Hundreds of papers relating to his appointment as ambassador to the US to be put into public domain today Meanwhile, Nick Clegg, the politician who enabled the current system of university tuition fees and student loans in England, has now described it as “a mess”. The former Lib Dem leader, a key member of the coalition government that tripled tuition fees to £9,000 a year, is blaming later changes including freezing the graduate repayment threshold, which Clegg said has made the system “deeply unfair” and that graduates “quite rightly feel very sore”. Clegg’s comments relate to Plan 2 loans for tuition fees and maintenance issued to undergraduates between 2012 and 2023. The earnings thresholds at which graduates start repaying those loans will be frozen at £29,385 between 2027 and 2030. Current students receive Plan 5 loans, which have a lower repayment threshold of £25,000 and are written off after 40 years rather than 30 under Plan 2. Clegg told the BBC the government’s priority should be to restore a link between inflation and the graduate earnings threshold, so that the threshold rises over time. He also wants an independent body to oversee the terms of student loans. Peter Mandelson was spotted leaving his home in London this morning as the government prepares to release documents relating to his appointment as ambassador to the US in 2024. Continue reading...

Experience the artist’s largest ever exhibition at a private view hosted by the Guardian at Tate Modern in London On Thursday 16 April, the Guardian and Tate will be hosting a private, after-hours event to celebrate the groundbreaking work of world-renowned artist Tracey Emin – and as a valued Guardian reader, you’re invited. Tracey Emin: A Second Life is the largest ever exhibition of Emin’s work, and features career-defining sensations alongside works never before exhibited. Continue reading...

It’s good news for those of us who aspire to a brisk, windswept British aesthetic over the bronze California beach babe Allow me to be the first and possibly last person to tell you that mauve is fashionable. Yes, the purply-pink hue of a 1990s mother-of-the-groom’s duster coat is now the height of chic on cheeks, lips and even eyes. It’s just euphemistically called “cool toned”, which in practice translates as traditional nude makeup tones such as dark brown, caramel, taupe, pink and beige, customised with a mild mauvey tinge to reduce their respective temperatures. Continue reading...

Hemmed in by the sea and poor transport links, many young people from the Yorkshire town feel trapped, but there is also a pride in the area It’s the morning after a wet and stormy day in the Yorkshire seaside town of Scarborough. The waves, which the previous day had been crashing dramatically on the harbour walls, have calmed and a few brave souls have entered the water with surfboards. There is a man throwing a ball for his dog on the beach and a kayaker bobbing on the waves. Just up from the seafront in the centre of town, Jack and Charlie, both 17, are leaning forward listening to a story from 19-year-old Keane about his recent visit to a drama school in London, where he is hoping to apply for a place on an actor training course once he has saved enough money. Scarborough, on the North Yorkshire coast, was one of England’s first seaside resorts Continue reading...

It’s called the Dahiya doctrine – and the IDF and US air force are using it to destroy domestic support in Iran Paul Rogers is emeritus professor of peace studies at Bradford University and author of Losing Control: International Security in the 21st Century Given the wall-to-wall coverage of the US and its war on Iran, it looks very much like Trump is the key player. He is not. The United States may have far more military power than Israel, but the key player is Benjamin Netanyahu. Moreover, the Israeli prime minister has fallen into a trap of his own making, and is dragging Trump and the US military into that same trap. For Israel, and indirectly for the US, the war has to end in total victory. Anything less is pointless. Paul Rogers is emeritus professor of peace studies at Bradford University and author of Losing Control: International Security in the 21st Century Continue reading...

Decision expected on whether to use reserves amid supply shortages and market volatility caused by Iran war Business live – latest updates Middle East crisis live – latest updates The International Energy Agency is reportedly proposing the largest release of oil reserves in its history to bring down crude prices that have soared during the US and Israel’s war with Iran. The release would outstrip the 182m barrels of oil put on the market by IEA countries across two releases in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed officials. Continue reading...

Veoza, also known as fezolinetant, will be offered to women for whom HRT is unsuitable More than 500,000 women in England are to be offered a drug on the NHS that prevents hot flushes. The green light for Veoza, also known as fezolinetant, comes after the medicines watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, authorised it for use on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Attack on residential part of M23-controlled city blamed by rebel group on government At least three people were killed in a drone attack in Goma early on Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the M23 rebel group has said. The attack happened at about 4am in a residential neighbourhood in the city, which has been under M23 occupation since January 2025. Continue reading...

Annual demonstration in support of Palestinian rights especially sensitive in light of US-Israel war on Iran On Sunday, thousands of demonstrators were expected to march through London for al-Quds Day, an annual demonstration in support of Palestinian rights. But the march, which has taken place in the UK for more than 40 years, has been banned by home secretary, Shabana Mahmood. Announcing her decision to ban the march after a request by the Metropolitan police, Mahmood said she was “satisfied doing so is necessary to prevent serious public disorder, due to the scale of the protest and multiple counterprotests, in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East”. Continue reading...

Updates from the Hundred auction, starting 10am GMT Explainer: how auction works | And you can mail Tanya Good morning brave new world. Today we crush the Hula Hoops and strut into the era of billionaire owners and player auctions, with a side dish of geopolitics The women begin to go under the hammer in about an hour’s time, tomorrow bids will be made on the men. In brief, each player will be listed in turn and the highest bidder wins their labour for six weeks in the summer. Continue reading...

This month, Ella Langley and Megan Moroney became the first pair of women in country music to top both the US albums and singles charts Country radio still has a gender parity problem. That hasn’t stopped Ella Langley and Megan Moroney from achieving historic success. Last week, Langley and Moroney became the first two women in country music ever to top the all-genre Billboard 200 and Hot 100 charts simultaneously. Langley’s Choosin’ Texas unseated Taylor Swift’s Opalite to claim its second non-consecutive week atop the singles chart, while Moroney’s album Cloud 9 reached number one thanks to Target exclusive physical editions and strong streaming numbers. “These aren’t flukes or one-off viral hits,” said Leslie Fram, co-founder and CEO of FEMco, a Nashville-based creative consultancy. “Megan Moroney built her base through relentless touring and social buzz. Ella Langley’s incredible song has real staying power and even non-country crossover appeal. Continue reading...

Donald Trump promised that June’s event would bring us some of the greatest fights in history. The truth appears to be rather different When Donald Trump first announced that the White House would host a UFC event to mark the United States’ 250th anniversary, the US president told supporters it would be a “big deal”. Evidence over the last week suggests that, not for the first time, Trump may be exaggerating a little. Trump has promised a spectacle unlike anything the UFC has staged before. “They’re going to have eight or nine championship fights – the biggest fights they’ve ever had,” Trump said in December of plans for the White House event. “Every one is a championship fight, and every one is a legendary type of fight.” Continue reading...

Maga world figures throw weight behind Maryam Rajavi, MEK’s leader, and Reza Pahlavi, the son of last Shah of Iran As a US battle group steamed to the Gulf in November 2002, competing Iraqi exiles, some championed by American insiders, jockeyed for position in the hopes of taking charge once George W Bush toppled Saddam Hussein. Bloomberg dubbed them “Iraq’s unruly opposition”. The most notorious Iraqi exile, failed former banker Ahmad Chalabi, boasted to his neoconservative allies that his return to Baghdad would be welcomed by cheering throngs. Among his competition was a former doctor named Ayad Allawi, who was backed by Britain’s MI6 and the Central Intelligence Agency in his bid for support to rule Iraq. Continue reading...

A different New Orleans judge approved the trip while the actor remains out on bond in Mardi Gras battery case Shia LaBeouf ultimately did get permission to travel to his father’s baptism in Rome, days after the New Orleans courthouse handling the actor’s recent battery arrest initially denied his request to make the trip. LaBeouf, 39, first sought authorization to travel to the Italian capital while out on bond at a court hearing on 26 February, during which state judge Simone Levine ordered him to enroll in substance abuse treatment. A court filing associated with the request said the trip would last from 1 to 8 March and was planned “for religious purposes, including his father’s baptism”. Continue reading...

The philosopher offers a measured and reasonable argument against assisted dying In this admirably clear and cogent book, the philosopher Kathleen Stock sets out the case against state-sanctioned assisted dying. Her immediate objection is to the end of life bill currently before the House of Lords, but her opposition extends to the principle in general. This is a polemic, but a polite one. Stock says she hopes that by the end of it we will share her objection to the ‘‘institutionalisation of death”. It is not a popular place to start. Polls over the past few years consistently show that around three-quarters of Britons are in favour of assisted dying for terminally ill people. But Stock has never been afraid of swimming upstream. In 2021, she resigned from the University of Sussex following protests by some staff and students over her views, set out in the book Material Girls, that sex is binary and immutable and that this, rather than gender identity, should be the basis of laws to protect women. Continue reading...

Kei Ishikawa’s take on Ishiguro’s first published work is frustrating and bland, undermining its fascinating characters’ emotional truths Kazuo Ishiguro has long been a subtle and potent figure in the movies, with his distinctively Anglo-Japanese melancholy. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s adaptation of The Remains of the Day for director James Ivory was a heart-rending study in regret; Alex Garland and Mark Romanek’s treatment of science-fiction novel Never Let Me Go was an excursion into strangeness and sadness and, as a screenwriter himself, Ishiguro’s script for Living, a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru, was a wonderful transformation. But A Pale View of Hills, adapted by Japanese writer-director Kei Ishikawa from Ishiguro’s 1982 debut novel, is somehow frustrating and disappointing. It is a bland, soggy film whose contrived and anticlimactic surprise ending is not delivered with a clear satisfying twist and, for me, undermines our expectations of what we thought we would be told about the emotional truth of the main character and her life story. Continue reading...

Documents filed at Companies House over 2022 deal could complicate row with UK over how money will be used Jersey authorities may be investigating whether cash raised by Roman Abramovich’s 2022 sale of Chelsea FC amounts to the proceeds of crime, according to documents filed at Companies House on Wednesday, potentially complicating a row with the UK government over how the money will be used. Accounts for Fordstam Ltd, the company through which the billionaire Russian oligarch owned Chelsea, show that the proceeds of the sale – currently frozen and gathering interest in a Barclays bank account – has risen to £2.4bn. Continue reading...

Carston Woodhouse, running for Wright in Adelaide’s north, also claimed gender transitioning is an ‘illusion’ Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The South Australian Liberal party is standing by an election candidate who said same-sex marriage is not real, homosexuality can open up “demonic realms” and gender transitioning is an “illusion”. Carston Woodhouse is running for the seat of Wright in Adelaide’s north in the state’s upcoming elections, with early voting beginning on Saturday. Continue reading...

Fifa president posts message after meeting with Trump Iran due to play all three group matches in the US Donald Trump has said Iran are “welcome” to play at the upcoming World Cup, despite the ongoing war in the Middle East, according to Gianni Infantino. Fifa’s president said that during a meeting with Trump to discuss preparations for the competition, “we also spoke about the current situation in Iran”. Continue reading...

The Tehran regime has weaponised geography in retaliation for the attacks by the US and Israel Global oil markets have recorded some of the biggest price swings in history this week after the US-Israeli war with Iran throttled the flow of Middle Eastern crude through the strait of Hormuz. The narrow waterway south of Iran is one of the world’s most important trade arteries, through which a fifth of global oil and seaborne gas is shipped from production facilities and refineries in the Gulf to buyers around the world. Continue reading...

It may not be in pole position, but Brad Pitt and director Joseph Kosinski’s sleek, technically inventive ode to motor racing definitely qualifies for the Academy podium Could, should, would F1 the Movie win the best picture Oscar? Well, we have to be realistic here: F1 is currently a massive outsider, at 200-1 along with The Secret Agent, which has no chance either but for very different reasons. It’s not hard to see why: this is a swaggeringly mainstream film, where tech and branding dwarf the human input, with the film itself acting as a front-end battering ram for a sports organisation desperate to break into the promised land of the US auto racing circuit. (I mean it’s right there in the title.) So even the most reactionary, conservative Academy voter is going to find it hard to mark F1 with their tick. So no, I don’t think it could win. That’s not to say F1 doesn’t have quite a bit going for it. The Oscars, as we know, have historically had a problem with so-called “popular” films; Oppenheimer, in 2024, was the first best picture winner in two decades to finish in the Top 10 box office of the year. Whether or not that is a reflection of Hollywood itself, which since the mid-00s has concentrated its money and marketing into increasingly elaborate FX films to the detriment of drama and performance, is a question expanded on endlessly elsewhere. Suffice to say, F1 is definitely in that league, though not actually Top 10 (14th in the North American list for 2025); its ownership by Apple TV+ may have complicated things, denting its impact as a movie theatre spectacle. Continue reading...

US tour holds upper hand as deal with European counterpart is up for renegotiation, though LIV and its backers will be watching with interest What price a strategic alliance? The golf world might just be about to find out as the PGA Tour considers its partnership with the DP World Tour. A little-known element of the updated deal between the PGA and DP World Tours from 2022 – at a time when LIV disruption was in full flow – relates to a break clause. While the contract in theory runs until 2035, the strategic alliance can end in 2027. There is no present, strong sense of the agreement being curtailed but it is clear the PGA Tour wants at least a renegotiation before taking up their extension option. Continue reading...

Plus: privately-educated players, surviving despite away-day woes; and the trophy-less 1909 Scottish Cup Mail us with your questions and answers “Are the 23 red cards shown in the game between Brazilian clubs Cruzeiro and Atlético Mineiro in the Campeonato Mineiro final a record?” asks Tom Reed. In case you missed it, the Campeonato Mineiro final descended/ascended into a festival of hand-throwing. Cruzeiro won the football match 1-0 and the red card contest 12-11. We had a similar question back in 2002, when the world record was 20 in a Paraguayan league match between Sportivo Ameliano and General Caballero. But modern life is febrile, and that record was obliterated by events in Claypole, Argentina, in February 2011. Don’t take our word for it, read this excerpt from Guinness World Records: The highest reported number of players sent off in a single football match is 36 in the Argentine Primera D game between Club Atlético Claypole and Victoriano Arenas refereed by Damián Rubino (Argentina) at the Estadio Rodolfo Capocasa, Claypole, Argentina, on 27 February 2011. All 18 players on each side (11 on-field players and seven substitutes) were sent off following what the referee described in his post-match report as a ‘Generalised Brawl’ that seemed to have been the result of a series of confrontations and heavy tackles that had taken place throughout the feisty encounter. The game was the 23rd round of matches in the Primera D, the fifth tier of Argentine football, in what was in theory a regulation league match, there was no historic rivalry between the sides. Over the course of a 20-year playing career from 1995 to 2015, Gerardo ‘the Beast’ Bedoya (Colombia) was sent off 46 times. The tough-tackling defender/defensive midfielder earned 49 caps for his national team. On 24 March 2016, Bedoya made his debut as a coach of Colombian side Independiente Santa Fe during their match against Atlético Junior, and was sent off after 21 minutes for berating the officials. Continue reading...

Coach says his club are always favourites as he prepares to cross swords with Manchester City in the Champions League knockout stages for fifth year in a row This is Real Madrid. We know this because Álvaro Arbeloa keeps saying so. At the start of another press conference, his 25th since being promoted from the B team two months ago and the last before facing Manchester City, the club man who became the club manager was reminded of something he had said after beating Monaco. That night, he was told, you claimed that Madrid are always favourites. So, came the inevitable follow-up, the “even” left unsaid but hanging heavy: “Now are you favourites?” There was a familiar look, the hint of a smirk, and a familiar answer too. “If I said Madrid are always favourites, that’s what I think,” Arbeloa replied. “We are Real Madrid. We never feel less than anyone, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of who we have in front of us. We’re Real Madrid, we shouldn’t feel inferior. We know our opponents, how good City are – champions two years ago – and how difficult it will be, but we go into it with enthusiasm, looking them in the eyes.” Continue reading...

The new president won office by promising to clean up crime, but his background is red rag to a bull for many Just south of Santiago, the tiny rural town of Paine is a quiet grid of painted abode facades, shaded squares and shuttered shop fronts as the summer holidays draw to a close. But the white-knuckle fear of crime that propelled its most famous son, José Antonio Kast, to a resounding victory in December’s presidential election is as present in sleepy Paine as it is the length of Chile. Continue reading...