Guardian Digest

Paris’s success in removing cars from its streets has been more widely praised than its progress in opening up mixed-use spaces. But the city’s enthusiasm for bringing what urbanists call “third places” to life is exactly why I found myself, just hours after voting in the first round of Paris’s municipal elections, dancing in telecoms company Orange’s former offices in Ménilmontant, the “seventh-coolest neighbourhood in the world”.. The building currently housing Print, a new pop-up, offers a breathtaking view of the Eiffel Tower, poised against the sunset – and, for now at least, it is an…

Nature famously abhors a vacuum. So when Morgan McSweeney departed government, leaving a hole where much of Keir Starmer’s thinking used to be, it was always going to be filled eventually. And increasingly, that filling looks Ed Miliband-shaped. The energy secretary’s influence has visibly grown in recent weeks, and not just because of a spiralling energy crisis in the Gulf. The idea that he is the real prime minister now – the one supposedly calling the shots over everything from whether Britain should join the war on Iran to how far it should pursue its “fatwa against fossil fuels”, as…

In the span of just two days, the most powerful social media company in the world faced a more severe public reckoning than it has in years. Jurors in California and New Mexico gave back-to-back verdicts this week that for the first time ever found Meta liable for products that inflict harm on young people. For years, lawmakers, parents and advocates have raised red flags over how social media can hurt children, but now the tech firms are being held to account via court rulings that could set long-lasting precedents. A jury in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $375m in damages on Tuesday over…

Donald Trump has extended his deadline for Iran to open the strait of Hormuz by 10 days to 6 April after saying talks are “going very well”. The president made the statement on Thursday in a social media post, saying: “As per Iranian Government request, please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well.” Later…

The Pentagon is reportedly weighing up whether to redirect weapons originally meant for Ukraine to the Middle East. The affected weapons could include air defence interceptor missiles bought through a Nato initiative under which partner countries buy US arms for Kyiv, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing three people familiar with the matter. A final decision has not yet been made, it said, but the US war in Iran is intensifying, placing a strain on supplies of some of the military’s most critical munitions. On Wednesday, US Central Command said it had hit over 10,000 targets…

The UK government must urgently issue a formal apology for the state’s role in forced adoption as many victims are nearing the end of their lives, a cross-party group of MPs has said. A report from the education select committee said ministers should provide an initial commitment to an apology and begin working with survivor groups as quickly as possible on its wording. It said a formal and public apology was essential to correct the public record and reduce the burdens felt by many mothers and adoptees. Between 1949 and 1976, an estimated 185,000 babies were taken from unmarried mothers and…