Arsenal vs Crystal Palace LIVE: Latest Premier League updates

Follow live coverage as Arsenal face Crystal Palace today in the Premier League. Another top-flight season will be covered in full right here with The Independent, as reigning champions Manchester City look to make it an unprecedented five titles in a row come the end of 2024/25.

The likes of Arsenal and Liverpool will be chasing Pep Guardiola’s side, but just as fascinating will be the race for Champions League places, with more teams than ever before having designs on top-four finishes. Chelsea remain big-spending, Manchester United’s latest rebuild continues and both Tottenham and Newcastle will expect improvements this year – yet it was Aston Villa who snared fourth last term.

Meanwhile, it’s Southampton, Leicester City and Ipswich Town who made it back to the elite after promotion last year and each will have hope they can make it more than a one-year stay. Follow the latest live action from the Premier League below:

Starmer refuses to apologise to Rosie Duffield over transphobia row

Sir Keir Starmer has refused to apologise to MP Rosie Duffield over historic disagreements on trans issues, instead accusing Kemi Badenoch of using the topic as a “political football”.

Ms Duffield, who now sits as an independent after quitting the Labour Party, has been accused of transphobia for her push to protect single-sex spaces, and has previously claimed the prime minister has “a problem with women”.

At Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), the Tory leader and the prime minister took swipes at each other over last week’s Supreme Court judgment on biological sex, with Ms Badenoch accusing Sir Keir of “hounding [Ms Duffield] out of the Labour Party”.

The judgment, which states that the definition of a woman in equality law is based on biological sex, means trans women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) can be excluded from single-sex spaces.

Asked by the Tory leader whether he would apologise to the MP for Canterbury, Sir Keir said: “I always approach this on the basis that we should treat everyone with dignity and respect, whatever their different views, and I will continue to do so.”

He added: “When we lose sight of that approach and make it a political football, as happened in the past, we end up with the spectacle of a decent man – and he was a decent man – the previous prime minister, diminishing himself at this dispatch box by making trans jokes while the mother of a murdered trans teenager watched from the public gallery just up there.

“That will never be my approach. My approach will be to support the ruling to protect single-sex spaces and treat everybody with dignity and respect, and I believe there’s a consensus in this house and the country for that approach.”

Rishi Sunak faced criticism last year for making a joke about Sir Keir’s position on trans issues at PMQs while the mother of murdered trans teenager Brianna Ghey was watching from the House of Commons gallery.

Ms Badenoch has launched a series of political attacks on the prime minister in the days since the ruling, accusing Sir Keir of “hiding behind” the judgment.

Wednesday’s heated back and forth at PMQs came a day after Sir Keir said he no longer believes trans women are women, in the wake of the ruling.

The prime minister has since said the government’s approach is to “protect single-sex spaces based on biological sex” and “ensure that trans people are treated with respect and … dignity in their everyday lives”.

“I do think this is the time now to lower the temperature, to move forward and to conduct this debate with the care and compassion that it deserves,” he added.

However, Sir Keir has been accused of putting trans people at risk after his spokesperson confirmed the PM believes trans women should use male toilets, and trans men should use female toilets.

Jess Barnard, a member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), told The Independent on Wednesday that Sir Keir should be held “personally responsible” if trans women are assaulted in male bathrooms.

The prime minister is either going to “put trans people in dangerous situations where they are vulnerable or force them out of society”, she warned. “Both of which are an appalling state for us to be in.”

Last week, transgender campaigner Jaxon Feeley warned that single-sex spaces for women will become more dangerous, not safer, after the Supreme Court ruling.

The campaigner, who transitioned from female to male while serving as a prison officer in the UK, said: “If I walk into a [women’s] toilet now and say: ‘Well, I was assigned female at birth,’ people are not going to be happy about that. I feel like people are going to be quite intimidated by that.

“It not only obviously puts [biological women] in a difficult situation, but it also allows any [cisgender] man to walk into any so-called official single-sex space now and say, ‘Well, I was assigned female at birth.’ How are you policing that? You can’t police that.”

Surge in swimmers hospitalised from polluted UK waters

A UK woman was forced to spend five days in hospital with severe gastroenteritis after swimming in the sea as hospitalisations from water-borne diseases increased by 60 per cent since 2010.

East Lothian-based carer Shelley Sim had enjoyed a swim near her home east of Edinburgh to celebrate a friend’s birthday last year when she woke up with stomach pains and fatigue.

After speaking to her GP, she was told to urgently attend hospital and underwent several weeks of appointments which led to a final diagnosis of cryptosporidium – a disease contracted by swimming in contaminated water.

Diseases such as dysentery and Weil’s disease have led to swimmers becoming critically unwell after swimming in open water, with hospitalisations increasing from 2,085 people in 2010-11 to 3,286 in 2022-23.

Following her experience, Ms Sim said: “I’m no longer swimming every day, and I’m more cautious about getting into the water. The sea is where I go for my mental health, to get away from stress of being a carer.

The swimmer said that while she used to just check the tide, she was now forced to check sewage outfalls, especially after heavy rain, to avoid a repeat of the nightmare experience.

“It impacted my son’s mental health. He has OCD, ADHD and autism and I’m his carer. My illness caused a lot of anxieties and stress,” she said.

A recent survey conducted by Surfers Against Sewage and the organisation 38 Degrees found that out of 28,458 participants, 78 per cent were angry with the state of the UK’s waterways, and less than five per cent trusted their water company to end sewage pollution.

Cases of Weil’s disease, which can cause kidney failure and liver damage, had risen in 2023 with 122 people diagnosed, double the number in 2010. The disease is spread through water contaminated with the urine of infected animals, while cases of typhoid had also increased.

Miriam, a surfer from Cornwall, suffered two episodes of sickness in 2024 after contracting a stomach bug twice while out surfing.

“Sickness from the water affected me mentally, as I found myself feeling anxious in the weeks after the sickness episode about entering the water, a place where I usually spend a lot of time,” she said.

“I spend most of my weekends surfing. It just made me angry, as the water is somewhere I go to relax and unwind, and this shouldn’t be somewhere where I feel nervous about getting ill. Physically, the illness wiped me out. Picking up a stomach bug meant I lost a lot of weight, and I felt pretty weak and fatigued. I had to take six days off work.

“I think sewage pollution has massively impacted the surfing community. I know a lot of mates who have been sick from the water. It’s just not a nice thought knowing that a hobby you love so much can also put you at risk of becoming unwell. It doesn’t sit comfortably.”

As part of their evidence submitted to the Independent Water Commission on Wednesday, Surfers Against Sewage conducted a second survey among their supporters, where 98 per cent of 3,000 participants said they had lost trust in the system.

Meanwhile, over a quarter reported becoming unwell after entering a river, lake or sea over the last two years, and over 80 per cent agreed that the actions of their water company have negatively impacted their local community.

Speaking to The Independent, Surfers Against Sewage CEO Giles Bristow, said: “It shows just how frustrated and overwhelmingly angry the British public are and how much radical transformation is required.

“The public are furious. We were all cooped up in our bedrooms during the Covid-19 pandemic and after the lockdown was lifted, people wanted to go out and enjoy our rivers and lakes and to reconnect with nature. However, people have seen that the natural environment is changing before their eyes.”

This evidence has now been submitted to Sir Jon Cunliffe, the former deputy Bank of England governor who is chairing over the Independent Water Commission, which is set to release its interim report in May.

Meanwhile, Surfers Against Sewage are organising a Paddle Out protest on 17 May in seaside communities across the UK, to raise awareness of water pollution.

Disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein back in court for rape retrial

Disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein has returned to a New York courtroom for the opening day of his rape and sexual assault retrial.

Weinstein, who was wheeled into court in a wheelchair on Wednesday morning, is being tried again after New York’s highest court last year overturned his 2020 conviction and 23-year prison sentence in a major blow to the #MeToo movement.

State prosecutors brought a new charge against Weinstein in September: a criminal sexual act stemming from accusations from former model and aspiring actress Kaja Sokola. He is being retried on charges of rape and criminal sex act based on accusations from former TV production assistant, Miriam Haley, and aspiring actress, Jessica Mann.

The 73-year-old has pleaded not guilty.

In her opening statement on Wednesday, prosecutor Shannon Lucey recounted the claims of several accusers, telling them that Weinstein “didn’t take no for an answer.”

The court was also introduced to the account of Sokola, the third woman bringing forward allegations in Weinstein’s retrial. She did not testify in the previous trial.

Sokola was 16 at the time that she alleges Weinstein sexually assaulted her and is reportedly the youngest accuser to speak out against her.

Last week a judge ruled Weinstein could spend his retrial in a hospital rather than Rikers Island due to his extensive health issues.

What smart investors need to know about changing status symbols

“It’s not a bag, it’s a Birkin.”

In 2001, Sex and the City introduced us to the Hermès Birkin, with character Samantha Jones being told there was a five year waiting list for would-be buyers. The fashion set’s favourite accessory went mainstream.

The Birkin continues to sell well over 20 years later, both new and second hand. Resale values have reportedly risen faster than gold. The Birkin has helped Hermès to outperform in what has been a torrid time for luxury brands.

But how long can that appeal sustain?

Why we’re entering a new era of super tests for male cancers

In 2024, Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy shocked the world when he revealed his diagnosis of stage four prostate cancer. At just 48 years old – and despite being one of the fittest men in the world – he was given only a few years to live after the disease was found to have progressed and spread throughout his body. Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK, and 12,000 men die of it every year. That’s 33 men every day.

Caught early, prostate cancer is highly treatable. So why are so many men still dying from it? Detection is the first hurdle: before being given his terminal stage four diagnosis, Hoy had noticed a pain in his shoulder and ribs that he mistakenly attributed to gym workouts. A scan revealed a tumour, and several hospital appointments and scans later showed that it had spread to his bones. “I’d had zero symptoms, nothing to point me towards that that might be an issue,” he told the BBC. “We were given the news that this was incurable.”

Currently, there is a lack of a reliable, accurate screening test for prostate cancer. The traditional PSA blood test, which looks for elevated levels of prostate-specific antigens, flags up a huge number of slow-growing cancers that are unlikely to cause harm, while missing some of the most aggressive types.

Prostate cancer is incredibly common, but also incredibly diverse in how it affects people. Half of men who reach 80 have cancer in their prostate. But in nearly all cases, says Alastair Lamb, a leading researcher into prostate cancer, those cancers would continue to remain asymptomatic and pose no threat to health. He says, “Maybe only 3 per cent of men will die from their prostate cancer. That’s very serious, and it’s still a lot of men, but it’s not 50 per cent.” The problem, he says, is that we “diagnose far too much prostate cancer” but fail to identify the 3 per cent of aggressive cancers that will, as in Hoy’s case, then spread and become deadly.

But what’s the problem if we, say, screen every man over 40 and, if they have cancer in their prostate, offer them treatment just in case? The issue is that current treatments – surgery, hormone therapy and radiotherapy – all carry risks. Surgery alone can have side effects including lifelong incontinence and sexual dysfunction. A price worth paying to save your life, maybe, but not if the cancer was never going to spread.

Men with high PSA scores often undergo stressful, invasive, and costly follow-ups, yet 80 per cent turn out not to have cancer at all. Lamb, also a, clinician scientist at the Barts Cancer Institute, says, “People think all we need to do is create a test, find every case of the disease and treat the disease. But this emphatically does not work in prostate cancer.”

This is why researchers are desperate to find a better test than is currently on offer, and this month the news came that one might be on the way. It comes in the form of a simple at-home spit test aimed at identifying men with a high genetic risk of developing prostate cancer.

Early studies suggest it could detect over 12,000 tumours at an earlier stage. The test was created by a group of international scientists based at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London. Simply by looking at a small sample of saliva, it can identify more than 160 genetic variants linked to prostate cancer and then use AI to calculate an individual’s risk of the disease.

In trials, the saliva test picked up more cancers than the current PSA, identified more aggressive cancers and returned fewer false positives. Of high-risk men sent for an MRI and biopsy, 40 per cent were subsequently diagnosed with prostate cancer, compared to just 25 per cent of those flagged by a high PSA level. Remarkably, it even identified cancers missed on MRI scans.

Professor Ros Eeles from the Institute of Cancer Research describes the test as “relatively simple” and “inexpensive”, saying it could help “turn the tide on prostate cancer.” And by catching cancer earlier and slashing the number of men sent for ultimately negative tests, it could also, she says, “save the NHS a significant amount of money.” The estimated savings? A staggering £500m a year.

The test isn’t ready for an NHS rollout yet. Initial trials only included European men, despite men of African heritage being twice as likely to develop prostate cancer and more than twice as likely to die of it. This is likely due to genetic differences. However, the test has since been updated to include genetic variants affecting African and Asian men, and further trials are underway. Men with high scores are now being monitored to see if they develop the disease – similar to the way women with the BRCA gene (brought into the spotlight by Angelina Jolie) are eligible for more frequent breast screenings.

Meanwhile, the charity Prostate Cancer UK is launching a £42m research programme involving hundreds of thousands of men. The TRANSFORM trial will pit different tests against each other – including genetic tests – to identify the most effective way to screen men for prostate cancer. The study will take at least three years to produce initial data.

Lamb’s own research, funded by Cancer Research UK, doesn’t look at our DNA, but at the genetic makeup of prostate cancer tumours themselves, trying to distinguish between cancers that could be deadly and those that will remain harmless. This work, he hopes, will eventually lead to tests which can spot these aggressive cancer cells via MRI or, because tumour cells leak into the bloodstream, through a simple blood test.

Meanwhile, biotech entrepreneur and scientist professor Sir Chris Evans has announced the development of two other tests, one for prostate cancer and another for testicular cancer. As founder and chief scientific officer of EDX Medical, a company specialising in cancer diagnostics and prevention, Evans has created what he calls a “highly accurate super test” for prostate cancer. He claims that, with the help of sophisticated AI algorithms, his blood test can detect the presence of cancerous cells, identify early and late-stage cancer, determine whether it’s slow-growing or aggressive, assess genetic and hereditary risk and guide treatment.

“The increased accuracy over PSA testing should reduce the need for unnecessary MRIs,” says Evans. “The requirement for highly invasive digital rectal exams will also be dramatically reduced.”

The test has been patented and is in further trials, with its launch planned for later this year or in early 2026. Although it comes too late for his diagnosis, Hoy says of EDX’s prostate test: “I now know there is a need for better and more accurate prostate cancer screening tests – and I wholeheartedly welcome this initiative.”

But before this are Evans’s plans to release a blood test for testicular cancer, which is claimed to be 99 per cent accurate. Though relatively rare, testicular cancer affects around 2,400 men annually in the UK. It is one of the most curable cancers, with a survival rate of 95 per cent. But it can be devastating due to its impact on younger men. It is most common in men aged 15 to 45 – such as Coronation Street actor Jack James Ryan, who was diagnosed at 19 – and in some cases can affect fertility.

“There’s still such a huge stigma around testicular cancer, especially the process of getting physically checked,” Ryan says. “A simple blood test would remove the awkwardness and discomfort.”

Evans says the test is 99 per cent accurate, adding: “Accuracy is what matters. So people can get on with treatment or simply chill if all is well.” He says that many men delay seeing a doctor about male cancers out of embarrassment, even when they experience symptoms of prostate or testicular cancer.

“Men don’t want to self-examine, and even if they notice a lump, they might dismiss it as a sports injury. They’ll ignore symptoms like bloating, blood in the urine or stool, or unexplained weight loss, regarding them as a weakness or a failure. They feel embarrassed to talk about them, especially with a female GP. And the idea of the ‘finger up the bum’ test scares the life out of them.”

EDX’s new testicular cancer test will launch within weeks. The downside? It will only be available through private clinics. And while pricing hasn’t been finalised, Evans says it will cost “in the hundreds of pounds”. He says, “I believe the cure for cancer will come from testing to find the disease early, plus treatment with precision drugs, which are designed to attack the thing you’ve got with minimal side-effects. In the future, I can see people going back to work after two weeks of treatment, with no chemo, no hair loss, no toxicity, no radiology burns and no scars. But to achieve that, we need to find the right cancers very early. I believe new tests will help to make that happen.”

It’s official – Donald Trump is bad for the world economy

Though covered by a thin veneer of nuanced “econospeak”, the message of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) could not be clearer: Donald Trump is bad for the world economy and will make America poorer, not wealthier – now, tomorrow and far into the future.

The assessment of the IMF’s economists – who are listened to intently by investors, even if not President Trump – is damning. The downgrade in the growth forecasts for the United States this year alone amounts to almost 1 per cent of GDP – a loss of some $200bn, of which about half is a direct result of the tariffs announced on and after the ironically named “Liberation Day” on 2 April. Mr Trump was at least wise to postpone his foolish initiative by one day.

The losses to output and the negative effects on the living standards of Americans will continue to accumulate well into the long term. Rather than “trillions” of dollars flowing into the US Treasury, the impact of tariffs will be negative virtually everywhere on the planet. Trade wars have no winners and countless losers. As Mr Trump said, no other president has ever done anything like this before – but it’s not in a good way.

At least some of the rest of the collapse in world growth prospects also derives from the chaos and confusion that Mr Trump has brought to economic policy-making. For a time, it looked as if trade between the US and China would virtually cease. That panicked markets, so, for a change, the usual roles were reversed.

The latest example of Mr Trump’s expensive forays into economic policy is his description of the chair of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, as “a loser”. The president has not only taken the unprecedented step of threatening to sack Mr Powell, but also of declaring his intention to be rid of the world’s leading central banker as soon as possible.

Mature economies do not do such things. It would be unlawful, which doesn’t seem to trouble Mr Trump, and it has deeply unsettled financial markets – and that should concern every American and every government in the world.

It is already the case that Mr Trump has wiped trillions off the value of equity and bond markets around the world. He seems to sense that he already needs to blame someone, apart from perfidious foreigners, for the continuing disaster – which is why he’s urged Mr Powell to cut interest rates.

In a typically unnuanced social media post, the president warned: “There can be a SLOWING of the economy unless Mr Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW.” Unfortunately for Mr Trump, even he hasn’t the power to bully or fool the world’s investors, and the effect of a series of his impetuous, ill-considered statements has been to crash equities, bonds and the dollar – a particularly alarming combination, given that investors normally flee to US Treasury bonds in times of stress.

This time, it’s America that’s becoming a more risky place to keep one’s money; gold, German government bonds and the Swiss franc have been the choice beneficiaries of this crisis of confidence in Mr Trump’s administration.

It’s poignant to recall Mr Trump’s social media post just before polling day: “If Kamala wins, you are 3 days away from the start of a 1929-style economic depression. If I win, you are 3 days away from the best jobs, the biggest paychecks, and the brightest economic future the world has ever seen.” The markets have, so far, had their worst April since 1932.

The “Trump Slump” may not be far off. While the IMF doesn’t expect a recession in America this year, it has raised the probability of two successive quarters of contraction from 25 per cent to 37 per cent – much too high for comfort. Inflation, including those groceries Mr Trump pays so much attention to, will also increase. So much for making America great again.

Not the least of America’s concerned allies is the United Kingdom. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is in Washington to hear for herself the IMF’s gloomy prognosis for the British economy. Inevitably, given that Britain is a major holder of dollar-denominated assets and a leading investor in the US – our second-largest trading partner – when America catches a cold, the British tend to get pneumonia.

The downgrade for British growth next year is thus substantial – down to 1.4 per cent, with inflation peaking at the highest rate in the major G7 economies later this year. The hit to British GDP and tax revenues will only add to the pressures Ms Reeves faces as she attempts to put the public finances on a sustainable footing, and that is inevitably bad news for public services.

Much of this reversal in British fortunes is because of the choices the Trump administration has made in its economic policy – and, even worse, the uncertainty surrounding how long any of its policies will survive before another presidential whim throws everything in the air again.

All the more reason, then, that when Ms Reeves meets her American counterpart, Scott Bessent, she will need to press the case for that most elusive of Brexit benefits – the fabled US-UK free trade agreement. In reality, such is the present febrile geopolitical environment and the immensely complex nature of a full trade treaty (as well as the resistance of entrenched vested interests in Congress), that the deal will be less ambitious.

Nonetheless, a relaxation of the recent hikes in tariffs, a harmonisation of digital and biotech taxation and regulation, mutual recognition of professional qualifications and other measures could provide a welcome boost to the UK’s greatly denuded growth prospects. Britain will be required to make some hard choices and, as in all such trade deals, there will be winners and losers.

But the UK needs to rebuild its economy and return it to sustainable growth. In the long run, in principle, linking with what, even now, remains the world’s most dynamic economy carries enormous potential. If the Starmer administration manages to pull that off, conclude the long-awaited deal with India, and, crucially, achieves the overdue Brexit “reset”, then it might start to dream about Britain breaking out of its economic stagnation.

Grim as the IMF forecasts are, things can get better.