A superyacht linked to an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has passed through the Strait of Hormuz, despite an Iran-enforced blockade still barring most ships from one of the world’s most strategic waterways.
The Nord, connected to sanctioned billionaire Alexey Mordashov, sailed from the glitzy Emirati hub of Dubai on Friday and arrived at the Omani capital, Muscat, on Sunday morning local time, according to ship tracking data.
It is one of just a handful of private vessels to navigate the important waterway since the start of the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran on February 28.
Tehran quickly threatened to attack any ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz it sees as unfriendly, triggering sharp volatility in global energy markets.
Iran is allied with Russia and hailed the deep strategic ties between the two countries earlier this week as Tehran’s top diplomat met with the Kremlin leader.
Typically, around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passed through the strait, but shipping traffic is still a fraction of prewar levels.
The U.S. later imposed its own blockade on Iranian ports, but Tehran has refused to release its grip on the waterway despite Washington repeatedly threatening punishing attacks on the country’s key infrastructure.
Iran briefly declared the strait open earlier this month, only to quickly reverse course. The ships making it through the waterway appear to sidle close to Iranian waters, and Iranian officials say they have started collecting toll fees from ships in the strait, which the U.S. and international shipping groups have slammed as unacceptable.
More than 20,000 people aboard 1,600 ships are thought to still be stranded around the strait, highlighting the scale of disruption to commercial shipping.
The Nord, the 465-foot-long superyacht, is thought to be worth over $500 million, with space for up to 36 guests alongside its own helipad, according to specialist newspaper The SuperYacht Times.
It’s not officially registered to Mordashov, but corporate records from last year show the extravagant vessel was listed under a Russian firm owned by Mordashov’s wife in 2022, according to the Reuters news agency.
Mordashov, the majority shareholder in Russian steelmaker Severstal, had a reported net worth of nearly $30 billion in 2022.
Mordashov was slapped with U.S., U.K. and European Union sanctions over his connections to the Kremlin shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
Russia is closely allied with Iran, and Tehran’s foreign minister said during a meeting with Putin on Monday that the two countries shared a strong “strategic partnership.”
“As our relationship continues to grow, we are grateful for solidarity and welcome Russia’s support for diplomacy,” Abbas Araghchi said in a brief social media statement.
Russia is willing to offer “goodwill or mediation services” in future U.S.-Iran talks, the Kremlin said.
The meeting raised questions about whether Putin, who is known to have a personal relationship with President Donald Trump, may be able to bring Tehran and Washington together for fresh negotiations on a peace deal.
The Russian army imported Iranian Shahed one-way attack drones and later developed them into a domestic variant known as the Geran. The IRGC has also launched thousands of Shahed drones at neighboring Gulf states in the Middle East war.
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BERLIN — Robot dogs with hyper-realistic silicone heads modeled after world-renowned figures — including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso — can be seen roaming around a Berlin gallery, occasionally “pooing” printed images of their surroundings which they’ve previously captured with integrated cameras.
Each printed image shows a snippet of reality transformed by AI to resemble the personality of the dog or, in other words, the worldview of the human figure on its shoulders (i.e., the Picasso dog will produce images in Cubist style and Warhol’s in pop art).
It’s a commentary on how our perceptions are shaped by algorithms and technology platforms, the organizers of the exhibition write in the description of the event.
“In the past, our view of the world was shaped in part by how artists saw the world,” Beeple told the AP. “How Picasso painted changed how we saw the world, how Warhol talked about consumerism, pop culture, that changed how he saw those things.”
Now our view of the world is shaped by tech billionaires who own powerful algorithms that decide what we see and what we don’t see, the artist added.
“That’s an immense amount of power that I don’t think we’ve fully understood, especially because when they want to make a change, they don’t need to lobby the U.N. They don’t need to get something through Congress or the EU, they just wake up and change these algorithms.”
The dogs also wear heads in Beeple’s own image.
Lisa Botti, the curator of the exhibition in Berlin, said that artificial intelligence was one of the phenomena most impacting our lives today and that “museums are the places where society can reflect” on such transformations, which is why she wanted to have Beeple’s work shown.
The work, entitled “Regular Animals,” was first first shown at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025.
Beeple is a graphic designer from South Carolina who does a variety of digital artwork. He is one of the founders of the “everyday” movement in 3D graphics: For years, he has been creating a picture every day and posting it online without missing a single day.
According to Christie’s, he is the third most expensive living artist to sell at auction, after David Hockney and Jeff Koons.
In the spring of 2021, Christie’s opened bidding for Beeple’s digital collage entitled “Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” with the sale ultimately closing at over $69 million. The auction house described the artwork as “critiques of modern society, the government and social media” in the form of “grotesque, dystopian futures, often featuring celebrities like Donald Trump and Kanye West.”
Christie’s said the sale marked the first time a major auction house offered a digital-only artwork with a non-fungible token as a guarantee of its authenticity, as well as the first time cryptocurrency has been used to pay for an artwork at auction.
Non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs, are electronic identifiers confirming a digital collectible is real by recording the details on a digital ledger known as a blockchain. The tokens have swept the online collecting world recently, an offshoot of the boom in cryptocurrencies.
At the Art Basel 2025 event, Beeple gave away the photos pooed by his dogs to audience members, accompanied by a certificate that read “100% organic GMO-free dog shit.” Some prints had QR codes that gave access to free NFTs, which in practice meant Beeple was giving away his digital art for free for people (sometimes the subjects of the photos themselves) to potentially monetize.
If you didn’t know already, the Duchess of Sussex, 44, is a Leo (born on 4 August 1981). That is why she reshared a post on her Instagram stories over the weekend from the account “Astrology is For Everyone” of two men doing a cheesy disco dance to Celine Dion’s “That’s The Way It Is”, captioned: “Taurus, Leo, Scorpio & Aquarius ending the hardest seven years of their lives on April 25th.”
Meghan – like scores of others in that star sign grouping, who are breathing a collective sigh of relief right now – is clearly letting us know that she’s been having a tough ride for the last seven years, or even longer.
She opened up about it all during her recent quasi-royal tour of Australia, when she told students at Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology: “For now, 10 years, every day for ten years, I have been bullied and attacked. And I was the most trolled person in the entire world. I’m still here.” But according to astrology, she’s embarking on a new era. Phew!
Meghan recently admitted that she’d been having a hard time during her recent tour of Australia (AP)
The video, created by influencers Harrison Keefe and Nepia Takuira-Mita, also gave a potted history of what exactly has been going on planetary-wise that Meghan hopes heralds in a new start. “Uranus in Taurus has delt [sic] Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius with some of the toughest years of their lives,” the post explained.
“So when Uranus entered Taurus, everything that you were relied upon, [sic] whether that was a job, a spouse, even your faith, was tested and flipped upside down over and over these last seven years… But on April 25, Uranus leaves Taurus. This is the end of a seven-year cycle of radical change for these signs. You will finally settle into the version of who you became through all this change.”
Meghan had reshared another astrology-related post earlier that same day from another account, also with optimistic news on the status of her life via a Leo horoscope.
Against a brown-coloured background, the words echoed the previous post, with added detail: “The tension between who you actually are and what the world around you was willing to see has been exhausting in a way that is hard to explain to people who have not lived it,” it read. “Your confidence took hits it had no business taking. You questioned your creative direction, your spotlight, your worth.” It concluded: “April 25th, the pressure lifts. You get the space to just exist without fighting for it.”
It’s hard not to connect the astrology prophecies to her and Prince Harry’s rollercoaster ride since they stepped down as working royals in 2020 to bring up ther two children, Archie, now six and Lilibet, four, in California, and their desperate attempts to get their side of the story across in the midst of public scrutiny, and of course, she must question her creative direction, after the flop of her Netflix show, With Love, Meghan.
Even more recently, “the tension” as it is referred to in the astrology blurb, between who “you actually are” and “what the world around you was willing to see”, must be exhausting for her, especially in light of being accused of using Australia as an ATM, because for some, it was about making money and self-promotion.
Hard times: Meghan reshared a post about her star sign on her social media over the weekend (Instagram)
But while we all like a bit of good news, I’m sorry to say I have some bad news instead: believing in horoscopes is wishful thinking, Meghan. Even I don’t take astrology seriously – and I see psychics!
I have seen psychics on and off throughout my life. I find it helpful, as it can shine a light on upcoming events and help guide me with current dilemmas. It always blows me away when they are accurate, which, you may not be surprised to hear, isn’t always the case, as they can be off with timing. But when a psychic friend told me last summer that a man was coming into my life who would be exciting – and then two weeks later I met a handsome single dad on a Greek island, it made me think that perhaps some of the other stuff she’d said, such as a windfall being on its way, might come to pass.
Many years earlier, when I fell in love with Alex, the father of my children, Lola, now 10 and Liberty, it was this same psychic who told me we’d settle down, but not for many years – and that she saw me having his children, as clear as day. She was right, and it gave me hope I was on track. I’ve also spoken to dead relatives via psychics – when I “communicated” with my late dad, the psychic in New York, described his last moments with me with utter clarity – and another psychic in North Kensington even told me a few significant names that she couldn’t have known about, even from social media.
Meghan is jumping on the latest zodiac-based trends along with Gen Z, who are obsessed with astrology, using it for self-care, identity and agency in a chaotic world
But when it comes to horoscopes – it’s so generic. For example, I’m a Libra, so I’m not part of this liberating new dawn of an era that Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius are now supposedly enjoying. But I, too, have had every area of my life tested over the last seven years, and could so easily relate to it if my star sign happened to be swapped in with the others.
Meghan is jumping on the latest zodiac-based trends along with Gen Z, who are obsessed with astrology, using it for self-care, identity and agency in a chaotic world. Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram are awash with birth charts, romantic compatibility reports, and tons of astrology content, such as the ones Meghan reshared. I think it’s fair to say astrology is in vogue.
Despite my scepticism about astrology, I do admit that I buy into “Mercury Retrograde”, which occurs three to four times a year, whenthe planet Mercury appears to reverse its course across the night sky. In astrology, these periods spell confusion, delays, and disruptions in communication, travel, and decision-making. During these phases, I generally keep communication super clear to avoid misunderstandings – and I try not to sign any important documents. But apart from that, I steer well clear of zodiac-based interpretations of the world.
Meghan’s other post spoke about the ‘tension’ between who the Leo star sign is truly and what everyone else is ‘willing to perceive’ (Instagram)
Whether Meghan believes in astrology as much as these latest posts suggest, or not, she is using astrology to get the message out there, loud and clear, that she’s been suffering. People will accuse her of reinventing herself as a victim, or perhaps they will believe that she genuinely has been having a hard time, which, let’s face it, as the world’s most trolled person, isn’t hard to imagine.
Clearly, she wants the tide to turn, and posting such astrology-related content is far more likely to make that happen than the planets. Who needs Oprah Winfrey when you can spill the beans online as a Leo?
Months after revealing his stage 4 cancer diagnosis, former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse is speaking out about an experimental therapy that could extend his life.
Sasse, a Republican who represented Nebraska between 2015 and 2023, shared in December 2025 that he has metastatic pancreatic cancer, which has spread to multiple organs — including his liver and lungs.
After initially being given three to four months to live, Sasse, 54, entered a clinical trial for a drug called daraxonrasib, an oral therapy (pill) that is designed to block the defective gene that triggers uncontrolled cellular growth.
The California-based drugmaker, Revolution Medicines, recently shared data from a phase 3 clinical trial of people with metastatic pancreatic cancer who did not respond to standard chemotherapy.
Patients on the treatment lived a median of 13 months, compared to around six months for those who continued with chemo.
Former Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska entered a clinical trial for a drug called daraxonrasib, an oral therapy (pill) that is designed to block the defective gene that triggers uncontrolled cellular growth.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“I have much, much less pain than I had four months ago when I was diagnosed, and I have a massive 76% reduction in tumor volume over the last four months,” Sasse told “60 Minutes” in a recent interview.
Daraxonrasib works by going after a key growth “switch” in many cancers called RAS, according to Sarbajit Mukherjee, M.D., chief of gastrointestinal medical oncology at Miami Cancer Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida.
“In pancreatic cancer, that switch is stuck in the ‘on’ position in the vast majority of tumors, constantly telling the cancer cells to grow and spread,” the doctor, who was not involved in the trial and did not treat Sasse, told Fox News Digital.
“Daraxonrasib is designed to bind to RAS in its active state and turn down that signal, which can slow or shrink the cancer.”
“The drug is in the final stages of clinical trials, where it has been shown to double the survival of those previously treated for metastatic pancreatic cancer.”
Pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose early because there are generally no symptoms — or only subtle gastrointestinal symptoms — until it is already widespread, according to Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst.
“This is the first-of-its-kind targeted therapy for pancreatic cancer,” Siegel, who also was not involved in the research or the senator’s treatment, told Fox News Digital. “The drug is in the final stages of clinical trials, where it has been shown to double the survival of those previously treated for metastatic pancreatic cancer.”
Sasse, shown above, announced his diagnosis late last year. An expert noted that the survival boost seen from the clinical trial is a “big difference” for a disease that typically has much shorter survival times.(Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Mukherjee noted that the survival boost seen in the trial is a “big difference” for a disease that typically has much shorter survival times.
“From my perspective, as someone who treats pancreatic cancer every day, daraxonrasib is the first targeted pill in this disease that truly feels like a step change rather than a small incremental improvement,” he said.
“It opens the door to much more personalized strategies going forward. For a cancer where progress has been painfully slow, it could reshape how we care for patients with advanced disease.”
While current chemotherapy options can shrink pancreatic tumors and help people live longer, they are “tough,” Mukherjee noted — “and once they stop working, our options are limited and survival is usually measured in just a few more months.”
Early data also suggests that when daraxonrasib is combined with standard chemotherapy as the first treatment, there is more shrinkage of tumors and more patients doing well at six months than they typically would only with chemotherapy.
Sasse shared in December 2025 that he has metastatic pancreatic cancer, which has spread to multiple organs, including his liver and lungs.(Meghan McCarthy/Palm Beach Daily News/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
If the drug is approved, it will likely become an important option for patients when standard chemotherapy stops working, Mukherjee suggested.
“Ongoing trials are now asking whether it should also be used as part of the very first treatment plan,” he added.
Although the drug is described as “well-tolerated” compared to chemotherapy, the doctor noted that, like any strong cancer drug, daraxonrasib has side effects.
“The ones we see most often include rash, diarrhea, mouth sores and fatigue, with patients needing regular blood tests and close follow‑up while on treatment,” Mukherjee said.
“It’s weird to be in your early 50s and get a terminal diagnosis, and people all of a sudden act like you’re 93 or 94, and you have a lot of wisdom,” he said.
Savings giant NS&I has put new issues of its British Savings Bonds on sale with higher rates.
British Savings Bonds are fixed-term issues of NS&I’s Guaranteed Growth Bonds and Guaranteed Income Bonds.
They are available to new customers and people with existing bonds that are due to mature.
NS&I said the rate increases reflect changes in the wider market and will help it to meet its net financing target while continuing to balance the interests of savers, taxpayers and the broader financial services sector.
The savings provider is backed by the Treasury, meaning money held with it has 100% security.
The new interest rate on one-year options for the bonds is 4.50% AER (annual equivalent rate), up from 4.07% previously.
For two-year options, the new rate is 4.48% AER, increased from 3.98%.
The new interest rate on the three-year option is 4.45% AER, up from 4.02%.
And for the five-year option, the new rate is 4.40% AER, increased from 4.05%.
British Savings Bonds are available to customers wanting a guaranteed interest rate for a fixed term and funds cannot be withdrawn early.
Savers will need a minimum investment of £500 and can invest a maximum of £1 million per person in each issue. After the fixed-term period, savers will have the choice to withdraw their cash or reinvest it into a new term.
In addition, the interest rate for NS&I’s postal-only Investment Account has increased to 2.05% AER, from 1.00%.
The conflict in the Middle East has caused volatility in financial markets and prompted expectations that interest rates could remain higher for longer than previously expected. The Bank of England’s next base rate decision is on Thursday.
Get a free fractional share worth up to £100. Capital at risk.
Many providers have recently been launching new savings deals, with “Isa season” having been underway as the new tax year started in April. It is a time of year when competition in the market traditionally heats up.
Rachel Springall, a finance expert at Moneyfactscompare.co.uk said: “NS&I are popular because they are a trusted brand and provide 100% capital security, so these bonds may appeal to savers with big pots who are happy to forgo higher interest rates available elsewhere.
“Savers who are enticed by the longer-term offerings from NS&I would be wise to shop around as there are many alternative bonds paying higher rates.
“This includes fixed returns from building societies, such the market-leading five-year bond from Market Harborough Building Society paying 4.70%.”
She added: “Some savers hit by fiscal drag may instead want to shield their hard-earned cash from tax, so a fixed rate cash Isa would be a good alternative to a fixed bond. As it stands, Skipton Building Society are paying a market-leading rate of 4.55% on a short-term fixed Isa, fixed for 18 months.”
In March, it emerged that NS&I is preparing to pay out hundreds of millions of pounds after failures meant that bereaved families were missing out on savings pots.
NS&I notified the Treasury in December of an operational failure to trace accounts comprehensively of some customers who had died.
The savings provider has apologised and said previously in a statement that “the issue has been resolved for current and new bereavement claims and robust measures have been introduced to ensure this does not happen again”.
Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at AJ Bell, said of NS&I’s new British Savings Bond rates: “The one-year deal is particularly strong, and given that savers are far more likely to fix for one year than any other period, NS&I is clearly working harder to attract more cash.
“It’s not a major surprise, given how rates have been rising elsewhere. NS&I has a duty to offer decent value for savers, so it couldn’t reasonably sit on its hands offering just a fraction over 4%.”
Ms Coles said that with NS&I having faced “its share of bad news in 2026” and having “a fairly punchy funding target”, it has “clearly decided that it needs to do something bold to start the year strong”.
She added: “Savers can still do better in several accounts elsewhere, so anyone hunting for the best possible deal won’t be tempted by the changes.
“However, for those attached to the brand or drawn by the appeal of the 100% Treasury guarantee, the rate boost may be enough to tip the balance.”
Federal prosecutors on Monday said they were willing to seek additional charges against NBA player Terry Rozier in the gambling scandal that rocked the league during the 2025-26 season.
Prosecutors said they sought to file superseding charges of bribery in sports and honest services wire fraud during a hearing. Prosecutors said they had evidence that the former Miami Heat guard solicited and received a bribe amid the alleged gambling scheme.
Miami Heat’s Terry Rozier arrives at Brooklyn federal court in New York on Monday, April 27, 2026.(Yuki Iwamura/AP)
Rozier filed a motion to dismiss charges against him as his attorneys argued the wire fraud charge is based on a theory that the Supreme Court rejected two years ago and that the government failed to prove the money laundering conspiracy claims.
Prosecutors argued that the defendants lied and cheated to steal money and that it was a classic wire fraud case.
“Our motion to dismiss is based on the idea that they picked an invalid legal theory to prosecute Terry Rozier,” Rozier’s lawyer Jim Trusty told ESPN. “We’ll see what they do to try to fix that in the superseding indictment, but I expect we’ll have problems with it.”
Miami Heat’s Terry Rozier arrives at Brooklyn federal court in New York on Monday, April 27, 2026.(Yuki Iwamura/AP)
Rozier was arrested over his alleged involvement stemming from a game in 2023 in which he played less than 10 minutes, citing a foot injury. Multiple people placed high-stakes wagers on Rozier to perform poorly before the game, all of whom won.
Authorities alleged that Rozier told a childhood friend that he would remove himself from a March 2023 game between the Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans. The friend allegedly shared the information to bettors for profit, who then made wagers on the under of certain Rozier statistics, according to an indictment.
Neither Hornets officials nor betting companies were made aware of Rozier’s plan, according to the Department of Justice. The Hornets later traded Rozier to the Heat.
Miami waived Rozier earlier this month.
Rozier was one of more than 30 people, along with NBA figures Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones, who were part of FBI probes into alleged illegal gambling with ties to organized crime families. Billups and Jones allegedly participated in rigged poker games, while Jones also allegedly leaked non-public information about NBA games so those close to him could place wagers with a competitive advantage.
Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier looks on during the second half of an NBA game against the Washington Wizards in Washington on March 31, 2024.(AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
A fan’s impulsive grab of cricketer Abhishek Sharma’s hand outside a Jaipur hotel sparked a viral debate. Identified as Himshikha Tripathi, she explained it was a nervous, split-second mistake, not a deliberate act, after facing backlash for her initial post. The incident has ignited discussions on fan boundaries at sporting events.
What started as a typical fan moment outside a hotel in Jaipur has now turned into one of the most debated clips of this IPL season – and at the center of it is one question everyone’s asking: who is the girl in the video?The cricketer in focus is Abhishek Sharma, the rising star of Sunrisers Hyderabad. The unexpected spotlight, however, has shifted to a fan – identified as Himshikha Tripathi – after a video of her grabbing his hand went viral across social media.
What actually happened in Jaipur?
The incident took place just before SRH’s clash with Rajasthan Royals on April 25. Abhishek was making his way through a crowd toward the team bus when, out of nowhere, a woman reached out and pulled his hand. The moment lasted barely a few seconds – but it was enough. Abhishek looked visibly caught off guard, and security stepped in almost instantly to move him away. Meanwhile, the clip -ironically posted by the fan herself – started spreading like wildfire online.
So, who is Himshikha Tripathi?
That’s where things get even more interesting. Tripathi isn’t a celebrity or influencer (at least not before this). She described herself as a long-time fan of Abhishek Sharma – someone who had been following him even before he became a big IPL name.She had shared the video on her own Instagram with a cheeky caption in Hindi, loosely suggesting that she had to take matters into her own hands because he “wasn’t agreeing politely.” That tone didn’t sit well with a lot of viewers once the clip blew up.
Her side of the story
After facing intense backlash, Tripathi came forward with an explanation – and an apology. According to her, the whole thing wasn’t meant to be dramatic at all. She says she simply wanted a handshake. But in the middle of a packed crowd, things got chaotic, and instead of a normal greeting, it turned into what looked like her pulling his hand.She insists it was a split-second mistake, not a deliberate act. She also admitted she got nervous immediately after, and her brother pulled her back. The video, she says, felt like a “special fan moment” at the time – which is why she posted it without expecting it to spiral into controversy. Eventually, she apologised publicly, saying she never intended to make anyone uncomfortable. Internet reaction: divided, loud, and relentlessAs expected, social media had opinions – and a lot of them. Some users didn’t hold back, calling the act inappropriate and stressing that consent and personal space apply to celebrities too. Others pointed out a double standard, arguing that if roles were reversed, the reaction might have been far harsher. Then there were those who brushed it off as harmless fan excitement gone slightly overboard. Caught in the middle of all this, Tripathi eventually turned off comments on her post.
Bigger conversation: where do we draw the line?
This wasn’t just about one viral clip anymore. The incident has sparked a wider discussion around fan behaviour at high-profile events like the Indian Premier League. When does excitement cross into intrusion? How much access is too much? And are players getting enough protection in these chaotic public moments?Because here’s the thing – fans and players sharing space is part of what makes sports electric. But moments like this are a reminder that boundaries matter, even in the middle of all that adrenaline.A few seconds, one impulsive move, and suddenly a regular fan is at the center of a nationwide debate. That’s the power – and risk – of going viral today.
