President doubles down on cutting public funding for leading US university in fresh social media rant

US attorney general Pam Bondi on Wednesday unveiled legal action against Maine, in an escalation of Donald Trump’s conflict with the state for refusing to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sports.

Reuters reports that the lawsuit comes five days after the administration tried to cut off all of Maine’s federal funding for public schools and its school lunch program over the issue, following a 21 February meeting of Trump and a group of US governors where he clashed with Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills.

Nothing in Title IX or its implementing regulations prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls’ and women’s sports teams. Your letters to date do not cite a single case that so holds.

It was a compelling meeting. And toward the end, we actually came up with – I’m going to say ‘finally,’ but I don’t mean it in the way that we were waiting, I mean it in the way that it took a while for us to get to this place – what Putin’s request is to get, to have a permanent peace here.

Verónica Abad claims Daniel Noboa, her former running mate, used state power to tilt the vote

Ecuador’s vice-president, Verónica Abad, has accused the country’s president – her former running mate Daniel Noboa – of “violating the democratic code” by using the state apparatus to gain an advantage over the other candidates in the country’s runoff election.

In Sunday’s vote, the rightwing incumbent defeated the leftist Luisa González by a considerable margin after narrowly beating her in the first round.

Although Abad said she did not support the opposition’s claim that electoral fraud occurred during the vote, she argued that the election was unfair because Noboa refused to step down from office while running – as required by the constitution.

As a new book skewers Spotify’s effect on music, two Guardian music writers spent a week assessing the limits of living with and without it

Laura Snapes, deputy music editor I was set the task of not listening to Spotify for a week, but Alexis, your task was much worse: only listening to Spotify-created playlists, and the songs it suggested to you based on your listening history. How did that go?

Alexis Petridis, chief rock and pop critic One day in the car I just listened to nothing instead of facing it again. When it plays me songs I like, it’s not what I want to hear at that moment. That’s not to say the music it was recommending wasn’t good. One morning it played Schizophrenia by Sonic Youth. I love that song but I didn’t want to hear it then. It played me Billie Holliday’s Riffin’ the Scotch followed by My Bloody Valentine, which clearly demonstrates the great breadth of my music taste – but just because I like it all doesn’t mean I want to hear it all together. I didn’t like that it was untouched by human hands. I always think that the amazing thing about a record collection is that it doesn’t make sense to anybody other than you. And yet when it’s presented like that, I find it really jarring and difficult – it’s all over the place.

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

World Trade Organization says trade between US and China is expected to plunge by 81% in ‘decoupling’

Donald Trump’s tariffs will send international trade into reverse this year, depressing global economic growth, the World Trade Organization has warned.

In its latest snapshot of the global trading system, the Geneva-based institution says it had previously expected goods trade to expand by a healthy 2.7% this year. As a result of Washington’s trade policy, it is now forecasting a 0.2% decline.

Police used a stun gun on two people and made three arrests as Maga representative was repeatedly interrupted

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Police used a stun gun on two people, and arrested three attenders overall, at a town hall meeting hosted by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday.

Protesters repeatedly interrupted Greene during a town hall in Acworth, which is about 30 minutes outside Atlanta. One man, Andrew Russell Nelms, began booing Greene almost as soon as she began speaking, and was dragged out of the room by police officers, who used a stun gun on him, according to the New York Times.

Class action argues US tech firm charged more for advertising on its preinstalled apps than it could in fair market

Google is being sued in the UK for up to £5bn in damages over allegations it shut out rivals in the internet search market and abused this dominance to overcharge businesses for advertisements.

A class action filed at the competition appeal tribunal on Tuesday argues that the US technology company has taken actions that enable it to charge higher prices for the promotions that appear in search inquiries than it otherwise could in a fair market.

It alleged that Google, which is owned by the US tech company Alphabet, contracted phone makers to preinstall the Google search app and Chrome browser on Android devices and paid Apple to make it the default search engine on iPhones, with the intention of shutting out competition.

The claim is filed by the competition law expert Or Brook on behalf of thousands of businesses and alleges Google ensured its search engine had better functionality and more features for Google’s own advertising offering than that of its competitors.

A Google spokesperson said: “This is yet another speculative and opportunistic case – and we will argue against it vigorously. Consumers and advertisers use Google because it helpful, not because there are no alternatives.”

World Central Kitchen mobile bakery’s production limited by flour shortage as result of Israel’s blockade

Palestinians witnessed a large white trailer being laboriously towed through the bomb-pitted roads of southern Gaza by a red tractor earlier this month, though it is unclear how many realised it was one of their last humanitarian lifelines in the face of a total Israeli blockade.

The trailer contained Gaza’s last working bakery, forced by Israeli evacuation orders to move around the territory so it can keep functioning. Aid workers say the amount of bread it can produce is only a fraction of the needs of the people of Gaza.

Judges say Equality Act definition excludes transgender women, after gender-critical campaigners’ challenge

The UK supreme court has ruled that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex, in a victory for gender-critical campaigners.

Five judges from the UK supreme court ruled unanimously that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 did not include transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates (GRCs).

Donald Trump’s budget could gut Medicaid, cut food assistance for millions and lead to 40,000 kids losing childcare

Women and children are under threat in America.

Jocelyn Smith of Roswell, New Mexico, knows this too well. “I’m disabled, taking care of my disabled daughter. I work, and I volunteer to help feed and house my community,” she told me. “Yet I need assistance affording meals for my family. Something is broken.”

Karen Dolan is a federal safety net expert and a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

‘Their lives were getting harder, even with help. They did not want to go to a nursing home and neither wanted to live without the other. So they left this life together’

This is a photo of my parents right after their deaths, in Assen, the Netherlands, on 1 May 2024. My father Klaas Roemers was 90, my mother Fenny Roemers-Visser was 86.

They had a good life and a very happy marriage, but the last years were difficult. They were both sick and exhausted. Both had heart failure, my mother had a lot of pain. Both were in a really bad shape. They still lived in their own house but life was getting harder and harder, even with help. They did not want to go to a nursing home and neither wanted to live without the other – they wanted to step out of life together. They were afraid one would die naturally and the other would be left behind. They were very close, and did everything together, really everything – so it made sense they would leave this life together.

Pierre Poilievre had hoped to be the next PM, but a sharp change in mood amid Trump tariffs has the party in turmoil

When the Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, finally emerged from a holding room, excited shouts erupted in a tsunami-like wave throughout the banquet hall. Party faithful – some in the ill-fitting free T-shirts handed out by staffers – craned their necks for a glimpse of the man they hoped will be the next Canadian prime minister.

Hair perfectly parted and clad in his standard-issue crisp blue suit, Poilievre embraced the first supporter, a gesture that appeared to leave her overjoyed. Another supporter, wearing a red “Save Canada” shirt, was crestfallen when Poilievre seemed to miss him, before the leader turned and gripped the man’s hand in a firm shake.

Opposition leader also says ‘I’ll let scientists pass that judgment’ when asked if climate change impacts getting worse in second showdown

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Peter Dutton has admitted he made a mistake by wrongly claiming the Indonesian president had announced a proposal for Russia to base military aircraft in Indonesia, and declined to state whether the impacts of climate change were getting worse.

The opposition leader has also confirmed his plan to reduce the size of the federal public service by 41,000 positions by 2030 would not pay for the entirety of the Coalition’s policy platform, suggesting further cuts to government spending may be necessary.

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• French tennis player suggests Dove ‘collab’ on Instagram
• Dart apologises for telling umpire Boisson ‘smells bad’

French tennis player Lois Boisson has responded to Harriet Dart’s on-court claim that “she smells really bad” with a social media post that pokes fun at the incident.

During a change of ends in Tuesday’s match at the Rouen Open, Dart asked the umpire: “Can you tell her [Boisson] to wear deodorant because she smells really bad?” Her comments were picked up by a courtside microphone and quickly attracted attention and criticism on social media.

Country may be home to as many as 13,000 bears, the highest total by far in Europe outside Russia

Romania may be home to as many as 13,000 brown bears, almost twice as many as previously thought, the country’s forestry research institute has said, as officials promised new laws to allow communities to deal with “crisis bear situations”.

The institute’s study of 25 counties in the Carpathian mountains was the first to use DNA samples from material such as faeces and hair. Previous estimates based on prints and sightings put the bear population at fewer than 8,000.

From northern soul to rugby league beef, here’s what I learned while writing We Were There

Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. I’m Lanre Bakare and I usually cover arts and culture for the Guardian, but I’m taking over the newsletter this week to tell you about my new book, We Were There, a cultural history of Black Britain.

It’s set between 1979 and 1990, covering the rise and premiership of Margaret Thatcher, the UK’s first female prime minister, whose divisive but transformative remodelling of Britain is still felt today – and within that political upheaval, race dominated the headlines. But it was also a time when modern Black British culture was forged. I’ll talk you through five things I learned from my research.

Arakawa was shown to have been researching medical conditions related to Covid-19 and flu and police bodycam footage from inside the couple’s home released

Authorities on Tuesday released a lengthy investigation report detailing some of the last emails, phone calls and internet searches by Gene Hackman’s wife Betsy Arakawa in the days before her death, indicating that she was scouring for information on flu-like symptoms and breathing techniques.

Arakawa died in February of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome – a rare, rodent-borne disease that can led to a range of symptoms that include flu-like illness, headaches, dizziness and severe respiratory distress, investigators said. Hackman is believed to have died about a week later of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

Pop the Balloon or Find Love is a YouTube sensation – but in a mainstream form, it’s terrible. Why does this keep happening?

If you threw Blind Date, the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan and the auction block into a blender, what you’d get is Pop the Balloon or Find Love, a weekly hour-long Black dating show on YouTube.

The show was created by Arlette Amuli, an African American of Congolese origins, and her husband, Bolia “BM” Matundu, a Black Brit also of Congolese descent (he had a previous life as a UK rapper and then as a Ndombolo musician). It has become an international sensation in an age where our fried attention spans have us addicted to short videos. The format is minimalist to the point of brilliance: each week, a line of eight or so balloon-clutching love hunters line up to court and be courted by a singleton of the opposite sex they have never met before.

Nels Abbey is an author, broadcaster and the founder of Uppity: the Intellectual Playground

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Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Mark Langdon and Lars Sivertsen as Aston Villa go out swinging in 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; so close for Aston Villa. At 2-0 down on the night and 5-1 on aggregate it all looked over before they rallied thanks to goals from Youri Tielemans, John McGinn and Ezri Konsa. Marcus Rashford played brilliantly and in the final 30 minutes the hosts had chances to take it to extra-time.

Experts warn that a specific brand of Christianity will be prioritized and lead to a ‘further dismantling’ of institutions

The Trump administration’s promotion of white Christian nationalists and prosperity gospel preachers to key government roles will lead to the “further dismantling of government institutions” and the chilling of free speech, experts have warned.

Donald Trump announced the creation of an “anti-Christian bias” taskforce and a White House Faith Office (WHFO) in February, saying it would make recommendations to him “regarding changes to policies, programs, and practices” and consult with outside experts in “combatting anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and additional forms of anti-religious bias”.

Signs of discontent are appearing as the podcaster’s friends turn against him and Elon Musk. How long before he changes his mind?

Sam Harris is the kind of guest Joe Rogan loves to have on his podcast: he dresses awkwardly in a sport coat with jeans; he undertook a PhD in neuroscience after a transformative experience with MDMA; his tone is accessible yet patronising; he has a sense of academic authority which belies a set of controversial views that include calling Islam “uniquely uncivil” and almost unfettered support for Israeli attacks on Gaza; he made an app called Waking Up, which promises to be “a new operating system for your mind”. Rogan has hosted Harris on his podcast many times and the pair call each other good friends.

But even Harris seems perturbed by Rogan’s more wholehearted embrace of Musk and Maga. “He’s in over his head on so many topics of great consequence,” Harris told his listeners of his own podcast last week. “He’ll bring someone in to shoot the shit on ‘how the Holocaust is not what you think it was’ or ‘maybe Churchill was the bad guy in world war two’ … or he’ll talk to someone like Trump or Tucker Carlson, who lie as freely as they breathe, and doesn’t push back against any of their lies … It is irresponsible, and it’s directly harmful.”

Some aren’t even fraud but rather known attempts by states to protect victims of identity theft, former top official says

In a series of late-night posts on X last week, Elon Musk and his so-called “department of government efficiency” revealed the seemingly startling findings of their “initial survey” into unemployment benefits.

They cited examples of claimants who were deceased, between one and five years old, or not born yet. They even cited one case of someone with a listed birthday in 2154 allegedly claiming $41,000.

This queen of hors d’oeuvres is enjoying a bit of a renaissance right now, so here’s how to make this comeback canapé in nine simple steps

The deliciously fussy-looking devilled egg and its pal, the vol-au-vent, were the ghosts of parties past for several decades before their triumphant revival as retro classics. Not only do these old-fashioned canapés look and taste great, but, as we’re belatedly remembering, the boiled egg, in particular, is a nutritional powerhouse far superior to a mere bowl of crisps. Make up to a day ahead, if necessary.

Prep 15 min
Cook 12 min
Makes 8

This three-part documentary about the attempt to steal hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of diamonds is pacey and stylish – but it definitely didn’t need to glamorise the real-life violence

I suppose the wonder is that it has taken Guy Ritchie so long to get around to telling the story of the Millennium Dome robbery, in which – way back at the turn of the century, children – a group of south-east London criminals ram-raided a national joke in pursuit of the 203-carat Millennium Star diamond worth £200m, which De Beers had unaccountably agreed to display in the capital’s gangster heartland.

Strictly speaking, Richie himself is not telling it; the three-part documentary The Diamond Heist comes from Oscar and Emmy award-winning company Lightbox and is executive produced by Ritchie. But the subject matter is so perfectly him that any meaningful separation in your mind as you watch it collapses quicker than a Greenwich exhibition venue’s shutters under the weight of a JCB driven at speed by a man intent on a multimillion pound payday.

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Albanese says Labor didn’t commission modelling on negative gearing

Anthony Albanese said Peter Dutton’s suggestion that the housing crisis is something that developed in the last two years is “nonsense”.

Everyone watching this program knows that this has been developing for a long period of time. We have not had enough homes been built. The former government did not bother to have a housing minister for half the time they were in office. What we’ve done since we came to office, is look towards the big issue which is supply.

The experts say that what that potentially [would] do is is diminish supply, not increase it. That’s why the key to fixing the housing issues is supply.

It certainly wasn’t commissioned by us to do so.

We need to do both. We need to particularly give young people a fair crack … The key is supply. That’s why only Labor is offering a plan at this election to increase supply of housing.

That is on the supply side a very significant benefit. The second part is we reduce migration by 25%, so that we can allow the housing stock to be built up again and by doing that – as well as stopping foreigners for two years from purchasing Australian homes – we give young Australians a go.

Presenting an award at the Breakthrough prize ceremony, the actor and writer allegedly accused the president of destroying American science

A pointed criticism of President Trump’s policies on science by Seth Rogen was edited out of the filmed coverage of an annual science awards show, it has emerged.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, which was one of the sponsors of the event, Rogen was one of the presenters at this month’s Breakthrough prize ceremony, a high profile and lavishly funded awards programme recognising “outstanding scientific achievements” co-founded by, among others, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and which describes itself as “the Oscars of science”.

Judges say definition of women and sex in Equality Act 2010 act refers to biological women and biological sex

• Full report: Critics of trans rights win UK supreme court case over definition of woman

The definition of a woman and sex in the Equality Act relates to “a biological woman and biological sex”, the supreme court has ruled as it unanimously allowed an appeal from gender critical campaign group For Women Scotland.

A possible outcome of the case is that the court will agree with the previous interpretation of the law as it stands, but suggest parliament considers amending the Equality Act to deal with these previously unforeseen consequences.

‘Lord forgive me. I am quite shameless’, author playfully wrote in note weeks after horror novel published in 1897

He had just unleashed one of the most famed gothic horror books on the world, a blood-curdling classic that chilled readers and has inspired countless authors, film-makers and video game developers ever since.

But a rare note that Bram Stoker wrote just weeks after Dracula was published in 1897 gives a glimpse into the playful fun he must have had with the novel.

• Australia forward injured against Manchester United
• Fowler says she is ready for ‘challenging’ road ahead

Manchester City have been hit by another serious injury blow after the Australia forward Mary Fowler sustained a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during Sunday’s Women’s FA Cup semi-final defeat by Manchester United.

The 22-year-old, who has scored 10 times this season, is likely to be out for at least the remainder of the year.

US state department says Rubio and Witkoff will have ‘talks with European counterparts’ on advancing Donald Trump’s plan to end Russian invasion

US state secretary Marco Rubio and White House envoy Steve Witkoff will visit France in the coming days, the French government’s spokesperson Sophie Primas confirmed.

Politico and Le Monde earlier reported that the pair would come to Paris later this week with the intention of hosting high-level talks on Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, and trade.

The tale of a 17-year-old Irish boy’s painful summer of romance and uncertain friendship captures the tenderness and menace of young men

I wouldn’t wish the pains of being a 17-year-old boy on my worst enemy. The awkward longing, the spots, the insecurity: it’s enough to cringe yourself into oblivion. For John Patrick McHugh, however, it is a rich seam to squeeze – not only for humour, but for a nuanced examination of burgeoning masculinity.

John Masterson, the main character of McHugh’s debut novel, is in the limboland of a post-exams summer, playing football and hooking up with a slightly older colleague at the hotel where he has a part-time job. In this way, Fun and Games stalks the same emotional and geographical territory as McHugh’s 2021 short-story collection, Pure Gold, also set on an island off the Irish mainland in County Mayo, and also knee-deep in the turmoil of young lads, painted with tenderness and menace in equal measure.

• Canada, India and Nigeria among those targeting 2030
• Event’s future under scrutiny after Victoria withdrawal

Seven countries have expressed interest in hosting future Commonwealth Games. Five of those are focused on staging the centenary 2030 Games while two are looking at editions of the multi-sport event beyond that, Commonwealth Sport has announced.

The expressions of interest come from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, which mean Glasgow’s hosting of the 2026 Games may signal a break of well over a decade before the UK hosts again, with Britain having hosted two of the last three editions.

The 78-year-old president is in great shape, says the official White House physician. Must be all those ‘hamberders’

Forget yoga, pilates or eating leafy greens. If you want to improve your health, just look to Donald “My Body Is a Temple” Trump for pointers. The US president just had his annual checkup and emerged with flying colours. “President Trump remains in excellent health, exhibiting robust cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and general physical function,” White House physician Sean Barbella said in a report released on Sunday.

How does the 78-year-old, who is the oldest person in history to be inaugurated US president, stay in such great shape? The report cited an active lifestyle, noting Trump’s many speeches and “frequent victories in golf events”. But if you’re not a golfer, don’t worry. I have put together a four-point Donald John Trump Wellness Plan so that you can be as perky as the president.

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Since colonial times, self-designated ‘communities’ have used expulsions to address supposed threats. It helps to explain how easy it has been for Trump to win support

The recent expulsion of Kilmar Armando Ábrego García, a protected legal resident who had committed no offense, is only the latest example of the Trump administration’s unbounded efforts to detain and rapidly expel any immigrant, undocumented or not, who may come into its grasp.

Although expulsions – often known as deportations – of undocumented men, women and children have been regular features of life under Democratic as well as Republican presidents in recent years, those of the new administration have been jaw-dropping in their cruelty and utter defiance of federal law and judicial due process, in their heralded scale and in the lust with which they have been carried out. And we would be mistaken to believe that immigrants will be the only victims of what is in effect a widening campaign of political expulsion. After all, Trump has just requested a sixfold increase in funding for detention facilities.

Steven Hahn is professor of history at New York University and author, most recently, of Illiberal America: A History

Woman identified as Teresa says she was estranged from Jorge Gonzalez, 37, and is worried for her ill mother-in-law

The widow of a man who died on a New York subway train before his corpse was robbed by two different people and then allegedly sexually violated by one of the assailants says learning of her mostly estranged husband’s grim fate left her “shocked” as well as worried for her ill mother-in-law.

In an interview published on Tuesday by the New York Daily News, the woman said the last thing she expected was to learn from investigators the horrifying details concerning the death of 37-year-old Jorge Gonzalez, as authorities asked for help in finding suspects.

Cuts to disaster agency and deregulation of fossil fuels, plus rise of water-guzzling datacentres, highlighted in new report

The Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal climate disaster agency – and the full-throttle deregulation of fossil fuels and water-guzzling datacentres – could prove catastrophic for America’s endangered rivers, threatening the food, water and livelihoods of millions of people, according to a new report.

American Rivers’ annual most-endangered rivers list lays bare a myriad of human-made threats including floods, drought and other extreme weather events driven by the climate crisis, as well as industrial pollution and poor river management – all of which Trump’s regulatory rollbacks will almost inevitably make worse.

The Bazball win-or-bust mantra has proven successful but it is time for captain to embrace grey in black and white world

“A tie is like kissing your sister,” Edward J Erdelatz said to the New York Times in 1954. Erdelatz was the United States Navy’s head football coach and his side had just drawn 0-0 against Duke University. “No one asked the mild spoken navy coach to explain,” the report adds. Well, quite. But sister or not, everyone knew what he meant.

Erdelatz’s unique take on the merits or otherwise of not winning are ingrained in American sports where a Lombardian win-at-all-costs mentality prevails. Try explaining Test cricket to an American sports fan, they say, with a wry chuckle – the fact that two teams can battle it out for five full days and in the end, there is not necessarily a winner. Good luck, they smirk. Adelaide 1961? You may as well be describing the plot of Christopher Nolan’s Memento to a toddler. Old Trafford 2005? More chance of a cider-addled bee getting to grips with quantum theory. They do not get it, be gone with your quaint English ways, five days and no winner. That’s crazy, man.

There’s an 80s vibe to this ET-adjacent family adventure with Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson, relying on impressive practical effects

The Legend of Ochi creates such a complete visual experience that studio heads who have led countless multimillion-dollar trips to the green-screen warehouse should hang their heads in shame when they see it.

It’s not that writer-director Isaiah Saxon and his collaborators have abstained, monk-like, from modern technology in assembling this children’s fantasy film; though it consciously throws back to puppetry, matte paintings and other practical effects that were more common in live-action family films of the 1980s, The Legend of Ochi clearly makes use of digital tricks, too. (When its trailer first dropped, online hordes were even convinced – wholly incorrectly – that its relatively low-budget world-building must be the product of generative AI tech.) But all of these non-AI techniques, as well as vivid location shooting in Romania, have been pulled together with an immense and immersive craft that could serve as an inspirational visual-effects demo reel for those jaded with CG gunk.

I have around 20 houseplants – some obviously near death. I called in an expert to teach me how to keep them not just alive, but thriving

I’ve always owned houseplants – but not, it must be said, always the same houseplants.

Of the handful of plants I tend to acquire every year, only one or two survive to see in the next. It’s not that I knowingly neglect them: I try to be attentive to their needs, water them regularly, assess their lighting. Every now and again I’ll even chuck them some plant food. But sadly it seems my enthusiasm for green matter is not matched by a green thumb.

Wrestling is a brutal but beautiful sport. So why are its brightest stars drawn to the US president? The answer lies in marginalization and the need to be seen

Every March, I tune in to the NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling Championships, a ritual I associate with the arrival of spring. It also reminds me of my own athletic tenure. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and started wrestling when I was five, and went on to compete at the Division I level in college.

This year’s championships were compulsive viewing. Penn State’s Carter Starocci became the first five-time D-I national champion, and Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Hendrickson stunned Olympic champion, Gable Steveson, in the heavyweight final. Oh. And Donald Trump was there. Joining him were Elon Musk, former wrestler turned Republican Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, and other political allies.