Spanish health officials says all 146 passengers remain asymptomatic as vessel arrives in Tenerife waters Good morning, and welcome to our Europe live blog. Spanish health ​officials have said all the passengers on the ‌hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius remain asymptomatic after the vessel arrived in Tenerife on Sunday, almost a month after the first passenger died of the rodent-borne disease on board the ship. “The anchoring has been a success despite all the difficulties,” the health minister, Mónica García, said after intensive preparations to receive the ship in the port of Granadilla were carried out over recent days. Vladimir Putin has said he thinks the Ukraine war is winding down, adding that he was ready to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a third country only once all conditions for a potential peace agreement were settled. The pro-European centre-right leader Péter Magyar has been sworn in as prime minister of Hungary, marking the official end to Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power. The king of Denmark asked a centre-right politician to try to form a new government after the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, failed to put together a ruling coalition. Continue reading...

The actor and pianist swapped playing Beethoven for Deep Purple and knows what to put on at a party, but which of his movie themes has he put words to? The first song I learned to play When I was eight, my piano teacher Tommy Emil would come over to our house in Pittsburgh, and would suffer because I hadn’t practised Beethoven’s Für Elise. Instead, it thrilled me to practise jazz arrangements of Alley Cat, Stairway to the Stars and Deep Purple. The first song I fell in love with My dad brought home Misty by Errol Garner, also from Pittsburgh and his favourite piano player. With his block chords and particular rhythm, he makes the piano sound like a whole orchestra, so I fell in love with it, too. Continue reading...

Former junior minister Catherine West says that unless a cabinet minister comes forward to challenge the PM by Monday, she will Good morning. There were many predictions for Labour’s future ahead of the English, Scottish and Welsh elections, which have been terrible for the party, but there is one outcome foreseen by no one: a leadership challenge by Catherine West. West, MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet and a junior Foreign Office minister until she was sacked in the reshuffle last year, announced yesterday afternoon that, unless a cabinet minister comes forward to challenge Starmer for the Labour leadership by tomorrow morning, she will do it herself. She would need the support of 81 Labour MPs to trigger a contest; there is no evidence that she has those numbers and (for reasons that are probably a mystery to anyone under the age of 50 – more on that later) she is being described as a stalking horse. I’m not going to walk away from the job I was elected to do in July 2024. I’m not going to plunge the country into chaos. Continue reading...

⚽ News, discussion and more before a huge day of action ⚽ Today’s fixtures | Tables | Follow on Bluesky | Email us Today’s Premier League fixtures Nottingham Forest v Fulham Crystal Palace v Everton Burnley v Aston Villa West Ham v Arsenal Continue reading...

Aston Villa and Crystal Palace’s runs to European finals are historic achievements, but symptomatic of a worrying trend There will be no doubting Unai Emery’s supremacy in the Europa League if he is reacquainted with the trophy in Istanbul this month. A fifth title would add to the Aston Villa manager’s legend and it would show he can do it with an English club. The latter achievement, though, may be diminished in value. A greater concern lies in the way that Premier League clubs, gradually but discernibly, are dominating Europe’s smaller competitions in a way Uefa surely could never have intended. Villa will be the eighth English finalists from the last 22 teams to reach the Europa League’s showpiece. Should they win, it would be the first time since the first two years of the Uefa Cup, its predecessor with the same trophy, that sides from England have won the secondary tournament in consecutive seasons. They would build on Tottenham’s haphazard triumph of last May and while neither consistency nor relative excellence should be sniffed at their progress contributes to a concerning broader trend. Continue reading...

Sparta keeper Surovcik says he will pursue legal action Slavia chairman Tvrdik calls incident in derby ‘disgrace’ The derby between Slavia Prague and Sparta Prague was abandoned on Saturday after hundreds of home fans stormed the pitch in the closing minutes, when Slavia were leading 3-2 at their Fortuna Stadium and seconds away from clinching the Czech League title. Slavia supporters breached security barriers during stoppage time and flooded the field, with some carrying lit flares and running toward the visiting section. Pyrotechnics were thrown into the stands as players from both teams attempted to leave the pitch. Continue reading...

Open letter criticising invitation to Nigel Farage warns of association with ‘racism and inflammatory rhetoric’ Political leaders have been invited to a rally opposing antisemitism on Sunday, with British Jews hoping the “silent majority” will join them for a “million mensch march” across central London. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, is considering attending the Standing Strong: Extinguish Antisemitism rally, which is backed by more than 30 Jewish groups, while the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is expected to speak. The Liberal Democrats’ leader, Ed Davey, has also been invited. Continue reading...

Fraudsters exploit confusion or anxiety over new IHT rules by offering a ‘safe haven’ for savings pots The caller pitches a great deal. Shift the moneysaved in your pension and reinvest it in a scheme overseas where you can avoid it being caught under next year’s changes to the UK’s inheritance tax (IHT) system. From April next year, any money left in a defined contribution pension after your death, which is most workplace and all private pensions, will be pulled into the IHT net. Continue reading...

National Geographic photographer and WWF ambassador Jasper Doest joined conservation teams during the latest mountain gorilla census in Bwindi Impenetrable national park, taking pictures of the apes and the people essential to their survival Continue reading...

Ceremony organisers taking event procedures ‘extremely seriously’ after broadcast of racial slur in February Continue reading...

Photographer Sonia Reveyaz explains the lure of the hustle, bustle, glitz and glamour on the sidelines of the Cannes film festival It’s flashy, jazzy, tacky, it’s jet set, totally. From dawn to dusk on the Croisette, the boulevard stretching along the Mediterranean Sea in Cannes, everyone is dressed to the nines. For 10 days, it’s all about getting an invitation to join the Cannes film festival’s exclusive club. But not everyone stops to watch a movie. In this image-driven economy, luxury is embodied right down to the skin. The media plays a central role in creating desire. Magazine publishers and social media platforms collaborate with brands to promote their new products and showcase the celebrities who wear them. Now, a new type of celebrity – one with an unconventional career path and who starts from nothing – is invited to the Croisette: influencers. Continue reading...

African archipelago hopes startups, digital infrastructure and diaspora investment can transform its economy For much of its history since its discovery by the Portuguese in the mid-15th century, the Cape Verde archipelago off the coast of west Africa served as a hub of the international slave trade, with Africans forcibly transported to marketplaces before being distributed across the Americas and Europe. Now, almost 150 years since slavery was abolished in Cape Verde, and just over 50 years since independence from Portugal, Pedro Fernandes Lopes wants the country to become a beacon for the free movement of human and financial capital across the African diaspora. Continue reading...

East Midlands electric car club helps residents and cuts emissions – but the need for a volunteer-led scheme reflects a much wider problem In the aftermath of the Covid pandemic Miriam Stoate, a regenerative farmer from rural Leicestershire, noticed that too many people in her small village in England’s East Midlands were struggling to get around. Although there were plenty of cars parked in Tilton, too often she found some of the village’s residents did not have access to one when they really needed it. Continue reading...

Sarah Adams and Daniel Mays star in this grim but sensitive true crime story. Plus, Greg Davies hosts this year’s Bafta Television Awards. Here’s what to watch this evening Sunday, 9pm, ITV1 Continue reading...

Revolutionary Guard issue warning as Trump awaits Iran’s response to Washington’s latest proposal for peace deal Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to target US sites in the Middle East if its tankers come under fire, Iranian media reported on Saturday, as Washington was left waiting for Tehran’s response to its latest negotiating position. “Any attack on Iranian tankers and commercial vessels will result in a heavy attack on one of the American centres in the region and enemy ships,” the force said, a day after US strikes on two Iranian tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Continue reading...

The US president will be counting on China to influence Iran and help him out of his latest mess. But the price may be high – including for Taiwan Like an out-of-control wrecking ball, swinging wildly back and forth, Donald Trump smashes up the international order without much thought for the consequences. Lacking coherent strategies, workable plans or consistent aims, he power-trips erratically from one fragile region, tense warzone and complex geopolitical situation to another, leaving misery, confusion and rubble in his wake. Typically, he claims a bogus victory, demands that others repair the damage and pick up the tab, then looks around for something new to break. The president will bulldoze into another international minefield this week – the fraught standoff between China and Taiwan – when he travels to Beijing for a two-day summit with President Xi Jinping. After a string of humiliating policy implosions over Ukraine, Gaza, Nato, Greenland, and now Iran and Lebanon, needy Trump craves a diplomatic success to flaunt at home. But his hopes of vote-winning trade pacts are overshadowed by his latest war of choice. He needs Xi’s promise not to arm Iran if all-out fighting resumes – and Xi’s help keeping the strait of Hormuz open as part of a mooted framework peace deal. Continue reading...

You must look after your own mental health. A therapist could provide a safe space to discuss your feelings I feel torn between being a supportive wife and protecting my own mental health. My husband has recently had great success using drugs, diet and exercise to lose weight. He has struggled for a long time, and I am immensely proud of him, especially as he is now tapering off the medication and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The problem is that I have struggled with anorexia and bulimia my entire life. I’m not in therapy as I can never find the right therapist. I go through periods when it’s manageable, but sometimes it flares up. My husband is well aware that I still struggle with these issues. However, our daily life since his weight loss has become a constant stream of calorie talk, workout updates and discussions about his shrinking clothes. I pretend I’m fine to avoid raining on his parade, and because he can be defensive when challenged, but beneath the surface I am drowning. I have stayed the same size throughout our relationship, yet find myself constantly comparing my body with his progress. I’m in my 40s and worry about getting older and being replaced. I am exhausted by trying to act as if I’m OK when I am actually deeply triggered. Continue reading...

Social media influencers and booming men’s health companies are pushing the hormone as an answer to all ills. But is ‘low T’ really problematic – or something created to sell men a cure to a problem they don’t have? A s a young man, Nick Dooley never thought about his hormones. He always considered himself “quite an outgoing, confident, chatty person”. Around the time he turned 30, however, Dooley began putting on weight and struggling with anxiety, “just slowly becoming a shell of my former self”, he says. By 38, he weighed 22st and had a range of health issues. “I spent most of my life sat in front of a TV, doing nothing, with zero motivation, and from how I was in my 20s, that wasn’t me. I knew something wasn’t right.” In 2024, Dooley had a private medical exam, which flagged he had fatty liver disease and was producing low levels of testosterone. “It wasn’t something I’d ever really heard of,” he says. “So I started down a Reddit rabbit hole.” An NHS doctor told him his blood testosterone levels, at 11.2 nmol a litre, were “within range” (although guidance differs between trusts, NHS England generally considers between 8 and 30 nmol/L normal) and offered him antidepressants. “I knew that wasn’t going to fix me,” he says. Instead, Dooley signed up with Manual, an online men’s health company. After two quick blood tests and a virtual consultation, Manual, which has since rebranded as Voy, started him on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT). Continue reading...

It won’t win any plaudits from Japanese purists, but there’s still much to admire here No spoilers, but I knew even before I’d reached for my chopsticks that Mitsu would be a vast improvement on its predecessor, because it has taken the place of Nobu Shoreditch in the under-gusset of the Aethos hotel, a Swiss-owned “lifestyle hospitality brand”, in east London. Nobu was gargantuan, moodily lit (that is, pitch black), woundingly expensive and terrifically hard to book, despite having something like 797 seats; it was also one of the most soulless London restaurants of the past 25 years. Nobu Shoreditch felt symbolic: it was where all the raffish hope of the 1990s YBA crowd and the early noughties electroclash heads went to die. But that was then, and now, in 2026, the Aethos crew has deftly brightened and lightened the mood of the room, making it actually cosy and adding a twinkly central bar; there’s an open robata kitchen and roomy booths, as well as a pretty Japanese garden. Mitsu calls itself an izakaya, which is what European restaurateurs always say when they mean the Japanese-influenced food isn’t too po-faced and you can get really tipsy on sake. Continue reading...

Are you late so often that it’s become your entire personality? Just know this: you are the worst No matter the rumours, no matter the truth, Hollywood convention dictates that all actors describe whatever cast they’ve been part of as “one big happy family”. This rule being broken, and by a true legend – albeit 33 years later – means something serious must have taken place. Which it did. In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Meryl Streep has disclosed that she had “beef” with her Death Becomes Her co-star Goldie Hawn because she was always late for filming. “She had a red convertible, I remember, and she’d drive herself to set. She had her hair all … ‘Oh gosh, sorry!’ And everybody thought: ‘Oh, she’s so cute.’” Continue reading...

Argentina back in spotlight 30 years after first person-to-person transmission was documented in Patagonia An outbreak in rural communities 30 years ago in the Patagonia area of Argentina led scientists, for the first time, to document person-to-person transmission of hantavirus, which until then had been known only to spread through contact with rodents. Nearly a decade ago another outbreak, also in Patagonia, provided detailed evidence of inter-human transmission when an infected 68-year-old rural worker attended a birthday party in a small village. The infection spread and resulted in 11 deaths. Continue reading...

With Trump wavering on Nato and war in Ukraine, Europe is scrambling to spend billions on weapons such as drones In a small workshop in England’s East Midlands, engineers at the British startup Skycutter are designing weapons for Ukraine. A row of 3D printers make the fuselage for interceptor drones, while parts such as motors and navigation chips are slotted together by hand. The same process happens hundreds of thousands of times a month in partner Ukrainian factories. The swarms of cheap, deadly and often autonomous drones deployed in that war have already changed combat completely. Troops far behind the frontline must move constantly to avoid attack from the air, travelling along netted tunnels and landscapes crisscrossed by fibre optic cables used to steer drones past radio jamming. Cities are terrorised by guided missiles that are cheaper and therefore more widely used than those that came before. Continue reading...

US leader enters talks with superpower rival from vulnerable position, but will be hoping for economic wins amid turbulent backdrop If all goes to plan over the next few days – and that is a big if – Donald Trump will arrive in Beijing on Wednesday for a highly anticipated summit with Xi Jinping, China’s leader. The trip will mark the first time a US president has visited China in nearly a decade. The last visit was also made by Trump, during his first term, in 2017. Continue reading...

Russian president damns western support that has allowed Ukraine to hold out and asks for talks with Gerhard Schröder in remarks after diminished Victory Day parade Vladimir Putin has said he thinks the Ukraine war is winding down – remarks that came a few hours after he had vowed to defeat Ukraine at Moscow’s most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years. “I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Putin told reporters of the Russia-Ukraine war, Europe’s deadliest conflict since the second world war. He said he would be willing to negotiate new security arrangements for Europe, and that his preferred negotiating partner would be Germany’s former chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Continue reading...

Dubois recovers from knockdown in opening seconds Wardley knocks him down again but stopped in 11th Daniel Dubois completed his latest resurgence with brutal efficiency when he became the WBO world heavyweight champion after stopping Fabio Wardley early in the 11th round of a dramatic and blood-soaked contest. Howard Foster, whose pale blue shirt had turned crimson as if he worked in an abattoir rather than in a boxing ring as a referee, jumped between the courageous fighters to rescue Wardley 28 seconds into the penultimate round. It was a merciful stoppage because the fallen champion, with his face a mask of blood pouring from his badly cut and broken nose, had been examined twice before by the ringside doctor. Both fighters emerged with enormous credit after an epic battle. Dubois was knocked down twice in the fight, and dropped for the first time 10 seconds after the opening bell, but he came back with commendable resolve. He also proved he was the superior technician as, working behind his thunderous jab, Dubois sank one brutal blow after another into the steadily sagging figure of Wardley. But the 31-year-old from Ipswich, who suffered the first loss of his career, simply refused to surrender or even go down at any point during this riveting battle. Continue reading...