Costa Rica-based inter-American court of human rights says states have obligation to respond to climate change
There is a human right to a stable climate and states have a duty to protect it, a top court has ruled.
Announcing the publication of a crucial advisory opinion on climate change on Thursday, Nancy Hernández López, president of the inter-American court of human rights (IACHR), said climate change carries “extraordinary risks” that are felt particularly keenly by people who are already vulnerable.
Until 1992, when people heard Stuck in the Middle With You by Stealers Wheel on the radio, they might smile and nod and sing along to its catchy soft-rock tune and goofy Dylan-esque lyrics. But after 1992, with the release of Quentin Tarantino’s sensationally tense and violent crime movie Reservoir Dogs, the feelgood mood around that song forever darkened. That was down to an unforgettably scary performance by Michael Madsen, who has died at the age of 67.
Stuck in the Middle, with its lyrics about being “so scared in case I fall off my chair”, was to be always associated with the image of Madsen, whom Tarantino made an icon of indie American movies, with his boxy black suit, sinister, ruined handsomeness and powerful physique running to fat, playing tough guy Vic Vega, AKA Mr Blonde. He grooved back and forth across the room, in front of a terrified undercover cop tied to a chair, dancing to that Stealers Wheel number, holding his straight razor, which he had removed from his boot – smirkingly preparing to torture the cop (that is, torture him further) by cutting off his ear.
Court halts ruling that allowed migrants to challenge removal to countries where they could be in danger
The supreme court on Thursday cleared the way for the deportation of several immigrants who were put on a flight in May bound for South Sudan, a war-ravaged country where they have no ties.
The decision comes after the court’s conservative majority found that immigration officials can quickly deport people to third countries. The majority halted an order that had allowed immigrants to challenge any removals to countries outside their homeland where they could be in danger.
An initial £45m bid was rejected by Forest last week
Newcastle look to bolster squad for Champions League
Newcastle United are optimistic of striking a deal to sign the Nottingham Forest forward Anthony Elanga after submitting an improved offer worth about £55m. Last week Newcastle had a £45m bid rejected but have returned with an increased offer.
Newcastle and Eddie Howe are long-term admirers of Elanga, who featured for Forest in every Premier League match last season, scoring six goals and providing 11 assists as Nuno Espírito Santo’s side qualified for the Europa Conference League, returning to European competition for the first time since 1995-96. Newcastle qualified for the Champions League after finishing fifth.
Lobbying effort by independent delegation follows Jamaica’s move to ask King Charles to request legal advice
Global campaigning for slavery reparations gathered pace this week with lobbying in Westminster and Brussels, days after the Jamaican government revealed it will ask King Charles to request legal advice on the issue.
On Tuesday, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Afrikan Reparations, a group of UK MPs and peers calling for an apology and reparative justice for the historical and ongoing impact of slavery and colonialism, hosted an independent delegation of Caribbean researchers and activists who are lobbying for reparations.
The minute’s silence was immaculate, poignant, loaded, and ultimately broke into applause. “Rest in piece Diogo Jota,” spelled a series of cards held up behind Inês Pereira’s goal; the air was thick with emotion in those moments and one of the first things to say is that Portugal’s players deserve the highest admiration for turning out to compete. They may not have shared a dressing room with Jota or his equally mourned brother, André Silva, but that cannot minimise the fact two members of their nation’s close-knit footballing family had been taken away in devastating circumstances.
It took guts and no little honour to show up and keep running, scrapping, hunting for moments to take pride in while Spain set about reaffirming their status as runaway favourites for this competition. Spain themselves deserve credit for resisting any temptation to go easy, starting at a rattling pace and completing a thoroughly professional job. In their case that often means administering a sound beating and there is no escaping that they delivered one here.
The US House of Representatives passed Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill on Thursday, handing the president the first major legislative victory of his second term and sending to his desk wide-ranging legislation expected to supercharge immigration enforcement and slash federal safety net programs.
The 218-214 vote came after weeks of wrangling over the measure that Trump demanded be ready for his signature by Friday, the Independence Day holiday. Written by his Republican allies in Congress and unanimously rejected by Democrats, the bill traveled an uncertain road to passage that saw multiple all-night votes in the House and Senate and negotiations that lasted until the final hours before passage. Ultimately, Republicans who had objected to its cost and contents folded, and the bill passed with just two GOP defections: Thomas Massie, a rightwing Kentucky lawmaker, and Brian Fitzpatrick, who represents a Pennsylvania district that voted for Kamala Harris in last year’s election.
An unforgiving pitch and some uninspiring bowling gave Shubman Gill’s tourists an inch … and they took a mile
The sun shone, the wind blew, the grass grew, and India batted. And batted. And batted. They batted on so long that summer’s roses had budded, bloomed and withered again before they were finished. Excited little kids who had taken seats in the family stand first thing in the morning left it as jaded pensioners in the evening.
It was even rumoured that a man who had come up from London to catch the end of the innings was able to use the newly finished HS2. Among all their other achievements India’s batsmen even silenced the Barmy Army, so that by the very end the volume in the Hollies Stand was reduced to the sort of somnolent hum usually heard at Lord’s.
Diogo Jota and Andre Silva: England defender Lucy Bronze expressed her shock at the death of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva and said the Lionesses would be “thinking of them” along with the rest of the footballing and non-footballing world, writes Suzanne Wrack from Switzerland.
“It definitely shocked all the squad when we woke up this morning and the news started to spread, said Bronze. “Obviously we have a lot of Liverpool fans in our team, and football fans, but for people in general, everyone is just thinking of them – him and his brother. They were so young as well. We have seen all the messages on social media and stuff so you can tell what a great guy he has been. It’s just really sad and we were shocked by the news, really.”
Speaking on the day that Portugal play Spain in their opening game of Euro 2025, Bronze, who is half Portuguese, said: “We’ll be watching the games tonight, Portugal play their first game against Spain and I know there will be a minute’s silence held before that game.
Britain’s mens No 1 Draper beaten 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 4-6
Cilic previously reached Wimbledon finals, losing in 2017
The question that sprang into Jack Draper’s mind after this chastening defeat was simple: how did Andy Murray do it? Draper, the new hope of British men’s tennis, had come into these championships with expectations that he would leave his mark. Instead he was taught a grand slam lesson by the veteran Marin Cilic and leaves Wimbledon with fresh lessons to take on board in his burgeoning career.
There has been distinct excitement at Draper’s prospects in SW19 this summer after his heady ascent up the rankings and victory at Indian Wells in the spring. That this was only his fourth Wimbledon appearance and that none of his previous outings had gone beyond the second round was not given much weight. But perhaps a lack of experience told here, at least in how Draper managed the match, while the 36-year-old Cilic, a Wimbledon finalist in 2017, revelled in his own on-court Indian summer.
Italy kicked off their Euro 2025 challenge with a controlled victory in their Group B opener in Sion. Arianna Caruso’s spectacular first-half goal proved the difference in a close encounter against a well-organised Belgium.
With the game evenly matched, it was one that required just a moment of quality. Caruso is Italy’s puppet-master, pulling the strings with ease from the heart of the midfield. Her goal was an example of what Italy can do when they are at their best.
The actor Michael Madsen has died aged 67 at his home in Malibu, according to authorities and his representatives. No foul play is suspected, the sheriff’s department confirmed, after deputies responded to the Los Angeles county home following a call to the emergency services on Thursday morning.
He was pronounced dead at 8.25am. In an email, Madsen’s manager, Ron Smith, confirmed his client had died from cardiac arrest.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has arrested the Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr in California and begun proceedings to deport him, citing cartel affiliations, multiple criminal convictions and an active arrest warrant in Mexico for weapons trafficking and organized crime.
Chávez Jr, 39, the son of the legendary world champion Julio César Chávez Sr, was taken into custody by Ice agents on Tuesday in Studio City, a Los Angeles neighborhood known for celebrity residences. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), he had been living in the US unlawfully and posed a significant threat to public safety.
Akash Deep removes both Duckett and Pope for ducks
The last time a visiting skipper in England notched up a double century was Graeme Smith in 2003 and it prompted Nasser Hussain to fall on his sword mid-series. Smith – or “what’s-his-name” as Hussain called him beforehand – was a captain killer on these shores, his South Africa team accounting for Michael Vaughan five years later.
Ben Stokes at least knew Shubman Gill’s name before this series and, in fairness, the England captaincy is unlikely to change hands in the next week. Nevertheless, Gill inflicted one of the toughest days of Stokes’ three years in charge as his chanceless and downright merciless 269 from 387 balls drove India to a position of dominance.
Israel-based study finds that by 2050 average daily milk production could be reduced by 4% as a result of worsening heat stress
Dairy production will be threatened by the increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves, a study has found.
Drawing on records from more than 130,000 cows over a period of 12 years, the researchers report that extreme heat reduces dairy cows’ ability to produce milk by 10%.
Russell confident of new contract amid Verstappen links
Mayer to stand against Ben Sulayem for FIA presidency
George Russell believes he “won’t be going anywhere” and is likely to have a new contract confirmed with Mercedes as he played down suggestions that he could lose his seat to Max Verstappen.
As he prepared for this weekend’s British Grand Prix, Russell, whose contract with Mercedes has yet to be renewed, said he thought the chances of him not being with the team next season were “exceptionally low”. Verstappen, in turn, flatly refused to comment on the matter.
Commissioner says two women were attacked by female elephant that was with a calf
Two female tourists from the UK and New Zealand have been killed by an elephant while on a walking safari in a national park in Zambia, police in the southern African country have said.
The Eastern Province police commissioner, Robertson Mweemba, said the victims, who he named as 68-year-old Easton Janet Taylor from the UK and 67-year-old Alison Jean Taylor from New Zealand, were attacked by a female elephant that was with a calf.
Syrian man, 32, was granted asylum in 2014 but lost refugee status because of a criminal conviction
Austria has returned a Syrian with a criminal conviction to his birth country in what it described as the first such deportation since the fall of the Assad regime.
“The deportation carried out today is part of a strict and thus fair asylum policy,” Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner, said in a statement.
The Madre fire, one of at least a dozen in the state, has burned more than 35,000 acres in San Luis Obispo county
A fast-growing wildfire in central California has become the largest in the state this year, surpassing the size of January’s wildfires that devastated parts of Los Angeles.
The Madre fire had exploded to more than 35,000 acres (14,000 hectares) by Thursday morning, after breaking out in San Luis Obispo county on Wednesday afternoon and tearing through grasslands as dry, hot weather raised the fire risk for large portions of the state before the Fourth of July holiday.
His loved ones’ lives are changed for ever and at one level this is not a sports story. But Jota’s footballing talent, heart and will should be cherished, amid the grief
Bad moon, bad times and a river that will be overflowing for some time yet. It is impossible not to feel a deep sense of pain, sadness and shared heartbreak at news of the sudden death of Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva in a car crash in Spain. Jota was 28, father to three young children and a husband to his long-term partner, whom he married 11 days before his death.
Things that happen in sport are often described, with due dramatic licence, as tragedies. This is not a sports story. But it is the most terrible human tragedy. Those who have suffered similarly can empathise. But it is above all a private horror, an event that will alter the lives of family and friends for ever.
Subject of a fierce bidding war, this charming debut shows Trevelyan has an impressive knack for character, but is let down by a predictable plot
Writing a story from a child’s perspective works like a filter over a lens. Novels such as Sofie Laguna’s The Eye of the Sheep, Craig Silvey’s Jasper Jones and Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time use a younger person’s narration to process darker, adult themes and reveal the mythologies of the adult world. Jennifer Trevelyan’s debut A Beautiful Family uses a similar framing to tell an immersive yet imperfect coming-of-age mystery set in New Zealand.
It’s 1985, and 10-year-old Alix – a tomboyish, inquisitive girl who is never without her red Walkman and Split Enz cassette tape – is on holiday with her family, who have left their Wellington home for the nearby Kāpiti Coast. Her novelist mother normally prefers secluded spots, but this time she has curiously opted for a populous beach town. Between her parents’ bickering and her older sister’s burgeoning interest in boys and alcohol, Alix has often felt invisible. This has made her a keen observer, and she understands more than people think.
A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan is out now in Australia (Allen & Unwin, $32.99), UK (Pan Macmillan, £16.99, £15.29 on the Guardian Bookshop) and the US (Penguin Random House, US$28)
Chancellor unexpectedly joins NHS plan launch and tells media her upset was caused by a personal issue
Rachel Reeves has said she is “cracking on with the job” of chancellor, after a very public show of unity from Keir Starmer after her visible distress in the Commons.
In her first comments since her tearful appearance at Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions, Reeves said she had been upset about a personal matter, and that the only real difference to someone else having a bad day at work was that she then had to be seen on television.
Residents formed a safety watch after a neo-Nazi march in Lincoln Heights, but racist incidents still cause turmoil
Despite its proximity to a busy highway, Lincoln Heights’ rolling hills, parks and well-kept lawns are pictures of calm suburban life north of Cincinnati.
Today it’s home to about 3,000 mostly African American people a few miles from Kentucky and the Ohio River, which divided free northern states from the slave-owning south. In the 1920s, Lincoln Heights became one of the first self-governing Black communities north of the Mason-Dixon line.
The detention center visit seemed to represent a landmark in a defining issue since even before his first term: migration
Donald Trump’s tour of the bloodcurdlingly monikered – and hastily constructed – “Alligator Alcatraz” migrants detention center in Florida’s Everglades had the hallmarks of a calculatedly provocative celebration of the dystopian.
Accompanied by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis and a phalanx of journalists, the US president saw only virtue in the vista of mesh fencing, barbed wire and forbidding steel bunk beds.
I have to say, the Stade Tourbillon is probably one of the most picturesque stadiums I think I’ve ever seen! The mountainous backdrop behind the ground is absolutely stunning. Anyway, onto the football now…
The teams are out! The national anthems are about to be sung. Kick-off is just a few moments away!
Combs remains jailed awaiting sentencing as more than 50 civil cases alleging abuse and assault move forward
After two months, the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs came to a close on Wednesday with a mixed verdict. The jury acquitted the 55-year-old music mogul of the most serious charges – racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking – but found him guilty on the two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Still, this verdict marks only one chapter in Combs’s mounting legal battles. Combs, who remains incarcerated at the Metropolitan detention center in Brooklyn, is now awaiting sentencing and faces a growing number of civil lawsuits against him alleging sexual assault and abuse.
The actor on working with Mike Leigh, death by disco ball and drinking on the job
Has your northern accent helped or hindered your career? Eluned51 They do call a group of actors a “moan” of actors. We like to have a good moan. When people hear a regional accent, they immediately make assumptions about your class, financial status and education. People generally think if you’ve got a strong regional accent, you can’t do much else. Obviously there are amazing actors like Jodie Comer who smash that to pieces because people don’t realise she’s from Liverpool. But because I came out the traps with the northern accent it’s probably helped.
Do you ever suffer from impostor syndrome and think: “Why are people so fascinated by me?” RealEdPhillips I don’t ever think people are – I think they are generally quite bored by me! Of course I have impostor syndrome. When you don’t get a job, you can’t help but think: “Why didn’t I get that job? Why don’t they think I’m good enough?” So there’s a healthy balance of inferiority complex and slightly prickly ego.
I recently chatted with a middle-aged co-worker about her friend who is unhappy being single and thinks she should lose weight. As Gen X women growing up in the 1980s, our biggest concern was weight and calorie counting to control it (now we can add wrinkles, yellow teeth and odd body hair to the list).
Lawyer claims families falsely told they would not get compensation unless they completed complicated forms
The lawyer representing families whose loved ones died in the Air India flight 171 crash has said he is “angered and appalled” by the airline’s “ethically outrageous” behaviour towards bereaved relatives.
Air India said the claims, which they take “incredibly seriously”, are “unsubstantiated and inaccurate”.
Officials say about 90 people killed since Wednesday night as Israeli security cabinet prepares for meeting
Israel has escalated its offensive in Gaza before imminent talks about a ceasefire, with warships and artillery launching one of the deadliest and most intense bombardments in the devastated Palestinian territory for many months.
Medics and officials in Gaza reported that about 90 people were killed overnight and on Thursday, including many women and children. On Tuesday night and Wednesday the toll was higher, they said. Casualties included Marwan al-Sultan, a cardiologist and director of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, who died in an airstrike that also killed his wife and five children.
American hellfire Pentecostal preacher brought down by sex scandals who tearfully begged for forgiveness on TV
The American televangelist hellfire preacher Jimmy Swaggart, who has died aged 90, fell by the wayside not once but twice with sex workers, spectacularly ending his previously successful TV ministry that screened in 140 countries and was reputed to bring in $150m a year in merchandising sales.
On the first occasion, when he was filmed with a woman at a motel near his church in the suburbs of New Orleans in 1988, he prayed for forgiveness in a tearful TV address. On the second occasion three years later in California when he was caught with a woman in his car, he just told his congregation: “The Lord told me it’s flat out none of your business.”
Delayed 2023 accounts show Peter Hebblethwaite was paid £683,000 despite public outrage over dismissals
The boss of P&O Ferries was paid £683,000 in the financial year after the cross-Channel operator outraged the public and parliament by dismissing almost 800 mainly British workers.
The windfall, revealed in much delayed 2023 accounts seen by the Guardian and ITV News that report more than £90m of annual losses, represents a pay rise of at least 55% for Peter Hebblethwaite, who was the company’s highest-paid director.
The drummer says he met with director Sam Mendes to clarify the depiction of himself and his then wife Maureen
Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr said that he personally intervened in the script of the forthcoming four-film Beatles biopic directed by Sam Mendes to clarify the depiction of himself and his then wife Maureen.
In an interview with the New York Times, Starr said that he had met Mendes in London in April and spent two days discussing the script for the section of the project focusing on him.
Fire on island being fanned by gale-force winds, with blazes also raging on mainland Greece and in other parts of Europe
A wildfire fanned by gale-force winds has forced the evacuation of about 5,000 people on the Greek island of Crete,authorities and hotel association officials have said, as large swathes of continental Europe baked in a punishing early summer heatwave linked to at least nine deaths.
About 230 firefighters, along with 46 fire service vehicles and helicopters, were battling the blaze on Thursday after it broke out 24 hours earlier near Ierapetra, on the south-east coast of the island – the country’s largest – threatening to engulf houses and hotels.
Damien Saunder set out to survey the cartographic influence on album sleeve design. Four years and 400-plus records later, he’s created the coffee table book music fans and map lovers never knew they needed
Growing up in rural Wangaratta in north-eastern Victoria, Damien Saunder spent many a wintry day listening to music on the family’s record player. Just beneath the stereo was a Reader’s Digest atlas. “Anytime we put on a record, I’d get out the atlas,” Saunder recalls. “It was like a gateway to the world – a way to dream, explore and let your mind wander.”
Decades later, music and maps have come together again, this time in a coffee table book: Maps on Vinyl, a world-first survey of the cartographic influence on album sleeve design; an atlas of album cover maps. It’s the book most music fans – and map-makers – never knew they needed.
It’s frightening to learn we’re not to similar to others, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. One way to respond is to allow that feeling of otherness
I received an ADHD and autism diagnosis at the end of 2024 after a period of stress and depression. I thought that my profession was to blame (I work, however unfittingly, in finance) but have come to appreciate that I am sensitive to many kinds of environmental stressors.
It has been difficult to navigate the world since the diagnosis. At first I was ecstatic, finding many of my life’s complexities could be easily answered by a natural neurodivergence, but have since found the world to be even more confusing, especially where relationship dynamics are concerned. Some people I have told about my diagnosis have started to baby me slightly. Whereas before the diagnosis I might have struggled along in certain social situations, feeling myself a little bit slow off the mark, or bored, now I am starting to notice a pronounced sense of my “otherness”, which is quite scary.
The ‘obscene’ movies once banned in the UK are now mostly freely available. Are these tales of cannibals and the undead antiquated schlock or genuinely repellent?
Later this month, the cult film service Arrow will do something that would once have plunged the UK into screaming fits of utter chaos. That’s right, it’s going to stream Zombie Flesh Eaters.
The film comes with a tremendously confusing backstory. In Italy, George A Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was recut by Dario Argento and retitled Zombi. Zombi, no relation to Bambi, was such a success that a sequel was commissioned, using the script of an unmade movie entitled Nightmare Island. This film became Zombi 2. In the UK, Zombi 2 was renamed Zombie Flesh Eaters. And then it was banned.
He hated baths, he was allergic to cats and he once ate a live mouse. Now that he’s gone, I don’t know how to miss him
When the woman from the pet crematorium asked what to put on the plaque, I had a single thought. Rupert, I told her, who ate a live mouse. The mouse had been inside the house. We had a full army chasing it – me, the kids, a herd of cats – but it had escaped our clutches for a full 30 minutes until, to my horror and delight, I turned just in time to see a scaly tail slip between my dog’s jaws.
I’ve always wondered how long a mouse could live in a dog’s digestive tract. Too long, probably. Rupert lay down for a long time after that.
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