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Red Bull hire bodyguards for Max Verstappen over safety concerns at Mexico GP
Red Bull hire bodyguards for Max Verstappen over safety concerns at Mexico GP
Max Verstappen will be accompanied by two bodyguards at this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix amid safety concerns. Red Bull have decided to act after the Dutchman was booed by a section of Mexican fans at the US Grand Prix in Austin last Sunday, while there was also chanting of “Checo” during the Dutch national anthem. Social media threats have also been made against the three-time F1 world champion. Verstappen and his Mexican team-mate Sergio Perez have endured a topsy-turvy relationship, with a significant low in Brazil last year when Verstappen ignored a team order to let Perez pass him. And while Verstappen did not ask for protection in the Mexico City paddock, Red Bull special advisor Helmut Marko revealed the team are not taking any chances. “Max doesn’t really want that [bodyguards] and is relaxed,” Marko told F1-Insider.com. “But we have responsibility for him. That’s why we just want to play it safe.” World champion Verstappen is 226 points clear of Perez in the championship standings, with 15 wins compared to two. Perez has not won since Azerbaijan in April and has endured a dismal few months despite being in the quickest car on the grid. It has resulted in speculation that the Mexican will lose his seat for 2024, a year before his contract runs out. But team boss Christian Horner has repeatedly insisted Perez will be their driver next year. Perez will be eyeing a historic victory at his home race this weekend, where he has been on the podium twice. Read More Willy T Ribbs: ‘There were death threats – but I was never going to play the victim’ Mercedes chief admits ‘embarrassment’ after Lewis Hamilton disqualification Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc post amusing joint Instagram after DSQ
2023-10-26 23:14
The best part of 'Foe' is how the world is ending
The best part of 'Foe' is how the world is ending
Garth Davis' dystopian sci-fi, Foe, has been getting some lukewarm reviews. But there's one surefire
2023-10-30 17:00
Bukayo Saka named 2022/23 PFA Young Player of the Year
Bukayo Saka named 2022/23 PFA Young Player of the Year
Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka has been named the 2022/23 PFA Young Player of the Year.
2023-08-30 03:34
Asian shares sit tight ahead of Nvidia results, yields near highs
Asian shares sit tight ahead of Nvidia results, yields near highs
By Stella Qiu SYDNEY Asian shares held tight ranges on Wednesday as investors awaited results from tech darling
2023-08-23 10:09
China's June exports fall 12.4%, imports drop 6.8%
China's June exports fall 12.4%, imports drop 6.8%
BEIJING China's exports fell 12.4% in June year-on-year, while imports contracted 6.8%, customs data showed on Thursday, suggesting
2023-07-13 12:02
Invasive species a growing and costly threat, key report to find
Invasive species a growing and costly threat, key report to find
Invasive species that destroy forests, ravage crops and cause extinctions are a major and growing threat worldwide, a landmark UN-backed assessment...
2023-09-04 09:57
Mayfield, Bucs look to build on confidence-bolstering win as they host Fields, Bears
Mayfield, Bucs look to build on confidence-bolstering win as they host Fields, Bears
Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers aim to build on a season-opening win when they host Justin Fields and the Chicago Bears
2023-09-15 03:23
Nappy changes and tantrums over Michael Gove: I took my one-year-old to a music festival
Nappy changes and tantrums over Michael Gove: I took my one-year-old to a music festival
It’s just after 9pm and lilac hues have spread across Dorset skies, shadows extending over a panorama of marquee tops. Perfect conditions for the first night of End of the Road, whose Friday headliners – Black Midi, Battles and Fleet Foxes among them – are minutes away from stepping on stage. Yet, rather than slipping through the masses to grab a good spot, I’ve been back at my tent for an hour already. Having unfolded a stool in the last of the sun, simmering lentils and a mug full of boxed cab-sav for company, my one-year-old daughter, Nancy, has finally nodded off in the tent, unaware of earlier negotiations between her parents. After an afternoon watching bands from a lower-decibel distance as a family, it’s my wife who’s out tonight, enjoying her child-free break for freedom. Although, with the Pixies – a band beloved since teen years but never seen live – top billing on Saturday night, I felt confident in my call as “White Winter Hymnal” carried on the breeze. We’re a day into our first festival as a family of three, an experience already proving quite a journey. As a sometimes music journalist, I’d covered events across Europe over the past decade, adept at negotiating stage splits, balancing reporting duties and life-affirming experiences with willing accomplices. Of these, End of the Road has remained a regular fixture, an informal end-of-summer meet-up with industry colleagues and friends – as well as my chosen stag-do destination. With a one-year-old in tow, this year would mark a stark contrast. From the freshly purchased family-sized tent – the subject of substantial research and investment, and an attempt to win over a camping-averse wife – to the travel cot, buggy, strings of fairy lighting, endless layers, toys and first-aid trappings for every eventuality, the baggage was endless. Shoulders ablaze, I’d carried it all in as my wife kept our daughter entertained. Stepping into my role as responsible dad, I’d practised the tent’s set-up at home prior to arrival and, with a tangible sense of optimism about the weekend ahead, started separating pegs from poles. Yet, with the tent almost up, something unsettled me. What was that smell? Unzipping the bedroom it hit me. My earlier garden practice run had provided the perfect sheltered toilet for a visiting fox –  evidence of which no amount of wet-wipe scrubbing could remove, resulting in a showdown with the reluctant camper and a smell that would accent a weekend in which expectations were continuously lowered. After my wife crashed back in on Friday night, earlier than anticipated and hamstrung by a fast-developing cold, we wondered if we were up to the challenge. Nancy was having a nice time, happy tracking insects in the long grass or studiously inspecting the contents of her snack bag. But could this equally have been any other field? Had we been too exhausted and distracted to embrace the experience? By contrast, our camping companions had brought their five-year-old, who enthusiastically shared stories about favourite bands and the wicker dragonfly he’d crafted, as his dad talked about the surprise sets he’d happened upon the previous night. Perhaps we’d just taken all of this on too soon. The next morning, I nudged Nancy’s buggy around the site, stopping at the kids’ area, where a neckerchiefed uke player offered up nursery rhymes with instruments for children, which were seized upon with pleasure. Various childless friends were never far away, entertaining our daughter in bursts. Later, after reuniting with my wife, a highlight was bobbing to Los Bitchos’ buoyant afternoon performance with Nancy held aloft, as was a brief glimpse of Jockstrap packing out a small stage in the woods. Yet other moments – flailing nappy changes amid aghast onlookers, straying too close to the stage with a buggy as the light faded and the crowd surged – presented a sharp learning curve. Still feeling under the weather, my wife headed back to the tent with Nancy as the Pixies arrived, Frank Black’s substantial presence now underscored by a pang of guilt. After checking in and being signed off to stay out, I’d joined an excitable crowd for an unannounced late-night set at the Tipi stage, which, after turning out to be one of the tiny handful of bands I’d already seen that day – again sounded another minor chord on my tiny violin. As the skies cleared, we’d discovered corners along the way we’d otherwise never have seen and met a similarly dazed yet determined community of parents With my wife’s health deteriorating further overnight – diminishing her perception of fox piss, at least – we made the call to leave on Sunday morning and I hauled everything back to the car. On the long drive home, and hours before Covid would be confirmed, it had to be asked: had this been fun for anyone concerned? Was this festival too aptly named for a new dad trying to reconcile past and present lives? This all happened in the summer of 2022 and, unfazed, we tried again this year – albeit at the even smaller scale and decidedly family-friendly Kite Festival in Oxfordshire. While Nancy’s advanced age presented new challenges – tentative first steps now a confident swagger – her inquisitiveness also marked her out as the perfect festival companion. Expectations now firmly in check, we let ourselves be led by circumstance and proximity, stopping for whatever drew the eye rather than dashing from act to act, allowing us to slow down and see the world through her eyes. Occasionally we tag-teamed the lineup, each picking a couple of acts to witness unhindered by short attention spans (my wife took former PM John Major’s packed-out talk in the big top, I took Suede). Under the hot sun, our meeting point at the shaded children’s area also helped keep Nancy from turning pink in the sun. Clapping furiously at the end of shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves’s morning debate, her grasp on Labour’s manifesto pledges seems better than most – although this mimicry of crowd behaviour proves an endearing feature at later events, too. An uncontrollable tantrum during Michael Gove’s appearance at a panel discussion saw us quickly extract ourselves from the tent, drawing smiles from an audience impressed by the effectiveness of her heckle. Further priceless memories included dancing together at Candi Staton’s sundown set, Nancy with a brioche in each hand – ear defenders askew – visibly finding her feet. The following day the skies suddenly broke, with an electrical storm closing all stages, sending Birkenstock-clad families sprinting for cover. The one attendee thrilled by it all was Nancy, who careered around cackling as security attempted to keep punters from the marquee’s lightning-conducting metal poles. As the skies cleared, we’d discovered corners along the way we’d otherwise never have seen and met a similarly dazed yet determined community of parents. We still hadn’t nailed the performative kids-at-festivals thing – there was no trolley adorned with decoration or whimsical outfits – but felt comfortable that we’d struck the right balance, fulfilled by a shared experience led by the spontaneity of a child’s impulses. It marked a shift from any naive attempt to carry on with our lives as normal. An alternative, of course, is to leave your family at home. A couple of weeks ago I joined 250,000 others at Glastonbury, my own spontaneity given breathing space once more. Thrilling, yes, but also a weekend that at times left me seeking my small festival companion among the other attendees. I was temporarily overcome watching a daughter on the shoulders of her father as he introduced her to a favourite band, excitedly explaining each musician’s role. “How old? I’ve got one a similar age,” was shared with various others. Yet it was also at Glastonbury, as the temperature nudged into the thirties, that I spotted another dad – fixed grin but dead behind the eyes – pushing three irritable kids in a trolley up a shadeless slope. I nod my solidarity, before skipping off to the bar – relieved, this time, that’s not me. Bumping into Joe Goddard from Hot Chip, whose bandmates collectively call their kids the Micro Chips, he says that of all the children he knows, it’s those who have always been dragged to festivals who have proved the most rounded. Something that resonates with me as the Glastonbury hangover subsides and – reunited with my family – I start looking forward to carving out new shared experiences in crowded fields once more. Read More The earthy magic and lawless energy of being a child at Glastonbury festival Too cool to love these acts 10 years ago? This year’s Glastonbury is for you Music festivals have saved me so many times Demi Lovato says she still struggles with vision, hearing impairment after overdose Marina Diamandis says she has been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome Should I keep my windows closed or open during a heatwave?
2023-07-16 13:30
Nate Diaz unveils official trailer of his much-awaited boxing match against Jake Paul, psyched fans call it 'freaking epic'
Nate Diaz unveils official trailer of his much-awaited boxing match against Jake Paul, psyched fans call it 'freaking epic'
Keep reading to know more details about the highly anticipated match, Nate Diaz vs Jake Paul
2023-07-14 20:32
Football rumours: Tottenham reported to have first refusal on Harry Kane return
Football rumours: Tottenham reported to have first refusal on Harry Kane return
What the papers say Harry Kane continues to feature strongly in transfer talk – just weeks after his move to Bayern Munich. The Daily Mail says a buy-back clause gives Tottenham first refusal on the England captain, 30, if he returns to the Premier League, but the Daily Telegraph reports any return would depend on whether Kane feels he can work with chairman Daniel Levy. Manchester City are keen to keep hold of their young forward Oscar Bobb. The treble winners turned down loan offers from Ajax and Porto for the 20-year-old Norway Under-21 international, according to the Daily Telegraph. Across the city, Manchester United are also keen to keep hold of a young striking talent. The Manchester Evening News reports United are lining up a new contract for Joe Hugill, 19, after he impressed in pre-season. Off the pitch, former Sheffield Wednesday manager Darren Moore, 49, is tipped to take over at Huddersfield Town, according to The Sun. The Terriers have parted ways with veteran boss Neil Warnock. Social media round-up Players to watch Jadon Sancho: Reports in Germany suggest Borussia Dortmund are not interested in re-signing the winger, 23, to end his troubled stay at Manchester United.Hugo Ekitike: Crystal Palace, Brentford, Everton, West Ham and Wolves are all keen on Paris St-Germain’s 21-year-old striker. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live
2023-09-21 14:21
Riley Keough to pay $1.4M settlement to grandmom Priscilla Presley after taking over Lisa Marie's estate after her death
Riley Keough to pay $1.4M settlement to grandmom Priscilla Presley after taking over Lisa Marie's estate after her death
After enduring a contentious legal battle, Lis Marie Presley's daughter Riley Keough expressed a desire for a drama-free relationship with her grandmother Priscilla
2023-06-15 15:54
Who is Xavier Bonner? 'The Bachelorette' contestant's research focuses on building community among Black peers with HIV
Who is Xavier Bonner? 'The Bachelorette' contestant's research focuses on building community among Black peers with HIV
Xavier Bonner does research on how HIV viruses infiltrate various bodily cells and works to foster a sense of connection among Black peers
2023-06-27 06:00