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...

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...

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...

Semi-final: St Helens 0-32 Wigan Warriors will face Warrington or Hull KR at Wembley The Challenge Cup kings are at it again. For the first time in a good while, Wigan were arguably underdogs going into this semi-final against their fiercest rivals, St Helens, with a run of form that included four successive Super League defeats before stopping the rot last week against promoted Bradford. In contrast, St Helens are joint-top of Super League and have won their past five, but when it comes to Wigan and the Challenge Cup, this relationship is anything but ordinary. For the 34th timethe Warriors have reached the final. Continue reading...

Italy 33-61 England Packer scores four to set up possible France showdown Marlie Packer may have made her England debut 18 years ago but she is playing some of her best rugby with the openside flanker once again key as the Red Roses set up a potential grand slam showdown against France next Sunday. The former England captain has won back the starting shirt because of the unavailability of other players after falling down the pecking order in the international setup. At the World Cup last year Packer only played one match, which came against Samoa in the pool stage. She has said she will be there for the team that “means so much” to her in whatever capacity she is needed by the head coach, John Mitchell, but is proving she can still do more than a good job in a white shirt. The 36-year-old scored four tries in sunny Parma and also brought her leadership experience too. She played in her 116th game against Italy with the other two back-rowers both having less than 10 caps. Continue reading...

⚽ City look to keep pressure on Arsenal | Kick-off: 5.30pm BST ⚽ Seven games to decide the title | Follow on Bluesky “Next time, there’ll be no next time.” The point of no return. Do or die. The last-chance saloon. Endgame tavern. Jeopardy Dread Wetherspoons. However you want to describe it, Manchester City are in the position all sports teams fear: knowing they have no margin for error. Continue reading...

Parent company of president’s Truth Social platform generated only $870,000 even as net sales were up 6% The parent company of Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform – one of the president’s preferred communications channels – lost nearly $406m in the first three months of the year while generating a little over $870,000 in revenue, according to financial filings. The Trump Media and Technology Group’s quarterly report for January to March 2026 showed that while net sales were up 6% year over year, the company took sizable losses related to other investments. Continue reading...

Denmark king asks Troeld Lund Poulsen to form government after PM struggles to gather support The king of Denmark has asked a centre-right politician to try to form a new government after the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has failed to put together a ruling coalition. The announcement on Friday night shook the political establishment as Frederiksen has been a staple of Danish politics for decades. Her left-leaning party, the Social Democrats, won the plurality of votes in parliamentary elections in March. Continue reading...

Simply hanging on could be a disaster for Iranians, while Trump needs to resolve this economic crisis he created Exchanges of fire between Iran and the US demonstrate the serious instability of the situation in the Middle East. Though the US strikes late on Thursday were just “a love tap”, according to the US president, Donald Trump, the reality is that neither side can continue the high-stakes standoff in the strait of Hormuz indefinitely. The US and its ally Israel demonstrated a comprehensive military superiority over Iran – taking minimal casualties in the 38-day war – but Washington has both failed to translate that into strategic dominance and allowed Iran to take control of the strait, driving up the oil price. Continue reading...

An exhibit of psyops leaflets released in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya finally shows American people the messages that were made in their name By Moustafa Bayoumi For over a century, the United States military has been dropping propaganda leaflets in deliberate psychological operations, or psyops, to achieve success in war. But the key question behind the effort remains unanswered: does it even work? In 1918, the US released more than 3m leaflets behind enemy lines by plane and hydrogen balloon. To their delight, they found the leaflets helped erode morale and unit cohesion among the Germans in the first world war. Or so the story goes. Continue reading...

Despite a call for calm, a combustible mix of politics and protest punctuated the preview week across the pavilions Every two years the art world assembles in Venice for a sprawling celebration of visual arts at which countries “compete” against one another for the prize of best national pavilion. It is a barometer of taste, a shop window for artists and the industry’s biggest get-together – once described by the art historian Lawrence Alloway as an “orgy of contact and communication”. This year, 99 countries are involved, including Somalia and Qatar, which are among seven first-time participants in an event that was overshadowed by the death of its curator, Koyo Kouoh, just over a year ago. She wanted an event that focused on “enhancement” with a main show called In Minor Keys. Despite the call for calm, a combustible mix of politics and protest punctuated the preview week. The activist group Pussy Riot turned up on site to object to Russia’s inclusion and a strike on Friday in protest at Israel’s inclusion caused several pavilions – including the UK, Austria and France – to close their doors. Continue reading...

The chants from Middlesbrough fans about Southampton’s spying are likely to linger in the memory far longer than a playoff semi-final that promised far more than it delivered. While Southampton will start Tuesday’s second leg as favourites, Boro cannot be discounted after dominating large tracts of a tie thoroughly overshadowed by a spying scandal. Slate grey rain clouds shrouded the Cleveland Hills and it seemed emblematic of the chill gloom enveloping the visitors after Middlesbrough accused one of Southampton’s analysts of spying on a training sessions and resulted in a misconduct charge from the Football League. Continue reading...

New York’s Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez brushed off question about run for presidency The New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez answered a question about potentially running for higher office in 2028 by declaring: “My ambition is to change the country.” The Democrat delivered that remark at a political forum in Chicago on Friday amid widespread belief that she is positioning herself to run for the White House in 2028 or challenge her party’s leader in the US Senate, fellow New Yorker Chuck Schumer. Continue reading...

The optimistic take is that Chelsea avoided equalling their worst run of league defeats since 1952 and warmed up nicely for next Saturday’s FA Cup final with a merited draw at Liverpool. Optimism, however, was thin on the ground at Anfield where boos greeted the full-time whistle and Arne Slot’s decision to introduce Alexander Isak for Rio Ngumoha. His team are crawling towards Champions League qualification with dissent for company. Enzo Fernández’s fortunate free-kick cancelled out an early strike from Ryan Gravenberch in what was a mediocre contest between two teams enduring mediocre campaigns. The sound of Anfield captured Liverpool’s display to perfection. The acclaim for an early lead and dominant opening gave way to jeers and whistles by the 39th minute as an increasingly lax home performance invited Chelsea to take the initiative. Continue reading...

Star matches Kareem, Hakeem and Shaq with stat line San Antonio take 2-1 lead over Minnesota Sixers on brink of sweep after Knicks dominate Victor Wembanyama plays with an agility and a gracefulness beneath his daunting wingspan that can make his dominance for the San Antonio Spurs on both ends of the floor appear almost effortless. Fresh cuts and bruises on those long arms after fighting for paint position and jockeying for rebounds all night with the Minnesota Timberwolves made clear Wembanyama had to put in plenty of work to compile 39 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks in a 115-108 victory in Game 3 on Friday that gave the Spurs a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference semi-final series. Continue reading...

Spaniard will leave Bournemouth at end of the season Chelsea and other Premier League sides also interested Crystal Palace are stepping up their attempts to convince Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola to take over from Oliver Glasner and are set to offer him a lucrative three-year contract. It is understood that Palace have made Iraola, who confirmed last month that he will be leaving Bournemouth at the end of the season, their preferred target and held initial talks with the Spaniard’s camp in the past few weeks. Continue reading...

Passengers were evacuated safely after the plane struck a person and an engine then caught on fire A Frontier Airlines plane hit a person on the runway of Denver’s international airport during takeoff, sparking an engine fire and forcing passengers to evacuate, authorities said. The plane, headed to Los Angeles, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff” at about 11.19pm on Friday, the Denver airport’s official X account wrote. Continue reading...

British No 1 beaten in straight sets at Italian Open ‘I can’t be in better mental and physical shape’ Cameron Norrie believes he is still well positioned for a strong performance at the French Open despite being shocked by his standard of play during Saturday’s frustrating 6-3, 7-5 loss to Thiago Agustín Tirante in the second round of the Italian Open on Friday. Norrie, the British No 1, started the match with a slew of unforced errors, immediately falling 3-0 behind. Those tense early struggles set the tone for a difficult day against one of the most explosive players on the tour. Tirante’s massive first serve consistently scaled 140mph, peaking at 148mph, which the world No 69 backed up by dominating the baseline with his heavy forehand. Continue reading...

Africa is leading a change in news consumption habits – and transforming the lives of current affairs enthusiasts Last year Amahle-Imvelo Jaxa posted a TikTok video about South African peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She explained an argument that had erupted between the South African and Rwandan presidents, then listed roles different South African groups would play in a war with Rwanda: the Sotho strategists, the Xhosa negotiators, the Afrikaner muscle. The video went viral and she racked up 100,000 followers in three days. This breakout video enabled Jaxa to pivot from being a marketing and restaurant entrepreneur to a “professional yapper and current affairs enthusiast”, part of a group of content creators explaining the news to young South Africans who, like many of their global peers, are eschewing traditional news in favour of social media. Continue reading...