By Lianne Kolirin, CNN

(CNN) — Irish musician CMAT has shared her “deep sadness” about being body shamed after a live appearance last weekend.

The singer-songwriter, whose real name is Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, has said there is “no relief” from how she is treated online because of her body shape and that she has had a “difficult” few days following her appearance at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Sunderland, northern England, on Sunday.

In post she shared on Instagram on Thursday, she said she’d deleted social media apps Instagram, TikTok and X from her phone “for the preservation of my mental health,” but now feels “compelled to wade in and speak for myself.”

“It is literally so boring for me, a gorgeous genius, to keep having to yap on about how horribly i am treated because of my body,” she wrote.

She said she would “love to stop” but cannot as the abuse continues “at an accelerating and worsening pace” as she becomes more famous.

CMAT shared screen grabs of a post written by a fan of hers called Front Row Feels, which the singer said “summed up a lot of what is causing my deep sadness.”

CMAT released a song called “Take a Sexy Picture of Me” last year in which she called out the criticism women face over their appearances.

The blogger behind Front Row Feels wrote of CMAT’s performance: “She wrote the song about the cruelty. She explained the cruelty. She stood on stage singing directly about the cruelty. And the machine just kept going anyway.”

The anonymous writer described the “glaring disparity” in how social media users responded to other female artists such as Olivia Dean and Zara Larsson who also both performed in Sunderland.

“Their comment sections were not warzones,” the writer said. “They were granted a level of grace and basic humanity that was completely denied to CMAT.”

CMAT said on Instagram that, contrary to what some “very well-meaning people” might think, her appearance is not a result of her “being defiant.”

“I simply have a body, one that i would of course like to change in order to fit in and avoid all of this abuse, but i have had extreme difficulty in doing so. i dont get a say in whether or not i want to be brave, i simply have to sit here and take it,” she said.

CMAT added that she is “very very happy and grateful” for her job but that her “success is increasingly becoming tarnished by the fact that i would be allowed to enjoy it so much more if i was thin.”

The post has been liked more than 60,000 times. Among those to respond was BBC radio presenter Lauren Laverne, who said: “Sometimes it feels like so little has changed in the past 20 years. It’s infuriating. You are brave – not because of anything to do with how you look, but for how you use your voice.”

Meanwhile, singer Sophie Ellis Bextor commented that she hadn’t realized “how little things have changed.” She added: “You are blazing a brilliant trail and young girls (and old women like me) look to you as someone being brilliant and completely true to themselves).”

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By Patrick Svitek, CNN

(CNN) — At James Talarico’s first rally after Ken Paxton became his opponent in their US Senate race, one of Texas’ most prominent Black leaders, Rodney Ellis, acknowledged he had supported Talarico’s opponent, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, in their hard-fought Democratic primary.

“That was then, this is now,” Ellis said on Wednesday. “There’s too much at stake to be petty.”

It was a notable vote of confidence from Ellis, a Harris County commissioner and former state senator from Houston. Yet it also showed how Talarico is still building inroads with Black voters nearly three months after they overwhelmingly favored Crockett, a bloc that the state representative desperately needs if he wants to have any chance at a historic breakthrough for his party in Texas.

After losing to Talarico, Crockett called on Democrats to unite behind all their nominees. But she has not campaigned with Talarico yet, and her team made clear in a new statement to CNN that she believes Texas Democrats have considerable progress to make if they want to end Republican rule.

The statement, from Crockett spokesperson Karrol Rimal, said it would be “foolish to underestimate” Paxton and that there is “still a long road ahead to November.”

“Tough decisions will need to be made about where Democrats are prioritizing their spending – do they invest in a Texas longshot or double down in states where they’ve won statewide such as Alaska and Georgia?” the statement said. “Texas Democrats have nominated a slate of candidates where the top three spots are filled with lawmakers from Austin. They’ll have to do a lot of work outside of Central Texas and to resonate with constituencies across our state which is one of the largest and diverse in the world.”

The statement added that Crockett still believes turning Texas blue “lies in energizing the Democratic base,” including voters of color. Democrats “can chase disaffected Republicans all day but there simply is not enough of them to change the outcome,” the statement said.

While Crockett’s spokesperson said her team isn’t directing criticism at any specific candidate, Talarico has long said he wants to win over Democrats, independents and Republicans fed up with their party. On Tuesday night, after Paxton defeated Sen. John Cornyn in their party’s runoff, Talarico made an explicit appeal to Cornyn supporters, telling them in an X post that they “have a place in our campaign.”

No Democrat has won statewide in Texas since 1994.

“I’m proud of the work we’ve been doing all across Texas to bring our coalition together — because our state deserves a Senator that will deliver for Black Texans,” Talarico said in a statement to CNN. “As the candidate at the top of the ticket, it’s on me to earn the trust and support of Black voters that have been taken for granted by the national Democratic party for far too long.”

‘Doing everything that he can do’

Talarico emerged from his contentious primary well aware that he needed to mend fences with Black voters who backed Crockett.

Since the primary, Talarico has given the commencement address at Paul Quinn College in Dallas, the oldest historically Black college in the state; visited another HBCU, Prairie View A&M University outside Houston; and rolled out a plan to combat maternal mortality, which disproportionately impacts Black women.

He’s held meetings with groups of Black leaders in the Dallas area, Houston and Austin;

By Rosa de Acosta, Matias Grez, Patrick Sung Cuadrado, CNN

(CNN) — It’s late spring, heading into the summer and that can only mean one thing: the French Open is back and tennis fans around the world rejoice at the news of the return of the iconic clay court grand slam.

Heading into the 125th edition of the tournament, which kicked off on Sunday, fans suffered a big blow as two-time reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz said he would not be competing in the main draw for the first time since 2020 due to a wrist injury. Then a heat wave fell over Europe, causing high temperatures at the tournament which have affected the players. Most notably, the conditions seemed to play in a part in world No. 1 Jannik Sinner’s shock loss to Juan Manuel Cerúndolo.

The results have left the door open for other contenders. Will Casper Ruud or Sasha Zverev lift the trophy for the first time? Or will Novak Djokovic finally win his elusive 25th grand slam?

With still more than a week to go, here’s everything you need to know about one of the world’s oldest tennis tournaments:

A history beginning in the 19th century

Starting out as the “French Clay-Court Championships” in 1891 – allowing only players from France to compete – the French Open was officially created in 1925 when foreign players were first invited.

In 1927, a new arena was purpose built for France’s defense of its 1927 Davis Cup title and named after Roland Garros – not a sportsman, but a pioneering French aviator who was killed in World War I.

The French Open is one of tennis’ four grand slam tournaments along with Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open – and the only one played on clay.

But are the courts really made of clay? The answer is not much.

Clay makes up just a small part of the tennis court, with 1-2 millimeters of crushed red bricks giving them their famous red hue.

Playing on clay is considerably different to playing on grass or hard courts.

Clay is more physically demanding as it is the slowest of the three surfaces, producing longer rallies, more running and more shots.

Grueling five-set matches on clay can push players close to their physical limits.

Matches on clay are also sometimes referred to as chess matches, where a well-placed shot can set up a winner two or three shots later.

Clay also has considerably more friction than grass or hard courts, allowing the ball to grip to the dust and bounce much higher, in particular shots with heavy topspin.

Even for a player as accomplished as Novak Djokovic, one of the sport’s all-time greats, clay continues to be a tricky surface to master.

“It’s a very demanding surface,” Djokovic said after winning his first clay court match post completing the “Golden Slam” at the Paris Olympics.

“We all know how tricky it is to play on clay; compared to the other surfaces, you always have to expect an extra one or two shots, balls coming back.”

While Roland Garros is considered the pinnacle of the clay season, there are many other ATP (Associatio

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EE.UU. e Irán logran acuerdo preliminar sobre el estrecho de Ormuz y el diálogo nuclear, pero Trump no lo ha ratificado. Cohete de Blue Origin explota durante una prueba en tierra. La incansable lucha de una hija para liberar a su padre de Alligator Alcatraz. Esto es lo que debes saber para comenzar el día. Primero la verdad.

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Los colombianos acuden a las urnas para elegir al próximo presidente. Los candidatos mayor opción son el oficialista Iván Cepeda y los opositores Abelardo de la Espriella y Paloma Valencia. Las encuestas anticipan una posible segunda vuelta. Está en juego la continuidad del proyecto político de Gustavo Petro o un giro hacia la derecha. Este domingo sigue la cobertura en vivo de CNN en Español con minuto a minuto, análisis en tiempo real y transmisión en directo con Fernando Ramos, Fernando del Rincón y Juan Carlos López.

• Enfrentamientos entre grupos armados en Guaviare dejaron al menos 48 muertos, dice Ejército de Colombia

Funcionarios estadounidenses anunciaron que se ha alcanzado un acuerdo preliminar en las conversaciones entre Estados Unidos e Irán, aunque el presidente Donald Trump no lo ha ratificado debido a la tensa situación que se vive en Medio Oriente.

Blue Origin informó este jueves que un cohete New Glenn presentó una anomalía mientras realizaba una prueba de encendido en tierra. Un video registrado durante la noche desde la Estación de la Fuerza Espacial de Cabo Cañaveral, en Florida, parece mostrar la explosión del vehículo en la plataforma de lanzamiento.

Con el inminente cierre del controversial centro de detención de ICE en Florida Alligator Alcatraz, cientos recluidos aún que siguen sin saber si serán liberados, deportados o trasladados a otros establecimientos. Uno de ellos, que estuvo retenido allí durante seis meses, fue liberado gracias al incansable trabajo de su hija.

• Perdió su permiso por una demora en DACA y pasó de la oficina a vender burritos

El Gobierno de Trump ha instruido discretamente a los fiscales federales en Miami que eviten llevar a cabo investigaciones penales contra la presidenta encargada de Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, un objetivo de larga data de la Administración para el Control de Drogas de Estados Unidos (DEA, por sus siglas en inglés), según funcionarios actuales y anteriores de las Read more

By Jacqui Palumbo, CNN

New York (CNN) — In New York’s Hudson Valley, the artist Anicka Yi has erected columns bursting with mercurial microbial life, in hues of acid green and coffee, arranged like an archaeological dig at Storm King Art Center. Some 60 miles away, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, two of her jellyfish-like flying machines take to the air on the fourth floor of the recently reopened New Museum, tentacles gently opening and closing as they drift overhead. And, earlier this month, one of her radiolaria-inspired sculptures, an oceanic unicellular organism made large with fiber optic strands and motors, hung suspended at the art fair Frieze New York, hypnotically curling its arms.

For better or worse, we are living in a time when our relationships to both machine and microbe are heightened — and perhaps wondering which might take us out for good first. But Yi has ruminated on these interconnections for more than two decades, making visible (and, sometimes, odorous) the systems around us that are microscopic, impermanent, or technologically abstract, often questioning our discomfort with them. She’s swabbed bacteria from successful women to create perfume, placed thousands of ants in an observable circuit-board-shaped colony, and created ecosystems for machines to learn within.

The South Korean-born, Brooklyn-based artist explained from her sunlit studio in Greenpoint that she’s fortunate to have reached the point in her career where her works have formed a larger universe.

“I hope that people who are familiar with my practice can thoughtfully weave these works together and see the broader syntax that I’m aiming for,” she said. “It takes time to develop that kind of scope and depth — (ideas) need to age and season and marinate, and you can’t do that as a young artist.”

Yi’s studio is filled with the remnants of her works. Glass biomorphic prototypes sit on shelves next to a collection of fragrances, with a bottle of Chanel No. 5 mixed in among her own proprietary scents. Cocoon-like lanterns lay open on a table. Samples of dyed and embroidered kelp are kept and numbered in bags on a board. A lone prototype from her Storm King commission stands in one corner, murky with the soil and water from the grounds of the sculpture park.

Yi has conjured a scene of ephemerality in “Message from the Mud,” through these column-dwelling microorganisms that are sensitive to light and heat and will only be displayed through the sculpture park’s summer season. The structures sit in a shallow pond at the center of excavated earth, like a ruined archaeological discovery from long ago.

“It’s a great way to encapsulate something about this deep history and deep time that Storm King stands on, and that goes so far beyond human time,” she said.

Uncertain outcomes

Like Yi’s previous endeavors making “living paintings” from bacterial cultures, the structure for “Message from the Mud” utilizes Winogradsky columns — small, self-contained ecosystems invented by the Russian-Ukrainian microbiologist Sergei Winogradsky a century and a half ago. Inside the columns, microbes and algae establish different zones over time, creating vividly hued layers. In Yi’s, they form from the local soil and pond water she’s included, in addition to some added ingredients, such as shredded newspapers for carbon, eggshells for calcium, and diatomaceous earth.

The other ingredient is time, she explained, “so they’ve just been cooking for two years.” That’s taken place in a heated onsite barn under UV lights. Unlike the artist’s precise algorithmic-based works, her Winogradsky columns are based on uncertainty. Without the right environmental variables, the microbial neighborhoods will simply die off — and Yi has also thought through all the left-field scenarios that could have jeopard