Lapotaire’s portrayal of the French singer transcended impersonation and she revealed her instinctive intelligence in Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen and much more Jane Lapotaire, who has died aged 81, will always be identified with the title role in Pam Gems’s play Piaf. Opening at Stratford’s the Other Place in 1978, it moved to the West End and Broadway, winning Lapotaire an Olivier award and a Tony. With her Gallic ancestry – she was born to a French mother and raised by an English foster parent in Ipswich – Lapotaire seemed born to play Edith Piaf, but her performance transcended impersonation. What she showed us was a woman whose art was dependent on her ferocious loyalty to her working-class origins: one who self-deprecatingly dubbed herself “just a bit of slum rubbish”. Above all, with her wide-open smile, she captured Piaf’s ramshackle life, emotional generosity and invincible good nature. It was a gift of a role and one that Lapotaire rightly relished. But its success obscured the fact that Lapotaire was that relatively rare creature: a genuinely classical actor most at home in Shakespeare, Sophocles, Ibsen or Chekhov. She did her fair share of television – indeed she came to prominence in a TV series about Marie Curie – but it was on the stage that she revealed her instinctive intelligence and vocal precision. Continue reading...

55-year-old Jeff Blair, who was attacked while on duty in Shildon, died in hospital after sustaining serious injuries A man has been charged with the murder of a court bailiff who was attacked while he was at work. 55-year-old Jeff Blair died in hospital after he sustained serious injuries while on duty in Shildon, County Durham on Tuesday. Continue reading...

The US already spent more than $11.3bn in first six days of conflict, but price tag does not include all spending Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox Pentagon officials told top lawmakers in a closed-door briefing on Tuesday that the cost of the war against Iran has already exceeded $11.3bn in its first six days, but the true cost of the opening days of the conflict is likely far greater, according to two people familiar with the matter. This figure, first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by the Associated Press, in addition to the Guardian, represents the most detailed cost assessment that Congress has received so far as lawmakers seek clarity about the scope and duration of the conflict. Continue reading...

Captain and fly-half clashed during defeat by Italy ‘I think it is a good thing people can express a view’ Maro Itoje hassaid there are no cracks in the England squad despite his spat with Fin Smith during last week’s humiliating defeat by Italy and believes the confrontation demonstrates the harmony within the camp. Itoje was heard roaring at Smith “don’t argue with me, take the three,” in the 43rd minute of the defeat in Rome with the fly-half eager to kick to the corner and push for a try with England 12-10 to the good. Ellis Genge, one of two vice-captains, also wanted to go for the try but Jamie George, the other, wanted a kick at goal. Itoje vehemently disagreed with Smith and overruled his fly-half, who duly kicked the penalty. Continue reading...

Of six teams in the last 16, only two – Arsenal and Liverpool – look more likely than not to get to the quarter-finals. But does it matter? The coefficient is safe. The coefficient is yours. You’re going home with the coefficient. But perhaps not, on this evidence, with the microwave, the washing machine or the Jet Ski. England’s soccer shame. Premier League in EURO MELTDOWN. Robot-ball crisis: how Arteta’s Arsenal destroyed all that is good and true, including the ploughman’s lunch and probably Woolworths. This kind of stuff has begun to do the rounds after this week’s Champions League last-16 matches. Continue reading...

PM has apologised for his handling of Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador, but next tranche of files could contain further damaging details Keir Starmer could suffer further resignations when ministerial WhatsApp messages are published in the next tranche of the Peter Mandelson files, senior government sources have told the Guardian. With officials bracing for the subsequent releases – expected to include informal communications alongside formal messages like those in the first batch – Starmer apologised again on Thursday over his handling of Mandelson’s appointment, saying: “It was me that made a mistake, and it’s me that makes the apology to the victims of [Jeffrey] Epstein, and I do that.” Continue reading...

For an hour, it was threatening to be another of those fruitless days for Ollie Watkins. But then, Emi Buendía, of all people, soared high to win a header and Watkins then had the composure to send a header spinning beyond Berke Ozer, caught a few yards off his goal-line. Watkins’s dry spell was over, his first goal in eight matches and only second in 13 securing Aston Villa victory in Lille. In the end, while his side are not yet anywhere near back to their convincing, conquering best, this was a thoroughly satisfying night for Unai Emery, a first win in five matches, a feeling reinforced by the second-half arrival of the Villa captain John McGinn after two months out injured. Continue reading...

Five soldiers were indicted over alleged violent abuse and rape of Palestinian man at detention centre in 2024 Israel’s top military lawyer has dropped all charges against five soldiers accused of the violent abuse and rape of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza. The military advocate general, Itay Offir, said prosecutors lacked key evidence after the victim was sent back to Gaza, and that the conduct of senior officials had affected the chance of holding a fair trial. Continue reading...

Teenagers are fastest-growing victim group, with officers warning misogyny and ‘toxic’ online influences are drivers Cases of abuse are growing fastest among teenagers, police have said, with nearly a fifth of girls aged 16-19 estimated to have experienced domestic abuse. Louisa Rolfe, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for domestic abuse, said “nowhere near enough” was being done to tackle misogyny among young boys and toxic online influences. Continue reading...

⚽ Europa League updates from the 8pm GMT kick-off ⚽ Live scores | Read Football Daily | And email Billy Forest revert to a back four, presumably, with Nikola Milenkovic the centre-back to make way. Omari Hutchinson and Callum Hudson-Odoi come in from the start. Nottingham Forest (4-2-3-1): Sels; Aina, Cunha, Morato, Murillo; Anderson, Domínguez; Hudson-Odoi, Gibbs-White, Hutchinson; Igor Jesus Continue reading...

Leg-spinner signed by Sunrisers Leeds for £190,000 James Coles is most expensive player sold on day of auction Abrar Ahmed has become the first Pakistani player to be signed by one of the four Indian-owned Hundred teams after he was bought by Sunrisers Leeds for £190,000 in the inaugural men’s player auction. The signing was a badly needed relief for the England and Wales Cricket Board, which was recently forced to publicly deny reports that the four sides would operate a “shadow ban” on picking players from Pakistan. The Sunrisers are owned by the SUN media group, which also runs franchises in Hyderabad and Eastern Cape. It had to fight hard for him after being drawn into a bidding war with the Trent Rockets. Ahmed, 27, is third in the world in the men’s international T20 bowling rankings. He is one of only a handful of Pakistani players to be signed by Indian-owned teams around the world. The head coach, Dan Vettori, insisted it was strictly a cricket decision. “There wasn’t a discussion, it was just about who was the best option for is. We missed out on Adil Rashid, so then the priority was to get a spin bowler, and we didn’t think that quality was in the local market so we had to look overseas.” Continue reading...

Appointment of Matt Brittin as director general would be latest sign of big tech’s power in media world Google’s former Europe boss is closing in on becoming the BBC’s next director general, the Guardian has been told. Sources said that Matt Brittin, 57, was very advanced in the appointment process. Some insiders believe that, barring a last-minute development, he will succeed Tim Davie as the broadcaster’s next director general. Continue reading...

Records could be smashed in southern California as experts warn weather set to be ‘exceptional – and not in a good way’ States across the US west are bracing for a brutal early-season heatwave threatening to cook several cities through the weekend and into next week. Forecasters warned temperatures will spike 20-30F above normal for several days. Daily records could be shattered in southern California this week, the National Weather Service said, with a possibility that all-time records for March will be broken as well. Following the warmest winter on record across most of the region, the intense conditions are expected to eat into low snowpack levels, deepening drought concerns. Continue reading...

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The economic fallout of the US-Israeli assault and Tehran’s retaliation is spreading fast, and pushing the most vulnerable towards disaster Soaring prices at the pump, the scrapping of mortgage deals, and the prospect of higher prices for everything from food to smartphones. The US-Israeli attack on Iran, and Tehran’s retaliation, has rocked the global economy. Consumers are already feeling the pain of the biggest energy supply shock in history, and Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, vowed on Thursday that the strait of Hormuz will remain closed, according to a statement attributed to him by state media. The corridor is the biggest chokepoint for the global energy system. The relief to oil prices brought by the International Energy Agency’s largest ever release of reserves had already proved shortlived: as the US and Israel intensified attacks on Iran, it escalated attacks on transport infrastructure across the Gulf. But the impact is not evenly felt. In Asia, heavily reliant on the Middle East for crude oil and liquefied natural gas, Bangladesh closed all its universities and Pakistan some of its schools due to fuel shortages. While US coverage is dominated by the impact at home, others are paying a higher price. And it is the world’s poorest and most vulnerable who will be worst hit. Continue reading...

Warnings were ignored and processes rushed because No 10 had already made up its mind to let Peter Mandelson sail through The arrogance takes your breath away, even to the end. Sacked in disgrace for bringing shame upon those who trusted him, Peter Mandelson’s response, we now know, was to unsuccessfully demand half a million pounds of public money to go quietly, all while haughtily insisting upon his dignity as a servant of the crown. In other words, this week’s disclosures suggest Mandelson behaves in a tight corner pretty much exactly as bitter experience suggests he might. What they still don’t explain satisfactorily is why Downing Street, seemingly alone, failed to anticipate that. To understand what went wrong, imagine the three-step process by which he became ambassador to Washington as a sandwich: two bland slices of officialdom, representing the Cabinet Office’s initial efforts at due diligence and a deeper vetting process at the end, glued together with political filling. Take away the middle, which is the political operation around the prime minister himself, and what’s left is dry bread falling apart in your hands. Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columinst Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink? On Thursday 30 April, ahead of the May elections, join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss how much of a threat Labour faces from the Green party and Reform UK, and whether Keir Starmer can survive as leader of the Labour party Book tickets here or at guardian.live Continue reading...

The German chancellor and his Social Democrat coalition partners need to learn the right lessons, after an election reverse in Germany’s third-largest state For most of the postwar period, the state of Baden-Württemberg was both a bastion of German conservatism and – as the home of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche – an economic powerhouse. But in volatile times, even regions that embodied political stability and industrial prowess now deliver the unexpected. A come-from-behind victory for the Greens last Sunday, in the first of a series of important regional elections this year, suggests that Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrat-led national government is alienating voters in the same way as other centrist administrations in Europe. If Sir Keir Starmer has Gorton and Denton to anguish over, Mr Merz and his Social Democrat coalition partners now have Baden-Württemberg. Caveats apply. The Greens already had an impressive power base in Germany’s third-largest state, where they have been the senior partner in coalition administrations for 15 years. In Cem Özdemir, their victorious candidate, they also fielded a charismatic and popular campaigner. Mr Özdemir’s personal achievement is in itself a cause for celebration. The son of immigrants who arrived in the country in the 1960s, he becomes Germany’s first state premier with Turkish roots. Continue reading...

The streamer’s biggest film of all time, also nominated for two Oscars, is getting a followup A sequel to record-breaking hit KPop Demon Hunters has been officially confirmed at Netflix. The film will again be a collaboration between the streamer and Sony with Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, the writer-directors, returning. Continue reading...

Security minister Dan Jarvis has announced new security measures ahead of May’s local elections Threats against female MPs are having a “chilling effect” on talented women thinking of going into public life but deciding not to, security minister Dan Jarvis has said. Warning that there was an “unprecedented” volume of threats against elected representatives – including assaults, vandalism, stalking and a “blizzard of online abuse” – Jarvis announced new security measures ahead of the local elections. Continue reading...

Remedy for partnership’s post-Covid woes was the old-fashioned one of basic shopkeeping and cutting costs It turns out, the remedy for the John Lewis partnership’s post-Covid woes of a few years ago did not lie in seeking outside capital or building 10,000 buy-to-rent flats. Rather, the solution was the old-fashioned one of cutting costs and concentrating on basic shopkeeping. As it happens, the wild idea of seeking external investors was virtually dead the moment it was loosely aired, such was the uproar among customers and staff about the threat to the 100%-employee owned model. But the home-building adventure did get going until it was ditched by the newish chair Jason Tarry a couple of weeks ago. He accepted, in effect, a point that should have been obvious at the outset: if the building assumptions relied on interest rates remaining at near-zero for years, the project would not survive contact with events. Continue reading...

Josh Wardle hopes his digital take on the cryptic crossword can be a gradual on-ramp crossing the cultural divide between Britain and the US In 2021, Josh Wardle became a household name almost overnight. His digital game, Wordle, turned a simple guessing game into a global morning ritual: six guesses, one word, and a grid of coloured squares shared across social media feeds. It became a cultural phenomenon; bought within months by the The New York Times for a seven-figure sum. Continue reading...

Irishman the favourite as O’Neill’s role ends in summer Craig Bellamy and Jens Berthel Askou also targets Robbie Keane is the frontrunner to become the next Celtic manager, with the club making background plans to heavily restructure football operations at the end of this season. Keane’s work at Ferencvaros and previously Maccabi Tel Aviv is understood to place him as the prime candidate to succeed Martin O’Neill, whose second spell as an interim Celtic manager will end in the summer. Celtic’s powerbrokers believe Keane could be receptive to moving to Glasgow. There is, however, likely to be competition from other British sides for the Irishman’s services. Keane was linked with another of his former clubs, Tottenham, after the sacking of Thomas Frank but would never have accepted the short-term arrangement taken by Igor Tudor. No formal moves will be made by Celtic until the domestic season ends but Keane is the manager firmly in their sights. Continue reading...

Nick Thomas-Symonds unravelled under barrage of questions – as PM instead bored some mothers and babies in Belfast You could smell the fear among senior ministers on Wednesday night. No one wanted to be “that person”. The mug who would be sent out on the Thursday morning media round to answer the inevitable barrage of questions about Peter Mandelson. The equivalent to a two-hour-long walk of shame, and one entirely of the prime minister’s making. The Cabinet Office minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, thought he had all bases covered. He had skipped off early down to his south Wales constituency of Torfaen. Surely that should put him out of harm’s way. No such luck. Just after 10pm, Nick got the summons from No 10. “I’m afraid you’re it.” Nick tried to bluster. There was no way he could get to London to do the interviews, and the wifi was really terrible at home. No dice. Downing Street would send over a technician to set him up with a makeshift studio. All systems go. Continue reading...

Two former members of Royal Ulster Constabulary testify at civil trial that Adams led proscribed organisation Gerry Adams was the leader of the Irish Republican Army, two former police officers have told the high court. The former Sinn Féin leader is being sued for symbolic “vindicatory” damages of £1 each by John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock, who allege he was culpable for three separate IRA bombings in which they were injured. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer was warned of ‘reputational risk’ in making Peter Mandelson ambassador to the US due to his links with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to newly released files. The first batch of files raises new questions about the prime minister’s judgment, as well as the vetting process at the highest level of government. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s head of national news, Archie Bland Continue reading...