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The Italian marque has broken with the past with its four-door, €550,000 Luce and traditionalists are furious
Ferrari is different from other carmakers, and so are its product launches. So revered is the company in its native Italy that among the first people to sit behind the wheel of its first electric vehicle were the country’s president and the pope.
Yet judging by the backlash from investors, some critics and – inevitably – a horde of online commenters, the company may need help from a higher power if it is to win over its traditional fanbase.
The Luce – pronounced “loo-chey”, Italian for “light” – is priced for the super-wealthy, at €550,000 (£476,000), with an electric motor for each wheel and the ability to get from zero to 100km/h in 2.5 seconds. But the design, led by the former Apple executive Jony Ive, has proven controversial. It is certainly unlike anything Ferrari has made before.
Continue reading...Wed, 27 May 2026 17:16:30 GMT
Former PM’s essay on Labour’s self-delusion shows he is the perfect person to provide such a critique
Hi guys. And the laydeez. It’s me, Tony. You know, the best prime minister the country ever had. The man with the rictus smile, the diamond skull and dead behind the eyes. The divinity who understands everything but himself.
I know what you are thinking. It’s been far, far too long since you have last heard from me. You’ve all been lost in the political wilderness. Bereft without your spiritual leader. Worry no longer. I am back. To comfort and hold you all. To shine a light into your sad little worlds. All I’ve ever wanted is to serve. And to be loved. But I hold no bitterness for the way you all turned your backs on me. So often the fate of many a messiah.
Continue reading...Wed, 27 May 2026 14:14:11 GMT
People in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, say school that the signage on their street relates to moved long ago
Hassan Ali was on holiday in Budapest when he was contacted by his neighbour about a sign that had been painted on the road directly outside his semi-detached home in Staffordshire.
The bright yellow sign, which read “School: Keep Clear”, was painted on Greendock Street in the early hours of Friday morning, his neighbour informed him – a bewildering update considering there was no school to keep clear of and had not been one for the past 15 years.
Continue reading...Wed, 27 May 2026 16:38:22 GMT
Bruno Fernandes, Elliot Anderson and Igor Thiago join a number of Arsenal and Manchester City players in the XI
By WhoScored
Raya kept 19 clean sheets and won his third straight Golden Glove, just one shy of Petr Cech and Joe Hart’s record, but he makes this team thanks to his game-defining interventions in high-pressure moments in the title race. The Spaniard was there when his side needed him most: against Brighton in December, at Stamford Bridge in March and perhaps the defining image of his season, the smothering save from Mateus Fernandes against West Ham in the final fortnight of the campaign. In a game of fine margins, Raya has so often been the difference for Arsenal.
Continue reading...Wed, 27 May 2026 14:17:30 GMT
A gentle daily puzzle is quietly becoming the most joyful part of my morning routine and reminds me that not every win needs to be epic
There’s been some pretty big news in the last couple of weeks in video game world: the long-running space shooter Destiny 2 is winding up after almost nine years, PlayStation appears to have decided to stop releasing its flagship single-player games on PC, and Microsoft wants us to look like we’re shouting every time we type XBOX. But the biggest news for me is that I have found my new favourite word game. I am going to be so bold as to call it the new Wordle.
Ribbit is one of the varied suite of daily games on Puzzmo, an online puzzle platform. It launched at the beginning of January, but I only recently discovered it because I have been unwell, bored, and spending too much time on my phone. Puzzmo’s daily hits include a satisfying shape-arranging game, variations on chess that make me feel extremely stupid, and pleasing word games, which are my favourites. Circuits has you making connections between the beginnings and ends of phrases (eg “stone cold > cold medicine > medicine cabinet”) as fast as you can. Bongo gives you a bunch of letter tiles and asks you to arrange them for a maximum score.
Continue reading...Wed, 27 May 2026 14:00:21 GMT
Suspected war crimes happen almost daily as Israel continues its bombardment, which Unicef estimates is killing nearly 14 children a day. We cannot write this off as just another war in a war-torn region
There are various reasons why, at 43, I still don’t know how to drive a car. Clumsiness is one. I can’t even walk straight half the time, so I don’t think it’s a good idea that I take control of a 2-tonne vehicle.
Another reason is that my first driving lesson was in Beirut and the experience scarred me for life. The car was falling apart, Lebanese drivers ignore traffic rules and the lesson was in Arabic, which I barely speak. After I had veered on to a busy road the wrong way, my teacher made me get out of the car and yelled at me. I didn’t understand exactly what he was yelling, but it wasn’t good.
Continue reading...Wed, 27 May 2026 10:00:24 GMT
Exclusive: Vetting officials also flagged £1m loan when recommending he should be denied security clearance
Peter Mandelson’s associations with senior figures in China, Russia and Israel were among the concerns raised by the UK’s vetting agency when it concluded he should be denied clearance, multiple sources have told the Guardian.
Mandelson’s links to China’s minister of finance, Lan Fo’an, the sanctions-hit Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and a former Israeli military intelligence general, Tamir Hayman, were all flagged by the agency as areas of concern shortly before he took up his post as the UK’s ambassador to the US, the sources said.
Continue reading...Wed, 27 May 2026 19:31:40 GMT
Potential leadership candidates join senior figures in saying the former PM’s essay does not address today’s challenges
Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham have criticised Tony Blair’s “striking weakness” in failing to engage with inequality, as senior party figures hit back at the former prime minister’s castigation of the Labour party.
Blair has published a lengthy critique of Labour’s time in office under Keir Starmer, arguing for the government to crack down on welfare spending, abandon restrictions on oil and gas production, and smooth relations with Donald Trump.
Continue reading...Wed, 27 May 2026 14:55:35 GMT
Anna Turley gives Reform leader 24 hours to report Russian hacking claim in ‘public and national interest’
The Labour chair has given Nigel Farage 24 hours to report to security services the claim that his phone was hacked by Russia-linked actors or the party will do it for him.
In a letter to the Reform UK leader, Anna Turley said it was “in the public and national interest” to ensure that a suspected overseas hack of a senior politician’s phone by a hostile state was properly investigated.
Continue reading...Wed, 27 May 2026 21:00:45 GMT
Anne Keast-Butler says Russian forces are ‘going backwards on the battlefield’ for first time since late 2022
Nearly half a million Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion more than four years ago, according to a new estimate from the head of the British spy agency GCHQ.
Anne Keast-Butler, the chief of the electronic intelligence agency, said in her first speech in the job that Russian forces were “going backwards on the battlefield” inside Ukraine for the first time since late 2022.
Continue reading...Wed, 27 May 2026 17:09:41 GMT