Jon Stewart on White House correspondents’ dinner: ‘We can’t even pull off a dinner that shouldn’t have existed in the first place’

Late-night hosts responded to the White House correspondents’ dinner shooting and Donald and Melania Trump’s attempts to blame political violence on Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes.Jon Stewart resumed his Monday night chair at the Daily Show less than two days after the shocking attack at the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night, which resulted in the arrest of one man and, thankfully, no injuries. “It was supposed to be an evening of fun and merriment until, like most things in America, it was interrupted by gunfire,” Stewart said. “This is why we can’t have nice things. And to be perfectly frank, it’s not even a nice thing

Antiquities dealer who exposed thefts at British Museum dies aged 61

The academic turned antiquities dealer who exposed the theft of hundreds of artefacts from the British Museum has died aged 61.Dr Ittai Gradel, from Denmark, alerted the British Museum and the police after he was able to buy dozens of museum artefacts on eBay over the course of several years.Gradel died of renal cancer days after receiving a rarely presented medal from the museum in recognition of what its director called his “very significant contribution”, according to the BBC.A police investigation is still ongoing, more than three years after the museum reported the thefts to Scotland Yard after pressure from Gradel. Before his death in a Danish hospice, Gradel – who would have been a key witness in any trial – told the BBC it was “a bit annoying” he wouldn’t live to see the resolution of the case

Having Spent Life Seeking by Kae Tempest review – painfully earnest tale of trauma and transition

Kae Tempest’s new novel is dedicated to “you”, the reader. It also comes with a plea: “Be gentle though.” But to whom or what should we be gentle? The book or the writer? Having Spent Life Seeking is Tempest’s second novel, arriving a decade after his first and following a period of considerable personal change, including gender transition. Perhaps inevitably, it is a book full of struggle and soul-searching. It is also painfully earnest: an enervating read with an exhausting intensity that neither relents nor resolves

The Primitives: ‘A reviewer said that Crash would finish the band. Then it was in Dumb and Dumber’

The Primitives formed in the summer of 1984 with a singer called Keiron, who brought me in to write songs. When he left, we pinned up an advert in Coventry library and Tracy, who I’d actually met before on a Youth Opportunity Programme, answered. At that point, we sounded more like the Birthday Party or the Gun Club, so I wrote three new songs – Through the Flowers, Across My Shoulder and Crash – to test a more pop direction. Crash was simple and noisy, with a basic guitar line that became the “Na na na” hook.It was in our live set, but we dropped it quite quickly

Arts funding gap in the north must be closed | Letters

It was pleasing to read about Labour’s commitment to the principle of access to art for “everyone” (Editorial, 17 April). Everyone seemingly in London, where a whopping £135m has been invested in the V&A East museum – the latest addition to the buzzing East Bank cultural quarter.When, I wonder, will this Arts Everywhere Fund arrive at what used to be the buzzing cultural centre of the Albert Docks in Liverpool, where the Tate has been closed for more than two years? Where the museum of slavery has closed its doors and where what was a buzzing arts area now looks neglected and abandoned.When will places in the north, such as the once-vibrant towns of Kendal, Barrow and Kirkby Lonsdale, be given the same large sums spent on venue after venue in London?All the towns mentioned above are, incidentally, desperately bidding for UK town of culture 2028 designation in the hope of winning some desperately needed cash to enhance their cultural sector and to bring to these long-neglected and once-thriving centres accessible places where people can share in the joy of music, theatre or heritage, as are enjoyed by our lucky communities in “once neglected areas of London”.Spread the joy, Lisa Nandy, and let’s all have a share in the investment

‘I wanted alcohol to take me to a place where I was not’: comedian John Robins on the moment he realised he had a drinking problem

For most of his life, John Robins assumed he got more out of alcohol than it took from him. Now he knows it was the other way round ‘I picked up the bottle of wine and drank straight out of it. I was seven’ Read an exclusive extract from his new memoirThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more