Cuts will fall on its studio and television business, ESPN, certain corporate functions and more, a source says Walt Disney ’s new chief executive, Josh D’Amaro, announced layoffs in an email to employees on Tuesday, as he looks to streamline the company’s operations. About 1,000 positions will be eliminated, according to a person familiar with the development. Continue reading...

EFL in race against time to hear charges Club alleged to have breached P&S rules West Brom could be given a points deduction that relegates them from the Championship after the season has finished as the club contest charges of breaching the English Football League’s profit and sustainability (P&S) rules. With the Championship league season concluding on 2 May the EFL is running out of time to hear the charges against West Brom, which relate to an alleged breach of the £39m loss limit in the three-year period culminating in the 2024-25 season. EFL sanctioning guidelines state that any punishment for a P&S breach must be applied in the campaign after it took place, which in West Brom’s case means this season, but the rulebook does not give a definitive cutoff point so it is unclear when the season ends. Continue reading...

Measure by Jamie Raskin follows statements by Trump about annihilating Iran and post depicting himself as Jesus Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox House Democrats on Tuesday proposed creating a commission that would work with JD Vance to remove Donald Trump from office under the 25th amendment, should they determine he is no longer fit to serve. The measure, introduced by Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, follows a series of statements from Trump, including his recent warning that Iran’s “whole civilization will die” if it did not capitulate to his demands, and a social media post that depicted him as Jesus Christ. Continue reading...

Refugee Council criticises Labour’s decision, saying military sites are unsuitable and ‘more expensive than hotels’ Hundreds of asylum seekers have been removed from government-funded hotels while others have been sent to live in army barracks, the Home Office has announced. Eleven “asylum hotels” in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland have been closed, as first reported by the Guardian, and more will close “in the coming weeks”. About 350 claimants have been moved to the Crowborough military camp in east Sussex, described by a spokesperson as “basic accommodation”. Continue reading...

Trawler set off from Bangladesh and reportedly capsized due to heavy winds, rough seas and overcrowding About 250 people are missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals capsized in the Andaman Sea, according to the UN’s refugee and migration agencies. The agencies said the trawler carrying about 250 men, women and children reportedly sank due to heavy winds, rough seas and overcrowding. It had departed from Teknaf in southern Bangladesh and was bound for Malaysia. Continue reading...

Uzbek grandmaster wins Candidates with round to spare Sindarov, 20, to face India’s Gukesh for world title in fall Javokhir Sindarov will challenge for Gukesh Dommaraju’s world chess championship this fall after clinching the Candidates tournament with a game to spare on Tuesday afternoon in Cyprus. The 20-year-old Uzbek grandmaster closed out an emphatic victory in the the 14-game double round-robin with a tame 58-move draw playing with the black pieces against Dutch star Anish Giri, moving to 9½ points and leaving the world No 9 two adrift with one round remaining at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort. Continue reading...

In the US, the birth rate for 15- to 19-year-olds dropped 7% last year. But what seems like good news for society has been lamented by some leading Maga figures Teenagers these days, eh? Instead of having unprotected sex and popping out babies, they’re wasting their time on TikTok, or something. According to a recent report, the teenage birth rate in the US fell by 7% in 2025. While this might seem like a positive development, it has been a cause of dismay among the Maga-adjacent crowd. Take Fox News, which ran a segment framing the drop in teen pregnancies as alarming. “We still have 3.6 million births a year,” noted the medical analyst Marc Siegel. “But the problem is teens and young adults. From ages 15 to 19, the fertility rate is down 7%, and it’s down 70% over the last two decades, meaning we’re telling people that are young not to have babies, to wait until they’re in a more stable life situation.” I’m sorry, that’s a problem? Continue reading...

A devastating ‘war of atrocities’ will continue as long as the United Arab Emirates and others back the belligerents “Bloody unacceptable.” The UN’s top official in Sudan, Denise Brown, abandoned the language of diplomacy in addressing the failure to tackle a devastating three-year conflict which has been overshadowed by Ukraine, then Gaza, and now Iran. The humanitarian crisis has dominated discussions of Sudan, she argued: “How about focusing on finding a solution to end the war?” The international conference convened in Berlin on Wednesday is intended to inject a sense of urgency, as the conflict enters its fourth year. Since Sudan’s generals turned upon each other, having overthrown the civilian government, tens if not hundreds of thousands of people have been killed. Four million have fled abroad to other fragile nations, and millions more are displaced internally. More than half the population – approaching 30 million people – are acutely food insecure. Much of the capital, Khartoum, lies in ruins. Continue reading...

A former Nato chief demands more cash while fixing Britain’s global role. Before billions are spent, ministers must define the purpose of its military George Robertson’s claims about the prime minister’s “corrosive complacency” over Britain’s safety made headlines. But it is a howl of pain, not a sober security analysis. The former Nato secretary general and author of the government’s strategic defence review (SDR) wants Downing Street to back his view of Britain’s role in the world – as Robin to America’s Batman – with billions of pounds of cash. But his argument takes for granted what should be under scrutiny: Britain’s global military role itself. Donald Trump’s threats over Greenland, his disregard for international law and his U-turn over the Chagos deal expose the fragility of Britain’s defence assumptions. Before spending billions, those commitments must be re-examined. Lord Robertson’s claim of a £28bn black hole assumes that the current strategy is the correct one. But if that strategy – with its emphasis on global deployment and alliance commitments – is open to question, then the funding gap may reflect overstretch rather than insufficient spending. Continue reading...

Experts point to Chinese backing for multinational attempts to introduce global governance of AI China is now the “good guy” on AI rather than Donald Trump’s US where the technology is being pursued in a dangerous “wild west” manner, a former UN and UK government adviser has told MPs. Prof Dame Wendy Hall, who was a member of the UN’s AI advisory board and co-wrote a review of AI for Theresa May’s government, told the House of Commons business and trade committee that China was backing multinational attempts to introduce global governance of AI in contrast to America, which had set up a race between profit-hungry companies that relied on hype. Continue reading...

While some US visitors back their president, shopkeepers who serve the papacy and tourists are on the pontiff’s side On the wall of the back room of an opticians in Borgo Pio, a neighbourhood in Rome that borders the Vatican, hangs the photos of five popes dating back to the late 1970s, charting both the recent history of Catholic church leaders and the shop itself. As its owner, Walter Colantini, who fitted glasses for one of the pontiffs, gestures towards them, he recalled the diplomatic strain between the Vatican and White House over the 1991 Gulf war. Continue reading...

David Hinton will receive only his £400,000 salary this year after thousands of customers were left without water The chief executive of South East Water has said he will forgo his bonus in an act of penitence for “unacceptable outages” that left thousands of customers in Kent and Sussex without water. David Hinton told MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs select committee that he had decided not to accept an additional “performance payment” this year. Instead, he will receive only his £400,000 salary. Continue reading...

Natasha Cochrane de la Rosa was refused boarding on flight to London because she was not aware of the rule change A British woman has told how she fears being stranded in Spain for months after being refused boarding a on flight back home to London because she was not aware of new Home Office border rules. Natasha Cochrane de la Rosa, 26, was born in the UK to a British father and a Spanish mother, but because of archaic laws she was not entitled automatically to British citizenship because her parents were not married. Other women born to unmarried parents have called the rules an “illegitimacy tax”. Continue reading...

⚽ Champions League latest, 8pm BST kick-off (first leg 2-0) ⚽ Liverpool v PSG – live | Live scoreboard | And email Will Losing 2-0 at home in the first leg of a Champions League knockout tie is never a particularly good idea but this is the situation Barcelona find themselves in. The Catalans, however, will not feel defeated despite having to travel to the capital to face the miserly Diego Simeone and his charges. A mere 10 days ago Barcelona came out on top in the Wanda Metropolitano, although a repeat of the 2-1 scoreline will not be enough. We must assume that Barcelona will not die wondering tonight and it should be an intense game. If Hansi Flick’s side manage to get one early, then it could become a classic of the genre, and that is what the neutral will be hoping for. Continue reading...

⚽ Champions League latest, 8pm BST kick-off (first leg 0-2) ⚽ Atlético Madrid v Barcelona – updates | Live scoreboard Right, where shall we start? St Etienne 1977, perhaps, the first epic European comeback at Anfield. Maybe Auxerre 1991 or Dortmund 2016, when Liverpool made a mockery of apparently insurmountable deficits. “The stadium seemed to know what would happen,” winced Dortmund’s manager Thomas Tuchel after Dejan Lovren scored an injury-time winner. “It was as if it was meant to be.” Barcelona 2019 is the ultimate, a 4-0 win with a weakened team that still blows the mind seven years on. Those precedents – and the knowledge that Anfield is a unique microclimate – are sources of hope for Liverpool as they strive for another glorious comeback against Paris Saint-Germain tonight. Continue reading...

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Mascherano coached one full season with Messi in Miami Inter Miami have been off to a slow start in 2026 Javier Mascherano has stunningly stepped down as Inter Miami’s manager, just months after leading the team to their first MLS title. In the club’s announcement of the move, Mascherano said he was leaving for “personal reasons,” though later on the announcement specifies that his coaching staff will also depart the club. Continue reading...

The family of Marie-Thérèse, from Brittany, fear for her health after she was cuffed and placed in a detention centre An 86-year-old French woman who moved to the US to marry her 1950s sweetheart is being held in a crowded detention centre in Louisiana after she was arrested by immigration agents and cuffed by her hands and feet. The family of the woman, named only as Marie-Thérèse, said they feared for her health as French consular officials attempted to secure her release. One of her sons told the Ouest-France newspaper that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had treated his mother like a hardened criminal. Continue reading...

Results of six-week trial prompt concerns over government proposals as children reject healthier meals A pilot to test England’s new school food standards triggered a 15% decline in uptake of meals, with children rejecting healthier options in favour of a packed lunch, a caterer has revealed. The results of the six-week trial, which took place at a Brighton primary school, have prompted concerns that the government’s proposals, though well-intentioned, could end up having a negative impact on children’s health. Continue reading...

Virginia signs national popular vote bill into law, joining interstate compact with 17 other states and District of Columbia A national majority vote for president is one step closer to reality after the Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, signed the national popular vote bill into law, joining an interstate compact with 17 other states and the District of Columbia. Under the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, states would assign their presidential electors to the winner of the popular vote, regardless of the results within the state. The compact takes effect when states representing a majority of electoral votes – 270 of 538 – pass the legislation and thus would determine the winner of the presidential contest. With Virginia, the compact now has 222 electors. Continue reading...

Responding to an editorial on antisocial behaviour in the capital, Sum Kung writes that young people are demonised, while David Hutchinson and Jacqueline Simpson respond to an article by mayor Sadiq Khan It is right to reject the hysterical fiction of London as a city in moral freefall after the disorder in Clapham (Editorial, 8 April). But the deeper issue is not only exaggeration. It is the ease with which young people, once visible in public space, are turned into signs of disorder before they have done anything at all. Society does not merely fear what some young people do; it fears their collective presence. Teenagers gathering on a high street are too quickly read as menace, excess or incipient criminality. In that sense, the language surrounding Clapham matters as much as the incident itself. Terms such as “feral”, “swarm” and “gang” do not neutrally describe behaviour. They help produce a belief in the young person as threat, as someone to be monitored and contained rather than understood socially. Continue reading...

Alexandra Lucas asks what has to happen our government to act, rather than simply condemn Benjamin Netanyahu, while John Deards notes Alan Bennett’s prescience on Donald Trump You report that Donald Trump asked Benjamin Netanyahu to be more “low-key” in Lebanon (Netanyahu says there is no ceasefire in Lebanon as Israel launches fresh strikes, 9 April). As someone who is Palestinian Lebanese, I know exactly what that means. The West Bank is low-key. The world isn’t watching, so the killing and dispossession continues – door to door, quietly enough that most people won’t realise until Israel has taken the whole of the West Bank. Continue reading...

Steve Jones responds to Max Lury’s report of seeing a big cat on Dartmoor as a child, and not being believed I believe you, Max Lury (A moment that changed me: I saw a big cat on Dartmoor – and no one believed me, 8 April). I was walking across Exmoor in 1982 as part of the outdoor education module in my teacher training. A college friend and I (we are both biologists) were walking across an area of rough grassland with shallow ditches running across and slightly down the slope, which had a mixture of overgrown heather and gorse along the top of the far side of the ditch. We were in good visibility about 70 to 100 yards away from this particular ditch, mid-morning, when we saw a large, tan-coloured, low-slung animal running away from us down this ditch. It had a blunt face and a long tail with a bushy bit at the end. The tail curved upwards, and in the act of running, the creature arched its back to allow its front legs to project further forward. Continue reading...

Prof Julian Wiseman challenges claims made by another letter writer and says poultry may cope easily with more than one grain Ruth Tanner’s comments (Letters, 9 April) cannot be left unchallenged. She says “the fast-growing, low-welfare breeds we use rely solely on the import of soy for feed – the only grain they can be fed”. Initially, this gives the impression that soy is the sole component of a poultry diet, which is untrue. Diets are a combination of several raw materials balanced to supply all the energy and nutrients required. Furthermore, poultry may cope easily with more than one grain; in fact, the major component of UK poultry diets is wheat (usually home-grown, not imported). True, soy is the best balanced plant protein source, but there has been a substantial research effort into investigating alternatives, either home-grown or from other northern European countries (for example peas, canola, lupins, sunflower, potato protein concentrate and corn gluten) that do need supplementing with pure amino acids (as does soy). Finally, soy is imported from North and South America in boats that go nowhere near the strait of Hormuz, so trade is not influenced by the current situation in Iran. Prof Julian Wiseman Emeritus professor of animal production, University of Nottingham Continue reading...

⚽ Updates from the Group A3 qualifier; kick-off 7pm BST ⚽ Moving the Goalposts | Follow on Bluesky | Mail Simon Hello! Gird thy loins, world – it’s a hugely massively enormous World Cup qualifier! Involved are the sides ranked first (that’ll be Spain) and fourth in the world by Fifa (no other group in League A has more than one top 10 side, notably), and the two finalists of last year’s Euros. Unlike England, downed 2-1 by Brazil in a friendly in their first game after winning that title, Spain haven’t lost since, but the two teams’ aggregate scores in six post-Euros matches – England 22-3 Opponents; Spain 14-2 Opponents (and with a much higher standard of opposition) reveal the quality of these sides. Eight-and-a-half months after they locked horns in the final of Euro 2025, England and Spain meet again on Tuesday night in front of more than 70,000 at Wembley. This time it is in qualifiers for the Women’s World Cup, another tournament in which they met in the final last time out. Despite the relatively brief period since the game in Basel, Spain have a noticeably fresh look with a new head coach and a crop of emerging young players. They have already won a trophy under Sonia Bermúdez, who led them to the Nations League title after replacing Montse Tomé, and, unlike England, are unbeaten since the Euros with five wins and a draw in six matches. Continue reading...