Italy's 'Slow Food' founder Carlo Petrini dies at 76

By Giulia Segreti and Alvise Armellini

Italy's 'Slow Food' founder Carlo Petrini dies at 76

ROME, May 22 (Reuters) - Carlo Petrini, the Italian founder of the international "Slow Food" movement, which reshaped global thinking on food production and consumption, died at the ‌age of 76, the organisation said.

Petrini died on Thursday in his hometown of Bra, in the ‌northwestern Italian region of Piedmont, it added, without giving a cause of death. He had revealed in recent years that he had been ​diagnosed with prostate cancer.

"He brought to life a global movement rooted in the values of good, clean, and fair food for all," Slow Food said in a statement.

An orator and writer with strong views, Petrini spoke about agriculture and food quality as cultural, social and political matters.

He helped elevate small-scale farmers, traditional food practices and biodiversity at a ‌time when mass consumption and globalisation threatened ⁠to erode them.

"The passing of Carlo Petrini leaves a huge void not only in the world of food and wine science, but also in society as a whole, and ⁠not just in Italy," said Italian President Sergio Mattarella.

SLOW FOOD VERSUS FAST FOOD

Known as 'Carlin' by friends and Slow Food supporters, he set up the grassroots movement in 1986 in protest against McDonald's opening of its first fast food restaurant in ​Italy, ​near Rome's famed Spanish Steps.

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"Once on a plane, a man ​approached me and said, 'I'm your enemy. I'm responsible ‌for all the McDonald's in Italy,'" Petrini told the Corriere della Sera newspaper in December.

"I replied that I was actually grateful, because without them there would be no Slow Food."

The movement, which emphasised quality, environmental sustainability and equitable conditions for producers grew under his leadership from a small group of friends in the countryside into an international global network in more than 160 countries.

Petrini also opened the University of Gastronomic Sciences in the town ‌of Pollenzo, created the Ark of Taste, an international catalogue of ​endangered foods, and Terra Madre, a global forum of food communities, ​producers and chefs.

FRIENDS WITH KING CHARLES AND POPE ​FRANCIS

He had a very strong bond with his sister Chiara, but never established a ‌family of his own. "I feel part of a ​bigger family," he said, when ​asked whether he had regrets about not marrying or having children.

Petrini was a personal friend of Britain's King Charles, a longstanding champion of organic farming, and of the late Pope Francis, an Argentine whose ​Italian immigrant family also hailed from ‌Piedmont.

The Slow Food founder, a self-declared agnostic, admired Francis' pro-environment "Laudato Si" encyclical and would send the ​pontiff an annual Christmas gift of tajarin, a traditional, thin ribbon-like egg pasta from Piedmont.

(Reporting by ​Alvise Armellini and Giulia Segreti; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

May 22, 2026

Italy's 'Slow Food' founder Carlo Petrini dies at 76

By Giulia Segreti and Alvise Armellini Italy's 'Slow Food' founder Carlo Petrini dies at 76 ROME, May 22 (Reuters)...

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Everest record-holder Kami Rita Sherpa urges limit on climbers as crowds swell on the peak

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A renownedMount Everestguide who this week scaled the peak a record 32nd time urged authorities on Friday to limit climbers on the summit.

Nepal Everest

The number of climbers making the ascent on the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak from the Nepalese side is higher this season because China has closed the route from Tibet. Everest can be scaled from either the southern side in Nepal or the northern side in China.

On Wednesday, 274 climbers reached the summit, the highest number on a single day from the Nepal side. A total of 494 climbers have been issued permits by Nepal’s mountaineering authorities and an equal number Sherpa guides are accompanying them.

“It was very crowded this year compared to last year because there was more clients,”Kami Rita Sherpatold reporters at Kathmandu airport after flying back from the mountain. “There is a need for authorities to control this number.”

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Climbers only get a few windows of good weather to make their attempt on the summit. A large number of people waiting in a fixed rope line they are all clipped into increases the risks of a traffic jam and exposes the climbers to increased hours of harsh weather.

Kami Rita's closest competitor,Pasang Dawa Sherpa, scaled the peak for the 31st time on Friday, which was his second successful ascent this week

Kami Rita, 56, first climbed Everest in 1994, and has been making the trip nearly every year since. He is one of many Sherpa guides whose expertise and skills are vital to the safety and success of foreign climbers aspiring to stand on top of the mountain each year.

His father was among the first Sherpa guides. In addition to Everest, Kami Rita has climbed other peaks that are among the world’s highest, including K2, Cho Oyu, Manaslu and Lhotse.

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

May 22, 2026

Everest record-holder Kami Rita Sherpa urges limit on climbers as crowds swell on the peak

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A renownedMount Everestguide who this week scaled the peak a record 32nd time urged authorities on Friday to li...

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F1 messed up the big race day and it might rain on their Canadian parade

When it feels appropriate, and certainly when it helps their immediate argument,the Smugs among uswill say something along the lines of, “Well, they don’t do it that way in Europe.”

Ah, Europe, where ice cubes are doled out like gem stones. Where gas is priced in liters in order to lessen the shock of paying 8-plus bucks a gallon to fill that toaster you call a car. Just kidding … it's actuallylitres.

America’s Europhiles, over time, have let their infatuation wander intothe sporting world, and roughly a generation ago, you began hearing cohorts, passersby and maybe even friends (dear Lord!) join conversations about the next morning’s big “football” game (oops …match) in Manchester.

Soon thereafter, their Euro sporting eyes began wandering from the pitches to the paddocks, and you needn’t go far to overhear chatter about that morning’s Formula One race in Germany, England, Spain, etc. Even in the early-Sunday waiting room we call a NASCAR media center, a few of the typists and talkers would gather around a laptop to watch the live feed from Silverstone or Monza.

I never heard any of them say, “We’re better and smarter than you,” but vibes, you know? And this was long before Netflix brought us the hit docuseries — “Drive to Survive” — that made household names of so many current F1 racers, each more handsome than the next, which didn’t hurt the cause.

The whole McLaren, Red Bull, Max and Lewis theatrics were suddenly conversation fodder for some who, five minutes ago, didn’t know a pastrami sub from a Rubens Barrichello.

Suddenly, casual onlookers were new Formula One fans and feeling quite happy with themselves. Some, wearing this new aura as they would an Edinburgh bonnet, took the added pleasure of looking down their noses at North America’s motorsport offerings, particularly NASCAR, of course.

“My oh my, the technology Ferrari and Mercedes are bringing to the grid this season is otherworldly. And just a fortnight ago, I believe we witnessed a pass for the lead …”

Kidding again, of course. It wasn’t a pass. It was anovertaking.

Deep breath, now let’s move along because, as sometimes happens, I say all that to say this: Even your beloved European and British intelligentsia can screw it up.

And while it’s not as big a blunder as some of their historical and even modern doozies, it does make you wonder.

Why did F1 swap the Monaco and Canada dates?

What, exactly, were they thinking when they moved their Monaco Grand Prix off the fourth weekend of May and totally monkey-wrenched the natural flow of this coming Sunday — the Sunday circled by race fans all over, but particularly North America, which has become a humming ATM machine for the F1 movers and shakers.

F1 has a nearly 60-year history in Canada, but its U.S. footprint has come and gone over the decades. It was usually just one visit, often none, then one again, and now THREE — Austin, Miami and, of course, Las Vegas.

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The three races are spread about from early-May (Miami) to mid-late October (Austin) to pre-Thanksgiving weekend (Vegas). Canada was traditionally run the first or second week of June, but has now swapped dates with the gem of F1 playgrounds, Monaco.

Why do this? Unless you included “carbon footprint” and/or “net zero” among your explanations, you haven’t been paying attention to that side of the Atlantic. They’re aiming to streamline the season and keep segments of the schedule relegated, as much as possible, to specific continents. You burn less jet fuel that way.

After Miami in early May, the next scheduled race is now Canada in late May. Back to back in North America fits the new narrative. But no, that uber-conscious F1 crowd didn’t spend the ensuing three weeks hunkered down in a Plattsburgh KOA, turning wrenches under the birch trees by day and swapping Nurburgring war stories by night.

Nope, they went back to Europe. And not by sailboat.

And a few weeks later they loaded the cargo planes again for a return to the New World, before heading home to prep for, yes, the Monaco Grand Prix two weeks later.

Will it rain on our Sunday parade of racing at Indy, Charlotte?

The upshot for us is a truncated day of revs this coming Sunday. For nearly this entire century, and for 20 straight years through last season, Monaco fell on the Sunday morning preceding all thepomp and circumstance of Indianapolis, which eventually would deliver 200 hectic laps before a late-afternoon lull leading into NASCAR’s 600-miler in Charlotte.

F1 has erased the wiggle room this year. Indy’s green flag is 12:45 p.m., F1’s Canadian GP starts at 4, and Charlotte starts turning laps at 6.

If all goes well, Indy will end a little before Canada, which will probably end around 5:30 but certainly no later than 6, given F1’s two-hour time limit. Then it's the Charlotte marathon.

Also, if all goes well, it’ll be a minor climatic miracle. While rain won’t halt an F1 race, it certainly can ruin things on the big ovals at Indy and Charlotte. And by the looks of things, it just might.

On the bright side, if an Indy rain delay bleeds into or completely blankets the Canadian GP time window, hopefully it’ll convince the lords of F1, who have become infatuated with their U.S. attention, to go back to the Monaco-Indy-Charlotte routine.

To assuage a guilty conscience, they can always buy some offsets and plant a few elms.

—Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal:NASCAR, Indy 500 get new Canadian F1 partner for busy Sunday race day

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

May 21, 2026

F1 messed up the big race day and it might rain on their Canadian parade

When it feels appropriate, and certainly when it helps their immediate argument,the Smugs among uswill say something along the lines of...

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Sheryl Crow Received Breast Cancer Diagnosis 'Same Week' She Discovered Lance Armstrong Was Seeing a 'Really Famous Actress'

Sheryl Crow recalled getting her breast cancer diagnosis the "same week" she and Lance Armstrong split

NEED TO KNOW

• The singer-songwriter also said during that time she discovered the former professional cyclist was seeing a "really famous actress"

• Crow and Armstrong split in 2006

Sheryl Crowrecalled a difficult time in her life.

Duringthe Tuesday, May 19 episodeofThe Bobbycast, the "Soak Up the Sun" hitmaker reflected on receiving her breast cancer diagnosis and going through heartbreak.

Crow, now 64, reflected on being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2026 and splitting with her then-fiancéLance Armstrongthe same week.

"I was engaged. I had three beautiful step-children. I wanted to have kids with this person. We split. In the same week that we split, I got diagnosed with breast cancer, and I found out he was seeing a really famous actress," she recalled.

At the time, Crow said she went through "about nine months of radiation and grieving and anger."

"I had a really stoic oncologist who literally looked like my grandmother, but one of the things that she said to me was, 'I've had a thousand women come in with cancer, don't miss out on the lesson,'" she said.

Crow realized, amid her breast cancer diagnosis, that she was "a caretaker," which made her realize she was the last person she took care of at the end of the day.

"It took my life screeching to a halt to get to a place to go, 'Okay, who am I? And why am I doing what I'm doing? Do I love what I'm doing? What am I supposed to be doing?" she asked herself.

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PEOPLE reached out to a rep for Armstrong for comment.

Crow and Armstrong got engaged in October 2005 and split in February 2006.

The Texas-born athlete, now 54, has since remarried,tying the knot with Anna Hansen Armstrongin August 2022. They share two children, son Max and daughter Olivia. He shares three children,son Lukeand twin daughters Grace and Isabelle, with his first wife, Kristin Richard.

Crow has two sons whom she adopted: Wyatt, 19, and Levi, 15.

In a 2019interview with PEOPLE, Crow reflected on ending her engagement to Armstrong amid her breast cancer diagnosis.

“When I was diagnosed and my relationship fell apart, people were camped outside trying to get that picture of Sheryl Crow at her lowest moment. I just lost all faith in humankind,” she said at the time.

Crow continued, “But I licked my wounds. I started feeling like, ‘I'm at a point in my life where I need to manifest something more realistic.'”

Read the original article onPeople

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

May 21, 2026

Sheryl Crow Received Breast Cancer Diagnosis 'Same Week' She Discovered Lance Armstrong Was Seeing a 'Really Famous Actress'

Sheryl Crow recalled getting her breast cancer diagnosis the "same week" she and Lance Armstrong split NEED TO KNOW ...

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FIFA’s big experiment may have made the World Cup too big for its own good

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — A supersizedWorld Cupwith more teams, more games and even more host nations than ever before leaves a big question hanging over the biggest sporting show on earth: How much is too much?

Soccer WCup Expansion

The latest edition of the World Cup — co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico — will push the boundaries of how far the most popular sport on the planet can go before it reaches breaking point.

Be it the limits of physical endurance as top playersthreaten strike actionover an ever-congested calendar, the attention span of fans in an age of seemingly wall-to-wall televised soccer or theexorbitant pricespeople are prepared to pay for tickets — or even parking — the pressure points are numerous going into the June-July tournament.

With an expanded 48-team format — up from 32 — played out over nearly six weeks, some say this year's tournament risks a dilution of FIFA's most prized product.

“I personally think it’s kind of taken a little bit of the excitement and quality away from the tournament and it’s almost like it doesn’t start until the round of 32,” former U.S. forward Clint Dempsey told The Associated Press.

The expanded format has effectively removed the chance of several top teams being drawn in the same group — known as a “group of death” in soccer vernacular.

Much of the jeopardy traditionally seen in the early stages of the tournament has been removed until the round of 16 because the eight best third place teams also advance from the groups the round of 32.

“I think the biggest danger is dilution of spectacle," said Jonathan Wilson, author of The Power and the Glory: A New History of the World Cup.

"Maybe FIFA gets away with it this time because it’s the first expanded tournament and because ticket prices are enormous. But eventually broadcasters and fans may stop caring if the tournament doesn’t become interesting until the last 16,” Wilson said. “A World Cup game should feel almost must-watch... Nobody is watching 90 out of 104 games. It’s just too much.”

FIFA says it's growing the game

FIFA President Gianni Infantino says the expansion of the tournament will make the game“truly global”and create opportunities for countries that “would never have dreamed to participate” in a World Cup.

The theory is that given a greater chance to qualify, more nations would increase grass roots funding and therefore improve the standard of soccer around the globe.

Four nations will be making their debut at this year's tournament, includingtiny Curacao, the smallest by population ever to qualify.

“It’s a big achievement for us to make it, but we also want to show that we can play and that we deserve to be there,” Curacao goalkeeper Eloy Room said.

Jordan, Cape Verde and Uzbekistan are the other debutants. Haiti has qualified for the first time since 1974.

“As children, we all watched the World Cup. We all dreamed of playing in the World Cup. But it was just a dream, a fantasy when you’re a child. Qualifying and being able to participate is unimaginable,” said Haiti midfielder Yassin Fortune.

There are certainly feel-good stories. Like Haiti goalkeeper Josué Duverger, who will swap regional soccer in Germany to rub shoulders with Brazil superstars like Vinícius Júnior and Neymar. New Zealand has called up defender Tommy Smith from Braintree Town, which was relegated from the fifth tier of English soccer this season.

Critics say sometimes less is more

Maheta Molango, chief executive of England's Professional Footballers' Association, has been one of the leading voices warning about the impact on top players being asked to play more and more soccer.

He says the quality of the product is being diminished and soccer should follow the lead set by the NFL and appreciate the “value of scarcity.”

The NFL averages nearly$11 billion in revenue per season from its media deals, with teams playing 17 regular season games and up to 21 if they make the Super Bowl.

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The English Premier League is the world's richest and most watched soccer league in the world, yet its financial figures do not match the NFL's. Its teams play 36 games each per season and its latest domestic broadcast deal was worth $9 billion, at current exchange rates, over a four-year period. Its international deals from 2022-25 were reportedly worth $7.2 billion. Even combined, its yearly broadcast revenue is less than half of the NFL's.

Considering the greater global reach of soccer, the sport needs to think about the quality of its output, Molango said.

“We target China, the U.S., India. So this, in my view, should make us reflect on the value of scarcity because sometimes we always think that more is more, but I disagree," he said. “The starting point has to be ‘let’s put back the quality of the show at the center of our project.'”

Growing concerns about players' health

Not only is the product in question, but players unions are concerned about the physical and mental strain on top stars, who are given less rest time. After this World Cup many will have played three consecutive years of major tournaments in the off-season, following the European Championship and Copa America in 2024 and the newly-expanded Club World Cup last summer.

In December, the global players' union FIFPRO said Chelsea had seena 44% spike in injuriesafter winning theClub World Cup.

Several top playersincluding Brazil starsRodrygo,Éder Militãoand Estevao have been ruled of the tournament after picking up injuries in recent months.

“I think the top players get treated a little bit like cattle,” former Liverpool player Jamie Carragher said. "If they start getting criticism for the performances at certain stages of the World Cup, I think we’ve got to remember how much football they’ve played and the conditions that they’re playing the game in and it just doesn’t seem like anyone who organizes football ever thinks about the demands physically and mentally on the on the top players.”

More games means more revenue for FIFA

The World Cup is FIFA’s main revenue generator and the financial advantage to expanding it is compelling.

More games — 104 in total — means more tickets to sell, with prices rising to thousands of dollars for the best seats at the biggest matches.

When tickets went on general sale in January they ranged from $140 to $8,680. Since then some have been made available for less and others for significantly more —rising to a face price of $32,970 for the final.

FIFA can make more money on its resale marketplace where it takes a 30% commission from each sale. In April the platform listedfour tickets to the final for just under $2.3 million each.

Fans have accused FIFA of a“monumental betrayal” over its pricing strategy, but demand appears to be high and the not-for-profit organization says the money it makes goes back into the sport.

In that case, soccer can expect a bumper windfall from the World Cup, with more than $9 billion in revenue anticipated this year.

It remains to be seen if the supersized format it is a turn-off for fans. Audience measurement company Nielsen says interest in international soccer in the U.S. is on the rise.

The most watched game on television in the U.S. between 2023-25 was Spain vs. England in the Euros final, with an average audience of 6.6 million. Second was the Copa America final between Argentina and Colombia with 6.5 million.

At the time of reporting FIFA had struck media deals with 180 territories to broadcast the tournament, with more to come, indicating appetite remains strong even amid wider concerns.

James Robson is athttps://x.com/jamesalanrobson

AP World Cup coverage:https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

May 21, 2026

FIFA’s big experiment may have made the World Cup too big for its own good

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — A supersizedWorld Cupwith more teams, more games and even more host nations than ever before leaves a big qu...

Read More