State and local governments are increasingly turning to banks for capital during financial distress and market volatility. Outstanding

DNG Comics recently announced the global release of all 'Top G' comic books available in physical stores worldwide

Lewis Hamilton had hoped his revamped Mercedes would have propelled him closer to the front after he finished sixth in practice for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix. Hamilton’s Mercedes team arrived for the sixth round of the season in the sun-cooked principality armed with a major upgrade. But after an encouraging start – with Hamilton briefly heading the order in the opening running of the weekend – the British driver ended the day half-a-second behind Max Verstappen, who finished fastest for Red Bull. George Russell was only 12th in the other Mercedes. “It is a shame we were not as close as I hoped we would be at the end of the session,” said Hamilton. “In P1, I thought, ‘Wow, maybe we’re looking pretty good’, but in P2 we were close to half-a-second off. I don’t think we have half a second in the bag. “We’ve just got to keep chipping away to see if we can squeeze any more juice out of the cup.” After giving up on this season’s car on the eve of the opening race in Bahrain, Mercedes have spent the ensuing dozen weeks working on a new design philosophy. The Silver Arrows have abandoned their controversial zero-sidepod concept and introduced a new front suspension, new floor and cooling system in a drastic change of development on a car which has contributed to the longest losing streak of Hamilton’s career. On Sunday, it will be 539 days since Hamilton last stood on the top step of the podium at the penultimate round of the contentious 2021 season in Saudi Arabia. And although Mercedes are keen not to draw too many conclusions at this week’s unique Monte Carlo configuration – and believe the following round at the well-trodden Circuit de Catalunya venue on the outskirts of Barcelona will present them with a better understanding of where they stand – the evidence of practice suggests they are no closer to providing a real challenge to Red Bull. Hamilton added: “It’s not really the place to test an upgrade, but the car was generally feeling good. “It’s very clear where the lack of performance is, and we will talk about that in the debrief. Hopefully this gives us a platform to build on moving forwards.” Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez are the only men to have won a race this year, but their rapid Red Bull is not necessarily suited to the narrow and slow-speed track in Monaco. However, despite Perez managing only seventh in practice, Verstappen’s pace indicates he could still be the driver to beat. Home favourite Charles Leclerc is ready to pounce – after he finished just 0.065 seconds back – with his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz, who crashed out of second practice remaining following a mistake at the high-speed swimming pool chicane, third. Fernando Alonso could be a contender, too. The Aston Martin driver, 41, took fourth spot, 0.220 sec adrift of Verstappen. Lando Norris finished fifth in his McLaren. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Lewis Hamilton: Racist abuse of Vinicius Junior really hits home for me Bernie Ecclestone would be surprised if Lewis Hamilton wanted to leave Mercedes Lewis Hamilton insists right decision is made as Emilia Romagna GP cancelled

I didn’t grow up eating crab, but I absolutely love the sweetness, which you can’t really get from any other seafood,” says former Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain. “This natural sweetness is quite a wonder and it really does work well cooked with the slight crunch of the green beans and the simple spicing, making it a bhuna I cook time and time again.” Crab bhuna Serves: 4 Ingredients: Oil, for frying 4 cloves of garlic, crushed 2 red onions, finely diced 2 red peppers, finely diced 3 mild red chillies, finely diced 1½ tsp salt ½ tsp ground turmeric 3 tsp curry powder 180g green beans, finely sliced 3 x 145g tins of shredded crab meat in brine, drained Large handful of chopped fresh coriander Method: 1. Start with a large non-stick pan or wok and put it onto the hob over a high heat. Add the oil and as soon as it is hot, add the garlic and cook until golden. 2. Now add the red onion, red pepper and red chilli along with the salt, turmeric and curry powder. Add a splash of water and the green beans and cook till there is no liquid left. 3. Now add the shredded crab meat. As you add the crab meat, make sure you remove any excess moisture. A bhuna is meant to be dry so we want to avoid any excess liquid. Cook with the lid off over a high heat for 10 minutes. 4. Take off the heat, add the chopped coriander and mix through to serve. Saag aloo chicken jalfrezi “This is the kind of dish that you often see being served up at an Indian restaurant and while it may look complicated, it doesn’t have to be at all,” says Hussain. “This is like the Bengali stir fry you never knew you needed. It’s spiced, fast and a feast for the eyes.” Serves: 4 Ingredients: Oil, for frying 3 dried red chillies 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced 400g tin of cream of tomato soup 1½ tsp salt 4 tbsps brown sauce 4 tbsp art masala mix 2 red onions, quartered 2 red peppers, cut into large chunks 560g tin of potatoes, halved 200g cooked chicken 80g fresh baby spinach Handful of fresh coriander 2 spring onions, thinly sliced For the art masala mix: 28g cardamom pods 3g bay leaves 34g fennel seeds 100g cumin seeds or ground cumin 38g ground cinnamon 100g ground turmeric 44g chilli powder 200g curry powder Method: 1. To make the art masala mix, use a spice grinder. Lots of smoothie-makers also come with a milling blade that works well to really crush down these whole spices. Put the cardamom pods in the grinder, husk and all. Whack them in and blend to a fine powder, then pour out into a large bowl. Now put your bay leaves, fennel and cumin seeds into the same grinder and blitz to a powder. If your grinder is small, you can do each spice alone, but just note that when doing the bay leaves, always blend them with the fennel seeds. They need the seeds to get them moving enough to crush to a powder. Add to the bowl. Mix thoroughly, being sure to do this after each addition as it’s important to make sure that the mix is well-blended. Now for the cinnamon. I prefer to use ground cinnamon as it’s readily available and will save you from having to crush something quite hard – why should we if we don’t need to? Add to the bowl and mix. Chuck in the ground turmeric and mix. Add the chilli powder and mix. Lastly, add the curry powder and give everything a good stir. Transfer into a jar or jars and you are ready to go! 2. Put a large non-stick frying pan or wok over a high heat and drizzle a good amount of oil into the base. Throw in the dried red chillies and toast in the oil until they swell up. Lower the heat, add the garlic and toast till it turns a deep golden brown. 3. Pour in the tin of cream of tomato soup, add the salt, brown sauce and art masala mix and cook till the liquid thickens and is reduced by half. 4. Add the red onion, red pepper, tinned potatoes and cooked chicken and stir in the sauce on a really high heat until everything is coated in the sauce and catching on the base of the pan. Take off the heat and stir in the spinach until just wilted. 5. Serve the curry immediately with the coriander and spring onion sprinkled over. Milk fudge flapjack “This includes two of my favourite things and I have made their worlds collide,” says Hussain. “Flapjack – sticky, sweet and oaty – topped with a spiced Indian milk fudge. Why have one world when you can build a bridge between two?” Makes: 12 Ingredients: For the flapjack: 250g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the tin 180g golden syrup 180g caster sugar 500g porridge oats 2 tsp almond extract For the milk fudge: 60g unsalted butter 200ml double cream 60g caster sugar 6 cardamom pods 100ml condensed milk 250g semi-skimmed milk powder, blitzed in a processor to remove any lumps 100g toasted almond flakes Method: 1. For the flapjack, start by putting the butter, golden syrup and caster sugar into a pan and warming it all through until the butter has melted and sugar dissolved. Take off the heat. 2. Preheat the oven to 160C fan and line and grease the base and sides of a 20cm square cake tin. 3. Add the oats to a bowl, pour in the melted butter/sugar mix and add the almond extract. Stir the mixture till everything is well combined. Tip into the prepared tin and flatten, making sure to pat down so everything is well compressed. 4. Pop into the oven and bake for 30 minutes. When the flapjack is ready, it will be golden around the edges and lighter in the centre. Take out and leave to cool completely, then chill in the fridge so we have a firm base for our fudge to sit on. 5. For the milk fudge, put the unsalted butter, double cream and caster sugar into a pan and mix till the sugar has dissolved. 6. Crush the cardamom pods, remove the husks and crush the black seeds. Add to the sugar mix. Stir in and then add the condensed milk and semi-skimmed milk powder. Bring to a gentle simmer over a medium heat and keep stirring till the mixture is thick and coming away from the sides of the pan. 7. Spoon the mixture right on top of the flapjack and press into an even layer. Sprinkle over the toasted almond flakes and press them in. 8. Leave to cool in the tin and then leave to chill in the fridge. Cut into squares and they are ready. ‘Nadiya’s Simple Spices’ by Nadiya Hussain (Penguin Michael Joseph, £26). Read More Obsessed with Boursin? It’s the perfect way to elevate your leftovers Budget Bites: Three one-pan recipes that minimise on washing up How to cook to keep your gut healthy Three recipes from Michel Roux’s new fuss-free French cookbook Formula for the ‘perfect’ fish finger sandwich revealed Being vegetarian may partly be in one’s genes, study finds

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'A True Gift from God, blessed! Welcome Babyboy. #mumoftwo. It’s never too late to become a mother,' wrote Naomi Campbell

Former president Donald Trump reacted angrily on Monday after Fox News highlighted a Quinnipiac University poll showing him as trailing President Joe Biden by a four-point margin. Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social website that the respected polling organisation had released a “bad poll” and accused Quinnipiac of using too few Republican voters in the sample of Americans who were surveyed. Mr Trump argued that the poll actually showed that he was in the lead over Mr Biden. “It under samples Republicans by 10 points, which means, instead of being down 4 points, I am up 6 points,” he said. “Other Polls show me much higher than that, but FoxNews will always attempt, as they did in 2016, to only show negatives on MAGA & TRUMP. We’re winning BIG, they don’t like it, the RINOS don’t like it, the Democrats don’t like it but, most of all, the Marxists & Communists don’t like it!” Mr Trump’s unsubstantiated claim echoes grievances that GOP figures aired in the run-up to the 2012 election, in which they alleged that reputable, mainstream polls were somehow “skewed” against Republicans and therefore were inaccurately showing that then-GOP nominee Mitt Romney was trailing then-president Obama, who was running for re-election at the time. Mr Obama, of course, ended up winning the 2012 election handily. Read More Trump news – live: Bill Barr slams Trump’s ‘absurd’ classified papers defence as ex-attorney quits CNN lawsuit Petition seeks to ban Donald Trump Jr from Australia visit over ‘white supremacy, transphobia and misogyny’ Trump faces questions about whether he'll drag down the Republican Party after his indictments

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