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.

Kraamzorg system, where care assistants visit new mothers at home, is threatened by labour shortage and competition

A key pillar of Dutch maternity services that has led to the Netherlands being hailed as a world leader in postnatal care is under threat, healthcare unions in the country have warned.

The Netherlands has long prided itself on its unique system of kraamzorg (maternity care), whereby a maternity care assistant comes to a new family’s home for eight days after a baby’s birth, caring for mother and infant.

Anne-Eva Bergman and Hans Hartung battled with the Nazis and created some of the most riveting abstract art of the last century

They created some of the most riveting abstract art of the 20th century, fought Nazis with the gun and the pen, married, divorced and married again. Now the continent-spanning and nigh-forgotten love story of the Burton-Tayloresque couple at the heart of the European avant garde is finally being given its due at a major art institution.

And We’ll Never Be Parted, exhibiting at Prague’s Kunsthalle gallery, is the first show to reunite the Norwegian painter Anna-Eva Bergman and German-born Hans Hartung.

We’re surrounded by news images of death and violence. Why do Florentina Holzinger’s visceral stage productions still have such impact?

What would you do if the world was to end tomorrow? The premise itself may be both timeless and timely at this moment when authoritarianism is on the rise globally. But that’s not really what causes the nail-biting excitement at the doorstep of Volksbühne theatre in Berlin. On a chilly June evening, a predominantly female and queer crowd of all ages gathers here to see, or rather experience, A Year Without Summer, the newest play by the infamous Austrian choreographer Florentina Holzinger. It’s the anticipation of Holzinger’s trademark body horror that unsettles and attracts us, the crowd. And the question: how much can we take?

“Europe’s hottest director”, as the Guardian described 39-year-old Holzinger last year, is not only known for her work at the Volksbühne but mesmerises and shocks audiences all over the world. Her all female-assigned cast of different ages, origins and abilities dances, bleeds, defecates and swallows swords on stage, naked.

Fatma Aydemir is a Berlin-based author, novelist, playwright and a Guardian Europe columnist

US president has left G7 summit in Canada early due to situation in the Middle East, White House says; French president says ‘an offer was made especially to get a ceasefire and to then kick-start broader discussions’

• Israel issues Tehran evacuation order as Iran threatens to leave nuclear weapons treaty

Donald Trump has encouraged vice president JD Vance and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to offer to meet the Iranians this week, the New York Times has reported, citing a US official.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi had earlier indicated that Tehran was open to negotiations, also suggesting Trump could stop the war with “one phone call” to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. In a post on X he wrote:

If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential. Israel must halt its aggression, and absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue.

It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu. That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.

There is indeed an offer to meet and exchange. An offer was made especially to get a ceasefire and to then kick-start broader discussions … We have to see now whether the sides will follow.

Right now I believe negotiations need to restart and that civilians need to be protected.

All who have thought that by bombing from the outside you can save a country in spite of itself have always been mistaken.

The 39-year-old senator was shot at a campaign rally in Bogota on 7 June and has now undergone three surgeries

Colombian senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe, who has been hospitalised since he was shot in the head during a campaign event, is out of an emergency surgery performed but is in “extremely critical” condition, the Santa Fe Foundation hospital said.

Uribe, 39, a potential presidential candidate from the right-wing opposition, was shot in Bogotá on 7 June during a rally.

Some reporters in the region face jail for alleged defamation in countries where news outlets often lack resources to defend lawsuits

The Pacific is facing a “critical moment” for press freedom, the region’s media watchdog has warned, as a number of senior journalists in a range of Pacific countries are facing costly lawsuits and criminal prosecution for alleged defamation.

“We have seen a few cases coming up … challenging the fundamentals of press freedom in the region,” said Robert Iroga, the chair of the Pacific Freedom Forum.

The French president said Donald Trump was considering the prospects of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran

• Middle East crisis – follow live

Donald Trump dramatically left the G7 Summit in Canada a day early to rush back to Washington, with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, claiming the US leader was considering the prospect of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

“There is indeed an offer to meet and exchange. An offer was made especially to get a ceasefire and to then kickstart broader discussions,” Macron told reporters at the G7.

• Group C: Boca Juniors 2-2 Benfica

• Both sides see red before Nicolás Otamendi heads home equaliser

Well, that was different. On a violently hot Monday night in Miami Gardens, day three of Fifa’s sport-style entertainment event, something unexpected happened. A football match broke out.

And not just the styling, the outlines, the aesthetic sense of a football match. As Boca Juniors tore into a 2-0 first half lead against Benfica, as the stadium interior was transformed into a sustained static field by the Boca fans, as the coaching staff on both benches leapt up in random rotation, like the world’s angriest improv night, this already felt like the real thing, blood, vim, borrowed life.

Stay off Russian gas even after peace, says EU energy chief, as ban is drafted; 6,000 casualties out of 10,000 North Koreans fighting against Ukraine. What we know on day 1,210

US agency had pledged almost $30m over five years to Hope Through Action initiative, which was launched in 2023

The US government funding cuts will hit a chimpanzee conservation project nurtured by the primatologist Jane Goodall.

USAID has been subjected to swingeing cuts under Donald Trump, with global effects that are still unfolding. Now it has emerged that the agency will withdraw from the Hope Through Action project managed by the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI). USAID had pledged $29.5m (£22m) over five years to the project, which was designed to protect endangered chimpanzees and their habitats in western Tanzania.

Global study shows 54% of Americans receive news from social media, while the UK has highest proportion of news avoiders at 46%

Social media has overtaken television as a source of news in the US for the first time, according to a comprehensive analysis of media consumption confirming the rapid rise of “news influencers”.

In a watershed moment for the US media, 54% of Americans said they received news from social media, according to the research carried out after President Trump’s second inauguration. Half said they sourced news from the once all-powerful TV networks.

Salvador Plasencia, who gave Friends star the drug in month leading to overdose, to plead guilty to four counts

A doctor charged with giving Matthew Perry ketamine in the month leading up to the Friends star’s overdose death has agreed to plead guilty, authorities said Monday.

Dr Salvador Plasencia has agreed to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine, federal prosecutors said in a statement. They said the plea carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, and Plasencia is expected to enter the plea in the coming weeks.

UK aerospace sector will face no tariffs from the US while auto industry lowered to 10% from 25%

Keir Starmer and Donald Trump have signed off a UK-US trade deal at the G7 summit in Canada, with the US president saying Britain would have protection against future tariffs “because I like them”.

The two leaders presented the deal, which covers aerospace and the auto sector, at the G7 venue in Kananaskis, Alberta.

• Bournemouth sign France left-back Adrien Truffert

• Leeds fear Newcastle or Milan may hijack Bijol transfer

Manchester United are monitoring Eintracht Frankfurt’s striker, Hugo Ekitike, as a potential recruit.

The French forward is of interest to Ruben Amorim after United’s hopes of signing one of his prime targets, Viktor Gyökeres, receded due to the Swede expressing a preference to move to Arsenal. The 22-year-old Ekitike has scored 19 goals in 47 Bundesliga appearances for Frankfurt, having initially been loaned to the German club in February 2024. The Frenchman subsequently signed a five-year deal for around £14m last April. The France Under-21 international has a total of 50 strikes in 151 career games.

• Group D: Chelsea 2-0 LAFC (Neto 34, Fernández 79)

• Attendance of 22,137 for game at 75,000-capacity venue

The good news for the marketing gurus at Fifa is that the 22,137 fans who turned up to watch Chelsea cruise past Los Angeles FC in their Club World Cup opener at least witnessed the surge of excitement provided by Liam Delap coming off the bench to spark an otherwise forgettable contest into life on his debut.

In reality this will not go down as one of the great sporting occasions. The Mercedes-Benz Stadium can hold crowds of 75,000 but staging this match at 3pm on a Monday afternoon was probably not the wisest scheduling move.

Officials say suspect accused of shooting two lawmakers went to two other legislators’ homes intending to kill them

A man accused of dressing up as a police officer and shooting two Minnesota state lawmakers in their homes – killing one and her husband – also showed up at the houses of two other legislators the same night intending to assassinate them too, authorities revealed on Monday.

Vance Luther Boelter, 57, was captured on Sunday night after a major two-day manhunt and charged by state prosecutors with the second-degree murder of the Democratic representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their residence in Brooklyn Park early on Saturday.

• Live updates from the 8pm BST kick-off in Atlanta

• Club World Cup key for Guardiola Man City revival

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Now Lavia is fit, assuming he stays so, Enzo Maresca will have a decision to make in every game, because he can only pick two of him, Fernandez and Caicedo. I fear the Argentinian may have a problem, his lack of athleticism perhaps set to be the deciding factor.

Email! “This walking-paced, season-leggy tournament feels like Fifa’s version of a methadone clinic offered to ensure that revenues don’t dip during summer’s withdrawal season,” reckons Justin Kavanagh. “It’s on TV here in the USA, but to be honest, no slo-mo circus is going to distract from the pall of totalitarianism that is descending over this country. No amount of laughing gas is going to trump the sting of tear gas. Infantino shouldn’t be whoring out his circus here. Same goes for his World Cup next year.”

Despite the losses of lives and homes, many citizens back Netanyahu’s decision to attack Iran

The Iranian missile blew the door off the White City museum celebrating Bauhaus Tel Aviv, and shattered the windows of the Quick coffee shop down the road, where cinnamon buns and salads sat in the display case ready for a relaxed summer day that would never come.

In the ultra-orthodox neighbourhood of Bnei Bark another missile collapsed a school, killing an 80-year-old man. A third hit partway up a high-rise tower in manicured, suburban Petah Tikva, destroying a reinforced safe room and killing the family inside.

US president said Ukraine war would not have happened if Moscow had not been thrown out in 2014 over Crimea

Donald Trump has displayed his disdain for the collective western values supposedly championed by the G7 group of industrialised countries by again demanding that Russia be readmitted to the group. He also said the war in Ukraine would not have happened if Moscow had been kept in the club.

Trump made his remarks in front of media, alongside Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, who is hosting the G7, at the start of the summit’s first round of talks.

Exhausted medical workers say facilities are overwhelmed and death toll is higher than 224 reported

The stream of wounded in Imam Khomeini hospital in Tehran had been steady since Friday. On Sunday evening it became a flood. A renewed wave of Israeli strikes on Iran’s capital overwhelmed the hospital’s emergency unit, turning it into what one doctor described as a “bloodbath”.

“It was a bloodbath. We were overwhelmed by chaos and the screams of grieving family members. Dozens upon dozens of people with life-threatening injuries, minor wounds and even bodies were brought in,” a doctor at the emergency unit of the hospital told the Guardian on Monday under condition of anonymity.

Israel’s strikes against Tehran risk spiralling conflict, flout legal norms and may permanently bury the last chance for nuclear diplomacy

In late 2020, Gen Mark Milley – then chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff – urged Donald Trump not to attack Iran and to ignore pressure from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was pushing hard for military action. Mr Trump backed down after the general warned that attacking Iran would start a war, with the risk of US officials being “tried as war criminals in The Hague”.

Five years on, Israel’s prime minister has the fight with Tehran that he has spent decades preparing for, bolstered by Mr Trump’s claims that international law no longer applies. After all, why worry about red lines when The Hague’s already got a warrant out for you and your allies pretend not to notice? It helps when the US treats the international criminal court like a rogue actor. Mr Trump has even gone after the court’s judges and prosecutor for daring to scrutinise “our close ally” Israel over Gaza. Legal norms? Apparently, those are for enemies, not friends.

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It is right to confront child sexual exploitation, but this week’s announcement comes against a backdrop of failure

The government’s renewed focus on child sexual exploitation (CSE) gangs is overdue, and the new national inquiry recommended by Louise Casey must deliver justice, not just headlines. All child sexual abuse is horrifying. But the extreme sexual violence and financial incentives involved in gang-based offending demand special scrutiny. So do the institutional failures by police and councils, particularly in northern England, where numerous gangs operated.

Past inquiries have exposed these institutional breakdowns. They have also shown that a reluctance to inflame racial tensions played a role in the way that some complaints were mishandled. That doesn’t excuse the inaction – nor justify turning a public safety issue into a culture war.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

A court cleared Gjert Ingebrigtsen of many of the abuse charges made against him but the father and coach’s hope of reconciliation seems remote

The moment that ripped apart track and field’s most successful and eccentric family came in January 2022, after the 15‑year‑old sister of the Tokyo Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen was grounded by her father after school.

At that point, Jakob and his brothers Filip and Henrik, were all European, world or Olympic champions, having trained like professionals since before they were teenagers. They were also major TV stars in Norway thanks to the docuseries Team Ingebrigtsen, where they appeared alongside their coach and father, Gjert.

Order similar to those issued in Gaza a further sign Israeli campaign is evolving towards war of attrition

Israeli forces issued an evacuation order to residents of a large part of Tehran on Monday, warning them of the imminent bombing of “military infrastructure” in the area in a social media post very similar to those regularly directed at Palestinians in Gaza over the past 20 months.

The post on X was from the account of the Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic spokesperson, Col Avichay Adraee, and is a further sign of the evolving nature of the Israeli campaign against Iran, which began with attacks on air defences, nuclear sites and the military chain of command, but appears to have drifted towards a war of attrition focused on Iran’s oil and gas industry and on the capital.

The first of its kind in the US, a new traffic toll in Manhattan has produced impressive early results while facing looming challenges

Every week, Stan Avedon drives across lower Manhattan, moving bikes between the two NYC Velo shops he’s managed for the last 15 years. What used to be a grinding crawl through some of the world’s worst traffic is noticeably less painful lately. “It’s like night and day,” he said.

Avedon’s transformed commute is the result of the most ambitious policy to hit New York in recent memory. Starting 5 January, drivers entering lower Manhattan began paying a $9 congestion toll aimed at deterring drivers and raising desperately needed funds for the city’s deteriorating public transit system.

UK prime minister and French president among those pressing for de-escalation of conflict with Israel

• US politics live – latest updates

European leaders at the G7 summit in Canada are trying to engineer an Iranian return to the negotiating table using Gulf leaders as intermediaries.

But Iran is demanding a joint ceasefire with Israel, while Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is resisting the move, and Donald Trump praised the Israeli campaign, suggesting he did not yet believe it was time to relieve the pressure on Iran.

Bassam Hassan, a top general under Assad, reportedly gave news regarding American who went missing in 2012

A high-ranking Syrian general under former president Bashar al-Assad who is now in Lebanon has reportedly told US investigators that the American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in 2012, is dead.

Bassam Hassan was a top security adviser once accused of facilitating chemical attacks on civilians. In a recent meeting with the FBI and CIA, he claimed that Assad – who was ousted in December and has since fled to Moscow – ordered Tice’s execution, according to the New York Times and the BBC, which first reported the allegation. Each media organization cited sources familiar with the matter. Hassan’s claims remain unverified.

With thick rough around bunkers and pin positions on slopes, Adam Scott called Oakmont ‘borderline unplayable’

There should be no sense of demeaning JJ Spaun’s US Open glory if observers question the circumstances. Spaun, not so long ago a journeyman professional, played out his dream by holing out from 65ft on the final green at Oakmont.

Spaun is a prime example of how the penny can drop for golfers at different stages. Now 34, he is in the form of his life and bound for the Ryder Cup. When he talked later of being awake at three o’clock on Sunday morning because his young daughter was vomiting, his relatability only grew. Everybody loves an underdog.

As a gay woman I’d never really fantasised about my wedding, but I made a sartorial odyssey from Savile Row to Shanghai. Just don’t call it menswear

It’s a month until my wedding, and my suit has arrived in the post, unceremoniously crammed into a plastic postage bag. I wasn’t expecting it to come from China, but China is of course where things come from. Unbagging the crinkled jacket and trousers for my supposed Big Day felt a little deflating.

Although I’m not sure what I did have in mind. I’ve never fantasised about getting married. As a gay woman, this wasn’t even an option for me until 2013. In fact, the closest I ever came to daydreaming about this occasion was when I was around four and I’d inferred from Disney movies that “getting married” was the act of a prince ballroom dancing with a princess. The dancing was neither here nor there, but I knew I wanted to be the prince.

Eleanor Margolis is a columnist for the i newspaper and Diva

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Death toll is highest yet reported in near-daily shootings since US-backed group began distributing food in territory

At least 37 Palestinians were killed on Monday in new shootings in Gaza near food distribution centres run by private US contractors guarded by Israeli troops, local authorities said.

Witnesses blamed the shootings on Israeli troops who opened fire early in the morning as crowds of hungry Palestinians converged on two hubs managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private organisation that recently began operating in Gaza with Israeli and US support.

Requirement made as review finds ‘over-representation’ of Asian men among grooming gang suspects

Yvette Cooper has condemned damning failures by the authorities to protect children from grooming gangs as she announced there would be a formal requirement on police for the first time to collect ethnicity and nationality data for all cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

The home secretary confirmed the government would accept all 12 recommendations of Louise Casey’s rapid review, including setting up a statutory inquiry into institutional failures, marking a significant reversal after months of pressure on Labour to act.

Palazzo Maffei in Verona contacts police after visitors cause Van Gogh’s Chair to buckle while posing for photos

An Italian museum has contacted the police after two clumsy tourists almost wrecked a work of art while posing for photos.

Video footage released by Palazzo Maffei in Verona showed the hapless pair photographing each other pretending to sit on a crystal-covered chair made by the artist Nicola Bolla – described by the museum as an “extremely fragile” work.

Statement comes amid questions over whether Ice – reportedly $1bn over budget – is set to run out of money

Donald Trump has promised an expanded immigration crackdown in several large Democratic-led cities as apparent vengeance for “No Kings” protests against his administration on Saturday that drew millions of people – despite questions over whether the agency in charge of the effort is set to run out of money.

In new reporting on Monday, Axios claimed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) was $1bn over budget and set to run out of money in the next one to three months.

From the gothic noir of Dept. Q to the continued cool of Andor and a miraculous show about a fungus that can heal all illnesses, here are Guardian readers’ favourite shows of the year to date

(Disney+) Andor is a cool, intelligent look at how fascism grows and the cost of resistance. It may be set in a galaxy far far away, but it is in an entirely different universe to any other Star Wars production. No lightsabers; no magic space wizards; barely a stormtrooper in sight – until the grim and horrifying mid-season climax. Who knew committee meetings and wedding parties could be so gripping? It’s as though George Lucas placed the keys to his kingdom in the hands of John le Carré instead of Disney. Remember that fizz of excitement you got as an eight-year-old heading in to see A New Hope? Andor makes this 55-year-old feel the same way. Russell Jones, Cheshire

Wildfires are on the agenda in Kananaskis, but with the world ablaze, all eyes are on the human flame-thrower AKA the US president

A bright spark in the Canadian team preparing the G7 Kananaskis summit, in the ridiculously beautiful Canadian Rockies, decided to insert the issue of wildfires onto a crowded agenda. It seemed an eminently sensible and Canadian thing for the eminently sensible Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, to do.

After all there are currently an estimated 225 blazes in Canada, including 120 classified as out of control, and they are raging to the west in British Columbia across to northern parts of Alberta. Indeed it is likely to be Canada’s second worst year on record for wildfires. Moreover, Carney had an ingenious solution ready to hand – a Kananaskis wildfire charter including “greater equipment interoperability” between the G7 members.

In Pushers, the comedian and actor plays a disabled woman from Yorkshire who turns to crime after her benefits are cut. She talks about beating trolls, ‘inhumane’ Labour – and her love of gravy

‘No,” says Rosie Jones with a laugh. “I have never done any drug-related illegal activity, believe it or not. But I respect your attempt to try to get me to reveal I am an underground drug dealer. Sorry – not the world I live in!”

We’re having this conversation because Pushers, the comedian and actor’s new series about a disabled woman who turns to drug dealing when her benefits are stopped, kicks off this week on Channel 4. Jones wrote the script and stars as the main character, Emily. How much of it is influenced by her own life? There are, undoubtedly, similarities. “From the very beginning,” Jones says, referring to when she originally came up with the idea, back in 2018, “we knew my character would be northern, working class and disabled.” That was important for two reasons: firstly, Jones’s favourite sitcoms growing up all featured “gritty” northern characters; and secondly, those sitcoms lacked any representation of disability.

• Effigy of Real Madrid forward was hung from a bridge

• All four signed a letter of apology to the Brazilian

Four people have been handed suspended jail sentences by a Madrid court after being found guilty of a hate crime related to an effigy of the Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior.

They were involved in hanging a banner reading “Madrid hates Real” and an inflatable black effigy in a replica of the Brazilian’s No 20 shirt on a bridge before a Copa del Rey match between Real Madrid and Atlético in January 2023.

From politics to business, the determination to exclude women is purely emotional – a fact that remains as unspoken as it is obvious

MI6 has never had a female head in its 116-year history – until now. How fitting that the first woman should be called Blaise Metreweli. That forename has it all: derring-do (courtesy of Modesty Blaise), onomatopoeia, modernity.

Metreweli will take over in the autumn as C, the real-life version of M from James Bond. She currently runs Q branch, MI6’s technology division, which apparently is named after the Bond quartermaster. No fictional Q has ever been female, but in real life at least two women, including Metreweli, are thought to have held the role. M can be male or female, except now they succeed or fail by how much they resemble Judi Dench, so all of them, including the incumbent, Ralph Fiennes, are de facto female.