The United States is destroying itself | Rebecca Solnit

The daily news can’t adequately convey the administration’s sabotaging of our government, economy, alliances and environment

The United States is being murdered, and it’s an inside job. Every department, every branch, every bureau and function of the federal government is being fatally corrupted or altogether dismantled or disabled. All this is common knowledge, but because it dribbles out in news stories about this specific incident or department, the reports never adequately describe an administration sabotaging the functioning of the federal government and also trashing the global economy, international alliances and relationships, and the national and global environment in ways that will have downstream consequences for decades and perhaps, especially when it comes to climate, centuries.

Across the branches of government, the services that are supposed to protect us – nuclear stockpile monitoring, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism – are being undermined, understaffed or trashed. A different kind of protection that consists of public health, vaccination programs, food safety, clean air and water, social services, civil rights and the rule of law is also under attack. The federal government that serves us is being starved while the federal government that serves the Trump agenda and the oligarchy is glutting itself on taxpayer money, including the grotesque sums dumped on the Department of Homeland Security and the US military now being warped into Pete Hegseth’s twisted vision of a ruthless mercenary force. Hegseth has reportedly stood in the way of promotions for more than a dozen Black and female officers.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her newest book is The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change

Published: April 12, 2026, 10:00 am

Too hot to handle? Why it’s time for straight male authors to rediscover sex

It’s a high-wire act and the risk of an embarrassing failure can weigh heavily – but that’s no reason to avoid writing about sex, argues Black Bag author Luke Kennard

Are straight male writers scared of writing about sex? If you read modern fiction it’s hard to conclude otherwise. Maybe we’re worried that the very presence of a sex scene in our book would feel somehow exploitative or gratuitous. Or maybe we feel our gender has simply said enough on the subject so we should shut up.

Women writing about straight relationships don’t seem as nervous. In fact, sex is often a central element of narrative, and of nuanced portrayals of masculinity; from the slow-burn tenderness and awkwardness of intimacy in Sally Rooney’s work, to the surreal celebrations of and lamentations for the erotic in Diane Williams’s extraordinary short stories.

Published: April 12, 2026, 11:00 am

‘A house of cards’: how did Wireless festival get it so wrong on Kanye West?

Industry experts say booking of controversial US rapper was calculated risk that has implications for all festivals

The fallout over Wireless announcing Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) as its 2026 headliner was both swift and considerable.

Last Sunday, major sponsors of the three-day festival, including Pepsi and Diageo, began to withdraw their involvement in the face of a significant backlash to Ye’s shocking pronouncements on the Jewish community and the Holocaust. UK Jewish groups threatened to protest if the shows went ahead. Keir Starmer called the decision to book the rapper who wrote a song titled Heil Hitler “deeply concerning”.

Published: April 12, 2026, 5:00 am

‘They’re all junk, and should be banned’: the trouble with at-home food intolerance tests

A multimillion-pound industry has sprung up promising it can detect sensitivities to certain ingredients with a simple remote finger prick test. But the results can be misleading – and even dangerous

My kitchen table is littered with tiny test tubes, envelopes and plastic lancets. At one end of the table, I have a parcel containing everything I need to take a food intolerance blood test, sold by one of the best-known companies in this market, as well as one of their food and environmental allergy tests, a package deal that cost me just over £200.

At the other end, I’ve arranged everything I need to do a top-of-the-range ALEX2 allergy blood test, which I got from the allergy clinic run by Dr Helen Evans-Howells, a GP and allergy specialist who runs clinics in Hampshire, Belfast and online. This costs £295 and comprises two lancets, which I will soon be using to puncture tiny holes in several of my fingertips; a blood tube; disinfecting wipes; and a return envelope. In the middle of the table, I have a large bowl of hot water, in which my left hand is soaking. I’ve also cut off a lock of my hair, which is now in a sandwich bag ready to be sent to a lab tomorrow for bioresonance testing. My plan is to compare the three sets of results, all from samples taken on the very same day. Given that I don’t have any food or environmental allergies or intolerances, all three tests should show exactly the same thing: nothing.

Published: April 12, 2026, 5:00 am

Protocol be damned: here’s what King Charles should say on his visit to the US | Simon Tisdall

The king has the chance to offer some tough love. Perhaps he could start with a speech to Congress about the Trump administration’s reckless trajectory

It will be a definitive moment for King Charles III and the British monarchy. And for better or worse, it could help salvage UK-US relations after Donald Trump insulted Keir Starmer. In the public high point of his state visit, the king will mount the rostrum in the US House of Representatives on 28 April to address a joint session of Congress. Of all the British monarchs in the 250 years since US independence, only his late mother, Elizabeth II, was afforded this rare honour – and her accomplished 1991 performance brought the house down. This time could be more tricky.

Times have changed, as has the land of the free, and the biggest change is Trump. He will not be present on Capitol Hill when the king speaks, but his dark shadow lurks everywhere. Trump will undoubtedly portray Charles’s attendance at a separate White House state banquet as a royal endorsement of his person and policies. And it is precisely this galling prospect of a presidential propaganda coup that has led most people in Britain to oppose the visit. Starmer, in contrast, hopes it will set the badly soiled “special relationship” back on track.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

Published: April 12, 2026, 10:11 am

From brutal occupation to brazen recruitment: Russia turns Bucha residents against their own

Four years after the Ukrainian town experienced some of the war’s worst atrocities, a 21-year-old planted bombs outside his own apartment building

On a recent evening in March, Bohdan Tymchenko, a quiet and unassuming man from Bucha, logged on to his computer to play the popular video game World of Tanks. Less than two weeks later, he planted two bombs outside his flat.

What unfolded in the intervening days offers a stark glimpse into a growing pattern: Ukrainians drawn in online by Russian intelligence services, promised money or coerced into carrying out sabotage attacks against their own country.

Published: April 12, 2026, 8:00 am

Middle East crisis live: US failed to gain Iran’s trust during talks, claims delegation leader

Tehran’s parliament speaker says they raised ‘forward-looking initiatives’, after countries fail to reach deal after marathon talks in Pakistan

• JD Vance and US delegation leave Pakistan after failing to reach deal with Iran

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

A post about an hour ago on the Israel Defense Forces Telegram channel claimed that overnight, the IDF “identified a rocket launcher positioned and ready to launch toward the State of Israel in the area of Jouaiyya in southern Lebanon”.

Shortly after the identification, the launcher was struck and dismantled in a rapid closure cycle, thwarting the launch before it could be carried out.

Published: April 12, 2026, 12:18 pm

‘Everything is gone’: Israel destroys entire villages in Lebanon

Rights groups fear tactic of ‘domicide’ trialled in Gaza, where entire areas are made uninhabitable, is being used again

The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations.

The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims.

Published: April 12, 2026, 4:00 am

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.

Meanwhile, US military officials on Saturday announced that their forces “began setting conditions for clearing mines in the strait”, with two navy guided-missile destroyers conducting operations.

Published: April 11, 2026, 11:54 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

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

‘I feel helpless’: college graduates can’t find entry-level roles in shrinking market amid rise of AI

Young American graduates expressed frustration over fewer job openings and longer searches

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American college graduates are facing the worst entry-level job market since the pandemic, with the underemployment rate reaching 42.5% – its highest level since 2020.

Several young graduates told the Guardian about their struggles navigating a job market shaped by tightening opportunities, the rise of AI and shifting employer expectations.

Published: April 12, 2026, 11:00 am

Hungarians vote in hard-fought election that could oust Viktor Orbán after 16 years

Rightwing leader trails in polls to Péter Magyar, despite support from JD Vance on recent visit

Hungarians are heading to the ballot boxes to vote in a landmarkparliamentary election that could oust Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power and potentially reshape the central European country’s relations with the EU, Moscow and Washington.

During the campaign, Orbán – the EU’s longest-serving leader – has trailed in the polls as he faces an unprecedented challenge from Péter Magyar, a former elite member of Orbán’s Fidesz party.

Published: April 12, 2026, 6:00 am

At least 30 killed in crush at historic fortress in Haiti

Officials said many killed at popular tourist site were young, with more people reported injured or missing

At least 30 people, many of them young, have died and dozens more are reported to have been injured after a crush at a mountaintop fortress in northern Haiti that is a popular tourist spot.

Jean Henri Petit, the head of civil protection for the country’s Nord department, said the incident took place on Saturday at Citadelle Henry, also known as Citadelle Laferrière, a large 19th-century fortress built shortly after the Caribbean country’s independence from France.

Published: April 12, 2026, 11:26 am

Ex-police commissioner on how his taskforce ‘broke the case’ and found the Gilgo Beach serial killer

Rodney Harrison formed taskforce that later identified Rex Heuermann as a suspect in the string of New York murders

Rodney Harrison was not in the courtroom in Riverhead on New York’s Long Island last week when serial killer Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to the murders of seven women and volunteered that he’d also murdered an eighth.

But as the New York police department’s former chief of detectives, who was brought in to be police commissioner of Suffolk county – the area where Heuermann had dumped his victims – it was Harrison who pulled together a taskforce that came to crack the case.

Published: April 12, 2026, 11:00 am

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

New documentary reveals boyband 98 Degrees had age-of-consent manual while touring in 90s

Label tried to keep band members out of trouble during first tour, Nick Lachey says in Boy Band Confidential

As they embarked on their first tour and their record label tried to limit their potential for legal issues, members of the 1990s US boyband 98 Degrees were equipped with a handbook listing the age at which people across the nation can lawfully consent to sex , the group’s lead singer, Nick Lachey, reveals in a new documentary.

“This is going to sound super shady, but … I remember our first tour, someone at the label gave us a book, and it was the age of consent in every state in the country,” Lachey says in Boy Band Confidential, which is premiering on Monday at 9pm ET on the cable network Investigation Discovery. “And like, we kept that book on the tour bus.”

Published: April 12, 2026, 9:00 am

French man charged with keeping nine-year-old son locked in van since 2024

Police rescued boy after neighbour reported sounds of a child coming from vehicle in Hagenbach in eastern France

A malnourished nine-year-old boy was rescued after being locked in his father’s van since 2024 in eastern France, a prosecutor said.

A neighbour alerted police to “sounds of a child” coming from a vehicle in the village of Hagenbach, near the borders of Switzerland and Germany.

Published: April 11, 2026, 6:11 pm

Washington officials say 21 dead canines that washed ashore were foxes, solving local mystery

Animals were used legally as fishing bait, sheriff’s office confirms after incident shook locals in Guemes Island

A Washington state sheriff’s office says it has solved the mystery of nearly two dozen dead canines who washed ashore recently.

The animals were foxes being used legally as bait for fishing operations, the Skagit county sheriff’s office said on Friday.

Published: April 11, 2026, 8:33 pm

Lifestyle blogger said to have inspired Devil Wears Prada character uses unpaid student interns

Use of interns by Plum Sykes, an ex-assistant of Anna Wintour whose family owns a Yorkshire estate, reignites debate about creative industries

She is said to have been the inspiration for a character in The Devil Wears Prada and was a personal assistant of Anna Wintour, so Plum Sykes knows a thing or two about the arduous and often unglamorous life of being a fashion industry intern.

But that recognition does not, it appears, extend to paying her own interns a fair wage. Or, indeed, any wage at all.

Published: April 12, 2026, 11:00 am

Trump news at a glance: president signals more mass pardons in pipeline; Vance leaves Pakistan after Iran peace talks break down

Trump reported saying he will issue mass pardons at end of term; vice-president says Iran and US at an impasse over nuclear weapons question – key US politics stories from Saturday 11 April at a glance

After granting unconditional pardons to 1,500 people who participated in the 6 January 2021 US Capitol attack at the start of his presidency, Donald Trump has signalled there could be more to come.

“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 12, 2026, 4:56 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

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

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’s new budget ignores dying Americans and gives away record sums to the US military

President’s proposed budget slashes health department by 12% while throwing $1.5tn – a 42% increase – to the military

Americans are dying in droves. Deaths due to avoidable causes in the United States –which could be dealt with via prevention or proper healthcare – far outpace those in most of country’s peers in the industrialized world. Most notably, Americans die of treatable conditions at nearly twice the rate as Spaniards, French, Japanese and Australians.

They would most likely live longer if they enjoyed better access to healthcare. Americans are the most likely to skip a doctor’s appointment due to its cost, the most likely to skip a medical test and to skimp on prescription drugs. This is unsurprising, given the extraordinary lack of public health insurance in the United States. Americans face the highest out-of-pocket expenses for medical services in their peer group.

Published: April 12, 2026, 11:00 am

‘Never been closer’: UFO watchers buoyed by Trump and Vance’s alien ‘obsession’

From Vance’s interest to Trump’s commitment to disclosure, administration’s fascination with UFOs has experts feeling close to evidence of aliens

Like most politicians, Donald Trump did not campaign on the issue of space aliens. But 15 months into his second term, UFO enthusiasts have been buoyed by the Trump administration’s apparent fascination with extraterrestrials, with one expert claiming the human race has “never been closer” to being presented with hard evidence of aliens.

After a largely alien-free first 12 months, the president has committed himself to UFO disclosure in 2026. In February, Trump directed various departments to release “government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life”, and the White House took the unusual step of registering domain “aliens.gov” in March, setting pulses racing among believers online.

Published: April 12, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘I didn’t want to be on medication the rest of my life’: veteran runs psilocybin retreats for PTSD before FDA approval

Researchers say ‘magic mushrooms’ can help with traumatic symptoms, but urge caution as states expand access

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After three combat deployments in Afghanistan, during which he suffered traumatic brain injuries from concussive blasts, army ranger Jesse Gould developed post-traumatic stress disorder and said he “drank almost every night to cope”.

In times of hardship, veterans sometimes turn to “medication and talk therapy, but it tends to be more of a maintenance program than actually overcoming it”, Gould said, but added that at age 38, “I was still very young. I didn’t want to be on medication the rest of my life.”

Published: April 12, 2026, 12:00 pm

Dr TikTok: patients diagnose chronic illnesses with anonymous commenters’ help

TikTok users increasingly say the app has steered them toward diagnosing medical problems not yet identified

Malina Lee, a 31-year-old wedding baker based in San Antonio, Texas, joined TikTok during the Covid pandemic lockdowns in 2020. Like many people at the time, she was bored and began using the platform to pass the time and advertise her business. She didn’t expect a cancer diagnosis.

Four years after Lee joined the app, a commenter with the username “PickleFart” told her that her neck looked asymmetrical in a way that could suggest she had a goiter – an enlarged thyroid gland – and that she should get it checked out. The anonymous amateur clinician turned out to be right – Lee had thyroid cancer, received treatment quickly, and, less than a year later, was cancer free.

Published: April 12, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘Reverse-gentrify the country’: how Black and Indigenous intentional communities are reclaiming land

From California to Alabama, people of color are building communal spaces rooted in care and tradition

Zappa Montag steps outside his home to a thicket of redwoods, Pacific madrones and oak trees. Dozens of fruit trees dot the 76 hectares (189 acres), along with a large garden replete with squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, corn and peppers. Nearby, a small stream runs through a valley surrounded by hills. At Black to the Land, the ecovillage in Boonville, California, Montag and five other Black people steward the land off the grid, relying on well water and powered solely by solar panels. The intentional community, as it’s called, is located in a rural area 115 miles (185km) north of San Francisco. Montag said it was an effort to “reverse-gentrify the country”.

Black Americans and Indigenous people have long gathered in intentional communities, defined as small groups of people who live in the same area based on shared values and a common vision. They come in many forms, including co-housing spaces in urban environments where people have their own units and share communal spaces.

Published: April 12, 2026, 11:00 am

From Andrew Tate to Mountbatten-Windsor, my first name has been dragged through the mud. Can a global community of ‘Drews’ help change that?

The ‘Council of Andrews’ started as a bit of fun – but has led to friendships, financial help and even fiances…

It’s a rough time to be called Andrew. In recent years, notorious figures such as Andrew Tate and the former prince have dominated the headlines, giving us a bad name. Even the CEO caught up in that Coldplay scandal was an Andy. It’s been a bad run. As an Andrew myself, I wanted to unearth some better representatives, so I recently set out on a mission: to find some fellow Andrews doing good in the world.

That’s how I stumbled upon thousands of Andrews at once.

Published: April 12, 2026, 11:00 am

This is how we do it: ‘I love the idea of only knowing one person intimately for the rest of my life’

Studying on different continents is a challenge for Veronika and Fabio … Can their young love go the distance?

• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

There have been days when we’ve been on the phone for 10 hours at a stretch

When I’ve flown back to see her, we’ve tried to make up for lost time

Published: April 12, 2026, 10:00 am

I’ve spent 20 years treading water and fear that I’ve wasted so much time. Am I depressed? | Ask Annalisa Barbieri

Turn your attention to your internal landscape rather than the next building project. Make your next project yourself

My wife and I are in our late 60s. The past 20 years have felt like treading water, as all my funds are tied up in a property that, for complex reasons, I am unable to sell. We are both creative. Over the past year or so I’ve made some improvements to our house, things that make people say wow. I enjoy seeing their pleasure, but their praise isn’t hugely important to me. In fact, I am somewhat reclusive. I do not enjoy being part of a wider community and I’m content with a handful of close friends.

Last year my father died, and after a period of despair, during which I found myself contemplating suicide (I did not share this with my wife), I turned first to Samaritans, then a therapist.

Published: April 12, 2026, 5:00 am

A festival of young European photography

The Circulation(s) photo festival has returned to Paris for its 16th edition. On show are works by 26 young European photographers. The projects capture the pulse of young European photography, its intuitions, challenges and commitments

Circulation(s) will take place at the Centquatre-Paris from 21 March to 17 May 2026

Published: April 12, 2026, 6:00 am

Is AI the greatest art heist in history?

New technologies of reproduction are plundering the art world – and getting away with it

In 2026, its easy to see why generative AI is bad. The internet has nicknamed its excretions “slop”. The CEOs of AI companies prance about on stage like supervillains, bragging that their products will eliminate vast swathes of work. Generative AI requires sacrificing the world’s water to feed its hideous data centres. Around the globe, chatbots induce schizophrenic delusions and urge teens to kill themselves – all while turning users brains to mush.

Who could have predicted this? Artists, that’s who.

Published: April 12, 2026, 11:00 am

The anti-ICE resistance is working | Judith Levine

A mass movement defending immigrants has slowed the Trump administration’s abuses

Resistance, in physics, is the force that hinders the flow of charged electrons as they zigzag from point to point. Resistance doesn’t stop the flow of electricity. Instead, it causes heat.

Popular resistance works the same way. It obstructs and slows the government’s business, creating political heat and slowing it further.

Published: April 12, 2026, 11:00 am

The Artemis II crew made it through 10 days in space – but could they have survived my first office job? | Polly Hudson

Confined quarters, rising tensions and no escape: the astronauts were trained for it. I had a desk, a drawer and a long-running feud over a window that pushed me to my limits

Four people have joined the tiny percentage of humans who can say they have come back to Earth with a bump, literally. Welcome home, Artemis II crew: you have much to be proud of after following in the illustrious footsteps of Katy Perry and Jeff Bezos’s missus. Most importantly, you survived. Not in space – although obviously that too – but, far more impressively, you made it through an extended period trapped in extremely confined quarters with colleagues. As anyone who has worked in an office can verify, this is the greatest test of endurance known to humankind.

Commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen as well as pilot Victor Glover have just spent 10 days in a capsule described as “not much bigger than a family tent”. Normally, if tempers fray and the atmosphere (no pun intended) becomes tense between workmates, being able to leave for the evening provides the opportunity to relax, reflect and regroup. Getting along with no time off for good behaviour would be seriously hard, even for a rocket scientist. Imagine how all their quirks and habits must have got on each other’s nerves, even though it’s presumably impossible to chew with your mouth open in zero gravity.

Published: April 12, 2026, 4:00 am

Australia must be more self-reliant – but it can’t afford to throw the US baby out with the bathwater | Arthur Sinodinos

Even under Trump, the American system of alliances is fundamental for Indo-Pacific security. That means staying the course on joint initiatives such as Aukus

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Donald Trump is not a big believer in alliances or the mutuality principle. Life for him is a zero-sum game of winners and losers. That’s the thinking behind his tariff and security policies, as well as his latest outbursts at allies including Australia for not helping in the war.

He has lashed out at allies in Europe and the Indo-Pacific because he was frustrated by the course of the war. He never intended for allies and partners to be co-opted so did not brief them or formally request assistance. He thought America and Israel could go it alone – likely because he did not want the headache of having to coordinate operations with coalition partners for the perceived marginal benefit of their contributions.

Published: April 11, 2026, 8:00 pm

Am I a happier person for having a child? It’s the wrong question to ask | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

A new study finds that having children leaves your emotional wellbeing unchanged – but the truth is so much more complicated than that

Does having children make you happier? Apparently not, according to a new study published in Evolutionary Psychology which, despite involving more than 5,000 participants in 10 countries, including Britain, could find no strong evidence that parenthood led to a measurable increase in positive emotions. The researchers, led by Menelaos Apostolou of the University of Nicosia, looked at both hedonic wellbeing (day-to-day emotional states such as joy, sadness and loneliness) and eudaimonic wellbeing (a feeling of purpose and meaning). With the exception of mothers in Greece, who felt a greater sense of the latter, there was no statistically significant difference between parents and non-parents, suggesting that becoming a parent leaves your emotional wellbeing largely unchanged.

This was seen as surprising, but is it, truly? I love my son and being his mother has given my life great joy and meaning, but that is not to say that my life has more joy and meaning than that of someone without children. To an extent, comparing my life as a mother with the life of a stranger without children is meaningless: children are not appendages whose presence or absence reveal a static emotional state. The only way you could truly get the data would be by having access to the two timelines. In one, you had children, in the other, you didn’t. The parallel selves would each complete a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) questionnaire which could then be compared.

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist

Published: April 12, 2026, 7:00 am

Rory McIlroy aims for ‘freer’ state of mind in final round of Masters after losing six-shot lead

• McIlroy visibly short of his best during one-over par 73

• ‘I wish I was a few shots better off but I’m comfortable’

Rory McIlroy hopes to benefit from a “freer” state of mind on the final day of the Masters, despite the defending champion conceding he will have to improve markedly from round three to retain the Green Jacket. McIlroy saw his six-stroke lead evaporate on Saturday, meaning he enters the fourth round in a tie with Cameron Young at the top of the leaderboard. McIlroy was visibly short of his best during a one-over-par 73.

The Northern Irishman can, however, pull upon the glory of 2025 at the same venue. “I’d like to think that I’ll play a little bit freer and I’ll play, like I’ve already got a Green Jacket, which I do,” McIlroy said. “Sometimes I maybe just have to remind myself of that. The pairing will be just a little bit easier, the atmosphere out there will be a little bit easier.

Published: April 12, 2026, 12:24 am

Sunderland v Tottenham, Nottingham Forest v Aston Villa and more: Premier League – live

• Football updates from Sunday’s top-flight fixtures

• Email Daniel | Premier League table | Football Daily

At the City Ground, Vitor Pereiera picks the same side that beat Spurs last time out in the league; Elliot Anderson, suspended in Europe, returns to the starting XI, while Chris Wood, who started in midweek after missing most of the season, is on the bench.

As for Villa, Youri Tielemans starts in the league for the first time since the end of January – he played the full 90 in midweek – while Ezri Konsa is rested, Victor Lindelof coming in, and Ross Barkley taking the place of Emi Buendia.

Published: April 12, 2026, 12:28 pm

Tyson Fury returns with unanimous points win over Makhmudov and wants Joshua next

• Fury easily defeats Russian by unanimous decision

• Joshua was ringside and initially evades Fury’s challenge

Tyson Fury completed the first stage of his latest comeback when he outclassed Arslanbek Makhmudov in an uninspiring near shutout over 12 rounds late on Saturday night. The former world heavyweight champion has retired on five previous occasions and, each time, he has been unable to resist the lure of a return to the ring. Now, even at the age of 37, he was still too fast, fluid and accurate for the lumbering Makhmudov.

The Russian from Dagestan hits hard and 17 of his previous 21 victories had featured successful stoppages within the first three rounds. But Makhmudov has never faced a heavyweight of Fury’s pedigree. The chasm between them was obvious from the second round and reflected in the scorecards as two judges had Fury winning each round, in a 120-108 victory, while the third official recorded a 119-109 margin.

Published: April 11, 2026, 10:28 pm

Lavelle and Heaps score as USA women ease past Japan to open friendly series

• Lavelle scores on landmark 100th US start

• Heaps adds winner after sweeping counter

• Emma Hayes’ side make it 10 straight wins

Rose Lavelle celebrated her 100th start with a goal and an assist to help the US women’s national team to a 2-1 win in San Jose, California, on Saturday to open a three-match series against Japan.

Lavelle, in her 119th match, scored in the ninth minute off a set piece then set up Lindsey Heaps in the 48th for the 2-0 lead.

Published: April 11, 2026, 11:55 pm

Gout Gout leaves onlookers dumbfounded with record-breaking run drawn from the future | Jack Snape

The sprint sensation was pushed to new heights in the 200m final by an unlikely opponent at the Australian Athletics Championships

It didn’t look good for Gout Gout. He had started the 200m final at the Australian Athletics Championships relatively well, and was positioned just off the lead at the start of the straight.

But, there – who was that? The man wearing all black, two lanes on the inside. An athlete who appeared to match the global phenomenon step by step just when Gout was expected to pull away.

Published: April 12, 2026, 7:30 am

Bournemouth expose Schrödinger’s Arsenal, a team that could be either dead or alive | Paul MacInnes

Mikel Arteta urged fans to bring ‘your lunch, bring your dinner’ but when the set pieces fail to fire his side are short of a full plate

It was another one of those games where Arsenal had found it necessary to rouse the troops beforehand. Mikel Arteta, in his occasional, unusual jokey mode, had urged Arsenal fans to “bring your lunch, bring your dinner” and make this 12.30 kick-off an occasion.

The players, meanwhile, had been training under the eye of a big screen broadcasting footage of Arsenal in happy, successful moments, presumably to encourage the creation of more. “Every game, we have to be there,” Arteta said. So were they?

Published: April 11, 2026, 4:03 pm

Rio Ngumoha sparks Liverpool win over wasteful Fulham with first Anfield goal

At the end of a stormy week for Arne Slot there was respite in the form of a morale-boosting display from Rio Ngumoha. Liverpool’s 17-year-old winger marked his second Premier League start with an exquisite goal and a key role in the second from Mohamed Salah as the troubled champions celebrated a first league win since February.

Liverpool seemed vulnerable after painful cup quarter-final defeats at Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain had intensified the pressure on Slot. The ingredients were in place for Anfield to turn toxic. Fulham never put that fragility to the test. Marco Silva’s team were passive and limited in front of goal while Liverpool, re-energised by the virtuosity of Ngumoha, found the clinical touch and resolve to reach the landmark of 1,500 league wins at Anfield. It was only their second win in six games following a Champions League away trip this season and should restore some confidence before the daunting assignment against PSG on Tuesday. Ngumoha pressed his claims for inclusion from the start.

Published: April 11, 2026, 6:34 pm

Real talk: Chelsea punished Enzo Fernández for exposing project’s fatal flaw | Jonathan Wilson

Manchester City can brush off Rodri’s comments but Chelsea’s existential angst helps explain suspension of midfielder

Enzo Fernández and Rodri would quite like to move to Madrid; many people would. They both said as much in the international break, those special parts of the season when players join up with their national teams and give interviews while apparently unaware that media are global these days: a whisper on Luzo TV can soon become a hurricane in London. But Rodri will line up for Manchester City at Chelsea on Sunday, while Fernández will not, suspended by the club for “crossing a line”.

It’s worth, perhaps, looking at exactly what was said. Fernández expressed disappointment at Enzo Maresca’s departure on New Year’s Day. “It … hurt a lot,” he told Luzo, “because we had a lot of identity, he gave us order, but it’s the way that football is, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. But we always had a clear identity when it came to training, playing and obviously his departure hurt us especially in the middle of the season – it cuts everything short.” Sadness that a manager has gone surely isn’t a crime; it could even be supportive of Liam Rosenior and the difficulty of taking over a club mid-season.

Published: April 11, 2026, 7:00 pm

Gambling is easy, right? Wrong: it turns out betting on sport is designed to disturb you | Barney Ronay

Could I turn £10 into £1,000? I thought I could but was undone by the harsh reality and lost a little bit of my soul along the way

Welcome to How I Beat The Bookies: My Gambling Journey. Yes, my extreme methods can work for you. But only in the usual way. Which is to appear very briefly to work and then not to work at all.

First it is necessary to address the latest blow to English football’s otherwise watertight economy. People often talk about playing the world’s tiniest violin, a way of expressing sarcastic sympathy for bogus suffering, usually accompanied by a finger-and-thumb gesture that suggests, incorrectly, this is the size of the world’s tiniest violin.

Published: April 11, 2026, 7:00 am

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

Indian music legend Asha Bhosle dies aged 92

Two-time Grammy nominee was one of Bollywood’s most versatile and celebrated voices

The Indian singer Asha Bhosle, whose voice defined Bollywood music through the 1970s and 80s, has died aged 92, her family said.

The two-time Grammy nominee had been admitted to hospital in Mumbai with complaints of “extreme exhaustion” and chest infection.

Published: April 12, 2026, 11:40 am

Suspect in New York subway machete attack shot and killed by police

Three people wounded in attack at Grand Central subway station by man who stated he was ‘Lucifer’, police said

Police in New York City shot and killed a man who stabbed three people on a subway platform in New York City’s Grand Central station, the city’s police commissioner said.

Jessica Tisch, who leads the New York police department, told reporters at a news conference at the station that officers, flagged down by a witness to the stabbings at about 9.40am, had encountered a suspect, armed with a machete, who defied at least 20 verbal orders to drop the weapon and repeatedly stated “that he was Lucifer”.

Published: April 11, 2026, 3:17 pm

Benin holds presidential election four months after failed coup

As president Patrice Talon steps down after a decade, the west African country’s finance minister is favourite to win

This Sunday, just four months after a failed coup, Benin heads to the polls for a presidential election that feels more like a coronation than a contest.

Patrice Talon, the businessman turned politician who has been president since 2016, is ineligible to run again after serving two five-year terms.

Published: April 12, 2026, 7:00 am

Peruvians go to polls hoping to break cycle of instability

Crime and corruption top voter concerns in highly unpredictable election with 35 candidates for president

Peruvians go to the polls on Sunday hoping to break a cycle of instability that has produced nine presidents in a decade as well as surging violent crime, corruption scandals and overwhelming distrust in institutions and politicians.

About 27 million people who are eligible to vote must choose between a record 35 presidential candidates as well as contenders for the bicameral congress – all from a ballot sheet measuring nearly half a metre, the longest in the country’s history.

Published: April 12, 2026, 12:00 pm

Floods, power outages and hundreds evacuated as Cyclone Vaianu lashes New Zealand’s North Island

Cyclone crossed coast near Maketu peninsula, packing destructive winds exceeding 130km/h (80 mph), heavy rain and large swells

Cyclone Vaianu made landfall in New Zealand’s North Island on Sunday, triggering floods, power outages and forcing hundreds to evacuate.

The cyclone crossed the coast near the Maketu peninsula, packing destructive winds exceeding 130km/h (80 mph), heavy rain and large swells, national weather provider MetService said, describing Vaianu as a “life-threatening” system.

Published: April 12, 2026, 6:41 am

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

‘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

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 crashing 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

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

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

US appeals court declares 158-year-old home distilling ban unconstitutional

Judge said ban, which originated in Reconstruction era to thwart liquor tax evasion, actually reduced tax revenue

A US appeals court on Friday declared a nearly 158-year-old federal ban on home distilling to be unconstitutional, calling it an unnecessary and improper means for Congress to exercise its power to tax.

The fifth US circuit court of appeals in New Orleans ruled in favor of the non-profit Hobby Distillers Association and four of its 1,300 members.

Published: April 11, 2026, 7:36 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

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

Man arrested for allegedly damaging US military aircraft in Shannon airport

Suspect in 40s arrested after man apparently climbed on to USAF C130 Hercules transport plane on remote taxiway in County Clare

A man has been arrested after entering an unauthorised area of an airport in the Republic of Ireland and allegedly causing damage to a US military aircraft, police have said.

The suspect, aged in his 40s, was arrested for alleged criminal damage and remains in custody over the incident on Saturday at Shannon airport in County Clare.

Published: April 11, 2026, 10:51 pm

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

‘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

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

The xx at Coachella review – indie trio reunites for spellbinding, rangy set

Empire Polo Club, Indio, California
The English indie rock band’s first festival set in eight years hypnotized with their atmospheric dance sound

When Jamie Smith, Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft took the Coachella main stage on Friday evening, you could be forgiven for forgetting the momentousness of the occasion. The trio known as the xx has not performed together in eight years, save for a couple of warm-up shows in Mexico City ahead of the California festival, though they’ve hardly been absent from the music scene. Smith, the renowned electronic producer known as Jamie xx, is now a festival mainstay, while Madley Croft and Sim have each built on the indie rock band’s signature haunted sound with their solo material, 2023’s clubby Mid Air and 2022’s horror-tinged Hideous Bastard, respectively.

The three childhood friends still collaborate – Jamie produced Sim’s Hideous Bastard – and their long-awaited Coachella reunion, the first outing of a planned festival run and “new chapter”, felt more like peeking into an ongoing mind-meld than one of the buzziest sets of the festival. The group appeared in their signature all-black and launched into their 2009 debut single Crystalised as if no time had passed.

Published: April 11, 2026, 9:45 pm

‘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

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

The moment I knew: in the Tasmanian wilderness, we lay next to each other in the dark. It felt like now or never

Katherine Scholes was in awe of Roger, but on a hike together, things didn’t look promising from a romantic point of view. Then night fell

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

I met Roger in 1975, when I was just 16 and he was 25. Returning home one afternoon, I found him having tea with my parents. He had been living in an artist’s community in Switzerland and had ideas of starting one in Tasmania. My mother is a painter, and my father one of those people who makes things happen. I listened to them talk of buying a farm.

Roger was wearing worn-out Levi’s jeans, Western boots, a blue-grey suit jacket. His blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail. More than six feet tall, he towered over me. He had an enamelled brooch pinned on his lapel and a string of tiny turquoise beads around one wrist. This was country Tasmania. No one looked like this.

Today I have met the kind of man I would one day like to marry.

Published: April 11, 2026, 8:00 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

‘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

Time-travelling in Cantabria: from the stone age to Sartre via the ‘prettiest town in Spain’

On the north coast of Spain you can see some of the world’s oldest art, explore a stunning medieval village, then watch surfers ride Atlantic swells

Exploring the area west of Santander feels like being in a time machine. Within a half-hour drive of the Cantabrian capital on Spain’s green northern coast, you can stumble upon prehistoric cave art, a perfectly preserved medieval town and a laid-back beach resort.

When I began my weekend trip, it was raining, so my journey started in the Upper Paleolithic period, at the Cave of Altamira, a Unesco world heritage site, staring up at some of the oldest art on Earth. Well, almost. The original cave was largely closed to the public decades ago to protect the fragile paintings, so we were inside the Neocueva, a painstakingly reconstructed replica built beside it that costs just €3 to enter.

Published: April 12, 2026, 6:00 am

‘Your photos will be deleted’: Apple users warned over ‘nasty’ iCloud storage scam

Fraudsters send emails claiming storage is full or nearly full, then trick people into clicking on links that can expose bank and personal details

For a while you’ve been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full”. They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take aren’t being uploaded.

You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of 99p a month for more storage. But it seems that you can’t keep putting off the inevitable: you have received an email which says your iCloud account has been blockedand your photos and videos will be deleted very soon. To keep them you need to upgrade immediately, it says.

Published: April 12, 2026, 6:00 am

‘This cactus looks as if it’s preaching’: Joseph Cyr’s best phone picture

The language teacher was running in the desert in Arizona when he saw this enormous, oddly human-looking plant

Joseph Cyr works as a language teacher at an American secondary school. He was born in South Korea, and spent his childhood living across Germany and the US, in Georgia and Arizona. “As an adult I have lived in Seattle, Paris and Nicaragua before moving back to Arizona,” he says. “I took this in Saguaro national park, on the edge of Tucson. It’s about an hour north of the US-Mexico border.”

It was a school holiday, so Cyr was doing a trail run when he took this image. His route was quiet; he saw only a few people on horseback and this saguaro cactus. The largest cactus in the US, it grows only in the Sonoran Desert, where the Saguaro national park lies.

Published: April 11, 2026, 10:00 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

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

Bunker busters and a Burger King: a visual guide to US military bases on British soil

War with Iran has brought 15 American sites across the UK countryside firmly into the spotlight

They are dotted across the UK countryside, often obscured from public view behind highly secured perimeter fences. Technically, they are on British soil, and misleadingly most have “Royal Air Force” in their name.

But in many respects, these military outposts are under the control of the US president and commander-in-chief.

Published: April 12, 2026, 7:00 am

Wandering Star – a photo essay

Photographer Vanessa Vettorello’s project Wandering Star investigates double vision, an often misunderstood and complex condition that is rarely discussed openly

Imagine a world where judging distance is a daily struggle and the simple act of pouring water into a glass requires intense concentration. At a school volleyball game, you see the ball and run for it, but you are always a moment too late.

Diplopia means double vision. It’s a medical term and it’s defined as seeing two images of a single object when you’re looking at it. The most common cause of binocular double vision is eye muscle misalignment. Strabismus may be present all the time (constant) or occur on and off (intermittently). Usually, if strabismus starts in early childhood, double vision does not occur. Children will typically learn how to ‘turn off’ or ignore the double image when the eye misalignment is present. This is called suppression. In my case, even if it started very early, my vision was double and blurred, like in this image I created (above).

Published: April 12, 2026, 6:00 am