President’s plans have rattled global stock markets and triggered heated rows with US’s largest trading partners

Donald Trump will announce his latest round of tariffs at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, threatening to unleash a global trade war on what he has dubbed “liberation day”.

Trump has rattled global stock markets, alarmed corporate executives and economists, and triggered heated rows with the US’s largest trading partners by announcing and delaying plans to impose tariffs on foreign imports several times since taking office.

Liberal judge says victory is against ‘unprecedented attack on our democracy’ after defeating Brad Schimel in the most expensive judicial election in US history

Susan Crawford won the race for a seat on the Wisconsin supreme court on Tuesday, a major win for Democrats who had framed the race as a referendum on Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s popularity.

Crawford, a liberal judge from Dane county, defeated Brad Schimel, a former Republican attorney general and conservative judge from Waukesha county, after Musk and groups associated with the tech billionaire spent millions to boost his candidacy in what became the most expensive judicial contest in American history.

Defence minister Israel Katz says large areas of the territory will be seized and added to the security zones of Israel

Airstrikes continued on Gaza on Wednesday morning after the Israeli defense minister announced that Israel intended to expand its war. In a statement, Israel Katz said the offensive was “expanding to crush and clean the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure and capture large areas that will be added to the security zones of the state of Israel.”

The move has been condemned by the Hostages Families Forum, who said it appeared that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government were making the return of 59 hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas “a secondary task” that had been “pushed to the bottom of the priority list.”

I wish success to the IDF soldiers who are fighting bravely and powerfully in Gaza for the return of the kidnapped and the defeat of Hamas. The goal of Operation “Strength and Sword” is first and foremost to increase pressure for the release of all the hostages in the face of Hamas’ refusal.

Expanding the operation this morning will increase the pressure on the Hamas murderers and also on the population in Gaza and advance the achievement of the sacred and important goal for all of us. I call on the residents of Gaza to act now to remove Hamas and return all the hostages. This is the only way to end the war.

Known for his roles in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Tombstone, the prolific actor’s cause of death was pneumonia

• Remembering Val Kilmer: an ethereally handsome actor who evolved into droll self-awareness
• A life in pictures

Val Kilmer, the actor best known for his roles in Top Gun, Batman Forever and The Doors, has died at the age of 65.

His daughter Mercedes told the New York Times that the cause of death was pneumonia. Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and later recovered, after treatment with chemotherapy and trachea surgery that had reduced his ability to speak and breathe.

London PhD student convicted of 10 rapes may have 60 more victims, force fears

More than 20 women have contacted police to say they fear they may have been attacked by the serial rapist Zhenhao Zou, with detectives fearing there may be even more victims to come.

Zou, 28, was convicted last month of raping three women in London and seven in China between 2019 and 2024.

A 26-year-old man was rescued from hotel in capital Naypyidaw, long after disaster that has killed thousands

A man was pulled alive from the rubble of a hotel in Myanmar on Wednesday, five days after the country’s worst earthquake in a century flattened entire neighbourhoods and tore through temples, bridges and highways.

The 26-year-old was found alive in the ruins of the building in the capital, Naypyidaw, by a joint team of rescuers from Myanmar and Turkey after midnight, the fire service and the country’s ruling junta said.

In speech that began Monday night, Democratic senator warns of ‘grave and urgent’ danger of Trump administration

• US politics – latest updates

Cory Booker, the Democratic US senator from New Jersey, has broken the record for longest speech ever by a lone senator – beating the record first established by Strom Thurmond, who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Booker’s speech eventually ran to 25 hours and five minutes. Having begun at 7pm on Monday night, was not a filibuster but instead an effort to warn of what he called the “grave and urgent” danger that Donald Trump’s presidential administration poses to democracy and the American people.

Moscow’s refusal highlights the limited progress Donald Trump has made on his promise to end the war

Moscow has described the latest US peace proposals as unacceptable to the Kremlin, highlighting the limited progress Donald Trump has made on his promise to end the war in Ukraine since taking office in January.

Sergei Ryabkov, a foreign policy adviser to Vladimir Putin, said some of Russia’s key demands were not being addressed by the US proposals to end the war, in comments that marked a rare acknowledgment from the Russian side that talks with the US over Ukraine had stalled in recent weeks.

China’s military says drills will continue in the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday and will use live fire

The US has accused China of putting the region’s security at risk after it launched a second day of military drills targeting Taiwan with a rehearsal blockade and attack.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) began the joint drills without notice on Tuesday morning, sending 76 aircraft and more than 20 Navy and Coast Guard ships, including the Shandong carrier group, to positions around Taiwan’s main island.

Wild 5.5 metre swells hammer the eastern NSW coastline, causing damage to key walkways and closing beaches

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Locals in Sydney’s east woke on Wednesday to discover some of the city’s most famous beaches and coastal walkways battered and damaged by huge overnight swells.

Bondi, Bronte, Clovelly and Cronulla beaches were among the areas smashed by 5.5 metre swells.

Democrats have appeared lame and leaderless for 72 days, but then Cory Booker stood up and did something

“Would the senator yield for a question?” asked Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

Senator Cory Booker, who on a long day’s journey into night had turned himself into the fighter that many Democrats were yearning for, replied with a wry smile: “Chuck Schumer, it’s the only time in my life I can tell you no.”

Senators propose ‘hard-hitting’ secondary sanctions and say ‘Russia is the aggressor’; ‘coalition of the willing’ moves forward. What we know on day 1,134

Defence secretary’s trip to Asia shows the Trump administration is engaged with the region, but analysts warn Taipei to tread carefully

On Tuesday China’s military launched joint drills around Taiwan, sending ships, planes and some bizarre propaganda videos across the strait to both warn and punish Taiwan’s government over what Beijing calls “separatist activity”.

The purported provocation was recent assertiveness by Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, who in March designated China a “foreign hostile force” and announced 17 measures to counter its espionage and influence operations.

Kilmer, who has died aged 65, made his name with Top Gun and The Doors – but his exceptional talents were often under-appreciated by the mainstream film industry

• Val Kilmer, star of Top Gun and The Doors, dies aged 65
• A life in pictures

Why do some movie careers take off … and others go a bit sideways? Val Kilmer was a smart actor, a looker, a terrific screen presence and in later years an under-appreciated comic performer. His finest hour as an actor came in Shane Black’s comedy action thriller Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005, when he was quite superb as the camp private investigator Gay Perry Shrike: a gloriously sleek, plump performance which was transparently – and outrageously – based on Tom Ford. If only Kilmer could have started his acting life with that bravura performance, and shown the world what he could do. Instead, and at a crucial stage in his career, he was trapped in the body and face of a staggeringly beautiful young man.

He could somehow never quite persuade Hollywood to accept him as a leading man and above-the-title player in the mould of his Top Gun contemporary Tom Cruise, who in 1986 played Pete “Maverick” Mitchell to Val Kilmer’s Tom “Iceman” Kazansky. As the 80s and 90s rolled by, Kilmer never ascended to the league of Cruise, Hanks, Clooney and Pitt. Medication for the illness he latterly suffered can’t have helped, and it is a great sadness that fate never allowed him to mature in the same way as, say, Kurt Russell.

Andry José Hernández Romero sent to an El Salvador prison after claim ‘crown’ tattoos proved he was a gang member

For as long as anyone can remember Andry José Hernández Romero was enthralled by the annual Three Kings Day celebrations for which his Venezuelan home town is famed, joining thousands of fellow Christians on the streets of Capacho to remember how the trio of wise men visited baby Jesus bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh.

At age seven, Andry became a Mini King, as members of the town’s youth drama group Los Mini Reyes were known. Later in life, he tattooed two crowns on his wrists to memorialise those carnival-like Epiphany commemorations and his Catholic roots.

A 19th-century zoologist found the ‘little salt dweller’, which could be a portal to the past – if only we could locate it again

Last February, with colleagues Gert and Philipp and my daughter Francesca, I made the long journey to an unremarkable city called Río Cuarto, east of the Argentinian Andes. We went in search of a worm of unusual distinction.

Why a worm? As humans, we naturally love the animals that are most familiar. But from a zoologist’s point of view, the vertebrates, from mammals and birds to frogs and fish, can be seen as variations on a single theme. We all have a head at one end (with skull, eyes and jaws); in the middle, a couple of pairs of limbs (a goldfish’s fins, or your arms and legs); and, holding all this together, a backbone ending in a tail.

This new identity gave me confidence and the freedom to discover different relationships. It also helped me understand, more broadly, what I really want from life

I’ve never been a good liar. I can trace it back to my early school days, where my excuses for unfinished homework were never convincing, or I’d guiltily double back on even the smallest of fibs. With a knowing look, my mother would say: “Georgina …” She instilled a reverence for the truth, which was bound to the idea of doing the right thing. She wasn’t wrong: building trust is crucial in forming strong bonds in any relationship dynamic.

But, like most teenagers, I gently smudged the boundaries of truth, from concealing my bellybutton piercing, to “borrowing” my brother’s car to meet a boy I fancied. Notably, my untruths were told in the knowledge that they would probably later be discovered (although I hadn’t banked on the flat tyre) and, looking back, they were often linked with an early exploration of my sexual identity.

The far-right leader has been banned from running for office for five years after an EU parliament fake jobs scam

After a nine-week trial, the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was this week found guilty of the embezzlement of European parliamentary funds through a fake jobs scam of an unprecedented scale and duration. She was banned from running for office for five years with immediate effect, which could prevent her making a fourth bid for the French presidency in 2027.

She has said she will appeal against the verdict and sentence, which also included a four-year prison term – with two years suspended and two to be served outside jail with an electronic bracelet – and €100,000 (£84,000) fine.

Residents of Sake – given 72 hours by M23 rebels to leave camps in Goma – find a ghost town with homes in ruins and no way to make a living

Congolese people forced to return to their home town from displacement camps when the M23 rebel group advanced on the city of Goma earlier this year have described scenes of devastation, with hundreds of homes destroyed by fighting and no opportunity to work or access aid.

As M23 entered Goma, a regional humanitarian hub that hosted hundreds of thousands of people displaced by previous rounds of fighting in the region, more than 100,000 people left camps around the city to return to their homes.

One of a series of photographs taken across India in which women, many of them abuse survivors, use traditional needlework to embellish portraits of themselves

This is a portrait of Praween Devi, a woman I met in 2019 through a local organisation while working on my project Nā́rī. I met her alongside other women who gather in their back yards to embroider together, sharing stories over cups of chai.

When I asked to take her photograph, she suggested the main hall of her home, mentioning its lack of decoration and how the walls were bare except for a framed image of flowers and, notably, a photograph of all the men in the house. Before we began, she brought in a rug from another room, subtly curating the space. As I composed the shot, I included the photograph of the men, wondering how she would choose to alter the image through embroidery.

I have two degrees, two books to my name and I write for the Guardian. Yet I spent time in care, live at home and struggle for money. Can Karl Marx help me make sense of myself?

I have been obsessed with and confused by social class all my life. Both of my grandparents grew up in Liverpool in the 1930s in traditionally working-class households. They were clever and conscientious and managed to earn scholarships to university, eventually becoming teachers. My parents have university degrees and own property; one of them is now a judge. To most people, all these things place me squarely and categorically in the middle class. But I was in special educational schools from the age of nine, spent part of my childhood in care, left education altogether at 14 and collected the dole until getting my first job in a cotton mill. All these things make me a dyed-in-the-wool prole.

And yet I have two degrees, I have written two books and I freelance for the Guardian – you can’t get more insufferably bourgeois than that. At the same time, I am pushing 40 and living with my mum because I can’t afford to rent anything larger than a broom cupboard, so I feel as though I am in class limbo – fitting in with everyone and no one at the same time.

• Gabriel and Timber add to White and Calafiori blows
• Saka’s goal against Fulham was ‘a beautiful moment’

Mikel Arteta enjoyed a “beautiful” goalscoring comeback from Bukayo Saka in Arsenal’s 2-1 victory against ­Fulham in the Premier League but felt the gloss come off the evening as Gabriel Magalhães and Jurriën ­Timber sustained injuries.

Saka scored Arsenal’s second on 73 minutes, having come off the bench in the 66th minute for his first action since he ruptured his hamstring on 21 December. He ran over to the bench to celebrate with one of the club’s performance coaches, Sam Wilson.

• ‘I will not have the time. We have to get it right, fast’
• Manager put Harry Maguire up front as late substitute

Ruben Amorim bemoaned Manchester United’s toothless attack as Nottingham Forest completed a Premier League double over his side and reiterated he is under pressure to ensure his team “get it right fast”.

Forest enhanced their chances of qualifying for the Champions League with a third successive league win, courtesy of an extraordinary counterattack goal by the former United forward Anthony Elanga, while United are 13th and yet to record back-to-back wins in the division this season.

Liverpool could lose three of their best players this summer. Who should they target in the transfer window?

By WhoScored

Trent Alexander-Arnold is expected to leave for Real Madrid this summer, with Liverpool likely to dip into the market to secure a new right-back. They will need to sign a full-back capable of replicating Alexander-Arnold’s attacking threat, which will prove easier said than done. The 26-year-old has set up six goals and 51 shooting chances for teammates this season, making him one of the most creative defenders in the league.

• Real Madrid 4-4 Real Sociedad (agg 5-4)
• Defender heads dramatic extra-time winner

At one minute past midnight a self-declared madman sent the Santiago Bernabéu into a state of delirium and Real Madrid into the final of the Copa del Rey. El Loco leapt above the Real Sociedad defence and into the stands at the north end of this stadium, where supporters had seen their team go and do it again, their way. It had been long, it had been wild, and at the end of the night, somehow they were the ones celebrating, which it seems they always are. Madrid did not win and were not always very good until they were irresistible, but it was enough.

Three times they had trailed but ultimately a draw, secured by the thumping forehead of Antonio Rüdiger in the 115th minute, was enough. A game that went from 0-1 to 1-1, 1-3 to 3-3, and then 3-4 finally finished 4-4 deep into extra time.

Plus: a 972 score in Scrabble, the same stadium name across multiple grounds, and 48 league appearances in one season

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“The other day in their Women’s Champions League match against Manchester City, Chelsea fielded a back four of Bronze, Bright, Björn and Baltimore,” emails Asad Butt. “Are there other examples of this in defence, midfield or attack?”

Back in 2017, we answered a question regarding men’s teams fielding three or more players with the same first name, with five Johns starting in an England XI against Switzerland in 1948: John Aston, John Haines, John Hancocks, John (‘Jack’) Rowley and John (‘Jackie’) Milburn all featuring. As mentioned by Asad, Chelsea fielded a back four beginning with the same surname letter against Manchester City earlier this month (plus Aggie Beever-Jones in the first leg). But we can do better than that.

• Kai Tak Sports Park favourite to stage event post-2028
• Stadium to host Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool in July

Hong Kong has emerged as a candidate to stage future Nations Championship finals at its new Kai Tak Sports Park and would be an ideal British & Irish Lions stopover, according to a senior World Rugby executive.

The inaugural Nations Championship finals – the biennial playoffs among the world’s leading international sides – is to be held in London in 2026 with Qatar lined up for 2028 but the Hong Kong stadium is an increasingly popular suggestion for subsequent editions.

• Gjert Ingebrigtsen was secretly recorded by son Henrik
• Former coach denies all allegations of violence

The father of the double ­Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen accused his sons of a “perfect ­character assassination” on a secret recording made after they fired him, a court has been told.

Gjert Ingebrigtsen also claimed that he had been dragged “down to hell” after he was referred to child services following an incident in January 2022 where he was accused of whipping his daughter, Ingrid, in the face with a wet towel.

• Turf at Turnberry’s Ailsa Course ripped up by protesters
• Course has been closed since October due to renovation

Turnberry’s famous Ailsa Course will not open as planned on 1 May after serious damage caused to the Ayrshire venue – owned by the US president, Donald Trump – by a pro-Palestine group. Tour operators and those with individual bookings at Turnberry are in the process of being informed it will be June before the Ailsa, which is routinely ranked among the finest golf courses in the world, is available for play.

The clubhouse at the Ayrshire resort was daubed with graffiti and red paint in the early hours of 8 March. More significant in respect of the championship course – that has staged the Open on four occasions – was the ripping up of greens and on turf approaching them. The course has been closed since October due to planned renovation of the 7th and 8th holes.

Beware the backlash strategies used by Trump and Berlusconi. It is vital that the National Rally leader isn’t able to capitalise on this verdict

The verdict is in: the National Rally (NR) and its leader, Marine Le Pen, have been found to have employed fictitious European parliament assistants between 2004 and 2016. The fraudulent scheme enabled the misappropriation of around €2.9m in European funds, and Le Pen has now been barred from holding public office for five years. Could this mark the end for the National Rally? Highly unlikely – and the reason lies in the party’s strategy.

During the trial, Le Pen deliberately maintained silence in response to the allegations – a tactic some outlets dismissed as evidence of a weak defence, even questioning her credibility. Yet this quiet is far from a sign of weakness; it reflects a long-established approach that consistently shuns conventional manoeuvres in favour of an intentionally unpredictable stance.

Georgios Samaras is assistant professor of public policy at the Policy Institute, King’s College London

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.

British Muslims are too often acceptable only when they bake cakes or win medals. Now the nation has had a true insight into our faith

If anything is going to get me to turn on BBC One early on Eid morning, it’s Eid prayer being televised on a UK terrestrial channel for the first time in British broadcasting history. Held at Bradford Central Mosque, the groundbreaking coverage on Monday followed the entirety of the Eid prayer – starting with Qur’anic recitation, then a sermon in both English and Arabic and the congregational prayer itself, culminating in the customary eid mubarak embraces.

For Muslims like me, these scenes are part and parcel of every Eid. The keffiyeh-draped uncles sporting orange beards dyed with henna, some to emulate the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and some simply to hide their grey hairs; the children using the congregation as an assault course and scouting out the auntie who is handing out the best sweets; fancy clothes, henna-patterned palms and smiling faces; people high on both the spirituality of the just-passed holy month and probably too much sugar. This is the stuff Eid is made of, but watching it unfold on the nation’s main TV channel was a refreshing novelty – and I found it strangely affirming, as well as a little emotional, to witness.

Nadeine Asbali is the author of Veiled Threat: On Being Visibly Muslim in Britain, and a secondary school teacher in London

After a decade of conflict, loss is constant, as is fear for our children’s future. But we are more than this

A decade of war in Yemen has left us in a place we never could have imagined. Our biggest worries were once exams, work and weddings. Today, we live with the weight of constant fear. You wake to the sound of explosions or the silence of grief, leave your home uncertain if you will return, look at your child and wonder what kind of future awaits.

Yet life goes on. We carry our losses, our broken hearts, our grief, and we continue. Ten years of war, ten years of mourning, of learning to survive with a lump in our hearts.

Trustees aren’t academics – and they’re often political wolves in sheep’s clothing. We need reform to save the American university as we know it

Late on Friday evening, the trustees of Columbia University announced that its interim president, Katrina Armstrong, was leaving her post.

Six days earlier, she had convened an emergency meeting with 75 faculty members after the university had cravenly surrendered to the demands of the Trump administration in the hopes of recovering $400m in federal grants and contracts. The president and her staff called their predicament “heartbreaking” and sought to reassure faculty that academic freedom and departmental autonomy remained intact.

The US president’s attack on the Smithsonian isn’t about truth. It’s about erasure, and ‘erasure is violence’

Last week, Donald Trump issued another executive order, this one aimed directly at the Smithsonian Institution, and called for “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”. He contended that the Smithsonian had “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” and that it advocates “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive”. Specifically, the order targeted American history and art that focused on stories of race and racism.

Being responsible for the distillation of the nation’s narrative is no small thing. The Smithsonian oversees 21 museums, libraries, research centers and the National zoo. Every year millions of people visit various sites that are free to the public. The collection of museums represents the pinnacle of public history and the story America tells the world about itself.

School principals are resilient but, in an alarming number of cases, their job harms them. We would not tolerate these conditions in other workplaces

I’ve been lucky. I’ve enjoyed a rewarding career in education, including almost 15 years as a principal in the Northern Territory and the ACT. I’ve worked with wonderful teachers and administrative staff, and shared in the successes of hundreds of young people and their families as they grow and graduate high school, going on to further study, employment and life adventures.

I’ve also experienced verbal and physical abuse, aggression and violence from students and their carers, directed at me and my colleagues in the course of my work as a school leader. I once regarded these occasional events as part of the job, normal in our frontline occupation. I now think we have grown complacent about the levels of violence toward a predominantly female workforce that we would not tolerate in other workplaces. As the latest data from the Australian Catholic University’s (ACU) annual Principal Health, Safety and Wellbeing report, released this week, shows, things are getting worse for my profession.

Northern Ontario is seeing a ‘shorter window’ for ice roads that deliver vital supplies to remote First Nations

At first there was no answer on the satellite phone. But on the third call, Donald Meeseetawageesic heard his sister’s voice. “We need somebody to come and tow us out,” he told her.

It was a warmer-than-normal night in early March and Meeseetawageesic, the elected band councillor for Eabametoong First Nation, was stranded in a 4x4 truck on the dark winter road leading to his community. The tyres were stuck in the deep snow and the temperature outside was below freezing. Help was about 60km (37 miles) away.

More than half of Britain’s 59 native species are in long-term decline, UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme finds

Last summer was the fifth worst in nearly half a century for butterflies in Britain, according to the biggest scientific survey of insect populations in the world.

For the first time since scientific recording began in 1976, more than half of Britain’s 59 native species are in long-term decline.

US climate agency upended as Doge efforts to slash federal government compromise email security

A sense of chaos has gripped the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), one of the world’s premier research agencies, with key staff hastily fired and then rehired, cuts to vital weather forecasting operations and even a new, unsecured server that led to staff being deluged by obscene spam emails.

Noaa is currently being upended by Donald Trump’s desire to slash the federal government workforce, with more than 1,000 people already fired or resigning from the agency and 1,000 more staffers are expected to be removed as the purge continues. In total, this represents around 20% of the Noaa’s workforce.

Experts say previous economic models underestimated impact of global heating – as well as likely ‘cascading supply chain disruptions’

Economic models have systematically underestimated how global heating will affect people’s wealth, according to a new study that finds 4C warming will make the average person 40% poorer – an almost four-fold increase on some estimates.

The study by Australian scientists suggests average per person GDP across the globe will be reduced by 16% even if warming is kept to 2C above pre-industrial levels. This is a much greater reduction than previous estimates, which found the reduction would be 1.4%.

No 10 says deal to cede UK’s last African colony now being finalised after months of doubt

Donald Trump has signed off the UK’s handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, Downing Street has indicated, paving the way for the UK to cede sovereignty over its last African colony after a six-month standoff.

Under the terms of the deal, the UK will give up control of the Chagos archipelago while paying to maintain control of a joint US-UK military base on the largest island, Diego Garcia, under a 99-year lease.

Carmaker reportedly has yet to announce plan for repairs after telling motorists not to charge their cars

Thousands of drivers have reportedly been left in limbo after warnings that their car could catch fire due to a battery defect.

Ford issued an urgent recall of its Kuga plug-in hybrid car in early March, warning drivers not to charge the battery because of a risk it might short-circuit while on the road. The problem could cause a loss of power or a fire, according to the recall notice. Four weeks later, the manufacturer has yet to announce a timescale for repairs and owners report that it is failing to respond to their requests for an update.

Anti-Houthi air campaign, details of which were revealed in Signal scandal, has brought further destruction to country

A ramped-up US bombing campaign on Yemen has killed civilians and brought further destruction and uncertainty to the poorest country in the Middle East, compounding an already dire situation after Donald Trump cut aid, according to local people, humanitarian workers and rights groups.

“Now the rampant bombing has started, you never know which way things will go,” said Siddiq Khan, who works as a country director in Yemen for the aid charity Islamic Relief.

Report finds police mistook girl for missing woman in blunder that has appalled political leaders

An 11-year-old girl was restrained, injected with anti-psychotic drugs and placed on a mental health ward after New Zealand police mistook her for a missing woman, a report found on Wednesday.

Health officials and police have scrambled to explain the mix-up, which has appalled political leaders and stoked outrage across the country.

Owner ByteDance required to find non-Chinese buyer for video app’s American operations by Saturday

Donald Trump is preparing to consider a final proposal to decide the future of TikTok before a deadline for the app to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a US ban.

The US vice-president, JD Vance, the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, will meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday to discuss the issue, Reuters reported.

The US-Canadian dual citizen speculates he may be ‘barred or put in jail to sleep on a cement floor’ after his European tour, after years of speaking against Trump

Neil Young has shared his concerns of being barred from the US after his European tour later this year, thanks to his outspoken critiques of Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, on his website Neil Young Archives, the 79-year-old musician – who has dual Canadian-American citizenship – wrote of his fears after the recent spate of people being detained and deported upon entering the US. These incidents have been credited to vague or unspecified visa issues, but have frequently affected individuals who have criticised the Trump administration either publicly or in messages on their phone read by immigration officers.

From Guy Burgess’s briefcase to microdots secreted in talc, an exhibition reveals remarkable items from the agency’s archives – and the extraordinary stories behind them

The agency that would become MI5, originally known as the Secret Service Bureau, employed just 17 staff in 1914; by the end of the first world war, the number working for Britain’s domestic counter-intelligence agency had swelled to 850, including a number of female administrators.

While valuable for managing the card index records, noted Edith Lomax, the controller of women staff in 1918, only women under the age of 30 should be recruited “on account of the very considerable strain that was thrown on [their] brains”.

The detailed relics were found in a necropolis and experts believe the woman depicted could have been an important priestess

Two almost lifesize sculptures of a man and woman, who was believed to have been a priestess, have been found during the excavations of a huge tomb in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

The detailed funerary relics adorned the tomb containing several burial niches built into a wide wall in the necropolis of Porta Sarno, one of the main entrance gates into the ancient city. Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79.

Bureau of Meteorology predicts flooding could continue for weeks as stock losses already estimated at over 150,000

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Queensland’s premier has declared “day one” of a recovery that will take years as the state prepares to wake to clear skies that should reveal the vast scale of its outback floods.

But despite forecasts the rain will pass for soaked central and south-west Queensland by Thursday, towns and homesteads could be cut off or at risk of flooding for weeks to come, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s senior meteorologist, Dean Narramore.

Óscar Arias, 84, who won Nobel peace prize in 1987, said US president was behaving like ‘a Roman emperor’

Former Costa Rican president and Nobel winner Óscar Arias said on Tuesday that the US had revoked his visa to enter the country, weeks after he criticized Donald Trump on social media saying he was behaving like “a Roman emperor”.

Arias, 84, was president between 1986 and 1990 and again between 2006 and 2010. A self-declared pacifist, he won the 1987 Nobel peace prize for his role in brokering peace during the Central American conflicts of the 1980s.

Documentary follows the baloeiros, who illegally build and release huge decorated balloons in cities, from where they can travel hundreds of miles

An intriguing film set in Brazil, first shown last year at the CPH:DOX documentary festival in Copenhagen, in which expatriate Danish film-maker Sissel Morell Dargis takes a look at a unique grassroots cultural phenomenon: the baloeiros, the ballooners. These are groups of young men, as secretive and loyal to each other as Freemasons, who (illegally) build and release huge decorated balloons in cities, from where they can travel hundreds of miles. Why? As kind of graffiti, or a community self-expression, or situationist artform, or just a subversive gesture of pure joie de vivre that does not need or admit of any explanation.

The baloeiros are harassed by the police, on the ostensible grounds that they are part of gang culture, and the authorities encourage local people to inform on those they suspect of building and transporting a balloon. But baloeiros are cheerfully committed to their own kind of public-access artistry. The balloons show colossal images of Sly Stallone and Luciano Pavarotti – aspirational role models and pop culture icons. As Dargis says: “A flying balloon belongs to everyone, even the police.”

A New York librarian is discovered unconscious in a park with no memory, in a mystery that challenges consensual reality

We first meet Jane O in the consulting room of Henry Byrd, a New York psychiatrist. Jane, a 38-year-old librarian, is neat, quiet, outwardly unremarkable. She sits without saying anything, then gets up and leaves. Her visit has lasted just 14 minutes and Henry fears he will not see her again. He detects in her “a loneliness of the soul … [like] a pine tree growing alone on a great, wide plain”.

Their next encounter proves even stranger. Jane has been discovered unconscious in a public park with no memory of how she got there. A day of her life has gone missing and she is anxious about the welfare of her young son Caleb, who she failed to collect from nursery during her “blackout”. Terrified about how she might be judged for this memory lapse, she finally gives an account of the inexplicable event that brought her to Henry in the first place.

So Sam Mendes has cast his Beatles tetralogy, but none are from Merseyside. Don’t worry, I’ve just invented the Beatles Cinematic Universe

Sam Mendes has announced the cast for his colossal four-film Beatles extravaganza: Harris Dickinson as John, Paul Mescal as Paul, Barry Keoghan as Ringo and Joseph Quinn as George – and to tumultuous acclaim he brought his Fab Four on stage at the CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, a now well-established affair in the film world, incidentally, satirised in a forthcoming episode of Seth Rogen’s TV comedy The Studio.

I’m sorry to say, however, that Sam has almost entirely ignored the casting suggestions that I made in February last year. For what this is worth, I went with Leo Woodall as Paul, Finn Wolfhard as George, Harry Melling as Ringo and Barry Keoghan as John (though Barry got Ringo in the end). But I like to think that Sam Mendes and his producer Pippa Harris were thinking on more or less the same lines as me. Interestingly, there are no American actors doing Brit accents – just the kind of well-trained British or Irish actors who can fabricate perfect American accents for American roles elsewhere.

The author of The Five, about the Ripper murders, turns her attention to another tragically misunderstood victim

In the canon of British true crime, the case of Dr Crippen routinely gets billed as the first “modern” murder. It wasn’t that there was anything particularly original about the doctor’s motives or methods: in January 1910 he slipped poison into his wife’s bedtime drink so that he could marry his secretary instead. Rather, it was the way that Crippen was caught that turned this run-of-the-mill suburban love triangle into an international cause célèbre.

Realising that it would only be a matter of time before his wife’s dismembered remains were discovered in the cellar of the marital home in north London, Crippen and his secretary Ethel Le Neve fled to Canada in disguise. Such was the media hoopla surrounding the case that the sharp-eyed captain of the SS Montrose quickly spotted the runaway lovers among his passengers. This was despite their unconvincing cover story of being “father and son” (the hand-holding and kissing gave the game away). Using the ship’s brand-new Marconi wireless, Capt Andrew Kendall alerted the British authorities that he had the infamous fugitives in his sight. Within hours, Insp Dew of Scotland Yard had boarded a faster ship from Liverpool with the intention of reaching Newfoundland first, so that he would be ready to arrest Dr Crippen and his companion when they made landfall. To a fascinated public, following the unfolding drama in the newspapers, it was as if time travel were being invented before their very eyes.

As she reveals her tougher side in a Liverpool gangland drama, and fearfully prepares to tread the boards in New York, the actor talks about body image, big hair and the blind faith that has always driven her

Saoirse-Monica Jackson has done some dramas where everyone was quite sober and all her jokes fell flat. But This City Is Ours was different, not least because of the number of Scousers on set, the Derry Girls star explains. “It wasn’t, like, so serious,” she says. “We had craic off-camera.” However, while it was fun to make the buzzy new BBC crime drama (the female cast members named themselves the Muffia) the end result isn’t fun – although it is gripping. Featuring betrayals, love and a lot of violence, the show stars Sean Bean as a Liverpool drugs boss, while Jackson plays Cheryl Crawford, the wife of one of his underlings.

Cheryl is on the periphery, though her voice-of-experience warnings ring loud. “There’s nothing good about our men,” she tells Diana, the partner of a senior gang member. Jackson has lived in Liverpool for a couple of years now – which helped with the accent – and it was a treat to be back in her own bed at the end of a day’s filming. A lot of hair extensions helped with the look. “It was so heavy, so hot, to be under it every day,” she says with a laugh. “Our amazing hair and makeup designer, Adele Firth, really wanted to get the picture across of some girls in Liverpool – they take such pride in themselves. Every occasion is an occasion to really get dolled up.” Jackson found herself intrigued by Cheryl. “I think if, like her, you grow up around these types of people, or they’re adjacent to your family, that can blur the danger for you.”

American authors of All Fours and Tell Me Everything are competing for the 30th award alongside four other novels highlighting ‘the importance of human connection’

American writers Miranda July and Elizabeth Strout have been shortlisted for the 30th Women’s prize for fiction alongside four debut authors.

The six titles in contention for the £30,000 prize all draw on “the importance of human connection” in different ways, said writer and judging chair Kit de Waal. “What is surprising and refreshing is to see so much humour, nuance and lightness employed by these novelists to shed light on challenging concepts.”

A holiday park on the lesser-known Côte Orientale offers lower prices, activities for all ages, and secluded sandy beaches

I had held out as long as I could, but there was no getting out of it. The catcalls were rising; the baying, cackling audience of under-11s intoxicated by a combination of ice-cream sugar rushes and my obvious, clammy fear. It was day 14 of a two-week summer holiday, and our final afternoon in blissful 30C Corsican sunshine. I just needed one more chapter, lounging with my book, soaking in the last of the bone-warming sun slowly edging down towards the island’s dramatic mountainous spine.

But my calculating offspring had not forgotten ill-fated promises made on a previous evening, probably a little too deep into the second carafe. I was probably caught off-guard at Barny’s, a sensational sushi restaurant in the town of Ghisonaccia, enjoying our best meal of the holiday. They know when my defences are down; when I’m fully relaxed into holiday “yes” mode, and prime for being taken advantage of.

Two rice dishes from the Gulf: bottom-of-the-pot chicken and rice, AKA fega’ata, and a side or main of tomato, potato and saffron rice

The Gulf countries are known for their elaborate rice dishes, many of them inverted, so the bottom becomes the top and the top the bottom. Some of the best and most traditional ones are cooked over charcoal and palm wood in deep underground fire pits, so the smokiness takes over every grain. That isn’t practical in most homes, but I like to think we can still produce the most wonderful rice dishes with just simple ingredients and a lot of love.

It’s not fun to realize you may be an ‘always welcome but never invited’ pal. But experts say it’s not all bad

We’re hiding behind a dining table, waiting for the birthday girl to arrive.

The door creaks open. “Surprise!” we shout.

The virtual sex life I enjoyed with someone else only made me realise what was missing at home. How can I make my marriage work again?

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I have been with my husband for 10 years and have previously never so much as looked in the direction of another man. We had a regular sex life but when an old school friend got back in touch, we began messaging each other and it quickly turned into sexting. The nudes and explicit, erotic messages I sent were completely out of character for me. We discussed plans to meet up for one night of selfish, illicit fun – free of spouses, children and responsibilities – but when I asked for clarity on where I stood, he said that we shouldn’t message any more. I was heartbroken. Now I don’t want to have sex with my husband because it is not exciting enough. What can I do to get my marriage back on track?

Virtual sex can be risky and painful, and this experience has been very challenging for you. When sexting, it is important to remember that it belongs in the fantasy realm. There is never any guarantee that there will be a “real” aspect, and it is best not to assume that there is any meaningful relationship whatsoever. But your desire to have exciting sex of some kind is understandable. Perhaps you need to let your husband know that. You may have the best results if you present some options. First, imagine and fantasise about what would be thrilling for you to enjoy with your husband, then find a relaxed moment to broach the subject and see if he might be receptive to it, and if there is something special that would turn him on. Our partners are not responsible for our pleasure – we are. We have to create our own erotic universes, whether in private fantasy or in reality. True intimacy, and the opportunity for great eroticism, occurs when both people can share those universes.

Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a US-based psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders.

If you would like advice from Pamela on sexual matters, send us a brief description of your concerns to private.lives@theguardian.com (please don’t send attachments). Each week, Pamela chooses one problem to answer, which will be published online. She regrets that she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Submissions are subject to our terms and conditions.

Could I discover an order that would mark me out as intriguing, charming and strangely sophisticated? I spent a week trying everything from chocolate milk with rum to apple cider vinegar with prosecco to find out

In the little we know of Materialists, the forthcoming film from Past Lives director Celine Song, Dakota Johnson plays Lucy, a successful matchmaker who is herself perennially single and jaded about love. When an as-yet-unnamed suitor (Pedro Pascal) approaches her at a wedding and asks to buy her a drink, Lucy’s response is not so much a request as a challenge.

“Sure,” sighs Johnson, with that hypnotically flat delivery that saw her named worst actress at this year’s Razzies. “Coke and beer.”

This versatile spice has long outgrown its Spanish and Hungarian roots to bring richness, warmth, colour and flavour to a host of dishes

Sweet, smoked, hot … What’s the difference between the various paprikas? And are there any substitutes?
“Paprika brings warmth, it brings colour and it brings another layer of flavour,” says Monika Linton, founder of Brindisa. “Even just a sprinkling over goat’s cheese on toast, hummus or any kind of dip, along with a bit of olive oil, will bring it to life.” Crucial to both Spanish and Hungarian cuisines, paprika is made by drying peppers (generally speaking, Hungarian varieties are air-dried whereas the Spanish stuff is smoke-dried) and grinding them to a fine powder. The taste, meanwhile, depends on the variety of pepper used, although, as Linton points out, not all tins of paprika specify that.

“Paprika brings a certain richness,” says Jeremy Salamon, author of Second Generation and chef/owner of Hungarian restaurant Agi’s Counter in New York. “It has this unique, vegetal, unripe fruit-like quality, and lends itself in different ways to different dishes.” While he generally has sweet (“to use as a flavour base to build on with other spices”) and smoked (“to whip into butters”) to hand, hot paprika always comes out tops: “I like the kick it adds, so I’ll use it in chicken paprikash or in a pimento cheese dip.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

We would like to hear from people who have been affected by the earthquake’s impact on the two countries

Deaths have been reported in Myanmar and Thailand after a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit both countries, with Myanmar’s isolated military junta making a rare request for international aid.

We would like to hear from residents, workers and tourists who have been affected by the earthquake. Have you evacuated? Do you have any concerns?

Have you or anyone you know encountered any problems at the border, and are you changing your planned trip to the US?

Following a French scientist being denied entry to the US after immigration officers searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration, we’re interested in finding out more about any issues that people have experienced at the US border.

Other reports at the US border include a German national, who is a permanent US resident and was detained by US border officials. A Canadian citizen was also detained by US border authorities for almost two weeks over an incomplete visa.

We’d like to hear from those who have tied the knot several times and what they learned from each marriage

The Guardian’s Saturday magazine is looking to speak to people who have been married five times, or more, for a feature about love and commitment.

What motivated you to keep tying the knot? What lessons did each marriage teach you? We’re interested in publishing honest, hopeful stories about people who refuse to give up on love.

We would like to hear from people in Turkey about the recent protests and whether they took part

Tens of thousands of people have been protesting in Turkey after Istanbul’s mayor and President Erdoğan’s main political rival, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was formally arrested on Sunday.

His initial arrest and detention on corruption charges on Wednesday sparked the largest wave of street demonstrations in the country in more than a decade.

In North Carolina, kids affected by Hurricane Helene are putting this method, often inaccessible, to the test

On a winter afternoon at the old Methodist church in Swannanoa, North Carolina, a group of young children gathered around a special sandbox. The sand was silky and lavender-scented. The toys inside were carefully chosen: small sections of wooden fence, fist-sized plastic houses, tea lights with battery-operated flames, matchbox-sized police cars and construction machines.

In the wake of Hurricane Helene last autumn, these objects took on new meaning in the town of 5,000 miles (8,000km) east of Asheville. The storm downed thousands of trees and knocked out power and water for weeks. Driving water, wind and mudslides swept away people, buildings and fences.

The state has one of the highest US rates of substance use disorders and ranks last for access to treatment. These initiatives are changing what rehab looks like

Oregon has for years struggled with a drug crisis, reporting one of the highest rates of substance use disorders in the US and ranking last in the nation for access to treatment.

The problem is systemic, rooted in decades of failure to invest in the level of behavioral health services needed for people with mental illnesses and addiction. The Pacific north-west state’s significant affordable housing shortage has compounded the challenges, as people languish on the streets without care. Many drug users spiral downward until they overdose, wind up in jail or prison or are forced into Oregon’s overcrowded psychiatric system.

Whether it’s driving solo from London to Lagos, a month on a motorbike, or vanlife in east Africa, these influencers are sharing their adventures – and helping others to negotiate the difficulties of a ‘weak’ passport

Joy Ebaide was riding her motorbike along a deserted dirt road in rural Tanzania when a black mamba, Africa’s deadliest snake, lunged at her. “It was about two inches away from me, and that’s an experience I’ll never forget,” she says.

Encountering a highly venomous snake was a heart-stopping moment, but it did not put her off travelling. If anything, it made her more determined, and left her feeling that “impossible is nothing”.

As floodwater flows past towns and cattle and sheep stations – normally isolated by desert – many now sit as islands amid a muddy sea

Many are those rescued from Munga-Thirri-Simpson Desert – in what is normally the dust bowl of outback Queensland – who have sunk wheels in a sand dune, busted tyres upon gibber rock or even been bogged in the mud left by a sudden downpour. But Tony Woolford is among a far more exclusive club.

In fact, the 66-year-old South Australian may well be the first person ever plucked by helicopter in this, one of the driest places on Earth, from flood waters.

Attempts to seal porous borders through which guns, drugs and fuel flowed in Assad times are turning local tensions deadly

Hidden trails snake through the mountains in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa valley, the furrowed earthen paths veering off before entirely disappearing into the mountainside scrub. “That’s Syria,” said Haidar, a smuggler using a pseudonym, tracing with his finger the contours of a route that if followed for about half a mile would cross the borders of Syria and Lebanon with authorities being none the wiser.

In the remote Lebanese village of Qasr, borders are just a suggestion. The town sits a stone’s throw from Syria and save for three soldiers manning an army checkpoint at the entry to the village, the presence of the Lebanese state is minimal.

The country’s drawn out conflict has seen children recruited as soldiers on all sides. At the age of 18, Anina is a seasoned fighter with a feared reputation in her all-male resistance unit

• Photographs by Valeria Mongelli

Anina is, in many ways, a typical teenager. She loves her boyfriend, cartoons and football – she supports Manchester City. Until recently, TikTok dancing brightened her days. “Any kind of dancing,” she says.

When the Guardian met her she was about to turn 18 and was on crutches, her ankle twisted during a scramble to escape a Myanmar military airstrike. A soldier of the Chin militia, the four years of civil war against the ruling junta have consumed much of Anina’s adolescence.

After myriad false starts and much fluctuation, the lingering question is not how far Trump can take his trade wars, but how far he will

Donald Trump won back the White House with a promise to transform the US economy. Millions of Americans, struggling with higher prices and bigger bills, elected a president who pledged to revive his country’s industrial heartlands – and leave the rest of the world to pick up the bill.

On Wednesday – a day dubbed Liberation Day by the president and his aides – Trump has vowed to pull the trigger and impose an historic barrage of tariffs on goods from overseas he claims will fund an extraordinary revival.

South Africa’s Marion Island is a breeding ground for the birds, but their chicks are being eaten alive by rodents. Now, the world’s largest operation to eradicate the invasive species is about to get under way

By 2015, scientists knew from camera trap evidence that mice were attacking albatross chicks on Marion Island, but no one had ever witnessed it first-hand on the small volcanic outcrop off the coast of South Africa. So, when researchers Stefan and Janine Schoombie came across a badly wounded wandering albatross chick in a relatively accessible part of the island, they resolved to return at night. After hiking for 30 minutes in the dark, Stefan started quietly setting up his camera equipment behind a rock. “We were expecting to have to stalk, but the mice were climbing all over us,” he says.

It didn’t take long for the mice to start feeding on the albatross chick. “The bird was a complete fluffball,” says Janine. “So, they just climbed up its back and started nibbling at its head. We could see their teeth going into its flesh.” The bird, too young to walk let alone fly, could only shake its head in irritation. “As scientists our job is to not intervene,” says Stefan. “But we really wanted to help that bird.”

Suspected criminal gangs are leaving pigeon racers bereft after a spate of thefts in aviaries across the country

When champion pigeon racer Tom Van Gaver walked into one of his lofts one morning last November, he immediately knew something was wrong. Part of the door had been smashed from the inside. He soon realised it was no accident: thieves had broken into his aviary in Moortsele in Flanders and stolen five birds, including Finn, one of his most renowned breeders. Father and grandfather to many champions, Finn was “the Mona Lisa of the pigeon world”, Van Gaver said.

The five birds, he estimates, were worth €750,000 (£625,000), but like da Vinci’s masterpiece, it is hard to tell, because he had no plans to sell. He had ordered a retirement loft so his oldest birds could live out their days under more sun. Instead, CCTV footage shows one of the thieves snatching Finn and bundling the delicate jade-necked dark bird into a plastic bag.

The death of a crew member on a Chinese-owned trawler in the Indian Ocean illustrates the lack of accountability in the seafood industry, say advocates

Ricky* was one of the first to see his crewmate’s dead body. It was 2023 and he was six months into a stint at sea, working on a longline tuna boat in the Indian Ocean for $480 a month. The crew were mostly Indonesian, like Ricky, or Chinese, like the captain and owners of the boat.

In the days leading up to Ricky’s crewmate’s death, the 29-year-old Indonesian, referred to as YK, had been increasingly depressed onboard, repeatedly asking to be sent home. The captain had refused, says Ricky, who says he saw YK attack the captain.

We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.

This week, from 2022: In northern Norway, trees are rapidly taking over the tundra and threatening an ancient way of life that depends on snow and ice

By Ben Rawlence. Read by Christien Anholt

The parliamentary leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, has been banned from public office for five years for embezzlement, ruining her chance of a presidential run. Angelique Chrisafis reports

It is a sentence that has prompted anger among rightwing leaders across the world and led to accusations that democracy is being threatened. This week, Marine Le Pen, the parliamentary leader of the National Rally (RN), the largest opposition party in the French parliament, was banned for five years from public office for embezzlement. Along with more than 20 others, she was found to have used money for European parliament assistants to pay party workers.

The shock sentence could end Le Pen’s hopes of running for president in 2027. She is now appealing and has hit back furiously, as have her supporters and allies. Some of her support could hurt her more than it helps, however. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said in response that “more and more European capitals are going down the path of violating democratic norms”. While Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán have also weighed in.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Emma Sanders and Tom Garry to discuss a dramatic week for the women’s game

On this week’s Guardian Women’s Football Weekly: the panel discuss both Arsenal and Chelsea’s progression into the semi-finals of the Champions League.

With the international break looming, the relegation battle is on. Liverpool lost at home against Aston Villa, who moved out of the drop zone and four points clear of Crystal Palace.

While other diet fads come and go, the ultra low carbohydrate Keto diet seems to endure. But as scientists begin to understand how the diet works, more is also being discovered about its risks. To find out more, Madeleine Finlay speaks to Javier Gonzalez, professor in the department of health at the University of Bath, with a special interest in personal nutrition. He explains how the diet works, what it could be doing to our bodies and what could really be behind the weight loss people experience while on it

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company has been targeted by protests across the world

“It felt like you were driving in this future dream car,” says Mike Schwede, an entrepreneur based between Zurich and London. For him, driving a Tesla used to feel special.

“People on the streets really liked it,” Schwede says. “I got so many thumbs-up.”

Cory Booker, the Democratic senator from New Jersey, spoke on the Senate floor for more than 25 hours, the longest speech ever given in Senate history. Starting his speech on Monday evening in Washington, vowing to remain on the Senate floor as long as he was 'physically able', Booker spoke in protest at what he called the 'grave and urgent' danger that Donald Trump's presidential administration poses to democracy and the American people. In 1957, Strom Thurmond, a Republican from South Carolina, gave an anti-civil rights speech that lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes

• Senate Republicans consider joining Democrats to oppose Trump over tariffs

Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said that although no signs of life had been detected, the search for survivors in the rubble of a skyscraper that collapsed during the 7.7 magnitude Myanmar earthquake will continue as experts 'still have hope'. He added that 12 bodies have been found, but that the search for survivors is the priority.

• ‘It’s beyond description’: Bodies pile up in mass graves as Myanmar grapples with quake toll

• Myanmar earthquake death toll tops 2,000, as health system ‘overwhelmed’

Net zero is a target that countries should be striving for to stop the climate crisis. But beyond the buzzword, it is a complex scientific concept – and if we get it wrong, the planet will keep heating.

Biodiversity and environment reporter Patrick Greenfield explains how a loophole in the 2015 Paris climate agreement allows countries to cheat their net zero targets through creative accounting, and how scientists want us to fix it

South Korea’s Prime Minister Han Duck-soo expressed his gratitude to the constitutional court after it ruled against his impeachment and to restore his role as acting president. When he arrived at the government complex in Seoul, Han said the court had made a 'wise decision'.

• South Korea’s Han Duck-soo reinstated as acting president after court strikes down impeachment

As droughts become more prevalent, corporate control over our drinking water is threatening the health of water sources and the access people have to them. Josh Toussaint-Strauss explores how foreign multinational companies are extracting billions of litres of water from natural aquifers to sell back to the same communities from which it came – for huge profits

• ‘It’s not drought - it’s looting’: the Spanish villages where people are forced to buy back their own drinking water

• Foreign firms taking billions of litres from UK aquifers to make bottled water

Chaotic weekend sees blizzard warnings in midwest, wildfires in southern plains and dust storms in Texas. At least 26 tornadoes were reported but not confirmed as a low pressure system drove powerful thunderstorms across parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri. The Storm Prediction Center said fast-moving system could spawn twisters and hail as large as baseballs, but the greatest threat would come from straight-line winds near or exceeding hurricane force, with gusts of 100mph (160km/h) possible.

• At least 17 dead as massive storm system sweeps across US south with multiple tornadoes

A SpaceX mission was launched to replace two Nasa astronauts who have been stuck at the International Space Station for nine months. The stuck astronauts are scheduled to depart the station on 19 March after the Crew-10 astronauts arrive on 19 March

• Crew lifts off on SpaceX mission to replace stuck Nasa astronauts

In Sudan, fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, appear to have filmed and posted online videos of themselves glorifying the burning of homes and the torture of prisoners. These videos could be used by international courts to pursue war crime prosecutions.

Kaamil Ahmed explains how the international legal system is adapting to social media, finding a way to use the digital material shared online to corroborate accounts of war crimes being committed in countries ranging from Ukraine to Sudan

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

China has dramatically increased military activities around Taiwan, with more than 3,000 incursions into Taiwan's airspace in 2024 alone. Amy Hawkins examines how Beijing is deploying 'salami-slicing' tactics, a strategy of gradual pressure that stays below the threshold of war while steadily wearing down Taiwan's defences. From daily air incursions to strategic military exercises, we explore the four phases of China's approach and what it means for Taiwan's future

Each spring since 2003, Jon Aars, senior scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute, and his team have conducted an annual polar bear monitoring program on Svalbard - collaring, capturing and taking samples from as many bears as they can across several weeks.

By studying polar bears they get a better understanding of what is happening in this part of the Arctic environment. The bears roam over large distances and, being apex predators, provide lots of information about what is happening lower in the food chain and across different Arctic species.

The Guardian accompanied Aars on an expedition to the southern end of Spitsbergen island, the largest in the Svalbard archipelago.

Donald Trump has said there is ‘no room’ left for negotiation with Mexico and Canada on planned tariffs. He also said the US would institute tariffs at 20% on China. All Mexican exports to the US face a levy of 25% under the plans. Most Canadian exports will face a 25% tariff, with 10% for energy products

• Trump says ‘no room left’ for deal that avoids tariffs on Mexico and Canada

Russia's foreign minister has dismissed the prospect of a place for Europe at talks between the US and Russia to end the fighting in Ukraine. Speaking at a press conference alongside his Serbian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov said: 'If they are going to weasel out some cunning ideas about freezing the conflict, while actually intending – as is their custom, nature and habit – to continue the war, then why should we invite them at all?'

European leaders have been unnerved by the willingness of Donald Trump, the US president, to engage the Kremlin directly over Ukraine and have been attempting to find a place for themselves in the talks

• Europe live – latest updates

Divers have documented evidence of what conservationists say is widespread coral bleaching at the Ningaloo Reef off Western Australia’s north-west coast. Waters off WA have been affected by a prolonged marine heatwave since September, with ocean temperatures 1.5C higher than average over a five-month period

• Large areas of WA’s Ningaloo corals could die in ‘weeks ahead’ after widespread bleaching documented

The parents of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny joined hundreds of mourners at their son's grave on Sunday to mark the anniversary of his death. Navalny died aged 47 on 16 February last year while being held in a jail about 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle, where he had been sentenced to 19 years under a ‘special regime’

• Alexei Navalny supporters visit grave on first anniversary of his death

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

Photographer Sarah Mei Herman was 20 when her half-brother Jonathan was born – she spent the next two decades capturing intimate moments between him and their father

She dressed up as a bullfighter, sat in a window with two magpies and flew colossal flags of warning. We go inside a fascinating new exhibition of photographs by multimedia artist Rose Finn-Kelcey

Worshippers offered Eid al-Fitr prayers across the world, marking the culmination of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan

By grazing between trees and removing potential wildfire fuel, wild horses help protect Galicia’s delicate ecosystems, but Europe’s largest herd has declined to just 10,000

The actor best known for his roles in TV shows including Dr Kildare and The Thorn Birds has died aged 90. We look back at his career on stage and in film and television

• ‘King of the miniseries’ dies aged 90
• Richard Chamberlain – full obituary