Mourinho expected to agree deal to return to Bernabéu Chelsea also keen on Silva but Alonso is their first choice Benfica will target Fulham’s Marco Silva as their manager if they lose José Mourinho to Real Madrid. Mourinho is Madrid’s preferred choice and talks have taken place over the former Chelsea and Manchester United manager returning to the Bernabéu. Benfica do not want to lose the 63-year-old, who was hired last September, but need a contingency plan. They are looking at Silva as a potential replacement for Mourinho, who is expected to agree to a second spell at Madrid 13 years after his first ended. Continue reading...

Hard decisions over a possible sale and future subsidies loom now full nationalisation is on the cards Explainer: how did we get here, and what about the future? Full nationalisation of British Steel expected in king’s speech “One of the proudest things we have done in government,” said Keir Starmer in Monday’s big speech about the decision a year ago to recall parliament in order to take control of British Steel at Scunthorpe. It was an odd boast because last year’s action was merely an emergency exercise in saving the patient, as opposed to getting British Steel on its feet and out of the hospital. Taking control meant the Chinese owner, Jingye, could not turn off the two blast furnaces but meant the government was on the hook for operational losses, which will be £615m and counting by next month according to the National Audit Office (NAO). Continue reading...

Month was one of driest on record with rainfall 23% less than average, according to Met Office figures One of the driest Aprils on record for central and southern England has left river levels below normal, raising fears of drought in some areas over the summer. The latest UK hydrological survey – which tracks river and groundwater levels – suggests central and southern England and eastern Scotland will experience notably low river flows over the next three months, raising concerns about water shortages if dry weather persists. Continue reading...

People evacuated from cruise ship to Arrowe Park hospital, Wirral, should enjoy some consolations, says man sent there during Covid pandemic For the MV Hondius passengers quarantined at Arrowe Park hospital on the Wirral, it is likely to be a period of some anxiety. But there will be some consolations as they await the all-clear to return to their normal lives, says a veteran of the coronavirus quarantine at the same site – such as jigsaws, gourmet ready-meals, and even a concierge service. Continue reading...

The game already feels like a relic – so I suspect the TV gameshow will be very annoying indeed. But perhaps this is what newspapers need to stay afloat Anyone who has watched television knows that late-night talkshow hosts have a habit of pulling entertainment formats from the barest of inspirations. James Corden got Carpool Karaoke from the act of singing songs in the car. Jimmy Fallon got Lip Sync Battle from the act of mouthing along to songs in the mirror. And now Fallon has struck again. He’s making a Wordle gameshow. It’s based on Wordle, that puzzle you used to do while sitting on the toilet. Fallon’s production company, Electric Hot Dog, has acquired the rights to Wordle and will turn it into a show where teams compete to solve puzzles for cash. The show will film in Manchester, England, this summer and debut on NBC next year. Continue reading...

The days of helicopter parenting, where raising a child was seen as a competitive sport, may now be over thanks to the looming threat of AI. It could be good news for everyone involved Name: Beta Mum. Age: 25-45. Continue reading...

The answers to today’s pronunciation puzzles Earlier today I set you these two word puzzles. Here they are again with solutions. 1: Pronounced the same, spelt differently. (Second option) (Switch back and forth) (Suitable) (Commandeer) (Satisfied) (Components) (Conference attendee) (Assign) (Price reduction) (Disregard) (Way in) (Enrapture) (Incorrect) (Disabled) (60 seconds) (Tiny) (In attendance) (Give) (Fruit and vegetables) (Generate) (Deny) (Rubbish) (Distress) (Surprise victory) Alternate Appropriate Content Delegate Discount Entrance Invalid Minute Present Produce Refuse Upset Continue reading...

Long considered an important milestone in one’s fitness journey, pull-ups build upper body strength and look impressive in the gym The pull-up has long been seen as an important fitness metric. From 1966 to 2013, public middle and high school students in the US were required to do pull-ups as part of the presidential fitness test (an evaluation Donald Trump has considered reinstating). US Marine Corps were long required to perform pull-ups as part of their regular physical fitness test, and prospective UK Royal Marines must complete a minimum of three to four pull-ups before they are eligible to join. There is no definitive data on how many adults can perform a proper pull-up, but two things are clear: they are very difficult and look extremely cool. Lat pulldowns. Bent-over dumbbell rows. Single-arm dumbbell rows. Wide upright rows. Shoulder shrugs. Continue reading...

After learning of his father’s death on the morning of the clásico, the manager watched his players respond with devotion that underlined the culture he has built Early on Sunday morning Hansi Flick got a call from his mum telling him that his father had died overnight. Hansi Sr was 82 and he had been ill for some time. The day that Barcelona were going to win the league again, the first clásico back at the Camp Nou, had just begun and their coach was not sure what to do, yet he also knew. “I [thought]: ‘should I hide it or should I speak with my team, because for me it is like a family?’,” he said. “I said ‘OK, I want to get the information to my players, and what they did is unbelievable. I will never forget this moment.” None of them would. Barcelona’s players had arrived at the Torre Melina hotel on the Diagonal at midday, where the man many of them consider a father told them about his. Now it was close to midnight and together they celebrated a title that was his too. For the first time in 94 years, the clásico had decided La Liga, if decided is really the word when it was done a while ago. Barcelona’s superiority in the 2-0 victory that finally ended it was incontestable as it had been virtually all season, Real Madrid’s players withdrawing swiftly, relieved that at least it was over now and leaving the stadium to them, the first round of fireworks exploding into the sky and a sardana forming in the centre circle. Continue reading...

Andrew Wallis on the political will and investment needed to tackle record levels of exploitation Your article (Modern slavery at record levels in UK and expected to worsen, report warns, 5 May)( reflects a deeply troubling reality also seen by the UK’s modern slavery helpline. Cases of exploitation climbed to their highest level on record with a 41% increase in 2025, according to a recent helpline report. As a consortium of leading anti-slavery organisations has warned, the UK is failing to keep pace with the scale of exploitation, leaving too many victims without protection and too many perpetrators beyond reach. The UK is increasingly becoming a low‑risk, high-reward environment for traffickers and exploiters. A shared vision for the next decade sets out practical steps: stronger corporate accountability, a more effective criminal justice response, a survivor‑centred system and a coordinated national strategy to tackle child exploitation. Continue reading...

Power of the mind | Scattering ashes | Bus travel | Refusing to age | A better Saturday with the long read Nocebo awareness is nothing new (I made my husband ill with a few words – nobody is immune to the power of the nocebo effect, 8 May). Shakespeare knew of the syndrome more than 400 years ago. “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so” – Hamlet, act two, scene two. Terence Adams Birmingham • Scattering my dad’s ashes in a river in Bannau Brycheiniog back in 2005 (Letters, 8 May), we had thought they would float gently away on the current. Instead, they sank straight to the bottom. My brother, in his surprise, lost his footing, fell in and emerged covered in the remains of the most wonderful father, who never did learn to swim. Helen Ryan Blandford Forum, Dorset Continue reading...

Michael Bursill highlights the work of the all-party parliamentary group for fair elections in response to an editorial on multiparty politics Your editorial (The Guardian view on Britain’s multiparty politics: the Westminster voting system needs to catch up, 6 May) summarises the position perfectly. But what about a solution? Fortunately, this has been thought of by the all-party parliamentary group for fair elections. This has been Westminster’s largest APPG since its formation a few months after the 2024 general election. More than half of its 159 members are Labour MPs, but it also includes Liberal Democrats, Greens, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, an independent and a Conservative vice-chair. Continue reading...

Under private or public ownership models, what really matters is the level of investment in a service, says Andrew Snelson If Julian Coman is old enough to remember the privatisation of British Gas (Reversing Thatcher’s failed legacy of privatisation can be a Labour vote-winner. If you see Keir, tell him, 5 May), he’ll surely also remember the running national joke that was British Rail, or the six-month wait to have a landline installed by the publicly owned British Telecom. His “private ownership bad, public ownership good” analysis overlooks the key point that, under either ownership model, what matters is the level of investment in the service. Continue reading...

Are you a fresh face without too much baggage? Then a new home awaits you in No 10 In the late 1800s, the boxing and wrestling scene of east and south-east London was going through a transformation, and if you are genuinely interested in that, I cannot recommend enough the work of the historian Sarah Elizabeth Cox. If, on the other hand, you are more interested in the fashioning of political analogy, it is this: boxing starts out a legit contest between boys and men trying to render one another unconscious; then it morphs into strongman pantomiming, with one amazing boxer in the ring and have-a-go heroes trying their luck; then it starts to lean in to its showbiz elements; and after that it’s chaos. The strongman is suddenly wrestling a donkey called Steve (this really happened). People are slicing lemons with swords in the interval. It’s all a terrible stain on the noble sport, and yet it looks revivified, because suddenly every idiot in town thinks he can have a go. Which is more or less what’s happened to the office of prime minister, and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this, unlike everything else to befall this stricken nation, is not Keir Starmer’s fault. Amazed as I am to even type this, it’s not Boris Johnson’s fault. It started with David Cameron. Continue reading...

Proposed rules similar to those used by Premier League ECB responding after Sussex’s operating loss of £1.33m Cricket counties will face automatic points deductions for making repeated losses under strict new financial rules that will be introduced next season. The Guardian has learned that the England and Wales Cricket Board is planning to bring in its own version of football’s profit and sustainability rules underpinned by points deductions in a shadow form next year to give counties time to adjust, before fixed punishments for clubs that fail to break even are introduced in 2028. Continue reading...

Jimmy Fallon will produce show, which will begin filming over the summer, based on New York Times’ hit word game Savannah Guthrie is to present a TV game show based on the New York Times’ hit word game Wordle, the newspaper announced Monday. It will be the first new onscreen venture for the host of NBC’s Today show since her return in April after the disappearance two months earlier of her mother. Continue reading...

His speech today was OK, but nowhere near enough. Now the risk is that the longer he stays in No 10, the harder it will be to stop Britain’s Trump Calamity, cataclysm, catastrophe: the lexicon ran out of words for Labour’s plight. Keir Starmer’s career-saving “reset” needed to be monumental. It was … OK-ish. But it didn’t dispel the sense of a country with no overall control. As ever, his tacking neither right or left, as he wrote in the Guardian, sends many Labour people into paroxysms of despair, when last week it lost most votes leftwards. Britain at the heart of Europe was absolutely the right message, “shoulder to shoulder with the countries that share our interests, our values and our enemies” on growth, defence and energy. But as Starmer said himself, “incremental change won’t cut it”. His message lacked the ear-splitting sounds of red lines snapping and a manifesto straitjacket bursting open. Tiptoeing towards the single market and customs unions for a manifesto three years away doesn’t cut the mustard. What voters sniff, remainers and leavers alike, is the odour of cowardice, an unwillingness to say what he and Labour undoubtedly feel about Europe – rejoin ASAP. Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Dudley Town Hall With bits about Prince, Tiswas, his Jamaican family and his long career, the standup treads familiar ground and the home-town crowd love it In this new standup show – his first tour since 2010 – Lenny Henry says he generally turns down reality TV offers. He said yes to Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters (no, me neither) because he wanted to pay for an extension. At first one wonders what home improvements Still at Large might be funding: it is difficult to get a handle on its purpose. In a first half of pure standup, there is some new material but also old ground being re-trodden. He does a bit about his family discovering the signs for the Black Country when they arrived from Jamaica; many first heard the joke in 1989 in Live and Unleashed, when he told us that his father declared, “the queen has set aside some land for me already.” Touring until 3 November Continue reading...

Exclusive: Britain expected to be allowed to keep ban on live animal exports, sources say, in fillip for Keir Starmer UK politics live – latest updates Brussels is preparing to offer Keir Starmer a key concession in talks over an agricultural deal, giving the beleaguered prime minister an important victory in his efforts to move closer to the EU. European officials have conceded that the UK can keep its ban on live animal exports as part of any joint deal on food and agricultural products, according to sources on both sides of the talks, even though the EU has not imposed such a ban. Continue reading...

Report suggests that popular initiatives such as NT Live and NT at Home are making UK audiences more adventurous Theatre streaming services and cinema screenings of stage performances are not a threat to “in-person” attendance and are making audiences more adventurous, according to new research commissioned by the National Theatre. Introducing the findings on Monday, the NT’s director, Indhu Rubasingham, said that the boom in filmed theatre had raised major questions including the concern that popular initiatives such as NT Live and NT at Home would have a negative impact on live attendance. The organisation commissioned research by the agency Indigo to learn more about audiences’ attitudes to filmed theatre. Continue reading...

The Gunners’ title charge was strengthened by a goal called back, in a perfect encapsulation of what modern soccer has become Sign up for the World Behind The Cup newsletter A corner. A melee. Bodies everywhere. Blocks and tugs, pulls and shoves. A VAR decision. Fury. Empty noise. A title perhaps decided; a significant impact on the relegation battle. Shouting. Confused pundits ranting. Social media figures rallying to the side they were always going to take. Welcome to modern soccer. After what looked like an injury-time equaliser for West Ham was ruled out on Sunday, Arsenal now need only to beat Burnley and Crystal Palace to be sure of their first Premier League title in 21 years. In the relegation scrap, West Ham are a point behind Tottenham, who play at home to Leeds, now safe, on Monday evening. But the big issue is a VAR decision. Of course it is: this is 2025-26. Continue reading...

Casting director urges Keir Starmer to intervene in case of Paata Burchuladze, 71, jailed for seven years after singing at anti-regime demonstrations The Royal Opera House in London has urged Keir Starmer to intervene in the case of Paata Burchuladze, a world-renowned bass singer who has been imprisoned in Georgia since October on a charge of leading a coup against the country’s authoritarian leader. The 71-year-old has performed at the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and collaborated with the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras. He was arrested after joining a protest outside the presidential palace in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Last week he was given a seven-year jail sentence which Burchuladze suggested to the court was equivalent to a life sentence given his age. Continue reading...

A big shot earned a triumphant snare drum roll with a resolving crash. My timing was often slightly late, occasionally wildly inappropriate Music came to me very early on. I’m told that as a baby I would fall asleep to opera – arias would stop me crying. By age six I was enrolled at the local conservatory of music in Athens, learning classical guitar and moving, quite seriously, through music theory and the fundamentals. By my teens, I was in a band with friends, covering everything from Avril Lavigne to Muse, aiming for precision over hours of rehearsal. My music practice was very disciplined and far removed from anything resembling “entertainment”. Sport, on the other hand, barely registered for me. Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...

Rightwing extremist Ivan Jennings had earlier pleaded guilty to dissemination of a terrorism publication A rightwing extremist who called for “killing migrants when they arrive on their boats” has pleaded guilty to terrorism offences. Ivan Jennings, 46, from Stafford, admitted encouraging terrorism between 15 August and 14 November 2024 at Leicester crown court on Monday. Continue reading...

Monday’s ‘make or break’ speech was one of the PM’s best but the signs are that most Labour MPs have already seen enough What did Keir Starmer say in ‘last chance’ speech to save his premiership? UK politics live – latest updates Was that it? Reset number … I forget where we’re up to now. Much the same as the last reset. And probably much the same as the next reset. That’s if there is one. The signs are that most Labour MPs think they’ve seen enough. That Keir Starmer has run out of road. He certainly seems to be running out of friends. Down to a few ultra-loyalists. And he can’t even trust those who want him to stay as they are probably only biding their time until Andy Burnham is in Westminster and can launch a leadership challenge. There’s a sadness here. Because Monday’s “make or break” speech was one of Starmer’s best. But it was always only going to end in heartbreak because Starmer can’t roll back the last two years. He can’t stop a leadership race that has in effect already started. Continue reading...