Officers fired pepper balls and teargas into group of about 150 on Saturday night, arresting those who did not disperse Third No Kings protest draws 8 million worldwide to push back on Trump administration Police arrested dozens of protesters and shot teargas into a crowd on Saturday night at a No Kings protest in Los Angeles. The conflict is the latest of many that have taken place outside the Metropolitan detention center, which has become a focal point of protests since the Trump administration launched an immigration offense on Los Angeles last year. Continue reading...

The Three Lions have not beaten a good side under their coach and no A-list players have emerged since the last World Cup Maybe we’re just not that into us. There are times when trying to rationalise the makeup, reach and ultimate capacities of the England football team can feel a bit like living inside the frantically hyper-formalised New York dating scene of the 1990s. Here we go again. Picking over the details. Hung up on what-ifs. Arguing about The Rules of the Game. Don’t be too available. Never text first. Do wear a wizard hat. Learn magic tricks. And be rude to people. Also, be endlessly mysterious. No, more mysterious than that. Seriously, where do you get off not having enough mystery? Continue reading...

Exclusive: Health secretary’s pledges in doubt as analysis shows health service will not deliver key improvements The NHS is set to miss key targets to shorten waiting times for help at A&E, cancer care and planned hospital treatment, leaving millions of patients facing persistently long delays. The health service in England will not deliver a series of milestone improvements in its performance that ministers demanded it achieve by the time the fiscal year ends on Tuesday, a Guardian analysis of the NHS’s most recent data has found. Continue reading...

Five years of brutal conflict have made the army more determined to crush opposition, and others more convinced they must resist China promoted elections in Myanmar, while those fighting for democracy boycotted them. That tells you everything about the shift to a supposedly civilian administration in the coming days, five years after the military seized power in a coup. It appears likely that Min Aung Hlaing will swap his leadership of the army for the presidency. Whatever the details, the junta will still be running the show, and bombing civilians – just while cosplaying as democrats. Myanmar’s suffering has been overshadowed by higher-profile wars. But the conflict-monitoring organisation Acled estimates that about 93,000 people have been killed since 2021, while the UN says that 3.6 million are displaced. The junta does not control much of the country, limiting where polls could be held. The opposition refused to take part, and others were excluded from voting because they are denied citizenship. Little wonder the main military-backed party declared a landslide victory – despite having won just 6% of the vote in a 2020 election. Continue reading...

The US health secretary says he is a big fan of peptides. Many are promising drugs, but the only way to know their utility is proper clinical trials Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, is a chaotic person, but his Make America Healthy Again (Maha) agenda tends to follow a predictable logic. Large-scale, mandatory public health interventions – such as childhood vaccine requirements – are generally treated with suspicion and undermined. Personal choice – to drink unpasteurised milk, for example – is to be unleashed, and unburdened by regulation. In theory, Maha promises freedom and autonomy; in practice it tends to replace the precautionary principle with exhortations for individuals to “do your own research”, and sidelines scientific expertise in favour of “wellness” hucksters and profiteers. This is particularly obvious in Mr Kennedy’s recent claims that he will open up the sale of “about 14” injectable peptide drugs to the public. Peptides are molecules often used by our bodies for sending signals – so there are many kinds of peptides, and the safety and efficacy of each is a separate question. The widely used “weight-loss jab” drugs are peptides but so are the toxic compounds in snake venom that dissolve living cells. Mr Kennedy is likely to be referring to a subset of 17 peptides restricted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2023 due to “potential significant safety risks”. None have been proved to be safe or effective for human use, so there is no clear argument for reversing the decision. Continue reading...

Sale 26-31 Bath Bath close to point of Prem leaders Northampton The reservoir of talent at Bath runs deep. The reigning champions rested a raft of key men but ultimately had too much class for a Sale side whose season continues to unravel at a rate of knots. Johann van Graan’s men conjured two tries in the final quarter, including when their 20-year-old hooker Kepu Tuipulotu sent a delightful kick down the left channel for fellow replacement Bernard van der Linde to saunter clear. Continue reading...

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Readers take stock of the party’s missteps in government and Keir Starmer’s leadership I wonder how many members still clinging on to the Labour party winced at Gaby Hinsliff’s article (Ed Miliband’s stock is rising because he’s a rare commodity in Labour these days: a thinker, 27 March). Like everyone else, she recognises that Labour has become an intellectual vacuum, with its only clear features being unpleasant policies designed to exploit the far right’s prejudices. But the electorate is ahead here. They know that resurrecting the once admirable but now compromised Ed Miliband will do nothing to heal the existential injury in the party. Most people no longer hark back to the halcyon days of New Labour’s claim to build a better society. They now recognise it as a swindle, with its toxic components of privatisation, private finance initiatives, excesses in the private financial sector and, of course, Iraq. Continue reading...

Richard Harvey and Joy Webb respond to an article by George Monbiot on the fragility of the global food system in light of the Iran war Although I agree with George Monbiot’s analysis of the serious risks that we face from a breakdown in the UK food supply chain, there are two important points we need to recognise (We’re letting big corporations gamble with our lives. Act now, or the food could run out, 25 March). First, we must seek to increase food production on UK farms because this has been falling for several decades. Food self-sufficiency in the UK fell from 78% in 1984 to 62% in 2024. The decline is largely due to the loss of farmland to non-farming use: buildings, roads and railways, conservation and wildlife schemes, solar farms and recreation. We need to plan for a scenario where imported food may not be readily available. Continue reading...

Talk of disadvantaged children being left behind so often leaves out the workforce most likely to reach them, says Brett Wigdortz Polly Toynbee is right that England’s childcare system is falling short on its social purpose (It’s always been a fight to get children the early years care they deserve. It’s time to fight again, 20 March). But the irony is that talk of disadvantaged children being left behind often leaves out the workforce most likely to reach them: childminders. When we frame nurseries as the default in childcare provision (as Toynbee does, with not a single nod to childminders) we put low-income families even further on the back foot. As she notes, private equity-backed nursery chains prefer wealthier areas – they’re not itching to set up shop in deprived ones. But childminders can open their doors on any street and represent communities across the country. As they work from home and have lower overheads, they can be an oasis of affordability in deprived areas. And unlike nurseries’ more rigid hours, childminders offer flexible, wraparound care better suited to parents who work shifts. Without a plan to rebuild this vital workforce (which has lost 75,000 providers since the 1990s), children who need early years care the most will struggle to access it, no matter what funding changes are made. Brett Wigdortz CEO, Tiney; founder, Teach First; spokesperson, Childminding2030 campaign Continue reading...

Kenneth B Ati-John and Ndine Wa‑Chiuta respond to an article by Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama The president of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, is right to argue that recognising the transatlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity is an essential step toward justice (It’s time for the UN to formally recognise the transatlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity, 22 March). But recognition alone will not be enough. The real question before the international community is what recognition is meant to achieve. For decades, Africa and the Caribbean have secured acknowledgments of historical injustice, from the Abuja Proclamation to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. Yet the structural effects of that history remain visible in patterns of development, opportunity and vulnerability across Africa and its diaspora. If this new initiative at the United Nations general assembly is to succeed, it must move beyond symbolic affirmation toward institutional consequences. Reparatory justice should therefore be understood not simply as compensation for the past but as a framework for restructuring opportunity in the present. Recognition only becomes meaningful when it strengthens the ability of affected societies to negotiate fairer terms within the international system that their labour helped build. The African Union’s decision to designate 2026 to 2035 as the “decade of action on reparations” signals that Africa is approaching this issue with seriousness and coordination. The next step is to translate that commitment into practical mechanisms: support for the Caribbean Community’s 10-point reparations framework, expanded educational partnerships and development financing arrangements that help correct longstanding structural imbalances. Handled with discipline and imagination, this initiative could help redefine reparations not as a backward-looking claim, but as a forward-looking project of global fairness. Rear Adm Kenneth B Ati-John Lekki, Nigeria Continue reading...

Dane wins GC as Brady Gilmore takes stage seven victory Jasper Philipsen wins one-day In Flanders Fields race Jonas Vingegaard triumphed at the Volta a Catalunya as he continued his strong start to the season, while Brady Gilmore sprinted to a surprise stage seven victory. Vingegaard topped the general classification 1min 22sec ahead of France’s Lenny Martinez and a further eight seconds ahead of Germany’s Florian Lipowitz. Gilmore, racing with the retired football great Andrés Iniesta’s NSN team, edged out Dorian Godon and Remco Evenepoel in a thrilling bunch sprint finale. Sunday’s 95km final stage took in seven circuits of Montjuïc in Barcelona, where the Tour de France will start in July. Continue reading...

Desire to remain relevant is understandable, but a glance at his behavioural pattern casts doubt on his PGA Tour and Ryder Cup involvement It is a scene that has become more extraordinary with the passing of time. Plenty of sportspeople have been guilty of or admitted to extramarital capers. Only Tiger Woods appeared live on television, in front of a hand-picked audience, to deliver a 14-minute mea culpa on his transgressions. American golf executives in their perfectly ironed slacks stood in sombre mood as Woods laid bare his “personal sins”. The venue, hilariously, was the home of the PGA Tour. Woods had no need to go into tawdry detail about his antics; the tabloid media had done that for him. “I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply,” said Woods. Sixteen years on from that speech, it is worth pondering whether much has changed. Continue reading...

Britain wants limits on young people entering country but Europe opposes this as scheme aims to celebrate links An “emergency brake” could be put on the number of people coming to the UK from Europe as part of a new youth experience scheme, under terms being offered to Britain by EU negotiators Britain wants an outright cap, but the EU opposes this on the basis that the scheme is supposed to be a positive one aimed at celebrating and preserving links with the EU. Continue reading...

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Weak and sick mammal has twice become stuck on a sandbank, with news of the rescue efforts captivating the German public The fate of a humpback whale stranded in shallow bays off Germany’s Baltic coast hangs in the balance after several rescue attempts. The roughly 10-metre-long (33ft) mammal appeared weakened and sick on Sunday and was struggling to find a route back to the Atlantic. Continue reading...

Lyric Hammersmith, London Jocelyn Bioh’s comedy – following a day in the life of a Harlem braiding salon – is filled with humour and hijinks ‘Don’t touch my hair” is a racially-charged statement of Black femininity, encapsulating the personal as political. Hair is political here too, though there is plenty of consenting touching in Jocelyn Bioh’s comedy following a day in the life of a Harlem braiding salon. Bioh’s follow-up to School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, is again directed by Monique Touko and has dazzled audiences on Broadway. You can see why: it contains such abundant charm, humour and insuppressible, crowd-pleasing energy that it is hard to be anything but seduced by its radiating warmth. Continue reading...

Croat failed to win a league match as interim head coach Had been away from post following death of father Tottenham have parted company with Igor Tudor after seven games and 44 days in a desperate attempt to halt their slide towards relegation from the Premier League. According to the club, the decision was mutually agreed. Tudor took one point from his five league matches to leave Tottenham one above the bottom three, the final straw coming in Sunday’s 3-0 home defeat by Nottingham Forest. A previously unthinkable demotion to the Championship would be devastating for prestige and revenues. Continue reading...

Pontiff’s unusually pointed comments come after Pete Hegseth’s prayer for violence against enemies ‘who deserve no mercy’ Pope Leo has said God ignores the prayers of leaders who wage war and have “hands full of blood” in an apparent rebuke to the Trump administration. The pontiff made the comments on Sunday as thousands of US troops arrived in the Middle East and days after the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, prayed for violence against enemies who deserved “no mercy”. Continue reading...

Pushing yourself to the limit, training through injury and choosing the gym over socialising are all signs that you may have an unhealthy reliance on exercise At the peak of his adventuring career, Luke Tyburski was a man of extremes. The former pro-footballer, then in his early 30s, had dedicated himself to intense endurance challenges, of the sort that make a marathon look like a fun run. Beginning with the Marathon de Sables (a notorious multistage ultramarathon in the Sahara desert), he then ran the world’s highest ultramarathon at Mount Everest base camp, battled dehydration during a 100km run on a tropical island, and took on the vividly named Double Brutal Extreme Triathlon in north Wales. The endgame in all of this was a self-designed challenge, which saw him swimming from Africa to Europe, cycling through Spain and running to Monaco – 2,000km in total, in just 12 days. Tyburski was a professional adventurer, financing his pursuits via magazine articles and speaking gigs, and even making a documentary about his quest. His whole raison d’etre was to push past his limitations, showing what a person is capable of when their mindset is strong enough. Yet, privately, he was dealing with depression, related to a loss of identity after the end of his footballing career, which took in Australia, the US and Belgium before he tried out for clubs in the UK. “Training and racing creates an escape, and the highs are extremely high,” says Tyburski. “But when I returned home from an adventure, the lows were extremely low, because I hadn’t addressed what I was running away from.” Continue reading...

In the face of existential anxiety it may be tempting to fret over smaller details, but there are positive steps we can take to prepare for a world that may change at any moment The modern mind is a column where experts discuss mental health issues they are seeing in their work Since the United States and Israel attacked Iran, my therapy rooms have been flooded with clients talking about the possibility of a world war and the widespread perception that we stand at a perilous tipping point in history. People are dealing with this differently, with some sanguinely shrugging and accepting they can’t change matters so there’s little point worrying, while others fret and compulsively check the news. Many describe a sense of strong doom. I too have experienced a similar awareness that the global order has changed irrevocably, with the same uncertainty as my clients are describing. Continue reading...

The tiny Caribbean island nation has a familiar face in their ranks whose time with Australia in 2018 is proving crucial ahead of the tournament Curacao have been in dreamland since qualifying for a first World Cup last November but geopolitical reality kicked in as the team headed to Australia for games against China and the Socceroos. Due to war in the Middle East, Curacao’s long-haul flight that should have been Amsterdam to Sydney via Dubai became instead Frankfurt to Singapore with lots of logistical stress and separate journeys. The two island nations – though Australia is about 17,000 times bigger than the Caribbean country – meet in Melbourne on Tuesday. Curacao has a population of 155,000 making it the smallest nation to make it to the global stage. Despite the differences, the two teams have more than just 2026 World Cup preparation in common. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Pubs, restaurants and hotels warn of mounting pressure days before rates rises and higher wage bills take effect One in five hospitality businesses fear collapse in the next 12 months, according to an industry-wide survey that comes days before rises in tax and employment costs kick in. From Wednesday, many pub, restaurant and hotel companies face the prospect of a higher bill for business rates paid to their local authority, while an increase in minimum wage thresholds takes effect on the same day. Continue reading...

A once robust American anti-war movement is significantly weaker than it was in its heyday. The immensely unpopular war on Iran offers a real opportunity to rebuild it In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson asked Congress for authorization to use military force in south-east Asia. His resolution passed unanimously in the House, and only two voices dissented in the Senate. As for the public, 77% of Americans said they trusted the government to do what is right, and more than 60% supported war. It is common today to hear that the US war in Vietnam was unpopular, but it certainly did not begin that way. It took several years, billions of dollars, tens of thousands of deaths, and constant anti-war mobilization before Americans changed their minds. 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: has a call for ‘restraint’ ever put a stop to war? I read that the average NFL match lasts for three hours, but the clock runs for only one hour. Are there any other sports, games, pastimes or other activities that involve more dead time than actual game time? Alice Holliday, Lancashire Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...