Fire Island director Andrew Ahn’s update of Ang Lee’s seminal 1993 film works hard to differentiate itself but it’s awkwardly stuck between serious and silly

Many remakes are utterly pointless, whether they’re disregarding what made a movie good or interesting in the first place, or paying such slavish homage that a second version becomes redundant, rather than a worthy variation. If nothing else, the contemporary reconfiguration of The Wedding Banquet passes the remake test handily. Ang Lee’s original 1993 film is about a bisexual Taiwanese immigrant, living happily with his male partner, who hastily arranges a lavish (and, emotionally speaking, fake) wedding to a woman to please his visiting parents; director/co-writer Andrew Ahn, who shares screenplay credit with original co-writer James Schamus, relocates the story from 1993 Manhattan to 2025 Seattle, and contends with a whole different set of social rules and actual laws in the process.

Ahn is so acutely aware of how times have changed, in fact, that he seems reluctant to mine the new situation for comedy. Lee (Lily Gladstone) and Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) are unmarried but committed lesbians about to go through their second expensive round of IVF. They can afford to live in the Seattle area largely because Lee has inherited her family home, where she yearns to start a family of her own; the couple also rents out a converted garage to Angela’s longtime bestie Chris (Bowen Yang) and his boyfriend Min (Han Gi-chan). Min, who comes from money, has been in the US on a student visa that’s about to expire, and his grandparents want him to return to Korea and help run the family business. A green card is just a marriage proposal away, but commitment-resistant Chris is hesitant to marry, especially for convenience. So Min makes a counter-proposal: he’ll secure some of his family money to pay for Lee and Angela’s IVF, and in exchange, Min will marry Angela, for a green card and for familial show.

To celebrate the Oscar-winning actor’s birthday this week, we look back at the highlights of a six-decade career, from early classics such as Doctor Zhivago and Billy Liar to later roles in Finding Neverland and Away From Her.

There are many things wrong with Kenneth Branagh’s galumphing slab of actor-manager Shakespeare, but Christie as Gertrude is not one of them. Her casting might have been conducive to the Oedipal side of the Danish prince’s feelings towards his mother – if only the director’s bombastic performance had allowed room for it.

Moscow and Minsk ambassadors excluded over concerns they could ‘exploit’ event for anti-Ukraine propaganda

The ambassadors of Russia and Belarus will not be invited to the German parliament’s commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the second world war’s end over concerns they could “exploit” the event for anti-Ukraine propaganda.

The ceremony in the Bundestag lower house on 8 May marking the allies’ defeat of Nazi Germany will include several representatives of the diplomatic corps in Berlin but bar the envoys from Moscow and Minsk based on “the government’s assessment on the invitation of representatives”, a parliament spokesperson said.

Italian PM’s summit with US president has provoked trepidation among some European allies

• Europe live – latest updates

Giorgia Meloni will attempt to burnish her credentials as a possible bridge between the EU and the US during a high-stakes summit with Donald Trump in the White House on Thursday, the first European leader to meet the US president since he announced and then paused some of his planned trade tariff hikes.

Italy’s far-right prime minister, who has nurtured friendly relations with Trump, arrived in Washington on Wednesday night. The pair will have lunch at 12pm local time before the meeting in the Oval Office, which will be attended by a pool of White House reporters and Italian journalists.

Most of 51 brands tested, including those for children, contained dangerous heavy metal

Toothpaste can be widely contaminated with lead and other dangerous heavy metals, new research shows.

Most of 51 brands of toothpaste tested for lead contained the dangerous heavy metal, including those for children, or marketed as green. The testing, conducted by Lead Safe Mama, also found concerning levels of highly toxic arsenic, mercury and cadmium in many brands.

Orforglipron also reduced blood sugar levels in participants with type 2 diabetes

A significant trial of a daily weight-loss pill has found that it helped people to shed the pounds and reduce their blood sugar levels, making it a contender to join the new wave of drugs that combat obesity and diabetes.

People who took a 36mg pill of orforglipron lost an average of 7.3kg (16lbs) over nine months, according to results from a phase 3 clinical trial reported by the drug’s manufacturer, Eli Lilly, on Thursday.

United Arab Emirates says Sudan ‘misusing’ world court in proceedings relating to African nation’s civil war

The international court of justice will rule in the next few weeks on whether the United Arab Emirates can be plausibly found “complicit in the commission of genocide” by arming the Rapid Support Forces militia in Sudan’s civil war.

The case was brought by Sudan, whose acting justice minister, Muawia Osman, told the world court in The Hague last week that the country’s “ongoing genocide would not be possible without the complicity of the UAE, including the shipment of arms to the RSF”. Sudan wants ICJ judges to force the UAE to stop its alleged support for the RSF and make “full reparations”, including compensation to victims of the war.

Growth in international hotels coincides with government effort to push region as a tourism destination

Almost 200 international hotels are operating or planning to open in Xinjiang, despite calls from human rights groups for global corporations not to help “sanitise” the Chinese government’s human rights abuses in the region, a report has said.

The report by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) identified 115 operational hotels which the organisation said “benefit from a presence in the Uyghur region”. At least another 74 were in various stages of construction or planning, the report said. The UHRP said some of the hotels also had exposure or links of concern to forced labour and labour transfer programmes.

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

Campaigners say authorities should be doing more to clean up waters around city of nearly 5 million people

On a clear summer’s day in Cape Town, the Milnerton Lagoon was serene, reflecting the bright blue sky and Table Mountain. But there was an unmistakable stench, and up close, the water was murky.

A few hundred metres away, adults and children played in the water as it flowed into Table Bay. On the boardwalk, a sign read: “Polluted water: for health reasons, swimming and recreational activities are at your own risk.”

The singer-songwriter answers your questions about 90s gigs with Tori Amos, her ‘humbling’ run in Hadestown and keeping hope alive in the Trump era

Please talk about growing up in Buffalo, New York – the music scene there, and becoming an emancipated adult at 15. AugustoM
As a child, I befriended Michael Meldrum, a local troubadour. He brought me around to his gigs and coffee houses. That was a cool, unique way to grow up, beside this alcoholic artist who hopped from girlfriend to girlfriend’s house. He he was smart and so well informed when it came to music.

I was his shadow between the ages of nine and 13 or 14 or so. Beyond that, we parted ways. So when I was an emancipated minor at 15 and going into the adult world, it was with no protector by my side. I was out there in bars, on my own, running the open mic, playing gigs. I had an after-school job – I was trying to finish high school. I never managed to grow a thick skin; I’m still very open and porous. Somehow I survived all those years without cutting myself off.

Too often, healthcare ignores our pain and fails to value our lives. But communities are banding together to meet our needs

Maternal deaths have recently dropped in the US – that is, unless you’re Black.

Black women continue to face the highest rates of maternal mortality in our country. To be Black, pregnant and hopeful in the US is to hold on to life with a fierce and unyielding grip against devastating odds.

Venice Haynes is a social and behavioral scientist with more than 17 years of public health experience. She is the senior director of research and community engagement for United States of Care

Dayton will host the alliance’s parliamentary assembly 30 years after the Bosnian peace accords were signed there

When hundreds of Nato delegates and thousands of ancillaries, protesters and security forces descend on Dayton, Ohio, next month, the visitors will see a town that’s clawed its way back from the brink.

White flight in the late 20th century and the 2008 Great Recession saw thousands of jobs and residents leave. More recently, the pandemic forced many downtown businesses to allow staffers to work from home, erasing a key daytime customer base for cafes and restaurants.

PSG player on her reinvention in midfield, Euro 2025 confidence and how she embraces her role-model status

Sakina Karchaoui is one of the most popular players in the France team. Perhaps the most popular. But when she joins us at 9am at Clairefontaine, the national centre of French football, Les Bleues’ No 7 appears quite shy. Wearing a blue tracksuit emblazoned with the French rooster, she smiles for the first time when Kenza Dali teases her: “Interview for the Guardian … in English please, Saki!”

Spring has finally sprung in the French capital and for the native of Salon-de-Provence, in southern France, the prospect of training in the sunshine is another reason to smile. “We are almost ready for the Euros,” Karchaoui says as she looks at the training ground below. “We work a lot tactically with the coach, we work technically, physically, all aspects of football. I think we can win many things together; we’ve got so much talent. And if everyone brings their own little madness, their own experience and their own qualities to the group, that’s what will make us win.”

They agreed the word ‘woke’ was overused, had different views on second homes … would they concur on whether there should be a Black Bond?

Joanne, 52, Southampton

Occupation Knowledge manager

Lawsuit focuses on day-one executive order claiming to ‘unleash American energy’ by boosting oil industry

Conservationists on Wednesday sued the Trump administration over its attempts to boost the oil industry by rolling back green policies.

Filed by the environmental non-profit Center for Biological Diversity, the litigation focuses on Trump’s day-one “unleashing American energy” executive order. In an effort to boost already booming US energy production, the emergency declaration directed federal agencies to identify all policies and regulations that “unduly” burden fuel producers and create “action plans” to weaken or remove them.

Jensen Huang causes stir on social media and is reported to have met founder of AI company DeepSeek

• Business live – latest updates

The chief executive of the American chip maker Nvidia visited Beijing on Thursday, days after the US issued fresh restrictions on sales of the only AI chip it was still allowed to sell to China.

Jensen Huang’s surprise visit was on the invitation of a trade organisation, according to a social media account affiliated with state media.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini and Philippe Auclair as Arsenal win 2-1 in Madrid to knock the holders out of the Champions League

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today: a brilliant performance from Arsenal at the Bernabéu, winning 2-1 in Madrid and 5-1 across the tie, they were close to perfection with Declan Rice probably the standout performer in a team of standout performers.

Illegally diverted rivers, seawater and poorly managed building projects have polluted the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta. But the Unesco site has a vital role to play in fighting climate change

From the porch of her family home in Nueva Venecia, Magdalena, Yeidis Rodríguez Suárez watches the sunset. The view takes in the still waters of the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta wetlands. Pelicans dip their beaks into the lagoon, ripples breaking the glassy surface. Distant mangroves turn from green to deep purple in the dying light.

The 428,000-hectare (1,600 sq mile) expanse of lagoons, mangroves and marshes in Colombia has been a Unesco biosphere reserve since 2000. Yet, for Rodríguez, 27, the natural abundance is little more than an illusion.

These are just the US executioners we know. But they are a chilling indication of the executioners we don’t know

Being an executioner is not the sort of job that gets posted in a local wanted ad. Kids don’t dream about being an executioner when they grow up, and people don’t go to school for it. So how does one become a death row executioner in the US, and who are the people doing it?

This was the question I couldn’t help but ask when I began a book project on lethal injection back in 2018. I’m a death penalty researcher, and I was trying to figure out why states are so breathtakingly bad at a procedure that we use on cats and dogs every day. Part of the riddle was who is performing these executions.

(Matador)
The two deep south songwriters ditch country’s rhinestones for a personal, defiant reframing of the genre’s tropes

The origins of Send a Prayer My Way stretch back nearly a decade. The partnership between US singer-songwriters Mackenzie “Torres” Scott and Julien Baker germinated in 2016, when the pair performed together in Chicago. Scott subsequently suggested, in a text sent during the pandemic, that they make a country album. Accusations that the pair are jumping on an ongoing trend for high-profile pivots towards a Nashville-oriented sound – which has so far involved the likes of Beyoncé, Post Malone, Zayn Malik, Chappell Roan and Lana Del Rey – are thus diffused.

Nevertheless, it still feels telling that Send a Prayer My Way arrives now. Baker has spent much of the 2020s as one-third of Boygenius, a collaboration with Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers that made her far more famous than her previous solo albums. It spiralled into something that resembled a genuine pop phenomenon, laden with awards and headlining Madison Square Garden and the Hollywood Bowl.

Brazilian ranchers in Pará and Rondônia say JBS can not achieve stated goal of deforestation-free cattle

• Bibles, bullets and beef: Amazon cowboy culture at odds with Brazil’s climate goals
• The life and death of a ‘laundered’ cow in the Amazon rainforest

The world’s largest meat company, JBS, looks set to break its Amazon rainforest protection promises again, according to frontline workers.

Beef production is the primary driver of deforestation, as trees are cleared to raise cattle, and scientists warn this is pushing the Amazon close to a tipping point that would accelerate its shift from a carbon sink into a carbon emitter. JBS, the Brazil-headquartered multinational that dominates the Brazilian cattle market, promised to address this with a commitment to clean up its beef supply chain in the region by the end of 2025.

French president welcomes US representatives as meeting to discuss Ukraine gets under way at Élysée palace in Paris

As we await further updates from the talks taking place at the Élysée, let me bring you some other stories from around Europe.

Meanwhile, Russia’s top economic negotiator claimed that some countries were trying to “derail” Moscow’s talks with the United States, as the two sides work towards normalising ties.

Why are a quarter of a million people set to descend on Green Bay? I went to Wisconsin to find out …

I’ve just got back from a road trip in Wisconsin. The upper midwest is not an obvious destination for a spring break, certainly not in early April. As my plane circled above Milwaukee, the brown and leafless landscape warned me I’d travelled back in time to midwinter.

It was too cold to brave the beaches – the Lake Michigan shore was covered in snow and ice – but the bars at least were convivial. This is often the case in Wisconsin, the state with the highest alcohol consumption per capita. Many of my fellow drinkers were keen to point out that they were responsible for nearly all the brandy sold in the US (as a collective, not individually).

• Raises further intrigue over fly-half selection debate
• Sexton endorsed Owen Farrell in press interview

Johnny Sexton has been added to the British & Irish Lions coaching staff for the summer tour of Australia in a surprise move that raises further intrigue over the fly-half selection debate following his previous criticism of Finn Russell and endorsement of Owen Farrell.

Sexton was not named by Andy Farrell when the head coach unveiled his assistants for the tour last month but will now join Simon Easterby, John Dalziel, Andrew Goodman, Richard Wigglesworth and John Fogarty on the coaching ticket. The 39-year-old will also join Farrell’s coaching staff at Ireland upon the conclusion of the Lions tour.

France should return harsh damages imposed on Caribbean country in 1825 after Haitian Revolution, say campaigners

France has a moral duty to reimburse Haiti billions of dollars worth of “ransom” payments that could help the struggling Caribbean country out of its current crisis, say campaigners.

The renewed call for reparations comes on the bicentenary of an agreement to pay 150m francs to France in 1825 to compensate slave-owning colonists after the Haitian Revolution.

The star’s insistence on jumping from a 2,722ft skyscraper to up the action ante for Thunderbolts* may not be quite enough to save Marvel’s latest. But her career should fly

If you ever needed definitive proof that Marvel has lost pace with the zeitgeist, just look at the panicky marketing of Thunderbolts*. The film opens in a couple of weeks and, according to the trade press, is tracking to open soft.

Had this been six or seven years ago, then fans would be clamouring to see Thunderbolts* simply because it was the latest instalment of the grand MCU soap opera. After all, it’s a film that stars several side characters from older Marvel films and TV shows, and there was a time when audiences would go bananas for this sort of thing. But as the last few MCU films have shown, that approach doesn’t really work any more.

Data via trackers and sensors can paint an intricate picture of your life – here’s what to know about privacy in your car

Welcome to Opt Out, a semi-regular column in which we help you navigate your online privacy and show you how to say no to surveillance. The last column covered how to protect your phone and data privacy at the US border. If you’d like to skip to a section about a particular tip, click the “Jump to” menu at the top of this article.

At the press of a button, your Tesla pulls itself out of parking spot with no one behind the wheel using a feature called Summon. It drives itself on highways using Autopilot. When you arrive at your destination, it can record nearby activity while parked with a feature called Sentry Mode.

The administration dared China, Harvard and the supreme court to blink. They haven’t

It was bound to happen.

Encouraged by the ease with which many big US institutions caved in to their demands, the Trump regime – that is, the small cadre of bottom-feeding fanatics around Donald Trump (JD Vance, Elon Musk, Russell Vought, Stephen Miller and RFK Jr) along with the child king himself – have overreached.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com

The philanthropist offers sensible advice about moving on and ditching perfectionism, but you get the impression she is struggling to take it herself

Melinda French Gates is a woman who seemingly leaves little to chance. From girlhood she would write down goals for herself to reach, and she was just as driven at college and in her early career at Microsoft, where she famously met and married its billionaire co-founder Bill Gates. The couple divorced in 2021.

There is a small, sad moment in her memoir The Next Day where she writes of happily gaining weight in pregnancy because it was the first time she’d felt so free “from perfectionism … the crushing relentless societal pressure to look a certain way”. Only well into middle age, when a friend gently questions her constant self-improvement projects, does she wonder whether in her conscientiousness she had “missed opportunities to embrace spontaneity, lean into the unexpected”.

There are two sorts of people – those who pull others’ underwear, and those who have their underwear pulled. And we’d never have known it without the Lib Dems’ Ed Davey

Sir Ed Davey has made more than one significant contribution to the tone of political discourse over the past year. Obviously, there’s all the surfing, rollercoasting, bungee jumping and so on. There’s also his use of the word “wedgie” in relation to trade tariffs. That’s some trick to pull off. Respect. Here’s what he said earlier this month: “Despite backing the US in every major conflict this century – and offering to water down our tax on US tech billionaires – we’ve been rewarded with the same tariffs as Iran. It’s like we’re meant to be grateful Trump gave our friends a black eye and left us with just a wedgie.”

This was quoted on The World at One on BBC Radio 4, which involved the presenter Sarah Montague using the word wedgie, too. Something else I never thought I’d hear. Even over where I work on BBC Radio 5 Live, where we’re less squeamish about using the vernacular, Davey’s wedgie-bomb came as a bit of a shock. But we soon gathered ourselves enough to hatch a plan on where we should go with the idea. My editor suggested it may be profitable to consider how mankind – and I believe we are talking about a largely male pursuit – can be divided into wedgees and wedgers. That is, those who have been wedgied and those who have done the wedging.

• Captain’s deal includes performance-related bonuses
• Van Dijk proud to be referred to as ‘an adopted scouser’

Virgil van Dijk has followed Mohamed Salah in committing his future to Liverpool and has signed a new two-year contract.

The Liverpool captain confirmed progress was being made over his contract after the 3-2 defeat at Fulham on 6 April and indicated a deal was close after he scored the winner against West Ham on Sunday. “Everyone knows how much I love this club, and let’s see what next week will look like,” he said.

• O’Sullivan is yet to confirm whether he will take part
• Kyren Wilson begins title defence against debutant

Seven-time champion Ronnie O’Sullivan has been drawn to face long-term rival Ali Carter in the first round of the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield. The 49-year-old, who is seeded fifth, defeated Carter in the 2008 and 2012 finals at the Crucible.

O’Sullivan has not played competitively since snapping his cue after withdrawing from the Championship League in January. He pulled out of five of the last six World Snooker Tour events on medical grounds and has yet to confirm if he will play in this year’s tournament.

Department of Homeland Security says university must meet administration’s demands on sharing information on some visa holders

Donald Trump’s administration will ask a US federal appeals court on Thursday to pause a judge’s ruling lifting access restrictions the White House imposed on the Associated Press (AP) for referring to the Gulf of Mexico in its coverage.

The Trump administration has argued that the lower-court ruling, which mandates AP journalists be granted access to press events in the White House, infringes on the president’s ability to decide whom to admit to sensitive spaces. The White House has asked to put the ruling on hold while it appeals.

‘These laws were written 20 years ago plus when the world was different,’ Tory leader says

The chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has suggested that there may be legal challenges around the efficacy of gender recognition certificates (GRC) ahead.

Asked on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme if yesterday’s supreme court ruling had rendered the legal document worthless, Kishwer Falkner said:

I think the next stage of litigation may well be tests as to the efficacy of the GRC, and or other areas. We don’t believe they are [worthless]. We think they’re quite important.

But I think there will be other areas, I mean, the Government is thinking of digital IDs, and if digital IDs come in, then what documentation will provide the identity of that person? So it’s going to be a space that we’ll have to watch very carefully as we go on.

It’s a victory for common sense, but only if you recognise that trans people exist. They have rights, and their rights must be respected – then it becomes a victory for common sense.

It’s not a victory for an increase in unpleasant actions against trans people. We will not tolerate that. We stand here to defend trans people as much as we do anyone else. So I want to make that very clear.

They are covered through gender reassignment … and they’re also covered by sex discrimination.

We’ll have to flesh this out in the reasoning, but I think if you were to have an equal pay claim, then depending on which aspect of it that it was, you could use sex discrimination legislation.

Findings from Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro region indicate traditional eating habits in rural Africa can boost the immune system and reduce inflammation

Plantains, cassava and fermented banana drink should be added to global healthy eating guidelines alongside the olive oil, tomatoes and red wine of the Mediterranean diet, say researchers who found the traditional diet of people living in Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro region had a positive impact on the body’s immune system.

Traditional foods enjoyed in rural villages also had a positive impact on markers of inflammation, the researchers found in a study published this month in the journal Nature Medicine.

The true scale of what’s happening is hard to grasp, so our irrational brains reach for measly acts of self-denial

Most of us, confronted with daily forecasts of recession and economic downturn, have an emotional response that expresses itself in a range of behaviours. Big purchases may be deferred or cancelled. Travel plans are revisited. We might review our childcare spend and wonder if we should go out less – all rational decisions in the face of the rising cost of living. Then there are the irrational gestures, those that have little meaning financially but offer us, via small acts of self-denial, an opportunity to feel we’re doing something morally rigorous. It’s these, in my case, that have lately been triggered.

For me, the barometer has always been coffee, a small but ineradicable source of guilt that has only grown as the price of a single flat white creeps up towards £4. Forgoing this small pleasure neither damages my day, nor, on the other hand, does anything significant towards improving my finances. Assuming a one-coffee-a-week spend, the choice to wait until I get home to make coffee will save me about £200 a year. And yet, each time I pass Caffè Nero and keep walking, I’m so proud of myself you would think I’d donated a kidney.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as ECB reduces main interest rate from 2.5% to 2.25%, the seventh cut in a year

• Trump attacks Fed chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates
• ECB cuts rates for third time this year as Europe braces for Trump tariffs

Donald Trump is awake. And he has strongly criticised monetary policy by the Federal Reserve, saying the end of Jerome Powell’s tenure as chair “cannot come fast enough”.

In a post on Truth Social, the social network he owns, Trump said that Powell had been too slow to cut interest rates – contrasting its hesistance because of perceived inflationary pressures with the European Central Bank (ECB).

The ECB is expected to cut interest rates for the 7th time, and yet, “Too Late” Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete “mess!” Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is getting RICH ON TARIFFS. Too Late should have lowered Interest Rates, like the ECB, long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!

Huang said “China was a very important market for Nvidia” and expressed hope that his company could “continue co-operating” with the country, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Justin Trudeau’s resignation as prime minister came amid deep anxiety prompted by Trump’s tariffs threats

Canadians will head to the polls on 28 April to decide who will form the next government. Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre are the most likely candidates to become the next prime minister.

They may not win end-of-year awards, but these players have been essential for their teams

By WhoScored

Arsenal’s decision not to sign a striker in January could have come back to haunt them. Gabriel Jesus has been absent since the turn of the year and Kai Havertz suffered a torn hamstring in February, leaving them short in the final third. Mikel Merino filled the void admirably. Indeed, only Havertz (nine) has more league goals for the club this season than Merino (six), who scored in important wins over Leicester, Chelsea and Fulham. Fans will want the club to invest in the summer but Merino has done remarkably well, given he had not played up front since he was nine years old.