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Received yesterday — 4 May 2026 The Guardian World news

Feminism play Liberation and first world war novel Angel Down among Pulitzer winners

4 May 2026 at 20:23

This year’s winners also include Jill Lepore’s book on the constitution and Brian Goldstone’s on housing insecurity

Pulitzer prize officials awarded the fiction award to an author with a long history in fantasy, horror and young adult novels: Daniel Kraus, cited for Angel Down, a first world war narrative that unfolds in one long sentence. Liberation, Bess Wohl’s look back at the feminist consciousness-raising groups of the 1970s, received the drama prize.

Winners announced on Monday included two books rooted in the founding of the US. Jill Lepore’s We the People: A History of the US Constitution won for history, and Amanda Vaill’s Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution was the winner for biography.

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© Photograph: Little Fang

© Photograph: Little Fang

© Photograph: Little Fang

News live: search suspended for Australian hiker missing in Canada; ‘they came to kill us,’ Jewish woman tells Bondi royal commission

5 May 2026 at 01:21

Sydney woman tells antisemitism royal commission how everyday life has changed for her and her three children. Follow today’s news live

Two marine rescue volunteers who went to help others are among those who have died in a tragic yacht accident on Monday night.

As we reported below, three people died as volunteers went to the aid of a yacht at the Ballina bar in northern New South Wales.

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© Photograph: supplied by Nova Scotia RCMP

© Photograph: supplied by Nova Scotia RCMP

© Photograph: supplied by Nova Scotia RCMP

Met Museum show at new Costume Institute puts fashion in same spotlight as Egyptian artefacts

4 May 2026 at 19:22

Costume Art pairs couture pieces with items from its collection in exploration of many kinds of human bodies

Speaking at the opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute spring exhibition in New York, Anna Wintour described the first Monday in May as her “favourite day of the year, and also my most terrifying one”.

This particular Monday may be more high-stakes than previous years, with Monday night’s Met Gala for the exhibition’s launch mired in controversy, owing to Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos’s sponsorship of the event. It is also the inaugural exhibition for the Costume Institute’s new home: a 12,000 sq ft space, named the Condé M Nast Galleries, that puts the museum’s fashion exhibitions in a considerably more high-profile spot, right off its Great Hall.

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© Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Dolly Parton cancels Las Vegas residency over health issues: ‘I’ve still got some healing to do’

4 May 2026 at 19:15

The 80-year-old singer will not be performing rescheduled dates in September but assured fans she is receiving treatment and ‘improving every day’

Dolly Parton has canceled her Las Vegas residency over ongoing health issues.

The 80-year-old singer had originally been scheduled to perform six shows at Caesar’s Palace last December but moved the dates to September 2026. She has now announced on social media that she won’t be able to perform as planned.

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© Photograph: Brandon Sloter/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brandon Sloter/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brandon Sloter/Getty Images

Victoria state budget 2026: state back in black and forecasting two back-to-back surpluses

Labor’s 2026-27 budget shows state has recorded a $700m surplus this financial year, the first since before the Covid-19 pandemic

Victoria is back in black for the first time since the start of the Covid pandemic, with Tuesday’s state budget to deliver an operating surplus and forecasting another next financial year.

The 2026-27 budget, to be handed down on Tuesday afternoon, will show the state recorded a $700m surplus in 2025-26, largely in line with December’s pre-budget update of $710m and an improvement on the $611m forecast last May.

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© Photograph: Jay Kogler/AAP

© Photograph: Jay Kogler/AAP

© Photograph: Jay Kogler/AAP

  • ✇The Guardian World news
  • Cabinet ministers warn mutinous MPs about trying to oust Keir Starmer Pippa Crerar Political editor
    Labour leadership challenge in wake of disastrous local poll results could unleash chaos in party, MPs toldCabinet ministers have told mutinous Labour MPs that any attempt to oust Keir Starmer after a potentially disastrous set of election results this week would unleash chaos for the party that would not be easily overcome.Several, however, told the Guardian that even with the prime minister’s determination to stay in Downing Street after Thursday’s vote, the mood on the backbenches was febrile
     

Cabinet ministers warn mutinous MPs about trying to oust Keir Starmer

4 May 2026 at 18:59

Labour leadership challenge in wake of disastrous local poll results could unleash chaos in party, MPs told

Cabinet ministers have told mutinous Labour MPs that any attempt to oust Keir Starmer after a potentially disastrous set of election results this week would unleash chaos for the party that would not be easily overcome.

Several, however, told the Guardian that even with the prime minister’s determination to stay in Downing Street after Thursday’s vote, the mood on the backbenches was febrile and events could yet spiral out of control.

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© Photograph: Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Florida’s Republican governor signs state’s new congressional map into law

4 May 2026 at 18:46

Ron DeSantis approves maps that give Republicans an advantage in four more races in November’s midterms

Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, signed a new gerrymandered congressional district map into law Monday that gives Republicans an electoral advantage in four additional races in November’s midterm elections.

“Signed, Sealed, and Delivered,” DeSantis said in a post on X, with a map of the new districts attached.

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© Photograph: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images

  • ✇The Guardian World news
  • Two killed and several hurt after car ploughs into crowds in German city of Leipzig Deborah Cole
    A suspect has been apprehended, but detectives say little is known about their motivation at this stageAt least two people have been killed and several injured after a driver in an SUV ploughed into a crowd in the centre of Leipzig in eastern Germany, the city’s mayor has said.“The police have apprehended the suspected assailant,” Burkhard Jung said on Monday, adding that the authorities had the scene in a pedestrian zone under control. “We still don’t really know the motivation. We don’t know a
     

Two killed and several hurt after car ploughs into crowds in German city of Leipzig

4 May 2026 at 17:45

A suspect has been apprehended, but detectives say little is known about their motivation at this stage

At least two people have been killed and several injured after a driver in an SUV ploughed into a crowd in the centre of Leipzig in eastern Germany, the city’s mayor has said.

“The police have apprehended the suspected assailant,” Burkhard Jung said on Monday, adding that the authorities had the scene in a pedestrian zone under control. “We still don’t really know the motivation. We don’t know anything about the perpetrator.”

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© Photograph: Sebastian Willnow/AP

© Photograph: Sebastian Willnow/AP

© Photograph: Sebastian Willnow/AP

  • ✇The Guardian World news
  • Narendra Modi’s BJP wins election in West Bengal for the first time Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi
    Result in key Indian state is set to have significant implications for the country’s political landscapeNarendra Modi’s party has won a resounding election victory in West Bengal, a state which had been a rare opposition stronghold, expanding his unrivalled consolidation of power across the country.It is the first time that the Indian prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has won assembly elections in West Bengal, a large and politically significant state in eastern India. Continue readi
     

Narendra Modi’s BJP wins election in West Bengal for the first time

4 May 2026 at 17:34

Result in key Indian state is set to have significant implications for the country’s political landscape

Narendra Modi’s party has won a resounding election victory in West Bengal, a state which had been a rare opposition stronghold, expanding his unrivalled consolidation of power across the country.

It is the first time that the Indian prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has won assembly elections in West Bengal, a large and politically significant state in eastern India.

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© Photograph: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images

  • ✇The Guardian World news
  • ‘Project Freedom’: a grand humanitarian gesture, or a fast track to more war? Julian Borger
    After banging his battle drum, Trump is back in Nobel peace prize mode. But the move has dramatically raised the stakes“Project Freedom” has all the trappings of a classic episode of the Trump Show, the reality series that the rest of the world does not just have to watch, but live through and survive. It has a dramatic plot twist, it is bathed in a self-projected beatific light, and the trailer looked far more promising that the reality.Trump spent a long weekend in Florida banging the war drum
     

‘Project Freedom’: a grand humanitarian gesture, or a fast track to more war?

4 May 2026 at 16:49

After banging his battle drum, Trump is back in Nobel peace prize mode. But the move has dramatically raised the stakes

“Project Freedom” has all the trappings of a classic episode of the Trump Show, the reality series that the rest of the world does not just have to watch, but live through and survive. It has a dramatic plot twist, it is bathed in a self-projected beatific light, and the trailer looked far more promising that the reality.

Trump spent a long weekend in Florida banging the war drum. Iran had not “paid a big enough price” for its past misdeeds, he wrote in an online post before spending Friday afternoon revving up a cheering crowd at America’s largest retirement community.

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© Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/UPI/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/UPI/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/UPI/Shutterstock

British Gaza flotilla activists say they needed hospital care after Israeli forces’ abuse

4 May 2026 at 16:00

Alice Chapman and Zak Khan say they were beaten, kicked and spat on after detention near Crete last week

Two British activists have said they were admitted to hospital after being beaten by Israeli forces who intercepted their Gaza aid flotilla last week.

Alice Chapman and Zak Khan were among 180 members of the Global Sumud flotilla detained by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in international waters near Crete late on Wednesday.

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© Photograph: Global Sumud Flotilla/Reuters

© Photograph: Global Sumud Flotilla/Reuters

© Photograph: Global Sumud Flotilla/Reuters

AI platforms reference Nigel Farage more than other leaders when prompted on UK politics, study shows

4 May 2026 at 16:00

Reform UK is ‘doing something right when it comes to visibility’ on multiple AI systems, say researchers

AI platforms are more likely to reference Nigel Farage than any other UK leader when prompted about British politics, according to an AI search analytics firm.

“We are confident in saying that Reform are showing up significantly more than you would expect,” said Malte Landwehr, an expert at Peec AI, the firm that did the research. “So they’re doing something right when it comes to LLM [large language model] visibility.”

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© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

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