From luxury pet-friendly accommodation to chartering a private plane for your pooch, the indulgences of late-stage capitalism are extreme

A delightfully fluffy expenses controversy emerged in Queensland in the past week. The ABC reported that the chair of a Queensland government-owned company “faced questions” after billing the taxpayer for a hotel stay with a luxury accommodation package for his dog.

The energy company chair, his “fur-baby Vito” and his wife (unnamed) allegedly enjoyed a $500-a-night stay at the Ovolo hotel in Fortitude Valley when a board meeting obliged his attendance in Brisbane, 100km away from his Sunshine Coast home. The “luxury pet-friendly accommodation” offered at the five-star Ovolo includes a “super comfy” dog bed, treats, premium dog food, mealtime mat and water bowl, as well as a take-home dog toy “because who doesn’t love a present?”

• Gukesh defeats Carlsen in classical for first time ever

• Carlsen punches table, storms out after late blunder

• World champion rises to third in Norway Chess table

World champion Gukesh Dommaraju earned his first classical victory over Magnus Carlsen on Sunday at the Norway Chess tournament, toppling the longtime world No 1 in dramatic fashion and prompting the Norwegian to punch the table in frustration before storming out of the venue.

The win in round six of the double round-robin event marked a milestone moment in Gukesh’s young career, not for its stakes but for who it came against. Under pressure for much of the contest, the 19-year-old Indian grandmaster turned the tables in the final phase, capitalizing on a rare Carlsen blunder in time trouble to steal the point and shake up the standings in Stavanger.

Victory for Nawrocki would be a blow to government led by Donald Tusk, with right-wing candidate narrowly leading liberal Rafał Trzaskowski

Overnight projections from Poland’s crucial presidential run-off showed a narrow lead for the right-wing candidate Karol Nawrocki, as votes continued to be counted.

A set of preliminary results combining exit polls and counted ballots, published at 1am local time on Monday morning (midnight BST), gave Nawrocki a 51-49% lead over liberal contender Rafał Trzaskowski, an ally of the ruling government led by Donald Tusk.

Deceased’s wounds appeared self-inflicted in incident at Fairgreen mall that was attended by bomb disposal experts

A man has died after a shooting at a shopping centre in County Carlow.

The PA news agency understands that it appears that the dead man’s wounds were self-inflicted.

• 25-year-old wins by two shots at Erin Hills

• Korda finishes in tie for second with Rio Takeda

Maja Stark has won tournaments around the world, but a professional victory in the United States eluded her. Now she is a US Women’s Open champion.

The Swede shot an even-par 72 to win the second major of the year by two shots on Sunday at Erin Hills. Stark led the championship by one stroke through 54 holes and outlasted the World No 1, Nelly Korda, who got within a shot of the lead before petering out on the back nine.

The Democratic party frontrunner has drawn support from conservatives who see him as the path back to political normalcy after the chaos of Yoon Suk Yeol

The snipers positioned on Seoul rooftops scan the crowd through telescopic sights while counter-terrorism units patrol the perimeter with bomb-detection dogs. Bodyguards clutching ballistic briefcases form a protective ring.

On stage, Lee Jae-myung addresses thousands of supporters from behind bulletproof glass, protection that has become necessary after death threats and a stabbing attack against him last year.

Police alleged the man yelled ‘Free Palestine’ as he threw the device at people gathered to show support for Israeli hostages in Gaza

Six people were injured in an attack in Boulder, Colorado after a man is alleged to have thrown an incendiary device into a crowd and yelled “Free Palestine”, in what the FBI is treating as an “act of terrorism”.

The 45-year-old man, identified as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, is alleged to have thrown the device into a group of people who had assembled in a pedestrianised zone for a peaceful protest for Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.

International Trade Union Confederation issued report showing conditions for workers’ rights across the globe have worsened

Workers’ rights across every continent in the world are in a “freefall”, according to the 2025 Global Rights Index released by the International Trade Union Confederation, the largest trade union federation in the world.

The index noted workers’ rights and democracy around the world are often under attack by “far-right politicians and their unelected billionaire backers. Whether it’s Donald Trump and Elon Musk in the US or Javier Milei and Eduardo Eurnekian in Argentina, we see the same playbook of unfairness and authoritarianism in action around the world.”

Review will call for ‘war-fighting readiness’ to deal with new threats, though army will not grow before next election

• Analysis: Labour pushes ‘military Keynesianism’ to win support for defence spending

Britain needs to be ready to fight a war in Europe or the Atlantic, a strategic defence review will conclude, though it is not expected to promise immediate increases in the size of the armed forces to deal with the threat.

The 130-page document will call for a move to “war-fighting readiness” to deter Russian aggression in Europe and increases in stockpiles of arms and support equipment, some of which may only last days in a crisis.

• World champion given 10sec penalty for collision

• Russell: ‘It felt very deliberate … it felt strange’

George Russell has insisted that Max Verstappen should have faced disqualification after he crashed into the British driver at the Spanish Grand Prix, claiming he felt the world champion had done so deliberately and that he was setting a bad example for young drivers.

Verstappen, who was bullish after a race where he received a 10‑second penalty that dropped him from fifth at the flag to 10th, dismissed Russell’s comments, maintaining he had no regrets and mocking the British driver’s reactions with the comment: “Well, I’ll bring some tissues next time.”

• Lancastrian claims second Grand Tour victory

• ‘I’m in disbelief I have managed to pull it off’

Simon Yates reflected on a “sweet success” he had been targeting for much of his life after a spectacular and decisive coup in Saturday’s final mountain stage ensured he would ride to victory in the Giro d’Italia on Sunday.

At 32, the Lancastrian had not been tipped to add to his sole Grand Tour victory, the 2018 Tour of Spain, but in the mammoth stage over the Colle Delle Finestre, he confounded those expectations to win the sport’s second most prestigious race, after the Tour de France.

• Defending champion beats Elena Rybakina 1-6, 6-3, 7-5

• Carlos Alcaraz reaches last eight by beating Ben Shelton

After another sad second serve rebounded off the top of the net and floated out on a break point, Iga Swiatek turned to her support team and frantically gestured her rage. She had simply not shown up. As Elena Rybakina bulldozed through the early stages of their highly anticipated fourth-round tussle, Swiatek trailed 6-1, 2-0 and her hopes of victory were fading.

For much of this year, Swiatek has struggled to find her form when forced into difficult positions against her toughest rivals. However, she showed her resilience here with a supreme 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 statement win against the 12th seed, to return to the quarter-finals of the French Open.

Most evacuated residents are from Manitoba, which declared a state of emergency last week

More than 25,000 residents in three provinces have been evacuated as dozens of wildfires remain active and affect air quality in parts of Canada and the US, according to officials.

Most of the evacuated residents were from Manitoba, which declared a state of emergency last week. About 17,000 people there were evacuated by Saturday, along with 1,300 in Alberta. About 8,000 people in Saskatchewan had been relocated as leaders there said the number could climb.

Coach has proved his genius by turning a largely unstarry group into European champions who play as a united team

At what point did Luis Enrique know it was going to work out, that his Paris Saint‑Germain team would beat Inter at the Allianz Arena to win the club’s first Champions League title? The manager had certainly cut a cool and confident figure when he emerged on to the pitch about 90 minutes before kick-off for a quick temperature check with his coaches.

The PSG ultras were already behind one of the goals, bobbing up and down en masse. They would be a forceful presence throughout. Luis Enrique was aware that an omen was on his side. Every time Munich had hosted a final in Europe’s elite competition, a new champion had emerged. Nottingham Forest, 1979. Marseille, 1993. Borussia Dortmund, 1997. And Chelsea, 2012. Inter had arrived as three-time winners.

Author tells Hay festival AI has no sense of humour but when it writes a funny book ‘we’re screwed’

Salman Rushdie has said that authors are safe from the threat of AI – until the moment it can create a book that makes people laugh.

Speaking at the Hay festival in Hay-on-Wye, Wales, Rushdie said he had “never tried AI” and liked to pretend it didn’t exist.

• 2nd ODI: England, 312-7, bt West Indies, 308, by 3 wkts

• Keacy Carty hits 103; Root replies with 166 not out

England spent much of this game digging themselves into not so much a hole as a full-blown trench, a toxic combination of regular errors and occasional misfortune leaving them in a truly desperate situation, ­apparently destined for convincing and deserved defeat. Enter Joe Root, and an innings for the ages.

Root produced a display of ethereal stroke-making on his way to a stunning, unbeaten 166, a batting performance of such beauty that the ugliness of much that came before will be forgotten. It was his highest score in one-day internationals, propelling him past Eoin Morgan to become England’s leading run-scorer in this format, and the first Englishman to score more than 7,000. It ended with a straight drive that brought his 23rd boundary, victory by three wickets, and a series secured with a game to spare. Typically, the match-winner sought afterwards to deflect credit rather than to bask in it.

Move that seeks political control of doctors’ and scientists’ published research fits a pattern of censorship by the Trump administration, veterans advocates say

Senior officials at the US Department of Veterans Affairs have ordered that VA physicians and scientists not publish in medical journals or speak with the public without first seeking clearance from political appointees of Donald Trump, the Guardian has learned.

The edict, laid down in emails on Friday by Curt Cashour, the VA’s assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, and John Bartrum, a senior adviser to VA secretary Doug Collins, came hours after the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a perspective co-authored by two pulmonologists who work for the VA in Texas.

Republicans say they want more babies, but seek to strip away healthcare and food support, undermine migrant families and remove labour protections for the young

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children,” Nelson Mandela observed 30 years ago. Though the ugly heart of the Trump administration has hardly been hidden, there is an especially grotesque contrast between its vaunted family values and its treatment of the young.

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump declared: “I want a baby boom.” JD Vance, his vice-president, says he wants “more happy children in our country”. Maga pro-natalists are pushing incentives for families to have more children.

AB Hernandez, 16, ties for first place in two events as Trump administration threatens to withhold federal funding

A teenage transgender athlete in California, who has been at the center of widespread political attacks by rightwing pundits and the Trump administration, won in two track events over the weekend. The 16-year-old athlete, AB Hernandez, tied for first place alongside two other athletes in the high jump, and tied for first place in the triple jump.

This comes as the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal funding from California for allowing trans athletes to compete in girls’ sports.

Milla Magee, the reigning Miss England, left over claims she had been used as window dressing

Their mantra is “beauty with a purpose”. But the organisers of the Miss World pageant have been accused of something altogether uglier: being “vindictive and very bitter” towards a contestant who left over claims she had been used as window dressing.

The reigning Miss England, Milla Magee, said she agreed to take part in the 2025 Miss World pageant because she believed it would be a platform to promote her campaign to have CPR included in the school curriculum. But she said the reality was very different.

I was only 13 and he was young too, but he somehow knew not to make it a big deal. If he hadn’t helped, it probably would have destroyed my entire holiday

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

It wasn’t my first period but it was within the first year of getting my period. I was only 13 years old and, when you first start menstruating, you never know when your next period is going to arrive.

I was away on holiday with my family, playing in the hotel pool with some new friends I’d just met. There was definitely a boy there I fancied. At one point I hopped out of the pool and suddenly this lifeguard, who must have only been 15 or 16 himself, walked straight up, put a towel around me and said really quietly in my ear, “You need to go to the bathroom.” I looked down and realised why: my period had started.

The Chinese Daoist text prompts us to reflect on the shallow attitudes of those who want to draw attention to what some people lack, rather than what they might have

• Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life

The Zhuangzi, an ancient Chinese Daoist text written by the philosopher known by the same name, has a lot to say about people who are considered “disabled”. This is interesting in itself, as parts of it were written around the 4th century BCE, when only the privileged could read and write.

Why would the authors of this text, men of privilege, be interested in people who were considered at the time to be “less than normal”?

Reported strikes on four airbases in Siberia mark escalation in cross-border incursions before planned peace talks

Ukraine has launched a “large-scale” drone attack against Russian military bombers in Siberia, striking more than 40 warplanes thousands of miles from its own territory, a security official has said, after it smuggled the drones to the perimeter of the airfields hidden in the roofs of wooden sheds.

On the eve of peace talks, the drone attack on four separate airfields was part of a sharp ramping up of the three-year war, with Russia launching waves of drones at Ukraine, while Moscow said sabotage was to blame for two train derailments that left seven people dead.

• Cunha agrees five-year deal with optional extra year

• United pay £62.5m release clause to sign forward

Matheus Cunha will join Manchester United after the club agreed to pay Wolves the forward’s £62.5m release clause. The Brazilian has been in Manchester to finalise the details of a five-year contract, with the option of an additional year, after passing a medical. The deal will formally be completed once the 26-year-old returns from international duty.

United announced the imminent signing on their website on Sunday, saying: “Manchester United has reached agreement with Wolverhampton Wanderers for the signing of Matheus Cunha. The Brazilian forward’s signing is subject to visa and registration. Everyone at Manchester United looks forward to welcoming Matheus to Old Trafford.”

Queen enthralled by Italian city’s museum dedicated to poet Lord Byron, who wrote Don Juan there

If the most satisfying thing for anyone giving a guided tour is speaking to an enthusiastic and curious listener, then Diego Saglia felt he royally hit the jackpot when he met Queen Camilla in Ravenna.

The queen, who was in the northern Italian city with King Charles during a state visit to the country in early April, was so enamoured of her visit to a museum dedicated to the British poet and satirist Lord Byron that she kept her husband waiting in the courtyard. She lingered over Byron’s original manuscripts, locks of his curly hair and the love letters he wrote to Countess Teresa Guiccioli.

AI may soon be able decode whalespeak, among other forms of communication – but what nature has to say may not be a surprise

Charles Darwin suggested that humans learned to speak by mimicking birdsong: our ancestors’ first words may have been a kind of interspecies exchange. Perhaps it won’t be long before we join the conversation once again.

The race to translate what animals are saying is heating up, with riches as well as a place in history at stake. The Jeremy Coller Foundation has promised $10m to whichever researchers can crack the code. This is a race fuelled by generative AI; large language models can sort through millions of recorded animal vocalisations to find their hidden grammars. Most projects focus on cetaceans because, like us, they learn through vocal imitation and, also like us, they communicate via complex arrangements of sound that appear to have structure and hierarchy.

I’ve spoken to white nationalists in Tennessee and Black activists in Texas – and learned about what it takes to connect across difference

The residential community was lodged near a national forest on the outskirts of Scottsdale, Arizona. Forbidding gates and sentry posts restricted access to the exclusive development and its elegant homes. But security here went much further.

Each cul-de-sac in the colony had its own individual railway gate, and many of the homeowners had installed gates across their own driveways as well. Anyone coming in or out of those houses would have to clear three checkpoints that set them apart from the wider world beyond.

The Olympic gold-winning diver on wearing tea towels, learning how to grieve and what happens when someone asks if he’d like a glass of wine

Born in Plymouth in 1994, Tom Daley is Britain’s most decorated diver. He was 13 when he made history as Britain’s youngest competitor at the 2008 Olympics, and the following year became a world champion. He won gold at the Tokyo Olympics with his synchronised diving partner, Matty Lee, before retiring from diving in 2024. He is married to the screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, with whom he has two sons. The documentary, Tom Daley: 1.6 Seconds, is available to stream on Discovery+ from 1 June.

I used to be obsessed with wearing tea towels. I’d make sure the fabric was completely lined-up and tucked in neatly. If it was in the slightest bit ruffled or messy, I would get upset and rip it off and try it all over again. This was the beginning of my perfectionism – and possibly the first signs that I might not be 100% straight.

The beloved children’s entertainer has been speaking out as tens of thousands of children are killed or injured in Gaza

If you believe that babies can tell when a person is truly good, then it should be no surprise that Ms Rachel – the beloved kids’ YouTube sensation – has remained on the right side of every sociopolitical debate since the image of her pink tee and denim dungarees became ubiquitous in households with children across the world.

But when Ms Rachel, whose given name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, began speaking out about the genocide in Gaza, pro-Israel rightwingers put a massive target on her back.

Life is easier with a strong, flexible body – and this weightlifting move will help with everything from rearranging the furniture to picking up your groceries. You might even learn to love the barbell

One of the lovely things about getting older is realising there’s always something more you should be doing to look after your body. Did I say lovely? Obviously I meant tedious. But how you feel about it doesn’t change the facts. If you take the slightest interest in your health, and want to stay strong, mobile and pain-free in your 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond, you’ll have to pay attention to the exercises that many of us avoid in our 20s, 30s and 40s. Or, in my case, until you’re 61¾.

Like deadlifts, which help with one of life’s most basic tasks – bending over and picking stuff up. Training these also involves bending over and picking stuff up – usually a barbell, but sometimes a kettlebell or pair of dumbbells. “Here’s a few things deadlifts help with,” says Laura Kummerle, a Georgia-based physiotherapist and personal trainer (PT). “Lifting your grocery bags off the ground on to the counter, lifting your laundry basket off the ground, lifting your kid/grandkid (especially out of their crib when you can’t squat), lifting a piece of furniture or a heavy rock for landscaping … They work the hip hinge, which is a fundamental movement pattern for strength training, but more importantly for daily life.”

Ever since lockdown we’ve supposedly all been in it together, doing conference calls in our slippers. But in straight couples, guess who gets the spare bedroom and the proper desk?

I’m wary of gendered generalisations. They rightly raise hackles: we are unique, not defined by gender, not all men! But I was struck by one I read from Ella Risbridger in her review of Jessica Stanley’s recent novel, Consider Yourself Kissed. Exploring one of its themes, Risbridger wrote: “I have long noticed that in a house with one spare room and a heterosexual couple who both work from home, the spare room is where he works – with a door that shuts and perhaps even a designated desk – and she works somewhere else. (Always for good reasons, but always.)”

This stopped me in my tracks. Not because it’s my experience: my husband and I are lucky enough to have an office each, and mine is bigger and objectively nicer. I get the garden view; he has the ballet of Openreach and Amazon vans. (See – not all men.) It’s not Stanley’s experience either: she uses the spare bedroom; her husband has half the living room, she told the Cut’s Book Gossip newsletter.

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.

‘The memories preserved in countless books, photo albums, documentation – everything is gone,’ says village’s mayor

For weeks the weight had sat above the village, nine million tonnes of rock precariously resting on an ancient slab of ice. A chunk of Kleines Nesthorn mountain’s peak had crumbled, and its rubble hung over the silent, empty streets of Blatten, held back only by the glacier. The ice groaned beneath the pressure.

On Wednesday afternoon, in an instant, it gave way. The ice cracked, then crumbled. The entire mass descended into the valley below, obliterating the village that had been there for more than 800 years.

The novelist has been awarded the Dylan Thomas prize for young writers. She talks about giving up medical training to pursue fiction – and the childhood memories that inspired her winning debut, The Coin

Buying a Birkin bag is not easy. You can’t just waltz into an Hermès store and pluck one off the shelf, even if you’re prepared to drop the many thousands required to pay for it. “The great majority of people are refused a Birkin, they get told that there aren’t any available in the store, which is a lie, they just don’t want to give it to them,” explains the protagonist of Palestinian writer Yasmin Zaher’s debut novel The Coin, which this month won the Swansea University Dylan Thomas prize for authors aged 39 or under.

Zaher’s unnamed narrator, a Palestinian woman living in New York, has to get to grips with Hermès’s exclusive and elusive sales policies – which seem to privilege loyal customers – after being drawn into a Birkin reselling operation.

The New York Times reporter gives an insightful – and withering – account of the president’s hush-money trial

Trump Convicted on All Counts to Become America’s First Felon President: so blared the New York Times headline on 30 May 2024.

“Donald J Trump was convicted on Thursday of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened to derail his 2016 presidential campaign, capping an extraordinary trial that tested the resilience of the American justice system and transformed the former commander in chief into a felon.”

Dragon on Centre Street is published in the US by Authors Equity

First clear evidence that structured exercise regime reduces risk of dying by a third, can stop tumours coming back or a new cancer developing

• ‘Now I do weight training’: how exercise helped one patient stay free of cancer

Exercise can reduce the risk of cancer patients dying by a third, stop tumours coming back and is even more effective than drugs, according to the results of a landmark trial that could transform health guidelines worldwide.

For decades, doctors have recommended adopting a healthy lifestyle to lower the risk of developing cancer. But until now there has been little evidence of the impact it could have after diagnosis, with little support for incorporating exercise into patients’ routines.

Bring sea breezes into your kitchen with this creamy New England classic, in nine simple steps

I ate a lot of clam chowder in Massachusetts last summer. Thick and comfortingly creamy, it might feel a tad wintry were it not for the sweet, briny clams, which sing of sea breezes and sunshine. Though the name derives from the French chaudière, or cauldron, chowder is New England through and through, and best eaten in the fresh air, whether that’s in Cape Cod or Capel-le-Ferne.

Prep 40 min
Soak 20 min
Cook 30 min
Serves 4

Researchers question characterisation of unrest as ‘far-right protests’ and say it had more in common with race riots

The riots that swept the UK last summer had more in common with race riots in the 1950s in Nottingham and in Notting Hill, west London, than they did with disorder that broke out in 2011, researchers have said.

Violence first erupted on the streets of Southport after the murder of three young girls, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and Bebe King, six, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the Merseyside town. The perpetrator, Axel Rudakubana, was later jailed for a minimum of 52 years.

Colombia has seen a surge in the number of female inmates – many poor, from rural areas and convicted of drug offences. Now a radical scheme could release thousands to support their families

The baby calls out, reaching towards a metal detector security gate. “Mama, mama,” she says. A prison officer waves her through. It’s visiting time at El Buen Pastor prison, Colombia’s largest detention centre for women. Behind the black door, half a dozen women wait anxiously. Dressed in her best clothes, the mother folds herself around the child.

Inside, the prison is crumbling. Black mould creeps up the walls; broken windows have been replaced with plastic sheets. Inmates say five to six people share cells built for two.

US couple Marsha and Al adopted a baby girl from China because they thought she had been abandoned. Years later they read about a girl whose sister had been illegally snatched by the authorities. Was everything they’d been told about their daughter a lie?

One night in September 2009, a widowed mother in Texas named Marsha was up late at her kitchen table, scrolling through correspondence, when she opened an email that would change her family’s life. It was from an acquaintance who was sharing a newspaper article – as it happens, an article I’d written from China – about government officials who had snatched children from impoverished families to supply the lucrative adoption market. The article featured an interview with a nine-year-old girl speaking wistfully about her identical twin who had been taken away. “A Young Girl Pines for Her Twin” was the headline.

Marsha had two daughters from China. She and her husband, Al, both employees of the defence contractor Lockheed Martin, had adopted when they were in their 50s, though they both had adult children from previous marriages and were looking forward to retirement. Their motives were largely humanitarian. Marsha, a devout Christian who’d once wanted to be a missionary, was saddened by the plight of baby girls who had been abandoned by their parents because of China’s brutally enforced one-child policy. She’d been flooded with tears after reading an article in Reader’s Digest about a man who threw his four-year-old daughter down a well so he could have a son. They had adopted their first daughter, Victoria, in 1999 and their second, Esther, in 2002.