89 m. ago Jack Reacher author Lee Child: ‘More sex is medically implausible and I’m as rich and famous as I need to be’

The thriller writer on being a fearless Brummie, how he came to own a Renoir and his six-decade love affair with smokingBorn in the West Midlands, Lee Child, 70, studied law before working in television. After losing his job following a corporate restructuring, he published Killing Floor, the first in the Jack Reacher series, in 1997. His novels have been adapted into two films, starring Tom Cruise, and an Amazon Prime series. He now writes with his brother Andrew and they headline Theakston Old Peculier crime writing festival in Harrogate next month. The 30th Reacher thriller, Exit Strategy, is out in November. He is married with a daughter, and lives in the north of England.When were you happiest? In 1993, making love on the beach of a deserted island in the Bahamas. Continue reading...

Culture

2 h. ago ‘No smartphones before 14; no social media until 16’: The Anxious Generation author on how to fight back against big tech

One year on, Jonathan Haidt talks about the way his book changed the global conversation around children and digital devices – and explains how he handles his own teenagersJonathan Haidt is a man with a mission. You’ll have to forgive the cliche, because it’s literally true. The author of The Anxious Generation, an urgent warning about the effect of digital tech on young minds, is based at New York University’s business school: “I’m around all these corporate types and we’re always talking about companies and their mission statements,” he tells me. So, he decided to make one for himself. “It was very simple: ‘My mission is to use my research in moral psychology and that of others to help people better understand each other, and to help important social institutions work well.’”This is characteristic of Haidt: there’s the risk that writing your own brand manifesto might seem a bit, well, pompous. What comes across instead is the nerd’s desire to be as effective as possible, combined ...

Culture

3 h. ago URGENT: Trump says U.S., China tariff teams to meet in London on Monday

URGENT: Trump says U.S., China tariff teams to meet in London on Monday  MSN

Politics

5 h. ago It’s my goal to live to 100 – and it’s not just diet and exercise that will help me achieve it | Devi Sridhar

Every time my mind goes down the ‘optimisation’ route, I’m reminded of my job as a public health scientist, looking into the factors that affect how long we will liveProf Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, and the author of How Not to Die (Too Soon)For much of the past century, life expectancy continually increased. In most countries in the world, children could hope to live, on average, longer, healthier lives than their parents. This expectation is still true of the mega-wealthy. In fact, tech billionaires and multimillionaires have recently been fixated on finding the secret to longer life, convinced that with enough money, technology and cutting-edge science, they can stave off the inevitable for a few more decades to reach 120 or even 150 years old.But their efforts aren’t trickling down to the rest of us. The world’s health crises are getting worse, with life expectancy going backwards in several high-income countries, such as the UK ...

Events

5 h. ago From Pakistan to Spain via the Canaries, smugglers are using longer, more dangerous migration routes

A failed crossing from Mauritania’s coast toward Spain’s Canary Islands in which 44 Pakistanis perished earlier this year has cast a spotlight on how globalized and sophisticated smuggling networks on the West African coast have become

Politics

5 h. ago Electric Spark by Frances Wilson review: Muriel is as intriguing as her novels

What is so fascinating about Muriel Spark? In the last decade before she died aged 88 in 2006, any interview with the Scottish author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie became an event. The excitement was firstly because she was an artist of the old school, famous not only for her brilliant and complex novels, but also for her unconventional life in Italy, where she lived up a hill with her friend Penelope Jardine, who was also her assistant (and now, in her nineties, her literary executor).

Politics

6 h. ago How groundbreaking gay author Edmund White paved the way for other writers

Edmund White, a pioneer of contemporary gay literature, died this week at age 85

Events

8 h. ago Trump's trade talk delegation is set to face off with China's negotiators in London. Here is what's at stake.

Trump's trade talk delegation is set to face off with China's negotiators in London. Here is what's at stake.  Business Insider

Politics

9 h. ago Campgrounds closed along Pacific Crest Trail in search for man wanted in daughters' deaths

Authorities have closed a wide swath of popular campgrounds and backpacking areas along the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington as they search for a former Army soldier wanted in the deaths of his three young daughters

Events

9 h. ago Ukraine war briefing: We bomb their warplanes, they bomb our civilians, says foreign minister

Repeated shutdowns at Moscow airports due to drone threat; military airfields and fuel depots inside Russia hit. What we know on day 1,200Russia’s missile and drone barrage against Kyiv on Friday killed at least six people, Ukrainian officials said. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, said three emergency workers who went to a bomb site were “killed in a repeat Russian strike”. Two died in an attack on the northern city of Chernihiv and at least one more in the north-western city of Lutsk. Eighty people were injured in attacks across Ukraine.Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Russia had “‘responded’ to its destroyed aircraft by attacking civilians in Ukraine Multi-storey buildings hit. Energy infrastructure damaged.” Ukrainian spies last weekend destroyed Russian strategic bomber aircraft on the ground using quadcopter drones hidden on top of trucks in Operation Spiderweb.Russian aviation authorities restricted flights at Moscow regional airports on Friday nig...

Politics

11 h. ago Exposed: 'DIY Ozempic' sellers putting lives at risk by peddling super cheap but super dangerous self

Scores of dealers based in the UK and China are using social media to openly advertise their cut-price illegal fat jabs to vulnerable people.

Events

11 h. ago Immigration authorities carry out enforcement activity across Los Angeles amid crowds of protesters

Federal immigration authorities carried out enforcement activities in Los Angeles on Friday

Events

11 h. ago Former DC police officer sentenced to 18 months for lying about leaking info to Proud Boys leader

A retired police officer was sentenced on Friday to serve 18 months behind bars for lying to authorities about leaking confidential information to the Proud Boys extremist group’s former top leader, who was under investigation for burning a Black Lives Matter banner in the nation’s capital

Events

12 h. ago London Showdown: US and China set for new round of trade talks on Monday

London Showdown: US and China set for new round of trade talks on Monday  India Today

Politics

12 h. ago Trump to send top U.S. officials to London for talks with China

Trump to send top U.S. officials to London for talks with China  MyHometownToday.com

Politics

13 h. ago Kilmar Ábrego García returned from El Salvador to face criminal charges in US

Man mistakenly deported to El Salvador indicted on counts of illegally smuggling undocumented people, says BondiUS politics – live updatesKilmar Ábrego García, the man whom the Donald Trump administration mistakenly deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March, returned to the US on Friday to face criminal charges.In a press briefing on Friday, the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said that a federal grand jury in Tennessee had indicted the 29-year-old father on counts of illegally smuggling undocumented people as well as of conspiracy to commit that crime. Continue reading...

Events

14 h. ago New coronavirus discovered in China ‘only small step’ from infecting humans

HKU5 coronavirus detected in bats may spill over into people, study finds

Science

14 h. ago Kilmar Abrego Garcia returns to US to face criminal smuggling charges

Wrongfully deported Salvadoran immigrant faces grand jury indictment over trafficking allegations

Events

14 h. ago US charges Kilmar Ábrego García with people smuggling as he is returned from El Salvador

US attorney general Pam Bondi says Ábrego García is back on US soil but will be sent back to El Salvador after serving a sentence if convictedTesla shares rose on Friday as investors took some comfort from White House aides scheduling a call with CEO Elon Musk to broker peace after a public feud with President Donald Trump, reports Reuters. The electric carmaker’s shares were up about 5% in Frankfurt on Friday, having closed down 14.3% on Thursday in New York, losing about $150bn in market value.“It’s unlikely that Trump will end subsidies and contracts with Tesla. Those are obviously threats that are unlikely to come into fruition,” Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index told Reuters. “I don’t expect this to blow out into anything more serious than a war of words for a couple of days.” Continue reading...

Politics

14 h. ago China, US to meet for trade talks in London on June 9, Trump says

China, US to meet for trade talks in London on June 9, Trump says  Anadolu Ajansı

Politics