Piastri: ‘He’s come to the fight quicker than I expected’
Verstappen feels ‘positive pressure’ in chasing leaders
Oscar Piastri has admitted that the late charge into a tense, three-way Formula One title fight by the defending champion, Max Verstappen, has taken him by surprise, a position echoed by the Dutchman.
The Australian also confirmed that he and his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, go into this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix with a “clean slate”, free to race one another as the pair battle with Verstappen.
The Senate failed on Thursday to pass legislation that would keep federal workers deemed essential and troops paid throughout the ongoing government shutdown, which stretched into its 23rd day with no end in sight.
The upper chamber held a vote on Republican senator Ron Johnson’s “shutdown fairness act”, which would guarantee pay for certain federal employees even when government funding lapses.
Three days in the job, two training sessions and, most importantly, one victory. Sean Dyche succeeded where Ange Postecoglou had failed so miserably, winning at the first time of asking to get Nottingham Forest’s Europa League campaign truly up and running. “Forest are back,” sang the home support, who also chanted Dyche’s name en route to handing Porto their first defeat of the season.
More remarkably, this was also Forest’s first clean sheet since April. All in all, it must have been pretty satisfying viewing for Evangelos Marinakis, back in his seat in the directors’ box and last seen scarpering from the stadium midway through Postecoglou’s final game. Even the VAR gods were on Dyche’s side, both Forest goals stemming from interventions, with Morgan Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus scoring a penalty in each half.
Marco Rubio warns Israeli politicians not to disrupt Gaza ceasefire after Knesset vote to annex West Bank
The parade of senior US officials travelling to the Middle East in recent weeks is a clear warning from the White House to Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli political factions to not disrupt the recent Gaza ceasefire – including by an annexation of the West Bank – or face a serious rift in relations with the US.
As the shaky ceasefire came into effect last week, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner quickly rushed to the region for consultations.
First lady not named in suit in which investors allege Meteora executives created coin they knew would plummet
The designers of a cryptocurrency launched by the US first lady, Melania Trump, in January were accused in court filings on Tuesday of orchestrating a pump-and-dump scheme.
The $MELANIA coins were released for just a few cents each on 19 January, the day before Donald Trump was inaugurated as US president. In addition to $MELANIA, Donald Trump launched $TRUMP a few hours before his inauguration.
Emery has brought a lot of the big hitters off the bench – Rogers, McGinn, Cash, Kamara – as they try to get an equaliser. Rogers has just hit the outside of Go Ahead Eagles’ post through a cross/shot from an acute angle. Maatsen has just flashed a dangerous low cross across the face of goal. Villa are getting closer.
Go Ahead Eagles come from behind to lead! It’s the right back and captain Mats Deijl with the goal for the Dutch side, latching onto a fine lofted through ball and finishing delicately over Martínez with a little dink! Unai Emery, half-hiding in his anorak, looks absolutely miserable on the sidelined as he is getting pelted by the rain.
Footage showing two men appears to have been filmed from nearby window in museum
The slow-motion getaway of two thieves from the Louvre clutching €88m (£76m) of France’s crown jewels was captured on video, it has emerged – the latest dramatic twist to the country’s most spectacular heist in decades.
The 36-second clip, which Le Parisien newspaper said it had verified, shows two men dressed in black, one wearing a yellow hi-vis vest and the other a motorcycle helmet, slowly descending on a furniture lift from the museum’s Apollo gallery.
Dating of rock formation in New Mexico casts doubt on theory that species was already in decline
Dinosaurs would not have become extinct had it not been for a catastrophic asteroid strike, researchers have said, challenging the idea the animals were already in decline.
About 66m years ago, during the late Cretaceous period, a huge space rock crashed into Earth, triggering a mass extinction that wiped out all dinosaurs except birds. However, some experts have argued the dinosaurs were already in decline.
Gardaí deployed at Citywest facility as police issue statement urging people to stay away from violent standoff
Irish police are bracing for fresh disturbances outside a Dublin hotel that houses asylum seekers and has become a flashpoint for anti-immigration activists.
Gardaí deployed near the Citywest facility on Thursday in anticipation of another possible standoff with mobs that on Tuesday and Wednesday night threw fireworks and missiles and set a police vehicle on fire.
Tory plans to revoke indefinite leave to remain in pursuit of greater ‘cultural coherence’ resemble the most extreme ambitions of far-right fringe parties
It is too early to declare Sir Keir Starmer’s “one in, one out” migration deal with France a failure, but nor can the government claim that it is working as intended. This week, the Guardian revealed that one of the first people deported under the treaty had found his way back to the UK via a small boat. On the same day, Home Office data revealed that the number of people who had made the journey so far this year – 36,886 – had surpassed the total for 2024. The usual partisan recriminations followed. Opposition parties accuse Labour of failing to grip the problem; ministers say they are burdened by a long legacy of Conservative mismanagement. Both things can be true.
For all its deficiencies, Sir Keir’s deal with France recognises two facts that his Tory and Reform UK opponents cannot accept. First, engagement with EU states is a sine qua non of functional migration policy. Second, without some legal mechanism for accepting refugees, desperate people will always gamble on the illegal ways.
Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to stop money laundering in 2023 and was sentenced to four months
Donald Trump issued a pardon for the founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange on Thursday.
“President Trump exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency,” a White House statement said. “The war on crypto is over.”
Plea comes after Pete Hegseth announced two new strikes that left at least five people dead
Colombia has condemned US airstrikes on vessels allegedly involved in drug-smuggling off the coast of South America, urging Washington to immediately halt further attacks in the Pacific and Caribbean.
The plea came after Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defense, announced two new strikes on Wednesday, which were the first to hit the Pacific and left at least five people dead. According to US figures, at least nine attacks have now been carried out since early September, killing 37 people. A broad range of experts have said the campaign is illegal.
China and India likely to scale back Russian oil imports as Trump tries to bring an end to war in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has said Russia will never bow to US pressure but conceded new sanctions could cause some economic pain, as China and India were reported to be scaling back Russian oil imports after Washington targeted Moscow’s two largest producers.
The US on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as nearly three dozen of their subsidiaries, as the Trump administration increased pressure on the Kremlin to negotiate an end to its war against Ukraine. The EU separately agreed to a phased ban on the import of Russian liquefied natural gas.
Far more than a mute foil to Marc Almond, Ball brought his love of northern soul and strange electronics to bear on some of Britain’s most uncompromising pop
By common consent, Soft Cell’s first Top of the Pops appearance, on 13 August 1981, ranks among the show’s most striking performances. It was impactful enough to send their single Tainted Love first into the Top Ten, then to No 1 – it ultimately became the second biggest-selling single of the year – and to provoke a number of complaints. The latter were caused by the duo’s frontman, Marc Almond, clad in eyeliner and jewellery, delivering his vocal with a weird combination of intense passion, high camp and occasional knowing looks to camera: he was clearly a gay man, but a gay man who declined to conform to the pantomime stereotype that still prevailed on British TV, a decision that first upset his own record company boss – who collared Almond backstage and protested “you’ve got to butch it up a bit!” – then apparently caused the BBC’s switchboards to light up.
Almond was such an arresting presence that it was easy to overlook the other guy on stage, moustachioed, mute and virtually motionless behind his keyboard. But, as his bandmate was given to pointing out, overlooking Dave Ball was a terrible misjudgement. “He really was a psycho,” Almond later recalled. “There would be times when he’d leap from behind the keyboards if someone was threatening me on stage, and he’d punch someone in the front row.”
Adams revealed decision in a New York Times interview a month after calling Cuomo a ‘snake and a liar’
The New York City mayor, Eric Adams, will endorse Andrew Cuomo in the city’s mayoral race, following months of tension between the two Democrats turned independents.
Adams revealed his intention in an interview with the New York Times a month after he ended his own re-election campaign which saw him register poor polling numbers.
Teachers call it “the most brain dead meme” but six-seven slang has invaded classrooms across the UK, with students even painting the numbers on their faces and leaving staff perplexed.
A survey of 10,000 teachers found that four out of five working in secondary schools had heard the viral phrase called out last week, with the percentage soaring to 90% among younger teachers.
Common compounds like turmeric and ashwagandha can overwhelm the liver and lead to health complications
Fernanda Thompson was a healthy 40-year-old when she began taking turmeric in 2020. Online, people were saying the pungent yellow spice could make everyone a little bit healthier. So she began putting half a teaspoon, about 2.5 grams, into her morning smoothie, hoping to reap the benefits of curcumin, the compound responsible for turmeric’s anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-oxidant halo.
“It was Covid time,” says the Florida resident, who is a stay-at-home mom, and she wanted to boost her immunity. “I was healthy. And then I guess I tried to be healthier,” she says.
Runner claimed she had taken housemaid’s medication
Controversial Chicago record will stand despite ban
The women’s marathon world record-holder, Ruth Chepngetich, has been banned for three years after the Athletics Integrity Unit rejected her claim that her failed drugs test came from taking her housemaid’s medication after feeling hot and having a rapid resting heartbeat.
The Kenyan stunned the world when she ran 2hr 9min 56sec at the Chicago marathon in 2024, a time that shattered the previous best by almost two minutes. However her performance was immediately questioned by many in the athletics world who felt it was too good to be true.
The 74-year-old actor said he had fallen ill between shooting the two parts of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies – and puts it down to having ‘lived a naughty life’
The actor Stellan Skarsgård has revealed that he suffered a stroke three years ago and has been finding filming considerably more challenging since.
Speaking to Vulture to promote Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier’s Oscar-contender about a film director struggling to connect with his daughters, the actor said he had fallen ill between shooting the two parts of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies, as well as the seasons of Star Wars series Andor.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who first ran for elected office in 1982, announced he will run again in next year’s election
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has announced he will seek a historic fourth term in next year’s presidential election, potentially extending one of the most remarkable and enduring political careers in modern Latin American history.
The former metalworker, who returned to the presidency in 2023 after defeating the far-right incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, confirmed his decision during a speech in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta.
Whimsical frogs and unicorns have become mascots of the resistance – but it’s easy for tactical frivolity to devolve into entertainment
There was little reason to imagine that the inflatable frogs would become an actual thing. Protests at the ICE detention center in Portland, Oregon, in recent months have reflected the city’s penchant for whimsy and weirdness, and tactics such as naked bike riding, organized public knitting and “ICE fishing” with doughnuts have largely remained a local affair.
But when a federal agent in riot gear ran up behind a protester wearing an inflatable frog costume and sprayed a chemical agent directly into his costume’s air vent with all the casual menace of an exterminator, the inflatable frog went viral. “I’ve definitely had spicier tamales,” the 24-year-old protester, Seth Todd, told the Oregonian, cementing the frog’s status as a leftist folk hero.
President confirmed he spoke with the city’s mayor and Silicon Valley leaders about calling off deployment
Donald Trump has canceled plans for a deployment of federal troops to San Francisco that had sparked widespread condemnation from California leaders and sent protesters flooding into the streets.
The Bay Area region had been on edge after reports emerged on Wednesday that the Trump administration was poised to send more than 100 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other federal agents to the US Coast Guard base in Alameda, a city in the East Bay, as part of a large-scale immigration-enforcement plan.
Ten years on from the release of her rococo masterpiece, Divers, we count down the singer-songwriter-harpist’s most beautiful and devastating tracks
“And in an infinite regress / Tell me, why is the pain of birth / Lighter borne than the pain of death?” Joanna Newsom sings on the elegant, kaleidoscopic title track to 2015’s time-obsessed Divers, its nesting cascades of strings and piano echoing the album’s premise, that life contains death, which contains life, and on and on to ∞ …
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