• Former Spurs boss has been leading USA since late 2024

• Tottenham job open after sacking of Ange Postecoglou

Mauricio Pochettino pushed back against suggestions he is a candidate to take over the newly-vacant Tottenham Hotspur managerial position, telling reporters on Saturday that it was “not realistic” for him to leave his current role as US men’s national team manager.

Pochettino had been considered a possible candidate to replace Ange Postecoglou, who was sacked by Tottenham on 6 June despite him leading the club to Europa League glory – the club’s first trophy in 17 years. However, Tottenham finished 17th in the Premier League, their lowest position since 1977.

Signing Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo are leaps of faith, as is hoping Ruben Amorim can solve all the problems

In publicly rejecting the overtures of the Saudi Pro League, Bruno Fernandes has made it clear he wants to continue playing football at the highest level. That he wants to challenge for trophies. That he has no interest in wasting what remains of his peak years jogging around aimlessly in the service of a vast public relations project, providing lucrative content for a cruel and heartless regime. Despite all this, he’s more than happy to remain at Manchester United for now.

There were other angles to this decision. In a sense, Al-Hilal’s courtship of Fernandes represented a kind of catch-22 for United, desperate to reinforce their underperforming squad while remaining compliant with profitability and sustainability rules. Only a player who truly loved United could contemplate leaving in order to help balance the books. But in signalling his willingness to leave, Fernandes merely demonstrated why United could not possibly let him go.

Given these sides’ catastrophic meeting in Belgrade almost 11 years ago, the real measure of success was its smooth completion

Inside Arena Kombëtare, more than 20,000 supporters caught their breaths and trained every last squint of focus on Rey Manaj. Outside, the legions who had flooded into Tirana all day just to be part of things, some queueing at borders before racing to bars and public viewings through the heat, clasped their beers. Albania had been awarded a penalty and nobody cared that it was soft; if Manaj kept his nerve then maybe a football hero could finally be born, the accursed feel around this fixture banished at long last.

Manaj straightened up, perhaps a little too much, and approached the ball head on. If he needed any reminder of the context he could always heed the reverberations of “Serbia, Serbia, f*ck your sister” that had formed much of the day’s soundtrack and had only just paused before he stepped up. The shot was low, far too close to Djordje Petrovic and firmly pawed to safety. The half-time whistle sounded immediately, members of Serbia’s delegation making a beeline for the pitch to embrace their keeper. For Manaj, all that lingered was the frozen image of a moment he had failed to meet.

Collapse of once-feared security apparatus, coupled with widespread poverty, has triggered a gold rush

They come by night. Armed with pickaxes, shovels and jackhammers, looters disturb the dead. Under the cover of darkness, men exhume graves buried more than 2,000 years ago in Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra, searching for treasure.

By day, the destruction caused by grave robbers is apparent. Three-metre-deep holes mar the landscape of Palmyra, where ancient burial crypts lure people with the promise of funerary gold and ancient artefacts that fetch thousands of dollars.

Hawks, spikes and sonic repellants are among the measures used to deter these birds. Perhaps we should try sharing our planet

At this year’s Cannes film festival, some unexpected hires joined the security detail at luxury hotel the Majestic. They were clad not in kevlar but in deep chestnut plumage, with wingspans up to four feet, talons for toes and meat-ripping ebony beaks. The new recruits were Harris hawks and their mission was clear: guard stars from the aerial menace of gulls daring to photobomb or snatch vol-au-vents.

This might sound like an extreme solution to a benign problem – after all, haven’t most of us lost sandwiches to swooping beaks and come out relatively unscathed? But as these notorious food pirates come ashore in growing numbers, cities around the world are increasingly grappling with how to manage them. Hiring hawks from local falconer Christophe Puzin was the Majestic’s answer to curbing gull-related incidents (such as Sophie Marceau’s 2011 wine-on-dress situation). But in metropolises such as New York, Rome, Amsterdam and London gulls are widely considered a menace, too, as they take up permanent residence on urban stoops.

Sophie Pavelle is a writer and science communicator

What was once simply a garment that declared your affiliation to a club is now a global business earning millions from collectors of vintage kits

On the second floor of an unprepossessing building on the outskirts of Amsterdam, there is a metal cabinet that destroys footballers’ DNA. The contraption belongs to MatchWornShirt and was part of a deal to sell the kits of Real Madrid players to the public. To allay concerns that the genetic material of Cristiano Ronaldo might escape into the wild, the steel wardrobe was built so that every shirt could be blasted by a germicidal lamp.

For new, read old, because MatchWornShirt sells precisely what the company’s name suggests: kits that have been stuck to the bodies of professional athletes. Want the jersey Son Heung-min pulled on against Manchester United in the Europa League final? You can have it, if you beat the current auction price of £22,000. The very shirt Cole Palmer had on when he scored four first-half goals against Brighton last season? That went for £34,000.

From Baltic beach holidays to Spanish city breaks and cruising on French canals, here’s our pick of the best getaways for dogs – and their owners

Forget luxury escapes: it’s more fun to share time and space with people of all ages and from all walks of life

I’ve never been in a band. But I have been to a youth hostel with four babies, which is sort of the same thing. Everywhere we turned there was singing, selfies, strangers coming up to us in the street and women getting their boobs out – it was the Small Faces, but with actual small faces.

My God, how I love youth hostels. In all their strange, intergenerational, shared washing-up sponges and boot-room glory, they are the best of us. You can keep your sponsored hotel stays and luxury apartments as far as I’m concerned. Give me a fluorescent-lit kitchen with five electric hobs and a roll of stickers to label your milk any day.

Nell Frizzell is a journalist and author

Tskaltubo enjoyed years of prosperity as a jewel of Soviet architecture. But after the collapse of the USSR in December 1991 the sanatoriums were abandoned, and in 1992 people fleeing the war in Abkhazia found refuge here. While efforts continue to restore the spa town to its former glory, silence and greenery prevail as a few families hold out amid the rubble

The right to rest for workers was enshrined in the 1936 constitution of the Soviet Union. Article 119 guaranteed “annual vacations with full pay for workers and employees and the provision of a wide network of sanatoriums”. Fourteen years earlier, the 1922 labour code had established that every worker was entitled to two weeks of annual leave and hundreds of sanatoriums were built across the vast territory that made up the Soviet socialist republics. These establishments, conceived as a combination of health resorts and medical centres, served as places for workers to rest and recuperate, thus helping to optimise their productivity.

Bath House No 8, located in Central Park where the hot springs spring forth, is the UFO-shaped Tskaltubo spa with a curved, circular roof and a central opening that lets in light.

Norway will set up state payment scheme for families of 123 men killed in Kielland disaster, but some feel it comes too late

“I think we all feel like we’ve had a bit of a weight lifted off our shoulders,” said Laura Fleming after an important milestone in one of Europe’s longest-running industrial disaster sagas. “It is just 45 years too late.”

Fleming’s father, Michael, was one of 123 men who were killed when the Alexander L Kielland accommodation rig capsized during a fierce storm in the Norwegian North Sea oilfields on 27 March 1980.

The UK government is desperate to show it is preventing small boat crossings, but its PR-heavy approach may cause more problems with voters than it solves

There’s this idea that friendships should just happen, but they need input and confidence
• Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a problem sent in by a reader

A couple of years ago, I moved to a new city. The pandemic put my university plans permanently on hold, and I’ve recently started working full time. I built up a sizeable network of online friends during and after the pandemic, but I’ve found myself craving real-life friends to interact with more often.

I don’t drink and I’m struggling to find activities for people my age that I’m interested in. Apart from a few at my job, I haven’t been able to make any new friends, and my contact with old school friends has become less and less frequent.

Experts, Guardian readers and writers share ingenious solutions to life’s everyday irritations, from wobbly tables to persistent hiccups

Stuffed-up sieves
Always use a dishwasher. If one isn’t available, soak in the sink first, to loosen particles, then take a dish brush or nail brush to it. Rinse under a fast hot tap.
Aggie MacKenzie, TV presenter and author

The UK’s strategic defence review risks normalising nuclear warfare. Don’t believe the PR hype: these weapons are immoral, irrational and catastrophic

Plans by Keir Starmer’s government to modernise and potentially expand Britain’s nuclear weapons arsenal, unveiled in the 2025 strategic defence review (SDR), seriously undermine international non-proliferation efforts. They will fuel a global nuclear arms race led by the US, China and Russia. And they increase the chances that lower-yield, so-called tactical nukes will be deployed and detonated in conflict zones.

This dangerous path leads in one direction only: towards the normalisation of nuclear warfare.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

Canada’s most famous astronaut on his unusual party trick, predictions on extraterrestrial life and favourite space movies

What’s the most chaotic thing that’s ever happened to you in space?

Launch – you go from no speed at all to 17,500 miles an hour in under nine minutes. The chaos is spectacular, the power of it is just wild, the physical vibration and force of it is mind-numbing – and it all happens so blisteringly fast. In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, you go from lying on your back in Florida to being weightless in space. It’s just the most amazing, chaotic, spectacular, rare human experience I’ve ever had.

Donald Trump’s extraordinary threats have angered Canadians and Europeans, and the idea of a new kind of transatlantic alliance is gaining traction

Joachim Streit has never stepped foot in Canada. But that hasn’t stopped the German politician from launching a tenacious, one-man campaign that he readily describes as “aspirational”: to have the North American country join the EU.

“We have to strengthen the European Union,” said Streit, who last year was elected as a member of the European parliament. “And I think Canada – as its prime minister says – is the most European country outside of Europe.”

39-year-old opposition senator said to be fighting for his life in hospital after being shot in the back, with one suspect arrested

The Colombian presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe is fighting for his life in hospital after being shot in Bogotá.

The 39-year-old senator, who is running for the presidency in 2026, is a member of the opposition conservative Democratic Centre party founded by the former president Alvaro Uribe. The two men are not related.

• Florida evens final as Marchand nets 2OT breakaway

• Panthers erase deficit after Perry ties it with 17.8 left

• Bobrovsky stops 42 shots; Game 3 Monday in Florida

Brad Marchand scored on a breakaway in double overtime and the defending champion Florida Panthers punched back against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 2 of their Stanley Cup final rematch, winning 5-4 on Friday night to even the series.

Marchand’s second goal of the night 8:04 into the second OT allowed Florida to escape with a split after Corey Perry scored to tie it with 17.8 seconds left in the third period and Stuart Skinner pulled for an extra attacker. Each of the first two games this final have gone to overtime, for the first time since 2014 and just the sixth in NHL history.

Women recount alleged behavior, including flirting with teenagers, as ‘predatory, terrifying and unacceptable’

Multiple women have accused Jared Leto of impropriety, with some calling the 53-year-old actor and musician’s behavior “predatory, terrifying and unacceptable”.

In a new report by Air Mail on Saturday, nine women have come forward to accuse Leto of engaging in inappropriate behavior over the years, including flirting with teenagers.

California governor calls move ‘purposefully inflammatory’ and says it will ‘escalate tensions’ amid immigration crackdown

Donald Trump on Saturday authorized the deployment of 2,000 national guard troops to Los Angeles, after an immigration crackdown erupted into mass protests for a second day and police in riot gear used teargas on bystanders.

The California governor, Gavin Newsom, said in a statement on X that the federal government was “moving to take over” the California national guard. Newsom said the mobilization was “purposefully inflammatory” and warned that it would “only escalate tensions”.

• Rodgers inks one-year, $13.65m deal with Pittsburgh

• QB joins Steelers after split with Jets in February

• Faces Jets in Week 1, Packers reunion set for Week 8

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ ended his long-running free agency saga as the polarizing four-times NFL MVP launched a new chapter of his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday.

The team posted on social media a photo of Rodgers wearing a Steelers hat with a pen in his hand and a smile on his face two days after reports of the first broke.

• Gauff fought back from set down to beat Aryna Sabalenka

• ‘Obviously there’s a lot going on in our country right now’

Coco Gauff hopes her triumph at the French Open provides a glimmer of positivity for her supporters during a difficult political period in the United States as she clinched her first French Open title on Saturday.

Gauff, the second seed, demonstrated her mental fortitude by recovering from a set down to defeat the world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 and win her second grand slam title in Paris.

Advocate claims Abbott government was concerned asylum seekers and refugees were using medical transfers as a back door to get into Australia

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Scott Morrison overrode medical advice in the case of an asylum seeker in offshore detention trying to access an abortion, and had previously sought advice that would effectively prevent access to terminations entirely, ministerial advice reveals.

Documents released under freedom of information laws show Morrison, in 2014 as immigration minister, had sought advice to deny the transfer of women to a hospital on the Australian mainland to access termination services before 20 weeks’ gestation.

When Laura went into labour, her new sort-of boyfriend Adam Dalzotto never left her side. Watching her give birth sent his opinion of her stratospheric

• Find more stories from The moment I knew series

In 2018 I had just started lecturing in nursing at a university in South Australia. It was the start of the academic year and I was new to town, so a colleague and I decided to check out the open-day stalls. I’d been vegan for a few years and was hoping to meet some like-minded folk.

A person in a Sea Shepherd hoodie pointed me in the right direction and I was immediately struck by this woman sitting in the middle of the stall. It’s a moment captured in resin in my mind – there was a crowd of people and cupcakes on the table. I would say I was 13 paces away from Laura when I first clapped eyes on her. She was just breathtaking; smiling, happily chatting to people. She seemed to have this immense gravity to her and I could feel myself getting pulled into her orbit. I chatted to her and a few others and left the encounter absolutely stunned. No work got done for the rest of the afternoon. I didn’t know what to make of it. It was a struggle to even accept she existed. I was in shock but I did my best to brush it aside.

There are sudden moments of ecstatic joy, but it’s terrifying to realise what you want to be and everything you’ve forced down

You’re fairly sure your skin has always been a problem. A problem before you even realised, lurking in the background of your earliest memories. Never with a clear mark for when you realised it was a problem. (When you realised what it means, to hate your skin so much.) But with signs scattered throughout your life.

The very earliest sign was swimming. Or clothes in general, really, but swimming was the easy one. When you swam, you always wore (and always still wear) a shirt, even though the males of your family don’t. More broadly, you refuse to ever be seen without one. You called it modesty, but now you know it as shame. Shame for your square-ish, flat, slightly hairy flesh prison. Because, even then, you knew your chest should be covered up, even though your skin is flush against your ribs and males don’t need to cover up.

My Nan held my hand, convincing me this was what they wanted. I felt like a little girl, crying and being comforted by my grandmother one last time

In their final moments, Ron and Irene lay together in a single bed, soft smiles on their faces. They wore special shirts picked out for the occasion; his a cranky cockatoo print, and hers the same white and floral print blouse she wore to their 70th wedding anniversary a few months previously.

The only sign of what was to come were the twin cannulas, one in each of their intertwined hands, with long thin tubes winding back behind the beds and out of sight.

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• Kane’s goal secures 1-0 win over minnows Andorra

• ‘We lacked seriousness. I didn’t like the body language’

Thomas Tuchel admitted England had “played with fire” in their 1-0 win over Andorra, risking the concession of an equaliser and a draw that would have registered as perhaps their greatest humiliation since defeat to the USA in 1950. “I felt it was like a cup game where the favourites don’t see the danger,” he said.

England won thanks to Harry Kane’s 50th-minute goal, leaving them top of the group on nine points without having conceded a goal. No previous England manager has ever begun with three successive victories to nil, but Tuchel was clearly very unhappy with the performance.

Tottenham chair was not blinded by silverware and decided finishing fourth-bottom of the Premier League was not enough

In football, there is always a lot of light and noise. There is always a lot of emotion. That is both its appeal and why it is so difficult for those in the game to make decisions. Ange Postecoglou gave Tottenham one of the great nights in the club’s history when they won the Europa League in Bilbao.

A first trophy in 17 years. A first European trophy in 41. It’s easy to understand why the instinct is gratitude, to hope that somehow victory can be self-replicating, that silverware begets silverware and something fundamental in Tottenham’s being was transformed at San Mamés.

Tuchel’s target is to win the World Cup and a scintillating performance would not have made lifting the prize in New Jersey any more likely

How bad was it? Bad enough to be England’s worst result in seven games against Andorra. Bad enough for players used to operating at the highest of levels for the best clubs in the world to find themselves unable to weight simple passes or deliver crosses with precision. Bad enough that Andorra’s 37-year-old left-back Marc García nutmegged Noni Madueke in injury time. But, beyond the potential problems it may cause with goal difference, it doesn’t matter at all in terms of the main issue: the winning of the World Cup next summer.

England could have played scintillating football and beaten Andorra 10-0 and it wouldn’t have made them any more likely to be lifting the prize in New Jersey next July. That’s not to excuse a dismal performance, just to say it’s irrelevant. The game was won, the box ticked, and Thomas Tuchel hopefully learned something from the training sessions.

US president says he’s ‘too busy doing other things’ to try to reconcile with erstwhile ally and campaign backer

Donald Trump warned Elon Musk on Saturday that he faces “very serious consequences” if he funds Democratic candidates following the pair’s epic public bust-up this week.

The warning, delivered in an interview with NBC News scheduled to broadcast on Sunday, follows days of feuding and threats after Musk called Republicans’ budget legislation an “abomination”.

Thomas Tuchel had demanded a convincing win and a performance without doubts. The England manager wanted to suffocate Andorra in this World Cup qualifier; to see his team attack cohesively, to unpick the low block of the nation that sits 173rd in the world rankings. So much for the wishlist.

This was the end-of-season game that Tuchel had tried to talk up, mainly because he has so few matches to drill his players before the finals next summer. He was keen to see some energy. And yet his words failed to stir very much. Yes, England won, as they always do against Andorra. Yes, they did so without conceding, as they always do against Andorra. And yes, it is now three wins out of three for Tuchel, with no goals against. But it was not possible to get excited.

• Third ODI: WI 106-8, Eng 109-1; England won by 9 wkts

• Captain hits unbeaten half-century in rain-affected game

England’s head coach, Charlotte Edwards, praised her players for being “ruthless and clinical” after they completed a 6-0 clean sweep against West Indies, winning Saturday’s rain-reduced third one-day international at Taunton by nine wickets.

Chasing a DLS target of 106 in 21 overs, Nat Sciver-Brunt scored an unbeaten half-century to continue a successful start as captain, smashing back-to-back boundaries to seal the win with 61 balls remaining.

Law expected to include safety and copyright issues but delay likely to raise concerns about ongoing lack of regulation

Proposals to regulate artificial intelligence have been delayed by at least a year as UK ministers plan a bumper bill to regulate the technology and its use of copyrighted material.

Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, intends to introduce a “comprehensive” AI bill in the next parliamentary session to address concerns about issues including safety and copyright.

Former party chair says he will lead a ‘Doge team’ inspired by Elon Musk and Donald Trump

Zia Yusuf has said he will return to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, just two days after quitting the party.

Yusuf was the rightwing party’s chair but resigned on Thursday after suggesting it was “dumb” of the party’s newest MP to ask the prime minister if he would ban the burqa.

Pioneering broadcaster recalls incident during discussion with royal about latest documentary, Ocean

Sir David Attenborough almost drowned when testing a scuba-diving helmet for his 1957 dive on the Great Barrier Reef, the broadcasting veteran has revealed in a discussion with Prince William.

Discussing his latest documentary, Ocean, the pioneering film-maker described the incident to the Prince of Wales.

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Jonathan Wilson on Ivan Toney

When he left Brentford for Al-Ahli in the Saudi Pro League, it made sense that he should lose his place in the England squad. He had voluntarily taken himself to a lower level and it was a reasonable assumption that his sharpness would diminish as a consequence. But he scored 23 goals in 29 starts this season, playing well enough at least to be entered into the conversation for squad places.

• American wins epic final battle 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4

• Gauff wins second slam after 2023 US Open title

In her half-decade competing at the highest level, Coco Gauff has built an impermeable reputation for her toughness in battle. No matter the significance of the occasion or the state of her strokes, she will fight with everything at her disposal and make life incredibly difficult for any opponent. More often than not, she will find a way through.

Across the net from the best player in the world in one of the most important occasions of her career, Gauff showed the full magnitude of her grit and durability to topple Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 and win her first French Open title.

Vice-president was interviewed by comedian Theo Von, who also asked him if he ‘got high’ on election night

JD Vance said Elon Musk was making a “huge mistake” going after Donald Trump in a storm of bitter and inflammatory social media posts after a falling-out between the two men.

But the vice-president, in an interview released on Friday after the very public blowup between the world’s richest person and arguably the world’s most powerful, also tried to downplay Musk’s blistering attacks as an “emotional guy” who got frustrated.

• Biles calls Gaines ‘sick’ in response to softball post

• Gymnast defends trans girl targeted after title win

• Gaines calls Biles’ stance on inclusion ‘disappointing’

Seven-time Olympic gold medallist Simone Biles has publicly condemned former competitive swimmer Riley Gaines for her repeated attacks on transgender athletes, calling Gaines “sick” and a “sore loser” in a strongly worded social media post.

The exchange erupted Friday night after Gaines mocked the Minnesota State High School League for turning off comments on a post celebrating Champlin Park High School’s girls’ softball team, which had just won the state championship. One of the team’s players is a transgender girl.

Civil protection agency chief says country is ill-prepared for conflict and calls for urgent upgrades to cold war shelters

Germany is drawing up plans to rapidly expand its network of bomb-proof bunkers and shelters, the government’s most senior civilian protection official has said, warning the state needs to be prepared for an attack from Russia within the next four years.

Ralph Tiesler, the head of the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), said Europe’s largest economy needed to wake up to the reality of conflict, and that in its current state Germany was inadequately prepared.