Woman, 36, and her husband, 44, arrested at Barangaroo and charged with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage A married couple from Kazakhstan has allegedly won more than $1m from Sydney’s Crown casino using a tiny camera hidden in a Mickey Mouse T-shirt and “deep-seated earpieces” that allowed them to communicate. New South Wales police said on Sunday the couple was charged with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage after being arrested in the Barangaroo casino. Continue reading...

Kyiv tries to pile pressure on Russia with attack on empty vessels on way to load up with oil for foreign markets Ukrainian naval drones hit two tankers operating under sanctions in the Black Sea as they headed to a Russian port to load up with oil destined for foreign markets, an official said on Saturday, as Kyiv tries to pile pressure on Russia’s vast oil industry. The two oil tankers, identified as the Kairos and Virat, were empty and sailing to Novorossiysk, a major Russian Black Sea oil terminal, the official at the security service of Ukraine told Reuters. Continue reading...

The new National Gallery of Victoria exhibition honours the wide-ranging photographic practices of more than 80 female artists working between 1900 and 1975. Women Photographers 1900–1975: A Legacy of Light is open now until May 2026 Continue reading...

A country built on agriculture is seeing the sector change as the number of farms shrinks and it becomes harder for young people to buy land On a farm south of Auckland, Cam Clayton breeds sheep and cattle – working alongside the dogs he’s trained since they were puppies. There, he looks out on knobbly hills and tree-filled gullies in Waikato, close to where he grew up. “I have the best office, with the best views,” says Clayton. Continue reading...

A Tottenham Hotspur manager’s lot is so rarely a happy one. In record time, Thomas Frank has gone through the gamut of his predecessors, from hope to disappointment to what now looks like hopelessness. Demolition by Arsenal had already put him on a sticky wicket. A decent midweek showing in Paris, amid another defeat, had barely increased his credit rating. Defeat to Fulham, a team with an away record as miserable as Spurs’ home form, only intensified the pressure. Frank being appointed by the departed stewardship of Daniel Levy is to be noted; fresh ownership regimes tend to be trigger happy with the managers they inherit. Should such a decision be made, and it still seems a premature outcome considering Frank made slow starts at his previous clubs, Marco Silva, linked previously on a couple of occasions, would be a live contender. By six minutes in, Silva was cavorting on the sidelines with his Fulham staff. His team were 2-0 up, and the home fans were baying for blood. By the final whistle, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium emptying, the mood was even lower, Frank’s outlook even bleaker. Continue reading...

The QI presenter’s visit to the French south coast sees her boggling with delight at tales of writers’ past visits, and marvelling at the homes of authors. At points it feels like a literary tour by stealth ‘Look at that!!” exclaims a jubilant Sandi Toksvig at the very start of her jolly new travelogue, Great Riviera Rail Trip. “Marseille!” The city of Marseille is, undeniably, there behind her, it being the starting point for a four-episode trip east along the French south coast that will take in picturesque fishing villages, posh resorts and quirky nooks. Shows where we watch celebrities go on holiday come in many different stripes, but all boil down to us pressing our noses up against the screen and wishing we were there while the famous bod has a lovely time. The most honest course of action for the famous person is to lean into it and enthuse. Toksvig does this, constantly wriggling and giggling with pleasure as she tells us how incredible, magnificent, wonderful and beautiful the Riviera is. It looks as if she is right. Continue reading...

Rosa Park’s story is about courage. But, lest one forget, it is also a story about breaking the law It was 70 years ago when four African Americans were sitting in the fifth row of a bus in Montgomery. As one white man had to stand towards the front, the driver asked the four to get up and move towards the back of the bus. Three did; one did not – the rest is history. Or so many American kids might think when they first read the story of Rosa Parks in school. It is a story of courage, but, lest one forget, it is also a story about breaking the law. And the question for us today is what civil disobedience means in an era when the federal government is signaling its readiness severely to punish even perfectly legal dissent. Continue reading...

First-minute red card for challenge costs Saints dearly Gloucester off mark with victory against Harlequins Northampton’s unbeaten start to the season came to a shuddering halt as they were blown away 46-12 by impressive Bristol at Ashton Gate. Saints lost Edoardo Todaro to a first-minute red card and it was downhill all the way after that as Bristol ran in six tries. Scrum-half Kieran Marmion scored two and Tom Jordan, Kalaveti Ravouvou, Aidan Boshoff and Luka Ivanishvili also crossed, with Sam Worsley kicking five conversions and two penalties. JJ van der Mescht and Tom Litchfield scored Northampton’s tries, one of which Fin Smith converted. Continue reading...

Norris slips up in final lap to give rival advantage Max Verstappen third on grid; Hamilton 18th Oscar Piastri claimed pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix, a vital result in the tense world championship fight with his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, who was in second, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who finished third. The Australian took top spot with his final lap after Norris had laid down a strong marker in a tightly fought contest at the Lusail International Circuit. Lewis Hamilton’s trying weekend in a poorly performing Ferrari continued as he went out in Q1 in 18th place, having managed only 17th in the sprint race. Continue reading...

England Women 8-0 China Mead 12 14, Hemp 16, Stanway 23 38pen 52, Toone 71, Russo 78 Deja vu? Heavy England wins have been few and far between in recent years, a 7-0 defeat of a heavily depleted and underfunded Jamaica in their final warm-up game before the Euros was the biggest since a 10-0 defeat of Luxembourg in 2022. Against China at a moon-topped Wembley, the margin was eight, a Georgia Stanway hat-trick and Beth Mead double was added to by goals from Lauren Hemp, Ella Toone and Alessia Russo to complete the rout. Continue reading...

Delight will have been tinged with bewilderment for Eddie Howe as Newcastle finally found the route to victory on the road in the Premier League this season. Newcastle were superb as they routed Everton, scoring more goals in one devastating evening than in their previous seven away games combined. He may rightly question why it has taken so long for this punishing form to materialise. Newcastle had taken the lead in their three previous away fixtures and lost them all. There would be no lapses on this occasion. A ruthless display, aided and abetted by some dreadful Everton defending, ensured a first Premier League away win since the trip to Leicester on 7 April was effectively secure by half-time. Continue reading...

When mountaineer Allie Pepper met Mikel Sherpa at Manaslu base camp in Nepal, their romance began with stolen kisses and whispered conversations Find more stories from the moment I knew series I discovered a passion for mountaineering in 2000 on a technical climbing course in New Zealand. For two decades I dedicated my life to the mountains, climbing some of the world’s highest peaks including Everest. In early 2022 my marriage ended and I threw myself completely into my dream of climbing the world’s 14 highest peaks without supplemental oxygen. By September I reached Manaslu base camp in Nepal. I was focused on the mountain ahead, not on love. Continue reading...

Destruction wrought by pig-borne disease is thining the canopy of bunya pine forests and the problem is getting worse, experts say Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast High up in an ancient conifer rainforest, at what was once the largest Indigenous gathering place in eastern Australia, there is sunlight where there shouldn’t be. Among the eponymous pine trees of the Bunya Mountains, in south-east Queensland, a deadly disease has taken root. Walking through the forest, Adrian Bauwens, a Wakka Wakka man, says pockets of sunlight have replaced what is “usually quite a dense canopy where’s it’s quite heavily shaded”. Continue reading...

The US author and orator on leaf blowers and Labubus, the weirdest thing she has done for love and struggling with contemporary novels I would like to ask your opinion on five things. First of all, leaf blowers. A horrible, horrible invention. I didn’t even know about them until like 20 years ago when I rented a house in the country. I was shocked! I live in New York City, we don’t have leaf problems. We have every other kind of problem. When I was a kid, we had leaf raking. Which is quiet. Leaf blowers are the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. First of all, they are incredibly noisy. And second of all, 10 minutes after you use it, that big leaf blower in the sky blows them all back. It’s a very stupid invention. Continue reading...

For everything from pop music to poetry, overwhelming infatuation offers inspiration and storylines. But when might this tip over into something a little less healthy? For months after her relationship ended, Anna* couldn’t stop thinking about him. Each morning she’d wake with a jolt of grief; an intense, almost physical feeling that morphed into thoughts of him that consumed nearly every waking hour. Continue reading...

⚽ Updates from the 8pm GMT kick-off in north London ⚽ Sign up for Football Daily | Top scorers | Email Scott Tottenham make four changes to the side that started the 5-3 Champions League defeat at Paris Saint-Germain. Kevin Danso, João Palhinha, Destiny Udogie and Mohammed Kudus come in for Djed Spence, Pape Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur, who drop to the bench, and captain Cristian Romero, who misses out altogether. Fulham make one change to their starting XI following their 1-0 home win over Sunderland. Samuel Chukwueze replaces Kevin in attack. Continue reading...

Trump administration lists reporting it objects to in latest escalation of attacks on US journalism The White House rolled out a new section of its official website on Friday that publicly criticizes and catalogs media organizations and journalists it claims have distorted coverage. At the top of the page, the text reads: “Misleading. Biased. Exposed.” The feature names the Boston Globe, CBS News and the Independent as “media offenders of the week”, accusing them of inaccurately portraying Trump’s remarks about six Democratic lawmakers who released of video encouraging military members to not follow illegal orders. Continue reading...

As the couples return to the Elstree Studios ballroom, they face the first ever Instant Dance challenge. Tonight’s routines will be soundtracked by Lady Gaga, Frank Sinatra and Tina Turner. But who will be simply the best? After their regular routines, tonight sees Strictly’s first ever Instant Dance challenge. In this time-pressured plot twist, each couple will pick a dance style at random from ones they have learnt in the competition so far. They will then be played their accompanying music and - after a frantic dash through wardrobe to select and change into their costumes - they will have just 10 seconds on the countdown clock to decide exactly how they’re going to dance it. Will they try to remember the original choreography or will they improvise? The judges will mark them from one to six points, which could shake up the leaderboard and change the standings. It could also be total chaos and I’m here for it. Continue reading...

La Liga leaders recover to beat Alaves 3-1 Munich set summit record with stoppage-time goals Barcelona recovered from an early setback to secure a 3-1 victory over Alavés, with first-half goals from Lamine Yamal and Dani Olmo and a late second for the latter sealing the win at the Camp Nou. The win lifts the defending La Liga champions to the top of the standings on 34 points, two ahead of second-placed Real Madrid, who have a game in hand at Girona on Sunday. Continue reading...

Wales 0-73 South Africa Springboks score 11 tries but Etzebeth sent off for eye gouge Every bit as dispiriting as expected. Worse, was it pointless? Well, it certainly had more points to it than Wales would have liked. But, worse again, was it actively alienating? A record defeat, the first time since 1967 Wales have failed to score a point here, 11 tries conceded. South Africa continue to demonstrate their superiority over every other nation. People are starting to compare them to the best sides we have ever seen. And they remain as brutal as ever, mostly legitimately, sometimes less so. They saw their third red card of the autumn, their third to a second row, but there was no arguing with this one. Eben Etzebeth, a full head taller than any of his opponents in the middle of a fracas two minutes from time, jabbed his thumb into the eye of Alex Mann. The least contentious red card of the autumn. Continue reading...

Top tier football is awash with motivational slogans and some are so trite that many players quite possibly ignore them. Yet Sunderland’s adopted motto – ‘TIL The End’ – has become so much more than just another piece of cod psychology. After sustaining Régis Le Bris’s team through last season’s successful playoff campaign it has morphed into a true mantra, encapsulating everything that is so refreshing about this impressively resilient team. Continue reading...

When Phil Foden struck the winner in the second minute of added time Pep Guardiola’s leap was laced with relief at Manchester City’s pursuit of Arsenal still being alive. City had spurned a two-goal interval advantage after Dominic Calvert-Lewin, a half-time substitute, had terrorised the hosts. The 28-year-old scored in the 49th minute, then claimed the penalty that led to Lukas Nmecha’s 68th-minute equaliser, rattling Josko Gvardiol enough for him to scythe Calvert-Lewin down clumsily. Continue reading...

A theatrical sensation since the 1960s, whose dramas included Arcadia, The Real Thing and Leopoldstadt, Stoppard also had huge success as a screenwriter The playwright Tom Stoppard, whose playful erudition dazzled the theatregoing world for decades, has died aged 88. One of a select band of writers from any discipline to earn his own adjective – “Stoppardian” – in the Oxford English Dictionary, he delighted in the most improbable juxtapositions: philosophy and gymnastics in Jumpers (1972); early 19th-century landscape gardening and chaos theory in Arcadia (1993); rock music, dissident Czech academics and the love poetry of Sappho in Rock ’n’ Roll (2006). Continue reading...

Lead FDA vaccine regulator announced new approval process after claiming Covid vaccine had killed 10 children The leading vaccine regulator at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a far stricter course for federal vaccine approvals, following claims from his team that Covid vaccines were linked to the deaths of at least 10 children. Experts suggest the announcement will make the vaccine approval process significantly more difficult. Continue reading...

Rightwing activist claimed Commons deputy speaker Nusrat Ghani should be barred because she was born in Pakistan GB News is facing calls to cut ties with a regular contributor who has been accused of racism after claiming that the House of Commons deputy speaker, Nusrat Ghani, should not be allowed in the house because she was born in Pakistan. The comments by Lucy White, a rightwing activist, have drawn criticism from across the political spectrum amid warnings that explicitly racist language is becoming increasingly normalised in British life. Continue reading...