Liverpool v Fulham: Premier League – live

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3 min Both teams have started in a 4-2-3-1 formation as expected.

1 min Fulham kick off from left to right as we watch. The home fans launch straight into a song about Andy Robertson, who announced this week that he will leave the club this summer. £8m he cost.

Published: April 11, 2026, 5:51 pm

‘It holds a lot of memories’: the push to save a beloved New York dive bar

Jimmy’s Corner, opened by former boxer Jimmy Glenn in 1971, is a vestige of an older New York – and its loyal patrons are fighting to protect it

On Friday morning, David Gladman was looking at tables in the back of Jimmy’s Corner, the Times Square dive bar that has served up beers for more than 50 years.

The table tops are covered with photographs, some dating back to the 70s, with yellowing laminate over the top. Gladman used the torch on his phone to scour the pictures.

Published: April 11, 2026, 11:00 am

‘Casual without being sloppy’: why flannel shirts are making a comeback

From catwalk versions to online vintage finds, the workwear staple is being recast as a marker of laidback cool

In many wardrobes, the thick, checked shirt is usually found among the gardening clothes, or it might be worn as an extra layer on a bitterly cold day. But, in 2026, for the first time since the 90s, it’s becoming a bona fide fashion item.

Flannel shirts have recently been worn by fashion editors and stylists on the front row, by the models Adwoa Aboah and Emily Ratajkowski and the Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola. Brands including Marni, Chloé and Chanel had versions in their recent shows. And more significantly, this week comes the much anticipated new series of the Gen Z drama Euphoria, stills from which show Jacob Elordi’s character, Nate Jacobs, wearing a Bottega Veneta “flannel” shirt made of leather. Originally from the spring/summer 2023 collection, and worn by Kate Moss on the catwalk, it costs £4,600 in the shops.

Published: April 11, 2026, 1:00 pm

Celebrity on celebrity: are we losing the art of the big star interview?

The biggest names in and out of Hollywood are choosing to be interviewed by their peers rather than journalists, leaving many more revealing questions on the table

We live in a time where ultra-rich businesspeople have accrued more wealth and power than ever, creating a growing sentiment that they ought to be held to account, no doubt exacerbated by the fact that a wealthy businessman is in his second self-enriching term in the US presidency. So naturally, CNN, Donald Trump’s supposed nemesis, has figured out the best way to use their resources to better interrogate this elevated class: by letting them interview each other about their businesses. The 1 on 1 is named not for an actual journalist going up against a major business leader; they would probably never agree to that. So instead, CEOs can “grill” each other about whatever they mutually agree are the correct things to ask fellow elites. A spokesperson says these conversations will be “refreshingly direct”. Refreshing to who, exactly, is not specified, but you can take a guess.

This is disappointing but also inevitable. Interviews, especially on-camera interviews with people not directly involved with politics, have increasingly become all-subject, no-perspective affairs, starting from the ground zero of the entertainment industry – a leader in content-light mutual admiration. For a splashy new Vogue piece, for example, the journalist whose byline is affixed to a conversation featuring Meryl Streep and Anna Wintour, tied to the release of The Devil Wears Prada 2, takes the fly-on-the-wall version of journalism to an extreme: the “moderator” of this conversation is Greta Gerwig, Streep and Wintour’s fellow celeb. Chloe Malle, the writer and Wintour’s successor as Vogue editor, meanwhile, compares herself to a “court stenographer” without mentioning that in courts, typically the lawyers and judge aren’t all on the same team. There’s no byline at all on the introduction to another recent piece where Marc Jacobs – finally, a leg up for this underappreciated figure! – interviews Sabrina Carpenter. Presumably someone else was actually in the room with them – unless Jacobs brought his own recorder, did his own transcriptions and anonymously wrote that intro. Journalists, apparently, should be neither particularly seen nor heard.

Published: April 11, 2026, 9:00 am

‘It has your name on it, but I don’t think it’s you’: how AI is impersonating musicians on Spotify

Fraudulent music streams have long been a scourge for the industry, but experts say generative AI has supercharged it

Jason Moran, a renowned jazz composer and pianist, got a strange call from a friend last month. The friend, bassist Burniss Earl Travis, was curious about Moran’s new record that he saw on the music streaming service Spotify.

“It has your name on it,” Travis told him. “But I don’t think it’s you.”

Published: April 11, 2026, 12:00 pm

Blind date: ‘She claimed she was usually shy. I wouldn’t have guessed’

Jack, 31, a nature consultant, meets Heather, 23, who works in marketing for a homelessness charity

What were you hoping for?
A nice evening, to meet someone new and see what type of person I would be matched up with.

Published: April 11, 2026, 5:00 am

Middle East crisis live: Iran peace talks under way as Trump claims US has begun clearing mines in strait of Hormuz

Both US and Iranian media report peace talks have now begun in Islamabad

• US officials claim Iran unable to find mines it laid in strait of Hormuz

The UK will host a strait of Hormuz meeting next week, bringing together multiple countries aiming to restore free movement of ships through the strait, which has been blockaded by Iran since the beginning of the war and inflicted heavy damage on the global economy.

A British official told AP that the meeting will oppose the idea of tolls being charged for passage through the waterway, as proposed by Iran as part of ceasefire negotiations.

Published: April 11, 2026, 5:47 pm

US officials claim Iran unable to find mines it laid in strait of Hormuz, report says

Iran dropped explosives in the waterway erratically and may not have marked where it put all of them, US suggests

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Iran is unable to find the mines it laid in the strait of Hormuz and does not have the capacity to remove the explosives, preventing Iran from allowing more traffic through the waterway, the New York Times reported, citing US officials.

The opening of the strait of Hormuz – a chokepoint for a fifth of the world’s oil supply – is a primary demand of the US to end the war in Iran. The virtual closure of the strait sent fuel prices soaring, creating the world’s largest energy crisis in decades and putting pressure on the US president, Donald Trump, at home.

Published: April 11, 2026, 11:54 am

Is Iran Trump’s Suez crisis, or just a passing thunderstorm?

Britain’s standing in the world was never the same after its assault on Egypt in 1956. Now the US risks repeating history in the Middle East

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Donald Trump’s addiction to framing every event in the most apocalyptic terms is what allows conservative commentators such as Mark Levin to praise him as “a once-in-a-century president”.

But Trump cannot play out his entire presidency on a reckless high wire without eventually falling off – potentially taking America with him into a steep decline into the unknown.

Published: April 11, 2026, 8:00 am

‘Endless war’: inside an Israeli kibbutz near Lebanon’s volatile border

Residents describe the constant disruption of life under fire and whether military action should wind down

It is a day after Israel killed more than 300 in a ceasefire-defying attack in Lebanon, and five miles from the border, at kibbutz Cabri in northern Israel, the quiet of the early Thursday evening has been disrupted.

Three times, as the Guardian tries to leave, air raid sirens sound, and twice Iron Dome interceptors are launched. The last of the rockets fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon is sufficiently close that the Moria family and their visitors head promptly to a reinforced safe room, shutting a heavy metal door behind them. The family dog is there too, knowing the drill.

Published: April 11, 2026, 11:00 am

Why the Nato alliance is not as likely to dissolve as Trump makes it seem

Trump has upped the stridency and threatening nature of his complaints, but the US and Europe need each other

Collateral damage is a universally acknowledged hazard of war – more commonly known for its impact on truth and non-combatant civilians.

Its consequences are much less frequently visited on military alliances.

Published: April 11, 2026, 2:00 pm

Jubilant return of Artemis II shadowed by ‘extinction-level’ cuts to Nasa: ‘It’s discordant’

Even as a triumphant moon flyby primes agency for a 2028 landing, Trump’s proposed budget cuts cast pall on US space program

The astronauts on board Artemis II were “almost poets”, Nasa’s administrator, Jared Isaacman, declared on Friday, referring to their inspiring words as they swung above the lunar surface.

They were, he said, “ambassadors for humanity” as they became the first humans to travel to the moon and return safely to Earth since 1972, on a mission that broke a distance record.

Published: April 11, 2026, 12:33 pm

Video of an ICE shooting shattered the agency’s story. Will it usher in accountability?

The case against two Venezuelan men in Minneapolis is the latest to fall apart. Now agents could face repercussions, but questions linger over whether it signals a real shift

On 14 January, in the thick of Donald Trump’s massive anti-immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, two deportation officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attempted to stop a car in traffic.

They had identified the owner as an unauthorized immigrant, according to an FBI affidavit. The driver, later identified as Alfredo Aljorna, a Venezuelan national, sped off, hitting speeds of 80mph and eventually crashed into a parked car. He then took off running toward an apartment building where his roommate, Julio Sosa Celis, stood at the entrance holding a broad-bladed snow shovel.

Published: April 11, 2026, 11:00 am

Three wounded in stabbing attack at New York’s Grand Central subway station

Suspect in critical condition after police shot him on Manhattan subway platform

Police in New York City reportedly shot a man who stabbed three people on a subway platform in New York City’s Grand Central station.

Citing information from the police and fire departments, the local news outlet WPIX reported that the three victims were hospitalized in stable condition with knife wounds and the suspect is in critical condition.

Published: April 11, 2026, 3:17 pm

Louisiana Republicans move to eliminate court office won by exonerated man

After Calvin Duncan served 28 years for a murder he didn’t commit, he won an election to serve as criminal court clerk. But now the office might be shut down

A man imprisoned for nearly 30 years before being exonerated won a landmark election in New Orleans promising to fix a judicial system that failed him. Now, Louisiana’s governor, Jeff Landry, and the Republican-controlled state legislature are racing to eliminate his job before he can be sworn in.

Calvin Duncan won 68% of the vote last November to become the Orleans parish clerk of criminal court after pledging to reform the justice system based on his own experience fighting to access court records while in maximum security prison.

Published: April 11, 2026, 3:42 pm

US man in Bahamian jail after wife disappears into Atlantic waters during boat trip

Lynette and Brian Hooker, from Michigan, were years into a sailing adventure when Brian said his wife fell overboard

Lynette Hooker bounced around the deck of the docked Soul Mate, smiled into the camera and proclaimed, “We’re finally leaving Kemah,” referring to a Texas port town.

“It’s only been four months,” she said as her husband, Brian, tugged on some rigging as they got ready to set sail.

Published: April 11, 2026, 1:53 pm

‘Abhorrent’: the inside story of the Polymarket gamblers betting millions on war

A Guardian investigation reveals how the prediction market can shape news – and how it rules on ‘the truth’

“Horekunden” was rapidly losing patience.

His frustration was with the Institute for the Study of War, a US thinktank which produces a daily map of the frontline in Ukraine.

Published: April 11, 2026, 11:00 am

Native Americans were gambling with dice 6,000 years earlier than anyone else, study says

Archaeological record suggests hunter gatherers were playing games of chance at the end of the last ice age

Native American hunter gatherers were using dice for gaming and gambling more than 6,000 years before the practice appeared anywhere else, a new study argues.

It says dice were being made and used on the western great plains of North America at the end of the last ice age, more than 12,000 years ago.

Published: April 11, 2026, 11:00 am

McDonald’s CEO blames mother’s etiquette training for awkward burger bite in video

Chris Kempczinski’s taste test was mocked online, to which he said his mother had taught him: ‘Don’t talk with your mouth full’

The chief executive officer of McDonald’s recently blamed etiquette guidance from his mother for a February on-camera taste test that made him a target for ridicule – and summarily recorded another video of him eating one of the fast-food giant’s offerings in a manner potential consumers found awkward.

Chris Kempczinski suggested to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) earlier in April that he was simply heeding maternal advice to never talk with his mouth full when he took the humorously small bite at the center of a viral video which depicted him discussing and sampling the new Big Arch burger from McDonald’s.

Published: April 11, 2026, 9:00 am

US state department revokes green cards of three Iranian nationals it links to regime

Three arrested by federal agents had family ties to Iranian military general, regime spokesperson or security chief

United States federal agents arrested three Iranian nationals – including the son of a revolutionary at the center of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis – after the US state department terminated their green cards, the department announced on Saturday.

State department officials revoked the green card status of Seyed Eissa Hashemi, whose mother was an Iranian revolutionary who served as the spokesperson for Iran’s regime during the hostage crisis that defined the late Jimmy Carter’s presidency. The state department also revoked the green card – or legal permanent resident – statuses of Hashemi’s wife and son.

Published: April 11, 2026, 4:37 pm

Democrats urged to reclaim anti-war identity amid Trump’s assault on Iran

War spurs debate on US power and role in the world – and progressives eye chance to reorient American foreign policy

Well over a year into Donald Trump’s disruptive second term, few believed the US president could still genuinely shock. But at 8.06am on Tuesday he did just that, with an apocalyptic threat on Truth Social, to destroy a “whole civilization” in Iran – a country of more than 90 million people. Democrats abandoned their forced restraint and immediately began to call for Trump’s removal from office.

Yet beneath Democrats’ near-universal opposition to what they call the president’s “war of choice” are simmering tensions about the way America should engage with the world, especially when it comes to the Middle East. Since losing to Trump and his America First agenda in 2024, which promised not to start new wars, leading progressives have urged Democrats to reclaim the “anti-war” mantle.

Published: April 11, 2026, 12:00 pm

Trump reportedly says he’ll issue mass pardons at end of his presidential term

President already has issued sweeping pardons throughout second term, including for 1,500 US Capital riot defendants

Donald Trump has reportedly said he will issue pardons en masse to his closest advisers at the end of his second presidency, promising them in casual conversations over the last year.

“I’ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval [Office],” the president reportedly said in a recent meeting, garnering laughs from the room, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing an anonymous source.

Published: April 11, 2026, 2:17 pm

Federal workers struggle to find roles a year after Trump cuts: ‘I’ve applied to over 250 jobs’

Current and former government employees say they’re facing a tough job market over a year on from sweeping cuts

Maggie was faced with a tough choice in February 2025: quit her job at the US office of personnel management or be unceremoniously fired.

Though she was a few months pregnant at the time, Maggie was offered one of the buyouts that were offered to tens of thousands of federal government employees by the office of personnel management.

Published: April 11, 2026, 11:00 am

Zebras, wealth and power: Hungary’s election tests Orbán’s grip on power

Corruption scandals and a surging opposition have turned the vote into the biggest test yet for the long-serving populist leader

The drone footage showed a sprawling residence in northern Hungary, complete with manicured gardens, a swimming pool and an underground garage. But it was what came next that captured much of the country’s imagination: zebras darting across the countryside.

Published: April 11, 2026, 5:00 am

‘He cares about Hungarians’: the small Ukrainian town divided over Orbán

The rightwing populist’s support for the majority-Hungarian population of Berehove means they may offer their votes in return

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

Across much of Ukraine, Sunday’s parliamentary election in Hungary is being followed with a singular hope: that Viktor Orbán, the Kremlin-friendly leader who has made opposition to Kyiv a centrepiece of his campaign, will be voted out after 16 years in office.

But in Berehove, the mood is more complicated.

Published: April 11, 2026, 1:00 pm

Sexual abuse claims have dragged the international criminal court into crisis – but what happens now?

Investigating claims made against Karim Khan, the ICC top prosecutor, has turned into a lengthy process fraught with geopolitics and rows over standards of proof

Behind the closed doors of a large room at the international criminal court’s fortress-like headquarters in The Hague, senior diplomats who oversee the court have been gathering each week to try to resolve a crisis.

On their agenda: the fate of the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, a British lawyer whose tenure at the court was thrown into disarray nearly two years ago by sexual abuse allegations that he denies.

Published: April 11, 2026, 6:21 am

‘We feel this incredible tension at all times’: what happened to small-town USA when extremists moved in

In his new book, Michael Edison Hayden captures the bitter saga between the founders of far-right publication VDare and the residents of a West Virginia town

In 2020, residents of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, learned that a mysterious couple from New York had bought a historic local building known as “the castle”, which the newcomers planned to use as a headquarters and conference space for their non-profit organization. A bitter saga followed – one that the journalist Michael Edison Hayden writes about in his new book, Strange People on the Hill: How Extremism Tore Apart a Small American Town.

The couple in question were Peter and Lydia Brimelow, whose online publication VDare was named for Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the Americas. Critics have accused the anti-immigration publication of being the genteel face of a constellation of white nationalist groups and figures that Hayden refers to simply as “the movement”. (VDare and the Brimelows dispute that characterization; Brimelow has described himself as a “civic nationalist”.) Stephen Miller, the adviser to Donald Trump, is reportedly a fan of VDare’s writing.

Published: April 11, 2026, 3:00 pm

Black women in Georgia turn to midwives for safer births – so why does the state criminalize many of them?

A new lawsuit seeks to decriminalize the work of midwives banned from providing care amid a worsening maternal health crisis

When Tamara Taitt moved to Georgia in 2023 to run the Atlanta Birth Center, she found herself in what she calls “an extraordinary position”. Under Georgia law, the center’s own executive director cannot provide routine clinical care for the center’s own clients. She could even face criminal charges for doing so.

Taitt is a nationally accredited midwife. She directs one of the only freestanding birth centers in the state – a destination for women seeking to give birth outside a hospital, cared for by midwives rather than obstetricians. Families choose birth centers to access more holistic, less medicalized prenatal care and birth, and to avoid invasive medical interventions in a state where C-sections occur at three times the rate recommended by the World Health Organization.

Published: April 11, 2026, 11:00 am

Four ways to brew better drip coffee

A recipe for a cafe-quality iced latte, the best chargers and more

• This story was originally published in the Filter US newsletter on buying fewer, better things. Sign up here to get early access to it

Each week the Filter newsletter cuts through the noise to bring you smart, practical recommendations on how to live better – from what is worth buying to the tools, habits and ideas that actually last.

I have very specific coffee preferences. The mere thought of a weak brew or bland beans is enough to send a shiver up my spine. I’ve all but perfected my at-home coffee, which I make in my trusty moka pot. Recently, I shared how I use it to make a delicious cup of iced coffee. Over the course of a week, I saved more than $40 compared with what I would have spent at Starbucks.

Published: April 11, 2026, 3:01 pm

Richard Schiff: ‘If Jesus was alive today he’d point to Martin Sheen and say, “That’s what I was talking about”’

The actor on the killer T rexes he’d like to meet, a 90% life lesson, and an awkward moment with Amy Adams

Born in Maryland, Richard Schiff, 70, came to fame when he was cast in Steven Spielberg’s 1997 film The Lost World: Jurassic Park. From 1999 to 2006 he played Toby Ziegler in the TV drama The West Wing, receiving an Emmy for his performance. Other work includes the series The Good Doctor and Ballers, and the film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. He stars in Copenhagen at Hampstead Theatre until 2 May. He is married with two children and lives in Montana and New York City.

What is your greatest fear?
People finding out my greatest fear.

Published: April 11, 2026, 9:00 am

A ‘weird dream’ of an arts festival began 10 years ago in the California desert – can it survive its growing popularity?

The Bombay Beach Biennale started as an intimate event and has grown dramatically – but some question whether it sustain its DIY atmosphere

It is hard to imagine a stranger place for a large outdoor art festival than Bombay Beach – a tiny, visibly impoverished California desert town over 150 miles east of Los Angeles and 235ft below sea level. The heat is scorching even in March, and the smell of decay wafts over from the nearby Salton Sea; a dying inland lake created by an irrigation engineering disaster over 100 years ago.

But the Bombay Beach Biennale is not your ordinary art festival.

Published: April 11, 2026, 11:00 am

Six great reads: the man who let snakes bite him, masked heavy metal and the brutal reality for foreign students in the UK

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

Published: April 11, 2026, 5:00 am

Trump’s Iran fiasco has led him into the gravest territory | Sidney Blumenthal

As the president spirals over his disastrous war, his threats have escalated beyond the red line of international law

Donald Trump has hung nine glowering portraits of himself throughout the White House, each one projecting a variation on the theme of intimidation. But gazing into his narcissistic pool of grimacing images has not calmed him when in his mind’s eye he stares into the abyss of the worst failure of his life.

Trump’s fiasco has inspired him to heightened performances of profane, vile and vicious threats. His grammar of atrocity has escalated from hateful rhetoric to threats of war crimes. What might have initially appeared as rage-quitting the video game that the White House communications department makes of his Iran War has crossed an inviolable red line of international law. His pouting and foot stomping have led him into the gravest territory.

Published: April 11, 2026, 10:00 am

What on Earth is Melania Trump thinking? | Arwa Mahdawi

The first lady has put the Barbra Streisand effect in overdrive with a PR nightmare of her own making

You’ve probably heard of the Barbra Streisand effect: the phenomenon where attempts to censor information end up drawing more attention to it.

Now we might soon be referencing the Melania Trump effect: the phenomenon where holding a surprise press conference to state that you did not have a relationship with a dead paedophile, and would like people to please stop speculating about the matter, immediately causes people to start speculating about the matter.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist

Published: April 11, 2026, 1:00 pm

For Trump and Hegseth, the Iran war is a game | Judith Levine

Amid death, threats, obliterated buildings and wasted money, the administration’s remarks have been head-spinning to witness

Trump threatened to commit genocide and Iran came to the table. A little threat – plus the deaths of thousands of Iranians and 13 Americans, the obliteration of schools, homes, hospitals and mosques, the waste of $40bn by the US and losses to the Gulf nations of as much as $200bn – is all it took. Ergo: threatening genocide works.

That, anyway, is what the “secretary of war”, Pete Hegseth, strongly suggested in a press briefing on Wednesday, the day after the president vowed to wipe Iran’s “whole civilization” off the map and then a few hours later announced a ceasefire, obviating the need to wipe Iran’s civilization off the map, at least for two weeks.

Published: April 11, 2026, 11:00 am

An environmental disaster in Moldova has Russia’s fingerprints all over it | Paula Erizanu

The Ukraine war on our doorstep is a constant threat. Contaminated drinking water is a dangerous new twist

In the second week of March, the nature vlogger Ilie Cojocari went out to film the arrival of spring on the Nistru (Dniester) river, 70 metres away from his home in Naslavcea, a village bordering Ukraine on the northernmost point of Moldova. But as he approached the river he could smell the stench of oil rising up from the water and see dark spots floating on its surface. Something was wrong.

Two days earlier, Russia had attacked Ukraine’s Novodnistrovsk hydropower complex 15 miles upriver. Cojocari had been kept awake all night by the sound of shelling. “No one slept in the [Moldovan] district of Ocniţa that night,” he told me.

Paula Erizanu is a Moldovan journalist and writer based in Chișinău

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 11, 2026, 4:00 am

The hill I will die on: Yes, money can buy you happiness – if you spend it right | Eleanor Margolis

For the super-rich with cash to burn, all those Rolexes and rare Labubus may not fill the void. But for me, a little goes a long way

When wages have stalled for nearly 20 years and I recently came face to face with a tube of toothpaste that was nearly £7 in my local Sainsbury’s, the idea that money can’t buy happiness seems almost offensive. It ultimately comes from a blinkered concept of what money can do. Sure, if you only use your money to buy things, the happiness it provides will be shallow and fleeting.

Having said that, I refuse to believe there’s a single person out there overpaying on rent who wouldn’t be happier if they owned a house outright. Loosely speaking, yes, Rolexes and rare Labubus have nothing on, say, spending quality time with the people you love. But sadly, the latter costs money, too. Free time is part of a growing number of basic human needs that have become more or less commodified, and under whatever wacky stage of capitalism we’re currently at, more money equals more time to pursue your interests and ultimately find meaning in life.

Eleanor Margolis is a columnist for the i newspaper and Diva

Published: April 11, 2026, 7:00 am

Cuba’s doctors were a lifeline for the world. Now the Caribbean is shamefully complicit in the US drive to expel them | Kenneth Mohammed

For decades, Cuban doctors have served the Caribbean’s most marginalised. Now, as Cuba faces its own crisis, the region looks away, waiting on Trump’s approval

There is a line, often quoted, seldom practised, from the Christian gospels: “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” It is recited from the Americas to Africa, invoked in speeches, embroidered into national mottoes.

But like many moral injunctions, it has proven easier to proclaim than to live by. Across the Caribbean and Latin America, something extraordinary and shameful is unfolding.

Published: April 11, 2026, 4:00 am

The Guardian view on Trump’s civilisational threats: the words that fuel war must be condemned | Editorial

Military euphemisms can be deadly. Yet the brutal rhetoric of the US and Israel is proving still more lethal

“Metaphors can kill,” the linguist George Lakoff wrote in an influential essay on the Gulf war. “The use of a metaphor with a set of definitions becomes pernicious when it hides realities in a harmful way.” He described the effects of the US employment of business cost-and-benefit analogies, sporting comparisons and the fairytale of the just war with heroes and villains.

All veiled the reality of conflict. Euphemism was long the preferred choice for the US military. Spokespeople discussed “collateral damage” rather than civilian deaths and “surgical strikes”, framing destruction as both precise and part of a necessary and ultimately healing process. Donald Trump chooses naked menace instead. This week he issued a genocidal threat against Iran, having previously threatened to bomb it “back to the stone age” and destroy bridges and power plants – schools and medical facilities having already been pulverised. He said that he was “not at all” concerned about potential war crimes.

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 10, 2026, 5:17 pm

The Guardian view on dystopias for our times: the American nightmare | Editorial

Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments and the Oscar-winning film One Battle After Another are grim parables of today. But they are not without hope

As Margaret Atwood has said, all dystopian fiction is “really about now”. No wonder the genre is flourishing. This week Atwood’s bleak vision of a future America as a patriarchal theocracy returned to TV screens with the adaptation of her prize-winning 2019 novel The Testaments, the long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, set in a chillingly recognisable militarised America, swept the Oscars last month.

Back in 1984 when Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale, she feared that its central premise – that the US could be transformed from a liberal democracy into Gilead, a theocratic dictatorship after a coup – was too outrageous to convince readers. She need not have worried. By the time the novel was made into the award-winning TV series in 2017, it was all too believable. Arriving just after Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and the rollback of women’s rights, the show felt made for the moment. Atwood was hailed as a prophet. The red-and-white handmaid robes became a symbol of female defiance across the globe. “For a long time we were going away from Gilead and then we turned around and started going back,” Atwood said of her decision to write a follow-up more than 30 years later.

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 10, 2026, 5:13 pm

The Masters 2026: day three golf updates from Augusta National – live

️ Latest updates from Moving Day at Augusta National
️ Official leaderboard | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail Scott

Brian Harman hasn’t been in great form of late. Even so, he was mentioned in dispatches before the Tournament began as a dark horse, with the fiery conditions negating his length disadvantage, and his short game so sweet. However, form trumped hipster punditry as he opened with a dismal 79. However the 2023 Open champion bounced back spectacularly with a 69 yesterday, and he’s in even better nick this afternoon, with birdies at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 14. Just the one dropped shot at 7, and he’s level par overall.

Alex Noren was out in the first group this morning. The veteran Swede has absolutely no history at Augusta National to speak of – a tie for 62nd in 2019 is his best return – but he’s looking to amend that record this year. A round of 69 today to follow yesterday’s 71; how he’ll be ruing his opening 77. But as things stand he’s in the top 40 at +1 overall and very much trending in the right direction. Ladies and gentlemen, your very early clubhouse leader.

Published: April 11, 2026, 5:50 pm

Alex Scott and Bournemouth deal blow to nervy Arsenal’s title hopes

For Arsenal’s longsuffering supporters, the emotional strain is reaching unbearable levels. They could only watch in stunned disbelief as Alex Scott’s goal 16 minutes from time condemned the Premier League leaders to a defeat Mikel Arteta must fear could prove to be extremely significant.

While Arsenal’s advantage over Manchester City remains nine points for now, another loss at the Etihad next Sunday would give City an opportunity to draw level on points if they beat Chelsea on Sunday and then win their game in hand against Crystal Palace. Having set the pace since the start of October, that is the nightmare scenario Arsenal must confront after another disappointing performance that once more belied their anxieties at this crucial stage of the season.

Published: April 11, 2026, 1:43 pm

New York Times investigates reporter Dianna Russini’s Vrabel coverage amid photo uproar

• Veteran NFL reporter sidelined during review

• Reporter, coach photographed at Sedona resort

The New York Times Company is reviewing coverage by NFL reporter Dianna Russini involving New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel after photos of the two together at an Arizona resort prompted internal concern, ESPN reported Friday citing people familiar with the matter.

Russini, who works for The Times-owned The Athletic, has been sidelined while the review is ongoing, a source said.

Published: April 11, 2026, 12:24 pm

Ichiro Suzuki statue unveiling goes awry as bronze bat snaps during ceremony

• Mariners unveil Ichiro statue at Seattle ballpark

• Bronze bat snaps as curtain drops at ceremony

• Suzuki laughs off mishap with Mariano joke

Oh, snap.

The unveiling of Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki’s statue had an unforced error on Friday – a broken bat.

Published: April 10, 2026, 11:16 pm

A lower-round AJ Brown to a 306lb missile: the 2026 NFL draft’s under-the-radar prospects

Fernando Mendoza will almost certainly go No 1 overall. But who are the players that teams may take a swing on after the big names have gone?

You have to go back to 2000 to find a year in which fewer than four quarterbacks were selected in the top 100 picks. But in this year’s mediocre quarterback class, the fourth quarterback may not go off the board until day three. After Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza and Alabama’s Ty Simpson, it’s unclear who will even be the third taken. There is a chasm from the top two down to LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, Penn State’s Drew Allar and Miami’s Carson Beck. All three are flawed. The most tantalizing mid-round quarterback is Payton, a one-year, lefty starter out of North Dakota State.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:00 am

Tyson Fury’s latest return unlikely to save heavyweight era reaching its end

Arslanbek Makhmudov shouldn’t be much of a test but Gypsy King and his battered old rivals are fading away

“I’ll make this short and sweet,” Tyson Fury said in a brief video he posted online on 13 January 2025. “I’d like to announce my retirement from boxing. It’s been a blast and I’ve loved every single minute of it. I’m going to end with this: Dick Turpin wore a mask. God bless everybody. I’ll see you on the other side.”

It was the fifth time Fury had retired from boxing in a professional career that began in December 2008 when he made his debut in Nottingham. So there was little surprise when, less than a year since that latest attempt to walk away from boxing, Fury announced his inevitable return. Four months ago he released a typical Fury message as he hollered: “Return of the Mac. Been away for a while but I’m back now. 37 years old and still punching. Nothing better to do than punch men in the face & get paid for it.”

Published: April 11, 2026, 7:00 am

Potential US host cities for 2031 Women’s World Cup games mull withdrawal over Fifa concerns

• Chicago and Pittsburgh decline to enter running

• Some cities opt to focus on men’s Rugby World Cup

• Bid approval delayed by reported government holdups

A number of American cities named in the running to host games at the 2031 Women’s World Cup are considering withdrawing over concerns related to Fifa’s handling of this summer’s World Cup.

The Guardian has learned that several cities are exploring whether to focus solely on winning the right to host matches at the men’s 2031 Rugby World Cup. The US will also stage the women’s rugby tournament two years later.

Published: April 10, 2026, 1:43 pm

Swalwell denies allegations of sexual assault as calls grow for him to withdraw from California governor race

Former allies of Democratic contender withdraw support after accusations in San Francisco Chronicle and on CNN

Congressman Eric Swalwell, a leading candidate to be California’s next governor, forcefully denied allegations of sexual assault on Friday night, as he faced escalating calls to withdraw from the race from prominent supporters, rivals and his won colleagues in Congress.

In a video statement shared on his Instagram and posted by his official congressional account on X, the California Democrat vowed to fight the allegations with “everything I have”.

Published: April 11, 2026, 1:37 am

Explosives found near pipeline in Serbia probably ‘Russian provocation’, says expert

Former Ukrainian major general says 4kg of material was most likely an attempt to influence Hungary’s election

• Hungary elections explainer

The amount of explosives discovered in Serbia last week would not have been enough to destroy the Balkan Stream gas pipeline, prompting an expert to conclude it was probably a Russian intelligence plot aimed at influencing Hungary’s impending election.

A former Ukrainian major general and a munitions specialist told the Guardian calculations made by his company showed the 4kg of explosives recovered by Serbia’s military security agency in Kanjiža could not have seriously ruptured the pipe.

Published: April 11, 2026, 9:36 am

Trump news at a glance: Epstein survivors have words for Melania Trump after surprise statement

More than a dozen survivors accuse first lady of ‘shifting the burden’ on to them after she called on Congress to hold public hearings – key US politics stories from Friday 10 April

More than a dozen survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse have accused Melania Trump of “shifting the burden” on to them after she called on Congress to hold public hearings with victims of Epstein’s abuse.

“Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein have already shown extraordinary courage by coming forward, filing reports, and giving testimony,” said a group of 13 people and the brother and sister of the late Virginia Giuffre, who was one of the most vocal Epstein accusers, in a statement. “Asking more of them now is a deflection of responsibility not justice.”

Published: April 11, 2026, 1:30 am

JD Vance warns Iran against trying to ‘play’ the US in peace talks

US vice-president flies to Islamabad for negotiations as Iranians insists Israel end its offensive in Lebanon

• Middle East crisis – live updates

JD Vance has warned Iran not to “try and play” the US at talks planned for Saturday in Islamabad, while Tehran said it would not take part until Israel stopped bombing of Lebanon.

The US vice-president made the comments as he boarded a plane to Pakistan for negotiations that could determine whether a ceasefire holds or the war on Iran resumes with grave implications for the global economy.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:20 pm

Kamala Harris ‘thinking about’ running for president again in 2028

Former vice-president teases White House bid while Pete Buttigieg also suggests he may launch campaign

• US politics live – latest updates

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Kamala Harris said she is “thinking about” running in the 2028 presidential election.

“I might, I might. I’m thinking about it,” the former vice-president and 2024 candidate told the crowd at a gathering of the National Action Network (NAN), a civil rights organization founded by Al Sharpton, on Friday in New York City.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:27 pm

UK starts crackdown on EU citizens’ post-Brexit rights

Concerns raised over use of travel data in determining if people are ‘continuously’ in Britain after HMRC fiasco

UK ministers are to start removing post-Brexit residency rights from EU citizens who are no longer “continuously” living in the country.

The initiative is legal under the 2020 Brexit withdrawal agreement, but the decision to use travel data to partly determine absences has raised concerns after the HMRC fiasco in which almost 20,000 parents were stripped of child benefits because of inaccurate Home Office border data.

Published: April 11, 2026, 12:44 pm

‘The party was chilled until police sent in the riot squad’: when a Dorset free rave turned violent

The organisers of Eggtek in Lulworth and local police have two very different stories about how trouble started at the Easter event

A couple of thousand ravers were given the secret location for one of the annual highlights of the free party scene – the Easter bank holiday weekend Eggtek event.

The sun was shining and they arrived at a field on Ministry of Defence land in Lulworth, Dorset in a state of high excitement about a weekend of dancing to techno music playing from a variety of different stages and sound systems in the heart of the countryside.

Published: April 11, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘Illegal’ forest service overhaul risks causing ‘chaos’ across US public lands, union claims

The restructuring will close all regional offices, which manages 193m acres of land, roughly the size of Texas

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US public lands will “pay the price” of a drive by Donald Trump’s officials to restructure the agency that oversees them, union leaders have warned, accusing the administration of forcing workers to decide whether to relocate or resign.

All regional offices of the US Forest Service, which manages 78m hectares (193m acres) of land – roughly the size of Texas – are set to close as part of an overhaul launched by the Trump administration. The service has already shed hundreds of staff members since Trump returned to power last year.

Published: April 10, 2026, 10:00 am

Argentina just ripped up its pioneering glacier law. What does this mean for millions of people’s drinking water?

Javier Milei’s reforms to the law will open up high-altitude areas to mining and risk water reserves already strained by the climate crisis, say activists

Saul Zeballos was born and raised in Jáchal, a community tucked into the foothills of the Andes in Argentina, drinking water from the river that bears the town’s name. That changed in 2005, when the Veladero gold and silver mine started operating in San Juan province.

A decade later, a major cyanide spill from the mine polluted the rivers in the San Juan region, raising fears it could affect waterways downstream in the Jáchal basin, although further studies have shown that cyanide levels remained at safe levels. Two further spills were reported in 2016 and 2017 and are still under investigation.

Published: April 10, 2026, 10:00 am

A rare sign of hope as mountain gorillas welcome two sets of twins in Africa

In this week’s newsletter: Once close to extinction, the species is rebounding due to years of conservation work

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I will never forget the moment I first saw a mountain gorilla. It was early on Mount Muhabura in Uganda, and I had spent the morning stumbling up the slopes of the inactive volcano in the Virunga range, which also spans Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Just when I thought my lungs could not take it any more, I noticed the silhouette of a creature picking leaves off a branch in a forest clearing. It was not alone. Nine mountain gorillas – all members of the Nyakagezi family – were having their breakfast around me.

I was with Ugandan park rangers and veterinarians from the NGO Gorilla Doctors, who have helped oversee one of the most remarkable turnarounds in the fortunes of an endangered species in the past century – and I was excited to learn more about how they did it.

As Iran war exposes global dependence on fossil fuels, the biggest emitters are reaping the rewards

‘A surrender to special interests’: alarm as Utah shields fossil-fuel companies

‘All we can do now is pray they continue’: Maasai welcome the first rains but know that drought is far from over

Published: April 10, 2026, 6:00 am

Bard College president tells staff he will soon be cleared in inquiry over Epstein ties

WilmerHale, the law firm examining Leon Botstein’s communications with Jeffrey Epstein, said review is ‘ongoing’

Bard College’s president, Leon Botstein, told his staff at a meeting this week that there was no way he could have known that Jeffrey Epstein – who was a convicted sex offender during their interactions over the years – was actually “reprehensible” and predicted he would soon be cleared of any hint of impropriety about their relationship, according to sources who witnessed the remarks.

The liberal arts college’s board of trustees hired in February the white-shoe law firm WilmerHale to independently investigate communications between Epstein and Botstein.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:09 pm

Multiple people face charges, including murder, in California fireworks blast

Massive fire followed explosion at 5,000-sq-ft warehouse near Esparto, an hour from Sacramento, on 1 July

Multiple people have been charged with murder in connection to a fatal fireworks-warehouse explosion in California that killed seven people and injured two others in July.

The explosion at the 5,000-sq-ft warehouse sparked a massive fire near the small town of Esparto, about an hour outside Sacramento. The explosion took place on 1 July; local celebrations to commemorate the Fourth of July holiday were cancelled that year.

Published: April 11, 2026, 12:22 am

Trump administration releases new renderings of so-called ‘Arc de Trump’

Triumphal arch would be 250ft tall, featuring a 60ft golden Lady Liberty, at the foot of Arlington Memorial Bridge

The Trump administration on Friday released new renderings of the triumphal arch the president wants to install in Memorial Circle at the foot of the Arlington Memorial Bridge.

As part of Donald Trump’s legacy-building quest during his second term in office, the so-called “Arc de Trump” would stand 250ft tall, feature a 60ft golden Lady Liberty, and include a viewing deck. The phrase “One Nation Under God” would stretch across the top of the structure, according to the latest plans from Harrison Design.

Published: April 10, 2026, 8:11 pm

Former New York City mayor Eric Adams obtains Albanian citizenship

Adams was granted citizenship and a passport from Balkan country by a special decree from the republic’s president

Eric Adams has obtained citizenship and a passport from Albania, the Balkan country which received effusive compliments from the former New York City mayor during a visit there relatively recently.

The Albania Daily News first reported on Friday that Adams had requested both and was granted them by a special decree from the republic’s president, Bajram Begaj. A spokesperson for Adams then confirmed that development in a statement distributed to the news media, and it was evidently chronicled in Albania’s official government journal.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:44 pm

King signs up David Beckham to his Chelsea flower show team

Ex-footballer to decorate gnome for annual event after organisers lift ban on the ornaments dating back to 1927

Rare roses and stunning irises are usually among the most coveted items at the Chelsea flower show. But this year, the star attraction might be pink, sequined – and decorated by David Beckham.

The former England football captain is co-designing a garden at the May event with King Charles and as part of that effort he has been given a garden gnome to paint. It will be auctioned off for charity.

Published: April 11, 2026, 5:00 am

The war over Omagh’s gold: the £21bn mine plan tearing a community apart

On Monday, a public inquiry will reopen, nine years after the plan was proposed and a toxic local battle began

When Fidelma O’Kane retired more than a decade ago from her career as a social worker and lecturer, she thought she would be “travelling and having a glass of wine and eating chocolate and reading books” while based in the quiet, hilly corner of rural County Tyrone where she has lived almost all her life.

It didn’t quite work out that way. Instead, an idle remark from a neighbour would set O’Kane on a path that would become an all-consuming mission. A mining company, the neighbour told her, was planning to drill for long-rumoured reserves of gold in the Sperrins, the low peatland mountain range in Northern Ireland where O’Kane’s family has lived for generations.

Published: April 11, 2026, 5:00 am

Ukraine war briefing: doubts linger in Kyiv over Moscow’s promise to uphold Orthodox Easter ceasefire

Kremlin orders temporary truce from Saturday afternoon until Sunday, a 32-hour period during which Russia would stop fighting ‘in all directions’. What we know on day 1,508

Ukrainians on Friday were wary of Russia’s pledge to pause fighting for an Orthodox Easter ceasefire – first proposed by Kyiv – this weekend. The Kremlin said it had ordered a temporary truce to be in effect from Saturday afternoon until the end of Sunday, a 32-hour period during which Russia would stop fighting “in all directions”. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy – who has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in the four-year war – said Kyiv was willing to reciprocate.

But in Kyiv there was scepticism over whether Moscow would keep to its promise. “No one believes in these fairytales anymore,” Yevgeniy Lamakh, an IT specialist, told AFP in central Kyiv. “The Russian military lie a lot, usually, as history shows. And in general, they say one thing, but in fact do something completely different,” the 29-year-old said. “Even today... Shaheds, missiles are flying at Ukraine. Well, come on then, start the ceasefire,” Dmytro Sova, a 42-year-old actor, told AFP in Kyiv on Friday.

Just hours before the Orthodox Easter truce, two night-time Russian attacks in Ukraine left one dead and 15 injured, authorities said. The fatal attacks included an “enemy drone attack” on a store and a cafe in the central town of Poltava, killing one person and injuring another, the regional head of the military administration, Vitalii Diakivnych, posted on Telegram. In the north-eastern region of Sumy, bordering Russia, drone strikes on residential areas wounded 14 people including a 14-year-old boy and an 87-year-old woman, according to Oleg Grygorov, head of the regional military administration there, via Telegram.

Moscow has rejected calls for a longer-term unconditional ceasefire, something that Kyiv has called for, saying it is instead pushing for a final peace settlement. Negotiations between the two sides, brokered by the United States, have stalled over the fate of Ukraine’s eastern regions, partly occupied by Russia and that Moscow wants Kyiv to cede. The two sides also held a ceasefire for the Orthodox Easter last year. But the respite comes amid deadlocked efforts to halt Russia’s invasion, with US attention now focused on the Middle East war.

US president Donald Trump’s administration is likely to extend as soon as Friday a waiver allowing countries to buy some sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The US treasury department has allowed purchases of Russian oil and products at sea since mid-March with a 30-day waiver that expires on 11 April, part of efforts to control global energy prices during the US-Israeli war with Iran. The waivers have been criticised by politicians in the US and abroad as they could complicate the West’s efforts to deprive Russia of revenue for its war in Ukraine and put Washington at odds with its allies.

A Russian court on Friday placed a journalist from the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper in pre-trial detention until 10 May, a day after police raided the paper’s Moscow headquarters. Oleg Roldugin was arrested on Thursday. He had reported on alleged corruption among top Russian officials including former president Dmitry Medvedev and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Russia has waged a crackdown on independent news outlets since launching its offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.

Nato member Estonia will refrain from detaining Russia’s “shadow fleet” vessels in the Baltic Sea, worried that seizing oil tankers and other ships sanctioned by the West could lead Moscow to defend them militarily, a senior commander said on Friday. Britain and other European nations, including France, Belgium and Sweden, have stepped up efforts to detain ageing tankers used by Moscow to secure vital funding for its four-year war against Ukraine. But Estonia, the northernmost Baltic state located close to Russia’s main oil and fuel export facilities in the Gulf of Finland, is practicing restraint after an unsuccessful attempt to board a Russian vessel last year.

Published: April 11, 2026, 12:30 am

New Zealand’s North Island braces for Cyclone Vaianu with thousands ordered to evacuate

Vaianu, forecast to bring heavy rain and winds of up to 130 kmh (80 mph), is expected to hit on Sunday

Thousands of New Zealanders were ordered to evacuate their homes on Saturday as the country’s North Island braced for Cyclone Vaianu, which authorities warned could cause coastal flooding and landslides.

Vaianu, forecast to bring heavy rain and winds of up to 130 km/h (80 mp/h), was expected to hit on Sunday, then pass west of the remote Chatham Islands on Monday, the country’s weather forecaster said.

Published: April 11, 2026, 3:49 am

‘I got everything I dreamed of – when I had no ability to handle it’: Lena Dunham on toxic fame, broken friendships and her ‘lost decade’

Stardom came fast and hard for the wunderkind who created the hit HBO series Girls aged just 23. Now she’s written a tell-all memoir about why she was forced to retreat from the spotlight

• Lena Dunham on going to rehab: read an exclusive extract from Famesick

If there is something to be learned from the words people pick for their passwords and proxies, then Lena Dunham’s choice of aliases – pseudonyms that, as a public person, she has used over the years to conceal her identity when checking into rehab or ordering room service – give us a tiny glimpse into the writer and director’s self-image. Among her staples, “Lauri Reynolds” (after her mum, Laurie, with whom she is strikingly close); “Rose O’Neill” (after the American millionaire illustrator, who lost her fortune to burnout and hangers-on); and my favourite, “Renata Halpern”, an alias Dunham shares with readers of her delicious new memoir, Famesick, without explaining the name’s origin.

“Has anyone else clocked the Renata Halpern reference?” I ask Dunham, who is in her apartment in New York, talking fast via video call while waiting for an egg-and-cheese bagel to be run up from the deli. On the brink of 40, she is in her dark-haired era – very Jane Russell in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes – which, this morning, is set against a bright orange shirt and the pale, glowy skin she describes as the single happy side-effect of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a genetic condition of the connective tissue with which Dunham was diagnosed in 2019. Later this month, she’ll return to London, where she has lived for the last five years with her husband, Luis Felber, and where she enjoys greater anonymity than in her native New York – although, she says, not enough to dispense with the aliases. (“Just when you think no one cares, someone does something creepy, so you have to watch out.”)

Published: April 11, 2026, 5:00 am

Sabrina Carpenter at Coachella review – madcap maximalism from pop savant

Empire Polo Club, Indio, California
The pop star turned the desert into an ambitious theatrical revue with elaborate sets and celebrity cameos

Way back in the good old days of spring 2024, the pop singer Sabrina Carpenter ended her first Coachella set with a bold promise: “He’s drinking my bath water like it’s red wine / Coachella, see you back here when I headline,” she trilled as part of the ever-rotating, always naughty outro lines for her song Nonsense. Carpenter is a famously cheeky performer – her music, chock-full of double entendres and witty punchlines, is as much musical comedy as pop – but it seems, for once, that she was dead serious. Just two years later, she returned to the desert as the calling card for this year’s opening night, tongue still firmly in cheek. “I can’t believe I’m headlining Coachella!” she exclaimed to cheers that, true to form, she immediately melted to laughs – “Actually, I can … but it’s nicer to say that, right?”

Carpenter has reason to boast; the days when she chased virality with bawdy Nonsense outros now seem long gone. Her Coachella debut also marked the release of a daffy ditty called Espresso that soon turned everyone into “that’s that me” caffeine addicts, and catapulted the diminutive pop star (“oh I make quite an impression / five feet, to be exact,” she purrs in the delectable hit Taste) into pop’s big leagues. Near-constant touring and two albums – the no-skips Short n’ Sweet and the comparatively B-side Man’s Best Friend – cemented her status as one of pop’s consummate entertainers, churning out finely crafted, relentlessly horny hits at a pace not seen since perhaps Rihanna in the early 2010s. Nonsense, that 2022 song that first got my attention, didn’t even make the 20-plus song set list at Carpenter’s wildly ambitious headlining set, an audacious flex of ability and budget that declared her intentions for A-list permanence.

Published: April 11, 2026, 1:56 pm

American Classic review – I defy you not to fall in love with Kevin Kline and Laura Linney’s tender comedy

There are hints of Ted Lasso and Schitt’s Creek in this delightful series in which an unexpected death triggers all manner of fun and games. It’s lovely comfort TV

Ah, the roar of the greasepaint – the smell of the crowd! Who doesn’t love the theatre? Or at least the idea of the theatre. Not the fact of the theatre – spending a fortune on a ticket, getting dressed up and going into town, either hungry or with too early a dinner inside you, trying to suspend enough disbelief to engage with Actors doing Big Acting in front of you when you’re too used to Small Acting watched from the sofa in front of a streaming platform. Then home too late to recover properly before bed.

It’s not just me. I know it isn’t.

American Classic is on MGM+

Published: April 11, 2026, 4:00 am

Margo’s Got Money Troubles: Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer ace this taboo OnlyFans comedy

Fanning is a young single mother who makes adult content in this hilarious series. It is smart, sexy and bold – and Pfeiffer is unmissable as her ex-Hooters-waitress mother

I promise, it’s the title that drew me in. Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a new Apple TV show (out Wednesday), starring Elle Fanning as a single mum who becomes an OnlyFans model. It joins a niche canon of similarly blunt titles about generic obstacles. To wit: Fleishman Is in Trouble; Big Trouble in Little China. Margo’s Got Money Troubles is better, though. Check out the assonance, the rhythm. It has great mouthfeel, to borrow a word from food reviewing, one I instantly regret.

Our hero, Margo Millet, is a first-year college student who falls pregnant by her professor. The married academic tells her to get an abortion; her friends agree with him. She has the baby. She drops out of college, falls into money troubles. She attempts to fall out of them by joining the notorious content creation platform. She does nude video shoots, in the character of a sexy alien. If none of this inflames you, can I interest you in Nick Offerman as Margo’s pro-wrestler, drug-addicted father? Or Michelle Pfeiffer as her blue collar, ex-Hooters-waitress mother? No? Are you dead?

Published: April 11, 2026, 6:00 am

‘I’m not a commercial director – I’m not even a professional film-maker’: Jim Jarmusch on the seven-year journey to make his new film

The 73-year-old has been at the cutting edge of US independent cinema since the 1980s. As Father Mother Sister Brother opens in the UK, he talks about grief, greed and ‘doing crazy shit’ with Steve Coogan

In 1991, Jim Jarmusch was casting for his anthology film Night on Earth. The premise was simple: five taxi drivers in five cities pick up passengers, set to a soundtrack by Tom Waits. The writer-director wanted Gena Rowlands to play a passenger, but she took some persuading. “Night on Earth was the first film she’d made since losing John [the director John Cassavetes, her husband] and she wasn’t sure. Eventually she said: ‘OK, I’ll be in this film for you.’” Jarmusch does a perfect impression of Rowlands, as he does with everyone he quotes – it’s quite a talent.

In the first vignette, Winona Ryder picks up Rowlands, who plays a casting director. Ryder, chewing gum, baseball cap on backwards, lights a cigarette; Rowlands, all old-school Hollywood elegance, sits in the back, asking Ryder about her hopes and dreams. Ryder turns down Rowlands’ offer of potential stardom, declaring that her dream is not to act, but to be a mechanic.

Published: April 10, 2026, 4:00 am

‘There’s no shortage of terrifying technology’: how AI became TV drama’s new go-to villain

Will artificial intelligence save us or destroy us? According to a growing band of thriller scriptwriters, we should be very afraid indeed

Maybe the “H” in Line Of Duty will turn out to stand for “hard drive”? After all, AI has become TV’s go-to villain, as proven once again in last week’s penultimate episode of BBC stablemate The Capture. Sinister puppet-master Simon was unmasked at long last and – spoiler – he wasn’t a person.

“Wait, Simon’s a computer?” asked a baffled agent. “He’s a bit more than that,” replied a smug army bigwig. “We’re using AI to support, map, execute and command ops. Simon factors in more risks and variables than you lot on the ground are capable of knowing. Tell him your objective and he’ll calculate your mission and recalibrate it for you in real time. The stats don’t lie. Simon saves lives.”

Published: April 10, 2026, 2:16 pm

‘The biggest, baddest, saltiest chick you would ever see’: why no one sang the blues like Big Mama Thornton

Gay, fearless and utterly unique, Thornton had a hit with Hound Dog before Elvis – but was then fleeced and forgotten. One hundred years after her birth, a new documentary sets the record straight

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton exuded uncompromising intensity. Her voice conveyed struggle and defiance, fury and hurt, like few others. Standing at 6ft 2in, with an imposing physique and a razor-scarred face, she was a Black, gay multi-instrumentalist who refused to let a racist society or a rapacious industry confine her.

Thornton should be ranked alongside the likes of Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, but instead she is little more than a footnote in the histories of Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin as the original voice behind songs they would make famous. A new documentary, Big Mama Thornton: I Can’t Be Anyone But Me, aims to right this wrong.

Published: April 10, 2026, 7:00 am

Coachella 2026: Justin Bieber launches a major comeback in the desert

Stars including Sabrina Carpenter, Karol G, David Byrne and Addison Rae also head to the desert for the first of two sold-out weekends of live music

Justin Bieber is set for a major live performance comeback at this year’s sold-out Coachella with rainy weather set to be a possible spoiler.

The Canadian singer will face his biggest live stage since he abandoned his 2022 tour over health concerns. Bieber was experiencing “full paralysis” on one side of his face after being diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome. “I wish this wasn’t the case but obviously my body is telling me I gotta slow down,” he said at the time.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:00 am

Add to playlist: the beautifully dazed, countrified indie-rock of Tracey Nelson and the week’s best new tracks

Pushing his winsome songwriting into rootsier territory with a little help from co-producer MJ Lenderman, the New Yorker’s debut album is primed to soundtrack your summer

From New York City, New York
Recommended if you like The Clean, This is Lorelei, The Feelies
Up next Debut album Hercules out 10 July

Tracey Nelson’s self-titled 2025 debut EP was one of the year’s best lesser-heard gems: Five tracks of sparkling, winsome indie-rock that recalled classic antipodean jangle bands the Clean, Twerps and Dick Diver. Tracks such as New Years Flowers and Just Shoot Me Now suggested that Austin Noll – the NYC-based singer-songwriter behind the project – was a classicist with a keen sense for bright melodies and self-deprecating one-liners.

Published: April 10, 2026, 11:00 am

Reckonwrong: How Long Has It Been? review | Safi Bugel's experimental album of the month

(New Year)
Londoner Alex Peringer breaks from his intriguing and outlandish dance music with this debut album of charming bedroom-pop ballads

A decade ago, Londoner Alex Peringer intrigued underground club circles with his outlandish take on dance music. Structured around dizzying time signatures and wry tales of unfulfilling lovers and pills gone wrong, his tracks referenced everything from UK funky to new wave and sea shanties. Then came several years of near silence – now broken by this self-released debut album, How Long Has It Been? The record acknowledges this break not just in the title, but also in its sound. On first listen, it couldn’t seem more different to Peringer’s early work, with those discordant constructions now replaced by the warm tinkering of the Rhodes electric piano and ostensibly earnest sentiment. But traces of that eccentricity still linger in this collection of atmospheric bedroom-pop ballads.

The record takes winter as its theme, though it feels fitting for this transitional time of year, with its stories of introspection and dodgy weather set against soft, simple arrangements. A handful of subtly wonky elements stop it from sounding overly polished or guileless: Before and After slips in a reference to a “fateful bong”; on the dreamy duet Two Lovers, glitches cut through the twinkling keys and mumblecore guest vocals. Elsewhere, the chords waver on Black Keys, one of several gorgeous and forlorn instrumentals.

Published: April 10, 2026, 8:30 am

Go Gentle by Maria Semple review – a joyfully clever New York romcom

A Stoic philosopher navigates midlife in this madcap comedy from the author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette

What would Marcus Aurelius have made of the Kardashians? Would Seneca have been amused by mindfulness apps? These were questions I had never consciously pondered before reading Maria Semple’s new novel. Neither, in my irrational and unvirtuous state, had I spent much time considering the application of Stoic philosophy to any other key aspects of modern life.

Semple, best known for her exuberant, ingenious bestseller Where’d You Go, Bernadette?, here presents us with Adora Hazzard, Stoic philosopher and divorcee. Adora lives a contented life on New York City’s Upper West Side, spending her days tutoring the twin sons of an old-money family in philosophy and seeking to live according to Stoic virtues, without recourse to destabilising “externals”. But her settled life is soon disrupted by that most classic of externals, the handsome stranger. “Curse these alluring men who throw us off our game!” (Marcus Aurelius, paraphrased.)

Published: April 10, 2026, 6:00 am

The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup

Loss Protocol by Paul McAuley; Night Babies by Lucie McKnight Hardy; Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell; Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker

Loss Protocol by Paul McAuley (Gollancz, £22)
In a Britain racked by the effects of climate change, about 50 years from now, Marc Winters’ quiet life as a ranger on a nature reserve in Essex is about to be disturbed. Counter-terrorism officers arrive to question him about events from eight years before, when a cult his sister Izzy was part of had self-immolated. He’d hardly been aware of this group of “deep dreamers”, who thought they could change the world through a sort of mental time travel enabled by psychotropic mushrooms. But now both government agents and deep dreamers alike think Izzy must have passed some vital information to her brother, whether he knows it or not. With no idea of the existential danger he faces, Marc sets out to investigate. Beautifully written, blending close attention to the natural world with hallucinogenic dreams and a mind-boggling premise, this is an eco-thriller like no other from one of Britain’s best SF writers.

Night Babies by Lucie McKnight Hardy (John Murray, £18.99)
When their house is flooded, Astrid and her husband take the refuge offered by her friend Flora in the Brecon Beacons. Astrid was particularly affected by the flood, which damaged paintings intended for her first solo exhibition at a prestigious London gallery. The old chapel her friend is renovating becomes her new studio. But instead of working to salvage her portraits, she becomes obsessed with painting the landscape of lake and sky. She tries to shrug off her bad dreams, strange physical sensations, missing items and the dirty, child-sized handprints on the walls, but disturbing facts about the chapel’s history emerge, and she’s not the only one affected by what appears to be a malevolent haunting. She’s haunted, too, by memories of a student art trip to Florence, a significant turning point in her friendship with Flora. Astrid is her own worst enemy, but her issues – ambition, envy, ambivalence about motherhood – will resonate with many readers. A sophisticated, chilling tale that works both as supernatural and psychological horror.

Published: April 10, 2026, 11:00 am

Super Mario what?! The seven best obscure Mario games

As The Super Mario Galaxy Movie storms the box office, we look back at the best forgotten games inspired by Tetris, Lemmings and … vitamins?

It should be no surprise that the latest Super Mario movie is smashing box office records – despite the, let’s say mixed, reviews. Nintendo’s iconic plumber has been a pop culture staple for 45 years, starring in some of the bestselling video games ever made, from the original Donkey Kong through to the joyous Super Mario Bros Wonder and the chaotic Mario Kart World.

But as with any storied showbiz career, there have been some lesser works. Who can forget – or actually remember – Hotel Mario, a door-shutting puzzle game for the doomed Philips CD-i console? Or what about Mario Teaches Typing, a 1992 educational game for the PC in which players navigate the Mushroom Kingdom by … correctly inputting words. Yet there have also been genuine treasures lost along the way. Here, then, are seven of our favourite much-overlooked Mario odysseys.

Published: April 10, 2026, 9:00 am

I swapped England for Seoul after watching a Korean teen drama – and found myself cast in a K-pop video

I was on the verge of failing Mandarin, when a last-second pivot caused me to utterly fall in love with Korean culture, and send me in a totally new direction

The first time I discovered South Korea was during a Mandarin homework mishap in 2013. I was 16 and lacked all the characteristics required to be good at languages: confidence, a thick skin and any desire to talk out loud. Forced to choose a language, Mandarin seemed like the best option for me – with a self-proclaimed photographic memory, I spent hours cramming complex Chinese characters, convincing myself I could pass my exams without speaking a word. I could not.

My vow of silence was shattered three months in, when I was introduced to my native-Chinese conversation teacher. As suspected, I was woeful. I cried, she cried. Stunned by my ineptitude, she quietly wiped a tear away with her knuckle as she helplessly suggested that I watch Chinese TV dramas to improve my pronunciation instead.

Published: April 11, 2026, 6:00 am

Who was Hilma? Af Klint exhibition to highlight exclusion of women from abstract art

Swedish artist, now regarded as predecessor to Kandinsky and Mondrian, died thinking world was not ready for her work

The Swedish artist Hilma af Klint died believing the world was not ready for the mystical paintings that would shock the art world half a century later.

The painter, now credited with pioneering the abstract art movement, did not seek recognition after peers rejected her avant garde works. Instead, she ordered that they be hidden for 20 years after her death and never sold.

Published: April 10, 2026, 12:40 pm

Filthy fossil fuels, a dizzying debut and the ominous side of the moon – the week in art

Digital wizard John Gerrard on the energy industry, Michaela Yearwood-Dan’s first UK museum exhibition and a foreboding view from Artemis II – all in your weekly dispatch

Extraction
This ominous exhibition takes a look at the filthy world of oil, gas and petroleum, all seen through the lens of artists such as biomorphic sculptor Marguerite Humeau and digital wizard John Gerrard.
• Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, 11 April to 26 July

Published: April 10, 2026, 10:42 am

‘We are not like the rest of Andalucía’: the rugged charms of Almería, Spain’s desert city

While Málaga battles overtourism down the coast, this ‘forgotten’ working port city revels in its outsider status

Perched high on the battlements of Almería’s 10th-century Alcazaba, looking over the mosaic of flat roofs tumbling down to the sea, I’m reminded of author Gerald Brenan’s travel classic South from Granada, and his impression upon arriving in Almería in 1920: “Certainly, it seemed that the sea was doubly Mediterranean here, and the city … contained within it echoes of distant civilisations.”

A British adventurer, Hispanist and fringe member of the Bloomsbury group, Brenan had walked to Almería from where he was living near Granada, apparently to buy extra furniture in preparation for a visit from Virginia Woolf and friends. A century later, my journey here in a 30-year-old van from London is somewhat less notable, but as I marvel at the almost surreal incandescence of the Med, and the maze of ancient streets below me, I too am aware of a sensation of time travel.

Published: April 11, 2026, 6:00 am

I used 30lbs of fresh produce testing 10 juicers - just half were worth the squeeze

With machines from $150 to $770, I used 30lbs of fresh produce to find the cold-press juicers most worth the squeeze

• The best blenders in the US: five favorites for smoothies, soups and frozen drinks

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

If you’re sick of spending $12 a pop for a daily juice on the way to work (or $20, if you’re hooked on Erewhon’s viral smoothies), let me take your hand and gently say: life doesn’t have to be this way. You can sip customized, antioxidant-packed juice without leaving the house … if you invest in the right home juicer.

Juicers can conjure images of clunky machines with huge countertop footprints, jammed parts, countless components to clean and – perhaps most onerous – hefty price tags. But many of today’s models trade these pitfalls for graceful, efficient and minimalist designs, little mess, low noise and few, easy-to-clean parts.

Best overall juicer:
Nama J2 Cold Press Juicer

Published: April 10, 2026, 2:15 pm

Tim Dowling: my wife is on a quest to restore my thinning hair

I am settling in for my usual haircut when, before I know it, my wife and the hairdresser are signing me up for a ‘treatment’

In the beginning I used not to be able to tell Kelly and Hayley – the identical twin hairdressers who came to the house appointments – apart. Eventually my wife furnished me with a handy mnemonic: Kelly cuts, Hayley highlights. From then on, I knew them by their tools.

I don’t need that crutch any more: since my wife decided to go grey, we only have Kelly. She arrived at 11, and I am already in the chair, hair wet, a towel over my shoulders. Kelly is on her phone. My wife is sitting across the table from me.

Published: April 11, 2026, 5:00 am

Meera Sodha’s recipe for noodles with rose beancurd, spring greens and egg | Meera Sodha recipes

A vegetarian noodle stir-fry full of vigour and flavour

I love going to my local Chinese supermarket; it’s like being at the top of the Magic Faraway Tree, where the world (and ergo my mealtimes) are full of wild possibilities and new travels for my tastebuds. A new favourite ingredient is rose red beancurd, so called because it’s red and fermented in a combination of red yeast and rose petals. The overall effect in this noodle recipe, a take on the Thai street food dish, suki hang, is that it imparts a delicious char siu flavour when cooked, which is a lot of magic for a single ingredient.

Published: April 11, 2026, 5:00 am

Child trust funds: a windfall at 18 – but what should you do next?

All children born in the UK between September 2002 and January 2011 have a CTF – but £1bn has not been claimed

At some point in the midst of 2009 I made a decision that would change my son’s life: I started paying £10 a month into his child trust fund account.

It didn’t seem like much but, almost 18 years later, thanks to the performance of the stock market and the original government payment, he’s about to get about £10,000. At first he had no idea what to do next, financially, and he’s not alone.

Published: April 11, 2026, 6:20 am

What links Althea & Donna, Sean Paul and Ken Boothe? The Saturday quiz

From Kling Klang and the Queen of Mauretania to Elf, Peterbald and Sphynx, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 What was discovered on a dish containing Staphylococcus aureus?
2 At which Jewish festival is it traditional to serve triangular food?
3 Whose daughter became Queen of Mauretania in 25BC?
4 Kling Klang in Düsseldorf was which band’s studio?
5 Which Briton was the first person to deadlift 500kg?
6 What are studied by a dendrochronologist?
7 Which warrior class was abolished in the 1870s?
8 On the Calculation of Volume is a seven-novel series by which Dane?
What links:
9 Gladstone only; eg Salisbury, Baldwin; eg Churchill, Wilson; eg Thatcher, Truss?
10 Alexander III; Austerlitz; Alma; Bir-Hakeim; Jena; Léopold Sédar Senghor?
11 Bambino; Donskoy; Elf; Peterbald; Sphynx?
12 Althea & Donna; Ken Boothe; Desmond Dekker; Boris Gardiner; Sean Paul?
13 Pacific Warriors; Invictus; Murderball; The Brighton Miracle; This Sporting Life?
14 Manchester and Sheffield, via Ladybower reservoir?
15 Earl of Essex; 16th US president; Australian bushranger; wartime German industrialist?

Published: April 11, 2026, 6:00 am

‘A story that needs to be told’: the Manacillos festival of Colombia – photo essay

Ever Andrés Mercado won a World Press Photo award for his work on the Manacillos festival, which takes place among the Afro-descendant community of Yurumanguí. Here he talks about the ancestral ritual and why it’s so important

Every year, hundreds of Afro-Colombians climb into wooden boats and set sail down the Yurumanguí River. They navigate dense rainforest, scramble through mangroves, and battle charging river currents, to disembark about 12 hours later in the remote village of Juntas.

It is here that they reunite and gather for an ancestral ritual: the Manacillos festival.

People living in the Juntas village of Yurumanguí use the festival as a way to unite and attract more people who, for years, had to flee the territory.

Published: April 10, 2026, 11:00 am

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Crisis in the Middle East, Russian shelling in Ukraine, Artemis’s lunar flyby and World Press Photo winners – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Warning: this gallery contains images some readers may find distressing

Published: April 10, 2026, 6:26 pm