The revered documentarian wades into unexplored territory with the US president and Xi Jinping’s relationship – and there is a moment so startling that it feels like pure comedy gold It’s not normal to view documentaries about international trade negotiations as light relief, but we are where we are. Clash of the Superpowers: America vs China is a two-parter produced by film-maker Norma Percy, whose signature style – on series including The Iraq War, Putin vs the West and Inside Europe: Ten Years of Turmoil – is to use first-hand testimonies to revisit diplomatic flashpoints from a decade or so ago: sufficiently soon after the events for everyone who was there to still be alive, but late enough for them to no longer be in the same job and now be willing to gossip. Percy’s latest opens with the arrival of Chinese president Xi Jinping at the Davos forum in 2017. On his debut appearance at the event, Xi stimulates delegates with a speech positioning himself as a champion of free trade, offering to work with other countries for mutual economic benefit. What might historically have been an odd tack for China’s leader is not that surprising to the bankers, financiers and politicians in the room, who know Xi is pre-empting the inauguration, a few days later, of Donald Trump as US president. Continue reading...

Teenage talent team up in doubles before playing each other at Miami Open in changing world of women’s game Victoria Mboko and Mirra Andreeva, the two highest-ranked teenagers in the world, prepared for their marquee Miami Open fourth-round match in an unusual manner. Aside from being the two protagonists of the freshest rivalry in women’s tennis, they are also great friends, and so they spent the afternoon before their big match against each other competing on the same side of the net in doubles. This was an opportunity to giggle, relax and enjoy themselves on one of the smaller courts in Miami, but Mboko and Andreeva are ranked No 9 and No 10 in the world for a reason. Two fiercely competitive beings determined to win every time on the court, they fought desperately and emerged with an impressive result. After trailing 0-5 against the eighth seeds, Demi Schuurs and Ellen Perez, in the opening set and facing eight set points scattered across the set, they somehow emerged from the match with a straight-sets win. Continue reading...

Head coach wanted to include him since his arrival but has had to wait for right-back’s first recall since quitting squad during 2022 World Cup It was surely the moment of the match for Arsenal, albeit the bar was set low. The Carabao Cup final on Sunday appeared to be beyond them, Manchester City 2-0 up with 20 minutes to go and now Rayan Cherki was taking the mickey. The City winger controlled a crossfield pass on his chest and proceeded to play a bit of keepy-uppy. Ben White was having none of it and when the ball was returned to Cherki, the Arsenal right-back smashed through him, picking up a yellow card but able to sport it like a badge of honour. The City manager, Pep Guardiola, shook his head – definitely at Cherki – and it is fair to say that White’s old‑school reaction played well with everyone at Arsenal. Continue reading...

Donna Motsinger alleges she was drugged and raped by Cosby in 1972 after he gave her a glass of wine in his limo Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox A California jury found Bill Cosby guilty of sexual assault in a civil trial on Monday, awarding Donna Motsinger $19.25m in damages. Motsinger alleged in the case that while working as a restaurant server in 1972, she was drugged and raped by Cosby after he gave her a glass of wine in his limousine. Motsinger sued Cosby after California amended its laws to change the statutes of limitations on when accusers can file sexual assault cases. In remarks after the jury’s verdict, she described the trial as a five-decade-long effort to get justice. Continue reading...

In an exclusive interview, the England forward explains she is ‘locked in’ for the Gunners’ Champions League quarter-final against Chelsea Alessia Russo is happy and it shows. The 27-year-old is playing some of the best football of her career for Arsenal and England. She has 15 goals and six assists in 29 games for her club this season, is the leading scorer in the Champions League before the first leg of the quarter-final against Chelsea on Tuesday, and has four goals in six games for England since her equaliser in the Euro 2025 final. “Whenever you’re happy in life and in your club environment, it breathes on to the pitch,” she says. “I do feel in a really good place. I feel super calm and I’m just enjoying my football. Continue reading...

Anger remains after Ashes defeat and maybe leaders should have run towards the danger and made a change Having endorsed Brendon McCullum’s continuation as men’s head coach after an Ashes defeat riddled with self-owns and kept Rob Key above him as team director, the England and Wales Cricket Board could in one sense be viewed as having taken the path of least resistance. McCullum’s contract runs to the end of 2027 and it would cost a pretty penny to cut him loose. The players enjoy the pair’s methods and tend to call the shots in the modern era. There may not be an all-format candidate for head coach out there. Besides, look over there: the Hundred returns in July, ready to overload your eyeballs with multicoloured content. Continue reading...

New online accounts on Polymarket platform betting a total of $70,000 suggest ‘some degree of inside info’ Several accounts on the online platform Polymarket laid bets on a US-Iran ceasefire over the weekend that appeared to show signs of insider knowledge, according to experts. Eight accounts, all newly created around 21 March, bet a total of nearly $70,000 (£52,000) on there being a ceasefire. They stand to make nearly $820,000 if a such a deal is reached before 31 March. Continue reading...

Many of the decisions predate this government but the notion that Britain was better prepared for this crisis is fanciful “Because of the choices we made before the conflict in the Middle East began, we are better prepared for a more volatile world”, claimed the chief secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, last week. That statement – surprise, surprise – failed to calm the bond vigilantes who had pushed the yield on 10-year government debt to a punishing 5% before Monday’s modest retreat. Murray seemed to be referring to tax increases and the chancellor’s decision to shift £150 of green levies from energy bills into general taxation. Count those if you wish but, come on, they are minor entries. The UK’s vulnerability to energy price shocks flows from bigger forces, such as our large and growing dependency on imports. Continue reading...

19-year-old taken to hospital after loss in California Knockout happened just 78 seconds into fight Nineteen-year-old boxer Isis Sio was placed into a medically induced coma after a knockout loss to Jocelyn Camarillo on Saturday in San Bernardino, California, ProBoxTV announced after broadcasting the fight. Sio, who entered with a 1-2 professional record, was knocked out by a series of punches 78 seconds into the fight, the opener of the night’s card. She was convulsing in the ring after the knockout and transported to Loma Linda University Health, where she was placed into the coma. Continue reading...

Squad will be based at five-star Inn at Meadowbrook ‘We chose a hotel where you can open the window’ Thomas Tuchel believes England can create a home from home in Kansas City this summer to push their dream of World Cup glory. The manager is on board with the Football Association’s choice of an intimate boutique hotel for the squad – with training facilities 20 minutes away – and says they hope to fly in and out of Kansas City for matches throughout their stay at the finals. The FA has been attracted by how Kansas City, which straddles the states of Kansas and Missouri, is located in the centre of the United States, thereby mitigating travel distances to games. It is also happy with the accommodation and training base that has been secured. Continue reading...

Solange Tremblay was ejected over 100 metres from the plane after collision at LaGuardia airport, her daughter says Two pilots killed after Air Canada jet collision at LaGuardia in New York Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email A flight attendant on the Air Canada Jazz flight that collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia airport on Sunday survived in what her daughter called a “complete miracle”, when she was ejected more than 100 metres from the plane while still strapped to her seat. The CRJ-900 jet, operated by Jazz Aviation, collided with a fire truck as it landed, killing both the pilot and co-pilot. Nine people were sent to the hospital with injuries, including Solange Tremblay, a flight attendant. Continue reading...

Every PM hopes to emerge having said nothing that makes the news, and with Iran centre-stage Keir played a blinder What a difference a week makes. At last week’s prime minister’s questions, Keir Starmer tried to persuade us that he knew less than he did. His memory was so bad that he could barely remember who Peter Mandelson was, let alone why he had appointed him as ambassador to the US. Fast forward to Monday’s appearance before the liaison committee, the supergroup of select committee chairs, and Keir was desperate to convince us he knew more than he did. He had the inside track on Iran. He was in control. He also wasn’t altogether convincing. Mind you, it’s hard not to feel some sympathy with Starmer. The whole point of being prime minister is that you’re expected to know more than the rest of us. And most of the time you do. State secrets are your life blood. Only just occasionally the veil slips. Having threatened to obliterate Tehran’s power plants just days earlier, on Monday morning Donald Trump announced on Truth Social – along with a strange witch reference – that he was going to delay the bombardment for five days as constructive talks with the Iranian regime were taking place. Continue reading...

Victories in Paris and Marseille suggest a united left can reclaim centre-ground voters. But the end of Macronism is leaving a complex political landscape In 2002, divisions on the left allowed Jean-Marie Le Pen to shock France by reaching the run-off in that year’s presidential election. Lionel Jospin, the defeated Socialist candidate in the poll, would subsequently recall the humiliation to remind progressives of the need for unity in the face of the far-right threat. Mr Jospin’s death, announced on Monday, has overshadowed the weekend’s local election results. But as they are pored over for clues to a seismic presidential contest that Le Pen’s daughter, Marine, believes she can win next year, it is clear that alliances – or their absence – will shape that race too. In Paris and Marseille, Socialist candidates won handsome mayoral victories at the head of a broad left grouping that included Greens and Communists, but not Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left France Unbowed party (LFI). Emmanuel Grégoire’s second-round victory in Paris was particularly impressive, given that it was achieved against both a united right opposition and the LFI candidate, who refused to stand down. Outside the biggest conurbations, however, progressive outcomes were less stellar. Traditional strongholds such as the city of Clermont Ferrand, where Socialists and Greens made local alliances with Mr Mélenchon’s party, were lost to a mildly resurgent centre-right. Continue reading...

The US president claims progress in talks with Iran, but uncertainty persists. Meanwhile, Israel advances West Bank annexation under cover of a crisis It must be tough for Donald Trump: starting a war with Iran, but finding it terribly inconvenient to finish it before collecting a shiny prize from Benjamin Netanyahu or sharing a stage with China’s Xi Jinping. In war, as in peace, timing is everything. With the global economy teetering on fears of an uncontrolled escalation in attacks on electricity, oil and gas installations in the Gulf, Mr Trump revealed that he was having such “productive” conversations with Tehran that there would be a five-day pause in US strikes on “Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure”. The trouble is that Mr Trump’s talks may not exist. Tehran denies having them. If real, they would be a welcome de-escalatory step. They are also an admission that Mr Trump’s threat risked consequences more damaging than its intended target. But it also means that after markets close on Friday, Mr Trump could return to “bombing our little hearts out”. It is as unsurprising as it is grotesque that the US president would speak so lightly of potentially killing hundreds of civilians. Neither is Mr Trump likely to have been telling the truth in claiming “major points of agreement” in talks with Iran, including commitments on nuclear weapons and the reopening of the strait of Hormuz. Continue reading...

Perrine gained notoriety for a naked TV role and was acclaimed for her roles opposite Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman and Jeff Bridges Valerie Perrine, who was Oscar nominated for her performance in Bob Fosse’s 1974 Lenny Bruce biopic and played Lex Luthor’s girlfriend in the Richard Donner Superman films, has died aged 82. Writing on Facebook, the film-maker Stacey Souther announced her death, saying: “It is with deep sadness that I share the heartbreaking news that Valerie has passed away.” Continue reading...

PM indicates he would prefer to focus taxpayer-funded help on poorest households, rather than universal bailout Ministers are looking at providing support for household bills next winter, Keir Starmer said, as he suggested the energy price shock unleashed by the Iran conflict could continue for months to come. The prime minister indicated he would prefer to focus any taxpayer-funded help on the poorest households, rather than an expensive universal bailout, ahead of an emergency meeting on the economic fallout of the Middle East crisis. Continue reading...

Trump administration announces deal with TotalEnergies to redirect investment in wind to oil and gas instead As a fuel crisis triggered by the war in Iran drives up global fossil fuel prices, the Trump administration has announced it will pay French energy major TotalEnergies $1bn to kill plans to construct wind farms off the US east coast. The deal is the latest blow to the US offshore wind industry, which has faced repeated disruptions to multi-billion-dollar projects under Donald Trump. Continue reading...

Company will assess whether drop to 186mph from 224mph will save money and help bring forward launch Ministers have told High Speed Two to consider running its trains at lower speeds, in an attempt to rein in the spiralling budget and begin operations as soon as possible. HS2 Ltd will assess whether limiting the speed to 186mph (300km/h) instead of 224mph could save money – potentially billions of pounds – and bring the railway into being earlier in the 2030s. Continue reading...

The Home Office has blocked new study visas for applicants from Afghanistan, Sudan, Myanmar and Cameroon. It means many women will miss out on life-changing opportunities – as five female academics explain Six students challenge Home Office visa ban on four countries Shahira Sadat was thrilled. She had received an invitation to interview for the prestigious Chevening scholarship. “I cannot describe the joy I felt,” she says. “I was hopeful. I allowed myself to dream.” The scholarships are funded by the UK government, enabling future leaders from all over the world to pursue their studies in the UK – most often a one-year master’s degree – developing skills they can use in their home countries. In recent years, under Taliban rule, Sadat’s home country of Afghanistan has become increasingly hostile to women and girls, and the mother-of-one’s recent career achievements have happened behind closed doors. She is a software engineer, with an interest in AI and how it might help reduce the education gender gap and the digital exclusion of young people of both genders. Her skills could help generations of Afghan women, including her own daughter. Continue reading...

Sudanese and Afghan students with offers to study in UK say government’s ‘emergency brake’ is discriminatory The women banned from studying in Britain Six students from Sudan and Afghanistan have accused the home secretary of racial discrimination and launched legal action to try to overturn a ban on them taking up university places in the UK. The students – five from Sudan and one from Afghanistan – have undergraduate degrees in medicine and science-based subjects and received offers from universities including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London. Continue reading...

France’s Marine Le Pen and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders among speakers praising prime minister at Budapest event Marine Le Pen has called Viktor Orbán “an exceptional leader” and Geert Wilders hailed “a lion on a continent led by sheep” as Europe’s far-right figureheads rallied round Hungary’s prime minister before an election that polls suggest he may lose. “Hungary has become a symbol in Europe of a proud and sovereign people’s resistance against oppression,” Le Pen, the parliamentary leader of France’s National Rally (RN), told a gathering of EU-sceptical leaders in Budapest on Monday. Continue reading...

Donald Trump has said he is postponing strikes on Iranian power plants for a five-day period, extending a deadline he gave the regime to open the strait of Hormuz. The US president had threatened to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s power plants, while Tehran said in return it would ‘irreversibly destroy’ essential infrastructure across the Middle East, including vital water systems, in the conflict’s latest escalation. The war in the Middle East is now in its fourth week as Trump declares the US and Iran had ‘good and productive conversations’, but what could come next? Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour Continue reading...

Awarding US spy-tech company deal involving sensitive financial data is ‘huge error of judgment’, Liberal Democrats say MPs have urged the government to halt its latest contract with Palantir, after the Guardian revealed the US spy-tech company is to gain access to a trove of highly sensitive UK financial regulation data. The Financial Conduct Authority, the watchdog for thousands of financial bodies from banks to hedge funds, has hired Palantir to apply its AI systems to two years’ worth of internal intelligence data to help it tackle financial crime. Continue reading...

Chris Parry described Shomrim members as ‘cosplayers’ hours after arson attack in north London Golders Green ambulance arson attack – live updates A Reform UK mayoral candidate has described members of a Jewish neighbourhood watch group as “cosplayers” and likened them to “Islamists on horseback” in comments made after an attack on ambulances run by a Jewish charity. Chris Parry, who remains Reform’s mayoral candidate for Hampshire despite a previous controversy in which he said that David Lammy should “go home” to the Caribbean, made the comments on Monday about Shomrim, volunteers who safeguard communities including Orthodox Jewish families. Continue reading...

It had been possible to observe this presidency in abstract terms, but no more. The consequences of the Iran attack will affect our lives and our politics Nothing has changed. Yet. But we stand on the edge of inevitable economic cataclysm, such as not seen in our lifetimes. It’s an odd, hold-your-breath moment, waiting for what the International Energy Agency (IEA) says is now certain to happen: an energy crisis so critical it will be the equivalent of the two oil crises in 1973 and 1979 and Russia’s 2022 full invasion of Ukraine, put together. The IEA says it’s already too late to prevent this impending energy crisis. President Donald Trump has swerved the Armageddon destruction of oil and gas facilities threatening the entire Middle East, but too late. The deep recession, probably depression, that his war has caused is heading around the globe. Britain will be hard hit. Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...