They agreed the word ‘woke’ was overused, had different views on second homes … would they concur on whether there should be a Black Bond?

Joanne, 52, Southampton

Occupation Knowledge manager

Lawsuit focuses on day-one executive order claiming to ‘unleash American energy’ by boosting oil industry

Conservationists on Wednesday sued the Trump administration over its attempts to boost the oil industry by rolling back green policies.

Filed by the environmental non-profit Center for Biological Diversity, the litigation focuses on Trump’s day-one “unleashing American energy” executive order. In an effort to boost already booming US energy production, the emergency declaration directed federal agencies to identify all policies and regulations that “unduly” burden fuel producers and create “action plans” to weaken or remove them.

Jensen Huang causes stir on social media and is reported to have met founder of AI company DeepSeek

• Business live – latest updates

The chief executive of the American chip maker Nvidia visited Beijing on Thursday, days after the US issued fresh restrictions on sales of the only AI chip it was still allowed to sell to China.

Jensen Huang’s surprise visit was on the invitation of a trade organisation, according to a social media account affiliated with state media.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini and Philippe Auclair as Arsenal win 2-1 in Madrid to knock the holders out of the Champions League

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today: a brilliant performance from Arsenal at the Bernabéu, winning 2-1 in Madrid and 5-1 across the tie, they were close to perfection with Declan Rice probably the standout performer in a team of standout performers.

Illegally diverted rivers, seawater and poorly managed building projects have polluted the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta. But the Unesco site has a vital role to play in fighting climate change

From the porch of her family home in Nueva Venecia, Magdalena, Yeidis Rodríguez Suárez watches the sunset. The view takes in the still waters of the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta wetlands. Pelicans dip their beaks into the lagoon, ripples breaking the glassy surface. Distant mangroves turn from green to deep purple in the dying light.

The 428,000-hectare (1,600 sq mile) expanse of lagoons, mangroves and marshes in Colombia has been a Unesco biosphere reserve since 2000. Yet, for Rodríguez, 27, the natural abundance is little more than an illusion.

These are just the US executioners we know. But they are a chilling indication of the executioners we don’t know

Being an executioner is not the sort of job that gets posted in a local wanted ad. Kids don’t dream about being an executioner when they grow up, and people don’t go to school for it. So how does one become a death row executioner in the US, and who are the people doing it?

This was the question I couldn’t help but ask when I began a book project on lethal injection back in 2018. I’m a death penalty researcher, and I was trying to figure out why states are so breathtakingly bad at a procedure that we use on cats and dogs every day. Part of the riddle was who is performing these executions.

(Matador)
The two deep south songwriters ditch country’s rhinestones for a personal, defiant reframing of the genre’s tropes

The origins of Send a Prayer My Way stretch back nearly a decade. The partnership between US singer-songwriters Mackenzie “Torres” Scott and Julien Baker germinated in 2016, when the pair performed together in Chicago. Scott subsequently suggested, in a text sent during the pandemic, that they make a country album. Accusations that the pair are jumping on an ongoing trend for high-profile pivots towards a Nashville-oriented sound – which has so far involved the likes of Beyoncé, Post Malone, Zayn Malik, Chappell Roan and Lana Del Rey – are thus diffused.

Nevertheless, it still feels telling that Send a Prayer My Way arrives now. Baker has spent much of the 2020s as one-third of Boygenius, a collaboration with Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers that made her far more famous than her previous solo albums. It spiralled into something that resembled a genuine pop phenomenon, laden with awards and headlining Madison Square Garden and the Hollywood Bowl.

Brazilian ranchers in Pará and Rondônia say JBS can not achieve stated goal of deforestation-free cattle

• Bibles, bullets and beef: Amazon cowboy culture at odds with Brazil’s climate goals
• The life and death of a ‘laundered’ cow in the Amazon rainforest

The world’s largest meat company, JBS, looks set to break its Amazon rainforest protection promises again, according to frontline workers.

Beef production is the primary driver of deforestation, as trees are cleared to raise cattle, and scientists warn this is pushing the Amazon close to a tipping point that would accelerate its shift from a carbon sink into a carbon emitter. JBS, the Brazil-headquartered multinational that dominates the Brazilian cattle market, promised to address this with a commitment to clean up its beef supply chain in the region by the end of 2025.

Andrii Sybiha meets with British, French and German ministers as US representatives expected to meet French president Emmanuel Macron

Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha has just posted on update on his separate talks with British, French and German partners at the Élysée earlier today.

He said they “discussed the paths to a fair and lasting peace, including full ceasefire, multinational contingent, and security guarantees for Ukraine.”

Why are a quarter of a million people set to descend on Green Bay? I went to Wisconsin to find out …

I’ve just got back from a road trip in Wisconsin. The upper Midwest is not an obvious destination for a spring break, certainly not in early April. As my plane circled above Milwaukee, the brown and leafless landscape warned me I’d travelled back in time to midwinter.

It was too cold to brave the beaches – the Lake Michigan shore was covered in snow and ice – but the bars at least were convivial. This is often the case in Wisconsin, the state with the highest alcohol consumption per capita. Many of my fellow drinkers were keen to point out that they were responsible for nearly all the brandy sold in the US (as a collective, not individually).

• Raises further intrigue over fly-half selection debate
• Sexton endorsed Owen Farrell in press interview

Johnny Sexton has been added to the British & Irish Lions coaching staff for the summer tour of Australia in a surprise move that raises further intrigue over the fly-half selection debate following his previous criticism of Finn Russell and endorsement of Owen Farrell.

Sexton was not named by Andy Farrell when the head coach unveiled his assistants for the tour last month but will now join Simon Easterby, John Dalziel, Andrew Goodman, Richard Wigglesworth and John Fogarty on the coaching ticket. The 39-year-old will also join Farrell’s coaching staff at Ireland upon the conclusion of the Lions tour.

France should return harsh damages imposed on Caribbean country in 1825 after Haitian Revolution, say campaigners

France has a moral duty to reimburse Haiti billions of dollars worth of “ransom” payments that could help the struggling Caribbean country out of its current crisis, say campaigners.

The renewed call for reparations comes on the bicentenary of an agreement to pay 150m francs to France in 1825 to compensate slave-owning colonists after the Haitian Revolution.

The star’s insistence on jumping from a 2,722ft skyscraper to up the action ante for Thunderbolts* may not be quite enough to save Marvel’s latest. But her career should fly

If you ever needed definitive proof that Marvel has lost pace with the zeitgeist, just look at the panicky marketing of Thunderbolts*. The film opens in a couple of weeks and, according to the trade press, is tracking to open soft.

Had this been six or seven years ago, then fans would be clamouring to see Thunderbolts* simply because it was the latest instalment of the grand MCU soap opera. After all, it’s a film that stars several side characters from older Marvel films and TV shows, and there was a time when audiences would go bananas for this sort of thing. But as the last few MCU films have shown, that approach doesn’t really work any more.

Data via trackers and sensors can paint an intricate picture of your life – here’s what to know about privacy in your car

Welcome to Opt Out, a semi-regular column in which we help you navigate your online privacy and show you how to say no to surveillance. The last column covered how to protect your phone and data privacy at the US border. If you’d like to skip to a section about a particular tip, click the “Jump to” menu at the top of this article.

At the press of a button, your Tesla pulls itself out of parking spot with no one behind the wheel using a feature called Summon. It drives itself on highways using Autopilot. When you arrive at your destination, it can record nearby activity while parked with a feature called Sentry Mode.

The administration dared China, Harvard and the supreme court to blink. They haven’t

It was bound to happen.

Encouraged by the ease with which many big US institutions caved in to their demands, the Trump regime – that is, the small cadre of bottom-feeding fanatics around Donald Trump (JD Vance, Elon Musk, Russell Vought, Stephen Miller and RFK Jr) along with the child king himself – have overreached.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com

The philanthropist offers sensible advice about moving on and ditching perfectionism, but you get the impression she is struggling to take it herself

Melinda French Gates is a woman who seemingly leaves little to chance. From girlhood she would write down goals for herself to reach, and she was just as driven at college and in her early career at Microsoft, where she famously met and married its billionaire co-founder Bill Gates. The couple divorced in 2021.

There is a small, sad moment in her memoir The Next Day where she writes of happily gaining weight in pregnancy because it was the first time she’d felt so free “from perfectionism … the crushing relentless societal pressure to look a certain way”. Only well into middle age, when a friend gently questions her constant self-improvement projects, does she wonder whether in her conscientiousness she had “missed opportunities to embrace spontaneity, lean into the unexpected”.

There are two sorts of people – those who pull others’ underwear, and those who have their underwear pulled. And we’d never have known it without the Lib Dems’ Ed Davey

Sir Ed Davey has made more than one significant contribution to the tone of political discourse over the past year. Obviously, there’s all the surfing, rollercoasting, bungee jumping and so on. There’s also his use of the word “wedgie” in relation to trade tariffs. That’s some trick to pull off. Respect. Here’s what he said earlier this month: “Despite backing the US in every major conflict this century – and offering to water down our tax on US tech billionaires – we’ve been rewarded with the same tariffs as Iran. It’s like we’re meant to be grateful Trump gave our friends a black eye and left us with just a wedgie.”

This was quoted on The World at One on BBC Radio 4, which involved the presenter Sarah Montague using the word wedgie, too. Something else I never thought I’d hear. Even over where I work on BBC Radio 5 Live, where we’re less squeamish about using the vernacular, Davey’s wedgie-bomb came as a bit of a shock. But we soon gathered ourselves enough to hatch a plan on where we should go with the idea. My editor suggested it may be profitable to consider how mankind – and I believe we are talking about a largely male pursuit – can be divided into wedgees and wedgers. That is, those who have been wedgied and those who have done the wedging.

• Captain’s deal includes performance-related bonuses
• Van Dijk proud to be referred to as ‘an adopted scouser’

Virgil van Dijk has followed Mohamed Salah in committing his future to Liverpool and has signed a new two-year contract.

The Liverpool captain confirmed progress was being made over his contract after the 3-2 defeat at Fulham on 6 April and indicated a deal was close after he scored the winner against West Ham on Sunday. “Everyone knows how much I love this club, and let’s see what next week will look like,” he said.

• O’Sullivan is yet to confirm whether he will take part
• Kyren Wilson begins title defence against debutant

Seven-time champion Ronnie O’Sullivan has been drawn to face long-term rival Ali Carter in the first round of the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield. The 49-year-old, who is seeded fifth, defeated Carter in the 2008 and 2012 finals at the Crucible.

O’Sullivan has not played competitively since snapping his cue after withdrawing from the Championship League in January. He pulled out of five of the last six World Snooker Tour events on medical grounds and has yet to confirm if he will play in this year’s tournament.

Department of Homeland Security says university must meet administration’s demands on sharing information on some visa holders

President Donald Trump’s administration will ask a US federal appeals court on Thursday to pause a judge’s ruling lifting access restrictions the White House imposed on the Associated Press (AP) for referring to the Gulf of Mexico in its coverage.

The Trump administration has argued that the lower-court ruling, which mandates AP journalists be granted access to press events in the White House, infringes on the president’s ability to decide whom to admit to sensitive spaces. The White House has asked to put the ruling on hold while it appeals.

‘These laws were written 20 years ago plus when the world was different,’ Tory leader says

The chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has suggested that there may be legal challenges around the efficacy of gender recognition certificates (GRC) ahead.

Asked on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme if yesterday’s supreme court ruling had rendered the legal document worthless, Kishwer Falkner said:

I think the next stage of litigation may well be tests as to the efficacy of the GRC, and or other areas. We don’t believe they are [worthless]. We think they’re quite important.

But I think there will be other areas, I mean, the Government is thinking of digital IDs, and if digital IDs come in, then what documentation will provide the identity of that person? So it’s going to be a space that we’ll have to watch very carefully as we go on.

It’s a victory for common sense, but only if you recognise that trans people exist. They have rights, and their rights must be respected – then it becomes a victory for common sense.

It’s not a victory for an increase in unpleasant actions against trans people. We will not tolerate that. We stand here to defend trans people as much as we do anyone else. So I want to make that very clear.

They are covered through gender reassignment … and they’re also covered by sex discrimination.

We’ll have to flesh this out in the reasoning, but I think if you were to have an equal pay claim, then depending on which aspect of it that it was, you could use sex discrimination legislation.

Findings from Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro region indicate traditional eating habits in rural Africa can boost the immune system and reduce inflammation

Plantains, cassava and fermented banana drink should be added to global healthy eating guidelines alongside the olive oil, tomatoes and red wine of the Mediterranean diet, say researchers who found the traditional diet of people living in Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro region had a positive impact on the body’s immune system.

Traditional foods enjoyed in rural villages also had a positive impact on markers of inflammation, the researchers found in a study published this month in the journal Nature Medicine.

The true scale of what’s happening is hard to grasp, so our irrational brains reach for measly acts of self-denial

Most of us, confronted with daily forecasts of recession and economic downturn, have an emotional response that expresses itself in a range of behaviours. Big purchases may be deferred or cancelled. Travel plans are revisited. We might review our childcare spend and wonder if we should go out less – all rational decisions in the face of the rising cost of living. Then there are the irrational gestures, those that have little meaning financially but offer us, via small acts of self-denial, an opportunity to feel we’re doing something morally rigorous. It’s these, in my case, that have lately been triggered.

For me, the barometer has always been coffee, a small but ineradicable source of guilt that has only grown as the price of a single flat white creeps up towards £4. Forgoing this small pleasure neither damages my day, nor, on the other hand, does anything significant towards improving my finances. Assuming a one-coffee-a-week spend, the choice to wait until I get home to make coffee will save me about £200 a year. And yet, each time I pass Caffè Nero and keep walking, I’m so proud of myself you would think I’d donated a kidney.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as Chinese state media publishes photo of Jensen Huang visiting Beijing

Nvidia boss Jensen Huang has travelled to China for talks despite limits on the chip company’s sales imposed by the White House under Donald Trump.

The visit of Huang, chief executive of one of the US’s most valuable companies, will be closely followed amid the vicious trade war between the US and China.

The SFO remains committed to stamping out international bribery wherever it may occur.

British companies have a duty to prevent the harm caused by bribery when doing business at home and abroad, to ensure that the UK remains a safe and fair place to do business.

Justin Trudeau’s resignation as prime minister came amid deep anxiety prompted by Trump’s tariffs threats

Canadians will head to the polls on 28 April to decide who will form the next government. Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre are the most likely candidates to become the next prime minister.

They may not win end-of-year awards, but these players have been essential for their teams

By WhoScored

Arsenal’s decision not to sign a striker in January could have come back to haunt them. Gabriel Jesus has been absent since the turn of the year and Kai Havertz suffered a torn hamstring in February, leaving them short in the final third. Mikel Merino filled the void admirably. Indeed, only Havertz (nine) has more league goals for the club this season than Merino (six), who scored in important wins over Leicester, Chelsea and Fulham. Fans will want the club to invest in the summer but Merino has done remarkably well, given he had not played up front since he was nine years old.

• Defender reacted after ballboy threw ball away from him
• Bayern were chasing goal to force extra time at San Siro

Bayern Munich’s Josip Stanisic said it was “stupid” of him to push a ballboy off his stool after he tossed the ball away in stoppage time of their Champions League match against Inter on Wednesday.

A 2-2 draw in the second leg at San Siro enabled Inter to advance to the semi-finals 4-3 on aggregate.

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Both parties claim victory in last night’s debate

The political reaction to last night’s debate is coming in thick and fast. No surprises here that the Liberals believe their leader Peter Dutton won with flying colours, while Labor has backed Albanese for the victory.

I saw a very weak, indecisive Prime Minister and a very strong Opposition leader. And I was particularly blown away, Bridget, by the prime minister not fessing up that his own government modelled changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax with respect to homeownership.

The prime minister says the government did not commission any advice on negative gearing or capital gains tax changes, but the treasurer admitted last year that’s exactly what he did. He asked the treasury department to model changes on negative gearing and capital gains tax. if the prime minister will lie about this, what else will he lie about?

I’m not aware of any polling in the electorate of Kooyong. I certainly haven’t undertaken any. And I wouldn’t know what questions are being asked of people if that is happening. I think push polling is not ideal… I don’t think it’s a great idea.

Trump envoys to meet Macron as well as British and German politicians to discuss concerns about Russia

Two of Donald Trump’s top national security aides will hold talks in Paris on Thursday with European politicians and security advisers, as the US and Europe search for common ground on ending the Ukraine war and averting an Iran conflict.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, are expected to hear concerns about Russia amid so-far fruitless US attempts to arrange a ceasefire three years after Russia invaded its neighbour.

An eastern European celebration of spring: a giant, shareable fritter of cabbage, pea and spring onion, and roast new potatoes and carrots with herby whipped feta

This menu is the perfect marriage of eastern European flavours and British seasonal produce. Cabbage, the hero vegetable in my kitchen, stars as the main dish, which is my take on Ashkenazi latkes. Presented here as the size of a rösti, it makes the perfect veggie centrepiece, and invokes the eastern European spirit of sharing. The side makes a perfectly creamy and zingy companion, showcasing the best of new season potatoes and carrots. Fresh, vibrant and full of colour, this duo is an edible herald of spring.

From the rock sea-spurrey, which appears to grow out of solid rock, to the slender centaury that lives on a landslip, these plants exist where they do for good reason

I first encountered coastal wildflowers when I was 11. I was visiting my grandmother’s friend in Devon and a lady said: “Here, dear,” and dug up a clump of Warren crocuses – a rare plant that, at the time, was only thought to grow in the seaside resort of Dawlish Warren. She gave them to me to grow in my garden at home. But of course they didn’t grow away from the sea.

That was when I realised there was something special about coastal wildflowers. They fascinate me because, as well as being beautiful flowers, they often grow in tough locations. Take the rock sea-spurrey: a delicate little plant that appears to grow out of solid rock, such as a crevice in a cliff base. It can put up with being splashed with sea spray and baked by the summer sun. And yet it seems to thrive in that difficult, harsh environment.

From frogs to ferrets, an eye-opening account of the ways we affect the health of other species – and vice versa

Before entering Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden, visitors must walk over disinfecting mats to rid their shoes of bacteria or other pathogens. Next to the mats is a sign whose admonition seems at once both practical and religious: “Cleanse your soles.” Whenever I visit, as I often do, this sign always makes me smile: this ritualised cleaning is an important measure to prevent outbreaks of disease among the garden’s 730 species, but it also seems to be some kind of spiritual act.

Anyone tempted to jump that mat should read Liz Kalaugher’s new book, a wide-ranging, thorough and persuasive investigation of the ways in which we have made non-human animals sick. Her book reads as a kind of shadow history of human endeavour and innovation, tracing the calamitous price that trade, exchange and intensive farming have exacted on everything from frogs to ferrets. It’s a measured and detailed account, but below the calm surface you can hear an anguished cry imploring us to open our eyes and see how our own health is intertwined with that of other species.

New iPad has laptop-level power, reliable battery life, great video call camera and a choice of screen sizes

Apple’s iPad Air continues to be the premium tablet to beat, with the latest version featuring a chip upgrade to keep it ahead of the pack.

The new iPad Air M3 costs from £599 (€699/$599/A$999) – the same as its predecessor – and comes in two sizes with either an 11in or 13in screen. It sits between the base-model £329 iPad A16 and the £999 iPad Pro M4, splitting the difference in price and features.

Screen: 11in or 13in Liquid Retina display (264ppi)

Processor: Apple M3 (9-core GPU)

RAM: 8GB

Storage: 128, 256, 512GB or 1TB

Operating system: iPadOS 18.4

Camera: 12MP rear, 12MP centre stage

Connectivity: Wifi 6E (5G optional eSim-only), Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C, Touch ID, Smart Connecter

Dimensions: 247.6 x 178.5 x 6.1mm or 280.6 x 214.9 x 6.1mm

Weight: 460g or 616g

Artists on the moon, gods in the sea, and guns at the ready in America … here are photographs from the overall winners of this year’s professional competition

Not only are TV-watching, book-reading, show-going, music-listening travellers declining to visit the US, we have started to cease to imagine it

This week, fresh data revealed the United States has seen its biggest drop in Australian tourists since Covid. It’s hardly surprising. Innocent people are being snatched by authorities from American streets. Citizens of foreign countries are being stopped, shackled and detained. The EU is now sending its emissaries with burner phones, lest personal social media posts critical of President Trump be discovered by border agents and … who knows what happens next? Forcible relocation to a Salvadorian supermax prison, seemingly without chance of release, is suddenly not out of the question.

It all seems like something from Hollywood dystopia; the V series, maybe. Or Escape from New York. It’s pretty much the plot line of the first season of Andor – which I strongly recommend that everyone watch before the Trump regime clocks what that show is advising and it vanishes faster than a copy of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl from an American high school library.

Up and down the country, volunteers are coming together to plant more of these nature-rich reserves

The 30-metre ridge runs across the moor near Yar Tor on Dartmoor, one of several faint lines that crisscross the land like aeroplane contrails. Although the open moorland looks wild, we are standing on some of the UK’s oldest farmland. These ridges, called reaves, are the ghosts of farming’s most wildlife-rich legacy: hedges.

“These reaves sadly have no function today other than to delight us. Or some of us,” says ecologist Rob Wolton. But Dartmoor’s reaves are the skeletons upon which more recent hedges were built: hundreds of thousands of miles of them. After Ireland, the UK is believed to be the most hedge-dense country in the world, and Wolton says the majority of them are more than 280 years old. Recent laser scanning shows England has enough hedges to wrap around the world almost 10 times. They are, by far, the country’s biggest nature reserve, which is why community groups, farmers and charities are rallying together to plant hedges of the future that will offer the same support to wildlife as the ancient hedges of the past.

Shein says ‘operating expenses have gone up’ as both Chinese retailers also drop ad spending in US

Two of China’s largest fast fashion retailers, Temu and Shein, have warned US customers that they will face price increases from next week, as Donald Trump’s hefty tariffs on Chinese imports come into force.

Both companies will be hit by new import levies, which will mean taxes of up to 145% being applied to Chinese goods. They will also suffer from Trump’s cancellation of the “de minimis” exemption, under which shipments worth less than $800 (£600) could be imported duty-free.

Russia remains a key arms supplier in South-east Asia, and Trump’s unstable leadership is providing more opportunities to make inroads

A defence industry report claiming that Russia requested a permanent base for its warplanes in Indonesia’s remote Papua region, right on Australia’s northern doorstep, sent Canberra into a tailspin. But in Indonesia, it was the frenzy whipped up in Australia’s tight election campaign that came as the real surprise.

Foreign policy and defence experts are highly sceptical about the prospect that Jakarta would ever acquiesce to such a Russian request, and besides, it is hardly new. Moscow has sought permanent basing rights for its planes at Indonesia’s Biak airfield in Papua for almost half a century – and not once has it won approval.

Forty of the late pop artist’s distinctive works will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in New York next month

Forty works from the private collection of Roy Lichtenstein, one of the world’s best-known pop artists, will go on sale for the first time at auction next month.

The works, comprising paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints, chart four decades of Lichtenstein’s career. They include his shift from abstract expressionism to pop art in the 1960s, his exploration of modern art in the 70s, his Reflections series of the 80s, and his interiors and nudes from the 90s.

Westminster Council said it was ‘left with no choice’ but to bring in a controversial ban due to noise complaints

Tommi has been a living statue for 20 years, endeavouring to stay rooted to the spot amid hailstones, loose dogs and teasing teenagers.

But even he was moved by the news that Leicester Square would no longer host street performers, calling time on one of London’s most renowned tourist-friendly quirks.