Derbyshire police said a number of people had been injured, some of them seriously, in the incident in the city centre A man has been arrested after a car hit and injured pedestrians in Derby on Saturday. Derbyshire police said a number of people had been injured, some of them seriously, in the incident in the city centre. Continue reading...

People joined massive rallies across 50 states to protest Trump’s decision to enter war in Iran, immigration policies and rising living costs. Key US politics stories from Saturday 28 March at a glance Large anti-authoritarian No Kings rallies took place across 50 states and 16 countries on Saturday, in the third such protest against the Trump administration. People joined massive rallies in protest against Donald Trump’s decision to enter into war with Iran, as well as against rising living costs and federal immigration enforcement. Continue reading...

Ukraine leader says signs with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, with one to come with the United Arab Emirates, as Iran presses aerial campaign against neighbours. What we know on day 1,495 Qatar and Ukraine signed a defence agreement on Saturday that included cooperation on countering threats from missiles and drones, the Gulf state’s government said, as Iran presses an aerial campaign against its neighbours. Earlier on Saturday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy – during a previously unannounced flurry of visits to Gulf nations – said his country and the United Arab Emirates had agreed to cooperate on defence, after Iran targeted countries in the area in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes. Ukraine also signed an air defence agreement with Saudi Arabia during Zelenskyy’s visit to the kingdom earlier this week. “We are talking about a 10-year cooperation. We have already signed a relevant agreement with Saudi Arabia, we have just signed a similar agreement with Qatar, also for 10 years, we will sign one with the Emirates,” Zelenskyy told reporters at a briefing. Ukraine has quickly grown into one of the world’s leading producers of cutting-edge, battle-tested drone interceptors that are cheap and effective. They are playing a key part in its defence against Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began on 24 February 2022. In return for its aid to Gulf countries, Ukraine is seeking more high-end air-defence missiles that they possess and that Kyiv needs to counter Russia’s attacks. Last week Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was looking into whether it could play a role in restoring security in the strait of Hormuz. Ukraine wants to build long-term ties with Middle Eastern countries, Zelenskyy said, including joint production, cooperation in the energy sector, investment and sharing battlefield experience. He spoke with journalists via Zoom during an official visit in Qatar, the latest in his tour in the region. “Simple sales do not interest us,” Zelenskyy said. “We want systemic relationships, where exporters earn revenue and Ukraine receives sufficient funds to invest in domestic production.” Zelenskyy has sought to craft an opportunity from the war, which otherwise benefits Russia through higher oil prices and possible slowdowns in western arms supplies to Kyiv. Almost immediately, he started offering US allies in the region deals to get their hands on Ukrainian drone interceptors and has dispatched more than 200 military experts. “Surely no one else can help in this way today, with expertise,” he told reporters. “No one else possesses such experience.” Russian air attacks across Ukraine early Saturday killed at least four people and damaged critical infrastructure, including a port and a maternity hospital, authorities said, as Russia pressed on with its war against Ukraine. Moscow has been firing drones at Ukraine in nightly barrages during its four-year invasion, with Kyiv accusing it of attacking residential areas and targeting civilians. Iran claims it struck Ukraine-related drone warehouse in Dubai. Iran’s military joint command made the claim in a statement run by state media, without offering evidence. The Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters said more than 20 Ukrainians were in the warehouse in the United Arab Emirates and their fate was unknown. In a news briefing, Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi, however, called the Iranian allegations a “lie,” according to Ukraine’s public broadcaster. Ukraine’s military struck a major Russian oil refinery in Yaroslavl, north-east of Moscow, in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Saturday. It said in a statement that the attack caused a fire at the site of the refinery, which is critical for the Russian army’s logistics. Continue reading...

National Education Union poll finds 89% feel class sizes in England are too big to be ‘properly inclusive’ Oversized classes and inadequate staffing levels are hindering teachers’ capacity to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), according to a large survey of state school teachers in England. Nine out of 10 (89%) of the 10,000 teachers who took part in the poll by the National Education Union (NEU), before its annual conference in Brighton which starts on Monday, said class sizes were too big to be “properly inclusive”. Continue reading...

Vice-president received about 53% of votes at Conservative Political Action Conference held in Texas this year One of the biggest conservative gatherings in the US ran a poll showing vice-president JD Vance is the top choice this year to be the next Republican presidential candidate. The poll from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), released on Saturday, was taken during this year’s gathering. About 53% of the more than 1,600 attendees who voted in the poll chose Vance, Reuters reports. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, came in second with 35%. Continue reading...

British boxer continues ascent with brilliant display American shocked by fifth-round knockout Moses Itauma made another emphatic statement as the British heavyweight prospect became the first fighter to stop Jermaine Franklin. Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte were both taken the distance in points wins in Franklin’s two previous visits to the UK but the durable American was brutally taken out midway through the fifth round by Itauma in Manchester. Continue reading...

From lunar new year to Ramadan, Diwali and Passover, there’s a growing trend of participating in religious and cultural festivals outside our own faith Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter Maureen Doonan tries to participate in as many faith and cultural celebrations as she can. “It’s better that we understand,” the 87-year-old says. Doonan is a fierce refugee advocate and Order of Australia recipient who belongs to the Uniting Church in her home town of Ballarat in regional Victoria. Also a member of the Ballarat Interfaith Network, she says it’s important “to sort out how much is the same” across faith and religious practices. “I usually make an effort to go to the mosque when it’s open to the public and to Sikh celebrations as well as Aboriginal dawn services [on 26 January],” she says. Continue reading...

Sabalenka wins 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to land Sunshine Double Belarusian steadies herself after losing second set Aryna Sabalenka had many reasons to believe that history could have been grimly repeating itself on Saturday afternoon. Despite starting her Miami Open final against Coco Gauff striking the ball with clear-minded aggression, the complexion of the match rapidly changed. Suddenly, having been pulled into a tense final set, she was struggling to hold on. Similar scenarios played out in her two most important matches against Gauff, and both times Sabalenka had pitifully crumbled under pressure in the final set. For all her imperfections, though, the Belarusian’s career has been defined by her desperation to improve. Here, she maintained her composure as she underlined her status as the best player in the world by edging out Gauff 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in a quality battle to win the Miami Open for the second year in a row. Continue reading...

Conservative leader expected to call for government to lift suspension on licences in drive to reduce energy prices Kemi Badenoch is “peddling a dangerous fantasy” about North Sea energy in her attempt to reverse a ban on new oil and gas licences, a leading campaign group has said. The Conservative leader is expected to call on the government to lift its suspension of the licences as part of a drive to reduce energy prices, as the party launches a new campaign aimed at boosting the fossil fuel sector. Continue reading...

Tolkan, known for portraying authoritarian figures, died ‘peacefully’ in Lake Placid, New York, his agent said James Tolkan, known for his roles as an authoritarian figure in the Back to the Future and Top Gun films, has died. He was 94. Tolkan died Thursday in Lake Placid, New York, where he lived, his booking agent, John Alcantar, said Saturday. A brief obituary published on the Back to the Future website said Tolkan died “peacefully”, but no cause of death was given. Continue reading...

Injured quartet join Wharton on sidelines Tuchel concerned about team’s workload Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke and John Stones have complicated Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup preparations by joining the contingent who have left the squad before England’s friendly against Japan. Tuchel named an oversized 35-man squad for this month’s camp, with a view to creating competition for places before the final selection for this summer’s finals in Canada, Mexico and the USA is made. Saka and Rice were among a group of 11 players who were allowed to join up late, meaning England played an experimental side when they drew with Uruguay at Wembley on Friday night. Continue reading...

Everyone you meet in this lovely documentary, from the goat herders to the osprey nest makers, is making the world better and is also that rarest of things: truly content. Start Googling career changes now I must say, I was expecting Inside Britain’s National Parks to feel a bit less like school. The new documentary series looks at four of our 15 national parks and the people who live and work in them. So you would expect the usual barely disguised tourism ads – wall-to-wall shots of beautiful landscapes, scored with beautiful music, breaking off only for lovely, gentle interviews with lovely, gentle people. An hour’s escapism before you go back to your stress-bound, office-bound, mortgage-bound life instead of roaming the wilds of Wales noting new nesting sites for choughs or checking peatlands for sundews, or … Well, we’ll talk more about what else we could be doing later on. But it’s a lot. We do get plenty of the expected stuff but its traditional soft edge is whetted by an oddly dry script (despite being delivered by Alex Jennings, who could customarily talk me into a burning car) that prevents you disappearing into these wonderful worlds as fully as you might have been hoping. Continue reading...

The Prem playoff contenders appear settled after Northampton’s 21-17 victory over Saracens at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Strange words to write for anyone who has covered this competition for any length of time, but we kind of know who the Prem semi-finalists are going to be. And there’s still six rounds to go. Saracens had to win here at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against the league leaders to maintain any realistic chance of taking their customary place in the playoffs. This is the last season at the helm for Mark McCall, the man who has guided them through their glory years, before he “moves upstairs”, but it is looking increasingly likely that his era will draw to a close without further silverware. Saracens are mathematically still in it, of course, but, 12 points adrift of fourth spot with those six rounds to play, they will need to call on more than their own prowess to make it. Someone else is going to have to implode. Continue reading...

Thieves made a break for 413,793 units of the company’s new F1 line bars which could cause shortage before Easter A large shipment of KitKat candy bars was stolen while in transit to distributors, a major candy crime right before the Easter holiday that could cause shortages for customers. The truck carrying 413,793 units of a “new chocolate range”, about 12 tons of chocolate bars, was pilfered while driving through Europe on 26 March, Agence France-Presse reported. Continue reading...

Arsenal secured their 11th consecutive victory in all competitions with a confident 5-2 win over Tottenham at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday evening. Alessia Russo scored a 22-minute hat-trick to put her side in firm control at the break while Caitlin Foord and Stina Blackstenius added more in the second half. It was a devastating first-half performance from Russo, who has enjoyed an eye-catching week in front of goal. Her three in the latest edition of the north London derby took her tally to five in the last eight days, a week in which Arsenal have won all three matches they have been involved in. Continue reading...

Players are not covering the distances of old – they are not being lazy but adapting to demands of an arduous campaign There is nothing English football admires more than honest endeavour, which is perhaps a consequence of the league’s origins in the industrial cities of the north and Midlands. “He put in a shift.” “She did her job.” “He gave his all.” The language of football is the language of the pit or the factory floor. All top-level players these days are supremely skilled, but still we demand that they be exhausted by the final whistle, legs leaden with effort, hair soaked with sweat. Which was why it seemed to cause such consternation when Alan Shearer mentioned on Match of the Day last Saturday that Chelsea have run less than their opponents in every Premier League game they have played this season. Continue reading...

Scotland’s followers have discovered there is a drawback to World Cup qualification after all. Nobody who paid – and handsomely – to sit through the sheer tedium of this fixture could reasonably deny that. Yes, Scotland, you can come to the party; but only after a clutch of international friendlies. It is just about worth the trade-off. Officially, this marked the start of the tournament buildup for the Scots and Japan. It was a game that involved the going through of motions rather than one from which to draw strong conclusions. Japan were the slicker team, as should be expected for a country which has aspirations of making a proper impact in the summer. Junya Ito ensured the visitors headed towards Wembley – and their friendly against England – in fine fettle, his goal fitting reward for Japan’s enterprising approach. Steve Clarke claimed before the game he enjoyed watching Japan. Scotland’s manager cannot have smiled much during these 93 minutes. Scotland were passive, a point not lost on punters who flooded out and into the night long before full time. Continue reading...

Mario and Leonardo reflect on travelling with ‘no plan’, unexpected joys and challenges ahead on their 10-month coming-of-age pilgrimage Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Riding pillion on a vintage Vespa from Sydney to Italy was never going to be easy. But doing so amid a war in the Middle East, global oil shocks and shuttered borders? That was something Mario Gabrieli, 54, and his 11-year-old son, Leonardo, never planned for. Continue reading...

From seeing him on stage to locking eyes at a lounge room disco, comedian Tom Ballard only had eyes for Harley, a handsome circus acrobat I met Harley at the Adelaide Fringe festival in 2020. We were sharing a venue in the Garden of Unearthly Delights; I was doing my standup show, he was performing in a group circus show. I was all set to move to the UK later that year to become a West End star (or something), so I wasn’t looking for a relationship. One night I sat in on the circus show and, when I saw Harley in action, I was smitten. About halfway in he performed this stunning rope routine and there was something fundamentally sexy about him rolling around in the air, shirtless and sweaty, coiling and unfurling that rope around him. Obviously, I thought it was really cool art etc, but also, you know – hot. Continue reading...

A lot has changed since 1996 – summer matches, bigger crowds, more foreign players, a salary cap, skin-tight jerseys and female referees – but some things always stay the same By No Helmets Required The first season of Super League kicked off on 29 March 1996, when 17,873 people watched Paris Saint-Germain beat Sheffield Eagles 30–24 at Stade Charléty. The opening fixture might sound outlandish 30 years later, but the first season of the competition set the tone for the next decade. St Helens ended Wigan’s run of seven successive titles and Bradford showed what was to come by finishing third. The three clubs would dominate the opening era of the new competition before Leeds finally fulfilled their potential. Leeds RLFC (rhinos were still something you only saw at the zoo) finished 10th in the inaugural season, winning just six of their 22 games. Hull KR were scrambling off the canvas, romping to the third-tier title, while Hull FC finished third in the second tier behind Salford and Keighley. Continue reading...

England’s head coach still rates injury-prone Manchester City defender and seems likely to be a fundamental part of his squad this summer Every manager reserves the right to make an exception to the rules. For Thomas Tuchel, it is John Stones. The England head coach has watched Stones endure a lost season at Manchester City; another one, really, because things were similar for him last time out – certainly in terms of appearances. Once again, there have been injury problems, the sense that Stones cannot get himself fully right compounded over this past week with England. The 31-year-old struggled in training and when he felt something in a calf muscle on Thursday, Tuchel was forced to leave him out of the Wembley friendly against Uruguay on Friday night. He started Fikayo Tomori alongside Harry Maguire in central defence in a drab game that ended 1-1. Continue reading...

Four people arrested as police appeal for help in identifying woman found unconscious on street Police in Leeds have launched a murder investigation after a young woman died after being found unconscious on the street. Officers were called at 5.55am on Saturday to Kennerleigh Avenue in Austhorpe where they found the woman with serious injuries. She was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead shortly afterwards. Continue reading...

Bristol 14-18 Harlequins Bristol’s playoff hopes damaged after defeat in Cardiff On paper Bristol’s Big Day Out concept in Cardiff was a decent one. From the Bears’ perspective it offered a chance to attract a few more floating voters and show them a good time in one of the world’s great stadiums. For the Prem as a whole it also massages the league’s aggregate attendance figures and projects the sense of a tournament growing steadily bigger and better. For the satisfaction index to hit the necessary heights, however, the most basic part of the equation has to be fulfilled. Unfortunately for the Bears’ marketeers this contest did absolutely nothing for Bristolian blood pressure as they contrived to lose to a Harlequins side previously without a win in six matches and suffer a serious dent to their playoff prospects Continue reading...

Authorities must also provide detainees access to free and private legal phone calls and allow lawyers to visit unannounced A federal judge ruled on Friday that officials at Florida’s state-run immigration jail, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”, must give attorneys better access to their detained clients. The order by federal judge Sheri Polster Chappell, from the middle district of Florida, said facility officials must provide access to confidential, private, free and unmonitored outgoing legal telephone calls from people detained in the facility. Polster Chappell also ruled that attorneys are allowed to make unannounced visits to see their clients, bypassing the facility’s pre-scheduling requirement. Continue reading...

Scot aims to make history at July’s London Diamond League ‘This record is one of the most important we have’ It is, says Josh Kerr, a moment that makes the hairs on the back of his neck tingle every time he watches it. We are talking about Roger Bannister, his body taut then spent, falling into a crowd of well-wishers on a cinder track in Oxford in 1954 having become the first person in history to break the four-minute mile barrier. “That’s what I live for,” Kerr says, with the broadest of smiles. And then comes the grand reveal. Because at the London Diamond League in July, Kerr intends to stand on the shoulders of track and field’s giants – such as Bannister, the Australian Herb Elliott, Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett – by breaking the mile world record. Continue reading...