Liverpool: While Florian Wirtz prepares to touch his toes and go “ahhhhhh” while a doctor holds a wooden lolly stick on his tongue, here’s some more positive Liverpool news: Mo Salah and Alexis Mac Allister have been shortlisted for the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award.
Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes, Newcastle’s Alexander Isak, Chelsea’s Cole Palmer and Arsenal’s Declan Rice are the other four contenders for the award voted for by their peers.
Peter Pan has a pop fantasy, Faustus is in Africa, Brian Cox leads a banking satire and Billy Connolly meets the late Alasdair Gray. Elsewhere, the joy of pickling, a landmark jazz album and Elton John’s libel case take centre stage
Whenever you see a performance in Canada, it will begin with a land acknowledgment; a way of crediting those who were there before the Europeans arrived. Indigenous playwright Cliff Cardinal questions the motives of such declarations in a broadside that uses Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy to comment on our attitude to the natural world. Church Hill theatre, 20-23 August
One person was reported killed and 14 injured when Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian city of Odesa overnight
Speaking at the press conference, Jonas Gahr Støre declared Norway’s support for the 5% target proposed by Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte.
In his opening statement, Støre explained the target is divided into 3.5% on “classic defence” spending including staff, investments, preparedness, and support for Ukraine, with the remaining 1.5% on “defence-related expenses” including on operational and industrial measures.
(Duo Ruut Music) The pair play with the traditions of Baltic Finnic runo song to explore the connections between the weather and emotion, giving ancient forms crossover potential
Duo Ruut (Square Duo) are Ann-Lisett Rebane and Katariina Kivi, two Estonian musicians who write, sing and play facing each other, their instrument being a single kannel (an Estonian zither). Playing with the texts and repetitive motifs of runo song, a form of traditional oral poetry specific to the Baltic Finnic languages, their music holds a glistening minimalism in its rhythms and a crossover sheen in its sound. Rebane and Kivi’s voices help – often sweet, but also sharp when required.
Their ambitious second album Ilmateade (Weather Report) explores the powerful yet under-sung connections between the weather and emotion. It begins with the minute-long Intro, a track that builds gorgeously on the scratchy, dying notes of their 2021 EP, Kulla Kerguseks (From the Lightness of Gold), implying both continuity and metamorphosis.
Then we’re in Udu (Fog), lulled along on thick, beautiful clouds of shifting time signatures, before Vastlalaul (The Sledding Song) slows and speeds, glossily, through the snow. These songs are rhythmically complex and have solid, ancient roots, but fans of ambient, Balearic dreaminess and the softer sides of indie pop and psych-folk will find woozy comforts here.
(Third Man Records) Will Anderson opens up on the NYC group’s third album, revealing an expansive articulacy to his take on 90s indie-rock
The third album by these New York-based indie-rockers rings some crucial changes. First, bandleader Will Anderson is in love, which alleviates some of the gloom that pervaded earlier records. And while the lyrics don’t amount to much on the page, when sung in unaffected deadpan and robed in artfully embellished shoegazey noise, Anderson’s elliptical poetics carry a compelling weight.
Second, and more importantly, Anderson invited his bandmates into the studio to record Raspberry Moon. Where previous albums had been one-man affairs, with Anderson overdubbing layer upon layer of guitar and synth on his lonesome, the presence of other musicians in the room has shaken up the paradigm. Their trademark walls of fuzz remain, but Raspberry Moon also fields tracks such as Break Right, on which the happy/sad melodies flourish with space to breathe, and the lush Lawnmower, which is practically unplugged (save for a keening thread of feedback in the distance) and utterly lovely for it.
Early days in a Lions camp can be nervy and everyone wants to play in Friday’s first match but Argentina provide a tough test
Every single member of the British & Irish Lions squad is in the perfect sweet spot at the moment. Blair Kinghorn aside, they all arrived into camp with a spring in their step and a smile on their face because their dreams have been realised. Speaking from experience, it is amazing how quickly you can leave national allegiances at the door.
At this stage, there is no sense of what the Test team will be, no division, or feeling that you have to make do with being a midweek dirt-tracker – the thing you are probably most nervous about is who your roommate will be. You know it will be someone from a different country and my first roommate was Keith Earls. As the youngest member of the 2009 squad, he was responsible for looking after the Lions mascot and I felt like I needed to mind him. I soon realised there are few as competitive as Keith and he did not need minding at all.
Research warns poorer governments prioritising debt payments over essential development spending
Developing countries need a fresh round of debt relief, to prevent money urgently needed for health and education being diverted to creditors, according to a major new report commissioned by the late Pope Francis.
The Jubilee report, produced by a panel of experts chaired by Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, argues for debt restructuring, along the lines of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative (HIPC).
Wednesday’s picaresque yarns have resulted in the alt-rock album of the year. At home in North Carolina, their leader explains why she likes things ‘a little bit scary’ – and what’s next after her split from bandmate MJ Lenderman
To step into Karly Hartzman’s home is to see the contents of her brain shaken out. There is a fireplace mantel covered in dolls and figurines; a wooden rack filled with cassette tapes; an old doll’s house filled to the brim with fabric scraps; a few overflowing bookshelves. As the 28-year-old leader of the indie-rock band Wednesday greets me at the door, she realises a few new additions have just landed through the letterbox, some books about the history of hardcore and punk: she has been listening to both a lot and is eager to educate herself.
Hartzman is a collector by nature, a habit that is also at the heart of her songwriting. Equally inspired by the southern rockers Drive-By Truckers and the shoegaze greats Swirlies, Wednesday’s sound combines heartfelt twang with walls of pummelling sound. Hartzman’s lyrics are highly narrative, inflected with striking, gnarly details. Listen to the band’s breakthrough album, 2023’s Rat Saw God, and you will hear about urine-coloured soda, roadside sex shops, accidental arson and teens getting high on Benadryl.
LA was once a conservative stronghold; now the military is occupying it. Liberal cities have become targets for politicians looking to stir up their voters elsewhere
From Los Angeles to London, Istanbul to Warsaw, cities are making rightwing populists angry. Their liberal elites, immigrants, net zero policies, leftwing activists, globalised businesses, expensive transport infrastructure and outspoken municipal leaders – all are provocations to populist politicians whose support often comes from more conservative, less privileged places.
Three years ago the founders of national conservatism, the transatlantic ideology on which much of modern rightwing populism is based, published a statement of principles. One of these, surprisingly little noticed at the time, declared with some menace: “In those [places] in which law and justice have been manifestly corrupted, or in which lawlessness, immorality, and dissolution reign, national government must intervene energetically to restore order.”
Modest 23-year-old still does not understand the fuss around him as he prepares to face Flamengo in the Club World Cup
Cole Palmer sees himself as a normal kid. Strangers watch him with something close to fascination, though. What’s going on beneath the chilled exterior? The shrugging demeanour adds to the mystique. Kids copy the Chelsea attacker’s “cold” celebration. Interviewers walk away amused but bemused after spending time with him. What’s the story with those answers? Why are they all so short and sweet?
The Philadelphia sun is beating down when Palmer mooches over for a quick chat at Subaru Park, where Chelsea are training before facing Flamengo in their second game at the Club World Cup on Friday. So, Cole, can you tell us why you walked out wearing a mask when the team plane landed in the US last week? Are you ill? Enzo Maresca, your manager, thinks you were playing a trick on everyone.
Marcus Rashford’s future is very much in the category of “up in the air”. The chances of him ever playing for Manchester United look slim-to-none as he will not be given a boarding pass for the club’s US tour, while a dream move to Barcelona is going up in smoke. A few Serie A clubs have had a sniff but his wages may be a stumbling block. What he really needs is a Champions League club with plenty of cash. Step in … Newcastle. The Magpies are back in the bigger time, will be eager to make a statement signing or two, and Rashford fits the bill. Liam Delap chose Chelsea over Newcastle and Eddie Howe likes to have the best English talent at his disposal, so Rashford would be an ideal candidate as an extra attacking option.
It takes a brave man to move from Liverpool to Everton (and vice versa). Nick Barmby, Abel Xavier and Gary Ablett did the Merseyside double in their time and the next potential candidate is Ben Doak. The Scottish teenager impressed on loan in the Championship last season at Middlesbrough and is ready to step up to the Premier League but there is no obvious role he can play under Arne Slot. It means Doak might need to find an alternative and at least this one would mean he didn’t have to move house.
Musician John Grant was blown away by Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel, finding deep resonances in its tale of gay love and loss. Now, he’s put songs to choreographer Jonathan Watkins’s new dance adaptation
“I can’t believe that somehow I was able to make it all the way to the age of 55 without having read that book!” says American singer-songwriter John Grant. “It’s a transformative book. I was just completely blown away by it; I’ve been trying to get everybody that I’ve ever met to read it.”
The book Grant is telling me about, enthusing from his sofa at home in Reykjavík, is Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man, published in 1964, turned into 2009’s most stylish film by first-time director Tom Ford, starring Colin Firth, and now about to be a ballet, premiering at this year’s Manchester international festival. Grant, the former Czars frontman and now an acclaimed solo artist (with albums including Pale Green Ghosts and his latest, The Art of the Lie), is writing the new show’s songs.
In its third season, the show leans into the cringe again – and rings true when it allows its white liberal characters to mess things up
Are any of the writers on And Just Like That (AJLT) reading this? Because I have several helpful suggestions to bring the current series of your Sex and the City reboot into 2025: Charlotte’s husband, the hitherto harmless Harry, could start pressuring her into an open marriage, involving whatever passes for wild sex parties on the Upper East Side. Miranda could soon enter her Chappell-Roan-power-ballad era by hooking up with a sexually captivating, but emotionally unavailable, decades-younger woman. And what about a big reveal involving Aidan, who has been draining Carrie’s bank accounts all along (because he’s secretly a Reddit-radicalised, misogynist crypto bro now). I’d also suggest we see and hear a lot less from the children. The existence of Brady, Brock, Tilly and Twerp should only ever be referenced occasionally and obliquely, for form’s sake. Y’know, like how people of colour were treated all the way through the original Sex and the City series?
Ironically, racial politics is the one area in which AJLT is doing just fine, even without my help. This is not the consensus view, I’m aware. Many fans entered a state of full-body cringe during the first season, when Miranda wondered aloud if she was having “a white saviour moment” when fighting off a mugger attacking her Black friend, and are yet to regain full use of their sphincter muscles. But the fact is, AJLT understands the specific whiteness of wealthy white women, in a way that not only vastly improves on the original show’s run, but which could also teach other contemporary TV shows a thing or two about “diversity” and “representation”.
Ministers from UK, France and Germany will meet Abbas Araqchi after White House says Trump will ‘make a decision on whether to attack Iran within two weeks’
The French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot has spoken to the US secretary of state Marco Rubio ahead of a meeting in Geneva between foreign ministers from the UK, France and Germany and their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araqchi.
The Geneva meeting is aimed at creating a pathway back to diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Industry professionals gather at civil and military aircraft event further overshadowed by war between Israel and Iran
Every second summer more than 100,000 aviation industry professionals gather in Paris for an airshow – a flying display crossed with a vast conference. The mood at the latest gathering this week was more subdued than usual, after the deadly crash a week ago of a London-bound Air India flight in Ahmedabad.
Investigators have recovered the black box from the plane to try to work out the cause of the disaster. The aircraft maker Boeing, and GE Aerospace, which made the 787 Dreamliner’s engines, both cancelled many of their media-facing events out of respect for the families of the 241 passengers and crew who died, as well as at least 30 more people on the ground who were killed.
Is giving an artist a one-star review an act of abuse? An influential theatre critic finds out in this smart story of #MeToo-era revenge
When Jesus is pressed to condemn the woman taken in adultery, he says, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” No one does, and a lesson in critical generosity is learned. Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Is giving an artist a one-star review an act of abuse – casting the first stone? Is it worse when the reviewer is male and the artist female? That’s the starting point of this entertaining and very timely debut novel from Charlotte Runcie, an arts journalist who, as a young intern, was lambasted on stage by a successful standup to whom she’d given a bad review.
There was an interactive customer feedback device propped up on the bar. Tell us what you think of our service, it said, and underneath there were two buttons you could press: an angry red face or a smiling green one. Excellent or worthless, nothing in between. Review your experience, share your thoughts, recommend us to your friends, swipe left, swipe right, leave a comment, have an opinion.
Bleak, enraging documentary combines firsthand accounts of the disaster with appalling record of official negligence
The 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London which caused 72 deaths is now the subject of Olaide Sadiq’s heartwrenching and enraging documentary, digging at the causes and movingly interviewing survivors and their families, whose testimony is all but unbearable. At the very least, the film will remind you that when politicians smugly announce they wish to make a bonfire of regulations, they should be taken, under police escort if necessary, and made to stand at the foot of the tower. As for the housing secretary at the time of the tower’s refurbishment, the abysmally arrogant Eric Pickles, he was made a life peer in 2018.
With the very considerable help of the housing-issues journalist Peter Apps, the film shows how the horror was created by a perfect storm of incompetence, mendacity, greed, and (that heartsinking phrase) systemic failure. The local council were keen to spruce up its brutalist, concrete (but safe) Grenfell Tower because it was a “poor cousin” and depressing property values. Decorative cladding was just the ticket and the council allowed the installation of the cheapest tiles, made of aluminium composite material which was terrifyingly flammable. A US aluminium firm’s French division sold the council those tiles; in the subsequent inquiry they were accused of suppressing their own research into how dangerous another of their products was.
Today’s vote is on a knife edge. MPs must take their chance to drive forward personal freedoms – and add to Labour’s legacy
MPs, read this horror before you vote today. Here’s how some people are slowly dying, right now, in mortal agony untreatable by the best palliative care: “Some will retch at the stench of their own body rotting. Some will vomit their own faeces. Some will suffocate, slowly, inexorably, over several days.” An average of 17 people a day are dying these bad deaths, according to 2019 figures, as reported by palliative care professionals who see it happen.
The Inescapable Truth, a report from Dignity in Dying, revealed what is usually kept hidden from us: the shocking last months for the unluckiest. It could happen to you or me. The assisted dying bill’s final Commons vote today is no abstract debate about slippery slopes or what God wants: to do nothing is to inflict torture on many.
Exclusive: first store opens in Spinningfields, Manchester, two weeks before band’s first gig in 16 years in Cardiff
Will the truce between the Gallagher brothers hold out? Will the most-hyped reunion in British rock history actually come off? And will fans be able to bag themselves an official Oasis tea towel?
The answer to that final question, at least, has arrived. The first Oasis merchandise store will open in Manchester on Friday, two weeks before the band perform their first gig in 16 years at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
Publishers could see audiences uninstall apps, as some users receive up to 50 alerts a day, analysis shows
It has become a feature of modern life – millions of phones simultaneously buzz or sound the alarm as users are notified of breaking news deemed too important to miss.
Now evidence is mounting that the prevalence of news alerts is giving rise to “alert fatigue”, with some mobile phone users peppered with as many as 50 notifications a day.
High temperatures likely to cause deaths and will worsen in future as global heating intensifies, scientists warn
The dangerous 32C heat that will be endured by people in the south-east of England on Saturday will have been made 100 times more likely by the climate crisis, scientists have calculated.
Global heating, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, is making every heatwave more likely and more intense. The 32C (89.6F) day forecast on Saturday would have been expected only once every 2,500 years without the climate crisis, the researchers said, and June heatwaves are now about 2-4C (3.6-7.2F) hotter than in the past.
Exclusive: Research by the General Medical Council found doctors opting for US, Australia and Canada instead
Doctors are choosing not to come and work in the UK because they are put off by low salaries, the high cost of living and poor quality of life.
Research by the General Medical Council (GMC) shows that doctors who shun the UK are opting to move instead to the United States, Australia and Canada to earn more and have a better life.
Appeals court in San Francisco extends pause on district judge ruling that president called troops into federal service unlawfully
A US appeals court has let Donald Trump retain control over California’s national guard while the state’s Democratic governor proceeds with a lawsuit challenging the legality of the Republican president’s use of the troops to quell protests and unrest in Los Angeles.
A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th US circuit court of appeals on Thursday extended a pause it had placed on US district Judge Charles Breyer’s 12 June ruling that Trump had called the national guard into federal service unlawfully.
The greatest impact of this war is fear and anxiety. We don’t know whether this situation will last for weeks, months or even years. Our lives have been thrown off routine, I spend most of my time just reading the news. I’m constantly afraid that a missile might hit my home, my city or the homes of my relatives and friends in other places.
I get the news from X and Instagram because we don’t have any reliable news networks and broadcasts that are not censored by the regime. We follow the updates through videos shared by people from different parts of the country on social media. The internet in Iran has become very slow and it was completely down yesterday [Wednesday].
Dmytro Chorny tells of hunger, beatings and torture before a mass prisoner exchange freed him to go home to – and marry – his girlfriend, Diana
Despite all they have endured, it doesn’t take much to draw shy smiles from Diana Shikot, 24, and Dmytro Chorny, 23.
You could ask them about Chorny’s sweetly bungled marriage proposal the day after his release from Russia’s notorious penitentiary system, in which he languished as a prisoner of war for three years.
White House flags potential Chinese access to ‘sensitive communications of one of our closest allies’
A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air”, campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables.
The furore over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies”.
Exclusive: Foreign secretary says training for 9,000 workers at European carriers is step towards more secure borders
Thousands of European airline staff are being trained to stop people boarding flights to Britain without valid visas, in a move billed by the foreign secretary as a digital upgrade to border controls.
David Lammy said the measures marked a step towards “more secure, more digital and more effective” borders, but the move could raise questions about human rights safeguards.
The EU is under pressure to strike a trade deal with Trump, but an influx of mass-produced, low-quality food must be off the table
All over European media, the take seems to be similar – that the EU is “under pressure” to conclude some sort of deal with the US in order to avoid Donald Trump’s 9 July deadline for the unilateral imposition of broad tariffs. What might be on the table in the attempt to secure that? In early May, the EU trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, was already suggesting that a deal to increase purchases from the US could include agricultural products – a possibility that seems to remain even though Šefčovič later clarified that the EU was not contemplating changing its health or safety standards.
Since I have failed to Abba (“Always be boldly acronyming”) and don’t have anything as good as Taco (“Trump always chickens out”) – coined by the Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong – at the ready, I’ll simply reach for the easy line: opening the door even slightly to more US food imports into the EU would leave a bad taste in all our mouths. Trump’s hostage-taking approach to trade should not be rewarded, certainly not with something that hits as close to home as food does.
In 28 Years Later, zombies maraud over a Britain broken by more than Brexit. Its director discusses cultural baggage, catastrophising – and why his kids’ generation is an ‘upgrade’
The UK is a wasteland in Danny Boyle’s new film. Towns lie in ruins, trains rot on the rails and the EU has severed all ties with the place. Some residents are stuck in the past and congregate under the tattered flag of St George. The others flail shirtless through the open countryside, raging about nothing, occasionally stopping to eat worms. You wouldn’t want to live in the land that Boyle and the writer Alex Garland show us. Teasingly, on some level, the film suggests that we do.
Boyle and Garland first prowled zombie Britain with their 2002 hit 28 Days Later. It was an electrifying piece of speculative fiction, a guerilla-style thriller about an unimaginable world. Since then we’ve had Brexit and Covid, and the looming threat of martial law in the US … The story’s extravagant flights of fancy don’t feel so far-fetched any more. “Yes, of course real world events were a big influence this time around,” Boyle says, sipping tea in the calm of a central London hotel. “Brexit is a transparency that passes over this film, without a doubt. But the big resonance of the original film was the way it showed how British cities could suddenly empty out overnight. And after Covid, those scenes now feel like a proving ground.” Where Cillian Murphy first walked, the rest of us would soon follow.
Fueled by defense, depth and defiance, the Indiana Pacers stormed to a 108-91 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night, leveling the NBA finals at three games apiece and setting up a decisive Game 7 in Oklahoma City.
Obi Toppin came off the bench to score 20 points, Andrew Nembhard added 17 points with four assists and Pascal Siakam had 16 points and 13 rebounds as Indiana bounced back from consecutive losses. Tyrese Haliburton, cleared to play only hours before tipoff due to a strained right calf, delivered 14 points, five assists and two steals in 22 high-impact minutes.
World-first agreement that creates a visa in the context of climate change stirs hope among young people in Tuvalu
On the sandy shores of Vaiaku, as coconut trees sway gently in the breeze, Tekafa Piliota sits in his small classroom and dreams of becoming a doctor. The 13-year-old, who lives in Tuvalu’s capital Funafuti, knows that would mean leaving his homeland. There aren’t any universities in the small Pacific island nation, which lies between Australia and Hawaii. The country has another problem: it is predicted to be one the first countries to become uninhabitable due to rising seas.
“I would like to go to Australia to study. There is higher ground in Australia, and it might be safer during natural disasters,” Piliota says.
Items ranged from video cameras and guitars to taxidermy deer heads, props from Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive – and the director’s personal coffee machine
Personal effects belonging to the film-maker David Lynch, who died in January, have fetched more than $4m at auction in Los Angeles, with the highest bid of $195,000 going to scripts for his unrealised film project Ronnie Rocket.
Drone attacks on Kharkiv and Odesa; don’t forget about Ukraine because of Iran-Israel fighting, say Kyiv officials. What we know on day 1,213
Vladimir Putin’s economy minister has warned that Russia is “on the verge” of recession as he spoke on the second day of a signature event meant to bolster economic confidence. The minister, Maxim Reshetnikov, said at the St Petersburg economic forum that his view was based on “current business sentiment and indicators” pointing to a slowdown. “Everything else depends on our decisions,” Reshetnikov said, calling for the central bank to show a “little love for the economy”.
Russia’s central bank raised interest rates to an eye-watering 21% in October 2024 to combat inflation and kept them at that level until this month when it eased them to 20%. Russia’s economic growth slowed to 1.4% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, the lowest quarterly figure in two years. Prices are rising across the economy driven up by massive government spending on the war and widespread labour shortages. Annual inflation has been more than double the central bank’s 4% target for over a year. Economists have warned since the war began that any Russian growth driven by the defence industry is unsustainable and does not reflect a real increase in productivity.
Kharkiv and Odesa were under attack from Russian-launched drones in the early hours of Friday, according to local officials and social media channels.
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant “cannot start operating again as long as this large-scale war continues”, the UN nuclear agency has said. The plant, illegally held by the Russians, has too many issues with cooling water and its need for electricity supplied from offsite, the IAEA said.
Russia and Ukraine said on Thursday that they had completed another exchange of captured soldiers. Neither side said how many. “Our people are returning home from Russian captivity,” said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president. The Ukrainian government agency overseeing the exchanges said it involved “seriously ill and wounded” soldiers. Russia’s defence ministry also confirmed the exchange.
Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Russia’s defence of Iran’s authorities underscored the need for intensified sanctions against Moscow. Its deployment of Iranian-designed Shahed drones and North Korean munitions was proof that Kyiv’s allies were applying insufficient pressure against the Kremlin. “When one of their accomplices loses their capability to export war, Russia is weakened and tries to interfere. This is so cynical and proves time and again that aggressive regimes cannot be allowed to unite and become partners.”
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said the conflict between Israel and Iran had exposed Russian hypocrisy, with Moscow condemning strikes against Tehran while “ruthlessly” attacking Ukraine. “The only rational conclusion is that Russia cannot be trusted in any situation, and it is always part of the problem rather than the solution.”
The funeral has been held in Kyiv for Ukrainian soldier and former actor Yuriy Felipenko, who was killed on the frontline aged 32. Before joining the army in April 2024, Felipenko starred in several stage productions and TV shows, playing a lead role in Ukrainian crime serial The Colour of Passion.
Fighting between Iran and Israel could deflect global attention from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and even bolster the Kremlin’s war effort, a senior Ukrainian political source told AFP. The conflict has pushed up the price of oil and “for Ukraine, the challenge is the price of oil, because if prices remain high for a long time, the Russians will earn more”. However, Kyiv has welcomed Israeli attacks on a country that has directly aided and provided weapons to Russia.
Denmark when it takes over the presidency of the European Council will continue preparing Ukraine for EU membership against the objections of Hungary, the Danish Europe minister, Marie Bjerre, said on Thursday. The Danish presidency begins on 1 July. “Unfortunately, Hungary is blocking and we are trying to put as much pressure there as we can and also do everything we can to make Ukraine continue with the necessary reform work,” said Bjerre.
In the phone call, Thai prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra discusses a border dispute with former Cambodian leader and calls him ‘uncle’
Thailand’s prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, apologised after a leaked phone conversation with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen prompted public anger and threatened the collapse of her government.
In the leaked call, Paetongtarn – daughter of the populist former leader Thaksin Shinawatra – discusses an ongoing border dispute with Hun Sen, who is known to be a friend of her family.
In the recording, she can be heard criticising a senior Thai military commander who she said “just wanted to look tough”, describing him as an opponent. Addressing Hun Sen as “uncle”, she adds that if there were anything he wanted to “just let me know, I’ll take care of it”.
States argued US transportation secretary lacks authority to impose conditions on funding appropriated by Congress
A federal judge on Thursday blocked Donald Trump’s administration from forcing 20 Democratic-led states to cooperate with immigration enforcement in order to receive billions of dollars in transportation grant funding.
Chief US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, granted the states’ request for an injunction barring the Department of Transportation’s policy, saying the states were likely to succeed on the merits of some or all of their claims.
Argentinian’s 68th free-kick goal secures three points
European champions PSG fall 1-0 to Brazil’s Botafogo
Lionel Messi converted a delicious free-kick in the 54th minute to propel Inter Miami to a 2-1 victory over FC Porto in a Group A match of the Fifa Club World Cup on Thursday afternoon.
After Porto struck first through Samu Omorodion’s penalty in the eighth minute, Marcelo Weigandt set up Telasco Segovia’s equalising goal shortly after half-time. But Miami found the decisive moment in the second half as Messi scored the 68th free-kick of his illustrious career.
Even more staggering than The Jinx, this riveting documentary shows the truly atrocious lengths the manager of a California crematorium went to undercut his rivals. Absolutely not for the faint-hearted
The smart thing about comparing something to The Jinx is that you’re essentially daring viewers to stick with you until the very end. After all, as good as The Jinx was, it didn’t reach legendary status until its final few moments, when notorious murder suspect Robert Durst paused an interview with his microphone still on, and muttered a confession while using the toilet.
The Mortician, it has to be said, is pound for pound more staggering than The Jinx. Joshua Rofé’s three-part documentary about California cremator David Sconce is a feat of construction, patiently doling out larger and larger transgressions until the whole thing becomes swamped in unimaginable horror. It’s the kind of documentary where, when the credits roll, you realise that you haven’t drawn breath for several minutes.
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