The British dramatist Peter Straughan has won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay for his take on Robert Harris’s papal thriller Conclave.
The writer, 56, has also won the Bafta, Golden Globe and Critics Choice award in this category for Conclave; he was previously Oscar-nominated for his 2011 adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Anora wins best original and Conclave wins best adapted screenplay
Anora has won the Academy Award for best original screenplay, with the film’s writer-director Sean Baker taking the honours.
A romance/thriller about a lapdancer who impulsively marries a Russian playboy, Anora stars Mikey Madison and Mark Eydelshteyn. It is Baker’s eighth feature, having made his debut with the microbudget indie Four Letter Words in 2000, and his fourth film since making a breakthrough in 2015 with Tangerine, a drama about trans sex workers shot on iPhones.
Anora wins best original and Conclave wins best adapted screenplay
Conan O’Brien briefly discussed the Los Angeles wildfires and “divisive politics” while delivering his opening monologue at the 97th Academy Awards.
“The people of Los Angeles have clearly been through a devastating ordeal and this needs to be addressed,” O’Brien said. “In moments such as this, any awards show can seem self-indulgent and superfluous, but what I want to have us do is remember why we gathered here tonight.”
Anora wins best original and Conclave wins best adapted screenplay
Adrien Brody and Halle Berry revisited one of the most memorable – and controversial – Oscar moments of recent times, by staging a kiss on the red carpet of this year’s ceremony. In a clip shared on the academy’s social media, with the tagline “a reunion 22 years in the making”, Berry, who was due to present an award at this year’s ceremony, greeted Brody warmly before initiating a kiss. ‘“I had to pay him back,” Berry told Variety.
The scene was a reversal of the notorious moment during the 2003 Oscars ceremony when Brody, who had just become the youngest best actor winner for his performance in The Pianist, embraced Berry, the award’s presenter, and delivered an impromptu kiss on the lips.
The Latvian adventure Flow has won the Oscar for best animated feature.
The dialogue-free film, which debuted at the Cannes film festival, triumphed in a category that included the higher-profile blockbusters Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot. It is the first Latvian film to ever be nominated for an Oscar.
Anora wins best original and Conclave wins best adapted screenplay
After Friday’s calamitous scenes in the Oval Office there were immediate calls for quick answers, new eras and pages of history being turned. Keir Starmer, it seems, is the person now forced to say: hang on, it is a bit more complicated than that.
The hastily arranged gathering of leaders at London’s Lancaster House on Sunday was undeniably dramatic, with the UK prime minister at its centre – including in the group photo, where he stood between Emmanuel Macron and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Senator responds to Republicans’ pro-resignation remarks after Ukrainian president’s heated meeting with Trump
Independent US senator Bernie Sanders has dismissed as “horrific” claims that Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy may have to resign after a diplomatic meltdown in the Oval Office with Donald Trump.
Sanders’ comments, in an interview with NBC’s Meet The Press on Sunday morning, served as a retort to pro-resignation remarks from his fellow US senator Lindsey Graham, which in turn had been affirmed by the Republican House speaker Mike Johnson.
Midfielder sustained serious knee injury in September
‘Maybe in the Premier League, it’s going to happen’
Rodri could be back in action before the end of the Premier League season according to the Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola.
The Ballon d’Or-winning midfielder, who was initially ruled out for the remainder of the campaign after sustaining anterior cruciate ligament damage in September, returned to individual training this week. While Rodri has spoken optimistically of playing again this term, Guardiola has been far more cautious, suggesting it was not worth the risk even if possible.
Residents warned to prepare food and water and secure properties as BoM predicts Alfred will make landfall anywhere between Bundaberg and northern New South Wales
Residents in two states have now been urged to prepare, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning Tropical Cyclone Alfred could make landfall anywhere between Bundaberg and northern New South Wales.
The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, said residents of southeast Queensland should be preparing “canned food and bottled water” as forecasters expect Alfred to shift towards large population centres in the coming days.
A defiant but tactful Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to apologise to Donald Trump after Friday’s spat in the White House, and declared that the row in the Oval Office “did not bring anything positive” to peace for Ukraine.
Speaking to journalists only in Ukrainian at the end of a two-day visit to the UK, the Ukrainian president said that when such delicate negotiations are held in public “foes can take advantage of them” though he said he hoped the row would eventually pass.
Israeli media reports Israeli American Trump donor will fly Eli Sharabi to Washington DC to meet president this week
Freed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi has been invited to Washington to meet Donald Trump this week, his brother told Israeli media on Sunday.
Sharabi, who was released from Gaza after 16 months in captivity, expects to meet Trump with other freed hostages on Tuesday, after the US president watched him describe the severe hunger and violence he endured on Israeli television.
Ruben Amorim hit back at Wayne Rooney after Manchester United crashed out of the FA Cup, by claiming that being the club’s head coach aged 40 showed he was not naive.
Rooney, who is United’s record goalscorer, called Amorim naive for saying after the holders’ elimination from the Cup on penalties by Fulham that the club’s long-term goal is to win the Premier League.
Proposal aims to provide stability as top flight and Championship expand from 12 to 16 teams up to 2030
A radical plan to scrap relegation from the Women’s Super League as part of a major expansion of the professional game is to be voted on by clubs at the end of the season.
Under proposals developed by the Women’s Professional League Ltd and revealed on Thursday, relegation from the 12‑team WSL would stop from the 2026-27 season as part of a gradual plan to expand both the top flight and the second‑tier Championship to 16 teams.
FA Cup red card set to deny Gordon Carabao Cup final
Brighton manager praises striker Danny Welbeck
Eddie Howe hinted that Newcastle might appeal against Anthony Gordon’s “harsh” straight red card in their home FA Cup defeat by Brighton but seemed virtually resigned to being without the England winger in the Carabao Cup final.
Gordon was sent off for raising two hands and shoving the Brighton defender Jan Paul van Hecke in the head in the 83rd minute of the 2-1 defeat and is set for an automatic three-game ban. It would rule out one of Newcastle’s leading players for the Wembley showpiece against Liverpool in two weeks’ time.
Conan O’Brien is hosting the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Zoe Saldaña and Kieran Culkin take the supporting actress and actor prizes. Join us for full coverage • The complete list of winners • The red carpet – in pictures
And now a special live update from the Guardian’s Xan Brooks at the Dolby theatre in Hollywood …
First trip to the Oscars. Impossibly glamorous arrival. Non-celebrity guests, I discover, access the Dolby theatre by walking around the police cordons, across a filling station forecourt and past a shuttered bowling alley to the theatre doors. This is perhaps what’s known unofficially as the Karla Sofía Gascón Entrance. But I’m now safely inside and have been handed a spring roll to eat.
‘That is a fluid situation,’ Howard Lutnick says in first indication that administration may not impose full tariffs
Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Sunday that US tariffs on Canada and Mexico will go into effect on Tuesday, but the president would determine whether to stick with the planned 25% level.
“That is a fluid situation,” Lutnick told the Fox News program Sunday Morning Futures.
Second semi-final: Gloucester-Hartpury 36-20 Bristol
Maher refuses to rule out returning to English game
A tearful Ilona Maher signed off her time in English club rugby with a try for Bristol Bears but it was not enough to prevent a 36-20 defeat against their west country rivals Gloucester-Hartpury in the women’s Premiership semi-final.
Maher, who has more than 8m social media followers, has been a groundbreaking addition to the PWR, signing for Bristol in December and bringing record attendances and global attention to the women’s club game.
UK prime minister and a host of leaders, including Volodymyr Zelenskyy, met to discuss ending the war
Europe is “at a crossroads in history”, said Keir Starmer as he hosted 18 leaders at a Lancaster House summit in London to discuss a new plan for peace in Ukraine.
The UK, France and others will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting, and discuss that plan with the US, “and take it forward together”, the prime minister said.
A Lithuanian rower has been rescued off the Queensland coast after he was caught in a tropical cyclone’s 130km/h winds and monster waves.
Aurimas Mockus ran into trouble about 740km east of Mackay while attempting a 12,000km Pacific Ocean crossing from San Diego to Brisbane in his solo rowing boat.
This look at the wildlife of the American continent is vast, grandiose and awe-inspiring. But its approach to nature is so cosy it’s the eco equivalent of wearing blinkers and sticking your fingers in your ears
It does seem a little spoiled to be critical of a documentary as gorgeous as The Americas, a vast, grandiose Tom Hanks-narrated nature series which explores territory from New England to the tip of Patagonia. But we are living through an extraordinary glut of nature television, and the pool of previously unfilmed and unfilmable natural world scenes must surely be getting smaller. This 10-parter talks up its credentials as something new and different: five years in the making, gathered over 180 separate expeditions, capturing discoveries which have never been on camera before, the most expensive unscripted project ever made by NBC (via BBC Studios). Why, then, does it feel so familiar, and occasionally even tepid?
This is nature television that is best enjoyed with your brain closed off. Much like Apple TV+’s recent The Secret Lives of Animals, it favours cutesy anthropomorphism and spectacular visuals over any honest assessment of nature and the environment as a whole. There is little brutality, barely any peril – a red-tailed hawk hovers near some adorable racoon babies, but that’s about it – and an almost offensive unwillingness to even consider the impact humanity has had, and continues to have, on species and their habitats.
The Americas aired on BBC One and is on iPlayer now.
The 90-year-old designer can be relied on to provide a consistent style serenity whatever the political weather
With his usual Sunday slot falling on the last day of Milan fashion week, Giorgio Armani always has the last word after a week of shows. As the collections played out against a particularly tumultuous political backdrop this season, his parting sentiment seemed more significant than ever.
“I wanted to imagine new harmony because I believe that is what we all need,” said the 90-year-old designer on Sunday afternoon.
Keir Starmer has said Europe is “at a crossroads in history” and must act to support Ukraine to secure a lasting peace as he confirmed the UK and France would lead a “coalition of the willing” to help end the fighting.
After a crucial defence summit in London, Starmer said any plan for a lasting ceasefire would have to be “delivered together” with the US to provide a deterrence to Russia, as he continued attempts to repair frayed ties between Kyiv and Washington.
Sanjeev Kumar accused of abusing four women,medical fraud and reusing unsanitary devices arrested in Memphis
A gynecologist who is accused of sexually abusing four women in Memphis, Tennessee, and reused unsanitary medical devices in unnecessary procedures was arrested on Friday.
Sanjeev Kumar, 44, was charged with sexual abuse, medical fraud and illicitly reusing unsanitary medical devices after he enticed four women to travel across state lines to his clinic, where he subjected them to sexual abuse under the guise of medical procedures.
Donald Trump’s threats to global tax reform have backfired, leaving the US isolated as nations push ahead with a new UN tax convention
Donald Trump’s Oval Office tirade on Friday laid bare his instinct to harangue and bully those – even supposed allies such as Ukraine, fighting for its survival – who dare to disagree. Countries pushing global tax reform at the UN will be watching as US demands for subjugation play out in plain sight. His day-one threat to punish nations taxing US firms is an all-out attack on global fiscal cooperation. If multilateralism in taxation was already on shaky ground, Mr Trump’s return could bury it for good.
Under discussion is a new UN tax convention that may permit states to tax economic activity where it actually occurs, rather than allowing multinationals to shift profits to tax havens. The Tax Justice Network (TJN) said last year that nations lose $492bn (£390bn) annually due to corporate tax abuse. The global south bears the greatest losses, which undermine public services like health and education. If enacted, the convention would create a legally binding framework requiring multinationals to pay tax where they employ staff and do real business – not where they stash profits. This would replace the outdated arm’s-length principle with unitary taxation, ensuring fair profit allocation. It would mean an end to Amazon, Google and Apple putting billions through lower-tax jurisdictions while extracting wealth from higher-tax ones.
For all his snarling attitude, the band’s singer, David Johansen, who has died aged 75, might well have agreed. The last thing he expected was for his band to be taken seriously. The Dolls took their lead not from the “adult-oriented” rock and earnest singer-songwriters dominating the US album charts, but from the glam rock scene making headway in the UK singles charts. British acts from the Sex Pistols to Morrissey would later repay the compliment, citing the band as a key influence.
Instead of bowing to rightwing populism, Starmer should take it on by rebuilding towns – and giving people the jobs and homes they crave
The south Welsh town of Pontypool doesn’t quite suggest a crucial political frontline. The town centre is full of imposing 19th- and 20th-century buildings that were created in a spirit of pride and optimism but have long since lain empty; local people talk about the shadow of the old iron and coal industries, and the fact that precious little ever came along to take their place. On the Monday afternoon I visited, the most forlorn sight was a huge mural of a local rugby crowd, lovingly sprayed on the exterior of a former discount store: a two-dimensional throng, put there to “inspire people to remember what Pontypool could be like as a thriving community”.
Despite appearances, a significant watershed moment happened here recently. Like so much of south Wales, Pontypool has long been seen as a loyal Labour redoubt – but on 13 February, Reform UK gained its first Welsh councillor in a byelection for the local borough council. The victor was a former army major who won 457 votes to Labour’s anaemic 259, and claimed, when greeting his win, that there would now be no Labour councillors, MPs or members of the Senedd, the Welsh parliament, who could confidently think they represented safe seats. Reform UK is set on banishing the lingering idea of south Wales as a staunch socialist heartland: Nigel Farage intends to make the 2026 devolved Welsh elections “by far our biggest priority”.
US firm Firefly Aerospace celebrates second-ever commercial lunar landing
A US company has successfully landed its spacecraft on the moon, marking only the second private mission to achieve the milestone – and the first to do so upright.
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down at 8.34am GMT near Mons Latreille, a volcanic formation in Mare Crisium on the moon’s north-eastern near side.
They faced violence and racism as they fought on the frontlines for justice and equality. Now Trump is reversing the progress they toiled for
Carolyn McKinstry knows about the dangers of extremism in America. She lived it.
McKinstry was the Sunday school secretary at the 16th Street Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, when the church was bombed by white supremacists on 16 September 1963, killing four Black girls – Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Roberts, all 14, and 11-year-old Cynthia Wesley.
Vatican says Francis is in stable condition but ‘prognosis remains guarded’ as vigils continue at St Peter’s Basilica
Pope Francis has thanked well-wishers for their support after missing his Sunday Angelus for a third week in a row as he remains in hospital with pneumonia.
The pontiff, 88, remained in a stable condition on Sunday after a breathing crisis on Friday that caused him to vomit, the Vatican said.
Fastest expansion in three months as new orders rise at Chinese factories
China’s manufacturing activity expanded at the fastest pace in three months in February, despite the looming threat that Donald Trump will impose tariffs this week.
Production at China’s factories returned to growth last month, an official survey showed, thanks to higher new orders and purchase volumes.
The US president has no interest in countering aggressors. His short-termist game plan will cost America dear
The White House meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be remembered as far more than just a diplomatic disaster. It marked the end of international politics as we know it, and was a harbinger for the sunset of Pax Americana. Zelenskyy, reeling from the meeting, arrived in London on Saturday to attend a defence summit with other European leaders. Thanks to Trump’s performance, those leaders now have clarity on where the US government stands on the war in Ukraine – and, more broadly, on how US foreign policy may look in future.
It is hard to overstate what a departure this is. Since the end of the second world war, the US has been the primary architect and guarantor of an intricate network of global institutions anchored by Nato, the World Trade Organization, and the International Monetary Fund. Together, these partners crafted a security umbrella whose benefits far outweighed its expense. It produced political stability and provided US and European companies with unrivalled access to markets and resources. The US was all too happy to share the gains of this order with its allies, and, to a lesser extent, with its rivals and adversaries.
Olga Chyzh researches political violence and repressive regimes. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto
Saturday’s likely title decider in Six Nations renews an intense rivalry fuelled not by geography but the two teams’ brilliance
Saturday is a day that has been ringed in the calendar for months. The anticipation of France and Ireland renewing rivalries has been immense and what always shaped up as the likely decider for the championship will prove to be exactly that. Again. They have been the two most consistent, outstanding teams in the Six Nations for years now and they rarely disappoint when they lock horns.
It’s an intense rivalry but it isn’t fuelled by geographical reasons or historical antipathy. It is just a rivalry based on the brilliance of both sides, the two dominant teams battling out for the alpha status. It reminds me of Arsenal and Manchester United 20-25 years ago. Two teams separated from the rest of the pack by the quality they possess.
In Twentynine Palms, California, these business owners have gained more than a job – they’ve built a sense of identity
The California desert, for 28-year-old Madie Chapman, was a shock to the system.
Chapman became a desert resident last summer, when her husband, a field radio operator, was stationed at the Twentynine Palms combat center, the largest US Marine Corps training base in the world. Within just a few months of receiving orders, the couple moved with their three young children to the secluded outpost near Joshua Tree national park, joining the thousands of other active-duty service members and their families who live there.
Be honest about your symptoms, voice your concerns, take notes, ask follow-up questions if you need to … GPs and surgeons explain how to make every minute count
When you go to see a doctor, it can be difficult to communicate your health concerns clearly, out of fear, embarrassment or a misunderstanding of medical jargon. How can you make the most of these appointments? From taking notes to bringing along a friend, and when to request a second opinion, doctors share their advice on how to access the best possible care.
Designer Lou Rota shares her use of space, colour and nature to create a legacy home
Just as the British designer Lou Rota is enjoying what you might call a third act in her career – from graduating as a graphic designer to working on pop videos, then science and natural history documentaries to making and decorating tableware and furniture for the likes of Anthropologie – her house, too, is enjoying a new lease of life.
Lou and her husband, Gavin (director at a television production company), bought their three-bed, three-bath Edwardian terrace in west London 23 years ago. It has seen them through being parents to small daughters Rosie and Ava, – who then grew up and took over every inch of space as teens (with their friends in tow) – to becoming empty nesters when both girls went to university. Now, it is back to providing a convivial backdrop for a busy, bustling family as all four adults once again share the house.
The 33-year-old coach discusses the differences between working in Europe and the US, losing the NWSL Championship final and moving abroad for the first time
After spending all of your career coaching in Spain, since June you have been coaching in the American NWSL, as the head coach of Washington Spirit. Thinking more broadly about the NWSL, what differences have you observed in style of play in this league, compared to European football? “Yes, being honest, it’s different. I think in Spain and Europe, regarding tactical plans, there is a high, high level, and here it is very entertaining, because the style of play [here] is thinking ‘what do I have to do to give my best to the supporters and make the people enjoy?’ Only 25-30% of the games here are won by a difference of two goals. The rest of the games, there’s only one goal difference. That means that the league is very competitive. So this is very difficult if you compare it with my past with Barcelona in Spain because most of the games we won 4-0, 5-0, 6-0, easy, and in Europe other games too, but the level of tactics was very, very high. Here the level of the player is high too but everything is related to the entertainment. It’s more physical, more direct, transitions, chances, not too much control. I am trying to change it a little bit. I want to increase the entertainment, for sure, but I want to reduce the transitions and have more control in the games.”
At the end of your first half-season in charge of Washington Spirit you reached the NWSL Championship final but ultimately lost 1-0 to Orlando Pride in the final game of the season in November. As a coach, how long does it take for you to get over a narrow defeat like that, when the trophy was so close? “You need days, weeks, because I consider myself a very competitive person, and I don’t like to lose. But when you are analysing what you did well, what you can improve for the next season, you have to be proud of the project and the way that you are doing so far, because there are other amazing teams in the league. We beat the [defending] Championship team, Gotham, we got in a better position than Kansas and Portland, North Carolina, teams that have the experience and are doing a good job in the last seasons.”
Overall, then, how would you reflect on your time at the club so far since you arrived in June, on the pitch? “We arrived late, for sure, in the middle of the season, in June. [We had] to compete from the beginning in important games. But we wanted to compete in every single game and try to win. I don’t like to say things like ‘ok, I need one, two, three years’ - that’s very easy, that’s very simple. For me it’s ‘Ok, that’s the situation, that’s the roster, that’s the training session, that’s the facility, that’s the staff. This is everything that we have to have. After ending the season, I was not happy of course, because we lost the final and got second position but, seeing the big picture, I think we did a good job and we have to be proud of it.”
Tactically, would you say your tactical approach is different with Washington Spirit compared to the tactics you deployed at your former club, Barcelona, where you won the Women’s Champions League two times in a row? “This is a good question. When I tell the people that I am doing the same things, people are surprised. I’ll explain to you why. The only things that I’m doing differently are the contents that I use to carry out with the players, but the game-model is the same. When we have the ball possession, when we don’t have the ball possession, or take communication between the players, it’s the same. I understand that here I have other types of players, other characteristics of players, so what I try to do is to use that, and the way that I want to attack and defend is different, but the methodology is the same. I don’t have Patri [Patricia Guijarro], I don’t have Aitana [Bonmati], I have other players. I am not speaking about ‘better or worse’. Other ones. So what I have to do as a coach is exploit their level as much as possible to make sure they compete at the highest-possible level. But in terms of methodology, my methodology is exactly the same as I was doing in Barca.”
Visceral videos of people playing with slime or braiding hair soothe those who feel overwhelmed by in-person contact
Younger adults are increasingly overwhelmed by in-person interaction and soothing themselves instead with sensory online content, according to a report on the wildly popular online content known as ASMR.
ASMR – autonomous sensory meridian response – describes a particular sensory phenomenon that is triggered by specific sights or sounds, which usually begins with a tingling sensation across the scalp and results in feelings of deep calm and relaxation.
47% of those aged 25-34 said they felt overwhelmed in noisy or busy places such as shopping centres or train stations, compared with 35% of those aged 55-64.
39% of those aged 18-24 felt the need to shut out noise, for example using noise-cancelling headphones in public, compared with only 21% of those age 45-54.
Younger age groups were also more likely to prefer chatting to people online rather than face to face and to prefer to work alone rather than around other people.
Connexion
