Former coalition partnersa decision brings Scottish first minister to brink of losing vote, which could make his position untenable

• Explainer: what was the SNP and Greensa deal?

Humza Yousaf could be forced to quit as Scotlandas first minister after the Scottish Greens announced they would back a motion of no confidence against him at Holyrood.

The Scottish National partyas former coalition partners declared they would vote next week against the man who had abetrayeda them, hours after he unilaterally ended their power-sharing deal.

Concern grows over legality of governmentas approach as new figures show more than 150,000 carers facing huge penalties

• A hero a then sacked. The careras allowance whistleblower

New figures show more than 150,000 unpaid carers are now facing huge fines for minor rule breaches, as MPs, charities and campaigners demanded an immediate amnesty.

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, joined calls to write off the vast debts incurred by tens of thousands of people who care for sick, disabled and elderly relatives after experts raised concerns about the legality of the governmentas approach.

Justices appeared unlikely to grant request for absolute immunity from criminal prosecution to former president

• Key takeaways from Trump immunity case
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The US supreme court on Thursday expressed interest in returning Donald Trumpas criminal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election back to a lower court to decide whether certain parts of the indictment were aofficial actsa that were protected by presidential immunity.

During oral arguments, the justices appeared unlikely to grant Trumpas request for absolute immunity from criminal prosecution, with both Trumpas lawyer and the justice departmentas lawyer agreeing there were certain private acts that presidents would have no protection for.

Stark new projections suggest annual admissions will rise to 151,000, costing the NHS and economy APS75bn

The number of people in the UK experiencing a stroke will increase more than 50% to 151,000 a year by 2035, costing the NHS and the economy APS75bn in healthcare and lost productivity, stark new projections suggest.

Worsening physical health, rising alcohol consumption and low exercise levels among an ageing population as well as a failure by ministers and the health service to do more to prevent ill health are blamed for the predicted spike in strokes.

Ministers considering more funding to protect important research sites, with China seen as a particular concern

MI5 has warned universities that hostile foreign states are targeting sensitive research, as ministers consider measures to bolster protections.

Vice-chancellors from 24 leading institutions, including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London, were briefed on the threat by the domestic security serviceas director general, Ken McCallum, and National Cybersecurity Centre (NCSC) chief, Felicity Oswald.

Court rules judge who oversaw landmark trial was mistaken in allowing women whose accusations were not part of case to testify

The disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinsteinas 2020 conviction on sex crimes was overturned by a New York appeals court on Thursday, as prosecutors say they will retry the firestorm case.

In a 4-3 decision, the state of New York court of appeals ruled that the judge who oversaw Weinsteinas 2020 conviction prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with aegregiousa improper rulings and was mistaken in allowing other women whose accusations were not a part of the 2020 case to testify.

The former presidentas motion for a new trial was denied and his argument deemed aentirely without merita

A federal judge on Thursday upheld the verdict and award of more than $83m to the writer E Jean Carroll in a defamation case against Donald Trump after he called her a liar for accusing him of sexually assaulting her.

Judge Lewis Kaplan, a senior district judge on the US district court for the southern district of New York, denied Trumpas motion for a new trial and affirmed that Carroll suffered harm caused by Trumpas 2019 public statements.

Suspects, aged 42 and 68, held on suspicion of murder after discovery of plastic-wrapped lower back, buttocks and thigh

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a torso was found wrapped in plastic at a nature reserve in Greater Manchester.

Part of a dismembered body, consisting of the bottom of the back, buttocks and thigh, were found in clear plastic by a passerby at Kersal Dale Wetlands in Salford on 4 April.

Teenager charged with trying to kill two teachers and fellow pupil after incident at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman

A 13-year-old girl has been charged with attempting to murder two teachers and a fellow pupil in a school playground stabbing in Wales.

The two adults and child all received knife wounds in the incident at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire. Dyfed-Powys police said they were also investigating threats allegedly made by a 15-year-old boy that alluded to the incident.

Councillors unanimously refuse permission for 42-storey block of flats on top of former residence and hospital

Councillors in Birmingham have unanimously refused to grant planning permission for a controversial 42-storey skyscraper on top of a Grade-II listed former hospital.

The proposal for the city centre site included a large glass tower block, including more than 300 flats and a cafe and roof terrace, erected on top of a Georgian building that has stood there since the early 19th century.

Enrico La Rocca helped expose profound failures but less than a year later was dismissed by the DWP a and then later rehired

• Sunak under pressure to grant carers amnesty

Almost exactly five years ago, Enrico La Rocca was hailed by MPs as a hero, a whistleblower whose tenacity had helped expose profound failures at the heart of the governmentas vast benefits agency, resulting in tens of thousands of vulnerable unpaid carers being unfairly fined and prosecuted.

Without La Rocca a who was not named at the time a serious problems with careras allowance overpayments may never have come to light, the Commons work and pensions select committee concluded: without him the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would never have been persuaded of the aurgent need to acta.

Justices heard immunity arguments a and the conservative majority seemed determined to talk about anything but the case at hand

It took two hours and 24 minutes for the elephant in the room to be mentioned at Thursdayas US supreme court hearing. aThe special counsel has expressed some concern for speed, and wanting to move forward,a said Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

That was shorthand for the gargantuan stakes at play in Trump v United States. The court was being asked to consider one of the most consequential prosecutions in US history a the four federal charges brought against former president Donald Trump accusing him of attempting to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election a and whether the case can conceivably go to trial.

Study found Great Britain had worst rate of child alcohol consumption in world, but youth drinking is said still to have adeclined sharplya

In 2000, about 19% of children under 16 in England smoked, according to Action on Smoking and Health. By 2018, this had declined to 5%.

But, according to a major report by the World Health Organization released on Thursday, a third of 11-year-olds and over half of 13-year-olds had drunk alcohol, the highest rate of any country worldwide. Girls were found to be more likely than boys to have drunk at the age of 15.

Budget ice baths, graveyard sleepovers and a night of slam poetry in Norwich! Joe Wilkinson and Katherine Ryan are super fun as they hunt for adventures that donat break the bank

Channel 4 has carved out a particular niche in daytime-shaped TV shows airing at night. This largely means that an afternoon-ish format, of the sort that would usually be broken up with ads for life insurance, animal charities and conservatories, now comes with the added frisson of knowing that a well-known comedian might say a bad word a see, for example, Eight Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Here we are, then, in familiar territory, with Joe and Katherineas Bargain Holidays, a strangely late-afternoon-meets-late-night travelogue from comedians Joe Wilkinson and Katherine Ryan, about how to enjoy a holiday on the cheap.

It was filmed in the summer of 2022 a that must be why England looks so green and pleasant, rather than soaked to the skin with six monthsa worth of relentless rain a and bears the hallmarks of peak inflation, as it searches for the best means of getting away without breaking the bank. Wilkinson is the bargain-hunter here, while Ryan leans into her luxury-loving persona. Throughout her career, Ryan has always been refreshingly open about money, and here she continues to be frank, as she shrugs off any notion of embarrassment about splashing out on nice stuff. Sheall spend APS500 on a spa day, she says, and APS300 on dinner, or more, if she gets the train from London to Paris and back, just for a romantic meal with her husband. aI just donat want to compromise on my lifestyle,a she says. aShall we compromise for a bit?a asks Wilkinson. aNo,a she replies.

Originally the preserve of Ivy League sportsmen, the jacket has seen incarnations from the likes of Salt-N-Pepa, Palace and Prada. And now Louis Vuittonas NFT version is going for APS7,000

There are few items of clothing as iconic a or as purely American a as the classic varsity jacket. Yet, lately, it has been making a comeback, thanks in part to Italian powerhouse Prada, who featured a chic all-leather take on it at Milan fashion week in February. It has also been a central piece in much-hyped recent collaborations between Gap and Palace, and Supreme and MM6 Maison Margiela. Not even the digital space is safe: Louis Vuitton has been selling a aphygitala a AKA an NFT (non-fungible token) a version of a varsity jacket from the Pharrell-designed FW24 collection a yours to have and not hold for nearly APS7,000.

Instantly recognisable thanks to its two-tone leather sleeves and boiled wool body, the varsity jacket has served as a symbol of jock masculinity in classic films such as Teen Wolf and The Breakfast Club, and was worn onstage by Michael Jackson and more recently has been adopted by celebrities from Rihanna to Bella Hadid.

Only this week the first minister said he was delighted with his coalition with the Greens. But then a|

Be careful what you wish for. Itas hard not to feel a scintilla of sympathy for Humza Yousaf. On a human level, if not a political one. For well over a decade the SNP had ruled more or less unchallenged in Scotland. Free to do whatever it liked, though not, ironically, the one thing on which its existence was predicated: making Scotland independent.

The UK parliament was in no hurry to grant a second referendum, much to the SNPas displeasure. The first had been labelled a once-in-a-generation event. The SNP saw it differently. Generations pass more quickly in Scotland apparently.

Oral arguments over former presidentas claim of immunity seem to have left Trump happier than the justice department

aWell,a said one reporter to another as they left the supreme court chamber, sometime after noon on Thursday. aLooks like weare getting a king.a

Notwithstanding a certain mordant hyperbole on a momentous day in American history, the sentiment seemed within bounds.

A anon-hierarchicala university space that can be continually altered or even moved has won the EUas biennial prize for contemporary architecture

A lightweight university study centre designed to be easily disassembled has won the prize for the best building in Europe. Longevity, permanence and a sense of immutability might be the ambition of most architects, but Gustav DA1/4sing and Max Hacke would be delighted to see their building adapted and reconfigured, or ultimately dismantled and moved somewhere else altogether.

aWe imagined the project as a changeable system,a says DA1/4sing, co-designer of the new study pavilion for the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, which has been named this yearas winner of the EU Mies award (formerly the Mies van der Rohe award), the biennial European Union prize for contemporary architecture. aWe wanted it to be a counter model to the universityas high-rise building and its conventional one-sided lecture halls. Itas more like an extension of the landscape that can be forever modified, a non-hierarchical space that the students can make their own.a

In Human Resources, Time Out and The Class, the Palme daOr-winning film-maker a who has died aged 63 a addressed French and European society at all levels

Laurent Cantet was a classic product of the French cinema industry: a deeply intelligent, high-minded progressive film-maker of the same generation as Robin Campillo and Dominik Moll whose supremely literate, emotionally committed, stylish and well-acted movies aspired to address French and European society at all levels.

Cantet made films that you could imagine being discussed around a gregarious dinner table of fashionable Parisians, with glasses being avidly drained and refilled all round a in fact, you could imagine Cantet himself talking about his work at just this kind of gathering.

From Miriam being arevealeda as a transgender woman to the contestants trashing the set, it was the cruellest reality show ever. Ahead of a new series about its tragic fallout, Miriamas brother and friend open up for the first time about her death

It was the very definition of adifferent timesa. In summer 2003, a TV dating series saw men compete for the affections of a 21-year-old Mexican model named Miriam Rivera. What her suitors didnat realise was that the glamorous star of the show had a secret. In the climactic episode, Rivera announced that she was a transgender woman. All hell broke loose. Contestants sued the show in an attempt to ensure it never aired.

Thereas Something About Miriam would go down in the showbiz hall of shame as one of the most controversial reality shows ever. Now, a Channel 4 docuseries revisits the making of the show 20 years since it aired a and five years since Rivera died at the age of 38. Itas a story of belief-beggaring insensitivity and its tragic aftermath.

Muscular bodies dripping with sweat are all over cinema screens a and each other. But these films are very different from the sports romances of old

This spring is shaping up to be the season of the artful athletic romance in cinema. Rose Glassas Love Lies Bleeding and Luca Guadagninoas Challengers both offer up their own twisted queer romances set within the world of sport. Both film-makers share a preoccupation with their athletes, lingering over their bodies in ultra-closeup. Muscles ripple and swell like the powerful pulse of the tide. Perfect, glistening orbs of sweat form then drift off the body in slow motion. In these films, ripped, toned bodies become tantalising, treacherous landscapes, and itas on this physical terrain that we can see exactly how and why the charactersa internal desires play out.

Love Lies Bleeding opens with a pulsating montage in a grimy gym as Glass confronts us with running, cycling, lifting, pressing bodies in all of their sweating, straining vulgarity. Meanwhile, Lou (Kristen Stewart), the uninspired gym manager, is sticking her hand down the venueas perpetually clogged toilet. However, when Jackie (Katy OaBrian), a wannabe bodybuilder, rolls through town, all this grotesquery becomes a thing of beauty. They begin a romance. Lou pumps her lover full of steroids and constantly ogles her dense muscles.

The overcrowded city is leading the way with a tax on day trippers. Surely other great European destinations should follow suit

Venice has had enough. It is sinking beneath the twin assaults of tourism and the sea and believes the answer lies in fending off visitors by charging them to enter. It is not alone. Tourism is under attack. Seville is charging for entry to the central Plaza de EspaA+-a. In Paris, the Mona Lisa is so besieged by flashing phones she is about to be banished to a basement. Barcelona graffiti shout, aTourists go home, refugees welcome.a Amsterdam wants no more coach parties, nor does Rome.

The Venice payment will be complicated. It will apply at specific entry points only to day trippers to the city centre, not hotel guests. It will be a mere five euros and confined to peak times of day over the summer. This will hardly cover the cost of running it. It is a political gesture that is unlikely to stem the tourist flow round the Rialto and St Markas Square, let alone leave more room for Venetians to enjoy their city undisturbed by mobs.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

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Sewage pollutes our waterways, species face extinction. We must act fast to halt the decline a and we will

• Steve Reed is shadow environment secretary

We must not be the last generation to have the opportunity to marvel at nature.

When I was growing up, I took for granted the excitement of climbing trees in the local woods at the end of our road, sleeping under the stars at Scout camp, and exploring the micro-worlds of seaside rockpools on holiday in Cornwall. Our children and grandchildren deserve to be astounded by the magnificence of our landscapes and coastlines, mesmerised by the beauty of a robinas song, and to splash about in the local river.

Steve Reed is the MP for Croydon North, and shadow secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs

Our former PM has a dire warning and a book to sell, but it isnat really cutting through. A bit more Brit-style bumbling might help

aI know the name,a texts a friend when I ask if she knows who Liz Truss is, but like most Americans canat quite put her finger on why. aLike 8%,a guesses another when I ask her to put a number on how many of her countrymen she imagines know of Truss. The standard response, in my extremely unscientific poll of Americans as to whether or not they know of Truss, however, was: aNo, should I?a a the answer to which, of course, depends entirely on whether you want to understand why the Tory party is polling around 20% or whether you happen to be Liz Truss.

Truss, the only one of us to suffer that particular misfortune, was in Washington DC this week trying, like so many minor British celebrities before her, to catch the eye of the Americans. At the Heritage Foundation, a rightwing thinktank that hosted the launch of Trussas book Ten Years to Save the West, she came bearing a awarninga. Not an ideal ice-breaker, perhaps, but one clearly tailored to an audience receptive to the frisson of the term aforces of the global lefta.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

A military horse that bolted through central London on Wednesday is in a aserious conditiona in an equine hospital

Ali died of cancer last year. He was 21, and had to live in the choking smoke of the Rumaila oilfield

A year has passed since my beautiful boy Ali Julood died. Not a day goes by when I do not think of him smiling and playing football with his friends outside. Those days are gone. As a father, that gives me great pain.

Ali was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of 15. The cancer caused him to drop out of school, leave his football team and spend years undergoing painful medical treatment. He died at the age of 21 on 21 April 2023.

Shareholders in the mining firm are unimpressed by the offer as it stands but what happens next could be interesting

• BHP move to buy Anglo American threatens to hasten City exodus

In theory, Anglo American has been a sitting duck for a takeover bid for about a decade. Its share price has lagged behind that of other big miners and successive efforts to sharpen a sprawling portfolio have underwhelmed. The last news, at the end of 2023, was production delays that sent the shares down 20% in a day.

In practice, the same complexities, plus deep entanglement in South African politics, have served as a deterrent to a bid. Anglo was seen as too fiddly. But here comes BHP, the Australian giant of the sector, with a proposal to cut through the noise and get to the assets it would like to own, primarily Angloas copper mines in Peru and Chile and, to a lesser extent, its iron ore projects in Brazil and metallurgical coal in Queensland.

Our capital has many problems, but it is time to push back against attacks from those who neither know nor understand it

I have been reading about the most abysmal place. It is a land where children, red-faced with their own radicalism, march alongside bearded Islamists to make the streets a no-go zone, while nodding-dog liberals curse the Brexiter masses for inflating the cost of their arugula. It boasts an infinite array of pronouns; multimillion-pound townhouses whose residents demand you check your privilege; a thousand rainbow flags, but not a single St Georgeas cross. It is rife with criminal behaviour, which extends far beyond the prices charged by pub landlords. Hieronymus Bosch, put down your paintbrush: this place truly is Hell.

It also happens to be my home.

Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist

Large-language models such as ChatGPT are still liable to distort the meaning of what they are summarising

• Seth Lazar is a professor of philosophy at the Australian National University and a distinguished research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics in AI

What is the role of AI in democracy? Is it just a volcano of deepfakes and disinformation? Or can it a as many activists and even AI labs are betting a help fix an ailing and ageing political system? The UK government, which loves to appear aligned with the bleeding edge of AI, seems to think the technology can enhance British democracy. It envisages a world where large-language models (LLMs) are condensing and analysing submissions to public consultations, preparing ministerial briefs, and perhaps even drafting legislation. Is this a valid initiative by a tech-forward administration? Or is it just a way of dressing up civil service cuts, to the detriment of democracy?

LLMs, the AI paradigm that that has taken the world by storm since ChatGPTas 2022 launch, have been explicitly trained to summarise and distil information. And they can now process hundreds, even thousands, of pages of text at a time. The UK government, meanwhile, runs about 700 public consultations a year. So one obvious use for LLMs is to help analyse and summarise the thousands of pages of submissions they receive in response to each. Unfortunately, while they do a great job of summarising emails or individual newspaper articles, LLMs have a way to go before they are an appropriate replacement for civil servants analysing public consultations.