World No 2 seals Miami Open final 6-4, 6-4 Sinner won in Indian Wells earlier in March Jiri Lehecka entered his first Masters 1000 final at the Miami Open in the best serving form of his life. He had won every service game in the tournament, a feat achieved by just eight men at this level before him. The ease with which he brushed aside all nine break points against him reflected his confidence. It took two return games for Jannik Sinner to viciously drag the Czech back down to earth. Ten minutes in, Sinner had already broken Lehecka’s unbreakable serve. As has usually been the case over the past few years, Sinner burst into the lead and refused to let it go. Continue reading...

Rheinmetall CEO’s dismissive comments draw pointed reaction from Ukrainian prime minister and adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. What we know on day 1,496 German defence giant Rheinmetall has sought to ease a row caused by its CEO when he likened Ukrainian factories producing drones to “housewives” making weapons in their kitchens. In an interview with the Atlantic, CEO Armin Papperger was asked whether Ukraine’s drone technology could disrupt his industry, which focused more on areas such as artillery and tanks. “This is how to play with Legos,” Papperger said of the drones and went on to compare major drone Ukrainian manufacturers to “housewives”, adding “this is not the technology of Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, or Rheinmetall”. “They have 3D printers in the kitchen, and they produce parts for drones,” he said, adding: “This is not innovation.” Alexander Kamyshin, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, swiftly point out the successes that Ukraine’s drones have had against Russian tanks. Kamyshin said that in his visits to arms factories he had seen “Ukrainian women working equally with men often enough”, adding: “They deserve respect.” The row also spawned the hashtag #MadeByHousewives on Ukrainian social media. On Sunday, Rheinmetall tagged Kamyshin in a post on its X account in which it said. “We have the utmost respect for the Ukrainian people’s immense efforts in defending themselves. Every single woman and man in Ukraine is making an immeasurable contribution.” Ukraine’s prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, later on Sunday said “the people of Ukraine deserve not only utmost respect but to be heard – and learned from. Yes, Europe’s defence is powered by Ukrainian ‘housewives’,” she said, also adding the #MadeByHousewives hashtag. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he discussed a possible security partnership on Sunday with Jordan’s King Abdullah to defend against drone attacks arising from the Iran war. “We discussed a possible partnership in the security sphere and the overall situation in the Middle East and the Gulf region,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. Zelenskiy is seeking support from Gulf states as western military aid faces fresh uncertainty. “From our own experience, we know that without a unified system, it is simply impossible to set up full-fledged protection of people and critical infrastructure,” Zelenskyy wrote. Ukraine, he said, had just such a system as in four years of war “we have had to fight against constant Russian strikes, including the use of Iranian drones”. He said Ukraine was offering expertise in the expectation that “those to whom we are making this proposal can help us strengthen ourselves”. A Russian strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk killed three people and injured 13 on Sunday, police said, one of several attacks in frontline areas. Ukraine’s national police said a boy of 13 was among the dead. A statement said Russian forces used glide bombs in the strike on Kramatorsk, which has been a frequent target. Kramatorsk came under a new attack two hours after the initial strike. Other cities hit in Russian attacks included the nearby town of Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka and the city of Sloviansk, farther north. Reuters could not independently verify battlefield accounts. Russia’s Baltic Ust-Luga port, one of its largest petroleum export hubs, was damaged again on Sunday by a Ukrainian drone attack which sparked a blaze later brought under control, Russian and Ukrainian officials said. Ukraine’s SBU security agency said long-range drones struck an oil terminal at Ust-Luga. It added in a statement that the strike caused “serious damage” and a fire at the port. It follows several Ukrainian drone strikes last week on Russia’s western energy corridor when facilities at the ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk came under fire, igniting storage tanks and suspending transportation. The recent attacks have caused severe oil supply disruption for Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter, and have come just as oil prices exceeded $100 a barrel due to the Iran war. “Additional firefighting resources from the Leningrad region and St Petersburg, including two fire trains, have been involved in extinguishing the fire at the port,” regional governor Alexander Drozdenko wrote on Telegram on Sunday. A Ukrainian drone attack has killed one person, injured eight, and damaged homes and businesses in the southern Russian city of Taganrog, local officials said. The regional governor said on Sunday that falling drone debris prompted the evacuation of an area hit by falling debris. “Emergency crews are working at the site of the incident, where the debris fell,” Yuri Slyusar, governor of Rostov region on Ukraine’s eastern border, said on Telegram. “Fires and damage have occurred. People have been evacuated.” Taganrog Mayor Svetlana Kambulova, in a subsequent post on Telegram, spoke of widespread damage in the city. Taganrog is a port city at the eastern end of the Sea of Azov east of the border with Ukraine. Continue reading...

The factories, which buy cheap crude and turn it into fuel, are struggling as higher oil prices threaten their razor-sharp margins The towns that are the bulwark of China’s energy security can, at a moment of global crisis, appear deceptively quiet. Trucks carrying oil trundle along wide-open highways that have little traffic, while a few boarded-up shops in crumbling low-rise buildings hint at a long-forgotten local buzz. A ramshackle noodle shop serving hand-pulled ribbons of dough was empty at lunchtime, save for a few construction workers and a teacher watching videos on Douyin, the social media platform, with his meal. Continue reading...

Shooting occurred at a property in north-east Victoria after major manhunt for 56-year-old, who allegedly killed two police officers in Porepunkah Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Fugitive Dezi Freeman, the man allegedly responsible for the shooting deaths of two officers at Porepunkah, has been killed after a seven-month long manhunt in rural Victoria. Victorian police announced on Monday that a man had been shot shortly after 8.30am. Continue reading...

Only 2% thought VAR ‘makes football more enjoyable’ 81% prefer watching games without video technology Football supporters remain thoroughly unconvinced of the merits of video assistant referees (VAR), with new research suggesting as many as 91% of them believe the game is better off without it. More than eight years after the first trials of VAR in the English game, an annual survey by the Football Supporters’ Association shows widespread dissatisfaction with the system, including the tweaks that have been brought in to improve how it is used. Continue reading...

Anatoly Kolodkin could soon discharge at Matanzas port, US official says, three months after Cuba’s last oil import A Russia-flagged tanker carrying Russian crude entered Cuba’s exclusive economic zone on Sunday, according to ship tracking data, in what could be the Caribbean country’s first oil import in over two months. Tanker Anatoly Kolodkin, which departed from Primorsk after loading some 650,000 barrels of Urals crude, could soon discharge at Cuba’s Matanzas port if it does not change its current course, according to tracking services MarineTraffic and LSEG. Continue reading...

Starmer to convene major energy industry and insurance figures to draw up emergency plans amid continued blockade of strait of Hormuz Rachel Reeves will warn G7 nations they must move faster on clean energy to insulate economies against global price shocks from oil and gas as she and the energy secretary Ed Miliband meet G7 finance and energy ministers on Monday. Keir Starmer will also gather major energy industry and insurance figures to thrash out what emergency measures might be needed to contain the continuing crisis from the blockade of the strait of Hormuz. Continue reading...

PM will also cite Iran war as reason to stick with Labour, as party adopts new slogan: ‘Pride in Britain’ Keir Starmer will say that a vote for Reform UK will put at risk progress Labour is making on the cost of living, arguing that Britain’s values are being tested in a volatile world. Launching the party’s local elections campaign with a new slogan: “Pride in Britain”, Starmer will urge voters to stay the course with Labour. A dire set of results are predicted for the party in Wales, Scotland and English councils, especially in the north-east of England and London. Continue reading...

Marsupial escaped from enclosure at Wisconsin’s Sunshine Farm on Wednesday after he was spooked by stray dogs How does a kangaroo escape a petting zoo? It’s not the opening line to a dad joke. If you’re Chesney the kangaroo, you scale an 8ft (2.5-meter) fence and go on the lam for three days, giving your keeper sleepless nights and sending residents of a small Wisconsin town on a search that would end happily on Saturday. Continue reading...

Relegation playoff against a WSL2 side beckons if Ross Passmore’s team cannot end seven-game losing streak The sight of two unwaveringly optimistic young girls staunchly waving their “Foxes never quit” flags proudly in the air – despite the swirling rain at the King Power Stadium – summed up the never-say-die attitude required for a relegation battle that Leicester are going to need now more than ever, after their chances of staying up decreased significantly with Sunday’s defeat. Even before losing against Brighton, Leicester’s hopes had suffered a big blow with the sight of Oona Siren hitting a superb, looping volley into the net to earn 11th-placed West Ham a valuable point in a lunchtime kick-off. The 1-1 draw at home against London City Lionesses edged West Ham further away from the bottom side Leicester, who would go on to be deservedly beaten 1-0 by Brighton and find themselves four points adrift with four games remaining. Continue reading...

Fresh Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping would be devastating – but the Iranian proxy has reasons to be cautious The true significance of the long-awaited entry of Yemen’s Houthis into the Iran war depends on whether the Tehran-backed proxy group is intending to send a few missiles and drones from a distance towards Israel or will instead capitalise on its proximity to the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait to effectively close off the Red Sea to shipping, just as Iran has effectively shut the strait of Hormuz. The combined effect of both waterways being shut to commercial traffic from countries that neither the Iranians nor Houthis favour would be devastating. Napoleon Bonaparte’s remark that “the policy of a state lies in its geography” has never seemed more apt. Continue reading...

Officers fired pepper balls and teargas into group of about 150 on Saturday night, arresting those who did not disperse Third No Kings protest draws 8 million worldwide to push back on Trump administration Police arrested dozens of protesters and shot teargas into a crowd on Saturday night at a No Kings protest in Los Angeles. The conflict is the latest of many that have taken place outside the Metropolitan detention center, which has become a focal point of protests since the Trump administration launched an immigration offense on Los Angeles last year. Continue reading...

The Three Lions have not beaten a good side under their coach and no A-list players have emerged since the last World Cup Maybe we’re just not that into us. There are times when trying to rationalise the makeup, reach and ultimate capacities of the England football team can feel a bit like living inside the frantically hyper-formalised New York dating scene of the 1990s. Here we go again. Picking over the details. Hung up on what-ifs. Arguing about The Rules of the Game. Don’t be too available. Never text first. Do wear a wizard hat. Learn magic tricks. And be rude to people. Also, be endlessly mysterious. No, more mysterious than that. Seriously, where do you get off not having enough mystery? Continue reading...

The first British woman to win an Olympic athletics gold medal with her long jump victory at the 1964 Tokyo Games One of the true “golden girls” of the swinging 60s, Mary Rand, who has died aged 86, emerged as the brightest British sporting star of her era when she became her nation’s first female gold medallist in Olympic athletics, taking long jump victory with a world record leap in the Tokyo games of 1964. She also won silver in the pentathlon and bronze in the sprint relay at the event, making her the first British athlete to have claimed three medals in one Olympic Games. Her life was transformed after she broke the previous record on a wet day with a leap of 6.76 metres. On a cinder track, running into a headwind, her performance was spectacular. Always photogenic, Rand’s face became one of the most instantly recognisable as her every move was celebrated in newspapers and on television. Almost inevitably, she was named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 1964 and was made MBE 12 months later. Famously, the Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger named her as the woman he would most like to take on a date. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Health secretary’s pledges in doubt as analysis shows health service will not deliver key improvements The NHS is set to miss key targets to shorten waiting times for help at A&E, cancer care and planned hospital treatment, leaving millions of patients facing persistently long delays. The health service in England will not deliver a series of milestone improvements in its performance that ministers demanded it achieve by the time the fiscal year ends on Tuesday, a Guardian analysis of the NHS’s most recent data has found. Continue reading...

Five years of brutal conflict have made the army more determined to crush opposition, and others more convinced they must resist China promoted elections in Myanmar, while those fighting for democracy boycotted them. That tells you everything about the shift to a supposedly civilian administration in the coming days, five years after the military seized power in a coup. It appears likely that Min Aung Hlaing will swap his leadership of the army for the presidency. Whatever the details, the junta will still be running the show, and bombing civilians – just while cosplaying as democrats. Myanmar’s suffering has been overshadowed by higher-profile wars. But the conflict-monitoring organisation Acled estimates that about 93,000 people have been killed since 2021, while the UN says that 3.6 million are displaced. The junta does not control much of the country, limiting where polls could be held. The opposition refused to take part, and others were excluded from voting because they are denied citizenship. Little wonder the main military-backed party declared a landslide victory – despite having won just 6% of the vote in a 2020 election. Continue reading...

The US health secretary says he is a big fan of peptides. Many are promising drugs, but the only way to know their utility is proper clinical trials Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, is a chaotic person, but his Make America Healthy Again (Maha) agenda tends to follow a predictable logic. Large-scale, mandatory public health interventions – such as childhood vaccine requirements – are generally treated with suspicion and undermined. Personal choice – to drink unpasteurised milk, for example – is to be unleashed, and unburdened by regulation. In theory, Maha promises freedom and autonomy; in practice it tends to replace the precautionary principle with exhortations for individuals to “do your own research”, and sidelines scientific expertise in favour of “wellness” hucksters and profiteers. This is particularly obvious in Mr Kennedy’s recent claims that he will open up the sale of “about 14” injectable peptide drugs to the public. Peptides are molecules often used by our bodies for sending signals – so there are many kinds of peptides, and the safety and efficacy of each is a separate question. The widely used “weight-loss jab” drugs are peptides but so are the toxic compounds in snake venom that dissolve living cells. Mr Kennedy is likely to be referring to a subset of 17 peptides restricted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2023 due to “potential significant safety risks”. None have been proved to be safe or effective for human use, so there is no clear argument for reversing the decision. Continue reading...

Sale 26-31 Bath Bath close to point of Prem leaders Northampton The reservoir of talent at Bath runs deep. The reigning champions rested a raft of key men but ultimately had too much class for a Sale side whose season continues to unravel at a rate of knots. Johann van Graan’s men conjured two tries in the final quarter, including when their 20-year-old hooker Kepu Tuipulotu sent a delightful kick down the left channel for fellow replacement Bernard van der Linde to saunter clear. Continue reading...

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Readers take stock of the party’s missteps in government and Keir Starmer’s leadership I wonder how many members still clinging on to the Labour party winced at Gaby Hinsliff’s article (Ed Miliband’s stock is rising because he’s a rare commodity in Labour these days: a thinker, 27 March). Like everyone else, she recognises that Labour has become an intellectual vacuum, with its only clear features being unpleasant policies designed to exploit the far right’s prejudices. But the electorate is ahead here. They know that resurrecting the once admirable but now compromised Ed Miliband will do nothing to heal the existential injury in the party. Most people no longer hark back to the halcyon days of New Labour’s claim to build a better society. They now recognise it as a swindle, with its toxic components of privatisation, private finance initiatives, excesses in the private financial sector and, of course, Iraq. Continue reading...

Richard Harvey and Joy Webb respond to an article by George Monbiot on the fragility of the global food system in light of the Iran war Although I agree with George Monbiot’s analysis of the serious risks that we face from a breakdown in the UK food supply chain, there are two important points we need to recognise (We’re letting big corporations gamble with our lives. Act now, or the food could run out, 25 March). First, we must seek to increase food production on UK farms because this has been falling for several decades. Food self-sufficiency in the UK fell from 78% in 1984 to 62% in 2024. The decline is largely due to the loss of farmland to non-farming use: buildings, roads and railways, conservation and wildlife schemes, solar farms and recreation. We need to plan for a scenario where imported food may not be readily available. Continue reading...

Talk of disadvantaged children being left behind so often leaves out the workforce most likely to reach them, says Brett Wigdortz Polly Toynbee is right that England’s childcare system is falling short on its social purpose (It’s always been a fight to get children the early years care they deserve. It’s time to fight again, 20 March). But the irony is that talk of disadvantaged children being left behind often leaves out the workforce most likely to reach them: childminders. When we frame nurseries as the default in childcare provision (as Toynbee does, with not a single nod to childminders) we put low-income families even further on the back foot. As she notes, private equity-backed nursery chains prefer wealthier areas – they’re not itching to set up shop in deprived ones. But childminders can open their doors on any street and represent communities across the country. As they work from home and have lower overheads, they can be an oasis of affordability in deprived areas. And unlike nurseries’ more rigid hours, childminders offer flexible, wraparound care better suited to parents who work shifts. Without a plan to rebuild this vital workforce (which has lost 75,000 providers since the 1990s), children who need early years care the most will struggle to access it, no matter what funding changes are made. Brett Wigdortz CEO, Tiney; founder, Teach First; spokesperson, Childminding2030 campaign Continue reading...

Kenneth B Ati-John and Ndine Wa‑Chiuta respond to an article by Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama The president of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, is right to argue that recognising the transatlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity is an essential step toward justice (It’s time for the UN to formally recognise the transatlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity, 22 March). But recognition alone will not be enough. The real question before the international community is what recognition is meant to achieve. For decades, Africa and the Caribbean have secured acknowledgments of historical injustice, from the Abuja Proclamation to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. Yet the structural effects of that history remain visible in patterns of development, opportunity and vulnerability across Africa and its diaspora. If this new initiative at the United Nations general assembly is to succeed, it must move beyond symbolic affirmation toward institutional consequences. Reparatory justice should therefore be understood not simply as compensation for the past but as a framework for restructuring opportunity in the present. Recognition only becomes meaningful when it strengthens the ability of affected societies to negotiate fairer terms within the international system that their labour helped build. The African Union’s decision to designate 2026 to 2035 as the “decade of action on reparations” signals that Africa is approaching this issue with seriousness and coordination. The next step is to translate that commitment into practical mechanisms: support for the Caribbean Community’s 10-point reparations framework, expanded educational partnerships and development financing arrangements that help correct longstanding structural imbalances. Handled with discipline and imagination, this initiative could help redefine reparations not as a backward-looking claim, but as a forward-looking project of global fairness. Rear Adm Kenneth B Ati-John Lekki, Nigeria Continue reading...

Dane wins GC as Brady Gilmore takes stage seven victory Jasper Philipsen wins one-day In Flanders Fields race Jonas Vingegaard triumphed at the Volta a Catalunya as he continued his strong start to the season, while Brady Gilmore sprinted to a surprise stage seven victory. Vingegaard topped the general classification 1min 22sec ahead of France’s Lenny Martinez and a further eight seconds ahead of Germany’s Florian Lipowitz. Gilmore, racing with the retired football great Andrés Iniesta’s NSN team, edged out Dorian Godon and Remco Evenepoel in a thrilling bunch sprint finale. Sunday’s 95km final stage took in seven circuits of Montjuïc in Barcelona, where the Tour de France will start in July. Continue reading...

Desire to remain relevant is understandable, but a glance at his behavioural pattern casts doubt on his PGA Tour and Ryder Cup involvement It is a scene that has become more extraordinary with the passing of time. Plenty of sportspeople have been guilty of or admitted to extramarital capers. Only Tiger Woods appeared live on television, in front of a hand-picked audience, to deliver a 14-minute mea culpa on his transgressions. American golf executives in their perfectly ironed slacks stood in sombre mood as Woods laid bare his “personal sins”. The venue, hilariously, was the home of the PGA Tour. Woods had no need to go into tawdry detail about his antics; the tabloid media had done that for him. “I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply,” said Woods. Sixteen years on from that speech, it is worth pondering whether much has changed. Continue reading...