Many believe Mamdani’s triumph shows it’s time for national party to evolve but others say his brand of politics won’t appeal in key battlegrounds
The Friday night before election day, Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist running for mayor of New York City, walked the length of Manhattan, from Inwood Hill Park at its northern tip to the Battery – about 13 miles. Along the way, he was greeted by a stream of New Yorkers enjoying the sticky summer night – men rose from their folding chairs to shake his hand, drivers honked in support and diners leapt up to snap a selfie with the would-be leader of their city.
A feelgood video of his trek, produced by Mamdani’s campaign, captures the “only in New York” quality of his ascendance, from little-known assembly member to the all-but-official Democratic nominee for mayor of America’s largest city.
All children face difficulties in new schools – make sure he knows this, stick to the positives, and take the fact he’s already been invited to a party as a positive first step
My son is starting secondary school in September. He is the only child from his primary transitioning to a selective grammar school.He has always struggled with friendships and I feel this is due to his autism. He is high-achieving academically. I don’t want him to change who he is or feel as if he can’t be himself. At the same time I know he can be standoffish and overwhelming when he is so focused on his own interests.
He has just been invited to one of his new classmates’ birthday parties. He was shocked and grateful to be invited, and it was heartbreaking. I don’t want him to be isolated in his new school and I don’t know how to help him to be ready and open to a brand new social setting. I would really appreciate any help or advice you could give.
Government sources say ‘umbrella’ structure now more likely after plans for independent body found to be too complex
Keir Starmer’s flagship new ethics and integrity commission may be a rebrand of existing watchdogs brought together under a new “umbrella” rather than creating an entirely fresh regulator, government sources have said.
A year after Labour made its manifesto promise, ministers are mulling the idea of a new oversight structure above current regulators to avoid the need for starting from scratch.
Every morning in Grangemouth, chemists at Celtic Renewables’s small factory feed a vial of microbes with a precisely tailored cocktail of food – liquid residues from the scotch whisky industry.
In vessels surrounded by a web of metal pipes and gleaming stainless steel valves, the microbes multiply into something other than drink: a starter solution for batches of acetone, butanol and ethanol – chemicals essential for countless everyday products.
It pays to be in the know. These simple hacks will help you save money on entertainment, household bills and eating out
Culture
1 If you sign up to secret seat-filler sites such as Show Film First and Central Ticket, you’ll be alerted to last-minute tickets at rock-bottom prices – sometimes nothing at all. The only catch is you have to keep this on the quiet to maintain the illusion that performances are packed with paying punters.
The festival can feel like 24/7 sensory overload, but it does have a more tranquil side …
The quest for tranquility in the world’s least tranquil place can lead you to unexpected places. On a baking-hot Glastonbury day, I am sitting in a 90C sauna surrounded by 10 naked strangers.
My journey began on Friday. While Lorde is playing a crammed secret set at the Woodsies stage, I’m over at Humblewell – a somewhat smaller tent – with 50 people who couldn’t care less about the buzz. We lie on mats and parched grass, eyes closed, breathing deeply, legs moving in unison under the orders of the yoga teacher, Dina. A bassy soundtrack distracts from the many sounds outside competing for our attention. If it wasn’t for the bucket hats, you wouldn’t know you were at Glastonbury. I fold into a child’s pose and feel a deep sense of release.
Boniface Mwangi and Agather Atuhaire vow to hold authorities accountable as repression intensifies before October elections
Two east African activists say they plan to sue Tanzania’s government for illegal detention and torture over their treatment during a visit in support of an opposition politician in May.
Boniface Mwangi, from Kenya, and Agather Atuhaire, a Ugandan, sent shock waves around the region earlier this month when they gave an emotional press conference in which they alleged they had been sexually assaulted and, in Atuhaire’s case, smeared in excrement after their detention in Dar es Salaam. “[The authorities] take you through sexual torture,” Mwangi said at the time.
Sam Konstas has been backed to open again and can look to Webster’s example of composure and calm at the crease
Australia’s bowlers rescued the first Test against West Indies in Barbados, so the team will be relieved to welcome back blue-chip batter Steve Smith for the second Test in Grenada. In London a fortnight ago, a fielding mishap looked like it had caused Smith’s finger a horrific break, but instead the injury was a dislocation, and it has settled well enough for him to come safely through a net session in New York City. Smith will rejoin the team in Barbados on Sunday, with a final fitness check the day before the next fixture starting on 3 July.
Australian coach Andrew McDonald confirmed that Smith will slot straight back in at his preferred No 4 spot when available, which will mean that Josh Inglis has to make way after filling in and returning a rare failure with the bat in Australian colours. There are no other spots available, after McDonald backed Sam Konstas to open and Cameron Green at No 3, while praising the work in Bridgetown of Travis Head at No 5 and Beau Webster at No 6.
Under new rules anyone who lights up on a beach or in a public park from Sunday will be breaking the law
Anyone who lights up on a beach or in a public park in France will be breaking the law from Sunday under new rules aimed at protecting children from the dangers of passive smoking.
Bus shelters and areas in the immediate vicinity of libraries, swimming pools and schools will also be affected by the ban, which is coming into force one day after its publication in the official government gazette on Saturday.
Debate will now begin on the spending bill – and that could take hours as New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer has promised to have the nearly 1,000-page measure read before a final vote on passing it can happen.
Ukraine’s top commander said on Saturday his forces faced a new onslaught against a key city on the eastern front of its war against Russia, while Moscow said it was making progress in another sector farther south-west. Russian troops are focused on capturing all of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine and the city of Kostiantynivka has been a major target. Ukrainian forces have for months defended the city against fierce assaults.
Top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, writing on Telegram, said the area around Kostiantynivka was gripped by heavy fighting. “The enemy is surging towards Kostiantynivka, but apart from sustaining numerous losses, has achieved nothing,” Syrskyi said. “The aggressor is trying to break through our defences and advance along three operating sectors.”
Russia’s defence ministry, in a report earlier in the day, said Moscow’s forces had seized the village of Chervona Zirka – further south-west, near the administrative border of the Dnipropetrovsk region. Russia’s slow advance through eastern Ukraine, with Moscow claiming a string of villages day after day, has resulted in destruction of major cities and infrastructure.
Meanwhile Russia’s culture minister, Olga Lyubimova, arrived in North Korea on Saturday with a 125-strong delegation of performers. Lyubimova, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said that thanks to agreements clinched between Russian president Vladimir Putin and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un, “cooperation in the cultural sphere between our countries has reached unprecedented heights”. She said a series of concerts and lectures would take place in the North Korean capital in the coming days.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Moscow and Pyongyang have drawn closer together, with the two leaders signing a treaty, including a mutual defence pact. After months of silence, North Korea and Russia disclosed the deployment of North Korean troops and the role they played in Moscow’s offensive to evict Ukrainian troops from the Kursk region.
Moscow has insisted that progress towards a settlement of the war depends on Ukraine recognising Moscow’s control over four Ukrainian regions: Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Russian forces control about one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, but they do not fully hold any of the four regions.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said it is “extremely important” for Kyiv to maintain friendly ties with neighbouring Poland, where the incoming nationalist leader Karol Nawrocki opposes Ukraine’s Nato bid. Nawrocki won Poland’s presidential election this month after a campaign in which he criticised Ukraine and accused Zelenskyy of “indecent” behaviour towards his allies. Poland is one of Ukraine’s closest allies and has served as a crucial logistics hub for western military aid to help Kyiv’s war effort against Russia’s now more than three-year-long invasion.
Zelenskyy hosted outgoing Polish president Andrzej Duda in Kyiv on Saturday, ahead of Nawrocki’s inauguration on 6 August. “Poland is now preparing for the inauguration of its new president, (Karol) Nawrocki,” Zelenskyy told reporters alongside Duda. “We will do everything in our power to ensure that relations between our countries only grow stronger.” Poland has taken in more than a million Ukrainians since Russia’s invasion of the country began in 2022. But anti-Ukrainian sentiment has grown in recent years.
President Trump publicly chastised North Carolina GOP Senator Thom Tillis Saturday night for voting against his “big beautiful” bill – as a procedural vote to advance the measure in the Senate...
Other stage Filling in last minute after Deftones pulled out, the Londoner shows he’s still top of his game with a kinetic performance that jumps from garage to grime to Fred Again bangers
The Glastonbury “surprise set” has proved futile this year – anonymous billings for Lorde, Haim and Lewis Capaldi were leaked long before the gates opened. Yet there manages to be a genuine twist in the lineup: grime legend Skepta, as a last-minute replacement for alt-metal band Deftones, who have been forced to cancel due to illness. Skepta happens to be kicking around because last night, at Glade, he performed a DJ set alongside Mochakk from São Paulo and Carlita from Istanbul – an advertisement of his house-techno project Más Tiempo, launched with Jammer in 2023, with regular slots in Ibiza.
But he’d not required the full force of his production for Glade, so stepping in for a billing just shy of the headline slot on Glastonbury’s second largest stage, Other, is certainly a challenge. On that, of course, Skepta steps up to the plate with incredible energy and conviction, saying “Let’s go!!! No crew, no production but am ready to shut Glastonbury down. Victory lap time. Pre-Big Smoke 2025!” (his multi-genre festival taking place at Crystal Palace Bowl, south London, in August.)
Clearing an important procedural hurdle, the Senate voted 51 to 49 to open debate on the legislation
The Republican-controlled US Senate advanced president Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill in a key procedural vote late on Saturday, raising the odds that lawmakers will be able to pass his “big, beautiful bill” in the coming days.
The measure, Trump’s top legislative goal, passed its first procedural hurdle in a 51 to 49 vote, with two Republican senators voting against it.
An anti-immigration protest in May in Warsaw. A harder line on migration is being embraced across the political spectrum in much of the European Union.
Republican leaders barely scaled a key procedural hurdle to bring up the bill, but Democrats delayed its consideration and it was unclear whether the G.O.P. had the votes to pass it.
G.O.P. leaders in the Senate are trying to quickly pass the legislation and send it to the House for final approval in time to meet the July 4 deadline that President Trump has set.
Elon Musk waded back into politics Saturday with a series of sharp social meida criticisms of the Trump-backed “Big Beautiful Bill,” calling it “utterly insane” and “political suicide.” The SpaceX CEO, who turned 54 on Saturday, expressed his frustration and rage at the massive spending bill on social media ahead of the critical vote on...
President Trump publicly chastised North Carolina GOP Senator Thom Tillis Saturday night for voting against his “big beautiful” bill – as a procedural vote to advance the measure in the Senate stalled late Saturday night.
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