Ultra

Consecrations by Society of Saint Pius X bring automatic excommunication for bishops – and crisis for Pope LeoA rebel group of ultra-conservative Catholics has defied Pope Leo by ordaining bishops without his consent, which they declared a “sacred duty” despite it causing their automatic excommunication.In a ritual-filled ceremony on Wednesday streamed live from the Swiss village of Ecône, the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) went ahead with the consecrations of four bishops, one from Switzerland, one from France and two from the US. Continue reading...

For one day every June, South Africa’s searing racial inequality seems to melt away at Comrades raceIn the early morning dark, thousands of runners waited, jostling with anticipation. South Africa’s national anthem rang out. Then the haunting swell of Shosholoza, first sung by Zimbabwean migrant workers in South Africa’s goldmines. Finally, that unmistakable, spine-tingling piano: Chariots of Fire.Runners gather before the start of the marathon Continue reading...

Deliveries in 30 minutes or less coming to Manchester and Birmingham and fresh groceries service to start in London Amazon is expanding fast-track deliveries in the UK, including adding fresh fruit and vegetables to same-day services, after closing its standalone grocery stores.The firm said it would expand Amazon Now, its ultra-fast delivery service that already delivers goods in less than 30 minutes to parts of London, to also serve Manchester and Birmingham this year. Continue reading...

New issue of the American Journal of Public Health focuses on parallels between marketing for cigarettes and UPFsThe new issue of the American Journal of Public Health focuses on ultra-processed foods, and reveals that big tobacco companies used strategies that helped them sell cigarettes to sell ultra-processed food products, including Lunchables, geared toward children.The parallels between ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and cigarettes include not only how UPF products were formulated and marketed to drive excess consumption, but also the growing body of evidence linking UPFs to a variety of health risks. For UPFs, these include cardiovascular diseases, certain cancers and cognitive health decline. Continue reading...

Prime minister under pressure over failure to grant military service exemptions as multi-party government looks at risk of collapseIsrael’s ruling coalition has submitted a proposal to dissolve parliament to pave the way for early elections as the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, came under mounting attack from ultra-Orthodox parties.The move, initiated by Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party, came as Netanyahu appeared to be facing a possible collapse of his fractious coalition. Continue reading...

34-year-old heads elite field of men and womenAmerican takes small naps during 56-hour runRachel Entrekin has made history by beating a field of elite men and women to win the Cocodona 250 ultramarathon.Entrekin had won the women’s race on two occasions but on Wednesday she headed the entire field, winning in a record time of 56 hours 9 minutes and 48 seconds. Continue reading...

‘Clinical consensus statement’ also urges heart doctors to advise patients to not eat late at night, and chew slowlyWant to reduce your intake of ultra-processed food? If so, cook at home more often, don’t eat late at night and chew your food more slowly.Those are among some of the tips doctors have offered to help people limit the amount of UPF they consume given the acute and growing danger it poses to human health worldwide. Continue reading...

Company accepts it failed to prevent bribery in public sector contracts in Algeria and Oman, sought through use of agentsThe British defence company Ultra Electronics has accepted responsibility for failure to prevent bribery and agreed to pay £15m after an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.The penalties are part of a deferred prosecution approved by the high court on Friday, after an investigation opened in 2018, when the company referred itself to the UK law enforcement agency a month after corruption allegations were published by Algerian media. Continue reading...

• Nvidia launched Blackwell Ultra B300 GPUs on April 25, 2026, at GTC US, delivering 20 petaflops FP4 performance for training models up to 10 trillion parameters. • New chips feature 4.5TB HBM4 memory and NVLink 6 interconnect, reducing training costs by 40% for hyperscalers like Microsoft Azure. • Announcement bolsters Nvidia's 92% AI accelerator market dominance amid US export controls on China sales.

• Nvidia launched the Blackwell Ultra B300 GPU series on April 19, 2026, claiming 50% faster AI training speeds compared to the prior B200 model. • The new chips feature 208 billion transistors and support FP4 precision, targeting data centers for large language model workloads. • This positions Nvidia to maintain dominance amid intensifying competition from AMD and custom silicon by hyperscalers like Amazon and Google.

David Parrish, who won Cape Wrath Ultra in 2023, had been attempting gruelling route again as fundraising challengeA 35-year-old ultramarathon champion from Dumfries has died while attempting to beat the record for a race to the most north-westerly point on mainland Britain.David Parrish, a former Royal Marine, was trying to become the fastest man to complete the Cape Wrath trail, one of Britain’s most gruelling race routes. Continue reading...

• Nvidia unveiled Blackwell Ultra GPUs on April 9, 2026, at GTC US keynote, delivering 50 petaflops for AI training in a single rack. • Chips target US hyperscalers with 4x inference speed over prior gen, shipping Q4 2026 at $50,000 per unit. • CEO Jensen Huang called it 'the dawn of agentic AI,' boosting Nvidia's dominance in $200B US AI hardware market.

Attorney general was key part of effort to go after enemies but even she could not satisfy whims of mercurial presidentPam Bondi’s swift dismissal on Thursday underscores a reality that has met Trump loyalists from Jeff Sessions to Kristi Noem – no amount of loyalty is enough to save oneself from being dumped by Donald Trump.Since the president assumed office last year, there have been few people more important to his effort to remake government than Bondi, his longtime friend. Continue reading...

Dozens of videos have gone viral on TikTok and Instagram showing harassment of Palestinians and activistsTikTok has removed an account belonging to an ultranationalist, pro-settlement Israeli influencer for breaching hate speech and bullying rules after the Guardian flagged videos showing him harassing activists in the occupied West Bank.The Guardian has reviewed dozens of videos posted by various social media figures that have gone viral on TikTok and Instagram documenting the harassment of Palestinians as well as physical attacks on Israeli and international activists. Continue reading...

• A new American College of Cardiology study of over 6,800 U.S. adults shows consuming more than nine daily servings of ultra-processed foods raises heart attack, stroke, or death risk by 67% compared to one serving. • Each additional serving increases risk by over 5% overall and more than 6% among Black Americans, with findings presented at the ACC Annual Scientific Session in New Orleans on March 28-30. • Dr. Michele Arthurs of Kaiser Permanente advises checking labels and strategies like pre-eating healthy meals or pairing chips with oranges to cut intake.