Retail analysts say breaking up food and fashion group would make sense in challenging business environment Primark may break free from Kingsmill, Twinings and the sugar business this week when Associated British Foods announces plans on a mooted demerger. The potential split comes at a tricky time for the group controlled by the billionaire Weston family, with its fashion and food arms facing tough competition and rising costs. Continue reading...

Federal prosecutor says woman is suspected of dealing weapons to Africa on behalf of Iranian government A California woman was arrested at Los Angeles international airport after allegedly trafficking weapons on behalf of the Iranian government to contacts in Africa, including Sudan. Shamim Mafi, 44, of Woodland Hills was detained on Saturday night by federal agents, according to the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Bayern bounce back from early concession to win 4-2 Milan beat Verona 1-0 to tighten grip on top-four finish Bayern Munich secured their 35th German league title by beating Stuttgart 4-2 to open up an unassailable lead with four games to play. Sunday’s result sent Bayern 15 points clear of second-placed Borussia Dortmund. The Bavarian side, who face Bayer Leverkusen in the German Cup semi-final next week before taking on Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on 28 April, were a goal down before scoring four times to quickly turn the game around. Continue reading...

Deep lying creator is an excellent Manchester City story and confirmed why he is England’s best left-back It’s not over, not over, not over yet. Although, let’s be honest, it kind of is over. Isn’t it, don’t you think, at the end of a day when Manchester City and Arsenal dished up the one thing nobody was expecting at the Etihad Stadium, a thrillingly open game of attacking football? There were three images at the final whistle that seemed to capture the essence of City’s 2-1 win here, and not just in terms of the game, but the balance of energy, feeling, vibes. Continue reading...

Exclusive: deputy PM says UK will not join Iran conflict despite Trump’s sometimes ‘incomprehensible’ social-media barbs Donald Trump’s insults towards Keir Starmer are “small and petty” and designed to put pressure on the prime minister to change his position on Iran, David Lammy has said, as he insisted the UK would not get dragged into the conflict. The deputy prime minister argued the US president should be able to “disagree agreeably” with allies rather than publishing attacks on social media, and that US actions had “made things worse, not better” as far as global instability was concerned. Continue reading...

Senior government figures fear decision to appoint former ambassador to US could cost PM his leadership Keir Starmer will deliver a high-stakes statement to MPs on Monday as he struggles to overcome fears inside his government that the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal could yet cost him his leadership. In what is set to be a dramatic showdown, the prime minister will set out how Mandelson was able to take up his role as UK ambassador without the Foreign Office revealing it had overruled the decision to fail his vetting. Continue reading...

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, a long supporter of Trump, says president’s feud with the pope is a ‘distraction’ A Republican lawmaker has condemned what he refers to as Donald Trump’s “holy war” against Pope Leo XIV. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, a long supporter of Trump and the ultraconservative Maga movement, condemned the president’s attacks on the pope during a Fox News interview on Saturday. Continue reading...

Take Back Power, which targets the super-rich, says seven members were arrested at a training session Seven people from an activist group calling for higher taxes on the super-rich have been arrested by police on suspicion of conspiracy to steal. Police confirmed that six women and one man were detained in Salford, Greater Manchester, on Sunday over what they said was a coordinated plan to steal from high-end stores. Continue reading...

Rayan Cherki scored one of the goals of the season but Gabriel had a game to forget and could have seen red Donnarumma 4 Nighmarish howler allowed Havert’s equaliser. Redemption – a little – came in the second period with point-blank save from the same player. Continue reading...

Sale 19-85 Saracens Visitors score 13 tries in rout There was a time when Sale were largely unbeatable at home, their uninviting base on the outskirts of Salford inhospitable to visitors and a fortress to Alex Sanderson’s players. Not any longer. Not for the first time this season, Sale were reduced to Mancunian rubble in front of their own supporters as they slipped to a record Prem defeat while Saracens romped to a record Prem victory. Sanderson is a passionate, engaging rugby man but scrutiny will now increase on a tenure stretching over five years which has seen Sale’s ambitious owners spend big without reward. Continue reading...

The margins were always likely to be tight. In the event, with so much on the line, namely the possible destination of the Premier League title, they were excruciatingly so. It was a day when the division’s heavyweights went toe-to-toe and served up a thriller, a contest to absorb the nation and many more around the world. When it was over, it was Manchester City who had landed what could prove to be the telling blow. Because once they are ahead on the count in these situations everybody knows how it tends to end. There is no better finisher than Pep Guardiola and the momentum is now firmly with him. A seventh championship in 10 seasons is within his grasp. Continue reading...

Liverpool win derby in 100th minute after difficult run ‘Five games in 15 days with mainly the same players’ Arne Slot claimed Liverpool provided the perfect answer to questions over their mentality and character as Virgil van Dijk’s 100th-minute header clinched victory in the first Merseyside derby at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Liverpool opened up a seven-point gap to sixth-placed Chelsea in the race for Champions League qualification with their captain’s dramatic intervention against Everton, who were left to rue another late blow by their local rivals. David Moyes described the outcome as “cruel” and claimed Everton should have had a penalty for a push by Curtis Jones on Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. Continue reading...

Suspect was fatally shot, Shreveport police say, after children ranging from 18 months to 14 years were killed Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox At least eight people are dead and others are wounded after a mass murder reported in the Louisiana city of Shreveport, according to local police. Police said that among the victims were children ranging in age from 18 months to 14 years. Two other women were reportedly shot in the head but survived – and a third person, described as a young boy, was injured while jumping from a roof. Continue reading...

Versatile French actor best known for her film roles in Catch Me If You Can, Every Man for Himself and Downton Abbey In a prolific and versatile career of nearly 100 films, the French actor Nathalie Baye, who has died aged 77, was recognised for her ability to adapt to any part she chose to play. Her many and varied roles included an alcoholic police officer, a prostitute, a beautician, wrestler, supermarket cashier, telephone operator and, more recently, a marchioness in the second Downton Abbey film, as well as a cameo role in the hit French television series Dix pour Cent. Discovered in the 1970s by the New Wave director François Truffaut, then cast by Jean-Luc Godard and, later, Steven Spielberg in his 2002 film Catch Me If You Can (starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks), Baye worked with some of cinema’s most recognised and respected figures. Continue reading...

Former Little Mix singer offers £10,000 reward for information about Land Rover taken from Essex driveway The musician Jesy Nelson, a former member of the band Little Mix, has pleaded for help after her car, which contained essential medical equipment for her children, was stolen from her driveway in Essex. The black Land Rover is believed to have been taken at about 3am on Sunday in Brentwood. Continue reading...

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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...

Martin O’Neill will face his former captain Neil Lennon in the Scottish Cup final after Celtic booked their spot in the showpiece against Dunfermline with an eventful 6-2 extra-time win over St Mirren. A horror mistake by Saints’ stand-in goalkeeper Ryan Mullen saw Daizen Maeda give the Hoops a first-minute lead at Hampden and to add to their woes the errant No 2 picked up an injury and had to be replaced after just 14 minutes by the 17-year-old debutant Grant Tamosevicius. 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...