Once teams promote a country, are owned by states or have to reflect government policy, sport becomes a playground for power
High fives all round at Hamas high command. The triumphant clink of Gaza Cola tins pings across the bunker. It’s been a tough week for the lads, what with five of their members being killed in the Doha airstrike, but you’ve got to celebrate the little victories, yeah? And as they use what remains of their fragile satellite internet connection to refresh the Cyclingnews live blog for the final time, the Hamas Grand Tour Disruption Division (Vuelta Branch) can toast an operation executed to perfection: the successful mobilisation of more than 100,000 members of the Madrid battalion to force the curtailment of stage 21 of the Tour of Spain.
“They asked us to quit the Vuelta, but we did not surrender to the terrorists,” said Sylvan Adams, co‑owner of the Israel-Premier Tech team targeted by mass protests that disrupted several stages. On Sunday, huge crowds of protesters in Madrid forced the race to conclude 27 miles short of the finish. And if the rancorous and chaotic last three weeks have taught us anything, it is the sheer number of terrorists that appear to have been operating within pro cycling, albeit many armed with nothing more lethal than energy gels.
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© Photograph: Javier Lizón/EPA
© Photograph: Javier Lizón/EPA
© Photograph: Javier Lizón/EPA
As the Manchester City legend returns to face his former team, we look back at moments that will never be forgotten
On 22 May 2022, in a dictionary definition of carpe diem, De Bruyne shows his greatness with the assist that harvests another title for City, just as Pep Guardiola’s men veer near to losing the plot. After 69 minutes Aston Villa are cruising at 2-0 up and the title is heading to Anfield where Liverpool, drawing with Wolves 1-1, need a goal to seal a famous last-day triumph. But, after City strikes on 76 and 78 minutes, De Bruyne takes charge. A piercing burst along the right prompts a pinpoint cross to Ilkay Gündogan, whose threaded finish on 81 minutes sends the Etihad Stadium ballistic.
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© Composite: Guardian Design
© Composite: Guardian Design
© Composite: Guardian Design
Raquel doesn’t believe ADHD excuses Gina’s bad habits. You decide who needs to brush up on their etiquette
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror
I can hear her swishing and spitting from my room. I have a visceral reaction to it
Living with ADHD is difficult, and anyway, the kitchen is not some sacred food-only zone
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© Illustration: Igor Bastidas/The Guardian
© Illustration: Igor Bastidas/The Guardian
© Illustration: Igor Bastidas/The Guardian
I was the envy of the friends I’d left behind. Now it seems prudent to assess how much that nativism will truly take root here
This time last year, I had just moved back to Britain from the US and was enjoying the almost universal envy of American friends. While they were looking down the barrel of a second Trump presidency with its guarantee of chaos and division, we had elected Keir Starmer by a landslide and were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. I remember people congratulating me on the prescience of my move, which I absolutely took even though politics hadn’t been part of my decision (not least because, for most of 2024, I had assumed Trump would lose). Anyway, here we are a year later and who’s laughing now?
I guess the answer to that is Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party, which has somehow managed to harness the anger, disappointment and shame felt by large numbers of people who voted for and were then let down by Brexit, and are now in search of another fire to light. To this extent, the roots of the rightwing march last weekend and the rise of Reform generally feel broadly of a piece with their US antecedents: a case, at least in part, of people clutching at anything that promises to rip up a system that has serially failed to reward them. What has felt shocking to many of us this year, however, is how quickly the political landscape seems to have changed in this country, and how a leader as frivolous as Farage could get anyone to follow him anywhere, let alone in the direction of No 10.
Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist
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© Photograph: James Willoughby/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
© Photograph: James Willoughby/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
© Photograph: James Willoughby/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
A new retrospective by the Black British artist plays with everything from the Victorians’ use of flowers to Eurocentric beauty standards – including one piece she started in 2003
There weren’t many Black students at the Royal College of Art when Joy Gregory was a student in the 1980s, but she did study alongside artist and Blk Art Group founder Keith Piper, who was putting together a Black photography exhibition. “He asked me if I would submit some work,” says the 65-year-old artist.
Piper had liked her work, which explored themes of colonialism, beauty, gender and race. However, her submission was rejected by the organisers on the basis that it simply wasn’t Black enough. “You have to recognise the political climate at that time around practice and making a mark and I was basically taking pictures of flowers,” says Gregory. “For me, you have the right to make whatever work you want. By shutting down what can and cannot be, you start to censor yourself. I was a bit pissed off, thinking: why should you pander to what people think you should be and sit within the box that they’ve created?”
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© Photograph: Joy Gregory
© Photograph: Joy Gregory
© Photograph: Joy Gregory
The home has become famous world over
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Streamer has signed the fifth season of Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon’s workplace comedy drama
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‘Its changed my life,’ TV personality said after losing seven stone
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There are around 6,600 new liver cancer cases in the UK every year - that's 18 every day
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‘Some people can’t watch it on a Saturday night,’ dancing show judge complained
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‘He’s spot on with the problem,’ one fan said after ‘Terminator’ star spoke candidly on subject
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National Cheeseburger Day is September 18
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