Kylie Minogue reveals all on love, life and heartbreak as she vows to perform into her 80s
FOR almost four decades, Kylie Minogue has soundtracked our lives with anthems of love, joy and heartbreak.
While her own personal life has seen both stellar highs and crushing lows — including failed romances, and cancer — she has kept calm and carried on, and on, then on some more.
As for those gold hotpants from her 2000 video for disco belter Spinning Around, they brightened up all our lives, to the point they are now under lock and key in a museum.
But as Kylie, 57, sits down with me for her only newspaper chat ahead of her self-titled Netflix docuseries that airs on Wednesday, she insists she is just like the rest of us when heartbroken.
In the TV tell-all, she recalls her devastating 1991 split from the late INXS frontman, Aussie Michael Hutchence, after a passionate two-year romance — and how she slept on a pal’s sofa in Paris while unable to face the couple’s old stomping grounds in Oz and the UK.
She had previously also dated Aussie actor-singer Jason Donovan — and when I ask if she’s ever “gone full Bridget Jones”, liked the unlucky-in-love soul of movie fame, she swiftly replies: “Oh, 100 per cent.
Read More on Kylie Minogue
“I’ve had different relationships that all shaped me. Of course, I talk about Michael. I’ve also got Jason Donovan, who speaks so amazingly in the documentary.”
During the Netflix special, Kylie recalls how she struggled post-Hutchence — and tells viewers: “I didn’t know where to go or what to do. I knew I didn’t want to be in London and I didn’t want to be in Australia, so I went to Paris.
“I remember having a tiny English to-French dictionary. I didn’t know anyone, but had two numbers on a bit of paper. One of those was a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of mine.
“She lived with a girl called Kat, who is now my oldest, best girlfriend. I moved into her apartment, got a sleeping bag and slept on the sofa. I was feeling heartbroken.”
Keen not to sugarcoat her life for Netflix, Kylie let director Michael Harte retain total creative control, even when she may have liked some bits left on the cutting-room floor.
In one episode, her former Neighbours co-star Jason remembers the moment Kylie left him for rocker Michael — explaining how they met him after an INXS gig before Jason watched the pair disappear into a hotel bathroom together.
Jason admits: “He wasn’t interested in me. I could sniff that a mile away. And she disappeared with him into the bathroom, which is fine. You know, we’re grown-ups.”
Reflecting on that evening, Kylie adds: “After the gig, Jason and I were invited back to the after-party. I would have been a bit like, ‘How did we get here?’ We were just talking about singer stuff.”
Kylie has been single since splitting from GQ magazine boss Paul Solomons in 2023, and insists she does not need a man to feel complete.
When I ask if she is happy, All The Lovers singer Kylie replies with a smile: “I’m super-happy, yeah.”
She told the Sunday Times’ Style magazine yesterday: “I don’t have a boyfriend. I was in a relationship, and when that ended, I realised I was OK on my own. I’m getting pickier. Narcissists . . . I’ve dated one and I’m grateful I now have that knowledge. That’s my red-hot ‘no’.”
Similarly, when Kylie and I last chatted, in October 2024, the I Should Be So Lucky singer told me: “There’s no one significant in my life and I feel content. I feel like this is my destiny right now.”
But she STILL fiercely believes in love — and enjoys watching it bloom for others.
We first met in 2023 while she was promoting 16th album Tension. I was shamelessly chasing a boy and, on my way to her Claridge’s hotel suite, bought a bottle of Kylie Prosecco for her to sign for him.
After our chat, she agreed, writing his name on the bottle and wishing me luck in my romantic pursuit. The next summer, he was my boyfriend.
During a brief meeting in 2024, at the British Summer Time festival in London’s Hyde Park, I thanked her for the part she had played. “See, I’ve still got it!” she happily told her team, punching the air.
But by the time we crossed paths in May 2025, outside her dressing room as she played London’s 02 Arena for her Tension world tour, I was single once more.
I mentioned I was seeing her show again the next night and bringing my ex. “Ooh, what’s the goss?” Kylie asked. Laughing awkwardly, I admitted I wished we were still together.
Meanwhile, in episode two of her Netflix series Kylie wells up as she admits she has been searching for a love like she shared with Michael ever since their 1991 breakup.
Kylie says to camera: “I haven’t quite got it. I’ve probably been looking for something like that ever since.
“He was a first for so many things and one was heartbreak. I was devastated. He was a rock star, which doesn’t just mean that he needs many women in his life, but he needed to go where he needed to go. But I know from people in his circle that he talked of me and thought of me. We were good together.”
Shrugging off the emotion, Kylie adds: “Shoulda, woulda, coulda — whatever. But it was an amazing time. The memories make me feel good, even if I’m getting teary. It was good to have someone, to feel like you were a good team. I’m fortunate. The emotion and the memories I have with that time — I just felt protected, nurtured, valued, and believed in.”
Recalling Michael’s funeral in 1997 in Sydney, after he died at just 37, Kylie says: “At the church it was overwhelming, the outpouring of love for him. I felt him saying, ‘It’s OK. It will be OK’. I always feel he’s with me.”
But as we chat, Kylie wishes she had “stressed less” over the course of her career, and she admits she sometimes “didn’t manage it well”.
I am also relieved that — like me when love’s course goes awry — this global superstar so indentifies with Bridget Jones, as played in the films by Renee Zellweger.
In the series’ first film, Bridget Jones’s Diary, in 2001, the pyjama-clad protagonist has break-up blues as she clutches a bottle of wine and belts out power ballad All By Myself.
I doubt Kylie’s go-to heartbreak fixes are the same as my budget pairing — a £4.99 supermarket Pinot Grigio and Cadbury popping-candy chocolate bar. But I do recommend them, Kylie.
Of course, the other bombshell in Kylie’s life came at just 36 when, in 2005, she was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.
She had to pull out of a Glastonbury set and part of her Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour to undergo a lumpectomy as well as chemotherapy.
The next year she was in remission and given the all-clear.
But Kylie tells Netflix viewers: “I felt removed from my body. I was so scared of what was ahead of me.” Her singer sister Dannii adds: “We didn’t know, if she was ever going to be well again.”
It is hard to believe, though, how she has kept much of her off-stage life little known about.
When I put this to her, she nods and says: “It’s like, is there a monster under the bed? You build up this fear of telling.”
But she adds: “There’s enough behind me, and in front of me, that now has made it a good time. And what am I so scared of? It’s been a good exercise to have a look back at life, and find acceptance.”
In the docuseries, Kylie admits she was “riddled with self-doubt and anxiety” — and that those feelings still rear their head.
Kylie, who wrapped up her 66-date Tension tour last year, tells me: “I still have anxiety and self-doubt. No, not all the time, but a healthy amount is good.
“I know what I’m doing more now, which is satisfying. There’s definitely moments but that doesn’t permeate through.”
Although Kylie is now a superstar, she got there through steadfast resilience — proving critics wrong time and time again.
Her decision to quit Aussie soap Neighbours at the height of its success — when 24 million daily viewers was commonplace — was deemed by many as crazy.
Indeed, so popular was the soap that when Princess Diana missed just two episodes, she called up the BBC to ask after recordings.
Kylie’s sixth studio album, 1997’s Impossible Princess, was savaged so brutally by critics that radio stations refused to play her singles. A billboard even told the world Kylie was “over”.
Yet nearly three decades later, the 5ft powerhouse has never been more beloved. In December, she landed her eighth UK No1 single, ,and her first festive chart-topper, with Xmas.
A seasoned pro with interviews, Kylie usually has a slick answer ready for any question. But when I ask what she would say to her younger self, she takes her time before replying: “I still don’t know what’s ahead of me now — but I especially didn’t at 16.”
During the Netflix series, Kylie hits back at a suggestion she might be ready to slow down soon.
“Tell that to Cher and Barbra [Streisand]” she quips.
Both are plenty older than her — Cher recently turned 79 and Barbra 84 — and Cher, in particular, is still dusting off her suspenders and stockings for performances.
So, can we expect to see Kylie still doing The Locco-Motion at 80?
Beaming, she replies: “With all my heart, I hope so, yes.
“But how I’ve done this is, I am not a planner, I like to be fluid. I have a loose idea, I know what I want to do — but, yeah, maybe next week or this month.”
But while Kylie may still be up on stage in 2049, her famed gold hotpants will not. They are in a museum in Melbourne, Australia — but Kylie beams at my idea they belong in the Louvre museum in Paris, with the Mona Lisa painting.
Kylie says of the hotpants: “That would be amazing. But I bought them for 50p — my girlfriend found them in a secondhand store. I wore them quite rigorously so they’re fragile and the museum have said they have got to stay flat. They are in preservation mode.”
I also ask if “Kylie the pop star” ever feels like “Kylie the person” is forgotten.
But she feels fans want her to be both, adding of time on stage: “It’s a place for me to harness everything I’ve worked for and that I feel, and be expressive.”
The word “icon” is overused, but when I tell Kylie she is one, she replies simply: “I try.”
Senate parliamentarian deals blow to $1-billion security proposal for White House
WASHINGTON — A proposal to fund $1 billion in security additions for the White House campus and President Trump’s new ballroom fails to meet procedural rules, according to the Senate parliamentarian, dealing a blow to Republican plans to include it as part of a bill to fund immigration enforcement agencies for the next three years.
The parliamentarian’s ruling, described late Saturday by Senate Democrats, said that funding for a project as large and complex as Trump’s massive East Wing renovation is too broad to be included in the narrow GOP budget bill, which cannot be filibustered and needs only a simple majority to pass.
It’s unclear whether Republicans will be able to immediately salvage any part of the billion-dollar Secret Service proposal, which would fund security for Trump’s ballroom along with other parts of the White House, including a new visitor screening center, additional training for agents and extra reinforcements for large events. Republicans said Saturday night that they are revising the legislation based on the parliamentarian’s advice.
Ryan Wrasse, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), wrote in a post on X that “none of this is abnormal” during the complicated budget process that Republicans are using to try to pass the immigration enforcement and White House security money on a partisan basis.
“Redraft. Refine. Resubmit,” Wrasse said in the post.
Democrats say they’re ‘ready to stop them again’
Democrats have seized on the security request, accusing Republicans of dedicating federal resources to the ballroom project instead of focusing on helping Americans with rising costs. Republicans have insisted that private donations will be used to build the ballroom and that the federal dollars are focused just on much-needed security enhancements.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) took credit for the ruling after Democrats argued to the parliamentarian that the security money doesn’t belong in the bill.
“Republicans tried to make taxpayers foot the bill for Trump’s billion-dollar ballroom,” Schumer said Saturday evening. “Senate Democrats fought back — and blew up their first attempt.”
Schumer added that Democrats “will be ready to stop them again” as Republicans say they will revise the bill.
The ruling from the Senate parliamentarian is advisory, but such rulings are rarely if ever ignored when lawmakers put together legislation that can pass with a simple majority. Most bills are subject to a filibuster and thus need 60 votes for passage — meaning Republicans must find some Democratic support in the 53-47 Senate.
Part of immigration bill
Republicans are looking to approve a roughly $72-billion package to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection until the end of Trump’s term after Democrats have blocked the money for months.
As part of that package, Republicans included $1 billion for White House security enhancements, part of it connected to Trump’s ballroom. The Secret Service had requested the money after a man was charged with trying to assassinate Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner last month.
The overall budget package is providing another boost of funding for Trump’s immigration and deportation agenda, fueling operations through September 2029. It comes on top of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol funds Congress provided last year in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed into law.
The parliamentarian kept most of the immigration portion of the legislation intact, though some minor provisions were blocked, including Customs and Border Patrol funds to hire, train and pay Border Patrol agents. Republicans said those were only technical fixes.
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said Saturday evening that “Democrats are prepared to challenge any change to this bill.”
Americans shouldn’t spend “a single dime” on Trump’s “Louis XIV-style ballroom and throw tens of billions more at two lawless agencies,” Merkley said.
Jalonick and Freking write for the Associated Press. AP writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
Angel City, Portland play to scoreless draw
Angelina Anderson made one save for her second shutout and became the first goalkeeper to hold Portland scoreless this season as visiting Angel City played the Thorns to a 0-0 draw on Sunday.
Mackenzie Arnold made three saves for Portland (6-2-2) in her fourth shutout of the year. Angel City (3-4-1) snapped a four-game skid.
Late in second-half stoppage time, Thorns midfielder Jessie Fleming sent a shot off the post.
Portland had two players leave the game with injuries: Isabella Obaze in the 67th minute and M.A. Vignola in the 74th.
The leading scorers for each team missed the game: Portland’s Olivia Moultrie (calf) and Angel City’s Sveindis Jonsdottir (foot).
US says China to buy billions in agricultural goods after Trump-Xi talks | Business and Economy News
China will buy ‘at least’ $17bn worth of US agricultural goods annually, the White House says.
Published On 18 May 2026
China will buy “at least” $17bn worth of agricultural goods from the United States annually following US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s summit in Beijing, the White House has said.
China will make the purchases through 2028, with the 2026 target applying to the remainder of the year on a proportionate basis, according to a fact sheet released on Sunday.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
The White House said the deal is in addition to China’s commitment to buy at least 87 million metric tonnes of US soya beans, which was made at Trump and Xi’s summit in South Korea in October.
China will also restore market access for US beef by renewing the expired listings of more than 400 production facilities, and resume imports of poultry from states determined by the US Department of Agriculture to be free of avian influenza, according to the fact sheet.
Trump and Xi also agreed to establish two new bodies – the US-China Board of Trade and the US-China Board of Investment – to manage trade and investment between the sides, the White House said.
China has yet to confirm or comment on the White House’s announcement.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The White House’s update provides further clarity on the outcome of Trump and Xi’s two-day summit, which was heavy on pageantry and camaraderie but light on concrete agreements.
During their two days of talks in Beijing, Trump and Xi sought greater alignment on economic issues and trade, while largely skirting the sensitive issues of Taiwan and the US-Israel war on Iran.
In a readout after the summit wrapped up on Friday, the White House said the two sides had discussed ways to “enhance economic cooperation”, and that they agreed on the need to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and that Iran “can never have a nuclear weapon.”
Beijing did not explicitly state that Iran should not have nuclear weapons, but stressed the importance of reaching “a settlement on the Iranian nuclear issue and other issues that accommodates the concerns of all parties”.
Neither White House statement contained any mention of Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing views as an integral part of its territory.
The omission of any reference to the island – the defence of which Washington is committed to supporting under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act – came after Xi warned of “clashes and even conflicts” between the superpowers if the issue is not “handled properly”.
After nearly a decade of tit-for-tat economic salvoes between Washington and Beijing, US-Chinese trade is down sharply from its peak.
Their bilateral trade in goods last year came to some $415bn, down from more than $690bn in 2022.
Possibility Of Operation To Retrieve Iran’s Enriched Uranium Appears To Rise As Negotiations Sputter (Updated)
President Donald Trump on Monday alluded to the U.S. sending troops into Iran to retrieve its highly enriched uranium (HEU). His comments follow similar words on the same topic from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made to 60 Minutes on Sunday. Taken in aggregate, the statements suggest that there is coordinated messaging on the issue between Washington and Jerusalem and, after stalled talks with Iran, the possibility of such an operation may have been elevated.
As we stated shortly after the war kicked off, a mission into Iran to rid the country of its highly enriched nuclear material, once and for all, would be extremely risky and very complex. You can read more about these realities here. The main issue is that, by the Trump administration’s own stated objectives, the current conflict doesn’t really end until the enriched uranium, most of which is likely buried in the rubble of the underground Isfahan nuclear complex, is removed from the country. Estimates state that this stockpile, stored in scuba tank-like cylinders, is likely enough material to construct around a dozen nuclear warheads, that is if a program to fully weaponize it and construct and validate a device were to move forward.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said Iran initially offered to accompany the U.S. into its facilities storing HEU that were severely damaged during last year’s Operation Midnight Hammer attacks.
However, Tehran changed its stance, Trump claimed.
“They said ‘you’re going to have to take it,’” the American president said of Iran’s initial response to the issue of recovering the uranium.
“We were going to go with them, but they changed their mind because they didn’t put it in the paper,” the president added, referring to a peace plan delivered by Iran over the weekend. “So they agree with us, and then they take it back…But I have a great plan, but the plan is they cannot have a nuclear weapon. And they didn’t say that in their letter.”
Trump also played-off the issue this weekend saying U.S. forces are watching the site closely and will kill anyone or anything that gets close to it.
Speaking to 60 Minutes, Netanyahu seemed more direct about a potential ground incursion into Iran, yet evasive about the details. Asked how he envisions the highly enriched uranium will be removed from Iran, Netanyahu stated: “You go in, and you take it out.”
“With what? Special forces from Israel, special forces from the United States?” the Israeli leader was quizzed.
“Well, I’m not gonna talk about military means, but what President Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there.’ And I think it can be done physically. That’s not the problem. If you have an agreement, and you go in, and you take it out, why not? That’s the best way.”
Netanyahu was purposefully elusive when asked if it would require force to remove the uranium should no agreement be reached.
“Well, you’re gonna ask me these questions. I’m gonna dodge them. Because I’m not gonna talk about our military – possibilities, plans, or anything of the kind,” he proffered. “I’m not gonna give a timetable to it, but I’m gonna say that’s a terrifically important mission.”
Netanyahu says there’s still “work to be done” before Iran war ends | 60 Minutes
The Israeli government “wants Trump to order a special forces operation to secure Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile,” Axios reported on Monday. “Israeli officials say Trump is hesitant to order such an operation because it is highly risky.”
As we have previously reported, Trump is mulling over his options to retrieve the HEU through a special operations mission. Former U.S. Central Command commander, retired Gen. Joseph Votel, also told us at the time that such an endeavor is highly risky and may not achieve its goal. You can read more about his analysis in our interview with him here.
Meanwhile, ending the hostilities remains in question as the U.S. and Iran remain far apart in ceasefire negotiations. Trump on Monday called the aforementioned recent Iranian peace offer a “piece of garbage” that he didn’t finish reading and added that the ceasefire is on “massive life support.”
Trump is “leaning toward taking some form of military action against Iran to increase pressure on the regime and force concessions on its nuclear program,” Axios reported, citing two U.S. officials.
“He will tune them up a bit,” one U.S. official told the outlet. “I think we all know where this is going,” a second U.S. official said.
Regardless, two U.S. officials told Axios they don’t think Trump would order military action against Iran before he returns from China.
Trump is considering Project Freedom, the effort to guide commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz that he paused after about 36 hours last week, Axios added. He is also weighing whether to “resume the bombing campaign and strike the 25% of targets the U.S. military identified but hasn’t hit yet.”
Trump told Fox News that he is thinking about reconstituting Project Freedom.
“President Trump just spoke to our John Roberts a moment ago,” the network noted. “He says he is now considering renewing Project Freedom, but he says this time around the US guiding ships through the Strait of Hormuz would be just one small piece of a larger military operation.”
“He would not divulge at this time what the other pieces would be,” Roberts explained.
As we previously explained, Trump initially claimed he paused Project Freedom to give Iranian negotiators more time to respond to his peace deal. However, NBC News later reported that Trump ended the effort because Saudi officials, surprised by the operation, withdrew access to its bases and airspace.
Iran on Monday revealed what it claimed to be its terms, which made no mention of the uranium. They include the U.S. paying war damages to Iran, recognition of Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, the end of U.S. sanctions and the release of Iran’s blocked assets by the U.S., according to a post on X by Iran’s official IRIB state broadcaster.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei described his government’s offer as reasonable.
“Is it excessive to demand an end to maritime piracy against Iranian ships?” he asked rhetorically. “To demand the release of Iranian assets unjustly held in foreign banks for years under American pressure? Our proposal for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, is that excessive? Establishing security and peace across the entire region, including Lebanon, is that excessive?” “Unfortunately, the American side still insists on positions largely built and shaped by the Zionist regime, and continues to hold its one-sided stance and unreasonable demands,” Baghaei added.
In his comments, the Iranian official was referring to the U.S. firing on and seizing Iranian-linked ships. Baghaei was also reacting to a statement made by Trump on Sunday dismissing Tehran’s latest offer. Trump has repeatedly stated his main objectives are that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon and that the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened. The future of Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal and support for proxies like the Houthis and Hezbollah are other sticking points.
“I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives,’” Trump announced on his Truth Social platform. “I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!”
Given the wide diplomatic gap between the U.S. and Iran and statements by Trump and Netanyahu, how much longer the ceasefire can hold remains an open question.
UPDATE: 7:44 PM EDT –
Reacting to the aforementioned Wall Street Journal story about a clandestine Israeli military base set up in Iraq, that country’s military on Monday said there are currently no foreign military bases or forces operating in the country.
The Iraqi Security Media cell stated on X that “the matter pertains to an incident that occurred on 5/3/2026, during which an Iraqi security force from the Karbala Operations Command, as well as from Najaf, moved and clashed with unidentified, unlicensed detachments supported by aircraft at that time, resulting in the martyrdom of one fighter from the Iraqi security forces, the injury of two others with wounds, and the damaging of a vehicle.”
“We wish to clarify that some are attempting to exploit this incident politically, and there are escalatory statements being made without knowledge of the facts,” the post continued. “All these statements harm the reputation of Iraq and its security leadership, which affirms—and is certain—that there are no unauthorized forces or bases currently on Iraqi territory. There is significant effort being undertaken by our security units through inspection operations across all areas of responsibility. We also affirm that the necessary legal measures will be taken against anyone attempting to spread misleading information or malicious rumors that send negative messages about Iraq’s sovereignty, prestige, and the sacrifices of its security institutions.”
UPDATE: 6:36 PM EDT –
Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system “has been nearly 99% effective against missiles from Hamas and Hezbollah militants and has knocked out most missiles from Iran,” the chairman of state-owned Iron Dome maker Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd said on Monday, according to Reuters.
Rafael’s Yuval Steinitz told a conference of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs that since the October 2023 Hamas raid on Israel, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have between them fired some 40,000 rockets at Israel.
“Iron Dome intercepted most of them with success rates that (are) not 100% but close to 100%. It’s around 98%, even 99%, so it’s not perfect, but almost,” Steinitz said.
Iran, he added, has fired about 1,500 ballistic missiles at Israel in two rounds of fighting since 2024 and “only several dozens” were not intercepted.
He noted that there was no shortage of missile interceptors.
The Trump administration is keeping up its economic pressure on Iran, “sanctioning another network selling and shipping Iranian oil for the IRGC,” State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott stated X. “This action marks an additional round of sanctions under Economic Fury, part of the Administration’s maximum pressure campaign.”
Satellite imagery from @CopernicusEU shows no supertanker loadings on May 8, May 9 and May 11 (we don’t have data for May 10 from either Sentinel 1 or Sentinel-2 ),” Bloomberg energy and commodities columnist Javier Blas noted on X. “It looks like the longest stretch without loadings since the early days of the war.”
UPDATE: 6:17 PM EDT –
As Pakistan positioned itself as a diplomatic conduit between Tehran and Washington, “it quietly allowed Iranian military aircraft to park on its airfields, potentially shielding them from American airstrikes,” CBS News reported, citing U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.
Iran also sent civilian aircraft to park in neighboring Afghanistan, the network added, saying it was not clear if military aircraft were among those flights.
Among the military hardware was an Iranian Air Force RC-130, a reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering variant of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules tactical transport aircraft.
The United Arab Emirates has secretly carried out military strikes on Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The strikes, which the UAE has not publicly acknowledged, included an attack on a refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf, WSJ said, adding that the attack took place in early April, according to the publication.
UPDATES
The U.S. blockade on Iranian ports remains ongoing, there was another report of ships attacked by drones in the Persian Gulf and the UAE said Iran is continuing to launch attacks against its territory.
U.S. Central Command on Monday claimed it has turned away 62 ships and disabled four attempting to run the blockade in total since the blockade began on April 13.
The Ambrey maritime security firm said two ships were struck on Sunday in the Persian Gulf.
“A Panama-flagged deck cargo vessel was impacted by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) while anchored approximately 23.6 NM east-northeast of the port of Doha, Qatar,” according to an Ambrey alert. “The impact resulted in a small fire, which was subsequently extinguished by the vessel’s crew. The vessel reported damage to its conveyor system at approximately 07:15 UTC. One coast guard vessel was observed alongside, rendering assistance. No crew casualties were reported in connection with the incident. This incident occurred approximately 2.8 NM south of an additional vessel that was impacted by a projectile on the morning of 10 May. Ambrey will provide updates as new information becomes available.”
The Ambrey alert did not specify who launched the drones.
On Sunday, UAE said it was attacked by two drones launched by Iran, the latest in a string of strikes dating back to the beginning of the war on Feb. 28 and continuing even after the April 7 ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.
The issue of Iran will loom large over Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing later this week. As we have previously reported, China relies heavily on Iranian oil and is also suspected of aiding its war efforts.
Trump is expected to call on Beijing to persuade Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. However, the topic is fraught with tensions over recent U.S. actions against China.
Last week, the U.S. imposed sanctions on several China-based companies, alleging that they provided “satellite imagery to enable Iran’s military strikes against US forces in the Middle East” and enabled “efforts by Iran’s military to secure weapons, as well as raw materials with applications in Iran’s ballistic missile and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programs,” according to the Guardian.
On Monday, China lashed out at those sanctions, describing them as illegal and unilateral, Reuters reported.
“We have always required Chinese enterprises to conduct business in accordance with laws and regulations, and will firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises,” spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a regular press briefing.
Iraqi lawmakers are calling for investigation into a clandestine military outpost Israel reportedly set up in the Iraqi desert to support its air campaign against Iran. The Wall Street Journal on Saturday reported that Israel built the installation, which housed special forces and served as a logistical hub for the Israeli air force, with the knowledge of the U.S. just before the start of the war. It also included search-and-rescue teams positioned to assist any downed Israeli pilots, according to the Journal. Israeli forces fired on Iraqi troops after it was discovered, the newspaper added.
Ahmed Majid, a Kurdish politician, “is among several lawmakers who have harshly reacted to the report of the existence of an Israeli base in the Arab country,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported on Monday. Majid warned “that Iraq’s sovereignty is being violated by both the United States and the Israeli regime.”
Member of Parliament Abu Turab al-Tamimi called the presence of the Israeli military base and American forces “a dangerous security scandal” and raised questions “about how enemy forces entered deep into Iraqi territory without the knowledge of border guards, the Interior Ministry, and the Joint Operations Command.”
al-Tamimi insisted that “an immediate investigation should be opened and committees should be formed to hold the perpetrators accountable,” IRNA noted.
Video emerged online purporting to show the Israeli outpost, in the Najaf desert, from a distance. The video was reportedly taken by an Iraqi soldier, though we cannot independently verify these claims.
However, the likelihood of an outpost like this is something we have suggested was all but assumed going back to last year’s 12 Day War.
Hezbollah released video footage on Sunday claiming to show its first-person view (FPV) drones attacking an Israeli Iron Dome air defense battery in northern Israel. The video shows what appears to be two attacks, one on a launcher and one on another launcher with several Israeli troops observed nearby. In each case, the video cuts out before any damage is seen.
“There was no public comment from the IDF, but unofficially, IDF sources could not dispute the video’s authenticity, and the visuals spoke for themselves,” the Times of Israel noted.
As we were among the first to report, Hezbollah has been ramping up its FPV drone attacks on Israeli forces, creating havoc and leaving Israel scrambling for countermeasures.
The British Royal Navy is deploying its Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon to the Middle East to take part in a potential European post-ceasefire effort to secure the Strait of Hormuz. The vital body of water has been closed to nearly all shipping by Iran since the war broke out on Feb. 28.
The deployment comes as the U.K. and France will host the first meeting of the Strait of Hormuz coalition of defense ministers on Tuesday to map out a way forward amid the global economic impact of the Strait closure. It is also taking place as the latest round of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran remains deadlocked while a shaky ceasefire holds.
“The Type 45 destroyer will forward deploy to ensure the UK can contribute to a future multinational mission to secure the critical waterway and safeguard freedom of navigation, following a sustainable ceasefire,” the Royal Navy said in a statement on Monday. “HMS Dragon can use her Sea Viper missile system to help safeguard UK assets and interests – assisted by Wildcats from 815 Naval Air Squadron equipped with Martlet missiles able to deal with the aerial drone threat.”
The Wildcats are helicopters with drone-busting capabilities that operate off Royal Navy destroyers and frigates.
The idea is that the Dragon would help set up an air defense bubble over the Strait in case a more comprehensive ceasefire breaks down. That would protect ships like the German minesweeper Fulda, which is also heading toward the region, as well as commercial vessels transiting the Strait.
As we previously reported, the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyer HMS Diamond used the Sea Viper system, along with guns, to take down more than a half-dozen drones launched by the Houthis in one engagement during the Iranian-backed rebel group’s campaign against Red Sea shipping in 2024.
You can see an image from that engagement below.
The Portsmouth-based Dragon left the UK in March and has been “helping to safeguard the island of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean,” according to the Royal Navy. In our earlier reporting, we noted that the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle entered the Red Sea last week.
News about the deployment of French and U.K. vessels to the Middle East sparked a sharp warning from Iran.
“Any deployment and stationing of extra-regional destroyers around the Strait of Hormuz, under the pretext of ‘protecting shipping,’ is nothing but an escalation of the crisis, the militarization of a vital waterway, and an attempt to cover up the true root of insecurity in the region,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi stated on X. “Accordingly, it is emphasized that the presence of French and British warships, or those of any other country potentially accompanying the illegal and internationally unlawful actions of the United States in the Strait of Hormuz, will be met with a decisive and immediate response from the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Therefore, they are strongly advised not to complicate the situation further.”
Gharibabadi did not elaborate on what that response might be.
Tomorrow U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey MP will co-chair a meeting of over 40 nations, alongside his French counterpart, Minister Catherine Vautrin, for the multinational mission’s first Defense Ministers’ meeting.
“The plan is strictly defensive and, once conditions allow, will focus on restoring confidence for commercial shipping along the critical trade route,” the Royal Navy noted. “HMS Dragon could play a key role in this mission. The ship’s forward presence will help strengthen confidence among commercial shipping firms, support mine-clearance efforts, and protect vessels once hostilities have ceased.”
Contact the author: howard@twz.com
Pedro Pascal goes undercover for ‘Star Wars’ surprise at Disneyland
Pedro Pascal took his “Star Wars” character to the streets on Saturday, going undercover as the Mandalorian to surprise Disneyland guests aboard the Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run attraction.
A video posted on Disney’s social media showed the actor in full costume, then lifting his helmet to reveal himself.
“Now you all have to die because you’ve seen my face,” he joked to the stunned parkgoers.
After the surprise, Pascal posed for pictures with the dozen or so fans.
Pascal was later joined by co-star Sigourney Weaver, director Jon Favreau and LucasFilm President Dave Filoni at Galaxy’s Edge, the 14-acre “Star Wars”-themed section of the park modeled after an outpost on the fictional planet of Batuu.
The appearance was part of the press tour for “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” a spinoff of the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.” The film, which releases on May 22, is the first “Star Wars” movie to hit theaters since 2019.
Match of the Day analysis: Why Matheus Cunha’s goal should have been disallowed against Nottingham Forest
BBC Sport pundits Mark Schwarzer and Dion Dublin believe Bryan Mbeumo using his arm to trap the ball to his side to help better control Diego Dalot’s cross in the build-up to Matheus Cunha’s goal, gave Manchester United an “completely unfair advantage” in their 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.
MATCH REPORT: Premier League – Manchester United 3-2 Nottingham Forest
Available to UK users only.
Samsung SDI keeps battery investment above $730M
Choi Joo-seon, chief of Samsung SDI Co., South Korea’s second-biggest battery maker, speaks to reporters before he attends InterBattery 2025, the country’s premier battery industry exhibition, at the COEX exhibition center in Seoul, South Korea. File. Photo by YONHAP / EPA
May 17 (Asia Today) — Samsung SDI invested more than 1 trillion won in facilities and research during the first quarter despite a slowdown in the global electric vehicle battery market.
The company spent 1.0243 trillion won ($733 million) on capital expenditures and research and development in the January-March period, according to its first-quarter report.
That was down from 1.1314 trillion won ($809 million) a year earlier, reflecting tighter spending controls amid weak battery demand.
Samsung SDI reported an operating loss of 155.6 billion won ($111 million) in the first quarter, though it reduced the deficit by 64%.
Research and development spending rose sharply to 434.8 billion won ($311 million), up 21.8% from 357 billion won ($255 million) a year earlier. R&D accounted for 12.2% of revenue.
Capital expenditures fell to 589.4 billion won ($421 million), down 23.9% from 774.4 billion won ($554 million) in the same period last year.
Battery industry analysts say Samsung SDI appears to be shifting its strategy from aggressive capacity expansion toward advanced technology development, including solid-state batteries and 46-millimeter cylindrical cells.
The book value of Samsung SDI’s assets under construction stood at 7.5205 trillion won ($5.38 billion) at the end of the first quarter, up about 330 billion won ($236 million) from the end of last year.
Samsung SDI is pursuing major overseas projects including a joint battery plant with General Motors in Indiana and a second joint plant with Stellantis.
A battery industry official said aggressive facility expansion during a downturn could increase fixed-cost pressure.
“Samsung SDI appears to be adjusting the speed of investment while focusing on high-value products and supply chain stability,” the official said.
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.
Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260517010004588
Navy E/A-18G Growlers Collide At Idaho Air Show
Two E/A-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft collided during the Gunfighter Skies Air Show in Mountain Home Idaho on Sunday, in a mishap captured in dramatic videos. The four crew members of the aircraft, from Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 129‘s NAS Whidbey Island-based Growler Airshow Team, were able to eject right after the collision and are being evaluated by medical personnel, according to media reports. The incident took place two miles northwest of the base, according to the 366th Fighter Wing’s Facebook page. The Growler Airshow Team puts on two-jet displays.
Video of the incident showed the one of the Growlers close in on the other from behind and then collide, striking the lead aircraft’s rear with its nose from above. They then became entangled together, nose up, and then down, before tumbling to the ground. Four small explosions from ejection seats blasting out of the falling Growlers can be seen before the parachutes of the four crew members opened up. The Growlers hit the ground, exploding into a ball of flames, followed by the crew members floating down in their parachutes.
These still images show another view of the collision.
The crash caused a fire that was since contained, according to the base.
Initially, the base was placed on lockdown.
While the exact cause of the mishap isn’t confirmed, the leading Growler may have been in the under-nose blind spot of the trailing one right before impact. This is a condition we have seen become catastrophic in other airshow disasters. We will have to wait and find out if this was indeed a contributing factor.
As the jets rolled vertical, they seemed stacked on top of each other, making ejection extremely dangerous. Remarkably, the ejection sequences cleared the crews of each other’s aircraft.
You can check out what the display is supposed to look like in the video below:
EA-18G Growler Demo – Nellis AFB Airshow 2022
We will provide updates when available.
UPDATE: 9:45 PM EDT –
Navy CDR Amelia Umayam released the following statement:
“On May 17, 2026, two U.S. Navy EA18-G assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 129 from Whidbey Island, Washington collided in mid-air while performing an aerial demonstration involving four air crew for the Mountain Home Air Force Base Gunfighter Skies Air Show, near Mountain Home Air Force Base at about 12:10 p.m. MDT.
All four of the air crew successfully ejected and they are being evaluated by medical personnel. First responders are on the scene.
The incident is under investigation. More information will be released as it becomes available.”
Contact the author: howard@twz.com
Binge-worthy crime drama returns tonight and Death in Paradise fans will love it
BBC One’s crime comedy Death Valley is back for a hotly anticipated second series, and a whole lot of new ‘whodunnits’ that need to be solved
Death Valley: Official trailer
Death Valley has made its eagerly awaited return for a second series.
BAFTA-winning performer Timothy Spall stars alongside Gwyneth Keyworth in the comedic murder-mystery programme, portraying the improbable pairing of actor John Chapel, formerly her hero as TV detective Caesar, and determined detective Janie Mallowan.
Filmed and set in Wales, Death Valley’s debut series launched in May 2025, smashing records with the largest overnight viewership for a new scripted programme in five years.
The series maintained a robust average of 4.6 million viewers over 28 days, and amongst Welsh audiences, Death Valley claimed the top comedy spot across all channels and platforms throughout 2025.
Given the programme’s triumph, it came as little shock when plans for a second series were swiftly revealed, with Death Valley series two now scheduled to debut on Sunday, 17 May at 8:15pm on BBC One. Audiences can also stream the complete box set on iPlayer from the same date, reports the Express.
The second series resumes several months following the conclusion of series one. Janie has secured promotion to Detective Inspector and finds herself more overwhelmed than ever, with administrative duties mounting faster than she can manage them.
Complicating matters further, she’s been avoiding John since discovering he’s been romantically involved with her mum, Yvonne (Melanie Walters), and the pair are compelled to make amends when DCI Barry Clarke (Steffan Rhodri) enlists John’s assistance to crack a murder investigation.
They must set aside their complicated personal relationships when tasked with examining a suspicious death within a community service group, following the fatal plunge of one of its members from atop a crumbling castle.
The latest series of Death Valley also sees John hesitantly return to the acting world, appearing on the set of a grand Welsh fantasy television production, though another killing soon demands attention.
Additional murders occur in a seaside fishing community, at an eco-friendly commune, and within a rugby club, as John and Janie persist in delivering justice throughout the mid-Wales area.
Throughout the series, there’s also an impressive roster of guest appearances, featuring Outlander’s Mark Lewis Jones, Game of Thrones legend Owen Teale, and Killing Eve’s Alexandra Roach.
Jane Horrocks (Here We Go, Chicken Run) also appears in the programme alongside Hammed Animashaun (Black Ops, SNL UK), Alexandra Roach (Killing Eve, Bodies), Roisin Conaty (After Life, Last one Laughing), Jim Howick (Ghosts, Here we Go), Asim Chaudhry (People Just Do Nothing), Lynn Hunter (Pushers & End of the Fxx World), Rhiannon Clements (Small Prophets, Pushers), Mike Bubbins (Mammoth) and Liz Carr (Silent Witness, Good Omens).
Death Valley series 2 launches on Sunday, 17 May at 8:15pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
Jonathan Gjoshe: Footballer in mass train attack reveals he was stabbed seven times
“I got stabbed on the shoulder first”, he tells BBC Sport.
“I remember jumping over the table, jumping over the chairs. I was just running down the corridor, telling people, ‘there’s a guy with a knife, run, I’ve been stabbed, run, run, run’. I was screaming. I think I was the first person that got stabbed. I felt the pain. But adrenaline kicked in.
“That split second, me jumping over the table, saved me. All I thought about was just running for my life, getting off that train. As I got down to the first or second carriage, I pulled the alarm, and was just drenched with blood.”
“I was thinking I wasn’t going to see my family again, if I died, and that was the main worry for me”, he says. “Normally I would drive back down to London. That was the first time I got on a train to go back. What’s the chance of that happening? It’s crazy.”
The train made an emergency stop at Huntingdon where it was met by armed police. Having been given first aid by a fellow passenger, Gjoshe managed to get himself out to the station car park, from where paramedics rushed him to hospital.
It was only after surgery that he learned he had sustained seven wounds to his bicep, shoulder and arm.
The knife, he was told by the medics, “had gone through my muscles” coming fractionally close to hitting a nerve in his arm.
When asked if he feared his footballing career could be over, he says, “I was very worried. Just thinking, ‘what damage has happened to me?’ I didn’t have a clue until I had the surgery. They said, ‘It’s not much from the nerve. You’re very lucky’.”
In the days that followed, Gjoshe recalls: “They had to move me from ward to ward because of the media that were coming there looking for me.”
Having been released from hospital, Gjoshe faced several months of rehab, only returning to full training in March, something he describes as “a big relief. I started to get the movement of my arm, day by day it was getting better. It was an amazing feeling”.
Despite handling what he has been through with impressive stoicism, Gjoshe has not been on a train since the mass stabbing.
“I wouldn’t want to now. You just never know know. It’s best to be safe. I just can’t trust anything now”, he says.
Monday 18 May Discovery Day in Cayman Islands
Today commemorates the ‘discovery’ of the islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman by Christopher Columbus in 1503.
The Cayman Islands are a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. The territory consists of three islands, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac.
During his fourth voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus sailed past the two islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman on May 10th 1503. Columbus didn’t stop on the islands but named the islands Las Torgugas due to the large number of sea turtles they saw as they passed. It is likely that the islands were seen by other Europeans before Columbus in 1503, but as he formally took the time to note and name the islands, he gets the credit as the European discoverer.
By the middle of the 16th century, the island gained the name of the ‘Caymanas’, after a local Carib name for the crocodiles that were plentiful on the islands back then.
Having been devastated by hurricanes in the past, the National Day of Preparedness is observed each year on Discovery Day to encourage residents to prepare for the hurricane season or any other natural disaster.
Will the latest Ebola outbreak in DR Congo and Uganda spread further? | Health News
The World Health Organization declares the epidemic a global health emergency.
It’s a global health crisis – not a pandemic.
But the World Health Organization is warning that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring Uganda could be much larger than what has been detected so far.
The global health body is advising countries to activate national disaster mechanisms and introduce cross-border and internal screening.
Presenter: James Bays
Guests:
Ariel Kestens – Head of the Kinshasa delegation, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Dr Margaret Harris – Lecturer at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research
Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma – Former deputy director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
Published On 17 May 2026
Iran war live: Trump threatens Tehran; Saudi, UAE report drone attacks
Peace talks remain deadlocked as drones hit sites in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Source link
Newlywed Roxy Horner basks in honeymoon bliss with luxurious bath aboard the Orient Express
NEWLYWED model Roxy Horner soaks up the romance during her honeymoon on the Orient Express.
The 34-year-old took a bath as she and comedian hubby Jack Whitehall, 37, travelled from Venice to Paris.
Posting snaps of the train and dining carriage, Roxy wrote online: “Having a bath on a train is so romantic.”
The couple, who are parents to Elsie, two, married at a lavish ceremony in the Cotswolds last month.
We revealed earlier this month how Roxy wowed onlookers with her dazzling diamond wedding rings after marrying Jack Whitehall.
Mum-of-one Roxy showed off her multi-layered rocks while on a night out with Laura Whitmore at the launch of blow-dry specialist Duck & Dry at The Whiteley in Notting Hill.
The show-stopping multi-stone ring boasts a huge pear-shaped diamond sat next to a white gold oval eternity diamond ring, thought to cost around £13,300.
The 34-year-old looked stunning in a casual combo of flared diamante jeans, a nude crop top and leather jacket as she posed with the former Love Island presenter.
With her long blonde hair down in waves, she accessorised with red lips, tanned heels and the eye-popping jewellery.
Pregnant Laura matched her look in a leather jacket and red lipstick with her hair slicked back.
Aaron Rai becomes first English-born player in over 100 years to win the PGA Championship
NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Aaron Rai shifted into high gear Sunday and pulled away from a world-class field with one amazing shot after another until he became the first English-born player in more than a century to capture the PGA Championship.
Rai, who dreamed of being a Formula 1 driver until he turned to golf as a boy, was three shots behind and approaching the turn at Aronimink Golf Club when he delivered a performance worthy of a major champion.
He made a 40-foot eagle putt on the par-5 ninth during a stretch when he one-putted seven straight greens to take the lead.
And on the closing holes when the contenders needed him to stumble, Rai holed a birdie putt of some 70 feet across the 17th green for the clincher.
The 31-year-old Rai, the first player of Indian heritage to win a major, closed with a 5-under 65.
Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Justin Rose, they all had their chances and until they were undone by untimely mistakes or failure to get good looks at birdie. McIlroy, who closed with a 69, played the par fives in even for the week and he chopped up the reachable par-4 13th for a bogey.
Rai, who finished at nine-under 271, is the first player from England with his name on the Wanamaker Trophy since Jim Barnes in 1919, the second edition of this major and the first after World War I.
He wound up winning by three shots over 54-hole leader Alex Smalley and Rahm, who had his best finish in a major since defecting to LIV Golf at the end of 2023. Rahm was slowed by a pair of bogeys on the front nine, and managed only one birdie on the back nine for a 68.
Aaron Rai and wife Gaurika Bishnoi hold the Wanamaker Trophy.
(Frank Franklin II / AP)
Smalley lost the lead with a messy double bogey on the sixth hole, and his best golf was too late. Rai already had his eye on the Wanamaker Trophy.
Justin Thomas made a 16-foot par putt on the final hole for a 65 and pulled him within one shot of the lead as the final group was in the second fairway. For the longest time, as Aronimink got tougher and the pressure got tighter, it looked like Thomas might have a chance.
Like everything else on this final day, Rai ended those hopes, too.
So ended a most remarkable week in the Philadelphia suburbs, where no one could separate themselves on Aronimink. The 22 players within four shots of the lead going into the final round was a PGA Championship record.
From that pack emerged the 31-year-old Rai, with one PGA Tour title, three on the European tour, and no finishes inside the top 15 at any of the majors.
He might not be well known among casual observers, but he is a star in the eyes of his peers for his humility and gracious personality.
“You won’t find one person on property who’s not happy for him,” McIlroy said.
“Super pumped for him and his team,” Schauffele said. “All-world gentleman, no doubt.”
Rory McIlroy hits from the bunker on the 16th green.
(Carolyn Kaster / AP)
He wears two gloves, a habit he started as a kid in England to battle the cold winters when he was practicing — and he was always practicing. Even more unusual for Rai is the plastic covers on each iron, a reminder of his roots.
He once said his father sacrificed to buy the nicest golf clubs and then would clean the grooves with baby oil after his son was done playing. Rai has left the iron covers on since then “to remember where I cam from and to respect what I have.”
Now he has his name on the Wanamaker Trophy and his place in history.
Pakistan interior minister holds talks with Iranian president in Tehran | Newsfeed
Pakistan Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran to discuss regional security and bilateral ties.
The talks also focused on growing tensions between Iran and the United States following the collapse of Pakistan-mediated negotiations
Published On 17 May 2026
Trump holds prayer rally to ‘rededicate’ US as ‘one nation under God’ | Donald Trump News
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has hosted a nine-hour prayer event on the National Mall in Washington, DC, as part of its efforts to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary.
Sunday’s event was called “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving”, and it took place from 9am to 6pm Eastern US time (13:00 to 22:00 GMT).
On the jubilee’s website, organisers explained that their aim was to mark “rededication of our country as One Nation to God”.
The event featured performers, pastors and civil rights leaders, as well as Trump’s Republican allies, among them Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.
“Our rights don’t come from the government,” Scott told the crowd. “No, our rights come from God, the king of kings.”
Members of the Trump administration, including the president himself, also recorded video messages that were broadcast from the stage.
Trump’s video showed him seated behind the Resolute Desk in the White House, reciting a speech from the Book of Chronicles that God gave to King Solomon, promising protection to his followers and destruction to those who forsake him.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, used his video to describe the US as a country uniquely shaped by the “Christian idea”.
“Before the Christian West, most societies – and civilisations, for that matter – thought in stagnant cycles: the flooding of the Nile, the return of the rains, the cycle of the harvest. History for them was a wheel to nowhere,” Rubio said.
“But our faith calls us outwards into the limitless darkness of the unknown. It tells us to go forth and preach the gospel to the world as a witness unto all nations and to the ends of the earth.”
The event was not without controversy, though. Critics pointed out that only one speaker, a rabbi, was non-Christian.
Some religious leaders even rejected the event as a political stunt, rather than a sincere testament to faith.
Paul Raushenbush, a reverend and president of the Interfaith Alliance, posted on social media that his objections did not stem from an “antipathy towards religion”. Rather, he said his faith compels him to cherish the “rich tapestry of beliefs” that come together in the US.
“Rededicate 250 is a betrayal of America’s founding values guaranteed in the First Amendment – which made clear that there shall be no establishment of religion by the government and that each one of us should be free to live out our beliefs in our own way,” Raushenbush wrote.
Traditionally, the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution has been interpreted as prohibiting the government from establishing or imposing religious beliefs on its citizens.
But critics argue the Trump administration has blurred the separation between church and state, including by having regular prayer services at the Department of Defense.
Trump, however, has accused the federal government of “anti-Christian bias“. He launched a task force last year to root out the purported discrimination.
Evangelical Christians form a pillar in Trump’s right-wing base of support. The demographic is a powerful force during election seasons in the US, and Trump has sought to rally Christian voters ahead of major votes.
Their views could reshape how the US Constitution is interpreted. A survey from the Pew Research Center released last week found a slight uptick in the number of US adults who believe Christianity should be named as the country’s official religion. Seventeen percent now share that view, up from 13 percent in 2024.
That said, Pew researchers noted that a majority of Americans, roughly 54 percent, still believe in the separation of church and state.
About 52 percent also said that “conservative Christians have gone too far in trying to push their religious values in the government and public schools”.
Emmerdale’s Anthony Quinlan reveals major change which helped him land Pete Barton role
Former Emmerdale star Anthony Quinlan played Pete Barton for seven years and has opened up about how he adapted his accent to secure the role
Emmerdale bosses told one star to tone down their accent before offering them a role(Image: ITV)
A former Emmerdale star has revealed the surprising adjustment he had to make before landing his role on the ITV soap.
Anthony Quinlan is best known for portraying Pete Barton in the beloved drama for seven years between 2013 and 2020, before his character departed the Dales for a fresh start in Liverpool.
The fan-favourite was at the heart of numerous dramatic storylines, and Anthony has now shared insights into his audition experience and what it was like working alongside his on-screen relatives.
Chatting on behalf of Freebets.com, the home of the best slot sites, the Manchester-born actor explained: “A friend of mine was actually auditioning for the character of Pete at the time and I wasn’t even aware the audition process was happening.
“I later had an audition in London, then a second round in Yorkshire and then a screen test. I think there were five of us left for the first screen test and I got a call later that afternoon and they said ‘we really like you but we need to tone down the ‘Mancness’, you’re far too ‘Manc’ for a Yorkshire TV show.”, reports the Daily Star.
“They called me back to audition again over the weekend with another actor so I had the weekend to work on being a bit less ‘Manc’, which I think I managed, although it did creep back in once I was on screen and I auditioned again on the Monday and a couple of days later I heard I’d got the role. I was over the moon. What a great show to be a part of.” Anthony recalled his debut on set, expressing how “so privileged” he feels to belong to one of Emmerdale’s most legendary families across the soap’s 50-year run.
He explained: “We were actually on location on the first day. Kate Oates was the producer at the time and she was absolutely outstanding. Her ideas were so original and she really brought authenticity to the show, using real locations.
“So on the first day it was myself and Joe Gill [who played Finn Barton], working on the farm with Bill Ward [who played our dad James Barton] and a director called Duncan Foster, who was brilliant at easing us in.
“Then Natalie Robb arrived as Moira. I’d watched Bill Ward on Coronation Street for years and what a lovely man and an outstanding actor. Joe, I think that was his first job, what a great talent he is and Natalie Robb is part of the furniture at Emmerdale. It was great to watch how she operates on set and take some mental notes from that.
“We were so privileged. There was so much drama surrounding that family and the audience invested in us, which prompted the writers to invest in us more too. The whole Debbie [Dingle, played by Charley Webb] and Ross [Barton, played by Michael Parr] storyline early on, where Pete marries Debbie and Ross has been sleeping with her behind his back and the whole fight kicking off, that whole drama was unbelievable.
“Over the years I was really fortunate. We did some beautiful stuff with Zoe Henry [who plays Rhona Goskirk], that was a real standout moment and then the whole storyline about their mum Emma Barton [played by Gillian Kearney], coming into the show.
“There were stunts too and I remember Mike Parr hanging me upside down off a viaduct in Harrogate, about 120 feet in the air, which was absolutely terrifying. I did the stunt myself and I remember chasing Kelvin Fletcher [who played Andy Sugden] around Tholthorpe racetrack on a motorbike. Lots of high octane stuff as well as high drama. No day was the same. What a great experience.”
Pete was mentioned in an Emmerdale storyline last year, though Anthony has made it clear a comeback isn’t imminent. He said: “Never say never. but i’s not on the cards at present and nothing has formally been approached.
“A return to Emmerdale is definitely something worth seriously considering if it was ever properly presented but right now I want to keep building on the momentum of the last year or so as things are picking up and in the right direction.”
Emmerdale airs weeknights on ITV1 at 8pm and available to stream from 7am on ITVX
Goldman Sachs warns AI-fueled market rally is becoming ‘one big trade’
Goldman Sachs warns AI-fueled market rally is becoming ‘one big trade’
Source link
Thousands flock to the National Mall for prayer rally
WASHINGTON — Thousands of people streamed onto the National Mall for a daylong prayer rally Sunday headlined by President Trump and billed as a “rededication of our country as One Nation under God.”
Against the backdrop of the Washington Monument, worship music blared from a stage that made clear the event’s Christian focus. Arched stained-glass windows, set underneath grand columns resembling a federal building, depicted the nation’s founders alongside a white cross.
The nation’s tradition of separating church and state, however, was not on display. Most speakers celebrated Christianity’s ties to American history, a blending of ideas that critics decried before the gathering as Christian nationalism.
Trump read a passage of Scripture in a video shown at the rally. Filmed in the Oval Office, it was the same footage used during a marathon Bible-reading event last month. The verses from 2 Chronicles are often cited by those who claim America was founded as a Christian nation.
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways,” Trump read, “then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Other leading Republicans, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), were also on the schedule for the event, part of the celebrations marking the nation’s 250th anniversary.
Only one name on the Rededicate 250 program was not Christian. Most were among Trump’s longtime evangelical supporters, including Paula White-Cain of the White House Faith Office and evangelist Franklin Graham of Samaritan’s Purse.
“We are deeply concerned that what is really being rededicated is a nation to a very narrow and ideological part of the Christian faith that betrays our nation’s fundamental commitment to religious freedom,” said the Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, a Baptist minister who leads the progressive Christian organization Sojourners.
The conservative Christian lineup featured guests who often assert that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, a narrative disputed by many historians and other religious traditions and inconsistent with American legal precedent.
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, noted the religious diversity of early America, including Jews, Muslims and Indigenous people. “I want to shine a light on America’s history as a nation that welcomes, celebrates and protects people of all faiths and those of no faith,” Pesner said.
‘It’s all about Jesus’
Many in the crowd wore Trump hats and patriotic colors, joining the festivities under a sweltering sun.
“It’s all about Jesus,” said Denny Smith, 72, of Rhode Island, who rented a motorized scooter to traverse the National Mall.
Retha Bond, a 58-year-old from southern Illinois, said she was here to hear Trump speak nearby on Jan. 6, 2021. She said she did not join the protesters who rioted later that day at the Capitol, attacking police officers while attempting to overturn the presidential election result, but she has remained a steadfast Trump supporter.
“I’m not saying Trump is the savior,” Bond said. But she said that “this is one of the most important things that could be going on in the world, for us to rededicate our nation back to God.”
At least one event speaker mentioned the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Kirk’s activism has been a powerful example for Alessandra Seawright, 15, of Santa Fe, N.M., who came to Rededicate 250 with her mother.
“I think we just need more of this in our country, and we just need to share the word of the Lord,” she said. “We love going to events like this.”
They also attended Kirk’s memorial service in Arizona, which mixed Christian worship and political messages. Events like these, Seawright said, help her feel less alone in her conservative Christian beliefs.
Prayer event spurs protest
Hegseth, who has infused Christian language and worship with his role leading the Pentagon — drawing criticism — asked the gathering in a video to pray to “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Referencing George Washington’s faith, he said, “Let us pray without ceasing. Let us pray for our nation on bended knee.”
Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Meir Soloveichik was the only non-Christian religious leader listed on the program. To applause, he told the crowd, “Antisemitism is utterly un-American” — a seeming reference to debates dividing the right.
Soloveichik serves on the Trump administration’s Religious Liberty Commission along with White-Cain, Graham and Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron, Catholic clerics also featured on the program.
The event was organized by Freedom 250, a public-private partnership backed by the White House. Congressional Democrats have questioned the nonprofit’s structure and finances, which they see as a Trump-controlled end run around a separate commission charted by Congress a decade ago to prepare semiquincentennial events.
Progressive groups staged counter-programming. Among them were the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which advocates a strict separation of church and state, and the Christian organization Faithful America. The two groups displayed a large balloon near the mall of a Trump-like golden calf, a biblical reference to idolatry.
On Thursday evening, the Interfaith Alliance projected protest slogans onto an exterior wall of the National Gallery of Art. “Democracy not theocracy,” said one. Another said: “The separation of church and state is good for both.”
Stanley writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Peter Smith in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.
Nearly 1,900 vanished in and around Guadalajara. Now the World Cup arrives
MEXICO CITY — The highway from the Guadalajara city airport to downtown is newly paved and the city’s famous roundabout has gotten a $4-million facelift. The city is abuzz with renovation projects as Guadalajara prepares to host four World Cup soccer matches in June.
But there’s one thing the 3 million fans expected to flock to the city won’t see — the sites where hundreds of bodies have been found in clandestine graves dug by Mexico’s notorious New Generation Jalisco Cartel. Scores were discovered on the main route leading to Akron Stadium, where the games will be played.
One set of remains was that of a 17-year-old high school student who had gone out to sell his motorcycle to help his unemployed uncle. He disappeared. When his uncle began searching, he disappeared as well. At another site, the bones of a 34-year-old cellphone repairman were found. He was a father of two who’d simply ventured out to shop for used tennis shoes.
According to statistics compiled by the state of Jalisco, between 2018 and March of this year, 1,907 bodies were found in Guadalajara and surrounding cities.
The arrival of the World Cup is an opportunity for Mexico’s second-largest city to shine on the international stage, and the Jalisco state government launched an upbeat campaign highlighting the municipality where games will be played: “Zapopan, the heart of soccer,” the slogan goes.
Families searching for their loved ones sarcastically responded with, “Zapopan, the heart of clandestine graves.”
An aerial view of La Minerva roundabout fountain in Guadalajara, Mexico, taken on June 27, 2025.
(Ulises Ruiz / AFP via Getty Images)
Since January of 2025 alone, search groups and authorities have discovered 58 graves with 226 sets of remains inside city limits. Five graves were located within three miles of Akron Stadium.
Three graves with 15 bodies were found within a mile of the city’s iconic La Minerva roundabout, a huge traffic circle featuring fountains, greenery and a towering statue of the Roman goddess Minerva. Others were found not far from Chapultepec Street, a popular tourist destination.
Liliana Meza, mother of Carlos Maximiliano Romero Meza, who disappeared on Oct. 22, 2020, poses with a search card at the Glorieta de las Personas Desaparecidas in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Friday, May 15, 2026. Founders of the Luz de Esperanza Desaparecidos Jalisco collective created the cards, inspired by World Cup soccer stickers, to draw attention to missing persons cases ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Jalisco.
(Alejandra Leyva/For The Times)
Though tourists and tourist sites are rarely touched by cartel violence in Mexico, critics say the graves are an embarrassment for state and city administrators.
Amid all the cleanup, little official attention has gone to the growing number of clandestine graves that groups of persistent, family-funded search teams have found in recent months.
Large machinery and backhoes are working nonstop across the city ahead of the games, said Jaime Aguilar, a spokesperson for the group Warrior Searchers of Jalisco, which finds an average of two graves a month. “But when we ask for a backhoe to help in our searches, there is never one available,” he said.
Over the years, secret graves have been discovered in rural areas, at industrial sites, alongside roads, inside buildings and even in the heart of Guadalajara. The Jalisco state government tracks grave discoveries, but an analysis by The Times and Puente News Collaborative shows many have been concentrated in the Guadalajara area.
Flyers with photographs and identifying information about missing persons, posted by search collectives, have become a common sight along the main streets of the city’s historic center, as seen here on Friday, May 15, 2026.
(Alejandra Leyva/For The Times)
Earlier this year, authorities found a blood-soaked safe house a mile from Akron Stadium where cartel enemies were tortured. One person was found buried there. Within a 10-mile radius, nearly 100 sets of remains were found in 500 trash bags buried in shallow graves.
The graves, and the potential discovery of more, worried Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. She feared that FIFA, the international soccer association in charge of the games, might move the Mexico games to the United States or Canada, the other countries co-hosting the games, because of the violence, said one Mexican official familiar with planning for the tournament.
That fear burst into the open in February, when Mexican special forces killed Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, leader of the hyper-violent New Generation Jalisco Cartel. Law enforcement officials said Guadalajara is a stronghold for the criminal group.
Cartel members responded to El Mencho’s death by setting fire to cars and buses and blocking major exits from Guadalajara. The city was briefly paralyzed. Gunmen burned 80 convenience stores and a host of pharmacies, flexing their power in the city.
In the days after the violence, FIFA officials met with the Mexican government to review security for the Guadalajara matches. Sheinbaum laid out a plan to send 100,000 security personnel, including Army soldiers and police officers, to stadiums in Guadalajara and the country’s two other host cities, Mexico City and Monterrey. FIFA determined it would not change the World Cup venues.
U.S. law enforcement has been advising Mexico on counter-terrorism methods, including training in repelling drone bombs, a weapon increasingly used by cartels to terrorize communities, attack adversaries and target military convoys. U.S. special forces have been training Mexican military teams to repel attacks at stadiums.
Fliers with photographs and identifying information about missing persons are displayed throughout Guadalajara’s historic center alongside traditional city scenes and World Cup-related imagery.
(Alejandra Leyva / For The Times)
The Mexican government had already witnessed the Jalisco cartel’s proclivity for brazen killing. In December, some four miles from Akron Stadium, gunmen fired more than 3,000 bullets in broad daylight into the car of a director of a produce distribution center. The gun battle between his security guards and the cartel took place just a few blocks from a police station. It took officers nearly a half hour to arrive at the scene.
In recent years, Jalisco state has become a cartel killing ground, security experts say. Some graves discovered in the Guadalajara area contained a single body, some more than 40. A few had 95 or more.
In 2023, the remains of nine teenagers, chopped up and stuffed in trash bags, were found in a canyon in Zapopan. They had worked for a Jalisco cartel call center where telemarketers scammed Americans of millions of dollars in a time-share scheme. The teenagers are believed to have upset their employer.
Traffickers recruit young people, including minors, to serve as foot soldiers in their bloody quest to control drug-trafficking routes across Mexico. Some of those teenagers were lured by ads promising good-paying jobs, only to discover they were being funneled to a Jalisco cartel training camp an hour outside Guadalajara. There, as a test, Mexican security officials said, recruits were forced to kill fellow recruits.
Plaza Liberacion, the city’s main public square, with flyers with photographs and identifying information about missing persons, on Friday.
(Alejandra Leyva/For The Times)
The cartel has recruited more than 45,000 minors across Mexico in recent years, said one Jalisco state representative.
While some of Guadalajara’s upscale neighborhoods have escaped the violence, families across the metropolitan area have seen hundreds of children disappear, some to reappear, dead, on cartel battlefields across Jalisco and in the states of Sinaloa and Michoacán, searchers said.
The Jalisco state government lists more than 16,000 reports of missing people — the most of any Mexican state. Nationwide more than 130,000 people are reported missing.
Despite the preparations and the buzz among the nation’s vast population of soccer fans, World Cup fever has not caught on among families of the disappeared and the search teams that each week fan out across Guadalajara, looking for new graves.
Natalia Leticia García’s son disappeared in 2017. She began her own search and launched a group to help find other victims. Eight years later, García’s group has located 26 graves. Some finds have been bags full of severed heads, others holding just arms. It is a cartel tactic, she said, to make it harder to piece together remains.
“It is cruel,” García said. Her son, César Ulises Quintero García, remains missing.
Fisher is a special correspondent. This article was co-published with Puente News Collaborative, a bilingual nonprofit newsroom that covers stories from Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border.