7 min: A lot of great seats still available at PayPal Park – another major Concacaf game involving the US that fails to meet attendance expectations.
5 min: Chance! Tillman plays through Patrick Agyemang, who beats his defender and the goalkeeper but his slow rolling effort ends up just wide. Had it gone it, he might have been flagged for offside – it looked like a close call from the broadcast.
New probe and statutory public inquiry will be a means to get ‘truth and justice’, home secretary says
Keir Starmer has launched a sweeping national operation to investigate grooming gangs and a statutory inquiry into institutional failure, marking a significant reversal after months of pressure on Labour to act.
The National Crime Agency (NCA), the UK’s top investigative body, has been tasked with leading a coordinated national push to reopen historic group-based child sexual abuse cases and identify offenders who slipped through the cracks of previous police efforts.
Metreweli, 47, has held series of director-level roles in foreign intelligence service and in domestic agency MI5
MI6, the UK’s foreign intelligence service, is to be led by a woman for the first time, Keir Starmer has announced.
Blaise Metreweli, a career intelligence officer who joined the service in 1999, will take over from Sir Richard Moore in the autumn, becoming its 18th chief.
The Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain beat their fellow European heavyweights Atlético Madrid 4-0 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on Sunday to get their Club World Cup campaign off to a winning start.
PSG landed the first blow when Fabián Ruiz fired home from distance in the 19th minute as they showed no signs of rust in their first match since trouncing Inter 5-0 to win their first Champions League title last month.
Argentina superstar steals limelight again at tournament where South America is saying ‘no mas’ to European hegemony
Javier Zanetti looked suitably awed as he read aloud from the label of a Limon Lime Mas by Messi drink, up on stage at the Chase Stadium VIP reception suite, dressed entirely in silky black tailoring, and looking like an elite hired assassin on his way to the opera, albeit one whose speciality is downing his victims in an ice bucket of the Future Of Hydration.
To be fair, Zanetti didn’t have many options when it came to striking a tone. A few moments earlier he’d been introduced by a marketing manager who spoke about Lionel Messi’s new energy drink in tones of high-performance evangelism, gazing with doe-eyed wonder at the small plastic bottle in his hand and predicting that the “official hydration partner of the Argentine FA” (water: you’re out) would go on not just to make you less thirsty or become a popular choice in petrol stations, but to “inspire generations”. Here was a guy who has really drunk the Mas.
When an Iranian missile bound for the industrial port of Haifa dropped out of the sky on the town of Tamra on Saturday night, it fell on Israel’s most vulnerable, and in one devastating flash, lit up the country’s deepest divide.
The missile demolished a three-storey stone house and killed four members of the same family: Manar Khatib, and her two daughters – Shada, a university student, and Hala, a 13-year-old schoolgirl – as well as Manar’s sister-in-law, Manal.
Trump’s army parade was neither the totalitarian North Korean spectacle that critics had grimly predicted, nor the triumph of Maga nationalism fans craved
On Saturday, as a crowd of thousands of people near the Washington Monument listened, a loudspeaker dramatically announced the names of America’s secretary of defense, vice-president and president. The final name received a modest roar that surely flushed the watching commander-in-chief with validation. With that, and with the boom of a 21-gun salute, the military parade that Donald Trump had coveted for years finally began.
A protester, Nicky Sundt, kept a lonely and mostly silent vigil at the side of the road. She held a sign depicting a cartoon Trump brushing back his comb-over to reveal a swastika emblazoned on his forehead. The placard said “Save our democracy”. Standing near her – as a “counterprotest to the counterprotest to the protest, or something,” as one of them put it – a group of pro-Trump men held court. One was draped in an American flag. Another had a giant picture of Trump, in a crown, with the exhortation “Trump for king”.
“Paris Saint-Germain’s disappointing Champions League campaign continued on Wednesday as they slumped to a last-gasp 2-1 home defeat by Atlético Madrid that left the Ligue 1 leaders in the elimination zone.”
Driver accepts clash with Piastri was ‘stupid from me’
Antonelli claims first podium behind Verstappen
George Russell scored the first Grand Prix win of 2025 for both himself and Mercedes with a fine drive to win the Canadian GP.
The catalyst was a superb sixth career pole position which Russell described as “probably the most exhilarating lap I’ve ever done in my life because around this circuit you’ve got to be so committed.”
US officials say Israelis reported they had opportunity to kill Iranian leader, but Trump waved them off of plan
President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, two US officials told Reuters on Sunday.
“Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do we’re not even talking about going after the political leadership,” said one of the sources, a senior US administration official.
23-year-old has 11 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists
Caitlin Clark holds record for youngest triple-double
Angel Reese recorded her first triple double, Hailey Van Lith led a dominant performance by the Chicago bench with a career-high 16 points and the Sky pulled away from the Connecticut Sun for a 78-66 win on Sunday.
Reese, at the age of 23, became the second-youngest WNBA player in history with a triple double. Only Caitlin Clark had a triple double at a younger age; she had two while she was 22.
Fueled by Reese’s 11 assists – more than double her previous career high – Chicago put five players in double figures. The Sky bench outscored the Sun reserves 36-2 in the Commissioner’s Cup game.
Keeping up with the pace of change in Maresca’s squad is far from easy and their US trip will be more of the same
This is the never-ending season but Chelsea show no sign of wanting to slow down. They intend to embrace Fifa’s newly revamped Club World Cup – a potential £97m prize pot for the eventual winners is quite the draw in an age of intense financial scrutiny, after all – and have travelled to the US knowing that the tournament gives them an opportunity to find out more about a squad that has evolved in the short space of time since Enzo Maresca’s side beat Real Betis in the Uefa Conference League final on 28 May.
There has been little time to pause for breath before Chelsea get up and running in Group D by facing the Major League Soccer side Los Angeles FC in Atlanta on Monday. Some players have had a 10-day break, others have been away on international duty and there has been no sign of anyone in the recruitment department taking a bit of annual leave.
It is 12th time the 25-year-old has set the record
Sweden’s Armand Duplantis broke the men’s pole vault world record on home soil as Georgia Hunter Bell claimed an 800m Diamond League win. Duplantis delighted the Stockholm crowd by clearing 6.28m on his first attempt after raising the bar from 6m.
It was the 12th time the two-time Olympic champion, who was born in the US but competes for Sweden, has broken the pole vault world record. In Stockholm he improved on his previous record, set in February, by 1cm on his first attempt.
New Zealand part-timers suffer through tough afternoon
The good news for Auckland City was that they stopped Harry Kane scoring on Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati. The bad news was that his Bayern Munich teammates were a little more prolific, scoring 10 between them in the opening match of their Club World Cup campaign.
If Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, was hoping his expanded Club World Cup – now containing 32 teams, playing across four weeks in 11 US cities – would showcase the depth of talent in global football, this was not a good example. The statistics were excruciating: the German champions had 31 shots – 17 of them on target – to Auckland’s one, and enjoyed 72% of possession.
It was just past 4pm when Nahid’s* windows began to shake. An Israeli bomb hit a building nearby – she could not see where – and soon her house began to fill up with smoke. It was the third day of Israeli bombing of Iran and the situation in Tehran was just getting worse.
“This is a massacre. The blasts haven’t stopped. Children are crying and we fear many civilians have been killed. There’s a smell of death in the air. I can’t stop crying,” Nahid*, a 25-year-old finance analyst at an e-commerce company in Tehran, told the Guardian via text.
Slovenian beats rival Jonas Vingegaard into second place
France’s Lenny Martinez wins eighth and final stage
Tadej Pogacar wrapped up the Critérium du Dauphiné on Sunday with a podium finish in the eighth and final stage, which was won by France’s Lenny Martinez.
A winner of three stages in total, the Slovene dominated the 77th edition of the Dauphine to top the overall classification by 59sec ahead of the Dane Jonas Vingegaard – three weeks before the start of his Tour de France title defence.
2 min Slovenia are a good side, who finished top of their qualification group despite losing 4-0 at home to France*. They drew the return game – against a France team that included Desire Doue and Mathys Tel – and won five of the other six.
1 min England kick off from left to right as we watch. It really is warm out there, 28 degrees apparently. Little brisk.
It’s a hot day in Canada, and the cars are out and testing. As ever, the discussion is about tyres. When isn’t it? All that tech and it always comes down to rubber.
Feels like old times to kick off in Melbourne next season.
Robert MacIntyre starts the day just about within striking distance of the leaders. But at +3 he’s not got much margin for error. So he could do without sending a wild Hovland-esque drive towards the bushes down the right. It stops just short, but he’s still hacking out of the thick stuff, and the errant tee shot leads inevitably to bogey. He’s now +4 and the look on his face suggests he knows any slim hope of a sensational Arnold Palmer style comeback is gone. He’s +4.
Seems clearing out the pipes last night did Rory some good. A weight lifted. He should bollock the press pack more often.
Fly-half relishes end to his 10-year wait for a league title before homing in on British & Irish Lions challenge
Had Handrè Pollard done his homework he might have known what was coming – for Finn Russell has previous with intercepts when attacking Twickenham’s south stand. It was playing that way that he picked off Owen Farrell’s pass before streaking clear in the madcap 38-38 draw between England and Scotland in 2019. And he was at it again on Saturday, coming up with the decisive moment in Bath’s dogged Premiership final victory over Leicester.
On this occasion he did not finish off the try himself – you suspect he probably could have – instead flinging a nonchalant pass inside to the onrushing Max Ojomoh. In a final short on champagne moments, it put the fizz in Bath’s performance, extending their lead to 20-7 before a second penalty of the match proved pivotal in ensuring the 29-year wait for a Premiership title was over.
Relatives of Pooja and Harshit Patel, who were visiting from Leicester, want to cremate them together but have faced painful wait for identification
In the ramshackle, cramped lanes of Ambika Nagar in the Indian city of Gujarat, everyone spoke of Pooja and Harshit Patel with pride. The couple had done what none of their relatives or neighbours had managed to achieve before; they had moved abroad, settling among the thriving Gujarati diaspora community in the English city of Leicester.
Their lives in Leicester, where the couple had moved so Pooja could complete her business masters degree – later getting a job at Amazon alongside Harshit – seemed unimaginably glamorous to their relatives and close-knit community back in India.
Even in the most harrowing cases, a fair society must allow for review, and the possibility of judicial error
When Lucy Letby was found guilty of murdering seven babies, and attempting to murder seven more, the judge sentenced her to multiple whole-life terms for what he said had been “a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign”. The convictions shook public trust in the NHS and demanded a reckoning with a system and culture that had failed to prevent such horrors. In August 2023, this newspaper urged readers to look beyond individual guilt to the institutional failures that allowed such crimes to go undetected for so long. It remains the case that serious questions must be asked of NHS management and clinical staff in relation to the tragic events at the Countess of Chester hospital.
However, justice, like science, should not be afraid to re-examine its conclusions when reasonable doubt or fresh evidence emerge. Since Letby’s conviction, many have questioned the basis of the prosecution case. Leading experts have raised challenges about the reliability of key medical assumptions and the quality of statistical interpretations that led to Letby being jailed. Her guilt or innocence is not for the media to decide. But journalism plays a vital role in scrutinising government, parliament and the courts. When a serious body of concern arises around a conviction, particularly one so grave and emotionally charged, the state has a duty to respond not with defensiveness, but with clear candour.
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Having a separate award was good for female novelists. Now a medical author is blazing a trail with a true story
Female nonfiction writers are paid less on average, receive fewer reviews and win fewer prizes than men. Unsurprisingly, this means that women sell fewer books. So far this year, more than 60% of titles on the UK’s hardback and paperback nonfiction bestseller lists have been by men.
Kate Mosse wants to change this. Famously, she set up the Women’s prize for fiction after there was not a single woman on the 1991 Booker shortlist. This year Ms Mosse’s award celebrates its 30th anniversary. With previous winners including Zadie Smith, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Maggie O’Farrell, it has changed the publishing landscape to the extent that some suggest it is now redundant: last year, five out of the six books on the Booker prize shortlist were by women, and the winner was Samantha Harvey. Indeed, such is the pre-eminence of female novelists that there is talk of a crisis in men’s fiction, and plans for an independent publisher, Conduit Books, especially for male authors.
Polish driver had a life-threatening accident in 2011
Ferrari complete third successive win in endurance race
Poland’s Robert Kubica sealed a deserved place in motor racing history as he took victory – alongside China’s Ye Yifei and Britain’s Philip Hanson – at the Le Mans 24 Hours. Hard fought with a relentless determination that has matched his refusal to be cowed after a life-threatening accident, his victory also secured an impressive third consecutive win for Ferrari at the 93rd edition of the vingt-quatre.
The victory after 387 laps for the No 83 privateer Ferrari 499P, run by the Scuderia’s works partner AF Corse, was the first overall win at Le Mans for drivers from Poland and China and will make Ye a household name in his home country, while for the 25-year-old Hanson it is a career high in only his second run in the top, hypercar, category.
Spaniard enjoyed trip to Ibiza after French Open victory
‘After Roland Garros is the best moment to go anywhere’
Carlos Alcaraz says he plans to carry on with his annual post-French Open trips after unwinding from his historic five-set triumph over Jannik Sinner in Paris last weekend with three days of partying in Ibiza.
“Probably,” the Spaniard said on Sunday as he was preparing for Queen’s Club, which starts on Monday. “It’s kind of the middle of the season. It’s really, really intense, the clay season. So soon after Roland Garros is the best moment to go anywhere. My friends are going Ibiza every year. So I thought I’ll go to Ibiza as well. But it doesn’t matter the place you’re going, it’s time to turn off your mind a little bit, to reset physically, mentally and coming back to the grass season as good as I can.”
French president is first foreign head of state to visit Arctic territory since US president made comments
Emmanuel Macron has criticised Donald Trump’s threats to take over Greenland as he became the first foreign head of state to visit the vast, mineral-rich Arctic territory since the US president began making explicit threats to annex it.
“I don’t think that’s what allies do,” Macron said as he arrived in the Danish autonomous territory for a highly symbolic visit aimed at conveying “France’s and the EU’s solidarity” with Greenland on his way to a summit of G7 leaders in Canada.
At least eight Palestinians were killed and dozens more wounded on Sunday in shooting near food distribution points in Gaza, as residents described an escalation of Israeli attacks happening against the backdrop of the new war with Iran.
Although Israel has said Gaza is a secondary theatre of operations to Iran, Palestinians reported continuing serious violence including fire around US- and Israel-supported aid distributions points and there are fears that global attention is moving on from Gaza.
I was towards the end of a nine-week trip, travelling solo around the world. After that long abroad, I was just exhausted. So when I went to the ATM to get money out, I made a critical mistake.
At home in Australia, we take the card out and then we get our cash. In Argentina, where I was, it’s the reverse – first your cash comes out, then your card. So I put my card in, got my money and just walked away, leaving my card behind.
Dave Grohl is Bjorn Again’s ‘biggest fan’. Kelly O’Brien took out a loan to buy boobs to match Dolly Parton’s. Four tribute acts reflect on ‘the best job in the world’
Pink Floyd, Queen, AC/DC and, of course, Elvis play every weekend around Australia, often to sell-out crowds. Sure, they might not be the real thing – but they’re close enough.
Tribute acts – the artists who make their living performing covers of well-known musicians – are not new. But in the past few years they’ve surged in popularity – even while Australia’s live music industry has struggled – as audiences embrace nostalgia more than ever before. RSLs and regional towns might be the stomping ground for tribute acts but today the best in the business can charge more than $100 a ticket.
Singer says attitude of officials ‘stinks’ after documents show concern about crowds and intoxication
Liam Gallagher has criticised Edinburgh council bosses after Oasis fans attending three sellout concerts at Murrayfield Stadium were described as mainly “rowdy” “middle-aged men” who “take up more room” and would drink to “medium to high intoxication”.
The Scottish Sun said it had obtained safety briefing documents through freedom of information requests, before the reunion gigs on 8, 9 and 12 August.
Maria wins first women’s final in 52 years 6-3, 6-4
Tatjana Maria completed an extraordinary week of giantkilling in London by becoming the surprise first women’s champion at Queen’s Club in 52 years as she defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 6-4.
Maria, a 37-year-old German qualifier, is the oldest WTA 500 champion in history. She had arrived at Queen’s Club on a nine-match losing run before building momentum from the qualifying draw and defeating four top-20 opponents in a row.
Gunman believed to have left Minneapolis region after killing one legislator and wounding another
The hunt for the man suspected of shooting two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses while impersonating a police officer, killing one legislator and her husband, continued on Sunday more than 24 hours after the killings.
Vance Boelter, 57, now on the FBI’s most wanted list, is believed to have left the Minneapolis region after allegedly gunning down Democratic state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their home, according to CNN. Boelter is also suspected of shooting Democratic state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their residence, gravely injuring them; a relative posted on Facebook that they were out of surgery and recovering.
Tatjana Maria, a qualifier, beat Amanda Anisimova, the number eight seed, in straight sets to win the first women’s tournament at Queen’s since 1973
Ready … play.
Apparently Anisimova was practising this morning and had someone hitting slices at her. That makes sense, but it won’t be the same as what’s in store for her on court this afternoon. Thing is – and as I type, there’s another “slice and dice” – the match may, in fact, be decided by how her excellence on the return matches up with Maria’s excellence on serve.
‘The blue jersey is like a second skin for him’, claims FIGC
Former Milan and Napoli manager Gennaro Gattuso has been appointed Italy national team coach, the Italian football federation (FIGC) confirmed on Sunday.
Gattuso replaces Luciano Spalletti, who was sacked last week following a heavy defeat by Norway in a World Cup qualifier. Gattuso will be formally introduced as head coach on Thursday at Rome’s Parco dei Principi Hotel.
Protests have erupted across LA in response to raids
Angel City, Los Angeles’ NWSL team, wore shirts that proclaimed themselves “Immigrant City Football Club” before Saturday night’s game against the North Carolina Courage.
The team also printed 10,000 t-shirts bearing the same message, with “Los Angeles is for Everyone” on the back in English and Spanish, and gave them to fans at the game. The move was in solidarity with immigrants in the city who have been targeted by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Smartphones offer instant stimulation, but do they silence a deeper message
In 2014, a group of researchers from Harvard University and the University of Virginia asked people to sit alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes. The only available diversion was a button that delivered a painful electric shock. Almost half of the participants pressed it. One man pressed the button 190 times – even though he, like everyone else in the study, had earlier indicated that he found the shock unpleasant enough that he would pay to avoid being shocked again. The study’s authors concluded that “people prefer doing to thinking”, even if the only thing available to do is painful – perhaps because, if left to their own devices, our minds tend to wander in unwanted directions.
Since the mass adoption of smartphones, most people have been walking around with the psychological equivalent of a shock button in their pocket: a device that can neutralise boredom in an instant, even if it’s not all that good for us. We often reach for our phones for something to do during moments of quiet or solitude, or to distract us late at night when anxious thoughts creep in. This isn’t always a bad thing – too much rumination is unhealthy – but it’s worth reflecting on the fact that avoiding unwanted mind-wandering is easier than it’s ever been, and that most people distract themselves in very similar, screen-based ways.
Nadya Tolokonnikova tells the Guardian she felt she had ‘entered a wormhole’ when her police state exhibition was shut down – by the police state
Nadya Tolokonnikova, the co-founder of the feminist art collective Pussy Riot, was sitting in a replica Russian prison cell in downtown Los Angeles when the police started shutting down the streets around the art museum.
Police helicopters hovered overhead. Somewhere, through a loudspeaker, an officer delivered a tinny order to disperse.
Department’s rapid response team is weaponizing the social platform to champion defense secretary and attack rivals
While it’s true no president or political leader has ever used social media quite as prolifically as Donald Trump, no recent secretary of defense has ever weaponized X or any other platform, quite like former Fox & Friends weekend host, Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth is actively reshaping the Pentagon in his own image since taking over, prompting a social media policy that has taken a dramatic turn towards supporting Hegseth’s every move and public appearance.
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