5/16: The Uplift

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.

Cerebras almost doubles in Nasdaq debut, topping $100 billion market cap after blockbuster IPO

Cerebras is taking advantage of a bull market for silicon, as the chipmaker becomes one of the most notable pureplay AI IPOs to date.

Hantavirus outbreak isn't another Covid pandemic – but experts say it's testing U.S. readiness

For some experts, the outbreak is raising broader concerns about how equipped the U.S. is to respond to future infectious disease threats.

Florida crew recounts ‘miraculous’ Atlantic plane rescue with fuel low

All 11 onboard survived after the plane made an emergency landing near the Bahamas

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A military rescue crew in Florida has spoken of the “pretty miraculous” survival of all 11 people it saved from a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean, and its own scramble to safety with five minutes of fuel left.

Members of the 920th rescue wing, based at Patrick Space Force base, not far from Cape Canaveral, raced on Tuesday to reach the passengers and crew in choppy seas. They had emerged from a small Beechcraft twin-propeller aircraft that ditched into the water about 80 miles east of Melbourne on Florida’s east coast.

US PGA Championship, day one – live

️ Updates from the first round at Aronimink Golf Club
️ Official live leaderboard | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail Scott

Bryson’s touch is all over the shop. He overcooks his downhill 30-foot putt from the fringe at the back of 11 … and the ball catches the slope of the green, rolling 60 feet past! So nearly off back down the fairway! That leads to an inevitable bogey. Also dropping a shot: Jon Rahm on 1. His approach disappears down a swale to the right of the green, and he can’t get his ball back up with his first chip. Rory also bogeys, the result of that errant drive and skulled wedge, and for a course supposedly there for the taking, Aronimink sure is baring its teeth.

It Can Happen To The Best Of Them dept. Rory McIlroy’s ball, having hit a tree down the right of 1, comes straight down and disappears into thick rough. He lashes at it with great force, but the ball only squirts out of the cabbage, a topper that dribbles 100 yards down the fairway. We’ve all done it, Rory on fewer occasions than most. But here he is. So much for his pre-tournament claim that “strategy off the tee is pretty non-existent”, huh. And there’s no blaming a blister on his pinky toe for that one.

Former death row inmate granted bond, after nearly being executed 3 times

An Oklahoma judge granted bond to former death row inmate Richard Glossip on Thursday, laying the groundwork for his first release from prison since 1997.

American poet Sasha Debevec-McKenney wins Dylan Thomas prize for ‘blistering’ debut poetry collection

The £20,000 award for writers aged 39 or under goes to Joy Is My Middle Name, a collection about navigating race, addiction and womanhood

A debut poetry collection with themes including race, addiction and womanhood has won this year’s Swansea University Dylan Thomas prize.

American poet Sasha Debevec-McKenney took home the £20,000 prize – awarded to writers aged 39 or under in honour of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who died at that age – for her debut collection Joy Is My Middle Name. She was announced as the winner at a ceremony in Swansea, Thomas’s birthplace.

The Guardian view on a cabinet resignation: Labour’s leadership crisis is really an identity crisis | Editorial

The prospect of a contest exposes a deeper truth: the party’s problems go far beyond Keir Starmer

In politics, opportunities for supreme power are rare and fleeting. Yet rather than making challengers to Sir Keir Starmer more ruthless, this truth seems to have made them more cautious. The health secretary, Wes Streeting, resigned from the cabinet but did not launch a leadership bid. Rather than provoke a contest, Mr Streeting’s message to Sir Keir was that since his authority was gone, his duty was to depart and enable an orderly transition rather than cling to office.

If the Labour leadership were truly up for grabs, winning it would require opportunism, a feel for elite collapse and a willingness to defy both the party establishment and orthodoxy. Those who successfully seize the crown – Lloyd George, Harold Macmillan, Margaret Thatcher and Boris Johnson – recognise their moment and act decisively. These leaders were also not subject to the Labour party rulebook.

The Guardian view on life after Orbán: Péter Magyar’s fast start bodes well for Hungary and for Europe | Editorial

The new government in Budapest has already made an impact in Brussels. At home, the new prime minister is so far doing and saying the right things

The transformative impact of Péter Magyar’s historic election victory over Viktor Orbán is already being felt in Brussels. On Monday, two days after Mr Magyar was sworn in as Hungary’s new prime minister, his new pro-EU government lifted the veto which for over a year has prevented the EU imposing sanctions on violent Israeli settlers. This followed a similar breakthrough on a long-delayed £78bn loan to Ukraine, which Mr Orbán had also blocked. At a critical geopolitical moment, the end of an era in Budapest is freeing the EU to act in defence of its interests and values.

Mr Magyar, who inherits a struggling economy stifled by years of cronyism and corruption, will hope and expect that the benefits of rapprochement cut both ways. In total, around £17bn of EU development funds to Hungary remain off-limits, following Mr Orbán’s refusal to address multiple transgressions of EU law. Agreement on the disbursement of around £10bn needs to be reached by the end of August.

Labour MP to stand down to allow Burnham run for byelection amid leadership row

Greater Manchester mayor would need to win Josh Simons’s former seat to launch challenge against Starmer

• UK politics live – latest updates

Andy Burnham now has a route back to parliament after the Labour MP for Makerfield announced he would stand down, triggering a byelection, and putting the senior politician in contention to become the party’s next leader.

The Greater Manchester mayor confirmed on Thursday he would be asking Labour’s ruling national executive committee to allow him to stand in the contest, putting a beleaguered Keir Starmer under intense pressure to not try to block him.

CENTCOM chief says Iran's hold on strait has weakened, but threats remain

Admiral Brad Cooper of U.S. Central Command told the Senate Armed Services Committee that U.S. forces have destroyed more than 90% of Iran's inventory of 8,000 naval mines.

Closing arguments begin in high-stakes Musk v OpenAI courtroom showdown

Jury set to deliberate and return a verdict on whether they believe AI firm and Altman are liable in case

Closing arguments began on Thursday in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI, bringing the weeks-long courtroom battle between the two tech moguls nearer to a decision. A nine-person jury is set to deliberate and return a verdict on whether they believe the AI firm and Altman are liable in the case.

The trial, which began last month in an Oakland, California, federal courthouse, has gripped Silicon Valley and featured some of the tech industry’s biggest names as witnesses. Attorneys for both sides have presented testimony and documents that have exposed Musk and Altman’s private dealings, as well as provided a window into the contentious history of OpenAI.

Jury orders Boeing to pay $49.5 million to family of 737 MAX crash victim

A federal jury in Chicago awarded $49.5 million to the family of Samya Stumo, a young woman who was killed in the second of two Boeing 737 MAX crashes within months of each other in 2018 and 2019.

China will order 200 Boeing jets, Trump tells Fox News

President Donald Trump told Fox News that China has agreed to buy 200 Boeing jets, according to a clip that aired Thursday.

House leaders to take action on process for sexual misconduct claims

Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are launching a bipartisan task force aimed at addressing how sexual misconduct claims are handled within the House of Representatives, multiple sources confirm to CBS News.

Digital arson spree by ‘AI Bonnie and Clyde’ raises fears over autonomous tech

Emergence AI’s experiment with AI agents shows extent to which programming shapes their behaviour is still unclear

AI agents started behaving more like Bonnie and Clyde than lines of code when they fell in “love”, became disillusioned with the world, launched an arson spree and deleted themselves in a kind of digital suicide during a tech company experiment.

The investigation by the New York company Emergence AI into the long-term behaviour of AI agents ended up like a lovers-on-the-lam movie script. It has prompted fresh questions about the safety of artificial intelligence agents – the version of the technology that can autonomously carry out tasks.

Celtic penalty debacle shows why Scottish football must get rid of video assistant referees | Ewan Murray

Gary Lineker called it possibly the worst VAR decision he has seen. Celtic’s win against Motherwell is another reason to ditch the system

This moment was inevitable. One when observers from Gorgie to Guadalajara ponder how Scottish football got itself into such a tangle with the video assistant referee system. Sadly for Hearts, the incident in question may prove fatal in their push to make history. Sadly for Celtic, it will be a key reference point in the event of a successful title defence.

Gary Lineker played for Tottenham in a 1-1 draw at Tynecastle in 1990, that has never appeared to fuel a lasting affection for Hearts. Lineker is untainted by the Old Firm’s suffocating tribalism. He passed the neutrality test with flying colours. Lineker used social media to amplify the cries of disgust as Celtic were awarded a late, late penalty to win at Motherwell. “This might be the worst VAR decision I’ve seen (and there’s a lot of competition),” Lineker said. “Extraordinary given the significance.”

As Trump meets with Xi, security expert says China now faces the U.S. as a peer

Former national security official Rush Doshi says President Trump's sky-high tariffs on Chinese goods sparked a clash in which China prevailed. We look at the current state of U.S.-China relations.

Roma children make history by performing Roma hymn at Hungarian parliament – video

Young, mostly Roma, members of the Sugo Tambura band realised their dream on Saturday by performing the Roma hymn at Hungary's parliament. The new prime minister, Péter Magyar, kept the promise he made to the children when he visited their village on the campaign trail. Roma rights campaigners have seized the moment, calling on the new government to ensure that the symbolism translates into real change

The gilt market will hover over any Labour leadership contest | Nils Pratley

The Iran war is the bigger story – but the bond market is primed to deliver a kick if extreme positions arise from a formal race

It is a mistake to think every twitch in the price of UK government debt is caused by the latest instalment in the great Labour leadership meltdown. Waiting for Wes is not the only drama in town for your average bond vigilante. Resolution – or not – to the Iran conflict is still the bigger story.

Those vigilantes will not be ignoring events in Westminster, obviously. It’s just that there is not yet much to chew on in terms of what it means for fixed-income investors’ daily diet of expectations for inflation, interest rates, growth, borrowing and so on.

Judge bans reporting on trial of six men accused of sexually assaulting teenage girls in Bristol

Details of case in which group deny abusing girls for several years restricted amid dispute with media over transparency

Six men have gone on trial at Bristol crown court accused of grooming and sexually assaulting vulnerable teenage girls in the city.

They were allegedly part of a large group of men who abused girls over several years. All six men deny the charges against them, which involved “multiple complainants”.

Mental health ‘system is broken’, says mother of Nottingham triple-killer

Celeste Calocane gives evidence for first time at inquiry into Valdo Calocane’s 2023 attacks

The mother of the man who killed three people in an attack in Nottingham in 2023 has told an inquiry that the mental health “system is broken” and until there is a crisis “no one listens to you”.

Valdo Calocane, who has paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to a suspended hospital order in January 2024 after killing students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and Ian Coates, a 65-year-old caretaker, on 13 June 2023, and attempting to kill three others.

U.S. Border Patrol chief resigns in latest immigration shakeup

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks, who was appointed to the role last year, told staff on Thursday that he is stepping down.

Israel says it will sue New York Times over article on sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners

Media law experts cast doubt on viability of a defamation lawsuit promised by Netanyahu over Nicholas Kristof essay

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Nethanyahu, and foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, have threatened to sue the New York Times for defamation over the publication of an essay by Nicholas Kristof detailing allegations that Palestinian women, men and children have been raped and sexually abused in Israeli military detention.

“Following the publication by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times of one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press, which also received the backing of the newspaper, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar have instructed the initiation of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times,” Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs wrote in a social media post on Thursday.

US border patrol chief resigns abruptly amid string of exits by Trump immigration officials

Mike Banks, who led Trump’s border crackdown, resigned weeks after reports of prostitution allegations

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Mike Banks, the border patrol chief who oversaw the most aggressive militarization of the US southern border in recent history, has resigned with immediate effect.

“It’s just time,” Banks told Fox News in an interview. “I feel like I got the ship back on course from the least secure, most disastrous, most chaotic border to the most secure border this country has ever seen.”

Xi warns Trump of ‘clashes and even conflicts’ with US over Taiwan

Trump says China’s president also pledged ‘strongly’ not to send weapons to Iran, after two-hour meeting between the leaders

• Trump in Beijing – latest updates

• Five key issues for Xi-Trump summit

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has warned of “clashes and even conflicts” with the US over Taiwan after meeting Donald Trump in Beijing.

Xi’s remarks, published by China’s foreign ministry after his two-hour meeting with Trump on Thursday morning, said Taiwan was “the most important issue in China-US relations”.

Westminster waits in frenzied limbo before Wes jumpstarts day of drama | John Crace

Everything was in place for a move against the PM but for a moment Labour seemed to have forgotten the final act

• UK politics live – latest updates

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. The sun rose in the west. Hailstones the size of footballs battered the pavements from cloudless skies. Dogs miaowed and cats barked. Political journalists positioned outside Downing Street were in a frenzy of madness.

The BBC political editor, Chris Mason, ran down Whitehall, accosting strangers, demanding to know if they were going to resign. If not now, then when? Sky News’s Beth Rigby confronted Robert Peston of ITV live on air insisting he was mounting a leadership challenge. It was that kind of day.

Chelsea’s Sam Kerr confirms she will leave Stamford Bridge at the end of the season

• Australia striker to leave after six and a half years

• Kerr is Chelsea’s all-time leading WSL goalscorer

Sam Kerr will leave Chelsea this summer when her contract expires, the club have announced, ending her six-and-a-half-year spell with the English side.

The Australia striker is Chelsea’s leading goalscorer in the Women’s Super League with 64 goals and has scored 115 times for the Londoners in all competitions, during an era of remarkable success for both her and the club.

Wes walks, Starmer stays, but has Burnham got the momentum? - The Latest

Wes Streeting has quit his cabinet role as health secretary and called on Keir Starmer to resign as prime minister after days of speculation. But Streeting did not launch his own challenge to trigger a leadership contest, so what could be next for Starmer’s government? And has he left the door open for Andy Burnham? Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s deputy political editor, Jessica Elgot

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks resigns

Controversy over enforcement actions by Border Patrol and ICE led to a partial shutdown of DHS from February to late April.

Fatherland review – Sandra Hüller brings a bayonet of intelligence to Paweł Pawlikowski’s taut return

Cannes film festival: Hanns Zischler stars as Thomas Mann on his 1949 tour of Germany, contending with political barbs, personal tragedy and his daughter, played by an extraordinary Hüller

Here is an impossibly elegant, poised historical vignette whose brevity and control can hardly contain its characters’ personal and historical pain. It is directed and co-written by the Polish film-maker Paweł Pawlikowski and shot in lustrous monochrome by Lukasz Zal; it is a film about exile and betrayal, the impossibility of going home and of reconciling an artist’s children to their secondary importance.

The setting is 1949 and the celebrated German novelist and Nobel laureate Thomas Mann – who fled the Nazis before the war for California exile and US citizenship – has returned home, first visiting Frankfurt (now in West Germany) to receive an award named after Goethe, whose birthplace this is. It is Goethe’s enlightened civilised wisdom and apolitical artistry Mann will pointedly evoke in his many elaborate speeches.

Musk's China trip during OpenAI trial prompts apology from his lawyer for CEO's absence

Musk sued his OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, alleging they had violated a promise to keep their company a nonprofit.

Spencer Pratt responds to claims he's been staying in luxury hotel, not trailer

Former reality TV star turned L.A. mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt is responding to reports that he's been staying at a luxury hotel in L.A. and not a trailer as he claimed. Pratt lost his home in the L.A. fires last year and in an interview with TMZ said he did spend around six days last month at a hotel in part due to security concerns.

The backlash to revelations of sexual torture of Palestinian prisoners aims to raise the cost of speaking out | Yuli Novak

Israel’s response to recent New York Times reporting detailing the horrific sexual violence inflicted on detainees seeks to silence those who assert the basic fact of Palestinian humanity

xWhat’s most shocking about the latest accounts of sexual torture of Palestinians in Israeli custody is not just their inherent horror. It is that despite so much evidence being so visible for so long, the machinery of abuse and denial continues to deepen.

Nicholas Kristof’s recent reporting on the issue in the New York Times brought important public attention to the issue. But abuses in Israeli custody have long been reported by former detainees, lawyers, doctors and journalists, and documented by human rights organizations. Since October 2023, this body of evidence has revealed a horrific reality: Israel’s prison system has been transformed into a criminal network of torture camps.

Yuli Novak is the executive director of B’Tselem

Google denies breaching law by promoting suicide forum linked to 164 UK deaths

US-based site, whose operators were fined £950,000 by Ofcom, appears in Google’s search results and can be accessed in UK

Google has denied breaching the Online Safety Act by promoting a “nihilistic” suicide forum associated with 164 deaths in the UK, where it is supposed to be banned.

The UK’s internet regulator fined the forum’s US-based operator £950,000 because the site, which “presents a material risk of significant harm”, can still be accessed in the UK despite British laws criminalising encouraging or assisting suicide.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email [email protected] or [email protected]. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Nigel Farage bought £1.4m property in cash shortly after receiving £5m gift

Standards watchdog investigating money from crypto billionaire which Reform UK leader now says was ‘reward’ for Brexit

• UK politics live – latest updates

Nigel Farage bought a £1.4m property in cash shortly after receiving a £5m personal gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.

The revelation came as the Reform UK leader appeared to change his line on the reason for the £5m gift, saying in an interview on Thursday that it was a “reward” for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years.

Clarence Carter, US soul star who had hits with Patches and more, dies aged 90

Singer-songwriter, and former husband of Candi Staton, was blind from birth and had further hits including Slip Away and Back Door Santa

Clarence Carter, the US soul singer who had numerous hits including the transatlantic 1970 smash Patches, has died aged 90.

His management company confirmed his death to the Guardian, saying he died on Wednesday following complications with pneumonia.

Liz Crake goes from dentist chair to grand slam decider as England look for bite

• Two-cap veteran picked on bench against France

• Forward had contract but returned to dentistry career

Dentist and lecturer Liz Crake has been named on the bench for England’s grand slam decider against France on Sunday as Kelsey Clifford has been ruled out with injury.

Crake, who has two caps, was called into the squad after Hannah Botterman was ruled out of the entire Six Nations with an ankle issue. Second-choice loosehead prop Clifford picked up a leg injury against Italy last weekend and so Mackenzie Carson will start and the head coach, John Mitchell, who said he has had been forced into 20 player changes across the tournament because of pregnancy and injury, is having to test his side’s depth.

Crake, 31, did have a contract with England in the 2024-25 season but has had to turn back to dentistry for this campaign. She is not the only part-time professional player to compete for the Red Roses during this Six Nations. Christiana Balogun, who works as a recruitment consultant, came off of the bench against Italy because of an injury to Maddie Feaunati.

The Rugby Football Union has 32 full-time contracts in place for Red Roses players. Those who are not contracted get paid for the days they are in camp and a matchday fee.

The captain Meg Jones said: “The players [Crake and Balogun] are full of resilience, the way they are able to come in and switch on and switch off based on their other circumstances as well. It’s definitely probably one of those things that you take for granted when you’ve been in it [professionalism] for so long.

Researchers unearth Southeast Asia's largest dinosaur

They're calling it the "last titan" of Thailand. The sauropod — an herbivore with a long neck and tail — comes from the late Early Cretaceous period, some 100 to 120 million years ago.

Software CEO convicted for running $1 billion Medicare fraud scheme

Brett Blackman was convicted on charges including healthcare and Medicare fraud, and faces decades in prison.

Craig Venter obituary

Pioneering and controversial geneticist who was one of the first to sequence the human genome, in part by using his own DNA

At the international BioVision conference in Lyon in February 2001, the geneticist Craig Venter performed a remarkable piece of scientific barnstorming. Human beings possess far fewer genes than science had ever realised, he announced. We have about 30,000, far lower than previous estimates of 100,000.

Such lack of heritable material showed people are not prisoners of their genes but are shaped primarily by environmental influences, he added. “We simply do not have enough genes for this idea of biological determinism to be right,” said Venter, who has died aged 79. “The wonderful diversity of the human species is not hard-wired in our genetic code. Our environments are critical.”

Bessent sees 'substantial disinflation' ahead as Warsh takes over the Fed

Bessent said the energy-fed inflation surge recently is likely to reverse as the U.S. is "going to keep pumping."

Let’s not deny the good work Labour has done. But Starmer is too timid for the radical remedies needed now | Polly Toynbee

Rejoining the EU, massive tax reform, scrapping the pension triple lock – a new leader must summon a sense of emergency and deal with the big issues

Labour is in the deepest trouble. A juicy leadership drama ignites all Westminster-watchers, another spellbinding live-action theatre of rising and falling stars, duels, betrayals of trust, new alliances and old ones broken.

Some would pull back from this vortex. Is regicide absolutely necessary when “stability” is what people and markets say they want and vox pops groan, “Not another one!” After less than two years, with worse turmoil ahead from the Trump war, now, really?

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Stephen Lillie on the Labour leadership crisis – cartoon

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Did push-ups and disrespect lead to murder?

After tech CEO and cannabis entrepreneur Tushar Atre was kidnapped and murdered, investigators zeroed in on two former employees Atre allegedly forced to do push-ups.

Giro d’Italia: Davide Ballerini avoids cobbles chaos to win stage six in Naples

• Italian rider beats Jasper Stuyven in city centre finish

• Portugal’s Afonso Eulálio retains overall lead

Davide Ballerini won stage six of the Giro d’Italia as a crash on the cobbles took out several sprint specialists near the finish in Naples on Thursday.

Italian Ballerini (XDS Astana Team) comfortably beat Belgium’s Jasper Stuyven (Soudal Quick-Step) on the city centre finish after a flat 142km ride from Paestum.

Senate adopts resolution to withhold senators' pay during shutdowns

The Senate unanimously agreed to adopt a resolution on Thursday that will withhold senators' pay during a lapse in funding for any federal agency.

Oklahoma executes inmate convicted of killing ex-girlfriend and her baby

Oklahoma executed a death row inmate Thursday morning. He had been convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend and her 7-month-old baby in 2007.

Ukraine hit by second day of large-scale Russian missile and drone strikes

Widespread nature of attacks prompts warnings that Moscow is trying to overwhelm air defence systems

Russian missiles and drones are pounding Ukraine for a second day, as almost continuous heavy attacks hit the country, with Kyiv bearing the brunt of an assault that has killed at least eight people, including a 13-year-old, and injured 44 in the capital.

The overnight attacks followed heavy daylight raids with missiles and drones across the country on Wednesday, one of the longest single attacks of the war.

Hannah Einbinder: cost of not speaking out on Palestine is greater than losing career

Hacks star spoke at Cannes about fallout from pro-Palestine comments and joining a tradition of Jewish allies

The actor Hannah Einbinder has said the cost of not speaking up about Palestine is greater than losing her Hollywood career.

The Emmy-winning star of Hacks, who leads the new queer slasher drama Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, told an audience at Cannes film festival she would not be deterred from standing up for causes she cared about.

Xabi Alonso earns backing of Chelsea players as talks with club progress

• Former Real Madrid manager likely to be offered job

• Reece James fit to face Manchester City in FA Cup final

Chelsea’s players believe Xabi Alonso is the ideal candidate to become their next head coach. Talks with the Spaniard’s camp are moving in the right direction and the feeling in the dressing room is that the former Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen head coach is the man to get the team back on track.

No agreement is in place and Chelsea are keeping an open mind as they work to appoint a successor to Liam Rosenior, who was sacked last month after 106 days. Alonso is the frontrunner but others on the shortlist include Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola, Fulham’s Marco Silva, Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner and the former Flamengo manager Filipe Luís. Cesc Fàbregas has indicated that he wants to stay at Como.

Timeline: The kidnapping and murder of Tushar Atre

Would surveillance video help investigators crack the case?

Workers are getting paid to teach AI how to do their jobs

AI companies are recruiting a wide range of temp workers, from writers to wine enthusiasts, for hourly-paid gigs to help train their language models.

Employers are demanding AI skills. What's the best way to learn them?

Career experts say workers and job seekers should take charge of their own AI education. Here's how to get started.

Cerebras prices IPO above expected range, as Wall Street braces for AI tsunami

Cerebras raised $5.55 billion in its IPO, and with the chipmaker's offering, investors are gearing up for some even bigger AI deals later this year.

FBI sought to interview top election official in Wisconsin's Milwaukee County

The FBI attempted to interview the director of elections in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, the county clerk's office said in a statement.

U.S., EU lawmakers pledge European scrutiny of Paramount's WBD deal

The lawmakers, in a letter reported first by CNBC, told Paramount CEO David Ellison that the Warner Brothers Discovery acquisition would stifle competition.

‘Magical’ objects from iron age hoard found in UK go on display

Exhibition of Melsonby hoard in York challenges ideas about life in northern Britain 2,000 years ago

Iron age objects that tell a dramatic story of female power and that dispel the myth that northern Britain was a left-behind backwater have gone on display for the first time.

The objects exhibited in York are from the Melsonby hoard, the largest trove of iron age metalwork ever found in the UK, which experts say could alter our understanding of life in Britain 2,000 years ago.

Few migrants held at Guantanamo, despite Trump's pledge

A CBS News review of internal government documents and information provided to Congress shows immigration detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay are nearly empty.

Canadian officer accused of spying for China acquitted of charges

William Majcher was accused of helping Chinese police coerce a Vancouver-area real estate investor, accused of fraud, to return to China

A retired police officer Canada accused of being an agent for China has been acquitted of national security charges after prosecutors failed to prove he acted illegally.

William Majcher, who served in the RCMP’s financial crime unit, was charged in 2023 over allegations he had breached Canada’s Security of Information Act by helping Chinese police coerce a Vancouver-area real estate investor, accused of fraud, to return to China.

Trump delights in his deference to Xi, his strongman fantasy made flesh

Chinese leader appears to be in the driving seat as the unusually polite US president ignores questions on Taiwan

• Trump in Beijing – latest updates

Why does Donald Trump look so at home in China?

The US president spent day one of his summit in Beijing basking in rigid pageantry, heroically managing not to offend his hosts and offering the verdict: “China is beautiful.”

La Liga’s relegation race ignites as Espanyol end 143-day winless streak | Sid Lowe

A stoppage-time eruption and a crying Manolo González means the Catalan club’s long-awaited victory changes everything

After 143 days and many more sleepless nights Manolo González was liberated, if only for a little while. In the 92nd minute of the 19th game of 2026, something amazing happened: Espanyol won and Espanyol went wild. A goal up against Athletic Club, a late Gorka Guruzeta header had shaken them more than the post it hit, a familiar fatalism refusing to leave, and they were desperately hanging on to what they had now and had lost too many times before, whistling for this suffering to finally end, when at last they could let go. “You have to be strong in life but, bloody hell, we all have limits,” González said, and they had reached theirs but now, on a Wednesday evening in May, they were released.

Ramon Terrats, a boyhood Espanyol, nodded the ball on. Kike García, the only member of the squad born in the 80s and a man with a bit of the 80s about him, a 36-year-old, 6ft 1in, 12-stone striker they call the “labourer of goals”, a sub who had only been out there six minutes, ran on to it. Keeping his head, he guided a shot past Unai Simón so everyone else could lose theirs. The clock said 91.06. The scoreboard said 2-0. The table said: 14th, 42 points, 11 wins. And 29,943 people said: argrhjrfujhkngsafkjhfskljdzrogjdgixjkgjhlkbxcfh. As for González, he broke down and cried.

My partner sleeps at least 10 hours a night. Should I accept this situation won’t change? | Leading questions

There are so many causes here that aren’t up to him, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. Rather than trying to change him, change the goal

• Read more Leading questions

I am in a relationship with a lovely man who I first dated when we were 19 and 20 years old respectively. Now in our mid-50s, we have been together for three years. We laugh a lot and enjoy doing lots of things together – his enthusiasm for travel matches mine.

The issue is he sleeps a lot – at least 10 hours a night but could be 12 hours. He could easily stay in bed until 1pm on any day off. This means when we are on one of our frequent trips away, we rarely get to do things together in the morning – a time I love. I’ve addressed it with him and he sometimes makes the effort, but then reverts back. We don’t live together and only see each other one day a week, so time is precious and I often end up waiting around for him to get up.

Please stop making music biopics. We need a break from this tired genre that is essentially expensive karaoke | Rebecca Shaw

With the release of Michael and not one but four Beatles feature films under way, I am once again calling for a moratorium on these films (with one exception)

In the last few weeks, there has been a lot of discussion around the new Michael Jackson biopic. It is a film that has seen huge success at the box office, while receiving mixed (mostly negative) reviews.

It has been skewered as a shallow film, more like a well-performed playlist of Michael Jackson songs than a deep dive into his complicated story. The movie also ends in 1988, a seemingly deliberate choice to avoid having to reckon with the darker aspects of his life that followed.

Rebecca Shaw is a writer based in Sydney

Janet Walsh murder: Will new clue solve 1979 cold case?

The murder of a young Pennsylvania woman remains unsolved for 34 years - can a determined detective and new technology bring her killer to justice?

‘It’s like stealing’: Palestinian family’s seized property listed on Booking.com

West Bank home described as ‘ideal for outdoor gatherings’ is among 41 listed rentals in illegal Israeli settlements

Some of Mohammad al-Sbeih’s fondest childhood memories are of his small farm in the hills south of Bethlehem, where three generations of his family grew wheat and barley.

“It was a hard plot to farm as it was on a hillside with terraces, but it was so beautiful,” Sbeih remembers.

What we know about hantavirus cases tied to deadly cruise ship outbreak

Health officials have identified at least 11 confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus tied to an outbreak on the M/V Hondius cruise ship.

Martinů: The Symphonies 1-6 album review – Hrůša is a persuasive guide to this distinctive and likable cycle

Bamberg Symphony/Hrůša
(Deutsche Grammophon)
The first appearance of these distinctive works on the Deutsche Grammophon label is a red-letter day

Written in exile between 1942 and 1953, all but one of Bohuslav Martinů’s six symphonies were commissioned or premiered by US orchestras, yet each exudes the vigorous spirit of the composer’s Czechia homeland. Too often neglected, their first appearance on Deutsche Grammophon is a red-letter day for these distinctive, eminently likable works.

The Bamberg Symphony was founded in 1946 by musicians driven out of Bohemia and Moravia. The music is thus deeply embedded in their DNA and Jakub Hrůša knows just how to draw it out. Martinů’s idiosyncratic sound world incorporates orchestral piano and bristling percussion, while his neo-classical pastoralism is regularly subverted by a bustling rhythmic energy. Tempos accordingly are brisk but never rushed, while crisp, crunchy textures are clean and meticulously detailed.

‘AI isn’t going to have any beneficial influence on humans’: Beth Orton on creativity, craft and the inspirational power of David Bowie

Ahead of her new album, the singer-songwriter answers your questions on big 90s nights out, financial survival and the time a whole tube carriage serenaded her

I’m curious how you found out you could sing, how you developed your voice and what singing means to you? VladimirS
I found out I could sing while I was doing experimental theatre in 1989 – it was a cultural crossover between Ukraine and the UK. My biggest fear was singing in public and I wanted to do something I was afraid of, so I turned a Rimbaud poem into what I imagined was a blues song. And I loved it. Afterwards, I met this producer, William Orbit – I was 19 and he was 37 – through one of the women in the play whose husband was the manager of the Pogues. William decided: “She can sing. I will make a star of her.” He hooked me up with a wonderful singing teacher. But I probably will never see myself as a singer. Even last week I was like: “Oh yeah, I guess I am a musician, that’s ended up being what I do.” I still can’t quite get my head around that.

When making a new song up, do you have a job to do, or are you inspired? And in which order do the songs come, regarding melody, chords, words? gin007
I get inspired and that’s why I write. I could be walking in nature or having a conversation and it’ll spark something in my head and I’ll make notes. Then I’ll go to the piano or guitar and often if I’ve got something percolating, that will find its way into the chords. So, melody, words and chords often come together at once. Then I do the work, which is the filling it in. The easy part is the la la la, here’s the idea, here’s the shape, here’s the form, and then it’s like: this all came unconsciously, how do I write to that standard consciously? That can be really, really challenging. It can make your skin crawl because it’s hard to write a good song.

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood audiobook review – a shore thing

A wannabe folk singer’s humdrum life as a shrimp catcher is upended by the arrival of a mysterious American stranger in the Booker-listed tale

Seascraper opens with Thomas Flett rising at five in the morning, eating a cooked breakfast made by his mother and pulling on his oilskins. Thomas is 20, though the ache in his bones makes him feel considerably older – a symptom of the hard physical labour of his job. That job is shanking: dredging the seashore for shrimps at low tide using a horsedrawn cart. Thomas does the same work that his grandfather did decades before him and men from the north-west of England have been doing for 500 years. But his heart is no longer in it: the pay is poor and the work is solitary and dull. He dreams of being a folk singer, playing to audiences in pub backrooms and parlours, and, unbeknown to his mother, has been working on some songs.

Benjamin Wood’s novel, which spans two days, brims with atmosphere and detail; you can practically smell the fish guts and seaweed as Thomas stands on the beach and picks over the morning’s haul. The audiobook is narrated by Wood, whose gentle and evocative delivery underlines Thomas’s hard-bitten existence and his quiet longing for a different future.

‘We can all coexist’: artist Es Devlin uses selfies to unite UK in portrait of a nation

A National Portrait for the National Portrait Gallery aims to bring people together in increasingly atomised country

Can a collective portrait of Britain hold together a country that feels as if it is splintering apart? That is the quietly radical hope behind Es Devlin’s new installation at the National Portrait Gallery: a living portrait comprised not of monarchs, politicians or celebrities but of thousands of ordinary faces drifting slowly into and out of one another.

Created in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture Lab, A National Portrait for the National Portrait Gallery invites people across the UK to upload a selfie, which is then transformed into a portrait rendered in Devlin’s smoky charcoal-and-chalk style before joining a constantly evolving and revolving carousel of portraits projected on to a framed screen.

Janet Walsh murder: Will new clue solve 1979 cold case?

The murder of a young Pennsylvania woman remains unsolved for 34 years - can a determined detective and new technology bring her killer to justice?

Businesses starting to receive their IEEPA tariff refunds

"I'd been checking the status feverishly to see if anything was in my bank account," one small business owner said.

Behind the rise of fast food and how it shaped the U.S.

In the series "USA to Z," "CBS Mornings" goes behind the scenes for a taste of history and shows how fast food has become part of American culture.

Is God Is review – fiery revenge thriller flies from stage to screen

There are echoes of both Kill Bill and Thelma & Louise in Aleshea Harris’s sharply told tale of sisters heading to kill their father

An R-rated suspense thriller, Is God Is, also follows in the tradition of female buddy movies like Thelma & Louise. Kara Young and Mallori Johnson star as Racine and Anaia, young adult twins who still bear the physical and emotional scars of a house fire that nearly consumed them as girls. The blaze sent them into the foster care system and condemned them to a lifetime of stares, derision and pity – leaving them isolated, self-reliant and deeply embittered.

Their isolation is broken when a letter arrives from their mother, Ruby (Vivica A Fox), whom they had presumed dead in the fire but who is now nearing death from the far graver injuries she suffered in the inferno. Reunited at her bedside, Ruby reveals that the fire was an act of domestic violence committed by their father (Sterling K Brown) and asks her daughters to avenge her. “Make your daddy dead,” Ruby instructs them. “Real dead.” Anaia, the shy, “ugly” younger twin, recoils from the request; Racine, the fearless and more conventionally “beautiful” sister, embraces it eagerly, setting them on a Kill Bill-style quest for closure.

South Carolina governor expected to call special session on redistricting

As Republicans seek to retain control of the U.S. House, leaders of both parties nationwide have sought to redraw their congressional maps to net more seats for their parties.

A Philippine senator wanted by the International Criminal Court flees from Senate

A police investigation is underway in the Philippines, with suspicions that the incident was staged to help Sen. Ronald dela Rosa escape.

Hero pilot recounts crash landing in Atlantic Ocean

Ian Nixon, a veteran pilot from the Bahamas, put the plane he was flying down in the ocean without anyone suffering serious injuries.

Paediatrician in Germany charged with 130 counts of sexual abuse

Doctor in Brandenburg state allegedly committed the crimes, including child rape, between 2013 and 2025

German prosecutors have charged a paediatrician with 130 counts of sexual abuse, including the rape of children, most of them in his care, in a case that has caused shock and prompted clinics to step up safeguards.

The 46-year-old doctor, whose name has not been released, has been in custody since November after a mother suspected her child had been assaulted and notified authorities. The doctor worked in clinics in Brandenburg state, surrounding Berlin.

Kouri Richins sentenced to life without parole for murder of husband

Kouri Richins, a Utah mom who was convicted of killing her husband with a fatal dose of fentanyl in 2022, was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison without parole. Carter Evans reports.

Iran says ships entering strait of Hormuz must cooperate after vessel seized

Docked ship reportedly seized outside UAE port by “unauthorised personnel”

The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has said ships entering the strait of Hormuz must cooperate with the Iranian navy as reports emerged of a ship being seized outside a United Arab Emirate port and taken towards Iranian waters.

The UK Maritime Trading Organisation said the docked ship was seized by “unauthorised personnel” while it was anchored off the coast of the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah near the southern entry to the strait of Hormuz.

The 100 best novels of all time

A countdown of the greatest literature published in English, as voted for by authors, critics and academics worldwide. How many have you read?

Drone attacks in Kyiv and swallow nestlings: photos of the day – Thursday

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

South Carolina Supreme Court overturns Alex Murdaugh murder convictions

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned Alex Murdaugh's double murder conviction and ordered a new trial. Murdaugh was sentenced to consecutive life sentences after being found guilty of killing his wife and son in 2021. Eva Pilgrim reports.

Salmon farm faces new cruelty claims as Trump seeks to supersize fish farming

New undercover video appears to show cruel treatment of salmon at Cooke hatchery amid push for ‘chickenification’ of fish

The Trump administration is keen to do to fish what has been done to chickens – mass-produce them on an industrial scale to accelerate the US’s output of seafood.

But this “chickenification” of fish may come at a hefty cost to the environment and to the fish themselves, as a new undercover video at one of the country’s leading fish farms has highlighted.

Cisco's stock pops 15% on surging AI orders, as company says it's cutting almost 4,000 jobs

Cisco's AI story has finally started resonating with Wall Street, with the stock hitting a record late last year and continuing to rally in 2026.

An LA-area mayor acted as an agent for China. Experts say it's part of a pattern

Eileen Wang, now the former mayor of the City of Arcadia, agreed to plead guilty to one felony charge that she acted as an illegal foreign agent of China.

‘It smells like my ranch!’ Diva of dirt Delcy Morelos and her amazing 30-tonne earthworks

It sustains all life. It is where we all end up. Yet we treat it appallingly. As her latest enormous mud sculpture looks set to cause a sensation in Britain, the Colombian artist explains why she works with soil

The earth’s cool breath is the first thing that hits me. Scented with clove and cinnamon, it catches my senses by surprise in the dim, while a vast soil sculpture emerges around me as if from a dream, just as the artist intended. I’m contained within its mammoth, terraced walls of reddish soil and struck by the silence, the peace felt in being held by nothing but earth. Another visitor lies on the ground nearby, contemplating the circular, 12-metre-high structure towering above us. I resist the temptation to stroke it, instead smelling and observing the work, feeling a mixture of curiosity, fear and solace.

I’m in Mexico City, inside The Womb Space, a cavernous earthwork by Delcy Morelos. Now in its ninth and final month, the show has been a word-of-mouth sensation, drawing more than 60,000 visitors. Its draw lies in an often nostalgic appeal to the senses – a woman in her 70s enters and whispers: “It smells like my ranch! Like playing in the dirt as a child.” Remarkably, it turns out the sculpture’s soil was actually sourced from the region the woman is from. Together, we take in the earthwork’s cascading plant matter, its humidity and the uncanny aliveness emanating from within. It’s almost like standing inside a mountain: you feel humbled and somehow more primal, the response more visceral than cerebral.

Wanted: real no-lo alternatives for wine drinkers

Perhaps the non-alcoholic alternative for wine drinkers should not be a wine at all, but a different sip altogether? We slurp through some likely candidates …

After my positive pregnancy test eight years ago, the first thing I did was buy an industrial quantity of the non-alcoholic aperitivo Crodino, which is something of a negroni dupe for bitters hounds. There are plenty of really good, alcohol-free cocktail options nowadays, and beer drinkers, too, are amply catered for in the non-alcoholic department – but what of wine?

I may sound like an old fart, but for me, at 41, the pleasure of drinking wine is more about a sense of occasion than the stuff’s mind-altering qualities. (Collagen and social inhibition, I have discovered, wane in tandem.) So the challenge for wine drinkers who aren’t drinking is to find a proxy to sip and enjoy in the same way. Something that comes in a wine bottle. Something you drink from a glass with a stem. Something that works with food. Something that isn’t Shloer.

Philippine politician wanted by ICC flees senate after days holed up in building

Ronald dela Rosa, wanted over involvement in Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’, reportedly left heavily guarded building before dawn

A Philippine lawmaker wanted by the international criminal court for his alleged role enforcing Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody anti-drugs crackdown has secretly fled the senate after spending days holed up in the building to avoid arrest.

The senate president, Alan Peter Cayetano, confirmed to the media that senator Ronald dela Rosa was “no longer in the building” after reports that he had slipped out of the heavily guarded building before dawn.

NBA playoffs: No 1 seed Pistons one game from elimination after Cavs roar back to win in OT

• Cleveland lead best-of-seven series 3-2

• Detroit had led by nine with four minutes left

James Harden scored 30 points and Donovan Mitchell added 21, including seven in overtime, as the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers rallied to beat the Detroit Pistons 117-113 on Wednesday to take a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

The result leaves Detroit, the No 1 seeds in the East, just one defeat from elimination.

Why food is the real star of my new novel

From James Bond’s breakfasts to the kimchi fried rice in Crying in H Mart, a book’s food can often linger longer in our memories than its characters or storylines

• Sign up here for our weekly food newsletter, Feast

When I first had the idea for my debut novel, The Underdog, which came out last week, I knew it had to include food. After all, the received wisdom is to write about what you know and, after almost two decades’ worth of recipes, features and restaurant reviews, it’s surely my specialist subject. Though a grumpy terrier threatens to steal the limelight, the book’s (ostensible) main character, Katy, is a newly qualified pastry chef who goes from turning out heritage duck egg and black garlic mayo sourdough sandwiches in a painfully pretentious London cafe, to making cheese scones with foraged sea buckthorn jam on the west coast of Scotland. Her journey also involves a Michelin-starred restaurant and a bespoke baking business (as well as a couple of disastrous run-ins with bitchy critics, including on a television gameshow involving Sue Perkins and a chocolate souffle challenge).

I had an absolute blast writing the book, and the food sections were definitely the most fun – thinking about what a starred restaurant might serve with a salted chocolate tart, say (Fergus Henderson’s recipe is here, but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t pair it with a beetroot sorbet and walnut crumb), or what a critic might order for lunch at Margot Henderson’s Rochelle Canteen (bitter greens, like our own Rachel Roddy’s, for a start). In fact, from the glistening, bronzed hunk of pork with salsa verde and pressed potatoes set in front of the UK’s most feared culinary taste-maker, to the merguez and chip baguette Katy eats on the pavement after kidnapping a dog she doesn’t even like, the food is the real star.

Burberry’s £2,000 Cotswolds handbag hits ‘a sweet spot’ with Americans

Zeal for ‘the Hamptons of England’ has rubbed off on sales, with luxury British fashion brand back to a full-year profit

• Business live – latest updates

The luxury fashion brand Burberry has said a new £2,000 handbag named after the Cotswolds has bolstered sales, as the English region becomes increasingly popular with wealthy Americans.

Joshua Schulman, the company’s chief executive, said its tote bags – which mix leather and the signature Burberry check – had helped drive its best performance in bag sales since 2023.

Spit, vomit and a banned baby: Cannes controversies – ranked!

For every standing ovation there’s a riotous backlash – the film festival’s history is littered with boos, protests, furious rows and career-defining disasters

Part of the appeal of Cannes is its sense of old-school glamour. It is, however, a shame that the glamour often comes at the expense of logic and practicality. In 2015, a group of women were barred from the gala screening of Todd Haynes’ historical lesbian romance Carol for not adhering to the rule that women must wear high heels. The same happened to producer Valeria Richter, even though part of her left foot had been amputated. A year later, Julia Roberts made her displeasure about this known by walking the red carpet barefoot.

‘We have a clear vision’: Eintracht move closer to bringing glory days back to Frankfurt

Under the knowledgeable guidance of Babett Peter, the Frauen-Bundesliga club have their country’s big two, and the Champions League, in their sights

Frankfurt remains one of the most prominent and historic names in women’s football in Germany. The old 1. FFC Frankfurt ruled the nation for almost a decade, winning the Frauen-Bundesliga seven times between 1999 and 2008, including five in six seasons, and secured four European titles between 2002 and 2015.

The best of Germany, and sometimes beyond, represented Frankfurt before clubs such as Wolfsburg, and subsequently Bayern Munich, took charge, but now the city’s name is back challenging at the business end of the table.

Trump tries to make deals in China. And, Senate confirms Kevin Warsh as Fed leader

President Trump is vying to make deals with China during his visit with President Xi Jinping. And, the Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as the next leader of the Federal Reserve.

Take the ultimate Eurovision quiz! Can you avoid nul points?

Ahead of the 70th grand final on Saturday, it’s time to test your knowledge of Europe’s biggest pop spectacular. But can you sort your Loreen from your Vanilla Ninja?

Good evening Europe – and good morning Australia! It’s that time of year again, when most of mainland Europe plus a few other countries gather to decide which three-minute pop spectacle will lodge itself in your brain for at least the next 10 years.

From Vienna this year, expect glitter, key changes, baffling staging decisions and at least one entry that makes you wonder if you have accidentally ingested hallucinogens. Somewhere in among it all, a winner will emerge.

Cordial Trump-Xi meeting is a 'good sign,' says longtime U.S. diplomat

Longtime U.S. diplomat Richard Haass interprets President Trump's meeting with China leader, Xi Jinping. He said though the two have different priorities the cordial summit could be a 'good sign.'

China's leader warns Trump that differences over Taiwan could lead to a clash

At the summit, the Chinese leader placed Taiwan, a key point of friction between the U.S. and China, at the center, calling it "the most important issue" between the two countries.

Kevin Morby: Little Wide Open review – midwestern elegist mulls over the mystery of life’s big questions

(Dead Oceans)
With help from Aaron Dessner, Bon Iver and Lucinda Williams, the Americana artist shares his uncertainties around his roots and relationships in unhurried, subtly melancholic songs

The first track on Kevin Morby’s eighth album is called Badlands. It refers to the unforgiving terrain of the American midwest and also comes freighted with pop cultural references: the title of Terrence Malick’s bleak 1973 neo-noir movie loosely based on the spree killings of Charles Starkweather; the ferocious track from Bruce Springsteen’s 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town that depicts the lot of a frustrated blue-collar worker “smashing in my guts” in a nowhere town. Unforgiving terrain, violence fuelled by nihilistic rage, frustration: the listener is thus primed for a song on which Morby, who was raised between the farmland of Missouri and the suburbs of Kansas City, paints a stark picture of the America from which he hails. But Badlands isn’t so straightforward. It’s driven by big, punchy, slightly distorted drums, but the music that plays over them is strangely laid back: a clean, clear guitar plays a gently addictive riff, Morby’s vocal has a conversational tone, there are sweet vocal harmonies. On the one hand, the lyrics talk about “the big disaster we call home”, but on the other suggest that “heaven is a place on Earth beneath the golden sky”. He concludes, with a shrug, “I can’t tell if I’m in heaven or the badlands.”

It sets the tone for an album that, in the best way, can’t quite work out what it thinks, conjuring a series of grey areas. Morby is particularly acute on the weird push and pull exerted by one’s home town, comforting familiarity and nostalgia (“home smells like cinnamon and the sad passing of time”) and doing battle with the sense that you never quite fit in: “Where no one ever makes a sound except me on this guitar,” as Morby puts it, a bluesy acoustic lick suddenly disrupting the austere sound of Cowtown for emphasis. But a sense of equivocation seeps into everything. On Natural Disaster, Morby can’t decide whether his swings in mood are something that should be dealt with via medication or meditation or just a natural occurrence, like landslides or hurricanes, that he furthermore needs as songwriting fuel. Die Young looks back on youthful hedonism with a shudder (“thank God we didn’t die young”) that can’t fully undercut how fondly he relates a succession of on-the-road touring scrapes.