The photographer Eric Lusito takes us on a scientific journey through space and time in a book on Soviet scientific institutes Continue reading...

Arena in Birmingham cleared after report of suspicious bag, with comedian pulled from stage mid-performance A man has been charged over a bomb hoax after a live show by comedian Peter Kay in Birmingham was stopped when a “potentially suspicious bag” was found around the venue. The Utilita Arena Birmingham was evacuated and a 19-year-old man was taken into custody, West Midlands police said on Friday evening. Continue reading...

Antonelli seals third straight pole in tight contest Mercedes star narrowly pips Verstappen; Leclerc in third Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the Miami Grand Prix with a strong lap, but only by narrowly beating a resurgent Max Verstappen and Red Bull into second place. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were in third and sixth for Ferrari, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in fourth and seventh for McLaren, while Antonelli’s Mercedes teammate George Russell could manage only fifth, four-10ths back from the Italian. Continue reading...

Arsenal put pressure on Manchester City with 3-0 win First-half performance ‘one of the best’ this season Mikel Arteta said his Arsenal team had played some of their best football of the season in Saturday’s 3-0 home win over Fulham and demanded that they take the positive feelings into the return leg of their Champions League semi-final against Atlético Madrid on Tuesday. Arsenal picked a fine time to recover their attacking flow, Viktor Gyökeres scoring either side of a Bukayo Saka goal to give them an unassailable half-time lead. The result took them six points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League, albeit their rivals have two games in hand – the first of which is at Everton on Monday night. Continue reading...

Sassica Francis-Bruce regularly joined her father – a film editor – on set. As she grew older she loved working beside him in the cutting room I clearly remember the first time I had a soda because it was the same day Jack Nicholson threw up on me. Deliberately. He’d burst through the doors of a church and began a profanity-riddled tirade against God and women as he gesticulated madly and accosted churchgoers. When he reached the front row where I sat and turned towards me, I froze. His eyes were abnormally alert, his hair wild and uncombed and saliva dripped from his mouth like a Neapolitan mastiff. Continue reading...

When Federica met Oskar, she thought their Google translate-powered romance would be brief, but soon they were planning their future restaurant together Find more stories from the moment I knew series In 2013 I moved from Milan to work as a pastry chef in Marano Vicentino, a tiny town in the region of Veneto. My new boss was the youngest chef to be awarded a Michelin star in Italy and I was excited by the opportunity to work at El Coq, living in the staff sharehouse and learning everything I could. I’d been there a year when Oskar arrived on the scene. A fellow chef and friend of my boss, he had been working on a boat somewhere and was going to stay with us in the sharehouse for a few weeks and spend some time in the kitchen helping us develop the menu. Continue reading...

More trips around the sun does not mean inevitable decline, new research suggests – and having a optimistic outlook can even bring improvements By most standards, Prof Velandai Srikanth is at the peak of his career. He is the director of the National Centre for Healthy Ageing; his decades of highly regarded research has led to work being published in leading scientific journals; and he has been awarded funding from some of the world’s biggest scientific funding bodies. He has also turned 60, and says that as soon as he did, “Somebody said: ‘So when are you going to retire?’” The comment shocked him – he realised this was the stigma of ageing, and it was coming for him. Continue reading...

Arsenal supporters had almost forgotten what it was like to win without their nerves being shredded. They were reacquainted with the feeling on an occasion when everything felt right from the start and got better and better. It was all over by half-time, Arsenal three goals to the good and the Emirates Stadium purring over a virtuoso Bukayo Saka performance. The England winger had not been himself before he was forced to take time out at the end of March to rest an achilles problem – and one or two others aches. He was back in the starting XI here and the bang he produced could be heard in Manchester. City do not play until Monday night. They will kick off at Everton six points behind Arsenal at the top, albeit having played two games fewer. Arsenal have turned up the heat inexorably. Continue reading...

Champion nicknamed the Monster holds off late surge Both boxers had unbeaten records entering Saturday Battle billed as biggest fight in Japanese boxing history Naoya Inoue successfully defended his undisputed super-bantamweight championship with a close but uncontroversial 12-round unanimous decision over Junto Nakatani in their eagerly anticipated showdown at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday night. Before a sellout crowd of about 55,000 spectators during Japan’s Golden Week holiday, Inoue held off a fierce late surge from his unbeaten rival to win by scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 115-113 and retain the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO belts at 122lb, extending his perfect record in what had been billed as the biggest fight in Japanese boxing history. (The Guardian had it 115-113 for Inoue.) Continue reading...

2005 winner rallies from 15-13 down to win 17-15 Murphy will play Mark Allen or Wu Yize in final Shaun Murphy twice overturned a two-frame deficit in the final session to beat John Higgins 17-15 and seal his place in his fifth World Snooker Championship final. Murphy was forced to dredge up his best form to see off the 50-year-old Scot in a titanic tussle that looked nailed-on for a decider until Higgins fluffed a black on a break of 50. Continue reading...

Ukrainian wins 6-3, 7-5 at the Caja Mágica Title means Kostyuk will break into top 15 for first time Marta Kostyuk took an enormous step towards fulfilling her potential as the Ukrainian closed out an incredible week by winning the biggest title of her career at the Madrid Open, defeating Mirra Andreeva of Russia 6-3, 7-5. Although Kostyuk’s run through a WTA 1000 draw was unexpected, this title did not come out of nowhere. Kostyuk won her second career WTA event in Rouen just before Madrid, and has now put together an 11-match winning streak. Continue reading...

British driver beats teammate Oscar Piastri into second Mercedes drivers fourth and sixth with Leclerc third Lando Norris won the sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix with a dominant drive for McLaren, beating his teammate Oscar Piastri into second to secure a one-two for the team and deny Mercedes a win for the first time this season. Charles Leclerc took a strong third for Ferrari but Mercedes, dominant for the opening three meetings, could manage only fourth and sixth for George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. Antonelli had finished fourth but was given a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits, a costly error for the championship leader. Max Verstappen was fifth for Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton seventh for Ferrari. Continue reading...

Four people are in hospital, with one 25-year-old man facing life-threatening injuries A drive-by shooting in Brixton which left four people in hospital on Saturday has been branded “an act of indiscriminate violence” by police. Shots were fired in the early hours on Coldharbour Lane in the south London area, leaving one 25-year-old man in hospital with life-threatening injuries. Continue reading...

Semi-final: Leinster 29-25 Toulon Leinster will face Bordeaux or Bath in Bilbao final They made a bit of a meal of it, but Leinster will march on Bilbao in a few weeks for their ninth Champions Cup final. Their 17th semi-final was clinched by four tries to three over Toulon, another multiple winner of this tournament, but it was not a classic. Which is not to say it was boring. Leinster are not convincing this season, and a telltale sign of a team with a confidence issue is the offering up of hope to a seemingly defeated team. The hosts, enjoying a knockout tie at the Aviva for the umpteenth time, went 18 points clear when Caelan Doris scored their fourth with a little more than 10 minutes to play. And then all hell broke loose. Continue reading...

Compliments mean little to West Ham at this stage of the season. They hit the woodwork three times, had a goal ruled out for a tight offside and contributed to an entertaining game against strong opposition but none of that mattered when full time arrived and Nuno Espírito Santo faced up to his side missing a huge opportunity to take a big step towards winning their fight against relegation. It remains too tight to call. This defeat keeps West Ham two points above the bottom three and means they will drop into the relegation zone if 18th-placed Tottenham beat Aston Villa on Sunday night. Continue reading...

Brighton had limbered up for this trip to Tyneside by working out with an acclaimed German cage fighter. The idea was that a spot of mixed martial arts training would toughen up their players at set pieces and enable them to pack a collective punch far too powerful for Newcastle to resist. Happily for the home side it did not quite work out like that. With Yasir al-Rumayyan, Newcastle’s chair, and a delegation of his colleagues from the club’s majority owners, Saudi Arabian’s Public Investment Fund, in the director’s box, Newcastle ended a debilitating run of five straight defeats. Continue reading...

Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson and Robert Jenrick, among others, have sung the praises of the JCB PotHole Pro Reform UK’s leading figures have repeatedly promoted a new pothole-fixing machine by the construction company JCB, while the party received £200,000 from the British digger maker, the Guardian can reveal. Several Reform politicians including Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson, Robert Jenrick, Zia Yusuf and Richard Tice have sung the praises of the JCB PotHole Pro machine. Continue reading...

Sunderland had Dan Ballard sent off for hair pulling as their hopes of European football next season were dented by a 1-1 draw at already-relegated Wolves. Ballard was given his marching orders in the 24th minute by referee Paul Tierney after a check with VAR determined the Sunderland centre-back had tugged at the long braids of Wolves forward Tolu Arokodare. Continue reading...

Critics warn that respect for rule of law could break down as executive branch flouts judicial decisions When a federal judge shot down a Trump administration policy of holding immigrants without bond last December, it seemed like a serious blow to the US president’s mass deportation effort. Instead, a top justice department official insisted the ruling wasn’t binding, and the administration continued denying detainees around the country a chance for release. Continue reading...

PM says there are instances in which he would support bans but organisers say this would ‘strike at root of free speech’ Organisers of pro-Palestine marches have said Keir Starmer’s threat to ban some demonstrations opposing Israel’s actions in the Middle East will “strike at the root of free assembly and free speech” in the UK. On Saturday morning, the prime minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “there are instances” in which he would support stopping some pro-Palestine protests altogether. Continue reading...

️ F1 qualifying updates from 9pm BST ️ Norris takes Miami sprint pole | Mail Philip When Donald pressed on and asked about the regulations regardless, his manager tried to intervene via speakerphone, and then: I turn to Norris and underline the importance of the issue. A young representative of the management team in the room with us steps closer to say: “We’re done with time.” I ask Norris if he can spare the additional 10 minutes I’d been promised. He looks embarrassed and says: “I’m not the boss.” “It’s terrible,” he said. “If someone likes this, then you really don’t know what racing is like. Not fun at all. Playing Mario Kart. This is not racing and I would say the same if I would be winning races because I care about the racing product.” A few hours earlier I had been sent a message saying that Norris’s management did not want me to ask about his friendship and rivalry with Max Verstappen and George Russell or about the new F1 regulations. Norris has said before that the changes are dangerous and “we’ve come from the best cars ever made in Formula One, and the nicest to drive, to probably the worst. It sucks.” I push back, saying it is essential to ask Norris a few questions about the regulation shake-up. Continue reading...

Jule Brand’s late winner settled an absorbing semi-final to end Arsenal’s defence of their Women’s Champions League title and sent OL Lyonnes through to a record-extending 12th European final. With the second leg level at 3-3 on aggregate after Alessia Russo’s goal for Arsenal and seemingly heading for extra time, Brand collected Melchie Dumornay’s chipped through ball and tucked a neat finish into the far corner. The goal was initially disallowed for offside, but after a three-minute VAR check the goal was given. Continue reading...

⚽ Updates from the 5.30pm BST kick-off at the Emirates ⚽ Scores | Premier League table | Read Football Daily Mikel Arteta makes five changes to the Arsenal side that started in Madrid on Wednesday. Riccardo Calafiori, Myles Lewis-Skelly (who is playing in midfield), Eberechi Eze, Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard come in for Piero Hincapie, Martin Zubimendi, Martin Odegaard, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli. Odegaard isn’t in the matchday squad. Harrison Reed and Antonee Robinson replace the unavailable pair of Sander Berge and Ryan Sessegnon in the Fulham side. What impressed me most was just how much most of the men around me hated, really hated, being there. As far as I could tell, nobody seemed to enjoy, in the way that I understood the word, anything that happened during the entire afternoon. Within minutes of the kick-off there was real anger (‘You’re a DISGRACE, Gould. He’s a DISGRACE!’ A hundred quid a week? A HUNDRED QUID A WEEK! They should give that to me for watching you.’); as the game went on, the anger turned into outrage, and then seemed to curdle into sullen, silent discontent… Entertainment as pain was an idea entirely new to me, and it seemed to be something I’d been waiting for. It might not be too fanciful to suggest that it was an idea which shaped my life. Continue reading...

Oh well. All the best south London parties last three minutes. Everyone knows that. Bermondsey had been a spring-like place at kick-off, soft May sunlight dappling the magnificent municipal incinerator tower at the Cold Blow Lane end. The Den was sold out, as it always is these days. Continue reading...

Tory leader says she did not sign off on video attacking Labour’s Troubles legacy proposals Kemi Badenoch has apologised after footage from Bloody Sunday was used in social media posts criticising a bill on legacy issues in Northern Ireland. The Conservative leader said on Saturday that she did not sign off on the use of a clip from the massacre, in which British soldiers opened fire on unarmed civil rights demonstrators in Derry, and that it was distributed by “very young people”. Continue reading...