Stop the brain rot! 12 ways to stay sharp in a mind-frazzling world

Feel like too much low-quality screen time is making you … dumber? From focusing on your environment to ‘washing’ your brain, experts share tips on how to sharpen up and keep your mind fighting fit
Plus: how rotten is your brain? Take our quiz to find out

Ever had one of those days when you get nothing done but still somehow feel exhausted? Of course you have: brain rot, the Oxford word of the year for 2024, isn’t yet in any medical dictionaries, but it’s probably best understood as the decline in cognitive abilities that comes from endless exposure to easily digestible information. And, thanks to the ubiquity of short‑form video and social media, it’s almost certainly on the rise.

“When we’re engaging with this sort of media, our brains are both underworked – because the information is easy to understand – and overworked because there is so much information to absorb,” says Dr Wendy Ross, a senior lecturer in psychology at London Metropolitan University. “That’s why you end up tired even if you’re just scrolling on your couch.” Want to throw the process into reverse and recover your attention? Here’s how.

Published: April 3, 2026, 11:51 am

‘Vegas hotel meets aerospace bling’: Trump’s presidential library plan is a gaudy, self-glorifying monstrosity

From JFK’s modernist concrete to Obama’s ‘Tatooine sandcrawler’, the presidential library is where egos burnish their legacies. But the brash, bookless vibe of Trump’s, complete with giant golden statue, makes for the ugliest yet

With the unveiling of the prospective Trump presidential library, which, in its timing and substance looked for all the world like an April fool, the old adage that you can’t gild a turd but you can roll it in glitter has become bleakly redundant. It turns out that you can most definitely gild a turd.

At the heart of the proposed 47-storey skyscraper on Miami’s waterfront – 47 floors for the 47th President – is a giant golden statue of Trump giving off dictator-for-life vibes, his gilded fist triumphantly raised. Such an aureate monstrosity would not look out of place in Pyongyang or Ashgabat, though Turkmenistan’s former president Saparmurat Niyazov – another despot with a suspiciously luxuriant coiffure – went one better and had his $12m gold statue installed on a rotating pedestal so it would always face the sun.

Published: April 3, 2026, 3:27 pm

What to know about the controversial practice of ‘orgasmic meditation’

The practice touted by Nicole Daedone combined spirituality, mindfulness and sexuality. Then came the controversy – and prison sentence

In 2009, the New York Times ran a story about Nicole Daedone and her wellness company, OneTaste, which promoted women’s empowerment through a practice known as “orgasmic meditation” (OM).

“I don’t think women will really experience freedom until they own their sexuality,” Daedone said at the time.

Published: April 3, 2026, 6:26 pm

‘Taking my clothes off is my whole life!’ Bryan Cranston on the glorious gross-out return of Malcolm in the Middle

TV’s most outrageous family is back – and for the Breaking Bad icon, it’s a great excuse to let rip ... and get naked again. The stars talk skivvies, chugging raw meat and being stung in the crotch by 60,000 honey bees

The intro to the new Malcolm in the Middle is quite the thing. Kids punch police officers. Santa Claus gets kicked in the face. A barrel full of faeces detonates inside a family car. This recap of previous episodes is so full of gross-out comedy and family fights that a grandma grabs her teenage grandson and crushes his testicles until he squeals. “And,” intones a voiceover at its end, “someone actually asked for more of this.”

Did they? It’s been 20 years since the Emmy-winning sitcom about an outrageous working-class US family with the titular child genius went off air. It’s a show whose fans remember it fondly for never dipping in quality throughout its seven seasons. But were they really clamouring for more?

Published: April 3, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘Food security timebomb’: a visual guide to the Gulf fertiliser blockade

UN says record numbers of people could face acute hunger if conflict continues

The world has become well versed in the importance of the strait of Hormuz to the world’s energy flows, but attention is increasingly turning to its vital role in another market – the fertiliser on which harvests depend.

A third of the global trade in raw materials for fertiliser passes through the maritime choke point, which is also the route for 20% of shipments of natural gas, which is required to make it.

Published: April 3, 2026, 3:00 am

‘They look goofy and I don’t care’: Padma Lakshmi’s onion goggles and other kitchen favorites

The longtime Top Chef host told us about her favorite things in her New York City kitchen, from steel gloves to a Dutch oven that’s lasted over 20 years

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

What’s in Padma Lakshmi’s kitchen? Like me, her many viewers and readers have probably wondered this over the years.

So I asked her. She shared what she loves using in her terracotta-hued kitchen in New York City: classic items, like the Dutch oven that’s lasted over 20 years, and a few surprises, like the pair of mad-scientist onion goggles that protect her eyes from tearing up.

Published: April 3, 2026, 1:30 pm

Middle East crisis live: one crew member rescued from US fighter jet shot down by Iran as its army claims it downed second US plane

US forces searching for second crew member after jet shot down by armed forces this morning; another US plane reportedly crashed in a separate incident and its pilot was rescued

• US F-15E jet confirmed shot down over Iran as Tehran releases wreckage images

Authorities in Abu Dhabi have reported two incidents of debris falling from intercepted aerial threats in the UAE capital, with one sparking a fire at a gas facility,

The official Abu Dhabi Media Office said authorities responded to an incident of falling debris at the Habshan gas facilities. “Operations have been suspended while authorities respond to a fire,” it said in a post on X, adding that no injuries were reported.

Published: April 4, 2026, 1:46 am

Trump announces ‘fraud’ crackdown in Democratic states as arrests begin in California

US president makes baseless claims about fraud in blue states and says JD Vance will lead clampdown as ‘fraud czar’

Donald Trump announced a fresh crackdown on “fraud” in Democratic states and tapped JD Vance to lead the charge. Officials swiftly announced a string of arrests in California.

In a Truth Social post on Friday, the US president announced that his vice-president was now “in charge of ‘fraud’ in the United States”, claiming the problem is “massive and pervasive” and that Vance’s new role as “fraud czar” will be “a major factor in how great the future of our country will be”.

Published: April 3, 2026, 10:04 pm

Democrats vow to fight Trump’s ‘morally bankrupt’ request for billions in additional defense and DHS spending– live

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer says that his party ‘will make sure it never passes’

• Trump announces ‘fraud’ crackdown in Democratic states

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email

A reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest out of the Middle East at our dedicated live blog.

This includes Donald Trump’s recent comments on Truth Social that “with a little more time” he could open strait of Hormuz. The president added that reopening the vital passageway would allow the US to “TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE. IT WOULD BE A ‘GUSHER’ FOR THE WORLD.”

Published: April 4, 2026, 12:36 am

Hospital visit fuels speculation about Samuel Alito’s future on supreme court

Veteran justice, 76, was treated for dehydration in March; a retirement would give Trump new chance to shape court

US supreme court justice Samuel Alito was reportedly taken to a hospital after becoming sick at a Federalist Society dinner in Philadelphia in March, further fueling speculation that Donald Trump could have more chances to shape the land’s highest court through new appointments.

A CNN report said Alito was checked by medical staff and given fluids due to dehydration. He later returned to his home in Virginia that same night with his security detail. In the weeks since, Alito has resumed his duties, including participating in oral arguments.

Published: April 3, 2026, 8:12 pm

Senator decries new shoes-on security policy at US airports as ‘reckless’

Democrat Tammy Duckworth writes letter to TSA calling on agency to reinstate the shoes-off airport security policy

Nine months after US airports allowed passengers to pass through scanners without taking off their shoes, rescinding the stringent policy after almost two decades, a top senator claimed the “reckless” move could put passengers in danger.

The policy amounts to a “potentially catastrophic security deficiency”, according to Tammy Duckworth, Democrat for Illinois, and ranking member of the Senate commerce, science and transportation (CST) aviation subcommittee.

Published: April 3, 2026, 8:22 pm

Artemis II astronauts pass 100,000 miles from Earth on voyage to the moon

After six-minute firing of capsule’s engine, crew on track to reach farthest distance travelled by humans in space

The four astronauts on the Artemis II mission have passed 100,000 miles from Earth as they head towards the moon, putting them on track to reach the farthest distance humans have ever travelled into space.

The crew left Earth’s orbit and fired their engines on Thursday for a “translunar injection”, sending the Orion capsule on its trajectory towards the moon.

Published: April 3, 2026, 5:49 pm

Bondi out, Blanche in: what will a new justice department head mean for the Epstein investigation?

Bondi, reportedly ousted due to her botched handling of Epstein files, is still set to testify before Congress on 14 April

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

As news emerged this week presaging Donald Trump’s dismissal of Pam Bondi, one of his motivations reportedly related to her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigative files.

While the new acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, insisted he had “never” heard the president say “that anything that happened to her had anything to do with the Epstein files”, it’s clear the issue has dogged Bondi throughout her tumultuous tenure.

Published: April 3, 2026, 4:30 pm

NCAA women’s Final Four: Texas face UCLA; South Carolina shock UConn – live updates

• UCLA and Texas face off for spot in title game

• Gamecocks end Huskies’ winning streak at 54 games

• Auriemma, Staley have tense postgame exchange

• Email beau.dure@theguardian.com with your thoughts

South Carolina 8-13 UConn, 3:55 left, first quarter: And as I type that, Sarah Strong bails out her team with a 3-pointer as the shot clock nears zero. She scores again after another Okot miss, and the Huskies are already running away.

Tessa Johnson responds with a layup and then a jumper.

Published: April 4, 2026, 1:52 am

US military archbishop says Iran conflict does not meet ‘just war’ standard

Catholic Timothy Broglio says ‘hard to cast this war as something that would be sponsored by the Lord’

The leader of all Catholic chaplains in the United States’ armed forces has questioned how righteous the US military’s campaign in Iran is, saying that “under the just war theory – it is not”.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, head of the Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, told CBS News in an interview set for broadcast Sunday that while Iran “was a threat with nuclear arms”, waging war on the theocratic state constituted “compensating for a threat before the threat is actually realized”.

Published: April 3, 2026, 10:39 pm

Several vessels, including French container ship, pass through strait of Hormuz

Reports say CMA CGM vessel and three tankers linked to Oman have exited the Gulf despite the ongoing blockade

Several ships have now passed through the strait of Hormuz, according to reports, as shipping companies and international leaders scramble to get vital cargo through the waterway.

A container ship owned by the French shipping company CMA CGM had sailed out of the Gulf, the Financial Times reported, citing the tracking data analyst MarineTraffic.

Published: April 3, 2026, 3:32 pm

Is the US committing war crimes by targeting Iran’s civilian infrastructure?

International law experts ‘seriously concerned’ about ‘strikes on schools, health centres and homes’ in contravention of Geneva conventions

Donald Trump, other senior US officials and their cheerleaders appear to be embracing attacks – and threats of attacks – on Iranian civilian infrastructure, which legal experts say appears to constitute serious war crimes under international law.

In a rambling national address on Wednesday, the US president warned that if Iran did not reach an unspecified deal with him, US forces would “hit each and every one of their electric-generating plants” and “bring [Iran] back to the stone ages – where they belong”.

Published: April 3, 2026, 1:00 pm

Iraqi leaders face balancing act as Iran conflict exposes deep rifts

Country is torn between those who hope for end to Tehran’s influence and those loyal to Islamic republic

Of all the countries being pulled into the US-Israeli war on Iran, it is Iraq – a country that still bears the emotional and physical scars of the last time the Americans tried to reshape the region by force – where the conflict has exposed some of the deepest rifts.

The war is dividing those who see the attacks on Iran as a way to end Tehran’s longstanding influence over Iraqi politics from the self-declared loyalists of the Islamic republic, and cutting through state institutions, armed forces and Shia Islamist parties.

Published: April 3, 2026, 11:00 am

Trump news at a glance: president enlists JD Vance as his ‘fraud czar’, targeting Democratic states

Trump said Vance would focus on blue states and, without providing evidence, accused Democrat leaders of rampant ‘theft’ – key US politics stories from Friday 3 April at a glance

Donald Trump has given his vice-president, JD Vance, a new side gig: “fraud czar”.

The president this week announced a fresh crackdown on “fraud” in Democratic states and tapped Vance to lead the charge. Officials swiftly announced a string of arrests in California.

Published: April 4, 2026, 1:00 am

Trump requests $152m funding to restore Alcatraz as prison

Budget proposal released on Friday outlines president’s desire to revive former federal prison in San Francisco Bay

Donald Trump is asking for $152m to restore Alcatraz, a former federal prison off the coast of San Francisco, according to a budget proposal released on Friday for the 2027 fiscal year.

Last May, Trump first called upon the Department of Justice, the FBI and Homeland Security to rebuild the prison. He heaped praise on Alcatraz’s reputation in a Truth Social post.

Published: April 4, 2026, 12:09 am

Democratic attorneys general sue Trump over order to restrict mail voting

Over 20 attorneys general challenge the executive order and say it’s an unconstitutional move to disenfranchise voters

More than 20 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit Friday challenging Donald Trump’s Tuesday executive order to restrict who can vote by mail.

In his order, Trump directed the US Postal Service to abstain from sending mail-in or absentee ballots to people who are not on a pre-ordained list of eligible citizens.

Published: April 3, 2026, 9:40 pm

Relationship with Trump may be beyond repair, Keir Starmer told

PM gets widespread backing after president’s mocking impersonation takes US-UK relationship to new low

Keir Starmer has been warned his relationship with Donald Trump may be beyond repair after the US president derided the prime minister for consulting his team about military decisions, in a mocking impersonation.

In a new low for UK-US relations, Trump appeared to imitate Starmer in a weak voice during an Easter lunch speech at the White House, and said the UK was “not our best” ally.

Published: April 3, 2026, 5:11 pm

Billionaire fortunes have reached all-time highs under Trump. So has the movement to tax them

Residents in at least 10 states are organizing campaigns to tax wealth in order to fund schools and other social services

Karen Sanchez likes to meet new people at trivia nights or concerts at her local brewery at the edge of Los Angeles county. Her opening line: “How do you feel about taxing the rich?”

Sanchez is volunteering to collect signatures to put a contentious “billionaire tax” on California’s November ballot, sponsored by her union, SEIU – United Healthcare Workers West. The proposal would impose a one-time 5% wealth tax on the state’s 200-plus billionaires to cover lost federal funding for California hospitals and emergency services and to fund public education and food assistance programs. She says most people have been eager to sign on – and want to see more of it.

Published: April 3, 2026, 4:00 pm

‘India is going to face a food crisis’: Farmers panic over fertiliser shortages amid Iran war

Ripple effects of oil and fertiliser shortage felt by farmers in India and Sri Lanka despite governments saying there is enough stock to go round

Gurvinder Singh never thought the war in Iran would touch his quiet corner of Punjab.

Yet looking out over his smallholding, where he alternates between wheat and rice crops in the state known as India’s breadbasket, the 52-year-old farmer can barely think of anything else. His anxiety over a conflict playing out thousands of miles away is crippling as he fears what will come of this season’s rice crop.

Published: April 3, 2026, 11:00 pm

LA drivers get creative as surging gas prices threatens love affair with the car

Shop around, coast downhill, band together – drivers tell of how they’re dealing with the costliest gas in the US

Jack Nooney has pretty much made peace with the traffic since moving to Los Angeles five years ago, but recent soaring gas prices have certainly added another layer of insult to his daily commute. The musician and full-time grocery deli employee drives from his San Fernando Valley apartment to Santa Monica daily. While it’s just nine miles each way, with LA traffic that often equates to a whole gas-burning hour.

Nooney, who makes $20/hour, says it’s become glaringly clear that fuel costs will eat up more of his already tight budget. Angelenos are now paying on average nearly $5.90 a gallon – and some stations are charging a shocking $8 a gallon. The outsized prices are directly related to the Iran war, which has created the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market, according to the International Energy Agency.

Published: April 3, 2026, 1:00 pm

The most beautiful coast in the world? Exploring New Zealand’s overlooked Nelson Tasman by sand and sea

For years this region was regarded as little more than a gateway from the North Island to the South. But spend several days there and you’ll ache to tear yourself away

The visitor to New Zealand’s South Island knows what they have to see. There’s a well-trodden circuit. Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook, to gaze at the stars. Queenstown, for a spot of daredevil adventure. The glaciers, Fox and Franz Josef. And then down to Milford Sound, for the fjord, cliffs and waterfalls. Each stop stunning, each one worthy of its place in a tourist trail so long-established they call it the southern loop.

But for those searching for something new, bent less on ticking off the New Zealand icons than on experiencing a region as brimming with natural beauty as it’s been relatively, and mysteriously, overlooked, there is another destination. Head to the place they’re calling Nelson Tasman.

Published: April 3, 2026, 11:00 pm

‘Amazing’: how to grow a meadow in the sea

Vibrant seagrass meadows once flourished around the UK but most have been destroyed. Now, communities and scientists are working to restore them

“There’s not many jobs where you get to be a sea gardener,” says Dr Oliver Thomas, senior science officer at Project Seagrass. He’s looking for flashes of eel grass that have survived the winter in the wide golden sand of Penrhyn beach on Ynys Môn (Anglesey), in north Wales.

But growing a meadow in the sea is not an easy job. Vast swathes of the gorgeous underwater swards, vital nurseries for fish such as cod, have been wiped out around the UK in the past century. Up to 92% have been lost. Restoring them – and their water-cleaning, carbon-storing, coast-protecting benefits – is a colossal challenge.

Published: April 3, 2026, 12:00 pm

Colbert on Trump’s Iran speech: old news ‘delivered by a narcotized turtle’

The late-night host reacted to Trump’s prime-time address on the war and his firing of attorney general Pam Bondi

With most late-night hosts on holiday, Stephen Colbert recapped Donald Trump’s prime-time national address on the war in Iran and his firing of the US attorney general, Pam Bondi.

Published: April 3, 2026, 2:35 pm

Courts keep ruling against Trump. But they can’t save our democracy singlehandedly | Margaret Sullivan

Decisions on the White House ballroom, public media and journalists’ access to the Pentagon are heartening. But restoring our institutions is up to us

In another one of those strange and unprecedented moments of the Trump years, the president of the United States showed up at the supreme court the other day. No other presidents have done so, probably because they – to varying degrees – respected the separation of power among the three branches of US government.

But Trump has not shown himself to share in that basic principle.

Published: April 3, 2026, 1:00 pm

Pam Bondi’s firing won’t have the effect Trump desires | Moira Donegan

If the idea was to shed some of the liabilities of the Epstein scandal by firing Bondi, the move seems likely to backfire

It was only a matter of time. The writing has been on the wall for months for Pam Bondi, Trump’s attorney general, who was unceremoniously fired on Thursday after 14 months leading the justice department. Trump was rumored to be unhappy with Bondi; frustrated at the slowness and failures of some of her prosecutions of his political enemies, angry that she could not make the Epstein scandal go away, and disappointed by her rather wooden performances on TV.

For a while, it looked like Bondi would be the first cabinet secretary that Trump fired in his second administration – something he has been much more reluctant to do since returning to office in early 2025. But in October, when she was called to testify before a Senate subcommittee, Bondi made sure to issue vicious insults to her Democratic interrogators in front of the news cameras; she made a similar performance in February at a House judiciary committee hearing, where she lobbed ad hominem attacks on Democrats, including calling Representative Jamie Raskin “a washed-up loser lawyer.” These performances evidently endeared Bondi to Donald Trump enough that he decided to keep her around for a while; Kristi Noem, his onetime secretary of homeland security, became the first cabinet member to be fired in his second term. But the Epstein story persisted, and so did Trump’s dissatisfaction with his own mounting unpopularity ahead of the November midterms. He is not capable of blaming himself, and so he looked around for someone else to punish for his own failures. Pam Bondi was there.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Published: April 3, 2026, 10:00 am

It’s the silver lining from this terrible age of Donald Trump: he is pushing Britain closer to the EU | Gaby Hinsliff

Ten years after the Brexit vote, Trump’s disdain and insults are fuelling the belief that the UK should renew ties with Europe

Going anywhere nice this summer?

No, me neither, judging by the warning from the Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary, that a global shortage of jet fuel caused by the Iran war may soon lead to cancelled flights. Suddenly a week in Cornwall looks a safer bet, though even that will be a stretch for some families as the cost of long car journeys heads through the roof. When the representatives of more than 40 countries held talks in London earlier this week to discuss unblocking the strait of Hormuz, they convened virtually, not in person. This is no time to be seen boarding a private jet.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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

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 3, 2026, 3:49 pm

Lizzo’s reinvention faces its greatest test yet

The singer’s body-positive anthems once defined her. Now lawsuits, weight loss and flop singles have shaken her image

Lizzo’s ascent to mainstream stardom was the type of fairytale that pop dreams are made of. She was a long-hustling musician, Houston-raised then Minneapolis-made. She had a co-sign from Prince two years before she was even signed to a major label; then, it took another three years after debuting on Atlantic for the world to know her name.

When they finally learned it, it became hard to escape her. In 2019, she had sleeper hit after sleeper hit rise to the top of the charts. First, 2017’s bouncy break-up kiss-off Truth Hurts stormed to No 1, then 2015’s empower-pop anthem Good as Hell joined the song in the Top 10. For a few years following, Lizzo was unstoppable in spite of all the odds being stacked against her: she was a brown-skinned, plus-size pop star who put on athletic performances and dressed just as sexy as her skinny peers. Her image was brash, bold and radical, which made her controversial to many just for existing.

Published: April 3, 2026, 8:00 am

‘I’d introduce aliens to shito sauce.’ Items our panel would take into space

Artemis II’s astronauts packed their wedding rings, notebooks and a supply of maple syrup. Here’s what our writers would fly to the moon

Published: April 3, 2026, 5:00 am

Digested week: I don’t often feel sorry for Charles, but he must be dreading this US trip

Starmer should just admit we’re being held to ransom by Trump – but instead he’s making the king go on a state visit

Donald Trump has suggested that the war with Iran will be over in two to three weeks. The rest of the world just shrugs. We’ll believe it when we see it. The US president has said so many contradictory things over the past few weeks, it’s hard to take anything that seriously.

Published: April 3, 2026, 10:45 am

The Guardian view on the US and Europe: the UK tried to be a bridge, but Trump likes to burn them | Editorial

The president’s outbursts on allies and Nato were further confirmation that Europe cannot wait to bolster security – and Britain must play its part

“She had no more surprises for him; the unexpected in her behaviour was the only thing to expect,” Henry James wrote in his novel Daisy Miller. Leaders dealing with Donald Trump surely recognise the sentiment. James’s character was a young American out of her depth in Europe, falling victim to prejudices. Mr Trump is a real-world problem, and this time, Europe is battered by the prejudices and vengefulness of the American.

This week alone the US president has publicly mocked the British prime minister and armed forces (as weak), the French president (over his marriage), told allies to get their own oil – having set the Middle East on fire – and said leaving Nato was “beyond reconsideration”. Mr Trump’s wishful thinking has hit reality in Iran, where the war that he and Benjamin Netanyahu began will not be easily ended. His resulting frustration, concern about domestic political repercussions and desire to distract the public are matched by vindictiveness towards allies who rightly refused to join in.

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 3, 2026, 4:32 pm

‘I still have a lot left’: Rory McIlroy on his Masters defence and staying motivated

Northern Irishman bristles at suggestions he has peaked as he returns to Augusta with the same intensity as always

It was an opening which depicted more than a decade of toil. “I’d like to start this press conference with a question,” said Rory McIlroy. “What are we all going to talk about next year?”

The wait was over. McIlroy had not only won the Masters, not only ended an 11-year wait for a fifth major, and not only become the sixth man in history to complete a grand slam. The ticking of all three boxes at once and in extraordinary circumstances was why the scenes at Augusta National in 2025 are unlikely to be matched as the 90th Masters staging approaches.

Published: April 3, 2026, 6:00 pm

Luka Dončić will miss rest of Lakers’ regular season with hamstring strain

• NBA scoring leader hurt in Thursday’s loss to Thunder

• LA have five games left before postseason begins

• Absence may force Dončić out of individual awards race

Luka Dončić will miss the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers’ regular season with a Grade 2 strain of his left hamstring, the team announced Friday.

Dončić is the NBA’s top scorer and the driving force behind the Lakers’ surge into the third spot in the Western Conference standings, but he injured his leg during Los Angeles’ blowout 139-96 loss to Oklahoma City on Thursday. An MRI exam revealed the severity of the strain.

Published: April 3, 2026, 10:47 pm

Duke’s Cameron Boozer joins Cooper Flagg on list of freshmen to win player of the year

• Son of NBA star Carlos Boozer led Blue Devils to 35 wins

• Other freshmen winners went No 1 or No 2 in NBA draft

Cameron Boozer was at the center of everything for Duke this season.

The 6ft 9in forward proved tough enough to score through physical play. Rangy enough to space the floor and shoot from outside. Deft enough as a passer to find teammates, whether against constant double teams coming for him as the top name on every scouting report or while running the entire offense from up top.

“You just want to affect winning in whatever way you can,” Boozer said.

The high-end NBA prospect did that all season for a team who won 35 games, reached No 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, claimed the top overall seed for March Madness and reached the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight. Now he’s the AP’s men’s college basketball national player of the year, only the fifth freshman to earn the honor and the second in a row for a Duke program that keeps adding to the longest list of winners in the country. Sarah Strong of UConn was named the women’s player of the year.

Published: April 3, 2026, 8:26 pm

Tiger Woods told police he talked to ‘the president’ after arrest, bodycam shows

• Golfer has pled not guilty to DUI charges in Florida

• Footage shows Woods’s shock: ‘I’m being arrested?’

• Hydrocodone pills found in pocket following arrest

Bodycam footage of Tiger Woods’s arrest for DUI shows the golfer looking surprised when he was handcuffed by police officers at the scene of a vehicle crash last week and telling a deputy he had spoken to “the president” on the phone after the incident.

“I do believe your normal faculties are impaired, and you’re under an unknown substance, so at this time you’re under arrest for DUI,” Martin County Sheriff’s deputy Tatiana Levenar told Woods after officers conducted a series of field sobriety exercises on the 50-year-old.

Published: April 3, 2026, 2:08 pm

USMNT World Cup squad predictions: how we see the 26 for 2026

Mauricio Pochettino faces several tough decisions to name a squad for the 2026 World Cup hosts

A full 24 matches into the Mauricio Pochettino era, we have arrived at the moment of truth. The US men’s national team’s 2026 World Cup roster will be named on 26 May, and the team’s two recent friendlies (a 5-2 loss to Belgium and a 2-0 loss to Portgual) have given Pochettino plenty to think about as he makes his selection.

We here at the Guardian have made our picks as well – based a little on our own preference, but still within the realm of what Pochettino may do. Separately, the three of us made our 26-man rosters. Any player who we agreed on got the “on the squad” designation. Anyone we differed on is listed as “up for debate”, with other notable exclusions listed as “out of the picture”.

Published: April 3, 2026, 9:00 am

Unhittable: are the modern era’s weightlifting, analytics-fueled pitchers too good?

A new book explores how technology and a host of maverick innovators have given rise to an exceptional crop of baseball players

In a 1940 publicity stunt, the Cleveland Indians’ flamethrowing pitcher, Bob Feller, tested which was faster: One of his own blazing deliveries, or a motorcycle. Feller’s pitching won, hands down. But today, Feller’s once-remarkable speed has become commonplace, even bettered, as major leaguers routinely pass triple figures on the radar gun. The secret to this arms race? The advances in pitching analytics,often authored by people without any previous baseball pedigree.

That’s part of the narrative of Unhittable, a new book by one such individual – Rob Friedman, more commonly known to his online followers as PitchingNinja. The book’s subtitle says it all: How Technology, Mavericks and Innovators Engineered Baseball’s New Era of Pitching Dominance.

Published: April 3, 2026, 9:00 am

‘This is what you don’t see in F1’: the university where future race engineers are made

With alumni in every F1 team, Oxford Brookes University’s Formula Student team is the most prestigious in the country

At the Oxford Brookes Headington campus, more than 100 students are busy building the fastest, best designed race car possible for this year’s Formula Student competition.

Oxford Brookes Racing (OBR) is the UK’s most prestigious Formula Student team. They’ve won more design awards than any UK university, and frequently occupy the international race’s top spots.

Published: April 3, 2026, 12:16 pm

US jobs market surpassed expectations in March but February losses were worse than first reported

Employers added 178,000 new jobs in March and unemployment rate fell to 4.3%, ahead of economists’ predictions

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

The US labor market picked up in March as employers showed signs of resilience amid the US-Israel war in Iran.

After an extraordinary contraction in February, employers added 178,000 jobs last month, ahead of economists’ expectations of about 70,000.

Published: April 3, 2026, 12:37 pm

Cuba begins to free more than 2,000 prisoners as US eases fuel blockade

Havana makes a Holy Week ‘humanitarian’ gesture as Russian tanker is allowed to reach oil-starved island

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

Cuban authorities have begun to free prisoners after announcing they would pardon 2,010 inmates, the second release in less than a month as the country faces heightened US pressure.

More than 20 inmates emerged from La Lima penitentiary in east Havana on Friday, holding their release papers, crying and hugging relatives who had been waiting for them all morning.

Published: April 3, 2026, 4:01 pm

Evacuations as two wildfires break out in southern California

Stiff winds ‘spreading the smoke’ as Springs fire bears down on Moreno Valley while smaller Crown fire also burning

A pair of wildfires broke out in southern California on Friday, marking the region’s first significant burns in a spring that has seen a major heatwave.

The fires started in windy conditions that have caused them to spread quickly. The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for parts of southern California through midday Friday, warning of gusts up to 50mph.

Published: April 4, 2026, 1:17 am

Comedian Eugene Mirman thanks rescuers who pulled him from fiery car crash in New Hampshire

Best known for voice-acting in Bob’s Burgers, Mirman was injured after his vehicle struck a toll plaza and ignited

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

Bob’s Burgers voice actor Eugene Mirman says he is “extraordinarily thankful to the heroic people” that pulled him from the wreckage of his fiery car crash on Tuesday at a New Hampshire toll plaza – an accident that reportedly left him with serious injuries.

The 51-year-old comedian expressed his gratitude in an Instagram post late on Friday morning, which also described his being emotionally buoyed up by “the well wishes, love and kind messages from friends and strangers” in the wake of the wreck.

Published: April 3, 2026, 5:58 pm

Gucci Mane apparently robbed at gunpoint by rapper and seven others

Pooh Shiesty among those accused of robbing and kidnapping three men after dispute involving record label

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

Federal prosecutors on Thursday accused rapper Pooh Shiesty and eight others of robbing three men at gunpoint and kidnapping them in January in Texas after a contract dispute involving the rap star Gucci Mane’s record label.

The US attorney’s office in Dallas declined to name the victims and an FBI affidavit attached to a criminal complaint only refers to them by their initials. One victim, RD, is described as the owner of 1017 Records – the label belonging to Gucci Mane, whose legal name is Radric Delantic Davis.

Published: April 3, 2026, 6:41 pm

Quadruple amputee cornhole pro says he fatally shot person in self-defense

Dayton Webber is accused of shooting Bradrick Michael Wells twice in the head during an argument

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

A quadruple amputee professional cornhole player acted in self-defense when he shot and killed a passenger in his Tesla during a heated argument, his attorney has said.

Dayton Webber, 27, appeared in Charles county district court via videoconference for a bail review on Wednesday, where Judge Patrick Devine noted that he left Maryland after the 22 March shooting of 27-year-old Bradrick Michael Wells. Devine ordered Webber to remain jailed without bail.

Published: April 3, 2026, 7:15 pm

Justin Baldoni’s lawyer says defendants are ‘very good people’ as Blake Lively lawsuit narrows

Judge threw out 10 of Lively’s 13 claims against her It Ends With Us director and co-star on Thursday as trial nears

Justin Baldoni’s lawyers have responded after most of Blake Lively’s claims against the director were dismissed by a federal judge on Thursday.

Judge Lewis Liman threw out 10 of the 13 claims that Lively had made against Baldoni and others, including allegations of sexual harassment, conspiracy and defamation.

Published: April 3, 2026, 3:59 pm

US senators rebuke Ticketmaster for raising fees after hidden charge crackdown: ‘Bait and switch’

Richard Blumenthal says company acts like it has ‘get-out-of-jail-free card’ as records show it upping fees to cut losses

• Ticketmaster quietly raised other fees after US crackdown on hidden charges

• Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email

Senators slammed Ticketmaster for raising ticket fees following a regulatory crackdown on hidden charges as revealed in a report by the Guardian last week.

The Federal Trade Commission last May began requiring Ticketmaster to disclose concert ticket fees upfront – a practice known as all-in pricing. The company eliminated the order processing fee it charged at the the end of a transaction to comply with the rule.

Published: April 3, 2026, 10:00 am

How sheltered really is the US from the Gulf oil supply crisis?

As Trump suggests Middle East oil disruption is not his problem, experts say talk of US ‘energy independence’ is a smokescreen – with consumers paying the price

A month has passed since the US and Israel’s war on Iran all but closed the strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supplies typically flow. Prices have surged, amid fears of sustained disruption to global supplies.

Donald Trump argues this is not his country’s problem. “Go get your own oil!” the president urged countries, including the UK, earlier this week. The US has “plenty”, he added. The US is “totally independent” of the Middle East, the president claimed in a prime-time address on Wednesday. “We don’t need their oil.”

Published: April 3, 2026, 10:00 am

Harvard faculty to vote on proposal to limit number of A grades in each course

Effort to curb grade inflation, by limiting top marks to 20% of students in a course, is opposed by most students

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox

Harvard’s faculty is set to vote next week on a faculty committee proposal to cap the number of A grades per course in an effort to curb grade inflation.

The proposal, which was first reported earlier this year by the Harvard Crimson, Harvard’s student newspaper, would cap A grades to 20% of students in a course, with an allowance for four additional As. It also would introduce a new internal “average percentile rank” system, which would rely on raw scores rather than grade point average (GPA) to determine honors and awards.

Published: April 3, 2026, 3:07 pm

US judge rules against deporting man whose murder conviction was overturned after 44 years in prison

Decision came after hearing in which Subramanyam Vedam, 64, said he didn’t kill Thomas Kinser when he was 19

A judge has cleared the way for the potential release of an Indian citizen who was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody last year after his Pennsylvania murder conviction was overturned following four decades in prison.

The decision came the day after the four-hour hearing in which Subramanyam Vedam insisted he did not fatally shoot Thomas Kinser in 1980 and was questioned by a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lawyer. Vedam participated in the hearing remotely from the Moshannon Valley processing center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania.

Published: April 3, 2026, 11:50 am

Ukraine war briefing: Russian army records almost no territorial gains for first time since 2023, analysis shows

Russian advances slowing, thinktank’s data shows; 14 killed in Ukraine in massive drone and missile salvo. What we know on day 1,501

Russia’s army recorded almost no territorial gains on the frontline in Ukraine in March for the first time in two-and-a-half years, according to analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) conducted by Agence France-Presse. The Russian army has been slowing in its advances since late 2025 – because of Kyiv’s localised breakthroughs in the south-east of the country. Across the entire frontline, the Russian army seized only 23 sq km (8.9 sq miles) in March, losing territory in some areas, according to the analysis. This figure excludes infiltration operations conducted by Russian forces beyond the frontline, as well as advances claimed by the Russian side but neither confirmed nor denied by the ISW.

The Russian army made 319 sq km of gains in January and 123 sq km in February, which was then the smallest advance since April 2024. Its advance in March was the smallest since September 2023. The ISW attributed the slowdown to Ukrainian counteroffensives, but also to “Russia’s ban on using Starlink terminals in Ukraine” and “the Kremlin’s efforts to restrict access to Telegram”. The messaging app – very popular among Russians, including those fighting on the front – has been barely usable in recent months due to blocks imposed by the authorities. As in February, Russia lost ground on the southern section of the frontline, between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Russian strikes killed 14 people in Ukraine on Friday, officials said, as Moscow launched the latest in an increasing number of daytime barrages. Moscow has been firing aerial broadsides at Ukraine throughout its more than four-year invasion, mostly at night, but in recent weeks has stepped up daytime attacks. The Russian military used more than 500 drones and dozens of missiles in its salvo on Friday, according to the Ukrainian air force.

Russia’s Baltic oil export hubs at Ust-Luga and Primorsk remain unable to handle shipments after a series of Ukrainian drone attacks, prompting the country’s refineries to find alternative routes for export, industry sources said on Friday. The attacks have damaged port infrastructure and continued through the last two weeks of March, with at least five strikes on Ust-Luga in the space of 10 days. Sources said the export restrictions, along with disruptions at large refineries, could lead to a decrease in oil production in Russia. Traders said refineries had been unable to deliver diesel fuel to Primorsk for export since 22 March, leaving refineries in European Russia and Siberia without their most viable export route. Traders said refineries were having to consider more expensive rail transport routes to other export terminals.

Zelenskyy has called on lawmakers to pass key legislation next week to avert a funding crisis, help Ukraine fight the war against Russia, and enact key reforms required for EU accession. Due to lagging reforms and slow legislative progress in late 2025 and early this year, Ukraine missed deadlines to unlock billions from its key lenders, economists said. With the need for external financing standing at $52bn this year – equivalent to about a quarter of annual economic output – the budget situation is desperate. “I have a list of key draft laws that are critical for securing funding,” the Ukrainian president said in remarks released on Friday. They range from strengthening the court system to reforming energy sector procedures. “I believe that members of parliament from all parties must understand the importance of these bills for Ukraine’s budget,” said Zelenskyy, who has a majority in parliament but its relations with his government have soured.

Published: April 4, 2026, 12:30 am

Three people charged over alleged arson attack on Jewish charity ambulances in London

Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, and a 17-year-old boy are due to appear at Westminster magistrates court on Saturday

Three people have been charged over an alleged arson attack on Jewish volunteer ambulances in north-west London.

Hamza Iqbal, 20, and Rehan Khan, 19, both British nationals from Leyton, and a 17-year-old boy, a dual British and Pakistani national from Walthamstow, were charged with arson being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.

Published: April 3, 2026, 9:40 pm

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

Viktor Orbán, an icon for the global far right, could face defeat despite an electoral system weighted in his favour

Hungarians go to the polls on 12 April in Europe’s most consequential election of the year, with Viktor Orbán, the country’s illiberal prime minister and global far-right icon, facing possible defeat, after 16 years in power, by a former loyalist, Péter Magyar.

Published: April 3, 2026, 4:00 am

People of Burkina Faso should forget about democracy, says military ruler

Ibrahim Traoré, who took power in 2022 coup, tells state broadcaster ‘we must tell the truth, democracy isn’t for us’

People in Burkina Faso should forget about democracy as it is “not for us”, the military president, Ibrahim Traoré, told the country’s state broadcaster.

Traoré took power in a coup in September 2022, toppling another junta that had taken power just nine months earlier. He has since stifled opposition and in January banned political parties outright.

Published: April 3, 2026, 10:18 am

‘I lost a $3m brand deal. I was like: OK, losers!’ Swedish pop provocateur Zara Larsson on fame, fun and fighting the power

After a decade in pop’s underground, Larsson’s radiant fifth album turned her into one of the world’s biggest stars. It’s about time, she says, relishing the attention without sacrificing her morals

On a warm spring day, Brooklyn’s century-old Paramount theatre has been transformed into a base camp for all things Zara Larsson. Stage techs scurry past entourage members, managers furiously tap smartphones and various figures patiently await their moment with the Swedish superstar.

Down a plushly carpeted flight of stairs, Zara Larsson is on all fours, saying “puss puss” (Swedish for “kiss kiss”) into a camera. Despite all the craziness around her, she is locked in, wearing electric-blue stockings, tangerine booty shorts and a tiny blazer that makes her look like Malibu Barbie at graduation. A man powers up a leaf-blower, sending Larsson’s blond hair flying. After hitting a few poses, she tippy-taps over in maribou-trimmed stilettos and offers me a can of water. “Cheers!” she says as we clink.

Published: April 3, 2026, 4:00 am

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Crisis in the Middle East, a Russian drone attack in Kharkiv, a Saharan dust storm in Crete and the launch of Artemis II – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Warning: this gallery contains images some readers may find distressing

Published: April 3, 2026, 4:53 pm

Supergirl: the new trailer suggests that the DC Universe has an intriguing trick up its sleeve

A criticism of Superman stories is the guy’s near invincibility. And while a new trailer sees Kara tearing about like a cosmic gunslinger, there are hints her powers are at risk

If James Gunn’s aim with last year’s Superman was to give us a Man of Steel who stood out from those who came before him on the big screen, he nailed it. Even those who didn’t quite warm to this sunnier, weirder but more human incarnation could at least admire the way the film vaulted clear of almost every previous iteration. Delivering Kara Zor-El ought to be an easier job, for it is possible to argue that there has never been a definitive version of Supergirl on any screen, big or small.

Yet it is starting to look as if the newly formed DC Universe is once again ready to push outwards rather than merely backwards. This week saw the release of a new trailer, in which Milly Alcock’s Kara tears through alien bars, starships and off-world landscapes with the swagger of a cosmic gunslinger. But perhaps more intriguing were comments from director Craig Gillespie in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, which saw the film-maker open up about the story’s nine-world structure and the unusually heavy amount of planet-hopping involved.

Published: April 3, 2026, 1:31 pm

Your Friends & Neighbours season two review – Jon Hamm was made for this moreish crime caper

The star returns as wealthy neighbourhood thief Coop in this rich dessert of a show. But as he tackles middle-age malaise, there’s a lot of heart – plus a guest appearance by James Marsden

Does Your Friends & Neighbours love its unhappy, very wealthy characters, or despise them? Does it laugh at the 1%, envy them, pity them? It does all of the above at once and, as we return to the fictional enclave of Westport, New York – an obvious stand-in for real financiers’ playground Westchester – this mischievous US dramedy is still a rich dessert of a show, unhealthy but oh so moreish.

Jon Hamm is Andrew “Coop” Cooper, a role that, if it were given to any other actor, would require them to do their best Jon Hamm impersonation. Sturdy, smooth – this is a man made of oak and mahogany, when the rest of us are bags of twigs and jelly – and seemingly always with a tumbler of $500 whisky in his fist, he is blessed with the ability to charm any man/woman into a deal/his bed. Other men have been handed their place in the banking elite and are now drifting through a life of luxury; Coop is better at playing the game than they are because he is sharp enough to see what a sham it all is. He has that trademark deep Hamm gaze, a tension behind the eyes.

Published: April 3, 2026, 7:00 am

Earl Sweatshirt, Mike and Surf Gang: Pompeii // Utility review – rap radicals’ appealing study in contrasts

(10k/Tan Cressida/Surf Gang)
Earl’s post-Odd Future career swerved the mainstream to follow the path laid out by NYC underground rapper Mike, and their first double album lets both shine

Earl Sweatshirt swerved into public consciousness as part of the edgy but brilliant California rap collective Odd Future in the late 2000s. Practically from day one, he was considered the tastemaker’s choice member, virtuosic even as a teenager. Rather than play for the mainstream, Earl has spent the past decade or so immersing himself in New York’s underground rap scene, resulting in one of the most unique and unpredictable discographies of his generation.

One of his prime inspirations for that new path was Mike, the beloved underground New York rapper whose own body of work is thrilling and vital. Here, the pair link with Surf Gang, the producer-musician clique that credibly lays claim to the title of “the next Odd Future” on Pompeii // Utility, a hyperactive and engrossing double record that finds Mike taking one side and Earl the other.

Published: April 3, 2026, 7:30 am

Add to playlist: the endlessly inventive, radiant indie rock of Friko and the week’s best new tracks

The Chicago band’s frantic, urgent guitar melodies celebrate hope, friendship and family in these uncertain times

From Chicago, Illinois
Recommended if you like Modest Mouse, Wilco, Car Seat Headrest
Up next Second album Something Worth Waiting For out 24 April, touring the US from April and Europe in summer

In Friko’s hands, a swirl of influences and experiments curve the many colours of indie rock into an endlessly inventive, radiant ramble. The Chicago band’s upcoming, cheekily titled second album, Something Worth Waiting For, explores the energy of yearning: for growth, for change, for stability. Across nine tracks, Friko take inspiration from their recent spate of touring to orbit the idea of finding things worth moving for and the value of the journey itself.

Published: April 3, 2026, 11:00 am

Messiah album review – Whelan takes Handel’s oratorio back to its beginnings

Irish Baroque Orchestra and Choir/Whelan
(Linn)
Conductor Peter Whelan leads a finely judged and agile period-instrument performance with only 13 singers.

Every year, the Irish Baroque Orchestra and their conductor Peter Whelan bring Messiah back to Dublin, the city of its 1742 premiere. Their recording of Handel’s oratorio – the first on period instruments by an Irish ensemble – attempts to recreate the version heard at its first performance at the Fishamble Street music hall, a hot-ticket event at which such a crush was anticipated that the ladies in the audience were requested to forgo hoops in their skirts and the gentlemen to leave their swords at home.

One of the attractions was the scandal-hit contralto and actor Susannah Cibber, who sang several arias including some more often sung today by other voice types: on the recording, gratifyingly, we get to hear a substantial share for Helen Charlston, her voice firm, slightly metallic and unflaggingly expressive. Also included is a less familiar duet-and-chorus version of How Beautiful Are the Feet, written for two of the countertenors from the Dublin cathedral choirs. Here and elsewhere Alexander Chance is in buoyant voice – he also gets the two arias Handel adapted later for his star castrato in London. Hilary Cronin’s sweet-sounding soprano stands out among the solo voices.

Published: April 3, 2026, 12:54 pm

Sanaya Ardeshir: Hand of Thought review | Ammar Kalia's global album of the month

(Karigar)
The Indian producer steps away from electronics into intricate, slow-building compositions that favour texture and restraint

As Sandunes, Indian producer Sanaya Ardeshir has spent the last decade exploring the melodic side of electronic music with three ebullient albums that drew on the bright instrumentation and pop references of contemporaries such as Bonobo. Now releasing her first record under her own name, Ardeshir explores entirely new territory, namely expansive piano compositions that supplant dancefloor rhythms with slowly unfurling minimalist repetition.

Drawing on her training as a pianist, Ardeshir displays a confident command of the keys, building an insistent right-hand motif on the opening track that creates a foundation for saxophonist Rhys Sebastian’s drawn-out notes. This unwavering piano phrasing allows her collaborators to layer evocative instrumental swells, producing bursts of woodwind fanfare on the plaintive Between Dreams and swirls of trilling synth strings on the choppy Barefoot Steps. Percussionist Sarathy Korwar delivers a standout feature on Deccan Queen, giving structure to Ardeshir’s frenetic arpeggios with his steadily intensifying tabla rhythms.

Published: April 3, 2026, 8:00 am

The best recent poetry – review roundup

Goyle, Chert, Mire by Jean Sprackland; The House of Broken Things by Kim Moore; The Tree Is Missing by Shannon Kuta Kelly; Dog Star by Michael Symmons Roberts; Horses by Jake Skeets

Goyle, Chert, Mire by Jean Sprackland (Jonathan Cape, £13)
The 45 unrhymed sonnets in Sprackland’s sixth collection coalesce into three spellbinding interwoven sequences. Set in the Blackdown Hills, a remote stretch between Somerset and Devon, the poems explore the friction between art and articulation, habitat and inhabitation. Here, the landscape is not a backdrop but a linguistic event: “a drop swells on the lip of a leaf and falls / like a word being said”. By removing the first person throughout, Sprackland makes us encounter the landscape intimately: it’s not mediated through a speaker’s interiority but in “mossy silence”, “the rumble of the combine harvester”, “the noise / of meltwater hurtling over stones”, or “the shattered pieces of yourself”. Overshadowed by an unnamed illness, the poems bear wounds but don’t broadcast suffering; this restraint fosters minute attention to “pilgrim gnats attending the water” and the mire’s “long translation from gley to peat”. Sprackland’s ability alternately to narrow and widen our focus – from a closeup on insect life to geological time – reveals how consciousness itself moves between scales. Unlike many nature poems that overanimate or sentimentalise, the book is alive to the limits of human agency: it knows “language itself is prone to collapse”. Yet in that collapse, we can find meaning; recognise the “spiky logic” of natural process, following it as “the sparrow enters / and follows” the “sprawling holly”. The unwavering sonnet form represents an act of courage, a disciplined response to illness and dissolution, creating order where language threatens to collapse. This is a profound, enduring collection.

The House of Broken Things by Kim Moore (Corsair, £14.99)
Moore’s new collection constructs an ambitious architecture for exploring intergenerational trauma and motherhood. At its best, we find her confessional signature, as in The Black Notices, cataloguing unidentified murdered women, or Giving Birth With Anne Sexton, where literary inheritance meets bodily terror. Sometimes, however, this commitment to sincerity and transparency results in poems that feel like pedagogic exercises: Damaged Cento catalogues the “eight stages” of domestic homicide, while The Trimesters documents pregnancy’s upheavals. The motherhood poems, though deeply felt, risk predictability in their exploration of well-trodden territory – breastfeeding, bedtime routines, and the spectre of parental loss (“I imagine someone taking her away, / or a car ploughing into the pram”). It’s technically hard to make this new. Moore clearly presents the “I” as a site of shared, unpolished vulnerability, prioritising emotional legibility over lyric innovation.

Published: April 3, 2026, 11:00 am

Sarah Hall: ‘Everyone wangs on about Anna Karenina – I’ve never been able to finish it’

The author on being inspired by Michael Ondaatje and how Hilary Mantel helped her overcome her aversion to historical figure novels

My earliest reading memory
The headteacher in my village primary school used to recount terrifying Cumbrian ghost tales to the class, which I’m sure was formative. I can also still hear my mum sing-songing rhymes; “Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement’s”. My dad read the Ant and Bee books to me, repeatedly – he’d drive back over a high upland road from work and get home in time for bedtime stories. But my earliest independent reading memory is The Story of Ferdinand by Leaf and Lawson. I loved that bull!

My favourite book growing up
Big books gave me the whirlies so it took a while for them to start landing.

Published: April 3, 2026, 9:00 am

‘I am trapped in a sweet-smelling cycle of video game-branded toiletries’: Lush’s Mario Galaxy range, reviewed

From a subtle Princess Peach lip jelly to a Yoshi egg that’s been traumatising children, the cosmetic chain’s latest tie-in is out of this world

When The Super Mario Bros Movie came out in 2023, it came with a rather unlikely tie-in: a range of skincare and bathing products from cosmetics chain Lush. The store, known for its devotion to natural ingredients and support for social justice causes, didn’t seem like the obvious partner for a major video game franchise. Because of this, I thought I should try them out, assuming that my dalliance with beauty journalism would be short-lived.

I was wrong. The collection was so successful, Lush later released a Minecraft range, which I also reviewed, and now there’s a Super Mario Galaxy range to tie in with the new movie. Somehow, I have become the Guardian’s Lush correspondent and it seems I am now trapped in a sweet-smelling cycle of video game-branded toiletries. There are definitely worse fates, so I’m just going with it.

Published: April 3, 2026, 9:00 am

Culture of care: surreal celebrations of Iranian tenderness – in pictures

As the daughter of refugees, Iranian American artist Sheida Soleimani’s work reframes caring for bodies – both human and animal - as a political act. Her new exhibition, Forest of Stars, will be on view at Yancey Richardson Gallery from 16 April to 22 May

Published: April 3, 2026, 9:00 am

‘It’s the year of gay Brazilian cruising!’ The makers of Night Stage on public sex and their ‘deranged erotic thriller’

Writer-directors Marcio Reolon and Filipe Matzembacher talk about the ‘assimilation myth’, why Wim Wenders is wrong and how they’re developing queer western and horror movies

You wait for ever for a visually electrifying Brazilian film featuring scenes in a gay cruising ground, then two come along at once. First, the Oscar-nominated The Secret Agent showed nocturnal trysts in Recife being violently interrupted by a rampaging disembodied leg. Now hedonists in the queer thriller Night Stage flock to a park in the southern city of Porto Alegre where they can openly make the beast with two or more backs. “It’s the year of gay Brazilian cruising!” says Marcio Reolon, mock-triumphantly.

Reolon co-wrote and co-directed Night Stage with his partner, Filipe Matzembacher, who is seated beside him this morning in their Berlin apartment. The couple’s look is best described as exchange-student punk: studded bracelets, silver earrings thick as curtain rings. Reolon, who is 41 with sharp cheekbones and a cockatoo quiff, wears a padlock on a chain around his neck. The 37-year-old Matzembacher, cherubic and curly-haired, sports a barbed-wire tattoo on his left hand.

Published: April 3, 2026, 7:00 am

Post your questions for DJ Shadow

As his pioneering album Endtroducing turns 30 and he reissues his Mo’Wax singles, the producer is in a retrospective mood and ready to take your questions

It’s almost 30 years since DJ Shadow released his era-defining debut album, Endtroducing….., and as is the way of the nostalgia industry, it had a lavish 25th-anniversary reissue five years ago, remastered at Abbey Road studios. It was such a success that Shadow has decided to repeat the process and clean up his “pre-album and non-album” catalogue. In May comes The Mo’Wax Singles 1993-1997, a box set featuring eight 12ins with all the Californian producer’s singles for James Lavelle’s label, plus alternative mixes and brand new art. Dusty DAT tapes were dug out and original master mixes excavated.

“This box wasn’t made for the casual listener, it was made with the hardcore fan in mind,” Shadow said in a statement. “I’ve always felt, if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right, and every step of the process was made with this philosophy firmly in mind.”

Published: April 3, 2026, 1:06 pm

‘Linen is meaningful in Belfast’: how an old industry is weaving the city a new identity

Fabric that once defined Northern Ireland’s capital is at heart of its stylish revival, embraced by designers, royalty and heritage farmers alike

On a cobbled street in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter, next door to a hipster coffee shop and opposite an ice-cream parlour that has a near-constant queue since going viral on TikTok, the elegant Kindred of Ireland boutique is doing a surprisingly brisk trade in artfully oversized butter yellow linen blouses and exquisite Donegal mulberry tweed jackets finished with a length of rose pink linen tied in a bow at the nape of the neck.

Half a century after the Troubles, Belfast is finding a new identity through an industry that once defined it. Linen – the fibre that built its wealth and earned it the name Linenopolis – is being woven into a story of renewal. Almost a century after the postwar collapse of an industry that, at its peak, employed 40% of the working population of Northern Ireland, linen is returning as a marker of identity.

Published: April 3, 2026, 3:00 pm

Good Friday around the world – in pictures

Christians take part in processions and re-enactments to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ

Published: April 3, 2026, 3:39 pm

Less waste and fewer dishes: these glass food containers changed how I store leftovers

Don’t let leftovers languish in the fridge. These oven, microwave and freezer-safe glass containers from Anyday helped me waste less food – and do fewer dishes

• The seven best non-toxic cooking pans in the US

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

When I cook for my family, I always pack up leftover food with the best of intentions, and remnants of a weeknight meal generally get eaten within a day or two. Large spreads, however, are a different story.

In the past, I would stuff what was left from a large dinner or party into the biggest air-tight containers they required, then cram them all into my fridge, full-well believing my kids and I would live off of those leftovers for the better part of a week.

The best glass food storage containers: Anyday 2-Cup Glass Round Dish Multipack

Published: April 3, 2026, 12:45 pm

Yes, allergy season has already started. Here’s how to manage symptoms

Pollen seasons are now ‘longer and more intense’, say experts. Here is what to know about allergy treatments and when to seek medical help

Are you wondering why you’ve started to have allergy symptoms – itchy eyes, sneezing – so early this year?

Allergy seasons are now “longer and more intense”, says Dr Katelyn Jetelina, adjunct professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. Warmer, shorter winters mean shorter periods of freezing temperatures. This means the growing season for plants is lengthened, and they release pollen earlier in the spring and later into the fall, Jetelina explains.

Published: April 3, 2026, 5:28 pm

‘It’s like witnessing a Renoir or Matisse painting coming to life’: readers’ favourite trips in France

From Normandy to Provence, our readers enjoy great art, architecture and outdoor activities in France
• Tell us about a trip to Scotland – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

Vichy is not on everyone’s radar as a must visit French town, but it really is a delight to spend a few days in. I discovered it while on a bicycle trip around central France, and its famous waters did wonders for my tired legs and muscles. Vichy is a historic spa town famous for its spring waters and its art nouveau and belle époque architecture. A thriving cultural scene means that, whenever you visit, you’ll find concerts, theatre, opera and exhibitions, especially at the town’s opera house and the iconic Grand Casino. Vichy is also a shopper’s paradise, with more than 500 boutique shops in the heart of the town. When all that shopping and walking has worked up a thirst, taste the famous Vichy waters for free at Hall des Sources (listed on the Accidentally Wes Anderson website). The city is easy to explore on foot or by bike, with riverside paths along the Allier River, pretty neighbourhoods with pastel-coloured villas, and plenty of outdoor cafes. Being there felt like witnessing a Renoir or Matisse painting coming to life before my eyes.
Nicoletta

Published: April 3, 2026, 6:00 am

Experience: I climbed the tallest tropical tree in the world

It was a slow ascent: I needed to check for wasps, snakes and scorpions

I was born in Tawau, a Malaysian city on the island of Borneo, and grew up around logging camps – my dad worked in the industry. In the early 90s, a lot of the forest here started being cleared for commercial use. At the time, I just thought that was the way things were.

That changed when I began working in conservation as a teenager at the South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership in the nearby Danum Valley. My job was to plant seedlings in places where the forest had been cut down. I began to learn about the importance of keeping the forest safe.

Published: April 3, 2026, 4:00 am

‘Every night they are bombarding’: at border crossing, some Iranians are fleeing war and some are heading home

People leaving Iran for Turkey tell of impact of bombs and internet blackouts, while others are travelling the other way to be closer to relatives in peril

He could not help but splutter out a laugh at the question. Amir, whose name has been changed for his safety, had just crossed the Kapıköy border point in eastern Turkey, a mountain pass between snow-topped peaks that is one of the few gateways to the west from Iran.

Until a few weeks ago, this was a busy place, popular among Iranian daytrippers coming across to Turkey to do some shopping in the lively city of Van, a further two hours drive west, or to spend a couple of nights out in its discreet Iranian-only nightclubs and bars serving alcohol.

Published: April 3, 2026, 7:00 am

Pope Leo’s first Easter: one year in, what do Catholics think of the new pontiff?

Some would like Leo to be more vocal on world conflict, but others say he uses his influence discreetly

As Leo marks his inaugural Easter as pontiff, almost a year after his predecessor’s death, some Catholics are still trying to work out what kind of pontiff he is.

The feast – the most important in the church’s calendar – comes against the backdrop of war in the Middle East, sparked by the US-Israeli strikes in Iran.

Published: April 3, 2026, 5:00 am

Cricket, selfies and Good Friday ceremonies: photos of the day – Friday

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

Published: April 3, 2026, 2:17 pm