US secretary of state says Iran is biggest source of instability in region but adds many nations interested in apath of greater peacea

• Biden and Netanyahu speak amid pressure over Rafah and ceasefire

Antony Blinken has told a meeting of regional leaders in Riyadh that the most effective way to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza is to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking in Saudi Arabia, the US secretary of state said that there had been ameasurable progressa in delivering aid to Gaza, which Israel has beseiged for six months, but more is needed.

Governor issues state of emergency for 12 counties as authorities confirm a four-month-old baby was among the dead in Holdenville

At least four people, including a baby, were killed after a series of tornadoes struck Oklahoma on Saturday, amid a weekend of extreme weather that left dozens injured and a trail of destruction across the midwest.

Local authorities confirmed that a four-month-old infant was among the two people dead in Holdenville a one of the hardest hit towns in Oklahoma, located 80 miles south-east of Oklahoma City a where about 20 tornadoes hit late Saturday, leveling buildings and ripping off roofs. The victims have not been named, but at least four others were injured as the tornado left a path of devastation through the town of around 6,000 people.

Mumia Abu-Jamal tells New York City students theyare on the right side of history by deciding anot to be silent and to speak outa

In a powerful and rousing live address to students at the City University of New York (CUNY) on Friday night, the incarcerated Black political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal praised the pro-Palestinian movement growing at US colleges as being on the right side of history.

aIt is a wonderful thing that you have decided not to be silent and decided to speak out against the repression that you see with your own eyes,a Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther, said while calling from Pennsylvaniaas Mahanoy state prison. aYou are part of something massive, and you are part of something that is on the right side of history.

SA!nchez announces he will stay on days after saying he was considering resigning after attacks in rightwing media on his wife

Pedro SA!nchez is expected to speak in a few minutes. Stay tuned.

Pedro SA!nchezas big announcement will be an ainstitutional declarationa, which means a televised statement with no questions from the media.

Andrea Vidaurre helped persuade regulators to adopt rules that will improve air quality for millions in one of USas smoggiest areas

A grassroots organizer from one of the USas smoggiest communities has been awarded the prestigious Goldman prize for environmental activists, after leading a successful campaign to clean-up Californiaas trucking and railway sectors.

Andrea Vidaurre from Inland Empire, a sprawling metropolitan region in southern California, helped persuade state regulators to adopt two historic transport regulations that will improve local air quality for millions of people a and accelerate the countryas transition away from greenhouse gas spewing vehicles.

Senate minority leader says he is anot advocating anything at this levela and that issue is too divisive among lawmakers for consensus

Asked whether he supports a federal abortion ban, US Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday that he is anot advocating anything at this levela.

The Republican, during remarks in a new interview published by NBCas Meet the Press, stopped short of saying whether or not he supported a 15-week federal ban on abortion with exceptions, but he instead portrayed the issue as aa practical mattera that was too divisive among federal lawmakers to result in a consensus among them.

aNegotiations were not easy but we have a resulta says Mykola Solsky after ending of months-long blockade by Polish protesters

Ukraineas farm minister welcomed the ending of a months-long border blockade by Polish protesters, which he said followed productive talks with Poland, reports Reuters.

aThe negotiations that took place were not easy, but the main thing is that we have a result,a Mykola Solsky was quoted as saying in a statement from the ministry.

Pursuit of anon-stop executionsa causing psychological distress to corrections staff as states urged to widen gap between executions

The relentless pursuit of anon-stop executionsa by a rump of US death penalty states is exposing prison staff to extreme levels of psychological and physical stress, according to traumatized corrections officers who are appealing for help.

Though capital punishment is generally on the wane in America, with only five states carrying out executions last year, those states that remain active are showing a renewed determination. In some states, the pace of judicial killings is now so intense that prison guards are kept in an almost permanent state of readiness, with mock executions staged on a rolling basis.

CDC says incidents at unlicensed medical spa are first documented cases of virus transmitted by a cosmetic procedure using needles

Three women who were diagnosed with HIV after getting avampire faciala procedures at an unlicensed New Mexico medical spa are believed to be the first documented cases of people contracting the virus through a cosmetic procedure using needles, federal health officials said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its Morbidity and Mortality Report last week that an investigation into the clinic from 2018 through 2023 showed it apparently reused disposable equipment intended for one-time use.

US president made fun of Republican frontrunneras legal woes while critics of his handling of Gaza war protested outside

Joe Biden has shown no mercy to Donald Trump with a series of barbed jokes about his election rival, telling a gathering of Washingtonas political and media elites: aIam a grown man running against a six-year-old.a

The White House Correspondentsa Association (WHCA) dinner on Saturday night provided the ideal platform for Biden to continue a recent run of taking the fight to Trump with more aggressive rhetoric, cutting humour and personal insults.

aTrumpas rant against me is a barely coherent,a says independent White House hopeful and challenges ex-president to a debate

Robert F Kennedy Jr has dismissed Donald Trump as aunhingeda after a social media tirade from the former Republican president accused the independent White House hopeful of being a aDemocrat planta and awasted protest votea.

aWhen frightened men take to social media they risk descending into vitriol, which makes them sound unhinged,a Kennedy wrote Saturday on X in a post that doubled as a debate challenge. aPresident Trumpas rant against me is a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims that should best be resolved in the American tradition of presidential debate.a

Planned memorial aims at adignified remembrancea of women of St Pauli detained as perverts under the Nazis

Sex workers in Hamburgas historic red-light district who were persecuted under Adolf Hitler are to get their own memorial at HerbertstraAe, a notorious street in Germanyas second city still blocked off to all but sex workers and their clients.

Few people, even residents, know that it was the Nazis who built the world-famous gates around the row of ahouses of pleasurea in an attempt to shame sex workers while discreetly keeping business going.

Years of pressure by those fined for urinating in street due to lack of facilities pays off with a!4m plans

The need kicked in as Geerte Piening was on her way home from a bar one night in 2015. She swiftly weighed her options: it was past closing time in Amsterdamas lively Leidseplein area, meaning she could not duck into a bar to use their facilities, while the nearest public toilet was 2km away.

She resorted to squatting in an alleyway, coaxing her friends to cover her as she did so. Police soon turned up, handing her a a!140 (APS118) fine for public urination.

Civil liberties network warns of decline across the bloc as a result of harm or neglect by governments

Media freedom is declining across the EU and aperilously close to breaking pointa in several countries, a leading civil liberties network has said, highlighting widespread threats against journalists and attacks on the independence of public broadcasters.

The Berlin-based Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) said in its annual media freedom report, compiled with 37 rights groups in 19 countries, that alarming trends identified previously persisted in 2023 a although new EU-wide legislation could offer hope of improvement.

With tourists struggling to access the two primary digital payment apps, Alipay and WeChat pay, Beijing has put measures in place to make cash payments easier

For 18 years, Liu Yau-li has been bringing tourists to China. In that time sheas seen the full evolution of Chinaas digital payment system. Twenty years ago, she says, everyone used cash. But today itas not unusual to find places that canat or wonat accept cash at all, particularly after the pandemic when much of the world grew wary of handling shared items.

If visitors want to enjoy convenient travel, she says, theyare better off downloading one of the major payment apps and hoping it works for them.

Legendary journalist makes remarks in advance of release of Netflix documentary about his life and work

Dan Rather said his dismissal from CBS News nearly two decades earlier aof course a| was the lowest pointa of his legendary journalism career as he returned to his former employeras airwaves for the first time Sunday.

aI gave CBS News everything I had,a the 92-year-old newsman said. aThey had smarter, better, more talented people, but they didnat have anybody who worked harder than I did.a

The Associated Press contributed reporting

From runneras knee to fraying cartilage, knees are involved in 40% of sports injuries. But it can be hard to pin down whatas wrong, or what to do about it. Hereas what the physios say

aI could talk for days about knees,a says physiotherapist Patricia Collins. aAfter backs, they are the most common area we treat.a According to a recent paper in the British Medical Journal, 41% of sports injuries are knee-related.

But just because knee issues are common, that doesnat mean we should ignore them and soldier on. These knobbly little joints bear a heavy load, and problems and solutions can take some untangling. aNot only does the knee have the two major leg bones, the femur and the tibia,a says Bhanu Ramaswamy, physio and visiting fellow at Sheffield Hallam University, abut youave got the kneecap, cartilage, tendons and ligaments, and any changes in those will make a knee prone to becoming more stiff or inflamed.a

After a successful career as a talent agent a representing Michael Parkinson, Ulrika Jonsson and Adam Ant a Melanie Cantor became disillusioned with TV. So she took up writing a and refused to give up on her passion.

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At 61, after a decade writing four unpublished manuscripts and receiving hundreds of rejections from agents and publishers, Melanie Cantor got an email in 2019 from the literary agent Felicity Blunt. aIt started off positively and I was just waiting for the abuta to arrive, but it never did,a Cantor says. aShe said she wanted to represent me.a

In 2020, Dorset-based Cantoras debut novel Life and Other Happy Endings, about a woman with three months to live who spends her remaining time writing letters to those who have wronged her, came out. Its publication was the culmination of a lifelong fascination with writing.

The effectiveness of Tinder and Hinge is hard to judge without access to their data. But now researchers are creating a free alternative with full transparency

A class-action lawsuit filed in a US federal court last Valentineas Day accuses Match Group a the owners of Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid dating apps, among others a of using a apredatory business modela and of doing everything in its power to keep users hooked, in flagrant opposition to Hingeas claim that it is adesigned to be deleteda.

The lawsuit crystallised an ocean of dissatisfaction with the apps, and stimulated a new round of debate over their potential to harm mental health, but for scientists who study romantic relationships it sidestepped the central issue: do they work? Does using the apps increase your chances of finding your soulmate, or not? The answer is, nobody knows.

Donat be deluded by media hullabaloo a but smart employers can get creative with schedules to attract and retain talent

According to CNN a4-day workweeks may be around the corner. A third of Americaas companies are exploring them.a CNBC says: aThis US company tested a 4-day workweek a and says it made workers happier and more productive.a Newsweek tells us: aMillennials Are Ready For a Four-Day Week.a So why do all of my clients say nope?

According to an advocacy organization, more than 300 companies have four-day workweeks and, per the reports above, many others are apparently atestinga the concept. I admit that Iave spoken to none of these companies but Iam not sure I have to. I spend my life working with small and mid-sized businesses and I know a PR stunt when I see one. Hey, good for them. In these times of tight labor - itas a great marketing campaign. aPeople! Come work for us except you donat have to do as much work and weall still pay you the same!a Now thatas a company I want to work for.

Life at its essence is about time and by 2050, nearly 3.7 million people are expected to live up to 100. What can we do to get the most out of our bonus years?

Loneliness. Ageism. Physical limitations, cognitive decline and, increasingly, elder poverty.

The downsides of living to 100 and beyond are numerous. But so are the upsides. Life at its essence is about time a time to live, time to laugh, time to love a and many of those who have achieved a triple-digit age are living their best lives as centenarians.

A new approach aims to restore fish levels in the Yukon River but some feel it unfairly targets traditional practices while failing to tackle huge losses to industrial fishing in the ocean

Earlier this month Alaska officials announced a new plan they say could revive the Yukon Riveras struggling salmon population. The 2,000-mile waterway that runs from Canadaas Yukon Territory to the Bering Sea has seen sharp declines in its Chinook, or king salmon, in recent years.

The new strategy aims to restore the number of fish that reach their northern spawning areas near the Canadian border to 71,000, up from about 15,000 that reached the Canadian border in 2023, by suspending commercial, sport, domestic and personal use fisheries in the Yukon River until 2030. Previously, fishing closures were revisited each year.

Near-zero growth has crushed living standards, sending voters to populist demagogues. But they have no solutions to offer

By the time of the European parliament elections in June, this yearas rightward ebb in European politics will have turned into a tidal wave. Ultra-nationalist demagogues and populist-nationalists are now leading the polls in Italy, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia, and running second in Germany and Sweden. There are two hard-right groupings in the European parliament a Identity and Democracy and European Conservatives and Reformists. Between them, they could secure as much as 25% of the June vote. But even more ominously, in almost every part of Europe including Britain, these factions are forcing the hand of the traditional centre-right parties a which, one by one, are capitulating to ever more extreme anti-immigration, anti-trade and anti-environment positions.

The rightward shift is, of course, a western and not just European phenomenon, with Trump 2.0 advocating a far more aggressive protectionist and nationalist agenda than Trump 1.0. But Europe stands out from the US in one important respect. While the US economy roars forward a even if the average American voter does not feel the full benefits a Europe, and especially its industrial engine-room, Germany, continues to suffer from near-zero growth and stagnation in terms of living standards. And having lived through a decade of consistently low growth, the continent is now divided between an optimistic but declining minority, who still hold to the expectation that a rising tide lifts all boats, and the growing and more pessimistic majority who now see life as a zero-sum game.

Gordon Brown was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010

Sexual violence within the queer community is rarely visible in the media a we need to see our stories on the small screen

• Jeffrey Ingold was a LGBTQ+ consultant on Baby Reindeer

Richard Gaddas critically acclaimed Netflix series Baby Reindeer has proved wildly popular since its release two weeks ago.Itas a harrowing, semi-autobiographical tale about a young bisexual man who is stalked by an older woman. Much of the discussion around the show has focused on aMarthaa, the fictional portrayal of Gaddas real-life stalker. But Baby Reindeer is also a story of how trauma can shape the present, of sexual violence and its far-reaching impact, and sexuality.

For two years, I worked on Baby Reindeer as the showas LGBTQ+ consultant, reviewing scripts to feed back on how LGBTQ+ people and issues are represented, providing training on creating an inclusive set for cast and crew, and ultimately, acting as a resource to answer questions or concerns from anyone working on the show.

From Everest to Machu Picchu, we canat get enough of those amust-seea places. Itas time to show some restraint

Climbing Everest used to be an even more dangerous pursuit than it is today, requiring huge bravery, endurance and skill. Even then the mountain could kill. A century ago, it claimed the lives of two of Britainas finest climbers, George Mallory and Sandy Irvine.

The worldas highest mountain eventually succumbed to human challenge when, almost three decades later, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay carried the flags of Britain, the UN, and Nepal to its summit on 29 May 1953. Sporadic trips involving handfuls of explorers continued over succeeding years.

Yes, I revelled in the thrill of film-making, yet a fear of failure nagged at me. Behind it lay a truth Iad been ignoring

For just over a decade I lived on the edge of danger, leaping from cliffs, jumping out of the back of trains and even being set on fire. I was a television and film stunt performer. Think Tom Cruise without the credits, in sky-high heels and hotpants. Every job was a calculated risk, and every performance felt like a dance with death. My job demanded the spirit of a daredevil and the agility of an acrobat with the presence of an actor, tasked with bringing the heart-pounding thrills of Hollywood to life. But as my star rose and opportunities knocked on my door, I made a decision to step back, leaving behind bewildered friends and colleagues who couldnat understand why I was abruptly extinguishing my own flame.

While I revelled in the thrill of physical activity and globetrotting adventures, there was always a nagging sense of impostor syndrome gnawing at me. Despite my prowess in executing stunts, I felt like a fraud when it came to the craft of acting. I could execute flips, wield knives and brave fire-burns, but put a script in front of me and I faltered. No matter how much I trained or rehearsed, the moment the camera rolled my lines vanished, leaving me stranded in a sea of self-doubt. Whenever I found myself in a situation where I had to deliver lines, my anxiety would intensify. I would feel my breathing becoming rapid and shallow, making it difficult to focus. As I attempted to say the words, the buzzing of the room would overwhelm me and despite being in the spotlight, all I could see was darkness. It was a disorienting experience, and it further exacerbated my feelings of self-doubt and insecurity about my acting abilities.

Janine Parkinson is a writer and former stunt performer

The liberal justice has been called the supreme courtas conscience but we canat afford a repeat of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

A month ago Josh Barro (a man) at the Atlantic wrote a piece headlined Sonia Sotomayor Should Retire Now. Around the same time the Guardianas Mehdi Hasan (a man) similarly opined that afor the sake of all of us, Sonia Sotomayor needs to retire from the US supreme court.a The University of Colorado Boulder law professor Paul Campos (a man) also went on CNN to argue that 69-year-old Sotomayor should consider stepping down as a justice in order to give Joe Biden time to fill the seat with another liberal judge should the worst happen. And pundit Nate Silver (you guessed it a| another man) said much the same thing.

We often have as much in common with strangers as our relatives, according to studies a so why do we still love to say our children are like us?

How alike are parents and kids? Quite, right? Surely we all play that game. I, for example, am competitive like my dad (but without a shred of his energy); my sister got my motheras compassion and I got her lust for crispy potato products and staying in bed. My husband and his mum, meanwhile, share a lively debating style (Iam choosing my words carefully); itas why their conversations get so a| animated.

Itas an assumption that transcends geography: there are athe apple doesnat fall far from the treea equivalents worldwide a mostly tree-related, although I like the Portuguese aa fishas child knows how to swima.