36 m. ago Funeral of Pope Francis to take place on Saturday as Vatican releases images of open casket – live

Pope Francis, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, died at his home in the Vatican on Monday aged 88 after suffering a strokeThe Vatican also confirmed that Pope Francis’s coffin will be transferred to St Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday morning, where it will stay until the funeral.It will be taken there from the chapel of the Santa Marta residence, pictured in the earlier photo. Continue reading...

Economics

61 m. ago Lotteries, stashed teens and bidding wars: reimagining the NFL draft

The draft makes for brilliant television and maintains interest in the league even during the offseason. But it’s worth considering other optionsThere is something funky about the draft being one of the NFL’s marquee events. At root, it’s a man stepping to the podium, being booed and reading names. The NFL still dominates Sundays and Mondays and Thursdays and playoff Saturdays during the season; the draft allows the league to gobble up the offseason months too. But as interest continues to grow, there has been relatively little pushback from those who make the draft work: the prospects, particularly those slated to go at the top of the first round.Think about it. Your reward for being one of the best college athletes in the country is to wind up on one of the worst rosters in the NFL, typically one beset by mismanagement at the top, iffy coaching or a third-rate roster. Quarterbacks can win with teams that draft them No 1 overall – Peyton Manning and Troy Aikman are a couple of exam...

Events

61 m. ago Wellwater by Karen Solie – landscapes in distress captured with raw candour

In this blazingly honest collection, the Canadian poet catalogues humanity’s destructive impact on the natural worldIt is human nature to prefer our landscapes neatly framed – walls and wooden fences create the illusion that the great outdoors can be controlled and contained. Yet Karen Solie’s wildly unpredictable collection Wellwater flips the script. In this blazingly honest catalogue of human-made hazard and harm, we celebrate instead the contemporary landscapes refusing to be tamed.Solie, who teaches at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, in western Canada, where vast prairies supply much of the world’s pulse crops. This fertile expanse in Wellwater, however, seems tired of endless service. The poem Red Spring witnesses how “weeds jump up unbidden, each year a little smarter”. They are trying, almost courageously, to outwit what Solie condemns as “zombie technology”, whose genetically modified “terminator seeds” sprout terrifying plants...

Politics

1 hour ago Experts talk realism of Conclave movie: ‘Gets a lot of the details right’

After the death of Pope Francis, experts weigh in on how much the real-life papal election will mirror the hit Oscar-winning movieI confess: my first thought this morning, when I heard the news that Pope Francis died at the age of 88, was of Conclave. As in both the lowercase, technical meaning – the sequestration of cardinals to elect a new pope with a two-thirds majority – and the capital-C film of the same name from last year, which allowed viewers to vicariously participate in a process long shrouded in secrecy and reverence. (And premiering during the US vote, to experience election thrills without grim disappointment.)The film, directed by Edward Berger, luxuriated in process both sacred and profane – the orderly processions and cafeteria run-ins, the ceremonial burning of paper votes and security screenings, the white smoke and the complimentary toiletries bags. The hallowed halls of the Vatican and the gossip that flits among them, especially as different factions compete to...

Politics

1 hour ago Celebrity Big Brother 2025 odds: who is the favourite to win after the latest ITV twist?

A new name is favourite to win Celebrity Big Brother - but who is it? 👁

Politics

1 hour ago Pope Francis: cardinals to meet in Rome to set date for funeral – live

Pope Francis, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, died at his home in the Vatican on Monday aged 88 after suffering a stroke and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also expected to attend the funeral, presidency source told AFP.Expect the diplomatic list to grow rapidly in the coming days, with most countries sending their heads of state or government to pay tribute to Francis – creating potential space for high-level meetings on the margins of the funeral. Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Pundits’ showy partisanship reflects football’s embrace of fan

The coverage of Manchester United’s win over Lyon last week was just the latest sign that fandom is consuming everythingImpartiality fan here – for my sins! – but you have to say Robbie Savage and Rio Ferdinand during the closing minutes of Manchester United v Lyon on Thursday night were absolute class. It all starts in the 118th minute, with United 6-5 down on aggregate, and the TNT Sports camera lingering on the face of a crying boy in the crowd. “Let’s hope we can put a smile on that young man’s face by the time we finish,” the commentator Darren Fletcher says.And it’s worth unpacking those 17 words, because contained within them are at least three layers of assumption. Foremost among which is the assumption that it would be a good thing, all round, if United won. The child is crying. Is there any cause more catholic or universal, any image more reliably guaranteed to tug at the tear ducts, than a crying child? The coefficient can wait for now. Continue reading...

Sport

2 h. ago Georgina Hayden’s recipe for spring onion flatbreads with smoked salmon

Once you learn how straightforward it is to make these flatbreads, they’ll be in your culinary arsenal for ever – perfect for lunch topped with smoked salmon and cream cheeseYoghurt flatbreads make a weekly appearance in our kitchen, because they are so effortless and versatile. If I have forgotten to pick up a loaf, I will often panic-make them for breakfast or packed lunches. While they are great on the side of stews, soups and curries (or on the barbecue, if that’s the way the weather is going), I’ve made them the hero in this elegant but easy brunch/lunch-style setup. You can make one flatbread per person (as instructed), or you could make multiple mini ones that are almost like little herby pancakes. The dill-spiked cream cheese, however, is a must with smoked salmon. Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago Hell is not other people – it’s being stuck in the ninth circle of an automated telephone service | Hilary Freeman

Tuvalu is celebrating its first ATM, but here’s a warning from the UK, where human contact has been lost to the self-service age Life is about to change on the remote island nation of Tuvalu. And not, in my opinion, for the better. To great fanfare, Tuvalu – an entirely cash-based society – has unveiled its first ever ATM, marking its move towards financial modernisation. But while the 10,000 people living in that country may be celebrating no longer having to queue at the bank, I fear their happiness will be short-lived. It’s the start of the slow erosion of human contact that heralds the dehumanisation of yet another society.The world’s first ATM was introduced in Britain in 1967, but for me the tyranny of machines that promise convenience but erode human contact really began about 20 years ago, in the form of self-checkouts in our local Sainsbury’s. Having watched the Terminator movie franchise during my formative years, I railed prophetically against them, aware that it was just...

Politics

2 h. ago ‘Be playful, try new things!’ The Southbank Centre’s Mark Ball on his new festival, Multitudes

The arts centre’s artistic director is on a mission to bring new audiences to the joys of classical music. He explains why mixing it with circus, grime, poetry, and film might be the way to do itCan you name the UK’s top five most visited attractions? A 2024 survey placed the British Museum and Natural History Museum in the top two spots, then Windsor Great Park and the Tate Modern. No surprises there. But the fifth is perhaps less expected: the Southbank Centre, with 3.7 million annual visitors.“If you come down in the summer, it’s like a 21st-century version of the Victorian pleasure garden,” says its artistic director, Mark Ball. “It’s like the whole world is here. Skateboarders mixed with poets mixed with the classical musicians, mixed with the dancers – it’s what gives this space its vibrancy and why I love it so much.” Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago When is London Marathon 2025? Start times, route, prize money and elite fields

Everything you need to know ahead of the annual race

Politics

2 h. ago Horoscope today: Your daily guide for Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Read what the stars mean for you today, from Taurus to Gemini

Politics

2 h. ago Man City XI vs Aston Villa: Predicted lineup, confirmed team news and injury latest for Premier League today

Options in attack for Guardiola as City face crucial clash in Champions League race

Politics

3 h. ago Braying donkeys, kissing clowns and Marilyn’s dress mishap: Magnum sale – in pictures

From mambo dancers to Marilyn Monroe’s strap stunt, from strip shows to knocked-out boxers, the theme of Magnum’s Square Print Sale is spectacle. Step this way for the unusual and the unbelievable Continue reading...

Politics

3 h. ago Show us your mussels! A mouthwatering trip to Vigo, Spain’s seafood capital

The Galician city on the Atlantic coast has the EU’s largest fishing port, which provides its many bars and restaurants with a spectacular trawl of oysters, clams and musselsRocks thrashed by Atlantic waves have famously bestowed names such as “end of the world” and “coast of death” on Galicia, Spain’s north-western region. But there is a calmer, more intimate side to this coastline, that of the many rias (inlets). Legend has it that they resulted from the imprint of God’s hand when he made the world, and, temptingly, they nurture superlative shellfish. This lures me to Vigo, the largest fishing port in the EU, which spills down a hillside into a sheltered estuary lined with marinas, industrial docks, jetties, a fishing port and a cruise terminal.The magic formula is the combination of fresh river water and salty seawater, which creates a nutrient-rich paradise for succulent crustaceans and cephalopods. I soon learn, too, that Vigueses are joined at the hip to the sea – and have bee...

Politics

3 h. ago ‘He listened to everyone’: Buenos Aires remembers pope as voice for the poor

Locals hail pontiff’s work in city’s poorest neighbourhoods – but express sadness that he never came back as popeBefore he left Argentina and moved to Italy to become pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio would visit the country’s villas miserias, not in a car flanked by security guards, but by bus – and this is what his people remember.“He would come here, kiss our feet, the feet of the people,” said Aida Bogarin, aged 44. “It was everything to us.” Continue reading...

Politics

3 h. ago Paradise Logic by Sophie Kemp review – a TikTok Stepford Wives for the Pornhub era

This startling debut follows a young woman on a surreal and bluntly graphic quest to be the perfect girlfriendSet in upstate New York, Sophie Kemp’s surreal satirical debut puts us in the uneasy company of a part-time model who calls herself Reality as she sets out on a crazed quest to become the perfect girlfriend. The chief beneficiary of her self-education is a crack-smoking postgrad and wannabe musician named Ariel, who cheats openly, gives her an infection and – in the reader’s eye – sees her as little more than a sex toy able to fetch snacks. But Reality is besotted, ignoring her own doomsaying conscience – what she refers to with typical idiosyncrasy as “the familiar voice” – as well as her best friend, Soon-jin, who thinks Ariel looks like a “school shooter”: “I think what she was saying was: Ariel is a unique bad boy who often wore a leather jacket.” What ensues is akin to a TikTok Stepford Wives for the Pornhub era. Taking tips from a magazine, Girlfriend Weekly, which mag...

Politics

3 h. ago Goldbeak review – kids cartoon sends baby eagle to live in a chicken coop

Low-budget visuals drain the charm from this animated tale strangely reminiscent of Jonathan Livingston SeagullBirds of a feather flock together, unless you’re an eagle being raised in a community of chickens, per this animated family adventure. Orphaned in a plane crash (yes, eagles use planes), young Goldbeak is from a prominent political family and, naturally enough, he comes to realise he doesn’t exactly fit in with the hens and roosters with whom he is living. Notably, chickens are not known for their prowess at flying, and so he finds his literal wings metaphorically clipped, though he is desperate to soar above his contemporaries.Thematically, this is vaguely reminiscent of 1970s publishing hit Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a short allegorical fable about a frustrated gull who refuses to accept the limitations of his community and yearns to go beyond the limits of what seems possible. Here, though, Goldbeak’s exceptionalism is firmly rooted in biology, so maybe he’s more like ...

Politics

3 h. ago Berlin’s ancient ‘Dicke Marie’ oak feels effects of prolonged dry spell

The tree, believed to be city’s oldest, had already been damaged by the region’s increasingly arid climateAn ancient English oak believed to be Berlin’s oldest tree is suffering the effects of a prolonged dry spell in the German capital, local authorities have said, compounding already significant damage to its once lush canopy and branches.“Dicke Marie” (Fat Marie), as Berliners affectionately call the tree located in the northern Tegel Forest, has been deprived of essential moisture in recent years as a result of extended periods of sparse rainfall blamed on the climate crisis, according to natural resource officials. Continue reading...

Politics

3 h. ago Coldplay draws 200,000 fans as Hong Kong bets big on concert tourism boost

The British band were the first major international act to perform at the newly-opened Kai Tak Sports Park

Politics