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The reigning champions appear to have corrected the worst of their problems but the days when they conquered all before them are probably over

FAA said New York Helicopter Tours will be shuttering immediately' after accident that killed all six on boardThe company that operated the helicopter that crashed into New York City's Hudson River on Thursday - killing all six people on board - has been shuttered with immediate effect, the US's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said late on Sunday.New York Helicopter Tours is shutting down their operations immediately", the FAA said in a statement on X. The agency added that it would launch a review of the company's license and safety records in the meantime. Continue reading...

The progressive icon, 78, may be the frontrunner, but a more moderate contender may represent much-needed changeBarbara Lee represented Oakland in Congress for a quarter-century. Now, in what would probably be the capstone of her storied political career, the 78-year-old progressive icon is vying for the chance to lift the city I love" out of crisis.I'm always ready to fight for Oakland," Lee said, announcing her bid to lead the city of roughly 440,000 residents, known for its liberal politics and deep legacy of civil rights activism. When she entered the mayoral race in January, she was widely seen as the presumptive frontrunner. Continue reading...

President says he will lay out new levies on Monday and relief on electronics will be short-lived. Plus, the rise of end times fascism and how to defeat it

Authorities say suspect told them he would have beaten Josh Shapiro with sledgehammer if he had found himA man who authorities said scaled an iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police and broke into the Pennsylvania governor's mansion - where he set a fire - had planned to beat the governor, Josh Shapiro, with a hammer if he found him because he hates the politician, according to court documents released on Monday.The fire left significant damage and forced Shapiro, his family and guests to evacuate the building early on Sunday. The man, arrested later in the day, faces charges including attempted homicide, terrorism, aggravated arson and aggravated assault, authorities said. Continue reading...

Letter says Trump administration's detention of Khan Suri represents a fundamental violation of academic freedom'

Seattle's season may not be as badly damaged as we had feared, and there was a huge crowd on hand to see Chicago Fire v Inter MiamiThis was supposed to be the Seattle Sounders' year. The team had a nice path in the Concacaf Champions Cup, and a number of seemingly savvy acquisitions in the winter had fans hoping they'd be enjoying a 2025 season that went down as the best in the club's storied history. Continue reading...

After four days of great action that ended with Rory McIlroy sealing a career grand slam, a look back at some of our favourite images from the first major of 2025 Continue reading...

Putin is planning for this war to continue. That leaves two key questions for Ukraine's European allies

Holding the receipts for 10 seconds absorbs enough bisphenol S to break California's safety rule, research findsPaper receipts from major retailers in the US are so laden with bisphenol S that holding one for 10 seconds can cause the skin to absorb enough of the highly toxic chemical to violate California's safety threshold, new research has found.The findings are being used as evidence in legal action aimed at pressuring retailers to stop using receipt paper treated with bisphenol S, or BPS, which is linked to cancer and reproductive problems. Continue reading...

Watchdogs say cryptocurrency regulation and enforcement has plummeted while Trump family invests heavily in itAs Donald Trump's administration has cut regulations for the cryptocurrency industry, the crypto firm World Liberty Financial, in which the Trump family has a large financial stake, has grown quickly by launching its own stablecoin" and another digital token, prompting watchdogs and experts to warn of Trump's conflicts of interest and economic hazards.Some key congressional Democrats and watchdogs are raising new red flags about the US president's growing conflicts of interest involving cryptocurrencies and risks to investors and the economy posed by multiple deregulatory crypto actions at federal agencies. Continue reading...

Despite all Copenhagen zoo's best efforts, pandas Mao Sun and Xing Er have been playing chase, squeaking, wrestling and napping - doing everything but procreateSpring is properly here, potent, pollinated, fecund. The garden is electric with sex and postcoital doings: sparrows are shagging on the roof, nests are being frenetically constructed and grubs transported to nesting mamas. I spend my days voyeuristically peeping at tits (I got a nestcam for my birthday and I'm obsessed). Even educated fleas are doing it and I dread to imagine what filth the squirrels are up to.I tell you who isn't doing it, though: Mao Sun and Xing Er, the Copenhagen zoo pandas. Since their arrival in 2019, the pair haven't managed to mate. This is my third year tuning in to the intense will-they-won't-they soap opera, shared by keeper Nadja Sondergaard on her extremely entertaining Instagram account @thegoodbearsandme. The pandas are solitary creatures, only coming together for Mao Sun's 36-hour oestrus window. But to maximise their chances of actually having sex, there's a whole elaborate lead-up of letting them see each other, swapping enclosures, spreading urine and secretions", and checking for the telltale tail raise that shows Mao Sun's hormones are peaking. Continue reading...

Our writers take a look at the best prospects coming out of college, and select their stars of the future and lower-round gems to watchThe most WNBA-ready prospect not named Paige Bueckers ...Kiki Iriafen looks like a plug-and-play forward whose agility, rebounding instincts and face-up scoring will make her an immediate asset. She can defend across positions and has a reliable mid-range game. After transferring to USC, she showcased polish and poise against top-tier competition, traits that will translate quickly to the pro level. Her 36-point outburst in the second round of the NCAA Tournament after JuJu Watkins went down with a knee injury only solidified her standing. BAG Continue reading...

After its slowest sales to date last year the 2025 edition of the California music festival was being viewed by some as an unofficial comeback with headliners Lady Gaga, Green Day and Post Malone Continue reading...

The truth is, we were always dangerously overexposed to decisions made in Washington - consider this chaotic moment an opportunityPeople speak with forked tongues about America," a veteran foreign correspondent once said to me. It was a long time ago - during a debate about whether the US should intervene in a foreign conflict - and I have never forgotten it. What they meant was that just as the US is condemned for foreign intervention in some instances, it is also called upon to do so in others and then judged for not upholding its moral standards. That dissonance persists, and is even more jarring as we approach the 100th day of Donald Trump's second term. There is a duality to how the US is seen: as both a country that wantonly violates international law and as the only one capable of upholding that system of law and order. This duality, always tense, is no longer sustainable.I have felt this ambivalence myself - the contradictory demand that the US stay out of it but also anger that it is not doing more. In Sudan, Washington frustratingly refuses to pressure its ally, the UAE, into stopping pumping arms and funding into the conflict. But what proof or history is there to support the delusional notion that the US cares about a conflict in which it has no direct interest? It is an expectation of moral policing from an amoral player that I remember even in childhood, after Iraq invaded Kuwait and the Arab world was rocked with fear of regional war. A fierce debate in our classroom in Sudan on the merits of US intervention was silenced by one indignant evacuee from Kuwait, who said that the most important thing was to defeat Saddam Hussein. Her words occasionally echo in my mind: We must deal with the greater evil first."Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

President says he will lay out new levies on Monday and relief on electronics will be short-lived - key US politics stories from 13 April at a glanceDonald Trump's tariff war has dived deeper into chaos after a cabinet official telegraphed new levies on semiconductors - a crucial component in electronic goods - just days after the Trump administration exempted computers and smartphones from reciprocal tariffs.Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said in an interview with NBC that the tariff exemption on several electronic devices was just temporary and that new duties would come in a month or two". Semiconductors would be targeted with new tariffs, he said. Continue reading...

For somebody who makes golf look sublimely easy, the world No 2 made winning the Masters look hellishly difficultHas there ever been an athlete who made playing look so easy, and winning seem so hard?On Sunday morning, everyone in Augusta was asking variations on the same single question. Gonna be his year this year?"the man on the bag check asked. Doyou think he'll get it done?" the woman guarding the crosswalk asked. This time, huh, this time?" the man on the door asked. Continue reading...

Rory McIlroy finally joined the career-slam pantheon after a wild rollercoaster ride around Augusta NationalNothing went right for Justin Rose yesterday. His flat stick was stone cold, he shot 75, he spent a fair proportion of the round grumbling away at his perceived bad luck. But he's in a much chipper mood this afternoon. Sending your approach on 1 from 162 yards to eight feet, then rolling in the birdie putt tends to help with stuff like that. A little fist pump, then a giggle with his caddie, and he moves to -6. Again, like Collin Morikawa, he's surely too far behind to have much of a chance of winning, unless both Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau do a Ken Venturi. (Jack Burke Jr came from eight back on Sunday in 1956 to win, but he needed the then-amateur Venturi to collapse to 80 to pip him by a stroke.) Still, let's rule nothing out yet.Quite a few experts tipped the in-form Collin Morikawa this week. It's not quite happened for the 2020 PGA and 2021 Open champion, but he's not been far off, coming into the final day having posted two level-par rounds of 72 sandwiching a 69. He's surely too far off the pace to threaten today, unless the wheels come off all three of the leading trio, but he's just followed up birdie at 2 by stroking a 25-footer across 3 for another. Im Sung-jae meanwhile birdies 2, and these lads are the first pair to make inroads near the top of the leader board. Continue reading...

Under Pete Marocco's lead, nearly all USAID staff was fired, with funding slashed and contractors dismissedPete Marocco, the Trump administration official who played a major role in dismantling the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has left the state department, a US official said on Sunday.Donald Trump's administration has moved to fire nearly all USAID staff, as billionaire Elon Musk's so-called department of government efficiency" has slashed funding and dismissed contractors across the federal bureaucracy in what it calls an attack on wasteful spending. Continue reading...

Ray Dalio's comments come after rocky week across stock markets after policies including 145% tariff raise on China

Authorities investigate after residents as far as 28 miles away report hearing a boom as Austin house collapsesA house explosion in Austin, Texas, destroyed the residence and damaged 24 nearby properties, injuring six people - including two firefighters.Around 11.25am CDT, residents across Austin reported hearing a boom and feeling an explosion in the area. It rattled my windows and building," one person posted on social media with an image of a plume of smoke rising into the air. Residents as far away as Georgetown - about 28 miles to the north - reported hearing the explosion. Continue reading...

No reported injuries after fire left significant damage' to portion of residence while Josh Shapiro and his family sleptPolice say a person is in custody after a suspected arson fire at the Pennsylvania governor's mansionwhere Josh Shapiro and his family were evacuated after someone set fire to the building.No one was injured in the blaze and the fire was extinguished, authorities said. Continue reading...

Secretary of state says criminals' were taken to country thanks to alliance between Trump and Nayib BukeleThe US has deported another 10 people that it alleges are gang members to El Salvador, secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Sunday, a day before that country's president is due to visit the White House.Last night, another 10 criminals from the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua Foreign Terrorist Organizations arrived in El Salvador," Rubio said in an Twitter/X post. Continue reading...

Report also shows president is up to date on recommended vaccines as health secretary sows doubts on their efficacyDonald Trump - the oldest person to ever be elected US president - controls high cholesterol with medication and has elevated blood pressure but is fully fit", White House physician Sean Barbella said in a report released on Sunday.The US navy captain's report was published two days after Trump underwent a routine physical. It also said he was up to date on all recommended vaccines - despite his national health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr having spent years sowing doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccination. Continue reading...

Former PM says governments should team up to create global rescue plan' that counters US president's tariffsGordon Brown has accused Donald Trump of weaponising" the global trading system with steep import tariffs that threaten a breakdown" in the global economic order.The former prime minister said governments and central banks should come up with a global rescue plan" comparable to actions taken during the global financial crisis of 2008, including synchronised interest rate cuts to cushion the blow from tariffs. Continue reading...

Michigan governor criticized for appearance, including for blocking her face with binders while her photo was takenThe Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer - considered to be a 2028 White House Democratic contender - was trying to distance herself from a recent Oval Office appearance alongside Donald Trump, which saw her get photographed while blocking her face with binders.Whitmer visited the Republican president on Wednesday alongside a bipartisan delegation to discuss a northern Michigan ice storm, the state's defense assets and tariffs, among other issues. Following the meeting, Whitmer was brought into the Oval Office where she - as the New York Times described - stood glumly" during a press conference that saw Trump sign several executive orders that targeted his political opponents. Continue reading...

I've been called worse,' says top trade adviser after Musk said he was a moron' and dumber than a sack of bricks'Peter Navarro, a top trade adviser to Donald Trump, said he and Elon Musk are great" after the president's multi-billionaire business adviser publicly called him a moron" who was dumber than a sack of bricks".I've been called worse," Navarro said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press in some of his most extensive remarks about the insults Musk directed at him days earlier. Praising Musk's role in the so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge), Navarro added: Everything's fine with Elon." Continue reading...

As they reel from Trump's policies, companies say volatile freight costs and congestion are now the normThe container ship was halfway across the Atlantic when Donald Trump, during his first term in office, levied tariffs on steel and aluminium imports to the US from most countries.At the stroke of a pen on a US presidential executive order, about 100,000 was added to the cost of one of the shipments onboard, from the UK advanced materials manufacturer Goodfellow, destined for a US customer. Continue reading...

Despite the turmoil it helps to put things into perspective with a look at some fundamental indicatorsThis week was enough to make anyone worried about their stock market savings. As a certified public accountant, I don't give investment advice. But I'm comfortable leaving my money in the stock market. Why? Let's put things into perspective. Continue reading...

US Vermont senator's tour with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been drawing record-breaking crowds since FebruaryThe Vermont senator Bernie Sanders drew a record-breaking crowd at his rally in Los Angeles on Saturday, which included musical acts from Joan Baez and Neil Young, who encouraged the crowd to take America back".Sanders's Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go from Here tour has been drawing massive crowds. Aided by the progressive New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the team set the record in Tempe, Arizona, for biggest-ever political rally in that state three weeks ago. In Denver, Colorado, more than 34,000 people showed up - a career-high crowd for the 83-year-old Sanders. Saturday in Los Angeles saw another record: at least 36,000 people packed a downtown park. Continue reading...

Aircraft crash that killed all six people on board was on its eighth tour flight of the day, federal investigators sayThe helicopter that crashed into New York City's Hudson River on Thursday - killing all six on board, including three children - lacked flight recorders, said the US's National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).It was also on its eighth tour flight of the day, having already completed seven, according to federal investigators.Reuters contributed reporting Continue reading...

Tens of thousands of people attended an anti-Trump rally in Los Angeles on Saturday, when the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urged the crowd to fight against authoritarianism and oligarchy during their 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour across the US

From Paltrow talking about KPIs to Meghan waxing lyrical about entrepreneurship, it's not surprising famous women are cashing in on the world's obsession with their brandsI expect certain things from a Gwyneth Paltrow interview. Breathless outfit details. Her cooking something unexpectedly indulgent for the interviewer, or appearing more laid-back than her image suggests. Spacey pronouncements. What I don't expect to read is: I need to optimize EBITDA" (that's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, for the non-business-speaking people) or impacting my P&L" (profit and loss). These quotes come from Paltrow's recent Vanity Fair profile, in which she also referred to recent layoffs from her wellness empire, Goop, as a reorg" and described its sexual wellness clients as: Not the best customers from an LTV perspective," which I learn means lifetime value" - having bought the notorious vagina egg for a laugh, they don't come back for cashmere and casserole dishes.Tempting as it is to linger in the Goop-verse - so fragrant, so self-actualised - I'm mostly interested in Paltrow's uninhibited adoption of biz-speak. It was unexpected in a glossy feature with her looking a billion dollars, accessorised with two equally fabulous borzois. Normally, if I wanted to hear someone talk about EBITDA, I'd turn off my noise-cancelling headphones and eavesdrop on my husband's work calls. But Paltrow has always had a shrewd eye for the zeitgeist, so I'm wondering: does this herald the second coming of the out-and-proud girlboss?Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

The reluctance of religious organisations to offer recompense for the lives ruined fits a pattern of denial and evasionThere are some stories so horrifying that their details embed themselves in your flesh and haunt you for the rest of your days. The suffering of the women and babies - an estimated 170,000 of them - who were incarcerated and abused in the Magdalene laundries and mother-and-baby homes that housed fallen women" is one such story. It is a scandal that is difficult to read about without experiencing an overwhelming feeling of disgust, from the testimonies of abuse and forced adoption, to the mass grave at the former St Mary's mother-and-baby home near Tuam, County Galway, which contained 796 bodies of babies and children. The nuns put many of them in a septic tank. There were no burial records.The efforts of survivors, campaigners and historians to bring these stories to light in the face of obstruction and indifference has been the work of decades. The Irish government made a formal apology in 2021 after a judicial commission report. Yet this story, and the human misery it has caused, is not over: the last home closed in 1996. There are living survivors, and people who are descended from the victims. The exhumation of the children's remains, so that they can be identified if possible and given a proper burial, is continuing. And then there is the question of redress.Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and authorDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

World Trade Center healthcare program for people affected by attacks is in turmoil over Trump officials' overhaulA program that provides free healthcare to first responders and survivors of the World Trade Center terror attacks has been in turmoil for months, with services cut, restored and cut again as part of the Trump administration's restructuring" of the federal health department.Following the most recent cuts, groups representing survivors and even Democratic US senators say they have no clarity on how the program will continue to provide benefits. Continue reading...

Economic inequality breeds resentment and a desire to get even. That's what fuels support for even incompetent regimesHe's really gone and done it this time. Now everyone can see what a disaster he is." How many times have we heard this about Donald Trump? And how many times has it been proved wrong? Well, maybe this time he really has overstepped. After all, his clowning around with tariffs, sparking trade wars, then suddenly reversing his position, could provoke a global recession, perhaps even a depression. Surely his supporters will disown him? But I'm not banking on it, and this is why.Already, Trump has waged war on everything that builds prosperity and wellbeing: democracy, healthy ecosystems, education, healthcare, science, the arts. Yet, amid the wreckage, and despite some slippage, his approval ratings still hold between 43 and 48%: far higher than those of many other leaders. Why? I believe part of the answer lies in a fundamental aspect of our humanity: the urge to destroy that from which you feel excluded.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnistThe Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism, by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison, was published in paperback earlier this month Continue reading...

Dr Peter Marks, forced to resign by Trump administration, sees no possible way' to determine cause by SeptemberThe US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, should not offer false hope" to families by boasting he can figure out what causes autism as soon as September, says the physician who resigned as the nation's top vaccine official amid what he called anti-vaccination misinformation from the Trump administration cabinet member.In an interview during which he alluded to his help helming Operation Warp Speed - the initiative that took only about nine months to develop, manufacture and distribute the vaccines protecting the public from Covid-19 - Dr Peter Marks warned that autism is an incredibly complicated issue". Continue reading...

Residents in the auto industry's heartland respond to the chaotic start to the president's signature economic policyThe General Motors Flint Assembly plant is a hulking symbol of American auto industry might, a 5m-sq-ft factory stretching as far as the eye can see down Van Slyke Road, and it hums: three shifts almost daily crank out the Silverado truck, the automaker's most popular product.The plant weathered decades of industrial disinvestment in Flint, a blue-collar city of about 80,000 in mid-Michigan, the nation's auto capital. Flint Assembly remains an economic cornerstone of a Rust belt region filled with working-class swing voters who helped propel Donald Trump to his second term. Continue reading...

Amid a series of sadistic expulsions, the White House says Trump has reflected kicking Americans out of the countryThey're rounding people up, and you could be next. The Trump administration has largely dispensed with due process rights in deporting immigrants, who are now being targeted for their protected speech, having their visas or green cards summarily cancelled without process and sometimes without notice, and getting kidnapped off the streets and hustled into vans so that they can be shipped to detention centers" too far away for their loved ones, or their lawyers, to visit them.Some immigrants are being targeted for disappearance because they oppose Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, an opinion that it is now physically dangerous, instead of merely unpopular, to hold. But others the government seems to be seizing almost at random. More than 200 Venezuelan nationals have been seized and deported to a mega-prison in El Salvador, rendered outside of US jurisdiction in defiance of judges' orders demanding that their deportation flights be stopped. Of those Venezuelans, most had no criminal record. Other deportees, like the Maryland father and sheet metal worker Kilmar Abrego Garcia, seem to have been deported by mistake; the Trump administration says that Abrego Garcia, who they admit they did not mean to deport, will not be brought back to his family in the United States. Conveniently, the fact that they have deported him to a foreign prison is supposed, in the Trump administration's logic, to absolve them of responsibility for putting him there. We suggest the judge contact [Salvadoran] President Bukele because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador," the White House said, obnoxiously, after a judge ordered them to bring Abrego Garcia back. Continue reading...

Trump ended the de-minimis' rule while launching a trade war with China - which will make retail giants such as Temu more expensive, experts sayAfter a chaotic week of flip-flopping tariff policies, cheap clothes from China are nearly certain to face a steep price hike soon - prompting concern among fast fashion retailers and potentially pushing consumers to look for other alternatives.As part of a package of global tariff policies announced on liberation day" last week, Donald Trump signed an executive order that ended a duty-free exemption for low-priced goods to enter the US from China and Hong Kong. Known as the de-minimis" rule, packages under $800 do not qualify for any taxes or tariffs on the goods and are inspected minimally at the border. Continue reading...

In the court of King Donald, Sam Peckinpah's flawed 1973 western finally makes sense to meI first saw the Danish Dogme 95 film Festen in 1998 when I was 30. You had to go to the cinema to see films in those days, when small boys ran barefoot on a conveyor belt to turn the reels, and it's possible I watched its depiction of a family torn apart by violence, resentment, alcoholism and sexual abuse in horror while crunching popcorn, eating hotdogs and drinking a big bucket of Fanta TM (R). No wonder I was sick on the old Danish woman next to me. Luckily, in Denmark, being vomited on by a stranger is considered good luck, and we began a torrid affair.But I watched Festen again in my 50s and found it hilarious, laughing out loud at its grim affirmation of bleak inevitability. But the film hadn't changed. So what had the world done to me in the intervening years to make my sense of humour so black? Or had all that bacon and pastry I ate in the 00s somehow made me more sensitive to the Danish sensibility? Similarly, once I drank only Yorkshire Tea for a week and briefly became both resentful and ingenious.Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf until spring 2026 with a Royal Festival Hall run in July. Sign up here to be kept up with future developments for everDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

What is happening is, quite simply, annihilation. Yet our politicians keep funding it and media outlets normalize itWhere do I even start? In recent weeks I've sat down to try and write about Gaza and, every time I steel myself to write about one atrocity, another atrocity is committed. Palestinian journalists have been burned alive, babies have frozen to death, medics have been executed and buried in mass graves, kids are being killed in their sleep. Meanwhile, in the US and Germany, speaking out about dead Palestinian babies can land you on a deportation list. Arguing that international human rights law should be respected can put you at risk of being snatched off the street and stuck in a detention centre.I don't know where to start and I don't know what is really left to say at this point. After 18 months of endless carnage, it should be clear to everyone that this is not a war. That this is not self-defence. What is happening in Gaza is, quite simply, annihilation. A litany of genocide experts have stated this. Respected international organizations like Amnesty International have concluded that Israel is committing genocide - and yet our politicians are still funding this. Continue reading...

In a triumph of bling over restraint, the bride will get a hen do in space and a party on a super-yachtWell done us. It can't be long before Jeff Bezos personally extends his thanks, as he did when we - Amazon employees and Amazon customers - paid for his flight to sub-orbital space, but let's not wait. As soon as Monday, when his fiancee, Lauren Sanchez, is due with five friends on a rocket trip, Amazon givers could be witness, again, to the kind of unfettered excess that is only possible if everyone, at every level, contributes, even if it's only via permanent surveillance and a surrendered toiletbreak.But no one puts it better than Jeff, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, did himself, after he took his inaugural Blue Origin space trip in 2021. You guys paid for all this." More recently, we provided funds - that might not exist without the company's pitiless working conditions - for Sanchez's pink diamond engagement ring, proudly exhibited, estimated value, $3m. The billionaire delivered it, an enchanted Vogue writer reported, in the sweetest way, on his massive new yacht, hiding the ring under her pillow after a starlit dinner a deux". Few passions have been as exhaustively documented as that between these seasoned lovebirds.(Favourite saying: Love you to space and back.") And this week, prior to funding the solemnisation of that love - a June wedding in Venice - it will duly be our privilegeto watch Lauren's hen flight slip thesurly bonds of Earth. Continue reading...

Employees are choosing to opt out of a new era of corporate malignity, epitomised by Elon MuskAlmost any workplace study in the last decade will tell you that the death of productivity - and the death of profits - is a direct result of having miserable, overworked and micromanaged employees. In an attempt to make themselves feel in control, bosses delude themselves into believing that a tight grip will yield big results from their staff.Overwhelmingly though, the reality is the opposite: that relaxed, empowered workers (with plenty of free time) are the ones who manage to do the best work, often in shorter days than 9-5. Continue reading...