Whitecaps will face Lionel Messi, Miami in next round
Tristan Blackmon scored a stoppage-time equalizer to help Vancouver Whitecaps earn a 2-2 draw with Pumas on Wednesday and book a spot in the Concacaf Champions Cup semi-finals against Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami.
Sebastian Berhalter put Vancouver ahead in the 33rd minute but the Mexican club responded with goals from Guillermo Martínez in the 37th and Ignacio Pussetto in the 88th to take a 2-1 lead. Blackmon sealed the semi-final spot three minutes into stoppage time as the Whitecaps advanced on away goals.
After the US president imposed 125% duties on Chinese imports, Beijing says it will restrict American films opening in its lucrative market
Hours after Donald Trump imposed record 125% tariffs on Chinese products entering the US, China has announced it will further curb the number of US films allowed to screen in the country.
“The wrong action of the US government to abuse tariffs on China will inevitably further reduce the domestic audience’s favourability towards American films,” the China Film Administration said in a statement on Thursday. “We will follow the market rules, respect the audience’s choice, and moderately reduce the number of American films imported.”
‘Liftoff not possible’ for rocket carrying Project Kuiper satellites, due to clouds that could trigger lightning strikes
Weather prevented a rocket carrying the first batch of Amazon satellites designed to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink from lifting off on Wednesday, in a setback for the planned Project Kuiper network.
“Stubborn cumulus clouds and persistent winds make liftoff not possible within the available window,” read a liveblog update from operator United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida had originally been slated for 7pm (2300 GMT).
(Rough Trade) The anthemic lead single from the band’s first album in 24 years casts a wary eye over their peak 90s fame – but also suggests that performing is irresistible
It seems weirdly fitting that Pulp have premiered their first album in 24 years with a song that appears to fret about the validity of returning at all.
Of all the alt-rock artists hoisted to mainstream fame in the Britpop era, they were the ones who seemed least comfortable with the kind of attention it brought them: a perennially ignored band who’d spent a decade striving to get somewhere, only to find they didn’t much like it when they did. Something of the prickly, confrontational outsider clung to them even at the zenith of their success – 1995’s quadruple-platinum Different Class is an album packed with waspish, witty ruminations on the British class system – while 1998’s This Is Hardcore offered a paranoid and occasionally harrowing examination of their era as celebrities, something its dense, doomy sound also helped to draw to a close.
Conclusion explains why health suddenly deteriorated
A post-mortem examination of Celebre d’Allen, who died on Monday evening having collapsed on the run-in during the Grand National at Aintree on Saturday, found that while his “exercise-associated episode” did not lead directly to the 13-year-old’s death, the gelding’s immune system had been severely compromised, probably by over-exertion in the race, and he died as the result of a severe bacterial respiratory infection which had not been present in blood tests taken on Saturday morning.
The post-mortem, which was carried out at Rossdales, the leading veterinary practice in Newmarket, concludes that Celebre d’Allen contracted pleuropneumonia after Saturday’s race, while “the subsequent onset of sepsis or endotoxaemia [the release of harmful substances into the bloodstream from bacteria was] likely to have been a key factor in the cause of death”.
Flemming Hansen and Mette Helbæk reject criticism of how they abandoned resort and fled to Guatemala
A Danish couple who fled their “forest resort” in Sweden for Guatemala and left behind a large tax debt and 158 barrels of human waste have hit back at criticism and claimed that their handling of the compost toilets was “very normal”.
Flemming Hansen and Mette Helbæk, both chefs, abandoned their purportedly eco-friendly retreat, Stedsans, in Halland, southern Sweden, last year. They owed large sums to Swedish and Danish tax authorities. They have since set up a business in Guatemala.
London did not publicise Adm Sir Tony Radakin’s trip, but Beijing says he had in-depth talks with Chinese counterpart
China has confirmed that the head of the British military paid an unannounced visit to the country this week, where he met his counterpart at a time when Beijing’s trade dispute with the US was intensifying.
London did not publicise the visit, but China’s defence ministry said Adm Sir Tony Radakin had discussed strengthening military cooperation with a country that the UK officially describes as posing a “systemic challenge”.
After a tricky few years, the world’s pre-eminent film festival has come roaring back and is set to feature new work by Kelly Reichardt, another Joachim Trier drama starring Renate Reinsve and Cannes icons the Dardenne brothers
The Cannes film festival selection has been unveiled by its director Thierry Frémaux, with all its auteur heavyweights and cineaste silverback gorillas, including new work by Kelly Reichardt, Julia Ducournau, Ari Aster, Wes Anderson, Joachim Trier and Carla Simón. Tom Cruise’s final Mission: Impossible movie is showing out of competition; Robert De Niro is getting an honorary Palme d’Or – and probably treating audiences to a characteristically tightlipped onstage interview – and Bono arrives at the red carpet for Andrew Dominik’s documentary Bono: Stories of Surrender. Actor turned director Scarlett Johansson comes to Cannes with her Eleanor the Great, a quirky New York tale starring veteran player June Squibb.
There is also, of course, an appearance from the Belgian social-realist masters and Cannes icons the Dardenne brothers, whose appearance here with The Young Mother’s Home coincides with a mood of sadness, remembering the recent death of their totemic actor Émilie Dequenne, who starred as a teen in their film Rosetta, which won the Palme d’Or and best actress award.
Tech firm has reportedly flown 600 tonnes of handsets from Indian factories as Chinese goods face huge tariffs
Apple is reportedly chartering cargo flights to ferry iPhones from its Indian manufacturing plants to the US in an attempt to beat Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The tech company has flown 600 tonnes of iPhones, or as many as 1.5m handsets, to the US from India since March after ramping up production at its plants in the country, according to Reuters.
Guardian Australia is highlighting the plight of our endangered native species during an election campaign that is ignoring broken environment laws and rapidly declining ecosystems
A rare “bum-breathing” turtle found in a single river system in Queensland has suffered one of its worst breeding seasons on record due to flooding last December. It has prompted volunteers to question how many more “bad years” the species can survive.
A freshwater species that breathes by absorbing oxygen through gill-like structures in its tail, the Mary River turtle is endemic to south-east Queensland. Its population has fallen by more than 80% since the 1960s and its conservation status was upgraded from endangered to critically endangered last year.
Michael B Jordan plays a double role in Coogler’s intriguing period tale of anti-heroic brothers making their way into much wilder country
Ryan Coogler is the film-maker and hit-maker who started in social realism with his debut Fruitvale Station, became the Wakandan emperor of super heroism with Black Panther and put some punch back into the Rocky franchise with Creed. Now he dials up the machismo and the craziness with this gonzo horror-thriller mashup, a spectacular if more-than-faintly hubristic movie appropriately named Sinners – though there are one or two saints dotted around – set in the prewar deep south.
It’s a freaky tale of supernatural evil and the blues that indirectly takes its inspiration from the legend of Mississippi bluesman Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil at a remote crossroads in return for fame and fortune. And it’s also, in its forthright way, a riff on the idea of blues as a kind of music that is avidly consumed by its producers’ enemies. As Delroy Lindo’s character says: “White folks like the blues just fine; just not the people who make it.”
Global research reveals most of 400m tonnes produced using fossil fuels, predominantly coal or oil
Less than 10% of the plastic produced around the world is made from recycled material, according to the first detailed global analysis of its life cycle.
The research reveals that most plastic is made from fossil fuels, predominantly coal and oil, despite rhetoric by producers, supermarkets and drinks companies about plastic being recycled.
Mikal Mahdi, who killed a man in 2004, endured prolonged torture as child and didn’t receive a fair trial, lawyers argue
A 42-year-old man on South Carolina death row is fighting to stop his execution by firing squad, with his attorneys arguing he endured prolonged torture as a child and did not receive a fair trial.
Mikal Mahdi is due to be killed on Friday, nearly 20 years after he was sentenced to death for the 2004 killing of James Myers, a 56-year-old off-duty public safety officer.
Perhaps you’ve tried them, are thinking about it, or feel overwhelmed by the hype. Whatever your question, we’d love to hear from you
Weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro have burst into public awareness over the last few years, promising dramatic results and stirring up big questions.
Originally developed for diabetes, these medications are now being prescribed for weight management. But the science, ethics, and long-term effects of these drugs are still being explored.
The stressful Noah Wyle-led hospital drama has swiftly become the surprise breakout show of the season, speaking to a time of healthcare crisis
It happened slowly at first, then all at once: people asking me “are you watching The Pitt?” As in the medical drama streaming on Max, released at the beginning of January and set over one hellish shift at an overburdened emergency room in Pittsburgh. The question has increased in frequency and urgency over the past month, as more and more people got hooked on weekly episodes that simulate the adrenaline cascade that is emergency medicine, one hour at a time. Friends, acquaintances, strangers at the coffee shop – everyone was watching The Pitt. Or, more accurately, reliving it, because to watch The Pitt is to be absorbed by The Pitt. Such is the nature of binging, but also the show’s design: a long season – 15 episodes, or nearly twice the length of a standard streaming drama, with the finale released tonight – plus a single episodic conceit, self-contained set, mixture of long and short story arcs, and archetypical characters with tight, shrewdly deployed backstories.
In other words, it’s a good procedural, in the lane of some of the best network television; a medical drama with a charismatic lead is not breaking the wheel. In fact, by starring Noah Wyle as Dr Michael “Robby”Robinavitch, a haunted yet persistently cool and competent attending physician, it specifically invokes ER, the grandaddy of all medical dramas. (As well as a copyright dispute: though they share executive producers, Warner Bros would like you to know that The Pitt is not an ER spinoff.)
The pups are cute – and great for PR – but they’re modified grey wolves. The real work is being done with their red cousins
I’ve been waiting for this. Ever since researchers almost brought a wild goat species back from extinction in 2003, it was only a matter of time until someone came forward and said they had successfully “de-extincted” a species. Now, it has happened.
This week, American biotech company Colossal Biosciences announced it had resurrected the dire wolf, an animal that went extinct at the end of the last ice age. Colossal released a video that invited viewers to “experience the first dire wolf howls heard in over 10,000 years”.
Helen Pilcher is a science writer and the author of Bring Back the King: The New Science of De-Extinction and Life Changing: How Humans are Altering Life on Earth
Premieres of new movies by Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, Ari Aster, Kelly Reichardt, Joachim Trier and Jafar Panahi to screen at film festival – as well debuts by actor-turned-directors Johansson and Harris Dickinson
The Cannes film festival looks set to cement its reputation as the world’s ultimate springboard for serious films with an eye on box office success, with new works by auteur heavyweights Wes Anderson, Ari Aster, Kelly Reichardt and Richard Linklater all set to premiere on the Croisette this May.
Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux and president Iris Knobloch announced this year’s lineup at a press conference in Paris on Thursday morning.
Anne Keothavong is without Emma Raducanu but has plenty of talent on hand in effort to reach finals in China
Five months on from the heartbreak of Málaga, where they came so close to battling for the Billie Jean King Cup trophy before succumbing to Slovakia in a brutal semi-final, Great Britain will begin their pursuit of their sport’s flagship team competition as they face Germany on Friday and the Netherlands on Saturday in The Hague for a spot in the finals.
They will attempt to do so without Emma Raducanu, a key figure in the team’s recent success. Last year, she led them to the finals in Málaga with two-high quality victories against France on clay. She ended 2024 with five wins and no defeats in the competition.
The Bafta-winning actor answers your questions about taking Angelina Jolie to meet his grandmother down the pub, working with Danny Boyle and directing Paul Weller
Your new film, Sinners, sounds scary. What scares you? MrSOBaldrick
Loneliness.
I’ve always wanted to act, but I’ve never taken the plunge. Has there been a role where you felt you took a plunge out of your comfort zone?AliciaGrace1
Getting to portray an American comes with inherent impostor syndrome, because so many other US actors could take the role. The roles I’ve played in the US have bigger distinctions from my lived experiences than some of my other roles. But it can be rewarding and fulfilling to do something that’s very different, so it works both ways.
As a new compilation with unheard material is released, we assess the Cardiff legend’s diamonds and deep cuts
Shirley Bassey apparently hated this Bond theme, protesting that the lyrics were nonsensical. She never performed it live. It’s certainly not up to previous standards, but the disco version that accompanies the film’s end credits is worth hearing – better than her attempt to rejig This Is My Life for the 70s dancefloor.
Follow updates as 2025’s first major gets under way
Get in touch with Scott here | Live leaderboard here
Noah Kent qualified for this year’s Tournament by finishing runner-up at the US Amateur. One of five amateurs in this year’s field – along with US Amateur champion Jose Luis Ballester, NCAA individual title winner Hiroshi Tai, US Mid-Am champ Evan Beck and Latin American Amateur winner Justin Hastings – he’s made back-to-back birdies at 3 and 4, and like Davis Riley before him, can now always say he once led the Masters. A fast start for Wolverhampton’s Aaron Rai on debut, too, with birdies at 2 and 3. Rai has yet to make a serious impression on any of the majors, but he broke his PGA Tour duck last year at the Wyndham, formerly the Greater Greensboro Open, so knows what it takes to enter the winners circle. Sandy Lyle’s first victory in the USA was at the Greater Greensboro, incidentally, for anyone interested in extremely tenuous omens.
-2: Z Johnson (5), Kirk (5), Kent -a- (4), Rai (3)
On the basis of Napoleon’s dictum “never interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake”, there was a large incentive for China to do precisely nothing as Donald Trump displayed his determination to lose friends and induce market panic. Indeed, the Chinese advocates of passivity cited a social media meme attributed to President Xi Jinping: “Do nothing. Win.”
Initially it was tempting for China to sit back and watch the US’s former allies recoil at Trump’s disruptive war on globalisation and let them realise that, by comparison, China represented an oasis of stability, modernity and predictability.
Met police detain Will McCallum and four others amid accusations of quashing peaceful pro-Palestinian protest
Scotland Yard has been accused of suppressing a peaceful pro-Palestinian protest after the co-head of Greenpeace UK was arrested for pouring biodegradable blood-red dye into a pond outside the US embassy in London.
Will McCallum, the co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, was among five people arrested when the large pond outside the embassy was turned red on Thursday in what Greenpeace said was a protest at the US government’s continued sale of weapons to Israel.
He feels soul has been lost and criticises stadium plan
Former striker says club rejected his offer of help
Eric Cantona has accused Sir Jim Ratcliffe of trying to “destroy” Manchester United and said the minority owner rejected his offer to help rebuild the club.
Cantona is considered one of United’s greatest footballers after playing for them for five years in the 1990s. On Saturday Cantona was at FC United of Manchester, who were founded by disaffected Manchester United fans in May 2005 as a protest against Malcolm Glazer’s leveraged purchase of United, which loaded about £500m of debt on the club.
More than 150 Chinese nationals are fighting for Russia in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, recruited via videos on social media
The videos are across Chinese social media. Some are slickly produced Russian propaganda about being “tough” men; some sound more like influencer advertisements for a working holiday. Others are cobbled-together screenshots by regular citizens about to leave China. But they all have one thing in common: selling the benefits of becoming a Chinese mercenary for Russia.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, announced that two Chinese nationals had been captured in the eastern Donetsk region and accused Moscow of trying to involve China “directly or indirectly” in the conflict. A day later, he said the men were among at least 155 other Chinese members of Russia’s armed forces. Then again, on Thursday, he accused Russia of conducting “systemic work” in China to recruit fighters.
Serve abandons Draper, who records 10 double faults
Jack Draper crashed out at the last-16 stage of the Monte-Carlo Masters with a 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-4 defeat by Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Draper, who dispatched Marcos Giron in a comfortable 6-1, 6-1 victory on Tuesday, struggled with his serve, producing 10 double faults.
“Today I didn’t feel at my best or at my best mentally with my strategy,” Davidovich Fokina said on court after the win, in which he made 57 unforced errors to his opponent’s 46. “It was a rollercoaster with my mind, I didn’t know how to control the emotions and I didn’t respect myself or my team. I am so sorry with how I did today and I am happy with the win and I will be ready for tomorrow.
A startling novelty 30 years ago, the film’s now antique effects and strange anti-Orwell farmyard tale feel dated, but is still a quaintly comfortable place to visit
Thirty years ago, a non-Disney talking-animal adventure became a big movie talking point. Babe, adapted from Dick King-Smith’s children’s book The Sheep-Pig, features an adorable piglet who is rescued from a brutally realistic-looking agribusiness breeding shed as his mum and siblings are taken off to be slaughtered; it is then rehomed in a quaintly old-fashioned farm with lots of different animals, situated in an uncanny-valley landscape of rolling green hills which looks like Olde England but where everyone speaks in an American accent. The lead human is grumpy cap-wearing Farmer Hoggett, played by James Cromwell, later to be hard-faced Captain Dudley Smith in LA Confidential and Prince Philip in Stephen Frears’ film The Queen. The little piglet does his best to fit in and finds his destiny when it looks as if he could be a very talented sheep-herder.
But this is not animation, nor is it precisely live-action. The movie got a (justified) best visual effects Oscar for its mix of animatronics and real animals, modifying their appearance and behaviour onscreen and using CGI for their mouths. It was a startling novelty which was very much of its time. Yet Babe and its innovations didn’t really lead to anything else; they were almost a standalone phenomenon, soon superseded in mainstream family-movie terms by the digital animation of Pixar and Disney’s continuing live-action productions.
In this second extract from Frances Ryan’s new book, actors, politicians, athletes and models offer their advice on living with physical and mental health conditions
Rosie Jones, comedian
If you have a shot of whisky, and then you have a shot of pickle juice, it tastes exactly like a cheeseburger. Honestly, it does, try it. That, and … be whoever you want to be. Having a disability is not a disadvantage; it’s a different perspective. We all have our strengths and our weaknesses, and sometimes a weakness can become our biggest strength.
Marsha de Cordova, MP
Follow your dreams and pursue your passions, even if you’re afraid. Don’t let your disability – or anyone’s opinion – hold you back. Find yourself a good mentor and have a plan.
Rome prosecutors expected to send team to Santa Marta where body of Alessandro Coatti was found dismembered
Prosecutors in Rome have opened an investigation into the murder of an Italian scientist in Colombia, with one theory being that he could have been killed by warring criminal clans in a case of mistaken identity.
Alessandro Coatti, who until late last year worked at the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) in London, was last seen leaving a hostel in Santa Marta, a port city on the Caribbean coast, on 3 April.
The EU has suspended its retaliatory 25% tariffs on US goods for 90 days after Donald Trump’s dramatic climbdown in his trade war.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU would put on hold for 90 days the countermeasures – 25% tariffs on €21bn (£18bn) of US goods – that it had agreed on Wednesday. “We want to give negotiations a chance,” she said. “If negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in.”
The findings from volumes kept in a Cistercian monastery in France shed new light on a robust medieval trade network that went well beyond local sourcing
‘Hairy” medieval book covers previously thought to be made from deer or boar skin are in fact made of sealskin, researchers have found.
The covers of the 12th- and 13th-century books from French monasteries were made using seals believed to be from Scandinavia, Scotland and potentially Iceland or Greenland, hinting at extensive medieval trade networks.
After a frenetic international window, here’s what we have learned about England and the 15 other contenders
The latest international window, with several high-profile games in the Nations League, provided goals, encouraging debuts, injuries and some shocks. Here, we run the rule over the 16 teams set to play in the European Championship in Switzerland in July.
Former Sinn Féin president says Facebook owner included at least seven of his books in trawl of copyright material
The formerSinn Féin president Gerry Adams is considering legal action against Meta because it may have used his books to train artificial intelligence.
Adams said the tech company included at least seven of his books in a vast trawl of copyright material to develop its AI systems. “Meta has used many of my books without my permission. I have placed the issue in the hands of my solicitor,” he said.
Sheffield-formed band also release swaggering new single Spike Island, their first new track since 2013
Pulp have announced their first album since 2001’s We Love Life, entitled More, trailed by a new single, Spike Island.
“I was born to perform, it’s a calling / I exist to do this, shouting and pointing”, frontman Jarvis Cocker sings on the anthemic song, ushering one of the most successful British bands of the 1990s into a new phase.
Newly minted millionaires, corruption, nostalgia ... Fitzgerald’s novel has never felt more relevant. Jane Crowther explores its resonance in popular culture from Taylor Swift songs to her own gender-flipped retelling
It’s now considered a masterpiece, but when The Great Gatsby was published a century ago the response was mixed, with one critic writing: “I don’t even know whether it is fully intelligible to anyone who has not had glimpses of the kind of life it depicts.” Back then, this life – which Fitzgerald had been living – was a gilded world reserved for the rich and well connected. His narrator, Nick Carraway, attends his nouveau riche neighbour’s glittering gatherings in the summer of 1922, a time when many US families were living in poverty.
It was only when pocket-sized paperbacks of the book were given to US servicemen during the second world war (courtesy of the nonprofit Council On Books in Wartime) that The Great Gatsby became a hit. Perhaps the young men, far from their ordinary lives and pining for the girls they’d wooed in simpler times, connected with Gatsby (a figure left deliberately obscure by Fitzgerald so that any reader could imprint their own dreams on to him). As the war came to an end, maybe they saw themselves in Nick, the first world war returnee and observer who doesn’t entirely fit into any of the social situations in which he finds himself.
On the podcast today: PSG get a vital goal in injury time to give them a healthy lead over Aston Villa. There were four brilliant goals in the game but the best of the bunch came from Désiré Doué, whose long-range effort left Emi Martínez planted to the floor.
Resolution adopted in a 216-214 vote, with two Republicans joining all Democrats to vote against it
The House on Wednesday passed a bill restricting district court judges from issuing nationwide injunctions in a move that would vastly diminish the ability of courts to block Donald Trump’s policies, The Hill reports.
Dubbed the No Rogue Rulings Act, the legislation would limit judges to providing relief only to parties directly involved in the suit. It passed in a 219-213 vote.
Since President Trump has returned to office, left-leaning activists have cooperated with ideological judges who they have sought out to take their cases and weaponize nationwide injunctions to stall dozens of lawful executive actions and initiatives.
These sweeping injunctions represent judicial activism at the worst.
My colleagues on the other side of the aisle want you to believe that somehow these nationwide injunctions being issued by courts across the country against Donald Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional actions are unfair.
Here’s the message: If you don’t like the injunctions, don’t do illegal, unconstitutional stuff. That simple.
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