The mercurial boxing savant returns to Brooklyn on Saturday with another big payday and signature knockout expected. But the real question is what comes next
Gervonta Davis leaned back from the microphone, a slow grin creeping onto his face, brimming with the earned confidence of a man who’s seen this all before. “You know what I come to do, man,” the World Boxing Association’s lightweight champion said. “You know why I’m here. I don’t want to say too much. [His mother] is over there in the corner. Got to keep it polite, but y’all know: fireworks.”
It was the same styling of laconic menace he’s dispensed at nearly every press conference before his fights, and yet it still sent a quiet ripple through the Barclays Center atrium on Thursday afternoon. Because when Davis says it, history has shown he’s standing on business. Thirty bouts, 30 wins, 28 knockouts. World titles at 130lb, 135lb and 140lb while selling out arenas from coast to coast. There’s a reason why the squat Baltimore southpaw nicknamed Tank has become the face of American boxing and one of its vanishingly few dependable box-office attractions. People don’t just pay to see him win. They tune in to see how he finishes the show.
NGOs accuse prime minister of following US by accepting ‘false choice’ of cutting aid to fund defence
Sir Keir Starmer is to take UK overseas aid to its lowest level as a percentage of national income since records began, even if he manages to halve the current £4.5bn cost of housing asylum seekers.
The extraordinary finding, a complete reversal of Labour manifesto pledges and its historical commitment to helping the world’s poorest, is made by Ian Mitchell, the co-director of the respected London-based thinktank the Centre for Global Development.
The best ones trap moisture and prevent hair damage – and using them involves minimal effort
A few months ago and on hairdresser’s orders, I went looking for a leave-in conditioner and found they were nearing extinction.
Leave-ins seemed to be everywhere a decade or so ago. I could only assume that, like me, most consumers had forgotten how valuable they are in preventing hair damage in return for the lowest possible effort. As I wonder what to do about my chronically over-bleached ends, I wish I’d come to my senses sooner.
Squad containing 15- and 16-year-olds will have stadium experience in FA Youth Cup tie against Manchester United
‘The players are on the floor in the changing room but youth football is never make or break,” Jack Wilshere reflected. “It’s important that they continue to develop but whether they can make it to the first team will be down to them.”
It has not been two years since Arsenal’s Under-18s were thrashed 5-1 by West Ham at the Emirates in the FA Youth Cup final but the former England midfielder’s prediction has come true. Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly were two of the players who had to be consoled that night by their manager, Wilshere, and both are established as first-team regulars even though they are still eligible to play in the competition that has served as a springboard for so many young stars.
This 1980s-set debut novel takes place over 24 hours as the ripple effects of a teacher’s death are explored
Dark Like Under, Alice Chadwick’s ambitious and affecting debut novel, begins and ends at midnight. The 24 hours in between, while at times sunlit and sweltering, hang heavy with the shadow cast by the night before.
That shadow is the death of Mr Ardennes. The story is set in England in the 1980s and it begins with Robin and Jonah, two teenagers at the local grammar school, bumping into Mr Ardennes, a well-liked teacher at the school. It is Sunday night – or Monday morning – and they have slipped away from a party. They meet on the banks of the weir, where he is taking one of his regular late night walks, and exchange pleasantries. He appears distracted. “He looked a bit rough,” observes Jonah. His hands seem oddly heavy in his pockets, “like weights”. At the next morning’s school assembly, his death is announced.
Judge Hilary Unger set bond at $3 million for Ronnie Palmer, who is charged with capital murder and aggravated assault in the death of Harris County Deputy Fernando Esqueda.
The Ukrainian president is expected at the White House on Friday to sign a multimillion-dollar minerals deal with echoes of a notorious 2019 phone call
Alexander Vindman remembers the phone call – and what he did next. Serving on the national security council (NSC), he went to see his twin brother, who was the council’s senior ethics official, closed the door and told him: “Eugene, if what I’m about to tell you ever becomes public, Donald Trump will be impeached.”
Vindman had set up a call between Trump and Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in July 2019. He heard the US president attempt to leverage US military aid to the country in return for Zelenskyy launching an investigation into Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, over his position at a Ukrainian gas company.
Even the Greens hardened their rhetoric and lost votes as a result. The message is clear: the new government must offer hope, not hatred
Germany’s next government will be a coalition of the political centre led by the conservative Friedrich Merz. That may sound like stability. Traditionally, a government made up of the two big centrist parties, the Social Democrats (SPD) and Merz’s Christian Democrats (CDU), has been called the grand coalition. But it is no longer grand and offers only an illusion of stability.
The SPD achieved its worst result in a national election since the second world war, with 16.4% of the vote. The CDU scored its second-worst result, with 28.5%. If you include the Greens and the Liberals, the parties that occupy the political ground from centre-left to centre-right won just over 60% of the votes cast.
Johannes Hillje is a Berlin-based political consultant and a fellow at Das Progressive Zentrum, an independent thinktank
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Our tipsters share their favourite seafood haunts, pristine beaches and under-the-radar cities
The city and the province of Jaén can be overlooked by tourists heading to nearby Granada or Córdoba. That’s a shame, given that they are filled with Renaissance architecture, including a magnificent cathedral, and renowned as one of the homes of olive oil. Thanks to its historic position between Christian Castilla and Muslim Granada, the city is surrounded by castles. I recommend staying at the Parador de Jaén. It sits at the top of the hill of Santa Catalina next to the castle, and the views from its rooms towards the Sierra Morena mountains are unparalleled. Felix
Character and plots of Ian Fleming’s original literary works become open for public use in most countries in 2035
Amazon may have captured James Bond, paying billions to get creative control of the super spy, but a clock is now ticking that means 007 – or at least a version of him – could escape into the wider world in a decade’s time.
The character and plots of the original literary works by creator Ian Fleming become open for public use in most countries in 2035, raising the prospect of Bond starring in rival film and TV stories of espionage, comedy or even horror.
Titanic and Avatar director says ‘America doesn’t stand for anything if it doesn’t stand for what it has historically stood for’ – and that he prefers New Zealand to Canada
James Cameron has voiced his relief that he is becoming a New Zealand citizen in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s re-election as US president, saying that America under Trump is “a turn away from everything decent”.
Asked how worried he was about Trump’s second term, the 70-year-old film-maker told New Zealand outlet Stuff: “I think it’s horrific, I think it’s horrifying … I see it as a turn away from everything decent. America doesn’t stand for anything if it doesn’t stand for what it has historically stood for. It becomes a hollow idea, and I think they’re hollowing it out as fast as they can for their own benefit.”
Faramarz Lahijani's quest to be awarded the full $394 million jackpot from the Dec. 8, 2023, drawing faced another setback in court Monday as lawyers poked holes in his claims.
Sheriffs search home in New Mexico after bodies discovered but say no sign of struggle, foul play or evidence of gas leak
Investigators in Santa Fe, New Mexico, are continuing to search for answers after Gene Hackman, an Oscar winner who graced the silver screen for more than 60 years, and his wife, the classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, were found dead at their home under suspicious circumstances.
A maintenance worker found the couple’s bodies at their home on Wednesday, along with one of their three dogs, who was also found dead. The front door was open, although the Santa Fe county sheriff’s office has said there were no signs of foul play, and no obvious evidence of a gas leak or carbon monoxide poisoning. But the scene was strange enough that the sheriff’s office sought a search warrant on Wednesday evening.
So you have a fancy event on the horizon. It might be the Oscars – but it’s probably not. Here are three looks featuring dresses you’ll want to wear more than once – and a smart enough jacket because, well, it’s still March
British politicians think they exercise a moderating force on strongmen. In practice, ‘diplomacy’ and ‘pragmatism’ only ease their path
Why is Westminster, supposedly one of the world’s great centres of democratic moderation, so welcoming to far-right foreign governments? For more than a century, since the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, authoritarians have often found allies, apologists or a deliberate absence of criticism in the Commons, despite our parliament’s self-image as a historic enemy of fascism.
One reason for this forgiving attitude is that foreign policy is a pragmatic business, and Britain has increasingly become a country that can’t afford to make enemies. The Starmer government’s determination to see no evil in the Trump administration can be partly explained in those terms.
Exclusive: Campaigners say cryptocurrency payments were offered to UK residents if they daubed anti-Muslim graffiti
A network of Telegram channels with Russian links is encouraging UK residents to commit violent attacks on mosques and Muslims and offering cryptocurrency in return, campaigners have warned.
The channels have already been linked to real world events in the form of Islamophobic graffiti sprayed on mosques and schools in east and south London earlier this month, sometimes with the names of the groups mentioned. Those incidents are under investigation by the police.
Cao, who ran a long-shot campaign to unseat Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) in Virginia last year, went viral on social media after debate with the incumbent in which he railed against “drag queens” and other diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the US military.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement will reopen a federal immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey that has a 1,000-bed capacity -- the largest facility of its type on the East Coast.
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