All the latest horse racing updates on Grand National day
Guide to all of the runners | ‘TikTok effect’ brings sellout
Good morning. There was rain around this morning at Aintree when the BBC Breakfast weatherman was giving his forecast but it’s cleared up and the ground still has some juice in it. They always water the track well with safety in mind.
Grand National Course: Good to Soft
Mildmay Course (Chase & Hurdle): Good to Soft, Good in places
Continue reading...The language teacher was running in the desert in Arizona when he saw this enormous, oddly human-looking plant
Joseph Cyr works as a language teacher at an American secondary school. He was born in South Korea, and spent his childhood living across Germany and the US, in Georgia and Arizona. “As an adult I have lived in Seattle, Paris and Nicaragua before moving back to Arizona,” he says. “I took this in Saguaro national park, on the edge of Tucson. It’s about an hour north of the US-Mexico border.”
It was a school holiday, so Cyr was doing a trail run when he took this image. His route was quiet; he saw only a few people on horseback and this saguaro cactus. The largest cactus in the US, it grows only in the Sonoran Desert, where the Saguaro national park lies.
Continue reading...As the president spirals over his disastrous war, his threats have escalated beyond the red line of international law
Donald Trump has hung nine glowering portraits of himself throughout the White House, each one projecting a variation on the theme of intimidation. But gazing into his narcissistic pool of grimacing images has not calmed him when in his mind’s eye he stares into the abyss of the worst failure of his life.
Trump’s fiasco has inspired him to heightened performances of profane, vile and vicious threats. His grammar of atrocity has escalated from hateful rhetoric to threats of war crimes. What might have initially appeared as rage-quitting the video game that the White House communications department makes of his Iran War has crossed an inviolable red line of international law. His pouting and foot stomping have led him into the gravest territory.
Continue reading...ANTWERPEN (ANP/BLOOMBERG/AFP) - Thailand heeft een steunpakket goedgekeurd om zijn economie te beschermen tegen de hoge olieprijzen die het gevolg zijn van de oorlog in het Midden-Oosten. Zo komt het Aziatische land met hogere brandstofsubsidies, uitkeringen en goedkopere leningen.
De Thaise regering heeft zaterdag een steunpakket van 3,7 miljard baht (ruim 98 miljoen euro) goedgekeurd om de directe economische gevolgen van het conflict te verzachten. Thailand is voor de import van ruwe aardolie in grote mate afhankelijk van het Midden-Oosten, volgens een publicatie van de Thaise bank Krungsri.
Een maandelijkse uitkering voor miljoenen Thai gaat met 100 baht, omgerekend ruim 2 euro, omhoog. De regering heeft ook brandstofsubsidies goedgekeurd voor transportbedrijven. "Deze uitdaging zal langdurig zijn", waarschuwde de Thaise financiënminister Ekniti Nitithanprapas. Volgens hem moeten burgers en ondernemers zich voorbereiden om zich aan te passen aan de mogelijke hogere energie- en productiekosten.
Ja als NASA er zelf nog geen megamontage van maakt dan zetten we het zelf maar even onder elkaar. Onze sterrenzeilers zijn terug en dat enkel en alleen DANKZIJ NEDERLAND, want het European Space Agency te Nederland kreeg — ondanks Jorn Luka met 66.000 volgers — vlak voor de landing een shout-out: "We just wanted to give a huge shout-out to that ESA/Airbus team, to our friends in The Netherlands and Germany and the Glenn Research Center. This vehicle powered us and propelled us from the earth to the moon and back, with extreme precision. And we're excited to be a part of your team." ESA en Airbus bouwden namelijk Orions zogeheten Service Module (die onderstaand achtergelaten wordt), en die "provides electricity, water, oxygen and nitrogen as well as keeping the spacecraft at the right temperature and on course."
Trump ook blij trouwens, en sorteert alvast voor op mars: "Congratulations to the Great and Very Talented Crew of Artemis II. The entire trip was spectacular, the landing was perfect and, as President of the United States, I could not be more proud! I look forward to seeing you all at the White House soon. We’ll be doing it again and then, next step, Mars!" Alle landingsbeelden in volgorde onderstaand, alle vele tientallen door NASA gepubliceerde foto's van de landing en het welkom HIER.
The crew module on Orion has separated from its service module. After traveling around the Moon, seeing its far side, and experiencing a solar eclipse, the Artemis II astronauts are on the last leg of their trip home. pic.twitter.com/j9u5j1Noi9
— NASA (@NASA) April 10, 2026
Welcome home Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy! 🫶
— NASA (@NASA) April 11, 2026
The Artemis II astronauts have splashed down at 8:07pm ET (0007 UTC April 11), bringing their historic 10-day mission around the Moon to an end. pic.twitter.com/1yjAgHEOYl
