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A Midsummer Night’s Dream review – Nicholas Hytner’s revels return with bawdy, uninhibited mischief

Bridge theatre, London
The immersive setup brings the audience into the midst of the play’s shapeshifting unreality among a comedy-gold cast of magical characters

Shenanigans reign in this neck of the woods. Boogying back to the Bridge after six years, Nicholas Hytner’s rollicking production of Shakespeare’s great comedy feasts on bawdy mischief and aerial antics. Radiating charisma, Emmanuel Akwafo’s uninhibited Bottom instructs his ragtag group of am-dram players to rehearse “most obscenely and courageously”. Hytner’s production, with somewhat more rigour and expertise, takes note.

Bunny Christie’s luscious set of beds, leaves and trapdoors has us at once rising from the murky depths of the forest and floating among the clouds of sleep. Half the audience mill amid the foggy underland, skilfully shuffled by stage management, while the rest of us sit up among the fairies. The immersive setup complements the play’s shapeshifting unreality; in this world, we become another set of magical creatures lurking in the shadows.

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© Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

© Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

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Musk’s tax bill attacks have rattled Republicans. But Trump still reigns supreme | Lloyd Green

In the end, we’re likely to see a legislative pastiche – a Frankenstein’s monster forged by political necessity

The feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump is a godsend for Democrats, a headache for the president and a problem for Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House. Between now and the Fourth of July, Trump expects congressional Republicans to deliver a badly needed win. After more than four months back in the Oval Office, he still lacks a major legislative achievement.

Republicans control both the House and Senate, but the public sees goose eggs on the scoreboard. Almost daily, the courts upend the president’s executive orders. Slim legislative majorities and government by rage come with drawbacks.

Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992

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© Photograph: Shutterstock

© Photograph: Shutterstock

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University of Michigan using undercover investigators to surveil student Gaza protesters

Revealed: security trailing students on and off campus as video shows investigator faking disability when confronted

The University of Michigan is using private, undercover investigators to surveil pro-Palestinian campus groups, including trailing them on and off campus, furtively recording them and eavesdropping on their conversations, the Guardian has learned.

The surveillance appears to largely be an intimidation tactic, five students who have been followed, recorded or eavesdropped on said. The undercover investigators have cursed at students, threatened them and in one case drove a car at a student who had to jump out of the way, according to student accounts and video footage shared with the Guardian.

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© Photograph: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

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Tice defends Reform MP’s question on burqa ban after Zia Yusuf resignation

Party’s deputy leader says discussion must not be ‘forced underground’ when it is policy in some European countries

Reform UK was right to start a debate on banning the burqa even though it triggered the resignation of its chair, Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, has said.

Tice, who is one of five Reform MPs, said he was “enormously sad” that Zia Yusuf had quit as chair as he was partly responsible for the party’s strong performance in May’s local elections.

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© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

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Netanyahu defends arming Palestinian clans accused of ties with jihadist groups

PM says it ‘saves lives of Israeli soldiers’, after accusations government is giving weapons to ‘criminals and felons’

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has admitted arming clans in Gaza that he says are opposed to Hamas, after allegations that members of these criminal gangs looted humanitarian aid and have ties to jihadist groups.

The admission came after Israeli media reports quoted defence sources as saying Netanyahu had authorised giving weapons to a clan reportedly led by a man known as Yasser Abu Shabab, a Rafah resident from a Bedouin family, known locally for his involvement in criminal activity. Israel allegedly provided Abu Shabab’s group, which calls itself the “Anti-Terror Service”, with Kalashnikov assault rifles, including weapons seized from Hamas.

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© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

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Hedge fund orders London-based analysts back to office five days a week

Man Group’s temporary move comes as it tries to recover from spell of poor performance amid Trump tariff war

Man Group has ordered its London-based analysts to return temporarily to the office five days a week, as the world’s biggest listed hedge fund seeks to recover from a period of poor performance sparked by Donald Trump’s tariff war.

Quantitative analysts working at Man AHL, the company’s computer-run fund that aims to identify and follow momentum in markets, have been told they are expected to be in its offices daily until the end of July as part of an “all hands on deck” project.

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© Photograph: Gary John Norman/Getty Images/Image Source

© Photograph: Gary John Norman/Getty Images/Image Source

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‘I must have done something right!’: dance master Jiří Kylián on his festival, fierce critics and the Ministry of Silly Walks

At 78, the great choreographer is enjoying a career-spanning celebration in Oslo. He reflects on his leap from dance to visual art and why he feels snubbed by Britain

A gang of young dancers, their black costumes offset by colourful hats, cascade down the sloping roof of Oslo’s opera house for a jubilant routine to a Prince song by the waterfront. The building’s huge glass facade has become an unlikely stage for sculptures, digitally scanned from dancers’ bodies, positioned as if they are plunging into the building like the nearby bathers in the fjord. Inside, there’s an eclectic bill of ballets including one inspired by a painting from the Edvard Munch museum next door. In the wings of the theatre is an installation drawing on the Buddhist Zen symbol ensō. The studio space is screening short films veering from slapstick to the profound.

But this sprawling festival, spanning more than two weeks and then partially touring, has a singular focus. These are all works by Jiří Kylián, the Czech choreographer-cum-renaissance man, who in one pre-show discussion declares himself “the happiest boy in the world”. There has never been such a celebration of his work and, he suggests with wry self-effacement, there will probably never be another.

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© Photograph: CTK/Alamy

© Photograph: CTK/Alamy

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Elon Musk signals he may back down in public row with Donald Trump

SpaceX owner rows back on threat to decommission Dragon spacecraft after X user advises him to ‘cool off’

Elon Musk has suggested he may de-escalate his public row with Donald Trump after their spectacular falling out.

The Tesla chief executive signalled he might back down on a pledge to decommission the Dragon spacecraft – made by his SpaceX business – in an exchange on his X social media platform. He also responded positively to a call from fellow multibillionaire Bill Ackman to “make peace” with the US president.

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© Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images

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‘Tastes like water’: how a US facility is recycling sewage to drink

A California project can turn sewage into drinking water in less than an hour and could be a blueprint for other water-scarce regions

As the pumps whir around us, Denis Bilodeau motions to the liquid in the vats below. It looks like iced tea, but in fact it’s secondary treated sewage, cleaned of any solids by the plant next door. In less than an hour, and after three steps of processing, we will be drinking it – as pure water.

The Groundwater Replenishment System facility in Orange County, California, houses the pipes, filters and pumps to move up to 130m gallons each day – enough for 1 million people – processing it from dark to clear. The facility, which opened in 2008, is part of broader moves to help conserve water.

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© Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

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The unsinkable Pacers don’t need the lead. They just need the last word | Claire de Lune

Indiana didn’t lead for 47 minutes and 59.7 seconds of Thursday’s NBA finals opener. But belief, defiance and Tyrese Haliburton’s dramatic flair made the final 0.3 count

This is why you play the games, as the old adage goes. In recent years, the later rounds of the NBA playoffs – and the finals in particular – have felt rote. They’ve gone chalk. The drama was minimal, even under the brightest lights of the league’s biggest stage. This year has been different: a playoffs filled with suspense, tension and plot twists galore. But at the start of the finals, the scene was set for a regression to the intrigue-less mean. Every roundtable pundit, basketball expert and barbershop patron outside of Indiana state lines had Oklahoma City – basketball’s best team from wire to wire – winning the series easily.

But Tyrese Haliburton, the instigator of several of this postseason’s most jaw-dropping twists, knows a thing or two about drama. It oozes out of his pores. And he and his Indiana Pacers had other plans.

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© Photograph: William Purnell/Getty Images

© Photograph: William Purnell/Getty Images

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Geoff Dyer: ‘I don’t go to books for comfort; I have a memory foam pillow for that’

The author on Marxist revelations, returning to Don DeLillo and reading all of Elizabeth Taylor

My earliest reading memory
Beatrix Potter when I was having my tonsils out. No point saying how much I loved her books because everyone does, but Roberto Calasso makes a brilliant point in The Celestial Hunter by pairing “two great moments in the Victorian age” when Darwin “linked human beings to primates” and Potter “distributed human behaviour among a certain number of small domestic and rural animals”.

My favourite book growing up
The Guns of Navarone. My first Alistair MacLean, the first of about 20 before I grew out of him at the age of 15. They were thrilling and addictive and it was possible, while reading, to visualise every scene so clearly (helped in part by the scene-enacting photos on the covers of the Fontana editions).

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© Photograph: PR

© Photograph: PR

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From New York to Sierra Leone: a sister’s search for ‘just another missing black woman’

Oluwaseun Babalola’s film Fighting Giants is an exploration of the misogyny and racism encountered by her family as they attempted to uncover the truth behind her sibling’s disappearance seven years ago

Oluwaseun Babalola remembers the exact moment she started to worry about her sister. It was 14 August 2018 and she was sitting on a sofa in a friend’s flat in Queens, New York. She had spent 10 days trying to get hold of Massah KaiKai, who had been due to travel from Sierra Leone, where she lived, to visit her in the US.

The sisters messaged or called each other every day, often multiple times. “We talked about everything and nothing. I would come home to a bunch of voice notes. She would vent or have something very funny to say – she was a very funny person,” says Babalola.

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© Photograph: Laila Annmarie Stevens/The Guardian

© Photograph: Laila Annmarie Stevens/The Guardian

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The inevitable Trump-Musk feud is finally here – and it’s pathetic | Moira Donegan

This would all be sad enough even if it didn’t have global consequences. For Democrats, the moment has come

Ever since the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, threw his financial weight behind Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and appeared hopping around idiotically behind the candidate at a rally stage, political observers have wondered what would instigate the two men’s inevitable falling out.

Would it be a matter of competing egos, with each man resenting the power and influence of the other? Would it be a matter of clashing cultures, with Trump’s sleaze rubbing the wrong way against Musk’s Silicon Valley creepiness? Would it be an ideological clash, with the paleocon nationalists of Trump’s dwindling inner circle turning against Musk’s cadre of teenage Doge hackers and cosmopolitan techno-reactionaries?

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

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© Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

© Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

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‘Asia’s chokers’ smile at last: Uzbekistan’s hurt over as they reach first World Cup

Goal difference and referee howler cost White Wolves in the past but ‘Mr Uzbekistan football’ has guided them over line

There was no choking for Uzbekistan this time, or if there was, it was in an attempt to hold back tears of joy. Those eight minutes of added time on Thursday in Abu Dhabi were long but then it has been a long wait and a long road to qualify for a first World Cup.

Uzbekistan have snatched summers of rest from the jaws of World Cup appearances more than once in the past, so the goalkeeper Utkir Yusupov could be forgiven for taking his time and faking an injury or two. He was the star of a 0-0 draw against the United Arab Emirates that was dull – deliberately and deliciously so for those in Central Asia – but provided the necessary point. Yusupov went down once more at the end, this time in tears as reserve goalkeepers came on for a group hug.

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© Photograph: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images

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Death is not the end! From the new robot Walt Disney to Mountainhead, movies are fuelled by immortality

Transhumanism has long propelled films from Metropolis to The Matrix. But Jesse Armstrong’s billionaire satire isn’t sci-fi fantasy. Nor is the ‘robotic Grampa’ Disney’s granddaughter so despises

For years, the world’s most perfect urban myth was this: Walt Disney’s body was cryogenically frozen at the moment of death, waiting for technology to advance enough to bring him back to life. Started by a National Spotlite reporter who claimed to have sneaked into a hospital in 1967, only to be confronted by the sight of Disney suspended in a cryogenic cylinder, the myth prevailed because it was such a good fit.

Disney – and therefore Walt Disney himself – was the smiling face of rigidly controlled joy, radiating a message of mandatory fun that is magical when you are a child and increasingly sinister as you age. This policy (essentially “enjoy yourself or else”) suits the idea of cryogenic preservation. After all, if you have the ego to successfully enforce a blanket emotion as a company mission statement, you definitely have the ego to transcend human mortality.

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© Photograph: HBO/2025 Home Box Office, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© Photograph: HBO/2025 Home Box Office, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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‘The hotel had a dog spa’: readers’ favourite dog-friendly holidays

Dog lovers share their tips on the best accommodation and beaches to set tails wagging across the UK and Ireland
Tell us about a midsummer trip – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

Recently, Cornwall Council lifted the season-long dog ban on many of the county’s beaches, restricting it to just July and August rather than the six months or so it had been previously. The council publishes a list of beaches, with all restrictions listed, that it’s important to check before heading out (there are still 11 beaches where dogs are banned between 10am and 6pm, and there are three protected wildlife areas where they are banned at all times). One of the best beaches, we think, is at Gunwalloe where visitors can stay at the National Trust holiday cottage right by the beach and the cafe has water bowls for dogs. Church Cove is restricted for dog owners in July and August but Dollar Cove next door is dog-friendly at all times. The coast path runs right along the beaches and takes you over to Poldhu or Porthleven, so there are plenty of options for walkies.
Layla Astley

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© Photograph: Clare Jackson/Alamy

© Photograph: Clare Jackson/Alamy

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How Nintendo dodged Trump’s tariffs and saved the Switch 2 release

Fortunate timing and government hesitation allowed the Switch 2 to come out on time, but the headache isn’t over

Nintendo fans across the US are breathing a sigh of relief as they tear apart the boxes housing their new Nintendo Switch 2 video game consoles. On-again, off-again trade tariffs implemented by Donald Trump, which precipitated pre-order delays from Nintendo, made the 5 June release date of the highly coveted hardware feel more like a hope than a certainty. A potential price hike up from $450 loomed over launch day, but would-be buyers’ fears did not come to fruition.

Nintendo’s maneuvering around Trump’s tariffs isn’t over, though – far from it. The Japanese console maker managed to luckily launch its device squarely within a 90-day tariff pause issued by the president. If tariffs on countries such as India and Japan return to the levels proposed during Trump’s “liberation day” speech at the start of April, however, experts say Nintendo will have to limber up for yet another delicate trade policy dance.

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© Photograph: Kylie Cooper/Reuters

© Photograph: Kylie Cooper/Reuters

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Gabriel signs new Arsenal deal, transfer window updates and World Cup qualifying: football news – live

Asian World Cup qualifiers: Jordan and Uzbekistan have secured qualification at the World Cup finals for the very first time, while South Korea also booked their place in the tournament for the 11th time on the bounce. The three teams join Argentina, New Zealand, Iran and Japan in qualifying for World Cup 2026, while the USA, Canada and Mexico qualify automatically as co-hosts.

Uzbekistan, who count Manchester City defender Abdukodir Khusanov among their number, booked their place courtesy of a scoreless draw with the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi, while a 3-0 win over Oman was enough to secure Jordan’s place at the tournament. South Korea beat Iraq 2-0 to win their place in the Fifa tombola.

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© Photograph: Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

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Badenoch claims ECHR being used ‘to attack democratic decisions’ – UK politics live

Tory leader says rulings by European court of human rights are ‘damaging our security and prosperity’

As Jessica Elgot and Amelia Gentleman report, Downing Street is exploring new proposals for a digital ID card to crack down on illegal migration, rogue landlords and exploitative work, set out in a policy paper authored by a centre-left thinktank.

Steve Reed, the environment secretary, was the government voice on the media this morning and he confirmed that the government is interested in this idea. He told Times Radio:

It’s absolutely something that we are looking at, and that we should be looking at.

We know we need to look at all the actions we can take to stop the levels of illegal migration that we were seeing particularly under the last government.

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© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

© Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

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Football transfer rumours: Arsenal target Rogers? Gyökeres and Cherki to Manchester?

Today’s rumours are feeling the envy

Six days into the first transfer window of the summer and the Mill is churning faster than a well-oiled machine. Leading the charge are Arsenal, whose Premier League sights have led them to add Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers and Feyenoord’s Igor Paixão to their shopping list of potential attacking targets. Getting Rogers would demand a significant fee – likely north of £50m – with the former Middlesbrough man pulling up trees for Unai Emery’s team this season, with 14 goals and 15 assists in 54 games. Paixão would be the cheaper option. The 24-year-old had an outstanding season in the Netherlands, scoring 16 and adding 14 assists in 34 league matches to be named Dutch footballer of the year.

Manchester United have joined the lengthy list of clubs eyeing Viktor Gyökeres of Sporting. The Swede is apparently open to a move to Old Trafford despite the club not playing Champions League football next season. Ruben Amorim is reportedly keen to link up with his former player and the pair have kept in touch since he moved to the Theatre of Dreams. Sporting want around £60m for Gyökeres, which is a £25m reduction from his original £85m release clause, thanks to a verbal pact he made after committing to staying for the 2024-25 campaign, where he scored 54 goals in 52 games and won the Primeira Liga title.

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© Photograph: Stéphanie Lecocq/Reuters

© Photograph: Stéphanie Lecocq/Reuters

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One of JMW Turner’s earliest paintings rediscovered after 150 years

Depiction of a stormy Bristol landscape to be sold after artist’s signature was found when it was cleaned

An oil painting of a stormy Bristol landscape has been rediscovered as one of the earliest works of JMW Turner, created when the artist was 17 years old and lost to his canon for the past 150 years.

Turner’s signature on The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent’s Rock, Bristol was discovered in the process of cleaning the painting after it was sold last year.

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© Photograph: Sotheby's

© Photograph: Sotheby's

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Lifeguard: Ripped and Torn review – this brilliant post-punk racket sounds like a trip to a rivet factory

(Matador)
The Chicago threepiece’s bold debut is a blast of circular-saw guitars, baffling lyrics and effervescent melody

After emerging from the Chicago DIY scene five years ago, Lifeguard’s long-awaited debut crashes in with loud guitars and drums like a statement of intent. Opening track A Tightwire sets the template for the album: urgent, off-kilter and even slightly disorienting. The youthful trio of Kai Slater (guitar, vocals), Asher Case (bass, baritone guitar, vocals) and Isaac Lowenstein (drums, synth) have played together since high school, which has meant they have a musical understanding and are as tight as the proverbial nut.

Theirs is angular, driving post-punk with audible echoes of the Pop Group, Wire, Gang of Four and the Wedding Present, but they’ve certainly brought their own spin to it. The songs blaze forth with hurtling, mostly indecipherable imagery. They could be yelling “I am the spy on your pillow” or “words like tonality come to me”. What does it all mean? Who knows – but it’s fun thinking it through.

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© Photograph: Grace Conrad

© Photograph: Grace Conrad

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Russia bombards Kyiv after Putin vows revenge for Operation Spiderweb

Three people killed and 20 wounded as missiles and drones strike Ukrainian capital

Russia launched an intense missile and drone barrage at Kyiv overnight, killing four people, after Vladimir Putin had vowed to respond to Operation Spiderweb.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Friday that Russia had launched more than 400 drones and more than 40 missiles at the country, as he urged allies to build pressure on the Kremlin to end its war.

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© Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

© Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

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David Beckham to be made knight in King Charles’s birthday list

Former footballer will take title of sir and wife Victoria will become Lady Beckham

David Beckham will be awarded a knighthood next week as part of King Charles’s birthday celebrations, according to reports.

Beckham has been in line for a knighthood for more than a decade after playing more than 100 times for England and becoming well known for his charity work, much of which is focused on improving the lives of underprivileged children.

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© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

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Witch: Sogolo | Ammar Kalia's global album of the month

(Partisan)
After the band’s 2023 reunion and a revamp of members comes this imaginative and playful set showing 74-year-old Emmanuel ‘Jagari’ Chanda’s undiminished vocal power

In the early 1970s, a newly independent Zambia was forging a sound of its own. Young bands such as the Peace and Ngozi Family mixed distorted guitars with bluesy riffs, falsetto vocals and Fela Kuti-influenced Afrobeat rhythms to produce a genre they labelled Zamrock. At the forefront of this scene was singer Emmanuel “Jagari” Chanda’s Witch (We Intend to Cause Havoc). With his nickname paying homage to Mick Jagger, Chanda channelled the Stones’ swagger – alongside a healthy dose of lo-fi vocal grit and meandering, prog-influenced grooves – into five Witch records.

Although the group splintered in the 80s, reissues of their music in the 2010s sparked a Witch resurgence: in 2023, Chanda reunited with keys player Patrick Mwondela to produce their first new album in almost 30 years, Zango. Their latest, Sogolo, shows the revamped band in punchy form.

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© Photograph: Publicity image undefined

© Photograph: Publicity image undefined

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Three giant ‘doomsday fish’ wash up in one week, but harbinger of calamity a damp squib, say experts

After one oarfish was found in Tasmania, two were discovered in New Zealand, but there is no evidence of link between sightings and natural disaster, say scientists

Bad luck comes in threes, according to the saying. And this week three ethereal oarfish, nicknamed “the doomsday fish”, have washed up on the shores of Australia and New Zealand.

Two headless specimens were found near Dunedin and Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island, following the discovery of an oarfish on Tasmania’s west coast on Monday.

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© Photograph: baf85/iNaturalist

© Photograph: baf85/iNaturalist

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The Survivors review – a murder mystery so intense you’ll watch through your fingers

This adaptation of the bestselling Australian crime novel is full of twists, turns and red herrings. Its focus on the terrible grief of bereaved mothers makes it a cut above

I hope you have had enough time to recover from Robyn Malcolm’s barnstorming performance as a harrowed wife and mother labouring under burdens no one should have to endure in the acclaimed After the Party, because here comes another one.

The Survivors is a six-part adaptation of Jane Harper’s bestselling Australian crime novel of the same name, by Tony Ayres – who did the same for Christos Tsiolkas’s The Slap 10 years ago, which followed families fracturing under the weight of a moment’s lost control, and who co-created Stateless in 2020 about lives intertwining at an Australian immigration detention centre. This is a writer who doesn’t shy away from the pain human beings can inflict on one other. The Survivors is technically a murder mystery but its real subject is grief and terrible, terrible guilt.

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© Photograph: Aedan O’Donnell/Netflix

© Photograph: Aedan O’Donnell/Netflix

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Families of children killed in Hillcrest jumping castle incident ‘shattered’ after not guilty verdict

Rosemary Gamble, owner of Taz-Zorb which set up the equipment in Tasmania, had pleaded not guilty to failing to comply with workplace safety laws

The families of the six children killed in a primary school jumping castle incident are angry after the operator who set up the castle was found not guilty of a workplace safety charge.

Chace Harrison, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones, Zane Mellor, Addison Stewart, Jye Sheehan and Peter Dodt died after the incident at Hillcrest primary school in Devonport in December 2021.

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© Photograph: Ethan James/AAP

© Photograph: Ethan James/AAP

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What is Britain's elusive 'national character'? The Ballad of Wallis Island might just tell us | Gaby Hinsliff

Rain, cardigans and puns: a melancholic new romcom set on a windswept island hints at a relatable British identity

It is, according to no less an authority than the romcom king Richard Curtis, destined to be “one of the greatest British films of all time”. But don’t let that put you off. For The Ballad of Wallis Island – the unlikely new tale of a socially awkward millionaire who inveigles two estranged former halves of a folk-singing duo into playing a private gig on his windswept private island – isn’t some floppy-haired Hugh Grant vehicle, but a reflection on our national character that is altogether more of its times.

It’s a lovely, melancholic comedy about the acceptance of failure, loss and the slow understanding that what’s gone is not coming back: an ode to rain and cardigans, lousy plumbing and worse puns, shot in Wales on a shoestring budget in a summer so unforgiving that a doctor was apparently required on set to check for hypothermia. Its main characters have not only all messed up at something – relationships, careers, managing money – but seem fairly capable of messing up again in future. Yet as a film it’s both gloriously funny and oddly comforting, taking a world where everything seems to be slowly coming adrift and making that feel so much more bearable.

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© Photograph: Focus Features/PA

© Photograph: Focus Features/PA

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Chess: Carlsen targets last classical hurrah at Stavanger after defeat against Gukesh

The world No 1 can still win the event in Norway but he says: ‘It’s a long time since I enjoyed a classical tournament’

Magnus Carlsen’s shock loss to Gukesh Dommaraju was the world No 1’s first classical defeat by a classical world champion since he lost to Vishy Anand 15 years ago at the 2010 London Classic. It spoilt what should have been a winning position for him at Stavanger, where he was poised to break clear of the field. There are now suggestions that this will be Carlsen’s farewell appearance in classical. He told Take Take Take: “It’s a long time since I enjoyed a classical tournament.”

Meanwhile, though, Carlsen could go out on a high on Friday afternoon when he and Gukesh fight for first prize in the final round at Stavanger (4pm start), with Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana also still in contention.

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© Photograph: Carina Johansen/EPA

© Photograph: Carina Johansen/EPA

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Pablo Escobar’s top cocaine pilot details working for drug lord in new podcast

Tirso ‘TJ’ Dominguez says Escobar paid him $20m monthly to fly planeloads of coke

A man who eventually became Pablo Escobar’s go-to cocaine pilot has revealed that he first turned down an employment offer from the notorious Colombian drug lord because he was content with the $4m a month he was earning while flying for a competitor.

But, in a new podcast containing what is believed to be his first interview since authorities arrested him at his Florida mansion in 1988, Tirso “TJ” Dominguez recounted how he changed his mind about working for Escobar when the so-called Patron – or boss – offered him a salary that was five times higher: $20m monthly.

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© Photograph: Courtesy of the Cocaine Air podcast

© Photograph: Courtesy of the Cocaine Air podcast

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Foraged mushrooms, fatal doses and food binges: the week Erin Patterson told her story to triple murder trial

Accused told court the moment she realised she could be blamed for harming her in-laws came before they even died

In Erin Patterson’s telling, the moment she realised she could be blamed for harming her in-laws came before they even died.

According to evidence Patterson gave at her triple-murder trial this week, she was in a Monash hospital room alone with her estranged husband, Simon, after their two children had left to buy food from a vending machine, when he asked her: “Is that how you poisoned my parents, using that dehydrator?”

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© Photograph: Anita Lester/AAP

© Photograph: Anita Lester/AAP

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Australian navy ship accidentally blocks internet and radio across parts of New Zealand

Incident happened as one of the Royal Australian Navy’s largest ships was on its way to Wellington this week

The Australian defence force (ADF) has conceded that one of its ships inadvertently blocked wireless internet and radio services across swathes of New Zealand’s North and South islands this week.

The incident occurred on Wednesday morning as HMAS Canberra, one of the largest ships in the Royal Australian Navy, was on its way to Wellington, where it ultimately arrived on Thursday.

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© Photograph: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

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The Director by Daniel Kehlmann review – the author’s best work yet

This portrait of German film-maker GW Pabst and his moral struggles under the Nazis has the darkness and ambiguity of a modern Grimms’ fairytale

Georg Wilhelm Pabst was one of the most influential film directors in Weimar Germany, probably best known on the international stage for discovering Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks. His radical approach earned him the nickname of “Red Pabst”, and when Hitler was elected to power in 1933, Pabst reacted by taking his family to the United States. He intended to emigrate permanently, but what was supposed to have been a brief trip back to Austria to visit his sick mother saw Pabst detained inside the Third Reich for the duration of the second world war. This unfortunate turn of events had a dramatically detrimental effect, not only on Pabst’s immediate situation but on his entire postwar career.

Daniel Kehlmann has frequently used historical events as the basis for his fiction, most famously in his breakout 2005 novel Measuring the World, which draws on the work of the German explorer and geographer Alexander von Humboldt, and more recently in 2017’s Tyll, which brings to life the capricious exploits of the legendary jester Till Eulenspiegel during the thirty years’ war. But Kehlmann’s works are so much more than fictionalised biographies, and his new novel The Director is as imaginative and bold in its use of editing as Pabst’s own movies.

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© Photograph: Vincent Tullo/Vincent Tullo / New York Times / Redux / eyevine

© Photograph: Vincent Tullo/Vincent Tullo / New York Times / Redux / eyevine

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‘It’s goodbye to French fishermen’: Macron under pressure as crucial UN ocean summit opens

As delegates prepare for the global gathering, the president is caught between opposing sides in a row over bottom trawling in France’s marine protected areas

On his trawler in Saint-Malo, one of France’s most important ports for scallops and crabs, Laurent Mevel is fixing his nets. “We really want to protect the seas,” says the 60-year-old fisher. “But we’ve got crews, we’ve got employees.

“If you don’t fish any more, the fish will come from Ireland, from Scotland. Now the fish you buy from shops comes by plane. And costs less.”

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© Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images

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Beth to Fubar: the seven best shows to stream this week

An intriguing mystery drama about IVF, and the return of Arnie’s daft espionage comedy in which he gleefully makes fun of his own legend

This is the first original drama produced for the new Channel 4 digital platform, which will be on YouTube, alongside a broadcast on Channel 4. It packs plenty of intrigue into 45 minutes. Written by Uzo Oleh, Beth stars Nicholas Pinnock and Abbey Lee as Joe and Molly, an interracial couple longing for a child as they struggle with IVF and ponder adoption (“I want our kid to look like both of us”). Eventually, an apparent miracle happens and Imogen is born. But soon, the circumstances around her conception – and Abbey’s relationship with her doctor – become mysterious. Pinnock and Lee do a sensitive job of rendering the retreating intimacies of their collapsing relationship.
Channel 4, from Monday 9 June

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© Photograph: Channel 4

© Photograph: Channel 4

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Trump travel ban comes as little surprise amid barrage of draconian restrictions

President had cued up ban in January order and, despite exemptions, policy will separate families and harm people fleeing crises

Donald Trump’s first travel ban in 2017 had an immediate, explosive impact – spawning chaos at airports nationwide.

This time around, the panic and chaos was already widespread by the time the president signed his proclamation Wednesday to fully or partially restrict foreign nationals from 19 countries from entering the United States.

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© Photograph: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

© Photograph: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

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Keir Starmer's muddled politics are reaching their limit. It's time for him to make a choice | Andy Beckett

Veer left or double down on the right? Either way, the prime minister needs to commit and sell it to an impatient electorate

After less than a year in power, Labour has reached a familiar place. Keir Starmer’s troubled government is at a fork in the road, wondering which direction to follow. With the delivery of its spending review next week after several acrimonious delays, and a Commons vote on its divisive welfare cuts expected later this month, the government’s unity and morale are fragile. The public finances are severely strained, with ever more competing demands, such as for extra defence spending. Though much more energetic than its Tory predecessor, this government often seems opaque, unable to explain its purpose in a compelling way.

Many voters and journalists – even more impatient than usual after years of manic politics – are already considering what might replace Starmer’s administration. At barely 20% in the polls, Labour is as unpopular as in its most disliked days under Jeremy Corbyn – and unlike then, has been overtaken by Nigel Farage’s latest vehicle. Most ominously of all, perhaps, even the government’s successes, such as its trade deals, seem to make little or no difference to its public standing or sense of momentum.

Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist

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© Illustration: Thomas Pullin/The Guardian

© Illustration: Thomas Pullin/The Guardian

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