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index.feed.received.today — 29 avril 2025The Guardian

HSBC sounds alarm on trade war; Trump to soften blow of automotive tariffs – business live

29 avril 2025 à 08:33

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Swedish appliances maker Electrolux is also counting the cost of the Trump trade war.

Electrolux, which makes white goods and household appliances, warned this morning that the demand outlook for home appliances is “increasingly uncertain”.

The market environment was characterized by increased uncertainty as the quarter progressed. In North America and Europe, market demand was largely unchanged. However, consumer confidence declined throughout the quarter due to economic uncertainty and concerns around U.S. trade policy developments. In Latin America, consumer demand increased marginally, primarily driven by Brazil, in a market characterized by rising competitive pressure.

Effects from changes in U.S. trade policies had a minor impact in the first quarter. It is impressive how our entire organization is acting with speed and agility to mitigate and adapt to the rapidly-changing market environment.

“President Trump is building an important partnership with both the domestic automakers and our great American workers,”

“This deal is a major victory for the President’s trade policy by rewarding companies who manufacture domestically, while providing runway to manufacturers who have expressed their commitment to invest in America and expand their domestic manufacturing.”

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© Photograph: Sebastian Ng/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Sebastian Ng/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

Lawnmowers, desserts and mix zones: FA Cup semi-final weekend

Playing host to two FA Cup semi-finals less than 24 hours apart, as well as more than 150,000 fans, means a busy time for staff at Wembley. We take a look at the preparations

It takes a great deal of organisation and a lot of staff, working across a variety of roles, to deliver these two huge fixtures. More than 12,000 staff worked at Wembley over the two days. Many worked both days and through the night to ensure everything was in place.

Matchday mascots wait to greet the players as they arrive at Wembley for the first of the weekend’s FA Cup semi-finals.

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© Photograph: Jack Taylor/Wembley Stadium

© Photograph: Jack Taylor/Wembley Stadium

My tour of Serbia in ‘the worst car in history’: from medieval castles to brutalist classics

29 avril 2025 à 08:00

Young Serbians are keen to celebrate the Yugoslav era, and offering tours of their country in vintage Yugos is a fun way of doing it

‘Jump in, comrade,” my driver honks and calls out the window of the smallest, boxiest car I’ve ever seen: the communist vintage Yugo. I’m setting off on a tour of Yugoslav-era Belgrade with driver Vojin Žugić from Yugoverse tours, a company in the business of cold-war nostalgia. The car is a time capsule, with its little cube headlights, cranky gear stick and cassette player. Its horn sounds delightfully cheeky, and the smell of diesel and old leather seats is strong. We trundle around the Serbian capital for half a day, taking in communism’s most striking bridges and sites, honking merrily at the many drivers who overtake us. All of them smile and wave, for the Yugo holds fond memories in this part of the world.

Driving around the hippodrome next to Ada Bridge, or under the gravity-defying arch of the experimental brutalist Genex tower, it’s easy to get caught up in Žugić’s nostalgia – even though he’s only 24. “I love the feel of the mechanics, the simple geometry,” he says of the car. We park at the tower and take the lift to the top floor at 140 metres for spectacular city views from its spaceship-like windows. When it was designed in 1977, this was architecture of an imagined socialist utopia. Though the concrete is a bit shabby up close, the tower has kept its photogenic appeal. Just like our Yugo.

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© Photograph: Camilla Bell-Davies

© Photograph: Camilla Bell-Davies

Parallel Lines by Edward St Aubyn review – troubled minds and family mysteries

29 avril 2025 à 08:00

The Patrick Melrose author brings his trademark dark wit and flinty compassion to this wide-ranging sequel

Edward St Aubyn’s previous novel, 2021’s Double Blind, was something of a challenge even for his devotees. Leaving aside the usual gripe that he is never quite as compelling without the shield of his authorial alter ego Patrick Melrose, the obsessive nature of the book’s inquiry into bioethics, narcosis, psychotherapy, oncology, venture capitalism and inheritance made too heady a cocktail to be more than sipped, a few pages at a time. I struggled with it until the very last scene, a charity bash where a schizophrenic young man takes his first terrified steps in employment as a waiter and happens upon a woman who, unknown to both, is intimately related to him. Their chance encounter was intensely moving and tautly suspenseful – you felt an immediate longing to know what would befall them.

That longing is now answered in Parallel Lines, which picks up the narrative five years later and reintroduces its cast of interestingly troubled characters. Francis, a botanist pursuing a rewilding project on a Sussex country estate, has now joined an NGO in Ecuador trying to save the Amazonian rainforest. He’s also raising a son with his wife, Olivia, a writer producing a radio series on natural disasters and wondering whether Francis can resist the amorous lures of his philanthropist boss. Olivia’s best friend, Lucy, is in the throes of treatment for a brain tumour, the traumatic reverberations from which have forced her boyfriend – wild man plutocrat and drug fiend Hunter – to seek refuge with “compassion burnout” at an Italian monastery, where he’s hosted by a gentle abbot, Guido.

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© Photograph: opale.photo/eyevine

© Photograph: opale.photo/eyevine

The Life of Sean DeLear review – loving film about queer black punk rocker, and secret legend

29 avril 2025 à 08:00

Sweet documentary about Sean DeLear, of LA punk band Glue, who never landed a major record deal but was famous among celebrities

That’s Sean DeLear, pronounced like “chandelier”, born Anthony Robertson in 1964. You probably haven’t heard of him: DeLear was the lead singer of a band called Glue on the underground post-punk scene in Los Angeles in the 1980s and 90s. On stage, he performed in drag, singing punk songs dressed like a 1960s go-do dancer in cute little dresses. The band never landed a major record deal, and DeLear died from cancer in 2017. This sweet, scrappy documentary has been lovingly put together by his friend Markus Zizenbacher.

It’s not the first posthumous attempt at recognition for DeLear. In 2023, his teenage diary, written in 1979, was published under the title I Could Not Believe It. Extracts of this queer black memoir are read here on the voiceover – and they are glorious. Even aged 14 years old, living with his Christian parents in a conservative suburb of Los Angeles, DeLear was proudly, joyfully gay, though this was before the terror of Aids. The interviews in the film with his mum and brother, an evangelical pastor, feel a little bit thin; his family accepted his sexuality, they say, but not much else.

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© Photograph: True Story

© Photograph: True Story

The poop scoop: is bagging it really the best solution?

29 avril 2025 à 08:00

1,000 tonnes of dog waste hits the ground daily in the UK – how can we reduce its environmental impact? Scientists weigh up the best options, from flicking it into the undergrowth to reusing newspapers

When Laura Young got Cooper the cavapoo in 2020, she knew that single-use plastic poo bags weren’t going to cut it. “Having a dog is a lifestyle extra,” says the 28-year-old environmental scientist. “I was aware that I wanted to try not having a negative environmental impact.” But where to start? The shelves seemed to be divided into two camps: bog-standard, single-use plastic wisps, and shiny, expensive bags brandishing eco buzzwords. “I was conscious that compostable bags weren’t the solution,” says Young. “But initially that’s all I could find and so that’s what I bought.”

Often marketed as biodegradable, compostable or made from an alternative material such as cornstarch, they promise a more environmentally friendly option than single-use plastic. (Plastic poo bags, frequently made from low-density polyethylene, will sweat in landfill for thousands of years, breaking down into harmful microplastics and releasing climate-warming methane as they go.)

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© Photograph: Ilka & Franz/The Observer

© Photograph: Ilka & Franz/The Observer

Trial of Erin Patterson for allegedly murdering in-laws with mushroom lunch begins in Victoria

Judge tells jury that Patterson is no longer accused of attempting to murder her estranged husband

The trial of Erin Patterson for allegedly murdering her in-laws by serving them a lunch laced with death cap mushrooms has started in a Victorian court.

Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in South Gippsland in 2023.

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© Photograph: James Ross/AAP

© Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Former PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar wins election in Trinidad and Tobago

Persad-Bissesar, 73, who was prime minister from 2010-2015, remains the only woman to ever have led the twin-island Caribbean nation

Voters in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) have ousted the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) party, electing the United National Congress’ (UNC) Kamla Persad-Bissessar as prime minister of the twin-island Caribbean nation.

The victory marks a remarkable comeback for Persad-Bissesar, 73, who previously served as prime minister from 2010-2015, and remains the only woman ever to have led the country.

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© Photograph: Andrea De Silva/Reuters

© Photograph: Andrea De Silva/Reuters

Carney’s victory owes much to circumstance – and to Trump

29 avril 2025 à 07:00

Canadian PM right candidate for the moment in success shaped more by chance than meticulous planning

Mark Carney, the economist, banker and politician, has long professed a simple article of faith when navigating through crisis: “A plan beats no plan.”

And his rapid ascent to Canada’s top job might be taken as evidence of such preparation.

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© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

Why is Labour getting bolder on Europe? It knows even leave voters can now see the benefits | Gaby Hinsliff

29 avril 2025 à 07:00

With Labour losing votes to pro-European parties, an intriguing new deep-dive makes clear that the public mood has shifted

It’s nearly nine years now since Britain lost its collective mind.

More than enough time, then, to put the Brexit referendum into perspective. Leavers have moved on to the point where only 11% of British voters still kid themselves that it’s turned out brilliantly. It’s remain politicians who had started to look strangely stuck in the past, still frightened of sounding too pro-European in case they somehow woke the monster. But joyfully – now there’s a word I haven’t typed much lately – it looks like something is finally shifting.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

‘Source of data’: are electric cars vulnerable to cyber spies and hackers?

British defence firms have reportedly warned staff not to connect their phones to Chinese-made EVs

Mobile phones and desktop computers are longstanding targets for cyber spies – but how vulnerable are electric cars?

On Monday the i newspaper claimed that British defence firms working for the UK government have warned staff against connecting or pairing their phones with Chinese-made electric cars, due to fears that Beijing could extract sensitive data from the devices.

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© Photograph: Ying Tang/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Ying Tang/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

Chicken rendang and rasam: Sugen Gopal’s recipes for Malaysian comfort food

29 avril 2025 à 07:00

A simple, fragrant, restorative soup, plus a chickeny twist on the classic Indonesian-Malay aromatic ‘dry’ curry

Comfort food means different things to different people, and today’s recipes are what do it for me. Rasam is the dish I crave whenever I’m feeling under the weather, because it gives me a boost. This thin, brothy soup is considered to be very good for digestion, so in Malaysia we often serve it at the end of a meal. Rendang, meanwhile, originated in Indonesia before becoming popular across south-east Asia, and is now particularly associated with Malaysia. It is spicy, sweet and very fragrant, because it features both lemongrass and lime leaves. I learned how to cook it from my mum and auntie back at home in Seremban – Mum’s version uses fresh green chillies, but I also add some dried kashmiri chillies, to give it a darker colour and, in my opinion, a better flavour, too. As with many Malaysian recipes, it all begins by making a kari paste, which you can do well in advance, if you wish. Mum taught me to cook the meat separately from the paste, but nowadays I tend to cook them together in the same pan for ease.

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© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food styling: Lucy Turnbull. Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Chloe Glazier.

© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food styling: Lucy Turnbull. Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Chloe Glazier.

Drinking champagne could reduce risk of sudden cardiac arrest, study suggests

29 avril 2025 à 06:05

Maintaining a positive mood and eating more fruit may also help lower risk, researchers find

Drinking champagne, eating more fruit, staying slim and maintaining a positive outlook on life could help reduce the risk of a sudden cardiac arrest, the world’s first study of its kind suggests.

Millions of people worldwide die every year after experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), when the heart stops pumping blood around the body without warning. They are caused by a dangerous abnormal heart rhythm, when the electrical system in the heart is not working properly. Without immediate treatment such as CPR, those affected will die.

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© Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters

© Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters

Death, divorce and the magic of kitchen objects: how to find hope in loss

29 avril 2025 à 06:00

As they pass through different hands, cooking utensils can magically connect us to loved ones who are no longer with us

I have long felt that kitchen objects can have a life of their own. Even so, I found this eerie. One August day in 2020, I was going to fetch clothes out of the washing machine when suddenly a cake tin fell at my feet with a loud clang. It wasn’t just any cake tin. It was the heart-shaped tin I had used to bake my own wedding cake. I wouldn’t have thought much of it except that it was only two months since my husband had left me, out of the blue.

Nearly 23 years ago, this giant metal heart had been brand new. My husband-to-be had told me he liked fruit cake but hated glace cherries. For our wedding, I decided to bake him a rich, dark fruit cake with no cherries and chopped-up dried apricots to take their place. There are photos of us cutting the cake together looking blissfully happy. We would soon be on our way to Venice for our honeymoon.

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© Photograph: thomas-bethge/Getty Images/iStockphoto

© Photograph: thomas-bethge/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Why did Just Stop Oil just stop? – podcast

Just Stop Oil, the climate activism group behind motorway blockades, petrol station disruption and tomato soup attacks on major artworks, has disbanded after staging a final action in London this weekend. To find out why the group has decided to hang up the famous orange high-vis, Madeleine Finlay hears from our environment correspondent Damien Gayle who has been covering Just Stop Oil since its inception. He explains how policy wins and policing crackdowns combined to bring the movement to a close, and what the future of climate activism could look like in its wake

What next for climate activism now Just Stop Oil is ‘hanging up the hi-vis’?

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

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© Photograph: Gary Calton/The Guardian

© Photograph: Gary Calton/The Guardian

Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma implicated in intimidation campaign by Chinese regime

29 avril 2025 à 06:00

Billionaire appears to have been asked to pressure friend to return to China to help pursue out-of-favour official

The Chinese regime enlisted Jack Ma, the billionaire co-founder of Alibaba, in an intimidation campaign to press a businessman to help in the purge of a top official, documents seen by the Guardian suggest.

The businessman, who can be named only as “H” for fear of reprisals against his family still in China, faced a series of threats from the Chinese state, in an attempt to get him to return home from France, where he was living. They included a barrage of phone calls, the arrest of his sister, and the issuing of a red notice, an international alert, through Interpol.

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© Illustration: Guardian Design

© Illustration: Guardian Design

Press freedom and pluralism face ‘existential battle’ across EU, report finds

29 avril 2025 à 06:00

Exclusive: Several governments are attacking or weakening media independence, Civil Liberties Union for Europe says

Media pluralism in many EU member states is being increasingly strangled by a high concentration of ownership, even in countries with traditionally free media markets, according to a report that concludes press freedom is crumbling across the bloc.

The report, produced by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) based on the work of 43 human rights groups from 21 countries, said several EU governments were attacking press freedom or weakening media independence and regulation.

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© Photograph: Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse/Rex/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse/Rex/Shutterstock

Police and prosecutors’ details shared with Israel during UK protests inquiry, papers suggest

Exclusive: Documents indicate government gave embassy contact details while arms factory protest was investigated

The UK government shared contact details of counter-terrorism police and prosecutors with the Israeli embassy during an investigation into protests at an arms factory, official documents suggest, raising concerns about foreign interference.

An email was sent on 9 September last year by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) to Daniela Grudsky Ekstein, Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UK, with the subject matter “CPS/SO15 [Crown Prosecution Service/counterterrorism police] contact details”.

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© Photograph: Martin Pope

© Photograph: Martin Pope

I was 19 and on the trip of a lifetime – then I drank a cocktail laced with methanol

29 avril 2025 à 06:00

In a bar in Bali, Ashley King was given a lethal drink. A day later, she realised she was going blind. She thought all her dreams were over – but the reality proved very different

The last night of Ashley King’s holiday shouldn’t have been especially memorable. It was 30 August 2011, and she and her best friend, Krista, went out barhopping in the tourist town of Kuta in southern Bali, as they had done many times before. King and Krista are from Calgary in Canada, and had decided to spend a year travelling after their high school graduation. They planned to explore the island of Bali, but King’s credit cards were stolen and Krista ran out of money, so they were stuck in Kuta, a party district.

In one of the swankier bars on the strip, King was given a fruity vodka cocktail in a reusable plastic bottle, so she could dance without spilling it. She was drunk, she says, but not notably so. After nursing their hangovers the next day, she and Krista went to the airport at midnight: King was travelling to New Zealand for the rugby World Cup, and Krista to Australia.

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© Photograph: Leah Hennel/The Guardian

© Photograph: Leah Hennel/The Guardian

Disgruntled French workers encouraged to arrive late in protest over pension age rise

29 avril 2025 à 06:00

Artists created an AI ‘minister of latecomers’, who encourages people to compensate for years lost, and a tool calculating exactly how late to turn up

Changes to France’s pension system have been a hot potato for French presidents for decades, bringing disgruntled people on to the streets, leading to civil unrest and nationwide strikes that have brought the country to a standstill.

Two years ago, in the face of bitter opposition, Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, passed a law raising the general retirement age from 62 to 64 and the issue appeared to have been put to bed.

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© Photograph: Kiran Ridley/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kiran Ridley/Getty Images

The EU can’t replace the US as a global player until it sheds its own colonial thinking | Shada Islam

29 avril 2025 à 06:00

Eurocentric assumptions and bullying resource-grabs are justified causes of outrage in the global south

Donald Trump has disrupted the global economy with his disastrous tariff wars and appears hell-bent on gutting transatlantic relations. I am hoping he has also unwittingly injected new life into the EU’s struggle to wean itself off overreliance on Washington.

A vast network of trade and aid agreements connects the EU with more than 70 countries. The union could become an important standalone global actor and even thrive in a multipolar world. But it must first shed its Eurocentric worldviews, complacent policymaking and double standards.

Shada Islam is a Brussels-based commentator on EU affairs. She runs New Horizons Project, a strategy, analysis and advisory company

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© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images

© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images

‘You have to be taken inside Poirot’s brain’: Ken Ludwig on the secret to adapting Agatha Christie

29 avril 2025 à 06:00

The US playwright and anglophile behind much-revived comedies has a flair for crime and is following a crowd-pleasing Murder on the Orient Express with Death on the Nile

If you ever face a quiz question about the most performed theatre writers in the world, likely to have a play on somewhere every day, William Shakespeare, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Agatha Christie are all reliable answers but a fourth may surprise you: Ken Ludwig. He also has intriguing connections with the other three.

The popularity that made the American wealthy enough to have donated £1m to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is partly due – apart from his own much-revived comedies, Lend Me a Tenor (1986) and Moon Over Buffalo (1995) – to Christie. Ludwig’s 2017 adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express has had hundreds of productions and is currently touring the UK. We meet when he is in London for a workshop on a second Hercule Poirot adaptation, Death on the Nile, which premieres in September.

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© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

‘The eighth wonder of the world’: China’s terracotta warriors to march on Australia for blockbuster show

29 avril 2025 à 05:30

Perth will host huge exhibition of ancient treasures from first emperor’s tomb in June, with 40% of the artefacts leaving China for the first time ever

Two thousand years ago, in a bid to conquer death itself, China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huang commissioned a city of the dead: a 49 sq km mausoleum guarded by an army of clay warriors, built to defend his tomb for eternity.

When farmers near Xi’an unearthed the first clay head in 1974, they cracked open one of humanity’s greatest archaeological mysteries, with more than 8,000 Terracotta Warriors discovered over the last 50 years. Now, fragments of that dream of immortality rise again – this time in Perth, where the largest exhibition of the Terracotta Warriors ever staged in Australia will head later this year

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© Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images

Peace Corps to undergo ‘significant’ cuts after Doge review

29 avril 2025 à 02:26

Staff offered second ‘fork in the road’ buyout and are ‘strongly encouraged to consider this option’

The Peace Corps is offering staff a second “fork in the road” buyout, according to a source familiar with the matter. Allison Greene, the chief executive of Peace Corps, sent an email to staff on Monday with an update about the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) assessment of the agency.

Greene said to expect “significant restructuring efforts” at Peace Corps headquarters, according to the email seen by the Guardian. Starting on 28 April and going through 6 May, direct hire and expert staff are being offered a second deferred resignation program, what Elon Musk’s Doge has referred to as a “fork in the road” buyout. Greene referred to this offer as “DRP 2.0”.

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© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Canada’s liberal party, led by Mark Carney, secures election victory after dramatic reversal of fortune

29 avril 2025 à 08:19

Party written off months ago secures fourth term in stunning comeback after Donald Trump’s threats boosted campaign

Canada’s Liberal party has won a fourth term, capping a miraculous political resurrection for the party – and marking a landmark victory for former central banker and political novice Mark Carney as he prepares to face off against US president Donald Trump.

Mirroring a theme of the campaign, the prime minister used victory speech to warn Trump wants to “break us, so that America can own us.”

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© Photograph: Blair Gable/Reuters

© Photograph: Blair Gable/Reuters

Labour v Reform UK: on the road in Runcorn – podcast

Helen Pidd heads to the industrial town before this week’s byelection. How will Labour fare in its first big electoral test since taking power? Kiran Stacey reports

Runcorn, a town in Cheshire, has not been the most politically interesting place in recent memory. In fact Runcorn and Helsby has been a safe Labour seat for decades. Then the MP Mike Amesbury resigned after punching a constituent, triggering a byelection. Now Reform UK are nipping at Labour’s heels in the battle for the ward.

Helen Pidd has been out in the town to find out what voters think about the government and Nigel Farage. She spoke to voters who are angry at Reform’s tactics of focusing on migration, but who also feel let down by Labour. She visits Labour’s almost empty electoral nerve centre and notices the optimism in Reform’s office. Even a passing Liberal candidate is struck by the efficiency of the Reform machine and the apparent enthusiasm for it. And she also heads to a hotel that has been housing asylum seekers to see how it has become a flashpoint in local politics.

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© Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

© Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Four children killed after car crashes through Illinois building, say police

29 avril 2025 à 03:59

Several injured after vehicle hit three people during after-school program and one more before exiting other side

Four children, between the ages of four and 18, were killed and several others injured when a car barreled through a building that housed an after-school camp program on Monday afternoon in a town outside of Springfield, Illinois, police said.

Officers responded around 3.20pm to calls in Chatham about a vehicle hitting three people outside the building used by the YNOT Outdoors Summare and After School Camp, ramming through the building and then hitting one more person before exiting the other side, Chatham police department deputy chief Scott Tarter said.

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© Photograph: AP

© Photograph: AP

Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy calls Putin’s offer of brief ceasefire ‘manipulation’

29 avril 2025 à 03:41

Ukraine president urges month-long truce after Russia suggests three-day one to mark a world war two victory. What we know on day 1,161

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for an immediate month-long ceasefire after Vladimir Putin unilaterally announced a three-day truce for next month during a second world war anniversary. The Ukrainian president said: “Now there’s a new attempt at manipulation. For some reason, everyone is supposed to wait for May 8 and only then have a ceasefire to ensure calm for Putin during the parade.” He added: “We value people’s lives and not parades. We believe that the world believes that there is no reason to wait for May 8. And the ceasefire should be not for a few days only to resume the killing afterward.” Ukrainian officials also pointed out that Russia announced a similar truce over the Easter period only to violate it. The Russian president suggested the ceasefire in May to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union in the second world war, and said Kyiv should follow Moscow’s example. If respected by both sides, it would mark the first full ceasefire since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.

A series of blasts were heard in Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday after Ukraine’s air force issued air raid alerts for the capital, a Reuters witness reported. Ukraine’s military said air defence systems were trying to repel an air attack.

Germany’s incoming chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has promised to put staunch support of Ukraine at the heart of his government after announcing that a pro-Kyiv foreign policy expert and former soldier will be the new foreign minister. Merz said that Johann Wadephul, a conservative MP who has long advised Merz on foreign policy, would become the new foreign minister. Wadephul has been a supporter of military backing for Ukraine and recently told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) newspaper the war in Ukraine “is not about a few square kilometres in Ukraine but rather the fundamental question of whether we will allow a classic war of conquest in Europe”. Merz himself said Vladimir Putin’s invasion was nothing less than a battle “against the entire political order of the European continent”. Boris Pistorius, a social democrat who is widely expected to continue in the role as defence minister, said Donald Trump’s peace deal proposals were “akin to a capitulation”.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov the US is committed to working to end “this senseless war”, the state department said. “The United States is serious about facilitating an end to this senseless war,” state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a readout of Sunday’s call, which was already announced by Russia. She said Rubio spoke to Lavrov about “the next steps in Russia-Ukraine peace talks and the need to end the war now”. The call took place before Putin on Monday offered a three-day truce.

The Guardian’s Luke Harding has been reporting from frontline battles near Ukraine’s Oskil River. “Before the war, it was a place for recreation. Visitors would grill kebabs on its sandy beaches or go kayaking past a ridge of low chalk hills and a small national park. Now it is a zone of war, waged by drones, artillery and bombs. The Russians are trying to expand a slender bridgehead on the river’s right bank, near Dvorichna,” he writes. Read the full story here.

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© Photograph: Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images

© Photograph: Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images

Four pro-democracy lawmakers from ‘Hong Kong 47’ group freed after four years in jail

29 avril 2025 à 03:02

Claudia Mo, Kwok Ka-ki, Jeremy Tam and Gary Fan among those released on Tuesday after prosecution criticised as politically motivated

Four members of the “Hong Kong 47” group of pro-democracy campaigners and activists jailed on contentious national security convictions have been freed.

Claudia Mo, Kwok Ka-ki, Jeremy Tam and Gary Fan are the first of the group to be released from jail, after serving sentences of more than four years. The group - tried together in Hong Kong’s largest ever national security trial - were sentenced in November. However most of them, including the four released on Tuesday, had already spent several years detained after courts denied bail.

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© Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

Mothers deported by Trump ‘denied’ chance to transfer custody of children, lawyer says

29 avril 2025 à 00:02

Two women and their children, who are US citizens, held in ‘complete isolation’ before being put on flight to Honduras

Two women who were deported to Honduras alongside their US citizen children were held in “complete isolation” and denied any opportunity to coordinate the care and custody of their children before being put on a flight, according to one of the lawyers representing them.

The mothers were unable to contact attorneys or loved ones, and were not allowed the option to transfer the custody of their citizen children to another parent or caregiver, said Gracie Willis, an attorney with the National Immigration Project who is representing one of the families and coordinating with the team representing the other family.

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© Photograph: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Canada election 2025: latest results as Mark Carney seeks to stay on as PM

29 avril 2025 à 06:24

Canadians voted on Monday in a general election pitting Carney’s Liberals against the Conservatives of Pierre Poilievre. With most votes counted it seems Carney will return as PM, but the Liberals may not have a majority in the House of Commons

Source: Elections Canada

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© Composite: AP / The Guardian

© Composite: AP / The Guardian

Trump’s first 100 days supercharged a global ‘freefall of rights’, says Amnesty

29 avril 2025 à 01:01

World now in era of repressive regimes’ impunity, climate inaction and unchecked corporate power, says report

The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have “supercharged” a global rollback of human rights, pushing the world towards an authoritarian era defined by impunity and unchecked corporate power, Amnesty International warns today.

In its annual report on the state of human rights in 150 countries, the organisation said the immediate ramifications of Trump’s second term had been the undermining of decades of progress and the emboldening of authoritarian leaders.

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© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

RFU opens door to hosting Chelsea if they need temporary home

28 avril 2025 à 19:00
  • Richmond council could block Twickenham move
  • Chelsea considering long-term move to Earl’s Court

The Rugby Football Union chief executive, Bill Sweeney, has said Twickenham could host Chelsea matches if the Premier League club is seeking a temporary home – but he believes the local council would attempt to stand in the way.

Sweeney acknowledged the financial carrot of hosting an elite football team on a short-term basis and revealed discussions had previously taken place. Chelsea have long since been looking to either upgrade Stamford Bridge or relocate elsewhere in London and in 2017 it was said that moving temporarily to Twickenham was an option being considered.

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© Photograph: Bob Bradford/CameraSport/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bob Bradford/CameraSport/Getty Images

Electricity restored to 90% of Spain and most of Portugal after massive power outage

The outage, blamed by operators on temperature variations, left tens of millions without electricity

Lights flickered back to life across most of Spain and Portugal on Tuesday after a massive blackout hit the Iberian peninsula, stranding passengers in trains and elevators while millions lost phone and internet coverage.

Electricity had been restored to nearly 90% of mainland Spain by early on Tuesday, the grid operator REE said. Power was restored overnight to around 6.2m households in Portugal out of 6.5m, according to the national electricity grid operator. Lights also came on again in Madrid and in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon.

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© Photograph: Ana Beltran/Reuters

© Photograph: Ana Beltran/Reuters

MLB commissioner Manfred to rule on Pete Rose ban after Trump meeting

28 avril 2025 à 23:10
  • 17-time All-Star was given life-ban over betting scandal
  • Manfred and Trump also discussed foreign players

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he discussed Pete Rose with Donald Trump at a meeting two weeks ago and he plans to rule on a request to end the sport’s permanent ban of the career hits leader, who died in September.

Speaking Monday at a meeting of the Associated Press Sports Editors, Manfred said he and Trump have discussed several issues, including Manfred’s concerns over how Trump’s immigration policies could impact players from Cuba, Venezuela and other foreign countries.

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© Photograph: John Swart/AP

© Photograph: John Swart/AP

The Last of Us recap: season two, episode three – yes, Joel has been replaced already

28 avril 2025 à 23:10

In an episode more moving and raw than ever before, a traumatised Ellie grabs a gun and rides off to take revenge. But can she possibly make it – and who are the scarred newbies?

This article contains spoilers for the The Last of Us season two. Please do not read unless you have seen episodes one to three.

Despite growing up amid a fungal apocalypse that she alone may have the ability to undo, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is a typical teenager in one key regard: constant sarcastic backchat. We’ve seen the unfiltered 19-year-old dish it out to friends and authority figures alike, rarely thinking twice before saying whatever is on her mind. Which makes it all the more affecting when she spends so much of this episode in pained silence, grieving for the surrogate father she helplessly watched get killed at the end of last week’s relentless emotional wringer.

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© Photograph: Warner Bros Discovery

© Photograph: Warner Bros Discovery

Leeds close in on title after Tanaka and Ramazani’s double crushes Bristol City

28 avril 2025 à 23:08

As, partway though the first half, the home supporters launched into a chorus of “Daniel, Daniel Farke,” a little smile played across the face of the Leeds manager as he offered a polite wave in return.

Up in the directors’ box, Paraag Marathe looked on inscrutably. If, and it remains quite a big if, he really is considering sacking Farke, the club’s chairman – who, perhaps significantly pulled out of a planned pre-match television interview at the last minute – must surely be having second thoughts after this.

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© Photograph: Carl Recine/Getty Images

© Photograph: Carl Recine/Getty Images

Elon Musk’s Doge conflicts of interest worth $2.37bn, Senate report says

28 avril 2025 à 22:51

Committee calls figure a ‘conservative estimate’ and warns Musk may seek to use his influence to avoid legal liability

Elon Musk and his companies face at least $2.37bn in legal exposure from federal investigations, litigation and regulatory oversight, according to a new report from Senate Democrats. The report attempts to put a number to Musk’s many conflicts of interest through his work with his so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), warning that he may seek to use his influence to avoid legal liability.

The report, which was published on Monday by Democratic members of the Senate homeland security committee’s permanent subcommittee on investigations, looked at 65 actual or potential actions against Musk across 11 separate agencies. Investigators calculated the financial liabilities Musk and his companies, such as Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink, may face in 45 of those actions.

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Spirited Mikel Arteta urges Arsenal fans to ‘bring their boots’ against PSG

28 avril 2025 à 22:47
  • Manager said club ‘feel’ lack of Champions League trophy
  • Mikel Merino could replace Thomas Partey in midfield

Mikel Arteta has told the Arsenal support to “bring your boots” and a can-do attitude for the Champions League semi-final first-leg at home against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night, as he radiated conviction that the club was primed to make history.

The manager described the game as the biggest of his career and one of the most significant hosted by the Emirates Stadium, which opened for the 2006-07 season. It is Arsenal’s third appearance in the last four of Europe’s elite competition, after the victory against Villarreal in 2005-06 and the defeat by Manchester United in 2008-09.

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© Photograph: Alex Davidson/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alex Davidson/Getty Images

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