Letlow, Fleming advance to runoff in Louisiana GOP Senate primary, CBS News projects

Incumbent GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, who had occasionally broken with the Trump administration, lost his bid for a third term.

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy loses in Republican primary, does not advance to runoff

Sen. Bill Cassidy is one of few remaining Republican senators who voted for President Trump's impeachment after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump endorsed his opponent, Rep. Julia Letlow.

Republican Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy loses primary after Trump intervenes to oust him

Cassidy’s bid to win nomination for third term was imperiled by his vote to convict Trump after January 6 insurrection

The Republican senator Bill Cassidy lost his primary on Saturday, as voters in Louisiana opted instead to advance two challengers to a runoff election after an extraordinary intervention by Donald Trump to oust the incumbent.

Cassidy’s bid to win the Republican party’s nomination for a third term in the deep-red state was imperiled by his decision to vote in favor of Trump’s conviction after the January 6 insurrection. In what was widely seen as an effort to rehabilitate his standing with the president, Cassidy last year cast the deciding vote to advance vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, flying in the face of the senator’s support for immunizations and training as a physician.

What happened to the ‘little refugee girl’?: the 102-year-old Holocaust survivor whose story started outside my doorstep

For years, I polished the brass plaques in front of my apartment dedicated to a Jewish mother and daughter who were murdered by the Nazis. Then a message out of the blue connected me to a surviving child …

At the grand, biblical age of 102, Sonja Ibermann Cowan has zero interest in wasting her time. There are delicious great-grandbabies to be serenaded, uproarious meals to share with her three beloved daughters, and meaningful celebrations of the high holidays to mark with her Melbourne rabbi, who makes house calls. Five years ago, she decided to invest some of that precious time in what became a friendship with me, across the world in Berlin, her birthplace.

The boredom of the pandemic certainly played a part. Cooped up at home under much stricter Covid-19 restrictions than we had in Germany – Sonja joked about being “eingesperrt” (locked up) – she and her extended close-knit family started turning their attention to the past. Her grandson Benjamin Preiss, a journalist at the Australian newspaper The Age, embarked on an  ambitious research project to uncover the mysteries of Sonja’s life and her mother’s and sister’s murders in the Holocaust.

One man with two identities behind crimes from Monaco to New Mexico

In New Mexico, a man is charged with forgery & larceny – and convicted of putting out a hit on his estranged wife. Twenty-six years earlier, a fire in Monaco kills a billionaire and his private nurse. At the center of that mystery was the very same man — with a different name.

WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda ‘emergency’ of international concern

At least 80 deaths reported in Congo’s Ituri province while Uganda reports spread from travellers from the DRC

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda a “public health emergency of international concern”.

The WHO on Sunday said the outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency.

A "Survivor" finalist's mission to prove his late sister was murdered

"Survivor" 48 and 50 contestant Joe Hunter believes his sister Joanna, whose death was ruled a suicide, was murdered. He and their mother are working to be Joanna's voice and advocate for others who have experienced domestic violence.

Exorbitant World Cup ticket prices creating sticker shock for soccer fans

FIFA President Gianni Infantino joked that if someone does pay $2 million for a ticket to the World Cup final, "I will personally bring him a hot dog and a Coke."

Colorado River crisis could force drastic water measures across the West

Approximately 40 million people across the West depend on the Colorado River for water every single day. But the region could soon face drastic measures as the river keeps shrinking.

Veterans reunite with their vintage war planes

In Peru, Illinois, the veterans reunite with the vintage warplanes they once flew. Noel Brennan has the story.

Napoleon Solo wins Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park

Napoleon Solo hustled to first place at the 151st running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, coming out on top against 13 other horses.

World Cup prices shock fans: "I'm excited but it's too expensive"

Anticipation is building for next month's World Cup Soccer Tournament, and so are costs, for both fans and the host cities. Adam Yamaguchi has more.

Iowa farmers, feeling the strain, hope for positive outcome from Trump's China summit

The war with Iran has created an additional strain for farmers, raising the price of diesel by about 50%. The cost of nearly everything else, from seed to fertilizer, is rising too.

Israeli strikes kill six in southern Lebanon hours after extension of ceasefire

Three paramedics at health centre among dead, while Hamas military chief Izz al-Din al-Haddad killed in Gaza strike

Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon, killing at least six people, including three paramedics working at a health centre, just hours after its envoys had agreed with the Lebanese government to extend a ceasefire.

Israel also said it had killed the Hamas military chief, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, in a targeted strike in Gaza on Friday.

The Colorado River, whose water is shared by 7 states, is shrinking

The Colorado River is on the brink of disaster. Its water is shared by seven states, which is a big part of the problem. Jonathan Vigliotti reports.

Ukraine war briefing: US allows Russian oil sanctions waiver to lapse; unexploded projectile lands in Romania

No renewal notice posted on US Treasury website so far for waiver that had allowed countries such as India to buy Russian seaborne oil. What we know on day 1,544

The Trump administration on Saturday allowed a sanctions waiver to lapse that had previously allowed countries including India to buy Russian seaborne oil after a month-long extension aimed at easing oil supply shortages and high prices due to Iran’s closure of the strait of Hormuz. The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, had previously said he would not renew the general licence allowing the purchase of Russian oil stored on tankers. As of early afternoon Washington time on Saturday, no renewal notice had been posted on the Treasury website.

Two top Democratic US senators, Jeanne Shaheen and Elizabeth Warren, on Friday urged the Trump administration against renewing the waiver because it was providing revenue to Russia to aid its war in Ukraine, but said there was no evidence it was bringing down fuel costs for American consumers.

An unexploded projectile was discovered on a property in south-eastern Romania near the EU and Nato member’s border with Ukraine on Saturday, its defence ministry said. Romania shares a 650-km (400-mile) land border with Ukraine. Russian drones attacking Ukraine’s ports on the Danube river have repeatedly breached Romanian airspace and fragments have sometimes fallen on its territory as Ukrainian forces shoot them down. An unguided reactive projectile was found in the yard of an uninhabited house in the village of Pardina in Romania’s Tulcea county, the ministry said without indicating its suspected origin.

Last month, an explosive drone landed in a back yard in the city of Galati, marking the first time since the start of the Ukraine war that such an incident had damaged property in Romania.

The leaders of Nato’s 14 eastern flank nations this week said Russia’s repeated violations of their airspace underlined the urgent need to consolidate the alliance’s air defences against missiles and drones. Several Russian and Ukrainian drones have crashed in Latvia since Russia invaded Ukraine, stirring public disquiet in the small former Soviet republic that is now a member of Nato and the EU.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics on Saturday proposed opposition lawmaker Andris Kulbergs as the next prime minister after Evika Silina resigned. Silina stepped down triggering the collapse of her coalition after she dismissed defence minister Andris Spruds because Ukrainian drones strayed into Latvia and exploded at an oil facility. The Latvian army said it failed to detect the drones as they crossed from Russia. Silina blamed Spruds for not developing anti-drone systems quickly enough. In response, Spruds’ Progressives party withdrew support from Silina’s government on Wednesday, leaving her without a parliamentary majority and exposed to a no-confidence vote.

Napoleon Solo holds off Iron Honor to win the Preakness

It's the colt's first victory of the year. Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo's exit from the race left the field of 14 horses wide open to contest the middle jewel of the Triple Crown.

Thousands of railroad employees on strike in New York

Workers for the busiest commuter rail service in North America are on strike. 3,500 Long Island Rail Road employees walked off the job in New York. Ali Bauman reports.

Bulgarian banger 'Bangaranga' bags country its 1st Eurovision win

Bulgaria was not among the favorites to win. But performer Dara's catchy, banging anthem bested 24 other nations at the 70th edition of the international singing extravaganza.

New uncertainty for America's farmers as China summit wraps, Iran war fuels high costs

Many struggling American farmers had big hopes for President Trump's China summit. But many were still left with questions. Lana Zak reports.

Largest aircraft carrier in the world returns to the U.S., bringing thousands of sailors home

The Pentagon awarded the USS Ford Carrier Group the prestigious Presidential Unit Citation for heroism as the warships finally returned home from two defining military missions. Olivia Rinaldi has more.

Aaron Rodgers reportedly set for Steelers return on one-year deal worth up to $25m

• Four-time MVP led Pittsburgh to division title in 2025

• Rodgers reunites with ex-Packers coach McCarthy

Aaron Rodgers is running it back with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Two people with knowledge of the decision told the Associated Press that the four-time NFL MVP agreed to a one-year deal to return to Pittsburgh on Saturday, ending a protracted decision-making process. The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been announced.

Venezuela says it deported Alex Saab, a key Maduro ally, to the U.S.

Venezuela's government says it has deported a close ally of Nicolás Maduro to face judicial proceedings in the U.S. less than three years he was pardoned by President Joe Biden.

Smalley takes two-shot lead into final round of US PGA Championship but big names lurk

• Home hope surges to six under thanks to round of 68

• Rahm among five on four under; McIlroy is three under

The leaderboard was spinning like a tombola at Aronimink on Saturday, where at one point or another just about every player in the field had a birdie putt to take a share of the lead and then a bogey putt to let go of it again. When the drum finally stopped turning, Alex Smalley, a 29-year-old from North Carolina who has never won a professional golf tournament, was top of the leaderboard on six under, two shots clear of a five-way tie for second. No disrespect to Smalley, the world No 78, but the field are queued up like bowling balls on the rack waiting to take a run at him on Sunday.

Philadelphia loves an underdog, but it’s probably best if the trumpeter waits another day before he strikes up the opening notes of the Rocky theme.

Meet the horses who ran in the Preakness Stakes

The Preakness Stakes featured its biggest field in 15 years with 14 horses in the middle jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown.

Bulgaria wins 70th Eurovision contest with Dara and Bangaranga

The UK finished last as the contest, held in Vienna, saw five countries boycott it over the participation of Israel

Bulgaria has won the 2026 Eurovision song contest after singer Dara swept to victory with the song Bangaranga.

The 27-year-old singer’s triumph is a first victory in the 70-year history of the song contest for Bulgaria, which only joined Eurovision in 2005 and sat out the last three editions.

Which college majors offer the best long-term return on investment?

College grads outearn people without a degree within 15 years, even after paying for tuition, study finds.

This week on "Sunday Morning" (May 17): "By Design"

"Sunday Morning" presents its annual edition touching on all aspects of design, hosted by Jane Pauley.

5/16: CBS Weekend News

Sailors on USS Gerald R. Ford come home after their historic mission; new uncertainty for America's farmers.

Shell-shocked: California man arrested for attempting to traffic wild turtles

Donald Do allegedly sought to export 292 loggerhead musk turtles under the false claim they had been captive-bred

A California man, who received a federal permit to export turtles under the false claim that they had been captive-bred, has been arrested on wildlife-trafficking charges, authorities said on Friday.

Donald Do and an unidentified accomplice allegedly sought to export 292 loggerhead musk turtles to Taiwan from December 2022 to May 2024. The accomplice obtained the US Fish and Wildlife Service export license, after which, authorities say, Do purchased turtles poached from the wild in Florida and other locales. Do had also allegedly sent instructions for the animals to be shipped to San Francisco.

UK and France extend ‘one in, one out’ small boats pilot scheme until October

Asylum seekers express dismay at continuation of scheme agreed last year that has failed to stop crossings in Channel

The Home Office is extending a controversial scheme to stop asylum seekers crossing the Channel in small boats, the Guardian has learned.

The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, signed a deal they hailed as “groundbreaking” last July, known as “one in, one out”.

Nine injured after car pursued by police crashes in east London

Met police say they pursued vehicle believed stolen before it collided with another vehicle in Ilford

Nine people have been injured after a car being pursued by police crashed in east London.

The Metropolitan police said officers had tried to stop a vehicle they believed had been stolen.

Canada confirms first hantavirus case in isolation in British Columbia

The person was on board the MV Hondius, the center of the outbreak that has claimed three lives

Canadian officials said on Saturday that a test for one of the four Canadians currently quarantining in British Columbia after being exposed to the hantavirus while on board the cruise ship where the outbreak occurred indicated a positive result.

Speaking at a news conference, Dr Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s provincial health officer, said the individual developed mild symptoms, including fever and headache, two days ago, and that the individual and their partner, who had also been on board the cruise ship where they had been isolating together, were transferred to a hospital in Victoria for assessment and testing.

‘Surfers say, that board is so sick!’ The French artist redesigning the surfboard

From crab pincers to stingray shapes, Lucas Lecacheur’s designs push the boundaries of accepted norms – and they are functional too

• Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

A surfboard split in the middle to create crab pincers. Another that looks like an exaggerated take on a stingray. A surfboard with a webbed bottom contour, like a duck’s foot. And a fire-engine red skateboard shaped like a cartoon-like flame on wheels.

All of Lucas Lecacheur’s surfboards and skateboards push the boundaries of accepted norms – and incredibly, they are all also functional. Beachgoers on the French holiday island Île de Ré, where Lecacheur grew up, have become accustomed to seeing his black leather-clad figure on the sand, holding the Brutalist – an enormous and sharply contoured board – under his arm.

Flying Lotus: ‘People kept saying, “You can’t make hip-hop with a laptop.” Those comments were my fuel’

In the lead-up to his Australian tour, the producer and DJ reveals his obsession with Chucky, his favourite time signature and which Kanye West record is the ‘most overrated album of all time’

What album or film or book do you always return to, and why?

I always return to Blade Runner, because it has everything that I love – beautiful music, beautiful visuals, beautiful story. And it helps me sleep. Everything’s got this crazy reverb on it and long, drawn-out sounds – it makes you drift off. It’s like a warm blanket. It also inspires me. It’s everything I need.

Elina Svitolina sinks Coco Gauff to regain Italian Open after eight-year gap

• Ukrainian wins final in Rome 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-2

• Jannik Sinner to face Casper Ruud in men’s final

When facing the toughest opponents in the world, there were too many occasions in Elina Svitolina’s past when she would simply play not to lose. In the decisive moments of her most important encounters, Svitolina was often punished for her tendency to simply put the ball in court rather than attacking freely.

With time, age and many tough losses behind her along with her great successes, however, the 31-year-old has come to truly understand the importance of playing on her own terms. She has evolved into a much bolder, more decisive player, and showed her progress by taking another massive step forward in a resurgent season, defeating Coco Gauff after three bruising and attritional sets to capture her first significant title in eight years at the Italian Open with a stellar 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-2 win.

If this was Guardiola’s last big Wembley moment, Semenyo was a fitting match-winner | Barney Ronay

Forward doesn’t fit the mould of a classic Pep signing, but we have all come a long way in the past decade of Manchester City success

One way or another, this was always going to end up being a Pep day. At the final whistle Pep Guardiola didn’t punch the air or really celebrate at all. Instead he walked quite slowly over to the scorer of the only goal, Antoine Semenyo, and vigorously triple-patted his buttocks, then meandered around the edges of the bobbing huddles on the Wembley pitch.

There will be a temptation to look for clues here. Nobody really knows if Guardiola is leaving Manchester City at the end of the season. Contract extension brinkmanship is nothing new, although not with quite so much whispered chat about assistants on the move and leaked replacement plans.

Saints and sinners: if Southampton are found guilty of spying they should be punished | Jonathan Wilson

There needs to be a zero-tolerance approach to stealing other clubs’ secrets – Kim Hellberg’s emotional response shows just how deep this goes

Kim Hellberg was clearly upset and his press conference after Middlesbrough’s defeat at Southampton in the Championship semi‑final playoff second leg became unexpectedly moving as a result. In football, the Boro manager said, you accept that some teams have greater resources than others but where the coach of the less well-off team can gain an advantage is in the “tactical element”; it is in effect the only weapon he has. And if that weapon is made less effective by an opponent cheating, it is understandable that Hellberg should feel that his profession, the skillset he has developed to test himself against his peers, has been betrayed.

That disgust is, no doubt, genuine enough, and it is perhaps difficult for those of us who do not work in that world fully to grasp how frustrating it must be if strategies and ploys carefully conceived and practised are rendered ineffective, not by the in-game acuity of an opponent, but by espionage. But it is admittedly hard to square that righteous anger with the image published in the Mail this week of a sheepish young man lurking behind a tree with a phone.

New Zealand sink England in rain-hit final women’s ODI to tie series

• 3rd ODI: England 181-7; NZ 141-4. NZ win by 17 runs (DLS)

• Play halted with tourists ahead on DLS – series drawn 1-1

New Zealand shared the series spoils – and the ICC Championship points – after winning the final one-day international at Cardiff on Saturday by six wickets (DLS method).

Lauren Bell had initially reduced the tourists to 40 for three, before giving everyone a scare ahead of next month’s World Cup when she took a blow to a hand in her follow-through and briefly left the field. But stand-in captain Charlie Dean confirmed this had been merely precautionary: “She took a bit of a hit on her left thumb [in practice] yesterday, and it was a bit bruised and sore. When Maddy [Green] hit one back at her it was salt in the wound.”

Hearts contact police and condemn ‘shameful’ abuse of players and staff after Celtic defeat

• Club demand action over scenes at end of title-decider

• Hearts say authorities must protect ‘integrity of the game’

Hearts have issued a statement castigating the “shameful” and “disgraceful” scenes which marred the conclusion to the Scottish Premiership’s title race at Celtic Park. The Edinburgh club has emphasised “deeply disturbing” treatment of players and staff. Celtic’s last-day victory had secured their fifth title in succession.

Callum Osmand’s goal for Celtic, the third in a 3-1 win, fuelled a mass pitch invasion which saw Hearts players antagonised and confronted. Those who entered the pitch were audibly booed by those in the stands.

A new Ebola outbreak has already killed 87 people in Democratic Republic of Congo

Health officials are working to contain a new Ebola outbreak in the DRC of a virus strain with no known vaccine.

Tommy Robinson tells tens of thousands at London rally to prepare for ‘battle of Britain’

Turnout down at second ‘unite the kingdom’ march featuring Islamophobic and ethnonationalist hate speech and flyers

The far-right activist Tommy Robinson told tens of thousands of supporters to prepare for the “battle of Britain” during a rally in London on Saturday.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, drew tens of thousands of supporters on to the streets of central London for the second year running in an event where Islamophobic and ethnonationalist hate speech and flyers were distributed to the crowds.

Seven people injured after man drives car into pedestrians in northern Italy

Man in 30s arrested over incident in Modena that left two seriously hurt

Eight people were injured, two seriously, on Saturday after a car rammed into a group of pedestrians in the northern Italian city of Modena.

Police said the driver, in his 30s, had been arrested. He is also alleged to have attempted to stab a passerby who had tried to stop him from fleeing the scene.

North America poised for light display of aurora borealis

The splashy nighttime phenomenon will be best observed on Saturday and Sunday nights

The Beloved review – Javier Bardem turns in a career-scariest performance

Cannes film festival: This tremendously alarming drama from Rodrigo Sorogoyen is a meditation on male auteurs entirely without sentimentality

Javier Bardem gives his scariest performance since No Country For Old Men in this disquieting new film about emotional abuse from Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who made 2023 rural noir shocker The Beasts.

It’s a film about a film-shoot – often the occasion for whimsy or sentimentality or woozy rapture about the magic of cinema. Not here. And given this and Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, this year could be the Cannes of father-daughter dysfunction.

Timmy the whale confirmed dead by Danish authorities

Humpback had been found deceased on Friday after rescue attempt criticised as ‘pure animal cruelty’

Timmy the whale has been confirmed dead by Danish authorities two weeks after the beached humpback was transported to the North Sea in a rescue attempt criticised as “pure animal cruelty”.

Denmark’s Environmental Protection Agency said a whale had been found dead on Friday near ​the small ⁠island of Anholt in the Kattegat, a broad strait between Denmark and Sweden, and confirmed it was Timmy on Saturday.

For better or worse, investors are living through Trump’s stock market. Here's why

President Donald Trump has been considered the ultimate stock market president, overseeing an expansion to record highs as well as major declines.

European football: Kane uncorks title party with hat-trick; Lewandowski to leave Barça

• St Pauli and Heidenheim relegated from Bundesliga

• Lewandowski, 37, scored 119 goals for Catalan club

• Arbeloa gives blessing to Mourinho at Real Madrid

Harry Kane scored a hat-trick as Bayern Munich celebrated their 35th title on a gripping final day of the Bundesliga season with a 5-1 win over Cologne.

Kane, the England captain, scored an elegant volley and a direct free-kick in the first half before rounding off his fourth hat-trick of the season, ending as the league’s top scorer with 36 goals.

Narváez battles headwinds to break free and claim his second stage of 2026 Giro d’Italia

• Ecuadorian wins stage eight by 32 seconds

• Hindley attacks but Vingegaard stays on his wheel

Jhonatan Narváez powered away from his breakaway rivals to win stage eight of the Giro d’Italia on Saturday for his second victory and a third for the injury-decimated UAE Team Emirates XRG.

Adam Yates, Jay Vine and Marc Soler have all been forced out of the Giro after a gruesome stage three pile up in Bulgaria, but the super-team from the Emirates has refocused impressively.

"Survivor" superfan builds her own tribe

The "Survivor" season 50 finale premieres on Wednesday, and "CBS Saturday Morning" meets Sarah Polakiewicz, a "Survivor" superfan in Atlanta who built her own community around the show.

Atlanta residents report Waymo traffic jams

Atlanta residents say they're waking up to traffic jams of self-driving Waymo vehicles confused by neighborhood signage.

Timmy the humpback whale found dead off Danish coast

A humpback whale found dead this week off a Danish island has been identified as the animal released two weeks ago in a spectacular and controversial rescue effort after repeatedly becoming stranded off Germany's Baltic Sea coast, Danish authorities said Saturday.

Ice cream sold in 17 states recalled for potential metal fragments

No injuries have been reported because of the issue, the Food and Drug Administration said.

Wes Streeting confirms he will stand if Labour leadership race is triggered

Ex-health secretary sets out fledgling policy platform – including call for new special relationship with EU

Wes Streeting has confirmed that he will run to replace Keir Starmer as prime minister if a leadership contest is triggered, and called for a “proper contest” to be held for the role.

Speaking at a conference organised by the thinktank Progress on Saturday, Streeting confirmed he would enter any possible leadership race, outlining his belief that the UK needed to pursue a “new special relationship” with the EU, signalling that he wanted to see the country rejoin the trade bloc in the future.

What we learned from the cringey courtroom drama between Elon Musk and Sam Altman

Two of the world’s richest people faced an airing of their dirty laundry amid their messy, bitter feud over OpenAI

A nine-person jury is set to decide whether Elon Musk’s allegations of “stealing a charity” against Sam Altman and OpenAI are legitimate, with deliberations to begin in earnest on Monday. Whatever its outcome, the case has been an illuminating, at times exhausting, look behind the scenes at the history of OpenAI and how some of the most powerful figures in the tech industry operate.

Attorneys for both sides have introduced reams of private text messages, emails and even diary entries to support their arguments. A who’s who of Silicon Valley testified in the trial, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the mother of some of Musk’s children, Shivon Zilis. Both Altman and Musk also took the stand for hours, facing combative cross-examinations that painted them each as untrustworthy.

Supreme Court rejects Virginia Democrats' bid to revive new congressional map

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a bid by Virginia Democrats to revive its new voter-approved congressional map that was drawn to advantage the party for the upcoming midterm elections.

Devastating wildfires rip through Texas panhandle

Wildfires fueled by dry conditions and high winds are ripping through Texas and other southwestern states as firefighters struggle to contain the blaze.

Court records on arrested Iraqi national reveal details of foiled terror plots targetting Jews

Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, an Iraqi national, is facing federal charges for his alleged terror plots targeting Jewish institutions around the U.S.

At least eight people killed in Bangkok rail crossing collision

Thai authorities say 32 others injured near Makkasan station after freight train strikes bus and fire breaks out

At least eight people were killed and 32 others were injured in Thailand after a freight train struck a bus at a rail crossing in Bangkok, rescue officials and a deputy transport minister said.

Firefighters and rescue crews were dispatched as flames engulfed the bus and nearby vehicles close to the airport rail link’s Makkasan station, officials said, adding that the collision also involved cars and motorcycles.

The bond market is flashing a warning over Iran. A veteran of energy geopolitics explains the risk

Daleep Singh knows how energy and markets intersect. He sees trouble ahead.

The Uplift: Derby dream come true

David Begnaud meets a man who has attended the Kentucky Derby for 79 years in a row – and his dying wish to make it there one last time.

Kevin Warsh comes into the Fed facing a big 'family fight' over cutting interest rates

With inflation spiking and Treasury yields surging, Warsh is likely to confront a Federal Open Market Committee in no mood to ease.

Soldier dies after falling from horse at Royal Windsor Horse Show

Member of King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery received medical treatment but died at scene after sustaining serious injuries

A service person has died after falling from their horse after a display at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, police said.

The soldier, part of the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, fell at about 7pm on Friday after exiting the arena.

5/16: Saturday Morning

President Trump returned from his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Meanwhile, a deadly strain of Ebola is sparking concern in central Africa.

This Republican voted to convict Trump. Now he's up for reelection. Can he survive?

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict President Trump. Now he's running for reelection in a race that will test Trump's hold on the GOP.

One thing Guardian staff have done to defend press freedom … and one thing you can do

What does defending press freedom mean in practice? We asked people across the Guardian to tell us something they have done to protect it this past year. The range of responses will likely surprise you

• Support independent journalism today

It sounds like a fundamental principle. A tenet. But, in reality, press freedom is more of a practical and relentless daily struggle.

I’ve been asking colleagues from across the Guardian to tell me about one of the things they have done to protect press freedom this past year – from our international correspondents and investigative reporters to our visual journalists and commercial and technology departments.

Harlem Renaissance documentary finally gets global premiere 50 years after cameras rolled

Once Upon a Time in Harlem, completed by relatives of William Greaves after his death, showcased at Cannes

In 1969, the pioneering documentarian William Greaves wrote of his fury over the racially degrading stereotypes that white film producers threw up on American screens. “It became clear to me that unless we black people began to produce information for screen and television there would always be a distortion of the ‘black image,’” he said.

Three years later, Greaves began work on what he considered the most important footage he ever shot: a feature documentary gathering surviving figures of the Harlem Renaissance to reflect on the movement they had built half a century earlier.

Peacock ‘invasion’ of Italian seaside town ruffles feathers

With Punta Marina residents loving or loathing the incomers, ‘peacock rangers’ have been appointed to defuse tensions

Federico Bruni was sitting on a bench, eating a piadina romagnola (flatbread sandwich) and minding his own business, when a peacock strutted up in the hope of a few crumbs. High-pitched squeals emanated from the direction of a disused military barracks across the road. “That would be the call to love,” Bruni said. “The male peacocks are courting the female ones – we’re in peak mating season.”

As another couple of peacocks wandered by, their iridescent trains sweeping the pavement behind them, this could be mistaken for a wildlife park. But the scene is Punta Marina, a seaside town on the Adriatic coast of Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region that has been colonised by the birds, to the delight – or despair – of its approximately 1,000 residents.

Meet the pilots flying Spirit Airlines' yellow jets to the desert

Special pilots have been moving Spirit's fleet of yellow jets to the desert.

Pomp, pageantry but precious little to show for Trump’s Beijing excursion

No swift end to the Iran war, uncertainty over Taiwan and only vague outlines of commercial deals … but the US president did get to bask in the company of Xi Jinping

It was historic, to be sure, but not as anyone had predicted. First there was Donald Trump, a self-declared teetotaler, apparently drinking champagne after Xi Jinping assured him that China’s “great rejuvenation” could go hand in hand with “Make America great again”. Then there was a Chinese military band playing a rendition of the US president’s signature campaign song, YMCA.

Beneath giant chandeliers, blue and gold balconies and a big orange backdrop with pagoda-style roofs, Thursday’s state banquet in Beijing featured characters whose presence would have been unthinkable here a decade ago: Elon Musk, the eccentric tech billionaire, Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host turned “secretary of war”, and of course Trump himself, a former reality TV star now leading the world’s biggest superpower.

Maldives diver dies in operation to recover bodies of Italians from cave

Mohamed Mahudhee suffered decompression sickness after searching for scuba divers in Vaavu Atoll and died in hospital

A Maldivian military diver has died during a high-risk operation to recover the bodies of four of the Italian scuba divers who drowned while exploring a deep underwater cave in the Maldives.

The diver suffered underwater decompression sickness after searching for the bodies of the Italians who, according to Italy’s foreign ministry, had “apparently died while attempting to explore caves at a depth of 50 metres (164ft)”.

Clarissa review – Sophie Okonedo mesmeric as Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway decamps to Nigeria

Cannes film festival: Commanding performances and a great musical score underpin this seductive drama about regret, memory and young love

Virginia Woolf seems to be having a moment in the movies. Soon, we will see Tina Gharavi’s new version of Woolf’s comic novel Night and Day; and now, Nigerian film-making brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri have brought to Cannes their interpretation of Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, a seductively mysterious, languorous, melancholy drama with commanding performances and a great musical score. It is set partly in modern-day Lagos, whose ambient streetscapes are conjured up with style, and partly in the more bucolic Abraka in southern Nigeria, 30 years in the past.

It is essentially a film about life-choices, about the terrible inevitability of marrying the wrong person and yearning to make sense of the past without regret. The film moves with an easier and more unselfconscious swing than, say, Stephen Daldry’s Dalloway-themed movie The Hours from 2002. There is a smooth switch between before and after, sometimes using the time-honoured technique of a photograph taken in the past that is rediscovered much later by some of its now-older subjects.

Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton win battle to stop 29-storey block being built by Thames

Planning inspector backs council’s rejection of development, which was ‘not exemplary, extraordinary, remarkable or distinctive, just tall’

Celebrities including Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger have defeated plans to build a 29-storey tower on the banks of the River Thames.

Jagger, along with fellow rock star Eric Clapton, actor Felicity Kendal and comic Harry Hill, fought the developer Rockwell Property for two years over its plan to erect a 100-metre tower next to Battersea Bridge. If the tower had been built on the south bank of the Thames in south-west London, it would have rivalled the heights of the famous chimneys on Battersea power station.

Elephants eat their crops. Farmers strike back. It's a war that's only getting worse

In Sri Lanka, the islanders revere elephants. But for farmers, there's rising tension that's leading to more fatal encounters — for both humans and hungry pachyderms.

Controversial FDA official leaving drug center post in latest departure at agency

Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg, leader of the Food and Drug Administration division responsible for regulating prescription and over-the-counter drugs, is leaving her post, a senior FDA official confirmed.

Andalucíans to vote in election seen as gauge of Spain’s wider political change

Conservatives expected to keep majority as socialists face drubbing and ballot tests trajectory of far-right Vox party

Voters in the southern Spanish region of Andalucía will cast their ballots in an election this weekend that is likely to deliver an absolute majority to the conservative People’s party (PP) and inflict another debilitating defeat on Pedro Sánchez’s embattled socialists in what was previously one of their proudest strongholds.

Sunday’s election in Spain’s most populous region – the last big poll before next year’s general election – will serve as a barometer of wider electoral opinion and could also reveal whether the popularity of the far-right Vox party is beginning to peak.

‘It didn’t seem real’: the Black mushroom hunters unearthing the US’s essential fungi

Enthusiasts say mycology offers connection, nourishment and a deeper tie to the land – and the African diaspora

On her typical walk in the woods in Newton, Massachusetts, something stopped Maria Pinto in her tracks. She spotted what appeared to be a glowing yellow figure with a metallic sheen among the pine needles on the ground. It was the first time Pinto was enthralled by a mushroom – the American yellow fly agaric, a poisonous fungus that is relatively common where Pinto lives in Massachusetts.

“It forced me down on my knees to examine it further, because it didn’t look real,” Pinto, a naturalist and writer, said. “It looked like it was from another dimension.” On that day in 2013, she captured the mushroom from dozens of angles on her phone.

‘A horrible way to die’: after deaths in Laredo, experts prepare for lethal summer heat at US-Mexico border

Officials warn of potentially fatal coming months after six people were found dead inside a railway car in Texas

As questions still swirl about the six people found dead inside a baking-hot railway car in Texas, immigration advocates warn that the US is about to enter the most dangerous season of the year for immigrants making the perilous journey over the southern border.

Early results shared by the Webb county medical examiner indicate that at least one of the six people found dead in the city of Laredo died from hyperthermia, which occurs when the body is overwhelmed by extreme heat. The same cause of death is likely true for the five others.

‘Research here is world class’: son of Steve Jobs looks to invest in UK cancer care

After death of his father, Reed Jobs is keen for his $1bn venture capital fund Yosemite to make a difference

“I saw my dad have cancer when I was a kid, and unfortunately that happens far too often. And that really motivated me to try to transform outcomes for other people out there.”

Reed Jobs is talking about the death of his father, the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, to a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2011 at the age of 56, the experience that underlines his mission to make cancer a non-lethal, treatable disease.

CBS News insiders fear Bari Weiss will soon enact ‘massive changes’ to 60 Minutes

With layoffs widely expected and editorial tensions deepening, correspondents await a post-season shakeup

At a time when viewers are fleeing traditional television shows, the CBS Sunday newsmagazine 60 Minutes remains in a class of its own. The 12 April episode, which featured Pope Leo and a story on great white sharks, drew an astounding 10.1 million total viewers. The show is trending as the most-watched news program for the current broadcast season. So, as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

That’s what some CBS News employees and veterans are wondering, amid persistent rumors that the show’s 59th season will look very different than the 58th, which ends on 17 May.

Jeremy Nguyen on the must-have fashion accessory for kids – cartoon

Continue reading...

At least five people pardoned by Trump for Capitol attack accused of new crimes

Ryan Nichols is the latest such person to face charges after he allegedly brandished a gun during an argument

The number of president’s supporters accused of committing new crimes after Donald Trump pardoned them for their roles in the 6 January 2021 US Capitol attack recently increased to at least five.

Ryan Nichols, 35, became the latest such Capitol attacker on 10 May, when authorities in Harleton, Texas, say he threateningly displayed a handgun to a person with whom he was arguing in a church parking lot.

The townspeople of Vilseck, Germany, worry that Trump may pull out 5,000 U.S. troops

President Trump's troop withdrawal threat rattles residents of a small Bavarian town reliant on U.S. military personnel and their families for both income and friendships built over decades.

Propeller One-Way Night Coach review – John Travolta family plane fantasy is a short-haul joyride

Cannes film festival: Travolta directs and narrates this 60-minute adaptation of his own short story about a boy who dreams of being a pilot

John Travolta’s directorial debut turns out to be a rather charmingly quirky and distinctively peculiar novella-sized bedtime story. It is an hour-long novelty feature commissioned by Apple TV, with lovingly detailed but innocent Mad Men 1960s period production design, and narrated throughout by Travolta itself.

That’s an indulgence you have to get used to – but if Alec Baldwin was doing it, you might almost think this was a Wes Anderson movie. It is in fact based on Travolta’s own children’s book about his love of planes: an autobiographical tale about Jeff, an eight-year-old boy, weirdly resembling the kid in the spoof classic Airplane!, who gets to overhear some pretty ripe adult conversation in a plane cockpit.

Alex Hassell: ‘A wasp flew in my ear in front of Jude Law – he couldn’t see the wasp so just saw me freak out’

The Rivals actor on his very skinny ankles, swearing like a sailor, and his enduring love for Marlon Brando

Born in Essex, Alex Hassell, 45, trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He co-founded an experimental theatre group and was noticed by the RSC where he went on to star in Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Henry V and Death of a Salesman. On TV, he appeared in His Dark Materials and Rivals. He reprises the role of Rupert Campbell-Black in season 2 on Disney+. He is married to actor Emma King and lives in London.

What is your greatest fear?
Loneliness.

‘It looked like Star Wars on Earth’: the making of Top Gun at 40

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and co-writer Jack Epps discuss how the smash hit action drama came to be, from Tom Cruise vomiting on himself to ruling the box office

It would be one of the most important flights in film history. When a young 5ft 7in actor with long hair and ponytail rocked up on a motorcycle, a group of US navy pilots were all too happy to test his need for speed.

“They look at him and they don’t know who Tom Cruise is,” recalls screenwriter Jack Epps Jr. “They do what they like to do: they took him up, they shook him around, he barfed on himself, and he came out and said, ‘I love this.’ From that moment, he was on.”

How did Eurovision go from sequins and flares to geopolitical slugfest?

The contest is enduring the biggest boycott it has ever seen, but 2026 is far from its first year of controversy

A song contest intended to promote European harmony and cultural exchange morphs into a battle over human rights. A boycott dominates headlines and polarises opinion. Performers with big hair proclaim art over politics.

It could only be Eurovision. But the year was 1969, and the dispute centred on Austria’s decision to shun the host, Spain, because it was a dictatorship – a boycott echoed half a century later by five countries who are shunning this week’s contest in Vienna because of Israel’s participation.

Colleges got more rural students to apply. The challenge is getting them to attend

Some of the nation's most selective institutions are slowly increasing their rural enrollment with the help of millions of dollars from a rural alumnus of the University of Chicago.

‘I’m so grateful I got to live these days’: A Ghost in the Throat author Doireann Ní Ghríofa on recovering from depression

The acclaimed author and poet talks about her new book, telling the true stories of patients at a derelict Victorian psychiatric hospital – a place in which she might have found herself at a different time

Doireann Ní Ghríofa wrote much of her first book of prose, A Ghost in the Throat, sitting in her car on the top floor of a multistorey car park, having dropped her children off at school in Cork city. Whatever works: her imaginative journey into the life and mind of 18th-century Irish poet Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill was so convincing and original that it captivated readers and won the James Tait Black biography prize and, in Ireland, the An Post book of the year award. Having published several well-regarded collections of poetry, it seemed as if this blend of biography, memoir and meditation had enlarged the way in which she could write about her abiding preoccupation: the ever-present past.

She returned to her car to work on her new book, Said the Dead. But this time, it was parked in front of a vast building high on a hill overlooking the river Lee, one half of it derelict and the other half transformed into apartments. Its history was long: originally referred to simply as the district asylum at the end of the 18th century, a grand gothic-revival building had been constructed during the 1840s, and named, after Ireland’s Lord Lieutenant, the Eglinton Lunatic Asylum; in the 20th century, it became the Cork District Mental Hospital and, in its last incarnation before closing in 1992, Our Lady’s Psychiatric Hospital. Many such institutions existed across Ireland, a patchwork of private and public mental health provision that operated against the backdrop of colonial rule, poverty and famine.

The Guardian view on Middlemarch: the greatest novel in the English language | Editorial

George Eliot’s masterpiece of provincial life still has much to teach us about sympathy and tolerance

Virgina Woolf declared Middlemarch “one of the few English novels written for grown-up people”. Henry James said that some of its scenes were the most intelligent in English fiction. Even Martin Amis, over 100 years later, called it “a novel without weaknesses”. Now this 900-page portrait of 19th-century provincial life has been voted the best novel of all time in a Guardian poll of writers, academics and critics.

George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans) was already a highly successful novelist by the time Middlemarch was published in instalments in 1871 and 1872. Beginning with a marriage, and a deeply unhappy one, it upends “the marriage plot” established by Jane Austen. Nineteen-year-old Dorothea Brooke has “a passionate desire to know and to think”, and a longing “to lead a grand life here – now – in England”. Unfortunately, that England didn’t afford many opportunities for women, and she misguidedly hitches her idealism to the desiccated scholar Casaubon. This is not the novel’s only disastrous marriage. The ambitious young doctor Tertius Lydgate makes an ill-suited match to the vain and shallow Rosamond Vincy.

Sawe’s secret sauce: inside the lab that fuelled historic sub-two hour marathon

Swedish firm Maurten’s high-carb drinks, bicarb sludges and hydrogels are giving super spikes a run for their money

Inside an unremarkable Gothenburg office building rented from the local university are a series of conference spaces named after the modern greats of distance running. There is the Eliud Kipchoge room, the Keely Hodgkinson room and, the latest addition, the Sabastian Sawe room, in homage to the man who recently redefined the limits of human endurance.

When Sawe last month in London became the first person to run an official marathon in under two hours, much of the coverage focused on the Kenyan’s carbon-plated shoes. But here, on the west coast of Sweden, a team of scientists, nutritionists and technicians believe another factor was just as significant, if not more so.

The release of the UFO files won’t satisfy conspiracy theorists – but it certainly serves Trump’s agenda | Daniel Lavelle

If there’s no proof of aliens, the president can blame the deep state. If there’s proof, he’s a hero. Either way, it helps his popularity

The US Department of Defense released the first batch of its UFO files last week at the direction of the president, Donald Trump, who promised to make them public “based on the tremendous interest shown”.

Trump’s right, of course. Nearly half of Americans believe aliens have visited Earth, and many believe that the government is hoarding the evidence in some shadowy laboratory or military base. This conspiracy began in 1947 at Roswell, New Mexico, when the Roswell army airfield issued a news release about the crash of a “flying disc”, and has never truly gone away.

Who claimed ‘the most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald’s’? The Saturday quiz

From Blue Sharks and White Wolves to the Zhurong vehicle, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Where did the Zhurong vehicle take a selfie in 2021?
2 Which artist claimed “the most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald’s”?
3 Which record company’s HQ had a sign reading Hitsville USA?
4 What carpet shark has an Australian Aboriginal name?
5 What, in 1970, was the last horse to win English racing’s triple crown?
6 Entered Apprentice and Fellow Craft are stages of membership of what?
7 What term for a reused document comes from Greek for “scraped again”?
8 In Japan, ama are women who seek what?
What links:
9 Booker prize, 1974, 1992 and 2019; best actress Oscar and Eurovision, 1969; best actor Oscar, 1932?
10 Plato; Francis Bacon; Aquaman; Patrick Duffy?
11 Alentejo; Dão; Douro; Porto; Madeira; Vinho Verde?
12 Walter Plinge; Alan Smithee; George Spelvin?
13 Alternate nostril; box; diaphragmatic; 4-7-8?
14 Chinese leader, 11; big clothes, 40; engine size, 200; audio format, 400; US capital, 600?
15 Blue Sharks; Blue Wave; Chivalrous Ones; White Wolves?

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed: Tatiana Maslany and Murray Bartlett make this pleasurable TV indeed

Apple’s superbly twisty thriller about a beautiful camboy blackmailing a divorced mum is like the new No Country for Old Men – with added Nick from New Girl

I was drawn to this week’s show for the worst reason. That name is pure critic bait, and I like my fruit low-hanging. Other famously pre-roasted works include the films The Happening and Fantastic Four, and the Oasis album Be Here Now. (No, thanks.) In my schadenfreude-soaked soul, I wondered if Apple’s show might join them. Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed (Apple TV, from Wed)? Do I need the warranty?

It stars Tatiana Maslany, who also led the brilliantly titled, if widely slated, show She Hulk: Attorney at Law. No one doubts Maslany’s chops. She won an Emmy playing 17 distinct clones in the sci-fi series Orphan Black. Here she plays Paula, a divorced mother going through a custody battle. Paula’s only access to intimacy is with a young online sex worker named Trevor. Despite his name, Trevor is beautiful, like Jeff Buckley. I suppose Jeff isn’t the most exotic name either.

Swimming pools, fabulous views and radical architecture: 30 UK holiday cottages with the wow factor

From a stylish retreat in Norfolk to a remote hideaway on a Scottish island, these boltholes will make for a truly memorable stay

Tourism experts are predicting a bumper year for “staycations” with more of us choosing to holiday in the UK due to continuing uncertainty around jet fuel prices and possible flight cancellations. Holidaymakers are spoilt for choice with more than 350,000 UK self-catering listings on booking platforms, from rustic barn conversions to seaside villas with all mod cons for large family gatherings.

We’ve done some of the leg work and whittled down a selection of cottages which all offer something special, whether it’s a stunning location, a breathtaking view or a level of comfort and style that wouldn’t be out of place in a boutique hotel.

Is there a mummy longlegs and how do cobras get their fangs? The kids’ quiz

Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes

• ​Submit a question

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.

Who’s in, who’s out, and how many have you read? The story behind our 100 best novels list

Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights; Ulysses or Catch-22 … Find out which title came top, as chosen by authors, critics and academics worldwide

• See the full list here

As Stephen King points out, compiling a list of the greatest novels of all time is an impossible task. King is one of more than 170 novelists, critics and academics the Guardian polled for their top 10, ranked in order, which we tallied to compile an overall 100. But, as he argued, 10 books is “not enough!” On King’s list there is, he’s sorry to say, “not a single Dickens”; he wishes he’d found space for David Copperfield or Oliver Twist.

One Day author David Nicholls’s choices are “definitely skewed towards novels I read at an impressionable age”, he says. Bernardine Evaristo listed “some of my all‑time favourites, including several classics of the past 100 years”. Salman Rushdie, Anne Enright, Yiyun Li, Elif Shafak, Ian McEwan, Maggie O’Farrell, Colm Tóibín, Lorrie Moore, Katherine Rundell and many more have all cast their votes.

The 100 best novels of all time

The top 100 novels of all time published in English, as voted for by authors, critics and academics worldwide. How many have you read?

Our purrfect child goes rogue: the Becky Barnicoat cartoon

Continue reading...

It wasn’t exactly The Devil Wears Prada, but my time working at Vogue in the 90s was preposterous fun | Charlotte Higgins

The decline of the glossy magazine industry as depicted in the sequel made me cry – but I shed no tears for how it was back then

I didn’t think The Devil Wears Prada 2 would make me cry, but it did. All the fashiony high camp, all the sharp one-liners of the first movie (“By all means, move at a glacial pace, you know how that thrills me”) deliquesce into melancholy for a struggling media industry in the second film. We meet the older Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) – the put-upon assistant of Runway editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) in the original movie – when she and her newspaper colleagues are receiving an award for investigative reporting. Except that at precisely that moment they are laid off, by text message. Perfectly realistic: swathes of the Washington Post, including Pulitzer finalists and correspondents in war zones, suffered a similar fate (in this case, sacking by email subject field) in February.

I didn’t think it would make me feel so nostalgic, either. The original Devil Wears Prada came out in 2006. Watching this thinly disguised portrait of American Vogue then was fun. I had served my apprenticeship at Condé Nast, at British Vogue and The World of Interiors, and I felt some vague kinship with Andy and her terrible blue jumper, who arrives a sceptic, goes native, then leaves for her true calling at a progressive newspaper. But now, 20 years on, other feelings crowd in. As my former Vogue colleague Louise Chunn wrote in the New Statesman recently, in the 1990s we had no idea we were working “at the high watermark of the circulation and power of the glossy magazine industry”. When those enormous, thick-papered tomes thunked down on our desks at Vogue House (which they literally did, hand delivered) they were so solid, so reassuring, so full of the promise of glamour and gorgeousness, that we thought it would go on for ever.