News

President Donald Trump said the United States would start helping to free ships stranded by the US-Israeli war on Iran from Monday, as a tanker reported being hit by unknown projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump gave few details of the plan to aid ships and their crews that have been “locked up” in the vital waterway and ⁠are running low on food and other supplies.

“We have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site on Sunday.

Hundreds of ships and as many as 20,000 seafarers have been unable to transit the strait during the conflict, the International Maritime Organisation says.

US Central Command said it would support the effort with 15,000 military personnel, more than 100 land and sea-based aircraft, along with warships and drones.

“Our support for this defensive mission is essential to regional ⁠security and the global economy as we also maintain the naval blockade,” Admiral Brad Cooper, the ​CENTCOM ⁠commander, said in a statement.

Soon after Trump’s comments, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said a tanker had reported being hit by unknown projectiles in the strait.

The agency said all crew were reported safe in the incident, which occurred 78 nautical miles north of Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates, but few details ⁠were immediately available.

Iran has been blocking nearly all shipping from the Gulf apart from its own for more than two months, sending energy prices soaring.

It is not immediately clear which countries the US operation will help or how the operation ‌would work. It will not necessarily include US Navy ships escorting commercial ships, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said in ‌a post on X.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With Reuters

I live in the Welsh countryside. It’s beautiful, but it means that when we have visitors, they often travel far to see us and will stay for a night, a weekend, or longer. That might sound nice, and it is, but whenever my husband announces an old friend is visiting from London, or that an in-law is booked in for a week, my jaw clenches.

It has nothing to do with how I feel about them. It’s because I’m tired of cleaning, cooking and prepping for my husband’s houseguests. To be clear, I resent having to clean for my own guests too – but it seems particularly unfair when I’m scrubbing the floors for arrangements I was never included in.

For me, visitors mean cooking, cleaning, decorating, putting fresh sheets on the guest bed, digging out the only decent set of towels I have in the house, a thoughtful weekend itinerary – the extra pressure to make sure the children look presentable. Making sure no one is bored.

It means remembering Guest A won’t eat cheese, but will eat pizza. That Guest B won’t drink from the tap, will bring her own food, organic milk, and will silently swap the things in my pantry. That Guest C hates Tetley teabags, and remembering to stock his preferred brand.

It’s not just a quick tidy up we’re talking about. It’s an act – and it’s why, though I love having friends to stay, I always feel exhausted at the end. Why don’t I just relax, and not bother with any of it? Well, my husband says the same thing. He says not to worry, because the things that need to get done always seem to get done.

He says that “no one cares” about the things I’m stressing over, and they don’t matter. He’s half right: society doesn’t care when he doesn’t do them. They absolutely do when I don’t.

Studies show that not only do women, consistently, do more housework than men when they live together – they’re also criticised for the house being messy while men aren’t. One 2019 study found that people judged messy homes more harshly when they believed a woman lived there, compared with when they thought the occupant was a man.

Now I’ve certainly never noticed anyone come to our joint home and mention the dishes in the sink, or a child’s toys on the floor to Alex. But I had a visitor point out the lint in our living room carpet to me, like an accusation. And the problem is that women internalise these expectations, so we really can’t relax until we’re satisfied we’re presenting a clean, comfortable house, a great home-cooked meal, and so on.

When I visit friends, I see the same act. A frantic scream when I open the wrong door, a cry of “you weren’t supposed to see in there!” because I accidentally opened the door to the utility and witnessed a filled laundry basket and some children’s shoes. A man would never feel shame over out of place footwear. But women are taught to.

It is known, and understood, that anything undone in the house is my personal failing and not my husband’s. He has nothing to do with it. He just lives here.

I could just resist the pressure, the fear of judgement, I’ve tried to feel the fear and (not) do it anyway. But it’s impossible, and it is not worth the cortisol spike. The anticipation of judgement is more painful than the work itself.

The scientists who conducted the study explained that the social standards imposed on us influence our behaviour even when we don’t believe in them. Which I don’t. It’s the most frustrating part. I see the imbalance, the double standard, the unfairness, and at the same time feel the need to go along with it anyway. I comply, even though my guilt does not benefit me – it only benefits the patriarchy. I don’t share these ideas! These aren’t my beliefs. It doesn’t matter. The pressure is unbearable.

Our gendered ideas about cleaning have been some of the slowest to change. A 2023 study showed that women report doing nine more hours of housework a week than their male partners. Gender was the biggest influence on household responsibility, regardless of pay or employment status. When both partners work from home, women do more housework. And even when we earn more, we still take on a greater share of the domestic load.

This bank holiday weekend, we have my in-laws visiting, and I decided to try a new approach to balancing the domestic load of hosting. My husband and I talked about ways to ease the burden. We have planned a meal out for one night, and a takeaway for another, which only leaves one dinner to cook. We booked the cleaner the day before the grandparents arrived to ease the load, which means the floors will be mopped and hoovered, the bathrooms scrubbed.

I also found solutions with the help of the internet. One woman advised that you don’t actually have to stay in the house the entire time when your husband invites relatives to stay – a thought that had truly not occurred to me, even though he leaves when mine visit. I can’t feel guilty about a bored guest, or a full sink, if I’m not in the house to see it! I might take a leaf out of my husband’s books and go on a two-hour trip to the corner shop for some eggs.

fonte

Three years ago, I set off on a journey. It was a journey that eventually took me along hundreds of miles of borders and boundaries across the British Isles, travelling by car, bus, plane, train, ferry and on foot. My mission was not only to uncover the history of these often ancient borderlands, but to understand how they’ve shaped modern Britain.

I visited the green banks of the River Tamar, the 1,000-year-old divide between Anglo-Saxon Devon and Celtic Kernow. I hiked Offa’s Dyke through the Welsh Marches, I road-tripped along England’s border with Scotland, ventured to the most northerly Shetland isles, and travelled the 300-mile (482km) partition that divides Ireland.

The most surprising border I discovered, however, was a long-forgotten boundary that once divided England, and which today follows the unassuming route of the A5 dual carriageway. The A5 in itself is hardly beguiling, but it does hold the surprising origins of modern England within its concrete roundabouts and little-visited Midlands towns.

The A5 follows much of the same route as Watling Street, a 2,000-year-old Roman road that stretched from Richborough Fort in Kent, north-west to Wroxeter in Shropshire.

The Romans built their roads to last, and a few centuries after their legions departed Britain, Watling Street became a convenient frontier, the dividing line between Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to the south and conquering Danish invaders to the north.

While researching my new book, Along the Borders: In search of what divides and unites the British Isles, I travelled the A5, searching out a history I’d known little about. In the Midlands market town of Tamworth, I was awed by the medieval riches of the “Staffordshire Hoard”, part of which is displayed in the Norman castle overlooking Watling Street.

The largest haul of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered, the Staffordshire Hoard – which includes gold-hilted swords, ornate helmets, Byzantine coins and silver jewellery – was stashed in this area sometime in the seventh century. The weapons and wealth, buried for safekeeping during a time of war, paint a picture of a fractured medieval England we’ve all but forgotten.

Today, Tamworth is best known for its motorway services, the nearby Drayton Manor theme park and resort, or its indoor ski slope – but it should also be known as an ancient English capital. During the seventh century, England as we know it today didn’t exist.

Instead, the land was divided between warring Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, including Mercia, Wessex and Northumbria. Mercia stretched across much of the Midlands, and it was a Mercian king named Offa – the same king who built Offa’s Dyke to divide his kingdom from the Welsh – who transformed Tamworth into his royal capital in the eighth century.

Buried hoards of Saxon gold show how England’s earliest kingdoms battled for power and land, but it was the Vikings who took full advantage of this fractured political landscape when they began raiding England.

In the cold crypts of St Editha’s Church in the centre of Tamworth, a friendly volunteer guide showed me broken masonry carved with religious motifs and Latin script. This, he said, is all that remains of an early Mercian church, destroyed by marauding Vikings in the year 874; relics of a lost Saxon kingdom.
The Vikings decided they quite liked it in England.

Alongside Tamworth, the Mercian capital, they conquered great swaths of northern England and this land became known as the Danelaw (where Danish law was enforced), its southern border running along Watling Street – now the A5.

That wasn’t the end of the story, however. At the base of Tamworth Castle, in the pleasant Victorian gardens surrounding the mound, you’ll find a statue of Tamworth’s warrior heroine Æthelflæd, “The Lady of the Mercians”.

Æthelflæd’s father was Alfred the Great, the king who dreamt of uniting all the English-speaking kingdoms to kick out the Vikings. His daughter led the charge, recapturing Tamworth and pushing the Vikings back.

Alfred’s dream was never realised in his lifetime, but his grandson Athelstan – who was raised here in Tamworth by Lady Æthelflæd – carried on the work, and in 927, he was crowned the first king of a united England. The rest, as they say, is history.

A local historian told me that without the Danelaw, without this border, England may never have existed – its divided kingdoms only united to counter the existential threat of the Vikings.
The Viking invaders never disappeared but were absorbed into England; Old Norse and Danish place names still exist north of Watling Street (like Scunthorpe and Grimsby), while the Old Danish language survives in English words, including “law”.

My journey along this forgotten boundary showed me that England was never inevitable. From its earliest origins, England has always been a place of change, a place where cultures, peoples and identities – be they Romans, Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Normans or Danes – clashed, merged, and moulded into something new. A trend that very much continues to this day.

Richard Collett’s book Along the Borders: In search of what divides and unites the British Isles, is available now (£20, Doubleday)

Sempre adorei usar telefones pequenos. O último iPhone que adorei de verdade foi o iPhone 13 mini, mas como não vendeu bem o suficiente, a Apple o cancelou. Desde então, tive que me contentar com os iPhones Professional, simplesmente porque eram a menor opção disponível.

Quando a Apple lançou o iPhone Air, de repente tive outra opção. Sim, ele tem uma tela grande de 6,5 polegadas, mas pesa apenas 165 gramas, o que é menos que o iPhone 17 regular e significativamente mais leve que o iPhone 17 Professional. Seu perfil fino torna-o mais fácil de manusear do que seu tamanho sugere, e isso me convenceu.

Seis meses depois, aqui está tudo o que penso sobre o iPhone Air.

O que há para amar no iPhone Air?

A primeira coisa que você nota ao pegar o iPhone Air é como ele é fácil de segurar. Apesar da tela grande, seu peso me permite controlá-lo com uma mão na maioria das tarefas, algo que não consegui fazer com os iPhones Professional.

A tela grande também tem seus benefícios. Tornou-se meu dispositivo de leitura secundário depois do Supernote Nomad. Eu uso Apple Books e Readwise Reader como meus aplicativos de leitura, e a tela maior torna a leitura uma experiência muito mais agradável. Também é ótimo para navegar na internet, ver fotos e assistir conteúdo em qualquer lugar.

O sistema de um alto-falante é um downgrade em comparação com os modelos Professional, mas como uso principalmente meu AirPods Professional 2, não tem sido uma preocupação actual.

A bateria durou o suficiente?

Minha maior preocupação antes de comprar o iPhone Air period a bateria. Uma bateria de 3.149 mAh parece pequena no papel, e a maioria das análises a sinaliza como um ponto fraco. Eu estava preparado para ficar desapontado.

Surpreendentemente, a duração da bateria não foi um problema. O iPhone Air oferece consistentemente cerca de quatro horas de tela ligada, o que atende confortavelmente minhas necessidades diárias. Não uso muito aplicativos de mídia social e prefiro assistir conteúdo no meu iPad ou MacBook.

Meu uso do iPhone consiste principalmente em comunicação por meio de bate-papos e chamadas, leitura, audição de música e podcasts e um pouco de navegação. Para esse tipo de uso, o telefone dura um dia inteiro sem problemas.

Posso sentir um aperto nos dias de viagem, mas a bateria MagSafe da Apple lida com isso facilmente. Ele oferece uma carga adicional de 70%, o que é mais que suficiente mesmo para um dia de uso mais pesado.

A única coisa que realmente sinto falta

Aqui está a surpresa. Depois de seis meses, a única coisa de que realmente sinto falta é da câmera telefoto. O sensor principal é ótimo. Ele captura lindas fotos e o corte 2x com qualidade óptica funciona bem para fotos do dia a dia. Mas simplesmente não é suficiente para a fotografia telefoto.

Esteja eu em uma função tentando capturar um momento espontâneo ou tirando fotos de paisagens, a falta de uma lente telefoto dedicada é uma limitação actual. Na semana passada, durante uma viagem, avistei uma árvore que queria fotografar, mas não consegui chegar perto o suficiente do objeto para fazer a foto funcionar. Uma lente telefoto teria resolvido isso instantaneamente.

Ao longo de seis meses, este é o único compromisso que continuo enfrentando. Rumores sugerem que o próximo iPhone Air incluirá uma câmera secundária. Eu realmente espero que seja uma telefoto e não uma ultralarga. Uma ultralarga seria authorized, mas uma telefoto tornaria o iPhone Air um pacote quase completo para mim.

Se você consegue viver sem uma câmera telefoto, o iPhone Air é um telefone fantástico. Para a maioria das pessoas, provavelmente é. Para mim, é a única coisa que desejo que a Apple não tivesse deixado de fora.

This is The Score with Daniel Storey, a subscriber-only newsletter from The i Paper. If you’d like to get this direct to your inbox, every single week, you can sign up here.

INTRO

Here is one piece of analysis on each of the top flight clubs who played this weekend (in reverse table order)…

This weekend’s results

• Leeds 3-1 Burnley
• Brentford 3-0 West Ham
• Newcastle 3-1 Brighton
• Wolves 1-1 Sunderland
• Arsenal 3-0 Fulham
• Bournemouth 3-0 Crystal Palace
• Man Utd 3-2 Liverpool
• Aston Villa 1-2 Tottenham

The day Edwards lost the Wolves fans

Rob Edwards has been dealt a pretty bad hand. Some of the broken elements within Wolves’ hierarchy have been removed, but clearly the full impact of those changes has not been felt because this season is dragging on. And it’s dragging Edwards down.

On Saturday, between Wolves’ equaliser in the 54th minute and a minute before the end, Edwards made one substitution and it was arguably a defensive one. Then in the final minute he took off the only striker. Wolves drew 1-1 and it barely felt like they gave it a go.

That’s dangerous at Molineux right now. They are angry, bitter and are prepared to be nasty. Their world is already too small for them to cope; they don’t need a manager who squanders any hope of a win with perceived negativity. The chants labelled Edwards a “w**ker” as he went down the tunnel. Ouch.

Burnley go back to the drawing board

What a thoroughly weird season for Burnley and those who make the decisions in its supposed best interests. We worried that Scott Parker would struggle in the Premier League, so the club watched him struggle, gave him barely any meaningful help in the transfer market and then failed to make a change with Burnley sinking without trace.

Fine, you think, Parker is a very effective manager at getting clubs back into the top flight. So the club waited until relegation had been confirmed and then Parker left. Rather than give themselves a chance midseason – as many of the clubs above them did – Burnley accepted their fate and made their move with the game finished.

So now they have a squad presumably low on morale, a club that needs a guarantee manager having got rid of the closest thing they had to one and must presumably take a gamble on a new way of playing. Time to find another Vincent Kompany, basically. And it might be Craig Bellamy, his apprentice.

West Ham’s midfield looks too skewed

It was interesting to hear West Ham supporters criticising Nuno Espirito Santo after the defeat at Brentford for his tactical naivety. I don’t think that’s the issue at all.

Firstly, this was the ultimate fine-margin match: disallowed goal for a marginal offside and the woodwork hit three times. But my issue is how open West Ham’s last two games have felt because that’s not how Nuno usually operates.

West Ham played with Taty Castellanos and Pablo Fornals up front, Crysencio Summerville and Jarrod Bowen wide and a midfield pair of Matheus Fernandes and Tomas Soucek in midfield. Now Fernandes is excellent, but you want him higher up the pitch to play passes through the lines. And if he’s doing that, you’re effectively picking a one-man midfield consisting of a fairly immobile Soucek.

Perhaps Nuno reasons that roll-the-dice football is the way to get points now. But it’s risky, it didn’t work and next they have Arsenal.

Now there is life at Tottenham

The fixtures now seem to have fallen deliciously for Tottenham. They followed up a grubby victory against the worst team in the league with a serene win against a team doing their best impression of Wolves.

Tottenham were better, even if it was signposted by their opponents. The team still lacks creativity with all the injuries, but there is endeavour and energy at last. Conor Gallagher could play higher up the pitch and that suited. Richarlison is exactly the type of striker you want in a battle because he treats every tiny setback as a personal affront and vendetta. They were the two goalscorers.

Richarlison grabs a second for Tottenham Hotspur and what a huge goal that could prove to be ⚽

📺 Watch live on TNT Sports and HBO Max. pic.twitter.com/q1ly6AeE0y

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 3, 2026

And now Spurs have a chance to keep their head above water, with West Ham facing Arsenal next weekend while a now safe Leeds come to north London. The loudest sirens have been quelled for a few days.

Nottingham Forest

Play Chelsea on Monday afternoon.

Crystal Palace have rightly thrown in the towel

“I think today the tank was empty,” Oliver Glasner said after the game. “The players tried and again I think the second half was much better, but in the first it was just too much, we couldn’t get the turnaround from Thursday evening.”

I think he’s broadly right apart from the bit about players trying. Crystal Palace’s Premier League performance doesn’t matter a jot now because they are two games away from a European trophy and you can see that on the pitch.

The good news for the top flight is that both title challengers still have to play Palace, so nobody gets an advantage. But Glasner would likely have rested 10 players if he had the squad depth. And rightly so.

Farke finally gets his flowers at Leeds

It hasn’t always been easy to be Daniel Farke this season. His own reputation – two failed Premier League relegation battles – and the psychodrama of supporting Leeds United created an environment in which 2025-26 and his tenure felt destined to end badly. Throughout his time at Elland Road, Farke has had to deal with cynicism and doubt.

And now both of those have been emphatically proven wrong. The two home fixtures against Burnley and Wolves were always likely to provide a buffer, but Leeds have won eight (and drawn one) of their 11 home games against teams outside the top eight. That is the backbone of their survival.

Leeds rank ninth in the Premier League over the second half of the season. Their owners can now invest in the squad and manager and the stadium work can continue in earnest. It’s a good time to call this club home.

Newcastle’s post-match photos return

To call this good timing for a home win is a little much; that would probably have been three weeks ago. But with Yasir Al-Rumayyan in town for talks about Newcastle’s future that involved some presumably pointed questions towards Eddie Howe, he was pictured in the middle of the post-match dressing room photo.

Most interesting was the reaction to it amongst the fanbase online. Some felt it inappropriate to celebrate being 13th in the league quite so readily. Others point out Nick Woltemade’s smile-less face on the fringes. A few were still wondering how Yoane Wissa had managed to miss another good chance.

It’s rare to see Howe concede so honestly that the pressure had been affecting his sleep and pre-match preparation. But if the reports that he will keep his job next season are true, it’s time to unite a fanbase in disagreement about stick or twist.

Sunderland can have no complaints about Ballard’s red card

You can disagree with the notion that pulling someone’s hair is automatically considered violent conduct and thus will result in a red card, although I think it’s a flawed argument. You can act annoyed and surprised when a player on your team is punished for “only a slight pull”.

But if you’re a Premier League footballer, you know the rules now because you have seen peers sent off for the same thing.

So if you go up for an aerial duel, as Dan Ballard did on Saturday, do you not have the presence of mind to avoid pulling a bloke’s hair? Ballard acted innocent and confused; it was a cut and (blow) dry case.

Everton

Play Manchester City on Monday night.

Illness renders Fulham’s energy helpless

Arsenal won’t mind, but Fulham were in no fit state to compete on Saturday teatime. A virus had laid a number of players low. The lack of energy was a) understandable and b) obvious in two particular positions:

1) Antonee Robinson’s decline is a little sad, but losing Ryan Sessegnon changes this team because the lack of threat down the left allowed Bukayo Saka to stay high up the pitch and have a lovely time in the process. Even when Robinson did provide crosses into the box, most were poorly directed.

2) Harrison Reed and Sasa Lukic is not a combination that works well (which is probably why they haven’t started a league game together in more than two years). Lukic stayed a little too deep and so became one-dimensional. Reed doesn’t win the ball often enough and Fulham had too little possession and territory for him to be active enough with it.

Chelsea

Play Nottingham Forest on Monday afternoon.

Brighton’s new revelation

Jack Hinshelwood turned 21 a few weeks ago and is already established at Premier League level; so far, so impressive. He’s also – and this is a hot take – potentially the most fascinating player in the division for how his next three years pan out.

So this season, only including starts and only including the Premier League, Hinshelwood has been picked as a right-back, a holding midfielder, a regulation central midfielder and as an advanced attacking central midfielder. Last season he was also picked to start at left-back and as a striker.

Hinshelwood is like the inverted full-backs revolution turned up to 11. As a novice, the assumption is that you learn on the job in one role. Hinshelwood has four or five and he’s being moved higher up the pitch because his composure, passing and shooting is improving at a phenomenal rate.

Brentford’s marvellous season continues

Brentford still have a decent shot at Champions League football, which is an extraordinary thing to be writing about Keith Andrews’ first season as a football manager. Facing Liverpool and Manchester City in their final three league games isn’t ideal, but Brentford are more likely than not to make Europe for the first time in their history.

It has been platformed by a home record that Andrews deserves enormous credit for maintaining. Only Arsenal, Manchester City and Bournemouth have lost fewer home games in the Premier League this season. Only Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Newcastle have scored more home goals, a ludicrous statistic given the loss of Bryan Mbeumo and Wissa.

And here’s the best statistic. Brentford have now scored three or more goals in seven home league games this season. That’s more than every single Premier League side bar Manchester City (who have done it once more than Andrews’ side). Phenomenal.

Bournemouth are brilliant fun

When Andoni Iraola announced his departure, working alongside the club rather than taking passive aggressive shots at it in public, I wondered whether that might spur Bournemouth on to give Iraola the perfect send-off and provide European football for the first time as the present for those left behind. They haven’t lost since.

Bournemouth probably only need six points from their remaining three matches to finish sixth. They can beat Fulham and they can beat Forest on the final day, presuming the home team don’t need anything. But then this Bournemouth can beat anyone because they defend smartly, are combative in midfield and are exceptional at finding space and creating chances.

And for the rest of us, Bournemouth are just brilliant fun. They have conceded three or more goals eight times this season (only Wolves, Burnley and West Ham with more). They have scored twice or more in 20 of their 35 league matches. Do you know which teams can beat that? None.

Emery is taking an enormous risk with Aston Villa

This may be the biggest calculated gamble of Unai Emery’s Aston Villa tenure. In rotating his team heavily and seeing that side play slowly, defend poorly and generally look half bothered, Emery is banking on a) Villa taking four or more points from their final three league games and b) this sorry defeat not impacting upon Thursday night.

It’s the second point that is the most interesting because Villa Park got pretty toxic on Sunday evening as the home side had just three shots for a combined xG of 0.03 before second-half stoppage time began. Emery has repeatedly stressed that the fans have a role to play, but they pay a lot of money to watch sacrifice football. There was no obvious urge to change the pattern of the game.

Win on Thursday and that will be forgiven quickly, of course. But if Villa start slowly, the nerves and groans will be displayed far earlier than if they had approached the Tottenham game with a little less stink of the match not mattering a jot.

Why Liverpool can’t trust Slot

There have been caveats to the criticism all season; the latest is to arrive at the biggest away game of the season with no Mohamed Salah, no Hugo Ekitike, no Alexander Isak and thus no striker. Arne Slot came up with a system that he believed could trouble United and, on that point, was proven correct.

But there’s something about the personality of this team that isn’t right. They are too accommodating to the strengths of every elite opponent. They have spells where it looks like every defender has been banned from talking to one another. They create moves that seem to fizzle out because nobody really knows what comes next.

If this is only because of the injuries and the need to rebuild the team shape and the defence; fine. If this is because Slot is having more impact upon what this team looks like, I wouldn’t trust him to have another £200m spent on it.

Carrick brings the chaos at Man Utd

Manchester United are brilliant to watch under Michael Carrick. They try to stretch the pitch, try to get Bruno Fernandes between the lines to play smart curled passes and try to build up a head of steam. They’re also never totally safe in a match because there exists a gap between defence and midfield and thus the opportunity for opponents to overwhelm them if they win the ball high.

Which reminds me of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United when he was temporary manager. You listen to Kobbie Mainoo saying the players would die for Carrick and you’re persuaded that he has to get the job. And then you wonder whether his role was to make this club look attractive to a manager with a better CV, more experience and who struggled less in his previous job in the division below.

The answer? I’ve no idea. And neither do you. And neither, probably, do United.

Man City

Play Everton on Monday night.

Arsenal are in the driving seat again

Here’s the inimitable Kat Lucas to explain:

“Mikel Arteta left it until the last month of the season for one of his biggest – and the rewards proved greater than the jeopardy. Martin Zubimendi had played over 4,000 minutes, more than any outfield player, before he was replaced against Fulham by Myles Lewis-Skelly, making his first start in midfield.

“The Lewis-Skelly trick was double-sided. On the ball he was a roaring success. He proved a far greater protector than a half-exhausted Zubimendi, shrugging off Sasa Lukic and Harrison Reed. He completed 97 per cent of his passes – four of them into the final third. Off the ball, the need to overlap with Riccardo Calafiori sometimes meant being pulled out too far.”

A formação oficial da segunda série de The Celeb Traitors foi revelada – e é um elenco empilhado, para dizer o mínimo!

Dos 21 nomes compartilhados, estes incluem a lenda de Hollywood Richard E. Grant, a estrela de The Final of Us Bella Ramsay, o ícone de EastEnders Ross Kemp e o ator Michael Sheen.

Embora alguns tenham questionado a quantidade de comediantes britânicos de plantão – incluindo Romesh Ranganathan e Rob Beckett – não há como negar que o departamento de elenco ganhou seu salário este ano.

Estes, por sua vez, vêm brand após uma primeira série repleta de estrelas (ou cheia de Huge Canine), liderada por Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross e Celia Imrie.

Por outro lado, a versão norte-americana do programa (que, até agora, apenas povoado por celebridades) consiste quase inteiramente de estrelas de actuality reveals e, uh, Michael Rapaport.

A discrepância no poder das estrelas não passou despercebida pelos fãs no exterior.

Escrevendo no X quando o anúncio foi lançado neste fim de semana, o usuário SailorSammy93 se perguntou por que os Traidores do Reino Unido conseguiram obter “celebridades reais” em comparação com os “listers cf” da versão americana.

‘Myha’la e Bella Ramsey nem serem as mais famosas do elenco é uma loucura’, concordou pearIkeyring.

Idkitsmarie disse que eles ficaram ‘meio surpresos e animados’ ao ver essa formação em explicit, enquanto lbruno descreveu o elenco como ‘EMPILHADO’.

“Só o melhor para um programa lendário”, comentou d_mozarella.

Enquanto isso, outros comentaristas apontaram que, em comparação com a versão dos EUA, as celebridades do Reino Unido competem por caridade, e não pelo seu próprio saldo bancário.

A quarta série do programa, recentemente concluída, viu Maura Higgins, de Love Island, perder a vitória depois de ser traída pelo melhor amigo do Traidor, Rob Rausch.

Ela estava cega para a Love Island USA e para o engano do lutador de cobras o tempo todo, permitindo que ele fosse conivente para chegar ao ultimate.

Com Maura acreditando em cada palavra sua, ele eliminou o colega traidor Eric Nam antes de reivindicar o jackpot para si mesmo.

Durante seu tempo no programa, Maura entrou em confronto com o ex-ator de Mates, Michael Rapaport, que não fez falta de inimigos devido à sua personalidade barulhenta e ousada e ao hábito de atrapalhar mesas redondas.

A dupla se enfrentou durante um banimento, depois que ela o pegou usando a palavra “nós” ao se referir aos fiéis assassinados.

‘Eu disse muitas coisas’, disse Michael em defesa – antes de Maura desligá-lo com uma sugestão de ‘talvez apenas pare de falar’.

De volta ao Reino Unido, os recentemente anunciados participantes do Celeb Traitors começaram a chegar a Inverness, na Escócia, onde o present é filmado.

Preparada para fazer sua estreia no Traidores está a apresentadora do Love Island, Maya Jama, que supostamente sofreu uma redução colossal de £ 760.000 no pagamento para aparecer no programa.

Uma fonte disse O Sol: ‘Ela adorou assistir a primeira série Celeb Traitors em casa com o namorado Rúben e está muito animada para começar a filmar. Ela mal pode esperar para mentir e ser o mais enganosa possível para tentar vencer.

“Funcionou perfeitamente que ela pudesse ir direto do castelo escocês para a villa em Maiorca para filmar a série de verão Love Island em junho”.

Descrevendo-a como “obcecada” por Traidores de Celebridades, a fonte acrescentou que “o dinheiro period secundário em relação à participação”.

Tem uma história?

Se você tem uma história, vídeo ou fotos de uma celebridade, entre em contato com a equipe de entretenimento do Metro.co.uk enviando um e-mail para celebtips@metro.co.uk, ligando para 020 3615 2145 ou visitando nossa página Enviar coisas – adoraríamos ouvir de você.

MAIS: Por dentro do relacionamento de Miranda Hart quando ela chega para Celeb Traitors com um marido raramente visto

MAIS: A formação da série 2 do Celeb Traitors tem um buraco evidente

MAIS: Maya Jama pousa na Escócia enquanto a chegada de Traidores de Celebridades continua antes das filmagens

Adicionar como fonte preferida

The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is America’s premier award for novels and short story collections. While the Booker has the greater prestige of being an international prize, the Pulitzer is the highest literary honour for American fiction. The list of winners is a decent guide to canonical US writing of the past century, albeit with notable oversights – The Great Gatsby, for example.

To coincide with the announcement of this year’s winner, here are 13 of the best.

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1920)

Writing at the dawn of the modern era in the early 20^th century, Wharton looks back 40 years to 1870s New York, where Newland Archer’s engagement to beautiful but bland May Welland is jeopardised when he meets captivating Countess Olenska. Wharton captures a world on the brink of change at the same time as drawing the reader into the drama of the love triangle in this ironically titled classic that shows there never was an innocent age.

William Collins, £3.99

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)

The story of Tom Joad and his family of evicted tenant farmers, Steinbeck’s novel of America’s Great Depression-era Dust Bowl never loses its power or relevance. The Joads set out for California, meeting people who are suffering similar hardship or worse, and encounter more stark realities when they get there. In a famous speech, Tom says: “Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there.” A realist masterpiece and political rallying point.

Penguin £8.99

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (1952)

The Nobel Laureate’s novella is an enthralling paean to mankind’s relationship to nature and striving for fulfillment, delivered in pellucid prose. More prosaically, it’s about ageing fisherman Santiago’s struggle to land an enormous marlin. A career high-point for one of America’s greatest writers, it is a solid entry-point to his work.

Penguin, £7.99

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)

Perhaps the most beloved Pulitzer fiction winner, as has it been popular with young readers stirred by its examination of racism and injustice in 1930s Alabama. Six-year-old Scout Finch is the narrator; her father Atticus is the book’s hero for his integrity and courage in defending a Black man who’s accused of rape, despite angering his white neighbours.

Arrow, £8.99

Collected Stories by John Cheever (1978)

John Cheever is one of the masters of short fiction in any language. His tales of gin-soaked suburbia in New York and Connecticut distil the quiet desperation that lies beyond the manicured lawns and inspired the TV series Mad Men. Several of his best, such as “The Five-Forty-Eight”, “The Country Husband” and “The Swimmer” can be discovered and re-read in this inexhaustible collection of a life’s work.

Vintage Classics, £14.99

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy-Toole (1981)

A posthumous comic picaresque by an unknown academic who killed himself aged 31 may be the most unlikely Pulitzer winner ever. It may also be the funniest, so rambunctiously unforgettable is its protagonist Ignatius J Reilly, who despairs at the vulgarity of modern life in New Orleans. Every character – Ignatius’s long-suffering mother, his love interest Myrna Minkoff, the beleaguered policeman Mancuso and others from the memorable cast – is drawn with minimum fuss and maximum effect, while the Louisianan dialogue pops.

Penguin, £10.99

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison’s novel of two intertwined stories – one about a family of formerly enslaved people in the decade following the American Civil War, the other about the woman who haunts them – is one of the most important novels of the past half-century. Challenging, troubling and ultimately rewarding in its treatment of the psychological and political legacies of racism, its victory was a watershed for African American writers, who had previously been under-recognised by this prize.

Vintage, £9.99

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (1989)

Every reader has their favourite Anne Tyler, and one wonders how The Accidental Tourist didn’t win in 1985, but this is right up there. She explores dreams, disappointment and consolation in the marriage of well-meaning but meddlesome Maggie and taciturn Ira Moran, who are driving to a funeral. The things they say are so relatable, their characteristics so recognisable, that the novel’s emotional heft creeps up on you.

Vintage Edition, £9.99

American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1998)

Philip Roth’s sole Pulitzer winner, the first part of his landmark American Trilogy, stands apart for its mix of sly humour and incendiary passages that expose the dark heart of the American dream. It concerns Swede Levov, a Jewish glove manufacturer, whose family was torn asunder when his daughter Merry bombed a post office in protest at the war in Vietnam and went on the run in the US terrorist underground of the 1960s.

Vintage Classics, £9.99

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (2005)

Twenty-five years after her debut Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson returned with the story of John Ames, an elderly pastor who is writing an account of his life for his young son. Set in the 1950s, the novel reaches back to the late 19^th century, when Ames was born, and explores American history, religious faith and mortality. Robinson sustains and modulates Ames’s voice brilliantly, conveying the force of his beliefs and his decline.

Virago, £10.99

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (2011)

The Pulitzer categorised this display of high-wire ventriloquism as a collection of stories but it is really a novel of multiple narrators whose accounts overlap in NYC. From record exec Bennie to kleptomaniac Sasha and her autistic son Lincoln, who is obsessed with pauses in rock songs, each character is luminously alive in this meditation on time and technology. Never mind the chapter that’s presented in PowerPoint – Jennifer Egan is a powerhouse.

Corsair, £10.99

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (2017)

Colson Whitehead creates alternative history by reimagining the Underground Railroad – a 19^th-century network of hidden routes and safe houses for enslaved people trying to escape to the abolitionist northern states – as a literal railway. Enslaved Cora’s bid for freedom, which she narrates along with others, such as her mother and a slave-catcher, mixes genres to ignite the tension between America’s past and present.

Fleet, £10.99

James by Percival Everett (2025)

Percival Everett takes on an American classic of the 19^th century by putting the eponymous James – an enslaved minor character named Jim in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn – at the centre of this extraordinary historical novel. The reader inhabits every scene, as the sun beats down on the Mississippi River, and the characters’ voices resonate when you read their dialogue. Everett’s prose dazzles as he gives James his language and agency with profound and moving results.

Picador, £9.99