After stewarding three blockbusters, the British film-maker was ready for a break. Instead, he found himself at the helm of one of Hollywood’s biggest franchises at its most critical juncture

Like an ancient warhorse hearing the bugle for one last time, readers of a certain age will be snorting and whinnying at the words “Gareth” and “Edwards”. They are irresistible madeleines for the legends of Welsh rugby: unfeasible 70s sideburns, neck-high tackles and JPR Williams on the overlap.

These days, though, things are different: Gareth Edwards is also the name of the unassuming, Midlands-born fortysomething film director sitting in front of me, who has quietly acquired a reputation as one of Britain’s most accomplished franchise movie-makers. “I’ve had it my whole life, to be honest,” he says. “My dad was a massive rugby fan. My comedy goal is that the Gareth Edwards does something and everybody goes: ‘Oh, the film‑maker?’ That would be it. I could die happy after that.”

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There was no surprise when Cooper Flagg was taken at No 1, but there were some interesting decisions – good and bad – at other points on Wednesday night

Cooper Flagg and Nico Harrison

The biggest winners of the 2025 NBA draft are Cooper Flagg and Dallas general manager Nico Harrison. Beyond the prestige and financial rewards of being the top pick, Flagg won draft night because he avoided going to a rebuilding team, where it could have taken years to gain playoff experience.

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As visitors to the national historic site are urged to inform on anything ‘negative’, advocates warn of the same playbook that led to concentration camps

At the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, more than 200 miles (320km) outside Los Angeles, in what feels like the middle of nowhere, is Manzanar national historic site. It marks the place where more than 10,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during the second world war, crowded into barracks, surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers with searchlights, and patrolled by military police.

Since then, Manzanar, which now has a museum and reconstructed barracks that visitors can walk through, has been transformed into a popular pilgrimage destination for Japanese Americans to remember and teach others about this history. (Manzanar was one of 10 concentration camps where the US government forcibly relocated and held more than 110,000 people of Japanese descent during the second world war.)

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Jevaughn Mark, 33, of Washington D.C., was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 180 months in federal prison for running a prolific drug delivery service in the metropolitan area and included the December 2023 sale of fentanyl he sold as “ketamine” that resulted in the deaths of two men, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro

Jevaughn Mark, 33, of Washington D.C., was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 180 months in federal prison for running a prolific drug delivery service in the metropolitan area and included the December 2023 sale of fentanyl he sold as “ketamine” that resulted in the deaths of two men, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro

Crissy Monique Baker, 45, a federal employee from Fairfax, Virginia, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to making false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims in connection with claiming to work more hours for the government than she actually did.