Tom Kopke, from Germany, out-tumbled local hero Chris Anderson to win his third roll on hot day in Gloucestershire
It was billed as the great cheese-off; a helter-skelter, bone-jarring downhill race between the all-time champ and a young upstart.
After the hype and hyperbole, youth won out, as the 24-year-old German YouTuber Tom Kopke beat 38-year-old local hero Chris Anderson at the annual cheese-rolling event in the English West Country.
Continue reading...Tehran says ‘contradictory statements’ from US and Israeli interference hindering negotiations
Iran has poured cold water on suggestions that a deal with the US is imminent, pointing to the confusion in US positions and Israeli interference as key factors in why a complete agreement is proving difficult to secure.
Speaking at the weekly foreign ministry press briefing, Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s negotiating team, also said future management of the strait of Hormuz was a matter for Oman and Iran to reach agreement on, and that it was not tolls that were being proposed but “fees for navigational services”.
Continue reading...Brent crude futures down 6% to lowest level in two weeks and stock markets rise
Oil prices fell below $100 a barrel on Monday and stock markets rose on hopes that the US and Iran are inching closer to a peace deal.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, were down 6% to $97.28 a barrel, the lowest level in two weeks, with hopes that an agreement to end the near three-month US-Israeli war on Iran can be struck.
Continue reading...Scientists say record-breaking heat is a reminder of how climate crisis is affecting lives
The fierce heat sweeping Europe over the bank holiday weekend has beaten the UK’s all-time temperature record for May, with highs of up to 35C still to come on Monday afternoon.
A temperature of 33.5C was recorded at London’s Heathrow on Monday lunchtime, according to provisional data from the Met Offfice, beating the previous May record that was set in Camden Square in 1922 and reached again in Tunbridge Wells and Regent’s Park in 1944.
Continue reading...Links between Trump Organization and Ivanishvili family for Tbilisi skyscraper raise new conflict of interest concerns
A Trump Tower planned for the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, is to be built on land currently part-owned by the son of the US-sanctioned leader of the country, according to official records.
The proposed skyscraper, a joint venture between a local consortium and the Trump Organization, which is managed by the US president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, will be on a plot whose current registered owner is the International Charity Fund Cartu.
Continue reading...Ever-growing influence of social media and AI means such ideas spreading at faster rates than before, experts say
Hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks carry with them familiar attendants in the US: extreme conspiracy theories about a planned pandemic, or “plandemic”, designed to upend midterm elections or push new vaccines or any one of a myriad of wild ideas.
Ebola, which the World Health Organization warned on Friday is spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, poses a “very high” risk at the national level. In the upside-down world of conspiracy theories it could be a bioweapon, a financial plot, or a scheme to extract national resources.
Continue reading...Dominic Grieve says people are ‘perfectly entitled’ to ask Richard Hermer for review of teenagers’ sentences
Appeal judges would be unlikely to criticise the attorney general, Richard Hermer, if he asked them to review “unusual” non-custodial sentences handed to three teenage boys convicted of raping two girls, one of his predecessors has suggested.
Dominic Grieve, who also served as home secretary, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the goal of rehabilitating offenders – particularly younger ones – needed to be balanced with providing deterrence.
Continue reading...US president says he is not rushing into a deal after proposed plan to end war prompts Republican backlash. Plus, mood in Russia turns against Putin
Good morning.
Donald Trump defended himself against criticism from fellow Republicans yesterday as he appeared on the verge of agreeing a deal with Iran to end the war.
What has Iran said? Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei has been speaking at a news briefing about the contours of a potential deal with the US to end the war: “It is correct to say that we have reached a conclusion on a large portion of the issues under discussion. But to say that this means the signing of an agreement is imminent – no one can make such a claim.”
Why does he think voters are becoming disenfranchised? Massie pointed to several significant constituencies – including “Make America healthy again” campaigners, fiscal hawks pushing for sweeping government budget cuts, and voters who don’t want the US engaged in wars – who he claimed had been “alienated” by the administration’s actions. “And so, I’m worried that in November, this is going to cost the party a lot.”
Continue reading...Double-sided page featuring a sketch and text sheds new light on the baroque master and his time living in Rome
More than 400 years ago, the up and coming Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens toured the streets of Rome, notebook in hand, sketching images from Renaissance works adorning the city’s churches and palazzos.
Now a rare sheet, thought to be from his Roman sketchbook, has gone on display in his home city of Antwerp, shedding new light on the baroque master.
Continue reading...Rain overwhelms sewer system in parts of US city, while temperatures in France break May record
New York City saw flash flooding on Wednesday, as large parts of Brooklyn and Queens received about 2in (50mm) of rainfall in as little as 20 minutes. Officials said the deluge caused water to flow into the sewer system at a rate of up to 6in an hour, quickly overwhelming an aged network that was designed to accommodate just 1.75in an hour.
Residents and commuters found themselves wading knee-deep through flood water that flowed with dangerous speed in places. One video showed a woman alighting from a bus losing her footing and being dragged along by the torrent of water. Several major roads were blocked, including the Long Island Expressway, and subway services were disrupted as water spilled into stations. Large amounts of mud and other debris was left behind; videos showed bags of rubbish being swept down streets along with loose litter.
Continue reading...Supporters of Reza Pahlavi, exiled son of the late shah, are clashing with those who oppose a return of monarchy
Wearing a bucket hat, a blue Adidas hoodie and khaki shorts, Tony Mohraz, also known as 021kid, chest-bumps a friend in front of a memorial wall in Golders Green, in north London.
Photographs can be seen behind him of those who were killed protesting against the Iranian regime. As a large lion and sun flag used in Iran before the Islamic revolution is waved overhead, Mohraz starts to rap.
Continue reading...As former Soviet Republic goes to the polls, it finds itself in a strategic tug of war between Russia, the US, Turkey, Europe and Azerbaijan
To describe Yerevan, a charming city of liberal values encased in imposing Soviet architecture, as the centre of the world is a stretch, but Armenia’s claim that it can become the strategic crossroads of the landmass of Eurasia is becoming less and less fanciful. As the former Soviet Republic goes to the polls on 7 June for national elections, it finds itself in a five-way tug of war between Russia, the US, Turkey, Europe and Azerbaijan.
The interest has in part been sparked by the possibility of an end to Armenia’s conflict with its neighbour Azerbaijan – and the chance this represents for Armenia to end its physical isolation and become part of the middle corridor, a vital trade route linking western China and Europe, bypassing both Russia’s northern corridor and the Suez canal.
Continue reading...Inmates at Barinas prison allege they were peacefully protesting when prison staff opened fire, leaving some wounded
Inmates at Venezuela’s western Barinas prison staged a protest on its roof on Sunday, piling flaming mattresses and calling for the removal of the facility’s director, whom they accused of overseeing guards as they shot unarmed prisoners.
“We want justice. They are shooting us, the guards and the wardens,” a prisoner said in a video shared by the Venezuelan Observatory of Prisons, a local NGO, on X, in which a man is seen with a bullet wound in his chest.
Continue reading...