The scheme aims to encourage teenagers to explore the continent by railway

Exclusive: Couple were wrongly told BA could not get them out earlier a but their holiday company could

Financial reasons were cited as the reason behind the shock closure

From mesmerising museums to animal encounters, weave selected some of the best things to do in London with children, whatever your budget

Passengers decry ainhumanea and aawfula situation at remote military airport

Advanced CT scanners at some UK and European airports mean liquids and laptops can stay in the travelleras bag a but the 100ml size limit remains

Exclusive: The Independent predicts the worst traffic jams will be on the M5, M6, M25 and A303

For a captivating adventure brimming with biodiversity, misty cloud forests and Indigenous personality, Steph Dyson recommends looking beyond the familiar to uncover some lesser-visited treasures.

Snails are a protein-packed, and cheap, alternative to red meat

The days of getting low cost goods from brands like Temu could be numbered

Coupleas avery sada split comes after over two decades together and two children

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said he would agree to allow American chlorine-washed chicken to be sold in the UK as part of a free trade deal with the US

Our obsession with bargain bits and pieces for our homes isnat doing the planet any favours. Katie Rosseinsky explores why interiors are a sustainability blind spot for many of us, and how we can slow down our shopping habits

aHeall never lose 2 truths and a lie,a one person joked in the comments section

Irwin participated in a photoshoot for Bonds underwear

Hanks was married to Susan Dillingham from 1978 to 1987

aI may not be here nowa said the mother-of-two as she shared the details of her close call with death

OJ Simpson played Detective Nordberg in the first three Naked Gun films

Pike swiftly grew embarrassed after a aclincha with Irish 007 star

Oscar-winning actor said the franchise was adrenched and born out of profound sexisma

Actor is getting candid over Morpheusas absence in aMatrix Resurrectionsa

Sitcom star admitted his first audition for the role of Mick Shipman didnat go to plan

Comedian is hosting the late-night comedy show for the fourth time, with Elton John and Brandi Carlile appearing as its musical guests

Fans are theorising the star is filming secret role for new movie

Baldoni and Lively, who is married to Reynolds, are involved in legal actions related to her sexual harassment allegation

Gibson was charged with misdemeanour spousal battery in 2011

Jacob Stolworthy runs through the films that didnat get the attention they deserved

aIave been a fan as long as I can remember but it was rough to watch,a one viewer complained

The Rocket Man and his longtime friend Carlile, along with familiar faces Bernie Taupin and Andrew Watt, recreate the playfulness and sense of fun of some of Johnas Seventies gems

This fine Disney+ series from the creator of aNew Girla finds new life in close proximity to death

Now living a low-key life in Minneapolis, singer-songwriter Samia wants people to know the real her. Making herself the ideal unknowable woman for men to project onto is the subject of her third album, aBloodlessa, she tells Hannah Ewens

aMaybe I was being unprofessional, and for sure Mike White feels that I was always unprofessional,a said the award-winning composer

Pop singer Allen said she didnat believe the controversy surrounding Zegler could be blamed for the filmas box office woes

The two clashed after McCain praised President Trump

The 31-year-old artist drew criticism for quickly walking off-stage at the end of aSaturday Night Livea

The first trailer for the much-anticipated musical sequel screened exclusively at CinemaCon

Katy Perry, Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez are headed to space this month as part of Blue Originas first all-female crew

David Lammy, foreign secretary, says UK is aa nation that believes in open tradea and says government is negotiating with US over economic agreement

The official plan to increase access to NHS dental services in England has been a acomplete failurea, and some of the governmentas initiatives have worsened the crisis, a damning report warns, Andrew Gregory reports.

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is at the Nato HQ in Brussels this morning, where Nato foreign ministers are meeting. Speaking to the media, he said President Trump was taking US economic policy back almost a century by embracing protectionism. He said:

The United Kingdom, like France, is a great maritime nation.

We are a nation that believes in open trade, and I regret the return to protectionism in the United States, something that weave not seen for nearly a century.

The court said Yoon had acommitted a grave betrayal of the trust of the peoplea over his ill-fated declaration of martial law in December

South Koreaas suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has been removed from office after the countryas constitutional court voted unanimously to uphold parliamentas decision to impeach him over his ill-fated declaration of martial law in December.

After weeks of deliberations and growing concerns about the future of South Koreaas democracy, all eight justices voted to strip Yoon of his presidential powers.

Campaign network calls on government to prioritise smaller cars and introduce higher charges for SUV owners

More than 1m cars too big to fit in parking spaces are being sold in the UK each year, and numbers are growing, research has found.

A trend for cars bigger than the average urban parking space means new vehicles are outgrowing towns and cities.

Animal rights charity argues surcharge of 40-60p discriminates against dairy-free customers

A leading animal rights charity has launched a campaign calling for Gailas Bakery to drop its surcharge on plant-based milks, claiming it aunfairly discriminatesa against customers with dairy intolerances or those trying to make more ethical choices.

Gailas, a chain that is expanding rapidly in Britain, charges 40p to 60p extra if customers want oat or soya milk in their coffee or tea.

Hard-hitting internal investigation found roots of scandal lay in racist immigration legislation

At least APS22,000 was spent by the Home Office on hiring lawyers in a failed attempt to prevent the release of a hard-hitting internal report that found that the roots of the Windrush scandal lay in 30 years of racist immigration legislation, officials have acknowledged this week.

The government spent three years attempting to bury a report written by a Home Office commissioned historian, which described how athe British empire depended on a racist ideology in order to functiona and noted that immigration laws in the postwar period were designed to reduce the UKas non-white population.

US president attacks French judiciary as frustration grows in France with Trumpas policies; part of French left prepares counter demonstration in Paris

Elsewhere, I am keeping an eye on Brussels this morning where they are wrapping up their Nato ministerial summit.

We will hear from Nato secretary general Mark Rutte in just over an hour, and then from US state secretary Marco Rubio.

Authorities race to complete clean-up operation after devastation from gales and heaviest rainfall in 20 years

People on the Aegean islands, more used in April to the sight and scent of springas blossoms, have been left reeling from flash floods spurred by typhoon-strength gales, with authorities calling a state of emergency in some of Greeceas most popular destinations less than three weeks before Easter.

aItas a total catastrophe and it happened in just two hours,a said Costas Bizas, the mayor of Paros, the island worst hit by weather not seen in decades. aWe need all the help we can get.a

Temperature could hit 24C in central England on Friday amid avery high to extremea risk of wildfires across Britain

The UK could experience its warmest day of the year so far, with temperatures higher than European holiday hotspots, after firefighters tackled wildfires in parts of Britain.

Much of the country would be dry and sunny on Friday, and some of central England could hit 24C (75F) as weather anearer to what wead expect in Julya continued, the Met Office said.

Artwork thought to date from reign of Elizabeth I reveals how those with disposable incomes decorated their homes

Rare and fantastical 16th-century wall paintings which shine light on the interior design tastes of well-off Tudors have been revealed in a former hunting lodge.

Historic England said the wall paintings at The Ashes in Inglewood Forest, Cumbria, were remarkable and warranted extra heritage protection.

From UK tailors to Australian farmers to Irish whiskey distillers, firms reveal the impact of US measures

Donald Trumpas sweeping tariffs will upend global trade, adding costs and delays to businesses around the world and threatening a recession.

The Guardian spoke to eight businesses about the impact.

Exclusive: Aquarium systems, Timberland boots and recycling plant parts were mislabelled as coming from remote Norfolk Island or Heard and McDonald islands

• Tariffs send US markets tumbling to worst day since Covid crash
• Election 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaign
• Get our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcast

Trade tariffs imposed on tiny Australian territories that are either uninhabited or claim to have no trading relationship with the US appear to have been calculated based on erroneous trade data.

The data relates, at least in part, to shipments mislabelled as coming from remote Norfolk Island, or Heard Island and McDonald Islands, instead of their correct countries of origin, the Guardian can reveal.

Among the erroneously labelled shipments over the past five years from the island territories are shipments of aquarium systems, Timberland boots, wine and parts for a recycling plant.

County councils across England are being elected on 1 May, along with four regional mayors. Find out which areas are voting and search for your own

In many other years, the first set of local elections with a new government and prime minister in place would be scrutinised keenly as a judgment on the PMas performance so far. This year the runes will be harder to read because so many of the councils that are up are Conservative councils in Conservative areas. Few of the big cities are up, although some university cities and towns will be voting.

In contrast, the results will probably be read as judgment on the performance of the new Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch. The last time these council seats were contested, in most cases, was in 2021, when the Conservatives under Boris Johnson were riding high in the polls on athe vaccine boosta, and before the partygate scandal started to dent their popularity.

Indore in Madhya Pradesh was once dotted with fetid waste dumps but after a huge campaign is now virtually spotless

This is what happens usually in India: a politician wakes up and launches a cleanliness adrivea with fanfare. They ostentatiously start sweeping a street and speak solemnly about civic duty while the media take photos. The next day itas over and things go back to how they were before.

But not in Indore in Madhya Pradesh. From 2017, when it won the prize for being the cleanest city in the country, it kept winning for eight straight years, until last year.

The UK indie-rockers won two Grammys for their debut album. Ahead of their second, they explain how they protected one another amid sudden fame a and how queer love and Davina McCall inspired them

Wet Legas Rhian Teasdale looks like a pop star from a different era. She walks into a bar in east London wearing a giant, floor-length pale-pink padded coat. She has bleached eyebrows, dip-dyed hair, drawn-on freckles and jewels stuck to her nails and teeth. For a moment, Top of the Pops could be on primetime TV and a copy of Smash Hits in my bag. But then Wet Legas story always did feel anachronistic. In 2021, they managed what indie bands donat often manage any more and became an overnight success. That June, they released their first single, Chaise Longue, a deadpan, perfectly simple and cheerfully daft megahit; they conquered the US and Japan, toured arenas and topped the album charts with their scathing, self-titled debut, scoring two Brit awards and two Grammys.

They were still touring that album last summer, supporting Foo Fighters in stadiums. But eventually they found time to make a new one. Trailed by the punchy, indie-sleazy Catch These Fists, Moisturizer otherwise largely ditches their trademark death-stare sarcasm in favour of stompy but soppy love songs. Teasdale lives in London and we are meeting in person, but Hester Chambers, the bandas co-founder and lead guitarist, lives on the Isle of Wight, where Wet Leg met and formed. (Having written their debut alone, this time, they co-wrote with drummer Henry Holmes, guitarist Joshua Mobaraki and bassist Ellis Durand.) Tracking Chambers down will prove a trickier task, but more on that later.

Will Gaitok go rogue? Might there be an incest-related shooting? Could primates do it? Hereas a rundown of the top rumours around the last episodeas looming death (or deaths)

It all began with a dead body, before the HBO hit flashed back to a week earlier. Now satirical spa drama The White Lotus is set to solve all its mysteries in the third season finale, titled Amor Fati (which translate as alove of fatea, Latin fans).

The Thailand-set series opened with Zionas meditation session being interrupted by gunfire. As the panicking student waded through the resortas ponds to look for his mother, Belinda, an unidentified corpse floated past him face-down. Who was it? Who pulled the trigger? And will anyone squat over a suitcase?

Where Ahmed grew up, spitting was a playground sport for boys. Xenia finds it disgusting. You decide who should keep their mouth shut
Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

He says his throat is dry but to me spitting is a sign of disrespect. Iave seen people look shocked by it

Its lab buildings have a rusticated air while its sleek, paper-thin louvre windows are reminiscent of a luxury ocean-liner. More importantly, the people of Arklow in Ireland can finally go swimming without fear of floaters

It is not often that the arts section of a newspaper finds itself concerned with the aesthetic merits of a sewage works. But then there are few facilities designed with the finesse of the new a!139m (APS117m) wastewater treatment plant in Arklow, which stands like a pair of minty green pagodas on the edge of the Irish Sea. Nor are there many architectural firms who have thought so deeply about the poetics of effluent as Clancy Moore.

aThereas a wonderful passage in Ulysses,a says practice co-founder, Andrew Clancy, summoning James Joyce as we tiptoe along a metal gantry above a gigantic vat of bubbling brown sludge. aThe narrator turns on the tap to fill a kettle, sparking a lengthy rumination on where the water comes from, how it flows from reservoirs, through aqueducts and pipes, describing each step in minute detail, from the volume of the tanks to the dimensions and cost of the plumbing.a

Four years of medical school notes vanished with my device, and my flight was due to take off in 45 minutes

When asked where the safest place in�the world is, some might suggest the airport security queue. Vigilantly monitored, it sends me into autopilot: finishing my water, putting my luggage on the tray, taking out my electronics, shuffling through the body scanner and collecting my belongings. But as of August last year, Iam no longer so nonchalant.

My family, boyfriend and I had spent a carefree two weeks on holiday in Portugal. I was already mourning the end of summer a and my return to medical school a when we arrived at Porto airport for our flight home. I had just stepped away from the security queue and was repacking my bag when�I realised something I had put on the scanner belt was missing: my iPad. Panicked, I demanded that everyone comb through their luggage, but it was nowhere to be found. Four years of medical school notes, as well as reams of unfinished writing from my year as a journalist, had vanished.

The director of One to One: John & Yoko reveals how he was given access to a trove of intimate and family archive material that changes how we see the star couple

People are usually at their most interesting when they are in flux a uncertain of the way forward, of what life they ought to build. That was the case with John Lennon and Yoko Ono when they arrived in New York in 1971. They were both fleeing England a the recriminations around the Beatles breakup; the terrible misogyny and racism levelled at Ono a but also running towards the optimism and creative excitement of the New York art scene.

This is the period I have tried to recreate in my film One to One: John & Yoko a using a plethora of previously unheard phone recordings, home movies and archive. Itas an unconventional film�in many ways, pitching the viewer headfirst into the life, politics and music of the time without the usual music documentary guardrails. At its heart is the One to One concert that the couple gave at Madison Square Garden in the summer of 1972 a a concert that turned out to be Lennonas only full-length concert after leaving the Beatles.

This tale of a terminal cancer patientas newfound horniness upends every expectation you have for on-screen sex a as well as the definition of a soulmate. It leaves you longing for more

Sex is for men. This is a lesson we learn from a very early age. Maybe it is a nice lesson to learn if you are a man, though I imagine the pressure to be seen to know all about it from the off could feel a teensy bit much now and again. Iad probably take that over the internalised shame and alienation from your own body a and from one of the main drivers of pleasure that exists a so that we may all enjoy perpetuating the species, though, I think.

(Why yes, this is all about me! And yes I did grow up Catholic, which canat have helped. Youare such a sweetheart for noticing!)

The UK is among those least hit by the US presidentas war on the world economy. Retaliation at this point makes no sense

The tirade was astonishing. On Wednesday afternoon the world watched as the leader of its most powerful nation accused friends and foes alike of having alooted, pillaged, raped, plundereda, and simultaneously waved a bogus list of tariff imbalances. The playground paranoia was cringeworthy. What on earth was going on?

The answer can only be that Donald Trump is Americaas elected president for the next four years. He says he wants to end the military conflicts the US has fought or sponsored round the globe for a quarter of a century. We are waiting for that. Meanwhile, he is waging an economic war on world trade, a response that his biographer and ghostwriter, Tony Schwartz, blames on his childhood: aa life spent feeling like a victim a| any time he does not totally dominate he feels ripped offa.

With populist leaders on the back foot and EU support at its highest in years, the US trade war could be an opportunity for the union

Donald Trump has unleashed a trade war on the world, and Europe, considered by Washington to be among the aworst offendersa, is a major target. After hitting European steel, aluminium and cars, this week Trump announced sweeping 20% tariffs on almost all EU imports. Europeans have seen this coming for a long time. Well before his re-election, officials in Brussels were drawing up plans on how the EU might respond to Trump 2.0 and a possible transatlantic trade war.

What might the political fallout in Europe be? The good news is that Trumpas trade war puts Trump-friendly far-right forces in Europe in a terribly uncomfortable position. Itas one thing for the European far right to support Trump in principle, or to support the administrationas tyranny over peoples it doesnat care about, be it Ukrainians, Canadians, Mexicans or Palestinians. Itas quite another to defend Trump and his policies when the victims are countries that these far-right parties supposedly represent.

Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist

For all the WWE vibes, the rebooted series contains something true enough that anyone can get caught up in the action

Itas time to look north: this weekend, the ultimate obstacle race is back. An estimated six million of us will tune in to watch those finely tuned bodies powering themselves around the famously hellish course, with its exhausting series of hurdles. By the final straight, only the strongest will be left. Weave already got our favourites. Weare already making predictions. And by Saturday evening weall know exactly who is going to be in the Gladiators final.

Apologies to any racing lovers offended by that joke. I intend no slight on the Grand National, the traditional high point of this sporting weekend, but the enforced hiatus between the semi-finals of one of my favourite shows has me revved up. I genuinely missed them all last week a Phantom, Fury, Cyclone, Steel a and itas still hard to believe such massive, almost planetary, entities could get bumped off the schedule for an FA Cup quarter-final. Legend must have thrown a cosmic tantrum.

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.

Funding schools to set up nurseries works. Why spend more on older children, when we know spending earlier is most effective?

Despite the rampaging rogue state across the Atlantic, around the cabinet table ministers push on with their plans. Too often ignored in all this sound and fury, there is some good news. This week Bridget Phillipson awarded the first 300 primary schools funding to set up nurseries that will add up to 4,000 places by the end of September. In the great dash for growth, growth, growth the OBR predicted an extra 0.2% of GDP due to the provision of free nursery hours for under twos, which are now coming on stream.

Nurseries may lack the glamour of mighty infrastructure projects, but the growth effect is immediate, letting more parents work, or work more hours. But the overriding motive of Labouras early years push is to drive life chances of children whose future is too often determined long before they reach primary school.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Labour peer Margaret Hodge shares how the party tackled the rise of the British National party in Barking before the 2010 general election

Once again, the far right is advancing across Europe, emboldened by the outcome of the 2024 presidential election and the return of Donald Trump to the White House. To turn back extremism masquerading as populism, I believe there are lessons we can learn from our battle against the extreme right in Barking in 2010, when we crushed the BNP.

The context is different. There was little social media before 2010; we hadnat been through a pandemic; there was no major war in Europe and no serious challenge to a rules-based international order.

The island of Ireland faces a complex challenge with Trumpas tariffs. But giving up on transatlantic relations is not the answer

Ireland believes in open, free trade and has build a strong, resilient economy by being the most globalised in Europe. We are a trading country. That is why the announcement on tariffs came as such a disappointment to us.

Imposing tariffs to force companies to locate in the US will fundamentally change how the world sees it. US economic dominance has not been built on scale or purchasing power alone, but on relationships and alliances, something it is now damaging. aLiberation daya risks forcing a realignment of how global trade operates, without the US at its centre, as countries rethink their relationship with the US and seek new, more reliable partners.

Simon Coveney is a former deputy prime minister, foreign minister and enterprise and trade minister of Ireland

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.

• Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
• Read Football Daily | And mail Barry with your thoughts

JosA(c) Mourinho: Fenerbahce have issued a strident defence of their manager after he grabbed the nose of Galatasaray boss Okan Buruk in bad-temperered scenes that followed the Turkish Cup quarter-final clash between the two sides on Wednesday night.

The altercation occurred following Fenerbahceas defeat at the hands of their bitter rivals, but Fenerbahce claim Buruk was play-acting by tumbling to the floor after Mourinho pinched his hooter. The Portuguese was shown a red card for his troubles and now faces a potentially lengthy ban but his club are standing resolutely by their man, insisting his opposite number incited the incident and then dramatised his reaction.

• Latest updates around the grounds at season openers
• This weekas edition of The Spin | Email Tanya or post BTL

The County Ground: Derbyshire v Gloucestershire

Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan v Leicestershire

• Four red flags include two fires and Doohan crash
• Tsunoda close behind Verstappen; Norris heads times

With the weight of a nation on his shoulders and under the most intense scrutiny of his career, Japanas Yuki Tsunoda delivered with no little finesse in practice for the Japanese Grand Prix in his first outing for Red Bull. Lando Norris meanwhile appears well set to further advance his world championship ambitions, with a strong showing at Suzuka for McLaren, despite a second session interrupted by no fewer than four red flags, two caused by trackside fires.

Tsunoda was drafted in from sister outfit Racing Bulls only last week to replace Liam Lawson, who the team unceremoniously demoted after just two races. The 24-year-old has four seasons in F1 under his belt but has never driven this yearas Red Bull before and it is a notoriously hard car to handle, as Lawson discovered.

The Welsh winger injured his achilles in 2022 while playing league for St Helens. Heas back a playing union for Cardiff

By No Helmets Required

Regan Graceas career a and life, in many ways a changed on the last day of July 2022 in the final minute of a Super League game between St Helens and Salford. Returning the ball inside his own half in the dying seconds of a shock defeat for the league leaders, Grace collapsed on to his chest, untouched by another player. His left achilles had ruptured. His St Helens career was over, having scored 300 points from 75 tries in 128 Super League games.

Three years later, heas been at four clubs in three countries and two rugby codes. No wonder heas not the player he was. Yet. But last Saturday night in the Italian city of Treviso, he completed a competitive rugby match for the first time in 979 days. The last time Grace had completed a game, in July 2022, his try helped St Helens come from behind to beat Wakefield by a single point. This time, Cardiff let a lead slip and lost by a point in Treviso. But there was more at stake for Grace than the result.

Have you been paying attention to the football, tennis, cricket, horse racing, boxing and baseball?

Ju Wenjun and Tan Zhongyi are playing in Shanghai for the world crown, while 136 players, six of them from England, compete in Rhodes for the European championship

Womenas chess takes centre stage this week. In Shanghai and Chongqing, there is an all-Chinese 12-game match for the womenas world crown between Ju Wenjun, 34, the holder, and Tan Zhongyi, 33, the challenger. The pair are closely matched on ratings (2561 to 2555) and level on head-to-head. The prize money pool is $500,000. Thursdayas game one, with Ju playing White in a Sicilian Defence, was a routine draw by threefold repetition in 39 moves.

There is live commentary from 7am BST each day from the all-time No 1, Judit Polgar, and Englandas popular Jovanka Houska on YouTube. Saturday is a rest day, game three (of 12) is on Sunday.

Damning report by public accounts committee finds some of Tory governmentas initiatives have worsened the crisis

The official plan to increase access to NHS dental services in England has been a acomplete failurea, and some of the governmentas initiatives have worsened the crisis, a damning report warns.

Millions of patients continue to be denied dental care, forcing them to pay for private treatment, build up mountains of credit card debt, or even worse perform dangerous DIY dentistry on their own teeth, the research by MPs found.

Helge Lund likely to leave in 2026 ahaving fundamentally reseta the companyas strategy

BP has said its chair is to step down after the oil company faced significant pressure from shareholders, including a powerful New York hedge fund.

The energy company said on Friday that Helge Lund, who had led the business since 2019, would be replaced. He will leave after his successor has joined the board, with Lund amost likelya going in 2026.

Legislation was repealed in 2018 but Caribbean countryas supreme court last week recriminalised the act after appeal

The privy council in London will soon be called upon to make the final decision on a court case to remove homophobic laws in Trinidad and Tobago.

The laws were repealed in 2018 in a high court judgment that struck from the statute book the abuggery lawa that had criminalised consensual anal sex since an act passed in 1925 under British rule. However, last week Trinidadas supreme court upheld a government appeal against the ruling and recriminalised the act, dealing a hammer blow to LGBTQ+ rights in the Caribbean country and prompting the UK Foreign Office to update its advice for LGBTQ+ travellers.

Study finds larger drop-off among girls aged 13-14 who feel safe than among boys, compared with age group in 2019

Girls in England say they feel less safe at school and are more disenchanted with their education, research has found.

Using data from an international study of pupils at primary and secondary schools, researchers said the steep fall in girlsa aemotional engagementa compared with the years before the Covid pandemic has become a pressing issue for schools.

University says it has not yet been notified, but school was among dozens warned of academic crackdown

The Trump administration is taking aim at Brown University with threats to freeze $510m in grants, widening its promise to withhold federal funding from schools it accuses of allowing antisemitism on campus, according to multiple media outlets including Reuters and the New York Times.

University officials said they had not yet been formally notified, but the school was among dozens warned last month that enforcement actions could be coming as the administration seeks to crack down on academic institutions .

Dismissing Haugh, who headed the US Cyber Command, puts the country at risk at a time of aunprecedented cyber threatsa, congressional Democrats say

Top congressional Democrats on Thursday protested against the reported firing of Gen Tim Haugh as director of the National Security Agency (NSA), with one lawmaker saying the decision amakes all of us less safea.

The Washington Post reported late Thursday that Haugh and his civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble, had been dismissed from their roles. Haugh also headed US Cyber Command, which coordinates the Pentagonas cybersecurity operations. The Post report cited two current US officials and one former US official who requested anonymity.

Deadline for company to divest from Chinese ownership nears as Trump mulls over potential bids from US firms

Once again, the future of TikTok in the US is at stake. After a years-long tussle over whether or not to ban the app in the country, the deadline for the company to divest or sell its assets to a non-Chinese owner is up again on 5 April.

A handful of potential buyers have said theyare interested in the tremendously popular social media app and various news reports have floated other types of deals, including an investment from the Donald Trump-friendly venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz or a bid from Amazon. Trump signed an executive order in January to postpone a ban-or-divest deadline until April; earlier this week he said he would alike to see TikTok remain alivea. But the path forward for TikTok, and its 170 million US users, remains murky.

Singer-songwriter made more than 30 albums away from the mainstream, inspiring numerous artists in American alternative music

Michael Hurley, the American singer-songwriter whose unique path through the US folk scene made him an inspiration to generations of alternative musicians, has died aged 83.

A statement from the family announced his arecent sudden passinga, though no cause of death has been given. It added: aThe agodfather of freak folka was for a prolific half-century the purveyor of an eccentric genius and compassionate wit a| There is no other. Friends, family and the music community deeply mourn his loss.a

Bloc to discuss trade, security and energy with leaders of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan

The EU is being urged to put human rights centre stage as it begins its first summit with the leaders of central Asia.

The president of the European Council, AntA3nio Costa, and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, are meeting the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan on Friday.

The marmalade-loving bear returns to his homeland to hunt for his missing aunt, and Viola Davis turns action hero a and has to single-handedly save the free world

A South American immigrant in London has to return to home. But this isnat a Reform political broadcast, and the marmalade-addicted bear in question has a shiny new British passport. Aunt Lucy has gone missing from her Home for Retired Bears in the Peruvian rainforest, so Paddington and the Browns (with Emily Mortimer taking over as Mrs Brown) fly off to find her. Less a fish-out-of-water comedy than a fish-back-in-water quest, Dougal Wilsonas film gives Paddington a few slapstick pratfalls but itas more of a spoof Indiana Jones tale, revolving round the myth of El Dorado, with Antonio Banderas as a boat captain and Olivia Colman as a nun joining the fun.
Tuesday 8 April, Netflix

The Alex Rider author on being put off Dickens for a decade, why he reads poetry in the mornings, and how reading Sherlock Holmes made him want to be a crime writer

My earliest reading�memory
I started with a comic: Valiant. Hardly great literature a but it provided escapism from�my prep school. The tales of Kellyas Eye and the Steel Claw enthralled me and I still dream of them now.

My favourite book growing up
I was always a fan of Peter OaDonnellas Modesty Blaise. She was a sort of female James Bond, a criminal turned government agent. My parents used to read each new book as it came out and then hand it on to me. It was one of the few things that brought us together as a family.

(ECM)
Backed by pianist Marcin Wasilewskias group, the US sax elder plays freely around a song-rooted approach, resulting in sparkling, spontaneous exchanges

Joe Lovano, that giant American elder of jazz reeds-playing, nowadays seems a rather like the equally eminent saxophone master Charles Lloyd a to be simmering all his decades of timeless tunes and exquisite passing phrases down to essences. The 72-year-old Ohio-born sax star and occasional drummeras partners here are Polish pianist Marcin Wasilewskias collectively freethinking trio a Homageas shape was formed on extensive tours with them, and a week in 2023 at New Yorkas Village Vanguard club that acted as an impromptu rehearsal.

Song-rooted American jazz-making and give-and-go European free-jazz have become intertwined within Lovanoas later-life soundworld. Wasilewskias compatriot Zbigniew Seifertas Love in the Garden is reworked as a rapturous tenor-sax ballad with every soft horn outbreath embraced in silvery keyboard streams. Lovanoas Golden Horn evokes the iconic four-note hook of John Coltraneas A Love Supreme before his tenor sax eases in on hints and fragments, then sweeps into fast linear post-bop. Thereas a driving, McCoy Tyneresque solo from Wasilewski and Lovano switches to hand drums, animatedly joining percussionist Michal Miskiewicz a but thereas an exhilarating surprise when the leader whoops back in on the soprano-sax-like Hungarian tA!rogatA3.

From Anna Wintouras table manners to Oscar party hijinks, the former editor of Vanity Fair tells all

There are lines in When the Going Was Good, Graydon Carteras memoir of his swashbuckling career as an editor during the heyday of magazines, that will make any journalist laugh (bitterly) out loud. aThere was a bar at the end of each corridor,a writes Carter of his first job at Time magazine in the mid-1970s, where expense accounts were huge, oversight relaxed and, aI went five years without ever turning on my ovena. At Vanity Fair, where Carter took over the editorship in 1992, athe budget had no ceiling. I could send anybody anywhere for as long as I wanted.a For a commission on the collapse of Lloydas of London, one Vanity Fair hack ran up expenses of $180,000 a and the piece didnat run.

These are the details most readers will come for and Carter, who at 75 remains a symbol of magazine glamour and excess a a fact somehow vested in the whimsy and extravagance of his comic-book hair a doesnat short-change us. His years at Vanity Fair entailed as much sucking up to the worlds of Hollywood and fashion as it did publishing great journalism, and this book reminds us that, like all hacks, he is a gossip at heart; casting an eye back on his life, he canat help but dish the dirt.

(Gingerbread Man/Atlantic)
After a couple of earthy, rootsy albums, Sheeran emphatically returns to pop with another of his indelible hooks, surrounded by Middle Eastern instrumentation

Ed Sheeranas new single arrives at an interesting point in his career. His last albums, 2023as Subtract and Autumn Variations, felt not unlike a riff on Taylor Swiftas pandemic-era Folklore and Evermore: two albums released in the same year, produced by the Nationalas Aaron Dessner, a little woodier and more understated in tone than usual. Subtract in particular enjoyed the kind of critical acclaim that Sheeranas work seldom attracts. They were also the first Sheeran albums not to yield a billion-streaming track: his commercial zenith, 2017as Divide, contained five, among them Shape of You, one of only two songs in history have to topped 4bn streams on Spotify.

Maybe a muted commercial response was part of the plan (or rather, a relatively muted commercial response by Sheeranas standards: Subtract still went to No 1 in 13 countries). Having spent a decade voraciously pursuing vast success a and shifting 200m albums in the process a perhaps Sheeran had decided the moment was right to deliberately pull back, to do precisely what he wanted regardless of the sales figures.

From a Devon terrace in need of modernisation to a vast six-bedroom house near Aberdeen, properties that exude craftsmanship

Minimalist modern is giving way to a more individualistic, vintage-inspired look. Time to layer bead-style necklaces and add some colour

Jermaine Stewart was right, you know. We donat have to�take our clothes off to have a good time. Iam talking about fashion, naturally. If you want to tap into the most fun update happening in style right now, you can do so without changing a single item of clothing. Because the party is happening in your jewellery box, not your wardrobe.

Fun jewellery is back, and I am thrilled. I love a hoop earring as much as anyone, but I think it is time to admit to ourselves that the hoop has got a little tired at this point. For several months last year, the biggest thing that was happening in earrings was that the precise shape of the hoop had changed a tiny bit. Instead of being shaped like car tyres, they had a�melted quality, heavier at the bottom. Before that, they had shrunk�slightly, into huggie hoops that�tightly clasped the lobes. They had switched from gold to silver, and�sometimes to a combination of gold and silver. To put this another way: I think we can agree that we have�explored all possible avenues of�what a hoop earring could look like at this juncture.

The invitation has arrived and (fingers crossed) the weather is playing ball. Lean into spring with light layers and mood-boosting accessories

Gen Christopher Cavoli says Russia has lost 4,000 tanks, comparable to whole US fleet; Kremlin goes to war against Elton John. What we know on day 1,136

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

With air pollution causing a fifth of deaths in Nepal, growing EV use could add nearly three years to Kathmandu residentsa lives

In a rundown hangar in the heart of Kathmandu, the remains of a dozen electric trolley buses stand abandoned and corroding. Caked in dust and bird-droppings and lined with rubbish, they are a reminder of a bold experiment, launched 50 years ago, to electrify the cityas public transport system. Down the side of one is written, aKeep me alivea.

Today, that plea is being heard. More than 70% of four-wheeled passenger vehicles a largely cars and minibuses a imported into Nepal last year were electric, one of the highest rates in the world. The figure reflects a remarkable growth in the use of electric vehicles (EVs), which saw the country import more than 13,000 between July 2023 and 2024, up from about 250 in 2020-21.

Dow, S&P and Nasdaq among markets feeling share price pain while Trump insists amarkets are going to booma. The key US politics stories from 3 April

Global financial markets were roiled by Donald Trumpas latest tariff announcement a with trillions of dollars knocked off the value of the worldas biggest companies and heightened fears of a US recession.

In the US, the main indices saw their worst one-day falls in five years as the president claimed that athe markets are going to booma in response to his sweeping tariffs.

Justice committee said the majority of public submissions oppose the legislation, which seeks to reinterpret the countryas founding document

A parliamentary committee has recommended a bill that seeks to radically reinterpret New Zealandas founding treaty between MAori tribes and the British Crown should not proceed.

The treaty principles bill, which was introduced to parliament by the minor coalition Act party, seeks to abandon a set of well-established principles that guide the relationship between MAori and ruling authorities in favour of its own redefined principles.

The Guardianas Rachel Leingang speaks to Nikki McCann Ramirez, from Rolling Stone magazine, about Donald Trumpas decision to upend US trade policy and reports that Elon Musk could soon be leaving his role as a special government employee

• _{Send your questions and feedback to politicsweeklyuk@theguardian.com}
  
• _{Help support the Guardian by going to theguardian.com/politcspodus}

This week Donald Trump announced a blanket 10% tariff on all goods imported into the US from Saturday, and higher areciprocala tariffs on countries taxing US exports from next Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration was forced to deny that Elon Musk would be leaving his role as a special government employee soon. The reports came a day after a Democrat defeated a Musk-backed Republican for a seat on the Wisconsin supreme court.

Meteorite falls are extremely rare and offer a glimpse of the processes that formed our world billions of years ago. When a space rock came to an English market town in 2021, scientists raced to find as much out as they could

By Helen Gordon. Read by Sasha Frost

A round of applause for strapless bras that *aren"t* terrible.

View Entire Post >

Time to clock in for some impactful outdoor upgrades and then clock out for some relaxation in the sun.

View Entire Post >

"I touched something slimy and wet. When I tried to retract my hand, there was tension, as though someone were sucking my finger..."

View Entire Post >

Someone call Architectural Digest, because your pad"s about to be on the cover.

View Entire Post >

"My ex cheated on me. We broke up, and then he cheated on his new girlfriend with me...I was honestly not looking to having him back, I guess I just wanted her to hurt as much as I was, "cause she knew he was married and with a kid. I don"t feel proud of that."

View Entire Post >

No matter what time zone you"re in, you"ll be walking on ai,cloudsai,.

View Entire Post >

If you"re trying to upgrade your space on a budget, we"ve got some great picks for you.

View Entire Post >

Time for a spring home reboot in the form of mushroom stools, pizza ovens, and the kind of bookcases that dreams are made of.

View Entire Post >

It"s time you reached your highest form: a couch potato.

View Entire Post >

I was one of the first to try the FreeSip Tumbler, which combines two of the brand"s bestselling designs.

View Entire Post >

Watch your new style *bloom*.

View Entire Post >

Snails are a protein-packed, and cheap, alternative to red meat

The days of getting low cost goods from brands like Temu could be numbered

Coupleas avery sada split comes after over two decades together and two children

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said he would agree to allow American chlorine-washed chicken to be sold in the UK as part of a free trade deal with the US

Our obsession with bargain bits and pieces for our homes isnat doing the planet any favours. Katie Rosseinsky explores why interiors are a sustainability blind spot for many of us, and how we can slow down our shopping habits

aHeall never lose 2 truths and a lie,a one person joked in the comments section

Irwin participated in a photoshoot for Bonds underwear

Hanks was married to Susan Dillingham from 1978 to 1987

aI may not be here nowa said the mother-of-two as she shared the details of her close call with death