We’re just under 20 minutes away from the start of qualifying and given that Verstappen has won from pole in the last three races at Suzuka, it could prove decisive.
One of the major things to watch in qualifying is the potential for fires to break out on the course. There’s plenty of dry grass around the track and it’s ignited three times across the various practice sessions staged thus far.
‘Baseline’ 10% import levy takes effect at US seaports, airports and customs warehouses on Saturday, with some higher tariffs to begin next week
US customs agents began collecting President Donald Trump’s unilateral 10% tariff on all imports from many countries on Saturday, with higher levies on goods from 57 larger trading partners due to start next week.
The initial 10% “baseline” tariff took effect at US seaports, airports and customs warehouses at 12.01am ET (0401 GMT), ushering in Trump’s full rejection of the post-second world war system of mutually agreed tariff rates.
The privet hedge has been uprooted and the two front gardens have become one – revealing a stark contrast
A tall hedge – a privet – marked the boundary between our front garden and our neighbour Marianne’s. The hedge afforded both a measure of privacy and an illustrative contrast in maintenance regimes: Marianne’s side is always neat and straight; ours shaggy and bulging into the walkway.
A couple of years ago the hedge started to die. At first it was easy to ignore, to hope that the remaining greenery would spread into the bare spots. But it got worse, not better. The time came for a difficult conversation with Marianne.
After three years, thousands of arrests and a state crackdown on protests, the group is ending direct action after a polarising campaign
On the morning of Valentine’s Day 2022, Hannah Hunt stood at the gates of Downing Street to announce the start of a new kind of climate campaign, one that would eschew mere protest and instead move into “civil resistance”.
Last week, three years and thousands of arrests later, in a neat tie-up exemplary of Just Stop Oil’s (JSO) love of media-savvy stunts, Hunt went to the same spot again – this time to announce the group would be “hanging up the hi-vis”.
You’ve made your giant meringue or your marshmallows, but what to do with all those surplus egg yolks? Cure them in salt and turn them into a super-savoury condiment, that’s what
Salt-cured egg yolks are incredibly simple to make and a great way to use up leftovers when you’ve used the whites in another dish. They are intensely savoury, umami-rich and a vibrant, golden colour, much like bottarga, or Italian-style cured fish roe. Once dried, they take on a firm, grateable consistency, and are ideal for giving dishes a final punch of flavour – I often use them instead of cheese: try grating over pasta, risotto or steamed greens.
Organisations that pumped money into overturning Roe v Wade are making inroads in Europe. Women’s rights are truly at risk
With Donald Trump as president, there is now a heavy strain of Christian nationalism driving the US political agenda. From draconian abortion policies to ending birthright citizenship, some of Trump’s first executive orders sound startlingly like something out of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the dystopian novel turned TV show set in Gilead, a fundamentalist, fascist version of the US where women have no rights. But it is urgent we understand that what is happening in the US could happen here. This road to Atwood’s Gilead is charting a course straight through the UK and Europe, and we may well be sleepwalking on to it.
In November 2024 I debated with the American conservative lawyer Erin Hawley at the Oxford Union. The motion was “This house regrets the overturning of Roe v Wade”, the US supreme court’s landmark decision that once protected the right to have an abortion at the federal level. Hawley is vice-president of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an “anti-LGBTQ+ hate group”, according to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, founded by the US Christian right. She is also a high profile lawyer and supported the state of Mississippi on the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that overturned Roe.
Most senior American prelate in Catholic church to face accusations of sexual abuse died in state of Missouri
The first cardinal to be defrocked by the Pope over allegations of sexual abuse has died in the United States, a senior US churchman said on Friday.
Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington and the most senior American prelate in the Catholic church to face claims of abuse, died in the state of Missouri aged 94, the New York Times reported, citing a Vatican statement.
Victor Pelevin made his name in 90s Russia with his scathing satires of authoritarianism. But while his literary peers have faced censorship and fled the country, he still sells millions. Has he become a Kremlin apologist?
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Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina – set in the troubled 1680s – can almost describe current events, say directors
A Russian political leader sings about war with Ukrainians and the need for a “durable peace”. The fractured political elite argues over whether they should pursue closer ties with Europe or embrace Russian traditions.
The plot of Modest Mussorgsky’s opera Khovanshchina was written in the 1870s and is set in the 1680s. But, as the characters lament the fact that their homeland is mired in an endless cycle of violence and unhappiness, the dark and brooding work can feel alarmingly contemporary.
Despite mixed views across France over RN leader since conviction, people are still joining her party in support
Near a roast chicken stand at a rural market, Jocelyn Dessigny was giving out leaflets bearing a photograph of the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and the words “Save democracy!”
“It is a political attack,” he said of Le Pen’s criminal conviction this week.
From farmers to designers, the entire supply chain will be hit – but it is unclear what duties apply to a finished product
First it was steel producers. Then automobiles. Now the fashion industry has been left reeling from Donald Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that he was imposing tariffs on more than 180 countries including severe levies aimed at some of fashion’s biggest manufacturing regions.
Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs included a 10% duty on all imports to the US but “worst offender” countries – those with whom America has bigger trade deficits – face a higher rate. Several of these are key to fashion’s supply chains. China, where everyone from Prada to Zara outsource production, faces a 54% duty. Vietnam, where more than half of Nike’s footwear was produced last year, will be subject to a 46% tariff. Pakistan, a key manufacturer of denim items, will be hit with a 29% duty. Bangladesh, where garment manufacturing makes up to 80% of its total exports, will be subjected to 37% levy, while the EU, which accounts for at least 70% of the global luxury goods market, will be hit by a 20% tariff.
On social media, the president said, ‘My policies will never change’, before suggesting possible change with Vietnam
Donald Trump doubled down on his decision to launch a global trade war, declaring that he would “never” back off from sweeping tariffs on US trading partners.
The US president’s announced action sent shock waves around the world this week, prompting fierce threats of retaliation and sharp sell-offs in stock markets.
Joanne Sharkey admitted manslaughter after secret birth while she had postnatal depression after first child
A woman who killed her newborn baby 27 years ago while she had severe postnatal depression has been handed a suspended prison sentence, as a judge said the case “calls for compassion”.
Joanne Sharkey, 55, admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility over the death of her days-old son, whose body was found wrapped in bin bags in woodland in 1998.
Russian star scores two goals in win over Blackhawks
39-year-old has chance to beat record on Sunday
Alex Ovechkin tied Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record by scoring the 893rd and 894th goals of his career, the second the game winner, as the Washington Capitals rallied to beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-3 on Friday night.
Ovechkin scored No 894 on the power play with 13:47 left in regulation to put Washington ahead after Dylan Strome tied it earlier in the third period. The 39-year-old Russian superstar also opened the scoring with his 893rd less than four minutes into game.
The Labor government is on the hunt for a buyer for the port of Darwin despite the Chinese-owned company who holds the lease insisting it is not for sale.
Anthony Albanese revealed the plan after calling in to local Darwin radio on Friday afternoon in a deliberate attempt to get ahead of a similar announcement the Coalition made on Saturday.
Agency that sends volunteers to countries around world expects ‘additional visits’ from Musk cost-cutting team
The Peace Corps is the latest federal agency to be targeted by Elon Musk’s unofficial “department of government efficiency”. It appears “Doge” could be eyeing cuts to the agency, which sends US volunteers around the world to work in local communities on health, education and environmental initiatives.
“Staff from the Department of Government Efficiency are currently working at Peace Corps headquarters and the agency is supporting their requests,” the agency said in an email to the Guardian on Friday.
Nine children among the dead in strike on Kryvyi Rih residential area as Kyiv says Moscow’s claim it targeted military gathering is false. What we know on day 1,137
A Russian missile strike killed at least 18 people, including nine children, in a residential area of Ukraine’s central city of Kryvyi Rih on Friday, local officials said – one of Moscow’s deadliest attacks this year in the war. The strike in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home town damaged residential blocks and sparked fires, the regional governor said on Telegram. More than 30 people, including a three-month-old baby, were in hospital, Serhiy Lysak said. At least 50 people were wounded, the emergency services said, adding that the figure was growing. Zelenskyy said rescue efforts were still under way and called on the west to exert greater pressure on Moscow. “All Russian promises end with missiles, drones, bombs or artillery,” he said in his nightly video address. “Diplomacy means nothing to them.”
Russia’s defence ministry said the strike on Kryvyi Rih was targeted at a military gathering, a claim the Ukrainian military denounced as “false information”. “The missile struck a residential area with a playground,” the military’s general staff said on Telegram. The city’s military administrator said after the strike that Russian drones had later attacked private homes there, triggering fires at four sites. Oleksandr Vilkul said an elderly woman had died in her home and five others were injured.
The US secretary of state said Donald Trump was not “going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations” with Russia over Ukraine, adding Washington would know within weeks whether Moscow was serious about pursuing peace. “We’re testing to see if the Russians are interested in peace,” Marco Rubio told journalists in Brussels on Friday after talks with Nato allies. “Their actions – not their words, their actions – will determine whether they’re serious or not, and we intend to find that out sooner rather than later.” Pjotr Sauer reports that Rubio also appeared to strike a more sympathetic tone towards Kyiv, saying the Ukrainians “have shown a willingness to enter, for example, into a complete ceasefire”.
The Kremlin said on Friday that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump had no plans to talk after a visit to Washington by the Russian president’s investment envoy as wider negotiations over a Ukraine truce appeared stalled. According to NBC News on Thursday, Trump’s inner circle was advising him not to speak to Putin again until the Russian leader commits to a full ceasefire in Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russia accused each other of fresh attacks on energy infrastructure, in breach of a US-brokered moratorium. Zelenskyy said Moscow launched a drone attack on a thermal power plant in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson on Friday, while Russia’s defence ministry accused Kyiv of attacking Russian energy facilities six times in the past 24 hours.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that European military planners could be ready within a month with details of a foreign troop contingent in Ukraine seen as critical to ending the war with Russia. Speaking to reporters in Kyiv after meeting British and French military chiefs, the Ukrainian president said many other countries would also contribute to the effort, which envisages foreign troops patrolling Ukrainian land, sea and airspace. “I think the teams need about a month, no longer, and we will be fully ready with an understanding of this infrastructure.”
The Vatican’s foreign minister spoke with his Russian counterpart on Friday to discuss the war in Ukraine and plans to stop the fighting, the Vatican said. Russia’s foreign ministry later said the phone call between Sergey Lavrov and Archbishop Paul Gallagher had been initiated by the Vatican and that they had discussed “ways to resolve the Ukrainian crisis with the obligatory reliable elimination of its root causes”.
The Guardian joins a pest controller on the city’s streets as residents fear a rise in rodents during bin workers’ strikes
“They’re not fussy,” said Martin Curry, describing the far from epicurean appetites of the scurrying rodents that the residents of Birmingham fear could flood the streets of their city.
“Rats all have their own personal tastes but if food is scarce they’ll eat anything,” he said. Curry, who has been called the “rat king” locally, runs MC Environmental Pest Control. He has been on the frontline of stamping out the rodent threat amid a weeks-long bin strike that has caused bins to pile up on Birmingham’s streets.
Move ends bid for site near Whitehaven, Cumbria after planning permission was quashed by high court
The Whitehaven coalmine’s planning application has been withdrawn, bringing an end to a process that could have created the UK’s first deep coalmine in 30 years in Cumbria.
Planning permission for the mine was quashed in the high court last year which meant the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government had to reassess the planning application. However, the company has now written to the government withdrawing its planning application.
Plan to add 90 turbines to Rampion will create 4,000 jobs in construction and could power 1m homes
The government has approved plans to build an offshore windfarm capable of powering about 1m British homes before the end of the decade.
The plan to extend the Rampion offshore windfarm by adding 90 turbines off the Sussex coast is expected to add about 1.2 gigawatts of clean power for British households and businesses.
There’s a roo carcass on the side of the road, near the turnoff to one of Kangaroo Island’s many excellent cellar doors. Black ravens lift sullenly from their feast as cars speed past.
Some think this sort of roadkill is how Valerie, the miniature dachshund that has been missing for more than 500 days, has survived since running away from her owners. It’s hard to picture the 4kg, adorable, goofy-eared, big-eyed sausage dog choosing this particular meal, but that’s a prevailing theory.
The extent of flood waters that have engulfed Queensland over the past fortnight is so widespread it has covered an area more than four times the size of the United Kingdom. The inundation is larger than France and Germany combined – and is even bigger than Texas.
The seemingly endless plains of outback Queensland are so vast and remote as to boggle any attempts to visualise the scale of what is being described as one of the most devastating floods in living memory.
Brosnan, who co-stars with Mirren in new series MobLand, said ‘there’s always going to be conflict’ when it comes to the 007 spy series
Pierce Brosnan, who played James Bond in four films between 1995 and 2002, has said he has qualified sympathy for Helen Mirren’s feelings about what she called the “profound sexism” of the spy series.
Speaking last week, Mirren said she had “never liked James Bond” because the concept is “drenched and born out of profound sexism.”
Verdict marks end of the first trial of 42 lawsuits filed about 12 years ago, alleging firm’s projects destroyed the regions
Chevron has been ordered to pay more than $744m in damages for destroying parts of south-east Louisiana’s coastal wetlands over the years.
The ruling, which came in the form of a civil jury verdict on Friday, marks the conclusion of the first trial among 42 lawsuits filed about 12 years earlier which alleged that the company’s oil and gas projects have led to the degradation of the region’s wetlands. Among other things, the wetlands play a key role in offering the area a measure of protection from hurricanes.
Slumps on S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq cap dismal day for global indices but US president doubles down on tariff plan
Wall Street suffered its worst week since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis five years ago as investors worldwide balked at Donald Trump’s risky bid to overhaul the global economy with sweeping US tariffs.
The US president doubled down on his plan on Friday, insisting he would not back down even as the chairman of the Federal Reserve warned it would likely raise prices and slow down economic growth.
Traditionalists rail at the ‘Plastic National’ but a third of all adults will have a bet on the world’s most famous race
The numbers are nearly as breathtaking as the sight of 34 horses soaring over Aintree’s famous fences. Before Saturday’s Grand National, a third of adults in Britain will place some sort of bet on the world’s most famous steeplechase. £150m will be wagered in total. And six million will then tune in for the spectacle.
But amid all the noise and fanfare surrounding the 177th running of the “people’s race”, organisers are increasingly engaged in a delicate high-wire act. Because the more they try to ensure the thrills come without horrific spills – and potential deaths – the more they upset traditionalists, who fear that the National has gone too soft.
We have had to be resilient because no one has come to our aid. Myanmar needs tangible support before the humanitarian crisis claims even more lives
Two thoughts entered my head as soon as I saw that Myanmar, my home country, had been hit by an earthquake: “Is everyone OK?”, followed by, “We just can’t catch a break”.
My loved ones thankfully turned out to be badly shaken but physically OK. There were material losses but nothing compared with what so many others are going through.
County’s offer – largest of its kind – would settle lawsuits filed over alleged abuse in juvenile facilities since 1959
Los Angeles county has reached a $4bn agreement to settle nearly 7,000 claims of sexual abuse in juvenile facilities since 1959, officials said Friday.
The agreement, which still needs approval from the Los Angeles county board of supervisors, would be the largest of its kind and have long-lasting financial effects for the county, officials said.
Harry Kane scores in 3-1 victory at 10-man Augsburg
Espanyol up to 15th after 4-0 win against Rayo Vallecano
Bayern Munich came back from a goal down to beat 10-man Augsburg 3-1 away on Friday and move nine points clear at the top of the Bundesliga but Jamal Musiala went off injured and looks unlikely to be fit for next week’s Champions League quarter-final.
Musiala equalised before Harry Kane’s header and a deflected own goal from Augsburg’s Chrislain Matsima gave Bayern the points after the hosts took the lead thorugh Dimitris Gianoulis’ strike but ran out of steam when Cedric Zesiger was sent off. Bayern now have 68 points with six games left, nine ahead of Bayer Leverkusen, who travel to Heidenheim on Saturday.
Millions in grants that would promote diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives may be frozen following ruling
The US supreme court is letting the Trump administration temporarily freeze $65m in teacher-training grants that would promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in a 5-4 decision.
The decision came down on Friday afternoon, with five of the court’s conservatives – Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh – in the majority. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson all dissented.
Slot: ‘Nothing else matters’ if Liverpool win league title
Owen suggested cup exits left ‘bitter taste’ on season
Arne Slot has hit back at Michael Owen’s suggestion that the Premier League title would not be enough for Liverpool this season by insisting nothing matters more than becoming champions of England again.
The former Liverpool striker was taken to task by Virgil van Dijk after the Merseyside derby on Wednesday for claiming the campaign was “building into something really special” until Slot’s team exited the Champions League and lost the Carabao Cup final. Owen agreed it would still be special for Liverpool to win the title for a record-equalling 20th time but with the caveat that the two cup defeats in six days would leave “a bitter taste”.
England moved to the top of their Nations League group with a commanding win over Belgium in Bristol.
Sarina Wiegman’s side had shown they could turn up and beat the best, their stunning performance in a 1-0 win over Spain two months ago demonstrating a fluency that had been lacking. Here they had the chance to prove they could deliver against lower ranked opposition and they did so in style.
The teams are out on the Ashton Gate pitch. And the packed house is being treated to come pyrotechnics before the anthems.
“There was a lot of thinking,” Wiegman tells ITV of the decision to replace Park with Mead in the starting lineup. “Because I think we have many opportunities in that position … we expect Belgium to drop deep. I think they both can play there … we made the decision to start Beth.
McLaren driver is determined to succeed as a nice guy in F1 but don’t mistake his kindness for a lack of fight
His credentials as a potential Formula One world champion have been questioned but Lando Norris is unperturbed. With an almost startling level of honesty, highly unusual in the sport, the British driver has considered conventional wisdom and its implications and rejected it. That he wants to win is in no doubt but he will not allow his sense of self to be subsumed at the altar of success at all costs.
“I feel like there is a very prescribed version of how people say a world champion needs to be – overly aggressive,” he says in his McLaren team’s hospitality on a chilly day in Suzuka before this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix. “I want to win a championship. I’d rather just be a good person and try to do well. I’ll do whatever I can to win a championship but maybe I won’t sacrifice in my life as much as some others, in terms of who I am as a person and have the ‘fuck you’ mentality people say you’ve got to have. I still believe I can be a world champion but doing it by being a nice guy.”
The sophomore led the Trojans to a historic season
Watkins’ season ended with a brutal ACL tear
JuJu Watkins, the sensational sophomore who led Southern California to its best season in nearly 40 years, was honored Thursday as The Associated Press women’s basketball Player of the Year. Duke’s Cooper Flagg captured the equivalent award on the men’s side.
Watkins, whose Trojans won the Big Ten regular-season title for their first conference crown in 31 years, received 29 votes from the 31-member national media panel that votes on the AP Top 25 each week. Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo got the other two. Both were first-team AP All-Americans.
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, Trump tariffs, the bin strike in Birmingham and the Grand National Meeting at Aintree: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing
Appeals court sides with Jefferson Griffin, who lost supreme court election and wants thousands of ballots thrown out
More than 65,000 people in North Carolina who believed they were eligible to vote could have their ballots thrown out nearly five months after election day, flipping the results of a supreme court election, a state appeals court ruled on Friday.
The 2-1 ruling from the North Carolina court of appeals came in response to Republicans’ months-long effort to overturn the results of the state supreme court election in November. The Democrat Allison Riggs, who currently sits on the court, defeated appellate judge Jefferson Griffin, a Republican, by 734 votes. After the election, Griffin filed a protest seeking to get around 60,000 votes thrown out.
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