China’s leader raised the ancient Greek historian Thucydides when he met the US president in Beijing Trump-Xi China summit – follow live A messy war in the Middle East. Tensions in Taiwan. When the leaders of the world’s two superpowers met in Beijing this week, these were the flashpoints everyone expected they would talk about. Instead, Chinese leader Xi Jinping threw another, ancient war, into the mix. Continue reading...

Condemnation after Kyiv bears brunt of massive Russian attack wave; warning over military drones too close to Ukrainian nuclear plants. What we know on day 1,542 Continue reading...

New season will kick off on 9 September League arranges record nine international games The 2026 NFL season will kick off with a Super Bowl rematch. Mike Macdonald, Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks will face off against Mike Vrabel, Drake Maye and the New England Patriots after raising their championship banner on 9 September in the first of the season’s 272 games. The Seahawks dominated the Patriots in a 29-13 victory in February that secured the franchise’s second NFL title. You can see the full schedule for 2026 here. Continue reading...

American world No 1 among those shooting 3-under 67s Rory McIlroy finishes on four-over after four straight bogeys It was gridlock on the opening day of the US PGA, where the leaderboard was backed up like Philly traffic. By the time it was all over, seven men were tied in the lead on three-under par, and another 42 were within three shots of them. Altogether a third of the field was within easy reach of the lead. It was record for a major championship, and they have been playing them since 1860. There are 16 major winners spread among them, including, ominously for everyone else, that man Scottie Scheffler. All the talk before the tournament was that it would be a turkey shoot, but it turned out to be one long tailback. The only thing missing was the traffic police. Actually they had one of them, too, or something near enough. A rules official on the first tee gave the 27-year-old South African Garrick Higgo a two-shot penalty for arriving 30 seconds late from the practice green. He still shot a 69. The really odd thing was that in a field where even a man who dropped two shots because he missed his tee time managed to end the day in contention, a couple of the biggest names in the game wound up all but out of it. Continue reading...

Although blood test reduces deaths by two for every 1,000 men screened, many could face unnecessary treatment Screening for prostate cancer with a blood test can save men’s lives, but the “absolute benefit is small” and many men could face unnecessary treatment and medical complications, according to the most comprehensive study yet. In a review that analysed six trials involving nearly 800,000 men, screening with the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test reduced prostate cancer deaths by two for every 1,000 men screened, meaning 500 men must be screened to prevent one death from the disease. Continue reading...

Secretary of state says US made clear America’s position on Taiwan, as Trump-Xi talks continue for second day Xi warns Trump of ‘clashes and even conflicts’ with US over Taiwan Analysis: For anxious Taiwan, Trump’s silence after Xi talks is best possible outcome Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are set to meet on Friday to wrap up a high-stakes two-day state visit that has featured pomp and business deals but also a stark warning from Xi that mishandling the Taiwan issue could push US-China relations to “a very dangerous place”. Trump is on the first visit by a US president to China since 2017 and has been hoping for tangible results that might improve his sagging approval ratings ahead of the crucial midterm elections. Trump told Fox News that China had agreed to order 200 Boeing jets – its first purchase of US-made commercial jets in nearly a decade. But markets were expecting a much higher number, with earlier news reports suggesting 500 or more could be involved, and Boeing shares fell more than 4% after the comments. Xi’s remarks on Taiwan, the democratically governed island Beijing claims, represented a sharp warning during a pomp-filled summit that otherwise appeared friendly and relaxed. They came in a closed-door meeting that ran for more than two hours, Beijing said. US secretary of state Marco Rubio told NBC News that Taiwan was discussed, saying the Chinese “always raise it ... we always make clear our position and we move on to the other topics”. Rubio is among a large contingent of US officials and business leaders who travelled with Trump to China. At a lavish state banquet on Wednesday, Xi called the China-US relationship the most important in the world and added: “We must make it work and never mess it up.” Trump earlier told Xi their two countries were “going to have a fantastic future together”. The summit has been aimed at maintaining a fragile trade truce struck when the leaders last met in October and Trump suspended triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods and Xi backed away from choking global supplies of vital rare earths. With news agencies Continue reading...

Guardiola can claim 17th City trophy, Arteta weighs up another Arsenal reshuffle and Brentford’s European dreams could edge closer A measure of Pep Guardiola’s greatness is to be found in Saturday’s FA Cup final being a 24th visit to Wembley leading Manchester City. As this born winner could depart in the close season, the meeting with Chelsea may be a third-last outing in charge, in which he seeks the opposite result to the 2021 Champions League final. Yet Chelsea are now in a state of flux – Calum McFarlane is in a second caretaker spell of the season, following Liam Rosenior’s sacking last month, having also filled in when Enzo Maresca walked out on 1 January. This points to a City triumph and the 17th major trophy of Guardiola’s reign. But this is football, so who knows? Jamie Jackson FA Cup final: Chelsea v Manchester City, Saturday 3pm (all times BST) Aston Villa v Liverpool, Friday 8pm Manchester United v Nottingham Forest, Sunday 12.30pm Brentford v Crystal Palace, Sunday 3pm Everton v Sunderland, Sunday 3pm Wolves v Fulham, Sunday 3pm Continue reading...

Charity says calls to its Childline service about online sexual abuse and exploitation have risen 36% in a year Children reported a rise in online blackmail attempts involving sexual images in the UK last year, according to a leading charity. The NSPCC said contacts with its Childline service relating to online sexual abuse and exploitation rose by 36% last year, driven by an increase in cases related to online blackmail. Continue reading...

Export’s performances scandalised Austria in the 1960s, but are now recognised for exposing the objectification of the female body Valie Export, the Austrian performance artist and film-maker who inverted the male gaze in ways that were provocative, shocking and often outrageously fun, has died aged 85. The artist’s own foundation announced on Thursday evening that Export died in Vienna earlier the same day, three days before her 86th birthday. Continue reading...

Researchers say risk comes from ‘other factors, including genetic predisposition to mental health conditions’ Taking antidepressants during pregnancy does not increase the risk of children going on to develop autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to an analysis of more than half a million pregnancies. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Hong Kong and published in the Lancet Psychiatry, analysed data from 37 existing studies that included 600,000 pregnant women who had taken antidepressants, and 25 million women who had no antidepressant use during their pregnancies. Continue reading...

Visit comes after US-Cuba relations deteriorated significantly, with Washington imposing a fuel blockade on the island in January CIA director John Ratcliffe met Cuban officials in Havana on Thursday as a way to improve dialogue between the US and the communist-run island, the Cuban government said. The meeting took place “in a context marked by the complexity of bilateral relations, with the aim of contributing to the political dialogue between both nations”, a statement said. Continue reading...

Research shows sick leave among patients prescribed GLP-1 injections over nine-month period reduced by 50% Weight-loss drugs could halve sickness absence and significantly reduce the strain on the NHS, research suggests. A UK study of patients who received GLP-1 jabs for nine months found sickness days fell by nearly half and sickness absence lasting five days or more fell by more than 50%. Analysis of the findings suggests expanding access could cut A&E attendance by obese patients by a quarter and free up nearly 10m GP appointments. Continue reading...

Flávio Bolsonaro, Brazil’s leading rightwing presidential hopeful, caught on tape asking banker for millions Flávio Bolsonaro, Brazil’s leading rightwing presidential hopeful, has been caught on tape asking a banker accused of corruption for $26.8m (£20m) to fund a film about his father, the former president Jair Bolsonaro. The leaked voice memos and text messages were published on Wednesday by the Intercept Brasil, and later acknowledged by Flávio Bolsonaro, a far-right senator who is tied in polls with president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ahead of October’s election. Continue reading...

Cannes film festival: Iranian auteur Asghar Farhadi returns to France with this intriguing middleweight meta-drama featuring a cameo from Catherine Deneuve Asghar Farhadi is the Iranian auteur whose film-making style has always shown the high European influences of Antonioni and Haneke. He has in fact made two films in Europe: The Past in France and Everybody Knows in Spain. Now he returns to France and the French language for this diverting, middleweight meta-drama about betrayal and about a supposed link between voyeurism and creativity: do writers spy on the characters they have brought to life? Continue reading...

There was wind, there was fire, there was Goodrem’s remarkable upper-range – resulting in a refreshingly self-assured offering from Australia ‘Sung by a silver robot from 1984!’ The 11 biggest bangers in Eurovision 2026 Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Standing before a glistening crescent moon and adorned in more than 7,000 Swarovski crystals, Australia’s 2026 Eurovision hopeful Delta Goodrem delivered a powerful performance on the 70th anniversary of the global song contest – and become the first Australian act to qualify for the grand final since 2023. Heading into the competition as an early favourite behind Eurovision heavy-hitters Denmark and Finland, Goodrem delivered a note-perfect rendition of her power-ballad entry, Eclipse. The track is impressive if a little formulaic – and of the 35 countries competing, 15 are represented by solo female performers, so Goodrem needed to find a way to stand out in a crowded field. Continue reading...

Council of Europe members plan to change interpretation of rights laws to make it easier to deport people Keir Starmer’s government has been accused of trying to water down legal protections for torture victims as ministers from 46 countries including the UK prepare to make it easier to deport refused asylum seekers and foreign criminals. Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, is expected to agree a “political declaration” on Friday with other members of the Council of Europe, which oversees the European convention on human rights (ECHR). Continue reading...

Thames at Ham designated as one of 13 new swimming areas across England to be monitored for water quality The first designated bathing water area on the River Thames in London will welcome swimmers for the official start of the bathing season on Friday as one of 13 new monitored swimming areas across England. The Thames at Ham, in south-west London, has been designated as a new river bathing water area after campaigners gathered evidence to show thousands of people use the river for swimming throughout the year. Canvey Island foreshore, Essex East Beach at West Bay, Bridport, Dorset Falcon Meadow, Bungay, Suffolk Granville Parade Beach, Sandgate, Kent Little Shore, Amble, Northumberland New Brighton Beach (east), Merseyside Newton and Noss Creeks, Devon Pangbourne Meadow, Berkshire Queen Elizabeth Gardens, Salisbury, Wiltshire River Dee at Sandy Lane, Chester, Cheshire River Fowey in Lostwithiel, Cornwall River Swale in Richmond, Yorkshire River Thames at Ham and Kingston, Greater London Continue reading...

Since November, state has seen 47 cases of people accidentally ingesting poisonous wild mushrooms Health authorities in California’s Napa county reported that three people had been hospitalized after consuming poisonous wild mushrooms as the state continues to grapple with an “​​unprecedented outbreak” of toxic mushroom illnesses. Since November 2025, California has seen 47 cases of people accidentally foraging and eating poisonous wild mushrooms, including death caps, which can resemble edible species, and western destroying angel mus​​hrooms. Four people have died and several have required liver transplants. Continue reading...

In this exclusive book extract, Rob Draper and Jonathan Northcroft reveal the remarkable process which led to Thomas Tuchel’s appointment as England manager In 2024, when the Football Association was tasked with finding Gareth Southgate’s successor, Mark Bullingham hired two external data companies who built a profile of what successful international managers looked like then tailored it to mesh with England’s player base. The top 50 coaches in the world were matched against the criteria and a shortlist emerged. “I joked with the team afterwards, because it came up with a list you and I could have come up with in the pub in 10 minutes,” Bullingham, the FA’s chief executive, says. Continue reading...

Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh Dawn Steele stars in Ron Ferguson’s warm-hearted tale of a town whose fortunes are tied to those of its coal mine and local team Black diamonds are what they used to dig up from the Fife coalfields. The Blue Brazil is the unlikely nickname of Cowdenbeath football club. Together, in the 1993 book by Ron Ferguson, they represent the bittersweet hopes of a downtrodden town: the coal that brought work, fatal accidents and unemployment; the team that brought moments of joy and a litany of loss. You would call it a triumph of the underdog, except this team never triumphs. “Some things are more important than winning,” is the catchphrase of the ex-miner and diehard Cowdenbeath fan (Barrie Hunter) who haunts this warm-hearted adaptation by Gary McNair, first aired as an audio drama in 2021. More important, the playwright would argue, is a sense of community, of shared experience, of learning not to be defeated by pit closures, job losses, relegation and death. It is about “how to lose and keep going with hope”. Continue reading...

Photographer recognised for Berlin exhibition that documented queer love, nationalism and subcultures Rene Matić, whose work unpicks modern British identity and has been described as “the Wolfgang Tillmans of their generation”, has won the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation prize 2026. The Peterborough-born photographer was awarded the £30,000 prize, which is among the most prestigious art awards in Europe, after being nominated alongside Jane Evelyn Atwood, Weronika Gęsicka and Amak Mahmoodian. Continue reading...

State-sponsored march through Muslim quarter of Old City saw protesters waving flags and chanting ‘Death to Arabs’ on anniversary of city’s annexation Israeli nationalist demonstrators chanted “Death to the Arabs”, “May your villages burn” and “Gaza is a graveyard” in a state-sponsored march through Jerusalem to mark the anniversary of the city’s capture and annexation. The annual assertion of Jewish control over Palestinian east Jerusalem has grown more extreme in recent years, and Thursday’s event culminated with the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, unfurling an Israeli flag in front of the al-Aqsa mosque, the holiest Islamic site in the city. Continue reading...

The £20,000 award for writers aged 39 or under goes to Joy Is My Middle Name, a collection about navigating race, addiction and womanhood A debut poetry collection with themes including race, addiction and womanhood has won this year’s Swansea University Dylan Thomas prize. American poet Sasha Debevec-McKenney took home the £20,000 prize – awarded to writers aged 39 or under in honour of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who died at that age – for her debut collection Joy Is My Middle Name. She was announced as the winner at a ceremony in Swansea, Thomas’s birthplace. Continue reading...

The prospect of a contest exposes a deeper truth: the party’s problems go far beyond Keir Starmer In politics, opportunities for supreme power are rare and fleeting. Yet rather than making challengers to Sir Keir Starmer more ruthless, this truth seems to have made them more cautious. The health secretary, Wes Streeting, resigned from the cabinet but did not launch a leadership bid. Rather than provoke a contest, Mr Streeting’s message to Sir Keir was that since his authority was gone, his duty was to depart and enable an orderly transition rather than cling to office. If the Labour leadership were truly up for grabs, winning it would require opportunism, a feel for elite collapse and a willingness to defy both the party establishment and orthodoxy. Those who successfully seize the crown – Lloyd George, Harold Macmillan, Margaret Thatcher and Boris Johnson – recognise their moment and act decisively. These leaders were also not subject to the Labour party rulebook. Continue reading...

The new government in Budapest has already made an impact in Brussels. At home, the new prime minister is so far doing and saying the right things The transformative impact of Péter Magyar’s historic election victory over Viktor Orbán is already being felt in Brussels. On Monday, two days after Mr Magyar was sworn in as Hungary’s new prime minister, his new pro-EU government lifted the veto which for over a year has prevented the EU imposing sanctions on violent Israeli settlers. This followed a similar breakthrough on a long-delayed £78bn loan to Ukraine, which Mr Orbán had also blocked. At a critical geopolitical moment, the end of an era in Budapest is freeing the EU to act in defence of its interests and values. Mr Magyar, who inherits a struggling economy stifled by years of cronyism and corruption, will hope and expect that the benefits of rapprochement cut both ways. In total, around £17bn of EU development funds to Hungary remain off-limits, following Mr Orbán’s refusal to address multiple transgressions of EU law. Agreement on the disbursement of around £10bn needs to be reached by the end of August. Continue reading...