Venezuela played with heart, Italy sipped espresso and the Dominicans showed off their verve at the tournament. America wanted to concentrate on war

On the morning of the World Baseball Classic final between the United States and Venezuela, the headline of the New York Times daily briefing read, “America, alone,” in reference to the unwillingness of the country’s traditional allies to join the war with Iran. The revived rhetoric of America First, once a restoration of the isolationist, often Nazi-sympathetic sentiments of the 1930s, has coalesced into current policy, status, attitude: America by itself, making its own rules, intent on largely playing alone by them.

Venezuela won the final, thrillingly, 3-2 over Team USA , but not before the hosts extended that isolationism with a sourness that produced a comically vapid extension of American bravado, and nearly undermined a tournament that in its 20th year is at last becoming one of baseball’s great successes .

Ilya Remeslo sends Telegram post titled ‘Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin’ to his 90,000 followers

For years, Ilya Remeslo was a reliable pro-Kremlin operator, going after critics of the regime and smearing independent journalists, bloggers and opposition politicians.

Then the 42-year-old lawyer abruptly turned on the country’s most powerful man. Late on Tuesday, Remeslo posted a manifesto to his 90,000 Telegram followers titled: “Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin.”

Trump says ongoing shutdown is ‘causing chaos at the airports’; White House official confirmed Senate Democrats sent a counteroffer aimed at resolving the budget standoff

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The confirmation hearing for Markwayne Mullin , the president’s nominee to replace Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary is due to start any minute.

Lawmakers are gathered around the dais, and the committee’s chair, Republican senator Rand Paul is delivering his opening remarks.

Jeffrey Evely, who documented hike on YouTube, says ban in Nova Scotia last summer to help prevent wildfires was unconstitutional

A Canadian man who intentionally violated a provincial ban on walking in the woods in order to launch a constitutional challenge on the restriction is having his case heard by the province’s supreme court this week.

Jeffrey Evely, a Canadian army veteran who lives in the city of Sydney, Nova Scotia, said that he took a daily hike in the woods in order to manage symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder he had developed as a soldier, court briefings show.

Ex-MP for Reigate, 65, accused of one count of possessing a class A drug and three of possessing a class B drug

The former MP Crispin Blunt has been charged with four drugs offences, prosecutors said.

The 65-year-old, who represented Reigate from 1997 to 2024, is accused of one count of possessing a class A drug and three of possessing a class B drug.

For many on the continent and among the diaspora, navigating multiple identities via cultural attire is a birthright, but it can create some complications

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Good afternoon to everyone, apart from the organisers of Afcon.

Several weeks ago, the Ghanaian president, John Dramani Mahama, wore the traditional fugu , a patterned smock, on a state visit to Zambia. He came in for mockery from Zambians (some of it lighthearted) on social media, with some calling it a “blouse”.

Portman and Ruffalo join the English voice cast of this film about a time-travelling boy from Earth’s drowned future and a girl with a robot nanny

This animated feature has lots going for it: expressive character design, a delicately melancholy musical score, and plenty of strong emotional beats, but the script is a touch too derivative for its own good. Not that little kids are likely to notice or care much about low-level plot-point larceny, and the youngest will be positively bewitched by the super-saturated palette that swirls rainbows all over everything. It’s like the animation equivalent of that classroom art-lesson trick where you hold a bunch of crayons at once to draw the seven rainbow colours of refracted light; the intensity gets to be a bit much after a while.

Literally riding the rainbow here is title character Arco (voiced by Juliano Krue), a 10-year-old boy from far in the future, who longs to go travelling back in time like his big sister and parents. The older family members have to don a special rainbow-coloured cloak, powered by a sparkly diamond thingy in order to visit, say, the dinosaurs. They do this to gather resources because in the future the Earth is a drowned planet and people live on man-made platforms that are stacked up to the sky. Arco is legally too young to time travel, but he steals his sister’s kit to go rainbow-slaloming in the relatively primitive era of 2075, when most of the film takes place.

Reform MP made Valentine’s Day clips for platform despite previous warning about commercial filming

• Newly unearthed Nigel Farage videos reveal support for rioter, neo-Nazi event and far-right slogans

The Reform UK MP Lee Anderson has used his parliamentary office to record paid-for personalised messaging videos, in a possible breach of rules that prohibit the commercial use of the Palace of Westminster.

Anderson, who had already been warned about commercial filming in Westminster, sold two videos filmed from what he called the “beating heart of democracy in Westminster” in early February 2025.

Surely the zero-waste treat par excellence – even one trimming, with your choice of filling, can cook alongside your main bake for a moreish treat

After testing puff pastry for the Filter a few weeks ago, I had loads of trimmings left over, which reminded me of one of my favourite zero-waste recipes. Malfatti are biscuits made from pastry offcuts, which are seasoned, rolled in seeds and spices, baked and served with cheese. Determined to create something new with all my excess puff, I realised that it would be perfect for making misshapen cheese straws. Even if you have only a few offcuts, I implore you to top them with cheese and some sauerkraut or kimchi, then twist and bake alongside a tart or pie. They’re a brilliant little cheeky snack.