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Middle East crisis live: hopes rise for renewed US-Iran talks as Tehran’s foreign minister reported to be heading to Pakistan

The immediate reopening of the strait of Hormuz without restrictions is “vital” for the world, European Council president Antonio Costa said Friday, after talks with regional leaders including from Lebanon and Syria. “The strait of Hormuz must immediately reopen without restrictions and without tolling, in full respect of international law and the principle of freedom of navigation. This is vital for the entire world,” Costa told a news conference in Cyprus.

Berlin culture minister resigns over irregular distribution of funds to fight antisemitism

Berlin’s top culture official, British-born Sarah Wedl-Wilson, has stood down over a funding scandal involving the the irregular distribution of €2.6m in public money for programmes to fight antisemitism. As culture senator for the Berlin regional government, Wedl-Wilson had already sacked a state secretary in her department, Oliver Friederici, over the affair this week, but the opposition called him a mere scapegoat. The city’s mayor, Kai Wegner, who is waging a tough fight for re-election in September, said on Friday he accepted her resignation. “Sarah Wedl-Wilson has assumed political and personal responsibility – for that she deserves respect,” said Wegner, who must now find a replacement to manage the department with a €110m annual budget for the remaining five months of his term. Wedl-Wilson, who for weeks had resisted accepting blame in the affair, earlier on Friday declared she was leaving office “above all to prevent harm to the vital fight against rising antisemitism in Berlin”. A state auditor’s investigation released this week found that the funds were “arbitrarily” and “clearly unlawfully” distributed to 13 projects on a list compiled by lawmakers from the co-ruling Christian Democrats (CDU), despite concerns raised by culture office staff that the groups had not been properly vetted. Media reports said Friederici, whom Wedl-Wilson fired on Tuesday, was among the most outspoken whistleblowers. Wedl-Wilson, who does not belong to a political party, signed off on the funding nevertheless, after a pressure campaign by the CDU representatives. The public inquiry focused on recipients including the Zera Institute, an “interdisciplinary thinktank”, which received €390,000 in support from the public purse. Soon after its founding in 2024, the director, Maral Salmassi, called the Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros, a frequent target of antisemitic propaganda, a “parasite” on social media, according to the news magazine Der Spiegel. She later apologised. Last September, Salmassi compared the Guardian to the Nazi publication Der Stürmer over a report in which Israelis were asked about their opinions of the war in Gaza. Salmassi described her remarks as a “polemical provocation”. Matthias J Becker, who was hired by the institute to research antisemitism online, allegedly falsely claimed to work at the University of Cambridge, Der Spiegel said. He told the magazine he had not misrepresented his affiliations. After the report, Salmassi posted a statement on the institute’s website condemning a “politically motivated press campaign” against her and the organisation. The review by the Berlin auditing office that led to Wedl-Wilson’s resignation focused on the process of awarding funding to the 13 groups and not the merits of their work. It must now be decided whether the organisations will have to pay back any public financing they received. Wedl-Wilson, who has British and Austrian nationality and a background in classical music management, took office last May, succeeding Joe Chialo of the CDU, who stepped down over swingeing cuts to subsidies for the arts in the capital. She thanked Wegner for the trust he had placed in her as a political outsider. “As a British woman and an independent, it is by no means a given that I was able to hold and shape this office,” she said. German officials have raised the alarm over a sharp rise in antisemitic offences since the 7 October 2023 attacks by Hamas against Israel and the ensuing Gaza war. Pro-Palestinian activists have challenged the definition of such acts as too broad for also encompassing criticism of the Israeli government. Werner Graf, the opposition Green party’s candidate to unseat Wegner, said the affair had undermined the fight against anti-Jewish hatred in Berlin, the city where the Holocaust was planned. “This has caused immeasurable damage not only to the fight against antisemitism, but also to trust in democratic institutions as a whole,” he said in a statement.

Syria arrests suspected leader of Tadamon massacre

A Syrian former regime official suspected of leading a notorious civilian massacre revealed by the Guardian – and who became one of the country’s most-wanted fugitives after the fall of Bashar al-Assad – has been arrested by security forces, Syria’s interior ministry announced. Amjad Youssef was captured in the Ghab plain area about 30 miles (50km) outside the city of Hama and had “been taken into custody following a carefully executed security operation”, the interior minister, Anas Khattab, said in a social media post on Friday. Mugshots released by the ministry showed Youssef, 40, in a striped prison uniform, while videos circulated on social media showing the former military intelligence officer in custody in a vehicle, his face bloodied, being sworn at and slapped by uniformed men. Youssef had been hiding in the Ghab plain area since the overthrow of Assad at the end of 2024, a security source told Reuters. He is one of the most prominent suspects in what has become known as the Tadamon massacre, the slaughter of an estimated 288 civilians, including 12 children, in a southern Damascus neighbourhood in 2013. It was documented in a series of videos taken by the killers themselves and leaked to researchers in Europe, excerpts of which were published by the Guardian in 2022. • Warning: contains graphic images More than two dozen videos showed uniformed Syrian army officials working with pro-government militiamen to lead groups of blindfolded civilians to the edge of a pit, forcing them inside and then shooting them dead. Their bodies were burned and buried using a bulldozer, all of it captured in detail by the perpetrators. The footage offered an as yet unseen glimpse into the brutal treatment of civilians by Assad government forces in disputed areas across Syria, but was also extraordinary for the manner in which it emerged. A whistleblower discovered the videos on a government laptop and secretly passed them to activists in Paris, who sent them to a pair of researchers based in the Netherlands, Annsar Shahhoud and Prof Uğur Ümit Üngör, from the University of Amsterdam and the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Over the next two years, Shahhoud and Üngör worked to identify the location of the killings and the identities of the victims as well as the perpetrators, including their alleged ringleader, a young man with a distinctive scar on his left eyebrow whom they called “the shadow man”. Shahhoud eventually found a Facebook page, the profile image of which bore a resemblance to the man, which belonged to a Syrian intelligence official named Amjad Youssef. She posed as a pro-Assad researcher based in Europe and spent the next year conducting interviews with Youssef that she secretly filmed. After the Guardian revealed the massacre in text and published excerpts of Shahhoud’s secret interviews in a two-part podcast miniseries, the US state department and the EU announced sanctions against Youssef, and France said it was commencing a war crimes investigation. News of Youssef’s arrest was greeted with joy in Tadamon, where mass celebrations were expected after Friday prayers. “I don’t know what to say, I am so happy,” said Maher Rahima, a young man who lived through the era of the killings. “At the same time, I cannot forget the images of the children and women who were killed and burned. They must never be forgotten.” Residents have said the atrocities in Tadamon continued until at least 2015, with the true death toll likely to exceed 1,000 people, many of whom were interred in mass graves around the area. Tadamon became a symbol of the crimes committed against Syrian civilians. After Assad’s fall, media outlets, human rights groups and people from across the country rushed to the area to find the burial sites of victims and to interview witnesses. The area depicted in the leaked footage has been labelled on Google Maps as “the site of the Tadamon massacre”. Residents refer to the site as “Amjad Youssef’s ⁠pit”. Ahmed Adra, a Tadamon resident and a member of the neighbourhood committee, told Reuters that victims’ families had been celebrating in the streets since morning. “We will take ⁠white roses and plant them at the site of the massacre and tell the victims that their memory is alive and that justice is being served,” he said. Youssef’s capture is a major symbolic arrest for the Syrian government headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa, who swept to power 18 months ago promising to hold Assad-era officials and supporters responsible for their crimes. But progress towards accountability has been uneven, with some powerful figures under Assad striking deals with the new government to provide information, negotiate the handover of weapons or hostages, and negotiate peace deals in apparent exchange for immunity from prosecution. They include Fadi Saqr, a former commander of the National Defence Forces (NDF), a pro-Assad militia which took part in the mass killing of civilians in Tadamon. Saqr has denied any involvement in the massacre, claiming he was appointed as NDF commander afterwards. Shahhoud told the Guardian: “I am extremely happy for the families. However, it remains to be seen what shape the trial of Amjad Youssef will now take, and whether we will get a transparent account of what he has to say. After all, this may incriminate many other perpetrators, including those who currently made a settlement with the new government, such as Fadi Saqr. “While Youssef is the most famous perpetrator, the NDF and many other actors also participated in the mass killing of civilians in Tadamon. Without a fair and transparent trial it is unlikely justice will be served.” After feeling for years that Youssef was trying to track her in retribution for her work, Shahhoud said: “I feel safe now.” Rumours of Youssef’s whereabouts had circulated for years after Assad’s government fell in December 2024, including reports he had fled to Lebanon or to Europe and had undergone plastic surgery to change his appearance. Syrian security forces finally arrested him about 125 miles from Tadamon looking much the same as he had in 2022, with the same scar on his left eyebrow, but older, frightened and bruised in the custody of a new, rebel-led government.

EU leaders look to little-known mutual assistance pact amid Trump Nato jibes

Brussels officials will draw up a plan on how to use the EU’s little-known mutual assistance pact in the event of a foreign attack, as Donald Trump’s criticism of Nato intensifies. EU leaders have agreed that the European Commission “will prepare a blueprint” on how the bloc will respond if the mutual assistance clause is triggered, according to Nikos Christodoulides, the president of Cyprus, who is hosting the talks. They discussed the mutual defence clause, article 42.7 of the EU treaty, on Thursday night, before reports emerged that the US was exploring how to suspend Spain from Nato. Trump, a long-term critic of the transatlantic military alliance, has stepped up his invective at “very disappointing Nato” after European countries refused to get involved in the US-Israeli war on Iran. This month he said he was “absolutely without question” considering withdrawing the US from Nato, pushing the 77-year-old alliance into the worst crisis in its history. Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister – who has been the most vociferous European critic of the war in Iran – said on Friday that Spain was a loyal Nato member, while renewing his criticism of “the failure of brute force in the Middle East”. In that context interest has been rekindled in the EU’s mutual assistance clause, which puts on member states “an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power” if a fellow country is attacked by a foreign government or non-state actor. Speaking on Friday, the European Council president, António Costa, said: “We are designing the handbook [on] how to use this mutual assistance clause.” There had already been “a test case” in Cyprus, he added, referring to a recent drone strike on a British base on the island at the start of the latest Middle East conflict. Costa said: “Greece, and then France, Italy, Spain and [the] Netherlands mobilised military equipment and forces … to help Cyprus to defend from external attacks.” The Royal Navy, meanwhile, was heavily criticised for having a limited number of warships available for deployment. France is the only country to have triggered article 42.7, after the 2015 Paris attacks, when militants killed 130 people in bars, restaurants, a stadium and at the Bataclan concert hall. France called on other member states to reinforce its overseas military commitments so it could redeploy troops for domestic security. The lack of detail in the EU treaty on article 42.7 was previously seen as a strength, enabling a flexible response, but member states now feel uncertain about how it would work. Christodoulides said: “Let’s say France triggers article 42.7. Which countries are going to be the first to respond to the request of the French government? What are the needs of the government or of the country that triggers article 42.7?” Such issues would be part of the blueprint, he said, to “have an operational plan to put in action” if and when article 42.7 was triggered. Cyprus, which is not a member of Nato, wants the EU to take the clause more seriously after a drone hit Britain’s RAF Akrotiri airbase on the island in March. But some EU members are cautious about any steps that could be perceived as undermining Nato’s collective defence clause, article 5. One EU official said there was a need for shared understanding of how triggering the clause would play out. “Nato remains the bedrock of collective defence,” the official said. “But the EU has tools available that are complementary to Nato – such as sanctions, financial assistance and humanitarian aid – which could come into play in an article 42.7 situation.” Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, briefed EU leaders about continuing work on the clause. In a sign of unease over Trump’s comments, the prime minister of Poland, one of the staunchest allies of the US in Europe, expressed doubts about Washington’s commitment to Nato. Donald Tusk told the Financial Times that Europe’s “biggest, most important question” was whether the US would be “ready to be as loyal as it is described in our [Nato] treaties”. Meanwhile, Sánchez played down reports that the Pentagon was considering punishing Nato allies deemed insufficiently supportive of the US offensive against Iran by suspending them from the alliance. A US official told Reuters that an internal memo was circulating at the highest levels of the Pentagon that outlined retaliatory options, including suspending Spain from the alliance and reviewing the US position on Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands. The US official said the policy options were set out in an email that expressed frustration over some allies’ perceived reluctance or refusal to grant the US access, basing and overflight rights – known as ABO – for its strikes on Iran. The email described ABO as “just the absolute baseline for Nato”, and said that options included suspending “difficult” countries from important or prestigious positions within the alliance. Nato officials say the organisation’s founding treaty does not include any mechanism for the expulsion of a member. Sánchez riled Trump last year by rejecting Nato’s proposal for member states to increase their defence spending to 5% of their GDP, saying the idea would “not only be unreasonable but also counterproductive”. Speaking in Cyprus on Friday morning, Sánchez said: “We don’t work on the basis of emails; we work with official documents and statements made by the US government. The Spanish government’s position is clear: absolute cooperation with allies, but always within the framework of international law.” But Sánchez also renewed his criticisms of the US war in Iran. “The crisis that this illegal war has brought to the Middle East shows the failure of brute force – and has prompted demands for international law to be respected and for the multilateral order to be safeguarded and reinforced,” he said. EU senior diplomats are expected to hold tabletop exercises in May exploring different scenarios should article 42.7 be triggered. After France activated the mutual defence pact in 2015, some member states increased their contributions to EU and UN missions in the Sahel, Mali, Central African Republic and the Mediterranean to allow redeployment of French troops from those areas. The UK, then an EU member, allowed French aircraft to use the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus. EU member states also pledged to increase intelligence sharing and counter-terrorism cooperation.

Tokyo workers encouraged to wear shorts to cut energy costs and keep cool

Public servants working for the Tokyo metropolitan government are being encouraged to swap their suits for shorts this summer to combat sweltering heat and rising energy costs caused by the US-Israel war on Iran. Inspired by Japan’s Cool Biz energy-saving initiative, Tokyo officials hope the measure will cut dependence on air conditioning. Cool Biz, launched by the environment ministry in 2005, initially encouraged civil servants to dispense with ties and jackets, but has so far stopped short of allowing them to display their bare legs in front of colleagues. Japan and other countries in Asia are growing anxious about the economic effects of the conflict in the Middle East amid rising oil prices and shortages of petroleum products such as jet fuel. Resource-poor Japan is particularly vulnerable to a prolonged war as it depends on the Middle East for 90% of its oil imports, most of which pass through the strait of Hormuz. About 20% of the natural gas used in South Korea comes via the same route. Vietnam, South Korea and other countries have taken steps to ration energy use, while other Asian nations have encouraged government officials to work from home or reduced the length of the working week. In Seoul, authorities have urged residents to make short trips on foot or by bicycle. Japan has already tapped into its large strategic oil reserves, with local media reporting on Friday that it plans to release a further 20 days’ worth from 1 May. It is also sourcing oil imports from suppliers that do not use the strait of Hormuz. Experts have warned that if shipping in the vital waterway doesn’t return to normal soon, the world’s fourth-biggest economy will eventually face a crude oil shortage. That could force businesses and households to make more drastic cuts in petrol and electricity usage reminiscent of those introduced during the oil shocks of the 1970s. The threat of an energy crunch had been “one of the factors” in allowing Tokyo government staff to wear casual clothes to work, Agence France-Presse said, adding that some employees had been spotted in shorts, T-shirts and short-sleeved blouses since the initiative’s launch this week to coincide with the start of Japan’s heatstroke warning system. “I was a bit nervous, but it’s very comfortable, and I feel like it’ll improve my work efficiency,” a metropolitan government official who was wearing shorts to the office for the first time told the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. “As it gets even hotter, I’d like to come in earlier and work from home as well.” Citing “a severe outlook for electricity supply and demand”, Tokyo’s governor, Yuriko Koike, who as environment minister was behind the Cool Biz campaign two decades ago, told reporters: “We encourage cool attire that prioritises comfort, including polo shirts, T-shirts and sneakers and – depending on job responsibilities – shorts”. War notwithstanding, Japanese employers have been forced to rethink old rules on workplace attire as a result of the climate crisis. Last year, the country endured its hottest summer since records began in 1898, according to the meteorological agency. Now that it is no longer unheard of for temperatures to rise to 40C or above, the agency last week announced a new extreme weather event: kokusho, or “cruelly hot”.

Ukrainian soldiers left emaciated on frontline from lack of food and water

Ukraine’s defence ministry has fired a top commander after photos emerged of a group of emaciated soldiers who have been left on the frontline for months without proper food and water. The scandal erupted after the wife of one of the soldiers, Anastasiia Silchuk, posted the images on social media. The four men appeared to be pale and visibly malnourished, with prominent ribcages and thin arms. The soldiers had spent eight months defending a shrinking bulge of territory on the left bank of the Oskil River, near the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, their relatives said. Supplies of food and medicines could only be flown in by drone. “When the lads arrived at the frontlines, they weighed over 80–90kg. But now they weigh around 50kg,” Silchuk posted. After one delivery, she said, no more food turned up for 10 days. The soldiers were forced to drink rainwater and melt snow to survive. “The longest they went without food was 17 days. They weren’t listened to on the radio, or perhaps no one wanted to listen to them. My husband shouted and begged, saying there was no food and water,” she said, adding that the problem was bigger than just one case. Another relative, Ivanna Poberezhnyuk, said the soldiers from the 14th Separate Mechanised brigade were left in an extremely difficult situation. “Fighters are losing consciousness from hunger,” she said. Her father was evacuated from the position, but others were still stuck there, she added. Ukraine’s general staff said it had replaced the commander, who was responsible for feeding the soldiers. The brigade acknowledged there were logistical problems and said deliveries were only possible by air because their location was extremely close to enemy lines. A spokesperson said: “Everything is done by drones. The Russians pay maximum attention to the deliveries of food, ammunition and fuel. They intercept and shoot down as much as possible. Sometimes they are not so interested in our military equipment as in logistics, actually.” Since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022, the grey zone between the two sides has expanded dramatically. Both use drones extensively for surveillance and to target armoured vehicles and infantry. Soldiers are forced to walk 10-15km to reach their forward positions. In recent months, Ukraine has been using more and more unmanned ground robots to send supplies into exposed areas and to evacuate wounded soldiers. In the Kupiansk sector, Russia has destroyed bridges across the Oskil River in an attempt to cut off Ukrainian forces on the left bank. Silchuk said on Friday that conditions have improved since the issue came to light. “There’s a new commander,” she posted. “He rang us and said the situation is being resolved. And it really is. My husband wrote to me that he’s just eaten more than he has in the last eight months.” She added: “The lads are eating little by little at the moment. Their stomachs have shrunk, and they don’t know whether they will have food tomorrow or not. I believe this situation needed to be publicised. There needs to be a rotation; the boys require medical treatment.” Ukraine’s military command said it had launched an investigation. “It should be noted that recently another shipment of food was delivered to the position of the 14th Infantry brigade. If favourable conditions exist, an immediate evacuation of our soldiers will be carried out,” it added.

After Italian law change, Americans hope supreme court ruling will reopen door to citizenship

In 2025, after a long and arduous journey in her attempts to gain Italian citizenship, including a pivotal genealogical research trip to a village in Calabria, US-born Sabrina Crawford was hoping to fulfil her lifelong dream of building a life in Italy as she edged towards the final hurdle of the bureaucratic process. But her plans were scuppered when Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government enacted a law stopping access to Italian citizenship via distant ancestry. Since May last year, only those with a parent or grandparent who was an Italian citizen at birth, and who did not take on dual nationality, are eligible to apply. Crawford, from the San Francisco Bay area, was waiting for one crucial document proving that her Italian great-grandfather had not become a US citizen before submitting her application when the new rules were announced out of the blue. “It was as if the sky collapsed,” she said. “This horrible news really upended all of my plans, all of my hopes, all of my goals. It broke my heart.” Crawford is now counting on Italy’s supreme court to deliver a favourable outcome to a legal challenge presented by two US families arguing that the law should only apply to those born after it was enacted. A supreme court panel is expected to make its decision in the coming weeks. The legislation, which breaks with the longstanding tradition of welcoming the descendants of Italy’s huge global diaspora, was aimed at clamping down on those claiming tenuous links to the country in order to obtain a powerful Italian passport, and to clear the backlog in local councils and consulates, which for years have been overwhelmed by citizenship requests. “We believe that granting citizenship is a serious matter and should be reserved for those with a genuine connection to our nation,” said Meloni shortly after the law was approved in parliament. It appears to have stemmed from several contentious cases, including allegations in 2024 that the Italian consulate in Venezuela illegally granted citizenship to five members of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia group and political party backed by Iran. The deputy prime minister, Antonio Tajani, also justified it by claiming that Black Friday-style discount deals were being offered on Italian citizenship in Brazil. But the move has had serious consequences for thousands of legitimate requests, especially from the US, Brazil and Argentina, where millions of Italians emigrated in the 19th and early 20th centuries to escape poverty. In March, Italy’s constitutional court ruled that the law was valid, but the supreme court has the power to clarify its scope, said Marco Mellone, the lawyer representing the two US families in the case. Mellone argues that the law should not apply retroactively and that his clients are invoking their rights enshrined in the legal principle of ius sanguinis, Latin for “right of blood”, which allows anyone who can prove ancestry after Italy’s formation in 1861 to seek citizenship. “This is a crucial point, and the main reason we consider this law to be absolutely unconstitutional and unfair,” said Mellone. “It touches on a [citizenship] right at the time of birth and so it should not be applied retroactively.” Citizenship has always been a thorny topic in Italy, and even though the number of children born in the country to immigrant parents has been rising sharply they are still denied birthright citizenship. A referendum last year on easing the rules failed because of low turnout. Citing recent data from Eurostat forecasting that by the end of the century Italy’s population will fall to 44 million compared with roughly 59 million today, Mellone said neither of these obstacles to citizenship were helping the government tackle what Meloni has described as Italy’s “demographic winter”. “They say no to children born in Italy to immigrants and no to those born to Italian emigrants,” he said. “The demographic decline is dramatic. Who will be the Italian citizens of the future?” Crawford, 50, who for several years lived and worked in Italy, albeit on temporary visas, started her citizenship procedure in 2018. She is Italian from her mother’s side but could not follow the maternal descent route through her consulate owing to an old law preventing Italian women born before 1 January 1948 from transmitting citizenship to their children. Instead, she had to trace an unbroken line of descent to her great-grandfather, who was born in the Calabrian village of Verbicaro. That involved a trip to the village where, by a stroke of luck, a local priest and historian helped her dig through archives to confirm her ancestor’s name, which in turn enabled her to obtain his birth certificate. Many other bureaucratic hurdles ensued, but Crawford persevered. If the supreme court ruling goes in her favour, she will be able to pursue her application through a court in Catanzaro, Calabria. “I hope there’s still a ray of hope for people like me who have invested so much time and energy into this,” she said, adding that she grew up surrounded by Italian relatives. “I always knew that I wanted to make my life in Italy.” Jennifer Daley, a historian from Kansas whose case Mellone is also representing, has been through a similar ordeal over the past 10 years. “This has been a long journey, but I have hope that justice will prevail,” she said.

Friday briefing: How the boom in running culture is reflected in the London Marathon

Good morning. Britain is experiencing a running boom – and it is being driven by gen Z women. More than a million people applied to be on the London Marathon start line this Sunday, including about 850,000 British runners. A third of those were aged between 18 and 29, and the majority in this category were female, according to event organisers. For a sport stereotypically dominated by spindly men in tight shorts, it is a remarkable transformation. For today’s First Edition, I speak with the Guardian’s chief sports reporter Sean Ingle about the London Marathon’s remarkable popularity – and why it could even become a two-day event. But first, the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Cat Little, the lead official in the Cabinet Office, had to get a summary of Peter Mandelson’s file directly from UK security vetting (UKSV) after Olly Robbins, the subsequently sacked Foreign Office head, refused to provide it, Little has told a Commons committee. Middle East | Britain is prepared to deploy a squadron of RAF Typhoons based in Qatar to patrol over the strait of Hormuz as part of a multinational mission to keep open the strategic waterway once the Iran war comes to an end. Ukraine | EU leaders have welcomed the end of diplomatic deadlock over a long-awaited €90bn (£78bn) loan for Ukraine, after the bloc finalised the agreement along with a package of sanctions against Russia. Economics | Confidence in the UK economy has fallen sharply amid the mounting fallout from the Iran war, as businesses prepare to raise their prices and consumers brace for a fresh cost of living shock. UK news | Russell Brand said he had “exploitative” consensual sex with a 16-year-old girl at the height of his fame. In depth: ‘A celebration of what’s good in humanity’ For anyone who has watched the London Marathon, it is obvious that it is more than just a running race. Each of the 59,000 participants has their own story about why they are there. Many have endured cold, wet training sessions through the miserable British winter to complete the 26.2 miles. In the process, they raise huge sums of money for charity. Runners often hold photos of friends and family members who they are running in memory of. It can be profoundly emotional to observe. Sean, who gets to cover some of the biggest sporting events in the world for the Guardian, says it is one of the most special days in the sporting calendar. “I am fortunate enough to cover the Olympics, Wimbledon finals, the Open – whatever. The London Marathon is right up there. It’s not seeing elite men and women go off at the sort of speeds that if you and I were trying to keep up with them, you would last maybe 100 metres. My favourite part is the end of the day,” he says. “I usually finish writing around six or seven in the evening and that’s when those who are finishing in seven, eight hours are crossing the line. They can barely walk but they’ve got the biggest smile. Their friends and family are there, the spectators are cheering. It’s really a celebration of what’s good in humanity, people doing great things and raising money for all sorts of charities,” he says. Runners of all ages are taking part on Sunday. The youngest are running on their 18th birthday. The oldest is 88-year-old Harry Newton, who will be running his 22nd London Marathon and only started marathon running in his late 50s. “It’s extraordinary”, says Sean. *** A new running boom The explosion of interest in running among young women is one of the big stories in UK sport in recent years. Figures compiled by Sports England found that there were 349,000 more runners in 2024 compared to the previous year – and they were nearly all women. This has been reflected in applications for the London Marathon, particularly for younger age groups. Social media is a big factor. Influencers like Phily Bowden, who is documenting her efforts to make the GB team for the 2028 Olympics, and Mary McCarthy, whose tagline is #beattheboys, have helped make running fashionable. Elite athletes like Eilish McColgan, Georgia Hunter Bell and Keely Hodgkinson all regularly record their training on Instagram and TikTok. Meanwhile, big fashion brands have all rapidly responded to the interest on social media. “We are in the midst of a third great running boom,” says Sean. “In the 70s, it was skinny men in tight shorts. Then you had another boom when Paula Radcliffe was breaking the world record. But both of these were among serious runners who cover themselves in Vaseline and run fast. What’s different this time is that it’s not just fast runners, it’s medium and slow too. It’s different ethnicities, different demographics, and it’s largely fuelled by women.” *** The role of social run clubs Many theorise that the rise of social run clubs, which make running not just fun, but safer for women, may also be behind the surge in popularity. “If you want to run fast, you join an athletics club. But there is a club for everyone these days. I was speaking with a woman at one of these clubs earlier and they do their runs at a 7 minute per kilometre pace, which is not fast at all. They go for a chat and a coffee afterwards. It is also much safer. If you are going out in January and it’s freezing and dark, a bunch of you running together makes you feel more protected,” he says. *** A future, expanded London Marathon London Marathon organisers are looking to capitalise on the popularity. Last month, Sean revealed that the race is in advanced talks about staging a two-day event in 2027, allowing tens of thousands more runners to take part. It has not yet been approved and would be a one off – for now – but race organisers say that the expanded event would raise more than £130m for charity and bring in £400m in social and economic benefits. “I think it will happen because the London mayor’s for it,” says Sean. “The organisers are insisting it would be a one off event in 2027 which I think eases the fears of the police who have the FA Cup and other events to contend with. That said, if it’s a roaring success, you wouldn’t be shocked if in five years’ time it is a regular thing.” For now, all that is left to say is a big good luck to the thousands of runners in central London on Sunday, especially to the Guardian’s Patrick Barkham, who is running the race dressed as a badger. Rest up, drink water and enjoy some big bowls of pasta in the meantime. I will be there with thousands of others to cheer you on. What else we’ve been reading Luke Oppenheimer went on a short assignment to photograph a remote village of shepherds in Kyrgyzstan, where wolves prey on livestock, and ended up staying for four years. Here are some of his pictures. Martin Harry Sword spoke with the heavy metal band Iron Maiden on more than 50 years of success and hard living. Patrick Experts remain divided on radiation’s long-term effects in Chornobyl, but Jonathan Watts discovers there is broader agreement that excluding humans has – unexpectedly – benefited wildlife and ecosystems. Martin I thought Zoe Williams summed up perfectly what we should really find shocking about Shabana Mahmood’s f-bomb moment. Poppy Noor, acting editor, newsletters The latest instalment of Sam Wollaston’s series on abandoned buildings in Britain takes in a Welsh church claimed by spiders and ivy, and examines what its decay means for the community. Martin Sport Football | The Italian sports minister has described a proposal for his country to replace Iran at the World Cup as “not appropriate”, rejecting any idea that the Azzurri will be granted a last-minute berth. Football | Tony Parkes dies aged 76 as tributes are paid to ‘Mr Blackburn Rovers’ who served the club from 1970 until 2004. Tennis | A White House photo celebrating the University of Georgia women’s tennis team has drawn backlash due to Donald Trump and a group of men overshadowing the female athletes by lining up in front of them. Something for the weekend Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read, play and listen to right now Film Agon | ★★★★☆ Here is a fascinatingly experimental debut feature from Italian film-maker Giulio Bertelli, son of fashion designer Miuccia Prada; a machine-tooled movie, intensely designed and controlled. It’s a kind of Martian’s-eye-view documentary about something that doesn’t actually exist; it is ice-cold and detached, almost without dialogue in the conventionally dramatic sense, other than the subdued exchanges which we, as audience, overhear rather than listen to. It accumulates its own kind of desolate force. Bertelli’s film intuits the military roots of three Olympic sports: judo, fencing and shooting, as three female Italian athletes are shown taking part in a (fictional) competition called Ludoj 2024. Peter Bradshaw TV Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 | ★★★☆☆ The original Netflix series plonked us in a fantasy past where kids in small American towns rode bikes, chewed gum, listened to cassettes and played Dungeons and Dragons in their friend’s basement; or, if you weren’t American, it reminded you of movies you’d seen where that was the vibe. Either way, it was access to an era before the internet, 9/11, the banking crash, the pandemic and Trump, when life seemed easier. The cartoon spin-off, Tales from ’85, does something similar for Stranger Things itself. It rewinds to a happy, straightforward time, namely between seasons two and three. In that moment, the world of Hawkins, Indiana had been established, but we were yet to endure the show’s bumpy late period. Jack Seale Theatre The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Swan theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon | ★★★★★ Bertolt Brecht’s comic grotesque parable on Hitler’s rise to power has been compared to Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, and there is something distinctly Chaplinesque in Mark Gatiss’s cartoon gangster. He is initially tragicomic as Arturo Ui, with his tramp-like clothing, powdered face and melancholy eyes. But he turns truly terrifying as Seán Linnen’s production for the Royal Shakespeare Company takes us through his thuggish ascendancy, Gatiss proving his ability to transform in a way that renders him almost unrecognisable here: part Hitler (signature moustache and hair), part Scrooge and part ghoul. Arifa Akbar Music Noah Kahan: The Great Divide | ★★★☆☆ Noah Kahan, who used to introduce himself on stage as “the Jewish Ed Sheeran”, has a thing for the stomp-clap rhythms of Mumford & Sons and stirs a little heartland rock – Springsteen via Sam Fender – into his sound. His fourth album, The Great Divide, is a record that deals in consolidation rather than development. The National’s Aaron Dessner co-produces – you can spot his touch immediately, in the opening lambent piano figure and misty ambience – but it sticks pretty close to the musical blueprint established on its predecessor. Alexis Petridis The front pages “Foreign Office shuts unit tracking potential law breaches by Israel” – a Guardian exclusive is the splash in our print edition. The i paper has “‘Shoot and kill’ – Trump’s new orders to US navy in Gulf, as Iran peace talks stall”. The Telegraph leads with “Hermer’s ‘excessive’ fee for Iraq witch-hunt”. “Heckler tells potty mouth Mahmood … Get it #!!*@* right, I’m not even white!” is the colourful front-page lead in the Metro. The Financial Times’ headline was written by a human: “US accuses China of industrial-scale theft from AI labs in tech arms race”. The Times has “Call to stop sharing data with China after breach”. The Mail offers “Farage: I’ll wage ‘war’ on benefits culture”. The Express campaigns on assisted dying with “There is one last chance” and a full-page photo of Esther Rantzen. “Infected by a monsters” – the Mirror reports on the “HIV predator jailed for life”. Today in Focus Will the backlash against AI turn violent? An attack on the home of OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman – and on the company’s headquarters – has led to concerns the backlash against AI could become violent. Guardian journalist Nick Robins-Early and researcher Sean Fleming discuss Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad A rare axolotl found injured in a Welsh river is now recovering – thanks to a sharp-eyed 10-year-old. Evie Hill spotted the unusual creature under a mat and said: “I was like: ‘That’s an axolotl.’” Despite being told it couldn’t be, she “went back in the water anyway … and caught it”. The salamander, nicknamed Dippy, is now being cared for at home after likely being abandoned. Wild axolotls, which resemble a cross between a fish and a lizard, are found only in Lake Xochimilco near Mexico City and are considered critically endangered. The species’ popularity as pets, however, has exploded in recent years owing to their exposure on TikTok, Instagram and Minecraft. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply