2 h. ago I'm a fashion editor and these are the five Nobody's Child dresses I'll be wearing on repeat this spring

Whether you're looking for an everyday or elevated number, if you're in the market for a new frock this spring, you've come to the right place.

Culture

2 h. ago What is QuillBot? AI writing assistant for paraphrasing, plagiarism detection and more

The AI-powered editor can rewrite your work, ‘humanise’ ChatGPT-generated text, and spot chatbot-assisted fakes — all for slightly less than a Grammarly subscription

Politics

3 h. ago ‘One minute it’s “would you like to listen to Galaxie 500?”, the next humanity’s enslaved’: can anyone escape Spotify?

As a new book skewers Spotify’s effect on music, two Guardian music writers spent a week assessing the limits of living with and without itLaura Snapes, deputy music editor I was set the task of not listening to Spotify for a week, but Alexis, your task was much worse: only listening to Spotify-created playlists, and the songs it suggested to you based on your listening history. How did that go?Alexis Petridis, chief rock and pop critic One day in the car I just listened to nothing instead of facing it again. When it plays me songs I like, it’s not what I want to hear at that moment. That’s not to say the music it was recommending wasn’t good. One morning it played Schizophrenia by Sonic Youth. I love that song but I didn’t want to hear it then. It played me Billie Holliday’s Riffin’ the Scotch followed by My Bloody Valentine, which clearly demonstrates the great breadth of my music taste – but just because I like it all doesn’t mean I want to hear it all together. I didn’t like tha...

Politics

3 h. ago A sultan’s banquet, Holy Week and Welsh gold: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Culture

5 h. ago Five things you didn’t know about Black British cultural history

From northern soul to rugby league beef, here’s what I learned while writing We Were ThereHello and welcome to The Long Wave. I’m Lanre Bakare and I usually cover arts and culture for the Guardian, but I’m taking over the newsletter this week to tell you about my new book, We Were There, a cultural history of Black Britain.It’s set between 1979 and 1990, covering the rise and premiership of Margaret Thatcher, the UK’s first female prime minister, whose divisive but transformative remodelling of Britain is still felt today – and within that political upheaval, race dominated the headlines. But it was also a time when modern Black British culture was forged. I’ll talk you through five things I learned from my research. Continue reading...

Culture

6 h. ago Scientists are struggling to get hold of T rex fossils – and the rich are to blame

Specimens of dinosaur’s juvenile form have been emptied by nearly half by trade, study says

Politics

6 h. ago Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh review – teenage dreams

The tale of a 17-year-old Irish boy’s painful summer of romance and uncertain friendship captures the tenderness and menace of young menI wouldn’t wish the pains of being a 17-year-old boy on my worst enemy. The awkward longing, the spots, the insecurity: it’s enough to cringe yourself into oblivion. For John Patrick McHugh, however, it is a rich seam to squeeze – not only for humour, but for a nuanced examination of burgeoning masculinity.John Masterson, the main character of McHugh’s debut novel, is in the limboland of a post-exams summer, playing football and hooking up with a slightly older colleague at the hotel where he has a part-time job. In this way, Fun and Games stalks the same emotional and geographical territory as McHugh’s 2021 short-story collection, Pure Gold, also set on an island off the Irish mainland in County Mayo, and also knee-deep in the turmoil of young lads, painted with tenderness and menace in equal measure. Continue reading...

Politics

7 h. ago The Legend of Ochi review – visually dazzling throwback kids movie

There’s an 80s vibe to this ET-adjacent family adventure with Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson, relying on impressive practical effectsThe Legend of Ochi creates such a complete visual experience that studio heads who have led countless multimillion-dollar trips to the green-screen warehouse should hang their heads in shame when they see it.It’s not that writer-director Isaiah Saxon and his collaborators have abstained, monk-like, from modern technology in assembling this children’s fantasy film; though it consciously throws back to puppetry, matte paintings and other practical effects that were more common in live-action family films of the 1980s, The Legend of Ochi clearly makes use of digital tricks, too. (When its trailer first dropped, online hordes were even convinced – wholly incorrectly – that its relatively low-budget world-building must be the product of generative AI tech.) But all of these non-AI techniques, as well as vivid location shooting in Romania, have been pulled to...

Politics

9 h. ago Audition by Katie Kitamura review – a literary performance of true uncanniness

An actor’s story becomes a thrillingly radical deconstruction of family relationships and the social roles we playThere is an eeriness to great acting. Studied movements take on life; a living other emerges. Bad acting achieves no such uncanniness. Excessively self-conscious, the failing actor never dissolves into their role. We watch them watching themselves act.Although we rarely see her on stage, the actor narrating Audition, Katie Kitamura’s unnerving, desperately tense fifth novel, never stops watching herself perform. Even passing, offhand phrases seem to fray under the strain of an unsustainable self-awareness. “You might think that people wondered how we did it,” she says, describing the comfortable Manhattan lifestyle she shares with her husband. The perspectives are tortuous, unmanageable. Who is this “you” that might imagine their way into the opinions of unseen others? As the novel progresses, these gazes are experienced as social roles both longed for and resisted. “How...

Politics

10 h. ago Fresh Scott McTominay claim in Italy makes size of Man Utd transfer error clear

Manchester United sold Scott McTominay to Napoli for an initial £21million last summer and he's been one of Antonio Conte's best players as they fight to win Serie A

Politics

11 h. ago Why everyone's investing in an 'east to west' handbag — and three high street collabs you need to know

The fashion editor’s guide to the week’s best investment — plus all the news you need to know

Politics

11 h. ago Why everyone's investing in an 'east to west' handbag — and 3 high street collabs you need to know

The fashion editor’s guide to the week’s best investment — plus all the news you need to know

Politics

11 h. ago In Trumpland, ‘defending free speech’ means one thing: submission to the president | Rafael Behr

By claiming that any regulation is censorship, the White House is bullying Britain to abandon online safety laws and digital taxesCompared with many countries around the world, the US is still a great democracy, but a much lesser one than it was four months ago. The constitution has not been rewritten. Checks and balances have not been dissolved. The difference is a president who ignores those constraints, and the impotence of the institutions that should enforce them.Which is the true US, the one enshrined in law or the one that smirks in contempt of law? If the latter, should Britain welcome its embrace as a kindred nation? That is an existential question lurking in the technical folds of a potential transatlantic trade agreement.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics

15 h. ago The NEW high street hotlist: Where you can buy this year's It dress, pick up a chic linen suit and find just

A teasing video was posted on Topshop's Instagram account last month, sending its 12 million followers into meltdown. Two models stood on a rooftop under a 'Topshop' billboard.

Politics

16 h. ago Artist Kehinde Wiley puts power in a new frame with paintings of African leaders

American artist Kehinde Wiley has unveiled an exhibition in Morocco of portraits of African leaders as part of a yearslong series exploring politics and image-making

Politics

20 h. ago Trump has a deep grudge against Zelensky – but he’s now taken it further than ever before

Trump’s victim-shaming of Ukraine is ugly and symptomatic of something more dangerous, writes world affairs editor Sam Kiley

Politics

22 h. ago The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s industrial policy: inward turn by ultimatum | Editorial

The US is retreating behind chokepoints and tariffs. It remains determined to invent the future but is struggling to ensure its control Globalisation is out; reshoring is the new realism. Intel’s half-built Ohio campus and Nvidia’s US supercomputer plan demonstrate the very different routes taken by Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the search for homegrown tech dominance. Mr Biden relied on institutions: grants, land and investment incentives. That approach has stalled after last year’s election, rendering Intel’s plant idle. Mr Trump prefers court politics: flattery, pressure and tariff threats. Nvidia’s move seems driven less by design than executive ultimatum. Industrial strategy lives on – but, and this is a concern, increasingly through presidential menace, not policy.There’s another important message in the Nvidia announcement. In an era where ideas spread freely, power lies not in invention but in chokepoints, such as artificial intelligence supercomputer fabrication, that deter...

Events

24 h. ago Felling of ancient London oak tree by Toby Carvery owner reported to police

Felling of ancient London oak tree by Toby Carvery owner reported to police  The Guardian

Events

24 h. ago ‘I sent AI to art school!’ The postmodern master who taught a machine to beef up his old work

Warhol for colour, Hopper for volume American art world star David Salle is using AI on old paintings of his that had a mixed reception – with wild, sprawling results. Why isn’t he afraid of being replaced?By the time you read this article, there’s a good chance it will have already been scanned by an artificially intelligent machine. If asked about the artist David Salle, large language models such as ChatGPT or Gemini may repurpose some of the words below to come up with their answer. The bigger the data set, the more convincing the response – and Salle has been written about exhaustively since he first rose to art world stardom in the 1980s. The question is whether AI can ever say anything new about the artist and his work, or if it’s for ever condemned to generate more of the same.A similar question lingers beneath the surface of the paintings that Salle has been making since 2023, a new series of which he has just unveiled at Thaddaeus Ropac in London. His New Pastorals were ma...

Politics

24 h. ago Tell us: have you been inspired to declare your love inspired by a piece of art?

The Guardian’s Saturday magazine is looking for people who declared their love after being inspired by a certain song, book, TV show or filmThe Guardian’s Saturday magazine is looking for people who declared their love after being inspired by a certain song, book, TV show or film. Did you confess your feelings for your best friend after watching When Harry Met Sally? Did you propose after seeing Four Weddings and a Funeral? Did you decide to have a baby with your partner after reading The Argonauts?We’re looking for funny, unexpected love stories – and they don’t have to have happy endings. Maybe you married the wrong person, and now you realise that all that really held you together was a deep and undying love of The Arctic Monkeys? Perhaps Fleabag made you proposition your priest? Continue reading...

Politics