When his new boyfriend suffered a catastrophic medical episode, Andrew Gordon-Nicholls realised he couldn’t imagine life without him

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In 2022, I was going through motions. I was burned out after shepherding two restaurants through Melbourne’s Covid lockdowns and emotionally burned to the ground by a failed marriage. It had been a big few years; I had sworn off love and was taking life slowly.

Despite all this, in late spring I found myself chatting online with a charming gardener-cum-physicist called Scott. A few weeks later, our first phone call lasted until the sun came up. I had been captivated by his boundless capacity for a chat but I didn’t hear from him for a few weeks after that. I wondered if it was because I’d asked him on more than one occasion to pipe down so I could contribute to the conversation, or if my cynical side had made an unflattering appearance in my wine haze.

As online media rewards emotion over substance, we must separate the real from the make-believe

Gina Chick, David Genat, Guy Sebastian, Poh Ling Yeow, Elon Musk and Donald Trump don’t have a lot in common – except that they are the living embodiment of the essential truth of reality television: there can only be one winner.

Gina, David, Guy, Poh and countless others have turned their success at surviving, dancing, cooking and singing into brilliant careers probably beyond their wildest dreams.

Crawley had no chance, Duckett was castled, Pope was dropped and Brook was lucky. All in a day’s work for a master fast bowler

You could see the weather coming at Headingley, there were billows of grey rain clouds out to the south, creeping slowly up towards the back of the Football Stand. And you knew something wicked was on its way in England’s innings, too.

The rain arrived right around the time it was supposed to, when Jasprit Bumrah was there waiting for them at the far end of his run, tossing the ball from one hand to the other, wearing a forbidding grin. England’s openers, Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley, were so slow walking out to join him in the middle that it felt as if they were hanging on word of a last-minute pardon.

The individual walk-ons at Club World Cup underline Fifa’s failure to understand that football is a team sport – just ask PSG

It is in the details that the truest picture emerges. Quite aside from the endless politicking, the forever-war with Uefa, the consorting with autocrats and the intriguing broadcast rights and partnership deals, there has been, not a new, but growing sense during the Club World Cup that Fifa doesn’t really get football. There is something cargo-cultish about it, creating outcomes without engaging in processes.

Perhaps that is inevitable with Gianni Infantino’s style of leadership; like all populists, he is big on vision and short on practical reality. It was there in the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams.

• First Test, day two: India 471 v England 209-3

• Pope unbeaten on 100 but Root falls late to Bumrah

A day on from that much-debated decision to bowl first by Ben Stokes and the clouds had started to lift for England. The hosts were still some way from flipping the advantage they had handed India but by stumps, after an earlier fightback with the ball, Ollie Pope’s unbeaten 100 had established something akin to a foothold in the contest.

Pope came into this Test with questions being asked about his spot at No 3; questions that centred around a poor record against India and Australia and not quelled by that 171 against Zimbabwe. Jacob Bethell, flavour of the month in New Zealand late last year, was breathing down his neck, even if potential, rather than back catalogue, was the driver.

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One mascot has just legged it way from the England team and then realised he’s gone too early, sprinting back into position.

Channel 4’s coverage is so weird. A long time discussing who is not there and now showing Joe Cole and Jermain Defoe combining for a goal 20 years ago. They’ve just remembered the match kicks off in six minutes.

• Group F: Mamelodi Sundowns 3-4 Borrusia Dortmund

• Second-half own goal ensures Dortmund go top of group

Borussia Dortmund held off a spirited comeback from Mamelodi Sundowns to secure a 4-3 victory and move closer to the Club World Cup knockout stages. Dortmund were behind after 11 minutes to the South African champions at the TQL Stadium in Cincinnati but rallied to win their second game in Group F and move top of the standings with four points, one more than Sundowns.

Felix Nmecha, Serhou Guirassy and Jobe Bellingham scored for the Bundesliga club, who also profited from an own goal. Lucas Ribeiro had given Sundowns the lead while Iqraam Rayners and Lebo Mothiba scored in the second half as they looked to rally from 4-1 down in blazing hot conditions.

Columbia graduate and legal US resident was targeted by White House for speaking out against the Israeli war in Gaza

Mahmoud Khalil – the Palestinian rights activist, Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident of the US who had been held by federal immigration authorities for more than three months – has been reunited with his wife and infant son.

Khalil, the most high-profile student to be targeted by the Trump administration for speaking out against Israel’s war on Gaza, arrived in New Jersey on Saturday at about 1pm – two hours later than expected after his flight was first rerouted to Philadelphia.

Man allegedly surveilled RAF Akrotiri and was planning imminent terrorist attack, according to reports

A British man has been arrested on suspicion of espionage and terrorism offences in Cyprus.

He allegedly surveilled the RAF Akrotiri base on the island and is suspected of having links with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, local media reported.

Team, which said it stopped Ice agents entering parking lot on Thursday, makes donation to immigrant families

The Los Angeles Dodgers have donated $1m to assist families affected by two weeks of immigration raids in southern California.

The World Series champions also said they intend to form partnerships with the California Community Foundation, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and other organization to continue providing aid to immigrant families.

• England XV 24-26 France XV

• Wing may now miss tour to Argentina and US

In the end, even the win eluded them. On a thoroughly muted afternoon in a stadium barely a third full, an England XV contrived to lose to a France XV even further from full strength than they were. At the death, Romain Taofifénua crashed over from close range to clinch the match with an equally uninspiring try.

Worse, England will lose the services of a player only just making his comeback from a long absence. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso’s wild tackle on Antoine Hastoy in the first half earned him a 20-minute red card and with it a likely ban. England’s wing had not been ruled out of contention for the Lions tour to Australia, but now even a place on England’s three-match tour of Argentina and the US must be in doubt. Given the introduction of a more streamlined disciplinary process, he should know his fate before England leave for Argentina on Tuesday.

• Palace looking to cash in on defender this summer

• Guéhi will not be rushed into decision on his future

Marc Guéhi will not be rushed into a decision on his future and is prepared to see out the final year of his contract at Crystal Palace if the right move does not materialise this summer. Palace are looking to cash in on the England defender, who is a target for Liverpool, Newcastle and Tottenham, but there is a possibility of the club losing one of their biggest assets on a free transfer next year.

Guéhi, who has no intention of signing an extension, remains open-minded about his next destination and a big consideration for the 24-year-old is making sure he has plenty of playing time next season.

Vance Boelter had texted his family that they needed to flee their house before ‘people with guns’ showed up

The man charged in connection with the recent shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses was a doomsday “prepper” who instructed his family to “prepare for war” as he tried to evade capture, according to new court filings.

Vance Boelter, 57, faces multiple federal and state murder charges after allegedly shooting dead the Democratic Minnesota state house speaker emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in the early hours of 14 June. Boelter is also accused of shooting and seriously wounding the Democratic state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, about 90 minutes earlier.

Police say Arturo Gamboa was carrying a rifle when safety volunteer fired on him and accidentally killed bystander

A man jailed on suspicion of murder for allegedly brandishing a rifle at a “No Kings” rally in Utah before an armed safety volunteer fired and inadvertently killed a protester has been released from custody.

Local district attorney Sim Gill’s office said on Friday that it was unable to make a decision on charges against Arturo Gamboa after the 14 June shooting that killed demonstrator Arthur Folasa Ah Loo – but that the investigation into the slaying continues.

Prosecutors weigh possibility Chinese student who treated his victims as ‘sex toys’ could face further action

Serial rapist Zhenhao Zou is facing a second trial with police and prosecutors preparing to charge the Chinese student with a second round of offences.

Zou, 28, is already serving a minimum 24 years for attacking 10 young women in London and China.

Witnesses say some of those onboard hurled themselves out to escape flames as reports say fire started from torch in balloon’s basket

At least eight people have died after a hot-air balloon carrying more than 20 people caught fire and plunged through the sky in Brazil’s deep south.

Footage posted on social media showed the moment the multi-coloured aircraft fell to earth, engulfed in flames, in the state of Santa Catarina on Saturday morning. At least two of the balloon’s occupants can be seen plummeting to the ground as the fire spreads. “My God!” one witness can be heard gasping as the basket hurtles towards the ground.

• Jiri Lehecka denies British No 1 6-4, 4-6, 7-5

• Winner faces Carlos Alcaraz in final

While Jack Draper spent the past week trying to find rhythm and comfort in his first grass tournament of the season, Jiri Lehecka bulldozed everything in his path. After over two furious hours of battle, their form was reflected in the final scoreline as Lehecka toppled a frustrated Draper, the second seed, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the biggest final of his career, against Carlos Alcaraz.

Draper, who will nonetheless be among the top four seeds at Wimbledon as a result of this run, had been struggling with his game and apparent illness this week and revealed he had been diagnosed with tonsillitis. Draper competed admirably during the tournament, digging deep to find a way through two tough three-set wins over Alexei Popyrin and Brandon Nakashima before putting himself in position to compete for a first grass-court title. He ends with a crushing result.

Across the US, the Active Club network uses combat sports to lure boys and young men into white nationalist circles

A neo-Nazi fight club that secretly infiltrated a Tennessee martial arts school where young children train has been banned from the facility, after an inquiry by the Guardian.

Last month, the South Central Tennessee Active Club published video footage on the messaging app Telegram showing its members participating in combat training at Shelbyville BJJ Academy, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu school in Shelbyville, Tennessee, that offers classes to students as young as three years old.

In first public comments on topic, Leo XIV has now signaled zero tolerance for sexual abuser priests

The Roman Catholic church must “not tolerate any form of abuse”, sexual or otherwise, Pope Leo XIV has said in his first public remarks about the worldwide clerical molestation scandal that has long roiled the church.

In a statement read on Friday at the performance of a play which dramatizes the work of a journalist who endured harassment while investigating abuse scandals within a powerful Catholic group, Leo maintained that it was necessary to inculcate “throughout the church a culture of prevention that does not tolerate any form of abuse: abuse of power or authority, of conscience or spirituality, of sexual abuse”.

Syarhei Tsikhanouski arrested shortly after announcing candidacy in rigged 2020 election won by Lukashenko

One of the leaders of Belarus’s opposition movement, Syarhei Tsikhanouski, has been released from jail after being pardoned after almost five years behind bars.

His wife, the exiled politician Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, who took over the opposition cause after his jailing, on Saturday shared a video of him smiling and embracing her after his release.

Californian Nancy Miller Stratford’s fiance forbade her from going to join the war effort. But her dream was to fly – so she broke off the engagement and went anyway

Nancy Miller Stratford sat alone behind the controls of a Spitfire fighter plane, charting an uncertain course through an impenetrable clot of dark clouds.

On the horizon, the young pilot could see a promising patch of daylight, “like the devil waving his hand to come on through”. But just as suddenly as the sky opened up, the clouds closed in again.

Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, plans to leave his money to all his offspring – conceived out of ‘civic duty’

Pavel Durov is a Russian-born billionaire whose interests include doing half-naked photoshoots with baby goats and having lots and lots of (human) kids. The 40-year-old billionaire founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram revealed last year– in a post on his own app – that while he isn’t married and prefers to live alone, he has over 100 biological children in 12 countries via sperm donation.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

An increasing number of people are experiencing motion sickness in EVs, and there is a scientific explanation as to why

With electric cars skyrocketing in popularity around the world – in 2024, 22% of new car sales worldwide were electric vehicles, compared with 18% in 2023 – a growing body of studies and an increasing number of people have found that they feel more motion sick riding in EVs than in traditional petrol or diesel cars. Anecdotes of feeling sick in the passenger or back seat of electric cars litter social media, as do questions from wary prospective buyers.

There is a scientific explanation behind why a person might feel more sick in an EV, though, according to multiple academic studies.

• Senegal scraps US training after visa denials

• Five players, seven staffers were refused entry

• Team will now prepare at home in Dakar

The Senegalese women’s basketball team has scrapped plans to train in the US for the upcoming AfroBasket tournament in the Ivory Coast next month after several players and team officials had their visas denied, Senegal’s prime minister said.

Prime minister Ousmane Sonko said on Facebook Thursday that the team would train in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, “in a sovereign and conducive setting”.

Fans flocked to Huntington Beach on Friday to watch top canine athletes compete in the Purina Pro Plan Incredible Dog Challenge surf contest

Raids have brought life to a standstill for some immigrant residents while others pick up pieces after arrests of family

It has been eerily easy to find street parking in Los Angeles’s fashion district this week. In the nearby flower district, longtime vendors have locked up stalls. And in East LA, popular taquerías have temporarily closed.

Neighborhoods across LA and southern California have gone quiet since the Trump administration ramped up immigration raids in the region two weeks ago.

‘Profound concern’ as administration says Afghanistan safe to return to despite dangers posed by Taliban regime

Thousands of Afghans who fled to the US as the Taliban grabbed power again in Afghanistan are in mortal dread of being deported back to danger in the coming weeks amid the Trump administration’s anti-immigration crackdown.

Many, including some who assisted US forces in Afghanistan before the botched withdrawal by the military in 2021, are contending with threats to their legal status in the US on several fronts.

The celebrated designer, 90, is believed to be saving his energy for his haute couture show in Paris next month

Giorgio Armani, the celebrated Italian designer and one of the most recognisable names in fashion, is to miss his shows at Milan fashion week this weekend due to ill health, for the first time in the label’s history.

A statement released by the brand on Saturday morning said the 90-year-old designer was “recovering at home” and “will not be present at the two shows as he usually is”. According to la Repubblica, his absence comes after a brief stint in hospital.

Seb Hines and Giles Barnes have transformed the fortunes of Orlando Pride

To followers of women’s football in the US, they are the English coaching duo who have delivered unprecedented success to a previously trophyless club. To English football fans with particularly sharp memories, they are the former Middlesbrough and Derby youngsters who left to play in the MLS. To each other, Seb Hines and Giles Barnes are just old mates, stretching back to their days sharing a room on England youth international camps.

“It brings an unwavering trust. We can challenge each other and there’s no ill intent behind it,” is how Barnes sums up the benefits of a head coach and his assistant being longtime friends. Yet the unlikely chain of events that led to their reunion in Florida is almost as improbable as Orlando Pride leaping from 10th place to the title in two years.

The attacks on lawmakers and a US senator’s callous reaction tell a dark tale of modern America

In the early morning of 14 June, according to authorities, Vance Luther Boelter, disguised as a police officer and wearing body armor and a face mask, drove his black Ford Explorer SUV, equipped with flashing lights, to the home of the Minnesota state senator John Hoffman. There, he shot Hoffman nine times, critically wounding him, and shot his wife eight times as, relatives say, she threw her body over her daughter to shield her. He next drove to the home of the former house speaker Melissa Hortman, forced his way in, and killed her and her husband, officials say.

The police arrived and Boelter fled, abandoning his car. In it they allegedly discovered a “kill list” of dozens of federal and state Democratic officials, mostly from Minnesota but also prominent Democrats in other midwestern states, and the sites of women’s healthcare centers and Planned Parenthood donors. He left behind notebooks with detailed descriptions of his target locations. On the lam, Boelter sent a text message to his family: “Dad went to war last night.”

Trump’s $499 gold phone is only the latest ask of the Maga faithful to show their commitment in dollar terms

“I like thinking big. I always have. To me it’s very simple: if you’re going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.”

Those were Donald Trump’s words to writer Tony Schwartz in the Art of the Deal. In his second term, Trump has been thinking big about making money. Since his reelection campaign began, Trump is estimated to have more than doubled his net worth to $5.4bn.

• Onana was dropped by Ruben Amorim last season

• Monaco also monitoring Chelsea’s Djordje Petrovic

Monaco have shortlisted André Onana as a potential signing this summer but the goalkeeper is intent on staying at Manchester United and proving his worth to Ruben Amorim next season.

The Ligue 1 club are admirers of the 29-year-old and are also thought to be monitoring Chelsea’s Djordje Petrovićc. Onana, however, is keen to remain at United despite his patchy form at the club.

When the extent of the university’s involvement with slavery was unearthed, a scholar tracking descendants of enslaved workers was suddenly fired

Jordan Lloyd had been praying for something big to happen. The 35-year-old screenwriter was quarantining in her apartment in North Hollywood in June 2020. Without any work projects to fill her days, she picked up the novel Roots, by Alex Haley, to reread.

The novel tells the story of Kunta Kinte, Haley’s ancestor, who is captured and sold into slavery in the Gambia and then brought to Virginia, where he is forced to labor on a plantation. It was adapted into an Emmy-award winning television series in the 1970s, and while reading it again, Lloyd thought to herself, “Wouldn’t it be nice if they could make another Roots?”

David Litt’s new book It’s Only Drowning centres on an improbable friendship and how shared experience provides a neutral ground for connection

What do men want? Democrats need to know after their election drubbing by Donald Trump and the “manosphere” last year. They have responded by commissioning “Speaking with American Men”, a strategic plan that will study “the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality” in online spaces.

News of the two-year $20m project reinforced critics’ view that Democrats have become the party of an aloof, college-educated liberal elite whose pursuit of working class men resembles a Victorian explorer wielding a butterfly net. Which makes the publication of David Litt’s book, It’s Only Drowning, a timely contribution to Democrats’ ongoing post-mortem.

She made her name with rage-fuelled anthems – and sold 75m records in the process. Now, with a highly anticipated Glastonbury slot, the California-dwelling earth mother is ready to let rip again …

Alanis Morissette asks which version of her I wish to hear from: “The hormonal bitch who has a lot to say? The people-pleasing, kind, amenable part? They’re all here.” It’s 9am in sunny Los Angeles and the ­Canadian-born singer-songwriter is ­wearing a slouchy top, her wavy hair loose. She’s long been aware of these different “parts”, that her life is full of contradiction. “I have 14 different opinions about one thing.” It’s why, aged 19, she wrote Hand In My Pocket (lyrics include: I’m high, but I’m grounded / I’m sane, but I’m ­overwhelmed), one of several anthems on Jagged ­Little Pill, the album released 30 years ago this month. Back then, in the unenlightened 90s, people found this sort of talk unnerving. “They were like, ‘Whoa, that’s scary. What are you talking about?’”

“They called it my ‘psychobabble’. I’m like, ‘I’m going to stay the course with my psychobabble.’” It’s what she sees as her “karmic assignment” and feels not a little vindicated now that these ideas are welcomed by the mainstream. There’s a whole seam of psychotherapy that views the mind as composed of distinct “parts”, called Internal Family Systems. Morissette speaks at the symposiums, as well as summits on trauma, or wholeness verses wellness, career, art and feminism. She hosted a podcast devoted to this stuff. “The healing arts,” she says, adding drily: “I am from California, never forget that. California, because if I were in any other state my head might explode.”

Authors including Anne Enright, Michael Rosen, Samantha Harvey and Rutger Bregman reveal their books of the summer

• Summer reading: the 50 hottest books to read now

• The 10 best audiobooks for summer
  

Zadie Smith
For me summer reading is about immersion. Three novels fully absorbed me recently. Flesh by David Szalay is a very smart and stylish novel about the 1%, filtered through the life of a Hungarian bodyguard/driver in their midst. Cécé by Emmelie Prophète (out 23 September) vividly depicts the slums of contemporary Haiti via a very online young sex worker who lives her best life on Facebook. Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie features a series of unforgettable women trying to work out what love means. The summer read I’m looking forward to myself is Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, a true original.

David Nicholls
I would recommend two books, 800 pages and a shade under 150, depending on what you can carry. Helen Garner’s collected diaries, How to End a Story, are frank, gripping and revealing about family, marriage and the writing life, while Anthony Shapland’s debut, A Room Above a Shop, is a small, tender love story, almost a poem.

• Updates from Headingley, play from 11am BST

• Day one report | Reaction | Email James

89th over: India 368-3 (Gill 132, Pant 69) India still have a fair bit of batting to come: Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur. England would love to gain access to Nair, playing his first Test in eight years, while the ball is new. Gill will be aware of that – he is batting in his bubble, playing every ball on its merits, which in this case means a maiden from Woakes.

“Good morning,” writes John Starbuck. “Another puzzle, neurologically speaking, is why so many Test players go for a double-digit choice as their playing number. It must have begun with Joe Root 66, understandably a mild pun, but it looks like there’s a superstition going around. In the system used by some sides, each player has a number according to their debut, counting from the very beginning of Tests, so why not use that? I suppose they feel that anything which boosts confidence gives you an edge and there’s not much to be done about it. Confirm?”

Islamabad says US president helped resolve India conflict but critic says ‘Israel’s sugar daddy in Gaza’ not candidate for any prize

Pakistan has said it will recommend Donald Trump for the Nobel peace prize for his work in helping to resolve the recent conflict between India and Pakistan.

The move, announced on Saturday, came as the US president mulls joining Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Paying theatregoers have bemoaned watching Don’t Cry For Me Argentina on livestream while passersby experience it live for free. But is it a seven-minute stunt worth waiting for?

Move over Romeo: theatre’s second most famous balcony scene has stolen the show.

Every night this week Rachel Zegler has emerged halfway through Jamie Lloyd’s production of Evita at the London Palladium to sing its biggest number to the Oxford Circus crowds. Last weekend the Hollywood ingenue was serenading surprised shoppers, but since her performance of Don’t Cry For Me Argentina went viral it’s become the hottest (free) ticket in the West End.

This image captures the passion and solemnity of an Islamic ritual in Iran

For Meysam Hamrang, this image was years in the making. The Iranian photographer took it in 2019 at a religious ceremony in the village of Masuleh, part of a historic city in the northern province of Gilan, Iran.

“On the sixth day of Muharram – the first month of the Islamic calendar – Shia Muslims mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hussein in a ritual called Alam Bandan,” says Hamrang. “It’s held in a 1,200-year-old shrine. People from surrounding villages gather to participate in, or observe, the ritual.”