The actor and singer on a very special kiss, being noisy and an embarrassing moment with Girls Aloud
Born in North Yorkshire, Olly Alexander, 34, joined Years & Years as lead vocalist in 2010. Their hit singles included King and Shine, and in 2023 Alexander won the Brit Billion award for 6.5bn streams. He was Bafta-nominated for his role in the TV miniseries It’s a Sin, and recently appeared on stage in White Rabbit Red Rabbit. His new album is Polari and he heads out on a European tour later this month. He lives in London.
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Jill Nalder. Lydia West played her character in It’s a Sin. She was on the wards with nurses caring for patients who were dying [of Aids] when lots of people wouldn’t go near them.
British PM set to call on 25 world leaders to boost Kyiv in lead-up to any peace deal or be ready to ramp up pressure on Russia
Few resonant phrases are repeated in politics without a deliberate reason, and Keir Starmer’s use of “coalition of the willing” could well have been intended as a reminder to the US diplomatic and defence community: we helped you out; now return the favour.
The most famous, or infamous, coalition of the willing was the 30 nations who publicly gave at least some support to George W Bush’s US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Absolutely we are not against sending Italian troops to help a population, but I think at this moment probably there are no troops that are able to solve the problem in Ukraine.
We can only send troops if there is a clear UN mandate and for now, this is impossible.”
I think it is too early and we have to wait for it. After a decision from UN headquarters, there is no problem for Italy, but now it’s really, really too early for us.”
Amid anger over dysfunctional politics and alleged corruption, Aleksandar Vučić faces a harsh spotlight, inside and outside Serbia
From the streets of Belgrade, the cracks in President Aleksandar Vučić’s near-decade-long authoritarian grip on power have become impossible to ignore. After more than four months of largely peaceful student-led protests, frustration with the regime appears to have reached breaking point.
The country is gearing up for a massive anti-government protest today, as thousands of students and citizens prepare to rally against the Serbian administration. Many residents describe the capital as feeling “under siege”, with the authorities implementing extreme measures that critics argue are designed to intimidate and prevent people from attending the demonstration.
The president’s chaotic policy on import duties makes planning impossible, says the CEO of a Kentucky distillery – and state Republicans are unhappy, too
Brough Brothers Distillery is in the midst of a big expansion. A fifteen minutes’ drive from its small distillery in the West End neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky, workers are toiling away on its new site, seven times the size of the old one, in the heart of Bourbon City.
This has been a long time coming for Brough Brothers, which opened its first location in 2020 and had drawn up ambitious plans for international growth in 2025. Then Donald Trump returned to power.
Barely-there, wire-frame glasses are comfortable, unisex and a design classic – and all over the high street
Jurassic World Rebirth may be the most anticipated film of the summer, but it’s not the dinosaurs that are piquing our attention. Images of its star, Jonathan Bailey, in character wearing a pair of tiny metal-frame spectacles are breaking the internet. But is it Dr Henry Loomis or the frames themselves that are causing the hysteria?
Commonly referred to as “slutty little glasses” on X, along with Drew Starkey as Eugene in Queer and Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher in Reacher, Bailey’s professor specs are suddenly everywhere. From Ace & Tate to Calvin Klein and Gentle Monster, small wire frames are dominating the high street.
Russell Shorto returns to fascinating history of a unique city in Taking Manhattan, a book showing how New Amsterdam became New York
In lower Manhattan, at Pearl Street and Coenties Alley in the oldest part of New York City, walls and a cistern are visible under the sidewalk, through pains of clouded glass. Next to them, the outline of a 17th-century building is marked in colored brick.
“That is the footprint of the original Stadt Huys, which was first the city tavern and then became” the city hall of New Amsterdam, the author and historian Russell Shorto said. “When they were excavating to put in that skyscraper [85 Broad Street, built for Goldman Sachs in the 1980s], the archeologists identified and marked out those little bits.
The Lebanese take on moussaka is a simple vegetable stew of aubergines, chickpeas, spices and herbs, here spruced up with a lively garlic sauce
There’s a sizable Lebanese community in London and, thanks to them (and their many restaurants), I’ve eaten plenty of great Lebanese food in my time. A recent discovery was the Lebanese take on moussaka at Maroush on Edgware Road, which is very different from the Greek version made with lamb and bechamel. This version is a simple but delightful stew made using aubergines, chickpeas, spices and herbs, which I’ve perked up with aan adaptation of the Lebanese garlic sauce, toum. Toum is usually made with raw garlic, oil, lemon juice and salt, but I thought I’d ease you in gently by tempering the garlic with tahini.
Peter Wennberg and Johnny Gustafsson saw just how hard Alexander Isak worked to reach the top level
Peter Wennberg laughs as he describes a recent under-11s training session where focus had drifted. Were his young charges going to treat the session as a laugh or take their opportunity seriously? He called a halt and asked where their priorities lay. “Then one of the boys, a sharp one, said: ‘What did Alexander Isak choose?’” Wennberg remembers. “After that it was easy for me. He’s raising the standards without even being here.”
Inside AIK Stockholm’s academy building, Wennberg gives a tour of the uncompromising facility that forged one of the world’s best strikers. Isak will be Newcastle’s best hope of breaking a 56-year trophy drought when they face Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday. There is nobody quite like him: nobody who blends poise with unpredictability, rigour with boundless imagination, cool temperament with flashes of light. Talents from all walks of life have a home here, but this is no identikit production line.
Despite defeat with Fenerbahce, history is being kind to flawed revolutionary and his two underdog Champions League titles
There was an early moment of excitement at the start of Thursday night’s meeting of Rangers and the José Mourinho industrial entertainment complex (Fenerbahce branch). As the players lined up on the Ibrox pitch Mourinho was caught by the TV cameras leaning forward on his bench, rubbing his hands, looking up to salute the watching world because of course being watched is always the game.
The most significant part of this tableau was Mourinho’s coat, which was ludicrous. This was a statement coat, a coat that looked as if it was given to him by the emperor of Sylvia with a ruby in each pocket. The key detail was its colour, a shade of grey so unnatural its only function is to tell you this garment cost as much as a tenement house, the whole thing finished in a weirdly natureless luxury fur, like a dictator’s dressing gown. Frankly, the coat was a brilliantly played opening gambit, a one-goal start on the night.
Wildly differing views about cosleeping and products like baby pods abound online. I admire those who offer clear, sensible support
The first night we brought my son home from the hospital to our empty flat, we sat up far longer than needed, unmoored by a new, overwhelming responsibility to keep him alive. That some babies stop breathing in their sleep, and scientists still don’t really know why, terrified me when I’d just been primally rewired towards his survival. All you can do, you are told, is try to minimise risk.
And so you commit the guidelines to memory: “For the first 12 months (adjusted for prematurity), the baby should be placed on its back in their own clear, flat, firm separate sleep space (eg a cot or moses basket) in the same room as you. They should not get too hot, and it should be a smoke-free environment.”
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and author. She is the author of a novel, The Tyranny of Lost Things, and a memoir, The Year of the Cat
The idea of Moscow as a paragon of Christian nationalism has penetrated the party of Reagan – and the lurch in US policy has huge implications for the global order
In speech that ran for 100 minutes there was one moment when Donald Trump drew more applause from Democrats than Republicans. As the president told Congress last week how the US had sent billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, his political opponents clapped and unfurled a Ukrainian flag – while his own party sat in stony silence.
It was a telling insight into Republicans’ transformation, in the space of a generation, from a party of cold war hawks to one of “America first” isolationists. Where Trump has led, many Republicans have obediently followed, all the way into the embrace of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin – with huge implications for the global democratic order.
Over 1,000 people – including 745 civilians – were killed in attacks last week that mostly targeted Alawite minority
Sipping tea on an unusually warm February afternoon on his veranda that overlooked the small Alawite village of Arza, north-west Syria, Mohammed Abdullah al-Ismaili said he trusted the new Syrian authorities to keep him safe.
“We believe what [interim Syrian president Ahmed] al-Sharaa says, but the problem is these unknown groups,” the 62-year-old official in Arza’s municipality told the Guardian on 4 February, four days after a group of masked men raided the village at night and killed eight men on their knees. “The government says the killings are individual cases, it seems like they are unable to control the cases.”
Two peers are now under investigation after undercover reporting on members of parliament’s second chamber
“Indefensible” was how Keir Starmer described the House of Lords three years ago when he proposed ambitious changes that would replace it with an elected second chamber drawn from the nations and the regions.
Now in power, Labour’s plans are somewhat watered down, and even the first step, abolishing hereditary peers, is being challenged.
Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin’s bickering double act follows in the footsteps of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, via Tom Hanks and his dog
Kieran Culkin’s mile-a-minute turn in A Real Pain was the single most lauded performance of this past awards season, winning pretty much every best supporting actor prize on offer, up to and including his Oscar two weeks ago. As an erratic, unfiltered loose cannon joining his strait-laced cousin, played by writer-director Jesse Eisenberg, on a Jewish heritage tour of Poland in honour of their familial roots, Culkin is rivetingly reckless and off-kilter in the part.
The awards are well deserved except for the key detail that it isn’t remotely a supporting role. An evenly weighted two-hander (now streaming, and on DVD from 17 March), Eisenberg’s second film behind the camera is a sharp and moving variation on the classic formula of the mismatched buddy movie, deriving all its comic and dramatic tension from the contrast between Eisenberg’s nebbishy neurosis and Culkin’s cocksure eccentricity. This personality conflict is ultimately neutralised by the gravity of their journey, as the history of the Holocaust weighs heavily upon them; most buddy movies aren’t quite so burdened. But the love-hate dynamic between the two men is poignant and funny, and squarely in the tradition of the genre.
Large areas of western Cuba, including Havana, lose power in latest blackouts to hit island nation after substation fails
Cuba’s national electrical grid collapsed late on Friday, leading to widespread blackouts in Havana and across the country and leaving millions of people in the dark.
Officials from the energy and mines ministry said an electrical substation in the capital failed about 8.15pm local time knocking out power to a large swath of western Cuba, including Havana, and causing the failure of the national electrical system, SEN.
Memories of love and heartbreak during the Aids epidemic are brought vividly to life in this exhilarating, risk-taking debut
Halfway through his debut novel, Charlie Porter has a character ask the question that still haunts generations of British gay men: “What am I to do with this anger?” The book is Porter’s answer. The starting point is simple. Johnny is 19, and on the run from a small-town childhood; arriving in London, he falls in love with Jerry, who is 45 and HIV positive. Their affair coincides exactly with the last four years in which the virus was untreatable; Jerry dies of an Aids-related illness in the summer of 1995, just months before effective combination therapies began to be prescribed.
Twenty-six years later, Johnny is still living in Jerry’s flat. This is in the Nova Scotia House of the title, an oasis of public housing in one of the last pockets of unredeveloped land in London’s East End. Inevitably, a tower of flats is now being built right next to it. As the tower rises, light is gradually excluded from the garden that Jerry created and which the grief-stricken Johnny has lovingly maintained.
After years of helping Scottish criminal investigations and despite fearing for his life in India, Vishal Sharma’s asylum claim has been rejected
When Vishal Sharma, an experienced merchant seaman, arrived in London from India in November 2017, he was looking forward to a good job on a Belgian tanker, the MT Waasmunster, assisting engineers. He had a 15-month contract and a transit visa, enabling him to travel to Milford Haven in Wales, where the 174-metre vessel was anchored.
But in a last-minute change of plan, his Mumbai agent told him to head to Southwick in West Sussex, England, to board a scallop trawler, the Noordzee.
Gulls are renowned for snatching chips from tourists’ hands, but a scientific project has revealed the greedy birds also like to tuck into moles and quench their thirst with seal milk.
The discovery was among several surprising findings made by a University of Salford ecologist, Dr Alice Risely, after she set up a project asking the public to send her pictures of seagulls eating.
After John Harris’s son was diagnosed, conversation always seemed focused on the things he would struggle with. But a shared passion for playing music grew into something James could do – brilliantly
I start playing songs to my son James from the moment he is born. If I’m given the job of rocking him back to sleep, I usually put on reggae: Junior Murvin’s Police and Thieves and Dawn Penn’s You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No) tend to do the trick. If my partner Ginny or I sing along to whatever is on the CD player, it brings him a gurgling kind of delight. In this, he is – obviously – no different from any other child. But not long after his first birthday, I get a sharp sense that music might speak to him in a particularly vivid, mood-altering way.
I play James the title track of Clear Spot by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band only once. Its mixture of discordant guitar, growling vocals and knock-kneed drumming, I suspect, might strike him as curious and funny, like a big, monster-centred production number from Sesame Street or The Muppet Show. But it has pretty much the reverse effect: within a few seconds, his face is suddenly filled with an expression of absolute panic, he screams in protest, and I instantly know I have to turn it off and never put it on again.
At times, this true-crime drama feels like a meta satire of an industry that milks private pain for entertainment. It is, however, no such thing
You know the feeling: you’re watching a shocking docudrama about a toxic waste scandal, or the baseless prosecution of 555 sub-postmasters, or the fraudulent founder of a blood-testing biotech company, and you start thinking – did this all really happen? So you do some digging online. Usually, it turns out there has been a mild massaging of the truth in the name of narrative efficiency: a couple of characters conflated, a timeline slightly rejigged. Only very occasionally (once?) will a case of dramatic licence result in a hysterical media storm, a global debate about the ethics of dramatisation and Netflix being hit with a $170m lawsuit. And yet it is almost unheard of to settle down to watch a series based on real events – or, in the case of Paramount+’s Happy Face (from Thursday 20 March), “inspired by a true life story” – and be confronted with an utterly mind-boggling fusion of fact and fiction.
First, the facts. This is a drama about a woman called Melissa Moore, daughter of the Happy Face killer. She is real (played here by Broadway stalwart Annaleigh Ashford) which means that, unfortunately, he is too. Keith Hunter Jesperson murdered at least eight women in the US in the 1990s, drawing smiley faces on the anonymous confessional letters he sent out to garner publicity for his crimes. Moore was frightened of her father growing up, especially when she witnessed him torture a set of kittens with inconceivable depravity, later finding their dead bodies. Moore revealed the truth on popular TV talk show Dr Phil – a decision that eventually led to a career in the world of true crime-based entertainment. In some ways, this is Moore bringing the jaw-dropping story of her own life to the screen: Happy Face is based on her 2009 memoir as well as a 2018 podcast series about her experiences (she is also an executive producer on this show).
From device porn and organ ache to ball, clubs, hoop, ribbon and rope, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz
1 Which star-crossed lovers had a son called Astrolabe? 2 What was stolen from Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, on 20 March 1966? 3 Which Disney princess is named after a vegetable? 4 What is claimed to be buried in Docksway landfill in Newport, Wales? 5 Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa and Rosé make up which group? 6 In the night sky, what is scintillation? 7 Which gem is made from a type of coal? 8 Which Booker prize winner comes from a samurai family? What links:
9 Harald Hardrada; James IV; Mary, Queen of Scots; Napoleon III? 10 Cumberland; Glamorgan; Gloucester; Lincolnshire; Manchester? 11 Ball, clubs, hoop, ribbon and rope? 12 Death’s cloak; Hades’ helmet; Sauron’s ring? 13 All sad, TX; device porn, RI; dottier, MI; organ ache, AK; salvages, NV? 14 3 or 11 (1/18); 4 or 10 (1/12); 5 (1/9); 7 (1/6)? 15 Bath bun; doorbell; irrepressible; nice-looking; outsider; sympathizer (in the OED)?
Teen sensation clinches state under-20 title with 10.38
Gout broke 56-year Australian 200m record in December
Untapered, unruffled and unstoppable, sprinter Gout Gout has continued his sparkling summer by adding another title to his cabinet at the Queensland Athletics Championships in Brisbane.
Three months after breaking the Australian 200m record at the same track, the teenager warmed up for the Maurie Plant meet in Melbourne by claiming the state under-20 100m crown on Saturday.
There’s youth in Myles Lewis-Skelly and experience in Jordan Henderson, but worries remain about midfield and can the desired style of play work in high temperatures?
There is logic to Thomas Tuchel rewarding Marcus Rashford’s encouraging displays since joining Aston Villa by bringing him back into the fold. The forward is devastating on his day and England missed his ability to charge behind defences at Euro 2024. Equally, Rashford has only himself to blame for being cut by Gareth Southgate. The 27-year-old’s resurgence at Villa is not a great look for Ruben Amorim and Manchester United, but his England return came with a warning from Tuchel. Expanding on what he meant about Rashford not falling back into “old routines”, Tuchel stressed the importance of work off the ball.
Pep Guardiola has responded sarcastically to Fabio Capello’s claim that he is arrogant, has “ruined Italian football” and has made the sport boring. The former England coach offered his view of Guardiola to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo this week. On Friday Manchester City’s manager was asked whether he listened to someone of the Italian’s stature in the game.
“I listen to everything that people say about me. Everything. So be careful. I am controlling you,” he said as a joke. “It’s not the first time that Mr Fabio Capello said that. I’m not good enough to win Italian football. Italian football is much, much more important than the way you do it. A big hug from Fabio. A big hug.”
Norris beat teammate by eight-hundredths of a second
Max Verstappen third, George Russell fourth
Lando Norris claimed pole position for the Australian Grand Prix, the opening race of the 2025 Formula One season with an immense lap for McLaren in Melbourne.
In what was an enormously tight fight he beat his teammate Oscar Piastri into second by just eight-hundredths of a second. As had been anticipated, the McLaren was the class of the field, comfortably quicker than Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in third and George Russell’s Mercedes in fourth.
Our continent must be prepared to defend itself, by combining the best of its two most influential traditions
Should we all be Gaullists now? In the language of France’s most important European partner, the answer is “Jein!” (a German word combining ja for yes and nein for no). Yes, Emmanuel Macron has been right to warn us ever since he became France’s president in 2017 that, discerning a long-term trend of US disengagement, Europe should be ready to defend itself. Now, confronted with Donald Trump, a rogue US president putting in question an 80-year-old American commitment to the defence of Europe against Russia, lifelong Euro-Atlanticists like me must acknowledge that we need not just a Europe with more hard power – something for which I have always argued – but also the real possibility of European “strategic autonomy”. Oui,Monsieur le Président, you were right.
Yet en mȇme temps (at the same time),to deploy Macron’s signature trope, we should answer “Non”. For De Gaulle, a great man of his time, believed that defence should be the exclusive province of the nation state; that the emerging European Community should be a Europe of states (a disunited version of the European Union to which today’s hard-right populist nationalist parties dream of returning); that Britain should be excluded from the European project (hence his famous “Non!”to British membership in that emerging community); and that Europe should be constructed as a counterweight to the US, having close relations with Russia and China.
Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist
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Andrew Sheridan is one of a number of chefs who say complaints and threats have severed the trust between restaurants and customers
Restaurant owners are abandoning the age-old “customer is always right” maxim because too many diners try to get freebies through threats, making malicious complaints and underhand tricks.
Anti-corruption rally is culmination of months of protest shaking grip of autocratic president
Tens of thousands of people from across Serbia are expected to join an anti-corruption rally in Belgrade, in what is seen as a culmination of months of protest that have shaken the grip of the country’s autocratic president, Aleksandar Vučić.
Tensions are running high, as the president’s supporters have begun setting up camp in a park in front of the presidential palace. Earlier this week, Vučić warned that security officers would use force against people at the rally, planned for Saturday.
Marina Hyde on 1,000 grotesque memes of JD Vance – they’re all more likable than the real thing. The actor Michael Sheen grew up poor, got rich, then lost everything backing the 2019 Homeless World Cup. Now he’s giving away more of his money to help 900 total strangers. When John Harris first started noticing that his baby had some unusual quirks, he wasn’t too worried. Then came an autism diagnosis – and a fear of the future. Could a shared passion for music give James a way to shine?
From 15-23 March, Lake Burley Griffin and the surrounding natural scenery is filled with colour as hot air balloons of all shapes and sizes take to the sky. Spectators young and old gathered around John Dunmore Lang Place in Parkes at the crack of dawn on Saturday for the magical experience
Cambridge scientist behind VR platform says it could help those put off by high cost of speech anxiety treatment
A free online platform that allows speakers to practise in front of thousands of virtual spectators has been released to help with the anxiety many feel when presenting to an audience.
Dr Chris Macdonald, the founder of the Immersive Technology Lab at Cambridge University and who created the online platform, said the approach was an attempt to reduce the lengthy waits or high costs people often face when seeking help.
US secretary of state accuses Ebrahim Rasool of being a ‘race-baiting politician who hates America’ and Donald Trump
The United States is in effect expelling South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, with secretary of state Marco Rubio accusing the envoy of hating the country and President Donald Trump.
“South Africa’s ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country,” Rubio posted on X on Friday.
Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva beat defending champion Iga Swiatek 7-6, 1-6, 6-3 to reach the Indian Wells final for the first time as she sets her sights on back-to-back WTA 1000 titles.
After a tight first set, the 17-year-old Andreeva was flawless in the tiebreak, leaning over and letting out a roar when she enticed a forehand error from Swiatek on set point.
Democrats dismayed after some help Republicans avert government shutdown; Trump vents about prosecutions while taking DoJ victory lap – key US politics stories from Friday at a glance
The US Senate averted a government shutdown just hours before a Friday night deadline after 10 Senate Democrats joined nearly all Republicans to clear a key hurdle that advanced the six-month stopgap bill.
The vote deeply dismayed Democratic activists and House Democrats who had urged their Senate counterparts to block the bill, which they fear would embolden Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s overhaul of the US government.
The success of Shit You Should Care About has been down to Lucy Blakiston’s focus on social media at a time where news avoidance is growing
Lucy Blakiston, the 27-year-old founder of a thriving global media company, loves being underestimated. And swearing.
“I wear on purpose the girliest, pinkest, most colourful outfit to an event of tech-Bros,” she tells the Guardian from her home in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington.
Falcon 9 rocket takes off on journey to replace duo who have been at International Space Station since June
The replacements for two Nasa astronauts who have been stuck at the International Space Station for nine months launched on Friday evening, paving the way for the pair’s long-awaited return.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 7.03pm ET (11.03pm GMT) in Florida carrying the four astronauts who will take over from Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck on the orbital lab since June.
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