Amy Hawkins visits one of the many bars popping up across Chinese cities offering drinks, snacks and a vision of the future

In the age of self-help, self-improvement and self-obsession, there have never been more places to look to for guidance. Where the anxious and the uncertain might have once consulted a search engine for answers, now we can engage in a seemingly meaningful discussion about our problems with ChatGPT. Or, if you’re in China, DeepSeek.

To some, though, it feels as if our ancestors knew more about life than we do. Or at least, they knew how to look for them. And so it is that scores of young Chinese are turning to ancient forms of divination to find out what the future holds. In the past couple of years, fortune-telling bars have been popping up in China’s cities, offering drinks and snacks alongside xuanxue, or spiritualism. The trend makes sense: China’s economy is struggling, and although consumers are saving their pennies, going out for a drink is cheaper than other forms of retail therapy or an actual therapist. With a deep-rooted culture of mysticism that blends Daoist, Buddhist and folk practices, which have defied decades of the government trying to stamp out superstitious beliefs, for many Chinese people, turning to the unseen makes perfect sense.

To truly understand the president’s style of rule, we must go beyond Scandinavian sagas and Sicilian crime lore

Ever since Donald Trump returned to power, pundits have struggled to find apt analogies for his style of governance. Some liken his loyalty demands, patronage networks and intimidation tactics to the methods of a mafia don. Others cast him as a feudal overlord, operating a personality cult rooted in charisma and bound by oaths, rewards and threats rather than laws and institutions. A growing number of artists and AI creatives are depicting him as a Viking warrior. And of course, fierce debates continue over whether the moment has arrived for serious comparisons with fascist regimes.

While some of these analogies may offer a degree of insight, they are fundamentally limited by their Eurocentrism – as if 21st-century US politics must still be interpreted solely through the lens of old-world history. If we truly want to understand what is unfolding, we must move beyond Scandinavian sagas and Sicilian crime lore.

David Van Reybrouck is philosopher laureate for the Netherlands and Flanders. His books include Congo: The Epic History of a People and Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World

• Palmeiras 1-2 Chelsea (Estêvão 53); Palmer (16), Weverton (83, og)

• Malo Gusto’s cross deflected past Palmeiras goalkeeper

Their place in the last four of the Club World Cup in the bag and the prospect of a £97m windfall still up for grabs, Chelsea found themselves in an unusual position: relieved to have survived a taxing second half, hailing Malo Gusto’s unlikely role as matchwinner and able to delight in the opposition’s goalscorer being named superior player of the match.

For a while the story of this entertaining quarter-final looked like it was going to be about Enzo Maresca finding it within himself to forgive Estêvão Willian. Everything had changed when the Brazilian sensation, who joins Chelsea after this tournament, cancelled out an early goal from Cole Palmer and hauled Palmeiras level at the start of the second half.

Melbourne Theatre Company
Thornton, Yael Stone and Ash Flanders give beautiful performances as a miserable family, but startling tonal shifts send this American play into silliness

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Poisonous and heavily self-medicating mothers are a standard in the theatre, from Mary Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey into Night to Violet Weston in August: Osage County. Self-absorbed, vain and hypercritical, they tend to stalk their stages like injured lionesses, their own offspring the convenient targets of their abuse and cynicism. US playwright Paula Vogel adds Phyllis Herman (Sigrid Thornton) to this list, as monstrous and brittle as any of them.

While Mother Play (the subtitle is A Play in Five Evictions) flirts with the toxicity and histrionics of those antecedents, it feels closer in spirit to Tennessee Williams’ “memory play” The Glass Menagerie. Where Williams created the character of Tom as an authorial surrogate, Vogel gives us Martha (Yael Stone), who is likewise desperate to escape her mother’s clutches while trying to understand what makes her tick. There’s a deep melancholy working under the play, a sense of all that’s been lost to the ravages of time and forgetting.

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IAEA chief says electricity restored after 3½ hours as Ukraine blames Russian shelling for outage; Kyiv accuses Putin of ‘humiliating’ Trump with attack on capital. What we know on day 1,228

• Read all our Ukraine war coverage

The Australian actor broke into Hollywood playing suave villains in Nip/Tuck and Fantastic Four – but one of his final roles was some of his best work

• Julian McMahon – a life in pictures

• Julian McMahon dies aged 56

The Australian-American actor Julian McMahon, who has died from cancer aged 56, had a long and accomplished career. Like many Australian actors, it began with a soap opera – McMahon played Ben Lucini in 150 episodes of Home and Away – but he soon broke free to pursue a more ambitious and challenging oeuvre.

McMahon, the son of former prime minister Sir William “Billy” McMahon, made a name for himself overseas through US television in his 30s. On supernatural drama Charmed he played Cole Turner, a half-human, half-demon assassin turned love interest for one of the witches he was hired to kill. McMahon took to the show’s campy tone with aplomb, delivering lines like “I’m going straight to hell, cause it’s got to be a sin to look this good” with a twinkle in his eye.

Britain’s No 1 was outpointed when her opponent raised her game but showed why she merits the hype and spotlight that surrounds her

It’s a little after 8pm by the time the first ball is tossed. Karen Khachanov has just beaten Nuno Borges on No 3 Court and so even before it has started Emma Raducanu v Aryna Sabalenka is the last game on anywhere at Wimbledon: a standalone attraction, the roof not so much closed as hermetically sealed. We are locked in, under these hot lights, until nightfall.

And of course this is not simply a third-round game. At the behest of the broadcasters this is also a primetime television product, an item of light entertainment. Raducanu isn’t just battling the world No 1 here, she’s up against Gardeners’ World on BBC Two. The hill is packed. Brian Cox and Mary Berry in the Royal Box are transfixed. And to think Roland Garros would probably have put this match on in mid-morning.

After 16 years, Oasis are back with the first night kicking off in Cardiff’s Principality Stadium

• Batter admits cramping up after 158 helps rescue innings

• ‘It was probably the death of me in the end’

England face a battle against both India’s batters and their own bodies as they attempt to keep their opponents’ lead under control on the fourth day at Edgbaston, with Harry Brook – who has spent fewer than 15 of the 253.3 overs so far bowled off the field – describing fatigue unlike any he has experienced in his career as he put together the 303-run partnership with Jamie Smith that rescued the team’s first innings.

Brook had scored 157 when he was struck by cramp that ran down “the whole right side” of his body, and added only one more run before he was dismissed by Akash Deep soon after the second new ball had been taken. That precipitated a collapse as England slumped from 387 for five to 407 all out.

Ghanaian left club this week after playing a central role in Premier League title challenges under Mikel Arteta

For the first time since Thomas Partey left his home town of Krobo Odumase in eastern Ghana at the age of 11, he woke on Tuesday without a club. Three days later the midfielder, who had departed Arsenal after his contract expired, was charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.

What happens next with Partey’s career will be determined by the outcome of legal proceedings scheduled to start with his appearance at Westminster magistrates court on 5 August. The allegations relate to three women who reported incidents between 2021 and 2022. Partey denies all the charges and “welcomes the opportunity to finally clear his name”, his lawyer said.

• Palmeiras face Chelsea for place in semi-finals

• The Club World Cup by numbers | Email Beau

3 min: A surging run in the penalty area for Pedro Neto, perhaps reassuring anyone that he will indeed be able to play despite grieving for his close friend Diogo Jota.

1 min: Palmeiras win a corner quickly. (Ignore my previous comment that Chelsea won it. I am not yet in Da Zone.)

The campaign to ban kangaroo products is ‘muddled’ and not based on knowledge, wildlife experts say
Warning: Graphic content

The bill, introduced into the US Senate last month, came with plenty of emotive and uncompromising language.

“The mass killing of millions of kangaroos to make commercial products is needless and inhumane,” said the Democratic senator Tammy Duckworth, as she introduced the Kangaroo Protection Act to ban the sale and manufacture of kangaroo products in the US.

By volunteering at her school garden, Magdalena McGuire found something radical: the good in other people

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If you came across our school garden, you might walk past without giving it much thought. On the surface, we don’t have anything that would warrant a visit from Gardening Australia: no kitchen garden or water feature or “reflection space”. But we do have something else you might not see at first glance – something I wasn’t expecting to find when I first came to this suburb.

I moved to Fawkner, Melbourne with my partner and kids about five years ago, in search of affordable housing. The suburb was nice enough but I felt unmoored. I didn’t know anyone here and much of community life seemed to revolve around structures such as the extended family, the church and the mosque. I could see how vital these were for people in our suburb; for my part, however, I’m not religious and my extended family live far away. I tried to find other ways to make connections: my kids and I went to Lego time at the library; we hung out at the local playground and chatted to people at the skate park. But none of it added up to a sense of belonging.

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Focusing heavily on their 1990s output with only one song from their last four albums, Liam and Noel Gallagher performed together for the first time since 2009

Swaggering, cocksure and incredibly loud, Oasis burst back on to the live music scene on Friday night with an accomplished – if ever so slightly distanced – debut gig on their reunion world tour.

Playing Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, the six-piece impressed at the start of what is arguably the most anticipated tour of the century, focusing overwhelmingly on songs from their 1990s heyday – only one song, Little By Little, was taken from their final four albums.

Up to 10in of rain fell overnight, prompting flash flooding in region west of Austin hit by long drought

Torrential rains unleashed flash floods along the Guadalupe River in Texas on Friday, killing at least 24 people as rescue teams scrambled to save dozens of victims trapped by high water or reported missing in the disaster, local officials said.

Among the missing were 23 to 25 people listed as unaccounted for at an all-girls Christian summer camp located on the banks of the rain-engorged Guadalupe, authorities said.

Australia’s top order has more question marks than the Riddler’s pants after Konstas and Usman Khawaja again failed to deliver

As so often in Test cricket, drama saved itself for the dying overs of the day. With 90 remaining minutes ticking down towards 60 on the second day of the second Test in Grenada, tactically minded onlookers started to think about West Indies’ last-wicket partnership. Anderson Phillip and Jayden Seales were defending with heart, on their way to facing 65 balls and adding 16 runs. With Australia having made 286 the previous day, their stand took West Indies from 49 runs behind to 33. But each over that they chose to keep batting rather than swing for runs, they reduced the time available to bowl at an Australian top order under pressure.

In the end, there were 30 minutes left when Australia began the third innings. And in the end, that was enough to account for both openers, raising the tension another notch with only two more opportunities for them to bat in a Test before the Ashes. So much attention has been on young Sam Konstas, after struggles in Barbados and a briefly improved showing in the first innings here. He has only once before faced the pressure of a brief late Tests innings, in Sydney when he foolishly provoked Jasprit Bumrah and brought about Usman Khawaja’s wicket next ball.

The Australian actor died in Florida on Wednesday after being diagnosed with cancer

• Julian McMahon — a life in pictures

Julian McMahon, the Australian actor best known for his television roles in Charmed, Nip/Tuck and FBI: Most Wanted as well as Fantastic Four supervillain Doctor Doom, has died aged 56.

The actor died in Clearwater, Florida, on Wednesday. He had been diagnosed with cancer, which had not been publicly announced.

Principality Stadium, Cardiff
This is playlist Oasis, with their later fallow years ignored almost completely – and that makes for a ferociously powerful set to an utterly adoring crowd

• Brothers in arms: Noel and Liam reunite on the Oasis reunion tour – in pictures

The noise from the audience when Oasis arrive on stage for their first reunion gig is deafening. You might have expected a loud response. This is, after all, a crowd so partisan that, in between the support acts, they cheer the promotional videos – the tour’s accompanying brand deals seem to involve not just the obviously Oasis-adjacent sportswear brand Adidas, but the more imponderable Land Rover Defender.

Even so, the noise the fans make as the reconstituted Oasis launch into Hello takes you aback slightly, and not just because Hello is a fairly bold choice of opener: this is, after all, a song that borrows heavily from Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again by Gary Glitter. But no one in Cardiff’s Principality Stadium seems to care about the song’s genesis: the noise is such that you struggle to think of another artist that’s received such a vociferous reception.

Government under pressure on issue after stories of asylum seekers working illegally as takeaway delivery riders

The Home Office has announced what it is calling a “nationwide blitz” on asylum seekers who take jobs, after recent political controversy about people in asylum hotels working as food takeaway delivery riders.

In a statement, which gave few specifics, the Home Office pledged to begin “a major operation to disrupt this type of criminality” based around enforcement teams focusing on the gig economy, particularly on delivery riders.

• World No 1 wins 7-6 (6), 6-4 in the third round

• British player served for first set and led 4-1 in second

For a few fleeting moments late on Friday, as 15,000 spectators ­collectively lost their minds, something special was unfolding under the Centre Court roof. Not only was Emma Raducanu holding her own against Aryna Sabalenka, she was soaring. More than an hour into one of the most intense matches she has played, Raducanu arrived at set point against the best player in the world.

However, Sabalenka, the world No 1, has long grown accustomed to the massive target on her back, which so often spurs her challengers to perform far above their usual levels. In the face of another grand slam champion playing some of her best tennis, Sabalenka elevated her own game to even greater heights in the decisive moments, crushing Raducanu’s hopes of a career-best victory by triumphing 7-6 (6), 6-4 to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon.

As Jule Brand collected the ball on the turn on the corner of the box with her back to goal, she knew the assignment. Germany needed something special to break through Poland’s stubborn resistance. Within a blink of an eye, the net was bulging and Germany were making a winning start to their campaign.

A well-coached Poland side can be proud of their performance but, once Brand’s stunning strike went in in the 52nd minute, the result looked inevitable and Lea Schüller headed in Germany’s second to give them a perfect springboard to the tournament.

England’s keeper came in on a hat-trick, hit his first ball for four and never stopped battering India’s bowlers

It started in the worst possible way. By the second over of the day England were 84 for five, five hundred runs and a thousand miles behind. Their best batter, Joe Root had just been caught off the ninth ball of the morning, and their captain, Ben Stokes, who has worked so many miracles for them before, had been caught off the 10th, done by a wicked, lifting delivery, nasty, brutish and short, which brushed off his glove on its way through to the keeper.

The bowler, Mohammad Siraj, was on a hat-trick, and here comes England’s No 7, Jamie Smith, 24 years old, playing his 19th Test innings.

• Updates from this Group C match (8pm BST kick-off)

• Interactive player guide | Wallchart | And mail Scott

… but before kick-off, there’s a minute of silence to be perfectly observed. Both teams huddle. Then the warmest round of applause. Oh Diogo. Oh André. Our hearts break for you. xx

The teams are out. Germany in white shirts and black shorts, Poland decked out from head to toe in red. We’ll be off once coins have been tossed, fists bumped, and pennants exchanged.

• Updates from the Oval (6.35pm BST start)

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5th over: England 34-0 (Dunkley 23, Wyatt-Hodge 9) Shree Charani into the attack with her left-arm spin. Dunkley picks up four over midwicket and then plays an absolute doozy of a straight drive for SIX! That was a really excellent shot, Dunkley held the pose and rightly so.

4th over: England 22-0 (Dunkley 11, Wyatt-Hodge 9) Deepti Sharma into the attack, she whirls through an over in double quick time for the cost of just two singles. Quiet start for England, they might chance their arm a bit now.

Bill slashes federal safety-net programs and increases funds for aggressive immigration enforcement

Donald Trump signed his sweeping spending package into law on Friday during a Fourth of July picnic at the White House, significantly cutting back on federal safety-net programs and increasing funds for aggressive immigration enforcement.

During the picnic, Trump gloated about the bill’s passing. “It’s the most popular bill ever signed in the history of the country,” Trump said, while standing next to his wife, Melania Trump. “What we’ve done is put everything into one bill. We’ve never had anything like that before.”

The Slovenian is aiming to hammer home his recent supremacy when the pair lock in battle through the race

It was not so long ago that Tadej Pogacar was Jonas Vingegaard’s whipping boy. It came on the brutal Col de la Loze, in July 2023, when the Slovenian, dropped by another violent Vingegaard acceleration, announced wearily into his team radio: “I’m gone, I’m dead.”

By last summer, as the recent Netflix series Unchained reveals, the tables had turned. Pogacar barked angry insults at the Dane after Vingegaard refused to make the pace with him on the gravel stage around Troyes. He went on to dominate the race and win his third Tour de France by more than six minutes.

Province’s language police had a petite contretemps when it challenged Montreal transit agencies use of word on buses

Quebec’s mercurial and controversial language police have decided that using the word “go” is a legitimate way to cheer on sports teams in the province, paving the way for excited fans – and Montreal’s transit agency - to celebrate without fear of recrimination.

In new guidelines, the Office Québécois de la Langue Française (OQLF, the Quebec Board of the French Language) said that “go” was now “partially legitimized”, according to reporting by the Canadian Press, although the language watchdog says it prefers the French equivalent: allez.

EU says it ‘favours a negotiated solution’ but is prepared for potential trade war with retaliatory duties

Donald Trump threatened to impose 17% tariffs on food and farm produce exports from Europe during talks in Washington this week, it has emerged.

Such tariffs would hit everything from Belgian chocolate to Kerrygold butter from Ireland and olive oil from Italy, Spain and France, all big sellers in the US.

Sweden opened their Euro 2025 campaign with a diligent win over Denmark in Geneva. Filippa Angeldahl scored the only goal in the game to give Peter Gerhardsson’s side an early advantage in Group C.

It took one moment of carefully crafted play from two of Sweden’s seasoned stars to finally unlock the hard-working Denmark defence. Angeldahl had looked the most likely to find the breakthrough as she grew in influence. Her well-timed one-two with Kosovare Asllani and the finish that followed was an example of how creative this Sweden team can be when they put their minds to it.

• Second Test, D3: India 587 and 64-1; England 407

• Wicketkeeper hits unbeaten 184 but India in charge

Pressure? What pressure? Or to pinch a line from Keith Miller, the great Australian all-rounder and a fighter pilot during the second world war: “There is no pressure in Test cricket. Real pressure is when you are flying a Mosquito with a Messerschmitt up your arse.”

Notwithstanding this old truism, there was still a fair bit on the line when Jamie Smith strode out to middle at 11.12am here on the third morning. Joe Root had been uncharacteristically strangled down leg, Ben Stokes had been blown away by a brutish first ball and Mohammed Siraj, a fiery fast bowler known to get on a roll, was eyeing up a hat-trick. Oh, and England were 84 for five, 503 runs behind India’s first innings.

Lionesses captain admits much has changed since 2022 with the manager stressing that team has to move on as they prepare for France

Leah Williamson said she had felt anxious in the buildup to ­England beginning their European title defence against France on Saturday night, the Arsenal defender having missed the 2023 World Cup after an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

“I’ve probably held some anxiety up until this moment just because I wanted to be here and I wanted to be here with the team and I wanted to experience another ­tournament with England,” said the ­Lionesses’ captain. “It’s special when you come to another country, to ­represent your country and just take ­everything in. It’s a bit different to England in 2022. I’m very excited but so much has changed, so I’m intrigued to come back and enjoy this ­tournament football.”

• Aston Villa and Barcelona also punished over finances

• Villa confident they can absorb fine and strengthen

Chelsea, Aston Villa and Barcelona have been fined by Uefa for ­breaking financial rules. Chelsea have been hit with a €31m (£27m) fine, with a ­potential further €60m looming over the next four years if they fail to ­comply with regulations again. They also face doubts over whether they will be able to register new signings in ­European competitions over the next two seasons.

Villa have been fined a total of €11m with a further €15m suspended for the next three years. Barcelona have been fined €15m and are also at risk of further conditional penalties.

Exclusive: Chancellor says she never considered resigning and warns ‘there are costs’ to welfare bill U-turn

Rachel Reeves has said it is impossible for her to rule out tax rises in the autumn budget and insisted she never thought about quitting despite a turbulent week for her and the government.

In an interview with the Guardian, the chancellor said “there are costs” to the watering down of the welfare bill and acknowledged it had been a “damaging” week for Downing Street.

The coach will want his side to shift up a gear and the arrival of his son to the squad guarantees a competitive edge

The stakes are intensifying on all fronts with the first Test now just a fortnight away. The British & Irish Lions are still trying to construct the fundamental forward pillars underpinning their game while some key Wallaby figures are nursing injuries and are missing from their side’s warm-up game against Fiji. These are the moments when, behind the scenes, elite coaches really earn their money.

Despite two comfortable victories on Australian soil so far, Andy Farrell will certainly be wanting his side to shift everything up a gear, both for the sake of the collective and their own individual ambitions. For one or two this is in effect a final trial for places in the Test matchday 23, particularly so in certain fiercely contested positions.

It’s the most anticipated tour date in recent memory, bringing Noel and Liam Gallagher back together on stage for the first time since 2009. See it unfold here – from setlist to stadium singalongs

While the Oasis subreddit is overspilling with speculation and excitement about the first gigs of the reunion tour, the Cardiff subreddit has been driven up the wall by banal questions from non-locals about travel logistics. It’s inspired increasingly deranged spoof posts about the so-called Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, that green Oasis® foam used for floral arrangements, the fruity soft drink Oasis and where you can weigh your sister in the city … geddit … oh-weigh-sis.

Fans have been soaking up the atmosphere – though I’m not sure that cardboard Liam is too happy about it.

• American will challenge incumbent in December vote

• Mayer accuses Ben Sulayem of centralising power

Tim Mayer opened his campaign for the FIA presidency in combative fashion by accusing his election rival and the incumbent, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, of overseeing a “reign of terror” during his four years in charge.

Mayer, the son of the co-founder of the McLaren F1 team Teddy Mayer and a former longstanding FIA steward, with 15 years in the role in F1, maintains he was sacked at Ben Sulayem’s behest. He issued a withering assessment of the president’s tenure as he aired his platform for the vote, which will be held on 12 December.

Amid the mountain metaphors, head coach Rhian Wilkinson says her players are ready for opener against the Netherlands

Lucerne is noted primarily for its majestic lake and gorgeous medieval city centre, but it is also a part of central Switzerland where gently rolling hills give way to jagged Alpine peaks. For Wales, this tourist magnet marks the potentially awkward junction between the heady optimism of an exhilarating journey towards their first major tournament and the reality of the formidable challenge posed by Saturday’s opening match against the Netherlands.

Perhaps appropriately, Mount Pilatus towers above Stadion Allmend where Wales kick-off their Group D campaign. But the good news for their fans is that Rhian Wilkinson, the head coach, believes mountains are there for climbing. Indeed, Wilkinson clambered up Snowdon before announcing her squad for the tournament on the mountain’s summit last month.

From blockbuster movies like Jurassic World Rebirth to documentary series, the appetite for these ancient creatures appears inexhaustible

On-screen discussions of DNA and off-screen scientific consultants notwithstanding, no one goes to see a Jurassic Park movie for its realism. Yet one of the less convincing moments in Jurassic World Rebirth, the latest in the franchise, is unrelated to oversized velociraptors. It’s the palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis complaining of shrinking public interest in his field.

This spring, the BBC revived its 1999 hit series Walking With Dinosaurs. Not a week goes by without headlines announcing the discovery of a new species or new theories on how they behaved. Publishers produce an endless stream of dino-related fact and fiction, particularly for children. Palaeontology – at least when focused on the dinosaurs of the Mesozoic, or our hominin forebears – has long exerted an extraordinary hold on the public imagination.

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Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, 71, will run unopposed as one of the poorest countries in the region eyes billions of dollars

Suriname is expected to elect its first female president this Sunday, the congresswoman and physician Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, 71, who will run unopposed after the ruling party decided not to field a candidate.

Geerlings-Simons will succeed current president Chandrikapersad Santokhi, 66, who has been in office since 2020 and was eligible for re-election – but whose party failed to secure the two-thirds parliamentary majority required in the country’s indirect voting system.

Tehran now places little faith in the European countries who played a key role in brokering the Iranian nuclear deal

Exposed as divided and marginalised during the Iran crisis, European nations are scrambling to retrieve a place at the Middle East negotiating table, fearing an impulsive Donald Trump has diminishing interest in stabilising Iran or the wider region now he believes he has achieved his key objective of wiping out Tehran’s nuclear programme.

On Tuesday the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, was the latest senior European figure to phone the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, offering to be a facilitator and urging Tehran not to leave the crisis in a dangerous limbo by keeping UN weapons inspectors out of Iran.