After living in the Argentina idol’s shadow, the 39-year-old star of Qatar is still capable of a final glorious chapter

Lionel Messi in Qatar felt like the perfect story. It was the great finale. He is doomed always to be compared with Diego Maradona and, placed alongside a life of operatic ups and downs, of injury and addiction, drugs bans and organised crime, the highest highs and the lowest lows, his narrative always seemed a little flat: a kid was good at football, and then was consistently good at it for two decades, winning title after title. Yes, there were tears and frustrations, moments of doubt, but he wasn’t nearly drowning in a cesspit, shooting at journalists with an airgun or using a fake penis to evade the drugs testers.

Qatar offered at least a degree of dramatic intrigue. Club success evidently wasn’t enough. Messi was driven. He had overcome his natural reserve to become the true leader of the team while winning the Copa América in Brazil the previous year. He gave team talks. When, giving a TV interview after the quarter‑final win over the Netherlands he snapped at Wout Weghorst: “Que mira, bobo?” – what are you looking at, idiot? – it was celebrated as the quiet man coming out of his shell, albeit with an oddly childish phrase. Could the Argentinian finally lift the trophy in what was assumed to be his final World Cup? In the knockout stage, it felt every game could be his last; his genius and its apparent fragility seemed a constant reminder of mortality.

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Eighteen-year-old man arrested after car collides with cyclist Anthony Canty, who died in hospital four days later

A lottery winner has died after a suspected hit-and-run in Essex, police said.

Officers were called to the collision between a cyclist and a black Ford Ka in Tiptree at 6.30am on 21 May. The cyclist, a man in his 30s, was taken to hospital where he died four days later, Essex police said.

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• USA face Germany in final World Cup tune-up match

• Bracketology: predict a path to World Cup victory

• Reach out to Bryan on Bluesky or by email

2 min: An early free kick given to Germany as Nmecha is brought down by Adams. Sané will take it.

1 min: And we’re off! The US kick off and attack from left to right in white shirts and blue shorts. Germany are going from right to left in their all-black strips.

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ARNHEM (ANP) - Het Centrum Informatie en Documentatie Israël (CIDI) gaat maandag opnieuw demonstreren bij het tweede concert van rapper Ye in de GelreDome. Dat liet directeur Naomi Mestrum weten na afloop van het protest van zaterdag bij het stadion in Arnhem. De demonstratie van maandag zal volgens haar iets kleinschaliger zijn en zich vooral richten op het bewustmaken van het jonge publiek over de "kwalijke uitspraken" van de Amerikaanse artiest.

Mestrum zei tevreden te zijn over het verloop van het protest, "maar ik ben best geschrokken van de reactie van sommige jongeren". De betogers kregen volgens de CIDI-directeur middelvingers en ook zouden sommigen een Hitlergroet hebben gebracht. "Maar we spraken ook veel jongeren die zeiden dat ze zijn muziek tof vinden, maar dat ze zijn gedrag echt niet goedkeuren." Ze zei te hopen dat het protest bij veel bezoekers "een zaadje heeft geplant".

Bij de anti-Ye-demonstratie van zaterdag waren enkele tientallen betogers. Ze stonden in een demonstratievak bij een van de ingangen van de GelreDome. Het protest verliep rustig, onder toeziend oog van de politie. Vlak voor aanvang van het concert stopten de demonstranten ermee.

Een auto is zaterdagavond op de Laan van Avant-Garde in Rotterdam tegen een geparkeerde auto aangebotst en vervolgens over de kop geslagen. Hierbij is niemand gewond geraakt, maar de voertuigen zijn wel flink beschadigd geraakt.

Kimi Antonelli could not hide his delight after building on a sensational start to the 2026 season with a hard-earned pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton missed out on a spot on the front row at the Monaco Grand Prix to polesitter Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was pleasantly surprised after Saturday afternoon’s Qualifying session in Monaco, having recovered from a tricky final practice outing to challenge for pole position.

Mercedes' George Russell was left scratching his head after a challenging Qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Scientists "have made a discovery that may help prevent some people from developing lung cancer," reports the New York Times, noting that lung cancer "kills more people worldwide than any other cancer."

A team of more than 80 researchers working across four continents have identified a set of proteins in the blood that accurately predict lung cancers more than five years before diagnosis. The scientists also found early evidence that an existing anti-inflammatory drug could significantly reduce lung cancer risk in people with elevated concentrations of these proteins, which they linked to inflammation. More research is needed before a test based on these proteins could be ready for use in patients. And scientists would still need to run a randomized trial to determine whether the drug prevents lung cancers. Still, outside experts said the findings, which were published on Thursday in the journal Cell, offer a promising starting point toward a long-held public health goal...

Led by Dr. Swanton, Dr. Tej Pandya, a Ph.D. student, and other researchers took a set of 48,000 blood samples from the UK Biobank and used machine learning to identify 14 proteins associated with the development of lung cancer. When the researchers looked at the presence of those proteins and also took into account a patient's age, smoking status and history of lung disease, they were able to predict who would develop lung cancer more accurately than the best risk assessment models currently in use...

Using mouse and cell models, the scientists showed that these proteins increased when a specific inflammatory pathway was activated. Smoking and air pollution can activate that pathway. This adds to the evidence that it isn't just genetic mutations caused by smoking, pollution or other factors that are driving lung cancers. Rather, Dr. Swanton said, the findings suggest that "smoke causes mutations and inflammation, which together cause cancer." They also found that the signature was increased in people who later developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pulmonary fibrosis, pointing to a common inflammatory environment upstream of all three diseases.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.