Reform leader claims GPs creating a ‘class of victims’ in elections speech
Nigel Farage says the UK is “massively overdiagnosing those with mental illness problems” and creating a “class of victims”.
In comments likely to provoke a backlash from parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), the leader of Reform UK said it was too easy to get a mental health diagnosis from a GP.
Fifteen-year-old student arrested after incident at Notre-Dame-de-Toutes-Aides school near Nantes
A student at a French high school stabbed four other students at his school on Thursday, killing at least one and injuring three others before being arrested, police said.
The circumstances of the attack were not immediately clear. A national police official said it had taken place at the private Notre-Dame-de-Toutes-Aides high school in Nantes on the Atlantic coast.
PC; Strange Scaffold What looks like a glitchy dinosaur-hunting puzzler turns out to be a meta game about game development that the player patches as they go
The haunted house has become a ripe location in which to set weird video games. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Blue Prince, Botany Manor and Layers of Fear spring to mind. The manor as a site of danger, supernatural peril, untrustworthy architecture – perfect, surely, for an unsettling experience. Or even a silly experience in unsettling surroundings.
Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 promises much in its title. It presents initially as a high-concept dinosaur-hunting adventure in spooky house run by a sinister old mogul, then quickly reveals to the player that it knows it is a video game. A broken video game, that is, and it is up to us to patch it as we go.
Spokesperson for China’s ministry of commerce says any claims of progress in China-US negotiations are ‘without factual evidence’
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has said he talked about the war in Ukraine and the need to foster good bilateral relations with the US in his phone call with Donald Trump.
“We both agreed that the war should be brought to an end as soon as possible to stop further unnecessary deaths... to meet soon to address various matters regarding US-South Africa relations,” Ramaphosa wrote in a post on X.
Decision will affect mostly low-income Alabama residents as DoJ dismisses agreement over untreated sewage as DEI
The Trump administration has killed a landmark civil rights settlement requiring Alabama to address raw sewage pollution in majority-Black, residential areas south-west of Montgomery, dismissing it as an “illegal” diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agreement.
The decision could condemn low-income people in Lowndes county, about 40 miles south-west of Montgomery, to indefinitely continue living with no or failing sanitation infrastructure.
A solidly made adaptation of the Playstation hit sees a group of twentysomethings stuck in a gory death loop
A week after the release of Ryan Coogler’s unusual, artfully crafted horror Sinners, we are now back to the industry’s genre norm with Until Dawn, a schlocky video game adaptation that has far less on its mind. Such a drastic drop in IQ and ambition means there’s no serious comparison to be made here and this weekend there’ll be no real competition at the box office (Sinners is likely to remain on top) so such contrast does ultimately allow the film to stay within its own, sillier space, a deep-fried donut for dessert after a filet mignon entree.
On its own, lower-stakes terms, Until Dawn is a passable, if rather unfrightening frightener, made with some skill and enlivened by a strong troupe of young actors, enough to notch it slightly above the piss-poor standard but not quite enough to really justify its existence. The game it’s based on has been described by the director David F Sandberg as “pretty much a 10-hour movie” but with interactive elements, the idea being that you can affect the direction of a narrative that would otherwise be fixed. There’s obviously no such gimmick here (at times one wonders what a Bandersnatch-style choose-your-own-adventure version would look like) and so instead, there’s a replication of the gaming process. In Until Dawn the movie, when the characters die they’re then brought back to life to die all over again.
The Match of the Day presenter has been challenged again on his views on Gaza and Israel. But can we really expect him to have no opinions about the outside world?
The most extraordinary revelation to come from Gary Lineker’s interview with Amol Rajan on the BBC is that he’d sometimes come home from school to find Engelbert Humperdinck playing cards with his dad. Surprisingly, almost all the reaction to the conversation has ignored this bombshell – Engelbert apparently not such a big player in the culture war world; best focus on your Middle Easts, your Bravermans, your impartialities, Brian.
Of course the job of news outlets is to pick out headlines but it does appear almost no one has watched the whole programme. It’s essentially a nice wide-ranging interview covering the career of one of the best English footballers and football broadcasters of all time.
Col Sheyla Baez Ramirez, Wisconsin training base’s first female commander, was suspended after the discovery
The US army has suspended a Wisconsin training base’s first female commander after discovering portraits of Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth had been flipped around to face a wall.
The army has posted an undated statement on Fort McCoy’s website saying Col Sheyla Baez Ramirez has been suspended as the base’s garrison commander. The statement said the suspension isn’t related to any misconduct, but provided no other details, saying the matter was under review.
Ramsay’s Die, My Love, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, helps take number of female directors in competition to a record-breaking seven
Lynne Ramsay’s long-awaited new film, Die, My Love, has been announced as a late addition to this year’s Cannes competition lineup. The film, which is Ramsay’s first for eight years, stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson and concerns a woman in rural America who experiences psychosis after the birth of her baby.
The inclusion of Ramsay’s movie takes the number of female director’s in the official selection to seven – a record for the festival. It also means that a British director is now in the running for this year’s Palme d’Or.
The quintessential English actor answers your questions about being posh, appearing on I’m a Celebrity, and asking parked motorists to turn off their engines
I’m obsessed with the BBC Radio 4 programme, Nigel Havers’ Ravers, where you recount your experiences during the ecstasy-fuelled 90s summers of love. I’ve never been sure if it was a) genuine, b) a brilliant and strange parody, or c) a fever dream of my own imagination. What’s the truth, Nigel? UncleMonty I just don’t remember it, so I’m Googling it … “Dermot O’Leary, Nigel Havers Ravers, the definitive guide to the 90s underground rave scene from a man who lived through it.” Raves are where people go mad, take a load of drugs and dance all night, right? I don’t think I’ve been to a rave in my life. I must have been bullshitting.
I had you in my cab once in Sydney, where you were expounding to your fellow passengers that you could identify the drama school of any young performer on stage. That was 35 years ago, mate. Still the case, you reckon? moodmeister I don’t know what I meant by that, so I’m afraid that’s also bollocks.
Do you still ask parked motorists to switch off their engines? gregc1381 All the time. I tap on the window and say: “Do you mind turning your engine off?” The majority go: “Oh, sorry, quite right,” but a few do say: “Fuck off, what are you talking about?” I carry a little card that explains that an idling exhaust expels 150 balloons full of toxic air per minute. If nobody idled in Greater London tomorrow, it would cut pollution by a third. I know this because I was a Stop Idling ambassador for Westminster Council. I’m a fierce anti-idler.
Do you have a portrait in your attic that is mysteriously ageing? You look exactly the same as you did 40 years ago.Megatron66 Yes, but don’t tell anyone.
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Seb Hutchinson and Dan Bardell as Manchester City get a vital win over Aston Villa in the hunt for Champions League football
On the podcast today: two midweek Premier League games to review. One more consequential than the other as Manchester City go third with a late win over Aston Villa. In the other fixture, Crystal Palace score two brilliant goals to claim a point at Arsenal.
The country’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s conduct during the war in Gaza, questioning whether it is following international humanitarian law and calling the number of Palestinian deaths “truly unbearable”.
We would like to hear from parents who sometimes get too involved when their children play football
Kids’ football can be emotional. Some parents shout at their own children, others swear at officials, and a few even get into fights. We’d like to hear from parents about the times they’ve become too involved in their kids’ football matches.
What has your experience been like and how did your children react? Have you noticed other parents’ behaviour on the pitch?
Blaze in Pine Barrens expected to grow before forecast rain as commercial building and some vehicles destroyed
A fast-moving wildfire engulfing part of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens has not resulted in any injuries, officials said on Wednesday, though it is expected to grow before forecast rain later this week.
The fire in southern New Jersey’s Lacey and Ocean townships has grown to more than 20 sq miles (52sq km) and could continue to burn for days, officials said. No one has been injured so far in the blaze, and 5,000 residents were evacuated but have been permitted to return home. A single commercial building and some vehicles were destroyed in the fire, while 12 structures remained threatened on Wednesday evening.
DoJ told over 350 groups that promised funding would be cut because it ‘no longer effectuates’ department priorities
Hundreds of millions of federal grant dollars meant to prevent and respond to gun violence, opioid addiction and support victims of violent crimes were cut this week by the Trump administration. The US department of justice emailed more than 350 organizations on Tuesday to tell them that the promised funding was being terminated. According to a termination notice shared with the Guardian, the Department of Justice said the money was rescinded because it “no longer effectuates Department priorities”.
Instead, the department intends to focus on “more directly supporting certain law enforcement operations, combatting violent crime, protecting American children, and supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault, and better coordinating law enforcement efforts at all levels of government”, the notice read.
Two recent US cases have found the search giant is functioning as an illegal monopoly. This should be a turning point
In less than a year, US courts have ruled that the world’s most powerful tech company broke the law – twice.
In August, a federal judge in Washington ruled that Google illegally maintained its search monopoly by locking up defaults on browsers and devices. In April, a federal judge in Virginia found that Google illegally monopolized the digital advertising market, manipulating auctions, restricting and stifling competitors. These two rulings, the most significant antitrust wins against a tech giant in decades, should be a turning point in the digital economy.
Dr Courtney C Radsch is director of the Center for Journalism and Liberty at Open Markets Institute
A crop of conservative personalities such as Brett Cooper and Candace Owens, and outlets like Evie, are convincing young women of a gender-essentialist worldview
On the most recent episode of her YouTube show, the rightwing commentator Brett Cooper joined the rest of the world in jeering Katy Perry, Gayle King and Lauren Sánchez’s brief flight to space.
“These women were completely dependent on men who built this spacecraft,” she said with a cheeky smirk. “Frankly, we all are, because men built civilization. They built the homes that we live in, they built the studio that I am recording in … the spaceships that all of these rich celebrities are flying around in.” The difference between Cooper and feminists, she says, “is I choose to acknowledge that and celebrate it and be grateful”.
Wood-burning stoves will be allowed to heat new-build homes in England despite growing evidence showing their significant contribution to air pollution and carbon emissions.
The government is writing its future homes standard, a set of rules for developers, aimed at decarbonising England’s housing stock. Heating the UK’s 28m homes accounts for about 18% of greenhouse gas emissions.
He won the Premier League and FA Cup with the club
Striker not retiring and thought to have interest from US
Jamie Vardy will leave Leicester City at the end of the season with memories to “last a lifetime” after 13 years with the club, but has insisted he is not retiring. The 38-year-old, regarded as the club’s greatest-ever player, was central to winning the Premier League against all odds in 2016 and the FA Cup in 2021.
Vardy signed a 12-month extension last summer after promotion as champions from the Championship but this campaign has been a struggle. This week he apologised to the supporters after relegation was confirmed with five games to play and described his own season as a “total embarrassment”.
(Polydor) After her big breakthrough and West End fame, Rebecca Lucy Taylor works through her worries in real time on her new album – to fascinating and confusing effect
Last week, London’s Duke of York’s theatre played host to an elaborate four-night live staging of Self Esteem’s third album. Devised by Self Esteem herself – Rebecca Lucy Taylor – along with Tony award-winning theatrical director and designer Tom Scutt, it was rapturously received by critics, and seemed to speak of an entirely understandable confidence on Taylor’s part.
Since 2017, she has completely reinvented herself, from one half of middle-ranking indie duo Slow Club into an on-her-own-terms pop star. Her second album as Self Esteem, 2021’s Prioritise Pleasure, was a critical and commercial success, shifting her into the realm of breakfast TV interviews and appearances on The Graham Norton Show and Celebrity Bake-Off. She also has a burgeoning career as an actor, having played Sally Bowles in a West End production of Cabaret opposite Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears. Her success has meant that, on Prioritise Pleasure’s follow-up, she was finally afforded a recording budget sufficient to do what she always wanted: grand ambitions involving choirs and orchestras.
The vice-chairman on his ‘rejuvenator’ manager Marco Silva, his use of analytics and European ambitions
Tony Khan does not look or sound like a man who has just watched his team lose a local derby in agonising circumstances. If he is feeling bruised after seeing Fulham fall to a last-minute defeat at home to Chelsea he is hiding it well. Instead Khan, the vice-chairman and director of football operations, brings nothing but positivity when he breezes into a small, private room at Craven Cottage and starts to talk about his hopes for the future.
The most immediate issue is whether Fulham’s push for European qualification is still on. “Oh absolutely,” says Khan, on a flying visit to London from his Florida base. “We have a very good chance and we have so many exciting things we can achieve in the remaining fixtures. It’s been such a great season. There’s a lot of great things happening at the club. It’s been so fantastic. I’m really excited for the future.”
Manchester United will compete in the inaugural edition of a lucrative, new women’s seven-a-side series from 21-23 May, alongside Bayern Munich, Ajax and Benfica, with the remaining four of the eight competing teams still to be confirmed.
The new competition, named World Sevens Football, which has a $5m (£3.75m) prize pool per event, with half understood to be set to go to the winners, is being staged in Estoril, Portugal in the run-up to this season’s Women’s Champions League final, and will be followed by another eight-team event – featuring a different set of clubs from around the world – in North America later this year.
The United States Postal Service is now facing off with Trump and Elon Musk’s Doge over privatization
US postal workers – and many who depend on them – may have sighed in relief when the Trump-appointed postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, resigned last month. Now, postal workers and others fear the worst is to come.
Many feared DeJoy, a prolific Trump donor and trucking logistics executive who pushed a 10-year consolidation plan at the agency, would be the man who would finally dismantle the United States Postal Service (USPS). Now the service is facing off with an empowered Trump and Elon Musk, his billionaire backer and chainsaw-wielding leader of his government job-cutting “department of government efficiency” (Doge).
The Manchester City star is reported to be on his way to the United States at age 34, raising a tired trope once again
Kevin De Bruyne can’t run any more. Or not like he used to anyway.
That seems to be the verdict of his Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, who obliquely cited an absence of “physicality” in his explanation for leaving De Bruyne out of the lineup against Real Madrid in February.
Health secretary is planning wide-ranging monitoring of autistic people’s health record and cuts to disability services
Autism experts and autistic people are pushing back on Robert F Kennedy’s “terrible” approach to autism as the health secretary plans more expansive monitoring of autistic people’s health records and proposes cuts to disability services.
A huge study on autism proposed by Kennedy will draw upon private medical records from federal and commercial databases, and a new health registry will track autistic Americans, CBS News reported on Monday.
The UK’s new deal with the EU will be a break from “debates and arguments of the past,” the UK’s chief negotiator, Nick Thomas-Symonds, has said, pledging that growth would be the highest priority of the talks.
It comes as Keir Starmer prepares to meet the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in London, as momentum builds towards a crucial EU-UK summit in May.
This isn’t about politics – it’s about pragmatism. Working with our allies will make British people safer, more secure and more prosperous
Labour has been determined to negotiate a new partnership with the EU. The benefits it could unlock are clear – reducing barriers to trade, driving economic growth and keeping us safe in an increasingly dangerous world. It is the sensible, pragmatic thing to do. We want to put more money in the pockets of working people and provide Britain with long-term stability and security; we won’t be defined by debates and arguments of the past.
We are equally confident in what the UK can offer in return. It is a politically stable country, and the government has a huge mandate, with more than four years left to deliver our policies. This stability has already inspired the confidence of businessesacross the world, unlocking tens of billions of pounds of long-term investment. This month, Universal announced a multi-billion-pound investment for a new theme park, expected to create 28,000 jobs. We have shown that Britain is back on the world stage, and that it has a lot to offer.
Nick Thomas-Symonds is paymaster general, minister for the Cabinet Office and minister for the constitution and EU relations
My cousin smiled at everyone, bought my son candies, rushed to help when the bombs fell. All that ended on Friday night
My cousin Ziyad was too young to die. He was sleeping at home in Khan Younis refugee camp when the bombs fell just before midnight on Friday. After they heard the explosion, my cousins Mohammed and Moatsem ran to save him, they told me, but he had already died in his bed. He was 44.
Ziyad was a social worker for Unrwa, working with vulnerable families in Gaza’s refugee camps. Every summer when I visited Gaza from my home in Canada, he would buy my little son candies from Asa’ad’s shop – now gone with Asa’ad (who was killed in October 2023) – insisting that Gaza’s candies were the best in the world. Everyone in Khan Younis knew him for his calm presence, gentle spirit and warm smile. He was always ready to help – the words “no” or “I can’t” were never part of his vocabulary. The night before he was killed, he visited the wounded and sick, including my uncle, Kamal.
The US musician was a major influence on post-punk and alt-rock scenes thanks to his spirited, chaotic style
David Thomas, who fronted the wild and free-thinking American rock band Pere Ubu, has died aged 71.
A statement on Pere Ubu’s Facebook page said that he died “in his home town of Brighton & Hove, with his wife and youngest step-daughter by his side. MC5 were playing on the radio.” The statement continues: “He will ultimately be returned to his [family] home, the farm in Pennsylvania, where he insisted he was to be ‘thrown in the barn’ … We’ll leave you with his own words, which sums up who he was better than we can: ‘My name is David Fucking Thomas… and I’m the lead singer of the best fucking rock and roll band in the world.’”
US president says he is ‘not happy’ with Russian attack and criticises the ‘very bad timing’
We understand that while the visit will be cut short after Zelenskyy’s meeting with Ramaphosa, their media activities will still proceed, meaning we should hear from the Ukrainian president in the next few hours.
Rachel and I will keep an eye on this development to see if Zelenskyy takes part in a scheduled press conference in Pretoria in case he wants to say more about the attacks overnight.
More than 60,000 people have viewed body of late pontiff since Wednesday morning, says Vatican
St Peter’s Basilica has reopened for thousands of people to pay their final respects to Pope Francis for a second day, following a brief pause after keeping its doors open all night.
The 16th-century basilica, where Francis’s simple wooden coffin is placed on the main altar, was scheduled to close at midnight but remained open until 5.30am to allow in those who still wished to enter.
Both sides say they have resolved to end conflict through peaceful means after ‘frank’ talks facilitated by Qatar
The Democratic Republic of the Congo and a coalition of militias including the Rwanda-backed M23 have agreed to work toward a truce to end the fighting that has engulfed the eastern part of the country since January.
In similarly worded statements released on Wednesday night, the government and Alliance Fleuve Congo (Congo River Alliance) said their representatives had held talks facilitated by Qatar and resolved to end the conflict through peaceful means.
This outrageous skewering of the modern dating landscape confronts toxic masculinity and the contradictions of female desire
Nearly every page in Sophie Kemp’s debut is smart, jarring and wickedly funny. Set in Brooklyn in 2019, this wild, absurdist take on the millennial novel tracks the adventures of Reality Kahn, a 23-year-old waterslide commercial actor and zine-maker who determines to become “the greatest girlfriend of all time”, after her drug-dealing sex partner, Emil, casually suggests that she gets herself a man. Prior to that point, Reality had just been living her life, no strings attached. “Would having a special guy around really make me happier? Was this the life purpose I was looking for?” A boyfriend, she decides, might “add colour to my life as well as provide intrigue”. And, New York City being “a place where nefarious individuals got ideas”, he could also protect her from “getting raped so much”.
Reality’s quest kicks off with a hunt for “intel”. Where do guys who make good boyfriends usually spend their time? Farcical as it is, her inquiry touches on that most sobering of cliches about true love: that it is darn hard to find. Emil responds with confusion: “Where do they hang out? Girl, I think you’re sexy as fuck and fun, but for serious, you are on some sort of insane-ass trip these days. They’re not a pack of wildebeests in the plains.” Desperate for better advice, Reality turns to Girlfriend Weekly, Kemp’s cheeky homage to the time-honoured world of women’s magazines. It has all the answers she’s looking for, even if they are hilariously fusty and over the top: “Bring a little charm with you everywhere that you go. For example, when you are at the grocer’s, be sure to give a smile and a wink to the dashing gentleman in the porkpie hat. Say: ‘Gee whiz, woo-woo, you are a beautiful specimen and I am a virgin.’”
For half a century, the GOP has embraced tax cuts for the rich. But as Americans turn against the idea, the party is divided
“I am a gay woman who is moderately pro-choice – I know that there are some people in this room who don’t believe that my marriage should have been legal,” the rightwing impresario Bari Weiss told a Federalist Society gathering in 2023. “And that’s OK. Because we’re all Americans who want lower taxes.”
The assembled conservatives guffawed at hearing the quiet part out loud: in this case, the admission that tax cuts for the rich have been the glue holding the US conservative movement together.
I need to stop dwelling on everything I get wrong, from sending my ball into the drink to squeezing the wrong bottom
Whether you’re into sport or not, there’s wisdom to be mined from it. Once you’ve picked your way through the platitudes, banalities and cliche there’s gold in there.
Rory McIlroy’s famous victory at the US Masters earlier this month yielded, for me anyway, a particularly good example. McIlroy’s psychologist, Bob Rotella, has been credited with helping his man develop golf’s key mental skill: putting your bad shots behind you and barely giving them a second thought.
Chadema spokesperson says party’s deputy chair and secretary general held on way to protest over treason charges
Tanzania’s main opposition party has said at least two of its officials have been arrested on their way to a rally to support the leading government opponent Tundu Lissu, who is due in court to face a treason charge.
Authorities in the east African country have increasingly cracked down on the opposition Chadema party in the run-up to presidential and parliamentary polls in October.
Travis Hunter, CB/WR. Any team picking No 1 overall needs a quarterback. And Cam Ward is the top quarterback prospect in the class. But the No 1 pick should be Hunter, the electrifying hybrid corner/receiver. Whether he can play both ways in the league is an open question, but wherever he lines up, Hunter will be a gamechanger at a premium position. OC
A series of distinctive, comb-like grooves found preserved in sediment near Aberdeen in Scotland were left behind by the underside of huge “tabular” icebergs that dragged across the North Sea floor between 18,000 and 20,000 years ago, the researchers said.
Connexion
