With much of the world’s oil supplies out of action, Russia could step in to meet demand in China and India
A prolonged energy crisis triggered by the widening war in the Middle East could offer an economic lifeline to Russia’s war machine at a moment when it was beginning to show signs of strain.
The sharp weakening and possible collapse of the regime in Iran would deprive the Kremlin of one of its closest regional partners. But that setback could be outweighed by an economic windfall if disruption pushes buyers toward Russian energy, alongside a possible slowdown in western arms supplies to Ukraine.
Peppers stuffed with freekeh, lamb and spicy tomato sauce, and a classic Levantine aubergine dip with preserved lemon and dill
I still remember, when I was a kid, the end of spring and early summer when markets in Jerusalem and across Palestine overflowed with freshly harvested freekeh. As you approached, the air carried a smoky, earthy aroma. Freekeh is an ancient grain, a staple across the Middle East and Turkey, made from green wheat roasted over open fires to burn off the husks, which gives it the characteristic nutty flavour. The name comes from the Arabic freek, meaning “to rub”, which describes how the grains are cleaned, dried, cracked and stored for the year.
The PM’s in-tray is overflowing. But he can’t afford to neglect the real issue that is distorting our politics and the way we live
At home and abroad, Labour and its leader are under siege. Though the Gorton and Denton result is history now, the repercussions roil his party and underpin the fight for its future.
Abroad, the policy rift within the Labour tribe is just as bad, with the fear that the party will be dragged backwards into the wreckage of another illegal war in the Middle East. Yet again Labour and Starmer are damned both ways, with much of the party raging at its leader and a “very disappointed” Donald Trump angry, not appeased.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink?
On Thursday 30 April, ahead of May elections join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss the threat to Labour from the Greens and Reform and whether Keir Starmer can survive as leader.
In my tribe, the Dard Shin, girls’ dreams are often over by 13. It is time we cleared a path towards them all fulfilling their potential
I sit my office in Srinagar surrounded by the steady, safe hum of the secondary school where I work. As academic head, my mind is occupied with curriculums and pupil progress. But my soul is 130km north of the Jammu and Kashmir city, behind the jagged peaks of the Razdan Pass, in the silence of the Tulail valley.
I am a daughter of the Dard Shin. We are a tribe whose history is etched in the Himalayan granite by the glacial water of the Kishanganga River.
“Our data is still minimal,” says Caroline Thain, national clinical adviser with the mental health organisation Headspace. “We’re really waiting for a few more months before we do a deeper dive.”
Loud, brash and blokey, it’s not nearly as fresh as the director’s last take on the sleuth 15 years ago. There are flashes of fun, even if Moriarty blows the lead off the screen
Guy Ritchie has made a new TV series about Sherlock Holmes and the long and the short of it is … hmm. But first, some questions. Does the eight-part mystery-drama include scenes in which flippant young men in flat caps shout “Oi” while hurtling through the air in slow motion? It does. Are there bare knuckle biff-ups during which bulbous cockneys cheer on other bulbous cockneys and Irish folk music diddles frantically in the background? There are. Might there also be bits where everything suddenly goes really fast for no reason, effortful banter between bruisers in tweed trousers, blundering rozzers and the sense that while female characters are welcome to contribute to the plot, they are very much excluded from being any sort of fun?
Well, duh. Or rather, strike a light an’ cor blimey, guv’nor, you’ve got this Guy Ritchie geezer bang to rights.For here is Young Sherlock, a very large and very loud new series for Prime Video that was “executive produced and directed by the man who made Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, then that one with Brad Pitt, then some other films that weren’t either of those ones apparently” written through it like a stick of bleedin’ rock.
(Columbia) The music on Styles’s new album is muted, subtle and pleasant – but from the title downwards, he has a real problem with words
Everything about the launch of Harry Styles’s fourth solo album underlines that its author is a very big deal indeed. Record stores in the UK are opening at midnight or first thing in the morning on the day of release, the better for fans to avail themselves of a copy at once. Styles has been announced as curator of this year’s Meltdown festival at London’s Southbank Centre, an honour previously bestowed on Scott Walker, Patti Smith, Yoko Ono, Ornette Coleman and David Bowie. Last week’s Brit awards featured not merely a beautifully choreographed performance of the album’s lead single, Aperture, but a comedy skit that was, essentially, a two-and-a-half-minute-long advert for Styles’s new album: there was no doubt who the organisers thought the star of the show was. Most striking of all, the accompanying tour largely eschews actual touring in favour of lengthy residencies in one venue per country, or even continent: North America is covered by a staggering 30 dates at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The expectation seemed to be that Styles’s fans are so devoted, they’ll cross the country to see him, rather than vice versa.
This sense, that people will travel wherever Harry Styles wants them to, attends the album itself. It is devoid of unequivocal pop bangers along the lines of As It Was or Watermelon Sugar. Aperture’s hazy, post-club mood wasn’t a soft launch. Whether it’s dealing in mid-tempo house beats topped with plangent piano chords, as on American Girls, or the acoustic singer-songwriter-isms of Paint By Numbers, a lot of what’s here feels like music made in the small hours, with the curtains drawn against the dawn. It somehow manages to sound understated even on Are You Listening Yet? – which variously features a clattering dance rhythm, a bassline not unlike that of Reel 2 Real’s I Like to Move It and a spoken word vocal that inexorably recalls Robbie Williams’s Rock DJ – perhaps because it doesn’t really have a chorus, or rather, the part you assume is going to lead into the chorus turns out to be the chorus itself.
The visionary photographer captured the ugliness of racism in America, as well as the strength and dignity of those who opposed it – from cleaners in the corridors of power to Martin Luther King Jr proclaiming his dream
In the summer of 1956, the American news magazine Lifedispatched its first Black staff photographer, Gordon Parks, to Alabama, with a brief to document racial segregation in the wake of the Montgomery bus boycott. The trip was a perilous one, but Parks, then in his early 40s, was already on a career trajectory that would mark him out as one of the most consequential artists of his generation. The images he returned with were remarkable: intimate and vivid depictions of the daily disgrace of the Jim Crow south. They still feel prescient today.
The photographs form the backbone of a new survey of Parks’ work, opening this week at the Alison Jacques gallery in London and curated by Bryan Stevenson, the famed civil rights attorney. Stevenson is based in Montgomery where he founded a museum and memorial to commemorate Black victims of lynchings and where some of Parks’ work hangs on permanent display. He selected images taken between 1942 and 1967, the artist’s most active time as a photographer and an acute period of unrest in the American experiment.
Her first album was a huge hit – then she faced the sudden tragedy of her husband’s early death. She describes the rupture of grief, her return to music and the harsh reality of fame as a woman in the 00s
Twenty years ago, Corinne Bailey Rae had her first huge hit single, and her only one. Put Your Records On was one of the great feelgood anthems of 2006. A warm, breezy hymn to authenticity, its key message was keep playing those songs you love, and don’t give a toss about what others tell you is cool. The single was accompanied by her first self-titled album, which topped the charts in the UK and reached number four in the US.
If there was one thing Bailey Rae seemed assured of, it was longevity. She wrote or co-wrote her own songs, had a voice that was compared to that of Billie Holiday and Minnie Riperton, there was a timelessness to her music and she was super smart (four As at A-level, if you must know). Then she was hit by a tragedy that derailed her. In 2008, her husband of seven years and fellow musician Jason Rae died of an accidental drug overdose.
Neither Ken Paxton or John Cornyn captured 50% of the vote in Texas, forcing another poll in May
A bitter primary contest between the four-term Republican US senator John Cornyn and the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, ended in a runoff on Tuesday.
In Texas, a primary runoff is declared if neither candidate are able to capture 50% of the vote. Paxton and Cornyn will now face that election on 26 May.
US Southern Command said joint mission with Ecuadorian forces involves ‘decisive action’ against narco-terrorists
US and Ecuadorean forces launched joint operations to combat drug trafficking, the US Southern Command said on Tuesday, but neither side gave more details.
Southern Command, which encompasses 31 countries through South and Central America and the Caribbean, said in a statement on X that the “decisive action” was aimed at combating illicit drug trafficking.
US military says first 24 hours of war was nearly double the scale of 2003 ‘shock-and-awe’ operation in Iraq; Revolutionary Guards again claim control of crucial of strait after Trump offers navy escort for tankers
Lebanese state media said that four people were killed and six more were wounded in an Israeli strike on a building in Baalbek in eastern Lebanon on Wednesday.
“The initial toll is four killed and six wounded, and work is underway to rescue families from under the rubble,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said.
Travellers stuck at major transit airports are slowly being diverted and repatriated on new flights after days of turmoil, while uncertainty remains
It will likely be a “messy” month for airlines operating throughout the Middle East as travellers stuck in major transit hubs are slowly rerouted and repatriated after days of turmoil due to the ongoing conflict in Iran.
Experts say airlines are well-versed in disruptions, with entire teams dedicated to what is known as “irregular operations”. But while minor issues can be resolved in a matter of days, the sheer scale of the airline industry that operates in the region will be a complex puzzle that will take much longer to work through.
Donald Trump has launched a deeply personal attack on Keir Starmer over his refusal to let the US launch initial strikes on Iran from British bases, telling reporters: “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”
In his latest extraordinary salvo, the US president said he was not happy with the UK even though the prime minister eventually agreed the US could use Diego Garcia for strikes on Iranian missile facilities.
The Real Housewife of New York-turned-cabaret star dishes on her weirdest jobs, dinner with Mick Jagger, and the person she would never let into her house
Luann, money can’t buy you class. But what is the best thing money can buy?
Freedom. To do whatever you want to do, right? Can’t buy you happiness. Can’t buy you health. And it can’t buy you class. But it can buy you freedom. Well, I guess it can buy you happiness.
German chancellor says that he underscored need for continued support for Kyiv during US visit; Trump says Ukraine is ‘very high’ on his priority list. What we know on day 1,470
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, in Washington for talks with Donald Trump, said he stressed that Ukraine should not have to accept further territorial concessions during his conversation with the US president. He said he also underscored the need for continued support for Ukraine, which last week marked the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion. “We all want to see this war coming to an end as soon as possible. But Ukraine has to preserve its territory and their security interests,” Merz said at the start of his third visit to the Oval Office. He told reporters he thought Trump had understood the point after he showed him a map of the war-torn country.
Trump ensured Merz that negotiating a deal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine remained “very high” on his priority list, and said he believed the US had plenty of munitions to fight Iran and sell them to Europe for use in Ukraine.
Merz also urged Trump to put pressure on Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine. “Russia is playing for time here, and in doing so is also acting against the will of the American president. In today’s talks, I called for increasing the pressure on Moscow,” the German chancellor told reporters. The US, Russia and Ukraine are taking part in trilateral talks aimed at securing a peace deal. Merz, however, said only a pact supported by Europe could be lasting. “We are not prepared to accept an agreement that is negotiated over our heads,” he said.
A suspected Russian “shadow fleet” oil tanker seized by Belgium is being held on a €10m ($12m) bond, after inspections revealed infractions, Brussels said on Tuesday. The Ethera, which Belgium alleges is part of a flotilla of ageing vessels Moscow uses to avoid western sanctions, was seized by Belgian special forces in the North Sea on Sunday. Investigations carried out after it was brought to the port of Zeebrugge confirmed it had been sailing under a false Guinean flag, the Belgian government said. In total inspectors found 45 infractions, including technical defects, leading to the ship being impounded, it added. The tanker’s Russian captain and its 20-strong crew were ordered to remain on board. “The ship will only leave the port once it is compliant and the deposit has been paid,” said Belgium’s mobility minister, Jean-Luc Crucke. Russia has previously described the seizure of its tankers and other vessels carrying its cargoes as acts of piracy.
The US has deployed a low-cost combat drone in Iran modelled on the Iranian Shahed, as it pushes to accelerate weapons programmes because the Ukraine war. The Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (Lucas) drone was deployed just eight months after its Pentagon unveiling. Defence officials said the compressed timeline reflected lessons learned from observing drone warfare in Ukraine, where both sides have employed thousands of low-cost unmanned systems.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, discussed the Druzhba pipeline, which is at the centre of a dispute with Hungary and Slovakia and has held up approval of a €90bn EU loan to Kyiv. A commission spokesperson said the two leaders had discussed the matter during a call but could not share any details of the conversation. Earlier von der Leyen said on X that they had discussed topics including the loan, sanctions on Russia and “the wider impact of the developments in the Middle East on energy prices, on energy security and on availability of badly needed defence materials”.
One evening in Tehran in 1980, my grandfather got an anonymous tip that the Islamic Republic of Iran wanted him dead.
That night, he, my grandmother and my 15-year-old mother fled their native Iran on a last-minute flight to Heathrow with the help of a forged passport. With two tightly packed suitcases, they made it out. Eventually, my grandfather’s ingenuity allowed them to immigrate to Australia after three years spent in asylum-seeking purgatory in London. Together, my family built a fresh life in Sydney. We survived.
Are the Panthers and Storm past it? How will Payne Haas’s move impact the Broncos? Can NRL players behave for a few months?
The 2026 season is one of the most open in years. Defending minor premiers Canberra, ultra-consistent Cronulla, the fast-improving Dolphins and the sleeping giant in Canterbury are all tipped for a run at the top four. Just who will get there is one of many questions only 27 rounds of rugby league can answer.
World Obesity Federation says half a billion children will be overweight and calls on governments to act to create healthier environments
Without drastic action more than 220 million children could have obesity by 2040, an international report has warned.
Globally, in 2025 about 180 million children were obese. But new figures from the World Obesity Federation suggest that by 2040, about 227 million of all 5- to 19-year-olds will have obesity and more than half a billion will be overweight.
Foreign affairs committee report finds summit improved political relationship but efforts lack ‘strategic priorities’
Keir Starmer’s efforts to reset the UK’s relationship with the EU are lacking in “direction, definition and drive”, parliament’s foreign affairs committee has said.
A report based on months of expert witness testimony found the summit between the UK and the EU at Lancaster House last May had “substantially improved the overall political relationship” after years of Brussels-bashing by the Conservatives.
China’s annual Two Sessions meetings begin this week, with thousands of political and community delegates descending on Beijing from across mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau to ratify legislation, personnel changes and the budget over about two weeks of highly choreographed meetings.
Rennie succeeds Scott Robertson in one of biggest jobs in rugby
‘I’m really clear on the way I want the All Blacks to play,’ says coach
Dave Rennie has been named the new coach of the All Blacks and charged with taking New Zealand to a fourth World Cup triumph in Australia next year.
The 62-year-old former Wallabies coach beat out Jamie Joseph for one of the biggest jobs in world rugby after an extensive recruitment process that started when Scott Robertson stepped down in mid January after a critical review.
Push to give English same status as Māori and NZ sign languages triggers backlash from opposition parties and linguistic experts
A bill to recognise English as an official language of New Zealand has cleared its first hurdle in parliament amid ridicule from opposition parties and linguists who say it is “unnecessary” and “cynical”.
The bill seeks to give English, which is spoken by 95% of the country, the same official status as te reo Māori (Māori language) and New Zealand sign language. The bill said the status and use of the existing official languages would not be affected.
Former Democratic governor Roy Cooper and Trump-backed Republican Michael Whatley to face each other in midterms; judge’s ruling to keep polls open in Dallas county blocked by state supreme court
North Carolina’s election results will be delayed at least an hour because a rural county will be open late after workers couldn’t get equipment working earlier in the day.
In Halifax county, the electronic poll books synchronized for 90 minutes and didn’t use any backup measures to let people vote, according to notes from an emergency meeting held by the state’s board of elections.
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