53 m. ago Cindy Ngamba: ‘I don’t want to go to Saudi until I hear from women that laws have changed’

The LGBTQ+ Olympic medallist makes her pro debut on an all-female card at the Royal Albert Hall but says she is disappointed by the Saudi stranglehold on her sport“I’m still deciding my nickname,” Cindy Ngamba says with a languid grin as she prepares for her debut as a professional fighter at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday night. Ngamba, who won the first Olympic medal in history for the Refugee Team at the Paris Games last year, is a sparkling personality and a boxer of vast potential, so it does not take her long to reveal her current favourite.“On my gumshield it says ‘One in 100 Million’ so that’s a nickname I like,” Ngamba says. “It’s linked to the Refugee Team because I am just one in a 100 million refugees from around the world.” Continue reading...

Politics

53 m. ago Chelsea fans grapple with the art of omission by Boehly’s trainee regime | Jonathan Liew

Think it is easy spending £1bn with no silverware in return? Leave it out! Letting down supporters is harder than it looks“The one thing I’ve learned about the British press is they exaggerate a lot and leave stuff out.” The words of Todd Boehly there, the jaw-droppingly handsome Chelsea chair whose name was being sung so passionately by fans outside Stamford Bridge last week. “We want Boehly ! We want Boehly !” they sang in their thousands, alongside a sea of banners bearing the words “BOEHLY ” and “CLEARLAKE & BLUECO ”.Clearly Chelsea fans cannot get enough of their hybrid-leadership apparat, and frankly who can blame them when their leaders are in this vein of form? Perhaps, as a functional human with a life, you missed Boehly’s appearance at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit on Thursday, where he treated the audience to a little of the privileged wisdom he has accumulated during his 33 months in the game. Continue reading...

Sport

53 m. ago Looming relegation vote begs question: do WSL clubs now have too much power? | Suzanne Wrack

Amid a controversial proposal to suspend relegation in the WSL, decision-makers risk putting self-interest above all elseOn Friday a shareholder meeting of the Women’s Professional Leagues Ltd took place to discuss the future of the women’s professional game. This was not unusual. The body responsible for running the Women’s Super League and Championship, owned by the clubs and having taken over from the Football Association last summer, holds quarterly meetings and each one has involved discussions on the professional women’s game in England as it enters a new phase.There was caution ahead of the first season of WPLL ownership; no immediate expansion, no swift progression to full-time referees, no big moves to adopt the other recommendations in the fan-led government review of women’s football carried out by Karen Carney, despite a widespread desire for many of them. Continue reading...

Politics

83 m. ago Archive of the Future review – mesmerising safari through Vienna’s natural history museum

Joerg Burger’s film, as immersive as a museum visit, lovingly embraces the meticulous labours of the curators and touches on key current questions for the sectorJoerg Burger’s meticulous and mesmerising study of the Vienna Museum of Natural History is itself a work of natural history, in that it studies its core subject from a number of methodological angles. In one level, it simply puts the displays on display via some exquisitely composed, high-resolution photography that drinks in the rooms, both public and private, where the many collections dwell; vitrine after vitrine, drawer upon drawer, archive boxes until the end of time, with beetles, geological samples, taxidermied birds and botanical samples, each one lovingly tagged and sorted.That said, the fact that the archive is only maybe 10% digitised and indexed means that the staff clock up kilometres’ worth of walking every day as they search for requested items: as such this is also a study of information science at a point of...

Culture

83 m. ago Memories of a Catholic Girlhood by Mary McCarthy review – incurable sadness if bravely borne

Colm Tóibín introduces this welcome reprint of the US author and critic’s poignant account of orphanhood, first published in 1957Mary McCarthy was a formidable, not to say frightening, figure in the literary landscape of mid-20th-century America, one of a cohort of remarkable left-leaning intellectuals that included Elizabeth Hardwick, Dwight Macdonald, Randall Jarrell and McCarthy’s lifelong friend Hannah Arendt. The famous feud between McCarthy and the playwright Lillian Hellman – “every word Hellman writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’” – led to a $2.5m libel suit brought by Hellman but which in the end damaged her own reputation beyond repair.McCarthy was already an established critic and fiction writer when, in 1963, she published The Group, the novel that was to bring her huge popular success. It is an account of the lives of a set of young women in postwar New York and, for its time, was frank to the point of being scandalous. Anyone reading it now will wonder what the ...

Politics

85 m. ago ‘Man with the golden arm’: Australian whose rare blood helped save millions of babies dies at 88

By donating blood over 1,100 times, James Harrison helped develop Anti-D, a life-saving treatment for newborns at risk of Rhesus disease

Events

2 h. ago China and Canada retaliate after Trump trade tariffs come into effect

Markets tumble as US president’s levies against Canada, Mexico and China come into effectChina and Canada unveiled retaliatory measures against the US after Donald Trump imposed his sweeping tariffs plan at midnight US time, despite warnings it could spark an escalating trade war.US tariffs have come into force of 25% against goods from Canada and Mexico, the US’s two biggest trading partners, and 20% tariffs against China – doubling the levy on China from last month. Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Police officers suffering burnout and working in ‘desperate’ conditions – report

Study identifies areas for improvement to provide “happier and more effective working life”

Events

2 h. ago Pancake Day is probably wrong time to mention growing global obesity epidemic...

About six out of ten adults in the world are expected to be overweight or obese within 25 years

Politics

3 h. ago New Orleans rushes to rework Mardi Gras celebrations in the face of storm and twister warnings

Officials are rushing to reschedule Mardi Gras celebrations and warning revelers against brining umbrellas and tents as powerful storms with a threat of tornadoes are expected to strike Louisiana and other parts of the South

Events

3 h. ago Club Brugge vs Aston Villa prediction, odds and betting offer

Aston Villa will be looking to get a win in Brugge at the second time of asking as they face Club Brugge in the Champions League round of 16

Politics

3 h. ago Russia sending ‘suicidal missions’ to win foothold over Dnipro River, says Ukraine

Moscow trying to improve its claim to entire Kherson region in time for peace negotiations, says governorRussian forces are repeatedly trying to seize a foothold across Ukraine’s Dnipro River, dispatching troops on high-casualty missions to gain territory for future peace negotiations, according to the Ukrainian governor of Kherson region.Oleksandr Prokudin said Russian forces were trying to cross in four locations to justify their claim to the whole oblast, one of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow says it wants to incorporate. Continue reading...

Events

3 h. ago Police Scotland officers suffering burnout as 68,000 days off cancelled in just six months

Cops in Greater Glasgow, Tayside, and Lothian and Borders complained of low morale and dwindling resources.

Events

4 h. ago Aid to Kyiv being reviewed to ensure country is ‘committed’ to goal of peace deal – as it happened

This live coverage has ended. You can find all of the latest US politics stories here. Donald Trump will lay out his priorities tomorrow evening in a prime-time speech to Congress, his first since returning to the White House.He’s doing some expectation setting this morning, posting on Truth Social:TOMORROW NIGHT WILL BE BIG. I WILL TELL IT LIKE IT IS! Continue reading...

Economics

4 h. ago Largest wildfire in decades rages in Japan as authorities warn it could spread

Blaze in Ofunato has spread through 2,100 hectares of land, damaged dozens of homes and forced more than 1,000 to fleeAuthorities in Japan have warned that the country’s biggest wildfire in decades is likely to spread, after it damaged dozens of homes and forced more than 1,000 people to flee.Fires continued to rage a week after they broke out in the city of Ofunato, on the north-east coast, with weather officials speculating that this year’s unusually dry winter and strong winds were to blame. Continue reading...

Events

5 h. ago Man Utd news: Wonderkid given hope of more game time as Joshua Zirkzee makes apology

Manchester United are turning their attentions to the Europa League ahead of a trip to Real Sociedad in the last-16 on Thursday after the crushing disappointment of their FA Cup exit to Fulham on Sunday

Sport

5 h. ago Trump stuns European NATO allies and ends all US military aid to Ukraine after losing patience with Zelensky who he demands show 'commitment to peace'... or his time is up

This comes after Trump appeared to have lost his patience with Zelensky, warning that 'America will not put up with it for much longer'.

Events

5 h. ago US has suspended all military aid to Ukraine, White House official says, in wake of Trump

Decision affects ammunition, vehicles and other equipment including weapons in transitThe Trump administration has suspended delivery of all US military aid to Ukraine, a White House official has said, blocking billions in crucial shipments as the White House piles pressure on Ukraine to sue for peace with Vladimir Putin.The decision affects deliveries of ammunition, vehicles, and other equipment including shipments agreed to when Joe Biden was president. Continue reading...

Events

5 h. ago Teen girl fights for life after being thrown from car and hitting tree in horror crash

Olivia Windle, 17, suffered multiple fractures and breaks to her head and face after being ejected from a car and hitting a tree headfirst in a devastating crash

Events

5 h. ago Vance says US ‘working on’ Ukraine plan ‘with the Russians’ after Trump cuts defense aid to Kyiv

Vice President JD Vance on Monday said Trump administration officials are already in talks to put on a settlement to the years-long war Russia launched against Ukraine, and warned that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky needs to accept Donald Trump’s terms for a mineral rights deal and enter negotiations with Moscow.

Politics