Driver frustrated by time taken to give orders over team radio
‘I’ve still got my fire in my belly,’ says seven-time world champion
Lewis Hamilton has insisted he will not apologise for remaining fiercely competitive after his terse exchanges and clear frustration with his Ferrari team at the Miami Grand Prix, which he believed merely indicated he was motivated as ever to perform on track.
“I was like, come on guys, I want to win. I’ve still got my fire in my belly,” he said. “I’m not going to apologise for being a fighter. I’m not going to apologise for still wanting it. I know everyone in the team does too.”
Two people have been arrested in connection to an alleged planned attack on Brazil’s LGBTQ community at the singer’s Sunday concert, police say
Two people have been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to detonate explosives at a free Lady Gaga concert in Rio de Janeiro, in what authorities believe was an attempt to target Brazil’s LGBTQ community.
The Rio event on Saturday was the biggest show of the pop star’s career. It attracted an estimated 2.1 million fans to Copacabana beach and had crowds screaming and dancing along.
Australian woman has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her Leongatha home in 2023. Follow live updates
Ukraine hopes to receive 3m artillery shells from allies and partners in 2025 including 1.8m under a Czech-led programme, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Prague on Sunday. “The Czech artillery initiative is working brilliantly,” the Ukrainian president said. Prague steers a European drive to supply artillery ammunition to Ukraine, financed largely by Nato allies. “Not only North Korea is capable of helping [Russia] in the war – we have allies who are helping Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in comments reported by the Kyiv Independent.
Zelenskyy added there would be a meeting on Monday with “Czech defence companies”, with details to be announced later. Discussions were under way for a Ukrainian-Czech pilot training school for F16 fighter jets, which could not be established in Ukraine “due to current security concerns”.
Zelenskyy spoke alongside Petr Pavel, president of the Czech Republic and a former Nato general, who said that “Putin can end the war with a single decision but he has not shown any willingness so far”. The Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, and the speakers of both parliament chambers said they would meet Zelenskyy in Prague on Monday.
Ukrainian forces struck an electrical equipment factory in Russia’s Bryansk region close to the border with Ukraine, destroying much of the plant, said the local governor, Alexander Bogomaz. Ukraine said the factory specialised in the production of electronics for Russia’s defence industry. “According to preliminary information, the Strela factory in Suzemka, Bryansk region, is no longer operational following the strike,” said Andriy Kovalenko, head of the government’s Centre for Countering Disinformation. Mash, a Telegram channel with links to Russia’s security services, said the factory produced electrical equipment and was hit by a Grad rocket system.
Air defence destroyed four Ukrainian drones flying towards Moscow, the mayor of the Russian capital said early on Monday.
Zelenskyy said on Sunday that he did not believe Putin would adhere to a self-declared three-day truce to coincide with Russia’s “victory day” celebrations on 9 May. “This is not the first challenge, nor are these the first promises made by Russia to cease fire. We understand who we are dealing with, we do not believe them.” Citing a military report, he said Russia had carried out more than 200 attacks on Saturday, “so there is no faith [in them]”. Zelenskyy said, though, that a ceasefire with Russia was possible at any moment and called on Kyiv’s allies to apply greater pressure on Moscow otherwise Putin would take no real steps to end the war.
The Guardian’s Shaun Walker has investigated how Moscow is using “disposable people” recruited online to carry out sabotage, arson and disinformation campaigns in Europe – sometimes against specific targets related to support for the Ukrainian war effort, but more often simply to cause chaos and unease. While some know exactly what they are doing and why, others do not realise they are ultimately working for Moscow.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said in comments broadcast on Sunday said that the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine had not arisen, and that he hoped it would not, writes Angelique Chrisafis. Putin said Russia could bring the conflict in Ukraine to what he called a “logical conclusion … There has been no need to use those [nuclear] weapons … and I hope they will not be required.”
President calls films ‘national security threat’ and claims he called on commerce department to immediately enact tariff
Donald Trump on Sunday announced on his Truth Social platform a 100% tariff on all movies “produced in Foreign Lands”, saying the US film industry was dying a “very fast death” due to the incentives that other countries were offering to draw American film-makers.
In his post, he claimed to have authorised the commerce department and the US trade representative to immediately begin instituting such a tariff.
Antihero reject movie starring Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan a ‘great reset’ as Alec Baldwin’s Rust falls flat
Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts* opened with $76m in domestic ticket sales, according to studio estimates on Sunday, kicking off the summer box office with a solid No 1 debut that fell shy of Marvel’s more spectacular launches.
All eyes had been on whether Thunderbolts* – a team-up of antihero rejects similar to Avengers – could restore the Walt Disney Company superhero factory to the kind of box office performance the studio once enjoyed so regularly. The results – similar to the debuts of Eternals ($71m) and Ant-Man and the Wasp ($75m) – suggested Marvel’s malaise won’t be so easy to snap out of.
Louis Bielle-Biarrey stars with two tries in 35-18 win
Owen Farrell hurt in Racing 92’s Challenge Cup defeat
Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s stunning first try of two highlighted Bordeaux Bègles’ 35-18 win over Top 14 rivals Toulouse as they set up a Champions Cup final meeting with Northampton. Saints stunned Leinster in Saturday’s first semi-final.
Bordeaux had raced into a 10-0 lead with a try from Pete Samu and a Matthieu Jalibert penalty, but Toulouse edged 11-10 up with a pair of Juan Cruz Mallia penalties either side of Dimitri Delibes’s try.
After winning over Bayern’s hardcore support, the prolific Engländer has led the charge to the Bundesliga title
After Harry Kane’s three final heartbreaks with Tottenham and England his first major trophy win, the Bundesliga title we originally thought to be immediately inevitable, was on reflection never going to be straightforward. Last week’s yellow card against Augsburg kept him in the stands for Bayern Munich’s potential title clincher at RB Leipzig (a visibly annoyed Kane suggested referee Bastian Dankert had been “trying to make a name for himself” after the harsh booking, issued when he didn’t return the ball quickly enough after he was whistled for a foul). Then Yusuf Poulsen’s 95th-minute equaliser for the hosts meant Bayern weren’t quite there mathematically, even though Thomas Müller felt comfortable enough to lead the players and a trench-coated Kane through some frolics with the away fans on Saturday. Leverkusen only drawing at Freiburg on Sunday has, at last, finally sealed the deal. Kane’s Bayern destiny has been fulfilled, and no apparent jinx could get in the way this time.
On the day he signed in August 2023 Munich was balmy, in terms of weather and mood. It was the morning of Bayern’s DFL-Supercup game against RB Leipzig and as the thermometers crept above 30C, hot and bothered fans queued outside the multiple Bayern fan shops in the city centre with the aim of getting their hands on one item: the new, white-with-red-trim home jersey with “Kane 9” on the back. The red-on-white, multi-lined font of name and number – a throwback to the figures adorning the backs of Bayern’s 1974 European Cup winners – hinted at a new era of glory.
I remember exactly where I was when I found it. At uni. In a cavernous lecture hall. Slouched in a vaguely uncomfortable seat. Ping. A notification on Messenger. “Lol at this,” wrote my bestie from 14km away, accumulating student debt and little else. I clicked on the link.
In that moment, I happened upon the most significant social media community of all time. A Facebook group, titled simply but garnished appropriately: “DRAG NAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Seventh season of hit ‘slow TV’ show followed annual trek of moose (or elk) heading to summer pastures
For thousands of years, moose have crossed rivers, navigated thawing forests and quietly followed ancient trails toward their summer pastures in northern Sweden.
Demonstrating with emphatic effect that he must be considered now the frontrunner for the championship, Oscar Piastri’s drive from fourth on the grid to victory was the stuff that defines the battling Aussie spirit. Taking the win for McLaren with a piece of relentlessly controlled dominance, and in so doing determinedly maintaining his place out front in a tight title fight, Piastri laid down a marker in Florida that he will be exceptionally hard to beat this season.
Disappointed on missing out on a win in the sprint race on Saturday, Piastri and his team executed this race with perfection to secure a remarkable win, beating his teammate Lando Norris into second place, the British driver’s hopes of victory extinguished within moments of the lights going out when he went wheel to wheel with Max Verstappen, went off and fell to sixth. Verstappen could manage only fourth from pole, behind the Mercedes of George Russell, while Alex Albon took a superb fifth for Williams.
The Crucible qualifier Zhao Xintong took a commanding 11-6 lead over Mark Williams on day one of the final, getting the best of the three-time champion on the biggest stage of his career.
Aiming to become the first Chinese player to be crowned world champion, the 28-year-old followed up his semi-final thrashing of Ronnie O’Sullivan with a rampant opening session that left him 7-1 ahead.
Who would you treat first – a woman with postpartum psychosis, or a pregnant crack addict about to be sectioned? This brilliant show looks at the impossible decisions one doctor has to make … that ends in tragedy
Two years ago, former NHS doctor Grace Ofori-Attah created the relentlessly tense first series of Malpractice, a tale of an A&E doctor whose errors under impossible pressure, combined with the inexperience and equal stresses of others, resulted in the death of a patient. Then things escalated. It took in topical medical subjects – primarily the creeping problem of opioid addiction – alongside social issues, including the manifold effects of the pandemic, the prevalence of burnout, the bureaucratic inefficiencies that hinder staff and patients, the institutional buck-passing and arse-covering that greet any type of mistake, and the potential for corruption that exists in any large organisation. It asked how much we should expect of people trapped in a system starved of resources, how much human fallibility we should tolerate in healthcare. It was fast and in every sense furious, written as leanly and cleanly by Ofori-Attah as only someone with direct experience of a particular environment can.
Only one episode of the new series is available for review but it looks to be shaping up just as well as the first. Psychiatric doctor James Ford (Tom Hughes) needs to be in two places at once: doing an assessment on shaky new mother Rosie (Hannah McLean), whose GP Dr Sophia Hernandez (Am I Being Unreasonable’s Selin Hizli), contacts him about as the on-call psychiatrist during Rosie’s postnatal checkup, and attending the sectioning of a troubled, crack-addicted pregnant woman at her home where the police are already waiting and threatening to leave if they have to do so much longer.
Officials warn people to stay clear of area in Simi Valley after two homes sustained structural damage from collision
A small plane crashed into a neighborhood in Simi Valley on Saturday afternoon, killing two people and a dog aboard the aircraft and damaging two homes, authorities said.
Fire crews responded, and police cordoned off the streets, warning people to stay clear of the area. Smoke could be seen billowing from the roof of one home in the Wood Ranch section of the community, which lies nearly 50 miles (80km) north-west of Los Angeles.
Britain’s Draper loses 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 to 14th seed Ruud
Ruud clinches his first Masters 1000 title
Jack Draper’s breakthrough run on the clay courts of Madrid was halted at the final hurdle in a bruising, physical tussle against the 14th seed Casper Ruud, who held his nerve to win his first Masters 1000 title.
A two-time French Open finalist, Ruud was competing in the seventh significant final of his career. He had lost all six of those previous matches, including both those Paris finals in 2022 and 2023, the 2022 US Open final and the ATP finals. He has, at last, clinched one of the biggest titles in the game.
Attacker was a captive spirit on the right and he delivered unprescribed moments of quality despite Maresca’s rigid system
With 84 minutes gone at Stamford Bridge Cole Palmer did something off-grid, unprescribed and, in context, quite surprising, skittering past Conor Bradley near the corner flag, veering inside with that surprising gangly turn of speed and shooting from a fine angle and, in a clever, you-blink-first way, going inside Alisson as he came for the cross, a super-smart little piece of invention.
The ball curved away just enough to hit the post and bounce away from goal. Chelsea were 2-0 up at the time. Maybe he won’t get told off too much.
George Simion will face centrist Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan in runoff vote
An ultranationalist who opposes military aid to Ukraine, has vilified the EU’s leaders, and calls himself Donald Trump’s “natural ally” has won the first round of Romania’s rerun presidential vote and will face a centrist in the runoff, as vote counting nears its end.
With 99% of votes counted late on Sunday, George Simion, whose far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) began as an anti-vax movement during the pandemic, was comfortably in the lead on a projected 40.5% of the vote.
Male in his late teens arrested over incident, say police
Violence ‘must never happen again’, says Gasperini
A 26-year-old fan of Serie A side Atalanta was stabbed to death during clashes between Atalanta and Inter supporters in the northern city of Bergamo, Italy’s police said.
The groups of supporters clashed in a pub in Bergamo on Saturday night after one of the Inter supporters chanted provocatively, the head of the carabinieri office in Bergamo, Carmelo Beringheli, said.
Audrey Backeberg who disappeared at age 20 in 1962 was found living out of the state, county sheriff’s office says
A Wisconsin woman missing for more than 60 years has been found “alive and well”, according to authorities.
In a press statement, Wisconsin’s Sauk county sheriff’s office said that 82-year old Audrey Backeberg, who initially disappeared in July 1962 at the age of 20, had been found living out of the state. The sheriff’s office did not disclose which state Backeberg was found in.
There used to be a rivalry here, once. Two decades ago this was genuinely the most foreboding fixture in English football; a decade ago it was still deciding the destiny of league titles; five years ago it was still appointment viewing. Here, amid a fiesta of missed chances and offside flags, a deeply unserious Chelsea beat a Liverpool team that clearly couldn’t care less.
The score could have been 5-0 or 5-5 or 0-0 and frankly nobody would have been any the wiser. There was a guard of honour at the start. There were triumphal odes from the away end. Chelsea fans retorted with the Steven Gerrard song, and the “you’ll never get a job” song, and the “always the victims” song. What was it people were saying about football becoming ever more predictable, ever more rote, ever more uninspiring?
Bayern Munich have been confirmed as winners of their 33rd Bundesliga title after second-placed Bayer Leverkusen were unable to beat Freiburg on Sunday. The success is a first major trophy for Harry Kane as a player and for Vincent Kompany as a manager.
It had looked like Bayern were going to seal the title on Saturday at RB Leipzig but a last-gasp goal from Yussuf Poulsen delayed their celebrations once again.
Wolves were edged out and Huddersfield picked up first win but biggest victory is word that Newcastle will host again
Wherever it sits in the calendar, Magic Weekend always has the feeling of a seismic weekend in the shaping of every side’s prospects.
Last year it was much more decisive given how it was played in mid-August, just weeks before the playoff began: but even here, on the May bank holiday weekend, Magic’s return to Newcastle felt hugely significant.
President has repeatedly expressed idea of expansion into autonomous territory within fellow Nato member Denmark
Donald Trump would not rule out using military force to gain control of Greenland, the world’s largest island and an autonomous territory within Denmark, a fellow Nato member with the US.
Since taking office, the US president has repeatedly expressed the idea of US expansion into Greenland, triggering widespread condemnation and unease both on the island itself and in the global diplomatic community. Greenland is seen as strategically important both for defense and as a future source of mineral wealth.
“There’s no point in keeping players that Slot won’t play, so Chiesa and Nunez go, maybe others”, emails Nigel Guest. “Robertson is fading, so we need another left back. Salah desperately needs a good backup. He can’t keep playing every minute. Otherwise, it depends who else leaves.”
Yep, certainly a bonafide right winger is needed, as well as a right back if/when Trent Alexander-Arnold departs. I would personally keep Robertson for his experience and buy a top younger left-back for him to mentor, such as Bournemouth’s Kerkez or Fulham’s Antonee Robinson. Maybe sell Tsimikas, although the Greek is dependable. Another excellent centre-back, to challenge Konate and Van Dijk would be prudent, if they can afford that. The goalkeeper situation is interesting, given Giorgi Mamardashvili is going to join this summer from Valencia.
We have to try to manage the emotions. We have regained our momentum by winning some games. We are playing against winner players with winner mentality, so I expect a tough game.
Russian leader says he hopes nuclear strikes ‘will not be required’ in state TV film about his 25 years in power
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said in comments broadcast on Sunday said that the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine had not arisen, and that he hoped it would not.
Speaking in a film by Russian state television about his 25 years in power, Putin said that Russia has the strength and the means to bring the conflict in Ukraine to what he called a “logical conclusion”.
Such a takeover would be one of biggest deals ever in oil and gas industry
Shell is talking to advisers about the potential for a takeover of the rival oil producer BP, according to reports.
The oil company has been discussing the feasibility and merits of a takeover of BP with its advisers in recent weeks, according to a report from Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter.
JP Morgan boss says Buffett represents ‘everything good about American capitalism and America itself’
Leading figures in the business world have lined up to pay tribute to Warren Buffett after the 94-year-old announced he would retire as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway and hand over the reins to his vice-chair, Greg Abel.
Buffett shocked an arena full of shareholders over the weekend when he announced he would step down as the CEO and chair of the trillion-dollar conglomerate at the end of this year.
British & Irish Lions head coach must ask himself if he can afford to leave Henry Pollock out of the squad on Thursday
One of the all-time great club knockout results could yet have big implications in the coming days. Northampton will now feel they have a genuine chance of lifting the Champions Cup for the first time in quarter of a century while Andy Farrell suddenly has much to ponder before Thursday’s British & Irish Lions squad announcement in London.
Just as the Saints fully deserve to be contesting this month’s final against French challengers Bordeaux-Beglès so the prospects of several of their players have been significantly enhanced. It is now less a question, for example, of whether Henry Pollock and Fin Smith could make the plane and more whether Farrell can afford to leave them behind.
As the season ticked into its final few seconds, we still did not know who was going up. The league could scarcely have hoped for a more engrossing finale. Ultimately, by the finest of margins, London City Lionesses were promoted to the Women’s Super League after an outstanding individual goal from Isobel Goodwin helped them edge to a dramatic 2-2 draw away to their nearest title rivals Birmingham City, who were within a whisker of completing what would have been a comeback for the ages.
Goodwin’s stunning long-range strike and a Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah header put the visitors 2-0 up and Birmingham, backed by a club-record crowd of 8,749, knowing they had to win to be promoted, fought back valiantly in the final 27 minutes through Emily van Egmond’s header and Cho So-hyun’s volley – four minutes from time – to set up a frantic finish but the visitors clung on to the draw they needed to clinch top spot.
Three times the referee Craig Pawson awarded penalties to Newcastle in the second half. Twice they were overturned by VAR but the third one stood, and Alexander Isak converted to earn Newcastle a vital point in the race for Champions League football. They had not played well, but they never do against Brighton, and in that context a draw earned with an 89th-minute equaliser was extremely welcome.
“Keeping our composure and making sure our performance wasn’t affected by the outcomes [of the VAR decisions] was key,” said the Newcastle manager Eddie Howe, who acknowledged the VAR was right to rule out the first two penalties. “If you look at the season as a whole we probably haven’t dug out enough points from games that are in the balance.
Beyond self-help mantras like ‘Let them’, radical acceptance shows us the value in learning how to truly accept life just the way it is
Have you ever been in the middle of difficult life circumstances to be told “let it go” or “don’t dwell on it” as if it were a simple choice?
Such advice can have the effect of minimising our distress and abruptly changing the subject. Yet it is not the phrases themselves that are troubling – there is real substance to them – but the missed opportunity to grasp the true meaning of what Buddhist teacher Tara Brach calls “radical acceptance”.
Hobbling past them on my way to the store, I heard one of them call out. I assumed he was mocking me, then few of them ran up and offered to carry my bags
I wasn’t especially good at basketball, but I loved it. One day while playing, I broke my ankle. I needed corrective surgery and would be on crutches for months while I recovered. Getting to and from work, and running errands, was suddenly a huge struggle. I could order groceries online, but there were still a few things I’d have to manage myself.
Back then, I lived in a unit overlooking a park. Every day after school, a large group of teenagers from a few different schools would sit under the tree nearest our block of units. They were a bit troublesome sometimes. Usually, they would just smoke cigarettes and the occasional doobie. But other times they’d spray paint tags on our fence or yell smartarse comments at people walking through the park. To get to the corner store for milk, I had to walk past them, and I was a bit nervous the first time I had to do it on crutches.
Su Yu-Xin scours mines and federal lands for materials to carefully craft her own pigments in a Los Angeles workspace that’s part studio, part science lab
While in art school in London, Su Yu-Xin calculated that most painters used one of five brands of high-end oil paint, and that each brand produced only about 60 colors.
“That’s really scary,” the Slade graduate said. “It’s like all the top chefs in the world shop from the same grocery store.”
In the last episode, we covered historical claims made over the years that Lang Hancock, Gina’s father, had two unacknowledged daughters with separate Indigenous women. Since then, the daughter of Sella Robinson, one of the Indigenous women who claimed to be Hancock’s daughter, has decided to speak publicly for the first time
Strike by Yemen rebel group came hours before security cabinet was due to vote on plans to expand Gaza offensive
Benjamin Netanyahu has promised Israel will strike back against Yemen’s Houthis and “their Iranian terror masters” after a missile launched by the militia movement hit the perimeter of Israel’s main airport.
On X, the Israeli prime minister said on Sunday that Israel would respond to the Houthi attack “at a time and place of our choosing”. On Telegram, Netanyahu said Israel had acted against the Houthis in the past and would act again in the future.
Real beat Celta Viga to move four points behind leaders
Solskjær’s Besiktas win against Mourinho’s Fenerbahce
Kylian Mbappé scored twice as Real Madrid fought off a late comeback attempt from Celta Vigo to secure a 3-2 win on Sunday and stay within four points of the La Liga leaders Barcelona, whom they visit in next weekend’s Clásico.
Real’s fourth win in succession kept their title dream alive with four matches to go in the Spanish top flight, while Celta Vigo remained seventh after their third loss in four league games. “The most important thing was the win. We played a good first half, but then we fell apart … they are a great team and they put us in trouble,” midfielder Federico Valverde told Real Madrid TV.
Indian authorities’ response to deadly attack on tourists sparks fear, anxiety and bad memories across Kashmir
When the news broke of the bloody attack in Kashmir’s popular rolling valleys of Pahalgam, in which militant gunmen shot dead 25 tourists and a guide, Ahmad felt sickened.
In a region so familiar with bloodshed and the loss of innocent lives, the gut-wrenching stories that emerged – of newlyweds being killed, of victims singled out and targeted for their religion – brought back his own memories of grief and loss growing up in Kashmir.
Macron and von der Leyen expected to announce protections for researchers seeking to relocate amid Trump’s crackdown
France and the EU are to step up their efforts to attract US-based scientists hit by Donald Trump’s crackdown on academia, as they prepare announcements on incentives for researchers to settle in Europe.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, alongside the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, will make speeches on Monday morning at Sorbonne University in Paris, flanked by European university leaders and researchers, in which they are expected to announce potential incentives and protections for researchers seeking to relocate to Europe.
Man who became distraught after viewing footage of the fatal shooting of his son crashed into officer the next day, authorities say
The distraught father of an 18-year-old shot and killed by police in Cincinnati allegedly killed a police officer with his car less than 24 hours after the death of his son.
The double killing has shocked the Ohio city amid ongoing concerns about US law enforcement’s involvement in lethal encounters with citizens.
I watched Forest v Brentford on Thursday and I felt the Bees put in one of the best away performances I have seen all season. Very few teams make things look easy at the City Ground but they were ruthless in attack and barely gave Forest a sniff all game. Thomas Frank described it as 7/10 performance. United should be worried if they reach an 8/10 performance.
“Hello from the skies above Turkey, on my way to Abu Dhabi from Manchester,” emails Bob Boon from 38,000ft. “Hoping to watch Liverpool beat Chelsea while waiting for my next flight to Jeddah. A Man United loss in the meantime would keep me happy above the clouds.”
A low key Old Firm encounter preceded Barry Ferguson’s strongest public pitch yet to be made the Rangers manager. Nobody should be in any doubt that Ferguson can talk the talk.
Winds of change are about to blow through Ibrox. A takeover by an American investment group is close, Kevin Thelwell will arrive as the director of football and the Rangers squad will undergo a necessary overhaul. The most significant element, though, surrounds who will be leading the team by the time European qualifiers arrive in July. Steven Gerrard, Russell Martin and Sean Dyche are known to be in the frame. Ferguson, who was catapulted into the front line from ambassadorial duties, wants to see them all off. He also wants to do it quickly.
Debate around Joe Biden’s mental acuity and his age was a critical issue during the run up to the 2024 election
Joe Biden’s top staff debated the possibility of the embattled Democratic president taking a cognitive test last year as he geared up for re-election but eventually decided against the idea, a new book is set to reveal.
Debate around Biden’s mental acuity and his age was an acute issue during the run up to the 2024 election, which eventually saw Biden step down from his re-election campaign in favor of his vice-president, Kamala Harris.
The generations are more segregated than ever. Yet we have so much in common
I’ve always felt a bit pathetic for not having a proper peer group. In dark moments, it feels like a moral failing and an indictment of my social skills. In kinder moments I recognise it’s also partly a product of being sick and sad at university, then successively too pregnant, too preoccupied with babies and too peripatetic to make or maintain ties. In calmer times, I’ve forged slightly more of a social life, but mostly it’s not made up of my gen X peers, but rather people who are occasionally younger, usually significantly older. Now I’m wondering – am I lucky?
This thought was prompted by an Atlantic podcast discussing the demographic moment we’re living in – the usual pyramidal population structure is becoming squarer, with similar numbers of older and younger people – and asking whether we’re making the most of it. The conclusion was we probably aren’t.
At the heart of all Trump administration policies is ‘soft eugenics’ thinking – the idea that if you take away life-saving services, then only the strong will survive
English polymath Francis Galton formulated the concept of eugenics in 1883. Inspired by animal breeding, Galton encouraged people with “desirable” traits to procreate while discouraging or preventing those with “undesirable” traits from doing the same. As social and intellectual qualities were hereditarily “fixed”, he thought some groups were naturally superior. Galton constructed a racial hierarchy, with white Europeans at the top.
Eugenics has since played out in varying, always tragic ways. Attempted genocides and forced sterilization are first to mind, though the 20th century brought about the concept of soft eugenics: non-coercive methods of reducing certain conditions through individual choice and medical advice. Popularized in Nancy Stepan’s 1991 book, The Hour of Eugenics, “soft” eugenics is accomplished by indirect, environmental, and educational interventions while “hard” eugenics is marked by direct biological interventions (such as sterilization). The term has since been expanded in discussions of genetic technologies, prenatal screenings, and physical fitness.
The end of civilisation might look less like a war, and more like a love story. Can we avoid being willing participants in our own downfall?
Right now, most big AI labs have a team figuring out ways that rogue AIs might escape supervision, or secretly collude with each other against humans. But there’s a more mundane way we could lose control of civilisation: we might simply become obsolete. This wouldn’t require any hidden plots – if AI and robotics keep improving, it’s what happens by default.
How so? Well, AI developers are firmly on track to build better replacements for humans in almost every role we play: not just economically as workers and decision-makers, but culturally as artists and creators, and even socially as friends and romantic companions. What place will humans have when AI can do everything we do, only better?
My father’s death from cancer showed me you need to look after your lungs. But apart from not smoking, what should you be doing? I headed to a laboratory, strapped on a mask and heart monitor and started pedalling …
Lungs are amazing. There they sit, inflating and deflating from dawn to dusk, dusk to dawn, sucking in air, stripping out oxygen and exchanging it for carbon dioxide. They do this 20,000 times a day, 7.5m times a year, 600m times in the average lifetime, keeping our trillions of cells ticking over and saving them from choking on their own exhaust fumes. And we ignore them until something goes wrong and we’re gasping,wheezing, panicking – or worse.
When I think about lungs, it’s often in the same breath as cancer, which killed my dad 39 years ago. He only realised his lungs were knackered after a heart attack, which was probably also down to smoking. Sixty Senior Service a day, cigarette number two often lit as soon as number one was stubbed out. He stopped overnight, but it was too late.
Will the cardinals follow Francis’s path or return to a more conservative doctrine? The white smoke will tell us which faction has won
Ariel Beramendi worked at the Vatican for 18 years as an official in the Dicastery for Communication
As the cardinals ready themselves to select the next pope, one thing is certain: this will be the most unpredictable conclave in the recent history of the Catholic church. I worked in the Vatican for 18 years, and on my return to Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis last month, the tension and drama were already palpable.
Some observers and former colleagues I spoke to believe this will be a particularly difficult conclave, given its size – 133 electors, as opposed to 117 last time – and the fact that many of the cardinals don’t know one another. This is down to Francis diversifying the college, appointing cardinals from all over the world: a full 108 of the current crop were his selections. Others suggest the electors will try to reach a decision in less than a week to avoid the appearance of a divided church.
Writer, actor and director Lawrence Valin says that in Little Jaffna he wanted to ‘show new role models’
It has been hailed as one of the most innovative and surprising French gangster films this year: a suspense movie that tears through Paris’s Tamil neighbourhood.
The police thriller Little Jaffna, which opened in France this week, is set in the French capital’s Tamil community, which has rarely been represented on screen – and never in an action film by a French actor, writer and director of Tamil heritage giving his inside take on the legacy of Sri Lanka’s bloody ethnic conflict for younger generations living far away in Europe.
A respectful homage to the classic caesar, using plant-based ingredients to hit the same flavour notes
If I’ve learned anything from almost 40 days of plant-based eating, it’s that an homage doesn’t have to be indistinguishable from the original to hit the same spot; it simply needs to sing equivalent notes to much the same tune. Those notes, in this case, are a green salad, a thick, umami-spiked dressing and savoury croutons, all tossed in a pitch-perfect combination of flavours (milky lettuce, salty fish, rich fat) and textures (crisp leaves, creamy dressing, crunchy toasted bread). So, while the recipe below isn’t pretending to be an authentic classic caesar, consider it a very decent and, I hope, similarly pleasing cover version.
1 min: Just 55 seconds into the match, Balogan rises completely unmarked from a Rangers corner and pops a bullet header onto the top of the crossbar! He should have done better, there was a key block from Raskin on Scales to create room for chance. Oooooo, that’s a big miss, and right in front of the travelling Celtic fans as well.
Williams 0-0 Xintong (0-64) Email! “Battle of the dragons: Chinese v Welsh,” begins Andrew Goudie. “I hope they’ve invited Tony Drago(n) from Malta, also famous for having a dragon on its flag.” And the quickest player ever; him and Jimmy White were quite the doubles partnership. Anyroad, Zhao flukes a red, snuggles up to the brown, and Mark misses his escape … twice … thrice … before hitting. There are 85 points left on the table.
Williams 0-0 Xintong (0-51) The last qualifier to win the worlds was Shaun Murphy in 2025, but Zhao’s started like he means it. He breaks the pack nicely … then a lax positional shot means end of break; he does well not to attempt a wild pot, fired by disappointment, and to play a decent safety.
Victims have had fingers chopped off by attackers in crimewave targeting entrepreneurs and their families
French police are investigating a series of kidnappings of investors linked to cryptocurrency after a 60-year-old man had a finger chopped off by attackers who demanded his crypto-millionaire son pay a ransom.
In the latest of several kidnappings of cryptocurrency figures in France and western Europe, the man, who owned a cryptocurrency marketing company with his son, was freed from a house south of Paris on Saturday night. He had been held for more than two days.
US president displays ‘pathological megalomania’ as cardinals gather to elect new pope after death of Francis
Donald Trump has been accused of mocking the election of a new leader of the Catholic church after posting an artificial intelligence-generated picture of himself as the pope on social media.
The image, shared on Friday night on Trump’s Truth Social site and the White House’s official X account, raised eyebrows at the Vatican, which is still in the period of nine days of official mourning after Pope Francis’s funeral on 26 April.
Survivors of abuse in county-run children’s homes say closure will not come until ‘monsters’ are held accountable
Thousands of victims of abuse in juvenile facilities and foster homes across Los Angeles are being compensated for decades of mistreatment in a historic settlement, but some say the money will never rectify a system that hurt vulnerable children and protected their abusers.
LA county officials this week unanimously approved a landmark $4bn settlement to address nearly 7,000 claims of sexual abuse at county-run facilities. Some of those claims date back to the 1950s, but most took place throughout the 1980s through the 2000s. The payout is the largest of its kind in US history.
The US’s greatest strategic advantage is its friendly neighbors. But its ties to Canada and Mexico are being undermined
The secret to American power and pre-eminence was best summed up more than a century ago.
America, observed Jean Jules Jusserand, France’s ambassador to the United States during the first world war, “is blessed among the nations”. To the north and south were friendly and militarily weak neighbors; “on the east, fish, and the west, fish”. The United States was and is both a continental power and, in strategic terms, an island – with all the security those gifts of geography provide. No world power has ever been as fortunate. This unique physical security is the real American exceptionalism.
Gil Barndollar is a non-resident fellow at the Defense Priorities Foundation. Rajan Menon is Spitzer professor emeritus of international relations at the Powell School, City College of New York, and a senior research scholar at the Saltzman Institute at Columbia University.
A collective is breathing new life into inchunwa for south-eastern Indigenous people across the US
Receiving her inchunwa was not something Faithlyn Taloa Seawright did lightly, but when the moment “just felt right”, she knew it was time. Seawright, who was the 2024 Miss Indian Oklahoma and a previous Chickasaw Princess, had long studied the tradition that she inherited from her ancestors.
In Choctaw and Chickasaw languages, inchunwa means “to be marked, branded or tattooed”. So receiving inchunwa, or traditional Indigenous tattoos, is something that must be done with reverence, Seawright said. The practice was once common among the south-eastern Indigenous nations (Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee and others), but after colonization the tradition faded away for many.
High-concept fiction is having a moment. Funny, inventive and crackling with big ideas, these ambitious stories will have you instantly hooked
Florence Knapp’s first novel The Names, publishing this month, tells not one story but three. As it opens, a mother is preparing to take her newborn boy to formally register his name. Will it be Bear, as his older sister would like, her own choice of Julian, or Gordon, named after his controlling father? The universe pivots on the decision she makes. Knapp plaits together the three stories that follow to trace the three different worlds in which the boy grows to manhood. Think of it as Sliding Doorsfor nominative determinism.
In this universe, at least, it is going like gangbusters. Described as “the book of the fair” at Frankfurt two years ago, Knapp’s publisher secured the rights in a 13-way auction and it’s already due to appear in 20 languages. It is a prime example of a renewed interest in what might be called “high-concept fiction”.
Ignorance no barrier as president begins to put out approved version of history that ignores American failures
Donald Trump, it could be said, takes a breezy, Sam Cooke style approach to history.
Like the legendary “king of soul” in his 1960 hit Wonderful World, the US president has admitted to not knowing much about historical events or figures of the past – even when faced with authorities on the subject.
Uncertainty generated by tariff policy underlines US president seemingly unable to choose a path and stick to it
Ten days reporting from the US – in Pittsburgh, Washington DC, and just across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia – gave me a fascinating snapshot of what feels like the slow-motion unravelling of the world’s largest economy.
So many conversations featured uncertainty and wariness; and weariness, too, as businesses and consumers weigh up every decision, against the backdrop of the chaos emanating from the White House.
Fried pickles, or frickles, have been on US menus for decades. Now they’re having a moment in the UK, in restaurants, chippies and even Aldi. I tested the best brands for home battering
The fried pickle – or frickle – is an on-trend appetiser with a murky provenance. Allegedly, it dates back to the early 1960s, originating at a drive-in restaurant in Arkansas run by an individual who laboured under the name Bernell “Fatman” Austin. Frickles are generally deep-fried, like onion rings, and usually accompanied by a gloopy dipping sauce such as aioli, dill and caper yoghurt or ranch dressing.
Frickles aren’t exactly new to the UK – they first started appearing on restaurant menus about a decade ago – but now they’re beginning to turn up at chippies. In January, Aldi launched a frozen version.
Wes Streeting has said Reform is a real threat and could replace the Conservatives as the main opposition party by the next election, as he urged the public to give Labour the “benefit of the doubt”.
The health secretary said Nigel Farage’s party was being treated as a “serious opposition force” after Reform’s success in the local elections, where it narrowly won a byelection from Labour and took 677 council seats, gaining control of 10 councils. Reform took most seats from the Conservatives, who lost 674, while Labour lost 187.
The president started his second term fast and furious with a flurry of activity – much of it legally dubious – but analysts say the honeymoon is over
“Not just courageous” but “actually fearless”, said Doug Burgum. The “first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other presidency in this country ever”, said Pam Bondi. “Most” of the presidents whose portraits adorn the Oval Office – which include George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan – were mere “placeholders” who were not “men of action”, mused JD Vance.
Before the TV cameras on Wednesday, top cabinet officials took turns drenching Donald Trumpwith praise that some critics found evocative of politics in North Korea. Yet beyond the walls of the White House, the mood was shifting. New data showed the economy is shrinking. The national security adviser was about to be ousted. Opinion polls told of a president whose unpopularity is historic.
Fans poured on to Copacabana beach from around Brazil for show that beat Madonna’s record audience size
More than 2 million people packed Copacabana beach on Saturday night for a free Lady Gaga concert, breaking a Rio de Janeiro record set last year by Madonna.
An estimated 2.1 million “Little Monsters” – as Lady Gaga’s fans are known – turned Rio’s beachside neighbourhood into “Gagacabana” for the largest show of the pop star’s career. The turnout topped Madonna’s free mega-show last year, which drew 1.6 million to the Brazilian city’s shores.
January’s blazes in California have devastated the livelihoods of performers, technicians and other music industry pros. They reveal what they lost – and how they’re rebuilding
Within the ashes of what used to be Christopher Fudurich’s home in Los Angeles, some objects from his garage music studio were still identifiable. Microphones charred and blackened, a scorched keyboard and melted cables among the toxic debris. Not just objects; a life’s work, passion and creativity burned up. “Things I’d been collecting since I was a teenager,” says the songwriter, producer and sound technician. “Just gone.”
This was the reality confronted by Fudurich, and thousands of other Angelenos, following January’s wildfires. Their homes have been damaged or levelled, their possessions destroyed. The fortunate ones fled with what they could; for Fudurich that was some treasured vintage synthesisers, a bag of clothes and his passport.
A challenging solo hike through stunning Provençal scenery is eased by lovely inns, dining by the seaside and leaving the planning to the experts
Behind Cassis beach, the castle-topped cliffs glint red-gold in the late afternoon sun. Couples stroll on the sand, kids play on the carousel, pastel-coloured buildings reflect in the still waters of the old harbour. In the main square, lined by plane trees, a group of elderly men concentrate on a game of petanque. It’s a charming slice of Provençal life, a world away from the Cote D’Azur’s more glitzy hotspots. In summer, tourists flock to the narrow streets and pretty coast, but off season the buzz is gentler, with weekenders feasting on bouillabaisse along the water’s edge.
I grab a seat at a bar overlooking the Med and check out my walking route for the next day. Cassis is in the heart of the Calanques national park – an extraordinary place of steep fjord-like limestone inlets, deep green pines and turquoise sea – perfect for exploring on foot. It’s a fitting finale to a solo self-guided hiking trip with Macs Adventure, which has taken me from the Sainte-Baume mountains down to the Riviera over six days. While my hiking legs have been put to the test with up to six hours of walking each day, I’ve not had to worry about logistics. The routes are plotted on the app and my luggage is transferred ahead, leaving me to simply enjoy the scenery.
Perhaps Chiesa could get his long-awaited opportunity in a central striking role? He made a goalscoring impact in that position when introduced against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final. Liverpool will target a new centre-forward this summer and there is uncertainty over the futures of both Núñez and Jota. Chiesa could also decide to leave after only one season unless he is able to provide effective cover in a second forward position.
A side made up of players from the European Union would be an ambitious project but the rewards could be pleasing for a continent looking to become more united
Imagine the scene: the television is on, the screen showing images of a packed stadium. Rodri collects the ball in midfield and launches it down the wing to Lamine Yamal, who switches play to Kylian Mbappé; the Frenchman swivels past two defenders before crossing for Robert Lewandowski, who surges forward and finishes with precision past Ederson in goal. Europe are leading the Rest of the World 1-0.
Could the European Union have a football team, even if it is just for one game every other year? Why not? It is an ambitious idea that, paradoxically, could be both concrete and relevant. In an era marked by challenges to the cohesion of the union, conceiving a footballing Dream Team of the 27 countries is, in fact, one of the more plausible ways to give the continent a dimension beyond the economy or, as is highly relevant at the moment, the military.
We need a society that supports parents and makes good food choices achievable – not more lecturing of exhausted mums
Like many modern mothers, I have on occasion piped cold bolognese directly from a pouch into my small child’s open mouth and, radical though it may seem, I refuse to feel guilty about it. There is a lot of panic about ultra-processed foods (UPFs), and baby food pouches, with their high sugar content and dubious nutritional value, are the latest targets. Researchers at the University of Leeds School of Food Science and Nutrition found that 41% of main meals marketed for children had sugar levels that were too high and that 21% of ready-to-eat fruit products, cereals and meals were too watery and not providing adequate nutrition.
It’s not great. But is it news? No parent picks up something called “Heinz fruity banana custard” believing it a fantastic alternative to actual mashed banana, yet this is being treated as the Watergate of the under-4s sandpit crowd. I’m starting to wonder if people have lost their collective minds over processed food. I even saw one comment calling for the death penalty for baby food producers. Baby pouch hysteria is the perfect new addition to the maternal guilt industrial complex.
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist. The Republic of Parenthood book will be published this summer
How to beat the scam, from setting up new passwords and telling your bank exactly what you are doing
“Hi mum,” the first message starts, “I’ve lost my phone.” It carries on with a tale of woe: for some reason the sender has also been locked out of his or her bank account.
Luckily a friend is often on hand to help – it’s their phone that the message comes from, apparently – and if you could just transfer some money to their account that would be great. Alternatively, you might be asked to pay the rent, direct to a landlord, or foot some other urgent bill that has arrived at this time of crisis.
Christian Doyle’s series Quietly Getting On focuses on women in their late 80s and 90s, their memories of a wartime childhood and how they live now
As a way of maintaining contact with my elderly neighbours during the Covid restrictions of 2020, we set up a project where each person held up a card showing the age they felt inside. From their life stories, a new idea formed in my mind.
This is a generation of women who had experienced first-hand the impact of war on the domestic front, who had been evacuated to strangers across the country, not seeing their parents for months on end. Maybe these experiences created a different mindset; a resilience and stoicism, where the self is less important than being part of a community.
Anthony Albanese says his job is to “represent Australia’s national interest” after his thumping election win, shrugging off questions about when he might visit the United States to speak to Donald Trump about tariffs and trade.
The re-elected prime minister said he had spoken to the leaders of Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, France and the UK, and looked forward to calls with the presidents of Indonesia and Ukraine.
Companies deploy highly-paid lawyers and appear to mislead councillors – but local authorities are fighting back
It is almost 2am in Peterborough and a handful of punters are wordlessly feeding their money into the machines at Merkur Slots.
A fragment of a song, the lyric “nothing to lose”, drifts through the shop as their funds rapidly evaporate. Closing time is fast approaching, but that does not mean the end of the gambling.
Australians are much better at defining who they are by identifying what they are not, rather than by making lofty statements. And they have now said unequivocally that they are not angry little Americans, cultural warriors or self-interested libertarians.
Connexion
