3 min: Semenyo takes another vicious swipe at the ball. This time it’s an overhit cross upon finding himself in space down the left. Goal kick.
2 min: It was a strange kick-off routine, Cook rolling the ball back to Semenyo, who juggled it in the air before hoofing a Garryowen into the Villa box. Martinez claimed the high bouncing bomb without any drama.
Reports suggest four detained under Terrorism Act were allegedly targeting Israeli embassy
Four Iranian men who were arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack in London can be detained and questioned in custody for another week, police said on Saturday.
Five men were arrested last week, with armed police and in at least one instance special forces soldiers sent in to detain them, with reports suggesting the alleged target was the Israeli embassy in Kensington.
Pep Guardiola has an extremely fond memory of St Mary’s Stadium. It was here on the final day of the 2017-18 season that he watched Gabriel Jesus score a stoppage-time winner to ensure Manchester City finished as the Premier League champions with a record 100-point haul.
It was a number at the opposite end of the spectrum that provided a prominent subplot this time. Southampton kicked off on 11 points, level with the all-time lowest haul by a team in the competition – that collected with apologies by Derby in 2007-08. Could Southampton, who had suffered so much, get something to lift them clear of the unwanted association?
Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker of the House of Commons, has kept almost 300 gifts over the last four years including dozens of bottles of alcohol, hampers, ties, cufflinks and chocolates, his declarations show.
The speaker received a large volume of presents from foreign dignitaries such as ambassadors, MPs and sometimes companies and chose to keep hundreds of them rather than donating them to Speaker’s House – his residence and office – or parliament.
Work to raise the Bayesian is put on hold as investigators seek to establish the cause of the 39-year-old Dutchman’s death
Recovery operations to raise the late tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s superyacht Bayesian from the seabed off Sicily have been suspended after a diver died during underwater work.
Rob Cornelis Maria Huijben, a 39-year-old Dutch diver, died on Friday while doing preparation work to cut the ship’s mainmast. He was employed by the maritime company Hebo, whose barge arrived last week in Porticello, a fishing port near Palermo. The luxury vessel was anchored just off Porticello when it was struck shortly before dawn by a violent storm on 19 August 2024. It sank within seconds, killing seven people, including Lynch and his daughter Hannah.
21-year-old Welshman wins by 1sec for Ineos Grenadiers
Second is enough for Primoz Roglic to take overall lead
Josh Tarling of Ineos Grenadiers set a time-trial pace even the race favourite, Primoz Roglic, could not match to win stage two of the Giro d’Italia by one second in Albania.
Tarling had a nervous wait before his first Grand Tour stage victory was confirmed as the 21-year-old Welshman watched Roglic come so close, but the Slovene had to settle for second place with the consolation of taking over the leader’s pink jersey for Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe.
Just over 26 years ago, thousands of Pakistani soldiers quietly made their way on to high, rocky ridges on the Indian side of the de facto border that divides the former princely state of Kashmir. The war that this rash operation triggered lasted much of the summer of 1999.
Reporting on the conflict was a bizarre experience. In high mountain valleys, at altitudes more suited to mountaineers than soldiers, howitzers hurled massive shells across icy, rocky peaks and infantry readied for bayonet assaults. A Pakistani artillery officer read memoirs of English cricket stars and the Qur’an in his bunker. As spent shrapnel and rock splinters thrown up by incoming Indian shells rattled against the walls of the canvas mess tent, his commander spoke of Pakistan’s “historic national and religious duty” to free Kashmir, partitioned 50 years before, and waited for servants to bring dessert.
Saints QB to retire over degenerative rotator cuff injury
Carr, 34, played 11 seasons with Raiders and Saints
New Orleans Saints veteran starting quarterback Derek Carr has decided to retire because of a labral tear and degenerative rotator cuff injury in his right shoulder, the team announced Saturday.
Carr, 34, has played for 11 pro seasons since being selected out of Fresno State by the then-Oakland Raiders in the second round of the 2014 NFL draft.
On the remote Channel Islands, a draw for researchers and divers, preservation has transformed the ecosystem
Just 14 miles (23km) off the southern California coast lies a vast underwater paradise.
Giant sea bass the size of grizzly bears and schools of sardines glide together through swirling strands of golden kelp, whose long stalks preside over a world exploding with life and color. Playful harbor seals dance into the depths of undulating pink, green and orange plants, alongside spiny crustaceans and vibrant sea stars that embrace the volcanic rock that slopes to the sandy seafloor.
Fire at warehouse storing pool cleaning products sends cloud over wide area around Vilanova i la Geltrú
Spanish authorities have told more than 160,000 people near Barcelona to stay indoors after a fire at an industrial warehouse released a toxic cloud of chlorine over a wide area.
The blaze, in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltrú, south of Barcelona, started at dawn on Saturday in a warehouse storing pool cleaning products, the regional fire service said.
As part of a Bafta TV special, the nominated actor talks carving out a niche playing people at breaking point, the ‘dreamy’ romcom she’s currently writing, and what she really thought of that Prince Andrew interview
“I’ve had so many coffees, I feel hysterical,” says Billie Piper. The 42-year-old actor has set up camp in a caff in Camden, London, while she finishes the final draft of a romcom she’s working on – a follow-up to her 2021 directorial debut, Rare Beasts. Piper shot to fame at 15 as a pop star, then transitioned into acting, becoming a household name as Rose Tyler in Doctor Who. Since then, she’s carved out a niche playing women at breaking point (like Suzie Pickles in I Hate Suzie). Now, she’s ready to do less acting and more work behind the scenes. Not that her on-screen career is slowing down – she just bagged her fifth Bafta nomination, for playing journalist Sam McAlister in Scoop, the dramatisation of the BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew about Jeffrey Epstein. She will also appear in the Netflix mega-hit and Addams family spin-off, Wednesday, later this year.
You’re an expert at playing a woman on the edge. What’s the secret?
I’ve seen it a lot, I’ve been it, and I’m not afraid of it! You can be a woman on the edge, but also be a soulful woman, a playful woman and a funny woman. You can be all those things at once.
It was more nervy than it needed to be but Arsenal secured a second-place finish ahead of Manchester United with the win in a seven-goal thriller. A point would have been enough for the home team to earn a place in the third round of qualifying for next season’s Champions League, but a three-goal advantage with 20 minutes remaining was reduced to one in the space of six minutes to keep the jeopardy alive and the atmosphere among the 46,603 tense to the finish.
Manchester United’s captain, Maya Le Tissier, had said Champions League football was “all that matters” , but the visiting team fought with the intensity of a team keen to put in a strong performance before their FA Cup final showdown with the WSL champions Chelsea a week on Sunday.
League One playoff: Stockport County have gone ahead at Brisbane Road, with Norwood turning provider to tee up Fraser Horsfall for a back post header from close range that gives the visitors the advantage.
League One playoff: Leyton Orient took the lead against Stockport County in their semi-final first leg courtesy of a strike from a preposterously offside Charlie Kelman that was allowed to stand, but the visitors have just equalised after Oliver Norwood scored from the spot. There’s about 30 minutes to play at Brisbane Road. Wycombe Wanderers and Charlton Athletic will contest the first leg of their semi-final at Adams Park tomorrow.
I want to hear from you today! As we’ve reached the end of the season I want to know your picks for player of the season, goal of the season, match of the season, and who you think was the best signing of the campaign.
San Francisco district judge says Congress did not authorize large-scale staffing cuts and restructuring of agencies
Donald Trump’s administration must temporarily halt its sweeping government overhaul because Congress did not authorize it to carry out large-scale staffing cuts and the restructuring of agencies, a federal judge in California said on Friday.
US district judge Susan Illston in San Francisco sided with a group of unions, non-profits and local governments in blocking large-scale mass layoffs known as “reductions in force” for 14 days.
From ensuring your swearwords are in languages other than English to outrageous euphemisms, contestants in the famously camp extravaganza have ways to avoid being toned down …
When the winner of this year’s Eurovision song contest is announced shortly before midnight next Saturday, it won’t be the first climax of the evening. “I’m coming / I’m coming,” a scantily clad Finn will announce in the chorus of her song. Australia’s male entrant will invite listeners to “sh-sh-shake me good” so they can get “a taste of the milkshake man”. And Malta’s submission is going to prompt the audience to shout the word “Kant” – due to it sounding like a rude English term for female genitalia.
After the 2024 edition of the world’s largest live music contest was largely overshadowed by political positioning over the war in Gaza, many artists at this year’s event in the Swiss city of Basel are returning to what they like to do best: celebrating the act of lovemaking in pop songs. Because even though the European Broadcasting Union’s official rules ban lyrics “obscene … or otherwise offensive to public morals or decency” from Eurovision’s three live shows, the matrix of what is considered beyond the pale is more complicated. It mostly means you can sing about sex, but you can’t name it. At least not in English.
AI safety campaigner calls for existential threat assessment akin to Oppenheimer’s calculations before first nuclear test
Artificial intelligence companies have been urged to replicate the safety calculations that underpinned Robert Oppenheimer’s first nuclear test before they release all-powerful systems.
Max Tegmark, a leading voice in AI safety, said he had carried out calculations akin to those of the US physicist Arthur Compton before the Trinity test and had found a 90% probability that a highly advanced AI would pose an existential threat.
The US government went ahead with Trinity in 1945, after being reassured there was a vanishingly small chance of an atomic bomb igniting the atmosphere and endangering humanity.
In a paper published by Tegmark and three of his students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), they recommend calculating the “Compton constant” – defined in the paper as the probability that an all-powerful AI escapes human control. In a 1959 interview with the US writer Pearl Buck, Compton said he had approved the test after calculating the odds of a runaway fusion reaction to be “slightly less” than one in three million.
Alexander Isak’s form, Nicolas Jackson’s scoring touch and the big talking points heading into Sunday’s showdown
Newcastle: If recent form seems encouraging – Newcastle are seeking an eighth victory in 10 games in all competitions – they will miss the combative presence of the injured Joelinton on the left of Eddie Howe’s midfield three. Joe Willock has not convinced entirely in that role since the Brazilian damaged a knee and much the same could be said of Alexander Isak. On his day the Sweden striker is unplayable but since Newcastle’s Carabao Cup triumph Isak has often been a shadow of his best self. Is it the minor groin injury he is carrying, or even a desire to move on to pastures new this summer? Given the importance of Kieran Trippier and Fabian Schär, Howe will be keeping everything crossed that those two key defenders pass late fitness tests. LT
Jeanine Pirro, who hasn’t held a government legal job in decades, does have a key qualification: relentless loyalty to the president
The revolving door between the Trump administration and rightwing Fox News took another wild spin this week, as America’s TV-obsessed president tapped Jeanine Pirro for a prominent legal post: top federal prosecutor for Washington DC.
Pirro is unqualified, perhaps even more so than was her former Fox colleague Pete Hegseth when he was named Trump’s defense secretary a few months ago. In that crucial position, Hegseth has been a dangerous embarrassment, as his shockingly inappropriate communications have exposed national security secrets to the world.
Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture
Legislation would radically ease research restrictions on cannabis and other schedule I substances
A recently introduced bill, if it passes, would allow research on cannabis despite its schedule I status, which some experts say could help policymakers “craft effective” legislation in the future and potentially allow more clinical research on medical cannabis.
Representatives Dina Titus and Ilhan Omar introduced the Evidence-Based Drug Policy Act of 2025 (EBDPA) last week, which would radically ease research restrictions on cannabis and other schedule I substances.
A lively, Spanish-inspired Sunday lunch alternative with a fresh, herby sauce to offest the richness of slow-roasted pork
There’s something about its perfect balance of crunch and tenderness that makes roast pork belly such a timeless favourite, and slow-roasting fills the kitchen with comforting aromas that make you hungry long before the meat is anywhere near ready. I like to serve it with mojo verde, a vibrant sauce from the Canaries that’s often served with papas arrugadas, the island’s wonderfully salty and wrinkled take on potatoes. The sauce’s fresh, herby flavour works beautifully with roast meat, too, and brings a bright contrast to rich, crisp pork in particular.
Upmarket bucolic area notes big rise in number of US citizens scoping a plan B away from the States
Thanksgiving in the Cotswolds is no small affair. Every November, Americans flock to the English market town of Stow-on-the-Wold to collect glazed turkey breasts, green bean casserole and a traditional sweet potato dish covered in marshmallows.
It is, by Jesse D’Ambrosi’s own admission, “bizarre”. The chef, owner of D’Ambrosi Fine Foods, is one of the many Americans who have made the Cotswolds their home in recent years. Here, her Thanksgiving and Fourth of July food hampers are highly coveted.
Palestinian rights group says remarks criticising a Lancet analysis on impact of the conflict are ‘sickening’
A UK-based advocacy group for Israel has been criticised for suggesting a reduction in obesity resulting from the war in Gaza may increase life expectancy there.
The comments by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), which came amid warnings of impending famine in Gaza, were condemned as “sickening” by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).
European leaders, in coordination with Donald Trump, are proposing a 30-day unconditional ceasefire starting 12 May
It is the first time the leaders of the four European nations (France, the UK, Germany and Poland) have made a joint visit to Ukraine, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“We are clear the bloodshed must end. Russia must stop its illegal invasion,” the leaders said in a joint statement, adding:
Alongside the US, we call on Russia to agree a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire to create the space for talks on a just and lasting peace.
We will continue to increase our support for Ukraine. Until Russia agrees to an enduring ceasefire, we will ratchet up pressure on Russia’s war machine.
World Trade Organization hails ‘constructive step’ as senior figures come together to discuss tariffs
Senior US and Chinese officials held talks early on Saturday in Geneva in a tentative first step towards defusing a trade war that is disrupting the global economy, according to China’s state-owned news agency and people close to the talks.
China’s vice-premier, He Lifeng, and the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, met after weeks of growing tensions as duties on imports between the world’s two largest economies have risen above 100%.
Roots of the crisis go back to Reagan but Musk’s Doge team accused of making things worse – can it be fixed?
Twice in the past two weeks, communications between air traffic controllers and airplanes at Newark Liberty, one of the US’s busiest airports, have failed – leaving controllers unable to communicate with pilots.
The outages have, thankfully, only led to massive delays, not disaster. But they have also once again focused a harsh light on the persistent safety problems at US airports, which handle over 50,000 flights a day.
Startling allegations that the Base’s leader is a Russian spy lead to suggestions that the Kremlin is playing the ‘long game’
A former Pentagon contractor works with secretive sections of US special forces, then ups and moves to Russia. He gets married, radicalizes and starts popping up on Telegram channels as the leader of a neo-Nazi terrorist group recruiting Americans.
Amid growing hostility to foreigners, my Italian-born mum feels she should be grateful to be in the UK. Yet she gives so much to a society lucky to have her
On the day of the last general election, my mother rose at 5am to head to the polling station. With any kind of voting, she volunteers her days off from work to help out with the ballots. Although she can’t vote in this country.
My mother feels patriotic about her country of origin, Italy, but her home has been England for the past 15 years. She has a British partner, holds legal residence in the UK, and has been paying British taxes as long as she has been here. She never felt fully accepted by people in this country. She is often talked down to because of her accent, although her English is proficient. She also finds some difficulty with everyday things, such as worrying about being understood by her manager or applying for pension assistance – struggling with everything from British humour, to the country’s administration. And she still feels that, as an immigrant, she needs to prove something.
Gaia Neiman is a freelance journalist covering politics, migration, culture and travel
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Since Weideman took this image, her husband, pictured inside the bus, has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, giving it more resonance
The restored heritage village of Old Petrie Town lies about a 90-minute drive from the farm in Queensland, Australia, where Karen Weideman lives. She and her husband, Michael, were visiting back in 2022 when she took this photo on her iPhone 11. “The town is spread across 48 acres of parkland, and some of the buildings date back to the 1800s. It has markets, museums and galleries; we love to just wander around, taking in the sights,” she says. “You’re also spoiled for choice when it comes to food; we had some incredible chicken satay for lunch. Then it started raining so we began heading home, but we passed these beautiful old buses on the way. Number 77 was a Brisbane city council school bus from the 60s.”
Always on the lookout for new things to photograph, she asked Michael to step inside and pose for her. “He’s for ever patient, and my biggest supporter; he has complete faith in whatever I’m trying to achieve,” she says. She later made some minimal enhancements using the Snapseed app.
The Oscar-nominated actor talks about her new role playing equal pay advocate Lilly Ledbetter and why the Trump administration should be careful
Patricia Clarkson, who portrays late equal pay activist Lilly Ledbetter in a biopic released this week, has a wish.
The Oscar-nominated actor hopes her fellow American women collectively withhold sex from their partners – especially men in power – if the second Trump administration’s assault on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives ever takes aim at the gains won by the subject of her new film.
Mix of films including Pearl Harbor and Schindler’s List feature on list compiled by War Movie Theatre podcast
Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk has been voted the UK’s favourite second world war film, beating classics such as The Dam Busters and The Bridge on the River Kwai.
The 2017 film, starring Harry Styles, Cillian Murphy and Barry Keoghan, portrays the 1940 evacuation of more than 330,000 Allied troops from the French coast.
India due to embark on five-Test England tour in June
Virat Kohli is set to deliver another blow to India’s plans for their imminent tour of England by indicating he wants to retire from Test cricket just days after Rohit Sharma’s decision to stand down, according to reports.
Indian media is reporting that the 36-year-old has told the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that he no longer wishes to play the longest format of the game. The news comes amid rising tensions border with Pakistan. The Indian Premier League is on a one-week pause, while the Pakistan Super League has also been suspended.
The actor on obsessive cleaning, missing his own teeth, and his sand and dirt collection
Born in Alabama, Walton Goggins, 53, moved to Los Angeles where he started a car valeting business and took acting lessons. His films include Lincoln, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight and Tomb Raider. He plays the dual role of the Ghoul and Cooper Howard in the Amazon series Fallout and starred in the third series of Sky Atlantic’s White Lotus. The Uninvited, his new film, is in cinemas. He is married for the second time, has a son and lives in upstate New York.
I’ve got a date with one of the country’s worst-rated customer service departments. What could possibly go right?
I’m sitting at my computer when a link refuses to load, leaving me with a white screen. I click on several of the 37 other windows I have open. None of them loads. I go and find my wife in front of her computer.
“Are you having trouble with the internet?” I say.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous made him a literary superstar. Now the Vietnamese American author is exploring his working-class roots in an ambitious follow‑up
There are three kinds of family, muses the novelist and poet Ocean Vuong. There’s the nuclear family, “which often we talk about as the central tenet of American life”. There’s the chosen family, “the pushback”, the community and friendships built by people who have been rejected by their parents, often because of their sexuality or gender identity. And then there’s the family we talk about much less frequently, but spend most of our waking hours within – our colleagues, or what Vuong describes as “the circumstantial family around labour”.
Vuong’s forthcoming second novel, The Emperor of Gladness, encompasses them all. There’s its 19-year‑old hero Hai’s relationship with his mother, a poor Vietnamese immigrant who believes that he has fulfilled her desperate aspirations for him by going to university, when he has actually gone to rehab. (Vuong, who also struggled with drug addiction, didn’t dare tell his mother when he dropped out of a marketing course at Pace University in New York, before getting on to the English literature course at Brooklyn College that set the course for his life as a writer.) The core of the book is Hai’s relationship with Grazina, an elderly widow from Lithuania who has dementia, and who takes him in when she sees him about to throw himself off a bridge in despair. Then there are the eccentric and richly drawn staff members of HomeMarket, the fast food restaurant in which Hai works, with its manager who is an aspiring wrestler, and customers ranging from the snotty and entitled to the homeless and desperate.
A world away from Italy’s crowded beach resorts, the island’s south-west offers remote golden sands plus villages, vineyards and great restaurants
It felt like a classic British beach outing, but with more reliable weather. Toting umbrella, towels, sun cream, water and a cool-box picnic, my husband, son and I turned our backs on the marina in Porto Palo, near Menfi in south-west Sicily, and walked west. About 10 minutes on a narrow signposted coastal path brought us to Le Solette, a half-mile curving golden beach between rocky outcrops and backed by low hills. It’s a gorgeous spot, with soft sand and clear water in hues from turquoise to indigo – but the most remarkable thing about it is not what’s there, but what’s not.
Seaside resorts in north and central Italy are a strange phenomenon: the sand is usually almost invisible beneath pairs of sunbeds and matching umbrellas. OK, there is the convenience of loos and showers, but at what cost? I’ve been to resorts in Liguria, in north-west Italy, where from Easter to September a walk along the front affords views not of the sea but of the walls and changing cabins of an unbroken row of beach stabilimenti.
Who is Asim Munir, the army chief leading Pakistan’s military amid the crisis with India?
The general once fell foul of Imran Khan, but since taking the top spot has been quietly amassing power over the government and supreme court, as our profile here says.
Yet even now that the country is out of the clutches of martial law, it is still widely understood that the most powerful man in Pakistan is not the head of the government but instead the chief of the army.
Since Gen Munir took over as Pakistan’s army chief more than two years ago, he has been accused of quietly consolidating greater power without even having to topple the country’s civilian rulers. As he kept himself largely out of the limelight, he consolidated an iron grip over the army’s ranks and bent government policy and even the supreme court to his will.
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