Northern Ireland will face two-time world champions France in a friendly in the lead-up to the latter’s World Cup campaign.
The game will take place on Monday, 8 June (20:10 BST) at Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille.
Michael O’Neill’s side failed to reach the World Cup finals after losing the play-off semi-final against Italy on 26 March.
Having drawn 1-1 with fellow semi-final losers Wales in a Cardiff friendly five days later, Northern Ireland will test themselves against the world’s top-ranked team.
It will be Northern Ireland’s first fixture in France since their memorable Euro 2016 campaign. Northern Ireland’s second June friendly has not yet been confirmed.
The sides last met in an August 1999 friendly in Belfast with France winning 1-0.
“This is exactly the level of challenge we want. France are one of the top sides in world football so it’s a great test for our players,” said Irish FA technical director Aaron Hughes.
The same ChatGPT chatbot that gave OpenAI’s chief financial officer Sarah Friar a tilapia recipe for a recent Sunday night dinner at home is also now doing her most mundane tasks at work like summarizing her emails and Slack messages.
Friar and other company executives are banking OpenAI’s future on more of the latter as it shifts its focus to business-oriented products while shedding some of its consumer offerings as a pathway to profitability.
OpenAI says it will introduce a new artificial intelligence model for “high-value professional work” as the company faces heightened competition with rival Anthropic in attracting corporate customers to adopt AI assistants in their workplaces.
“You’ll see a new model coming from us in short order. We feel very excited about it,” Friar said in an interview with The Associated Press.
OpenAI boasts of more than 900 million weekly users of its core ChatGPT product, and Friar said about 95% of them “don’t pay anything” for the popular chatbot. But while all those interactions build habits and reliance, they also strain the costly computing resources needed to power the company’s AI systems and highlight the need for big business customers to help pay the bills.
OpenAI, valued at $852 billion, and Anthropic, valued at $380 billion, both lose more money than they make, putting the privately-owned San Francisco-based AI research laboratories in a fierce competition to generate more revenue as they race toward becoming publicly traded on Wall Street.
A push to improve performance and sales of OpenAI’s business-oriented products — already Anthropic’s bread and butter — has driven OpenAI to abandon some consumer initiatives, like the AI video generator app Sora.
“I think it was a little heartbreaking, but we’re like, OK, it’s not the main event right now,” Friar said. “We need to make sure that our new model that’s coming has enough compute.”
Codenamed Spud, OpenAI says its “smartest model yet” offers “stronger reasoning, better understanding of intent and dependencies, better follow-through and more reliable output in production.” It’s part of OpenAI’s answer to Anthropic’s new Claude Mythos, which Anthropic claims is so “strikingly capable” that it is limiting its use to select customers because of its apparent ability to surpass human cybersecurity experts in finding or exploiting computer vulnerabilities.
Friar, the former CEO of neighborhood social platform Nextdoor, said business customers accounted for about 20% of OpenAI’s revenue when she was hired in 2024 as chief financial officer. She said it’s now 40% and expected to account for half of OpenAI’s sales by the end of the year.
It’s a sharp turnaround from late last year, when OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman was promoting a now-shuttered Sora partnership with Disney, launching a plan to sell ads on ChatGPT and floating the idea of letting ChatGPT engage in erotica with paid adult users.
Altman said on the “Mostly Human” podcast earlier this month that a sharper focus was needed — and Friar agrees.
“Tech companies, when they’re growing, it’s just this natural thing that happens. There’s so many cool things you could do,” she said, adding that companies can end up doing “really badly” if they do too many things, while “great companies are very good at, in a reasonable period of time, kind of doing that winnowing down and refocusing and it’s super painful.”
Signaling that shift was the hiring three months ago of Slack CEO Denise Dresser to be OpenAI’s first chief revenue officer.
Dresser said in a recent AP interview that she has been laser-focused on meeting with corporate leaders and positioning OpenAI as the go-to platform for workplaces employing AI agents to automate a variety of computer-based job tasks.
“It’s really clear to me that companies are past the experimentation phase and they’re into using AI to do real work,” Dresser said. “Leaders at companies are recognizing that AI is probably the most consequential shift of their lifetime.”
But those leaders also have a choice, namely Anthropic’s Claude that has become widely used by software professionals. Founded in 2021 by a group of ex-OpenAI leaders who said they wanted to prioritize AI safety, Anthropic has positioned itself as the more responsible AI vendor. The distinction drew attention when President Donald Trump’s administration punished the startup after a contract dispute over AI use in the military, and Altman used the opportunity to cement OpenAI’s own deal with the Pentagon.
Consumer interest in Anthropic surged and the company said its annualized revenues hit $30 billion, a higher number than what OpenAI has reported, though they measure it differently. Friar and Dresser declined to reveal OpenAI’s latest sales but both have suggested that Anthropic’s number is inflated because it doesn’t account for revenue it must share with cloud computing providers Amazon and Google.
Even so, it remains a tight competition that’s also tied to the health of the stock market and the future of the economy.
“They’re likely quite close,” said Luke Emberson, a researcher at nonprofit institute Epoch AI. “Certainly the trends show Anthropic is growing much faster than OpenAI. If that continues, they’re likely to cross soon.”
The urgency led Dresser to send a memo to OpenAI employees on Sunday, first reported by The Verge, that asserted that Anthropic’s coding focus “gave them an early wedge” but expressing confidence that OpenAI has the “real structural advantage” as AI usage expands beyond software developers and OpenAI builds enough computing capacity to operate its AI systems.
“Their story is built on fear, restriction, and the idea that a small group of elites should control AI,” Dresser’s memo said of Anthropic. “Our positive message will win over time: build powerful systems, put in the right safeguards, expand access, and help people do more.”
But for skeptics of the financial viability of AI products like ChatGPT and Claude, the trajectory of both money-losing companies is alarming as smaller startups increasingly become dependent on their AI tools. Anthropic has already imposed rate limits on heavy users, forcing some to wait for hours to use Claude, and both companies have set up service tiers that reward premium payers, said author and AI critic Ed Zitron.
“It’s what I call the subprime AI crisis,” Zitron said. “People built their lives and they built their businesses on top of these companies that, as they try and save money, will start turning the screws.”
One thing that both AI leaders and critics agree on is that it is an expensive technology, though whether it is worth the cost in electricity-hungry AI computers remains to be seen.
“People will say, well, ‘Once they go public, they’re safe.’ That’s not true,” Zitron said. “Public companies can and will die, especially ones that are dependent on $100 billion to $200 billion every year or so, just to keep breathing.”
There are some signs of life in the mortgage market in what could be good news for borrowers with deals coming back to the market and some lenders cutting borrowing costs.
Since the Iranwar, big lenders have been pulling deals from the market and ratcheting up rates.
The average 2-year fix was 4.83 per cent at the start of March and is 5.88 per cent today.
Meanwhile, the average 5-year fix has risen from 4.95 per cent at the start of March and is at 5.77 per cent today.
But those rates seem to have plateaued for now and some lenders have felt bold enough to offer some cheaper deals. That’s because money markets think the Bank of England is less likely than previously thought to raise interest rates to curtail inflation, making costs cheaper for mortgage lenders.
There are also more products available than there was just weeks ago. A total of 809 deals have returned to the market since it hit a low of 5,856 available products on 24 March. However, this is still 973 (12.7 per cent) fewer than before the conflict in Iran began.
Adam French, head of consumer finance at Moneyfacts, said: “Money markets are now pricing for fewer base rate hikes than they were a few weeks ago and swap rates have fallen back towards 4 per cent from highs of around 4.4 per cent.
“This has given several lenders, such as Santander, Atom Bank and Skipton Building Society, the headroom to make a few meaningful cuts over the last few days.”
Brokers say others will follow, unless there appears to be an about turn from the Bank and rate rises are back on the cards.
Peter Stimson of MPowered said: “The Bank of England meeting on the 30th April in what is likely to be one of the most important meetings for many years. Whilst they are widely expected to hold, the vote and the minutes, will set the direction for swap rates in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, canny borrowers may want to check out the option of a tracker rate.
“The ‘forgotten’ mortgage product of the last 15 years, trackers are available at just Bank Base rate plus 0.21% (3.96 per cent) and usually come with no Early Repayment Charge’s (ERC’s) allowing you to switch to a fix, as/when/fix rates reset to an appropriate level.”
Charlotte Harrison, CEO of Homes at Skipton, said life remains tough for many.
“Essential living costs remain stubbornly high, and even before recent global events, around 40 per cent of would‑be first‑time buyers were expected to face housing-related costs they simply couldn’t afford.
“While there have been early signs of improvement, progress remains fragile, with ongoing pressures on energy prices, inflation and interest rates potentially slowing the pace in the months ahead.”
Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock has given evidence several times.
He told the inquiry that the UK’s pandemic strategy had been completely wrong, while admitting the UK should have locked down much sooner.
Hancock also criticised the “toxic culture” in government, for which he blamed Johnson’s former adviser Dominic Cummings.
In his evidence to the inquiry, Mr Cummings described a “dysfunctional” government and was very critical of Johnson’s approach.
The hearing also discussed scathing text messages he sent, many of which contained offensive descriptions of ministers and officials.
Mr Cummings said he regretted the handling of his infamous trip to Barnard Castle during the first lockdown, but denied that he had damaged public trust in the government.
The inquiry has also heard from Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish political leaders, including:
former Scottish First Ministers Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf
former Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford
current Northern Irish First Minister Michelle O’Neill and former First Minister Baroness Foster
Have you ever walked into a dinner party or date and felt that invisible tug toward a certain spot— the cozy corner armchair, the spotlight at the head table, or a safe perch in the back? It’s not a random choice. The chair you choose when you enter a room, subconsciously shows gives a glimpse of their thoughts and emotions. For example, in the above image the viewer can see a room and six different types of chairs kept in various directions. And according to Dasha Takisho, who shared this image initially on social media, the chair you choose to sit gives a sneaky snapshot of how you navigate love, trust, and connection. Interesting, isn’t it?Such tests are aptly called personality tests, and they can reveal a person’s true nature within seconds. This classic visual personality test, buzzing on social media and rooted in social psychology, imagines a room with six types of chairs around a table, with the therapist at the helm. Which chair attracts you the most? There are no right or wrong answers— your gut pick reveals how you show up in relationships, from loyal partner to cautious observer.To take this test, simply relax and look at the above image. Pick a chair that you like the most and read what it reveals about you below, as per Dasha’s post:
1. If you choose the chair facing the therapist
“You let people in easily. You trust, feel deeply, and aren’t afraid of vulnerability. You can express feelings, ask for help, open your heart first. But sometimes you get too close too fast — and it ends up hurting. Learn to slow down. Not everyone is ready for your depth.”
2. If you choose the chair in the middle
“Balance. You don’t push people away, but you don’t lose yourself either. You know when to open up and when to wait. You feel both yourself and others. This is a healthy position — your strength is awareness. Keep it.”
3. If you choose the chair slightly to the side
“Direct attention feels uncomfortable. Being fully seen can feel too intense. You stay close, but not completely. You give, but with limits. There’s a quiet tension: you want closeness, but also need safety. Learn to stay present. Being seen is not danger.”
4. If you choose the chair which is far away / near the wall
“You need distance to feel safe. Closeness feels like a risk. Somewhere in your past, people who were close hurt you. So now you keep space, even when you want love. You may choose unavailable people or leave first. Learn to let someone come closer — slowly.”
5. If you choose the corner chair / beanbag
“Control = safety. You watch everything, stay alert, rely only on yourself. Relaxing feels like vulnerability, and vulnerability once cost you something. You are strong, but tired. You don’t have to control everything to be safe anymore.”
6. If you choose the chair by the window
“You’re between staying and escaping. One part of you wants closeness, another is ready to leave. You come close, then pull away. You feel deeply, but hesitate to stay. Inside there’s a conflict: “hold me” and “don’t touch me.” Learn to stay — even for a moment.”This test reflects how you experience closeness in your relationships. How true was this test result for you? Tell us in the comments section below.Such tests are fun for couples’ nights or self-reflection. So, pick your chair and uncover your love style!
Sam is a writer, broadcaster and podcaster for ESPN. He will write on the Premier League, scouting and transfers.
Multiple Authors
NIJMEGEN, Netherlands — Deep inside a forest in Nijmegen’s Goffertpark, on the Netherlands’ eastern border with Germany, just over 12,500 people have been gathering each week to watch some of the most chaotic, risky football that 2026 has had to offer.
It’s an absurdly innocent and serene setting for an incredible story that has made waves across Europe this year: N.E.C. Nijmegen are on the verge of the most successful season in their 125-year trophyless history — and it’s thanks to a crazy majority investor, who employs a crazy manager, who plays a crazy brand of attacking football.
“Crazy — that’s exactly the word for it,” N.E.C. supporter Stefan Verhagen tells ESPN. “In 62 years, I have never seen anything like it. Teams come here, and they are shaking in their boots.”
Eniesee play in a style that most would consider reckless, if not downright foolish. It’s a modern version of the “Total Football” style invented and perfected by the great Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff of Ajax in 1970s, and which all Dutch soccer fans have craved ever since. And it’s as simple in its philosophy.
“Here, we kick the ball, we run forward — and we score,” Florian, another fan, says.
It might sound dangerous to put so much faith in attacking play, but for N.E.C. it works. After a 1-1 draw on Saturday in a match with serious UEFA Champions League implications against giants Feyenoord — courtesy of an incredible 97th-minute equalizer — the club sit third in the Eredivisie table, three points ahead of Ajax with four games to go, while they face AZ Alkmaar in the KNVB cup final this weekend.
N.E.C.’s relentlessly attacking, high-pressing football is a whirlwind experience. TV figures regularly place their games in the top three most watched on a weekend in the country, but it has to be seen live to be believed.
Into the forest
There are three traditional powerhouses in Dutch football: Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven. Among them, the trio have won the vast majority of Eredivisie (top tier) titles since it was formed in 1956, and it’s rare for major stories to hail from elsewhere.
Since promotion back to the top division in 2021, N.E.C. have spent most of their time battling away in the bottom half of the table; 11th- and 12th-placed finishes between 2021-2023 felt par for the course. Their highest-ever league finish is fifth, secured back in 2003, but since then have been relegated and promoted back up twice.
That’s part of what makes NEC’s rise so special: Not only is it different and refreshing, but it takes place in a significantly more humble setting than, say, Ajax’s super-slick, modern, 55,000-seater Johan Cruyff Arena. To get to NEC’s Goffertstadion you have to walk into a forest; on the way, you pass the club’s training pitches, which are disturbingly easy to access for the public — they’re not walled off, not kept out of sight, and much of the training equipment is simply left out on the grass.
Turn the corner a little further down the track and the stadium appears. It’s small (seating around 12,500 people) and looks even smaller due to the fact that it is dug into the ground, which creates a concrete moat that separates the stands from the pitch. You could mistake it for a concert venue were it not for the giant NEC badge on the metal facade.
Some fans, like the 67-year-old Stefan, have been attending games for decades but are now experiencing something completely new. He takes his hat off — a Russian-style ushanka with the ear flaps pinned up — and brandishes it proudly; it’s covered in pin badges marking crucial games he’s been to. There’s a Hamburg one in the center, signifying their last venture into Europe (a 2008-09 Europa League campaign that Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan all participated in). He has also been to see his team lose five domestic cup finals, the first in 1973, and hopes to make it a sixth time lucky this weekend as they take on AZ Alkmaar. A win would ensure a 2026-27 Europa League campaign at minimum.
Inside, countless visual cues remind you that this is no star-studded arena. There’s a third dugout placed pitch side for fans who win a competition to sit almost on the sideline, just 10-foot from the team benches. Meanwhile, the N.E.C. players’ boots show signs of wear and tear — these are not superstars who are handed four fresh pairs per game, with custom fits to mold their feet.
The teams emerge from the tunnel for kickoff to the sound of Fox’s iconic NFL theme tune. But after that first whistle … all hell breaks loose.
Schreuder’s Way
N.E.C. have scored 74 goals in the Eredivisie this season, a tally bettered only by PSV (84), who cantered to the title with five games to spare. They’ve also conceded 48, which is only a handful fewer than the majority of sides at the other end of the table embroiled in the relegation battle. In 30 games, Eniesee have scored 3+ goals 13 times, and conceded 3+ on seven occasions.
As those statistics suggest, their games are usually wild. That is down to their relentlessly attacking coach, Dick Schreuder.
After spells on the coaching staff with Barnet in England and the Philadelphia Union in MLS, among other jobs, Schreuder, 54, rose to prominence in the Netherlands in 2021, taking charge of a terrible PEC Zwolle side, who were rooted to the bottom of the table, and transforming them into a team worth watching that nearly clambered to safety.
Schreuder led Zwolle back to the top tier at the first attempt the following season, with his side scoring 99 goals — 13 of which came in one game against Den Bosch — but he then departed for Spanish third-tier side CD Castellón.
It was a curious move on paper, but Castellón’s owner, Bob Voulgaris, is a prolific sports bettor who leverages data in his decision processes. Naturally, PEC Zwolle’s attacking numbers were off the charts, so he turned to Schreuder and he said yes — in part due to the sporting project, in part because the warmer climate soothed the Dutchman’s sore knee from his career as a player.
After setting the 2023-24 third tier alight with his side netting a record of 74 goals, Schreuder got Castellón promoted to the Segunda División, but was sacked within six months after a dip in form. He wasn’t out of a job for long, though, as he was lured back to the Netherlands in 2025 by N.E.C. and has been charming the forest with his “Total Football” style ever since.
“Dutch people love attacking football,” says ESPN NL’s Sjors Grol. “That’s been the case ever since Cruyff and Michels invented ‘Total Football’ in the 1970s. In a sport where the result seems more important than the performance these days, Schreuder is trying to find a balance between beautiful football and results again. He has now succeeded in doing so at his third club in four years.
“Right now, in Nijmegen, Schreuder can do no wrong. He has given the people a taste of football bliss in a way the city never thought possible. Not only is success addictive, but so is the feeling that you’re playing the best football in the country. That’s what N.E.C. supporters are feeling right now.”
Attack, attack, attack
In a season where the English Premier League has become a land of the giants — in which the fittest, strongest and tallest compete for dominance in endless duels and set-piece scenarios — N.E.C.’s relentlessly attacking, high-pressing, risky football feels like something out of a video game. But they work hard on the training ground to perfect the art form.
“It all comes down to intensity,” Sjors adds. “Players don’t get a chance to catch their breath between drills, which is one reason they’re fitter than ever. Never before has this club attacked as much as it has this season. From the very first second, a connection has formed between fans and players, and that’s been reinforced by 12 goals in the first three games of the season.”
Schreuder’s wing backs are actually wingers and his attacking midfielders are basically strikers; the midfielders buccaneer forward at will.
But while it may masquerade as a 3-4-2-1 on paper, this isn’t anything like the same formation you’ll have seen with Manchester United under Ruben Amorim. Here, there is a major focus placed on attacking with width. Perhaps that should come as no surprise, given Schreuder was a winger in his playing days. N.E.C. rank third in the Eredivisie for open play crosses (441) and second for attempted take-ons (603).
The combinations, runs and passes between his players are not only brilliant, but incredibly confusing for opponents to deal with at times … and a big part of that is because his center backs keep running up the pitch.
Indeed, it’s common for one of N.E.C.’s outside center backs to end up in the opponent’s penalty box. On the left, Ahmetcan Kaplan or Deveron Fonville go steaming forward, their runs ripping apart opponents’ man-to-man marking and creating space. On the right it’s more subtle; right center back Eli Dasa often waits for his winger, Sami Ouaiassa, to attract a crowd, then slips beyond the play and into the box unnoticed.
Once these kinds of rotations start happening, any player can end up just about anywhere on the pitch. Except for the goalkeeper, of course.
A great example of this was the third goal scored in the 3-1 win against Sparta Rotterdam in February, which came from getting six players into or close to the box, where pretty much all of them were in the wrong spots for their position (and yes, there was a center back among them).
But center backs hurtling forward isn’t just limited to N.E.C.’s attacking play — they do it in the deep buildup, too. Schreuder’s take on pass-and-move football is on the extreme side, and can lead to issues when the team are caught on the ball near their goal (below) …
It can also cause problems when they’ve committed too many players high up the pitch, meaning one long, straight ball from the opponent can lead to a chance (see below).
These problems are effectively unavoidable. Because N.E.C. commit so many players forward in attack, the only logical way for them to defend is to press and try to win the ball back high up if they lose it. They generally do this very well — they top the Eredivisie for duels won (1,613), possessions won in the final third (165) and high turnovers forced (302) — but breaches happen and they can look pretty bad to the casual fan when they do.
Schreuder accepts that risk on the basis that, more often than not, his team can plug the holes — or, failing that, simply outscore their opponents.
A deathbed promise
It’s fitting that N.E.C.’s success has been built on crazy football, as you could argue “crazy” is a top-down directive.
The club’s major investor, Marcel Boekhoorn, is a prominent-but-silent figure in the project. A Dutch billionaire born in Nijmegen, he promised his father on his deathbed that he would take care of his beloved soccer team. And he offers enough funding to ensure the club don’t have to raise funds through player exits, while they can afford to offer more than a one-year contract to an older player if the deal is right.
The financial stability he offers allowed N.E.C. to turn down huge bids — €15 million from Ajax and €20 million from Nottingham Forest — for their star young midfielder Kodai Sano. That would have been a club-record departure, a fee N.E.C. could never have refused a few years ago, but could also have scuppered a special season. They were able to decline.
Aside from that, he made some good decisions when appointing his front office and giving them the freedom to flourish. For example: Carlos Aalbers, a man renowned for being one of the best scouts in the Netherlands, and with a handy habit of recruiting top Asian prospects (he scouted Ritsu Doan, now at Eintracht Frankfurt, and Yukinari Sugawara, who played in the Premier League for Southampton last season.)
But, like his team, there’s no doubt Boekhoorn also has a flair for the remarkable. After buying Ouwehands Zoo in Utrecht in 2000, he campaigned China’s government for 16 years to move two pandas to it. Finally, in 2016, he was successful; pandas Xing Ya and Wu Wen moved over to the Netherlands in a deal signed in front of president Xi Jinping.
His office at Ouwehands Zoo is above a gorilla enclosure; a hatch on the floor can be opened so you can throw food through it, and several N.E.C. players have done so after signing their contracts. Not everything the billionaire touches turns to gold though, as he once got stung in a deal to bring in a rare white crocodile; after paying for it to be imported, a rain shower revealed that it was a regular croc that had been painted white.
“The players have always adored Marcel; everyone admires the way he lives his life,” Sjors says. “That makes an impression on the players. In some cases, it starts as early as their first meeting at his zoo. A question we journalists often ask big new signings is what their meeting with Marcel was like, because that’s important as an introduction to the club.
“Among the fans, he enjoys a status unlike anyone else in Nijmegen. The fact that he helps the club, because he is one of its biggest fans himself, gives him the necessary prestige. This stems from the promise he made to his father.”
Champions League dreams
Last weekend, N.E.C.’s 1-1 draw against Feyenoord –a match that had a serious implication in their chase to play Champions League football next season — was everything you would expect (as you can see from the average position graphic above).
N.E.C. had conceded from a corner and were mightily fortunate to avoid a red card to center back Philippe Sandler, who clumsily brought the Feyenoord striker down as the last man having been caught out over the top (sound familiar?)
But, true to this season’s form, it ended with a dramatic 97th-minute equalizer that saw the stadium erupt with noise and joy, after Schreuder took off his entire defense to chase a late goal.
Substitute Danilo, one of three forwards thrown on in place of the defenders, was the hero — making up for a horror miss five minutes earlier — as wave after wave of attack finally broke the resistance of a traditional powerhouse of Dutch football.
Having been fed a steady diet of cautious, underdog football in previous years, this is not something NEC supporters are used to — but understandably, they’ve embraced it willingly.
Danilo’s goal generated a roar that never seemed to cease, extending long beyond the final whistle. Barely anyone left the Goffertstadion early — there’s no real advantage to doing so as only a few hundred cars are parked outside and thousands opt to cycle to the stadium instead. With little threat of gridlock or queuing, why duck out early and miss these special moments?
Russia hammered civilian areas of Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in an attack that stretched for hours from daytime into the night, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 80 others as terrified residents cowered in their homes, officials said Thursday.
Russia launched nearly 700 drones and dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles, primarily targeting civilians, in its biggest aerial barrage in almost two weeks, authorities said.
Tetiana Sokol, a 54-year-old resident of Kyiv, said two missiles hit near her home and she took cover with her dog in the hallway as flashes lit up the night and windows shattered from the blast wave.
“On the third attack, everything broke, everything flew, we were shocked, we didn’t know where to run. I grabbed whatever came to hand and ran away with the dog,” she told The Associated Press. “I still can’t find the cats in the house, they climbed out somewhere, I don’t even know. No windows, nothing, the dog is still walking around in stress.”
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in Kyiv after a Russian strike on April 16, 2026. Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at civilian areas across Ukraine, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 80, officials said.(Serhii Okunev / AFP via Getty Images)
Moscow’s forces have hit civilian areas almost daily since its all-out invasion of its neighbor more than four years ago, with the regular assaults occasionally punctuated by massive attacks. More than 15,000 Ukrainian civilians have died in the strikes, the United Nations says.
Zelenskyy on a mission to improve air defenses
The latest bombardment came in the wake of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 48-hour trip this week to Germany, Norway and Italy in an urgent search for more air defense systems that can stop Russian missiles.
Ukraine has developed a significant domestic arms industry, especially in the production of drones and missiles, but it can’t yet match the sophistication of U.S. Patriot air defense systems. Ukraine’s top diplomatic priority is securing allies’ help to buy and build more and better air defenses, Zelenskyy said this week.
Cash-strapped Ukraine also needs the speedy disbursement of a promised loan from the European Union of 90 billion euros ($106 billion) that has been blocked by Hungary.
Ukraine fears the Iran war is burning through stockpiles of the advanced American-made systems it needs, and has argued against a U.S. temporary waiver on Russian oil sanctions that Kyiv says is helping finance the Kremlin’s war effort.
A woman walks her dog through the rubble of a house damaged in a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 16, 2026. Officials said Russian forces fired nearly 700 drones and multiple missiles in a sweeping attack on Ukrainian civilians that lasted from day into night.(AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
“Another night has proven that Russia does not deserve any easing of global policy or lifting of sanctions,” Zelenskyy said on X.
He thanked Germany, Norway and Italy for new agreements this week on supporting Ukraine’s air defense. Officials are also working with the Netherlands on additional supplies, he said.
At the same time, he noted that some partner countries haven’t followed through on pledges of military support.
“I have instructed the Commander of the Air Force to contact those partners who earlier committed to providing missiles for Patriot and other systems,” Zelenskyy said.
Other areas of Ukraine and Russia were also hit
The bombardment was the biggest in weeks. Last month, Russia fired 948 drones and 34 missiles in the space of 24 hours in the largest assault of the war on civilian areas.
At least four people were killed overnight in Kyiv, including a 12-year-old, with more than 50 others injured, according to authorities. Officials said the attack damaged 17 apartment buildings, 10 private homes, as well as a hotel, office center, car dealership, gas station and a shopping mall in the capital.
Firefighters work at a building damaged in an overnight strike by Russia in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 16, 2026. Ukrainian officials said Russia’s hourslong aerial assault hit Kyiv, Odesa, the Dnipro region and Zaporizhzhia, damaging homes and other civilian sites.(Genya SAVILOV / AFP via Getty Images)
Nine people were killed and 23 injured in the southern port city of Odesa, three women were killed and around three dozen injured in the central Dnipro region, and one person was killed in Zaporizhzhia in the south.
“Such attacks cannot be normalized. These are war crimes that must be stopped and their perpetrators held to account,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X.
Ukraine’s air force said air defenses shot down or disabled 667 out of 703 incoming targets, including 636 Shahed-type drones and other uncrewed aerial vehicles.
It said 20 strike drones and 12 missiles hit 26 locations.
Meanwhile, in Russia, Krasnodar regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev reported that a 14-year-old girl and a woman were killed in Ukrainian strikes in the Black Sea port of Tuapse.
The skyrocketing popularity of GLP-1 receptor agonists has transformed the weight-loss industry, but not all shots are created equal in terms of how they work.
A study published in Nature investigated how genes affect the success of modern weight-loss drugs — specifically, GLP-1s like semaglutide and tirzepatide.
In analyzing genetic data and self-reported weight loss from over 27,000 users, researchers pinpointed a specific variation in the GLP-1 receptor gene (GLP1R) that acts as a “booster” for the drug’s effectiveness.
Individuals carrying one copy of this variant lost an average of 1.6 pounds more than those without it, according to the findings.
This suggests that genetic testing could eventually help doctors steer sensitive patients toward medications they are more likely to tolerate.
Individuals carrying one copy of a specific genetic variant lost an average of 1.6 pounds more than those without it.(iStock)
“We believe these reports are a step forward in meeting an unmet need for a more informed and personalized approach to weight management,” said study co-author Noura Abul-Husn, chief medical officer at the 23andMe Research Institute in California, in a press release.
While this genetic “boost” is measurable, it remains relatively modest when compared to the total average weight loss of 24 pounds observed across the study population, the researchers noted.
Beyond genetics, other factors such as age, sex and specific medications remain much stronger predictors of success.
For instance, the study found that women generally saw a higher body mass index (BMI) reduction (12.2%) compared to men (10.0%).
Traditional factors such as age, sex and specific medications remain much stronger predictors of success.(iStock)
The study may also reveal why certain patients experience stomach issues. Scientists identified a different genetic variant that was linked to increased reports of nausea and vomiting.
The presence of this side effect did not impact the drug’s effectiveness, however. Patients with variants in the GLP1R and GIPR genes lost just as much weight as those without it; they simply felt more sick during the process, the study found.
“GLP-1 treatment decisions are complex, and having access to clinical expertise to help contextualize your genetic results alongside your full health picture is exactly the kind of guidance this report is designed to support,” said Abul-Husn.
Patients with the variant lost just as much weight as those without it; they simply felt more sick during the process, the study found.(iStock)
Dr. Peter Balazs, MD, a hormone and weight-loss specialist serving the New York and New Jersey area, was not involved in the study but reiterated the role of the genetic variants in treatment response and side effects.
“Notably, there appears to be a drug-specific effect: The GIPR variant associated with these side effects is observed with tirzepatide, but not with semaglutide,” he told Fox News Digital.
Balazs said he was surprised by the extremely wide nausea risk range (5%–78%). “Additionally, the drug-specific genetic dissociation was unexpected,” he added.
Study limitations
The data relied on participants reporting their own weight, which could be subject to bias.
“The data is self-reported and not medically verified, which may affect its reliability firstly,” Balazs told Fox News Digital. “It also does not account for key treatment variables, such as titration, discontinuation or dosing schedules.”
The 23andMe participant pool may not reflect a diverse, real-world population, he added.
“The study also lacks data on important clinical endpoints, such as diabetes progression, and severe adverse effects, such as gastroparesis or pancreatitis,” Balazs pointed out. “Many of its findings also have not been supported by more clinically and statistically robust studies.”
Patients with the variant lost just as much weight as those without it; they simply felt more sick during the process, the study found.(iStock)
For example, a sub-study comparing these reports to objective iPhone health data suggested that participants might over-report their progress. While users reported an 11.8% loss, electronic data in that subset showed a 5.8% loss.
As an observational study rather than a controlled clinical trial, it could not definitively prove that the genetic variants caused the difference in weight loss, only that they are associated with it, the researchers noted.
“I think this article is interesting, raising the possibility of genetic factors, and the use of genetic testing incorporated into further decision-making when picking weight-loss medications,” Balazs said. “However, I would be careful to draw conclusions solely based on this study.”
Khloe Quill is a lifestyle production assistant with Fox News Digital. She and the lifestyle team cover a range of story topics including food and drink, travel, and health.
Kharkiv, Ukraine – Hushruzjon Salohidinov, 26, was working as a courier in Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city and President Vladimir Putin’s hometown.
But last year, the Tajik man and practising Muslim says he was arrested while picking up a parcel which police claimed contained money stolen from elderly women.
Salohidinov says he never interacted with the alleged criminals, but nevertheless spent nine months in the Kresty-2 pre-trial detention centre about 32km (20 miles) from the city, while a judge refused to start his trial because of the “weak evidence” against him.
But instead of releasing him after that, prison wardens threatened to place him in a cell with HIV-infected inmates who, they said, would gang-rape him – unless he “volunteered” to fight in Ukraine.
“They said, ‘Oh, you’ll put on a skirt now, you’ll be raped,’” Salohidinov, who has raven black hair and a messy full beard, told Al Jazeera at a centre for war prisoners in northeastern Ukraine, where he is now being held, having been captured in January this year by Ukrainian forces.
Using a carrot-and-stick tactic, the wardens also promised him a sign-up bonus of 2 million rubles ($26,200), a monthly salary of 200,000 rubles ($2,620) and an amnesty from all convictions.
So, in the autumn of 2025, Salohidinov signed up as he “saw no other way out”.
Officials in Kresty-2, St Petersburg’s prosecutors’ office and Russia’s Ministry of Defence did not respond to any of Al Jazeera’s requests for comment.
Hushruzjon Salohidinov, 26, a Tajik man forced to fight for Russia, at a prisoner of war facility [Mansur Mirovalev/ Al Jazeera]
‘Catching migrants’
Salohidinov is just one of tens of thousands of labour migrants from Central Asia coerced by Russia to become soldiers as part of the Kremlin’s nationwide campaign, according to human rights groups, media reports and Russian officials.
Hochu Jit, a Ukrainian group that helps Russian soldiers surrender, has published verified lists of thousands of Central Asian soldiers like Salohidinov.
“They are literally sent to be killed, no one considers them soldiers that need to be saved,” the group wrote in a 2025 post on Telegram. These soldiers’ life expectancy on the front line is about four months. “Losses among them are catastrophic,” the group reported.
With its low birthrate and large oil wealth, Russia has for years been a magnet for millions of labour migrants from ex-Soviet Central Asia, especially Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The campaign by the Kremlin to force Central Asians to fight in Ukraine dates back to 2023 – the year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – when police began rounding up anyone who didn’t look Slavic and charging them with real or imagined transgressions such as a lack of registration, expired or “fake” permits or blurred stamps on their documents. Sometimes, migrants are simply bused straight to conscription offices.
In 2025, Al Jazeera interviewed another Tajik man who said he had been detained with an expired work permit and was then tortured into “volunteering” while being subjected to countless xenophobic and Islamophobic slurs from his officers.
Migrants say they are abused, tortured and threatened with jail or having their entire families deported.
“The main way of recruiting as many migrants as possible is pressure on them with threats of deportation,” Alisher Ilkhamov, the Uzbekistan-born head of the London-based Central Asia Due Diligence think tank, told Al Jazeera.
Sometimes, migrants are simply duped.
Salohidinov said one serviceman in his squad was an Uzbek who “didn’t speak a word of Russian” and was fooled into “volunteering” while signing papers at a migration centre.
In their reports about “catching” migrants, officials frequently use derogatory terms about them, and also when they describe men who have obtained Russian passports but skipped registration at conscription offices. Since the Soviet era, such registration has been obligatory for all men and, since 2024, a newly naturalised Russian national can lose his citizenship if he fails to do it.
“We’ve caught 80,000 such Russian citizens, who don’t just want to go to the front line, they don’t even want to go to a conscription office,” chief prosecutor Alexander Bastrykin said in May 2025, referring to the migrants’ alleged patriotic sentiments.
He boasted that 20,000 Central Asians with Russian passports were herded to the front line in 2025.
The year before, he said 10,000 Central Asians had been sent to Ukraine.
Such remarks resonate with the Russian public that lives with “a high level of xenophobia in the stage of fear and helplessness,” Sergey Biziyukin, an exiled opposition activist from the western city of Ryazan, told Al Jazeera.
“For them, such phrases from Bastrykin are a form of sedative.”
What makes Central Asians easy targets is that they hail from police states, which depend on Moscow politically and economically, observers say.
“While the migrants are frightened into signing contracts, their motherland doesn’t really pay any attention,” Galiya Ibragimova, an Uzbekistan-born, Moldova-based regional expert, told Al Jazeera.
Despite hefty signup bonuses and relentless propaganda, the number of Russians who want to fight in Ukraine fell by at least one-fifth this year, and Moscow will strive to recruit more Central Asians, she said.
Russian conscripts called up for military service attend a ceremony marking their departure for garrisons from a recruitment centre in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on October 15, 2025 [Anton Vaganov/Reuters]
‘We’ll have our fingers broken’
After signing the contract and leaving his debit card with his sign-up bonus with his parents, Salohidinov was sent to the western city of Voronezh for three weeks of training that did little to prepare him for the war.
“We just kept running back and forth with guns,” he said.
Their drill sergeants, he says, told the conscripts that the standard-issue flak jackets, helmets, boots and flashlights were of subpar quality and urged them to pitch in a million rubles ($13,100) each for “better” gear.
The incident corroborates reports on dozens of similar cases in Russian military units.
Salohidinov was ordered to work in a kitchen – and was verbally abused and beaten for the slightest transgression.
Of 28 men in his unit, 21 were Muslims – but their ethnic Russian officers ignored their pleas not to have pork in meals, repeating a decades-old practice of ignoring religion-related dietary restrictions dating back to the Soviet army.
The commanders demonised Ukrainians, telling them “that if we surrender, we’d be tortured, have our fingers broken, maimed, get [construction] foam up our a**, have our teeth yanked out one by one, have our arms broken”, Salohidinov says.
In early January this year, the conscripts were bused to the Russia-occupied Ukrainian region of Luhansk.
Salohidinov says he was tired, frightened and disoriented – Ukrainian drones were “always” above them and a grenade explosion nearby damaged his left eardrum.
A woman waits for news about a missing loved one as some Ukrainian soldiers return during a prisoner of war (POW) swap, amid Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, on April 11, 2026 [Thomas Peter/Reuters]
‘Glad I got captured’
On the fourth day of his service, Salohidinov was ordered to run beyond Ukrainian positions as part of Russia’s new tactic to send two or three servicemen to infiltrate the porous front line.
The mission was suicidal because the terrain was open, dotted with landmines and the bodies of dead Russian soldiers, while Ukrainians were firing machineguns and flew drones above them.
“I ran and ran and saw we were being shot at,” he said. “Me and my commander decided to surrender voluntarily instead of dying for nothing.”
They detached their assault rifles’ magazines, raised their hands and yelled they were surrendering.
What followed was “a calm feeling, beautiful”, he said. “They fed us, let us have a smoke, gave us food and water and even cake.”
Now, Salohidinov hopes to return to Tajikistan and panics at the thought of being made part of a prisoner swap – these have taken place several times each year – and returning to Russia because he would be sent back to the front line.
Tajikistan and other Central Asian nations have never endorsed Russia’s war in Ukraine, but nor have they openly criticised it.
In August 2025, Tajikistan’s Prosecutor General Habibullo Vohidzoda declared that no Tajik national would be charged for fighting in Ukraine.
So, what Salohidinov needs right now is an extradition request.
“I’m even glad that I got captured, because I’m not fighting anyone now, not risking anything,” he said. “I’ll even say thanks to Ukraine for taking me prisoner.”
The Tajik embassy in Kyiv did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
