US president says move was reaction to Caracas releasing large numbers of political prisoners as ‘sign of seeking peace’
The US Supreme court could issue a ruling later in the day determining whether Trump can invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs without the approval of Congress.
Although it is unclear whether the supreme court will issue a ruling, it has scheduled Friday as a “decision day” for releasing opinions, fuelling speculation that the tariff case could be decided this afternoon.
UK ministers are considering leaving X as a result of the controversy over the platform’s AI tool, which has been allowing users to generate digitally altered pictures of people – including children – with their clothes removed.
Anna Turley, the chair of the Labour party and a minister without portfolio in the Cabinet Office, said on Friday that conversations were happening within the government and Labour about their continued use of the social media platform, which is controlled by Elon Musk.
The third round of the FA Cup threw up plenty of intriguing ties. Check out some of the storylines ahead of the action which gets underway with four matches tonight.
Today’s Rumour Mill has been released into the wild. How many bloody defenders do Arsenal need?!
He was on the way to Liverpool last year and Manchester City are gunning for him now, reinforcements required after injuries to Josko Gvardiol and Rúben Dias. It’s only natural then that Arsenal feel a little bit left out. Yes, the league leaders are reportedly having a look at Crystal Palace’s in-demand captain, Marc Guéhi, whose contract runs out in the summer. Guéhi fighting it out with William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães in central defence? That wall at the back could become impenetrable.
A re-jig in the Tottenham backline is also in the offing. They’re pushing hard for the Santos and Brazil left-back Souza, 19 years young, after an £8m bid was rejected, while the former Genoa centre-back Radu Dragusin – who recently returned from an ACL injury – is rumoured for a move back to Italy, Roma the proposed destination. Brentford’s Kevin Schade continues to be linked with Spurs, which would set up a reunion with his former coach Thomas Frank.
US envoy welcomes pause in hostilities in contested region although it is unclear whether deal will hold
Syria’s government has announced a ceasefire after three days of clashes with Kurdish fighters in Aleppo, which has led to more than 140,000 people being displaced.
The pause in the fighting, which was the most intense in the country for more than six months, came into effect at 3am local time (midnight GMT). Under the terms of the ceasefire, Kurdish militants were to leave the three contested neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh and Bani Zaid, where clashes were happening. They would be provided safe passage to the north-east of the country, which is controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and be allowed to take light arms with them.
Big names from Leonardo DiCaprio to Timothée Chalamet are aiming for a win at Hollywood’s most important Oscars precursor
Hollywood’s A-list will assemble this weekend for the 83rd Golden Globes ceremony, a night that will reveal where this year’s Oscars race is headed.
Stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet, Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone, Michael B Jordan and Ariana Grande are among those nominated for film awards while small screen nominees include Helen Mirren, Jenna Ortega, Jude Law and Glen Powell.
Exclusive: SIK leader Jess Berthelsen rejects Trump claim that the US needs Greenland for ‘national security’
Greenland “will not be annexed”, the longtime leader of its largest labor union has declared, refuting Donald Trump’s claims that the Arctic territory’s current status poses a national security threat to the US.
In an interview with the Guardian, Jess Berthelsen, chair of SIK, Greenland’s national trade union confederation, said people in the territory do not recognize the US president’s allegations that Russian and Chinese ships are scattered throughout its waters. “We can’t see it, we can’t recognize it and we can’t understand it,” he said.
Barely a mile from Floyd’s murder, an officer killed Renee Nicole Good. We must peacefully say no to this violence
On 25 May 2020, America witnessed a stunning act of police brutality when a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, murdered George Floyd. The killer, Derek Chauvin, apparently confident that he would be immune to accountability, did his deed in the open, with other officers standing by and in front of a crowd of onlookers.
Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, is the author or editor of more than 100 books, including Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty
The author on the trouble with the Brönte novels, what she gained from reading John Updike and Martin Amis – and the brilliance of Barbara Pym
My earliest reading memory
Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome, aged seven. I didn’t learn to read in the first years of school and became entrenched in illiteracy until my grandmother, a retired primary school teacher, intervened. I loved the Swallows and Amazons series, and especially Swallowdale in which a shipwreck is redeemed and the adults provide exactly the right support when the children mess up.
My favourite book growing up
The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose politics I now find obviously objectionable. I often tell students that what you don’t get is what gets you, and I’m sure the obsession with rugged independence and the repression of foundational violence did me no good, but I liked the landscapes and the combination of domesticity and adventure.
Scientists at UCL say drug developers should focus on two risk-raising variants of the Apoe gene
New therapies for Alzheimer’s disease should target a particular gene linked to the condition, according to researchers who said most cases would never arise if its harmful effects were neutralised.
The call to action follows the arrival of the first wave of drugs that aim to treat Alzheimer’s patients by removing toxic proteins from the brain. While the drugs slow the disease down, the benefits are minor, and they have been rejected for widespread use by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).
From cosy museums and tropical islands to nightmarishly difficult adventures – and revamps of favourites including Mario Kart and Pokémon – there’s something for everyone
Nintendo’s newest console has been out for a less than a year but it already boasts an impressive catalogue of excellent new games, as well as a variety of enhanced Switch greats. Here’s our selection of the 15 best titles currently on offer, ranging from family favourites to grittier, more adult challenges.
Experts are urging guideline changes on what health professionals should wear to protect against flu-like illnesses including Covid
Surgical face masks provide inadequate protection against flu-like illnesses including Covid, and should be replaced by respirator-level masks – worn every time doctors and nurses are face to face with a patient, according to a group of experts urging changes to World Health Organization guidelines.
There is “no rational justification remaining for prioritising or using” the surgical masks that are ubiquitous in hospitals and clinics globally, given their “inadequate protection against airborne pathogens”, they said in a letter to WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Deal with Bournemouth has add-ons and sell-on clause
Semenyo says he is aiming to get City into the title race
Antoine Semenyo says he has arrived at Manchester City with the intention of getting the club back into the Premier League title race. The £62.5m signing joins a team six points behind the leaders, Arsenal, with 17 matches remaining.
The 26-year-old’s transfer from Bournemouth, who could receive £1.5m in add-ons and are due 10% of any future profit, was confirmed on Friday and Semenyo could make his debut against Exeter in the FA Cup on Saturday. City fought off competition from Liverpool and Manchester United to secure his signature.
If this reform succeeds it will be a blueprint for African self-reliance. But the state has failed to deliver the most basic services for decades. No wonder Nigerians are suspicious
Let’s not mince words. Nigeria’s new tax regime, which landed on our heads this January, is the most ambitious attempt to reshape the state since, well, since the last time someone had a “bright idea” in Abuja. They’re calling it a “generational reset”.
From where I sit, and from where millions of Nigerians actually sit – in traffic, in market stalls, in offices – wondering how to make ends meet, it feels more like a grand, high-stakes gamble.
(Self-released) The Beirut-born producer’s masterly second album revels in dark tension to cinematic effect, finding beauty in ruinous sound
Arabic electronic experimentalism is thriving. In recent years, diaspora artists such as Egyptian producer Abdullah Miniawy, singer Nadah El Shazly and Lebanese singer-songwriter Mayssa Jallad have each released records that combine the Arabic musical tradition of maqam and its slippery melodies with granular electronic sound design, rumbling bass and metallic drum programming to create a dramatic new proposition.
Beirut-born and Amsterdam-based composer Toni Geitani is the latest to contribute to this growing scene with his masterfully produced second album Wahj (“radiance” in Arabic). Working as a visual artist and sound designer, Geitani is well versed in creating imaginative soundscapes for films such as 2024 sci-fi Radius Collapse, as well as referencing the shadowy nocturnal hiss of producers such as Burial on his dabke-sampling 2018 debut album Al Roujoou Ilal Qamar. On Wahj, he harnesses soaring layali vocalisations, reverb-laden drums and analogue synths to leave a cinematic impression.
The postseason kicks off on Saturday. Our writers pick the dark horses, players to watch and make their tips for the NFL’s championship game
Melissa is right about the Lions (see below), but how about the Dallas Cowboys? Their defense was nauseating, and nobody wants a playoff weekend spoiled watching that. But their offense was electric. They finished fifth in the league in EPA/play in the regular season. And with Dak Prescott, a solid o-line and George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb, they had the potential to drop 30 points on any playoff group. If they’d snuck in and managed to knock off a top seed, it would have convinced Jerry Jones that he was on the right path. And nothing is funnier than Jones failing to recognize that the reason why Dallas is stuck is the reflection in his mirror. Oliver Connolly
Russia’s military has said it fired its new hypersonic Oreshnik missile at a target in Ukraine during a massive overnight strike.
Ukraine confirmed the attack, saying it took place in the west of the country near the EU border. Moscow said the launch of the intermediate-range ballistic missile was retaliation for a supposed attempted Ukrainian drone attack on Vladimir Putin’s residence late last month – an allegation Kyiv and Washington have said is false.
(Transgressive) In Jenny Hollingworth’s first solo venture, her singular songwriting powers shine in swooping vocals and transcendent pop melodies
Over the past decade, 27-year-old Jenny Hollingworth’s musical output has become steadily less strange. As half of Let’s Eat Grandma, the Norwich native started out making freaky synth-folk the arch syrupiness of which chimed with the then-nascent hyperpop scene: I, Gemini, the duo’s 2016 debut, was outsiderish juvenilia of the most thrilling variety. For its follow-up, I’m All Ears, Hollingworth and her bandmate, Rosa Walton, sharpened their songwriting skills while holding tight to their eccentricities; the result was an album of sensational futurist pop. By 2022’s Two Ribbons, they were slipping into slightly more subdued, conventional territory – albeit retaining enough idiosyncratic sonic detailing to maintain their place at the edge.
So it takes a moment to adjust to the overt familiarity of Hollingworth’s first solo venture. Like Two Ribbons, it reflects on grief (she lost her partner in 2019) and the temporary disintegration of her lifelong friendship with Walton, except this time the introspection is set to knowingly nostalgic 1980s new wave. When the choruses don’t sparkle, Quicksand Heart can feel like plodding through the past, but the moment Hollingworth lands on an irresistible melody – see: Every Ounce of Me, whose bittersweet bounce bridges the gap between Olivia Rodrigo and the Waterboys – the effect is transcendent. The record peaks with the archetypally perfect powerpop number Appetite and the genre-bending Do You Still Believe in Me? in which Hollingworth patchworks together breakbeats, vertiginously swooping vocals, squealing hair metal bombast and shoegazey dissonance, reminding us of her singular powers in the process.
In Tehran this week, young adults told the Guardian about collapsing living standards, the mass anti-government protests and their hopes for the future
Mahsa is single and lives with her family. She has been working in fashion design for years and runs a page online where she sells her clothes. In recent months, she says she had achieved good sales and arranged for a prominent influencer to run a major promotion for her. But because of the current situation, the influencer returned the money, and her sales and page activity came to a halt.
IM Alex Golding, 22, who earned nearly £2,000, is among the rising talents aiming to match the leading English grandmasters
Hastings is the grandfather of international chess tournaments, first staged in 1895 and then every year since 1920, with breaks for war and pandemics. Its vintage years were the 1930s, 50s and 70s, when world champions and challengers lined up to compete, while the badminton legend Sir George Thomas and the Bletchley Park codebreaker Hugh Alexander both shared first after defeating renowned opponents.
Nowadays, Hastings has publicity problems, sandwiched as it is between the London Classic and Tata Steel Wijk and Zee, and running simultaneously with the Magnus Carlsen show in the World Rapid/Blitz.
His brutal movies put Korean cinema on the map. Now the director of Oldboy is back with a blistering satire about a man driven to murder after redundancy
The Korean wave is being feted around the world right now but Park Chan-wook is not feeling too celebratory. From the outside, South Korea seems to be a well-oiled machine pumping out a stream of world-conquering pop music, cuisine, cars, cinema (especially the Oscar-winning Parasite) and TV shows, as well as the Samsung flat-screens to watch them on. But Park’s latest film, No Other Choice, bursts the balloon somewhat. It paints modern-day Korea as an unstable landscape of industrial decline, downsizing, unemployment and male fragility – with no KPop Demon Hunters coming to save the day.
“I did not mean it for it to be a realistic portrayal of Korea in 2025,” says Park, a serene, almost professorial 62-year-old. “I think it’s more accurate to view it as a satire on capitalism.”
Oceans absorb 90% of global heating, making them a stark indicator of the relentless march of the climate crisis
The world’s oceans absorbed colossal amounts of heat in 2025, setting yet another new record and fuelling more extreme weather, scientists have reported.
More than 90% of the heat trapped by humanity’s carbon pollution is taken up by the oceans. This makes ocean heat one of the starkest indicators of the relentless march of the climate crisis, which will only end when emissions fall to zero. Almost every year since the start of the millennium has set a new ocean heat record.
Talismanic forward’s spat with teammate Ademola Lookman highlights the problematic behaviour threatening to overshadow his talent
Victor Osimhen is the talisman, the attacking arrowhead of Nigeria’s Super Eagles at the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, his three goals offering a warning to Algeria before Saturday’s quarter-final. But the focus on the 27 year old this week has fallen less on his talent and more on his behaviour.
Osimhen’s volatile temperament, displayed in a spat with his teammate Ademola Lookman during Monday’s 4-0 win against Mozambique, has grabbed the headlines. The Galatasaray striker scored twice to underline his world-class finishing but that has been rendered almost an afterthought.
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