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

Milton Court, London The four siblings start with Webern before ditching traditional instruments for mics, voices, percussion and oud ‘We’ve done many concerts, but this is the first time I’m stressed,” the first violin confesses with a grin, lowering his instrument before a single note has sounded. But before he can launch into the story he’s interrupted by the cellist. “We’re actually supposed to play first!” she chides. A string quartet is often compared to a four-way marriage. But what if the dynamic was closer to four siblings? One group that doesn’t need to imagine the answer is the Saad family: brothers Omar, Mostafa and Gandhi, and sister Tibah – AKA the Galilee String Quartet. Continue reading...

US secretary of state’s two-day visit reportedly intended to thaw Washington’s frosty relations with Vatican and Italy The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will meet Pope Leo on Thursday, weeks after Donald Trump’s unprecedented broadside against the pontiff. Rubio will meet the first US-born pope privately in the Vatican’s apostolic palace at 11.30am (10.30 GMT), the Holy See’s press office confirmed on Monday after media reports on Sunday. Continue reading...

Whether it’s a new season scent or a springy running shoe, your April favourites show you’re ready for a fresh start • Don’t get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up here It’s easy to feel hopeful in spring, with blossom all around and sunny days bringing the promise of summer ahead. It feels like a fresh start, and it’s clear from your favourite things in April that you’re looking for rejuvenation. Maybe that’s a new scent, or a cabin bag for a holiday. Perhaps it’s a health reset, with a pair of running shoes to kickstart better habits, or a celebrity-endorsed supplement. You’ve also loved sub-£20 skincare basics and high-street looks inspired by Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel. Here are your favourite things from April. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Sperm re-transplant offers hope that boys left infertile by chemotherapy could have biological children one day In a groundbreaking fertility trial, a man whose testicular tissue was frozen before he underwent chemotherapy as a child to be re-transplanted 16 years later has been able to produce sperm. It is the first time a transplant of cryopreserved prepubertal testicular tissue has been demonstrated to restore sperm production in an adult patient. The 27-year-old man had the sample frozen when he was 10, before undergoing potent chemotherapy as part of treatment for sickle cell disease. Continue reading...

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey backs launch of Vine reboot, Divine, where content must be made by a human As a pioneer of the short-form video format, Vine has been credited as one of the most influential – if short-lived – social media platforms. The app, which allowed users to record a looping six seconds of video, boomed in popularity after its launch in 2013, creating a plethora of viral comedy sketches and internet memes. It hit 100 million monthly active users at its peak and helped launch the careers of influencers like Logan Paul. Continue reading...

‘The man is the establishment, I suppose, the military industrial complex. A few year later, when we played it live, we added a loop of Bill Hicks saying: “All governments are liars and murderers”’ Gruff was the first person I ever met who could just churn out songs – good, catchy ones. I joined his band Ffa Coffi Pawb, but by 1992 they’d split and Gruff and I were living in Cardiff, as were Bunf, Guto and my brother Cian, the other future Furries. We started out doing techno sets, and I had a little home studio where we demoed ideas for songs. Our first singer, the actor Rhys Ifans, slept on a mattress in the corner. Continue reading...

Kent schoolgirl tracks down 10,000 namesakes as part of campaign – but non-Kirstys are welcome to donate too Calling all Kirstys! A schoolgirl from Tunbridge Wells in Kent is seeking people who share her name to help raise money for research into paediatric brain tumours like the one for which she is being treated. Kirsty Waugh, who turns 12 on Monday, has already persuaded more than 10,000 Kirstys, Kirsties, Kersties and assorted other variants to plot their locations on a map that shows Kirstys can be found everywhere from Colombia to Malaysia, and even at the Rothera research station in Antarctica. Continue reading...

The artist’s dreamlike paintings, inspired by his childhood home, led to a collaboration with a global pop icon. Now he’s opening a casita in Bruton – what will the locals think? Angel Otero is on the brink of tears. He’s describing the feeling of being part of fellow Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny’s La Casita – a set the musician used on stage during his 31-show residency on the island last year, a recreation of a typical single-storey home found across Puerto Rico and the wider Latin American diaspora. “When I was invited, of course, I accepted,” Otero tells me, standing in his temporary studio in Somerset. “Although I tend to shy away from things like that. The replica is a very similar setting to the one I grew up in, and I had multiple feelings when I got there. Of course, there’s the spectacle of being on the stage of a significant artist of our time, who is from my island. But it also transported me into the subject I’ve been working on for so long. It was a sort of validation, seeing people enjoying the culture, people specifically from my kind of upbringing.” Continue reading...

What’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf playing at with his new policy? Is it about pushing Labour further to the right, or just an attempt to ramp up rage and resentment? All parties struggle to invest local elections with meaning, because no party can alter the consequences of what is coming up to two decades of austerity. They can promise they’ll work hard for local people, and many of them will, but they can’t change the maths of inadequate funding and soaring social care costs. All they can do is hope to exist in an affluent enough area. Instead, the results are taken as a popularity contest, which – if things go your way – will hopefully supply enough buoyancy to last into a general election, and, if things don’t, will hopefully evaporate. Continue reading...

Live updates from the 3pm BST kick-off Email Barry | Sign up for Football Daily Chelsea: Sanchez, Gusto, Chalobah, Tosin, Cucurella, Caicedo, Lavia, Palmer, Derry, Fernandez, Joao Pedro. Subs: Jorgensen, Acheampong, Colwill, Fofana, James, Hato, Santos, Essugo, Delap. Continue reading...

Comments at European Political Community summit come as Britain seeks to join EU’s loan scheme for Ukraine UK politics live – latest updates Keir Starmer has acknowledged that “tensions” between Donald Trump and Europe are high as he attends a summit of the European Political Community dominated by the conflicts in Ukraine and Iran. With European leaders concerned over the US president’s waning interest in the Ukraine war, the prime minister will use the summit in Armenia to begin negotiations to participate in the European Union’s loan scheme for Kyiv. Continue reading...

Bamber, 65, has long used press interviews to campaign against convictions for murder of five family members Jeremy Bamber, who has served more than 40 years in prison for murdering five members of his family, has been banned from communicating with the media. Bamber was convicted in 1986 by a 10-2 majority of shooting his adoptive mother and father, his sister and her six-year-old twins at the parents’ family farmhouse in Essex a year earlier. He has always protested his innocence. Continue reading...

Artist commends jury for resigning over inclusion of Russia and Israel but says reasoning should also have included US Anish Kapoor says the US should be excluded from the Venice Biennale because of the country’s “abhorrent politics of hate” and its “incessant warmongering”. The artist, who represented Britain at the 1990 edition, told the Guardian that he commended the biennale jury’s decision to resign just a few days before the event, which is billed as the “Olympics of art”, in protest at the inclusion of Israel and Russia. Continue reading...

Carrick has taken side into Champions League as interim Matheus Cunha feels Carrick has Ferguson-era ‘magic’ Michael Carrick is expected to be offered the chance to continue as Manchester United’s head coach after qualifying for the Champions League. Carrick has not held talks regarding turning his interim role into a permanent one because the executive were intent on waiting to see whether he could lead United into Europe’s top club competition. Continue reading...

The radical left leader will seek presidency for the fourth time – despite previously vowing to stand aside Jean-Luc Mélenchon, France’s radical left leader, has confirmed he will run again for president next spring, saying it was urgent for the country to stand up against war being waged by the US and Israel in the Middle East. The 74-year-old veteran leader of La France Insoumise (LFI), announced in an interview with the French broadcaster TF1 that he would run for the presidency for the fourth time in 2027. Continue reading...

Authority says workers and councillors ‘threatened for explaining the council’s position’ as union jack and St George’s flags taken down Residents, council staff and councillors have been subject to rising “abuse, harassment and intimidation” directly linked to the removal of unauthorised flags, a local authority has said. Shropshire council said it had recorded a rise in reports of abuse with staff and members “being threatened for explaining the council’s position” on the removal of flags and when they attempt to do so – “even in day-to-day work to repair street lighting”, the authority added. Continue reading...

A host of stars have gone down with injuries this postseason. For as long as the league resists change, its players will pay the price Should we just cancel the rest of the NBA playoffs and declare injuries the winner? They’ve already dominated this postseason far more than a team possibly could. The Oklahoma City Thunder are playing without their second-best player, Jalen Williams, after what feels like his 10th hamstring injury. In the series against the Denver Nuggets, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Donte DiVincenzo tore his achilles, and Anthony Edwards gruesomely hyperextended his knee. Wolves’ backup Ayo Dosunmu put up a heroic 43 points in Game 4, then returned to the bench two games later to nurse an injured calf. The Nuggets lost Aaron Gordon to a calf strain midway through the series and played entirely without Peyton Watson, who was sidelined by a hamstring strain. Jayson Tatum’s record-quick comeback from an achilles tear was the feelgood story of the season, at least until he hurt his leg, which ruled him out of a vital Game 7 that his Boston Celtics lost to the Philadelphia 76ers. The Los Angeles Lakers’ starting rotation lacks Luka Dončić until further notice and played four of six games against the Houston Rockets without another of their stars, Austin Reaves. The Rockets’ Kevin Durant played 78 of 82 regular season games, then missed every game of the Lakers series but one thanks to a bad knee and a bone bruise in his ankle. We of course had to save the most ridiculous injury for last: Victor Wembanyama was knocked out by the court itself after tripping on a drive and whacking his jaw on the hardwood. (He missed all of one game and wishes he could have missed zero.) Perhaps it was an omen. Continue reading...

Inter’s manager was not first choice to replace Simeone Inzaghi but has created a juggernaut that could not be stopped It all felt inevitable, by the end, Internazionale becoming champions of Italy for the 21st time with a win over Parma they did not even need. A draw would have sufficed: in this game, or the next one, or either of the two after that. Their rivals for the Scudetto yielded one-by-one through the spring and then, finally, all at once. None of Napoli, Milan or Juventus won this weekend, not that it would have mattered any more if they had. Inter were 10 points clear at the start of this round and 12 by its conclusion, the best team in Serie A by a mile. They have scored 82 goals in a league where no other team has yet made it to 60. Defensively, only Como can equal their 17 clean sheets. Continue reading...

Sarah Sackman says response to rising antisemitic violence in UK has been ‘muted’ after stabbings in her constituency There has been a “lack of vocal solidarity” from parts of the liberal left in the face of rising antisemitism against the Jewish community, the Labour MP for Golders Green has said. Sarah Sackman said the response to antisemitic violence across the UK from parts of the “moderate majority”, including some anti-racist organisations, had been “muted”. Her comments follow a terrorist attack against the Jewish community in her constituency last week. Continue reading...

Officials say they will not authorise docking ‘to protect public health’ after deaths of three passengers on vessel What is hantavirus, the infection thought to have killed three on cruise ship? Officials in Cape Verde have said they will not allow a cruise ship believed to be harbouring an outbreak of a rare respiratory virus to dock in its ports, after the deaths of three passengers onboard. The statement on Monday came hours after global health officials said they were scrambling to investigate the suspected outbreak of hantavirus, a disease primarily found in rodents, on the cruise ship in the Atlantic. Continue reading...

Police got several matches during trial in London borough – but where some see progress on crime, others see violation of privacy AI facial recognition oversight lagging far behind technology, watchdogs warn Shoppers falsely identified by facial recognition How does live facial recognition work? It happened in a flash outside Barclays in Croydon town centre. A digital trap snapped shut around one of Britain’s thousands of wanted criminals. In little over a minute, a combination of high-definition cameras, automated AI face scanning and half a dozen police officers had run a wanted man to ground. After the handcuffs clicked shut, the Metropolitan police’s controversial live facial recognition (LFR) cameras had chalked up another arrest: the fifth in 45 minutes on a regular Thursday morning. Continue reading...

Oozy and creamy like a good risotto, this is the perfect midweek taste of Greece For me, it isn’t really spring until the first May bank holiday; the days are longer, the flowers are out, and an abundance of green graces our shelves. This spanakopita orzo is a celebration of all things light, bright and spring. It’s a great weeknight dinner that will instantly transport you to Greece. Continue reading...

Lee Sang-il’s heartfelt drama spans 50 years following the bond and rivalry between two brothers who play the rigorously observed female roles in the traditional art form Lee Sang-il’s heartfelt and muscular epic (whose title means “national treasure”) was a box-office smash on its Japanese home turf, winning a host of festival awards and an Oscar nomination. It’s a mighty Cain-and-Abel drama spanning five decades, set in the rarefied world of kabuki theatre where some of the most exotically prized performers are the onnagata, the men who have mastered the rigorously observed discipline of playing women in classical kabuki roles, a convention which arose from Japan’s 17th-century banning of women on stage, rather as they once were in England 100 years before. It is a semi-intentional irony of this intensely and even passionately male film that actual women are of subordinate importance. The story begins in an outrageously melodramatic way, with a situation which might even itself have once been amenable to kabuki dramatisation. In 1960s Nagasaki, a yakuza gangster is holding a social event to underline his prestige; he has provided kabuki entertainment for his guests, and such is his reverence for this Japanese high-cultural form that he has permitted his teenage son Kikuo to perform as an onnagata. Kikuo’s performance stuns a renowned kabuki actor called Hanjiro, played by Ken Watanabe. But the event is chaotically attacked by a rival gang, the yakuza is killed, and Hanjiro offers to adopt Kikuo and train him up as a onnagata in his kabuki company, alongside his own son Shunsuke. Continue reading...

Arts Collective, Northampton An overdue celebration in her home town of this funny, direct, critical, satirical conceptualist shows her spiky social commentary is as fresh and relevant as ever Rose Finn-Kelcey wanted to make art that was neither pompous nor condescending. Those are pretty rare ideals in conceptualism, where pomposity and condescension come with the territory, but Finn-Kelcey was a pretty rare artist. This show in Northampton’s brand new £5m art centre – a very colourful retrofit of the historic municipal offices and town hall annexe, filled with artist studios – is a homecoming. Finn-Kelcey was born here in 1945 and grew up on a nearby farm, but spent the 1970s onwards causing a big old feminist ruckus with all sorts of art pranks, installations, performances, videos and photography in London before her death from motor neurone disease in 2014. Continue reading...