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 on Thursday for a leaked phone call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen that provoked widespread anger and threatened to break up her ruling coalition.
As pressure grew on Thursday, Paetongtarn apologised at a news conference alongside military chiefs and senior figures from her Pheu Thai party.
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.
Argentine’s 68th free-kick goal secures three points for Miami
European champions PSG fall 1-0 to Brazil’s Botafogo
Lionel Messi connected on a 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 on Samu Aghehowa’s penalty kick in the eighth minute, Marcelo Weigandt assisted on Telasco Segovia’s game-tying goal in the 47th.
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.
Remarkable bowler’s slingshot action will trouble batters at Headingley but fitness problems mean the tourists will have to manage him carefully
If there was an enduring image from the last Test series between India and England, it was probably that of Jasprit Bumrah detonating Ollie Pope’s stumps in Visakhapatnam – a feet-seeking yorker so ridiculously sweet that the Food Standards Agency could have marked it red on their traffic-light system.
A year and a bit on from England’s 4-1 defeat in India on Friday, Bumrah remains the standout in the two attacks going into the first of five blockbuster Tests, beginning at Headingley on Friday. Even saying this sells him a bit short. Of the 86 bowlers to go past 200 Test wickets, none have done so at a lower average than Bumrah’s 19.4. Only Kasigo Rabada, with a strike rate of 38.9 to Bumrah’s 42, takes his wickets more regularly.
The way Australians live has changed in the last 25 years, as soaring house prices have forced some young people to live with parents longer, and others to move rentals more often.
New research from the e61 Institute breaks down why some Australians are more reluctant to move house, while consulting firm KPMG has looked at how household spending has changed by generation. Each explored data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Top seed into quarter-finals with 6-4, 6-7 (7), 7-5 win
Alcaraz victory longest match at Queen’s in 34 years
On a day of hot heads and high emotion, Carlos Alcaraz proved once again to be a master of escapology in the longest match at Queen’s Club for 34 years. With temperatures hovering over 30C on Andy Murray Arena, the Spaniard was 4-2 down in the final set, having lost four games in a row. To add to his sense of peril and woe, his serve was also misfiring and he had just hit his 50th unforced error. Yet he found a way – just as he had during the French Open final earlier this month.
A few minutes – and a series of inspired winners – later Alcaraz was shaking hands with his compatriot Jaume Munar having won 6-4, 6-7 (7), 7-5 in an epic that lasted a little under three hours and 30 minutes. It was the longest match at Queen’s Club since MaliVai Washington faced Mark Keil in 1991, with the second set alone taking an hour and 42 minutes. As Alcaraz pithily wrote on the BBC TV courtside camera: “Were we on clay?”
Enzo Maresca has said he has not spoken to Mykhailo Mudryk since the Football Association announced on Wednesday that the Chelsea winger has been charged with doping offences. Mudryk is facing a four-year ban if he is found guilty by the FA of taking a banned substance.
Maresca said he still trusts the Ukraine international and plans to check on his welfare soon, but Chelsea’s head coach added that he has had no contact with the 24-year-old since May. “I spoke with Misha in Poland when we played the Conference League final,” he said. “I didn’t speak with him since that time.
4 min: Messi involved again, this time latching on to a bouncing ball in midfield, slotting a through ball for Suárez that has just a bit too much on it, allowing Ramos to gather it easily.
2 min: A chance! Already! Lionel Messi finds a spot in the right half-space, and lofts a perfect diagonal ball over the backline to Luis Suárez. Suarez’s attempt is saved, and he is later called offside. An early statement from Miami.
Newly crowned French Open champion Coco Gauff was stunned on her return to action Thursday, losing to Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu 6-3, 6-3 at the Berlin Open.
The second-ranked Gauff, who won at Roland-Garros less than two weeks ago for her second Grand Slam title, amassed 25 unforced errors and seven double faults in her loss to Wang.
Speaking at a hospital hit by an Iranian missile, the Israeli prime minister invoked ancient Persia as he hinted at a historic mission
It was in the Beersheba, about 1,000km and 2,500 years from Babylon, that Benjamin Netanyahu suggested on Thursday that the time had come for the Jews to repay their ancient debt to Cyrus the Great and bring liberation to Iran.
The Israeli prime minister had just made a tour of Soroka hospital, which a few hours earlier had sustained a direct hit from an Iranian ballistic missile on one of its buildings.
Iran has struggled to respond effectively after Israel killed many of its top military commanders
It is a week since Israel began its largest attack ever on Iran, and in conventional military terms it is clear that Tehran is under extreme pressure. Israel has been able to achieve superiority over Iran’s skies at extraordinary speed, within hours of launching its surprise assault. Its military claimed on Monday to have knocked out 120 Iranian air defence systems through a mixture of air and drone strikes – about a third of Tehran’s pre-war total.
In response, Iran’s most effective weapon has been its stock of high-speed ballistic missiles, estimated at about 2,000 by Israel’s Defense Force (IDF) at the outset of hostilities last week. But the heavy targeting by Israel of launch sites in western Iran, in underground bases such as at Kermanshah – coupled with Israel’s grimly effective targeted killing of Iran’s top military commanders – have left Iran struggling to respond militarily and presenting a significant threat.
Flying winger brushes off allegiance jibes and cannot wait for Australia after a testing Lions tour in 2021
Duhan van der Merwe does not want to shake hands. It is not that the hulking Scotland winger is being rude – he is polite to a fault – but after a gruelling gym session the British & Irish Lion has blisters as big as golf balls. A fist bump – a touch daunting given the size of his biceps – must suffice.
Van der Merwe’s war wounds are the first indication that public perception about him can be misleading and there are many to follow in the ensuing half-hour. From an impassioned response to accusations he is a “SpringJock”, to discussing why he runs roughshod over England once a year, Van der Merwe is illuminating company.
Hero of 2006 World Cup was second choice behind Claudio Ranieri and has not had a successful career as manager
Gennaro Gattuso said all the things he was expected to say at his first appearance as Italy manager. He talked about the need to restore enthusiasm to an Azzurri side whose morale has been dented by recent setbacks, as well as that sense of shared purpose that bonded him to teammates in the World Cup-winning side of 2006.
The word he kept coming back to was “family”, insisting: “That’s the most important thing, more than tactics or formations.” His is not a vision of paternalistic authority but of a group close enough to speak hard truths to each other’s faces.
School leaders call for action on adaptation measures as DfE research warns of potential impact of climate crisis
Children in England face prolonged “lost learning” caused by extreme heat and flooding at school, according to research on the potential impact of the climate crisis on education.
It was simple but ruthlessly effective as Trawlerman and William Buick made all the running to win the Gold Cup on Thursday. The Gosden stable’s seven-year-old faced two four-year-old rivals with a touch more class but no experience of racing at two and a half miles and when Buick challenged them to catch him with a quarter of a mile to run, neither Illinois nor Candelari could summon a response.
Candelari was a spent force with half a mile left, while Illinois’s brief effort in the home straight scarcely made an impression on Trawlerman’s lead as he galloped on relentlessly for the line. He had a seven-length advantage at the post and it was seven more back to Dubai Future in third.
Donald Trump has denied a report in the Wall Street Journal that he has approved US plans to attack Iran, saying that the news outlet has “no idea” what his thinking is concerning the Israel-Iran conflict.
He also confirmed, later on Thursday, via his press secretary, that he’d be making a decision within the “next two weeks”.
Exclusive: On eve of Commons vote, MP says legislators may not get another chance to do ‘the right thing’ for 10 years
The UK is “behind the curve” among progressive nations, the assisted dying bill’s sponsor, Kim Leadbeater, has said on the eve of one of the most consequential votes for social change in England and Wales.
The Labour MP said the circumstances may never be right again to pass such a bill, which would legalise assisted dying in England and Wales for terminally ill people with less than six months to live, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel of experts.
Army chief’s effusive welcome in Washington hints at strategic recalibration amid Middle East turmoil
After years in the diplomatic deep freeze, US-Pakistan ties appear to be quickly thawing, with Donald Trump’s effusive welcome for Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, signalling a possible major reset.
Once snubbed so badly that former prime minister Imran Khan had to board an ordinary airport shuttle after arriving in the US rather than being whisked off in a limousine, Pakistan is now enjoying top-level access in Washington, including a White House lunch for Munir on Wednesday and meetings with top national security officials.
The US president promised to keep his country out of conflicts. The Israeli prime minister has other ideas
The maxim that wars are easy to start and hard to end does not appear to be troubling Benjamin Netanyahu. For the Israeli prime minister, conflict is an end as much as a means, extending his political survival. Under international pressure – however belated and insufficient – over the slaughter in Gaza, he launched the attack on Iran. Initially presented as essential to prevent Tehran from the imminent acquisition of a nuclear bomb, a claim running counter to US intelligence, it is increasingly discussed as the path to bringing down the regime. The defence minister, Israel Katz, has said that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “can no longer be allowed to exist”.
Donald Trump has generally seen armed conflict as a trap rather than an escape route. He said that the US would “measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end – and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into”. Yet his failure to achieve the Nobel-worthy peace deals he wants, and Mr Netanyahu’s manoeuvring, appear to have made him keener on US intervention. Israel wants US bunker-busters to attack the underground nuclear facility at Fordow. There is no guarantee that those would succeed. Israel’s regime-ending aspirations further undermine its claim to offer what might be called, in the term infamously used of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a cakewalk. There isn’t a bad plan for the day after; there is no plan.
Police found 57 people allegedly held in fetid conditions in case known as ‘grape harvest of shame’
Three employees of a firm that provided workers to pick grapes for champagne has gone on trial for human trafficking, in one of the biggest labour scandals to hit France’s exclusive sparkling wine industry.
The employees of the firm supplying grape pickers for the champagne harvest in 2023 were charged with human trafficking and exploiting seasonal workers, submitting vulnerable people to undignified housing conditions, and employing foreign nationals without authorisation. The firm itself was also on trial for moral responsibility in the case.
Kim Leadbeater has led a strong campaign, but concerns about the likely impact on vulnerable people remain
The central issue before MPs, as they decide how to vote on the latest version of Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill, is how to value individual autonomy relative to collective responsibility for vulnerable members of society when making regulations around the end of life. Should terminally ill people be allowed to end their lives with medical help? If so, under what safeguards? The question remains ethically, medically and legally complex.
Technological and social changes enabling people to live much longer have created challenges around the resourcing of care and experiences of ageing and dying. There are profound questions about how we manage the final stages of life – and what we owe to those living through them.
Neave Trio (Chandos) Works by Saint-Saëns, Mel Bonis and Sally Beamish’s imaginative reinterpretation of Debussy’s La Mer make for a disparate but rounded programme
Three French works make a disparate but rounded programme on this release from the Neave Trio. Saint-Saëns took years to write his Trio No 2, and the result was a sprawling five-movement work that gets an appropriately wide-ranging and meaty performance here. The first movement roils and surges, the players catching both the push and pull of the restless theme and the brief passage of stillness later on. The slow third movement sings .with wistful nostalgia, and the fourth flows by in a waltz-like whirl pitched somewhere between Chopin and Dvořák. But the second movement, with its obsessively repeated rhythmic motif, perhaps needs a little more imagination to make it work.
The two movements of Mel Bonis’s Soir et Matin, written in 1907, are the opposite way round in atmosphere from how you might expect: Soir (Evening) is soulful, expansive and melodic; Matin (Morning) altogether more strange, impressionistic and beguiling. Finally, there’s something unexpected on a chamber music recital: Debussy’s painterly orchestral showpiece La Mer. Rendering the orchestra’s highly textured writing for a chamber group is no easy task but this version, made by the composer Sally Beamish in 2013, is imaginative and beautifully judged, emerging more like a new work in its own right than a mere arrangement.
PM Pedro Sánchez says he wants a ‘more flexible formula’ that would make target optional or allow Madrid to opt out
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has rejected Nato’s proposal for member states to increase their defence spending to 5% of their GDP, saying the idea would “not only be unreasonable but also counterproductive”.
Sánchez said that he was not seeking to complicate next week’s Nato summit in The Hague, but he wanted there to be a “more flexible formula” that would either make the target optional or allow Spain to opt out.
US-made unmanned vessels will monitor maritime activity as part of trial, amid criticism over closer ties with America
Denmark is deploying floating drones on the Baltic Sea to protect undersea infrastructure and bolster maritime surveillance amid the growing threat of hybrid attacks from Russia.
The arrival of Saildrone, a California-based company, has prompted criticism in Denmark over forging tighter bonds with the US in such a sensitive area as digital security.
Dozens more Palestinians were killed or injured in Gaza as they sought desperately needed aid on Thursday, with reports that Israeli forces close to one distribution point had opened fire, the third such incident in as many days.
More than a hundred people have been reported killed since Monday while either trying to reach aid points or waiting to stop and offload the limited number of UN and commercial trucks entering the devastated territory. There have been about 20 such incidents in the last four weeks.
Benjamin Netanyahu has evoked the spirit of London during the blitz, and pointed to his own family’s sacrifice amid the blood, toil, tears and sweat of his nation: the second postponement of his son’s wedding.
The Israeli prime minister’s remarks, solemnly delivered to the cameras against the backdrop of a missile-struck hospital building in the southern city of Beersheba, set off a howl of derision that echoed around the Hebrew-language internet, at the height of a war that Netanyahu unleashed on Friday.
Leader says LGBTQ+ gathering in Hungarian capital will go ahead even if police try to impose a government-backed ban
The mayor of Budapest has vowed to go ahead with the city’s Pride march next weekend, declaring he will “come up with a plan C” even if the police try to impose a government-backed ban.
Hungarian police said on Thursday they were banning the country’s main Pride march from taking place in the capital, citing recent legislation passed by Viktor Orbán’s government that prohibits the promotion of same-sex relationships to under-18s.
City breached rules in nine league matches last season
CEO Soriano excited by global impact of Club World Cup
Manchester City have been fined more than £1m by the Premier League over delayed kick-offs or restarts related to nine matches last season. The league entered into a sanction agreement with the club over the breaches of its rules, which occurred between October and February.
The longest delay was two minutes and 24 seconds before the resumption of the Manchester derby last December. The league said City had accepted and apologised for the breaches, with the fines totalling £1.08m. The club have 14 days to make payment from the execution of the sanction agreement.
With World Cup 2026 on the horizon, the team has been reluctant to weigh in publicly as one of their pillars is politicized
Los Angeles will be in the spotlight during the 2026 World Cup. It’s where the US men’s national team will begin their World Cup campaign, and it’s where they’ll wrap up the group stage. It’s a city in the news lately due to the Trump administration’s deployment of Ice and the national guard, but it’s also a metro area synonymous with diversity. This US men’s national team, more than ever, reflects that diversity.
“It’s not that there’s a record or anything of how many minorities have been on the national team before, but I feel like this has been the most diverse generation of national team,” said center back Chris Richards, who is poised to be a leader along the backline for the US next year.
As more parents dress like their kids – and more children dress like grownups – some are asking if our offspring have become style inspirations … or even accessories
The Princess of Wales and her 10-year-old daughter, Princess Charlotte, seemed to have shared not just a carriage but also outfit notes at trooping the colour last weekend, since they were both wearing neighbouring blues on the colour wheel. They do it a lot, this so-called “mini-me dressing” – via tartans and tiaras, nautical details and nifty colour accents.
She’s not the only one. Kim Kardashian does it with her kids, Beyoncé does it with Blue Ivy. In fact, it tallies with the whole vibe of nepo babies, who are now appearing in the public eye wearing outfits that are sartorial embodiments of the relationships that will privilege them for life.
Jennifer Abbott, 69, found dead with tape over her mouth in Camden flat and police say missing Rolex could be linked to stabbing
A 66-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a film director was found dead at home in north London with tape over her mouth.
The body of Jennifer Abbott, 69, who was known professionally as Sarah Steinberg, was discovered in her Camden flat on 13 June. She was last seen three days earlier, walking her pet corgi nearby.
The Cabaret and Pose star is making his UK directorial debut with Harrison David Rivers’ play about love and activism. We join rehearsals with Omari Douglas and Alexander Lincoln
When Billy Porter talks, people listen. They have no choice. The actor, fresh from a stint as Emcee in the London run of Cabaret, and about to reprise the role on Broadway, speaks in a poised, purposeful, regal fashion. Each word is selected with care and weighed in his hand as if it were an avocado in the fruit and veg aisle, the gaps between words so lengthy that it isn’t always clear when he has finished speaking. Seated around the table in the south London studio where Porter is overseeing rehearsals for This Bitter Earth, which marks his UK directorial debut, are the playwright Harrison David Rivers and the actors Omari Douglas (It’s a Sin) and Alexander Lincoln (Emmerdale). Everyone maintains an attentive silence while Porter is speaking, until there can be no doubt that he has completed his thought.
“The … beautiful … part of this play,” he says, easing his feet out of a pair of marshmallow-soft cream-and-ebony moon boots and nudging them to one side, “is we get to watch two people who love each other try … time … and time … and time … and time again … and they never give up … on themselves … or on love. There is hope … We don’t have to be divided. Having conversations that are complicated is what makes the healing happen … without blame … without shame.”
An unprecedented planetary-scale seismic event caused the earth to vibrate for nine days straight back in 2023, but the reason why was unclear. Scientists initially had more questions than answers, labelling the event an unidentified seismic object and undertook a mammoth scientific collaboration across multiple countries and institutions to get to the bottom of what really happened. Josh Toussaint-Strauss looks into the mystery at the heart of this scientific investigation
Lewis-Skelly to be one of world’s best-paid teenagers
Thomas Partey is at an impasse with Arsenal in talks over a new contract as the midfielder weighs up whether to extend his stay. Partey, whose deal expires at the end of this month, has been offered a deal on slightly reduced terms.
The 32-year-old and his representatives are believed to want a similar pay structure to the one in the contract he signed when he joined from Atlético Madrid in 2020 for £45m, after he played an integral role last season, making 52 appearances.
Two serving officers and one former officer to face hearing after woman was also handcuffed and put in spit hood
Two serving Metropolitan police officers and one former officer will face a gross misconduct hearing after a 90-year-old woman with dementia was targeted with a Taser, the police watchdog said.
The woman was also handcuffed and put in a spit hood during the incident in Peckham, south London, in May 2023, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said.
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