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Reçu aujourd’hui — 2 juin 2025The Guardian

Amy Sayer double ensures Matildas celebrate Tom Sermanni’s farewell in style

2 juin 2025 à 13:40
  • Australia 4-1 Argentina; Van Egmond and Heyman goals complete rout

  • Incoming coach Joe Montemurro watches on in Canberra

The first time Tom Sermanni coached the Matildas in Canberra, three decades ago, the match took place not at GIO Stadium but at an unassuming training field next door. A warm-up encounter ahead of the 1995 Women’s World Cup, the Matildas put four unanswered goals past New Zealand in front of a handful of spectators. It warranted three paragraphs deep in the sports section of the local newspaper; the report described the win as a “great result” for Sermanni.

Thirty years later, in his 151st and final game as Matildas boss, at the end of his third stint at the helm of the national team, it was another great result: a 4-1 friendly victory over Argentina on a chilly Monday night. A brace by Amy Sayer and second-half strikes from Emily van Egmond and local hero Michelle Heyman were enough to see off a valiant Argentine effort.

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© Photograph: Matt King/Getty Images

© Photograph: Matt King/Getty Images

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta to enable AI ad creation by end of next year

2 juin 2025 à 13:31

Move sends shock waves through traditional media industry by posing threat to advertising agencies

The owner of Facebook and Instagram is to help advertisers to fully create and target campaigns using artificial intelligence tools by the end of next year, in a move that sent shock waves through the traditional marketing industry.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, which also owns WhatsApp, aims to directly target brands’ marketing budgets, posing a threat to the advertising and media agencies that handle client campaigns and budgets.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Tell us what you think about Billie Piper’s return to Doctor Who

2 juin 2025 à 13:28

We’d like to hear your thoughts on Rose Tyler’s return and what you hope will happen next

On Saturday evening during the latest season’s finale, Doctor Who fans were surprised to see Billie Piper return to the show. After two series, Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor regenerated into a grinning Rose Tyler, who played the Doctor’s companion, and greeted viewers with a “oh Hello!” in the episode’s final scene.

We’d like to hear your thought on Billie Piper’s return. What was your reaction and what would you like to see happen next? Are you hopeful Rose will be the next Doctor or do you think her comeback will be short-lived?

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© Photograph: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf

© Photograph: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf

‘Humanity deserves better’: iPhone designer on new partnership with OpenAI

Sir Jony Ive indicates unease over impact of modern technology amid tie-up with ChatGPT developer

The designer of the iPhone has promised his next artificial intelligence-enabled device will be driven by a sense that “humanity deserves better”, after admitting feeling “responsibility” for some of the negative consequences of modern technology.

Sir Jony Ive said his new partnership with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, would renew his optimism about technology, amid widespread concerns about the impact of smartphones and social media.

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

‘It’s so boring’: Gen Z parents don’t like reading to their kids - and educators are worried

2 juin 2025 à 13:00

Screen time has increasingly replaced story time, and experts warn this could lead to children falling behind

Last week, former elementary school teacher Spencer Russell posed a question to parents who follow his Instagram account, Toddlers Can Read: “Why aren’t you reading aloud to your kids?”

The responses, which Russell shared with the Guardian, ranged from embarrassed to annoyed to angry. “It’s so boring,” said one parent. “I don’t have time,” said another. One mother wrote in: “I don’t enjoy reading myself.”

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© Photograph: Amr Bo Shanab/Getty Images/Connect Images

© Photograph: Amr Bo Shanab/Getty Images/Connect Images

Orbán and Le Pen cheer Karol Nawrocki’s election as Polish president

Far-right leaders congratulate nationalist candidate as result deals blow to Donald Tusk’s pro-EU agenda

Far-right leaders in Europe have welcomed the victory of the nationalist opposition candidate, Karol Nawrocki, in Poland’s presidential elections, a result that deals a huge blow to the centre-right prime minister Donald Tusk’s reform and pro-EU agenda.

Nawrocki, a conservative historian and former amateur boxer, won Sunday’s election with 50.89% of the vote, final figures showed on Monday, ahead of his rival, Rafał Trzaskowski, the liberal Warsaw mayor and an ally of Tusk, who secured 49.11%.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Dior appoints Jonathan Anderson as sole creative director

Northern Irish designer, 40, becomes first to hold complete creative control of fashion house since Christian Dior

Jonathan Anderson has been announced as the first ever creative director for men’s, women’s and couture collections at Dior, bringing to an end speculation about the luxury brand’s future.

The 40-year-old rugby player’s son, from County Derry in Northern Ireland, will be the first designer to hold complete creative control of the fashion house since Christian Dior.

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© Photograph: Michael Tran/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Michael Tran/AFP/Getty Images

‘Not right’: Verstappen issues veiled apology for Russell crash at F1 Spanish GP

2 juin 2025 à 12:29
  • Four-time champion posts message on social media

  • Driver hit with penalty for Spanish Grand Prix collision

Max Verstappen has issued a veiled apology for his crash with George Russell by admitting it “was not right and should have not happened”. The four-time world champion was hit with a 10-second penalty by the stewards for causing a collision with Russell with two laps remaining of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Russell said he felt Verstappen’s move was deliberate and accused the Red Bull driver of letting himself down. He also suggested that Verstappen should have been disqualified. After the race, Verstappen refused to accept blame for the coming together and even sarcastically offered Russell a tissue after he was informed of his rival’s comments.

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© Photograph: Federico Basile/IPA Sport/ipa-agency.net/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Federico Basile/IPA Sport/ipa-agency.net/Shutterstock

Former bosses at video games firm Ubisoft on trial in France accused of sexual harassment

Allegations against three former executives include bullying and assault as Assassin’s Creed maker faces #MeToo moment

The first big trial to result from the #MeToo movement in the video games industry began in France on Monday, with three former executives from the French video game company Ubisoft accused of sexual harassment and bullying, one of whom is also accused of attempted sexual assault.

Ubisoft, the French family business that rose to become one of the biggest video games creators in the world, is behind several blockbusters including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and the children’s favourite Just Dance.

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© Photograph: Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters

© Photograph: Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters

On the right track: the record label reaching out to Cameroon’s street talent

2 juin 2025 à 12:00

Born in Douala prison and hailed for helping young people stay out of trouble, the success of Jail Time Records has persuaded Burkina Faso to let the label branch out there

It does not take long for a crowd to gather when the Jail Time Records van pulls up to the kerb and starts blasting music in Cameroon’s port city, Douala. Set up not just to play music but as a mobile recording studio, too, the van passes through the city’s poorer neighbourhoods, offering the microphone to Douala’s aspiring but unguided young musicians.

The goal is to scout for new talent while also helping out young people in areas plagued by drugs and crime.

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© Photograph: Steve Happi/Jail Time Records

© Photograph: Steve Happi/Jail Time Records

Trump’s tax bill helps the rich, hurts the poor and adds trillions to the deficit | Katrina vanden Heuvel

2 juin 2025 à 12:00

The ‘big, beautiful bill’ has reaffirmed that a pledged golden age is really just a windfall for the uber-wealthy

The blush is off the rose, or, rather, the orange. The erstwhile “First Buddy” and born-again fiscal hawk Elon Musk recently said he was “disappointed” by Donald Trump’s spendthrift budget currently under debate in the US Senate. Squeaking through the House of Representatives thanks to the capitulation of several Republican deficit hardliners, this “big, beautiful bill” certainly increases the federal debt bigly – by nearly $4tn over the next decade.

Equally disappointed are those who have been busy burnishing Trump’s populist veneer. Steve Bannon had repeatedly promised higher taxes for millionaires, but he has confessed he’s “very upset”. That’s because the bill would cut taxes by over $600bn for the top 1% of wage-earners, also known as millionaires. It amounts to the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history.

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© Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Three Friends review – charm aplenty in super-tasteful comedy that couldn’t be more French

2 juin 2025 à 12:00

All the typecast antics, such as having extramarital affairs, discussing feelings in depth and the occasional theatrical shrug are here in this typically bourgeois ensemble piece

Please forgive the stereotyping, but this film is so irreducibly French that watching it may cause viewers to develop uncontrollable urges to drink red wine, consume serious literature and silent comedies, and on occasion shrug theatrically while uttering the words “C’est la vie!” All of these activities – plus some even more typecast French antics, such as having extramarital affairs and discussing feelings in depth – are enjoyed by the characters here, a typically bourgeois ensemble that revolves around the three female friends of the title.

Joan (gamine India Hair, sure to be played by Michelle Williams if there’s ever an American remake) is an English teacher at a lycee in Lyons, the mother of adorable poppet Nina (Louise Vallas), the wife of French teacher Victor (Vincent Macaigne). One day, Joan confides to her two besties, fellow teacher Alice (Call My Agent’s Camille Cottin) and art teacher Rebecca (Sara Forestier), that she’s no longer “in love” with Victor and is therefore questioning the survival of her marriage. When she eventually plucks up enough gumption to confess her lack of feelings to Victor, he doesn’t take it well. Meanwhile, Rebecca is having an affair with Alice’s husband Eric (Grégoire Ludig); Alice doesn’t know but she doesn’t seem bothered that he’s a bit distant since, as she explains to Joan, she’s never really loved him that deeply. And wouldn’t you know it, she finds herself very tempted when she strikes up a long distance flirtation with artist Stéphane (Éric Caravaca) and asks Rebecca to be her alibi so she can go meet him one weekend – thereby opening up an opportunity for Rebecca and Eric to spend the weekend together themselves.

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© Photograph: Pascal Chantier - Moby Dick Films

© Photograph: Pascal Chantier - Moby Dick Films

Therapy isn’t about life hacks. The best solutions are simpler – and more complex

2 juin 2025 à 12:00

What we want is quick, clever fixes. What we need is quite different: the ability to tolerate intolerable feelings, to sustainably change and grow

When people seek therapy – and I know this, because I too was once a person seeking therapy – we often want strategies, techniques and tools for our toolboxes. We want to be asked questions and to know the answers; we want to ask questions and to be given answers. We believe that these are the things we need to build a better life.

Now that I am a patient in psychoanalysis, and I am a psychodynamic psychotherapist treating patients, I can see why my therapist needed to frustrate this desire, and offer me the opposite. What I wanted was to manage myself out of my emotions rather than feel them, to hack my life rather than live it – and that makes for a shallower existence, not a better one.

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© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images

© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images

‘Chic’ is dead, says Vogue. Is it time to revive ‘jazzy’, ‘snazzy’ and ‘swish’? | Emma Beddington

2 juin 2025 à 12:00

The word has lost all meaning, we are told. Could my favourite dad-jectives replace it?

Vogue has spoken: chic is dead. Not being it, but the word. Chic has, Lauren O’Neill argues, lost its essence, co-opted to cover whatever glazed-doughnut-skinned influencers on TikTok decide it should, from monogrammed lip balm to iced matchas. “Chic has come to be mistaken for certain monied strains of taste, rather than the sort of unique je ne sais quoi that I think the word at its purest actually means.”

Baudelaire – the 19th century’s Nicky Haslam, given how many things he disapproved of: photography, Belgium, Victor Hugo – would have agreed. He called chic an “awful and bizarre word”. Are he and Vogue right?

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© Photograph: DEA/G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images

© Photograph: DEA/G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images

James Lowe, singer of psychedelic rock trailblazers the Electric Prunes, dies age 82

2 juin 2025 à 11:46

The band’s early single I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) was their biggest hit, featuring on the compilation Nuggets, and has influenced generations of musicians

James Lowe, the singer of psychedelic rock band the Electric Prunes, has died aged 82. His family said in a statement that he died of natural causes.

“Dad leaves behind a legacy of sound, love and boundless creativity,” they said on Facebook. “At the centre of it all was our amazing mom, Pamela – his guiding star, enduring muse and wife of 62 years. We know how deeply he cherished this community, and we feel that love too.”

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© Photograph: Bill Tompkins/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bill Tompkins/Getty Images

Chelsea weighing up £50m bid for Borussia Dortmund’s Jamie Gittens

2 juin 2025 à 11:45
  • Right-footed left-winger is a priority for club

  • Another busy summer expected at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea are weighing up a bid for Jamie Gittens after holding talks with Borussia Dortmund. The England Under-21 winger, who is expected to cost around £50m, is one of several names of interest to the club as they attempt to bring in a wide player before heading to the Club World Cup this month.

Bringing in a right-footed winger capable of playing on the left flank is a priority for Chelsea, who are also set to announce a £30m deal for the Ipswich striker Liam Delap.

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© Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters

© Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters

Sydney airport’s lost property auction puts weird and wonderful on the radar

About 2,000 unclaimed items from jewellery to a vacuum cleaner and a ‘Hooverboard’ go under the hammer in annual fundraiser for charity

Violins, frying pans, vacuum cleaners and lots and lots of belts.

The terminals of Australia’s busiest airports may provide a cross-section of society, but Sydney airport’s annual lost property auction gives a glimpse into the bizarre items travellers are carrying – and the traps of forgetfulness that unite us.

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© Photograph: Sydney Airport

© Photograph: Sydney Airport

UK moving to ‘war-fighting readiness’, Starmer says, as he calls on ‘every part of society’ to play role in defence – politics live

2 juin 2025 à 13:41

Prime minister reveals defence spending plans and says UK must be fastest military innovator in Nato

Here is the clip of Keir Starmer in his Today programme interview refusing to say when the government will raise defence spending to 3% of GDP.

In an interview with the Times published on Saturday John Healey, the defence secretary, said that he had “no doubt” that Britain would reach the 3% target by 2034 – ie, before the end of the next parliament. Yesterday he described this as an “ambition”.

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© Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AP

© Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AP

Australia v Argentina: international women’s football friendly – live

2 juin 2025 à 11:42
  • Updates as the Matildas send off Tom Sermanni at GIO Stadium

  • Any thoughts? Get in touch on email or on Bluesky @martinpegan

1 min: The Matildas win the ball back immediately from the kick off and Clare Wheeler makes a scything run toward the corner flag. The midfielder is brought to ground and goes searching for a free kick but referee Supiree Testhomya points for a goal kick.

Peeeeeeeeeeeeep!

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© Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

© Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

French Open: Zverev and Pegula in action, Gauff wins, Norrie v Djokovic to come – live

2 juin 2025 à 13:39
  • Fourth-round matches continue at Roland Garros

  • Email Niall with your thoughts on the action

Magical stuff from Andreeva here, somehow chasing down a Kasatkina drop shot and sending a perfect lob beyond her opponent. That’s earned her a break in the opening game of the second set, and she’s threatening to run away with this now.

On Chatrier, Alexandrova is making a better go of things in the second set, getting on the board with her first service holds. She leads 2-1, still on serve.

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© Photograph: Christophe Petit-Tesson/EPA

© Photograph: Christophe Petit-Tesson/EPA

Russia launches deadly attacks across Ukraine before Istanbul talks with Kyiv – Russia-Ukraine war live

Russian shelling and air attacks kill five near Zaporizhzhia before second round of peace talks in Istanbul

Ruth Michaelson is reporting from Istanbul and will be providing updates on the talks. Here is some colour from outside Istanbul’s Ciragan Palace:

A fleet of black sedans arrived outside the Çırağan Palace in Istanbul, signalling the arrival of some of the negotiations teams.

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© Photograph: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

© Photograph: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

The one change that worked: I was born with brown hair. But becoming Ginger Rachel brought me true happiness

2 juin 2025 à 11:00

I tried bleaching my hair; I tried dyeing it pink, blue and purple. Then, at the age of 18, I finally discovered the real me

My hair has always been my pride and joy. Hairdressers would fawn over how long and thick it was. It was glossy, healthy and an unremarkable shade of light brown. But it never really felt like “me”. As a teen I dyed it purple, pink, red, blue or all four, trying to find the magic shade that would make sense.

Until disaster struck. When I was 18, I damaged my hair so badly with bleach that no colour would stick to it. After I spent two weeks as peroxide Barbie, my hairdresser saved what she could of my hair by dyeing it back to its natural mousy brown colour and chopping a good 14 inches off into a blunt bob. Much to her dismay, again bored with brown I bleached it a week later. It seemed I was in a permanent identity crisis that only a box of bleach could fix.

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© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

‘People would prevail’: why The Towering Inferno is my feelgood movie

2 juin 2025 à 11:00

The next in our series of writers highlighting their go-to comfort picks is a look back to 1974’s rousing disaster classic

Among the many reasons I’m long overdue for therapy would be that I consider a feature about a bunch of people trapped in a burning skyscraper as a feelgood movie. But there it is: the stunning effects (which hold up to this day), the sprawling, larger-than-life cast and accompanying who-will-make-it-to-the-end? suspense, the earnest, cheeseball dialogue – whenever I feel anxious or down, something about The Towering Inferno offers solace.

The most obvious reason boils down to one thing: nostalgia. My parents were film enthusiasts who would usually take us to a movie every week. And this was no ordinary experience: The Towering Inferno was the crown jewel in the 1970s disaster cycle, disdained by many critics for being trashy (while acknowledging it was entertaining trash). It was the talk of the schoolyard: whose parents were cool enough to actually take their kids to see this big-screen spectacle? Thus it was one of my primal filmgoing experiences: it accompanies fond memories of my parents treating us to something that felt as exhilarating as the circus.

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© Photograph: Moviestore/REX Shutterstock

© Photograph: Moviestore/REX Shutterstock

Populist Nawrocki’s triumph threatens Poland’s place at Europe’s top table

Victory of radical-right candidate could seriously destabilise the coalition government of pro-EU prime minister Donald Tusk

The victory margin of the nationalist Karol Nawrocki in Poland’s presidential elections may have been wafer-thin, but it marks a huge upheaval in the country’s political landscape whose impact will be felt not just in Warsaw but across the EU.

Backed by the previous ruling conservative Law & Justice (PiS) party and, openly, by Donald Trump’s Maga movement, Nawrocki, a radical-right historian, defeated his liberal rival, the capital’s mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, by 50.89% to 49.11%.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

When the Phone Rang review – meditation on memory, displacement and the trauma of exile

2 juin 2025 à 10:00

In Serbian artist Iva Radivojević’s third feature – part memoir, part drama – a girl tries to recall her exiled past as a personal loss melds with the start of the Yugoslavian war

Hovering between memoir, docu-essay and drama, Serbian artist Iva Radivojević’s third feature opens with a phone call that changes everything. Eleven-year-old Lana (a proxy for Radivojević, played by Natalija Ilinčić) receives the news that her grandfather has died; home alone, she is told by the speaker to communicate that to her mother. The Bakelite clock on the wall says it is precisely 10.36am on a Friday in 1992, “when the country of X was still a country”.

Friday 10.36am 1992 becomes a point and a rift in time, through which the historical erupts into the personal; a more intimate companion piece, perhaps, to the 2006 Romanian new wave classic 12.08 East of Bucharest. The news of Lana’s grandfather’s death melds with the start of the Yugoslavian war (perhaps the two events are linked, as he was a retired colonel). Suitcases are packed; Lana, in her memory always wearing a pink Nike shell suit, is driven by her father to the airport, presumably to emigrate. With these dramatised fragments – as well as ones of everyday Serbian life – threaded together in a third-person narration later revealed to be hers, Lana seems to be reconstructing her own exiled past.

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© Photograph: Publicity image

© Photograph: Publicity image

As the first born, am I the smartest? Maybe – but siblings shape us in far more interesting ways | Imogen West-Knights

2 juin 2025 à 10:00

A new book explores the impact of birth order, but how we measure up against our brothers and sisters can be complex

A new book about sibling relationships, The Family Dynamic by Susan Dominus, examines how things like birth order and the specific achievements of your siblings affect a person’s life trajectory. As such, some of my favourite research is back in the public eye: the studies that suggest that I, as the eldest of three children, am the cleverest.

I’m kidding. I don’t actually think this is true in my own sibling group, but sure, I’ll take it, and say so in the national press: I’m smarter than you guys, science confirms. I am very interested in siblings and their influences, though. So much so that I wrote my first novel about a brother-sister relationship. Siblings shape you in ways that are less deliberate than parents, which means their influence is less discussed, though just as important. That said, birth order has remained a public fascination, with parents agonising over whether a middle child is overlooked or eldest is overburdened.

Imogen West-Knights is a writer and journalist

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© Photograph: handout/Handout

© Photograph: handout/Handout

Mothers fight to protect children from drugs as ‘hotspotting’ takes hold in Lesotho

2 juin 2025 à 10:00

Women campaign against needle-sharing and ‘bluetoothing’ in African state with one of the world’s highest rates of HIV

Pontso Tumisi remembers seeing crystal meth for the first time in her daughter’s bedroom several years ago. When her daughter said the crystals were bath salts, she believed her. Now, she regrets that naivety.

Tumisi says a lack of knowledge about drugs among parents and guardians has allowed many children’s use of dangerous substances to go undetected.

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© Photograph: Silence Charumbira

© Photograph: Silence Charumbira

Football transfer rumours: Manchester United to replace Fernandes with Gonçalves?

2 juin 2025 à 09:31

Today’s fluff is back in action

The Rumour Mill is back in action, filtering absolutely nothing from the gossipmongers and pumping it straight into your eyes. To heighten the excitement, there is not one but two transfer windows this summer. You lucky lot.

Matheus Cunha’s £62.5m move from Wolves has ignited what is to be a busy off-season for Ruben Amorim as he attempts to turn the Manchester United behemoth around. It could become somewhat more complicated if Bruno Fernandes decides he wants to test himself in jump ship to the Saudi Premier League with Al-Hilal. If that does become the case, one bit of tittle-tattle doing the rounds is that Amorim will return to his former employers to sign Pedro Gonçalves, who once had a gloriously forgettable spell at Wolves.

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© Photograph: Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images

© Photograph: Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images

Pulp: More review – anthems and rage for the next life stage

2 juin 2025 à 09:27

(Rough Trade)
Jarvis Cocker and the band’s first album in 24 years delivers a refreshing take on middle age, with all the the skewed observation and joyful melodic flourishes of old

Time has been particularly kind to Pulp. As Jarvis Cocker points out on Spike Island, the lead single from their first album in 24 years, their 2002 split went largely unlamented: they had already succeeded in considerably reducing the size of their audience with 1998’s claustrophobic album This Is Hardcore and 2001’s Scott Walker-produced We Love Life. An ostensibly valedictory greatest hits album spent a single week in the lower reaches of the Top 75. And the year after their demise, John Harris’s Britpop history The Last Party noted tartly that Pulp’s music had “rather dated”. “The universe shrugged, then moved on,” sings Cocker, which is a perhaps more poetic reiteration of what he said at the time: the greatest hits album was “a real silent fart” and “nobody was that arsed, evidently”.

But subsequent years significantly burnished their memory. It was frequently noted that, besides the Manic Street Preachers’ A Design for Life, Common People was the only significant hit of the Britpop years that might be described as a protest song, a bulwark against the accusation that the era had nothing more substantial to offer than flag-waving and faux-gorblimey. At a time when ostensibly “alternative” rock bands had seemed suddenly desperate for mainstream acceptance, Pulp had become huge by sticking up for outsiders and weirdos. Mis-Shapes, for example, hymned the kinds of people one suspected some of Oasis’s fans would have happily thumped.

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© Photograph: Tom Jackson

© Photograph: Tom Jackson

Butt-naked Milton and a spot of fellatio: why William Blake became a queer icon

2 juin 2025 à 09:00

How did an ancient poet and painter who died in obscurity come to obsess everyone from Oscar Wilde to David Hockney, Robert Mapplethorpe, Derek Jarman and David Bowie? The writer of a new book explains his glorious allure

William Blake may be known for seeing angels up in trees, for writing the alternative national anthem Jerusalem, and for his emblematic poem The Tyger. But his story is far more subversive and far queerer than cosy fables allow. It’s why Oscar Wilde hung a Blake nude on his college room wall. It’s why Blake became a lyric in a Pet Shop Boys song. And it’s why David Hockney is showing a Blake-inspired painting at his current exhibition in Paris.

When I lived in the East End of London, I’d walk over Blake’s grave in Bunhill Fields every day. It felt sort of disrespectful. Perhaps that’s why he has haunted me ever since. Years later, while trying to write a book about another artist, I got ill and very low. Suddenly, echoing one of his own visions, Blake came to me and said: “Well, how about it?” I felt I had to make amends for treading on his dreams. I’ve met many artists – Andy Warhol, Lucian Freud, Derek Jarman – but it is Blake whose hand I would love to have held and whose magical spirit I summon up in my new book. He even gave me my title: William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love. (A friend has since pointed out that the title sounds suspiciously like a 1970s album by a certain starman from Mars).

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© Photograph: Penta Springs Limited/Alamy

© Photograph: Penta Springs Limited/Alamy

Is it true that … taking collagen supplements slows signs of ageing?

2 juin 2025 à 09:00

Many people take collagen powders and pills in the hope of looking younger for longer, but there are better ways to improve your chances

Collagen is one of the body’s building blocks. Made up of amino acids absorbed from the protein we eat, there are more than 20 subtypes found everywhere – from our bones and muscles to organs. Types I, II, and III are the most common in skin, cartilage and connective tissue, helping with strength and elasticity.

In recent years collagen has become known as the protein that keeps the skin on our face young-looking, with collagen powders and pills promising to slow signs of ageing – but is there any truth in those claims?

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© Illustration: Edith Pritchett

© Illustration: Edith Pritchett

Simon Yates rides away with prize of Giro d’Italia while rivals lose the plot | William Fotheringham

2 juin 2025 à 09:00

Del Toro and Carapaz became distracted by each other, allowing the Lancastrian to claim a second Grand Tour

The Mexican standoff is a much-loved cinematic device, but the stalemate beloved of western movie script writers has rarely, if ever, decided one of cycling’s Grand Tours. The 2025 Giro d’Italia was the exception, appositely as the biggest loser was an actual Mexican, Isaac del Toro, with the unassuming Lancastrian Simon Yates the two-wheeled equivalent of the bandit who skips off with the loot, while two other bandits – in this case Richard Carapaz and Del Toro – stare each other down waiting for the other man to blink.

Yates’s second career Grand Tour win, forged on the Colle delle Finestre on Saturday afternoon in a peerless display of courage and cunning, and sealed 24 hours later in the streets of Rome, will go down in cycling’s annals as one of the most improbable heists the sport has witnessed.

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© Photograph: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images

© Photograph: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images

Glenn Maxwell retires from ODI cricket as curtain falls on explosive career

2 juin 2025 à 08:48
  • Australian calls time to focus on preparations for T20 World Cup

  • Allrounder’s strike rate of 126 is second highest in ODI cricket

Australian limited overs great Glenn Maxwell has called time on his decorated one-day international career to focus on next year’s T20 World Cup and domestic competitions as injuries begin to take their toll.

The explosive all-rounder announced his retirement from ODIs on Monday after 149 matches that included arguably the greatest innings of all time in the format.

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© Photograph: Rajanish Kakade/AP

© Photograph: Rajanish Kakade/AP

Two Scottish men shot dead outside bar in southern Spain

1 juin 2025 à 22:35

Masked man opened fire outside Monaghans pub in Fuengirola, Málaga, popular with tourists and expatriates

Two Scottish men have been shot dead outside a bar in southern Spain.

The victims were gunned down outside Monaghans, a popular Irish-themed bar in the coastal town of Fuengirola, Málaga, at about 11pm on Saturday.

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© Photograph: Jorge Zapata/EPA

© Photograph: Jorge Zapata/EPA

Tell us: how long do you spend looking at a screen?

20 mai 2025 à 15:49

We would like to hear from people about their screen time experiences

We’re interested in finding out more about people’s screen time experiences and how long they spend looking at them. How long do you spend looking at your phone, TV and laptop every day? Do you ever worry that it’s far too long or are friends actually often surprised by how little screen time you have?

Which apps or sites take up most of your time and why? Do you set limits on certain apps when using your phone? What effect, if any, do they have?

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© Photograph: skynesher/Getty Images

© Photograph: skynesher/Getty Images

China accuses US of ‘seriously violating’ trade war truce; UK factory output shrinks again – business live

2 juin 2025 à 11:34

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Today’s UK PMI report (see 9.52am) also shows that business confidence at British factories remained ‘subdued’ last month.

Manufacturers continued to raise concerns that turbulent trade conditions, the weak economic outlook and rising cost burdens will make market conditions tough during the year ahead.

Weak global market conditions, trade uncertainty, low customer confidence and cost pressures resulting from recent increases to UK employer NICs and minimum wages also contributed to clients’ reluctance to spend. That said, a recent bout of good weather did boost sales at some manufacturers.

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© Photograph: Héctor Retamal/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Héctor Retamal/AFP/Getty Images

Australia mushroom trial live: Erin Patterson gives evidence in her triple murder trial

2 juin 2025 à 08:32

Trial of Victorian woman, 50, who has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one of attempted murder over a fatal 2023 beef wellington lunch, enters sixth week. Follow live

The jury is back in the courtroom in Morwell.

Mandy concludes the defence’s cross-examination.

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© Photograph: Paul Tyquin/SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Paul Tyquin/SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA/AFP/Getty Images

Poland presidential election 2025: rightwing candidate Karol Nawrocki wins, official results show – live

Nawrocki’s victory over Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski is a blow to Donald Tusk’s pro-EU Polish government

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has said she expects “very good cooperation” to continue between the EU and Poland under the presidency of newly elected Karol Nawrocki.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, she said:

I’m confident that the EU will continue its very good cooperation with Poland. We are all stronger together in our community of peace, democracy, and values. So let us work to ensure the security and prosperity of our common home.

I congratulate Karol Nawrocki on his election as Polish President. I believe that under his leadership, Poland will continue to develop its democratic and pro-western orientation and that our countries will continue mutually beneficial cooperation.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

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