Em Arlott has two wickets in the over and Sophia Dunkley has taken a blinder! James scuffed Arlott towards midwicket, where Dunkley threw up her left hand to take a brilliant reaction catch. There has been lots of focus on England’s fielding after the Ashes defeat; catches like that will change the narrative very quickly.
A huge wicket for Em Arlott! Hayley Matthews wafts all around an excellent delivery that nips back to hit leg stump. Matthews had driven the previous ball majestically over extra-cover for four but Arlott kept pitching it up and got her reward.
Caledonia’s Simon McMahon gets in touch: “Gilmour and McTominay starting for Napoli and on the verge of winning Serie A is just insane, John. Really hope they do it, got the pizza and beers in, COME ON NAPOLI!!!”
Naples is getting game ready, too. Mathías Olivera is being given a penant for his 100th game. The sound of Live Is Life can be heard at the Diego Armando Maradona.
As well as cutting UK energy costs (see earlier), Donald Trump can also take credit for growing the German economy!
New GDP data this morning shows that Germany’s GDP rose by 0.4% in January-March, twice as fast as the first estimate of 0.2% growth in the quarter.
“The reason for the slightly higher growth compared to the initial estimate was the surprisingly positive economic development in March.”
“In particular, production in the manufacturing sector and exports performed better than initially expected.
The German economy had its best quarterly performance since the third quarter of 2022, and the reason for it seems to be Donald Trump. As a result of the announced tariffs and in anticipation of ‘Liberation Day,’ German industrial production and exports surged in March.
Net exports and private consumption drove economic activity in the first quarter, while government consumption and inventories dragged on growth.
Three pensioners and a man in his 30s jailed as four others convicted of related charges
Four men have been found guilty of breaking into a luxury residence in Paris and stealing jewellery worth millions of euros from the American reality TV star Kim Kardashian when she attended fashion week in 2016.
Three pensioners and one man in his 30s were convicted of carrying out the armed heist, which was thought to be the biggest robbery of an individual in France in 20 years. Four other people were found guilty of assisting in the plot or related charges. Two people were acquitted of accusations they handed out information about Kardashian’s whereabouts.
Harvard: Ban ‘unlawful,’ vows to fight for students
Some of Harvard’s sports teams would be virtually wiped out by a Trump administration decision announced on Thursday that would make the Ivy League school with the nation’s largest athletic program ineligible for international student visas.
Seven of the eight rowers on the men’s heavyweight crew team that just won the Eastern Sprints title – and is headed to the national championships – list international hometowns on the school’s website. Mick Thompson, the leading scorer last season, and Jack Bar, who was a captain, are among a handful of Canadians on the men’s hockey roster; 10 of the 13 members of the men’s squash team and more than half of the women’s soccer and golf rosters also list foreign hometowns.
Weapons-grade zingers come thick and fast in this chamber piece about four plutocrats on a weekend in a lodge that goes awry when the planet descends into chaos
Jesse Armstrong has returned with what feels like a horribly addictive feature-length spin-off episode from the extended Succession Cinematic Universe – though without Succession cast members. It is set in a luxurious Utah megalodge which winds up resembling the Dr Strangelove war room, mixed with the apartment from Hitchcock’s Rope. Mountainhead is a super-satirical chamber piece about the deranged, cynical and facetious mindset of the uber-wealthy, the kind of people who think about ancient Rome every day, though not about Nero and his violin. It may not have the dramatic richness of Armstrong’s TV meisterwerk while the pure testosterone of this all-male main cast (minus any Shiv figure) is oppressive – though that is kind of the point. The pure density of weapons-grade zingers in the script is a marvel.
Our heroes are four unspeakable American tech plutocrats, a billionaire boys club with one mere centi-millionaire who isn’t up to “bill” status; this beta-male cuck of their peer group is nicknamed “Soup Kitchen” because of his poverty, and he is their eager host. They are exactly the kind of people with whom legacy media aristocrat Logan Roy (played in Succession by Brian Cox) would once grit his teeth and take meetings, vainly hoping for investment. These masters of the universe are getting together for an alpha bros’ hang-slash-poker-weekend, razzing and bantering with each other with deadly seriousness about their respective wealth levels, at this mega-lodge that is called Mountainhead. As one guest asks: “Is that like The Fountainhead? Your interior designer is Ayn Bland …?”
England and Lions fly-half on run to Champions Cup final, controlling his inner demons and playing junior tennis alongside Jack Draper
“I was always angry,” Fin Smith remembers as he explains his transition from a volatile young tennis player into the decisively calm fly-half for Northampton, England and the Lions who is as serene as he is interesting. Smith has had a remarkable year so far but there is an understated lightness about him as he recalls playing in tennis tournaments alongside Jack Draper, the current world No 5.
“As an 11-year-old tennis player I was very angry,” he says at Franklin’s Gardens, having just completed Northampton Saints’ final training session before they face Bordeaux on Saturday in the Champions Cup final. “I used to blow up and smash rackets a lot. But getting that out of my system at a young age, while facing set points and match points, can only benefit me when I’m playing rugby under pressure and really taking on an internal battle.”
Cannes film festival Reichardt’s quietist, observational style is unexpectedly successful at creating a super-naturalistic depiction of an art gallery robbery
It needs hardly be said that the title is ironic. The abject non-hero of Kelly Reichardt’s engrossingly downbeat heist movie, set in 1970s Massachusetts, is weak, vain and utterly clueless. By the end, he’s a weirdly Updikean figure, though without the self-awareness: going on the run with no money and without a change of clothes, to escape from the grotesque mess he has made for himself and his family.
This is James, played with hangdog near-charm by Josh O’Connor; he is an art school dropout and would-be architectural designer with two young sons, married to Terri (a minor complaint is that the excellent Alana Haim is not given enough to do). James depends on the social standing of his father Bill, a judge, formidably played by Bill Camp, and is borrowing large sums of money from his patrician mother Sarah (Hope Davis), ostensibly to finance a new project.
A US federal judge on Friday blocked the government from revoking Harvard University’s ability to enroll foreign students just hours after the elite college sued the Trump administration over its abrupt ban the day before on enrolling foreign students.
US district judge Allison Burroughs in Boston issued the temporary restraining order late on Friday morning, freezing the policy that had been abruptly imposed on the university, based in nearby Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Thursday.
Stokes shines as England toil before enforcing follow-on
There were a few sideways glances during the first day of Zimbabwe’s first Test match in England for 22 years, followed by calls for cricket’s longest format to adopt a two-division structure. After a flogging like the one their players had just suffered across three sessions, perhaps this was to be expected.
But on day two, cheered on by some wonderful pockets of support, the tourists mustered a pushback. First came an improved showing with the ball, England losing three for 67 to declare on 565 for six, followed by something of a fairytale century from opener Brian Bennett. Though bowled out for 265, and closing on 30 for two following on, Zimbabwe had given their hosts a far stiffer outing.
Police say six victims critically wounded in attack by 39-year-old assailant in the German city
Twelve people have been wounded – six critically – after a woman with a knife stabbed people at the central railway station in the German city of Hamburg.
Police said the assailant was a 39-year-old woman who was believed to have acted alone when she attacked people on the platform between tracks 13 and 14 in the station late on Friday.
In Kosovo, Nato intervened in 1999 after mass killings and the threat of further ethnic cleansing. Why aren’t Gazans being protected in the same way?
On 20 May, the secretary-general for humanitarian affairs at the United Nations stated that 14,000 babies would be dead unless the blockade was lifted immediately. The day before, the former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin said: “Every child in Gaza is the enemy.” And now, world leaders in the UK and France threaten vague “concrete actions” if Israel “does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid”. But undefined “concrete actions” are woefully insufficient. To those leaders I say: Gaza’s children cannot eat statements.
Bezalel Smotrich,the Israeli finance minister, declared last week: “We are destroying everything in Gaza, the world isn’t stopping us.” So let’s say what must be said, without apology: military intervention to defend Gaza is not only justified – it is required. It is humanitarian. It is overdue. Israel must be stopped.
New chapter in Arsenal’s storied history awaits as they aim to end continental drought in a sold-out Lisbon final
After 18 years, Arsenal are back in the biggest game in women’s European football with a dream to end their long wait for continental glory. They face the holders, the favourites and the much-revered Barcelona, who are aiming to win the Champions League for a third consecutive season on a picture-perfect weekend in Lisbon.
Strolling along tree-lined paths through the Portuguese capital’s sun-kissed Parque Eduardo VII, as a group of Barcelona fans cross paths with two Arsenal supporters wearing full red-and-white kit and exchange a few friendly quips about Saturday’s final, it is hard not to feel a pang of sympathy for the 3,467 attendees who saw Arsenal lift the Uefa Women’s Cup – as it was known in 2007 – in the somewhat less glamorous surroundings of Boreham Wood FC’s Meadow Park. In those days, the competition concluded with a two-legged home-and-away final. Arsenal followed up their 1-0 away win against the Swedish club Umeå – thanks to an Alex Scott scorcher – with a goalless draw to deliver what remains the greatest moment in the club’s history.
Without bold reform which makes the rich pull their weight, rising inequality risks eroding public trust and fracturing social stability
Britain for the last decade has experienced a bleak paradox: rising child poverty alongside a dramatic increase in billionaire wealth. This inequality has been tolerated partly because greed has been rehabilitated as virtue. The Billionaire Britain report, published this week by the Equality Trust, reveals what many instinctively feel but few in parliament will admit: the UK economy has become a machine for the upward redistribution of wealth.
Using Sunday Times Rich List data, the report found that the 50 wealthiest UK families now own more than the poorest half of the population combined. Their opulence is no accident. It’s largely built on the labour and consumption of those 34 million other Britons. The gains of society are being hoarded by those least in need. There’s a lexicon that sells it all as “entrepreneurial spirit” and business dynamism. But the very markets that reward the wealthiest so handsomely are constructed and policed by the state. Governments entrench intellectual property rights, strengthen legal monopolies and write policies that benefit banks and asset markets.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Britain would benefit from pledging more sustained and committed support in this age of disinformation and global turmoil
Two years ago, BBC Arabic radio left the airwaves after decades. Soon afterwards, Russia’s Sputnik service began broadcasting on the frequency left vacant in Lebanon. That detail illuminates a larger picture. China, Russia and others see global-facing media as central to their global ambitions and are investing accordingly – pumping out propaganda to muddle or drown out objective, independently minded journalism. These outlets are state-controlled as well as state-owned.
Meanwhile, conspiracy theories and disinformation proliferate online, attacks on press freedom intensify and the Trump administration is dismantling media organisations including Voice of America and Radio Free Asia (RFA), which have been essential sources of information for audiences under repressive regimes. Official Chinese media were gleeful at what RFA’s president, Bay Fang, called “a reward to dictators and despots”.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Bertrice Pompe and Bernadette Dugasse won a brief victory in bid to stop transfer of Chagos Islands to Mauritius
Two women who brought an 11th-hour legal challenge to try to stop the UK transferring sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius have accused the government of betrayal.
British Chagossians Bertrice Pompe, 54, and Bernadette Dugasse, 68, who were both born on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia, vowed to keep fighting to try to realise their dream of returning to their place of birth.
Israel starving Palestinians, two killings at a Jewish museum: both are atrocities. But vanishingly few can see it
I sat this week with Hussein Agha, a man who has given his working life to seeking peace between Israelis and Palestinians, negotiating from the Palestinian side of the table. He was gloomier than I have ever seen him, adamant that peace between the two sides can never, ever come. Because, Agha explained, this conflict was not about mere lines on a map or forms of words, the goods in which diplomats trade. This was about emotions, and specifically hatreds. Hatreds that, he feared, are becoming too murderous to contain. “It’s biblical,” he said.
What he had in mind was the fury that drove Hamas to slaughter around 1,200 Israelis on a sleepy Saturday morning nearly 20 months ago and the fury that has driven the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to bombard Gaza ever since, killing more than 50,000, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry, and, over the last 80 days, denying food to those who remain. He fears that the hatreds that fuelled these events, and that are fuelled by them, will grow larger and more venomous until nothing and no one is left. The whole land shall be laid waste and made desolate.
The 76-year-old singer has canceled all concerts owing to condition, which can affect hearing, vision and balance
Billy Joel has canceled all upcoming concerts after he was diagnosed with the brain disorder normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), the singer announced on Friday.
The condition “has been exacerbated by recent concert performances, leading to problems with hearing, vision and balance”, according to a statement posted to the 76-year-old singer’s official Instagram. “Under his doctor’s instructions, Billy is undergoing specific physical therapy and has been advised to refrain from performing during this recovery period. Billy is thankful for the excellent care he is receiving and is fully committed to prioritizing his health.”
They used to tease the future. Now, the movie-maker’s post-credits sequences are mostly cryptic cameos and empty gestures. Perhaps we just shouldn’t bother
Let’s face it, hanging around to watch post- or mid-credits sequences is a pretty weird thing. The movie is over, we’ve all had our fill – of CGI skybeams, multiversal migraines and superheroes punching each other in the feelings – and it’s time to head out into the night to debate whether the film was brilliant, baffling or just a $250m trailer for the next one. But leave we cannot, because something monumental might just happen after the credits roll. Or during them. Or, increasingly, not at all. Still we stay, we hope, we watch.
Remember the end of 2012’s The Avengers when Thanos turned and smirked, sparking a good six years of movies in which the Mad Titan was definitely going to do something totally crazy very soon – and then, to everyone’s surprise, actually did? Or that glorious moment after Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) when Marisa Tomei’s aunt May walked in on Peter Parker mid suit change? Back then, Marvel credit scenes usually felt earned, and vital. They were windows into the future of the saga, at a time when Kevin Feige and his team seemed to be able to do no wrong. What made those early years so intoxicating was the sheer audacity of it all. Marvel wasn’t just making superhero movies. They were building a connected universe on screen, one meticulously cross-pollinated character cameo at a time, like a giant, exploding beehive of superhero synergy.
Mandate forcing two pit stops aims to bring back sparkle to jewel in F1’s crown that has become tedious procession
The Monaco Grand Prix might still be considered one of the jewels in Formula One’s crown but beyond the exceptional challenge of the unforgiving circuit which is relished by drivers, the race itself has long since become something of a tiresome trudge through the streets of Monte Carlo. This weekend however F1 hopes it has found a way to bring the lustre back to its jaded gem.
In Sunday’s race the sport has mandated three sets of tyres must be used, ensuring all the drivers will have to take at least two pit stops, a decision taken since the difficulties of passing on the narrow track have become all but insurmountable.
While that order was swiftly blocked by a judge, it is one of a series of events creating uncertainty on campuses across the US. It follows the US government’s revocation of hundreds of student visas on various grounds, including minor infractions or participation in protests against the war in Gaza. (Some of those visas have been reinstated.) Academics have also felt the impact of funding cuts and subsequent hiring freezes, leading to hundreds looking to leave the US to work elsewhere.
In a Cannes film festival where the greatest movies were about dictatorships and political cruelty, our chief critic shares his picks for the prix
Cannes this year had a lot to live up to after last year’s award-winners, headline-grabbers and social media meltdowners Anora, The Substance and Emilia Pérez. It makes reading the signs now that bit more difficult: the bizarre event on the Croisette boulevard this year was a palm tree falling over. If it happened in a film, the metaphor would be unbearable.
Whether 2025’s Cannes movies are going to spark a new burst of overwhelming excitement remains to be seen, though this year’s vintage feels good – often excellent, although even the biggest names can get it wrong: former Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau presented an incoherent drama called Alpha.
Arrest warrants issued for ringleaders after investigation by police in Europe and North America
European and North American cybercrime investigators say they have dismantled the heart of a malware operation directed by Russian criminals after a global operation involving British, Canadian, Danish, Dutch, French, German and US police.
International arrest warrants have been issued for 20 suspects, most of them living in Russia, by European investigators while indictments were unsealed in the US against 16 individuals.
Eight men the Trump administration attempted to send to South Sudan are in temporary custody in Djibouti after a federal court ruling halted their removal, officials confirmed on Thursday.
The Trump administration had attempted to send the men, who it said had been convicted of criminal offenses, to their home countries: officials said two each were from Myanmar and Cuba and the others were from Vietnam, Laos, Mexico and South Sudan.
In this week’s newsletter: In the second of our new miniseries looking back at the last quarter-century of pop culture, we chart the transformation of television since 2000
To try to get our heads round the fact that we’re somehow a quarter of the way into the 21st century, the Guide is running a miniseries of newsletters looking at how pop culture has changed over the past 25 years. We tackled music last month and we’ll be looking at the state of film next month, before sharing our favourite culture of the century so far, and asking for yours too, in July.
Today, we’re taking the temperature of TV. Like the music industry, television has seen its entire business model upended by the streaming revolution this century. That has meant what was once a universal activity – an entire nation sat around the glow of the old cathode ray tube – has been replaced by people watching a galaxy of different shows, or watching the same show but at completely different times.
Isaac del Toro finishes third and extends overall lead
Denmark’s Pedersen proves too strong on gruelling finish
Mads Pedersen won his fourth stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia when he sprinted to victory on Friday’s stage 13, beating Wout van Aert to the line while Isaac del Toro maintained his overall lead to retain the maglia rosa.
As the riders neared the finish of the 180km ride from Rovigo to Vicenza, Pedersen was fourth when he launched his bid for victory on the uphill sprint as Van Aert stayed close on his wheel. Del Toro had done well to earn bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint but the 21-year-old did not have the legs to challenge the sprint heavyweights as he settled for third, leaving Pedersen and Van Aert to battle it out for victory.
The Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, who is best known for his dramatic black-and-white photographs that highlighted injustice and introduced the Amazon rainforest the world, has died. He was 81.
His death was confirmed by the Instituto Terra, the environmental restoration non-profit he founded with his wife of six decades, Lélia Wanick Salgado. In a post on Instagram, the institute described Salgado as “much more than one of the greatest photographers of our time”.
Defamation suit claims Marubo people were depicted as tech-addled and porn-obsessed after introduction of internet
An Indigenous tribe from the Brazilian Amazon has sued the New York Times, saying the newspaper’s reporting on the tribe’s first exposure to the internet led to its members being widely portrayed as technology-addled and addicted to pornography.
The Marubo tribe of the remote Javari valley, a community of about 2,000 people, filed the defamation lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages this week in a court in Los Angeles.
The killing of two staff of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC comes as the war in Gaza has splintered the American body politic alongside the ongoing rise in political violence.
A shooter, identified as Elias Rodriguez, shot the two people, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, outside the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday after they left an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee. Rodriguez reportedly chanted “free, free Palestine” while being detained by security.
Winner of four Champions Leagues over two spells, club’s most successful manager will for ever be adored by fans
Sometimes things don’t go the way they were planned, they go better. The call that ended with Carlo Ancelotti back at Real Madrid started as something completely different. It was August 2021, he was manager at Everton and he had phoned to ask Madrid’s chief executive José Ángel Sánchez about borrowing players but talk turned to their search for a coach. Zinedine Zidane had walked out again, dropping a letter bomb on the way, and Ancelotti wondered whether they had found anyone yet. Madrid were struggling and Sánchez said no, we’re still looking. Which is when the Italian replied that they needed the best and luckily they were already talking to him. “Or have you forgotten about 2014?” he said.
It was classic Carlo. Gently done, an idea cleverly slipped in as if it were not an idea at all, just a throwaway line, another true word said in jest. And like so much of what he does, it worked wonderfully. In 2014, Madrid’s 12-year wait for the European Cup, an obsession which had come to feel eternal, finally ended. The coach who delivered the decima – their 10th and their everything – was him and frankly, yes, he had been a bit forgotten. Now though he is for ever.
Benjamin Netanyahu was accused of slander and pursuing a war without end after he claimed the leaders of France, Canada and the UK were stoking antisemitism and siding with Hamas by demanding he end the two-month blockade of food and aid into Gaza.
In what has become an extraordinary standoff with some of Israel’s closest allies, Netanyahu appeared to deliberately raise the stakes on Thursday night by accusing his western critics of abandoning Israel in a war for its very existence.
Russian foreign minister continues to question Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as first phase of ‘1,000 for 1,000’ deal takes places
Ukraine and Russia have begun the largest prisoner exchange of the three-year war, with almost 800 captives returned on both sides in a process expected to last several days.
Confirming the first phase of the exchange had taken place, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Ukraine had returned 390 people to Russia and that the process would continue with further groups on Saturday and Sunday.
With a breakout performance in Urchin, the actor has emerged from cult TV fame to the cusp of major stardom – a new ‘post-alpha male’ lead to join the ranks of Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor
In Urchin, Dillane plays Mike, a man living on the streets who ends up in jail after committing an assault and then struggles to go straight after his release. Despite being given a place in a hostel and helped into employment, Mike is tempted to fall back into his old ways. With a script written by Dickinson, Dillane committed to the role by trying full-immersion method acting, saying: “I spent a lot of time in soup kitchens, a lot of time with people, friends, walking around … You’re carrying your stuff, your feet hurt, your back hurts. It’s the weather. You can never close a door. You can’t sit here, you can’t stand there, move it along. No one’s looking at you.”
Party spokesperson says policy has ‘clear benefits for securing jobs and energy independence’
Reform UK has promised to reverse the government’s ban on fresh North Sea oil and gas drilling as a “day one” priority if elected to power, with the taxpayer taking a stake in the projects.
Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, has met with senior UK oil executives in recent weeks to pledge the party’s support for the industry, which has been hit hard by the government’s windfall tax and moves to block fresh North Sea exploration licences.
The lauded singer-songwriter takes a wander along the Brisbane streets that formed him and the Go-Betweens
When I meet former Go-Between Robert Forster at a cafe in the centre of Brisbane for a walk around his home town, it’s no surprise to see a book on the table in front of him. It is The Café With No Name, by Austrian novelist Robert Seethaler – a gift for his wife, Karin Bäumler.
Forster picked it up, somewhat reluctantly, from a chain store. A great indie bookshop, he says, is “the one thing that I really miss in Brisbane – the thing that makes me go, this is not a world-class city”. He remembers a time when it was, but it’s not when you might think.
Connexion
