SNP leader says he will fight next weekas no-confidence vote at Holyrood and take party into general election

• UK politics a latest updates

Humza Yousaf has said he will not resign as first minister following 24 hours of intense speculation about his leadership.

Speaking at an event in Dundee, the Scottish National party leader, who faces a vote of confidence at Holyrood next week, told reporters: aI will absolutely be taking us into a general election and 2026 Scottish parliament elections.a

Fiona Beal, 50, changes her plea mid-trial over the fatal stabbing of Nicholas Billingham, 42, in 2021

A woman has pleaded guilty mid-trial to the murder of her boyfriend, who she buried in their back garden.

Fiona Beal, 50, was on trial at the Old Bailey in London for the murder of Nicholas Billingham, 42, whose partly mummified remains were discovered in March 2022 four-and-a-half months after he was last seen.

Trial will see more questions for former National Enquirer publisher following his testimony about acatch-and-killa schemes to buy up negative stories

Trump defense attorney Emil Bove has resumed his cross-examination of Pecker.

aWe were talking about Hope Hicks, right?a Bove asked, referring to the former campaign and White House aide to Trump. Pecker answered in the affirmative.

General manager resigns after test event problems at 23,500-capacity venue, with shows rescheduled

The beleaguered Co-op Live arena has postponed gigs by the comedian Peter Kay for the second time, on the day its general manager resigned over delays to opening the venue.

A number of gigs have been rescheduled at the 23,500-capacity Manchester venue, which had been due to open three days ago but will now not open until May.

Tarana Burke called Harvey Weinsteinas accusers aheroesa and said movement would continue to bring progress to society

The founder of the #MeToo movement, Tarana Burke, has called the women who spoke out against Harvey Weinstein aheroesa and said such campaigns for justice and equality will continue to bring about progress in society.

Burke, who nearly two decades ago coined the phrase aMe tooa from her work with sexual assault survivors, found herself again declaring a after New Yorkas highest court in a shock decision on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinsteinas 2020 rape conviction in the city a the #MeToo reckoning is greater than any court case.

Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkianas legal team and employer speak out after arrest over podcast comments

• Middle East crisis a live updates

The arrest and interrogation of a leading Palestinian legal scholar based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem marks a new threat to civil liberties in Israel, her legal team and employer have said.

Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was detained by police on the afternoon of 17 April over comments made on a podcast more than a month earlier and held overnight in conditions her lawyers described as aterriblea and designed to humiliate.

Four others also charged in connection with investigation, says Crown Prosecution Service

A 20-year-old man has been charged with conducting hostile activity in the UK in order to benefit Russia, and four others have been charged in connection with the investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service has said after reporting restrictions were lifted.

More details soon a|

Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry bailed for trial on charges of breaching the Official Secrets Act

Two men charged with spying for China have appeared in court in central London.

Christopher Cash, 29, and Christopher Berry, 32, spoke only to confirm their names and addresses when they appeared at Westminster magistrates court on Friday.

Therapy has remarkable medical potential but experts say private clinics making far-reaching claims operate in regulatory grey zone

Stem cells have become a favoured miracle treatment among the rich and famous, with Kim Kardashian reportedly a fan of stem cell facials and Cristiano Ronaldo turning to stem cell injections after a hamstring injury.

The latest to extol their benefits is the Monty Python actor John Cleese, who suggests that stem cells could hold the secret to eternal youth a or, at least, buy him aa few extra yearsa.

Philip Pullman will help choose this yearas winners of award set up in memory of the keen young writer who died aged 13 in 2021

The Martha Mills young writersa prize has opened for entries on the theme of aA Secreta.

The competition, run by the London Review Bookshop, invites 11- to 14-year-olds living in the UK to submit up to 500 words of any type of prose a such as a fictional story, a piece of schoolwork, or a diary entry a based on this yearas theme.

Doctorsa ability to sign people off work is crucial, say readers, especially for those with mental health problems

• UK politics a latest updates

Guardian readers have reacted with horror and distress to Rishi Sunakas plans to strip GPs of their power to sign people off work, in favour of awork and health professionalsa.

We received an unusually high level of responses to a callout asking people about their experiences of being signed off work and their thoughts regarding Sunakas proposals.

Speaking to experts and people on the ground in Pas-de-Calais reveals a different narrative to that told by Rishi Sunak

The people from Vietnam trying to get to England on small boats across the Channel stand out from the rest of those drawn to the Pas-de-Calais coastline.

They are notably young, many just teenagers. They tend to stick together and eschew the attention of the aid workers offering food and water down at the beach or in the forests where they sleep at night.

In garages and gyms across the country, clubs are springing up, as social media makes wrestlers into stars

In the garage of a house in east Birmingham, dozens of people are crowded around a table where two men grapple with each other, fists interlocked, sweat dripping down their foreheads.

This is the world of competitive arm wrestling, surging in popularity across the country, with grassroots clubs popping up in garages, gyms and community centres nationwide.

The 27-year-old American actor has gone from the Disney channel to new classy arthouse threesome drama Challengers, via a massive blockbuster and a hot-button TV series. So can she convince as an Oscar contender?

Actor-model-producer Zendaya Coleman a universally known mononymously, without her last name a has never been short of attention, but it feels as if the 27-year-old has arrived at a breakthrough moment. With the tennis romance Challengers arriving in cinemas, in which she is the central focus, the sci-fi blockbuster Dune: Part Two still reeling in audiences, and acting as the simultaneous cover star of two separate editions of Vogue magazine a the British and the American a Zendaya appears to have achieved a new level.

Her career has so far specialised in an impressively high number of attention-grabbing moments, including appearing in a spectacularly bizarre metallic silver arobot suita at the premiere of Dune: Part Two earlier this year, and the Challengers trailer release in June 2023, with its sexually suggestive premise of a threeway love affair.

He is the one who should be saying sorry. Thereas no miracle cure, but do consider therapy, and keep good people around you

• Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a family-related problem sent in by a reader

When I was a child I was bullied by my older brother. I am 41 now and I think this has really affected me throughout my whole life. He always picked on me, called me stupid, fat, ugly, worthless and told me that I was never good at anything. This went on every day until I moved abroad to live with my grandmother at the age of 17.

My parents never made me feel protected and never punished him or made him stop. I resent them for it and feel let down by them. Iave spoken to my mum a few times in recent years, but itas a bit too late now and I donat want to make her feel guilty when she canat turn back time.

This is the sort of food invented for British people that youad have got at a Cantonese restaurant back in 1994

Off to Canterbury for a shufti around the cathedral, a meander through its pretty streets and a spot of lunch at Sekkoya, a vast, gorgeous-looking new pan-Asian restaurant on the Riverside next to an Everyman Cinema, a crazy golf venue and a branch of Heavenly Desserts. The restaurantas sleek website offers all sorts of bold statements about this hot dining experience (regular readers will be aware that I delight in this kind of Vogon poetry), claiming that it will take us on a agastronomic journey throughout Asia that transcends ordinary flavoursa, and offering cocktails that will aawaken your sensesa.

The website emotes grandly in this way for many more yards, so much so, in fact, that I suspect AI. Only a non-sentient being could describe Canterburyas Riverside as a avibrant new lifestyle districta, when itas just an elevated patch of concrete. Maybe Sekkoya is entitled to be cocky, though, because itas clearly the classiest venue for miles: the place is bedecked in sea-green velour, with shiny floors, pale tan leather seats and an impressive amurala skylight that gives the impression that youare dining in a rainforest. Fans of the opulent Chinese restaurant chain Tattu, which is especially big in Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds, will recognise dashes of the modern, high-octane glamour that delights Instagram feeds. Add beautiful bathrooms, Kool & The Gang and George Benson on the stereo, and lovely, chipper serving staff, and they clearly mean business here.

Patriotic teaware was on show from the prime minister this week a the latest round of his mug-based messaging

• UK politics a latest updates

Rishi Sunak appeared on his Instagram feed on Tuesday morning holding a mug emblazoned with the St Georgeas flag. aPerfect way to start the day,a was the caption: aHappy St Georgeas Day!a

It is not the only time the prime minister has raised a symbolic piece of teaware. On the same day he appeared en route to Warsaw holding a white mug marked only with the number a10a, presumably a reference to his current home address. Last year one enveloped in a union jack print was his choice for a trip to a Nato summit in Lithuania. Personal branding clearly pays no mind to international airspace.

EV sales have plateaued across the world but the newfound glut of vehicles may just be temporary

Elon Musk became the worldas richest man by evangelising about electric cars a and delivering them by the million. Yet in recent months his company, Tesla, has struggled to maintain its momentum: sales have dropped this year, and so has its share price.

Those struggles have become emblematic of a broader reckoning facing the electric vehicle (EV) industry. After the soaring demand and valuations of the coronavirus pandemic years, the pace of sales growth has slowed. The industry has entered a new phase, with questions over whether the switch from petrol and diesel to cleaner electric is facing a troublesome stall or a temporary speed bump.

Egg cartons are labeled with all sorts of descriptors, making grocery shopping a confusing experience. Experts tell us what these labels mean and how to shop

Shopping for eggs at the grocery store can be a confusing experience. Cartons are labeled with all kinds of descriptors a natural, organic, cage-free, free-range a and some cost more at checkout. But what do they actually mean, and for ethically minded consumers, are they actually worth the money?

Protein-packed eggs are linked to relatively low carbon emissions compared with other land-based animal protein sources, but not all eggs are created equal when it comes to the environment, health or animal welfare, experts say.

Those vying for job say it will put region on more equal footing with areas such as West Midlands and Greater Manchester

The Conservatives are anot taking accountabilitya for their part in leaving regions such as the east Midlands to suffer with poor infrastructure, growing inequalities and a skills gap, Labouras candidate for the regionas first mayor said.

Claire Ward, the former MP for Watford, said there was not enough to keep young people in the east Midlands and that people had alost hopea.

Top chefs say the Games will rebrand French gastronomy as a showcase for plant-based food

It will boast the worldas biggest salad bar, offer fans vegetarian hotdogs and bring in up to half a million bananas by boat to meet athletesa insatiable demand for the fruit while avoiding the carbon footprint of air travel.

As part of its efforts to cut carbon emissions, the Paris Olympics will make history by offering more vegetarian cuisine than in any Games.

Both were pilloried, but that was then. Today, one has beaten a rape conviction, the other may return as president

According to his representatives, former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein is still digesting the overturning of his rape conviction by a New York court, but they did come out to say he was acautiously exciteda. Cautiously excited? Iam not sure these are the words Iad alight on to paint a word-picture of a rapist. You might as well say atentatively arouseda. Then again, as weare about to discuss, quite a lot of guys donat particularly have to worry about what they say or do, or how they say or do it. Itas only natural that Harvey should very much want to be one of them again.

Speaking of word-pictures, though, howas this for a vignette of our times? When they heard the news that Weinsteinas conviction had been overturned on Thursday, a whole host of reporters happened to be looking at the exact spot in the exact New York courtroom that head sat in when that original judgment had been handed down. This was because they were waiting for Donald Trump to sit in it for Thursdayas proceedings in his hush money trial. Mr Trump, you might recall, is in such a lot of trouble that he is the presumptive Republican nominee and current bookiesa favourite to win the US presidency again, though admittedly he lags behind Weinstein on the sexual assault and misconduct front, given that only 26 women have accused him of it. Ultimately, though, I guess the question is: if #MeToo awent too fara, what would agoing just far enougha have looked like?

Instead of buy-one-get-one-free offers, everyday life now involves carefully comparing prices and feeling increasingly powerless

Under capitalism, prices are supposed to be the centre of everything. They are the key agreement between buyer and seller. They are the one clear and reliable piece of information, on which the whole often opaque and unstable system depends.

So it struck me as strange when some of my local London shops stopped displaying the prices of some goods a couple of years ago. It started with upmarket fishmongers, and I wondered whether this was because wealthy customers didnat need to count their pennies. But then the practice spread to corner shops and greengrocers, with a wider clientele, and to everyday purchases such as fruit and vegetables. There was a cost of living crisis going on, the worst in Britain for 40 years, but parts of Hackney seemed to be in denial.

Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist

Museums have closed and festivals lost funding a but Labour will restore Britainas creative superpower status

A culture change is on the way when this moribund government of the living dead is gone. Clock-watching, we wait for that witching hour on election night when it is blown away by the power of the vote. If you remember that morning in 1997, a fresh air blew and with it came a new mood, language, attitudes, habits of mind. This time the contrast will be starker, this dead government darker by far than John Majoras.

Culture itself was one mark of the scale of change when Labouras Chris Smith sent attendances soaring as he abolished charges for museums and galleries. Creative UK this week put out its manifesto for the election, representing the vast industry covering all the arts, from the Royal Shakespeare Company to the thriving video-games industry, fashion, architecture, design, advertising, the phonographic industry and more. The arts are a vital British export, and key to the countryas soft power. But that canat last if its funding keeps falling: the organisation warns politicians that they must shake off acomplacency around the UKas superpower creative statusa. Arts infrastructure is eroding for future artists, designers and audiences.

This is not a repeat of the Covid pandemic. Yet global governments should follow the US and prepare a response

Avian flu, or H5N1, is making headlines in the United States. The past few years have seen concerning signs of it spreading across the world a whether in chickens in Britain, sea lions in Peru, or Caspian seals in Russia. This time, it is has been confirmed in American cows, and the World Health Organization has warned that the risk of it spreading to humans is of aenormous concerna.

While it is early days, the hypothesis is that in late 2023, a single cow was infected by coming into contact with infected birdsa faeces, or having infected dead birds in its feed. This began cow-to-cow transmission, and potentially even cow-to-bird transmission. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also confirmed one human case of H5N1 in a farm worker, which could either represent cow-to-human (not seen before) or bird-to-human transmission.

Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh

Germanyas complicity with Turkeyas repressive regime worries me more than its dAPner diplomacy

aNazis eat dAPner kebabs in secret,a must be one of the dumbest slogans I have seen at German protests against the far right. Yes, the popularity of the kebab in Germany has become something of a symbol of labour migration from Turkey after the second world war. And yes, Nazis get hungry, too. So what? If the consumption of ethnic-minority food was really an obstacle to the ideology of white supremacy, Germans would either be starved out by now or they wouldnat vote for Alternative fA1/4r Deutschland (AfD). Neither of these is the case: the kebab is the second most popular fast food among Germans, and according to polls, the AfD their second most popular political party.

Still, for the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, it seems to be a sign of cosmopolitanism to promote kebab eating, so his team thought it a good idea to send him to Turkey with a whole skewer full of meat as part of an official visit this week, the first by a German president in 10 years.

The Labour leader needs to stop counting the cost of properly investing in railways a and instead see the costs of not doing so

aC/ Dr Tom Haines-Doran is the author of Derailed: How to Fix Britainas Broken Railways

Is there any hope for Britainas beleaguered rail passengers? We have some of the highest fares in Europe, industrial relations are at an all-time low, and cancellations and delays bedevil the network. Britainas railways are fractured, rudderless and without clear purpose or plan.

With an election looming in which Labour is the clear frontrunner, passengers have been eagerly awaiting the partyas proposals. Its Getting Britain Moving plan was finally released on Thursday, promising to fix Britainas broken railways and ausher in a decade of growth, innovation and service improvementa through a series of reforms.

Tom Haines-Doran is a policy fellow based at the University of Leeds and the author of Derailed: How to Fix Britainas Broken Railways

It may have looked like something youad see a bank teller use, but it withstood heavy battering. And it ran the coolest games

I have told my wife that I want a Mini Amiga for Christmas. I know itas only April, but I do this with things I want in the hope that when it suddenly appears in the house next week, my wife will think she bought it for me. I have slipped the purchase of seven games machines, a stuffed tarantula and an air fryer under the radar this way. In an inconsistent world, I like the way this institution of marriage works.

I read the reviews and was surprised at the appearance of two words I never associated with the original Amiga: cool, and love. It might seem strange to say the Amiga wasnat loved, because a lot of people bought and used one. But people use things every day that they donat love: electric shavers, patience, door handles, the train.

Soiled seas and huge shareholder dividends: where has the APS64bn borrowed by firms since privatisation gone?

So thatas how they do it. Iad been wondering how, when more sewage has been entering our rivers than ever before, some of the water companies have managed to improve the ratio of the sewage they treat v the sewage that pours untreated from their storm overflows into our rivers and the sea. Now we know.

Itas called aflow trimminga. Sounds innocuous, doesnat it? What it means is that sewage is diverted into rivers and ditches upstream of the water treatment works. By reducing the amount of sewage entering the works, the companies can claim to be dealing responsibly with a higher proportion of it.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist. Join him for a Guardian Live online event on Wednesday 8 May at 8pm BST. He will be talking about his new book, The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism. Book tickets here

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Humza Yousafas position as first minister is in danger, but the problems predate his leadership

A year ago, Scotlandas newly elected first minister, Humza Yousaf, said that the Scottish National partyas 2021 pact with the Scottish Greens a giving him a majority in the Holyrood parliament a was aworth its weight in golda. As recently as Tuesday, Mr Yousaf was publicly buffing his treasure, insisting that he hoped the deal would continue. Less than 48 hours later, however, he decided it was time to sell, scrapping the pact and pledging instead to lead a minority SNP government for the remaining two years of this Scottish parliament. Shortly afterwards, the furious Greens vowed to back next weekas Conservative motion of no confidence against the man who had abetrayeda them.

The split is no surprise. Last week, the Scottish government scrapped its pledge of a 75% cut in carbon emissions by 2030, and its legally binding annual reduction targets. It did so after the UK Climate Change Committee declared the target ano longer crediblea because not enough groundwork had been done. The Scottish Greens reacted with anger; an emergency meeting was planned for May to decide whether to continue in government. Meanwhile, some SNP backbenchers made clear that they had had enough too. On Thursday, anxious to show decisive leadership, Mr Yousaf got in first, dumping the deal.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.