A total of 10 people hospitalised as urgent alert for potent synthetic opioids issued in nearby Bristol

Tory rival Susan Hall calls herself Sadiq Khanas abete noirea but some Londoners would be unable to pick the Conservative candidate out of a lineup, Barney Davis writes

New survey of female gamers in UK and US finds 12 per cent have received threats of rape

Drubbing for Tories in next weekas local elections could force Sunakas hand

The Central Suffolk and North Ipswich MP will sit on the Labour benches until the next general election, expected this autumn, when he has announced he will step down

John Curtice says Boris Johnsonas No 10 lockdown parties and Trussas economic catastrophe have made it impossible for Rishi Sunak to cling on to power

The prime minister faces a further blow to his leadership if Ben Houchen and Andy Street are both unseated in next Thursdayas contests

The man was pronounced dead after police and two ambulances rushed to South West Industrial Estate in Shotton on Saturday

New leader is part of rebels desperate a100 days to save Britaina plan as Conservatives panic over threat of massive losses in local lections this week

Since the Rwanda policy was proposed in April 2022, not a single flight has left for the east African nation

Cornwall Council has been urged to take the idea of tourism tax more seriously

Tim Lovejoy quickly changed tack after asking newlywed Jason Fox about his honeymoon

Actor has portrayed Whitney Dean since 2008

SNL star Colin Jost paid tribute to his late grandfather at last nightas White House Correspondentsa Association dinner, revealing his final election vote went to Joe Biden.

American singer-songwriter Madi Diaz has shared videos of her 20-year-old guitar seemingly wrecked from a flight - just days before she sets off on tour with Kacey Musgraves.

TV judge was encouraged to attend mammogram by her aStrictlya colleague Amy Dowden

The electronic beatsmith left behind the club scene for pop stardom. He opens up to Annabel Nugent about sobriety, his ameltdowna in Australia, and why he used to fantasise about aalienating all my rave fansa

Judi Dench talking Shakespeare, conversations with bestsellers Marian Keyes and David Nicholls, and a deep dive into the dayas news with Independent journalists and leading thinkers a this yearas Hay Festival programme is fit to burst with unmissable events. Jessie Thompson picks the highlights

Martin Chilton reviews the biggest books for May

Make life a little easier than it has been.

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There is no better compass to help guide new parents through the chaotic adventure of parenthood than those who have gone through it.

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It"s time for your outdoor space to go from drab to fab.

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"Based on the meals they make. Even in adulthood, nothing beats that cinnamon sugar buttered toast."

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Life"s too short to deal with foot blisters, painful acne, or motion sickness.

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These wire-free lounge bras offer just the right amount of support a and reviewers are obsessed.

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You really *can* quit doing it all the hard way, I promise.

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After an audition, Gina Rodriquez was told to "come back in with a tight black dress" because the casting directors needed "to know if [she"s] pretty enough to be on the cover of a magazine."

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Good luck getting anyone to focus on anything other than these adorable vinyl record coasters and this magical soft-serve maker.

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"Speaking as an architect here, for the love of god, too many people think itas acceptable to do this..."

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"Why say lot word when few word do trick" a Kevin Malone from The Office speaking the truth: you can get by doing the minimum.

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If you need an excuse to update your wardrobe... spring is here. Enough said.

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It"s gonna be *instant* main character syndrome when you put on these $65 AirPods Max lookalikes and this $22 Lululemon Align alternative.

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*Clears throat*a| toot toot.

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Gifts that will win you the title of "favorite child."

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Like dog toys that won"t get chewed to pieces after 0.1 seconds and litter box liners your cat can"t shred with their claws.

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These tried-and-true beauty products work so well, they"ll make you want to do a lil" dancey dance do.

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Alexa play Lizzie McGuire"s "What Dreams Are Made Of,"

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Reviewers are calling this one of the best investments for their car.

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Exclusive: Operation comes weeks earlier than expected and is thought to have been timed to coincide with local elections

The Home Office will launch a surprise operation to detain asylum seekers across the UK on Monday in preparation for deportation to Rwanda, weeks earlier than expected, the Guardian understands.

Officials plan to hold refugees who turn up for routine meetings at immigration service offices and will also pick people up nationwide in a two-week exercise.

Prime minister says he is not distracted by poor personal ratings as rebel MPs are said to be plotting to oust him after local elections

Rishi Sunak has refused to quash speculation of a July general election as he insisted he was not adistracteda by his personal ratings lingering at record lows.

The prime minister said he would not asay anything more than Iave already saida and that his aworking assumptiona was there would be an election in the second half of the year.

Hamas official says delegation will reportedly discuss ceasefire proposal handed to mediators Qatar and Egypt, as well as Israelas response

The Gaza health ministry on Sunday reported at least 66 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours.

In central Gaza, Mohammed al-Hattab said he found his one-year-old baby in the rubble after an Israeli airstrike hit the Nuseirat refugee camp over the weekend.

Exclusive: Liz Bonninas face used on insect repellant advert after deal negotiated via WhatsApp and voice notes generated by AI

There was something strange about her voice, they thought. It was not unfamiliar but, after a while, it started to go all over the place.

Science presenter Liz Bonninas accent, as regular BBC viewers know, is Irish. But this voice message, ostensibly granting permission to use her likeness in an ad campaign, seemed to place her on the other side of the world.

Lorna Slater says she cannot imagine anything that would change partyas position after aspectacular breach of trusta

Humza Yousafas leadership hangs by a thread as he approaches a confidence vote this week, with the Scottish Greens remaining unequivocal that he no longer has their support after he axed their power-sharing agreement.

Scottish government sources have admitted they are not assuming the Greens will shift position after Yousaf precipitated a spiralling crisis in his government on Thursday morning. The first minister blindsided colleagues by ripping up the Bute House agreement, brokered by Nicola Sturgeon after the 2021 Holyrood election, which cemented a progressive pro-independence majority in the Scottish parliament.

US president made fun of Republican frontrunneras legal woes while critics of his handling of Gaza war protested outside

Joe Biden has shown no mercy to Donald Trump with a series of barbed jokes about his election rival, telling a gathering of Washingtonas political and media elites: aIam a grown man running against a six-year-old.a

The White House Correspondentsa Association (WHCA) dinner on Saturday night provided the ideal platform for Biden to continue a recent run of taking the fight to Trump with more aggressive rhetoric, cutting humour and personal insults.

Pope Francis, 87, addressed inmates, staff and volunteers at Giudecca jail before a mass in St Markas Square

Pope Francis visited a prison for women in Venice on Sunday before a mass in the watery city, during his first trip outside Rome for seven months.

The one-day trip to Venice will be closely watched amid concerns over the fragile health of Francis, 87, who has toured the world extensively in his 11 years as pope but has not travelled since visiting the French city of Marseille in September.

Two people still in hospital after major incident across Westward Ho!, Bideford and Barnstaple

A second man has died after being supplied with an aunusually strong batcha of heroin circulating in north Devon.

One man died after taking the substance on Friday and police confirmed a second man, who had earlier been admitted to hospital, died late on Saturday.

Labour former home secretary says imprisonment for public protection sentences have resulted in adeeply damaging outcomesa

David Blunkett, the former Labour home secretary, has said devising legislation that has left people languishing in prison for minor offences is the abiggest regreta of his eight years at the heart of government.

The Labour peer, a titan of the Brown-Blair era, said that imprisonment for public protection (IPP) a known as the 99-year sentence a is the greatest blot in his copybook.

Protesters call for concrete action as prime minister agrees more needs to be done

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An urgent national cabinet meeting on menas violence against women will be convened for Wednesday, with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, saying all governments nationwide a including his own at the federal level a must make changes and focus more on stopping perpetrators.

Albanese and senior ministers stopped short of announcing new violence prevention policies or funding as they supported a series of rallies nationwide this weekend, but the prime minister said public attitudes toward the scourge of abuse needed to shift. With the federal budget less than a fortnight away, those attending a large rally outside Parliament House urged the government to awalk the walka and commit to concrete actions.

From Hartlepool to Bristol, successes in 2 Mayas polls will set the tone for the impending Westminster race

How times change. The last time the local election seats up this week were contested in 2021, Boris Johnson was riding a avaccine bouncea, and a wave of Tory gains prompted speculation of a decade of dominance. Three chancellors and two prime ministers on from Johnsonas high-water mark, his successor Rishi Sunak will be scanning a bleak electoral landscape for any glimmers of hope, while Keir Starmer will be looking for big breakthroughs to confirm that a red wave is indeed coming to Westminster.

The first big result will be Blackpool South in the small hours of Friday morning. Labour should win this ared walla marginal comfortably on current polling, while anxious Conservatives will be watching the Reform UK vote share. Big early wins for Labour in the Westminster byelection and early counting councils will help the opposition set the tone for coverage of the long days of counting to follow.

Families of two girls killed when a Land Rover ploughed into their school are still waiting for answers, 10 months later

The question awhat if?a plagues Smera Chohan and her husband, Sajjad Butt.

Last July, Chohan had just posed for a photograph with their eight-year-old daughter, Nuria, at her school picnic in Wimbledon when a Land Rover crashed through a fence and ploughed into them. Nuria Sajjad and her friend Selena Lau were ultimately killed by the collision while Chohan was left with 10 broken bones and the overwhelming grief of losing her only child.

Why there appears to be greater optimism about the prospect of a truce and what could an agreement look like

There has been a recent flurry of activity around the talks, with an uptick of optimism about progress.

Having a baby led to an unexpected disease and then surgery that altered Lauren Benstedas body for ever. She talks about the pain she felt in being separated from her newborn, and her journey to learn to accept her new life

aWeare going to have to disconnect you,a says the man at my bedside. Since I was hospitalised a fortnight ago, this man and his team have been trying to save my colon, a 5ft-long tangle of ulcers and inflammation. The speed and scale of my colonas fury has fascinated doctors. I imagine them in their morning meetings, poring over my colonoscopy with the mystification usually reserved for the Voynich manuscript. But time is up. Unless they adisconnecta me, my bowel will perforate and I will die.

Disconnection, explains the doctor, involves whipping the whole colon out a here he mimes pulling a rabbit from a hat a and diverting my digestion through a hole in my abdomen called a stoma. He sketches my new anatomy on a piece of paper, quick as a high-street caricaturist. He cannot imagine what it is like to receive this news a to hear your body will change for ever and with it your whole life too a just as I cannot imagine what it is to break it. I want to grab his hand, ask him how. How does a body give birth to a healthy baby and then burst into flames?

As Luca Guadagninoas acclaimed tennis film Challengers makes its case for sporting immortality, critic Guy Lodge chooses 20 of the genreas undisputed heavyweights

• Challengers reviewed by Wendy Ide

Analogies of life as sport have been exhausted by every PE teacher in existence. In the movies, however, theyare eternally renewable. Take Challengers, Luca Guadagninoas sleek, sexy, sweat-drenched new film, which hits every metaphor you might expect in its story of three tennis pros locked in a tense love triangle: games are won and lost, points scored, doubles partners swapped, and so on. Shot and paced with the ricocheting energy of a great tennis match, itas a sports movie that, like many a classic of the genre, understands the parallels between sport and cinema as two great crowd-pleasing pastimes.

The sports movie is pretty much as old as movies themselves: for early silent-cinema pioneers at the turn of the 20th century, the movement and momentum of a baseball game or a boxing match made them as dynamic a subject as any for the camera. Charlie Chaplinas very first appearance as the Little Tramp, in the short Kid Auto Races at Venice, cast him as a disruptive spectator at a racing-car derby. Classic templates for the genre emerged quickly: the Oscar-winning 1931 hit The Champ nailed a structure for the underdog sporting weepie that shaped everything from Rocky to The Wrestler, while the 1944 Elizabeth Taylor vehicle National Velvet minted a million further feelgood stories of plucky athletes defying the odds. (Itas far harder to involve audiences in stories of an athlete whoas born a winner.)

As many as 28% of young adults in the UK do not drink. Here, three of them explain why their relationship with alcohol has changed

A recent World Health Organization (WHO) study found Great Britain has the worst rate of child alcohol consumption in the world a with more than half of children in England, Scotland and Wales having drunk alcohol by the age of 13.

Yet this is coupled with a growing move towards sobriety among young people. Alcohol education charity Drinkaware found that, as of 2021, young adults were the most likely to not drink alcohol, at 28%, whereas older adults were the least likely, at 15%.

The two-decade transformation of the industrial site north of Kingas Cross station in London, once notorious, now a pleasant enclave of offices, homes, shops, bars and boulevards, is essentially complete. Itas a huge success a and yet is there something missing?

The near quarter-century, kilometre-long, 67-acre project to redevelop Kingas Cross in London is a monument of its age. It is the urban embodiment of the Blair era in which it was conceived, of the third way, of the idea that market forces, wisely guided by light-touch government, can be a power for good. It will get into the history books about cities (if such things are written in the future), representing its time in the same way that John Nashas Regentas Park represents the Regency and the Barbican represents the 1960s.

The architects of its masterplan, Allies and Morrison and Demetri Porphyrios, have now submitted it for this yearas RIBA awards programme, which could get it on to the shortlist for the Stirling prize. This means that, although there is construction still to be done, not least on the Google headquarters, they consider the essential concept of the masterplan complete. Cadence, a residential building by Alison Brooks Architects, which occupies a culminating point at one end of the site, is also, bar some snagging, finished. Somewhat shockingly, of more than 30 practices commissioned on the site, Brooks is the first one with a womanas name in its title.

Long waiting lists are creating a boom in the medical insurance market, leading to fears of a long-term change in attitudes to the health service

When Rosemary Duff heard how long she would have to wait for a hip replacement operation on the NHS, she felt she had no choice but to dip into her savings.

aI waited a month to see my GP, then another four months to see a consultant. His opening words were aunless you go private, thereas an 18-month waiting lista, which was a bit of a shock,a said Duff, 71, from Norwich. aMuch against my principles, I agreed to go private.a

Often misused by politicians, nostalgia is a positive emotion that could do with a makeover

I have always been prone to homesickness. As a child, I didnat really enjoy holidays, I dreaded going away on school trips and I hated sleepovers. At the beginning of 2021, when I first started thinking about the history of nostalgia, and in the midst of the pandemic, I moved across the Atlantic from London to Montreal, Canada, for work. Far from home and away from my family and friends, I felt a kind of grief whenever I thought about the life Iad left behind. There was so much to love about my new life but I felt anxious, worrying constantly about the safety and wellbeing of my parents, siblings and friends. What if, due to the time difference, I missed an urgent call or woke up to terrible news? These fears were, of course, unfounded, and they were also ridiculous, childish even. Grownups a married 30-year-olds with mortgages and full-time jobs a shouldnat miss their mums.

I also tend to be homesick in a weirder, more abstract way a homesick for somewhere Iave never been. Itas a feeling otherwise known as nostalgia. Melding fairytales with Horrible Histories, as a child I spent hours imagining myself transported back in time to invented and romanticised versions of the past. I was an avid reader of Enid Blytonas novels and, despite my homesick inclinations, begged my parents to divert me from my 1990s London primary school to a boarding school in 1950s Cornwall. My pleas went unanswered, so I went to my uniform-free state school every day in pleated skirts and white blouses, desperate to return to a world Iad never inhabited.

Life at itas essence is about time and by 2050, nearly 3.7 million people are expected to live up to 100. What can we do to get the most out of our bonus years?

Loneliness. Ageism. Physical limitations, cognitive decline and, increasingly, elder poverty.

The downsides of living to 100 and beyond are numerous. But so are the upsides. Life at its essence is about time a time to live, time to laugh, time to love a and many of those who have achieved a triple-digit age are living their best lives as centenarians.

Netflixas No 1 hit show sparks legal and moral debate over identities in true-crime stories

Baby Reindeer was meant to be a close-up, complex a even funny a look at mental health problems and the way sufferers can feed on each otheras different illnesses. According to its millions of fans worldwide, the Netflix drama achieved these tricky goals. But the show, which shot to the streameras No 1 slot, is also now likely to change how fictionalised crime is seen.

The fictionalised series tells an intimately personal story already explored by the showas writer, Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, in a couple of acclaimed one-man fringe theatre shows. It follows a depressed Scottish barman called Donny, played by Gadd, as he becomes enmeshed in the life of a female customer, aMartha Scotta, who is stalking him, sending him more than 41,000 emails, 350 hours of voicemail, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages, 106 pages of letters and torpedoing his other relationships.

Ugly row with JA1/4rgen Klopp on the London Stadium touchline shows the Egyptianas focus has waned

When it comes to picking one image to symbolise the end of an era at Liverpool, JA1/4rgen Kloppas quarrel with Mohamed Salah on the London Stadium touchline will take some beating. This is what happens when power slips away. This, sadly, is the way that it ends.

We will have to speculate about the specific reason behind the row that grabbed the attention after Liverpoolas deflating 2-2 draw with West Ham on Saturday. West Hamas equaliser had arrived before Klopp, who had been waiting to make a triple substitution, was able to introduce Salah, Darwin NAoA+-ez and Joe Gomez. The manager seemed miffed and appeared to admonish Salah, whose angry response made it very clear that he had zero interest in listening to any criticism.

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• Sophie Downey: Hayes sees European dreams washed away
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I guess one of the problems Eidevall has is the number of brilliant attackers he has. Of course, itas possible he knows more about football than I do, but Iad stick Miedema at the heart of my team and go from there a especially as his side lack a bit of pace through the middle.

I really hope Vivianne Miedema gets back to her best. We shouldnat forget that even before her injury, Eidevall frequently picked Blackstenius ahead of her, but sheas a total genius and we need her.

Doping case with Chinese swimmers has brought years of pent-up feeling into public domain a and shows no sign of stopping

At its glitzy 25th anniversary gala in Lausanne last month, the World Anti-Doping Agency screened a slick montage highlighting how it had changed sport for the better. There were images of Muhammad Ali defying Parkinsonas to light the Olympic flame and PelA(c) lifting the World Cup, before a history lesson a and a promise. aToday Wada is a more representative, accountable and transparent organisation,a explained its director general, Olivier Niggli, athat truly has athletes at the heart of everything we do.a

Not everyone in the room was buying it a one source felt it was too PR-focused, while another raised their eyebrows when Thomas Bach a the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) a and the former Wada president Sir Craig Reedie picked up awards. However, frustrations with Wada were largely limited to corridor conversations. It turned out to be the relative calm before the thermonuclear storm.

The British rider talks about doubling up in the Giro daItalia and Tour de France, and why cycling can do more in terms of safety

Geraint Thomas heads to the start of 2024as first Grand Tour, the Giro daItalia, determined to avenge the bitter tears of a year ago when he lost the race to Primoz Roglic in a dramatic final time trial. aIt was a tough and challenging moment, but for me it wasnat like I had a bad day or did anything drastically wrong,a he says.

aRoglic had a flyer and he deserved to win it. Itas not like I lost it a he won it. It was hard. You lead the Giro for half the race and then you lose by 15 seconds on the final day: itas a tough one. But then as [the psychologist] Steve Peters would always say: aLifeas not fair. Get on with it.aa

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Thereas justice in there somewhere. Worcestershire get onto the green first.

To sum up: play abandoned for the day at Grace Road, no play anywhere now, no play before lunch at The Oval, but, like a snowdrop in January, a pitch inspection at 11.30 at Bristol.

• British 6ft7in athlete has never played a game in the sport
• Bills claim offensive lineman had fastest 40-yard dash in 10 years

Former rugby union player Travis Clayton has been selected by the Buffalo Bills in the 2024 NFL draft. The Englishmanas selection sees him join former Wales star Louis Rees-Zammit in American football.

Clayton, 23, was selected with the 221st overall pick in the seventh round despite having never played a game in the sport.

When we mistakenly believe we live in a meritocracy, those in need are left behind

Life is a game of chance. Or thatas what I tell myself when Iam losing at my newest hobby, poker. Of course itas a different story when I win the pot: then I chalk it up to skill. So it was crushing to hear an experienced playeras take when I fessed up to the fact I seem to do worse when Iam trying to play well. aThatas because no strategy is better than a bad strategy: it makes you harder to predict than a very basic game plan.a Thatas me told.

This is partly what it is to be human. We like to attribute our successes to effort and talent, but when we fail itas more comforting to blame bad luck. The more successful someone is, the more marked this tendency becomes and it has a knock-on impact on how we understand the world more generally.

Criticism of the comments made by Ben Habib of Reform UK died down very quickly. And thatas terrifying

In the hourly deluge of outrage and nonsense that passes for the national conversation, it was only another fleeting moment. But last Tuesday, as the TalkTV presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer talked to Ben Habib a the Reform UK partyas aco-deputy leadera and its candidate in the recent Wellingborough byelection a about so-called small boats crossing the Channel, their conversation highlighted where the noise around that issue seems to be going: into places so inhuman and ugly that even a populist true believer such as Hartley-Brewer feels a pang of horror.

Their 11-minute chat took place the day after five people, including a four-year-old girl, had been killed trying to get to the English coastline from a beach near Boulogne, on an inflatable dinghy carrying 112 people. Reformas belief, Habib said, was that the UK authorities should ause forcea to stop such vessels entering our territorial waters, aand require them to turn rounda.

As Gideon Falteras standoff with the police demonstrates, itas important to be able to see the bigger picture

The terrible massacre of innocent Israelis by sadistic Hamas agents on 7 October last year has set in motion a dreadful chain of events, exploited by bad faith actors on all sides to sow division and hate. Last week the campaigner Gideon Falter tenaciously stage-managed a confrontation with the Metropolitan police by demanding to walk through a peace demonstration at a non-designated crossing point. Why did Gideon Falter cross the road? Was it to emerge with evidence that Jewish people were under threat, and that the police were racist? Or was it because he was stapled to the person he had filming him?

Falteras 55-second framing of his confrontation with the police emerged on Friday 19 April, before anyone had properly looked at an illuminating 13-minute clip Sky was sitting on that compromised his account. But it was too late. Suella Braverman, whoad done no research as usual, was already saying Sir Mark Rowley should resign as police commissioner. The usually reliable shoot first and ask questions later approach backfires again.

Stewart Leeas new live show, Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf, opens in London in December before a national tour. He interviews Iain Sinclair about his new book, Pariah Genius, at Londonas Swedenborg House on 2 May

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk

Supporters of the Rwanda deportation scheme fail to understand the lessons of Australia

aIt underscores why you need a deterrent.a So claimed Rishi Sunak in response to the Channel tragedy last week that led to the deaths of five migrants off the coast of France, hours after the aSafety of Rwanda Billa, Sunakas adeterrenta, passed its final parliamentary hurdle.

aDeterrencea has become the magic word to ease through every immigration policy, however cynical, cruel or unworkable. There is only one problem. When it comes to immigration, deterrence does not deter. aThe available evidence suggests that the deterrent effect of asylum policies tends to be small,a observes Oxford Universityas Migration Observatory. However tough they may seem, concluded a study from the development thinktank ODI, adeterrent policiesa| have virtually no effect on peopleas behavioura. Those seeking to cross the Channel ahave already travelled thousands of miles and spent thousands of pounds getting to that pointa; they are aunlikely to drastically rethink their amigration projecta, regardless of how strict the UKas border controls becomea.

If all but the most diehard gamers wants to embrace female characters and inclusivity, the rest of the world should take note

You canat get much nerdier than Warhammer. Forget video games or sci-fi TV shows: a pastime that involves collecting and painting small plastic models, moving them around pretending they are trying to kill each other, and then rolling dice to find out how well theyave killed each other, is about as nerdy as it gets. Take it from someone who spends a fair share of their weekends doing just that.

Warhammer in some variety has been around for just over 40 years, but has grown increasingly popular throughout my lifetime. The Nottingham-based company that makes it a Games Workshop a is worth more than APS3bn and hailed as one of the UKas biggest business success stories, exporting its figurines and boards round the world. It has spawned dozens of spinoff video games, and Superman star Henry Cavill a an avowed fan a has even signed up to produce and star in a Warhammer TV show on Amazon Prime.

Jasper Jackson is a freelance journalist and media commentator, and former Guardian assistant media editor

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk

Council budgets looks a likely target when the Tory government seeks to balance the books and pay for its promises

Talking tough on asicknote culturea, stopping the boats and offering billions of pounds extra for defence spending. Ahead of local elections in England and Wales this week, Rishi Sunak has been in campaign overdrive.

With the prime minister suffering the joint-lowest satisfaction rating of any Conservative or Labour leader since 1978, experts are predicting a drubbing for the Tories, with the party expected to lose as many as half the seats it is contesting. The prominent Tory mayors in the West Midlands and Tees Valley, Andy Street and Ben Houchen, could be ejected from power.

Politicians who speak their minds and believe what they say are so rare that voters will forgive them almost anything

Hereas a cast-iron rule of politics: authenticity matters. It is almost all that matters. If you have it, youare made. If you donat, no team of PR professionals can manufacture it for you.

In the past few weeks, one politician has driven this lesson home: Angela Rayner. On the face of it, sheas on the ropes. After claims she once dodged paying capital gains tax on the sale of a council house, she has suffered a hammering in the press and from the opposition. But if she weathers the storm, I reckon sheall come out on top. Despite everything, her character has been burnished as a chorus of pundits and colleagues have rushed to her defence, framing her as feisty, self made, hardworking and straight talking. A sample, from Matthew Parris in the right-leaning Times: aAngela Rayneras only crime is being an uppity lass.a

Thanks to the watchdogas liberal pre-election advice, drawling condescension will pass as impartiality

aTonight Iall be asking the most important question of all a who was St George and why do we celebrate him?a Supposing a UK channel wanted to prove that politicians make such abysmal current affairs presenters that there is nothing for regulators to worry about, it could hardly do better than hire Jacob Rees-Mogg.

After a year presenting State of the Nation on GB News, its presenter comes across, oddly on a station that increasingly betrays some interest in professional standards, as fully as unendurable as he was in the days when, as a cabinet minister, head leave crested notes on civil service work stations. aSorry you were out when I visited. I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon. With every good wish, Rt Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg MP.a

From Everest to Machu Picchu, we canat get enough of those amust-seea places. Itas time to show some restraint

Climbing Everest used to be an even more dangerous pursuit than it is today, requiring huge bravery, endurance and skill. Even then the mountain could kill. A century ago, it claimed the lives of two of Britainas finest climbers, George Mallory and Sandy Irvine.

The worldas highest mountain eventually succumbed to human challenge when, almost three decades later, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay carried the flags of Britain, the UN, and Nepal to its summit on 29 May 1953. Sporadic trips involving handfuls of explorers continued over succeeding years.

Why has so little been done to make indoor spaces safer, to stop the spread of airborne viruses?

Robin McKieas article rings alarm bells for global health and our failure to control airborne pathogens (aWhat virus will cause the next pandemic? Itas flu, say scientistsa).

We are rightly looking with concern at the spread of H5N1 and the risk it poses to humans, but we have still not applied the hard-won lessons learned from Covid 19. While all agencies and experts now (belatedly) admit to Covidas airborne spread, very little has been done to make indoor spaces safer for us all, and the clinically vulnerable in particular, for whom shops, workplaces, restaurants, and even clinical settings have become high-risk areas.

Campaigners say cash-strapped local authorities are placing young people in budget accommodation, making them targets for grooming by criminal gangs

Vulnerable teenagers in care are being placed in hotels by cash-strapped councils, with experts warning they are being aserved upa to criminal gangs.

Children aged 16 to 17 are entering care in greater numbers than any other age group, often with complex needs, and experts say many councils in England now have nowhere to put them. They are increasingly resorting to budget hotels, with no adult support, as a way of cutting costs and keeping teenagers off the streets.

Stanton & Novelty is one of 10 Blackpool businesses that handmakes UK rock, but cheap imports and MP scandals are frustrating attempts to gain geographical protection

Today, Parma Violet, bubblegum and salted caramel flavours are being made. On other days, it could be banoffee pie, hot chilli, the nuclear-strength super sour or, for an afterwork treat, JA$?gerbomb-flavoured rock.

At a small factory making Blackpool rock, the flavours might be different from previous generations but the techniques and skills are the same as they were 60 years ago.

Coroner condemns ainhumanea imprisonment for public protection sentences that have no end date for release

A senior coroner has condemned the ainhumanea and aindefensiblea treatment of a man who killed himself 17 years into an indefinite prison sentence. Tom Osborne, the senior coroner for Milton Keynes, said Scott Rider had given up all hope of release before he took his own life at HMP Woodhill in June 2022.

He had been serving an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence after being convicted of grievous bodily harm in 2005. The sentence had a minimum term of 23 months but no end date.

British Skydiving Board to investigate after man in his 40s found at industrial estate in Shotton

The British Skydiving Board will investigate the death of a man in his 40s in a parachute incident in Durham on Saturday.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene after emergency services were called to South West Industrial Estate in Shotton shortly after midday. The death is being treated as unexpected and a cordon remains in place at the scene.

Founded in 2005 and lauded by Silicon Valley, the Nick Bostromas centre for studying existential risk warned about AI but also gave rise to cultish ideas such as effective altruism

Two weeks ago it was quietly announced that the Future of Humanity Institute, the renowned multidisciplinary research centre in Oxford, no longer had a future. It shut down without warning on 16 April. Initially there was just a brief statement on its website stating it had closed and that its research may continue elsewhere within and outside the university.

The institute, which was dedicated to studying existential risks to humanity, was founded in 2005 by the Swedish-born philosopher Nick Bostrom and quickly made a name for itself beyond academic circles a particularly in Silicon Valley, where a number of tech billionaires sang its praises and provided financial support.

Calls for divestment continue despite hundreds of arrests, with more demonstrations planned for Democratic national convention

Student protests on US university campuses over Israelas war on Gaza showed little sign of letting up over the weekend, with protesters vowing to continue until their demands for US educational bodies to disentangle from companies profiting from the conflict are met.

In what is perhaps the most significant student movement since the anti-Vietnam campus protests of the late 1960s, the conflict between pro-Palestinian students and university administrators has revealed an entire subset of conflicts.

PP leader accuses prime minister of navel-gazing, while SA!nchezas supporters rally in Madrid

Spanish opposition parties have stepped up their attacks on the socialist prime minister, Pedro SA!nchez, as he prepares to announce whether he will resign because of what he describes as a aharassment and bullying operationa being waged against him and his wife by his political and media enemies.

SA!nchez shocked Spain on Wednesday night when he published a letter announcing that he would abandon his public duties for five days while he weighed up whether to step down, adding that he would reveal his decision on Monday.

Star of Lupin says notions of justice, equality and fraternity have been shaken along with his optimism

The French actor Omar Sy, the star of the hit Netflix series Lupin, has said France must move away from the individualism that is fragmenting society and rebuild a sense of the collective if it is to hold back the far right.

In a series of media interviews to promote a new book about his life, Sy said the notions of justice, equality and fraternity had been shaken, and it was hard to be a black person in France.

Tents, debris and personal items from the Nova festival, where 364 people died on 7 October, form shocking exhibit on Wall Street

While New York was preoccupied with student protests over the USas Asupport of Israelas war in Gaza last week, another aspect of how the city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel is coming to terms with bloodshed in the Middle East was being prepared.

On Wall Street, a gruelling Aexhibition has opened detailing the horrific attack on the Nova music festival by Hamas terrorists on 7 October, in which 364 people were murdered, many wounded and 44 taken hostage.

Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin face at least two yearsa jail on aextremisma charges, which they deny, amid continuing crackdown on dissent

Two Russian journalists have been arrested on aextremisma charges and ordered by courts there to remain in custody pending investigation and trial on accusations of working for a group founded by the late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin both denied the charges for which they will be detained for a minimum of two months before any trials begin. Each faces a minimum of two years in prison and a maximum of six years for alleged aparticipation in an extremist organisationa, according to Russian courts.

The killing of councillor Marielle Franco has inspired a generation of journalists to probe the cityas dangerous underworld

Rafael Soaresas phone rang and his blood froze. aRonnie Lessa Googled you,a a federal police contact on the other end of the line told the Brazilian reporter as he stood in his newsroom one morning in 2019.

Any Rio crime journalist worth their salt knew that being investigated by such a man was extremely bad news. Lessa was reputedly one of the cityas most in-demand contract killers: a battle-hardened police combatant turned assassin whose crimes had enabled him to buy a speedboat named after a Belgian machine gun called the Minimi.

Despite talk of a Nobel peace prize, Japanas leader is facing a backlash among voters as key byelection approaches

In the past fortnight Fumio Kishida has been mentioned as a possible recipient of the Nobel peace prize and praised for a speech to congress in which he urged the US not to retreat into isolation.

But since his return to Tokyo after a successful summit with Joe Biden, Japanas prime minister has been buffeted by domestic political headwinds that this weekend could spell the beginning of the end of his administration.

President advocated apaying the costsa of colonial-era crimes but government said focus was deepening international cooperation

The Portuguese government has dismissed suggestions from the countryas president that it should apay the costsa for slavery and other colonial-era crimes, saying it has no plans for reparations and will instead focus on deepening international cooperation abased on the reconciliation of brotherly peoplesa.

Campaigners have long appealed to Portugal to address its legacy as the European country with the longest historical involvement in the slave trade. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, nearly six million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported across the Atlantic by Portuguese vessels.

Public disapproval mounts for South Dakota governor and vice-presidential hopeful whose book contains gruesome account

Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor and Republican vice-presidential hopeful, saw polling numbers plummet after the Guardian revealed that she writes in a new book about the day she shot dead a hunting dog and an un-castrated goat, a revelation that ignited a political storm.

Announcing what it called its aNoem Puppy Murder Poll Findingsa, New River Strategies, a Democratic firm, said 81% of Americans disapproved of Noemas decision to shoot Cricket, a 14-month-old wire-haired pointer who Noem says ruined a pheasant hunt and killed a neighbouras chickens, thereby earning a trip to a gravel pit to die.

In the bestselling novelistas latest, Anna Walsh moves back to Dublin and falls for an old flame in a comical tale of grit, growth and self-acceptance

Since she first introduced them to readers in her 1995 debut, Watermelon, Marian Keyes has been drawn repeatedly back to the five Walsh sisters. Having already claimed a novel apiece, now second acts beckon. A couple of years ago, Rachel, the star of Keyesas breakout bestseller, Rachelas Holiday, was the focus of a sequel, Again, Rachel. Now itas the turn of her younger sister.

My Favourite Mistake finds hotshot beauty PR Anna Walsh, who previously survived a car crash that killed her husband, pulling the plug on her glossy Manhattan life. Within a few short chapters, the 48-year-old has moved back to Dublin.

Brighton Dome
Ranganathanas Hustle delivers laughs, but not the shock of the new. It is at its best when we glimpse something meaningful beneath the standard-issue curmudgeonliness

aIall be honest with you: Iam getting sick of me too.a His TV ubiquity now the stuff of other comediansa a and his own a punchlines, how can Romesh Ranganathan justify another evening in his company? Tonight, he starts by flattering the locals: a native of nearby Crawley, he waxes nostalgic about cutting his standup teeth on the Brighton scene. But mostly heas an everyman, not just a Sussex man, a midlife misanthrope withdrawing from hard work, self-improvement and the prospect of ever making any new friends. Forty five years is enough, Romesh is here to tell us: no additional effort will now be made.

The authenticity of this pose we might question, not least given that slimline Ranganathan ran the London marathon last weekend. But he wears the world-weariness well, taking it now and then to droll extremes: see a set-piece about being forced to holiday in Portugal with a horror of horrors a another family. Itas not an unfamiliar pose for a middle-aged comic, mind you: his Hustle show delivers laughs, but not the shock of the new. Itas at its best when we glimpse something meaningful for Ranganathan beneath the standard-issue curmudgeonliness. He alludes to his sometimes brittle mental health. Thereas a routine about envying the simple happiness David Beckham gets from frying mushrooms. He contrasts banal small talk with the antisocial screaming going on in his head.

Chichester Festival theatre
Mike Poultonas adaptation of Philippa Gregoryas novel shows how the sisters refuse to be passive victims

Wife Number 2 to serial husband, King Henry VIII, first to be beheaded and a marital trigger for the Reformation, Anne Boleyn is without doubt a star of the Tudor age, her life and death finely documented.

What is lesser known is the place of her sister, Mary a the other Boleyn of the title a in Henryas court, and his heart. She was the kingas mistress before Anne became his wife. Plucked from the footnotes of history by novelist Philippa Gregory, on whose book this adaptation by Mike Poulton is based, this fictionalised story has twice been made into a film, with Peter Morganas star-studded version offering a soft-focus portrait of the sisters.

The socialite and collector prioritised art over family and claimed she had 1,000 lovers. But a new UK exhibition, curated by her granddaughter, tells another tale a that of the five years she spent in Hampshire and Sussex leading a relatively ordinary life

Beside the Grand Canal, on a wall of the palazzo she called home for 30 years, a portrait of Peggy Guggenheim fizzes with her larger-than-life personality, a personality that once reverberated between these walls, and across Venice. In the painting, Peggy wears a pair of her signature outsize sunglasses, and clutches three of her beloved Lhasa Apsos terriers. Today, Peggyas palazzo is a museum housing the art collection she amassed from the 1930s to the 1970s, featuring work by everyone from Picasso to Pollock, Ernst to Kandinsky, Duchamp to Tanguy, all of whom she knew and many of whom she slept with. The portrait hangs outside the office of the museumas director, who happens also to be Peggyas fiercest critic. She is Karole Vail, daughter of Peggyas son, Sindbad.

Vail has been director of the Venice Guggenheim (there are related Guggenheim museums in New York and Bilbao) since 2017, and itas fair to say that her take on her grandmother is mired in the belief that, while Peggy was a superlative art collector, she left much to be desired as a mother and grandmother. aShe was obsessed with the men in her life: she never focused on her children in the way they needed,a says Vail.

Hamas official says delegation will reportedly discuss ceasefire proposal handed to mediators Qatar and Egypt, as well as Israelas response

The Gaza health ministry on Sunday reported at least 66 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours.

In central Gaza, Mohammed al-Hattab said he found his one-year-old baby in the rubble after an Israeli airstrike hit the Nuseirat refugee camp over the weekend.

Pursuit of anon-stop executionsa causing psychological distress to corrections staff as states urged to widen gap between executions

The relentless pursuit of anon-stop executionsa by a rump of US death penalty states is exposing prison staff to extreme levels of psychological and physical stress, according to traumatized corrections officers who are appealing for help.

Though capital punishment is generally on the wane in America, with only five states carrying out executions last year, those states that remain active are showing a renewed determination. In some states, the pace of judicial killings is now so intense that prison guards are kept in an almost permanent state of readiness, with mock executions staged on a rolling basis.

Calls for divestment continue despite hundreds of arrests, with more demonstrations planned for Democratic national convention

Student protests on US university campuses over Israelas war on Gaza showed little sign of letting up over the weekend, with protesters vowing to continue until their demands for US educational bodies to disentangle from companies profiting from the conflict are met.

In what is perhaps the most significant student movement since the anti-Vietnam campus protests of the late 1960s, the conflict between pro-Palestinian students and university administrators has revealed an entire subset of conflicts.

US president made fun of Republican frontrunneras legal woes while critics of his handling of Gaza war protested outside

Joe Biden has shown no mercy to Donald Trump with a series of barbed jokes about his election rival, telling a gathering of Washingtonas political and media elites: aIam a grown man running against a six-year-old.a

The White House Correspondentsa Association (WHCA) dinner on Saturday night provided the ideal platform for Biden to continue a recent run of taking the fight to Trump with more aggressive rhetoric, cutting humour and personal insults.

Public disapproval mounts for South Dakota governor and vice-presidential hopeful whose book contains gruesome account

Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor and Republican vice-presidential hopeful, saw polling numbers plummet after the Guardian revealed that she writes in a new book about the day she shot dead a hunting dog and an un-castrated goat, a revelation that ignited a political storm.

Announcing what it called its aNoem Puppy Murder Poll Findingsa, New River Strategies, a Democratic firm, said 81% of Americans disapproved of Noemas decision to shoot Cricket, a 14-month-old wire-haired pointer who Noem says ruined a pheasant hunt and killed a neighbouras chickens, thereby earning a trip to a gravel pit to die.

With abortion on the line, a Black conservative provocateur is pitted against the stateas center-left Jewish attorney general

In front of a conservative talkshow host two weeks ago, Mark Robinson, North Carolinaas Republican candidate for governor, was grousing a bit about being snubbed by the stateas Democratic governor on a matter of race.

aHe talks a lot about diversity, equity and inclusion, but apparently the line for diversity, equity and inclusion stops at the Republican party,a Robinson told Lockwood Phillips. aRoy Cooper has had several chances to congratulate me on the accomplishment of being the first Black lieutenant governor, and he has never taken it.a

PP leader accuses prime minister of navel-gazing, while SA!nchezas supporters rally in Madrid

Spanish opposition parties have stepped up their attacks on the socialist prime minister, Pedro SA!nchez, as he prepares to announce whether he will resign because of what he describes as a aharassment and bullying operationa being waged against him and his wife by his political and media enemies.

SA!nchez shocked Spain on Wednesday night when he published a letter announcing that he would abandon his public duties for five days while he weighed up whether to step down, adding that he would reveal his decision on Monday.

President advocated apaying the costsa of colonial-era crimes but government said focus was deepening international cooperation

The Portuguese government has dismissed suggestions from the countryas president that it should apay the costsa for slavery and other colonial-era crimes, saying it has no plans for reparations and will instead focus on deepening international cooperation abased on the reconciliation of brotherly peoplesa.

Campaigners have long appealed to Portugal to address its legacy as the European country with the longest historical involvement in the slave trade. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, nearly six million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported across the Atlantic by Portuguese vessels.

In the mid-1930s, the novelist, then a controversial war correspondent, encouraged aspiring writers with frankness and humour

He cultivated a hard-drinking macho image, with a taste for big-game hunting and a love of bullfighting, but Ernest Hemingway had a generous and thoughtful side that is revealed in previously unpublished letters.

In the decade after he made his name with A Farewell to Arms, his 1929 war novel, his correspondence shows that he repeatedly offered advice and encouragement a as well as insights into his own craft a to aspiring young novelists.

Speakeras crude interventions on campus have forced many to question if his motives on Ukraine were quite so heroic

Democrat Nancy Pelosi cited his aintegritya and described him as acourageousa. Republican Michael McCaul called him a aprofile in couragea. CNN hailed him as aan unlikely Churchilla.

Mike Johnson, speaker of the House of Representatives, began the week showered in plaudits for leading the House in approving $95bn in urgently needed wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel and other US allies.

Trumpas former fixer to appear as prosecution witness, while Avenatti, serving prison sentence, willing to testify for defense

As Donald Trumpas hush-money trial enters its second week, jurors will be asked to focus on the testimony of his former Mr Fixit a the disbarred lawyer Michael Cohen.

Cohen, who served as Trumpas personal attorney for 12 years until 2018, is acting as a witness for the New York district attorney, Alvin Bragg. The case could turn on Cohenas testimony about payments sought by two women, the porn star Stormy Daniels and the Playboy playmate Karen McDougal, and how those payments were made and allegedly disguised, as prosecutors contend, in violation of accounting and political campaign laws.

Researchers are calling for the retraction of misleading anti-abortion studies that could influence judges in critical cases

The retraction of three peer-reviewed articles prominently cited in court cases on the so-called abortion pill a mifepristone a has put a group of papers by anti-abortion researchers in the scientific limelight.

Seventeen sexual and reproductive health researchers are calling for four peer-reviewed studies by anti-abortion researchers to be retracted or amended. The papers, critics contend, are afatally flaweda and muddy the scientific consensus for courts and lawmakers who lack the scientific training to understand their methodological flaws.

Life at itas essence is about time and by 2050, nearly 3.7 million people are expected to live up to 100. What can we do to get the most out of our bonus years?

Loneliness. Ageism. Physical limitations, cognitive decline and, increasingly, elder poverty.

The downsides of living to 100 and beyond are numerous. But so are the upsides. Life at its essence is about time a time to live, time to laugh, time to love a and many of those who have achieved a triple-digit age are living their best lives as centenarians.

Tents, debris and personal items from the Nova festival, where 364 people died on 7 October, form shocking exhibit on Wall Street

While New York was preoccupied with student protests over the USas Asupport of Israelas war in Gaza last week, another aspect of how the city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel is coming to terms with bloodshed in the Middle East was being prepared.

On Wall Street, a gruelling Aexhibition has opened detailing the horrific attack on the Nova music festival by Hamas terrorists on 7 October, in which 364 people were murdered, many wounded and 44 taken hostage.

A new approach aims to restore fish levels in the Yukon River but some feel it unfairly targets traditional practices while failing to tackle huge losses to industrial fishing in the ocean

Earlier this month Alaska officials announced a new plan they say could revive the Yukon Riveras struggling salmon population. The 2,000-mile waterway that runs from Canadaas Yukon Territory to the Bering Sea has seen sharp declines in its Chinook, or king salmon, in recent years.

The new strategy aims to restore the number of fish that reach their northern spawning areas near the Canadian border to 71,000, up from about 15,000 that reached the Canadian border in 2023, by suspending commercial, sport, domestic and personal use fisheries in the Yukon River until 2030. Previously, fishing closures were revisited each year.

Donat be deluded by media hullabaloo a but smart employers can get creative with schedules to attract and retain talent

According to CNN a4-day workweeks may be around the corner. A third of Americaas companies are exploring them.a CNBC says: aThis US company tested a 4-day workweek a and says it made workers happier and more productive.a Newsweek tells us: aMillennials Are Ready For a Four-Day Week.a So why do all of my clients say nope?

According to an advocacy organization, more than 300 companies have four-day workweeks and, per the reports above, many others are apparently atestinga the concept. I admit that Iave spoken to none of these companies but Iam not sure I have to. I spend my life working with small and mid-sized businesses and I know a PR stunt when I see one. Hey, good for them. In these times of tight labor - itas a great marketing campaign. aPeople! Come work for us except you donat have to do as much work and weall still pay you the same!a Now thatas a company I want to work for.

Having a baby led to an unexpected disease and then surgery that altered Lauren Benstedas body for ever. She talks about the pain she felt in being separated from her newborn, and her journey to learn to accept her new life

aWeare going to have to disconnect you,a says the man at my bedside. Since I was hospitalised a fortnight ago, this man and his team have been trying to save my colon, a 5ft-long tangle of ulcers and inflammation. The speed and scale of my colonas fury has fascinated doctors. I imagine them in their morning meetings, poring over my colonoscopy with the mystification usually reserved for the Voynich manuscript. But time is up. Unless they adisconnecta me, my bowel will perforate and I will die.

Disconnection, explains the doctor, involves whipping the whole colon out a here he mimes pulling a rabbit from a hat a and diverting my digestion through a hole in my abdomen called a stoma. He sketches my new anatomy on a piece of paper, quick as a high-street caricaturist. He cannot imagine what it is like to receive this news a to hear your body will change for ever and with it your whole life too a just as I cannot imagine what it is to break it. I want to grab his hand, ask him how. How does a body give birth to a healthy baby and then burst into flames?

As many as 28% of young adults in the UK do not drink. Here, three of them explain why their relationship with alcohol has changed

A recent World Health Organization (WHO) study found Great Britain has the worst rate of child alcohol consumption in the world a with more than half of children in England, Scotland and Wales having drunk alcohol by the age of 13.

Yet this is coupled with a growing move towards sobriety among young people. Alcohol education charity Drinkaware found that, as of 2021, young adults were the most likely to not drink alcohol, at 28%, whereas older adults were the least likely, at 15%.

In a new book, Robert KD Colby of the University of Mississippi shows how the Confederacy remained committed to slavery

While the civil war is associated with the end of slavery in the US, the so-called peculiar institution survived throughout much of the Confederacy right to the end of the conflict. Thatas the thought-provoking narrative of a comprehensive new book by Robert KD Colby, a history professor at the University of Mississippi.

aMany Confederates saw slavery as indelibly bound up with their bid for independence, and used the slave trade to try to build a world around an independent slaveholding republic,a Colby says.

As Luca Guadagninoas acclaimed tennis film Challengers makes its case for sporting immortality, critic Guy Lodge chooses 20 of the genreas undisputed heavyweights

• Challengers reviewed by Wendy Ide

Analogies of life as sport have been exhausted by every PE teacher in existence. In the movies, however, theyare eternally renewable. Take Challengers, Luca Guadagninoas sleek, sexy, sweat-drenched new film, which hits every metaphor you might expect in its story of three tennis pros locked in a tense love triangle: games are won and lost, points scored, doubles partners swapped, and so on. Shot and paced with the ricocheting energy of a great tennis match, itas a sports movie that, like many a classic of the genre, understands the parallels between sport and cinema as two great crowd-pleasing pastimes.

The sports movie is pretty much as old as movies themselves: for early silent-cinema pioneers at the turn of the 20th century, the movement and momentum of a baseball game or a boxing match made them as dynamic a subject as any for the camera. Charlie Chaplinas very first appearance as the Little Tramp, in the short Kid Auto Races at Venice, cast him as a disruptive spectator at a racing-car derby. Classic templates for the genre emerged quickly: the Oscar-winning 1931 hit The Champ nailed a structure for the underdog sporting weepie that shaped everything from Rocky to The Wrestler, while the 1944 Elizabeth Taylor vehicle National Velvet minted a million further feelgood stories of plucky athletes defying the odds. (Itas far harder to involve audiences in stories of an athlete whoas born a winner.)

From Everest to Machu Picchu, we canat get enough of those amust-seea places. Itas time to show some restraint

Climbing Everest used to be an even more dangerous pursuit than it is today, requiring huge bravery, endurance and skill. Even then the mountain could kill. A century ago, it claimed the lives of two of Britainas finest climbers, George Mallory and Sandy Irvine.

The worldas highest mountain eventually succumbed to human challenge when, almost three decades later, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay carried the flags of Britain, the UN, and Nepal to its summit on 29 May 1953. Sporadic trips involving handfuls of explorers continued over succeeding years.

Pots of slime, pig heads, sexy dollsa| we were only looking for a present for my sonas fourth birthday

This week I found myself in a large toy shop in a retail park off Londonas North Circular. We were looking, in a pleasant panic, for a present for my sonas fourth birthday. His birthdays always hit me in an odd way, a bit like those slaps round the face they have in films to stop the woman screaming. Because: he was born at the beginning of the pandemic and, just as his early developmental stages like sitting up or eating solids worked as a marker of time having passed, of us having survived, so do his birthdays. It is four years, this means, since those tight, hot days of the first Covid lockdown, of sanitiser-cracked hands and the brisk hell of home schooling, and every time the anniversary comes round I find myself having to sit down, take a breath.

Anyway, this toy shop, good God. Do you have any ideas what toys are today? I was not prepared. There are the board games, which include your Guess Whoas and so on, but they are overwhelmed by other games called things like, Who Can Poo On Who and Fart School and Diarrhoea of a CEO and I may be misremembering titles slightly yes, but this was very much the gist, boxes with rabid cartoon characters covered in phlegm and instructions that involve, for eg, burping oneas name.

• Updates from the 2pm BST kick-off in North London
• Bukayo Saka: aThe hunger to win a| thatas why I keep getting upa
• Want to share your thoughts? Send Niall an email

Plenty of pre-match reading for you; letas start with Jonathan Wilson on Ange Postecoglouas Spurs and what clubs mean to their fans.

Pre-game thoughts from the Arsenal captain, Martin Adegaard: We feel good, really excited to play this kind of match. We have to stay focused and locked in on what we can control, and take it game by game. Today itas the same mindset.a

• 2012 Olympic champion returns to mixed results in Katy, Texas
• Douglas, 28, out to make five-woman US Olympic team for Paris

Gabby Douglas is officially back.

Whether the gymnastics staras return to the sport carries all the way to the Paris Olympics remains to be seen.

Ugly row with JA1/4rgen Klopp on the London Stadium touchline shows the Egyptianas focus has waned

When it comes to picking one image to symbolise the end of an era at Liverpool, JA1/4rgen Kloppas quarrel with Mohamed Salah on the London Stadium touchline will take some beating. This is what happens when power slips away. This, sadly, is the way that it ends.

We will have to speculate about the specific reason behind the row that grabbed the attention after Liverpoolas deflating 2-2 draw with West Ham on Saturday. West Hamas equaliser had arrived before Klopp, who had been waiting to make a triple substitution, was able to introduce Salah, Darwin NAoA+-ez and Joe Gomez. The manager seemed miffed and appeared to admonish Salah, whose angry response made it very clear that he had zero interest in listening to any criticism.

Doping case with Chinese swimmers has brought years of pent-up feeling into public domain a and shows no sign of stopping

At its glitzy 25th anniversary gala in Lausanne last month, the World Anti-Doping Agency screened a slick montage highlighting how it had changed sport for the better. There were images of Muhammad Ali defying Parkinsonas to light the Olympic flame and PelA(c) lifting the World Cup, before a history lesson a and a promise. aToday Wada is a more representative, accountable and transparent organisation,a explained its director general, Olivier Niggli, athat truly has athletes at the heart of everything we do.a

Not everyone in the room was buying it a one source felt it was too PR-focused, while another raised their eyebrows when Thomas Bach a the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) a and the former Wada president Sir Craig Reedie picked up awards. However, frustrations with Wada were largely limited to corridor conversations. It turned out to be the relative calm before the thermonuclear storm.

• American edges fast-finishing South African at Grange Golf Club
• Cameron Smith leads Ripper GC to teams championship in playoff

American Brendan Steele has held of a fast-finishing Louis Oosthuizen for a one-shot win at LIV Golfas Adelaide tournament. Steele finished 18 under at the Grange Golf Club after firing a four-under 68 in Sundayas final round.

South Africaas Oosthuizen (17 under) charged with a blemish-free seven-under 65. Former world No 1 Jon Rahm also threatened with an eagle and six birdies in a superb 64 but fell short.

• British 6ft7in athlete has never played a game in the sport
• Bills claim offensive lineman had fastest 40-yard dash in 10 years

Former rugby union player Travis Clayton has been selected by the Buffalo Bills in the 2024 NFL draft. The Englishmanas selection sees him join former Wales star Louis Rees-Zammit in American football.

Clayton, 23, was selected with the 221st overall pick in the seventh round despite having never played a game in the sport.

The killing of councillor Marielle Franco has inspired a generation of journalists to probe the cityas dangerous underworld

Rafael Soaresas phone rang and his blood froze. aRonnie Lessa Googled you,a a federal police contact on the other end of the line told the Brazilian reporter as he stood in his newsroom one morning in 2019.

Any Rio crime journalist worth their salt knew that being investigated by such a man was extremely bad news. Lessa was reputedly one of the cityas most in-demand contract killers: a battle-hardened police combatant turned assassin whose crimes had enabled him to buy a speedboat named after a Belgian machine gun called the Minimi.

Pope Francis, 87, addressed inmates, staff and volunteers at Giudecca jail before a mass in St Markas Square

Pope Francis visited a prison for women in Venice on Sunday before a mass in the watery city, during his first trip outside Rome for seven months.

The one-day trip to Venice will be closely watched amid concerns over the fragile health of Francis, 87, who has toured the world extensively in his 11 years as pope but has not travelled since visiting the French city of Marseille in September.

Prime minister says he is not distracted by poor personal ratings as rebel MPs are said to be plotting to oust him after local elections

Rishi Sunak has refused to quash speculation of a July general election as he insisted he was not adistracteda by his personal ratings lingering at record lows.

The prime minister said he would not asay anything more than Iave already saida and that his aworking assumptiona was there would be an election in the second half of the year.

Despite talk of a Nobel peace prize, Japanas leader is facing a backlash among voters as key byelection approaches

In the past fortnight Fumio Kishida has been mentioned as a possible recipient of the Nobel peace prize and praised for a speech to congress in which he urged the US not to retreat into isolation.

But since his return to Tokyo after a successful summit with Joe Biden, Japanas prime minister has been buffeted by domestic political headwinds that this weekend could spell the beginning of the end of his administration.

Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin face at least two yearsa jail on aextremisma charges, which they deny, amid continuing crackdown on dissent

Two Russian journalists have been arrested on aextremisma charges and ordered by courts there to remain in custody pending investigation and trial on accusations of working for a group founded by the late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin both denied the charges for which they will be detained for a minimum of two months before any trials begin. Each faces a minimum of two years in prison and a maximum of six years for alleged aparticipation in an extremist organisationa, according to Russian courts.

Socialist prime minister poised to decide on his future, but some say itas ploy to survive

On Monday, Pedro SA!nchez, the great and unpredictable survivor of Spanish politics, and a leader who has seen off more than his fair share of rivals, critics and adversaries, will reveal whether or not he intends to carry on as prime minister.

The announcement will come five days after the socialist prime minister shocked Spain by posting a four-page cri de coeur on social media in which he said that the continuing aharassment and bullying operationa being waged against him and his wife by his political and media opponents had led him to cancel his public duties for the rest of the week while he reflected on his future.

Coroner condemns ainhumanea imprisonment for public protection sentences that have no end date for release

A senior coroner has condemned the ainhumanea and aindefensiblea treatment of a man who killed himself 17 years into an indefinite prison sentence. Tom Osborne, the senior coroner for Milton Keynes, said Scott Rider had given up all hope of release before he took his own life at HMP Woodhill in June 2022.

He had been serving an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence after being convicted of grievous bodily harm in 2005. The sentence had a minimum term of 23 months but no end date.

Luca Guadagninoas sizzling, sharply scripted drama, co-starring Josh OaConnor and Mike Faist, is such fun itas almost indecent

Nobody harnesses horniness quite like Luca Guadagnino. With his lavish, luxurious portrait of forbidden lust, the Tilda Swinton-starring I Am Love, Guadagnino embraced one of cinemaas most cliched symbolic sensual devices, filling the frame with come-hither shots of delectable food. But somehow, in his hands, this hackneyed metaphor feels fresh, and the film is a skin-tingling exploration of erotic tension. Then thereas Call Me By Your Name, with its scenes of peach-grappling and languid yearning, in which even the spaces between the characters are charged with longing. And Bones and All, which virtually rebrands cannibalism as a legitimate kink. But even by Guadagninoas highly charged standards, Challengers is an absurdly sexy movie. With its power plays and exquisite cruelty, the shimmering beauty of its three leads and their tantalising interlocking desires, and the slow-motion shots of pooling sweat dripping on to the lens, the film borders on trashy at times, but itas so much fun that itas practically indecent.

At the very centre of the story, and providing much of the muscular energy that drives it, is a never better Zendaya. Deploying every last drop of her silky star quality, she plays Tashi, a former tennis prodigy. When we meet her, Tashi is now coaching her husband, Art (Mike Faist, channelling a thorny combination of brash entitlement and neediness), a multi-grand-slam-winning tennis champion who has hit a confidence-sapping losing streak. And itas more than his career that hangs in the balance. The stress is compounded because Art is well aware that for his wife, losers are a massive turn-off. aI love you,a he says plaintively. aI know,a she purrs, lazily uninterested. Advantage Tashi.

The singer-songwriteras brand of stubborn protest songs with a strain of tenderness has kept him relevant for 40 years. Here he talks about why heas fighting for trans rights, his late-night tweeting habit and his forthcoming tour a with his son

Recently, Billy Bragg showed his two young granddaughters a little promo film he put together celebrating his 40 years of making records. The girls were nonplussed by the early scenes on picket lines and spiky festival stages, but towards the end, recognising an avuncular white-bearded bloke with a guitar, they brightened: aLook, itas Grandad Bill!a they chorused. aIt was actually all Grandad Bill,a their father pointed out, but they werenat having any of it.

Meeting Bragg at the station car park in Weymouth a not far from where he lives a and heading up to a cafe on the headland overlooking the sweep of the bay, I sympathise a little bit with their sentiment. The first time I saw the singer in the flesh was sometime late in 1984, when he was giving it his full aone-man Clasha performance on student stages at minersa benefits. Even at the time that felt like it might be a hard act to grow old with; yet here he is in the seaside retirement resort, still fighting the good fight.

The Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times foreign correspondent provides fascinating insights into surviving his job and his 2019 diagnosis with an aggressive form of brain cancer in this inspiring journal of self-discovery

In the searing heat in Delhi in July 2019, the New York Times foreign correspondent Rod Nordland went for a morning jog across the city. It was more than 48C (120F), and the monsoon rains had arrived the previous day.

The Pulitzer prize-winning war reporter collapsed during the run, with a witness describing him reeling in circles, arms raised, before falling to the ground with a seizure. He had been struck down by an undiagnosed malignant brain tumour. Within days, Nordland had been flown back to the US by the New York Times and was being treated at the Weill Cornell medical center in New York, one of the best hospitals in the world.

The actor and cookbook author, 58, copes with a looming empty nest by inviting everyone around her table

Sunday worries? My Sundays are changing. My kids are now 17 and 21, and weare at a crossroads between me being in control and them being old enough to be in control. Iam in an area of grief. The empty nesting has left me quite sad.

Family time? Sundays have such a weight of expectation of being together as a family. Food is at the centre of my life a we would all break bread together. Now the kids say, aI think youall find Iam going to be asleep until 4pm.a This generation isnat as scared of their parents as we were.

Sundays growing up? My parents were divorced, so it was a game of two halves, travelling between them. Everyone would be drinking. My dad always had a big cigar in his mouth, there was a lot of arguing, a lot of jokes, and there were dogs barking. Everyone seemed to be having an affair in the 70s. In my memory, all the adults were having sex with each other. I was brought up in Surrey. There was nothing else to do other than shag your neighbour.

Sunday grub? Iave written three cookbooks: Iam a feeder. Thereas breakfast, brunch, homemade snacks. Then we have a big roast with homemade pudding. As a child, the house would be full and I liked the chaos. Now, Iall invite any old strangers just to hear that clink of cutlery.

Sunday me-time? Donat knock on the door at 7.30am, because Mumas in the bath. My husband endlessly books massages. Iam like: aYou all right mate? You could just run a bath.a

People want more seafood than the oceans can sustainably supply, so a German firm aims to plug that gap with cultivated fish a but are consumers ready to buy it?

The redbrick offices, just north of Hamburgas River Elbe and a few floors below Carlsbergas German headquarters, are an unexpectedly low-key setting for a food team gearing up to produce Europeas first tonne of lab-grown fish.

But inside Bluu Seafood, past the slick open-plan coffee and cake bar, the rooms are dominated by gleaming white tiles, people bustling about in lab coats, rows of broad-bottomed beakers and pieces of equipment more at home in a science-fiction thriller. A 50-litre tank (a bioreactor) is filled with what looks like a cherry-coloured energy drink. The liquid, known as agrowth mediuma, is rich with sugars, minerals, amino acids and proteins designed to give the fish cells that are added to it the boost they need to multiply by the million.

Founded in 2005 and lauded by Silicon Valley, the Nick Bostromas centre for studying existential risk warned about AI but also gave rise to cultish ideas such as effective altruism

Two weeks ago it was quietly announced that the Future of Humanity Institute, the renowned multidisciplinary research centre in Oxford, no longer had a future. It shut down without warning on 16 April. Initially there was just a brief statement on its website stating it had closed and that its research may continue elsewhere within and outside the university.

The institute, which was dedicated to studying existential risks to humanity, was founded in 2005 by the Swedish-born philosopher Nick Bostrom and quickly made a name for itself beyond academic circles a particularly in Silicon Valley, where a number of tech billionaires sang its praises and provided financial support.

Taken over several years, the British photographeras latest series shows her world narrowing as loss, and lockdown, strike

Lydia Goldblatt describes her book Fugue as a astory about mothering and losing a mother, intimacy and distance, told through photographs and writinga. It is a companion volume, in some ways, to an earlier project, Still Here, about the unsettled, intense landscape of love and loss generated by her fatheras death. aThe cultural silence around these emotions,a Goldblatt writes, by way of introduction, athe difficulty of navigating and giving voice to them, has made me want to suffuse them with colour and light.a

The pictures in Fugue were made over four years, beginning in 2020. The world of some of them is circumscribed by lockdown, life narrowing to the bubble of family. The photographeras young daughters are insistently present in the pictures, climbing and clinging and needing notice. aAbundanta is her word for them. Her mother is already an absence; the words in the book chart not only her loss but also the responsibility of clearing and decanting her London home.

Fugue is published by Gost (APS45) in June. An exhibition of the photographs, with Robert Morat Galerie, will be on display at Photo London 2024, Somerset House, 16-19 May

A total of 10 people hospitalised as urgent alert for potent synthetic opioids issued in nearby Bristol

Tory rival Susan Hall calls herself Sadiq Khanas abete noirea but some Londoners would be unable to pick the Conservative candidate out of a lineup, Barney Davis writes

New survey of female gamers in UK and US finds 12 per cent have received threats of rape

Drubbing for Tories in next weekas local elections could force Sunakas hand

The Central Suffolk and North Ipswich MP will sit on the Labour benches until the next general election, expected this autumn, when he has announced he will step down

John Curtice says Boris Johnsonas No 10 lockdown parties and Trussas economic catastrophe have made it impossible for Rishi Sunak to cling on to power

The prime minister faces a further blow to his leadership if Ben Houchen and Andy Street are both unseated in next Thursdayas contests

The man was pronounced dead after police and two ambulances rushed to South West Industrial Estate in Shotton on Saturday

New leader is part of rebels desperate a100 days to save Britaina plan as Conservatives panic over threat of massive losses in local lections this week

Since the Rwanda policy was proposed in April 2022, not a single flight has left for the east African nation

Cornwall Council has been urged to take the idea of tourism tax more seriously

Tim Lovejoy quickly changed tack after asking newlywed Jason Fox about his honeymoon

Actor has portrayed Whitney Dean since 2008

SNL star Colin Jost paid tribute to his late grandfather at last nightas White House Correspondentsa Association dinner, revealing his final election vote went to Joe Biden.

American singer-songwriter Madi Diaz has shared videos of her 20-year-old guitar seemingly wrecked from a flight - just days before she sets off on tour with Kacey Musgraves.

TV judge was encouraged to attend mammogram by her aStrictlya colleague Amy Dowden

The electronic beatsmith left behind the club scene for pop stardom. He opens up to Annabel Nugent about sobriety, his ameltdowna in Australia, and why he used to fantasise about aalienating all my rave fansa

Judi Dench talking Shakespeare, conversations with bestsellers Marian Keyes and David Nicholls, and a deep dive into the dayas news with Independent journalists and leading thinkers a this yearas Hay Festival programme is fit to burst with unmissable events. Jessie Thompson picks the highlights

Martin Chilton reviews the biggest books for May