9 h. ago Mark Williams outlasts Wu Yize to make World Snooker Championship last

Welshman comes from behind for 10-8 victoryXiao Guodong completes 10-4 win over Matthew SeltMark Williams was forced to dredge up every inch of his Crucible experience to sink rising Chinese star Wu Yize 10-8 and book his place in the last 16 of the World Snooker Championship for the 22nd time in his career.Williams, who turned 50 last month, delivered two near-faultless final frames to hold off his opponent, who had missed a golden chance to seize a 9-7 advantage when he missed a frame-ball red with the rest. Continue reading...

Politics

9 h. ago Mark Williams outlasts Wu Yize to make World Snooker Championship last 16

Welshman comes from behind for 10-8 victoryXiao Guodong completes 10-4 win over Matthew SeltMark Williams was forced to dredge up every inch of his Crucible experience to sink rising Chinese star Wu Yize 10-8 and book his place in the last 16 of the World Snooker Championship for the 22nd time in his career.Williams, who turned 50 last month, delivered two near-faultless final frames to hold off his opponent, who had missed a golden chance to seize a 9-7 advantage when he missed a frame-ball red with the rest. Continue reading...

Politics

11 h. ago The Illegals by Shaun Walker review – Russian spies hiding in plain sight

The strange stories of the agents who lived apparently normal lives in the west as part of Soviet espionage programmes make compelling readingOne muggy afternoon in June 2010, Don Heathfield and his wife, Ann, were relaxing over a bottle of champagne with their two sons, Tim and Alex, when they heard a loud knocking at the door. The family was celebrating Tim’s 20th birthday at their comfortable home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after lunch in a restaurant. Tim’s mother went to answer the door, calling out as she did so that some of his friends must have arrived to wish him a happy birthday. Instead she found a group of men dressed in black waiting on the doorstep. Bellowing “FBI”, they barged their way into the house and handcuffed Ann and her husband, before marching them outside and driving them away.Alex assumed that there had been a terrible mistake; his parents were much too boring to warrant such a dramatic arrest. But there was no mistake. His parents were not Don Heathfield...

Events

13 h. ago Premier League issue explanation on red card after horror tackle in Arsenal vs Ipswich

Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka required several minutes of treatment after a poor tackle from Ipswich Town defender Leif Davis, who was subsequently shown a straight red card

Politics

13 h. ago Bukayo Saka left needing treatment after 'disgusting' tackle sees Ipswich ace sent off

Bukayo Saka was left requiring treatment following a 'disgusting' tackle from Ipswich Town defender Leif Davis saw him receive a straight red card

Politics

13 h. ago Good news on NHS waiting times in Wales but thousands still wait years for treatment

There was a rise in the number of life-threatening calls made to the ambulance service

Politics

14 h. ago ‘Their pursuits are the cigar and the siesta’: how two centuries of British writers helped forge our view of Spain

Laurie Lee and Robert Graves among ‘English-speaking Quixotes’ in new book celebrating literary love for all things SpanishAlmost 200 years ago, the pioneering British travel writer Richard Ford offered an observation that has been happily ignored by the legions of authors who have traipsed in his dusty footsteps across Spain, toting notebooks, the odd violin or Bible, and, of course, their own particular prejudices.“Nothing causes more pain to Spaniards”, Ford noted in his 1845 Handbook for Travellers in Spain, “than to see volume after volume written by foreigners about their country.” Continue reading...

Politics

14 h. ago Delusions of Paradise by Maiwand Banayee review – a compelling rejection of fundamentalism

An Afghan exile’s account of life in war-torn Kabul and a Taliban-dominated refugee camp is an unflinching study of how radicalisation takes root, and his own renunciation of itBorn in Kabul, Maiwand Banayee aspired to become a Talib when he was 16. In 1994, living in a Pakistan refugee camp, there was little to do except sleep, eat, pray and dream of the afterlife: “Islam dominated every aspect of life in Shamshatoo. Even during the volleyball and cricket games the spectators were prevented from clapping because it was seen as un-Islamic.” Banayee joined the camp’s madrasa when he was 14 in an attempt “to fit in”. The only educational opportunity open to Afghans at that time, the religious school offered structure and purpose, although “instead of teaching us to live, they were teaching us to die”.In this illuminating book, Banayee, now resident in England, describes the circumstances that led to his indoctrination, and what eventually saved him. Brutalised by conflict, his Pashtun...

Politics

14 h. ago A ‘Black Snape’ in the new Harry Potter seems designed to cause controversy – but it could work | Jason Okundaye

Ignore the fuss: Paapa Essiedu is a brilliant actor who can bring his own depth and style to enrich the iconic characterAfter months of speculation, HBO has announced part of the cast of the latest round of Harry Potter IP-mining: the new TV adaptation of the original books will feature John Lithgow as Dumbledore, Nick Frost as Hagrid – and Paapa Essiedu as Snape. As the Mail and Telegraph’s headlines were quick to inform their readers, yes, this means a “Black actor” in that iconic role.There is a real concern that Essiedu is drinking from a poisoned chalice – that he will be associated with an author who is at the forefront of a gender-critical movement that has succeeded in redefining the rights of trans people to their detriment; that he will have to weather the racist storm of Potterheads enraged at the diversion from “book accuracy” (Snape is described as having “sallow skin”); and deal with opportunists looking to illustrate their next rant about how the world has succumbed t...

Politics

15 h. ago Overnight: Journeys, Conversations and Stories After Dark by Dan Richards review – night owls of all feathers

This immersive exploration of how we experience the nocturnal world is beautifully illuminatingAs children, we’re primed by literature to think of the night as a time for adventure as well as rest, but by early middle age, we’ve mostly ringfenced its darkness for sleep (or, for the insomniacs among us, anxieties about sleep’s absence). Author Dan Richards is no exception, and it took a nuit blanche stranded 3,600 metres up a Swiss mountain to reawaken his sense of night-time’s vast and varied potential. Hopelessly lost, he drew comfort from the occasional blips of aircraft in the sky above and from moving lights in the town below: others, too, were out and about, albeit in less of a fix. What could they all be doing?Overnight: Journeys, Conversations and Stories After Dark details his subsequent investigation into “the who and the how of the nocturnal world”. Its pages, immersive and personal, span encounters with night owls of all feathers, from the heroic (Richards hears tales of ...

Politics

17 h. ago Rangers lessons helped Aberdeen book Scottish Cup Final spot as Jimmy Thelin reveals key Hampden difference

The Dons saw off nine man Hearts to book a return to Hampden after Oday Dabbagh's late winner in extra-time

Politics

17 h. ago Lyme disease symptoms warning as delay in treatment could hurt heart, brain and bones

Fans know the condition all too well after it’s forced a number of celebrities bow out of the limelight

Events

17 h. ago Sister Europe by Nell Zink review – ramshackle wanderers in Berlin

Zink’s seventh novel, about a night of conversation and adventure, is full of wit and marvellous writing, but ultimately trails offCalifornia-born, Berlin-based Nell Zink is an idiosyncratic writer. You never quite know where her sentences are going to go. “Oh God, Toto, you won’t believe what just happened,” says Avianca, a character in her new novel. “This angel stole my hat. Like a winged monkey. It was blue and kind of glowing and had feather wings.”Such delightfully surprising lines are frequent in Sister Europe, Zink’s seventh novel, which follows acclaimed titles The Wallcreeper, Doxology and Avalon, and is set over the course of a Tuesday night in 2023.Sister Europe by Nell Zink is published by Viking (£14.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply Continue reading...

Politics

17 h. ago Declassified CIA 'Jesus' files claim end of the world was predicted by Christ

A book from 1966 - The Adam and Eve Story - contains a string of bizarre claims by author Chan Thomas that Jesus warned of the end of the world and disasterous floods

Politics

17 h. ago George Clooney baffles fans with new look – but it’s for a good reason

Actor said his wife ‘hates’ his new look

Politics

18 h. ago Ronnie O’Sullivan tells Kyren Wilson where he went wrong before Lei Peifan defeat

Kyren Wilson was expected to breeze past Lei Peifan in the first round of the 2025 World Snooker Championship, but was instead dumped out of the tournament in a final frame decider

Politics

18 h. ago Stephen Mangan: ‘With three people in a bed, who goes in the middle?’

The Split actor and children’s author on throuples, using his sons as a focus group, and running the London marathonStephen Mangan, 56, was born in Enfield to Irish parents. He studied law at Cambridge but took a year out to care for his mother, who died of colon cancer aged 45. Weeks after her death, he successfully auditioned for Rada and went on to become a stage actor. His TV breakthrough came in Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years. He has since starred in Green Wing, Episodes and The Split. He co-hosts Landscape and Portrait Artist of the Year on Sky Arts, and a weekly show on Classic FM. He is currently appearing in throuple comedy Unicorn in the West End and is the author of six bestselling children’s books. His seventh is out in May.Your sister Anita illustrates your books. What’s it like working with a sibling? Great fun. Essentially we’re trying to make each other laugh, like we have done since childhood. But because I’m her annoying older brother, I deliberately put things ...

Politics

19 h. ago In brief: The Homemade God; Mythica; There Are Rivers in the Sky – review

Long-buried truths leave siblings reeling when their father dies; a fascinating reclamation of Homer’s forgotten women; and still waters run deep in a centuries-spanning novelRachel JoyceDoubleday, £20, pp384 Continue reading...

Politics

19 h. ago The May elections are a perfect opportunity for Nigel Farage to peddle his politics of grievance | Andrew Rawnlsey

An unpopular government and floundering official opposition creates fertile territory for ReformFor his next trick, perhaps Comrade Farage will belt out all the verses of The Red Flag and tell us that his favourite book is The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists. Brother Nigel has popped up on the government’s left flank by demanding the immediate nationalisation of the steel industry. He’s also expressed a solidarity with trades unionists hitherto undetected in this longtime admirer of Margaret Thatcher.At an event at a working men’s club in one of the more deprived wards of County Durham, the old fraud even claimed to have a personal affinity with steelworkers because he used to be in the “metals business” himself. This was a disingenuous reference to his time as a trader at the London Metal Exchange, which involved long lunches in the City fuelled with copious quantities of port. Or maybe he was thinking of his gig as a paid “brand ambassador” for a firm that deals in gold bullion. ...

Politics

20 h. ago Noble cause: meet the drag kings holding court in Australia’s queer spaces

As drag queens find a place in the mainstream spotlight, their counterparts are taking back the underground scene with theatrical performances that celebrate a marginalised communityGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailIt’s just past 11pm on a warm Wednesday night at Sircuit bar in Smith Street Collingwood, in Melbourne’s inner north. The venue is filling up with an assorted crowd of predominantly punky and boyish-looking people of all genders. There’s no shortage of fauxhawks, baseball caps and mullets in the room.Holi Dae Knight, introducing the drag king show tonight called SlayBoy, has just taken to the stage in a green sequined dress, hot pink hair and a full moustache and bushy beard performing Cher’s Believe. It’s the last night of a three week season of SlayBoy and the crowd is here to see drag kings. The first performers are Justin Sider and Johnny Cocksville doing a version of Right Said Fred’s I’m Too Sexy – they strut wildly on stage simulating raunchiness but it’s...

Events