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...

Florida wildlife commission investigating cause of incident that left passengers with burns and traumatic injuries Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email A suspected boat explosion at a Miami sandbar sent at least 11 people to the hospital on Saturday with some suffering from burns and traumatic injuries, according to Juan Arias, the Miami Dade fire rescue battalion chief. First responders received reports roughly around 12.45pm of a possible boat explosion on the water, Arias told WPEC 12. Continue reading...

Hearts ensured they will go into their penultimate match of the season with at least a one-point lead at the top of the Premiership after drawing with Motherwell in a pulsating match at a packed Fir Park. The visitors, chasing their first title since 1960, fell behind for the fifth game running when Stephen Kingsley bundled the ball into his own net, but they hit back through Lawrence Shankland just before the break. Hearts are four points clear of Celtic, who will have the chance to reduce the deficit to one point if they defeat Rangers on Sunday. Continue reading...

One man critically injured following incident in Arnold and suspect is being held on suspicion of attempted murder A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after five people were struck by a car in a town centre in Nottinghamshire, police have said. One man suffered life-threatening injuries and remains critically ill in hospital while four other men sustained less serious injuries after the incident in Arnold shortly before 1.10am on Saturday. Continue reading...

Manager copies crossed hammers on West Ham badge Brentford’s Andrews says Schade wrongly denied penalty Pep Guardiola playfully urged West Ham to take points off Arsenal in the title race when the leaders play them on Sunday, saying: “Come on you Irons,” at the end of his press conference after Manchester City beat Brentford. City’s 3-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium closed the gap to Mikel Arteta’s team to two points but Arsenal cannot be caught if they win their last three matches, starting at the London Stadium. Conscious of this, Guardiola crossed his arms to mimic the hammers on the West Ham badge and smiled as he said: “Come on you Irons.” Continue reading...

Main-event ring-walks scheduled for 11pm BST Wardley v Dubois is bout of uncertainty | Mail Alex Preview time: Donald McRae has set the scene as only he can. The undercard is under way but I encourage you to give this a read before the main event. Don will be providing us updates from ringside in Manchester. Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley are very different characters but, in the ring, they share a knockout ratio of 95% in the combined 42 fights they have won. The unbeaten Wardley has knocked out 19 opponents in his 20 victories while Dubois has stopped 21 of 22 vanquished rivals. It’s an impressive statistic which belies the vulnerability at the heart of each man. Wardley, the WBO world heavyweight champion, comes from a white-collar boxing background with minimal experience as an amateur. The only blemish on his record is a draw in March 2024 with the Olympic medallist Frazer Clarke – whom he then knocked out with shocking brutality in the first round seven months later. Continue reading...

Substituting the petrochemicals that underpin everyday life is challenging, but there are ways to produce what we need without fossil fuels I tried to live for 24 hours without using oil-based products. It was ridiculously impossible The standoff in the strait of Hormuz has shown just how dependent the world’s economy is on fossil fuels. From petrochemicals to plastics and fertiliser, they all begin life as oil or gas – but are there alternatives? Can we loosen the grip that fossil fuels have on our lives? While solutions to wean the transport system off imported oil are well understood – albeit not fully implemented – substituting the plethora of petrochemicals that underpin everyday life is a much more challenging task. Continue reading...

After embarking on a trial of CAR T-cell therapy, actor Sam Neill announced he is cancer-free. Researchers are enthusiastic the therapies could be a major weapon in the battle against cancer “Game-changer.” That’s how Prof Misty Jenkins, an immunologist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, describes CAR T-cell therapy, an emerging but still costly cancer treatment that supercharges the body’s immune system to fight disease. Late last month, Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill put the treatment in the spotlight, revealing his stage three cancer was in remission after undergoing CAR T-cell therapy as part of a clinical trial in Sydney. He stopped short of describing his remission as a miracle – the success, he said, was “science at its best”. Continue reading...

She delights in pretty dresses and homegrown roses. I am the boisterous daughter who despises rules. Despite all the differences, our bond is strong Among the myriad things I doubt my mother realises reminds me of her is the embroidered coat hanger. The hangers with the delicate, lace cloth, designed to protect. The ones handmade with personal touches no global chain would bother with because, just like a lifetime of maternal love, if you are lucky, it is sewn with the same kind of slow, attentive care. Continue reading...

When Mitch Cairns met Agatha Gothe-Snape, he was instantly charmed. Then an absurd exchange shifted their relationship into something more than friendship The first time I saw Agatha she was saturated, standing in a knee-high bucket wearing a knitted woollen jumper that said Ho Ho Ho on it. Whatever I’d expected to see at the Christmas group show at MOP Projects – an artist-run gallery in Redfern, Sydney – this vision transcended it. As I walked into the hall-like space, it was devoid of any artwork aside from this absolutely beautiful woman standing there with water dripping on to her head. It was 2007 and I was a graduate of the National Art School. People weren’t making this type of work there, so it’s no exaggeration to say the whole image was completely new and arresting for me. She was silent and stationary but so alive. Continue reading...

German champions recover from PSG loss with 1-0 win England captain misses first Bundesliga spot-kick in 25 Harry Kane missed a penalty as Bayern Munich failed to hit top form but the Bundesliga champions still edged struggling Wolfsburg 1-0 to bounce back after their midweek Champions League semi-final exit to Paris Saint-Germain. Bayern, who won with a Michael Olise goal, had suffered a 6-5 aggregate loss to PSG after their 1-1 draw in Munich on Wednesday, narrowly missing out on what would have been their first Champions League final in six years. The frustration was evident at the start as the Bavarian side, with six changes in the lineup, lacked their usual attacking spark despite having Kane, the top scorer, in the starting XI. Continue reading...

The eggheads can argue the head coach is merely an interchangeable cog in a team’s fortunes – but emotion counts in an ever-changing game Your manager has fallen out with the sporting director and results have gone awry, so you replace him. Easily done, it happens. But then it turns out that the new manager could not be more ill-suited to the squad, results go awry and so you replace him. A bad leader would hesitate and hope things worked out, but you are ruthless and decisive and turn to a manager who was once a youth player at the club and has some anecdotes about the old days. But it turns out some people think his methods are old‑fashioned and results go awry, so you replace him. Continue reading...

After a biblical downpour, the skies cleared, and Manchester City executed the gameplan: secure a win and three points to keep their breath on Arsenal’s neck. The clincher arrived via Erling Haaland’s 26th Premier League goal – as with his side’s performance this was hardly pretty but no one in blue cared. Antoine Semenyo marauded down the right, his cross hit at least one Brentford body, the ball came to Haaland who, with a second stab at it, bundled home from close-range, the No 9 facing away from goal. Continue reading...

Even with the Iran war weighing Trump’s party down, Democrats face a challenge turning the upper chamber blue The county of Louisa in eastern Iowa is so rural that there is not a single stoplight on its roads, and its largest town, Wapello, boasts an appropriately wry nickname: “Capital of the World”. The moniker is not entirely off-base, for decisions made here have, in their own way, reverberated across the globe. Louisa is among a band of counties along the Mississippi River that backed Barack Obama both times he was on the presidential ballot, before, like Iowa as a whole, flipping to Donald Trump in 2016 and growing increasingly Republican each time he was on the ballot. Continue reading...

The MV Hondius is heading for the Canary Islands where Britons on board will be transferred to Merseyside hospital Passengers from the UK who are on board the hantavirus-afflicted cruise ship heading for Tenerife will be flown to Merseyside on Sunday for hospital quarantine. The 19 British passengers and three crew will be transferred to Arrowe Park hospital in Wirral, which hosted British people returning from China at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer set to face challenge as former minister says she will trigger race if no cabinet minister comes forward UK politics live – latest updates MPs from Labour’s left are expected to urge Ed Miliband to consider a leadership bid in the coming days, as Keir Starmer faced the prospect of a definite challenge from his MPs next week. Following grim results for Labour in elections on Thursday, former minister Catherine West said that if no cabinet ministers went public by Monday, she would launch a bid to end the impasse. Continue reading...

Tyrone Scott, who didn’t think he had a hope in the election, wants to help the Greens rebuild ‘community cohesion’ in Hackney You would expect most political candidates who pull off a shock win to celebrate their victory, maybe with a glass of bubbly and excitement for the challenges of elected office ahead. But on Friday, as thousands of new councillors celebrated their triumphs, some surprise victors were less than pleased. Green party handlers apologised to one newly elected councillor in Finsbury Park, north London, put down as a “paper candidate”, who pulled off an unexpected win. “You’re going to be great, we’ll support you,” they said, according to the Islington Tribune. Continue reading...

Leicester 41-17 Northampton Freddie Steward caps six-try victory for hosts You can play all the fancy rugby you want, you can be recent champions leading the table with only a few matches to play, but certain elemental truths still apply. One of them is that if you find yourself overpowered up front away from home in a sold-out East Midlands derby, you will be blown away. Northampton could have secured a place in the playoffs here if they had won with a bonus point, but they did not even come close. Amid a ferocious atmosphere, records tumbled as Leicester claimed the bonus-point win to move within one point of Bath, who play Exeter on Sunday, and five shy of Saints. Continue reading...

SNP leader wants to ensure voices of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland ‘are heard loud and clear’ John Swinney has said he plans to work with the nationalist first ministers in Wales and Northern Ireland in a coordinated opposition to Labour’s policies on the cost of living and UK government spending. The Scottish National party leader said he had spoken to Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin first minister of Northern Ireland, on Friday night after she had called to congratulate him on his party’s “emphatic” victory in the Holyrood elections. Continue reading...

Another step towards Europe for Bournemouth, another glimpse of Rayan’s talent, his goal a moment of calm amid high-octane hustle. Tempers boiled over, both teams reduced to 10 men by first-half losses of reason. Fulham fought for every ball in their own quest to play European football. Falling short here, and in recent weeks, opens up deep questions of their future direction. A new contract offer to Marco Silva has stayed unsigned since November. The manager who re-established a Premier League club is free to field offers. Europe, a long-term ambition, veers beyond reach. Silva has never received sufficient backing to achieve that goal, an opinion he has freely expressed. To achieve it now might keep him Silva at Fulham but such outcome probably now relies on permutations beyond his control. Continue reading...

Manchester United have played some exhilarating football during a stirring run of victories since Michael Carrick took interim charge in January, but this was not one of those days. Having beaten arch-rivals Liverpool at a raucous Old Trafford last weekend to qualify for next season’s Champions League, this was a comedown from that great high and a sobering reminder of the task still facing Carrick to make United a major force again. Given that they made five changes, a lack of fluency was perhaps to be expected and the fact that United left disappointed not to have picked up an 11th win from 15 games under Carrick was indicative of their recent progress. Continue reading...

‘It’s unfair, they saw everything’, says Boro manager Southampton’s Eckert walks out after questioning Southampton’s manager, Tonda Eckert, walked out of the post-match press conference at Middlesbrough on Saturday after repeatedly refusing to answer questions about allegations that one of his analysts had spied on Kim Hellberg’s training session last Thursday. Shortly afterwards Hellberg said his Middlesbrough team were victims of “cheating” in the lead-up to this vital Championship playoff semi-final first leg. Continue reading...

Emissions understated by factor of five in Essex plans for tech giant, while Greystoke’s Lincolnshire plans show similar error Developers working for Google have significantly misstated how much carbon two proposed AI datacentres will contribute to the UK’s total emissions in planning documents reviewed by the Guardian. The tech company wants to build two huge datacentres – one 52-hectare (130 acre) project in Thurrock and another at an airfield in North Weald, both in Essex. To do so, developers are required to submit planning documents calculating how much carbon these projects will emit as a proportion of the UK’s total carbon footprint. Continue reading...

Showdown between Musk and Altman has rendered the world’s most wealthy comical under egalitarian eye of court For the past couple of weeks, on the fourth floor of a courthouse on a quiet street in downtown Oakland, the world’s richest man and one of the world’s most valuable startups have been at war over the future of artificial intelligence. Being one of the reporters in the room has felt like watching an updated, opposite-coast version of Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities – ambition, ego, greed and the spectrum of social class on full display. The supporting cast has included Elon Musk fanboys, a stern judge and a who’s-who of Silicon Valley’s most influential people. Continue reading...