Guardian journalist among those to get surprise request, though Farage denies party are ‘begging’ people to stand UK politics live – latest updates Reform UK has been cold calling people asking them to become “paper” candidates for the party at the local elections, as parties dash to sign up enough names before Thursday’s deadline. Nigel Farage’s party has been ringing members of the public asking them to stand despite apparently knowing very little about them except that they have signed up for Reform’s email updates. Continue reading...

Decision to cap rate at 6% from September is unlikely to defuse row over crippling cost of debt Full story: UK caps interest rate on student loans The government has announced a small concession for millions of university graduates with “plan 2” student loans. However, the decision to cap the interest rate charged at 6% from September is unlikely to defuse the row over the crippling cost of degree course debts. Continue reading...

In a patch of desert in Isfahan province, personnel clear the site where just hours earlier two C-130 planes and two helicopters were destroyed Middle East crisis – live updates The small farming community of Parzan near the city of Shahreza in Iran’s Isfahan province had been largely spared from the US-Israeli war now in its second month – until several US aircraft landed on a dirt airstrip near their village. The site of the destroyed aircraft in Isfahan province Continue reading...

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The sleeper hit film has been transformed into a Disney stage show. But does it let exploitative huckster PT Barnum off the hook? We go behind the scenes of its launch run in Bristol ‘Ladies and gents, this is the moment you’ve waited for!” Nine years after Hugh Jackman first purred those opening words, silhouetted against a foot-stomping crowd, the inevitable has happened: The Greatest Showman is now a Disney stage musical. Despite derisive reviews, the 2017 film was a sleeper hit, powered by an anthem-packed soundtrack that included the Oscar-nominated paean to self-realisation and resilience This Is Me. It seemed written in the stars that those bangers would be rolled out in a live circus-theatre spectacular, and the production adds new songs by the original composers, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, whose musical Dear Evan Hansen made the opposite (but ill-fated) journey, from stage to screen. Rather than launching in London or on Broadway as might be expected, The Greatest Showman is premiering in Bristol with an eight-week, sold-out run treated as a tryout. Its future is unconfirmed but it is worth noting that Theatre Royal Drury Lane, former London home to the mighty Frozen, will soon be vacant because Disney’s Hercules is closing in September. Continue reading...

Scientist who established productive growth of HIV in an immortalised cell line, which led to the development of the UK’s first antibody test for the virus The virologist Robin Weiss, who has died aged 86, was the outstanding scientist of the UK’s response to the Aids pandemic. In 1984 he led the team that identified the CD4 molecule as the cellular receptor for HIV, the causative virus of Aids. Subsequently he established productive growth of HIV in an immortalised cell line, and this allowed the development, with Richard Tedder, of the UK’s first antibody test for HIV, later commercialised by the Wellcome Foundation. Critically, this test allowed HIV-infected people to be identified accurately and at scale. Robin was the first to demonstrate antibody neutralisation of HIV, a fundamental basis to vaccine development. These major scientific advances were all achieved while Robin was the youngest-ever director (1980-89) of the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London. Continue reading...

As global row intensifies, Reform UK has said it would not issue visas for people from any country seeking reparations The rightwing Reform UK party has said it would stop issuing visas to people from any country that seeks reparations for the transatlantic trafficking and enslavement of Africans, at a time when the global battle for reparative justice is intensifying. Reform’s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, this week claimed the UK was being “ridiculed on the world stage” and said the “bank is closed” to anyone who wanted to “use history as a weapon to drain our Treasury”. Continue reading...

The Whole New World composer who soundtracked millennial childhoods and won eight Oscars looks back on a stellar career Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email In early 1991, the composer Alan Menken took a keyboard to St Vincent’s hospital in New York to visit his friend and creative partner, the lyricist Howard Ashman. Ashman was in the final stages of Aids-related illness, but was determined to finish his work on Disney’s Aladdin. Together, they knocked out the music and lyrics for Prince Ali – one of the movie’s most joyous numbers – as Ashman lay in bed. Menken and Ashman had already collaborated on Disney’s hit 1989 animated musical The Little Mermaid; in the winter of 1991, they were putting the finishing touches on Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast simultaneously. Ashman was “fighting for his life” while they were working on all three, Menken recalls from his home studio in upstate New York. At first, he had no idea his friend was sick, let alone battling HIV; Ashman only revealed his diagnosis after they won the Oscar for best original song for Under the Sea in 1990. Continue reading...

The period drama set in feudal Japan is an epic of divine proportion, tackling grand questions of faith and colonisation with remarkable fervour Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email The year is 1640. Sebastião Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) arrives in Japan with fellow Jesuit missionary Francisco Garupe (Adam Driver) to search for their missing mentor, Cristóvão Ferreira (Liam Neeson). There, Rodrigues witnesses how “Kirishitans” – historical Japanese Catholics – must practise their faith in secret because their religion is heresy in Edo-period Japan. As he observes how the Japanese belief differs from his teachings, Rodrigues begins to question his faith. Despite praying ceaselessly, Rodrigues does not hear back from God. Silence, one of Martin Scorsese’s passion projects, was released in 2016 after nearly three decades in development. Scorsese’s dedication mirrors the spiritual journey of his protagonist. Continue reading...

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A new book by Molly Crabapple documents the rise and fall of a revolutionary Jewish party that fought against Zionism and for ‘solidarity across difference’ There is perhaps no more vivid illustration of the moral nadir Israel has reached than the Knesset’s passage, two days before Passover, of a death penalty law that applies only to Palestinians. The measure, whose approval was greeted with tears of joy and the popping of champagne in the legislative chamber, is a concise legal expression of the core animating idea of modern Israel: that there exists no humane obligation in Jewish tradition with a durable universal ambit. The notion that Jews should have a special concern for the fate of all humanity, regardless of ethnicity or creed, lies dead beneath the rubble in Gaza. It had to be killed, however, because there was a time when it lived. Cosmopolitanism over nationalism, social democracy over rapacious capitalism, collective liberation over ethno-chauvinist fortress-building – these were the values that animated the Jewish Labour Bund, a revolutionary party founded in 1897 in the Tsarist empire. “For leftist Jews longing for resources within our own past for combating the Zionist death cult,” as author, activist and artist Molly Crabapple puts it, “the Bund is a model.” A model with an audience – Crabapple’s new history of the Bund was already in its second printing the week before it came out. Continue reading...

The tour brings in maternity wildcard and parental leave, with surfers saying it is a ‘huge step in the right direction’ and ‘so sick’ for the sport This year’s Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach has felt different for Connor O’Leary. After almost a decade on tour, this is the Australian Japanese surfer’s first World Surf League campaign with a baby in tow. Romii-Sakura O’Leary, who will celebrate her first birthday this month, is one of a growing number of children hanging out in the competitor’s area. “I was watching her crawling around the competition site yesterday,” O’Leary says midway through the Pro, the opening event of the 2026 WSL calendar. “Seeing her crawling around, playing with Kelly [Slater], Steph [Gilmore] was grabbing her, it makes you appreciate the life that we live.” Continue reading...

IMF head warns Middle East war will lead to higher inflation and slower global growth while IEA director says oil and gas crisis ‘more serious than the ones in 1973, ​1979 and 2022 together’ Brent crude has now fallen 1.8% to $107.86 a barrel. “For now, the absence of a clear path forward is keeping markets volatile and indecisive,” said Daniela Hathorrn, senior market analyst at Capital.com. Markets are once again on edge as the US–Iran conflict enters a critical phase, with investors effectively trading against another countdown clock set by the Trump administration. The situation has evolved into a near-term binary outcome: either escalation through direct strikes on Iranian infrastructure, or a last-minute de-escalation that could trigger a sharp reversal in risk assets. Recent developments suggest that tensions remain high. Despite intermittent headlines hinting at negotiations or potential off-ramps, rhetoric from Washington has remained aggressive, while Iran continues to hold firm on its position, particularly around control of the strait of Hormuz. That chokepoint remains the central issue in the conflict, and neither side appears willing to concede easily. While escalation would be damaging for both, the strategic incentives are misaligned: the US is trying to restore stability and energy flows, while Iran is leveraging disruption as a deterrent. That dynamic keeps the risk of further escalation elevated. Investors realise that recession is once again on the table. The attacks on energy infrastructure and disruptions to shipping in the Persian Gulf are weighing even more heavily on people’s minds than they did four weeks ago. Continue reading...

Former footballer denies assault in north-west England Barton to remain in custody with trial set for 1 September Joey Barton has denied assaulting a man outside a golf club in north-west England. The 43-year-old former Manchester City and Newcastle midfielder appeared via video link from Liverpool prison for the plea hearing at Liverpool crown court. He pleaded not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Kevin Lynch on 8 March. Barton’s co-defendant, Gary O’Grady, was not asked to enter a plea to the charge on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Former captain spent past two seasons at Brive Alex Sanderson: ‘He’s still got the ability’ Courtney Lawes has been backed to regain his England place following confirmation he will be joining Sale Sharks this summer on a one-year deal. The former national captain has spent the last two seasons with Brive in France’s ProD2 but has indicated he would love to play international rugby again should the chance arise. While Lawes will be 38 next February and retired from the Test arena after the 2023 World Cup in France, he still feels he can make an impact at the top level of the game. That view is shared by Sale’s director of rugby, Alex Sanderson, who is much looking forward to welcoming the former Northampton stalwart to Manchester. Continue reading...

Union rejected 4.9% pay rise for resident doctors, who are on six-day strike, but its own staff were offered 2.75% The British Medical Association has been accused of the “height of hypocrisy” for offering its own staff below-inflation pay rises while demanding a 26% pay rise for resident doctors. Tens of thousands of medics walked out of the NHS in England on Tuesday, the 15th time they have staged industrial action since March 2023 in their campaign for “full pay restoration”. Continue reading...

Some of the young Americans swept up in the movement are looking for the meaning of life; others for a new partner. Well, it’s a broad church … Name: Catholicmaxxing. Age: Less than a year. Continue reading...

Nasa astronauts begin journey home having collected eagerly awaited photographs of impact craters and ridges Nasa’s Artemis II astronauts have described the powerful emotion felt when soaring over the moon as they photographed impact craters, cracks and ridges and began their long journey home. Among the eagerly awaited images captured by the crew, who worked in pairs at the Orion capsule windows, are those of the Earth rising from behind the moon, a solar eclipse and parts of the 590-mile (950km) wide Orientale impact basin that have never been observed with the naked eye. Continue reading...

Attacks on Iran increase and Israel tells Iranians to avoid train travel as deadline to reopen strait of Hormuz looms Middle East crisis – live updates Donald Trump warned that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Tehran does not accept his demands, amid a wave of bombing as Israel told Iranians their lives would be at risk if they used the country’s railways. A rail bridge in the central Iranian city of Kashan was one of the first reported bombed on Tuesday by Iranian state media, with two people reportedly killed as Israel’s military said it had launched “a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting dozens of infrastructure sites”. Continue reading...

Rosedale residents considering car licence plate-scanning Flock system in bid to tackle property crime A row has broken out in one of Canada’s wealthiest neighbourhoods over plans to use an AI-powered surveillance system to create the country’s first “virtual gated community” to combat surging property crime. Crime rates in Toronto as a whole are dropping, but residents of Rosedale have been left on edge by a sustained rise in home invasions, with robbers targeting the tree-lined neighbourhood at a rate more than double the city average. Break-ins and theft remain the third highest per capita in Toronto. Continue reading...

Analysis shows they are reliant on market investors such as hedge funds, which contributed $4tn last year Business live – latest updates Emerging economies are at greater risk of higher interest rates and currency shocks as a result of the Iran war because of increased reliance on market investors such as hedge funds, the International Monetary Fund has warned. The IMF’s analysis shows that a cumulative $4tn flowed into emerging markets last year from outside the formal banking sector – including from hedge funds and investment funds. Continue reading...

From bouclé and bomber to quilted, suede and multiwear, our jacket edit will lift the mood – and have you ready for the most changeable of seasons • The best women’s spring wardrobe updates for under £100 Spring is the most confusing season when it comes to fashion. Mornings can be grey and drizzly, but come the afternoon, the sun may be shining like it’s August. A trusty spring jacket will help you navigate the forecast and the transition into the warmer months. The perfect spring jacket is lighter in weight and often softer in colour than a winter one. Taking inspiration from the flowers, greenery and lush landscapes these months bring is a great way to add joy to your everyday. A pastel-coloured jacket can instantly make your outfit feel more seasonally appropriate, too. Leaving behind the warm embrace of your puffer isn’t easy, and I love a classic black coat, but neither seems fitting on a bright April morning. Continue reading...

The standup is taking their club night to new heights with an all-day extravaganza. They talk about new talent, learning to laugh in hard times and ‘performative activism’ Kemah Bob’s face lights up when they tell me about their “passion project that has got really out of hand”. In 2018, the Texan standup created FOC It Up, a comedy club for femmes of colour, after wanting to work with more people of colour “that weren’t dudes”. “It really was that simple,” they grin. Starting as an hour-long slot within a festival run by the cabaret company The Cocoa Butter Club, it has grown into a nurturing space for many comedians: they’ve hosted countless mixed-bill comedy nights, launched a podcast and taken shows to the Edinburgh fringe. “I wanted to have a space that felt different – warm and inclusive,” says Bob. “Not in a performative way. In the way that’s like: they’re all here, and that’s really cool.” Not one to stand still, Bob is preparing for the club’s biggest event yet – a full day of workshops, masterclasses and networking opportunities, finishing with a “banging” comedy show at Soho theatre. Bob laughs when announcing the event’s name: “FOC Fest! It is just so cheeky.” Continue reading...

Astronauts had a call with the US president from space after setting record for the farthest-traveled humans from Earth The crew of Artemis II phoned home from the moon on Monday night after their record-breaking day, to find Donald Trump musing about how he had saved the US space agency Nasa from closing down and telling the astronauts how much they deserved the honor of the president seeking their autographs. The intermittently uncomfortable 12-minute Earth to space call, facilitated by Nasa administrator and Trump acolyte Jared Isaacman, featured a lengthy period of silence, several references by the president about his friendship with the retired Canadian ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky, and how “America is the hottest country in the world right now”. Continue reading...

When the singer-songwriter and Sufjan Stevens collaborator became gravely ill, he had to learn to walk, talk, hear, play and sing again. Music – and a love of antique instrumentation – helped him rebuild On Halloween 2022, Angelo De Augustine was at home in Los Angeles when he suddenly collapsed. “I got all these strange sensations and knew something was very wrong,” says the 33-year old singer-songwriter. “Then I lost control of my body.” Luckily, he had family around who were able to rush him to hospital, where he was put through days of exhausting tests. “I was conscious most of the time unfortunately,” he says drily, “but I don’t remember a whole lot about it other than I couldn’t hear, I couldn’t see well and I couldn’t really move.” Despite countless explorations, doctors were unable to offer a concrete diagnosis, and eventually sent him home. “They said, ‘Come back if you go completely deaf or blind.’” Reeling and semi-incapacitated, De Augustine had just one thought: to finish Toil and Trouble, the album he had been making for the preceding year. “Nobody was helping and I didn’t think I would survive the illness,” he admits. “I couldn’t do basic tasks like lift things, but I’d worked so hard I didn’t want to leave it incomplete. As far as I was concerned, I wanted to get it finished and then thought I was probably gonna die.” Continue reading...