicans are taking part this week in a marathon reading of the Bible in an America 250-themed event billed as encouraging a “return to the spiritual foundation that has shaped our country.”

The America Reads the Bible event - with each participant reading a passage aloud – is being live-streamed this week from the Museum of the Bible in Washington and other locations, AP reported.

Published: April 21, 2026, 11:05 am

Minnesota boy fighting for life after rescuing younger brother from creek

Ashkan Thibodeaux, five years old, saved his kid brother Wyatt after he fell into ‘icy water’ of creek they were exploring

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A five-year-old Minnesota boy reportedly jumped into frigid water after his younger brother fell in on Easter Sunday to successfully rescue him – and has subsequently had to fight for his life at a hospital, a battle in which he is making steady progress, according to his family.

Ashkan Thibodeaux’s story, which has captured widespread attention in corners of the internet dedicated to spotlighting remarkable displays of bravery, began with exploring a creek in Minnesota’s Itasca county alongside his kid brother, Wyatt, on 5 April, his family and their supporters say.

Published: April 21, 2026, 9:00 am

US ‘restricts intelligence sharing with South Korea’ after minister identified suspected nuclear site

Washington reportedly limits satellite data after minister spoke publicly about suspected facility in North Korea

The US has partly restricted intelligence sharing with South Korea after the country’s unification minister publicly identified a suspected North Korean nuclear site, according to reports in South Korean media.

Chung Dong-young told lawmakers in March that North Korea was operating uranium enrichment facilities in Kusong, a north-western area that had not previously been officially confirmed as a nuclear site alongside the known facilities at Yongbyon and Kangson.

Published: April 21, 2026, 9:26 am

Wildlife and humans thriving in Unesco-protected sites

While wildlife populations crash globally, research finds designated areas enable recovery of threatened species

Wildlife and humans are thriving within sites recognised by Unesco, research has found, allowing for the recovery of threatened species and habitats around the world.

While wildlife populations have crashed globally by nearly three-quarters since 1970, those within Unesco-protected areas have remained largely stable.

Published: April 21, 2026, 11:00 am

Sam Neill says New Zealand goldmine supporters have threatened him with violence

Actor, who has publicly objected to plans to fast-track project near his farm, says he has received personal abuse

The actor Sam Neill says he has received threats of violence from supporters of a controversial goldmine that could be opened several kilometres away from his farm in New Zealand’s Central Otago district, after he publicly objected to the New Zealand government’s plans to fast-track the mine.

The Australian mining company Santana Minerals is pushing to expedite a 85-hectare (210-acre) open-cast goldmine, called Bendigo-Ophir, in the Dunstan mountains, an area dubbed “outstanding natural landscape” by the Central Otago district council.

Published: April 21, 2026, 10:39 am

Trump labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigns amid misconduct investigation

Chavez-DeRemer, entangled in string of controversies, leaving for private sector, president’s spokesperson says

Donald Trump’s labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is stepping down, the administration announced on Monday, after a series of misconduct allegations including having an affair with a subordinate and drinking on the job.

“Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector,” Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesperson, wrote on social media. “She has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives.”

Published: April 20, 2026, 9:33 pm

Kash Patel sues the Atlantic over article alleging excessive drinking

Magazine has stood behind the story, which was written by veteran national security reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick

Kash Patel has followed through on a threat to sue the Atlantic and the author of a story the magazine published that included allegations of “excessive drinking” as well as “conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences” while in charge of the FBI.

The FBI director filed a defamation lawsuit in US district court for the District of Columbia that seeks $250m in damages.

Published: April 20, 2026, 2:42 pm

Trump news at a glance: another Trump cabinet member out – but not Kash Patel

Labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer exits, while Patel sues over story citing sources that allege ‘conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences’ by FBI director

Donald Trump’s labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is stepping down, the administration announced on Monday, after a series of misconduct allegations, including claims of an affair with a subordinate and allegedly drinking on the job.

Chavez-DeRemer is the third cabinet member – all women – to depart during the president’s second term, following homeland security secretary Kristi Noem and attorney general Pam Bondi.

Published: April 21, 2026, 1:00 am

Trump administration begins refunding more than $166bn in tariffs

Claims system launches months after supreme court ruled Trump had no legal authority to impose tariffs

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The Trump administration has begun accepting applications from businesses seeking refunds for more than $166bn in tariffs, months after the supreme court ruled that the president had no legal authority to impose them.

The administration launched on Monday the digital claims system, named Cape, which they said in court filings could handle about 63% of affected import filings, with the remainder to follow.

Published: April 20, 2026, 3:02 pm

The Shreveport shooting shows how Black women and children are at a higher risk of domestic violence

Cerina Fairfax in Virginia and Nancy Metayer in Florida were also killed by their husbands, yet deaths of Black women are least likely to garner calls for policy change

On Sunday, eight children were shot and killed in the deadliest US mass shooting in nearly two years. The gunman was the father of seven of the deceased children and the cousin of another.

Three others were shot and injured: the shooter’s wife, with whom he shared four children, the mother of his other three children, and a 13-year-old boy.

Published: April 21, 2026, 11:00 am

‘They come right past the house’: learning to live with rhinos as numbers soar in Nepal

The country is seeing an increase in human-wildlife conflict as the number of megafauna, including rhinos and tigers, grows. But there are efforts to tackle the problem around Chitwan national park through education and training

The tourists lining the steep embankment buzzed with excitement, phones out, snapping away in the twilight as a wild Indian rhinoceros grazed below the Nepali village of Sauraha. Climbing to the main street, the rhino ambled down the middle of the road.

Local people warned tourists to give it plenty of space. All manner of wheeled vehicles slowed, then passed. The rhino turned its horn at a cyclist passing too close, triggering gasps from the assembled crowd.

A manager uses torchlight to guide a wild Indian rhinoceros through the grounds of his hotel in Sauraha

Published: April 21, 2026, 8:00 am

We asked what repairing the harm of enslavement would look like. This is what we found

Our Legacies of Enslavement team has found humanity and dignity, not blame or guilt, are at the heart of the conversation

Guardian owner heralds next phase in Legacies of Enslavement restorative justice plan

There’s an image, a feeling, that I haven’t been able to get out of mind since my last visit to the Sea Islands, US, in March. That of living in a small box, compressed on all sides. From above, your basic services are being neglected or withheld; from the sides, your ability to find a job or make a living is cut away; from below, a steady assault on your self-esteem as you are criminalised, ignored, gaslit or made to feel invisible. And imagine having to raise a family, make ends meet, maintain your physical and mental health in that box. At some point the air is going to thin out.

Occasionally, a glimpse of something offers respite. A flock of birds against the sky. The sway of the Spanish moss on the oak tree that has binya (“been here”; a Gullah Geechee term used to describe Sea Islands natives) for hundreds of years, that has seen Jim Crow, Reconstruction and maybe even enslavement. You hear the flow of the water as it laps against the dock. The water that represents a passage to the motherland. And life feels worth living.

Published: April 21, 2026, 9:00 am

See You on the Other Side by Jay McInerney review – the clumsy finale of a classic New York series

The bright young things of 1992’s Brightness Falls are now in their 60s in this verbose, clunky novel that seems more interested in lifestyle than inner lives

More than 40 years ago, Jay McInerney’s debut novel, Bright Lights, Big City, captured the glamour and desperation of 1980s New York. The book’s spectacular success launched its author’s career, earning him comparisons to F Scott Fitzgerald, another midwesterner with a complicated relationship with the US’s fantasies of wealth and social mobility. In 1992, Brightness Falls introduced readers to a fresh cast of young New Yorkers, but was primarily focused on a central couple, Corrine and Russell. McInerney returned to these characters in two subsequent novels; See You on the Other Side completes the tetralogy.

The book opens at the start of 2020 with the bright young things now in their 60s, coping with erectile dysfunction and marital woes, and fretting about the job prospects of their twentysomething children. In addition to the eternal problem of ageing, Corrine and Russell are about to confront the events of that tumultuous year: the pandemic, protests for racial justice and a bitterly fought presidential election campaign. Russell is the book’s main character, although we spend time with Corrine and make excursions into the points of view of their daughter, Storey, an aspiring chef, and her biracial boyfriend, Mingus.

Published: April 21, 2026, 8:00 am

Why are respected film-makers suddenly embracing AI?

From Soderbergh to Aronofsky, esteemed Hollywood directors are starting to find ways to include artificial intelligence in the production of their films

In Steven Soderbergh’s beguiling new movie The Christophers, a reclusive artist (Ian McKellen) tangles with the quiet art forger (Michaela Coel) who his greedy children have hired to secretly finish further entries in a well-known painting series. The movie is smart and provocative about the nature of artistry and authorship, exploring what it means to create – and to stop creating. It’s especially fascinating coming from Soderbergh, who has made movies with workhorse dependability (The Christophers is his third theatrical release of the past 18 months) and also spent four years retired from directing features entirely.

It also provides particularly jarring context for Soderbergh, in interviews promoting the film, to voice his interest in something that a lot of great artists have pointedly refused to embrace: using AI in films. Soderbergh mentioned in an interview with Filmmaker Magazine that he used what sounds like generative AI to produce “thematically surreal images that occupy a dream space rather than a literal space” for his upcoming documentary about John Lennon and Yoko Ono. He also said that a movie he’s hoping to make about the Spanish-American war would use “a lot of AI”. In a subsequent conversation with Variety, Soderbergh didn’t sound like an AI evangelist, but nor did he back down: “I don’t think it’s the solution to everything, and I don’t think it’s the death of everything. We’re in the very early stages. Five years from now, we all may be going, ‘That was a fun phase.’ We may end up not using it as much as we thought we were going to.”

Published: April 21, 2026, 9:00 am

Vibrating crotches, anal beads and suspicious minds: the long, strange history of chess cheats | Sean Ingle

The journey from the Von Neumann to the Niemann affair has much to teach us about the changed landscape of the sport

There really is, it turns out, a true story involving cheating in chess and a vibrating crotch. Only this one is a whodunnit that dates back more than 30 years and was only solved last week.

Imagine the scene at the World Open in Philadelphia in 1993 when a mysterious unrated player with fake dreadlocks and headphones, and with a bulge that vibrates in his trousers, shows up. Now multiply it 100-fold when this unknown amateur, who calls himself John von Neumann after the founder of game theory, draws with a grandmaster, Helgi Ólafsson, in round two.

Published: April 21, 2026, 7:00 am

Hotel Exile by Jane Rogoyska review – the remarkable story of a wartime institution

From a haven for intellectuals fleeing Hitler to the HQ of the feared Abwehr, the changing fortunes of a Parisian icon

The word “hotel” is cognate with “hostel” and “hospital”, and for a few short years in the middle of the 20th century, one Paris establishment functioned as all three. Hôtel Lutetia sits on the city’s Left Bank and exudes a certain nonconformist swagger. Opened in 1910 and built in a style that bobbed between art nouveau and art deco, it soon attracted an artistic and bohemian crowd. Hemingway hung out there in the 1920s, as did Picasso, Matisse and André Gide. James Joyce, resident in the city for 20 years, wrote a chunk of Ulysses sitting at one of its tables.

In this outstanding book, which has been shortlisted for the Women’s prize for nonfiction, Jane Rogoyska reports that by the mid-1930s the Lutetia had become headquarters to German political dissidents fleeing Hitler. “The Lutetia Crowd”, as the Nazis disdainfully dubbed them, comprised the intellectual cream of the Weimar Republic. Heinrich Mann, novelist brother of the more famous Thomas, was the head of the organising committee that worked to bring down the Nazi regime from a distance. To this end, fake tomato-seed packets were sent into Germany containing a diatribe against the Third Reich and The Communist Manifesto was rebound into classic literature and pumped into the Fatherland.

Published: April 21, 2026, 10:00 am

Women’s culture goes dark: why aren’t there more ‘femcel’ movies?

Male incels have been plentifully depicted on screen, while few film-makers have explored the varied controversies of toxic female radicalisation and the ‘womanosphere’. But a handful of movies have been treading a brave path

Most people would agree that mainstream media has now comprehensively (if not entirely successfully) covered “incel” culture. The small screen has delivered the likes of Adolescence and Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere; the movies have offered multiple meditations on male radicalisation such as The Beast, Manodrome, Don’t Worry Darling, Joker and even Barbie’s Kens.

The irony of women being overlooked feels almost too obvious to flag, yet we are definitely suffering a dearth of onscreen “femcels”. This lack of representation is all the more glaring amid the rise of tradwife culture and the wellness to “alt-right” pipeline – largely made up of female influencers dubbed the womanosphere – and the fact that around 50% of white US women voted for Donald Trump in 2024.

Published: April 21, 2026, 10:56 am

Unchosen review – Asa Butterfield’s creepy cult show is a total waste of all this talent

It’s got amazing names attached, from Christopher Eccleston to Siobhan Finneran – but the new Netflix drama starts off workmanlike then goes downhill. Why would these stars ever sign up?

Unchosen is set in the world of a Christian splinter sect. Everyone lives simply in grace and harmony, following Christ’s teaching of peace and love for all humankind, with men and women sharing equally in domestic and other labour. They exist as shining lights for what is possible when you set aside the patriarchal nonsense and other accretions that gather around religions. Every episode is a delight and nothing much happens because everyone is living such a good and godly life.

I jest! Unchosen is not here to break new ground. It is here to deliver by-numbers drama that has inexplicably attracted the talented likes of Siobhan Finneran and Christopher Eccleston to its cast and you should proceed with your expectations lowered.

Published: April 21, 2026, 7:01 am

Here is the biggest problem Washington faces: Iran sees no need to compromise | Sina Toossi

The US has failed to bomb Iran into submission. Now, from the strait of Hormuz to nuclear concessions, Tehran senses its position strengthening

Iran’s delegation to the first round of post-ceasefire talks with the US in Islamabad arrived on a plane named Minab 168 after the people – mostly young schoolgirls – killed in a US bombing early in the war. The name signalled both grievance and resolve, framing the talks as part of a conflict in which Tehran has already absorbed immense costs.

That framing helps explain how Iranian officials approached the talks and how they view the current impasse. Rather than negotiation from a position of weakness or urgency, they see diplomacy as an extension of a battle they believe they endured without losing their core advantages. With the ceasefire set to expire on Wednesday and no diplomatic breakthrough in sight, the risk of a return to war is sharply rising.

Published: April 21, 2026, 11:00 am

Picasso’s Guernica is the ultimate emblem of the horrors of war. It has no place in Spain's partisan squabbles | María Ramírez

Forty years after the 1937 masterpiece returned to Madrid from its Franco-era exile in New York, it is again embroiled in politics

Every September, Spain celebrates one of the most symbolic moments of its transition to democracy. This year will mark 45 years since an Iberia commercial flight from New York landed in Madrid with its pilot announcing to the surprised passengers that they had just travelled with one of the country’s most famous exiles: Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. After more than four decades on display at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the painting could finally return home after the end of the Franco dictatorship, in accordance with the wishes of the Spanish painter.

Picasso’s most famous painting, which depicted the horrors inflicted on civilians during the bombing of the Basque town of Gernika in the Spanish civil war, was intended to be a cry for peace. “If world peace prevails, the war I painted will be a thing of the past,” Picasso told Josep Lluís Sert, his friend and the architect of the Spanish Republic’s pavilion at the 1937 Paris international exhibition.

María Ramírez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain

Published: April 21, 2026, 4:00 am

Java script error: why The Devil Wears Prada 2’s Starbucks tie-in leaves a strange taste

A theatrically released movie about glossy magazines, released at a time when there are minimal audiences for either, has ordered up a no foam, extra shot, venti facepalm

It might, of course, turn out to be a masterpiece. Yet there has been something intangibly depressing about The Devil Wears Prada 2 ever since it was first announced. Somehow, the timing of the film and its subject matter have combined in such a way that you can’t help but feel bummed out to the point of exhaustion just to think of it.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is, of course, a theatrically released movie about glossy magazines, released at a time when nobody goes to see theatrically released movies or buys glossy magazines. And just to really sell the point that the film exists in a vacuum of unrealistic nostalgia, it has just announced a brand partnership with Starbucks.

Published: April 21, 2026, 10:03 am

How can you make a student happy? Drop them at university – and make a lightning-quick exit | Zoe Williams

The impulse is to hang around meeting their friends, and their friends’ parents, and checking out their room. Maybe you’ll all go to a restaurant in the evening ... But be aware: no teenager or twentysomething wants this

I was driving my niece to university, and my son asked what time I’d be back, which was itself inherently sad. When they’re little and you’re leaving them with a babysitter and they ask in a plaintive tiny voice for your estimated time of return, and your heart is gripped in a vice of guilt and impatience, all you long for is the day when they don’t care whether you go to the pub or not. Then, wham, they’re 18, and they ask in a hopeful, slightly shifty tone, as if wishing for the answer “I’ll be back at 2am, or maybe never”.

You cannot fathom why your absence would be such a benefit – will they have an impromptu party? Start a fire? But that is because you’re avoiding its unspoken centre: it is much more relaxing for them when you’re out of the house.

Published: April 21, 2026, 10:00 am

The Guardian view on the EU and Israel: moving beyond mere exhortation | Editorial

Benjamin Netanyahu has brushed aside European concerns over Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. A tougher approach from Brussels is overdue

In recent months, European expressions of concern over the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have regularly hardened into outright condemnation. Last September, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed horror and outrage at aid restrictions that she said created a “man-made famine” in Gaza. Brussels has inveighed against settler violence and land grabs in the West Bank, which undermine the possibility of a viable Palestinian state. Responding to the bombing of Lebanon following the US-Israeli ceasefire with Iran, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said: “Israel’s right to self-defence does not justify this destruction.”

The angry words and exhortations have achieved nothing. Mr Netanyahu and his ministers have generally treated European critics with barely concealed contempt, presumably reassured by the fact that their chief allies in the White House tend to behave in exactly the same fashion. The EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner, and the academic benefits it confers through Israeli participation in the Horizon research programme are considerable. But internal disunity, and an overoptimistic faith in the power of persuasion, have led to a reluctance by the bloc to use those relationships as leverage.

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 20, 2026, 5:43 pm

Victor Wembanyama becomes first unanimous NBA defensive player of the year at age of 22

• Frenchman becomes youngest winner of award

• Spurs star has dominated opponents all season

There had never been a unanimous NBA defensive player of the year. Until now.

Victor Wembanyama – as expected – was announced Monday as the league’s top defensive player. The San Antonio center was second in the voting for DPOY as a rookie, was the favorite last season until a medical condition ended his season prematurely, but left no doubt this year. At 22, he’s the youngest winner of the award.

Published: April 20, 2026, 11:44 pm

LeBron James is 41. And he’s somehow still carrying his team in the playoffs

The Lakers star would have been expecting to play a supporting role as he burrows into his 40s. But injuries means he has assumed a familiar role

LeBron James must be so sick of this. If he wanted to experience being the best player on an otherwise thin team, he could simply remember the Cleveland Cavaliers’ run to the NBA finals in 2007. Or the 2015 NBA finals when his best teammates, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, suffered injuries. Or the 2018 season, which convinced SNL to make a spoof of James’ support staff. “I’m 53 years old,” one of LeBron’s “teammates” says in the clip. “I have seven kids, and two of them are also on the Cavs.” It’s 2026, James is a Los Angeles Laker, his two best teammates are hurt, and one of his kids actually is on the team.

How on earth did we get here, again? James is 41. The story of his season was his labored yet successful pivot into the Lakers’ third option, behind Luka Dončić (who was having one of the best stretches of his career before tweaking his hamstring in a humiliating loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder) and Austin Reaves (who strained his oblique in the same game). Both men are in their primes. James, on the other hand, has been plagued with what some observers may call old guy injuries: he missed the start of the season due to sciatica; he’s sat out a couple games since thanks to arthritis in his left foot. So how – how – is it that Dončić and Reaves were the ones felled by injuries and James is the iron man? Aren’t the rules that athletes in their 20s get to enjoy energy and health, while those in their 40s have to retire and become mediocre pundits?

Published: April 20, 2026, 9:00 am

Fitness influencer drowns during swimming portion of Ironman Texas

• Mara Flavia Souza Araujo drowns early on Saturday

• Rescue crews locate body after athlete vanished

A Brazilian fitness influencer has died after getting into difficulty during the swimming portion of an ironman event in Texas.

Mara Flavia Souza Araujo was reported as a “lost swimmer” around 7.30am at the Ironman Texas in Lake Woodlands near Houston on Saturday. According to KPRC 2 News, safety crews could not immediately locate Araujo. The 38-year-old’s body was discovered around 90 minutes later in 10ft of water by divers. She was pronounced dead on the scene.

Published: April 21, 2026, 12:23 am

FIA confirms F1 rule changes in reaction to driver unhappiness and safety fears

• Tweaks to rules address energy management issues

• ‘Safety and fairness remain the FIA’s highest priorities’

The FIA has confirmed rule changes for the current Formula One season as the sport reacts to driver dissatisfaction and safety concerns with the new regulations. The adapted rules address the energy management issues that have proved controversial across the opening three meetings this year.

Technical and sporting considerations had been discussed twice since the last round in Japan and on Monday senior representatives, including the FIA, team principals and their chief executives, the power unit manufacturers and F1’s chief executive, Stefano Domenicali, formally agreed the changes. They remain subject to ratification by the world motorsport council, a formality expected to be concluded before the next round in Miami on 3 May.

Published: April 20, 2026, 6:19 pm

US goalkeeper Jonathan Klinsmann breaks neck playing for Cesena

• Ex-US youth international injured in collision v Palermo

• Further tests with specialist to take place

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Goalkeeper Jonathan Klinsmann, the son of former Germany striker and US national team head coach Jürgen Klinsmann, is recovering from a broken neck sustained playing for second-tier Italian side Cesena on Saturday.

The former US youth international, 29, was stretchered off the field in a neck brace after a collision with a Palermo player and taken to a hospital in the Sicilian capital.

Published: April 20, 2026, 3:34 pm

West Ham earn point at Crystal Palace to relegate Wolves and widen gap to Spurs

Slowly but surely, West Ham are edging their way to safety. While this battling draw against a Crystal Palace side with their minds elsewhere proved terminal to his former club Wolves as it confirmed their relegation, Nuno Espírito Santo had to be satisfied with a point that may be crucial in the long run after Brennan Johnson missed the chance to help out his old employers Tottenham.

Palace, who have now been involved in eight goalless draws this season, were indebted to Dean Henderson for producing the save of the night to deny Konstantinos Mavropanos just before half-time, even if the visitors struggled to create much else. West Ham will be disappointed not to have stretched their advantage over Tottenham to four points after a strangely subdued performance, although at least their fate remains in their hands. Former manager David Moyes and his in-form Everton side are next up on Saturday.

Published: April 20, 2026, 9:07 pm

Arsenal are despondent, but the Premier League race is far from over | Jonathan Wilson

Manchester City eked a win by the slimmest of margins on Sunday, setting up a season finale that will be determined by nerves

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It was probably Arsenal’s best performance in two months, but that will be scant consolation. Manchester City’s win on Sunday leaves Pep Guardiola’s side in control of the title race; they will go top of the Premier League on goal difference if they beat Burnley at Turf Moor on Wednesday. Both sides will then have five games to play.

Sunday’s game was decided by desperately fine margins. What prevented Eberechi Eze’s whipped shot from just outside the box going in? An inch? Half of one? Gabriel also struck the woodwork, while Kai Havertz headed a great chance a fraction over the crossbar in injury time. It was a defeat that has handed City the advantage in the title race, but it could very easily have been a battling draw to preserve Arsenal’s lead and, perhaps more importantly, restore morale.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition

Published: April 20, 2026, 3:13 pm

Liam Rosenior admits ‘I need results now’ as pressure mounts at Chelsea

• Blues have lost four top-flight matches in succession

• ‘My job is accountable … The buck stops with me’

Liam Rosenior has acknowledged his job will be under threat if he cannot turn around Chelsea’s poor form before the end of the season.

Although the head coach recently received public backing from the co-owner Behdad Eghbali, he is aware that retaining long-term support is dependent on results. Chelsea are under growing pressure as four consecutive league defeats have left them seven points off fifth-placed Liverpool with five games to play, and Rosenior was realistic when asked whether his bosses had assured him his future did not hinge on securing Champions League qualification.

Published: April 20, 2026, 9:30 pm

John Korir breaks Boston Marathon course record as Kenyans retain titles

• Sharon Lokedi wins women’s race again

• Marcel Hug win’s men’s wheelchair for ninth time

• GB’s Rainbow-Cooper wins women’s wheelchair race

There was Kenyan joy at the Boston Marathon for a second year in a row as Sharon Lokedi and John Korir retained their titles.

Korir broke the Boston Marathon course record in the men’s race, riding a tailwind to outrun the strongest field in event history in a time of 2hr 1min 52sec – the fifth-fastest marathon of all time.

Published: April 20, 2026, 4:37 pm

Tim Cook to step down as Apple chief as John Ternus named replacement

Cook, who will stay on as executive chair, praises head of hardware engineering, who will take over on 1 September

Apple announced on Monday that it had named a replacement for Tim Cook as CEO after nearly 15 years, with head of hardware engineering John Ternus succeeding him on 1 September. Cook will stay at the company in the role of executive chair.

“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company. I love Apple with all of my being,” Cook said in a press release.

Published: April 20, 2026, 10:25 pm

EU’s top court finds Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ+ law in breach of key values

ECJ says law passed in 2021 discriminatory and ‘contrary to the identity of the union’, in early test for incoming PM

The EU’s highest court has found Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ+ law to be discriminatory, stigmatising and in breach of basic democratic values, setting up an early test for the incoming prime minister Péter Magyar’s government when it takes power next month.

In a wide-ranging judgment, the European court of justice said the 2021 law that bans content about LGBTQ+ people from schools and primetime TV was at odds with a society based on pluralism and fundamental rights such as prohibition of discrimination and freedom of expression.

Published: April 21, 2026, 10:39 am

‘Will they kill us too?’ Murder of leading feminist has chilling effect on Iraq’s activists

Yanar Mohammed’s assassination comes amid a number of killings as fellow campaigners warn women’s rights are going backwards

In early March, two unidentified gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on Iraq’s most notable women’s rights activist, Yanar Mohammed, as she stood outside her home in the north of the capital, Baghdad. She had long been the target of death threats from Islamic State and other armed groups.

Her death was the latest of several killings of well-known female figures in Iraq in recent years, who were either prominent advocates for women’s rights or notable individuals. In early April, soon after Yanar’s death, a female lawyer known for supporting girls was also murdered.

Speaking to the Guardian and Jummar Media, women in Iraq say the murders have had a chilling effect on their ability to speak out at a time when women’s rights and freedoms in the country are going backwards.

Published: April 21, 2026, 6:00 am

Canadian woman killed after gunman opens fire at Mexico’s Teotihuacán pyramids

At least four more injured at world heritage site in latest violent incident as country prepares to co-host World Cup

One Canadian tourist has been killed and six other people were wounded by gunfire after an armed man opened fire at one of Mexico’s most famous tourist destinations, the Teotihuacán pyramids near Mexico City.

The shooting – the latest violent incident to affect Mexico as it prepares to co-host the football World Cup in June – took place on Monday lunchtime and was captured in mobile phone videos.

Published: April 21, 2026, 3:17 am

Federal agents detain wife of another US army member: ‘ICE is out of control’

Jose Serrano, a sergeant, said Deisy Rivera Ortega, his wife, was arrested at an immigration appointment

A US army sergeant with 27 years of military service – including deployment to Afghanistan – has said that federal immigration agents recently arrested his wife during an appointment at an immigration office in El Paso, Texas.

In an interview with CBS News published Monday, Sgt First Class Jose Serrano said that Deisy Rivera Ortega, a Salvadoran and his wife, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers under the command of the Trump administration despite receiving legal protection in 2019 that bars her from being deported to El Salvador. Rivera Ortega, who wed Serrano in 2022, has been in the US since 2016, he said.

Published: April 20, 2026, 8:16 pm

Music executive behind K-pop group BTS faces arrest in South Korea

Police seek warrant for Bang Si-Hyuk over allegations he illegally gained millions in investor fraud scheme

South Korean police are seeking to arrest Bang Si-Hyuk, the chair of the agency behind the K-pop band BTS, as they expand an investigation into allegations that he illegally gained more than $100m (£74m) in an investor fraud scheme.

The Seoul metropolitan police agency confirmed it had asked prosecutors to request a court warrant for the arrest of Bang, the founder and chair of HYBE.

Published: April 21, 2026, 7:04 am

Almost half of EU’s busiest flight routes are ‘hard or impossible’ to book on trains – report

‘Stone age’ system of booking cross-border rail tickets holding back climate action by consumers, says thinktank

Europe’s “stone age” system of booking train tickets makes it needlessly difficult for travellers to avoid polluting flights, a report has found.

Booking equivalent train tickets is “difficult or impossible” on almost half of the EU’s busiest international air routes, analysis from the Transport & Environment (T&E) thinktank shows.

Published: April 21, 2026, 4:00 am

Cattle breed whose ancestors lived with Celts added to priority at-risk list

UK’s Rare Breeds Survival Trust says calf numbers of white park cattle last year were less than two-thirds of 2022 level

An ancient breed of cattle whose ancestors are thought to have accompanied the Celts as they were pushed to Britain’s fringes by the Romans has been designated as urgently at risk by a UK conservation charity.

Publishing its 2026 watchlist on Tuesday, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust moved white park cattle to its “priority” category as new calf numbers sank last year to less than two-thirds of their 2022 level.

Published: April 21, 2026, 6:00 am

Clean energy generation exceeded rise in global electricity demand in 2025

Output from solar farms rose by a third while electricity from fossil fuels fell, research from thinktank reveals

• UK shifts older wind and solar farms to fixed-price deals to reduce price shocks

All of last year’s growth in global electricity demand was met from renewable sources, while fossil fuel power generation remained flat, research has found, marking what many hope could become a turning point in the drive to phase out planet-heating fossil fuels.

Solar power generation rose by nearly a third in 2025, marking a new record and faster growth. In the decade from 2015, solar output grew tenfold, roughly doubling every three years, according to the thinktank Ember.

Published: April 20, 2026, 11:01 pm

Trump signs memos to boost US fossil-fuel production for ‘defense readiness’

President claims ‘inadequate’ supply presents security threat and orders expansion of oil, coal and gas production

Donald Trump on Monday released a series of memos that doubled down on his support of increased domestic fossil fuel production for purported “defense readiness”.

Trump’s memos, which cited the president’s 20 January 2025 executive order declaring a national energy emergency, said US-based oil, coal, and natural gas production must expand “to avert an industrial resource or critical technology item shortfall that would severely impair national defense capability”.

Published: April 20, 2026, 10:26 pm

Climate groups sue US government over approval of new BP project in Gulf of Mexico

Advocates expressed alarm as new project drills deeper into ocean bed, pointing to company’s failures at Deepwater Horizon spill

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Environmental groups have sued the Trump administration over its approval of BP’s huge new ultra-deep oil drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico, 16 years to the day since the company’s Deepwater Horizon disaster caused the worst oil spill in US history.

Published: April 20, 2026, 7:22 pm

Pennsylvania court strikes down ban on use of Medicaid funds for abortions

Victory for abortion rights groups as court finds state’s constitution guarantees a right to abortion

A Pennsylvania court on Monday said that the state’s constitution guarantees a right to abortion while striking down a decades-long law banning the use of state Medicaid funds to cover abortion costs.

The ruling by a divided seven-judge panel of the appellate-level commonwealth court is a major victory for Planned Parenthood and abortion clinic operators who first sued Pennsylvania over its Medicaid funding restrictions in 2019.

Published: April 21, 2026, 1:03 am

The Onion plans to lease Alex Jones’s Infowars after judge blocks purchase

The satirical website’s parent company will have to pay $81,000 a month to the misinformation platform

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Satirical website the Onion plans to turn rightwing commentator Alex Jones’s misinformation site Infowars into a parody of itself under a leasing agreement provisionally approved by a Texas court.

Under a proposed deal with court administrators, Infowars would be leased by Global Tetrahedron, a Chicago-based company that owns the Onion, for $81,000 a month for six months, with an option to renew for another six months.

Published: April 20, 2026, 8:06 pm

Singer D4vd pleads not guilty to murder of 14-year-old girl found in his car

Musician charged after the dismembered and decomposing body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez found in abandoned Tesla

The singer D4vd pleaded not guilty to the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the teenage girl whose dismembered and decomposed body was found in the artist’s apparently abandoned Tesla in September.

The 21-year-old, whose legal name is David Burke, was arraigned on Monday afternoon hours after Los Angeles county district attorney’s office announced the charges against him.

Published: April 20, 2026, 9:55 pm

Louisiana authorities identify eight children killed in ‘domestic incident’

Gunman, identified as Shamar Elkins, fatally shot the children – including seven of his own – at two addresses

• Mass shooting rampage in Louisiana leaves eight children dead and others wounded

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Louisiana authorities have identified eight children – aged three to 11 – who were killed on Sunday during what police described as a “violent domestic incident” in Shreveport that marked the deadliest US mass shooting in more than two years.

The Caddo parish coroner’s office identified the children as Jayla Elkins, three; Shayla Elkins, five; Kayla Pugh, six; Layla Pugh, six; Markaydon Pugh, 10; Sariahh Snow, 11; Khedarrion Snow, 6; and Braylon Snow, five.

Published: April 20, 2026, 2:20 pm

Rebel Wilson labelled ‘nuts’ by PR team she allegedly hired to attack colleague, court hears

Wilson is being sued for defamation by actor Charlotte MacInnes over social media posts alleging a sexual harassment complaint

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Rebel Wilson was labelled “nuts” by a PR team she allegedly hired to create websites attacking a co-producer of her directorial debut, a court has heard.

The Pitch Perfect actor directed, co-produced and acted in The Deb, a musical comedy set in rural NSW that remained unreleased for two years due to legal disputes.

Published: April 21, 2026, 8:19 am

King Charles pays tribute to late mother on 100th anniversary of her birth

Monarch says Elizabeth II would have been troubled by recent events but she believed ‘goodness will always prevail’

King Charles has said his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, would have been troubled deeply by current affairs as he paid a heartfelt tribute to her on what would have been her 100th birthday.

In a video message to honour the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, he said she had “remained constant, steadfast and wholly devoted to the people she served”.

Published: April 21, 2026, 7:56 am

Starmer orders inquiry into any security concerns over Mandelson’s tenure in US

PM sets out his side of events relating to appointment and security vetting in address to parliament

Keir Starmer has ordered an investigation into any security concerns relating to Peter Mandelson’s tenure as UK ambassador to the US, as he set out a series of practical measures in the wake of the controversy over Mandelson’s vetting.

Setting out to the Commons what he called the “frankly staggering” way that Mandelson was appointed to the job despite initially being turned down for security vetting, Starmer said he had ordered a full review into the vetting system.

Published: April 20, 2026, 4:43 pm

Gut microbiome can reveal risk of Parkinson’s, scientists say

Study shows signature changes more pronounced in people with genetic risk, raising hopes for new therapies

Changes to microbes that live in the gut can identify people at greater risk of Parkinson’s disease long before symptoms develop, according to work that also raises hopes for new therapies.

Researchers discovered signature changes in the gut microbiome that are more pronounced in people with a genetic risk for Parkinson’s and even more stark in those diagnosed with the disease.

Published: April 20, 2026, 3:00 pm

Ghost Stories by Siri Hustvedt review – life after Paul Auster

What’s it like to lose your partner of more than 40 years? The novelist and essayist reflects on going from ‘we’ to ‘I’

It wasn’t quite Beatlemania, but, at the height of Paul Auster’s fame in the 1980s and 90s, screaming fans clambered on to the hood of a car after a reading in Buenos Aires. Admirers mobbed him at bookshop events in Paris, the city where he had once eked out a living translating French literature. He was offered big money to make ads promoting American beef to Japan. He was hailed as a rock god, a literary superstar, a postmodernist with leading-man looks.

Little of this is of much consequence or consolation to novelist and essayist Siri Hustvedt who, before he died of cancer in 2024, had been married to Auster for more than 40 years. As she tells it in Ghost Stories, her memoir of their life together, she was a tall blond PhD student in a jumpsuit when she met him – “a beautiful man in a black leather jacket” – at a poetry reading. He was separated from the mother of his child, living alone in a gloomy Brooklyn apartment, yet to publish anything of substance. Literature bound them: he was just 15 when he decided his future was in writing; she had come to the same insight at an even younger age.

Published: April 21, 2026, 6:00 am

‘Muslim kids are really underrepresented’: the animated movie where medieval maths meets eager young minds

Time Hoppers: The Silk Road is a time-travel adventure whose child heroes must save the legacy of Islamic scholars who shaped modern science. Its makers reveal their inspiration, and reflect on their success

‘Some people said it doesn’t exist – that it’s a fantasy.” So says Flordeliza Dayrit of the silk road, the vast network of trade routes that once connected Asia, Africa and Europe – and the starting location for Time Hoppers: The Silk Road, the animated feature she co-created with her husband, Michael Milo.

Speaking from their home in Edmonton, Canada, the couple describe a project that started with personal intrigue and grew into something far more ambitious. With its theatrical release in UK cinemas, Time Hoppers turns this sense of curiosity into a fast-moving children’s adventure: a story in which four young protagonists travel back in time to the medieval Islamic world, meeting the scientists and scholars whose discoveries shape our current everyday lives.

Published: April 21, 2026, 8:34 am

‘The witches are back’: first look at Practical Magic 2 as Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return for spooky sequel

The Kissing Booth’s Joey King and Game Of Thrones’ Maisie Williams star alongside the original cast members as the next generation of the cursed Owens family

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The midnight margaritas are officially back on the menu. Within 24 hours of its debut, the first official teaser for Practical Magic 2 has surged into the Google Trends top 10, attracting millions of views and signalling an enthusiastic appetite for the return of the Owens family and all things witchy.

Academy Award winners Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman will return as sisters Sally and Gillian, with Kidman sharing a video of her and her fellow star on set last year, captioned: “The witches are back”.

Published: April 21, 2026, 8:11 am

Wardriver review – bank scammer Dane DeHaan goes for the triple cross in venal neo-noir

Thriller from director Rebecca Thomas paints a convincingly hoodlum world where every table is turned

“I’m gonna fucking doxx you” is the tech equivalent of “I’m going to get medieval on your ass” in this brisk neo-noir crime thriller, starring Dane DeHaan as a hacker with a heart of gold. DeHaan never quite broke through to the top echelon as he promised to in the mid-2010s but, constantly kojaking a lollipop here, he shows scuzzy self-assurance as Cole, a petty scammer who skims people’s security credentials from unsecured wifi networks and empties their bank accounts.

Cole is on a hot streak until restaurant doorman and considerably more scary hoodlum Oscar (Mamoudou Athie) gets wise to him and arrives at his home to administer a beatdown. Oscar has plans for the geek: to use him to fleece Sarah (Sasha Calle), a glamorous member of his clientele who has boasted about the $800k sitting in her current account. But after they siphon it off, Cole gets scammer’s remorse when criminally affiliated lawyer Mark (Jeffrey Donovan), for whom Sarah is holding the cash, threatens to kill her if she doesn’t return the loot.

Published: April 21, 2026, 8:00 am

Scarborn (Kos) review – rumbustuous period epic stirs up trouble in 18th-century Poland

When a veteran of the American war of independence returns to his native country with popular rule on his mind dangerous passions ignite

This Polish historical drama is an odd duck of a feature but there’s definitely a cinematic flair to proceedings. For a start, a lot of it unfolds over one evening in a candlelit setting, so you may have to screw up your eyes in order to make out what’s going on. My advice is to then surrender to its strange tonality and weird flat stretches, because the ending pulls most of the strands together satisfyingly and goes out with bangs, whizzes and a fair few sword thrusts.

The year is 1794, and it’s not long since the American war of independence has finished, in which Polish hero Tadeusz “Kos” Kościuszko (a real historical figure, played here by Chris Pine lookalike Jacek Braciak) fought valiantly on the side of the American rebels. Now he’s back in what’s left of Poland, a nation with particularly elastic borders at that time as various neighbours invade and pull back, especially the Russians. Kos is accompanied by his friend Domingo (Jason Mitchell), a freed slave and top marksman, and together the two of them are hoping to start something in Poland and get the peasants revolting against the oppressive nobility. That sort of social order shake-up would definitely be a boon for folks such as Ignac Sikora (Bartosz Bielenia), the bastard son of a local landowner who has promised with his dying breath to leave Ignac some kind of inheritance in his will.

Published: April 21, 2026, 6:00 am

‘It’s about finding light in the dark’: why Harold and Maude is my feelgood movie

The latest in our ongoing series of writers recommending their favourite comfort watches is a pick for 1971’s unusual romantic comedy

The best films give you something to take away. Not just a moral message, or some sort of transcendental teaching about the world. But a tangible thing you can find meaning in long after the credits have rolled, holding space in the corners of your mind like a cultural souvenir you’ve popped on the shelf.

For me, this usually takes the form of a song or an artist. Sometimes, it’s a place or a quote. Very occasionally, it’s an outfit. Rarely does anything give me all of the above. But Harold and Maude is special, offering a goodie bag of miscellaneous feelgood delights that instantly transport me somewhere joyful.

Published: April 20, 2026, 9:00 am

‘We did a seance for Beethoven, to see what he thought’: the playful, pioneering life of field-recording maestro Annea Lockwood

The New Zealand composer burned pianos, sampled earthquakes and recorded Belfast’s peace walls. And at 86 is still invested in her life’s work: to appreciate the music in everyday sound

A broken upright piano, tilted like the sinking Titanic, stands part-buried in a garden at Glasgow’s Counterflows festival. Experimental composer Annea Lockwood swipes a hand across its exposed strings and beams at the metallic clang. “Great piano!” she says, inviting other musicians and the audience to make their own strange noises by scratching and tapping it with garden debris.

It’s one of many pianos Lockwood, 86, has buried, burned or drowned since the 1960s, exploring their changing sounds as they are destroyed – though she says “transformed”. A pioneer of field recordings, her work has ranged from “sound maps” of entire rivers to music made with the peace walls demarcating areas of mid-Troubles Belfast. As she revisits two significant works at Counterflows and prepares a new release of 1975’s World Rhythms, she takes me through her radical career from the very start.

Published: April 20, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘Deliciously dark’: how Freida McFadden’s twisty thrillers gripped millions of readers

The author, who recently revealed her real name to be Sara Cohen, began writing to escape from her work as a medic, and now has a huge global fanbase

Some call themselves McFans, others Freida readahs. However Freida McFadden’s loyal fans choose to define themselves, what we know for sure is that their numbers are growing, and fast.

McFadden, the author behind blockbuster psychological thriller The Housemaid, was the UK’s bestselling novelist of 2025, outstripping Richard Osman, Sarah J Maas and Rebecca Yarros, and shifting 2.6m print copies in 12 months.

Published: April 20, 2026, 11:19 am

From Manifesto to Mr Loverman: Bernardine Evaristo’s best books – ranked!

From the secret gay life of a British-Caribbean man to that controversial shared Booker win, the author has blazed a trail across the literary landscape. Here are seven of her top titles

Even by Evaristo’s experimental standards, this book is a highly ambitious mash-up of forms and stories. It takes a mismatched couple, strait-laced Stanley and ebullient Jessie, on a road trip across Europe where they meet the ghosts of black historical figures, from Alexander Pushkin to Mary Seacole. We learn a lot along the way, but the real engine of the story is Stanley and Jessie’s combative relationship. Told in a blend of prose, poetry, scripts, memos, legal documents, budget spreadsheets … and road signs, Soul Tourists ultimately wobbles under the weight of both its own good intentions and its skittish variety, but it has charm and energy to burn.

Published: April 20, 2026, 11:00 am

The Illuminated Man by Christopher Priest and Nina Allan review – an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard

The biographer’s terminal illness and death is woven into this original and moving account of Ballard and his work

The writer JG Ballard, who died in 2009, is a tantalising subject for a biographer. His extraordinary childhood in prewar Shanghai, his family’s subsequent internment in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, and the death of his wife, Mary, at the age of 34, were formative events in the creation of his unique vision. The vivid and sometimes shocking images he witnessed in his early life would resurface repeatedly in his fiction.

Yet he always resisted approaches from those keen to tell his story, and at the end of his life produced a curiously flat memoir, Miracles of Life. The author of this new biography, Christopher Priest, apparently admired that work, while recognising that it represented “a carefully curated account … of a messier reality”. As he points out, it revealed nothing that was not already known. An unauthorised biography by John Baxter appeared two years after Ballard’s death, which, though it has been criticised by Ballard’s family for inaccuracies, remains a useful introduction to the life and work of one of the most interesting writers of the postwar period.

Published: April 20, 2026, 8:01 am

Son of Nobody by Yann Martel review – Life of Pi author discovers a long-lost poem from Troy

An epic poem about the Trojan war is merged with the domestic heartbreak of the scholar who discovers it in this ambitious, structurally problematic novel

In Yann Martel’s fifth novel, a Canadian classicist, Harlow Donne, has been offered a year’s fellowship at Oxford University. His wife, Gail, has a full-time managerial job, and they have a seven-year-old daughter, Helen. Who will pour out her breakfast cereal and pick her up from school while Harlow is away? He and Gail quarrel. He leaves for England, and as she sees him off Gail whispers in his ear: “Don’t come back.”

So far, so everyday: but once Harlow gets to Oxford, the narrative shifts its form and becomes odder and more interesting. His prescribed task is to help sift through and translate a hoard of ancient papyri from Oxyrhynchus, in upper Egypt. It’s tedious work. Soon, though, Harlow is piecing together from words or half-words on wisps of desiccated reeds what he believes to be a long-lost epic poem. It relates the story of the Trojan war, but not, as Homer tells it, from the viewpoint of princely warriors and gods. The protagonist is a common soldier, a “son of nobody” named Psoas.

The Scapegoat by Lucy Hughes-Hallett (HarperCollins Publishers, £12.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

Son of Nobody by Yann Martel is published by Canongate (£20). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

Published: April 20, 2026, 6:01 am

‘People still remember it 40 years later’: the making of Chuckie Egg

The iconic game that came to define 8-bit programming still conjures flutters of nostalgia 40 years on – all thanks to a 15-year-old tea boy who worked a Saturday shift in a computer shop in Greater Manchester

If you were playing games on a home computer in the early 1980s, you knew about Chuckie Egg. No question. This simple-looking platform game had you wandering around a chicken shed, collecting eggs and avoiding the patrolling hens. But when you reached level eight, a large duck was suddenly let loose and would stalk the player like a feathery missile, completely changing the pace and tactics of the game. It was a boss battle before boss battles existed.

Everyone knew about Chuckie Egg because everyone could play it. Originally released on the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and Dragon 32 in the autumn of 1983, it immediately topped the charts, encouraging its publisher, A&F Software, to begin porting it to as many machines as possible. Around 11 conversions followed, including the Commodore 64, Amstrad and Acorn Electron. I first played it on the BBC computer in my school library, but I also had it on my C64 and a friend played on his Speccy. Like Manic Miner, Bruce Lee and Skool Daze, it was woven into the tapestry of British 8-bit gaming culture.

Published: April 21, 2026, 9:00 am

Schmigadoon! review – cancelled TV show given hit-and-miss Broadway resurrection

Nederlander Theatre, New York
Apple’s spoofy musical comedy series makes a natural leap to the stage but often struggles to bring much that feels new to the material

There are countless examples of movies turned into stage musicals against all reason, the brute force of IP smashing through objections such as “the movie was perfect and can’t be easily equaled”, “this material does not actually lend itself well to cutesy production numbers” or just a plaintive “please, no!”. Schmigadoon!, however, presents a different case. This is a full-throated and boundlessly enthusiastic tribute to (and, secondarily, parody of) golden-age mid-century American musicals; it only makes sense for it to be restaged live on Broadway. The greater wonder is that Schmigadoon! somehow, by the grace of peak-streaming production levels, started life as a television show.

TV musicals are so rare that some of the most famous examples are single-episode gimmicks (see famous installments of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Scrubs) or running gags on reality-bending cartoons such as The Simpsons or Bob’s Burgers. Animation is actually where Schmiagdoon! co-creators Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio hail from. After working together at Illumination on movies including Despicable Me and The Secret Life of Pets, they co-created a live-action TV series about a couple (Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key) whose relationship crossroads coincide with their accidental arrival in a magical hidden world where everyone acts like they’re in an old-fashioned musical – much to her delight and his horror. It ran for two seasons and amassed a dedicated cult following before Apple canceled it.

Published: April 21, 2026, 2:00 am

Madonna offers reward after vintage Coachella costume goes missing

The Like A Virgin singer has appealed for the return of the pieces she wore on Friday, including a jacket, corset and dress

Madonna has said the vintage costume she wore at Coachella has gone missing and has appealed for its “safe return”.

The Like A Virgin singer joined popstar Sabrina Carpenter on stage on Friday for her second weekend headline slot at the music festival in California, where she wore a vintage purple corset bodysuit with purple stockings and lavender gloves. On stage she said it was “the same corset, the same boots, and the same Gucci jacket” that she wore at her first Coachella appearance in 2006.

Published: April 20, 2026, 11:23 pm

‘I’ve had white knuckle moments’: Michael Socha on This Is England, his patchy beard – and seedy new casino thriller The Cage

As he stars alongside Sheridan Smith as a casino boss on the take, the actor talks about leaving school with no qualifications, playing vile dads – and why he’s eager to circulate the This Is England reunion rumour

Michael Socha is about to jump on a train to Wales. The impressively bushy beard he’s got is for his role in The Witch Farm, a dramatic adaptation of an episode of the Danny Robins podcast Uncanny, about a supposed haunting in the Brecon Beacons. He plays Bill Rich, who moves his family to a spooky old farmhouse where it all goes “horribly wrong”, Socha says. “In the photos he has a beard, and I thought, ‘I’ll match that.’” The actor strokes his chin and turns his head from side to side. It looks pretty substantial to me. “You say that, but see this bit? I’m struggling. It’s a bit patchy there. I’m happy with this bit, but then this needs work.”

Socha has just left a screening of his new BBC thriller The Cage, and he has the gentle bounce of a man who struggles to stay still. As with his beard, he finds it hard not to find flaws in what he’s done. Normally, he admits, he tries to avoid watching himself on screen. “I’ll sort of nitpick away,” he shrugs, but he had such a nice time making The Cage that he was looking forward to seeing it. “But the more you watch something, the more you find bits that you’re not too happy with.”

Published: April 21, 2026, 4:00 am

‘We wasted a lot of lives’: CIA spymaster’s caution over past Iran intervention resurfaces from beyond the grave

A documentary about Peter Sichel – the ‘Jewish James Bond’ who died in 2025 – includes striking mea culpas about the cost and efficacy of US involvement in the Middle East

In New York social circles, he was known as the “Jewish James Bond”: a refugee from Nazi Germany whose gratitude to his American hosts was such that he volunteered to join the US army and became the CIA’s first station chief in Berlin as a mere twentysomething, filing early warnings about Soviet activity that have been credited with ringing in the cold war.

Like 007, Peter Sichel also appreciated a fine tipple, and after leaving the US foreign intelligence service it was he who briefly turned a sweet German white, Blue Nun, into one of the best-selling wines in the world.

Published: April 20, 2026, 9:19 am

How to holiday as a single-parent family? A back-to-nature retreat in west Wales worked for us

Tucked away in a remote valley, these cosy off-grid cabins come with a wild-swimming pond, loads of wildlife and a farm where kids can run free

Holidaying as a single parent is a tricky balance. You want to ringfence the kind of extended one-on-one time that can be difficult to find during term time; but too much of that and you know you’ll drive each other a little crazy. Kids need other kids, and you could do with some adult company too. You also need a break. It’s a nice idea to pack the car with camping gear and head out into the wilderness, but it can be a lot of work – and you end up in a field, attempting to put up a tent, alone.

Friends of mine have suggested holiday parks, some of them with bars and restaurants and a daily schedule of kids’ activities. That all sounds a bit overstimulating. I’d been dreaming about sinking into a quiet landscape. But would there be enough to do?

Published: April 21, 2026, 6:00 am

The emotional security secret: how to get healthier, happier and have stronger relationships

Psychiatrist Amir Levine’s first book explored different types of attachment. In his follow-up, he explains how anyone can become more secure

Amir Levine has been quietly working towards a second book for 16 years. When Attached, which he co-wrote with Rachel Heller, was published in 2010, it brought the categories for how we behave in relationships – AKA attachment styles – into the public consciousness. According to attachment theory, you could be anxious (often resulting in social hypervigilance), avoidant (independent, suppressing difficult emotions), fearful-avoidant (craving closeness, but often retreating in fear) or secure. Knowing which you were and where significant others sat on this spectrum provided helpful insights for self-awareness and relationship harmony.

Since then, Levine has received countless emails from readers around the world either seeking his advice or telling him how the book changed their life. “I got an email from a woman from Iran,” he recalls. “She said that she realised she was with someone very avoidant. She was able to cut off from him and she found someone else who was secure.” Also, because she felt better equipped “to communicate her needs with this new partner, she reached an orgasm for the first time”. From all of these stories, as well as research into the neuroscience of attachment and neuroplasticity and working with therapy clients, Levine has now compiled the tools needed to help anyone become more secure.

Published: April 20, 2026, 9:00 am

More than ‘liquid weed’: I've taste-tested the best THC drinks for socializing and relaxing

The market for THC-infused seltzers and spirits has never been more full. Here are seven standouts, including beginner-friendly Wynk and tequila-like MXXN

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Instead of liquid weed that’s meant to get drinkers as high as possible, today’s THC-infused beverages are more about quality and taste. With varying flavor combinations and dosages, it’s never been a more interesting time to try the cannabis seltzers, spirits and mixed drinks on the market.

The category is projected to hit $370m in the next few years. In my reporting (and personal experience), I’ve found the rise of infused drinks is less about the cannabis itself and more about inclusivity. While some younger Americans are replacing spirits and wine with thoughtfully made nonalcoholic alternatives, others are treating THC and CBD as simply another way to feel included in social gatherings. Booze is no longer the default option at the housewarming or back yard barbecue.

Published: April 20, 2026, 2:15 pm

My family tried to eat fewer ultra-processed foods for five years. Here’s what we learned

Cutting UPFs from our grocery list was expensive, laborious and time-consuming

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Grocery shopping looks different these days. On Saturday mornings, instead of the local supermarket, I’m at our local San Diego farmers’ market, loading up on fish, meat, apples, cheese and berries – enough for a family of four.

But it’s not a cheap excursion; our weekly grocery spend is now higher than it was when we decided to try to cut ultra-processed foods (UPFs) from our diet five years ago.

In 2021, we spent $158.63 on cereal; in 2025, the total was $34.34.

Our yoghurt costs went from $260.29 in 2021 to $24.27 in 2025.

We no longer buy protein bars, which cost us $261.04 in 2021.

Our peak expenditure on frozen chicken tenders was in 2020, when we spent $159.76. For the past two years we haven’t bought any.

Butter more than quadrupled between 2021 and 2025, to $234.22.

The total in the sugar column went from $9.47 in 2021 to $83.10 in 2025 (I did a lot more baking last year).

The biggest leap was for fruit and vegetables: $2,578.32 in 2021 became $5,706.36 last year.

In 2021, we started buying meat that was humanely raised by farmers and ranchers using regenerative agriculture practices. We spent a lot in this category, almost $2,500 on raw beef and chicken (the previous year, we spent about $1,500). The following year, 2022, we dropped our meat expenditure down to about $1,000 by eating a lot less of it, and more dried beans.

Published: April 20, 2026, 4:00 pm

Is it true that … only overweight people are at risk of high cholesterol?

Size does matter – as does diet – but your genes are the main driver of your cholesterol levels

Cholesterol, a fatty substance mostly made by the liver and used by the body to build cells and produce hormones, has become a heart-health bogeyman. There are several types, but high levels of LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Often labelled “bad” cholesterol, LDL builds up over time on artery walls, narrowing them and restricting blood flow.

High LDL cholesterol is not confined to people who are overweight. “Genetics are the main driver of higher LDL cholesterol levels,” says Naveed Sattar, professor of cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow. “Diets have smaller effects and it’s not necessarily the total calories that count; it’s the amount of saturated fat.” (Found in cakes, biscuits, chocolate and many ultra-processed foods, saturated fat can raise LDL levels.) All of this means someone relatively lean can still have high cholesterol, either because of their genetic profile or dietary pattern.

Published: April 20, 2026, 7:00 am

Victoria Beckham ties up with Gap as retailer hopes luxe push will drive comeback

Ex-Mattel boss behind Barbiemania pivots retailer towards more premium fashion after reopening UK stores

From the 80s through to the early noughties it was the go-to high street store for casual hoodies and jeans, before falling out of favour. Now almost 30 years after its heyday, Gap is hoping to turn things around. Key to its comeback strategy? A pivot to more premium fashion.

On Friday the retailer will unveil a collection with the luxury fashion designer Victoria Beckham. The collaboration is the next step in the luxification of Gap being led by Richard Dickson, who joined Gap Inc as its president and chief executive from Mattel, the US toymaker, in 2023.

Published: April 20, 2026, 1:00 pm

Houseplant hacks: should I let tap water stand before using it for watering?

‘Overnighting’ water in a wide-mouthed container does get rid of chlorine, and your sensitive plants will thank you for it

The problem
Rainwater is the gold standard for houseplants, but not everyone has a garden, a water butt, or the inclination to collect it. For those relying on tap water, the question is how to make it as plant-friendly as possible. Chlorine is added to tap water as a disinfectant, and sensitive plants like calatheas, ferns and carnivorous varieties can show it in their leaf edges and general mood.

The hack
Plenty of plant owners leave jugs of tap water on the counter overnight, and the chlorine evaporates, leaving something softer and kinder for your roots. It costs nothing, requires no equipment and has been passed around plant communities for years.

Published: April 21, 2026, 9:00 am

A new start after 60: my father died when I was a child – and I followed him to Antarctica

Amanda Barry’s dad had always wanted to return to the continent, where he worked in 1948, but died before he had the chance. She fulfilled his ambition, and felt closer to him than ever

Amanda Barry was rummaging for something in her mother’s loft when she came across her father’s trunk. Delving beneath the old blankets, she uncovered a trove of photographs, letters and journals that would set her on his trail, all the way to the Antarctic.

Barry’s father, George, had died suddenly after a heart attack when she was nine. Her mother had kept alive the sense of him; his pipes and cigarettes were still in a drawer of the sideboard. Like her four older siblings, Barry owned a photograph, taken at Port Lockroy in Antarctica, where in 1948 he was base leader. “He always wanted to go back,” she says. “I remember thinking, ‘Well, Dad, I’m going to go. For you and for me.’”

Published: April 20, 2026, 6:00 am

Sonos Play review: a great jack-of-all-trades portable speaker for home or away

Quality wifi bookshelf speaker can go mobile with Bluetooth, long battery life and water resistance, in return to form

The Play is a new portable wifi and Bluetooth home speaker that packs the best of Sonos into a jack of all trades that is intended to be a reset point in the company’s recovery from its app debacle that lost it faith, favour and a chief executive.

It is the first truly new music speaker since Sonos launched its new app in May 2024, which junked fan-favourite features while causing stability and usage problems for new and old customers alike. The company has spent the best part of two years fixing mistakes, bringing back core features and ensuring the system actually works.

Published: April 20, 2026, 6:00 am

My rookie era: I lived off the land for a week – by day five I was naked, my clothes dangling over the campfire

In the summer of 1971, I left behind my comfortable family home with a tent, rations and a Women’s Weekly cutting of Princess Caroline of Monaco

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At 15 I proved the maxim: “Hire a teen while they still know everything.”

That summer of 1971, I judged the world and concluded that civilisation was meh, and surely doomed. So with the zeal of the truly clueless I resolved to try living off the land, and left behind my comfortable family home and smirking parents.

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Published: April 20, 2026, 3:00 pm

Another victim of Cesar Chavez breaks their silence: ​​‘My body remembers’

Jennifer Andrea Porras, now 53, says they were sexually abused by the union leader as a teen

A version of this story was published in Spanish in La Opinión.

When Jennifer Andrea Porras, a non-binary, Indigiqueer, Coahuiltecan artist and cultural worker from the San Francisco Bay Area, first found out about the New York Times investigation detailing allegations by multiple women of sexual abuse by civil rights icon Cesar Chavez, they were not surprised. The news confirmed their own experience with the co-founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union.

Published: April 20, 2026, 11:00 am

Canada’s residential school abuse survivors face fresh battle to stop testimony being destroyed

First Nation communities warn that government must act as accounts face destruction, risking central part of Canada’s reckoning with its colonial legacy

• ‘Cultural genocide’: the shameful history of Canada’s residential schools – mapped

Cheryle Dreaver first heard her mother discuss what she had endured as a child in a Winnipeg courtroom in 2008.

Ivy Dreaver was one of tens of thousands of Indigenous people in Canada invited by the federal government to testify about their experiences of sexual, physical and mental abuse in the country’s residential school system.

“At that time … I didn’t know those things had happened to her until that very day,” said Dreaver. “I was in shock … there was a lot of abuse.”

Published: April 20, 2026, 11:00 am

Will RFK Jr’s podcast actually address Americans’ public health concerns?

Secretary Kennedy Podcast so far seems designed to promote Trump administration talking points over any specific public health message

Robert F Kennedy Jr’s new Secretary Kennedy Podcast is a show that, so far, appears designed to promote Trump administration talking points over any specific public health message.

Though, based on the trailer and episode one, which dropped last week, one might expect the Secretary Kennedy Podcast to be quite similar to the health secretary’s former show, The RFK Jr Podcast. In the trailer that dropped ahead of his new podcast’s release, Kennedy says: “Children are sicker, chronic disease is exploding and the answers we’ve been given aren’t working” – talking points that were common on his old series. He even adds: “Many of us have come to the conclusion that the government actually lies to us,” a statement that might have served his former podcast better, given that Kennedy is now a senior figure in the government.

Published: April 20, 2026, 2:21 pm

A watermelon market and the pope’s visit to Angola: photos of the day – Monday

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

Published: April 20, 2026, 2:25 pm