Unlucky in love? Maybe ditch the apps. This new twist on Victorian-era ‘flirtation cards’ could spark your next meet-cute How do romance novelists celebrate love? Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things Tired of swiping, singles are attending flirting parties and even dating-oriented run clubs in hopes of meeting their future partner in real life. But even those lack the romanticism of a true meet-cute. The Brooklyn-based stationery brand No Particular Order is offering a more serendipitous option: its new acquaintance cards that encourage more spontaneous connections. Continue reading...

War shows little sign of easing despite Donald Trump claiming Iranian leadership ‘just asked’ for ceasefire Israel unleashed two waves of attacks on Tehran and said it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander on Wednesday with little sign of the war easing up despite Donald Trump repeating a claim that Iran’s leadership was seeking a ceasefire. The US president, writing on social media, said that Iran’s president had “just asked” for a ceasefire, and that American troops would be “out of Iran pretty quickly”, as he sought to extricate the US from the war. However, he confused the picture by incorrectly describing the president as a “new regime” leader. Continue reading...

British Medical Association leaders say PM’s threat to axe posts makes strike action more likely Resident doctors have accused Keir Starmer of damaging the prospects of a deal to end their pay and jobs dispute by threatening to axe 1,000 new jobs for medics in the NHS. The claim from the British Medical Association leaders came just before the Thursday deadline given by the prime minister for the union to accept the government’s final offer. Continue reading...

Manchester United’s Women’s Champions League journey ended in Germany as Bayern Munich struck with two late goals to propel themselves into the semi-finals, despite a spirited display from the English side. Marc Skinner’s team led on the night for 70 minutes after Melvine Malard’s opener but Bayern built up a heavy spell of pressure in the second half and eventually found a way through United’s dogged resistance, as Glódís Viggósdóttir’s header from a corner and Linda Dallmann’s sweetly struck half-volley gave the runawayBundesliga leaders a 5-3 aggregate victory. Continue reading...

⚽️ Updates from this 8pm BST KO at Stamford Bridge ⚽️ Bayern Munich v Man Utd latest | Email Will Getting warm. Leah Williamson misses out through injury for Arsenal, which is a bit of a blow. Continue reading...

As the world’s attention is drawn to the Middle East, Donald Trump’s assault on Iran has had damaging knock-on consequences for Kyiv After meeting European Union foreign ministers this week, Volodymyr Zelenskyy voiced exasperation over the continued blocking of a €90bn EU loan to Kyiv by Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán. US financial support for Ukraine has dried up under Donald Trump, so the money is desperately required. But as Mr Zelenskyy bitterly observed, it is being delayed “because one person in Europe is standing against all of Europe simply to please Moscow”. Trailing in the polls ahead of an election on 12 April, Mr Orbán is doubling down on attempts to mobilise his nationalist base by fuelling anti-Ukraine and anti-EU sentiment. Allegations also continue to emerge, dismissed by Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, that he has in effect colluded with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to undermine European decision-making during the war. Continue reading...

AI is interpreting journalism without regard for truth. The BBC must build the capacity to ensure its reporting is understood on its own terms Appointing Matt Brittin, a former Google executive, as BBC director general is smarter than critics admit. Although he was on the board of the Guardian’s publisher, Mr Brittin was no journalist. He does understand platforms, scale and digital audiences. Director generals come under scrutiny when crises hit, like this week’s sacking of Scott Mills over his “personal conduct”. It then emerged that police previously questioned the Radio 2 DJ over separate allegations, of serious sexual offences, closing the case due to lack of evidence. But the role’s underlying challenge is facing future threats to the corporation’s audience. Continue reading...

Party, which has neo-Nazi roots, will hold ‘important ministerial posts within immigration’ if four-party coalition wins in September The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has said that he will allow the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) into government for the first time – and give its members key ministerial posts – if his coalition wins the next general election. Despite becoming Sweden’s second biggest political party after the Social Democrats in the last election, SD currently only play a supporting role in the minority-run coalition. Continue reading...

Midfielder failed to impress against Uruguay and Japan ‘He was excellent in camp but struggles on the pitch’ Thomas Tuchel says Phil Foden is not assured of a place in his England squad for the World Cup finals in the summer after watching him struggle in the Wembley friendlies against Uruguay and Japan. The head coach has appeared unconvinced by Foden since taking charge at the beginning of last year but gave him a big opportunity in the starting lineup in each of the games during this past international window. Continue reading...

Follow latest updates, including how to watch the launch, as four astronauts prepare to set off on a 10-day, 685,000-mile journey with millions watching Three of Artemis II’s four crew members are Nasa astronauts and spaceflight veterans extended stays on the international space station (ISS). Commander Reid Wiseman, 50, is a retired US Navy captain from Baltimore, Maryland. He was selected as an astronaut in 2009, spent six months on the ISS from May to November 2014, and is a former chief of Nasa’s astronaut office. Continue reading...

Brutal past experience has taught us that a cost of living crisis doesn’t affect us all the same, because we don’t all go into it with the same income or wealth Perhaps the most celebrated writer on oil markets is Daniel Yergin. His work has won a Pulitzer and his advice sought by every president from Bill Clinton to Donald Trump. Let’s start by looking at an example. Fifteen years ago, before the US and Israel started their war on Iran, killing thousands of civilians in the process, before the strait of Hormuz became as infamous as the Bermuda Triangle, and before experts declared “the greatest global energy security threat in history”, Yergin published The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World. After hearing Trump announce a “very soon” end to the conflict for the second – or was it the third? – time, I dug out my copy. Just as I remembered, it devotes a chapter to the Persian Gulf. Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The rapper was hospitalized in New York City after feeling unwell during her Moulin Rouge performance on Broadway Megan Thee Stallion was taken to the hospital on Tuesday in New York City after feeling unwell during a performance of Moulin Rouge! The Musical on Broadway. A representative for the rapper told Variety that she began “feeling very ill” during the production and that she “was promptly transported to a local hospital” to evaluate her symptoms. Continue reading...

Crown Prosecution Service confirms support on inquiries after arrests on suspicion of misconduct in public office Police are receiving advice from prosecutors as part of their inquiries into Peter Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s links to Jeffrey Epstein. The former duke of York and the former UK ambassador to the US were both arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office over their connections with the late financier. They have since been released under investigation. Continue reading...

Two of the points were measures on energy bills from the autumn budget, another restated the existing energy strategy “We have a five-point plan for the immediate crisis,” declared the prime minister during his remarks from Downing Street on Wednesday. Really? Two of his five points were measures on energy bills that pre-date the Iran war. One was a description of support for a sub-set of consumers but dodged the key question of who else could get help. Another stated the government’s longstanding energy strategy in unchanged terms. The last was a diplomatic policy, presumably shoe-horned into the cost-of-living passage because a five-point plan sounds better than a four-point one. Let’s take them in order. First: “We’re cutting energy bills by over £100 per household today.” That, very obviously, is not a response to “the immediate crisis.” Continue reading...

Distressed riders found themselves stranded for hours as Apollo Go customer service agents offered ‘useless platitudes’ A “system malfunction” has caused several self-driving robotaxis to stall in the middle of the road in China, police have confirmed, after distressed riders found themselves stranded for hours. Local authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan said they began receiving calls “one after another” on Tuesday night from riders reporting that autonomous vehicles operated by Chinese internet company Baidu had frozen. Continue reading...

Slot: ‘Hopefully he can make his legacy more special’ Liverpool’s record signing ‘in a really good place’ The Liverpool head coach Arne Slot believes Mohamed Salah will “leave the club a legend” after announcing his departure at the end of the season. The Egypt international took to social media last week to reveal he had come to an agreement with the club to end the contract he only extended last summer a year early. Continue reading...

Michael O’Leary says UK’s reliance on Kuwait for jet fuel supply amid Iran war exposes it to possible shortages The UK is the most vulnerable country in Europe to potential jet fuel shortages as the Iran war throttles supplies from the Gulf, the boss of Ryanair has said. Michael O’Leary, the chief executive of the budget airline, said Britain would be the most exposed to jet fuel shortages because it relies on Kuwait for about 25% of its supply. Continue reading...

Elon Musk’s rocket company could go public as early as June, Bloomberg reports SpaceX has confidentially filed for an initial public offering on the US stock market, according to reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. The IPO is set to be one of the most closely watched and highly valued listings in market history. Elon Musk’s company, which has become a dominant power in both space travel and satellite communications, could potentially seek a valuation upwards of $1.75tn. The confidential filing will give regulators a period to review and discuss the company’s financial disclosures before investors and the public are able to view them. Continue reading...

Drummer with Pentangle, the folk-rock group who found fame in the 1960s with their fusion of jazz, blues and traditional songs On 27 May 1967, a bravely original band called Pentangle made their first major appearance, at the Royal Festival Hall in London. They were not a typical folk group, although they included the folk scene’s acoustic guitar heroes Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, along with the singer Jacqui McShee. But they were not a typical jazz band either, despite playing lengthy improvisations and including the jazz and blues exponents Danny Thompson on bass and Terry Cox on drums. Instead, they presented a subtle and often complex fusion of jazz, traditional styles, new songs and blues. Continue reading...

Readers respond to an article about people whose lives were wrecked by delusional thinking after they used AI tools Your coverage of AI-associated delusions exposes a gap that training-level guardrails cannot close (Marriage over, €100,000 down the drain: the AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion, 26 March). As someone who has worked in health systems across fragile and low-income contexts, I find it striking that AI companies have failed to adopt a safeguard that even the most underresourced clinic in the world already uses: screening patients before exposing them to risk. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 for depression and the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale are administered daily in settings with no electricity, limited staff, and patients who may never have seen a doctor. These tools take minutes. They are validated across dozens of languages and cultural contexts. They create a human checkpoint between vulnerability and harm. Continue reading...

Anthony Lawton and Dr Felicity Mellor on the importance of humans who design systems and execute decisions taking responsibility for them Your article on the Iran school bombing rightly challenges the reflex to blame artificial intelligence (AI got the blame for the Iran school bombing. The truth is far more worrying, 26 March). However, the deeper problem lies not in the technology but in the language now forming around it. To say that there was an “AI error” quietly removes the human subject from the sentence. Where once civilians were “dehoused” or “collateral damage”, responsibility is now displaced altogether: from people to systems. This matters because moral accountability depends on clarity about who acts. However complex the chain of analysis and command, it remains human beings who design, authorise and execute these decisions. To obscure that fact is not a technical error but a civic one. Continue reading...

The creatures should not be kept or treated as pets, however tame or familiar they may appear, says Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital As a specialist wildlife hospital, we would like to gently remind readers that hedgehogs are wild animals and should not be kept or treated as pets, however tame or familiar they may appear (The pet I’ll never forget: Harriet, the hedgehog in my airing cupboard, 23 March). Healthy hedgehogs are best left in the wild, where they can behave naturally and remain independent. If you find a hedgehog that is clearly injured, unwell, orphaned, or active during the day and appearing to be in difficulty, it is important to contact a wildlife hospital for advice as soon as possible. Continue reading...

Dr Mussaddaq Iqbal responds to the news that the prime minister has warned medics to call off their strike or lose a training offer While I totally disapprove, as I did last time, of the doctors’ strike but completely support their demands and grievances, it is the prime minister’s response which has made me write this letter (Keir Starmer gives resident doctors 48 hours to call off strike or lose training offer, 31 March). His threat of not creating extra training posts is shocking, inappropriate and impulsive. Though on the face of it it sounds like an innocuous response showing irritation, it is probably the most convincing evidence so far of his unfitness to govern among the litany of his other missteps. It has laid bare his government’s lack of strategy and lack of sincerity. Does he understand that, by not creating training posts, he is not only going to harm doctors’ careers, spoil thousands of young doctors’ lives and deter others from adopting this noble and vital profession, but also harm the NHS, and thus patient care? The NHS is desperately understaffed. This shows that he never had any plan to increase the number of posts and it was agreed under pressure. He is clearly not a statesman, and if he is only capable of responding in this childlike manner, he could have threatened to freeze their pay or any such lowly response, but not one that is harmful. Continue reading...

More than 100 of the Baidu driverless vehicles stopped running because of a system malfunction Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction”, police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. Continue reading...

Roberto Baggio proposed an overhaul of talent pathway in 2011 but it was never acted on and the national team’s approach now is just not working The decline of Italy’s footballing expectations can be read in the headlines that greeted their third consecutive failure to qualify for a men’s World Cup. When the Azzurri lost their playoff against Sweden in November 2017, La Gazzetta dello Sport defined it as “The End” and an “Apocalypse”. After defeat by North Macedonia in 2022, Il Corriere dello Sport saw a country sinking “Into Hell”. On Wednesday both newspapers led coverage of elimination by Bosnia and Herzegovina with a simpler, perhaps sadder, “Tutti A Casa” – Everybody Go Home. What else is there left to say? Italians understood long ago that 2018 was not some aberration but the continuation of a trend, their team having failed to reach the tournament’s knockout stage in 2010 or 2014. Continue reading...