This week on "Sunday Morning" (June 21)

A look at the features for this week's broadcast of the Emmy-winning program, hosted by Jane Pauley.

Almanac: June 21

"Sunday Morning" looks back at historical events on this date.

Born in the U.S.A.: Protecting the right of birthright citizenship

As guaranteed in the 14th Amendment, citizenship is granted to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States." But an executive order signed by President Trump seeks to deny birthright citizenship to children born of parents in the country illegally or temporarily.

Protecting the right of birthright citizenship

Birthright citizenship is spelled out in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, granting citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States." But an executive order signed by President Trump in January 2025 seeks to limit the citizenship of children born to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily, potentially affecting a quarter of a million children per year, according to Pew Research Center. (The Supreme Court is currently weighing the legality of his order.) Correspondent Mo Rocca talks with constitutional experts about our nation's longstanding embrace of immigrants, and what denying citizenship might mean.

World Cup 2026: Spain screening in Madrid scrapped due to heat; Curaçao keeper ‘deserves statue’ – live

⚽ All the latest news from day 10 of the tournament
⚽ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail us

World Cup team of the tournament so far: John Brewin, Marcus Christenson and I have compiled some of the best performers of the opening 10 days … with one rule – no superstars.

Move over Messi, Mbappé and Haaland – this is about Laryea, Just and Quiñones:

Jack Rooke looks back: ‘Nan was a real prankster. I took the show we made together to Edinburgh’

The standup and Big Boys creator on experiencing grief at a young age, his mischievous grandmother, and why he refuses to learn to drive

Born in Watford in 1993, Jack Rooke is a comedian, actor and writer. He studied journalism at the University of Westminster, and began his standup career in 2014. Rooke’s breakout show, Good Grief, was written with his grandmother, Sicely, and documented their experiences of bereavement following the death of Rooke’s father, Laurie, from cancer. His next show, Happy Hour, became the basis for his two-time Bafta-winning Channel 4 comedy, Big Boys. Rooke is taking an updated version of Good Grief on a UK tour, starting at the Roundhouse in London on 14 August. Rooke is an ambassador for the suicide prevention charity Calm.

I am three years old and being pushed by my nan on a swing. She’s in a lovely powder-blue two-piece while I am sporting an iconic all-in-one black-and-white striped mini boiler suit dungaree scenario. For reasons we will never know, I look rather unimpressed.

Queueing is being rebranded as a nice way to meet people. But that depends on what you’re waiting for | Emma Beddington

It’s a short step from laughing in the line for artisan pastries to grimly waiting to buy a loaf of sliced white. Are we just rehearsing for food shortages?

It’s hot – fancy a frozen yoghurt? Probably not, given that ice-cream exists, but a New York Times reporter recently queued for an hour to experience the city’s fro-yo craze with 74 other patient souls, long enough, she wrote, to “feel affection for my cluster of line, the kind of camaraderie you develop with fellow passengers on a delayed flight”. The yoghurt, while fine, was emphatically not worth the wait. That’s surely also true of the UK’s current slew of viral bakeries, pizza joints and, improbably, baked potato spots. Can carbs really be that good? Maybe, but I’ll never find out: reaching the head of an interminable queue only for the person in front of you to take the last treat is psychological violence I won’t put myself through, and queueing at a mayonnaise vending machine – another real NYC phenomenon – is my idea of hell.

But queues are everywhere now. Even in my hometown of York, where formerly the only people queueing were tourists waiting to enjoy the stench of rotting herring and latrine at the Jorvik Viking Centre (or to patronise our sui generis tearoom, Bettys), locals line up at brunch spots and bakeries. How and why have queues, previously an occasional annoyance, become ubiquitous?

Los Angeles declares state of emergency as firefighters battle warehouse blaze

Crews struggle to contain fire from cold-storage facility that continues to spew smoke across the metro area

Mayor Karen Bass has declared a state of emergency for the city of Los Angeles, as firefighters still struggle to contain a blaze from a cold-storage facility that continues to spew smoke across the metro area.

“This emergency declaration is crucial because Boyle Heights is not just responding to a fire. Residents have lived through days of smoke, shelter-in-place orders, disruptions to daily life, and ongoing questions about what this means for their health and well-being,” Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who represents Boyle Heights, said in a statement.

Florida college seized by DeSantis in ‘anti-woke’ push to triple in size

New College of Florida to acquire USF Sarasota-Manatee in deal that leading Democratic lawmaker says ‘reeks of grift’

A liberal arts college seized by Florida’s hard-right governor, Ron DeSantis, and transformed into a model for conservative higher education is to triple in size after state Republicans engineered a hostile takeover of a rival university’s campus.

New College of Florida, which is controlled by DeSantis’s hand-picked board of trustees, will acquire the Sarasota-Manatee campus of the University of South Florida (USF) next month in a deal described by a leading Florida Democrat as “a grift”.

A Kyiv far-right protest and summer solstice celebrations: photos of the weekend

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

US-Iran talks in Switzerland get under way as strait of Hormuz remains closed

JD Vance says talks aim to ‘make progress on the nuclear issue, make progress on the Lebanon ceasefire issue’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Talks between Iran and the US aimed at building out the fragile interim deal to end the war have got under way in Switzerland, beset by difficulties including an Iranian decision to keep the strait of Hormuz closed in protest at Donald Trump’s inability to force Israel to end the fighting in Lebanon.

The US vice-president, JD Vance, leading the US delegation, said he was adding Lebanon to an agenda that had originally been conceived to focus on the opening of the strait, the lifting of US sanctions on Iranian oil exports and the unfreezing of Iranian assets held overseas.

U.S. and Iran begin peace talks amid conflicting claims over Strait of Hormuz

Iran's military said it had closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to continued Israeli military strikes in Lebanon; the U.S. said it remains open.

David Hockney’s funeral held in private with just two mourners

Artist had requested only his partner and great-nephew attend, with memorial services planned in places he lived

Only two people attended David Hockney’s funeral last week – in line with the British artist’s final wishes.

The two mourners at the private ceremony were Hockney’s 61-year-old partner, Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, and his 33-year-old great-nephew, Richard Hockney, a photographer who worked as the artist’s assistant and frequently modelled for him. Both are trustees of the David Hockney Foundation, established by the artist in 2008.

Ben Stokes set for England recall after being withdrawn from Durham match

• Brendon McCullum: England ‘planning’ to recall captain

• Bowler Gus Atkinson also stood down from county duties

The England head coach, Brendon McCullum, has confirmed Ben Stokes is likely to return as captain for the third Test against New Zealand.

Speaking to Sky Sports after his side’s heavy defeat in the second Test was confirmed on Sunday, McCullum was asked if Stokes’ withdrawal from county duties with Durham meant he would return to captain the starting XI at Trent Bridge.

How to make courgette fritti – recipe | Felicity Cloake's masterclass

If you’re craving a carby heap of fried spuds, these aren’t for you, but if you’re after crisp, juicy veg, they make the perfect snack alongside a punchy dip

These are not chips. If you’re hankering after a fluffy, carby heap of fried potato, I’ll be honest, these courgette numbers probably won’t cut the mustard. If, however, you like the idea of hot, crisp, juicy veg, then you’re in luck. As well as a vegetable side, these make a fantastic snack with drinks, particularly when paired with a hot sauce or punchy dip.

Prep 15 min
Salt 30 min+
Cook 15 min
Serves 8 as a side

‘A hunting ground for foreign regimes’: why violent attacks on dissidents are on the rise in Britain

Iran and China among those accused of targeting critics living in the UK, as arson attack on prime minister Keir Starmer’s properties linked to Russia

As Pouria Zeraati was crossing the street between his Wimbledon home and his car in south London in March 2024, he was confronted by two men. One held him firmly as the other stabbed him three times in the leg before they both fled.

It was later said to be a targeted attack on behalf of the Iranian regime in Tehran. A punishment for Zeraati’s work as a journalist covering Iran. He survived, but the ambush is one of dozens of violent incidents in recent years linked to foreign states.

Russia, China, India, Saudi Arabia and Iran have all been blamed for targeting critics and dissidents living in the UK in the past decade, and linked to incidents involving physical assaults, attempted kidnap, stabbings and an acid attack.

'Regime change but in a velvet glove': How Kevin Warsh has set out to remake the Fed

The first big announced changes point toward a quiet revolution, with task forces set up to rethink virtually everything done at the Fed.

Thomas Partey in spotlight as he faces England and former Arsenal teammates after rape charges

Ghana midfielder has denied all accusations as he prepares to begin his World Cup campaign in Boston on Tuesday

The Football Association has remained coy over what will happen when England line up for their next World Cup match against Ghana on Tuesday and come up against a familiar opponent in Thomas Partey. The former Arsenal midfielder played for Villarreal this season, but will be released at the end of his contract this month.

In the pre-match ceremony, all players are expected to shake hands with opponents, and the FA will leave England’s players to decide whether they wish to go through the ritual with Partey. The squad includes two of his former club-mates, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka.

Four months after the horrific Iran school bombing, fears grow that Trump and Hegseth will bury the truth

A secretive investigation into the attack that killed at least 175 has concluded, reports suggest. Will its findings ever see the light of day?

The attack on a girl’s elementary school in the Iranian town of Minab was one of the US military’s deadliest civilian bombings in decades. But nearly four months on, the Pentagon has produced no answers about why the military fired a Tomahawk cruise missile into a school on the first day of the war, killing at least 175 people, mostly children.

Some critics doubt that the Pentagon ever will, or will bury the results under classifications to keep the worst mistakes secret from the public.

I called her Joybell, my soulmate since I was eight. Then her partner killed her and blew up their home

Together my best friend Annabel Rook and I worked to support victims of gender-based violence – until she became one herself. Now I feel like a part of myself has been erased. Why aren’t more people outraged?

It is the summer of 2005, and we are staying on the sun-kissed shores of Busua, a coastal community in Ghana. The sand here is made of crushed pink shells. Annabel and I pick up handfuls and scrub our stained feet in the shallows. We’ve been wearing flip-flops for months, trailing through the rich red dust at the refugee settlement where we work. The Atlantic is rough and alive. Its tumbling motion and the wind are making me feel euphoric. Annabel is smiling to herself, too, and jumping in and out of waves.

“Mori,” she shouts, “it’s like being beaten up by an old friend!”

M John Harrison: ‘If we met a real alien we’d have no clue what they thought’

At 80, SF author M John Harrison is producing some of his best work. He talks about finding his voice, alien intelligence and the advice from Iain Banks that still spurs him on

Three years ago, in a greasy spoon on the fringes of the City of London, M John Harrison – Mike to his friends – told me about the novel he was working on. Rather than describing its plot or characters, he spoke purely about the challenge the book presented to him as a writer. With this one, he said, he wanted to push things as far as they could go.

Now that book, The End of Everything – his 13th novel – is about to be published. It describes a disintegrating Britain in which the iGhetti – monstrously sized, extremely powerful and strange lifeforms that look like powdery, slow-motion explosions – rule the country and possibly the world. Or do they? In its unwillingness to divulge any more than its characters know, which isn’t much, the novel is more alien evasion than invasion.

From pwned to kiting – an A to Z of the gaming terms you need to know

As phrases like easter eggs and looksmaxxing enter everyday language, what other words from the world of video games might soon be mainstream?

Twenty years ago, video games were seen as a niche hobby dominated by hardcore enthusiasts, tucked away in obscure online forums and gaming meet-ups. Back then, the idea that governments would use footage from Call of Duty and gaming terms such as “killstreaks” as war propaganda would have been absurd. Then the 2010s happened: nerd culture popularised, previously online-only spaces began to meld with the real world, and gaming went mainstream.

Now, gaming references have entered common parlance – at the end of 2024, video game terms including “cheat code” and “cutscene” were even added to the Oxford English Dictionary – and they increasingly crop up in politics, too. Earlier this year, the official White House X account posted footage of military strikes on Iran interspersed with footage from the video game Grand Theft Auto. Six days later, another video was posted, this time interspersing military footage with clips from Nintendo’s 2006 game Wii Sports. Video game references aren’t reserved for the political right, either: in February 2026, Democrat representative of New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quipped, “Why does this guy always talk like a World of Warcraft npc [non-player character]?” in response to a post on X by Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff.

A new survey on dads found that 9 out of 10 had a surprising reaction to fatherhood

Men are traditionally thought of as providers for their children. But a report that interviewed thousands of fathers found them embracing another role.

Gorillaz review – a staggering hi-tech mini-festival from the magpie mind of Damon Albarn

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
A stream of high-profile guest stars included Johnny Marr, Little Simz, Shaun Ryder, Sparks, Yasiin Bey, Bootie Brown and Fatoumata Diawara

Gorillaz’s first stadium show is quite the event. It’s a staggering hi-tech spectacle, a two-and-a-half hour mini-festival with a seemingly endless stream of high-profile guest stars, and its audacious ambition and military precision all stem from the fecund imagination and magpie mind of one man.

Damon Albarn has never come across a genre of music that he doesn’t want to turn inside-out to see how it works. In recent years, he has turned Gorillaz from the mildly gimmicky virtual band he co-conceived with graphic artist Jamie Hewlett into a sprawling expression of his own musical curiosity and rampant eclecticism.

This is how we do it: ‘Sex was something to get through with my husband. With Jess, I feel desire’

Meg was married to a man but had fantasised having sex with women for years. When she met Jess, her knees buckled

• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

I’d spent so many years visualising having sex with a woman

Freed from Cambodia's scam compounds, trafficking victims face a new crisis

Cambodia's crackdown on scam centers has created a secondary crisis: thousands of stranded foreign workers are now roaming the streets of Phnom Penh.

Marco Bezzecchi banned from Czech MotoGP race after slapping track steward

• Incident occurred after Bezzecchi crashed on Saturday

• Title leader apologises ‘to entire MotoGP community’

The MotoGP championship leader Marco Bezzecchi was banned from Sunday’s Czech GP after slapping a track steward in the face after a crash in Saturday’s sprint, MotoGP said on Sunday.

The 27-year-old Italian Aprilia Racing rider crashed out of the sprint with two laps to go. Footage on TNT Sports showed Bezzecchi running towards a steward, pushing him and then slapping him in the face as the steward was standing over his bike in the gravel.

Keir Starmer expected to announce departure as prime minister on Monday

Business secretary says Starmer is reflecting on ‘political realities’ amid overwhelming pressure from MPs

• UK politics – live updates

Keir Starmer is expected to announce on Monday that he will step down as prime minister, after overwhelming pressure from Labour MPs to make way for Andy Burnham to become Labour leader.

Speaking for the government on Sunday, Peter Kyle, the business secretary, refused to comment on Starmer’s specific plans but said the prime minister was aware of the “political realities” and would do what was best for the country.

‘My mum says I’m not working class any more!’: Olivia Cooke on power, privilege, and dividing audiences in House of Dragon

The actor has a knack for playing characters that test viewers’ loyalties. As the Game of Thrones prequel returns, she talks problem fans, ‘boy mums’ and why the arts should be for everyone

House of the Dragon is a massive television series. Over two seasons, the prequel to Game of Thrones has seduced viewers with its plotting, backstabbing, candlelit meetings about war, and massive sheep-munching dragons. Olivia Cooke’s dad, however, did not get the memo.

We’re in London, on a stormy summer afternoon, and Cooke is sipping a bottle of neon juice (“Tell me if my teeth go purple”). Her dad texted her yesterday. She gets her phone and pulls up a photo of a television screen, with the first season of House of the Dragon loaded up and ready to go. “He said: ‘Raining outside, so starting a binge-watch.’” She laughs. “I was like, great, Dad, worked on it for six years, hope you like, kiss kiss.” What was his review? “Yes, I like it. Quite violent.” He was planning to watch another episode after he’d picked up Cooke’s nephew from school.

‘They didn’t know or care, or wouldn’t say’: how we investigated the casualties of a covert US war

When a large number of children were killed during a US drone strike in Somalia last year, two reporters collaborated to piece together what happened

There are many reasons why some military conflicts go unreported or underreported. Local restrictions on press freedom. Prohibitively high risks to journalists’ safety. A lack of resources. The tendency for geopolitical conflicts to attract more attention than civil conflicts. And the sheer number of armed conflicts around the world right now. All these factors can also impede reporting on the humanitarian toll, civilian casualties and attempts to hold armed forces accountable.

Earlier this week, the Guardian published an investigation into the deaths of at least 12 civilians, including eight children, who were killed in a US airstrike in Somalia last year amid Washington’s covert military campaign against the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab. The articles, which are part of our Rights and Freedom series, are an example of the Guardian’s efforts to highlight conflicts that might otherwise receive little public attention.

Superfood or sweet treat? 17 delicious ways with popcorn – from snack bars and choux buns to salads and soups

High in fibre and polyphenols, popcorn has been touted as the perfect snack for the health-conscious. It’s also the ideal vehicle for salt, sugar, butter, bacon fat …

Popcorn became indelibly associated with cinema-going during the Great Depression (it was cheap and hugely profitable), but it also has an established reputation as a superfood – recently given a boost by longevity expert Dan Buettner, who described popcorn as the best snack to eat if you want to live to 100. “It’s very high in fibre, it’s very high in complex carbohydrates, and it even has more polyphenols than a lot of vegetables,” he said.

Popping corn has been consumed by humans for at least 4,000 years, but its widespread popularity as a snack probably dates to a single event: the Columbian Exposition of 1893, also known as the World’s Fair, held in Chicago.

Want to improve your agility? Try these 'explosive power' exercises

These simple movements combine speed and strength to train your body's ability to rapidly generate force. They can also help prevent injury and boost agility.

‘Beyoncé’s Crazy in Love makes you move your body’: Gloria Gaynor’s honest playlist

The disco-pop great salutes the sexiness of Marvin Gaye and the spirituality of Amazing Grace. But which of her own hits does she sing at karaoke?

The first song I fell in love with
I grew up in Newark, New Jersey, with five brothers and one sister, so there was always music in the house. I remember my mom singing Willow Weep for Me when I was five or six. There was something about the sadness in it that really moved me.

The first single I bought
I heard Why Do Fools Fall in Love by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers on the radio and bought it from a local record store. I was singing in the hallway of our building when a neighbour leaned over and asked: “Gloria, was that you singing?” She thought it was the radio. That was the moment I decided I was going to be a singer.

Sweat, tears and camaraderie as 20,000 runners take on world’s largest ultramarathon

For one day every June, South Africa’s searing racial inequality seems to melt away at Comrades race

In the early morning dark, thousands of runners waited, jostling with anticipation. South Africa’s national anthem rang out. Then the haunting swell of Shosholoza, first sung by Zimbabwean migrant workers in South Africa’s goldmines. Finally, that unmistakable, spine-tingling piano: Chariots of Fire.

Runners gather before the start of the marathon

I challenge the Rothko naysayers to stand in front of his monumental art and not feel awe – Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

An exhibition in Florence that pairs his giant canvases with Renaissance religious art brought me to the edge of tears. It is the perfect refuge from the infinite scroll

As an unbaptised agnostic raised with no religion, the closest I ever really come to a spiritual experience is when I’m standing in front of an artwork. Last week I went to Florence to do exactly that, drawn there not by Michelangelo’s David or Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, but by the works of Mark Rothko, that titan of US abstract expressionism whose work seems, on the surface at least, distinctly secular and un-Florentine. Yet seeing Renaissance art there had a profound impact on Rothko and his painting, as the exhibition Rothko in Florence makes strikingly explicit. Taking place at Palazzo Strozzi and two other satellite sites, it has been curated by his son, Christopher, and the author and independent curator Elena Geuna.

Is it embarrassing to admit that when confronted with the first large canvas I was drawn to I felt tearful? It was an emotion born of appreciation and astonishment but also – and this startled me – a feeling of gratitude. I felt profoundly lucky to be there, in front of this painting, not long after a time in my life where for various reasons I had been not been feeling all that fortunate at all. To have the chance to take in the paint on the monumental canvas, and absorb the ways the colours – purples, reds, oranges, yellows, blues – blend and in places seem to glow felt hugely significant to me personally. And then, as I continued to look – and as ever with Rothko – I stopped thinking about myself at all.

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist

Canada’s policies force asylum seekers into US to face deportation, critics say

Advocates say the Safe Third Country Agreement forces immigrants to head to an unsafe country: the United States

It was the threat of gang violence in Honduras that pushed Carlos and Antonia to flee their home. In 2021, with their toddler, Alejandro, and a handful of belongings, the married couple ventured north hoping to reach safety in the US.

The journey, through Guatemala and Mexico, was filled with danger and uncertainty.

An Armenian tycoon has a private zoo. Now he wants the world’s biggest Jesus statue

Gagik Tsarukyan hopes project will resonate with global movement that blends religious faith, nationalism and cultural conservatism

Behind the walls of a sprawling estate on the outskirts of Yerevan, six tigers prowl behind a fence, three lions pace their enclosures, and alligators bask in the afternoon heat.

Further into the compound, more animals appear. Beneath a gilded, hand-painted ceiling, a dining hall houses a taxidermy menagerie: white tigers reared on their hind legs, a stuffed eagle perched atop a table, bear and wolf pelts spread across the floor. All of these, the owner proudly said, had been shot by him.

Ukraine war briefing: Drones strike Russia’s Tyumen oil refinery 2,000km away, says Zelenskyy

Reports from Siberia confirm attack, while Ukrainian president says new weapon has 3,000km range; occupied Crimea under attack. What we know on day 1,579

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has confirmed that Ukrainian drones attacked an oil refinery in Russia’s Tyumen region ⁠in western Siberia, ⁠more ​than 2,000 km (1,200 miles) from Ukraine. He said Ukrainian company Fire Point had developed new long-range drones capable of ⁠travelling more than 3,000km and they had been “successfully deployed”. In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy thanked the Ukrainian ⁠military for special operations that “have reached Tyumen Region in Russia, including ​an oil refining facility. More ‌than 2,000km from ‌our state border. This is effective work.”

Unverified videos posted online showed smoke and flame rising over what was said to be the burning Tyumen refinery, also known as the Antipinsky refinery. The Tyumen governor, Alexander Moor, claimed emergency services were working at the site of “fallen [drone] debris” – a phrasing often used by Russian officials to play down successful Ukrainian attacks.

Ukraine’s forces struck an oil terminal at Kerch in occupied Crimea over Saturday night, according to Ukrainian media and online accounts monitoring the war. Nasa satellite monitoring showed a fire at the Kerch seaport where the terminal is located. In what appeared to be a broader wave of strikes against Russian-held targets in Crimea, an electrical substation at Bilohorsk was reportedly on fire, and there were other attacks at Yevpatoria and the main city of Sevastopol.

Russian attacks killed three people in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava regions in eastern Ukraine, local authorities said on Sunday. A woman aged 70 was killed in Nikopol and nine were wounded in other districts of Dnipropetrovsk, said Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the regional military administration. Vitali Dyakivnych, head of the Poltava regional military administration, said a Russian strike on Saturday evening killed two people and wounded 13, including six children.

Russian ⁠forces struck the ⁠south-eastern Ukrainian ⁠city of ​Zaporizhzhia with glide ⁠bombs on Saturday, killing five ⁠people ​and ‌injuring 10, said Ivan Fedorov, the regional governor. Fedorov said there ‌had been nine strikes ​in the city. He ⁠said residents could ​be ​trapped ​in the ​rubble ‌of ​damaged buildings.

Near the Russian border, a bomb attack killed ​one person on the ​outskirts of the city of ​Sumy, local officials said. In the southern Kherson region, the regional ​governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said ‌one person had ​died in ​a drone attack on a village north of the region’s main city, also called Kherson.

Russian bombs struck an apartment building on Saturday in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, killing at least one person and wounding nine including a six-year-old child, authorities said.

Ueda inspires Japan to eliminate Tunisia in landmark 1,000th World Cup match

Two goals from Ueda, plus strikes by Kamada and Ito, sealed the fate of Tunisia and their new coach Hervé Renard

Perhaps the manager wasn’t the problem after all. Tunisia sacked Sabri Lamouchi after last week’s 5-1 defeat to Sweden, appointing Hervé Renard as their seventh manager since qualifying began. But it turned out a diffident side lacking defensive conviction are a diffident side lacking defensive conviction whoever has to do the press conferences. Tunisia were well beaten by a Japan side inspired by the Feyenoord centre-forward Ayase Ueda, who scored twice and led the line with intelligence and imagination.

Renard had only three days with his players. He may have performed heroics to win the Africa Cup of Nations with Zambia in 2012 and three years later become the first manager to win two Cups of Nations with different teams as he ended Côte d’Ivoire’s 23-year trophy drought. But he is not, as he has stressed, “a magician”.

How location sharing helped police catch a serial rapist-turned-killer

The mother of murdered model Christy Giles pleads for others to share their locations. She says the technology helped police catch David Pearce, who murdered Giles and her friend, architect Hilda Marcela Cabrales.

Chic and cheerful: 15 hotels for affordable European glamour

From a waterfront palace in Greece to a nonna’s house in Italy, these stylish boutique hotels offer character and comfort at a budget-friendly price

I always take my Dad’s advice – and do the opposite | Jillian Pretzel

My dad gives smart advice, but it always leads me down paths that didn’t feel like ‘me’. When, and how, can we stop listening to our dads?

When I was a kid, my dad told me to pick a sport, practice a lot and stick with it. That way, in high school, I’d join the team and have built-in friends. “Later, you can aim for a college scholarship,” he said with a wide, confident smile.

I knew this was good advice. It was bold, financially minded and forward-thinking. The only problem? I was terrible at sports.

Brands using AI-generated influencers to promote products on social media

Investigation finds AI content that purports to show genuine customers, prompting calls for greater transparency

Brands promoting their products online are quietly deploying AI-generated influencers on social media, an investigation has found, prompting calls for greater transparency.

The findings suggest companies are increasingly turning to AI-generated content that purports to show genuine customer experiences while giving no obvious indication that the people featured are not real.

Trump may survive the humiliation of the Iran deal. Netanyahu will not | Simon Tisdall

What has the Israeli PM’s whirlwind of violence achieved? His closest ally now turning against him – and an emboldened Iran

Benjamin Netanyahu, the biggest loser in last week’s preliminary deal to halt the US-Israel-Iran war, will be remembered – and reviled – as the man who put the Middle East to the sword. Whether the “problem” was Hamas in Gaza, illegal West Bank land seizures, supposed Israeli-Arab fifth columnists, peace campaigners’ aid flotillas, Hezbollah in Lebanon, hostile militias in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, or Tehran’s hardline Islamic regime, the Israeli leader’s “solution” was always the same: extreme, often lawless violence that invariably made matters worse.

The unprovoked, illegal war against Iran was the ultimate expression of the Netanyahu doctrine – the disproportionate application of brute force. Predictably, it too, has failed. Donald Trump is desperately arguing that the ceasefire memorandum he signed in Versailles (of all places!) is not the lame capitulation it so self-evidently is. But while the US president may survive this humiliation – despite global scepticism and mockery – the likely consequences of the debacle for Netanyahu, his brother-in-harms, are career-ending serious. In many respects, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister is already yesterday’s man.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

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I can’t afford a tutor to help my daughter get into grammar school. Will she still fulfil her potential? | Annalisa Barbieri

You may be projecting your own school experience on to your daughter, but her needs are different and she has you to support her

I have two children aged eight and four. My eight-year-old is very bright. She’s in year 3 and doing year 6 maths. Her state school has large classes and limited resources, so I challenge her by doing fun maths at home. I wanted to try getting her into a grammar school (our local state secondaries do not get good results), but lots of local parents pay for their children to have private tutors, which I can’t afford.

I fear my children will be penalised and stuck in a cycle of not fulfilling their potential. This hits personally because I was diagnosed with dyslexia in my 20s after underachieving and disciplinary issues at school. I could be projecting my baggage and putting unnecessary pressure on my children to do better than me. But I feel sad and hopeless at the unfairness of this issue in the education system, and the way the rich will always outrun the poor. Sometimes I wonder if there is any point in trying for something better.

Chasing life goals is a recipe for disaster – so try these tiny experiments instead

Whether its our careers, health or relationships, we often set the bar too high and end up feeling disappointed when it doesn’t work out. Try this new way of thinking … and you may just see some real results

Every January, millions of us sit down and write our goals for the year. By March, most of them have been abandoned. So we set new ones in spring, and when September rolls around, we do it again. New season, fresh start, same cycle – and plenty of beating ourselves up along the way. I lived this cycle for years. When I was working at Google as a digital health executive, I was a champion goal-setter with quarterly OKRs (objectives and key results) and a running list of personal goals I would review every week. On paper, it worked. I was successful by most external measures. But I had this persistent feeling that I was running just to stay in the same place, like the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass.

After retraining as a neuroscientist and studying how the brain learns, I started to understand why. Goals work brilliantly under very specific conditions. You want to buy a car that fits three kids and costs under £25,000? Set a goal, do the research, buy the car. The destination is known and the path is clear.

To the tablet and beyond: does Toy Story 5 go hard enough on technology?

The animated sequel sets up a tug-of-war between physical and digital play for children but is still eager not to be an anti-tech screed

For more than 30 years, Pixar’s signature Toy Story series has been entertaining children while giving voice to their parents’ anxieties. This is especially pronounced in the film’s sequels, as the living toys who dedicate their lives to the happiness of their owner/child experience all different sorts of potential and parent-paralleled obsolescence, from physical wear-and-tear and a child reaching young adulthood to the toy equivalent of empty-nesting (still hanging around the playroom but no longer anyone’s favourite). It’s only natural – maybe even a little belated – that Toy Story 5 would address the encroachment of technology, which continues to make its way to children earlier and earlier. So many years after the tech breakthroughs that allowed Toy Story to become the first computer-animated feature, and Pixar to become a household name in family entertainment, has the formerly Steve Jobs-owned company turned against the kind of innovation that built its success?

Timeline: Investigating the Long Island serial killings

What began as a search for one missing woman — Shannan Gilbert — led to multiple bodies and the capture of Rex Heuermann.

Bolivian president declares state of emergency and deploys military to quell anti-government protests

Bulldozers sent in to clear roadblocks that have stifled the country as farmers and Indigenous groups protest against conservative president

Bolivia’s president declared a state of emergency on Saturday and deployed soldiers and bulldozers to raze anti-government roadblocks that have paralysed the country.

For more than six weeks, unions, Indigenous groups and coca farmers have marched through cities and blocked roads across the country with rubble, logs and debris in protest against the conservative government.

The 2026 World Cup team of the tournament so far (without the superstars)

We pick an XI of players who have impressed during the initial rounds of games in Canada, the US and Mexico

A star was born, at 40, when a player whose highest-profile employers were Portugal’s Gil Vicente, denied Spain’s all-stars in that historic 0-0 draw. His Christian name being Josimar may well have pointed to him being a nascent World Cup cult hero. So huge was his impact that the US authorities, on the orders of House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, waived the visa fee and $15,000 (£11,300) bond for his mother, now able to fly in for her boy’s continuing adventures. Seven saves from Spain have made him a global social media sensation, too.

Royal Ascot draw bias left too many with raw deal in otherwise stellar week

It is difficult for the meeting to sell itself as the pinnacle of Flat racing if so many of its races favour runners on one side of the track

Big numbers were something of a theme at Royal Ascot this year. Aidan O’Brien became the first trainer to saddle 100 winners at the meeting when Scandinavia took the Gold Cup on Thursday. Attendances were up throughout the week leading up to Saturday’s annual sell-out, by an average of 3.5% and the high-numbered stalls carried all before them on the straight course, with one winner after another powering up to the line against the near-side rail.

There are always talking points after a meeting like Royal Ascot, where the occasion and competition are so intense that everything feels exaggerated. This time around, there was a team tactics debate on Tuesday, as Christophe Soumillon picked up an eight-day ban for riding Puerto Rico “in a manner to assist” Gstaad in the St James’s Palace Stakes, though the decision is subject to an appeal to be heard this week. There was a furore, too, after Juan Hernandez was allowed to weigh in again after an easy win on Bacio in the last race on Friday, having being light first time round.

How Europe’s EV makers shrank their product to challenge the bloated SUVs

Smaller, cheaper cars built for narrow city streets are becoming more stylish – but require careful design decisions

The winding backstreets of London, Paris and Rome are a large part of their charm. But they are also a problem for electric carmakers. For a long time, squeezing big batteries into smaller, cheaper cars to fit European streets was too much of a problem, so manufacturers focused on bloated SUVs instead.

But that is finally changing. Battery technology has improved and Europe’s carmakers havecut manufacturing costs enough that they can now sell cars that might have a chance of fitting down a medieval lane or two.

Survivors speak up to help convict man of murder, sexual assault

David Pearce was convicted of first-degree murder for the deaths of Christy Giles and Hilda Marcela Cabrales after a night of partying in Los Angeles. He was also found guilty of raping seven other women who came forward to testify at his trial.

US Open glory beckons for Wyndham Clark with six-shot lead going into final round

• Gritty display leaves American in complete control

• Scheffler closest threat after McIlroy charge fades

Wyndham Clark’s lead shrank, then grew, then all but swallowed the tournament whole. The 2023 US Open champion watched a four-shot advantage get cut in half on Saturday while still on the first hole, only to respond with a masterclass in survival golf as Shinnecock Hills finally delivered the bruising examination players had anticipated all week.

By day’s end, Clark had stretched his lead to a yawning six shots despite shooting an even-par 70. Scottie Scheffler’s one-under 69 was enough to emerge as the closest pursuer, but the world No 1 will begin Sunday’s final round needing something extraordinary to prevent Clark from capturing America’s national championship for a second time in four years.

Trump says several people arrested for alleged vandalism of Reflecting Pool

President Trump claims the problems with the Reflecting Pool in Washington are due to vandalism.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup schedule and how to watch

With 104 World Cup games being played in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, it's like "a Super Bowl every single day for five weeks," U.S. team captain Tim Ream told CBS News.

6/20: CBS Weekend News

Vice President JD Vance heads to Switzerland for peace talks with Iran; President Trump defends his beautification push in Washington, D.C.

Historic D.C. castle reopens after extensive renovation

The historic Smithsonian Castle in Washington, D.C., which closed for a multi-year renovation, has temporarily reopened to the public for America's 250th anniversary. Natalie Brand has more.

Despite dip in gas prices, many still feeling economic pinch going into summer travel season

U.S. drivers are feeling less pain at the pump than in recent months. But for many, it's tough to feel a change. Max Darrow has more.

Goolagong review – a lovely tribute to an Aboriginal tennis legend

She won seven grand slams, was ranked world No 1 and riled up Billie Jean King. But did this worthy yet syrupy drama really need to show her as a child hitting a ball against a wall with a plank of wood quite so many times?

Goolagong opens to the soulful strains of Ann Peebles proclaiming: “It’s your thing – do what you wanna do!” It feels a little on the nose as a way to soundtrack an inspirational sporting drama, as Australia’s Evonne Goolagong (played by Lila McGuire) steels herself for her first ever Wimbledon match. (For the uninitiated: not only was Goolagong the first Aboriginal player to compete in tennis’s most prestigious tournament, but she would go on to win the ladies’ singles title twice, in 1971 and 1980, plus a doubles win in 1974. She won seven grand slams in total and was – for a time – ranked world No 1.) This three-part drama from Australia’s ABC is sometimes saccharine, and the opening sequence of a teenage Evonne wandering starry-eyed through the corridors of the All England Club – portraits of former winners on the walls – feels heavy-handed. More difficult themes do come to the fore in time, but Goolagong is largely an unapologetic, flashback-heavy tribute to a sporting legend. It’s beautifully drawn, but do we really need to watch the primary school-aged Evonne (a cherubic Eloise Hart) hit a ball against a wall with a plank of wood this many times?!

Sadly, being a woman in sport – or maybe just a woman in the world – Goolagong would go on to apparently suffer financial abuse and sexual harassment at the hands of her coach, Vic Edwards. The contrast between those fluffier scenes and the unwanted advances of Marton Csokas’s slippery Edwards feels like a screeching handbrake turn. Not least because we see Edwards move Goolagong from her happy but impoverished Wiradjuri family in rural Barellan, New South Wales – with a population in the hundreds – into his family home in Sydney at 14, grooming her for sporting fame but also maybe just grooming her full stop. But – as uncomfortable as that segue is – it is her reality. “When it stops being fun, come home,” Evonne’s mother tells her, with more than a little foreshadowing on the part of the writers. Later, after family tragedy and chicanery on Edwards’s part, Evonne will echo those words, declaring that tennis is “not fun any more”, ruined by the selfishness of her mentor.

Goolagong aired on BBC Four and is on iPlayer now.

Sophia Dunkley smashes England past Scotland as T20 World Cup winning run goes on

• Group 2: England, 200-5, bt Scotland, 162-7, by 38 runs

• Three wins out of three for hosts who top Group 2

England’s grudge match against Scotland at Headingley ended in a convincing win for the World Cup hosts by 38 runs, to ensure they maintained their position atop Group B.

England were without their captain Nat Sciver-Brunt, who is missing this match and Wednesday’s game against West Indies after aggravating her existing calf injury. Sciver-Brunt is England’s best batter, and has looked it so far in this World Cup with scores of 46 and 48, so there was some concern as to how the lineup might fare in her absence.

Jon Snow: A Last Big Story review – the finest swan song you could hope for

This documentary about the journalist’s Alzheimer’s soon takes a turn, as he hears of an unreported mining disaster and goes on the hunt for truth. It’s a dignified tale of a courageous, compassionate man

Jon Snow: A Last Big Story is a valediction that forbids mourning. The hour-long documentary follows the 78-year-old investigative journalist and former Channel 4 news anchor in the wake of his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease. During the course of one of his visits with his wife, Dr Precious Lunga, to family in Zambia, he gets wind of a story about a nearby environmental catastrophe involving a Chinese mining company that has gone virtually unreported. And so the documentary opens outwards and we see the man in his element as well as in the grip of what 850,000 Alzheimer’s sufferers in the UK alone, to say nothing of their carers, families and other loved ones, know to be an unforgiving, relentlessly worsening condition.

Early on, Snow asks with interest and no disquiet what the people with cameras around him are doing. “We’re making a film about your career,” his interviewer, Laura, explains. “And who you are now.” “Lumme!” says Snow, the son of a bishop. “How nice!” As they travel in a car together a little later, he leans forward and says politely: “I’ve forgotten your name already … ?” “Laura,” she tells him. “Lovely,” he says, sitting back. “I’m Jon.”

DOJ memo stokes fear among disability advocates of a return to institutionalization

The Justice Department's opinion challenges civil rights protections that have long treated the institutionalization of disabled Americans as a last resort.

Heather Mitchell: ‘I got the biggest reaction for playing Donald Trump – but I really enjoyed playing Bill Clinton’

The stage and screen actor on her annoyingly nice co-star Hugo Weaving, her talent for toast art, and the time a tarot reader said she’d ruin her husband’s life

You’re in a new TV show called The Killings at Parrish Station, playing a detective who is plagued by an unsolved mystery. What do you think is life’s greatest mystery?

I don’t want to say anything too obvious, like death, but it is such a mystery. It’s hard not to sound like a cliche, [but] the greatest mystery is: how does it all end?

A spate of shark bites has Australian ocean lovers on edge. People want to know why they’re rising

Warming ocean temperatures mean sharks are spending more time in high-population areas, yet shark net data shows no significant changes in numbers

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Rob Harcourt is heading back from a “beautiful surf” at Bondi on a warm and sunny winter’s morning in Sydney.

But for him and many of his surfing mates, the compelling pull of the city’s world famous surf breaks has been neutered by tragedy, fear and uncertainty.

Grand Canyon on ‘extreme heat’ watch, with temperatures set to soar

Temperatures could top 111F on Monday and Tuesday, after several recent deaths in park raise concerns over heat

Extreme heat is set to hit lower parts of the Grand Canyon from Monday, the US National Weather Service (NWS) warned, with temperatures projected to exceed 100F (37.7C).

An alert published on Saturday will be in effect from 10am local time on Monday through 7pm on Tuesday.

3 elderly hikers die on Grand Canyon's inner trails as temperatures spike

Emergency responders arrived to find the hikers already deceased on the trails, according to the National Park Service.

Northampton crowned Prem champions after Hendy’s double sees off Exeter

• Prem final: Northampton 26-17 Exeter

• Chiefs lead 17-14 with 15 to go before Saints comeback

• Analysis: great entertainers provide fitting ending

A fast and furious Prem season was never going to end with a dull whimper. And when the dust finally settled on another frenetic encounter it was Northampton who stood tallest, propelled to their second domestic title in three years by two tries inside four minutes from their red-haired wing George Hendy, the player who also set up Alex Mitchell’s clinching try in his side’s 2024 victory over Bath.

It was not always the most error-free of games, but the helter-skelter action was never less than compelling. Exeter had edged in front thanks to a 51st-minute score from their captain, Dafydd Jenkins, with Northampton down to 14 men after Josh Kemeny’s yellow card. They reckoned without the energy of Henry Pollock and Hendy’s double whammy that propelled Saints over the line in a rugged encounter on a sweltering afternoon.

Nine people in critical condition after Bedford train crash kills driver

East of England ambulance service says number of people listed as seriously injured has increased to 32

Nine people are in a critical condition after the Bedford train crash that killed the driver of one of the trains, police have confirmed.

The total number of people listed as seriously injured has increased to 32, East of England ambulance service said on Saturday.

Trump loyalist Jim Jordan linked to group that received ‘dark money’ from ICE detention contractor

Report finds close ties between the Trump administration and Geo Group, which profits from anti-immigration crackdown

Jim Jordan is among the most famous names in this stretch of Ohio.

The congressman and chair of the powerful House judiciary committee is considered among the most conservative and influential members in Congress, and is a longtime loyalist of Donald Trump.

Spanish PM’s wife to stand trial on corruption charges and banned from leaving country

Begoña Gómez has been ordered to surrender her passport as her husband, Pedro Sánchez, says the case is politically motivated

A judge in Spain has ruled that the wife of socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez must stand trial on corruption charges and has banned her from leaving the country.

Begoña Gómez had previously been charged after a two-year investigation with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of funds.

Trump acknowledges ‘real problems’ at reflecting pool after $14m makeover, blaming ‘vandalism’

US president also claims vandals have been arrested, as Washington attraction sees algae bloom and peeling paint

Donald Trump has blamed “vandalism” for “real problems” at Washington’s reflecting pool after an algae bloom in the wake of a $14.2m renovation of the site he declared would turn it “American flag” blue. Paint has also been seen peeling off in the water. He also made claims that vandals had been arrested.

Days after his administration claimed the pool was actually “crystal clear”, despite an unmistakably green hue, the US president acknowledged issues – and, without evidence, blamed foul play.

Louisiana pastor sentenced to 80 years for sexually molesting two boys

Terry Reed, found guilty of rape and molestation of a juvenile, called ‘utter failure of a man’ by victim’s mother

A suburban New Orleans religious pastor has been sentenced to 80 years’ imprisonment after being convicted of sexually molesting two boys – the third time in which he was found guilty of abusing minors.

While Terry Reed received his punishment at a state court hearing on Thursday, the mother of one of his survivors read a victim-impact statement on behalf of her son which called him “an utter failure and a sorry excuse for a man”.

‘Once my tummy stopped shaking, I was absorbed by the scale, spectacle and wonder’: your Steven Spielberg film favourites

We’ve already listed our writers’ all-timers, now Guardian readers get their say on the seminal director’s best blockbusters

ET is my favourite Spielberg film. It was the first I ever saw at the cinema, when I was eight years old, at Bolton Odeon in 1982. It was also the first film that made me cry – not just cry, but sob all the way home on the bus. I remember feeling completely confused by the fact that I was so happy and yet so sad at the same time. I watched the film with my mum and some of her friends from the Gingerbread Club, a single parents’ organisation that arranged social events and outings, mainly for single mothers. At a time when there was still a stigma attached to being a single parent, it provided a sense of community and support.

DC’s ‘renovated’ pool reflects the Trump administration’s dangerous hubris

When asked what his takeaways from the Iran war were, Trump said he believed there were no limits to his power

It’s been a busy week for the US’s birthday boy. First, there was the cage fight on the White House lawn, in honour of the United States’ 250th anniversary and Donald Trump’s 80th. Then, after watching sweaty men fight, the president flew to France to try to sort out the mess he’d helped create in the Middle East. I regret to inform you that despite Trump signing what Jimmy Kimmel called “the retreaty of Versailles”, it does not really look like the Iran war has been sorted out. Still, the president seems happy with himself. After Axios asked what his takeaways from the Iran war were, Trump said he believes there are “no limits” to his power.

Opinion: Algae doesn't care about our party lines

President Trump's beautification project of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has become plagued with a robust algae bloom, despite a $14 million investment and a coating of "American flag blue."

‘Like a bomb had gone off’: suspected arson attack fuels Glastonbury unease

Arrests after explosion and caravan fires heighten controversy over number of people living in vehicles

Jan Johnston was tucked up in the van she calls home when she was rocked by the explosion. “I heard this massive boom,” she said. “I came out and there was thick, black, billowing smoke. It was like a bomb had gone off.”

It turned out not to be a bomb, but a suspected arson attack on one of the many caravans, motorhomes and converted vehicles tucked away in side roads and industrial estates around the town of Glastonbury in Somerset.

Ralph Lauren bridges generations with menswear tie-up in Milan

Designer turns to the accessory that launched his empire as he invokes the golden age of Italian sport

For his second standalone menswear show in Milan, Ralph Lauren reverted to the accessory that launched his empire in 1967 – ties.

Skinny silk ties featuring subtle swirly prints were neatly knotted and used as the finishing touch to elegant pinstripe suits, while more brightly printed or striped cravats were whirled and worn like ties peeking out from under knitwear and rugby shirts.

‘How do I deal with my rage? I put it in everything I do’: Killing Eve’s Sandra Oh on fury, friendship and hitting her prime in midlife

It took a long time for the actor to find her groove – then the smash TV spy thriller changed everything. She talks about getting advice from A-listers, speaking her mind, and why she’s switching to theatre

Sandra Oh bursts into a back room at the National Theatre in London with wayward post-rehearsal energy. The 54-year-old, long one of the most stylish actors in Hollywood, is in brown linen, a herringbone jacket and hat and sunglasses, which she removes before collapsing into a chair and throwing her head forward, arms outstretched, hair splayed across the table. “It’s just the fucking process of it,” she groans. “We just finished our first stagger-through, which if anyone is an actor – it’s early days, so the fact we made it through was great. It’s brutal. We started in the Lyttelton, and it’s interesting to be in that space and to hear verse. You can really hear it. It’s not just about volume or speed. It’s not even solely about intention. You learn so much just being in that space, but the big thing is – sorry.” She catches herself. “I’m just marching on.” And she bellows with laughter.

Oh has been in London for just over a month rehearsing her role as Alice in a modern reimagining of Molière’s Le Misanthrope. It’s a happy return; eight years ago, she was in the capital to film the first of four series of the hit show Killing Eve, which became a phenomenon and changed her life as an actor for ever. Oh played Eve Polastri, the shambolic but brilliant British intelligence agent, who, along with Jodi Comer’s Villanelle, made for one of the best spy capers of recent years. Now, she is playing a novelist – gender-flipped from the 17th-century original, in an adaptation by Martin Crimp – who is fed up with the flattery and dishonesty of the people around her. It’s a deliberate pivot to theatre; last summer, she appeared as Olivia in a starry production of Twelfth Night at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, New York. In the autumn, she made her debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in a production of Donizetti’s comic opera La Fille du Régiment. Unlike the sometimes fraught me-me-meism of screen work, says Oh, working in theatre in general and at the National in particular “is a collaborative thing” – not least, she adds drily, because no one does it for the money. “Everyone has to bring their best and most open selves. And everyone else loves watching everyone succeed.”

Social media bans are trending. But it’s too late for my son and me | Dave Schilling

We’re both addicted to our screens. But at least we’re watching together – it’s dystopian bonding for the modern age

Try as I might, I think there’s no saving my son from modern technology. It’s ubiquitous, seductive and deeply ingrained in every aspect of middle-class life. Worse yet, I’m also addicted. When do I not have my iPhone out, desperately scrolling through a suite of apps, hoping they’ll offer me some manner of comfort from the security of my living room couch? Hours go by as I’m practically begging someone to notice me on Instagram, while he’s skipping from brainrot videos to basketball tutorials on our internet-connected TV. Ten years ago, I might have witnessed a scene like that and thought it was a sign of the end times. We’ve lost our way so much as a culture that a parent and a child can be simultaneously subsumed by screens, barely noticing the other person. But at some point, everyone realizes that the battle is lost. This is just how it is.

In spite of that grim diagnosis, Keir Starmer – who turned snatching defeat from the jaws of victory his personal brand – has made this losing battle a signature issue. This week, the British prime minister announced a comprehensive ban on social media for children under the age of 16. That includes Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, Snapchat and YouTube (though not the kids’ version). The ban is modeled on one currently deployed in Australia, which has holes wide enough to drive a fleet of vintage Sherman tanks through. Teenagers in Australia are finding ways around their ban already, and of course they are. When I was 15, if I wanted a six-pack of Budweiser or some of those tiny airplane liquor bottles, I could figure it out.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

Skeleton of the world’s rarest marine mammal preserved by digital imaging

The reconstruction of the vaquita, whose numbers barely reach double figures in the wild, is designed to help research and conservation efforts

Scientists have created a digital reconstruction of the world’s most endangered marine mammal, preserving its anatomy in three dimensions to aid research and conservation efforts as the species teeters on the brink of extinction.

The project digitised the skeleton of a female vaquita, a small porpoise found only in Mexico’s northern Gulf of California, using a combination of medical imaging, ultra-high-resolution micro CT scans and photography.

These nuns spent a lifetime helping others. In their last years, who will help them?

The sisters of Uganda are teachers, health-care advocates and more. Those who are in their twilight of their life need help. Who will come to their aid?

The Uplift: Graduates share the stage

A Maryland mom has an extra reason to be proud on her son's graduation day. She gets to cross the stage and receive her diploma alongside him. Plus, Spellman College, an HBCU in Atlanta, celebrates seven women at the top of the 2026 graduating class.

Tay Keith, Grammy-nominated producer, found dead in Nashville at 29

Record producer Tay Keith was found dead in his Nashville home by officers performing a welfare check, police said.

JD Vance arrives in Switzerland for talks with Iran over fragile peace deal

JD Vance arrived in Switzerland on Sunday for talks with Iranian officials, hoping to consolidate the fragile interim deal to end the war and kickstart fresh discussions over Tehran's nuclear program.

‘You don’t have to go to special places to find beauty’: Takeshi Aruga’s best phone picture

The furniture designer turned photographer was drawn to the colourful geometry of a multistorey car park in Japan

Takeshi Aruga was en route from hospital back to his home in Okegawa, Japan, when he took this photograph. He’d had a consultation with a dermatologist, and while his house was a couple of miles away, good weather encouraged him to walk. Along the way, he passed PAPA Ageo, a sizeable shopping centre popular with locals. This blue sign board outside the multistorey car park caught his eye.

“On the side visible to drivers coming down, it usually displays a message like ‘Thank you for visiting’ along with directions for turning left or right to avoid traffic congestion,” Aruga says. “Just behind is a red box, likely for a fire extinguisher.”

Palestinian-American kids find inspiration, and escape, on the soccer pitch

A dozen miles away from the World Cup games in New York/ New Jersey Stadium, Palestinian-American kids turn to soccer as an escape from the realities of war.

Motorway traffic drones are coming to UK roads, but will they drive us to distraction?

National Highways agency uses virtual reality test to see if drivers are distracted by introduction of low-flying drones

I’m barrelling down the motorway at 70mph, swerving from lane to lane, with cars speeding past me. There’s just one problem, I don’t have a driving licence.

Or at least it would be a problem were this a real road test. But despite the life-like surroundings, I am in fact trialling a complex simulation created by virtual reality company MXT on behalf of National Highways, the government-owned agency responsible for the UK’s major roads.

Frank Bowling: ‘Guiltiest pleasure? Sixteen-year-old whisky. My doctor says I shouldn’t’

The artist on his need for order, an embarrassing Christmas costume, and the people he hopes to meet in heaven

Born in British Guiana (now Guyana), Frank Bowling, 92, moved to the UK aged 19 and did national service in the RAF. In 1962, he graduated from the Royal College of Art with the silver medal for painting. He moved to New York in 1966, where he was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, and exhibited his “map paintings” at the Whitney Museum in 1971. In 2005, he became the first black artist to be elected a Royal Academician, and Tate Britain staged a retrospective in 2019. His exhibition, Seeking the Sublime, is at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, until January 2027. He lives in London with his wife.

When were you happiest?
Recently, as people began to understand what I am trying to do in my painting.

Granta stops publishing short story award winners over AI controversy

Literary magazine will no longer engage in ‘external publishing partnerships’ after Commonwealth prize furore

The prominent literary magazine Granta will no longer publish the winning entries of the annual Commonwealth short story prize after one of this year’s winners drew widespread accusations of AI use.

The magazine said it would no longer be involved in “external publishing partnerships” in which it had no editorial control.

A California man's case highlights gaps in care and oversight at DHS detention centers

Federal officers shot Ricardo Parias eight months ago during an ICE operation to detain him. His lawyer says he is still in pain, highlighting gaps in oversight and care in DHS facilities.

Candice Carty-Williams: ‘People feel very attached to Queenie’

The breakout success of her debut created a publishing scramble for Black writers, but has that appetite for diversity endured? Carty-Williams talks about wanting to quit the TV adaptation, why now is the perfect time for her sequel

One of the questions Candice Carty-Williams has spent the past few years batting away is whether she is Queenie. It is perhaps inevitable: her best­selling debut novel followed Queenie Jenkins, a twenty­something south London journalist navigating heartbreak, racism, terrible men and an escalating sense that her life was slipping beyond her control. Like Carty-Williams, Queenie is south London-born, Black and works in media.

It is a slightly predictable question, and one I avoid asking when we meet at her bright pink office in Peckham. But sitting opposite the 36-year-old, I can’t help but understand why it persists. Much like her most famous creation, she is instantly likable: warm, quick-witted and completely devoid of the self-seriousness that can sometimes come with literary success. She is disarmingly casual – her hair is wrapped up and under-eye patches are busy depuffing her face.

Manchester City close to financial settlement with Chelsea to appoint Enzo Maresca

• Chelsea demand compensation for former coach

• West London club insist Italian breached contract

Manchester City are close to reaching a financial settlement with Chelsea that will enable them to appoint Enzo Maresca as their manager.

Chelsea are demanding compensation from City to release Maresca as they believe they have evidence the Italian breached his contract at Stamford Bridge by talking to the club’s Premier League rivals when he was still their manager last season.

David Guetta and Sia’s song Titanium got me through my fertility treatment

Hearing their in-your-face banger was a turning point for me – and I’ve never looked back

At the end of 2011, party season was under way but I was in no mood for festivities. Two years into fertility treatment, my body was pumped full of synthetic hormones and felt like a pin cushion, while my head was filled with both the fragile hope of having a baby, and the exhaustion of failed clinical attempts to do so.

I was in my late 20s. I met my husband when I was 22; we got married when I was 25. “I want to have kids young,” I’d told him. It was a feeling I’d harboured since my teenage years. But I’d also had the nagging sense that it might not come easily to me. As it turned out, my intuition was right. Approaching 28, I was a regular on the infertility merry-go-round.

‘It’s Russian roulette’: alarm as Europe backs critical minerals mines in water-stressed regions

Exclusive: European Commission planning to rewrite key law to allow water-intensive mines in regions suffering from drought

The European Commission plans to rewrite the EU’s flagship water protection law to speed up the development of critical minerals mines, despite many being located in drying and water-stressed regions, analysis has found.

Mining is a water-intensive industry, requiring large volumes of water for ore processing, dust suppression, waste management and mine dewatering. While modern projects recycle water, they still require significant amounts, and in water-stressed regions those demands can add to pressure on already stretched rivers, aquifers and water supplies.

SUV buyers undeterred by warnings of risk to pedestrians, UK study finds

Exclusive: Research suggests financial penalties necessary if number of large vehicles on roads is to be reduced

Drivers who are told about the safety risks posed by SUVs to cyclists and pedestrians are very unlikely to be deterred from buying one, a new study has found.

The findings indicate that if governments want to reduce the number of large, dangerous vehicles on the roads, it is likely to require financial penalties, according to the psychologists at Swansea University who led the research.

‘It’s a big mistake’: Israelis feel betrayed and angry after Iran peace deal

In ‘middle Israel’ there are fears Iran could rebuild stronger – and there is particular ire for Donald Trump

In the Tree brasserie off Herzl Street in Rehovot, there was much that almost everyone agreed on. Few contested that the ceasefire deal concluded by Iran and the US a few days earlier was very bad for Israel. “We were betrayed by President Trump,” said Avi Perez, 55.

They believed, too, that Israel, more than ever, was surrounded by danger that it would have to confront alone. “It is strange. One day we were in the [bomb] shelters with our children … The next day, everything is supposed to be normal. But nothing has been resolved,” said Shaham Nowick, 35, as he studied the menu.

I dived into my digital past to revisit my most cringe teenage moments – and realised how lucky I am to not be young and online today

Twenty years ago I briefly became the victim of a viral pile-on – all because of a silly YouTube video. But I’m glad I had the chance to embarrass myself and move on. Are today’s teens so fortunate?

As a teenager, I went kind of viral – and the most amazing thing about that is it had absolutely zero effect on my life. It was the summer holidays in 2006, and my friends Jessie, Emma and I decided to film ourselves singing along to our favourite song. We were overheated and hyperactive, jumping up and down and headbanging, stretching our arms to the heavens as we confessed to our mamas that we’d “just killed a maaaaaan” before asking Scaramouche if he’d do the fandango.

Later, I added a couple of captions to the video implying we were drunk, even though I was 14 and the closest I’d been to buzzed was the pure placebo of clutching a glass bottle of J2O. Then – for reasons that are now lost to me – I uploaded the video to YouTube a month later, on 19 September 2006, under the title “Bohemian Crap-sody”.

Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for lime and sesame cold noodles with miso meatballs | The new vegan

This cool summer dish can be easily enhanced with a range of store-cupboard staples

What’s your favourite hot weather food? Mine’s gazpacho. I’m joking – gazpacho’s lovely, but cold noodles are my top pick because, in the summer, they meet me exactly where I am in both the cooking and the eating. They don’t need much by way of cooking, and they can be dressed and paired with many a store-cupboard ingredient – in today’s case, tahini, miso and sesame oil. Best of all, cooling the noodles shocks the starches, which makes them firmer and gorgeously “QQ”, a Taiwanese term used to describe food that’s delightfully bouncy and springy. Which personally, is how I’d like to feel all summer long.

Inexperience review – this ‘no-contact’ romance is incredibly touching

Pitlochry Festival theatre
Writer Douglas Maxwell’s playful conceit sparks a funny and superbly acted exploration of messy relationships

There is a clever conceit underlying Douglas Maxwell’s sparky romantic comedy. It imagines the possibility of a sexually charged relationship being sustained without physical contact. Played out on stage, this improbable idea hits home on two levels.

Meeting at a 21st birthday party in 1995, two students – one law, one media studies – agree to maintain the erotic anticipation of their first encounter by never touching each other. If they ever do, the relationship will be over.