Mahmoud Abbas appoints veteran aide to newly created role, making him frontrunner to replace ageing leader
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday named a veteran aide and confidant as his new vice-president. It’s a major step by the ageing leader to designate a successor.
The appointment of Hussein al-Sheikh as vice-president of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) does not guarantee he will be the next Palestinian president. But it makes him the frontrunner among longtime politicians in the dominant Fatah party who hope to succeed the 89-year-old Abbas.
Think back to your school days. At lunchtime, where did you sit? Did you take advantage of the smorgasbord of kids to find someone new and expand your horizons? Probably not. But that’s what Kate Freston advises you do when eating with other people. She’s a veteran of dining at Castlemaine’s Community Lunch – which attracts up to 150 people every Tuesday during school term time.
“I used to do a quick scan around the tables and think, ‘Oh God, I hope I don’t sit next to a dud’,” she says sheepishly. “And then, you’re like … maybe I’m the dud! Now, I really like how this crosses over into general life. You may have had a chat with 80-year-old Margaret, then you see her down the street and you may give a little wave and have a little chat.”
Freston, a community access worker who lives with her teenage son, had been missing the communal eating she’d experienced when travelling overseas, such as in Ghana where she stayed with local families. “It was beautiful, this simple act of fostering closeness with people,” she says. “I thought, why don’t I do that here? But I guess lifestyles and schedules get in the way.”
Sharing meals is the one of the best things we can do for our wellbeing, according to a report released last month. The World Happiness report 2025, based on a Gallup poll of more than 150,000 people from 142 countries and territories, found that people who dine alone have the lowest life evaluation rating globally compared with those who regularly share a meal, who are happier.
Your debut novel Oranges are Not the Only Fruit turns 40 years old this year. How do you feel about it at this point in your life?
Can you believe it? I find that astonishing. I’m always having to think about it because people keep bothering me about it! Its next iteration is a musical, and then I really hope that’s the end. Just let me go! Obviously I love Oranges and I revisited it again with [her 2011 memoir] Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal? and the musical too. Surely, by the rule of three, this is it? Then I can live in peace and plant potatoes.
There’s quiet optimism that gene-edited ‘Peter Pan’ tadpoles could help control one of the world’s worst invasive species
The toad’s eyes seemed to glow red, its warty and poison-soaked skin – normally splodged in browns – instead a porridge of creamy whites. This albino toad was produced by a team of scientists with one foot in a Sydney university laboratory and the other in a research station on the vast tropical savannahs and wetlands far away to the north near Humpty Doo.
It was September 2023 and for the man who dreamed it into being, the toad was but an opening act in a radical new play against one of the world’s worst invasive species.
12min: Lamine Yamal makes a bright run down the right for Barcelona. The score is nil-nil.
“I’d love to watch the game but a 10pm kick-off is getting a bit too near my bedtime,” emails Mark. “How do the players put up with it? It must be hard to be at your peak performance level so late in the day. Good night.
Anthony Yarde has won a close but uncontroversial unanimous verdict over Lyndon Arthur in the final undercard bout. The judges’ scores were 115-113 and 116-112 (twice). It’s Sweet Caroline time in North London. We should be seeing Eubank Jr and Benn making their entrances shortly.
The Tottenham Stadium looks almost full as the main undercard fight between Anthony Yarde and Lyndon Arthur reaches the halfway stage. This is a 60,000-plus crowd that currently seems more enthused by the musical breaks than the boxing. I am not sure too many were watching closely, but they missed young Aaron McKenna utterly dominate a proud old fighter in Liam Smith. McKenna calls himself ‘The Silencer’ and I’ve followed him closely for a few years and been with him in dressing rooms before fights. I always knew he was good; but tonight he was outstanding as he won a near shutout victory and knocked Smith down in the last round. He has moved up to a significant level – not that the Tottenham crowd cared much. They will only really start making noise once the undercard is over.
Williams into last eight with 13-10 win over Vafaei
O’Sullivan cruises into 6-2 lead over Pang Junxu
Amid all the talk of Chinese domination, the Class of 92 show no sign of giving way just yet. On the eighth day of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Williams and John Higgins all rolled back the years.
There have been plenty of shocks so far, but the three legends of the game are made of tough stuff. Williams is 50, the other two 49, but the class remains. They have won 14 world titles between them and who would bet against that figure rising to 15 a week on Monday?
Actor who appeared in film of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire hopes ‘we can all as a society just let people be’
David Tennant has criticised the “demonisation” of the trans community, saying that while he wishes JK Rowling “no ill will”, he hopes that “we can all as a society just let people be”.
The Scottish actor, who appeared in the 2005 film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, likened the treatment of transgender people to the Thatcher government’s introduction of section 28 – a 1988 law that prohibited local authorities from “promoting” homosexuality.
It was a pinch me moment for the Crystal Palace supporters who had made it a sea of red and blue in the stand behind Emiliano Martínez’s goal. A few minutes earlier, the Aston Villa goalkeeper had been pumping his fists in delight after Jean-Philippe Mateta’s penalty miss appeared to have kept his side in the game.
Yet already leading through Eberechi Eze’s stunning goal in the first half, Palace were not to be denied. Ismaïla Sarr thumped the ball past Martínez from distance after another cheap Villa turnover and the Senegal forward was mobbed by his teammates as Oliver Glasner led a group hug with the substitutes on the bench.
From non-league to the Championship in three seasons, Wrexham are now the Hollywood-owned Welsh club who have written themselves a chapter in the English Football League record books. Never before had a team in the top five tiers of the English game been promoted in three successive years – until now. Even their owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, would have been laughed out of town for writing a script like this.
In the end it was a dominant 3-0 win over Charlton that sealed their spot in the Championship for 2025-26, another former Premier League team toppled. Ollie Rathbone’s strike and Sam Smith’s double put the Reds on the path to League One promotion with a game to spare, and consigned the Addicks, along with Wycombe and Stockport, to the playoffs.
One of the most extraordinary storylines in the history of the NFL draft came to a conclusion on Saturday as the Cleveland Browns, finally, selected Shedeur Sanders with the 144th pick in the fifth round of this year’s draft.
Sanders entered the draft as the most famous current college player in the United States. Not only was he a star quarterback at Colorado, he was coached there by his father, Deion, one of the greatest football players of all time and one of US sports’ biggest personalities.
Dow and Sing score twice before visitors’ late fightback
There was a moment after France’s Joanna Grisez scored where fans were looking left and right wondering if this would be the day England’s stranglehold on this competition would come to an end. The Red Roses were 31-7 up after 23 minutes but a resolute France stayed in the fight and cut back the lead to one point in the final minute . A French knock-on ended the game and the sheer pressure the hosts were under was plain to see by the wild celebrations by the England players at full time as they sealed their seventh successive Women’s Six Nations title.
It felt like the French ran out of time and had their revival come five minutes earlier they could have become the first team since themselves in 2018 to beat England in this competition. It was most definitely the visitors’ best outing of this tournament with the scrum-half, Pauline Bourdon-Sansus, and the wing Kelly Arbey having particularly impressive performances.
The former prime minister Gordon Brown has made a new complaint to British police over allegations that Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper empire obstructed justice, after stating he has spoken to officers involved in the original phone-hacking inquiry.
Writing in the Guardian, Brown said one of the detectives had alleged they believed there was “significant evidence” that News Group Newspapers (NGN) deleted millions of emails to pervert the course of justice.
The groundbreaking apology to Prince Harry from Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) has not closed an era of investigation and litigation into media corruption. It has opened it up. Far from ending one of the most sordid chapters in British media history, it is raising fundamental, troubling and as yet unresolved questions – and today I am making a criminal complaint to the Met and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) alleging that I am, along with many others, a victim of the obstruction of the course of justice by NGN.
This is not an allegation made lightly. It is informed by recently available evidence, and by the statements of senior officers involved in the original investigations into unlawful newsgathering, who have now stated to me that they were misled.
Gordon Brown was UK prime minister 2007 to 2010
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4 min: Other than that one progressive Kamara pass, nobody’s showing their hand as of yet. A thoughtful start as both teams gently probe.
2 min: Kamara tries to release Cash down the right with a clever first-time pass. Lacroix is on point to usher both opponent and ball out of play for a goal kick. We can just about make this out. A lot of smoke down this end of the pitch, thanks to the tail end of a pre-match pyro party.
Only three teams have collected fewer points than West Ham since Graham Potter took charge. Southampton, Leicester and Ipswich have earned less than West Ham’s 13 points in 14 games. The thing those three clubs have in common: they have been relegated.
In theory, West Ham’s trip to Brighton offered a chance for redemption as Potter returned to the club where he enjoyed three and a half seasons. And there was no better time to play them with Fabian Hürzeler’s side winless in five league games.
As Pope Francis’s coffin emerged into St Peter’s Square, the crowd paid tribute to a leader who urged the world to build bridges
As bells tolled and the coffin emerged from the gloom of the basilica, a hush fell across St Peter’s Square, in keeping with traditional solemnity, but the crowd itched to break it. Death had silenced Pope Francis but those who had come to see him off were not going to stifle their love or grief. He had requested a simple burial, not a silent one.
The quiet held while 14 pallbearers placed the wooden casket on the edge of the stairs for the start of the mass and continued while cardinals streamed to one side to form a blazing red bloc. On the other side was an array of dark-suited prime ministers, presidents, princes, princesses, kings and queens.
On a day when Ipswich’s long, inevitable relegation was rubber stamped, normal service was resumed at Newcastle as Eddie Howe exchanged hospital grapes for his trademark managerial chewing gum and returned to the home technical area to see his side rise to third in the Premier League.
By the second half the after-effects of the pneumonia that had resulted in Howe missing Newcastle’s past three matches and spending several nights in hospital were perhaps taking their toll as, unusually, he spent long periods sitting down in the dugout. Despite taking a bit of time to hit their stride, Howe’s players ultimately proved far too good for visitors reduced to 10 men by Ben Johnson’s 37th-minute dismissal.
Cardiff’s 0-0 draw with West Brom seals Welsh club’s fate
Baptiste’s late Luton winner hurts Sky Blues’ playoff odds
Cardiff have been relegated on a dramatic day at the bottom of the Championship, with Plymouth left on the brink and Hull pulled into the bottom three.
Cardiff were held 0-0 at home by West Brom and are now bottom after Plymouth won 2-1 at Preston. However, Argyle’s poor goal difference means they stand no real chance of survival.
‘I’m not sure if I will come back,’ says crestfallen Serb
Jack Draper, Cam Norrie and Jacob Fearnley progress
Novak Djokovic is not sure if he has competed in Madrid for the last time after succumbing to a difficult 6-3, 6-4 loss to the unseeded Italian Matteo Arnaldi in the second round, his third consecutive defeat.
Asked whether this was his last match in Madrid, Djokovic replied: “It could be. It could be. I’m not sure if I will come back. So, I don’t know, I don’t know what to say. I mean, I’ll come back, maybe not as a player, of course. I hope it’s not, but it could be.”
Trump scores poorly on economy and immigration as some fear he is ‘exceeding powers’ and focussed on wrong issues
Americans, including some Republicans, are losing faith in Donald Trump across a range of key issues, according to polling released this week. One survey found a majority describing the president’s second stint in the White House so far as “scary”.
Along with poor ratings on the economy and Trump’s immigration policy, a survey released on Saturday found that only 24% of Americans believe Trump has focussed on the right priorities as president.
Bayern sink Mainz 3-0 but Leverkusen beat Augsburg 2-0
Kane booked so suspended for Bayern’s likely clincher
Bayern Munich eased past Mainz 3-0 but had to put title celebrations on ice after Bayer Leverkusen matched their win to stay eight points behind with three matches left.
The Bavarian club, top on 75 points ahead of Leverkusen in second with 67, can now secure a 34th German league title with a win at RB Leipzig next week. But Harry Kane will miss next week’s game after picking up his fifth booking and a suspension.
World leaders arrived at St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City to pay their final respects to Pope Francis before his funeral. Among the dignitaries were the US president, Donald Trump, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who White House officials said had had a 'very productive discussion' ahead of the service
Oakland Ballet Company takes on a harrowing chapter of US-Chinese history with a piece about Angel Island, ‘the Ellis Island of the west’
One sunny March day on Angel Island, a hilly landmass in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, a dancer with a 40-ft braid attached to her head glided across a narrow concrete walkway. The audience sat on chairs in front of a long wooden building: a former detention center where – from 1910 to 1940 – half a million people, the majority Chinese, were held for months, even years, in prison-like conditions.
Sometimes called “the Ellis Island of the west”, Angel Island’s immigration station is the unlikely setting, and inspiration, for an ambitious new work by the Oakland Ballet Company. It’s based on the people from 80 countries who were confined to the the island’s detention center, which was the result of the Chinese Exclusion Act and other racist laws designed to keep Asian people out of the United States. In response, the detainees carved over 200 poems onto the walls expressing their anguish and rage.
Noel and Liam believed to have filmed promo video at Mildmay club in Newington Green ahead of summer’s sold-out Oasis tour
Liam and Noel Gallagher have performed together for the first time in 16 years in a working men’s club in north London, according to reports.
The brothers were pictured arriving at the Mildmay club in Newington Green, north London, on Thursday where they are believed to have filmed a promotional video for this summer’s sold-out Oasis reunion tour.
Tensions between nuclear-armed countries escalate after attack killed 26 people in disputed territory
Indian and Pakistani troops have exchanged gunfire across the volatile frontier in Kashmir for a second day, amid growing tensions after a brazen attack that killed 26 people at a popular tourist resort.
The massacre has sent relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours into a dangerous downward spin. India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two over Muslim-majority Kashmir, which is divided between them but claimed fully by both.
She faced endless opposition and threats to her life. This has become a reality for far too many journalists
Maxine Peake is an actor who appears in the new film Words of War
What drives someone to become a journalist? A good journalist, someone whose keyboard is a tool for exposing injustice, a truth-seeker who would risk life and limb to report their experiences back to the world? I know I couldn’t do it. I’ve interviewed people for a research project and was hopeless. I found myself shying away from asking the really difficult questions. There’s no way I could confront a corrupt official, or race to file a breaking story before a hostile regime tried to silence me, possibly for ever. I like to think of myself as the kind of person who would speak truth to power, but would I really, if my life was in the balance?
One of the many privileges of being an actor is that it affords you the opportunity to dip your toes into other worlds and experiences from the safest possible distance. In the upcoming film Words of War, I have the honour of portraying the Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya – a woman with immense courage and integrity who, despite numerous threats to her life, continued to be a blazing beacon of truth in a time and place where speaking truth was extremely dangerous. The film, which was partly inspired by Politkovskaya’s obituary in this newspaper, allowed me to delve into her remarkable life and work. The experience gave me a deeper appreciation for the journalists who risk everything to tell the stories that inform and shape our world.
Championship: On as a substitute, Shandon Baptiste has scored what could be a massive goal for Luton against Coventry. It was a scrappy effort that took a big deflection off a defender who couldn’t sort his feet out but Hatters fans won’t care. A win will take them out of the relegation zone for a couple of hours at least.
League Two: Doncaster Rovers are 2-0 up against Bradford City, with Billy Sharp doubling their lead after Tyrick Wright missed a penalty for the Bantams. A win will send Donny up to League One and leave Bradford in the third automatic promotion place. In London, Port Vale are beating AFC Wimbledon 2-0 and will also go unless Bradford can turn things around very quickly and win against Doncaster Rovers.
You would be forgiven if you were mistaken in thinking Nicolas Jackson’s striking finish against Everton meant more than what it was. The 1-0 victory was a crucial step in their Champions League pursuit. Still, when the ball hit the back of the net Jackson looked to have tears in his eyes as he emotionally celebrated. It was the striker’s first in 14 games and amid the hosts’ recent struggles up front, it felt like a welcome breakthrough, belied that the job of securing their European ambitions is far from over.
Before kick-off, Chelsea had averaged more shots per game at home than any other Premier League side this season with 18.8 and the trend continued on Saturday. The first half saw five shots from the hosts against an Everton side who had little to play for after safety confirmation last weekend. The visitors offered little going forward despite Moisés Caicedo playing out of position at right-back at the expense of the captain, Reece James, to make room for Roméo Lavia in midfield, back for the first time in over a month.
Lawyers in both cases, one in Louisiana and another in Florida, say clients arrested at routine Ice check-ins
The Trump administration has deported a two-year-old US citizen “with no meaningful process”, according to a federal judge, while in a different case the authorities deported the mother of a one-year-old girl, separating them indefinitely.
Lawyers in the two cases, the first in Louisiana and the second in Florida, say their clients were arrested at routine check-ins at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) offices and were given virtually no opportunity to speak with them or family members.
Bhoys confirmed as champions with four matches left
Doubles from Kühn and Idah power Celtic to victory
Celtic have been confirmed as Scottish Premiership champions for the fourth successive season – their 55th league title and their second trophy of the campaign – after they thrashed Dundee United 5-0 at Tannadice.
Rangers had kept the race going last Sunday by coming from two goals down, and with 10 men to draw 2-2 at Aberdeen. However, Celtic’s cruise took them 18 points clear on top, rendering Rangers’ later match at St Mirren irrelevant to the title.
US president admits to concern Russian counterpart does not want to ‘stop the war’ and ponders new approach to Moscow
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy have sat down for a face-to-face talk in the opulent halls of a Vatican basilica to discuss a possible ceasefire, after which the US president accused his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of not wanting to “stop the war”.
The White House described Trump’s meeting with the Ukrainian leader before Pope Francis’s funeral as “very productive”, while Zelenskyy said on X that the talk with the US president was symbolic and had the “potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.
From stocky rhinos to mighty oak trees, dragging these costumes over 26 miles can be a punishing experience
A few minutes before the 2023 London Marathon began, Richard Stoate was getting into costume on the side of the road.
It was a two-person job: the 43-year-old wasn’t just wearing trainers and sportswear for the 26.2-mile run. He was raising money for the young people’s charity WellChild, so – with his partner’s help – he climbed into a 10ft (3-metre) purple nurse costume.
The actor announced the change on her podcast. Apparently this is international news – and it has a serious side
You’re going to want to sit down for this one, because there’s a lot to digest. Gwyneth Paltrow, who has consciously uncoupled from multiple food groups in the past, is bringing pasta back into her life. And she can have a little bread and cheese, too, as a treat.
A study shows the impact of feeding challenges on maternal mental health. With official help in short supply, it’s time to support each other
Anyone who has struggled mentally knows it is often only with time and recovery that you can challenge the destructive thought patterns that once plagued you. That said, hindsight can also be a strange thing. While collecting Republic of Parenthood columns for a book, I spent time revisiting my old articles about my struggles with breastfeeding. I felt vindicated, as some of the things I wrote have since been confirmed.
This week, the largest ever qualitative study on how difficulties with breastfeeding affects mothers’ mental health has been published in Scientific Reports. More than 2,000 mothers were surveyed with 65% reporting difficulties with infant latching, “which seemed to impact mental health”.. Feeling like “a bad mum” and “like I had failed my baby” were some of the common reasons given by participants.
This week’s oral immunotherapy breakthrough is part of wider surge of interest in developing treatments
A severe food allergy is among the few conditions that can propel a person from robust health to unconsciousness within minutes, and the risk of accidental exposure often casts a shadow of anxiety over those affected.
But change is afoot, with a groundbreaking trial this week showing that two-thirds of adults with severe peanut allergies can be desensitised through clinically supervised daily exposure. The approach – oral immunotherapy – is already successfully used in children and is among a wave of treatments on the horizon aimed at reducing the burden of allergies – and potentially curing them.
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