Trump warns ‘nothing will stop me’ at rally to celebrate 100 days in office

President holds campaign-style event in Michigan, attacks Democrats and ‘communist’ judges, and repeats 2020 election lie

Donald Trump has celebrated his 100th day in office with a campaign-style rally in Michigan and an attack on “communist radical left judges” for trying to seize his power, warning: “Nothing will stop me.”

The president also served up the chilling spectacle of a video of Venezuelan immigrants sent from the US to a notorious prison in El Salvador, accompanied by Hollywood-style music and roars of approval from the crowd.

Published: April 30, 2025, 1:18 am

US GDP report to show if economy expanded in last quarter, after eurozone growth accelerates – business live

First estimate of US GDP for Q1 2025 will show whether tariffs hurt growth

• UK house prices fall but market ‘likely to pick up’ during summer
• China manufacturing activity plummets amid Trump tariff war

France’s economy is likely to “flirt with stagnation” throughout the year, despite the small rebound in GDP in the last quarter, predicts Dutch bank ING.

Charlotte de Montpellier, ING’s senior economist for France and Switzerland, explains:

The additional customs duties in the US and their direct and indirect impact will delay the French economy’s rebound. We estimate that the direct effect of a permanent 10% import duty in the US on French GDP (via a reduction in exports) will be around -0.1%.

Adding to this are the effects of uncertainty, the global economic slowdown and more restrictive fiscal policy, all of which will weigh on French economic activity throughout the year. The cooling in the labour market is likely to limit the recovery in household consumption, and the savings rate is set to remain high.

Published: April 30, 2025, 12:12 pm

Trump officials increasingly recruit local police for immigration enforcement despite ‘red flags’

Agreements with agencies in 38 states resurrect aggressive tactics shelved more than a decade ago amid alarms about civil rights abuses

The first few months of 2025 have been tumultuous for Sheriff Bill Rogers, the chief law officer of Columbus county in North Carolina.

In February, his department settled a lawsuit accusing Columbus jail deputies of neglecting the care of a county inmate who was almost beaten to death in 2023. Then in March, a group of Roger’s deputies were accused of assault during the arrest of a 57-year-old who claimed he was punched in the back of the head and left bloody after allegedly running a stop sign.

Those episodes follow years of scandal.

Published: April 30, 2025, 11:00 am

Deadly Syria clashes continue for second day outside Damascus

At least 11 civilians and security officials killed in Druze-majority areas around the capital on Wednesday

At least 11 civilians and security officials were killed in clashes in a town near Damascus on Wednesday, state media reported, the second consecutive day of fighting in Druze-majority areas around Syria’s capital.

Reports said fighting had started overnight in the town of Ashrafiah Sahnaya, south-west of Damascus, after unknown gunmen attacked a security checkpoint. An attack on the Druze-majority Damascus suburb of Jaramana a day earlier left at least 10 people dead, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Published: April 30, 2025, 11:48 am

Starbucks says cutting shop staff in favour of automation has failed

Chief executive Brian Nicoll vows to ‘fundamentally change’ strategy in face of worse-than-expected results

Starbucks is planning to hire more baristas, get them to work more hours at its coffee shops and roll back its embrace of automation, as the company’s new leadership battles to turn the chain around.

Brian Niccol, who joined Starbucks as chief executive last September, has vowed to “fundamentally change” the company’s strategy in order to win back customers.

Published: April 30, 2025, 11:52 am

Trump border pick accused of ‘cover-up’ over death of man beaten by US agents

Former top official calls for Rodney Scott to be blocked from CBP role over handling of investigation into Anastasio Hernández Rojas’s death

Rodney Scott, Donald Trump’s nominee to lead Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has been accused by a former top official of orchestrating a “cover-up” over the death of a man detained while trying to enter the country from Mexico, according to a letter obtained by the Guardian.

Scott is a former US border patrol chief who has supported the president’s vow to build a wall along the border with Mexico and criticized Joe Biden’s handling of immigration policy. As commissioner of CBP, Scott would lead one of the largest federal law enforcement agencies, which encompasses the border patrol and staffs ports of entry across the United States.

Published: April 30, 2025, 12:41 am

Europe live: Germany’s SPD approves coalition deal with conservative CDU/CSU to form next government

The conservative-SPD coalition was the only path to a majority government after both major parties suffered steep losses in the February federal election

In Spain, harrowing stories have continued to emerge after much of the Iberian Peninsula was plunged into an hours-long blackout earlier this week.

Jonathan Bernal, a window washer in Madrid, has detailed how he and a co-worker were cleaning the outside windows of a skyscraper when the power went out. For four hours they ended up stranded on hanging scaffolding, some 240 metres above the city.

Published: April 30, 2025, 11:44 am

Scientists use live human brain tissue to speed up hunt for dementia cure

Exclusive: British team exposed live cells to toxic proteins to gather rare insight into how dementia develops

Scientists have used living human brain tissue to mimic the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, in a breakthrough that will accelerate the hunt for a cure.

In a world first, a British team successfully exposed healthy brain tissue from living NHS patients to a toxic form of a protein linked to Alzheimer’s – taken from patients who died from the disease – to show how it damages connections between brain cells in real time.

Published: April 30, 2025, 9:00 am

Erin Patterson concocted cancer diagnosis to ensure children missed fatal mushroom lunch, murder trial hears

Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in South Gippsland in 2023

Erin Patterson panicked and lied to police about having never foraged for mushrooms or owning a food hydrator because she was overwhelmed that her lunch guests died after eating food she had cooked, her lawyer has told a Victorian court.

Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in South Gippsland in 2023.

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Published: April 30, 2025, 7:22 am

‘A human piñata’: Katy Perry reflects on online abuse following Blue Origin flight and latest tour

Pop singer’s tour has been mocked online and she was criticised for taking commercial spaceflight, but she tells fans ‘please know I am OK’

Following criticism of her latest tour, new music and her trip to the edge of space on Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin craft, Katy Perry has written an emotional message explaining how the public opprobrium has affected her.

Perry wrote the message under an Instagram post by a fan group, who booked a billboard in Times Square to congratulate her on the opening week of her Lifetimes tour.

Published: April 30, 2025, 9:34 am

Swedish police detain 16-year-old after three killed in Uppsala shooting

Teenager held on suspicion of killings after incident at hair salon in university city north of Stockholm, say prosecutors

A 16-year-old has been detained on suspicion of shooting and killing three people in the city of Uppsala, according to Sweden’s prosecution authority.

Police had earlier confirmed in a press conference that a detained person was suspected of murder and was one of several people being interrogated as part of the investigation, although they did not provide an age.

Published: April 30, 2025, 9:41 am

The white Afrikaners lining up to accept Trump’s offer of asylum

Thousands of South Africans are hoping to move to the US to escape crime – and what they say is discrimination against white people

Kyle believed God was looking out for him when he survived a violent farm robbery in South Africa eight years ago with only a black eye and broken ribs. The robbers failed to get the kettle and iron working, so were unable to burn anyone. Then the gun trigger jammed when they tried to shoot Kyle in the spine.

“They specifically said they were coming back for this farm … [that] it was their land,” said the 43-year-old, who did not want to use his full name. “Only afterwards, we found out that the guy that stays on the plot was actually killed … the farmhand … I don’t know what his name was.”

Published: April 30, 2025, 4:49 am

Trump news at a glance: US president attacks Democrats and ‘communist’ judges at campaign-style rally

Donal Trump celebrates 100 days in office with Michigan event, saying ‘nothing will stop me’ – key US politics stories from Tuesday 29 April at a glance

Donald Trump has celebrated his 100th day in office with a campaign-style rally in Michigan and an attack on “communist radical left judges” for trying to seize his power, warning: “Nothing will stop me.”

The president also served up the chilling spectacle of a video of Venezuelan immigrants sent from the US to a notorious prison in El Salvador, accompanied by Hollywood-style music and roars of approval from the crowd.

Published: April 30, 2025, 2:35 am

Denied, detained, deported: the people targeted in Trump’s immigration crackdown

These are some of the people ensnared by the administration’s unprecedented measures to target people it believes oppose its agenda

Donald Trump retook the White House vowing to stage “the largest deportation operation in American history”. As previewed, the administration set about further militarizing the US-Mexico border and targeting people requesting asylum and refugees while conducting raids and deportations in undocumented communities, detaining and deporting immigrants and spreading fear.

Critics are outraged, if not surprised. But few expected the new legal chapter that unfolded next: a multipronged crackdown on certain people seen as opponents of the US president’s ideological agenda. This extraordinary assault has come in the context of wider attacks on higher education, the courts and the constitution.

Published: April 29, 2025, 4:56 pm

Trump 100 days: delusions of monarchy coupled with fundamental ineptitude

Trump has wasted no time in trying to remake the US in his image – with results that are sweeping, vengeful and chaotic

• 100 days of Trump

He has blinged it with gold cherubim, gold eagles, gold medallions, gold figurines and gilded rococo mirrors. He has crammed its walls with gold-framed paintings of great men from US history. In 100 days Donald Trump has turned the Oval Office into a gilded cage.

The portraits of Andrew Jackson, Ronald Reagan and other past presidents gaze down from a past that the 47th seems determined to erase. Trump is seeking to remake the US in his image at frightening speed. The shock and awe of his second term has challenged many Americans’ understanding of who they are.

Published: April 29, 2025, 8:00 am

The El Salvador mega-prison at the dark heart of Trump immigration crackdown

Cecot, a secretive 40,000-capacity facility built to house alleged gang members, ‘is meant for permanent exile, permanent punishment’

“Don’t stop,” said the local in the backseat. “Just slow down and you’ll see it.”

Soldiers watched the vehicle as it passed the turn-off and the checkpoint. Then a white building flashed through a gap in the trees, a few kilometres from the road.

Published: April 30, 2025, 11:00 am

Inside Taganrog: beatings, electrocution and starvation at prison where Ukrainians were tortured

Russia is holding an estimated 16,000 civilians in arbitrary detention at 180 separate facilities. Taganrog was the most notorious.

Some weeks after being detained as she attempted to leave a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine in January 2023, Yelyzaveta Shylyk was given a polygraph test. As her interrogators attached the lie detector’s wires to her, they calmly issued a threat about what would happen if she failed the test: “You’ll go to a place where you’ll regret being born.”

That place, she would later find out, had a name: Sizo number 2, a pre-trial detention centre in the southern Russian city of Taganrog.

Published: April 30, 2025, 9:00 am

Before and after: images by Sudan’s accidental war photographer show loss of everyday life

Mosab Abushama’s work is an attempt to spotlight what the destruction has meant for ordinary people

When Mosab Abushama returned to his house in eastern Omdurman a year into the war in Sudan it was unrecognisable. Like the other buildings in his neighbourhood, the three-storey property he had shared with his extended family was pitted with bullet holes. Some of the walls had been blown through and the charred shells of burnt-out vehicles were scattered along the street. There was debris everywhere, and no water or electricity.

“When we came back, everything had been stolen. There was nothing left – no furniture, no belongings, not even our clothes,” he says.

Published: April 30, 2025, 10:49 am

‘I don’t date at all now’: one woman’s journey into the darkest corners of the manosphere

When Jess Davies was 15, a boy leaked pictures she’d shared with him. At 18, she was a glamour model. A few years later, another man violated her trust. Then she fought back

Jess Davies was a 15-year-old schoolgirl, sitting in an art lesson, absorbed in her fairytale project about a princess and a postman, when her Nokia phone began to vibrate with messages. “Nice pictures,” read one. “I didn’t think you were that type of girl,” said another.

To this day, she remembers the racing thoughts, the instant nausea, the hairs prickling up on her legs, the sweaty palms. She had shared a photograph of herself in her underwear with a boy she trusted and, very soon, it had been sent around the school and across her small home town, Aberystwyth, Wales. She became a local celebrity for all the wrong reasons. Younger kids would approach her laughing and ask for a hug. Members of the men’s football team saw it – and one showed someone who knew Davies’s nan, so that’s how her family found out.

Published: April 30, 2025, 4:00 am

‘As a film lover, I want more’: the Black female directors taking centre stage

The curator of the BFI’s Black Debutantes season on piracy, truncated careers and the frustrations of dealing with big studios

Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. This week I spoke to Rógan Graham, a curator of the British Film Institute’s latest season, Black Debutantes: A Collection of Early Works by Black Women Directors. The programme runs throughout May at the BFI Southbank in London, and is a celebration of the feature-length work of Black female film-makers, both the familiar and the seldom screened.

Published: April 30, 2025, 11:20 am

The experts: neurologists on 17 simple ways to look after your brain

Sleep well, swap butter for olive oil, learn a musical instrument – or embrace some other ‘magnificent obsession’. Here is what doctors do themselves to delay the onset of cognitive decline

As we live longer, our risk of cognitive impairment is increasing. How can we delay the onset of symptoms? Do we have to give up every indulgence or can small changes make a difference? We asked neurologists for tips on how to keep our brains healthy for life.

Published: April 30, 2025, 9:00 am

‘Still some fuel in the tank’: the perks and perils of launching a business after 60

Growing numbers of older people are creating enterprises in everything from baking to biodiversity – but does the freedom make up for the graft?

Kari Johnston felt ready to retire after 45 years in nursing when, at 63 years old, she decided to launch her own business – a professional decluttering and organising service.

She had read about decluttering and, fascinated, quickly created a website and advertised. Her first clients were friends. Three-and-a-half years later, Johnston, from St Monans in Fife, is now fully retired from nursing, and feels delighted with the success of her new venture.

Published: April 30, 2025, 5:00 am

‘An incredibly political moment’ – why fashion and the Met Gala are celebrating Black dandyism

This year’s Met theme is ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’ and focuses on Black men’s strategic use of fashion. Author of the text the show is inspired by, Monica L. Miller talks about why it’s being celebrated at this year’s show and gala

After three decades as a jobbing actor, Colman Domingo finally ascended to the Hollywood A-list in 2023 off the back of Rustin, a biopic of Bayard Rustin, an adviser to Martin Luther King Jr and civil rights icon. But while his performance was brilliant, Domingo’s meteoric rise was also down to something else: his masterful embrace of Black dandyism.

Having honed his trademark tight trousers and unbuttoned shirts waiting tables in San Francisco, on the red carpet he set himself apart in suits with Nehru collars, bow ties, dramatic cloaks and sparkling brooches. “I don’t just wear clothes, I wear stories,” Domingo told GQ ahead of his appearance at the Golden Globes in January, before stepping out in a black Valentino mohair wool tuxedo paired with a polka-dot silk shirt and a peacock plume brooch, all chosen to evoke “being at the centre of a three-ring circus” – a playful nod to the performative nature of awards season.

Published: April 30, 2025, 11:01 am

A moment that changed me: I went into the wilderness with my family – and lost my inhibitions

We took a wrong turn on vacation and ended up on a six-hour trek into the rainforest. After my mom flung off her top, my brother was attacked by fire ants and I developed a fiery hot rash, everything began to seem strangely zen …

It was the summer of 2001 and I was on the brink of adolescence, embarking on my first journey outside the United States to the tropically convenient American territory of Puerto Rico. I was 11, and already the goofball in my group of friends – but, away from those with whom I was familiar, I was painfully shy. Until a family vacation from hell rid me of all my inhibitions.

The chaos began when my well-intentioned parents decided to take my brother and me to see the beautiful rainforest. My mom had her heart set on going to the El Portal de El Yunque National Forest visitor centre; a friend had told her it was “perfect for kids”, with guided, paved pathways, a cafe, and even a gift shop. But when my flustered, monolingual father got lost on the Puerto Rican freeway, he panicked, as my mother flipped through the map trying to direct him. “What’s a salida?!” he cried, sailing past the “exit” signs.

Published: April 30, 2025, 10:00 am

Carême review – a sexy French romp about a chef who’s too spicy to handle

It’s hard to resist this moreish story about Napoleon’s renegade pastry chef (who is also a spy). Orgies, opium and tantalising fun with whipped cream are all on the menu

Much like the desserts whipped up by its titular cook, Carême is a rich, moreish and knowingly indulgent treat. This swashbuckling French period drama follows the “world’s first celebrity chef” Antonin Carême as he cavorts around Paris in the early 1800s under the watchful eye of first consul Napoleon Bonaparte, whom he has sworn to hate as he holds him responsible for the death of his adopted sister. It is about as understated as a 12-course tasting menu. But as it scoffs and seduces its way through the Napoleonic era, it’s hard not to fall for the extravagant charms of the Bake Off: extra spice.

Carême (a twinkly-eyed Benjamin Voisin, in full rock-star mode) is a principled young renegade and preternaturally talented pastry chef who makes his disdain for Napoleon clear from the beginning. Despite being midway through a steamy, whipped cream-based encounter with his sometime girlfriend Henriette (Lyna Khoudri), he is called away from his, ahem, tasting session and asked to cook for the troops. “Should I poison them?” he asks, cheekily, before setting to work. He does not choose to commit mass murder, but does reluctantly end up saving Napoleon’s life, leaving Carême in a bind. Should he work for the man he despises? Does he have a choice?

Published: April 30, 2025, 5:00 am

Cheat: Unfinished Business review – the single worst show that has ever been created

Eight ex-couples who split up due to infidelity are sent to a luxury villa together. It’s a grim cross between Love Island and Jeremy Kyle – and somehow also unforgivably boring

First, an important point of order. The new Netflix television series Cheat: Unfinished Business should not be confused with the Netflix television series Cheat. The latter was a 2023 gameshow hosted by Danny Dyer, notable for being forgettably bad. The former is a 2025 reality show hosted by Amanda Holden, notable for being the single worst thing that has ever been created in the history of humankind.

You might think this is an exaggeration, but that’s only because you haven’t just watched four episodes of Cheat: Unfinished Business in a row, and haven’t found yourself involuntarily clawing at your eyes in a doomed bid to injure any part of your brain that might remember watching it. I have. Quite frankly it’s a wonder I can still type.

Published: April 30, 2025, 7:00 am

After 100 days, Trump has destroyed Trumpism | Sidney Blumenthal

The president’s approach: tackle problems that don’t exist via policies that won’t work

In the 2024 election, Donald Trump eked out a narrow victory, by 1.5 percentage points nationally, the lowest popular vote margin in 56 years, since Richard Nixon’s wafer-thin win by 0.7 points in 1968. Trump claimed he had won an enormous historic mandate to impose a counterrevolution. “The American people have given us a mandate, a mandate like few people thought possible,” Trump boasted on 6 March in his address to the Congress.

His election rested on two principal issues, immigration and inflation. He demonized immigrants (“poisoning the blood” of the country), raised the bogeyman of transgender people, and racialized the Democratic candidate, Vice-President Kamala Harris, whom he claimed had decided herself she was Black. In the minds of the marginal voters who swung to him, however, immigration and inflation were conflated, factors impinging on their standard of living and economic security. Trump stigmatized migrants as the source of crime and cultural impurity, but swing voters mainly (and falsely) regarded them as economic competitors for jobs and government resources.

Published: April 30, 2025, 10:00 am

Why is the US sleeping as autocracy approaches? | Governor Jay Inslee

The country’s future depends on law firms, universities and media companies – as well as everyday Americans – breaking their silence

When a woman asked me a couple of weeks ago why leaders were not standing up to Donald Trump, my thoughts went immediately to political leaders. When I started to answer, she corrected me and said: “No, no, I’m talking about college presidents and law firms. Where the heck are they?”

Where indeed? From all observations, most have been asleep as the US president dismantles democracy piece by jeweled piece. They are either cutting sweet little deals on their knees, or just remaining silent as the fruits of 250 years of national labor and life are strangled by Trump’s tentacles. From the cowering of major media companies to the shameful capitulation of some law firms, and oppressive silence from virtually all of them, the nation is sleepwalking into a slow but ever encroaching totalitarian state.

Published: April 29, 2025, 12:00 pm

Three ways to help the developing world survive the end of aid | Winnie Byanyima

Wealthy nations are slashing funding for essential services such as the HIV/Aids response, but poorer countries cannot absorb the impact overnight

Countries across the world are cutting aid budgets, abandoning the decades-old consensus that supporting health and development is both a moral duty and a strategic interest. But the end of aid cannot mean the end of global solidarity – because our global economy is stacked against low- and middle-income countries to such an extent that they simply cannot afford to respond to global crises alone.

Developing countries are drowning in debt, facing interest rates up to 12 times higher than wealthy countries. When interest rates shot up after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the global south was worst hit. Low- and middle-income countries now pay $4 (£3) to the richest in the global north for every $1 they receive in aid. Thirty-four of Africa’s 54 countries spend more on debt than on healthcare.

Published: April 30, 2025, 9:00 am

Russia has offered a short ceasefire in Ukraine – but here’s what Putin really wants | Andriy Yermak

As part of the price for peace, Moscow would like sanctions on Russian airlines lifted. That’s no surprise: they’re vital to the Kremlin’s war machine

• Andriy Yermak is head of the Ukrainian presidential office

On Monday, the Kremlin offered a three-day pause in hostilities against Ukraine in May, to coincide with Moscow’s celebrations of the end of the second world war. In a context where Ukraine is calling for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, and the US a permanent one, Russia wants concessions before a lasting pause or permanent peace can even be discussed. Central to the Kremlin’s demands is the removal of sanctions – especially those restricting its aviation sector.

We must be cautious not to make concessions prematurely, under the guise of quick progress. The short pause offered would not make a meaningful difference to the war, and accepting it would enable a regime that has repeatedly shown intent to prolong its war of aggression and undermine this chance for a just, fair and lasting peace.

Andriy Yermak is head of the Ukrainian presidential office

Published: April 30, 2025, 4:00 am

I live in the US and have a green card. If I leave the country, will I be allowed back in? | Arwa Mahdawi

Even a summer holiday isn’t straightforward any more - and all across the US, millions of people are having to make calculations like mine

Let me start with a message to my wife. SORRY!!! I apologise in advance for everything you are about to read.

My more sensible half, you see, is a US citizen, who keeps telling me (a green card holder) that I should stop making jokes about getting sent to a detention centre or deported.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Published: April 30, 2025, 10:00 am

How Wrexham and Birmingham City’s US owners got one step from the Premier League

Tom Brady, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s celebrity status isn’t the only thing that led their clubs to the Championship

It’s been over four decades since Wrexham were last in the second tier of English football and a lot has changed in that time. (A lot has changed in four years, never mind four decades.) Four years ago, Wales’ oldest soccer club were at a non-league nadir. Now, they are preparing for life in the Championship, propelled to three straight promotions by the stardust (and money) of Ryan Reynolds and Ryan McElhenney.

Birmingham City’s second tier exile was much shorter – just a single season – but like Wrexham their promotion had the spotlight of celebrity on it. While Wrexham have Reynolds and McElhenney, Birmingham have Tom Brady (albeit it in a far smaller profile). The English lower leagues have never been so glamorous, what with Wrexham players appearing in Marvel movies and David Beckham attending matches.

Published: April 30, 2025, 11:41 am

NBA playoffs: Haliburton’s ‘disrespectful’ father sparks fracas as Pacers seal Bucks’ fate

• John Haliburton apparently swore and waved towel
• Pacers seal beat Bucks in OT to seal playoff series

Giannis Antetokounmpo has criticized Tyrese Haliburton’s father as the aftermath of Bucks-Pacers playoff series descended into a heated confrontation.

Haliburton sealed the Pacers’ 4-1 series victory with a lay-up in overtime that gave them a 119-118 victory on Tuesday night. In the ensuing celebrations, Antetokounmpo says Haliburton’s father, John, approached him and waved a towel while shouting “this is what we fucking do.”

Published: April 30, 2025, 11:39 am

Mikel Arteta’s Big Energy show splutters against PSG to reveal Arsenal’s frailties | Barney Ronay

Absences were keenly felt by hosts whose aggressive approach was disrupted by visiting side’s physical pressure

Reasons to be cheerful. Hmm. Let’s see. Well, it’s only 1-0. There’s that. And this is a significant achievement given Arsenal were basically suffocated in the opening 20 minutes of this semi-final first leg, unable to breathe in their own stadium, stretched thin, starved of air and light by the deep blue machine of the Paris Saint-Germain press.

In those moments PSG just seemed to have more players in every sector, to be self replicating, João Neves appearing at the shoulder of every teammate like a ghostly butler. In the process Arsenal’s own aggressive approach was entirely disrupted by PSG’s combination of physical pressure and just making you chase, filling your legs with lactic acid, fogging the brain.

Published: April 29, 2025, 11:01 pm

Luka Dončić pays entire cost to restore vandalized Kobe Bryant mural

• Lakers star makes $5,000 donation to GoFundMe page
• Kobe and Gigi Bryant died in January 2020

Luka Dončić has stepped up to pay the entire expected cost of restoring a vandalized mural depicting Kobe and Gigi Bryant in downtown Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ new guard made a $5,000 donation on Tuesday to cover the entire goal of a GoFundMe page created by artist Louie Palsino. He wants to restore the mural, titled Mambas Forever, at 14th and Main Streets.

Published: April 29, 2025, 9:54 pm

Djokovic pulls out of Italian Open on back of three-match losing streak

• World No 5 to skip ATP Tour event before French Open
• Serb will arrive at Roland Garros with lone win on clay

Novak Djokovic has reacted to his run of poor form by pulling out of the Italian Open in Rome next week. The 24-times grand slam champion is on a three-match losing streak, having crashed out of the Madrid Open after defeat by Matteo Arnaldi.

Tournament organisers announced on social media that Djokovic would not be playing in the Italian capital, with the Serbian writing on Instagram: “Rome, I will miss you. I hope we meet next year.”

Published: April 30, 2025, 8:27 am

Billions behind the badge: Neom joins Saudi Arabia’s football revolution

Backed by same force as Newcastle, Neom’s promotion signals era of spending in futuristic city that is yet to exist

Europe’s biggest clubs may not pay much attention to Saudi Arabia’s second division, but a new and curious force in the international transfer market is emerging from that league. Neom Sports Club (SC) have not only never played a top tier game before but also represent a city that does not yet exist.

Neom won promotion to the Saudi Pro League last week and will, from next season, take their place alongside the so-called “Big Four”: Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr of Riyadh, and Jeddah giants Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli. This group, home to Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Riyad Mahrez, are to become the “Big Five”. That is because Neom SC belong to the planned futuristic urban area of Neom, backed by the Public Investment Fund behind the aforementioned quartet, as well as Newcastle.

Published: April 30, 2025, 9:40 am

Rory McIlroy moves into ‘new chapter’ and targets more big prizes

Masters triumph was unique but Northern Irishman knows more silverware will follow if he maintains his fine form

When you have spent so long labouring under a burden associated with the reaching of targets, it would seem ridiculous to set more. At Augusta National this month Rory McIlroy didn’t just win the Masters. He didn’t just complete his career Grand Slam. He didn’t just end a wait for a fifth major that had stretched back to his halcyon summer of 2014. McIlroy did all of this at once; his emotion on the 18th green was partly because of the almighty weight that had been prised from his shoulders.

McIlroy’s subsequent celebration was endearing, but also thought-provoking. He spent time with his parents, his wider family, his lifetime coach and childhood friends. There was no open-top bus parade through the streets of his native Holywood or wild party at the golf club bearing the same name. No public lap of honour. All of that can wait.

Published: April 30, 2025, 9:37 am

Raphinha goes from missing man to Barcelona’s Ballon d’Or contender

The former Leeds forward was on the periphery but is now key to Hansi Flick’s team thanks to his hunger for goals

To score, first you have to learn how to miss. Raphinha, to be fair, misses a lot. Most common of all, perhaps, is the low screamer, dragged across goal with the left foot, disappearing into the advertising hoardings with an unseen thud as the goalkeeper calmly strolls off in search of a fresh ball. If you close your eyes and try to picture Raphinha missing, this is almost certainly the miss you are imagining.

But Raphinha can miss in a plethora of other ways, too. The wild slice at the back post is another favourite. The free-kick into the wall. The mistimed header sailing harmlessly over the bar and Raphinha has never been the greatest header of a ball, but he is going to keep making the run nonetheless, again and again, all night if he has to. If it feels weird to begin a discussion of one of Europe’s most prolific forwards by listing all the ways he can miss then one helps to explain the other. Raphinha is a winger rather than a pure striker, but the trait he has in common with all the world’s great goalscorers is the ability to prize volume over grace, to put the last miss out of his mind, to keep coming and keep shooting with a ruthless, relentless hunger.

Published: April 30, 2025, 7:00 am

UN climate talks will be ‘uphill battle’ amid Trump rollbacks, says Cop30 chair

Tariffs and environmental cuts will make meeting challenging, says summit president André Corrêa do Lago

Crucial United Nations climate talks this year will be a “slightly uphill battle” due to economic turmoil and Donald Trump’s removal of the US from the effort to tackle global heating, the chair of the upcoming summit has admitted.

Governments from around the world will gather in Belem, Brazil, in November for the Cop30 meeting, where they will be expected to announce new plans to deal with the climate crisis and slash greenhouse gas emissions. Very few countries have done so yet, however, and the world remains well off track to remain within agreed temperature limits designed to avert the worst consequences of climate breakdown.

Published: April 29, 2025, 6:59 pm

Trump dismisses contributors to key US report on climate crisis preparedness

The assessment, mandated by Congress, is used by federal and local governments to prep for climate disasters

Donald Trump’s administration has dismissed all contributors to the US government’s flagship study on how to prepare for climate change impacts, prompting strong criticism from experts over a “senseless” move.

The climate assessment is used by federal and local governments to understand how to prepare for climate crisis impacts including from extreme heat, hurricanes, flooding and drought.

Published: April 29, 2025, 4:06 pm

What caused the blackout in Spain and Portugal and did renewable energy play a part?

The countries boast high levels of wind and solar on their grids, leading to speculation about the robustness of the technology

• Europe live – latest updates
• Pedro Sánchez vows to find the cause of huge power cut in Spain and Portugal

Spain and Portugal suffered the worst blackout in living memory in Europe this week. About 55 million people were affected and it lasted more than half a day. Some have blamed renewables and net zero emissions targets, as the two countries boast high levels of wind and solar on their electricity grid and lead Europe in the technologies. But is this true?

Published: April 29, 2025, 1:56 pm

‘Last chance for humanity’: the cold reality of monitoring global heating on a glacier

Scientists on Union glacier in Antarctica fear the region is reaching a dangerous tipping point

• Words and photographs by James Whitlow Delano

Every time Dr Ricardo Jaña crosses the turbulent seas that separate Chile from Antarctica, it feels like his first time. The glaciologist at the Chilean Antarctic Institute (Inach) has sailed each year for 12 years through the Drake Passage, where the prevailing westerly winds, unimpeded by any land mass, raise the waters in chaotic waves that lash his boat.

“I feel powerless and resigned to the forces of nature,” says Jaña, who is the research chief at the Union Glacier Joint Scientific Polar Station.

Jaña skis around the glacier making global navigation satellite system measurements

Published: April 29, 2025, 9:00 am

More than 50,000 Los Angeles county workers strike disrupting key services

Two-day walkout begins after contract negotiations fail amid ‘unprecedented stresses’ on county budget

More than 50,000 Los Angeles county workers were on strike again on Tuesday, closing libraries and disrupting administrative operations across the nation’s most populous county.

The two-day walkout that began on Monday followed failed negotiations with the county for a new contract after the last one expired in March, according to the Service Employees International Union Local 721.

Published: April 29, 2025, 5:16 pm

Man charged with attempted rape of person who died on New York subway

Felix Rojas, 44, arraigned after video showed him performing sexual acts on unresponsive passenger

Authorities in New York have charged a man with attempted rape after surveillance video taken showed him performing sexual acts on an unresponsive passenger who was later determined to have died.

Police have been looking for suspects in the case for weeks, after footage captured two different people robbing the corpse of a man on a train traveling from Brooklyn to Manhattan, one of whom allegedly sexually violated him.

Published: April 30, 2025, 1:05 am

Runaway kangaroo on the loose named Sheila shuts down Alabama interstate

Marsupial spotted hopping along side of interstate before police surrounded area and owner used dart to tranquilize it

A runaway kangaroo named Sheila shut down a stretch of interstate in Alabama on Tuesday before state troopers and the animal’s owner wrangled the wayward marsupial.

The Alabama law enforcement agency said the kangaroo was spotted on Tuesday hopping along the side of Interstate 85 in Macon county, which is between Montgomery and Auburn.

Published: April 29, 2025, 10:25 pm

Los Angeles approves $4bn payout to settle thousands of sexual abuse claims

Deal represents largest aggregate settlement in US history as officials issue apology for ‘reprehensible acts’

Los Angeles county officials on Tuesday approved a $4bn payout to settle nearly 7,000 claims of sexual abuse in juvenile facilities since 1959.

The agreement reached on April 4 far surpasses a $2.6bn settlement reached in 2022 with the Boy Scouts of America that was the largest aggregate sexual abuse settlement in US history at the time.

Published: April 29, 2025, 9:25 pm

Harvey Weinstein rape retrial: witness who testified in 2020 takes stand

Miriam Haley testifies as ex-producer faces charges involving two women from original trial

The first of three accusers expected to testify at Harvey Weinstein’s rape retrial took the witness stand on Tuesday, reprising her testimony from his first #MeToo trial five years ago.

Miriam Haley, a former TV and movie production assistant, alleges that the former movie mogul forcibly performed oral sex on her at his New York City apartment in 2006.

Published: April 29, 2025, 8:48 pm

Angry Florida voters hold ‘empty chair’ town halls for absent Republicans

Republican committee advises against holding town halls as cases of lawmakers berated over federal cuts go viral

Angry voters are holding empty chair town halls as Republican members of Congress are refusing to hold those meetings with constituents.

Weeks into Donald Trump’s second term as president, Republican members of Congress were advised by the National Republican Congressional Committee against holding in person town halls with constituents, as several cases of Republican members of Congress being berated by constituents over federal worker firings and cuts went viral.

Published: April 29, 2025, 11:00 am

Why effects of Michigan’s ice storm will linger for months, perhaps years

Climate experts say warming atmosphere from climate change could fuel severe freezing rain and ice storms like the one that hit the upper midwest last month

Winter has been slow to release its icy grip from the upper midwest this year, and in northern Michigan, its effects will be keenly felt for months, perhaps years.

A devastating ice storm that hit late last month has left an estimated 3m acres of trees snapped in half or damaged from the weight of up to an inch-and-a-half of ice across the northern part of lower Michigan.

Published: April 29, 2025, 12:00 pm

Amazon takes on Musk’s Starlink with launch of first internet satellites

First 27 satellites launched into space from Florida, part of $10bn effort to beam broadband internet globally

The first 27 satellites for Amazon’s Kuiper broadband internet constellation were launched into space from Florida on Monday, kicking off the long-delayed deployment of an internet from space network that will rival SpaceX’s Starlink.

The satellites are the first of 3,236 that Amazon plans to send into low-Earth orbit for Project Kuiper, a $10bn effort announced in 2019 to beam broadband internet globally for consumers, businesses and governments – customers that SpaceX has courted for years with its powerful Starlink business.

Published: April 29, 2025, 3:19 pm

New Orleans Catholic diocese ordered to defend bankruptcy case from dismissal

Judge orders church to court to defend case for protection from mounting claims of child sexual abuse by priests

In a major development for the second-oldest Catholic diocese in the country, a US bankruptcy judge has ordered the Archdiocese of New Orleans to appear in court in June and show why its five-year-old bankruptcy case should not be dismissed.

Judge Meredith Grabill’s order suggests little concrete progress has been made since 13 September 2024, when the archdiocese and a committee representing more than 500 clergy abuse claimants filed competing plans for settling the bankruptcy.

Published: April 29, 2025, 12:40 pm

Pete Hegseth scraps Pentagon’s Women, Peace and Security program citing DEI

Defense secretary dismissed it as a ‘woke … Biden initiative’ despite it being a Trump achievement from his first term

Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, has abruptly banished the Pentagon’s Women, Peace and Security program as part of his crusade against diversity and equity – dismissing it as “woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative” despite it being a signature Donald Trump achievement from his first term.

In a post on X, Hegseth wrote: “This morning, I proudly ENDED the ‘Women, Peace & Security’ (WPS) program inside the [Department of Defense]. WPS is yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops — distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING.”

Published: April 29, 2025, 5:02 pm

Spanish PM calls on private energy firms to help find cause of massive power cut

Pedro Sánchez says changes needed to guarantee ‘supply and future competitiveness’ of electricity after blackout

• Europe live – latest updates

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has called on private energy operators to help his government establish the cause of Monday’s unprecedented power cut across the Iberian peninsula, and said changes and improvements must be made to guarantee “the supply and future competitiveness” of the country’s electrical system.

Spain and Portugal suffered a massive power loss that began shortly after 12.30pm on Monday and lasted into the night. At least five people are thought to have died in Spain as a result of the blackout, which left passengers trapped on paralysed trains and in the static lifts of apartment blocks and offices.

Published: April 30, 2025, 8:38 am

Finland restricts use of mobile phones during school day

Nordic country is latest to act amid evidence of impact on young people, including attention and self-esteem

Finland has passed legislation to restrict the use of phones and other mobile devices during the school day amid fears over their impact on student wellbeing and learning.

Under the changes, which were approved by the Finnish parliament on Tuesday and will come into effect on 1 August, mobile devices will be heavily restricted during lesson times. Pupils will be allowed to use them only with the teacher’s permission for healthcare or learning purposes.

Published: April 30, 2025, 11:21 am

Piers Morgan warns rise of YouTube is a ‘wake-up moment’ for traditional media

Presenter is expanding his own business on the platform and likens change to when vinyl music went digital

The media world is undergoing a “sea change” in which some traditional titles disappear, Piers Morgan has predicted, as he said some YouTube channels would soon have as much power as traditional network television.

The presenter and former newspaper editor, who is holding funding talks to expand his YouTube business, predicted more established media figures would soon follow him to the increasingly influential streaming service as audience habits continue to shift.

Published: April 30, 2025, 5:00 am

‘Trump wanted to break us’, says Carney as Liberals triumph in Canadian election

Party written off months ago completes remarkable comeback after US president’s threats boosted campaign

• Results tracker

Mark Carney has used his victory speech to claim Donald Trump wanted to “break us” as he led Canada’s Liberal party to a fourth term in office, in a race that was upended by threats and aggression from the US president.

The Liberal triumph capped a miraculous political resurrection and marked a landmark victory for Carney, the former central banker and political novice who only recently succeeded Justin Trudeau as prime minister. Results on Tuesday confirmed that the Liberals fell just short of a majority government and would therefore need the support of political rivals to govern.

Published: April 29, 2025, 4:37 pm

Trump ‘makes trade deal with UK second-order priority’ in blow to ministers

Exclusive: US officials have split negotiations with countries into three phases, sources say, with South Korea taking priority

Donald Trump has made a trade deal with the UK a second-order priority, sources have told the Guardian, hampering British attempts to meet their mid-May deadline.

US officials have decided to split their negotiations with more than a dozen other countries into three phases, with the UK being placed in either phase two or three, according to people who have been briefed on the talks.

Published: April 29, 2025, 6:31 pm

Exercise can counter side-effects of cancer treatment, biggest review of its kind shows

Exercise such as aerobic and resistance training and yoga found to reduce heart and nerve damage and brain fog

Exercise can counter the detrimental effects of cancer treatment, according to the most comprehensive review of its kind.

Several studies have evaluated how physical activity affects the health outcomes of patients with the disease, but significant gaps in the evidence have remained until now.

Published: April 29, 2025, 10:30 pm

Unrwa says Israel has abused detained staff and used some as human shields

Accusation from UN agency comes as Red Crescent medic held since deadly Israeli attack on ambulances is freed

The embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, has accused Israel of abusing dozens of its staff in military detention and using some as human shields.

The head of the agency, Philippe Lazzarini, said that more than 50 staff members, including teachers, doctors and social workers, had been detained and abused since the start of the 18-month-long war in Gaza.

Published: April 29, 2025, 6:00 pm

$30m salvage operation on Mike Lynch’s superyacht to begin

Investigators hope hoisting craft will yield clues about last year’s sinking and recover two super-encrypted hard drives

Recovery operations to raise the 56-metre British-flagged superyacht Bayesian from the seabed off Sicily, where it sank last summer killing seven people – including the British tech entrepreneur, Mike Lynch – will begin on Wednesday, weather permitting, according to the Italian port authorities.

On 19 August 2024, the luxury vessel, with a 75-metre (246ft) mast, was anchored just off shore near the port of Porticello, in the province of Palermo, when it was struck shortly before dawn by a violent storm. Lynch, once described as Britain’s Bill Gates, and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, were among the victims.

Published: April 29, 2025, 4:06 pm

India and Pakistan already sweltering in ‘new normal’ heatwave conditions

Temperatures south Asians dread each year arrive early as experts talk of ever shorter transition to summer-like heat

The summer conditions south Asian countries dread each year have arrived alarmingly early, and it’s only April. Much of India and Pakistan is already sweltering in heatwave conditions, in what scientists say is fast becoming the “new normal”.

Temperatures in the region typically climb through May, peaking in June before the monsoon brings relief. But this year, the heat has come early. “As far as Asia and the Indian subcontinent are concerned, there was a quick transition from a short window of spring conditions to summer-like heat,” said GP Sharma, the meteorology president of Skymet, India’s leading private forecaster.

Published: April 30, 2025, 4:00 am

From the archive: The last phone boxes: broken glass, cider cans and – amazingly – a dial tone – podcast

We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.

This week, from 2022: Five million payphone calls are still made each year in the UK. Who is making them – and why?

By Sophie Elmhirst. Read by Emma Powell

Published: April 30, 2025, 4:00 am

Mehdi Hasan on Trump’s first 100 days – podcast

Guardian US columnist Mehdi Hasan on the start of Donald Trump’s second term as president and the threat to democracy in the US

“So many things have shocked me about the past 100 days,” says the Guardian US columnist and author of Win Every Argument, Mehdi Hasan.

“Even for me, even the person who was saying it’s going to be so bad, it’s much worse than even I thought.”

Published: April 30, 2025, 2:00 am

Arsenal book their spot in the Champions League final – Women’s Football Weekly

Faye Carruthers is joined by Sophie Downey, Ameé Ruszkai and Marva Kreel to discuss Arsenal’s win, Chelsea’s loss and latest action across the WSL and the Championship

On this week’s Guardian Women’s Football Weekly, Faye is joined by Sophie Downey, Ameé Ruszkai and Marva Kreel. The panel discuss Arsenal’s 4-1 second-leg victory over Lyon, the north London side knocking out the eight-time European champions and securing their place in the final. However, it won’t be a full English affair after Chelsea’s dreams were dashed by a rampant Barcelona.

The panel review the latest action across the Women’s Super League and the Championship as the season nears its conclusion and relegation spots are confirmed.

Published: April 29, 2025, 2:15 pm

Why did Just Stop Oil just stop? – podcast

Just Stop Oil, the climate activism group behind motorway blockades, petrol station disruption and tomato soup attacks on major artworks, has disbanded after staging a final action in London this weekend. To find out why the group has decided to hang up the famous orange high-vis, Madeleine Finlay hears from our environment correspondent Damien Gayle who has been covering Just Stop Oil since its inception. He explains how policy wins and policing crackdowns combined to bring the movement to a close, and what the future of climate activism could look like in its wake

What next for climate activism now Just Stop Oil is ‘hanging up the hi-vis’?

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Published: April 29, 2025, 4:00 am

Labour v Reform UK: on the road in Runcorn – podcast

Helen Pidd heads to the industrial town before this week’s byelection. How will Labour fare in its first big electoral test since taking power? Kiran Stacey reports

Runcorn, a town in Cheshire, has not been the most politically interesting place in recent memory. In fact Runcorn and Helsby has been a safe Labour seat for decades. Then the MP Mike Amesbury resigned after punching a constituent, triggering a byelection. Now Reform UK are nipping at Labour’s heels in the battle for the ward.

Helen Pidd has been out in the town to find out what voters think about the government and Nigel Farage. She spoke to voters who are angry at Reform’s tactics of focusing on migration, but who also feel let down by Labour. She visits Labour’s almost empty electoral nerve centre and notices the optimism in Reform’s office. Even a passing Liberal candidate is struck by the efficiency of the Reform machine and the apparent enthusiasm for it. And she also heads to a hotel that has been housing asylum seekers to see how it has become a flashpoint in local politics.

Published: April 29, 2025, 2:00 am

Is Doctor Who doomed?

With record low ratings and Ncuti Gatwa rumoured to be departing, the Time Lord faces an uncertain future. Could this be it for good?

The Doctor has fought enemies like the Daleks and Cybermen all through time and space, but the Time Lord may now be facing their greatest threat: viewer apathy in a time of television industry upheaval, as rumours of cancellation and the departure of its leading actor swirl.

With this year’s series of Doctor Who approaching its midpoint and seeing record low ratings, there is still no sign from the BBC or streaming partner Disney+ if the show has a future beyond May.

Published: April 30, 2025, 10:41 am

Skin Deep review – kitty rescue immersive-sim is slapstick fun in a cartoony playground

Blendo Games/Annapurna Interactive, PC
This attempt to cosy-fi an immersive sim game is full of ‘zany’ gags as you rescue cats from a spaceship, but it gets a bit too saccharine

When it comes to gamer-gatekeeping, there are few genres as snootily guarded as the immersive sim. From PC classic System Shock to the Dickensian Dishonored 2, these system-heavy sandboxes are video gaming’s equivalent to avant garde electronica or the films of Darren Aronofsky, adored by critics and genreheads but largely baffling to everyone else. Much like those elitist fandoms, the im-sim’s loudest cheerleaders often look down on linear blockbusters with similar sneer. No, Assassin’s Creed player, you cannot sit with us.

While massive games such as Tears of the Kingdom have recently flirted with elements of the genre, there’s still a surprising lack of breezier, beginner-friendly immersive sims. Enter Blendo Games’ Skin Deep – an attempt to cosy-fi the genre. Doing away with the sour-faced sci-fi of Deus Ex, Skin Deep sends you hurtling into space with a premise ripped straight out of a noughties web comic. You play Nina Pasadena, an insurance commando sworn to rescue feline fleets from raiding pirates. As you answer each well-insured tabby’s urgent distress call, Nina quietly sneaks across the raided ship, using whatever tools she can cobble together to rescue her kitty clientele.

Published: April 30, 2025, 12:00 pm

Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade review – reverential reminiscence takes its time

There’s potentially too many run-of-the-mill I-met-Lennon anecdotes from talking heads and fans, but enough wheat among the chaff to keep things interesting

We have recently seen a slew of intriguing movies about John Lennon’s post-Beatles existence: The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, about Lennon’s brief relationship with his assistant May Pang, and Kevin Macdonald’s excellent archive-clip-collage study One to One: John & Yoko. Now here is a lengthy and self-consciously reverential film, which is sadly the weakest of the group. It doesn’t quite get to grips with the implications of its own title (was Lennon on “borrowed time”, exactly, in the 1970s?) and there’s an awful lot of hot air from an awful lot of talking heads in its lengthy running time, some of whom are regaling us with less-than-premium-quality anecdotes – often just beamingly recalling the pinch-me moment they actually met John Lennon and, wow, he said hi and they couldn’t believe it.

The film covers the whole period from Lennon’s arrival in New York right through the decade, the solo albums, quarrels with Paul, protests, interviews, joint ventures with Yoko, the struggle to get a green card, the “lost weekend” with Pang, and finally his murder at the time he was planning an ambitious new global tour. Beatles-expert veterans like Ray Connolly and Philip Norman offer their reminiscences, along with broadcasters like Andy Peebles, Bob Harris and Tony Palmer – but, frankly, there are no alpha-level surviving intimates of Lennon.

Published: April 30, 2025, 6:00 am

Gruffalo to return with first new book in more than 20 years

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler have announced they are working on a new outing for the monster in the deep dark wood, due out in September 2026

He’s got knobbly knees, turned-out toes, a poisonous wart at the end of his nose … and he’s back, for the first time in more than 20 years: Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler have announced they are working on a new Gruffalo book.

Due out in September 2026, the as-yet-untitled picture book will return to the world of the bestselling stories The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child, which were published in 1999 and 2004 respectively. The books are among the most popular children’s titles in the world, with The Gruffalo having sold 3.2m copies to date, and The Gruffalo’s Child 2.1m copies.

Published: April 30, 2025, 11:30 am

Thunderbolts* review – Florence Pugh is saving grace of Marvel’s hit-and-miss mess

The Oscar nominated actor is the most impressive member of a ragtag Suicide Squad-esque team in an often charmingly unusual yet still baggy adventure

Thunderbolts* can be messy. Not just the movie, with its clumsily forced narrative beats and whiplash tonal shifts. But also, its title characters, the broken and lonely souls who ditch the colourful costumes and wear their emotions on their sleeves, as if it’s their brand.

These reluctant heroes, led by Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, the troubled sister to Scarlett Johansson’s late Black Widow, are defined by how much they need therapy. They wrestle with themselves more than the bad guys, in a way that’s more pronounced than the most unstable among Marvel’s stable of wisecracking world saviors. They’re endearingly vulnerable, at times devastatingly so, and yet still fun and exciting enough to save Marvel.

Published: April 29, 2025, 4:00 pm

Jon Stewart on Trump’s first 100 days: ‘I am so tired’

Late-night hosts discuss chaos and lies in Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, and his blue suit at the pope’s funeral

Late-night hosts delve into Donald Trump’s historically low poll numbers after his chaotic first 100 days in office.

Published: April 29, 2025, 3:36 pm

‘When she first gave me her paw, my heart melted’: here’s what I’ve learned about taking on a rescue dog

For the first six months after arriving in the UK from Romania, Sophie never strayed from behind Rory Cellan-Jones’s sofa – but with patience and love she slowly emerged back into the world

When a trembling dog was placed in my arms in the early hours of a December Saturday I was not too concerned by her terrified state. After all, I knew about rescue dogs. Cabbage, our lovely collie cross who had died at the beginning of the year, had come from a Dogs Trust rescue centre 15 years earlier, and had also been pretty nervous at first. I was confident that Sophie, a one-year-old of indeterminate breed (but with a lot of German shepherd), brought to us on a van from Romania, would, like Cabbage, quickly settle down in her new home. How wrong I was.

Our new dog seemed frightened of my wife and I, and our house, and desperately searched for the smallest space she could find, eventually settling behind a sofa. The next morning, I was keen to restart the early dog walks which had been a key feature of my exercise regime since I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2019. But Sophie was going nowhere.

Published: April 30, 2025, 12:00 pm

How to turn leftover roast lamb inito mouthwatering quesadillas – recipe | Waste not

Leftover cooked lamb is ideal for hard frying, stuffing into tacos and topping with salsa

If you’re anything like me, you love a big roast dinner on Sundays. A joint of meat is a magnificent offering, but it can sometimes be hard to carve cleanly, and you end up leaving chunks of meat and flavoursome fat on the bone. These scraps are perfect for turning into succulent, tasty tacos. Cut any meat and fat off the bone, then shred with two forks. I’ve added black beans to bulk out the meat; if you have less meat, or want to make a vegetarian version, just use an extra tin of beans.

Published: April 30, 2025, 12:00 pm

100 men v one gorilla: who would win – and why has the question gone viral?

People are still debating this online after five years, and suddenly more hotly than ever. Even if it is ever answered, that still leaves us to tackle man v bear ...

Name: 100 men v one gorilla.

Age: The debate seems to have begun in 2020, on Reddit, when a poster asked the question in a r/whowouldwin subreddit, a forum for hypothetical discussions on myriad subjects.

Published: April 29, 2025, 2:41 pm

Is muscle soreness after a workout good or bad?

When it comes to workouts, how much pain – specifically, how much post-workout soreness – is actually a good thing? The answer: it depends

Humans have long glamorized suffering, hailing it as an essential ingredient of growth. In the ancient Greek tragedy Elektra, Sophocles wrote: “Nothing truly succeeds without pain.” In the 1980s, the actor and aerobics instructor Jane Fonda told people: “No pain, no gain.”

But when it comes to workouts, how much pain – specifically, how much post-workout soreness – is actually a good thing? The answer: it depends.

Published: April 29, 2025, 4:00 pm

Share your stories and pictures of kitchen heirlooms

We would like to hear the story behind a cooking utensil passed down through generations of your family

As Bee Wilson writes in her Guardian long read, people can invest objects in their kitchens with strong meanings or emotions:

Many people told me that they could still feel the presence of a lost parent or partner in their china cupboard. I met someone who said that the one object belonging to his mother that he and his siblings all wanted when they cleared her house was a glass salad-dressing maker. His mother never rinsed out the garlic at the bottom, just adding fresh garlic before pouring in the oil and vinegar, meaning that this vessel carried the garlicky essence of decades of shared meals.

Published: April 29, 2025, 12:26 pm

Cocaine, corruption and bribes: the German port under siege by Europe’s criminal drug gangs

After seizure in Hamburg of 16 tonnes of high-purity powder, state attorney is accused of being on payroll of gang he was supposed to be prosecuting

In Hamburg’s spring sunshine, 200,000-tonne cargo ships almost a quarter of a mile long, piled high with the same weight in shipping containers, are docked quayside along the Elbe River. Cranes slowly offload the metal boxes packed with everything from raw materials to food and electronics, and, in some, cocaine.

Between 2018 and 2023 cocaine seizures rose by 750%, marking out Germany as another major European hub in the ever-expanding global trade. But the influx is not just ramping up addiction, it is also fuelling corruption in a country perceived as being one of the least corrupt in the world.

Published: April 30, 2025, 2:00 am

‘Bombs and bullets were like rain’: 50 years on from the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam war

Xuan Phuong, a war correspondent who is now 96, recalls her entry into the city after South Vietnam’s surrender

The day that Saigon fell, Xuan Phuong, a war correspondent, could only hear shouting and commotion. It was 30 April 1975, and helicopters were frantically lifting personnel and civilians from the US embassy.

Phuong, who had travelled down from the north, was initially held back by troops who said fighting was still continuing. When she was finally able to reach the centre of the city the following day, 1 May, she found chaos. Clothes and luggage were scattered and discarded along the streets. Buildings were being looted.

Published: April 29, 2025, 5:39 pm

Cash, emergency food and wind-up radios: How to survive a power outage

Citizens across Europe have been getting advice about emergency planning, which may feel more urgent after blackout on Iberian peninsula

If the lights went out in your home or office, on your train home, or in your local supermarket – would you know what to do? That question became more urgent this week, after almost the entire Iberian peninsula suffered a mass electricity blackout, leaving tens of millions across Spain and Portugal without power.

As a result of the two countries’ outage on Monday, millions were left unable to get home from work, take out cash, buy food or in some cases escape lifts that were stuck between floors. Both nations declared states of emergency.

Published: April 29, 2025, 5:16 pm

The grass is not always greener on US stock markets

Narrative that US listings outperform European ones has been popular for years, but analysis shows a different story

Donald Trump is doing an excellent job of demonstrating that US stock markets don’t always outperform European ones.

On-off tariff wars, threats to fire the head of the Federal Reserve and general unpredictability have prompted a reappraisal of boring old Europe. The S&P 500 is down 6% this year, versus a gain of 2.5% for FTSE 100 index and a 3% improvement in the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600. The differences aren’t enormous but they mark a reversal from recent years.

Published: April 29, 2025, 11:01 pm

Carney gave a eulogy for Canada’s old relationship with the US. Now he must redefine it

Prime minister pledges to reduce country’s reliance on US trade – but must navigate competing visions for the future

In his victory speech early on Tuesday, Mark Carney wasted little time calling for a dramatic reshaping of his government’s relationship with the United States, arguing that threats from Donald Trump cast doubt Canada’s ability to function as a “free, sovereign, and ambitious” nation.

The former central banker and investment executive had for months focused his electoral campaign on the threats from Canada’s largest trading partner and longtime political ally.

Published: April 29, 2025, 4:20 pm

‘Numerous signs of torture’: a Ukrainian journalist’s detention and death in Russian prison

The Guardian, working with media partners, has tracked down first-hand accounts to reconstruct Viktoriia Roshchyna’s final months

The exchange took place on a lonely forest road in February. Moving along a line of refrigerated lorries, the teams in hazmat suits went about their grim work: preparing the remains of 757 Ukrainian military casualties handed over by Russia for the journey back to Kyiv.

Clipboards in hand, intermediaries from the Red Cross checked their lists. For each body shrouded in white plastic, the Russians had provided a number, a name, a location, sometimes a cause of death. And then, at the very bottom of the last page, a mystery entry: “NM SPAS 757.” The letters were abbreviations, taken to mean “unidentified man” and “extensive damage to the coronary arteries”.

Published: April 29, 2025, 10:00 am

‘They disappear them’: families of the detained see grim echo of Latin American dictatorships in Trump’s US

Mounting stories of ‘forced disappearances’ of Venezuelans in the US have left their loved ones distraught and disbelieving

Neiyerver Rengel’s captors came one sunny spring morning, lurking outside the apartment he shared with his girlfriend and pouncing as soon as he emerged.

The three government agents announced the young Venezuelan man had “charges to answer” and was being detained.

Published: April 29, 2025, 11:00 am

‘Shipwrecked in the 21st century’: how people made it through Europe’s worst blackout in living memory

Daring rescues were attempted, quick commutes turned into hours-long odysseys, cars were directed by baguettes – but the show went on in the world’s best restaurant

The ski lifts, carrying 16 people, dangled high above the southern Spanish region of Andalusia. As parts of Spain and Portugal were plunged into a blackout on Monday, the swaying gondolas had come to a halt metres above the ground, leaving people trapped inside.

About four hours later, video posted online by the ski station showed a rescuer lowering themselves into a gondola to set up a system of ropes that allowed the skiers to rappel to the ground.

Published: April 29, 2025, 6:20 pm

Death, divorce and the magic of kitchen objects: how to find hope in loss

As they pass through different hands, cooking utensils can magically connect us to loved ones who are no longer with us

I have long felt that kitchen objects can have a life of their own. Even so, I found this eerie. One August day in 2020, I was going to fetch clothes out of the washing machine when suddenly a cake tin fell at my feet with a loud clang. It wasn’t just any cake tin. It was the heart-shaped tin I had used to bake my own wedding cake. I wouldn’t have thought much of it except that it was only two months since my husband had left me, out of the blue.

Nearly 23 years ago, this giant metal heart had been brand new. My husband-to-be had told me he liked fruit cake but hated glace cherries. For our wedding, I decided to bake him a rich, dark fruit cake with no cherries and chopped-up dried apricots to take their place. There are photos of us cutting the cake together looking blissfully happy. We would soon be on our way to Venice for our honeymoon.

Published: April 29, 2025, 4:00 am

Hungry children, an airport hare and a roofless house: photos of the day – Tuesday

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

Published: April 29, 2025, 12:51 pm

‘A form of meditation’: a photographic haiku to Japan – in pictures

A poetic new exhibition of dreamlike black and white images captures the country’s contemplative beauty, from lonely Torii gates to sprawling temple trees

Published: April 29, 2025, 6:00 am

Lawnmowers, desserts and mix zones: FA Cup semi-final weekend

Playing host to two FA Cup semi-finals less than 24 hours apart, as well as more than 150,000 fans, means a busy time for staff at Wembley. We take a look at the preparations

It takes a great deal of organisation and a lot of staff, working in a variety of roles, to facilitate these two huge fixtures. More than 12,000 worked at Wembley over the two days. Many worked both days and through the night to ensure everything was in place.

Matchday mascots wait to greet the players as they arrive at Wembley for the first of the weekend’s FA Cup semi-finals.

Published: April 29, 2025, 6:01 am