National Education Union calls Reform UK ‘far-right and racist’ as it pledges funds to opposite Reform in elections

The UK’s largest teaching union has called Reform UK “far-right and racist”, and its leader has dismissed Nigel Farage as “a poundshop Donald Trump,” as the union pledged funds to oppose the party’s candidates in elections.

Delegates to the National Education Union’s annual conference backed a motion stating that “far-right and racist organisations, including Reform, seek to build on the despair, poverty and alienation in our society by scapegoating refugees, asylum seekers, Muslims, Jews and others who do not fit their beliefs”.

Warhol for colour, Hopper for volume … American art world star David Salle is using AI on old paintings of his that had a mixed reception – with wild, sprawling results. Why isn’t he afraid of being replaced?

By the time you read this article, there’s a good chance it will have already been scanned by an artificially intelligent machine. If asked about the artist David Salle, large language models such as ChatGPT or Gemini may repurpose some of the words below to come up with their answer. The bigger the data set, the more convincing the response – and Salle has been written about exhaustively since he first rose to art world stardom in the 1980s. The question is whether AI can ever say anything new about the artist and his work, or if it’s for ever condemned to generate more of the same.

A similar question lingers beneath the surface of the paintings that Salle has been making since 2023, a new series of which he has just unveiled at Thaddaeus Ropac in London. His New Pastorals were made with the aid of machine-learning software, though that’s not immediately apparent from looking at them. Each monumental canvas bears broad, gestural strokes of oil paint seemingly applied by the artist’s own hand. Close study however reveals large patches of flat, digitally printed underpainting. This is the mark of the AI model which Salle has been training to generate his work – or at least something uncannily close to it.

Euan G Nisbet suggests a way the UK steel industry could be saved and become a world leader. Plus letters from others responding to the crisis at Chinese-owned British Steel

The plight of British Steel is an opportunity for a transformative change in the way steel is made ( Editorial, 10 April ). Blast furnaces depend on coal, and steelmaking emits well over a tonne of CO ₂ for every tonne of steel, producing roughly a tenth of global CO ₂ emissions. Using electric arc furnaces gets around this by recycling scrap metal, but doesn’t address the primary problem.

There are promising alternatives. These include making steel with hydrogen, and more advanced options such as the all-electric projects being supported by the US’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (Arpa-E). Scunthorpe is well placed for this, close to North Sea windfarms and able to exploit cheap surplus late-night electricity.

The government’s proposals lack the safeguards necessary to preserve key ecosystems, including chalk streams and woodlands, warns Prof EJ Milner-Gulland

Re your article ( Planning bill ‘throws environmental protection to the wind’, say UK nature chiefs, 9 April ), while Labour’s planning and infrastructure bill aims for 1.5m homes to spur economic growth, part 3 of the bill threatens both nature and delivery.

The UK’s wildlife has declined 19% since 1970, with 16% of species at risk. Yet part 3’s environmental delivery plans allow developers to pay an unquantified levy for vague restoration, sidestepping the Environment Act’s principles of prevention and precaution, and risking irreversible harm to our iconic ecosystems such as chalk streams and woodlands.

• Head coach has taken club close to a European place
• 42-year-old’s deal expires at the end of next season

Bournemouth’s owner, Bill Foley, is planning contract talks with Andoni Iraola next week and there is growing confidence at the club that the in-demand head coach can be persuaded to stay. The Spaniard’s contract expires at the end of next season and Foley wants him to sign a longer deal, despite interest from clubs such as Tottenham. Foley is due to fly to Bournemouth after Easter and meet Iraola to discuss the future, with a new contract on offer.

Ange Postecoglou is under huge pressure at Tottenham after losing 17 Premier League games, and only winning the Europa League could keep him in the job. Spurs play their quarter-final second leg at Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday, with the tie finely balanced at 1-1.

CBSO Centre, Birmingham
The centrepiece of this all-Asian programme from the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group was the world premiere of Dai Fujikura’s Shō Concerto

In the foyer, a family workshop was in full swing. A huddle of under-12s listened intently to Japan-born, Britain-based composer Dai Fujikura . Several delighted non-children sidled up to tuned percussion instruments laid out on a table. There were instructions and paper for making an origami frog.

These were cheery attempts to contextualise BCMG’s programme: an all-Japanese first half by Misato Mochizuki and Fujikura – including the world premiere of the latter’s new Shō Concerto – followed by Korean composer Unsuk Chin ’s Xi for Ensemble and Tape. But hold fire on the east-meets-west cliches. Fujikura moved to the UK aged 15 and first encountered the shō at Darmstadt in his 20s. As he explained in a pre-concert talk, Japanese instruments are all “new” to him.

The Guardian’s Saturday magazine is looking for people who declared their love after being inspired by a certain song, book, TV show or film

The Guardian’s Saturday magazine is looking for people who declared their love after being inspired by a certain song, book, TV show or film. Did you confess your feelings for your best friend after watching When Harry Met Sally? Did you propose after seeing Four Weddings and a Funeral? Did you decide to have a baby with your partner after reading The Argonauts?

We’re looking for funny, unexpected love stories – and they don’t have to have happy endings. Maybe you married the wrong person, and now you realise that all that really held you together was a deep and undying love of The Arctic Monkeys? Perhaps Fleabag made you proposition your priest?

Energy watchdog cuts forecast for growth in demand by a third, and says a trade war could mean it falls further

The world will use less crude oil than expected this year due the “substantial risks” posed by Donald Trump’s trade tariffs to the global economy, according to the global energy watchdog.

The International Energy Agency slashed its forecasts for global oil demand growth by a third for the year ahead, and warned that it could make further downward revisions depending on whether a trade war develops.

Weinstein is being retried on two charges from his original trial, which ended with a rape conviction but was later overturned

The last time a New York City jury sat in judgment of Harvey Weinstein , the ex-movie studio boss was convicted of rape and sentenced to 23 years in prison .

Five years later, that landmark #MeToo verdict is gone – wiped away on appeal – and Weinstein is set to go on trial again, beginning Tuesday with jury selection.