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France could recognise Palestinian state ‘in June’, says Emmanuel Macron – Middle East crisis live

Israeli minister says plan is ‘prize for terror’ as French president says ‘we must move towards recognition’ and process could start at UN conference in June

At least 23 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a residential building in northern Gaza, as reports emerged that the Israeli military is preparing to seize the entire city of Rafah as part of a newly announced security corridor.

Medics at al-Ahli hospital said that the bombing on Wednesday of a four-storey building in the Gaza City suburb of Shijaiyah had killed at least eight women and children, as rescue workers continued to search for survivors into the evening. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a senior Hamas militant.

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© Photograph: Raphaël Lafargue/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Raphaël Lafargue/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock

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Gout Gout breaks 10-second barrier for 100m at Australian athletics championships

  • 17-year-old runs 9.99s with illegal tailwind of 3.5m/s in heat
  • Sprint sensation to run U20 final later on Thursday in Perth

Sprinter Gout Gout has broken the 10-second barrier in the 100m for the first time, but his 9.99s won’t be officially recorded in the record books due to an illegal tailwind of 3.5m/s.

The 17-year-old set the time in the heats of the under-20 100m at the national athletics titles in Perth on Thursday afternoon, and he is due to run the final later on Thursday evening.

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© Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

© Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

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Hay fever making your life a misery? Try these 20 tips from doctors and allergy experts

Do nasal sprays work? Which are the best antihistamines? Can honey help? What about a shower? We’ve got all the answers

For people with hay fever, sunny days lounging on the grass can be anything but pleasant. How can you manage the symptoms without forfeiting summer? As the Met Office issues a “pollen bomb” warning in the UK, allergy doctors advise on the best ways to survive the season.

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© Composite: Guardian Design; Oscar Wong;unclepodger/Getty Images

© Composite: Guardian Design; Oscar Wong;unclepodger/Getty Images

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Proto by Laura Spinney review – how Indo-European languages went global

The fascinating story of the ancient words that survive in the mouths of billions of speakers today

How did the language you’re reading this in come to exist? The Indo-European family of languages covers most of Europe, the Iranian plateau, northern India and parts of Asia. Its members are spoken by almost half of all living people, and they all stem from a common source. English, Hindustani, Spanish, Russian, Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Norse and many others (more than 400 still exist) can all be traced back to this starting point: Proto-Indo-European (PIE). Laura Spinney’s new book tells the story of how a language that may initially have been spoken as a kind of lingua franca by only a few dozen people evolved into the mother tongues of billions.

The words we use feel inevitable. We take them for granted. But they began life about 6,000 years ago, when copper was being smithed in the lands to the west of the Black Sea. Spinney says “an aura of magic must have hovered around the early smiths, who drew this gleaming marvel from blue-green rock”. New language hovered around them, too.

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© Photograph: Made By Vitaliebrega.com/Getty Images

© Photograph: Made By Vitaliebrega.com/Getty Images

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Does Tom Thibodeau really run his players into the ground? The data says ... not exactly

The Knicks coach has long been accused of overworking his starters – a rep that resurfaced when Mikal Bridges spoke out. But a closer look at the data complicates that narrative

Tom Thibodeau just became the fourth-winningest coach in New York Knicks history, passing Pat Riley on Saturday as his team notched their 49th win of the season. But as has often been the case with Thibodeau’s coaching milestones, the moment wasn’t met with pure celebration. Instead, familiar questions around a controversial overtone of his NBA coaching career loomed – namely, Thibs Minutes Syndrome.

Thibodeau has long carried a reputation for running his starters into the ground, a narrative built on his unwavering reliance on his first unit and reluctance to tap into his bench. This year, Knicks starters lead the NBA in total minutes played by more than 500 minutes. And the concern isn’t new: last year, as New York’s best chance to make the NBA finals in decades unraveled amid a cascade of injuries, criticism of Thibodeau’s substitution patterns resurfaced with a vengeance.

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© Photograph: Sarah Stier/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sarah Stier/Getty Images

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One to One: John and Yoko review – Kevin Macdonald’s immersive collage is a pop culture fever dream

A collection of staggering TV clips and amazing audio of Lennon and Ono’s life in 1970s NYC, this film is a mosaic of countercultural moments

Film-maker Kevin Macdonald has created a fever dream of pop culture: a TV-clip collage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s time in New York in the early 70s, as they led the countercultural protest. It’s a film that mixes small screen zeitgeist fragments and madeleine moments, a memory quilt of a certain time and place, juxtaposing Jerry Rubin and Allen Ginsberg with Richard Nixon and George Wallace, John and Yoko in concert with ads for Tupperware – all inspired by the fact that John and Yoko did an awful lot of TV watching in their small New York apartment of that time, with John in particular thrilled by the American novelty of 24/7 television.

It was also on TV that John and Yoko saw a documentary about the scandalous abuse of learning-disabled children at the infamous Willowbrook State School in New York and they organised the One to One concert at Madison Square Garden in 1972 to raise money for the children there. The film also gives us some amazing audio material: tape recordings of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s phone conversations with various journalists and managers, and a hilarious running-gag account of an assistant having to get hundreds of live flies for Ono’s MoMA exhibition.

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© Photograph: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty Images

© Photograph: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty Images

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Australia on brink of Billie Jean King Cup exit after defeat to Kazakhstan

  • Kim Birrell and Maya Joint lose singles in straight sets in Brisbane
  • Storm Hunter and Ellen Perez win doubles in BJK Cup qualifying tie

Kazakhstan have placed Australia on the brink of Billie Jean King Cup elimination with a 2-1 victory in their qualifying tie in Brisbane.

Big-hitting former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina out-gunned Kim Birrell to secure victory for Kazakhstan before the hosts picked up a precious point with success in the not-so-dead-rubber doubles.

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© Photograph: Dave Hunt/EPA

© Photograph: Dave Hunt/EPA

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Paulo Fonseca: ‘They want to make an example of me for French football’

Lyon’s manager reflects on his nine-month domestic ban for confronting a referee and his Europa League hopes against Manchester United

“This kind of motivation can make miracles,” says Paulo Fonseca as he describes the glint in his Lyon players’ eyes before the visit of Manchester United. It is a clash of two giants who have lost their way – although something, at least, is stirring in France’s second city. They have won eight of their 11 games since Fonseca’s arrival less than two and a half months ago and that tells only part of a story with little precedent.

The Europa League quarter‑final first leg on Thursday will be a rare opportunity for Fonseca to do what he enjoys best: manage his team from the technical area, cajoling and tweaking from the sidelines. Early in March he was given a nine-month ban from domestic games for aggressively confronting the referee Benoît Millot towards the end of a win against Brest. He is barred from the dugout and from communicating with his bench until 30 November, but will be allowed access to the dressing rooms and tunnel area from 15 September. Recent Ligue 1 matches have been taken in from the press box. Uefa-run fixtures offer relief and he is still getting his head around a suspension with a duration which could have jeopardised his career.

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© Photograph: Alex Martin/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alex Martin/AFP/Getty Images

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Europa League: previews and predictions for the quarter-finals

The lowdown on Lyon v Manchester United, Tottenham v Frankfurt, Rangers v Athletic and Bodø/Glimt v Lazio

By WhoScored

Paulo Fonseca’s touchline ban is not holding Lyon back in their pursuit to finish the season as the best of the rest in Ligue 1. PSG wrapped up the title at the weekend but the other Champions League spots are very much up for grabs. Lyon returned to winning ways by beating Lille 2-1 at the weekend to make it six wins from their last seven. The team have won eight of their 11 matches since Fonseca arrived in January, which has taken them to within striking distance of second-placed Marseille. The 52-year-old pledged to bring attacking football back to Lyon and he is living up to his word.

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© Composite: Guardian pictures

© Composite: Guardian pictures

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‘It’s not done yet’: Emery and Rogers defiant despite first-leg defeat at PSG

  • Manager insists team have belief despite 3-1 loss in Paris
  • Rogers: ‘We’ve got the quality to turn things around’

Unai Emery insisted Aston Villa can overturn a two-goal deficit in their Champions League second leg with Paris Saint-Germain next Tuesday and reach the semi-finals. Emery said defeat “was not the best but not the worst” and acknowledged his former club showed their class after magnificent goals by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Désiré Doué and Nuno Mendes propelled PSG to a first-leg victory.

Mendes completed the scoring in second-half stoppage time but Emery was adamant the goal does not significantly alter Villa’s target. “The last goal is a little bit disappointing for us because it was in the last minute but it is not changing much, or our belief,” the Villa manager said.

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© Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

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Ursula von der Leyen says Trump’s tariffs pause is ‘important step towards stabilising global economy’ – Europe live

European Commission president floats idea of zero-for-zero tariff agreement with US, saying she hopes to achieve ‘frictionless trade’

Technical consultations between the United States and Ukraine on a minerals deal will begin in Washington on Friday, the Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted Ukrainian deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna as saying on Thursday, Reuters is reporting.

Elsewhere, French president Emmanuel Macron is making headlines with his announcement that France plans to recognise a Palestinian state within months and could make the move at a UN conference in New York in June on settling the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

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© Photograph: Omar Havana/AP

© Photograph: Omar Havana/AP

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Pentagon chief says US could 'revive' Panama bases

Pete Hegseth suggests military could return to Central American country to ‘secure’ strategically important canal

The US defence secretary has floated the idea of the country’s troops returning to Panama to “secure” its strategically vital canal, a suggestion quickly shot down by the Central American country’s government.

Pete Hegseth suggested during a visit to Panama that “by invitation” the US could “revive” military bases or naval air stations and rotate deployments of its troops to an isthmus the US invaded 35 years ago.

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© Photograph: Franco Brana/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Franco Brana/AFP/Getty Images

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Sex, patriotism and Donald Trump cologne: the US adverts that explain the 00s

The final book in Jim Heimann’s survey of a century of US advertising takes us to a decade where Apple sold a new way of living and mermaids hawked Evian. It’s a ‘swan song’, he says – for his series but also the industry as a whole

As the longtime editor of Taschen’s All-American Ads book series, cultural historian Jim Heimann has helped chronicle the shifting landscape of commercial artistry through each decade of the 20th century. Now, with a final volume dedicated to the 2000s, Heimann has completed what he calls a “swan song” – not just for the series, but for an entire era of advertising. It presents the last moment before social media and the decline of print media transformed the industry for ever.

The 2000s were fraught with social, political and cultural disruptions. Chief among them were the September 11 terrorist attacks, which sparked a dramatic wave of national trauma that simultaneously drove the advertising industry to embrace patriotism while seeking escapism. Brands such as Budweiser, with its iconic Clydesdale tribute – which sees a team of horses pulling a beer wagon to New York before bowing their heads towards the Manhattan skyline – channelled unity, while luxury brands offered distraction through aspirational messaging.

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© Photograph: Taschen

© Photograph: Taschen

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Black Mirror’s pessimism porn won’t lead us to a better future | Louis Anslow

A new progressivism, one that embraces construction over obstruction, must find new allegories to think about technology and the future

Black Mirror is more than science fiction – its stories about modernity have become akin to science folklore, shaping our collective view of technology and the future.

Each new innovation gets an allegory: smartphones as tools for a new age caste system, robot dogs as overzealous human hunters, drones as a murderous swarm, artificial intelligence as new age necromancy, virtual reality and brain chips as seizure-inducing nightmares, to name a few. Episodes most often channel our collective anxieties about the future – or foment new ones through masterly writing, directing, casting and acting. It is a must-watch, but must we take it so seriously?

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© Photograph: Nick Wall/Netflix

© Photograph: Nick Wall/Netflix

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There are opportunities for Keir Starmer in Trump's trade chaos. Here's how he can seize them | Martin Kettle

From fiscal rules to universities, doors have opened that were shut three months ago. Our future depends on which he chooses

It was Bismarck who expressed the art of political leadership most poetically. “A statesman cannot create anything himself,” Germany’s 19th-century iron chancellor once said. “He must wait and listen until he hears the steps of God sounding through events; then leap up and grasp the hem of his garment.”

In other words, when it comes, seize the day. Leadership as Bismarck perfected it combined opportunity, readiness and drive. If circumstances allowed – something Bismarck was brilliant at ensuring – an opening might present itself, through which he could propel the state in the direction he wanted. At such moments, the gales of history seem to intensify, making it possible to achieve things that would otherwise be impossible, or more hazardous, in normal times.

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© Illustration: Bill Bragg/The Guardian

© Illustration: Bill Bragg/The Guardian

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Egg curry and fish patties: Dom Fernando’s recipes for Sri Lankan new year

Mackerel patties to snack on and deep-fried eggs in a rich curry sauce – both are great for new year on 14 April

Sinhalese and Tamil traditions may differ, but the celebration of the new year in mid-April unites the two communities. It’s a major cultural moment that marks the end of the harvest season, and some key customs include everyone cleaning their home to prepare for the festivities (and to clear away bad luck!), the lighting of oil lamps and, of course, food. That can take the form of special sweets, celebratory treats such as kavum (cakes made with coconut oil), kiri-bath (milk rice), kokis (a crisp fried dough), and everyday favourites such as today’s two dishes.

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© Photograph: Issy Croker/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Kitty Coles. Food styling assistant: Grace Jenkins.

© Photograph: Issy Croker/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Kitty Coles. Food styling assistant: Grace Jenkins.

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Investing in climate adaptation is not just good for the planet, it’s good business | William Ruto and Patrick Verkooijen

Climate denialism should not blind investors and governments to the very real opportunities to be found in financing solutions

Among the many shocks currently facing the international development community is the new direction of the US administration on climate, and the implications worldwide for mitigation and adaptation efforts.

This is not uncharted territory. While a withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement is undoubtedly a setback, it no longer carries the same level of disruption as it did. The global community has become more resilient and will continue to advance climate action.

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© Photograph: Daniel Irungu/EFE/EPA

© Photograph: Daniel Irungu/EFE/EPA

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Green activist group is pausing work after backlash by investors

Dutch group Follow This says it will not file any resolutions against oil and gas companies this AGM season

A green shareholder activist group has decided to “pause” its work pushing oil companies to reduce their emissions amid a growing investor backlash against climate action.

Follow This has confirmed that it will not file any climate resolutions against oil and gas companies during the forthcoming AGM season for the first time since 2016.

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© Photograph: Eva Plevier/ANP/AFP/Getty

© Photograph: Eva Plevier/ANP/AFP/Getty

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China says Trump’s trade war ‘will end in failure’, as Beijing’s tariffs take effect

China’s 84% tariffs on US products come into force amid market relief after Trump pauses steep reciprocal tariffs elsewhere

China says Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing “will end in failure” for Washington, hours after the US president announced he would be increasing his tariffs on the country’s imports to 125%.

China’s own 84% tariffs on US imports came into effect on Thursday amid an escalating trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

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© Photograph: Paul Christian Gordon/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Paul Christian Gordon/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

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Eden’s Shore by Oisín Fagan review – hilarious, beautiful and very violent

A hapless young idealist sets sail for utopia, in this wild epic of colonial chaos in the late 18th-century Americas

In that dimple of European history between the French Revolution and the coronation of Queen Victoria, there lived a not inconsiderable number of men – usually young, dumb, and full of opium – whose foremost ambition was to set sail for the Americas, and there, in their own parcels of conveniently cheap and plentiful wilderness, found utopian communes where society could be forged anew in accordance with the principles of enlightenment. It certainly didn’t hurt that these endeavours would enable – even necessitate – quite a lot of shagging. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his mates, Roberts Southey and Lovell, laid plans, between blasts of nitrous oxide and versification, for the foundation of a commune on the banks of Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River, chosen for its “excessive beauty and its security from hostile Indians”. Lack of funds quickly became an issue, and soon our intrepid Romantics had compromised on location, proposing to found their “Pantisocracy” in rural Wales instead of the New World. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the plan never came off.

Angel Kelly, the hapless protagonist – or perhaps initiator would be a better word – of Oisín Fagan’s second novel, Eden’s Shore, is one of these Coleridgian dreamers. At the opening, we meet him as a young and feckless law student at the University of Dublin, hanging around Parliament Street with his “broad-brimmed hat, a cravat and a small book of Montesquieu under his arm, from which he partook of no more than five sentences a day”. Secretly, he believes he will “one day prove to be a great man”. An inheritance from a beloved aunt allows him to further augment his epicurean lifestyle, but when the pleasures of whoring, drinking and tobacco begin to pall, he resolves to spend the last of his wealth on an expedition to Brazil, with the intention of founding “the harmonious society” of which he and his friends “had so often and so manfully spoken”: “a colony that is free from the sins of the old world – a place free from tyranny, discrimination, illegality, religion, persecution, taxation”.

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© Photograph: Javier Ghersi/Getty Images

© Photograph: Javier Ghersi/Getty Images

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The Return review – Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes bring fierce class to elemental Odyssey adaptation

Uberto Pasolini’s raw and urgent drama, from a draft by Edward Bond, sees a traumatised Odysseus face the shameful aftermath of war

The film world is on tenterhooks for Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming Imax-epic treatment of Homer’s Odyssey, but Uberto Pasolini’s fierce, raw drama of the poem’s final sections, describing Odysseus’s traumatised return to Ithaca after the sack of Troy, may well give Nolan something to live up to. Pasolini collaborated on the script with screenwriter John Collee, evidently developed from a draft playwright Edward Bond wrote in the 90s; among other things, this film deserves attention as the final work from Bond (who died in 2024).

The Return is an elementally violent movie about PTSD, survivor guilt, abandonment, Freudian dysfunction and ruined masculinity. Juliette Binoche is the deserted queen Penelope, enigmatically reserving her opinions and dignity, refusing to believe the absent king is dead and declining to remarry as the island descends into lawlessness without a clear successor. Ralph Fiennes is Odysseus, enigmatically washed ashore semi-conscious in a way we associate in fact with late Shakespeare rather than Homer; he is reluctant to reveal himself, maybe through shame at having not returned before, at returning now in chaotic poverty and isolation and overwhelmed with his secret knowledge that the glories of war are a shameful delusion.

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© Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy

© Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy

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Pollen peril: how heat, thunder and smog are creating deadly hay fever seasons

Scientists say a complex mix of factors are making seasonal allergies worse for longer in many parts of the world – but why is it happening and is it here to stay?

The first time it happened, László Makra thought he had flu. The symptoms appeared from nowhere at the end of summer in 1989: his eyes started streaming, his throat was tight and he could not stop sneezing. Makra was 37 and otherwise fit and healthy, a mid-career climate scientist in Szeged, Hungary. Winter eventually came and he thought little of it. Then, it happened the next year. And the next.

“I had never had these symptoms before. It was high summer: it was impossible to have the flu three consecutive years in a row,” he says.

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© Photograph: Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images

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Apple MacBook Air M4 review: the laptop to beat, now cheaper

Chip, memory and webcam upgrades are joined by welcome price cut for the top premium notebook

Apple’s much-loved MacBook Air gets even more power, a much better webcam and an unexpected price cut for 2025, making one of the very best consumer laptops even more tempting.

The company’s thinnest and lightest laptop currently starts at £999 (€1,199/$999/A$1,699) – £100 less than last year’s model – and has Apple’s top M4 chip with a minimum of 16GB of memory, making the cheapest model much more capable.

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© Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

© Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

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Prague’s Vietnamese food revolution

A wave of immigration during the communist years has seen a slow burn for Vietnamese food – from beef noodles to green rice ice-cream – in the Czech Republic’s capital

An older Asian woman is hunched over a gas burner serving noodles, a young couple in the distance shuffle piously into a tiny Buddhist temple, and a perpetual gaggle of families emerge from a Vietnamese supermarket armed with giant sacks of rice. It is a scene as authentically Vietnamese as I could expect to find. But I am not in Vietnam or even Asia. I am in Prague.

Sapa, or Little Hanoi as it is affectionately known, is the hub of the Czech Republic capital’s Vietnamese community, and is a far cry from the spires, dumplings and beer-sploshed splendour of the historical centre. Tucked inconspicuously on its outskirts, this city within a city is where the nation’s Vietnamese people come to stock up on spices, eat plates of bun cha or sell inordinate amounts of large, fluffy geese.

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© Photograph: Vojtech Tesarek

© Photograph: Vojtech Tesarek

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‘Grubby’ treaty principles bill voted down in New Zealand parliament

Bill which sought to radically reinterpret New Zealand’s founding treaty between Māori tribes and the British Crown fails by 11 votes to 112

It was the bill that launched 300,000 public submissions, sparked New Zealand’s largest ever protest on Māori rights and prompted a haka in parliament that quickly went viral.

And now the treaty principles bill, which sought to radically reinterpret New Zealand’s founding treaty between Māori tribes and the British Crown, is dead.

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© Photograph: Joe Allison/Getty Images

© Photograph: Joe Allison/Getty Images

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Trump’s tariffs may be reduced but their impact will be felt in the UK and beyond

We examine potential consequences of US president’s market chaos, which could reach every corner of global finance and economy

Donald Trump may have stepped back from his huge tariff rises on every country, except China, which now faces 125%, but the impact of the market chaos is likely to continue in the UK and beyond. The rest of the world still faces a blanket 10% tariff on all US exports.

While much of the focus has been the direct impact of the tariffs on physical goods, Trump’s actions threaten to reach every corner of global finance and the economy.

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© Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

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Gordon Brown calls for ‘economic coalition of the willing’ to tackle Trump tariffs

Former PM says it is also the moment for the UK to go even further in renewing ties with the EU

Gordon Brown has called for an “economic coalition of the willing” to respond to Donald Trump’s tariffs with coordinated economic policies, including a reduction of interest rates.

The former prime minister also said it was a moment for the UK to go even further in renewing ties with the EU, suggesting it should mean “collaboration that is even more extensive than removing post-Brexit trade barriers”.

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© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

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Trump is pushing the world towards recession. By learning the lessons of 2008, we can still prevent it | Gordon Brown

As I discovered then, global problems need international responses. By working together, we can protect jobs and living standards

  • This is the first in a two part series on the global response to Donald Trump’s tariffs

No more than a narrow window of opportunity remains if we are to prevent an unnecessary global recession. As China and the US decouple, disruptive trade wars are intensifying and threaten to descend into currency wars; import, export, investment and technology bans; and financial fire sales that will destroy millions of jobs worldwide. It seems barely credible that the world is being brought to its knees by one economy, outside of which live 96% of the population, who produce 84% of the world’s manufactured goods. But even though US officials have previously talked of a tariff policy of “escalate to de-escalate”, Donald Trump’s aim is to force manufacturing back to the US, and his 90-day relaxation of some tariffs does not mean he intends to defuse the crisis.

On Monday, Keir Starmer warned that the world will never be the same again, and reminded us that “attempting to manage crises without fundamental change just leads to managed decline”. He is right. As I learned in the financial crisis of 2008, global problems require globally coordinated solutions. We need a bold, international response that measures up to the scale of the emergency. In the same way that, to his great credit, the prime minister has been building a coalition in defence of Ukraine, we need an economic coalition of the willing: like-minded global leaders who believe that, in an interdependent world, we have to coordinate economic policies across continents if we are to safeguard jobs and living standards.

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© Composite: Alex Mellon for the Guardian : Getty Images/AFP/Reuters

© Composite: Alex Mellon for the Guardian : Getty Images/AFP/Reuters

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Protest planned after Florida student deported following traffic stop

Politicians and student activists decry ‘outlandish’ deportation of Felipe Zapata Velázquez to Colombia

A campus protest is planned at the University of Florida on Wednesday in support of a Colombian student deported by the Trump administration following his arrest for alleged traffic violations.

The family of Felipe Zapata Velázquez, 27, said on Tuesday he was “undergoing a physical and emotional recovery process” in his home country after police arrested him in Gainesville on 28 March for offenses including having an expired tag and suspended driver’s license, then turned him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

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© Photograph: Miami Herald/TNS

© Photograph: Miami Herald/TNS

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‘Finally we are being seen as contenders’: delight in India as demand for south Asian art booms

As wealth in India has grown, so has the number of arts patrons championing both India’s 20th century modern masters and the next generation

For over seven decades, the masterpiece had gathered dust as it hung in the corridors of a Norwegian hospital. But last month, the monumental 13-panel 1954 painting Untitled (Gram Yatra) – one of the most significant pieces of modern south Asian art – sold for a record-breaking $13.7m in New York.

The auction of the painting sent ripples through the art world. It was not only the highest price ever paid for a painting by Maqbool Fida Husain, one of India’s most celebrated modern artists, but it was the highest ever paid for any piece of modern Indian art at auction – going for four times the estimated price. It also happened to be the most expensive artwork auctioned so far in 2025.

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© Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

© Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

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Dominican Republic ends search for survivors after nightclub roof collapse

An official statement said “all reasonable possibilities of finding more survivors” had been exhausted in a disaster that has killed at least 184 people.

Rescue workers in the Dominican Republic on Wednesday ended the search for survivors of a nightclub roof collapse as the death toll surpassed 180 in the Caribbean nation’s worst disaster in decades.

Emergency personnel late Wednesday reported 60 more deaths compared to the morning’s count, with the total confirmed tally reaching 184.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

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‘I am not who you think I am’: how a deep-cover KGB spy recruited his own son

For the first time, the man the KGB codenamed ‘the Inheritor’ tells his story

Rudi Herrmann took a deep breath and asked his son Peter to sit down. “I have a story to tell you,” he said. Rudi had been preparing for this conversation for several years, running over the words in his mind. He was about to tell his 16-year-old son that everything Peter thought he knew about their family was a lie.

The pair sat on a bench, and Peter waited quietly for whatever it was his father wanted to say. He was an academically gifted and unfailingly polite child, but he had been struggling psychologically. He had few friends and felt overwhelmed at home. Rudi, an ambitious German-Canadian film-maker, was charming with colleagues and friends, but with his son he was something of a tyrant: not violent, but psychologically domineering. He was disdainful of American pop culture, insisting that Peter not waste his time on mind-rotting pursuits such as reading comics or listening to rock music. It was almost as if he was actively trying to sabotage Peter’s efforts to fit in.

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© Photograph: Pete Kiehart/The Guardian

© Photograph: Pete Kiehart/The Guardian

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Black Mirror season seven review – Charlie Brooker’s thrilling satire gets its warmest, most human season ever

Tender sentiment touches instalments starring the likes of Chris O’Dowd, Rashida Jones and Paul Giamatti. But it hasn't lost its demon side – you’ll cackle with laughter at some of the chaos

It’s tough being an anthology. While other dramas set up their premise and characters and then lazily dole out a little more of the same in every episode, anthologies must constantly seek our approval anew. If critics and viewers think the latest shiny thing is a dud, they toss it into the void and deem all the expert hard work that went into it to be a waste. Even the hits are only celebrated briefly before everyone moves on to the next fresh story, ready to give it a thumbs up or down.

In season seven of his collection of digital-age fables, Black Mirror writer Charlie Brooker finally cracks and, for the first time, produces a sequel to an old episode. This year’s feature-length finale, USS Callister: Into Infinity, is a straight continuation of season four’s fan favourite. But it’s the least interesting instalment from the new batch, because it can’t replicate the thrill, the hope, of starting without knowing whether this latest adventure will be a success. The other five offerings take that risk, and almost all get their reward.

Black Mirror is on Netflix.

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© Photograph: Netflix/PA

© Photograph: Netflix/PA

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Germany is finally getting a new government – and it will be plunged straight into crisis mode | John Kampfner

With the country enveloped in gloom and facing mayhem from the US and Russia, it’s hard to imagine a more fraught time to take power

Germany is about to get a new fitness trainer. So declared Markus Söder, one of the political leaders who have just announced a coalition agreement. In one of the quirks of the country’s constitution, the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) will play a significant role in the new administration, and Söder used his moment in the limelight to play the entertainer.

It was a curious way to announce the arrival of a new government, expected to be sworn in during the first week of May. Since the elections of 23 February, Germany will have been in limbo for two and a half months, and all while Donald Trump rampages across the world.

John Kampfner is the author of In Search of Berlin, Blair’s Wars and Why the Germans Do It Better

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© Photograph: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

© Photograph: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

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Jesus Christ, superstar: how the Messiah became TV and box-office gold

Faith-based entertainment is booming, thanks to a ready-made audience and the backing of the American right. The TV series The Chosen, with Jonathan Roumie playing Christ, claims to have reached more than a quarter of a billion viewers. And this is just the tip of the iceberg …

If you’re looking for your own personal Jesus this Easter, you’ve never had it so good. Faith‑based entertainment is booming like never before, offering up myriad new screen Messiahs and resurrecting a few old ones. But if there’s a Christ for our times, it is surely Jonathan Roumie, the Irish-Arab-American star of the smash-hit biblical TV series The Chosen.

Nine years ago, Roumie was just another struggling actor in Los Angeles, desperately seeking his big break. He was also a practising Catholic. One morning, as Roumie tells it, he prayed for divine intervention: “I literally said: ‘God, you take this from me. It’s in your hands now. It’s not up to me.’” Three months later, he was cast as Jesus in The Chosen, a series seeking to retell the story of Christ as a bingeable long‑form drama, rather than the usual earnest myth‑making – with high production values, down-to-earth characters, historical context and a seven-season arc that’s not afraid to embellish scripture.

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© Photograph: Album/Alamy

© Photograph: Album/Alamy

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Streams of medicines: how Switzerland cleaned up its act – podcast

Switzerland is leading the world in purifying its water of micropollutants, a concoction of chemicals often found in bodies of water that look crystal clear. They include common medicines like antidepressants and antihistamines, but have unknown and potentially damaging consequences for human and ecosystem health.
In the second of a two-part series, Phoebe Weston travels to Geneva to find out how the country has transformed its rivers from sewage-filled health hazards to pristine swimming spots. She tells Madeleine Finlay how a public health disaster in the 1960s spurred the government to act, and what the UK could learn from the Swiss about taking care of a precious national asset.

From sewage and scum to swimming in ‘blue gold’: how Switzerland transformed its rivers

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

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© Photograph: Phoebe Weston/The Guardian

© Photograph: Phoebe Weston/The Guardian

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Energy demands from AI datacentres to quadruple by 2030, says report

The IEA forecast indicates a sharp rise in the requirements of AI, but said threat to the climate was ‘overstated’

The global rush to AI technology will require almost as much energy by the end of this decade as Japan uses today, but only about half of the demand is likely to be met from renewable sources.

Processing data, mainly for AI, will consume more electricity in the US alone by 2030 than manufacturing steel, cement, chemicals and all other energy-intensive goods combined, according to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

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© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

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‘It’s time to move on’: Tearful Dončić drops 45 in first game at Dallas since trade

  • Lakers star scores 31 of 45 points before halftime in win
  • Dončić shed tears during lengthy pre-game tribute video

Luka Dončić always knew it was going to be an emotional return to Dallas when wearing his No 77 Los Angeles Lakers jersey in the place he called home the first five and a half seasons of his NBA career.

Then the Mavericks showed a more than two-minute video tribute before he had even been introduced before his first game back Wednesday night, two months after being traded.

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© Photograph: LM Otero/AP

© Photograph: LM Otero/AP

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Trump news at a glance: Trump pulls back on global tariffs but slaps China with 125%

Move comes after stock market turmoil; Ice chief says deportations should run ‘like Amazon Prime’ – key US politics stories from 10 April at a glance

Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for most countries except China, whose tariffs he raised to 125% on Wednesday.

After insisting for days that he would hold firm on his aggressive trade strategy, Trump announced that all countries that had not retaliated against US tariffs would receive a reprieve – and only face a blanket US tariff of 10% – until July.

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© Photograph: Damian Dovarganes/AP

© Photograph: Damian Dovarganes/AP

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