• World No 1 forced to work hard for 6-4, 7-6 victory

• Siegemund next up after win over Solana Sierra

Tennis players often say it’s hard to play against a friend, the killer instinct never quite as easy to call on as it might be against someone else. Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1, has rarely had that problem but she was pushed hard by her former doubles partner Elise Mertens before winning through 6-4, 7-6 (4) to reach the quarter-finals.

Mertens had won just two sets in their past nine matches but played as good a match as she has ever done at Wimbledon and still came out on the wrong side. Sabalenka, the top seed, hit 36 winners and made just 18 unforced errors, coming from 3-1 down in the second set to set up a quarter-final against Laura Siegemund of Germany.

Mothers and partners will gain the legal right if they lose a baby before 24 weeks, in Labour workers’ rights reform

Parents in Britain will be granted the right to bereavement leave after suffering a miscarriage as part of Labour’s changes to workers’ rights, it has been confirmed.

In a change to the law made via amendments to the employment rights bill, mothers and their partners will be given the legal right to at least one week’s bereavement leave if they have suffered a pregnancy loss before 24 weeks’ gestation.

Lisa Nandy’s call for a modern Annan-style review offers a chance to renew the broadcaster for a fragmented digital age

The BBC will soon charge US users for full news access. In Britain, it may seem a distant prospect, but if universality can be dropped abroad, how long before it’s tested at home? With the BBC’s charter due for renewal in 2027, the funding debate is intensifying. What becomes of the licence fee will define the broadcaster’s future.

There is increased scrutiny of Auntie’s independence and impartiality after political pressure was applied through censure, funding freezes and contentious board appointments. What the BBC should look like in a fragmented media landscape is uncertain. A big question is whether the licence fee levied on households should be replaced by subscription, limited advertising or public funding. The last option is surely a non-starter, opening the door to more direct political control. Carrying adverts would force the BBC to compete with other broadcasters for cash, and destabilise existing providers. A subscription-style BBC, even if technical hurdles were overcome, wouldn’t be a national institution. Those most in need of public-service media – navigating disinformation, political alienation or regional marginalisation – would be left out. Once you charge, the question isn’t how to inform, educate and entertain the public; it’s who can afford to be included. Partial subscription might keep some core services – like news – free, while others are paywalled. This would entrench a two-tier public service.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

The American designer balances a homage to the past with a nod to his own fashion story

After a year of musical chairs in fashion, September is gearing up to be one of its biggest show months ever: with debut collections slated from new creative directors at brands including Matthieu Blazy at Chanel and ex-Balenciaga designer Demna at Gucci.

On Sunday in Paris, Michael Rider, who recently succeeded Hedi Slimane at Celine, decided to get a head start.

Detectorists and archaeologists sometimes clash, but the recent find of two Roman swords was the thrilling result of collaboration

The discovery of two swords at a dig in Gloucestershire has fuelled speculation that a Roman villa may once have stood there, at a period in the second or third century AD when Saxons were making inroads in the region. Experts think that the blades may even have been deliberately hidden – but not deep enough to conceal them from a novice metal detectorist, Glenn Manning. Next month, the public will get a chance to see the weapons when they go on display at the Corinium museum in Cirencester, to which they have been given.

The items join a growing list of striking finds by hobbyists. These include a gold nugget found in the Shropshire Hills by Richard Brock, who located it with the help of an old machine that was “only half working”. Another newcomer dug up a gold necklace bearing the initials of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, which is now in the British Museum.

• Second Test: India, 587 & 427-6d, bt England, 407 & 271, by 336 runs

• Jamie Smith hits defiant 88 but Deep takes 6-99 and 10-187 overall

They came, they saw, they conquered. And how they conquered, India surging to a 336-run thumping of England on a giddy final day at Edgbaston to level this five-match series at one apiece. For Shubman Gill, who personally delivered 430 runs with the bat and banked his first victory as Test captain, it completed a week he will never forget.

And Ben Stokes? Gill’s opposite number will doubtless be keen to move on quickly, and in that respect, the fact the third Test starts at Lord’s on Thursday is something of a blessing. Even so, there is plenty for Stokes and Brendon McCullum, the head coach, to chew on over the next three days. Their side were outperformed in all departments and were eventually bowled out for 271 with 28 overs remaining after being set an improbable target of 608 to win.

• McLaren seal one-two, with Piastri second after penalty

• Torrential conditions contribute to dramatic battle

Lando Norris took his maiden win at the British Grand Prix after a dramatic and incident-packed race at Silverstone in treacherous wet and dry conditions, including a somewhat controversial penalty for his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, who had led for most of the race and finished in second. Nico Hülkenberg took third for Sauber, an historic moment for the German, his first podium after 239 races in the sport.

Lewis Hamilton, always enjoying the wet, made a feisty drive to take fourth, while Max Verstappen took another severe blow to his chances of retaining his world title, finishing fifth after he spun during a safety car restart. Pierre Gasley was sixth for Alpine and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll came seventh.

• Dutchman holds off Pogacar in sprint finish

• Stage into Boulogne delayed by weather

Mathieu van der Poel won stage two of the 2025 Tour de France into Boulogne-sur-Mer for Alpecin-Deceuninck, claiming the race lead from his teammate Jasper Philipsen after a quick succession of short climbs inside the final kilometres exploded the peloton on the approach to the Channel port.

The Dutchman thwarted Tadej Pogacar’s attempt to take the 100th win of his career, outsprinting the defending Tour champion on the steady final climb of the Boulevard Auguste Mariette.

“The final was actually harder than I thought,” said Van der Poel. “I was really motivated. It’s four years since I won my first stage on the Tour, so it was about time I won a second one.”

American actor best known for playing heavies, including the ‘psycho’ Mr Blonde in Reservoir Dogs

The actor Michael Madsen, who has died aged 67 of a cardiac arrest, saw himself as a “throwback” to the era of noir heavies such as Robert Mitchum and Lee Marvin. But plying his jocular menace in the modern Hollywood era gave the actor expanded possibilities for movie violence that elevated him, at certain moments, to a timeless screen presence.

When he severed a policeman’s ear in Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 debut Reservoir Dogs, after sadistically bopping to the sounds of Stealers Wheel’s pop hit Stuck in the Middle With You, it became Madsen’s calling-card scene. He had originally auditioned for the part of Mr Pink, the role eventually played by Steve Buscemi, before the director realised his imposing qualities were perfect for the loose-cannon psychopath, Mr Blonde. “Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie, or are you gonna bite?” Madsen taunts Harvey Keitel’s Mr White, sipping a soda.

Electric car sales made up 21.6% of sales in first half of 2025, only just below the effective 22% share needed to meet rules

Carmakers are on track to meet existing UK electric car sales targets despite having successfully lobbied the government to water them down.

Electric car sales made up 21.6% of sales in the first half of 2025, only marginally below the 22.06% share needed to meet existing rules once concessions are taken into account, according to an analysis by New AutoMotive, a thinktank.

I saw that my toddler was annoying some passengers but the words of encouragement made a stressful situation a lot more bearable

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

I had my eldest child when I was 19, and being a young mum can be tricky – I was used to feeling judged by other people in public.

One evening, I was on a crowded train home in Melbourne at peak hour, which is also witching hour for toddlers. My two-year-old son just started losing it, so I was distracting him with silly noises and games. It was largely working and he was mostly laughing and squealing with delight. I registered that it was annoying some passengers, but the alternative would have been much louder and annoying for us all. Making matters worse, no one offered me a seat, so we were standing up and bumping into other people, who were getting pissed off.

About 1,000 swimmers a day will be allowed to use three bathing sites after €1.4bn clean-up programme

Parisians and tourists flocked to take a dip in the Seine River this weekend after city authorities gave the green light for it to be used for public swimming for the first time in more than a century.

The opening followed a comprehensive clean-up programme sped up by its use as a venue in last year’s Paris Olympics after people who regularly swam in it illegally lobbied for its transformation. The outgoing mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, also helped to champion the plans, jumping in the river herself before the Olympics.

• Lap by lap updates on the action from Silverstone

• McLaren now headline act at HQ | Email John

Oh, and Vin Diesel was there, too, as the former Quentin Cook signs off with a version of the Stones’ Satisfaction.

Tony Hawk - skateboarder not member of Morris Minor and The Majors - is here. He has his board with him. Tom Holland – actor not popular historian - is also there. “I am going to try and catch Lewis. I am always wary not to be a distraction,” he tells Martin Brundle. Damson Idris – of the Brad film – will be waving the chequered flag. “I’m so glad everyone has supported the movie.” It stops raining. Nigel Mansell – from the Isle of Mad – is there with Jackie Stewart. “Lewis has an outside chance,” says Nige. Sebastian Coe is cheering for “anyone who can master the circumstances. Clarkson’s here, Clarksoning along. “There’s 20 drivers, and 17 I like them.” Someone called Kaleb – a Clarkson acolyte? – is there with Jezza. Sam Ryder – the world’s most excitable man – gives Brundle a hug. Hannah Waddingham dishes out the hugs and the luvviedom to Brunds, too. She wants to see Hamilton and Verstappen “going at it in the wet”. The drivers rush to the track. Fernando Alonso gives the thumbs up. Ian Wright is “buzzing, bro”, and now Idris Elba is as hyped as Wrighty and Ryder – he’s “Team Lewis”. And here’s the National Anthem with clouds deep above the track…Becky Hill gives it the discursive, big flourish at the end on “k-i-n-g”. Let’s get racing!

• Updates from this Group A match (5pm BST kick-off)

• Interactive player guide | Wallchart | And mail Emillia

The teams are out. The national anthems are about to be sung. Kick-off is just a matter of minutes away!

Norway head coach Gemma Grainger tells BBC Sport: “It’s nice to be back here in Sion. Really looking forward to the second game. The key today is to focus on this game - it is not helpful to think ahead on what can happen. We are very focused on how we can be at our best today.

Hundreds of rescuers searching for those missing in devastating floods including girls from Camp Mystic, a Christian youth camp

• Texas continues grim flood recovery

Officials have said waters in some parts of Texas are starting to recede to where they were before the storm.

The Guadalupe River near Kerrville – which surged by more than 20 feet within 90 minutes during the downpour — is, according to CNN, back down to just a foot or two higher than its level before the flood.

• Lionesses facing must-win game against Netherlands

• Hemp: ‘We’re going to make sure we’re back at our best’

Lauren Hemp said the Lionesses “thrive under pressure” after a 2-1 defeat by France plunged them into in effect a must-win game against the Netherlands on Wednesday.

England’s midfield collapse was concerning in their Euro 2025 opener, the team sloppy in possession and punished on the wings, but Hemp struck a defiant tone.

• British No 3 loses 7-6 (3), 6-4 on Centre Court

• Electronic line-calling system fails at key point in first set

Sonay Kartal took Wimbledon by storm as the last British player standing in the women’s singles, after Emma Raducanu’s exit. The Brighton native calmly went about her business in the first week, defeating the world No 21 Jelena Ostapenko in the first round before dominant straight-set wins against Viktoriya Tomova and Diane Parry to reach the fourth round at a grand slam for the first time.

But the fairytale run came to a halt as the unseeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova’s greater experience told, the 34-year-old winning 7-6 (3), 6-4 to return to the Wimbledon quarter-finals after nine years.

Mood is tense and subdued after nearly 21 months of Israeli offensives that have displaced almost the entire population

In Gaza City on Sunday morning, there was only one topic of conversation: the possibility of peace. In the half-ruined town, as across the entire territory, few took their eyes off their phones, a television or better-informed relatives or friends for more than a few minutes.

Um Fadi Ma’rouf, from the now destroyed town of Beit Lahia in the far north of Gaza, said she was encouraged by the positive response from Hamas to the most recent US-sponsored proposal of terms for a deal.

• Musiala suffered fibula fracture and ankle dislocation

• PSG’s Donnarumma criticised for ‘reckless’ collision

Bayern Munich have said Jamal Musiala faces a “lengthy” recovery from a leg fracture after his collision with Paris Saint-Germain’s goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma at the Club World Cup.

Bayern said on Sunday that Musiala had flown back from Florida to Munich that morning for surgery on the injury the attacking midfielder picked up in Saturday’s loss to PSG in the quarter-finals.

Time has come for head coach to cease experimenting and get down to business as Lions need to go all out or go home

For some reason Dame Edna Everage sprang to mind in the wake of the British & Irish Lions’ less-than-marvellous display against the NSW Waratahs on Saturday. As Edna once waspishly told a fellow grand dame: “I’m trying to find a word to describe your outfit … affordable.” It was not dissimilar to the lacklustre Lions in Sydney: all dressed up and nowhere to hide.

It has been an awkward few days all round, with increasing amounts of potential comedic ammunition available to Aussie hecklers. “Mr Farrell, welcome to our hotel, we’ve held the family suite for you.” “Mate, was the pitch really damp on Saturday or were you blokes just wallowing in your own mediocrity?” It is reaching the point where the Lions need to start delivering a few short sharp punchlines of their own.

Older gen Zers, with memories of the 2009-10 financial crisis, are saving more, but experts say employers should help

Research published at the end of last year by the Investment Company Institute with help from the University of Chicago found that gen Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 – are “outpacing” earlier generations in contributing to retirement, having more than three times more assets in their 401(k) retirement savings accounts than gen X households had at the same time in 1989, adjusted for inflation.

This mirrors a 2023 study from the TransAmerica Center for Retirement Studies, which found that gen Z is doing a “remarkable job” saving for retirement with many putting away as much as 20% of their income towards the future.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

• 209.1 km from Lauwin-Planque Boulogne-sur-Mer

• Stage by stage guide | Email Tom your thoughts

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 are continuing 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.

There are just two days of talks left before the US president’s potentially swingeing tariffs are restored

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 the 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 video assistant referee 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.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Freddie Cardy and Beth Fisher to discuss England and Wales’ opening Group D defeats

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.

Prep 15 min
Drain 30 min
Cook 40 min
Serves 2-4

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.

Butler is published in the US by Hachette

• 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 in three 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.