The premise of this novel about a ballet dancer who baits love scammers into conversation is great – but the story feels overwritten and underfelt Martina Hefter’s Hey, Good Morning, How Are You? has caused much argument in German literary circles. It won the country’s most influential fiction award in 2024, and quickly sold 80,000 copies. But critics were divided: Die Zeit compared the book’s seductive power to the love scammers it depicts, while Deutschlandfunk Kultur criticised its shallow characters and monotonous dialogue. I was instantly drawn in by the premise: a feisty middle-aged dancer trolling romance scammers, only to connect with a Nigerian man on the other end of the phone. Juno is a ballet dancer whose obsessions with ageing, death and her body have crippled her personality. With her career waning and most of her time spent caring for her ailing husband, Jupiter, she yearns for meaning. But she’s depressed, full of unexamined anger and guilt. Everywhere, through her scathing lens, she sees decay and deception. Unable to sleep, she baits love scammers into conversation. “Go ahead and write to women who are dumb enough to fall for that,” she thinks. “The main thing is that I have a counterpart.” Continue reading...

This entertaining profile of Paul Di’Anno – the heavy metal band’s lead vocalist from 1978 to 1981 – is dragged down by its subject’s irascible nature This respectful but (to its credit) not entirely reverential documentary profiles Paul Di’Anno (born Paul Andrews in 1958), the lead singer of heavy metal act Iron Maiden between 1978 and 1981. Fans of the band, and rock historians, will know that, while there are plenty of admirers of Di’Anno’s work in concert and on the first two Iron Maiden albums, the group went supersonic only after they parted ways with him. Their breakthrough album, The Number of the Beast, had Bruce Dickinson on lead vocals, so that sort of makes Di’Anno the Stuart Sutcliffe or Pete Best of Maiden lore, although the group have cycled through so many musicians and collaborators over the years comparison with the Beatles doesn’t map neatly. Either way, archive footage of the once studly looking Di’Anno in his prime, belting his heart out with a pleasingly gravelly voice that shaded more towards punk than classic metal crooning, is entertaining, even for total Maiden newbies. Nevertheless, you can see why he didn’t go all the way because, as viewers get to know him through the original footage shot for this film, it becomes clear that Di’Anno could often be an obstreperous, difficult-to-love character. Continue reading...

Highlights of this year’s international photography festival in Kyoto include Linder Sterling’s exclamatory collages, a retrospective of groundbreaking Daido Moriyama and a journey though apartheid South Africa with Ernest Cole Kyotographie is Japan’s foremost festival of international photography. Held each spring since 2013, each edition has a different theme – and this year it is “Edge”. It is a broad enough theme to allow for some freedom in the curation while evoking a sense of tension across the 14 exhibitions in the main Kyotographie festival. An untitled image by Daido Moriyama that exemplifies his use of are-bure-boke. © Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation Continue reading...

Former deputy PM has walked a line between loyalty and interventionism since resigning last September It is nearly eight months since Angela Rayner quit the cabinet because of her tax arrangements, but some might argue her influence on the government has not gone away. And soon she might return, whether as Keir Starmer’s saviour or, perhaps, his usurper. There is increasing speculation that the prime minister could carry out a small-scale reshuffle, primarily to bring back Rayner, his former deputy and one of Labour’s political heavyweights. Continue reading...

Several European countries, including Sweden, covered Auction outcome will be welcomed by clubs and leagues Disney+ has secured live rights for men’s Champions League matches for the first time, with Uefa attracting a new buyer in the auction of broadcast packages for its flagship club competition. Disney has been named as the preferred bidder in several European countries, one of which is understood to be Sweden, in the auction of 19 TV markets for the 2027-31 cycle that concluded this week. Continue reading...

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is formidable in Netflix’s take on the thriller novel Denzel Washington turned into a noughties action movie. But it’s a great lesson in why shows don’t normally have a glum high-octane hero Who doesn’t love a thriller in which a lone wolf takes down an all-powerful criminal network? Jack Reacher, Ethan Hunt, whatsisname from The Night Agent – however adverse the circumstances, these capable chaps will prevail. Hand-to-hand combat against a highly trained ninja henchman? No problem. Breaking into a phenomenally secure facility, stealing the valuable thing, then striding out again? Easy. Defeating a warehouse full of men with Kalashnikovs, armed only with sunglasses and string, all while rescuing a screaming female civilian? All in a day’s work. These yarns are healthy, silly fun and we enjoy them. But, Netflix’s new six-parter Man on Fire asks, what if we kept the core idea but made it less silly and fun, more sad and serious? Wouldn’t that be even better? Well, it seems it wouldn’t be a complete disaster, but in this case it makes life more difficult for everyone, the viewer included. Continue reading...

The earnings from the tournament in the US, Mexico and Canada will make it the most lucrative competition in the history of sport, even if some of the 48 competing countries say they are struggling to make ends meet A World Cup that Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, billed at the draw last December as “the greatest event that humanity has ever seen” will certainly be the most lucrative competition in sporting history. Fifa has spent the last few years upgrading its revenue projections, with the most recent financial report stating that the world governing body will make $13bn (£9.6bn) from the four-year cycle culminating in this summer’s tournament, almost $9bn of which will be brought in this year. Continue reading...

John Terry’s journey into the internet pipeline is by no means an isolated case – what makes footballers so susceptible? And so we ask ourselves: how did it come to this? Did we miss the signs? Were there red flags that went unheeded, cries for help that fell on closed ears, forks in the road not taken? Or ultimately, for all our best efforts, was it always going to end like this? Is it, in fact, possible that John Terry was a far-right sympathiser all along? Yes, it’s been a chastening week for those who have been fighting Terry’s corner for more than a decade. Who steadfastly defended him against the racism charges, who accepted his explanation that he was simply repeating what Anton Ferdinand had been saying to him, who turned up at his trial in full kit, who lamented his failure to land the coaching jobs he so coveted, who right to the end just wanted to believe. Continue reading...

There is no such thing as the Bond Dealers party, but there might as well be – the people who trade in UK debt exert a stranglehold over our politics The days of two-party politics are over. When voters go to the polls in England next week, they will have five main contenders to choose from. In Scotland and Wales, the nationalists make it a six-strong race. This fragmentation reflects the deep discontent with Labour and the Conservatives. One thing in common between the Greens and Reform UK is that they are each benefiting from a sense that radical parties are worth a punt because nothing could be worse than it is now. Larry Elliott is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The sport should seriously be asking itself whether this should be replicated in Test cricket after some notable problems with the new regulations Lancashire are not the most popular county at the moment. From next week the live-streamed coverage of their matches at Old Trafford will go behind a paywall – free to members, £20 a season if not. And so the thrill of Jimmy Anderson bowling from the end that bears his name will play out to a smaller audience. Although beyond this, or the broader sadness at Old Trafford becoming a dystopian hotel-cum-events space where the first team feels secondary, there seems to be widespread agreement that the Red Rose have been hard done by of late: namely, in the ongoing trial of injury replacements in English cricket. Continue reading...

Before Nottingham Forest face Aston Villa in the Europa League, we look at seven other all-English semi-final clashes in Europe There can be few more enjoyable feelings for an away player than to silence Anfield. Billy Bremner did so in the first leg of this tie when he headed home unmarked to score what turned out to be the only goal across 180 minutes of action. John Toshack tried to respond but his shot was blocked on the line as Leeds’ fearsome defence defied Liverpool. “If you miss chances like we did, you do not deserve to win,” Bill Shankly said. The clubs were at the top of their game under Shankly and Don Revie and Liverpool had defeated Leeds in the 1965 FA Cup final after extra time, creating a heated rivalry. Bremner had struggled badly with injury in the 1970-71 season and was made to prove his fitness in a friendly against Bradford the day before the match at Anfield, something modern sports scientists would not suggest but which clearly worked. He was recalled to the lineup and ignited Leeds’ charge to winning the trophy. They beat Juventus on away goals in the final. Continue reading...

Tender by Dave Harris follows the male strippers at the failing Dancing Bears Club. Its playwright and stars discuss sex, power and their research trip to Magic Mike Live When the LA wildfires burned last year, playwright Dave Harris watched as everyone’s “crisis personalities” emerged. “Mine,” he recalls, “was that I was incredibly horny.” During that period, when the power was out and he could see flames in two directions, he busied himself with three activities: “Having a lot of sex with my girlfriend, cooking all the food in our fridge, and finishing this play.” Set in a failing strip club where nothing is off limits, Tender is as preoccupied with sex as its creator is. “I have always been obsessed with sex,” Harris says, “since before I knew what it was. The four places I feel the most myself are writing, sex, cooking and dancing.” His character descriptions dictate that all four performers for this show need to be astonishingly good looking: young hot, dad hot, arrogant hot, and inaccessibly beautiful. “We’re really just trying to gird everyone’s loins,” Harris laughs. Continue reading...

Carol thinks Scandinavian-style sandwiches are unwieldy and messy, while Lucas wants to get the most from his fillings. You decide who’s the bread winner • Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror Food should not fall out while you eat a sandwich, and your hands shouldn’t be sticky with sauce Two slices of bread feels a bit excessive. It’s too much bread compared with the filling Continue reading...

The Gloucestershire-based troupe, created 26 years ago by the late Nell Gifford and her husband Toti, is back with a new performance blending traditional skills with cutting-edge theatrics … and the dreaded Wheel of Death ‘Everything you see has been built by us,” Toti Gifford informs me with a sweep of his arms. I’m being shown around Fennells Farm in Gloucestershire, home to the much-loved Giffords Circus since 2014, with the company deep in rehearsals for its latest production, Waterfield. There’s an awful lot to see. The landscape is green and lush and scattered with livestock, with the site still functioning as a farm and brewery. The company headquarters sits inside a huge repurposed cattle shed and the farm is peppered with makeshift barns, all built by hand and rammed with props, paints and all manner of circus mementoes and mysteries (including, quite brilliantly, a human cannonball). There’s a new winter venue and a restaurant and hotel under construction, with both scheduled to open over the next few years – the dreaded planning permission pending. The area surrounding the famous circus tent, topped with twinkling lights, has also been spruced up. Sick of wading through mud whenever it rained, Toti Gifford – who also runs a successful landscaping business – decided to dig up the field and replace it entirely with pebbles. Continue reading...

Brent crude jumps another 7% to highest since March 2022 on report US is considering military options against Iran Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. The Bank of England is expected to keep interest rates on hold at noon, as policymakers assess the economic fallout from the Iran war. Economists will be looking for any clues on future rate policy in the statement and the subsequent press conference. The nine-member rate-setting panel, led by central bank governor Andrew Bailey, could hint at rate hikes in the months ahead if the conflict in the Middle East — where a shaky ceasefire is in place — drives inflation higher. For now, the monetary policy committee is expected to keep the bank’s main rate at 3.75%, while one or two members could vote for a quarter-point hike as a premptive move to ward off higher inflation. Before the US and Israel began their attacks on Iran on 28 February, the central bank had been expected to cut borrowing costs this year, as inflation was predicted to fall back toward its 2% target during the spring. The war has since upended the bank’s predictions. Sandra Horsfield, an economist at Investec, said the “repercussions of the conflict are still keenly felt and uncertainty about how the situation could evolve also remains high”. Continue reading...

This portrait of everyday life in an Istanbul neighbourhood buffeted by change has far wider relevance Thankfully, the attack left only black eyes and bloodied faces. It was in Karagümrük, a tough neighbourhood in Istanbul’s old city, once known for mafia types and Turks on the hard right. But, as Suzy Hansen explains, it had been transformed by an influx of Syrian refugees – until the locals apparently decided they’d had enough, and came for them with sticks, baseball bats and knives for carving doner kebab. So begins From Life Itself, in which Hansen traces a story that illuminates a politics of mass migration and nationalist backlash that has resonances far beyond Turkey. It is a more ambitious book than that, too. An American who lived in Istanbul and visited Karagümrük for more than a decade – during which Turkey’s enfeebled democracy came under ever more sustained assault – she hoped to convey “how ordinary people experience authoritarianism in the 21st century – how our era feels”. Continue reading...

Fadi Saqr is accused of mass killings of civilians in Tadamon, Damascus, where people say he must face justice A Syrian rights commission is preparing a case accusing Fadi Saqr, a militia leader within the Assad regime, of involvement in crimes against humanity and war crimes, a senior Syrian official has told the Guardian. Saqr is a former commander of the National Defence Forces (NDF) militia and is widely accused of involvement in the mass killing and forcible disappearance of civilians in the Tadamon neighbourhood of Damascus, as well as other parts of the Syrian capital. Continue reading...

Polling puts Reform, led in Scotland by former peer Malcolm Offord, neck and neck with Labour for second place Reform UK represents an acute threat to Scottish self government, John Swinney has warned, adding that nationalist victories in Scotland and Wales in May could “irrevocably change” the dynamics of constitutional debate across the UK. While the Scottish National party enjoys a comfortable polling lead ahead of the Holyrood elections next Thursday, recent polling has put Reform, led in Scotland by the millionaire and former Conservative peer Malcolm Offord, neck and neck with Scottish Labour for second place. Continue reading...

The natural world is the headliner at these joyous gatherings, while the support acts include live music, immersive art and fire ceremonies Winner of the UK’s best micro-festival in 2025, Between the Trees returns to Candleston Woods in the spectacular Merthyr Mawr national nature reserve (between Cardiff and Swansea) this year. Designed to reconnect people to the natural world, the programme features science and nature activities, folk music and storytelling. Workshops in the Eco Hub include micrographia sessions – exploring the world of insects on the reserve – and nature crafts. The Seren area has plenty of new talks and walks on offer, including stories of Welsh witches and forage-and-taste outings. With camping spots next to a wild beach and huge dunes, the site itself will ignite plenty of awe. 27-30 August, weekend tickets £195 adults, £50 children, betweenthetrees.co.uk Continue reading...

A writer’s retreat to the remote Irish hotel in which his parents spent their honeymoon brings him face-to-face with all manner of creepy goings-on in a gruesome and eccentric black-comic shocker Adam Scott has an unexpectedly dark, unsympathetic character to play in this black-comic supernatural horror which thumps you with some pretty efficient jump scares. He plays Ohm, a successful American writer brooding over the brutally nihilistic ending to his latest novel; he is also lonely, sliding into alcoholism and clearly agonised by some unacknowledged pain in his personal life. Ohm decides the time is right to take the ashes of his dead parents – which he has kept for years – and scatter them in the one place he knows they were happy, and where he perhaps hopes to siphon off some postdated happiness for himself. This is a run-down hotel in remote, rural Ireland where his mum and dad spent their honeymoon. Arriving in this picturesque but faintly disturbing place, where he is the only guest, Ohm is baffled and shocked by the sight of a dead goat in the car park; it turns out it had to be culled because it was climbing up on the guest’s vehicles to look at its reflection in the paintwork. Ohm is entirely obnoxious to the hotel staff as well as to Fiona (Florence Ordesh) who works behind the bar; she is indifferent to his celebrity, but senses how unhappy he is. Ohm wonders if his mum and dad actually stayed in the hotel’s quaint “honeymoon suite”, but this is boarded up; the reason for this, he is given to understand, is that a 400-year-old witch is held captive there. Continue reading...

From golf tournaments to shooting parties, these images of photographer Will Vogt’s social circle offer us an intimate glimpse of a world that feels out of reach Continue reading...

WPP accused of breaching its climate policy after report reveals firm linked to twice as much oil advertising as US rivals A British advertising conglomerate has helped the oil companies ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP spend an estimated $1.5bn (£1.1bn) on adverts in the US since the 2015 Paris agreement to tackle the climate crisis, a report shows. London-based WPP was the leading advertising group serving the US’s oil industry over the past decade, according to analysis by the climate investigations platform DeSmog. The figure is nearly twice the respective amounts linked to its US rivals Omnicom and Interpublic Group (IPG), which merged in November. Continue reading...

Small top-tier Android is great to use, being fast, AI-loaded and with reasonable battery life, but falls short of rivals on camera Samsung’s compact flagship phone hasn’t changed much in a year, but the S26 is still one of the best smaller handsets available as rivals grow larger and larger. The S26 is the cheapest and smallest of this year’s top Samsungs, dwarfed by the top-of-the-line S26 Ultra in size and price. But like everything with a memory chip at the moment, the S26 has increased in price by £80 or the equivalent to £879 (€949/$899/A$1,349). At least it has double the starting storage. Continue reading...

Taiwanese officials have accused firms in China of attempting to evade import restrictions by rerouting vegetables through neighbouring Vietnam Taipei has accused China of smuggling vegetables into Taiwan via Vietnam in a bid to evade import restrictions, with officials vowing to crack down on a practice they say amounts to “origin washing”. Taiwan, which bans the importation of more than 1,000 Chinese agricultural and fishery products, said firms in China were evading restrictions by rerouting vegetables like Napa cabbage and shiitake mushrooms through neighbouring Vietnam. Continue reading...

What’s not to love about Izuka Hoyle and Tahar Rahim’s action-packed drama Prisoner? Plus, the Indian version of The Traitors. Here’s what to watch this evening 9pm, Sky Atlantic A lean, Line of Duty-esque police drama finds a fresh-out-of-idyllic-maternity-leave prison officer Amber (Big Boys’ Izuka Hoyle) on her way to pick up Tibor Stone (The Serpent’s Tahar Rahim). He plays a prisoner so dangerous he can’t even be trusted with his own insulin pump. Despite his heinous crimes, the police need his testimony to bring down an organised crime syndicate. Sleek storytelling, plus Eddie Marsan playing against type – what’s not to love? Priya Elan Continue reading...