Hitting the piste in Verbier doesn’t come cheap, but in laid-back La Tzoumaz you can access the same pistes without such a steep price tag

I’m standing at 3,330 metres on a tall metal platform with a heavy harness strapped to my back, gazing in awe at the snow-covered Matterhorn, Mont Blanc and the Dents du Midi ridge. It’s a gorgeous distraction while I wait to be clipped in and launched down the valley at 120 kilometres an hour. This is the Mont Fort zip line, the highest in the world. I sit with my legs dangling over the precipice, then with a stomach-churning clunk the mechanism releases and I speed through the air over tiny figures skiing below. It’s exhilarating and over too soon. I’m grinning ear to ear, my lungs full of high mountain air.

I’m in Verbier, one of Switzerland’s most famous ski resorts. With access to 410km of pristine piste, excellent alpine food and a legendary après-ski culture, what’s not to like? Well, for many, the price. Verbier has long been favoured by A-listers and royalty, with eye-watering prices to match. Happily, there is a way to enjoy the same slopes, with much less of a financial hit. Stay in the village of La Tzoumaz (pronounced La Tsoo-mah), where accommodation can be half the price of Verbier, and you’re one chairlift away from the entire Four Valleys ski area. And as I discover, this “back door” resort has plenty of its own charms too.

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© Photograph: Verbier 4Vallées

© Photograph: Verbier 4Vallées

© Photograph: Verbier 4Vallées

Keep your boss happy, develop your ‘personal boardroom’, ask for honest feedback, don’t take the notes in every meeting and remember: no one gets promoted for inbox zero

There is nothing worse than feeling stuck in a job. What are the best ways to progress without having to resort to shameless self-promotion? Here, career coaches explain how to make sure you are first in line for a promotion – and a pay rise.

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© Composite: Guardian Design; MoMo Productions/Getty Images

© Composite: Guardian Design; MoMo Productions/Getty Images

© Composite: Guardian Design; MoMo Productions/Getty Images

Journalists and activists who fled Taliban rule are living in fear as Pakistani police hunt and deport refugees after escalating cross-border clashes

At midnight on Saturday, Alma* stood at the check-in counter at Karachi airport in Pakistan with her husband and three-year-old son, holding tickets she believed would finally take the refugee family to safety.

The Afghan journalist, who fled the Taliban in October 2024, had already been stopped from boarding two days earlier, on 26 February. Since they were flying with a tourist visa to a country in Africa, they had booked a flight from Karachi with a return leg that they did not plan to use. But the Pakistani officials at the airport refused to let them board.

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© Photograph: Arshad Arbab/EPA

© Photograph: Arshad Arbab/EPA

© Photograph: Arshad Arbab/EPA

An epic account of how three demigod directors, in pursuit of indie freedom, redefined American film-making

Here we are once more: back to the glory days of the New Hollywood that emerged from the ashes of the old studio system in the 1960s and 70s. Our cast is filled with brilliant hotshots and creative risk-takers, energised by the French New Wave, the American counterculture and the industry’s own amazing entrepreneurial past.

Peter Biskind’s breezy, bleary, cynical book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls ranged freely across the 1970s, with controversial anecdotes about egos and drugs (though maybe the definitive book about the role of cocaine in film production has yet to be written). Mark Harris’s Scenes from a Revolution had the witty idea of looking at the five films Oscar-nominated for best picture in the transitional year of 1968, from the supercool Bonnie and Clyde to the squaresville Dr Doolittle, to see what they told us about America’s cinematic mind at the time.

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© Photograph: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Director and star Albert Birney goes through the looking glass to tackle a Zelda-esque dog rescue quest inside his 80s gaming machine in endearingly imaginative fantasy

If David Lynch had been born 20 years later and fetishised 1980s home-computing tech, this is the kind of film he might have made: black-and-white analogue surrealism, with smudges of dot-matrix horror. Director Albert Birney stars as “Computer Conor”, a shut-in who makes a living from virtuosically tapping out ASCII reproductions of people’s favourite photos and, on his downtime, watching several VHSs simultaneously on his three-television-high stack.

Outside is Mary (Callie Hernandez), an unseen grocery-delivery girl, and the unsettling writhings of the biological world in the shape of an emerging cicada brood. But Conor is invaded from within when he subscribes to Obex, a mail-order sword-and-sorcery video game that allows you to personalise your own avatar. Initially disappointed, he becomes more enveloped when his printer of its own accord spits out a command: “Remove your skin.” And then the game’s radiant demon Ixaroth arrives in his apartment and spirits away Conor’s pooch, Sandy.

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© Photograph: Everett/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Everett/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Everett/Shutterstock

Dockside site will transform club’s finances, but fans are frustrated with kick-off times and results at venue so far

David Moyes has numerous theories on why Everton do not yet feel completely at home at Hill Dickinson Stadium, beyond the fact that change is inevitably strange after 133 years at Goodison Park. Wins would be instrumental, but his team have managed only five in 16 matches. Supporters connecting to the magnificent venue through a new matchday routine would help too, but for many that is proving nigh on impossible.

One season-ticket holder, who lives in the south of England, said on social media recently that they expect to miss seven or eight home games this season owing to the curse of the modern fixture schedule. The club are aware that this is not an isolated case. The problem is not new nor confined to Everton, who of course reap the benefits of every game that is switched for live television purposes and, let’s be frank, have not held as much appeal for broadcasters in recent years as they do this season. But in their inaugural campaign at a new home, Everton’s schedule has proved to be peculiar and, in turn, detrimental to fans adapting to new surroundings.

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© Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

© Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

© Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

From bold anti-Nazi posters to an acid-drenched take on Jean Cocteau, a new exhibition, curated by writer Philip Hoare, shows how influential the DIY designs of the 70s and 80s became

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© Photograph: Reece Straw

© Photograph: Reece Straw

© Photograph: Reece Straw

“False statements online have consequences in the real world.”

With 46% of Nepal’s population under the age of 24, the election will be a test of whether their hopes and frustrations are being taken seriously

In the unassuming, dusty lanes of the Nepali city of Damak, an unprecedented political showdown is unfolding. Pitting an old political heavyweight against a rapper-turned-politician with a penchant for dark sunglasses and sharp suits, the battle is one that could completely reshape the country’s politics.

As Nepal heads into its most gripping election in years, at the forefront stands Balendra Shah, the 35-year-old known simply as Balen. He rose to fame as a popular rapper whose songs criticised the ruling elite, before pivoting to politics and winning a resounding victory to become the mayor of Kathmandu in May 2022.

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© Photograph: Subaas Shrestha/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Subaas Shrestha/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Subaas Shrestha/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Regulator rules Universal Church of the Kingdom of God did not protect vulnerable donors, including woman who says she gave life savings

“Sometimes you’re seeing God as a genie, where if I give him all this money, He will bring me what I want,” Sarah says.

The 27-year-old spent years in the grip of “prosperity gospel”, whose followers believe cash donations to evangelical churches unlock divine blessings of health and wealth. So did Jennifer*, 29, who says she handed over her life savings.

Name has been changed

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© Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

© Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

© Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

Speed and scale of US military’s AI war planning raises fears human decision-making may be sidelined

The use of AI tools to enable attacks on Iran heralds a new era of bombing quicker than “the speed of thought”, experts have said, amid fears human ­decision-makers could be sidelined.

Anthropic’s AI model, Claude, was reportedly used by the US military in the barrage of strikes as the technology “shortens the kill chain” – meaning the process of target identification through to legal approval and strike launch.

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© Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters

© Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters

© Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO — Plagued by slow starts, this time, the Warriors couldn’t finish. After coach Steve Kerr called out the Warriors’ effort while falling behind early in their last game against the Lakers, they responded by jumping out to a 17-point first half lead against the Clippers. It all fell apart after halftime in a...

A month after Unrivaled garnered record-shattering attendance in Philly, the 3-on-3 basketball league managed to do it again in Brooklyn.

"We were just wanting a smoothie and you literally looked at us ... and you said 'We don't feel comfortable serving you' because of my husband's [Trump] hoodie. That is discrimination," Erika spat.

In the past three months, Donald Trump’s White House has reportedly used AI twice to effect regime change – once in its capture of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and more recently to help plan the strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The most recent strikes coincided with the end of the Pentagon’s relationship with the AI company Anthropic over concerns its AI tool Claude was being used for purposes the company had explicitly prohibited. The government swiftly signed a new contract with Open AI.

To find out what this means for the use of AI in forthcoming conflicts, Madeleine Finlay speaks to technology journalist Chris Stokel-Walker. He explains why he thinks this moment represents a dangerous turning point.

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

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© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Reuters

© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Reuters

© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Reuters

The trippy film of Enid Blyton’s much loved novels has been 20 years in the making. We catch up with its adult and child stars – inside a giant cake as disco-dancing elves rollerskate past

Anyone who read Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree novels as a child has imagined themselves roving through their magical landscapes. Most of us had a favourite, be it the Land of Wizards, or Nursery Rhymes, or Do-As-You-Please. Thirteen-year-old Billie Gadsdon, about to star in the highly anticipated film adaptation, The Magic Faraway Tree, particularly loves the Land of Goodies – but that’s because when she was last there, everything around her was made of sweets.

Director Ben Gregor wanted his cast to interact with the fantastical surroundings as much as possible. And so, on their sound stage in Reading, Gadsdon found herself filming in a grove of marshmallow trees, surrounded by giant flying-saucer plants and Haribo strawberry beds. “I did eat a few,” she confides. The Land of Birthdays was just as fun – she was filmed in those scenes in the middle of a giant cake, as rollerskating elves disco-danced by.

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© Photograph: Parisa Taghizadeh

© Photograph: Parisa Taghizadeh

© Photograph: Parisa Taghizadeh

He lasted just 11 days as White House communications director, before being fired from the Trump administration. The financier and broadcaster discusses working for the president – and becoming his biggest critic

‘If somebody walks into your office and says they’re friends with Donald Trump, they’re either exaggerating the relationship, or they don’t understand the relationship,” says Anthony Scaramucci. “Because nobody is friends with Donald. You’re a transaction in this guy’s field of vision.”

Scaramucci should know. He has been non-friends with Trump for more than 30 years, though these days he’s more an outright enemy. Just as the attention-devouring president once stalked Hillary Clinton on the debate stage, Trump looms large in Scaramucci’s story. The two men seem to haunt each other. When we meet in London during a stopover in his hectic schedule, the conversation rarely drifts away from Trump for more than a few minutes. Conversely, the 62-year-old financier and broadcaster has become one of Trump’s most vocal and penetrating critics. “We fight like New Yorkers,” Scaramucci says. “He doesn’t really come back at me, because he knows I’m going to come back at him.” Unlike Trump’s presumptive friends, Scaramucci does understand Trump, he claims. “There’s something called ‘Trump derangement syndrome’; I think I have ‘Trump reality syndrome’. I know what he is, I know what he does, I know what he’s capable of and I know the danger of him.”

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© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Maga figures drown out opponents of conflict with loud support for the president

Philip Lane says extended conflict and disruption to energy supplies could also lead to ‘sharp’ drop in Eurozone output

Bank explores extension of chief executive Sergio Ermotti’s tenure as it prepares for continued uncertainty

Qatar LNG shutdown threatens bigger supply hit than the Ukraine war

FT analysis identifies 12 accounts on platform that made large well-timed wagers just ahead of start of conflict

Beijing can again leverage its critical minerals dominance over an increasingly busy US military, as Taiwan slides further down the White House list of priorities

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

As the US and Israel opened a new chapter of chaos in the Middle East, China stands to benefit from a Washington establishment that does not have the political or physical resources to focus on Asia.

Officially, China has condemned the attacks. Wang Yi, the foreign minister, called them “unacceptable” and called for a ceasefire, rhetoric that is typical of Beijing in response to Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic foreign policy moves.

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© Photograph: AP

© Photograph: AP

© Photograph: AP

• Club is popular with athletes and rappers

• Kornet says night helps objectify women

San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet has called on the Atlanta Hawks to abandon their collaboration with a famous strip club.

Magic City is an Atlanta institution and been mentioned in a string of hip-hop records, as well as hosting rappers such as Drake, Lil Yachty, Migos, Jack Harlow and Future. It is also popular with athletes: past visitors have included Michael Jordan, while MLS’s Atlanta United celebrated their title at the club in 2018. The club gained widespread attention in 2020 when the Los Angeles Clippers’ Lou Williams visited the club after leaving the NBA’s quarantine bubble during the Covid pandemic.

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© Photograph: Prince Williams/WireImage

© Photograph: Prince Williams/WireImage

© Photograph: Prince Williams/WireImage