Hopes for ceasefire fade as Israeli PM hardens stance against Hamas demands for end to war in Gaza

A local official in southern Lebanon said an Israeli strike on a village on Sunday killed a couple and their child, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

aThe dad, the mother and their little son were martyreda, according to the Mays al-Jabal municipality chief Abdelmoneim Chukair.

Depending on the expert, either Biden or Trump is likely to pull ahead, but nothing about this election a especially events a is predictable

aYou know what I hate?a Donald Trump asked in Freeland, Michigan, on Wednesday night. aWhen these guys get on television, they say a pundits, you know, the great pundits that never did a thing in their whole lives a aYou know, we have two very unpopular candidates. We have Biden or we have Trump. These are very unpopular.aa

Watched by a crowd of adoring fans in Make America Great Again (Maga) regalia, against the backdrop of a plane marked aTrumpa in giant gold letters, the former US president protested a little too much: aIam not unpopular!a

A flood watch remains in effect through Sunday afternoon after forecasters predict additional rainfall in Harris county

High waters flooded neighborhoods around Houston on Saturday following heavy rains that resulted in crews rescuing more than 400 people from homes, rooftops and roads engulfed in murky water. Others prepared to evacuate their properties.

A flood watch remained in effect through Sunday afternoon after forecasters predicted additional rainfall Saturday night and the likelihood of major flooding in Harris county, the nationas third-largest county which includes Houston, and nearby areas.

Area around Rio de Janeiro beach filled for several blocks as singer closes her Celebration world tour

More than a million people have thronged Brazilas Copacabana beach for a free Madonna concert, braving the heat to see the end of her Celebration world tour.

The sand and oceanfront boulevard around Rio de Janeiroas famed beach were filled for several blocks on Saturday night by a crowd the city estimated at 1.6 million.

Russian president attends service led by one of his staunchest backers while Zelenskiy asserts God is on Kyivas side

Orthodox Easter services in Ukraine and Russia have taken on a political tone, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy asserted that God had a aUkrainian flag on his shouldera and Vladimir Putin attended a church service led by a staunch supporter of Moscowas invasion.

Noting that Ukraine had now been fighting Russia for 802 days, Zelenskiy called on Ukrainians to pray for each other and the soldiers on the frontline. aAnd we believe: God has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder,a said the president, dressed in a traditional embroidered Ukrainian vyshyvanka shirt and khaki trousers. aSo with such an ally, life will definitely win over death.a

His constantly evolving works have been hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movements

Frank Stella, a painter, sculptor and printmaker whose constantly evolving works are hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movements, died on Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.

Gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch, who spoke with Stellaas family, confirmed his death to the Associated Press. Stellaas wife, Harriet McGurk, told the New York Times that he died of lymphoma.

TV head hopes programme will spark aa #MeToo moment for mena ahead of two-part show on the Oscar-winning actor

One of the producers of a Channel 4 documentary that contains fresh claims that Kevin Spacey abehaved inappropriatelya with men says it will be broadcast as planned on Monday, despite public denials from the actor this weekend.

Dorothy Byrne, a former head of news and current affairs at the television channel, told the Observer that she hopes the new two-part programme, Spacey Unmasked, will prompt aa #MeToo moment for mena and start a wider discussion about standards of behaviour in working situations.

Berkshire Hathaway CEO stressed relationship at annual meeting attracting Apple CEO Tim Cook, Bill Gates and Bill Murray

The billionaire investment tycoon Warren Buffett has stressed his empire will remain a key investor in Apple after it sold billions of dollarsa worth of shares in the iPhone maker.

Thousands of shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway, Buffettas sprawling conglomerate, have flocked to Omaha, Nebraska, for the firmas annual meeting a dubbed Woodstock for Capitalists a this weekend.

Centre-right politicians must resist urge to copy or work with far right, Spainas environment minister says

The future of the EU is being jeopardised by people stirring up social tensions for short-term political gain, Spainas environment minister has said ahead of next monthas European parliamentary elections.

Teresa Ribera, who is heading the list for the ruling Spanish Socialist Workersa party in Juneas poll, said the European project is at risk of aan implosiona.

Parisian bakers prepare to win record back from those in Italy who created a baguette almost 133 metres long in 2019

For the past five years, bragging rights over the worldas longest baguette have belonged not to the residents of a small village or a city in France, but rather to a clutch of bakers 500 miles away in Como, Italy.

On Sunday a crop of 12 bakers from France set out to rectify this, with plans to spend at least eight hours kneading, shaping and baking their way back to victory.

The protests sweeping US universities have brought intense division, but some students have treasured hope, unity, solidarity and love

Seven months ago, before Hamas stormed into Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostage, Eleanora Ginsborg and Samar Omer had never met.

But in the attackas violent aftermath, Ginsborg and Omer, students at the University of California, San Diego, forged a new friendship a and a new sense of activism-fueled purpose. A third student who already knew Omer alike a sistera, and requested to go by the pseudonym Hala Abdallah out of safety concerns, completed the group.

Bidenas call for order after on-campus clashes and mass arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters further threatens the youth vote

When student Lauren Brown first heard the commotion, including firecrackers, she assumed the sounds were coming from nearby frat houses. Then, at around four in the morning, she heard helicopters. Later, she awoke to news and footage of a violent attack by pro-Israeli protesters on an encampment set up to oppose the ongoing war in Gaza.

aIt was hard to watch,a said Brown, 19, a freshman at the University of California, Los Angeles, whose dorm was near the encampment. aAnd I wondered where the police were. I saw posts from people talking about them being teargassed and maced and campus security was just watching.a

Emerging from Covidas shadow, the city is resonating with glamour, politics and power a and the traffic jams are building up too

Call it a return to IRL (In Real Life). New Yorkers are experiencing a bracing resumption of the physical experience of living in the city, four years after the onset of the pandemic upended routines, pushed people online and left much of the population, as in so many places, wondering if normality would ever return.

Uptown, police have broken up student protests on the Columbia and City University campuses condemning Israelas attack on Gaza. Downtown, a furious Donald Trump is commandeering attention from the courthouse on the edge of Chinatown, snarling up traffic as his motorcade travels to and fro. President Bidenas fundraising trips to the city to fund his re-election are having a similar effect.

A vintage or handed-down dress can be a meaningful, sustainable choice. No wonder pre-loved looks are on the rise

Clothing connects us to the past, memories woven into every stitch and stain. Wedding dresses are especially precious, passed down through the generations. Their unique designs tell a story, and every puffed sleeve or dramatic drop-waist reveals the era they came from.

In an industry that leans towards overconsumption, second-hand wedding dresses can be a meaningful, personal and sustainable choice.

I used to be an avid user of TikTok, but the algorithm serves much less delight and serendipity than it used to

TikTok is facing its most credible existential threat yet. Last week, the US Congress passed a bill that bans the short-form video app if it does not sell to an American company by this time next year. But as a former avid user whose time on the app has dropped sharply in recent months, I am left wondering a will I even be using the app a year from now?

Like many Americans of my demographic (aging millennial), I first started using TikTok regularly when the Covid-19 pandemic began and lockdowns gave many of us more time than we knew how to fill.

In the 1970s, the photographer began teaching in a progressive US womenas prison and made moving portraits of many of the inmates. Looking back, he sees how many of them actually felt safer in prison

In 1970, aged 35, Jack Lueders-Booth left a well-paid management job at an insurance company in his native Boston, Massachusetts, to pursue his interest in photography. aUntil then, I was a serious hobbyist,a he tells me over the phone from the city where he still lives, abut my interest had deepened to the point where it was more and more difficult to do my day job. I needed something more stimulating. Photography was my real vocation.a

Soon afterwards he landed a job as an administrator for the fledgling photography department at Harvard University, where later he also enrolled as a student. For his masteras thesis, he submitted a proposal that would alter the course of his life. aI told them I wanted to teach photography in places of confinement such as prisons and mental hospitals,a he elaborates, aI thought it would be beneficial for the inmates in all sorts of ways, not least because they could share their experience with their families through the images they made.a

Sarah Manavis and her partner have a guilty secret. What they love to do most of all in private isa| read out loud to each other. And, as sheas discovered, it has many surprising benefits

Neither of us can remember exactly how it happened, but we both agree we were probably a little drunk. It was December 2016. We had been dating for eight months. Even with the booze we were, by many measures, still shy around each other, fearful of spoiling the magic. Which is why neither I nor my partner can fathom the conversation that landed us either in bed or on the sofa with him reading A Christmas Carol out loud to me for an hour. It wasnat something either of us had ever done with another adult. It wasnat something wead heard of adults in the real world ever doing. But the book kept getting read a always by my boyfriend, out loud to me, who listened with total fixation. It was finished before we left to be with our respective families for the Christmas break. And when we returned to be together again in January, we decided we wanted to do it again.

Seven years later, reading together is something we do regularly throughout the year. Without meaning to, we have read mostly classics a The Picture of Dorian Gray, Alice in Wonderland, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde a always, without fail, returning to A Christmas Carol in December, me blurting out the big lines Iave memorised over time like an eager audience member at a kidsa sing-along.

Growing up on set put Oscar-winning actor Jennifer Connelly on the fast track to Hollywood fame. But despite her success, one of her lasting regrets was not finishing college a and, she says, itas still on her to-do lista|

Jennifer Connelly is on a Zoom call from her home in Brooklyn, jetlagged after attending Louis Vuittonas pre-fall 2024 show in Shanghai, which does not bode well: she is known to have been reticent in past interviews, and sometimes while working. When she made A Beautiful Mind, the 2001 movie for which she won an Oscar for playing the wife of schizophrenic mathematician John Nash, the co-producer Brian Grazer was unnerved by her reserve. aIt was hard for me to get to know her on the set because Iam so emotional,a he told a writer in 2001. aSheas very serious. Sheas not silly. She doesnat have that buoyancy.a

It is a relief, then, to find Connelly to be thoughtful and lovely and erudite, happy enough to discuss her life and career. I ask if Grazeras description is one shead recognise.

The actor on catching the theatre bug playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret, being a football fan, and dealing with a fire that destroyed her home in LA

London-born Cara Delevingne, 31, began modelling in her teens and was twice model of the year at the British fashion awards. She started her acting career in Joe Wrightas 2012 film adaptation of Anna Karenina. Subsequent big screen roles include Paper Towns, Suicide Squad, Tulip Fever and London Fields. On TV, she has starred in Carnival Row, Only Murders in the Building and American Horror Story. She is now making her stage debut in the West End production of Cabaret.

Weare speaking the morning after you went to a Chelsea match. Are you a big fan?
I definitely was in childhood, so it was a treat to return. I grew up going to Stamford Bridge with my uncle. Gianfranco Zola was my favourite player. When I was eight, I refused to take off my Chelsea kit for a wedding, so I wore it beneath my bridesmaidas dress. Luckily, the groom was a Chelsea fan too, so nobody minded.

Berkshire Hathawayas billionaire CEO, 93, steels shareholders for new era at the annual meeting known as aWoodstock for Capitalistsa

As dawn broke on Saturday, thousands had gathered outside Omahaas CHI Health Center Arena. Some arrived before 3.30am, standing for hours in the drizzle.

This is a aonce-in-a-lifetime opportunitya, said Larry Blivas, 70, near the front of the line. The realtor traveled from Los Angeles to see aan icona, he explained.

From an absurd Senate where California and Wyoming are equal, to Republican voter suppression, Ari Berman covers it all

Ari Bermanas new book is a rich history of Americaas ambivalent attitude toward majority rule. The founding document declared aall men are created equala, but by the time a constitution was drafted 11 years later, there was already a severe backlash to that revolutionary assertion.

To prevent the union from disintegrating, free states and big states repeatedly gave in to slave states and small states, producing a constitution that would be adopted by the majority.

The mistakes made at one point in time have an eerie way of re-emerging as memories fade

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Iave been spending the last several weeks trying to find out whatas really going on with the campus protests.

Iave met with students at Berkeley, where I teach. Iave visited with faculty at Columbia University. Iave spoken by phone with young people and professors at many other universities.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com

Please, listen to us a not political figures, radical fringes and misguided media

On Tuesday night, we watched in horror as hundreds of riot police flooded our beloved campus and brutalized our classmates. The next day, students awoke with swollen faces, bruised wrists and lacerations a all results of inhumane police treatment. The past two weeks have been tumultuous, marked with mass arrests of student demonstrators, an encampment on our lawns, national media attention and vile acts of hatred. Countless have spoken on our behalf. But by speaking over us, media outlets and politicians have created a distorted narrative a one which unfairly characterizes our community.

Now, it is time to elevate student perspectives, the ausa, rather than the athema. The traumatic environment and militarization of our campus are not the sole product of ill-intended protesters or reckless non-affiliates, as claimed by administrative emails; rather, they are the fault of the senior administration themselves. For months, this crisis has brewed as administrators neglected student and faculty voices. We must be clear: the administration has put our studentsa safety at risk and has failed to ensure a conducive learning environment. As student leaders, it is time for our voice to be heard.

The WTA finals host revealed its commitment to womenas rights by jailing a female activist

If a record of sexual apartheid is not the ideal look for a nation that must still, occasionally, placate progressives, news of an extreme example a the lengthy imprisonment of Manahel al-Otaibi, a 29-year-old fitness instructor and womenas rights activist a has at least arrived too late to tarnish Saudi Arabiaas latest sporting triumph: buying up the Womenas Tennis Association finals.

In fact, given that countryas hectic promotional schedule, there could hardly have been a more convenient time for human rights organisations to report, as they did last week, that al-Otaibi whose circumstances were for months unknown, is serving 11 years in prison for the aterrorista offences of wearing aindecent clothesa (ie, not an abaya) and supporting womenas rights. Her sister, Fouz al-Otaibi, fled the country in 2022 to avoid similar persecution. Fouz tweeted last week: aWhy have my rights become terrorism, and why is the world silent?a

Raised as we now are on social media and true crime, we need to fight the impulse to always find out more

If you havenat yet watched Baby Reindeer, a story that begins with its star Richard Gaddas experience with a stalker, you probably have a good reason. It will not be because, for instance, nobody has recommended it, told you how extraordinary it is, or powerful, or unique, and it wonat be because you havenat heard of it a its success has been startling (as I type itas at the top of Netflixas UK and US charts weeks after its release) and its themes have made headlines. It could be, as is the case with a friend of mine, that its subject matter hits too close to home, and however unsettling it is for me to watch, for them the prospect feels like it might pull a thread and unravel everything, not least the damage caused by police failures, but weall come to that.

Despite Gaddas nuanced portrayal of the woman who stalked him, and his beautifully strange story of love and trauma, some fans of the show quickly created a horrible sort of sequel when they attempted to expose the stalker on social media. Historic tweets were urgently screengrabbed, photographs posted side by side, she was quote-tweeted as if a celebrity a the characteras name was trending for days. On Instagram, Gadd urged them to stop. aPlease donat speculate on who any of the real-life people could be. Thatas not the point of our show.a

Former England cricketer Monty Panesar is to stand for parliament, but he doesnat seem to know what his own policies are

Thereas an old adage that says sport and politics donat mix. Itas a moot point with persuasive arguments on both sides. But in light of former England spin bowler Monty Panesaras jaw-dropping radio interview last week as George Gallowayas Workers Party of Britainas prospective candidate for Ealing Southall, west London, in the next election, perhaps a more pertinent question is whether sportspeople and politics are a propitious union.

Panesar, once described as the abest finger spinner in the worlda, was asked about the partyas commitment to leave Nato, which is one of its key policies. He admitted that he didnat have a adeep knowledgea of Nato but explained that his party wanted to quit the military alliance to prevent illegal immigration.

Beware what the fitness gurus tell you: the body has its limits. Perhaps thatas why orthopaedic waiting lists are so long

I am preparing for an anaesthetist to sink a hypodermic needle into my back at a busy London hospital ahead of a scheduled surgery to replace my knee. Knowing this might be painful, I ask a fellow patient how he got his mind around the jab. aTwo spliffs of good dope worked for me,a he confessed. Iam yet to try that, but this is my second left knee replacement in less than 15 years a an increasingly common story as our population ages and obesity levels cause growing strain on our joints.

More than 2m hip and knee replacements have been performed in the UK since the early 2000s and waiting lists continue to grow. By 2060, demand for hip and knee joint replacement (based on data for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man) is estimated to increase by almost 40%.

The online world was meant to be an open system but has become dominated by huge corporations. If we are to revive it, that must end

Browsing through a history of online public messaging last week, I came across a magical photograph from 1989 or 1990. It shows the worldas first web server. It was Tim Berners-Leeas NeXT workstation in Cern, the international physics research lab, where he worked at the time. On the case is a tattered sticky label, on which is scribbled, in red ink, aThis machine is a server DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!a

Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, had come up with the idea for a aworld wide weba as a way of locating and accessing documents that were scattered all over the internet. With a small group of colleagues he envisaged, designed and implemented it in the late 1980s and eventually put the whole thing a protocols, server and browser software, HTML specification, etc. a on one of Cernas internet servers, and in doing so changed the world.