• He has assisted Wiegman with England since 2021
• ‘Great challenge and a wonderful new adventure,’ he says

Arjan Veurink, assistant coach to Sarina Wiegman, will leave the England women’s team after July’s European Championship to become the head coach of the Netherlands women’s national side.

The Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) has confirmed that the 38-year-old will succeed Andries Jonker, who has been in charge since 2022. Veurink has a deal until after 2029’s Euros.

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US president questions Ukraine counterpart’s competency as his envoy outlines ‘detail attached’ to any peace deal

On Monday, several European leaders lined up to criticise Vladimir Putin for Russia’s continuing attacks on Ukraine, and sabotaging the peace efforts of the Trump administration in the US.

But the White House view remains distinctively different.

“The mistake was letting the war happen. If Biden were competent. And if Zelenskyy were competent -- and I don’t know that he is, we had a rough session with this guy over here.”

“You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.”

“And you take a look at Putin -- I’m not saying anybody’s an angel, but I will tell you, I went four years, and it wasn’t even a question. He would never -- and I told him don’t do it. You’re not going to do it.”

“And Biden could have stopped it, and Zelenskyy could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it. Everybody’s to blame.”

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Wages rise 5.9% in three months to February, while unemployment unchanged at 4.4%

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The number of workers on UK company payrolls has fallen at the fastest pace since the height of the Covid pandemic amid mounting global uncertainty and warnings that Rachel Reeves’s budget measures could lead to job losses.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the number of people employed in at least one job paid through pay as you earn fell by 78,000 in March after a revised fall of 8,000 in February.

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Vice-president says Donald Trump ‘loves’ the UK and there is good chance of reaching mutually beneficial agreement

The US is optimistic it can negotiate a “great” trade deal with the UK, JD Vance has said.

Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on imports to the US several weeks ago, sending the global economy into turmoil as stock prices tumbled and fears of a global recession mounted.

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Reese and Desiree Mistretta are the first mother-son pair to win New York’s prestigious Golden Gloves, but their deeper bond is how boxing helped them survive life’s hardest hits

Reese Mistretta wasn’t thinking about history after he climbed through the ropes on Saturday night. He was thinking about his legs, which felt like cement. About his lungs, which wouldn’t quite fill. And about the man across from him: Ali Conde, a sinewy technician from El Maestro’s Gym in the Bronx who has made his mark by waiting for opponents to strike first, then exploiting their openings.

Two nights earlier, Mistretta had narrowly beaten Conde under the lights of Madison Square Garden in the elite 176lb final of the Ring Masters Championships, New York’s premier amateur boxing competition. But the finals are double elimination. If Mistretta wanted to bring home the title, he’d have to beat Conde a second time at a sweaty gym in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn. “He definitely came back, re-corrected, he put it on me a little bit more,” Mistretta said. “So I had to be a little busier, not get countered at the same time. He’s a good counterpuncher.”

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It’s a lot easier to tease new cross-Channel rail services than it is to actually start running trains. I’m crossing my fingers anyway

Between environmental breakdown, economic crisis and Donald Trump, it often feels like there’s precious little reason to feel hopeful these days. So how’s this for a reason to cheer up: Italian state railway company, Trenitalia, is planning to run trains through the Channel tunnel before the decade is out. It’s studying the option of direct trains from the UK to Italy, too . Eagle-eyed readers may note that those are two separate propositions.

Trenitalia is no stranger to the British rail network: it already operates the C2C franchise, which connects London Fenchurch Street via south Essex to Southend. Last week the company announced a €1bn (£860m) plan to launch a new high-speed service connecting London and Paris by 2029, as a direct competitor to the long-established Eurostar. In addition, it’s reported to be “studying the possibility” of extending the route, to Lyon, Marseille and Milan, which could be reached by train from London in eight hours. (Trenitalia already runs from Milan to Paris in just over seven hours .)

Jonn Elledge is an author and former assistant editor of the New Statesman

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A sumptuous, Spanish celebration of spring, with a nod to the UK’s short but marvellous asparagus season

Even though the lamb is the star of this dish, it’s the asparagus that truly makes me happy. The arrival of asparagus season always feels like a little celebration of spring and longer, brighter days ahead. British asparagus, the best in the world, adds a fresh, seasonal touch that makes this rice really special. It’s the perfect one-pot recipe for the first al fresco meal of the year, with simple ingredients that come together beautifully, and with saffron bringing its delicate aroma and golden warmth. This is a great minimal-effort way to enjoy the new season – and every bite.

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The country’s average temperature has risen by 0.48C a decade from 2000. Last August, photographer Susan Schulman visited Baghdad and Amarah, to capture the impact of extreme weather on everyday lives

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Incredible newcomers! Chickens! Jamelia! The casting director of Stephen Graham’s Netflix smash hit has done it again with this hilariously bleak, utterly unique series. The cast open up

Over the last few years, we have found ourselves inundated with sadcoms. Again and again, we’ve been deluged by ostensible comedies that are so concerned with grief and trauma that the laughs end up feeling like a distant afterthought. Striking the right balance between comedy and drama takes absurd levels of effort and craft at the best of times. Doing it with a premise as bleak as BBC Three’s new series Just Act Normal is almost impossible.

My hands are tied with embargos, so I have to be vague about certain plot details, but Just Act Normal is a show about three young siblings who decide to struggle on as normal after their mother – a perennially unreliable woman with substance abuse issues – disappears. Their lives are suddenly spent trying to navigate the complex systems of the adult world while processing the grief of abandonment in real time. Sounds like grim stuff (Disney’s Good American Family recently tackled a similar subject in the form of full-blown melodrama), and yet there’s a palpable lightness of touch to Just Act Normal. You could almost call it joy.

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