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Reçu aujourd’hui — 18 juin 2025The Guardian

Bali flights cancelled after Indonesian volcano spews 10km-high ash tower

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on the island of Flores, east of Bali, erupted on Tuesday afternoon, leading to several airlines cancelling flights

A volcano in eastern Indonesia has spewed a colossal ash tower into the sky, forcing the cancellation of dozens of flights to and from Bali.

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,584m twin-peaked volcano on the tourist island of Flores, east of Bali, erupted at 5.35pm local time on Tuesday, the volcanology agency said in a statement.

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© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Malfunctions, overreactions and a steep learning curve: wargaming a Chinese attack on Taiwan

18 juin 2025 à 03:08

First civilian-led military simulation bringing together teams from the US, Taiwan and Japan revealed a series of potential vulnerabilities

A series of war games in Taiwan has highlighted significant vulnerabilities in how the island and its supporters would respond to a Chinese annexation attempt, as well as growing questions over how much reliance can be placed on the volatile Trump administration.

Last week former senior military and government officials from the US, Japan, and Taiwan convened in Taipei for a tabletop exercise, led by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation. The event was described as the first civilian-led military simulation held in Taiwan, testing responses to a hypothetical attempt by China to annex the territory.

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© Photograph: I-Hwa Cheng/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: I-Hwa Cheng/AFP/Getty Images

India and Canada return ambassadors as Carney and Modi seek to move on from assassination dispute

18 juin 2025 à 02:35

Relations between the two countries broke down in 2024, after Canada accused India of involvement in the assassination of a Sikh separatist

India and Canada have agreed to return ambassadors to each other’s capitals, turning the page on a bitter spat over an assassination, as Canada’s new leader welcomed his counterpart Narendra Modi.

Prime minister Mark Carney, who took office in March, invited Modi to the Canadian Rockies as a guest at the summit of the Group of Seven major economies.

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© Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock

Tyler Perry accused of sexual harassment and workplace gender violence

18 juin 2025 à 01:49

Media mogul faces allegations of creating ‘coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic’ in lawsuit seeking $260m in damages

Tyler Perry has been accused of sexual harassment, workplace gender violence and sexual assault in a lawsuit from an actor who said the media mogul used his influence and power to create a “coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic”.

In the suit filed in Los Angeles last week and first reported on Tuesday, Derek Dixon, who worked on Tyler Perry’s shows Ruthless and The Oval, said Perry promised career advancement but subjected him to “escalating sexual harassment, assault and battery”. Dixon alleges he was subjected to harassment and abuse by Perry while he “held direct control over his employment, compensation, and creative opportunities” and that he faced retaliation when he did not respond favorably to his advances.

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© Photograph: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

© Photograph: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Leaked footage and prison logs reveal Aung San Suu Kyi’s life in detention

Exclusive: Video and documents give rare glimpse inside daily life of the imprisoned civilian leader as she nears her 80th birthday

Rare footage of Aung San Suu Kyi inside a Myanmar courtroom and detailed records of her daily prison routine have been seen by the Guardian, offering a glimpse into the life of the country’s ousted civilian leader as she nears her 80th birthday.

Since the military seized power in February 2021, little has been seen or heard of Aung San Suu Kyi, who led Myanmar for six years before her arrest. She is held in solitary confinement with access to the outside world strictly controlled and only rare supervised visits from her legal team.

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© Composite: AP

© Composite: AP

‘It’s time to wake up’: Padilla recounts being handcuffed at Noem briefing in emotional speech

18 juin 2025 à 00:11

California senator details being restrained and warns of how democratic norms can slip away when power is unchecked

Alex Padilla took to the Senate floor on Tuesday to deliver a deeply personal speech, formally entering into the congressional record his account of being restrained and forcibly removed as he attempted to ask a question at a press conference held by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, in Los Angeles last week.

In emotional remarks, Padilla described the encounter that he hoped would serve as a “wake up call” for Americans – a warning, he said, of how quickly democratic norms can slip away when dissent is silenced and power is unchecked.

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© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Reuters

© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Reuters

Trump brushes off US intel reports on Iran to align himself with Israel

17 juin 2025 à 21:22

President has dismissed verdict by handpicked spy chief, Tulsi Gabbard, that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons

Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, delivered a concise verdict during congressional testimony this March: the intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and supreme leader Khomeini [sic] has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003”.

As he rushed back to Washington on Tuesday morning, Donald Trump swatted aside the assessment from the official that he handpicked to deliver him information from 18 US intelligence agencies. “I don’t care what she said,” said Trump. “I think they were very close to having one.”

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© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

Female baboons with strong relationship to fathers found to live longer

Study suggests role of male parents may be under-appreciated in some primate species

If male baboons were subject to the same kind of cultural commentary as humans, the phrase “deadbeat dads” might be called for, such is the primate’s relatively limited involvement in raising their young.

But a study suggests that even their little effort might go a long way, with female baboons who experience a stronger relationship with their fathers when young tending to live longer as adults.

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© Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Judge blocks Trump order that targeted trans people’s genders on US passports

18 juin 2025 à 00:57

Ruling rebukes order from White House that said passports must conform to the sex citizens were assigned at birth

A federal judge in Boston has ruled that transgender and intersex people can obtain passports that align with their gender identity, in a rebuke to an executive order from the Trump administration that said passports must conform to the sex citizens were assigned at birth.

US district judge Julia Kobick issued a preliminary injunction that expanded an earlier order she issued in April that had stopped the US state department from enforcing the policy in the case of six people, after finding the order was likely unconstitutional.

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© Photograph: graficart.net/Alamy

© Photograph: graficart.net/Alamy

Reçu hier — 17 juin 2025The Guardian

Ukraine left in lurch as Trump rushes out of G7 without meeting Zelenskyy

17 juin 2025 à 23:32

US president said he had to leave to focus on Israel-Iran conflict, without addressing Russia-Ukraine ceasefire

Ukrainian diplomats have been left frustrated – and in some cases embittered – at Donald Trump’s refusal to make Ukraine a priority after Volodymyr Zelenskyy flew 5,000 miles to the G7 conference in Canada only for the US president to return home the night before the two leaders were due to meet. Trump said he needed to focus on the Israel-Iran conflict.

In a further blow for Kyiv the US vetoed a joint statement on Ukraine from the summit, on the grounds that the wording was too anti-Russian and could compromise negotiations with Vladimir Putin.

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© Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock

Elon Musk’s X sues New York over hate speech and disinformation law

17 juin 2025 à 23:09

Suit alleges Stop Hiding Hate Act, which compels social media firms to disclose actions against hate speech, violates free speech

Elon Musk’s X Corp filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the state of New York, arguing a recently passed law compelling large social media companies to divulge how they address hate speech is unconstitutional.

The complaint alleges that bill S895B, known as the Stop Hiding Hate Act, violates free speech rights under the first amendment. The act, which the governor, Kathy Hochul, signed into law last December, requires companies to publish their terms of service and submit reports detailing the steps they take to moderate extremism, foreign influence, disinformation, hate speech and other forms of harmful content.

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© Photograph: Allison Robbert/Reuters

© Photograph: Allison Robbert/Reuters

Alex Jones accused of trying to hide assets from Sandy Hook families

17 juin 2025 à 23:04

New lawsuits allege that the Infowars host tried to shield over $5m through a series of fraudulent asset transfers

The trustee overseeing Infowars host Alex Jones’s personal bankruptcy case is accusing the far-right conspiracy theorist of trying to shield more than $5m from creditors, including relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Connecticut.

Three new lawsuits filed by the trustee on Friday alleging fraudulent asset transfers are the latest developments in Jones’s long-running bankruptcy case, which has been pending in federal court in Houston for more than two years. In financial statements filed in bankruptcy court last year, Jones listed his net worth at $8.4m.

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© Photograph: David J Phillip/AP

© Photograph: David J Phillip/AP

Israel-Iran conflict at critical juncture as Trump demands Tehran’s ‘unconditional surrender’

US president triggers speculation about American military involvement after five days of Israeli bombing and retaliatory Iranian missile strikes

Israel’s war on Iran appeared to be approaching a pivotal moment on Tuesday night after five days of bombing and retaliatory Iranian missile strikes, as Donald Trump demanded “unconditional surrender” from Tehran and weighed his military options.

Trump convened a meeting of his national security team in the White House situation room after a day of febrile rhetoric in which the president gave sharply conflicting signals over whether US forces would participate directly in Israel’s bombing campaign over Iran.

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© Photograph: Mahmoud Illean/AP

© Photograph: Mahmoud Illean/AP

Los Angeles mayor lifts curfew put in place over protests against Ice raids

17 juin 2025 à 22:25

Karen Bass had instated curfew on 10 June to protect businesses from vandalism during demonstrations

Karen Bass, the Los Angeles mayor, lifted a curfew in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday that was first imposed in response to clashes with police and vandalism amid protests against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in the city.

The curfew imposed 10 June provided “successful crime prevention and suppression efforts” and protected stores, restaurants, businesses and residents from people engaging in vandalism, Bass, a Democrat, said.

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© Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Baby of brain-dead Georgia woman on life support delivered via C-section

17 juin 2025 à 22:10

Adriana Smith was declared brain dead in February and was kept alive to continue pregnancy

A brain-dead Georgia woman who was kept on life support to continue her pregnancy had her baby late last week, according to the woman’s mother.

The Georgia woman, Adriana Smith, gave birth prematurely via emergency cesarean section on 13 June, Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, told the local news station 11Alive, which first reported Smith’s story. The baby, named Chance, is in the neonatal intensive care unit and weighs 1lb 13oz, 11Alive reported late on Monday night.

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© Photograph: GoFundMe

© Photograph: GoFundMe

Trent Alexander-Arnold takes first step of Real Madrid high-wire act | Barney Ronay

17 juin 2025 à 22:00

The player’s Club World Cup bow in Miami will surely be the most scrutinised pre-season debut any footballer has faced

On Tuesday morning the Miami Herald carried a story about a Local Man arrested in Florida’s Polk County for breaking into a stranger’s house to make himself dinner and have a bath rather than going home to face his wife after an argument.

The Local Man, who has no criminal history, was apprehended just as he was settling in for a relaxing soak. He has since been charged with burglary. So on balance, and while an entirely tempting, innovative option, this is probably not the way to go.

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© Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters

© Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters

Emma Raducanu’s stalker blocked by Wimbledon after name found in ballot

17 juin 2025 à 21:57
  • Man given restraining order in Dubai on ticket waiting list

  • All England Club employs fixated threat specialists

Emma Raducanu’s stalker has been blocked from buying tickets for the Wimbledon Championships this month in the public ballot, it has emerged.

Security staff at the All England Club discovered that the man, who has never been named, was on the waiting list when they did a re-sweep of the ballot, after he was given a restraining order in Dubai in February.

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© Photograph: John Walton/PA

© Photograph: John Walton/PA

Former Argentinian president Cristina Fernández allowed to serve corruption sentence at home

Judge rules Cristina Fernández de Kirchner can serve six-year sentence in apartment, citing age and security reasons

A federal court in Argentina has granted former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s request to serve a six-year prison sentence for corruption at her home in Buenos Aires.

Judges ruled that Fernández, 72, can serve time in the apartment, where she lives with her daughter and her granddaughter, citing her age and security reasons. Fernández was the victim of an attempted assassination three years ago.

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© Photograph: Pedro Lazaro Fernandez/Reuters

© Photograph: Pedro Lazaro Fernandez/Reuters

‘Not our war’: bipartisan US lawmakers back resolution to block involvement in Iran

17 juin 2025 à 20:57

Republican Thomas Massie joins with Democrats in effort to require Congress approval before Trump attacks Iran

As Donald Trump publicly threatens to join Israel in attacking Iran, an unlikely coalition of lawmakers has moved to prevent the president from involving US forces in the conflict without Congress’s approval.

On Tuesday, Republican congressman Thomas Massie, whose libertarian-tinged politics have often put him at odds with Trump, joined with several progressive Democrats to introduce in the House of Representatives a war powers resolution that would require a vote by Congress before Trump could attack Iran. Democrat Tim Kaine has introduced companion legislation in the Senate.

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© Photograph: Aashish Kiphayet/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Aashish Kiphayet/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

Club World Cup: Jobe Bellingham makes Dortmund debut in draw with Fluminense

17 juin 2025 à 20:51
  • Teams fail to find cutting edge in scoreless draw

  • MetLife Stadium half-full for noon kick-off

  • River Plate and Mamelodi Sundowns grab wins

Borussia Dortmund and Fluminense played out a 0-0 draw in the Club World Cup on Tuesday in rainy conditions at MetLife Stadium.

The match kicked off at noon local time, so it was perhaps unsurprising that the stadium was only half full. New York/New Jersey has a significant Brazilian population, and the crowd of 34,763 was tilted toward Fluminense, with fans waving flags and singing for their team.

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© Photograph: Image Photo Agency/Getty Images

© Photograph: Image Photo Agency/Getty Images

Tom Cruise and Dolly Parton among stars set to receive honorary Oscars

17 juin 2025 à 20:38

The Mission: Impossible actor and country singing multi-hyphenate will be honoured alongside actor Debbie Allen and production designer Wynn Thomas

Tom Cruise and Dolly Parton will be among this year’s recipients of honorary Oscars.

The pair join choreographer, actor and director Debbie Allen and production designer Wynn Thomas, all scheduled to receive special Oscars at this year’s governors awards in November.

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© Photograph: AP

© Photograph: AP

New York City mayoral candidate Brad Lander arrested at immigration court

17 juin 2025 à 20:23

Lander, also the city’s comptroller, was ‘arrested for assaulting law enforcement’, says DHS

Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller and a mayoral candidate, was arrested by masked federal agents while visiting an immigration court and accompanying a person out of a courtroom.

In a statement to the Guardian, assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin from the Department of Homeland Security said Lander “was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer”.

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© Photograph: Olga Fedorova/AP

© Photograph: Olga Fedorova/AP

‘What if the strikes hit us on the highway?’: Thousands flee Tehran amid bombardment

Fearful residents endure fraught journeys out of Iranian capital as Israel issues evacuation order

As Farhad* and his friends left Tehran, they had plenty of time to survey the destruction. Smoke billowed from rooftops and flames flickered behind them as they inched their way through miles-long traffic to escape Israel’s bombardment of Iran’s capital city.

Despite leaving early on Tuesday morning, it took Farhad six hours to reach his ancestral village, a journey that usually would take no more than two-and-a-half hours.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

The Guardian view on Gaza’s engineered famine: stop arming the slaughter – or lose the rule of law | Editorial

17 juin 2025 à 19:48

As Palestinians starve amid the rubble, western governments defend Israel, fund armed aid and dismantle the very rules they claim to uphold

Gaza’s cries have been drowned out by Israel’s strikes on Iran, and the diplomatic pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu over the suffering has ebbed. Yet as the industrialised world urges de-escalation in the Middle East, the devastation continues. On Tuesday morning, witnesses described Israeli forces firing towards a crowd waiting for trucks loaded with flour, leaving more than 50 dead. These are not stray bullets in wartime chaos, they are the outcome of a system that makes relief deadly.

As Médecins Sans Frontières declared this week, what is unfolding in Gaza is “the calculated evisceration of the very systems that sustain life”. That includes homes, markets, water networks and hospitals – with healthcare continually under attack. Last week, a UN commission found that more than 90% of the Gaza Strip’s schools and universities have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli forces using airstrikes, burning, shelling and controlled demolitions. What’s happening is not the collateral damage of military necessity, it is a programme of civic annihilation.

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.

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© Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP

© Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP

The Guardian view on Egypt and Alaa Abd el-Fattah: Starmer and Lammy vowed to do all they can. So do it | Editorial

17 juin 2025 à 19:47

The UK still has ways to press for the release of the British-Egyptian writer and bring an end to the hunger strike endangering his mother’s life

Last month, Sir Keir Starmer promised to do “everything I possibly can” to free Egypt’s highest profile political prisoner, Alaa Abd el-Fattah. A few months earlier, the foreign secretary had described the case of the British-Egyptian writer and campaigner as the “number one issue”. In opposition, David Lammy had joined a protest in Mr Abd el-Fattah’s support outside the Foreign Office and demanded serious diplomatic consequences for Cairo if no progress was made.

Progress has not been made and time is running out. Arbitrary detention has stolen almost a decade of Mr Abd el-Fattah’s life, while that of his remarkable mother, Laila Soueif, may be drawing to its close. As of Tuesday, the 69-year-old, who lives in London, had not eaten for 261 days, as she demands her son’s release. After taking 300-calorie liquid supplements for a short period, she returned to a full hunger strike almost a month ago and has been hospitalised since the end of May. In Egypt, Mr Abd el-Fattah has been on hunger strike for more than 100 days.

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.

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© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Royal Ascot: Field Of Gold strikes to deliver performance worthy of occasion

17 juin 2025 à 19:36
  • Gosden runner storms St James’s Palace Stakes

  • Glorious Goodwood likely next stop for victor

Royal Ascot’s uncanny ability to deliver performances to suit the occasion was to the fore once again on Tuesday as Field Of Gold, the odds-on favourite, overwhelmed his rivals in the St James’s Palace Stakes with a sustained burst of speed a quarter of mile out that put the result beyond doubt well before the furlong pole. If there is a better performance over a mile by a three‑year-old later on in the season, it feels long odds‑on that Field Of Gold will be the horse to produce it.

John and Thady Gosden’s grey colt was one of three Classic winners in the field, though his winning performance was further evidence that, had Ruling Court not been allowed first run in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, the fast-finishing Field Of Gold would surely have taken that too. Ruling Court was only third here, nearly four lengths behind Henri Matisse, the French 2,000 Guineas winner, who was in turn three and a half adrift of Field Of Gold at the line.

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© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

‘We live in a second Red Scare’: what can we learn from a chilling book about Florida’s past?

17 juin 2025 à 19:28

A harrowing new book looks back at a dark period of US history as the Johns committee targeted Black and queer Americans, drawing parallels to what’s happening now

With his second book, Robert W Fieseler casts new light on a dark episode: the years in the 1950s and 60s when the Florida legislative investigation committee, commonly known as the Johns committee, persecuted Black and queer Americans in the name of anti-communist red scare politics.

“The state of Florida has a very poisonous political system,” Fieseler said, promoting a book published as Ron DeSantis sits in the governor’s mansion, whose virulently anti-LGBTQ+ policies had fueled, if briefly, his presidential ambitions.

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© Photograph: Courtesy of Florida Memory

© Photograph: Courtesy of Florida Memory

What SJP's selfie trick tells us about the terrifying rise of conspiracy theories | Arwa Mahdawi

17 juin 2025 à 19:07

The actor used to point vaguely to the sky and suggest the government was watching when asked for a photo. Nowadays, that could lead to some very awkward conversations

Sarah Jessica Parker, the Sex and the City star and Booker prize judge, has a nifty trick for getting out of taking selfies with her fans. “I did this for a really, really long time and it worked for ever,” Parker said in an interview with Howard Stern. “I used to say, ‘I can’t, because of the government,’ and I’d do this,” Parker said, pointing up to the sky. “It really confused people. This was through different administrations, so it wasn’t political.”

It is not entirely clear why Parker – who has said she refuses to take selfies and would rather “have a conversation” instead because “it’s much more meaningful” – stopped using this brilliant excuse. But one does have to wonder whether it is because the US has become a nation of conspiracy theorists. Rather than backing away from the weird “the government is watching” woman, perhaps fans started to excitedly engage her with theories about how Bill Gates has implanted us all with mind-controlling microchips. Or maybe she just got tired of the joke. I don’t know. But I’m sure someone out there (the government) does.

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.

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© Photograph: James Devaney/WireImage

© Photograph: James Devaney/WireImage

Owen Farrell focuses on Saracens return but keeps Lions and England on back burner

17 juin 2025 à 19:05

Fly-half is determined to enjoy his rugby again after injury-disrupted time in France but his international future remains up in the air

If either call were to come, does Owen Farrell want to go on tour with England or the British & Irish Lions this summer? It is both the question that most intrigues and the one that he steadfastly does not answer following his return to Saracens.

“There’s nothing for me to do other than concentrate on getting myself back here and getting myself in the best place I can and everything else is hypothetical,” is a typical example of his response. There were a number of others in the 20 minutes spent in his company, back at the StoneX Stadium after a torrid season with Racing 92, but all gave little insight into what his reaction might be if Steve Borthwick or his dad, Andy Farrell, wish to call him up for either England’s summer tour of Argentina and the US, or the Lions’ trip to Australia.

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© Photograph: Adam Davy/PA

© Photograph: Adam Davy/PA

‘We need to win the league’: Levy sets sights high for new Spurs era under Frank

17 juin 2025 à 21:58
  • Club chair opens up on decision to sack Postecoglou

  • Levy: ‘We’ve won a European trophy but it’s not enough’

Daniel Levy has made clear his desire to win the Premier League and Champions League as he prepared to usher in a new era at Tottenham with the managerial hire of Thomas Frank.

In a rare public address, the longstanding chair opened up on the “emotionally difficult” decision to sack Ange Postecoglou, who ended the club’s 17-year trophy drought with the Europa League triumph against Manchester United but flatlined in the league.

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© Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

© Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

Majestic, rigorous and sheer fun: the best of Alfred Brendel’s recordings

17 juin 2025 à 18:45

As the musical world mourns the celebrated pianist, we assess his wide recording legacy and pick the 12 best, from Russian rarities to quickfire Beethoven

In the two decades before he retired from concert-performances in 2008 at the age of 77, Alfred Brendel was arguably the best known classical pianist in the world. Yet regard for his playing was never by any means universal; what his many admirers found as searching, considered and profound in his interpretations, others heard as colourless and lacking in spontaneity. But Brendel’s lasting popularity is evidenced by his recorded legacy, which is certainly extensive enough for generations to come to make their own assessment of his stature. In a recording career that stretched well over half a century, he made more than 100 albums, which included three complete cycles of the Beethoven sonatas.

As his career burgeoned, Beethoven, and the other great composers of the Austro-German tradition - Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms - were increasingly the focus of Brendel’s recital repertory, but a glance at a chronology of his recordings reveals how wide his musical interests really were. If it is Brendel’s discs of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert that will be treasured above all, there is much else to be discovered among the myriad recordings he left us. The recordings that follow, therefore, are very much a personal choice; another day, it might be entirely different.

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© Photograph: Jack Liebeck

© Photograph: Jack Liebeck

Salary secrets: pay transparency is great – until you hear what your slacker colleague earns

17 juin 2025 à 18:40

In the UK, a new era of pay openness could be about to begin. It is undoubtedly a positive step, but water-cooler discussions could be about to get considerably more messy …

Name: Pay transparency.

Age: Merely a twinkle in government ministers’ eyes.

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© Photograph: Posed by model; Prostock-Studio/Getty Images/iStockphoto

© Photograph: Posed by model; Prostock-Studio/Getty Images/iStockphoto

OpenAI wins $200m contract with US military for ‘warfighting’

17 juin 2025 à 18:29

Program with the defense department is first under the startup’s initiative to put AI to work in governments

The US Department of Defense on Monday awarded OpenAI a $200m contract to put generative artificial intelligence (AI) to work for the US military.

The San Francisco-based company will “develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains”, according to the defense department’s posting of awarded contracts.

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© Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

© Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Celebrated pianist and writer Alfred Brendel dies aged 94

17 juin 2025 à 18:24

Widely regarded as the ‘musicians’ musician’ Brendel was the first pianist to record all of Beethoven’s piano works during a much-garlanded career spanning 60 years

The celebrated pianist and author Alfred Brendel has died aged 94 at his home in London.

The musician was born on 5 January 1931 in Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic) and spent his childhood mainly in Croatia and Austria. “I was not a child prodigy or eastern European or Jewish as far as I know,” he told interviewers. “I’m not a good sight reader, I don’t have a phenomenal memory and I didn’t come from a musical family, an artistic family or an intellectual family. I had loving parents, but I had to find things out for myself.”

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© Photograph: unknown/Sophia Evans

© Photograph: unknown/Sophia Evans

Wolff hits out at Red Bull protest after Russell’s Canadian GP win

17 juin 2025 à 18:21
  • ‘They come up with weird clauses … it’s just embarrassing’

  • Red Bull accused Russell of erratic driving in Montreal

The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, has called Red Bull’s protest “petty” and “embarrassing” after George Russell beat the reigning world champion, Max Verstappen, at Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Red Bull challenged Russell’s ­victory in Montreal for ­driving ­erratically and committing ­unsportsmanlike conduct behind the safety car, a claim rejected by the stewards. It was the second time they had launched a protest against the Mercedes driver this season after a claim he had failed to slow ­sufficiently under yellow flags in Miami.

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© Photograph: Mathieu Belanger/Reuters

© Photograph: Mathieu Belanger/Reuters

UK will look into more ‘transactional’ approach to granting visas, says Starmer

17 juin 2025 à 18:04

Prime minister outlines plans to penalise countries that refuse to take back refused asylum seekers

The UK will look into penalising countries that refuse to take back people who are refused asylum by making visa applications for their nationals harder, Keir Starmer has said at the G7 summit in Canada.

Asked during a media Q&A about ways to reduce the number of people arriving irregularly, the prime minister said it would have a more “transactional” approach to granting visas for countries depending on their cooperation with returns.

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© Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

© Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

F1 the Movie review – spectacular macho melodrama handles Brad Pitt with panache

17 juin 2025 à 18:00

The cherubic sixtysomething stars as a supercool old-school driver returning 30 years after a near-fatal crash to break all the rules of Formula One racing

With that amused-cowpoke face of his squashed into his safety helmet, making his sixtysomething cherubic chops bulge in towards his nose, Brad Pitt gets behind the wheel in this outrageously cheesy but fiercely and extravagantly shot Formula One melodrama. Along with a lot of enjoyable hokum about the old guy mentoring the rookie hothead (a plot it broadly shares with Pixar’s 2006 adventure Cars), F1 the Movie gives you the corporate sheen, real-life race footage with Brad as the star in an unreasonably priced car, the tech fetish of the cars themselves (almost making you forget how amazingly ugly they are) with brand names speckling every square inch of every surface, the simulation graphics writ large, and the bizarre occult spectacle of motor racing itself.

This is a movie which (like Barbie) has been licensed by the brand, with Lewis Hamilton credited as a producer; he gets a stately walk-on and plenty of big names are glimpsed. At one stage, Brad notices Max Verstappen out there on the track: “Damn, he’s good!” he mutters. Oh sure, yes, Max Verstappen is good, but is he a reckless, intuitive risk-taker and old-school motor race romantic who might get himself killed chasing some undefinable something out there on the burning, shimmering tarmac? We may never know.

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© Photograph: Warner Bros

© Photograph: Warner Bros

What is metabolic syndrome – and do we really need to worry about it?

17 juin 2025 à 18:00

Metabolic syndrome – popularized by two architects of Maha – is a real health issue, but messaging can take a turn toward scienceploitation

Metabolic syndrome is trending online. On TikTok, thousands of videos dissect the subject, also referred to as metabolic dysfunction or disorder. These often come with claims that healing mitochondria, often called the “powerhouses of cells”, is key to restoring metabolic health.

The concept was popularized by Calley and Casey Means’ bestselling book Good Energy. Some consider the Means siblings – Casey is Donald Trump’s surgeon general pick, and Calley is an entrepreneur and lobbyist – architects of Make America Healthy Again.

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© Photograph: koto_feja/Getty Images

© Photograph: koto_feja/Getty Images

Elio review – Pixar’s goofy, giddy guide to the galaxy offers charm and vulnerability

17 juin 2025 à 18:00

Spielbergian twists and an aggressive, deal-oriented alien are among the familiar beats of the Inside Out animator’s latest, about a lonely boy who finds friendship in space

There are some sweet retro-Spielbergian thrills in Pixar’s amiable new family animation, whose release was delayed a year due to the strikes; it also has some touches of Douglas Adams as well as John Lasseter’s Toy Stories. There are co-director credits for Pixar stalwarts Adrian Molina (who was the co-director and co-screenwriter of Coco) and feature first-timer Madeline Sharafian, and Pixar will be hoping for a handsome return here to match the success of its recent box office champ Inside Out 2.

Elio may well indeed do the business. It has charm, likability and that potent ingredient: childhood loneliness and vulnerability. Its opening act is set aboard a military base where an ambitious young officer has postponed or even abandoned her dream of being astronaut to look after her orphaned nephew. But once the film leaves planet Earth and its recognisably real, lump-in-the-throat emotional world and inhabits the goofy multi-voiced arena of space aliens, it loses, for me, a little (though not all) of its charge. There is occasionally something a little formulaic, a bit programmatic and … well … which two letters of the alphabet sum it up?

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© Photograph: Pixar/PIXAR

© Photograph: Pixar/PIXAR

Starmer says he picked up Trump’s dropped papers to avoid security scare

17 juin 2025 à 17:49

UK prime minister says it ‘would not have been good’ for anyone else such as member of media to try to help

Keir Starmer said he rushed to pick up papers dropped by Donald Trump at the G7 summit in Canada mainly to avoid anyone else stepping forward to do so and being tackled by the US president’s security team.

Speaking to reporters in Kananaskis a day after Trump fumbled some of the documents about a UK-US trade deal, letting a sheaf of papers tumble to the ground, Starmer said he had little choice but to bend down and help out.

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© Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

© Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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