Battle in Kursk showed ‘highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship’ between North Korea and Russia, state news says, hailing ‘heroes’

North Korea has confirmed for the first time that it has sent troops to fight for Russia in the war with Ukraine under the orders of leader Kim Jong-un.

The end of the battle in Russia’s Kursk region showed the “highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship” between North Korea and Russia, the North’s KCNA state news agency cited the ruling party as saying.

Authorities across 10 agencies also seize guns and drugs and claim people they arrested are undocumented

More than 300 law enforcement officers from at least 10 federal agencies raided an illegal after-hours nightclub in Colorado Springs early on Sunday, arresting more than 100 people authorities said were undocumented immigrants and seizing guns, cocaine, meth and pink cocaine.

More than a dozen active-duty military members were detained as well, authorities said.

Army spokesperson says storage sites housing militant group’s missiles were destroyed in Dahiyeh in south of the city

Israel conducted an airstrike on a residential neighbourhood of Dahiyeh in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday afternoon despite a November ceasefire that officially ended fighting with the militant group Hezbollah.

Videos showed three bombs hitting a building in Dahiyeh and rescue crews working to extinguish blazes after the blast; however, no casualties were reported. The Israeli military issued an evacuation warning before the bombing, prompting panic as residents fled the area.

Athlete has not been heard from since 16 April and did not check out of his hostel or take his belongings

A British Paralympian has been reported missing in Las Vegas after not being seen for more than a week.

Sam Ruddock, from Warwickshire, who has cerebral palsy and has competed in cycling and shot put, travelled to the US on 13 April while planning to attend WrestleMania, his friend Lucy Earl said.

Arne Slot’s team faced the perfect opponents as the afternoon became a dual celebration for their Covid season triumph

Football is often compared to theatre. Sometimes it just is theatre. With 63 minutes gone at Anfield, and Liverpool already 3-1 up, Mohamed Salah took the ball on the right in an empty square of deep green, veered inside, and then paused, leaving just enough time for the entire home crowd to freeze the moment, to see a snapshot of what was about to happen.

Salah rolled the ball to his left then spanked it hard into the near corner, drawing a vast, rolling cheer that just didn’t want to stop, a self‑fuelling cheer for this relentless one-man highlights reel, face of an era, the curator of moments, who then made another one here by taking a mid-match celebration selfie with the Kop.

Crossbow and firearm recovered from city’s Otley Run pub crawl route where two women were seriously injured

Facebook posts appearing to contain plans for a “massacre” are being examined by counter-terrorism police investigating an attack in which two women were seriously injured in Leeds.

A man, 38, who suffered a “self-inflicted injury” was arrested and two weapons – a crossbow and a firearm – were recovered from the scene, on the popular Otley Run pub crawl route in the north of the city.

• Pogacar leaves rivals behind with uphill attack
• Le Court wins four-way sprint in women’s race

Tadej Pogacar launched one of his trademark uphill attacks to win the Liège–Bastogne–Liège classic race for the third time on Sunday. The defending champion made his move about 35km (22 miles) from the end of the undulating 252km (156-mile) trek to open up a gap of 10sec at the top, and then kept increasing it all the way to the line.

It was his third victory overall at the spring classic race, which is also one of the five “monuments” in one-day cycling along with Paris-Roubaix on the cobbles, the Tour of Lombardy, Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders. Pogacar now has nine “monument” victories.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

• Arne Slot’s side win record-equalling 20th league title
• News story | Match report | Top scorers | Email Rob

“Incredible! Incredible to win the Premier League with the fans is so special,” Mo Salah tells Sky. Asked whether this is different to five years ago, the Egyptian ace says: “Ah, this is so much better, 100%, because of the fans … To show you can do it again is something special.”

Quizzed about Slot’s style, Salah replies: “He very honest. He’s quite tough, but he makes our life easier – because he tells you what you want to do.” He cheekily adds: “Now I don’t have to defend much!”

Arsenal stunned Lyon to reach their first Women’s Champions League final since 2007, as Renée Slegers’s side produced a mature display full of desire, resilience and attacking brilliance to secure an impressive comeback in France. They beat the last season’s runners-up 4-1 thanks to an own goal from Christiane Endler and strikes from Mariona Caldentey, Alessia Russo and Caitlin Foord.

The final in May will be the first of Slegers’s fledgling management career. The 36-year-old was delighted with her team’s success as they reached a European final at her first attempt.

Spanish giants show class against elite Women’s Champions League opponents, but Chelsea face more soul-searching

Clàudia Pina scores. You know it’s a good goal because the moment it hits the net, Barcelona’s substitutes scramble forward to the front of the dugout, desperate to watch it again on the replay screen. Meanwhile, a few yards away Sonia Bompastor turns to the Chelsea bench and smiles weakly. A yeah-fair-play smile. A what-can-you-do smile.

Pina’s goal makes it 7-1 to Barcelona on aggregate, there are still more than 45 minutes to play, and we have reached the point in this Champions League semi-final when it almost begins to feel rude that Uefa insisted Barcelona fly over to play this second leg. Imagine the aircraft emissions and single-use plastic glasses that could have been saved simply by abandoning the pretenice that this was a meaningful contest.

Total surpasses previous record of 55,646 set in New York, and event also broke record for crowd numbers

The London Marathon’s organisers have hailed an “extraordinary” day in the nation’s capital, as the 45th edition beat the world record for number of finishers and attracted record crowds.

By 6.30pm on Sunday evening, the number of finishers had surpassed the previous best of 55,646 for a mass participation race set in New York.

Emotions ran high as the club prepared for Premier League final against Tottenham

“This is important. It means a lot to be here,” said Ann-Marie Barton, who remembers the mixed emotions when Liverpool last won the title: yes she was drinking champagne, but it was alone at home because of the Covid pandemic. “It was just me and Scooby [a stuffed mascot], and he doesn’t talk much.”

On Sunday she was out in blazing sunshine at Anfield with good friends lapping up the communal party atmosphere. Everyone seemed to be smiling. It was some party and was never going to be spoiled.

It was a day when the FA Cup romantics could see the script for Nuno Espírito Santo and Nottingham ­Forest, something to further embellish the manager’s hero status and the club’s finest season in at least 30 years. It was one when Pep ­Guardiola and Manchester City refused to entertain it.

City led from the second ­minute through Rico Lewis’s second goal of the season and when Josko Gvardiol thumped home a header on 51 minutes shortly after a glaring miss by Anthony Elanga, on as a ­Forest substitute, it felt over. That Forest were repeatedly on the wrong side of the finest of margins thereafter only deepened their pain.

Democratic House leader and New Jersey senator protest on steps of US Capitol over proposed Republican budget

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and New Jersey senator Cory Booker were holding a sit-in protest and discussion on Sunday on the steps of the US Capitol in opposition to Republicans’ proposed budget plan.

Billed as an “Urgent Conversation with the American People”, the livestreamed discussion comes before Congress’s return to session on Monday, where Democrats hope to stall Republicans’ economic legislative agenda. Throughout the day, they were joined by other Democratic lawmakers, including the senator Raphael Warnock, who spoke as the sit-in passed the 10-hour mark.

• Slot claims Premier League in first season as head coach
• 5-1 win over Tottenham seals title with four games left

Liverpool have won a record-equalling 20th league title in a stunning debut season for Arne Slot after beating Tottenham 5-1 at Anfield. The 46-year-old, who took on the seemingly unenviable task of succeeding Jürgen Klopp last summer, becomes the first man in Liverpool’s illustrious history to win the championship in his debut season with the club.

Anfield was ready to celebrate at kick-off, but there was an early setback when Dominic Solanke unexpectedly headed Spurs in front after 12 minutes. Liverpool hit back quickly, Luis Díaz’s equaliser awarded after a VAR review, before Alexis Mac Allister smashed home in the 23rd minute to put the hosts in front. Cody Gakpo struck from a corner before half-time to leave the outcome all but guaranteed.

Airstrike in Donetsk kills three and drone attack in Dnipro leaves one dead, according to local sources

Russia has continued its assault on Ukraine with a series of drone attacks and airstrikes, hours after Donald Trump cast doubt on Vladimir Putin’s readiness to end the conflict.

Three people were killed and four wounded on Sunday morning in airstrikes on Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, according to the regional prosecutor’s office. In a drone attack on the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipro region, a person was killed and a 14-year-old girl wounded after a third consecutive night of assaults, the local governor, Serhiy Lysak, said.

• Napoli beat Torino 2-0 in Sunday’s late game
• Title rivals Inter lose 1-0 at home to Roma

Two first-half goals from Scott McTominay helped Napoli to a 2-0 home win against Torino in Serie A on Sunday as the hosts reclaimed the sole lead in the standings with four games left to play.

Napoli are three points above the defending champions, Inter, who were handed a 1-0 home defeat by Roma earlier in the day. Napoli raced to a seventh-minute lead through McTominay, who bundled the ball in from close range before doubling the advantage just before half-time from a neat lofted cross by Matteo Politano.

The RuPaul’s Drag Race star, whose real name was Bianca Castro-Arabejo, died on Sunday ‘surrounded by family and friends’

The drag queen Jiggly Caliente has died aged 44 after a “severe infection”, her family confirmed. The performer, whose real name was Bianca Castro-Arabejo, rose to fame after taking part in the fourth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Caliente’s family announced on Thursday that the Filipino-American drag performer had part of her leg amputated due to the infection.

‘The Chinese will see this high tariff level is unsustainable for their business,’ says Scott Bessent

The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said “there is a path” to an agreement with China over tariffs after he had interactions with his Chinese counterparts last week in Washington.

“I had interaction with my Chinese counterparts, but it was more on the traditional things like financial stability, global economic early warnings,” Bessent told ABC News’s This Week on Sunday, explaining that he had spoken to the Chinese during International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington. “I don’t know if President Trump has spoken with President Xi,” he added.

Palestinians face starvation and severe malnutrition as Israel’s blockade continues, say aid agencies

Soaring prices of basic foodstuffs, diminishing stocks of medical supplies and sharp cuts to aid distribution threaten newly catastrophic conditions across Gaza, Palestinians and international aid officials in the battered territory are warning.

Humanitarian organisations including the World Food Programme and Unwra, which supplies food and services to more than 2 million Palestinians across Gaza, have now distributed the last of their stocks of flour and other foodstuffs to the dozens of community kitchens in the territory that serve basic meals to those with no other option.

Better days must lie ahead for Manchester United. Otherwise, things have gone truly pear-shaped. A Sunday where their fans lived vicariously through hopes of Tottenham delaying Liverpool’s title celebrations and Nottingham Forest stopping City winning another FA Cup counts as a ground-zero level ebb, even considering United’s decline and fall. Rescuing a point from 10-man Bournemouth might have arrested some of the helpless, listless doom but probably not for too long.

Perhaps United’s team spirit, that which carried them past Lyon in the Europa League, is evidencing itself, though far more than that is required. As with Lyon, it took an opposing red card - Evanilson, a tad unluckily - to add momentum to a muddle.

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

About 180 British Jews and deputy PM Angela Rayner among those in attendance at event in northern Germany

Survivors of the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen and their families have gathered at the site in northern Germany to officially commemorate the 80th anniversary of its liberation by British troops.

Representatives of victims’ associations and the military took part in the ceremony along with the British deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner.

• Álex leads Marc Márquez in title race after Jerez win
• Fabio Quartararo second, Francesco Bagnaia third

Gresini Racing’s Álex Márquez claimed his first MotoGP race victory at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday, taking the championship lead from his elder brother Marc, who crashed early in the race and finished 12th.

After seven second-place finishes in sprints and races this season, Álex secured a dream race win on home turf in front of over 100,000 fans, with the Spaniard imploring them to increase the volume as he took the last few corners on the final lap in Jerez.

It’s the portrait of Gina Rinehart that launched 1,000 memes, went viral globally and became Australia’s Mona Lisa. But it’s also a symbol of how wealth intersects with other areas of life, including art and sport.

How does Rinehart use her money to control her image – and what would she rather you don’t see? This episode of Gina is about power and control, and the colonial history of Australia.

It contains references to outdated offensive language and events that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people may find distressing. It also contains the names of Indigenous Australians who have died. Listen with care

I tucked myself up and went to sleep outside a church. When I woke up I saw a strange convoy approaching

• Read more in the Kindness of strangers series

It was 1985. No one had heard of Ivan Milat or the horrors of Belanglo state forest, so hitchhiking was still a thing. I lived in Adelaide and wanted to go to my brother-in-law’s 40th birthday party in Canberra. Young, foolhardy and totally broke, I decided to hitch the 1,300km there.

I packed a bag and set out around the corner from my house. I’d been on my feet for all of three minutes when a beautifully restored American hot rod pulled up in front of me. Behind the wheel was a friend I hadn’t seen since primary school. He invited me to get in then gave me a lift all the way up to the outskirts of the city, where the major highway to Sydney begins. It was my first of many lucky breaks on this trip.

Investigation launched into cause of blast at Shahid Rajaee port as death toll rises to 28

Vladimir Putin was one of the first world leaders to offer help to Iran in the aftermath of a massive explosion at a container depot in a key port near the strait of Hormuz, dispatching several emergency planes to the area.

Fires still blazed nearly 24 hours after the explosion at the giant Shahid Rajaee port in southern Iran, the nation’s most strategically important port and chief artery for its world trade. The death toll had risen to at least 28 and the numbers injured had risen to more than 1,000.

Intriguing advances hold out the possibility – but first we have to agree on what ‘life’ means

“Creation of Life”, read the headline of the Boston Herald in 1899. “Lower Animals Produced by Chemical Means.” The report described the work of the German-American marine biologist Jacques Loeb, who later wrote: “The idea is now hovering before me that man himself can act as a creator, even in living nature.”

In fact, Loeb had merely made an unfertilised sea urchin egg divide by exposing it to a mixture of salts – he was not even close to creating life in the lab. No scientist has ever done that. But that ancient dream hovers today over the discipline called synthetic biology, the very name of which seems to promise the creation of artificial life forms. Take one of the most dramatic results in this field: in 2010, scientists at the J Craig Venter Institutes in Maryland and California announced they had made “the first self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell”.

He’s got name recognition and gravitas. But he lacks ideas for how to heal the fissures in Canadian society

Monday’s Canadian federal election is likely to determine the economic future of the country for years to come. Someone should inform the Conservatives and the New Democratic party (NDP). On 6 January this year, Justin Trudeau announced his resignation as prime minister and leader of the Liberal party, which had been in power since 2015. His resignation came amid plummeting support: the Liberals hadn’t formed a majority government since 2019 and on the day Trudeau resigned, the party netted its lowest approval rating at 20%. After a truncated leadership race, Mark Carney became Canada’s prime minister and leader of the Liberal party. He is now on the brink of retaining his position.

Pierre Poilievre, on the other hand, leader of the official opposition Conservative party, has seen his party’s fortunes ignominiously drop from 44% support when Trudeau resigned to 37% on 9 April. This is a battle of leadership, and while for two and a half years Poilievre seemed on course for victory at the next election, the re-election of Donald Trump in November reoriented politics. Poilievre has been flatfooted and unable to adjust to the new environment. Now he is struggling to retain his own seat.

Erica Ifill is a political columnist based in Canada

From humble beginnings, the 50501 community is one of many coming together to resist the president and his policies

It started with a Reddit post.

“50 PROTESTS – 50 STATES – 1 DAY,” the user who goes by Evolved Fungi wrote, kicking off a movement that has since drawn hundreds of thousands to the streets in protests against Donald Trump across the country.

Hearings over bar on cooperation with Palestinian aid agency are test of Israel’s defiance of international law

Israel will come under sustained legal pressure this week at the UN’s top court when lawyers from more than 40 states will claim the country’s ban on all cooperation with the UN’s Palestinian rights agency Unrwa is a breach of the UN charter.

The five days of hearings at the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague have been given a fresh urgency by Israel’s decision on 2 March to block all aid into Gaza, but the hearing will focus on whether Israel – as a signatory to the UN charter – acted unlawfully in overriding the immunities afforded to a UN body. Israel ended all contact and cooperation with Unrwa operations in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem in November, claiming the agency had been infiltrated by Hamas, an allegation that has been contested.

• Florida tackle impressed teams with size and strength
• Watson would have been heaviest-ever draft pick

Former Florida defensive tackle Desmond Watson, a 6ft 6in, 464lb prospect, is signing with his hometown Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent.

Watson, who grew up in Plant City about 20 miles east of Tampa, announced the move on social media. He had been hoping to get selected in the later rounds of the draft on Saturday, where he would have become the heaviest pick in NFL history. But no team gambled on the run-stopper.

Police launch murder inquiry after Alexandra Fröhlich is found dead on her boat on the Elbe

A murder inquiry has been launched after a bestselling German novelist was found dead on a houseboat in Hamburg having been violently attacked, police have said.

Alexandra Fröhlich, 58, whose novels have had prominence on Germany’s bestseller lists, was found on Tuesday morning, investigating authorities said.

The broadcaster on radioactive tomatoes, his suburban upbringing and still being a showoff

Born in 1965 in Epsom, Surrey, Jeremy Vine is a journalist and broadcaster. Vine’s media career began at the Coventry Evening Telegraph before he landed a job at the BBC in 1987, where he has worked in a number of roles including as a political reporter, Africa correspondent and Newsnight presenter. As well as his weekday programme on BBC Radio 2, he presents a self-titled weekday morning show on Channel 5. His new novel, Murder on Line One, is out now.

My dear old mum would have pulled this costume together. If you dress a boy as a soldier, he will almost certainly crawl around the floor like a sniper, which I did. Shortly after this was taken, I decided to launch a large log over my shoulder as if it were a bazooka. The back of it hit my head on the way past. I did myself a bit of mischief that day.

Surprising new evidence challenges longstanding ideas about evolution

Venomous wide-bodied rattlesnakes on several serpent-infested Mexican islands have provided biologists from Florida with surprising new evidence about the evolution of animals.

A team from the University of South Florida joined scientists from Mexico on three separate camping expeditions to 11 uninhabited islands in the Gulf of California, a region known as the world’s biggest rattlesnake nest.

Trump has fixated on the Venezuelan gang, but experts say he’s concocted a bogeyman to fuel immigration crackdowns

The Trump administration has fixated on portraying a Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua, or TdA, as a state-sponsored international terrorist organization that has invaded the US.

Donald Trump uses the argument to justify extreme enforcement measures against Venezuelan immigrants and cast a cloud across the Venezuelan diaspora, especially communities in the US.

Having fled here from Chile after Pinochet seized power in 1973 my father feared the state’s arbitrary power to turn lives upside down. His outlook has never felt more relevant

“Don’t open the door to nobody,” my father warned throughout my childhood – right up until the day he died. He trusted no politicians, no organized religion and definitely no strangers knocking unannounced.

Lately, his words echo louder than ever.