Many see parallels with the architect of the Cultural Revolution. Both relished disruption and have exploited the power of the mob

When rare protests flared in China in 2022, one slogan read : “We want reform, not a Cultural Revolution.” It alluded to complaints that the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, was behaving in an increasingly Mao-esque manner. His extraordinary dominance over his party, political repression, tight social controls and burgeoning personality cult all lent themselves to comparison with the man who ruled China for decades.

Yet Xi is committed to order and discipline, exerting authority through the organs of the Communist party. Mao Zedong relished disruption and turned to the power of the masses. That’s why, increasingly, many in China are comparing Mao to another modern-day leader. Despite the ferocity of Donald Trump’s trade war, they are perhaps just as shocked by what he is doing to his own country. They see a proud nation felled not by an external threat, but by the unbridled ego of the man at the top – a vengeful, anarchic force who uses dramatic rhetoric to whip up the mob and destroy institutions, and unpredictability to reinforce his power. It looks awfully familiar.

Tania Branigan is foreign leader writer for the Guardian and author of Red Memory: The Afterlives of China’s Cultural Revolution

Trump’s tariff chaos has naturally scared some Britons back into the safety of savings accounts – but investing is about playing the long game

Recent headlines about stock markets in freefall and graphs with downward arrows are not what you would choose as a backdrop to persuading people to move from cash savings into riskier investments.

But that was what the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was faced with after announcing that a review of cash and shares Isas was on the way.

PS5 digital price in UK would rise to £430 and €500 in Europe as Japanese games developer cites ‘challenging economic environment’

Sony has increased the price of its PlayStation 5 by 25% as the video game industry reels from the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The Japanese game developer said it had made the “tough decision” to raise the price of the console’s digital edition to £429.99 in the UK and €499.99 in Europe, starting from Monday. There will be no price change for the standard PS5, which comes with a disc drive.

• Updates from around the County Championship grounds
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Head coach Anthony McGrath told reporters last night that Root and Brook were only going to be available for one game pre Test series: the match against Warwickshire at Headingley starting on May 2.

Ben Raine, fresh from his 81, is confident about Durham’s task against Warwickshire:

Our writers take a look at the best prospects coming out of college, and select their stars of the future and lower-round gems to watch

The most WNBA-ready prospect not named Paige Bueckers …

Kiki Iriafen looks like a plug-and-play forward whose agility, rebounding instincts and face-up scoring will make her an immediate asset. She can defend across positions and has a reliable mid-range game. After transferring to USC, she showcased polish and poise against top-tier competition, traits that will translate quickly to the pro level. Her 36-point outburst in the second round of the NCAA Tournament after JuJu Watkins went down with a knee injury only solidified her standing. BAG

After its slowest sales to date last year the 2025 edition of the California music festival was being viewed by some as an unofficial comeback with headliners Lady Gaga, Green Day and Post Malone

The latest in our ongoing series of comfort movies is a pick for Bruce Robinson’s cult British comedy

In the words of its writer and director, Withnail and I is a comedy that “doesn’t know it’s funny”. To its star, it’s about “the nobility of failure”. It ends with its title character alone in the rain, his one friend gone, delivering a Hamlet soliloquy to an indifferent wolf. It’s my feelgood movie.

Bruce Robinson’s British classic was released in 1987. He and Richard E Grant made the remarks above in 2007, at the British Film Institute. I was there, eager to hear Robinson discuss a movie based on his own experience. Themes abide. As he said recently about The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman , his imperishable novel about his brutal childhood: “It’s very funny but also sad as fuck.” Robinson’s first film was a novel before it was a screenplay. At the BFI, he said he knew he’d got his film right at an early screening, when a “girl sort of threw up, laughing”. She had a point. Withnail and I is beautifully, awfully funny.

When I agreed to plug my book at a literary festival, I was expecting some kind of low-key Q&A. Imagine my terror when I discovered I would have to monologue for almost an hour

I never understood quite how much public speaking came with being a writer, because after I wrote my first book no one asked me to do any. They didn’t ask after my second book either. That was fine with me: I had never done any public speaking and, like all normal people, I was terrified of the prospect.

Then in 2014, with the publication of my fourth book still a couple of weeks away, I was invited to a literary festival. I hadn’t been to many literary festivals, but for some reason I was sure I knew what to expect: a kindly interviewer would sit on stage with me, a small table holding a pitcher of water between us, and ask me a lot of softball questions about my process. I wasn’t comfortable with this either, but I said yes.

Chinese customs official says trade has diversified away from US in recent years and plays up its ‘vast domestic market’

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China has played down the risk of damage to its exports from Donald Trump’s tariffs, with an official saying the “the sky won’t fall”, as stock markets rose on Monday amid signs of a retreat on electronics restrictions.

The world’s second-largest economy has diversified its trade away from the US in recent years, according to Lyu Daliang, a customs administration spokesperson, in comments reported by state-owned agency Xinhua .