The Mandalorian and Grogu has lowest box office opening for a Star Wars film in Disney era

Film starring Pedro Pascal next to ‘Baby Yoda’ took $165m globally on opening weekend, failing to surpass the opening of 2018 flop Solo

The Mandalorian and Grogu may have blasted into first place at the box office – but its launch was far, far away from impressive, having the lowest opening weekend for a Star Wars film since Disney took over the franchise.

The film, which stars Pedro Pascal as the titular helmeted warrior who travels the galaxy with a tiny companion better known as “Baby Yoda”, made $102m at the domestic box office (North America and Canada) over the US’s four-day Memorial day weekend, contributing to a total $165m global box office.

5/24/2026: Booms, Busts and Bubbles; Sculpting Evolution; The Payam Method

First, examining lessons from the Wall Street crash of 1929. Then, a report on mouse DNA and the fight against Lyme disease. And, inside the "Payam Method" for learning piano.

WSL event in New Zealand put on hold after Australian photographer bitten by ‘shark or a sea lion’

• Semi-final interrupted after ‘code red’ activated for first time

• Photographer in stable condition after being taken to hospital

The World Surf League event in New Zealand was abruptly halted on finals day after a photographer was bitten by a sea creature.

Australian Ed Sloane was attacked just before 8.30am while documenting the men’s semi-finals at the New Zealand Pro, held near Raglan on the west coast of the North Island.

5/24: CBS Weekend News

Crack in California chemical tank a positive sign, but explosion fears remain; details emerging on potential U.S.-Iran peace deal.

Living with coyotes

Once found only in parts of the West and Southwest, coyotes have dramatically expanded their range, and are now found in every state except Hawaii. Conor Knighton looks at how these animals have become part of the urban landscape in places like Chicago, and what roles they play — in history, in Native American stories, in art and in today's urban and suburban ecosystems.

Grizz Chapman, actor who played Grizz in 30 Rock, dies aged 52

The actor, who played Tracy Jordan’s gentle bodyguard in 80 episodes of the beloved comedy, died in his sleep after years of health problems

Grizz Chapman, best known for his role as Grizz on the hit comedy 30 Rock, has died aged 52.

His cousin, the Harlem Globetrotter Donte Harrison, confirmed Chapman’s death on social media on Saturday.

Alleged gunman outside White House had run-ins with Secret Service, sources say

Sources identified the 21-year-old suspect as Nasire Best of Dundalk, Maryland, and documents obtained by CBS News show Best previously blocked a White House entry lane in June 2025.

The Trail of the Fallen in New York's Hudson Valley

Charlie D'Agata reports on the trail just south of West Point Military Academy that honors America's fallen patriots.

Summer kicks off with gas and grocery prices both up

Americans are now paying 20% more for food than four years ago. Inflation rose nearly 1% this month, mainly due to higher gas prices. Shanelle Kaul reports.

New details on Saturday's White House shooting

The alleged gunman in Saturday's shooting at the White House had tried to gain access to the White House last year. Natalie Brand reports.

Details emerging on potential U.S.-Iran peace deal

Although U.S. and Iranian negotiators have agreed to broad principles of a deal, including on several of the thorniest of issues that divide the bitter rivals, President Trump cautions the White House will not be rushing into signing any agreement. Imtiaz Tyab reports.

What to know about California chemical tank set to explode or leak

The tank at GKN Aerospace is estimated to contain 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate, a volatile chemical used to produce plastics.

Crack in California chemical tank a positive sign, but explosion fears remain

Officials say an industrial tank in Southern California containing about 7,000 gallons of highly flammable and toxic chemicals appears to have cracked. Experts say that could mean a rupture or catastrophic explosion may be averted. Thousands have been evacuated from several communities in Orange County. Lana Zak reports.

Guzman y Gomez faces class action from US workers over closed stores

Mexican-themed Australian fast food chain accused of terminating staff without adequate pay or notice as it pulls out of the US

American workers at Guzman y Gomez’s shuttered US stores have launched a class action lawsuit against the Mexican-themed Australian fast food chain over allegations staff were terminated without adequate pay or notice.

The legal claim, filed in a US federal trial court in Illinois, was sparked by GyG’s decision last week to immediately close its string of Chicago stores after giving up on its highly vaunted plans to expand in the US.

K-pop androids and automated artists: welcome to South Korea’s strange and ambitious robot theme park

Galaxy Robot Park in South Korea hopes to attract tourists to concerts and fashion shows, but can robots ever replicate K-pop’s connection with fans?

Four child-sized humanoid robots take the stage at an arena in eastern Seoul, and as the opening beats of a song by K-pop star G-Dragon begin, they start to dance.

Arms swinging, legs stepping in sync, heads bobbing, wigs and baggy clothes swishing, until – mid-performance – one of them seemingly malfunctions and has to be removed from the stage.

Oil prices fall 5% after Trump says Iran talks proceeding in a 'constructive manner'

Trump had said an agreement with Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, among other issues, was largely negotiated and would be announced soon.

Paul McCartney: The Boys of Dungeon Lane review – at 83, his gift for melody still astounds

(MPL/Capitol)
From nostalgic returns to his Liverpool childhood to a crazed Glastonbury fantasia, these are songs written with real purpose and a master’s finesse

The rock legend in the autumn of their years who chooses to release a new album is well advised to get themselves an angle. If the music that made you legendary was written and recorded long ago – and is highly unlikely to be displaced in the public’s affections by anything you do now – it’s good to have something that suggests a sense of purpose, beyond just adding to an already vast back catalogue for the sake of it.

We’ve recently seen it with Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways, rooted in its jawdropping 17-minute survey of American political history, Murder Most Foul; and with Bruce Springsteen’s Only the Strong Survive, with its canny covers of soul and R&B classics. And an angle is clearly something that has occurred to Paul McCartney, too. From its title referencing a road in the suburb of Liverpool where McCartney spent his early childhood, to the circumstances of its launch – the first single Days We Left Behind was premiered not on YouTube or Spotify but BBC Radio Merseyside – his 27th studio album has been presented as a nostalgic look back at what you might call his pre-Fab years.

California chemical tank has cracked causing state of emergency, thousands to evacuate

One California town is in a state of emergency and 50,000 people are under an evacuation order as a malfunctioning chemical tank at an aerospace plant is overheating and could leak or explode.

Antonelli surges to F1 Canadian GP win after teammate Russell retires in lead

• Mercedes teenager claims fourth consecutive victory

• Lewis Hamilton second; Max Verstappen third

It is too early to be decisive yet but without doubt George Russell was left cursing his damnable luck as his world championship ambitions took a body blow in Montreal. The British driver was left angry and disconsolate as his Mercedes ground to halt on track at the Canadian Grand Prix and his teammate and title rival Kimi Antonelli powered to a record-breaking victory.

Russell must be wondering what he has to do to catch a break in what increasingly looks like a two-way title fight with his Italian teammate. He had claimed victory in the sprint race, then pole and then had an absolutely gripping, toe-to-toe fight with the 19-year-old for the opening 29 laps on the Île Notre-Dame.

This week on "Sunday Morning" (May 24)

A look at the features for this week's broadcast of the Emmy-winning program, hosted by Lee Cowan.

Conte calls time on Napoli amid ‘too much poison’; Como into Champions League

• Juventus and Milan miss out on top four Serie A spots

• Turin derby at Torino delayed after pre-match clash

Antonio Conte announced his departure as Napoli head coach on Sunday after guiding the team to a 1-0 home victory over Udinese in their final match of the Serie A season.

The 56-year-old confirmed the decision at a press conference alongside the Napoli president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, after the match. Having joined the club in July 2024, he won the league title in his debut campaign. Conte’s final match was settled by a 23rd-minute goal from striker Rasmus Højlund, securing a second-place finish in the league table for the hosts behind Inter.

US and Iran inch closer to peace deal as Trump faces criticism from GOP hawks

American president says he is not rushing into a deal after proposed plan to end war prompts Republican backlash

• Middle East crisis: live updates

Donald Trump defended himself against criticism from fellow Republicans on Sunday as he appeared on the verge of agreeing a deal with Iran to end the war.

As hawks in his party called the proposed agreement a disaster and questioned why the US president had launched the conflict in the first place, Trump claimed on social media that his deal would be “THE EXACT OPPOSITE” of the one agreed by Barack Obama, which Trump pulled out of in 2018.

Space rockets, satellites, data centers and Grok: What's the right S&P sector index for SpaceX?

What S&P Sector is SpaceX likely to be in once it launches on the public markets.

Trump not rushing Iran deal, whacks critics as 'losers'

The president said the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports would remain in effect until "an agreement is reached, certified, and signed."

Relegation the inevitable outcome of West Ham’s relentless executive failure | Barney Ronay

Once-proud club has forgotten what it was trying to be after years of mismanagement in a shopping-centre annexe

If you’re going to die, die with your boots on. Belatedly and pointlessly on. But on all the same. It felt deeply fitting that West Ham should show some fight on the final day of the Premier League season, but that relegation should still be confirmed by events elsewhere, any pleasure at a 3-0 defeat of Leeds rendered irrelevant by Tottenham’s win at home against Everton, as West Ham’s season flopped like an ailing dog in the mid-summer heat.

There was at least some joy at the London Stadium, a reminder that joy is both the only thing that actually matters here, and also the precise polar opposite of the football-club-shaped blob that West Ham’s ownership has created. When Jarrod Bowen scored West Ham’s second goal on 78 minutes, charging past a Leeds defence already ranged about the place on sun loungers flicking through the latest Sally Rooney, there was a brief glimpse of some other West Ham, some other reality, a lost place of greater care and competence, other hands on the wheel.

Roberto De Zerbi breaks Tottenham out of a jail they should never have been in | Jonathan Wilson

De Zerbi did the job he was brought in to do – now he has helped Tottenham avoid an unfathomable relegation, his task for next season is not so clear

Almost half a century ago, Matthew Engel had a line in this newspaper about Sheffield United going top of the Fourth Division being like hearing a friend had been made head of the prison library: you wanted to congratulate them but really you were wondering what on earth they were doing there in the first place. It was a similar story at Spurs today: for all the understandable glee and relief, even to be in danger of relegation is evidence of things having gone badly wrong.

It may be that the future has this as the first day in the new history of Tottenham. Roberto De Zerbi is clearly a manager of great promise – 11 points in seven games may not be earth-shattering, but it is a lot, lot better than what came before – and the injury crisis surely can’t be this bad for a third straight season. Perhaps coming so close to the brink will startle them into decisive action in a way that last season’s fourth-bottom finish, mitigated as it was by the Europa League success, did not. Perhaps there really will come a bracing clarity of vision and they will rise again. The world can change very quickly. It’s only four years ago that Spurs were, for the sixth season in succession, finishing above Arsenal. A season out of Europe, while it will have a negative impact on revenues, can have a remarkable rejuvenating effect.

Overheated chemical tank in southern California ‘will fail’, EPA chief says

Lee Zeldin says ‘low-volume release’ of flammable chemicals is most likely amid fears of explosion at Orange county facility near Disneyland

Government officials in Orange county, California, have warned that an overheated chemical tank “will fail” and could result in a chemical explosion in the area, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator said on Sunday.

“We’re being told that the tank will fail, but there are different scenarios as to what that means,” Lee Zeldin, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. Zeldin, a former Republican congressman with no prior experience in environmental policy, was chosen by Trump as the head of the EPA.

‘He will be for ever our boss’: Manchester City fans pay tribute to Pep Guardiola

Supporters pay respects to man who took them to ‘a galaxy only a handful of teams in world football experience’

“I’m utterly devastated and have already shed tears,” says Manchester City fan Sophie Hope. There is a feeling of loss around the Etihad Stadium, a bereavement that everyone knew was coming but it does not make it any easier to take. The ownership may disagree but this is the club that Pep Guardiola built over the past 10 years and everyone in attendance against Aston Villa wanted to pay their respects.

This has been a glorious epoch for the club, one that has seen complete and utter misery in modern times. Relegation to the third tier at Stoke, being regularly pummelled by Manchester United and York City away are long forgotten. The transformation was under way before Guardiola arrived a decade ago and everything has been geared towards his demands and needs. Ilkay Gündogan, Ederson and Fernandinho were back as City’s greatest hits were played.

Number of suspected Ebola cases in DR Congo passes 900 as health workers face attacks and shortages

World Health Organization says outbreak poses ‘very high’ risk for Congo, but risk of disease spreading globally remains low

Congolese authorities say that suspected Ebola cases have now passed 900 in the ongoing outbreak in the east of the country.

The Congolese ministry of communication, in a post on X on Sunday, said there were 904 suspected cases and 119 suspected deaths.

Full transcript of "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," May 24, 2026

On this "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" broadcast, Kevin Hassett, White House National Economic Council director, and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, join Nancy Cordes.

5/24: Sunday Morning

Hosted by Lee Cowan. Featured: Concours d'LeMons, Iranian propaganda, Patti LaBelle.

Riz Ahmed says UK spies tried to recruit him on three occasions

Actor recounts three alleged approaches by intelligence services, including through senior BBC executive

Riz Ahmed, the Oscar-winning actor, has claimed that Britain’s intelligence services tried three times to recruit him, including one occasion involving a senior BBC executive.

Ahmed, 43, said: “Well, it’s happened three different times and they’re all slightly ridiculous, and this is what I mean by it, it’s just like inherently comedic.

'I never heard of the Strait of Hormuz before this': How one medical supply CEO is navigating the oil price shock

Medical supply company Gentell sources raw materials from around the world, and the crisis at the Strait of Hormuz is causing volatility for its business.

Fernandes sets record as Manchester United win but Brighton still qualify for Europe

Sussex by the sea will host Conference League football next season even if Brighton could not keep their side of the bargain. They let their fate drop from their control, their fans enduring an anxious afternoon of relying on results elsewhere and a decent 5G connection. Eventually, as players and coaches stood in the centre circle, the good news arrived.

“It was the worst time for this performance from us but we have to look at it overall in what we achieved,” said the Brighton head coach, Fabian Hürzeler. “We are Brighton, we are in Europe for a second time, we should be celebrating that achievement. It’s important you see where we came from.”

Liverpool held by Brentford as Anfield bids Salah and Robertson farewell

A Liverpool without Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson is hard to comprehend, however well signposted their exits have been, and as the two Anfield greats walked up to the Kop together for one last time it was also difficult to see where Arne Slot’s side are heading next season in their absence. The most positive aspect of a uniquely challenging season for Liverpool is that it is over.

Champions League qualification was at least secured courtesy of a draw against Brentford, who would have qualified for Europe themselves but for Dango Ouattara missing a glorious chance to seal victory with the final act. Salah signed off with a trademark flourish, producing the 120th assist of his Liverpool career for Curtis Jones’s opener. The Egypt international’s 93rd Premier League assist for Liverpool also ensured he overtook Steven Gerrard’s club record in his final appearance. How appropriate that Salah should depart with one more record.

Arsenal celebrate Premier League in style with relaxed win at Crystal Palace

This was an occasion for Mikel Arteta to savour. With the owner, Stan Kroenke, watching from the stands on a rare visit to see his team, Arsenal celebrated being champions for the first time since 2004 by recording a comfortable victory over a Crystal Palace side who also have a European final on their minds.

Max Dowman became the youngest player to start a Premier League game at 16 years and 144 days old and played his part as goals from Gabriel Jesus and Noni Madueke rounded off a memorable campaign for Arteta and his side. Arsenal were presented with the Premier League trophy at a sultry Selhurst Park – after Oliver Glasner completed a lap of honour on his last home match in charge of Palace – and their attention will switch quickly to the daunting prospect of facing Paris Saint-Germain in Saturday’s Champions League final.

DR Congo Ebola cases rise amid distrust, armed conflict zone

Africa races to contain a fast-spreading Ebola outbreak threatening 10 countries as infections spill from eastern Congo into Uganda.

5/24: Face The Nation

This week on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," as President Trump says a peace deal with Iran has been "largely negotiated," Imtiaz Tyab reports from Tel Aviv and Sen. Chris Van Hollen discusses the possible deal. Plus, on this Memorial Day weekend, Medal of Honor recipients retired Lt. Col. William Swenson and retired Command Sergeant Major Matthew Williams join.

Trump has ‘alienated’ voters ahead of midterms, warns ousted Republican Thomas Massie

GOP congressman says his party is set to count cost of ‘Trump disappointment syndrome’ after primary defeat

Donald Trump’s Republican party is on course for a damaging rejection at the ballot box in November, according to a maverick US congressman ousted by a challenger handpicked by the president.

Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, became the latest of Trump’s targets to be defeated in the party’s primaries this week. He had repeatedly broken with the president over military action against Iran, government spending and the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Gunman who opened fire near White House was known to Secret Service

Suspect who died after exchanging fire with agents had tried to enter the complex last summer, records show

A gunman who opened fire outside the White House on Saturday before he was shot by federal agents was already known to the US Secret Service, court records show.

The man, 21, was taken to a nearby hospital, before he was later pronounced dead. He had previously tried to enter the complex, according to an affidavit filed in DC superior court in 2025, following an arrest nearby.

Video shows infant being rescued from car trapped in Texas floodwaters

First responders rescued an infant from a car that became trapped in floodwaters in southern Texas on Saturday, video shows.

The Guardian view on Erdoğan’s tightening grip on Turkey: the next election is already being decided | Editorial

The removal of an opposition party leader and closure of a liberal university show an authoritarian democracy moving closer to one-man rule

Turkey’s next presidential election is scheduled for 2028. Many think it will come sooner. But by the time ballots are actually cast, the outcome may already have been decided – especially after the last few days.

On Thursday, an appeals court removed the head of the opposition Republican People’s party (CHP), Özgür Özel, by annulling its 2023 leadership contest. The 51-year-old was credited with reviving the CHP, which trounced the ruling Justice and Development party in 2024’s local elections. He was also one of the few senior figures not caught in a sweeping crackdown that has led to hundreds of CHP officials and politicians being arrested. Human Rights Watch says that the justice system has been weaponised against the opposition. A mass corruption trial opened in March, with defendants including the Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was arrested last year on the day that he was chosen as the CHP’s presidential candidate. He could face a sentence of more than 1,900 years if convicted on all counts.

The Guardian view on 100 years after Miles Davis’s birth: why he still shapes modern music | Editorial

The trumpeter, composer and band leader still towers over jazz because he treated reinvention not as a betrayal, but as necessary for its survival

The space reserved for Miles Davis in the pantheon of 20th-century music is not simply because he mastered jazz, but because he refused to let it stand still. As musicians and fans mark the centenary of his birth , Davis’s work still feels limitless. “I always thought that music had no boundaries,” he wrote in his 1989 autobiography, “no limits to where it could grow and go, no restrictions on creativity.” Davis repeatedly dismantled the sound he had helped invent – embracing the electric age in 1968, much as Bob Dylan had in folk.

Davis moved to New York as an 18-year-old after hearing Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. While bebop prized speed, Davis preferred restraint and precision – spearheading cool jazz. By 1988, now the grand old man of jazz, he was playing trumpet with Prince, whom he remarked could be the “new Duke Ellington of our time if he just keeps at it”. Such was his refusal to be pigeonholed, he hated the word “jazz”. Whatever it was, Davis reasoned, had to evolve: absorbing funk, rock, African rhythms and electronica to emerge altered again.

John McWhorter on controversy and reconstructing Fats Waller's "Early to Bed"

New York Times columnist, bestselling author, linguist and Columbia University professor John McWhorter doesn't shy away from controversy. He talks with Mo Rocca about his book, "Losing the Race: Self-Sabatoge in Black America," published in 2000, along with one of his latest projects, reconstructing the long-forgotten 1940s hit Broadway musical "Early to Bed" with music by jazz legend Fats Waller, and why he feels good about how people perceive him now.

'The Mandalorian and Grogu' is Disney's lowest-ever Star Wars film opening

Disney's "The Mandalorian and Grogu" tallied and estimated $82 million in domestic ticket sales through its first three days in theaters.

Russia hits Kyiv with hypersonic ballistic missile in ‘deranged’ attack

Assault hits water facility, market, residential buildings and schools, killing at least four and injuring dozens

Russia used its powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile for a third time in Ukraine as part of a massive attack on Kyiv and its surrounding region that killed at least four people and injured about 100.

Russia hit the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region with the missile, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said. He described a heavy Russian assault that also hit a water supply facility, burned down a market and damaged dozens of residential buildings and several schools.

Recipe: Lavender and lemon poppy seed cake from "Cake Picnic"

Elisa Sunga shares how to make lavender and lemon poppy seed cake in her cookbook, "Cake Picnic: Recipes for the Love of Cake & Friends."

Farage under mounting pressure to prove Russian hack claim

Reform UK leader claims ‘counter-espionage experts’ suggest state-sponsored hackers are behind disclosure of £5m gift

Nigel Farage is under mounting pressure to provide evidence for his claim that a state-sponsored Russian hack was behind the disclosure of the £5m gift he received from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.

Reform UK claimed over the weekend that analysis of Farage’s phone by “counter-espionage experts” suggested that “Farage’s phone, email and bank accounts were compromised by hostile actors, almost certainly linked to Moscow, using spear phishing tactics”, before the Guardian revealed details of his undeclared gift last month.

Reefline: Bringing art to Miami's coastline

Argentinian-born art curator Ximena Caminos is the mastermind behind Miami's newest art installation, Reefline, an underwater sculpture park that doubles as an artificial coral reef about 300 yards from the Florida coast and 20 feet below the surface. Luke Burbank reports.

China launches three-crew spaceflight as part of lunar ambitions

Mission will put first astronaut in orbit for a year, a key step in Beijing’s plan to put people on the moon by 2030

China has launched its Shenzhou-23 mission in which an astronaut will spend a full year in orbit for the first time, a crucial step in Beijing’s ambition to send humans to the moon by 2030.

The Long March 2-F rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan launch centre in north-western China on Sunday, carrying three astronauts to the Tiangong space station.

Family estrangement is more common than people think, but research shows the effects on wellbeing are mixed

Estrangement is not binary but a continuum of reducing contact. Support plays an important role, whether or not people seek to reconcile

• The modern mind is a column where experts discuss mental health issues they are seeing in their work

Despite media stories occasionally highlighting high-profile family estrangements, in many cultures estrangement carries a stigma, a direct challenge to deeply held values about what family should be.

People estranged from families often feel shame, or a sense they have failed, and carry the distress silently, in private. However, research on estrangement suggests it’s far more common than most people think.

‘Sad, mad and disheartened’: for the diaspora, the bombardment in Lebanon is a special kind of loss

The destruction of homes and villages in southern Lebanon leaves a mark not just on those living there, but families watching on across the globe

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

For the last two years, much of the Lebanese diaspora – estimated to be about 15 million people spread across Australia, Europe, North and South America and more – has held its breath. Much of it watched from afar, helpless, during the latest extended conflict between Hezbollah and Israel as Israeli attacks on their motherland, and particularly its southern villages, resulted in widespread destruction. To date, more than 1.2 million people have been displaced, thousands killed, and roughly 14.3% of Lebanese territory ordered to be vacated. But while those within the country endure their own suffering, those in the diaspora face a different, emotional struggle: the loss of familial homes they may not be able to return to, and a severing of connection to a place that is a fundamental part of who they are.

These are their stories.

Why it seems like everyone in Australia is travelling to Vietnam

The number of Australians taking short trips to Vietnam has more than doubled since 2016 as holidaymakers seek affordable experiences close to home

Georgia Quinn is adamant that Vietnam has been slept on as a holiday destination. The lifestyle-based content creator says she has loved the country since she first visited as a backpacker 15 years ago. “It wasn’t off the beaten path but it definitely wasn’t as popular as, say, Thailand or Bali,” she says.

That’s changing.

‘Pompeii, but in the middle of a massive city’: the ice age fossil site hidden in Los Angeles

La Brea Tar Pits – the only urban, active ice age excavation site in world – gets a mammoth face lift for the first time in nearly 50 years

Los Angeles is known for famous museum such as the Getty and the Lacma, but perhaps fewer people are aware that – in the heart of the city – lies a museum that contains one of the world’s most remarkable fossil sites.

The La Brea Tar Pits and Museum is home to the remains of more than 2 million ice age flora and fauna, including mastodons and saber-toothed cats, that became trapped in oily pools that still bubble up today.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor faces police investigation into ‘alleged inappropriate behaviour at Royal Ascot’

Incident said to have happened at racing event in 2002, year of queen’s Golden Jubilee, according to Sunday Times

Police investigating Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor are looking into an allegation that he behaved inappropriately towards a woman at Royal Ascot, according to a report.

The alleged incident is said to have happened at the annual five-day racing event in Berkshire in 2002, according to the Sunday Times.

Celebrating most prestigious, and junkers, of automobile world

In California, the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is widely considered the most prestigious car show in the world. But just a few miles away, the Concours d'Lemons celebrates the junkers of the automotive world.

Celebrating the most prestigious and the ugliest of the automotive world

In California, the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is an invite-only event celebrating the most valuable collector cars in the world. And just a few miles away, Concours d'LeMons is a once-a-year celebration of the less desirable, less loved and less expensive automobiles. Lee Cowan heads to both events — one that celebrates the best in show, and the other only a worst in show.

Ukraine’s Kostyuk keeps focus on French Open after missile strike near parents’ home

• No 15 seed beats Russian-born Selekhmeteva 6-2, 6-3

• Gea loses to Khachanov after desperate bathroom plea

An emotional Marta Kostyuk described her first-round win at the French Open as one of the most difficult matches of her life as she revealed that she had taken to the court hours after a Russian missile landed close to her parents’ house in Ukraine.

Kostyuk, the 15th seed in Paris, became one of the first players to win a match at the tournament this year as the 23-year-old registered a 6-2, 6-3 win over Oksana Selekhmeteva. Kostyuk hails from Kyiv, where she periodically returns to train between tournaments.

Douglas McCain, the eldest son of Sen. John McCain, dies at 66

Douglas McCain, the eldest son of the late Sen. John McCain, has died, his family announced. He was 66.

These United States: The Marshall Plan

In 1947, two years after the end of World War II, President Truman's secretary of state, George C. Marshall, delivered a commencement speech arguing the U.S. should help its European allies and enemies rebuild in the post-war world. This was the foundation of an economic aid program that came to be known as the Marshall Plan. Seth Doane looks at its monumental impact.

Suicide bombing near railway track in Pakistan kills at least 23 people

Explosives-laden vehicle detonated as passenger train travelled through south-western city of Quetta

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near a railway track as a passenger train travelled through the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 70 others, officials have said.

The force of the explosion on Sunday caused two of the train cars to overturn and catch fire, sending thick black smoke into the air, according to footage shared online.

Echoes of Brexit as Alberta blunders towards vote on separation from Canada

Like David Cameron in 2016, premier Danielle Smith is facing a mutinous party and has called a referendum about a referendum while vowing a ‘no’ vote

An embattled leader forced to call a referendum on separation to ward off mutiny – and then pledging to campaign against it. Allegations that prosperity had been stolen by distant elites and could be remedied with a vote to leave. Mutterings of foreign interference.

The shadow of Brexit has loomed over the prairie province of Alberta as a minority push for a vote on secedeing from Canada. And it was there again on Thursday evening when Alberta’s premier, Danielle Smith, unveiled her government’s tangled referendum question on the western province’s future – both in the gravity of the potential outcome, and in the chaotic nature of its expression:

Almanac: May 24

"Sunday Morning" looks back at historical events on this date.

Andy Burnham seeks advice from Sue Gray on forming future Labour government

Discussions highlight how seriously senior Labour figures are treating Burnham’s path back to Westminster

Andy Burnham has sought advice from Sue Gray, Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, on how to manage a potential transition into Downing Street if he returns to Westminster and succeeds the prime minister.

Lady Gray is understood to have advised Burnham on how a future government could be formed as Labour’s internal succession chatter intensifies before the Makerfield byelection.

To the new couples ‘turbulence testing’ their relationships: just relax and enjoy good times instead | Emma Beddington

Holidays offering the newly-in-love stress tests are missing the point. Strife is inevitable, it’s how you deal with it over the long term that matters

‘Turbulence test” trips are a “romantic travel trend” for new couples, according to US Vogue. The magazine spoke to two women who had decided to stress-test fledgling relationships with trips, and a hotel in Charleston, South Carolina, that aims to “lean into couples’ curiosity about their connection” by offering a “turbulence test” package. It includes $100 (£74) of cocktails and a pack of conversation cards, which does indeed sound like a recipe for brewing trouble in paradise.

I can’t fault travel as a trial for new romance: coffin-sized shared spaces, upset schedules, tricky interactions, destination disappointments – and the unhelpful accepted wisdom that holidays should be better than real life when they’re less comfortable and way more expensive than staying home – make them into a Soltan-scented pressure cooker for couples. My husband and I nearly split after a horrific trip to Italy in our second year together – it started with unsuccessfully trying to hitchhike 20 miles in a thunderstorm after discovering no trains ran on 15 August and continued with a fortnight of rain, recriminations, tinned soup and cheap wine-fuelled fights.

Victoria Pendleton: ‘At school I discovered the traits that make an Olympic champion do not make for a popular teenage girl’

The athlete on the joy of receiving her first bike, her lonely teenage years, and a life-changing phone call

Born in Bedfordshire in 1980, cyclist Victoria Pendleton is one of Britain’s most decorated athletes. As well as winning nine world championship golds, she won the gold medal in the sprint at the 2008 Olympics and the gold medal in the keirin (a sprint following a speed-controlled start), as well as a silver medal in the sprint in the 2012 Olympics. She retired from cycling in 2012 and is now a jockey. Her new book, The Fear Opportunity, is published on 21 May.

This was taken when cycling was a hobby and nothing more. My family were on holiday in the south of France, not far from Saint-Tropez. That was my first solo racing bike – it was secondhand and Dad got it custom sprayed. My twin, Alex, had one, too. We were very proud of them.

The Democrats’ 2024 autopsy fails to confront the truth | Norman Solomon

The document is full of disclaimers and does not address fundamental issues, including Gaza and the Biden-to-Harris transition

When the Democratic National Committee finally released its autopsy on the 2024 election disaster, not even the DNC chair could defend it. “I don’t endorse what’s in this report,” Ken Martin conceded as the autopsy went public on Thursday. After several months of withholding the autopsy on the grounds of not wanting it to be a distraction, Martin fessed up at last: “When I received the report late last year, it wasn’t ready for primetime. Not even close. And because no source material was provided, fixing it would have meant starting over, from the beginning.”

In response, a former Obama speechwriter, Jon Favreau, summed up eight stages of Martin’s tortuous process that has spanned more than a year: “Promise to release autopsy; put incompetent friend in charge; incompetent friend produces incoherent product; announce you’re not releasing the autopsy; lie about why; gaslight people who ask, saying they’re the problem; face internal revolt; release autopsy.”

Norman Solomon is the director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His latest book is The Blue Road to Trump Hell: How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy

More than 500 children have died in an outbreak that the world is virtually ignoring

The number of cases — and deaths — in Bangladesh is staggering. As of Sunday, 528 have died, mostly children. How did this measles outbreak begin? And how is the country responding?

Mind-bending photos by anonymous cousins show the pain and dreams of Afghan women

The young women make photos that look at life — how it is, how they wish it could be — under Taliban rule. The images are on display at the Photoville Festival in Brooklyn, New York.

Spring heat, parades and an erupting geyser: photos of the weekend

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

The devil owns Amazon: big tech has infiltrated the fashion world – will we see a revolt?

Anna Wintour has welcomed the Bezoses – and their patronage – with open arms. But after a controversial Met Gala, industry insiders are less enthusiastic

The press conference for the Met Costume Institute’s spring exhibition is always a stately affair, but this year it was giving “feudal lady addresses her serfs” or perhaps “Marie Antoinette during the last days of Versailles”. Here, among the spectacular marble sculptures of the art museum’s American wing, was a beaming Lauren Sánchez Bezos, who Anna Wintour introduced as a “force for joy”, before adding that “she and her husband, Jeff, have shown with this event that they genuinely, genuinely care about giving back”. Meanwhile, in the outside world, protests against the Bezoses’ involvement had been raging for days. The discrepancy between the word on the street and the deference within the glass-ceilinged room was head-spinning.

The Met Gala has recently become a magnet for anti-excess protests, but this was its most controversial yet, owing to the $10m patronage of its honorary co-chairs, centibillionaires Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos. It was not the first time Jeff Bezos bankrolled the gala – Amazon was its lead sponsor in 2012. But this year’s event came at a moment of soaring inequality, as Bezos’s personal wealth has mushroomed and his Donald Trump-appeasing decisions have made him less popular than ever with New York City’s left-leaning fashion and arts crowd.

How to make Provençal fish stew – recipe | Felicity Cloake's Masterclass

Fish stew in the south of France doesn’t have to mean a complicated bouillabaise: bourride is a simpler and equally perfect match for a summer’s evening

Much as I love bouillabaisse, I’ve never come across rascasse, the spiny Mediterranean rockfish that’s the backbone of Marseille’s signature dish, outside its homeland. Bourride, another southern French fish stew, is a simpler affair that’s much easier to recreate here. Enriched with garlicky aïoli, it’s a lovely thing for a summer’s evening, and can be prepared ahead up to the end of step 7.

Prep 20 min
Cook 1 hr 10 min
Serves 2, generously

Move over, seltzer. Non-carbonated drinks are taking the spotlight

Non-carbonated alcoholic drinks like Surfside and BeatBox are stealing "share of throat" from hard seltzers, particularly among Gen Z.

Religious leaders, lawmakers push for $1 billion to secure houses of worship

There's an effort on Capitol Hill to increase funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which awards funding to houses of worship to harden their defenses. In 2024, roughly a third of those who applied actually received funding.

With oil markets nearing the danger zone, a US-Iran deal can’t come soon enough | Heather Stewart

Global prices are approaching a tipping point that could trigger inflation, shortages and, over time, recession

If a US-Iran deal is about to be reached, three months on from the launch of Donald Trump’s Operation Epic Fury, it will not be a day too soon for oil markets, which are approaching a dangerous tipping point.

The cost of a barrel of crude on the spot market – for immediate purchase, effectively – has bounced about $100 since Iran predictably responded to the onslaught from the US and Israel by closing the strait of Hormuz.

UK judge’s decision not to jail boys for rape like a ‘rock in my face’, says victim, 16

Boys, aged 15, given youth rehabilitation orders for two separate attacks against two girls in Hampshire

A judge’s decision not to jail the teenage boys who raped two girls has been described as a “rock straight in my face” by one of their victims.

Southampton crown court heard the two boys, both aged 15 at the time, raped the teenage girls in two separate attacks that occurred on 26 November 2024 and 17 January 2025 in Fordingbridge, Hampshire.

Former prosecutor pursued by Trump calls for crackdown on election lies: ‘Lying can be held to account’

Andrew Weissmann argues for new law to hold political liars like US president accountable for harming democracy

Politicians must be held accountable if their lies damage democracy, according to a former US federal prosecutor and FBI general counsel who was pursued by Donald Trump.

The US must be “as creative as possible” and introduce sweeping structural reforms if it escapes its current “mess”, said Andrew Weissmann, laying out a proposal for a legislative crackdown on election deceit.

Liar’s Kingdom: How to Stop Trump’s Deceit and Save America is out now

Bruce Springsteen is a model for how celebrities should resist Trump | Steven Greenhouse

His recent concerts are a thunderous call to fight for democracy. The nation could use more like him

The Bruce Springsteen concert I went to in Brooklyn last week was unlike any concert I’ve attended in decades. It was far more than a fabulous, joyous concert; it was also an inspiring resistance event.

From the get-go, the Boss made clear that this concert would be part of the anti-Trump resistance. It was a three-hour-long ode to the resistance and a thunderous call to Springsteen fans to step up and do more to fight for democracy and against authoritarianism. In this way, Springsteen is serving as a model for how celebrities can stand up against Trump and fight for what’s right.

Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice

Singing through the bloody mist

Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labor and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues

I was punched on the school bus. Being violently bullied changed me – and affected one of the biggest decisions of my life

I’ve worked hard to leave the intimidation I experienced in the past. But when I met the man I wanted to marry, those childhood memories took me by surprise

The bullying began shortly after my fifth birthday. My family had moved from Dorset to a small village in Buckinghamshire. I started a new school in September, just before my third sister was born. It should have been idyllic. I remember everyone being excited about the new baby on the way. My school was small and set in the heart of the countryside, with playing fields bordered by woodland. It was about a mile from our new home. If the weather was good, my mother tried to encourage me to walk with her. Sometimes she would repurpose my lunchbox as a punnet and fill it with blackberries picked from the hedgerow on the way home. But she was heavily pregnant, and at the time the mother of three (soon to be four) children aged five and under. It made practical sense for me to catch the school bus.

Weird things were already happening at school. Initially I put it down to the shock of the new. The games were boisterous – my sisters and I could be rough with each other, but everything seemed to go a little further and cut a little deeper. I’d been startled by a group of girls who had reached under my skirt and tugged my knickers down to my ankles. Maybe they thought they were being funny? I just wasn’t sure whether I was in on the joke, or whether I was the joke. At first, it felt a little like being in a dream or visiting a foreign country. Almost nothing made sense to me, but I knew I was the only one who couldn’t understand, and it was down to me to work it out.

Gunman killed after opening fire on Secret Service checkpoint outside White House

A bystander was also wounded, but no Secret Service officers were injured, officials said. President Trump was in the White House at the time of the incident.

This is how we do it: ‘I thought I’d never want to have sex again – then I gave myself a pep talk’

When Lucia’s libido dropped, she found imaginative ways to reignite her spark with Edwin

• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

I felt guilty because I love him and want to make him happy

A college degree once ensured prosperity – but gen Z is finding ‘just not much out there’

Survey after survey show gen Z experiencing deep economic instability, plus eroding trust in US leadership and weakened social connections

Jes Vesconte graduated from one of California’s most prestigious art schools, did a Fulbright in Germany and got a master’s from Columbia University.

Yet Vesconte, 29, is struggling to afford everyday life. Amid freelancing and working service-industry jobs, they are now in the midst of yet another job search to supplement their income before their student loan repayment schedule begins next month.

Nurse convicted in patient's death is now a national speaker on hospital safety

RaDonda Vaught was convicted of negligent homicide after dispensing the wrong drug to a patient. She now gives speeches about hospital safety in an era of automation and artificial intelligence.

Russia pounds Kyiv in powerful drone and missile attack

At least two people were killed and 77 injured in the attack, which included the use of a powerful hypersonic ballistic missile called the Oreshnik, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

‘People are like: you’re a crackpot’: how Sam Campbell became comedy’s oddball superstar

Having enjoyed breakout fame on Taskmaster and Last One Laughing, the subversive Australian comic has been handed the reins of his own, very strange sitcom. Get ready for feet animations and a character called Super-Breast …

The premise of Make That Movie, Australian comedian Sam Campbell’s deeply strange new Channel 4 series, is not easy to describe. A show-within-a-show, it stars its creator as an alternative Sam Campbell: rather than his real-life idiosyncratic standup self, he’s a pompous director whose well of inspiration has run dry. So he invites the public to share their (invariably bonkers) ideas for movies, which he and his dysfunctional crew then develop into real feature films. This all occurs within the framework of a shonky reality programme; each episode concludes with the film’s premiere. Think Changing Rooms, but instead of Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Handy Andy renovating somebody’s living room, it’s Campbell and co bringing to life a man called Mick’s fantasy about a couple who can’t be snakes at the same time, yet one of them is always a snake.

In other words, the actual Campbell is the one who has been given carte blanche to turn his own invariably bonkers ideas into reality. He claims the production company behind the show were very hands-off – partly because they were so busy working on an animated Ricky Gervais series about cats “so we sort of got left to our own devices”. It helped that Channel 4’s head of comedy, Charlie Perkins – a longtime champion and collaborator of Campbell’s – was also “very trusting. I don’t know if she really got [the concept] when we were first talking about it. When we’d made it, I think she understood it a tiny bit more.”

‘Bringing the boys back home’: how mountain bongos Maue, Fitz, Kudu and Bon64 made their way back to Kenya

Staff at the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy are overseeing the repatriation of ‘the shiest antelope’ from western zoos to their native east African country

“We are bringing the boys home,” says Ngenoh Erick Kibet, a wildlife officer at the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, as a cargo plane carrying four mountain bongo touches down on a wet runway at Jomo Kenyatta international airport.

The operation is the culmination of two weeks spent in Czechia, a first flight for Kibet, and a decades-long collective effort to rescue a species on the edge of extinction.

The 100th bongo calf was recently born at the conservancy

'Homeland Security' has spawned political insecurity since DHS was born

DHS was originally conceived in the interest of unity and harmony — and the phrase "homeland security" was originally meant to be reassuring.

Torn by war, Israelis and Palestinians tie their fortunes together

At a time when hopes are dim for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, some Arab and Jewish entrepreneurs are partnering across the divide, hoping to prove what's possible.

Trump says Iran deal reopening Strait of Hormuz 'largely negotiated,' will be announced soon

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since April 8, punctuated by skirmishes as the U.S. and Iran jockey over the Strait of Hormuz.

‘Growing up, you couldn’t play Bon Jovi – that’s what our parents listened to’: Bebe Rexha’s honest playlist

The chart-topping star makes a strong case for Livin’ on a Prayer and opts for TLC at karaoke. But which song reminds her too much of her ex to listen to?

The first song I fell in love with
When I was five or six, my mom got me the VHS of The Little Mermaid, and I would watch it over and over again. I was obsessed with the moment Ariel sings Part of Your World. There was something about wanting more, wanting a different life – even as a kid, I felt that.

The first single I bought
I remember going to a record store in Times Square, New York and my aunt buying me What a Girl Wants by Christina Aguilera on cassette tape and it was really exciting. Then the first CD that I bought myself was Just Dance by Lady Gaga which felt like a real moment of independence.

Tour groups, temporary routes and toilets: the reshaping of Rome – photo essay

Photographer Lorenzo Grifantini looks at how the Italian capital’s historic centre has gradually reorganised itself around the uninterrupted flow of visitors and the expectations projected on to it

By mid-morning, the area around the Trevi fountain is already difficult to cross. Visitors stop suddenly to take photographs while tour groups gather behind raised umbrellas, and security staff redirect the flow of people through temporary barriers placed around the monument. Nearby, souvenir kiosks sell rosaries, plastic gladiator helmets, bottled water and magnets in the summer heat.

Tourists pose for photographs in front of the Trevi fountain

Shark attack: man dies on Great Barrier Reef in far north Queensland

The 39-year-old was reportedly fishing at Kennedy Shoal between Cairns and Townsville when emergency services alerted about midday

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A man has died after a shark attack on the Great Barrier Reef south of Cairns.

The 39-year-old had reportedly been fishing at Kennedy Shoal, a shallow reef about 50km off the Queensland coast, between Cairns and Townsville.

‘My partner was cheating. I wouldn’t have told anybody else’: people who found the right friend at the right time

From single mothers to fathers of autistic children and fellow adoptees – some relationships come along just when you need them the most

Lucy Crowe and Mikayla Jolley, London

‘We’re expanding the cinematic toolbox’: AI fault lines on show at Cannes

Darren Aronofsky among proponents of using technology, while Guillermo del Toro says he would ‘rather die’

Under a white marquee on Cannes’ Croisette beach, with the Mediterranean glistening behind him and superyachts drifting across the horizon, the director Darren Aronofsky addressed an audience of executives and tech evangelists gathered for an “AI for Talent” summit.

“There’s so much pushback against AI,” said Aronofsky, who has faced criticism over his embrace of generative AI projects though his new studio, Primordial Soup, at a time when artificial intelligence has become one of the film industry’s most divisive fault lines.

‘There is profound disappointment in him’: mood in Russia turns against Putin

Increasingly isolated president is determined to press on with Ukraine war, say well-placed sources, despite ailing economy

Vladimir Putin pulled up to a hotel in central Moscow earlier in May in a Russian-made SUV, dressed casually in jeans and a light jacket. Carrying a bouquet of flowers, he walked unhurriedly into the lobby and embraced his former schoolteacher Vera Gurevich, who kissed him on both cheeks.

He then helped Gurevich into his car and drove her to dinner at the Kremlin.

Iran moving World Cup training base from U.S. to Mexico

Iran had been scheduled to train in Tucson, Arizona, but it will now move its training base to Tijuana, Mexico, just south of San Diego.

Kyle Busch's cause of death revealed by family

Kyle Busch, who won more races in NASCAR's top three series than anyone in history, died suddenly on Thursday.

The moment I knew: I’d quit my job and was newly single – then he smiled and I felt like I was home

When Monika Ruggerino broke a restaurant lamp – a favourite item of the charismatic chef Antonio – she had no idea it would change the course of her life

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

Early in 2015 I was helping my friend organise her 30th birthday. She’d decided on the function space above a favourite little restaurant, Verde in Darlinghurst, Sydney.

A few weeks ahead of the celebration we went in for a tasting. It was the first time I’d seen the head chef and owner, Antonio. He was older than us and so handsome that once he’d sat us down and gone off to get something, my friend and I realised we were both blushing. His Calabrian charisma was undeniable and his smile took my breath away.

My body is fat, not wrong: how body neutrality – not positivity – helped me shed a lifetime of shame | Jasper Peach

If I’d been taught this way of thinking as a child, I can’t begin to imagine how much easier things could have been

In 1981 the CD was born and so was I. Both arrivals were surprising and have drifted in and out of fashion ever since. As a baby, my majestic “chonk lord” status was cause for celebration and an indication of prosperity. But from a young age I noticed that my presence seemed to offend other people. When I was seven, I remember asking to have a go at skipping, after having turned the rope for everyone else. One child enlightened me on why I couldn’t: I was too fat to skip.

Children learn hierarchy from adults and then their peers. Who belongs, who doesn’t and why. My classmates learned from adults to see me as something to mock and despise. Even my own well-meaning father once sat me down and told me that nobody would love, trust or employ me due to my body shape. This didn’t shock me; I’d already picked up what everyone was putting down.

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UK records hottest day of year as forecasters warn of more extreme heat

Temperature reaches 30.5C in Kent as amber health alerts issued before bank holiday temperatures rise

The UK has recorded its hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures reaching 30.5C in Kent as forecasters warned more extreme heat could follow over the bank holiday weekend.

The temperature in Frittenden also marked the first time since 2012 the UK has reached 30C in May, according to the Met Office.