It’s one thing to remove a PM from office, as happened to the former cricketer in 2022. But it’s another thing to try to eradicate the most famous person in Pakistan’s history

• This article originally appeared in Equator, a new magazine of politics, culture and art

Just so we’re clear, the following is a fact. Not opinion, not a point of view, not a hot take. Fact. There is no Pakistani – male, female, dead, alive, real, imagined – as famous as Imran Khan. Every turn in a multifarious public life has abounded in fame, first as a cricket legend, then as a beloved philanthropist who built a cancer hospital for the poor, latterly as a maverick politician who swept to power promising reform, and now, as the sole occupant of a cell in Pakistan’s most notorious jail. So famous he’s been the subject of two death hoaxes – most recently in November, when he went unseen for so long that many concluded he had died.

There have been others with greater accomplishments. There may come others in the future. But in almost 79 years of Pakistan, in the pure currency of fame, of being known and recognised, of being talked about, of being the one Pakistani everyone can name, there is nobody beyond Imran. (He is almost universally known by his first name alone.) It holds even now, two years into the state’s attempts to erase him from public life. In that time, they’ve barred TV channels from saying his name on air and stopped newspapers from publishing his picture; they’ve even scrubbed him from the footage of his greatest sporting triumph.

The PM is figurehead of the international rightwing movement but that has alienated his most loyal voter base

“Viktor Orbán is a true friend, fighter, and WINNER, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Hungary,” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social last month. The US president followed up with a video message to far-right leaders meeting in Budapest, describing Orbán as a “fantastic guy”.

Orbán, a long-term friend and ally of Trump, may need all the support he can gather ahead of the Hungarian parliamentary elections on 12 April. The prime minister and his Fidesz party are trailing in most opinion polls. His main challenger, Péter Magyar, and his Tisza party are leading by nearly 10 percentage points. The public debate in Hungary has shifted dramatically: the question is no longer whether the opposition can win, but whether Orbán will accept defeat.

Gellert Tamas is a Swedish-Hungarian author and journalist. His next book, 56 Days, will be published in 2027

In an exclusive interview, the England forward explains she is ‘locked in’ for the Gunners’ Champions League quarter-final against Chelsea

Alessia Russo is happy and it shows. The 27-year-old is playing some of the best football of her career for Arsenal and England. She has 15 goals and six assists in 29 games for her club this season, is the leading scorer in the Champions League before the first leg of the quarter-final against Chelsea on Tuesday, and has four goals in six games for England since her equaliser in the Euro 2025 final.

“Whenever you’re happy in life and in your club environment, it breathes on to the pitch,” she says. “I do feel in a really good place. I feel super calm and I’m just enjoying my football.

Production based on 1993 novel opens at Theatre Royal Haymarket in London in July, with original songs co-written by the author

It has been a book, a play and a film. It has also spawned three sequels, a prequel and two soundtrack albums. Now, Irvine Welsh’s 1993 debut novel Trainspotting is to find new life as a musical.

Opening at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London in July, Trainspotting the Musical will be adapted by the author with an original set of songs, plus others that were used in Danny Boyle’s celebrated film.

The revered documentarian wades into unexplored territory with the US president and Xi Jinping’s relationship – and there is a moment so startling that it feels like pure comedy gold

It’s not normal to view documentaries about international trade negotiations as light relief, but we are where we are. Clash of the Superpowers: America vs China is a two-parter produced by film-maker Norma Percy, whose signature style – on series including The Iraq War, Putin vs the West and Inside Europe: Ten Years of Turmoil – is to use first-hand testimonies to revisit diplomatic flashpoints from a decade or so ago: sufficiently soon after the events for everyone who was there to still be alive, but late enough for them to no longer be in the same job and now be willing to gossip.

Percy’s latest opens with the arrival of Chinese president Xi Jinping at the Davos forum in 2017. On his debut appearance at the event, Xi stimulates delegates with a speech positioning himself as a champion of free trade, offering to work with other countries for mutual economic benefit. What might historically have been an odd tack for China’s leader is not that surprising to the bankers, financiers and politicians in the room, who know Xi is pre-empting the inauguration, a few days later, of Donald Trump as US president.

Enslaved by debt, victims often feel compelled to sell an organ to repay loans – but can find themselves even worse off after the procedure

Shafeeq Masih* faced an impossible choice: remain trapped for ever by the debt he owed to the owner of the brick kiln where he worked, just outside the Pakistani city of Lahore, or try to pay it off by selling the only thing he had of any value: one of his kidneys.

The brick kiln owner was harassing him to repay the debt, which he claimed stood at 900,000 rupees (£2,420), but however hard he worked, it just kept growing. Masih knew the owner was fiddling the books but says, “whatever they put in writing, we can’t question that. They see us as slaves. We just have to obey.”

There are an estimated 20,000 brick kilns in Pakistan, employing as many as five million workers, the vast majority of whom are believed to be in debt bondage

Iranian parliament speaker says ‘no negotiations’ held with US, as Trump postpones energy strikes for five days

• Trump claims ‘productive’ talks with Iran

• Analysis: surprise talks offer uncertain path out of conflict

• How fuel shortages are affecting readers worldwide

In Australia, the number of petrol stations running out of fuel continues to climb as the Middle East war drags on, with at least 184 dry across the country’s three most populous states.

On Tuesday, 51 service stations in the state of New South Wales were out of fuel and 164 out of diesel, compared with 38 and 131 respectively the previous day, premier Chris Minns said.

Diplomatic sources say negotiations in Islamabad may begin next week, though no formal agreement is in place

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Pakistan’s military leadership has been attempting to broker negotiations between the US and Iran, after the White House confirmed that Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, had a phonecall with Donald Trump on Sunday to discuss the conflict.

Diplomatic sources said the US and Iran could meet for negotiations in Islamabad as early as this week, to discuss an end to the war which began almost a month ago.

Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf at first dismissed talks took place, insisting Trump’s claim was ‘fake news’ designed to soothe markets

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The backchannel talks between Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, were not a secret in the sense that the Egyptian foreign ministry had tweeted that conversations were under way on Sunday, 24 hours before Donald Trump’s late Monday deadline to start blowing up Iran’s energy infrastructure.

But such is the chaos surrounding the process that the discussions – thought to be well short of negotiations – may have lasted longer than Sunday, with more than one mediator, as is often the case, jostling for the title of peacemaker-in-chief.

Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, for instance, spoke with Trump on Sunday, while the Pakistani prime minister, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, held talks with the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, on Monday. It is possible Pakistan could become the venue for further talks that this time would include JD Vance, the vice-president, a private sceptic about the war. Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, was right to warn not to bank on an early end to the conflict.

Met police say authenticating claim of responsibility by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia is ‘priority’

Security agencies are investigating whether a group linked to Iran is behind an arson attack on four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity in north London.

The Metropolitan police said efforts to authenticate a claim of responsibility made by a group known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI) were a priority as the force sought to track three hooded people caught on CCTV at the scene.