By Glen Levy, Elizabeth Pérez, CNN

Miami, Florida (CNN) — For Kimi Antonelli, time is of the essence.

The Italian driver, who competes in Formula One for Mercedes – replacing no less a legend than Lewis Hamilton at the Silver Arrows – is still just 19 years old, but he isn’t biding his time, fully aware that a title is there to be won in only his second season in the sport.

On the grid, the current leader in the 2026 drivers’ standings hasn’t hung around, with achievements stacking up as effortlessly as he maneuvers his car around the track.

In his debut season in 2025, at just 18 years and 224 days, Antonelli became the youngest driver to lead a race, and on the same day in Japan, the youngest to set the fastest ever lap (1:30.965 seconds).

He’s arguably taken it up a notch this season by becoming the youngest Grand Prix Pole Sitter (19 years, 6 months, and 17 days at the Chinese Grand Prix) and by going on to clinch victory in Shanghai that weekend, the second youngest race winner – that sound you can hear is Max Verstappen breathing easy, safe in the knowledge that he remains the youngest driver to win a race (18 years and 228 days old at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix on his debut for Red Bull Racing).

His love for driving

But Verstappen and the rest of the competition are currently being left behind by Antonelli, who will hope it’s business as usual when the F1 season resumes this weekend in Miami. With a nine-point lead over his Mercedes teammate George Russell, Antonelli is the youngest ever Championship leader.

“I’m a very ambitious person,” Antonelli tells CNN Sports just days ahead of competing in the Miami Grand Prix.

“The goal is to win, not only racing, but try to win the championship… this year is looking good so far, we’ve been very strong, and this weekend is going to be very important in Miami, to be back from where we left [off].”

And off the track, time is at the forefront of the young man’s mind too. Or perhaps that should be, at the forefront of the young man’s wrist. CNN Sports is catching up with the Italian in his guise as an IWC Schaffhausen ambassador, as he partakes in an event in Miami’s fashion district before his next race.

“It’s important to do these kind of activities,” he acknowledges, before impressing upon CNN Sports that “the thing I love the most is driving.”

No kidding. A highly respectable seventh-place finish in Antonelli’s rookie campaign – and, yes, the 150 points he amassed are a record in a driver’s first Championship season – will surely be improved upon in year two, with those early-season victories in Shanghai and Suzuka seeing Antonelli ascend to the top of the standings.

Even if his age precluded him from indulging in the traditional post-race celebrations of enjoying some champagne in Japan. “It was very tricky because, obviously, they had to get it ready, but yeah, it was a non-alcoholic beverage,” he admits.

Navigating champagne and non-alcoholic beverages notwithstanding, the dream of a first-ever title in just year two of his F1 career can get one step closer to fruition with a third visit to the top step of the podium in Miami on Sunday.

And returning to the theme of time, there’s plenty of it left this season, with 18 races still to go in a slightly truncated season, due to the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia being cancelled due to safety concerns and regional instability from the ongoing conflict in Iran.

“The break was not ideal,” Antonelli notes, “because we had really good momentum after Japan. But it’s really good to be back in Miami…I’m really lookin

By Nic Robertson, Jessie Yeung, CNN

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) — As the stalemate between Washington and Tehran drags on and the world waits in hope of a deal, the very real possibility of an alternate outcome – the resumption of war – looms overhead.

The clock is ticking, with Friday as the anticipated deadline for Pakistan to receive Iran’s revised peace proposal, after US President Donald Trump rejected a previous version.

Mediators in Islamabad believe a fair deal is within reach and that it is now down to Tehran to respond to it, according to sources familiar with the process. They’ve been working tirelessly to get an agreement, but as they have waited for most of this week for that reply, the US and Iran have doubled down on their threats and taunts.

As recently as Wednesday – the earliest day Tehran was expected to respond – Trump posted a mocked-up image of himself holding a gun on Truth Social, telling Iranian leaders to “get their act together.”

“No more Mr. Nice Guy,” read the caption.

Later, from the Oval Office, Trump added: “At this moment, there will never be a deal unless they agree that there will be no nuclear weapons.”

But Iran has pushed back defiantly against that key demand. In a message on state media Thursday, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said Iran would “safeguard” its nuclear and missile capabilities, and that “foreign actors” have no place in the Persian Gulf except “the depths of its waters.”

Iranians have still not seen or heard Khamenei, more than seven weeks after he was announced as their new supreme leader following the assassination of his father – but he has issued several written messages.

These back-and-forth jabs appear to put ever greater distance between the parties, nearly four weeks after the US and Iran first reached their temporary ceasefire. Late Thursday, Trump said no one knows the status of talks with Iran aside from himself and a handful of others, suggesting the negotiations are advancing despite the public appearance of a standstill.

But Iran’s nuclear capabilities clearly remain a major sticking point, with Trump demanding guarantees on curbing its nuclear program, while Tehran insists it has the right to enrich Uranium for peaceful purposes. It’s a critical red line for both sides, which leaves things at an impasse.

Tehran appears to be playing for time, dragging out talks about talks and sending multiple proposals with seemingly incremental movement – perhaps in the hope that Trump will eventually tire of the fight, or that domestic political pressure over soaring gas prices will force his hand.

But Trump is said to be weighing his options to force Tehran back to the negotiating table, including being briefed by military officials on a possible new round of strikes on Iran.

His current preferred strategy, though, is inflicting maximum economic pain, sources familiar with the talks told CNN. His team is preparing to extend the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, including a longer-term closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the sources said.

The US has intercepted or redirected nearly 40 ships attempting to enter or exit Iranian ports since the blockade began earlier this month – with Trump telling reporters earlier this week, “The blockade is genius.”

His administration is also pressing foreign governments to join a new coalition to support freedom of navigation in the contested waterway, as both the US and Iran maintain their respective blockades.

But the economic fallout also continues to grow, with oil prices shooting to a four-year high and gas prices in the US soaring this week as markets worry about the possible failure of peace talks

Por Tierney Sneed, Fredreka Schouten y John Fritze, CNN

Un día después de que la Corte Suprema de Justicia de EE.UU. debilitara aún más la Ley de Derechos Electorales, los estados gobernados por el Partido Republicano están considerando cambios para impulsar la manipulación de distritos electorales a expensas de los votantes de color, mientras que los grupos defensores de los derechos electorales intentan limitar el impacto del fallo en las elecciones de mitad de período de este año.

La Corte Suprema dio inicio a la polémica al anular un mapa de distritos electorales para el Congreso en Louisiana que incluía dos distritos de mayoría negra, en una opinión que dificultará significativamente impugnar los planes de redistribución de distritos por considerarlos discriminatorios en virtud de la Ley de Derechos Electorales.

Los líderes de la legislatura de Louisiana, controlada por los republicanos, anunciaron que se están preparando para rediseñar los distritos electorales del Congreso para las elecciones de mitad de mandato de noviembre, a pesar de que las papeletas para las primarias del 16 de mayo ya se han enviado por correo.

Los funcionarios republicanos indicaron que no contarán los votos de los candidatos a la Cámara de Representantes de Estados Unidos en dichas primarias.

En Tennessee, altos cargos republicanos se enfrentaron a crecientes presiones públicas para convocar una sesión legislativa extraordinaria con el objetivo de destituir al único congresista demócrata del estado.

La presión de la derecha para la redistribución de distritos también está aumentando en otros estados, como Georgia, Carolina del Sur y Alabama.

Mientras tanto, un grupo de votantes negros que defendían el mapa congresional actual de Louisiana advirtió el jueves a la Corte Suprema contra permitir que el estado se apresure a emprender una redistribución de distritos precipitada basada en la decisión del tribunal.

“El gobernador ya ha indicado que tiene la intención de cancelar las elecciones primarias republicanas y demócratas en curso, en las que los votantes ya han emitido su voto y en las que los candidatos ya han invertido mucho dinero, tiempo y recursos”, declararon los votantes negros que defendían los mapas ante la Corte Suprema, citando órdenes anteriores de los magistrados que instaban a los tribunales a tener cuidado de no perturbar la planificación electoral con medidas de último minuto.

“Una medida tan drástica”, señalaron los votantes, “es innecesaria e injustificada”.

El gobernador republicano de Florida, Ron DeSantis, pudo utilizar el miércoles el fallo de la Corte Suprema para ayudar a que se aprobara un plan del Congreso en ese estado que busca convertir cuatro escaños demócratas en la Cámara de Representantes en republicanos, después de enfrentar recelo tanto por parte de la legislatura estatal como de la delegación del Congreso.

Una vez que la legislatura aprueba un nuevo plan de redistribución de distritos, “es el punto de partida, no la meta”, para los funcionarios que necesitan reelaborar apresuradamente sus planes para administrar las elecciones, dijo David Becker, un exabogado electoral del Departamento de Justicia que ahora asesora a funcionarios electorales.

Eso podría incluir verificar que millones de votantes estén correctamente registrados en sus nuevos distritos y reiniciar el proceso de calificación de candidatos.

La actual disputa surge después de que el presidente Donald Trump inyectara un enorme caos en este ciclo electoral al convencer a Texas de embarcarse en una ronda sin precedentes de redistribución de distritos a mitad de la década, una medida que inició una carrer

By Angus Watson, CNN

Sydney (CNN) — Violent crowds clashed with police outside a hospital in a remote Australian outback town Thursday night as they demanded authorities hand over an accused child-killer.

Dramatic footage showed police officers dodging rocks and sticks while rioters smashed police cars and set a police van on fire. Officers can be seen shooting rounds of tear gas at the crowd, with some smoking canisters picked up and thrown back.

“Absolute anarchy” was how Northern Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole described the scene in Alice Springs, considered the gateway to the Uluru, formerly Ayers Rock, in the desert heart of of the country.

Jefferson Lewis, 47, was arrested Thursday for the alleged murder of a five-year-old girl now known as Kumanjayi Little Baby, a pseudonym given by her family as a cultural measure among their Indigenous Warlpiri people to avoid the utterance of a deceased person’s name during a mourning period.

Lewis had been the subject of an intense manhunt in central Australia since Sunday night, after he was seen holding hands with the child in the hours before she was reported missing.

After a four days search that saw close cooperation between the Indigenous community and local police, the girl’s body was found by the edge of a river some five kilometres from where she was last seen.

It wasn’t police who tracked down Lewis, but an angry crowd, who officers found beating the accused killer in an act of “vigilante justice.”

“At the time of his apprehension by us, he was unconscious and he was in the process of being treated by St John’s Ambulance when they were set upon, as were the police,” Commissioner Dole said.

Lewis received “quite a severe beating” Dole said, before being taken to Alice Springs Hospital where a crowd of hundreds arrived to demand the alleged killer be turned over to them.

Warlpiri elder and family spokesperson called for calm in the wake of the violence.

“What has happened this week is not our way,” senior Yapa (Warlpiri) elder Robin Granites said in a statement.

“This man has been caught, thanks to community action, and we must now let justice take its course while we take the time to mourn Kumanjayi Little Baby and support our family.”

Complex relationship

The relationship between Northern Territory (NT) Police and the Indigenous community is often tense. In 2025, a Coroner’s inquest found “clear evidence of entrenched systemic and structural racism within NT Police,” after Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker was shot by a police officer in 2019.

Speaking Friday, local Indigenous elder Michael Liddle said community solidarity in the face of the tragedy had been “undone” by the recent violence.

“I think bringing the word ‘payback’ into this scenario just fuels violence,” Liddle told journalists.

“There’s a system set up here, where there is a person in custody and the Western rules will deal with that person.”

Police said they intend to prosecute those involved.

“You will face the law just as Jefferson Lewis is facing the law,” Police Commissioner Dole said Friday.

Girls and women at risk

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offered condolences to Kumanjayi Little Baby’s family, saying in a post on X Thursday, “No words can measure up to the immensity of the grief her family is going through. In their time of terrible loss, all Australians hold them in our hearts.”

Indigenous women and girls are more likely to be killed, raped or assaulted than non-Indigenous women, according to the findings of a federal senate inquiry into disappeared and murdered First Nations women.

The Albanese government responded to the 2024 report by acknowledging that “First Nations women and children experience disproportionately higher rates of hom

Por Esha Mitra, CNN

Sadre Alam luchó por la India. El abuelo de Suprabuddha Sen ilustró su primera Constitución. Durante décadas, ambos ejercieron su derecho al voto, consagrado en ese documento, en la democracia más grande del mundo.

Días antes de que se abrieran las urnas en las cruciales elecciones estatales de abril, descubrieron que les habían arrebatado su derecho. No recibieron prácticamente ninguna explicación.

Alam, de 62 años, abre una gruesa carpeta granate que contiene los aproximadamente 30 documentos que, según él, llevó a las autoridades locales para intentar convencerlas de su derecho al voto: las escrituras de propiedad de su abuelo de la década de 1920, pruebas de que sus padres habían votado décadas atrás, su certificado de baja del ejército. Sin éxito.

“Me resulta extraño pensar que mi país ya no me pertenece”, declaró el exsoldado a CNN desde su casa en el estado de Bengala Occidental, donde se están contando los votos de las elecciones de las que fue excluido. “Ese es mi dolor. Todos me preguntan: ‘¿Cómo es posible que tu nombre haya sido excluido a pesar de haber pertenecido al ejército?’”.

Alam y Suprabuddha figuran entre los más de nueve millones de nombres eliminados del censo electoral de Bengala Occidental.

Millones más fueron borrados en todo el país justo antes de una serie de elecciones estatales en la India que decidirán si el gobernante Partido Bharatiya Janata (BJP), de corte nacionalista hindú, puede lograr avances en las legislaturas estatales del sur y el este del país, donde tradicionalmente ha tenido dificultades para acceder al poder.

El BJP afirma que la depuración del censo electoral es vital para eliminar duplicados, nombres de personas fallecidas y otras irregularidades, y para preservar la integridad de la democracia india.

Los críticos sostienen que la Comisión Electoral de la India (ECI), que debería ser un organismo independiente, actúa a instancias del BJP para impulsar su agenda mayoritaria y debilitar la representación de la minoría musulmana del país.

Eso ha hecho que la controversia sobre el censo electoral sea particularmente explosiva en Bengala Occidental, donde casi un tercio de los 90 millones de habitantes son musulmanes y donde el BJP ha estado ganando terreno en los últimos años.

Días antes de que abrieran las urnas, le comunicaron a Alam que su nombre ya no figuraba en el censo electoral porque los funcionarios habían encontrado una “discrepancia lógica” en la diferencia de edad de 15 años entre su madre y él en los registros.

La insinuación de que exista una discrepancia es un insulto, afirma el exsoldado, que sirvió en la breve guerra de la India contra su vecino y archirrival Pakistán en 1999.

“A principios de 1963, mi abuelo casó a su hija de catorce años, y yo nací en diciembre de ese mismo año”, comentó.

“¿Dónde está mi culpa en todo esto? ¿Acaso hay alguna duda de que no soy hijo de mi madre? ¿Acaso me trajeron de algún sitio?”

A Suprabuddha Sen, de 88 años, ni siquiera le explicaron por qué había perdido el derecho al voto que había ostentado durante décadas.

Le dolió aún más dadas sus conexiones personales con la fundación del sistema democrático de la India tras la independencia del dominio colonial británico en 1947.

Las ilustraciones de su abuelo sobre la historia y la cultura de la India adornan la Constitución india. El emblemático emblema de los cuatro leones que es el membrete oficial del Gobierno y que se encuentra en la portada de cada pasaporte indio fue diseñado por uno de sus alumnos bajo su supervisión.

“No recuerdo una época en la que no hayamos votado”, declaró su esposa Deepa Sen, quien también fue eliminada del padrón electoral sin explicación alguna.

Suprabuddha declaró a CNN que había presentado sus documentos de graduación, los documentos de su pensión gubernamental e inclus