The US president’s strange mix of weakness and anti-Beijing hostility may be pushing Xi Jinping towards a fateful decision
The belief that bad things come in threes is an old superstition with scant basis in fact. Still, in these disordered times, it’s natural to wonder whether war in Europe and the Middle East will be followed by war in Asia. Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, firing off insults and missiles, recently demonstrated how real that prospect is. Emboldened by its alliance with Russia, North Korea’s unpredictable rogue regime threatens almost everyone.
Yet it is China’s accelerating confrontation with US-backed Taiwan that forms the most alarming panel in this gloomy Asian triptych. China’s president, Xi Jinping, has reportedly told his generals to be ready by 2027 to conquer the self-governing island, which he regards as stolen sovereign territory. US officials warned last week that China already has sufficient capability to invade now, with amphibious landing craft, D-day-style floating docks, paratroopers and expanded air combat and missile forces in a constant state of readiness.
Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
Opposition activists and journalists explain why the Orbánisation of the US may fail and how a former ally could end the Hungarian PM’s 15-year reign
On a sunny April afternoon in Budapest, a handful of reporters crowded around the back entrance of the Dorothea, a luxury hotel tucked between a Madame Tussauds waxworks museum and a discount clothing store in the city’s walking district.
Most had spent hours outside the hotel, hoping to confirm reports that Donald Trump Jr was inside. News of his visit had leaked two days earlier, but much of his agenda remained shrouded in secrecy, save for a meeting with the Hungarian foreign minister.
Using money to break up a relationship, particularly one with children, is not loving behaviour. You have to take control of your own life
I have been with my partner for 14 years and we have two small children together. I have always had a complicated relationship with my mother, who was a stern disciplinarian when I was growing up, and is deeply sensitive and lacks social confidence. I too am probably overly sensitive and get anxious.
My partner believes that my mother doesn’t think she is good enough for me. There have been numerous hints that this is the case, and she recently told me she was surprised when I started a relationship with someone whom she considers to be of “a different class”.
Begging doctors for tests, I worried that I was missing something and heading for an early death. Would understanding the roots of my health anxiety lead me to a cure?
Throughout my adolescence and into my mid-20s, I spent a lot of time trying to understand my body. I was unwell, that much was certain. The question of exactly what was wrong with me was one to which I applied myself studiously. I had theories, of course. Looking back, these tended to change quite frequently, and yet the fear was always the same: in short, that I was dying, that I had some dreadful and no doubt painful disease that, for all my worrying, I had carelessly allowed to reach the point at which it had become incurable.
This started at university, when I developed a headache that didn’t go away. The pain wasn’t severe, but it was constant – accompanied by a strange feeling of belatedness that told me it had already been going on for some time. How long, exactly, I couldn’t say – weeks, definitely. Maybe it had been years.
The surviving editions of the world’s oldest, continuously published English-language daily can now be accessed free
There was a packed news agenda on 3 October 1738. The father of the notorious highwayman Dick Turpin had been arrested after being found with a stolen horse. Cannon fire rang out in St Petersburg to mark a Russian victory over the Ottoman Empire. In America, four families had been killed in Virginia in clashes with Native Americans. Meanwhile, a horse fell in the Thames at Westminster, nearly causing a drowning.
Welcome to the pages of the Belfast News Letter, where updates on the French Revolution run alongside adverts for brandy and the American Declaration of Independence was reported as a contemporary event.
US defence secretary ‘vilified china with defamatory allegations’ at Shangri-La Dialogue
China’s government has accused Pete Hegseth of trying to “sow division” in the Asia Pacific region over his speech at a Singapore defence conference where he warned China was a potentially “imminent” threat.
On Saturday Hegseth said China was “credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific”, and was rehearsing for “the real deal” of invading Taiwan.
At the start of Pride month, groups report rise in hate crimes as politicians use laws and speeches to target trans people in particular
Far-right politicians in Europe are weaponising LGBTQ+ rights and sowing divisions that are sending hate crimes soaring, campaigners have said as communities prepare to mark Pride month.
For years, countries in Europe were among those at the forefront of advancing rights, making steady progress on issues such as marriage equality, said Katrin Hugendubel of ILGA-Europe, an umbrella organisation that works with more than 700 groups across Europe and central Asia.
He had become a father for the first time, but it had not gone to plan. At 12 weeks pregnant, his wife was put on bed rest. At 24 weeks, their son, Max, was born.
‘Prior associations’ appear to cost billionaire the chance to be Nasa administrator, as US president says new nominee ‘will be mission aligned’
The White House has withdrawn Jared Isaacman as its nominee for Nasa administrator, abruptly yanking a close ally of Elon Musk from consideration to lead the space agency.
Donald Trump said he would announce a new candidate soon. “After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head Nasa,” the US president posted online. “I will soon announce a new Nominee who will be mission aligned, and put America first in space.”
Siakam scores 31 as Pacers reach second NBA finals
Pacers’ 9-0 run after half sparks Game 6 knockout
Knicks commit 17 turnovers, fall short of comeback
Pascal Siakam and Tyrese Haliburton made sure the Indiana Pacers gave their fans a celebration they waited 25 years to see again.
Siakam had 31 points and Haliburton scored 11 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter, carrying the Pacers to a 125-108 victory over the New York Knicks on Saturday night for a 4-2 series win and their first trip to the NBA finals since 2000.
Stark shoots 70 to take solo lead at 7-under overall
López Ramirez surges with 68 after recent surgery
Tricky greens trigger triple bogeys across the field
Maja Stark could tell pretty early Saturday that Erin Hills would provide much more of a challenge than it had in the first two days of the US Women’s Open.
Yet she found a way to avoid the mistakes that befell so many other competitors during a brutal third round. Now the 25-year-old from Sweden is in position to earn the $2.4m prize in the biggest event of the women’s golf season.
A critically endangered possum species thought to be isolated to Victoria has been found in a New South Wales alpine national park.
Previously thought to be extinct in the state, a leadbeater’s possum has been found in Kosciuszko national park, at least 250km away from the nearest sighting in Victoria.
The political swing state has a $900bn economy, with hospitality, industrial manufacturing – and movies
If you want a bellwether to measure the broad impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs on the economy, look south, to Georgia. The political swing state has a $900bn economy – somewhere between the GDPs of Taiwan and Switzerland.
The hospitality industry is facing an existential crisis. Wine merchants wonder aloud if they will survive the year. But others, like those in industrial manufacturing, will carefully argue that well-positioned businesses will profit. Some say they’re insulated from international competition by the nature of their industry. Others, like the movie industry, are simply confused by the proposals that have been raised, and are looking for entirely different answers. So far, it’s a mixed bag.
Explosions heard in Ukrainian capital a week after it endured biggest air raid of the war; evacuations in Sumy as Russians grab villages. What we know on day 1,194
Ukrainian air defences were trying to repel a Russian air attack on Kyiv, the mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said early on Sunday. Air raid and missile alerts were issued just before 2am on Sunday morning. Ukrainian news outlets reported the sound of explosions. It comes a week after the biggest Russian air raid of the war against the Ukrainian capital.
Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine killed at least two people including a nine-year-old girl on Saturday, officials said. Russian troops launched 109 drones and five missiles across Ukraine overnight and into Saturday, the Ukrainian air force saod. Three of the missiles and 42 drones were destroyed and another 30 drones failed to reach their targets, causing no damage, it said. The girl was killed in a strike on the frontline village of Dolynka in the Zaporizhzhia region, and a 16-year-old was injured, said Zaporizhzhia’s governor, Ivan Fedorov. A man was killed by Russian shelling in Ukraine’s Kherson region, said Oleksandr Prokudin, its governor.
William Christou writes that Ukrainian officials issued evacuation orders on Saturday for 11 more villages in the northern Sumy region amid Russian territorial gains. The Russian ministry of defence said it had taken control of the village of Novopil in the eastern Donetsk region, as well as the village of Vodolahy in the northern Sumy region. By Sunday, 213 settlements were under evacuation orders in Sumy, which borders Russia’s Kursk region. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said about 50,000 Russian troops have amassed in the area with the intention of launching an offensive to carve out a buffer zone inside Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine’s top army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Saturday that Russian forces were focusing their main offensive efforts on Pokrovsk, Torets and Lyman in the Donetsk region, as well as the Sumy border area. Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces continued holding territory in Russia’s Kursk region, counter to Russian claims. In Kursk, a local official said 14 people were injured including four children when Ukrainian drones struck apartment buildings.
Zelenskyy said Russia was “undermining diplomacy” by withholding a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the more than three-year war. Talks have been tentatively scheduled for Istanbul during the coming week but “for some reason, the Russians are concealing this document. This is an absolutely bizarre position. There is no clarity about the format,” Zelenskyy said. Ukraine has provided its peace terms but in a delaying tactic the Kremlin has said it will only reciprocate at the negotiating table, leaving Kyiv unable to properly prepare for the meeting.
The comedian and TV writer on a cringeworthy moment with Charli xcx, his viral September videos and why we should forgive Don Cheadle’s cockney accent
On 21 September each year between 2016 and 2021, you made a series of increasingly elaborate tributes to the Earth, Wind and Fire song September that were viewed millions of times. Do you hate that song now?
I do feel stressed whenever I hear September but I try to ignore it. A few years ago, before the last video came out, I had a panic attack at a Home Depot simply by imagining that it came on. That’s when I was like, I gotta stop doing this – I don’t think I enjoy it any more. I made people think I really love that song. It was just a fun idea. I don’t want people to feel bad for me. I was hoist by my own petard. I’m the one who made it a thing!
Attacking tyro with a martial artist’s precision is Neymar without the madness and the further maths version of Lamine Yamal’s fine art
The third great Moment of Doué was beautiful for its simplicity, 63 minutes into this game and with Paris Saint-Germain 2-0 up. As Désiré Doué glided in on goal, all alone suddenly in a wide open patch of green, he was found by a deliciously weighted through pass from Vitinha.
From there Doué allowed the ball to run across him as the retreating Inter defenders closed at his back, a perfect little screenshot of time, space, angles, ground speed allowing him to open his right instep and shoot with the path of the pass, wrong-footing Yann Sommer and easing the ball into the far corner.
After losing two finals in three seasons to state-owned investment funds, this ageing team reduced their fans to tears
They stay just long enough to see the trophy lifted. Most have discarded their losing medals by the time the pyrotechnics go off and Marquinhos raises the European Cup into the muggy Munich night. There is a watery smattering of applause. Then, with a turn of pace so sadly lacking during the game itself, they turn and head for the tunnel, past a battalion of photographers whose lenses are facing in the opposite direction.
What does it feel like to lose a Champions League final 5-0? Right now, and possibly for many years to come, this Inter team will be the only ones who know. Many of their fans were weeping uncontrollably in the stands, in the concourses, all along the road that leads back to the Métro station. For the 22 players and thousands of supporters who crossed the Alps so full of dreams, this is the sort of sporting trauma that defines generations.
Richard Bednar apologized after Utah appeals court discovered false citations, including one nonexistent case
The Utah court of appeals has sanctioned a lawyer after he was discovered to have used ChatGPT for a filing he made in which he referenced a nonexistent court case.
Earlier this week, the Utah court of appeals made the decision to sanction Richard Bednar over claims that he filed a brief which included false citations.
Plans for £1.5bn investment in munitions manufacturing response to government’s defence review’s call to boost stockpiles
The UK will spend £1.5bn on building six munitions and energetics factories to “better deter our adversaries” as part of its long-awaited strategic defence review.
John Healey, the defence secretary, said the funds formed part of plans for an “always-on” weapons pipeline and would support the procurement of up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons.
LSU Shreveport cap perfect 59-0 season with NAIA title
Pilots clinch first national title in any sport for school
Team led NAIA in fielding, scoring and pitching stats
LSU Shreveport became the first college baseball team on record to go unbeaten, finishing 59-0 when they won the NAIA championship in Lewiston, Idaho.
The Pilots’ perfect season ended with a 13-7 victory over Southeastern (Florida) on Friday night and gave the 10,000-student school in northwest Louisiana its first national title in any sport.
The suffering only makes it sweeter and how Paris Saint-Germain had suffered in the Champions League after the Qatar Sports Investments takeover of 2011. Before this season, it had been 12 consecutive qualifications for the knockout rounds and 12 assorted sets of heartbreak, some scarcely believable. A first success in the competition consistently eluded them.
This was the night when the French champions broke through, when they delivered on the obsession of their owners, of everybody connected to the club; 13th time lucky. All of the emotion came pouring out as Luis Enrique’s swashbuckling team tore into Inter, the result not in doubt from the moment that Désiré Doué made it 2-0 before the midway point of the first half. The 19-year-old was nervelessly brilliant.
“Shoes off!” barked my slightly bossy friend Kit as I was about to cross her threshold. I was taken aback: was this a new habit adopted from social media or some lifestyle guru?
Kit is not obsessive, but she is house proud. She lives in the country, her house surrounded by muddy lawn near a beach, so it makes sense not to drag dirt on to her beautifully polished parquetry or scratch it with sand. She goes about barefoot year-round: slippers are not her style. She keeps a pair of rubber slides at the back door for putting the bins out, or going to the veggie patch.
Experts praise groundbreaking results from therapy using genetically modified Car T-cells
Cancer patients treated with a pioneering immunotherapy that genetically modifies their own cells to wipe out tumours live 40% longer, according to “exciting” and “groundbreaking” results from a world-first clinical trial.
Car T-cell therapy is a new form of immunotherapy where a patient’s own T-cells – a type of white blood cell – are tweaked in a lab to target and kill cancer cells. The designer cells are then infused back into their bloodstream to fight the disease.
Daniel and I went to the same high school in Melbourne. He was a year older than me, and we must have passed each other thousands of times, but I have no memory of ever talking to him. We knew of each other, but we didn’t know each other’s names.
We met properly for the first time at a pre-drinks when I was in my first year of university. He was holding a six-pack of beer and looked vaguely familiar. I introduced myself, he offered me one of his drinks and we got talking.
Israel and US envoy reject group’s proposal to free 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in exchange for release of Palestinian prisoners
Hamas said on Saturday that it had submitted its response containing some amendments to a proposal presented by Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to mediators, the most concrete sign of progress towards a ceasefire since March.
The Palestinian group said in a statement that under the deal, it will release 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in return for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners – a change to the US’s latest proposal that will make it more difficult for Israel to resume fighting if talks on a permanent ceasefire are not completed by the end of the truce.
Emmy award-winning TV, stage and film actor also known for her role in Young Sheldon died of cancer
Valerie Mahaffey, the Emmy-award winning actor known for her roles on Northern Exposure, Desperate Housewives and Young Sheldon, died on Friday. She was 71.
Her husband, actor Joseph Kell, said in a statement to Variety: “I have lost the love of my life, and America has lost one of its most endearing actresses. She will be missed.”
Pennant watch. Here’s what PSG captain Marquinhos will be handing over during the pre-match niceties. A typically classy piece in the retro-poster style, here it’s the centrepiece of an enigmatic pop-art collage also featuring a fruit platter, several hundred toothpicks, some power bars, three toilet rolls, a carry case of assorted hardware, and what may or may not be a box of Terry’s Chocolate Orange in the top-right corner. If this was an LP cover you’d stay up half the night trying to decode it.
Inter are playing in their third-choice yellow strip this evening. So that means their pennant will clash with captain Lautaro Martínez’s shirt, but what a gorgeous thing it is anyway (the current Volkswagen-adjacent monstrosity of a crest, not half as good as the old interlapping FCIM logo, notwithstanding).
Twist ending to this year’s series sees star leaving role and return of Billie Piper
Ncuti Gatwa is leaving Doctor Who, with the character regenerating as Billie Piper during the finale of the science-fiction series.
The Doctor Who show runner, Russell T Davies, said: “What a Doctor! Thank you, Ncuti! As his final words say, this has been an absolute joy, and the team in Cardiff and everyone who has worked on this show for the past few years are so lucky to have been part of Ncuti’s great adventure as he shoots off to stratospheric new heights.”
Washington state officials swarmed to scene to find 70,000lbs of hives and bees abuzz in a sticky situation
Officials near the US border were abuzz after being relentlessly attacked on Friday morning by a swarm of fugitives: honeybees had escaped after a truck carrying hives overturned near the Canadian border. About 250 million honeybees flew free of the truck around 4am a few miles south of Canada.
The truck that was transporting around 70,000lbs of hives and honeybees rolled over on a road in north-western Washington state. Local sheriff deputies and bee experts swarmed to the scene, where they removed the box hives to help recover and rescue as many bees as possible. The driver of the truck was not injured.
More than half of all the top trending videos offering mental health advice on TikTok contain misinformation, a Guardian investigation has found.
People are increasingly turning to social media for mental health support, yet research has revealed that many influencers are peddling misinformation, including misused therapeutic language, “quick fix” solutions and false claims.
Briton trailed Isaac del Toro by 1min 21sec before stage
Yates establishes 3mins 56sec lead in remarkable attack
The Colle delle Finestre is a sporting theatre in the north of Italy and just a short ski run from the border of France but it has become the site of two of Britain’s most incredible moments in this race. In 2018 Simon Yates was leading the Giro d’Italia by 3min 22sec but became the victim of Chris Froome’s imperious ride on the same slopes. That day, Yates collapsed and ultimately finished 38 minutes behind Froome but on Saturday, seven years later, the rider from Bury would have his redemption by pulling the same trick on Isaac del Toro and Yates will now – barring accidents – win his second Grand Tour on Sunday.
This was billed as Del Toro v Richard Carapaz and even pre-stage Yates was playing down his chances, he said those two riders were a “step above”. This was clearly a bluff. Over the last 38.5km of almost entirely uphill racing, Yates overturned his 1min 21sec pre-stage deficit and created an insurmountable time gap of 3min 56sec to Del Toro.
Draper defeats 18-year-old João Fonseca 6-2, 6-4, 6-2
Norrie sees off fellow Briton Jacob Fearnley 6-3, 7-6, 6-2
A few days on from his unforgettable late-night escape against the oldest player inside the men’s top 100, Jack Draper found himself up against the youngest of them all. From the unparalleled defensive capabilities of the 38-year-old Gaël Monfils, Draper examined the 18-year-old João Fonseca’s nuclear forehand.
No matter the challenge or conditions, Draper continues to show his ability to adapt to all obstacles in his path. He eased into the fourth round of the French Open for the first time in his career with an utterly devastating performance, by far his best of the tournament so far, dismantling Fonseca 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.
Lewis Hamilton finds form to secure fifth for Ferrari
Oscar Piastri barely broke a sweat under the blazing Catalan sun, demonstrating a fearsome control to claim pole for the Spanish Grand Prix. Indeed, such has been the dominance and the nonchalance with which he claimed this pole and his wins this season, it was put to him that he was taking on Kimi Räikkönen’s mantle as the Ice Man, albeit in the somewhat less flattering form for the 24-year-old of Ice Boy.
Piastri’s pole was imperious at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, beating his teammate Lando Norris into second by a huge two-tenths of a second, the biggest margin of the season, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third, three-tenths down.
Ramon Morales-Reyes might have been set up by man who allegedly attacked and robbed him in 2023
An undocumented man who was accused by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, Kristi Noem, last week of threatening to assassinate Donald Trump in a letter may have been framed by someone accused of previously attacking the man, according to news reports.
Investigators are said to be looking into whether the letter was an attempt to get the man deported, to prevent him from testifying against his alleged attacker.
It’s not the first time the president has sought to curry favor this way. His instincts about Black Americans are clear
This week, Donald Trump issued two dozen presidential pardons to a motley crew of wrongdoers, including shady politicians, fraudulent CEOs and other wealthy ne’er-do-wells. On that list were the Louisiana rapper NBA YoungBoy (whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden) and the Chicago gangster Larry Hoover.
Regardless of where you stand on American carceral culture and what we know about the ways the criminal justice system squashes Black people who have the misfortune of interacting with it, Trump handing out pardons to Hoover and Gaulden isn’t the magnanimous or justice-focused move he wants us to believe it is. Instead, it’s a clear effort to garner support from the Black community by way of its big names.
With hit musical Stereophonic arriving in the West End and their albums permanently lodged in the charts, the rockers have earned a devoted new generation of fans
A time traveller from 50 years ago might be surprised if they were to visit the UK now – not so much by the echoes of the politics, with an embattled Labour government and a resurgent far right, but by the prevalence of Fleetwood Mac.
The Broadway hit Stereophonic, written by David Adjmi, opened in the West End this week after becoming the most nominated play in Tony award history (it ended up winning five out of 13, including best play). It invites theatregoers to journey back to 1976 and “plug into the electric atmosphere as one up-and-coming rock band record the album that could propel them to superstardom. Amid a powder keg of drugs, booze and jealousy, songs come together and relationships fall apart.”
Yonatan Cohen’s 10th minute strike seals title for City
Jubilation for one side of Melbourne, despair for the other. Melbourne City are champions of the A-League Men after defeating Melbourne Victory 1-0 at AAMI Park on Saturday.
As the final whistle rang out, Joe Marston Medalist Mat Leckie moved to embrace young teammate Alessandro Lopane. On the sideline, coach Aurelio Vidmar – who had never previously beaten Victory as City coach and lost to Victory in the 2009 decider as coach of Adelaide – was embraced in a bearhug by City director of football Michael Petrillo and assistants Paul Pezos and Scott Jamison.
Lewis Hamilton will hope this issue doesn’t plague him when qualifying commences in 20 minutes or so.
There’s lots of focus on the grid’s two Spanish drivers this weekend, for obvious reasons. Neither Carlos Sainz Jr nor Fernando Alonso have particularly troubled the sharp end of the leaderboard this season but could be inspired by a home crowd.
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