From virtual ‘wives’ to mental health support, more than 100m people are using personified chatbots
Men who have virtual “wives” and neurodiverse people using chatbots to help them navigate relationships are among a growing range of ways in which artificial intelligence is transforming human connection and intimacy.
Dozens of readers shared their experiences of using personified AI chatbot apps, engineered to simulate human-like interactions by adaptive learning and personalised responses, in response to a Guardian callout.
Dutchman struck on his way to victory in famous race
Alpecin-Deceuninck and UCI join with condemnation
French justice officials have launched an investigation after Mathieu van der Poel had a plastic bottle hurled at his face during his triumphant ride to a third consecutive Paris-Roubaix victory on Sunday.
“An investigation was opened into the charge of violence with a weapon in order to identify and arrest the perpetrator,” said the Lille prosecutor Carole Etienne on X. The Dutch Alpecin-Deceuninck rider was struck while powering solo over a cobbled section with 33km remaining in the prestigious one-day classic, often called “The Hell of the North”.
On a summer morning in 1990, the body of a young woman appeared in a small town close to the frontier. For those who saw her, finding her identity became an obsession that would last 30 years
Nobody can recall who first phoned the police on the morning of 4 September 1990, but everyone remembers the girl. Her body, hanging from a pine tree on a steep slope above the Spanish frontier town of Portbou, was visible to anyone looking up from the beach or across from the opposite hillside. She was barefoot, with grey-blue eyes and thick chestnut-brown hair. She wore blue dungarees over a turquoise green shirt.
Portbou, squeezed into a cauldron-like Mediterranean cove, had only 2,000 inhabitants but plenty of police officers. In these years before the Schengen agreement, guards were stationed on the French border but these officers were experts in immigration and smuggling, not violent deaths. Instead, Enrique Gómez, a 35-year-old investigator from the Guardia Civil police force was called in from the nearby city of Figueres to investigate. The phone call came as he was having breakfast in the canteen.
Robin McKie reflects on his 40 years as science editor for the Observer and tells Madeleine Finlay about the game-changing discoveries and scientific controversies that he’s reported on during that time. He describes how the discovery of the structure of DNA revolutionised science, what he learned about misinformation from the HIV/AIDS pandemic and why cold fusion and the millennium bug failed to live up to their hype.
The fashion industry seemed to be inching towards a new era of inclusivity. Then came a wave of weight-loss drugs and the demonisation of ‘wokeness’ …
In 2021, Skye Standley was considered one of modelling’s rising stars. With her beautiful face, curves and distinctive red hair, she was in demand: she appeared in advertising campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana, the Danish label Ganni and Rihanna’s brand Savage X Fenty. Last year, she was appearing in roundups of ones to watch, alongside established “curve” or plus-size models – typically a size 12 and above – such as Ashley Graham and Paloma Elsesser, who were predicted to be “everywhere”. In reality, it was one of her toughest years.
“The past two years have been really challenging,” says Standley. “I think there’s been a lot of erasure all around. I’ve noticed a lot less work.” She only worked a couple of times last year, she says, “compared with the two years before, where I was working continuously. I’ve definitely noticed, when it comes to [London] fashion week, there being no castings, and throughout the year, just a lot of regression, even from brands I’ve worked with. I spent all of last year trying to find a way to navigate everything that was changing with the industry.” Just over three weeks ago, Standley left her agency.
Amid the ruins and with fuel scarce, the animals provide vital transport for the injured as well as goods and belongings
It felt like an “earthquake from the sky” when an Israeli airstrike hit the clinic Dr Saif Alden had left just minutes earlier. Alden had been treating animals hurt and abandoned amid Gaza’s destruction. They survived but the equipment and medication the mobile clinic needed to function was destroyed.
Still, the team saw it as a setback, not a defeat. Alden has spent the month since the airstrike traversing Gaza to scavenge the tools needed to resume operations.
Ireland holds the algorithm off-switch. Ursula von der Leyen must force Dublin to use it
Europe is scrambling to remilitarise. The European Commission is raising a €150bn (£129bn) defence fund and is calling on EU countries to invest €650bn (£561bn) more. Germany has cast aside its government debt limit to invest hundreds of billions of euros in defence. Poland will train every male of fighting age for battle, and envisages an army 500,000 strong. Latvia’s president has urged the rest of Europe to conscript citizens, as Latvia does. Even neutral Ireland is buying combat jets. No wonder Europe’s defence industry is booming. In just a few months, the share prices of several big weapons manufacturers have nearly doubled and doubled again. But, despite this new martial pulse, the continent is still sleepwalking towards disaster.
Europe can harden its shell and sharpen its claws, but it has done little to protect its soft underbelly against political manipulation. The US is capitulating to Russia over Ukraine because of political implosion at home, not military defeat. This story has been repeated many times in Europe’s history. Thucydides recounted how ancient Athens and Sparta sowed discord and cultivated traitors in each other’s camps. Europe’s leaders must remember this lesson and confront three new realities.
Johnny Ryan is director of Enforce, a unit of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties
Issue is seen as a key stumbling block in talks with US as Washington seeks to scale back Iran’s nuclear programme
Iran is expected to resist a US proposal to transfer its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to a third country – such as Russia – as part of Washington’s effort to scale back Tehran’s civil nuclear programme and prevent it from being used to develop a nuclear weapon.
The issue, seen as one of the key stumbling blocks to a future agreement, was raised in the initial, largely indirect, talks held in Muscat, Oman, between Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.
NGOs warn of ‘some difficult years’ ahead as increasing humanitarian needs meet shrinking finances
The dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has captured headlines, but “very regrettable” reductions in European aid budgets are also contributing to a void in support for some of the poorest people in the world’s most fragile states, according to MEPs and NGOs.
Isabella Lövin, a deputy chair of the European parliament’s development committee, said USAID cuts would have “very dramatic consequences around the world”. But she also criticised recent decisions by EU member states to reduce their aid budgets as “very regrettable” and “wrong”. It would be impossible for the EU to fill the gap, she added.
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.
This week, from 2021: After 32 years of establishment lies, media smears, inquests, trials and retrials, the families of the Hillsborough dead have yet to see anyone held accountable
Cuts would mean dramatic decreases in funding for humanitarian aid, global health and international groups
The Trump administration is reportedly proposing to slash the state department budget by nearly half in a move that could drastically reduce US international spending and end its funding for Nato and the United Nations, according to an internal memorandum.
The memo based on spending cuts devised by the White House office of management and budget envisions the total budget of the state department and USAID, the main foreign assistance body which has been largely dismantled by Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, being reduced to $28.4bn, a reduction of $27bn or 48% from what Congress approved for 2025.
Sudan is suffering from the largest humanitarian crisis globally and its civilians are continuing to pay the price for inaction by the international community, NGOs and the UN have said, as the country’s civil war enters its third year.
The UK is hosting ministers from 20 countries in London on Tuesday in an attempt to restart stalled peace talks. However, diplomatic efforts have often been sidelined by other crises, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
European State of the Climate report ‘lays bare’ impact of fossil fuels on continent during its hottest 12 months on record
The home-wrecking storms and floods that swept Europe last year affected 413,000 people, a report has found, as fossil fuel pollution forced the continent to suffer through its hottest year on record.
Dramatic scenes of cars piled up on inundated streets and bridges being ripped away by raging torrents were seen around the continent in 2024, with “high” floods on 30% of the European river network and 12% crossing the “severe” flood threshold, according to the European State of the Climate report.
What does the British Steel crisis reveal about the UK’s critical infrastructure? Jasper Jolly reports
On Saturday, when MPs were supposed to be on their Easter holidays, a rare emergency sitting was called. Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, told the House of Commons that they were meeting “in exceptional circumstances to take exceptional action in what are exceptional times”.
MPs passed a bill to save the Scunthorpe steelworks, a vital part of the UK’s critical infrastructure and the last remaining maker of mass-produced virgin steel. The emergency legislation allowed the government to instruct the Chinese owners of the British Steel plant, Jingye, to keep Scunthorpe open or face criminal penalties.
US president issues scathing view of Chinese counterpart’s motivations amid escalating trade war with Beijing
Xi Jinping’s tour of South-east Asia this week is likely intended to “screw” the United States, President Donald Trump has suggested, as the Chinese leader embarks on five-day tour of some nations hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs.
China’s president arrived in Hanoi on Monday, where he met Vietnam’s top leader, To Lam, called for stronger trade ties, and signed dozens of cooperation agreements, including on enhancing supply chains.
Education department says $2.3bn in funds to be frozen after university rejects slew of demands as political ploy
The US education department is freezing about $2.3bn in federal funds to Harvard University, the agency said on Monday.
The announcement comes as the Ivy League school has decided to fight the White House’s demands that it crack down on antisemitism and alleged civil rights violations, including shutting down diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Republicans increase pressure on Trump after 35 killed in Sumy, with US president calling for ‘death and destruction to stop’. What we know on day 1,147
Ukraine held a press conference with Chinese soldiers captured on the frontline after Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of recruiting fighters from China using social media. The men were led into a press centre handcuffed and flanked by armed Ukrainian guards and it was unclear if they were speaking of their own volition. The pair told journalists they hoped to be part of a prisoner swap.
Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, has accused Moscow of dragging Beijing into its invasion, saying that several hundred Chinese nationals were fighting at the frontline. The Kremlin has denied it claim while Beijing has warned parties to the conflict against making “irresponsible remarks”.
Zelenskyy accused Vladimir Putin of remaining focused on continuing the war, saying Russia had openly refused to engage in ceasefire talks. “There is only one reason for this – in Moscow, they are not afraid. If there is no strong enough pressure on Russia, they will keep doing what they are used to – they will keep waging war.”
Republicans supporters of Ukraine are pointing to Russia’s latest strikes as evidence Donald Trump needs to take a firmer tone with Putin, the Russian president, if he wants a ceasefire deal, Andrew Roth writes. GOP lawmakers – who generally tread carefully considering Trump’s apparent affinity for the Kremlin – have become invigorated and vocal in recent days after the deadly Palm Sunday strike in the Ukrainian city of Sumy.
Democrats in the US House introduced legislation to boost support for Ukraine after a similar move by those in the Senate, including funding for security and reconstruction. The bill would also include stiff sanctions on Russia if lawmakers deem it unwilling to engage in good-faith peace efforts.
Trump insisted on Monday he was working “diligently to get the death and destruction to stop” in Ukraine, while falsely blaming Zelenskyy and the previous US president, Joe Biden, for allowing the invasion to take place. Trump wrote on Truth Social: “We have to get it to stop, and fast.”
Russia has claimed the attack on Sumy, which killed at least 35 people, including two children, was targeting a gathering of Ukrainian troops, not civilians. A spokesperson for the Kremlin accused Kyiv of using civilians as shields by holding military meetings in dense city centres. Russia gave no evidence to back up its claims, and during the war there have been widespread Russian attacks killing many civilians.
Ukrainians mourned victims of the Palm Sunday strikes at gatherings on Monday. “It was chaos. There were mountains of corpses,” a combat medic who helped the injured said. “My shoes were covered in blood. I haven’t cleaned them yet, it’s the blood of the wounded.”
Ukraine’s air force said another Russian missile and guided bombs struck the outskirts of Sumy on Monday – no casualties were reported.
The US held “constructive” talks with Ukraine last week about a proposed minerals deal, a senior official said on Monday. The two countries were supposed to finalise a pact in March to extract Ukraine’s mineral resources, but those plans were derailed after Trump and Zelenskyy clashed at the White House.
Paige Bueckers became the latest UConn standout to go first overall in the WNBA draft on Monday night as the Dallas Wings selected the 23-year-old guard before several hundred spectators at the Shed in New York City.
Her selection capped a dominant final season at Connecticut and marked the start of an eagerly anticipated professional career. Bueckers helmed the Huskies to a drought-busting 12th national championship eight days ago and becomes the sixth UConn player to be drafted No 1, joining Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, Tina Charles and Breanna Stewart.
Frank Lampard watched on from the stands as his playoff-chasing Coventry side were held to a 1-1 draw at struggling Hull. Lampard served a one-match touchline ban at the MKM Stadium and was fined £2,000 after his sending off at the end of the defeat by Burnley earlier this month for an outburst at referee James Bell.
While Coventry largely dominated Hull and went ahead through a deflected strike from Matt Grimes, who earlier produced two goalline blocks to deny Kasey Palmer, substitute Abu Kamara equalised. Lampard’s side therefore stay sixth, moving three points clear of seventh-placed West Brom, and the manager may rue his team’s lack of a clinical edge as Hull goalkeeper Ivor Pandur made several important saves.
It falls to the squeezed middle to breathe life into the 2024-25 Premier League season. The battle for European places is some way off being decided. Thanks to an early goal and a dogged defensive display that went against type, Bournemouth have relaunched their candidacy.
After ransacking champions-elect Liverpool, inconsistencies have stopped Marco Silva’s Fulham being a true contender for the top five. Victory in Dorset could have placed them in the Justin Rose, striking-distance position. Instead, Bournemouth leapfrogged the Londoners into eighth.
Howe watched win over Manchester United from hospital
Eddie Howe remains in hospital on Tyneside but is said to be on the road to recovery after being diagnosed with pneumonia.
The Newcastle manager was admitted late on Friday night and, as he underwent a series of tests over the weekend, anxious club officials offered no updates regarding his condition. That changed on Monday afternoon when they released a statement announcing his diagnosis and including a message from Howe thanking medical staff for their care and the wider football community for their good wishes.
The 44-year-old handled another Augusta near miss with class and his place in Europe’s Ryder Cup team looks assured
There was one very happy man at Augusta on Monday morning, and there were 52 all in a stew, turning over thoughts of what went right and what went wrong, that short putt on the 6th, that wayward chip on 12, that sliced drive on 15, or whatever it was that cost them their shot at winning the 2025 Masters.
While Rory McIlroy can enjoy what was, everyone else in the field is wondering what might have been. Justin Rose will feel it most. Rose, the antagonist in Rory’s story, scored 65, 71, 75, 66 – the last of them, he said, “a bogey away from being the greatest round I’ve ever played”.
Manager wants Villa Park to be ‘a fortress’ on Tuesday
Villa trail French champions 3-1 from first leg in Paris
Unai Emery urged his Aston Villa players to “write history” by recording a memorable comeback victory over Paris Saint-Germain to advance to the semi-finals of the Champions League. Villa must overturn a two-goal deficit after a first-leg defeat in France and the Villa manager doubled down on his belief that his side can cause a shock, with Emery adamant the “fortress” atmosphere at Villa Park on Tuesday can help his players find a winning formula.
Emery said PSG’s 3-1 lead does not alter the task at hand. “I have experiences coming back from results, positively and negatively,” he said. “Now it is something different, we want to write here the history with Aston Villa. Last year [we played] in the Conference League and this year in the Champions League and [now] hopefully for a long time in Europe. My experiences before were different … sometimes losing away and winning at home, sometimes losing at home and winning away. More winning than losing … but I had some negative experiences as well.”
Notices show Trump administration setting stage for levies on both sectors on national security grounds
The Trump administration is kicking off investigations into imports of pharmaceuticals and semiconductors as part of a bid to impose tariffs on both sectors on national security grounds, notices posted to the Federal Register on Monday showed.
The filings scheduled to be published on Wednesday set a 21-day deadline from that date for the submission of public comment on the issue and indicate the administration intends to pursue the levies under authority granted by the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Such inquiries need to be completed within 270 days after being announced.
JD Vance, the man entrusted as America’s back-up in times of emergency, may not be the safest pair of hands if Monday’s events are anything to go by. The vice-president ended the Ohio State football team’s visit to the White House by fumbling the team’s national championship trophy.
After laudatory speeches by Donald Trump, Buckeyes coach Ryan Day and Vance on the South Lawn, the Vance – an Ohio State graduate – tried to lift the trophy. He didn’t appear to realize that the top of the trophy is detachable from its base. After a moment of struggle, the vice-president lost his grip on the two pieces. OSU running back TreVeyon Henderson, standing behind Vance, grabbed the football-shaped top of the trophy, but the base fell to the ground, forcing Vance to grasp around as it rolled away from him.
Napoli three points off top after beating Empoli 3-0
Atlético overcome lowly Valladolid 4-2 in La Liga
Napoli cruised to a 3-0 home win over Empoli on Monday, with Scott McTominay striking twice and Romelu Lukaku also on target as the hosts kept pace with Inter.
Antonio Conte’s side were feeling the pressure after Inter’s 3-1 home win against Cagliari on Saturday, but they cut the gap back to three points with six matches to go. Napoli are also seven points clear of Atalanta in third as the Serie A title battle narrows to a two-horse race.
Mahdawi was at a naturalization interview in Vermont when he was taken in move his lawyers say is ‘retaliation’
Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian green card holder and student at Columbia University, was apprehended by US immigration authorities in Vermont on Monday, according to his lawyers and a video of the incident.
Mahdawi, who was a leader of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia last spring, was arrested by Ice on Monday morning in Colchester, Vermont, while he was attending a naturalization interview, his lawyer said in a statement to the Guardian.
Australians are increasingly avoiding travel to the US under Donald Trump’s second presidency, fresh data shows, with forecasters expectingtourist numbers to plummet further throughout the year.
Official statistics from the US International Trade Administration reveal the number of visitors from Australia in March 2025 was down by 7% compared with March 2024 – a reduction of 4,559 people.
Two students traveling on spring break were arrested and charged with assault in Copenhagen, police say
Two American college students traveling for spring break were arrested in Copenhagen, charged with assault, and held in a Danish prison for two weeks following an alleged dispute with an Uber driver, Danish police said.
The family of Owen Ray, a 19-year-old studying at Miami University in Ohio, said he and an unnamed friend have been forced to forfeit their passports and remain in the country.
The actor’s take on a damaged young soul fighting for autonomy is a punchy, watchable delight. The second season is slower and narrower in scope, but it is just as gutsy and thoughtful
Season one of The Last of Us was a lot. It must have surprised some viewers to find that an adaptation of a video game was among the best dramas of 2023 – although it wasn’t too unexpected for anyone who noticed that it was co-created by Craig Mazin, writer of the magnificent Chernobyl. More to the point, The Last of Us was relentless, constantly shifting and weaving to deliver devastation and heartbreak in brutal new ways. On its return for a second season, it has earned the right to take a breath and slow down.
A quick recap. A fungus-based pandemic has splintered civilisation as we know it, turning the millions of “infected” into groaning, lurching sub-humans who are not undead but are still monsters whose only impulse is to bite the healthy. Joel (Pedro Pascal), a man whose 14-year-old daughter died at the start of the outbreak 20 years ago, has travelled from Massachusetts to Wyoming with Ellie (Bella Ramsey), who was also 14 when they met and is one of the very few who are immune to the fungal lurgy. Season one’s cross-country odyssey ended with the conclusion of Joel’s quest to deliver Ellie to a resistance group who were working on a cure; when he realised the procedure would involve experimenting on Ellie’s brain, sacrificing her for the good of humanity, he killed everyone in the building to save his adopted child.
The US says it can’t aid in his return as he’s in El Salvador; El Salvador says to help would be like ‘smuggling’ him back
It is difficult to find a term more fitting for the fate of the Maryland father Kilmar Abrego García than Kafkaesque.
Abrego García is one of hundreds of foreign-born men deported under the Trump administration to the Cecot mega-prison in El Salvador as part of a macabre partnership with the self-declared “world’s coolest dictator”, Nayib Bukele.
Owner of Michelin-starred Veeraswamy, London, heads to high court to object to ‘heartless’ plans to upgrade building
It has been a fixture of British-Indian dining since it first opened its doors in April 1926 on the day of Elizabeth II’s birth, serving guests over the decades ranging from Marlon Brando to the late Queen herself.
Yet despite surviving the Blitz and London’s relentlessly competitive restaurant sector, a dispute with the current monarch’s property developer threatens the survival of London’s oldest Indian restaurant just short of its 100th anniversary.
Hotter seas supercharge storms and destroy critical ecosystems such as kelp forests and coral reefs
The climate crisis has tripled the length of ocean heatwaves, a study has found, supercharging deadly storms and destroying critical ecosystems such as kelp forests and coral reefs.
Half of the marine heatwaves since 2000 would not have happened without global heating, which is caused by burning fossil fuels. The heatwaves have not only become more frequent but also more intense: 1C warmer on average, but much hotter in some places, the scientists said.
Nick Faldo has more majors and Seve Ballesteros was a majestic shotmaker but the career grand slam is priceless
In Northern Ireland, debate is already raging as to whether Rory McIlroy has presented himself as the country’s greatest ever sportsperson.
The answer is surely obvious. Step aside, George Best. McIlroy’s Masters triumph may even force Sports Personality of the Year to afford due recognition to golf. It is only April but it feels highly unlikely the scene immediately after McIlroy claimed the Masters on Sunday will be matched. His pounding of the turf; his tears absorbed more than a decade of such deep frustration. The moment reverberated beyond sport; Rory had done it. Grown men, lots of them, shed tears on his behalf as he broke his Augusta hoodoo.
Title X, with services like STI tests and cancer screenings, in limbo after Trump administration pauses $66m in funds
More than 10 days after the Trump administration froze roughly $66m of federal funds that had been earmarked for no- and low-cost family planning services,the providers that had been scheduled to receive that money are staring down the possibility of financial collapse.
Title X, the country’s largest federal family planning program, provides clinics across the country with more than $200m each year for services such as contraception, STI tests and cancer screenings. In 2023, more than 2 million people received healthcare through Title X, which helps people regardless of income, age or citizenship status. For many, Title X is their only source of healthcare.
Alerts rang out as residents felt large earthquake in areas around San Diego, with epicenter in rural town of Julian
Southern Californians were rattled on Monday morning when a strong earthquake shook the areas around San Diego just after 10am local time.
Initial measurements from the United States Geological Survey rated the temblor as a magnitude 5.2, with an epicenter in Julian, a mountain town in San Diego county with roughly 2,000 residents known for its apple pie, located roughly 35 miles north-east of San Diego and 120 miles south of Los Angeles.
‘Swansea has a strong identity,’ says Croatia captain
Midfielder’s contract with Real ends in the summer
The Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric has acquired a minority stake in Swansea.
The 39-year-old Croatia captain, who is out of contract at the end of the season, has made his first foray into football ownership after being attracted by the “exciting opportunity” on offer in south Wales.
Connexion
