When I saw Bill Murray’s classic comedy I realised that I was trapped in my own unfulfilling time loop

I didn’t know anything about the plot of Groundhog Day before I decided to watch it 10 years ago. I remember collapsing on to the sofa after work – completely exhausted – and putting it on. My girlfriend was already asleep in the next room. Her drinking had been getting steadily worse that year, but I think we were both in denial about it. Most evenings I’d spend alone, so I’d put a movie on in the background for company.

I found it funny at first, watching Bill Murray’s character trapped in a time-loop. But about 20 minutes in, I started feeling this creeping sense of dread. I remember seeing Murray’s white alarm clock going off, waking him up to begin the same day and feeling this horrible spark of recognition. It was like watching my own life play out on the screen in front of me.

Cynthia Erivo plays sextuplets! Katie Holmes is an undertaker! And Kumail Nunjiani is the new Tiger King! The super cool, celebrity-packed show is even wilder than ever

The best thing about Poker Face is that it doesn’t bother trying to shore up what it knows is a flimsy premise. Fans of the first season will recall that Charlie Cale, Natasha Lyonne’s wisecracking 70s detective homage, has an in-built ability to detect a lie as soon as someone tells it. Instead of trying to explain this gift away as the result of a gamma storm or spider bite or covert government experiment, it now accepts that, yeah, she has a “freaky little lie detector trick”, that’s the extent of the idea, got a problem with that? These days, Charlie waves away any queries about it with an “Eh”, a shrug and a cheeky nudge of the baseball cap and aviator shades.

After using her talent to work her way through a series of increasingly preposterous case-of-the-week murders last time, then ending up with the mafia putting out a hit on her, Charlie begins the second season (starting 8 May, 9pm, Sky Max) on the lam once more, only now goons with guns keep popping up and shooting at her. For what could have been a high-concept show, Poker Face is surprisingly fuss-free about all of this, and barely lets a violent mob-based subplot get in the way of what Charlie does best. That is, wandering around small-town America, working out who is a killer and how/why they did it, then exposing them for their terrible crimes. She has to dodge bullets on occasion, sure, but she always keeps her eyes on the prize: coughing out the word “bullshit” and cracking the case.

Our street party tea was a muted celebration, full of uncertainty. Then, as now, we faced a long struggle towards a better world

It is May 2025, it is 4am, and I am sitting up in bed, sleepless, looking out at a huge moon illuminating the still world.

Eighty-five years ago, in 1940, a silently weeping seven-year-old lay on a cracked leatherette sofa in urine-soaked pyjamas, looking through an alien window, praying that that same moon would protect my mum and dad from the killer bombs falling in London.

Today on World Press Freedom Day, there are warnings that US attempts to withdraw from promoting independent journalism will have far-reaching effects

As Donald Trump’s executive order in March led to the shuttering of Voice of America (VOA) – the global broadcaster whose roots date back to the fight against Nazi propaganda – he quickly attracted support from figures not used to aligning themselves with any US administration.

Trump had ordered the US Agency for Global Media, the federal agency that funds VOA and other groups promoting independent journalism overseas, to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law”. The decision suddenly halted programming in 49 languages to more than 425 million people.

From Proxima Centauri b and Trappist-1 system to ophidiophobia, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 The longest direct flight from London goes to which city?
2 Until 1752, when did the new year officially begin in England?
3 Which action film hero suffers from ophidiophobia?
4 AE Stallings succeeded Alice Oswald in what role?
5 Which country’s president was shot by his intelligence chief in 1979?
6 Which marsupial is native to North America?
7 Vanwall, in 1958, was the first winner of what title?
8 Who wrote Natural History, the longest surviving single Roman text?
What links:
9 Lumbini; Bodh Gaya; Sarnath; Kushinagar?
10 51 Pegasi b; Kepler-22b; Proxima Centauri b; Trappist-1 system?
11 Miller; Marshall; O’Hanlon; Little; Gilet?
12 Gun; orlop; poop; quarter; upper; well?
13 Chateau de Châlus-Chabrol; Pontefract Castle; Bosworth Field?
14 Birmingham (1); Liverpool (6); London (2); Manchester (4); Nottingham (2)?
15 Kim Deal; Kim Gordon; Carol Kaye; Esperanza Spalding; Tina Weymouth?

Saudi Arabia’s extension of its soft power through sport reached into the heart of New York City on Friday night with a grandiose boxing card for a select audience backed by Turki al-Sheikh, the chairman of the Kingdom’s General Entertainment Authority

• Garcia tamed by Romero in Times Square upset

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

Tina Fey returns with a starry sitcom, Chalamet’s Dylan biopic is on streaming and the New York quartet make a joyful noise. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Everyone has cleared off, leaving me rattling around the house with the pets – and feeling paralysed by indecision

One minute the house is full – when I walk in the oldest one, and his friend, and the middle one, and my wife are all fussing over a manual juicer the oldest one has brought back from a car boot sale.

“What’s going on?” I say.

Point Blank, a collection of 97 paintings of ‘emotional resonance’ by the singer-songwriter, will open at the Halcyon Gallery in May

After the success of this year’s biopic A Complete Unknown, a whole new generation has learned about the lyricism, nasal vocal style and often-frustrating nature of Bob Dylan.

And this month they will get the chance to discover he is also a painter, as the songwriter exhibits a series of original artworks – created with “emotional resonance” – in London.

Kyiv has brought in new incentives for those under 25 in an effort to repopulate the frontline as the war grinds on

“I’m not just here to avenge my brother,” says Luntik, 20, one of Ukraine’s newest soldiers, as he takes a break from training. He has joined up, he says, to try to liberate the territory of Ukraine from the Russian invaders: “When the thief is coming to your house and you are afraid he might harm you or kill your wife, you will take actions and, if necessary, kill the thief.”

The mild spring day, somewhere in Kharkiv region, belies the seriousness of the conversation. Luntik is one of a dozen or so young recruits, all aged between 18 and 24, who have agreed to join Ukraine’s army before the age of 25, at which men can be forcibly mobilised. The lure is a bonus of 1m hryvnia (nearly £18,000), 0% mortgages and a short one-year contract; the scheme, launched in February, is a fresh effort to repopulate Ukraine’s frontline.

This week the presenter turns 99. To celebrate, we asked 99 nature lovers – including Margaret Atwood, Jane Fonda, Bono, Kate Winslet and Michael Palin – how he has helped us see the world with fresh eyes

Presenter, nature activist
It’s all about truth. Ask yourself, “Has David ever knowingly lied to me?” No, never. He may have told us things 40 years ago that science has updated, but he’s always told us the truth. In an age when it’s hard to trust anyone, that stands as his greatest asset.

Denise, 62, meets Federico, 64. Both are actors

What were you hoping for?
Someone drop-dead gorgeous – Matthew McConaughey.

In the unlikely event you have some asparagus left over, blitz it into a lovely rubble and layer into this outstanding springtime lasagne

As Yotam Ottolenghi once said here before, a lasagne doesn’t have to contain ragu and bechamel. In the broadest sense, lasagne is just a layered pasta dish using various fillings and sauces and, as such, the world is your lasagne. This particular one came about because I was so extremely excited about British asparagus arriving early this year that I bought far too much of it, so had to come up with a starring role for it at the dinner table. I hithered and thithered about baking the asparagus, in case it lost its freshness, but I needn’t have: it’s still fresh-tasting and, like any good lasagne, comforting to boot.

Kaitlyn Regehr says parents worrying about their children need first to look at their own usage

Switching off the colours on your phone and spending half an hour a week pruning your algorithm can help consumers control and improve their online media diet, according to a professor turned “digital nutritionist”.

These two measures, otherwise known as greyscaling and algorithmic resistance, are among a number of recommendations from Dr Kaitlyn Regehr, an associate professor at University College London and a leading expert in digital literacy.

Today is World Press Freedom Day. The Guardian is determined to highlight the dangers faced by reporters working in some of the world’s most perilous places, and to tell their stories

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There is a war on journalists raging across the world. Last year, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recorded the highest number of media workers killed since it began collecting data three decades ago.

According to that data, at least 124 journalists and media workers were killed in 2024 – nearly two-thirds of them Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank.

• Garcia loses by unanimous decision to 6-1 underdog
• Haney, Lopez cruise in surreal Times Square setting
• Photos: Saudi-backed boxing takes over Times Square

Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero scored the biggest win of his career on Friday night, upsetting Ryan Garcia by unanimous decision in the main event of a surreal outdoor boxing card staged in the heart of Times Square.

Romero dropped Garcia with a double left hook in the second round and went on to control the fight. The three ringside judges scored the bout 115-112 (twice) and 118-109 for the Las Vegas-based fighter, who improved to 17-2 with 13 knockouts. (The Guardian had it 116-111 for Romero.)

Freedom Flotilla Coalition claims Israel to blame for attack on unarmed civilian vessel in international waters

A ship carrying humanitarian aid and activists to Gaza has been bombed by drones and disabled while in international waters off Malta as it headed towards the Palestinian territory, its organisers have said.

“At 00:23 Maltese time, the Conscience, a Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship came under direct attack in international waters,” the group said in a statement.

Nighttime strikes in four districts prompt fresh appeal from Volodymyr Zelenskyy to boost air defences. What we know on day 1,165

• See all our Ukraine war coverage

That distinctive ‘new furniture smell’ is a sign that harmful compounds are being released. Here are ways to sidestep the environmental and health risks of cheap furniture

• Change by Degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint
• Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com

You’ve heard of fast fashion – but what about fast furniture?

It’s the cheap stuff churned out in mass quantities with little regard for quality, all designed to be ditched within just a few years.

No longer must we wince through a jarring Cockney-Kiwi mix: Hollywood has finally cracked Aussie dialects. Is it the teaching, the spread of Bluey, AI – or something else?

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Australian actors have been putting on different accents for so long, and so undetectably, that one often stumbles upon surprise Aussies in films and shows. Sarah Snook was not the only Australian in Succession, for example; Nate Sofrelli, the political strategist and Shiv’s erstwhile lover, was played by compatriot Ashley Zukerman. Then there’s Geraldine Viswanathan (Thunderbolts*, Drive-Away Dolls), Dichen Lachman (Severance), Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things), Yvonne Strahovski (The Handmaid’s Tale) – the list goes on.

But the reverse – foreign actors convincingly portraying Australians – has been rare; quite often attempts have ended up a jarring melange of cockney, South African and New Zealand English.

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As some colleges, including Yale and Tulane, revive protests this spring, campuses respond with disciplinary action

Over the first two days of May, a total of six Swarthmore College students were interim suspended for the creation of a campus encampment earlier in the week. The students in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, were suspended without due process and were told to evacuate from campus, said Swarthmore’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in a 2 May statement.

Of the six students who were temporarily suspended, four were people of color and three were first-generation, low-income students, the statement continued: “This is part of a disturbing trend of Swarthmore exploiting the vulnerabilities of student protesters on the basis of racialized discrimination.” The students on interim suspension are banned from attending college events or stepping foot on campus. Swarthmore SJP did not respond to a request for comment by the publication date.

• World Surf League mid-season cut delayed until after ninth tour stop
• Bells Beach the first of three Australian events to open season

Australian surfers are the big winners in a revamped 2026 World Surf League calendar that has axed the divisive finals day to decide the world champions.

The Pipe Pro at Pipeline in Hawaii will return as the men’s finale for the first time since 2019, while it will be the season-ending women’s event for the first time.

Upgrade from ‘suspected’ threat will mean greater surveillance of party that came second in last election

• AfD ‘extremist’ label sets up political high-wire act for Merz

Germany’s domestic intelligence service has designated the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the biggest opposition party, as a “confirmed rightwing extremist” force, meaning authorities can step up their surveillance as critics call for it to be legally banned.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) previously considered the anti-immigrant, pro-Kremlin party a “suspected” threat to Germany’s democratic order, with three of the AfD’s regional chapters in eastern statesand its youth wing classed as confirmed extremist.

Voting booths open across Australia as last polls suggest Albanese set to be re-elected as Australian prime minister. Follow today’s news live

• Polls tracker; Election guide; Interactive seat explorer
• Party policies; Micro parties explained; Full election coverage
• Listen to the latest episode of our new narrative podcast series: Gina
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Under a perfect blue sky perhaps more reminiscent of home than the customary grey of London, ex-pats in Britain have been queueing up to vote at Australia House.

The wait to cast a ballot has been up to 30 minutes with the line snaking out of the entrance and up and down the pavement.

Syria says at least one civilian killed in latest strikes, while most Druze leaders rebuff Israeli protection

Israeli warplanes have carried out a series of airstrikes outside Damascus and across Syria, after warnings from Israeli officials that the country would intervene to protect the Syria’s minority Druze sect.

The airstrikes targeted a Syrian military site in the Damascus suburb of Harasta, as well as hitting unknown targets in Deraa province in south Syria and Hama province in north-west Syria. At least one civilian was killed and four people were injured as a result of the Israeli bombings late Friday night, according to Syrian state media.

After Google lost its first monopoly trial, government asks it to sell off units of its core internet ads business

Google on Friday faced a demand by the US government to break up its hugely profitable ad technology business. The request came after a judge found the tech giant was commanding an illegal monopoly for the second time in less than a year.

“We have a defendant who has found ways to defy” the law, US government lawyer Julia Tarver Wood told a federal court in Virginia, as she urged the judge to dismiss Google’s assurance that it would change its behavior. “Leaving a recidivist monopolist” intact was not appropriate to solve the issue, she added.

• Norris ‘more confident than I have ever been’
• Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli takes debut sprint pole

Lando Norris wants only to focus on his racing as he attempts to re-establish his challenge for the Formula One world championship this season. The McLaren driver insists he has never been so confident in his own ability before this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, where he qualified in third place for Saturday’s sprint race and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli took his debut F1 sprint pole.

The British driver opened the season strongly with a win in Australia and led the championship until the last round in Saudi Arabia when he was overtaken by his teammate Oscar Piastri, who has now won three of the opening five meetings.

• Securing league crown has enabled earlier preparation
• Slot: ‘It definitely helps to attract new players as well’

Arne Slot believes the emphatic nature of Liverpool’s title triumph and the emotional celebrations that followed will help the club beat off competition for their main transfer targets this summer.

The Liverpool head coach gave his players two days off as reward for clinching a record-equalling 20th league title on Sunday, when a party was held at Anfield after the 5-1 rout of Tottenham. Slot’s celebrations continued with his wife’s birthday meal on Monday before his focus switched back to business on Tuesday.

Manchester City and Kevin De Bruyne know how to time a run perfectly, even if their long-lasting relationship is coming to an end. The Belgian’s dart into the box and clinical finish secured a fourth Premier League win in a row, at the expense of Wolves, to put City into third place and a step closer to qualifying for the Champions League.

City will be as pleased with the hard-fought victory, inspired by a humorous Neil Warnock team talk at training on Thursday, as Wolves are disappointed to leave with nothing. They rattled the woodwork twice and were the more dangerous team inside the box but when it comes to critical moments, there are few better in world football than De Bruyne as his experience outweighs his physical decline.

The prince has offered Buckingham Palace an olive branch after years of recrimination and lost litigation

• Prince Harry says king ‘won’t speak to him’ and he would ‘love’ to be reconciled

Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex made the decision to step away from royal duties in September 2020 as tensions mounted between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family over their independence and treatment of the duchess.

Now after losing a legal challenge over his security arrangements, Harry has opened the door to reconciliation and said that he had forgiven his family for the “many disagreements”.

Going to the Mill was bought by the literary editor of the Manchester Guardian and had remained in the family

A rare painting by LS Lowry bought for £10 has sold at auction for more than £800,000.

The painting, Going to the Mill, was bought by the literary editor of the Manchester Guardian, Arthur Wallace, for £10 in 1926 and has been in the same family ever since.

Territory’s voluntary move comes as Trump administration makes good on pledge to end lawsuits against oil and gas

Puerto Rico has voluntarily dismissed its 2024 climate lawsuit against big oil, a Friday legal filing shows, just two days after the US justice department sued two states over planned litigation against oil companies for their role in the climate crisis.

Puerto Rico’s lawsuit, filed in July, alleged that the oil and gas giants had misled the public about the climate dangers associated with their products. It came as part of a wave of litigation filed by dozens of US states, cities and municipalities in recent years.

• World No 5 beats Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Draper will face Casper Ruud on Sunday

When he arrived in Madrid two weeks ago, Jack Draper was still just trying to find his rhythm on clay, a surface he knew he could play well on but one that had so far brought him nothing but misery.

Now, after another of the best fortnights of his career, the 23-year-old will play for one of the biggest clay titles of all. He continued his sublime breakthrough run on Friday night by holding on in a bruising encounter with the 10th seed Lorenzo Musetti to reach the Madrid Open final with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) win.

State Man secured his third straight victory in Champion Hurdle while Nicky Henderson said it was ‘a tough place to be’ after another poor showing by Constitution Hill

State Man, who was denied a repeat success in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in March when he fell at the final flight, gained a measure of compensation here on Friday evening as he recorded a third successive win in Punchestown’s equivalent of the two-mile championship event. His task, though, was certainly made easier by a bitterly disappointing performance from Constitution Hill, the 2023 Champion Hurdle winner and odds-on favourite here, who beat only one of his five opponents home.

The race was billed as a rematch of the last meeting between Constitution Hill, State Man and Golden Ace in the Champion Hurdle, which proved to be one of the most dramatic runnings of a championship event in living memory. Constitution Hill, unbeaten in 10 starts and odds-on there as well, fell midway through the race while State Man crashed out with the race at his mercy, leaving Jeremy Scott’s outsider, Golden Ace, to take the spoils.

Joseph Czuba, 73, killed Muslim boy and severely injured his mother in vicious attack days after war in Gaza began

An Illinois landlord who killed a six-year-old Muslim boy and severely injured his mother in a vicious hate-crime attack days after the war in Gaza began was sentenced on Friday to 53 years in prison.

Joseph Czuba, 73, was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen.

With the pandemic in the rearview mirror it was clearly a boost for Fifa and Saudi Arabia but harmed grassroots sport and player welfare

Sound the trumpets, beat the drum, let loose the buttock-rockets of hope. One of the strangest and most unsatisfying things about the Covid‑19 pandemic, among a great many deeply strange and unsatisfying things, is that it never actually had a shared end date or ceremonial send-off.

Jarringly so, because this was a period in the national life built around a rigid roster of public events. The numerical rules. The weekly banging of pots in honour of people you secretly consider to be serfs. Such unlikely figures as Matt Hancock appearing in public every day in order to say inauthentic-sounding things about public health, all the while resembling the doomed subcommander of an imperial space galleon who keeps announcing that he’s got the situation under control, sir, just as the bridge behind him is cleaved in two and he’s sucked out into a skull-popping deep space inferno.

Rubio calls Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif ‘threat to US national security’ and says support for groups could lead to charges

The United States has designated a powerful Haitian gang alliance, whose members have taken control of almost all the capital city as a “transnational terrorist group”.

The criminal coalition known as Viv Ansanm (Live Together), and another faction, the Gran Grif gang, which in October took responsibility for a shocking massacre of at least 115 people in the agricultural town of Pont-Sondé, were both covered by the move on Friday.

Real-life anguish or confected entertainment? One thing is clear – the soap opera endures because millions still love to watch it

Well, isn’t this a plot turn? You switched on for the latest cinematic episode of Prince Harry fights the fight – not against the Mirror this time, not against Murdoch either, but against those who have stripped him of his security protection – and then the script goes to places that no one expected.

He loses his legal challenge in the court of appeal over the degree of security he is entitled to on the public purse while in the UK – that was pretty much expected. But then, in the second instalment of Britain’s longest-running potboiler, he exclusively opens an anguished heart to the BBC, post the appeal court verdict, and all sorts of dramatic twists ensue.

Hugh Muir is a Guardian columnist

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