This week’s quarter-finals provided some classic action as this season’s competition hurtles towards its conclusion Bayern Munich had not won at the Santiago Bernabéu since May 2001, when they beat Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final on their way to becoming European champions. . Tuesday night’s match changed all that. The 29th Champions League meeting between the teams lived up to its heavyweight billing, though Bayern, superior on the night, may rue their failure to add to their 2-1 lead. Real Madrid meanwhile could point to Manuel Neuer making nine saves – not bad for a 40-year-old. “We won’t win the competition without more of these kinds of performances,” said Bayern manager Vincent Kompany of his keeper. Big trophies are rarely won without great goalkeepers and Neuer continues to play like an all-time great. Bayern’s second goal was a trademark finish from Harry Kane, who made the difficult look easy. The goal will also have calmed England fans’ fears that their captain will arrive at the World Cup suffering from his usual summer malaise. A word too for Luis Díaz and Michael Olise, Bayern’s brilliant wingers whose performances brought back memories of the club’s modern greats Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben. Kompany’s team were commanding in Madrid, but may fear the backlash from the 15-times champions, the kings of comebacks. Continue reading...

The bestselling US novelist, who writes under a pseudonym and appears in public wearing a wig, said she’s ‘tired of this being secret’ as she announced her real name is Sara Cohen The bestselling thriller writer known as Freida McFadden has revealed her real identity, ending years of speculation about the author behind a string of hugely popular novels. McFadden, whose books include bestseller The Housemaid, appears in public in a wig and glasses and writes under a pseudonym. But the US author has now confirmed that her real name is Sara Cohen. Continue reading...

The 79th edition of the film festival will see work by Pedro Almodóvar, Hirokazu Kore-eda and László Nemes considered for the coveted Palme d’Or Gillian Anderson, Rami Malek, Cara Delevingne and John Travolta are expected to walk the red carpet at Cannes this year, as the world’s most influential film festival unveiled an auteur-heavy lineup for its 79th edition. Competing for the coveted Palme d’Or will be new films by heavyweights Pedro Almodóvar, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Paweł Pawlikowski, László Nemes and Asghar Farhadi. Continue reading...

Forty years on from the release of their Victorialand album, we rank the Scottish band’s 20 best tracks, from goth beginnings to weightless masterpieces At first, Cocteau Twins gave every impression of being a goth band: check out Wax and Wane’s Banshees-esque ambience – the guitar is very John McGeoch – flanged bass and drum machine. But the chorus soars out of the metaphorical cloud of dry ice, and Elizabeth Fraser’s voice is already outpacing her influences. Continue reading...

Housing corporations are adopting rainwater storage in garden fences, reducing pressure during downpours and preserving water for times of drought Good fences make good neighbours – but rain fences could make even better ones. That is the hope of housing corporations in the Netherlands, which are adopting rainwater storage in their garden fences. Continue reading...

Beirut residents and officials say thousand-pound-bombs mainly hit civilians in mission dubbed ‘Operation Eternal Darkness’ Middle East crisis – live updates It took Israel only 10 minutes to carry out one of the worst mass-killings in Lebanon since the end of the country’s civil war in 1990. Omar Rakha heard the war planes but did not feel the explosions; it was only when he woke up face down on the street, bleeding, that he understood what had happened. The building next to his in the Barbour neighbourhood of central Beirut had been destroyed by two Israeli bombs – he then ran through the flaming wreckage to find his sister, screaming. Continue reading...

Survey of 2,000 parents by Barnardo’s also finds almost half feel their child has missed opportunities due to cost Four in 10 parents across the UK are struggling to afford essential items for the care of their newborn babies, according to research. The survey of 2,000 parents with children aged under five by the charity Barnardo’s also found that almost half (49%) of parents felt that their child has missed out on opportunities to learn or play due to cost. Continue reading...

Green leader says PM should impose tougher sanctions on Israel and accuses country of acting in ‘completely uncontrolled way’ UK politics live – latest updates Zack Polanski has called on the government to tear up the UK-Israel trade agreement, after the Israeli strikes on Lebanon. Polanski called for Keir Starmer to ban the US using UK airspace and said sanctions should be imposed on Israel, after accusing the nation of “behaving in a completely uncontrolled way”. Continue reading...

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world Continue reading...

‘I see a lot of players come in and it’s too big for them’ Maguire feels he is ‘one of best defenders in both boxes’ Harry Maguire believes the harder times he has experienced at Manchester United would have broken many players and says he has seen teammates find the Old Trafford spotlight too big to handle. Maguire, who feels he is “arguably one of the best defenders in the world in both boxes”, this week signed a new one-year contract with the option of a further season. That extends a United career which began when the club paid a then world-record fee for a defender, £80m, to sign him from Leicester in 2019. Continue reading...

Almost 2,000 jobs will be created, with retailer vying to overtake Morrisons as Britain’s fifth largest supermarket Lidl is to open 50 new UK stores in the year ahead as it aims to overtake Morrisons as the country’s fifth largest supermarket chain. The German-owned retailer, which now has more than 1,000 British stores, said it planned to invest more than £600m in UK growth, creating almost 2,000 jobs as it expands its warehouse and logistic network to supply its new outlets. Continue reading...

Artificial intelligence company cites high energy costs and regulation as reasons for putting Stargate project on hold OpenAI has put plans for a landmark project to strengthen the UK’s AI capabilities on hold, citing high energy costs and regulation. Stargate UK was a part of the landmark UK-US AI deal announced last September, in which US companies appeared to commit £31bn to the UK’s tech sector, part of a larger series of investments intended to “mainline AI” into the British economy. Continue reading...

Charity says it dealt with 75 incidents last year involving 100 or more animals living in one property The cost of living crisis and an increase in people experiencing mental health difficulties have led to a rising number of multi-animal rescues in England and Wales, an RSPCA superintendent has said. The animal charity this week had to confirm that a shocking photograph of more than 250 poodle-cross dogs found at a property in the UK was not faked with artificial intelligence. The RSPCA took in 87 of the dogs and the remainder went to the Dogs Trust, another charity. Continue reading...

After suspending routes owing to Iran war, airline will operate more direct flights to India and Kenya Middle East crisis – live updates British Airways will offer a reduced flight schedule to the Middle East when it resumes services in July, and use the aircraft to operate more direct flights to India and Kenya. The airline has currently suspended services to the region because of the Iran war, and plans to resume flights to Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, in mid-May, as well as services to Dubai, Doha and Tel Aviv on 1 July. It is cutting its Dubai flights from three – a day to one daily flight, and reducing services to Doha, Tel Aviv and Riyadh from two to one a day. Continue reading...

Enzo Conticello jailed for 27 months for ‘opportunistic’ theft of Givenchy handbag containing precious jewels A man who stole a handbag containing a Fabergé egg and watch set valued at up to £2.2m has been jailed for more than two years. Enzo Conticello, 29, took the Givenchy bag belonging to Rosie Dawson as she stood in the smoking area of the Dog and Duck pub in Soho, London, on 7 November 2024. Continue reading...

Almeida theatre, London Anya Reiss packs the marriage scandal plot with inspired ideas, from convincing talk of Instagram to a look at sexual dynamics in the crosshairs of contemporary capitalism Who would Henrik Ibsen’s Nora be in 21st-century Britain? Would her husband, Torvald still be a bank manager and she his “little squirrel” housewife? Transposing this drama of 19th-century proto-feminism into the present day is a tricky business, partly because the gendered confinements of Nora and Torvald’s “ideal” middle-class marriage are built on thoroughly old-fashioned values: a husband who prides himself as the sole breadwinner, a wife who would spark social scandal if she left her marital home. Adapter Anya Reiss does a heroic job of reimagining this story for modern times, and half pulls it off. Continue reading...

Tottenham are teetering on the verge, while The U’s have just dropped out of the automatic promotion places in League Two Parents who’ve forgotten how exhausting young children are occasionally stop you and say: “The days are long, but the years are short.” Some reel – which is where I get all of my information these days – altered it slightly to say: “The days are long, but the weeks are also long,” which feels more accurate when you’re on your hands and knees on the kitchen floor picking up sticky rice with a wet wipe. There are fewer saccharine Insta posts about football seasons feeling so arduously long and yet suddenly over at the same time. “Ah don’t you remember when it was the Carabao Cup first round – so cute.” This catches me out every year. Perhaps no one else is blindsided by football season by stealth, but here we are again: just a handful of games remaining to decide everything – and I’m not entirely sure how we’re at this stage. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Survey published days before election in which anti-EU Viktor Orbán risks being ousted after 16 years Europe live – latest updates Hungary elections: what is at stake and who is likely to win? After years of relentless EU-bashing by their nationalist, illiberal prime minister, an overwhelming majority of Hungary’s voters back its membership of the bloc, and most – including many of Viktor Orbán’s voters – now want a new approach to Brussels. Days before elections at which Orbán, who has consistently painted the EU as an enemy of the Hungarian people, risks being ousted after 16 years in power, a poll has shown a huge appetite for a recalibration of the country’s relations with the bloc. Continue reading...

The image of cream sherry is that of your gran’s favourite tipple, a drink from a bygone era. Is it time for a makeover? By the time I knew her, my granny was in her whisky and water era, but my dad clearly remembers a bottle of Harveys Bristol Cream in the drinks cupboard, ready to pour for friends after church in the 1970s. This is the enduring image of cream sherry, one that it has struggled to shake off. While other sherries – bone-dry fino and manzanilla (made by ageing palomino grapes under a yeast layer called flor), oxidative amontillado or oloroso, and sweet, single varietals such as pedro ximénez (PX) – have acquired new cachet among younger drinkers, not least because they’re relatively affordable, cream is the emblematic Little English tipple of a bygone time. Britain was sherry’s biggest export market for several centuries – the word is said to hark back to importers’ inability to pronounce the J in Jerez, where this large, colourful family of fortified wines originates. So Jerez became “sherez” became “sherry” – and cream sherry was developed specifically for the tastes of Victorian drinkers. The iconic Harveys, for example, named after its Bristol-based wine merchant/importer, arrived in the 1860s and by the early 1970s was shifting a million cases of the stuff each year (sales have since dropped to a mere fraction of that). Continue reading...

Iran, Minneapolis, Harvard and other Trump opponents have employed a similar strategy An hour before Trump said he’d cause the death of a “whole civilization” if Iran didn’t open the strait of Hormuz, an Iranian official said the shipping channel would be reopened for two weeks if the United States stopped bombing Iran. The US has now stopped bombing Iran. So we’re back to the status quo before Trump began his war. Only now, Iran can credibly threaten to close the strait if it doesn’t get what it wants from Trump – thereby causing havoc to the US and world economies. Trump’s only remaining bargaining chip is his threat of committing war crimes. Continue reading...

️ Latest news from the first round at Augusta National ️ Official leaderboard | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail Scott Welcome, patrons, to the 90th staging of the Masters Tournament. And with Rory McIlroy having finally got his hands on his holy grail, as the man himself wondered: what is there left for us all to talk about now? Well, how about … can world number one Scottie Scheffler, supposedly in crisis with just the one win on Tour this year (!) sort himself out in time to grab a third Green Jacket? Will Jon Rahm or Bryson DeChambeau chalk one up for LIV Golf? Can Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Åberg or Justin Rose, so often there or thereabouts at Augusta National, take the final step? Will Cameron Young repeat Rory’s feat last year of following up victory at the Players with success here? Would Tommy Fleetwood be the most popular winner? Or is that Bob MacIntyre? Oh, and what price Rory becoming only the fourth man, after Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods, to successfully defend his title? What about all of that? Continue reading...

Legislative change backed by libertarian president makes it easier to extract metals in frozen parts of the Andes Argentina’s congress has approved a bill promoted by the libertarian president, Javier Milei, that authorises mining in ecologically sensitive areas of glaciers and permafrost, and has outraged environmentalists. The amendment to the so-called glacier law, which was already approved by the senate in February, would make it easier to mine for metals such as copper, lithium and silver in frozen parts of the Andes mountains. Continue reading...

The weeks before the full spring bounty arrives are a perfect time to bring a lighter approach to winter crops, and make the most of frozen fruit and spring greens • Sign up here for our weekly food newsletter, Feast Spring may have firmly sprung – I write this with a view of vivid yellow forsythia blossom in next door’s garden, and the melodious warble of full-throated birdsong – but though the greenery may be flourishing in our gardens, it’s a different story at the farmers’ market. Despite a few spindly spears of asparagus and miniature jersey royals making an appearance on our Easter tables last weekend, the new season of British produce doesn’t kick off in earnest for another few weeks yet. That means we’re now heading into the so-called “hungry gap”, an annual quirk of our relatively northern latitude, when temperatures are too high for much winter veg such as kale and brassicas, but too low for the more delicate likes of peas and broad beans to ripen – let alone high-summer treats such as berries, squash and stone fruit. Happily, many hardy winter crops store well, and are versatile enough to shake off their heavy winter coat of cream and butter in favour of a lighter treatment. The late Skye Gyngell gifted us a carrot, celery, farro and borlotti bean soup, Nigel Slater has an early spring laksa with purple sprouting broccoli (and some spinach, which I suspect you could use frozen), and Nicholas Balfe offers a ceviche with celeriac and a baked beetroot dish (pictured top) – both of which look just the thing to wake up your taste buds. If it stays salad weather, I’m also rather taken by the sound of Thomasina Miers’s purple sprouting broccoli with sunshine dressing. Then again, with a name like that, who wouldn’t be? Continue reading...

Survivors of UK’s mother and baby home scandal welcome news after years of campaigning for recognition UK politics live – latest updates The Church of England is expected to make a formal apology for its role in forced adoptions and the UK’s mother and baby home scandal. Survivors of the scandal – in which hundreds of thousands of children were forcibly separated from their mothers – have welcomed the news after years of campaigning for recognition. Continue reading...

From an extraordinary debut inspired by a real-life breakdown to a creepy masterpiece, here’s a guide to the Scottish novelist’s works Next week marks 20 years since the death of the Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist Muriel Spark. She was best known for her 22 novels – uncanny, astute and witty – beginning with her 1957 debut The Comforters. Here, James Bailey, the author of a new biography, Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark, guides us through her oeuvre. *** Continue reading...