A mass crash on stage six of the Giro d’Italia forced several riders to pull out as Mads Pedersen retained the pink leader’s jersey after organisers neutralised the general classification battle.
Australian Kaden Groves of Alpecin-Deceuninck sprinted to victory in Naples to win the 227km stage in four hours 59 minutes and 52 seconds as he pipped Belgium’s Milan Fretin and Frenchman Paul Magnier on the line.
Denmark’s Pedersen finished more than five minutes behind to remain at the top of the overall standings, with Slovenian rider Primoz Roglic 17 seconds behind and Czech Mathias Vacek a further seven seconds adrift in third place.
However, the real drama occurred earlier when former Giro champion Jai Hindley was forced to abandon the race after a crash which left several competitors unseated.
The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider, who won the event in 2022, had to withdraw, having come off his bike following a pile-up in slippery conditions with around 70km to go on the stage into Naples. The Australian received treatment by the side of the road for his injuries and was not able to resume.
Pedersen was also involved in the crash – which affected around 20 riders behind Hindley – but was able to continue.
With roads made very slippery by rain, Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz, winner of the 2019 Giro, Briton Adam Yates and Magnier were also among those to hit the tarmac.
Hindley, 29, was the hardest hit and, despite being able to get up on his own, forced to abandon, while German rider Juri Hollmann, Czech Josef Cerny and New Zealand’s Dion Smith were among those to drop out.
After the crash, the stage was neutralised and the riders continued to move forward at a slower pace for about 20km before a new start was given and the race resumed.
With 10km to go, the peloton arrived in the outskirts of Naples, with conditions dry following the earlier downpours.
Frenchman Enzo Paleni and Dutchman Taco van der Hoorn then attempted to break away, but were caught with 2.5km left.
In the final kilometre alongside the port, Belgian Wout van Aert made a pre-emptive split before the 26-year-old Groves powered past him to claim victory.
Friday’s seventh stage is a mountainous 168km ride from Castel di Sangro to Tagliacozzo, just to the west of Rome, which includes three testing climbs.
There was also a serious crash involving 30 riders in the Tour of Hungary, which resulted in Danish rider Frederik Wandahl, 24, of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe being airlifted to hospital.
Spanish rider Pablo Torres (UAE Team Emirates XRG) suffered a concussion and a fractured cheekbone and the 19-year-old is being kept in hospital for observation.
Lawyers in the United States have said they will file a motion to dismiss trespassing charges directed at Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, following his arrest during a protest at an immigrant detention centre in New Jersey.
During a hearing in a New Jersey federal court on Thursday, Baraka’s defence team said that they believed he was being selectively prosecuted by the administration of President Donald Trump.
“We believe that the mayor himself was targeted here,” said Rahul Agarwal, one of Baraka’s lawyers.
“The mayor was invited into the facility on Friday,” Agarwal added, pointing out that Baraka was “outside the facility when he was ultimately handcuffed and detained”.
Baraka himself attended the hearing and spoke to supporters outside afterwards. On social media, he framed the criminal complaint as a sham.
“Today, the U.S. Attorney General’s office chose to move forward with a trial over trespassing charges at Delaney Hall. While the charges are unwarranted, we will fight this,” Baraka wrote. “This is bigger than me. It’s about all of us.”
The incident is the latest to underscore growing tensions between the Trump administration and local authorities who oppose his immigration crackdown.
Civil liberties groups have argued that the government is using its power to intimidate or coerce officials who do not align with its priorities on immigration.
The Trump administration’s complaint centres on the events of May 9, when lawmakers and protesters showed up at Delaney Hall, a new detention facility in Newark run by the private company GEO Group.
Baraka has long opposed the 1,000-bed facility, saying it lacks the proper permitting, and he has appeared outside its gates multiple times since its May 1 opening.
On the day of his arrest, Baraka joined three members of the US Congress — LaMonica McIver, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez — who arrived unannounced “to conduct lawful congressional oversight” of the facility, according to their statements afterwards.
Agarwal said that Baraka was the only person arrested in the incident. Baraka has maintained that he was invited in to the facility and shared a video on social media on Wednesday that he says shows a guard opening the gate to allow him inside the premises.
“Mayor Baraka was at Delaney Hall to join a tour of the detention facility with a congressional delegation as part of their authorized oversight responsibilities,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement on the arrest of Baraka last week.
“Mayor Baraka — and lawmakers across New Jersey and the country — are being targeted by the Trump administration for refusing to be complicit with its ongoing violations of due process.”
However, the government’s criminal complaint alleges that Baraka entered and remained inside the private facility despite multiple warnings to leave. He faces up to 30 days in prison.
“We believe there’s clear evidence that the mayor was within the property,” Assistant US Attorney Stephen Demanovich told US Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa.
Video of the incident shows an official behind the gate at Delaney Hall telling Baraka he must return outside because “you are not a congressmember”.
Judge Espinosa on Thursday told Baraka he needed to be processed by US Marshals Service after proceedings came to an end.
The Associated Press said the request sparked a moment of confusion in the courtroom. Baraka pointed out that he had already been processed after his arrest, but ultimately agreed to give his fingerprints and take a mugshot a second time.
“They’re trying their best to humiliate and degrade me as much as they possibly can,” said Baraka. “I feel like what we did was completely correct. We did not violate any laws. We stood up for the constitution of this country, the constitution of the state of New Jersey.”
Washington, DC – Justices at the US Supreme Court have questioned lawyers representing the administration of US President Donald Trump and those challenging his effort to end birthright citizenship in the country.
The hearing on Thursday represented the first time the top court in the United States has heard a case related to Trump’s January 20 order seeking to do away with the more-than-century-old policy, which grants citizenship to nearly all infants born on US soil, regardless of their parents’ legal status.
It was not immediately clear when the court would issue a ruling in the case, although an outcome could take weeks. It also remained unclear if the justices would address the underlying constitutionality of Trump’s order, or if they would only rule on the narrower question of whether lower federal court justices are empowered to block the implementation of the order nationwide.
Still, demonstrators and lawmakers who gathered outside of the Washington, DC courthouse said any ruling challenging birthright citizenship would corrode the national fabric of the US.
“We are here at the highest court in the land because a fundamental promise of America is under attack. And we are here to say not on our watch,” Ama Frimpong, the legal director of CASA, told those gathered in protest.
“All persons born in the US are citizens of the US,” Frimpong said.
Legal experts have also said a ruling limiting federal courts’ ability to order a “national” or “universal” injunction to block Trump’s executive actions would in and of itself be transformative.
“That question, in a normal sense, would already shake the legal foundation of the country: whether lower courts have the right to order nationwide injunctions,” said Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro from outside the courthouse.
“But it’s the second question that really people are focused on, and that is if Trump has the power to cancel birthright citizenship for the children born to undocumented immigrants and certain visa holders visiting the US,” she said.
“Now it is up to the justices whether they want to go in either of those directions.”
‘Catch me if you can kind of regime’
Over two hours of questioning, lawyers for the Trump administration, as well as those representing states and individuals who have challenged Trump’s order, addressed matters both of constitutional grandeur and legal minutia.
Solicitor General John Sauer began by laying out the Trump administration’s broad argument that the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, has been incorrectly interpreted since then. The amendment, Sauer argued, “guarantees citizenship to the children of former slaves, not to illegal aliens or temporary visitors”.
Trump also reiterated that position in a Truth Social post ahead of the hearing, saying birthright citizenship makes the US a “STUPID Country” that incentivises people to visit to have children.
Sauer also took aim at the three federal judges who have ruled in favour of separate lawsuits challenging the law’s constitutionality. Plaintiffs in those cases include 22 state attorneys general, immigrant rights organisations, and individuals affected by the rule. Sauer argued that the judges’ decisions should only apply to the plaintiffs in the cases, and not the entire nation.
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor questioned whether the broader constitutional question could be unpicked from the narrower question of the judges’ reach, saying the president’s order violates “by my count, four established Supreme Court precedents”.
That included the 1898 Supreme Court case, United States v Wong Kim Ark, which first established that the 14th Amendment applies to immigrants, she said.
Other justices questioned the implications of a scenario where the court ruled that the judges could not issue “national injunctions” in the case, without answering the underlying constitutional question.
Legal scholars have noted that this could create a situation where Trump’s end to birthright citizenship would not apply to states and individuals who successfully challenged his order in court. That would mean birthright citizenship – at least temporarily – would end in 28 other states if they do launch their own challenges.
“Does every single person that is affected by this EO [executive order] have to bring their own suit?” Justice Elena Kagan questioned.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the Trump administration’s argument turns the US justice system into a “catch me if you can kind of regime”.
As he prepares to tour the UK, the music icon exclusively speaks to The Mirror about never wanting to retire, being the ‘nicest man in showbiz’ and winning over his new granddaughter
The singer says his UK audiences are ‘out of control’ – and he loves it(Image: Getty Images)
Out of control ruffians are not the kind of fans most of us would expect to see at Lionel Richie concerts, but that’s how the Oscar winning star describes his UK audience. Also boasting a Golden Globe and several Grammy Awards, not to mention a mere 125 million albums sold worldwide, Lionel says that, at 75, it is these colourful characters who continue to inspire him.
Due to celebrate his 76th birthday on tour on June 20, the still spritely star loves his fans, who he thanks for his amazing career. He tells The Mirror: “It’s the only salvation you can have in life, when you can actually go out and meet the people who participated in your career. How about that? You get to see the people who bought the records and support you.
READ MORE: BST line-up as Stevie Wonder unveiled as the final Hyde Park headliner
The Hello singer describes going on tour as a ‘vacation’(Image: Getty Images)
“I started out with my generation and now I’ve got the kids, the grandkids, the whole thing. The family shows up on the front row. Really, it’s a celebration. When you start off, you don’t know you have this long in the business and here we are 50-odd years later. That’s amazing.”
Known for hits with the Commodores including Three Times a Lady, solo tracks such as Hello, Dancing on the Ceiling and All Night Long and for a famous duet with Diana Ross – Endless Love, Lionel has really earned the moniker ‘legend’. An acclaimed songwriter, he is also frequently described as the “nicest man in showbiz”.
“I’m a vicious man,” he laughs, sounding like nothing of the sort. “You know what it is? It’s very hard to say something horrible to somebody when they just started off a conversation by saying ‘I love you’. That’s a tough one to come back on with anything other than ‘Thank you’.
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“Very few people in life get a chance to share a love with the world. I must tell you how blessed I feel that when I walk into a room, the room starts smiling. I don’t think I need to get angry over that one.”
The star’s reason for not retiring was born out of his conversation with another legendary performer, the US comedian George Burns, who lived to be 100. “I kept saying to George ‘I’m trying to retire George, but I can’t retire until you retire’,” says Lionel.
“And he told me ‘I’m going to tell you the secret to the business – stay booked. As long as it’s working, as long as you feel great, as long as it becomes an excitement that you love going out and seeing the people, book some more shows’.”
The star affectionately calls his family, including daughter Nicole pictured here, as his ‘tribe’(Image: Getty Images)
And, of his latest tour, he says: “It’s really been a magical ride and I can’t think of anything else that I would be wanting to do for the summer. The joke with all of my life is ‘When are we going on vacation?’ and I say ‘I call that a tour’. So, here we go again – I’m going to have my birthday on tour again.”
With a memoir out in the autumn, a show in Las Vegas and a long-running role as a judge on American Idol, Lionel clearly has no intention of slowing down any time soon. Next up? “I’m certainly not going to be a politician,” he laughs, insisting he never tires of performing his best known hits.
Born in Tuskegee, Alabama, and now residing in California, he adds: “I’m going to tell you the truth and I know this may sound very, very strange – I don’t really perform the songs. I come to the show to watch the audience perform the songs. I don’t really have to do the heavy lifting. It’s a giant night of karaoke.”
Lionel compares his tens of thousands-strong audiences to a Rocky Horror Show performance, in a nod to the Richard O’Brien musical that inspires everyone to dress up in costume. Smiling, he says: “If I could tell you what I see from my best seat in the house, I’ve got people dressed up like Lionel Richie in the ’80s, Lionel Richie in the ’90s, I’ve got wigs and moustaches – you have no idea what I’m looking at. They put on the greatest show year after year.”
And, back to the UK audiences, as he prepares to head to arenas across the country, with the first date in Belfast on May 31, he adds: “They’re out of control. These are out of control ruffians. I think they’re enjoying their performance more than mine from what I can see.
“Every year they keep bringing back the family. It’s hen’s night, you don’t know who or what is going to show up in front of you, but it’s a party and it’s a lot of fun.” With a multi-generational fanbase boosted by his US talent show role, he adds: “Now that I’m on American Idol, I’ve got 9 to 12 year old fans and I’m not Mr Richie, I’m Lionel. ‘Oh my god Mom, Dad, there’s Lionel’.”
Lionel and his partner Lisa Parigi with two of his children, Sofia and Miles (Image: Getty Images for Rolla’s)
The star has his own “tribe” back home too, with children Nicole, Miles and Sofia Richie and three grandkids – Nicole’s teenagers Harlow and Sparrow – and Sofia’s baby Eloise, who will turn one on May 20. “Somewhere along the line God gives you this tribe of people, my kids Sofie, Nicole, Miles,” he says. “You think you’re doing some really powerful stuff and they come to you one day and say ‘Dad, make sure you don’t do anything to embarrass us’.
“Now Sofie has her kid and now I’ve got this newbie Eloise – she doesn’t know who the heck I am. I’ve got to start all over again trying to show Eloise who Pop Pop is. I love the tribe, I love the family growing and thank god I have a place to get away from the tribe some days. Pop Pop has a place to go, it’s called on tour, I hang out on the road for a minute and I get to live the life I’ve always had.”
Married twice before, first to college sweetheart Brenda Harvey and later to actress Diane Alexander, Lionel has been in a third long-running relationship with model and entrepreneur Lisa Parigi, who is in her mid-30s, since 2014. “That’s certainly on the… not to give you the highlight but I won’t rule that out,” he says intriguingly of marrying for a third time. “As I say to all my friends: ‘Stay tuned’.”
And if a third nuptials is on the cards, Lionel has many famous friends who might get an invite, including fellow musician Stevie Wonder. There could even be an invitation pinging its way to Buckingham Palace, for King Charles III is another pal.
“We’ve known each other for a very long time,” says Lionel, who has been involved with the monarch’s passion project The King’s Trust – formerly The Prince’s Trust – since the mid 1980s. “You never really think, with all of his friends and all of his history, you always think he knows a lot of people, but I must tell you I was deeply honoured when I got the Coronation invitation. Wow!
The star says King Charles III has a great sense of humour (Image: Getty Images)
“Then it became quite evident that he wants to spend time together. We were invited to private moments and I must tell you I enjoyed every minute of it. He has a great sense of humour.
“Now that he’s King he’s got a lot of responsibility on his shoulder, but in his private time he has a great sense of humour. We get along quite well and I am proud to call him my friend.”
Fame comes at a price for any instantly recognisable celebrity, but it seems to be one the easygoing star is happy to accept. “If I want to go someplace and sit down by the pool and relax, that’s not gonna happen,” he says.
“I’ve now become a citizen of the world, so wherever I am, I am a part of whatever family’s close to me. I’ve been recognisable for so long, I’ve gotten used to people just starting talking to me. I’m hanging out at a family reunion, people know me and they start telling me how the songs involve their family.”
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And when he does want to switch off, Lionel turns to nature. “I like gardening,” says the star, who recently created a public space, Hello Park, close to his childhood home in Alabama. “I like hedges, I like stuff.
“So I’m always planting new stuff on the grounds. My real chillout is out in the woods, creating the next garden. I just like to build things that grow. It’s fascinating to me.”
The Department of State Services (DSS) has sued Professor Pat Utomi over his alleged plan to establish what he calls “a shadow government” in the country.
In a suit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, the DSS prayed the court to declare the move an attack on the constitution.
Professor Utomi, the 2007 Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), is sued as the sole defendant.
READ ALSO: I Won’t Seek Public Office Again, Accept Govt Appointment In Nigeria — Pat Utomi
In the suit filed on May 13 by Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Akinlolu Kehinde, the Security Agency contended that the move by Utomi was intended to create chaos and destabilise the country.
The DSS argued that not only was the planned shadow government an aberration, it constituted a grave attack on the constitution and a threat to the democratically elected government that is currently in place.
Tommy Paul says he has been “grinding” to reclaim his repossessed truck after reaching the semi-finals of the Italian Open.
The American 11th seed beat Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 to secure a place in the last four in Rome for the second consecutive year.
The 27-year-old prevailed despite telling reporters he had endured a “stressful week” off the court.
“On court everything has been going pretty well,” said Paul. “Off court, a little bit of a stressful week.
“I got my truck repossessed. I missed a couple of payments and they took my truck from my house this week. I’ve been grinding to get my truck back. If you know me, that’s my baby.
“I’m excited to get it back. I had to win a couple of matches so I could pay that off.”
Paul said he had to pay $1,000 (£752) to secure the vehicle’s return.
The former Australian Open semi-finalist is already guaranteed prize money of about £245,000 this fortnight.
Sinner keeps on improving
Italian Sinner produced his best performance since returning from a three-month doping ban to thrash Casper Ruud 6-0 6-1.
The 23-year-old combined power with several deft touches to wrap up victory in one hour and three minutes.
Ruud arrived in Rome in fine form following his victory at the Madrid Open, but was unable to contend with the home favourite in the opening set.
The Norwegian world number seven fared slightly better in the second and was warmly applauded by the crowd after holding serve in the third game to end the onslaught.
But Sinner quickly regained his dominance and claimed the next four games to seal a 25th consecutive victory – a streak that was interrupted by the three-month suspension he agreed with the World Anti Doping Agency (Wada).
“I was feeling great on court today,” Sinner, who was playing in his fourth match since returning from suspension, told Sky Sports.
“My goal was to try to understand where my level is at this tournament and it has raised day by day.
“These are positive signs for me. Everything can change in one day but everything worked well for me. I was serving well and moved great on the court.”
