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BEIJING Steel rebar prices in China hit their lowest in three years this week, underscoring flagging growth in

And so a season that began with Chelsea as the reigning world champions nears its sorry end with a very different addition to their songbook. “You’re nothing special,” their fans sang. “We lose every week.” Although some weeks they lose twice. It was the night a club clinched Champions League football: not Chelsea, though Todd Boehly thought as recently as early February that a top-four finish was possible. Instead, they are 27 points behind Newcastle, 29 adrift of Manchester United, closer in points to the relegation zone than the top nine, the club who conquered Europe in 2021 now stand sixth in London alone; they are guaranteed to finish third in west London. Chelsea were sixth in the division when they sacked Thomas Tuchel, a decision that seemed rash then and looks positively stupid now. It has been a season of four managers, 16 signings and £600m of spending. After the false dawn of wins in Graham Potter’s first three league games, they had 19 points from nine. Since then, Chelsea have 24 from 28 matches. It is relegation form: indeed, Leicester, who could be relegated, have more in the same time. In all competitions, they have scored 22 goals in their last 31 games. They have sustained terrible form over a long period of time. “Results for Chelsea this season: not good enough,” said Frank Lampard succinctly. “It has been a bad year.” No one escapes untainted from this. Possibly their greatest-ever player and definitely their record goalscorer has a 10 per cent win rate from his second spell in charge; the idea that a caretaker could plot a path past Real Madrid and to Champions League glory felt fanciful. Boehly’s infamous prediction that they would beat Real 3-0 in the Bernabeu was, in its own way, wonderfully delusional. Since then, Chelsea have scored eight goals and conceded 20. In the Premier League, they are certain to finish with a negative goal difference. It is partly a consequence of terrible finishing, partly just another marker of how virtually everything that could go wrong has. In all competitions, Chelsea remain outscored by Erling Haaland this season. They at least created chances in a 4-1 defeat at Old Trafford. They defended terribly, however. But the outcome was familiar. Chelsea used to be the best; now they are a team who need to play the worst (although maybe not Southampton, who have beaten them twice). They have faced the eventual top 10 in 19 matches this season – 21 if their two cup defeats to Manchester City are included – and won one: even that was against Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa, not Unai Emery’s Villa. Individual ability has sometimes compensated against lesser sides. Their record against the top 10, however, illustrates how Chelsea have not been the sum of their parts. Lampard described their training and preparation as “collectively the thing that’s been glaringly short”. He lamented a lack of “standards” but, two years ago under Tuchel, the standards were high. Now the price is. Their parts have never been costlier in a season of record outlay. But their player of the year is a 38-year-old they got on a free transfer, in Thiago Silva. The 18-year-old Lewis Hall has been the greatest positive of back-to-back trips to Manchester, but looks a more compelling understudy to Ben Chilwell at left-back than the £62m signing Marc Cucurella. Meanwhile, Wesley Fofana, the £70m centre-back, has gifted both Manchester clubs goals within five days with poor passes. Mykhailo Mudryk is the £88m forward with no goals. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was signed to play for Thomas Tuchel, who was sacked when the striker was one game into his Chelsea career. Joao Felix, an utterly unsuccessful loan signing, cost £16m in fee and wages and only found his clinical touch when 4-0 down at Old Trafford. He is an example of how Chelsea have burned through money. There isn’t a hit among those 16 signings yet; many – Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Enzo Fernandez, Fofana, Aubameyang, Cucurella – would command far less if sold now. Instead, they may have to lose Mason Mount, the kind of player Mauricio Pochettino would probably appreciate. They have amassed too many players to manage, or even to accommodate in a dressing room. “People talk about squad size, things that are very valid,” said Lampard. “There isn’t a huge stability in the team and squad.” He played in a time when instability almost seemed an asset to Chelsea. Now, the needless scale and pace of change has accelerated a decline. Chelsea have plunged themselves into a downward spiral, with talent but not cohesion, clarity of thought, consistency of selection, a style of play, a system or goals. Pochettino will inherit a mess having presumably ensured he does not take charge before the end of this season so he cannot be blamed for it. “It needs a rebuild,” Lampard said. “The club will move on in the summer in terms of the squad.” And so, at the end of a season that has been a masterpiece of stupidity, the fourth man to coach a squad that has had over half a billion spent on 16 players concluded they still need a rebuild. Read More Manchester United owe Champions League return to one man Jose Mourinho takes snide dig at Tottenham and Daniel Levy How Chelsea match is pivotal to Man Utd’s hopes of signing Mason Mount

Nvidia Corp. gave investors what they were looking for this week: concrete evidence that the surge in artificial

Countries from Asia to Latin America are snapping up natural gas cargoes as prices slump, helping replace more

European natural gas prices are heading for their longest run of weekly declines since 2007, with demand proving

A woman has joked on TikTok that she sued her parents after they gave birth to her without her consent. Kass Theaz, a satirical TikTok creator, claimed that she had sued her parents after they gave birth to her "without her permission." She joked that ‘they didn’t try to contact me in anyway before I was born to see if I actually wanted to be here.’ The TikTok has currently over 2 million views and almost 20,000 comments. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Theaz spoke about this in a TikTok that discussed why she herself had children if she sued her parents for having her without her permission. The content creator explained that because she had adopted her children she had no role in conceiving her children without their consent. "It’s not my fault that they’re here," Theaz said. She added: "if you are pregnant right now you need to go you need to hire a psychic medium and ask if they actually wanna be here." @isatandstared Replying to @JCNCLP Viewers who didn’t realise Theaz’s account was satire were confused, with one user commenting: ‘is this real?’ Others left comments such as: ‘you need help,’ ‘please tell me you’re joking,’ ‘now they’re teaching children to sue their parents for money so they don’t have to grow up and work?’ However, many were quick to catch on that Theaz was joking, and once they did, they appreciated the laugh. ‘Best laugh I’ve had all day,’ said one user. Another wrote, ‘ha ha you’re funny, loving the amount of confused people in the comments.’ Theaz has gained over 100,000 followers and 2.5 million likes for her hilarious content. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Spanish league's relegation fight has seven teams trying to avoid joining Elche in the second division next season

Here we are! The end of the road in Fantasy Premier League this season - gameweek 38. Twenty teams, ten games all kicking off at 4.30pm GMT and one final chance to get some points in before the FPL league tables are finalised. With that in mind, here are five essential picks for your team this week: (All prices accurate as of Thursday 25 May) For more picks, differential top tips, chip strategy and more, sign up for our newsletter by entering your email address at the top of this article or clicking here. Sam Johnstone - £4.4m Consider bringing in Sam Johnstone to stand between the sticks. With Nottingham Forest now safe, expect Steve Cooper's side to take their foot off the gas in their final game against Crystal Palace. The English shot-stopper has averaged over four points per game in his 12 appearances in the League this season, and Palace's recent form, which includes three clean sheets in their last seven, should give you hope that Johnstone could punch above his averages. Crucially, at just £4.4m, Johnstone would allow you to re-direct funds from goal to more important areas of the squad. Mohamed Salah - £13.1m The Egyptian winger has enjoyed yet another astonishing season in terms of output, which has perhaps slipped under the radar given the exploits of Erling Haaland and Liverpool's struggles. Against an already relegated Southampton, the dynamic forward is an essential pick and is a strong candidate for captaincy. James Maddison - £7.8m Cometh the hour, cometh the man? Leicester's talisman simply must perform against West Ham if his side have any chance at staying up. His (and Leicester's) attacking output has actually been quite respectable (currently his second-best season for goals in the Premier League), despite their league position, and the maverick midfielder grabbed a goal in the reverse fixture at the London Stadium. Eberechi Eze - £5.7m A favourite of The Independent’s FPL newsletter, it just feels wrong to leave out the inspired Eberechi Eze for this final gameweek. Whilst sentimentality may have had a small part to play, the English midfielder's numbers speak for themselves, with Eze standing as the top-scoring Crystal Palace asset this season - no mean feat, given competition from the likes of Wilfried Zaha, Michael Olise, Vicente Guaita and Jordan Ayew. His final fixture is a kind one, too, as outlined above for our goalkeeper pick this week - Forest need to be wary of the threat Eze poses if they stand any chance. Rico Lewis - £3.8m An outside choice - but why not consider the ridiculously cheap Rico Lewis for the final day? City proved that a clean sheet with a much-rotated XI (we daren't use the words 'weaker' and 'Manchester City' in the same sentence) is possible against Chelsea in GW37, and we should expect to see a similar number of fringe players in the squad for the Brentford game. As much as selection is a guessing game with Pep Guardiola, Lewis seems like a strong candidate to start, given the upcoming FA Cup and Champions League finals for City. For more picks, differential top tips, chip strategy and more, sign up for our newsletter by entering your email address at the top of this article. Read More Fantasy Premier League tips for GW37: Wilson, Dias, de Gea and more £600m spent but still outscored by Haaland – Chelsea’s masterpiece of stupidity ‘It is theatre’: Inside the chaos of a final-day Premier League relegation battle £600m spent but still outscored by Haaland – Chelsea’s masterpiece of stupidity ‘It is theatre’: Inside the chaos of a final-day Premier League relegation battle Mark Robins vowed to lead Coventry back to the Premier League – Michael Doyle

As concerns grow over increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT, the nation’s financial watchdog says it’s working to ensure that companies follow the law when using AI

David Bowie once whispered something NSFW to the late Tina Turner, leaving the superstar in hysterics on stage. During a gig in Birmingham for her 1985 Private Dancer tour, Bowie joined Turner on stage for the song 'Tonight'. It was then that Bowie was seen mouthing something, which lip readers reportedly interpreted as: "My c**k still hurts." The late stars shared a close friendship over the years, with Turner once saying he told her he loved her. At the time, Turner said: "I saw him, he was performing some place in Brussels and I went to see him. "He was just in a shirt, trousers and a guitar and almost acapella and that was the actual last time I went to his dressing room and said hello and talked about the show. "I remember the last thing he said. He said, ‘I love you Tina’ and I said ‘I love you, David.'" Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Tina Turner - Tonight (with David Bowie) [Live] youtu.be It comes after Oprah Winfrey led tributes for the late star, who sadly passed away "peacefully" on Wednesday (24 May) at age 83. The US host called Turner "a role model not only for me but for the world", in a lengthy tribute posted to Instagram. "She is our forever goddess of rock ‘n’ roll who contained a magnitude of inner strength that grew throughout her life,” she wrote, sharing multiple pictures from their long friendship. "She was a role model not only for me but for the world. She encouraged a part of me I didn’t know existed." Winfrey continued that she was "grateful" for Turner’s courage and that her freedom from her domestic abuse had been "a clarion call for triumph". "I’m grateful for her courage, for showing us what victory looks like wearing Manolos and a leather miniskirt," she said. "She once shared with me that when her time came to leave this earth, she would not be afraid, but excited and curious. Because she had learned how to LIVE surrounded by her beloved husband, Erwin, and friends. "I am a better woman, a better human, because her life touched mine. She was indeed simply the best." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

By Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh BEIJING (Reuters) -China Eastern Airlines, the initial customer for the country's homegrown narrow-body jet

TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan's economy will probably grow more slowly in 2023 than previously forecast, the government's statistics office said on