European leaders at the G7 summit in Canada are trying to engineer an Iranian return to the negotiating table using Gulf leaders as intermediaries.
But Iran is demanding a joint ceasefire with Israel, while Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is resisting the move, and Donald Trump has yet to show his hand.
Bassam Hassan, a top general under Assad, reportedly gave news regarding American who went missing in 2012
A high-ranking Syrian general under former president Bashar al-Assad who is now in Lebanon has reportedly told US investigators that the American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in 2012, is dead.
Bassam Hassan was a top security adviser once accused of facilitating chemical attacks on civilians. In a recent meeting with the FBI and CIA, he claimed that Assad – who was ousted in December and has since fled to Moscow – ordered Tice’s execution, according to the New York Times and the BBC, which first reported the allegation. Each media organization cited sources familiar with the matter. Hassan’s claims remain unverified.
With thick rough around bunkers and pin positions on slopes, Adam Scott called Oakmont ‘borderline unplayable’
There should be no sense of demeaning JJ Spaun’s US Open glory if observers question the circumstances. Spaun, not so long ago a journeyman professional, played out his dream by holing out from 65ft on the final green at Oakmont.
Spaun is a prime example of how the penny can drop for golfers at different stages. Now 34, he is in the form of his life and bound for the Ryder Cup. When he talked later of being awake at three o’clock on Sunday morning because his young daughter was vomiting, his relatability only grew. Everybody loves an underdog.
As a gay woman I’d never really fantasised about my wedding, but I made a sartorial odyssey from Savile Row to Shanghai. Just don’t call it menswear
It’s a month until my wedding, and my suit has arrived in the post, unceremoniously crammed into a plastic postage bag. I wasn’t expecting it to come from China, but China is of course where things come from. Unbagging the crinkled jacket and trousers for my supposed Big Day felt a little deflating.
Although I’m not sure what I did have in mind. I’ve never fantasised about getting married. As a gay woman, this wasn’t even an option for me until 2013. In fact, the closest I ever came to daydreaming about this occasion was when I was around four and I’d inferred from Disney movies that “getting married” was the act of a prince ballroom dancing with a princess. The dancing was neither here nor there, but I knew I wanted to be the prince.
Eleanor Margolis is a columnist for the i newspaper and Diva
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
At least 37 Palestinians were killed on Monday in new shootings in Gaza near food distribution centres run by private US contractors guarded by Israeli troops, local authorities said.
Witnesses blamed the shootings on Israeli troops who opened fire early in the morning in an effort to control crowds of hungry Palestinians converging on two aid hubs managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private organisation that began operating recently in the devastated Palestinian territory with Israeli and US support.
Requirement made as review finds ‘over-representation’ of Asian men among grooming gang suspects
Yvette Cooper has condemned damning failures by the authorities to protect children from grooming gangs as she announced there would be a formal requirement on police for the first time to collect ethnicity and nationality data for all cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation.
The home secretary confirmed the government would accept all 12 recommendations of Louise Casey’s rapid review, including setting up a statutory inquiry into institutional failures, marking a significant reversal after months of pressure on Labour to act.
Palazzo Maffei in Verona contacts police after visitors cause Van Gogh’s Chair to buckle while posing for photos
An Italian museum has contacted the police after two clumsy tourists almost wrecked a work of art while posing for photos.
Video footage released by Palazzo Maffei in Verona showed the hapless pair photographing each other pretending to sit on a crystal-covered chair made by the artist Nicola Bolla – described by the museum as an “extremely fragile” work.
Statement comes amid questions over whether Ice – reportedly $1bn over budget – is set to run out of money
Donald Trump has promised an expanded immigration crackdown in several large Democratic-led cities as apparent vengeance for “No Kings” protests against his administration on Saturday that drew millions of people – despite questions over whether the agency in charge of the effort is set to run out of money.
In new reporting on Monday, Axios claimed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) was $1bn over budget and set to run out of money in the next one to three months.
From the gothic noir of Dept. Q to the continued cool of Andor and a miraculous show about a fungus that can heal all illnesses, here are Guardian readers’ favourite shows of the year to date
(Disney+) Andor is a cool, intelligent look at how fascism grows and the cost of resistance. It may be set in a galaxy far far away, but it is in an entirely different universe to any other Star Wars production. No lightsabers; no magic space wizards; barely a stormtrooper in sight – until the grim and horrifying mid-season climax. Who knew committee meetings and wedding parties could be so gripping? It’s as though George Lucas placed the keys to his kingdom in the hands of John le Carré instead of Disney. Remember that fizz of excitement you got as an eight-year-old heading in to see A New Hope? Andor makes this 55-year-old feel the same way. Russell Jones, Cheshire
Wildfires are on the agenda in Kananaskis, but with the world ablaze, all eyes are on the human flame-thrower AKA the US president
A bright spark in the Canadian team preparing the G7 Kananaskis summit, in the ridiculously beautiful Canadian Rockies, decided to insert the issue of wildfires onto a crowded agenda. It seemed an eminently sensible and Canadian thing for the eminently sensible Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, to do.
After all there are currently an estimated 225 blazes in Canada, including 120 classified as out of control, and they are raging to the west in British Columbia across to northern parts of Alberta. Indeed it is likely to be Canada’s second worst year on record for wildfires. Moreover, Carney had an ingenious solution ready to hand – a Kananaskis wildfire charter including “greater equipment interoperability” between the G7 members.
In Pushers, the comedian and actor plays a disabled woman from Yorkshire who turns to crime after her benefits are cut. She talks about beating trolls, ‘inhumane’ Labour – and her love of gravy
‘No,” says Rosie Jones with a laugh. “I have never done any drug-related illegal activity, believe it or not. But I respect your attempt to try to get me to reveal I am an underground drug dealer. Sorry – not the world I live in!”
We’re having this conversation because Pushers, the comedian and actor’s new series about a disabled woman who turns to drug dealing when her benefits are stopped, kicks off this week on Channel 4. Jones wrote the script and stars as the main character, Emily. How much of it is influenced by her own life? There are, undoubtedly, similarities. “From the very beginning,” Jones says, referring to when she originally came up with the idea, back in 2018, “we knew my character would be northern, working class and disabled.” That was important for two reasons: firstly, Jones’s favourite sitcoms growing up all featured “gritty” northern characters; and secondly, those sitcoms lacked any representation of disability.
Effigy of Real Madrid forward was hung from a bridge
All four signed a letter of apology to the Brazilian
Four people have been handed suspended jail sentences by a Madrid court after being found guilty of a hate crime related to an effigy of the Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior.
They were involved in hanging a banner reading “Madrid hates Real” and an inflatable black effigy in a replica of the Brazilian’s No 20 shirt on a bridge before a Copa del Rey match between Real Madrid and Atlético in January 2023.
From politics to business, the determination to exclude women is purely emotional – a fact that remains as unspoken as it is obvious
MI6 has never had a female head in its 116-year history – until now. How fitting that the first woman should be called Blaise Metreweli. That forename has it all: derring-do (courtesy of Modesty Blaise), onomatopoeia, modernity.
Metreweli will take over in the autumn as C, the real-life version of M from James Bond. She currently runs Q branch, MI6’s technology division, which apparently is named after the Bond quartermaster. No fictional Q has ever been female, but in real life at least two women, including Metreweli, are thought to have held the role. M can be male or female, except now they succeed or fail by how much they resemble Judi Dench, so all of them, including the incumbent, Ralph Fiennes, are de facto female.
‘I love animals so I’m so sad about it. That’s horrible’
McLaren chief warns Norris after Piastri collision
Lewis Hamilton has spoken of his distress after his Ferrari struck a groundhog during the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, describing the accident as “devastating”.
The incident occurred 13 laps into the race, damaging the underside of Hamilton’s car and leaving him distraught. He had qualified in fifth on the grid and had been hoping to make inroads on those ahead of him while managing his tyres. But the accident cost him half a second per lap and was followed by other problems with the car.
The conflict began on Friday when Israel launched predawn strikes that hit more than 100 targets, including nuclear facilities and missile sites, and killed senior military commanders and scientists. That attack set off an escalating series of tit-for-tat exchanges, raising fears of a wider, more dangerous regional war.
Residential areas in both countries have suffered deadly strikes since the hostilities broke out. As of Monday, Iran’s health ministry said 224 people had been killed and 1,277 injured; while official Israeli sources said 23 civilians had been killed and nearly 60 injured.
The customer asks for a sample, the patient server hands over a dollop of frozen dairy on the end of a stick, and the customer smacks their lips once, twice, three times then emits a vague sound of approval from Bananarama-stained lips. The ice-cream server doesn’t know where to look, or what expression to wear, as the customer gums at the glob of gelato. The customer asks for a taste of the vanilla. Then the chocolate.
This excruciating exchange happens daily in ice-cream shops and gelaterias across the world. Why many ice-cream customers – or as I call them, ice-cream cowards – feel entitled to samples before committing to a flavour, I do not know.
Donald Trump has launched a mobile phone service and $499 gold smartphone, the latest monetization of his presidency by a family business empire now run by his sons.
The Trump Organization unveiled Trump Mobile on Monday with a $47.45 monthly plan – both the service name and price referencing Trump as the 47th president. The company will also sell a gold-cased “T1” smartphone in September etched with the American flag.
Information Commissioner’s Office takes action as people report feeling powerless over data gathering at home
Makers of air fryers, smart speakers, fertility trackers and smart TVs have been told to respect people’s rights to privacy by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
People have reported feeling powerless to control how data is gathered, used and shared in their own homes and on their bodies.
That the two events should coincide was so perfect as to almost feel heavy-handed. Donald Trump’s comically underattended military parade lurched through Washington DC at the exact same time on Saturday as the overwrought opening ceremony unspooled for Fifa’s beleaguered Club World Cup, in a definitely-not-full Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
Trump’s jingoistic birthday bust contrasted painfully with the multimillion-strong turnout at the “No Kings” anti-Trump rallies that gathered all over the country. The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, meanwhile – or “Johnny”, as Trump pronounces the name of one of his favorite allies in the sports world – had promised the opening match of the swollen tournament he forced down the soccer world’s throat would be sold out. Instead, attendance between Inter Miami and Al Ahly, a fitting 0-0 stalemate, was announced at a still-better-than-expected 60,927 in the 64,767-seat venue.
Welshman says ‘team ethic didn’t show with England’
Defending champions booed in ‘rubbish’ performance
Gerwyn Price said the lack of unity shown by Luke Littler and Luke Humphries contributed towards England’s “rubbish” performance at the World Cup of Darts.
Price and his Welsh compatriot Jonny Clayton finished runners-up in Frankfurt after losing a last-leg shootout against the Northern Irish duo Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney.
The Club World Cup is being staged across the US as citizens from 12 countries are banned and masked agents demand people’s papers based on the color of their skin
International sporting events, spectacles of recreation designed to distract people from their day-to-day lives, are cultural and political branding opportunities for their hosts. For authoritarians, they have long been used as a tool to distract from or launder stains of human rights violations and corruption – a practice called “sportswashing”. Russia, which has a track record of violent repression and Qatar, notorious for labor rights violations, each paid millions in bribes to be able to host the World Cup in 2018 and 2022 respectively. “This is a new image of Russia that we now have,” Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, said after the tournament there.
This summer, the Fifa Club World Cup has come to the United States – the event includes 32 of the most prominent soccer clubs in the world, and is a much-anticipated precursor to next year’s World Cup, hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada. The Trump administration, however, is not using the opportunity to manufacture a positive image of the country, but instead is using the events as a platform to amplify its emerging authoritarianism.
Police Scotland say inquiry under way after officers called to Prestwick beach
Police are investigating after a human leg was found on a beach in South Ayrshire in Scotland.
Officers were called to the scene on Prestwick beach, a popular attraction with views of the Isle of Arran from the shoreline, on the morning of 10 June.
Performer says Dodgers told her to sing in English
Protests have erupted across LA in response to raids
Singer Vanessa Hernández says she chose to sing the Spanish version of the US national anthem at Dodger Stadium on Saturday as a protest against recent immigration raids.
Hernández, who performs under the name Nezza, says she was warned by a member of the Dodgers staff before the team’s game against the San Francisco Giants to perform the anthem in English.
The uniformed soldiers marched irregularly, slightly off beat; the turnout was small and the crowd seemed defeated, low-energy and wilted
In one version of the story, you can blame the French. Evidently it was in France, watching the 2017 Bastille Day military parade alongside Emmanuel Macron at the outset of his first term, that Trump initially got the idea to stage an armed spectacle in Washington DC in honor of himself. Back then, the military said no. In a now-famous anecdote, Gen Paul Selva, who grew up in Portugal under its integralist regime, told Trump that such parades are “what dictators do”. James Mattis, his then-secretary of defense, reportedly revolted against the idea, saying he would “rather swallow acid”. Trump never got his parade.
Until now. Restored to power after an interregnum in which all American institutions failed to hold him accountable for his crimes and abuses, Trump has now set about a second term in which he is pursuing vengeance against his perceived enemies, using his office to enrich himself, and indulging all the impulses that were checked by his staffers and advisers back when anyone serious still worked for him.
‘There was tension with the National Front and swastikas on walls. So I’m proud the album is an outsider classic – but feel depressed these songs are still relevant’
I grew up in a really boring village in Kent, so moving to Leeds as a student was thrilling. It was an A-list place to see gigs. On the other hand, the buildings were as black as soot, the Yorkshire Ripper was around and you could feel the tension between the National Front and the south Asian community. I saw swastikas on walls and on an anti-NF march I was hit with a truncheon by a mounted police officer. So I gradually came up with the modest ambition to change the world.
They just headlined Download festival and their latest album went to No 1 in the US and UK – so why is Britain’s biggest metal band in a generation so hated by some?
On Saturday, Sleep Token headlined Download festival in Leicestershire. Topping the bill at the festival is something of a rite of passage for artists of a certain musical bent, proof that you are now among the biggest bands in metal and hard rock: Metallica, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Guns N’ Roses are all former headliners. Last month, Sleep Token’s fourth album, Even in Arcadia, debuted at the top of both the British and American charts. Their most recent UK tour took in the biggest venues in the country: the same is true of their forthcoming US tour. In 2025, Sleep Token could reasonably claim to be the biggest British rock band in the world.
But they wouldn’t, because Sleep Token operate behind a veil of anonymity. They have given virtually no interviews over the course of their career. The band’s frontman and chief songwriter is known only as Vessel; the other members are referred to as II, III and IV. They perform live wearing masks, hoods and body paint to conceal their identities and promote a fictional mythology: it’s too sprawling and complex to explain here – one fan has apparently produced a 35,000-word thesis on the subject – but it involves the band being a mouthpiece for a deity called Sleep. Their gigs are referred to as Rituals, their albums as Offerings, their social media posts frequently open with the word “Behold” and end with the word “Worship”. Like Hogwarts pupils, their fans are divided into “houses”: one is called Feathered Host, the other House Viridian.
Shorter matches to be sanctioned for 2027-29 cycle
England, Australia and India can still play five-day Tests
The International Cricket Council is ready to sanction four-day Tests in the World Test Championship to help smaller nations to play more games and longer series.
In the next WTC cycle, which begins with Sri Lanka hosting Bangladesh in a two-Test series on Tuesday, only five-day Tests are permitted by the ICC which has led to an emphasis on truncated series.
The escalating crisis between Israel and Iran has already triggered the largest single-day oil price surge in the last three years, and the question for many is how much higher the oil markets might climb.
The price of Brent crude jumped by about $10 a barrel since the start of June to a high of $78 a barrel on Friday, amid growing concerns that the conflict could wipe out Iran’s oil exports or cut flows of crude from the wider Middle East region to the global market.
The four main Israeli company stands at the Paris airshow have been shut down after exhibitors reportedly refused to remove some weapons from display.
The stands at the aerospace industry event were hidden from view after pressure on the organisers from the French government, a source told the Guardian.
As the male social circle continues to shrink, their partners have to take on much more emotional labour – and many are opting to spend their lives alone instead
Ex-BBC radio host is planning comeback tour of self-promotion, leaving those affected questioning his remorse
Alex Belfield was condemned as “the Jimmy Savile of trolling” when he was jailed for a stalking campaign against broadcasters including Jeremy Vine.
His victims have now spoken of their fears as the 45-year-old is released from prison, from where he has been plotting a comeback and a summer tour of self-promotion.
The increase in Burmese pythons had resulted in loss of animals native to the Everglades
It was a milestone moment in Florida’s 25-year war on invasive Burmese pythons: an eye-popping announcement that biologists had removed 20 tons of the slithering invaders from waters in and around the Everglades in little more than a decade, as well as shattering their previous record for a single-season haul.
The successes of the team at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida showcase the progress that has been made in efforts to reverse the snakes’ takeover of the state’s natural wilderness, even though experts concede they will probably never be completely eradicated.
The actor, who is in Italy for a film about the Maserati car moguls, had an official audience with the pope alongside the film’s producer
Al Pacino has become the first major celebrity to have an official audience with the newly elected pope. The actor, 85, met the pontiff at the Vatican on Monday. He is currently in Italy shooting a film about car moguls the Maserati brothers.
After the pair’s introduction, the film’s producer, Andrea Iervolino, wrote: “We are honoured to announce that this morning His Holiness Pope Leo XIV received in a private audience at the Holy See a delegation from the film Maserati: The Brothers, including Oscar winner actor Al Pacino and the film’s producer Andrea Iervolino.
In his interview on the Sky News this morning Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said that Keir Starmer should apologise for saying in January that those calling for a national inquiry into grooming gangs were jumping on a far-right bandwagon. Kemi Badenoch, his party leader, is also quoted today in an Daily Express splash story saying Starmer should apologise, but she is saying he should apologise for not agreeing to hold a national inquiry earlier.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the No 10 spokesperson was asked if Starmer still thought that people who backed a national inquiry in January were joining a far-right bandwagon. In response, the spokesperson defended the phrase, and insisted that it only applied to Tories who were now demanding an inquiry they never set up when they were in government.
The prime minister’s comments about bandwagons were specifically about ministers from the previous government who sat in office for years and did nothing to tackle this scandal. As the prime minister has said, we will not make the same mistake.
The point the PM has made is that those spreading lies and misinformation were not doing so in the interest of victims. And those cheerleading for Tommy Robinson, who was almost who was jailed for almost collapsing a grooming case, are not interested in justice.
When politicians, and I mean politicians who sat in government for many years, are casual about honesty, decency, truth and the rule of law, calling for inquiries because they want to jump on a bandwagon of the far right, that affects politics because a robust debate can only be based on the true facts.
While some people had positive experiences to share, a worrying number [of veterans] felt that the covenant had been ineffective—or worse yet, had been disregarded—when they had cited it. As a result, many continued to face disadvantages as a result of their service in areas like healthcare, education, employment and welfare ….
We welcome the government’s intention to extend the covenant legal duty, which currently requires some public service providers to give due regard to the covenant’s principles when providing certain housing, healthcare and education services. We conclude that this duty should be extended to all central government departments and the devolved administrations, and should cover the breadth of areas in which the Armed Forces community regularly experiences disadvantage.
The covenant is a solemn commitment that the servicemen and women who place their lives on the line for us should face no disadvantage due to their service – we need to make sure every part of government lives up to that commitment.
A ringside seat at Roy Williams’ Sucker Punch inspired a teenager to switch career plans from law to theatre
My mother has always been my champion and has pumped culture into me for a very long time. Theatre and the arts were part of our bonding. She used to say, if you see a show that you like the look of, I’ll get tickets. So I’d go on the Royal Court website and if there were many black people in the cast, I’d want to go because I could see myself.
I would have been around 16 when I saw Sucker Punch by Roy Williams. It’s about two young men who know that their bodies can be a kind of tool to better themselves so they fall into boxing. An aspiring white promoter zeroes in on their talent. It is about rivalry, but also about how community works together, and is a really good investigation of masculinity and the ownership of black bodies.
Watching mild-mannered schoolgirls overcome serial killers such as Freddy Krueger and emerge as survivors spoke to my younger self in a way no other films could
I have always been morbidly obsessed with the horror film genre. As a small child, I’d gaze up at the posters of Freddy Krueger or Pinhead in our local video rental shop with a curious mix of fear and desire. I wanted to be scared, and I also did not. I was 11 when Channel 4 screened A Nightmare on Elm Street. My poor mum, assuming it couldn’t be that bad if it was on TV, let me record it. I watched through my fingers, drunk on anxiety, the anticipation of the kills almost unbearable. There is, I would argue, something quite queer about this complicated urge. Horror is titillating.
The golden age of the slasher movie was the 1970s and 80s. I’m sure film-makers were inspired by the cultural austerity of the Reagan era, the Moral Majority and the unfolding Aids crisis. But, as a child, I was blissfully unaware of those things or my burgeoning queerness. I just knew I wanted to watch these films.
Based on the true story of the brutal murder of a teenage shepherd, Lotfi Achour’s sombre film honestly attempts to encompass the unbearable grief suffered by the family
A low cloud of misery and horror settles on this sombre movie from Tunisian writer-director Lotfi Achour, inspired by a brutal event in his country from 2015. A teenage shepherd called Mabrouk Soltani was murdered and beheaded on Mount Mghila in central Tunisia by members of Jund al-Khilafah (“soldiers of the caliphate”), the Tunisian branch of Islamic State, which habitually hides out in that remote, rugged region. They videoed their grotesque homicide, claiming the boy was an army spy and ordered his terrified 14-year-old cousin, who was with him, to carry the severed head back to his village as a brutal “message” – and this boy obeyed, in a stricken state of trauma that can only be guessed at. This horrifying event was to assume the status of national scandal in Tunisia two years later when the victim’s elder brother was also murdered by IS in the same place and on the same pretext. (Four jihadis were convicted in 2019 and another 45 in absentia.)
Achour’s film centres on the first event, while anticipating the second. Achraf (Ali Helali) goes up the mountain with his older cousin Nizar (Yassine Samouni), who brings his goats there because it is the only place with water for the herd to drink – and because it is beautiful. The nightmarish attack ensues and the village goes into deep shock; the head is kept in a refrigerator and despite the obvious danger of another attack, Nizar’s brother grimly resolves to lead a party of volunteers, including Achraf, back up into the mountain to recover the rest of the body so Nizar can be given a proper burial. All the while the heartless and prurient press gather at his home.
Connexion
