Trump gives Putin two weeks to prove he wants to end war
Donald Trump appears to have set a two-week deadline for Russian president Vladimir Putin to prove he is serious about wanting to end the war in Ukraine.
On being asked in the Oval Office yesterday if he thought Mr Putin wanted to end the war, Mr Trump said: “I can’t tell you that, but I’ll let you know in about two weeks.”
“Within two weeks. We’re gonna find out whether or not (Putin is) tapping us along or not,” he told the reporters. “And if he is, we’ll respond a little bit differently.”
The US president has, however, previously set similar two-week deadlines, including on April 27 and May 19.
Putin aide Dmitry Medvedev responded to that by threatening the US with World War Three – but Moscow later proposed 2 June as a date to begin fresh talks with Ukraine in Istanbul.
Earlier this week, Mr Trump warned Mr Putin was “playing with fire” by resisting ceasefire talks while escalating drone and missile attacks.
It comes as Russia will send a number of Oreshnik missile systems to Belarus by the end of 2025, a Belarusian official said according to the Tass news agency.
The locations of the systems have been “finalised”, said Alexander Volfovich, the secretary of Belarus’ Security Council.
Arsenal make Gyokeres decision after Zubimendi breakthrough, Man United to sign Cunha
The transfer window is almost open with the Club World Cup creating an emergency, short-term window — though clubs not involved in the new Fifa tournament are still pushing ahead with plans to strengthen this summer.
Manchester United have an awful lot of work to do in the window after a disastrous season, and Matheus Cunha appears to be the first one through the door, with Wolves set to bank more than £60m for the Brazilian forward. There could also be exits from Old Trafford, though, with captain Bruno Fernandes among those being linked with moves away.
Liverpool are ready to go from strength to strength after winning the Premier League title, with a new striker perhaps on the wish list as right-back Jeremie Frimpong nears a switch to help fill the void left by Trent Alexander-Arnold’s departure. A forward to monitor could be Hugo Ekitike, who is also a Chelsea target, with the Eintracht Frankfurt striker one of the hottest properties in European football.
Arsenal, meanwhile, look to be close to their first addition with Martin Zubimendi set for a medical.
You can sign up to DAZN to watch every Club World Cup game for free, while all the latest updates, rumours and done deals from what promises to be a chaotic transfer window will be covered in the blog below:
Drought declared in northwest England after record dry weather
A drought has officially been declared in North West England after the UK experienced record dry weather this spring, the Environment Agency has said.
The region entered drought status on 21 May, just days after residents were urged to use less water due to concerns over the low levels of rivers and reservoirs, which are currently at less than 60 per cent capacity across the region.
Earlier this month, prior to the recent bout of rainfall, the agency said North West and North East England had both seen their driest start to a calendar year since 1929, while England as a whole having endured its driest February to April period since 1956.
Simultaneously, the UK has experienced its sunniest spring since records began in 1910, with 630 hours of sunshine clocked up across the country between 1 March and 27 May – up from just 377 hours over the same three months last year.
This dry spell – with temperatures set to soar again this week – follows a period of extreme wet weather. England experienced its wettest 12 months on record between October 2023 and September 2024, leading to widespread flooding and agricultural disruption.
Experts warn that these volatile swings between extreme wet and dry periods are indicative of the growing impact of climate change.
England’s overall reservoir storage stood at 84 per cent at the end of April, lower than at this time of year in the drought summer of 2022.
Earlier this month, United Utilities said reservoir levels in North West England were at just 69 per cent capacity, down from more than 90 per cent at the same point last year. The latest readings show this has since fallen to 58.9 per cent.
As a result, the water company urged residents in the region to use less water. Despite thanking customers for their efforts, United Utilities warned that reservoirs were still lower than expected.
Urging residents to continue doing “all they can to save and recycle water”, a spokesperson said: “We’re continuing to move water around our integrated network to get it to where it is needed, as well as bringing extra water into the system from other sources around the region.”
The company did not respond when asked how far the region could be from hosepipe restrictions, which form part of the company’s Level 2 drought plan.
Following the declaration of drought in the North West, it emerged on Wednesday that environment secretary Steve Reed had intervened to seize central government control over the planning of two major reservoir projects in East Anglia and Lincolnshire by designating them “nationally significant”, amid growing concerns over the UK’s water supply.
Officials caution that without new reservoirs, population growth, aging infrastructure, and climate change could cause drinking water demand to exceed supply by the mid-2030s. Water supply shortages are also impeding the construction of thousands of homes in areas like Cambridge.
Water companies across England have committed to bringing nine new reservoirs online by 2050, in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Kent, East Sussex and the West Midlands and Somerset, with the potential to supply 670 million litres of extra water per day.
Additional reporting by PA
Heatwaves hit different when you’re a redhead
Heatwave, anyone? As another warm weekend beckons, the Met Office has revealed that we experienced the hottest spring on record. But not everyone is cock-a-hoop at the nice weather.
Spare a thought for Britain’s gingers, who are usually well-prepped for the rigours of a British summer, but who now must stretch out our dependency on SPF50 and large, hideous hats through spring and autumn, with only the end of Strictly and the duration of The Traitors providing a guaranteed period of respite.
By “gingers” (a ghastly word, by the way, takes me straight back to being bullied at school), I do of course mean any redheads like me, blessed with a pallor that allows excellent camouflage in areas of Scotland and Ireland during high winter, and which is absolutely useless at any other time. But I also include anyone else who struggles with the heat – spiritual gingers, if you will, like my friend Sonal, a former criminal barrister, who has established a cutting-edge skincare brand, This is Silk, inspired by how she treated her rare allergy to sunlight.
I have been awash with suncream pretty much every day since 2005. Thankfully, the quality has risen dramatically since I was a baby, when my fair mother – partly raised in Singapore, where she and her sisters coated themselves in oil like so many jacket potatoes – would swipe me with factor two. This was considered unimaginably high in the early 1980s and quite akin to staying indoors and hiding under the bed til the clocks went back.
The only problem today is that cheap sunscreen tends to be horrendous on sensitive skin or leaves a very obvious cast, and the good stuff is wildly expensive and comes in tubes the size of a fun-size Snickers. To keep covered in the stuff to the level that I need costs me a fortune – and I do need it, as the alternative is to rapidly become lightheaded and wobbly.
My solution is usually to stay inside for the majority of daylight hours and go out covered in hats, sunglasses and long sleeves where needed. Australia’s long-running awareness campaign, “Slip, Slap, Slop” remains very relevant, even if I spent much of my UK childhood wondering which one referred to “having an ice lolly”.
It’s simply not worth doing otherwise, either to get burned (which I can do in under a minute on high UV days) or to use a cheap and cheerful suncream and have the inevitable breakout or rash from trying to get my sensitive skin playing ball. My dad (equally redhead, but less pallid due to a love of sailing) has become a devotee of the excellent Altruist sun cream, which I keep forgetting to stock up on online. He and the rest of my family can tan really beautifully. I gave up even trying in my early twenties, and have concluded that a neat trick to appear less ghostly is to wear a screamingly-white bathing suit instead.
Conversely, my favourite hobby is very ginger-friendly. When I go horse riding, I relish the opportunity to cover up in gloves, a hat, boots, a long-sleeved summer base layer etc, all technically for protection should I fall into a tree. I went on a horsey travel assignment to India a few years ago and have never been more comfortable than riding through the Thar desert, swathed in layers.
Since I got my retriever, Sybil, I’ve had a companion slash excuse to hide away from the sunlight – it’s simply cruel to walk a dog when the pavement can be used to sizzle bacon, especially when said dog resembles a sheepskin rug from Ikea. When, in the record-breakingly hot summer of 2022, we both had serious operations within weeks of each other, it was something of a relief to be able to hide indoors to recover.
It also gives me time to pray, pray, pray that someone with money and influence will turn their laser focus to sorting out the climate. Rather naively, I thought this conversation had already been settled during the greenhouse gas debate of the 1990s. If only this were something Blue Peter could rectify now through a campaign. Perhaps we could organise a Bring ‘n’ Buy Sale. I’ve got loads of sun cream I can bring along to keep everyone covered.
AI-powered robot salesperson could be coming to UK showrooms
Robots powered by AI could soon be selling cars to customers in the UK as a global car manufacturer debuts an unusual new member of staff.
Omoda and Jaecoo owner Chery has showed off robotic sales assistant ‘Mornine’ at the Shangai Motor Show on 23 April. It can greet customers, show them around a car, and even make them a tea or coffee.
The AI robot uses machine learning to improve its performance, learning from interactions with customers. It has been trialled in showrooms in Malaysia and could soon be rolled out worldwide, a spokesperson for Chery said.
The car maker added that Mornine has capabilities including perception, cognition, decision making and task execution and explained the “ideal use case” was for “dealer-level admin and service.”
The car brand’s robotics experts said Mornine uses speech and vision inputs that allow it to “accurately interpret commands including physical gestures”.
Ian Wallace, spokesperson for Chery’s Omoda and Jaecoo brands in the UK, said Mornine could even be offered for use in people’s homes in the future if showroom trials go well.
He said: “Mornine is an intelligent showroom aid. She can show customers around a vehicle, she can answer questions and she can make teas and coffees, so in a busy showroom environment, if staff are tied up, she’s there to be a helpful face of the brand.
“She has learning capabilities so she can react to commands and learn your voice so if you were to use her in a household environment she would start to learn what you like and don’t like.”
Chery said the robot uses ‘automotive-grade hardware’ to allow it to walk upright and it has ‘dexterous hands’ to allow it to grip items. It can also distinguish between voices to identify different customers.
The car maker also showcased a robotic dog called ‘Argos’ at the Shanghai show. They say the AI-powered animal is designed to offer companionship to those who are unable to keep real pets at home.
Mapped: The worst areas for road incidents revealed
There were more than 120,000 road traffic casualties in Britain last year, including 1,600 fatalities, official figures show.
Nearly 30,000 people were killed or severely injured from January to December 2024, according to provisional estimates from the Department for Transport (DfT).
More than three in four (76 per cent) people killed in road traffic collisions were men, and 61 per cent of casualties of all severities were male, the DfT estimates.
Among the four main road user groups — cars, pedestrians, motorcyclists, and cyclists — motorcyclists experienced the most significant change in fatalities.
The number of motorcyclist deaths increased by 9 per cent in 2024 compared to 2023, according to the DfT. Some 343 riders lost their lives in crashes in 2024, up from 315 during the previous 12 months.
There was also an increase in pedestrian deaths, up 2 per cent from 405 in 2023 to 413 in 2024.
People aged 17–29 made up 24 per cent of road deaths and 28 per cent of all casualties, and those aged 70 and over were involved in 22 per cent of fatalities but just 8 per cent of overall casualties.
The map below shows the number of road traffic casualties across all local authority areas in Great Britain:
In total, there were 128,375 casualties of all severities last year – a 3 per cent decrease compared to 2023 – and 1,633 fatalities – a 1 per cent increase compared to the previous year.
The number of people killed or seriously injured remained largely unchanged compared to 2023 at 29,537.
The local authorities with the highest number of road traffic casualties:
AA president Edmund King said: “Every death on our roads is a tragedy, and sadly we are still losing at least four people a day.
“If this level of loss was experienced on any other form of transport, there would be a national inquiry and public outcry.
“Yet, for some reason, we seem to accept this as the risk of moving around our communities. This should not be the case.”
Mr King called for the government’s upcoming road safety strategy to include “bold action” such as harsher penalties for not wearing a seatbelt or drug driving.
He also stressed the need to “safeguard newly qualified drivers” to ensure they feel confident on the road before “exposing them to additional risks” such as carrying passengers of a similar age.
The DfT was approached for comment.
Haribo recalls sweets after family falls ill from cannabis-laced candy
Haribo has recalled packets of sweets alleged to have contained cannabis after several members of the same family fell ill.
The Happy Cola F!ZZ packets were recalled after the family members in the Netherlands became unwell, reporting dizziness before they alerted the police.
The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) later told Dutch news outlet Hart van Nederland that cannabis samples had been found inside the candy.
It is unclear how many packets have been affected, with three reported so far – but Haribo has recalled the entire batch in the Netherlands as a precaution. All other Haribo products are still safe to consume, the NVWA said.
In a statement issued to the Mail Online, a Haribo company spokesperson said: ‘The incident is contained to the Netherlands, to a specific product and batch. HARIBO products in the UK are not affected.”
The NVWA is currently investigating the cause of the illness in alongside Haribo, the authority said in a statement. How the cannabis ended up in the sweets remains unknown.
“Samples were taken and cannabis was found in them,” a spokesperson for the NVWA said to Hart van Nederland. “We immediately contacted Haribo and they issued a safety warning.”
In its product recall warning, the authority said: “HARIBO warns of kilo bags of HARIBO Happy Cola F!ZZ with best-before date (BBD) January 2026.
“There are bags in circulation with sweets that can lead to health complaints, such as dizziness, when consumed.
“So far it concerns 3 bags, but as a precaution HARIBO is recalling the stock in question. Do not eat the sweets.”