On TNT, they’re talking about Sabalenka, who sounds full of it as she discusses her ambition to win on clay. Her Aussie Open defeat to Madison Keys will have stung her badly, though – earlier in her career she was the one who choked – and as soon as she’s put under serious pressure, we’ll see whether the wound has healed.
It’s pretty windy on court, and so far, that’s suiting Kvitova who, back from giving birth to her son, Petr. She leads Golubic 3-1 … ah, Golubic has just broken back. But still, what a joy to see her competing, all the more so as I’ve just discovered we share a birthday.
“Every team from Newcastle in fourth down to Crystal Palace in 12th have had games they will remember fondly and would be more than worthy English representatives in European competition next season.”
Jonathan Wilson on the Premier League’s burgeoning middle class:
Five years after George Floyd’s murder, America’s view on policing has fundamentally changed. But one summer of protest isn’t enough
Memory is a strange thing – the way sounds, images, and sensations converge to cement a moment in our minds. For millions of people, the memory of what happened to George Floyd five years ago in Minneapolis will stay with us for ever.
On Sunday, we remember the life of George Floyd and reflect on the summer of 2020, when movement builders activated as many as 26 million people into the streets to demand an end to the state’s violent disregard for Black lives. Many people will opine today about the perceived failures of that time and the years that followed, focusing on how corporate pledges to increase diversity have since been revoked or zeroing in on how many police departments did not cut their budgets, all in an effort to decide whether the summer of 2020 was really as powerful as it felt.
M Adams, Co-Executive Director, Movement for Black Lives & Miski Noor, Publisher of the Forge and former Co-Director of Black Visions
Edwards scores 30 as Wolves crush Thunder in Game 3
Wolves cut series deficit to 2-1 with 143-101 home win
MVP Gilgeous-Alexander held to 14 in blowout loss
Anthony Edwards was determined to keep Minnesota’s spirits up, from the flight home after a frustrating trip to Oklahoma City into a crucial game in these Western Conference finals.
Trip by five Labour MPs designed to build UK-Taiwan ties as Beijing steps up military capability
A group of five Labour MPs is travelling to Taiwan for meetings with government officials for the first time since Labour came to power.
The Labour Friends of Taiwan delegation is due to land in Taipei on Sunday morning and is expected to meet senior government officials, parliamentarians, unions, businesses and civil society groups.
New book shines a light on the women who stole headlines on an F1 support bill 50 years ago, with Beckers going on to star at Le Mans and hold the Guinness World Record
Monaco’s place in Formula One history has long since been established but two little-known races from the principality 51 years ago remain etched in the memory of those who took part, when women blazing a trail in the male-dominated motor racing world took to the track in Monte Carlo.
Christine Beckers competed in the first Grand Prix Monte-Carlo Féminin on 26 May 1974 and now, at 81 is as irrepressibly enthused about racing as she was when she fell in love with the sport as a teenager.
Twenty years on from being at that win over Milan, I still cherish the company I kept as much as the comeback I witnessed
We can tell ourselves something different but, the truth is, getting old is rubbish. There are various reasons for this but the main one is loss. The loss of vigour, the loss of mobility … the loss of hair. Most of all, though, it’s the loss of people.
There are loved ones – friends as well as family – who pass, and then there are those who you share a special moment with and never see again. And so it is that this piece is for David, his dad and his mate. The trio I knew for only a day but which happens to be one of the greatest days of my life.
How to avoid costly double whammy as rise in app- and phone-based parking payment opens new frontier in fraud
You park the car and look for somewhere to pay. A large QR code on the machine offers to take you directly to the right website where you put in your card details before going on with your day. Only much later are you hit with the double whammy: money gone from your account, and a fine for not paying the genuine parking company.
The rise in app- and phone-based parking payment has opened a new frontier for fraudsters: quishing – so called because they are phishing attacks that start with a QR code. The fraudsters stick the codes in places where you would expect to see details of how to pay to park. When you scan one, it takes you to a site where you are asked for your payment details – as you would expect when booking parking.
Gunners’ victory was built on a multi-layered courage that respected but was not overawed by Barcelona or by fatalism
There is always a little more time than you think. A red number 7 blinks across the pitch from the fourth official’s board. Seven minutes of injury time: it’s a lot. Against Barcelona, it’s an age. Against this Barcelona, in this heat, in this game, it may as well be all of eternity.
But you push through. You pace yourself. Beth Mead goes down under a challenge; there’s 30 seconds right there. Kim Little rolls the ball up the left touchline to no one: eight seconds. Daphne van Domselaar hesitates over a free-kick, squeezing out those seconds like drops from a towel. You push through because whatever happens in these seven minutes, however those minutes make you suffer, seven minutes is still less than 18 years.
Tommy Watson’s 95th-minute goal secured 2-1 victory
Sheffield United’s Chris Wilder concedes a bitter blow
Régis Le Bris said the 19-year-old Tommy Watson’s dramatic stoppage-time winner to clinch Sunderland’s promotion to the Premier League encapsulated a rollercoaster season and suggested team spirit will be key if they are to cope with the step up next season. The French head coach masterminded Sunderland’s return to the top flight after eight years in his first season at the club.
Watson, a 73rd-minute substitute, scored in the fifth minute of added time to complete a dream comeback victory after Eliezer Mayenda cancelled out Tyrese Campbell’s well-taken opener. Watson, who joined Sunderland aged eight, will move to Brighton next month after the clubs agreed a £10m deal in April, but the forward gave his boyhood club the perfect parting gift. “We’ll see each other in the Premier League next year, in the big time,” Watson said.
In the end, the Cannes Palme d’Or went to the most courageous film director in the world. It was a very satisfying grownup decision, favouring a remarkable and utterly individual film-maker: the director and democracy campaigner Jafar Panahi, an artist who unlike any other director in the Cannes competition really has suffered, taken real risks for cinema and spoken truth to power – and endured arrest and imprisonment for his pains.
He has created a rich canon of work which has told the world about Iranian society and the Iranian mind with a subtlety and depth that we are never going to get from the TV news.
Bordeaux players ‘were after him’, complains Fin Smith
Phil Dowson says early losses of two players had ‘huge impact’
Northampton have urged tournament officials to launch an investigation into a post-game fracas involving England’s Henry Pollock after Bordeaux’s Champions Cup final victory. It is understood Saints will make a citing complaint if the incident does not lead to an official disciplinary probe.
Phil Dowson, Saints’ director of rugby, said the 20-year-old had been the victim of “foul play” by a Bordeaux player. The meleé was initially sparked by an altercation between the Northampton captain, Fraser Dingwall, and the French international fly-half Matthieu Jalibert, before several other Bordeaux players became involved.
Three children killed in Kyiv region after 298 drones and 69 missile strikes launched in multiple waves
Russia has launched the largest air raid in three years of the war against Ukraine in a second straight night of massive drone and ballistic missile strikes in which the capital city, Kyiv, was once again the focus of heavy attack.
Across the country at least 12 people were killed, according to officials, including three children in the Kyiv region, and dozens more injured, as officials released the first assessment of casualties and damage on Sunday morning.
From a castle in Cumbria to a subtropical paradise in Cornwall, these are some of the top unsung gardens across the country
In the dash for Cumbria’s lakes and fells, the area’s other green attractions can get missed. On Knipe Scar, at the edge of the Lake District national park, Lowther’s acres sprawl around the shell of a ruined 19th-century castle. Wildflower meadows, bee-friendly tree hives and rambling woodland contrast with a parterre, sculptured hornbeams and a Sleeping Beauty-inspired rose garden designed by Dan Pearson. Bikes and ebikes can be rented for pootling around the estate’s trails or perhaps a five-mile cycle to Ullswater. There is a Lost Castle adventure playground and a cafe. Before leaving, visit the west terrace for views across the Lowther valley to distant fells. Open daily, adults £15, children £10, lowthercastle.org
An exhibition at the Welsh parliament from 24 May to 12 July will go on to tour Wales throughout 2025.
The project, by Vision Fountain, seeks to highlight the contributions migrants have made to Welsh society – particularly at a time when migration, and migrants themselves, are it seems increasingly demonised in politics and the media.
Wales was officially designated a ‘Nation of Sanctuary’ in 2019, but its tradition of offering refuge reaches back centuries. Italians settled in Wales in the 19th century, drawn not only by the familiar hills and castles but also the certainty of work and friendship.
Wales: A Home From Home brings together stories from Wales’s diverse global communities, from ‘heritage’ migrants, such as the Italians, to recent arrivals escaping trauma, such as Ukrainians, Syrians and Hongkongers.
While the project celebrates moments of joy and connection, it also gives voice to difficult memories: experiences of trauma, displacement and the challenges of starting anew in an unfamiliar land.
By weaving together these personal stories and images, the exhibition attempts to reveal how Wales continues to shape the lives of people from around the world.
Former US vice-president tells conference ‘I do worry, frankly, about what’s happening right now in the world’
Kamala Harris has criticised Elon Musk, noted “it’s important that we remember the 1930s” and raised concerns about AI when speaking to an audience of 4,500 real estate agents at an industry conference on the Gold Coast.
The former US vice-president, who is visiting Australia for the first time, was the guest of honour at the 2025 Australian Real Estate Conference on Sunday.
Institute of Race Relations says MoD’s Channel role reflects global rise of ‘hyper-militarisation’ in law enforcement
The UK Border Force is in effect under military command, reflecting a wider increase of “hyper-militarisation” in policing, according to a new report on international law enforcement.
A report by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s death, says the 21st century has seen the emergence of paramilitary and “political” policing across Europe, employed at borders, during civil unrest and against public protest.
Killings in a new Israeli offensive and depleted food and medical supplies are pushing people on to the streets of the once bustling hub of Gaza
On the streets of Gaza City this week, there were two sounds that never ceased, day or night. In the west, the Mediterranean breakers crashed on the rubbish-strewn shoreline. In the east, the shells, missiles and rockets exploded with dull thuds and occasional ear-splitting cracks.
At least 100,000 people have come to Gaza City, once the bustling commercial and cultural hub of the Palestinian territory. All are fleeing the new offensive – dubbed Gideon’s Chariots – recently launched by Israel into the ruined towns and neighbourhoods of northern Gaza.
The US president thought he could impose peace through sheer personality, but he didn’t reckon with two leaders with so much to lose
Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin enjoyed a friendly phone chat earlier this month, marking the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat. The Israeli and Russian leaders have much in common. Both claim to be still heroically battling Nazis, in Gaza and Ukraine respectively. This fiction is used to justify the mass murder of civilians, spiralling troop casualties and huge economic and reputational costs. Maybe it helps them sleep at night.
Bibi and Vlad: the world’s most wanted men – and possibly the most despised.
Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
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His is a cautionary tale of what happens when someone who feels inadequate listens to the new generation of masculinity salesmen
When I first met Nick in 2019, at a dating and self-improvement summit in Miami, it wasn’t immediately obvious why he was paying so much money to pseudo-authority figures from the manosphere. He had looks, cash and some of the easy swagger of London done good.
Nick was over 6ft tall and had nice white teeth, labrador eyes and a healthy quotient of melanin courtesy of the sunbeds at the health club he went to twice a week. Financially, Nick had done well for himself, creating a mobile phone app and selling it to a big company. He’d put some of the proceeds down on a small flat in west London – not bad for someone in his mid-20s with no family money. Nick had even helped his parents buy an apartment in Spain on the Costa Blanca where the family holidayed twice a year, frequenting English bars and greasy spoons with all the other English people. He bought a lot of designer clothes, too (Armani, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Stone Island, Off-White, Hugo Boss). “Important to have the basics sorted,” he’d say, splashing Tom Ford cologne on his neck before a trip to Mayfair.
I have been dating my boyfriend (we are both in our 20s) for almost a year. I’m absolutely smitten. He makes me feel a better person, and I believe we are really good together.
Sadly, he doesn’t have a very good relationship with his family. I haven’t really seen this play out because I’ve not seen them together that often, but he’s told me about his childhood and that he discusses his family in his regular therapy sessions.
In the intervening years, science has not stood still. About 50 species have been discovered each year since 1999 and the advent of powerful imaging techniques and digital reconstruction have led to major advances in our understanding of what dinosaurs looked like and how they lived. Here are some of the biggest developments.
Norway’s traditional music scene gaining traction and been given a twist by a new clubby younger audience
Folk music is having a resurgence in Norway spurred by a reclamation of the genre among generation Z.
Norwegian folk music, which until recently was largely restricted to the countryside, has been gaining traction across Norwegian cities with sweaty club nights appealing to a younger audience.
In August 2017, four men were jailed for life at the Old Bailey for plotting a terrorist attack. They were caught in an undercover police sting, and their defence lawyers insist their case continues to raise troubling and pressing questions ...
On Friday 26 August 2016, Naweed Ali drove to his first day of work at a delivery company in Birmingham. His next door neighbour and close friend Khobaib Hussain had already been working at Hero Couriers for a month. The name seemed appropriate. There was something heroic about the work they did. Ali and Hussain were hired to drive around the country reuniting airline passengers with lost property. The pay was great, too – £100 a shift, cash in hand. It seemed too good to be true.
US coast guard says accident occurred while employees were doing work involving a flame or sparks
An explosion on a boat carrying raw sewage that was docked on the Hudson River in New York City killed a longtime city employee, authorities said.
Another worker on the city-owned Hunts Point vessel was injured and taken to the hospital after the blast about 10.30am Saturday near the North River wastewater treatment plant, according to city deputy assistant chief David Simms of the fire department. A third worker refused medical treatment.
Western quolls (Idnya) and brushtail possums (Virlda), once locally extinct, are flourishing in the Ikara-Flinders Ranges national park 10 years after their reintroduction.
“They’re pretty funny. We go spotlighting at night … you can spotlight at the campsite there and see them running around, looking for bits of food,” National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) reintroduction ecologist Talitha Moyle said.
Ministers told ‘symbols matter’ and move would give Palestine stronger footing in future peace talks
Ministers are under pressure from inside and outside Labour to recognise Palestinian statehood at a UN conference next month, with party grandees arguing it would bolster prospects for peace and demonstrate moral leadership amid escalating tensions.
Alf Dubs, the veteran Labour peer and Holocaust survivor, said the symbolic recognition of a Palestinian state would offer Palestinians “the self-respect they’d have if they had a proper state,” and provide them a stronger footing in any future peace negotiations.
“Even if it doesn’t lead to anything immediately, it would still give Palestinians a better standing,” Lord Dubs said. “Symbols matter.”
The former cabinet minister Peter Hain echoed the call, warning that “delaying recognition until negotiations are concluded simply allows Israel’s illegal occupation to become permanent”. Lord Hain argued that formal recognition should be “a catalyst, not a consequence” of peace talks.
Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early on Sunday and injured at least seven people, as debris set an apartment building on fire and damaged homes, officials said. The head of Kyiv city’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, said “more than a dozen enemy drones” were flying around the capital early on Sunday. The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the city was “under attack” but “air defences are operating”, telling citizens to stay in shelters.
A day earlier, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 14 ballistic missiles and 250 attack drones on Kyiv, injuring 15 people in one of the biggest assaults on the Ukrainian capital since the beginning of the war more than three years ago. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the attacks indicated Moscow was “prolonging the war … Only additional sanctions against key sectors of the Russian economy will force Moscow to agree to a ceasefire.” Patrick Wintour reports Trump’s refusal to impose the promised “bone-crushing sanctions” over Russia’s rejection of a 30-day ceasefire has left European leaders frustrated and despondent.
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, spoke of “another night of terror for Ukrainian civilians”, posting on X. “These are not the actions of a country seeking peace,” Lammy said of the Russian strike. Katarina Mathernová, the European Union’s ambassador to Kyiv, described the attack as “horrific”. “If anyone still doubts Russia wants war to continue – read the news.”
In addition, 13 civilians were killed on Friday and overnight into Saturday in Russian attacks in Ukraine’s south, east and north, regional authorities said. Three people died after a Russian ballistic missile targeted port infrastructure in Odesa on the Black Sea, local governor Oleh Kiper reported. Russia later said the strike targeted a cargo ship carrying military equipment.
On Saturday 307 Russian prisoners of war were exchanged for the same number of Ukrainian soldiers on the second day of an extended prisoner swap set to be the largest in the three-year war, according to announcements in Kyiv and Moscow. “Tomorrow we expect more,” Zelenskyy posted. The first part of the large-scale swap involved 270 soldiers and civilians from each side on Friday. More swaps are expected on Sunday to bring the total to 1,000 as agreed in talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul last week.
In north-eastern Ukraine, mayor Ihor Terekhov of Kharkiv, the second-biggest city, said drones hit three city districts and damaged a business. Terekhov said many drones remained in the air over the city.
Russian troops advancing slowly on the eastern front captured two settlements in Donetsk region as well as one in Ukraine’s northern region of Sumy, the Russian defence ministry said on Saturday. The claims could not be confirmed. A Russian defence statement said its forces had captured the village of Stupochky in Donetsk region, east of Kostiantynivka, a town under recent Russian pressure. It also said it had taken control of Otradne, a village farther west along the 1,000-km front and announced the capture of Loknya, a village inside the Russian border in Sumy region. Ukraine acknowledged no such losses.
Russia’s defence ministry said that early on Saturday its forces shot down more than 100 Ukrainian drones over six provinces in western and southern Russia. The drone strikes injured three people in the Tula region south of Moscow, local governor Dmitriy Milyaev said, and sparked a fire at an industrial site there. Andriy Kovalenko, of Ukraine’s national security council, said on Saturday the drones hit a plant in Tula that makes chemicals used in explosives and rocket fuel.
Thomas Barrack also stresses temporary lifting of sanctions for first time since 1979 after meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa
Donald Trump’s old friend Thomas Barrack, now serving as the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, praised Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, after a meeting in Istanbul on Saturday.
“I stressed the cessation of sanctions against Syria will preserve the integrity of our primary objective – the enduring defeat of ISIS – and will give the people of Syria a chance for a better future,” Barrack said in a statement, referring to actions taken on Friday by the Trump administration to temporarily suspend sanctions imposed on the government of the former president, Bashar al-Assad, who was deposed by rebel forces led by Sharaa late last year.
John Woeltz, 37, being held without bail after allegedly beating, shocking and dangling man from five-story home
A cryptocurrency investor was arraigned in Manhattan criminal court on Saturday morning and charged with kidnapping an Italian man and then beating and torturing him for several weeks, allegedly to extract cryptocurrency passwords.
The 37-year-old crypto investor, John Woeltz, was arrested on Friday after allegedly torturing the man in a swanky home in the upscale Manhattan neighborhood of Soho. The victim reportedly escaped the five-story home on Friday and sought help from the police, who later arrested Woeltz.
Kim Jong-Un vowed to punish those found responsible for ‘criminal’ damage to new 5,000-tonne naval destroyer
North Korea has detained three people over an accident that occurred during the launch of a new warship this past week, state media reported early on Sunday.
Pyongyang has said that “a serious accident occurred” at Wednesday’s launch ceremony in the eastern port city of Chongjin for a newly built 5,000-tonne naval destroyer, in which sections of the bottom of the vessel were crushed.
Liverpool coach went to see the Boss at Manchester
‘At 75, he does three hours on stage with no rest’
Arne Slot believes his Liverpool players can take inspiration from Bruce Springsteen as they aim to repeat the success of winning the Premier League next season. The Dutchman went to see the Boss behind enemy lines in Manchester on Tuesday night to witness a masterclass of a different kind.
Liverpool will be awarded the Premier League trophy by Alan Hansen after their final game of the season against Crystal Palace on Sunday. The next challenge for Slot will come when his players return for pre-season training on 8 July and the Dutchman waits to see if his squad can build on the glory days achieved during his first season in charge.
Head coach says Barcelona win was ‘above expectations’
‘We had to suffer but were spot on in crucial moments’
The Arsenal head coach, Renée Slegers, said her team’s performance was “above all expectations” after they stunned Barcelona to win the Women’s Champions League title in Lisbon.
Cited as the major underdogs before kick-off, Arsenal thwarted a Barcelona side who had won three of the past four finals, and won their first women’s European title since 2007 thanks to substitute Stina Blackstenius’ 74th-minute winner.
Veteran’s 88 was full of crisp cuts, punishing pulls and swingeing sweeps – delighting the visitors’ dancing, singing and chanting fans
On 11 June 1890 a column of three hundred colonialists crossed the Shashe River to begin the annexation of Mashonaland on behalf of Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company. They brought cattle, horses and wagons, rifles, revolvers and field guns, a searchlight, a steam engine, tents, food and water. Each man carried a slouch hat, a spare shirt and pair of socks, a water bottle, a sewing kit, a belt, a bandolier, a hundred rounds of ammunition and a hand axe. And, of course, this being a very English endeavour, in among it all someone packed a bat and ball.
So the first game of cricket in what would become Zimbabwe was played just over a month later, on 16 August, between the Pioneer Column’s A Troop and B and C Troops, on a patch of land at Providential Pass at what would become Fort Victoria. Nobody knows who won. “Probably A Troop,” wrote one of the players in his memoirs 50 years later, since they had Monty Bowden, the England captain and Surrey wicketkeeper, playing for them. Within five years, the settlers were organising games between Bulawayo and Salisbury and within a decade, they had formed the Rhodesian Cricket Union.
Judge says Guatemalan’s removal to Mexico, despite fears of being harmed there, ‘lacked any semblance of due process’
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration late Friday night to facilitate the return of a Guatemalan man it deported to Mexico, in spite of his fears of being harmed there, and who has since been returned to Guatemala.
The man, who is gay, had applied for asylum in the US last year after he was attacked twice in homophobic acts of violence in Guatemala. He was protected from being returned to his home country under a US immigration judge’s order at the time, but the Trump administration put him on a bus and sent him to Mexico instead.
Pickleball might have developed legions of new Australian fans, but padel is snapping at its heels as a contender for the best tennis-alternative in town
It was Darren McMullen’s obsession with padel that led him to missing an audition and changing the course of his life. Known for his role as Alex Larden on House Husbands and for presenting shows such as The Voice Australia, he had increasingly been sucked into padel tournaments.
“My agent went crazy: ‘What were you thinking? What’s your bread and butter?’” McMullen says. “I was like, ‘God, you’re right. I should open a padel centre.’”
The British comedian and actor on encouraging hecklers, why Will Ferrell deserves an Oscar and his love for Kylie Minogue
In your first memoir, My Favourite People and Me, you picked Kylie Minogue as one of your favourite people – but added that you stopped loving her when I Should Be So Lucky came out.To make this a question: how dare you?
Ah, Kylie. She’s completely adored everywhere she goes, and I adore her as well. I fell for her when she was Charlene in Neighbours – I was a student studying drama in the 80s and the only drama that any of us cared about was Neighbours. Australian girls were the pin-ups for everybody in England.
In September 2022 my brother was murdered. A couple of months later my relationship of six years broke down. That summer was the darkest period of my adult life. It felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me and I was self soothing in ways that I’m not proud of. My mental health was spiralling. My morals were out the door and I hardly recognised myself.
By the next April things were turning around. I was seeing a therapist and working on getting my mental and physical health back.
Connexion
