Premier League heads for crunch weekend, Caicedo signs new Chelsea deal, Saudi Arabia sack Renard – football live

⚽ Fixtures | Latest tables | Premier League top scorers⚽ Premier League: 10 things to look out for | Mail TahaLiverpool boss Arne Slot has been speaking ahead of Sunday’s Merseyside derby. Here he is on Hugo Ekitike’s Achilles tendon injury which has ruled the Frenchman out for the rest of the season and this summer’s World Cup.He hasn’t been operated on yet. Devastating for him coming to a new club having so much impact straight away. Playing against your former club in the Champions League quarter-final with so much to come for him in the summer.My first thoughts are with him being out for such a long time, missing out on so many special moments. But it is not the first and not the last player who experienced something like this at the start of their career, and there are so many examples of players coming back even stronger. Continue reading…

Middle East crisis live: Iran says strait of Hormuz to fully open during ceasefire but Trump says blockade will remain until deal

Abbas Araqchi says passage for all commercial vessels is declared completely open for the remaining period of the ceasefire; Trump said the US blockade on Iran ‘will remain in full force’In case you’re just joining us, here are the latest developments in the Middle East to bring you up to speed. It’s 9am in Beirut and Jerusalem, 9.30am in Tehran and 2am in Washington DC.A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has come into effect, pausing fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 2,100 Lebanese people and displaced more than 2.1 million. The agreement was announced earlier by Donald Trump, who said he had spoken with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, and invited both leaders “for meaningful talks” at the White House. Both leaders welcomed the agreement.Israel and Hezbollah both maintained their right to defend themselves if the truce is broken – here’s our full report.Netanyahu called the ceasefire a “historic” opportunity for peace but refused to withdraw his troops from southern Lebanon during the pause in fighting. “We are remaining in Lebanon in an expanded security zone,” he said, due to the “danger of an invasion” and to prevent fire into Israel. “That is where we are, and we are not leaving.”UN chief António Guterres welcomed the ceasefire, which took effect at midnight on Thursday (2100 GMT) in Lebanon, and urged “all actors” to fully respect it. He hoped the halt in fighting would “pave the way for negotiations”.The Lebanese army warned people displaced from southern Lebanon about returning home because of intermittent shelling that was reported after the ceasefire came into effect.The Israeli military warned residents of southern Lebanon not to return south of the Litani River despite the truce.Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson welcomed the ceasefire and stressed it was already part of the original Iran-US agreement brokered by Pakistan.Israel and Hezbollah continued to exchange fire in the hours before the truce took effect. Continue reading…

Three meningitis B cases confirmed in Dorset as vaccinations offered to young people

UK Health Security Agency says cases have been treated successfully and antibiotics are being given as a precautionThree cases of meningitis B have been confirmed in the south-west of England, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), as young people in the area have been offered vaccinations against the disease.The cases, which have all been confirmed to have occurred between the 20 March and 15 April in Dorset, have been treated. Those affected are said to be recovering well, according to the UKHSA. Continue reading…

Starmer says it is ‘staggering’ and ‘unforgivable’ he was not told Mandelson failed vetting – UK politics live

PM responds to Guardian revelations that Foreign Office overrode failed security vetting for former minister Olly Robbins forced out in Mandelson vetting rowJones repeatedly denied that the prime minister had given a misleading impression about what has happened and had “lost grip” of the situation. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:I completely refute the suggestion the PM misled the public or the House of Commons. It’s very clear from his words he was reporting what he had been told and what had been followed.I don’t think this is a question about the prime minister’s leadership.The Foreign Office did not tell the prime minister that they granted developed vetting status to Peter Mandelson against the advice of the security and vetting process. The prime minister was only made aware of that on Tuesday evening this week when the documents became available to the Cabinet Office as part of the humble address process (a binding motion to request government papers – JG).No minister is allowed to see these vetting documents as a matter of principle because we employ security professionals to conduct deeply invasive personal investigations into people’s backgrounds and for those officials to make a recommendation to civil servants on the appointment and employment of individuals. Continue reading…

Lancashire to put matches behind paywall; Hampshire v Somerset, and more: county cricket – live

Updates from the first day’s play in the latest round Sign up for The Spin | Mail Tanya or comment BTLBad news for Lancs at Bristol, where Ajeet Singh Dale seems to have done something nasty to his hamstring and has limped off. A real shame on his return to his old club. Glos 8-0. A fascinating piece by Emma John, with a mention of Benny Howell of Hants, Glos and more. Continue reading…

Slowly does it: how to be patient in a world that wants everything right now

From next-day delivery to kids’ TV shows on demand, have we forgotten how to wait for … anything? The good news is that patience is a skill that can be cultivated – by parents and children alike. Here’s howYour kids want to know why their new book (ordered 18 hours ago) is “taking so long” and need you “NOW” because Netflix “isn’t loading” (it “tu-dums” milliseconds later). For parents who had dial-up internet, endless TV adverts and long car journeys soundtracked by Dad’s AM Test cricket, modern kids’ inability to be patient can feel galling. Except, with our Deliveroo habit and boiling-water taps (who has time for a kettle?), we can be just as bad.“Our environment and culture has trained our nervous systems to expect immediacy,” says Anna Mathur, psychotherapist and author of How to Stop Snapping at the People You Love (As Well As the Ones You Don’t). “The issue is our brains are plastic; they adapt to the level of easy dopamine we’ve got at our fingertips.” Our brains are changing, confirms child psychologist Dr Michele McDowell: “A recent study indicated the brain instantly responds to notifications and takes seven seconds to refocus. Consequently, the brain is becoming overstimulated and is increasingly more responsive. Over time, this erodes the brain’s capacity to tolerate waiting and to be patient. So each time your phone pings, it’s reshaping your mind’s ability to wait.” Continue reading…

As a Catholic, I’ve struggled with the church – but I applaud the pope’s call for peace | Margaret Sullivan

These days, I’m feeling more aligned with Catholicism than I have since my first communion. I’m not alone in thatI’ve had my ups and downs with the church of my childhood.On the one hand, as a “cradle Catholic”, I’ve received the sacraments, often get to Sunday mass, and am the product of a Catholic education, right through Georgetown University, with its Jesuit history. My father was a “daily communicant” – he received the Eucharist every morning before heading to his law office; his sister, my aunt, was a nun, a Sister of Charity with a PhD in classic languages. Continue reading…

Asif Kapadia to direct 70 Up, last chapter of influential ITV documentary series

70 Up to conclude long-running show following group of children into adulthood, revisiting them every seven yearsAsif Kapadia will bring the long-running and influential ITV documentary series Up to an end, with a concluding instalment that will air later this year.The series, which began in 1964, was voted the most influential UK TV show of the last 50 years in 2024, followed a group of children from infancy via their teen years to adulthood, and now revisits them as they approach old age. Continue reading…

Lebanese return home and a robot sorts groceries in China: pictures of the day – Friday

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

Sean Shibe: Vesper review – ever imaginative guitar virtuouso brings mind-expanding flights of fancy

(Pentatone)This thoughtfully curated programme of work by three British composers explores the guitar’s expressive potential, and new arrangements of Harrison Birtwistle’s piano originals are a revelationOn his new album, Sean Shibe surveys the guitar’s expressive potential through the lens of three British composers. There are interlocking themes here – Spain, 20th-century painters, antique musical forms – but this thoughtfully curated programme can be equally enjoyed piece by piece as a series of mind-expanding flights of fancy.Thomas Adès’s Forgotten Dances pays homage to the baroque dance suite, the composer’s quirky titles imbuing traditional forms with an additional imaginative layer. Overture, Queen of the Spiders, for example, combines stately harmonics with sneaking slides and the occasional pounce (“fatal for the fly!” in the composer’s words). Barcarolle – The Maiden Voyage is a nostalgic lapping gymnopedie; Carillon de Ville a pealing tribute to the guitar-playing Hector Berlioz. In Vesper (for Henry Purcell), Adès reimagines the consolation of the older composer’s Evening Hymn. Shibe’s playing throughout is acutely articulate and technically impeccable. Continue reading…

More than half of Britons support rejoining EU 10 years on from Brexit vote

But Labour’s ‘halfway house’ approach risks losing support from progressives and ‘red wall’ voters, experts sayUK politics live – latest updatesSupport for rejoining the EU rather than simply rejoining the single market is growing among British voters, with more than 80% of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green party supporters favouring this option, according to research mapping voter attitudes 10 years after the Brexit referendum.Labour’s “muted” approach to the issue means it risks losing support among progressive voters and in “red wall” constituencies, experts have said as part of research by Best for Britain. Continue reading…

Keir Starmer says it is unforgivable he was not told Mandelson failed vetting

PM ‘furious’ as spokesperson insists Downing Street repeatedly sought facts of the case without being toldUK politics live – latest updatesKeir Starmer has said it was “unforgivable” that he was not told that Peter Mandelson had failed his security vetting before taking up his role as ambassador to Washington.The prime minister said he was “furious” about what had happened, as he insisted he had not known that security officials had initially recommended that Mandelson be denied clearance. Continue reading…

Olly Robbins is just the latest: a guide to the high-profile exits under Starmer’s tenure

There has been a steady succession of departures by ministers and senior officials in the past two yearsThe exit of the top civil servant Olly Robbins from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the latest departure of an official or minister under Keir Starmer’s two-year tenure as prime minister. Here we take a look at some of the most high-profile resignations since Starmer came to power. Continue reading…

The Flying Dutchman review – delusion, torment and menace in detailed and finely sung Wagner

Wales Millennium Centre, CardiffJack Furness’s unconventional staging for Welsh National Opera sees the orchestra play up a storm under Tomáš Hanus in Wagner’s legend of the man condemned to sail the oceans for eternityIn 1839 the 26-year-old Richard Wagner almost drowned during a perilous voyage across the Baltic from Riga. It was this experience that he claimed inspired The Flying Dutchman, the legend of the man condemned for eternity to sail the oceans in his ghost ship gave him the narrative for his first mature opera. Wagner thought of his libretto as a poem, and it certainly grapples with some of the epic questions: birth, life, love and death.Welsh National Opera’s new staging, directed by Jack Furness, begins with a woman in childbirth, the wild and stormy surges of the overture coinciding with her contractions. So Senta is born, destined, as a small child, to see her mother die, whisked away on her hospital bed into the great abyss. Senta will be a damaged soul, obsessed to the point of derangement by the story of the Dutchman, whose single hope of redemption, the love of a true woman, becomes possible only on touching land once every seven years. Backstories seem to have become a necessary accompaniment to any opera’s overture, which anyway spells out the whole trajectory in its leitmotifs. The strength of this intervention is visual, in the widely sweeping circles run first by Senta the young girl, then as a young woman, a parallel to the Dutchman’s septennial cycles, their dresses symbolic of the blood-red sails of his ship, all metaphors which later return. Continue reading…

Is the pope Catholic? JD Vance thinks he has an answer | Marina Hyde

When it comes to theology, Donald Trump’s vice-president clearly knows best. Are we about to see an American break with Rome?The battle to be the absolute worst Trump henchman can feel so closely fought. But in the end, it’s always JD Vance, isn’t it? You would say Stephen Miller, but Miller’s too hidden to qualify as a front-of-house henchman among the US president’s court of grotesques. Stephen’s clearly been judged so wantonly horrifying that the administration must keep him out of public view. If you enter the store, Miller is the only-for-the-initiated entity alluded to in a whisper by the oleaginous sales assistant. “We do have something in the back – off-the-books, as it were – if sir is after something a little more … specialist.”But Vance? Vance besets us like the 11th plague – the plague of media appearances. For the next South Park season, I hope the creators give their brilliantly ghastly little vice-president avatar a papal mitre to wear. After all, here we have a man whose pick-me book on his journey to Catholicism has yet to even be published. That tome currently lies in the rectum of HarperCollins, ready to be excreted in June – yet inevitably, Vance is already giving menacing doctrinal advice to the pope as part of the multi-theatre fallout of Operation Epic Facepalm.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading…

Ipswich in promotion driving seat but little is ever as it seems with Championship

Kieran McKenna’s team face a crunch clash with Middlesbrough but charging Southampton loom large At the end of July, Ipswich and Middlesbrough reached an agreement. If the Boro midfielder Hayden Hackney agreed personal terms he could join the Suffolk club, freshly relegated and awash with ready funds, for a Championship record fee of around £20m. Kieran McKenna knew he would be getting the best schemer in the division if his target said yes; a player who could make the difference in a 46-game grind. Perhaps with half an eye on Premier League interest, Hackney heard Ipswich out but turned the transfer down. He would end up staying on Teesside and propelling an often exhilarating promotion chase.There is little chance of a mutually beneficial outcome when the sides meet at Portman Road on Sunday. Hackney has missed the past four games with a calf injury and it is unclear whether he will be ready in time for a game of potentially seismic consequence. Continue reading…

Average new UK electric car price is now lower than petrol vehicles

Autotrader says average EV cost is £785 cheaper, in an important milestone in the move away from fossil fuelsBusiness live – latest updatesThe price of new battery electric cars has fallen below petrol cars in the UK for the first time, according to the car sales website Autotrader, in a significant milestone in Britain’s transition away from fossil fuels.The average price of a new electric car listed on the website was £42,620, compared with £43,405 for a new petrol model – making the former £785 cheaper based on advertised prices after discounts. Continue reading…

Winter is coming … back? Super League could revamp schedule as part of NRL takeover

CEO Andrew Abdo: ‘There are clear pros and cons for it’London Broncos key to multimillion takeover visionSuper League could move back to a winter competition to allow year-round global broadcasting of rugby league if the NRL agrees a deal to take control of the British game.Andrew Abdo, the CEO of the NRL, told the Guardian the ­Australian ­governing body would consider the calendar switch as a key part of a potential multimillion-pound ­takeover and investment package that would also include a strong focus on a London-based club and major governance reform. Continue reading…

BBC radio DJ Andy Kershaw dies aged 66

DJ spent almost three decades working for corporation, and was best known for Radio 1 show from 1985 to 2000The broadcaster Andy Kershaw, who presented BBC Radio 1 for almost 15 years, has died at the age of 66, his family have told the BBC.The DJ spent almost three decades working for the corporation and was best known for his Radio 1 show, which ran from 1985 to 2000. Continue reading…

A statue of Queen Victoria, memorial trees and a swimming pool: Judi Dench’s garden – in eight poignant items

The storied actor has spent years campaigning to protect green spaces. She invites us into her Surrey sanctuary, where each tree represents a lost loved one A visit to Dame Judi Dench’s garden in Surrey is bittersweet. The 2.4-hectare (six-acre) plot contains enough trees – about 100 – to count as an arboretum. Among them is a carpet of wild garlic and a wildlife pond from which rabbits like to sip. But each of these trees represents someone she knew who has died. As her eyesight has nearly gone, Dench, who features in the latest episode of the Royal Horticulture Society’s new podcast, Roots, navigates her way around the garden via memories and smell. Here, she shares her stories of the garden and discusses the items that mean the most to her. Continue reading…