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Outcome of polls in four states offer mixed signals about direction of two major parties before November’s midterms

Progressives rallied round the controversial Graham Platner after his primary victory in Maine on Tuesday, while Donald Trump again exerted his grip on the Republican party, helping to defeat a politician who had pushed for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Primary elections were held in four states – Maine, Nevada, North Dakota and South Carolina – ahead of November’s midterms to decide control of both houses of Congress. The results offered mixed signals about the direction of the two major parties.

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• Artan deemed a threat to national security by US officials

• ‘I promise you that I will attend the next one’

The World Cup referee from Somalia who was denied entry to the United States arrived on Wednesday in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, where he was received by a crowd of supporters and officials.

Omar Artan was due to be the first referee from Somalia to officiate at a World Cup after making Fifa’s final list for the tournament. He is one of Africa’s top referees and was named the continent’s best male referee in 2025.

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Microsoft co-founder to appear in closed-door session as part of lawmakers’ investigation into convicted sex offender

Bill Gates is set to testify in front of the House committee on oversight and reform on Wednesday as part of the panel’s investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Microsoft co-founder will appear in a closed-door session, where lawmakers are expected to question him about his past relationship with Epstein. A transcript of the interview is expected to be released at a later date.

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Crops and flowers rely on them for survival, but wild bees are declining – and crucial nutrients will go missing from our diets as a result

There are few ways in and out of Nepal’s Jumla district. The Karnali highway, considered one of the world’s most dangerous roads, provides the only land link, splicing through the Himalayas to connect Jumla’s terraced valleys to the rest of the country. As such, the 120,000 people that live there are almost entirely self-sufficient, with most of them eating and selling what they grow.

It’s a tenuous existence, plagued by food insecurity and malnutrition. In recent years, local beekeepers have bemoaned languishing hives and dwindling honey production, observing that roughly half of their bees seem to have vanished over the past decade. These concerns, however, ignore an even more insidious impact.

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Geen palmbomen. Geen taupe. Geen twijfel. Anna Murphy, modedirecteur van The Times, heeft genoeg van mannen die hun koffer inpakken alsof het 2008 is. In een opvallend stuk dinsdag levert ze geen suggesties, maar instructies. "Je hebt geen keuzes nodig, je hebt oplossingen nodig", schrijft ze. Hieronder de complete lijst — vertaald naar de Nederlandse zomer van 2026.

"Vraag jezelf bij twijfel af wat George Clooney zou doen. Het antwoord is: nooit een overhemd met een palmboom erop dragen." — Anna Murphy, The Times

De 13 items op een rij

1. Superlichte chino — M&S, vanaf 45 pond, in "donker petrol" of "donker mole"
2. Korte chino-broek — M&S, 30 pond
3. Barrel cut-broek — Uniqlo, 39,90 pond, voor wie wijder wil zitten
4. Effen linnen overhemd — Cos, 75 pond, in diverse kleuren
5. Korte mouw met subtiele print — Kestin (Schotland), 139 pond — uitdrukkelijk geen palmbomen
6. Chambray blouse (co-ord) — Chelsea Peers, 45 pond
7. Bijpassende short (co-ord) — Chelsea Peers, 40 pond
8. Zwemshort met textuur — Chelsea Peers, 40 pond, in marineblauw, kaki of "gammon-roze"
9. Lichte chore jacket in helder blauw — & Sons "Blue Bolt", 180 pond
10. Chore jacket in zachte ecru — Kestin "Ormiston", 209 pond
11. AIRism T-shirt — Uniqlo, 14,90 pond
12. Tortoiseshell aviator-zonnebril — Jimmy Fairly "Elma", 135 pond
13. Leren visserssandalen — Jones Bootmaker, 55,20 pond (van 69)

Bonus uit Murphy's stuk: een culturally significant baseballpet uit de V&A-collectie van Gavin O'Connell (35 pond). "Psychoanalyseer dat", sneert ze.

Linnen is geen mode-keuze meer — het is een gezondheidsstrategie

Huidkanker is sinds 1990 in Nederland verviervoudigd. Jaarlijks krijgen ruim 70.000 Nederlanders de diagnose, en circa 900 mensen overlijden eraan — het RIVM noemt Nederland een Europese koploper in melanoom-incidentie. Lange linnen mouwen, een breed shirt en een echte pet (geen baseball-knipoog) doen wat zonnebrand maar half doet: ze houden uv-straling fysiek tegen. Dat de Britse modepers en het KWF dit jaar dezelfde paklijst voorschrijven, is geen toeval — het is voortschrijdend inzicht.

De duiding: Murphy's lijst leest als snobistische Britse instructie, maar functioneert in Nederland als gezondheidsadvies in vermomming. De moderne man hoeft niet te kiezen tussen er goed uitzien en zijn huid sparen.

Het natuurlijke klimaatfenomeen El Niño is begonnen, meldt de Japanse meteorologische dienst. De komende maanden zal het water van de Stille Oceaan langs de evenaar steeds sterker opwarmen, terwijl passaatwinden juist afzwakken, waardoor de opwarming verder wordt versterkt. De piek van het fenomeen is over het algemeen in december. Klimaatwetenschappers voorzien ditmaal extra grote gevolgen voor meerdere regio's.

Zo kan El Niño leiden tot een latere start van het regenseizoen in India, meer droogte en bosbranden in Australië en lagere oogstopbrengsten in delen van Afrika en Azië. Specialisten voorzien dit jaar een zeer sterke El Niño.

Voor Europa zijn de effecten kleiner. "In Spanje en Portugal valt in de herfst bij El Niño iets meer regen. In het voorjaar na een sterke El Niño krijgen we in Nederland en verder naar het oosten vaak een nat voorjaar, terwijl Oost-Spanje dan iets droger en warmer is", zegt het KNMI erover.

De vorige El Niño, in 2023, droeg bij aan wereldwijde recordhitte.

One of Europe’s two major next-gen fighter aircraft programs has been hit hard by differences between France and Germany, the two main participants, leaving the UK-Italy-Japan's Tempest as the main contender. Reports say that the Future Combat Air System (FCAS, or Système de Combat Aérien du Futur – SCAF – in French) has been shelved by German Chancellor Merz and French President Macron. The program dates back to at least 2017, and was expected to produce a test flight of a technology demonstration airframe by 2026 or 2027, with the aircraft coming in to operational service by 2040. According to German publication Der Spiegel, the French firm ⁠Dassault ⁠and the European Airbus group could not agree on how to divide up the work on the project, nor on the patent rights for new developments. However, it is also understood there were differences in the requirements, with France needing a replacement for the Rafale jet that must be capable of operating from an aircraft carrier, while the Germans were beginning to question the need for any crewed fighter aircraft in light of drone developments. French publication Le Monde says Merz and Macron "reached the shared assessment that the companies will not be able to come together on building a joint combat aircraft.” It goes on to say that other parts of the wide-ranging project will continue. This refers to FCAS being more than just about a single aircraft; the program also envisioned drone aircraft to accompany the crewed fighter, and a communications system "combat cloud" to link them together, described as a "nervous system that networks aircraft, drones and other components into an integrated whole." The program also drew participation from other European nations, such as Spain and Belgium, and it isn’t clear what these nations will choose to do next. It is likely that France will pursue its own next-gen aircraft that meets its own requirements, as happened with Rafale, while the Financial Times reports that Airbus is keen to lead a consortium to develop a new pan-European fighter jet to replace FCAS. We asked both Dassault and Airbus to comment for this article. There is another next-gen combat aircraft project already underway: the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), which is a tri-partite effort between the UK, Italy and Japan. This aims to replace the Eurofighter Typhoon in service with the British and Italian air forces, and the Mitsubishi F-2 operated by Japan. The British version of the jet is currently known as Tempest. GCAP was proceeding well, but the current UK prevarication over defense spending is proving to be a roadblock to ongoing development, as a long-term multinational contract for the project cannot be signed until the Starmer government pulls its finger out and publishes its delayed defense investment plan. If all goes well, GCAP/Tempest is expected to enter service by 2035, but the planned 2027 date for a demonstrator aircraft to fly is already looking unlikely. Elsewhere, the US is developing its own sixth-generation fighter under the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, to be built by Boeing as the F-47 and expected to enter service possibly as soon as the early 2030s. Questions have been raised over whether this will be chosen by European air forces, however, President Trump previously warned that the capabilities of any exported aircraft would be deliberately downgraded. This follows issues with the in-service F-35, which has seen long delays in key software upgrades, preventing the RAF and Royal Navy from using European-made weapons with their aircraft. ®