Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed the nation, saying the IDF had targted Iran’s leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb.
He said that Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz had been targeted.
This operation will continue for as many days as it takes … We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history.
Spaun ends with one-stroke lead over Thriston Lawrence
There was a Thursday spell where it felt like Oakmont had poked the bear. Rory McIlroy was two under par, he had fired a drive 392 yards; it seemed the Masters champion had his mojo back. McIlroy has been in uncharted, strange psychological territory since completion of the career grand slam at Augusta National in April.
Oakmont and the US Open then jabbed back in the manner only Oakmont and the US Open know. By the time McIlroy walked from the ninth green, his last, he had taken 74 shots including a second half of 41. He took a double-bogey five at the 8th. McIlroy’s demeanour showed he still cares.
Emergency meeting held with athletes over decision
Decision leaves LA without major meeting this summer
Michael Johnson cancelled the final leg of the new Grand Slam Track series in Los Angeles before an emergency meeting with athletes on Thursday night, leaving the host of the 2028 Olympics and the country’s second-largest city without a major track meeting this summer.
Johnson raised around $30m to launch Grand Slam Track this spring, promising a new way of doing track – involving a group of runners under contract racing twice over a weekend and focusing more on where they finished than actual times. Among the top athletes he signed were Olympic champions Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gabby Thomas, though two other American track stars, Sha’Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles, did not race in the league.
Batter confident despite 218-run deficit in WTC final
Pat Cummins hails ‘brilliant’ Alex Carey for rescue act
The destiny of the mace may still be in the balance but David Bedingham admitted Australia’s bowlers had already “shown they’re the best in the world” in bowling South Africa out for 138 on the second day of the World Test Championship final. Pat Cummins claimed six wickets to put his team in the ascendancy but on a whirligig day of constantly oscillating fortunes, the Proteas promptly bowled themselves back into contention, with Australia reaching stumps on 144 for eight, nursing a lead of 218.
“It’s an amazing chance, and we’re all excited about the opportunity to win,” said Bedingham. “It could go either way but us as a team are very, very excited and there’s a lot of belief in the dressing room. We’re very confident. When they started batting in their second innings we would definitely have taken this score. So very confident, there’s massive belief in this team.”
Video shows Padilla being restrained and ejected as he tries to question homeland security secretary at press event
Alex Padilla, a Democratic California senator and vocal critic of the Trump administration’s immigration polices, was forcibly removed and handcuffed as he attempted to ask a question at a press conference held by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, in Los Angeles on Thursday.
In video taken of the incident that has since gone viral on social media, Padilla is seen being restrained and removed from the room by Secret Service and FBI agents.
In a week that England’s senior side have hardly covered themselves in glory, perhaps the under-21s could make it another memorable summer? While Lee Carsley has played down his youthful squad’s chances of emulating Dave Sexton’s back-to-back triumphs in becoming European champions in 1982 and 1984, a convincing and mature victory over a boisterously backed Czech Republic team hinted that it may not be beyond the realms of possibility.
Goals from Harvey Elliott and Charlie Cresswell sandwiched by another from Jonathan Rowe were enough to allow England to take a commanding position in Group B after brief hopes of a comeback from the Czech Republic. Victory over Slovenia, who were beaten 3-0 by Germany in their opening match, on Sunday would assure a place in the quarter-finals.
Hamilton: ‘There is no question as to where my head is at’
40-year-old is 115 points off lead in world championship
Lewis Hamilton insisted he will be in Formula One for several years as he moved to defend the disappointing start to his Ferrari career. Hamilton described the recent Spanish Grand Prix – where he was ordered by Ferrari to move aside for teammate Charles Leclerc and was then passed by Sauber driver Nico Hülkenberg in the closing laps – as one of the worst races he has ever experienced.
Hamilton is 23 points behind Leclerc, and 115 adrift of the championship leader, Oscar Piastri, before this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix. But speaking on the eve of the race in Montreal, the 40-year-old, who is in the first of a two-season deal with Ferrari, said: “I have literally only just started with this team. I am here for several years and I am in it for the long haul.
Dane joins from Brentford after almost seven years there
He replaces Ange Postecoglou, who was sacked
Tottenham have confirmed the appointment of Thomas Frank as their new manager. The 51-year-old Dane joins from Brentford on a contract that runs until 2028, and succeeds Ange Postecoglou, who delivered Europa League glory to end Spurs’ 17-year trophy drought but was sacked because of dismal results in the Premier League.
Spurs moved to line up Frank before dismissing Postecoglou last Friday, holding talks via intermediaries and plainly keen to avoid a protracted search for the person to lead them forward after a season in which they finished 17th with 38 points. Only once in club history have they had a worse league record – in 1914-15.
Israel has threatened to destroy Tehran’s nuclear programme before, ultimately holding back in absence of Washington’s support
The withdrawal of non-essential US personnel from parts of the Middle East and the anonymously sourced US reports in the past 24 hours that Israel is on the brink of an all-out attack on Iran are all deeply alarming, but they are also familiar.
The Israeli government has approached the same precipice, of a war to destroy Tehran’s nuclear programme, several times in the past two decades, going as far as honing detailed plans and conducting practice air sorties.
Witnesses at a hospital near the impact site described parts of the plane landing on a canteen building as 200 people ate inside
At 9.48am on Thursday, Air India flight 423 took off from New Delhi bound for Ahmedabad, the largest city in Gujarat state, 600 miles south-west. It was an entirely normal day – although hotter than usual for the time of year in north India – and an entirely normal flight, except for the fact that the plane, an 11-year-old Boeing Dreamliner, landed 20 minutes early.
After more than two hours on the tarmac parked at Terminal 2 of the sprawling Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel international airport, captain Sumeet Sabharwal, an experienced pilot, taxied on to the single runway and prepared for takeoff.
Proposals this week to weaken EPA restrictions will help tiny group of owners while ‘the American people will breathe dirtier air’
Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claimed on Wednesday that its plan to eviscerate power plant pollution standards will save the US about $1bn a year. In reality, though, this represents a starkly uneven trade-off, experts say.
The savings for “Americans” will go entirely to power plant operators who won’t have to cut their pollution, while at the same time climate and health benefits for all Americans that are 20 times larger in dollar terms will be deleted.
Russian-born scientist Kseniia Petrova was charged with smuggling after detention at Boston airport in February
A judge released a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos into the US on Thursday, freeing her on bail after a brief hearing.
Kseniia Petrova, 30, who was brought into court wearing an orange jumpsuit, had been in federal custody since February. She was seen walking out of the courthouse laughing and hugging supporters.
With the innocence of a child and the vision of a god, his craft was astonishing. From Jessica Pratt to Jim James and Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil, top musicians explain why he was like no other
For all the sophistication that everyone talks about, Brian never loses the thread of the song: the emotion. They have this childlike quality. These days we’d probably say he’s on the spectrum – there’s a sort of Asperger’s type innocence. He makes the lyrics and the melody speak. It’s so welcoming and without edge; it’s not part of a cynical adult world.
CBP claims in statement that they are ‘providing officer safety surveillance when requested by officers’
Customs and Border Protection is flying surveillance drones over the Los Angeles protests, the agency confirmed in a statement on Thursday. The drones in question are MQ-9 Predators, some models of which are equipped with technology that would enable high-altitude surveillance. In a statement to 404 Media, which first reported the presence of the drones, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the drones were deployed to support “our federal law enforcement partners in the Greater Los Angeles area, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with aerial support of their operations”. Ice conducts raids and arrests, activity that has ramped up under Donald Trump’s administration and against which protesters in Los Angeles have been demonstrating.
CBP also said in a statement that its air and marine operations were “not engaged in the surveillance of first amendment activities”, but that they are “providing officer safety surveillance when requested by officers”.
State says it would challenge president’s resolution, setting up a battle over California’s environmental measures
Donald Trump has blocked California’s first-in-the-nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, signing a resolution on Thursday to stymie the state’s ambitious attempt to tackle the climate crisis by pivoting to greener vehicles.
The state quickly announced it was challenging the move in court, with California’s attorney general holding a news conference to discuss the lawsuit before Trump’s signing ceremony ended at the White House.
The resolution was approved by Congress last month and aims to quash the country’s most aggressive attempt to phase out gas-powered cars. Trump also signed measures to overturn state policies curbing tailpipe emissions in certain vehicles and smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks.
California has some of the worst smog and air quality issues in the nation, and has for decades been able to seek waivers from the Environmental Protection Agency that have allowed the state to adopt stricter emissions standards than the federal government.
Pressure grows for snap election as judge finds ‘firm evidence’ of Santos Cerdán’s possible role in kickbacks
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has apologised to voters but ruled out a snap election after a senior member of his Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) resigned hours after a supreme court judge found “firm evidence” of his possible involvement in taking kickbacks on public construction contracts.
Diplomacy can do more to slow Tehran’s alarming progress than threats from Israel
A year into his first term, Donald Trump pulled the US out of the hard-won international deal that had slowed Iran’s advance towards nuclear weapons, and imposed punishing sanctions. Europe tried to keep the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA) on life support. But the strangling of Iran’s economy, and the US assassination of Qassem Suleimani, the powerful head of its Quds force, undermined the country’s moderates and the progress on non-proliferation.
The fallout of Mr Trump’s Iran policy is still becoming evident. On Thursday, the UN nuclear watchdog found, for the first time in two decades, that Tehran was not in compliance with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Iran vowed to “significantly” increase production of enriched uranium in retaliation, following a pattern of escalation in response to International Atomic Energy Agency criticism. US and European officials say that Israel appears ready to strike its adversary’s nuclear facilities. Fear of the consequences reportedly drove the US decision to withdraw non-essential diplomatic personnel from Iraq, Bahrain and Kuwait.
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After nine years of delay, it was high time that Britain and Europe sorted out the future of the Rock
Nine years ago, Gibraltar voted by 96% to 4% to remain in the European Union. However, the UK’s simultaneous 52% to 48% leave vote meant Gibraltarians were denied their own will. As the only British overseas territory sharing a land frontier with the EU’s border-free Schengen travel area, and as the focus of a territorial dispute with Spain dating from 1713, this change threatened Gibraltar’s position with a new impasse. The economy of the Rock, heavily dependent on the 15,000 mainly low-wage Spanish residents who routinely cross the border to work there each day, faced an existential danger.
Since 2016, officials from Gibraltar, Britain, Spain and the EU have intermittently attempted to resolve the problems. For years, the process was glacial, and occasionally petulant. In Boris Johnson’s rush to leave the EU, the issue was simply ignored. As recently as 2023, a hard border between Gibraltar and Spain was said to be unavoidable. This week, however, a much better deal was finally sorted. Though the detailed text has yet to be published, it appears to offer the kind of frictionless border crossing on which Gibraltar and the surrounding area depend, as well as being emblematic of the pragmatic reset with Europe being pursued by Sir Keir Starmer’s government.
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Pam Bondi says state employing policies similar to those used by California amid immigration crackdown
The US justice department said on Thursday that it had filed a lawsuit against New York state, challenging state policies that blocked immigration officials from arresting individuals at or near New York courthouses.
“Specifically, the complaint challenges a law, called the Protect Our Courts Act, that purposefully shields dangerous aliens from being lawfully detained at or on their way to or from a courthouse and imposes criminal liability for violations of the shield,” the justice department said in a statement.
Saudi-backed streaming superpower’s TV deal for Fifa’s global project is next expansionist step towards a world super league
“And what exactly are you doing here, sir?” To be fair, the border guard at Miami international airport made an excellent point. As ice-breakers go, frowning over the passports and visa stickers of the long-haul crowd on matchday minus four of the Fifa Club World Cup, the border guard was at least in tune with the zeitgeist. What is football doing here?
What are Lionel Messi, Trent Alexander-Arnold and the massed engines of the football-industrial complex doing hovering like an alien landing party over this fun, sinking sandbank of a city, a strip of land where the ocean seems to be punching a mulchy green hole in the asphalt every few miles, a place that from the air seems to be made entirely from deep-fried crumb, tropical weed and traffic?
Torns IF used ‘gentle persistence’ to force officials to act
Ifab clarifies offside loophole over ‘delayed’ pass
A Swedish third-tier side have changed the laws of football after their “gentle persistence” in exploring an offside loophole forced officials to act.
Football’s law-making body, the International Football Association Board. (Ifab), has amended the text of the offside law to clarify at which point an offside assessment should be made. The change comes after interventions from Torns IF, a club from the small town of Stångby near Malmö, who wondered whether a player could get around the offside law by keeping the ball balanced in the crook of their foot.
A British man is the sole survivor of the London-bound Air India flight carrying 242 people that crashed shortly after takeoff in the north-west Indian city of Ahmedabad.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who was in seat 11A of the flight, said the aircraft crashed almost immediately after takeoff. It is believed his brother was on the same flight.
Zohran Mamdani says Andrew Cuomo’s Super Pac altered his image in a mailer to voters, giving him a darker beard
Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist state assemblyman waging a progressive bid to become mayor of New York City, has accused donors to the frontrunner Andrew Cuomo of “blatant Islamophobia” after a mailer from their Super Pac altered Mamdani’s image giving him a darker, bushier beard.
Mamdani, 33, posted a closeup of his face as featured in the mailer from the Cuomo-backing group Fix the City alongside the original photograph from which it was drawn. In the transition, the image’s visual contrast appears to be manipulated, slightly lightening Mamdani’s skin but also giving him the appearance of a longer and significantly fuller beard.
Patrick Wattigny revealed he blew archdiocese opportunity to stay in frock at parole hearing over molestation sentence
A Roman Catholic priest who admitted to child molestation haspublicly recounted for the first time how New Orleans’ archbishop tried to give him a chance to continue his career even after catching the cleric sending inappropriate texts to a minor.
Patrick Wattigny, 57, made the revelation while appearing before Louisiana’s parole board on Thursday, unsuccessfully requesting an early release from prison.
Raducanu wins 6-4, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals
Boulter falls to fifth seed Diana Shnaider 2-6, 6-3, 6-2
Emma Raducanu will regain her status as the best female tennis player in Britain for the first time in two years after she continued her solid start to the grass-court season by defeating Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals at Queen’s.
Raducanu, who now sits at world No 35 in the live rankings, will return to British No 1 next week after Katie Boulter fell to the fifth seed, Diana Shnaider, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday. Raducanu has not been the highest-ranked player in the country since June 2023 when she was recovering from surgeries to her wrists and ankle. She missed a total of eight months in 2023 and consequently fell out of the top 300.
Proteas battle back after Pat Cummins’ early blitz
This final has been called “The Ultimate Test” and though almost certainly the product of a W1A-style ideas splurge back in Dubai, the tagline scarcely felt more appropriate watching wickets tumble for a second day in succession.
It had appeared for all money that Pat Cummins had sealed the fate of the World Test Championship mace after lunch. Thundering in from the Nursery End, a four-wicket burst meant he finished with figures of six for 28 and South Africa were all out for 138 in 57.1 overs – 74 behind – all it needed was a further top-up of runs.
First victory in World Tour race for 25-year-old Briton
Remco Evenepoel goes down but loses no time
The British rider Jake Stewart won a sprint finish to triumph in the fifth stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné on Thursday as Remco Evenepoel held on to the race lead.
Stewart claimed his first career victory in a World Tour race, edging the bunched finale ahead of Axel Laurance and Søren Waerenskjold after the hilly 183km run from Saint-Priest to Macon.
Investors turn away from weakening US economy and erratic policy after Trump repeats tariff threats
The dollar sank to its lowest level in more than three years on Thursday and the FTSE 100 closed at a record high as Donald Trump’s latest trade threats and the weakening economy appeared to bring forward interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
Foreign exchange traders sold the dollar in favour of the yen and the euro, which both climbed by about 1% against the US currency to leave it almost 10% down on its value against a basket of currencies since the beginning of the year.
CCTV footage captured the moment an Air India passenger plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Ahmedabad, India, on Thursday. More than 240 people were believed to be onboard the London Gatwick-bound aircraft. Ahmedabad police said there was at least one survivor
Trent Alexander-Arnold impressed with his Spanish at unveiling and maintains Real are the only club he would have left Liverpool for
Well, that was unexpected. Trent Alexander-Arnold took out the earpiece, made his way to the stage at Real Madrid’s training ground and said: “Buenas tardes a todos.” Good afternoon everyone. So far, so standard. But then he delivered the next line in Spanish too, then the one after that, and the one after that.
He kept going until he got to the end of his speech, when he delivered the one line everyone invariably does on the day they are presented here: “Hala Madrid!” It wasn’t long – one minute and one second, in all – but it was long enough to win them over already.
Details emerge of how 21-year-old planned school attack in which teacher and nine pupils were killed
A gunman who killed 10 people at his former school in the Austrian city of Graz was an “obsessive online first-person shooter”, according to police, who gave detailed information for the first time about how he had planned the attack.
The 21-year-old Austrian, who shot dead 10 people and then himself on Tuesday morning after going on a rampage at the school close to the city centre, had spent much of his free time playing what were described by police as “ego shooting” online video games, in which participants typically use virtual firearms to kill enemies.
I asked doctors and fashion experts, and they all said I should wear sneakers. Now I’m having a style crisis
I’ve had a torn meniscus in my right knee for eight years. My knee was OK for 47 years, and then I went on the easiest hike in recorded history and stepped up on a not-very-high ledge. That was it.
It’s not ideal. I can walk, but I can’t run or sit cross legged. But whenever I’m about to bite the bullet on surgery, it seems like the wrong time to be sitting around for six weeks or longer. Or someone says: “That surgery didn’t work for me.”
Judge declared a mistrial in the sex crimes case after the jury foreperson said he wouldn’t continue deliberating
The judge in Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes case declared a mistrial on the remaining rape charge after the jury foreperson said he would not continue deliberating.
The decision to end deliberations on Thursday came a day after the jury delivered a partial verdict, convicting the ex-studio boss of one of the top charges and acquitting him of another. Both charges concern accusations of forcing oral sex on women in 2006. Those verdicts still stand.
The flag serves as a reminder of a fundamental truth about Mexican Americans: we are from here; we are also from there
Republicans are using images of Ice protesters waving Mexican flags atop burning Waymo cars to foment fear among Americans. Like this photograph that Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday: a shirtless protester wielding the Tricolor atop a vandalized robotaxi as flames billow toward the weak sunlight backlighting the flag. His dark curls fall to his bare shoulders. He stares into the camera.
Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, has called Donald Trump a “stone cold liar”, condemned the federal deployment of troops in Los Angeles as “theater” and “madness” and even questioned the president’s mental fitness, as protests over immigration raids in the city continue.
Trump federalized 2,000 of California’s national guard on Saturday, with a US president acting over the objections of a state governor in this way for the first time in more than half a century. It followed the outbreak of protests over a series of sweeping immigration raids in the LA area, with Newsom criticizing Trump’s actions as illegal overreach, unconstitutional and “provocation”.
Fears of possible Israeli strike against Iran and retaliation after IAEA issues strongest rebuke of Iran in 20 years
Donald Trump has warned that a “massive conflict” could break out in the Middle East soon if talks over an Iranian nuclear deal break down, amid concerns over a possible Israeli strike against Tehran.
Trump said on Thursday he was worried that an Israeli strike could “blow” the negotiations, and he confirmed he had ordered some US personnel to evacuate from the Middle East in case of an Iranian counterattack that could include “missiles flying in their buildings”.
Burnley’s owner is in advanced negotiations about buying a stake in the Spanish club Espanyol in what would become the Premier League’s latest multi-club operation.
Espanyol would be the second club owned by ALK Capital, the investment company operated by Burnley’s owner, Alan Pace, whose website says its ambition is to establish a multi-club sports platform. The American businessman previously owned Real Salt Lake in Major League Soccer before selling up to buy Burnley, paying £170m for 84% of the club in December 2020.
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