If you haven"t tried sulfur soap for that tender, ache-y acne on your face, you might want to tap into these reviewers" pics and see the results for yourself.

View Entire Post >

According to an insider, Joeas anot into drama in any way.a

View Entire Post >

Get ready to make a "product of the month" plaque.

View Entire Post >

Stylish sunglasses, a pink Barbie Corvette, twinkle lights, and so much more.

View Entire Post >

"I wouldn"t change a thing. I wouldn"t force my values on others either."

View Entire Post >

You"ll probably wish you"d found these products forever ago.

View Entire Post >

Make life a little easier than it has been.

View Entire Post >

One of these divorce settlements was totaled at $38 billion; let that sink in.

View Entire Post >

The ultimate lineup that"ll leave your mouth watering.

View Entire Post >

Your summer "grams are going to be your pride and joy.

View Entire Post >

A desk vacuum really takes workspace cleanliness to the next level.

View Entire Post >

Nothing makes a cleaning job look fully finished like bright, freshly scrubbed grout.

View Entire Post >

Dress with no tights weather is upon us and (*Glinda voice but actually not sarcastic*) dP we couldn"t be happier. dP

View Entire Post >

Scotlandas first minister set to resign after failing to muster enough votes to survive a no confidence vote this week

Humza Yousaf is holding a press conference at noon, Sky News and the BBC are reporting.

Mandy Rhodes, editor of the Holyrood magazine, says she was due to interview Humza Yousaf this afternoon, but heas cancelled.

Mel Stride says therapy or respite could be offered instead of Pip payments to those with amildera mental health issues

• UK politics a latest updates

People with depression or anxiety could lose access to sickness benefits, the work and pensions secretary has said, as part of major welfare changes that have been described as a afull-on assault on disabled peoplea.

On Monday morning, Mel Stride announced the plans to overhaul the way disability benefits work and was due to address the Commons on the issue later in the day.

SA!nchez announces he will stay on days after saying he was considering resigning after attacks in rightwing media on his wife

Pedro SA!nchez is expected to speak in a few minutes. Stay tuned.

Pedro SA!nchezas big announcement will be an ainstitutional declarationa, which means a televised statement with no questions from the media.

Rescuers on Italian island say European governments must open more safe routes to claim refuge

Aid workers on the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is one of Europeas busiest landing points for asylum seekers, have condemned Rishi Sunakas Rwanda plan as they prepare for another busy summer of bedraggled arrivals and deaths at sea.

They have called on European governments to open more safe routes to claim refuge if they wish to astop the boatsa.

Dublin records near-doubling of tax revenue from duties on imports of clothing, food and other goods from Great Britain

Ireland has landed a a!700m (APS600m) Brexit bonanza with a steep increase in tax revenues flowing from customs duties now applicable to imports of clothing, food and other goods from Great Britain.

Before Brexit, Britain enjoyed customs-free exports to Ireland and the rest of the EU because it was part of the single market and customs union.

US secretary of state says Iran is biggest source of instability in region but adds many nations interested in apath of greater peacea

• Biden and Netanyahu speak amid pressure over Rafah and ceasefire

Antony Blinken has told a meeting of regional leaders in Riyadh that the most effective way to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza is to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking in Saudi Arabia, the US secretary of state said that there had been ameasurable progressa in delivering aid to Gaza, which Israel has beseiged for six months, but more is needed.

• England player allegedly threatened staff and customers
• Saracens state they are adealing with matter internallya

Billy Vunipola was tasered twice by police officers before being arrested at 4.30am on Sunday morning after an incident in a bar in Majorca.

The arrest occurred in Epic bar in Palma after the England rugby international took off his shirt and began threatening customers and employees with bottles and chairs. According to Spanish police, Vunipola, who is 6ft 2in and weighs more than 20 stone, was then said to have been tasered after assaulting an officer.

Deal to use mapping data from web search giant Baidu is a major step towards launching driver assistance tech in worldas biggest car market

Elon Muskas visit to China has reportedly reaped immediate rewards with a deal for Tesla to use mapping data provided by web search company Baidu, a major step in introducing driver assistance technology in the worldas largest car market.

Musk made an unannounced visit to China over the weekend. The billionaire posted a picture of his meeting with the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, on X, the social network he took over in 2022.

Civil liberties network warns of decline across the bloc as a result of harm or neglect by governments

Media freedom is declining across the EU and aperilously close to breaking pointa in several countries, a leading civil liberties network has said, highlighting widespread threats against journalists and attacks on the independence of public broadcasters.

The Berlin-based Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) said in its annual media freedom report, compiled with 37 rights groups in 19 countries, that alarming trends identified previously persisted in 2023 a although new EU-wide legislation could offer hope of improvement.

There are no known descriptions or drawings of object in Roman literature, making its purpose unclear

They are known as one of archaeologyas great enigmas a hollow 12-sided objects from the Roman era with no known purpose or use.

Only 33 of these mysterious dodecahedrons have ever been found in Britain and now one, unearthed during an amateur archaeology dig after 1,700 years underground, is going on public display in Lincoln as part of a history festival.

Elected in the 1997 landslide, Westminsteras answer to Hugh Grant was one of the first out gay MPs a and a firebrand on TV. After 27 years, he reveals why heas leaving politics behind

After Ben Bradshaw was selected as the Labour candidate for Exeter in 1997, Peter Mandelson apparently said: aBloody hell, where did you come from?a Bradshaw had been a journalist, BBC Radioas man on the ground at the fall of the Berlin Wall. He won the seat, at the age of 36, surfing the wave of enthusiasm for Tony Blair. Perhaps more importantly, as an out gay candidate a only the second in British parliamentary history a he proved that the country had had enough not just of the Tories in general but of raging homophobes. Adrian Rogers, whose majority he overturned, notoriously described homosexuality as a asterile, disease-ridden and God-forsaken occupationa.

I meet Bradshaw in Portcullis House, his office filled not with grumpy staffers but two youngsters learning the ropes, which gives it a slightly festive, end of term mood. Itas a bit like seeing Hugh Grant in real life: remembering him so well as a constant screen presence in the Blair and Brown years a armoured by power, softened by charm, with the faintly suspicious air of a guy who finds everything a bit too easy a now a bit more bashed about and much more real. Bradshaw wonat be standing again at the next election and his openness about it is disarming. aOne reason I have absolutely no misgivings about stepping down,a he says, ais that Iam still traumatised by Brexit. It was such a disaster for the country.a

Years of pressure by those fined for urinating in street due to lack of facilities pays off with a!4m plans

The need kicked in as Geerte Piening was on her way home from a bar one night in 2015. She swiftly weighed her options: it was past closing time in Amsterdamas lively Leidseplein area, meaning she could not duck into a bar to use their facilities, while the nearest public toilet was 2km away.

She resorted to squatting in an alleyway, coaxing her friends to cover her as she did so. Police soon turned up, handing her a a!140 (APS118) fine for public urination.

From an eagle to Elton John, the Played and Remade project enables artists to amake something magicala from free materials

The task of loading once-loved but now unwanted pianos into a van and carting them off to the recycling centre is a disheartening and melancholy one. So a music shop in Bath that scraps as many as 300 redundant and unfixable pianos a year has launched a project to repurpose the thousands of parts that make up each instrument into pieces of art.

The Piano Shop Bath is inviting artists to take their pick for free from the varied materials that make up each piano a wood, cast iron, brass, felt, copper, steel wires and so on a and turn them into pieces that can then be hung in its showroom.

After a successful career as a talent agent a representing Michael Parkinson, Ulrika Jonsson and Adam Ant a Melanie Cantor became disillusioned with TV. So she took up writing a and refused to give up on her passion.

• Sign up for Well Actually: a free weekly newsletter about health and wellness

At 61, after a decade writing four unpublished manuscripts and receiving hundreds of rejections from agents and publishers, Melanie Cantor got an email in 2019 from the literary agent Felicity Blunt. aIt started off positively and I was just waiting for the abuta to arrive, but it never did,a Cantor says. aShe said she wanted to represent me.a

In 2020, Dorset-based Cantoras debut novel Life and Other Happy Endings, about a woman with three months to live who spends her remaining time writing letters to those who have wronged her, came out. Its publication was the culmination of a lifelong fascination with writing.

From runneras knee to fraying cartilage, knees are involved in 40% of sports injuries. But it can be hard to pin down whatas wrong, or what to do about it. Hereas what the physios say

aI could talk for days about knees,a says physiotherapist Patricia Collins. aAfter backs, they are the most common area we treat.a According to a recent paper in the British Medical Journal, 41% of sports injuries are knee-related.

But just because knee issues are common, that doesnat mean we should ignore them and soldier on. These knobbly little joints bear a heavy load, and problems and solutions can take some untangling. aNot only does the knee have the two major leg bones, the femur and the tibia,a says Bhanu Ramaswamy, physio and visiting fellow at Sheffield Hallam University, abut youave got the kneecap, cartilage, tendons and ligaments, and any changes in those will make a knee prone to becoming more stiff or inflamed.a

The Essex Serpent authoras fourth novel, about a newspaper columnist who lives a double life, mixes themes of faith and physics to powerful effect

Sarah Perryas third book, Melmoth, remains, to my mind, one of the most complex and brilliant novels of the past few decades: a serious and haunting attempt to wrestle with the darkest elements of the 20th century. Perry remains best known for The Essex Serpent, her bestselling story of science, faith and monsters in late-19th-century England. Her extraordinary and ambitious fourth novel, Enlightenment, might best be thought of as a combination of the previous two books, being almost a sequel to The Essex Serpent and containing within it regular, uncanny echoes of Melmoth.

The book opens in 1997 with the Hale-Bopp comet high in the sky over the (fictional) Essex town of Aldleigh, just up the river from the Blackwater marshes and the half-drowned (and also fictional) village of Aldwinter, setting for The Essex Serpent. Our hero is the unlikely figure of Thomas Hart, aa man of Essex, for his sinsa, who is 50, bookish, gay, and a columnist for the Essex Chronicle. He ahad about him the melancholy religious air of a defrocked priesta and itas no wonder: he lives a double life, travelling down to London to pick up men before returning to sit in the pews at the Bethesda chapel, a congregation of Strict and Particular Baptists.

We wanted to swap to a bigger flat but ended up with near-collapsing ceilings, rotten plaster, no heating or hot water and an abusive neighbour

My wife, the daughter of a Windrush A(c)migrA(c), is a long-term social housing tenant with L&Q. Since we plan for her elderly parents to move in with us, we applied to swap her two-bedroom flat for a three-bedroom one via housing association L&Qas mutual exchange scheme. The property we chose was in a poor state of repair, but had potential. It took 18 months for the exchange to complete, during which time we were required to fill out forms confirming the condition of our property and our relationship with our neighbours, as did the other tenant who confirmed all was in order.

On moving day in April 2022, we were immediately doorstepped by our new neighbour, who informed us we were there illegally, and tried to stop us moving in. The flat itself had fallen into a dreadful state of disrepair. Live wires dangled from the walls, the plaster was rotten and the ceilings near collapse. It transpired the previous tenant had illegally let it as a house of multiple occupancy. L&Q told us to put in a works request, then proceeded to ignore us.

This legendary little featherball did impressions of my mum, refused to stay in his cage and even learned to play football.

Budgies are supposed to be boring, manageable pets. I have no doubt that when my extremely busy parents took me to the pet shop and let me pick out a bird for my seventh birthday, they imagined they were swerving the time commitment of looking after a cat, or a dog, or even a rabbit when I lost interest.

But the neon-yellow lutino budgerigar that I took home with me was not your average featherball. Brighton Yellow, as I named him with typical seven-year-old sophistication, was an absolute riot who would not be confined to his cage. He was proof that you often get more than you bargain for when you adopt a pet.

As she takes the words of Grenfell Tower fire survivors to the New York stage, the playwright talks about being drawn to painful subjects, and the disasteras worldwide relevance

The night I saw Grenfell, the play by Gillian Slovo based on interviews with survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire, there was a small but unprecedented response from the audience. On paper, Grenfell, which has transferred to New York after its successful run in London, is a tough sell to American theatregoers: the disaster wasnat big news in the US and the playas setting is peculiarly British. Towards the end of the play, however, when a survivor suggests the fire wasnat caused by the system being broken but rather by the system performing exactly as built, the audience at St Annas Warehouse in Brooklyn broke into spontaneous applause. aWe havenat had that reaction before,a says Slovo.

The 72-year-old playwright and novelist is accustomed to chronicling failures in government and if the subject matter of Grenfell seemed, at first glance, more parochial than her verbatim plays about GuantA!namo or Islamic State, it turned out to be deceptively so. The deaths in 2017 of 72 people in a west London tower block tell a universal story, not only about deregulation and corporate carelessness, but about double standards in government towards marginalised communities. Any American who can summon images of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina a people left to fend for themselves; people shot at by police as they fled, or camped out on sidewalks a can understand immediately and viscerally what this play is about.

The standup on being a vibe killer, studying Richard Pryor and why comedy isnat for good-looking people

Who is your comedy hero?
I grew up idolising a lot of standups: Chris Rock, Maria Bamford, Bridget Christie. I followed Ross Noble around (that sounds creepier than I intended) and watched him do a lot of shows in the early 2000s. At university, instead of doing my degree, there was a three-month period where I did an intensive Richard Pryor study. Through illegal downloading, I got all of his comedy albums and I would listen to each in chronological order and then build up to Live in Concert. I would say the intense focus I devoted to Pryoras comedy came really at the expense of my degree.

And your non-comedy hero?
Iam unsettlingly obsessed with Bob Dylan and AndrA(c) 3000 from Outkast.

Nish Kumar: Nish, Donat Kill My Vibe is on tour from September

This idealistic feature draws parallels between the struggles of immigrant Polish workers in Norway and the homophobia faced by two young lovers, but canat quite sew up the two seams

Director Leiv Igor Devold makes an unexpected link-up between Norway, the country where he grew up, and Poland, where he attended film school, in this idealistic but sometimes heavy-handed second feature. He also finds invigorating cross-currents in contrasting the collectivist struggles of immigrant Polish fish-processing workers with another oppressed minority: the stuttering romance, in the face of homophobia, between young wage slave Robert (Hubert MiAkowski) and his supervisor Ivar (Karl Bekele Steinland).

Robert finds himself gutting salmon in a factory on a Norwegian island in order to send money back home. But it is Ivar a the black adopted son of the factory owner Bjorn (Ayvind BrandtzA|g) a who gets under his skin. A wannabe actor slumming it courtesy of dad, heas an unbridled karaoke diva and early-morning buster of moves in the factory car park, even with Robertas dorm-mate Marek (Jakub Sierenberg) heckling him. Robert is fascinated, but itas not the fear of his compatriots that stops him acting; itas the self-hating homophobic imp on his back that has him clamming up every time heas confronted with Ivar.

Near-zero growth has crushed living standards, sending voters to populist demagogues. But they have no solutions to offer

By the time of the European parliament elections in June, this yearas rightward ebb in European politics will have turned into a tidal wave. Ultra-nationalist demagogues and populist-nationalists are now leading the polls in Italy, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia, and running second in Germany and Sweden. There are two hard-right groupings in the European parliament a Identity and Democracy and European Conservatives and Reformists. Between them, they could secure as much as 25% of the June vote. But even more ominously, in almost every part of Europe including Britain, these factions are forcing the hand of the traditional centre-right parties a which, one by one, are capitulating to ever more extreme anti-immigration, anti-trade and anti-environment positions.

The rightward shift is, of course, a western and not just European phenomenon, with Trump 2.0 advocating a far more aggressive protectionist and nationalist agenda than Trump 1.0. But Europe stands out from the US in one important respect. While the US economy roars forward a even if the average American voter does not feel the full benefits a Europe, and especially its industrial engine-room, Germany, continues to suffer from near-zero growth and stagnation in terms of living standards. And having lived through a decade of consistently low growth, the continent is now divided between an optimistic but declining minority, who still hold to the expectation that a rising tide lifts all boats, and the growing and more pessimistic majority who now see life as a zero-sum game.

Gordon Brown was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010

The construction sector accounts for 62% of waste: that could be drastically cut if we chose refurbishment over demolition

My first phone was a Nokia 3210, a cute grey brick with just enough computing power to run Snake. Compared with todayas sleek 5G touchscreen devices it was pretty pants, except in one way: I could repair it. The case, keyboard and battery could, without any special tools, be disassembled and replaced when they cracked or wore out. Unlike iPhones, which arrived on the market as impressive but inscrutable hermetic black boxes a impossible for customers to fix at home a my old Nokia was designed for repair.

Today, however, many manufacturers deliberately discourage mending by making their products hard or confusing to tinker with. This inevitably means more rubbish, with the UN estimating that the volume of electronic waste is rising five times faster than recycling rates. Though on paper, the UK government has set ambitious targets to halve the amount of waste Britons produce by 2042, in practice less mending means more demand for more new products, stimulating consumption and fuelling economic growth. For politicians more anxious about growing GDP than wellbeing, repair has simply not been a priority.

Phineas Harper is a writer and curator

Yes, I revelled in the thrill of film-making, yet a fear of failure nagged at me. Behind it lay a truth Iad been ignoring

For just over a decade I lived on the edge of danger, leaping from cliffs, jumping out of the back of trains and even being set on fire. I was a television and film stunt performer. Think Tom Cruise without the credits, in sky-high heels and hotpants. Every job was a calculated risk, and every performance felt like a dance with death. My job demanded the spirit of a daredevil and the agility of an acrobat with the presence of an actor, tasked with bringing the heart-pounding thrills of Hollywood to life. But as my star rose and opportunities knocked on my door, I made a decision to step back, leaving behind bewildered friends and colleagues who couldnat understand why I was abruptly extinguishing my own flame.

While I revelled in the thrill of physical activity and globetrotting adventures, there was always a nagging sense of impostor syndrome gnawing at me. Despite my prowess in executing stunts, I felt like a fraud when it came to the craft of acting. I could execute flips, wield knives and brave fire-burns, but put a script in front of me and I faltered. No matter how much I trained or rehearsed, the moment the camera rolled my lines vanished, leaving me stranded in a sea of self-doubt. Whenever I found myself in a situation where I had to deliver lines, my anxiety would intensify. I would feel my breathing becoming rapid and shallow, making it difficult to focus. As I attempted to say the words, the buzzing of the room would overwhelm me and despite being in the spotlight, all I could see was darkness. It was a disorienting experience, and it further exacerbated my feelings of self-doubt and insecurity about my acting abilities.

Janine Parkinson is a writer and former stunt performer

I thought moving out would be a dating disaster, but a new report finds my peers still living in the capital have it worse

When I left London for a smaller city, my only hesitation was over what it would mean for my love life. By moving from a large dating pool to a small one, was I committing myself to lifelong singledom?

The other thirtysomethings in my new home city seem mostly coupled up: either locals who got together in their 20s, or outsiders who have moved with partners to have kids. You donat have to be swiping for long before you are informed that youave exhausted the singles in the area. Hinge responds by re-serving the same selection, like an amateur magician trying to lead you to a particular card.

Elle Hunt is a freelance journalist and writer

The UN global plastic treaty could be as important as the 2015 Paris accords, if negotiators can stand up to industry lobbyists

Last week, in an enormous convention centre in downtown Ottawa, I joined delegates who have been negotiating over the most important environmental deal since the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change.

The global plastic treaty has a mandate to agree on a legally binding, international agreement to tackle plastic pollution across the entire plastics life cycle, from the initial extraction of fossil fuels for plastics production to the end-of-life disposal of plastic waste. The current meeting is the fourth of five scheduled negotiations and is critically important a without agreement on the objectives, structure and key measures, the prospect of agreeing on the final treaty text by the end of 2024 seems ambitious.

I love the idea that the countryside is full of happy young people in Gore-Tex, finding community in beautiful places

Of all the weird gen Z behaviours I have read about, this latest trend may be the most surprising: they are rambling. Yup, sturdy boots, waterproofs and Kendal mint cake (itas vegan!). What next? Alfred Wainwright memes? Plastic map pouches as summeras hottest gorpcore accessory?

I have some experience of this: my younger son has gone on two serious hiking trips in the past year. aWho are you?a I whispered, baffled, at his retreating, cagoule-clad back, from the comfort of my sofa. I enjoy a modest country walk as much as the next middle-aged person, but wild horses couldnat have dragged me up a hill in my teens or 20s. (OK, possibly a very strong wild horse could have.)

Erling Haaland grabs vital goal, Richard Masters gets a Molineux earful and Brightonas season fades out

Ange Postecoglou found enough blue sky in the Spurs squad he inherited to make a pair of sailoras trousers out of the opening 10 games of the season. The rest of the season since then feels like a return to the mean. Spurs would currently be eighth in the Premier League if their form outside of that supercharged start was rolled out across an entre season. Fifth place is probably above par for this miscellaneous group of players and the manageras own first look at the league. And while defeat in the north London derby will sting, as will the high likelihood now that Spurs will finish outside the Champions League spots, it is also important to remember that fast start was also real, a taster of how Postecoglou can make this team hum with the right ingredients. Spurs are well-placed financially. The lesson here is that Daniel Levy needs to back his man in the summer a does this sound at all familiar? a and build on the good times of Ange Year Zero before any judgment can begin to be passed on the ultimate ceiling of this Spurs iteration. Barney Ronay

Match report: Tottenham 2-3 Arsenal

Match report: Nottingham Forest 0-2 Manchester City

Match report: West Ham 2-2 Liverpool

Match report: Manchester United 1-1 Burnley

Match report: Everton 1-0 Brentford

Match report: Bournemouth 3-0 Brighton

• Updates from around the grounds in the County Championship
• Pakistan appoint Kirsten and Gillespie | Email Tanya or post BTL

Switch on the Surrey stream and see Ben Brown get a snorter from Kemar Roach, that just bounces before Ollie Pope at slip. Not sure this is going to last long.

Iave just been flicking through a little book on Peter Eckersley, by Malcolm Lorimer. Before he was 32, head captained Lancashire for seven summers, won two County Championships, become a skilled pilot and been elected to parliament. In the early days of flight, he once flew Lancashire to an away game (which would not be approved of now!) A fascinating guy, died too soon in a plane crash, aged 36. Anyway, weare about to get going around the grounds with all eyes first, at The Oval.

Time will tell who got the best haul of players in Detroit, there were promising signs from the Bears, Vikings and Steelers

Chicago Bears. Anyone with an internet connection could have drafted Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams with the first pick. But Williamsa arrival is a victory unto itself for the Bears, who have been in the QB wilderness for decades. Chicago fans will expect Williams to be the teamas best quarterback ever, and it wonat even be so unreasonable of them given his sublime talent and the teamas barren history at the position. General manager Ryan Poles has also done well to surround Williams with one of the best groups of receivers in football. Poles traded for Los Angeles Chargers star Keenan Allen earlier this year, and he then used the ninth pick to add Washingtonas Rome Odunze to a fold that already included the talented and productive DJ Moore. Maybe the Bears wonat win big in 2024, but they should be more fun to watch than they have been. And for the first time in ages, thereas a foundation in place upon which the club could build a Super Bowl team.

Chelsea flower show to focus on water reuse as gardeners prepare for shortages caused by climate crisis

Rain gardens and bathwater are becoming gardening trends, the Royal Horticultural Society has said, as gardeners battle predicted water shortages caused by climate breakdown.

At the Chelsea flower show this year, many of the gardens will be focused on reducing water usage. Rain gardens will be on show, including in the Water Aid garden, which includes a rainwater harvesting pavilion designed to slow its flow, collecting and storing it for irrigation of the garden and filtering it for use as drinking water.

Murrawah Johnson recognised for role in landmark legal case to block coalmine backed by Clive Palmer

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

For Murrawah Johnson, the impacts of the climate crisis and the destruction of land to mine the fossil fuels that drive it are more than simple questions of atmospheric physics or environmental harm.

aWhat colonisation hasnat already done, climate change will do in terms of finalising the assimilation process for First Nations people,a the 29-year-old Wirdi woman from Queensland says.

Sign up for Guardian Australiaas free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Andrea Vidaurre helped persuade regulators to adopt rules that will improve air quality for millions in one of USas smoggiest areas

A grassroots organizer from one of the USas smoggiest communities has been awarded the prestigious Goldman prize for environmental activists, after leading a successful campaign to clean-up Californiaas trucking and railway sectors.

Andrea Vidaurre from Inland Empire, a sprawling metropolitan region in southern California, helped persuade state regulators to adopt two historic transport regulations that will improve local air quality for millions of people a and accelerate the countryas transition away from greenhouse gas spewing vehicles.

Report concludes state sheltered soldiers from prosecution for Troubles-era crimes, as amnesty legislation comes into force

Britainas reputation will be severely damaged by the Northern Ireland alegacya act, an international panel of human rights experts has warned while calling for the government to scrap moves to grant conditional amnesties for Troubles-era crimes.

The warning is being made as the legislation comes into force on Wednesday, offering soldiers and paramilitaries a limited form of immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related offences for those who cooperate with a new body aimed at truth recovery.

Analysts say impact on wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape harvests means price rises on beer, bread and biscuits and more food imported

UK harvests of important crops could be down by nearly a fifth this year due to the unprecedented wet weather farmers have faced, increasing the likelihood that the prices of bread, beer and biscuits will rise.

Analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) has estimated that the amount of wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape could drop by 4m tonnes this year, a reduction of 17.5% compared with 2023.

Deal would end six years of turmoil for owner of back catalogues of star artists ranging from Blondie to Neil Young and Justin Bieber

The struggling owner of music back catalogues ranging from Shakira to the Red Hot Chili Peppers has agreed a $1.6bn (APS1.3bn) improved takeover offer from the US private equity investor Blackstone.

Hipgnosis Songs Fund said it was recommending the offer, which trumped a $1.4bn bid by the US-based royalties fund Concord Music.

Exclusive: Andrea Waddington, who went three months without NHS psychiatric appointment, died after inquiry cut-off date

A man whose mother killed herself after going three months without an NHS psychiatric appointment has said it is wrong that a public inquiry will not investigate her death and others like hers.

The Lampard inquiry is looking into the deaths of almost 2,000 mental health patients in Essex since 2000 but Andrea Waddingtonas will not be included because it occurred in February, after the inquiryas chosen cut-off date of the end of last year. Additionally, Waddington, who was 59 when she died, does not qualify because she was being treated in the community.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.

Exclusive: Ernest Moret was held en route to a book fair amid fears police are using counter-terrorism powers to target activists

A French publisher who was arrested in London on terrorism charges has been awarded asubstantiala damages by the Metropolitan police, as new figures reveal thousands of foreign nationals have been stopped at UK ports under anti-terror laws.

Ernest Moret, 29, a foreign rights manager for Aditions la Fabrique, was detained at St Pancras station in April last year on his way to the London book fair.

Zoopla reports the annual mortgage repayments for the average buyer in 2024 have now reached APS11,400. 61% higher than 3 years ago

New inflation data today has shown that prices rose in four German states this month.

In Bavaria, the annual inflation rate rose in April to 2.5% from 2.3% in March, in Brandenburg it rose to 3.0% from 2.8%, in Saxony it rose to 2.7% from 2.5%, and in Hesse it rose to 1.9% from 1.6%.

aNegotiations were not easy but we have a resulta says Mykola Solsky after ending of months-long blockade by Polish protesters

Polish farmers stopped protesting at the last blocked border crossing with Ukraine on Monday, Kyiv and Warsaw said, suspending a blockade that has dragged on for months and soured bilateral relations, writes Reuters.

According to the news agency, Ukraineas farm minister hailed aconstructive worka by Poland to lift the blockade in a statement, saying negotiations with Warsaw and industry associations had not been easy but that athe main thing is that we have a resulta.

For the Nobel laureate Denis Mukwege, who has treated more than 80,000 survivors of sexual violence by armed groups, the west displays double standards over the astain on our humanitya

Walking around a camp for displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo this year, the Nobel peace laureate Dr Denis Mukwege was filled with shame. Around him were women, many of them survivors of rape, living in destitution with no access to clean water or to any protection.

The women had left their homes after fighting between the Congolese army and the M23 rebel group resumed in North Kivu province three years ago. Since then, aid agencies have reported an increase in sexual violence in the region. In April last year, the medical charity MA(c)decins Sans FrontiA"res said it was treating 48 new survivors a day among the displaced people living in camps around the city of Goma.

Planned memorial aims at adignified remembrancea of women of St Pauli detained as perverts under the Nazis

Sex workers in Hamburgas historic red-light district who were persecuted under Adolf Hitler are to get their own memorial at HerbertstraAe, a notorious street in Germanyas second city still blocked off to all but sex workers and their clients.

Few people, even residents, know that it was the Nazis who built the world-famous gates around the row of ahouses of pleasurea in an attempt to shame sex workers while discreetly keeping business going.

Ex-soldier, conspiracy theorist, astrologer and anti-vaxxer among the first of 27 people on trial for trying to violently topple the German government a led by Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss

One of the largest legal proceedings in German history is due to start on Monday with the first of three trials of a group of far-right conspiracists who planned to violently overthrow the countryas parliament.

So sprawling is the network, so extensive their plans, that for a mixture of logistical and security reasons, the 27 people due in the dock have been split into three separate groups.

Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering charges

Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the worldas largest cryptocurrency exchange, will be sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to money laundering charges, with US prosecutors seeking three years in prison for the tech tycoon.

Zhao, 47, stepped down as chief executive of Binance in November after admitting to breaking US anti-money laundering laws. Last month, another fallen cryptocurrency mogul, Sam Bankman-Fried, whose FTX exchange collapsed in 2022, received a 25-year sentence for committing fraud and conspiracy to launder money.

Government tells operators they must join cooperatives by Tuesday and gradually replace their vehicles with greener options

A three-day strike by drivers of jeepneys in the Philippines began on Monday as transport groups warned that thousands could be pushed off the roads by government modernisation plans.

The jeepney is the backbone of the Philippinesa transport system. The customised, privately-owned buses, which look like a cross between a Jeep and a van and are decorated in flamboyant colours, ply routes in neighbourhood streets and city centres, offering rides for as little as 13 pesos (23 US cents). They have featured in pop songs and films a Pope Francis even travelled through Manila in a jeepney-inspired popemobile.

At least 33 people were left injured and factories damaged after a tornado in the capital of Guangdong province

At least five people were killed and 33 injured after a tornado struck the Chinese city of Guangzhou over the weekend, state media reported, in the latest bout of extreme weather to hit the countryas industrial heartland.

Chinaas official Xinhua news agency said that the tornado hit the Guangdong province capital, in the countryas south on Saturday. About 140 factories were damaged, but there were no reports of collapsed houses.

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.

Illinoise sees the artistas 2005 album transform into an ambitious and eye-opening modern dance show like nothing else on Broadway

Justin Peck is spending the spring zigzagging between Times Square and the Upper West Side. The star choreographer of New York City Ballet has been biking between the spring season rehearsals at the Lincoln Center and the St James Theater on 44th street where Illinoise a a modern dance show which he choreographed to Sufjan Stevensas 2005-dated album Illinois a has moved after a three-week run at the Park Avenue Armory. The liminal time on his bicycle is what Peck calls aone of the few Zen moments of the daya, where his foremost rule is to avoid any distraction and just pedal. aI donat even listen to music, because even then I am doing something.a

Peck has been on the go for almost two decades now. In 2014, he was appointed the second resident choreographer in the history of NYCB and has over the years brought in a contemporary spin on the institutionas classical frame of ballet through original, upbeat a and occasionally sneaker-clad a shows and collaborations with established artists and fashion designers for set design and costumes, such as Jeffrey Gibson (who represents the US in this yearas Venice Biennale), Humberto Leon, Sterling Ruby, and Marcel Dzama. Peck has also helmed the choreography for Steven Spielbergas West Side Story and won a Tony award for best choreography for his work in the 2018 revival of Rodgers and Hammersteinas Carousel.

This kidsa adventure story with a faux medievalist vibe has a cute conceit and some fun sequences but the inexperience of the cast and director shows

If youave ever tried to make a home movie with young children, you quickly come to appreciate how hard it is to get the little monsters to remember their lines and hit their marks, let alone give good performances. Itas an education in the difference between good and bad direction, the raw, primary-teacher skill in herding cats while also managing tone, quality control and all that storytelling stuff. Just try it for yourself and youall realise just how good a job directors such as Garth Jennings or Taika Waititi did with child-led films like Son of Rambow or Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

At the very least, this awareness will help you be a bit more forgiving of a film like Riddle of Fire. This would-be work of whimsy stars three kids a eldest but still preteen leader Alice (Phoebe Ferro) and her friends Hazel (Charlie Stover) and Jodie (Skyler Peters), the last two brothers a who are spending their leisure time in remote Ribbon, Montana, knocking about and getting into trouble, like kids do. Except that writer-director Weston Razooli lays on a faux-medievalist vibe, with ye olde-style subtitles and a pseudo-fairytale structure that turns their adventures over a day or two into a kind of quest, like something out of the Brothers Grimm or JRR Tolkien. In order to get the password the boysa mom has used to lock the TV, preventing them from using the games console they just stole, the kids must find or make a blueberry pie for her. The need for eggs gets them mixed up with a gang of rednecks who poach wild animals to turn into taxidermy creations, led by Lio Tiptonas evil witch-like home schooling matriarch.

Still only 23, the US saxophonist is channelling the free jazz pioneered by Albert Ayler in the 60s a and making hugely profound, wildly uplifting music

Interviewed many years after the experience, Don Cherry said he would anever forgeta the first time he heard the tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler. That was in Copenhagen in 1963.

Iall never forget the time I first heard Zoh Amba, last March, at the Big Ears festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. A wealth of competing options at the festival makes it completely acceptable to drift in and out of performances mid-set, and many of the most exciting gigs featured young people wead never heard of. Reliant on better-informed friends, my wife and I went where we were told. It was the guitarist Steve Gunn who suggested we see Zoh Amba, who, by the time we made it in, was 20 minutes into her set.

Doctor Who star will play Algernon in the ahilariously subversivea comedy, said artistic director Rufus Norris

Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa is to make his debut at the National Theatre in London in Oscar Wildeas The Importance of Being Earnest.

Gatwa will play hedonistic bachelor Algernon Moncrieff in Wildeas atrivial comedy for serious peoplea this winter. It marks his first major role in a theatre production since coming to fame on Netflixas Sex Education and being cast as the 15th Doctor in the BBCas science-fiction series.

Deaf and with Down syndrome, Scott endured horrific conditions in institutions for 35 years. Then, when her twin enrolled her at an arts centre, a remarkable artist emerged

Bundles of fibre wrapped around shapes as if mummifying something sacred. Bicycle wheels tied tightly to a chair with scraps of kaleidoscopically coloured cloth. Supermarket trolleys filled to the brim with ropes, tubes, tassels. Forms evoking wings, animals or body-parts that seem to be conversing with each other. This is the work of Judith Scott.

Scott was fanatical about fibre. She would work on her sculptures for months at a time, going for hours without stopping. She would smack her hands together when she knew a piece was done a and immediately get to work on the next. She wore bright pink felt hats and jumpers, and wrapped her head in vibrantly patterned cloth.

Creative Growth: The House That Art Built is at SFMOMA, San Francisco, until 6 October. Andrew Omoding is at Camden Art Centre, London until 23 June. The Venice Biennale closes on 24 November

The tortured puzzlers department

Apologies to any Antipodean Swifties arriving on this page. Todayas puzzle is about tiles, and whether or not you can solve it swiftly.

The puzzle concerns black and white tiles on a 4x4 grid. Consider the image below, which highlights adjacent rows in the grid.

A little sweet, a little sour, rather sticky a and irresistible!

Two oranges have been sitting in the fruit bowl since 24 January. I can be precise thanks to the boastful photographs of marmalade I took on 25 January, having bought the fruit the day before. Only half the oranges became marmalade (which filled 10 jars and made every surface in the kitchen sticky), so to start with a dozen or so sat in the bowl. They are not bitter oranges, nor are they sweet, which is why they have been consumed so slowly, watching other fruit come, go and succumb to rot (something these last two seem immune to).

They have shrunk, of course, and, like all ageing creatures, developed plenty of fine lines and open pores, but otherwise remain in excellent orange health, while their rich, oily scent is stronger than ever. In her Fruit Book, Jane Grigson notes that the word aorangea can be traced back 3,000 years, to an ancient Indian language called Dravidian, and the word naranga, which means aperfume withina. The fruit and name migrated, first into Persian and Arabic, then to European languages; narancs in Hungarian, naranja in Spanish, which morphed into the Italian arancia and the French narange, and then lost its ana, giving us orange a both the fruit and the colour.

Discover this recipe and over 1,000 more from your favourite cooks on the new Guardian Feast app, with smart features to make everyday cooking easier and more fun

Rather than bomb down motorways for marathon stretches, the idea was to see new things along the way, such as the great lakes of Germany and a Renaissance town in Italy

How far would you go a and how long would you take a to avoid flying and thoroughly embrace the idea of slow travel? In my case, it was 3,167 miles over three weeks. For nearly a decade I had wanted to do a road trip to Croatia, and to get as much out of the journey as the destination itself. Rather than bomb down the motorway for marathon stretches, the idea was to slow down and see new things.

It seemed we had barely rolled off Le Shuttle (the name Eurotunnel reverted to last spring) before my husband and I were out of France and bouncing along Belgiumas bumpy motorways. After a six-hour drive, Germanyas oldest city, Trier, made a pleasant overnight stop, the reconstructed gothic Hauptmarkt square bathed in late afternoon sunlight. Its summer pop-up bar taught me that the Mosel wine region makes some very drinkable rosA(c)s.

US secretary of state says Iran is biggest source of instability in region but adds many nations interested in apath of greater peacea

• Biden and Netanyahu speak amid pressure over Rafah and ceasefire

Antony Blinken has told a meeting of regional leaders in Riyadh that the most effective way to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza is to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking in Saudi Arabia, the US secretary of state said that there had been ameasurable progressa in delivering aid to Gaza, which Israel has beseiged for six months, but more is needed.

In a first, researchers were able to compare records of people who drank polluted water in Veneto, Italy, with neighbors who did not

For the first time, researchers have formally shown that exposure to toxic PFAS increases the likelihood of death by cardiovascular disease, adding a new level of concern to the controversial chemicalsa wide use.

The findings are especially significant because proving an association with death by chemical exposure is difficult, but researchers were able to establish it by reviewing death records from northern Italyas Veneto region, where many residents for decades drank water highly contaminated with PFAS, also called aforever chemicalsa.

Andrea Vidaurre helped persuade regulators to adopt rules that will improve air quality for millions in one of USas smoggiest areas

A grassroots organizer from one of the USas smoggiest communities has been awarded the prestigious Goldman prize for environmental activists, after leading a successful campaign to clean-up Californiaas trucking and railway sectors.

Andrea Vidaurre from Inland Empire, a sprawling metropolitan region in southern California, helped persuade state regulators to adopt two historic transport regulations that will improve local air quality for millions of people a and accelerate the countryas transition away from greenhouse gas spewing vehicles.

Governor Ron DeSantisas challenging of a acontinuous eligibilitya rule has booted over 22,000 children off insurance since January

Florida is continuing to acallouslya strip healthcare coverage from thousands of children in lower-income households in defiance of a new federal law intended to protect them.

Since 1 January, more than 22,500 children have been disenrolled from Florida KidCare, its version of the Childrenas Health Insurance Program (Chip) that is jointly subsidized by states and the US government for families with earnings just above the threshold for Medicaid.

SA!nchez announces he will stay on days after saying he was considering resigning after attacks in rightwing media on his wife

Pedro SA!nchez is expected to speak in a few minutes. Stay tuned.

Pedro SA!nchezas big announcement will be an ainstitutional declarationa, which means a televised statement with no questions from the media.

aNegotiations were not easy but we have a resulta says Mykola Solsky after ending of months-long blockade by Polish protesters

Polish farmers stopped protesting at the last blocked border crossing with Ukraine on Monday, Kyiv and Warsaw said, suspending a blockade that has dragged on for months and soured bilateral relations, writes Reuters.

According to the news agency, Ukraineas farm minister hailed aconstructive worka by Poland to lift the blockade in a statement, saying negotiations with Warsaw and industry associations had not been easy but that athe main thing is that we have a resulta.

Deal to use mapping data from web search giant Baidu is a major step towards launching driver assistance tech in worldas biggest car market

Elon Muskas visit to China has reportedly reaped immediate rewards with a deal for Tesla to use mapping data provided by web search company Baidu, a major step in introducing driver assistance technology in the worldas largest car market.

Musk made an unannounced visit to China over the weekend. The billionaire posted a picture of his meeting with the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, on X, the social network he took over in 2022.

Legendary journalist makes remarks in advance of release of Netflix documentary about his life and work

Dan Rather said his dismissal from CBS News nearly two decades earlier aof course a| was the lowest pointa of his legendary journalism career as he returned to his former employeras airwaves for the first time Sunday.

aI gave CBS News everything I had,a the 92-year-old newsman said. aThey had smarter, better, more talented people, but they didnat have anybody who worked harder than I did.a

The Associated Press contributed reporting

Dan Osborn is challenging incumbent Deb Fischer in a along shota bid to prove the state still has an aindependent spirita

Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada a these are the swing states most pundits expect will decide the 2024 election. No one has deep red Nebraska on that list. But a 48-year-old pipefitter and union organizer from Omaha is hoping to change that.

Three years ago, Dan Osborn led the Nebraska leg of a US-wide strike against cereal giant Kelloggas as the company pushed for concessions in a new union contract despite posting record profits during the Covid-19 pandemic.

With tourists struggling to access the two primary digital payment apps, Alipay and WeChat pay, Beijing has put measures in place to make cash payments easier

For 18 years, Liu Yau-li has been bringing tourists to China. In that time sheas seen the full evolution of Chinaas digital payment system. Twenty years ago, she says, everyone used cash. But today itas not unusual to find places that canat or wonat accept cash at all, particularly after the pandemic when much of the world grew wary of handling shared items.

If visitors want to enjoy convenient travel, she says, theyare better off downloading one of the major payment apps and hoping it works for them.

Illinoise sees the artistas 2005 album transform into an ambitious and eye-opening modern dance show like nothing else on Broadway

Justin Peck is spending the spring zigzagging between Times Square and the Upper West Side. The star choreographer of New York City Ballet has been biking between the spring season rehearsals at the Lincoln Center and the St James Theater on 44th street where Illinoise a a modern dance show which he choreographed to Sufjan Stevensas 2005-dated album Illinois a has moved after a three-week run at the Park Avenue Armory. The liminal time on his bicycle is what Peck calls aone of the few Zen moments of the daya, where his foremost rule is to avoid any distraction and just pedal. aI donat even listen to music, because even then I am doing something.a

Peck has been on the go for almost two decades now. In 2014, he was appointed the second resident choreographer in the history of NYCB and has over the years brought in a contemporary spin on the institutionas classical frame of ballet through original, upbeat a and occasionally sneaker-clad a shows and collaborations with established artists and fashion designers for set design and costumes, such as Jeffrey Gibson (who represents the US in this yearas Venice Biennale), Humberto Leon, Sterling Ruby, and Marcel Dzama. Peck has also helmed the choreography for Steven Spielbergas West Side Story and won a Tony award for best choreography for his work in the 2018 revival of Rodgers and Hammersteinas Carousel.

From runneras knee to fraying cartilage, knees are involved in 40% of sports injuries. But it can be hard to pin down whatas wrong, or what to do about it. Hereas what the physios say

aI could talk for days about knees,a says physiotherapist Patricia Collins. aAfter backs, they are the most common area we treat.a According to a recent paper in the British Medical Journal, 41% of sports injuries are knee-related.

But just because knee issues are common, that doesnat mean we should ignore them and soldier on. These knobbly little joints bear a heavy load, and problems and solutions can take some untangling. aNot only does the knee have the two major leg bones, the femur and the tibia,a says Bhanu Ramaswamy, physio and visiting fellow at Sheffield Hallam University, abut youave got the kneecap, cartilage, tendons and ligaments, and any changes in those will make a knee prone to becoming more stiff or inflamed.a

After a successful career as a talent agent a representing Michael Parkinson, Ulrika Jonsson and Adam Ant a Melanie Cantor became disillusioned with TV. So she took up writing a and refused to give up on her passion.

• Sign up for Well Actually: a free weekly newsletter about health and wellness

At 61, after a decade writing four unpublished manuscripts and receiving hundreds of rejections from agents and publishers, Melanie Cantor got an email in 2019 from the literary agent Felicity Blunt. aIt started off positively and I was just waiting for the abuta to arrive, but it never did,a Cantor says. aShe said she wanted to represent me.a

In 2020, Dorset-based Cantoras debut novel Life and Other Happy Endings, about a woman with three months to live who spends her remaining time writing letters to those who have wronged her, came out. Its publication was the culmination of a lifelong fascination with writing.

Campaigners across Europe call on Kyiv to recognise contribution of marginalised community

Growing up in Ukraine, Arsen Mednik often found himself singled out a at school children would point at him, calling him agypsya, while employers were often reluctant to hire him when they learned he was Roma.

But in early 2022, as Russian forces began their savage occupation of his home town of Bucha, Mednik was among the first Ukrainian Roma to volunteer in the defence of the country.

Busted for cruising in an LA toilet, he proudly turned his police documents into art. Now the Californian is bringing Being Along a his elegant hymn to anonymous hookups a to Venice and London

Veer to your left in the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale and youall come across a painting bearing the words: aAnonymous Homosexual.a Round the corner, thereas a row of black-and-white pictures showing transfixed male viewers, seen from the back, watching a screen. Ah, the magic of cinema, you might think a except for all the boxes of tissues, indicating that this is a particular kind of cinema.

This is part of Being Alone, a body of work by the artist Dean Sameshima, an expanded version of which is also on show at Soft Opening in London. Sitting in an outdoor cafe in the Giardini, the Biennaleas main space, Sameshima says he visited five gay porn cinemas in Berlin, his adopted home, over a number of years, and decided to commemorate a culture that is disappearing due to hook-up apps. His pictures are enigmatic, melancholy and yet somehow seductive, the loitering silhouettes and shining screen expressing loneliness, escapism and perhaps a kind of defiance against the expectations of society.

Still only 23, the US saxophonist is channelling the free jazz pioneered by Albert Ayler in the 60s a and making hugely profound, wildly uplifting music

Interviewed many years after the experience, Don Cherry said he would anever forgeta the first time he heard the tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler. That was in Copenhagen in 1963.

Iall never forget the time I first heard Zoh Amba, last March, at the Big Ears festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. A wealth of competing options at the festival makes it completely acceptable to drift in and out of performances mid-set, and many of the most exciting gigs featured young people wead never heard of. Reliant on better-informed friends, my wife and I went where we were told. It was the guitarist Steve Gunn who suggested we see Zoh Amba, who, by the time we made it in, was 20 minutes into her set.

We are entwined and must be liberated together. We must work to end the war and bring safety and security to both peoples

Karl Marxas father, Heinrich, converted from Judaism to Protestantism in 1817 a later converting his eight children a because had he not done so, he would not have been allowed to practice law in Prussia. He wasnat alone in having to change or disguise his Judaism so that he could earn a living. There was practically no other way for Jews living in Europe in the 19th century to be part of the business class without renouncing their religion.

This practice actually harkened back for eons, at least two millennia to be precise, as Jews in Europe found other ways to live, always squeezed out of mainstream society, and especially so with emerging nation states (in contrast to when the Habsburg empire controlled much of Europe, where many Jews resided, and was more hospitable to Jews). Even farther back, during the Spanish Inquisition that began in the 1400s, at least 600,000 Jews either fled or hid their identities in response to new royal edicts. Russian-controlled Jewry was forced to settle in what became known as the apale of settlementa, todayas Ukraine, but still this didnat save them from state-sponsored pogroms and ostracism. These are just some historic examples about why Zionism evolved.

The State of Israel will be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice, and peace taught by the Hebrew Prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed, or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education, and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

Jo-Ann Mort is co-author of Our Hearts Invented a Place: Can Kibbutzim Survive in Todayas Israel? She writes frequently about Israel for US, UK and Israeli publications

There is some truth to the popular protest slogan: aThey tried to bury us, but they didnat know we were seedsa

University students across the US have been protesting since 7 October 2023 with vigils, rallies and marches asking for a ceasefire in Gaza and for their universities to divest from Israel. While some of these protests led to heated fights about foreign policy, the most prominent events have involved university presidentsa abysmal congressional testimony. This weekas arrests of more than 100 Columbia students reinvigorated the student movement and now itas kicking off everywhere.

As a sociologist of social movements, I study how movements select and shift tactics to elicit a response from their opponents. Over the next few weeks, we will see dozens of other university encampments spring up because activists have found a tactic that gets the administrationas attention at a critical time: during finals and commencement.

Yes, I revelled in the thrill of film-making, yet a fear of failure nagged at me. Behind it lay a truth Iad been ignoring

For just over a decade I lived on the edge of danger, leaping from cliffs, jumping out of the back of trains and even being set on fire. I was a television and film stunt performer. Think Tom Cruise without the credits, in sky-high heels and hotpants. Every job was a calculated risk, and every performance felt like a dance with death. My job demanded the spirit of a daredevil and the agility of an acrobat with the presence of an actor, tasked with bringing the heart-pounding thrills of Hollywood to life. But as my star rose and opportunities knocked on my door, I made a decision to step back, leaving behind bewildered friends and colleagues who couldnat understand why I was abruptly extinguishing my own flame.

While I revelled in the thrill of physical activity and globetrotting adventures, there was always a nagging sense of impostor syndrome gnawing at me. Despite my prowess in executing stunts, I felt like a fraud when it came to the craft of acting. I could execute flips, wield knives and brave fire-burns, but put a script in front of me and I faltered. No matter how much I trained or rehearsed, the moment the camera rolled my lines vanished, leaving me stranded in a sea of self-doubt. Whenever I found myself in a situation where I had to deliver lines, my anxiety would intensify. I would feel my breathing becoming rapid and shallow, making it difficult to focus. As I attempted to say the words, the buzzing of the room would overwhelm me and despite being in the spotlight, all I could see was darkness. It was a disorienting experience, and it further exacerbated my feelings of self-doubt and insecurity about my acting abilities.

Janine Parkinson is a writer and former stunt performer

The construction sector accounts for 62% of waste: that could be drastically cut if we chose refurbishment over demolition

My first phone was a Nokia 3210, a cute grey brick with just enough computing power to run Snake. Compared with todayas sleek 5G touchscreen devices it was pretty pants, except in one way: I could repair it. The case, keyboard and battery could, without any special tools, be disassembled and replaced when they cracked or wore out. Unlike iPhones, which arrived on the market as impressive but inscrutable hermetic black boxes a impossible for customers to fix at home a my old Nokia was designed for repair.

Today, however, many manufacturers deliberately discourage mending by making their products hard or confusing to tinker with. This inevitably means more rubbish, with the UN estimating that the volume of electronic waste is rising five times faster than recycling rates. Though on paper, the UK government has set ambitious targets to halve the amount of waste Britons produce by 2042, in practice less mending means more demand for more new products, stimulating consumption and fuelling economic growth. For politicians more anxious about growing GDP than wellbeing, repair has simply not been a priority.

Phineas Harper is a writer and curator

Near-zero growth has crushed living standards, sending voters to populist demagogues. But they have no solutions to offer

By the time of the European parliament elections in June, this yearas rightward ebb in European politics will have turned into a tidal wave. Ultra-nationalist demagogues and populist-nationalists are now leading the polls in Italy, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia, and running second in Germany and Sweden. There are two hard-right groupings in the European parliament a Identity and Democracy and European Conservatives and Reformists. Between them, they could secure as much as 25% of the June vote. But even more ominously, in almost every part of Europe including Britain, these factions are forcing the hand of the traditional centre-right parties a which, one by one, are capitulating to ever more extreme anti-immigration, anti-trade and anti-environment positions.

The rightward shift is, of course, a western and not just European phenomenon, with Trump 2.0 advocating a far more aggressive protectionist and nationalist agenda than Trump 1.0. But Europe stands out from the US in one important respect. While the US economy roars forward a even if the average American voter does not feel the full benefits a Europe, and especially its industrial engine-room, Germany, continues to suffer from near-zero growth and stagnation in terms of living standards. And having lived through a decade of consistently low growth, the continent is now divided between an optimistic but declining minority, who still hold to the expectation that a rising tide lifts all boats, and the growing and more pessimistic majority who now see life as a zero-sum game.

Gordon Brown was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010

I love the idea that the countryside is full of happy young people in Gore-Tex, finding community in beautiful places

Of all the weird gen Z behaviours I have read about, this latest trend may be the most surprising: they are rambling. Yup, sturdy boots, waterproofs and Kendal mint cake (itas vegan!). What next? Alfred Wainwright memes? Plastic map pouches as summeras hottest gorpcore accessory?

I have some experience of this: my younger son has gone on two serious hiking trips in the past year. aWho are you?a I whispered, baffled, at his retreating, cagoule-clad back, from the comfort of my sofa. I enjoy a modest country walk as much as the next middle-aged person, but wild horses couldnat have dragged me up a hill in my teens or 20s. (OK, possibly a very strong wild horse could have.)

Time will tell who got the best haul of players in Detroit, there were promising signs from the Bears, Vikings and Steelers

Chicago Bears. Anyone with an internet connection could have drafted Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams with the first pick. But Williamsa arrival is a victory unto itself for the Bears, who have been in the QB wilderness for decades. Chicago fans will expect Williams to be the teamas best quarterback ever, and it wonat even be so unreasonable of them given his sublime talent and the teamas barren history at the position. General manager Ryan Poles has also done well to surround Williams with one of the best groups of receivers in football. Poles traded for Los Angeles Chargers star Keenan Allen earlier this year, and he then used the ninth pick to add Washingtonas Rome Odunze to a fold that already included the talented and productive DJ Moore. Maybe the Bears wonat win big in 2024, but they should be more fun to watch than they have been. And for the first time in ages, thereas a foundation in place upon which the club could build a Super Bowl team.

• Edwardsa dunk caps Minnesotaas 112-116 win in Game 4
• Timberwolves roar to first playoff sweep in team history

Anthony Edwards scored 40 points, Karl-Anthony Towns added 28 and the Minnesota Timberwolves pulled away late to beat the Phoenix Suns 122-116 on Sunday night and sweep the first-round playoff series.

Edwards scored 31 of his points in the second half and finished 13 of 23 from the field, including 7 of 13 from three-point range. Continuing his ascent into superstardom, the 22-year-old threw down a powerful, one-handed jam to give Minnesota a 115-111 lead with 2:14 left.

Erling Haaland grabs vital goal, Richard Masters gets a Molineux earful and Brightonas season fades out

Ange Postecoglou found enough blue sky in the Spurs squad he inherited to make a pair of sailoras trousers out of the opening 10 games of the season. The rest of the season since then feels like a return to the mean. Spurs would currently be eighth in the Premier League if their form outside of that supercharged start was rolled out across an entire season. Fifth place is probably above par for this miscellaneous group of players and the manageras own first look at the league. And while defeat in the north London derby will sting, as will the high likelihood now that Spurs will finish outside the Champions League spots, it is also important to remember that fast start was also real, a taster of how Postecoglou can make this team hum with the right ingredients. Spurs are well-placed financially. The lesson here is that Daniel Levy needs to back his man in the summer a does this sound at all familiar? a and build on the good times of Ange Year Zero before any judgment can begin to be passed on the ultimate ceiling of this Spurs iteration. Barney Ronay

Match report: Tottenham 2-3 Arsenal

Match report: Nottingham Forest 0-2 Manchester City

Match report: West Ham 2-2 Liverpool

Match report: Manchester United 1-1 Burnley

Match report: Everton 1-0 Brentford

Match report: Bournemouth 3-0 Brighton

First warning of 2024 issued more than a month before start of official season, as parts of Europe engulfed in African dust

Last week, the US National Hurricane Center issued its first advisory of the year, more than a month before the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from 1 June to 30 November. An area of low pressure was identified on Wednesday 24 April in the east-central Atlantic Ocean, about 900 miles to the north-west of Cape Verde.

The low quickly dispersed as it moved into an area of stronger upper level winds. But although this disturbance did not cause any impacts, it is perhaps a sign of what forecasters are predicting will be one of the most active hurricane seasons on record. Earlier in April, the Colorado State University issued its Atlantic hurricane forecast, with a prediction of 23 named storms, 11 hurricanes and five major hurricanes. For comparison, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average hurricane season between 1991 and 2020 comprised roughly 14 tropical storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

Civil liberties network warns of decline across the bloc as a result of harm or neglect by governments

Media freedom is declining across the EU and aperilously close to breaking pointa in several countries, a leading civil liberties network has said, highlighting widespread threats against journalists and attacks on the independence of public broadcasters.

The Berlin-based Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) said in its annual media freedom report, compiled with 37 rights groups in 19 countries, that alarming trends identified previously persisted in 2023 a although new EU-wide legislation could offer hope of improvement.

Planned memorial aims at adignified remembrancea of women of St Pauli detained as perverts under the Nazis

Sex workers in Hamburgas historic red-light district who were persecuted under Adolf Hitler are to get their own memorial at HerbertstraAe, a notorious street in Germanyas second city still blocked off to all but sex workers and their clients.

Few people, even residents, know that it was the Nazis who built the world-famous gates around the row of ahouses of pleasurea in an attempt to shame sex workers while discreetly keeping business going.

Scotlandas first minister set to resign after failing to muster enough votes to survive a no confidence vote this week

Humza Yousaf is holding a press conference at noon, Sky News and the BBC are reporting.

Mandy Rhodes, editor of the Holyrood magazine, says she was due to interview Humza Yousaf this afternoon, but heas cancelled.

At least 33 people were left injured and factories damaged after a tornado in the capital of Guangdong province

At least five people were killed and 33 injured after a tornado struck the Chinese city of Guangzhou over the weekend, state media reported, in the latest bout of extreme weather to hit the countryas industrial heartland.

Chinaas official Xinhua news agency said that the tornado hit the Guangdong province capital, in the countryas south on Saturday. About 140 factories were damaged, but there were no reports of collapsed houses.

Government tells operators they must join cooperatives by Tuesday and gradually replace their vehicles with greener options

A three-day strike by drivers of jeepneys in the Philippines began on Monday as transport groups warned that thousands could be pushed off the roads by government modernisation plans.

The jeepney is the backbone of the Philippinesa transport system. The customised, privately-owned buses, which look like a cross between a Jeep and a van and are decorated in flamboyant colours, ply routes in neighbourhood streets and city centres, offering rides for as little as 13 pesos (23 US cents). They have featured in pop songs and films a Pope Francis even travelled through Manila in a jeepney-inspired popemobile.

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.

New research into the dying brain suggests the line between life and death may be less distinct than previously thought. By Alex Blasdel

From therapy sessions to bookshelves, interest in non-monogamous relationships seem to be soaring

When Molly Roden Winter stormed out of the house one evening, fed up with her husband returning home too late to help with their children, things took an unexpected turn. She went to a bar with a friend and ended up meeting a much younger man. But instead of an affair, she tells Helen Pidd, her interest in this other man sparked a surprising conversation with her husband a and led to them opening up their marriage to other people.

Non-monogamous marriages and polyamorous relationships are hardly new or unheard of. But Winteras book seems to have hit a chord because her family and her marriage looked so conventional a and she says we still seldom hear stories about mothers in relationships with more than one person. Winter explains what she learned about herself and relationships from her open marriage. And how she discovered her mother had also had an open relationship but had kept it hidden.

Choreographers from the US, Brazil, Greece and Portugal in the running for the APS40,000 inaugural Rose international dance prize

Four choreographers are in the running for the inaugural APS40,000 Rose international dance prize, which hopes to do for contemporary dance what the Turner prize did for contemporary art in raising its profile. aThatas the aim,a said Alistair Spalding, artistic director of Sadleras Wells, which is running the competition. aI think itas certainly possible. There is a growing audience for dance and I think itas time to have something of the same sort of stature to celebrate it.a

The shortlisted works are: An Untitled Love by American choreographer Kyle Abraham; Encantado by Brazilian choreographer Lia Rodrigues; Larsen C by Greek choreographer Christos Papadopoulos; and CarcaASSa by Portuguese choreographer Marco da Silva Ferreira.

A second award, the Bloom prize, will give APS15,000 to an emerging choreographer and has a shortlist of three: Sepia by Stav Struz Boutrous (Georgia); Beings by Wang Yeu-Kwn (Taiwan); and Maldonne by LeA-la Ka (France). No British choreographers made it to either of the shortlists, which were whittled down from 42 works nominated by a global network of dance producers, presenters and festival directors. But they will have a chance in the future as it will be a biennial competition, funded by an anonymous donor who chose the name Rose.

Spalding explained the choice to make the competition international: aBecause thatas who we are at Sadleras Wells. Weave got a role as an international producer of dance as well as a presenter a weare one of the only venues in the world that does 365 days a year of dance on our scale a so we donat feel itas right to limit our borders to the UK. This is going to be a statement for the world.a

Eligible works had to be over 50 minutes long and have premiered between October 2021 and February 2023. aItas like a survey of where the art form is right now, and what was happening over those two years,a said Spalding, awith nods to Covid, nods to the climate crisis, to identity, all the issues that are now reflected in the world.a

Papadopoulosas Larsen C takes its name from the vast Antarctic ice shelf which fractured in 2017, with dancers moving glacially like the ice itself. Veteran choreographer Rodrigues, whose company and school are based in Rioas MarA(c) favela, often makes socially engaged work, with Encantado inspired by notions of enchantment. Ferreiraas CarcaASSa joyfully blends hip-hop and club culture with European folk dance, while Abrahamas An Untitled Love a the only piece previously seen in the UK a is a slice of African American life, set at a house party to a soundtrack of R&B singer DaAngelo.

The solo artist sings along privately to Oasis and to Bruce Springsteen in public. But what song is her classic Dreams based on?

The first song I remember hearing
Top of the World by the Carpenters on the radio when I was three or four, standing in the school playground on top of a bench, thinking: aNow Iam top of the world!a Although I didnat realise it was by the Carpenters at the time.

The first single I bought
I loved Olivia Newton-John, but I loved John Travolta even more. I saved up my pocket money and went to Woolworths a with all the pickanamixes a with my mum to buy Youare the One That I Want on seven-inch when I was nine or 10.

The tortured puzzlers department

Apologies to any Antipodean Swifties arriving on this page. Todayas puzzle is about tiles, and whether or not you can solve it swiftly.

The puzzle concerns black and white tiles on a 4x4 grid. Consider the image below, which highlights adjacent rows in the grid.

Got a beauty dilemma? Our expert is here to help. This week, Rosie asks for advice on facial skincare

Good news from aesthetic practitioner Dr Antoni Calmon: aA weekly scrub is fine, except on sensitive skin. Scrubs exfoliate dead skin and if you massage rather than rub, this can help improve collagen and elastin production, resulting in plumper-looking skin.a

Look for a product with small spherical particles that wonat scratch or tear the skin. A pea-sized blob of, say, Omorovicza Refining Facial Polisher, is enough for your face.

Planning meals for the week and cooking and storing them all in advance is a growing trend to save time and money. But there are potential problems

Just after his food shop is delivered at 10am on a Sunday, Sean Willers starts his weekly routine. Bolognese, chilli, potatoes, rice, chicken and vegetables are all cooked and stored in the fridge for lunches and dinners until Wednesday.

The routine a he eats the same thing a80% of the timea a means he has similar food every week for 17 of his 21 meals so he can control calories, eat healthily and save money.

In this weekas newsletter: Once an afterthought, socks have pivoted from an outfit no-show to the main character. Hereas how to add drama south of the ankle

aC/ Donat get Fashion Statement delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

Normally, trying to get a pedicure this time of year is harder than securing a table at a new restaurant that just got a five-star review. But as April rolls into May and the weather shows no signs of warming up, splashing out on a foot makeover may feel a little futile. Why spend hard-earned cash on toes that are too frozen to be flashed? As a result, many of us are switching toe tactics. Welcome to the season of the statement sock.

They were once bunged in the back of a drawer. Lost in the wash. And even when they were worn, they were not meant to be seen. But socks have stepped into the spotlight, pivoting from an outfit no-show to the main character.

Whether itas working out or being creative, wead like to know how active you are with your commute

Commuting isnat normally associated with being fun or energetic, but some people have been taking a different approach to their journey to work by cycling, running or skiing.

We would like to know how you make your commute productive or fun. Do you run or rollerblade into the office even though it takes longer than public transport? What prompted you to change how you commute? How does it improve your mental and physical health?

Elected in the 1997 landslide, Westminsteras answer to Hugh Grant was one of the first out gay MPs a and a firebrand on TV. After 27 years, he reveals why heas leaving politics behind

After Ben Bradshaw was selected as the Labour candidate for Exeter in 1997, Peter Mandelson apparently said: aBloody hell, where did you come from?a Bradshaw had been a journalist, BBC Radioas man on the ground at the fall of the Berlin Wall. He won the seat, at the age of 36, surfing the wave of enthusiasm for Tony Blair. Perhaps more importantly, as an out gay candidate a only the second in British parliamentary history a he proved that the country had had enough not just of the Tories in general but of raging homophobes. Adrian Rogers, Bradshawas election rival in a seat with a Tory majority that he overturned, notoriously described homosexuality as a asterile, disease-ridden and God-forsaken occupationa.

I meet Bradshaw in Portcullis House, his office filled not with grumpy staffers but two youngsters learning the ropes, which gives it a slightly festive, end of term mood. Itas a bit like seeing Hugh Grant in real life: remembering him so well as a constant screen presence in the Blair and Brown years a armoured by power, softened by charm, with the faintly suspicious air of a guy who finds everything a bit too easy a now a bit more bashed about and much more real. Bradshaw wonat be standing again at the next election and his openness about it is disarming. aOne reason I have absolutely no misgivings about stepping down,a he says, ais that Iam still traumatised by Brexit. It was such a disaster for the country.a

As she takes the words of Grenfell Tower fire survivors to the New York stage, the playwright talks about being drawn to painful subjects, and the disasteras worldwide relevance

The night I saw Grenfell, the play by Gillian Slovo based on interviews with survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire, there was a small but unprecedented response from the audience. On paper, Grenfell, which has transferred to New York after its successful run in London, is a tough sell to American theatregoers: the disaster wasnat big news in the US and the playas setting is peculiarly British. Towards the end of the play, however, when a survivor suggests the fire wasnat caused by the system being broken but rather by the system performing exactly as built, the audience at St Annas Warehouse in Brooklyn broke into spontaneous applause. aWe havenat had that reaction before,a says Slovo.

The 72-year-old playwright and novelist is accustomed to chronicling failures in government and if the subject matter of Grenfell seemed, at first glance, more parochial than her verbatim plays about GuantA!namo or Islamic State, it turned out to be deceptively so. The deaths in 2017 of 72 people in a west London tower block tell a universal story, not only about deregulation and corporate carelessness, but about double standards in government towards marginalised communities. Any American who can summon images of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina a people left to fend for themselves; people shot at by police as they fled, or camped out on sidewalks a can understand immediately and viscerally what this play is about.

A look back at a selection of some of the remarkable work enabled by the Joan Wakelin bursary, administered by the Guardian and the Royal Photographic Society, which offers photographers APS2,000 and the opportunity to have their work published in the Guardian, as it approaches its 20^th year

• Entries are welcome for this yearas bursary, which is free and open to photographers of any age and nationality. Please apply online here by 6 June 2024

Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater has welcomed calls for Humza Yousaf to resign, describing how he tore up a relationship abased on trust and mutual respecta in ending the powersharing deal last week.

Tim Loughton, who was santioned by Beijing in 2021, said he was held at the airport for seven hours

If youare experiencing feelings of distress and isolation, or struggling to cope, The Samaritans offer support; you can speak to someone for free over the phone, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.

CCTV footage shows the moment a machete thug tried to rob a store, before being trapped inside by a heroic shopkeeper and brave passers-by.

Government source claims EU would be guilty of double standards if Ireland was allowed to return asylum seekers to UK

Footage shows the moment of a reported kidnapping attempt on a Jewish pedestrian as he walked through Stamford Hill, London, on Friday, 26 April.

April saw increases to benefits and the state pension

Authoras agent said it was an aextraordinarily strange coincidencea that writer died days before release of new Disney+ series aShardlakea

aItas not my fault. I tried. Oh, how I tried,a writer said

aIt sounded like an in-joke,a he said