The strange warmth between the leaders has sent a chill globally at the prospect of a troika of authoritarian states

Donald Trump’s sinister affinity for Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has long been the subject of intense speculation. Former KGB officers claim Trump was recruited in Moscow in 1987 and cultivated as an asset in the years prior to his 2016 US election victory.

Two retired Russian spies weighed in again last month, alleging that the then 40-year-old Trump, codename “Krasnov”, was personally compromised in an “active measures” operation and has secretly danced to Putin’s tune ever since.

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From the woman who asks to see teenage boys’ rooms to the gang who want to know how couples found love, some people are attracting a huge following (and financial rewards) from being nosy - and asking one killer question

Rachel Coster, @boyroomshow
TikTok followers: 232,400
Instagram followers: 71,400

The general reaction is that this was yet another stunning example of how spineless and performative the Democrats are

Happy International Women’s Day (IWD), everyone! I’ve got some good news and some bad news to mark the occasion.

Troxy, London
Touring his 2024 solo album No Name in a barnstorming gig, the former White Stripe plays fast and loose with the truth but is absolutely the real deal

“Do you believe me yet?” yells Jack White from the lip of the stage, a few songs into his second night’s work at this classy art deco venue in east London. It’s a very Jack White kind of location: highly stylised, lovingly restored, but not entirely removed from its unglamorous surroundings.

Lit in deep blue and strobing white, the colour palette of his solo career, White and his band have played tracks from his most recent album, the surprise-released No Name, first handed out free on white-label vinyl to unsuspecting shoppers at Third Man stores in Nashville, Detroit and London last summer (Third Man Records is White’s own imprint). It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking) is a particularly rousing workout full of guitar shock and awe, from an album that has drawn relieved and delighted comparisons to White’s first band, the White Stripes.

The supervet talks about growing up on a farm in Ireland, learning the elusive language of elephants and his love of Led Zeppelin

This week I’ve done brain surgery, spinal surgery, elbow surgery, knee surgery and a fracture that took 14 hours to fix. By the end, everything ached. I empathise with my patients, for sure. You feel connected to the universe, helping to prolong the lives of animals.

People say, “I’ve got a knee problem, a back problem. Can you operate on me?” If I did, I’d lose my licence.

Jeffrey Collins of the Associated Press recalls experience of watching Brad Sigmon die for 2001 murders

A reporter for the Associated Press who watched as South Carolina executed a convicted murderer by firing squad has described the experience, saying that the killing was now “etched” in his mind.

Jeffrey Collins, who has witnessed executions in South Carolina for the news agency for 21 years and has seen 11 people killed using three methods, wrote a short essay about the experience.