State says it would challenge president’s resolution, setting up a battle over California’s environmental measures
Donald Trump has blocked California’s first-in-the-nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, signing a resolution on Thursday to stymie the state’s ambitious attempt to tackle the climate crisis by pivoting to greener vehicles.
The state quickly announced it was challenging the move in court, with California’s attorney general holding a news conference to discuss the lawsuit before Trump’s signing ceremony ended at the White House.
The resolution was approved by Congress last month and aims to quash the country’s most aggressive attempt to phase out gas-powered cars. Trump also signed measures to overturn state policies curbing tailpipe emissions in certain vehicles and smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks.
California has some of the worst smog and air quality issues in the nation, and has for decades been able to seek waivers from the Environmental Protection Agency that have allowed the state to adopt stricter emissions standards than the federal government.
Pressure grows for snap election as judge finds ‘firm evidence’ of Santos Cerdán’s possible role in kickbacks
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has apologised to voters but ruled out a snap election after a senior member of his Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) resigned hours after a supreme court judge found “firm evidence” of his possible involvement in taking kickbacks on public construction contracts.
Diplomacy can do more to slow Tehran’s alarming progress than threats from Israel
A year into his first term, Donald Trump pulled the US out of the hard-won international deal that had slowed Iran’s advance towards nuclear weapons, and imposed punishing sanctions. Europe tried to keep the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA) on life support. But the strangling of Iran’s economy, and the US assassination of Qassem Suleimani, the powerful head of its Quds force, undermined the country’s moderates and the progress on non-proliferation.
The fallout of Mr Trump’s Iran policy is still becoming evident. On Thursday, the UN nuclear watchdog found, for the first time in two decades, that Tehran was not in compliance with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Iran vowed to “significantly” increase production of enriched uranium in retaliation, following a pattern of escalation in response to International Atomic Energy Agency criticism. US and European officials say that Israel appears ready to strike its adversary’s nuclear facilities. Fear of the consequences reportedly drove the US decision to withdraw non-essential diplomatic personnel from Iraq, Bahrain and Kuwait.
After nine years of delay, it was high time that Britain and Europe sorted out the future of the Rock
Nine years ago, Gibraltar voted by 96% to 4% to remain in the European Union. However, the UK’s simultaneous 52% to 48% leave vote meant Gibraltarians were denied their own will. As the only British overseas territory sharing a land frontier with the EU’s border-free Schengen travel area, and as the focus of a territorial dispute with Spain dating from 1713, this change threatened Gibraltar’s position with a new impasse. The economy of the Rock, heavily dependent on the 15,000 mainly low-wage Spanish residents who routinely cross the border to work there each day, faced an existential danger.
Since 2016, officials from Gibraltar, Britain, Spain and the EU have intermittently attempted to resolve the problems. For years, the process was glacial, and occasionally petulant. In Boris Johnson’s rush to leave the EU, the issue was simply ignored. As recently as 2023, a hard border between Gibraltar and Spain was said to be unavoidable. This week, however, a much better deal was finally sorted. Though the detailed text has yet to be published, it appears to offer the kind of frictionless border crossing on which Gibraltar and the surrounding area depend, as well as being emblematic of the pragmatic reset with Europe being pursued by Sir Keir Starmer’s government.
Pam Bondi says state employing policies similar to those used by California amid immigration crackdown
The US justice department said on Thursday that it had filed a lawsuit against New York state, challenging state policies that blocked immigration officials from arresting individuals at or near New York courthouses.
“Specifically, the complaint challenges a law, called the Protect Our Courts Act, that purposefully shields dangerous aliens from being lawfully detained at or on their way to or from a courthouse and imposes criminal liability for violations of the shield,” the justice department said in a statement.
Saudi-backed streaming superpower’s TV deal for Fifa’s global project is next expansionist step towards a world super league
“And what exactly are you doing here, sir?” To be fair, the border guard at Miami international airport made an excellent point. As ice-breakers go, frowning over the passports and visa tickers of the long-haul crowd on matchday minus four of the Fifa Club World Cup, the border guard was at least in tune with the zeitgeist. What is football doing here?
What are Lionel Messi, Trent Alexander-Arnold and the massed engines of the football-industrial complex doing hovering like an alien landing party over this fun, sinking sandbank of a city, a strip of land where the ocean seems to be punching a mulchy green hole in the asphalt every few miles, a place that from the air seems to be made entirely from deep-fried crumb, tropical weed and traffic?
Torns IF used ‘gentle persistence’ to force officials to act
Ifab clarifies offside loophole over ‘delayed’ pass
A Swedish third-tier side have changed the laws of football after their “gentle persistence” in exploring an offside loophole forced officials to act.
Football’s law-making body, the International Football Association Board. (Ifab), has amended the text of the offside law to clarify at which point an offside assessment should be made. The change comes after interventions from Torns IF, a club from the small town of Stångby near Malmö, who wondered whether a player could get around the offside law by keeping the ball balanced in the crook of their foot.
A British man is the sole survivor of the London-bound Air India flight carrying 242 people that crashed shortly after takeoff in the north-west Indian city of Ahmedabad.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who was in seat 11A of the flight, said the aircraft crashed almost immediately after takeoff. It is believed his brother was on the same flight.
Zohran Mamdani says Andrew Cuomo’s Super Pac altered his image in a mailer to voters, giving him a darker beard
Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist state assemblyman waging a progressive bid to become mayor of New York City, has accused donors to the frontrunner Andrew Cuomo of “blatant Islamophobia” after a mailer from their Super Pac altered Mamdani’s image giving him a darker, bushier beard.
Mamdani, 33, posted a closeup of his face as featured in the mailer from the Cuomo-backing group Fix the City alongside the original photograph from which it was drawn. In the transition, the image’s visual contrast appears to be manipulated, slightly lightening Mamdani’s skin but also giving him the appearance of a longer and significantly fuller beard.
Patrick Wattigny revealed he blew archdiocese opportunity to stay in frock at parole hearing over molestation sentence
A Roman Catholic priest who admitted to child molestation haspublicly recounted for the first time how New Orleans’ archbishop tried to give him a chance to continue his career even after catching the cleric sending inappropriate texts to a minor.
Patrick Wattigny, 57, made the revelation while appearing before Louisiana’s parole board on Thursday, unsuccessfully requesting an early release from prison.
Raducanu wins 6-4, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals
Boulter falls to fifth seed Diana Shnaider 2-6, 6-3, 6-2
Emma Raducanu will regain her status as the best female tennis player in Britain for the first time in two years as she continued her solid start to the grass-court season by defeating Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals at Queen’s.
Raducanu, who currently sits at world No 35 in the live rankings, will return to British No 1 next week after Katie Boulter fell to the fifth seed Diana Shnaider 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday. Raducanu has not been the highest-ranked player in the country since June 2023 when she was recovering from surgeries to her wrists and ankle. She missed a total of eight months in 2023 and consequently fell out of the top 300.
Proteas battle back after Pat Cummins’ early blitz
This final has been called “The Ultimate Test” and though almost certainly the product of a W1A-style ideas splurge back in Dubai, the tagline scarcely felt more appropriate watching wickets tumble for a second day in succession.
It had appeared for all money that Pat Cummins had sealed the fate of the World Test Championship mace after lunch. Thundering in from the Nursery End, a four-wicket burst meant he finished with figures of six for 28 and South Africa were all out for 138 in 57.1 overs – 74 behind – all it needed was a further top-up of runs.
First victory in World Tour race for 25-year-old Briton
Remco Evenepoel goes down but loses no time
The British rider Jake Stewart won a sprint finish to triumph in the fifth stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné on Thursday as Remco Evenepoel held on to the race lead.
Stewart claimed his first career victory in a World Tour race, edging the bunched finale ahead of Axel Laurance and Søren Waerenskjold after the hilly 183km run from Saint-Priest to Macon.
Investors turn away from weakening US economy and erratic policy after Trump repeats tariff threats
The dollar sank to its lowest level in more than three years on Thursday and the FTSE 100 closed at a record high as Donald Trump’s latest trade threats and the weakening economy appeared to bring forward interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
Foreign exchange traders sold the dollar in favour of the yen and the euro, which both climbed by about 1% against the US currency to leave it almost 10% down on its value against a basket of currencies since the beginning of the year.
CCTV footage captured the moment an Air India passenger plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Ahmedabad, India, on Thursday. More than 240 people were believed to be onboard the London Gatwick-bound aircraft. Ahmedabad police said there was at least one survivor
Trent Alexander-Arnold impressed with his Spanish at unveiling and maintains Real are the only club he would have left Liverpool for
Well, that was unexpected. Trent Alexander-Arnold took out the earpiece, made his way to the stage at Real Madrid’s training ground and said: “Buenas tardes, a todos.” Good afternoon, everyone. So far, so standard. But then he delivered the next line in Spanish too, then the one after that, and the one after that.
He kept going until he got to the end of his speech, when he delivered the one line everyone invariably does on the day they are presented here: “Hala Madrid!” It wasn’t long – one minute and one second, in all – but it was long enough to win them over already.
Details emerge of how 21-year-old planned school attack in which teacher and nine pupils were killed
A gunman who killed 10 people at his former school in the Austrian city of Graz was an “obsessive online first-person shooter”, according to police, who gave detailed information for the first time about how he had planned the attack.
The 21-year-old Austrian, who shot dead 10 people and then himself on Tuesday morning after going on a rampage at the school close to the city centre, had spent much of his free time playing what were described by police as “ego shooting” online video games, in which participants typically use virtual firearms to kill enemies.
I asked doctors and fashion experts, and they all said I should wear sneakers. Now I’m having a style crisis
I’ve had a torn meniscus in my right knee for eight years. My knee was OK for 47 years, and then I went on the easiest hike in recorded history and stepped up on a not-very-high ledge. That was it.
It’s not ideal. I can walk, but I can’t run or sit cross legged. But whenever I’m about to bite the bullet on surgery, it seems like the wrong time to be sitting around for six weeks or longer. Or someone says: “That surgery didn’t work for me.”
Judge declared a mistrial in the sex crimes case after the jury foreperson said he wouldn’t continue deliberating
The judge in Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes case declared a mistrial on the remaining rape charge after the jury foreperson said he would not continue deliberating.
The decision to end deliberations on Thursday came a day after the jury delivered a partial verdict, convicting the ex-studio boss of one of the top charges and acquitting him of another. Both charges concern accusations of forcing oral sex on women in 2006. Those verdicts still stand.
The flag serves as a reminder of a fundamental truth about Mexican Americans: we are from here; we are also from there
Republicans are using images of Ice protesters waving Mexican flags atop burning Waymo cars to foment fear among Americans. Like this photograph that Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday: a shirtless protester wielding the Tricolor atop a vandalized robotaxi as flames billow toward the weak sunlight backlighting the flag. His dark curls fall to his bare shoulders. He stares into the camera.
Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, has called Donald Trump a “stone cold liar”, condemned the federal deployment of troops in Los Angeles as “theater” and “madness” and even questioned the president’s mental fitness, as protests over immigration raids in the city continue.
Trump federalized 2,000 of California’s national guard on Saturday, with a US president acting over the objections of a state governor in this way for the first time in more than half a century. It followed the outbreak of protests over a series of sweeping immigration raids in the LA area, with Newsom criticizing Trump’s actions as illegal overreach, unconstitutional and “provocation”.
A defiant Tehran could intensify its uranium enrichment in response, amid reports Israel may be planning attack
The UN nuclear watchdog has found that Tehran is not complying with its obligations, amid reports Israel could be planning an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites as early as next week.
It is thought that a defiant Iran may now intensify its uranium enrichment programme in reprisal for the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voting to find Tehran in repeated breach of its obligations to limit enrichment and to allow inspectors to visit its nuclear sites.
Burnley’s owner is in advanced negotiations about buying a stake in the Spanish club Espanyol in what would become the Premier League’s latest multi-club operation.
Espanyol would be the second club owned by ALK Capital, the investment company operated by Burnley’s owner, Alan Pace, whose website says its ambition is to establish a multi-club sports platform. The American businessman previously owned Real Salt Lake in Major League Soccer before selling up to buy Burnley, paying £170m for 84% of the club in December 2020.
Women advised to cover up on public beaches, prompting concerns about freedoms under new government
Syria’s government has asked women to wear “burkinis” or more modest swimwear while visiting public beaches this summer, although it later clarified there will be no legal consequences for those who wear bikinis.
A government directive on Tuesday asked women to wear a “burkini or swimwear that covers more of the body”, and loose-fitting clothing when out of the water. The decree also asked men not to be shirtless when not swimming.
As the original 1977 theatrical version screens in London this week, fans recall being ‘blown away’ by their first impressions of the mesmerising space opera
A relatively long time ago in cinemas near and far away, the first Star Wars film captivated a generation of children and adults. As the British Film Institute in London this week screens the original 1977 theatrical version of the space opera, which has rarely been shown since the 1990s, readers have shared their recollections of its groundbreaking special effects, iconic heroes and villains, and queueing around the block for tickets.
Most of those who responded to a Guardian callout recalled being mesmerised by the film’s opening crawl, then “blown away” by the first scene in which Princess Leia’s starship is captured by an immense Imperial Star Destroyer. “It loomed right over our heads in the theatre, immediately putting us in the action, alerting us to the huge stakes in this world,” said Marilyn Stacey, a 68-year-old paralegal and actor from Portland, Oregon, who saw the film with her boyfriend in Westwood, Los Angeles, soon after it opened in the US in May 1977.
Kevin De Bruyne has completed his move to Napoli on a free transfer after leaving Manchester City. The midfielder, who turns 34 this month, joins the Serie A champions three days after scoring a late winner for Belgium against Wales.
De Bruyne was greeted by excited fans chanting “Kevin” when he arrived for his medical and Napoli’s social media posts announcing the deal included one showing him on a throne wearing a crowd, with a Napoli shield by his right hand and a sword to his left. “King Kev is here,” the club wrote.
Sensing a golden opportunity to impart some Aussie folklore, I confidently told my kids about a Bunyip. I was unable to answer their follow-up questions
Recently, I bundled the family into our beaten up station wagon and set out on a 3,000km journey from Sydney to the outback to instil some core memories into the kids. We had an ambitious agenda. The distances we had to cover to achieve my red dirt dreams were, to a sane minded person with two small kids in the back, loopy.
And I will admit that, for the majority of this road trip, we were gripped with a palpable, vibrating rage towards each other, about the distance yet to travel, and the discomfort of every moment we were in the car.
Students say rise in prices was trigger but underlying anger was communist government’s increasing reliance on USD
Having endured electricity blackouts, water shortages, transport failures and the spiralling cost of food, Cuba’s students appear to have finally lost patience with their government over a ferocious price hike for the country’s faltering internet.
Local chapters of Cuba’s Federation of University Students (FEU) have been calling for a slew of measures, including attendance strikes, explanations from ministers and even the resignation of their own organisation’s president.
US-Israel logistics group claims workers were attacked by Hamas, while Israeli forces kill 22 people across the territory
The bloody chaos that has overtaken food distribution in Gaza has worsened with more mass casualties among Palestinians trying to reach humanitarian assistance, while the US-Israeli organisation tasked with aid deliveries claimed that five of its local workers had been killed by Hamas.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) claimed on Thursday that a bus full of its Palestinian staff was attacked by Hamas at 10pm local time on Wednesday, with at least five deaths and other workers taken hostage.
If the football doesn’t work out for him at Real Madrid, Trent Alexander-Arnold can try his luck as a regular panellist on the Spanish version of Just A Minute, a popular BBC Radio 4 comedy show, in which assorted comedians and luvvies are challenged to speak for one minute on a given subject without “hesitation, repetition or deviation”. Football Daily is prepared to concede that – written down like that – it actually sounds really boring, but readers who are unfamiliar with the show will just have to take our word for it when we say the show is actually very funny. Or at least it was when we last listened to it about 25 years ago. Of course there is no Spanish version of Just A Minute, almost certainly because most Spaniards of our acquaintance can speak for up to three hours uninterrupted on any given subject without hesitation, repetition or deviation. But we were certainly impressed when Alexander-Arnold stood behind a lectern in the bowels of the Bernabéu at his unveiling as a Real Madrid player, giving a welcome address of more than 60 seconds in what appeared to be perfectly fluent Spanish without once stuttering, pointing at a beer tap or bellowing “EGG AND CHIPS!!!” at the top of his voice.
If I send you £740,000, will you please send me $1bn, as per the exchange rate on yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs (full email edition) element about Gianni’s Club World Cup?” – Chris Hale (and 1,056 others).
The solution to England’s problems is staring the FA in the face: sack Thomas Tuchel immediately, appoint Ange Postecoglou now and, as usual, you’re guaranteed a trophy – mate, it’s the 2026 World Cup – in his second season” – Adrian Irving.
Re: Mike Slattery’s call on naming suggestions for Gianni’s latest behemothic construction (yesterday’s Football Daily letters), it seems to me that, at least for this edition, Top Trumps would be appropriate” – David Ford.
May I suggest Big Bucket? Or – with a bit more hype – the MegaMug?” – Derrick Cameron.
Re: the question ‘is it OK to play in vintage football boots’ (yesterday’s last line, full email edition), I still have my Puma boots bought in 1970 – and keep them in their original Puma box. These weren’t bought because Pelé was wearing such boots at the 1970 World Cup, but because Leeds United’s Allan ‘The Sniffer’ Clarke (surely the greatest player ever to bestride the Football League, and not to be confused with the lead singer in The Hollies) favoured a pair. I’m now 73, so unfortunately cannot test the OK-ness of playing in them” – Paul Sanderson.
Kenya’s Olympic champion, backed by Nike’s sports scientists, is striving for the perfect formula to set a new world record
Eight seconds. It’s barely enough time for most people to tie their shoelaces. But when you are Faith Kipyegon, and you are trying to become the first woman to shatter the four-minute mile barrier, those eight seconds constitute a chasm.
But now we know how the 31-year-old Kenyan, who set the mile world record of 4min 7.64sec in 2023, intends to close the gap and emulate Sir Roger Bannister’s historic feat.
Military dogs involved in attacks on Palestinian civilians – including children – are likely to have been exported from European countries, investigation finds
Warning: readers may find some of the details in this piece distressing
It was only seconds after soldiers entered the Hashash family’s home in the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank that the dog attack began. As military raids rolled out across her neighbourhood one morning in February 2023, Amani Hashash says she took her four children into a bedroom. When she heard Israeli military coming into their home she called out that they were inside and posed no threat.
Moments later the bedroom door was opened and a large, unmuzzled dog launched itself into the room, plunging its teeth into her three-year-old son, Ibrahim, who was asleep in her lap.
Sviatoslav Richter (Deutsche Grammophon) Sviatoslav Richter’s already huge catalogue is enriched by these rediscovered recordings of recitals of Beethoven’s piano sonatas from 1965
Though he claimed to dislike performing in a studio, Sviatoslav Richter became perhaps the most intensively recorded pianist of the 20th century. But while his studio work was extensive, it was the huge volume of recordings made officially and unofficially at his recitals across more than 40 years that really bulked out his discography, with multiple versions available of many of the core works in his repertory. For those reasons the rediscovery of “Lost Tapes” might not initially seem so remarkable. The performances, of four Beethoven piano sonatas, Opp 31 no 3, 90, 101 and 110, are taken from recitals that Richter gave in 1965. Op 110 comes from a performance at the piano festival he had founded the previous year at La Grange de Meslay near Tours, the others are taken from a concert in Lucerne three months later.
There are recordings of Richter’s performances of all four sonatas already in the catalogue, but the immediacy of these versions is startling. He was never content to keep on replicating the interpretation of a particular work; temperamentally, I suspect, he could not contemplate such lazy routine. Instead, each work was approached afresh each time he played it, always finding something new, whether it’s the joy that courses through the third of the Op 31 set, the myriad colours and subtleties he brings to Op 101, or the serene, almost liturgical seriousness with which he presents the fugues in the finale of Op 110.
The actor and musician takes your questions on devastating box office results, his love of Oliver Hardy, and his new vaudeville crooner alter ego
Your roles fluctuate wildly between the serious and silly. Does one necessitate the other? vammyp I’ve always thought it’s all the same. You just try to be as honest as you can, and if you’re being honest in absurd circumstances then you’re in a comedy. It’s not like I try to be funny or serious – just honest. If you’re watching someone play a bad guy and there’s nothing about the performance that makes you feel for the person or understand them in a deeper way, that’s a fail to me. Because the truth of life is that at a funeral someone always cracks a joke. There’s something so rich about being able to laugh at a funeral. That is what life is to me: all those grey areas, these contradictory things.
I’m impressed and baffled by this left turn with Mister Romantic [Reilly’s vaudevillian crooner alter ego]. How did you come up with the character? Why did you pick out the songs that you did? steve__bayley
Forest may go to Cas if Palace cleared for Europa League
New York Jets owner is former US ambassador to the UK
The New York Jets owner, Woody Johnson, has offered £190m to buy John Textor’s stake in Crystal Palace. The move comes with Uefa expected to delay until the end of the month a decision on whether the club will be allowed to compete in next season’s Europa League.
The offer from Johnson, the former US ambassador to the UK, has the backing of Palace’s co-chair Steve Parish and is believed to be under consideration by Textor despite falling significantly short of his valuation of about £240m for his 44.9% stake.
All England Club says welfare concerns need different solution
World’s top players had asked for greater prize money at slams
The All England Club has insisted that it has listened to the complaints of leading tennis players regarding prize money but it believes the solution to player issues lies in greater changes to the structure of the sport.
The prize money fund for the 2025 championships, which begin on 30 June, will rise to £53.5m, a 7% increase on last year and double the amount awarded in 2015. The men’s and women’s champions will receive £3m at this year’s edition, while players who lose in the first round will earn £66,000.
Following his death aged 82, Brian Wilson’s Beach Boys bandmates have been among those paying tribute to one of the great figures in American popular music.
Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, Al Jardine described Wilson as “a real gentleman, a real musical intellect, who taught the world how to smile.”
Connexion
