Higher nutritional standards are a good idea. But ministers, like hungry pupils, must avoid looking for ‘grab-and-go’ fixes For growing children, lunchtime is a vital moment in every day. Full-time education is demanding. Afternoon lessons only work because they come after a break – and food. And children, like adults, often mind a great deal about what they eat. So school menus are important. Last week’s announcement that school food standards in England are being updated thus deserved its positive reception. It is right that the Department for Education should shape what comes out of school canteens, as should the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. England’s last review was 13 years ago, and school food has fallen a long way down the policy agenda since Jamie Oliver’s televised war on Turkey Twizzlers. Other pressing issues such as special educational needs provision, and falling school rolls, have taken its place. Continue reading...

A 1,200-year dataset shows the ‘peak bloom’ is arriving earlier. Global heating is unsettling nature’s rhythms – and their cultural meaning A picture posted on social media last April by Prof Yasuyuki Aono of a spreadsheet, with its blank row for 2026, carries a quiet poignancy. Prof Aono died before he got to fill in this year’s entry for when the cherry blossom fully bloomed in Kyoto. The academic had spent decades reconstructing dates of flowering that go back to the ninth century. His work illuminated how a botanical event long associated with the Japanese idea of mono no aware – a sadness at the passing of things – is shifting because of the climate crisis. The “peak bloom” now occurs around two weeks earlier than in previous centuries. In the 1820s full bloom arrived in mid-April. In 2023 the full-flowering date was 25 March. An earlier blooming indicates warmer springs – and Prof Aono’s data provides a warning signal that Japan’s “sakura front” comes sooner each year. Continue reading...

Chris Wright says ‘I don’t know’ when asked about lower cost of gas as average price soars to $4 a gallon in US Chris Wright, the Trump administration’s energy secretary, acknowledged Sunday that it might not be until 2027 before US gas prices come back under $3 a gallon. Asked by Jake Tapper, the CNN State of the Union host, when he thought “it’s realistic for Americans to expect the gas will go back to under $3 a gallon”, Wright replied: “I don’t know. That could happen later this year. That might not happen until next year.” Continue reading...

Readers respond to an article by Gaby Hinsliff in which she questions whether the Southport killer’s parents share responsibility for his crime I read Gaby Hinsliff’s article regarding the culpability of Axel Rudakubana’s parents with a sinking heart (Are Axel Rudakubana’s parents responsible for his terrible crime? It’s a question many families will fear to answer, 17 April). I’m no apologist for the parents, but I’m a lawyer working in the field of mental health and frequently appear before the court of protection in complex cases where we try to balance the need to protect and respect people with complex mental health needs and balance their rights against the rights of the public. It’s not an easy task and the reality is that there isn’t much scope, nor appetite, for taking people into custody who have not yet, and may never, commit a crime. Continue reading...

Ethnicity, culture and access continue to shape who is believed, how quickly, and with what outcome, says Vanessa Haye I welcome the relaunched women’s health strategy (Streeting relaunches women’s health strategy to tackle ‘medical misogyny’, 14 April) but with caution. The system appears responsive, but the root causes in health inequality outcomes remain untouched. It names urgent issues many women have long experienced: navigating the gynaecology referral queue that would stretch over 191 miles (if waiting in person), medical gaslighting, delayed diagnoses and systemic bias. Continue reading...

Baby boomer Caroline Stone is dismayed at the rise of tradwife influencers, whose advice was followed for a month by the Guardian’s Lucy Knight I very much enjoyed Lucy Knight’s article (My month in the tradwife world: ‘I can’t pretend I’m not enjoying myself at all’, 15 April). As a boomer with children and grandchildren, I have no trouble appreciating the very poor hand the young people of today have been dealt and the reason that gingham, herb gardens and sourdough are a comforting fantasy. However, I think it is high time to draw readers’ attention to Sue Kaufman’s very funny and terrifyingly relevant Diary of a Mad Housewife to warn of the dangers of the tradwife ideal. I would also like to put on record, since my generation is constantly reviled, that when we marched to Aldermaston, campaigned against the death penalty and the incarceration of homosexuals, demanded equal rights (abortion, mortgage without a male backer, etc) and pay for women, tried to persuade the world about ecological issues and the need for recycling (I vividly remember having a rubbish bin tipped over my head by an angry eco-sceptic), demonstrated again, this time against the Vietnam war and later the Iraq war, and are now being arrested for objecting to genocide, we were not trying to create a world in which the young needed to take refuge in tradwife fantasies, from a dismal present and hopeless future. It is regrettable that we failed, but we tried. Caroline Stone Seville, Spain Continue reading...

There was a moment early in the second half when Morgan Gibbs-White, asked to move left from his favoured No10 position as Nottingham Forest reshaped in a bid to get back into a game Burnley were winning, mistimed his swivel so badly, with a clear sight of goal, that the ball looped harmlessly behind, like a balloon at a child’s party. “You’re going down with the Burnley,” sang the travelling fans gleefully in the Bridgford Stand, as they treasured the rare lead Zian Flemming’s first-half added-time goal had given them. Continue reading...

There was a new home for the Merseyside derby but an old and familiar script. Virgil van Dijk’s 100th minute winner brought victory and relief for Arne Slot as Everton’s hopes of christening Hill Dickinson Stadium in style were punctured by another late Liverpool show. The 248th Merseyside derby was petering out towards a forgettable draw when the Liverpool captain held off James Tarkowski to head home a Dominik Szoboszlai corner. Liverpool had tried the routine all afternoon and, in the tenth of 11 minutes of stoppage time, it finally paid off. Slot’s prospects of leading Liverpool into the Champions League next season lifted along with the noise from the delirious away section. Continue reading...

The finish was chaotic but, when the dust settles, this perhaps was the afternoon when Aston Villa made a decisive spurt for the finish line to claim Champions League qualication. As Tammy Abraham touched in the winner three minutes into injury-time, Unai Emery ran onto the pitch in celebration. Yet just a minute earlier Habib Diarra had been set clean through with a chance of his own to win it. Emi Martínez, though, stretched up to save his dink, and the road was cleared for the Villa winner. It was a game played amid a strange spirit of relaxation, with both sides having effectively achieved their ambitions for the season before kick-off: for Sunderland, avoiding the drop, and for Villa qualifying for the Champions League; Unai Emery’s fifth Europa League success, itself a potential route into the premier competition, may still come as a bonus. This was just Villa’s fifth win in 15 league games since their run of eight league wins in a row came to an end in late December, and as a result they now have a 10-point lead over Chelsea in sixth with five games remaining. Continue reading...

Leadership, on and off the field, was lacking at the MCG and any investigation must ascertain whether Carlton fulfilled its duty of care The weekend of football threw up great dollops of drama and pathos. One of the tallest and most talented players in the sport buckled like a stricken baby giraffe. Arguably the best footballer in Australia was blanketed by an Irishman. The heart and soul of his club copped a knee to the head that may spell the end of his career. In Adelaide, 46,000 people stood to acknowledge a family that had lost a brother and a son. We see variations of that every weekend. We see knee injuries and head knocks. We see teams squander winning leads. We see coaches fighting for their jobs. We see the brilliance of players like Nick Daicos, Nick Watson and Jeremy Cameron. It’s all neatly packaged, all easily explained, and all what keeps drawing us back. What we almost never see, and what’s harder to manage, to diagnose and to articulate, is what took place at the MCG on Thursday night. It didn’t come through the filtered lens of the host broadcasters or the curated feeds of the club itself, but through grainy footage from high in the stands. Continue reading...

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Being unremarkable is often seen as a sign of moral failure – yet finding joy in the everyday can lead to a mindful, luminous experience Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life Lately I’ve been playing with a thought experiment: what if I was told the rest of my life would be completely ordinary? Not bad, just unremarkable. My immediate response is, “Well, ordinary is better than awful” (forever the optimist), and then almost immediately (and embarrassingly), “This is not how life is meant to play out! I want something more!” Continue reading...

I was only in my teens when, late at night, my Datsun ended up dangling off a median strip. Bracing to be harassed, I walked into a truck stop to ask for help … Read more in the kindness of strangers series My first car was a Datsun, in a delightful shade of baby-poo brown. I’d only been on my Ps a week when I almost drove it to total disaster. It was 11pm one night in south-west Sydney when I approached the huge intersection that links the Hume Highway with Henry Lawson Drive. I was trying to turn right on to the highway and was the first car at the lights. With the baseless confidence of a 17-year-old, I turned … into the wrong lane. Continue reading...

Sadler’s Wells, London Tap, waacking, jookin’, footwork and jit are among the traditional, street and club styles that come together as Michelle Dorrance showcases a startling array of forms and talent The last big US tap dance star to make a splash in the UK was Savion Glover, whose performances centred on extended solos of intense virtuosity. Michelle Dorrance, tap’s current hot property, is a completely different proposition. Her spirit is collegiate, all about collaboration (she was on the Sadler’s Wells stage last month with ballet star Tiler Peck). Dorrance’s vibe is community, and dance being a conversation between different styles, artists and eras. She has co-created The Center Will Not Hold with choreographer and B-girl Ephrat Asherie, and with a superlative cast including Charles Riley, AKA Lil Buck, pioneer of Memphis Jookin’, who was one of the first dancers to go viral, for his duet with cellist Yo-Yo Ma to Saint-Saëns’ The Swan. Lil Buck’s movement slides and glides on the tips of his trainer-toes, seemingly not touching the floor, like one of those magnetic trains that hovers over its tracks. But Riley is not the only startling talent. There is also 22-year-old Caleb Lawrence Jackson, whose specialisms are tap and Chicago footwork, legs blurring as if infected with the dancing plague, everything on fast-fast-forward. And the entrancing Tomoe “Beasty” Carr (specialisms: hip-hop, house, waacking), who moves like a bolt of mercurial lightning that’s still deciding where to strike. Continue reading...

Allen rallies from 5-3 down to win 10-6 in first round ‘I had a few drinks, a bit of bad food, slept really well’ Mark Allen revealed how “bad food” and a few drinks fuelled his surge into the second round of the World Snooker Championship after he swallowed up a two-frame overnight deficit to crush Zhang Anda 10-6 at the Crucible. The 40-year-old was so disillusioned with his display on Saturday, when he failed to rustle up a break over 50, that he set about drowning his sorrows in Sheffield. Allen then returned on Sunday to rifle three centuries in a six-frame streak and advance to the last 16. Continue reading...

British player has been out of action since early March Rybakina wins her second Porsche at Stuttgart Open Emma Raducanu will extend her absence from the WTA tour due to a viral illness to two months after she withdrew from the Madrid Open ahead of next week’s tournament. Raducanu has not competed since suffering a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Amanda Anisimova in the second round of the Indian Wells Open on 8 March. She briefly trained on-site at the Miami Open just over a week later before citing lingering symptoms from an earlier viral illness as the reason for her withdrawal from the tournament. Raducanu had been affected by a viral illness during the Middle East swing in February, which she said had contributed to her poor performances on the court. Continue reading...

Former US president and New York mayor read to a group of children and led a sing-along at a Bronx childcare center Barack Obama met with Zohran Mamdani for the first time on Saturday at a childcare center where the former Democratic US president and mayor of New York City read to preschoolers and led a sing-along. The meeting comes as Mamdani, a democratic socialist who marked his 100th day in office just over a week earlier, is also trying to build a working relationship with Donald Trump – Obama’s Republican presidential successor. Continue reading...

⚽️ Premier League updates from the 4.30pm BST kick-off ⚽ Live scores | Tables | Top scorers | Follow on Bluesky We should have known it was always going to end this way. For most of the season, it looked like Arsenal were strolling to their first title in 22 years without a serious challenge. It was a ludicrous assumption, one that disrespected the weight of history and the voracity of Pep Guardiola. The clues were all there. Guardiola’s decade-long dominance of the Premier League; his complex relationship with Mikel Arteta; the intense recent rivalry between the sides. Had Arsenal won the league without overcoming City, the narrative police would have wanted a word. Continue reading...

Pitcairn Register details lives of ‘extraordinarily resilient’ Tahitian women enslaved during notorious mutiny It is a book that records the 19th-century descendants of some of the most notorious troublemakers in naval history: the sailors responsible for the mutiny on the Bounty. Now, the Pitcairn Register – a handwritten volume that registered the births, marriages and deaths of the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the mutineers and the Tahitian women they enslaved – is finally returning home to the South Pacific. Continue reading...

After deadly 2023 fires, recent storms and ICE raids, Lahaina residents are determined to rebuild the town for their community In March, Hawaii was hit with two back-to-back storms, bringing the worst flooding it’s seen in 20 years. In Lahaina, Maui, muddy flood waters turned streets into rivers and carved new paths through the barren landscape, breaking open roads and flooding houses. In their wake, sinkholes appeared, engulfing cars. This is nearly three years after the deadliest wildfires in US history ravaged Lahaina, destroying more than 2,000 structures and killing more than 100 people. Hundreds of affected households are still in temporary housing. Poverty, unemployment and housing instability, rife before the fires, have only worsened. Continue reading...

Police say 29-year-old arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and drink driving after collision on Soho street A woman has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a car hit pedestrians in central London in the early hours of Sunday morning. A woman in her 30s is in hospital in a critical condition and a man in his 50s suffered life-changing injuries after they were hit by a car in Argyll Street, Westminster, at about 4.30am on Sunday, the Metropolitan police said. Continue reading...

Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government to ask MPs to back controversial voluntary repatriation scheme Italian lawyers will be paid bonuses if they successfully convince their immigrant clients to return home under a government plan that has been compared to a “wild west-style bounty”. The incentive is in the latest security bill from Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government and goes to the lower house of parliament for final approval this week. It was passed by the upper house after fiery debate. Continue reading...

Jack Clarke fired home an 87th-minute penalty to save a point for Ipswich in a pulsating 2-2 draw with promotion rivals Middlesbrough. Jarred Gillett awarded the spot-kick when he adjudged Adilson Malanda had tugged the substitute George Hirst in the box. Middlesbrough, who are on a seven-match winless run, went ahead through David Strelec only for Kasey McAteer to equalise five minutes later. The visitors took the lead through Tommy Conway but Clarke’s spot-kick saw the points shared. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts This week’s question: Donald Trump is not the messiah. But what does it take to convince people that you are? What would the world look like if nobody ever made a mistake? Ian Osborne, Worcestershire Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...

Agreements would aim to shield British industry from new steel tariffs and stricter rules on electric vehicles due in 2027 Downing Street hopes to secure deals on steel and electric cars with the EU as it seeks to upgrade the post-Brexit economic relationship. Amid economic uncertainty caused by the conflict in the Middle East and strains in relations with the US, Keir Starmer is seeking closer economic ties with the EU. Continue reading...