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

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

• How do romance novelists celebrate love?

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 8:24 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 4:00 pm

Yes, the rich must start paying their fair share of taxes | Bernie Sanders

We need a 5% wealth tax on America’s 938 billionaires. Over a 10-year period, this bill would raise much-needed $4.4tn for public coffers

Never before in American history have so few had so much wealth and power. Today, the top one per cent owns more wealth than the bottom 93%. One man, Elon Musk, worth $805bn, owns more wealth than the bottom 53% of American households.

And that inequality is getting worse. Last year alone, after receiving the largest tax break in history from Donald Trump, 938 billionaires in America became $1.5tn richer. Since he was elected, President Trump and his family have become $4bn richer.

Published: April 1, 2026, 10:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 4:00 pm

Why do this spring’s blockbusters feel so smug?

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 9:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 11:00 am

Middle East crisis live: Trump says US close to ‘finishing the job’ in Iran during prime-time address

President claims that Iran was ‘right at the doorstep’ of gaining a nuclear weapon as he faces falling poll numbers and global energy crisis

• Trump says he is ‘absolutely’ considering withdrawing US from Nato

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

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

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

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

Published: April 2, 2026, 1:20 am

Nasa’s Artemis II rocket lifts off for historic moon mission

Mass of spectators cheers dazzling Florida launch as astronauts head to moon for first time in almost 54 years

Nasa’s moon rocket Artemis II launched on Wednesday evening, carrying astronauts to the moon for the first time in almost 54 years.

The rocket is now orbiting Earth and will continue to do so until Thursday, when the translunar injection burn will take place and send it on the rest of its 240,000-mile journey to the moon. Inside the Orion capsule, the four astronauts onboard immediately began tasks to assess how the spacecraft handled the 17,500mph ascent to orbit.

Published: April 1, 2026, 11:25 pm

Republican leaders agree to advance funding deal to end DHS shutdown

Measure that would fund homeland security but exclude money for ICE could conclude lengthy funding lapse

An end to the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may be in sight, after Congress’s Republican leaders on Wednesday agreed to advance legislation that would fund most of the agency’s operations, with the exception of those involved in immigration enforcement.

The pact may conclude the longest such funding lapse in US history, which last month caused security lines to stretch for hours at some airports as employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a subagency of DHS, quit their jobs or called out of work after going weeks without pay.

Published: April 1, 2026, 8:17 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 11:55 pm

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

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

It was a surreal morning at the US supreme court.

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 7:49 pm

Florida and Mississippi governors sign proof-of-citizenship voting bills

Four states have now signed such legislation as Trump’s Save Act languishes in Senate with little chance of passage

The governors of Florida and Mississippi signed legislation on Wednesday to require documented proof of citizenship to register to vote and to begin a process that will eventually unenroll voters who have not provided citizenship documentation.

Four states have now passed proof-of-citizenship laws for voting this year, after South Dakota and Utah’s governors each signed proof of citizenship bills into law in March.

Published: April 1, 2026, 7:57 pm

US approves new oral weight-loss pill developed by Eli Lilly

Called Foundayo, the tablet becomes the second one to receive FDA’s green light after Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the green light on Wednesday to a new oral weight-loss medication developed by the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.

Known as orforglipron or brand name Foundayo, the once-daily tablet becomes the second GLP-1 drug in pill form to hit the market in a short span of time, arriving after Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill received approval in December.

Published: April 1, 2026, 6:54 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 8:40 pm

Unsuspecting windsurfer collides with gray whale in San Francisco Bay

Footage shows a man windsurfing being forcefully thrown from his board as a whale breaches off the California coast

An unsuspecting windsurfer collided with a gray whale on the San Francisco Bay in a startling and rare encounter captured on video.

The footage shows the moment the surfer is forcefully thrown from his board as a gray whale breaches off the California coast, plunging him into the water.

Published: April 1, 2026, 4:33 pm

‘Human tragedy’: Leqaa Kordia on how ICE jail echoes life in occupied Palestine

In her first print interview since release, the Palestinian immigrant says after year in custody, she sees it as her duty to denounce ICE detention in the US

A Palestinian woman who was released last month after spending a year in a Texas immigration detention center told the Guardian in an exclusive interview that she sees “a lot of similarities” between the treatment of people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and that of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

Leqaa Kordia, who was detained by ICE following her arrest at a protest against Israel’s war in Gaza, says that she will continue to speak up about the rights of Palestinians, but that she now also sees it as her duty to denounce the “human tragedy” of immigration detention in the US.

Published: April 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

Trump lashes out at Nato: will Europe stand up to him? - The Latest

Donald Trump has said he is considering pulling the US out of Nato, likening the alliance to a ‘paper tiger’.

It comes after weeks of denouncements from the US president against allies for not helping to reopen the strait of Hormuz.

When asked about Trump’s comments, Keir Starmer said: ‘Nato is the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen’ and ‘whatever the noise, I’m going to act in the British national interest in all the decisions that I make’.

Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s Europe correspondent, Jon Henley

Published: April 1, 2026, 4:26 pm

US jibes at Royal Navy are uncomfortable because they have substance | Jamie Grierson

While Pete Hegseth has mocked the ‘big, bad Royal Navy’, the First Sea Lord has sounded the alarm about its readiness

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he singled out the “big, bad Royal Navy” in a recent press update on the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Hegseth’s sarcastic comment was the latest in a long line of jibes against the capabilities and readiness of the British Royal Navy.

Published: April 1, 2026, 12:57 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 6:05 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 3:29 pm

‘How can you forget me’: show details Filipino Americans’ rich history

The Washington DC show explores the history of a community in search for their American dream

In 2005, Antonio Somera was cleaning out the basement of a building in Stockton, California, when he discovered 26 steamer trunks stacked together, seemingly untouched for decades. Their contents, he would soon learn, belonged to Filipino migrants who arrived in the United States as early as the 1910s.

Among the items was a white pillowcase embroidered with the words “HOW CAN YOU FORGET ME” in red thread. Though small and decorative, it gestures toward a larger meaning: a reminder of the lives these migrants left behind and a marker of the new ones they were forging across the Pacific. The same pillowcase is also the namesake of the exhibition How Can You Forget Me: Filipino American Stories, currently on view at the Washington DC’s National Museum of American History.

Published: April 1, 2026, 10:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

This Artemis moon mission is a truly unifying international project, one of the few we have left | Christopher Riley

For the first time in over 50 years, astronauts will see Earth from distant space. Let’s hope the images they send back of our fragile home bring some much-needed unity

More than 50 years ago, the Apollo astronauts’ photographs of Earth seen from the moon had a jolting effect on a society distracted by division and conflict. Then, as now, they came in “an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance”, as President John F Kennedy had put it. But what he hadn’t predicted was that on the way to the moon, we would discover the Earth.

Here was our home planet, suddenly seen as a finite ball of rock, shrouded in an apple peel-thin layer of life-sustaining air. This view jarred with people’s everyday experience of living on the surface of an apparently infinite world of limitless resources. The creation of a special Earth Day soon followed, along with the founding of the campaigning environmental charity Friends of the Earth and the passing of a slew of environmental protection laws.

Published: April 1, 2026, 10:38 pm

Nicola Jennings on Trump and the strait of Hormuz – cartoon

Continue reading...

Published: April 1, 2026, 3:14 pm

A truckload of F1 KitKats, a painting of fish: what is it that makes heists so delicious? | Imogen West-Knights

In a world of data theft and online scams, there is something thrillingly analogue about these audacious robberies

Now, let me begin by saying: stealing is bad. I don’t think you should steal things. It is a good way to get yourself sent to prison and it is morally wrong to take things that don’t belong to you. Cargo theft? Bad. Stealing priceless artworks from museums where they could be enjoyed by everyone? Bad.

And yet. And yet.

Published: April 1, 2026, 2:43 pm

I’m fighting Trump’s birthright citizenship order at the supreme court. Will we adhere to the best of our history? | Cody Wofsy

For 128 years, it’s been clear that if you are born in this country, you are a citizen. The court must not turn back the clock

I am lead counsel in the challenge to Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order. As I and my team help the ACLU legal director, Cecillia Wang, prepare for the supreme court argument in this case on Wednesday, we are poring over legal minutiae and sharpening our arguments. But the larger questions that loom over the whole case are simple: What does it mean to be an American? Will we adhere to the best of American history and protect the values of equal citizenship and opportunity?

In early America, like today, people born on US soil were citizens, even if their parents were immigrants. That’s a principle we inherited from England as part of a body of rules known as the “common law”. In England, that rule was originally about monarchical power; but in our young republic it found new life as a principle of equal citizenship. As waves of immigrants arrived, the birthright rule ensured that the child of Irish or German immigrants would be no less citizens than those who traced their lineage back to the Mayflower.

Cody Wofsy is deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project and lead counsel on the Trump v Barbara legal team

Published: April 1, 2026, 11:00 am

Finally, the clitoris is getting the attention it deserves

Almost 30 years after scientists mapped the nerves in the penis, they’ve done the same for the clitoris. At least men have stopped denying it exists

There’s no excuse for being icliterate any more. It was a long time coming, but, almost 30 years after the web of nerves inside the penis was charted, we’ve finally got a similar 3D map of the nerves within the glans of the clitoris. You can’t see all of the nerve branches of the clitoris via dissection or clinical imaging methods, which is why this sort of visualisation is so important.

Ju Young Lee, one of the researchers behind the scan, has said she’s amazed it has taken so long for a project like this to materialise. But the clitoris has long been understudied and misunderstood. The Malleus Maleficarum, a 1486 guide to identifying witches, even described it as the “devil’s teat” and noted that if you found one, it would prove a woman was a witch. (The good news: not many men could find one. The bad news: you may just have discovered you’re a witch.)

The assault on freedom with Mehdi Hasan and Arwa Mahdawi
On Monday 8 June, join Mehdi Hasan and Arwa Mahdawi to discuss the current seismic changes in geopolitics, the alarming rise of populism and nationalism, and its global implications. Live in London and livestreamed worldwide. Book tickets here or at guardian.live

Published: April 1, 2026, 10:00 am

Guardian power rankings: France lead the way with Senegal and Japan in top 10

From Algeria to Uzbekistan, our writers and contributors from around the world assess the state of the 48 nations to qualify for the World Cup

“There’s more talent and potential than in 2022,” Kylian Mbappé said ominously this week after France had beaten Brazil 2-1 despite having Dayot Upamecano sent off after 55 minutes. He may well be right. For the second game of this window, against Colombia, Didier Deschamps changed the entire starting XI but was still able to field an attack of Marcus Thuram, Désiré Doué, Rayan Cherki and Maghnes Akliouche. Doué scored two in a comfortable 3-1 victory. “I’m well aware that there are some very good players that I won’t be bringing because, in my opinion, there are even better ones,” Deschamps said. Marcus Christenson

Published: April 1, 2026, 8:30 pm

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

• Woods focusing on his health and wellbeing after crash

• Florida judge grants his request to leave the US

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 10:15 pm

Can Congress stop the ‘straight greed’ of US sports teams leaving their cities?

With the NFL’s Chicago Bears weighing a once-unthinkable move to Indiana, a new federal bill aims to give cities the right to keep their teams

WWE star CM Punk called it “straight greed”. Illinois governor JB Pritzker called it a “slap in the face”. An overwhelming majority of fans say they will hold a grudge.

This cacophony of disgust has been prompted by the real possibility that the Chicago Bears could relocate to Hammond, Indiana. The Bears’ owners bought a site in Arlington Heights, Illinois, for a new stadium, but negotiations over property taxes have stalled construction. Meanwhile, Indiana has thrown its hat into the ring, passing a state bill on 26 February authorizing funding in Hammond. Chicago’s current home, Soldier Field, is a rental, open-air venue with the smallest seating capacity in the NFL. Still, it is not only in Illinois; it is in Chicago proper along Lake Michigan. Arlington Heights, while about 25 miles north of the city, is at least within state lines.

Published: April 1, 2026, 9:00 am

Experiments, excuses and uneasy truths for USMNT as the World Cup looms

An international break that many expected to provide clarity has instead provided fresh reasons to doubt the tournament co-hosts

Roberto Martínez has long been easy with a smile. Those moments aren’t in short supply after wins like Tuesday’s, when Portugal comfortably dispatched the United States 2-0 in Atlanta.

That smile was on full display afterward, when he was asked for his thoughts on how the US look ahead of their home World Cup.

Published: April 1, 2026, 3:00 pm

Italy’s latest World Cup failure no longer feels like ‘The End’ but the same sad song on repeat | Nicky Bandini

Roberto Baggio proposed an overhaul of talent pathway in 2011 but it was never acted on and the national team’s approach now is just not working

The decline of Italy’s footballing expectations can be read in the headlines that greeted their third consecutive failure to qualify for a men’s World Cup. When the Azzurri lost their playoff against Sweden in November 2017, La Gazzetta dello Sport defined it as “The End” and an “Apocalypse”. After defeat by North Macedonia in 2022, Il Corriere dello Sport saw a country sinking “Into Hell”.

On Wednesday both newspapers led coverage of elimination by Bosnia and Herzegovina with a simpler, perhaps sadder, “Tutti A Casa” – Everybody Go Home. What else is there left to say? Italians understood long ago that 2018 was not some aberration but the continuation of a trend, their team having failed to reach the tournament’s knockout stage in 2010 or 2014.

Published: April 1, 2026, 4:40 pm

Manhattan judge delays Luigi Mangione state and federal trials

Mangione accused of killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in New York in 2024

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Luigi Mangione’s much anticipated state and federal trials stemming from the killing of a top healthcare executive on a Manhattan street were both postponed on Wednesday.

Mangione’s state trial was moved from 8 June to September, the judge in that case said in an order made public this afternoon.

This article was amended on 1 April 2026. Brian Thompson was killed in 2024, not 2025, as an earlier version said.

Published: April 1, 2026, 10:11 pm

Magnitude 7.4 earthquake strikes in Indonesia, sparking tsunami alert

The quake had depth of 35km and its epicentre was 127km (79 miles) west-north-west of Ternate in Northern Molucca Sea region

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake has struck the Northern Molucca Sea region in Indonesia, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The quake, which hit early on Thursday local time, had depth of 35km and its epicentre was 127km (79 miles) west-northwest of Ternate, Indonesia, the USGS said.

Published: April 1, 2026, 11:50 pm

SpaceX confidentially files to go public at $1.75tn, reports say

Elon Musk’s rocket company could go public as early as June, Bloomberg reports

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SpaceX has confidentially filed for an initial public offering on the US stock market, according to reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. The IPO is set to be one of the most closely watched and highly valued listings in market history.

Elon Musk’s company, which has become a dominant power in both space travel and satellite communications, could potentially seek a valuation upwards of $1.75tn. The confidential filing will give regulators a period to review and discuss the company’s financial disclosures before investors and the public are able to view them.

Published: April 1, 2026, 5:45 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: April 2, 2026, 12:15 am

Parents told to ‘take responsibility’ after two days of TikTok-led London disorder

Six teenage girls arrested after hundreds of young people gather in Clapham in ‘swarming the streets’ trend

Police have urged parents to “take responsibility” after scenes of widespread disorder in Clapham, south-west London, on Saturday and Tuesday. Officers said the incidents were caused by a TikTok trend for swarming the streets.

Six teenage girls have been arrested so far, and the Metropolitan police said there would be more arrests in the coming days as officers reviewed CCTV and body worn camera footage of the disorder. It urged parents not to allow their children to take part in similar events over the Easter weekend.

Published: April 1, 2026, 4:32 pm

Megan Thee Stallion diagnosed with extreme exhaustion after hospitalization

The rapper was hospitalized in New York City after feeling unwell during her Moulin Rouge performance on Broadway

Megan Thee Stallion was taken to the hospital on Tuesday in New York City after feeling unwell during a performance of Moulin Rouge! The Musical on Broadway.

A representative for the rapper said in a statement to the Guardian on Wednesday that “on Tuesday evening, Megan was transported to a local hospital to undergo a medical evaluation after experiencing concerning symptoms.”

Published: April 1, 2026, 5:49 pm

Stella McCartney granted permission for £5m home in Scottish Highlands

McCartney and her husband faced objections including fears of threat to local otters and ‘hideous’ design

The fashion designer Stella McCartney has been granted permission to build a £5m home on a spectacular Highland peninsula after a three-year planning battle over the threat to local otters and the “hideous” modernist design.

McCartney and her husband, Alasdhair Willis, a creative director at Adidas, want to build the split-level property with a turf roof and natural stone walls on the rocky outcrop overlooking Loch Ailort, west of Fort William, 30 metres above sea level.

Published: April 1, 2026, 4:15 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘Guano is far more than just droppings’: scientists uncover the secrets of bat poo in Gorongosa park

The more than 100 bat species living in the Mozambican reserve’s labyrinth of caves play a key role in maintaining a fragile ecosysytem that benefits wildlife and people

• Words and photographs by Kang-Chun Cheng

After wriggling gingerly into a damp, cool cave, Raúl da Silva Armando Chomela waits for his eyes to adjust. Donning latex gloves, a helmet fitted with a headlamp, and a mask to protect his lungs from fine particles and bacteria, the molecular biologist from the Mozambican port city of Beira gazes into the shadowy recesses for signs of bats.

He has spent two years in these claustrophobic spaces studying the winged mammals and their excrement. “Guano is far more than just bat droppings,” he says. “If I had to describe it in one word, I’d say ‘ecosystem’.”

Published: April 1, 2026, 12:00 pm

Invisible plumes and ‘terrible pollution’: the reality of the US gas sites rated ‘grade A’

Exclusive: Guardian investigation into reliability of methane certification issued by MiQ reveals weakness of voluntary model

A rapidly expanding certification scheme run by a UK nonprofit and used by major gas companies may be understating the actual methane emissions it purports to certify, a Guardian investigation has found.

BP, ExxonMobil and EQT are among the producers that have turned to London-based MiQ to demonstrate that their US-produced natural gas complies with the European Union Methane Regulation, or EUMR, which aims to curb energy-related emissions.

Jess Staufenberg contributed additional reporting to this piece. The investigation was supported by Journalismfund Europe and Gas Outlook.

Published: April 1, 2026, 6:00 am

Asia ramps up use of dirty fuels to cover energy shortfall triggered by Iran war

South Korea will delay the shutdown of coal-fired plants, while the Philippines also plans to boost the output of its coal-burning plants

Governments across Asia are ramping up their use of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, as they try to cover huge energy shortfalls triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran.

The move has triggered warnings from climate experts who point to coal’s devastating environmental impact, and say the energy crisis should be a wake up call for governments to invest in renewables, which can offer a more stable supply that is not exposed to price shocks.

Published: April 1, 2026, 5:05 am

Nicotine pouches not yet cleared for sale in US due to concerns over young users

FDA planned to fast-track applications for authorization, but agency reviewers raise alarm over addiction risk

Popular nicotine pouch products have yet to be cleared for sale in the United States despite a fast-track Food and Drug Administration scheme, as agency scientists hesitate to authorize them due to potential risks to new users, including children, three sources told Reuters.

New tobacco products like pouches, which users insert under their lip to get a nicotine buzz, must be authorised by the FDA in order to be legally sold in the US, the world’s largest market for smoking alternatives worth some $22bn.

Published: April 1, 2026, 4:10 pm

Hawaii doctor’s son says father confessed he ‘tried to kill’ wife after cheating claim

Jurors hear 19-year-old recount FaceTime call after alleged cliffside attack on Oahu during wife’s birthday trip

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The son of a Hawaii doctor accused of trying to kill his wife testified on Tuesday that his father told him that his wife had been cheating on him and that he had “tried to kill her”.

Emile Konig, 19, told jurors that he had received two FaceTime calls from his father, Gerhardt Konig, 47, on the morning of 24 March 2025 – the same day prosecutors allege that Gerhardt attempted to murder his wife, Arielle Konig, 37, during a hike on Oahu’s “Pali Puka” trail.

Published: April 1, 2026, 1:16 pm

American journalist Shelly Kittleson kidnapped in Iraq, US officials say

State department says it is working to ensure release of freelancer ‘as soon as possible’ after abduction in Baghdad

• Middle East crisis – live updates

An American journalist, Shelly Kittleson, has been kidnapped in Baghdad by a suspected Iranian-backed Iraqi armed group, the US has said, as regional security deteriorates after the US-Israeli attack on Iran.

Kittleson is a longtime freelancer in the region, reporting extensively from Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

Published: April 1, 2026, 9:03 am

Less meat, more plants: top US heart body’s diet advice at odds with Maha

American Heart Association bucks Trump administration line to suggest prioritizing plant-based protein over meat

The American Heart Association’s new nutrition guidance, released on Tuesday, emphasizes a dietary pattern rich in vegetables, ​fruits and whole grains, prioritizing plant-based protein over meat.

It also suggests limiting the ‌use of sugar, salt and ultra-processed foods and replacing full fat dairy with non-fat and low-fat dairy.

Published: April 1, 2026, 12:17 pm

Swedish PM offers deal that could see far-right allowed into government

Party, which has neo-Nazi roots, will hold ‘important ministerial posts within immigration’ if four-party coalition wins in September

The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has said that he will allow the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) into government for the first time – and give its members key ministerial posts – if his coalition wins the next general election.

Despite becoming Sweden’s second biggest political party after the Social Democrats in the last election, SD currently plays only a supporting role in the minority-run coalition.

Published: April 1, 2026, 6:29 pm

‘System malfunction’ causes robotaxis to stall in the middle of the road in China

Distressed riders who were stranded for hours say Apollo Go customer service agents offered ‘useless platitudes’

A “system malfunction” has caused several self-driving robotaxis to stall in the middle of the road in China, police have confirmed, after distressed riders were stranded for hours.

Local authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan said they began receiving calls “one after another” on Tuesday night from riders reporting that autonomous vehicles operated by the Chinese internet company Baidu had frozen.

Published: April 1, 2026, 5:17 pm

‘About bloody time’: Prince Harry welcomes lawsuits against tech firms

Prince tells privacy summit of ‘harrowing stories’ of how use of tech giants’ platforms led to ‘grave and irreversible harm’

The Duke of Sussex has welcomed two landmark lawsuits against major tech companies, declaring: “Finally, some truth and accountability has arrived.”

In a speech in Washington DC to the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) global summit on privacy, AI governance and cybersecurity law, Prince Harry said he had done a “deep dive into the tech-fuelled world in which my children – all our children – are growing up”.

Published: April 1, 2026, 3:39 pm

Italian coastguard recovers 19 bodies from boat in sea near Lampedusa

Fifty-eight other people found alive during rescue involving inflatable craft in early hours of Wednesday

The bodies of 19 people have been recovered from an inflatable boat south of the island of Lampedusa by the Italian coastguard, a spokesperson told AFP.

Fifty-eight other people, including five children, were found alive during the rescue in the early hours of Wednesday and transported to Lampedusa by the coastguard, according to Roberto D’Arrigo.

Published: April 1, 2026, 3:29 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 10:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 1:20 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 7:00 am

Deathstalker review – ludicrously enjoyable revisit of 80s swords-and-sorcery silliness

Inventive creature design, goopy practical effects and a metal guitar soundtrack make this reworking of a Roger Corman fantasy a treat for one’s inner child

A 1980s Roger Corman swords-and-sorcery movie gets a loving remake here, as strapping antihero Deathstalker attempts to break the spell of a cursed amulet in the Kingdom of Abraxeon, with sensational low-budget creature design and lashings of goopy practical special effects where you can really feel the splatter. Said kingdom is being laid waste by the Dreadites, minions of the evil sorcerer Nekromemnon.

You’ll know how you’ll feel about this film by your response to words such as “Dreadites” and “Nekromemnon”. For many (like me), there is wondrous pleasure to be found in the ludicrousness of this nomenclature – so perfectly on the nose and so stupidly appealing to one’s inner child. Everyone else please move along, this movie is very much an acquired taste.

Published: April 1, 2026, 8:00 am

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 1:36 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 8:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 6:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 3:30 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 2:00 pm

JD Vance announces a new memoir about his conversion to Catholicism

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 1:26 pm

Finnish up! Claire Aho’s colour revolution – in pictures

The pioneering Nordic artist brought wit, verve and cinematic flair to postwar photography. A new exhibition celebrates her vibrant visual style

Published: April 1, 2026, 6:00 am

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

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

Name: Highland cows.

Age: More than 1,000 years old.

Published: April 1, 2026, 4:05 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 5:55 am

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 3:53 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 1:00 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 11:59 am

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

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

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 6:00 am

Women behind the lens: ‘I grew up hating my natural hair. But I transformed that pain into something empowering’

Ivorian artist Laetitia Ky creates sculptural hairstyles, usually with her own hair, but in a rare departure she involves her younger sibling to illustrate their bond

This image represents the strong bond I have with my little sister Florencia. We grew up with a very deep connection, and I consider her my best friend. I create sculptural hairstyles using my natural hair as a material. I add some extensions, and shape it with thread and wire.

A sculpture can take me from 30 minutes to more than six hours. Each hairstyle is based on an idea or message I want to convey, then I construct it step by step before photographing it myself with my camera and tripod. My book, Love and Justice, combines images of these sculptures with my reflections on feminism, identity and women’s experiences.

Published: April 1, 2026, 6:00 am

I wore Meta’s smartglasses for a month – and it left me feeling like a creep

Content creators love the built-in camera; sceptics call them ‘pervert glasses’. Do we really need any more hi-tech wearables, even with a voice assistant that sounds like Judi Dench?

Lately, I’ve been hearing Judi Dench’s voice in my head. She tells me tomorrow’s forecast, when to turn right, that there’s been another message in my group chat. Day or night, Dame Judi is eager to assist. When I ask the eight-time Academy Award nominee what I’m looking at, she answers: a residential area, a person in a pub, daffodils. “They are a bright yellow colour and are often associated with spring.”

This isn’t a delusion. This is, apparently, progress. I am test-driving Meta’s smartglasses and Dench voices its integrated AI assistant: “Here to chat, answer questions, create images and provide advice and inspiration,” said “Judi” when I selected her over the actors John Cena and Kristen Bell. “Shall we begin?”

Published: April 1, 2026, 4:00 am

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

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

Published: April 1, 2026, 1:29 pm