Leaders endorse Ursula von der Leyen proposal as French president calls Vladimir Putin ‘an imperialist who seeks to rewrite history’

European leaders holding emergency talks in Brussels have agreed on a massive increase to defence spending, amid a drive to shore up support for Ukraine after Donald Trump halted US military aid and intelligence sharing.

It came as French president Emmanuel Macron warned on Thursday night that “the only imperial power that I see today in Europe is Russia� and called Vladimir Putin as “an imperialist who seeks to rewrite history� after the Russian president appeared to compare him to Napoleon Bonaparte.

NUH trust apologises to families of Ian Coates, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber as it opens investigation into allegations

An NHS trust is investigating allegations that healthcare staff illegally accessed medical records belonging to the Nottingham attack victims.

The medical director at Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust [NUH] has apologised to the families, and vowed to “take action as necessary�.

Valdo Calocane killed two 19-year-old students, Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and Ian Coates, a 65-year-old caretaker, before attempting to kill three other people in the city in June 2023.

Dr Manjeet Shehmar, medical director at NUH, said in a statement supplied to the Guardian on Thursday: “We are currently investigating concerns that members of staff may have inappropriately accessed the medical records of Ian Coates, Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and Barnaby Webber.

“We have informed the families and will continue to keep them updated throughout the investigation.

“The families of Ian, Grace and Barnaby have already had to endure much pain and heartache and I’m truly sorry that this will add further to their suffering.

“Through our investigation, we will find out what happened and will not hesitate to take action as necessary.�

Calocane was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January 2024 after admitting manslaughter by diminished responsibility and attempted murder.

Last month the prime minister, Keir Starmer, told the families that a judge-led public inquiry will take place in “a matter of weeks�.

Starmer said the inquiry would scrutinise a “number of different agencies� and a retired judge would soon be appointed to lead the process.

An NHS England report on the mental health care Calocane received before the attacks found his treatment “was not always sufficient to meet his needs� and risk assessments failed to consider the “potential acts of violence� that could result from his failure to take medication.

State department is using AI to review tens of thousands of accounts, reports say

• Trump delays tariffs on many products from Mexico and Canada

The White House announced that Donald Trump will sign executive orders at 2pm ET.

While they did not specify what he may sign, the president is reported to be ready to order the closure of the department of education. Expect a court battle to ensue, since the department was created by Congress in 1980, but Trump is attempting to use his executive authority to shut it down.

Back-to-back mishaps indicate big setbacks for program to launch satellites and send humans to the moon and Mars

SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft exploded on Thursday minutes after lifting off from Texas, dooming an attempt to deploy mock satellites in the second consecutive failure this year for Elon Musk’s Mars rocket program.

Several videos on social media showed fiery debris streaking through the dusk skies near south Florida and the Bahamas after Starship’s breakup in space, which occurred shortly after it began to spin uncontrollably with its engines cut off, a SpaceX livestream of the mission showed.

• Briton goes down 6-3, 6-2 to Moyuka Uchijima
• Indian Wells defeat follows difficult few weeks

After an extremely difficult month in which she was pursued across tennis tournaments in Asia by an obsessive spectator, Emma Raducanu struggled to find her range and rhythm on her return to competition and was comprehensively defeated 6-3, 6-2 by Moyuka Uchijima of Japan in the first round of the Indian Wells Open on Thursday.

Over the past few years, the organisers at Indian Wells have marketed the tournament as Tennis Paradise, a reference to the handsome mountainous landscape that surrounds the court and its warm, sunny weather. In reality, though, the conditions are often some of the most hellish on tour. Along with the slow conditions because of the dry, dusty desert air, gusty wind can make it incredibly challenging for all players.

Surgeons believe the technique called functional septorhinoplasty (fSRP) ‘kickstarts’ smell recovery in patients

Doctors in London have successfully restored a sense of smell and taste in patients who lost it due to long Covid with pioneering surgery that expands their nasal airways to kickstart their recovery.

Most patients diagnosed with Covid-19 recover fully. But the infectious disease can lead to serious long-term effects. About six in every 100 people who get Covid develop long Covid, with millions of people affected globally, according to the World Health Organization.

Immigration status is denying children equal access to early years education and pushing families ‘deeper into poverty’

Tens of thousands of children in migrant and refugee families in the UK are being denied access to government-funded childcare because of benefit restrictions linked to their parents’ immigration status, a report says.

Having “no recourse to public funds� (NRPF) means parents are not entitled to 30 hours of free childcare and are having to stay home to look after their young children instead of working. This is pushing families into poverty and denying their children the benefits of the early years education available to their peers, the report finds.

Calls for more support as study finds musicians in England and US have among highest rates of suicide

Musicians have one of the highest suicide rates in the world because the music business contains so many difficulties such as intense touring, performance anxiety and low earnings, researchers have suggested.

The finding that unusually large numbers of musicians take their own lives show that “the music industry is a profoundly dangerous place�, according to a co-author of the study.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.

Levels of deadly pollutants have dropped, with significant improvements in capital’s most deprived areas

People in London have been breathing significantly cleaner air since the expansion of the ultra low emission zone (Ulez), a study has found.

Levels of deadly pollutants that are linked to a wide range of health problems – from cancer to impaired lung development, heart attacks to premature births – have dropped, with some of the biggest improvements coming in the capital’s most deprived areas.

Monarch shares soundtrack to his life, including disco, reggae and Afrobeats, to celebrate Commonwealth Day

Kylie has a legion of fans around the globe, but it might come as a surprise to many that the king is one of those who can’t get her out of his head.

The princess of pop, alongside Bob Marley and Grace Jones, are among the music artists beloved of Charles, it was revealed on Friday as part of Commonwealth Day celebrations, which falls on Monday.

Head-spinning speed of events leaves EU adapting at pace while trying to infer Trump’s possible geo-strategic aims

• Europe live – latest updates

With a mixture of regret, laced with incredulity, European leaders gathered in Brussels to marshal their forces for a power struggle not with Russia, but with the US.

Even now, of course at the 11th hour, most of Europe hopes this coming battle of wills can be averted and the Trump administration can still be persuaded that forcing Ukraine to the negotiating table, disarmed and blinded, will not be the US’s long-term strategic interest.

Support groups say cultural and linguistic issues as well as structural racism can prevent women from getting help

When asked if she was surprised that most of the victims of Zhenhao Zou, who could be one of Britain’s worst serial rapists, remained unknown to authorities, Viny Poon, who has spent the past decade supporting east Asian women in the UK, simply said: “No.�

Zou, a 28-year-old PhD student, was convicted on Wednesday of drugging and raping 10 women in London and China. After recovering videos of Zou attacking a further 50 women, police have said this could be one of the worst cases of sexual violence in modern Britain. All of Zou’s victims are thought to be of Chinese heritage.

Boom in fixing rather than throwing away items creates jobs and cuts waste, emissions and costs

There is a pause in the hubbub of conversation in the workshop and everyone watches as a young man plugs in the vacuum cleaner that just minutes earlier had been in several pieces on his workbench.

As the machine whirs into life, the people in the room break out into muted cheers and clapping. There are smiles all round.

This powerful telling of the shocking ‘spy cops’ story does what only TV can: shows you the astonishing women at its heart. You’ll be engrossed for three hours

What function does a television series have when the disgrace it covers is already in the public domain? The “spy cops� scandal has been the subject of extensive reporting, spearheaded by the Guardian. There is no need to demand a public inquiry, either: one is under way.

Yet ITV’s three-part The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed – produced with the Guardian and featuring its journalists Rob Evans and Paul Lewis – more than earns its place. Aside from television simply hitting a wider audience, the way it unfolds narratives using personal testimony has a power a written summary may not achieve. And, as the series uses the tricks, and some of the cliches, of the true-crime documentary to keep viewers happily engrossed for three hours, it gives us the time we need to sit with the story and absorb its importance. Because this injustice asks huge questions about Britain.

After so much time spent on global diplomacy, a hi-vis Keir found he didn’t quite know how to do normal any more

What just happened? It was quiet. Much too quiet. Outside his bedroom window, he could have sworn he heard birdsong. Keir Starmer opened one eye. Cautiously. With an air of trepidation. Then, almost reluctantly, he opened the other. He leaned over to his bedside table and reached for his phone to see what fresh hell awaited him. What disasters the orange manchild in the White House had inflicted on the rest of the world while he had been asleep. It had reached the point where he had come to confuse the daily reality check with his darkest nightmares.

Nothing. Well, almost nothing. Just one late-night post on Donald Trump’s social media feed warning the people of Gaza that they would all die if they didn’t release the Israeli hostages. Keir exhaled. That was someone else’s problem. The Middle East was well above his pay grade. Others could take the lead in brokering a peace there. All that was required of him was to say a few tough words condemning Hamas and calling for a two-state solution from time to time.

Barbican theatre, London
Thomas Ostermeier’s masterful staging has tremendous performances from a cast including Tom Burke, Emma Corrin and Kodi Smit-McPhee

Chekhov described his country-house drama as a comedy, creating its serious yet silly characters “not without pleasure�. Still, it is a test of tone and performance to render, with humour, a story that scales so much thwarted life.

Director Thomas Ostermeier and Duncan Macmillan’s new version rather magically balances lightness, wit and melancholy from the off, as characters gather at a country estate in hipsterish modern dress. There is the imperious actor Arkadina (Cate Blanchett) and her lover, Trigorin (Tom Burke), a famous writer who arrives from the city; her brother Sorin (Jason Watkins), whose health is failing, and her overshadowed son, Konstantin (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who aspires to be a writer and, in protest perhaps, disapproves of the middlebrow appeal of his mother’s art. Love’s arrows shoot in all the wrong directions and every cast member reflects the pain of injury alongside the laughs.

(Interscope)
After some noteworthy musical and cinematic misfires, Gaga gets back to her core themes of sex, sleaze and celebrity on an album that sounds not retro, but relevant

Lady Gaga’s single Abracadabra is enjoying its fifth consecutive week in the UK Top 10. You can imagine a collective sigh of relief chez Gaga: she has been experiencing what you might call a case of career sea sickness, in which unadulterated commercial triumphs have been followed by very public flops. In the credit column, there’s Die With a Smile, a power-ballad duet with Bruno Mars that went to No 1 in 28 countries and spent 10 weeks as the world’s biggest-selling single. (Released last August, it also appears on Mayhem.) In the debit, there was her starring role in the disastrous Joker: Folie à Deux, a film that was estimated to have lost Warner Brothers something in the region of $150m (£116m), and which seemed to take both the Gaga-heavy soundtrack and her own, jazz-based “companion album� Harlequin down with it. You might have expected the legions of Little Monsters (as her fans are known) to rally around the latter, but apparently not. Outside of a couple of remix collections, it was the lowest-selling Lady Gaga album to date and her second jazz album to noticeably underperform: a follow-up collection of duets with the late Tony Bennett, 2021’s Love for Sale, failed to replicate the success of its predecessor, Cheek to Cheek.

One theory is that Gaga’s eclecticism might have succeeded in confusing people. The fact that you never quite know what she’s going to throw out next – electronic dance-pop, soft rock, jazz, country, AOR – should be cause for celebration, but perhaps it has proved a bit much in a world dominated by streaming’s overload, where artists are advised to maintain a clear brand lest they get lost amid the sheer torrent of new music. Maybe what was needed was a bold restatement of Gaga’s original core values. That was precisely what Abracadabra, and indeed its predecessor, Disease, provided: big dirty synths; big noisy choruses; high-camp, fashion-forward videos and, in the case of Abracadabra, a hook apparently designed to remind listeners of the word-mangling intro to 2009’s Bad Romance.

Simone Ashley tries her best in Amazon’s gimmicky romantic comedy but it’s too flimsy and forgettable to demand our attention

I am generally wary of streaming platform originals, so often do they feel like the fast fashion of the film world: cheap, disposable, chasing ephemeral interests and brittle with repeat use. But I will give Netflix, Amazon and co props for this: for nearing a decade now, they have attempted to fill a void left by the theatrical box office, whose hollowed-out market rarely supports the mid-budget adult films – particularly romcoms and erotic thrillers – that routinely entertained non-franchise audiences in decades past. Only occasionally do they succeed, as in the case of Netflix’s Do Revenge or Players, but the mission remains worthwhile.

Picture This, a new romcom from Amazon Prime Video, has promising elements suggesting it could be one of the better entries. Namely: the presence of Simone Ashley, the always luminous breakout star of the Netflix confection that is Bridgerton; Hero Fiennes Tiffin, nephew of Ralph and Joseph and perhaps best known for his role in the Tumblr smutty After trilogy; and the ever-relevant plot of becoming an unsolicited charity case as a single woman at the ripe age of 30. But though the two leads are capably charming – or, in the case of Tiffin, baseline attractive as a nice hometown guy not given much to do – the movie still has the imprint of a tech company’s content assembly line: cheaply made, over-lit, bumpily paced, ludicrously dialed-up characters without much comic payoff.

A survey has revealed the most likely characters to be killed off before the end credits. Actors would be ill-advised to take on any Davids, Hollys or Dicks

Thanks to the unprecedented critical and commercial success of The Substance, horror is having a rare moment of recognition. In fact, you’d be willing to bet that some of Hollywood’s biggest names are currently throwing themselves at all sorts of elevated horror projects just to get in on the action. However, if they are, it might be worth double checking what their character’s name is. Because if it happens to be David, those poor saps will be lucky to make it past the first act.

Every now and again a study will fall into our inboxes, bankrolled by an unlikely source, that sheds some light on an area of film so esoteric that nobody has given it a moment’s thought until now. With that in mind, it is my pleasure to announce that Funeral Guide – a price comparison engine for end-of-life ceremonies – has commissioned a study to see which names are most likely to be killed off early in horror movies. This was achieved by combing through IMDb’s top 100 horrors, and seeing which characters didn’t make it to the end credits. As such, actors are not advised to star in anything where their character is called David, Holly or Dick, because these names are practically a death sentence.

Ahead of her starring role in Steven Soderbergh’s thriller Black Bag, and as her London stage run in The Seagull continues, we look at the screen queen’s most commanding roles

Cate Blanchett played a pretty generic “wife� role in this interesting, somewhat forgotten US comedy about air traffic controllers from director Mike Newell, whose title is their slang for guiding planes. It was saddled with a terrible ending by its screenwriters, Glen and Les Charles (creators of TV’s Cheers), and blitzed at the box office by The Matrix. Its genesis is amusingly described by its producer, Art Linson, in his memoir What Just Happened? Blanchett plays the wife of hotshot young air traffic controller John Cusack, who has an affair with Angelina Jolie – who is married to Cusack’s workplace rival, Billy Bob Thornton.

From dystopian Australian cli-fi to essential essays about Black Britain and Jack Reacher’s thrilling debut – authors, critics and booksellers all have a single recommendation

According to new data from YouGov, 40% of British adults have not read a single book in the last year, with the median Briton having read or listened to three. In a world where there are so many other distractions and forms of entertainment to choose from, fewer and fewer people are getting stuck into books – yet lots of us would like to be reading more. So we asked authors, booksellers and critics to choose the book they think you should read this year – even if you only read one.

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Companies claim this is ‘fair use’. I think it’s a digital heist

• Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Australia’s close-knit literary community – from writers and agents through to the Australian Society of Authors – have reacted with outrage. Black Inc, the publisher of the Quarterly Essay as well as fiction and nonfiction books by many prominent writers, had asked consent from its authors to train AI models on their work and then share the revenue with those authors.

Now I have a dog in this race. Actually two dogs. I have published four books with Black Inc, have a fifth coming out next month, and have a contract for a sixth by the end of the year. And I have also been an AI researcher for 40 years, training AI models with data.

Dividing household tasks fairly and upending some gender norms along the way is good for everyone

Many moons ago, when I was much less cynical than I am now, I wrote a story for a newspaper about a marriage in which the man stayed home to look after the kids and household while the woman stayed in her higher-paying job.

It was a financial decision that made obvious sense for this couple - they’d both had good jobs but had together decided her career was the more promising in the long term, so he stepped back because they wanted an at-home parent while the kids were little, and because they could afford it. It was deemed “newsworthy� in a soft kind of way, because in the 1990s it went well against the norm – it was a good illustration of what was possible when you start with a negligible gender pay gap, mutual disrespect for gender norms, and ego-free assessment of which career is best going to provide for the family unit.

Member states must stop squabbling over trivial matters – and a firmer stance against states that promote Putin’s and Trump’s agenda is needed too

• Frans Timmermans is a former vice-president of the European Commission

After US vice-president JD Vance’s speech in Munich last month, most European leaders came to the conclusion that our world has fundamentally changed. The Pax Americana that long ensured peace, security and freedom in Europe is over. Anyone who still doubted this will hopefully now realise, after the disgraceful treatment Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy endured last Friday at the White House, that we can no longer rely on the Americans for our collective security.

We must hope for the best, but hope is not a policy. We – the Netherlands, the EU, and all western countries standing with Ukraine – must prepare for the worst. The question is this: how do we keep Ukraine free and independent, and how do we protect our economy, our freedom and democracy, and our borders?

The president’s hardball negotiating tactics are nowhere to be seen as he sends billions in new weapons to Netanyahu

In his speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, Donald Trump barely mentioned Gaza or the wider Middle East, making only a passing reference to bringing back US hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza. He didn’t even expound on his plan for the US to take over the devastated territory and turn it into a “Riviera of the Middle East�, while expelling 2 million Palestinians to neighboring Arab countries.

But Trump is already going down the same failed path as his predecessor, Joe Biden, who sent Israel a virtually unlimited supply of weapons – and failed to use US political cover at the United Nations and billions of dollars in arms as leverage to stop Israel’s war on Gaza. On 1 March, the Trump administration announced it had approved $4bn in new weapons to Israel under emergency authorities, meaning the deal would bypass even a perfunctory review in Congress. A day later, Benjamin Netanyahu banned all food and other aid deliveries to Gaza, imposing a new siege that threatens to collapse a fragile ceasefire reached in January.

Selling off assets to foreign owners, deregulating markets, and liberalising financial services only leads to inequality and instability

In 1994, I joined a march protesting against how the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund – backed by the US – were forcing governments in the global south to follow what was called the “Washington consensus�.

We argued that privatising state assets, deregulating markets, and liberalising financial services to attract external investment was leaving countries more unstable, more unequal and more dependent on foreign actors. Decades on, I am horrified that an approach that wreaked havoc in the global south is still being pursued in the UK.

Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah is the chief executive of the New Economics Foundation and author of Power to the People. He is a former chief executive of Oxfam GB and secretary general of Civicus, a global alliance of civil society organisations

Given recent history and the state of the world now, perhaps the thing that makes older people happiest is not being under 45

So there are two studies, one commissioned by Weetabix, one by the UN, but we don’t need to decide which one is likely to be the more reliable because, praise be, they both say the same thing: 45 is now the age of peak happiness. A massive 77% are more content with their lives after they hit 40, with two-thirds saying they no longer cared what other people thought, and 59% having attained self-actualisation – or, at least, they say they “now know what really matters in life�. Which is probably about as self-actualised as it gets. That data is all from the high-fibre breakfast treat funded study.

The UN, meanwhile, has survey results from the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and kicks off cheerfully enough – happiness used to be conceived in a U-shape, when it was bliss to be alive in youth, miserable in middle age, and then picked up again as you got older. Now it’s more of a straight upward trajectory, although that can’t literally be true as it would make babies the saddest people on Earth. Fair play, they do cry a lot.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

Why purchase American-made F-35 jets instead of upgraded T5 Typhoons? Surely that would make a mockery of all he promised

In his statement to parliament last week, Keir Starmer pledged £13.4bn more spending on defence from 2027, rising to 3% of GDP in the next parliament. This additional spending is critical for our future defence. The House of Lords defence committee has pointed out that decades of underinvestment have hollowed out our defences, and that our vulnerabilities, especially in air defences, could put the UK in peril.

The prime minister also promised that the government “will translate defence spending into British growth, British jobs, British skills and British innovation�. Our 70,000 Unite members working in UK defence companies will certainly hold him to it.

The public inquiry into police spies was brought about by the bravery of the women they abused, as a new documentary shows

Information in the public domain about the undercover policing of protest groups from the late 1960s onwards would not be there were it not for the extraordinary courage of a group of women who were conned by officers into long-term sexual relationships. It is more than a decade since the investigation of this, and other wrongful actions, by undercover units was taken over by a judge-led public inquiry. Following revelations that officers had spied on Stephen Lawrence’s family, Theresa May, who was then the home secretary, ordered that inquiry.

ITV’s new three-part documentary, The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed, made in collaboration with the Guardian, emphasises that there was nothing inevitable about this outcome. The series, which features remarkable home-video footage of one officer, Mark Jenner (known undercover as Mark Cassidy), is a gripping and shocking account of the way that five women were tricked into romantic relationships lasting years. As well as the insidious conduct of individuals, the series sheds light on the systemic nature of the abuse and the tenacity of the women who uncovered the truth.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Donald Trump has deliberately picked a fight with its northern neighbour. This malign strategy must be stopped

It is two months since Justin Trudeau announced his resignation as Liberal party leader and Canada’s prime minister. After a decade in power, Mr Trudeau had become increasingly unpopular. Two out of three Canadians thought he was doing a bad job. The opposition Conservatives led in almost every poll. With the Liberals staring a 2025 general election defeat in the face, Mr Trudeau’s ministers forced him out. His successor will be chosen this Sunday.

But then came Donald Trump. Mr Trump wants to strengthen the US at the expense of its neighbours. His hostility to Canada is thus visceral and deep. Without any justification, he promised illegal 25% tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican imports. As a fig leaf for his intentions, he falsely claimed that Canada’s 5,000-mile border with the US was an open door for migrants and drugs. He talked, repeatedly and deliberately, of annexing Canada and making it the 51st state. He mocked Mr Trudeau, referring to him as merely a state governor.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Readers respond to a piece by Sam Dick about the letter his father wrote to the Guardian in 1998 in praise of his gay son

I was moved by Sam Dick’s article that detailed his coming out to his family and, in particular, the letter that his father wrote to the Guardian about their pride in and respect for him (A moment that changed me: I was 16, gay and bullied for it. Then my father wrote to the Guardian …, 5 March). Sam’s experiences were very familiar to me, in that they were a reminder of my brother coming out more than 20 years ago.

My brother is younger than me and, although our family home was a loving one, I guess that my brother will have viewed our dad and I as being very “male�. We both enjoyed our football, enjoyed socialising, and had groups of like-minded friends; my brother was the polar opposite. As a result, he was terrified of coming out.

Readers respond to an article by Nels Abbey on what constitutes Englishness or being British

I’m not sure that I entirely agree with Nels Abbey’s conclusion regarding what constitutes Englishness, although ethnicity is certainly one factor that is used by others to determine whether you pass that test (Dear Suella: I was born in London and raised in Oxfordshire. What do you reckon – can I be English?, 5 March). As someone who is white and of mixed first-generation Polish on my father’s side and English/Welsh extraction on my mother’s side, I have mixed feelings on this subject.

As a child, I initially had no doubt that I was English until one day in the 1970s when I was asked at school, during an important football World Cup qualifier, which team I supported. When I responded, “Poland�, I was informed by my classmates that I was therefore no longer English.

In the end, two outstretched hands were decisive. The first, from Bruno Fernandes, probably denied Manchester United their victory; the second, from André Onana, definitely denied Real Sociedad theirs.

United deservedly got themselves into a first-leg lead when Joshua Zirkzee guided a side-footed shot beyond Alex Remiro that appeared to set them up for a win and potentially even one big enough to virtually see them through. But an eagle eye and a video replay revived their Basque opponents, allowing Mikel Oyarzabal to equalise from the spot with 20 minutes left and in the last of those they nearly scored again. Which was when a figure in yellow flew to the rescue.

• Idea raised at Fifa council meeting on Wednesday
• Move would see more than a quarter of members qualify

Fifa is to consider a proposal to expand the 2030 men’s World Cup finals to 64 teams, an adjustment that would mean more than a quarter of its 211 member associations would take part.

The idea was raised at a meeting of the Fifa council on Wednesday as part of any other business. According to reporting in the New York Times, the delegate was Ignacio Alonso, the president of the Uruguayan Football Association. Uruguay will be one of three South American countries to host a “centenary celebration match� in 2030. Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, agreed to explore the idea further.

• France play jeopardy game with seven forwards on bench
• Captain Caelan Doris returns for Simon Easterby’s side

The board game Risk describes itself as the pursuit of diplomacy, conflict and conquest for two to six players. Rugby’s version is not a million miles removed: bigger pitch and more bodies involved but plenty of overlap on the content. For Saturday’s pivotal next step in Ireland’s grand slam bid, France have put it up to them before a ball is kicked, with a magnificent seven lumps on the bench, supported by just one back. It worked against Italy, which is not to say it will not end in tears this time out. That’s why it’s called Risk.

Ireland’s riposte is less brazen, but only just. The last time they went 6-2 on the bench was against England a year ago – which didn’t end too well – and they have an extra bit of jeopardy with the inclusion of their most capped player, Cian Healy, in the replacements. The prop is a veteran of countless contacts and is looking forward to the afterlife already, which he reckons will demand more physical activity simply to avoid falling apart. The plan for Saturday is to limit his engagement to the fag end of the final quarter. The risk is that circumstance might hurry that one up to a critical level if Andrew Porter has to bail out ahead of schedule.

• New Uefa figures show extent of Premier League power
• Report says Chelsea 2024 squad was most expensive ever

The Premier League’s financial power continues to blow its European rivals out of the water, with combined revenues almost double those in Germany and Spain according to newly released figures from Uefa.

In the latest evidence of England’s sizeable competitive advantage, Uefa’s annual European club finance and investment landscape report showed Premier League clubs reporting revenue of just over €7.1bn (£5.9bn) in the 2023 financial year. The top flight’s nearest competitors, La Liga and the Bundesliga, brought in €3.7bn and €3.6bn respectively. It forms part of a wider picture in which revenues in the continent’s top divisions totalled €26.8bn, 17% more than before the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Pause could lead to 16 teams in top two divisions
• ‘We believe promotion and relegation is great’

The CEO of the Women’s Super League and Championship has ruled out the complete scrapping of promotion and relegation but did not deny they are exploring a relegation pause as part of league expansion plans.

As revealed in the Guardian, one of the options being explored by the body responsible for the professional women’s game, Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL), is a four-year pause of relegation to grow the top two divisions to 16 teams each.

• US Ryder Cup captain filmed giving a locker room speech
• ‘I meant no disrespect, I was more speaking to our guys’

It transpires the viral moment of ­Netflix’s latest series on golf may have been as much of a surprise to the main protagonist as those looking on.

The assertion of Keegan Bradley, the US Ryder Cup captain, during Full Swing that his contingent are “gonna go to Bethpage to kick their fucking ass� in September immediately looked like golden material for Europe’s locker room. Shane Lowry, likely to be an important part of the European team, was asked last week whether he was aware of ­Bradley’s sentiment. “Oh yeah,� said the ­Irishman. “We have all seen it.�

• Teenager savours 6-3 victory in Brighton final
• Humphries and Cross produce nine-darters in defeats

The world champion, Luke Littler, beat Nathan Aspinall 6-3 to win night five of the Premier League in Brighton, where there were two nine-dart finishes.

Littler, who added the UK Open title to his growing collection last weekend, had too much for Aspinall, closing out his second nightly win to keep the pressure on Luke Humphries at the top of the table. Earlier Humphries, the world No 1, had hit a nine-darter in his quarter-final defeat by Rob Cross, who then also produced a perfect leg as he was later edged out 6-5 by Aspinall.

Caroline Cotto’s research group taste-tests meat alternatives so plant-based companies can attract new customers – and help the climate

I am sitting in a Manhattan restaurant on a frigid Thursday in January, eating six mini servings of steak and mashed potatoes, one after another. The first steak I am served has a nice texture but is sort of unnaturally reddish. The second has a great crispy sear on the outside, but leaves behind a lingering chemical aftertaste. The next is fine on its own, but I imagine would be quite delicious shredded, drenched in barbecue sauce and served on a bun with vinegary pickles and a side of slaw.

If you peeked into this restaurant, you’d see nothing out of the ordinary – just a diverse range of New Yorkers huddled over plates of food. But everyone present is here for more than just a hot meal. We’re participating in a blind taste test of plant- (or sometimes mushroom-) based steaks, organized by a group of people who hope that better-tasting meat alternatives just might be a key to fighting the climate crisis.

Companies can sue governments for closing oilfields and mines – and the risk of huge damages is already stopping countries from passing green laws, ministers say

• Revealed: how Wall Street is making millions betting against green laws

In the mountains of Transylvania, a Canadian company makes plans for a vast gold and silver mine. The proposal – which involves razing four mountain tops – sparks a national outcry, and the Romanian government pulls its support.

After protests from local communities, the Italian government bans drilling for oil within 12 miles of its shoreline. A UK fossil fuel firm has to dismantle its oilfield.

Scientists called the news ‘particularly worrying’ because ice reflects sunlight and cools the planet

Global sea ice fell to a record low in February, scientists have said, a symptom of an atmosphere fouled by planet-heating pollutants.

The combined area of ice around the north and south poles hit a new daily minimum in early February and stayed below the previous record for the rest of the month, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Thursday.

The collaboration will be outlined at a summit in Liverpool, which aims to reduce trade barriers created by Brexit

The UK and Ireland have announced closer collaboration on subsea energy infrastructure to “harness the full potential� of the Irish and Celtic seas as part of ongoing efforts to reset post-Brexit relations.

The countries will enter into a new data-sharing arrangement to lay the groundwork for connections between the growing number of offshore windfarms and onshore national energy networks. They say it will cut red tape and minimise “the burden of maritime and environmental consent processes for developers�.

Kyle Clifford, 26, had already admitted murdering Louise Hunt, her sister Hannah and their mother, Carol

A former soldier has been found guilty of raping his ex-girlfriend before murdering her with a crossbow in a “final act of spite�.

Kyle Clifford, 26, shot dead Louise Hunt, 25, and her sister Hannah Hunt, 28, with a crossbow and fatally stabbed their mother, Carol Hunt, 61, during a four-hour attack at their home in Bushey, Hertfordshire, on 9 July last year. The women were the wife and daughters of the BBC racing commentator John Hunt.

Sofina Begum and Aminur Rahman had ‘blatant disregard’ for tenants of property where man was killed, says judge

The landlords of a “grossly overcrowded� east London flat where a man died after an ebike battery started a fire have been fined almost £100,000 after pleading guilty to nine housing law breaches.

The judge, the recorder Emma Smith, said the landlords showed “blatant disregard for the law and for the occupants� of the property, when she sentenced them at Snaresbrook crown court on Thursday.

Ministers frustrated by failure to agree terms with Russian oligarch and court case may be only way to break impasse

UK ministers are preparing to take Roman Abramovich to court in a final attempt to free up more than £2bn from the sale of Chelsea FC to spend as aid in Ukraine, the Guardian has learned.

Officials say ministers have become increasingly frustrated by the failure to reach an agreement with the Russian oligarch about how the money should be spent and are now ready to fight him in the courts.

‘Compelling evidence’ suggests figure is Lady Jane Grey, making it only known depiction made before 1554 execution

She was known as the “nine-day queen� and was used as a pawn in the ruthless ambition that defined the Tudor court. But for centuries, historians have struggled to find a single portrait of Lady Jane Grey that was painted during her lifetime.

Now, research by English Heritage suggests a mysterious portrait depicts the royal who reigned over England for just over a week in the summer of 1553, and who was executed less than a year later.

Chancellor is eyeing welfare system for potential cuts but pensions secretary says more support for jobseekers is key

The work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, has said helping more people back into a job is the best way to cut the benefits bill, as the chancellor looks for savings ahead of the 26 March spring statement.

With Rachel Reeves zeroing in on welfare as a source of potential cuts as she prepares to take action to meet her self-imposed fiscal rules, Kendall said the starting point must be getting people back into work – not numbers on a spreadsheet.

Family pay tribute to keen footballer who dreamed of playing the sport professionally

The child who died in a car collision at a sports pitch in Kendal, Cumbria, has been named as 10-year-old Poppy Atkinson.

Officers were called to Kendal rugby union football club in Shap Road just before 5pm on Wednesday after receiving reports of a collision involving a black BMW i4 and two children on a sports pitch, where children were playing football.

Re-dating of Flagstones monument to about 3,200BC came after analysis by Exeter University and Historic England

A prehistoric burial site in Dorset is now thought to be the earliest known large circular enclosure in Britain prompting researchers to question whether current dating of Stonehenge may need revising.

The Flagstones monument, near Dorchester in Dorset, has been re-dated to about 3200BC, approximately two centuries earlier than previously thought, following analysis by the University of Exeter and Historic England.

Nigel Farage calls Rupert Lowe ‘utterly completely wrong’ after Reform MP criticised his leadership style

Reform UK is facing a split at the top after Nigel Farage called one of his most prominent MPs “utterly completely wrong� for calling him the “messianic� leader of a protest party.

Farage hit out at Rupert Lowe after the Great Yarmouth MP and former Southampton FC chair criticised his leadership publicly in an interview.

Exclusive: Jim Mackey plans ‘big clearout’ as he steers NHS England towards closer relationship with health secretary

The next boss of NHS England is preparing a wide-ranging purge of its senior leadership team as he steers it into a much closer relationship with the health secretary, Wes Streeting.

Sir Jim Mackey, NHS England’s chief executive, is finalising plans for “a big clearout� of the top executives who were mainly hired by his immediate predecessor, Amanda Pritchard, who will leave the post in April.

Join Wes Streeting in conversation with Pippa Crerar discussing England’s health and social care system and how Labour plans to turn it around. On Tuesday 25 March 2025, 7pm-8.15pm (GMT). Book tickets here or at guardianlive.com

Telegraph columnist was visited by ‘exemplary’ officer after complaint about inaccurate tweet she later deleted

A review of Essex police’s pursuit of the Daily Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson over an allegedly racist tweet has concluded the force was right to investigate her.

The Essex force was criticised by Pearson and her supporters when officers knocked on her door on Remembrance Sunday morning last year, as part of their inquiries.

President’s decree claims white South Africans being unjustly discriminated against and orders end to foreign aid

The state department has ordered an immediate pause on most US foreign assistance to South Africa, according to a cable seen by the Guardian, officially implementing a contentious executive order by Donald Trump.

The directive, issued on Thursday, implements Executive Order 14204 targeting what the administration called “egregious actions� by South Africa. It orders all state department entities to immediately suspend aid disbursements, with minimal exceptions.

Pontiff nearing three weeks in hospital in Rome after being admitted with respiratory problems

Pope Francis has recorded and released an audio message thanking those who have been praying for his recovery, his voice breathless as he nears three weeks in hospital with pneumonia.

“I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers for my health from the square, I accompany you from here,� Francis said in a message broadcast in St Peter’s Square.

Armed men loyal to ousted dictator attack checkpoints in Latakia province in deadliest strikes so far against new government

Thirteen Syrian security officers have been killed in clashes with remnants of the Assad regime in the deadliest attack against the country’s new authorities since the dictator was toppled.

Armed men attacked checkpoints and security officers in the coastal town of Jableh and the countryside of Latakia province, as part of a “premeditated� attack on Thursday, according to the provincial head of Syria’s general security directorate, Mustafa Knefati.

Flight controllers try to confirm Intuitive Machines probe’s status in firm’s second lunar landing in just over a year

The Athena robotic spacecraft touched down on the lunar surface on Thursday in the second moon landing for the US space company Intuitive Machines in little more than a year.

An as-yet-undiagnosed problem following its descent, however, left the craft at “an incorrect attitude�, with mission managers telling an afternoon press conference that they were unable to predict to what extent the operation of Athena and its various payloads will be affected.

Person from Lea county had been unvaccinated and did not seek care but virus not yet confirmed as cause of death

An adult who was infected with measles has died in New Mexico, state health officials announced Thursday, though the virus has not been confirmed as the cause of death.

The person who died had been unvaccinated and did not seek medical care, a state health department spokesperson said in a statement. The person’s exact age and other details were not immediately released.

Democratic California governor faces backlash after saying trans women playing in female sports was ‘deeply unfair’

Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California believed to be eyeing a run for president in 2028, is facing fierce backlash from LGBTQ+ rights advocates after his suggestion that the participation of transgender women and girls in female sports was “deeply unfair�.

In the inaugural episode of his podcast, This Is Gavin Newsom, the governor hosted conservative political activist and Maga darling Charlie Kirk. The co-founder and executive director of the rightwing Turning Point USA, a Phoenix-based organization that operates on school campuses, told Newsom: “You, right now, should come out and be like: ‘You know what? The young man who’s about to win the state championship in the long jump in female sports – that shouldn’t happen.’ You, as the governor, should step out and say: ‘No.’�

Ryan Wedding, 43, wanted for role in billion-dollar cross-border drug trafficking operation and several homicides

Authorities in the United States have offered a $10m reward for information that leads to the arrest of a Canadian former Olympic snowboarder-turned-international drug kingpin.

Police in Los Angeles said on Thursday that Ryan Wedding – also known as “El Jefe�, “Giant� and “Public Enemy� – is wanted for his role in a billion-dollar cross-border drug trafficking operation and for several homicides linked to his drug sprawling network.

Justice department to determine whether UC violated Civil Rights Act of 1964 amid pro-Palestinian campus protests

The US Department of Justice is investigating the University of California system for possible antisemitic discrimination after demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza took place on campuses last year.

“This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights, and leverage our resources to eradicate institutional Antisemitism in our nation’s universities,� read a statement by Pam Bondi, the attorney general, released on Wednesday.

Descendants of enslaved Africans and Indigenous people interned on Baliceaux in 18th century hail ‘historic victory’

Members of the Garifuna community are celebrating “a historic and long-awaited victory� after the Caribbean nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) announced the purchase of a privately owned island where thousands of their ancestors perished from disease and starvation.

The uninhabited island of Baliceaux has long held great significance for the Garifuna people, the descendants of enslaved Africans and Indigenous Kalinago and Arawak people.

Militant group accuses the US president of seeking to undermine deal with his ultimatum for release of hostages

Hamas has accused Donald Trump of seeking to undermine the shaky pause in hostilities in Gaza with his latest intervention in the region: a new and fierce ultimatum telling the group to release all hostages.

The militant Islamist organisation said Trump’s threats constituted support for attempts by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to back out of the ceasefire agreement.

The author said she hopes resulting publicity ‘is used to help stop other children falling through all safety nets as I did repeatedly’

A memoir about growing up in care has won this year’s Gordon Burn prize.

Jenni Fagan was revealed as the winner of the £10,000 award for her book Ootlin at a ceremony in Newcastle on Thursday evening.

MJ the Musical has already made millions for Jackson’s estate. But as the Broadway hit opens in Australia and the estate prepares to face two of Jackson’s alleged victims in court, fans may ask: is buying a ticket OK?

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There’s a moment in MJ the Musical where the King of Pop tells a prying reporter: “I want to keep this about my music.�

Over the last four years, as the jukebox musical has swept through the US, London and Hamburg, netting four Tony awards and more than US$245m to date on Broadway alone, the debate that has followed it has mirrored that which followed the bombshell allegations aired in the Emmy-winning 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland: can we separate Michael Jackson’s impeccable musical legacy from his deeply tarnished public image?

The singer-songwriter on breaking up his band, recovering from a stroke, being too old to be a punk, and the chaos of recording with Mark E Smith

In these deeply troubled, fractured, febrile times, why did you call the new record Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation? smileywombat
It was Grace’s choice [Grace Maxwell, his wife and musical collaborator]. Up in Helmsdale [in the Scottish Highlands], in my studio, I have an art deco radiogram speaker which has a sort of sunburst thing with that phrase written on it. For £60 on eBay – pristine! It was the BBC World Service motto. When we were casting about for a title for the new record, it seemed like a great expression. Grace said, if you’re going to call it that you have to write a song with that title. So I did.

I very much enjoyed the new song Knowledge and the video, shot in Helmsdale. Do you like to travel much these days or are you pretty much happy at home? nogs09
I like Helmsdale, and Grace loves it. When I was seven, eight years old, I spent every holiday in Helmsdale, walking with Stuart, my grandfather. And, one year, Mum and Dad said, I think we’ll go to Spain. I said, you can go wherever you like – I’m going to Helmsdale. We’ve been abroad loads of times since I had the stroke [in 2005] – to Japan once, to Australia. But I love getting home to the studio. That fragrance of the air. The fresh air. It’s beautiful.

Our writers highlight the films they find endlessly rewatchable, including Notting Hill, The Wedding Singer and Mamma Mia!

“Feelgood� movies are often thought of as big-hearted romantic comedies, comforting classics, or childhood favourites that still hold up decades later. In our series, My feelgood movie, Guardian writers reflect on their go-to flick, and explain why their pick is endlessly rewatchable.

This list will be updated weekly with further picks.

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham is available on Netflix and Amazon Prime in the US and UK

Charli xcx, the Prodigy and Loyle Carner will headline the Other stage, with first-time sets from Alanis Morissette, Doechii and En Vogue

This year’s Glastonbury set will feature two first-time headliners in the British pop-rock group the 1975 and the US pop-punk songwriter Olivia Rodrigo.

The band, led by Matty Healy, will top the Friday night billing on the Pyramid stage. Rodrigo will perform on Sunday. In 2022, the Drivers License singer performed on the Other stage, a set that boasted a guest spot from Lily Allen and an excoriation of the US supreme court following the overturning of Roe v Wade a day earlier.

From dancers breaking bones to camera crews forced to take terrible risks, stage and screen jobs can be hugely hazardous, says a scathing new report. We meet workers who feel ‘disposable’ – and the groups pushing for change

‘Every time I think about starting a new job,� says Lucy, a documentary maker, “I feel triggered. Because every job I’ve done in the last five years, bar maybe two, I’ve had some kind of absolutely horrendous experience. I now expect to be put in danger at work.�

Lucy (not her real name) is by no means an isolated case. According to new research into “the human toll and economic impact of injury�, nearly 80% of cast and crew members working in stage or screen productions have been injured at some point in their careers. The survey, conducted by the Injury Prevention Consultancy and shared with the Guardian, found that almost half of stage and three-fifths of screen performers have been placed in unsafe situations. Among crew, nearly three-quarters said that adhering to a show’s creative vision had compromised their safety, while only a quarter felt their wellbeing was regarded as a priority.

We asked some of the UK’s finest cooks and restaurateurs about the tools that make all the difference, from tomato knives to stick blenders

• Want to avoid forever chemicals? Here are the best PFAS-free frying pans

We all have that gadget we reach for in the kitchen; the everyday item that changes the way we cook, making chopping, zesting citrus fruit, flipping fish and grinding spices that little bit easier (plus, saving fingertips). A kitchen gamechanger doesn’t have to be fancy, though – Feast’s Georgina Hayden finds a tomato knife picked up on holiday indispensable.

So which gadgets and tools will make your kitchen life complete (and perhaps more enjoyable)? We asked some of the UK’s top chefs about the things they couldn’t live without.

From premium headlamps to budget buys, our expert shines a light on the top head torches for outdoor adventures after dark

• ‘I’d never head out without one’: 10 hiking essentials

‘This is probably a bit unnecessary,� I thought to myself as my 1,100-lumen Petzl Reactive head torch lit up my dog like a comedian on Live at the Apollo. Over the past few months, our evening walks have been illuminated by various forehead-mounted gizmos, each one seemingly more powerful than the last. This particular model was overkill for the task at hand, but it proves an important point: not all head torches are created equal.

Brighter isn’t always better. If you’re a trail runner navigating rocky descents at night, a high-powered beam is a must. But if your biggest challenge is finding the campsite loo in the dark, you can probably save yourself a lot of money.

Best head torch overall:
Petzl Swift RL
_{£78.49 at Tradeinn}

Best eco-friendly head torch:
Silva Terra Scout XT
_{£26.59 at Outdoor GB}

Best budget head torch:
Forclaz HL500 USB V3
_{£24.99 at Decathlon}

From new season scents to cleaning hacks, we’ve picked our top spring essentials to blow away the cobwebs

• Cappuccino nails, boho blouses and pilates pumps: Jess Cartner-Morley’s March style essentials

Can you feel it? A warmth to the air, brighter days, and smiles on people’s faces. Spring is almost upon us: toes that haven’t seen the light of day for months need a polish, seeds need to be sown, and there’s an urge to spring clean (windows look particularly filthy when sunlight pours through them).

Emerging from winter is the perfect time for a reboot. So from signing up for a marathon to splashing out on a new perfume, revamping your bedding to vowing to do more hiking, here’s our guide to celebrating the arrival of spring.

This week: the March fashion edit, PFAS-free pans and the best vibrators, tested

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When food and drink writer Joanne Gould set out to try more than 60 low- and no-alcohol drinks for us this month, we never could have expected that an alcohol-free tequila-style drink would be among her favourites – or that it would end up being one of your favourites too.

We also suspected that Valentine’s Day might be dead, crushed into irrelevance by out-of-season rose bouquets and late-night-garage teddy bears. But your response to our non-traditional Valentine’s gift ideas surprised us – and proved that romance is alive and well, even if in 2025 it looks like Uniqlo joggers and laser-engraved Spotify keyrings.

With ruffled blouses, ballet flats and midriffs aplenty, show offers welcome and easy-to-wear familiarity

Few trends have been rebranded for the mainstream quite like “boho�.

Yet at the Chloé show in Paris, on day three of its fashion week, creative director, Chemena Kamali, doubled down on her efforts to push her easy breezy coolness and cash registers in the most relaxed way possible. She doesn’t mind the word, but prefers to describe her clothes as “romantic�.

One is a former conservative voter, the other finds Starmer too rightwing. Can they agree on the death penalty, net zero and taxing the rich?

David, 64, Bristol

Occupation Software project manager

The signs that a cat likes you are fairly obvious. Here’s how to strengthen your bond with a pet if you think they prefer your partner more

My boyfriend and I moved in together last April. To be more precise, my boyfriend, my dog and I moved in together. Cleo and I had already spent seven years living together, supporting each other through several cross-country moves, napping together and cuddling when one of us felt sad. Cleo loves my boyfriend very much, but ultimately she is mine and I am hers.

Then, in January, we got a cat named Blue. She’s beautiful, loving, hilarious and perfect in every way. But suddenly, my boyfriend and I were on the same level – the cat had no prior allegiance to either of us. A few weeks after we got her, I voiced my concern. “I think she likes you better,� I said sadly as Blue busily kneaded his thigh. “Really? I was thinking she likes you more,� he said, also kind of sad.

Questions on general knowledge and topical trivia, plus a few jokes, every Thursday. How will you fare?

This week we hit a milestone, with it being the 200th Thursday quiz. That means since the very first one in April 2021 there have been approximately 3,000 questions, of which only about 2,995 of them have generated somebody in the comments going: “Well, actually, I think you’ll find …� followed by a minor quibble. Thank you so much to everybody who regularly does the quiz, and especially those of you who join in with the comments every week. It was originally pitched as an eight-week series to see if it proved popular, and here we all still are. Have fun and let us know how you get on in the comments …

The Thursday quiz, No 200

It’s scary that life can disappoint us in big ways, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. You can either change how you’re living, or how you feel about it

• Read more Leading questions

I recently turned 40 and I feel that everything is coming to an end, rather than it being the middle of my life. I spent much of my 30s caring for my elderly parents while I lived in insecure share houses. I was single for all those years, apart from a couple of brief relationships. My mother died during the pandemic and my father moved cities and is now looked after by one of my siblings. I am terrified of losing him, but he is increasingly frail each time I visit, which I’m not able to do often due to my job.

I still work in a junior role despite my age and I did not manage to maintain friendships as my experience was so different from theirs. I am being bullied at work and I find it heartrending that I spend my days in an environment where this is happening, while not being able to see my father.

The new 38-mile Archangel’s Way, a pilgrimage route in a rugged corner of Devon, straddles Christendom and ancient pagan sites

The story of the church of St Michael de Rupe begins – as all the best Dartmoor stories do – on a dark and stormy night. A sailor, stricken in a wild and furious sea, fell to the deck of his ship to pray for salvation. The almighty unveiled a mountain in the midst of the tempest where the ship duly made landfall: in gratitude the sailor built a church on its summit. The devil – who had unleashed that evil storm – did his best to prise the church from its foundations, but Archangel Michael sprung to its defence and became the patron of this Devon parish. The tale has many versions, but this is the general gist.

Today, St Michael de Rupe counts as the highest working church in southern England – poised dramatically on top of a western outlier of Dartmoor’s tors. This medieval building casts a striking silhouette over the west Devon landscape, but it also marks the start of the Archangel’s Way: a pilgrimage route created in 2021 by the diocese of Exeter that travels 38 miles eastward from here across Dartmoor to a second St Michael’s church in Chagford. I chose to walk the route in February when the moor was at its quietest and most mysterious – and though the seas of the famous folk tale had receded, on my visit the storm had not.

The Guardian would like your help to find out more about fake adverts or news articles that promote fraudulent crypto schemes on platforms like Facebook and Google

A Guardian investigation has shown how a single group of call centres in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, scammed savers out of $35m. Victims were lured with fake adverts and news articles, often featuring celebrities, including the radio DJ Zoe Ball and the adventurer Ben Fogle, which they saw on sites like Facebook and Google.

The adverts promote crypto currency trading platforms where the buying and selling is all handled by AI, delivering huge winnings. But the platforms are a fiction – a front for the scammers. They don’t exist.

We’re curious to hear whether the ways in which people have experienced housing have affected or even changed their outlook and politics, and if so, how

As housing – the lack, cost, and quality thereof – continues to dominate political agendas globally, we’re keen to hear how the experience of housing may have affected people’s politics and general views.

Has your experience of housing been rather positive or negative? Has housing been a problem that has shaped other parts of your life, or have you experienced housing that has provided opportunities? Have you experienced housing only as a consumer, or also as a business? Have any of these or other experiences changed your political thinking or values, your habits or your outlook on the world? Tell us.

We’d like to hear about the theme parks and amusement parks that have shut down in your area

Oakwood Theme Park in Pembrokeshire, the largest theme park in Wales, has closed after nearly 40 years. It follows the closure of other attractions across the UK, including Flambards theme park in Cornwall, which shut its doors in November 2024.

We’d like to hear your memories and see your pictures of cherished theme parks and amusement parks that are now no more.

We want to hear what it’s like to run events such as marathons while wearing fancy dress

More than 50,000 runners are expected to join the London Marathon on 27 April, after the event through the capital’s iconic sites helped raise £73.5m for charity last year.

Some people will be pushing themselves to achieve a competitive time, but other participants will be running in fancy dress.

The term ‘polycrisis’ has gained traction as we face one disaster after another. It’s overwhelming – but diagnosing the catastrophe is the first step to addressing it

Two months into 2025, the sense of dread is palpable. In the US, the year began with a terrorist attack; then came the fires that ravaged a city, destroying lives, homes and livelihoods. An extremist billionaire came to power and began proudly dismantling the government with a chainsaw. Once-in-a-century disasters are happening more like once a month, all amid devastating wars and on the heels of a pandemic.

The word “unprecedented� has become ironically routine. It feels like we’re stuck in a relentless cycle of calamity, with no time to recover from one before the next begins.

Move to expand landfill for US hazardous waste stirs disputes between leaders in Quebec and Montreal suburb

The proposed expansion of a Quebec landfill that accepts hazardous waste from the United States has ignited a turf war between the Quebec provincial government and local leaders, who say they oppose putting US trash into a local peat bog.

Local leaders are protesting against the move – saying the province is capitulating to a US company in the midst of a tariff war between Canada and the United States.

Noah Musingku made a fortune with a Ponzi scheme and then retreated to a remote armed compound in the jungle, where he still commands the loyalty of his Bougainville subjects

One autumn morning, I boarded a plane from Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, to Buka, the capital of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. A collection of islands and atolls the size of Puerto Rico, Bougainville is located 600 miles east of Moresby, across the Solomon Sea. Its southern shore is just three miles from the politically independent Solomon Islands, and its people share a culture, linguistic links and dark skin tone with their Solomon neighbours. But thanks mostly to European colonisers, who drew the borders, Bougainville is the farthest-flung province of Papua New Guinea, whose lighter-toned inhabitants Bougainvilleans often call “redskins�, betraying a sense of otherness in their own country that partly explains why I am writing about them here.

I say partly because if not for the islands’ having fought a bitter, decade-long war against the Australia-backed Papua New Guinea – which remarkably they won – and demanding Papua New Guinea allow Bougainville’s independence by 2027, the story I am about to tell would likely never have happened.

Harrowing story of ‘ES’, fleeing persecution to seek safety in US, shines light on judges who grant claims at exceptionally low rates – or not at all

At an immigration court in Pearsall, Texas, in front of a judge, government attorneys and a court interpreter, “ES� shakily recounted the darkest moments of his life.

He explained how he had been arrested seven years earlier in Turkey, amid his government’s crackdown on followers of the Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen. The police officers who detained him accused him of being involved in a terrorist movement and demanded he reveal the names of his associates, he said.

Only 20 miles from Italy’s capital, Isola Sacra was ignored for years but now Royal Caribbean has plans to turn it into a major new port

On a cloudy day in January, Isola Sacra, a hamlet in Fiumicino, 20 miles from Rome, does not look like a place that would attract masses of tourists. Low-rise family homes with small gardens alternate with meadows and fields and life has the sedate pace of a provincial town.

An old lighthouse now lies in ruins and not far away is the darsena dei bilancioni, the beach that takes its name from the stilt houses, or bilancioni, once used for fishing.

Trump tells Hamas to release all hostages or ‘it is over for you’ as US stops sharing intelligence with Ukraine – key US politics stories from Wednesday at a glance

Donald Trump posted a fresh ultimatum to Hamas, telling the group to “release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you�.

“‘Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye,� he wrote in a social media post on Wednesday, in an apparent reference to the beginning of direct talks with the group.

Richard Dannatt told undercover reporters he could make introductions, despite House of Lords ban on lobbying

• What are the House of Lords rules – and what happens if they are broken?
• What is the House of Lords and what do peers do?

A member of the House of Lords offered to secure meetings with ministers for a potential commercial client who wanted to lobby the government, the Guardian can reveal.

Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British army, was secretly filmed telling undercover reporters he could make introductions within the government and that he would “make a point of getting to know� the best-placed minister, despite rules prohibiting peers from lobbying.

Joe was a gifted musician who struggled with addiction and poor mental health. When he got a place at an award-winning ‘sanctuary’ in London, it sounded perfect. The reality was shockingly different

Jude Black was delighted when her son, Joe, moved into Holmes Road Studios in Camden, north London. This wasn’t any old homelessness hostel. It had just won an award from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and it looked gorgeous.

The 59 refurbished studio flats had en suite bathrooms and were designed around a courtyard garden. Joe was allocated No 21. Each studio was distinguished by a colourful front door – blue, brown, orange, green, red, turquoise. The rustic-looking brickwork gleamed in the sun and a stylish porthole window lit up the mezzanine bed space.

Erin had knives thrown at her, Dolly was kicked, Tim was punched … and all of this violence came from their own children. Why does the outside world ignore such attacks – or even blame the victims?

Erin knows her three children haven’t had an easy time. When they were growing up, her partner was abusive towards her and the children witnessed violence and coercion at home before she found the strength to end the relationship. A few years later, her child Jay – then in their early teens – disclosed that a trusted adult had sexually abused them.

Erin, a successful businesswoman, has always believed Jay. She reported the abuse to police and severed ties with the alleged perpetrator. But Jay’s behaviour began to change. They threw knives at Erin. They set fires in the house. “They would use anything as a weapon to cause injury and harm,� Erin says. Often, Erin was forced to barricade herself inside her bedroom when Jay tried to attack her, while the other children fled the house. In many ways, she felt as if she was living with her abusive ex again.

Sean Baker’s film accused of lacking representation, as some say he and Mikey Madison could have used speeches to call for policy reform

As well as winning five Oscars and catapulting its lead actor, Mikey Madison, into true stardom, the film Anora has been mooted as a signifier of society taking another step towards sex work being normalised as an occupation.

The film is a dark love story about a stripper who marries the feckless son of a Russian oligarch and slowly watches her vision of a fairytale ending disappear before her eyes. But real-life sex workers have said the film portrays an optimistic view of the industry.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Mark Langdon and Lars Sivertsen as Liverpool pull off a miraculous win against PSG

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On the podcast today: Alisson is in sensational form as Liverpool succeed in the ultimate smash-and-grab win at PSG in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.

The news that the US had suspended military aid to Ukraine stunned world leaders and led to a rapid reassessment of how much we can really rely on our American ally. Is this the end of the western alliance? John Harris asks our diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour. Plus, as the UK pledges to boost defence spending by slashing our foreign aid budget, ActionAid’s CEO, Taahra Ghazi, tells John about the fallout for organisations working on the ground.

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Madeleine Finlay and Ian Sample discuss three intriguing science stories from the week. From two private moon landings to the controversy over Elon Musk’s continued membership of the Royal Society, and a new study making a link between men’s health and their sperm quality

Striking images show Blue Ghost Mission 1’s successful moon landing

Elon Musk survives as fellow of Royal Society despite anger among scientists

What can a major leak teach us about how call-centre fraudsters work? Simon Goodley reports

“I’d quite like to just try and get a deposit together, to buy a house and stuff.�

After Mark* saw an advert for a financial trading website, he signed up to what he believed was access to an adviser who called herself Lilliana.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair and Phil Kitromilides to discuss the Champions League and FA Cup

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On the podcast today; Arsenal put seven (!) past PSV in the Champions League. It’s probably just about enough of an advantage to set up a quarter-final with whoever emerges victorious from a finely-poised Madrid derby as Real head to Atlético next week with a one-goal advantage after their 2-1 first-leg win.