They’ve broken crowdsurfing records – 901 in a single gig – but their music confronts deep, difficult subjects from mental health to toxic family members
Malevolence insist they aren’t psychic. In late February 2020, days before Covid-19 lockdowns started being implemented around the world, the Yorkshire metalcore band released their breakthrough single, Keep Your Distance. It was a melee of growls and beatdowns that propelled them to new heights – in part thanks to a title that foresaw the next year of government messaging.
“It was completely by coincidence,” guitarist and vocalist Konan Hall tells me on a video call from his home in Sheffield. “But everyone started tagging us in signs saying ‘Keep your distance because of Covid’.” Lead singer Alex Taylor can’t help but laugh, joining the call from his place just up the road. “It was free marketing!”
Men finished 15th and women were 16 points off top
Manchester United’s chief executive, Omar Berrada, remains confident the club can win the men’s and women’s league titles by their 150th anniversary in 2028.
Berrada, who told staff of his “Project 150” vision last September, knows that represents a significant challenge with the men having just endured a worst top-flight season since relegation in 1973-74 and Chelsea continuing to dominate the Women’s Super League.
Responding to a fan question, the singer said he felt the words were ‘unnecessarily provocative’ but called Morrissey ‘probably the best lyricist of his generation’
Nick Cave has said that he turned down Morrissey’s request to appear on a new song in 2024, claiming that the former Smiths frontman wanted him to sing “an unnecessarily provocative and slightly silly anti-woke screed he had written”.
In response to a fan question on his Red Hand Files site about his relationship with the singer, Cave said that “although I suppose I agreed with the sentiment on some level, it just wasn’t my thing. I try to keep politics, cultural or otherwise, out of the music I am involved with. I find that it has a diminishing effect and is antithetical to whatever it is I am trying to achieve.”
At least 51 Palestinians have been killed and more than 200 wounded while waiting for UN and commercial trucks to enter the territory with desperately needed food, according to Gaza’s health ministry and a local hospital.
Palestinian witnesses said Israeli forces carried out an airstrike on a nearby home before opening fire toward the crowd in the southern city of Khan Younis on Tuesday morning. The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The primary justifications for early immigration laws were xenophobia, eugenics, and overt racism. Understanding the history of immigration is essential
The US immigration system is a scam that dehumanizes people for profit. Communities across the country have had enough.
The protests in Los Angeles have invited a long overdue conversation about the true nature of the US immigration system. While the immediate catalysts for the protests were ramped up Ice raids attempting to meet Donald Trump’s arbitrary deportation quotas, the protests spring from a deeper history.
With fights hidden behind paywalls and few stars breaking through, the once-popular sport risks irrelevance among the young fans it desperately needs to survive
Boxing is popular with young people in countries like the United Kingdom and Mexico. But it doesn’t resonate with young sports fans in the United States the way it once did.
Fans of a sport – particularly, team sports - develop lifelong allegiances at an early age and often pass it on to their children. There was a time when fathers and sons in America sat down in front of a television set together and watched Gillette Friday Night Fightsor boxing on weekend afternoons. Now, if they sit down together at all, they watch football.
Terry Moran was effectively dismissed from the network after calling Stephen Miller and Trump ‘world-class’ haters
A journalist who lost his job at ABC News after describing top White House aide Stephen Miller as someone “richly endowed with the capacity for hatred” has said he published that remark on social media because he felt it was “true”.
“It was something that was in my heart and mind,” the network’s former senior national correspondent Terry Moran said Monday on The Bulwark political podcast. “And I would say I used very strong language deliberately.”
Though famously resilient, aloes are also sensitive to overwatering
What’s the problem?
I thought it was nearly impossible to kill aloe plants, but mine looks very pale and limp.
Diagnosis
You’re right; aloe vera is famously resilient and seen as an easy plant to care for. But all plants are living entities with specific care needs. Pale, floppy leaves usually indicate overwatering, inadequate sunlight, or poor drainage, which all cause the same problem: too much moisture in the soil. Aloe plants store water in their thick leaves, so any excess easily causes root rot and weak growth.
Photographer Misan Harriman gave lessons and equipment to young people who have fled Gaza – and the pictures they took are funny, revealing and often heartbreaking
A boy pulling a funny face, a sleeping pet, a grandfather in his chair – all ordinary scenes from life that many of us would take for granted. What makes these images special is they were taken by Palestinian children, refugees displaced to Egypt since Israel’s war in Gaza, making sense of their new, if hopefully temporary, home and what they have escaped from.
“It’s familial life, relationships, and although they’ve seen so much, you’re not seeing trauma, you’re not seeing the faces of people that have given up,” says the photographer Misan Harriman, an ambassador for Save the Children. “Even though none of these kids know what the future brings and there’s huge uncertainty, they are living in the moment. They’re doing their best to thrive and learn.” The camera, he adds, is “a seemingly inanimate object that can help you find answers to a world that is confusing, and even more confusing for some of these children.”
Misan Harriman, centre, with some of the children involved in the project. Photograph: Anna Sass/Save the Children
Originally meant to release in 2022, Capcom’s futuristic game – featuring an astronaut and a mysterious blond-haired little girl – has just re-emerged from stasis; and it looks like it will be worth the wait
When Pragmata was first announced five years ago, it wasn’t clear exactly what Resident Evil publisher Capcom was making. The debut trailer featured eerie, futuristic imagery, an astronaut, and a blond-haired little girl, but there was nothing concrete or clear about its content. And when it missed its 2022 release window and was “paused indefinitely” in 2023, it wasn’t clear if Pragmata would ever come to be.
That all changed on 4 June, when a brand-new trailer was broadcast during a PlayStation showcase. The blond-haired little girl turns out to be a weaponised android, accompanying an astronaut called Hugh (of course) through space-station shootouts. I played about 20 minutes of the game during Summer Game Fest the following weekend. A lengthy, troubled development cycle is usually a bad omen, but my time with it was promising.
Pragmata will be out in 2026 for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
British player talks about receiving toxic messages
‘I don’t think there’s anything off the cards now’
The British tennis No 2 Katie Boulter has lifted the lid on the level of abuse aimed at some players and revealed she and her family have received death threats.
Boulter shared her experiences with BBC Sport to highlight the issue of players receiving toxic messages online. The 28-year-old’s examples included a message telling her to buy “candles and a coffin for your entire family” with a reference to her “grandmother’s grave if she’s not dead by tomorrow”, one stating she should “go to hell” as she had cost the poster money, and another stating “hope you get cancer”.
Real Madrid might be the biggest successful side in Europe but that doesn’t mean they are too big for a bargain. David Alaba, Kylian Mbappé, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Tony Rüdiger and Steve McManaman have all moved to the Bernabéu on a free transfer in the past and now the Spanish giants are reportedly targeting another soon-to-be out-of-contract star. Myles Lewis-Skelly had a breakthrough year at Arsenal last season but, with his current deal expiring next summer, he would be free to talk to foreign clubs in January. The Gunners are said to be “relaxed” about the contract situation but this would not be the first time they have been gazumped by a Spanish rival.
Another elite full-back but at the tail end of his career, Kyle Walker, is garnering interest from Everton after being left out of Manchester City’s Club World Cup squad. José Mourinho and Fenerbahce have already submitted an offer for the 34-year-old but the opportunity to stay in the Premier League might sway the England international to stay in the north-west of England. Any transfer fee would be nominal, with just one year left on his deal at City, but Everton would still have to match his substantial wages. Fulham are also said to be interested.
Sharp edges of bitter history keep jutting through Wes Anderson’s whimsical intrigues that turn international tragedy into light comedy
The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson’s makebelieve treatment of the war-ravaged near east, reimagines the region as a sunlit Levantine fantasia of cypress trees, fez hats, camel-riders and kitsch hotels, all photographed with the lustre of an Ottolenghi cookbook. Meanwhile, livestreamed daily to our news feeds, the warlords of the Holy Land exhibit for us an equally spectacular dystopia of cities pummelled into sawdust, of skies scarred with scorching white phosphorus and gun-toting paragliders.
How could these images be of the same place? What does it mean that they have been produced at the same time, and that we are consuming them alongside each other?
In this page-turning romance, teenage sweethearts reunite as thirtysomething women
Sex is notoriously difficult to write. Some authors avoid it entirely; even those who have been called great can come a cropper. Which is why I want to start this review by saying that the sex scenes in Ordinary Love are some of the best I have read this year, and that Marie Rutkoski has a facility for writing physical intimacy that can elude even some of our most gifted authors. Her voice has been compared to that of Sally Rooney. I don’t see much of that in this novel beyond a Rooneyesque ability to write sex well, but that is a talent worth noting.
Ordinary Love is a queer romance that tells the story of Emily and Gen, teenage sweethearts who break up in college and reunite in their 30s, their paths having diverged dramatically. Emily marries Jack, who is wealthy and emotionally abusive. When she sees Gen again, she is in the process of leaving him for the second time (the novel opens with a scene vividly depicting the dealbreaker: it is violence against a child that finally does it). Gen, meanwhile, has become an Olympic athlete and serial womaniser. Both are carrying the wounds of their adolescent relationship, which is recounted in flashback, and the homophobia they faced, particularly from Emily’s father. In one particularly moving scene, Gen’s grandmother – who raised her after her mother died from opioid addiction – counters his bigotry by making a toast: “To my granddaughter. I love you. I love everything about you. I am so proud.”
With 12% of the population living with the virus, Trump’s sudden withdrawal of funding stands to undo decades of progress
Lebo is very afraid. She used to go to a clinic where sex workers such as her could get HIV medication without facing discrimination. But the dispensary, in Johannesburg’s run-down central Hillbrow district, shut down in January, when Donald Trump cut US funding to the global HIV response.
“I’m weak. I’m an old woman,” says the 62-year-old. “So please, we need help; we are suffering.” Lebo, who only wants her first name shared, is now spending 30% of her monthly income of 1,500 rand (£62) on antiretroviral (ARV) medication.
Producer-director Frank Mannion follows his cordial guide to champagne with a cheerful celebration of beloved tipples of Irish origin
The always likable figure of Irish producer and film-maker Frank Mannion has, in the past, given us a cordial guide to champagne, a slightly more chaotic essay on Britishness, and its counterpart on Irishness. Now, in his cheerfully celebratory and slightly corporate-promo way, he has made a film about Irish viticulture and drink in general, which means not simply wineries, breweries and distilleries actually in Ireland, but also abroad: this is about drinks producers with an Irish background, such as Hennessy brandy, which has an obvious Irish ancestry.
It’s what this film calls “an Irish drink in a French terroir” – or, in fact, a terroir anywhere in the world, meaning places in Europe, the US and occasionally Australia and New Zealand. The film even jauntily insists that Ireland invented whiskey before Scotland. Prince Albert II of Monaco is interviewed about his love of Irish viticulture and the importance of his mother, Grace Kelly, one of the Kellys of County Mayo. The chief interviewee, however, is the amiable Oz Clarke, himself of Irish heritage, who beamingly descants on how great Irish wine is.
Global oil supply is set to increase “far” faster than demand in the coming years, the International Energy Agency has predicted.
In a new report, the IEA argues that oil markets are undergoing structural changes as the key drivers of supply and demand growth of the past 15 years start to fade.
This growth is set to be dominated by robust gains in natural gas liquids (NGLs) and other non-crude liquids. The strategic shift towards higher non-crude capacity is driven by strong global demand for petrochemical feedstocks and the development of liquid‑rich gas resources.
UK’s FTSE 100: -46 points or -0.5% at 8828 points
German DAX: down 267 points or -1.1% at 23,430 points
French CAC: down 61 points or -0.8% at 7,680 points
After rallying on Monday on hopes that the Israel and Iran conflict would remain contained, stock markets have lurched lower again on Tuesday after US President Trump left early from the G-7 summit in Banff and told Iran to evacuate Tehran, signalling potential escalation of the conflict.
Trump said he left the summit early due to something “much bigger” than discussing a ceasefire. Israel and Iran meanwhile traded strikes for a fifth day. Reports have indicated that Tehran is willing to negotiate, but it takes two to tango and Israel won’t stop until it feels like it’s done enough.
So, here are Trump’s comments in full, via Reuters:
On trade talks with the EU:
“We’re talking, but I don’t feel that they’re offering a fair deal yet,” Trump said.
“They’re either going to make a good deal or they’ll just pay whatever we say they have to pay.“
“We’re going to be doing pharmaceuticals very soon. That’s going to bring all the companies back into America … It’s going to bring most of them back into, at least partially back in.“
Conditions for fans at Sunday’s Club World Cup fixture between Paris Saint-Germain and Atlético Madrid at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, have been described as “dangerous” and “horrific” after attenders struggled to get access to water and experienced tightly packed crowds amid temperatures of at least 31C/88F in the stadium.
Supporters have told of having to dispose of full water bottles before entering the ground, of people in distress inside the venue and of lines that lasted 45 minutes to get access to water that was for sale.
Proposed clergy conduct measure hoped to improve existing rules criticised for failing to tackle misconduct allegations
Church of England proposals for church courts to automatically be held in secret should be reconsidered, a parliamentary committee has said.
The clergy conduct measure is intended to replace the existing clergy disciplinary measure, which has been extensively criticised for failing to tackle allegations of serious or sexual misconduct against clergy.
In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
Insects are in trouble. Around the world, scientists are reporting catastrophic declines in their numbers, even in nature reserves that are largely protected from human touch. We are also beginning to see huge drops in the populations of other animals – such as birds – that depend on insects as food.
Many of the drivers of those declines are structural, and require strong action by governments to turn around. But there are clear, easy steps that anyone can take to support the insect world. For species under such pressure, any respite is important, and we can create refuges for insects in a world increasingly hostile to their survival. In creating better habitats for insects, you can also reap the benefits: thriving gardens, more songbirds, and a healthier web of life.
Being playful has made me feel more like a mother and carer than a wife. Can we change this dynamic?
My wife and I have been together for seven years. I honestly can’t remember the last time we had sex – it’s been at least a few years. For most of our relationship, I’ve taken on the role of caretaker. She struggles with anxiety, was recently diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and often needs a lot of emotional hand-holding. Over time, it’s taken a toll on how I see our relationship. We also fell into a habit of using silly, childish voices with each other. What started out as playful has ended up making me feel more like her mother than her wife. For a long time, I didn’t have much of a libido, and to her credit, she didn’t push the issue. But now that my sex drive has returned, it feels as if it’s all I can think about – except I just can’t seem to feel that way about her any more. Every time I’m briefly tempted to initiate something, it gets snuffed out by the same patterns: the childish behaviour, the emotional neediness, the feeling of being needed more as a caretaker than a partner. Is it possible to break out of this dynamic? Or have we crossed a line that can’t be uncrossed?
When one partner becomes a caregiver to the other, the erotic charge between them is very likely to be reduced. And when the childlike element you described creeps into the relationship, a sexual taboo arises. Your feeling of being mother to a child is most definitely not sexy; it connects your psyche with a deep and forbidden sense of incest that is never going to allow you to desire your partner. If you want to desire her again you will have to encourage the adult side of her to be present and engage with you as a competent individual in your lives together. It’s possible she may have developed some of the behaviours you dislike as a coping mechanism. If you do not want to spend your life mothering her you must refuse to support the childish behaviour, which is a form of control and passive-aggression. The first step would be to have a frank, adult, non-blaming conversation about the state of your union. Validate the parts of her that are mature and self-reliant, and gently let her know that you would be doing her a disservice to support her learned helplessness any longer.
Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a US-based psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders.
If you would like advice from Pamela on sexual matters, send us a brief description of your concerns to private.lives@theguardian.com (please don’t send attachments). Each week, Pamela chooses one problem to answer, which will be published online. She regrets that she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Submissions are subject to our terms and conditions.
Something was shifting in Iran, but now missiles and the return of foreign interference may tear up the green shoots of progress
Missiles follow trajectories. So do countries. And over the past few days, Israel’s attacks have dramatically changed Iran’s trajectory.
Some believe that Iran was already on a downward spiral and that Israel’s actions will simply accelerate the descent. In an op-ed published on Monday, several of Iran’s most prominent civil society figures, including Nobel peace prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, declared that the “only credible path to safeguard [Iran] and its people is the resignation of the current leadership”. In this view, the war could be construed as a deliverance – Israeli officials are openly suggesting that their operations could lead to regime change in Iran. But if Iran’s decline was already precipitous, why are ordinary Iranians terrified by the outbreak of war? Why have they not welcomed Benjamin Netanyahu as the saviour he imagines himself to be?
An ambitious meditation on the ability of narrative to shape our perceptions of one another and our experience of home
Marina Warner begins this dazzlingly protean book with a distinctly mundane memory. It is the 1950s, she is a young teen, and the highlight of her week is going to the Saturday morning “flicks” with a neighbour’s slightly older daughter. One particular movie scene has stayed with her: it involves a man dressed in a vaguely historical costume who is fleeing for his life. Face contorted with terror, he makes it as far as the door of a cathedral, whereupon he knocks loudly and cries “Sanctuary!” The door opens a crack, the man slides inside, and the Saturday morning audience breaths a collective sigh of relief. Even if the plot points remain hazy – is Robin Hood somehow involved? – the underlying principle needs no explaining. The fugitive has invoked the ancient right by gaining entrance to a designated sacred space. As long as he stays put his pursuers can’t touch him.
From these hyper-local beginnings, Warner sets out to explore and expand what “sanctuary” means in an age when millions are on the move around the world, chased out of their homes by environmental disaster, economic collapse, war and political oppression.
In this moving and funny documentary, Swedish TV presenters Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson try to rekindle Filip’s father’s zest for life on a road trip to France
‘Do you want to rot away in an old armchair?” asks Filip Hammar, a Swedish TV presenter, talking to his dad. In this charming, often hilarious documentary, Hammar takes 80-year-old Lars on a road trip to the south of France; the idea is to rekindle Lars’s spark, shake a bit of life back into him. Since retiring as a French teacher, Lars has been sitting around at home, steadily more depressed and frail. Hammar wants to show his dad that life is worth living. But as you’d expect from a documentary this heart-warming, Hammar has a lesson or two to learn himself.
For the trip, Hammar has bought a knackered old Renault 4, the same car the family had when he was a kid. Their destination is the apartment they rented every summer holiday (judging from the old photos, this was pre-factor 50 sunscreen; everyone was a livid shade of lobster). Father and son are joined by Hammar’s best mate Fredrik Wikingsson, another TV presenter. The two are a fixture on Swedish telly; like Ant and Dec they come as a pair, Filip och Fredrik. Their easy, lived-in banter jollies everything along.
Two-thirds of the biggest 65 banks increased financing by $162bn from 2023 to 2024, walking back climate promises
The world’s largest banks boosted the amount of financing given to fossil fuel companies last year, committing $869bn to those involved in coal, oil and gas despite the worsening climate crisis and the banks’ own, fraying, environmental commitments, a new report has found.
The report, compiled by a coalition of eight green groups, shows that while the amount loaned by big banks to fossil fuel firms had been declining in 2021, last year saw an abrupt reversal. Two-thirds of the world’s largest 65 banks increased their fossil fuel financing by $162bn from 2023 to 2024.
Liverpool’s majestic cosmic wigwam has always faced a hard time from critics. Classicists lamented that it replaced an earlier swollen baroque design by Edwin Lutyens, which was cut short by the second world war and rising costs. Modernists found it too prissy, a brittle British version of more muscular concrete creations emerging from sunnier southern climes – a piece of Oscar Niemeyer’s Brasília lost in translation between the hemispheres.
Time has proved them wrong. Frederick Gibberd’s striking upturned funnel is one of the finest postwar buildings in the land, standing as the most prominent Catholic cathedral of any British city, as well as the most original. It is shocking that it wasn’t already Grade-I listed – a fact that reflects a broader antipathy for buildings of the era, which is slowly being corrected by a new generation.
A new trail follows the 26-mile route of the world’s first passenger train journey on the Stockton and Darlington Railway
It was as strange a sight as you could stumble upon in the English countryside. As a muggy summer’s day began outside Shildon, Durham – rain threatening, bees drowsy in the hedgerows – I found myself standing on an embankment, surveying two rows of colossal stone teeth jutting through the earth. It looked as if someone had buried a sleeping giant.
“You wouldn’t believe it by looking at it, but this is one of railway history’s most amazing feats,” my companion, rail expert Richie Starrs, said as we gazed down at the molars beneath our feet. A closer look revealed they were abandoned rail sleepers, laid out between the hawthorns and along which coal wagons were once pulled uphill by steam traction locomotives. “This is the Brusselton Incline, a section of the original Stockton and Darlington Railway. Nationally, it’s a story that’s not well known, but it’s one we’re rightly proud of.”
From peat bogs to ancient trees via abandoned mining towns, these prize-winning images deliver both a stark warning and a message of hope for the future of our planet
Trump could decide to help Israel by joining the fight against Iran, or refrain from involving the US in a new overseas war – either choice will upset his supporters
As Donald Trump considers a direct intervention in Israel’s conflict with Iran, another war has broken out in Washington between conservative hawks, calling for immediate US strikes on uranium enrichment facilities, and Maga isolationists, who are demanding Trump stick to his campaign pledge not to involve the US in new overseas wars.
At stake is whether the US could target the mountain redoubt that is home to the Fordow fuel enrichment plant, a key uranium enrichment site hidden 80 to 90 metres underground that cannot be targeted directly by Israeli jets – although they can attack some of the infrastructure that allows the plant to operate.
A report published on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimated that China now has at least 600 nuclear warheads, with about 100 per year being added to the stockpile since 2023.
As a queer, black woman raised on jazz and soul, discovering the genre of indie folk felt like an antidote to the guilt and self-loathing I was battling through
I am coming out again, this time as a lover of stomp and clap music. This will probably get me in trouble with my mother in a way that coming out as bisexual never did, because she believed that you should always be your authentic self, so long as you have good taste. Stomp clap music has often been the subject of much derision and a bit of a punchline. But despite the ridicule, I’m willing to defend my taste.
The genre, sometimes referred to as stomp and holler or indie folk, peaked in the 2000s, with bands such as the Lumineers, Of Monsters and Men and, of course, Mumford & Sons – think a lot of guitars, banjos, the odd fiddle, literal stomping and clapping, with the occasional rousing “hey!” in the background. It was largely associated with hipsters – the twirly moustached, braces and Henley-shirt-wearing kind – and with band members who all look like Sunday school preachers and youth pastors. I can’t stand the aesthetic, but the music is undeniable.
Extreme events such as floods and droughts are becoming more frequent, longer-lasting and more severe, study says
New data from Nasa has revealed a dramatic rise in the intensity of weather events such as droughts and floods over the past five years.
The study shows that such extreme events are becoming more frequent, longer-lasting and more severe, with last year’s figures reaching twice that of the 2003-2020 average.
Easy come, easy go: make the most of broad bean season with this simple dish that’s full of flavour
In Spain we say, “Habas en abril empiezan y en abril se acaban” – that is, broad beans begin in April and end in April. In the UK, the season starts a bit later, around June, so we’ve got a bit more time yet to enjoy them. Still, the season is short, so I use these wonderful beans as much as I can, while I can. This is the kind of dish I’d make on a quiet afternoon: simple, full of flavour, nothing fancy. Just a nice way to enjoy what the season gives you, before it disappears again for another year.
It’s an eccentric and work-intensive way to sell your house, but people are now raffling off even the most modest properties. Is it a good idea?
When Natalie Rowcroft decided to raffle off her house in Salford, everybody – including her husband, Bradley Rowcroft – thought she “had lost the plot”. It was July 2020; people were doing stranger things with their first pandemic summer. But given that she had read a newspaper article about a couple who’d raffled their house in the morning, and had put her own up for sale by the evening, the scepticism was well-founded. “At first, I wanted nothing to do with it,” says Bradley, a 38-year-old carpenter. It didn’t help that she had also chucked the family car in the draw for good measure.
Still, Natalie, 38, a teaching assistant, persevered. She printed out leaflets and put them up all over Salford and Manchester, set up social media accounts to promote the draw and bought a big poster to hang in the couple’s driveway.
Oklahoma City beat Indiana 120-109 in Game 5 of finals
Williams leads way as OKC hold serve on home floor
Thunder one win from franchise’s first title since 1979
The Oklahoma City Thunder moved within one win of their first NBA championship in 46 years on Monday night, beating the Indiana Pacers 120–109 in Game 5 of the NBA finals to take a 3-2 series lead.
Jalen Williams erupted for a career playoff-high 40 points, MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 31 points and 10 assists, and the Thunder held off a furious Indiana rally to secure a chance at clinching their first title since 1979 in Game 6 on Thursday in Indianapolis.
Russell included in 2021 Lions squad as Sexton omitted
Lions assistant coach says issue ‘blown out of proportion’
Johnny Sexton has insisted he is “here to help” Finn Russell in his capacity as British & Irish Lions assistant coach, after the pair shook hands and cleared the air last month following the former Ireland captain’s previous criticism of the Scotland fly-half.
Sexton toured with the Lions in 2013 and 2017 but was a surprise omission from Warren Gatland’s squad in 2021. In his autobiography, the former Ireland captain revealed how the snub “kills me to this day” and described Russell as a “media darling” before suggesting in a subsequent interview that he was “flashy”.
Much of squad in hospital after game against Sampdoria
Double relegation looms after playoff first-leg defeat
Salernitana’s fight for survival has veered into chaos with a bout of food poisoning hospitalising much of the squad halfway through their showdown with Sampdoria.
The Serie B side, fighting to avoid dropping to Italy’s third tier, have requested a postponement of the second leg of their relegation playoff on Friday because players and coaching staff remain too ill to train.
Gabrielle Drolet had always dreamed of being a writer. But when disability closed down most of her opportunities, a strange career began
When people ask what I do for a living, I’m faced with two choices: either I can lie or I can bore them with the truth, which is too complicated to explain succinctly. While those around me have normal, definable jobs – accountant, journalist, engineer – my work requires headings and subheadings to get it across properly: a map of overlapping gigs and contracts.
“What do you do?” It’s a simple question, and one that often gets asked on first dates. No matter how much I pare down my reply, it’s always long-winded.
Connexion
