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Scotland 35-29 Wales Home side led 35-8 but Wales secure late bonus point All of Scotland’s brilliance, and a lot of those familiar failings. Scotland, it cannot be denied, underscored once again their status as second only to France in attack. But even with a 27-point cushion midway through the second half, they contrived to make life uncomfortable for themselves against a clearly inferior side. Wales managed to rouse themselves from a hopeless position to claim two bonus points, when Max Llewellyn crashed over to score their fourth try at the death. Jarrod Evans’s conversion, his third, pulled Wales back to within six for the second point. Small consolation for Wales, still rooted to the foot of the table. They had been completely outplayed for an hour, but will welcome England to Cardiff next weekend with a modicum of encouragement. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/cEzispK

Getting kids more involved in choosing and preparing the food they bring to school is a crucial step in cutting waste Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com No one with school-age children is a stranger to the drudgery of the lunchbox and chances are, at some stage along the way – possibly weekly – you’ve found yourself at your wits’ end about what to send, not to mention what comes home. Once upon a time it was socially acceptable and not even considered a health or sustainability issue to slap some Vegemite and margarine in white bread, cover it in Glad Wrap and shove it – along with a Prima and bag of Tiny Teddies – into a plastic lunchbox. Those days are gone. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Y8enPhN

UK reviewers described the homely show from the Duchess of Sussex as ‘smug, syrupy’ and narcissistic It received a “toe-curling” one-star review in the Guardian , was written off as “smug, syrupy and endlessly spoofable” in the Times and denounced as “an exercise in narcissism” in the Telegraph . But according to Netflix, “there’s more joy to be shared”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/N5RFEBG

The presidency is no longer just a ‘bully pulpit’. It’s become part of the disinformation machine Donald Trump won the White House not with money , though he spent plenty of it, but by dominating the conversation . He hasn’t stopped campaigning. He uses attention to bolster his political power, and uses his office to make sure that everyone keeps watching. He was barred from leading social media platforms after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, but four years later, their owners attended his inauguration. Many of his key hires appear picked for their media presence as well as their ideological bent and sycophancy. Tuesday’s interminable address to Congress was garnished with the kind of wild claims or outright lies that he knows take off on social media. For him, posting online ultimatums to Hamas and a disturbing AI-generated “Trump Gaza” video is all part of foreign policy. One of the most chilling, and telling, moments of last week’s attack on Volodymyr...

The public inquiry into police spies was brought about by the bravery of the women they abused, as a new documentary shows Information in the public domain about the undercover policing of protest groups from the late 1960s onwards would not be there were it not for the extraordinary courage of a group of women who were conned by officers into long-term sexual relationships. It is more than a decade since the investigation of this, and other wrongful actions, by undercover units was taken over by a judge-led public inquiry. Following revelations that officers had spied on Stephen Lawrence’s family, Theresa May, who was then the home secretary, ordered that inquiry . ITV’s new three-part documentary, The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed, made in collaboration with the Guardian, emphasises that there was nothing inevitable about this outcome. The series, which features remarkable home-video footage of one officer, Mark Jenner (known undercover as Mark Cassidy), is a gri...

A pan-Arab coalition resists US-Israeli policy on Gaza, while Donald Trump’s reported Hamas talks signal a potential reversal of longstanding strategy Israel’s decision to block aid to Gaza, as ceasefire talks falter, is a devastating blow to 2 million hungry, vulnerable civilians in the shattered territory. As the occupying power, Israel is legally bound to allow relief into Gaza under the Geneva convention. Denying it isn’t just inhumane – it’s a war crime . But Benjamin Netanyahu already faces an international criminal court arrest warrant for “starvation as a method of warfare” and “crimes against humanity”. Mr Netanyahu’s ability to flout international law is thanks to Donald Trump, who remains firmly in his corner. Washington now appears to accept starvation as an Israeli bargaining chip to pressure Hamas into accepting a US-devised truce extension – one that secures hostage exchanges while ensuring Israeli forces remain in Gaza. Hamas, which sparked the war with its 2023 ma...

Wounded and sick children in need of urgent treatment crossed through Israel to reach King Hussein hospital in Amman A slow convoy of a dozen ambulances and buses brought 25 wounded and sick Palestinian children from Gaza and across Israel on Tuesday, past the heavily armed forces that bombarded the territory for 15 months, and that may be about to start again. The patients were among the 4,500 people in Gaza believed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be in urgent need of evacuation, and they were transferred to Jordan by a joint operation by the Jordanian army, the country’s health ministry and the WHO. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/pxs6ju9

As Volodymyr Zelenskyy seeks to undo the damage of the Oval Office confrontation, the question is not just how far but how fast the Trump administration moves How long do Ukraine and Europe have to respond to US betrayal? When Russia launched its full-scale invasion three years ago, each day that Kyiv held out was a victory. The west rallied to Ukraine’s support at equally remarkable speed. Now, as the Trump administration turns upon the victim, and embraces the aggressor, Europe is accelerating nascent plans to bolster Ukraine and pursue security independence. Trump allies blame Friday night’s extraordinary Oval Office confrontation between Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Donald Trump and JD Vance for the shocking halt to all US military aid . Others suspect that the administration was seeking a pretext for the suspension. Mr Zelenskyy pledged on Tuesday to “work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts” and expressed gratitude for his first-term approval ...

Machines could be marketed as ‘used in UK hospitals’ after James Dyson spoke to PM, Covid inquiry hears A minister warned a senior official that ventilators may need to be bought from Sir James Dyson “so that he can then market [them] internationally” as “being used in UK hospitals” after the businessman spoke to Boris Johnson, the Covid inquiry has heard. The message from Lord Agnew, a Tory Treasury minister, to the government’s chief commercial officer, Gareth Reese Williams, emerged as the public inquiry into the pandemic started a four-week examination of procurement. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/tm7wren

Taking place in the middle of a chaotic time for the US and the world at large, this year’s ceremony was light on statements and devoid of the Trump word entirely Twenty-two years ago, the last time Adrien Brody won the Academy award for best actor, film-maker Michael Moore accepted his own Oscar for Bowling for Columbine , a documentary about America’s obsession with guns, by offering a preview of sorts of his next feature, Fahrenheit 9/11. He decried then president George W Bush as “fictitious” (alluding to his fishy, supreme court-assisted election win a year and a half earlier) and excoriated the Bush administration for sending the United States to war with Iraq – just three days earlier, in fact – for “fictitious reasons”. It was received with a mixture of applause and boos, probably the most memorable moment of the night, give or take Brody planting a kiss on Halle Berry. Two years later, when Fahrenheit 9/11 might have been similarly honored (and almost certainly would have be...

USA defender injured in Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with Brighton Manchester United keep pressure on WSL leaders The USA centre-back Naomi Girma’s debut for Chelsea ended early as she was brought off with an injury in their 2-2 draw at Brighton . The world’s first $1m women’s footballer , who signed for Chelsea from San Diego Wave in January for a $1.1m (£874,000)fee and has had to wait patiently for her debut while recovering from a calf injury that caused her to miss the SheBelieves Cup in February , had to be withdrawn just before the hour mark. It was an absorbing contest in which a hard-working Brighton side give Chelsea more than just a scare. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/UouldHi

The Arsenal forward, once England’s key player, is only 30 but his confidence is shot and his career on a downward curve In Rafa Benítez’s first season in English football, he rested Steven Gerrard for an FA Cup tie at Burnley, who were in the Championship. When Liverpool lost, there was a predictable backlash and, from certain quarters, derision as Benítez explained his rotation policy and the need to manage the number of minutes each player played. Social media being in its infancy, it wasn’t quite the culture war that it would have become today, but certain old-school football men clearly felt that players should just get on with it: hard work never hurt anyone. But at the same time a piece of ancient wisdom kept surfacing, usually from elderly coaches who had spent a lifetime in the game: as a rule of thumb, however much they play, whatever age they start, a player has 500 games in them. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/AY8ilhC

After a game of high drama that exhibited the very worst of video officiating, a wonder strike, an extraordinary red card and then a sudden-death penalty shootout, it is Bournemouth who continue to dream of Wembley. That will teach the television companies for making this the only FA Cup fifth-round tie not chosen for broadcast. The victory was nothing more than the dominant hosts deserved ut they went round the houses to get there. Eventually, after Boubacar Traoré had hit the crossbar, it was Bournemouth substitute Luis Sinisterra who was the hero, converting from the spot for a 5-4 shootout win after the game had somehow remained deadlocked at 1-1 after extra time. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/UV0nG4j

Up to 90% of young people in Taiwan have myopia but eye experts say the growing global trend can be reversed In the final days of their eight-week bootcamp, dozens of young Taiwanese conscripts are being tested on an obstacle course. The men in full combat kit are crawling underneath rows of razor wire and through bunkers as controlled explosions blast columns of dirt into the air. Pink and green smoke blooms in a simulated gas attack, requiring the conscripts to quickly don gas masks so they can rush the zone. But it’s here where many of them pause, stopping the assault drill to spend precious seconds removing their glasses so the masks will fit. The conscripts mostly look to be in their early 20s. Statistics suggest that means anywhere up to 90% of them have some degree of myopia, otherwise known as shortsightedness. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/sPxvbCm

A cold reality hit us in Washington. Zelenskyy was being forced to buy hope of survival by people who have no care for our freedom It’s warming up in Kyiv. The temperature has risen from -5C to 4C. Sometimes, the sun peeps through breaks in the clouds, but Kyivites are not much cheered by the sunshine. They are not watching for signs of spring as they usually do at this time of year. The atmosphere in the city and in the country as a whole has been one of nervous expectation. This was not an expectation of an end to military action or the signing of a peace treaty with Russia – nothing so specific. Indeed, it was not at all clear what we were waiting for, but it was something connected with Donald Trump and the change in US policy towards Ukraine. Clarity emerged at today’s macabre theatre at the White House: handshakes, a thumbs up and some fist pumps from the US president, before Trump sat side by side with Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss a minerals-for-war-support deal and to humil...

Washington’s day of historic diplomacy involved two alleged rapists and then the prime minister of Britain. It said everything about our new era Shortly after Keir Starmer arrived in Washington to fight for the future of Europe, two men who make a mockery of everything he stands for touched down on American soil. The toxic YouTube influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate have spent years under investigation in Romania on charges of rape and human trafficking, which they deny, Andrew is now wanted by British police over allegations of rape , and both brothers for tax evasion in this country. But to MAGAworld they are martyrs, unjustly persecuted abroad for the crime of saying what they think on the internet. Their triumphant homecoming to Florida, following reported US diplomatic pressure on the Romanian government to lift its travel ban, sends a signal to aggrieved young men who voted for Donald Trump over Kamala Harris that the president has not forgotten them . There could hardly have...

The prime minister must handle Donald Trump with tact, but without flinching from a duty to confront falsehoods in the president’s worldview It is hard to set expectations ahead of a summit with no useful precedent. British prime ministers have visited the White House before and in a wide variety of geopolitical contexts, but never has the hosting president been hostile to the transatlantic alliance. Never before could it be said that Washington’s foreign policy regarding European security was closer to a Moscow line than a London one. Conventional platitudes about a “special relationship” and common values are of little use to Sir Keir Starmer in handling Donald Trump. History is not irrelevant, but on matters of substance – most urgently, a settlement to end the war in Ukraine – Mr Trump is behaving more like a mafia boss than a statesman. His method is to demand tribute in exchange for protection. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/XqDAj08

Labour’s ‘pragmatism’ isn’t neutral – it locks the party into fiscal caution, reinforcing stagnation and fuelling the very instability it seeks to avoid Politics is about choices. Some are forced on governments by circumstance. Others are self‑imposed. Labour’s decision to cut the aid budget to “pay” for increased defence spending is firmly in the latter category. It is also wrong – forcing the world’s poor to pay for Britain’s safety. This is a false economy. Cutting aid will make the world more unstable, not less. The very crises that fuel conflict – poverty, failed states, climate disasters and mass displacement – will only worsen with less development funding. Labour’s logic is self‑defeating: diverting money from aid to defence does not buy security; it undermines it. The numbers tell the story. Despite government attempts to inflate the amounts involved, the extra £5bn‑£6bn for defence is tiny relative to Britain’s GDP. The UK could easily absorb this through borrow...

Asteroid 2024 YR4 had reached a 3.1% likelihood of impact but further data has rendered it negligible It was a discovery that lead to panic-inducing headlines: a giant asteroid found to be hurtling towards Earth that , while unlikely to wipe out life, could do some serious damage. But now the world can breathe a sigh of relief. After the odds of a future collision rose earlier this year , the likelihood of an impact is now so low as to be negligible. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/HoC5ZAG

Campbell Scott, a senior director at Fico, was reported missing while in Nairobi for a three-day conference Police searching for a British businessman missing in Kenya have recovered a body, found in a sack in scrubland about 60 miles from Nairobi, reports said. Campbell Scott, 58, a senior director at the data analytics company Fico, went missing on 16 February after arriving in the Kenyan capital to attend a conference at the JW Marriott hotel. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/mx4hBdg