Hello for the final time from Lord’s for this World Test Championship final. Yes, it’s only Day 3, but surely, surely, this Test finishes today.
The sun is shining bright and the forecast is the best for the week. Australia have only Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, and Josh Hazlewood to bat, in a match where wickets have fallen readily. They lead by 218 right now. So unless there is an extraordinary partnership, South Africa will either chase the runs today or be bowled out trying.
In July 1963, Jan and Dean’s Surf City spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the first surf rock song to top the charts. Co-written by Brian Wilson, the tune describes a halcyon place where there’s always a party brewing and the romantic odds are in the narrator’s favor – two girls for every boy!
In this rock’n’roll era just before the Beatles shook up the US, surf culture had gone mainstream via films (the Annette Funicello-Frankie Avalon vehicle Beach Party) and music (the ferocious guitarist Dick Dale, quirky hits like the Surfaris’ Wipe Out). Wilson’s own Beach Boys were arguably the driving force behind this movement, having debuted in late 1961 with Surfin’, a single that doubled as an early mission statement: “Surfin’ is the only life, the only way for me.” The fresh-faced band members struck wholesome poses in magazine ads, wearing matching plaid shirts while standing in a line clutching a surfboard, as they sang pristine, intricate harmonies that radiated warmth.
Budget airline Wizz, whose shares are down almost 5% today, says it has suspended flights to Tel Aviv and re-routed flights affected by closed airspace in the region for the next 72 hours.
The jump in the oil price today, following Israel’s attack on Iran, is a “bad shock for the global economy at a bad time”.
For the average consumer, they will be looking at more income uncertainty. They will be looking at higher petrol prices, and in the UK, they’re probably looking now at higher risk of taxation in October.
So whatever way you look at it, it’s negative short term, it’s negative longer term.
(Lío Press) Zurich-based musicians Benedikt Merz and David Hänni meld krautrock, punk and big beat into tripped-out, swampy grooves that reach dizzying heights
After almost three decades of friendship, Zurich-based musicians Benedikt Merz and David Hänni moved into a studio together in 2019. They found common ground over their shared love of psychedelic music and spent long, woozy nights jamming together. But while one wanted to focus on live electronics, the other secretly wanted to start a band. The outcome was Dâdalus & Bikarus, a project which sits somewhere between these two worlds, welding elements of krautrock, punk and big beat into tripped-out dancefloor rhythms.
Their second album, Off the Shelf, captures the obsessive energy of those early nocturnal experiments, which they’ve since built a reputation for in their live shows. Anchored by drawn-out loops, each track slowly builds tension to dizzying, near-erotic heights. On Erebros, this takes place across a hefty 11 minutes: led by propulsive drums and a scuttling bass riff, the track pushes and pulls, eventually developing into an angular acid-punk workout. In Kill Your Feed, another standout, a simple drum sequence gradually kicks into a shuffling Madchester-esque groove, with plenty of feedback along the way. For all their repetition, the instrumentals are moreish and never dull, thanks also to the ominous sirens and metallic clangs scattered throughout. Merz’s vocals are similarly enticing, channelling Peter Murphy’s moody drawl at points, and gruff EBM-style yelpsat others.
Alejandro Garnacho will be allowed to leave Manchester United this summer if the price is right. One surprising potential suitor is Aston Villa, who could make a move for the winger. They took Marcus Rashford on loan from Old Trafford last season, revitalising his career somewhat in the progress, so Garnacho may feel it is a move in the right direction away from the current dead end.
It will be a busy summer at United as Ruben Amorim attempts to assemble a squad that has the vague chance of fitting into his 3-4-3 constraints. One key area where improvement is required is centre-forward. A potential plan to source an actual goalscorer could see United offer up Joshua Zirkzee to Napoli as part of a deal for Victor Osimhen. There could, however, be some very serious competition for the Nigerian as Liverpool may also fancy a nibble.
Federico García Lorca’s poems were printed anonymously in 1983 after being hidden away by family for 50 years
In the autumn of 1983, dozens of carefully chosen readers received an envelope containing a slim, red booklet of sonnets that had been locked away since they were written almost 50 years earlier by the most famous Spanish poet of the 20th century.
While those behind the initiative gave no clue as to their identities, their purpose was made abundantly clear in the dedication on the booklet’s final page: “This first edition of the Sonnets of Dark Love is being published to remember the passion of the man who wrote them.”
Rescue teams with sniffer dogs were combing the crash site of a London-bound passenger jet that ploughed into a residential area of Ahmedabad in India, killing at least 265 people onboard and on the ground.
One man on the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner – carrying 242 passengers and crew – survived Thursday’s crash, which left the tailpiece of the aircraft jutting out of the second floor of a hostel for medical staff from a nearby hospital.
If it goes ahead we will see the construction of a surveillance state that is in some ways worse than the US
Canada got duped. We avoided electing an outright Trump sympathiser, but we still elected a prime minister who will align our policies with the United States. Despite all the anti-Trump rhetoric and celebration of the idea that Canada was independent and had no desire to be like the US, we are now passing Maga-inspired legislation.
The newly elected Mark Carney government tabled a border bill that will give law enforcement sweeping powers in obtaining citizen’s data, and will align Canada with the US’s refugee policies. Bill C-2, or the Strong Borders Act, is presented as a border security bill. However, its reach extends beyond border applications to nearly all legislation.
Erica Ifill is an economist and award-winning political columnist
The world No 1 colourfully described his Norway experience and his desk fist-bang against Gukesh Dommaraju
“Winning by half a point after a lot of results go my way doesn’t feel like a statement,” was how Magnus Carlsen summed up the Stavanger tournament, where he finished just half a point ahead of Fabiano Caruana. The centrepiece of the event was his second game with India’s world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, in which Carlsen banged the table in frustrated rage when his winning position slipped away.
Carlsen said that “the Armageddon games were atrocious” but pointed out that he had scored plus two in classical and claimed that he had played the best chess. He did, with the glaring exception of round six and the table fist-pump.
Already controversial because of extra fixtures and Fifa involvement, the new tournament in the US is likely to be played in temperatures above 30C
Across this weekend, the US National Weather Service is predicting “moderate” heat risk for Miami and Los Angeles. With temperatures likely to exceed 30C, the agency warns “most individuals sensitive to heat” will be affected, a group that contains those “exercising or doing strenuous activity outdoors during the heat of the day”. This weekend is also when the Club World Cup begins.
When Lionel Messi and Inter Miami kick off the tournament on Saturday night against Al Ahly of Egypt it will be 8pm in Miami and, although the humidity is predicted to be high, the day’s peak temperatures will have passed. Paris Saint-Germain and Atlético Madrid, however, will play under the full height of the California sun on Sunday, with their Group B fixture a midday kick-off at the famously uncovered Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
Manager is flexible but a slow starter with limited experience in Europe, and arrives as the love still lingers for former manager
Brøndby appointed Thomas Frank as manager in June 2013 and did not win any of their first eight games of the 2013-14 season. Brentford appointed Frank as manager in October 2018 and lost eight of their following 10 games. So nobody should panic if Frank begins slowly at Tottenham.
In reality, though, the first couple of months will be a major challenge for the Dane. These are not easy circumstances for anybody to take the Spurs job. Usually a manager takes over after a run of poor form, with fans and players ready for a change and a regression to the mean in the offing. Spurs have been on a run of poor form: one win in 12 league games over the final three months of the season, but in that time they also won the Europa League, which means everything is seen in a different light.
Christopher Luxon’s visit to Beijing comes as former NZ PMs warn the country must not become part of defence arrangements ‘explicitly aimed at China’
New Zealand’s prime minister will meet Xi Jinping on a formal visit to China next week, his office has confirmed, a week after an open letter signed by some of his predecessors warned against positioning New Zealand as an “adversary” of its biggest trading partner.
Christopher Luxon is scheduled to travel to Shanghai and Beijing, before going to Europe. His office said he will meet Xi and China’s premier, Li Qiang, for a visit focused on trade, but which would also discuss “the comprehensive bilateral relationship and key regional and global issues”.
An immensely readable dive into the ‘predictive processing’ hypothesis, our best guess as to how the mind really works
The process of perception feels quite passive. We open our eyes and light floods in; the world is just there, waiting to be seen. But in reality there is an active element that we don’t notice. Our brains are always “filling in” our perceptual experience, supplementing incoming information with existing knowledge. For example, each of us has a spot at the back of our eye where there are no light receptors. We don’t see the resulting hole in our field of vision because our brains ignore it. The phenomenon we call “seeing” is the result of a continuously updated model in your mind, made up partly of incoming sensory information, but partly of pre-existing expectations. This is what is meant by the counterintuitive slogan of contemporary cognitive science: “perception is a controlled hallucination”.
A century ago, someone with an interest in psychology might have turned to the work of Freud for an overarching vision of how the mind works. To the extent there is a psychological theory even remotely as significant today, it is the “predictive processing” hypothesis. The brain is a prediction machine and our perceptual experiences consist of our prior experiences as well as new data. Daniel Yon’s A Trick of the Mind is just the latest popularisation of these ideas, but he makes an excellent guide, both as a scientist working at the leading edge of this field and as a writer of great clarity. Your brain is a “skull bound scientist”, he proposes, forming hypotheses about the world and collecting data to test them.
From the Alpujarras to the Dolomites, our tipsters hike, camp and devour hearty mountain food in some of Europe’s most spectacular scenery • Send us a tip on European wilderness – the best wins a £200 holiday voucher
After a gruelling journey from the UK, arriving at Alpe di Siusi during golden hour felt like stepping into a dream. Farmers turned hay in some of Europe’s highest alpine meadows, framed by jagged Dolomite peaks glowing in soft evening light. We can recommend staying at the Hotel Schmung, a family-run gem with delicious northern Italian food and direct access to scenic hikes. Rifugios provide great lunch stops along the trails. The peaceful setting, breathtaking views and freedom to explore on foot without needing a car make this a perfect base for the Dolomites. Louise
Sale covering 56,000 square miles set to go ahead despite opposition from Indigenous and environmental groups
The Brazilian government is preparing to stage an oil exploration auction months before it hosts the Cop30 UN climate summit, despite opposition from environmental campaigners and Indigenous communities worried about the environmental and climate impacts of the plans.
Brazil’s oil sector regulator, ANP, will auction the exploration rights to 172 oil and gas blocks spanning 56,000 square miles (146,000 sq km), an area more than twice the size of Scotland, most of it offshore.
Pioneering drug can halt advance of multiple myeloma for three times as long as standard treatments
Thousands of patients in England with blood cancer will become the first in the world to be offered a pioneering “Trojan horse” drug that sneaks inside cancer cells and wipes them out.
In guidance published on Friday, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) gave the green light to belantamab mafodotin, which can halt the advance of multiple myeloma for three times as long as standard treatments.
The US president called out the national guard and put marines on standby after protests against immigration raids began. Two Angelenos explain why the city won’t back down. Andrew Gumbel reports
More than a third of the people in LA county are immigrants, and they have shaped the culture of the city. So when sweeping immigration raids began, targeting their workplaces and neighbourhoods, protests began. Donald Trump announced he was calling in the national guard despite not having the agreement of LA’s governor – an almost unprecedented move. Then he put marines on standby.
Still, the demonstrations did not stop. One woman, who is a legal resident but grew up as an undocumented migrant in LA, explains how terrifying the week has been for her community. And why, despite facing teargas, she still wants to protest.
Israel has launched an attack on Iran aimed at “dozens” of targets including its nuclear facilities, military commanders and scientists, claiming it took unilateral action because Tehran had begun to build nuclear warheads.
As Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, threatened “severe punishment” against Israel, the Israeli military said on Friday morning that Iran had launched 100 drones aimed at Israel and that the country’s defences were focused on intercepted them.
The UN conference on the two-state solution offers an historic opportunity for Britain: to stand against the continued erasure of my people
Husam Zomlot is the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom
Future generations will look back on this moment as a turning point, when an unrelenting campaign was waged to erase the Palestinian people, and ask how this was allowed to happen.
How world leaders, faced with a choice between complicity and courage, enabled genocide. How they denied Palestinians our inalienable right to self-determination and return, and chose to support occupation over freedom, apartheid over equality. Today, after decades of appeasement and impunity, Israel has entrenched one of the longest military occupations in modern history, one that seeks not only to control Palestinian life but to extinguish it.
Husam Zomlot is the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom
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Making recognition of a Palestinian state subject to ever more conditions will only reinforce a “deadly status quo” and will be seen as siding with an apartheid regime, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK has said.
Writing in the Guardian, Husam Zomlot made an impassioned plea to the Labour government to fulfil a manifesto commitment by recognising Palestine in the run-up to a high-level UN conference on the two-state solution in New York next week.
The tragic drowning of seven women and girls just metres from the port of La Restinga has highlighted the growing number of female migrants crossing to the Canary Islands from west Africa
The four women and three girls were just metres from the pier in the port of La Restinga in El Hierro, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, when they drowned on 28 May. Rescue teams had begun disembarking the first people early that morning when the vessel capsized.
Photos and videos of the chaotic scenes show the boat partially submerged and completely overturned, with several people struggling to swim around it and others trying to climb on to the wrecked boat. Underneath, about 15 women and girls were trapped and fighting to get to the surface. Seven would not make it.
Exclusive: Charities and service providers say six-week timetable is too rushed in letter to equalities watchdog
More than 20 leading charities and service providers have urged the equalities watchdog to extend a consultation to devise guidance on the landmark supreme court ruling about gender, saying the current timetable is too rushed for proper engagement.
In a letter seen by the Guardian, organisations including Refuge, the UK’s largest charity for women affected by domestic abuse, and the mental health charity Mind, say the six-week consultation risked creating “rushed” guidance.
Work by Elizabeth Peyton from 1996 shows ‘quiet tension’ between Noel and Liam at their Oasis peak, expert says
“Where you gonna swim with the riches that you found?” Oasis asked in All Around the World. Maybe in the art market, buying a portrait of Noel and Liam Gallagher at the height of their fame for a possible £2m.
Sotheby’s has announced that a 1996 painting of the brothers by Elizabeth Peyton is to be part of its June contemporary art auction in London.
Video games are the closest you can get to trying a new body for a bit, and when I played as the androgynous Link, I felt subversive and empowered
Growing up steeped in the aggressive gender stereotypes of the 1990s was a real trip for most queer millennials, but I think gamers had it especially hard. Almost all video game characters were hypermasculine military men, unrealistically curvaceous fantasy women wearing barely enough armour to cover their nipples, or cartoon animals. Most of these characters catered exclusively to straight teenage boys (or, I guess, furries); overt queer representation in games was pretty much nonexistent until the mid 2010s. Before that, we had to take what we could get. And what I had was Link, from The Legend of Zelda.
Link is a boy, but he didn’t really look like one. He wore a green tunic and a serious expression under a mop of blond hair. He is the adventurous, mostly silent hero of the Zelda games, unassuming and often vulnerable, but also resourceful, daring and handy with a sword. In most of the early Zelda games, he is a kid of about 10, but even when he grew into a teenager in 1998’s Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64, he didn’t become a furious lump of muscle. He stayed androgynous, in his tunic and tights. As a kid, I would dress up like him for Halloween, carefully centre-parting my blond fringe. Link may officially be a boy, but for me he has always been a non-binary icon.
Ahead of her new film – in which she fights, dives and wrangles horses – the Oscar-winning actor discusses sunburn, age-gaps and hanging from helicopters
Julianne Moore has played some right mothers in her time. There was Amber Waves in Boogie Nights, whose pornography career and cocaine addiction costs her access to her child. Or Maude, the outre artist – “My work has been commended as being strongly vaginal” – whose determination to conceive drives much of the plot in The Big Lebowski. Moore was the infernal, domineering mother – the Piper Laurie role – in the 2013 remake of Carrie, and a lesbian cheating on her partner with the sperm donor who fathered their children in The Kids Are All Right. In May December, the most recent of the five pictures she has made with her artistic soulmate, the director Todd Haynes, she became pregnant by a 13-year-old boy, then married and raised a family with him after her release from prison. Shocking, perhaps, but then she had already played a socialite with incestuous designs on her own son (Eddie Redmayne) in Savage Grace. Imagine that lot as a Mother’s Day box set.
Her latest screen mum is in the jangling new thriller Echo Valley. She has a lot of heavy lifting to do as Kate, a morally compromised rancher whose farm is falling apart, along with her life. Some of that lifting is emotional: Kate left her husband for a woman (“I’m the one who ‘ran off with the lesbo ranch hand’,” she sighs) who then died. To add to her woes, Kate’s daughter (Sydney Sweeney), who has addiction problems, calls on her for help after accidentally throwing away $10,000 worth of drugs belonging to a dealer (Domhnall Gleeson).
It’s made me feel it’s OK to be an artist with a social purpose, though my wife hates the beard
I have spent the first three months of the past six years trying to become the 19th-century designer and activist William Morris. I grow my hair and beard to look like him, while immersing myself in his work.
On 24 March – his birthday – I dress as Morris and finish the quarter with some kind of absurd performance to highlight pressing social issues that he was concerned about, and that I want more people to focus on today.
As Donald Trump deploys more troops to fight protesters in LA, and as plans come together for a military parade in Washington DC on the president’s birthday, journalist Judith Levine tells Jonathan Freedland why she believes the US has entered a new era of authoritarianism
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In James Joyce’s Ulysses, the city’s most famous fictional resident was as frustrated by its transport links in 1904 as many of us are today
Ireland’s planning body, An Bord Pleanála, will determine later this year the fate of an ambitious proposal to build the country’s first underground railway. Residents of the Irish capital won’t be holding their breath, however. Since it was first proposed 25 years ago, MetroLink has been cancelled, revived and rebranded. The latest version of the plan, which involves just 18.8km of track, has been subject to delays, costs that have spiralled to five times the original estimate, and fierce opposition from homeowners, heritage bodies and businesses.
A wide-awake city of tech firms, theatres and tourist attractions, Dublin is one of the EU’s richest metropolitan areas; it is also the only large western European capital without a metro. No Dubliner would have been more frustrated with the situation’s absurdities, and MetroLink’s slow progress, than Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Olorato Mongale, allegedly killed by man she went on date with, is latest victim of violence against women
A wave of anger and frustration has gripped South Africa after the murder of 30-year-old Olorato Mongale, allegedly by a man she went on a date with. It is the latest in a series of high-profile cases of violence against women and children in the country.
Friends of Mongale, a former journalist who had been studying for a master’s degree in ICT policy, raised the alarm when she stopped checking in with them while on a date in Johannesburg on 25 May. Her body was found that day.
As Israeli jets struck targets in Iran on Friday morning, the US moved quickly to distance itself from Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to target Tehran in an escalation that threatens an all-out war in the Middle East.
The unilateral strikes indicated a collapse of Donald Trump’s efforts to restrain the Israeli prime minister and almost certainly scuttled Trump’s efforts to negotiate a deal with Iran that would prevent the country from seeking a nuclear weapon.
The film, about a women who dies and whose spirit returns by possessing a vacuum cleaner, explores power and political oppression in Thailand
When Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke became the first Thai director to win the Critics Week’s Grand Prize in May, he paid an unusual tribute. “I would like to dedicate this award to all the ghosts in Thailand,” he told the audience.
Ratchapoom’s film, A Useful Ghost, tells the story of a man whose wife dies after falling ill from dust pollution, and whose spirit returns by possessing a vacuum cleaner. It is a quirky story full of symbolism and dark humour that explores power and political oppression in Thailand.
Iran state media said five people had been killed and 20 wounded.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the attack, dubbed Rising Lion, would take “many days” and was aimed at “rolling back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival”. He suggested the operation could be long and difficult, saying “Israeli citizens may have to remain in sheltered areas for lengthy periods of time.”
Netanyahu said one target was the Natanz nuclear facility, a key site for uranium enrichment.
The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, announced a “special situation” in Israel after the country launched the strikes and said Israel expected retaliation.
Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport was closed until further notice, and Israel’s air defence units stood at high alert.
Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami has been killed in the strikes and the unit’s headquarters in Tehran had been hit. The Revolutionary Guards said Israel will pay a heavy price for its attack.
State TV is reporting that nuclear scientists Fereydoun Abbasi and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi were also killed.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Israel will receive a harsh punishment after its attack on Iran early on Friday. He confirmed that several commanders and scientists were killed in the attacks – and warned that Israel had “prepared a bitter fate for itself.”
Iran’s foreign ministry said the US – as Israel’s main supporter - will be held responsible for the consequences of “Israel’s adventurism.” In a statement, the ministry said the Israeli attack “exposes global security to unprecedented threat” and calls on the international community to condemn it.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nationshas said Israel has an ongoing dialogue with the United States but its determination to strike Iran was an independent Israeli decision.
Donald Trump has said that Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and that the United States was hoping to get back to the negotiating table, in an interview with a Fox News following the start of Israeli airstrikes on Iran. “Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and we are hoping to get back to the negotiating table. We will see. There are several people in leadership that will not be coming back,” Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin quoted Trump as saying in a post on X.
Trump will attend a national security council meeting on Friday morning, in the wake of the strikes.The meeting will be held at 11am (1500 GMT) on Friday, the White House said.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said the US was not involved in the strikes. “Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defence.”
The UN nuclear watchdog confirmed Friday that Israeli strikes were targeting an Iranian uranium enrichment site, saying it was “closely monitoring the deeply concerning situation”.
Oil prices jumped more than 7% on Friday, hitting their highest in months after Israel said it struck Iran, dramatically escalating tensions in the Middle East and raising worries about disrupted oil supplies.
World leaders have voiced concern over the strikes. New Zealand’s prime minister, Christopher Luxon, said that the Israeli airstrikes on Iran was a “really unwelcome development”. Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the government was “alarmed”.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel had launched Operation Rising Lion, a 'targeted operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival'. Declaring that Iran had recently take steps to weaponise enriched uranium, Netanyahu said Israel had targeted its leading nuclear scientist and main nuclear enrichment and weaponisation facilities. 'This operation will continue for as many days as it takes.'
Ukrainian forces ‘pushing back the occupiers’ says president but prevailing assessments show Russian gains. What we know on day 1,206
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukrainian forces are pushing back against Russian forces in theborder Sumy region where they have established a foothold in recent weeks. “Our units in Sumy region are gradually pushing back the occupiers,” said Ukraine’s president in his nightly video address. “I thank you! Thanks to every soldier, sergeant and officer for this result.”
The Ukrainian president provided no further details and offered no proof of Ukrainian advances in the area, and the claim contradicts prevailing assessments of continued Russian gains in Sumy. Russia has seized over 190 sq km (73 sq miles) of the Sumy region in less than a month, according to pro-Ukrainian open-source maps. They have captured more ground in the past days, advancing to around 20km from the city of Sumy’s northern suburbs and rendering it vulnerable to long-range artillery and drones.
The number of displaced people arriving in Sumy city is increasing, said Kateryna Arisoi, head of Pluriton, an aid organisation running shelters. “So far evacuation has been ordered in more than 200 settlements,” she said. Last week, a Russian rocket attack on Sumy city killed three people and injured 28, including three children, while also damaging several buildings.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said there had been a concentration of Russian men and equipment in Sumy region because of months of military operations across the border in Kursk region. He advised caution to establish details of the situation on the ground. “I think [Ukraine’s] military has the situation under control and I think we shall see a different picture in the coming days.”
Ukrainian police said two people were killed and six were injured in the past 24 hours in the eastern Donetsk region, the focus of the Russian offensive. One person was killed and 14 others were also injured in the southern Kherson region, which is partly occupied by Russian forces, police said. The authorities in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, said 18 people including four children were injured by Russian drone attacks over Wednesday night.
Boris Pistorius on a surprise visit to Kyiv said Germany was not planning to deliver Taurus long-range missiles to Ukraine that could allow it to strike deep into Russian territory. Instead, the German defence minister announced €1.9bn in additional military aid. Pistorius underscored that Germany would help Ukraine build its own long-range missile systems and help it finance purchases of homemade material. “The first systems should be available in the coming months,”
Russian has exceeded a million troops killed or wounded in its Ukraine war, according to the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces and western intelligence estimates. The UK defence ministry also announced the figure on Thursday. The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington has called it “a stunning and grisly milestone”.
Zelenskyy said he hoped to press Donald Trump at the G7 summit this weekend to step up sanctions against Russia. The US president said at the White House on Thursday that “I’m very disappointed in Russia, but I’m disappointed in Ukraine also, because I think deals could have been made”. Two weeks ago, Trump indicated he would do something by now if it turned out Putin had been “tapping him along”, but the US president has so far failed to follow through. The US Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, is pushing what he calls a bipartisan “bone-breaking” bill to introduce a 500% tariff on countries buying Russian oil and gas – mostly targeting China and India.
Video appears to show Ryan repeatedly striking horse with whip
The 66-year-old says the incident was part of a ‘rescue mission’
Australian Olympian, Heath Ryan, has been suspended from national and international equestrian competition after a video emerged that appears to show him repeatedly striking a horse with a whip.
Ryan, who represented Australia in dressage at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, acknowledged the video in a post on his Facebook page on Thursday. The 66-year-old defended the incident in his statement as part of a “rescue mission” in rehabilitating a problem horse.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed the nation, saying the IDF had targted Iran’s leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb.
He said that Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz had been targeted.
This operation will continue for as many days as it takes … We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history.
McIlroy four over after bruising finish to opening round
Spaun ends with one-stroke lead over Thriston Lawrence
There was a Thursday spell when it felt as if Oakmont had poked the bear. Rory McIlroy was two under par, he had fired a drive 392 yards; it seemed the Masters champion had his mojo back. McIlroy has been in uncharted, strange psychological territory since completion of the career grand slam at Augusta National in April.
Oakmont and the US Open then jabbed back in the manner only Oakmont and the US Open know. By the time McIlroy walked from the 9th green, his last, he had taken 74 shots including a second half of 41. He took a double-bogey five at the 8th. McIlroy’s demeanour showed he still cares.
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