Duke of Sussex says he does not know how long King Charles has left to live and has ‘forgiven’ him
Prince Harry has said he wants “reconciliation” with the rest of the royal family after a legal challenge over his security that has left him “devastated”.
The Duke of Sussex told the BBC his father, King Charles, “won’t speak to me because of this security stuff”. He said he did not know how long his father had left to live.
Donald Trump said again on Friday that he would be “taking away” Harvard’s tax-exempt status as a nonprofit in a legally questionable move that escalates his ongoing feud with the elite university.
“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in a more direct message than a post in April when he said “perhaps” the college should lose its tax-exempt status.
Nicola Packer tells court she had feared hospital staff ‘wouldn’t help me’ if they knew she had taken abortion pills
A woman on trial accused of having an illegal abortion has said she told hospital staff she had miscarried as she feared them knowing the truth would affect the level of care she received.
Nicola Packer, 45, took abortion medicine during the Covid lockdown in November 2020, after being prescribed the pills in a remote consultation with a registered provider, a jury at Isleworth crown court heard.
Liberal PM will also meet with US president on Tuesday amid tensions over threatened annexation and tariffs
King Charles has accepted an invitation to open Canada’s parliament on 27 May, in “an historic honour that matches the weight of our times”, the country’s prime minister, Mark Carney, said on Friday.
In his first news conference since an election dominated by Donald Trump’s threats to Canada’s sovereignty, the prime minister also confirmed he would meet the US president at the White House on Tuesday.
In this week’s newsletter: AI impostors are charming fans out of fortunes – here’s how TV’s Scam Interceptors catch the criminals
This week’s newsletter is written by Nick Stapleton and Mark Lewis, presenter and producer respectively on BBC’s Scam Interceptors. If you haven’t seen Scam Interceptors, it’s a very entertaining factual series in which Nick and his team of ethical hackers attempt to disrupt scamming attacks on the public as they happen. In the show’s fourth series, now airing daytime on BBC One, one of the scams disrupted involves a worryingly convincing Reese Witherspoon deepfake. So we thought we’d ask Nick and Mark to tell us all about their brush with (fake) celebrity, and share some pointers on how to spot a deepfake before it convinces you to empty your bank account. – Gwilym
Ever wanted to have a deep and meaningful with your favourite Hollywood celebrity? Go on. Who is it? Pedro Pascal? Aubrey Plaza? Jeff Bridges (Nick). Beyoncé (Mark). Well, we’ve got great news for you. Thanks to the seemingly unbothered-by-scams social media giants and the absurdly rapid growth of free-to-use generative AI, you can. The only downside is that they will probably be a version of that celebrity being controlled by a scammer who wants to extort money from you.
His 35-ball IPL hundred instantly made the young Rajasthan batter one of the most famous people in India
Life moves fast in the Indian Premier League, the richest and most popular cricket competition in the world. A fortnight ago Vaibhav Suryavanshi, 14, was a fringe player for the Rajasthan Royals and the youngest of a bunch of teenagers on the books of the league’s 10 teams. On 19 April he made his debut and hit his first ball for six, then, on 28 April, in an hour of incendiary batting, he scored a hundred off 35 balls, with 11 sixes disappearing to all corners. It was the second fastest-century in the history of the tournament and, by the time he went to bed that night, Suryavanshi was one the most famous people in India.
In the days since, Suryavanshi’s innings has been pored over by the league’s millions of fans, the clips watched and shared over and again on social media. His short life story has been retold endlessly on TV, radio, podcasts and in print. He has been praised by politicians, sportsmen and celebrities, and offered advice by everyone who is anyone in Indian cricket, including Sachin Tendulkar, who made his professional debut at the same age. Everyone who’s ever had anything to do with him, from his mother and father through to his junior coaches and his former teammates, has been sought out to share what they have to say.
Two worst Premier League teams still have something to play for, not least to recognise the resilience of their fans
They’re calling it the worst Premier League game in history. They’re calling it El Chaffico. El Crapico. The Derby Della Mediocre. They’re calling it the first Premier League game in which both teams somehow manage to lose. They’re posting memes of old men playing walking football and Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes.
They’re mentioning the fact that none of the three relegated teams have won more games against Premier League opposition than Paris Saint-Germain have. The fact that since Leicester scored their last league goal at home, Southampton have sacked a manager, appointed an interim, appointed a permanent replacement, sacked the permanent replacement and re-appointed the interim from earlier.
As health institutions collapse and Maha influencers spread food fears, experts say orthorexia is on the rise
Katie Lundgreen Urness’s struggles with disordered eating began when she was just 11.
A gymnast, she put a lot of value in being petite. Urness, 28, who lives in Utah, remembers longing for candy as a child but “feeling like I couldn’t eat a single Skittle”.
Americans are beginning to worry about their future amid a shrinking economy, warnings of empty shelves – and the president’s failed promises
He says it’s the “best 100-day start of any president in history”, but you can file that along with his boast about crowd sizes and his claim to have won the 2020 election. In truth, the first three months of Donald Trump’s second presidency have been calamitous on almost every measure. The single biggest achievement of those 100 days has been to serve as a warning of the perils of nationalist populism, which is effective in winning votes but disastrous when translated into reality. That warning applies across the democratic world – and is especially timely in Britain.
Start with the numbers that matter most to Trump himself. A slew of polls appeared this week, but they all told the same story: that Trump’s approval ratings have collapsed, falling to the lowest level for a newly installed president in the postwar era. He has now edged ahead of his only rival for that title: himself. The previous low watermark for a president three months in was set by one Donald Trump in 2017.
There may not be obvious successors to the likes of Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie among today’s hotshot young writers. But is a new publisher dedicated to ‘overlooked’ male voices necessary?
‘Where have all the literary blokes gone?” is a question that has popped up in bookish discussions and op-eds from time to time in recent years. Who are this generation’s hotshot young male novelists, the modern incarnations of the Amis/McEwan/Rushdie crew of the 80s?
The question flared again this week as writer Jude Cook launched a new press, Conduit Books, which plans to focus, at least initially, on publishing male authors.
Author Holly Wainwright reflects on her decade-long friendships with the women she met in a strip-lit shopping mall when her first child was a newborn
We knew it was coming. The camping trip when the kids would be up later than the parents, adult ears tuned in not for tears and temperatures but for tent zips flicking up and down at midnight, our alcohol audited and phone trackers at hand.
This past Easter weekend, it arrived. The count was the same: 11 adults, 14 kids. The destination was new, but not unusual. A classic Australian campground – powered sites, a well-worn kitchen and a toilet block with a code it takes days to remember. A tepid, kidney-shaped pool and a sandy track to a beach stretching away in all directions.
Blood from man bitten hundreds of times by deadly species is used to create most broadly protective antivenom yet
He has self-administered more than 850 doses of venom from cobras, mambas, rattlesnakes and other deadly species in pursuit of a singular quest: to develop immunity to snake bites in the hope of helping scientists create a universal antivenom.
Now the extreme 18-year experiment by Tim Friede, a former truck mechanic from Wisconsin, appears to have paid off. Scientists have used antibodies from his blood to create the most broadly protective antivenom to date, which could revolutionise the treatment of snake bites.
On the afternoon of 29 July 2023, five people sat down to lunch in the dining room of a house in Leongatha, a small town in the South Gippsland region of Australia’s south-east.
Erin Patterson owned the house, and the guests were her parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson; Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson; and Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband.
About half of people looking after someone with dementia are doing it alone. Many of them are ageing and starting to need care themselves. It is an act of love and duty – but it can be precarious
Don Campbell and his wife, Marjorie, energetically travelled the world together. “We’ve had wonderful times” he says. They had season tickets to the symphony and opera – until illness intervened. “We’ve always done lots of theatre and music.” But the “lots and lots of memories” are fading now for Marjorie.
She has rheumatoid arthritis and was diagnosed with dementia two-and-a-half years ago. Now she will ask him up to five times a day “what have we got to do today?” It requires, he says, “a huge amount of patience”. Her mobility is failing, she is losing her balance, she has frightening falls, soon she will be in a wheelchair. But no matter what happens from here Don is adamant: “She is not going into care, she is going to be looked after at home by me.”
Those of a Liverpool persuasion, do look away now. That’s if you’ve sobered up from last Sunday, but even if you’ve had your fun this may annoy: there’s a thought this has been an unsatisfying Premier League season. Brentford’s beating of Nottingham Forest on Thursday night further dulled the romance. It looks as if the Tricky Trees will not now be in Bigger Cup, much to the chagrin of edit producers who had already started working on that Cloughie montage. With zero relegation battle there’s only Manchester City’s fall from grace to, er, fourth to gawp at. Thank goodness for the continent, then, where the Premier League’s brave boys can remind those Eurocrats that ours is the best bloody league in the world. It’s going well, actually, though there is something of a bullies turning up at junior school vibe to such success. That’s to set aside Arsenal, hanging on in Bigger Cup’s semis, a goal down despite the fear North London Forever must have put into PSG at the Emirates.
We’ve had some difficult results, we are bottom of the league and we were never going to become solid and be dominant in the game. If we did that when I came in with seven games to go, I’d probably be able to bring world peace as well” – interim manager Simon Rusk on how he would have been worthy of a Nobel prize if he’d managed to coach a bit of backbone into his rock-bottom Southampton side.
The potential Tottenham Hotspur or Spurs v Manchester United Bigger Vase final is going to be that paradox of a clash between one that can’t win and one that doesn’t want to win” – Krishna Moorthy.
As noticed by me and 1,056 others, your Memory Lane (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition) photo of Tony Hateley and Emlyn Hughes reminds me of the great Ted Lowe commentary: ‘For those of you watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green’” – Louis Beasley-Suffolk.
Sorry, I disagree with with you, Tom Dowler (yesterday’s Football Daily letters). Riqui Puig was unfortunately injured, and seems to spend most of his time being largely nice, if a bit puppyish and over enthusiastic. John Terry got himself banned from the final by being a divot in the semi. Can we please keep Terry as the epitome of the full-kit celebration? It is the very least he deserves. Plus, I don’t care who wins Bigger Cup now, but I do want someone to slip on their ar$e, c0ck up a penalty and start crying so we can bring that up again too” – Jon Millard.
Donald Trump tried to distance himself from the radical rightwing blueprint for government during the campaign but its prescriptions are all over the administration’s agenda
When Donald Trump chose a Project 2025 author to lead a key federal agency that would carry out the underpinnings of the conservative manifesto’s aims, he solidified the project’s role in his second term.
Shortly after he won re-election, the US president nominated Russ Vought to lead the office of management and budget. Vought wrote a chapter for Project 2025 about consolidating power in the executive branch and advances a theory that allows the president to withhold funds from agencies, even if Congress has allocated them. Consolidating power, in part through firing a supposed “deep state” and hiring loyalists, is a major plank of the project – and of Trump’s first 100 days.
Oldest surviving version from 1308 is dwarfed in size by 21-metre roll produced more than 700 years later
The oldest surviving coronation roll – a 2ft hand-stitched official record of Edward II’s 1308 crowning at Westminster Abbey – is dwarfed by the 21-metre-long version produced for King Charles III two years ago.
Much has changed in 700 years. The former is tightly inscribed, on remarkably well-preserved parchment, recording details of the service, processions, promises, who attended and what ceremonial roles they performed.
After three successive promotions McElhenney and Reynolds will see their club take on their biggest challenge yet in ‘one of the most competitive leagues in world football’
A social media soundbite from Rob McElhenney was typically revealing. “If I’m being honest I don’t even know what the word consolidation means,” the Wrexham co-chair said. Days earlier, in between wheeling around the Racecourse Ground celebrating promotion from League One, he told Ryan Reynolds things were about to get “a little pricier from here on”.
Wrexham: welcome to the Championship. After three successive promotions to earn a slice of English football history, the Welsh club and their owners are steadying themselves for one of the most chaotic and competitive leagues on the planet.
Government says measures are too legally complex to deliver before the next Holyrood election
The Scottish government has dropped plans to outlaw misogyny and conversion practices before the next Holyrood election, arguing they are too legally complex to deliver in time.
Ministers had long promised a bill to criminalise misogyny after Nicola Sturgeon, the then first minister, accepted recommendations from a working group led by the lawyer and human rights expert Helena Kennedy in 2022.
The country has exported a myth of progressivism. It’s time to confront who we really are
Canada has been canonized – safely, predictably.
It’s the great, grave story we’ve exported – retold in economic rankings, stitched into tourism ads, held up in classrooms and cable news panels. We’re the cooler, mellower cousin nextdoor. The country that has it figured out. Where healthcare is universal, democracy is calm and diversity is politely managed.
Whereas the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have expressed their desire to be federally united into One Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland …
Attorney general accused of targeting political foes, halting prosecutions and placing premium on loyalty to president
Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has taken radical steps to target his political foes, back a harsh agenda against undocumented immigrants and help business allies – steps which underscore its politicization under the attorney general Pam Bondi and undermine the rule of law, say ex-prosecutors and legal experts.
Some even say that the department has in effect become Trump’s “personal law firm”.
Duke of Sussex’s team had argued he was ‘singled out’ for ‘inferior treatment’ when security was downgraded in 2020
The Duke of Sussex has lost a legal challenge over the level of taxpayer-funded security he is entitled to while in the UK, allowing the government to proceed with a “bespoke”, and cheaper, level of protection to his family.
Barristers for Prince Harry argued that he had been “singled out” for “inferior treatment” and that his safety and life were “at stake” after a change in security arrangements after he stepped down as a working royal and moved abroad.
The artist spent time at a penal colony for her work – and has channelled the trauma into a stark new show. Despite being on Russia’s ‘wanted’ list, she remains hopeful for the future
Ten minutes into our interview, Nadya Tolokonnikova ducks to fetch a piece of paper from the floor and I find myself looking at something unexpected behind her. Next to a double bed, two crucifixes hang on the wall. Given the Siberia-born artist is best known for a performance piece that so offended the head of the Russian Orthodox church that he called it blasphemy, the discovery of such devotional regalia comes as a surprise. It certainly doesn’t suggest “religious hatred”, which is what a Moscow court said in 2012 motivated Tolokonnikova’s group Pussy Riot to perform a “punk prayer” in the city’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, before sentencing her to two years’ imprisonment. Nor does it smack of someone bent on hurting the “religious feelings of believers” – the charge under which Tolokonnikova was sentenced again two years ago, this time in absentia, and put on Russia’s wanted list.
Famous for performing in garishly coloured balaclavas, Pussy Riot appeared unmasked in court in 2012 – which turned the photogenic Tolokonnikova into the most globally recognisable face of a wave of protests against the then Russian PM Vladimir Putin. But looking at those bedside crosses, and at her new exhibition in Berlin, you wonder if everyone got the wrong end of the stick. Part of the German capital’s gallery weekend, her solo show Wanted at Galerie Nagel Draxler feature not only a replica of her former prison cell and a screening of the Putin’s Ashes performance that led to her wanted status, but also Tolokonnikova’s own paintings of religious icons. She uses tasteful old Slavic calligraphy techniques – while putting the icons in Pussy Riot ski masks.
Much anticipated title was due in autumn but fans will now have to wait another year after the announcement by Rockstar Games
Rockstar Games has delayed the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI until 26 May, 2026. The game had been scheduled for release this autumn, but the lack of a definite date was beginning to raise concerns within the industry.
Announcing the decision via a brief post on its website, the company said: “We are very sorry that this is later than you expected. The interest and excitement surrounding a new Grand Theft Auto has been truly humbling for our entire team. We want to thank you for your support and your patience as we work to finish the game.
The appeal court verdict makes clear these anti-protest laws should never have existed. Labour must now reflect on what sort of democracy it wants us to be
Akiko Hart is the director of the human rights organisation Liberty
When we beat the Conservative government over its anti-democratic protest laws in court last year, we thought that would be the end of the story. Judges in the high court had made it very clear that laws that gave the police almost unlimited powers to crack down on any protest that caused “more than minor” disruption were unlawful. It orderedthat the laws should be scrapped. We celebrated. Given that the incoming Labour government had voted down these very same laws a year earlier, we believed that protest would be taken out of the culture wars arena and putback into the sacred space of fundamental rights.
Yet Labour dragged us back to court, in a misguided attempt to be seen to look tough on public order. And now today, on a day of much Labour soul-searching, we’ve won again. A unanimous court of appeal victory that, alongside chastening election results, must now trigger a total Labour rethink on how we treat protesters in this country.
Akiko Hart is the director of the human rights organisation Liberty
Mike Waltz, ousted national security adviser at heart of earlier chat group fiasco, pictured using third-party clone
Photographs taken at Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting this week have revealed that top White House officials are now communicating using an even less secure version of the Signal messaging app than was at the center of a huge national security scandal last month.
The images, taken by Reuters on Wednesday, show the phone screen of Mike Waltz, the since-ousted national security adviser who last month accidentally included a journalist in a group chat in which top US officials discussed operational plans to bomb Yemen, attacks that were then carried out as described.
Cost of living and flexible working contribute to growing trend for 5pm table bookings
Previously sitting down for dinner at 5pm usually meant one of three things. You were going to the theatre. You had a toddler. You were of an age where you had a free bus pass. But now we are becoming a nation of early birds; 5pm is the new 8pm and restaurants are adapting accordingly. Special early-evening menus are on the rise.
At Skye Gyngell’s Spring restaurant in Covent Garden, a £30 “scratch” menu – featuring dishes made using waste produce such as a moreish bread-and-butter pudding made from yesterday’s loaves – is served between 5.30pm and 6.15pm.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission also found the video app provided ‘erroneous information’ to its inquiry
TikTok has been fined €530m (£452m) by an Irish watchdog over a failure to guarantee that European user data sent to China would not be accessed by the Chinese government.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) regulates TikTok across the European Economic Area (EEA), which includes all 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
Red-carpet launch has to be backed up with a car on the grid next season, with Briton Graeme Lowdon leading the push
As inescapable as it is inexorable, everyone at Cadillac is aware the clock is ticking as they edge closer towards a moment of truth more than three years in the making. The expectation and anticipation for when the team, backed by General Motors, hits the grid as Formula One’s 11th entry for the first race of 2026 is ratcheting up with every passing second.
Appropriately for this all‑American marque, the team are launching their F1 entry on Saturday night with a red-carpet event at Miami Beach after the sprint race and qualifying have concluded at the Hard Rock Stadium circuit.
Presenter released on bail by Westminster magistrates court and told he faces Old Bailey trial on five charges
Russell Brand has appeared in court on charges of rape and sexual assault.
During a brief hearing at Westminster magistrates court on Friday, he was told he faced a trial at the Old Bailey in London on the five sexual offence charges.
Patience Nabukalu, who has experienced climate-related flooding, joins protestors from around the world to deliver a letter to CEO Georges Elhedery criticising the financing of oil, gas and coal projects
At nine years old, Patience Nabukalu was devastated when her friend, Kevin, died in severe flooding that hit their Kampala suburb, Nateete, a former wetland. Witnessing deaths and the destruction of homes and livelihoods in floods made worse by extreme rainfall has had a profound impact on her.
She decided to try to bring about change – to do what she could to amplify the voices of those in the Ugandan communities worst affected by the climate crisis.
A sprightly, grapefruity number in the manner of a gin sour, and with a dash of Campari to give it an extra grown-up edge
I’m a huge fan of Campari, so am always keen to come up with new cocktails in which it can take centre stage, and this zingy little number is now a firm favourite. We also love working with local Cornish producers, and Caspyn’s dry gin is made in West Penwith, on the southern tip of the county.
UK gender decision ignites debate among professionals working in the domestic abuse and rape crisis spheres
“I have a list as long as my arm that I worry about daily,” says Katie Russell, the chief executive and co-founder of the service Support After Rape and Sexual Violence Leeds (SARSVL). “The funding landscape, a broken criminal justice system, the global threat of violent misogyny.”
She lives a few streets away from where two women were seriously injured last weekend in a crossbow attack perpetrated by a man who espoused misogynist hate online.
She was in a girl group and starred in a Harry Potter film, but it was her genius turn as Oregon in Fresh Meat that made Ritchie a TV favourite. Now, she’s wrapping up her hit Netflix serial killer series and entering her detective era
In the beginning, Penn Badgley assumed his new co-star in the smash-hit Netflix thriller You was a lot like her character. This, jokes said co-star Charlotte Ritchie, was “somewhat rude. Because it shows he did no research about me.” If he had, Badgley would quickly have deduced that the Londoner was nothing like Kate Galvin, a ruthless British heiress, who – for some godforsaken reason – decides to marry his serial killer protagonist Joe Goldberg. Instead, the 35-year-old has cemented her place in the British comedy firmament with her perky, subtly goofy screen presence and impeccable comic timing, as showcased in beloved comedies from university life opus Fresh Meat to the BBC’s ingeniously silly supernatural sitcom Ghosts.
At first, Ritchie was nervous about joining You. The drama, then three seasons in, was already a colossal hit, adored for its knowingly ludicrous premise, bizarre twists and Badgley’s virtuoso portrayal of an apparently empathetic femicidal maniac. On set, Ritchie was impressed by Badgley’s ability to segue from “smart self-awareness” to serial killer mode. “His eyes go kind of wide and his face goes totally blank and inside I was like: Oh my God, that’s so horrifying!” she says.
Toby Jones, Frances McDormand and Mike Myers are some of those who have appeared alongside Tim Crouch in An Oak Tree, despite never having seen the script before. As the play celebrates its 20th anniversary, past performers explain its strange appeal
The standard routine in theatre goes something like this: an actor is cast in a play; they read, learn and rehearse it; and then, at last, they perform it to an audience, who will hopefully soak up their hard work. But for Tim Crouch, one of the industry’s chief experimenters, this exercise began to feel reductive. “A lot of actor training is about holding focus within the stage and putting the audience into a receiving role,” says Crouch. “I used to go to pubs and bitch about it.”
An Oak Tree – his 2005 play that is now seen as a landmark work – was born directly from these frustrations. The script, which is written to be performed by Crouch and a new actor each night, celebrates its changeability. “It is a finished piece, but it contains an unfinished element,” Crouch says. An Oak Tree’s story concerns a meeting between two men: a father who has lost his 12-year-old daughter in a car crash (played by the actor), and the person behind the wheel (played by Crouch). The one basic requirement is that the actor arrives at the theatre oblivious. They must have never seen the play, nor read the script, and be willing to stand on stage with no idea what will happen over the course of the evening. Frances McDormand, Peter Dinklage, Mike Myers and David Harewood are some of the many names to have played Crouch’s unwitting castmate over the years.
After the US health secretary called for autistic people to be tracked, readers rebuked the idea that ASD is a tragedy
When Robert F Kennedy Jr announced a major project to track the health of people with autism, autistic people and their friends and families reacted with shock and anger.
They also expressed dismay and concern over the US health secretary’s incorrect and “weird” approach to autism spectrum disorder.
Connexion
