Abdullah Öcalan’s message, which follows four decades of guerrilla warfare, will have far-reaching implications across the Middle East
The ageing leader of a Kurdish militant group imprisoned on a remote Turkish island has called on the group to disarm and dissolve itself, signalling the start of a fragile peace with Turkey after four decades of guerrilla warfare, attacks and reprisals.
Abdullah Öcalan, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), a group long regarded as a terrorist organisation in Turkey as well as in Britain and the US, issued the message in a letter read out by allies in Istanbul.
On the podcast today: Liverpool stretch their lead at the top of the Premier League with a comfortable 2-0 win over Newcastle, as Dominik Szoboszlai continues to impress. The panel ask: is the race done? Meanwhile, Arsenal are held to a 0-0 draw at Nottingham Forest, with Mikel Merino starting up top, and the panel ask if Raheem Sterling peaked too early in his career.
Research pitting people against AI systems gives AI an edge by asking us to perform in machine-like ways
Techno-optimists are evangelizing a vision of “superhuman” artificial intelligence (AI). Dario Amodei, the CEO of the AI company Anthropic, predicts within a few years, AI will be “better than almost all humans at almost everything”. Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) is proposing replacing government workers with chatbots in the name of efficiency. And some scientists are claiming that AI can already outperform humans even in domains previously thought to be exclusively human, like empathy, creativity and conflict resolution.
It’s true that in several prominent studies, researchers have staged “competitions” in which AI technology appears to outperform humans in these very human areas. But a closer look reveals that these games are rigged against us humans. The competitions do not actually ask machines to perform human tasks; it’s more accurate to say that they ask humans to behave in machine-like ways as they perform lifeless simulacra of human tasks.
Dancing in the dark can restore a sense of fun in your body without anyone watching, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. You’re never too awkward or sober to start
I am in my early 30s and happily married with two young children. I have never been an amazing dancer. It has always been painfully awkward. I feel mortified whenever there’s a requirement to dance, even if it’s as silly as when the grownups join in during a kid’s party! I’ve had strangers offer well-intentioned help; people try to teach me to dance while on the dancefloor (clearly they decided I needed help). I’ve had a friend comment that my dancing is “cute” and strangers mock my dancing by mimicking it in front of me.
When I was in my 20s, I made up for this in the only way I knew how – by drinking a lot and losing all inhibition. I loved letting go and just losing myself on the dancefloor, enjoying the music and not caring what people thought. I’m now at a stage in my life where I’ve got young kids, I work a million hours a week in an intense job and I like making the most of my weekends with my family, so getting extremely drunk to enjoy a night of dancing isn’t an option. Even when the option has presented itself, I feel so saddled emotionally with responsibility and physically with my larger, squidgier mum body that I just avoid dancing altogether.
The president’s official feeds are traditionally relatively sober but the 2025 version projects a petulant wannabe king
Traditionally the White House social media feeds have been a relatively sober way for administrations to communicate with the public. The X and Facebook accounts promote their presidents, but have tended to stop short of full-fledged propaganda.
Not any more. Under Trump’s presidency the White House’s digital communications have blasted past mere propaganda, to a level of bad taste and sycophancy that has shocked observers and prompted concerns that Trump sees himself as a monarch.
One game does not fix everything but Leah Williamson and Millie Bright were delighted with team’s grit against Spain
While Wembley was rejoicing at the sight of England putting the ball in Spain’s net, there were two people noticeably not joining in with the celebrations. Sarina Wiegman had reacted to the Lionesses’ goal by making her way urgently down to the touchline for a detailed conversation with her captain, Leah Williamson, clearly relaying some key tactical details.
Such a sight is not uncommon in top-level sport, but on Wednesday night it felt particularly indicatory of England’s focus, determination and steadfast resolve to win. Their committed performance in the 1-0 Nations League triumph was one of a side fixated on nothing but victory, high levels of work rate, concentration and, perhaps above all, grit. The centre-back Millie Bright had another description for it: “Proper English.”
Melbourne’s World Naked Bike Ride will celebrate its 20th anniversary as it winds through the city’s streets spreading a message of body positivity and environmentalism
This weekend in Melbourne, expect to see hundreds of cyclists with a striking difference. Instead of the usual Lycra-clad peloton, these riders will be getting their kit off in a day of nude protest to draw attention to rider safety and visibility, diversity of body image and a celebration of low-carbon transport.
Dearne Weaver, a 61-year-old community worker from Canberra, says when she first attended Melbourne’s World Naked Bike Ride in 2019 she was worried it might be too male-dominated – but she was pleasantly surprised.
Seeds of 177 species from across Africa to be stored in Norway to preserve crop diversity in case of disaster
More than 100,000 seeds from across Africa have been deposited in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the world’s repository for specimens intended to preserve crop diversity in the event of disaster.
Among the latest additions are seeds critical to building climate resilience, such as the tree Faidherbia albida, which turns nitrogen into ammonia and nitrates, and Cordia africana, the Sudan teak, a tree renowned for its strength and durability.
Five months after the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ) finished first in parliamentary elections, Austria’s three leading centrist parties have reached agreement to form a new government without it.
The centre-right People’s party (ÖVP), the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the liberal Neos, whose first attempt at forming a coalition failed in January, unveiled a 200-page programme aimed mainly at reviving the country’s ailing economy and cutting its budget deficit.
Before the Black Death devastated Siena, the city thrummed with energy, expressed in art and architecture designed to dazzle its audience – and which still astonishes 800 years later
If you want to know the moment of a medieval Italian city’s greatest prosperity, look at the year it began work on its cathedral. In Siena, the magic year was 1226, the start of some 85 years of construction of the duomo, a remarkable gothic structure with an intricately complex, creamy pink facade and stripy, black-and-white campanile. “The scale of ambition is difficult to put into words,” says Laura Llewellyn, one of the curators of The Rise of Painting, the National Gallery’s new exhibition of Sienese art. “The extravagance of it: to appreciate it you need to unknow and unlearn later buildings like the duomos in Florence and St Peter’s in Rome.”
But by the 1350s, Siena’s most glorious years in the raging Tuscan sun would be as good as over. After decades of rapid artistic transformation – a half century that saw the art of the city leave behind the distant, hieratic grace of Byzantine-flavoured painting for a world of dynamism, drama and emotion – the Black Death halved the city’s population from 60,000 to 30,000, stripped away its wilder ambitions and dulled its gleaming wealth. One of Siena’s more implausible plans had been to enlarge the already huge cathedral by converting its existing nave into a transept and tacking on to its belly a new, vastly oversized nave on the precipitous edge of one of the city’s peaks. The project was never completed, but ghostly unfinished arches remain as a monument to lost dreams and a raging pandemic.
Study counteracts claims by conservative lawmakers that books being removed from classrooms are sexually explicit
The majority of banned books in US public schools last year dealt with people of color, LGBTQ+ people and other demographics, according to a new study from PEN America.
The report also counteracts claims by conservative lawmakers that books being removed from classrooms are sexually explicit and that book bans are altogether a “hoax”, an assertion made by Donald Trump.
Tucker has faced mounting accusations since January
Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker has released a new statement maintaining that he did not act inappropriately while receiving treatment from massage therapists. He also offered an apology.
“It devastates me to know that anyone I have worked with would not have felt respected and valued as a professional, but more importantly as a person, and to anyone who has felt otherwise, I am sorry,” Tucker said in a statement from his publicist. “I want you to know I am committed to ensuring that everyone I interact with continues to feel that I respect them and care about them as a human being.”
Meet the song contest’s first ever mascot – a sentient heart with a bizarrely sexy mouth that looks like the result of the ChatGPT prompt ‘please ruin my day’. Why oh why has this happened?
The miracle of Eurovision is how much it has legitimised itself over the last decade and a half. For years, the song contest was the laughing stock of Europe, a toe-curling night on which all the continent’s fifth-rate novelty acts would gather and bing-bam-boom themselves to death while the rest of Europe looked on and jeered.
But look at it now. By carefully repositioning itself, and by encouraging countries to submit relevant, modish entries, Eurovision has transformed into the party of the year. People love Eurovision – and not ironically, either. At a time of growing international strife – the sort of strife that it was designed to combat – Eurovision represents a moment of unity. It is, in short, in the shape of its life. It would take something spectacular to mess it up.
Rights experts say group, who have been detained for more than 10 years, face risk of disappearance and imprisonment
Dozens of Uyghurs have been deported from Thailand to China in the face of warnings from human rights experts that there is a high risk they will suffer torture, enforced disappearance and imprisonment.
Local media reported that several trucks with their windows covered were seen in the early hours of Thursday leaving the Bangkok immigration centre where 48 Uyghurs had been held during their more than 10 years in Thai detention.
Funds would be used to create holding company for 26-year-old’s growing empire of video and food businesses
The world’s biggest YouTube star, MrBeast, is planning to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in a move that would reportedly value his company at roughly $5bn (£3.9bn).
The YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is said to have spoken with several wealthy individuals and financial firms about taking part in the investment round.
Glitter transfers easily and is tough to wash off, which is why women are using it to leave a message – and for revenge
Lipstick on the collar, a stray earring tucked into seat cushions: women have long relied on makeup and fashion to catch cheaters. Now, there’s a new method for singles who want to ensure a date doesn’t have a secret spouse at home – provided they aren’t afraid of microplastics.
In a TikTok posted this month with more than 2m likes, the fitness influencer Dalia Grande spritzed glitter all over her body while getting ready for a first date: “bc I’m at the age where they could be married (Married men HATE glitter)”, she wrote in the caption.
In her latest book, Mother Animal, the writer gives a personal account of the impact of ‘forever chemicals’ on her and her child during and after pregnancy
When Helen Jukes told her friends she was writing about motherhood and pollution, they advised her against it and warned she might make pregnant people more anxious than they already were. But she disagreed. Mother Animal, a personal account of Jukes’ pregnancy and early years of motherhood, details her growing realisation of how contaminated her body, and her baby, have become. And it’s something she thinks all would-be parents should be more aware of. There are chemicals from human industry in breast milk, amniotic fluid and bones, she writes. Toxicologists have found “forever chemicals” in embryos and foetuses at “every stage of pregnancy … in lung tissues, in livers”. It is inescapable.
Yet it is spoken about far too little. “I find it quite disrespectful to think that mothers wouldn’t be capable of handling [this] information,” she says when we meet at her home on the edge of the Peak District.
The two leaders will hold talks later, followed by a joint press conference
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will travel to London this Sunday to take part in an informal meeting on Ukraine and European security, the European Commission has just confirmed. Jakub Krupa has more on his Europe live blog.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has confirmed that President Trump has the ability to veto the deal that the UK has negotiated transferring sovereignty of the Chagos Isands to Mauritius. Speaking on ITV’s Peston last night, Lammy said:
If President Trump doesn’t like the deal, the deal will not go forward.
The reason for that is because we have a shared military and intelligence interest with the United States, and of course they’ve got to be happy with the deal, or there is no deal.
(Domino) Noah Lennox’s powerful and adventurous album has plenty of playlistable psych-pop, but then turns introspective: it’s a striking emotional arc
The last time the world heard from Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox, he was in the company of Pete Kember, better known as Sonic Boom, co-founder of Spacemen 3 – the latest in a string of musical left-turns that have made Lennox the most prolific and intriguing member of Animal Collective. Solo, he has variously spawned an entire sub-genre more or less singlehanded (the sample-heavy sound of his acclaimed 2007 album Person Pitch effectively gave birth to chillwave), collaborated with Daft Punk, Solange, Paramore and Jamie xx, commissioned dub albums from On-U Sound’s Adrian Sherwood, and dabbled in a stark acoustic sound on 2019’s Buoys.
Lennox and Kember’s collaborative album, Reset, united two generations of psychedelic experimentalists in a charmingly playful musical dialogue. Among its delights was a track called Whirlpool. It sounded beatific and blissed-out, but on closer examination seemed to depict a failing relationship: Lennox later confirmed that his marriage to fashion designer Fernanda Pereira – who directed the videos that accompanied Reset – had collapsed.
With its real tulips, real singing and real BFFs Ariande Grande and Cynthia Erivo front and centre, this musical is as authentic and credible as fantasy gets
For the opening scene of Wicked, 9m real tulips were planted, improbably, by a farmer in Norfolk. The necessity of this opulence was completely obvious to director Jon M Chu and production designer Nathan Crowley – otherwise they’d have to use CGI for the Munchkin Village. Is CGI lush? Does it recall the heady, future-facing surge of hope and optimism that the original Oz has come to represent for, goddammit, almost a century? It does not. While it isn’t for the production values alone that Wicked deserves the best picture Oscar – anyone can spend money if they have enough money – take a second to consider the commitment of this film, and its impossibility. It tries to remain true to the moment when the world discovered Technicolor (sure, sure, come at me with The Toll of the Sea some other time); cheerfulness, magic, a naive faith in cinema and beyond – these are quite big asks in 2024, and Wicked went for it.
It was partly in tribute to that quality of early musicals that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande performed all the songs live; lip-syncing as an innovation has brought increased slickness to a movie’s sound quality, but at the expense of stripping out jeopardy and emotion from the human voice. Clearly, Erivo and Grande could both lift a building off its foundations with their vocals – the last thing you’d describe them as being is “fragile” – but it’s a “whites of their eyes” thing. You never realised you needed to see the muscles move in a singer’s throat to believe that they really mean it – yet it turns out, you do.
The Premier League could be forced to operate two separate transfer windows this summer due to disruption caused by the Club World Cup.
Fifa has announced plans to open an interim transfer window at the end of this season for clubs competing in the tournament, to allow the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City to add to their squads and agree contract extensions with their current players before the tournament begins on 14 June.
From the cutest postapocalyptic world to multiplayer mayhem and a modern family classic, here are the Switch’s must-play games
When we think of Nintendo we picture serene and cosy cartoon adventures filled with cute creatures and lovable Italian stereotypes. But while there is plenty of Mario on the Switch, the console offers a diverse range of delights for newcomers and longtime gaming veterans. Here are the 15 essentials.
With Trump back in the White House, the state and others across the US are making efforts to install Christian viewpoints in governance
Ryan Walters bowed his head in prayer at his desk in the Oklahoma state superintendent’s office.
“Dear God, thank you for all the blessings you’ve given our country,” the rising star on the Christian right said in the mid-November video. “I pray for our leaders to make the right decisions. I pray in particular for President Donald Trump and his team as they continue to bring about change for our country.”
In Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, people have watched the ice fields turn to exposed rock and experts predict these vital water sources could be lost in 30 years
Words and photographs by Euan Wallace in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Colombia
At an altitude of 4,200 metres in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Colombia, Edilsa Ibañéz Ibañéz lowers a cupped hand into the water of a glacial stream. A local guide and mountaineer, she has grown up drinking water that runs down from the snowy peaks above. As she stands up, however, the landscape that greets her is markedly different from that of her childhood.
“We used to think the ice would be eternal,” says Ibañéz, 45. “Now it is not so eternal. Our glaciers are dying.”
The ‘mad woman in the attic’ is an archetypal force to be reckoned with in this gothic tale of metamorphosis
You don’t tend to encounter much body horror in historical fiction. We have our bold innovators, to be sure, but for many the archaic and the genteel remain oddly synonymous. The good news, if that’s you, is that there’s almost no swearing in Heather Parry’s new novel. The bad news is that it’s vile and unspeakable in almost every other way. But don’t let that put you off. Carrion Crow may be set in a fetid late Victorian London and couched in lightly brocaded prose, but what lurks within is unmistakably red in tooth and claw, a creature nearer in kinship to Kathy Acker than to Sarah Waters.
The body undergoing the horrors belongs, in this instance, to Marguerite Périgord, the daughter of a French noblewoman in reduced circumstances. When the wayward Marguerite attracts a suitor, a strenuously unromantic solicitor named Mr Lewis, Cécile Périgord isn’t taking any chances. In a show of aristocratic mettle, she imprisons Marguerite in the attic, there to acquire the complexion and manners her wifely vocation will require.
Questions on general knowledge and topical trivia, plus a few jokes, every Thursday. How will you fare?
When the quiz master sat down at a blank page to write this week’s introduction, nothing came to mind. There must be an infinite number of ways that you could introduce readers to a quiz, but not a single thought popped into his head. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Still, here the quiz is – 16 questions on topical news, popular culture, general knowledge and whatever else cropped up during the writing process, all liberally sprinkled with some jokes. There are no prizes, but you can let us know how you got on in the comments.
Premier Doug Ford called for the early vote, arguing he needs ‘strong mandate’ in case of US-Canada trade war
Voters in Canada’s most populous province head to the polls on Thursday to elect a new premier who may have to face the task of preserving Ontario’s economy in the face of punishing US trade tariffs.
Doug Ford, the Progressive Conservative party leader who has been the province’s premier since 2018, called the snap election last month, arguing that he needs a “strong mandate” to steer the province through any trade war with the US.
A deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-funded LIV league would directly benefit the US president’s family business
In his first month in office, Donald Trump destroyed federal agencies, fired thousands of government workers and unleashed dozens of executive orders. The US president also found time to try to broker an agreement between two rival golf tournaments, the US-based PGA Tour and the LIV Golf league, funded by Saudi Arabia.
If concluded, the deal would directly benefit Trump’s family business, which owns and manages golf courses around the world. And it would be the latest example of Trump using the presidency to advance his personal interests.
As the NFL gathers for the combine, we look at the plots that will dominate the news cycle in the coming weeks and months
Stafford and the Rams are in another contractual standoff, with Los Angeles giving their quarterback permission to seek a trade. Stafford is set to earn $27m next season, putting him way behind the highest earners at the position. According to reports, Stafford is looking for a new two-year, $110m deal from the Rams that slices the difference between Dak Prescott (who will earn $60m in 2025) and Trevor Lawrence ($52m).
The brothers, who are dual UK-US nationals, were given a travel ban in December 2023 amid trafficking allegations
The leaders of the three parties likely to form the next Austrian government (9:25 CET) have now visited the country’s president, Alexander Van der Bellen, to present their proposed programme.
The party leaders are starting their press conference on the new government’s plans now, so I will keep an eye on any key news lines there.
Will it be Anora or Conclave? Demi or Mikey? Brody or Chalamet? This year’s glut of secret ballots reveal who the winners might be
If you’re finding it harder than usual to get excited about the Oscars this year, don’t worry. Several factors – from the punishing length to the lack of an Oppenheimer-style breakout hit to the weird tone of hosting a glittering movie award ceremony in a city that just suffered through wildfires – have combined to dull everyone’s expectations this time around.
Still, there is still good news to be had. You now no longer have to wait for the Oscars to learn who won what, thanks to the absolutely monumental glut of anonymous Oscar voter ballots that have filled the internet in the past week. Seemingly every single person who gets to cast a vote in the Academy awards has scarpered away to one website or another to reveal exactly how they voted. So let’s collate all their findings and predict some winners.
My boyhood club is shaped by Franz Beckenbauer’s legacy, and for the last half-century has been run by former players
I congratulate my club on its anniversary. On Thursday, Bayern Munich will be 125 years old. The club was in my cradle, because my grandfather was and my father is a Bayern fan. When I was young, they told me a lot about the golden 70s with the three European Cup victories. They admired Gerd Müller, Sepp Maier and the other players. They were almost in awe of one of them: Franz Beckenbauer.
In the beginning, Bayern were one of many clubs. I have a few black-and-white pictures from the founding days in mind; I know the club history. But I can only really talk about it from the Beckenbauer era onwards, and since then Bayern have been something very special.
Processed meat sticks increase the risks of high blood pressure, cancer and heart disease. So how did they become so popular with fitness enthusiasts and lifestyle gurus?
How did something as transparently dirty as cured meat enter the temple of clean? The American “meat stick” industry – mainly cured beef sticks that are awesomely calorific – hit $3bn last year. In the UK, processed meat snacking products have grown in sales by 38% since 2020, and are projected to pick up another 49% percent by 2027. The puzzle is not “are they tasty?” or “are they convenient?” We know they are, but so is a Snickers. Rather, how did a category that we’ve known for years is actively bad for your health come to be the snacking choice of gymgoers and lifestyle gurus alike?
Scientifically questionable meat-heavy diets come and go (remember the Atkins diet?) but in 2018, conservative guru Jordan Peterson went on Joe Rogan’s podcast to talk about his book 12 Rules for Life, and – complimented by Rogan on his physique – said in passing he now ate only beef, salt and water. And he never cheated. The “animal products only” Carnivore Diet, by orthopaedic surgeon Shawn Baker, was published at the same time.
Anas Alkharboutli was fatally injured in a missile attack just four days before the president fled to Russia. His colleagues and friends explain why his life was more exceptional than his death
The war was almost over when death came for Anas Alkharboutli. On 4 December last year, Bashar al-Assad’s forces, on the brink of collapse, killed the photojournalist in an airstrike near Hama. He was 32 years old.
“We were excited to go to the frontline,” says Omar Haj Kadour, a photographer who was with Alkharboutli on the day he was killed. “Things were finally going well for the opposition.”
Anas Alkharboutli (right) with his colleague Omar Haj Kadour. Photograph: Omar Haj Kadour
To enter a four-star dining room like Jean-Georges is to enter a world of perfection. But in dark corners hidden from guests is its cruel and seedy underbelly
I was working at Jean-Georges, the petite and bourgeois restaurant tucked into Trump’s building on Columbus Circle, just off Central Park, where the sounds and smells of New York faded into the austere dining room. It was a room of extravagances small and large.
There’s no pleasure in a four-star dining room, no joviality. You can’t be jocular with your fellow servers. There’s no room for error. A server is not permitted to do the following: wear colored nail polish; cross hands in front of the body; slouch; speak on the floor; carry a glass from the bar to the table without a tray; show visible tattoos; wear hair in an inappropriate manner (this can be at the discretion of a manager); touch a glass by any part except the stem; pour wine in the incorrect order; spill; laugh.
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