A ruling on equality law has caused relief, fear – and confusion. Libby Brooks reports
On paper it does not sound like something that would spark nationwide interest. Last week the UK supreme court gave its judgment on a case brought by a women’s group against the Scottish government over the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018.
But its judgment – that the word “woman” in equality law refers only to biological sex – has upended years of legal interpretation. And the news of the ruling led to celebrations, protest and an outpouring of emotion.
Ex-advertising executive, who hosted a Fox News show and has criticised Kamala Harris, will stand as a Republican
David Cameron’s former top adviser Steve Hilton has joined the 2026 race for California governor, running as a Republican to replace the Democrats’ Gavin Newsom, who is prevented by law from seeking a third term.
Hilton, who hosted a show on Fox News for six years, launched his campaign with the theme “Golden Again: Great Jobs, Great Homes, Great Kids”. His campaign said Hilton would be “reinforcing his commitment to positive, practical solutions instead of today’s ideology and dogma”, and that his brand of “positive populism” would focus on helping working families.
Delegation visits jails where Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk are being held and denounce ‘authoritarian’ Trump
Congressional lawmakers denounced the treatment of Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk, the students being detained by US immigration authorities for their pro-Palestinian activism, as a “national disgrace” during a visit to the two facilities in Louisiana where each are being held.
“We stand firm with them in support of free speech,” the Louisiana congressman Troy Carter, who led the delegation, said during a press conference after the visits on Tuesday. “They are frightened, they’re concerned, they want to go home.”
Internet Watch Foundation report shows 380% increase in illegal AI-generated imagery in 2024, most of it ‘category A’
Images of child sexual abuse created by artificial intelligence are becoming “significantly more realistic”, according to an online safety watchdog.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said advances in AI are being reflected in illegal content created and consumed by paedophiles, saying: “In 2024, the quality of AI-generated videos improved exponentially, and all types of AI imagery assessed appeared significantly more realistic as the technology developed.”
US president says tariffs on imported goods will come down from 145% rate but insists ‘we’re doing fine with China’
Donald Trump said during a White House news conference that high tariffs on goods from China will “come down substantially, but it won’t be zero”.
Trump’s remarks were in response to earlier comments on Tuesday by treasury secretary Scott Bessent, who said that the high tariffs were unsustainable and that he expects a “de-escalation” in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
CEO to pare back White House work to one to two days weekly as analysts say role has caused branding crisis
The Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, said he will start pulling back from his role at the so-called “department of government efficiency” starting in May. Musk’s remarks came as the company reported a massive dip in both profits and revenues in the first quarter of 2025 amid backlash against his role in the White House.
On an investor call, Musk said the work necessary to get the government’s “financial house in order is mostly done”.
Russell George, the Conservative member for Montgomeryshire, said he was withdrawing his candidacy to stand in next year’s election to focus on clearing his name.
The Senedd member was one of a number of people linked to the Conservative party reported to have made bets on the election date, which was called by then-prime minister Rishi Sunak.
Senedd Conservative leader Darren Millar withdrew the whip from George last week after the Gambling Commission announced the charges, meaning he now sits as an independent within the Welsh parliament.
George, 50, said in a statement on Tuesday: “I was shocked and surprised to have been informed by the Gambling Commission that I am facing charges for cheating.
“To be clear, I have never cheated. However, given the Gambling Commission’s decision, and my understanding of what will follow, this is likely to be a lengthy process that may not be resolved by May 2026.
“In the circumstances, I feel I have no alternative but to withdraw my candidacy for next year’s Senedd elections so that I can focus on fighting to clear my name.
“I will of course continue to serve the people of Montgomeryshire to the very best of my ability.
“I am grateful for the many messages of support that I have received in recent days, particularly from constituents.”
Among others facing charges are: Craig Williams, the former MP for Montgomeryshire; Nick Mason, a former chief data officer for the party; Laura Saunders, the Conservative candidate for Bristol North West last July; and Tony Lee, the Conservatives’ campaigns director, who is married to Saunders.
‘When players are fit and available, they have to play’
Liverpool to be league winners if Arsenal lose to Palace
Mikel Arteta will not shy away from selecting key Arsenal personnel to face Crystal Palace on Wednesday in their final game before next week’s Champions League semi-final first leg even though his team are playing for little beyond pride.
The meagre prize on offer is delaying Liverpool’s title celebrations but the manager denied he could wrap members of his squad in cotton wool. “We cannot think in those terms,” Arteta said. “I think when the players are fit and they are available and they want to play, they have to play. They are at their best when they are playing and they have consistency in their performances.”
On the touchline a picture of two managers with high, contrasting emotion coursing through them after Matheus Nunes’s 94th-minute winner. For Manchester City, Pep Guardiola showed sheer delight at a late, late victory that lifts them to third on 61 points, four ahead of Chelsea in sixth. Across from him, Unai Emery felt despair as Aston Villa were down in seventh, the Spaniard’s next job to lift his men for their FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Nunes’s far-post strike from Jérémy Doku’s cross from the left also disappointed Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United and Chelsea in the race for the top-five berth that secures a Champions League place.
The comic’s love for his home town leads him on this charming and wacky odyssey to find ‘his people’ across the pond. Brummies of the world unite!
Joe Lycett is on a mission to visit every one of the 17 Birminghams in the US and the one in Canada too. Why? Because he is a native of the UK’s own Birmingham, and he wants to see if there is any shared identifiable vibe and to foster a sense of togetherness among the scattered Brummies. Also, as he says, he has a pressing need to make a travelogue for Sky “and if anyone can do it, it’s Frank Sk– … it’s me”. There is also a Birmingham on the moon (a remnant of an impact crater – save your jokes, please, that’s Joe’s department) and one in Belgium. But “we don’t have a lunar budget and I’m not going to Belgium,” says Lycett, so off he sets round the US in a tour bus suitably decked out in Cat Deeley and Alison Hammond scatter cushions. They both hail from Birmingham in the UK. This is not difficult, people. Do try to keep up.
Joe has a sheaf of “friendship agreements” for the Birmingham mayors to sign – including a promise to stand together in Nato’s stead should it fall – a pen once used by the Queen Mother with which to do so, a collection of commemorative plaques and some Birmingham-centred presents to give to the people he meets along the way. There is Cadbury’s chocolate, of course, originally manufactured by one of the Quaker families whose histories are centred round the city; Bird’s custard (“sugar and asbestos”) invented by Brummie chemist Alfred Bird in 1837; HP Sauce (born of Nottingham but made famous under the aegis of the Midland Vinegar Company); and some of the 723 novels by “the David Walliams of her day”, Dame Barbara Cartland, originally of Edgbaston. Not all of these facts are in the programme, by the way. Joe’s enthusiastic spirit and evident love for his home town inspired me to go digging. He has that effect on you. And indeed on his driver, the North Carolinian Randy who, once he has figured out what little there is to figure out – and, indeed, that there is that little to figure out – relaxes and gets into the swing of things and functions as the perfect foil for his passenger.
Serie A leaders Inter will now host Roma on Sunday
Italy v Wales in Women’s Six Nations to be rescheduled
Serie A has postponed its three fixtures on Saturday because of Pope Francis’s funeral being held that day in Rome. Meanwhile, Italy’s Women’s Six Nations match against Wales is also expected to be rescheduled as the country prepares to pay its respects.
Earlier media reports in Italy had suggested that Serie A might make an exception for Inter’s clash with the visitors Roma to allow Simone Inzaghi’s side additional rest time before their midweek Champions League semi-final at Barcelona. However, the league has confirmed that the game at San Siro will now kick off at 2pm (all times BST) on Sunday.
Jury finds newspaper not liable for allegedly defaming former Alaska governor in 2017 editorial about gun control
Sarah Palin on Tuesday lost in the retrial of her defamation case against the New York Times – a second defeat in the efforts by the former Republican vice-presidential candidate.
A federal jury in New York deliberated for two hours then found the newspaper not liable for allegedly defaming Palin in a 2017 editorial about gun control. Palin appeared dejected as she left the courthouse in Manhattan.
Panel unanimously accepts charges against six more key allies of ex-president over alleged plan to keep him in office
A panel of Brazil’s supreme court justices has unanimously accepted criminal charges against six more key allies of former president Jair Bolsonaro over an alleged coup plot to keep him in office after his 2022 election defeat.
Last month, the panel unanimously accepted charges against Bolsonaro and seven close allies over the alleged coup plot following his loss to current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and ordered the former rightwing leader to stand trial.
Process yielded seven-woman, five-man jury, more females than the group that convicted media mogul five years ago
Opening statements are set for Wednesday in the former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s rape retrial, this time with a majority-female jury deciding the landmark #MeToo case.
After a days-long selection process yielded a seven-woman, five-man jury and five alternate jurors by Monday, prosecutors and Weinstein’s lawyers finished choosing a sixth and final alternate on Tuesday. Alternates step in if a member of the main panel can’t see the trial through.
Ex-congressman writes letter in bid for leniency and says seven-year sentence sought by prosecutors is too harsh
The disgraced former congressman George Santos is defending his recent social media remarks to a federal judge who will sentence him this week on several fraud charges.
In a letter before his Friday court appearance in New York, Santos, 36, said he was “profoundly sorry” for his crimes but believed a seven-year prison sentence was too harsh, AP reported.
David Lammy to host US and European negotiators for ceasefire talks in London amid encouraging speculation
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, will host US and European negotiators for fresh talks about Ukraine on Wednesday amid speculation that Russia has told Washington it might be willing to drop its claim to parts of Ukraine it does not occupy.
The price would include the US making concessions to Moscow such as recognising the 2014 annexation of Crimea, though Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said no such proposal had been shared with him by the White House and that his country could not endorse it.
Imagine spending some of your remaining hours on Earth with the US vice-president – or, as Queen Elizabeth did – with Liz Truss
What do Liz Truss and JD Vance have against elderly people? Specifically, those who are kind, decent and compassionate.
Take Radon Liz. In September 2022 she made a fleeting visit to Balmoral to be sworn in as prime minister by the queen. The last picture that was taken of Queen Elizabeth was of her standing in front of a fireplace next to Truss. You can’t escape the desperation in her eyes. Please, please, she seems to be pleading, get me away from her.
British boxer discusses the horrors of making weight and strained relations with his dad before Saturday’s grudge match with Conor Benn
Chris Eubank Jr sits in his hotel room, locked in the extremes of a savage weight cut. Boiling down in weight gets even harder at the age of 35 but the words still flow freely. Eubank Jr can produce intelligent insights as easily as he churns out typical bombast and so he has no difficulty in explaining why his fight on Saturday night with Conor Benn will darken the British sporting landscape this week.
They were first meant to fight in October 2022, when a manufactured scrap was built on the enmity between their fathers, Chris Eubank Sr and Nigel Benn, in the 1990s. Separated by two weight divisions, the sons were brought together in a dubious catchweight contest while banging on about family feuds and legacies.
Bill Owens says in staff memo ‘it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it’
Bill Owens, the executive producer of 60 Minutes, says he is leaving the flagship news program because he lost his journalistic independence.
In a staff memo obtained by the New York Times, Owens said that “over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience”.
The US vice-president contrasts India’s potential with west’s ‘self-loathing’ in speech in Jaipur
JD Vance has described the US-India partnership as the cornerstone of global progress, warning that the 21st century could be “a very dark time for all of humanity” if the two countries fail to cooperate.
In the keynote policy speech of his four-day visit to India, the US vice-president contrasted the country’s “incredible” potential with a “self-loathing” west.
Biles would be 31 at the start of next Summer Games
Simone Biles says she is unsure whether she will compete at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
The 28-year-old says she has other priorities, and is mindful of the demands her sport puts on her body at an age when most elite gymnasts have long since retired. Biles will be 31 when the LA Olympics start: the oldest all-around female gymnastics champion is Maria Gorokhovskaya, who won gold at the age of 30 at the 1952 Games.
Ronnie O’Sullivan had to settle for a single-frame overnight advantage as the opening session of his world championship first-round encounter with his old foe Ali Carter failed to live up to its pre-match hype.
The seven-time champion, returning to the tour for the first time since dumping his cue after losing a Championship League match in January, appeared to have scraped out a 6-3 lead to take into Wednesday afternoon’s scheduled conclusion. However, Carter dug deep after O’Sullivan missed a long red to the top corner in the final frame of the day, gradually reeling in a 51-point deficit and nervelessly clearing the colours to cut his deficit to 5-4.
The US president’s economic agenda collides with fragile financial systems, triggering market fears, investor flight and developing nation chaos
Wake up! When the most sober of global institutions, the International Monetary Fund, abandons its usual technocratic calm to sound the alarm on the political roots of global financial instability, it’s time to pay attention. The IMF is warning of a non-negligible risk of a $1tn hit to global output, as Donald Trump’s erratic “America first” agenda – part oligarchic enrichment scheme, part mobster shakedown – collides with a perfect storm of global financial vulnerabilities.
Such a shock would be equivalent to a third of that experienced in the 2008 crisis. But it would be felt in a much more fragile and politically charged environment. This time, the crisis stems not just from markets but from the politics at the heart of the dollar system. The IMF’s latest Global Financial Stability Report sees the danger in Mr Trump’s trade policies, especially his “liberation day” announcements, which have pushed up America’s effective tariff rate to the highest in over 100 years.
The sentencing of opponents and other public figures to as much as 66 years in prison highlights the president’s dismantling of political achievements
Tunisia wasn’t just the birthplace of the Arab spring. In 2021, a decade after the movement swept across the region, it remained a flickering yet precious beacon of democracy when other nations had swiftly fallen into chaos or authoritarianism. Then President Kais Saied staged a self-coup and reversed most of his country’s progress, dismantling institutions and snatching away his compatriots’ hard-won civil liberties.
Following his re-election last year – in a contest from which all significant opposition had been removed, and on a historically low turnout – he has redoubled his efforts. Civil society, business, the judiciary and the media as well as political opponents have all felt the pain, but it hasn’t stopped with them. Last year, officials from the Tunisian Swimming Federation were arrested for plotting against state security over their failure to display the national flag at a competition.
Kevin Farrell rose through the ecclesiastical ranks to be made camerlengo by Pope Francis, whose death has thrust him into the global spotlight
The cardinal who announced the death of Pope Francis bore the ancient Vatican title of camerlengo and spoke in Italian, but there was no mistaking the Dublin accent.
Long before he rose through the ecclesiastical ranks and was entrusted with temporarily running the Holy See, Kevin Farrell was an altar boy from an Irish republican family in the working-class suburb of Drimnagh.
Late-night hosts talk Pope Francis’s death after meeting with vice-president, JD Vance, and Trump’s dark Easter post
With several hosts on post-Easter holiday, Jimmy Kimmel recaps Donald Trump’s hypocritical messages on religion and the death of Pope Francis at the age of 88.
Keir Starmer has welcomed what he termed the “real clarity” of last week’s supreme court ruling on gender recognition, saying it was important now to draft guidance to help organisations deal with the repercussions.
In his first comments since the court’s definitive ruling that “woman” in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman, the prime minister called it “a welcome step forward”.
US trade officials are preparing to impose tariffs of up to 3,521% on imports of solar panels from four south-east Asian countries, while the International Energy Agency has said lessons from the energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had not been fully learned.
The US commerce department has announced the new tariffs, targeting companies in Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, after an investigation begun a year ago when American manufacturers of solar panels accused Chinese companies of flooding the market with subsidised, cheap goods.
Group of gunmen open fire on holidaymakers in Indian-controlled region in midst of US vice-president’s visit to country
At least 26 tourists have been killed and ten injured after suspected militants opened fire at a popular local tourist destination in Kashmir during a scheduled four-day visit to the country by the US president JD Vance.
Most of the victims were Indian, although two foreign nationals were also reportedly among the dead.
The funeral of Pope Francis will be held on Saturday at St Peter’s Square, the Vatican said on Tuesday, as a host of world leaders and royals including Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Donald Trump and the Prince of Wales confirmed their attendance.
The pope, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, died at his home in the Vatican on Monday aged 88 after a stroke. He had been recovering from double pneumonia for which he was hospitalised for five weeks.
After two actors died in Owerri, Imo State, AGN head Emeka Rollas drew comparisons to events last year, when popular Nollywood actor Junior Pope drowned
The president of the Actors Guild of Nigeria has called for mass prayers and increased unionisation after the death of two actors in Owerri, the capital city of Imo State.
Posting on Instagram, Emeka Rollas advocated spiritual intervention and better workplace regulation to try to prevent future tragedies after the two men, who have not yet been named, died on Friday.
The National Institutes of Health claims it is fulfilling RFK’s promise to find cause of autism by September
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is collecting the private medical records of many Americans from several different federal and commercial databases to give to researchers for US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s new autism study.
With this information being included in the database, the NIH is also reportedly crafting a new registry to track those with autism, per CBS News.
GSU will establish the Gullah Geechee Sacred Land Project to research and protect the community and its culture
A new $500,000 Mellon grant will allow Georgia State University to develop archival, historical and cultural research to protect Gullah Geechee heritage and communities in Georgia and South Carolina.
Using the grant, GSU will establish the Gullah Geechee Sacred Land Project (GGSLP), which will be “dedicated to maintaining African American burial grounds by recovering communities’ spiritual, genealogical and spatial lineages and safeguarding the places where those communities interred their ancestors”, according to a statement by the college.
Billionaires, starring Steve Carell and Ramy Youssef, meet amid an international crisis in HBO’s of-the-moment satire
A summit of influential male billionaires is under way in the first teaser trailer for Mountainhead.
HBO unveiled the extended look at the first feature from the Succession creator Jesse Armstrong on Tuesday, which stars Steve Carell, Cory Michael Smith, Ramy Youssef and Jason Schwartzman as a group of billionaire friends who meet at an alpine retreat during an international crisis.
With his outspokenness about Israel’s outrages, the late pope showed up the hypocrisy of the media and politicians
The deaths of major public figures can provoke the most grotesque outpourings of hypocrisy. So it goes for Pope Francis, now lauded by leaders and media outlets that were complicit in the very evils he condemned. “Pope Francis was a pope for the poor, the downtrodden and the forgotten,” said Keir Starmer, a prime minister who stripped the winter fuel payment from many vulnerable pensioners before launching an assault on disability benefits predicted to drive up to 400,000 Britons into poverty. “He promoted … an end to … suffering across the globe,” wrote Joe Biden, enabler of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza.
Indeed, the fate of Gaza seemed to preoccupy the pope’s final years. In his last Easter address, he condemned the “death and destruction” and resulting “dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation” – a powerful sermon that hardly any western media outlets covered. Indeed, you will struggle to find much prominent coverage of any of his courageous statements on Gaza, such as: “This is not war. This is terrorism.” In his final published piece, the pope reiterated his support for a Palestinian state, declaring: “Peace-making requires courage, much more so than warfare.”
Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist
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The R&A would like to see Donald Trump’s Turnberry course in Scotland return as host of the Open but will first need to assess the feasibility of the venue, the governing body’s chief executive, Mark Darbon, said.
Turnberry, a seaside course in South Ayrshire, has staged the Open four times – most recently in 2009 when American Stewart Cink edged past his compatriot Tom Watson to claim the title in a thrilling victory. Trump bought the property in 2014 and has spent £200m upgrading the resort’s courses.
Anything is possible with Trump ripping up all the rules – and I’m going to take full advantage
My haters are going to rejoice when I say this, but I think it’s high time I changed careers. Being a half Palestinian, wholly homosexual freelance writer based in the US isn’t currently looking like the most stable situation. Either my livelihood is going to get obliterated by AI, or I’m getting shipped to a detention centre for thoughtcrimes and gender treachery. It’s anyone’s guess which comes first.
Having mulled over the various directions my future could take (dog-cloning saleswoman, astronaut, head of sanitation for the city of Philadelphia), I have finally decided what I want to be when I grow up. And I’m going to exclusively reveal the result in this column. I’m … going into politics!
Young Australian voters “do actually care” about politics and current affairs, Konrad Benjamin tells Guardian Australia. “Aussie punters are not disengaged,” he says. “Most of the corporate media and politicians just refuse to talk about the big, systemic things that are broken, and how we can fix them.”
The creator behind Punters Politics, with 400,000 followers on Instagram, is a popular source of information in the lead-up to the federal election, according to responses to the Guardian Australia young voter callout. He is one of a lineup of independent commentators and journalists creating content on platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Twitch that people told us they are turning to for political information.
Researchers surprised at impact that even small differences in sleep make to adolescents’ cognitive abilities
Teenagers who go to bed earlier and sleep for longer than their peers tend to have sharper mental skills and score better on cognitive tests, researchers have said.
A study of more than 3,000 adolescents showed that those who turned in earliest, slept the longest, and had the lowest sleeping heart rates outperformed others on reading, vocabulary, problem solving and other mental tests.
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