Tony Bloom has already bought three players this summer and can act quickly thanks to in-depth background research
It may not have been Tony Bloom’s week at Ascot for once but at least the Brighton owner could console himself by securing yet another signing for his football team before the summer solstice was here.
Confirmation of the Italy Under-21s defender Diego Coppola’s arrival on the south coast as Lake Forest finished a disappointing fifth in the Queen Anne Stakes took Brighton’s buys to three and the club are expected to announce any day that Olivier Boscagli is joining on a free from PSV Eindhoven. In with Coppola, who has joined from Verona, have come Sunderland’s 19-year-old playoff hero, Tommy Watson, for £10m and the Greece Under-21s striker Charalampos Kostoulas for £30m. Talk about getting your business done early.
Undaunted by being drawn in a formidable group, Rhian Wilkinson’s side go to Switzerland determined to create opportunities for girls back home
The rain cascading down on the Vale of Glamorgan is so heavy, so incessant, that the hotel’s reception has run out of umbrellas for guests to borrow and frustrated golfers crowd the lobby. Only two sets of residents seem oblivious to the weather; those heading to the spa and the Wales Women squad. It is late May and with Rhian Wilkinson’s players flying to Switzerland for Euro 2025 at the end of June far too much is at stake for anyone wearing a national tracksuit to be at a loose end.
Charlie Estcourt has travelled to the sprawling Vale Resort from the United States where she plays for Washington’s DC Power, but the midfielder is not about to succumb to jet lag. Instead, she is focused on impressing Wilkinson as the team trains at the Welsh’s FA’s centre of excellence within the hotel’s verdant grounds. “We have a no-excuses culture now,” says Estcourt. “It’s something Rhian’s brought in and it’s really helped us get to the next level.”
Musical history is littered with cases like the failed $100m suit against the singer, and they risk stifling pop music
Leave Ed Sheeran alone. Four words I never expected to write, but we live in very strange times.
Cards on the table: I’m no fan of his music, but that’s neither here nor there when it comes to making sense of the recently concluded epic battle over alleged copyright infringement. To catch you up to speed: on 20 June 2014, Sheeran released his second studio album X, a worldwide chart-topper. On 24 September 2014, he released the third single from it, Thinking Out Loud, a standard love song about vowing eternal devotion, which was another worldwide chart-topper. In between, that July, BBC Radio 1Xtra announced its Power List of the most important figures in black and urban music, which, to much derision, placed the very white Sheeran at the top. This was nothing new: Sheeran had already received four nominations for a Mobo Award. And, at least according to the owners of Marvin Gaye’s 1973 bedroom ballad Let’s Get It On, Thinking Out Loud was indeed music of black origin.
With reports of violence against women and girls increasing, a group of officers are guarding large-scale London events this summer
In the hours leading up to Dua Lipa’s first headline show at Wembley stadium the stifling heat was as striking as the colours. Fans resplendent in costumes inspired by their idol milled around the concourse, and groups of women took selfies, jigging with excitement.
But among the jollity, specialist Met Officers interspersed in the crowd were on the hunt for something different: “We’re here to spot predatory men.”
Iranian officials have said specifically that US ships and military bases would be targeted, but much of the capacity it had relied on as a deterrent has been stripped away over the past few days by Israeli strikes. Those strikes however, have focused on long-range ballistic missile launchers. Iran still has a formidable arsenal of shorter-range missiles and drones.
Exclusive: Joe Booth, 23, says he has PTSD after arrest in which seven police officers entered his flat while he was in bed
The Met police operation in which officers raided a Quakers meeting house also resulted in the arrest of an autistic climate activist at his supported accommodation, the Guardian can reveal.
Joe Booth, 23, had been in bed when seven police officers arrived at the flats for vulnerable adults in New Barnet, north London, to arrest him on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.
Ancient rituals and a profound respect for ‘Mother Earth’ bolster fragile Andean communities as the climate crisis and unchecked mining take their toll
Words and photographs by Giordano Simoncini
In Cusco, the Quechua people are at the forefront of the climate struggle. Amid Peru’s sacred mountains and ancestral plateaux, they confront daily challenges, such as parched pastures, melting glaciers, disruptions to agricultural cycles and persistent mining that damages the land.
In this context, survival itself becomes an act of resistance.
Sheep grazing in the Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River, once the heartland of the Incas’ empire
With outdoor concerts, alfresco dining, rooftop bars and plenty of parks and places to swim outdoors, these cities make for a great summer getaway
Quite why the Latvian capital remains so under the radar is a mystery; the cobbled streets of the Vecrīga (old town) and the elegant art nouveau architecture make it one of the most beautiful cities in eastern Europe. Long summer evenings, with temperatures rarely topping 30C, form the backdrop for rooftop bars thrumming with live DJs, as well as alfresco concerts in leafy parks, while the beautiful sandy beaches of seaside Jūrmala are just a half-hour bus ride away.
Trump calls attacks on Iranian nuclear sites a success, but some US lawmakers immediately called the attack unconstitutional. Key US politics stories from Saturday 21 June
Washington was in a flurry late on Saturday as Donald Trump announced that the US had completed strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran, directly joining Israel’s effort to destroy the country’s nuclear program.
American politicians reacted to the news of the US bombing of nuclear targets in Iran with a mix of cheering support and instant condemnation, reflecting deep divisions in the country, as Washington grapples with yet another military intervention overseas.
Duckett: ‘He’s just stayed true to the way he plays’
Ben Duckett paid tribute to Ollie Pope’s approach after the No 3 made 100 not out on day two of the first Test against India at Headingley, saying the vice-captain “just stayed true to the way he plays” as England battled their way back into the game.
Pope shrugged off the combined pressure of coming to the crease with his side in trouble and with his own place in the team being the subject of constant debate. He did so by dealing with Jasprit Bumrah, the world’s best bowler, in glorious form and by coping with the worst batting conditions of the game to compile his ninth Test century, sealed in the final moments of an extended day, with celebrations both in the middle and in England’s dressing room.
Does your brother-in-law remind you of someone else in your past? Or is the problem your changed relationship with your sister? Working that out could reduce your annoyance
I love my sister. But I can’t stand her husband. He is an idiot who thinks he is better than other people and talks down to them. I am a man in my 50s and I used to visit my sister a lot, but now I would rather do something else. I try to hide it, but it must be clear I am not keen on him. They have been married for eight years and things are getting worse; he used to work and contribute, but now he doesn’t even do that. What can I do? I want to support my sister while spending as little time as possible with her husband.
This happens in lots of families, unfortunately. Unless one’s parents split and remarry, it’s usually only when siblings partner up that a new person (a stranger!) is brought into the family and the dynamics change. We all wish these new additions bring joy and harmony, but sadly often they do not. And then we’re not only saddled with a person we don’t like, who is now part of the family, but we’re left looking at the person who brought them in and thinking, “Really?” This can lead to all manner of unravelling of childhood feelings when it’s a sibling.
As grim tally of its invasion is reached, expansive propaganda campaign and state payouts are keeping grieving relatives onside
Over the past few years, Nikolai has seen the ups and downs of the funeral trade in his native Ufa, a Russian city in the plains west of the Ural mountains.
The coronavirus pandemic, which hit Russia with devastating force, brought an unexpected boom to his family-run business, forcing him to hire extra staff almost overnight to cope with the rise in funeral demand.
Donald Trump’s move to bomb three nuclear sites in Iran came as those inside his orbit who were opposed to US intervention in the conflict shifted their views in favor of a limited and one-off strike.
The US president had been under immense pressure from Republican anti-interventionists not to engage in any action against Iran out of concern that the US might be dragged into a protracted engagement to topple Iran’s leadership, or that strikes on facilities might have limited success.
‘Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports’, says Zelenskyy, condemning Moscow’s disorganisation in swapping of PoWs and troops’ remains. What we know on day 1,215
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia sent Ukraine at least 20 of its own dead soldiers in recent exchanges with Kyiv, describing it as a result of Moscow’s disorganisation in carrying out large swaps of wounded PoW’s and remains of troops. Zelenskyy said that an “Israeli mercenary” fighting for Moscow was among the dead Ukraine had received. Officials did not disclose the identities of the bodies: “They threw the corpses of their citizens at us. This is their attitude toward war, toward their soldiers. And this is already documented. Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports,” he said. He said the Russian side insisted the dead were all Ukrainians.
Zelenskyy has also accused western firms of supplying Russia with “machine tools” used to make weapons, in remarks made public Saturday. He said companies from Germany, the Czech Republic, South Korea and Japan were among them, as well as one business “supplying a small number of components from the United States.” He said most of the companies supplying tools to Russia were from China, but that dozens of western firms were also culpable: “We have passed on all this information to all countries, our partners, everyone … We strongly urge everyone to impose sanctions on these companies,” the Ukrainian leader added.
The Ukrainian president also called on Ukraine’s western partners to allocate 0.25% of their GDP to helping Kyiv ramp up weapons production and said the country plans to sign agreements this summer to start exporting weapon production technologies. In remarks released for publication Saturday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was in talks with Denmark, Norway, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Lithuania to launch joint weapon production. He also said on Saturday he was planning staff changes in Ukraine’s diplomatic corps and also in government institutions to boost the country’s resilience. He gave no time frame for the decisions.
Siarhei Tsikhanouski, a leading Belarus opposition figure, was freed on Saturday after more than five years in prison, in the most significant move so far by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko to try to ease his isolation from the West. Lukashenko has been shunned by the West for years and faced sanctions after brutally crushing pro-democracy demonstrations in 2020 and then allowing Vladimir Putin, his close ally, to launch part of his 2022 invasion of Ukrainefrom Belarusian territory. The release came just hours after Belarusian authorities announced that Lukashenko met with US president Donald Trump’s envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, in Minsk.
In the Donetsk region, Russian strikes on Saturday on key towns on the eastern front of the war in Ukraine killed at least one person. The Russian military said its forces had captured another small village in its slow advance westward through Donetsk region. Russian forces struck Sloviansk and Kramatorsk – two cities that Moscow will target as its forces press on. Donetsk region Governor Vadym Filashkin said one person died and three were injured in Sloviansk. In Kramatorsk, officials said at least one person was trapped under rubble and a number of other residents were injured.
In the north, another person died in a drone attack in the north near the Russian border, Ukrainian officials said. A mass drone attack on the town of Nizhyn near the Russian border killed one person and damaged local infrastructure. Reports from Kharkiv region in the north-east suggested Russian troops were closing in on the city of Kupiansk. On Friday, the Russian Defence Ministry said it had captured the village of Moskovka, just outside the city of Kupiansk.
Deportation of Ukrainians is part of a continuing “cleansing” operation of the occupied territories, reports the Guardian’s Shaun Walker in Zaporizhzhia, which may accelerate if US-led attempts to push Russia and Ukraine into a peace deal result in the freezing of the current frontlines, solidifying Russian control over the territory Moscow has seized over the past three years.
President Donald Trump on Saturday said that a US attack on Iran’s three principal nuclear sites: Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow had led to the “obliteration” of its key enrichment facilities. Later Iranian media acknowledged part of the Fordow site had been “attacked by enemy strikes”.
“Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horrible destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility,” said Trump on Saturday night. “The strikes were a spectacular military success.”
The administration has torn up the rulebook as it seeks to implement a hardline agenda to expel people from the US
Donald Trump retook the White House vowing to stage “the largest deportation operation in American history”. As previewed, the administration set about further militarizing the US-Mexico border and targeting people requesting asylum and refugees while conducting raids and deportations in undocumented communities, detaining and deporting immigrants and spreading fear.
Critics are outraged, if not surprised. But few expected the new legal chapter that unfolded next: a multipronged crackdown on certain people seen as opponents of the US president’s ideological agenda. This extraordinary assault has come in the context of wider attacks on higher education, the courts and the constitution.
In a post on social media earlier, the US president said ‘A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home’
We’re also still awaiting reactions from the Democratic leadership in the US.
Trump’s closest supporters have posted their support for the attack on social media.
South Carolina senator Lindsay Graham says:
Good. This was the right call. The regime deserves it. Well done, President @realDonaldTrump
To my fellow citizens: We have the best Air Force in the world. It makes me so proud. Fly, Fight, Win.
The prospect of an Iranian regime acquiring nuclear weapons represents the most acute immediate threat to America and our allies.
President Trump has persistently and unequivocally stated that those threats cannot be countered without dismantling the Iranian regime’s enrichment capacity.
American politicians reacted to the news of the US bombing of nuclear targets in Iran with a mix of cheering support and instant condemnation, reflecting deep divisions in the country that cross party lines as Washington grapples with yet another military intervention overseas.
Donald Trump announced on Saturday night that the US had completed strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran, directly joining Israel’s effort this month to destroy the country’s nuclear program.
Donald Trump has announced that the US has bombed three nuclear sites in Iran, directly joining Israel’s effort to destroy the country’s nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran’s threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict.
“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror,” Trump said in a speech from the White House. “Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”
Oviedo beat Mirandés 3-2 on aggregate after 3-1 win
40-year-old former Arsenal man completes fairytale
Real Oviedo sealed their return to La Liga after 24 years with a 3-2 aggregate victory over Mirandés – and 40-year-old Santi Cazorla was among the scorers.
Oviedo triumphed 3-1 at home in Saturday’s promotion playoff, overturning a first-leg deficit with goals from Cazorla, Ilyas Chaira and Francisco Portillo. A packed Estadio Carlos Tartiere erupted as fans stormed the pitch at the final whistle.
NatashaSholl was four (… or perhaps five?) when a man entered her family home wielding a knife (… or a box cutter? … or a screwdriver?)
My mother is chirping, like a small bird. I laugh. What a fun game. And when I run through the house to find her, there is a man in a balaclava with a knife to her throat. She is not chirping. She is screaming. The expectation of one thing when the opposite is true. And yet in my memory it is still a chirp, not a scream.
When I think about the robbery, even now, decades later, it is my toes that tingle. My ankles. I was four at the time. Or five. I do not remember. Time, what a slippery thing. My friend Hayley was over to play. Sometime after the chirping, the man with a knife to my mother’s throat told us to go upstairs to my room and not to open the door. I do not remember this happening but, when I reverse-engineer the events, I know it to be true. Until it’s not. Maybe it was my mum. Maybe my mum had told us to go to my room and not to come out. What I do remember is sitting on my bed. I remember a dollhouse at the foot of my bed, its white pointed roof. I remember thinking we had to jump from the dollhouse to the bed. We could not let our feet touch the floor. If we did, the burglar (Did I know he was a burglar then? The intruder? The man?) would be able to reach through my bedroom floor and grab our feet, our ankles, his arms stretching up through the ceiling above him. We could not let our feet touch the carpet.
Governor Greg Abott signs bill into law but challenge expected from critics who consider it unconstitutional
Texas will require all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments under a new law that will make the state the nation’s largest to attempt to impose such a mandate.
The bill, which was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott, is expected to draw a legal challenge from critics who consider it an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state.
Senior military figures targeted overnight as talks between Iran and Europe in Geneva end with no breakthrough
Israel’s military has said it killed two top Iranian military officials in overnight strikes as European diplomatic efforts to bring the US and Iran back to the negotiating table stalled.
An Israeli military official said on Saturday that Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestine Corps of al-Quds, the foreign branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), had been killed in a strike on a flat in the city of Qom, central Iran.
Director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has fallen in line with the US president – other war-sceptics are following
The Trump administration is managing internal dissent over deliberations on whether to launch a strike against Iran, breaking what many supporters saw as a campaign pledge not to involve the US in new conflicts in the Middle East.
Trump for the second time this week disregarded testimony by his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, that Iran had not been seeking to build a nuclear weapon as of March this year.
This eight-part docuseries about one of tennis’s most decorated players paints a picture of an astonishing woman – and an even more astonishing sibling relationship
Serena Williams, holder of 39 grand slam titles and four Olympic gold medals, who spent 319 weeks as tennis’s world No 1 and became the highest-earning female athlete in history, never thought she was that good when she was a young player. That was because she was always training against her older sister, Venus (“she was the prodigy of prodigies”), the only person in the world who could really challenge her. A year younger, Serena remembers being shorter and weaker and resorting to cheating on line calls at practice so she could occasionally beat her.
In the Arena: Serena Williams (the title comes from President Roosevelt’s 1910 speech to the Sorbonne – “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena” so, yes, consider me told) is an eight-part docuseries that covers Serena’s rise and rise over her 27-year tennis career before she retired three years ago. Since then, incidentally, she has been busy with her venture capital firm, production company, body care and pain relief startup, beauty line and raising two children. Honestly, it’s like looking in a mirror, is it not?
UK prime minister criticises band’s inclusion in festival lineup after Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh allegedly displayed flag supporting Hezbollah
Kneecap’s Glastonbury festival performance next Saturday is not “appropriate”, Keir Starmer has said.
Kneecap member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh appeared in court on Wednesday after allegedly displaying a flag in support of the proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah and saying “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” at a gig in November last year.
Guerra 39pen; McAtee 10, Elliott 15, Anderson 90+4pen
Lee Carsley said this week that achieving back-to-back European titles at under-21 level could help to enhance the reputation of British coaches, not to mention this group of young England players. An impressive quarter-final victory over a Spain side who were the pre-tournament favourites and intent on dishing out revenge will certainly not have done either any harm.
After England struggled to reach the last eight with an inexperienced squad that is one of the youngest in Slovakia, goals from James McAtee and Harvey Elliott – both of whom have uncertain futures at their clubs – and a late penalty from Elliot Anderson sealed another triumph for Carsley over the same opponents England saw off in the 2023 final. With the Netherlands up next in Wednesday’s semi-final in Bratislava, he is now two matches away from matching Dave Sexton’s feat of winning this competition in 1982 and 1984.
Officials tell Reuters bombers moving to Pacific Island but unclear whether deployment tied to Middle East tensions
The United States is moving B-2 bombers to the Pacific island of Guam, two US officials told Reuters on Saturday, as Donald Trump weighs whether the United States should take part in Israel’s strikes against Iran.
It was unclear whether the bomber deployment is tied to Middle East tensions.
‘Mighty Mouse’ led his country 19 times, winning 43 caps
Part of successful Lions tours in 1971 and 1974
The former Scotland and British & Irish Lions prop Ian McLauchlan has died at the age of 83. The Ayrshire-born McLauchlan, who was known throughout the rugby world as Mighty Mouse, won 43 caps for Scotland between 1969 and 1979, captaining the side 19 times.
McLauchlan’s legacy was cemented on the victorious Lions tours of New Zealand and South Africa in 1971 and 1974, being one of only five players to feature in all eight Test matches.
In 2022, I was going through motions. I was burned out after shepherding two restaurants through Melbourne’s Covid lockdowns and emotionally burned to the ground by a failed marriage. It had been a big few years; I had sworn off love and was taking life slowly.
Despite all this, in late spring I found myself chatting online with a charming gardener-cum-physicist called Scott. A few weeks later, our first phone call lasted until the sun came up. I had been captivated by his boundless capacity for a chat but I didn’t hear from him for a few weeks after that. I wondered if it was because I’d asked him on more than one occasion to pipe down so I could contribute to the conversation, or if my cynical side had made an unflattering appearance in my wine haze.
As online media rewards emotion over substance, we must separate the real from the make-believe
Gina Chick, David Genat, Guy Sebastian, Poh Ling Yeow, Elon Musk and Donald Trump don’t have a lot in common – except that theyare the living embodiment of the essential truth of reality television: there can only be one winner.
Gina, David, Guy, Poh and countless others have turned their success at surviving, dancing, cooking and singing into brilliant careers probably beyond their wildest dreams.
Crawley had no chance, Duckett was castled, Pope was dropped and Brook was lucky. All in a day’s work for a master fast bowler
You could see the weather coming at Headingley, there were billows of grey rain clouds out to the south, creeping slowly up towards the back of the Football Stand. And you knew something wicked was on its way in England’s innings, too.
The rain arrived right around the time it was supposed to, when Jasprit Bumrah was there waiting for them at the far end of his run, tossing the ball from one hand to the other, wearing a forbidding grin. England’s openers, Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley, were so slow walking out to join him in the middle that it felt as if they were hanging on word of a last-minute pardon.
The individual walk-ons at Club World Cup underline Fifa’s failure to understand that football is a team sport – just ask PSG
It is in the details that the truest picture emerges. Quite aside from the endless politicking, the forever-war with Uefa, the consorting with autocrats and the intriguing broadcast rights and partnership deals, there has been, not a new, but growing sense during the Club World Cup that Fifa doesn’t really get football. There is something cargo-cultish about it, creating outcomes without engaging in processes.
Perhaps that is inevitable with Gianni Infantino’s style of leadership; like all populists, he is big on vision and short on practical reality. It was there in the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams.
Pope unbeaten on 100 but Root falls late to Bumrah
A day on from that much-debated decision to bowl first by Ben Stokes and the clouds had started to lift for England. The hosts were still some way from flipping the advantage they had handed India but by stumps, after an earlier fightback with the ball, Ollie Pope’s unbeaten 100 had established something akin to a foothold in the contest.
Pope came into this Test with questions being asked about his spot at No 3; questions that centred around a poor record against India and Australia and not quelled by that 171 against Zimbabwe. Jacob Bethell, flavour of the month in New Zealand late last year, was breathing down his neck, even if potential, rather than back catalogue, was the driver.
One mascot has just legged it way from the England team and then realised he’s gone too early, sprinting back into position.
Channel 4’s coverage is so weird. A long time discussing who is not there and now showing Joe Cole and Jermain Defoe combining for a goal 20 years ago. They’ve just remembered the match kicks off in six minutes.
Dortmund hold off a spirited comeback from Mamelodi Sundowns
Inter end Urawa’s hopes with two late goals, as Fluminense eliminate Ulsan
Borussia Dortmund held off a spirited comeback from Mamelodi Sundowns to secure a 4-3 victory and move closer to the Club World Cup knockout stages. Dortmund were behind after 11 minutes to the South African champions at the TQL Stadium in Cincinnati but rallied to win their second game in Group F and move top of the standings with four points, one more than Sundowns.
Felix Nmecha, Serhou Guirassy and Jobe Bellingham scored for the Bundesliga club, who also profited from an own goal. Lucas Ribeiro had given Sundowns the lead while Iqraam Rayners and Lebo Mothiba scored in the second half as they looked to rally from 4-1 down in blazing hot conditions.
Columbia graduate and legal US resident was targeted by White House for speaking out against the Israeli war in Gaza
Mahmoud Khalil – the Palestinian rights activist, Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident of the US who had been held by federal immigration authorities for more than three months – has been reunited with his wife and infant son.
Khalil, the most high-profile student to be targeted by the Trump administration for speaking out against Israel’s war on Gaza, arrived in New Jersey on Saturday at about 1pm – two hours later than expected after his flight was first rerouted to Philadelphia.
Team, which said it stopped Ice agents entering parking lot on Thursday, makes donation to immigrant families
The Los Angeles Dodgers have donated $1m to assist families affected by two weeks of immigration raids in southern California.
The World Series champions also said they intend to form partnerships with the California Community Foundation, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and other organization to continue providing aid to immigrant families.
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