Hampstead theatre, London A bond slowly builds between wildlife photographer Tim and his apprentice Marcus in David Pearson’s tender yet underdeveloped drama A young aspiring wildlife photographer is trying out for an apprenticeship with one of the best in the business. Marcus (Charlie Beck) has just arrived at a bird hide, in the middle of nowhere. “No one can hear you scream around here,” says the older man, Tim (Gerard Horan), whose barking grumpiness carries its own threat. Marcus, under his tutelage, gives as good as he gets and they rub along awkwardly until, slowly, they find affinities: they both hail from the same downtrodden housing estate and there are shadows lurking around their family life. You wonder where this meeting will go, with ambivalence around both men’s behaviour. Does Tim have an ulterior motive in getting Marcus to this remote spot? Is Marcus really who he says he is? At Hampstead theatre, London, until 23 May Continue reading...

Foundation set up by F1 great is beginning to address the lack of representation of black people and those from disadvantaged backgrounds in motorsport Sports people can be more than the sum of their athletic achievements. Lewis Hamilton stands unquestionably as one of the greatest drivers in the history of Formula One having delivered both records and outstanding performances that will be hard to surpass. Yet it is indicative of his character that the seven-time world champion rates them all as sitting only alongside what might ultimately be his most significant and long-lasting legacy. His Mission 44 foundation is making an indelible impact on the makeup of motorsport. “Talent is everywhere, opportunity isn’t and that’s what we’re here to change. Setting up Mission 44 is one of the things I’m most proud of,” Hamilton says, reflecting on the foundation he created five years ago. “I’ve been working in F1 for 20 years and I know first-hand how important it is to have representation in our sport, and how difficult it is for young people to get an opportunity.” Continue reading...

Conference League semi-finals pit Ukrainian side against Premier League opposition, with the club still reeling from the affects of war Serhii Palkin wasn’t sure whether Arda Turan, having played for Barcelona and Atlético Madrid, would be up for taking over as manager of Shakhtar Donetsk last May. The former Turkey forward had just left his first managerial post after two years at Eyüpspor in his homeland. But could he be tempted to join a club that last played at the Donbas Arena in 2014 owing to the war with Russia and has hosted its European matches in seven cities since being exiled? “Arda is a special guy,” says Palkin, Shakhtar’s chief executive since 2004. “For him to be a coach in Turkey is being in his comfort zone. He doesn’t want to be there. When I called him, he said: ‘I want to come, I want to come. I want to sign immediately.’ He doesn’t care about the war, he’s not afraid, nothing. And he’s always using a lot of energy. You will see on Thursday evening. He’s running on the line, I think three to four kilometres every game.” Continue reading...

All four matches in Division One this week were drawn – and none of them came close to a positive result By the 99.94 Cricket Blog This article is from The 99.94 Cricket Blog Continue reading...

Sesko hails influence of veteran ‘working machine’ Striker backs Michael Carrick to stay on as manager Benjamin Sesko has said Casemiro will be a big loss for Manchester United next season given the influence of the “working machine” on and off the pitch at Old Trafford. Casemiro produced another commanding display for Michael Carrick’s team on Monday when a 2-1 win over Brentford left United needing two points to secure Champions League qualification. Casemiro has announced he is leaving United after four years this summer and Carrick confirmed after the game that the decision will not be reversed. Continue reading...

Climate group calls for urgent windfall tax on excess fossil fuel profits, as delegates tell Colombia conference their nations are suffering The Middle East oil and gas crunch will impose as much as a trillion dollars of additional costs on the global economy while petroleum companies rake in spectacular profits from elevated fuel prices, analysis has revealed. The uneven distribution of risk and reward comes amid rising concern that the US-Israeli attack on Iran is worsening inequality, poverty and hunger across a world that has become dangerously dependent on fossil fuels. Continue reading...

In The Secret War Against Hate, Pulitzer-prize finalist Steven J Ross looks back at those who infiltrated and prevented hate groups in the US Steven J Ross’s new book, The Secret War Against Hate, is a sequel of sorts to Hitler in Los Angeles, his bestselling Pulitzer-prize finalist from 2018. That book told the story of Leon Lewis, a Jewish attorney, and others in the 1930s who foiled Nazi attempts to cause havoc in the City of Dreams. Now Ross looks south and east, to Atlanta and New York after the second world war, where activists and agents worked to infiltrate and defeat new Nazi groups. The distinguished professor of history at the University of Southern California said: “With Hitler in LA, Leon Lewis hid the spy codes but once I figured it out, I realized, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got a historian’s dream here,’ which is an unknown story that’s really important. All I had to do was not get in the way, not be overly author-ly, just be the guide taking you through the story. I knew the beats. I knew how spy stuff and detective stuff goes. I changed my writing style.” Continue reading...

The firms said last week that they will be reducing parental leave and other benefits for employees starting next year Recent moves by US companies Deloitte and Zoom to reduce how much paid parental leave they offer employees could signal a larger reduction in benefits in corporate America, according to labor market experts. American workers are already seen as having less benefits and labor protections than many of their counterparts across the world, especially in Europe. Continue reading...

Actions expected to exceed 3,000 as unions and groups expand protests inspired by Minnesota ICE crackdown Labor unions, democratic organizations and community groups are organizing an economic blackout this year to commemorate May Day, International Workers Day, inspired by the economic blackout in Minnesota during the massive ICE operation in the state. May Day Strong events are being planned across the US, with organizers calling for “no school, no work, no shopping”, in protest of government policies they say put billionaires’ needs above those of workers. Continue reading...

The track prodigy made it to world championships at 17 and joined Nike’s Oregon Project. At 29, Cain is detailing the hellish years under coach Alberto Salazar in her new memoir “As someone who has lost touch with reality, I like to hold a firm grasp on it now,” Mary Cain says while we walk through a palm-tree spotted campus in California. She’s telling me why she insisted she write her own memoir, This is Not About Running, without ceding the narrative to a ghostwriter, as happens with many athletes. “My story is so complicated … there are so many bad actors that I think it forces the reader to embrace nuance, and I don’t think you see that very often.” Continue reading...

Lismore Castle Arts, County Waterford, Ireland There are paintings of beatniks, jazz players, an African emperor and much else besides – and all of them come with a chair. So pull one up and treat yourself to a deeply satisfying viewing experience The gallery appears to have been set for a party. Mismatched chairs are scattered through the space – ornate gothic throne, wing-backed recliner, stackable school chair. Each points towards a white window painted on to the wall, into which one of 43 equally miscellaneous paintings has been inserted. These paintings are the other party guests, and you must decide who to sit with. It is a ragtag bunch, and so I decide to start with the people I recognise. But on my way to meet a portrait by Denzil Forrester of the young Haile Selassie, its surface resembling scuffed and polished stone, I am distracted by the glitter of light from a small work by Andrew Cranston. It comes from a young woman who seems to have been transplanted from Dumbarton into a glamorous late Vuillard, her coat shimmering like the scales of a fish caught by late summer sun. So I take the leather-backed chair in front of it, and become engrossed in its story of a beatnik couple living a tarnished late-summer dream, the woman looking straight out at me, over her seated partner, through a veil of shadow. Continue reading...

Our cartoonist on Blueco’s ‘self-reflection’ as another normal week ended with a place in the FA Cup final Buy a cartoon here | His favourites from 2025 And his latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now Continue reading...

Residents in 16 towns and villages are told to evacuate immediately US is being ‘humiliated’ by Iran’s leadership, says Friedrich Merz The renewed Israeli war on Lebanon started when Hezbollah launched missiles at Israel on 2 March after the US-Israeli bombing of Iran in late February. In its latest update, the Lebanese health ministry said since 2 March Israeli attacks have killed at least 2,521 people, including many women and children. Continue reading...

Vets say whale stranded for a month near Lübeck is fit to be transported in rescue effort funded by two entrepreneurs German officials have given the green light for a fresh attempt to rescue a humpback whale that has been stranded off the country’s Baltic Sea coast for more than a month. The 13-metre (40ft) whale’s struggle for survival has gripped Germany since the creature beached on a sandbank near the city of Lübeck, far from its natural habitat. Continue reading...

Star tells awards ceremony: ‘I disagree with everything that this administration stands for, but there’s no place for the kind of violence we saw two nights ago’ In the wake of the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner, George Clooney used an awards-show speech to make a plea against “hatred and corruption and cruelty and violence”. Clooney was speaking at an event at the Lincoln Center in New York, where he was given Film at Lincoln Center’s annual Chaplin award, which “recognises an individual’s significant contribution to cinema”. Continue reading...

All of us can choose to consider facts, not vibes, in our next decision. One simple hack is go and look up some easily accessible peer-reviewed studies Helen Pearson is an editor for Nature and author of Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works In 1992, a group of rebel doctors published a radical idea in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association. They argued that the practice of medicine needed to be transformed so that doctors didn’t rely on intuition and conventional wisdom, but on evidence from science – such as clinical trials showing whether a drug really worked. This was called “evidence-based medicine”, and the backlash against it was fierce. Some doctors complained that it was a “dangerous innovation” that restricted their traditional freedom to practise and prescribe as they saw fit. Happily, the mavericks ignored them, their approach proved itself to be better for patients, and quickly became the norm. Today, it feels like the world is rejecting science again. Donald Trump calls climate change a “con job”. The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, is undermining vaccines and slashing science agencies by 25,000 staff. Alternative facts and misinformation are rife. In the UK, only 40% of people think that information they hear about science is “generally true”. Helen Pearson is an editor for Nature and author of Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works Continue reading...

FTSE 250 firms Paragon and OSB Group, owner of Kent Reliance and Precise Mortgages, slide on London Stock Exchange Rachel Reeves considering rent freeze to limit Iran war fallout Business live – latest updates Shares in some of the UK’s biggest buy-to-let lenders such as Paragon and One Savings Bank have fallen after it emerged that the chancellor may make private landlords commit to a one-year rent freeze. In an effort to protect households from rising living costs as a result of the Iran war, Rachel Reeves is considering whether to ban landlords in England from increasing rents for a limited period of time, the Guardian revealed on Monday night. Continue reading...

No LIV tournaments expected from mid-May to August CEO had promied season would continue ‘full throttle’ LIV Golf’s inaugural tournament in New Orleans scheduled for the end of June is likely to be postponed until the autumn, according to multiple local reports. New Orleans television station WDSU and nola.com were among the first to report Monday that the Bayou Oaks event at City Park planned for late June was being moved to later in the year. Continue reading...

Valéry Carnoy’s striking film brims with unsynchronised ideas and images, but the physicality and performances of the young cast are undeniable Valéry Carnoy’s fiercely acted but dramatically unfocused film is about a sudden, mysterious crisis of confidence that undermines everything a young man thinks he knows about himself. It’s a brick dislodged from a wall that brings everything crashing down. The setting is a sports boarding school in France; evidently INSEP, the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance, in the Bois de Vincennes just outside Paris. Camille (Samuel Kirchner) is a tough, troubled kid from a broken home – and a brilliant boxer on the verge of national greatness. His best mate is fellow boxer Matteo (Fayçal Anaflous), who has broken the rules so often he is on the verge of being kicked out. Continue reading...

Each generation has a different view on when old age gets under way, but if my kids’ generation is correct, time is about to catch up with me ... For boomers, old age begins at 75, according to a new survey, while gen X considers the start date of decrepitude to be 70, and millennials are a little stricter, at 63. These are all reasonable positions, and then you get to gen Z, who know nothing about anything: they say it’s 53. By coincidence, I’d been thinking about this anyway at the weekend, after dancing so exuberantly I ripped my own clothes. I didn’t think that was ideal: it did raise concerns about what I must have looked like in the moment. But I figured as long as I stopped doing it before I got old, it was probably fine – and thought (being gen X) that gave me about 17 years. It turns out that as far as the youngsters are concerned, I have just over three months. Continue reading...

The Brighton and Nigeria goalkeeper is highly critical of the decision to push back Wafcon, but still has hope for the future of the women’s game in Africa Chiamaka Nnadozie has, at the age of 25, earned her place in the pantheon of African goalkeepers alongside legends such as Cameroon’s Thomas N’Kono and Morocco’s Zaki Badou. Nnadozie featured at her first World Cup finals for Nigeria at 18, then played at the 2023 tournament and is the only goalkeeper to have won the Confederation of African Football’s (Caf’s) Golden Gloves award three times on the trot: in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Nnadozie, a reigning Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) champion, is delighted and amazed that she has come so far, so quickly. Continue reading...

Plucked from relative obscurity to score Hugh Jackman film The Death of Robin Hood, the skilled singer-songwriter explains how he conquered his impostor syndrome Last year, Jim Ghedi was having a chicken dinner at his mother’s house in Sheffield when he checked his phone. “This director started following me on Instagram,” he recalls. “And there’s pictures of him with Nicolas Cage. As a joke, I said to my mam: ‘I might message him and say, let me do your next film score.’ As I said it, he messaged me, saying: ‘I want you to do my next film score.’” The director was Michael Sarnoski and the film is the forthcoming A24 production The Death of Robin Hood, starring Hugh Jackman and Jodie Comer. Sarnoski had heard Ghedi’s excellent 2025 album, Wasteland, a stirring and brooding album of apocalyptic folk that was a reflection of societal rot and collapse in England. Released on the small Calder Valley label Basin Rock, the album was critically acclaimed – and his most successful and ambitious to date – but it had not turned Ghedi into a household name. He thought that the film opportunity “would all blow away and they’d find out who I am”, he says. “Some top producer would put up the red flag.” Continue reading...

The artist started with graffiti at 13 in São Paulo. Now, he samples motifs from mythology and his vast, fantastical paintings have taken over the walls of the South London Gallery Paulo Nimer Pjota was 15 when he sold his first painting and already a three-year veteran. “I don’t really know what life is like without painting,” the 37-year-old Brazilian artist tells me. “It is in everything I do, the movies that I watch, the books that I read. They might not have anything to do with art, but I can find something in them that I might be able to use.” Pjota’s studio, which once served as his bedsit before he got married and had a son, is in a quiet neighbourhood of São Paulo: there are shelves lined with gourds, skulls, postcards and other trinkets, a pair of skateboards hang on the wall and a desk overflows with tubes of paint. A pile of sketches he made when he was a teenager, discovered at his parents’ house, sit among this productive clutter. Continue reading...

Bank’s chief executive points to rising fraud as it sets aside a further £105m for motor finance compensation Business live – latest updates Barclays is pulling back from lending to risky borrowers, as its chief executive warned of increasing numbers of fraud cases and the bank took a £228m hit from the failure of a mortgage lender. The mortgage lender Market Financial Solutions (MFS) collapsed in February amid allegations of fraud and the UK’s financial regulator has since launched an investigation into the scandal. Continue reading...

We would like to hear from people who converse with AI chatbots on a personal level Lots of people now use chatbots as personal assistants, sometimes to the extent that they have formed an emotional attachment to them. We would like to hear from people who converse with AI chatbots on a personal level. Have you formed an emotional bond to an AI chatbot? Continue reading...