Booksellers take stand against influence of conservative billionaire by limiting orders of his company’s books and placing them on lower shelves

A conservative Catholic billionaire and media owner is facing an independent bookshop rebellion in France over his influence in the publishing world.

Dozens of independent booksellers are trying to counter the growing influence of Vincent Bolloré , whose vast cultural empire includes television, radio, the Sunday paper Le Journal du Dimanche , and also, since 2023, the biggest book publishing and distribution conglomerate in France, Hachette Livre .

Chaos at Europe’s busiest airport caused by a substation fire dominates UK front pages on Saturday

The closure of Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, due to a fire at a nearby electrical substation dominates the front pages of British newspapers on Saturday, with more than 1,350 flights cancelled and journeys disrupted for hundreds of thousands of passengers.

The Guardian splashes with “Chaos and anger as fire shuts Heathrow airport”, above a picture of anxious travellers, and an article that focuses on Downing Street’s reaction : that there are “questions to answer” as to how a power failure could cause such disruption.

Seth Rogen may be known for his stoner vibe and comedies such as Superbad and Knocked Up, but behind the scenes the actor, writer, weed-lover and pottery fan has also become a producing power player. The US stock market is spooked and Trump’s henchmogul’s companies are floundering – has the great dealmaker been building up the wrong nation? And Philippa Perry advises a reader: ‘That voice in your head telling you that you’re saying the wrong things is not telling the truth.’

Conservationists find critically endangered species thriving on Indian Ocean island of Aride

Record numbers of Wright’s gardenia , one of the world’s rarest and most fragrant trees, have been counted on the tiny tropical island of Aride in Seychelles.

The only place in the world where the critically endangered tree occurs naturally is on the 72-hectare granite island in the Indian Ocean. The tree was once found on other, larger islands in the Seychelles archipelago but its sturdy wood was harvested for firewood, leading to its disappearance from everywhere except Aride.

Last week, anti-choice campaigners emboldened by current US politics met in New York at the same time as UN delegates gathered to address the widespread inequalities women face. The battle to protect rights has never felt more urgent

In a meeting room on the 27th floor of a swish Manhattan hotel, Denise Mountenay is telling the audience that the right to abortion is “Nazi thinking.” Mountenay regrets her own abortions, and says she has been called by God to spread the word that she and other women “were lied to, deceived, pressured into making the most horrible choice: to choose death instead of life”.

She goes on to list reasons why abortion is “not a safe procedure. [That’s what] they want woman to think – that is a lie.”

Laila Soueif says she intends to resume protest next week unless progress made on release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah

The mother of the jailed British-Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah has said she will go on hunger strike again at the end of next week if no substantive progress is made to release her son.

Laila Soueif, 68, said: “I know the step will mean I have a week or fortnight left to live.”

• Seven-time world champion opens account with Formula One team
• Oscar Piastri finishes second, Max Verstappen third in 100km race

Lewis Hamilton celebrated his first Formula One win for Ferrari after leading a Chinese Grand Prix sprint from start to finish in only his second race for the Italian team on Saturday.

The seven-time world champion, on pole position , managed his tyres superbly to take the chequered flag 6.889 seconds clear of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finishing third in the 100km race.

The death of the heavyweight champion boxer was announced by his family in a post on Instagram

Boxing Hall of Famer and entrepreneur George Foreman has died at age 76, his family has announced in an Instagram post on his account.

“With profound sorrow, we announce the passing of our beloved George Edward Foreman Sr. who peacefully departed on March 21, 2025 surrounded by loved ones,” the post read.

South-eastern Ukrainian city struck more than 10 times, while three people die in attacks on Sumy and Donetsk; Germany approves €3bn in new military aid for Ukraine. What we know on day 1,123

• See all our Ukraine war coverage

Russian attacks killed two people in Ukraine’s south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia late on Friday. The Zaporizhzhia regional governor, Ivan Fedorov, said on Telegram the city had been struck more than 10 times, killing two people and injuring nine. The injured included a nine-month-old infant and a woman in serious condition. Pictures posted online showed rescue teams sifting through rubble and apartment blocks and homes with windows and facades badly damaged. Fires burned amid piles of rubble.

Two people were reported killed in the Sumy region, on Ukraine’s northern border with Russia, after Russian forces dropped at least six guided bombs on the village of Krasnopillia , while in the eastern Donetsk region, Russia dropped three bombs on the town of Kostiantynivka, close to the frontlines, killing one person.

Germany on Friday approved €3bn (£2.5bn) in new military aid for Ukraine, including artillery munitions and air defence systems, government officials have said. The funds were released after months of delay and come on top of €4bn in Ukraine military aid already planned in the budget for 2025. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said the latest package would include units of the German-made Iris-T air defence systems that had yet to be built and would be delivered over the next two years.

The UK is to “accelerate the pace and scale” of its military planning to be ready to support Ukraine , with No 10 saying all options, including troops on the ground, are possible. Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said thousands of troops would be needed to support Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire and agreement to end the war with Russia, whether by “sea, on land or in the air”. “Not all the countries in the coalition will have capabilities for Ukraine but might have the capability for other deployments, which would free up other nations to deploy to Ukraine,” the prime minister’s spokespersons said.

The UK said on Friday it had frozen more than £25bn in Russian assets since the start of the war in Ukraine three years ago. In a report, the UK Treasury also said it had sanctioned “2,001 individuals and entities” in the period between Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and March 2024. The economic secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds, said: “Working with our allies, we have deprived [Russia] of over $400bn the equivalent to four years of Russia’s military spending.”

A Soviet-era dissident has been sentenced to 16 years in prison in Russia for his anti-war views. Alexander Skobov, 67, was sentenced on Friday over a social media post supporting Ukraine’s 2022 strike on the Crimea Bridge, as well as his alleged involvement with the foreign-based opposition group the Free Russia Forum. In a final statement before sentencing, Skobov accused the Putin regime of “waging an aggressive war [and] of committing war crimes in Ukraine”.

Ukraine accused Russia on Friday of illegally pressuring Ukrainians in occupied territory to change their legal status or leave, and said it would report the practice to the international criminal court. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, issued a decree on Thursday saying Ukrainian citizens living “in Russia without legal grounds” should “regulate” their status by 10 September. Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman, Heorhii Tykhyi, said Russia was conducting the “forced displacement of Ukrainian citizens from their homeland, or forcing them to acquire foreigner status”. Putin’s decree affects Ukrainians who live in the Crimean peninsula, as well as occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, expressed his unwavering support for Russia’s war in Ukraine during a meeting with Russia’s security council secretary, Sergei Shoigu, in Pyongyang on Friday. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim during the meeting said his government will “invariably support Russia in the struggle for defending the national sovereignty, territorial integrity and security interests”. Shoigu expressed gratitude for North Korea’s “solidarity with Russia’s position on all critical geopolitical issues, particularly on the Ukrainian issue,” according to his televised comments.