A bill in the US state would allow public schools to deny undocumented children the chance to enroll
You’ve probably seen this quote from an Alabama pastor called Dave Barnhart. It goes viral all the time. But I’m resurfacing the quote because it is another day that ends with “y” in America, which means it is relevant once again.
(Inkle; Nintendo Switch, iPhone/iPad, Mac, PC) Prove that Verity Amersham is innocent of trying to bump off the head girl in this ingenious whodunnit from the makers of Overboard!
There’s been a murder – or an attempted one, at least. At sunrise someone shoved Louisa Hardcastle, soon to be crowned head girl of Miss Mulligatawney’s School for Promising Girls, through the school’s stained-glass window. Your character, Verity Amersham, stands accused, and must present an account of her day that proves her innocence. This is achieved via a Groundhog Day structure: you repeatedly play through the hours leading up to Verity’s expulsion as an interactive flashback, from the moment she woke, through to attending chapel and classes, and the accusation on which the story pivots. There’s no magic involved: you’re simply recounting the day’s events to your concerned father as you construct your alibi, establish whether Verity committed the crime – or if not, by whom she has been framed.
Developed by British studio Inkle, Expelled! has many of the hallmarks of the developer’s magnificent previous title, Overboard! There’s a witty script, memorable Agatha Christie-esque characters (Verity’s roommate, the conflict-scarred Russian expat Nattie, provides a standout turn) and a lightness of touch that offsets the grisly act upon which the story rests. There are hefty themes behind the cartoonish presentation too. Set in 1922 after the first world war and a global pandemic, the setting trembles with interwar trauma and the sense that the world might again collapse at any moment into chaos.
The chef and restaurateur, 76, shares his boyhood inspiration, losing everything in a fire, and saying no to Robert De Niro
My father died in a car accident when I was seven. Whenever I missed him, I would look in the family photo album at this picture of when he had gone to Palau. He was an architect and had gone to source lumber for his work. It made me dream of going abroad someday and making him proud.
My older brother took me to sushi restaurants as a kid. They were very expensive; not the kinds of places kids would go. I was so impressed by the energy of the sushi chefs, the smells, the choice of fish. From then on, I knew that’s what I wanted to be. After graduating from high school at 18, I trained to be a sushi chef in Tokyo.
Palladium, London The singer and actor hints at an outre new synth-heavy sound, drawn largely from latest album Polari. He stops short, though, of scaring his daytime TV fans
“I’m all about playful subversion,” declares Olly Alexander with a grin on the final night of his UK tour. Clad in a series of outfits whose shiny buttons nod towards London’s pearly kings and queens and the dressing-up box – there’s one handily located on the left side of the stage – he is outlining the essence of Polari, the slang once used by the LGBTQ+ community, showfolk and the denizens of London’s Soho, as was.
Evolving out of the vocabularies of Italian immigrants and Travellers to evade the understanding of law enforcement and mainstream society in the 19th and early-mid 20th centuries, Polari also doubles as the title of Alexander’s latest, queer-club pop-themed album. Released two months ago, it was the first under his own name; previously, he had traded as Years & Years, first as a band, then as a solo project.
From unauthorised species releases to small groups buying up land, ‘guerrilla rewilding’ is going mainstream. But experts worry that these rogue efforts could do more harm than good
Visions of habitats teeming with nature are powerful, particularly so in an age of extinction. Rewilding, which offers the promise of such transformations, was once something most would have imagined happening far away, carried out by people unlike them, but times are changing. The wilderness is getting closer to home and more personal.
It is a simple and powerful way to help them feel calmer and happier, say the experts. So how do you teach kindness to kids?
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In a hostile world, many parents might be anxious about how to raise a kinder generation – and if so, science backs you. Children who are more empathetic “tend to have more positive interactions and more satisfying relationships with friends and family,” says Jessica Rolph, co-founder of early childhood development company Lovevery. Studies show that kids who can form strong relationships do better in school, she adds.
Lewis holds off teenager Leah O’Brien in photo-finish
Browning pips Lachie Kennedy in men’s national final
Rohan Browning and Torrie Lewis upstaged the flashy upstarts of Australian sprinting, claiming their respective 100m national titles in two split-second victories in Perth on Saturday.
The women’s final was decided by a three-way photo finish between Lewis, Bree Rizzo and Leah O’Brien. The national record-holder stopped the clock at 11.24s, edging 17-year-old O’Brien by just four thousandths of a second, with Rizzo one hundredth of a second back.
Abbas Araghchi says ‘initial understanding’ could be reached in Oman and lead to ‘path of negotiations’
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has arrived in Oman for mediated talks with the US special envoy Steve Witkoff, saying there is a chance the two sides can reach an initial understanding that leads to a timetable for negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme.
The aim is to agree a format and parameters for talks that in months could lead to some US economic sanctions on Tehran being lifted and a recasting of Iran’s civil nuclear programme.
The US could breach the debt ceiling even sooner than predicted without action from Republicans
“Trump backs down on tariffs, again. And it doesn’t look strategic,” a headline blared on Wednesday afternoon.
At the end of trading, equities had recovered a portion of their losses. But plenty of damage had been done. Markets were thrown into turmoil, interest rates jumped and business activity took a hit. Beyond that, the possibility of a recession grew – and the possibility of a default by the US inched up to 6%, according to prediction markets.
Researchers have catalogued the British words and phrases most used in US conversation, sparking delight and frustration
The Americani(s)zation of British English is often described as a linguistic disaster– frustrations over imported words or usages, from “awesome” to “ATM”, are well documented.
But in recent years, there’s been growing interest in the opposite phenomenon: Britishisms that have made their way into American English. These days, it’s not uncommon to hear Americans describing a single event as a “one-off” or noting that a perfect assessment is “spot-on”.
Amongst (rather than “among”), whose use has nearly quadrupled in the US over the past four decades
Queue, whose frequent use on tech platforms such as Netflix has given its British meaning – what Americans would generally call a “line” – new life in the US
Wonky, meaning a bit off
Cheeky, meaning a bit naughty or indulgent, as frequently used by Mike Myers (a Canadian with English parents) on Saturday Night Live in the 1990s
Snarky, often used to describe early internet discourse and sites such as Gawker
Cheers, which has long been used while clinking glasses in the US but has started to mean “thanks” in some contexts
Keen, meaning enthusiastic
Maths, rather than just math, which has become more familiar in the US due to international academic work and social media
Nil, meaning zero, which is turning up in online gaming
Amir Makled says immigration officials questioned him about his phone’s contents. Experts warn fourth amendment rights have been weakened at the border
Amir Makled thought he was being racially profiled. A Lebanese American who was born and raised in Detroit, the attorney was returning home from a family vacation in the Dominican Republic when he said an immigration official at the Detroit Metro airport asked for a “TTRT” agent after scanning his passport on Sunday. Makled said the expression on the agent’s face changed. He felt something “odd” was happening.
“So I Googled what TTRT meant. I didn’t know,” Makled said. “And what I found out was it meant Tactical Terrorism Response Team. So immediately I knew they’re gonna take me in for questioning. And that’s when I felt like I was being racially profiled or targeted because I am Arab.”
Contact from the Observer prompts withdrawal as dealers urged to do more to stop illicit trade in antiquities
A London antiquities dealer has withdrawn an ancient Greek amphora from sale after evidence arose that links it to a notorious smuggler.
The Kallos Gallery in Mayfair, London, has removed a black-figure amphora – a jar with two handles and a narrow neck made around 550BC – from sale after the Observer contacted it about concerns raised by an expert in the illegal trade of antiquities.
New biography tells story of operative who directed coups in Iran and Guatemala and grappled with mental illness
Frank Wisner was a leading light of the early CIA, a director of clandestine operations who came of age in the second world war then fought the cold war by fair means or foul, from funding American cultural outreach to orchestrating coups in Iran and Guatemala.
Before becoming a biographer, Douglas Waller reported for Newsweek and Time. His new book, The Determined Spy, is about Wisner, a man who lived an extraordinary life but came to be buried at Arlington national cemetery, under a simple headstone, identified merely as a commander in the US naval reserve.
Prolific Canadian director also made one of the country’s first internationally successful films, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, starring Richard Dreyfuss
Ted Kotcheff, the prolific Canadian director of films including First Blood, Weekend at Bernie’s, Wake in Fright and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, has died aged 94. His daughter Kate Kotcheff told the Canadian Press that he had died of heart failure on Thursday in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, where he lived. His son Thomas said: “He died of old age, peacefully, and surrounded by loved ones.”
In an amazingly varied career, Kotcheff’s work ranged from hardhitting TV plays and low-budget features in the UK, to hit Hollywood comedies and prestige-laden award-winners and cult films. Kate Kotcheff said: “He was an amazing storyteller. He was an incredible, larger than life character [and] he was a director who could turn his hand to anything.”
Luxury companies need greater protection from imitators gaining the approval of social media influencers, as trademarking scent is almost impossible, experts say
One perfume smells suspiciously like a £355 bottle of Baccarat Rouge 540 eau de parfum. Another, which has notes of grapefruit, rose and Levantine spice, is reminiscent of a £215 bottle of Penhaligon’s Halfeti. But unlike those luxury brands, these “dupe scents” can cost as little as a fiver.
As many as half of UK consumers are now thought to have succumbed to the social media craze for cheap perfumes “inspired by” well-known luxury fragrances. And lawyers now say perfume brands and beauty companies need greater legal protection from rivals who imitate their products.
Casual attitude as markets fall suggests man detached from anxieties of ordinary voters – and surrounded by yes men
After lighting a fuse under global financial markets, Donald Trump stepped back – all the way to a Florida golf course. A week later, having just caved to pressure to ease his trade tariffs, the US president defended the retreat while hosting racing car champions at the White House.
Trump had spent the time in between golfing, dining with donors and making insouciant declarations such as “this is a great time to get rich”, even as the US economy melted down.
Ahead of this game, the Crystal Palace manager could not lavish enough praise on Manchester City striker Omar Marmoush, who he previously worked with at Wolfsburg. “He has the skills and what I loved was he was two and a half years in Germany and he spoken German perfectly and this is quite unusual,” he said of the Egyptian.
“He is a great guy, has all the skills and in the football career you may not have to make a straight direction to come to the top but he had a loan at St Pauli, Stuttgart, then performing for Wolfsburg, then an outstanding season for Frankfurt. Immediately he shows Manchester [City] what kind of striker he is. I’m really pleased for him but not tomorrow.”
As ex-prisoners sue over claims that high levels of radon gas have led to serious illnesses, taxpayers continue to foot the rental bill
The village of Princetown sits surrounded by the desolate beauty of Dartmoor national park. It should, in theory, be a hub for the more than 2 million people a year who come to explore the bogs, granite tors and windswept moorland that in part inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Today it more closely resembles a mining community after the pits closed. Dartmoor prison, which provided jobs for many residents, has been closed since last summer after the discovery of dangerous levels of radon gas. The prison museum, a former tourist attraction, is also closed, and the prison officers’ club is derelict. Quiet streets bear testimony to the ghostly finger of financial fate.
When it emerged that a fertility clinic had made one woman pregnant with another’s baby, Renée Ballou and Carole LieberWilkins were advised to ‘lawyer up’. Instead they did something extraordinary – even as one raised the other’s biological child
Renée Ballou thought she was a lucky person. In the 1980s, she was living in a beautiful home an hour’s drive from Los Angeles, with a job she loved, a happy marriage and a young son. Everything had always felt so easy for Renée – until she began trying for a second child. Two years on, she still wasn’t pregnant. “I was pretty much used to getting what I wanted,” Renée, now 67, tells me with a sad smile. “It was very stressful.”
Along with her husband, Wesley, Renée went through a battery of tests, followed by years of surgeries, supplements and hormones. Her gynaecologist referred them to Dr Sergio Stone, a fertility specialist at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in Orange County, for more treatment. They tried artificial insemination – first with Wesley’s sperm, then with a donor – without success. Their son, Matthew, was four when they started trying for a sibling for him; by 1987 he was 10. It was lonely and emotionally and physically gruelling. But Renée refused to give up. “I wanted that baby more than anything.”
Nothing feels more like spring to me than roast lamb, and we know that season is coming the moment we start putting it on our restaurant menu. We buy the whole animal and use every part of it, but my favourite cut is definitely the chops. When I was growing up, my mum would always roast lamb on Easter Sunday and serve it with potatoes and a tangy green sauce, so we usually do something similar at Cafe Cecilia.
Max Rocha is chef-owner of Cafe Cecilia, London E8
Four senior officers say more controls needed, amid claims platforms are ‘fuelling and enabling’ crime
Senior UK police officers have called for the government to ban children under 16 from social media, amid claims the platforms are “fuelling and enabling” crime.
The standup’s new animated series #1 Happy Family USA mixes South Park-style humour with a bracing account of Muslim life in America in the wake of the September 11 attacks. It feels like history is repeating itself, he says
Ramy Youssef has this theory: “The more fucked up the climate, the stupider television must be.” Granted, he came up with it barely 10 seconds ago, but the 34-year-old is committing. “You need something dumb,” he’s newly certain, “to cut through the tension for relief.” Now he’s frantically tapping away on his phone, searching for facts to prove it. Bingo. “You see, [MTV celebrity prank show] Punk’d premiered on 17 March 2003. Know what happened three days later? The US invaded Iraq. Maybe my stupid new show is perfect for how fucked everything is right now.”
In particular, Youssef is pointing to Palestine: his 2024 heartfelt SNL monologue calling for an end to the violence one of a litany of interventions he’s made in recent years. “I’ve sat down with too many people who’ve just lost entire sections of their families.” Does he feel speaking out could come at a cost to his career? “If I was constantly waiting to be cast,” he says, “I might not be so busy. We make TV like immigrants: not waiting around for someone else. We’re trying to speak to something human, even if we do it while people are trying to dehumanise us, our culture, where we come from and who we are.”
With new translations, a film starring Ralph Fiennes and a Christopher Nolan blockbuster on the way, Homer’s saga about a soldier’s return from battle speaks to our times in unexpected ways
We live in an Odyssey time. The Greek epic about Odysseus’s tortuous, adventure-filled journey home after the end of the Trojan war, composed probably between the late eighth and late seventh century BC, is surfacing in our culture right now. Great artworks from the past, ones that are read and reread across centuries, have a way of doing that. You examine them on a particular day, and their intricacies look suddenly singular, different from how they seemed 20 years ago, 50 years ago, yesterday; they offer something new, something that illuminates the world afresh. It is the Odyssey’s moment to catch the light.
Homer’s epic has resurfaced most obviously through two major recent translations and two major films. British classicist Emily Wilson’s translation was published at the height of the #MeToo movement in 2017, and not long before the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. Her alertness to the poem’s interest in structural power dynamics, including gender dynamics – themes she drew out in her introductory essay and public conversations about the translation – seemed to hit the political moment directly, and her version has become a cultural phenomenon in its own right. Another, by American literary scholar, writer and classicist Daniel Mendelsohn, is due out this month; it will be the new Penguin Classics edition, a successor to the now 30-year-old Robert Fagles translation and, before that, to EV Rieu’s version, which he worked on during the second world war, while bombs fell on London.
Inmates in several prisons given chance to study ethics and rhetoric ‘to inform contemporary life’ and skills
A classical education, once the preserve of Eton, Oxbridge and the likes of Boris Johnson, is being made available to inmates serving time in prisons.
In a break from the kind of curriculum usually on offer inside – lessons in literacy, numeracy, tiling and decorating – a small number of prisoners are being offered the opportunity to learn life skills from the ancient philosophers.
Resurgence could be on horizon as outbreaks pick up speed in US and abroad amid public health program cuts
As tuberculosis outbreaks pick up speed in the US and abroad amid deep cuts in funding for local, state and international public health programs, a resurgence of the deadliest infectious disease – including drug-resistant tuberculosis – could be on the horizon.
Increasing funding for public health responses could end tuberculosis (TB) altogether, says James Brookes, an IT specialist from Idaho, who told this to his representatives in Congress on Wednesday.
Twenty years after Concorde was grounded, a new wave of ‘quiet’ supersonic aircraft are in development – but not everyone welcomes the return of this costly, carbon-intensive technology
When I call Blake Scholl from New York, he says it’s a shame we couldn’t have met at his office in Colorado. If only there were a supersonic jet that could cruise at 1.7 times the speed of sound, and get me there two hours quicker than the typical JFK-to-Denver route.
There soon might be. Scholl is the CEO of Boom Supersonic, a company betting that ordinary civilians want to shoot across the sky at 1,100 miles (1,700 kilometres) per hour. After the pandemic brought a slump to the skies, air travel has returned to its former levels, and in-person business events are back on track. As a faster option for these travellers, Boom is developing its breakneck jets to be operational by 2029 – nearly a quarter century after Concorde landed its last plane.
Discontent with government handling of diplomatic crisis rises as Pete Hegseth says US troops moved to country
Panamanian opposition politicians have accused the US of launching a “camouflaged invasion” of the country, amid simmering discontent over the government’s handling of the diplomatic crisis.
After a three-day visit by the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump appeared to confirm that US military personnel had been deployed to the Central American country on Thursday, telling reporters: “We’ve moved a lot of troops to Panama.”
Losing track of time at the airport made the Iranian-born photographer reflect on how we deal with setbacks
Nima Bank was meant to be on the plane soaring overhead in this image. Unfortunately, he had been daydreaming in Istanbul airport, enjoying a coffee, and lost track of time. Once he realised his error, and that he would be stranded in the airport for the rest of the day, he says, “I found myself contemplating how a single missed connection could alter a life’s entire trajectory. What new possibilities had this delay set in motion? Was it a loss, or a redirection toward something else?”
The film-maker and photographer, originally from Iran, now living in Turkey, adds, “When the very plane I should have been on passed above me, it felt symbolic; like a reminder that movement, pause and change are all part of the journey.”
Oxford’s Heidi Long and Cambridge’s Claire Collins were born on the same day and have raced each other 15 times
Heidi Long and Claire Collins have competed against each other at world championships and Olympic Games, so it is testament to the continued allure of the University Boat Race that they describe it as a “bucket-list event”.
Having last met in the final of the Women’s Eight in Paris last summer, with Long winning bronze for Team GB ahead of Collins’s USA crew in fifth, they were reunited on the banks of the Thames in Putney this week in preparation for Sunday’s race.
Concerns about club’s ownership remain strong despite euphoria of ending 70-year wait for a domestic trophy
The defining image of the season that will never be forgotten at Newcastle may be Dan Burn powering that header into the Liverpool goal, or Eddie Howe drenched in detritus of lager discards as the team celebrated the club’s first domestic trophy since 1955. Equally, it could be the 300,000 fans who greeted the squad on the Town Moor, an extraordinary display of civic passion.
Yet none of these are likely to have made an impression on the fitness instructor Manahel al-Otaibi in Malaz prison, Riyadh, serving 11 years, some of it in solitary confinement, for opposing male guardianship and posting photos of herself on social media without wearing traditional abaya dress. For her friends, the abiding memory of the season will be Yasir al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and chairman of the club, gleefully holding the Carabao Cup aloft at Wembley.
Cricket Australia’s radical proposal will not be voted on
England seek to soften punishment for slow play
The International Cricket Council is set to delay controversial plans to divide Test cricket into two divisions, with the next edition of the World Test Championship starting this summer to continue in a single-league format.
The issue of two-tier Test cricket will be discussed at a series of ICC meetings in Zimbabwe this weekend but the Observer has been told that a proposal from Cricket Australia to move to two divisions will not be put to a vote.
After Thursday’s travails, the world No 2 stormed back into contention with a thrilling back nine in the second round
“Psst!” said the man who’d just ambled up to the back of the gallery midway down the 15th fairway. “Psssst!” he said again when everyone ignored him. “Is that Rory’s ball?” No one wanted to turn away from the play, but one of the people standing in front cocked their head and grunted “yup” over his shoulder.
The newcomer waited a second. “Do you think he’s going to lay up?” And now someone finally did snap their head right around. “It’s Rory fucking McIlroy,” they said, “he doesn’t know how to lay up.” And with that, everyone fell quiet again, and slapped their hands down on their hats as another great gust of wind blew in.
The Selecter singer on being told she was adopted aged four, falling offstage, and a close brush with death
Born in Essex, Pauline Black, 71, worked as a radiographer before becoming lead singer of the Selecter in 1979. The band’s hit singles include On My Radio, Three Minute Hero and Missing Words. Black was made an OBE in 2022 for services to entertainment. A documentary about her life, Pauline Black: A 2-Tone Story is on Sky Arts and Now TV from 16 April, and the Selecter are due to appear at Glastonbury. She is married and lives in the West Midlands.
What is your earliest memory?
Puking all over my mother’s freshly ironed sheets when she told me that I was adopted. She was not amused and she smacked me. I was four and a half; it was before I started going to school. I needed to be told because all my family was white.
No 10 has published a draft law that would give the business secretary the power to direct the company
It’s been a busy morning for Sarah Jones, who is now on BBC Breakfast.
Asked whether the government had received any private offers for the company’s Scunthorpe plant, Sarah Jones said:
There is not at the moment, to answer your question, a private company that is there willing to invest at this point.
When we came into government, there was a deal on the table with Tata Steel in Port Talbot.
We negotiated in 10 weeks a much better deal, but there was a private company willing to invest, who are now investing.
We are hoping that the company will co-operate with what we are asking them to do, we hope that we will give them a notice and they will continue.
If they do not, we will step in. Now the company will be liable for any costs that we incur, and we will seek to get that money back.
We have the £2.5 billion fund for steel which we had in our manifesto, that we will use if necessary, so there will be no extra costs to the Exchequer that we don’t already have in our plans.
New research on the optimal pour height this week adds another layer to the quest for caffeinated perfection
There is an episode of the hit TV series Breaking Bad in which Walter White, high school chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin, meets a new colleague in front of a tangle of clamps, pipes and slowly dripping flasks. When the other character lets him taste what he has been brewing, White is stunned. “My God, that is the best coffee I’ve ever tasted,” he says. “Why the hell are we making meth?”
Coffee may not be – quite – as addictive as methamphetamines, but to some of its aficionados, the hunt for the perfect hit of bean, roast, grind and brew is as seductive as any drug. That search took another step forward this week with new research into the optimal height and speed from which to pour water on to coffee grounds.
The Japanese-American author of unsettling new novel Audition talks about why fiction isn’t frivolous, family life with fellow writer Hari Kunzru, and how US authors are facing a critical moment
Some years ago, Katie Kitamura came upon a headline that read something like: “A stranger told me I was his mother.” The headline gripped her, but she never clicked through to the article. She imagined the story would offer some explanation – perhaps the author had given up a child for adoption, for instance. “I was much more interested in not having a concrete answer but just exploring the situation itself,” she tells me. “I’m intrigued by the idea that you could be very settled in your life … and something could happen that could overturn everything that you understand about yourself and your place in the world.”
The headline provided the inspiration for Kitamura’s fifth novel, Audition, a beguiling and unsettling book that opens with a meeting between an unnamed actor and a handsome college student, Xavier, who claims he is her son. As the story unfolds, the truth of their entanglement becomes ever harder to discern – is he a liar or a fantasist, or is she mad?
Journalist shares details of broadcaster’s dislike for Brummie accent as archives of her life and career to be catalogued
The BBC had an unofficial league table of the most loved and despised accents, the war correspondent Kate Adie has revealed. And the most hated? Brummie.
Geordie was liked, she told an audience in Sunderland, but from one end of the country to the other it was Birmingham that was particularly disliked.
Connexion
