Tribeca film festival, New York
Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough, along with a very alarming dog, are superb as two neighbours thrown together by their neglected circumstances

Twenty years ago, Paul Andrew Williams announced himself as a smart new British talent with his ferocious gangland picture London to Brighton, and his creativity has continued in film and TV ever since. His new film is a haunted, social-realist drama with elements of Mike Leigh but also moments of thriller and even horror. Williams isn’t shy of stabbing us with an old-fashioned jump scare towards the end, which in fact challenges the audiences with its refusal of categorisation. There are two superb lead performances from Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn and an outstanding supporting turn from Jason Watkins.

Dragonfly is about loneliness and alienation and about the eternal mystery of other people, the fear of intimacy and the unknowable existence of urban neighbours. Elsie, played by Blethyn, is an older woman who is quite capable of independent living in her bungalow, but a recent fall and an injured wrist has meant that her middle-aged son (Watkins), all too obviously to compensate for not visiting that often, has paid for daily visits from a private agency nurses. They are overworked and not doing an especially good job. Really, she doesn’t need these nurses and by enduring them, Elsie is shouldering the burden of her son’s guilt.

Three years ago the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous defender Bruno Pereira vanished while on a reporting trip near Brazil’s remote Javari valley. The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips investigates what happened in the first episode of a new six-part investigative podcast series. Find episode 2 – and all future episodes – by searching for ‘Missing in the Amazon’

Repeated shutdowns at Moscow airports due to drone threat; military airfields and fuel depots inside Russia hit. What we know on day 1,200

Russia’s missile and drone barrage against Kyiv on Friday killed at least six people, Ukrainian officials said. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, said three emergency workers who went to a bomb site were “killed in a repeat Russian strike”. Two died in an attack on the northern city of Chernihiv and at least one more in the north-western city of Lutsk. Eighty people were injured in attacks across Ukraine.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Russia had “‘responded’ to its destroyed aircraft … by attacking civilians in Ukraine … Multi-storey buildings hit. Energy infrastructure damaged.” Ukrainian spies last weekend destroyed Russian strategic bomber aircraft on the ground using quadcopter drones hidden on top of trucks in Operation Spiderweb.

Russian aviation authorities restricted flights at Moscow regional airports on Friday night as the capital came under threat from Ukrainian drones. It was the third suspension since the night of Thursday 5 June. Russia was attacked with at least 82 Ukrainian drones in areas including the Moscow region over eight-and-a-half hours, the Russian defence ministry said early on Saturday. The Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said another six drones had been headed for the capital.

The Ukrainian military said on Friday that it struck the Engels and Dyagilevo airfields in the Russian regions of Saratov and Ryazan, in addition to striking at least three fuel reservoirs. Footage online showed a large fire and smoke at a fuel facility serving a military site in Russia’s Saratov region that has been frequently targeted. BBC Verify said it had confirmed videos posted online of a fuel depot on fire at Engels were genuine. Nasa satellite fire monitoring also confirmed huge fires at Engels.

Zelenskyy called for concerted pressure on Russia. “If someone is not applying pressure and is giving the war more time to take lives, that is complicity and accountability. We must act decisively.”

Donald Trump said he hadn’t decided whether to approve sanctions against Russia that are being considered by the US Senate. “I haven’t decided to use it,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “I’ll use it if it’s necessary.”

Grant Hardin, nicknamed ‘Devil in the Ozarks’, had escaped from prison after impersonating a corrections officer

A former police chief who is also a convicted killer and rapist nicknamed the “Devil in the Ozarks” was captured by law enforcement 1.5 miles north-west of the prison he escaped from following a 13-day manhunt in the mountains of northern Arkansas, authorities announced on Friday.

Grant Hardin’s identity was confirmed through fingerprinting, the Izard county sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.

The gluteal muscles are vital for getting us up and about, yet humanity’s increasingly sedentary lifestyle is leading to neglect of our glute health

I’m staring at the screen, trying to write a joke. It involves a muscle called the gluteus maximus, Roman centurions and possibly a reference to Biggus somebody from Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

I’ve been sitting here for over an hour, so long that when I finally stand up I have to hobble and wobble a few steps before I can get my stride back.

This Australian documentary about the world porridge championships, held each year in a Scottish village, is as wholesome and nourishing as its oat-stirring subjects

The word “porridge” to me evokes something modest and satisfying: mouthfuls of reliable pleasantness in a terribly volatile world. How lovely that The Golden Spurtle – Constantine Costi’s charming documentary about the world’s annual porridge-making championship in the Scottish village of Carrbridge – has assumed some of the qualities of the dish. It isn’t flashy (and certainly doesn’t scream “must-watch”) but, like a good ol’ fashioned bowl of well-cooked oats, it’s got it where it counts.

This film is a pleasure to watch – with endearing salt-of-the-earth subjects, a lovely ebb and flow, and a tone that feels just right: neither overly serious nor tongue in cheek. Its appeal is not dissimilar to the Australian comedy series Rosehaven: sometimes it’s just nice to escape into a fresh air-filled world with refreshingly low stakes. Even if the competitors, gawd luv ’em, treat the competition very seriously.

A Tory collapse, the SNP’s slump and Reform’s rise signal a volatile shift – and the return to deal-making after the next Holyrood election

Labour’s victory in the Holyrood byelection offers the UK government a rare political comfort but not, perhaps, the strategic breakthrough it might like to imagine. A late flurry of welfare signalling, a dogged ground campaign and a carefully staged visit to a Govan shipyard by Sir Keir Starmer helped shore up Labour’s appeal to its traditional voters in Scotland’s industrial belt. Yet as Prof John Curtice has noted, Labour’s share of the vote actually declined compared with the last time voters cast ballots here in 2021 – a year in which the party was placed a distant third and was polling at the same dismal level of public support, 20%, it has today.

The prime minister will gladly pocket Davy Russell’s win in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse. But it is a foothold. There is still a steep climb to the summit. More telling is who lost. The Scottish National party’s poor showing reflects dissatisfaction with its record of governance and the diminishing appeal of independence in areas where Labour has deep roots. The real surprise was Reform UK, taking over a quarter of the vote and leapfrogging the Conservatives into third place. It drew from both main parties, fuelled by protest and unionist anger that flattened the Tories.

It changes your perspective

• See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here

Instructors Steven Hubbard and Amy Baack had sued after a city ordinance restricted such activities on the beach

Yoga classes are back on at San Diego beaches this week after a federal appeals court ruled that a city ordinance restricting such activities was unconstitutional and that teaching yoga was “protected speech”.

The three-judge panel of the US ninth circuit court of appeals on Wednesday overruled a San Diego judge and decided in favor of two instructors who had sued over a law that San Diego passed in 2024 banning yoga classes of four or more people at shoreline parks and beaches.

Jessica Ramos, a state senator, had said ex-governor’s ‘mental acuity is in decline’ and called him a bully

Andrew Cuomo’s bid to become New York City’s mayor received a surprising boost on Friday when one of his rivals, the Queens state senator Jessica Ramos, endorsed the former governor after having previously questioned his mental acuity and describing him as a bully with a record of sexual misconduct allegations.

Ramos punctuated her stunning U-turn with a surprise appearance at a campaign rally in Manhattan, where she hugged Cuomo and said she believed he was “the one best positioned right now to protect this city”.

Ex-leader of far-right Proud Boys and three others whom Trump gave pardons or commutations sue government

Enrique Tarrio, the former national leader of the far-right Proud Boys group, and four other members convicted of orchestrating the deadly 6 January 2021 US Capitol attack are suing the federal government for allegedly violating their rights.

A lawsuit filed on Friday in federal court in Florida alleges that FBI agents and prosecutors acted with personal malice when they investigated and charged the five, who were all granted pardons or commutations when Donald Trump returned to office in January.

• ‘The tournaments are played after a long season’

• Head coach preparing for Andorra World Cup qualifier

Thomas Tuchel is determined to find the answer to England’s physical problems after gruelling Premier League campaigns, having noted that the team were “most comfortable” in terms of recent tournaments at the mid-season Qatar World Cup in 2022.

The head coach, who is preparing here for Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Andorra, wants to harness the traditional virtues of the English game – namely pace, strength and aggression. But he is aware that searing temperatures await at many of the venues for the finals in the US, Canada and Mexico next summer and, as such, it will be vital to be able to play in different styles.

• England (188-6) bt West Indies (167-9) by 21 runs

• Buttler scores 96 before Liam Dawson’s four-wicket haul

The burden has gone for Jos Buttler. Playing his first Twenty20 international since stepping down from the white-ball captaincy he struck a 59-ball 96 to set up England’s 21-run win against West Indies.

If there was any glumness for the 34-year-old, it was in missing out on what would have been his first T20 international century at home. Nonetheless, Buttler top scored in a total of 188 before Liam Dawson got to work.

Key player in Trump’s drive to slash federal workforce keeps access to sensitive records including family court and mental health records

The US supreme court on Friday allowed members of the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to access the sensitive records kept by the Social Security Administration while legal challenges play out.

The conservative-majority court, in an unsigned order with the three liberal justices dissenting, sided with the Trump administration in the appeal involving Doge, the team spearheaded by the billionaire Elon Musk.

Man mistakenly deported to El Salvador indicted on counts of illegally smuggling undocumented people, says Bondi

Kilmar Ábrego García, the man whom the Donald Trump administration mistakenly deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March, returned to the US on Friday to face criminal charges.

In a press briefing on Friday, the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said that a federal grand jury in Tennessee had indicted Ábrego García on counts of illegally smuggling undocumented people as well as of conspiracy to commit that crime.

• World No 1 wins 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (3) over 38-year-old Serb

• Djokovic admits it could be his last time at Roland Garros

Regardless of the tricky surface beneath his feet, the crowd of 15,000 desperate for him to falter or the intimidating résumé of the adversary before him, Jannik Sinner keeps on going. The world No 1 continued to demonstrate his superiority over all challengers at Roland Garros as he closed out a supremely clutch performance against Novak Djokovic, the sixth seed, with a 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (3) win to reach the final of the French Open for the first time.

Sinner has now won 20 straight matches at grand slam tournaments and on Sunday he will attempt to win his third straight major title. He is the fifth man this century to reach three consecutive grand slam finals, following the path of the four legendary players before him: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray. He has still not dropped a set in Paris this year.

A year ago, Scotland were heading for the European Championships amid wild excitement. Events since have included Nations League high points but umpteen chastening experiences. This proved another of the latter.

For the second game in succession, Steve Clarke’s team lost three goals at home. The nature of Iceland’s success – a fully deserving one – in Glasgow felt ominous in respect of an upcoming World Cup qualifying campaign. With Germany and the Euros such a distant memory, Clarke does not have his troubles to seek. Scotland look a team that has passed its peak. There were no redeeming features at all in this display. Clarke must be alarmed.

Mark Carney declined to answer if he believed Indian PM had a role in murder of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has defended his decision to invite India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, to the upcoming G7 summit in Alberta, despite the conclusion of Canada’s federal police’s that the murder of a prominent Sikh activist in British Columbia was orchestrated by the “highest levels” of the Indian government.

Carney declined to answer reporters’ questions over whether he believed Modi had a role in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar – a killing on Canadian soil that shattered relations between the two countries.

The unbeaten reign of Craig Bellamy continued as his Wales side propelled themselves to the top of their World Cup qualifying group with a thumping win over Liechtenstein. Bellamy was appointed head coach in July 2024 and the national side have drawn four and won five since he was named. Wales leapfrogged North Macedonia, who drew 1-1 against Belgium. The Red Devils are only just getting their qualifiers under way because they were involved in Nations League playoffs in March.

Belgium are the favourites to top the group and qualify automatically for next year’s tournament. But Wales’s great run has put them in a good position to challenge Domenico Tedesco’s Belgium, who they play on Monday and have a history of upsetting, with a famous 3-1 win in the quarter-finals of Euro 2016.

Case count remains at 742 with no new cases but officials warn outbreak that has killed two children could flare again

The measles outbreak that began sweeping across west Texas earlier this year is showing signs of slowing, according to the state’s health services department.

For the first time since the outbreak was first reported in January, no new cases were added in the department’s latest update. The total case count remains at 742, a figure that has been updated biweekly by state officials.

President, who had Thursday call with China’s Xi Jinping amid tariff dispute, says ‘meeting should go very well’

Senior US administration officials will meet with a Chinese delegation on Monday in London for the next round of trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing, Donald Trump said on Friday.

The meeting comes after a phone call between Trump and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, on Thursday, which the US president described as a “very positive” conversation as the two countries attempt to break an impasse over tariffs and global supplies of rare earth minerals.

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, wildfires in Canada, the first day of Eid al-Adha, and the Champions League final in Munich: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

• Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing

• Musetti took first set but fell 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-0, 2-0 behind

• Alcaraz reaches second consecutive Roland Garros final

Carlos Alcaraz continued his imperious march through the clay-court season as he reached his second consecutive French Open final by defeating Lorenzo Musetti, the eighth seed, who was forced to retire with a left thigh injury while Alcaraz led 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-0, 2-0.

After a difficult start to the year, the 22-year-old has found his way in a clay-court season that has yielded Masters 1000 titles in Monte Carlo and Rome. He will now attempt to become the third man this century, after Gustavo Kuerten and Rafael Nadal, to retain the French Open. Alcaraz, the second seed in Paris, is also the fifth-youngest man in the open era to reach five grand slam finals and he will attempt to extend his record to winning all of them. He has won 21 matches and lost once on clay this year.

As visitors pose for selfies in the Portuguese resort where the British child disappeared, a breakthrough seems further away than ever

The police have packed up, the diggers and radar scanners gone from the Algarve scrubland. The latest search for Madeleine McCann, the British toddler who vanished from a Portuguese holiday apartment 2007, has ended quietly without any apparent breakthrough.

After 18 years of intermittent searches, this one, led by German police, may well be the last. In Praia da Luz, a seaside town etched into the world’s memory by the tragedy, that realisation lands with a mix of relief and weariness. Locals barely speak about the case now, if at all. The McCann investigation brought an unrelenting glare of media attention that many here would prefer to forget.

Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports

• Updates from Chester-le-Street, 6.30pm BST start

• ‘Harry’s team now’: Brook makes instant impact

4th over: England 33-1 (Smith 16, Buttler 12) Jason Holder changes ends to good effect. An early wide didn’t bode well but he was in control after that and conceded only singles. Buttler, on the charge, was also beaten by a nice slower ball.

West Indies have dragged it back after conceding 16 from the first over.

About 2,000 police will be at Arena Kombetare in a bid to avoid scenes that led to abandonment nearly 11 years ago

Outside a cafe three blocks from Arena Kombetare, two men stood on chairs and fastened attachments to the awning. Thursday lunchtime had just passed and Tirana was gearing up for a match that could have filled the national stadium at least 10 times over. There was no trouble identifying Albania’s flag, the double-headed black eagle spreading from its centre. The second banner being hoisted has become common currency too. It bore the word “Autochtonous”, presenting a version of the “Greater Albania” map that transformed a football match into a major diplomatic incident in 2014.

By Friday morning that flag had been replaced with its less incendiary alternative. Perhaps the authorities had popped in for a quiet word. They want to eliminate potential triggers for the kind of chaos that erupted in Belgrade 11 years ago, when a drone lowered the controversial image into Partizan Stadium during a European Championship qualifier between Serbia and Albania. The ramifications of that night stretched far beyond sport and there were sighs of relief when, the following November, a rematch in the provincial Albanian city of Elbasan passed without major incident.

Jacob Bethell’s pure talent puts him in high demand, but Shoaib Bashir is the real freelancer in cricket’s deeply confusing world

Bruised skies, sun through clouds, dualism, life in death. Welcome to the bloom of another England Test Match summer, the summer, this time around, of Bethell and Bashir. But of Bethell first because he’s the easy bit.

The battle for Jacob Bethell is of course just beginning. Everyone wants a piece of England’s most thrillingly talented young cricketer. The broadcasters are frothing. The papers want to know whose shirts he wears. Actually the papers don’t really care. Maybe the Daily Telegraph wants to know this at a push. But Bethell is still kind of perfect right now, a future-bomb, all promise and new things, in a sport that is always desperate for these.

Government defence expert Fiona Hill warns UK to respond to threats by becoming more cohesive and resilient

Russia is at war with Britain, the US is no longer a reliable ally and the UK has to respond by becoming more cohesive and more resilient, according to one of the three authors of the strategic defence review.

Fiona Hill, from County Durham, became the White House’s chief Russia adviser during Donald Trump’s first term and contributed to the British government’s strategy. She made the remarks in an interview with the Guardian.

LGBTQ+ ensemble was to appear at performing arts center but moved to Maryland after president reorganized venue

An event by the International Pride Orchestra this week swung from classical Gershwin favorites to choral patriotism to high drag in a rebuff to Donald Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center and its subsequent snub of the LBGTQ+ ensemble.

The spirited celebration of WorldPride, the peripatetic biennial international festival in support of LGBTQ+ rights which kicks off this month and is taking place in Washington DC, was staged instead at the Strathmore Music Center in Maryland, just north of the capital.

• Kristen Faulkner takes green jersey from Kim Le Court

• Cat Ferguson fourth in GC as Canadian rider wins stage

Mara Roldan pulled off a successful late breakaway on the steep approach to Saltburn-by-the-Sea, winning the second stage of the Tour of Britain Women by 12 seconds.

The 21-year-old, who hails from Canada’s Yukon territory, made a push for victory with 14km to go and held on to win ahead of Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek). British teenager Cat Ferguson (Movistar) finished fifth for the second stage in a row, just behind third-placed Ally Wollaston (FDJ-Suez) and Roldan’s Picnic-Post NL teammate, Megan Jastrab.

Optimism is growing in Brussels, but high-risk strategy has only weeks to play out before pause in tariff threat ends

In Brussels’ corridors of power, quiet optimism is growing that the EU’s hardball strategy to secure a US trade deal is working. While Britain quickly moved to try to cushion the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs with a deal agreed last month – and US-Chinese relations are a tit-for-tat situation – the EU has taken a different stance. “We are positioning ourselves between ‘rollover UK’ and ‘retaliatory China’,” said a Brussels source.

The stakes are not just the £706bn in transatlantic trade between the EU and US but the fallout from what diplomats and businesses say is a dangerous assault on the global rules-based system that governs western democracy.

Alleged victim identified as ‘Jane’ testifies she felt obliged to participate in drug-fueled ‘hotel nights’

The federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs resumed on Friday with testimony from a former girlfriend and alleged victim, identified as “Jane”.

On the stand, the woman, described by prosecutors as a single mother who met Combs in 2020, described the drug-fueled sexual encounters involving male escorts – referred to as “hotel nights” – she says she endured during her relationship with Combs, where she said Combs would watch and direct her and the escort to perform sex acts while he masturbated.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

Under the K Bridge, Brooklyn, New York

On the year’s hottest day, the band of the moment celebrated their new album with a buoyant live show featuring a surprise special guest

It’s only fitting that “Turnstile summer” – coined by Charli xcx herself – would kick off on Brooklyn’s hottest day yet. About 9,000 sweaty people crammed Under the K Bridge (yes, it’s literally under the Kosciuszko Bridge) on the 86F day to celebrate the release of the hardcore band’s new album, Never Enough.

And there was plenty to celebrate for the Baltimore-based group, who have found themselves on the edge of the mainstream. Following their 2021 album Glow On, where frontman Brendan Yates traded in some screaming for singing over a blend of heavy riffs, soul and even dream pop, Turnstile has picked up three Grammy nominations, opened for Blink-182, received the aforementioned Charli xcx shoutout at Coachella and, this past week, found themselves on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show to promote Never Enough.

The row between the US president and his billionaire ex-buddy may seem entertaining, but wealth and power are still dangerously merged

It would have taken a heart of stone to watch the death of the Trump-Musk bromance without laughing. Democrats passed the popcorn on Thursday night as the alliance between the world’s most powerful man and the world’s richest imploded via posts on their respective social media platforms.

Less than a week ago they attempted a conscious uncoupling in the Oval Office. Then Elon Musk’s attacks on Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending plan escalated to full-scale denunciation of a “disgusting abomination” – objecting to its effect on the deficit, not the fact it snatches essential support from the poor and hands $1.1tn in tax cuts to the rich.

What one did to Twitter and Tesla, the other is doing to the United States of America. Their feud is revealing a fatal flaw in the Maga project

The scriptwriters of Trump: the Soap Opera are slipping. The latest plot development – the epic falling-out between the title character and his best buddy, Elon Musk – was so predictable, and indeed predicted, that it counts as the opposite of a twist. Still, surprise can be overrated. Watching the two men – one the richest in the world, the other the most powerful – turn on each other in a series of ever-more venomous posts on their respective social media platforms has been entertainment of the highest order. X v Truth: it could be a Marvel blockbuster.

But this is more than mere popcorn fodder. Even if they eventually patch things up, the rift between the president and Musk has exposed a divide inside the contemporary right, in the US and beyond – and a fatal flaw of the Trump project.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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.

Trump says he is ‘not particularly’ interested in reconciling with Musk, who reportedly wanted to speak to president

• Money can’t buy love: Republicans give Musk cold shoulder

• Trump v Musk: 10 ways they can further hurt each other

Donald Trump has accused Elon Musk of “losing his mind” as the dramatic breakdown between America’s most powerful person and the world’s richest person escalated into a full-blown feud that could have seismic political and economic consequences.

In a series of phone calls to US media on Friday morning, Trump snapped back at Musk, after the tech mogul and Republican financier launched an extraordinary social media attack on the president the day before, which ended with him accusing Trump of being named in the so-called “Epstein files” – documents related to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

(Columbia)
The one-time TikTok dancer’s remarkably cohesive debut spans Jersey club to R&B, and defies an obsession with ‘lore’ to suggest that the best pop isn’t that deep

When Madonna came to the height of her powers in the late 90s and early 00s, it felt as though she had perfected a new mode of pop stardom, making icy, complex and uncannily incisive records such as Ray of Light and Confessions on a Dance Floor. Those albums are powered by a gripping interplay between detachment and intensity; they sound, to me, like attempts to make pop albums without any sense of ego. As if she’s saying: this isn’t a Madonna record, it’s a pop record.

Addison Rae’s exceptional debut album reminds me of that unimpeachable run of Madonna records, understanding that supreme confidence and exceptional taste can sell even the most unusual album. It’s both familiar – Rae is an artist who unapologetically lives and dies by her references – and totally bold: I get the sense that she is less trying to say “this is who I am” as much as “this is what pop should be”.

• Europa League triumph fails to save manager’s job

• Spurs say it was one of their ‘toughest decisions’

• Analysis: Levy wanted more than one-punch knockout

Tottenham have sacked Ange ­Postecoglou as their manager, describing it as “one of the toughest decisions we have had to make”, and are considering whether to replace him with Brentford’s Thomas Frank, who has a £10m release clause. Marco Silva of Fulham is also in the running.

Postecoglou led Spurs to Europa League glory on 21 May, beating ­Manchester United in the final in ­Bilbao to end a 17-year trophy drought. It sparked delirium among fans, an outpouring of relief and the feeling among some of them that he deserved the chance to continue in the role.

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!

In common with the fiendishly complicated lunchtime TV quiz show Turnabout that was broadcast on the BBC during the 1990s, it is possible to watch and thoroughly enjoy the Nations League without having the foggiest idea what on earth is going on. Dreamed up by Uefa several years ago to eliminate the need for the kind of pointless international friendlies that – [Football Daily checks fixture list] – are taking place across Europe this weekend, the Nations League has managed to inveigle its way into the subconscious of most football fans to the extent that they know it is A Thing, even if the vast majority of them remain completely baffled by its format and are at a loss to explain why it exists.

I can’t be doing with the Club World Cup, and I’ve never had much time for narcissism’s favourite goalhanger Cristiano Ronaldo (yesterday’s Football Daily). But I would love it, absolutely love it, if Gianni Infantino had no option but force him to sign for Auckland City to try and wrench those coins for the bloody competition. Apologies to Auckland City goal machine Ryan De Vries for suggesting it, but sometimes annoying Ronaldo must prevail. And apologies to New Zealand if Ronaldo then has to sod off down there for a bit, but it is time for another continent to take its turn to support the weight of his ego” – Jon Millard.

Re: Eberechi Eze on England’s preparations (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition). Taking tablets and getting on a bike? Thomas Tuchel’s training methods remind me of many nights out in Amsterdam a few years back” – Gerry Rickard.

It has been mentioned that Belgian midfielder Kevin De Bruyne is leaving Manchester City and being replaced by a Dutch midfielder. Is that really the case or does KDB just not want to play in any Reijnders games?” – Michael Glogower.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.