Reaching the Premier League after selling £140m worth of players is remarkable but investment is need if an immediate relegation is to be avoided

When Leeds United sold £140m of playing talent last summer, Daniel Farke deviated from accepted managerial convention and declined to throw his toys out of the pram. Farke is a little too unconventional, a little too resistant to groupthink, to always do the expected and his club’s owner, the San Francisco-based 49er Enterprises, is set to reap the benefits.

The German’s unusual amalgam of high emotional intelligence and advanced numeracy have helped provide the framework for the freshly secured promotion to the Premier League Leeds so narrowly missed out on last May.

• Scottish course last hosted event in 2009
• R&A says logistics, not politics, are a concern

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.

European Commission ‘has not set preconditions’ before summit where partnership for €150bn defence procurement is expected to be forged

The European Commission and UK government are moving closer to a defence deal that will open the door to British arms firms being able to reap bigger potential rewards from a €150bn (£129bn) EU fund, but both sides insisted it was not tied to fishing rights.

An EU-UK defence pact is likely to be the highlight of the first post-Brexit summit in May, but has been dogged by questions over how far member states will insist on linking security to a separate agreement on fisheries.

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 Australians want to change the world – they just aren’t relying on traditional media to help them do it

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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.

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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.

Ryan Coogler’s ambitious box office hit combines genres to come up with something wholly original and fascinatingly complex

• This article contains spoilers for Sinners

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners just notched the biggest opening weekend for an original movie since the start of the pandemic, which means the Michael B Jordan-starring, period-set vampire movie will be seen and talked about for weeks (and more) to come. Here are some absolutely spoiler-packed discussion points (seriously, multiple endings are spoiled!) for the film’s variety of layers, genres and readings.

Secretary of state says overhaul of department will close a number of overseas missions and reduce staff

The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has announced a proposed reorganisation of the US state department as part of what he called an effort to reform it amid criticism from the Trump White House over the execution of US diplomacy.

The reorganisation will close a number of overseas missions, reduce staff and minimise offices dedicated to promoting liberal values in a stated goal to subsume them to regional bureaus.

Pope made nightly phone calls to the Holy Family Catholic church from the start of the war in October 2023

• Latest updates after death of Pope Francis

The first time he spoke to Pope Francis during the pontiff’s nightly calls to the Holy Family Catholic church in Gaza City, the congregant George Antone, 44, found himself at a loss for words.

It was October 2023, a few weeks after Hamas ignited a devastating war in the Gaza Strip by attacking Israel. The Palestinian territory’s tiny Christian community had taken shelter in the strip’s three churches, but that didn’t mean they were safe. An Israeli airstrike had just hit the Greek Orthodox church, killing 18 people; soon, snipers and bombs would also kill civilians at the Holy Family.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Sophie Downey, Tom Garry and Emma Sanders to discuss the Champions League semi-finals, the Women’s Championship and the latest WSL action

On this week’s Guardian Women’s Football Weekly, Faye Carruthers is joined by Sophie Downey, Tom Garry and Emma Sanders to review disappointing first-leg semi-final results for Arsenal and Chelsea in the Champions League. They are trailing in their ties with Lyon and Barcelona respectively. But can they turn it around? The panel preview this weekend’s must-win second legs.

And after teasing you for weeks, the panel take a deep dive into the Women’s Championship as we approach the final two games of what’s been a thrilling season. They also round up the very latest from the WSL.

Trump’s anti-media diatribes are part of the authoritarian playbook. Congress must reject his planned cuts

It was entirely predictable that Donald Trump would go after public media in America. Harming the reality-based press – in every form, whether public or private – is a central part of his playbook for controlling the political narrative as he moves the country toward an authoritarian model of government.

For Trump, the message is all, and anything that gets in the way should be portrayed as an evil to society and stamped out.

Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist

Former VP said the administration was creating its ‘own preferred reality’ and slammed it for green energy U-turn

• US politics live – latest updates

Former vice-president Al Gore compared the Trump administration with Nazi Germany, in scathing comments made Monday about the president’s use of power during remarks about climate change.

During a speech at an event to mark the beginning of San Francisco’s Climate Week, Gore, an established climate advocate, said that the Trump administration was “trying to create their own preferred version of reality”, akin to the Nazi party during the 1930s in Germany, Politico reported.

Spanish PM says ‘industrial and technological plan’ will ensure country commits to spending 2% of GDP on defence

Spain has announced a €10.5bn investment plan to ensure it will reach its long-delayed Nato commitment of spending 2% of its GDP on defence this year, saying it has become obvious “only Europe will know how to protect Europe” from now on.

The country – which lags well behind other western nations by dedicating about 1.3% of its GDP to defence spending – is one of the Nato members that has been pressured by the Trump administration to increase its spending, and had previously committed to hitting the 2% threshold by 2029.

• British No 1 says friend is ‘a really genuine, nice person’
• Italian will return to action after three-month ban in May

Jack Draper believes it has been important to stand up for his friend Jannik Sinner and that the Italian is undeserving of any hate as he prepares to return from his three-month doping ban next month.

“When people ask about him, or anyone, I’ll tell the truth,” said Draper. “I think Jannik is a really, really genuine, nice person. And on top of that, he’s obviously an unbelievable player. In this situation, I’m sure that he would have absolutely zero idea of anything. That’s just the way life goes – sometimes there’s mistakes.

Google suffered another defeat last week in its clash with the justice department, while Meta hasn’t been able to wriggle its way out of antitrust cases either

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. This week, Google and Meta take legal beatings while Microsoft faces a “tipping point” over Gaza.

Doge unemployment ‘fraud’ discoveries are old finds from Biden era, experts say

Doge tried to embed staffers in criminal justice non-profit, says group

Doge cuts spark questions as employees supporting Musk space launches spared

Trump adviser Peter Navarro says ‘we’re great’ after Elon Musk calls him ‘moron’

Our panel of early risers have some sprightly suggestions for a springtime breakfast

Breakfast normally means porridge, but what are the alternatives in spring?
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that most breakfast binds can be solved with oats. But when porridge doesn’t float your boat, it’s got to be bircher muesli or overnight oats. “I have always been a bit rude about overnight oats,” says Will Bowlby, co-founder of Kricket, whose Shoreditch arm recently launched a breakfast menu. “But when the weather is warm, soaking oats in coconut water, mixing them with jaggery, then throwing in things like fresh coconut, rhubarb or raspberries is a really nice alternative to porridge.”

And it’s those extras that will set your oats apart, says Nia Burr of Esters in north London. “Flavour a big batch of yoghurt at the beginning of the week with honey and some kind of citrus, such as lime or blood orange, and make a rhubarb compote,” she says. “We then top it all off with a polenta-based crumb mixed with pumpkin seeds [though any nuts or seeds would be delicious.” Keep all the different elements separate, “so it doesn’t become stodgy”, then simply build your bowl in the morning. Alternatively, Bowlby would strain Greek yoghurt overnight (“it makes it really luscious”) and mixes with condensed milk and fresh vanilla. “Serve it with poached fruit and granola – we roast oats, almonds, cashews, barberries, coconut, orange juice and jaggery.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

As if they weren’t perfect enough, Amal and George Clooney have revealed they never, ever argue. Luckily, we’re not bitter

Name: The zero-argument marriage.

Age: Potentially ancient.

Both clubs threw away convincing leads in England last week. They need to get their seasons back on track quickly

By Get French Football News

Hubris cost Lyon last week and it almost cost PSG too. “We thought we were too good,” admitted Ousmane Dembélé after PSG conceded three goals at Villa Park and were nearly knocked out of the Champions League. “We eased off a bit. We thought it was over but big matches are like that,” said Malick Fofana after Lyon’s spectacular three-goal collapse against Manchester United did cost them a place in the Europa League semi-finals. “It is a match I won’t forget,” added Fofana, who knows that Lyon – like PSG – will have to re-engage if their season is to end well.

With a derby at Saint-Étienne on Sunday, Lyon had no time for a postmortem. But for Paulo Fonseca, one thing was clear. “We led 4-2 with one less player on the pitch but we celebrated the 4-2 too much when the match was not finished,” said the Lyon manager after his team’s 5-4 defeat at Old Trafford. “We should have thought about continuing to manage the match. We lacked experience at this moment,” he added.

Moscow turns down proposal to extend Easter ceasefire as Ukraine officials head to London to discuss US peace plan

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

The Kremlin says it is open to direct talks with Ukraine but has declined to back Kyiv’s proposal to extend the Easter ceasefire.

Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday that there were no concrete plans for negotiations on halting strikes against civilian targets, but that the Russian president was willing to discuss this directly with Ukraine if Kyiv removed “certain obstacles”.

Republicans stand behind embattled US defense secretary as NBC News reports Hegseth shared sensitive information from top general to family members

• Hegseth blames ousted officials for leaks

Speaking in India, JD Vance has warned that the 21st century could be “a very dark time for all of humanity” depending on the decisions made over global trade and global partnerships at this juncture.

The US vice-president said “We are now officially one quarter into the 21st century, 25 years in, 75 years to go. And I really believe that the future of the 21st century is going to be determined by the strength of the US-India partnership.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

As temperatures rise and countries back off their decarbonization efforts, we must confront a reality central banks can’t correct

Inflation is, at base, a tax on consumption – and it hits the poor the hardest, since they consume more of their incomes and the rich consume less.

That’s one reason for concern over Donald Trump’s tariffs, which will disproportionately affect the poor. When the 90-day pause on the tariffs expires, it is reasonable to expect prices to rise, and by a lot.

Mark Blyth is a political economist and professor at Brown University. Nicolò Fraccaroli is a visiting scholar at Brown University.

Issue dogged Francis throughout his time as head of Catholic church, with abuse survivors saying he failed to do enough

• Pope Francis: cardinals to meet in Rome to set date for funeral – live

In 2002, the Boston Globe published a series of articles exposing the scale of child sexual abuse in the local Catholic church. It shone a spotlight – the title of a later movie based on the investigation – on the church’s dark shameful secrets.

Eleven years later, Francis became pope. Wave after wave of abuse revelations continued to crash at the Vatican’s doors amid mounting anger and revulsion among the faithful and beyond. The issue threatened to derail Francis’s papacy and dominate his trips abroad. He was slow to grasp the scale and systemic nature of the issue and apparently reluctant to take firm action to deal with abusers and those who covered up abuse.

The announcement that members must watch all films nominated in a category in order to vote for the winner, is met with disbelief that it wasn’t already the case

A new rule introduced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to ensure voters have seen all the films in a category before they cast their ballots has provoked disquiet online, with many expressing surprise it wasn’t already a requirement.

A raft of measures were announced by the Oscars governing body on Monday, including the stipulation that “Academy members must now watch all nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in the final round for the Oscars”.

As the IMF recommends that fit and sharp older workers delay retirement to offset ageing population trends, we’d like to hear what people make of such proposals

People from the baby boomer generation are being encouraged to stay in the workforce for longer and delay retirement as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said governments needed to make more use of fit, older workers to balance public finances amid fiscal pressures caused by an ageing global population.

The financial agency declared that “the 70s are the new 50s”, and released data findings suggesting that a person aged 70 in 2022 had the same cognitive function as the average 53-year-old in 2000. Physical health had also significantly improved, the IMF found, as 70-year-olds displayed the same fitness as 56-year-olds did 25 years ago based on grip strength and lung functionality tests.

Digital media minister Clara Chappaz says TikTok videos promoting extreme thinness ‘revolting and unacceptable’

The French government is seeking to take action against a TikTok group promoting extreme thinness among young women and girls.

France’s minister for digital media, Clara Chappaz, has reported #SkinnyTok to the country’s audiovisual and digital watchdog and the EU over concerns that the trend is body-shaming victims into anorexia and that algorithms are targeting the most vulnerable.

• Canaries missed out on playoff spot in Championship
• A 3-1 defeat at Millwall marks Thorup’s final match

Jack Wilshere will take charge of Norwich’s final two games of the season after the Canaries parted company with head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup.

Norwich have slipped to 14th in the Championship after winning only twice in 14 matches, with their 3-1 Easter Monday defeat at Millwall being their fourth loss in five games. Danish coach Thorup was appointed on a three-year deal last May and leaves alongside his assistant Glen Riddersholm.

One day, life as a finance consultant stopped making sense for Peter Hahn, so he took to organic winegrowing in the Loire instead

One Friday night 24 years ago, Peter Hahn was sitting in the back of a cab to Heathrow, sleepless after yet another 48-hour work bender.

“My computer’s on my lap,” the American-born organic winegrower from France recalls, the spring sun lighting up the deep pink walls of his study in his ancient manor house in the Loire Valley, his beloved vines outside, “and I’m doing a spreadsheet.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, George Elek and Sanny Rudravajhala as Leeds and Burnley confirm their return to the Premier League over a busy Easter weekend in the EFL

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today; the panel briefly summarise Nottingham Forest’s huge win over Spurs that propelled them back into the Champions League qualification spots before moving on to the Championship and Leeds and Burnley being promoted back into the Premier League.

• Wolves forward is Amorim’s prime target at No 10
• Sale of Rashford would allow United to finance deal

Manchester United are pushing to sign the Wolves forward Matheus Cunha but may have to raise the money to trigger his £62.5m release clause by selling Marcus Rashford or other players.

Ruben Amorim has identified the 25-year-old as his prime target for the No 10 berth, one of the head coach’s two priority positions, along with a centre-forward.

Our cartoonist on the big German striker’s blunt opinion of his Hammers teammates and life in general

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Company says it will create 12,000 jobs in manufacturing and R&D over next five years

• Business live – latest updates

The Swiss drugmaker Roche has said it will put $50bn (£37bn) into manufacturing in the US over the next five years, joining the queue of companies unveiling investments to try to head off potentially punitive Donald Trump tariffs.

Roche said on Tuesday the investment would create more than 12,000 jobs, including 6,500 in construction and 1,000 at new and expanded existing facilities in the US, including factories and distribution centres in Kentucky, New Jersey and California.

A new study of a sphere orbiting a red dwarf star 124 light years from Earth is raising hopes. Here’s why the evidence is inconclusive

• Nathalie Cabrol is director of the Carl Sagan Center at the Seti Institute

Astrobiology has entered an exciting new phase in recent decades. Since the 1990s, but accelerating in recent years, researchers have begun confirming the existence of exoplanets – that is, planets outside our own solar system – and studying their properties. We now know that planets are common, and a sizeable fraction orbit in the habitable zone of their parent star – suggesting they could have the conditions to sustain biological life.

Studies have also revealed entirely new classes of worlds we had no idea could exist. Hycean planets are unknown in our solar system, and are possibly some of the strangest planets discovered to date. They may be ocean-covered worlds with hydrogen-rich atmospheres and, as such, are promising candidates for the detection of biosignature gases – chemical products we associate with living things. But this is not the only possibility. Their discovery has expanded our concept of habitability and challenged our notions of what kinds of environments can sustain life – both as we know it and as we might not.

Nathalie Cabrol is director of the Carl Sagan Center at the Seti Institute, and author of The Secret Life of the Universe: An Astrobiologist’s Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life

The double Oscar-winner responded to the president’s criticism of his New York Times op-ed last summer urging Joe Biden to step down for re-election, saying it was his ‘civic duty’

George Clooney has said he is unconcerned about the persistent verbal abuse levelled at him by Donald Trump, after the president labelled him a “fake movie actor” on Truth Social.

Speaking to Gayle King on CBS Mornings, Clooney said: “I don’t care. I’ve known Donald Trump for a long time. My job is not to please the president of the United States. My job is to try and tell the truth when I can and when I have the opportunity. I am well aware of the idea that people will not like that.”

Essay describes a surprise invitation in 1939 to a previously vocal critic for dinner with the Nazi leader, where ‘suddenly he seemed so human’

Larry David has written a long spoof essay in the New York Times in response to Bill Maher’s recent glowing account of his dinner with President Trump in the White House.

The essay, entitled My Dinner With Adolf, purports to be written by someone who was “a vocal critic of his on the radio from the beginning, pretty much predicting everything he was going to do on the road to dictatorship”. But he agrees to dine with the Führer because he “concluded that hate gets us nowhere. I knew I couldn’t change his views, but we need to talk to the other side”.

Patriotism is on the rise in Quebec, a region that has held two referendums over whether to leave Canada

• Canada elections: the key players and what is at stake

It was the middle of the night when the Bloc Québécois realized they had achieved the improbable. For weeks, the separatist party in Canada’s francophone province had been campaigning hard to steal an electoral district in Montreal long held by the Liberals.

When the trickle of votes finally stopped on that September evening, the Bloc’s Louis-Philippe Sauvé had emerged victorious by a narrow margin of 200 votes.

Without a pathway to follow in their own country, players have had to look overseas to make a career. But no more

As “O Canada” reverberated around Vancouver’s BC Place last Wednesday, the emotion was clear on the faces of those on the pitch and in the crowd. There were hugs, there were tears, and there was an unbeatable cacophony of noise when Quinn slotted home the winning penalty, the first goal of the Northern Super League era. All 14,000 inside the stadium were aware of how momentous this occasion was, the moment professional domestic women’s football had finally arrived in Canada.

For many of the Canadian players involved for Vancouver Rise and Calgary Wild, it was the first time they will have heard only their anthem at the start of the match. “It was something I said to our team before the game,” the Rise midfielder Quinn reflected after the game. “That was pretty neat.”

It was the biggest open secret in TV history – but even though millions knew it was coming, that death still stunned beyond belief. Now, can it really achieve the impossible … and make us root for the killer?

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

When is a twist not a twist? This is a question many people will be asking after this week’s brutal episode of The Last of Us. Titled Through the Valley, it demonstrated more clearly than ever that the show has two types of viewer: those who primarily know it as a television series and were stunned beyond belief by the violent, unheralded death of Pedro Pascal’s Joel at the hands of Kaitlyn Dever’s vengeful Abby; and those who have played the video game on which it is based.

Sisters 360, Khan’s new play for children, tells the story of two hijab-wearing skateboarding sisters in Bradford. He hopes it will upend lazy ideas around Muslim girls – and bring new audiences to the theatre

Asif Khan first heard about Lena, Maysa and Ameya – the three Muslim skateboarding sisters from Hull who became social media stars in 2022 with their skills – from his mother-in-law. “She does this a lot. She’ll send me an article and say: ‘You could write a play about this,’” laughs Khan. But there was something about this particular story that piqued his interest. “They all wore the hijab, lived with their mum and had an Instagram account where they did their own raps and filmed skateboarding tricks … I immediately thought: Oh OK, this is a good premise for a play.”

So, he set about adapting it for the stage. He contacted the girls’ parents and had a “good, long hour’s chat”. “They were excited that someone was interested in doing a play about them,” says Khan, 44, who also works as an actor. The result of those chats is Sisters 360, a play about two Bradford-based hijab-wearing, skateboarding stepsisters, Fatima and Salima, aimed at audiences between the ages of eight and 12.

Demonstrations rarely lead to immediate policy change. But they are essential to building community and long-term resistance

Opinions about the protests this month keep oscillating between two extremes. Optimists point to the larger-than-expected numbers (larger than expected by many police departments for sure); they enthusiastically recall a famous social scientific finding according to which a non-violent mobilization of 3.5% of a population can bring down a regime. Pessimists, by contrast, see protests as largely performative. Both views are simplistic: it is true that protests almost never lead to immediate policy changes – yet they are crucial for building morale and long-term movement power.

Earlier this year, observers had rushed to declare resistance “cringe” and a form of pointless “hyperpolitics”, a “vibe shift” (most felt by rightwing pundits, coincidentally) supposedly gave Donald Trump a clear mandate, even if he had won the election only narrowly. Meanwhile, Democrats were flailing in the face of a rapid succession of outrageous executive orders – many of which were effectively memos to underlings, rather than laws. But taken at face value, they reinforced an impression of irresistible Trumpist power.