A standoff between Gulf oil giants Saudi Arabia and the UAE could cause greater market volatility for years to come

The conflict in the Middle East has claimed Opec as the latest casualty of war. The United Arab Emirates’ shock exit from the oil cartel on Tuesday after 60 years is expected to weaken the alliance, which under the leadership of Saudi Arabia has helped to soothe volatility in the global oil market for decades.

Global oil prices reached the highest level in four years on Thursday, rising above $126 a barrel. But as the region grapples with the continuing conflict, a fresh war may be brewing in the international oil markets, which could lead to greater market volatility for years to come.

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When Scott Parker led Burnley out of the Championship and into the Premier League last season, he did so with a side showcasing the kind of defensive resilience more readily associated with a medieval fortress, although with more expensive haircuts and less reliance on cauldrons of boiling oil. His team lost just two of their 46 matches, were unbeaten at home, kept a quite remarkable 30 clean sheets and notched up a combined total of 20 1-0 wins and scoreless draws. So while attending one of their games was about as exciting as reading an air-fryer instruction manual, they were devastatingly resolute. To nobody’s great surprise, they were immediately installed as the white-hot favourites to go straight back down before a ball had even been kicked.

I read with interest that David Brent School of Management’s Glenn Hoddle was fishing for the Tottenham job ( yesterday’s Quote of the Day ). Is that a sign of how far Spurs have fallen, or was he trying to pay for sins in a prior life?” – Neale Redington.

Can I point out Football Daily’s arrogance in dismissing the entertainment value of a proper match (sans £ billions), in which the mighty Vale handed out a schoolin’ to the resurgent Stockport County on a sunny evening in Edgeley ( yesterday’s Football Daily )? I haven’t watched the pompfest in foreign climes you referenced, but it couldn’t have been a patch on what Pep Guardiola was fortunate enough to choose” – John Timmins.

Your reader Ken Muir’s observation that Hearts teams are sweeping all before them this season ( yesterday’s Football Daily letters ), brings to mind an old chestnut. An Englishman goes into a pub in Edinburgh and asks a local: ‘What colour do Hearts play in?’ ‘It’s maroon …’ comes the answer. ‘Thank you! I’ll have a gin and tonic please!’ And I’ll get my coat …” – Allastair McGillivray.

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Luke Kennard, Sophie Ratcliffe and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

This is a really good year for new fiction. I don’t think anyone writes about contemporary Englishness as astutely, mercilessly and affectionately as Claire Powell, and her latest novel, All In , puts her perfectly observed characters in the pressure cooker of an all-inclusive holiday. It’s a kind of meta-beach read, and I loved it.

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Since 2012, Mali has faced a security crisis fuelled by violence from groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State

“The Grand Ball of Bamako,” as organisers tagged the Saturday evening soiree at the Hotel de l’Amitié in the Malian capital, was meant to provide one of the west African country’s biggest headlines last weekend.

Many sponsors including Orange Mali, the local subsidiary of the French telecoms company, had bankrolled the show, which organisers hoped would demonstrate Mali’s capacity to put on big cultural events in the teeth of a security crisis raging on multiple fronts. On the eve of the concert, a convoy of over half a dozen cars picked up the main attraction, GrammyAward-winning Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour, from the Modibo Keita international airport.

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Experts estimate ‘accounting of the harm that was done’ by 200 years of chattel slavery would be US$2tn in damages

Britain stole 25 million years of life and labour through slavery in Barbados, according to new research by a team of international experts.

Their report concludes that Barbados’s population of African descent have suffered damages estimated at up to US$2tn (£1.5tn) from 200 years of chattel slavery.

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Mojtaba Khamenei says Tehran will eliminate ‘enemy’s abuses of the waterway’ and guard its nuclear and missile programmes

• US politics live – latest updates

Iran’s supreme leader has broken his recent silence with a defiant statement hailing Iran’s control over shipping in the strait of Hormuz and vowing to guard the country’s nuclear and missile programmes.

“Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world’s bullies in the region, and the United States’ disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the strait of Hormuz,” Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement read by a state television anchor.

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The first leg of the semi-finals produced a nine-goal thriller and a tense evening in Madrid. Next week’s matches are set to be a treat

Football’s role as a leading hot-take commodity was taken to the nth degree after Tuesday’s nine-goal slugfest between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich in Paris. Best game ever? What happened to the lost art of defending? Proof that France and Germany’s dominant clubs enjoy the luxury of not being challenged in their domestic leagues so they can keep their powder dry for the latter stages of the Champions League? Proof that the best attackers in Europe are sequestered at PSG and Bayern Munich? All of the above may well be true.

The debate will continue until next Wednesday’s second leg in Munich. Those who said it was the competition’s best ever semi-final – it had the most goals of any 90-minute match in the Champions League last-four – forgot previous contenders. “The best match I have ever coached,” said Luis Enrique . The PSG coach omitted to mention La Remontada of 2017, when his Barcelona team won 6-1 at the Camp Nou to complete the greatest comeback of all. And how about last season’s 7-6 semi-final double-header when Inter edged Barça? Only when the second leg delivers the same excitement can accusations of recency bias be dismissed.

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A new trailer depicts a normal meet-cute before setting it on the one night a year when single people can legally have sex

For the most part, the trailer for the upcoming film One Night Only looks like the sweetest possible version of a romcom. A handsome, sensitive-looking man (played by Callum Turner) flirts relentlessly with a big-eyed oddball in a sexy dress (played by Monica Barbaro). They bump into each other, nudge each other, roll their eyes at each other. As a YouTube comment underneath the trailer (that has been liked more than 3,000 times) says: “Romantic comedies are back.”

However, tucked away in this adorable little trailer is a premise that might just be the most confusing in living memory. As Turner’s character walks lovelorn through the streets of New York City, his voiceover says: “Finding love is hard enough. Try doing it on the one night of the year single people are legally allowed to have sex.”

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First quarter output, driven by AI investment and government spending, rose as oil shock fuels inflation fears

US gross domestic product (GDP) accelerated 2% in the first three months of 2026, though consumer spending is slowing as the war with Iran continues to impact energy prices.

The last GDP reading for the fourth quarter of 2025 showed that US economic growth slowed to a 0.5% pace, largely due to a contraction in government spending after massive layoffs of federal workers last year. The federal government is down 355,000 workers, or 11.8% of the workforce, since October 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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