By Ben Church, CNN

(CNN) — Standing alone in a Swedish laundromat, Alfie Whiteman set a 10-second timer on his camera and pondered what to do next.

For much of his life as a professional soccer player, there was always someone to make decisions for him – what to eat, where to go and what to wear. Now, alone in unfamiliar surroundings, it was left to him to decide as the timer counted down.

With the pressure on, Whiteman opted for the most random thing he could think of. So he took his clothes off and climbed part way into a washing machine, waiting for the camera to click.

But what appeared at the time as an act of total randomness actually spoke to a wider sense of release for a 20-something who had grown tired of his gilded cage.

The resulting photo ignited a creative spark in Whiteman and marked the beginning of a journey that would ultimately lead him to abandon his own childhood dream at the age of 26.

The photo has since formed part of a portfolio that is now being displayed in a new London exhibition – a body of work named “Loan,” which speaks to the mundanity Whiteman felt living the life as a professional athlete.

Achieving a dream

To understand Whiteman’s story, one must first go back to his childhood growing up in the shadow of White Hart Lane – the old stadium of English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.

Like so many kids his age, Whiteman was obsessed with the “Beautiful Game,” and it turned out he was very good at it. He joined Tottenham as a nine-year-old and progressed through the ranks as one of the best goalkeepers in his age in the country.

He eventually turned professional, plying his trade as a backup goalkeeper for the Tottenham first team, barely playing matches but training every day with some of the best soccer stars in the world.

But even while living out his own boyhood dream, Whiteman was having a “constant identity crisis” where he never really felt like a soccer player.

Whiteman recognizes he always was a bit different than his teammates. When others splashed cash on expensive cars, Whiteman would either walk from his nearby home or get public transport to matches.

Because he was never playing games, he was able to live life with relative anonymity.

He also listened to different music, influenced by his father’s interest in jazz. He watched arthouse films and remembers being exposed to the world of art by his parents as a toddler. But after excelling in soccer, those interests went unexplored.

Back then, the sport wasn’t welcoming of alternative hobbies or anything that could be seen as a so-called distraction.

Whiteman laughs as he remembers teammates and coaches calling him a “hippie” for liking what he liked. In the early days, though, those attitudes caused him to somewhat suppress that side of his personality.

It left him with an uncomfortable feeling that he harbored in his late teens, unable to shrug off the gnawing thoughts that there was more to life than soccer.

“I put myself in this prison,” Whiteman told CNN Sports from a coffee shop close to his new London studio.

“I felt like I was missing out. I didn’t have any friends at this point, you know, I hadn’t found my people.”

The log cabin

Things, though, began to change during a loan spell away from Spurs – a temporary transfer to another club.

It was a move born out of frustration, with opportunities in Tottenham’s

By Daria Tarasova-Markina, Victoria Butenko, Helen Regan, Sophie Tanno, CNN

(CNN) — Russia launched one of its largest barrages of drones and missiles on Ukraine this year, killing more than a dozen and wounding more than 100 people across the country, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday.

At least 16 people, including a child, were killed and 118 wounded across the country as Russian strikes damaged buildings and sparked fires, according to local authorities and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

Russia launched 659 drones and 44 missiles in the 24 hours before Thursday morning, the Ukrainian Air Force said, in waves of attacks on major cities including the capital Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia.

“Over the past day and night, Russia carried out a massive terrorist attack against Ukraine with almost 700 drones, dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles. The attack primarily targeted civilians,” Andrii Sybiha, Ukrainian Foreign Minister said in a post on X Thursday.

In Kyiv, four people were killed, including a 12-year-old boy whose body was among two found in the rubble of a destroyed building, the State Emergency Service said. At least 48 people were wounded, it added.

The CEO of a construction company in Kyiv said a strike was so close that it “effectively detonated right next to the construction site” of a residential complex, injuring six workers including two in a serious condition who are undergoing surgery.

At least eight people were killed in Odesa, where video posted by the State Emergency Service, shows a fire engulfing a building and response teams carrying one casualty on a stretcher.

An administrative leader at the Odesa National Music Academy, a higher education music academy in the city, said that one of the halls in a dormitory was badly damaged.

“In the middle of the night, all students were evacuated to the academy’s premises; unfortunately, five students were injured and have received medical treatment in the city’s hospitals,” she wrote on Facebook, alongside images of the damaged sleeping quarters strewn with debris and shattered glass.

Three people were killed and 34 wounded in attacks on Dnipro in central Ukraine, and at least one person was killed in Zaporizhzhia, in the southeast, according to local authorities and the State Emergency Service.

“Such attacks cannot be normalized. These are war crimes that must be stopped and their perpetrators held to account,” Sybiha said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the attack caused fatalities in Odesa, Kyiv, and Dnipro as he condemned Russia as “betting on war.”

“Another night has proven that Russia does not deserve any easing of global policy or lifting of sanctions,” he said.

Zelensky has been in Rome this week, where he held talks with Italy’s leaders. In a statement shared on X, Zelensky said he briefed Italian President Sergio Mattarella on the security cooperation agreements Ukraine has reached with countries in the region, and discussed defense cooperation with Italy’s Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto.

The attacks follow a short-lived truce last week after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a 32-hour ceasefire with Ukraine for the Orthodox Easter holiday, following an earlier offer from Zelensky for a pause in hostilities.

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Por Jack Guy, CNN

Un hallazgo fortuito en un archivo londinense ha permitido a un investigador determinar por primera vez la ubicación exacta de la casa londinense de William Shakespeare.

Desde hacía tiempo se sabía que el dramaturgo poseía una casa en Blackfriars, un convento dominico del siglo XIII, y se creía que estaba situada cerca de la puerta de entrada.

Pero este nuevo descubrimiento significa que ahora conocemos su ubicación exacta, su tamaño y su distribución, así como el tipo de edificios que lo habrían rodeado, declaró el martes a CNN Lucy Munro, profesora de Shakespeare y literatura de la Edad Moderna en el King’s College de Londres, Inglaterra.

“Fue una sorpresa muy agradable”, dijo, explicando que la información salió a la luz cuando encontró un plano del distrito, que data de 1668, durante una investigación para un proyecto sobre teatros locales en los Archivos de Londres.

Tras cotejar el plano con las descripciones de la casa que figuran en los estudios académicos existentes, Munro se dio cuenta de que había dado con una prueba definitiva de su ubicación y distribución.

“Habría tenido una forma de L, con una parte que pasaría por encima de la caseta de entrada”, dijo Munro, quien agregó que el plano muestra la propiedad situada encima de la caseta de entrada, así como de los edificios vecinos, como la taberna Sign of the Cock.

“No es enorme, pero es bastante grande”, añadió. “En algún momento fue lo suficientemente grande como para dividirla en dos casas”.

Cuando Shakespeare compró la casa en 1613, Blackfriars era una zona prestigiosa, según Munro, aunque con el tiempo se volvió cada vez más diversa socialmente.

“Hay mucha gente de clase alta en la zona, pero también hay cada vez más trabajadores de oficios que viven aquí”, dijo.

Según Munro, este descubrimiento también arroja nueva luz sobre la vida posterior de Shakespeare, en los años previos a su muerte en 1616 a la edad de 52 años.

Cuestiona la creencia generalizada de que se retiró a su ciudad natal de Stratford-upon-Avon después de que el teatro Globe, donde se representaron por primera vez la mayoría de sus obras, se incendiara en junio de 1613.

“A veces se ha especulado con que se retiró cuando el Globe se incendió, pero sabemos que siguió escribiendo obras de teatro en el período posterior al incendio”, dijo Munro, refiriéndose a su colaboración con el prometedor dramaturgo John Fletcher en una obra titulada “Los dos nobles parientes”.

Munro también cuestiona la tesis de que Shakespeare compró la propiedad de Blackfriars por lucro.

“Si solo hubiera comprado la propiedad como inversión, había muchas zonas de Londres donde podría haberla comprado”, dijo.

“El hecho de que lo compre en Blackfriars, que está a menos de cinco minutos a pie del (Globe) Playhouse, me sugiere que todavía en 1613 mantenía cierto nivel de compromiso con su vida profesional en Londres”, dijo Munro.

“No es el genio aislado encerrado en un ático. Es alguien que colabora con otros dramaturgos. Es alguien que posee acciones en teatros. Es alguien que compra propiedades en Blackfriars”, añadió. “Así que sí, creo que nos da una perspectiva ligeramente diferente a la más habitual”.

En términos más generales, Munro cree que el hallazgo demuestra que aún queda mucho por aprender sobre el dramaturgo más famoso de Gran Bretaña.

“Creo que a veces se da por sentado, en lo que respecta a la biografía de Shakespeare, que todo se ha revisado una y otra vez, y que ya no queda nada por descubrir, cuando en realidad todavía hay algunas piezas del rompecabezas por ahí”, dijo Munro, cuya investigación se publicará en el Times Literary Supplement el 17 de abril.

Will Tosh, director de educación del Shakespeare’s Globe, el moderno

By Adam Cancryn, CNN

(CNN) — The White House had long circled Tax Day as the unofficial start to a critical midterm campaign meant to highlight how much money the administration was putting back in voters’ pockets.

Then President Donald Trump launched a costly war in Iran, sent gas prices soaring and singlehandedly upended months of careful political planning — raising the odds of an electoral wipeout that could cost Republicans control of Congress.

Now, Trump officials are scrambling to salvage their strategy on the fly, hoping they can still convince skeptical Americans that they’re doing better under Trump than before. The White House has also sought new ideas for taking on rising prices, such as accusing gas station operators of seizing on the war to gouge consumers at the pump.

But seven months out from midterm elections, many Republicans privately concede their standing is deteriorating and chances of holding the House are slipping away. Any possibility of averting sweeping losses in the House — and possibly even the Senate — in November rests first on Trump quickly extracting himself from Iran, a task he’s clearly struggling mightily to accomplish.

“We need to get on offense. We need a message,” said one Trump adviser. “But right now, everything’s on hold until the war’s over.”

The darkening outlook for the Republican Party is far from what Trump and his top advisers envisioned only a few months ago, when they’d coalesced around a plan to pivot sharply toward affordability as the midterms drew closer. And it underscores the significant damage that Trump has done to his party’s chances by abruptly plunging the US into a war with Iran with no clear way out.

The conflict’s ripple effects over the last seven weeks may have negated nearly all the economic progress that the GOP planned to run on, more than a half-dozen Republicans told CNN — including strides made toward lowering gas prices, easing inflation and bolstering Americans’ sense of financial security.

Trump, who senior aides once vowed would hit the road nearly every week to tout accomplishments and boost down-ballot candidates, has instead remained largely tethered to Washington and focused on foreign affairs. When he travels to Nevada on Thursday, it will mark his first swing-state rally in more than a month. (GOP operatives still believe he will significantly ramp up his travel for House and Senate candidates this fall.)

The president will also arrive in Las Vegas at the weakest point in his political career, with recent polls putting his approval rating near historic lows amid voter anger over the economy and the war.

“There’s direct correlation between presidential job approval and the party’s midterm performance. It’s not much more complicated than that,” said GOP pollster Whit Ayres. “They’re frustrated and unhappy, and that’s been the case for some time, but it’s especially the case now.”

In a statement, White House spokesman Kush Desai argued that Trump’s economic policies would benefit Americans over the long term, arguing that his accomplishments “go beyond a one-time tax refund check.”

“Tens of millions of working-class Americans have more money in their pockets thanks to President Trump’s signature provisions,” he said, adding that the agenda is “laying the groundwork for more historic success.”

Congressional GOP leaders insist they’re not panicking either, arguing that doomsday scenarios where they could lose both the House and Senate aren’t yet materializing — and that Republicans still hold a fundraising advantage that could grow even larger if Trump deploys the massive war chest he controls through his MAGA Inc. super PAC.

The situation has nevertheless fanned fears across other parts of the GOP that a wider swath of seats in both the House, and possibly the Senate, could now be in play — al

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