Save green while going green with 10 Earth Day US deals on products we love

The best sales from Filter-vetted brands for climate-conscious consumption that are also easy on the wallet

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Durable, climate-conscious goods often come at a premium. After all, it’s a lot cheaper to churn out 1,000 plastic cutting boards out of a mold than to craft them from walnut and compost the tiniest scraps. Fortunately, a lot of our favorite brands are throwing Earth Day sales right now, making it more affordable to buy fewer, better things.

We’ve rounded up the best deals worth shopping from Filter-vetted brands, including responsibly sourced Burt’s Bees lip balm and a forever chemical-free Mammut jacket. While not every sale is strictly in honor of Earth Day, they’re all prime opportunities to snag products we love from brands we trust.

Published: April 17, 2026, 2:15 pm

Is the pope Catholic? JD Vance thinks he has an answer | Marina Hyde

When it comes to theology, Donald Trump’s vice-president clearly knows best. Are we about to see an American break with Rome?

The battle to be the absolute worst Trump henchman can feel so closely fought. But in the end, it’s always JD Vance, isn’t it? You would say Stephen Miller, but Miller’s too hidden to qualify as a front-of-house henchman among the US president’s court of grotesques. Stephen’s clearly been judged so wantonly horrifying that the administration must keep him out of public view. If you enter the store, Miller is the only-for-the-initiated entity alluded to in a whisper by the oleaginous sales assistant. “We do have something in the back – off-the-books, as it were – if sir is after something a little more … specialist.”

But Vance? Vance besets us like the 11th plague – the plague of media appearances. For the next South Park season, I hope the creators give their brilliantly ghastly little vice-president avatar a papal mitre to wear. After all, here we have a man whose pick-me book on his journey to Catholicism has yet to even be published. That tome currently lies in the rectum of HarperCollins, ready to be excreted in June – yet inevitably, Vance is already giving menacing doctrinal advice to the pope as part of the multi-theatre fallout of Operation Epic Facepalm.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Published: April 17, 2026, 12:44 pm

Feeling off? Your secrets could be making you stressed

Researcher Valentina Bianchi says holding in information can take a mental toll. Here’s how to manage it

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Usually nothing makes me happier than receiving a message that starts with “don’t share this, but …”. Yet as I played the voice note on my phone, my gleeful anticipation turned to dismay.

It was a juicy bit of gossip, but one I ultimately would have preferred not to know. Now I also had to conceal it from others.

I’m an adult. Why do I regress under my parents’ roof?

I like my own company. But do I spend too much time alone?

People say you’ll know – but will I regret not having children?

Published: April 17, 2026, 4:00 pm

Coral reefs are nearing extinction. 2026 must mark a turning point | Jason Momoa

At 1.5C of global warming, up to 90% of coral reefs could be lost. The next few months could be a defining moment

Where I come from – Hawai’i – the reef isn’t just something you look at. It’s part of us. It feeds our families, protects our shores, and lives at the center of our culture. In our stories, coral is one of our oldest ancestors. It’s a reminder that everything in the ocean, and all of us, are connected.

Right now, that integral connection is under threat.

Jason Momoa is an actor, film-maker, and UNEP Advocate for Life Below Water, dedicated to protecting our oceans and advancing global awareness around coral reef conservation

Published: April 17, 2026, 12:00 pm

Slowly does it: how to be patient in a world that wants everything right now

From next-day delivery to kids’ TV shows on demand, have we forgotten how to wait for … anything? The good news is that patience is a skill that can be cultivated – by parents and children alike. Here’s how

Your kids want to know why their new book (ordered 18 hours ago) is “taking so long” and need you “NOW” because Netflix “isn’t loading” (it “tu-dums” milliseconds later). For parents who had dial-up internet, endless TV adverts and long car journeys soundtracked by Dad’s AM Test cricket, modern kids’ inability to be patient can feel galling. Except, with our Deliveroo habit and boiling-water taps (who has time for a kettle?), we can be just as bad.

“Our environment and culture has trained our nervous systems to expect immediacy,” says Anna Mathur, psychotherapist and author of How to Stop Snapping at the People You Love (As Well As the Ones You Don’t). “The issue is our brains are plastic; they adapt to the level of easy dopamine we’ve got at our fingertips.” Our brains are changing, confirms child psychologist Dr Michele McDowell: “A recent study indicated the brain instantly responds to notifications and takes seven seconds to refocus. Consequently, the brain is becoming overstimulated and is increasingly more responsive. Over time, this erodes the brain’s capacity to tolerate waiting and to be patient. So each time your phone pings, it’s reshaping your mind’s ability to wait.”

Published: April 17, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘He’d gaze at the stars and go: I’m gonna be up there one day’: Prince by those who knew him best, 10 years after his death

From lurid pranks and late-night drives, to why playing in the Revolution was like joining the marines – Prince’s friends and collaborators recount their memories of one of the music world’s most majestic and mercurial performers

George Clinton, singer and leader of Parliament-Funkadelic

Published: April 17, 2026, 4:00 am

Iran says strait of Hormuz ‘completely open’ to commercial vessels as oil prices fall

Trump claims Tehran will also suspend nuclear programme as Lebanon truce enters first full day

Iran’s foreign minister has said that the strait of Hormuz is now fully open to commercial vessels, reinforcing hopes for an eventual end to the war in the Middle East and sending oil prices tumbling despite analysts’ warnings that there will be no immediate widespread resumption of passage through the vital waterway.

In a barrage of social media posts, Donald Trump claimed on Friday that Iran had agreed never to close the strategic waterway again, hailing “A GREAT AND BRILLIANT DAY FOR THE WORLD!”

Published: April 17, 2026, 5:54 pm

US Congress passes 10-day extension of surveillance law amid Republican infighting

Trump repeatedly demanded that Republicans unify to pass a longer extension of the Fisa warrantless spying law

Both chambers of Congress voted in quick succession on Friday to pass a brief 10-day extension of a controversial warrantless surveillance law after Republican infighting tanked plans for a much longer renewal of the law with no changes.

Donald Trump had repeatedly demanded that Republican holdouts “UNIFY” behind Mike Johnson, the US House speaker, in favor of an extension of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) without changes. But chaos ensued on Thursday evening and into the early hours of Friday as Republican leadership tried and failed twice in votes attempting to reauthorize the surveillance program, before resorting to a stopgap measure.

Published: April 17, 2026, 4:34 pm

Starmer was left in dark about Mandelson’s vetting by two other top civil servants

Exclusive: Officials have spent weeks debating whether or not to release highly sensitive information about the affair

Keir Starmer was left in the dark about sensitive information relating to Peter Mandelson’s security vetting by two other top civil servants, including the head of the civil service, the Guardian can reveal.

The prime minister said on Friday that it was “unforgivable” and “staggering” that senior officials did not tell him that Mandelson failed a security vetting process weeks before he took up his role as ambassador to Washington.

Published: April 17, 2026, 5:40 pm

US midwestern states at risk of severe thunderstorms, weather agency warns

About 26 million people are under tornado watches from Wisconsin to Oklahoma, according to one report

A stretch of the midwestern states is at risk of severe weather, forecasters warned on Friday, as tornadoes battered towns across the central US region, leaving behind debris and destroyed property.

According to the National Weather Service, severe thunderstorms may be seen in north-west Oklahoma through western Missouri during Friday afternoon and evening.

Published: April 18, 2026, 2:01 am

Air Canada temporarily suspends some flights to New York and other locations

Spirit Airlines reportedly seeks emergency US government funding as war against Iran keeps aviation fuel costs high

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Air Canada has announced a temporary suspension of flights from Toronto and Montreal to New York’s John F Kennedy airport, citing rising fuel prices.

The move comes amid growing concerns that airlines worldwide may scale back services as aviation fuel costs climb in the wake of the US and Israel’s ongoing war with Iran, which entered a fragile ceasefire earlier in April. Although Iran announced on Friday that the strait of Hormuz had reopened, helping ease oil prices, fuel costs remain significantly elevated after weeks of disruption.

Published: April 17, 2026, 8:57 pm

Lewd messages linked to University of Michigan regent who led campaign against pro-Palestinian students

Jordan Acker, who pushed legal action against protesters, is running for re-election in race reflecting tensions on Israel

The University of Michigan regent Jordan Acker, who helped lead the university’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian students, appears to have made obscene sexual comments about a Democratic party strategist in a group chat, messages provided to the Guardian reveal. The Slack messages, attributed to Acker, also include lewd comments about a female U-M student and a picture of her with her friends.

The messages were shared with the Guardian just days before a heated primary convention election for two open U-M board of regents seats. The board is the university’s governing body, and the usually low-profile race is especially tense this year as pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian candidates compete for seats. The race has become a local flashpoint in the broader battle over criticism of Israel on campuses.

Published: April 17, 2026, 11:38 pm

Lead prosecutor on investigation into former CIA director no longer on case

Maria Medetis Long had expressed doubts over case of John Brennan, whose agency said Russia boosted Trump in 2016

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A federal prosecutor leading the investigation into former CIA director John Brennan is no longer working on the case after expressing reservations about it, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The prosecutor, Maria Medetis Long, informed attorneys involved in the case she was no longer handling it, according to CNN, which first reported she was leaving the case. Medetis Long is a career attorney serving as the chief of the national security division in the US attorney’s office for the southern district of Florida. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Published: April 17, 2026, 9:01 pm

Tufts University student targeted by Trump administration completes PhD

Rümeysa Öztürk, who faced deportation over pro-Palestinian op-ed, travels back to Turkey to begin career

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Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts University student who was targeted by the Trump administration last year in response to co-writing a pro-Palestinian op-ed, completed her doctorate in the US and traveled back to her native Turkey this week.

Öztürk was detained last year by immigration agents in Massachusetts, with video of the Tufts University student’s arrest going viral. She was one of many international students targeted by the Trump administration for pro-Palestinian speech and activism during widespread protests, which were especially active on US college campuses, against Israel’s war in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 deadly attack on southern Israel.

Published: April 17, 2026, 7:44 pm

New Jersey officials confirm World Cup transit prices: $150 by train, $225 to park

• Price hikes for MetLife Stadium travel prompted outcry

• Plans confirmed at Friday briefing include $80 bus option

• NJ governor Sherrill spars with Fifa over cost burden

New Jersey’s transit agency has confirmed it will charge $150 for a return ticket to World Cup matches at MetLife Stadium this summer.

The price for a round-trip ticket from New York’s Penn Station to MetLife Stadium is typically $12.90. Reports this week of the elevenfold increase were met with outcry from fans and sparked a back-and-forth between New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, and world football’s governing body, with costs mounting across the board, including parking priced as high as $225 at the mall adjacent to the stadium.

Published: April 17, 2026, 6:17 pm

Inside the CDC’s leadership vacuum: work at a ‘standstill’ and low morale as 80% of top posts remain vacant

Current and ex-officials at the CDC warn Americans’ health security in danger under RFK Jr’s direction

Fourteen months after Robert F Kennedy Jr was sworn in as US health secretary, the country’s prime public health agency over which he presides is in a state of disarray.

Eighty per cent of the top director positions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stand vacant, with no permanent leader to drive policies affecting the health of millions of Americans. No one is in place to coordinate the agency’s day-to-day work fighting infectious disease, combatting heart conditions or screening for cancer.

Published: April 17, 2026, 10:00 am

‘Almost like a Bond villain’: why Labour MPs expect Starmer to cling on as PM

While the Labour leader is deeply unpopular, several factors – including the Iran war – seem to be delaying his exit

It still feels improbable that the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, will face a formal challenge even if, as assumed, his Labour party performs disastrously in next month’s local elections. But for many of his MPs, the latest revelations about Peter Mandelson have emphasised that the question is simply one of when, not if.

“It does seems incredible that he didn’t know, but the problem is that it’s quite possible as well,” was the summary of one backbencher, in response to No 10’s insistence that no one had told the prime minister that his pick to be the UK ambassador to Washington had failed his security vetting.

Published: April 17, 2026, 4:11 pm

‘Popesplaining’ Vance out of depth in argument over whether Iran is a just war

Trump administration has riled head of Catholic church over use of theology to justify conflict in Iran

The contrast in experience between the two men disagreeing over war and theology was striking.

On the one side was Pope Leo XIV, the first North American to head the Catholic church and the first cleric from the Augustinian order, who this week visited the modern Algerian city where Saint Augustine once lived. For Leo, who wrote his doctoral thesis on Augustine’s ideas, it was the culmination of a lifelong intellectual interest.

Published: April 17, 2026, 9:00 am

Pop star boyfriend posting from Coachella, celebrity statesman, global brand: Justin Trudeau’s offbeat political afterlife

While Canadian prime ministers have taken staid routes after leaving office, Trudeau has chosen a different path

The downfall of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán prompted a flurry of reaction from progressive leaders around the world celebrating the end to an authoritarian regime. One statement stood out – not so much for the sentiment it expressed, but the setting in which it was issued.

“Hungarians voted for change and a renewed commitment to democratic institutions after years of erosion under Viktor Orbán,” wrote Justin Trudeau, Canada’s former prime minister – posting from the Coachella music festival, where he and his girlfriend, the American pop star Katy Perry, were watching Justin Bieber.

Published: April 17, 2026, 8:00 am

Why did Michelin snub St Paul in its guide to the best restaurants in the Great Lakes region?

Critics warn smaller and immigrant-run restaurants risk being overlooked as city-funded deal shapes dining map

When Michelin announced that it was expanding its world-renowned restaurant guide into the Great Lakes region of the United States, including Minneapolis, one prominent city was left off the map – Saint Paul, the state capital.

Despite being just 11 miles apart, the second half of Minnesota’s “Twin Cities” was absent from the highly anticipated announcement. The omission has raised concerns among food critics and locals that Saint Paul – and, more widely, smaller local restaurants in Minneapolis and elsewhere – could be left behind.

Published: April 17, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘Packaging evil into something funny’: is making fun of Trump now just ‘clownwashing’?

As the president’s second term has wrought new horrors, comedians reflect on whether humor can still ‘deflate the strongman’s image’

During Donald Trump’s first term, as his lies distorted reality and gaslighted Americans, Stephen Colbert said his goal was to remind his audience: “Hey, you’re not crazy.”

But watching political comedy during Trump’s second term – be it a deranged Saturday Night Live impression of a cabinet member, or a rapid-fire late-night monologue full of ICE jokes – it’s hard not to wonder: are we placating ourselves from the enormity of Trump-induced horror?

Published: April 17, 2026, 3:00 pm

Hacks finale review – this venomous satire used to be the height of comedy. But now … it isn’t

The last season of this once hugely funny comedy absolutely tears out of the blocks in its best outing in years. But it’s still not the show it once was – despite the brilliant performances

For a while there, Hacks represented the height of comedy. Actual funny comedy, as opposed to trauma-ridden half-hour dramas like The Bear. When it won an Emmy for best comedy in 2024, it felt like Hacks and Hacks alone was at the vanguard of proper comedy.

That seems like a while ago now. Since then, The Studio came along: another entertainment business satire, only one with bigger stars, better production values and sharper barbs. At last year’s Emmys, The Studio won everything in sight, while all Hacks could muster were a pair of trophies for Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, playing a rich but disconnected comedian and her put-upon writer respectively. So the question is this: can Hacks rally in its final season?

Published: April 17, 2026, 8:40 pm

Screenmaxxing: why Hollywood is supersizing the big screen experience

With Imax more popular than ever, a new way to watch movies – HDR by Barco – has been quietly rolling out but what difference does it really make?

At this year’s CinemaCon, an annual gathering where film studios show off their upcoming wares to excite the exhibitors they hope to showcase them, Disney announced a new way to see a movie, sort of: InfinityVision. Despite the cutesy Marvelized name, it’s not a superhero-specific experience; it’s a certification for premium large-format (PLF) auditoriums. The idea is that any InfinityVision-certified screen will adhere to or exceed standards – vaguely described so far – in size, sound quality, and picture brightness/clarity. There are supposedly 300 such screens already certified around the globe, though there doesn’t seem to be an actual list explaining which ones they are yet.

The practical reason for this additional layer of branding is that Disney’s Avengers: Doomsday is premiering in December on the same weekend as the third Dune movie, which has a deal to occupy coveted (and limited) Imax screens for several weeks. This essentially locks Earth’s mightiest heroes out of one of the marquee names in exhibition; InfinityVision seems intended to reassure viewers that their other options, presumably the various Dolby, RPX, and other branded PLF auditoriums that already exist, are as impressive as possible. Call it screenmaxxing.

Published: April 17, 2026, 4:58 pm

Roommates review – Netflix broken friendship comedy is a sweet and salty treat

The streamer has strangely kept this witty and detailed college comedy from critics but it’s far better than one has come to expect

The initial fruits borne from Adam Sandler’s early days deal with Netflix were largely rotten; empty-brained and dated comedies like The Ridiculous 6, The Do-Over and Sandy Wexler. But as Sandler matured, so did his decision-making and outside of his increasing attempts to work in smarter, more textured dramatic fare, his production company Happy Madison has found success by going sweet without risking a sugar crash.

His animated adventure Leo had real warmth and insight to it while his performance in the charmingly trad basketball drama Hustle was strong enough for many to see his lack of Oscar nomination as a cruel snub. But it was 2023’s coming-of-age comedy You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah that showed where his company’s most fertile future might lie, as shepherd to a younger generation of film-makers who want to tell stories about teens that don’t patronise or undervalue. Filling the film with roles for his family – wife and two daughters all in – might have seemed like one of the more obviously bleak signs of how nepotism has corroded Hollywood but, against all odds, it worked and he’s found another role for eldest Sadie in another winner, the bizarrely buried college comedy Roommates.

Published: April 17, 2026, 6:46 pm

Week in wildlife: a puffin bromance, blushing terrapins and goslings galore

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Published: April 17, 2026, 7:00 am

Inspirational success stories are great but is ADHD really a superpower for elite athletes? | Emma John

Researchers say mainstream framing of the condition as a characteristic for success can be invalidating for those who are struggling

Kirsty Brown is a keen golfer. “If I could just transport myself straight to the first tee, that would be amazing,” she says. “But getting there on time, remembering all my kit, making sure I’ve eaten before I play – all those aspects are more challenging than competing itself.” Brown, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), admits that can be hard to explain to coaches or teammates. “It doesn’t necessarily make sense to them – it doesn’t really make sense to me either.”

A researcher at the University of Birmingham, Brown is studying neurodivergent athletes in sport. And while plenty of well-known sportspeople now talk openly about their ADHD diagnoses, no one truly knows the condition’s impact on participation or performance. “There’s not a huge amount of research yet,” Brown says. “We have some case studies but in terms of data, we’re not there.”

Published: April 17, 2026, 7:00 am

After the latest Mandelson revelations, Starmer needs to get a good lawyer. Wasn’t he supposed to be one? | Jonathan Freedland

If only the PM had been the process-obsessed technocrat he was once painted as, this disaster wouldn’t have happened – and he wouldn’t be on the brink

Keir Starmer is dull and managerial, they said. He’s a process-obsessed technocrat, they said. He is, his opponents argued long before Starmer won a landslide election victory nearly two years ago, a bad choice for prime minister – indeed, unsuited to politics itself – because he is not so much a leader as a lawyer, animated less by ideology than by official documents and boring details.

If only.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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 17, 2026, 5:01 pm

Do prediction markets make money from other peoples’ misery? | Fiona Katauskas

You can bet on it

• See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here

Published: April 17, 2026, 3:00 pm

Sanctions don’t result in regime change. Whether against Iran or Russia, western countries need shrewder tactics | Simon Jenkins

Dissent cannot take hold in soil rendered barren by emigration and embargo. Political opposition needs academic and cultural exchange if it is to prosper

The chancellor of the exchequer and the IMF agree. Britain’s economy is about to take its greatest hit for decades. This is collateral damage from the US’s war on Iran and the closing of the strait of Hormuz – and will be made worse by sanctioning Gulf oil exports. Britain has already been weakened by four years of sanctions against Russia over Ukraine. Now its economic growth is to be crushed, its government’s popularity is plummeting and its prime minister may face removal.

This was what sanctions were supposed to do to the enemy, not to the UK. Their unprecedented severity was to teach Vladimir Putin the error of his ways. His friends were to plead with him to stop. Yet, in the years after sanctions took hold, Russia’s rate of economic growth was higher than Britain’s. Meanwhile, sanctions against Iran in the 2010s were meant to halt its nuclear programme. They appeared to encourage it. Now they are meant to undermine the Tehran regime and topple the ayatollahs. There seems to be little chance of that.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

Published: April 17, 2026, 12:19 pm

The Guardian view on Starmer and Mandelson: a story that doesn’t add up | Editorial

The prime minister’s explanation has shifted between being misled and admitting error, raising questions about vetting, accountability and what he knew

In February, the prime minister apologised to victims of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying he had “believed (Peter) Mandelson’s lies” before making him Britain’s ambassador to the US. By March, that account had shifted. Faced with evidence that he was warned the appointment posed a “reputational risk”, but gave the peer the job anyway, Sir Keir Starmer accepted on a trip to Belfast that he “made a mistake”.

On Thursday responsibility appears to have moved again – this time on to officials. Sir Olly Robbins, the top civil servant in the Foreign Office, was forced out after the Guardian reported that Lord Mandelson had been denied security clearance for the role. No 10 said it was not told. These are not complementary explanations. They are competing ones. Either Sir Keir was misled, ignored warnings, or was failed by the system.

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 17, 2026, 5:15 pm

Alycia Baumgardner v Bo Mi Re Shin: unified junior lightweight championship – live updates

• Baumgardner defends WBA, WBO and IBF belts at 130lb

• American headlines Jake Paul-promoted card at Garden

• Reach out to Bryan on Bluesky or by email

Hello and welcome to tonight’s unified 130lb title fight between Alycia Baumgardner and Bo Mi Re Shin. We’re ringside at the Theater at Madison Square Garden for what has been billed as both a title defense and a statement of intent for one of women’s boxing’s ascendent stars.

Baumgardner arrives in New York with three belts – the WBA, WBO and IBF junior lightweight titles – and a sense that this moment transcends the routine business of championship boxing. The 31-year-old Ohio native is the headline attraction of Most Valuable Promotions’ first US card, the nascent women’s platform launched by boxer-influencer Jake Paul – a venture designed to give the sport a regular, high-visibility platform on linear television through a multi-year media deal with ESPN.

Published: April 18, 2026, 2:54 am

NBA playoff predictions 2026: the winner, key players and dark horses

Will an Oklahoma City repeat end an NBA-record run of seven different champions in seven years? Our writers make their picks ahead of Saturday’s postseason tip-off

Wemby will no doubt be the answer to this question at some point in the (perhaps not-too-distant) future. But for now, I defer to those with at least some playoff experience. For my money, Jokić still reigns supreme as the best player alive, and for that reason, he’s my pick. CDL

Published: April 17, 2026, 10:00 am

San Diego Padres reportedly set for MLB-record $3.9bn sale to Chelsea co-owner

• Clearlake’s José E Feliciano, wife Kwanza Jones win bid

• Previous record for club was Cohen’s $2.42bn for Mets

• Everton owner Dan Friedkin said to be among finalists

The San Diego Padres are nearing a sale to a group led by José E Feliciano, co-founder of private equity firm Clearlake Capital and co-owner of Chelsea FC, and his wife, Kwanza Jones, for a Major League Baseball-record $3.9bn, according to multiple reports.

The Wall Street Journal and the Athletic reported on Friday that the group was closing in on a deal. The sale requires approval by 75% of MLB’s 30 owners. The reported price would surpass the $2.42bn Steve Cohen paid for the New York Mets in 2020.

Published: April 17, 2026, 4:45 pm

‘I’ve got no plans to move’: Cole Palmer on being happy at Chelsea and his World Cup ambitions

The Blues’ star talks candidly about treatment-room frustrations, transfer talk and how he’s learned to love living down south

There are two sides to Cole Palmer. There is the shy character who can fool you into thinking he has nothing much to say for himself. On the other hand there’s the artist with the ball at his feet. The player with the “Ice Cold” celebration copied by kids in playgrounds everywhere. The improviser who makes the price of a ticket worthwhile.

“I know what you’re saying,” Palmer replies as, on a sunny afternoon at Chelsea’s training ground, we talk about the contrast between his shy conversational style and his ability to make an impact on people when he steps on the pitch. “I don’t really say too much in general but when I’m on a pitch I try to. I feel like it’s two different personalities. Off the pitch it’s quiet. I find it hard to speak to new people. But when I’m on the pitch I feel it just comes freely.”

Published: April 17, 2026, 7:00 pm

LIV Golf ‘business as usual’ but chief admits rebel tour may need to raise money

• Scott O’Neil rejects claims LIV is close to collapse

• ‘Structural changes’ afoot, chief executive says

The LIV Golf chief executive, Scott O’Neil, has admitted the nascent golf league’s finances are “managed very tightly” and said structural changes are on the way that would probably mean they needed to raise money, but he remained adamant the league would not fold.

He was interviewed by LIV employees during the TV broadcast of the first round of the rebel tour’s Mexico City leg, a day after reports that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was to cut its funding for the league it helped launch in 2022.

Published: April 17, 2026, 10:26 am

Chess: Sindarov wins Candidates with record total, while Vaishali takes women’s event

The Uzbek 20-year-old won first prize unbeaten but his girlfriend, Bibisara Assaubayeva, finished second to the lowest seed in the Women’s Candidates

Javokhir Sindarov finished with a record total in the world championship Candidates in Pegeia, western Cyprus, as the 20-year-old from Uzbekistan won the competition with a record 10/14 total, 1.5 points clear of his nearest rival, Anish Giri. The Women’s Candidates was won by India’s 24-year-old Vaishali Rameshbabu, half a point ahead of Kazakhstan’s Bibisara Assaubayeva, who is also Sindarov’s girlfriend.

Sindarov dominated the field with a controlled display reminiscent of the old Soviet master Mikhail Botvinnik. His pre-game preparation was exceptional, several times accurately predicting what would appear on the board right into the endgame. On the rare occasions when he was under pressure, as in his second game against the world No 3 and US champion, Fabiano Caruana, his defensive technique was precise and assured.

Published: April 17, 2026, 7:00 am

‘Don’t you dare count us out’: KC women’s sports mogul hails US rugby double-header

Kansas City Current soccer co-owner Angie Long played the oval-ball game at college. Now she’s hosting a crunch game between the Eagles and Australia

Angie Long is co-owner with her husband Chris of the Kansas City Current, contenders in NWSL, proud occupants of the CPKC Stadium, built for the burgeoning world of women’s pro soccer. But on Friday night the venue will host a different sport, one Long fell for long ago. Rugby.

“I think we might be sold out,” Long said, of the US Eagles’ match-up with the Australian Wallaroos in a Pacific Four Series double-header, New Zealand facing Canada first.

Martin Pengelly writes about rugby in the US on Substack, at The National Maul.

Published: April 17, 2026, 10:00 am

Children ‘low-hanging fruit’ in fight to end trans care, official at pro-Trump thinktank says

America First Policy Institute, which boasts close ties to president, discussed transgender policy ‘reform’ at DC event

Children are the “low-hanging fruit” in a longer effort to end gender-affirming care for all Americans, an official at a Trump administration-aligned thinktank recently said.

Bans on medical transition comprise just one part of the larger, unprecedented assault on transgender rights mounted by a coordinated campaign of mostly conservative activists and policymakers in the US in recent years. So far, these restrictions have primarily affected minors. But leaders in the emboldened movement have begun to more openly admit their desire to attempt to end gender-affirming care for adults, too.

This article was produced in partnership with Documented, an investigative watchdog and journalism project. Phoebe Petrovic is a senior democracy researcher with Documented

Published: April 17, 2026, 11:00 am

Trump news at a glance: president celebrates strait of Hormuz reopening, though Iran officials warn they could close it again

Iran’s parliamentary speaker warned it would will shut the strait again if the US blockade continues, which Trump said would remain in place until the conflict was fully concluded – key US politics stories from 17 April at a glance

Iran’s foreign minister has said that the strait of Hormuz is now fully open to commercial vessels, reinforcing hopes for an eventual end to the war in the Middle East and sending oil prices tumbling.

In a barrage of social media posts, Donald Trump claimed on Friday that Iran had agreed never to close the strategic waterway again, hailing “A GREAT AND BRILLIANT DAY FOR THE WORLD!”

Published: April 18, 2026, 1:00 am

Family of US man who died after officer shoved knee into back sues police

Charles Adair’s relatives urge video to be made public after Kansas officer charged with second-degree murder

Relatives of a man whom investigators determined died after a Kansas sheriff’s deputy shoved his knee into the cuffed man’s back for a minute and 26 seconds have filed a federal lawsuit.

Attorneys for the family of Charles Adair renewed their demand on Friday that video of what happened be released publicly in announcing the wrongful death lawsuit.

Published: April 17, 2026, 11:42 pm

Iron will: Australia’s richest person counts the cost as court orders she share mining millions with rival family

Gina Rinehart, who’s been called Australia’s ‘female Donald Trump’, has long fought claims from the family of her father’s business partner – as well as her own children

• Full Story podcast: How Gina Rinehart lost hundreds of millions of dollars in court

Australia’s richest person is reeling after a landmark court decision found her company must pay royalties worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a rival mining dynasty.

Gina Rinehart, a multibillionaire with political connections in both the White House and the Australian parliament, has been described by members of the US conservative movement as “a female Donald Trump”. The 72-year-old, who inherited her father’s iron ore empire in Australia’s Pilbara region, has fought multiple claims against the family company Hancock Prospecting that were first launched in 2010.

Published: April 18, 2026, 2:00 am

Civil lawsuit against Alec Baldwin over 2021 Rust film set shooting to go to trial

Actor accused of acting negligently after firing loaded gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed

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A judge in Los Angeles has ruled that a civil lawsuit accusing Alec Baldwin of acting negligently in the deadly 2021 shooting on the set of his western film Rust can proceed to trial.

According to Variety, the superior court judge Maurice Leiter issued a summary judgment on Friday allowing the case to move forward. Leiter’s ruling – obtained by the outlet – said that “a reasonable jury could find that Mr Baldwin recklessly disregarded the probability that pointing a gun in the direction of someone, with the finger on the trigger, would cause emotional distress”.

Published: April 17, 2026, 8:28 pm

Arizona judge backs key Republican election official in voting board fight

Ruling in favor of Justin Heap could have implications in one of country’s most prominent battleground states

The top election official in Arizona’s most populous county will be given more authority in running elections after a judge sided with his office in a prolonged legal fight with the local board that shares responsibility for overseeing the vote.

The decision could have broad implications in one of the nation’s most prominent battleground states, which will have several high-profile races this fall. Maricopa county, which includes Phoenix, has been roiled by election conspiracy theorists ever since Donald Trump lost the state to Joe Biden in 2020.

Published: April 17, 2026, 7:51 pm

NFL reporter rescues man from car hours after resigning amid investigation

Dianna Russini, who was photographed with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, climbed on to Jeep to pull out man and dog

A day after resigning from the Athletic amid an internal investigation into photos of her and New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, the NFL reporter Dianna Russini rescued an older man and a dog from an overturned car in New Jersey.

Russini’s actions in the aftermath of a car crash on Wednesday in Wyckoff, New Jersey, were confirmed by a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Page Six on Friday first reported on the wreck and Russini’s intervention, 10 days after the celebrity news outlet exclusively published the photos of Russini and Vrabel.

Published: April 17, 2026, 10:44 pm

California coffee chain reinstates policy on Pride flags after swift backlash

Petition started by workers gained more than 7,300 signatures after CEO said flags would be removed

A San Francisco-based coffee chain that sparked backlash with a policy to remove Pride flags from their stores has reversed its decision over a week later.

“I made a mistake and I am sincerely sorry,” said Mahesh Sadarangani, the chief executive of Philz Coffee, in a statement on Friday. “The Pride flag is a symbol of safety and belonging for people who don’t always find that in the world, and that is not something I want to take away from anyone who walks into a Philz.”

Published: April 17, 2026, 9:58 pm

Colombia convenes climate ‘coalition of the willing’ to break global fossil fuel deadlock

Santa Marta conference born out of frustration at Cop summits, where renewable progress has been stalled by major polluters

Everybody knows fossil fuels cause climate breakdown, but until recently, mention of them was all but erased from the annual UN climate summits. Last year, two weeks of discussions ended without fossil fuels being mentioned in the final outcome.

Frustration with those talks led a small developing country with a large fossil fuel sector – Colombia, the largest coal and fourth biggest oil exporter in the Americas – to rewrite the rules. With co-convener the Netherlands, and support from more than 50 countries, Colombia will host a groundbreaking new global conference this month to begin the long-awaited “transition away from fossil fuels”.

Published: April 17, 2026, 8:00 am

US Senate repeals Biden-era ban on mining near Minnesota wilderness area

Measure passes 50-49 to overturn a 20-year ban on mining near renowned Boundary Waters canoe area wilderness

The US Senate narrowly voted on Thursday to overturn a ban on mining near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters canoe area wilderness, an enormous complex of interconnected lakes, rivers and forests that is among the most visited wild areas in the US.

The resolution passed 50-49 to repeal a 20-year moratorium imposed by Joe Biden’s administration in 2023 on mining across the 225,000 acres (91,000 hectares) in the Superior national forest.

Published: April 17, 2026, 2:56 pm

Supreme court sides with oil and gas firms in Louisiana coastal damage fight

8-0 ruling gives companies new day in federal court after firms including Chevron ordered to pay millions for cleanup

The supreme court handed a win on Friday to oil and gas companies fighting lawsuits over coastal land loss and environmental degradation in Louisiana.

The 8-0 procedural decision gives the companies a new day in federal court after a state jury ordered Chevron to pay upward of $740m to clean up damage to the state’s coastline, one of multiple similar lawsuits.

Published: April 17, 2026, 4:40 pm

Rainwater harvesting and eco-gardens: how one Colombian neighbourhood helped a whole city plan for climate change

From rainwater harvesting to tree nurseries, communities in Medellín are taking steps to increase their landslide and flooding resilience

In his home on a steep hillside in the neighbourhood of Golondrinas in Medellín, Róbinson Velásquez Cartagena stands proudly next to two large tanks of water – a rainwater harvesting system he designed and built to help reduce the risk of flooding and landslides.

It is one of the nature-based solutions that Velásquez and others in the community have proposed as part of a disaster risk and climate crisis adaptation plan for Comuna 8, a growing informal settlement of 150,000 people in Colombia’s second-largest city.

Published: April 17, 2026, 10:00 am

ICE’s hiring spree led to influx of recruits with questionable qualifications, investigation shows

Patchy employment records, bankruptcies and allegations of wrongdoing blemish the records of several new recruits

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Rapid recruitment and expansion by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has led to an influx of employees with questionable qualifications, an investigation has found.

The track records of some of the new recruits amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda stand out – and not in a good way.

Published: April 17, 2026, 1:52 pm

Employees at first ever Starbucks store seek to unionize amid fight for contract

Store opened in 1971 in Seattle’s Pike Place Market joins growing unionization campaign across the coffee chain

Workers at the historic first Starbucks store are seeking to unionize as the coffee retail giant and its union appear stalemated over their first contract.

The first Starbucks store opened in 1971 in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, and the store serves as a tourist site in Seattle.

Published: April 17, 2026, 11:00 am

Trump’s pardons are costing shooting survivors millions

A Trace analysis found that revenue from fining white-collar criminals is drying up – due to presidential pardons

This story was originally published by the Trace, a non-profit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here.

Since his return to office last year, Donald Trump has pardoned dozens of white-collar criminals. He’s also forgiven their fines, penalties and restitution, to the tune of billions. Some of that revenue was supposed to go to a fund to help victims of violent crime – and the organizations that serve them are feeling the pinch.

Published: April 17, 2026, 10:00 am

D4vd arrested on suspicion of killing teen girl whose body was found in his Tesla

Musician, born David Anthony Burke, arrested in Los Angeles over the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who went missing in 2024

R&B singer D4vd has been arrested in connection with the killing of a teenage girl whose severely decomposed body was found in his Tesla, Los Angeles police said on Thursday.

The 21-year-old musician, who was born David Anthony Burke, is being held without bail, according to city authorities.

Published: April 17, 2026, 4:20 am

Kenyan firm sacks more than 1,000 workers after losing Meta contract

Meta paused work with Sama last month after allegations about staff viewing private scenes filmed by smart glasses

More than 1,000 low-paid workers in Kenya have been abruptly sacked by an outsourcing company contracted by Meta, in what activists said was a shocking move exposing the precariousness of tech jobs in the global south.

Sama, a company based in Nairobi to which Meta outsourced content moderation and AI training work, announced on Thursday that the workers were being laid off after Meta terminated a contract.

Published: April 17, 2026, 4:59 pm

India fails to pass bill to boost women’s representation after delimitation row

Opposition accuses Narendra Modi government of using quotas as cover for redrawing electoral map

The Indian government has failed to pass a bill to increase female representation in parliament after being accused of using the plan as a guise to redraw the country’s electoral map.

It was the first time in 12 years in power that a constitutional amendment proposed by Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government was not passed by parliament.

Published: April 17, 2026, 5:28 pm

Daniel Kinahan, alleged leader of Irish organised crime group, arrested in UAE

Arrest by Dubai police comes as Irish authorities issue warrant related to alleged organised crime offences

Daniel Kinahan, alleged to be the leader of the Kinahan organised crime group, has been arrested in the United Arab Emirates.

Irish police said they were aware of the arrest of a man in his late 40s, on foot of an arrest warrant issued by the Irish courts in relation to alleged serious organised crime offences.

Published: April 17, 2026, 6:54 pm

‘It feels like death is certain’: lives and limbs lost to crocodile attacks on the banks of Kenya’s rising Lake Turkana

Seven deaths and 15 injuries have been recorded in the past year as crocodiles move their habitats closer to human settlements

• Warning: contains graphic descriptions of crocodile attacks

Ng’ikalei Loito was walking out of the warm waters of Lake Turkana on a sunny afternoon, having just finished swimming with her two sisters-in-law, when she suddenly felt the crushing force of a crocodile’s bite on her legs.

In excruciating pain, she instinctively clung to a partially submerged tree that was within reach and screamed for help, as the crocodile tried to drag her under the water.

Ng’ikalei Loito sits on her tricycle outside her house in Kalokol town in Turkana

Published: April 17, 2026, 4:00 am

Olivia Rodrigo: Drop Dead review – a maximalist rush of infatuation that’s just a bauble short of festive

(Geffen)
On this giddy first taste of the US pop star’s third album, she sets aside her rock bona fides to revel in the opulent flush of a crush-come-true. But why does it seem so doomed?

Is there anything better than an ink-fresh pop lyric so nailed-on that you can’t believe 60 years of songwriters didn’t get there first? Or like, at least 20, ever since Googling crushes became an entirely normal component of modern romance: “One night I was bored in bed / And stalked you on the internet,” Olivia Rodrigo sings on her comeback single, a casual admission with its own innate melody destined in turn to stalk listeners’ brains all summer. Her perfect couplet heralds an ecstatic chorus about the giddy terror of getting exactly what you wanted, exactly how you wanted it, and barely being able to breathe or stifle puking: “The most alive I’ve ever been / But kiss me and I might drop dead!”

Acute, obsessive, unsparing songs about romance, always with a self-aware handle on their intensity – or a wink at how lovestruck girls get labelled “crazy” – have become Rodrigo’s trademark. (She calls her benign form of online stalking “feminine intuition”.) Now 23, she broke out as a pop star in 2021, after a lifetime as a Disney Channel fixture, and pulled off one of the quickest, most effective and indelible acts of redefinition of any musician to emerge from that entertainment monolith. (Even her pop peer and fellow Disney alum Sabrina Carpenter took five albums to find success on her terms.) Rodrigo’s debut single proper, Drivers License, was an epic heartbreak ballad, though the sticking points of her debut album, Sour, were the pop-punk ragers. She convincingly translated that into her second album, 2023’s Guts, which drew on the influence of her mum’s riot grrrl records; she scored mentorship from St Vincent, brought the Breeders to support her on tour and got the Cure’s Robert Smith to duet with her when she headlined Glastonbury in 2025.

Published: April 17, 2026, 10:13 am

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Crisis in the Middle East, Russian strikes in Kyiv, Orthodox Easter and Karol G at Coachella – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Published: April 17, 2026, 6:38 pm

I’ll make up a whopper you can’t refuse! Why do we love to believe cinema’s best lines were improvised?

From The Godfather to Saltburn, the internet is awash with claims that actors are ditching the script and making it up as they go along. What’s behind our desire to invest in these behind-the-scenes ‘secrets’?

Fun fact: in the history of cinema, there has never been a single script. It is a pervasive myth that film-making requires “screenplays” – in fact, most scenes are made up on the spot. Performers simply do whatever comes to mind and hope the camera is perfectly positioned to capture it; they slap their colleagues or start to break-dance on a whim. Did you know that many actors are not even acting? The shock on their faces is real, because usually they have no idea what’s going to happen next.

This is the world according to YouTube shorts, X posts and Instagram memes. Across the internet, content creators are falsely claiming that some of cinema’s most famous scenes were improvised. Al Pacino giving John Cazale the kiss of death in The Godfather II? Made up on the spot. Heath Ledger’s frustration at the delayed hospital explosion in The Dark Knight? His real reaction! And that mother-daughter fight in Mermaids? Winona Ryder “delivered a roast so lethal that Cher had to improvise the slap”.

Published: April 17, 2026, 7:00 am

A Gorilla Story: Told By David Attenborough review – like one of our last meetings with an adored relative

The naturalist revisits the family of apes he had a goosebump-inducingly famous encounter with 50 years ago. You’ll find yourself overcome with awe

The most famous sequence in all of wildlife film-making happened 48 years ago. During the filming of Life on Earth – the groundbreaking BBC show that set the blueprint of nature programming as we know it today – David Attenborough crept through the forests of Rwanda, and unexpectedly found himself being playfully set upon by a family of gorillas. As they clambered over him, Attenborough turned to camera and said: “There is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance with a gorilla than with any other animal I know.”

Almost half a century on, the sequence still has the power to give you goosebumps. This is possibly why it has formed the backbone of a new documentary. A Gorilla Story is a much starrier affair than its predecessor – it was directed by the Oscar-winning James Reed and boasts Leonardo DiCaprio as an executive producer – but its conceit is fascinating: after all this time, how are those same gorillas doing?

Published: April 17, 2026, 7:01 am

Couture review – Angelina Jolie’s courageously personal turn adds depth to fashion-world drama

Jolie has star power as an American film-maker who gets diagnosed with breast cancer while filming in a blandly drawn Paris fashion show

As this film’s producer-star, Angelina Jolie shows honesty and courage in tackling a story that so closely mirrors her own experience of having a double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer. But sadly, the film itself feels specious and shallow, insisting with bland and weirdly humourless confidence on the glamorous importance of the fashion world in which it is set.

Jolie’s character, Maxine, is an American indie film-maker just arrived in Paris, having been picked to direct the opening short movie for a super-prestigious fashion show. Her character is first-among-equals in the ensemble cast. Anyier Anei is Ada, a fledgling model from South Sudan who is to be the show’s star; Ella Rumpf plays makeup artist and would-be writer Angèle, trying to convert her experiences into an edgy fictionalised memoir; Louis Garrel smoulders and frowns as only he can as Anton, the first assistant director on Maxine’s film; and Vincent Lindon is the rumpled, caring Dr Hansen, who has the unhappy task of telling Maxine that his American colleague has passed on to him the results of her recent biopsy, and that she has breast cancer. (He sadly watches her walking away down the pavement from his high window after their consultation, while smoking a pensive cigarette.)

Published: April 17, 2026, 8:00 am

Proof review – Ayo Edebiri struggles but Kara Young soars in Broadway revival

Booth Theatre, New York

The Bear star and Don Cheadle are lost in a new take on David Auburn’s family drama but a standout performance from the two-time Tony winner does some heavy lifting

If one was a theater student in the early 2000s, there is a good chance one encountered David Auburn’s Pulitzer-winning play, Proof, a work of tidy structure, elegant rhyme and, not for nothing, commercial appeal. (For theater, anyway.) Auburn carefully calibrates the funny with the sad, balances credible realism with fugues of understated poetry. It was once described to me as a perfect play, in the formal sense, a template from which any budding playwright could draw inspiration should they want to write something smart but accessible, and endlessly producible. There’s even a grabby cliffhanger at the end of act one.

The sturdiness of Auburn’s construction can, it turns out, stand up to a lot. Evidence of that comes in the form of the director Thomas Kail’s new Broadway production, the first such revival in the play’s history and one that seriously tries its integrity. That the house is still standing at the end is a mighty testament to Auburn’s ingenious (and ingeniously simple) design.

Published: April 17, 2026, 2:00 am

Add to playlist: the sweaty, unvarnished electropop of Punchbag and the week’s best new tracks

The sibling duo’s follow-up EP spikes their off-kilter pop with new darkness, adding atmospheric balladry to their glorious racket

From South London
Recommended if you like Charli xcx, Confidence Man, Klaxons
Up next UK tour starts 21 April

If this was April 2008, Punchbag, AKA south London siblings Clara and Anders Bach, would be headlining an NME tour alongside Alphabeat and Frankmusik, while the Popjustice forum would have hailed them as the new face of “wonky pop”. The sonic calling cards of that ramshackle iPod-era micro-genre – off-kilter, unvarnished electropop piled high with myriad other genres – were streaked across Punchbag’s debut single Fuck It. A sweaty riot of 90s rave, maximalist bass and Clara’s spit-soaked vocals, it felt tailor-made for soundtracking an awkward snog on Skins. Last May it was joined by three other frantic bangers on the duo’s debut EP, I’m Not Your Punchbag, the highlight of which, You Used to Be So Sexy, sounds like a GarageBand-produced the Veronicas had they grown up in east London as opposed to Brisbane.

Published: April 17, 2026, 11:00 am

Lucy Liyou: Mr Cobra review – an arresting trip through the volatile emotions of a predatory relationship

(Orange Milk)
The Korean American musician explores the unease and alarm of power imbalance using skittish melodies, nursery rhymes – and an unexpected Taylor Swift sample

Mr Cobra opens with Korean American experimental musician Lucy Liyou’s central character, Babygirl, eerily beckoning her lover while piano shrapnel assaults a barren canvas. Over the course of the record, Liyou’s textures swell and dissipate, swerving into disco cuts and a Taylor Swift skit, then collapsing into farmyard sounds and text-to-speech streams of consciousness. This adaptation of Liyou’s solo music-theatre piece, dissecting a lustful relationship with a predator, turned into what she calls a record “about shame”. Its clearest theme is of desire’s power to corrode and enthral, but through her semi-autobiographical characters Liyou covers volatile emotional terrain – somethingher music encompasses with a mix of pathos, alarm and distance, and little interest in comforting resolution.

Liyou’s commentary on agency in abusive relationships is particularly insightful in its unease as Babygirl undergoes rapid switches in motivation. Her submissive desires on Constrictor (Haha) are drenched in cold water when she suddenly becomes repulsed on Old MacDonald Had a Charm – yet, by the end of the track she’s back to flirting. Liyou has often toyed with celebrity culture (her name deliberately misspells that of the film star): on Romeopathy, Swift’s Love Story becomes a needy appeal for affection, asking Mr Cobra repeatedly to “just say yes” to her. Grabby moments like this, the nursery rhymes and the disco breaks can overshadow the allure of the album’s nuanced chaos, though they’re all part of the spirit of this smart, playful release from a musician of abundant talents.

Published: April 17, 2026, 8:00 am

Various artists: Asili ya Mama review – Tanzanian field recordings tell women’s stories with an energetic trill

(Hukwe Zawose Foundation)
These stories of family bonds capture traditional music that’s equal parts rhythmic, melodic and harmonic, and rarely heard outside Indigenous communities

Folk song collecting by women has an illustrious history, but also an exciting present, as this set of 10 energetic Tanzanian field recordings demonstrates. Put together by documentarian Ruth Ndeto and musician Msafiri Zawose (brother of Pendo from the brilliant Zawose Queens, and son of the late folk pioneer Hukwe), Asili ya Mama (Origin of Mother) showcases the rhythmic, melodic and harmonic invention of Wagogo, Waluguru and Wasambaa women. Here are songs that have “carried culture and music in everyday life”, say the liner notes, while rarely being heard beyond their communities.

Almost in counterpoint to the croak of passing birds, a brisk female singer kicks off the album opener, Baba Mwenda, a storytelling song warning against greed. Other women join her in unison, as do traditional shakers and tin drums, with a bubbling, playful defiance. Wedding song Chamsola comes next, driven by the resonant ring of a mheme drum and harmonies full of shimmering opacity, like a midnight-blue sea, then Chamwiloa, a fast-paced song about the formal union of families after marriage, which races towards its conclusion with percussive intensity.

Published: April 17, 2026, 7:30 am

The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

The Keeper by Tana French; The Kindness of Strangers by Emma Garman; Mrs Shim Is a Killer by Kang Jiyoung; A Killer in the Family by Amin Ahmad; The Drowning Place by Sarah Hilary

The Keeper by Tana French (Viking, £16.99)
The final book in French’s Cal Hooper trilogy sees the retired Chicago detective drawn into a power struggle for the future of the small Irish town he has made his home. Ardnakelty is a place where everyone is interconnected, with grudges and loyalties lasting for generations, and Hooper, now engaged to local widow Lena and mentor to 16-year-old Trey, is becoming a part of its fabric. When the body of Rachel Holohan, girlfriend of the son of local bigshot Tommy Moynihan, is recovered from the river, the consensus is suicide, but Trey convinces Hooper to investigate. Tommy doesn’t like people interfering in his business, especially when it emerges that Rachel was concerned about his plans for the town. An immersive, slow-burn of a book, as much about the march of time and the inevitably changing nature of Irish rural life as it is about solving a crime, The Keeper is dense, compelling and superbly atmospheric.

The Kindness of Strangers by Emma Garman (Virago, £20)
Set in a Chelsea boarding house in 1953, Garman’s debut novel opens with Jimmy Sullivan – who “wore spiv’s shoes and spoke in unmistakable Cockney tones” – bleeding to death under the dispassionate gaze of the landlady and her lodgers. The big Victorian house, presided over by bohemian literary widow Honor Wilson, is home to a debutante fallen on hard times, a wannabe writer, a young cinema usher with social aspirations, and a Jewish poet who managed to escape Hitler but lost his wife and child in the process. All have secrets, but none more than Honor herself, and the arrival of Jimmy, who claims to be the son of an old family retainer, threatens them all. This is not only an excellent mystery, but an evocative portrayal of a group of people displaced socially and geographically by war and its aftermath, with the moral and topographical landscape of 1950s London superbly rendered.

Published: April 17, 2026, 11:00 am

The Dog’s Gaze by Thomas Laqueur review – the art of the canine, from Velázquez to Picasso

A clever and beautiful survey of dogs in painting, with a brilliant interpretation of their role at its heart

Thirty-five thousand years ago, in the Ardèche region of France, Paleolithic artists drew a spectacular bestiary on the walls of the Chauvet cave. Their focus was apex predators, so there were lots of lions, as well as mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses. Dogs were nowhere to be seen, and yet in the soft sediment on the limestone floor of the cave, there are traces of canid pawprints next to human footprints. Two fellow creatures, most likely a boy and a dog, stood together, about 10,000 years after the art was made, looking up at the walls in wonder. Here was a moment of shared contemplation, followed perhaps by a glance to see the other’s reaction.

In this luminous book, the American cultural historian Thomas Laqueur explores what he calls “the dog’s gaze”. The dog was the first animal to live companionably with humans, and Laqueur argues that this marks the boundary between nature and culture. It is this threshold status that has, in turn, qualified the dog to play a rich, symbolic part in western art. Just having dogs in a picture – snuffling for picnic crumbs in Seurat’s La Grande Jatte or trooping home in Bruegel the Elder’s Hunters in the Snow – becomes a way for an artist to pack an image with extra resonance and second-order meaning.

Published: April 17, 2026, 6:00 am

Clair Obscur and Dispatch share top honours at Bafta games awards

Role-playing adventure and superhero comedy among big winners on a varied night in London

With 12 nominations, acclaimed role-playing adventure Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was expected to be the runaway success at the 2026 Bafta games awards, held in London on Friday evening.

And while it couldn’t quite match its nine wins at the Game Awards back in December, it was still the joint biggest winner on the night, taking best game and debut game as well as the performer in a leading role award for Jennifer English.

Published: April 17, 2026, 10:11 pm

Replaced review – nostalgic cyberpunk tribute has few ideas of its own

PC, Xbox; Sad Cat Studios
This pulpy sci-fi thriller is a beautiful, if deferential, homage to the genre greats, with a poignant real-world echo

For all of cyberpunk’s cautionary tales of shady corporations and transhumanist folly, it is the genre’s arresting imagery that looms largest in the pop culture imagination. Petroleum flares light up the perpetually rainy Los Angeles of Blade Runner; in the novel Neuromancer, the sky is the “colour of television, tuned to a dead channel”.

Replaced, a new 2D action-platformer from Belarus-based outfit Sad Cat Studios, leans into the steel and sprawl that the genre is famed for. The game also offers a wrinkle to cyberpunk’s longstanding, somewhat overfamiliar visual palette: it floods the screen with softly diffusing sepia and warm primary colours, particularly in the densely populated residential areas you’re able to explore. The mood is comforting rather than ominous, cosy rather than clinical, as if this dystopian sci-fi has been touched by an unlikely hand – that of cottagecore godfather Thomas Kinkade.

Replaced is out now; £16.99/$19.99

Published: April 17, 2026, 7:30 am

A statue of Queen Victoria, memorial trees and a swimming pool: Judi Dench’s garden – in eight poignant items

The storied actor has spent years campaigning to protect green spaces. She invites us into her Surrey sanctuary, where each tree represents a lost loved one

A visit to Dame Judi Dench’s garden in Surrey is bittersweet. The 2.4-hectare (six-acre) plot contains enough trees – about 100 – to count as an arboretum. Among them is a carpet of wild garlic and a wildlife pond from which rabbits like to sip. But each of these trees represents someone she knew who has died. As her eyesight has nearly gone, Dench, who features in the latest episode of the Royal Horticulture Society’s new podcast, Roots, navigates her way around the garden via memories and smell. Here, she shares her stories of the garden and discusses the items that mean the most to her.

Published: April 17, 2026, 12:24 pm

Sony world photography awards 2026 – in pictures

The Sony world photography awards announce the four overall winners of the 2026 competitions: professional, open, student and youth. Citlali Fabián receives the prestigious photographer of the year title, and 10 category winners for the professional competition are announced, whilst Joel Meyerowitz is honoured as 2026 outstanding contribution to photography recipient

• Exhibition at Somerset House, London from 17 April - 4 May 2026

Published: April 17, 2026, 6:00 am

Experience: I won the world’s deepest underground marathon

I tried not to think about the 1,300 metres of solid rock over my head

Running has always been a passion of mine. I started as a child in the Yorkshire Dales, moving to cross-country at university, then graduating to marathons. I loved the challenge. After my wife, Stephanie, and I married in 2012, and went on to have two daughters, Grace and Rose, I still ran for pleasure, but competitive events took a back seat as I focused on my family and career.

Then one day I heard about a marathon my company had been invited to join. It had been over 10 years since my last big race, but I put my name forward. “I’m surprised,” a colleague said. “You do realise it’s totally underground?” It turned out the race was in a Swedish zinc mine, 1,120 metres below sea level. That made it the world’s deepest marathon, and everyone who completed it would be a Guinness World Record holder.

Published: April 17, 2026, 4:00 am

True blue: what to wear with classic straight leg jeans

Got denim overwhelm? Go back to basics with a simple pair of straight leg jeans

Published: April 17, 2026, 5:00 am

‘The antidote to Brat’ – why pointelle is having a moment

Once the preserve of childhood underwear, the patterned knit is now bringing nostalgia and comfort to adults in a fast-changing, unpredictable world

In this very on-brand April, where sun and showers jostle for supremacy and a chill wind is making 16C feel like 9C, you might have spotted pointelle popping up everywhere. On her recent world tour, Rosalía appeared on stage in Paris wearing a pointelle bodysuit. Then Sabrina Carpenter appeared on the cover of Perfect magazine hanging backwards off a bed wearing cyan eyeshadow and a pointelle underwear set. It’s peeping out from underneath shirts and jumpers in air-conditioned offices and on buses. For spring, the heritage knitwear brand Herd is offering “featherlight yet warm” jumpers in its signature pointelle. John Lewis, which said yesterday that online searches for pointelle were up 60% week on week, is selling bandana-scarves and pyjamas made of the same material.

The fabric, more associated with girls’ vests, thermal-wear and underwear, is, according to Merriam-Webster, “an openwork design (as in knitted fabric) typically in the shape of chevrons”. Sometimes peppered with hearts, florals, diamonds or zigzags instead, you probably had a pair of pointelle ankle socks, possibly with a little cotton ruffle. Or maybe you remember that era in the 00s when Whistles churned out lacey pointelle camisoles that grazed bellybuttons inches above Juicy Couture track bottoms.

Published: April 17, 2026, 6:00 am

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I am standing across the street from a five-star hotel in Sydney’s eastern suburbs wearing sunglasses and a large hat like a low-budget private detective.

My noble aim is to spot Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, or at the very least scope out the exclusive women’s wellness retreat – shrouded in mystery – where she is slated to appear on the final day of her and Harry’s whirlwind four-day trip down under.

Published: April 17, 2026, 8:47 am

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