Reader Q&A live: we answer your questions about Europe’s hellish week of heat

Our European environment correspondent Ajit Niranjan answers your questions on the climate after reporting on the shocking heatwave that continues to scorch its way across Europe, covering everything from the lack of preparation to ways to deal with the heat

sloth_101 asks: Most reports still talk about this issue in terms of “records”? Technically, that might be correct but it feels like it’s missing urgency of the matter. “Records” are meant to be broken. These records clearly are not. Isn’t there a better way to describe it? For example, how “climate change” is often replaced with “climate emergency” or “climate breakdown”?

I had never thought about it like that before but I can see how it can be read that way. It is partly a limitation of the language and partly an issue of accuracy. Ideally, I would spell it out – “Germany has been hit by heat it has never seen before” – but, because we are talking about measurements since records began, rather than over a longer period of history. I prefer to speak of “record-breaking” heat. The urgency can still be conveyed by describing the damage that hot weather does to our bodies and stating the death toll, which comes to tens of thousands of people across Europe in a typical summer. Each year heat kills 10 ten times more people than murderers in Europe.

So far there has been fairly little evidence of this happening. Far-right parties talk a lot about migrants and climate, but almost exclusively as separate issues. One recent exception is Switzerland, where a referendum this month on capping the country’s population at 10 million people linked the impact of migration on the Alpine nation’s natural resources, but the link here was more about environmental degradation than climate breakdown.

Some data suggests migrants tend to pollute about as much as the native-born population – flying more but driving less - so there is no obvious avenue by which they would hold foreigners responsible for increased temperatures. What seems more likely is that, as temperatures rise to intolerable levels in North Africa and the Middle East, increased migration to Europe will force far-right parties to confront the paradox that the migration they want to stop will be exacerbated by the fossil fuel pollution they support.

Wimbledon 2026: Swiatek in action, Boulter out, and Serena Williams returns – live

Updates from day two | Serena on her SW19 return
Swan glides through but Boulter beaten | Email Daniel

Next no No 3: Alex de Minaur (5) v Roman Andres Burruchaga.

Next on No 2: Otto Virtanen v Ben Shelton (4).

Australia v West Indies: Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final – live

Updates from the Oval, 2.30pm BST/11.30pm AEST
Match preview | Email Cameron with your thoughts

Australia: Beth Mooney (wk), Georgia Voll, Phoebe Litchfield, Ellyse Perry, Ash Gardner, Georgia Wareham, Annabel Sutherland, Nicola Carey, Sophie Molineux (c), Lucy Hamilton, Kim Garth

Unchanged from the Aussies. Other option would have been to bring the legspinner Alana King back in, but they’ve stuck with Phoebe Litchfield who came back in in the previous match.

Defence secretary updating MPs after Starmer unveils extra £15bn for armed forces – UK politics live

Starmer confirms rise but says defence spending cannot be ‘bottomless pit’ and MoD has to ‘spend better’

Keir Starmer is speaking now.

They are at Malloy Aeronautics, a firm that designs heavy-lift drones, and Starmer says this morning they showed him one of the heaviest drones he had ever seen.

Last year, I made the decision in the national interest to reprioritise aid spending towards defence and achieve the biggest uplift in defence spending since the end of the cold war.

That was the right choice because the world has changed. National security is economic security.

World Cup 2026: Klopp plays down Germany job links; Livramento has surgery – live

• David Squires on … penalty pain for Dutch and Germany

• Email us | Bracketology | Golden Boot | World Cup Daily

Tuesday’s World Cup Daily podcast has dropped. Max, Barry, Archie and Nicky chew over last night’s drama:

A couple of videos for your delectation now. Photographer Shaun Botterill has a World Cup portfolio spanning 40 years – here he talks about the moments that made those memorable images:

Supreme court expected to rule on birthright citizenship and trans athletes – US politics live

Anger grows over Monday’s ruling over Trump’s power to fire agency heads as court due to rule on president’s desire to withhold citizenship from those born in US

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The supreme court’s decision to reject Trump’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook yesterday is part of a long-running battle over the independence of the central bank.

Trump repeatedly attacked former chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates fast enough, calling him a “moron” on social media. Powell’s term ended in May this year, and he was succeeded by Trump nominee Kevin Warsh.

Monaco in shock after parcel bomb injures Ukrainian-born business leader

Normally safe principality left reeling from apartment blast, which also injured Vadym Iermolaiev’s wife and child

Police in Monaco are searching for a suspected bomber after a Ukrainian-born business tycoon, his wife and their child were injured in an unprecedented attack that has shaken the normally ultra-safe principality.

Stéphane Thibault, Monaco’s public prosecutor, told reporters a lone man arrived at the building on Monday evening and left a package in the lobby before walking away. Moments later, as three occupants of a ground-floor apartment approached the entrance, the package exploded, he said.

ICE releases Texas nun intercepted walking to church dressed in her habit

Diocese officials in south Texas say a nun was released after members of Congress intervened

A Roman Catholic nun was released from the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the agency arrested her while she walked to mass in her habit in south Texas.

Sister Leticia Ugboaja was walking to Our Lady of Sorrows church in McAllen, Texas, just a few miles from the US-Mexico border on Sunday when she was detained by ICE officers, the church said in a statement on social media.

Labour MPs tell Burnham to ignore ‘deluded’ calls for more North Sea drilling

Critics debunk economic claims as research finds Rosebank development would produce estimated 250m tonnes of CO2

• UK politics live – latest updates

Scores of Labour MPs have urged the prospective prime minister Andy Burnham to rule out the “tin-eared” and “deluded” development of the Rosebank oilfield in the North Sea, which new research indicates would produce as much carbon dioxide as the UK does in 10 months.

Estimates seen by the Guardian show that Rosebank, which mainly contains oil, would produce about 250m tonnes of CO₂ over its lifetime. That is the equivalent of about 70% of the UK’s annual emissions.

Mexico face up to their most terrifying opponent: the ghost of World Cup game four

El Tri have made a habit of qualifying from the group stage and then falling at the first hurdle. They are hoping the memory of 1986 will help end the curse

In Mexico, the phrase ya merito (“almost there”) is closely linked to the country’s men’s football team.

In Mexican Spanish, it’s a colloquial, almost affectionate expression; a way of describing something that’s close enough to touch, but that can never quite be reached. Now the phrase seems to capture something more profound about Mexico’s national team – shorthand for El Tri’s habit of not exactly failing, but always just falling short.

Who did it best? USA 1994 versus World Cup 2026 – then and now

From the hairstyles to the stadia, the kits to the celebrations, we take a look at the changing face of the game.

Tap on the images below to fade between the visuals

It’s 32 years since Diego Maradona went berserk down the barrel of a TV camera after scoring for Argentina; since Bebeto rocked an imaginary baby to sleep; since Roberto Baggio blazed his spot-kick into orbit (the tournament’s second worst penalty after Diana Ross’s blooper during the opening ceremony); since Carlos Valderrama wowed the world with his luscious blonde afro.

The visuals from the World Cup in 1994 were rich and cinematic, but does the beautiful game look that different on its return to the United States? Has football lost its style and soul? Or will this year’s tournament live just as long in the memory as its predecessor?

Supergirl: doggy distress, frontier justice and a new direction for superhero movies – discuss with spoilers

Craig Gillespie’s far-out adventure is something of a quirky oddity compared to bigger blockbuster outings – so why is it failing to fly at the box office?

James Gunn’s Superman was the major make-or-break moment for DC’s latest cinematic reboot. And yet its follow-up may ultimately prove just as revealing, not least because it offers up a first real indication of the kind of universe Gunn intends to build once the novelty of the man of steel’s return has worn off. Will every chapter of the DCU be chained to the kind of world-saving spectacle we remember from the older Zack Snyder films? Or is there room for stranger, smaller stories to take place in the same shared reality?

With Supergirl, the answer appears to be yes. Craig Gillespie’s film heads in some unexpectedly far-out directions, makes one particularly bold change from its source material, Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s acclaimed comic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and quietly suggests that DC’s greatest strength may lie not just in trying to out-Marvel Marvel. Here’s the lowdown for those who’ve seen it – and don’t forget to let us know your thoughts in the comments on how this affects Gunn’s wider universe.

Ford recalls more than 741,000 vehicles due to faulty park system

Ford estimates that 1% of the vehicles have the defect, according to the recall notice.

UK ‘minded’ to intervene in Paramount’s $110bn takeover of Warner Bros Discovery

Lisa Nandy to ask regulators to assess mega-merger involving Channel 5, CNN and TNT Sports on grounds of media plurality and competition

The UK culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, intends to ask Britain’s media and competition watchdogs to examine Paramount’s $110bn (£85bn) acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery.

The WBD takeover deal will create a media powerhouse controlling assets ranging from: the Hollywood studios behind franchises including Superman, Batman and Top Gun; the UK’s Channel 5; the news channel CNN; TNT Sports, which broadcasts Champions League, Premier League and the Olympics; and the Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming services.

Recent alligator and crocodile attacks in Florida, Mexico raise safety concerns

There have been three alligator attacks in central Florida in a week, including an incident that killed a 31-year-old woman. Meanwhile in Mexico, a crocodile killed a 28-year-old tourist, authorities say. Cristian Benavides reports.

One million migrants in Spain apply to regularise status in new scheme

Programme offering a one-year residence and work permit attracts double expected number of applicants

More than 1 million undocumented migrants and asylum seekers have applied to regularise their status in Spain under a government programme to harness and defend the benefits of immigration at a time when most European countries are pulling up the drawbridge.

Although the massive regularisation initiative, announced by the socialist-led government in January, was originally intended to benefit about 500,000 people, it had attracted more than twice that number of applicants by the time the registration period ended on Tuesday.

Over half a million dollars stolen from ATMs in "jackpotting" scheme

Four men are accused of stealing more than half a million dollars from ATMs in Connecticut, in a "jackpotting scheme," authorities said.

CBS Chicago journalists attacked by 3 men near Adler Planetarium

One of the men then smashed our photographer's camera while the other smashed the windshield of our news truck.

Is heterosexuality hopeless? | Arwa Mahdawi

Some argue that it is now embarrassing, particularly for women. But the fatalism of Extremely Online discourse obscures the actual picture

As we wrap up pride month, I think the International Committee for Homosexual Advancement should give itself a pat on the back. Despite a challenging geopolitical environment, the gay agenda continues apace. Judging by recent headlines, heterosexuality has become somewhat embarrassing, particularly for women – a congenital condition you don’t really want to admit to in public and wish there was a cure for. But while there is no remedy for this modern malaise, there is a snazzy name for it: “heteropessimism”.

Asa Seresin is the scholar responsible for foisting this term (later amended to “heterofatalism”) on to the world. In a viral essay for the New Inquiry in 2019, Seresin explained it consists of “performative disaffiliations with heterosexuality … or hopelessness about straight experience”. That essay spawned a heteroload of thinkpieces and memes, a classic of the genre being a Vogue piece that asked: Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?. Even Zohran Mamdani weighed in on this very important question. For the record, he said no: “But if you’re worried that your boyfriend will embarrass you, you should probably get a new boyfriend.”

Classroom nap and a looming wildfire: photos of the day – Tuesday

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

Muskets in hand, historical re-enactors are in demand as US celebrates 250 years

‘Living historians’ have stepped back into the spotlight as US prepares to celebrate its semiquincentennial this week

In 1972, a young man named Joe Ryan was teaching his middle school class in northern Westchester about the American Revolutionary when one of his students posed a question.

“Mr Ryan, were our ancestors stupid?” he asked.

Food you can rely on for a decent picnic | Kitchen aide

Scotch eggs, fresh baguettes, arancini and tinned fish are all dependable dishes that won’t hamper a feast at the park or beach

What failsafe dishes can I take to a picnic? They’re so often disappointing.
Alice, by email
Ah, picnics … Idyllic in theory, tricky in execution. We’re really talking about food that’s structurally sound (and therefore travels well), can be eaten alone (or with salad) and is comfortable when left to sit around for a bit, which is why the humble scotch egg is such a strong contender. “I’d definitely bring a plastic container full of those,” says Luke Larsson, head chef and co-owner of Khao Bird in Soho, London, who, perhaps unsurprisingly, favours a Thai-style version. “Ours start with a soft-boiled egg wrapped in sai oua sausagemeat, which is a northern Thai sausage packed with turmeric, chilli, herbs and aromatics,” he says. That’s then coated in panko breadcrumbs and deep-fried. “Leave to cool slightly before packing them up, so they stay crisp,” Larsson adds, and pack some chilli jam or nam jim for dipping.

“I’m a big believer that picnic food should feel nostalgic,” Larsson says. “Unfussy things that you actually want to eat on the grass with a drink in hand.” Which brings us nicely to the jambon beurre, a sandwich that’s often demolished by Manon Lagrève, author of La Saison, after a family bike ride in France. “It’s always an occasion to make a delicious sandwich,” she says, so “get the best baguette you can, ham from the butcher’s, then I like to add comté and a few cornichons. And don’t forget the salted butter.” Rather than messing about with constructing barriers to stop any moisture from soaking into the bread, Lagrève recommends packing all the elements individually, popping them in a cool bag and constructing the sandwiches on arrival: “That enhances the picnic vibe too.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email [email protected]

A generational shift is transforming the US-Israel relationship | Kenneth Roth

The Iran war has accelerated the fraying of ties. An end to unconditional US support would force a reckoning with reality

A generational shift is under way in the relationship between the United States and Israel. Tensions were already palpable because of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu’s role in pushing Donald Trump to join a counterproductive war against Iran was the last straw.

Stopping unconditional US support for Israel would certainly be important for curbing US complicity in Israeli war crimes. It may also be the best thing for Israel if it is to have any hope of avoiding the dangerous dead end of relentless military escalation. And it is a prerequisite for Palestinians to have any prospect of escaping Israel’s endless occupation.

Kenneth Roth is a Guardian US columnist, visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, and former executive director of Human Rights Watch. He is the author of Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments

Maps show heat dome forecast to scorch major U.S. cities this week

A heat wave will blast much of the eastern U.S. this week, and forecasters say temperatures will feel even hotter because of the high humidity that's arriving with it.

SCOTUS to rule on birthright citizenship. And, U.S. murder rate nears new low

The Supreme Court is expected to make a long-awaited ruling on birthright citizenship today, on the high court's last day of its term. And, the U.S. murder rate approaches a record low.

Elon Musk promotes ‘anti-migrant’ Armie Hammer film with free download on X

Citizen Vigilante, which follows a businessman taking bloody revenge on immigrant criminals, was posted by the tech trillionaire in the wake of damning reviews

A German film starring Armie Hammer that was allegedly denied a certificate by the German ratings board for “inciting violence against immigrants” has secured worldwide distribution and an explosion in its viewing figures after a bizarre intervention by Elon Musk.

Citizen Vigilante, a thriller starring Hammer, and written and directed by Uwe Boll, was posted free on Musk’s account on X from Thursday to Sunday, resulting in a major boost to its marketing and commercial profile. The film was released in the US on 19 June by Quiver Distribution, which according to Variety, has now acquired worldwide rights. Musk also posted: “Citizen Vigilante 2 will be even better.”

Gravity is undefeated: Ja Morant’s spectacular fall back to Earth is complete

The guard was once touted as the future face of the NBA. Now, after off-court problems and injuries, he has been hustled out of the city that made him a star

When Ja Morant jumps into the air, he levitates past the natural apex of his arc, as if gravity decided to give him an extra half-second of respite. Men a foot taller or with 50 lbs more muscle don’t have as much spring as is packed in his 6ft 2in frame. He can end up almost fully horizontal when he dunks. He is hardly a one-dimensional player though: he sees the game in higher definition than his peers too, zipping passes to teammates a beat before his opponents process the situation. Morant is rarely the best player on the floor at a given moment, but he often seems to be having the most fun. His highlights invite smiles. What could be cooler than a little guy outperforming giants with craft? Imagine if, in the NBA finals, Jalen Brunson had dunked over Victor Wembanyama. Morant knows what that would feel like, because he’s done it.

The Memphis Grizzlies drafted Morant second overall in 2019. They watched him blossom into 2020 Rookie of the Year and a two-time All-Star as the franchise player on a semi-reliable playoff team. In 2022, he scored 47 points in a playoff win against the Golden State Warriors, the eventual champions that year. As a young star with such a particular style, Morant figured to reach even greater heights, on the Grizzlies and as one of the faces of the league.

Medicare will start covering obesity drugs for the first time. Here's what patients should know

The move could unlock millions of new patients for Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and expand access to medications that were previously out of reach for seniors.

David Squires on … World Cup penalty pain for Germany and the Netherlands

Our cartoonist on the latest knockout drama as Jonathan Tah does a Chris Waddle and Casemiro has a brat summer

• Buy David’s cartoons | Some of his favourite works

• And his latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

Trump's defense budget, depleted U.S. war machine, spark U.S. state battle for business and jobs

President Trump's huge defense budget request and a race to replenish weapons stocks while building hypersonic missiles lead to war between US states for jobs.

China is a clear winner from Trump’s war in Middle East, report concludes

Beijing, whose stockpiles and renewables industry allowed it to withstand energy shock, is now gaining from global solar and EV push

China has emerged as the sole winner in Asia from the strait of Hormuz crisis, according to a report published on Tuesday.

The report by the geopolitical consulting firm Asia Group concluded that China had weathered the storm of the global commodities crisis resulting from the closure of the Middle Eastern waterway, and also stood to gain from the economic and geopolitical trends sparked by the wider conflict.

Do you really, really love your job? Then you're not alone, according to surprising results from this survey

Those surveyed showed a 78.9% rate of workers who "reported feeling positive at the end of their shifts."

Plan to expand Africa Cup of Nations from 24 to 28 teams is rejected

• Executive committee member says it was ‘very bad idea’

• Caf says its aim is to make tournament world class

A plan to expand the Africa Cup of Nations from 24 to 28 teams has been rejected, the Guardian has learned.

The proposal had been made by the Confederation of African Football’s president, Patrice Motsepe, in February at a press conference in Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. Had it been agreed it would have been put in place for the 2028 tournament.

Did US drug agents allow lethal fentanyl to hit New Mexico’s streets?

Explosive AP story based on whistleblower testimony suggests agents ‘sat back and watched’ in hopes of securing larger drug-trafficking bust

Did the Drug Enforcement Agency break the law and gamble with public safety when it permitted large quantities of fentanyl pills to be trafficked in New Mexico in the hopes of getting a larger drug-trafficking bust?

That is the question at the heart of an explosive story published in the Associated Press, based on information provided by a former DEA agent turned whistleblower; the whistleblower filed a complaint in 2023 that claimed agents had allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills into Albuquerque – a city still reeling from the opioid crisis while many others across the country are seeing overdose rates decline.

UK watchdog plans to break Apple and Google’s ‘effective duopoly’ on mobile app stores

CMA says developers should be able to steer users away from app stores for payments to increase competition

• Business live – latest updates

The UK’s competition watchdog is challenging Apple and Google’s “effective duopoly” over mobile platforms by allowing developers to steer users away from their app stores to make purchases.

The Competition and Markets Authority argues that consumers and app owners are being let down by Apple and Google restrictions on spending money outside their app stores.

D.C.'s July 4th fireworks will have "TSA-style" security

This year's Fourth of July celebrations in D.C. — marking the nation's 250th birthday — will include hours of military flyovers and a massive fireworks display that could stretch late into the night.

Thai police investigate if Australian man charged over 17-year-old girl’s murder linked to other unsolved cases

Police say there are similarities but no evidence of links between Thunchanok Donhomla’s alleged murder and two other deaths in past two years in same region

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Thai police are investigating whether an Australian man charged with murdering a 17-year-old girl could be linked to two unsolved cases in the region.

Police colonel Anek Srathongyoo, a superintendent of Pattaya City police station, told the Guardian on Tuesday that although there was no evidence linking Simon Peter Carman to the cases in neighbouring regions, they were investigating the possibility given similarities between the cases.

Grand Theft Auto workers seek union recognition after mass firings

Exclusive: Staff at Rockstar Games hope move can be completed before release of GTA VI scheduled for November

The makers of Grand Theft Auto are attempting to gain official union recognition after mass sackings last year.

Video game designers and other employees at Rockstar Games are working with the IWGB Game Workers Union to try to secure unionisation before the release of GTA VI scheduled for November.

The original Moana: did a 1926 documentary give birth to a 21st century Disney blockbuster?

Long before the 2016 hit animation and its forthcoming live-action remake came a pioneering silent film that established a whole new genre

Next week sees the release of Moana, the live-action remake of the 2016 Disney animation smash – again starring Dwayne Johnson. But that was not the original Moana. That honour goes to a Moana released a full century ago: a glimpse of Polynesian life now largely forgotten but none the less offering some inspiration to the makers of today’s iteration.

“Someone at Disney picked the bones of the 1926 Moana to make their movie,” believes film historian Bruce Posner.

Police units deployed across South Africa before anti-immigration marches

Government fears repeat of anti-migrant violence in 2008 that led to looting and resulted in deaths of 62 people

South African authorities have deployed police units to towns and cities around the country before planned demonstrations against undocumented foreign nationals.

Security personnel were seen patrolling the central business district in Johannesburg, the economic capital, where many shopkeepers decided not to open on Tuesday. Trucks and other assets belonging to the South African National Defence Force were also present, according to local media reports.

It’s a love story – or is it? The surprising conflict and chaos in Taylor Swift’s songs about commitment

A pop superstar widely perceived as a romantic has in fact mostly written love songs troubled by strife, ghosts and delusion. Ahead of her wedding, we strip away the gossip to see what Swift-as-songwriter has spent 20 years telling us

When she was 19 and already had her second album under her belt, Taylor Swift made a point of telling a would-be beau he was all wrong for her: “I’m not your princess, this ain’t our fairytale … It’s too late for you and your white horse to catch me now,” she sang in her 2008 song White Horse. Then as now, Swift liked a happy ending: she had no qualms rewriting Romeo and Juliet to end with marriage in Love Story, or imagining stealing a boy from his no-good girlfriend in You Belong With Me, both from the same album as White Horse. She just didn’t want a guy to come and rescue her from the messiness of life, like a prince in an early Disney movie whose appearance signals marriage, a happily-ever-after and, effectively, the end of a young girl’s life.

This story has always been an easy one to reject; even Disney was poking fun at it as early as Sleeping Beauty. And like many women of her generation, Swift has had a complicated relationship with all that marriage implies, at least in how she’s written about it. When she met Travis Kelce, the man she is now set to marry, she was fresh from her 2022 album Midnights, in which she made it repeatedly clear she can and will ditch any man, even a perfectly nice one, who stands between her and her ambition. “He wanted a bride / I was making my own name,” she sang on Midnight Rain. In Bejeweled, the tone toward a neglectful “baby boy” is even sassier: “I miss you … but I miss sparkling.” No man is going to end the Taylor Swift story, because there are only two forces that can end the unfolding of that story. One is God; the other is Taylor Swift.

GOP Rep. Tom Kean set to return to Congress today after mysterious illness

The New Jersey congressman missed more than 140 votes since March 5 as those around him declined to give specifics about his medical issue.

‘Living laboratory’: Suffolk agroforestry farm seeks community ownership to survive

Wakelyns needs £1.2m to save its diverse organic crops and ‘micro’ enterprises including a bakery and honeybee hives

The aerial view of Wakelyns matches the experience of visiting it at ground level: in a region dominated by prairie fields of industrial agriculture, here lies a vivid green lung of land. Its sounds and sights in summer – the sleepy purr of the turtle dove, the vivid pink flash of a bullfinch – have vanished from most of the British countryside.

But Wakelyns is not a nature reserve – it is a thriving farm, a “living laboratory” for agroforestry and a hub for innovation and business. It is also under threat, and its owners must raise £1.2m to turn it into a charitable community benefit society.

The Invite review – Seth Rogen adds zest and bite to fruity dinner party comedy

Olivia Wilde directs and stars alongside Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton in bizarrely moving tale, with Rogen’s levity keeping the outrageous plot points in check

Here is a four-way sex comedy of embarrassment, as if JB Priestley had written a play about swinging. But as well as embarrassing, it is intriguing, amusing and, finally, somehow bizarrely moving.

Middle class married life is satirised in the personae of two couples having an excruciating dinner party. A failed musician and his wife, played by Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde (who also directs), extend the invitation of the title to their stylish neighbours, a therapist and ex-firefighter played by Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton. Rogen is first among equals in this cast, the ironic insider-outsider perpetually undercutting the situation’s proliferating absurdities with knowing gags or yelps of incredulous outrage, and deploying that unmistakable yuk-yuk-yuk laugh.

‘I was devastated’: the Nigerian with albinism deported under Trump’s asylum crackdown

Ladidi Shaibu’s two siblings both gained asylum before the Trump administration’s changes to immigration policy. But instead of being allowed to join them, she is being deported to Uganda

Growing up and living with albinism in rural Nigeria was tough for Ladidi Shaibu. She and her two siblings with the condition were shrouded in stigma and lived in constant fear of being mutilated or killed. Her sister was attacked twice and her brother was kidnapped as a child by people who wanted to sell his body parts.

Three years ago, Shaibu, 35, entered the US via the border with Mexico and registered as an asylum seeker. Her brother had already been granted asylum and her sister’s case was soon to be successful, too.

Grieving relatives still seeking answers as US normalises ‘drug boat’ strikes

Family of St Lucian fisher Ricky Joseph left suspended in raw grief, while media coverage of attacks is waning

It has been more than four months since Ricky Joseph left his home for the last time.

His partner, Lucille Charles, and their chidren were still asleep at home on the Caribbean island of St Lucia, when Joseph, 35, set out to sea early in the morning on 13 February to fish for tuna, ballyhoo and snapper.

After Trump's re-election, these U.S. scientists found jobs in the U.K.

More U.S. scientists are heading abroad. Three researchers explain why they decided to shift their research to universities in the U.K.

Celebrations and bottle-throwing on Dutch streets after dramatic Morocco win

The police were pelted with bottles in The Hague but there were hugs between sets of fans in Amsterdam after a tense last-32 tie

In the Netherlands the country’s World Cup last-32 tie against Morocco was always going to be about more than football. When the Atlas Lions dumped Ronald Koeman’s team out of the tournament in a penalty shooutout after an epic contest, joyous 6am celebrations were sparked among the Moroccan community in Amsterdam. In The Hague, on the other hand, the atmosphere turned grim.

Approximately 440,000 people of Moroccan descent live in the Netherlands, and approximately 440,000 of them were asked the same question before this game: “So who will you support, then?” It was mostly good-natured, and the former manager Ron Jans displayed genuine interest when putting the dilemma to his fellow pundit Ibrahim Afellay on Dutch national television. Afellay, capped 53 times for the Netherlands, expressed and explained his support for Morocco. In the real world, the most common reaction has been one of understanding, if not sympathy, regardless of which side someone picked.

Digital Realty falls 5% after taking $3.5 billion stake in Blackstone's Virginia data centers

Digital Realty fell in premarket trading Tuesday after it announced its buying a $3.5 billion stake in three data centers from asset manager Blackstone.

Wimbledon chiefs dispute players’ revenue claims as prize money row deepens

• All England CEO requests ‘financial information’ from players

• Resentment rising over stalling tactics in long-running dispute

The All England Club (AELTC) is questioning the players’ claim that they receive 22% of tournament revenues in prize money from the ATP and WTA tours as the row over their remuneration and welfare rumbles on.

Sally Bolton, the AELTC chief executive, said on Monday that it had requested “financial information” from the players shortly after they announced they had cancelled a planned protest in limiting media activity for the first week of Wimbledon.

Houseplant hacks: will a temperature drop make my orchid bloom?

Got a stick in a pot that you’re tempted to bin? All it needs is this little-known signal to flower again …

The problem
Most of us have bought an orchid, enjoyed its flowers, then been left with a couple of leaves and a bare spike. Many assume the show is over and bin it or leave it on the sill out of guilt, watering it occasionally while expecting nothing. There it sits, dormant, waiting for a signal most people never think to give.

The hack
Phalaenopsis orchids rebloom in response to a temperature drop. In their natural habitat, a cooler spell signals the change of season and triggers the plant to produce a new flower spike. Recreating that shift is the prompt most orchids are waiting for, and it’s simpler to do than you might think.

The summer trends hotlist … tomato ketchup’s got competition

From savoury pastries and chilled reds to cherry overload, discover what’s fresh and what’s become just a bit stale

Savoury millefeuilles (above)
Elegant savouries are all the rage on menus right now, for example, at Planque, which has a chanterelle and radicchio millefeuille with comte sauce. Think fancy deconstructed vol-au-vents with modern gastronomic flair.

Summer picks: what to plant, harvest and eat right now

Tomatoes, samphire and basil bloom in summer – as, of course, do the essential strawberries

Basil
The scent and flavour of summer: keep stems cut-end in shallow water, and out of the fridge. If you have a pot plant, stand it in a saucer and water from below in the morning as basil hates having wet feet overnight.

From card game to a tool of divination: the artistic history of tarot

A new exhibition follows the unlikely route of tarot cards all the way from 15th century Italy to its association with the occult now

Once the territory of bohemians such as Pamela Colman Smith – an intimate of William Butler Yeats whose art won the admiration of Alfred Stieglitz – and mystics such as Aleister Crowley (among other things, inventor of his own religion), the tarot has now gone mainstream. Searches for how to do tarot readings skyrocketed during the pandemic, and decks are proliferating at a dizzying pace – your local independent bookstore probably sells at least a dozen of them.

It’s never been easier to get a reading – or at least a quick card pull – and The Morgan Library & Museum’s new show, Tarot!, capitalizes on the practice’s increasing popularity to lure in the curious and knowledgeable alike. Tarot! starts by charting the cards’ evolution from Renaissance Italy up through the 21st century, then offers up the tarot-themed work of more than two dozen artists – among them Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo, as well as new art by celebrated British painter Chris Ofili.

This number helps explain why many Americans are down on the economy

American workers' share of the nation's income is at its lowest point in almost 80 years, as more of the economy's gains flow to corporations and investors.

Inside the coordinated strategy to radically reshape U.S. immigration

As the Supreme Court today weighs the Trump administration's effort to revoke birthright citizenship, NPR looks at what else the White House has done to curb illegal and legal migration.

Federal money for workforce training begins, but few programs qualify

July 1 marks the official opening of a program that allows federal dollars to go toward short-term workforce training programs. So far just 12 states have created road maps for colleges to apply.

Morning news brief

The U.S. and Iran will resume peace talks Tuesday, SCOTUS expected to make a decision on birthright citizenship, Colorado voters head to the polls.

Delhi plans to ban petrol rickshaws and scooters in effort to cut toxic fumes

Government hopes for 30% of city’s fleet to be electric by 2030, in move hailed as ‘gamechanger’ on air pollution

The unruly chaos of Delhi’s roads would be unrecognisable without the rickshaws and scooters that zip through India’s capital in their millions, emitting toxic fumes in their wake. But now, ambitious policies aim to give the city’s most recognisable vehicles an environmental makeover.

On Monday, Delhi’s government announced plans to eventually ban petrol scooters, motorbikes and autorickshaws in favour of those running on electricity, in an attempt to bring down dangerously high pollution levels in the city by the end of the decade.

‘I felt like Orpheus’: how the designer of Gears of War bounced back from studio closure by producing Hadestown

After suffering the schadenfreude of gamers online, the Tony-winning Broadway musical offered redemption to Cliff Bleszinski

‘It was utterly heartbreaking, to be honest, and it certainly didn’t help with my drinking. I’ll leave it at that.” Cliff Bleszinski is recalling the launch of LawBreakers, the arena first-person shooter he put out in 2017. It had been his first project as the CEO of his own studio, Boss Key Productions. Before that, he was the creative figurehead behind hugely successful sci-fi shooter series, Gears of War, when he was known to millions of gamers as CliffyB.

“I retired from Epic and all of it, and I missed making neat stuff,” he says. “And my agent at the time was needling me: ‘Come on, you want to get back in, have your own studio? Look at what [Hideo] Kojima’s doing.’ And I was like: ‘OK, if Kojima can do it, so can I.’ Such hubris, right?”

International Freak by M Syd Rosen review – the British Timothy Leary

Robin Farquharson was a prize-winning game theorist, anti-apartheid activist and countercultural chaos merchant

Even as an undergraduate, Robin Farquharson was famous for being erratic. He provoked anxiety and goodwill in equal measure. His aim in life, according to an anonymous writer in an Oxford student newspaper, was “to become a contradiction in terms. Since last October, he has been cutting friends in the street; sleeping alternate nights in mysterious George Street garrets and obscure collegiate crypts.” The profile described his soul as “dogged, indomitable” and “fierce, incompatible”. Maybe. Later to become a prize-winning game theorist often hailed as a genius, he died aged just 42 in a squat fire on April Fools’ Day 1973. The poet Aidan Andrew Dun called him an “outsider among outsiders … a luminous ruin of a man”. For anti-psychiatrist RD Laing, he was “very intelligent and totally out of his fucking mind”.

Farquharson once joked he had been born a member of the master race in South Africa. He wasn’t entirely wrong. His father had founded a distinguished law firm in Pretoria; high-up politicians would regularly come over for dinner. He attended elite private schools – future pupils included the novelist Wilbur Smith and Elon Musk – and got himself a pilot’s licence even before, barely 16, he entered university. Later at Oxford he studied PPE, befriended Bertrand Russell and Rupert Murdoch (a self-declared Marxist at the time), and shared digs with future chancellor of the exchequer Nigel Lawson. Intellectually he was regarded as high-wattage but, about to land a starry All Souls College fellowship, he wrecked his chances by phoning the college warden to tell him he had a message from God he needed to share.

Not a Pretty Picture review – Martha Coolidge’s recreation of her rape remains shockingly powerful

Fifty years after its release, Coolidge’s dramatisation of the key moments before and after her rape is still absolutely essential

Martha Coolidge’s overwhelmingly candid and courageous personal docudrama from 1976 is a pioneering study of rape made more powerful by the radical modes of scrutiny that she devised. Coolidge set out to dramatise the key moments leading up to and following the rape she survived a decade or so before, as a teen co-ed, by a fellow student. The rapist is shown driving her and a bunch of other students to a party in New York. He insists they stop off at a certain, dilapidated apartment on the way; this is where the crime happens, and it is made worse in the aftermath by bullying from malicious girls in a neighbouring dorm and the insidious misjudged condescension from the dean when he hears the rumours.

The film gives us these scenes, but also fly-on-the-wall sequences of the film-maker discussing the project with the actors, rehearsing and improvising. These latter scenes are at such length that you are invited to wonder if this is the main (fictional) event. The lead (Michele Manenti), playing “Martha”, is open about having been subjected to a similar date rape, and her dorm-mate, Anne, is played by Anne Mundstuk, Coolidge’s actual dorm-mate at the time. The rapist “Curly” is played by Jim Carrington, an actor who later gained prominence in 80s teen movies and as a screenwriter. Unconsciously, he makes the rape scene even more horrendous by speaking to the director on-camera in a later, separate instance about how he can see Curly’s point of view and how men are allegedly at the mercy of their own urges in the moment. After that unwatchably horrible scene, Carrington confesses to feeling such rage at his victim that he wanted to punch her in the face.

From developing photos in a toilet to a viral Messi shot: 40 years shooting the World Cup – video

From taking the photo that became the most-liked post on Instagram as of recording, to developing film in the stadium toilets, legendary World Cup photographer Shaun Botterill speaks with Guardian Australia's picture editor, Carly Earl, about how capturing the World Cup has changed throughout his 40-year career

Protein coffee? Brands cash in on functional beverage boom

"We're selling [almost] as much protein cold foam as we do flat whites," Starbuck's EMEA Manager of Beverage Development Sam Henderson told CNBC.

How DR Congo’s football team became a rare source of national unity

Historic run to the last 32 and a match against England have left proud fans back home dancing late into the night

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) had not been at a World Cup finals tournament for 52 years – but they are making up for lost time in North America. After a draw against Portugal, a narrow defeat by Colombia and a 3-1 victory against Uzbekistan – inspired by Yoane Wissa’s two goals – they have already made history by booking a place in the knockout phase. Now they face England.

“We deserve to play England,” Wissa said when the match-up had been confirmed. “We have worked hard for this. You know, it’s not easy in our country. There is war in eastern Congo. Every time we wear this shirt, we think about them.”

How I survived the record Paris heatwave while seven months pregnant

It feels as if we are being abandoned to our fate by those in power, with further extreme heat expected next week

In the summer of 2019, I had a “fun” idea for a piece. Paris was due to experience its hottest day in history, and I proposed travelling around the city trying out its various cooling-off strategies to see if they would help. Reader, it was not fun and they did not help.

Last week, Paris experienced its worst period of catastrophic heat on record, worse than that day in 2019, and worse than in 2003, when a sustained heatwave killed nearly 15,000 people. I now live in a neighbourhood in Seine-Saint-Denis, the poorest département in mainland France and one of the most exposed to extreme heat, and, to add to the complications, am seven months pregnant. So how did my week go this time?

Amid war in Ukraine, the fleeting moments of despair and salvation I witness are what truly tell the story | Charlotte Higgins

There are images that flicker in the mind before sleep: the loss, the resilience and then the strange mundanity of it all

What was it like? Is the question I am often asked when I return from working in Ukraine, where I have been travelling regularly since 2022. There’s an understanding implicit in the question that the answer will not – not quite – lie in the accumulation of reporting. For good reasons the reporter keeps her eyes steady and focused outward, collecting the essential information, conveying it as clearly and smoothly as possible. The reporter reins in and disciplines her subjectivity, while, ideally, recognising its existence and understanding its contours. The reporter knows that the facts of the matter are the thing.

At the same time, feelings and impressions cannot wholly be untangled from the facts. Feelings are inevitable, if you are functioning as a human in any sense at all. They are the tentacles of empathy that reach out in an attempt to understand people and situations. Feelings have an epistemic role – a part to play in acquiring knowledge. Nevertheless, they must be tidied into the background. Respect for your readers and your subjects demands it; the rituals and rules of journalism demand it.

Charlotte Higgins is the Guardian’s chief culture writer

Ukrainian Lessons by Charlotte Higgins (Cape, £22) will be published in August. To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

Ukrainian Lessons: Art in a time of war with Charlotte Higgins and guests
On Wednesday 30 September, join Charlotte Higgins and our panel of acclaimed Ukrainian writers to reflect on the profound connections between war, art and life. With Olia Hercules, Sasha Dovzhyk, Olesya Khromeychuk, and Shaun Walker. Book tickets here

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Queenie Is Working On It by Candice Carty-Williams review – a smart sequel to a breakout bestseller

Queenie’s ticking biological clock drives her chaotic misadventures in this sage and funny follow-up

A gynaecological examination is a good analogy for the kind of painful self-inspection at which Queenie Jenkins excels. The heroine of Candice Carty-Williams’s 2019 debut Queenie memorably begins that novel with a medical appointment for a mystery ailment that turns out to be a miscarriage. The sequel, Queenie Is Working on It, picks up the story eight years on, with the now 33-year-old Queenie back on the gurney, this time for a fertility checkup. “I didn’t realise they did condoms for anything other than … penises,” Queenie observes lamely as the unsmiling doctor sheaths a probe. Life has changed, but in many ways, Queenie has not.

Carty-Williams’s first novel about a stumbling Jamaican-British woman living in London, navigating romantic disaster and a mental health crisis, was a breakout bestseller. Reassuringly, her keen ear for female friendships – the deep affection, the stubborn solidarity, the ribald humour – endures, as does her understanding of how the particular experience of race suffuses the ordinary lives of Black women. These are the qualities that made Queenie feel unique and interesting in 2019. She remains so in 2026, but your patience for the new novel rather depends on your tolerance for her continued misadventures.

Oura Ring 5 review: a stunning generational leap for smart rings

Slimmer, longer lasting and much easier to live with, new Oura sets a very high new bar for health-tracking wearables

Oura’s new Ring 5 is a massive upgrade for smart rings, dramatically shrinking in size and weight to bring them right into line with standard wedding bands and other jewellery. It is finally a smart ring you can genuinely forget you’re wearing.

The Ring 5 is a straight replacement for the popular Ring 4 and costs from £399 (€399/$399/$A649), though it requires a £5.99 (€5.99/$5.99/A$9.99) a month subscription to access anything but basic daily metrics. An Oura is not a cheap proposition.

Why a surge in sexually transmitted infections in Europe should worry everybody | Peter Beyer

Drug-resistant bacteria are no longer confined to hospital settings but are spreading into communities in every country

Why should a surge in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Europe be a concern across Africa or for people who don’t consider themselves to be at risk? Because it points to a bigger problem: the ease with which drug-resistant infections are now spreading, and not just in hospitals but within the community too.

The speed and scale at which people travel and interact in our interconnected world is increasingly helping to drive this, allowing drug-resistant pathogens to move rapidly through populations and across the world – including between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where the burden is often greatest and surveillance more limited.

Six of the best long-distance European trails to walk in summer

From a less-crowded camino and the Slovenian Alps to a stunning river trail and Ireland’s remote Beara peninsula

Distance up to 74 miles
Duration 3-9 days

Executioner review – sleazy MP hams it up with sex worker in darkly comic blackmail thriller

Based on actor-director Peter Benedict’s own play this tiny-budget thriller has the feel of a stagey recording as the double-crosses pile up higher than an MP’s promises

The fictional shadow cabinet minister at the centre of this darkly comic blackmail thriller is offended when the male prostitute he has hired describes his reputation as “colourful”. Colourful MPs support bloodsports and wear bow ties, he says; he prefers the term “maverick”. It’s never said out loud, but clearly he sits on the right in political terms; you can tell from the sneer in his voice as he utters the word “proletariat”.

Executioner is adapted by Peter Benedict from his play Deadlock, with a staginess that feels a bit much for the screen. Benedict also co-directs and stars as the MP, called Robert Marlowe, giving a lip-smacking performance that makes Hannibal Lecter look like a character from kitchen sink realism. The entire film is set in the basement studio of Marlowe’s country pile, where he dabbles in pottery while listening to Gilbert and Sullivan (there’s even an echo of The Mikado in the plot).

Second Dan Sullivan can appear on Alaska Senate primary ballot, court rules

The Alaska Supreme Court ruled Monday that a man with the same name and party as Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan can challenge the sitting lawmaker in the state's Senate primary in August.

Explosion in Monaco injures 3, including Ukrainian tycoon

Monaco 's chief prosecutor said the suspect who placed an explosive device that injured three people, including a reported Ukrainian tycoon, acted alone and remains at large.

School smartphone bans seen as ‘punitive’ by young people, study says

Outright bans may have unintended negative consequences for young people, University College London report warns

School smartphone bans are “overly simplistic” and are not supported by young people who regard them as “punitive” rather than helpful, according to research by University College London.

The UCL report was published on Tuesday, the day after a statutory ban on smartphones in schools in England came into force, making individual schools and trusts legally responsible for being phone-free throughout the day.

‘Commanding heights of the economy’: the postwar blueprint that inspires Burnham

In the second of a series on nationalisation, we look at the lessons from Clement Attlee’s administration

• Will Andy Burnham ‘go big’ in expanding the role of the state?

A prime minister with ambitious plans for state ownership. Private companies that put profits before investment. A country struggling with onerous debts.

The UK in 2026 with a new prime minister weighing up how and what price public utilities can be nationalised? No, this was Clement Attlee’s government in 1945, committed to taking over the commanding heights of the economy at a time when the country was on its uppers.

‘I hadn’t seen people smiling until I arrived in the UK’: one man’s harrowing journey from Yemen to safety

After being arrested, beaten and targeted for conscription, Amal Sahel realised he needed to leave his country. But his journey to Europe was fraught with danger

When Amal Sahel* was 15, he and his friends found a long length of metal lying abandoned in the street. The boys thought immediately of its best use: a sword. Over the past year, they had grown used to seeing strange debris – what Sahel calls “interesting pieces of metal” – in their neighbourhood.

The debris had been left behind by repeated air raids on Sahel’s home city in Yemen: a previously quiet location in a country gradually collapsing into civil war.

6/29: CBS Evening News

High winds and temps continue to fuel major wildfire in Utah; JetBlue flight reports collision with drone while landing at JFK.

‘Am I losing this battle? Yes’: Martin Lewis on the online scams that steal his identity – and others’ life savings

Trusted by millions, the finance expert has seen his name and face used to mis-sell a string of fake investments. And yet, he says, it would be ‘very simple’ for the government to stop them

This month, an email from a consumer landed in Martin Lewis’s inbox. It was from an elderly woman with a disability who had been scammed when she invested in a scheme purportedly endorsed by Lewis – and lost her life savings. “THEY ARE BASTARDS!” Lewis wrote at the top of his social media post about it. Even though the personal finance expert is a veteran campaigner against fraud, he says he had “tears running down my face”. He still sounds upset. “I felt a mixture of frustration, anger and sadness.” Not only for the plight of the woman, but for the “constant, ongoing deluge of shit from the scammers”.

Lewis never advertises anything. To hammer home the point, his social media profile picture has the words “I don’t do ads” tattooed on his forehead. But still, people fall victim to deepfake videos and frauds that appear to show him offering investments. The scale of harm is great enough that MoneySavingExpert (MSE), the company Lewis founded in 2003 and sold in 2012 for up to £87m – he is now its executive chair – has someone full-time handling these cases.

Ireland is big tech’s lapdog – and that compromises its EU presidency | Johnny Ryan

The country is dependent on the global giants that call Dublin home. Irish ministers can’t be trusted to chair vital European digital sovereignty talks

On the face of it, Ireland behaves like a good European by being a staunch advocate of human rights and a beacon of progressivism on the western edge of the continent. But there is one vital area in which its record is less than perfect – one that should cause concern when the Irish government takes over the rotating six-month presidency of the EU on 1 July. The EU’s tech and AI rulebook will be renegotiated during the same period, but the Irish state and economy have been captured by big tech. Ireland is so compromised that as president of the Council of the EU, it should recuse itself from all tech and digital sovereignty negotiations.

The last time Ireland held the EU presidency was in 2013, during negotiations on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). A leaked Facebook memo describes a 2013 meeting where the company’s executives met Ireland’s then prime minister to complain about the proposed data privacy rules. They left understanding they had Enda Kenny’s assurance that Ireland would use its “significant influence” as EU Council president to deliver what Facebook called a “positive outcome”. The executives also attended “a dinner hosted by senior Irish politicians to work through the various ways that the Irish could be helpful”.

Johnny Ryan is director of Enforce, a unit of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

‘There’s this deep mystery of what, actually, is this thing?’: the philosopher inside Google DeepMind AI

Since 2017, Iason Gabriel has worked at the tech giant, trying to anticipate – and think through – the impact of AI. But as commercial and geopolitical pressures escalate, can ethicists make any difference?

In 2017, a 33-year-old political philosopher named Iason Gabriel was told by a friend that he ought to apply for a job at DeepMind, the London-based subsidiary of Google where much of its AI research was concentrated. The suggestion was not an obvious one.

Gabriel was a cheerful but intense junior academic with a passion for Vipassana meditation and what his brother calls “enthusiastic” rock climbing. The eldest son of a Greek management professor and a British documentary maker, Gabriel split his time between teaching and international development work. At the University of Oxford, where he was a fellow at St John’s College, Gabriel taught courses on political theory and wrote papers on the moral contortions of “yuppie ethics” and the ethical blind spots of effective altruism. When he wasn’t there, he did crisis work for the United Nations Development Programme in Sudan and Lebanon.

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.

Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui gets 30 years in U.S. prison for fraud conviction

Guo said he came to the U.S. to destroy the Chinese Communist Party. But the judge said he instead diverted investor money to live lavishly.

A US champion of ‘freebirthing’ always claimed there had been no maternal deaths linked to the movement. Is Stacey Warnecke the first?

Guardian investigation exposes full links between a US business linked to baby deaths around the world and Australian ‘birth keeper’ Emily Lal, the central witness at the inquest into the death of a Melbourne wellness influencer

• How a Melbourne woman’s death is shining light on the dangers of non-medical births – Full Story podcast

• Find more from The birth keepers series here

During her time at the helm of a multimillion-dollar organisation linked to baby deaths around the world, Emilee Saldaya has always avowed one thing: she’s never heard of a woman dying after a freebirth.

“I’ve never heard of a mother dying in childbirth in the sovereign birth world,” the Free Birth Society founder said in a December 2024 appearance on The Way Forward podcast, adding: “In the sovereign birth world we aren’t losing mothers.”

High winds and temps continue to fuel major wildfire in Utah

Wildfires in the American West turned deadly over the weekend, killing three elite federal firefighters. Thousands of others are deploying in response to nearly 100 fires, the largest one in Utah, where the governor says the Cottonwood Fire could be the most destructive in that state's history. Jonah Kaplan reports and Rob Marciano has a look at the forecast.

Group running American flag from coast to coast

A group called "Relay for America" is running with a single American flag from one end of the United States to the other in celebration of the country's 250th birthday. Tony Dokoupil has more.

String of alligator attacks may be related to hot weather

In recent days there have been three alligator attacks in central Florida and a deadly crocodile attack in Mexico. The victim in one case was just sitting on the beach. Cristian Benavides has more.

Supreme Court expands presidential firing power, overturning 90-year-old ruling

The Supreme Court overturned a 90-year-old decision that allowed Congress to shield members of certain independent agencies from being fired by the president at will.

What to know about the Supreme Court rulings on presidential firings

The Supreme Court handed down a round of major decisions Monday, including rulings on firings orderd by President Trump. Jan Crawford has more.

JetBlue flight reports collision with drone while landing at JFK

A JetBlue flight on final approach to New York's JFK Airport reported a mid-air collision with a drone. Senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave has more.

‘Humanity is a privilege’: Umar Khalid on his six years in an Indian jail without trial

Exclusive: Activist tells of his life as one of India’s most prominent political prisoners and his opposition to the government of Narendra Modi

Prison is hardest at sunset. As the thousands of prisoners incarcerated in Delhi’s most infamous jail are cast out of their cells and forced into the dank yard until darkness falls, prisoner number 626714 feels the punishing dread begin to rise.

Yet the inmate – better known as Umar Khalid – was recently moved to discover that another political prisoner, exiled at a camp thousands of miles from India, wrote of the very same feeling more than 150 years ago.

Waymo and Uber end robotaxi pilot in Phoenix

The Waymo self-driving cars deployed in Phoenix for the Uber pilot will remain in use and make autonomous deliveries with DoorDash.

CBS News poll on America at 250 — its successes and its challenges

A big majority say the nation has succeeded in achieving its founding ideals, at least a fair amount, if not a great deal. But Americans also see a nation facing challenges today, according to CBS News' most recent poll.

Carl Rinsch sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for defrauding Netflix

According to prosecutors and testimony, Carl Rinsch told Netflix he needed $11 million to finish a show, but spent whopping sums on luxury cars, watches and other goods, including $638,000 on two mattresses.

Industry lobbyists push House committee to block a ban on Pentagon defense contractors buying back their own stock

Defense companies and their trade groups are pressing Congress not to require that the Pentagon approve stock buybacks.

No God But Us by Bobuq Sayed review – a buzzy and political queer love story

Two gay Afghan men find each other in Istanbul, in a much-hyped debut that fails to sustain the killer energy of its opening act

Everyone in No God But Us is performing. Families perform respectability; lovers perform fidelity; NGOs perform goodness; autocrats perform power. The drag queens in Bobuq Sayed’s anticipated debut novel are the most honest performers of the lot. They’re the only ones who admit they’re in costume.

Delbar is the “door bitch” at a drag club in Washington DC. Fresh out of college and not yet out to his family, he has no idea who he is. He knows who he is expected to be: the well-buttoned son of Afghan immigrants. He also knows who he might become under the spotlight; his drag persona, Sharia Raw, is waiting in the wings.

Here's what to know about Medicare's new GLP-1 weight-loss drug program

For the first time, Medicare will cover GLP-1 drugs prescribed solely for weight loss for eligible beneficiaries at a $50 monthly copay.

Supreme Court lets presidents fire independent regulators, rules for Trump in FTC case

The ruling allowing President Donald Trump to fire FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter overturns a key precedent known as "Humphrey’s Executor."

6/29: The Takeout with Major Garrett

Takeaways from Monday's Supreme Court decisions; Trump says U.S. and Iran will hold talks Tuesday, Iranians say otherwise.

Comcast announces it will spin off NBCUniversal and Sky from cable business

Comcast said it will separate into two publicly traded companies through a tax-free spinoff of NBCUniversal and Sky.