US president demolished East Wing of White House last year to make way for 90,000-sq-ft project Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox A US judge has blocked Donald Trump from proceeding with the construction of his $400m White House ballroom. The US president demolished the East Wing of the White House last year to make way for the project. Continue reading...

Prop played with Tigers coach under Stuart Lancaster ‘I am honoured to be part of this prestigious club’ The former England prop Mako Vunipola has confirmed he is joining Leicester this summer as the Tigers look to beef up their pack for next season. The 35-year-old Vunipola will be joined in the East Midlands by the Argentinian front-row Joel Sclavi who will also help to fill the gap left by Nicky Smith’s impending switch to Sale Sharks. Vunipola, who won 79 England caps and was picked for three British & Irish Lions tours, is playing for Vannes in France’s ProD2 but has opted to extend his career by a year. “He was hungry for the chance to come back to the Prem and finish in the comp he knows best,” the Leicester head coach, Geoff Parling, said. Continue reading...

Leaked audio appeared to capture Péter Szijjártó telling Moscow he would try to amend EU sanctions list to its liking Polish and Irish leaders have called the Hungarian government’s actions “repulsive” and “sinister”, after leaked audio appeared to capture its foreign minister telling Moscow he would try to amend the EU sanctions list to its liking. On Tuesday – days before an election in which Hungary’s Viktor Orbán is facing the toughest battle of his 16 years in power – a joint media investigation published a report that it said was based on leaked phone calls between Péter Szijjártó and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. Continue reading...

Luca Cella Walker asked chatbot for best way for someone to kill themself on railway line before his death A 16-year-old boy killed himself after asking ChatGPT for the “most successful” way to take your own life, an inquest has been told. Luca Cella Walker, a private school pupil from Yateley, Hampshire, died on 4 May last year. Continue reading...

At this point, it’s trite to say that a bad film feels as if it’s been AI generated, but this simplistic sequel is next-level – it’s nothing more than an Easter holiday cash grab Here is an inert and uninteresting animated follow-up to The Super Mario Bros Movie, based on the legacy video game about two wacky Italian-Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi, voiced here by Chris Pratt and Charlie Day; this kind of stereotype is evidently the last in mainstream entertainment to be considered offensive. Now they and mushroom-kingdom ruler Princess Peach (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy) have to rescue Rosalina (Brie Larson), the adoptive mother of the faintly Minion-y creatures called the Lumas. She has been abducted by Bowser Jr (Benny Safdie), the son of wicked turtle Bowser (Jack Black), who did very much the same sort of thing in the previous film. Of course it’s intended for little kids, but it surely didn’t need to be such a visually dull screensaver of a movie, with even more of the cheesy, Euro-knockoff look of that first film. And, again, the paucity of funny lines is a real puzzle. The last film gave us a concerted attempt to spoof the game’s 2D graphics and its left-to-right gameplay movement, with all the running and jumping, making a comic virtue of how absurd it looks. There’s little or nothing of that now, just a pretty uninspired variation of the first storyline, a generic quest adventure whose incidental plot point of Mario’s supposed crush on Princess Peach generates absolutely no interest at all. Continue reading...

Liss Fenwick’s new photobook The Colony, available through Perimeter Editions, is a book about books – and what happens when their authority is quietly and actively undone Continue reading...

New Spurs head coach supported Greenwood at Marseille Greenwood had charges including attempted rape dropped in 2023 The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust has strongly criticised the appointment of Roberto De Zerbi as the club’s head coach, expressing “serious and far-reaching concerns” over his past support for Mason Greenwood. In a statement released soon after De Zerbi signed a five-year contract on Tuesday, the Trust said his arrival placed a “heavy strain” on unity at a time when Spurs are battling against relegation from the Premier League. It also called on Spurs and the Italian to publicly reassert their “commitment to the values that fans hold dear – chief among them equality, respect, and integrity”. Continue reading...

Palestinians convicted of lethal attacks deemed terrorism face execution – while settlers enjoy impunity despite soaring West Bank violence The death penalty is morally repugnant. How much more so, then, when it is made the default, must be speedily carried out, cannot be subject to clemency, and is blatantly discriminatory – not merely in practice but inherently. The law passed by Israel’s Knesset on Monday is worded to effectively apply only to Palestinians, entrenching what many – including domestic rights groups, legal scholars and the international court of justice – have identified as practices amounting to apartheid. In setting out law for the illegally occupied West Bank, it is also annexationist. “Its application to residents of the occupied Palestinian territory would constitute a war crime,” said the UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk. Execution will be the default for Palestinians found guilty of lethal attacks deemed as terrorist acts in the West Bank’s military courts – which have a conviction rate of around 96%. Amnesty International says that the system routinely relies on evidence extracted through torture and abuse. The death sentence will be imposed even if prosecutors do not seek it. Convictions need no longer be unanimous. There is no possibility of pardon. Executions must take place within 90 days. Within Israeli civilian courts, the new law imposes the death penalty for deliberately killing a person with the intention of “negating the existence of the State of Israel”. Life imprisonment can only substitute in unspecified “special” circumstances. Continue reading...

As Plaid Cymru leads in polls ahead of Senedd elections in May, grassroots enthusiasm for one of its historic causes is growing In Putting Wales First, a recently translated history of Plaid Cymru’s political ideas, Prof Richard Wyn Jones references a 1940s newspaper editorial satirising the party’s then preoccupations. Poking fun at its focus on language, and nostalgia for a rural society of small-scale landowners, the Western Mail waspishly summed up the vision as “three acres and a Welsh-speaking cow”. It was a caricature at the time, of course. And it certainly bears no relation to the modern-day Plaid, which launched its Senedd campaign this week from a position of strength at the top of the polls. But Plaid’s historic commitment to safeguarding and promoting Welsh language and culture remains a defining cause. If – as currently seems highly likely – it goes on to lead the next Welsh government after 7 May, it has promised a raft of measures to embed the use of Cymraeg more deeply in everyday life. Continue reading...

Two-month arrangement aimed at preventing small-boat crossings comes as existing deal expires The UK will pay France an extra £16.2m to keep police patrolling Channel beaches and prevent a surge in small-boat crossings after negotiators failed to agree a permanent deal before a midnight deadline. The stopgap arrangement, which will last for two months, comes after French negotiators refused to give in to UK demands for further interventions and patrols to stop asylum seekers from reaching the UK via the Channel. Continue reading...

⚽️ Updates from this 7.45pm BST KO at Wembley ⚽️ Tonight’s live scores | Email Simon The lineups are in and they look like this: England: Pickford, White, Konsa, Guehi, O’Reilly, Anderson, Mainoo, Palmer, Rogers, Foden, Gordon. Subs: Trafford, Steele, Henderson, Maguire, Bellingham, Rashford, Burn, Solanke, Barnes, Bowen, Garner, Spence, Livramento, Hall. Japan: Suzuki, J Ito, Watanabe, Taniguchi, Nakamura, Sano, Kamada, Doan, Mitoma, H Ito, Ueda. Subs: Hayakawa, Osaka, Sugawara, Seko, Fujita, Y Suzuki, Machino, Maeda, Hashioka, Tanaka, Ogawa, J Suzuki. Continue reading...

CK Infrastructure, a Hong Kong investment group, said the bosses of the struggling water company should eat ‘humble pie’ Thames Water’s bosses should eat “humble pie” over a failed takeover process last year and let other firms bid for it, according to a Hong Kong investment group angling to buy the troubled water company. CK Infrastructure (CKI), which is owned by Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, has already acquired Northumbrian Water and has been trying to launch a bid for Thames since February last year. Continue reading...

Israel’s parliament has passed a law imposing the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of fatal attacks – a measure sharply criticised as discriminatory by European countries and human rights groups. After the law passed, the Knesset erupted into cheers and the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, brandished a bottle in celebration. The law has been decried as 'an act of institutionalised discrimination and racist violence against Palestinians' by Israel’s leading rights group. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s deputy head of international news, Devika Bhat Continue reading...

⚽️ World Cup playoffs updates from 7.45pm BST ⚽️ Tonight’s live scores | Email Yara Hello and welcome to a crucial World Cup qualification day. Eight European countries, four spots up for grabs at this summer’s marquee event in Canada, the United States and Mexico, with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, Kosovo, Poland, Sweden and Turkey all one win away from qualifying. The Czech Republic, who edged out the Republic of Ireland on penalties take on Denmark. The winner will join Group A alongside Mexico, South Africa and South Korea. Czech Republic v Denmark Kosovo v Turkey Sweden v Poland Bosnia-Herzegovina v Italy Continue reading...

⚽️ Updates from this 7.45pm BST KO at the Bilino Polje Stadium ⚽️ Tonight’s live scores | Email Scott Boznia and Herzegovina want to get to the 2026 World Cup finals just as much as Italy. But we don’t write the rules, and this story is all about the Azzurri, who are in danger of becoming the first of the World Cup behemoths to fail to qualify for three tournaments in a row. Uruguay, France, Spain and England have all missed two on the bounce, but a third consecutive failure for a footballing nation of this import would be unprecedented. And no, the pre-totaalvoetbal Dutch don’t count. Italy weren’t particularly good against Northern Ireland last week. But then neither were Bosnia and Herzegovina as they squeezed past Wales, and the four-time winners have a good record against the men from the Balkan Peninsula. Bosnia and Herzegovina won the first meeting between the countries, in 1996, but since then it’s been pretty much all Italy, with four wins and a draw from the five matches played between 2019 and 2024. So on balance, you’d expect Rino Gattuso’s team to make it to North America this summer … but then most folk thought they’d see off Sweden to get to 2018 and North Macedonia ahead of 2022, and look what happened there. Kick-off is at 7.45pm BST. It’s on! Continue reading...

Nearly a quarter of voters site the Reform leader’s support for the US president as the primary reason for not voting for his party By day 31 of the war in the Middle East, Nigel Farage had become somewhat less vocal about the closeness of his relationship with Donald Trump. “Trying to read what’s really in the minds of people in the White House right at the moment is a mug’s game,” said the MP, as he unveiled his party’s latest “pledge” to cut the cost of living on Tuesday. Continue reading...

The German chancellor has drawn condemnation from NGOs and members of his own government Friedrich Merz has drawn condemnation from NGOs and members of his own government after he called for the vast majority of Syrians living in Germany to “go back to their homeland.” The German chancellor, who was elected last year after promising a tough line on immigration in a bid to beat the far right, made the remarks during a visit to Berlin on Monday by the interim Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa. Continue reading...

This ‘growth-led separation’ is an awkward, sprawling deal, far from the clean break some may have wished for If Unilever shareholders thought the era of management-speak twaddle ended a few chief executives ago, say hello to their new partner in the food game. Brendan Foley, the boss of US spice and condiments firm McCormick, ran through the menu as he presented his big grab for Unilever’s Hellman’s-to-Knorr-to-Marmite food division. The logic, he explained, is all about “maximal adjacency”, “actionable growth levers” and “end-to-end flavour experiences”. From the point of view of Unilever’s investors, the guff wouldn’t matter if McCormick were paying a fat price in a cash deal. But this $44.8bn transaction is not like that. Unilever will extract $15.7bn in cash but the bulk of the value is represented by the equity element. Unilever’s shareholders will end up owning 55% of an expanded McCormick and Unilever itself will have 10%. It is a very long way from being a clean break. In effect, the FTSE 100 firm is merging its food business with a smaller US firm that will take on oodles of debt to step up several leagues. Continue reading...

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Poll of 10,000 teachers also finds ‘overwhelming’ exam anxiety and rising absenteeism linked to poor mental health Almost half of primary school teachers are seeing pupils with eating disorders “at least occasionally”, rising to four in five at secondary level, according to a survey by the UK’s largest education union. The findings emerged in a poll of 10,000 teachers in English state schools about pupils’ mental health, which also revealed “overwhelming” exam anxiety in secondaries and dwindling numbers of counsellors to support students. Continue reading...

Many countries in Europe have called the conflict illegal, with some blocking Israeli and US planes from moving weapons through their airspace Donald Trump has launched a tirade against European countries that refused to join his war against Iran, calling out the UK and France, as transatlantic relations soured from the spiralling conflict that has wreaked havoc on the global economy. On his Truth Social website, the US president told governments worried about fuel prices to “go get your own oil” by force from the Gulf, comments that sent oil prices even higher. Continue reading...

Brighton fans have fond memories of the Italian, hailed as a genius by rivals, but his time on the south coast went sour Things may have ended on a sour note but there is a reason why a giant picture of a beaming Roberto De Zerbi adorns the wall outside the home dressing room at the Amex Stadium. It was taken in 2023 at the end of the Italian’s first season at Brighton after he had led the club to sixth in the Premier League – their highest finish – and taken them into Europe for the first time. Three years on, memories of De Zerbi remain strong among Brighton supporters. It is a legacy that Fabian Hürzeler has found hard to emulate since succeeding De Zerbi, who fell out with the owner, Tony Bloom, over squad recruitment. Continue reading...

Actor best known for his charismatic portrayal of Xander Harris, the heroine’s insecure sidekick, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer As the lovable high school student Xander Harris, who just happens to be best friends with a superhuman vampire killer and a powerful witch in the cult American TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Nicholas Brendon portrayed a flawed everyman that fans could relate to. “I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide until it goes away,” Xander told his friends in a characteristic wisecrack, early in the first season of the show. Brendon, who has died aged 54, appeared in all but one of the 144 episodes of the seven-series show, which aired from 1997 to 2003. He saw his charismatic portrayal of Xander’s ordinariness in comparison with Sarah Michelle Gellar’s titular character as one of his biggest achievements. “His power was not having power,” he said in a 2017 interview. Continue reading...

Astrophysicist who studied the outer atmospheres of cool stars including the corona of the sun, visible during eclipses Dame Carole Jordan, who has died aged 84, was internationally renowned for her studies of the outer atmosphere of the sun and other cool stars. In 1994 she was appointed the first female president of the Royal Astronomical Society and she was a formidable advocate for women in science. When we glance at the sun we see a yellow zone at a temperature of 5,500C – the photosphere. When the light is spread out into all its wavelengths, myriad bright and dark lines appear, corresponding to electrons being emitted and absorbed by different atoms. The strongest lines in the visible spectrum come from a thin layer just above the visible surface, the chromosphere. Above this lies the corona, which extends for millions of kilometres and only becomes visible during eclipses. In this zone the temperature increases to 1 million degrees, and so the light and spectral lines mainly become visible at extreme ultraviolet (EUV) or soft X-ray wavelengths. Continue reading...

John Healey says extra deployment is response to ‘expanding threat’ from Iran Middle East crisis – live updates UK politics live – latest updates The UK is sending more military support to the Gulf taking the total deployment to 1,000 troops, amid more jibes from Donald Trump about Britain’s refusal to get involved in offensive operations against Iran. Speaking from Qatar where he met UK troops, the defence secretary, John Healey, said the extra deployment was in response to an “expanding threat” from Iran. Continue reading...