Funeral director Robert Bush had previously admitted to dozens of counts of fraud at hearing in October A funeral director has admitted preventing a lawful burial after 30 bodies and a quantity of ashes were found at a funeral home in Hull in 2024. Robert Bush had previously admitted to dozens of counts of fraud at a hearing in October, after police raided the premises of Legacy funeral home on Hessle Road over concern for care of the dead. Continue reading...

Simon Dudley fired after his comments were condemned by prime minister and families of fire victims Reform UK’s housing spokesperoson has been sacked his role after he described the Grenfell Tower fire as a “tragedy” but said that “everyone dies in the end”. Keir Starmer had called on Nigel Farage to sack Simon Dudley, a former head of Homes England, after his comments, which were condemned by Grenfell families and others. Continue reading...

Tron, Glasgow The life-and-death choices that a stressed-out nurse faces on a short-staffed weekend are taken to gothic heights in this intense, atmospheric play The standard colour scheme for hospital dramas is clinical white. You expect gleaming walls and antiseptic surfaces, institutionally bright. Mai Katsume takes the opposite tack. In this co-production between Vanishing Point from Glasgow and Teater Katapult from Aarhus, Denmark, the designer dresses nurses, doctors and patients in black and lines them up across an ominously dark stage. Continue reading...

An easy and enjoyable Sunday supper made up of a cheesy fish dish and a biscuity iced dessert Sometimes all you want is a hot, bubbling dish and a spoon, and for me today’s cheesy haddock is that dish – a 15-minute supper to be enjoyed in front of the telly with a salad or a large bowl of hot buttered peas. Add a lemony, biscuity iced dessert, and you have a light, very easy and enjoyable supper that’s almost the perfect close to a long Easter weekend. The Guardian aims to publish recipes for sustainable fish. Check ratings in your region: UK; Australia; US. These recipes are edited extracts from The Racine Effect: Classic French Recipes from a Lifetime in the Kitchen, by Henry Harris, published by Quadrille at £40. To order a copy for £36, go to guardianbookshop.com Continue reading...

Last April, the president unleashed a tidal wave of tariffs on ‘liberation day’. Analysts say the policy has failed, even by the Trump administration’s own terms Before Donald Trump declared “liberation day” on 2 April 2025 and shocked the world by raising import tariffs on nearly every country the US did business with, he had spent almost three months causing chaos in Washington. The wholesale slashing of government jobs under Doge (the “department of government efficiency”) and the defunding of US aid agencies had shown White House watchers that the US president was in a hurry to upset institutions he considered profligate or useless. Continue reading...

Regime has long used the death penalty to suppress dissent but now appears to be withholding information on the killing of hundreds of prisoners, say rights groups It has been almost three months since Peyvand Naimi, 30, was arrested in connection with the mass street protests that spread across Iran in January before being brutally suppressed. Since then, he has been detained for more than a month in solitary confinement, appeared in a televised forced confession, and has undergone two mock hangings, beatings, interrogation, psychological torture and starvation. He has been accused of involvement in the deaths of security agents during the protests and of celebrating the death of Iran’s former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, but his family insist he has done nothing wrong and that no formal charges have been made. He has been denied access to a lawyer; his relatives fear he now faces execution. Continue reading...

The supreme court appears poised to reject Trump’s attack on a foundation of US identity. We must hope it follows through American opponents of birthright citizenship – the right of all those born on the soil of a country to claim full legal rights and political representation in that nation – like to point out that many countries don’t have it. On Wednesday at the supreme court, during the oral arguments in Trump v Barbara, the case challenging Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship in the United States by executive order, the Trump administration’s solicitor general, John Sauer, claimed that “almost every country” denies birthright citizenship. Trump himself made the unusual choice to attend the oral arguments in person, signaling his investment in the issue and perhaps hoping that his presence would intimidate the justices into ruling in his favor. But he left soon after Cecillia Wang, a lawyer for the ACLU who represented his opponents in court, began speaking. Not long after he left the supreme court building, Trump used Truth Social, his proprietary social media platform, to echo the rightwing argument about the supposed rarity of birthright citizenship worldwide. “We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship! President DONALD J. TRUMP” he posted. This is not true. The United States’ birthright citizenship – which was originally established in very plain, explicit terms in the 14th amendment, and has been reaffirmed twice by Congress and by more than a century of supreme court precedent – is typical of the Americas. In the western hemisphere, only a handful of countries deny automatic full citizenship to infants born within their borders. They are contrasted with the rest of North and South America, where the legacy of slavery led most states to adopt birthright citizenship. Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Exclusive: Pressure intensifies for Gabbard after president’s displeasure with Iran war testimony Donald Trump has privately asked cabinet officials in recent weeks whether he should replace his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, venting frustration that she shielded a former deputy who undercut his rationale for war with Iran, according to two people briefed on the discussions. It is not clear that Trump will actually fire Gabbard over the episode. Currently, there is no standout candidate to take the job, and advisers have cautioned that creating a high-profile vacancy before a successor is ready could cause unhelpful political distractions. Continue reading...

Sites such as Vinted and ThredUp expected to help resale grow twice as fast as overall clothing market in coming years Business live – latest updates Secondhand clothing sales are forecast to surge 12% this year to $289bn (£217bn) and continue to step up, as AI and social media influencers help shoppers find the items they want. The rise of sites such as Vinted, Depop, Vestige and ThredUp is expected to power an average 9% annual growth over the next five years to reach $393bn, twice the pace of the overall clothing market. Continue reading...

Bianca Devins was 17 when she was killed by a man who then shared photos of her mutilated body on sites like Instagram and Snapchat – something her mother Kim describes as ‘psychological terrorism’. Here, she reveals her battle to get them offline Early on a Sunday in July 2019, police arrived at Kim Devins’ house in upstate New York with a story that made no sense. They were there to do a “welfare check” on Devins’ 17-year-old daughter, Bianca. They said they had received reports from people who feared she may have been “hurt”. Bianca had gone with her friend Brandon Clark to a concert in New York City, a four-hour drive away. “Did they mean that they’d been in an accident?” says Devins. “The police bodycam footage from that time shows how confused I was.” Amid it all, Devins called her dad, who lived close by, to ask him to come over. Somehow, while making that call, she realised that something dreadful had occurred. “I always pinpoint it to that exact moment, even though we didn’t understand what was happening,” she says. Her body knew before she did that she had lost her daughter. “All of me shook. I could almost see myself from the outside. It was as if my brain shut down to protect me and I left my body. I don’t think I’ve fully returned since.” Continue reading...

I bought a book that might have helped – but I’ve already mislaid it. Am I a lost cause? Does anyone want some bits of guttering? They’re zinc, I think. Free to a good, or indeed any home! I’ll send them to you or even, to be on the safe side, deliver them myself. Because it would be mad to keep them, although not quite as mad as throwing them away. Please help. I get this a lot, which is why I’ve got too much stuff. There’s stuff I’ve bought that I shouldn’t have. There’s stuff that I’ve bought, used, and is now of no use, because it’s become obsolete or it’s conked out. In the case of the guttering it’s the leftovers from a renovation, so not entirely my fault. And always, all around the house there are random bits and bobs of all shapes and sizes which I could and should get shot of. As a cry to myself for help I bought a book about decluttering called Clutter’s Last Stand. It was quite good but then, with weary irony, I lost it among the clutter. Perhaps it’ll show up one day. Continue reading...

Everything Korean – from K-pop and skincare to food and clothing – is booming in popularity in Chile, Mexico and Brazil On the polished flagstones of a Santiago cultural centre’s forecourt, four Chilean girls dance in energetic union, counting their steps aloud in Korean. In front of them, a YouTube video with 1.3bn views plays atop a speaker throbbing to the beat of How You Like That, by the K-pop megastars Blackpink. Continue reading...

A government that openly embraces violence against Palestinians has now enshrined into law a policy of lethal force Yuli Novak is the executive director of B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group This week, Israel passed a law that institutionalises the execution of Palestinians. The country’s courts can now impose death sentences on Palestinians “convicted of fatal attacks”, expanding a legal system designed to target them, strip them of rights, subject them to systematic abuse, and, ultimately, shield Israeli perpetrators of crimes against Palestinians from accountability. While this legislation does not create a whole new reality, it marks the beginning of a troubling new phase of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians by enshrining into law a longstanding policy of using lethal force against them. Disturbingly, this reality is already normalised in Israel. Long before this law, Palestinians were being systematically killed. In Gaza, mass killing has continued even after the declaration of a “ceasefire”. In the West Bank, Palestinians are killed on a daily basis by the Israeli military in raids, shootings and, increasingly, by violent settler militias aimed at driving them from their land and out of their communities. For some time, Israeli soldiers and settlers have been able to act with near-total impunity. Yuli Novak is the executive director of B’Tselem Continue reading...

A new book shows that the work of Robert Mapplethorpe and Peter Hujar – as well as a new generation of artists – would not be the same without the New York island In the summer of 2015, Leilah Babirye, a sculptor, left her home town in Uganda and arrived for an artist residency in the bohemian, beach-y queer splendor of Fire Island’s Cherry Grove. She tells the story in a new book, Fire Island Art: 100 Years, released this month by Monacelli. After Googling “LGBTQ+ artist residences”, she earned a spot at the Fire Island Artist Residency, established four years earlier to make the famed enclave more accessible. But the lesbian daughter of a conservative minister wasn’t prepared for just how queer the place was. With its roving clusters of people buzzing around the dunes and pool parties to show off the various currencies – physical, financial, interpersonal – they had to spend, she says, “I thought Cherry Grove was America.” Was she wrong? The story of the modern Fire Island is, in some ways, a particularly American one, in which outcasts light out for the territories to make their dreams come true. In the case of the picturesque barrier island off the coast of Long Island, those dreams were both sexual and creative from the start. Edited by John Dempsey, island resident and president of the Fire Island Pines Historical Society, Fire Island Art: 100 Years traces a legacy begun by the pre-war trio of Paul Cadmus, Jared French and Margaret French, who, as part of the artistic collaboration PaJaMa, made beguiling paintings and photographs of the unconventional intimacies they formed while summering among the island’s nooks and crannies. Continue reading...

Poland’s prime minister says prospect of an energy crisis in Europe and Viktor Orbán’s moves to block support for Ukraine also play into Russia’s hands Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk has warned that Donald Trump’s repeated threats of breaking up Nato, the prospect of a “massive” energy crisis in Europe, and Viktor Orbán’s moves to block aid and money for Ukraine all look like “Putin’s dream plan.” In a rare social media post in English, he said: “The threat of Nato’s break-up, easing sanctions on Russia, a massive energy crisis in Europe, halting aid for Ukraine and blocking the loan for Kyiv by Orbán - it all looks like Putin’s dream plan.” Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news Trump claims Iran war ‘nearing completion’ and seeks to justify conflict in prime-time address Middle East crisis live: oil prices climb after Trump defends Iran war in address to the nation Stock markets are falling across Europe, as investors react to Donald Trump’s special address last night, in which he vowed to send Iran “back to the stone ages”. Frankfurt’s stock market has started the day with a bump; Germany’s DAX share index is down 1.5%. “In what might be the most dramatic April Fools’ of recent years, Donald Trump did nothing of what was expected in his speech. Instead of ‘no more war’, we got ‘no, more war!’, with heavier strikes expected and a fresh warning of attacks on power plants. This leaves markets back where they were last week, and now we have to price in hundreds of millions of barrels of oil that aren’t coming out any time soon. The gloomy predictions of last week would have been perhaps misplaced if Trump had signalled a quick end, but now markets are back to pricing in economic catastrophe.” Continue reading...

Battlefield outcomes are connected by the sharing of weapons and intelligence as well as the damage to the global economy The Iran and Ukraine wars are becoming more intertwined with every passing week – to the point that some analysts argue the two conflicts are beginning to merge. Quite how each war will affect the trajectory of the other is hard to predict, but it is already clear that their interconnectedness is drawing more countries into both cauldrons, extending an arc of instability that straddles Europe and the Middle East. Continue reading...

The southern Africa country has the world’s highest prevalence of HIV but the amount of lenacapavir reaching it is too small to reach all those at risk If Precious asks her client to use a condom, she can charge him 100 lilangeni – about £4.50. If she agrees not to use one, she can charge double. The financial incentive for sex workers in Eswatini not to use protection is obvious – as is the risk, in a country where one in four people are infected with HIV. Last year, Precious visited a clinic with five other sex workers to get tested. Four of them had the virus. Continue reading...

Britain’s swift population fell by two-thirds between 1995 and 2023. Make their lives a little easier with a bit more food and more places to nest Swifts are wheeling, screaming endurance athletes. They don’t touch the earth for nine months of the year and fly about 14,000 miles annually – travelling from sub-Saharan Africa to nest in the UK, then back again. In Britain, they’re the sign that summer is coming or taking its leave. In between, they provide a heart-soaring display of beauty. No wonder they’re beloved. “Swifts spark joy,” says Hannah Bourne-Taylor, a passionate swift advocate and author of Nature Needs You: The Fight to Save Our Swifts. Continue reading...

Offer reportedly put forward by creditors hoping to save struggling firm from being renationalised temporarily Thames Water is said to be close to a deal with its regulator that would allow the company to avoid new fines for four years, as long as it commits to investing in the business. The controversial offer, reported by the Financial Times, has been put forward by creditors who are hoping to save the struggling utility from being temporarily renationalised. Continue reading...

Party’s housing spokesperson made comments while criticising safety regulations brought in after 2017 tragedy Campaigners for Grenfell families have called on Reform UK and its housing spokesperson to apologise after he said the tower fire was a “tragedy” but that “everyone dies in the end”. Simon Dudley, a former head of Homes England, had announced in February that he was joining Reform, as Nigel Farage said he was planning to bring more “experts” onboard to advise the party. Continue reading...

The government looks ill prepared for the coming stagflation storm – its ‘keep calm and carry on’ approach won’t survive a blast of reality Britain is facing the most severe energy shock since the early 1970s, but have no fear: the government has a plan. Details of said plan are still a little sketchy, but will be unveiled in the fullness of time. No need to panic. Keep calm and carry on. It remains to be seen whether the UK is better prepared to cope with the fallout from Donald Trump’s war with Iran than it was with the pandemic six years ago. To be honest, that wouldn’t be difficult. Yet it is not exactly comforting that ministers are sending out a “we have your back” message to the public while at the same time seeking to reassure the financial markets that any help will be limited and targeted. Larry Elliott is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Exclusive: documents chronicle years-long campaign to make it easier to build intensive livestock units Ministers are rewriting planning rules to make it easier to build intensive livestock farms despite concerns about water pollution, air quality and local opposition. Documents obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act show that proposed changes to the national planning policy framework (NPPF) were discussed by ministers and officials in response to concerns of the country’s leading chicken producers, who have been lobbying on the issue for at least two years. Continue reading...

The IBF and WBC welterweight champion on returning to the ring, boxing politics and her imminent wedding A year ago, on a historic night for boxing when an all-women card of fights was held at the Royal Albert Hall last March, Lauren Price produced an imperious headline performance which should have led to a series of even more prestigious bouts. Her dominant display in outclassing the venerable Natasha Jonas appeared to be the ideal launching for a new stage of Price’s career as the IBF and WBC world welterweight champion. But when she finally steps back into the ring on Saturday night in Cardiff to defend her titles against Stephanie Piñeiro Aquino, the little-known Puerto Rican challenger, almost 13 months will have passed since that high point. Only frustration and inertia have followed. Continue reading...

Thomas Tuchel played down the significance of latest friendlies and history suggests team lineups can have little bearing on actual tournament “It’s just March,” Thomas Tuchel said after a winless international break. March doesn’t matter. March is for winding up the Wembley crowd by playing Ben White. For Phil Foden as a false 9. For Dominic Calvert-Lewin agonising over narrow misses. For Jason Steele in the crucial emergency fifth goalkeeper spot. Will any of this matter when England head to Miami for their World Cup training camp on 1 June? History suggests the answer is yes … but also no. The last camps before a tournament can be odd. For Tuchel, comparisons with the past are awkward. The modern calendar has been squeezed by the club game and it is not surprising that his players are exhausted when the physical demands on Premier League teams are so extreme. Continue reading...