The Like A Virgin singer has appealed for the return of the pieces she wore on Friday, including a jacket, corset and dress Madonna has said the vintage costume she wore at Coachella has gone missing and has appealed for its “safe return”. The Like A Virgin singer joined popstar Sabrina Carpenter on stage on Friday for her second weekend headline slot at the music festival in California, where she wore a vintage purple corset bodysuit with purple stockings and lavender gloves. On stage she said it was “the same corset, the same boots, and the same Gucci jacket” that she wore at her first Coachella appearance in 2006. Continue reading...

Move marks government’s most radical attempt to weaken impact of soaring wholesale gas prices on electricity costs Clean energy generation exceeded rise in global electricity demand in 2025 The government has confirmed plans to move older wind and solar farms which make up almost a third of Great Britain’s power market on to fixed-price contracts to help protect households and businesses from future gas market shocks. Under the plans, first revealed by the Guardian, renewable energy projects that earn subsidies on top of the market price will be asked to sign up to contracts that pay a set price for electricity as part of the government’s plan to “delink the price of electricity from the price of gas”. Continue reading...

President claims ‘inadequate’ supply presents security threat and orders expansion of oil, coal and gas production Donald Trump on Monday released a series of memos that doubled down on his support of increased domestic fossil fuel production for purported “defense readiness”. Trump’s memos, which cited the president’s 20 January 2025 executive order declaring a national energy emergency, said US-based oil, coal, and natural gas production must expand “to avert an industrial resource or critical technology item shortfall that would severely impair national defense capability”. Continue reading...

At least four more injured at world heritage site in latest violent incident as country prepares to co-host World Cup One Canadian tourist has been killed and at least four other people have been shot after an armed man opened fire at one of Mexico’s most famous tourist destinations, the Teotihuacán pyramids near Mexico City. The shooting – the latest violent incident to affect Mexico as it prepares to co-host the football World Cup in June – took place on Monday lunchtime and was captured in mobile phone videos shot by visitors to the site. Continue reading...

President’s spokesperson says Chavez-DeRemer, entangled in string of controversies, leaving for private sector role Donald Trump’s labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is stepping down, the administration announced Monday. “Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung wrote on social media. “She has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives.” Continue reading...

Blues have lost four top-flight matches in succession ‘My job is accountable … The buck stops with me’ Liam Rosenior has acknowledged his job will be under threat if he cannot turn around Chelsea’s poor form before the end of the season. Although the head coach recently received public backing from the co-owner Behdad Eghbali, he is aware that retaining long-term support is dependent on results. Chelsea are under growing pressure as four consecutive league defeats have left them seven points off fifth-placed Liverpool with five games to play, and Rosenior was realistic when asked whether his bosses had assured him his future did not hinge on securing Champions League qualification. Continue reading...

Slowly but surely, West Ham are edging their way to safety. While this battling draw against a Crystal Palace side with their minds elsewhere proved terminal to his former club Wolves as it confirmed their relegation, Nuno Espírito Santo had to be satisfied with a point after Brennan Johnson missed the best chance to boost his former employers Tottenham. Palace, who have now been involved in eight stalemates this season, were indebted to captain Dean Henderson for producing the save of the night to deny Konstantinos Mavropanos just before half-time, although West Ham struggled to create much else. Nuno will be disappointed not to have stretched their advantage over Tottenham to four points, although their fate remains very much in their hands with David Moyes’s Everton next up on Saturday. Continue reading...

Cook, who will assume the role of executive chair, will be succeeded by John Ternus as CEO on 1 September Apple announced on Monday that it had named a replacement for Tim Cook as CEO, with head of hardware engineering John Ternus to succeed him. Cook will stay at the company in the role of executive chair. “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company. I love Apple with all of my being,” Cook said in a press release. Continue reading...

The satirical website’s parent company will have to pay $81,000 a month to the misinformation platform Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Satirical website the Onion plans to turn rightwing commentator Alex Jones’s misinformation site Infowars into a parody of itself under a leasing agreement provisionally approved by a Texas court. Under a proposed deal with court administrators, Infowars would be leased by Global Tetrahedron, a Chicago-based company that owns the Onion, for $81,000 a month for six months, with an option to renew for another six months. Continue reading...

PM admits he made mistake in choice of ambassador as he makes high-stakes statement to parliament over scandal Keir Starmer has accused Olly Robbins of deliberately and repeatedly obstructing the truth about the Mandelson vetting scandal before a high-jeopardy appearance of the sacked top official before MPs on Tuesday. Six days after the prime minister said he had learned that his pick for Washington ambassador had failed security vetting, Starmer admitted his decision to appoint him had been a fundamental mistake. Continue reading...

Amol Rajan was harsh, Miriam Margolyes was thoroughly charming – and the teens watching will have been screaming at the screen. Last year’s Christ’s College captain lets rip on this year’s tense set-to A new chapter in the history of Anglo-Scottish rivalry has been written with the broadcast of this year’s University Challenge final. After 36 episodes featuring 28 institutions, only Edinburgh and Manchester were left standing (giving the northernmost average location of any final pair since Bamber Gascoigne hosted the show in the 1980s!). Given their equal average score across their previous matches, the final was set to be a tense and thrilling affair. It began cagily, as both teams waited until Amol Rajan had read the entirety of the first question before guessing, incorrectly, the dedicatee of Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman (in fact it was the French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord). That dead question was a rare exception, though. Rajan had barely begun the next starter – on the largest time zone difference in a single land border – before Manchester captain Kai Madgwick buzzed in with the correct answer (China and Afghanistan). Edinburgh responded immediately; Rayhana Amjad named Indian theoretical physicist SN Bose as the author of a 1924 paper on light quanta, while the ever-dapper Johnny Richards identified a donkey as the animal star of 2022 film EO. An entertaining picture round – on flags criticised by the Good Flag, Bad Flag guide – yielded a starter but no bonuses for the Mancunians, who trailed by 30 points to 45. Continue reading...

Criminals paid on behalf of Iran are believed to be behind attacks against Jewish targets, say detectives Detectives are investigating whether the series of arson attacks in London were planned for weeks with suspects carrying out reconnaissance on the Jewish targets to be firebombed. The series of attacks against synagogues and other Jewish targets, as well as one premises linked to Iranian dissidents, are believed to be carried out by criminals paid on behalf of Iran, police said. Continue reading...

Musician has been charged after the dismembered and decomposing body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found in abandoned Tesla The singer D4vd has been charged with the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the teenage girl whose dismembered and decomposed body was found in the artist’s apparently abandoned Tesla in September. The Los Angeles county district attorney’s office said the 21-year-old, whose legal name is David Burke, was charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Rivas Hernandez, who was reported missing by her family in 2024, when she was 13. Authorities say she was 14 when she died. Continue reading...

Government amendment to children’s wellbeing and schools bill to replace existing guidance with statutory ban A ban on mobile phones in schools in England is to be introduced by the government to ensure that “critical safeguarding legislation” is passed. The government will table an amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill in the House of Lords after the bill was held up by peers on opposition benches. Continue reading...

Boy died aged 13 months after ‘routine abuse’ by Jamie Varley and his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, jury hears A baby boy was “routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and physically assaulted” before he was killed by a secondary school teacher adopting him, a jury has heard. Jamie Varley, the teacher, 37, and his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, were in the process of adopting Preston Davey. Continue reading...

On these occasions, MPs have a solemn duty to reflect the public’s anger and need for answers. A pity that so few seem able to fulfil it Around the time of Peter Mandelson’s appointment as the UK’s ambassador to Washington in late 2024, Nigel Farage, our possible next prime minister, said that while he “might disagree with Mandelson on his politics” he was “a very intelligent man”, who would be a good choice for the job. If the Tories raised objections at the time, they are not exactly seared to this day on the collective memory. As one senior Labour figure put it to me on Sunday: “They all thought it was a very smart political move back then. Now they are all full of this righteous indignation.” Certainly, in MPs’ defence, we know much more now than we did then about Mandelson’s enduring links with Jeffery Epstein. And thanks to the Guardian’s extraordinary revelation last week, which rekindled this crisis and turned it into one about the entire workings of government, we discovered that Mandelson actually failed the official Foreign Office vetting job for the job but was appointed nonetheless. Toby Helm is a political commentator and former political editor of the Observer Continue reading...

FBI director’s lawyers accuse magazine of publishing ‘a sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece’ Kash Patel sues the Atlantic over bombshell story Sign up for the Breaking News US email My colleague Jeremy Barr has more on the lawsuit filed by Kash Patel against the Atlantic. Patel’s legal team accused the magazine and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick of publishing “a sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece” on 17 April. Continue reading...

Gabrielle Carrington, 29, faces charges after incident on Argyll Street in the early hours of Sunday morning A woman has been charged with attempted murder after a car hit pedestrians in central London in the early hours of Sunday. A woman in her 30s remains in a life-threatening condition and a man in his 50s suffered life-changing injuries after they were hit by a car in Argyll Street, Westminster, at approximately 4.30am on Sunday, the Metropolitan police said. A second woman in her 30s suffered minor injuries, the force added. Continue reading...

Appointing an amoral narcissist was the PM’s biggest crime, but he was keen to breeze past it in the Commons Things could be worse. The prime minister can still catch a break. Some had called Monday’s Commons statement Keir Starmer’s judgment day. But that was a category error. Many Labour MPs had long since made up their minds. Keir wasn’t the right person to be running the country. Just that now, with a war in the Middle East and the local elections early next month, was not the right time to think about replacing him. The party and the country wouldn’t thank them for turning a drama into a crisis. You may also wonder whether the lack of interest in replacing their leader to be found among Labour backbenchers was mirrored by Starmer’s lack of interest in being prime minister. Because it’s increasingly looking as though he often fails to do the basics. I mean, I’m sure he likes being prime minister. That’s when he remembers he is prime minister. We can’t be certain that he doesn’t have to be reminded he is prime minister from time to time. Continue reading...

Antisemitism has been rising in years since 7 October attacks, including recent arson attacks at Jewish sites British Jews feel under siege and worried about their children displaying religious symbols in public, community leaders have said. There have been a series of attempted arson attacks at Jewish sites over the past week, including incidents at two synagogues in London and one at a building used by the charity Jewish Futures. Four Jewish community ambulances were also set on fire in north London in the early hours of 23 March. Continue reading...

Benjamin Netanyahu has brushed aside European concerns over Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. A tougher approach from Brussels is overdue In recent months, European expressions of concern over the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have regularly hardened into outright condemnation. Last September, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed horror and outrage at aid restrictions that she said created a “man-made famine” in Gaza. Brussels has inveighed against settler violence and land grabs in the West Bank, which undermine the possibility of a viable Palestinian state. Responding to the bombing of Lebanon following the US-Israeli ceasefire with Iran, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said: “Israel’s right to self-defence does not justify this destruction.” The angry words and exhortations have achieved nothing. Mr Netanyahu and his ministers have generally treated European critics with barely concealed contempt, presumably reassured by the fact that their chief allies in the White House tend to behave in exactly the same fashion. The EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner, and the academic benefits it confers through Israeli participation in the Horizon research programme are considerable. But internal disunity, and an overoptimistic faith in the power of persuasion, have led to a reluctance by the bloc to use those relationships as leverage. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

New rules and extra foster carers should ease the pressure on councils. But unregistered placements remain a grave concern It is incumbent on everyone with an interest in social policy to pay attention to the most vulnerable children and young people. When those who have been neglected, abused or exploited fall through the cracks in the welfare state because local councils are unable to meet their needs, this reflects poorly on wider society and risks causing harm in the long term as well as immediately. In England, the social care systems for children and adults are well known to be under immense strain. The rise in the number of children placed in unregistered settings – and thus effectively invisible to Ofsted – is an alarming symptom of a wider failure. From 144 children in 2020-21, the figure multiplied to 680 in 2024-25, according to a timely report from the policy consultancy Public First. The finding mirrors one from the children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, who recorded 669 such placements in September last year. While these numbers make up less than 1% of the more than 83,000 looked-after children in England, the rapid rise in the number of cases where councils cannot find proper provision is both alarming in itself – since no child should be living outside the regulatory framework – and because of what it reveals about how the overall sector is managing. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Head of UN’s humanitarian agency frustrated that $2bn weekly cost of conflict comes amid big cuts to aid budgets The $2bn (£1.5bn) a week that Donald Trump was spending on his reckless war in Iran could have funded saving more than 87 million lives, the head of the UN’s humanitarian agency, Tom Fletcher, said on Monday. He also warned the normalisation of violent language, such as threatening to bomb Iran back to the stone ages, was very dangerous since it encourages every “wannabe autocrat” to use similar threats and tactics, including the destruction of civilians and civilian infrastructure. Continue reading...

After making a spectacular punt on racing and bloodstock, the football super-agent will be hoping for a swift return There was an unexpected, jarring moment in the winner’s enclosure at Newmarket last week as Kevin Philippart de Foy, the principal trainer for the football super-agent Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing operation, prepared to discuss his win with Sovereign Spell in the opening race on Craven Stakes day. The familiar “huddle” of reporters was ready to hear what might come next for the three-year-old, but first, the trainer had a question of his own: was anyone there to report for the Racing Post? Amo Racing and the British turf’s trade paper, it seems, are not currently on speaking terms, for reasons best known to themselves. Continue reading...

⚽️ Premier League updates from the 8pm BST kick-off ⚽️ Latest table | Premier League review | Email Michael What was a bad weekend for Tottenham Hotspur could get a whole lot worse at Selhurst Park. Spurs could and probably should have beaten Brighton to leapfrog West Ham in the relegation but a late, late equaliser for the south-coast side – compounded by wins for Leeds and Nottingham Forest – have left Tottenham staring down the barrel with just four games to go. West Ham – with a game in hand – will stay 17th with a victory this evening but would put themselves four points clear of Spurs in 18th, an important margin given the east Londoners’ inferior goal difference. The Hammers are on something of a tear recently, revitalised under Nuno Espírito Santo, and since 17 January have the fifth best points tally in the Premier League. That they are still in the mire shows how far they had previously fallen. Continue reading...