Exclusive: Half of local authorities charged double by private providers for temporary housing, investigation finds

• ‘It feels very much like a prison’: inside a cramped Birmingham homeless hostel

Private landlords and hotel owners are charging councils far in excess of market rent to house people who would otherwise end up on the street, an investigation has found, laying bare the depth of England’s hidden homelessness crisis.

Local authorities in England are paying 60% more for rooms in places such as bed and breakfasts and hostels than it would cost to rent similar-sized accommodation on the private market, with half of them spending double the local going rate.

Exclusive: Former British PM urges police to reopen inquiry – and claims media executive Will Lewis attempted to incriminate him

• I have now spoken to police officers who say they were misled by Murdoch’s empire. I won’t let this rest | Gordon Brown

The former prime minister Gordon Brown has made a new complaint to British police over allegations that Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper empire obstructed justice, after stating he has spoken to officers involved in the original phone-hacking inquiry.

Writing in the Guardian, Brown says one of the detectives alleged they believed there was “significant evidence� that News Group Newspapers (NGN) deleted millions of emails to pervert the course of justice.

• Slot claims Premier League in first season as head coach
• 5-1 win over Tottenham seals title with four games left

Liverpool have won a record-equalling 20th league title in a stunning debut season for Arne Slot after beating Tottenham 5-1 at Anfield. The 46-year-old, who took on the seemingly unenviable task of succeeding Jürgen Klopp last summer, becomes the first man in Liverpool’s illustrious history to win the championship in his debut season with the club.

Anfield was ready to celebrate at kick-off, but there was an early setback when Dominic Solanke unexpectedly headed Spurs in front after 12 minutes. Liverpool hit back quickly, Luis Díaz’s equaliser awarded after a VAR review, before Alexis Mac Allister smashed home in the 23rd minute to put the hosts in front. Cody Gakpo struck from a corner before half-time to leave the outcome all but guaranteed.

More than 20 people were also injured at Lapu Lapu celebrations, but police rule out terrorism as motive after man arrested at scene

• PM says Canada ‘heartbroken’ after at least 11 killed in Vancouver car-ramming

The festival, celebrated especially in the central Philippines, honours Datu Lapu-Lapu, an indigenous Filipino leader who famously defeated Spanish forces led by Ferdinand Magellan in the Battle of Mactan in 1521 and became a national hero.

The centrepiece of the festivities in Vancouver is a multi-block street party in the Sunset neighbourhood featuring Filipino food and traditions, live performances and cultural displays.

The party on Saturday was just starting to break up but many people were still in the streets when the dark SUV rammed into the crowd.

The government of British Columbia officially recognised 27 April as Lapu-Lapu Day in 2023, acknowledging the cultural contributions of the Filipino-Canadian community, one of the largest immigrant groups in the province.

Lapu-Lapu’s victory is celebrated in the Philippines as a symbol of nation’s resistance to colonisation and the bravery of its early leaders. The city of Lapu-Lapu on Mactan Island in the central Philippines is named in honour of Datu Lapu-Lapu and serves as living tribute to his legacy.

The Philippine consulate in Vancouver said in a Facebook statement that it “expresses its deep concern and sympathies to the victims of the horrific incident�.

Crossbow and firearm recovered from city’s Otley Run pub crawl route where two women were seriously injured

Facebook posts appearing to contain plans for a “massacre� are being examined by counter-terrorism police investigating an attack in which two women were seriously injured in Leeds.

A man, 38, who suffered a “self-inflicted injury� was arrested and two weapons – a crossbow and a firearm – were recovered from the scene, on the popular Otley Run pub crawl route in the north of the city.

Indian navy showcases its strike capability, while Pakistani minister says nuclear weapons ‘are targeted at you’

India’s navy test-fired missiles on Sunday, showcasing its ability to carry out “long-range, precision offensive� strikes, as tensions with Pakistan rise after last week’s terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 civilians.

“Indian Navy ships undertook successful multiple anti-ship firings to re-validate and demonstrate readiness of platforms, systems, and crew for long-range precision offensive strike,� the navy posted on X, as the prime minister, Narendra Modi, promised a “harsh response� to the attack at a tourist site, the deadliest against civilians in Kashmir in 25 years.

NASUWT reopens general secretary nominations after flaws allowed leftwinger to be appointed unopposed

The NASUWT teaching union has been forced to backpedal on its controversial appointment of Matt Wrack as general secretary and will instead reopen nominations for the post, ahead of a high court showdown.

Branches were informed this weekend that the NASUWT’s national executive had received “further legal advice� over flaws that had excluded other candidates and allowed Wrack – a former head of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) – to be appointed unopposed as the executive’s “preferred candidate�.

The RuPaul’s Drag Race star, whose real name was Bianca Castro-Arabejo, died on Sunday ‘surrounded by family and friends’

The drag queen Jiggly Caliente has died aged 44 after a “severe infection�, her family confirmed. The performer, whose real name was Bianca Castro-Arabejo, rose to fame after taking part in the fourth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Caliente’s family announced on Thursday that the Filipino-American drag performer had part of her leg amputated due to the infection.

Kensington and Chelsea sues Hotpoint maker Beko Europe as part of wider action against firms it blames over blaze

The company that made the fridge-freezer blamed for starting the Grenfell Tower fire has been accused in a lawsuit lodged by the local council of failing to run adequate safety tests on that model of appliance.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) has brought a lawsuit against the Hotpoint maker, Beko Europe, previously Whirlpool, as part of wider legal action against companies it believes were culpable for the fire eight years ago that killed more than 70 people.

Pat McFadden says ‘there isn’t going to be toilet police’ amid warnings about ‘incredibly dangerous’ consequences

A UK government minister has said trans people are now banned from using toilets of the gender they identify as, amid warnings about the “incredibly dangerous� consequences of such a blanket prohibition.

The UK supreme court ruled earlier this month that the terms “woman� and “sex� in the Equality Act referred only to a biological woman and to biological sex.

Police launch murder inquiry after Alexandra Fröhlich is found dead on her boat on the Elbe

A murder inquiry has been launched after a bestselling German novelist was found dead on a houseboat in Hamburg having been violently attacked, police have said.

Alexandra Fröhlich, 58, whose novels have had prominence on Germany’s bestseller lists, was found on Tuesday morning, investigating authorities said.

Event officially recognised two years ago honours a Filipino hero and is intended to ‘teach the strength of a united people’

• Vancouver street festival deaths – latest updates

Thousands had gathered in Vancouver this weekend to mark Lapu Lapu Day, a celebration of a Filipino national hero who fought against Spanish colonisation, when a car-ramming attack killed at least 11 and injured dozens more.

Datu Lapulapu, the chief of Mactan, an island now part of the central Visayas region of the Philippines, defeated Spanish forces led by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. Primary accounts of that day are limited, but Lapulapu’s victory has become a symbol of bravery and resistance to colonial rule.

From Johnny Depp in Somerset Life to Barack Obama in Dogs Today, Bernard Bale’s litany of starry interviews offers a rare insight into the engine room of celebrity journalism, and is every bit as intriguing as the thought of Jack Sparrow tending his Somerset garden

In the spring of 2023, subscribers to the British local lifestyle magazine Somerset Life were eagerly anticipating their April edition – a Gardens Special promising top tips for green-fingered readers and the best places to see seasonal bluebells.

But when the magazine landed on readers’ doormats, a story bigger than blooming gardens of south-west England was on the cover. In what appeared to be a world exclusive interview, the Hollywood A-lister Johnny Depp had confessed his love for the bucolic county. More than that, he had bought a secret hideaway in the area.

From humble beginnings, the 50501 community is one of many coming together to resist the president and his policies

It started with a Reddit post.

“50 PROTESTS – 50 STATES – 1 DAY,� the user who goes by Evolved Fungi wrote, kicking off a movement that has since drawn hundreds of thousands to the streets in protests against Donald Trump across the country.

Emotions ran high as the club prepared for Premier League final against Tottenham

“This is important. It means a lot to be here,� said Ann-Marie Barton, who remembers the mixed emotions when Liverpool last won the title: yes she was drinking champagne, but it was alone at home because of the Covid pandemic. “It was just me and Scooby [a stuffed mascot], and he doesn’t talk much.�

On Sunday she was out in blazing sunshine at Anfield with good friends lapping up the communal party atmosphere. Everyone seemed to be smiling. It was some party and was never going to be spoiled.

Total surpasses previous record of 55,646 set in New York, and event also broke record for crowd numbers

The London Marathon’s organisers have hailed an “extraordinary� day in the nation’s capital, as the 45th edition beat the world record for number of finishers and attracted record crowds.

By 6.30pm on Sunday evening, the number of finishers had surpassed the previous best of 55,646 for a mass participation race set in New York.

With two small kids and a dog to take care of, I often struggle to look after myself. Self-care apps promise to help – if you can handle the quests, magic potions and rainbow stones. I put four of them to the test

The other night, I didn’t moisturise before bed. The baby had just woken and was crying for a feed. I didn’t want him to wake the toddler he shares a room with, and I couldn’t, in that intensely fraught moment, locate my Elizabeth Arden.

We all find it hard, at times, to fit in self-care. But if there’s one thing I’ve noticed since becoming a mum of two small children, it’s that even the most basic level of personal care requires military-level planning. Often, I pour from an empty cup because I haven’t had time – or, more likely, I’ve simply forgotten – to refill it.

Metal detecting isn’t just about searching for ancient treasure – the missing belongings of living people are just as precious. Meet the volunteers reuniting the two

I’ve been standing in a soggy field in Bristol for two hours and I’m starting to lose hope. I try to smile optimistically at the woman beside me, but she’s staring ahead at the metal detectorists slowly sweeping the ground like crime scene inspectors. Suddenly there’s a screech. A man drops to his knees and digs into the mud. Is this the moment we’ve all been waiting for?

In 2013, Morley Howard launched one of Britain’s biggest metal detecting communities, with a twist. Its members don’t focus on ancient treasure; instead they look for the lost belongings of living people. There’s a chance they’re in your neighbourhood, wading through weeds and plunging into ponds for missing jewellery. They’re an altruistic service just waiting for your call, formed as a result of one chance purchase 15 years ago.

Morley Howard: ‘We’ve been called the fifth emergency service.’ Photograph: Joel Redman/The Guardian

The broadcaster on radioactive tomatoes, his suburban upbringing and still being a showoff

Born in 1965 in Epsom, Surrey, Jeremy Vine is a journalist and broadcaster. Vine’s media career began at the Coventry Evening Telegraph before he landed a job at the BBC in 1987, where he has worked in a number of roles including as a political reporter, Africa correspondent and Newsnight presenter. As well as his weekday programme on BBC Radio 2, he presents a self-titled weekday morning show on Channel 5. His new novel, Murder on Line One, is out now.

My dear old mum would have pulled this costume together. If you dress a boy as a soldier, he will almost certainly crawl around the floor like a sniper, which I did. Shortly after this was taken, I decided to launch a large log over my shoulder as if it were a bazooka. The back of it hit my head on the way past. I did myself a bit of mischief that day.

Inspired to run your first marathon? Our expert shares the mission-critical kit, from tarmac-taming shoes to race-day underwear

• The best running shoes, tried and tested by runners

The lure of the marathon – arguably running’s most heralded achievement – has never been as strong. A record-breaking 840,000 people signed up for the London Marathon 2025 ballot. Big city marathons, such as Berlin and New York, keep setting benchmarks for the biggest crowds toeing the start line. If you’re among the runners getting ready to answer the call of the 26.2 for the first time – and you’re sweating over the kit you need to get you there – you’re in the right place.

I ran my first marathon in Paris in 2009 and have completed 58 marathons since. Some fast, plenty slow, and I’ve put together a few flat lays in my time. So I know how important it is to get marathon kit right.

I tucked myself up and went to sleep outside a church, and when I woke up I saw a strange convoy approaching

• Read more in the Kindness of strangers series

It was 1985. No one had ever heard of Ivan Milat or the horrors of Belanglo state forest, so hitchhiking was still a thing. I lived in Adelaide and wanted to go to my brother-in-law’s 40th birthday party in Canberra. Young, foolhardy and totally broke, I decided to hitch the 1,300km there.

I packed a bag and set out around the corner from my house. I’d been on my feet for all of three minutes when a beautifully restored American hot rod pulled up in front of me. Behind the wheel was a friend I hadn’t seen since primary school. He invited me to get in, then gave me a lift all the way up to the outskirts of the city, where the major highway to Sydney begins. It was my first of many lucky breaks on this trip.

We asked professional dog trainer Graeme Hall AKA The Dogfather to give us his suggestions for your perfect pooch

At the risk of pleasing a handful of the dog owning population and annoying the vast majority, we asked Graeme Hall, AKA The Dogfather, a dog trainer, presenter of TV’s Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly and author of Does My Dog Love Me? to suggest the best breeds for different contexts. “It would be really funny if for every category I said labrador,� laughs Hall. However, his recommendations do come with a caveat: “Dogs are individuals. All Yorkshiremen are smashing, but every now and again you might meet one who’s not. Dogs are a bit like that.�

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

The thrilling Star Wars spin-off returns, the Floyd sound epic in a 1971 concert film and the timely papal drama hits streaming. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Naomi Watts is landed with a big dog in a poignant tale of loss, while the long-running comedy gameshow serves up its wildest lineup yet

The Friend
Out now
Starring Naomi Watts and Bill Murray, this adaptation of the acclaimed novel sees a New York-based writer (Watts) processing the suicide of a close friend who has bequeathed her his 150lb great dane, which proceeds to create multiple issues in her life as well as creating a poignant link to the past.

Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports

• Arne Slot’s side win record-equalling 20th league title
• News story | Match report | Top scorers | Email Rob

“Incredible! Incredible to win the Premier League with the fans is so special,� Mo Salah tells Sky. Asked whether this is different to five years ago, the Egyptian ace says: “Ah, this is so much better, 100%, because of the fans … To show you can do it again is something special.�

Quizzed about Slot’s style, Salah replies: “He very honest. He’s quite tough, but he makes our life easier – because he tells you what you want to do.� He cheekily adds: “Now I don’t have to defend much!�

Arsenal stunned Lyon to reach their first Women’s Champions League final since 2007, as Renée Slegers’s side produced a mature display full of desire, resilience and attacking brilliance to secure an impressive comeback in France. They beat the runners-up of last season 4-1 thanks to an own goal from Christiane Endler and strikes from Mariona Caldentey, Alessia Russo and Caitlin Foord.

The final in May will be the first of Slegers’s young management career. The 36-year-old was delighted with her team’s success as they reached a European final at her first attempt.

It was a day when the FA Cup romantics could see the script for Nuno Espírito Santo and Nottingham ­Forest, something to further embellish the manager’s hero status and the club’s finest season in at least 30 years. It was one when Pep ­Guardiola and Manchester City refused to entertain it.

City led from the second ­minute through Rico Lewis’s second goal of the season and when Josko Gvardiol thumped home a header on 51 minutes shortly after a glaring miss by Anthony Elanga, on as a ­Forest substitute, it felt over. That Forest were repeatedly on the wrong side of the finest of margins thereafter only deepened their pain.

Better days must lie ahead for Manchester United. Otherwise, things have gone truly pear-shaped. A Sunday where their fans lived vicariously through hopes of Tottenham delaying Liverpool’s title celebrations and Nottingham Forest stopping City winning another FA Cup counts as a ground-zero level ebb, even considering United’s decline and fall. Rescuing a point from 10-man Bournemouth might have arrested some of the helpless, listless doom but probably not for too long.

Perhaps United’s team spirit, that which carried them past Lyon in the Europa League, is evidencing itself, though far more than that is required. As with Lyon, it took an opposing red card - Evanilson, a tad unluckily - to add momentum to a muddle.

• Novice Kenyan sees off elite rivals with astonishing burst
• Tigst Assefa wins women’s race after gruelling battle

On one of the hottest days in ­London marathon history, it was a novice over 26.2 miles who played it ­coolest of all. As temperatures climbed towards 20C, almost everyone in the elite men’s field – ­including Eliud ­Kipchoge, the greatest ever, and the Olympic champion Tamirat Tola – slowed at the 30km drinks station to grab their bottles and quench their thirst.

However one athlete, Sabastian Sawe, decided water could wait and in only his second marathon the 29‑year‑old Kenyan summoned a kick so devastating that he left ­everyone else floundering within seconds. “I saw that I had an oppor­tunity to push and I did,� Sawe said after crossing the line in 2hr 2min 27sec, the second quickest time in London marathon history.

• Gloucester 79-17 Exeter
• Hosts score 13 tries in rampant display against local rivals

Premiership beatings do not come much heavier than this record-breaking West Country derby annihilation. There was nowhere for Exeter to hide on this bright but brutal Sunday in Gloucestershire as a rampant home side rattled up 13 tries to revitalise their ambitions of making the playoffs and inflict the heaviest defeat in the visitors’ top-division history.

It would have been a proper cricket score had Gloucester not missed half a dozen conversions and it was all but inevitable from an early stage that Exeter’s previous widest losing margin of 43 points would be blown away. Being booed by the Shed is one thing, hearing laughter ring around the ground is another level of embarrassment.

Spanish giants show class against elite Women’s Champions League opponents, but Chelsea face more soul-searching

Clàudia Pina scores. You know it’s a good goal because the moment it hits the net, Barcelona’s substitutes scramble forward to the front of the dugout, desperate to watch it again on the replay screen. Meanwhile, a few yards away Sonia Bompastor turns to the Chelsea bench and smiles weakly. A yeah-fair-play smile. A what-can-you-do smile.

Pina’s goal makes it 7-1 to Barcelona on aggregate, there are still more than 45 minutes to play, and we have reached the point in this Champions League semi-final when it almost begins to feel rude that Uefa insisted Barcelona fly over to play this second leg. Imagine the aircraft emissions and single-use plastic glasses that could have been saved simply by abandoning the pretenice that this was a meaningful contest.

• Pogacar leaves rivals behind with uphill attack
• Le Court wins four-way sprint in women’s race

Tadej Pogacar launched one of his trademark uphill attacks to win the Liège–Bastogne–Liège classic race for the third time on Sunday.

The defending champion made his move some 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the end of the undulating 252km (156 mile) trek to open up a gap of 10 seconds at the top, and then kept increasing it all the way to the line.

It was his third victory overall at the spring classic race, which is also one of the five “monuments� in one-day cycling along with Paris-Roubaix on the cobbles, the Tour of Lombardy, Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders. Pogacar now has nine “monument� victories.

The Slovenian was so far ahead Sunday that he even had time to turn and smile at the roadside camera filming him, then touched hands with fans near the finish before raising his arms in the air with victory assured.

Pogacar won in just over six hours and finished one minute, three seconds ahead of Italian Giulio Ciccone in second and Irishman Ben Healy in third. Ciccone and Healy contested a sprint to the line for second place.

In decent racing conditions, Pogacar’s UAE Team-Emirates teammates increased the speed at the front of the main pack and the peloton caught a small group of front-runners with 60 kilometers to go, and with the main favourites still in contention.

But when Poga�ar surged ahead on the Côte de La Redoute climb, no rider could follow him. It was a similar story to Wednesday, when Pogacar launched a trademark uphill attack to win the Flèche Wallonne classic for the second time.

My fear growing up was gun violence. But a bigger threat to my body may have come from an invisible villain

Everyone experiences a moment that shapes who they are – a moment when childhood innocence is lost, and the burdens and traumas of the world become clearer.

For me, that moment occurred in elementary school when my friend discovered a gun in Englewood, New Jersey’s Denning Park. For days, I worried about what might be lurking behind the trees and in the shadows. This anxiety lingered through high school; I even wrote in my local newspaper that “I couldn’t remember anything more frightening for a young girl in elementary school�.

The blue dot of GPS has cut us off from a basic human skill. It’s no wonder mountain rescuers are being called out so often

It does not involve protest or violence, but it might be the quintessential human image of our times: a small group of people in the midst of spectacular natural scenery, drawn there in the certainty that the apps on their phones could somehow get them from A to B to C – but utterly, hopelessly lost.

Two weeks ago, Mountain Rescue England and Wales published figures showing a record number of annual callouts. For the first time, in fact, teams – of overworked volunteers, mostly – had been called out on every day of the year. Between 2019 and 2024, the total number of rescues had increased by 24%, and there was a marked jump among the 18 to 24 age group, among whom callouts almost doubled. Similar trends were evident in data from Scotland: across Britain, there is evidently a mounting problem about the gap between people’s urge to experience wild and open spaces, and their ability to cope when they actually get there.

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

We are proud to be local representatives who care about their communities. That’s something Reform and the Tories will never understand

Do you know somebody who is good at fixing the local church roof? Who is well liked in your community? Well, if we are to go by the comments of the leader of the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch, they are quite likely to be standing as a Liberal Democrat candidate in next week’s local elections.

Yes, that’s right. According to Badenoch, a Lib Dem is “somebody who is good at fixing their church roof. And … the people in the community like them.�

From Samuel Pepys to Joan Didion, many literary greats wrote for no one but themselves – then found posterity pawing through their secrets. Trust me: you don’t want to know my innermost thoughts

A few years ago, a friend asked me to be her “literary executor�. We were both, I think, tickled by the grandiose sound of it, as if I would be playing off competing bids from the Bodleian and the New York Public Library for her juvenilia and early drafts (she is not actually primarily a writer). What she wants, though, is quite serious: I am to destroy her diaries when she dies.

That is because they aren’t meant for anyone’s eyes but her own. Whatever is in there (I don’t know, didn’t ask), it was never meant for public consumption. Many diarists feel that way: Sheila Hancock wrote about destroying decades’ worth of hers: “Maybe this vicious, verging-on-insane woman is the real me, but if it is I don’t want my daughters to find out.�

Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist

Trump’s tariffs will make it tougher for emerging economies to service loans but debt relief has fallen off the political agenda

Pope Francis’s vast funeral in Rome on Saturday featured a certain amount of politicking amid the splendour, against the magnificent backdrop of St Peter’s Basilica.

If the meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump results in progress towards a less inequitable peace than the one currently envisaged by the US, perhaps that will be fitting, given the late pontiff’s consistent calls for an end to war.

He’s got name recognition and gravitas. But he lacks ideas for how to heal the fissures in Canadian society

Monday’s Canadian federal election is likely to determine the economic future of the country for years to come. Someone should inform the Conservatives and the New Democratic party (NDP). On 6 January this year, Justin Trudeau announced his resignation as prime minister and leader of the Liberal party, which had been in power since 2015. His resignation came amid plummeting support: the Liberals hadn’t formed a majority government since 2019 and on the day Trudeau resigned, the party netted its lowest approval rating at 20%. After a truncated leadership race, Mark Carney became Canada’s prime minister and leader of the Liberal party. He is now on the brink of retaining his position.

Pierre Poilievre, on the other hand, leader of the official opposition Conservative party, has seen his party’s fortunes ignominiously drop from 44% support when Trudeau resigned to 37% on 9 April. This is a battle of leadership, and while for two and a half years Poilievre seemed on course for victory at the next election, the re-election of Donald Trump in November reoriented politics. Poilievre has been flatfooted and unable to adjust to the new environment. Now he is struggling to retain his own seat.

Erica Ifill is a political columnist based in Canada

The president’s clashes with the judiciary over immigration have launched a constitutional crisis. We’re headed toward a collision

Donald Trump issued his declaration of war against his “enemies within� at the Department of Justice on 14 March. Thus the president launched a constitutional crisis that encompasses not just a group of migrants snatched without due process and transported against federal court orders to a foreign prison, but a wholesale assault on virtually every major institution of American society.

“We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government. We will expose, and very much expose, their egregious crimes and severe misconduct,� he pledged. “It’s going to be legendary.�

Relationships matter to people, and public services must be designed with this in mind

That members of the public value access to in-person GP appointments sounds like a statement of the obvious. But the findings of an Institute for Government report about general practice in England have more complex implications too. One striking finding is that waits for appointments seem to matter less than is often assumed. Successive governments have pushed for same-day consultations. If this was done to please the public, the research suggests they should not have bothered. Surprisingly, it found no statistically significant relationship between patient satisfaction and length of wait. For many people, there is no substitute for a face-to-face conversation with the family doctor who they may have known for years. A higher number of online and telephone consultations is correlated with lower satisfaction. The shift away from in-person consultations, which accelerated during the pandemic and has not reversed, has coincided with falling confidence in general practice – though the reduction on spending on primary care, relative to hospitals, must also be factored in.

Appointments with other staff do not boost patient satisfaction to anything like the same degree. Once again, this finding raises a question over recent policy, which has been to substantially increase the “direct patient care� workforce, including pharmacists, in England’s 6,200 GP surgeries. The most popular appointments of all are those in smaller practices with higher numbers of GP partners. People’s preferences are not, in themselves, a mandate for change. This study found that practices with higher satisfaction scores also meet more targets. But measuring outcomes in primary care is complicated and previous research has raised doubts about some of the care offered by the smallest practices.

Donald Trump ignited a scramble that is transforming space from shared frontier to private asset – raising questions about law, equity and ethics

In 2015, a rare moment of US congressional unity passed the Space Act – to mine asteroids as if they were open seams of ore and harvest planets like unclaimed farmland. Quietly signed by President Barack Obama, it now reads as a premature act of enclosure: staking titles in a realm we scarcely understand. Though some expressed concerns at the time, it was justified by the idea of inevitable progress. Such naivety evaporated with Donald Trump. Space had been humanity’s last commons, shielded by a 1967 Outer Space treaty. Mr Trump declared it dead in 2020, signing the Artemis Accords and enlisting 43 allies, including the UK, in the legalisation of heaven’s spoils. In March, Mr Trump vowed to plant the stars and stripes on Mars – and beyond. The age of celestial commons was brief, if it ever began.

A new report by the Common Wealth thinktank, titled Star Wars, warns that a powerful coalition – composed of private corporations, billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, and “neoliberal� thinktanks – is working to extend earthly ownership structures to space. The report’s author, Durham University’s Carla Ibled, calls it “the transfer of shared resources into the hands of a few�. The 1967 treaty bans state exploitation of space, but is vague on private claims – a loophole now fuelling a tycoon-led scramble for the stars. The aim is obvious: to act first, shape norms and dare others to object.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Readers respond to an article by former prison officer Alex South, in which she says the weapons might keep staff and inmates safe

The decision to pilot the use of stun guns in prisons was inevitable, but terrible (I hate the idea of British prison officers carrying stun guns – but it may be our only option, 22 April). How to reduce violence in our jails? The response always seems to be some new piece of kit – be it Pava spray, which it appears has been authorised for use on children, and now stun guns.

This doesn’t deal with the root causes of a service in perpetual crisis after a decade or more of austerity and a failed 30-year political race of longer sentences and locking more people up as the answer to reducing crime. If we hold people in squalid conditions, it’s hardly surprising more violence erupts. Prisoner assaults are at an all-time high, but so are deaths in prison custody, self-harm and overcrowding.

Bob Hudson highlights the education secretary’s proposals to curb academy freedoms. Plus a letter from Wendy Musson

It’s good to see that the letter from Cllr Jonny Crawshaw (16 April) has spurred a wider debate (Letters,21 April) on the lack of transparency and accountability in the school academy system. Unfortunately, no mention is given of the proposals by the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, in her children’s wellbeing and schools bill to curb academy freedoms. These include requirements to follow national pay scales for all teachers and for employing only those with qualified teacher status; an obligation to follow the national curriculum once the government’s curriculum review has been completed; an end to the forced academisation of maintained schools; and greater powers for councils over academy admissions.

Is this another example of the government getting little credit for some of its more positive stories?
Bob Hudson
Durham

Exclusive: Local authorities have spent less than £40m out of £170m collected since offsetting scheme began in 2016

• ‘Smart, green thinking’: four innovative London council carbon-offset projects

London councils are sitting on more than £130m that should be funding local climate action, the Guardian can reveal.

More than £170m has been collected through the mayor of London’s carbon offset fund, which developers are required to pay into to mitigate emissions from new projects, since it was introduced in 2016. However, the capital’s 33 local authorities have spent less than £40m between them. Some have said they do not have the resources, expertise or time to decide how to spend it.

Council housing microgrid and tube-powered heat network among schemes supported by Mayor of London fund

• London councils yet to spend £130m in local climate funds

Carbon offset funding received from developers should be spent mostly on energy efficiency, renewable energy and district heating projects, according to guidance from the mayor of London. But some councils say the amount of funding they receive is often not enough to cover the cost of these kinds of projects.

However, others have found solutions to this by combining their offset cash with other sources of funding to pay for major projects. Perhaps the most innovative example of this is Islington council’s award-winning Bunhill heat and power network in north London, which has received more than £5m in offset funding.

Inadequate record keeping means councils do not know whether former waste sites contain toxic substances

More than 100 old landfills in England that may be contaminated with toxic substances have flooded since 2000, potentially posing a serious safety risk, it can be revealed.

Some of these former dumps containing possibly hazardous materials sit directly next to public parks and housing estates with hundreds of households, the analysis by the Greenpeace-funded journalism website Unearthed , in partnership with the Guardian, found.

Environment groups say Thursday order ignores effort to adopt rules to prevent harmful mining of ocean floor

Environmental groups are decrying an executive order signed by Donald Trump to expedite deep-sea mining for minerals, saying it could irreparably harm marine ecosystems and ignores an ongoing process to adopt international rules for the practice.

Trump’s Thursday order directed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to fast-track permits for companies to mine the ocean floor in both US and international waters.

Exclusive: Uzo Mbonu describes being targeted and ‘completely isolated’ by colleagues at HMP Swaleside

A black former prison officer has said he suffers flashbacks and nightmares after colleagues in a high-security jail subjected him to extreme racist abuse and managers failed to support him.

Nigerian-born Uzo Mbonu said he felt he was picked on and ostracised by other officers at HMP Swaleside in Kent because he did not have a British accent, did not understand the jokes his colleagues made, and challenged things he felt were going wrong.

Exclusive: Stopping pre-sentencing reports could put more pregnant people behind bars, groups tell justice minister

Shabana Mahmood risks putting more pregnant women behind bars through her bill to prevent new guidelines which highlighted the need for pre-sentencing reports based on “different personal characteristics� including age, sex and ethnicity, charities have warned.

The justice secretary introduced the bill as emergency legislation after the Sentencing Council’s guidelines provoked claims of a “two-tier� justice system, with Mahmood saying she “would not stand for differential treatment before the law like this�. The council suspended the guidance hours before it was due to take effect in response to the backlash.

Exclusive: Warnings on slashed commission rates came two years before high court claim alleging telecom firm was ‘unjustly enriching’ itself

Whistleblowers warned a series of senior Vodafone executives – including the current chief executive, Margherita Della Valle – that scores of its franchised store owners faced financial ruin about two years before a high court claim accused the company of “unjustly enriching� itself.

Vodafone employees made repeated complaints to their superiors about the company slashing commissions paid to the small businesses running the company’s high street retail network, according to a string of current and former Vodafone employees. The cost-cutting tactics resulted in a group of 62 of about 150 Vodafone franchise operators filing a £120m-plus legal claim last December.

A crossbow and firearm were found at the scene in Headingley and a man with a self-inflicted injury arrested

Counter-terrorism police have been called in after two women were seriously injured in Leeds and a crossbow and a gun were seized by police, while a male suspect with a self-inflicted injury was arrested.

West Yorkshire police were called at 2.47pm on Saturday after reports of a man with weapons. The two women injured were taken to hospital, while a 38-year-old man was arrested and taken to hospital. Their injuries were not regarded as life-threatening, police said.

Exclusive: Paul Nowak acknowledges voters’ frustrations but says Reform UK hasn’t got the answers, and urges Keir Starmer to resist any move to the right

Nigel Farage is a “political fraud and hypocrite� who is “cosplaying� as a working-class champion in order to win votes at this week’s local elections, the UK’s most senior union chief has warned.

In a stark rejection of the Reform UK leader’s attempts to court the trade unions, Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, said there were “massive contradictions� in Farage’s positions on issues ranging from workers’ rights, the economy, industry and Brexit.

Government hails safeguarding of jobs as 55,000-tonne load and other imminent supplies mean blast furnaces have fuel

Steelmaking at Scunthorpe will continue for months, the government has said, after it confirmed that a shipment of more than 55,000 tonnes of coking coal arrived in the UK this weekend.

The shipment – more than four times the weight of the Shard, western Europe’s tallest building – landed at the Immingham bulk terminal on the Humber River on Sunday and will be taken by rail the 20 miles to the British Steel site to power its blast furnaces.

EHRC releases guidance in response to supreme court ruling, saying trans men and women need ‘suitable alternatives’

The UK’s equalities watchdog has said trans women and men “should not be put in a position where there are no facilities for them to use� as it issued interim guidance after the supreme court ruling on biological sex.

Trans women “should not be permitted to use the women’s facilities� in workplaces or public-facing services like shops and hospitals, the EHRC said, and the same applies to trans men, who are biologically female, using men’s toilets.

About 60% of venues within 40 miles of small firms now inaccessible as major brewers and some pubcos restrict access

Global beer corporations are using their financial muscle to elbow smaller competitors off the bar, according to research that found independent breweries have been shut out of most of their local pubs.

The number of breweries in the UK that are not owned by a larger business or multinational is already in decline, falling by 100 last year to 1,715, according to figures released earlier this year by the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (Siba).

Sites ask for personal details for claims to process payouts that do not exist as government has ruled them out

Bogus websites are promising compensation payouts worth thousands of pounds to women who had their state pension age delayed by the government.

Campaigners from the group Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) have warned that fraudulent sites are claiming a compensation scheme has been announced by the government, and that some are asking for personal details to process claims.

Archibald Gracie is known for writing one of the most vivid accounts of the 1912 maritime disaster

A letter written by a survivor of the Titanic disaster has sold for a record £300,000 at auction.

First-class passenger Col Archibald Gracie wrote The Truth About the Titanic, which described his experience of the 15 April 1912 tragedy that claimed 1,500 lives on the vessel’s journey to New York.

Airstrike in Donetsk kills three and drone attack in Dnipro leaves one dead, according to local sources

Russia has continued its assault on Ukraine with a series of drone attacks and airstrikes, hours after Donald Trump cast doubt on Vladimir Putin’s readiness to end the conflict.

Three people were killed and four wounded on Sunday morning in airstrikes on Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, according to the regional prosecutor’s office. In a drone attack on the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipro region, a person was killed and a 14-year-old girl wounded after a third consecutive night of assaults, the local governor, Serhiy Lysak, said.

Mourners express sadness and gratitude, while special mass in St Peter’s Square attracts 200,000 people

Thousands of people queued to visit Pope Francis’s tomb in Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica the day after heads of state, royalty and hundreds of thousands of mourners attended his funeral in Rome.

Many crossed themselves and took photos on their phones as they filed past the tomb, marked simply with the name Franciscus.

Palestinians face starvation and severe malnutrition as Israel’s blockade continues, say aid agencies

Soaring prices of basic foodstuffs, diminishing stocks of medical supplies and sharp cuts to aid distribution threaten newly catastrophic conditions across Gaza, Palestinians and international aid officials in the battered territory are warning.

Humanitarian organisations including the World Food Programme and Unwra, which supplies food and services to more than 2 million Palestinians across Gaza, have now distributed the last of their stocks of flour and other foodstuffs to the dozens of community kitchens in the territory that serve basic meals to those with no other option.

Democratic House leader and New Jersey senator protest on steps of US Capitol over proposed Republican budget

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and New Jersey senator Cory Booker were holding a sit-in protest and discussion on Sunday on the steps of the US Capitol in opposition to Republicans’ proposed budget plan.

Billed as an “Urgent Conversation with the American People�, the livestreamed discussion comes before Congress’s return to session on Monday, where Democrats hope to stall Republicans’ economic legislative agenda. After 3pm local time, the sit-in passed the nine-hour mark and continued on.

Workers at contractor in Accra say they have suffered from depression and anxiety as a result of their work

• ‘I didn’t eat or sleep’: a Meta moderator on his breakdown

Meta is facing a second set of lawsuits in Africa over the psychological distress experienced by content moderators employed to take down disturbing social media content including depictions of murders, extreme violence and child sexual abuse.

Lawyers are gearing up for court action against a company contracted by Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, after meeting moderators at a facility in Ghana that is understood to employ about 150 people.

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

‘The Chinese will see this high tariff level is unsustainable for their business,’ says Scott Bessent

The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said “there is a path� to an agreement with China over tariffs after he had interactions with his Chinese counterparts last week in Washington.

“I had interaction with my Chinese counterparts, but it was more on the traditional things like financial stability, global economic early warnings,� Bessent told ABC News’s This Week on Sunday, explaining that he spoke to the Chinese during International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington. “I don’t know if President Trump has spoken with President Xi,� he added.

Investigation launched into cause of blast at Shahid Rajaee port as death toll rises to 28

Vladimir Putin was one of the first world leaders to offer help to Iran in the aftermath of a massive explosion at a container depot in a key port near the strait of Hormuz, dispatching several emergency planes to the area.

Fires still blazed nearly 24 hours after the explosion at the giant Shahid Rajaee port in southern Iran, the nation’s most strategically important port and chief artery for its world trade. The death toll had risen to at least 28 and the numbers injured had risen to more than 1,000.

About 180 British Jews and deputy PM Angela Rayner among those in attendance at event in northern Germany

Survivors of the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen and their families have gathered at the site in northern Germany to officially commemorate the 80th anniversary of its liberation by British troops.

Representatives of victims’ associations and the military took part in the ceremony along with the British deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner.

Hearings over bar on cooperation with Palestinian aid agency are test of Israel’s defiance of international law

Israel will come under sustained legal pressure this week at the UN’s top court when lawyers from more than 40 states will claim the country’s ban on all cooperation with the UN’s Palestinian rights agency Unrwa is a breach of the UN charter.

The five days of hearings at the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague have been given a fresh urgency by Israel’s decision on 2 March to block all aid into Gaza, but the hearing will focus on whether Israel – as a signatory to the UN charter – acted unlawfully in overriding the immunities afforded to a UN body. Israel ended all contact and cooperation with Unrwa operations in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem in November, claiming the agency had been infiltrated by Hamas, an allegation that has been contested.

Intriguing advances hold out the possibility – but first we have to agree on what ‘life’ means

“Creation of Life�, read the headline of the Boston Herald in 1899. “Lower Animals Produced by Chemical Means.� The report described the work of the German-American marine biologist Jacques Loeb, who later wrote: “The idea is now hovering before me that man himself can act as a creator, even in living nature.�

In fact, Loeb had merely made an unfertilised sea urchin egg divide by exposing it to a mixture of salts – he was not even close to creating life in the lab. No scientist has ever done that. But that ancient dream hovers today over the discipline called synthetic biology, the very name of which seems to promise the creation of artificial life forms. Take one of the most dramatic results in this field: in 2010, scientists at the J Craig Venter Institutes in Maryland and California announced they had made “the first self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell�.

Once upon a time revealing a magician’s secrets could get you blacklisted, now anyone can learn an illusion or two

Magicians have been around since 2700BC when the father of the art, Dedi, shocked an audience in Egypt with his ball and cup routine. Now, with the advent of talent TV shows and social media where those who dabble in the art of magic have amassed millions of followers, their popularity has reached new heights.

With this has come the rise of tutorial videos showing anybody at home how to pull off their own routines. It was not always this way. For one thing, revealing the secrets behind the world of magic would get you blacklisted.

The artist’s frescoes hold many lessons for the cardinals who have to decide upon the next pope

It must be hard for the College of Cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel not to gawp at Michelangelo’s frescoes when they should be thinking only of electing a new pope. The only flaw in Robert Harris’s brilliant novel of clerical politics Conclave is that, as they scheme, none of the prelates seem bothered about the ceiling Michelangelo painted with scenes from Genesis between 1508 and 1512 or the Last Judgment he painted on the altar wall much later, from 1536 to 1541 – let alone the earlier paintings by Botticelli and others on the side walls.

When a bomb blows in a window in last year’s award-winning film of the book, the conclave carries on without even pausing for restorers to check the damage. As if.

The Send Nudes author, one of Granta’s pick of the best young British novelists, on young motherhood, feminism and why we need to break the rules around love

Saba Sams was in bed breastfeeding her two-month-old baby Sonny when she received an email saying that the publisher Bloomsbury wanted to offer her a book deal on the basis of some of her short stories. She was just 22 at the time. “I didn’t even think it was a book,� she says when we meet. “I was just learning how to write.�

Send Nudes, her first collection, about being a young woman in a messed-up world, was published in 2022. She won the BBC national short story award and the Edge Hill short story prize. The following year, she made the once-in-a-decade Granta Best of Young British Novelists list. “Then I was like: ‘Oh, this is actually happening. This feels like a big deal,’� she says.

O2 Academy Brixton, London
With lengthy Wayne Coyne anecdotes and frequent interruptions for stage effects to be brought on and off, there was an awful lot of time during the Lips’s two-and-three-quarter hour show when nothing was happening

‘You could have had a wee and got back,� the chap behind me says to his partner as Wayne Coyne comes to the close of another rambling between-song anecdote in an oddly frustrating, stop-start evening: over the course of two-and-three-quarter hours, there’s an awful lot of time when nothing is happening – the gap between She Don’t Use Jelly and Flowers of Neptune 6 stretches to seven minutes, what with watching balloons, and Coyne’s anecdote about Kacey Musgraves dropping acid.

The frustrations start before the band take to the stage. Plainly it is better that Brixton Academy is safe for visitors now, but there must surely be a middle ground where those arriving half an hour before show time don’t have to queue for 50 minutes to enter. When the Flaming Lips take to the stage, 15 minutes late, there are still many hundreds outside, and big gaps in the crowd.

From scrumptious and slurpable to ghastly and gluey: our Rome correspondent tastes and rates UK supermarket spaghetti

• The best kitchen knives for every job – chosen by chefs

I’m looking for four things in pasta. First, its ability to hold up during cooking: good pasta retains structure and form, which helps it retain flavour and digestibility, which are the second and third things I look for. If the opposite is true and the pasta is not muscular, there is a good chance it will be flabby one minute and pudding-like the next, which adversely affects flavour, digestibility and – the fourth thing I look for – its ability to hold sauce. This fourth aspect is interesting, because, while a more rustic-looking, fine sandpaper-like texture is the visibly good sauce-catcher, some apparently smoother surfaces are surprisingly good with sauce, which is why trying out different brands can be really worthwhile.

To test, I looked at the spaghetti raw, for its colour and texture, then I cooked it according to the rule of thumb of a litre of water salted with 10g of salt for every 100g of pasta. I always bring the water to a boil, then add salt, then stir, before adding the pasta and letting it come to a boil again before starting the timer.

A new season doesn’t need to mean a completely new wardrobe. From ballet shoes that last to secondhand shirts, these updates will fit effortlessly into your current lineup

• 15 colourful pick-me-ups to elevate your everyday

Spring feels like the perfect time to blow away the cobwebs – in life and in your wardrobe. After a winter of wool and heavy boots, the time is ripe for shaking up your look with a warm(er) weather update.

That doesn’t mean buying a whole new wardrobe: one of the things I enjoy about getting older is developing a wardrobe for each season that comes back year on year. Put clothes away between seasons: some items that make their way back out of storage were everyday favourites before then, while others may not have felt right for some time but now – lucky for you – they feel right once again. There’s something extra-fun about falling back in love with something from your own wardrobe.

Whether you’re a beginner runner, a 5k faithful or a track star, our expert-picked running trainers, from Adidas and Asics to Hoka, will help you beat your PBs

• The best treadmills for your home

‘How does anyone do this?� I thought as I hobbled home from my first run, a pair of threadbare Converse biting into my heels. It took me a while to connect the dots. Maybe I was just prone to shin splints? Perhaps your calves were supposed to burn with every stride? Or – lightbulb moment – could it be that these post-jog aches and pains were a symptom of my wildly inappropriate footwear?

As with millions of rookie runners before me, my problems melted away when I bought myself a pair of proper running shoes. Fifteen years and countless pairs later, I know just how much difference they can make. However, this isn’t a simple case of one size fits all.

From organic cotton to lace, fancy socks to matching sets, our expert untangles the underwear that’s worth your money – and will stand the test of time

• The best bras for every situation

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the right underwear can mean the difference between a good and bad day. Get it wrong and your day will involve retrieving fallen bra straps, pulling up socks or retrieving knickers sliding towards an uncomfortable spot.

My evidence? The moment when, in 2020, aged 35, I put on my first pair of truly comfy pants. It was a warm day in lockdown. The banana bread was cooling, Joe Wicks was lunging, and I slid into my high-rise undies with a “full coverage� seat. That was the day I introduced myself to true underwear contentment (the fact that bras and I were on a break added to the sense of comfort).

The duchess’s skillet spaghetti outraged purists, but there’s no shortage of single-pot pasta dishes to try. Here are some that make the grade, and others that most certainly don’t

Sadly, we cannot return to a more innocent age before the first episode of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix cookery show, with its recipe for one-pan pasta. This was a time when typing the words “skillet spaghetti controversy� into Google produced no significant matches. Now those three words are inextricably linked.

To recap: Meghan piled uncooked spaghetti and other raw ingredients into a shallow pan, poured boiling water from a kettle over them and cooked them with a lid on. Some of the attendant controversies were: the dish was unforgivably bland; the recipe may not have been Meghan’s alone; Italians, inevitably, consider skillet spaghetti to be a heresy. Subsequently a lot of people recreated Meghan’s version and, in a backlash against the backlash, pronounced it pretty good.

Amelia and Ben waited until after marriage to have penetrative sex. Now, initiating intimacy makes her feel powerful and liberated
How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

I’m heartbroken for my young self and angry at how much fear I had around feeling sexual

Basic but beautiful, and very easy, it’s well worth adding this classic Indian vegetable curry to your regular repertoire

Described by chef Vivek Singh as “the most common and basic vegetable curry you will find anywhere in India�, aloo gobi (the name means potato cauliflower in Hindi) makes a great vegetable side dish, but it’s also full-flavoured enough to pair with plain rice or flatbreads for a very satisfying (and incidentally vegan) main meal.

Prep 20 min
Cook 1 hr
Serves 4

They saw eye to eye on mental health and dating apps, but did they come to an accord on the climate crisis?

Ella, 27, London

Occupation International development policy and communications

A psychologist reveals five questions children can ask – and how to answer them

• Can I protect my seven-year-old daughter from the impossible beauty standards of the fashion world?

If your child is upset because a classmate has been unkind about their body, it’s natural to want to ease their distress with: “You’re not fat, darling, you’re beautiful!� However, trying to reassure them in this way is more likely to undermine their body confidence. First, it reinforces the message that being fat is bad, thereby perpetuating stigma, instilling a belief that only some body types are acceptable, and eliciting fear around weight gain. Second, it focuses on bigger bodies being the problem, rather than name-calling and stigmatising behaviour. And third, it insinuates that you can’t be fat and beautiful.

From stopping road accidents to performing a Heimlich manoeuvre, real-life Lassies have a long history of rescuing humans in distress. Their grateful owners tell all

In August 2014, conservation biologist Steve Krichbaum was searching for wood turtles on a small plateau in a West Virginia forest. His dog Henry was exploring below, near a stream, out of sight. Henry – a fluffy former stray so joyfully affectionate Krichbaum’s former partner nicknamed him the “Love Dragon� – accompanied him everywhere, hiking, swimming and camping together.

“I hear these sticks snap,� Krichbaum says. “And there are these two bear cubs running up the slope.� Concerned Henry might chase them, he turned and started shouting for him, then, turning back around, saw an adult black bear running towards him. Krichbaum tried to appear “big and loud�, waving his arms and shouting, but the bear kept charging. He ran down the slope to try to escape, but “she ran down the bank and immediately grabbed my thigh in her jaws and knocked me to the ground. She’s biting both my thighs, and I’m hitting her, then she’d grab and bite my forearms. I’m in a foetal position and her head was literally a foot away from my head and I’m thinking to myself my God, if she keeps doing this, I’m afraid she’s going to get my femoral artery … I’m going to die down here. Then I see this white flash over to the right of me and it’s Henry.� Henry jumped on to the bear’s back and started biting her. “Well, that got her attention.� She let go of Krichbaum, turning on Henry. “She’s biting him in his chest and stomach and he’s literally screaming.�

We’d like to hear from small business owners in the UK and elsewhere about any impact of changing tariffs

China has raised tariffs on US imports to 125% in an escalation of the trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.

US tariffs on Chinese goods now total 145%, while most other countries, including the UK, have maintained a 10% tariff on goods following Donald Trump’s announcements on Wednesday pausing “reciprocal� tariffs for 90 days.

We would like to hear from parents who sometimes get too involved when their children play football

Kids’ football can be emotional. Some parents shout at their own children, others swear at officials, and a few even get into fights. We’d like to hear from parents about the times they’ve become too involved in their kids’ football matches.

What has your experience been like and how did your children react? Have you noticed other parents’ behaviour on the pitch?

If you’ve ever had – or still have – a nickname, we want to hear from you

Nicknames are dying out, according to the Wall Street Journal. Giving someone a catchy or amusing moniker often used to be “a sign of affection� – but nicknames are thought to be becoming less common, thanks to a fear of causing offence or sounding unprofessional.

If you’ve ever had – or still have – a nickname, we want to hear from you. How did your nickname originate? Did you like it – or hate it? Tell us about it below.

To mark 20 years since the first ever YouTube video, we’d like to hear your favourite YouTube TV shows

The first YouTube video, a 19-second clip posted entitled “Me at the zoo� posted by co-founder Jawed Karim, was uploaded on 23 April 2005. Now the most popular video-sharing platform in the world, YouTube has expanded far beyond short clips and into TV streaming.

To mark the anniversary, we’d like to hear your favourite YouTube TV shows of the moment. You can tell us your favourite and why below.

Leader hopes local elections in many traditionally Conservative areas will help party build on recent success

Days before the local elections, with Kemi Badenoch demanding apologies over gender identity and Nigel Farage complaining about mental illness diagnoses, Ed Davey was quietly getting on with what he perhaps does best: having fun.

In a converted shed near Stratford-upon-Avon, the Liberal Democrat leader was joking with photographers as he made chocolate truffles alongside Manuela Perteghella, his party’s MP for the formerly true-blue constituency.

Surprising new evidence challenges longstanding ideas about evolution

Venomous wide-bodied rattlesnakes on several serpent-infested Mexican islands have provided biologists from Florida with surprising new evidence about the evolution of animals.

A team from the University of South Florida joined scientists from Mexico on three separate camping expeditions to 11 uninhabited islands in the Gulf of California, a region known as the world’s biggest rattlesnake nest.

Having fled here from Chile after Pinochet seized power in 1973 my father feared the state’s arbitrary power to turn lives upside down. His outlook has never felt more relevant

“Don’t open the door to nobody,� my father warned throughout my childhood – right up until the day he died. He trusted no politicians, no organized religion and definitely no strangers knocking unannounced.

Lately, his words echo louder than ever.

As Dutch capital prepares to celebrate 750th anniversary, small business owners fear for independent retail

The floral perfume of tea and coffee fills the air in ‘t Zonnetje (The Sun), as – behind the counter – Marie-Louise Velder weighs out loose leaf tea, parcelling black leaves into paper packets. Mahogany-coloured shelves are stacked with pots containing beans from Ethiopia, Java, India, alongside bric-a-brac, such as vintage tea tins and old master-style pictures.

But in less than two months, the sun will set for good on this cosy shop in Amsterdam, which was founded in 1642. For the owner, the rent is just too high.

Ojisan trading cards bear the faces of real people – local men whose competing professional qualities determine the outcome of each game

On the day before the new school year starts, four boys armed with plastic cases filled with cards are squeezing in a game at a community centre in Kawara, a small town in south-west Japan.

Like millions of children around the world, they are obsessed with trading cards. But they’re not wielding Top Trumps, Pokemon, superheroes or sports stars.

Trump has fixated on the Venezuelan gang, but experts say he’s concocted a bogeyman to fuel immigration crackdowns

The Trump administration has fixated on portraying a Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua, or TdA, as a state-sponsored international terrorist organization that has invaded the US.

Donald Trump uses the argument to justify extreme enforcement measures against Venezuelan immigrants and cast a cloud across the Venezuelan diaspora, especially communities in the US.

Women who transitioned decades ago feel their safety and security has suddenly been removed

“The fear is back. The fear I had when I first started my transition in 1979, that people will hurt me,� says Janey, who is 70. She has been living “happily and independently� as a woman for nearly half a century. Based in London, she still works in the mental health sector and is part of a large and accepting Irish family. She is also transgender.

“I still go into the women’s toilets at work, but when I open the door there’s that little voice inside me: ‘Will someone shout at me?’,� she says.

Pop’s top matriarch is finally getting the credit she’s due. She talks about her shock diagnosis, conspiracy theories about her family, and the Instagram posts that get her in trouble with her kids

It’s been a decade since Tina Knowles started dictating her life story into her phone for her grandchildren and future great-grandchildren. She wanted them to know their history – her early life and world were so different from theirs, she might as well have been from another planet. Knowles, the youngest of seven, born to a docker and seamstress, grew up poor in segregated Texas. Her grandchildren, born to Knowles’s superstar daughters, Beyoncé and Solange, are growing up in Los Angeles and New York with unimaginable wealth, but under unimaginable scrutiny.

A couple of years ago, Knowles started writing a book that was supposed to be her behind-the-scenes take on the outfits she had created for her daughters’ music careers – the dazzling triple-denim looks she had cobbled together from fabric remnants and army-surplus stores, with almost no budget, for Beyoncé’s group Destiny’s Child in the 1990s. She was still improvising costumes once Beyoncé had gone solo and could have her pick of designer clothes; even the singer’s spectacular recent Renaissance tour had input from her mother.

How did the women’s 1500m in the 2012 London Olympics get its unenviable reputation? Athletes who were cheated out of medals talk about what happened that day – and how the results have slowly unravelled

The tunnel in which athletes wait before they enter a stadium ahead of a major race is “by no means a friendly place to be�, says Lisa Dobriskey – and as a former Team GB athlete who won Commonwealth gold and world championship silver at 1500m, she has stood in enough of them to know. “Different people handle it differently,� she says. “Some people are really relaxed and friendly; other people just look right through you. It’s scary. I remember my coach saying to me, ‘When you go to the Olympics, you’ll be standing next to the meanest, toughest, hardest people that you’ll ever face.’ Everybody wants to win.�

As it turned out, the wait to walk into London’s Olympic stadium for the final of her event in August 2012 was even more stressful than she’d been warned. With British excitement at fever pitch, support and expectation for home athletes had reached near hysteria at times. “It was terrifying,� Dobriskey says of hearing the 80,000-strong crowd in the stadium. “People were yelling, people were screaming, it was overwhelming.�

As Pope Francis’s coffin emerged into St Peter’s Square, the crowd paid tribute to a leader who urged the world to build bridges

As bells tolled and the coffin emerged from the gloom of the basilica, a hush fell across St Peter’s Square, in keeping with traditional solemnity, but the crowd itched to break it. Death had silenced Pope Francis but those who had come to see him off were not going to stifle their love or grief. He had requested a simple burial, not a silent one.

The quiet held while 14 pallbearers placed the wooden casket on the edge of the stairs for the start of the mass and continued while cardinals streamed to one side to form a blazing red bloc. On the other side was an array of dark-suited prime ministers, presidents, princes, princesses, kings and queens.