Tit-for-tat attacks have breached taboo of direct strikes on each otheras territory but Tehran has no aimmediatea plans to retaliate

World leaders urged calm on Friday after Israel conducted a pre-dawn drone sortie over Iran following a cycle of tit-for-tat attacks that crossed an important red line that has for decades held the Middle East back from a major regional conflict.

There were tentative hopes late on Friday that the apparent strike attempt against an airbase near the city of Isfahan was sufficiently limited to fend off the threat of a bigger Iranian response and an uncontrolled spiral of violence between a nuclear power and a state with the capacity to develop nuclear weapons quickly.

Exclusive: Former head of policy at illegal migration taskforce details ainhumane conversationsa

A senior civil servant has said Cabinet Office officials making policy on small boats referred to abloody migrantsa and were expected to aleave their humanity at the doora.

Rowaa Ahmar withdrew a tribunal claim alleging aunrelenting and systemica racism in the department on Wednesday but said she stands by the substance of it.

Exclusive: Whistleblowers point to broader sewage scandal, with wastewater systems manipulated to divert sewage

Whistleblowers say UK water companies are knowingly failing to treat legally required amounts of sewage, and that some treatment works are manipulating wastewater systems to divert raw sewage away from the works and into rivers and seas.

It is well known that water companies are dumping large volumes of raw sewage into rivers and seas from storm overflows but an investigation by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations reveals that the industryas adirty secreta is bigger, broader and deeply systemic.

Local people say archipelagoas outdated industry made life unaffordable and prompts environmental emergencies

Thousands of people will join protests across the Canary islands on Saturday to call for an urgent rethink of the Spanish archipelagoas tourism industry and a freeze on tourist numbers, arguing that the current, decades-old model has made life unaffordable and environmentally unsustainable for local people.

The protests a which will take place under the banner aCanarias tiene un lAmitea (The Canaries have a limit) a are being backed by environmental groups including Greenpeace, WWF, Ecologists in Action, Friends of the Earth and SEO/Birdlife.

Florida resident in critical condition in hospital after images of incident carried live on television

A man was in critical condition in a New York hospital on Friday after setting himself on fire outside the lower Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump is on trial in a hush-money case.

Pictures of the incident were carried live on television and spread on X, formerly Twitter.

Party hopes smaller content creators with loyal following online will attract voters missed through TV and radio

Labour has appointed a dedicated employee to work with influencers and seed positive messages about Keir Starmeras party on TikTok and Instagram, as the UKas political parties prepare to target amicroinfluencersa during the general election campaign.

During previous British elections, political parties often asked big-name celebrities to send a supportive tweet or attempted to win over YouTubers with millions of followers. But this election, the focus is shifting from a top-down approach towards winning over more aauthentica influencers with smaller but loyal followings.

Actor and wife Katherine Schwarzenegger dismantle 1950 Zimmerman house designed by architect Craig Ellwood

Chris Pratt has drawn ire from architecture aficionados after news broke that the actor and his wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, had razed a historic, mid-century modern home to make way for a sprawling 15,000-sq-ft mansion.

Last year, the couple purchased the 1950 Zimmerman house, designed by the architect Craig Ellwood, in Los Angelesas Brentwood neighborhood for $12.5m. The residence, with landscaping by Garrett Eckbo a who has been described as the pioneer of modern landscaping a had previously been featured in Progressive Architecture magazine.

Labour also turns down European Commissionas proposal, which would have allowed young Britons to live, study and work in EU

Rishi Sunak has rejected an EU offer to strike a post-Brexit deal to allow young Britons to live, study or work in the bloc for up to four years.

The prime minister declined the European Commissionas surprise proposal of a youth mobility scheme for people aged between 18 and 30 on Friday, after Labour knocked back the suggestion on Thursday night, while noting that it would aseek to improve the UKas working relationship with the EU within our red linesa.

Paolo Barone found guilty of voyeurism after taking photos of sleeping woman on train to St Albans in 2022

A Thameslink train driver who took photos up a womanas skirt while she was asleep on a train has avoided jail, despite being found guilty of voyeurism.

The driver, Paolo Barone, was on his way home from a shift in September 2022 when he saw that the woman, 51, had fallen asleep on a train travelling from London Blackfriars to St Albans in Hertfordshire.

Nick Bostromas Future of Humanity Institute closed this week in what Swedish-born philosopher says was adeath by bureaucracya

Oxford University this week shut down an academic institute run by one of Elon Muskas favorite philosophers. The Future of Humanity Institute, dedicated to the long-termism movement and other Silicon Valley-endorsed ideas such as effective altruism, closed this week after 19 years of operation. Musk had donated APS1m to the FIH in 2015 through a sister organization to research the threat of artificial intelligence. He had also boosted the ideas of its leader for nearly a decade on X, formerly Twitter.

The center was run by Nick Bostrom, a Swedish-born philosopher whose writings about the long-term threat of AI replacing humanity turned him into a celebrity figure among the tech elite and routinely landed him on lists of top global thinkers. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Tesla chief Musk all wrote blurbs for his 2014 bestselling book Superintelligence.

Countryas leaders took time to weigh response to Iranas strike under gaze of allies urging restraint

• Middle East crisis: live updates

Just before dawn on Friday the explosions of air defence systems woke Iranians across the historic city of Isfahan. The breaking news alerts that followed roused people around the world, to worry that the region had moved a step closer to full-blown conflict.

There was little doubt who had launched the attack, even before any details of what happened were clear. It came just days after an unprecedented barrage of Iranian drones and missiles were aimed directly at Israel, whose government had vowed it would respond.

Moas staff evacuate 80% of critically wounded soldiers from regionas battlefield, where medics say morale is falling

It is around midnight in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, and the first emergency ambulance of the night is charging 75mph down a single carriageway road from the frontline. Inside, under the care of two watchful medics, is Ihor, an unconscious soldier wounded from the battle of Chasiv Yar, with shrapnel, perhaps from a mine, in his abdomen.

The medicsa task is to complete the last leg of evacuation from the battlefield, which involves Ihor and tonightas most serious casualties being taken to a hospital in the safe central city of Dnipro. Four ambulances are following on a bumpy high-speed run that takes three hours down roads largely deserted because of the 9pm curfew, the full single beds creaking and bouncing as they go.

As militias targeted the Masalit community in a wave of ethnic violence, one man offered shelter and an escape route across the border

Every night, for weeks at a time last year, Saad al-Mukhtar put a small group of people in the back of his Toyota Land Cruiser and drove them under the cover of darkness from his home in the Sudanese city of Geneina across the border and into Chad.

The operation was an extraordinary act of bravery and selflessness: Mukhtar is an Arab, and the people he was smuggling to safety were members of the darker skinned Masalit community who were being targeted in a vicious wave of ethnic violence perpetrated by Arab militias.

I used to think open relationships were a recipe for heartbreak a or just a bit tacky. Then we began to experiment. Could seeing other people be the secret to a happy home life?

I settled back into the train seat and pulled a notebook out of my bag: something extraordinary had happened, and I needed to process it by writing it down. Speeding along the south coast, past Arundel Castle and on towards Bristol, I made notes about the night Iad spent near Brighton with a man Iad known for years, but seen again in a whole new context. About how delighted I felt, how hot, how incredibly free.

My body, which had been pregnant in the Covid pandemic, given birth and then dragged itself through several house moves with a baby and a three-year-old, seemed to be renewed, on fire. My mind was blown, and my lips were bruised. I bought a beer and ate crisps. I texted friends, caught eyes with strangers: I wanted to talk to everyone about how I was feeling. Most of all, I wanted to tell my husband.

How do I know what soil I have? Do bulbs come back? And how did people garden before Google? As the growing season gears up, our experts are here with a barrowful of advice

Few domestic gardens need work every weekend a whisper it, but theyare quite good at looking after themselves. Broadly speaking: new growth on twiggy, brown (or woody) stems is a fair sign to prune old growth back to encourage the new growth into a neater, fuller shape; a shift to spring and summer signals a need to feed plants; if your plants are romping away, your weeds probably will be too a pulling them out while theyare small is easier a and planting or sowing things late is better than not at all. Mulch whenever you think about it. Alice Vincent

Harry (left), 26, a supply planner, meets Jack, 27, a dictionary editor

What were you hoping for?
To meet someone interesting without having to endure the trials and tribulations of online dating.

Creamy green peppers with a zippy jalapeA+-o salsa, and spicy chipotle chicken with black-eyed bean salsa

Salt, fat, acid, heat, as US food writer Samin Nosrat put it. Or, put differently: salt, avocado, lime juice, chillies. Or salt, soured cream, lime juice, green peppers. The ingredients will change, but often the reason Mexican food is so appealing is that any given dish hits every one of those key notes. Using green, less ripe varieties of the likes of peppers and chillies, rather than sweeter red and orange ones, also brings a welcome piquancy and freshness. Thereas much more to Mexican cuisine than dips and margaritas, of course, but for those with a love of salt and lime, that combo, cliched though it is, remains a constant delight.

Whether the deal auto-renewed without your knowledge or you forgot a free trial had ended, try asking for your money back

How many subscription services are you signed up to? It may be more than you think.

According to recent research from Citizens Advice, the amount consumers are spending on aaccidental subscriptionsa has risen sharply: it estimates unused subscriptions cost us APS688m in the past year. The charity found that many of those affected said the subscription aauto-reneweda without their knowledge, or they signed up for a free trial but forgot to cancel later.

The comedian is desperate to make out his jokes about rape and domestic abuse will get him cancelled. In reality, this Netflix special is about as edgy as a Jim Davidson set

The darting eyes are new. As a young man, Jimmy Carr never had so much trouble keeping his eyeballs under control. In Natural Born Killer, the comedianas new Netflix show, his pupils bounce from one side to the other so frequently it is like watching a game of table tennis. Or, as Carr might say in his affected working-class voice: aWatchina a game of fuckina table tennis.a

Why does Carr think he needs to swaddle his punchlines in frantic eye movement? Well, the manas material is so edgy that he actually has to scan the room in case the woke police are in. aThis next joke might get me cancelled,a he says at one point, like a teenager smelling his farts and chuckling that he could get thrown out of a sleepover. If delivering material that might as well have been cribbed from a Jim Davidson set can get you acancelleda (aThereas a reason men propose on their knees a theyave fucking given upa), Carr might well be.

Jimmy Carr: Natural Born Killer is on Netflix now

Prepare for more team colours on the high street, because asport/fashion has exploded into the mainstreama, according to one fashion expert

It is nearly the end of the season but fashion has other plans: earlier this month Swedish luxury fashion label Acne Studios launched a APS360 mock football shirt. Even though it makes Nikeas APS124 England tops seem like a bargain, it is close to sold out.

Acne calls it an aappliquA(c)d logo-print striped mesh T-shirta, but to all intents and purposes it is a football shirt. It features the name of the label where a sponsor would be; a little white and navy-striped-crest thatas not dissimilar to serial Swedish champions MalmAPas and comes in a pastelly hue, which is apt given Acneas creative director, Jonny Johansson, has been credited as the designer who popularised amillennial pinka.

Invasive feline attention has left me seriously sleep-deprived, but I have appointments with Irish radio a and my wifeas diary

It is 11.30am and I am sitting in my office shed, yawning. I have not slept well, because the catas attentions have reached a new level of intensity: it leaps on to the bed at 3am and wakes me by blocking my nostrils with its paw. When I pretend to remain asleep, it tries to push my eyelids up, one and then the other. This is ridiculously invasive, but the cat seems to understand that at this hour I will not cry out and risk waking my wife.

I pull the duvet across my face, but the paw keeps reaching over and in.

• Manager says midfielder asked to leave City two seasons before
• Pochettino confirms Enzo FernA!ndez is playing with a hernia

Pep Guardiola has described Cole Palmer as the adecisive player of the seasona and said Manchester City must find a way of negating him in Saturdayas FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea. Guardiola also revealed that Palmer asked to leave City for two seasons before making his APS42m move to west London in September.

Palmer joined City at under-eight level and made 19 appearances for the club across three years before leaving for Chelsea, and having scored for City in their Community Shield defeat to Arsenal in August, as well as in their European Super Cup victory over Sevilla that followed 10 days later. He will line up against last seasonas treble winners as the Premier League joint-top scorer with 20 goals, alongside Erling Haaland, who is a doubt for the semi-final.

• World champion beat Hamilton by 13 seconds in Shanghai Sprint
• Red Bull driver now leads Formula One standings by 15 points

Red Bullas triple world champion Max Verstappen won the first sprint race of the Formula One season at the Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday. Verstappen beat Mercedesa Lewis Hamilton by 13.043 seconds in the 19-lap race at the Shanghai International Circuit to extend his championship lead over teammate Sergio Perez, who finished third.

Verstappen passed Hamilton on the ninth of 19 laps and then stretched out his lead to continue his F1 dominance in all formats. Ferrarias Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished fourth and fifth.

High prices, rescheduled kick-offs, glaring inequality, PSR confusion a all are riling supporters, yet their loyalty abides

It is about an hour before kick-off at Stamford Bridge and Everton fans are milling outside the gate that leads to the away end. Itas a Monday night and people look tired, having just been dispatched from their coaches at the end of a five-hour journey. Some are waiting for friends, clasping cups of coffee, others are looking for spare tickets. The consistent topic of conversation, meanwhile, is the Premier Leagueas profitability and sustainability rules.

aAs a fan you just want to go to the game, you want to watch the match, you want to live and breathe your team and your club and everything,a says Hanif Karimi, who follows Everton home and away. aInstead youare spending your evenings reading through reports just to see what theyave done to us.a

Quiet man of British athletics on overhauling Farah, taking a risk in running London and Olympic hopes for Paris and beyond

The changing of the guard usually takes place at Buckingham Palace. But at last yearas London Marathon it happened on Tower Bridge, as Emile Cairess blasted past Mo Farah on the way to finishing as the top British athlete in the race.

It was a hell of a performance given it was Cairessas debut over 26.2 miles a and, strikingly, it also came without the benefit of top-end tech. While everyone else in the elite field was wearing the latest carbon-plated supershoes, Cairess came sixth in 2hrs 8 mins 7 secs in Takumi-Sen 9s, which have no carbon plate and are designed for 5km and 10km races. For good measure, he was also wearing a Casio watch that could have been made in the 1970s.

• Clubas losses reduced by property deal with sister company
• Chelsea would have lost APS166.4m without hotel sales

Premier League clubs reacted with exasperation after seeing that AChelsea eased their financial Aposition with the APS76.5m sale of two hotels to a Asister company in a deal that appears to have helped the club avoid a breach of profitability and Asustainability rules (PSR).

Chelseaas accounts, published last weekend, revealed the club made a loss of APS89.9m in the last financial year. That figure would have been APS166.4m without the hotels sale from Chelsea FC Holdings Ltd to Blueco 22 Properties Ltd. Both companies are subsidiaries of Chelseaas holding company, Blueco 22 Ltd.

• World No 1 beats Raducanu 7-6 (2), 6-3 at Stuttgart Open
• Swiatek will face Elena Rybakina in semi-final

Emma Raducanuas progress in the Stuttgart Open was halted in straight sets by the world No 1, Iga Swiatek.

The Polish four-time grand slam champion, in her 100th week on top of the world rankings, prevailed 7-6 (2), 6-3 to set up a semi-final with Kazakhstanas Elena Rybakina. It was, however, an encouraging quarter-final performance from Raducanu, who has slipped to 303 in the rankings after a torrid 2023.

A potential pointer to future home arrives, Ronnie OaSullivan eyes more glory and champion Luca Brecel returns out of form

For the snooker purists, it was the sight nobody wanted to see just days out from the most prestigious Atournament on the sportas calendar. Debate has raged for years about whether or not the world championship will Aeventually have to leave its spiritual home of the Crucible and this week, in the buildup to the 2024 edition, there was what felt a significant moment.

The world championship will remain in Sheffield until 2027 at least but the sight of Barry and Eddie Hearn, flanked by the seven-time world champion, Ronnie OaSullivan, in Saudi Arabia to announce that Riyadh Season, a state-funded sports and entertainment festival, was to become an official partner for the tournament would have sent a shiver through the spines of those who adore the Crucible. OaSullivan, never one to shy away from offering his opinion, went one step further. aI think Saudi Arabia could get hold of this tournament, grab it by the scruff of the neck and turn it into a Wimbledon or a French Open or US Open, and really make it a super event,a he said.

• Popular winger has died at the age of 71
• James scored 10 goals in 54 appearances for Wales

The former Wales winger Leighton James has died at the age of 71.

Jamesas former clubs Burnley and Swansea a where he spent 13 years of a colourful 19-year senior career a were among those to pay tribute to a gifted player who won 54 caps for his country.

A flood of cheap Chinese electric car exports has raised the specter of another trade war with the U.S. And it has Tesla worried.

Disney had previously committed to ditching gasoline engines but left open hybrids as a possibility.

California has set a limit for the toxic heavy metal hexavalent chromium in drinking water. Advocates have called for a stricter limit, warning of health risks.

News that Midwestern dairy cows may have become infected with avian flu by eating poultry waste has many asking: What are American farm animals being fed? And should we be concerned?

California's water board has for the first time put a farming region on probation for failing to adopt measures to curb excessive pumping of groundwater.

The drive to electrify personal cars in California has, at best, hit a rough patch. The big question is whether current conditions will turn out to be growing pains.

Angel Alba, who worked at Malibu-area state parks, alleges his supervisors denigrated him for being Mexican and retaliated when he complained.

Newly discovered damage in Glen Canyon Dam would require releasing less water at low reservoir levels a a problem that increases water risks in the Southwest.

Los Angeles, Portland and other progressive cities are still powered by faraway coal plants. We went to Montana to find out why.

Current conditions are promising, but L.A. must maintain its ethos of conservation and prepare for an inevitable return to dry times ahead, LADWP officials say.

As the avian flu continues to threaten poultry farms and wildlife, are factory farms a sitting duck?

The women who started ChargerHelp are driven to succeed and to train a workforce of people who are often overlooked. They're also addressing a major issue with EV charging in California: reliability.

Officials have decided to ban salmon fishing on the California coast for a second year. Salmon populations have dropped after the state's last drought.

The pup could become Aquarium of the Pacific's first surrogate-raised otter to return to the wild a if she masters the skills needed to hack it in the ocean.

Environmental regulators have found explosive levels of methane in a popular Berkeley park. Regulators and the city are sparring over the source of the gas and what to do about it.

The Metropolitan Water District, which delivers imported water to Southern California, is raising rates and property taxes to cover rising costs.

The EPA has issued federal limits on dangerous "forever chemicals" in drinking water, which it says will save thousands of lives and prevent serious illnesses.

With an average surface temperature of 57.45 degrees, last month was warmer than any previous March on record, according to European climate officials.

Environmental and community groups want the state to turn down Phibro-Tech for a renewed permit for its Santa Fe Springs facility.

Environmental groups are urging water managers to scale back pumping until juvenile salmon and steelhead have finished migrating through the delta and into San Francisco Bay.

Assembly Bill 1963 would sundown the use of the herbicide paraquat, which has been linked to Parkinson's disease and other health issues, beginning in January 2026.

More than a third of the Navajo Nation lacks running water. As the tribe nears a pact with Arizona over water rights, a California nonprofit looks to help.

An abandoned train track could be transformed into a 307-mile hiking, cycling and horseback pathway through California's remote North Coast, along the Eel River and towns such as Fortuna.

The relationship between snowfall and climate change is not as simple as it might first appear.

Poppies across Southern California aren't popping, even as other bright flowers blanket the region. Here's why a and how you can marvel at a different wildflower this year.

Federal authorities say they have broken a long-running California fraud ring that used sophisticated software to cheat on automobile smog tests.

Between 2018 and 2022, the Bay Area's carbon emissions fell by 1.8% each year, which Berkeley researchers attribute to drivers switching to electric vehicles.

Animal rights activists are promoting a ballot initiative that would ban factory farming in Sonoma County. Large farming interests are not happy.