Trump-backed candidate wins primary to face Jon Ossoff in Georgia midterms – US politics live

Republican primary runoff voters chose US representative Mike Collins to face Ossoff in November

Most Americans believe civil liberties like the right to vote are under threat, according to a new AP-NORC poll, while also continuing to agree that the rights expressed in the nation’s founding documents are still core to American identity.

The survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most Americans across demographics believe the right to vote, the right to free speech and freedom of religion are integral to the country.

England v New Zealand: second men’s Test, day one – live

• Play starts at 11am (BST) at the Kia Oval

• Get in touch: email James about the game

There has of course been all sorts written about ‘the situation’ in the last week. Some good, some bad and some downright ludicrous.

I tried to articulate my own thoughts here. By way of Albert Camus. I know. La-di-dah.

There’s a funny bit at the end of the 2022 Ben Stokes documentary Phoenix From The Ashes where host and self-confessed cricket obsessive Sam Mendes quotes Albert Camus to a nonplussed Stokes.

After a confusing but good-natured knockabout on some tatty astroturf on the outfield, both men stand on the balcony of Stokes’ boyhood club, Cockermouth CC, as Mendes paraphrases the Nobel Prize-winning philosopher. Pre-empting the quote by explaining to Stokes that it is one that he himself has found meaningful in the context of a life spent writing and directing film and theatre.

The problem here isn’t so much that Stokes broke a curfew. It’s that to begin with, England’s management decided to set one. This Cinderella rule was brought in so they could be seen to be doing something after their own bad management during England’s winter tour, in particular their failed attempt to cover up that situation with Brook, and their decision to send the players away for four nights of rest and recuperation in Noosa, a place best known for its beach, bars, and craft beer scene. This England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) regime may be the first in history whose biggest failing seems to have been that they could organise a piss-up in a brewery.”

World Cup 2026: England kick off in Dallas after big-hitting trio make mark – live

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

It is Wednesday, so you can feast upon your weekly dose of The Knowledge.

Socceroos forward Awer Mabil on that viral video.

The reason why it went viral is because it was raw. It was not edited. It was just purely what the players wanted to say and all put together. It had an effect because individually Australians can feel and relate with it.”

Australia v Bangladesh: Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 – live

Updates from the Group 1 match at Headingley
Any thoughts? Email Megan

Ooh an email! Thanks to Dean Kinsella who wrote in to reiterate that we’re definitely following the superior World Cup.

“It’s a no-brainer to be following this world cup rather than the orange tinted one across the water. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the cricket thus far. I think the Aussies are going to be hard to beat judging by the way the Saffers were dispatched.”

Phoebe Litchfield suffered an acute quad injury while batting against South Africa. She is expected to miss Australia’s next three matches. This is a new injury.

Ashleigh Gardner is also unavailable for selection following an acute ankle inversion injury (sprain).

'Rejected': How federal prisons stonewall grievances and deny care for years

People who go to prison keep one important right — to file a grievance over their treatment: from abuse to denied medical care. But in the vast majority of cases, those efforts go nowhere, according to an analysis of federal data by The Marshall Project and NPR.

State of Origin 2026 Game 2 live: NSW Blues v Qld Maroons

• Updates from the game at the MCG in Melbourne

• Kick-off time is 8.05pm AEST | Email Jonathan

Tonight’s referee is Ashley Klein, but there have been calls the NRL should have found a replacement. Klein took centre stage in Origin I for his decision to send off Kalyn Ponga, and he has since been the subject of media stories due to his historic gambling activities. His performance will be scrutinised like no whistleblower before.

Laurie Daley is delighted to have Payne Haas back in his XIII: “the best front row in the game”, according to the NSW coach, and he’s relieved to be able to call upon the game management and kicking prowess of Mitchell Moses.

Middle East crisis live: leaders at G7 issue joint statement calling for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Lebanon to secure US-Iran deal

Israel’s continued military operation in southern Lebanon puts at risk the agreement reached between Iran and the US on Sunday

• Full report: Iran says peace deal dependent on Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon

• Analysis: Where does Iran deal leave US-Israel relationship?

Meanwhile, Nato secretary general Mark Rutte hailed the US-Iran deal to end the Middle East war, saying the planned reopening of the strait of Hormuz would be a “massive step forward”.

“I know that many allies, through the initiative led by France and the United Kingdom, are ready to support,” Rutte told a press conference in Brussels.

We welcome the announcement of a deal between the United States and Iran, secured under the strong leadership of President Trump, with the support of mediating countries, which provides an historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon and tackling the threats related to its regional and ballistic activities. We support and are ready to contribute to its implementation.”

Mark Rutte says Nato needs ‘more forces, more resources’ ahead of defence ministers meeting– Europe live

The secretary general said the bloc continues to ‘face a dynamic security environment’

Rutte says the adjustment in the US pledge to the Nato Force Model is “not primarily about where forces and assets are currently, but about who would do what if our defence plans were activated.”

He says historically the model was “overly reliant” on the US.

“You will likely have seen news adjusting its contributions to the Nato force model. In some cases, this has been cast as a problem, as the US pulling away from its allies, but that is not the reality. The US has made clear that it is committed to Nato.

That commitment comes with an expectation that allies will more fairly share the responsibility for our security here in Europe.”

‘Addiction is proof there is a devil. Recovery is proof there is a God’: Irish rockers Bleech 9:3 on struggle, sobriety and their stunning debut

After two friends sponsored each other in Alcoholics Anonymous, they started making music. As they gear up for a summer of 40 festivals, the band tell their harrowing yet uplifting story

On stage in a Camden pub, Barry Quinlan, frontman of Irish rockers Bleech 9:3, shares the intensity of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis. He hunches and jerks around the mic stand and his eyes bore a hole in the back wall as jubilant teenagers expand and contract in a circle pit. The gig in mid-May has the same I-was-there energy as early Arctic Monkeys or Fontaines DC shows; with major labels signing Bleech 9:3 on both sides of the Atlantic, dozens of festival dates this summer and a wildly impressive, impassioned five-song debut EP, the band will soon be playing much bigger rooms than this.

But when I meet Barry and his three bandmates earlier on that day, there’s none of that twitchy energy. Bleech 9:3 bring calm to a meeting room in their management company’s offices as staff bustle around outside. That stillness is hard-earned: Barry and guitarist Sam Duffy are each other’s sponsor for Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Quinlan smiles: “It’s an anonymous programme, so we’ll say ‘alleged sponsor’.”

Keir Starmer says he wants to offer Burnham ‘big role’ in government to avoid leadership contest – UK politics live

Former health secretary Wes Streeting also threatened to launch a leadership contest if the prime minister did not set out a timetable to step down

Earlier this year the Commons education committee said the government should issue a formal apology to victims of official policy in England in the mid-20th century to require some women to give up children for adoption.

Jessica Murray reported at the time:

Between 1949 and 1976, an estimated 185,000 babies were taken from unmarried mothers and placed for adoption in England and Wales owing to a culture of shame surrounding pregnancy outside marriage. Religious organisations ran most of the mother and baby homes where pregnant women were sent to give birth, while charities and local authorities were also involved in funding the placements and finding adoptive parents.

This government will very soon be making a full apology on behalf of the state to all of those affected by historic forced adoption in England.

The prime minister will have more to say on this shameful period in our history, reflecting the gravity of what has happened.

Vietnam police rescue hundreds of cats stolen for meat by animal crime ring

Major operation launched after spate of pet thefts in Ho Chi Minh City, according to local media

Police in Vietnam have rescued more than 400 cats in a major bust of a cat meat crime ring in Ho Chi Minh City, according to animal welfare groups and local media reports.

More than 40 cats were reunited with their owners after the multiday operation last week, but several dozen of those rescued have died due to the harsh conditions that they were found in, the groups said.

SpaceX gains 3% after surpassing Amazon in market cap

The space and AI company's stock has surged since its blockbuster IPO on Friday.

Fashion goes pop! How Yves Saint Laurent created photography magic – in pictures

Yves Saint Laurent saw the power of photography to push boundaries and take risks that had an impact in the fashion world and beyond. The new exhibition Yves Saint Laurent and Photography, at New York’s International Center of Photography, includes nearly 300 iconic photographs and archival objects with images by artists including Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Irving Penn, Andy Warhol and others. Pairing photographs with contact sheets, campaign materials, magazines and personal images, the exhibit shows the vital role images played in legacy of the Yves Saint Laurent brand

Seven-year-old Abdiqadir was hit in a US airstrike. Without a $750 operation, he may lose his ability to walk

Abdiqadir Salah was pierced by shrapnel in a bombing that killed 12 in Somalia. But as the US denies civilians were hurt they face no hope of compensation

Read more: Killed walking home from school: why did Somali children become targets of US drone strikes?

A seven-year-old boy who was riddled with shrapnel during a deadly US airstrike in Somalia faces losing his ability to walk unless he has a £750 emergency operation.

But Abdiqadir Salah’s family cannot afford the surgery and the US – which refuses to admit that any civilians were killed or injured during its attack six months ago – appears unwilling to pay compensation to those affected by airstrikes in Somalia.

Want to start a business? AI can help, business owners say

AI is slashing the cost of starting and running a business. "Everything has decreased in cost and increased in speed," one entrepreneur said.

'Coreano Hermano': Ahead of Mexico vs. South Korea, it's all love between the fans

It's an unusual sight before a World Cup match: Supporters of opposing teams partying together, calling each other "brother," some even hoping for a draw. But fans say they're far from rivals.

With Iran deal, Trump told ships to 'start your engines.' That's not happening yet

Iran's control of the Strait of Hormuz inflicted global pain during the months-long conflict with the U.S. and Israel. A tentative deal is in place, but questions remain about the key waterway.

Morning news brief

As JD Vance heads to Switzerland to sign initial agreement between U.S. and Iran, the terms remain largely unknown, Trump wraps G7 summit, a look at the results from Tuesday's primaries.

Kyiv’s Pechersk Lavra monastery before Russia’s attack – in pictures

The Dormition Cathedral in Kyiv’s Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, a Unesco world heritage site, suffered fire damage after a massive Russian air raid on ⁠the Ukrainian ⁠capital in which at least four people were killed

Dramatic rescue efforts after fiery small plane crash in Texas kills 1

A business jet with six on board crashed on a Laredo, Texas, highway and caught fire, killing one person and causing chaos as passersby frantically tried to save those inside.

Jeremy Clarkson shares ‘aggressive’ prostate cancer diagnosis

Presenter warns viewers of ‘sombre news’ before release of Clarkson’s Farm episodes, shot last year, in which he goes for operation

Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he was diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer last summer and had an operation to remove 10% of his prostate, eight months after he underwent heart surgery for blocked coronary arteries.

In the final two episodes of the fifth series of his Prime Video documentary, Clarkson’s Farm, the 66-year-old presenter told his farm manager, Kaleb Cooper, and his land agent, Charlie Ireland: “I’ve got cancer.”

Messi’s record, Mbappé’s magic and Haaland’s big splash | World Cup Daily

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Ben Fisher, Lars Sivertsen and Philippe Auclair as Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi all hit their stride in style

Russian warship incident in Channel deeply concerning, says Starmer

PM says firing of warning shots at yacht was reckless and UK is dealing with proxy attacks from Russia ‘every day’

Warning shots fired by a Russian warship sailing across the Channel on Tuesday morning were “deeply concerning and reckless”, Keir Starmer said from the G7 summit on Wednesday as he warned that the UK was dealing with proxy attacks from Russia “every single day”.

The prime minister said the Ministry of Defence had assessed that the Russian vessel was drifting and fired the shots within a few hundred metres of a British pleasure yacht.

Campaigner threatened with prosecution by Environment Agency after waterway cleanup

Paul Powlesland told he acted illegally after organising volunteers to remove litter, weed and silt from River Roding

A river campaigner who organised a cleanup of his local waterway is being threatened with prosecution by the Environment Agency for acting illegally.

Paul Powlesland, a lawyer and environmental campaigner, organised a team of volunteers to tackle the removal of litter, weed and silt from a section of the River Roding, after repeatedly asking the agency to act.

Collapse by Édouard Louis review – coming to terms with a brother’s death

In the latest autofictional instalment of his family saga, the French writer makes sense of his sibling’s violent homophobia and short life

At 33, the French writer Édouard Louis has already seen all seven of his slim novels translated into English. In his breakout debut, The End of Eddy (2017), and again in Change (2024), he wrote about being the promising child of a poor family, the bullied gay son who became a bestselling author. Several of his other books have offered sympathetic sociological portraits of his parents: a father destroyed by physical labour, a victim of French healthcare and housing subsidy cutbacks, and a mother who, after raising numerous children in poverty, fled first Louis’s father and then, in Monique Escapes, published earlier this year, his abusive successor. Now, in Collapse, translated by novelist Tash Aw, Louis describes his eldest brother’s death, at 38, from complications relating to alcoholism.

“I felt nothing at the announcement of the death of my brother,” he begins; “not sadness or despair or joy or pleasure.” The reasons for his coldness soon become clear. His brother was violently homophobic. His drinking at one point prevented Louis from sleeping ahead of a crucial exam. After The End of Eddy came out, his brother went looking for him with a baseball bat. So when Louis talks with his mother and sister about how to pay for his brother’s funeral and admits, “yes, I would have let him be buried like a dog”, we understand why.

UK social media ban ‘likely to cause £1.3bn drop’ in digital advertising spend

TV streamers and family shows set to benefit as brands cease marketing to teenagers on sites such as YouTube

• Analysis: impact of social media ban in UK hinges on how firm it is

Brands are expected to cut more than £1bn of digital advertising spending due to the UK’s ban on social media for under-16s, with streaming services tipped to benefit as advertisers try to reach large audiences of teenagers.

The ban, due to come into force early next year, will leave UK advertisers scrambling to reassess marketing plans as millions of under-16s effectively disappear as a demographic that can be marketed to on platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube.

Potential first Atlantic tropical cyclone of the year developing in the Gulf

Forecasters say the potential first tropical cyclone of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season could develop into a fully formed storm on Wednesday and bring life-threatening flash flooding.

I Will Find You review – seen one maddeningly watchable Harlen Coben adaptation? You’ve seen them all

Severance’s Britt Lower stars in Netflix’s latest lot of cobblers. It’s an eight-part saga of fists and mumbling, with a script made from Play-Doh

A lever groans, a pipe judders and thunk; another length of premium-grade bunkum is extruded from the Harlan Coben Industrial Adaptation Complex™. This particular emission – an eight-part assemblage of fists and mumbling entitled I Will Find You – is the 13th of Coben’s novels to have been processed by Netflix as part of a 14-book deal. Which means – the pulse quickens – there is now just one more to go. On Netflix, at least. The author’s ongoing deal with Amazon suggests we could be trapped in an ever-spiralling cycle of preposterous thrillers for eternity. May God have mercy on our souls.

Helpfully, Netflix has titled its cluster of adaptations “The Harlan Coben Collection”, which makes them sound like the type of ceramic figurines advertised at the back of Sunday supplements: Regency belles, say, or dogs dressed as fictional detectives. Stun your family by collecting them all! Alternatively, watch just one – any one – of these adaptations and relax in the knowledge that you have now in effect seen them all, and thus need never again subject yourself to the sight of hitherto respectable actors remaining straight-faced while delivering lines of the “The past never changes. Until one day it does” genus.

Students could be required to pass GCSE English to access university loans

Exclusive: Ministers consider national threshold in England that could in effect bar thousands from studying

University students would face minimum grade requirements to qualify for student loans in England under proposals that could in effect bar thousands of young people from higher education.

Under one proposal being discussed by ministers, a pass in GCSE English would become the national threshold for students to access government-backed tuition and maintenance loans through the Student Loans Company.

I came out as a Christian at work – and this is what happened next | Matthew Hall

I thought I’d be dismissed as bigoted or odd. But instead it prompted warm and curious conversations

Britain may be peppered with beautiful churches and Christianity retains its status as the state religion, but in my business, TV drama and publishing, there is a definite queasiness around the faith on which much of our national culture is built.

It’s not the kind of overt hostility with which other faiths are met. It’s more of a suspicion: a not wholly unjustified sense that the church is so tainted with the sins and oppressions of the past that there’s no excuse for a rational mind to have freely taken a regressive turn.

Matthew Hall is a screenwriter and novelist. He is the author of Totem

Pauline Hanson says Australia ‘must be monocultural’ in National Press Club speech

One Nation leader denounces high immigration levels, Islam, transgender rights, the ABC and the Guardian in inflammatory address

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Pauline Hanson has declared Australia cannot be multicultural and must exist as a “monocultural society”, warning high migration had caused the country to lose its identity and national values.

In an inflammatory address to the National Press Club in Canberra, the One Nation leader pledged to axe SBS and overhaul the ABC if she wins the next federal election, including imposing a licence fee for metropolitan households to watch the public broadcaster. Regional services would be protected.

Marko Arnautovic adds gloss to scoreline as Austria see off World Cup debutants Jordan

Austria celebrated their long-awaited return to the World Cup with a 3-1 win over determined ⁠debutants Jordan, with substitute Marko Arnautovic the difference in a gritty, end-to-end Group J match.

On a brisk night in the San Francisco Bay Area, ⁠Austria went ahead with ⁠a 21st minute ​thunderbolt from Romano Schmid before Jordan fought back after the break through Ali Olwan’s exquisite strike in off the post.

Silent carnivals, kabaddi players and home videos: Jarman award shortlist announced

Only four artist film-makers have been selected by the jury this year, for bringing their ‘deeply grounded lived experience’ to stories of migration, family and disaster

Whether taking inspiration from an 18th-century portrait or a radical 1960s radio documentary, the nominees for this year’s Film London Jarman awards have looked to the past in order to create visions of the future.

The shortlist for the £10,000 prize, which recognises British artists making groundbreaking work with moving images, has been streamlined to just four artists for the 2026 edition: Sadia Pineda Hameed, Ilona Sagar, Rhea Storr and Alia Syed. Yet the subjects tackled by these artist film-makers are as wide as ever, encompassing carnival ritual, asbestos poisoning and the traditional South Asian sport kabaddi.

Cycling in the tracks of Britain’s camping pioneers from Oxford to Surrey

Britain’s Camping and Caravanning Club started as a cycle camping club 125 years ago. I cycle from its birthplace to one of its oldest campsites to see if its free-wheeling spirit survives

Skylarks call out a cascading trill as I pedal between the pink and white hawthorn blossoms that make my path look like a May Day parade. I’m on the outskirts of Oxford, a city I thought I knew well, yet as I follow the National Cycle Route 57 on the e-bike I’d picked up in Jericho, it feels as though I’ve discovered a secret passageway.

This year the Camping and Caravanning Club (CCC) turns 125 – and I’m celebrating with a 60-mile cycling and camping trip, leaving from the city where the organisation was born and heading to Walton-on-Thames to stay at one of the oldest campsites in the CCC network.

‘I don’t like being stuck in an office’: the young people helping plant a ring of trees around London

London Tree Ring project aims to create corridors of plant and animal life around the city to strengthen its biodiversity

Harry Ewing is heaping branches and foliage from the forest floor on to a dead hedge, reinforcing the protective circle around his newly planted trees in Hadley Wood, north London. He is in a glade created by a fallen oak that was previously overrun with thick bramble.

“I feel very happy – the trees are growing already. It’s really nice seeing it when it starts,” says Ewing.

‘It’s stronger than a drug!’ Transcendent portraits from Montreux jazz festival – in pictures

From Quincy Jones to Sam Smith, Raye to Santana, Anoush Abrar has been taking mesmerising photographs of the festival’s stars for years

What happened on a historic night for Argentina? ‘Messi things’ | Pablo Iglesias Maurer

A hat-trick against Algeria equalled Miroslav Klose’s World Cup scoring record, but Messi and his teammates insist the mark doesn’t matter to him

• World Cup newsletter | Daily podcast | Download the app

Long after the dust had settled on Argentina’s 3-0 group-stage victory over Algeria on Tuesday night, Algeria and Bayern Munich midfielder Ibrahim Maza wearily emerged from behind a curtain and stepped up to the microphone.

Maza had played well, even assisting on Algeria’s disallowed first goal. He’d also had a front row seat to a Lionel Messi masterclass, just a few yards away from Argentina’s captain when he scored his third goal of the evening and tied Miroslav Klose as the World Cup’s all-time leading goalscorer. In short order, he was asked to expand on what made Messi unplayable on Tuesday evening.

A moment that changed me: A WhatsApp message about a little-known sport made me an unlikely celebrity in Japan

I’d always wanted to represent my country at something, so when I learned about Mölkky, I got a team together

It was December 2023 and I was searching in the attic for Christmas decorations when my phone pinged. I pulled it out of my pocket and found a WhatsApp message from my son who was backpacking in Australia. The message read, simply: “You might want to take a look at this” – it was accompanied by a short video clip.

The footage was grainy – it was night-time somewhere in Queensland and the streetlights weren’t the brightest – but I could make out Louis and his travel companion Asher throwing what looked like a rolling pin at a collection of numbered wooden skittles.

BBC presenter Ashley Cain called women ‘slags’, ‘sluts’ and ‘bitches’

Exclusive: Cain has been lauded by corporation for his appeal to young men despite history of abusive and misogynistic remarks

• Warning: this article contains sexually explicit, offensive language

A BBC presenter lauded by the corporation for his appeal to young male audiences has a history of making abusive and misogynistic remarks about women, whom he has variously called “slags”, “sluts”, “psychos” and “bitches”, the Guardian can reveal.

Ashley Cain is the presenter of the BBC Three documentary series Ashley Cain: Into the Danger Zone, which was filmed on location earlier this year after the BBC commissioned a second series.

Fashion tycoon Bernard Arnault accused of stranglehold over French business press

Arnault’s addition of leading weekly to stable of publications raises concerns about media ownership in France

He is known as the “wolf in cashmere” – the owner of the world’s biggest luxury group whose brands including Louis Vuitton, Dior and Tiffany have made him one of the world’s richest people.

But Bernard Arnault, a close friend of Donald Trump, is under fire from journalists’ unions in France for buying up almost all the country’s business and economic press.

A lemony loaf, a stir-fry and a cheeseboard pickle: Ravinder Bhogal’s courgette recipes

Three ways with summer’s versatile vegetable: as a simple meal, a deliciously moist loaf and a South Asian achaar to spice up any cheese sandwich

Courgettes don’t have to be boring, thanks to their shapeshifting magic. Shave with a vegetable peeler, douse in olive oil and lemon juice and eat raw, or spiralise for noodles. Alternatively, grill until blackened, scoop out the creamy innards, and fold into tahini for a smoky dip. Courgettes are irresistible grated and turned into fritters, deep-fried or cut into thick rounds and roasted on a high heat so they caramelise, but don’t turn to mush. Finally, you can pickle them to enjoy their sunny flavour in the gloomier months.

Ghana to advance reparatory justice at first major gathering since landmark UN resolution

Heads of state and participants from more than 80 countries at three-day event in Accra to pursue actionable commitments to reconciliation and restitution

Ghana is hosting a conference to advance the continent’s push for reparatory justice after the adoption of the landmark United Nations (UN) resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.

Heads of state and government, ministers, civil society representatives, historians, researchers and legal experts representing more than 80 countries are converging in the capital, Accra, for the three-day event, billed Next Steps, which starts on Wednesday. It is the first major gathering on the issue since the resolution was adopted.

They were forced into marriage and abused. Now women facing exploitation in China have a glimmer of hope

Female activists are working in the shadows to find and support vulnerable women they fear are being failed by authorities

Last summer, Xiaocao, a softly spoken woman in her 40s, received a tip-off that in Lüliang, a small city in China’s Shanxi province, vulnerable women were being forced into marriages. Along with another volunteer, she wanted to investigate.

After leaving Beijing, the two volunteers travelled south for hours, on trains and in rental cars. A few villages turned out to be dead ends. But on the final day of their trip, the women stopped in a county where they’d heard about a woman with learning disabilities who was “married” to two brothers. Soon, they found her.

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.

The cold, hard truth: what you should actually store in the fridge – from red wine to nuts

Is chocolate better served chilled? Do bananas go mushy? And won’t someone think of the avocados? Here is the final word on the fridge or cupboard conflict

If every summer has a trending drink, then 2026 promises to be the season of the chilled red. In news that our European neighbours, who have long been doing this, will roll their eyes at, Britons have discovered the delights of a cold glass of red wine. No more serving at room temperature, or warming it by the fire (or radiator) as if you’re the host of a country house gathering: this year if your pinot noir isn’t in an ice bucket, consider it social death. The Times reports that gen Z drinkers are driving the trend, with Ocado finding that 56% had drunk chilled red wine, or wine served over ice, in summer compared with 35% of the wider population.

“We tend to serve wine way too warm in this country, and red wine particularly,” says the wine expert Tom Gilbey. “It accentuates the alcohol and makes it taste like soup. Actually almost every wine is better served slightly cooler than we normally drink it, and some red wines are beautiful when they’re really quite cool.” The optimum temperature is around 10C (50F). “So 20 minutes in the fridge, or 10 to 15 minutes in an ice bucket. You don’t want to serve any wine too, too cold, but it’s really refreshing.

Lives and incomes lost as Ebola takes toll on Bunia’s public-facing workers

A headteacher, a motorcycle taxi driver and a travel agent are among those who are counting the human and economic cost of the virus

Justin Keno watches more than 400 pupils stream through the Nelson Mandela school’s gate each morning, and wonders which of them might be carrying Ebola.

The institution’s principal has done everything he can to prevent the spread of the virus: installing hand-washing basins at the entrance, providing alcohol-based hand rub for parents, making pupils bring packed lunches instead of eating in the canteen, and banning food sellers from outside the gates.

Is it bad that Elon Musk has a trillion dollars? Yes, and here’s why | Ingrid Robeyns

Just as the ‘poverty line’ determines what’s required for basic living, we need a ‘wealth line’ to show when extreme wealth becomes harmful

It was bound to happen eventually: Elon Musk has become the planet’s first trillionaire. Until recently, economists who spoke about “trillions” were describing the GDP of the largest economies or the accumulated value of bequests on their way to the heirs of today’s billionaires. The term is not often used in daily conversation, let alone to describe the wealth of an individual.

But now we have entered a new phase of the oligarchic era. Previously, when we described the wealth of the world’s richest billionaires, it was understood as a few hundred billions. Three years ago, the value of Musk’s total assets was estimated to be about $250bn. The pace at which it has increased is mind-boggling – and so is what it represents.

Alleged ice-cream cartel in Japan investigated as sweltering summer looms

Six companies are suspected of colluding to use food inflation to raise the prices of their product

Authorities in Japan have raided six of the country’s largest ice-cream firms for allegedly colluding to raise the price of their products, provoking anger from frozen snack aficionados as they face a cruel summer ahead.

Officials from the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) on Tuesday carried out searches of the corporate headquarters of Akagi Nyugyo, Ezaki Glico, Lotte, Meiji, Morinaga Milk Industry and Morinaga & Co due to suspicions they had violated antimonopoly laws.

Trump-backed Barry Moore projected to win runoff in Alabama GOP Senate primary

Rep. Barry Moore won the Republican Senate runoff in Alabama on Tuesday night, CBS News projects, defeating political newcomer and U.S. Navy Seal Jared Hudson.

Messi dazzles to equal World Cup scoring record as Argentina breeze past Algeria

Those in attendance at Argentina’s opening match against Algeria could be forgiven, for a moment, for thinking they were at one of the great Argentinian cathedrals of football – La Bombonera, or maybe the national stadium, El Monumental. Kansas City Stadium, awash in the colors of the Albiceleste, roared with the sound of nearly 70,000 Argentine supporters serenading their team, and their hero, in rapturous song on Tuesday night.

They had plenty to sing about.

Trump-backed Rep. Mike Collins projected to win Georgia GOP Senate primary runoff

Rep. Mike Collins will face off against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November as Republicans look to Georgia to deliver a key GOP victory that could determine control of the Senate.

Suspect in custody after deadly shooting at Wilmington Hospital

A suspect was taken into custody in Philadelphia in connection with the shooting at Wilmington Hospital that left one person dead and another injured, police said.

Gout Gout flies home for third in rarely-contested 150m behind US great Noah Lyles

• Australian sprinter sets new national record of 14.96 in Ostrava

• Result an improvement on teenager’s Diamond League debut

Teenage sprint sensation Gout Gout has flown home to finish third behind his training mate and new 150m world record holder Noah Lyles at the Golden Spike track and field meet in Ostrava.

Paris Olympics gold medallist Lyles clocked 14.67 seconds in the rarely-contested distance, smashing the previous previous mark of 14.92 set by Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson earlier this year in Florida.

France looked a disjointed mess in their World Cup opener. Then came Mbappé | Leander Schaerlaeckens

The tournament favorites were far from their best in their first half against a strong Senegal side. Their star forward made sure things finished fine

• World Cup newsletter | Daily podcast | Download the app

After the whistle blew for half-time, Kylian Mbappé ran to the player tunnel at a good clip, followed by Ousmane Dembélé. Behind them, the rest of the French team were in no such hurry, sauntering off the pitch. The forward widely considered the best in the world – or at least the most famous in the Non-Ronaldo-and-Messi Division – and the reigning Ballon d’Or winner had much to discuss.

The scoreless first half Tuesday against a Senegal side who had organized and pressed cohesively and forged much the better chances, including a clipped post, was a disjointed mess for the 2018 World Cup champions and the 2022 runners-up. But having the world’s best corps of forwards means getting to comprehensively beat the (former) African champions 3-1 despite spending the first hour looking like your front four had never played together before. And possibly didn’t even know one another’s names.

Trump slams Israel, praises Iran at G7 summit

President Trump praised Iranian leaders while slamming his greatest ally in the Middle East, Israel, at the G7 summit on Tuesday. Nancy Cordes has more details.

Norway’s Erling Haaland punishes Iraq with double on World Cup debut

Surely nobody expected anything different. Erling Haaland’s arrival on the biggest football stage of all involved a match-defining performance. Kylian Mbappé had laid down a marker with two goals in France’s win over Senegal. Haaland responded in kind, courtesy of a first-half double of his own. The Manchester City striker’s quest for the Golden Boot depends on Norway enjoying a decent run in the event. Their hopes for that extended stay are so hugely reliant on Haaland. Theirs is a powerful combination. The name on the back of the shirt is different for club versus country – Haaland becomes Braut Haaland – yet the output is identically ruthless. This is a 25-year-old you simply cannot take your eyes off. Iraq did that twice and suffered as a consequence.

Haaland used post-match media duties to contradict the sentiment of his international head coach. Ståle Solbakken had branded Haaland the finest goalscorer in the world on the eve of this game. Haaland pointed out his numbers had been bettered by Mbappé and Harry Kane during the 2025-26 season. He did, however, deliver a warning regards his level of intensity. “I think today you saw the same energy [as before],” Haaland said. “Of course we have to be happy but also stay calm.”

Boston embraces "Scottish invasion" for the World Cup

Forty thousand noisy tourists who drink your beer and clog your bars is normally not any city's idea of a good time, but Boston is loving it. The Scots have arrived to cheer on their first World Cup appearance of this millennium.

Prospective homeowners delaying purchases amid high prices, high mortgage rates

The cost of a typical starter home has never been higher. Cristian Benavides has more in "Affordability in America."

17 horses killed in barn fire at Saratoga Casino Hotel Harness Track

The casino said some 350 horses are usually housed in the area, but the fire was contained before it could spread and only affected the one barn.

Saratoga barn fire kills at least 17 racehorses

Just weeks before the start of the famed thoroughbred racing season in Saratoga, a fire tore through a barn there, killing at least 17 horses. Tom Hanson reports.

Rain brings dangerous flash flooding to multiple states

More than 40 million people across the Gulf Coast are preparing for record-breaking rainfall, with what's expected to be the first named storm of the season, Arthur, now approaching Texas. Jason Allen reports and Rob Marciano has the forecast.

Feds reveal new details of alleged plot to attack White House UFC event

The FBI said it disrupted an attempt to attack Sunday's UFC America 250 event at the White House, with court records detailing an alleged plot to use small drones carrying explosives.

Feds foil alleged plot to kill Trump, others at White House UFC fight

Federal prosecutors charged at least five people in connection with an alleged plot to kill the president and countless others at Sunday's UFC cage fight on the White House lawn. Ed O'Keefe reports.

Cracking stories, Gromit: Wallace’s long-suffering canine companion to tell all in memoir

After ‘bottling everything up for a long time’ the faithful pet, who has remained silent for many years, will spill the beans on the pair’s ‘pet hates and fur-vent passions’

Gromit, the canine star of the Wallace and Gromit animations, is “breaking his silence” and writing a memoir.

After “bottling everything up for a long time”, the moment has come for him to “spill the beans”, according to publisher Ebury.

DOJ assists Musk's xAI in NAACP air pollution suit, asks court to toss case

The DOJ is asking a Mississippi federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the NAACP against Elon Musk's xAI, now owned by SpaceX.

Anthropic's Fable shutdown is a big moment for open-source AI

Anthropic’s Fable shutdown could boost open-source AI, but many of the models gaining traction are Chinese.

6/16: CBS Evening News

FBI foils alleged murder plot at White House UFC fight; President Trump slams Israel, praises Iran at G7 summit.

Databricks sales growth tops 80%, but margin are shrinking from swarm of AI agents

Databricks is seeing higher growth as AI agents assist with data analysis, but all that activity is significantly increasing costs.

Trump trusts Fed Chair Kevin Warsh. It matters for more than interest rates

New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is expected to hold interest rates steady this week, but President Donald Trump’s trust gives him room to pursue longer-term changes.

Snap unveils $2,195 AR glasses as CEO Evan Spiegel bets on post-smartphone future

Snap is launching its first AR glasses geared toward the broader public instead of developers.

Jair Bolsonaro’s son sentenced to four years in jail for seeking US interference in father’s Brazil coup trial

Brazil supreme court finds that Eduardo Bolsonaro – who resides in the US - tried to get sanctions put on judges trying ex-president over coup plot

Brazil’s supreme court has sentenced Eduardo Bolsonaro to four years and two months in prison after finding him guilty of courting US ⁠interference in his father’s coup plot trial last year.

The office of Brazil’s ‌prosecutor general had ‌charged Eduardo Bolsonaro – who lives in the US - courting interference from the Trump administration to help Jair Bolsonaro’s case, by imposing sanctions on the court’s justices and tariffs on Brazilian goods.

How the fight over US datacenters is scrambling this state’s politics: ‘We don’t want it’

Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s governor, squares off with state lawmakers over the facilities powering an AI boom

A controversial haunted house near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, taps into its dark history every fall to scare tens of thousands of visitors. In 1968, a local news station documented appalling conditions for disabled people in the red brick buildings on the banks of Schuylkill River. Residents were found naked and emaciated at what was then known as the Pennhurst state school and hospital. The institution shut its doors permanently in 1987 after a lawsuit over inhumane conditions.

By 2010, a Halloween attraction stood in its place, and Pennhurst asylum’s previous owner suggested during its early years that he wanted to spook guests by repurposing the hospital’s surgical lights and medical cabinets to use as props.

6/16: The Takeout with Major Garrett

New details after FBI thwarts alleged terror plot; four states and the District of Columbia hold primaries.

Yum! Brands sells struggling Pizza Hut in $2.7 billion deal

The sale will split ownership of the pizza chain between a U.S.-based private equity firm and a Chinese restaurant company.

Hillary Clinton says Biden’s re-election bid cost Democrats the 2024 election

Former secretary of state says the winner of a genuine Democratic primary ‘would have beaten Donald Trump’

Joe Biden’s decision to seek a second term was “a terrible mistake” that cost Democrats the presidency and may have permanently damaged his legacy, Hillary Clinton has declared.

Speaking at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan on Monday, the former US secretary of state and 2016 Democratic nominee said Biden had reneged on a prior commitment to step aside – and that the betrayal of that promise proved catastrophic. “He made a terrible mistake for himself, his legacy, and for the country,” she said.

Fed Chair Warsh expected to withhold 'dot' from central bank's interest rate outlook

The central bank's Federal Open Market Committee is set to release its quarterly update of where individual officials expect interest rates to head.

Trump signals he could send details of Iran deal to Congress

The peace deal announced Sunday is meeting lukewarm reactions from Congress, including some allies of President Donald Trump.

Former NFL star Aldon Smith’s brain to be donated for CTE research after death at 36

• Player died suddenly after charity work on Saturday

• Off-field incidents, suspensions affected his career

• 49ers statement: ‘His smile lit up every room’

The family of former NFL star Aldon Smith is donating the player’s brain to the Boston University CTE Center to research the effects of repetitive brain injuries.

The 36-year-old died suddenly on Saturday, hours after delivering pizzas to a homeless charity in the San Francisco Bay area. No cause of death was given and Smith’s family has hired attorneys Harry Daniels, Bakari Sellers and Wayne Kendall to investigate his death.

The Guardian view on defending Europe in a new era: collaboration is the key | Editorial

The recent abandonment of plans for a Franco-German fighter jet sent a disastrous signal. Strategic autonomy will be jointly achieved or not at all

It has become a truism to assert that Europe needs to fast-track its own strategic independence in a volatile world. A recent paper from the European Council on Foreign Relations describes the continent’s leaders as grappling with “a ‘Schrödinger’s NATO’ moment, in which America remains formally inside the alliance while behaving as though it were not, just as the Russian threat looms larger”. Donald Trump’s United States has become at best an unreliable and at times reluctant ally, as Vladimir Putin’s revanchist ambitions have exposed the need to strengthen Europe’s defences.

But if the goal of greater autonomy is to be achieved, far better coordination of resources and cooperation between national defence industries will be required. Neither has been much in evidence this month, with France and Germany abandoning a joint £100bn project to build a new fighter jet as part of an updated Future Combat Air System. Originally launched by Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel in 2017, plans for the jet were pulled as a result of irresolvable disagreements between Dassault, the French aviation company involved, and Airbus, the European aerospace company whose defence unit is based in Germany.

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.

McIlroy fears ‘false economy’ created by LIV Golf could put PGA Tour events at risk

• McIlroy not a fan of planned two-tier system for events

• Fleetwood and Åberg drawn with world No 2 at US Open

Rory McIlroy believes the “false economy” created by the threat of LIV Golf may now be putting some well-established PGA Tour events at risk. The world No 2 and current Masters champion said he felt people had lost sight of how good the tour was before it too had a huge cash injection.

When the Saudi breakaway started luring away some of the top talent on multimillion-dollar contracts ­during the early years the PGA Tour’s response was to restructure, ­creating eight signature events each with smaller field and prize funds of $20m (£15m), plus generating a number of associated financial benefits.

Artist defends Churchill video at National Portrait Gallery after being accused of ‘barefaced lie’

Helen Cammock says her comments blaming wartime leader for Bengal famine were intended to create ‘dialogue’

A Turner prize-winning artist accused of telling a “barefaced lie” about Winston Churchill in a video piece installed at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) has defended her work, saying it was intended to create a “dialogue” about figures in the gallery’s collection.

Helen Cammock’s 40-minute moving image piece called Persistence has been at the centre of a row about the role Churchill played in the Bengal famine of 1943.

The Guardian view on the global baby bust: people are having fewer children – even where they say they want more | Editorial

Indian fertility has fallen below the rate required for population stability, in further evidence of the unexpectedly rapid decline in births internationally

The global fall in fertility rates has arrived faster and spread further than anticipated. Two-thirds of people now live in countries that have slipped below the replacement rate – 2.1 births per woman – required for a stable population. Last month, India revealed that its fertility rate had fallen to just 1.9. The world’s two most populous nations, which pursued cruel and coercive policies to cut births, both face shrinking populations. China’s fertility rate is now around 1, and births last year fell below 8 million – just over half the number projected when the “one child” policy was axed 10 years ago, and comparable to the total in 1738, when its population was 150 million.

It’s further proof that what was seen as a phenomenon of rich nations has spread far beyond them. East Asia led the way. But Albania and Chile have far lower rates than the US or England and Wales (themselves experiencing record lows of 1.6 and 1.4).

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.

Rebecca Hendin on the new US-Iran deal – cartoon

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Why do you always feel like you have to pee when swimming?

It doesn’t matter if you drink less or use the restroom beforehand. Experts say it happens to all swimmers

I’m midway into my hour-long swim when it hits: I really have to pee. This always happens. It doesn’t help to curb my morning coffee or use the restroom beforehand. My bladder doesn’t care.

Why does this happen? “It’s a normal physiological response by the body to being immersed in water,” says Dr Stavros Kavouras, assistant dean, professor of nutrition and director of the Hydration Science Lab at Arizona State University. And it’s not just me: “It’s something that happens to all swimmers.”

Toy Story 5 review – Pixar franchise needs new batteries

A sinister new tablet threatens the honest-to-goodness toys’ existence, but Buzz, Woody and Jessie’s big tech moral battle feels compromised

The fifth episode of the Toy Story franchise is as slick and smooth as you like, as glitchless as Toy Story 6 or Toy Story 7 might be … or will be. As a piece of family-entertainment content it has the unblemished sheen of a brand new smartphone. But at heart, it has gone dead. For all the intensive, high-energy creative work that has clearly gone into this film’s every frame, the jeopardy, the novelty, the ideas and the passion are lacking; the crucial Toy Story theme of mortality feels underpowered, and the film even calamitously loses its nerve with its own big idea – those squeamish about spoilers had better look away now – the sinister way addictive tech devices are undermining the imaginative play that kids once had with honest-to-goodness toys.

Here a creepy tablet device called Lilypad (voiced by Greta Lee) enters the children’s world, but ultimately proves to be capable of sentimental self-sacrificial heroism when it comes to their mental health. Really? At least Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear, the villain from TS3, had the courage of his evil convictions.

Carvana is expanding into new vehicles. The implications could reshape the U.S. automotive retail market

Carvana has bought seven new vehicle franchises since last year that primarily sell Stellantis' Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram brands.

What Jared and Ivanka want, Jared and Ivanka get? Not if Albania’s ‘flamingo revolution’ has any say in it | Arwa Mahdawi

Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets to block the Trump-Kushners’ plans to build on a nature reserve. But they’re not the only billionaires acting as if the whole world was for sale

Have the Albanians even said thank you once? It’s been moan, moan, moan for weeks now on the streets of Tirana just because Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner want to displace some flamingos and pave over a protected nature reserve to build a luxury resort. Judging by all the protests, the commoners simply do not understand what visionaries the Trump-Kushners are. Nor do they seem to understand Javanka were the ones who discovered Sazan island in the first place. It had just been sitting there, rotting in the sea, until our contemporary Christopher Columbuses spotted it from a yacht back in 2021 and swam to the island to explore. “We went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated,” Ivanka recounted on the David Senra podcast in May.

She really put her barefoot in her mouth with that one. Kushner’s Albanian real estate adventures are not new; the country’s government granted Atlantic Incubation Partners, an LLC linked to Kushner, “strategic investor” status in 2025 shortly after Donald Trump won the election. But while anger has been brewing for a while, Ivanka’s tone-deaf comments were the final straw. Her podcast interview has been credited with drawing international attention to the project, and supercharging local rage. Turns out people don’t appreciate it when a foreign nepo baby waxes lyrical about “discovering” your land. Nor are they thrilled when billionaires want to take over your country’s largest island, which is public property, for private profit.

Everything Game of Thrones did, HBO series Rome did better – including not fumbling the finale

The short-lived series had blood, guts, sex and epic stakes. It also had the ride-or-die friendship of a pair of foot soldiers

A sprawling cast of richly flawed heroes. Epic stakes. Elaborate sets. A family man hero whose definition of good is skewed by the cruel world he lives in. Animated opening titles with a catchy theme song. Blood, guts, sex and a bit of incest: everything Game of Thrones did, Rome did better.

Rome was one of the most expensive TV shows ever made when it launched in 2005; its two-season run was shot on a massive, immersive outdoor recreation of the ancient city in Italy’s Cinecittà studios, and spared no expense on costumes, props or fake blood. When it came out half a decade later, Game of Thrones would follow in Rome’s footsteps with its puzzle wheel of plotting across factions and alliances, shocking betrayals and Shakespearean dialogue punctuated with c-bombs.

US lawmakers fight Trump cuts to $386m ocean monitoring program: ‘supreme stupidity’

Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator, joins Democrats in bid to stop dismantling of Ocean Observatories Initiative

• US politics live – latest updates

A group of Democratic senators and one Republican, as well as two Democratic House committees, sent letters on Monday to the National Science Foundation asking it to reverse course on its plan to dismantle a sprawling ocean monitoring network, with House lawmakers going further and accusing the agency of acting illegally.

The Ocean Observatories Initiative is a network of more than 900 ocean sensors built at a cost of $386m. Over the last decade it has tracked ocean circulation, marine ecosystems, climate change and extreme weather, producing data freely available to the public and informing more than 500 scientific publications. The project was slated to run another 15 to 20 years.

People in Albania: share your thoughts on the recent ‘not for sale’ protests

We’d like to hear from Albanians about how they view the protests against a planned luxury resort

For the last two weeks, Albanians have been protesting against a planned luxury resort backed by a company linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump, near Vlora.

If it goes ahead, the development would occupy parts of an environmentally sensitive area which includes the uninhabited outcrop of Sazan and wetlands and coastal habitats in the surrounding marine national park – home to the Mediterranean monk seal and more than 200 bird species – including flamingos and Dalmatian pelicans, according to BirdLife International.

Yum Brands sells Pizza Hut to private equity firm LongRange Capital and Yum China for $2.7 billion

Yum Brands is selling Pizza Hut, capping off years of struggles for the pizza chain.

‘Don DeLillo gave me his blessing’: film director Ben Rivers on how fan mail from the Underworld author led to his latest work

When Rivers received a surprise letter from DeLillo, it encouraged him to set the author’s one-act play in an adult-free, postapocalyptic world

Nine-year-old girls reciting the gnomic prose of Don DeLillo – it sounds like an extreme English detention, but for film-maker Ben Rivers this was the foundation of his new movie, and the culmination of an unlikely friendship with the literary titan. DeLillo is an almost mythical figure of contemporary literature. His prose is precisely hewn, his narratives sophisticated and his preoccupations uncannily prophetic: conspiracy, terrorism, nuclear power, hypercapitalism – the 89-year-old New Yorker has been ahead of the curve for much of the late 20th and early 21st century. Rivers, a 53-year-old independent film-maker based in London, has been a lifelong fan, he says. So he was stunned to receive a letter from DeLillo himself one day in 2017.

A mutual friend had sent DeLillo a DVD of Rivers’ 2015 film The Sky Trembles and the Earth is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers, a hallucinatory parable set in a semi-abstract Morocco, and the writer responded with a hand-typed letter. “He thought that the film was really powerful and he was looking forward to watching it again,” says Rivers. “It was a beautiful thing to receive and very meaningful for me, being such a big admirer of his.” Rivers later sent DeLillo another of his films: 2019’s Krabi, 2562, co-directed with Anocha Suwichakornpong, “and he also wrote back about that, saying that he enjoyed it”.

"Star Wars" lightsaber and more iconic film props going up for auction

Luke Skywalker's lightsaber from the "Star Wars" sequel "The Empire Strikes Back" is expected to sell for at least $1 million at an upcoming auction.

Trump denies U.S. will put 'any money' into Iran, as he meets allies at G7 summit

Washington and Tehran announced a memorandum of understanding had been reached over the weekend.

From the pain of apartheid to luscious beauty: 10 of the best recordings by jazz legend Abdullah Ibrahim

The pianist and bandleader, who has died aged 91, had an inimitable style where bright, guileless melody met a fearless improvisational impulse

• South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim dies aged 91

Scullery Department (from Jazz Epistle Verse 1, 1960)

Born Adolph Johannes Brand in Cape Town in 1934, Abdullah Ibrahim spent his six-decade career defining the heartfelt sound of South African jazz. Making his professional debut as a pianist at 15 under the name Dollar Brand, it was his co-founding of the group the Jazz Epistles in 1959 that laid the groundwork for his journeying career. South Africa’s first Black jazz group, featuring trumpeter Hugh Masekela who would go on to become a star bandleader in his own right, the Jazz Epistles’ first and only album Jazz Epistle Verse 1 is a sprightly document of the South African take on bebop. Although album opener Dollar’s Moods is named for Ibrahim, it’s the record’s closing number Scullery Department that highlights his nascent skills. Heavy-swinging over a bluesy motif, Ibrahim’s playing artfully skips through an opening polyrhythm before taking a solo that refigures Thelonious Monk’s wonky melodic motifs into an earthy sense of groove that would go on to feature throughout his hundreds of recordings to come.

‘My hair extensions caught fire in a shootout!’ Dolph Lundgren on playing He-Man in Masters of the Universe

‘The studio wanted me to wear less. They wanted to see my muscles. But we were shooting outdoors in winter – and I had to put Vaseline on to keep my body heat in’

Cannon Films had the rights to Masters of the Universe and thought: “Let’s get this new guy. He’s blond, has good pecs … He can wield the sword.” I was convinced to do it but only very reluctantly – I didn’t want to play a toy. There was lots of excitement but also lots of worry. I’d been Soviet bad guy Ivan Drago in Rocky IV and now I was going to be this American hero. I was nervous and afraid people weren’t going to like it.

MLB critical of Giants players who wrote Bible verses on Pride Night caps

• Players deny their decision comes from place of hate

• MLB says writing on caps is a violation of league rules

Major League Baseball has issued a statement critical of players who wrote Bible verses on their Pride Night hats after an incident at a San Francisco Giants game last week.

MLB celebrates Pride month during June and most teams choose a home game to acknowledge the LGBTQ community and its baseball fans. The Giants, who are based in a city with a large LGBTQ population, often make an extra effort.

Trump turns his attention to Ukraine ahead of Iran deal: 'I’m going to do whatever I can’

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that "Russia should make a deal" to end its four-year war in Ukraine.

The secret to a great TV dinner | Kitchen aide

It’s all about ‘easy bowl food’, and grub you can shovel in on the sofa without having to cut anything up

What are the best summer TV dinners?
Mel, by email
Few are as committed to teas on knees as Ella Risbridger: “It appals my parents, but I eat on the sofa just about every day,” says the author of The Kitchen Book. The key, she says, is not having to cut anything up: “One-handed cooking is a good way of thinking about it,” which is to say that Mel should be looking for meals that require only a fork, a spoon or chopsticks. “That’s easier to do in winter, because then you’ve got the likes of casseroles, soups and stews, whereas a lot of summer food is based on big sharing platters, which are not ideal, because, while you can put them on the coffee table, there’s lunging involved.” Said movement not only upsets the balance, but often also results in spillages: “I’m currently looking at a lump of bicarb sopping up a turmeric stain on my sofa,” Risbridger adds by way of confirmation.

Other considerations of the sofa supper include getting as many textures and flavours as possible into every mouthful. “Wherever you dig, you want to be getting something good,” says Zena Kamgaing, author of Dinner Time. That’s why pasta is a regular go-to: “It’s easy bowl food. On a hot day, say, I’ll do a no-cook sauce by blitzing mascarpone with sun-dried tomatoes, a little harissa and fresh basil.” Risbridger, meanwhile, is partial to US-style chopped salads, although Vietnamese-inspired numbers also feature regularly: “Invest in a julienne peeler, because that can make salad feel fancy, and put any kind of protein in it: salmon, sliced steak.” Add rice – “Cold salad and warm rice is a delight” – or deploy twirlable cold noodles. “If you’re watching telly, curtains drawn, you’re not looking for a beautiful plate,” Risbridger says. “You want the focus to be on the deliciousness, and I cannot stress enough that a Vietnamese salad is the optimum, because it’s beautiful, but not in a way that means you have to concentrate on its beauty.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email [email protected]

Beyond the classroom: South Carolina educators use food to teach Gullah Geechee culture

New programs in the state work to teach high school and college students about Gullah foodways through hands-on projects

When students from Charleston county school of the arts in South Carolina entered a research institute on the African diaspora, staff greeted them with “welcome home”.

The field trip at the College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture was the culmination of a six-week English course about memoir. Students learned about the culture of Gullah Geechee people, the descendants of formerly enslaved West Africans who retained their customs, through the lens of food such as okra, red rice and beans.