I should point out that we have a bumper afternoon of sport on Big Website today. Rob Smyth has over-by-over coverage of the fifth day of the second Test between England and India:
If tennis is more your thing, Daniel Harris is across everything at Wimbledon. Follow that here:
Sporting No 9 agrees terms as talks over fee continue
Zubimendi in from Real Sociedad despite Madrid interest
Arsenal are closing in on the signing of Viktor Gyökeres from Sporting after agreeing personal terms with the Sweden striker. Negotiations remain ongoing over a fee for the 27-year-old, with Arsenal hoping to strike a deal for less than the £68m asking price.
Gyökeres has made no secret of his desire for a new challenge having scored 54 goals for Sporting last season and is understood to have made clear he wants to join Arsenal despite interest from elsewhere in the Premier League, including Manchester United.
Not only is nuclear essential if we want to reach net zero – it’s the key to tackling poverty, too
Money can buy comfort, but energy makes comfort possible in the first place. Energy is the great enabler of the modern world. It connects the globe by moving people and hauling goods. It loosens the grip of the weather by warming our homes in winter and cooling them in summer. It forges the steel that raises our cities and synthesises the fertilisers that keep half the world’s population from starvation. It increasingly empowers us by electrifying the technologies we rely on daily.
It is also the great enabler of socioeconomic development. Monetary wealth and energy abundance move in lockstep: plot a graph of GDP per capita against energy consumption per capita, and you’ll draw a straight line. Low-energy, high-income nations do not exist. Prosperity and energy are inseparable; you cannot have one without the other.
The rules of the institutions that define our lives bend like reeds when it comes to Israel – so much that the whole global order is on the verge of collapse
Sereen Haddad is a bright young woman. At 20 years old, she just finished a four-year degree in psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in only three years, earning the highest honors along the way. Yet, despite her accomplishments, she still can’t graduate. Her diploma is being withheld by the university, “not because I didn’t complete the requirements”, she told me, “but because I stood up for Palestinian life.”
Chefs have gone head over heels for the brown stuff. Some drown their burgers in it; others serve it with brioche and black pudding; one even turns it into ice-cream. What’s going on?
Pub roasts, grannies, Sunday lunch, Ah! Bisto!: gravy triggers nostalgic food memories for Britons like little else. But unlike complex French sauces, for example, gravy is brown and plain, not gastronomic alchemy. Its homely bedfellows – potatoes and pies – have had fancy makeovers, but gravy’s potential hasn’t been much exploited on the modern menu. Until now.
The nostalgic wave sweeping Britain’s food scene is reviving this ancient staple, but with a twist: gravy is going gourmet. It is appearing as a dip for burgers in London at the upmarket chain Burger & Beyond and at Nanny Bill’s. It is served with brioche and black pudding at Tom Cenci’s modern British restaurant Nessa in Soho, and even does a turn at Shaun Rankin’s Michelin-starred Grantley Hall in Yorkshire, where it is styled as beef tea and served with bread, bone marrow butter and dripping.
A third of emergency responses are to clubs, largely to attend to people having bad experiences with drugs
The ambulance service on the Spanish island of Ibiza says it is at risk of collapse because of frequent callouts to attend to clubbers having bad experiences with recreational drugs.
The local ambulance union says up to a third of emergency calls are to clubs, the largest of which has a capacity of as many as 10,000 partygoers, and are largely drug-related. It is calling on club owners to contract private ambulance services.
With two days of talks left, some want a quick UK-style deal to avert 50% tariffs while others want to play hardball
The EU is entering a crunch week with only two days of talks left to secure a trade deal with Washinton to avert Donald Trump’s threatened 50% tariff on its imports into the US.
According to the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, on Friday, the negotiations – which continued over the weekend – are focussed on 15 to 18 agreements with important partners, while Trump warned of import tax rates of up to 70% on others.
Much better display is needed against the Netherlands from a team with a habit of bouncing back under Wiegman
The England fans in Zurich have a new favourite song, replacing the word “Tequila!” with “Sarina!” It is a fun twist on a 1950s number from The Champs, written by the American saxophonist Chuck Rio. If the band’s name is fitting, for a few more days at least, for England’s status as defending champions, by full-time at Stadion Letzigrund against France the artist’s name was more in keeping with the mood among supporters, because Sarina Wiegman’s side are in genuine danger of being chucked out of Euro 2025.
England will point to Alessia Russo’s goal at 0-0 being ruled out for an offside that did not seem conclusive even from zoomed-in VAR images, yet the simple truth is this: if England do not improve markedly when they face the Netherlands on Wednesday, they will probably be out before they face Wales in their final group match. Defeat would spell the end unless France lose to Wales later in the day.
On the podcast today: England’s Euro 2025 campaign gets off to a rocky start after a 2-1 loss to France in Zürich. Sarina Wiegman’s side showed late promise, but goals from Katoto and Baltimore sealed the points for Les Bleues. The panel discusses England’s tactical issues, France’s pace out wide, and the potential for a bounce-back against the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Wales finally made their major tournament debut but fell to a 3-0 defeat against a clinical Dutch side. Beth Fisher joins us from Switzerland to reflect on a proud but painful day for the Red Wall and Vivianne Miedema’s milestone 100th international goal.
The American could next move for Sheffield Wednesday or Watford while Palace wait to see if dealings fall favourably
A champion skateboarder in his youth, John Textor has never been averse to risk. The American businessman even warrants a mention in Craig Snyder’s book A Secret History of the Ollie as “one of the few who beat eight-time world champion Rodney Mullen in freestyle competitions during the turn of the 70s”, but a serious head injury put an end to his competitive career.
Textor surprisingly turned his attention to football club ownership in 2021 when he bought a stake in Crystal Palace after making his fortune in digital technology and the next week could prove decisive for his latest venture.
Shop-bought rarely compares to the punch of homemade baba ganoush, and it really isn’t very difficult to make at home. Here’s how …
Public service announcement: baba ganoush does not require smoked paprika, acidity regulators or indeed any kind of preservative beyond lemon juice. There are some dips I will happily buy – tzatziki, taramasalata, even hummus, with due caution – but tubs of this smoky Middle Eastern aubergine dish always seem to be slimy and underpowered in comparison with the real freshly made deal.
From the site of the failed assassination comes a sharp-eyed account of Trump’s political gains – and Democrats’ failings
The Democrats’ famed blue wall is more the stuff of nostalgia than reality. On election day 2024, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin voted for Donald Trump for the second time in three elections. Barack Obama’s upstairs-downstairs coalition lies in ruins, as Democrats struggle to connect with working-class voters across racial and ethnic lines.
Last November, Trump came within just three points of winning a majority of Latino voters. Such Americans walked away from their presumed political home – in droves. A Trump endorsement by Roberto Clemente Jr, son of the late Pittsburgh Pirates baseball star, was a harbinger. Likewise, Trump posted double-digit gains among Catholics and Jews, once core constituencies in the Democratic party of FDR.
Semi ticket cut from $474 to just $13 in New Jersey
Sparse crowds plague tournament outside Real games
PSG v Madrid semi-final still priced from nearly $200
Fifa cut standard ticket prices for the semi-final between Chelsea and Fluminense at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Tuesday to $13.40 from $473.90 earlier in the past week.
Fifa has used dynamic pricing for the 63-game tournament.
Having made waves as part of the alt-lit movement, the US author is poised to go mainstream with The Stalker, her most exhilarating work yet
When I arrive at Paula Bomer’s apartment building in south Brooklyn I am briefly disoriented in the lobby, until I hear the yapping of dogs and amid them, her voice calling my name. Bomer is tall and striking, in her mid-50s. I met her last year at a reading in Williamsburg, Virginia, where she seemed like someone who cared almost manically about literature and also like someone who would be fun to hang out with, two qualities not always confluent. I had heard of these anxious dogs before, when she and I met for dinner a few months ago, and she disclosed that her life was now spent managing canine neuroses.
“I got them when my dad died,” she says, in between offering me matcha, coffee, tequila or wine (it’s 2.30pm on a Sunday; Bomer doesn’t drink any more, save a glass of champagne on selling her book, but doesn’t mind if others do). “The dogs were a mistake,” she says, “But that’s OK, I’ll survive it.”
Decades ago, a generation of UK schoolchildren unwittingly took part in an initiative aimed at boosting reading skills – with lasting consequences
Throughout my life, my mum has always been a big reader. She was inthree or four book clubs at the same time. She’d devour whatever texts my siblings and I were studying in school, handwrite notes for our lunchboxes and write in her diary every night. Our fridge door was a revolving display of word-of-the-day flashcards. Despite this, she also was and remains, by some margin, the worst speller I have met.
By the time I was in primary school, she was already asking me to proofread her work emails, often littered with mistakes that were glaringly obvious to me even at such a young age. It used to baffle me – how could this person, who races through multiple books a week and can quote Shakespeare faultlessly, possibly think “me” is spelt with two Es?
Langston Hughes and Toni Morrison’s childhood homes remain unmarked – raising urgent questions about legacy and preservation
Nothing could prepare me for seeing the house that Langston Hughes, the heralded Harlem Renaissance poet, author, journalist and traveler, lived in as a teenager in Cleveland, Ohio. Only eight steps separated me from the walkway that led to the front door as my Uber driver idled behind me. I clasped my camera in my hand, the shutter echoing in the quiet of a snowy February day. I looked more like a too-curious-tourist than a concerned writer researching the literary legacy of a man who had inspired me all my life.
The house was ordinary, painted in an aging beige that was deepened with crisp, burgundy accents. At the top in an attic space the burgundy was most prominent. I’d learned before this visit that Hughes had lived and written there. I’d also known going into this trip that the house had at one point been at risk of being demolished, efforts that were subverted largely in part due to local librarian Christopher Bucka-Peck’s intervention.
Voters want more choice at the polls and more issue-driven campaigns. In the Democratic primary, they got both
The polls did not look good for New York progressives this winter when the Working Families party began making its endorsements for city elections. An early February poll from Emerson College showed Andrew Cuomo with a 23-point lead in a hypothetical Democratic primary matchup. None of the four leading progressives even approached double-digit support – including the then unknown assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. He polled at 1%.
In the days before ranked-choice voting, the Working Families party’s endorsement process might have looked quite different. Like-minded candidates would have drawn sharp distinctions between each other. Party officials might have looked to nudge candidates toward the exits, behind closed doors. Before any votes had been cast in the primary, the party would consolidate behind just one choice. It would have been bloody and left a bitter taste for everyone.
The 32-year-old was instrumental in high-profile national security firings, and has cheerled the attacks on Iran
After years of claiming to be the vanguard of a new “America First” isolationist movement rebelling against the neoconservative policies of the George W Bush administration that led to the bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Maga’s online influencers are cheering for another war in the Middle East.
And not just any war: they are applauding Donald Trump’s high-risk decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, a move that was considered a war too far even by the Bush administration.
With immigration, universal tax rises and big tech on the menu, could a Tory IT director and a Labour-voting financial services technician find anything to agree on?
Khachanov holds for 5-3, asking Majchrzak to serve to stay in set one … which he does with ease. Save that early break, he’s been impressive too, but he needs something quickly to avoid going behind.
Khachanov is playing nicely. There’s no complexity about what he’s doing – he’s hitting it well from the back, able to plant his feet while his opponent scurries, and I wonder if Majchrzak might try a few drops – he’s a clay-courter, so should have them is his armoury. In the meantime, he remains a break down at 3-4 in the first.
Nothing is happening so I’m going to grab a coffee. In the meantime, here’s Geoff Lemon with the latest from Australia’s tour of the Caribbean.
The rain has eased so the groundstaff are getting to work. It’s still spitting and there’s been no discussion of a potential start time. Could be at least an hour – the outfield looks sodden.
Rightwing network downplays criticism from economists and says bill is ‘packed with massive, huge, important wins’
Donald Trump’s mega-bill has been widely criticized in the press. News outlets and Democrats have warned that millions of people could be stripped of their health coverage through cuts to Medicaid, that cuts to food programs would see children go hungry, and that the legislation would cause the deficit to balloon.
Family of Cynthia Olivera reconsiders support for president after Ice detained her at green card interview
The family of a Canadian national who supported Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportations of immigrants say they are feeling betrayed after federal agents recently detained the woman in California while she interviewed for permanent US residency – and began working to expel her from the country.
“We feel totally blindsided,” Cynthia Olivera’s husband – US citizen and self-identified Trump voter Francisco Olivera – told the California news station KGTV. “I want my vote back.”
Her kooky online skits brought her viral fame and a breakout role in HBO’s Hacks. Then Lena Dunham came calling with the job of a lifetime. Is the actor ready to take centre stage?
When Lena Dunham messaged, Megan Stalter lost it. “Like d’uhh,” Stalter is explaining – delighting, really. “Who wouldn’t? I was at home: this really bad apartment in Laurel Canyon [in the Hollywood Hills]. The area is haunted, and it was actually a really scary building, and nothing ever got fixed because apparently in the lease I signed they didn’t have to repair anything! I don’t actually live there now …” Stalter, 34, has a tendency to wander off on tangents. So Dunham?
“OK yes, so we were just about to start filming Hacks again.” The wildly popular, 48-times-Emmy-nominated HBO comedy in which Stalter plays nepo-baby Kayla, a chaotic and kind-hearted talent agent, her total-commitment-to-the-bit characterisation making her a breakout star. “And there Lena was in my DMs.” Stalter opened the message, which said: “I have a project I want to talk to you about.” “That’s when I lost my mind,” she adds. “Panic set in.”
With big accountancy and finance firms turning to tech rather than graduates, even those with ‘useful’ degrees find their prospects diminished
Connor Myers is a student at the University of Exeter and an intern on the Guardian’s positive action scheme
September is the beginning of many young people’s lives, as cars speed along motorways transporting 18- and 19-year-olds to their new university accommodations. I remember my own journey down to Exeter in 2022, the first stage in what I hoped would be an experience to set me up for the rest of my life. Little did I know that this was the calm before the storm, before anyone had heard of ChatGPT, or imagined the chaos that generative AI was about to cause for new graduates.
Fast forward to 2025, and some of the young people I began this journey with have realised that they’ve spent the last three years training for graduate jobs that don’t exist.Many firms are now slashing their number of new hires. Big accountancy firms have cut back on graduate recruitment; Deloitte reduced its scheme by 18%, while EY has cut the number of graduates it’s recruiting by 11%. According to data collected by the job search site Adzuna, entry-level job opportunities in finance have dropped by 50.8%, and those for IT services have seen a decrease of 54.8%.
Connor Myers is a student at the University of Exeter and an intern on the Guardian’s positive action scheme
Latest from Bayern Munich is that they expect Jamal Musiala to be out for four months after that horrible injury he suffered against PSG in the Coppa Gianni, and one which made manager Vincent Kompany’s “blood boil”.
The Wales midfielder Charlie Estcourt says Wales’s aim remains to get out of the group as she reflected on their defeat to the Netherlands yesterday.
From slow travel and sea swims to backpacking and axe-throwing, here’s how to get bolder as well as older
As we get older, many of us feel like we lose our sense of adventure. Busy lives can leave us feeling exhausted, while increasing responsibilities leave little room for more intrepid pursuits.
But maintaining an adventurous perspective is one of the best ways to keep life exciting. With this in mind, we asked readers to share their tips for reigniting a sense of adventure. Here are 10 of the best suggestions:
The pop veteran works up a sweat to Biffy Clyro and recognises the dancefloor power of Abba, but which Kylie banger hits a little too close to home?
The first song I fell in love with
I’ve got two older brothers and an older sister. My sister played the grooves out of Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell. When I got my chance, I’d put on I Wan’na Be like You from The Jungle Book.
The song I do at karaoke
Tale As Old As Time from the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack, even though it’s a duet. My daughter Emilie is 33, but when she’s home, we’ll watch a Disney film together. She turns into a five-year-old, I turn into a young dad and it’s just lovely.
Benedict Kuria was ambushed by suspected gang members in March while serving in security mission
The relatives of a Kenyan police officer who went missing while working in Haiti have spoken of their anguish and anger at Kenyan authorities over a lack of definitive information about what has happened to him.
Benedict Kuria and some colleagues were ambushed in March by suspected gang members. Haitian media reported that he had died, but Kenya’s police service says a search is continuing.
The allegations England’s captain had casually stolen the jewellery on the eve of the 1970 World Cup sparked a diplomatic frenzy
It remains one of the most notorious and unresolved episodes in World Cup history. Now diplomatic cables have emerged in Colombia shedding fresh light on the diplomatic frenzy caused by the arrest of Bobby Moore, then captain of the reigning champions, England, days before the start of the 1970 tournament in Mexico.
The previously unseen documents show how Moore’s trip to the Fuego Verdejewellery shop in Bogotá, the Colombian capital, sparked a desperate campaign from the British Foreign Office to free the West Ham centre-back. The enormous pressure exerted on Colombia by the Foreign Office may have swayed the judge’s decision in the case, a new podcast series El Capitán y el Brazalete de Esmeraldas (The Captain and the Emerald Bracelet) concluded.
Findings will be handed down almost five years after the Warlpiri man died during a bungled arrest in the remote Northern Territory community of Yuendumu
The inquest findings into the shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker will be handed down in Yuendumu on Monday, almost five years after the Warlpiri man died during a bungled arrest in the remote Northern Territory community.
Zachary Rolfe shot Walker three times while trying to arrest him on 9 November 2019 in Yuendumu, about 300km from Alice Springs.
While we work towards net zero, we also need to adapt. And we can pay for cooling measures like splash pads and trees by taxing the worst polluters
There’s a lot to be anxious about as a new parent, let alone in a heatwave when the thermometer in your one-year-old daughter’s room is reading 26C. That’s six degrees higher than the upper limit of the recommended temperature for a child’s room. After scrolling my phone for advice on how to cool her room, I couldn’t help waking up every few hours to check she was OK on the baby monitor.
In the UK, we are unprepared at every level for the extreme weather caused by climate breakdown. Whether it’s unbearably hot buildings in the summer, our damp and cold homes (some of the leakiest in Europe) filled with mould in the winter, our unprotected towns built on flood plains, or our unfit-for-purpose train tracks that get shut down at the slightest weather warning, the climate crisis is already wreaking havoc on public and private infrastructure – and it’s only getting worse.
Tibetans fear China will eventually name a rival successor to the Dalai Lama, bolstering Beijing’s control over Tibet
Leaders from India, the United States and Taiwan offered their support to Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on his 90th birthday on Sunday, a landmark anniversary raising geopolitical questions for the future.
Tibetans fear China will eventually name a rival successor to the Dalai Lama, bolstering Beijing’s control over Tibet, the territory it poured troops into in 1950 and has ruled ever since.
Harry Wilson scores in 79th minute to earn 21-18 win
Boost for Wallabies before Lions tour and World Cup
The Wallabies have got their 2025 season off to a victorious start and struck a crucial blow in the quest to win the 2027 World Cup at home with a tense 21-18 triumph over Fiji in Newcastle.
The 79th minute shading of their fierce south Pacific rivals ignites Australia’s hopes ahead of the first Test against the British & Irish Lions in Brisbane on 19 July.
In year since Reform party leader was elected at eighth attempt he has been largely absent from Commons votes and very present in the media
Nigel Farage has had one of the best years of his political career after voters finally elected him to parliament at the eighth time of asking. He is odds on to be the UK’s next prime minister, vying with Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting, with Kemi Badenoch trailing behind.
Here are the key facts and numbers behind his first year in the House of Commons.
‘You feel powerless,’ says Bayern coach Vincent Kompany
Bayern Munich’s coach, Vincent Kompany, said that he felt his blood boil after seeing Jamal Musiala taken off on a stretcher during Bayern Munich’s 2-0 defeat to Paris St-Germain in the quarter-final of the Club World Cup. Musiala’s left ankle appeared to be dislocated following a challenge from Gianluigi Donnarumma just before half-time in Atlanta, with players from both teams covering their faces and looking away, clearly affected by what they had seen.
The Bayern Munich coach called the injury an “accident,” but the goalkeeper Manuel Neuer criticised Donnarumma’s challenge and the club’s sporting director, Max Eberl, said that the PSG goalkeeper had not taken sufficient care.
Wallabies survive almighty scare at McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle
Out stride the two teams, side by side, accompanied by mascots. The visitors are wearing white jerseys and black shorts, the hosts are wearing their First Nations jersey, which is predominately gold, with green accents to match the green shorts.
Angus Fontaine puts it all into context for the Wallabies.
Adventurous attack. Bone-rattling defence. Mistakes punished and opportunities seized. Get in the enemy’s faces and bring the crowd into the contest from the get-go. A ragtag NSW Waratahs gave Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies a bold blueprint for how to dismantle the British & Irish Lions in the first Test on 19 July.
My daughter has gradually withdrawn from family events. She lives far from us all and doesn’t come home any more after being a real homebird. She hasn’t visited for over a year and didn’t see any of us at Christmas or my birthday, which is not like her.
When I visit her, it’s becoming clearshe isn’t making choices for herself any more – even the simplest ones are made by her partner and she concedes to everything he wants. He is also jealous of any other male family member who is spoken about positively.
As Jurassic World: Rebirth and 28 Years Later become the latest franchise titles to hit the big screen, movie fans are realising a depressing truth
On Monday, the director of the new Jurassic Park movie explained his aim for the seventh film in the series. Innovation it was not. Rather, said Gareth Edwards, it was karaoke. To prepare, he binged Steven Spielberg clips on repeat, hoping to accomplish genre cloning.
“I was trying,” he told BBC’s Front Row, “to make it feel nostalgic. The goal was that it should feel like Universal Studios went into their vaults and found a reel of film, brushed the dust off and it said: Jurassic World: Rebirth.
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