Pippa Crerar is joined by the election analyst Prof Rob Ford to look at the upcoming local and devolved elections. Will Reform dominate across England? Can the Greens remove Labour’s longstanding hold over London? And will the nationalists win in Scotland and Wales?

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• Scot battles back to 4-4 from 3-1 in opening session

• Mark Allen facing Wu Yize in the second semi-final

Shaun Murphy was reminded his mission of ending a 21-year wait for a second world crown will not be straightforward as he was pegged back by the four-time champion John Higgins in their semi-final.

The 2005 champion has moved through the gears since squeaking out a 10-9 first-round win over Fan Zhengyi, easing past Xiao Guodong in round two before conquering the reigning world champion Zhao Xintong in the quarter-finals to set up a last-four showdown with Higgins and a repeat of the 2009 final.

This report will update

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Prominent contemporary visual artist explored range of techniques across six decades of work

The German artist Georg Baselitz , whose expressive paintings and sculptures stirred controversy before winning him global acclaim, has died aged 88, local media reported have reported.

Baselitz, born Hans-Georg Kern, was among Germany’s most prominent contemporary visual artists with a body of work stretching over six decades across a range of techniques.

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The prime minister also accused anyone marching alongside Hamas supporters of ‘venerating the murder of Jews’

• Golders Green attack – latest updates

Keir Starmer has called on people to “open their eyes to Jewish pain” in the wake of the Golders Green terror attack, and accused anyone marching alongside supporters of Hamas of “venerating the murder of Jews”.

The prime minister made his strongest ever remarks on antisemitism after visiting the area of the attacks for a meeting with emergency workers and community leaders.

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Trial continues after heated back and forth during OpenAI’s cross-examination of the Tesla CEO on Wednesday

Elon Musk’s court case against Sam Altman continues on Thursday, after a day of contentious exchanges during OpenAI’s cross-examination of the Tesla CEO. Musk will face another round of questioning before his lawyer calls more witnesses, including OpenAI’s president, Greg Brockman.

Witness testimony and evidence has revealed formerly private emails, text messages and diary entries surrounding the formation of OpenAI, giving a behind-the-scenes look at how the tech behemoth was created. Many of the tech industry’s most powerful players are named as witnesses and will give their account on the origins of Musk and Altman’s bitter feud. Altman is set to testify later in the trial, which will last three weeks.

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I thought my mother was ashamed of my taboo profession. Then I realized our experiences were more similar than I thought

My first viral personal essay was titled: “In Defense of Casual Sex”.

It was 2008. I was 24, living in San Francisco, and working at the online magazine Salon. I was responding to a series of books about hookup culture, including one warning young women that they were ruining themselves for love and marriage by sleeping around.

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This underdiagnosed condition, which causes leg pain and swelling, affects one in 10 women, yet most doctors haven’t heard of it

The first thing Becca Gold noticed was her pants.

Throughout the spring and summer of 2023, her pants stopped fitting. Her legs became puffy, with a rippled texture and heavy ache. Within a year, the 32-year-old, Austin-based podcaster went up four pant sizes, gained 30lbs and found herself in constant leg pain. She had always had a little bit of cellulite, she says, but while her upper body appeared mostly unchanged, now her legs seemed to belong to a “different person, overnight”.

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As revelations about Reform UK’s donors emerge, it’s clear that increasingly complex forms of patronage can’t be regulated effectively. We need a clean sweep

How do we know whether political funding is corrupt? Mostly, we don’t. A plutocrat delivers a sack of cash to a political party. A few weeks later, it announces a policy that happens to favour the donor’s business. Are the events linked? We might suspect it; we cannot prove it. But the suspicion itself is corrosive and demoralising.

The current funding system, perhaps more than any other factor, turns us away from politics, breeding disillusionment, alienation and cynicism. A survey by the Electoral Commission last year found that only 18% of respondents believed spending and funding are transparent. A government survey in December discovered that 87% of people are “concerned about the possibility of corruption” among politicians. A further survey concluded that political donors are believed to wield the most influence of any elite faction. Disillusionment with politics drives people into the arms of the extreme right. This is paradoxical, as it tends to be highly receptive to the ultra-rich.

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Senior police officer warns of young people being drawn into violent extremism as Alfie Coleman found guilty

More and more young people are being drawn into the world of violent extremism, a senior police officer has warned, as a young neo-Nazi was convicted of planning a mass gun attack after being caught in an undercover MI5 sting.

Alfie Coleman, a former supermarket worker from Great Notley in Essex, compiled a hate-list of colleagues and customers he branded with racial slurs or as “race traitors”. He wrote a “manifesto” in a diary and identified potential targets, including the “lord mayor of London” and a mosque.

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