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Global economy will ‘massively suffer’ from Donald Trump tariffs, Ursula von der Leyen warns – Europe live

European Commission president hopes to move from confrontation to negotiation after Trump attack on ‘pathetic’ EU

The EU will respond in a “legitimate, proportionate and decisive way” to Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, but its strongest weapon is still “a last resort”, the head of the European parliament’s international trade committee has said.

Bernd Lange, a German Social Democrat, said the EU was discussing the use of the anti-coercion instrument, which EU insiders almost inevitably describe as “the big bazooka”.

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© Photograph: Gripas Yuri/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Gripas Yuri/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock

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United Kingdom poised to host Women’s World Cup in 2035

  • Fifa president Infantino says it is the ‘one valid bid’
  • Spain had proposed bid with Portugal and Morocco

The United Kingdom looks almost certain to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup after Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, described its interest as the “one valid bid” for those finals.

The football associations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales announced last month they would submit a joint expression of interest in hosting the finals in 10 years’ time.

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© Photograph: Maddie Meyer/FIFA/Getty Images

© Photograph: Maddie Meyer/FIFA/Getty Images

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Commemorative socks are one thing, Jeff Goldblum, but you’re missing a trick not doing official knickers | Stuart Heritage

Many stars blanch at their commodification. But as the master of drollery launches a new line of monogrammed merch, I think he isn’t going far enough

Jeff Goldblum is an actor. He has starred in films both cult (Earth Girls Are Easy) and blockbuster (Jurassic Park). He’s worked with Wes Anderson. He’s been part of the MCU. Last year he was in Wicked, a film that made three quarters of a billion dollars and won multiple Oscars. Make no mistake, Jeff Goldblum is an actor.

However, Jeff Goldblum is not just an actor. He is also Jeff Goldblum, and this in itself is a full-time job. He releases jazz albums. He conducts interviews where he ums and ahs over every idiosyncratic word choice, like a wan minor European royal choosing hors d’oeuvres from a silver tray. He has developed a system – and this sounds made up, but it isn’t – where he awards people and things a ranking of Goldblums out of a possible 10 Goldblums. When it came time to mark the 25th anniversary of Jurassic Park, how did Universal Pictures choose to do it? By building a 25ft statue of Goldblum with his shirt unbuttoned and plonking it right in the centre of London.

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© Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

© Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

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‘Sundance Kid’ JP McManus has five shots at Grand National history

Jump racing’s grizzled veteran could become the only owner to have four winners of the great race on Saturday

For a man who is still most familiar to many fans as the most fearless gambler of recent decades, JP McManus does not seem to be leaving a great deal to chance before Saturday’s Grand National at Aintree.

Three of the top six in the betting for the world’s most famous steeplechase – Iroko, Perceval Legallois and last year’s winner, I Am Maximus – will carry the owner’s famous green and gold colours this weekend, along with a live each-way shot in Meetingofthewaters. The Sundance Kid – as he was nicknamed in Ireland’s betting rings in the 1970s – is now in his mid-70s, but he shows no sign of slowing down.

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© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Observer

© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Observer

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‘I begged them, my daughter was dying’: how Taliban male escort rules are killing mothers and babies

The need for women to be accompanied by a man in public is blocking access to healthcare and contributing to soaring mortality rates, say experts

It was the middle of the night when Zarin Gul realised that her daughter Nasrin had to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Her daughter’s husband was away working in Iran and the two women were alone with Nasrin’s seven children when Nasrin, heavily pregnant with her eighth child, began experiencing severe pains.

Gul helped Nasrin into a rickshaw and they set off into the night. Holding her daughter’s hand as the rickshaw jolted over the dirt road, Gul says she prayed they would not encounter a Taliban checkpoint.

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© Photograph: Kiana Hayeri/Kiana Hayeri for Carmignac Foundation

© Photograph: Kiana Hayeri/Kiana Hayeri for Carmignac Foundation

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Ange Postecoglou seeks moment of strength to escape spiral at Spurs | Jonathan Liew

Tottenham manager knows the vultures are circling but his mission is driven by honouring the family name

His passport still bears the name “Angelos Postekos”. It was the name legally given to him by his parents, eager for their children to fit into their adopted home, aware that they would face enough obstacles – a different language, a different culture, a different skin tone – without throwing a long name into the bargain.

But he always hated the name Postekos. To him it smelled too much of embarrassment. Of apologising for who you were. Of changing your essence to please others. Of compromise. And so, as soon as he had any say in the matter, he resolved he would be known by the name his father had used, and those who came before him, back in the old country. Before everything changed forever.

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© Photograph: Jacques Feeney/Offside/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jacques Feeney/Offside/Getty Images

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Oxlade-Chamberlain bucks trend and enjoys Besiktas boost under Solskjær

Former Liverpool midfielder was frozen out by Turkish club but has seized lifeline given by new manager

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is still just 31 years old, which feels very young for a man who made his first-team debut for Southampton when Gordon Brown was UK prime minister. It is just over 15 years since Oxlade-Chamberlain broke into Alan Pardew’s Saints squad, aged 16, and after successful and high-profile moves to both Arsenal and Liverpool, plus a trophy haul that includes a Premier League and Champions League title, plus three FA Cups, few can say that Oxlade-Chamberlain has not fulfilled his potential.

Yet his exit from Liverpool at the expiry of his contract in 2023, aged just 29, felt a little hollow. Presented with a photo collage after his final Anfield match and photographed on the pitch alongside his fellow departees, Roberto Firmino (to Saudi Arabia) and 37-year-old James Milner (to Brighton), who were both beaming ear to ear, Oxlade-Chamberlain looked a little lost, diffident almost. Where next?

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© Photograph: Ahmad Mora/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ahmad Mora/Getty Images

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‘Meta has stolen books’: authors to protest in London against AI trained using ‘shadow library’

Writers will gather at the Facebook owner’s King’s Cross office in opposition to its use of the LibGen database to train its AI models

Authors and other publishing industry professionals will stage a demonstration outside Meta’s London office today in protest of the organisation’s use of copyrighted books to train artificial intelligence.

Novelists Kate Mosse and Tracy Chevalier as well as poet and former Royal Society of Literature chair Daljit Nagra will be among those in attendance outside the company’s King’s Cross office.

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© Photograph: REUTERS/Manuel Orbegozo

© Photograph: REUTERS/Manuel Orbegozo

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Carl Hooper’s life in sport: from West Indies to Australia via county cricket

The West Indies batter on his effortless style, playing with his idols and how leadership brought out the best in him

By Wisden Cricket Monthly

Born in Georgetown, Guyana, Carl Hooper, 58, played 102 Test matches for the West Indies between 1987 and 2003, scoring nearly 6,000 runs, taking 114 wickets with his wily off-spin and captaining the side in 22 of those appearances. Known as one of the most stylish, if not necessarily most consistent, batters of the era, he also played 227 ODIs and had five prolific seasons with Kent, making 22 first-class centuries in 85 matches for the club.

Hooper returned to the county game with Lancashire in 2003 and is one of only three players to have scored a first-class century against all 18 first-class counties. “He was so talented, yet he didn’t understand just how good he was,” wrote Brian Lara of his former teammate. “People would ask why he didn’t do full justice to his brilliance, and you know what, there is no clear reason for it.”

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© Photograph: Reuters

© Photograph: Reuters

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The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits review – a quietly brilliant midlife roadtrip

Once your kids are at university, what’s next for you? This compelling depiction of life at a crossroads is a male counterpart to Miranda July’s All Fours

Ben Markovits’s quietly excellent new novel begins with the most mundane of middle-class crises. The book’s narrator, 55-year-old law professor Tom Layward, is taking his youngest child to university. For Tom and his wife Amy, the major tasks of parenting are about to vanish in the rear view mirror. The question is: what’s next?

It’s a moment of change and re-evaluation for any couple. But within Tom and Amy’s marriage an unexploded bomb is ticking. Tom tells us in the first paragraph that, 12 years earlier, Amy had an affair. He managed his heartbreak by making a deal with himself that he would leave when his youngest went to college.

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© Photograph: Boonchai Wedmakawand/Getty Images

© Photograph: Boonchai Wedmakawand/Getty Images

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Trump’s tariffs – five key takeaways

Donald Trump has upended decades of US foreign policy by bringing in a vast array of tariffs that threaten to disrupt international trade. Here are some initial key points

Countries across the world are racing to absorb the new way of doing business with the US, after Donald Trump unveiled tailored tariffs that looks set to ignite a global trade war.

Trump has made clear the goals he wants to accomplish through the tariffs: bring manufacturing back to the US; respond to unfair trade policies from other countries; increase tax revenue; and incentivise crackdowns on migration and drug trafficking.

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© Photograph: Gripas Yuri/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Gripas Yuri/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock

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Trump tariff global reaction – country by country

The US president’s new tariff regime on every country threatens to unleash a global trade war. Here we explore how the world is responding

Global markets and businesses were reeling on Thursday, as US president Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on major trade partners and struggling countries alike.

Trump’s new policies set a baseline tariff of 10% on all goods coming into the US, taking the a maximum rate to more than 50% on imports from some countries. It marks the biggest upheaval of global trade norms since the second world war. The US president said that these levies were aimed at targeting decades of unfair trade practices which had disadvantaged the US.

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© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

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‘The leaves fall off – but I think that’s normal’: the houseplants you just can’t kill

Some indoor plants wither the moment you turn your back; others shrug off drought, darkness and even ‘watering’ by cats. Here’s how to choose the most hardy specimens. Plus, readers celebrate the greenery that survived against all the odds

There is a good reason that we treat certain houseplants as the green wallpaper of our homes: the odd splash of water and they seem to rub along fine. These are the species that have proved, over many decades, that they are best adapted to surviving in a vast range of situations. Unfortunately, familiarity breeds contempt, so many of us dismiss snake plants, spider plants, Swiss cheese plants and dragon trees as uninspiring and basic, even though they are the species that are likely to thrive, whatever the conditions.

The key to making “bog standard” houseplants look good is to display them in an atypical way: an oversized trough of snake plants rather than a few leaves in a lonely pot; the silhouette of a mass of plain green spider plants in a huge hanging basket instead of a spindly cream-striped specimen on a shelf; or a forest of dragon trees in a huge barrel planter. If you love flowers, moth orchids (Phalaenopsis) are a great choice as they are incredibly tough, and unfazed by the centrally heated air of our homes. Again, think about innovative ways of presenting them: they can look amazing massed in a single container.

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© Photograph: Alfian Widiantono/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alfian Widiantono/Getty Images

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‘Same shit, different year’: Australia records hottest 12 months and warmest March on record

ANU climate scientist says ‘everyone is getting fatigued these records keep falling – it’s now incredibly predictable’

Australia has experienced its hottest 12-month period on record, ending with its hottest March on record, with last month seeing temperatures 2.41C above average, the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed.

The bureau said its data going back to 1910 showed the 12 months ending in March 2025 averaged 1.61C above average – the hottest of any 12-month period, beating the previous 1.51C mark set from January to December 2019.

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© Composite: Bureau of Meteorology, Australia/Guardian Design

© Composite: Bureau of Meteorology, Australia/Guardian Design

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War-torn and struggling countries among those facing steepest Trump reciprocal tariffs

Myanmar, which is reeling from a huge earthquake and civil war, faces 44% rate amid suspicions that the underlying target is China

Developing nations in South-east Asia, including war-torn and earthquake-hit Myanmar, and several African nations are among the trading partners facing the highest tariffs set by US President Donald Trump.

Upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war, Trump on Wednesday announced a raft of tariffs he said were designed to stop the US economy from being “cheated”.

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© Photograph: Cai Yang/AP

© Photograph: Cai Yang/AP

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It’s unfair to blame Liverpool for being the best team: that's how you win titles | Barney Ronay

It has been an odd, slow bicycle race of a season, but this is hardly the fault of Arne Slot’s impressive league leaders

There was an extraordinary moment in the seconds after Diogo Jota had scored the only goal of this Merseyside derby, as the home supporters seethed and writhed, bodies tumbling, a wave of noise barrelling around the Anfield stands.

At which point a lone middle-aged man could be seen emerging from the seats, waving his fists in the direction of what must have been the fourth official, making wild but oddly precise spectacles gestures with his fingers, all the while being hurled back by the combined efforts of three men in orange jackets.

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© Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

© Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

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Joe Rogan breaks with Trump, calling Venezuelan deportations ‘horrific’

Influential podcast host and prominent Trump supporter criticizes administration for removal of gay makeup artist

Joe Rogan, the influential podcast host and prominent supporter of Donald Trump, has criticized the president’s administration over the deportation of a professional makeup artist and hairdresser to a prison in El Salvador, calling it “horrific”.

Andry José Hernández Romero, who is gay, had sought asylum in the US, telling officials he faced persecution because of his sexual orientation and political views. But US immigration officers argued the crown tattoos on his wrists were proof he was part of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang, despite Hernández Romero telling them he was not. Last month, he was flown from Texas to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, a facility that his lawyer said was “one of the worst places in the world”. His removal comes as the administration undertakes what Trump has pledged would be a mass deportation campaign.

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© Photograph: Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

© Photograph: Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

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Paris’s rewilded railway line: the disused track turned into a green space for wildlife and walkers

Inside the French capital’s ring road, the Petite Ceinture, a disused circular rail line, now abounds with nature trails, shared gardens – and even urban farms

A rustle in the undergrowth sends birds wheeling above the trees and into the sky. I’m left alone and in near total silence as I look along the train tracks that disappear in either direction. It feels as if I’m in the heart of the countryside, but actually, the Boulevard Périphérique, the traffic-choked ring road that encircles Paris, is just a stone’s throw away. This disused rail route, the Petite Ceinture, offers wildlife and quiet solitude just moments from the roaring motorway, thanks to a plan that is turning parts of the line into walkable green spaces – the French capital’s less manicured (and less central) alternative to Manhattan’s High Line or north London’s Parkland Walk, a rewilded railway line that’s part of the Capital Ring walk.

Built on the site of the Thiers wall, the last defensive wall of Paris, and its surrounding shantytown, the eight-lane Boulevard Périphérique (known as the Périph) is used by more than a million cars a day. The 20-mile (32km) railway line just inside the ring road was created to supply the Thiers wall, carrying goods and then passengers as the city’s first metropolitan railway service.

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© Photograph: Michel Rubinel/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Michel Rubinel/AFP/Getty Images

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Muriel’s Wedding review – Toni Collette is outstanding in the film that brought Abba back

Brilliantly led by Collette, PJ Hogan’s 1994 story of a lovable loser was the feelgood sensation that rescued the band’s reputation – how can you resist it?

When writer-director PJ Hogan made Muriel’s Wedding in 1994, he surely knew he had struck feelgood-movie gold. But maybe he didn’t realise he had personally authored a pivotal moment in Abbamania’s global history: the momentous transitional phase between the band being taboo-naff and being world-conqueringly beloved. (Maybe Mr Hogan should be getting a cut of the Mamma Mia! musicals and the Abba Voyage live show.) Hogan also gave us our first real view of Toni Collette who started the way she meant to go on: being outstanding in everything she is in.

But back in 1994, it was still appropriate that a loser – albeit a lovable loser – could be depicted as an Abba fan; but this movie gets something right that the endless pedantic jukebox musicals that came later get wrong. This crucial pro-Abba film is not itself obsessed with Abba and the soundtrack isn’t wall-to-wall Abba; our heroine says, once she tastes success, “I haven’t listened to one Abba song. That’s because now my life’s as good as an Abba song.”

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© Photograph: Film Victoria/Allstar

© Photograph: Film Victoria/Allstar

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Vilified, arrested, held incommunicado: that's the price of protest in Britain today | George Monbiot

It seems to me that whatever the charges facing the activists at the Quaker meeting house raid, their fundamental crime is dissent

The faces are different, but it’s the same authoritarianism. Keir Starmer’s team might not look or sound like Donald Trump’s, but its policies on protest and dissent are chillingly similar. So is the reason: coordinated global lobbying by the rich and powerful, fronted by rightwing junktanks.

Last week, six young women were having tea and biscuits in the Quaker meeting house in Westminster. Twenty police officers forced open the door and arrested them on conspiracy charges. Had the police discovered a plot to blow up parliament or to poison the water supply? No. It was an openly advertised, routine meeting of a protest group called Youth Demand, discussing climate breakdown and the assault on Gaza.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism, by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison, was published in paperback last week

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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© Photograph: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

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Big, biodiverse and beautiful: can Romania’s centuries-old giant haystacks survive modern farming?

Traditional methods benefit hundreds of species but as new agricultural techniques take over, the distinctive haystacks mark a vanishing way of life

Golden haystacks shaped like teardrops have been a symbol of rural life in Romania for hundreds of years. The 3-metre-high (10ft) ricks are the culmination of days of hard work by families, from children up to grandparents, in the height of summer.

Together they cut waist-high grass, leave it to dry in the hot sun and stack it up to be stored over the winter, combing the hay downwards to protect it from harsh winds, heavy rain and snow. Throughout winter, clumps of it are removed from the haystacks and fed to livestock.

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© Photograph: Billy Barraclough

© Photograph: Billy Barraclough

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‘We thought we could change the world’: how an idealistic fight against miscarriages of justice turned sour

When a no-nonsense lecturer set up a radical solution to help free the wrongfully convicted in the UK, he was hopeful he could change the justice system. But what started as a revolution ended in acrimony

The press conference began at 2.30pm on 2 September 2004 at the Wills Memorial Building, the grand neo-gothic home to the University of Bristol’s School of Law. Michael Naughton, a charismatic, fast-talking lecturer in sociology and criminal law, addressed the assembled media. If what he was attempting sounded radical, it was only a reflection of an increasingly dire situation, Naughton told a BBC reporter. There was no way of sugarcoating it, he said. The criminal justice system was failing the rising number of people who were claiming they had been wrongfully convicted, and who remained stuck in prison without any hope of exoneration.

Naughton was launching the Bristol University Innocence Project to address this crisis. The premise was clear enough. Idealistic law students, under academic supervision and with pro bono legal support, would investigate potential miscarriages of justice, with the goal of preparing cases for appeal. Though the concept was well established in the US and Australia, nothing so bold had ever been attempted in the UK. But Michael Naughton was no ordinary academic. Born in early 1960s Lancashire to working-class Irish parents, conflict was an essential part of his upbringing. Being a Naughton man came with certain non-negotiables, including: always buy your round, and never back down from a fight.

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© Composite: Guardian Design/Paul Keogh/Cardiff University

© Composite: Guardian Design/Paul Keogh/Cardiff University

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The Bondsman review – the scariest thing about Kevin Bacon’s demonic thriller? His singing

This bizarre drama stars the Hollywood actor as a dead bounty hunter brought back to life by the devil to do his bidding. Sadly, it also includes horrifying country music

There is nothing very new to see in The Bondsman. How much you enjoy it will depend on how much you enjoy Kevin Bacon (laconic, hard-bitten Kevin Bacon, not Tremors Kevin Bacon and not Footloose Kevin Bacon), how much you enjoy tales of demonic possession in a small town in southern America and how much you enjoy the sound of partly severed heads, blown-out tracheas and bloodied fingers. I am seven degrees of separation from liking this last aspect.

But Bacon is Bacon, and if he is slightly sleepwalking through his role here as Hub Halloran, tracker of ne’er-do-wells with warrants against their names, well, it is hardly inappropriate given that, for most of the eight episodes, Hub is dead. He is killed by local heavies hired by Lucky Callahan (Damon Herriman – you’ll know him when you see him), the new boyfriend of Hub’s ex-wife Maryanne (Jennifer Nettles), seeking to eliminate the competition.

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© Photograph: Courtesy of Prime

© Photograph: Courtesy of Prime

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Netanyahu visits Hungary as Orbán vows to defy ICC arrest warrant

Israeli prime minister begins four-day trip after Hungarian counterpart says court ruling would ‘have no effect’

Benjamin Netanyahu has begun a four-day official visit to Hungary, marking the first time the Israeli prime minister has stepped foot on European soil since the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for him over allegations of war crimes in Gaza.

Hours after the ICC announced the warrants in November, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, made it clear he would defy the court to host Netanyahu, telling reporters that he would “guarantee” the ICC’s ruling would “have no effect in Hungary”.

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© Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images

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Republicans join Democrats in Senate vote to rescind Trump Canada tariffs

Resolution that would block tariffs passes 51-48 in Senate, in vote that shows Republican unease over president’s plans

Several Republican senators joined Democrats to pass a resolution that would block Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, a rare rebuke of the president’s trade policy just hours after he announced plans for sweeping import taxes on some of the country’s largest trading partners.

In a 51-48 vote, four Republicans – Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and both Kentucky senators, the former majority leader Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul – defied Trump’s pressure campaign and supported the measure. Democrats used a procedural maneuver to force a vote on the resolution, which would terminate the national emergency on fentanyl Trump is using to justify tariffs on Canada.

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© Photograph: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

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Trump goes full gameshow host to push his tariff plan – and nobody’s a winner

There were charts and scores, as if The Price Is Right had come to Washington. The big prize? A global trade war

It was Jeopardy!, or The Price Is Right, come to Washington.

On an unseasonably chilly day in the White House Rose Garden, Donald Trump stood with a giant chart listing which reciprocal tariffs he would impose on China, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other hapless contestants.

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© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

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‘Parasites should get more fame’: the nominees for world’s finest invertebrate – podcast

Invertebrates don’t get the attention lavished on cute pets or apex predators, but these unsung heroes are some of the most impressive and resilient creatures on the planet. So when the Guardian opened its poll to find the world’s finest invertebrate, readers got in touch in their droves. A dazzling array of nominations have flown in for insects, arachnids, snails, crustaceans, corals and many more obscure creatures. Patrick Barkham tells Madeleine Finlay why these tiny creatures deserve more recognition, and three readers, Sandy, Nina and Russell, make the case for their favourites

Invertebrate of the year 2025: vote for your favourite

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

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© Composite: Getty Images / The Guardian

© Composite: Getty Images / The Guardian

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Trump tariffs see stocks dive and investors scramble to bonds, gold and yen

Nasdaq futures tumbled 3.3% and in after-hours trade as $760bn was wiped from the market value of ‘Magnificent Seven’ technology leaders

Stocks dived and investors scrambled to the safety of bonds, gold and the yen on Thursday as Donald Trump unveiled a bigger-than-expected wall of tariffs around the world’s largest economy, upending trade and supply chains.

The technology sector was pummelled as manufacturing hubs in China and Taiwan faced new tariffs above 30%. In total, China now faces an eye-watering 54% in tariffs on its exports to the US.

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© Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

© Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

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Trump imposes tariffs on uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands near Antarctica

Australian prime minister surprised after external territories – including tiny Norfolk Island and remote islands home to penguins – targeted by US president

A group of barren, uninhabited volcanic islands near Antarctica, covered in glaciers and home to penguins, have been swept up in Donald Trump’s trade war, as the US president hit them with a 10% tariff on goods.

Heard Island and McDonald Islands, which form an external territory of Australia, are among the remotest places on earth, accessible only via a two-week boat voyage from Perth on Australia’s west coast. They are completely uninhabited, with the last visit from people believed to be nearly 10 years ago.

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© Photograph: Matt Curnock/AUSTRALIAN ANTARCTIC DIVISION/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Matt Curnock/AUSTRALIAN ANTARCTIC DIVISION/AFP/Getty Images

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Trump news at a glance: sweeping tariffs announced; Musk could be nearing end of role

Trump announces ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on largest US trading partners; Elon Musk may leave government role at end of 130-day cap. Here’s your roundup of key US politics stories from 2 April 2025

Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on some of its largest trading partners on Wednesday, upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war on what he has dubbed “liberation day”.

Trump said he will impose a 10% universal tariff on all imported foreign goods in addition to “reciprocal tariffs” on a few dozen countries, charging additional duties onto countries that Trump claims have “cheated” America.

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© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

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How will Myanmar’s earthquake impact the civil war? – podcast

Myanmar’s military junta has been losing territory for months. Will the earthquake and a new ceasefire help it turn the tide? Rebecca Ratcliffe reports

“It took around four to five minutes for the earthquake to shake and then it stopped and shook again. It is the most severe earthquake I have experienced in my life.”

Esther J is a reporter based in Bangkok, Thailand, more than 600 miles (966km) away from her home country of Myanmar – the epicentre of last week’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake.

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© Photograph: Thein Zaw/AP

© Photograph: Thein Zaw/AP

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Cyndi Lauper review – 80s pop eccentric hasn’t changed a bit

Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Her farewell tour is a pockmarked history of her roots and wide-ranging influences, full of her trademark elan and vigour

Fandom isn’t a good look on a critic; we’re supposed to be sober and impartial, analytical and measured. What to do, then, when called upon to review your favourite idol, the singer who first turned you on to the power of pop? Judicious rumination or tinny screams of delight?

There’s room for both in this swan song from 80s pop eccentric Cyndi Lauper, as irrepressible here as when I saw her as a teenager, then touring her new album True Colours. She’s had an illustrious career, including a side gig composing musicals – Kinky Boots, and soon an adaptation of 80s workplace comedy Working Girl – but the bulk of her hits are drawn from her first two albums, including the astonishing debut She’s So Unusual.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – the song that gives this farewell tour its name – is also by far Lauper’s most famous – though the audience has to wait till the very end for it, in a riot of colour and light directly inspired by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. In the buildup, we get a pockmarked history of Lauper’s roots and musical inclinations. Those less familiar with her are likely to be shocked by her power and versatility, her voice ranging across blues, jazz, rock and country without ever losing its bright pop sensibility.

The night opens with the quirky, infectious She Bop, followed quickly by The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough – a song she refused to play live for many years until she was badgered by Australian fans into including it. Both are performed with elan and vigour, Lauper’s signature jittery moves and syncopated inflections demonstrating the idiosyncrasy of her talent. I Drove All Night comes soon after, sultry and looping, her voice still carrying plenty of heft and texture.

Throughout, the show is peppered with numbers from later albums in a retrospective of Lauper’s outre career. We get an excellent rendition of Who Let In the Rain, from her 1993 record Hatful of Stars, the LED screens providing a torrential background to the sweetly melancholic ballad. Sally’s Pigeons, also from that album, is supported by a vivid recollection of her childhood in blue-collar Queens, including a video essay of memories and associations.

A massive part of Lauper’s appeal as a live performer, apart from the sheer virtuosity of her voice, is the rambling, discursive monologues that bookend many of the songs. They give a sense not only of the warmth and humility of the woman but the audacity and authenticity of the artist, who shot like a strange comet from the working-class Italian-American family of her youth. There is something endearingly homespun about the show, like an extremely well-resourced slide night.

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© Photograph: Lauri Jean

© Photograph: Lauri Jean

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EU threatens countermeasures and Asian markets plunge after Trump tariff announcement – business live

Ursula von der Leyen says tariffs a ‘major blow’ to world economy after US President Trump targets allies on what he dubbed ‘liberation day’

The new US tariffs “will only create losers” with US consumers particularly hard hit, the German Automotive Industry Association (VDA), has said in a statement, calling on the EU “to act together and with the necessary force, while continuing to signal its willingness to negotiate.”

The body, which represents the powerful German auto industry, said the tariffs marked

the United States’ departure from the rules-based global trade order – and thus a departure from the foundation for global value creation and corresponding growth and prosperity in many regions of the world.

This is not America first; this is America alone.

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© Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP

© Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP

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‘War’ and ‘pain’: what the papers say about Donald Trump’s trade tariffs

The US president has announced new taxes on imports to the US starting at a baseline of 10% – here is the front-page reaction in Britain

Donald Trump’s tariff “day of liberation” arrived with the US president imposing markups on imports while accusing other nations, including allies, of “looting, pillaging, raping and plundering” the US.

The UK got off relatively lightly with the basic 10%. Here is how major British newspapers see it.

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© Composite: Daily Mail/Daily Express/Daily Mirror/The Times/The Daily Telegraph/i/Metro

© Composite: Daily Mail/Daily Express/Daily Mirror/The Times/The Daily Telegraph/i/Metro

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I put the Married at First Sight ‘experiment’ to the test. The results are stark | Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz

I’ve become addicted to the show. But as a scientist I wonder: how many couples actually stay together?

It has finally happened. After a decade of avoiding the show, my wife and I decided that we would try out the new season of Married at First Sight. We consume quite a bit of reality TV, so it’s not that we avoided it precisely, but something about the idea of watching people struggle to build a healthy relationship amid a storm of cameras and manufactured drama just never drew us in. At least until we watched Married at First Sight and realised it was actually kind of fun.

Relationship drama makes for addictive viewing. But after watching most of a season of weird “marriages”, screaming matches and couch quizzes accompanied by deep and meaningful music, one part of the show has struck me as really weird. Everyone keeps referring to the saga as an “experiment”. From the narrator to the experts who counsel the hapless couples on their relationship dramas, the entire show seems to be calling the experience a social experiment for which we don’t know the outcome.

How many couples stay together until the end of filming?

How many couples stay together after filming is completed?

How many couples are still together and is it fewer than we’d expect?

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© Photograph: Nine

© Photograph: Nine

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South Korea ‘at breaking point’ ahead of ruling on President Yoon’s impeachment

Barricades go up in Seoul as court prepares to rule on whether to uphold Yoon’s impeachment or restore his powers

The usually quiet streets outside South Korea’s constitutional court in Seoul are now a political ground zero for a decision that will determine the country’s future.

Months after Yoon Suk Yeol imposed martial law and triggered South Korea’s worst political crisis in decades, the court will on Friday decide whether to uphold the suspended president’s impeachment or return him to office.

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© Photograph: Chris Jung/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Chris Jung/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

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Canada Trump tariff exemption ‘like dodging a bullet into the path of a tank’, says business leader

Automotive industry and prime minister Mark Carney note that 25% tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and automobiles will still come into effect within hours

Canada’s exemption from Donald Trump’s global tariffs was “like dodging a bullet into the path of a tank”, say business leaders as other levies are poised to hit key industries that drive the country’s economy.

In a theatrical unveiling of tariffs on countries with “unfair” practices on Wednesday afternoon, Canada was noticeably absent, alongside trade ally Mexico.

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© Photograph: David Ryder/Reuters

© Photograph: David Ryder/Reuters

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Liberation from what? Trump promised lower prices – his tariffs risk the opposite

Trump pledged to liberate the nation from higher prices, and is betting tariffs won’t raise them too high, for too long

For weeks, Donald Trump and his aides sought to brand Wednesday as “liberation day” in America. Many in the US could be forgiven for wondering what exactly they’ve just been liberated from.

After much hype, the president unveiled his plan for a new era in global trade: a blanket 10% tariff on goods imported into the US starting Saturday, and higher “reciprocal” tariffs (of up to 49%) on countries taxing US exports starting next Wednesday.

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© Illustration: Guardian Design/Getty Images

© Illustration: Guardian Design/Getty Images

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