The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court begins a new term on Monday with voting, gun and free speech rights on the docket and other hot-button...

Cocoa prices have been soaring — and that could drive chocolate prices higher. Higher prices are helpful for struggling cocoa farmers, but might not be great news for sweets shoppers as chocolate makers face rising costs.

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A privately owned high-speed passenger train service has been launched between Florida’s two biggest tourist hubs

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Lewis Hamilton insists his team are “almost there” as they look to agree a new contract with Mercedes – and denied reports that Ferrari have approached him. The 38-year-old’s current contract with the Silver Arrows, where he has been since 2013, expires at the end of this season. A report this week suggested Ferrari have offered the seven-time F1 world champion – who has won six of his titles with Mercedes – a £40m-a-year contract to join the Scuderia from 2024. Yet Hamilton, who covets a record-breaking eighth crown after missing out controversially in Abu Dhabi in 2021, revealed that his representatives are close to concluding negotiations with Mercedes over an extension. “Naturally, in contract [talks] there’s always going to be speculation,” he said, in his pre-race press conference in Monaco. “Unless you hear from me that’s all it is.” When asked if Ferrari had been in touch, Hamilton simply replied: “No. "Last weekend maybe with the race cancelled they [the media] got bored.” Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur also emphasised that his team have not been in contact with Hamilton. “You know perfectly that at this stage of the season, you will have each week a different story,” he said in Monaco. “And we are not sending an offer to Lewis Hamilton. We didn’t do it.” “We didn’t have discussions. I think every single team on the grid would like to have Hamilton at one stage. I think it would be bull**** to not say something like this. “If I discuss with Hamilton, I discuss the last 20 years, I discussed almost every single weekend with Hamilton. I don’t want to have to stop to discuss with them because you are chasing me.” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has been adamant in the past few months that despite the delay, Hamilton will extend his deal with the team. “It’s 11 years that we’ve been together,” Wolff said. “Every single time when we talk about Lewis’s contract, it takes months of, ‘Where we are? What is happening?’ And we keep saying the same thing: that it is rolling on. “There’s not any difficult contract negotiations, it’s just putting different numbers in there and that’s what we’re doing and we’re working on this. “It’s a work in progress, bouncing emails back and forth and eventually we’re going to sign it.” Read More Ferrari boss gives Lewis Hamilton update after reports of shock move F1 Monaco Grand Prix: Why is practice no longer on a Thursday? Bernie Ecclestone would be surprised if Lewis Hamilton wanted to leave Mercedes Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are the biggest losers from Imola Grand Prix cancellation Lewis Hamilton will stay with Mercedes as nowhere else to go – Guenther Steiner

The librarian scans the shelves and quickly picks out a few works -- Orwell, Sorokin, Dostoevsky -- the authors she thinks can best help cast some light...

Somewhere between weekender bags and fashionable tiny purses lies a classic style that effortlessly delivers on both fronts: the tote. Defined by two over-the-shoulder handles and a deep rectangular structure crafted from durable materials, totes have become much more than utilitarian carryalls. Today, the totes are powerful accessories representing mindful sustainability and style savvy, not to mention oversized handbags are 2023's most trendy bag. (Speaking of trend there's even an Instagram account dedicated to the revival of L.L. Bean's iconic Boat and Tote bags.) That's why we've rounded up the best tote bags designed to suit you effortlessly for work, travel, school, and everything in between.

For a man handed a lifeline in Formula One – with an illustrious Red Bull-shaped reward beckoning down the line – it has not quite been the statement return Daniel Ricciardo envisaged back in July. What did that look like? Top-10 finishes with AlphaTauri, perhaps with a memorable overtake or two evoking the Ricciardo of old back onto the grid. But it has in fact been the complete opposite: the only return has been his return to inactivity. Two races in and a hand injury sustained in practice in Zandvoort, north Holland, back in August has seen the affable Australian feature only on the sidelines again. A seesaw seven weeks have followed: while on one hand confirmation of a seat on the grid in 2024 was, rather peculiarly, confirmed in his absence in Japan, his deputy Liam Lawson caught the eye with a string of impressive performances, including a team-best result of ninth in Singapore. So as Ricciardo struts back into the paddock this weekend in Austin, the broken bone in his hand healed, the pressure is firmly on the 34-year-old’s shoulders at his home from home. Affection works hand in hand with Ricciardo and the United States: he loves America, Americans love him. Last year, weeks after his McLaren exit was announced, the sport’s most cheerful character arrived at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) on horseback, kitted out in full cowboy apparel. Given his injury hiatus, you’d think no such extravagant entries will be repeated this year. But what he has got back in his hands, as opposed to 12 months ago, is his Formula One destiny. Perhaps fortuitously, too. When Ricciardo left Red Bull for pastures new at the end of 2018, his aspiration was that the grass was greener. Now five years on he is back at Christian Horner’s team, first as a reserve and now at the sister team. A second bite alongside Max Verstappen is what he truly craves. And he has made no secret of that. “Daniel is viewing AlphaTauri… he firmly wants to be pitching for that 2025 Red Bull seat,” said Horner back in July. “That is his goal and objective and, by going to AlphaTauri, I think he sees that as his best route of stating his case for 2025.” And with talk of Sergio Perez’s seat being under threat at Red Bull amid his struggles, there is a feasible route back to the top-table for Ricciardo. Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has already hinted the Mexican’s future seemingly lies away from Red Bull: most probably in a year, perhaps even as early as before next season. But before heading off any top contenders outside the Red Bull mothership, the Australian first has to prove his worth amid the in-house competition. Given Nyck de Vries’s rapid promotion to a seat after just one race last year, Lawson can feel hard done by that his impressive five-race showing – 13th, 11th, 9th, 11th, 17th – in this year’s slowest car hasn’t landed him a seat in 2024. So Ricciardo needs to better Lawson’s two points in the final five races of this season. He also needs to get the better of his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, who has earned just three 10th-place finishes in 17 races this year. That is the minimum. But back stateside, it is the on-track magic and overtaking propensity of near-enough 10 years ago which will catapult him into Red Bull’s second seat conversation. That will be the key, as opposed to any off-track endeavours or kind words with sponsors. F1 world champion of 1997, Jacques Villeneuve, is quoted as saying this week: “I would ask kids who want to be drivers today – do you want it out of passion or because you want to be like Daniel Ricciardo, smiling in commercials?” While a tad harsh – best to smile than frown, no? – it does point to a school of thought that Ricciardo’s charisma is now a bigger pull than his talent. For any driver of any age, that is the ultimate insult. All of them are fundamentally in F1 to race, to scrap for every point and to jockey for every position. Even Ricciardo, who has endured the worst two years of his career since his anomaly of a win at Monza in 2021, remains adamant his world-class skillset is still present. His ambitions, so told to The Independentin July, remain the highest of highs: race wins and even a world championship. But Ricciardo must grasp the opportunity simply having a seat in this 20-driver sport gives and it starts with the cut-and-thrust of the sprint weekend at COTA. Nobody is expecting wins or podiums in the slowest car. But what people do expect is progress – and glimpses of the man of yesteryear. Read More What is a sprint race in F1 and how does new qualifying shootout work? What time is qualifying at the US Grand Prix on Friday? Sergio Perez addresses Red Bull future McLaren confirm first female driver in development programme Daniel Ricciardo to make F1 return at US Grand Prix Netflix reveal star line-up for F1 Drive to Survive vs Full Swing golf match

Naomi Campbell hopes to connect with younger generation through her PrettyLitteThing collection.

Iranian campaigner Narges Mohammadi has for decades campaigned on the most sensitive issues in the Islamic republic, opposing pillars of the clerical system including capital punishment and the obligatory hijab, and defiantly refusing to...