Endo dreams of sushi: a trip around Japan with one of the world’s greatest chefs

Endo Kazutoshi spent decades climbing to the top of the culinary world, only for a devastating fire to threaten it all. I joined him in the aftermath as he travelled around his homeland, visiting the people that helped make him

Endo Kazutoshi was on the train to Paris when he heard about the fire. A few hours earlier, at 2am, he had left his restaurant – the tiny, Michelin-starred sushi counter, Endo at the Rotunda, in west London – and headed home, where he got changed and packed his bags for the 6am Eurostar, upon which he planned to sleep. As he boarded the train that morning, 6 September 2025, he was unaware that just after 3am, the fire brigade had been called to a blaze at the Helios building, where his restaurant was located on the eighth floor. The fire had started on a terrace and a few hours later had reached the restaurant’s dining room – built mostly from 200-year-old hinoki wood – the prep kitchen, everything.

Shortly after departure from St Pancras, the news began to reach Endo through early-rising friends; they reassured him and would keep him updated, though details were still unclear. The trip to Paris was intended as a moment of respite after a busy summer’s service. Instead, Endo cleared his schedule and booked the first train home. But there was one appointment he couldn’t bring himself to cancel.

Published: April 2, 2026, 4:00 am

Ending birthright citizenship would change the meaning of America | Moira Donegan

The supreme court appears poised to reject Trump’s attack on a foundation of US identity. We must hope it follows through

American opponents of birthright citizenship – the right of all those born on the soil of a country to claim full legal rights and political representation in that nation – like to point out that many countries don’t have it. On Wednesday at the supreme court, during the oral arguments in Trump v Barbara, the case challenging Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship in the United States by executive order, the Trump administration’s solicitor general, John Sauer, claimed that “almost every country” denies birthright citizenship. Trump himself made the unusual choice to attend the oral arguments in person, signaling his investment in the issue and perhaps hoping that his presence would intimidate the justices into ruling in his favor. But he left soon after Cecillia Wang, a lawyer for the ACLU who represented his opponents in court, began speaking. Not long after he left the supreme court building, Trump used Truth Social, his proprietary social media platform, to echo the rightwing argument about the supposed rarity of birthright citizenship worldwide. “We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship! President DONALD J. TRUMP” he posted.

This is not true. The United States’ birthright citizenship – which was originally established in very plain, explicit terms in the 14th amendment, and has been reaffirmed twice by Congress and by more than a century of supreme court precedent – is typical of the Americas. In the western hemisphere, only a handful of countries deny automatic full citizenship to infants born within their borders. They are contrasted with the rest of North and South America, where the legacy of slavery led most states to adopt birthright citizenship.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Published: April 2, 2026, 10:00 am

Workers carved the largest modern Hindu temple in the west. Now, some have incurable lung disease

Workers allege abuse, visa fraud and medical neglect during the New Jersey temple’s construction – and say two died from lung disease caused by inhaling silica dust

In the center of the suburban town of Robbinsville, New Jersey, sits the largest modern Hindu mandir outside of India.

What visitors from around the world see is a breathtaking display of craftsmanship – hand-carved stone from Rajasthan assembled across a sprawling 185-acre complex. The temple has gone viral on social media for its intricate designs, which took millions of hours to complete. Baps Swaminarayan Akshardham, the religious organization behind the site, has built similar temples across the globe. But some workers say these monumental structures came at a high cost.

Published: April 2, 2026, 11:00 am

The anti-Maga talkshow: after 70 years, PBS’s The Open Mind still has it

For decades, the TV programme has made a quiet case for depth, civility and political conversation that doesn’t insult your intelligence

In December 1973 the public television current affairs programme, The Open Mind, held a special edition devoted to what its main guest, the historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr, dubbed the “imperial presidency”.

The televised roundtable discussion was well timed. Escalating oil prices from the Opec crisis were wreaking havoc with the global economy, the Watergate scandal was blazing in Washington, and Richard Nixon was looking increasingly Richard II-like in the Oval Office as he attempted to pull off what Schlesinger called an “escape from accountability”.

Published: April 2, 2026, 11:00 am

Her daughter was murdered seven years ago. Why are images of the crime still on social media?

Bianca Devins was 17 when she was killed by a man who then shared photos of her mutilated body on sites like Instagram and Snapchat – something her mother Kim describes as ‘psychological terrorism’. Here, she reveals her battle to get them offline

Early on a Sunday in July 2019, police arrived at Kim Devins’ house in upstate New York with a story that made no sense. They were there to do a “welfare check” on Devins’ 17-year-old daughter, Bianca. They said they had received reports from people who feared she may have been “hurt”. Bianca had gone with her friend Brandon Clark to a concert in New York City, a four-hour drive away. “Did they mean that they’d been in an accident?” says Devins. “The police bodycam footage from that time shows how confused I was.”

Amid it all, Devins called her dad, who lived close by, to ask him to come over. Somehow, while making that call, she realised that something dreadful had occurred. “I always pinpoint it to that exact moment, even though we didn’t understand what was happening,” she says. Her body knew before she did that she had lost her daughter. “All of me shook. I could almost see myself from the outside. It was as if my brain shut down to protect me and I left my body. I don’t think I’ve fully returned since.”

Published: April 2, 2026, 9:00 am

‘If he’d stayed on the golf course, we’d be in a better place’: experts on Trump’s tariffs, one year on

Last April, the president unleashed a tidal wave of tariffs on ‘liberation day’. Analysts say the policy has failed, even by the Trump administration’s own terms

Before Donald Trump declared “liberation day” on 2 April 2025 and shocked the world by raising import tariffs on nearly every country the US did business with, he had spent almost three months causing chaos in Washington.

The wholesale slashing of government jobs under Doge (the “department of government efficiency”) and the defunding of US aid agencies had shown White House watchers that the US president was in a hurry to upset institutions he considered profligate or useless.

Published: April 2, 2026, 10:00 am

‘Be serious’: Macron criticises Trump and says opening strait of Hormuz by force ‘unrealistic’ – Middle East crisis live

French president defends Nato after Trump threatened withdrawal, and says strait could only be secured in coordination with Iran after a ceasefire

• ‘We have all the cards’: Trump says US war on Iran ‘nearing completion’

• Israel hits Iran with waves of attacks and says it killed top Hezbollah commander

Trump has claimed that Iran was “right at the doorstep” of gaining a nuclear weapon.

Earlier on Wednesday the president said he did not care about Iran’s stock of highly enriched uranium (HEU), arguing it was deep underground and could be monitored by satellite.

From the very beginning my campaign for president in 2015, I said I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. This regime has been chanting death to America, death to Israel.

Published: April 2, 2026, 1:19 pm

‘Everyone is thinking about oil prices’: is Iran using the war to hide a surge in executions?

Regime has long used the death penalty to suppress dissent but now appears to be withholding information on the killing of hundreds of prisoners, say rights groups

It has been almost three months since Peyvand Naimi, 30, was arrested in connection with the mass street protests that spread across Iran in January before being brutally suppressed. Since then, he has been detained for more than a month in solitary confinement, appeared in a televised forced confession, and has undergone two mock hangings, beatings, interrogation, psychological torture and starvation.

He has been accused of involvement in the deaths of security agents during the protests and of celebrating the death of Iran’s former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, but his family insist he has done nothing wrong and that no formal charges have been made. He has been denied access to a lawyer; his relatives fear he now faces execution.

Published: April 2, 2026, 10:00 am

Rationale for Iran war questioned after Trump says ‘I don’t care’ about regime’s uranium stockpiles

US president’s apparent decision to leave highly enriched uranium in hands of regime creates a more risky scenario than before the war began, experts say

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Donald Trump has said he does not care about Iran’s stock of highly enriched uranium (HEU), arguing it was deep underground and could be monitored by satellite, raising questions about one of the key US justifications for the war.

Experts said that if the US-Israeli offensive against Iran concluded with the Tehran government still in control of its 440kg HEU stockpile, it would be significantly closer to the capability of making nuclear warheads than if the US had pursued a potential negotiated settlement that was on the table at the time the US and Israel launched the war on 28 February.

Published: April 2, 2026, 2:47 am

Trump polled advisers about replacing Tulsi Gabbard as intelligence chief

Exclusive: Pressure intensifies for Gabbard after president’s displeasure with Iran war testimony

Donald Trump has privately asked cabinet officials in recent weeks whether he should replace his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, venting frustration that she shielded a former deputy who undercut his rationale for war with Iran, according to two people briefed on the discussions.

It is not clear that Trump will actually fire Gabbard over the episode. Currently, there is no standout candidate to take the job, and advisers have cautioned that creating a high-profile vacancy before a successor is ready could cause unhelpful political distractions.

Published: April 2, 2026, 10:00 am

Europe should lift sanctions on Russian energy amid Iran crisis, Viktor Orbán says as he taunts Tusk – Europe live

The Hungarian prime minister said his Polish counterpart should worry about his own country and people, not Vladimir Putin

Back to Trump’s frustration with European allies – although it doesn’t involve a Nato member this time – Austria is the latest country to risk the US president’s wrath after a defence ministry spokesperson confirmed it denied all US requests for military overflights related to the Iran war.

“There have indeed been requests and they were refused from the outset,” Col Michael Bauer told AFP, adding that every time a similar request “involves a country at war, it is refused.”

Published: April 2, 2026, 1:18 pm

DC planning authorities to vote on Trump’s White House ballroom project

Ballroom is likely to get blessing from the National Capital Planning Commission, which is chaired by ex-Trump lawyer

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Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project is likely ‌to get a blessing from Washington planning authorities on Thursday, two days after a judge ruled work cannot proceed without Congress’s approval.

The National Capital Planning Commission, which ​is chaired by one of Trump’s former lawyers, will deliberate and ​then vote on the “East Wing Modernization Project” on Thursday, ⁠according to a meeting agenda.

Published: April 2, 2026, 1:05 pm

US lifts sanctions on Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez

US moves towards reestablishing working relations between two countries after abducting President Nicolás Maduro

The US has lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, in the latest step towards normalising relations between the two countries after US forces abducted her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife.

The couple were taken to New York after their abduction in January to face charges of alleged drug trafficking, to which both have pleaded not guilty.

Published: April 2, 2026, 10:53 am

Arizona woman who went missing ‘without a trace’ 32 years ago found alive

Christina Marie Plante was reported missing in May of 1994 from Star Valley when she was just 13 years old

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A woman in Arizona who went missing 32 years ago, when she was just 13 years old, has been found alive, authorities said this week.

Christina Marie Plante was reported missing in May of 1994 from Star Valley, Arizona, after she “vanished without a trace from her community”, according to a statement released Wednesday by the Gila county sheriff’s office.

Published: April 2, 2026, 12:22 pm

Goodbye mrbrightside416: Google allows users to alter quirky Gmail addresses

Those in US given chance to have more professional usernames without losing access to account

Did your McLovin!1976!@gmail.com email address seem funny at the time but less so now you are applying for dozens of jobs?

Google has said it is giving US users a chance to appear more professional by letting them change their Google account username – whatever appears before @gmail.com in an email address – without losing access to their account.

Published: April 2, 2026, 12:41 pm

More than half of World Cup countries face extra costs as Fifa fails to agree US tax deal

• Fifa has not agreed tax exemption with US government

• Burden will fall disproportionately on smaller nations

More than half the countries that have qualified for the World Cup are facing additional costs and potential losses due to Fifa’s failure to agree a blanket tax exemption with the United States government and significant variance in the host country’s international tax treaties.

As a not-for-profit organisation Fifa has had tax-free status in the US since the 1994 World Cup, but that exemption does not apply to all of the 48 qualifiers, whose national associations must pay a range of federal, state and city taxes on their earnings from the tournament this summer.

Published: April 2, 2026, 11:17 am

‘It’s amazing’: stolen 2,500-year-old Romanian gold helmet has been found

Prosecutors unveil priceless artefact in press conference after it was taken from Netherlands museum in January 2025

A priceless ancient golden helmet from Romania that was stolen last year from a museum in the Netherlands has been recovered, Dutch authorities have said.

Under the guard of balaclava-wearing police, prosecutors unveiled the 2,500-year-old Coțofenești helmet during a news conference on Thursday in the eastern Dutch city of Assen.

Published: April 2, 2026, 1:04 pm

Why thousands of New Yorkers swap gas for induction stoves in clean energy push: ‘It makes sense’

US states from California to Georgia are promoting induction stoves for climate, health and cost benefits

Marcos Ramos hasn’t been able to cook a full meal at home in nearly four years, after a gas leak resulted in a lengthy supply cut off for his New York City apartment building.

Now, though, Ramos will be able to cook again thanks to a technology that is gradually advancing in the US after being embroiled in an unlikely culture war – the electric induction stove.

Published: April 2, 2026, 10:00 am

‘Ready to be exploited’: amid rust, weeds and power cuts, Venezuelans hope for a new oil boom

The infrastructure is crumbling and the government shaky, but memories exist of an industry that once thrived off Venezuela’s vast reserves of crude – and could do again, despite the climate crisis

At Campo Boscán, a vast complex in western Venezuela, the drills, pumps and pipelines that extract crude oil operate amid decay: roads are broken, weeds grow everywhere and many wells run inside metal cages to prevent theft. Albenis Merchán, a drilling technician with 35 years’ experience, recalls better times as he drives his pickup through the desolate landscape.

“We used to receive maintenance and safety training all the time. Supplies and spare parts were never lacking. Many things need to improve here to tap the full potential of this area,” he says.

Published: April 2, 2026, 1:00 pm

Lucky few Americans whose student debt was forgiven: ‘I hit the lottery’

Only a small fraction of about 43 million have had their debt cancelled, the relief for those who have is transformative

Of the roughly 43 million Americans carrying student loan debt – totaling nearly $1.7tn – only a small fraction have seen their balances erased. For those who have, the relief has been transformative, with several telling the Guardian how the forgiveness has reshaped financial futures and opened doors to new careers, stability and long-delayed life plans.

“My loan was forgiven at the end of 2025 through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program,” said Laura Kluss, a 41-year-old clinical social worker based in Sacramento, California. “It was in the six figures at the time of forgiveness. Interest rates were making it extremely difficult to pay it down.

Published: April 2, 2026, 12:00 pm

I handed over my dating life to AI. I don’t think she’ll see me again

In week five of Rhik Samadder’s diary, our resident AI skeptic decided to let AI take the lead on a date. If uncanny valley was a conversational style, it’s this

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I’m single. Is it because I am emotionally avoidant, waiting on a unicorn, or under 6ft tall? Perhaps a spicy meatball of all three?

Or could it be that I haven’t used the magic of AI yet?

Published: April 2, 2026, 11:00 am

Made in Fire Island: how artists were at the heart of the LGBTQ+ mecca

A new book shows that the work of Robert Mapplethorpe and Peter Hujar – as well as a new generation of artists – would not be the same without the New York island

In the summer of 2015, Leilah Babirye, a sculptor, left her home town in Uganda and arrived for an artist residency in the bohemian, beach-y queer splendor of Fire Island’s Cherry Grove. She tells the story in a new book, Fire Island Art: 100 Years, released this month by Monacelli. After Googling “LGBTQ+ artist residences”, she earned a spot at the Fire Island Artist Residency, established four years earlier to make the famed enclave more accessible. But the lesbian daughter of a conservative minister wasn’t prepared for just how queer the place was. With its roving clusters of people buzzing around the dunes and pool parties to show off the various currencies – physical, financial, interpersonal – they had to spend, she says, “I thought Cherry Grove was America.” Was she wrong?

The story of the modern Fire Island is, in some ways, a particularly American one, in which outcasts light out for the territories to make their dreams come true. In the case of the picturesque barrier island off the coast of Long Island, those dreams were both sexual and creative from the start. Edited by John Dempsey, island resident and president of the Fire Island Pines Historical Society, Fire Island Art: 100 Years traces a legacy begun by the pre-war trio of Paul Cadmus, Jared French and Margaret French, who, as part of the artistic collaboration PaJaMa, made beguiling paintings and photographs of the unconventional intimacies they formed while summering among the island’s nooks and crannies.

Published: April 2, 2026, 9:00 am

‘The US is no longer the go-to place’: How Korean culture is taking Latin America by storm

Everything Korean – from K-pop and skincare to food and clothing – is booming in popularity in Chile, Mexico and Brazil

On the polished flagstones of a Santiago cultural centre’s forecourt, four Chilean girls dance in energetic union, counting their steps aloud in Korean.

In front of them, a YouTube video with 1.3bn views plays atop a speaker throbbing to the beat of How You Like That, by the K-pop megastars Blackpink.

Published: April 2, 2026, 9:00 am

You be the judge: should my mum stop asking me to buy her new headphones?

Henry says Maggie is constantly losing them; she thinks her son is making a lot of noise about nothing. It’s up to you to give them a fair hearing

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

Mum doesn’t look after her headphones because she knows I’ll always be there to buy her new ones

I’m 76, and don’t like online shopping. It only takes Henry 30 seconds to buy a new pair

Published: April 2, 2026, 7:00 am

Björk, Rihanna and a passionate embrace: visions of love – in pictures

A new book celebrating four decades of fashion photography duo Inez and Vinoodh features celebrity portraits, surrealist visions and a meditation on love itself

Published: April 2, 2026, 6:00 am

Artemis II lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center – in pictures

Nasa’s moon rocket Artemis II launched on Wednesday evening (US time), carrying astronauts to the moon for the first time in almost 54 years. The launch marks the first time since the Apollo 17 mission of December 1972 that humans will have left lower Earth orbit.

The rocket is orbiting Earth and will continue to do so until Thursday, when the translunar injection burn will take place and send it on the rest of its 386,242km journey to orbit the moon

Published: April 2, 2026, 2:51 am

The US-Israel war on Iran is accelerating de-dollarization and America’s decline | Ahmed Moor

De-dollarization promises to reorder the world, reducing American power globally

The US-Israel war on Iran is expensive. It’s expensive in terms of human lives, first of all. It’s expensive too, in pure currency – about $12bn a week for the US. And it’s expensive in how it’s causing the tectonic structures that underpin our global economy to shift. De-dollarization, the name given to the process countries undertake in unwinding their reliance on the dollar, promises to reorder the world, reducing American power globally. Its impact will be felt domestically in what we pay to borrow and whether we can afford to borrow at all.

Iran’s near-total blockade of the strait of Hormuz has had a dramatic impact on the prices of oil and natural gas, which puts major inflationary pressure on the economy of every country in the world. Practically, inflation makes people and businesses poorer, a process that reinforces itself if it’s not stopped (which is partly why central banks exist).

Ahmed Moor is a writer and fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace

Published: April 2, 2026, 11:00 am

I wrote a novel using AI. Writers must accept artificial intelligence – but we are as valuable as ever | Stephen Marche

Mastery of banal style is losing its usefulness – but language is more powerful than ever. It’s up to the writer to do what machines can’t

I recently heard an exchange at a playground that should worry the executives at AI companies more than any analyst’s prediction of a bubble. A boy and a girl, maybe 10 years old, were fighting. “That’s AI! That’s AI!” the girl was shouting. What she meant was that the boy was indulging a new and particular breed of nonsense: language that sounds meaningful but has no connection to reality. The children have figured the new world out quickly, as they do.

Artificial intelligence is here to stay, neither as an apocalypse nor as the solution to all life’s problems, but as a disruptive tool. The recent scandal over Shy Girl, the novel by Mia Ballard, was doubly revealing. Hachette cancelled its publication amid claims it was reliant on AI generation (Ballard has said that an acquaintance who edited the self-published version used AI, not her). But the book was originally self-published. Apparently readers and editors didn’t mind until the use of AI was pointed out to them.

Stephen Marche lives in Toronto and is the author of The Next Civil War and On Writing and Failure

Published: April 2, 2026, 12:00 pm

Pre-World Cup results have you worried? They probably shouldn’t

For examples of how little a team’s form in the World Cup run-in matters in the tournament itself, look no further than the US

The last time the United States men’s national team entered into the final stretch of their preparations for a World Cup on home soil, the results were dire. From January through April of 1994, the Americans, who were mostly sequestered in a full-time training camp, played 12 games and won just twice. They even managed to lose to Iceland, who were a total non-factor in global soccer back then.

Then, that ’94 team went on to survive the group stage and narrowly lose to eventual champions Brazil, 1-0, in the round of 16. They delivered on expectations in spite of their deflating run-in.

Published: April 2, 2026, 11:00 am

Israel’s death penalty law marks a new phase in its dehumanisation of Palestinians | Yuli Novak

A government that openly embraces violence against Palestinians has now enshrined into law a policy of lethal force

• Yuli Novak is the executive director of B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group

This week, Israel passed a law that institutionalises the execution of Palestinians. The country’s courts can now impose death sentences on Palestinians “convicted of fatal attacks”, expanding a legal system designed to target them, strip them of rights, subject them to systematic abuse, and, ultimately, shield Israeli perpetrators of crimes against Palestinians from accountability. While this legislation does not create a whole new reality, it marks the beginning of a troubling new phase of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians by enshrining into law a longstanding policy of using lethal force against them. Disturbingly, this reality is already normalised in Israel.

Long before this law, Palestinians were being systematically killed. In Gaza, mass killing has continued even after the declaration of a “ceasefire”. In the West Bank, Palestinians are killed on a daily basis by the Israeli military in raids, shootings and, increasingly, by violent settler militias aimed at driving them from their land and out of their communities. For some time, Israeli soldiers and settlers have been able to act with near-total impunity.

Yuli Novak is the executive director of B’Tselem

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 2, 2026, 9:00 am

Denmark’s unique political model is in crisis – I blame the boomerang effect | Rune Lykkeberg

Voters rejected rule from the centre – but could end up with another centrist government

We could be at the end of the road for the Danish method of democracy. Our style of parliamentary politics has been celebrated and admired internationally for many years, but last week’s general election has left it in crisis. The result was a vote of no confidence in a centrist government led by the Social Democrat Mette Frederiksen. Her administration was, in the Danish context, an unusual political construction. Frederiksen had broken the old pattern of politics in 2022 by forming a governing alliance between the centre-left and centre-right.

Yet the most likely outcome of the election is that Denmark will get another centrist government. This is a kind of democratic boomerang. For reasons of perverse parliamentary logic, what the voters reject, they get right back in the face.

Rune Lykkeberg is editor-in-chief of the Danish newspaper Information

Published: April 2, 2026, 4:00 am

This year, one word is echoing through women’s March Madness: joy

Whether in the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat, coaches and players at this NCAA tournament have found the fun in basketball again

Kara Lawson’s Duke team saw their Final Four dreams dashed with a 70-58 loss to UCLA on Sunday. The Blue Devils had pulled an impressive, buzzer-beating upset of No 2 seed LSU in the Sweet 16 days before, but against the No 1 Bruins in the Elite Eight, they didn’t give a repeat performance. They missed a few key moments in transition that could have changed the game and helped them to their first Final Four in 20 years.

In the end, though, it was OK.

Published: April 2, 2026, 10:00 am

Rams star Puka Nacua in rehab amid claims of antisemitic remark and biting incident

• Player was in rehab before lawsuit was filed, says attorney

• Wide receiver’s lawyer says client innocent of wrongdoing

Los Angeles Rams star Puka Nacua is in rehab and was there before he was sued by a woman who says he made an antisemitic statement and bit her on the shoulder, according to his attorney.

“He was in [rehab] a substantial period of time before any of these allegations broke ... and he’s scheduled to be there for a while longer,” Levi McCathern told The California Post.

McCathern told the newspaper Nacua’s decision to enter rehab was not a direct response to the lawsuit his accuser filed against him by Madison Atiabi last month, but an attempt “to improve his overall behavior in every aspect of his life.”

Published: April 2, 2026, 11:58 am

Fifa raises top ticket price for World Cup final to $10,990, up from $1,600 in 2022

• New tickets released for some group games and final

• Fans attempting to buy tickets encounter glitches

Fifa raised its top ticket price for the World Cup final to $10,990 during the glitch-hampered reopening of sales on Wednesday after the 48-team field for this year’s tournament was finalized.

The top price for the final had been $8,680 when Fifa sold tickets after the tournament draw in December. Fifa’s Category 2 tickets for the 19 July game at MetLife Stadium are now $7,380, up from $5,575, and Category 3 now costs $5,785, an increase from $4,185.

The most expensive ticket for the final of the 2022 World Cup was priced at about $1,600.

Published: April 2, 2026, 12:30 pm

Tiger Woods turns down Ryder Cup captaincy as he is granted permission to leave US

• Woods focusing on his health and wellbeing after crash

• Florida judge grants his request to leave the US

Tiger Woods has turned down the opportunity to captain the United States at the 2027 Ryder Cup, the PGA of America has announced.

The former world No 1’s decision comes after he announced he would step away from golf for a period to focus on his health and wellbeing. Woods was charged with driving under the influence after being involved in a car accident last week.

Published: April 1, 2026, 10:15 pm

Alpine condemn ‘hateful’ abuse of Colapinto and Ocon over F1 crashes

• Colapinto abused over Bearman’s high-speed crash in Japan

• Former Alpine driver Ocon clashed with Colapinto in China

The Alpine Formula One team have condemned on Thursday online abuse of their Argentinian driver Franco Colapinto for an incident in the Japanese Grand Prix as well as death threats directed at the team’s former racer Esteban Ocon over prior events in China. They also dismissed suspicions from some fans of “sabotage” and claims that Colapinto was not being given the same quality equipment as his teammate Pierre Gasly.

Colapinto was caught up in Oliver Bearman’s 308kph crash at Suzuka on Sunday, with the Haas driver swerving to avoid the Argentinian’s much slower car and hitting the barriers with a force of 50G. Ocon, now Bearman’s teammate at Haas, accepted blame for a clash with Colapinto in Shanghai last month. The Renault-owned Alpine condemned “hateful messages” aimed at Colapinto and Ocon after the two incidents.

Published: April 2, 2026, 1:06 pm

‘He’s phenomenal’: American teen fast becoming athletics’ next big thing

At 17, Cooper Lutkenhaus is the youngest world champion in track and field history – and potentially USA’s poster boy for LA28

Fire on the boards. Slack jaws off it. Last week, I was fortunate enough to be yards away from the 17-year-old American high school student Cooper Lutkenhaus when he powered away from a strong 800m field in Torun to become the youngest world champion in track and field history. But no sooner had the applause died down than the search for superlatives began.

“He’s like David Rudisha,” said Eliott Crestan, the Belgian who took world indoor championship silver behind Lutkenhaus. “In 10 or 20 years’ time, I’ll be able to say that I ran against him.”

Published: April 1, 2026, 4:00 pm

Jaden Ivey’s release isn’t a victory for inclusion. It’s a lesson in athlete expendability | RK Russell

Former athletes like me know that in professional sports you can get away with most things … as long as you’re talented enough

When the Chicago Bulls waived Jaden Ivey on Monday, after he made a series of unprompted anti-LGBTQ and religiously charged comments on social media, the move was framed as a response to “conduct detrimental to the team.” On the surface, the situation appears straightforward: a player said something controversial, and the organization acted.

But there’s a version of this story where Ivey is still in the league. Where he and his publicist create a swift and thoughtful apology, where his overnight inclusion education uses all the key buzzwords to prove his newfound allyship, maybe he pays a fine or makes a small donation, and he’s able to go back on to the court and live out his dreams in the NBA, a league which has been pro-LGBTQ+ for more than a decade. Ivey’s words exposed his beliefs. What followed revealed a lot about NBA teams: not just their stance on inclusion, but how they decide which voices are worth protecting and which are easy to remove.

Published: April 1, 2026, 6:05 pm

‘Weak and pathetic’: why is the EU not using its leverage to stop Israel?

Deep divisions on Israel mean the union has failed to act over Lebanon, Gaza, or settler violence in the West Bank

The human costs of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon were plain to see when the Irish MEP Barry Andrews visited Beirut last month. He met people who had fled Israeli airstrikes and complied with evacuation orders in southern Lebanon.

At makeshift shelters – converted schools – conditions were even worse than during Israel’s last incursion in 2024, he was told. “There are dirty mattresses, dirty blankets, [people] are getting infections, they are getting rashes,” he said recalling a picture of misery compounded by swingeing aid budget cuts.

Published: April 2, 2026, 4:00 am

Secondhand clothes sales forecast to hit $289bn as AI helps shoppers find deals

Sites such as Vinted and ThredUp expected to help resale grow twice as fast as overall clothing market in coming years

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Secondhand clothing sales are forecast to surge 12% this year to $289bn (£217bn) and continue to step up, as AI and social media influencers help shoppers find the items they want.

The rise of sites such as Vinted, Depop, Vestige and ThredUp is expected to power an average 9% annual growth over the next five years to reach $393bn, twice the pace of the overall clothing market.

Published: April 2, 2026, 10:00 am

World’s oldest tortoise caught in viral crypto death scam

Fake X account posing as his vet sparked global false reports of Jonathan’s death while soliciting crypto donations

At 194 years old, Jonathan the giant tortoise was a youngster when Queen Victoria ascended to the throne – and has now lived long enough to fall victim to a crypto scam.

News outlets including the BBC, Daily Mail and USA Today falsely reported his death after an X account posing as Jonathan’s vet broke the news.

Published: April 2, 2026, 9:19 am

‘Payment expected within seven days’: New Zealand doctor invoices US embassy for rising petrol costs

Shane Dunphy sends bill for almost $3,000, along with letter saying ‘The USA is responsible for this and therefore should be held accountable’

A New Zealand doctor has asked the US embassy in Wellington to reimburse his clinic for petrol costs, saying Donald Trump and his administration started an “avoidable war” and should foot the bill for rising fuel prices.

Dr Shane Dunphy, of Onslow medical centre in New Zealand’s capital, requested the US embassy pay his centre NZ$2,790.95 (US$1,597) for the cost of petrol vouchers provided to staff to help pay for transport.

Published: April 2, 2026, 4:34 am

Bob’s Burgers actor Eugene Mirman rescued from fiery car crash by New Hampshire governor’s detail

Actor and comedian known for voicing Gene Belcher, as well as roles in Flight of the Conchords and Archer, has suffered serious injuries

Bob’s Burgers voice actor and comedian Eugene Mirman has suffered serious injuries after crashing his car into a toll plaza in New Hampshire, before he was pulled from the fiery wreckage by a state trooper assigned to protect the state’s governor.

The crash happened just before noon Tuesday when a northbound electric vehicle struck the Bedford toll plaza and caught fire, New Hampshire state police said. Republican governor Kelly Ayotte and her security detail came upon the crash soon after, and a trooper and two others pulled Mirman from the burning car through a window, said New Hampshire state police colonel, Mark Hall.

Published: April 2, 2026, 12:15 am

Archaeologists discover wreck of Danish warship sunk by Nelson 225 years ago

Divers in race against time to unearth wreck of the Dannebroge before seabed becomes construction site

More than 200 years after being sunk by Adm Horatio Nelson and the British fleet, a Danish warship has been discovered on the seabed of Copenhagen harbour by marine archaeologists.

Working in thick sediment and almost zero visibility 15 metres (49ft) beneath the waves, divers are in a race against time to unearth the 19th-century wreck of the Dannebroge before it becomes a construction site in a new housing district being built off the Danish coast.

Published: April 2, 2026, 10:42 am

Drive slower, work from home and ditch the tie: the world responds to Iran war energy crisis

Oil crisis triggered by blockade of strait of Hormuz prompts emergency measures to protect supply and halt rising prices

Shrinking fuel stocks and soaring prices are leading countries around the world to burn coal, ration fuel, shorten work weeks and tell citizens to stay at home.

Fossil fuel supplies have reduced since the war against Iran led to the closure of the strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route for oil and seaborne gas. The shortfall has prompted emergency measures as government’s attempt to halt rising costs that have thrown economies into chaos.

Published: April 2, 2026, 5:00 am

Not if, but when: how Spain’s coastal towns are preparing for tsunamis

In the holiday hotspots of the Costa del Sol, the risks are rarely mentioned. But in neighbouring Cádiz, the country’s first tsunami-ready town is leading by example

Even on a wet, wintry day in Málaga, the Mediterranean looks benign. But only 25 miles (40km) south-west of its port, where half a million tourists disembark from cruise ships into the Costa del Sol each year, lies a system of tectonic plates and faults that fracture the seabed between Spain and north Africa.

Earthquakes are routine here. They are mostly too small to notice but sometimes strong enough to rattle glasses in cafes on the seafront. In December, a tremor with a magnitude of 4.9 off the coast of Fuengirola triggered more than 40 calls to Andalucía’s 112 emergency line.

Published: April 2, 2026, 4:00 am

The dark side of the balloon boom – is it time they were banned?

From balloon arches at parties to mass balloon releases at funerals, these bits of floating rubber and plastic can have disastrous effects on wildlife. As some retailers are refusing to sell them, here are some alternatives

I remember, as a child, hanging on to one specific party balloon for what seemed like years. I don’t remember how or where I acquired it, but it had initially floated high, bobbing against the ceiling, and, over time, lost its buoyancy, coming to rest on the carpet. Yet, when a family friend asked if they should pop the now sad-looking balloon, I assumed they were joking – like when an adult asks, teasingly, if they should eat your last slice of birthday cake – and was distraught when they followed through. I didn’t care that it had become grubby and partly deflated – I’d had that balloon for what felt like for ever.

This, it turns out, is the problem with many balloons. Not that clingy young children might become over-attached to them, but that they are often a single-use plastic – and even biodegradable alternatives such as latex balloons do not decompose quickly, meaning they can pose a significant risk to wildlife and the environment. In 2019, scientists found that balloons eaten by seabirds are more likely to kill them than other kinds of plastic – yet they do not seem to have been earmarked in the same way as, for example, plastic straws. If anything, balloon-based decor has become more popular in recent years, with balloon arches or tunnels deployed not just at birthdays but at events ranging from baby showers to shop openings. Balloon drops are used at New Year’s Eve celebrations and graduation parties, and balloon releases have also endured – particularly at funerals, where the unleashing of helium-filled balloons signifies the letting-go of a loved one.

Published: April 2, 2026, 4:00 am

‘On a whole other level’: rapid snow melt-off in American west stuns scientists

Experts say brutal March heat has left critical snowpack at record-low levels – and key basins in uncharted territory

Snow surveys taking place across the American west this week are offering a grim prognosis, after a historically warm winter and searing March temperatures left the critical snowpack at record-low levels across the region.

Experts warned that even as the heat begins to subside, the stunning pace of melt-off over the past month has left key basins in uncharted territory for the dry seasons ahead. Though there’s still potential for more snow in the forecast, experts said it will probably be too little too late.

Published: April 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

Polymarket and other prediction platforms driving oil market, traders say

Datafeeds from platforms being used to create algorithms that determine multimillion-dollar trades on global market

Online betting platforms are directly driving the global oil market as they increasingly rely on anonymous prediction markets to determine multimillion-dollar trades, energy traders have warned.

Market experts have said that datafeeds from prediction platforms such as Polymarket are being used to create the algorithms that influence trading in the global Brent crude futures market.

Published: April 2, 2026, 4:00 am

Death of Rohingya refugee left in parking lot by US border agents ruled a homicide

Nurul Amin Shah, 56, who was visually impaired, was left outside Buffalo Tim Hortons on cold night and later died

Authorities have ruled that the death of Nurul Amin Shah, a 56-year-old Rohingya refugee from Myanmar who was left by immigration agents at a restaurant in Buffalo, was a homicide.

Shah, who was visually impaired, died on 24 February, five days after US Border Patrol agents dropped him off in the parking lot of a Tim Hortons on a cold winter night without notifying his family or attorney.

Published: April 1, 2026, 11:55 pm

New DNA testing links Ted Bundy to unsolved 1974 murder of Utah teenager

Laura Ann Aime, 17, went missing on Halloween night and was found on the side of a highway bound and beaten a month later

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New DNA testing has definitively linked the unsolved death of a Utah teenager in 1974 to the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, the local sheriff’s office said Wednesday.

Laura Ann Aime, 17, went missing on Halloween night 51 years ago after she left a party alone to go to a convenience store. About a month later, her body was found on the side of a highway, bound, beaten and without clothing.

Published: April 1, 2026, 8:40 pm

Trump seeks to redefine who gets to be an American with birthright citizenship case

Most Americans support the rule that anyone born in the US is a US citizen, and a majority of supreme court justices are skeptical of Trump’s efforts to restrict it

It was a surreal morning at the US supreme court.

For more than two hours, the nation’s highest court considered arguments over whether Donald Trump – via an executive order – could tear down an idea that has been fundamental to the story and trajectory of the United States: that almost anyone born on US soil is an US citizen.

Published: April 1, 2026, 7:49 pm

Man pleads guilty to preventing lawful burial regarding 30 bodies at Hull funeral home

Funeral director Robert Bush had previously admitted to dozens of counts of fraud at hearing in October

A fraudulent funeral director has admitted giving families the wrong ashes, lying to them, stealing from them and also stealing from charities while he was “trusted by people at a time they needed him most”.

Robert Bush pleaded guilty to preventing a lawful burial after 30 bodies and a quantity of ashes were found at a funeral home in Hull in 2024, in a case that shocked an entire city.

Published: April 2, 2026, 12:06 pm

‘No more than a drop in the ocean’: this drug could end new HIV infections in Eswatini – why isn’t there enough?

The southern Africa country has the world’s highest prevalence of HIV but the amount of lenacapavir reaching it is too small to reach all those at risk

If Precious asks her client to use a condom, she can charge him 100 lilangeni – about £4.50. If she agrees not to use one, she can charge double. The financial incentive for sex workers in Eswatini not to use protection is obvious – as is the risk, in a country where one in four people are infected with HIV.

Last year, Precious visited a clinic with five other sex workers to get tested. Four of them had the virus.

Published: April 2, 2026, 8:00 am

Global super-rich may have hidden $3.55tn from tax officials, says Oxfam

Charity calls for a levy on the very richest and the closing of tax loopholes in its report on offshore wealth

The global super-rich may have as much as $3.55tn hidden away from tax authorities, according to estimates by Oxfam.

The charity renewed its call for a wealth levy and urged governments to close tax loopholes as it published its latest analysis of the scale of offshore holdings.

Published: April 1, 2026, 11:01 pm

One killed and buildings damaged as magnitude 7.4 earthquake strikes Indonesia

Quake with epicentre west-north-west of Ternate island shakes cities and prompts regional tsunami warning

One person has been killed after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia’s Ternate island, damaging buildings and triggering small tsunami waves.

The quake, which had a depth of 35km, occurred on Thursday at 6.48am local time, according to the United States Geological Survey. Its epicentre was 127km (79 miles) west-north-west of Ternate, an island in Indonesia’s North Maluku province.

Published: April 2, 2026, 5:23 am

The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley review – the laureate of bad relationships

Riley has always skewered cruelty with shattering exactitude. What’s new in this story of two old friends in London is the delicacy she brings to moments of tenderness

In the opening pages of The Palm House, London is enveloped in a dust storm blown up from the Sahara. As old friends Laura and Putnam meet for a drink in a Southwark pub, a packet of crisps open between them, the occluded atmosphere renders the city unsettlingly strange: the sky is “dark yellow … like iodine”, while the pictures in the evening paper show a “blood red sun”, a “jaundiced” City square, a “prodigious cloud, menacing the Shard”.

Like a Saharan dust storm, Gwendoline Riley’s work recasts our relationship with the familiar, transforming ordinary, unremarkable lives of her characters into something startling and new. Her female protagonists, often writers themselves, struggle with bad relationships: in First Love, shortlisted for the 2017 Women’s prize, Neve grapples with an abusive marriage, while Bridget in 2021’s quietly brutal My Phantoms is caught up with her desperately self-involved mother. The mothers in Riley’s novels are mostly monstrous and persistent, the fathers mostly monstrous and dead. Her stories are not structured around linear plots – nothing much happens – but Riley’s disquieting acuity and her spare and unsparing prose makes them shimmer with tension. She has a phenomenal ear for dialogue, for the myriad ways in which people unknowingly lay themselves bare, both in what they say and, more agonisingly, in what they don’t – or can’t. She is the laureate of disconnection, her bone-dry humour edged with the vertiginous lurch of despair.

Published: April 2, 2026, 6:00 am

‘Ring the alarm! Wake up! Be human!’: Aurora and Tom Rowlands on their new dance-pop duo Tomora

The Norwegian singer-songwriter and the Chemical Brother have combined their talents, and names, to create a wildly inventive new band. The collaboration has gone smoothly so far – but will they soon need separate tour buses?

The two members of Tomora are contemplating their forthcoming debut live shows, a slate that includes an attention-grabbing slot at this month’s Coachella festival. “We’re still kind of working it out, and I’m getting a bit, ‘Oh my God, what’s going on?’” worries Tom Rowlands, best known as one half of Grammy-winning banger merchants the Chemical Brothers, and now one half of Tomora. Rowlands’ mindset, however, contrasts heavily with that of Aurora, his new musical partner.

“I don’t have any stress in my being,” the Norwegian singer-songwriter and pop experimentalist says cheerily, sitting on the floor of the duo’s north London label office with her shoes off. “I’m always like: it’s fine,” she shrugs. “Yes, the house is on fire, but we’ll work it out.”

Published: April 2, 2026, 7:00 am

‘We got cancelled and we’re still here!’ Michael Patrick King on The Comeback – and why And Just Like That will age well

Could AI write an entire sitcom series? That’s the plot of the new season of comedy drama The Comeback. Its co-creator explains why it’s ‘very possible’ – and why the world needs to catch up with AJLT

TV veteran Michael Patrick King has had a long, lively career, writing, directing and producing on shows including Murphy Brown, Will & Grace and 2 Broke Girls. He’s best known, though, for his work on the Sex and the City franchise, serving as its showrunner for the bulk of its run, writing and directing its two films, and masterminding its controversial 2020s revival And Just Like That. But this month sees the return of one of his most loved, and perhaps most underwatched, shows: The Comeback.

Co-created and co-written with Lisa Kudrow, The Comeback first aired in 2005, telling the story of a gormless sitcom star named Valerie Cherish, played by Kudrow, trying to return to stardom through the then-new format of reality TV. The show had an awkward, blackly hilarious tone that was a hit with critics and the Emmys, but failed to find much of an audience. Nine years later, in 2014, it returned for a masterly second season in which Valerie – now playing herself in a gritty HBO dramatisation of the events of season one, and filming the whole thing as an audition tape for The Real Housewives – confronts her failing marriage and relationships.

Published: April 1, 2026, 3:29 pm

Why do this spring’s blockbusters feel so smug?

From action thrillers to sci-fi flicks, a deluge of recent releases are riddled with self-satisfied smarm

The new Hulu movie Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice has been marketed as a genre-mashing wild ride, with plenty of South by Southwest festival reactions and even genuine full reviews delighting in its supposed mixture of sci-fi, action, romance and buddy comedy. That’s a hell of a lot of genres. While watching it, I found myself wondering if the number of elements in play is supposed to distract from how its comedy has three deadening and similar modes. One involves characters being unexpectedly familiar with seemingly incongruous elements of pop culture: it opens with a scientist tinkering with his time-travel machine while singing along to Why Should I Worry?, a niche Billy Joel song from the old Disney cartoon Oliver & Company; later, there’s a long conversation about a bunch of criminal types’ deep familiarity with the TV show Gilmore Girls.

If that doesn’t sound funny enough, writer-director BenDavid Grabinski finds the flip side equally hilarious: people not knowing things. Gags include a guy who hasn’t heard of Winnie-the-Pooh, a guy who doesn’t know the proper name of chloroform, and a guy who doesn’t know what the word “comeuppance” means. These are all different guys. The third, even less sophisticated strain of comedy in Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, are characters who fuckin’ swear. Talk about fuckin’ comedy! Sometimes their names even swear: one guy is nicknamed, get this, Dumbass Tony! In every detail of the movie, you can feel the heavy hand of the screenwriter, straining for irreverence, desperate to show that he’s made something that’s not like the other, regular screenplays out there.

Published: April 1, 2026, 9:00 am

Fuze review – Theo James and Aaron Taylor-Johnson face off in head-spinning London heist

Diamonds might not be forever in a film centred around a massive, ticking bomb on a building site, which is equal parts violent and silly

There are some lively if borderline ridiculous shenanigans in this London heist thriller from screenwriter Ben Hopkins and director David Mackenzie, brazening out its innate silliness with chutzpah, heavily researched police and army lingo and athletic plot contortions. It’s a violent affair of double-cross and triple-cross that ups its narrative game in the final act for the massive reveal: a head-spinning story of diamonds, some fake … yet also … some real. And it also deploys the classic thriller moment, popularised by TV’s The Night Manager: the three-second bank transfer of millions of illicit dollars, which you can tensely monitor on your smartphone in real time. Oh my God, will the money go through OK? (You’ll need solid wifi or 5G.)

Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Major Will Tranter, a bomb disposal officer called in when what looks like a gigantic unexploded second world war device is discovered in a London building site, making a worrying ticking noise. The police are under the direction of the Met’s chief superintendent; this is a dull role with none of the juiciness of the guys’ parts, played deadpan by Gugu Mbatha-Raw. She shuts off the electricity in the whole area for fear of the bomb igniting power cables, then evacuates and cordons off the entire zone – not realising a crew of bank robbers is in there, led by Theo James and Sam Worthington, who are now able to work without fear of being discovered by some pesky member of the public as they tunnel through a wall into a safe-deposit vault from a neighbouring basement.

Published: April 1, 2026, 10:00 am

Dear Killer Nannies review – a surprisingly gut-punching Pablo Escobar drama

This isn’t just a retelling of the infamous drug lord’s life. His son shares a traumatic coming-of-age story plagued by chaos and violence – and it is like being in The Sopranos

You’d be forgiven for thinking that we didn’t need another TV series about the drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s life, and that it’s been milked for all its worth in popular culture. Escobar’s murderous Medellín cartel was most ruthless in the 1980s and 90s – but this century alone, the Colombian druglord and politician’s biography has inspired numerous books, Hollywood films, the Netflix series Narcos, and even the title of Kanye West’s 2016 album Life of Pablo. The new Spanish language series Dear Killer Nannies, however, manages to find a new and unexpected way into the life of an archetypal villain, which focuses very little on the bloodshed that has made his life so ripe for movies and television. In terms of genre, the show – co-created by Escobar’s son Juan Pablo Escobar – is far more coming-of-age than action.

Instead of following the usual beats that mark Escobar’s rise, fall and eventual death (during a shootout with Colombian special forces), our way into the story is seven-year-old Juan Pablo, also known as “Juampi”. Juampi is sweet, sensitive and soft around the edges in the way most boys are before being exposed to the ravages of patriarchy. We meet Juampi as his head bobs above the surface of a lake, beaming and soaking up the sun, when a speedboat zooms into frame, headed straight for him, causing him to panic. The boat swerves at the last minute, narrowly avoiding him. Enter: Juampi’s “nannies”. These are associates of his father, who double as childcare while he’s out of the country attending to cartel business. What could possibly go wrong in such an arrangement?

Published: April 1, 2026, 7:00 am

Why Bach’s music is indestructible, whether on the mandolin, modern piano – or soundtracking murder

The German composer, born 341 years ago, dominates the classical charts and concert platforms, especially at this time of year. Here’s to his life-giving zombie music!

The musical world’s present for Easter is Bach, Bach and more Bach. These next two days alone, there are performances of his St Matthew Passion in every musical city you care to name, from London to Leipzig, Rome to Rotterdam. In the classical charts, from the “official” one to the, er, other official one, and Apple Music’s, one composer dominates more than any other, from Yunchan Lim’s Goldberg Variations to Raphaël Pichon’s St John Passion. Why?

Two descriptions of his music have particularly struck me this past week. Bach the zombie and Bach the meat-grinder. The phrases belong to the violinist James Ehnes and the Guardian’s Clive Paget, reviewing Pichon’s new recording. Meat-grinding is how Paget describes the St John Passion’s opening chorus; a fantastic expression of the viscera of human feeling that Bach exposes especially in Pichon’s drama-filled recording. Bach’s composition in this chorus is made of obsessive repetitions in the churning figuration of the strings; there are the wailing agonies of the dissonances in the woodwind lines before the voices of the chorus make their first shocking appearance, not so much singing as screaming their demands to Christ to witness his passion in its “glory” and its “humiliation”. The opening chorus, all eight minutes of it, makes a gigantic cross shape in musical time: the surging, relentless rhythms are the horizontal planes, the harmonies that sear through them are implacable verticalities. And that’s just the opening chorus. This is the darkness of the Passion story.

Published: April 1, 2026, 1:20 pm

What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in March

John Lanchester, Patmeena Sabit and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

I find it hard to read contemporary fiction while I’m in the middle of writing a novel, so I use the time after finishing as an opportunity to catch up. I hugely enjoyed two British novels, Drayton and Mackenzie by Alexander Starritt, about friendship and business, and The New Life by Tom Crewe, about gay life in the 1890s. European fiction: Eurotrash by Christian Kracht is a funny novel about going on a road trip with a deranged parent; Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico is about the horrible life of digital nomads; Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk is an unclassifiable, riveting sort-of mystery.

Published: April 1, 2026, 1:36 pm

Under Water by Tara Menon review – love, loss and a longing for the ocean

This debut about female friendship and environmental fragility set after the 2004 tsunami in Thailand is strong on grief, but the storytelling remains uneven

The underlying themes of this debut novel could hardly be more relevant. Marissa is working as a travel writer without leaving her desk, coining gleaming descriptions of untouched beaches for tourists. But as she does so, her mind runs on darker paths. She is living in New York while it braces for Hurricane Sandy, and as the wind rises she remembers being caught up in the horrors of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. She grieves for the beauty of the ocean that she knew then, and the fate of her beloved friend Arielle.

Loss, love, environmental fragility, female friendship: I was ready to plunge into the waves of this novel, to swim with its currents of grief and longing. But while I found myself at times drawn in to the narrative, at others I was distanced by Menon’s style, which is deliberately fragmented but also disappointingly uneven.

Published: April 1, 2026, 8:00 am

Baldwin by Nicholas Boggs review – the relationships that drove a genius

A new biography puts Baldwin’s sexuality – and the men he loved – front and centre

Today, James Baldwin’s legacy seems assured, but this wasn’t always the case. His critical reputation, already on the wane in his lifetime, declined after his death in 1987. On the publication of the Library of America’s Collected Essays and Early Novels & Stories a decade later, Michael Anderson, writing in the New York Times, complained of his “intellectual flaccidity”. He also dismissed The Fire Next Time – Baldwin’s searing 1963 essay diptych on the US’s legacy of racial injustice – as an overly emotional “period piece”. If such a verdict was out of touch then, six years after the acquittal of the police officers who beat Rodney King, it seems, now, pitifully shortsighted.

An inflection point in the Baldwin revival arrived in the form of Raoul Peck’s documentary I Am Not Your Negro (2016), which juxtaposes footage of modern-day protest and racist police violence with clips of Baldwin’s civil rights-era speech­making. It’s an effective technique, capturing Baldwin’s prescience as well as reasserting his rightful place as a key witness to that bloody era (“witness” was Baldwin’s preferred name for the writer-spokesperson-celebrity mantle he had assumed by the mid-60s; a title that captures something of its moral obligation and frustrating passivity).

Published: April 1, 2026, 6:00 am

Why is gaming becoming so expensive? The answer is found in AI

We are paying more for a PlayStation so that idiots can use ChatGPT to mislead people on dating apps – something is rotten in the state of gaming

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When the PlayStation 5 launched almost five and a half years ago, it was listed at £449 in the UK. If you were to buy one at the recommended retail price today, it would be £569.99, or £789.99 for the updated Pro model. Sony has just raised the price of its console by another £90, the latest in a series of hikes. This is unprecedented: consoles have always decreased in price over time (until they become retro collectibles – the other day, I saw someone asking £200 for a SNES on Vinted). So, what’s going on?

Unfortunately, this is another case of artificial intelligence ruining things for everyone. AI data centres need lots and lots and lots of computing power to be able to present you with lies whenever you Google anything, and this has pushed up demand and pricing for RAM and storage. This isn’t the only reason prices are rising – the wars in Ukraine and Iran have caused global economic disruption, and rampant inflation has eaten into many companies’ bottom line. But AI is the cause that’s easiest to get angry about, because it doesn’t need to be this way.

Published: April 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

Life Is Strange: Reunion review – a decade-long story comes to an impassioned close

PlayStation 5 (version tested), Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2, PC; Deck Nine/Square Enix
Max and Chloe, the two teen protagonists of the 2015 game, reunite as adults – giving players the chance to finally finish their journey

In 2015, Life Is Strange stood out for two reasons: its female protagonists, a depressingly rare feature at the time, and its unique brand of millennial cringe. The thirtysomething Frenchmen who created this series may not have had the best grasp of the 2010s teen lexicon, but they did have a good gauge on what’s important about any coming-of-age story, and that’s the relationships between the characters. Max Caulfield, the shy, time-travelling wannabe photographer, and Chloe Price, the traumatised, punk-rock tearaway, had a memorably intense friendship. It was the heart and soul of that game, and now, 11 years later, they are reunited as adults in this final chapter of their story.

For a lot of players, Max and Chloe felt like more than best friends. The game’s original developers were not brave enough to make this explicit in 2015, but newer custodians Deck Nine retconned a romantic relationship between Max and Chloe into 2024’s Life Is Strange: Double Exposure. You can still play Reunion as if the two really were just friends, resulting in some awkward ambiguity in some scenes. Whichever way you slice it, though, this is a game about first love, and how it always stays with you, even when its object does not. And damned if it didn’t make me feel something.

Published: April 2, 2026, 10:47 am

Method Man turns his eyeball inside out: Eddie Otchere’s best photograph

‘I was on a scrubby bit of land with Wu-Tang Clan when Method Man said, “Let me show you a trick.” And he put his cap strap over his eye, pulled it back and made the face’

I got into photography when I was about 15. My mate’s grandad died and he left behind a Praktica camera that we played with. I quickly caught the bug. In 1994, during my second year of university, I was a huge fan of Wu-Tang Clan and one day, I heard that they were going to their record label office in Putney, London. So I went along, too. I saw a coach outside and I could soon hear them, arguing and being rabble-rousers. As soon as I came around the corner, I started photographing them on the street. They were giving me such energy but what really made it come together was the fact that Popa Wu was travelling with them. He was older and something of a mentor to them. It was one of those moments when I realised that if you don’t dare, you don’t win – so I asked him if I could get on the coach and travel with them and shoot them. And he let me.

This was Wu-Tang Clan’s first time out of the US. They were these wild, urban kids from New York who had a genius talent for storytelling. On the coach, they were listening to some really deep soul music – Stax Records stuff. It was the only mixtape they could all agree on. It was way beyond the sort of soul I knew. That music has always stayed with me.

Published: April 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

Colbert on Trump’s shifting tone on Iran: ‘It’s a military strategy known as starting a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle’

Late-night hosts discussed Trump’s refusal to clean up his mess in Iran and gas prices soaring to over $4 a gallon

Late-night hosts touched on soaring oil prices from Donald Trump’s war in Iran as he backs down from solving the crisis in the strait of Hormuz.

Published: April 1, 2026, 3:30 pm

‘I can’t listen without feeling rattled’: how Fairuz’s anthem of resilience became a harbinger of strife for Lebanon

The Lebanese singer’s patriotic song has returned repeatedly since 1976 to inspire hope amid catastrophe. But as it resurges during the US-Israeli war, some Lebanese are chafing against its optimism and nostalgia

When Leila Milki first heard Fairuz’s Bahebak Ya Lebnan, she experienced it as the song of Lebanese unity and resilience. Milki, a Lebanese-American singer-songwriter and pianist based in Los Angeles, has partly built her career on covering the catalogue of Fairuz, the 91-year-old Lebanese singer who has become a rare generation-uniting public figure in the small Mediterranean country. “I knew that, in terms of my parents’ generation and even my grandparents’ generation, the song was sort of this really cathartic, hopeful message of unity,” says Milki.

The old adage is that Lebanon and its people remain resilient in the face of tragedy, able to rebuild and be born again into a stronger, more stable nation. That was the message Fairuz conveyed with Bahebak Ya Lebnan, a song released 50 years ago that has since become the country’s de facto national anthem. “I love you Lebanon, my homeland, I love you / Your north, your south, your plains / I absolutely adore,” Fairuz sings in Arabic in the opening lines. When she released the song in 1976, it came against the backdrop of the early stages of a 15-year civil war, which resulted in the deaths of roughly 150,000 people, the mass exodus of nearly 1 million people and foreign occupation by Syria and Israel.

Published: April 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

JD Vance announces a new memoir about his conversion to Catholicism

The vice-president’s follow-up to Hillbilly Elegy is announced as speculation builds over a 2028 run to succeed Trump

US vice-president JD Vance has announced a new memoir centred on his conversion to Catholicism, adding to mounting speculation about a potential 2028 presidential run.

The book, titled Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, will be published on 16 June by HarperCollins and is described as “a spiritual exploration of what it means to be a Christian across the seasons of Vance’s life”.

Published: April 1, 2026, 1:26 pm

‘Kids would rather be down the park’: readers reflect on child-free pubs

With public houses increasingly restricting or banning children, we asked for your thoughts on adult-only pubs

A growing number of pubs in the UK are restricting or banning children, citing safety concerns, changing atmospheres and lost trade. We asked people their thoughts on adult-only pubs.

Many who contacted us supported child-free pubs, believing adult-only spaces were important, but a good proportion said they would change their mind if children were “properly supervised by parents”.

Published: April 2, 2026, 6:00 am

‘Walking is the best way to discover offbeat Corfu’: a spring hike across the Greek island

Explore wild scenery, empty beaches and beautiful villages on the 110-mile Corfu trail, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year

The riverside was heaving. Families spilled from cafes. A marching band trooped on to the bridge, their tasselled metal helmets dazzling in the sun. Priests with bushy beards delivered ageless chants from beneath their cylindrical kalimavkion hats. Men let off shotguns, terrifying the air. Easter Monday in Lefkimmi.

We hadn’t planned this. Simply right place, right time. The capital of southern Corfu, Lefkimmi is a working town, untroubled by tourism. There are Venetian-style houses – variously neat, tatty and decrepit – but no “attractions” to speak of. Just Corfiots doing Corfiot things: chewing the fat in their finest for this religious celebration – Greek Orthodox Easter, which falls on 12 April in 2026 – plus zipping about on scooters, drinking coffee, buying baklava and ice-creams.

Published: April 2, 2026, 6:00 am

Turning a new leaf: these Victorian-inspired 'flirtation cards' are flipping the script on dating apps

Unlucky in love? Maybe ditch the apps. This new twist on Victorian-era ‘flirtation cards’ could spark your next meet-cute

• How do romance novelists celebrate love?

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Tired of swiping, singles are attending flirting parties and even dating-oriented run clubs in hopes of meeting their future partner in real life.

But even those lack the romanticism of a true meet-cute. The Brooklyn-based stationery brand No Particular Order is offering a more serendipitous option: its new acquaintance cards that encourage more spontaneous connections.

Published: April 1, 2026, 8:24 pm

‘Vaginal estrogen as a face filler? I think not’: Experts critique the new skincare trend

Doctors warn viral off-label use lacks evidence, with unknown long-term risks and possible systemic absorption

Vaginal estrogen cream is prescribed to ease genital dryness, irritation and discomfort that results from the loss of estrogen during menopause.

The name tells you exactly where to put it. Yet a new trend has been making the rounds on social media. People are calling vaginal estrogen cream the new “filler” for the face and other body parts, claiming it can smooth wrinkles, reduce dryness and sagginess and plump up the skin.

Published: April 1, 2026, 4:00 pm

A moment that changed me: for the first time in my life, a stranger pronounced my name correctly

I had grown up dreading introductions, with the inevitable mangling of my name. Suddenly, in India, we were both getting the respect we deserved

I had five names on the day of my Hindu naming ceremony, but my given name was Priti, a name that came to shape me.

Like most children with “unconventional” names, I dreaded the first day of each school year. I would squirm in my chair as my new teacher worked their way through the class register, and my stomach would drop as they attempted to say my full name: Priti Ubhayakar. I would be sitting there thinking: “If the first name doesn’t get you, the last name will.”

Published: April 1, 2026, 5:55 am

‘The manosphere is dead and no one cares about Andrew Tate any more’: the poet taking on toxic masculinity

Sam Browne’s blend of brutal honesty and droll observation has made him a viral sensation. He talks about growing up in Southend, mental health and the healing power of poetry

On a cold night in east London, 21-year-old performance poet Sam Browne is telling a packed room of strangers about his second bout of psychosis. “I was in Morocco at 18, completely alone, and I started to feel that things weren’t real,” he says. “It got so bad that one day I turned to a random person and told him I was thinking of killing myself. He just said back to me: ‘Don’t do that – you’ll miss the sunset.’”

The room falls quiet and Browne breaks the tension by launching into a poem inspired by his Moroccan breakdown, You’ll Miss the Sunset. “The world is so beautiful, the least you could do is stick around to watch it,” he says with the hint of a smirk. “But it’s all shit, all of it, isn’t it?”

Published: April 1, 2026, 3:53 pm

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: spring has sprung, so put away your coat and banish the black tights

Nevermind the trends, want to know how to dress for actual spring weather? Then read on

It all came to a head, as matters of getting dressed so often do, over black tights. I had wanted to wear my silver skirt, you see. It was a rare blue-sky day and the sunshine was making me crave reflective surfaces to maximise the light. Anyway, you know how it is when you just get a yen to wear something. So I pulled out said silver skirt and then realised I didn’t want to wear the black opaque tights I wear with it in winter, but it wasn’t anywhere near warm enough to wear it with bare legs as I do in summer. I was completely stumped. And it made me realise: I need a refresher course in what to wear at this time of year. Spring has sprung, but I have forgotten how to hop to it.

So here we have it: your pocket primer on how to dress for spring. I’m talking about the spring that happens every year, an actual real-world meteorological phenomenon, not about the fashion trends of this particular moment. The lengthening days, daylight commuting, the juicy greens and yellows of the landscape, the maverick unpredictability of rain. Whether zebra stripes are the new leopard does not concern us today. We don’t need fashion to provide the newness when newness is in abundance in the world. So we can flick back through the pages to remind ourselves of spring’s fashion classics.

Published: April 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

Highland cows – how these unlikely social media stars were forced into hiding

After being pushed to ‘distress’ by people trying to film and take selfies with the cattle in Kent, the fold has had to be taken away from public view

Name: Highland cows.

Age: More than 1,000 years old.

Published: April 1, 2026, 4:05 pm

Thursday news quiz: daring dogs, delinquent capybaras and far too many bananas

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

It is time for the Thursday news quiz, where, thanks to our illustration from Anaïs Mims, you must decide whether you are gliding serenely across the waters of knowledge, your elegant neck forming a perfect question mark, or paddling furiously beneath the surface, one wrong answer away from an undignified flap. Fifteen questions on topical headlines, pop culture and general knowledge await. There are no prizes, but we always enjoy hearing how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 241

Published: April 2, 2026, 5:00 am

Bold concepts, loose ends in Ibram X Kendi’s Chain of Ideas

While informative, the book struggles to identify what strategies can change racist systems held hostage by the political right and centre

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It’s not straightforward, trying to assess a book written by someone whose stature and reputation loom large over the text. I have not read any books by the American academic and anti-racist writer Ibram X Kendi before, but I had absorbed his ideas and interventions into American racial discourse over the years, as well as the controversies. And so I was curious about his latest – and his first since the “anti-woke” backlash.

I tried reading it as a stand-alone text, rather than another chapter in Kendi’s history. Every book deserves to be judged on its own terms. And Chain of Ideas is a huge piece of research that clearly builds on the many years Kendi has spent writing on racism and his experience as a public figure. But does it rise to the occasion? I attempt to answer this below.

Published: April 1, 2026, 11:59 am

Mysterious Marrakech: why I never tire of Morocco’s Red City

With its never-ending street theatre and labyrinthine medina, this timeless city swallows you whole – and reveals new secrets with each visit

The rising sun sets fire to the snow-covered caps of the Atlas mountains. Within moments, the shadowy gorges are gleaming with warm terracotta hues. I turn my back on north Africa’s highest peaks and look north where Marrakech – nicknamed the Red City – rests like a jagged ruby amid the jade swathes of palms and the silvery sheen of olive groves.

Swinging 800 metres (2,625ft) above the stony desert in a giant wicker basket, I try to imagine what this scene would have looked like when camel trains trooped this way, loaded with salt, spices and enslaved humans bound for Marrakech’s souks.

Published: April 1, 2026, 6:00 am

Can Trump pull the US out of Nato – and why is he considering it?

The US president hinted at leaving the military alliance as he wages war on Iran with little support from allies

After years of attacking its efficacy and assailing its members as spendthrift freeloaders, Donald Trump now appears on the very threshold of doing the once unthinkable: withdrawing the US from Nato.

Such a move would signal a political earthquake for the western security architecture established in the aftermath of the second world war and which endured cold war confrontation with the Soviet Union before expanding after the demise of eastern European communism in 1989.

Published: April 1, 2026, 6:54 pm

Prosecutors used hip-hop lyrics to help sentence a man to death: ‘This only happens to rap music’

James Broadnax was a teenager when a jury convicted him of capital murder, with his rap lyrics presented as evidence he posed a threat of ‘future dangerousness’

James Broadnax has been locked up in a 6ft-by-10ft cell on death row in Texas for more than 16 years, and in that time he has developed coping mechanisms for passing the long and desolate days.

A favourite technique is to write spoken word poetry at his cell desk. He becomes so engrossed in the creative process that he can lose himself for hours, transfixed in what he calls a “time gap”. In one of his recent poems, featured in a short death row documentary, Solitary Minds, Broadnax, who is 37, describes how he writes:

Published: April 1, 2026, 11:00 am

Lunar prospectors: the businesses looking to mine the moon

Within the lunar dirt is a type of helium so rare on Earth that a palm-sized container is estimated to be worth millions

• ‘This was the real thing’: Meet the woman who alerts the world when an asteroid could hit

• ‘This feels fragile’: how a satellite-smashing chain reaction could spiral out of control

In the silent vacuum of space, five autonomous robots churn through the lunar surface, digging up a loose layer of rock and dust and leaving rows of uniform tracks in their wake.

Stopping only to recharge at a central solar power station, the car-sized machines process the lunar dirt internally to extract a type of helium so rare on Earth that a palm-sized container is estimated to be worth millions. Once processed, the precious resource is loaded into a launcher and ejected back to Earth.

Published: April 1, 2026, 10:00 am

Pet owners: have you used an animal fitness tracker?

We want to hear from owners of dogs, cats or other pets who have tried these trackers

With a growing number of pet fitness trackers on the market, owners can monitor the stats of their companions as never before. But these devices can be costly, and their necessity is debated.

We want to hear from owners of dogs, cats or other pets who have tried these trackers to hear if such health monitors have proved useful, neutral or problematic.

Published: April 1, 2026, 3:49 pm

Geishas, explosions and a rocket launch: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 1:29 pm