Stephen Colbert has delivered the final monologue of his tenure on The Late Show, thanking viewers for being along for the ride.

Colbert, 62, began the final broadcast of the long-running CBS show by speaking directly to viewers.

“This show, I want you to know, has been a joy for us to do for you. In fact, we call this show ‘The Joy Machine,’” Colbert said. “We call it ‘The Joy Machine,’ because to do this many shows it has to be a machine. But the thing is, if you choose to do it with joy, it doesn’t hurt as much when your fingers get caught in the gears.

“I cannot adequately explain to you what the people who work here have done for each other, and how much we mean to each other,” he continued.

“Now, I’ll say to you what I’ve said to every audience for the last 11 years, and I’ve met it every time. Have a good show. Thanks for being here. And let’s do it, y’all.”

Colbert then dove into his monologue about the news of the day, which featured cameos from Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston and Ant-Man’s Paul Rudd.

CBS’s long-running Late Show franchise will come to an end Thursday after 33 years on air. It originated in 1993 with David Letterman, who later passed the torch to Colbert in 2015. The network has promised an “extended” send-off beyond the show’s typical one-hour time slot.

The network announced its cancellation last July, just days after Colbert criticized the network’s parent company, Paramount, for reaching a $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over accusations that its newsmagazine series 60 Minutes deceptively edited a 2024 interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

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CBS staffers told The Independent it was a continuation of the “Trump shakedown” that began with the settlement.

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Smith, in a televised address, said the question being put to Albertans this coming autumn will be: “Should Alberta remain a province of Canada or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?”

The defendant caused his children to feel ‘sad’ and ‘anxious’ due to his aggressive behaviour, which left them retreating to their bedrooms in fear

A father who punched, kicked and slapped his children after losing his temper left them feeling “sad” and “anxious” in the house. His children said they were relieved their father was no longer living in the house.

A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday heard the defendant was abusive towards his children, who described him as “controlling” and “angry”. He frequently shouted at the children for being noisy, which caused them to feel “anxious and frightened” of him.

He would smack the children on the legs and play roughly with them, leaving them with marks and injuries. Make sure you never miss Wales’ biggest updates by getting our daily newsletter.

When he would lose his temper, the children would retreat to their bedrooms in fear.

One of the children described the defendant becoming angry with them and would punch, slap and kick.

He punched her to the legs, causing pain and bruising and she was struck by her father on a number of occasions, including kicking her to the knee. She said she was often “scared and upset”.

Another child said his father shouted, swore and became angry towards him and his siblings and hit them around two to three times a week.

He said the defendant slapped and punched him, leaving handprints and bruising. One child said his father hit him to his arms and legs, and described being slapped and punched causing him pain and marks.

The oldest child said the defendant dragged her upstairs by her hair, causing her pain and distress. He also smacked her legs. In a victim personal statement read to the court by prosecutor Sali Harmes, the children’s mother said life had been easier since their father left the house.

She said: “The atmosphere in the house is different, we’re no longer waiting for the next raised voice or slammed door. Life seems easier and the children are happier and not anxious any more. They sleep and eat better, communicate better.

“They miss him but they understand why he needs to be punished. The house is calm and children are allowed to be children and it’s lovely watching them play together.”

The children said they felt happier they were no longer living with their father, because there was less shouting and they didn’t have to deal with his moods.

One of them said: “We miss him but we don’t feel scared anymore and feel less anxious at home.”

The defendant later pleaded guilty to four counts of causing/assaulting/ill treating/neglecting/abandoning of child/young person to cause unnecessary suffering/injury.

In mitigation, Alice Sykes said her client had “poor emotional control” and his experience in the armed forces had left him with trauma.

The barrister said the defendant is now having counselling through a veterans charity to address his aggressive behaviour. Ms Sykes added: “He is deeply deeply ashamed of his behaviour.”

Sentencing, Judge Jeremy Jenkins said: “You treated those children abominably. Children are a joy… Of course they drive you to distraction from time to time but that’s the nature of a child. Treating them in the way you did was a disgrace.”

The defendant was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.

He was also ordered to carry out a rehabilitation activity requirement, to pay costs of £150, and made subject to a restraining order for three years.

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Cllr Margaret Wells, Labour ward councillor for Clifton, has returned to the role following to York Council’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Mayor Making ceremony on Thursday, May 21.

The Lord Mayor said it was a real honour to return to the role which she held in 2024/5.

Cllr Claire Douglas, the authority’s Labour leader, said it was a pleasure to welcome Cllr Wells back to the role after her previous fantastic work.

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Cllr Wells succeeded Conservative Cllr Martin Rowley at the ceremony on Thursday.

Osbaldwick and Derwent’s Cllr Rowley served alongside former Conservative councillor Paul Doughty who took on the role of Sheriff of York during the last municipal year.

Cllr Rowley’s time in the role included the creation of a Lord Mayor’s Commendation Scheme set up to recognise the work of selected people in York.

Cllr Wells’ civic party for the coming municipal year includes her consort Trevor Gant, Geoff Cossins who is serving as Sheriff of York and Stuart Jarman, the Sheriff’s Consort.

Cllr Margaret Wells (left) served as York’s Lord Mayor in 2024/5 (Image: Supplied)

The incoming Lord Mayor said she looked forward to meeting the amazing people of York and helping to raise money for fantastic causes.

Cllr Wells said: “It is a real honour to be chosen as the Lord Mayor of York again.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Cllr Rowley for all his hard work and dedication during his tenure as Lord Mayor.

“Alongside my colleagues in the Civic Party, I’m looking forward to continuing our work as ambassadors for this fantastic city.”

Council Leader Cllr Douglas said she was grateful to Cllr Rowley and the outgoing Civic Party for their outstanding work.

The Labour council leader said: “Mayor making is an ancient tradition steeped in history and it is a real honour to formally welcome York’s new Lord Mayor and Civic Party for the next year.

“It is a pleasure to welcome Cllr Wells back as The Lord Mayor after the fantastic work she did along with the Civic Party for the city when she was last Lord Mayor.”

The office of York’s mayor dates back to 1217 and was first held by Hugh de Selby.

It became a lord mayoralty under Richard II in 1389 and is second only to the Lord Mayor of London in precedence in England.

Past office holders include William Harrington, the great-grandfather of Guy Fawkes, architect John Carr and confectionary magnates Joseph Terry and John Rowntree.

York is one of 15 towns and cities which still has a sheriff, an office whose origins date back to Anglo-Saxon times.

They were officials appointed to help govern the country’s shires and were called shire reeves, which gradually became sheriff.

Sheriffs represented the monarch at a local level, helping to collect taxes and administer justice, but the role is now ceremonial.

“I don’t ask why (they rejected the proposal). They just told me, it doesn’t work, because, you know, there are contractual issues, TV rights, and I think everybody wants the last game day, the big celebration, the trophy, that goes to Arsenal, everything together. I think that’s the reason.”

A developing El Nino that is forecast to get quite strong will likely dampen the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season, but it won’t make the potentially deadly storms disappear, federal and outside meteorologists predict.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday issued its seasonal outlook for the Atlantic, giving a 55% chance of a below-average season. The agency forecasts eight to 14 named storms, with three to six of them becoming strong enough to hit hurricane status and one to three of those intensifying to major hurricanes.

A normal hurricane season has 14 named storms, seven of them becoming hurricanes and three of them reaching major hurricane level, which is more than 110 mph (177 kph).

Eighteen other groups, private and academic, have also forecast what they think the season will be like and most of them also call for a below average summer and fall. Those other forecasts average a dozen named storms, only five becoming hurricanes and two of those being major ones. Those forecasts also call for the Accumulated Cyclone Energy index, which takes into account strength and duration of storms, to be 80% of normal.

Colorado State University, which pioneered the science of hurricane seasonal forecasting in 1984, is predicting the lowest overall activity since 2015, which was the strongest El Nino in the last 75 years. And that forecast is likely to be revised to even lower numbers in June, said Colorado State’s hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach.

This is after nine of the last 10 Atlantic hurricane seasons have been above normal or even hyperactive, Klotzbach said. Last year started slow, but then had a burst, producing a near-record total of three Category 5 hurricanes, including Melissa which devastated Jamaica and Cuba, said Suzana Camargo, a climate scientist and tropical weather expert at Columbia University.

Inflation-adjusted damage across the globe from tropical cyclones has increased from an average of $11.4 billion a year in the 1980s to $109.7 billion a year over the past 10 years, with three-quarters of the damage done in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, according to insurance giant Munich Re.

Hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are the same weather event, with the different names being used in different parts of the world.

“We should expect a less active year than certainly what we’ve seen recently, and perhaps significantly so below average,” said University at Albany atmospheric scientist Kristen Corbosiero. “But again, it only takes one to cause real devastation and destruction in the mainland U.S. or even in Hawaii.”

El Nino decapitates Atlantic storms

It’s mostly because of “the elephant in the room” which is an El Nino, Camargo said.

An El Nino is the natural and cyclic warming of parts of the central Pacific that warps weather patterns around the globe, especially during winter. Scientists for decades have found a correlation between an El Nino and below average Atlantic hurricane activity and stronger and more storms in the central and eastern Pacific. This year many forecasts are calling for a strong, superstrong or even record setting intense El Nino. During a La Nina, the cool flip side of El Nino, the Atlantic is generally busier with stronger storms.

There’s a 98% chance that there will be an El Nino this summer and an 80% chance it will be moderate or strong, NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs said Thursday.

Atlantic hurricane seasons when an El Nino reaches strong or very strong status have two-thirds the named storms and half the hurricanes of the 1991-2020 average, according to an Associated Press analysis of storm and El Nino statistics.

El Ninos fight Atlantic storm formation in several ways, especially with cross winds about 1 mile to 7 miles (1.5 to 11 kilometers) above the surface “which can basically blow apart the thunderstorms that make up” a hurricane, Corbosiero said.

“A stronger than normal wind shear tends to tilt storms as they try to develop,” said University at Albany atmospheric scientist Brian Tang. “It pushes dry air into storms. And prevents storms from developing in the first place. And if they do develop, it also prevents them from intensifying.”

El Nino reduces the number and intensity of weaker storms, but once a storm hits hurricane status with 74 mph winds, “they can be kind of like a self-feeding entity” and are less prone to being dampened by El Nino’s wind shear, said Matthew Rosencrans, lead hurricane season forecaster with NOAA’s National Weather Service.

Forecasts for peak hurricane season show strong wind shear from the west in the main development region for the largest and long-lasting hurricanes that come off of Africa and develop as they head west over the Atlantic, Klotzbach said. Fewer of these type storms happen during El Ninos.

In the 15 strongest El Nino years since 1950, 37 named storms, 11 hurricanes and three major hurricanes made landfall on the continental United States, but in the 15 coldest La Nina years 61 named storms, 31 hurricanes and 10 major hurricanes hit America’s Gulf and Atlantic coasts, according to Klotzbach. He said El Nino shrinks the number of hits on the Atlantic coast, but has less of an influence on the number of Gulf coast landfalls.

In addition to El Nino, dry conditions in Africa and water in the Atlantic being only slightly warmer than normal contribute to the forecast of a weaker season, Rosencrans said.

Opposite effect in the Pacific

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El Ninos and La Ninas have the opposite effect on storms in the central and eastern Pacific as they do in the Atlantic, so experts are expecting a busier season in those regions. Jacobs said there’s a 70% chance that the eastern Pacific will have an above normal season.

NOAA forecasts 15 to 22 named storms in the Pacific with nine to 14 becoming hurricanes and five to nine of those being major hurricanes. Average is 15 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes. Rosencrans said the main area of central Pacific storm development shifts closer to Hawaii during El Ninos.

Eastern Pacific storms near Baja Mexico tend to “go west, affect the fishies and little else,” Corbosiero said. But at times they can turn east or north and cause massive damage as in Hurricane Otis in 2023 that smashed into Mexico, or 1992’s Hurricane Lester, which caused heavy rains in the U.S. Southwest, she said.

Hawaii is a small island chain in a big ocean that can be threatened. In 1992, an El Nino year when there were few Atlantic storms (though Miami was devastated by Hurricane Andrew ), Hawaii was hit by Hurricane Iniki.

The state is preparing for hurricanes just as parts of Hawaii are still reeling from recent back-to-back storms that caused catastrophic flooding, Gov. Josh Green said.

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this report.

___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Around one in six adolescents worldwide report having self-harmed at some point in their lives. In England, an NHS mental health survey of 2,370 children and young people found that more than one in three young adults aged 17 to 24 had self-harmed.

Typically, responses to self-harm focus on the individual – diagnosis, treatment and risk management. Mental health support is clearly essential, but a large and growing body of global research points to wider, social factors contributing to self-harm.

Young people across different cultures describe self-harm less as a symptom of a specific “mental illness” and more as a response to unbearable pressures often linked to intense social challenges, relationship difficulties and changes as they develop into adulthood. These issues are raised in India, Pakistan and China.

Even if these social drivers are well acknowledged, there is a lack of alignment between how distress is understood and how it is addressed. This mismatch has real consequences. Responses to youth self-harm that prioritise the individual may reduce immediate danger. However, approaches that prevent distress from arising in the first place and address the wider context that might inadvertently maintain it are also needed.

Social worlds

In research, young people who self-harm often speak of shame and humiliation, family conflict, parental criticism and harsh discipline, social exclusion and overwhelming educational expectations. Some describe feeling unable to express distress or challenge authority safely. Others talk about feeling silenced, believing that if they tried to explain their pain directly, they would not be heard.

In research carried out in Ghana, young people linked self-harm to powerlessness within families, early adult responsibilities and harsh punishment, often framing it as a form of protest or communication. In research in Brazil, adolescents emphasised low family support, school disengagement, and difficulties in expressing their emotions as factors driving self-harming.

Despite differences in culture and context, a consistent pattern emerges. Young people understand self-harm within their everyday social worlds. Distress is described by young people as socially produced and linked to relationships, not simply as something that originates within the individual.

Self-harm becomes a way of regulating overwhelming emotions, expressing protest or making suffering visible when other options feel unavailable.

Research I carried out in Rwanda reinforces this perspective. In interviews with young people, parents and healthcare providers, self-harm was widely understood as emerging from poverty, family conflict, school pressure and community responses, such as stigma and gossip.

Importantly, these explanations were not confined to young people themselves. Across the findings, parents and healthcare professionals also described the young people’s distress as shaped by family relationships, material hardship, and wider social responses. Nevertheless, services across most of the world continue to focus primarily on individual risk assessment and treatment.

School-based programmes, for example, often focus on screening, awareness and referral rather than on reducing the pressures young people describe as driving distress. Clinical services tend to see young people once self-harm has already escalated, by which point social problems may be deeply entrenched. Schools could explore reducing daily pressures linked to risk, including academic pressure, bullying, weak sense of belonging and a lack of trusted adult support, by reviewing assessment load and exam messaging, strengthening connectedness, and improving pastoral support.

Even well-intentioned support may inadvertently reinforce silence if it makes young people feel unable to talk about their feelings and needs. This was particularly clear in our research in Rwanda, where in some cases support was only to communicate that self-harm is dangerous and should be stopped, rather than also recognising it as a signal of unmet needs.

That silence matters because, in my research, lack of emotional support and lack of space for expression were part of the conditions linked to self-harm.

Support for parents is particularly limited, but the need is high. Many parents report significant distress owing to their child’s self-harm, and challenges navigating economic strain, social change and limited support for their young person.

Recognising self-harm as socially structured distress shifts attention upstream. It invites attention on how families respond to conflict and emotion, how schools manage competition and failure, and how communities handle shame and exclusion.

It also highlights the role of wider inequalities in shaping vulnerability, including poverty, expectations placed on young people because of their gender, and limited access to supportive services. This does not deny the importance of mental health care. Young people still need access to compassionate, confidential support.

This perspective is not entirely new. What remains striking is how little it has transformed mainstream policy and practice. As long as self-harm is treated primarily as an individual clinical problem, responses will continue to be limited. There has long been recognition that clinical treatment sits within a broader social ecology. However, integration of this into our intervention approach remains an ongoing project.

Prevention and treatment require environments in which distress can be expressed without fear of punishment or stigma, and where young people have some meaningful say over the conditions shaping their lives.

Some promising work already points in this direction. Participatory approaches that involve young people in designing interventions show higher acceptability and relevance. These might be on a variety of levels, from one-to-one therapy, school support and prevention campaigns, or awareness raising in the community, for example. Community-based programmes that engage families, teachers and peers can help reduce shame and isolation. Interventions grounded in local social realities, rather than “risk models” developed elsewhere that may not fit local contexts, are more likely to resonate with young people’s experiences.

Listening carefully to how young people explain their distress does not offer a quick fix. It does offer a fuller response. If we are serious about reducing youth self-harm, we need to take the social environments shaping young people’s lives seriously, not only as sites of harm, but as places where prevention, treatment and support begin.

Afterwards, William posted a message on social media, saying: “Three years ago, we set out to take a different approach, to think more carefully about how the Duchy could use its land to create opportunity and support people over the long term, including launching a project here in Cornwall to help tackle homelessness with the right support around it.