What are the new EU border checks and how will they affect your summer holiday?

Security checks due to new digital entry and exit system have caused delays and missed flights for holidaymakers

Travellers to the EU have faced additional border security checks since the launch of the digital entry and exit system (EES) last October.

The new system means that most non-EU citizens, including those from the UK, have to register their biometric information at the border. The checks are causing huge delays and airlines and airports are calling for it to be suspended during the peak summer holiday period, saying some flights are leaving half full and passengers are facing queues of up to five hours.

See the full U.S. men's soccer schedule for the 2026 World Cup

The U.S. men's national soccer team kicked off its 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium on Friday.

Tasmanians warned of ‘loving Neil to death’ as 1,000kg seal’s antics feed ‘double-edged sword’ of fame

Large, potentially dangerous animals in some cases have to be euthanised if there is risky behaviour by the public, wildlife official says

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Wildlife officials have warned people to give Neil the seal space during his visit to Tasmania, saying some have gone so far as to bring their human babies close to the 1,000kg giant for a photo.

Neil, a southern elephant seal, was born in Tasmania in October 2020, but his existence is an anomaly: most of his kind live thousands of kilometres south on the subantarctic Macquarie and Heard islands. Elephant seals return multiple times a year to the area where they were born to moult, breed – or in Neil’s case, rest and learn how to play fight.

Birds of War review – war journalists find love among the ruins

This documentary tells the story of the long-distance relationship between a BBC correspondent in London and a photographer on the ground in Syria with charm and humanity

Politics is to some degree set aside here in favour of matters of the heart; this is a story of romantic love among the ruins. London-based Lebanese journalist Janay Boulos, while working for the BBC’s Arabic service, fell in love from afar in 2016 with Syrian activist and photojournalist Abd Alkader Habak. He, during the Assad regime, was putting his life in danger to supply her with dramatic footage from his home town of Idlib and later Aleppo. Habak was himself to make international headlines in 2017 by getting photographed carrying an injured child to safety.

Habak’s gruelling images are interspersed with Boulos’s smartphone footage of her thoughtfully going up and down in the lifts at BBC Broadcasting House as well as home-movie material of her childhood in the seaside Lebanese town of Byblos; we get their tender texts and voice notes showing a growing relationship, sweetly calling each other “bird” and “little bird”. Finally Habak got out of Syria and into Turkey; the couple got married and lived in London, going on pro-Palestinian marches. Habak has mixed feelings about having to watch Syria’s final liberation on TV and Boulos goes back to visit her parents in Lebanon where the activities of Israel are stoically deplored, though Hezbollah is not mentioned.

‘Hugging is forbidden’: women jailed for life – in pictures

Former public defender Sara Bennett spent 13 years photographing women convicted of homicide. She traces their lives in prison – and what happens as they re-enter the outside world

U.S. and Iran hold separate meetings in Qatar and agree to continue discussions

U.S. and Iranian negotiators met separately on Wednesday with Qatari and Pakistani mediators, with "positive progress made," and they agreed to continue discussions, host Qatar said.

Russian missiles and drones kill 11 and cause damage across Ukraine capital

The large-scale attack with ballistic and cruise missiles and drones damaged buildings and civilian infrastructure across the city. Many residents took shelter at metro stations.

Volkswagen braces for boardroom showdown over historic cost-cutting plan

Volkswagen is poised for a boardroom showdown following reports that the auto giant is weighing up shutting four factories and implementing 100,000 job cuts.

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for peppered mussels with salty chips | A kitchen in Rome

Sarawak peppercorns add their woody, citrus aroma to shellfish steamed in wine and served with crisp fries

Black Sarawak peppercorns have a soft, woody smell, like a forest floor mixed with lemon zest. Those things come through in the taste, too, along with a fruity sweetness. But then peppercorns, the tiny black balls I take for granted (and often forget about), are berries, which is something I didn’t know until I did a pepper tasting at my local spice shop, Emporio delle Spezie.

I also learned that the spice I have always considered one thing, black pepper, is in fact a species, Piper nigrum, a flowering vine in the vast Piperaceae family. Native to south-west India and Sri Lanka, Piper nigrum spread, taking on different characteristics according to wherever it took root: Sarawak pepper, Penja pepper, Lampong pepper, Kampot pepper, Malabar pepper, Madagascar pepper …

Starmer’s goodbye gift to Britain: a US pharma deal that could be more lethal than Covid | Aditya Chakrabortty

This shadowy treaty on medicine imports will cost the NHS billions and take funding away from doctors, nurses, cancer scans and the rest

For all the crowd noise and heavy-breathing match analysis, British democracy is a simple sport. We elect politicians to serve our interests. They direct the vital services that look after our families and communities, such as our healthcare and our schools. The entire political system rests on one basic premise: they work for us.

Believe that, as I do, and this week is one of vast democratic failure. Rather than working for us, Keir Starmer and his ministers are acting against us. They have rammed through parliament a sweeping law that will, independent experts agree, harm the public; and they have done so without even coming clean on the costs or the consequences. What’s worse, MPs and the press have failed to put this under scrutiny.

Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist

Billionaire to invest £35bn in small modular nuclear reactors roll out across UK

Consortium led by Michał Sołowow planning enough SMRs to power equivalent of 8m homes for more than 60 years

A consortium led by the billionaire industrialist Michał Sołowow has announced plans to build 14 small modular nuclear reactors on three sites across the UK, including the location of a former nuclear plant in Gloucestershire.

The Polish entrepreneur and rally driver plans to use £35bn of private capital to roll out enough small modular reactors (SMRs) to power the equivalent of 8m UK homes for more than 60 years, or even power datacentre investments alongside Google.

Global boom in livestock farming since 2006 is piling pressure on nature, report finds

Wildlife at risk as demand for cropland and water grows to feed 50% rise in farmed animals, campaign alliance says

The number of mammals and poultry farmed worldwide has increased by half in the last two decades, research shows, and the amount of cropland used for feeding livestock has increased by about a quarter.

These increases are putting rising pressure on natural systems, threatening wildlife and plant species and adding to the climate crisis.

How Bolivia’s breakthrough in jaguar rehabilitation could bring the big cat back from the brink

More jaguars are killed in Bolivia each year by poachers than in any other country, driving the population to critical levels. But a recent successful release from captivity could radically increase the jaguar’s chances of survival

A tentative paw emerged from a steel cage on to the sandy riverbed deep in the Bolivian rainforest. Then, another. Slowly, the female jaguar looked right, left and right again, as if waiting to cross a busy road. Then, muscles stiff from the long journey, it strolled away and disappeared into the undergrowth.

Yaguara had been in captivity since August 2024, after being orphaned as an eight-month-old cub amid Bolivia’s worst recorded wildfire season. As the fires raged, burning more than 10% of the country’s surface area, authorities handed the cub over to a team of veterinarians from the Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi (CIWY), a wild-animal rescue centre.

‘Beautiful blobs’: can scientists build life from scratch? – podcast

Researchers claim they are closer to creating life from nothing after building tiny, quivering blobs that use lab-made DNA to feed, grow and multiply in a dish. To find out how significant this step is, and where scientists hope it will lead, Madeleine Finlay hears from co-host Ian Sample and from Kate Adamala, professor of genetics at the University of Minnesota

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‘It’s peak tick season!’ Should Charli xcx really have been lolling around in long grass?

Harry Styles, Zoë Kravitz, Sarah Pidgeon … celebrities love stretching out on Britain’s lawns and meadows. But with the tick-borne Lyme disease on the rise, is it safe for any of us?

Do we need to worry about ticks in the UK? How serious are the risks associated with the diseases they can carry? Should we avoid rolling around in long grass à la Charli xcx in the video for her latest single, Wink Wink?

These are questions that have been circulating on social media this week, after the release of the pop star’s video, filmed in Essex, and sightings of celebrity couples Zoë Kravitz and Harry Styles and Sarah Pidgeon and Joe Alwyn lounging in the long grass on Hampstead Heath in London.

My mother has died and I can mourn her. That makes me one of the fortunate | Shada Islam

Grief is universal, but being able to mourn is a privilege. For those dying in wars from Gaza to Sudan, there is no shroud, no grave, no funeral

It was the early-morning phone call that so many of us dread. My mother was in the emergency ward of her local hospital. She was struggling to breathe. I went into automatic mode, booking the first available flight to Karachi. I threw clothes into a bag, grabbed my passport and headed for Brussels airport with a heavy heart.

Only 12 hours earlier, we had spoken on the phone. It was my birthday. She was her usual cheerful self, her signature laugh ringing out as she regaled me with stories from my childhood. She asked about my granddaughter – her great-granddaughter, whom she adored – and wanted to know what I was working on and where I planned to travel next.

Valuable Spanish painting left on street salvaged by man who liked its frame

Andrés Hurtado found work by Joaquín Sorolla after its owners mislaid it, before responding to theft alert

The mystery of a small and very valuable picture by the Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla that vanished over the weekend has been solved after a man told police he had mistaken the painting for junk when he found it on a Seville street but rescued it because he liked the frame.

Rather than being entranced by the painting’s subject matter – two boats off a beach – Andrés Hurtado was instead captivated by its handsome gold frame.

‘It is comforting to be haunted’: how attitudes to abortion have changed through the ages

The abortion debate – the language of life, choice and rights – severs women, and their pain, from history. I don’t want to forget my abortion and I don’t want to forget theirs

The physical fact of my abortion caught me off guard. I had been so accustomed to defending abortion as an abstract right – as a right to privacy, to healthcare, to autonomy – that when it came to having one, I was surprised by the brutality of it. Fasting for hours before. Clammy and light-headed, my hands freezing and damp, in the clinic waiting room. Waves of contracting pain afterwards, the blood and the vomit from the anaesthesia, the days of cramping and bleeding. Soaking through pads. Cold sweat. I thought having an abortion would feel like the exercise of the hard-won autonomy of generations of feminists before me. But mostly it just hurt.

What do you do with the brute fact of pain? Of what Annie Ernaux describes, writing about her own abortion before legalisation in France, as an experience that sweeps through the body? I could not translate it easily into a feminist politics, into a slogan, into something I could shout or wanted to shout. It did not feel like the exercise of bodily autonomy; it did not feel like a choice, though of course, in some formal and factual way, I did choose to have an abortion. It’s just that the choice seemed to be the least important and least interesting part of the whole experience, totally unmemorable when it came up against the violence and urgency of the body, reeling and revolting against the sudden transformation from pregnancy to unpregnancy. Nor did the sensations of aborting feel like the making of an abortion story, like the raw material for an anecdote that could be compressed and publicised on social media, piled up with the others to make some kind of aggrieved claim. There was no real plot – but feeling.

U.S. takes down Bosnia 2-0 for second-ever World Cup knockout round win

Folarin Balogun got the scoring going with a goal in the 45th minute, but was sent off with a controversial red card in the 64th minute.

2 Empire State Building climbers in custody after apparently getting engaged at the top

Two people climbed to the top of New York City's Empire State Building, unfurled a banner, and then apparently got engaged Wednesday afternoon.

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.

Germany are no longer a tournament team and must reconnect with our own identity | Philipp Lahm

Germany’s third early World Cup exit in a row is not down to a lack of talent or the name of the coach, but not knowing how they want to play

I am stunned. Germany have been eliminated early from a World Cup for the third time in a row. I need time to recover from this. The key word that needs to be discussed is continuity – something the national team have lacked for a decade. German football hasn’t decided how it wants to play. There are constantly new ideas, and time and again new players in new positions. Julian Nagelsmann has experimented too much, and not just during this tournament. Yet developing a team takes years.

Germany have always been successful when player roles were clearly defined, the hierarchy was established and the team had a clear concept of how to attack and defend. That conviction was completely missing. At this World Cup, the team didn’t look as if they had gone through the process that every team must undergo.

Russian missile and drone strikes in Ukraine capital kill at least eight and injure dozens

Multiple explosions heard in Kyiv with a hotel and several residential buildings on fire

Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with missiles and drones overnight into Thursday, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens more.

The intense strikes hit residential ⁠buildings and ⁠triggered ​a fire in a hotel on a central boulevard.

Steely USA overcome Bosnia and Herzegovina and controversial red to reach World Cup last 16

The US had their hands on their heads. Weston McKennie’s face betrayed a look of total disbelief. Mauricio Pochettino waved his hands towards the sky, incredulous.

Folarin Balogun had been sent off after a seemingly innocent collision with Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Tarik Muharemović that saw the US striker land a foot on his opponent’s ankle. Just like that, the US’s high-flying World Cup journey had the feel of impending doom. The temperature had soared on a previously cool, sunny evening at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium. And it wouldn’t fall until Malik Tillman had his say.

FBI investigating legitimacy of Nancy Guthrie ransom notes

The FBI said in a statement Wednesday that some ransom notes in Nancy Guthrie's disappearance have been "deemed to be extortion attempts without legitimacy," and other "demands may potentially be legitimate and are still being investigated as such."

China’s ethnic unity law denounced as ‘forced assimilation’ by rights groups

Law comes into effect that critics fear will further erode rights of Uyghurs and Tibetans, as well as allow Beijing to pursue dissidents abroad

A new ethnic unity law has come into effect in China despite warnings from Taiwan, the United Nations and rights groups that it could threaten freedoms, especially for minorities.

The Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress aims to forge a “shared” national identity among ethnic groups, for example by strengthening the status of Mandarin as the official language. But overseas campaigners have argued it will further degrade the rights of ethnic minorities, such as Uyghurs and Tibetans, that Beijing is accused of persecuting.

South Korean government discriminated against Coupang, U.S. companies, House report finds

The House Judiciary Committee said the South Korean government discriminated against Coupang and other U.S. companies, in a new report.

EMS was called to Mitch McConnell's home for "unconscious" patient last month

On the same morning Sen. Mitch McConnell was hospitalized last month, EMS personnel went to his home to respond to an unconscious person who appeared to experience "cardiac arrest," according to a dispatch call.

China has accused Japan of ‘reckless militarism’. What’s behind the latest tensions?

China has denounced Japan’s ‘reckless new militarism’, while Tokyo has protested what it claims are Beijing’s defensive incursions, as relations sour

Relations between Tokyo and Beijing have ebbed and flowed in the decades since the second world war, but hit an undeniable low this week.

Denouncing what it proclaimed was Japan’s “reckless pursuit of ‘new militarism’”, this week China imposed new export controls on 40 Japanese companies over dual-use items, or items that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

Fraunces Tavern: Where Americans can party like a founding father

If you want to party like a Founding Father, Fraunces Tavern in New York City promises that experience this July 4. The owner says the Sons of Liberty drank, argued and celebrated there. Tony Dokoupil has the story.

Details emerge of Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding events at MSG

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding plans include a rehearsal dinner and a late-night celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York City, according to sources familiar with the security planning.

Trump takes first trip on Qatari-gifted Air Force One

President Trump is traveling Wednesday to North Dakota in what marks his first trip aboard the new Air Force One, which was gifted to the U.S. by the Qatari government last year.

This July 4th could be hottest ever in parts of U.S.

Extremely dangerous heat, coupled with humidity, could result in heat index readings of 100 to 115 degrees from the Midwest to the East Coast, forecasters said.

More trucks unload outside of Madison Square Garden ahead of speculated Swift-Kelce wedding

Fan fever is rising over the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding as forklifts, bins and boxes arrive outside of Madison Square Garden in New York City. Jo Ling Kent has more details.

As an Australian Jew who publicly supports Palestinian freedom, I’m targeted by my own community – and neo-Nazis | Sarah Schwartz

Jews should be able to criticise the actions of Israel without risking exclusion from communal life

As a teenager, I walked through concentration camps in Poland, where the Nazis industrialised the murder of European Jewry. That history has shaped not only my Jewish identity, but a commitment to political struggle. It taught me that memory carries not only grief, but obligations: to resist racism, dehumanisation and the silence that permits the erasure of a people.

Today, I’m giving evidence to the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion, established after the slaughter of 15 people at a Hanukah celebration at Bondi beach. Their murders demand an honest reckoning. The question is whether we can confront antisemitism without weaponising Jewish grief or turning Holocaust memory into a political instrument to silence the very forms of solidarity and dissent it should compel.

Trump acknowledges he made $1.4 billion in 2025 crypto ventures, raising ethical questions

After the Office of Government Ethics revealed just how much crypto money the president has been making, Tony Dokoupil asks how this sort of thing is allowed ethically and legally.

Trump takes his first ride aboard a luxury new Air Force One gifted by Qataris

President Trump responded to new ethics questions on two fronts - the use of a luxury Boeing Jet, gifted by the Qatari government as a temporary Air Force One, and his newly disclosed billion-dollar crypto fortune. Nancy Cordes has more.

Roads and airports packed with millions of July 4 travelers

Passengers aboard American Airlines Flight 1040 had a scary start to the July 4 travel rush after the pilot announced there was a reported engine fire. Though American says there was no evidence of that. Kris Van Cleave has more on the holiday rush.

Empire State Building climbers engaged and under arrest

Two people in black masks scaled the Empire State Building, scrambling the New York City Police Department. They call themselves "roof-toppers," or stunt climbers, and they unfurled a banner about world peace before one of them got out a ring and proposed. By the time they got down, they were engaged and under arrest. Tom Hanson reports.

England comes back with 2 goals from Harry Kane in World Cup

England advanced in the World Cup on Wednesday with a late goal from its all-time leading scorer, Harry Kane. Meanwhile, the U.S. Men's National Team is in a win-or-go-home match in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nicole Valdes has more.

Tielemans’ controversial late penalty caps Belgium comeback over Senegal

This time Senegal’s players did not depart the field prematurely owing to a burning sense of injustice, as they did in the Africa Cup of Nations final in January, but they did exit another knockout match aggrieved after Belgium advanced to the last 16 deep in extra time. The winning goal, a nerveless Youri Tielemans penalty which capped an extraordinary comeback from 2-0 down, came with 124 minutes and 44 seconds on the clock, cementing its place as the latest goal in World Cup history.

A penalty shootout appeared all but a formality until the referee, Saíd Martínez, wandered towards the video review monitor, an audience of players awaiting the verdict on Lamine Camara swiping Tielemans’s left ankle in the seconds before Dodi Lukebakio skimmed the crossbar. Romelu Lukaku bounced the ball on the edge of the box as Senegal’s players swamped the penalty spot; Pathe Ciss curled in a heap in an attempt to delay the spot-kick for as long as possible. Rudi Garcia could not watch, turning his back on the sidelines before Tielemans seized on Belgium’s get out of jail card to tee up a last-16 meeting with the USAhere on Monday (Tuesday 1am BST). A tearful Camara was inconsolable at the final whistle, his green shirt still covering his face as he headed down the tunnel.

U.S. auto industry faces increased uncertainty without extension of USMCA trade deal

A major issue for automakers is the deal's rules of origin, which determine where a product comes from and which goods are eligible for preferential treatment.

Student drowns in River Wye while on Duke of Edinburgh’s Award trip to Wales

Body of 18-year-old man located after search involving Mountain Rescue, police and the fire service

A student has drowned while on a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) trip in Wales, police have said.

Emergency services were called to the River Wye in Glasbury, Powys on Tuesday evening after it was reported an 18-year-old male had entered the water and could not be found.

7/1: CBS Evening News

Empire State Building climbers engaged and under arrest; roads and airports packed with millions of July Fourth travelers.

Ohio authorities rescue 16 children confined to one room for four years

Parents and grandparents charged as police say case in Hamden not human trafficking but ‘intra-family situation’

Sixteen children were rescued from a dilapidated home in rural Ohio after being confined to just one room in “deplorable conditions” for much of the past four years, authorities said on Wednesday.

The children, who officials said are from the same family and were living in squalor with human waste all around, ranged in age from one and a half to 18 and included boys and girls. Some of them were unable to speak and one – an 18-year-old who was developmentally disabled – could not even spell her name.

New Zealand finally gets a Google Maps tool that correctly pronounces Māori placenames

Language commission hails normalisation of te reo Māori after years of work in identifying frequently mispronounced words

For years, Māori placenames have been distorted into nearly unrecognisable sounds by Google Maps in New Zealand. For those with attuned ears, it can be grating or offensive.

Now the Māori language commission – Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori – has collaborated with Google to fix it, launching a New Zealand-accented voice for its navigation tool that can correctly pronounce Māori words. It is the culmination of a project that has been years in the making.

Couples are spending thousands more on weddings. Here's why.

Tariffs, inflation and changing consumer habits are reshaping how much Americans spend to tie the knot.

7/1: The Takeout with Major Garrett

Trump filing reveals he made $2.2 billion in 2025; H. R. McMaster says Iran is "getting everything that they wanted" in U.S. talks.

U.S. says it won't extend key trade deal with Canada and Mexico

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement will remain in effect until it expires in 2036, unless the countries strike another deal to extend it.

Maltese businessman paid hitmen €150,000 to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia, jury hears

Yorgen Fenech, heir to property empire, on trial for alleged involvement in murder of journalist, which he denies

One of Malta’s wealthiest businessmen plotted to kill the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, paying €150,000 (£130,000) for three hitmen to carry out the murder, a jury has heard.

Yorgen Fenech, the 44-year-old heir to a property empire that includes the Hilton Malta hotel and casino, is on trial for the 2017 murder.

World Cup could boost the June jobs report by 40,000, Goldman estimates

Nonfarm payrolls are projected to post a gain of 115,000, according to the Dow Jones consensus.

Mirra Andreeva’s Wimbledon hopes dashed by resurgent Krejcikova

• The 2024 women’s singles champion won 4-6, 7-5, 6-4

• Teenager says loss will ‘take some time’ to get over

Four women in the post-1968 Open era have won singles titles on the slow red clay of Roland Garros and ­Wimbledon’s lightning-fast grass before their 20th birthdays. As Mirra Andreeva, the 19-year-old winner of last month’s French Open, walked on to Centre Court here on Wednesday to face Barbora Krejcikova – already a winner of both European grand slams – she had fair hopes of joining Maureen Connolly, Evonne Goolagong, Chris Evert and Steffi Graf on that list.

Andreeva left with those hopes extinguished after a hard-fought three-set success for Krejcikova – the 2024 champion here – 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, but with her reputation as a scrapper and shot-maker much enhanced. She showed many of the attributes she will need to succeed here in the years to come.

What is the "buy, borrow, die" tax strategy Gavin Newsom wants to ban?

As a proposed billionaire tax in California moves forward, Gov. Newsom says other approaches are needed, including closing a tax loophole used by the ultra-rich.

Tuchel delights in ‘shark’ Kane’s predatory goal instinct after vital World Cup double

• Late double rescues England against DR Congo in last 32

• Message to side was: ‘Keep on knocking, knocking’

Thomas Tuchel compared Harry Kane to a shark and said he was proud of England after they set up a last-16 tie against Mexico by ­fighting back from the brink against the ­Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Wednesday.

Tuchel, who was staring at an early exit after Brian Cipenga opened the scoring in the seventh minute, was delighted with his side’s refusal to give in against the DRC. England’s revival meant they won a World Cup game after conceding first for the first time since the 1966 final against West Germany.

Automakers report mixed U.S. sales results as hybrid vehicles drive market

Second-quarter U.S. new vehicle sales show a sharp divide, with automakers offering hybrid models largely outperforming those without them.

Chip stocks that notched record rallies in second quarter start Q3 with a dud

Memory maker Micron, which jumped over 240% in the second quarter, dropped 11% on Wednesday, wiping out nearly $200 billion of market capitalization.

Trump attorney general plots crackdown on ‘birth tourism’ after supreme court ruling

Todd Blanche to target tourists and migrants despite such births accounting for less than 1% of US babies born yearly

A day after the US supreme court upheld the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, has said federal prosecutors and law enforcement officers will focus on combating so-called “birth tourism” – the process of tourists, temporary visitors and undocumented immigrants traveling to the US and giving birth.

“There’s other things that [the Department if Homeland Security] can do, and the federal government can do in the visa process, and the application process, to try to minimize or limit the opportunity of folks coming here not to visit, and not to do what they’re saying they’re doing on the tourist visa, but just to have a baby that can then be a US citizen,” Blanche told reporters.

Scientists fear seabird die-off as El Niño looms: ‘We don’t know how bad this will get’

Many seabirds are starving to death as a marine heat wave lingers off California and fish seek deeper, cooler waters

Within minutes of walking on a San Diego beach, marine ornithologist Tammy Russell found the feathered carcasses – one after another.

Some were mixed in with washed up kelp. Others were under rocks.

Tottenham agree £100m deal to buy Sandro Tonali from Newcastle

• Midfielder will cost Spurs an initial £92.5m

• Spurs agree £50m deal to sell Vuskovic to Brighton

Newcastle have agreed to sell the Italy midfielder Sandro Tonali to Tottenham in an initial £92.5m deal that could rise to £100m should the north London side achieve serial Champions League qualifications.

Providing the transfer’s formalities proceed as planned it will represent a club record for Tottenham, who on Tuesday agreed to pay £85m for the West Ham midfielder Mateus Fernandes.

Oil prices fall after Trump says U.S.-Iran talks in Qatar are going well

Oil prices were lower on Wednesday after Iran said it would not meet with U.S. delegates for talks in Qatar, amplifying concern about the peace process.

Former CIA Director John Brennan sues DOJ, Trump officials over criminal probes

Brennan is seeking a court order to force the preservation of records in the investigations targeting him. His attorneys say he's being "vindictively singled out for investigation."

Trump wants delay but E. Jean Carroll wants to gets paid — now: Court filing

The Supreme Court on Monday denied a request by President Donald Trump that it review a jury's verdict that he sexually abused and defamed the writer.

U.S. won’t renew USMCA, opening door for negotiations with Canada and Mexico

President Donald Trump's "primary" issue with USMCA centers on America's trade deficits with Canada and Mexico, a senior administration official said.

Trump says outside funds 'run my money' after disclosure shows billions in 2025 revenue

The 927-page annual financial disclosure form shows Trump's purchases and sales of hundreds of companies' stocks, including Nvidia, Amazon and Microsoft.

Man guilty of attempting to murder three children in attack that triggered Dublin riot

Jury also finds Riad Bouchaker guilty of assaulting two other children and a childcare worker in 2023 stabbings

A man has been found guilty of attempting to murder three children during a stabbing attack in Dublin in 2023, a crime that horrified Ireland and triggered a riot in the capital.

A jury at the central criminal court on Wednesday also found Riad Bouchaker, 52, guilty of assault causing serious harm to a childcare worker, Leanne Flynn, and of assaulting two other children and a teenager.

Albania warned EU accession at risk over Jared Kushner-backed resort plans

Proposed development of protected shorelines and wildlife zones violates EU environmental policy, says MEP

MEPs have warned Albania that EU accession talks are at risk if the government does not “change course” over plans for a luxury resort backed by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Tineke Strik, the Dutch MEP heading a European parliament fact-finding mission to the Balkan nation, said Albania’s leadership was “playing with fire” by pursuing the €1.4bn (£1.2bn) real-estate venture that would, she said, wreak havoc on virgin coastline.

The Harvard astronomer dubbed Trump’s chief alien hunter starts by assuming UFOs human-made

Avi Loeb’s White House panel has asked the Pentagon for videos and files on unexplained aerial sightings

A Harvard University cosmologist who has suggested alien life forms could be sailing into the solar system disguised as meteors is leading the Trump administration’s secretive new scientific advisory panel on security risks posed by UFOs.

Avi Loeb and his hand-picked committee have already begun looking into the origins of mysterious flying craft, now known as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and last month asked the Pentagon for dozens of videos, images and documents of reported encounters and incidents, the Associated Press reported.

The Guardian view on Trump’s wealth and power: a medieval court wreaks havoc in the 21st century | Editorial

Supreme court rulings, and revelations of the president’s enrichment since his return to office, show that he has turned back the clock

Donald Trump is not known for his reverence for the US constitution. But in his second term, he is doubling down on his claim from the first: that the text grants him “the right to do whatever I want as president”.

This is, to put it mildly, an extremely unusual interpretation of article 2. But it is the thread that draws together the headlines dominating recent days: a spate of supreme court rulings, mostly to his benefit, and the revelation that he has raked in $2bn since returning to office, half of it from cryptocurrencies.

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.

U.S. helicopter goes down in Arabian Sea, crew member missing, Navy says

The helicopter, which was assigned to the USS George H.W. Bush, is not believed to have been taken down by hostile action, the Navy said.

Untold casualties and humanitarian needs: What to know a week from Venezuela's quakes

Here's a look at some of the major developments since major back-to-back earthquakes rocked Venezuela on June 24, devastating parts of a country already reeling from crisis after crisis.

Warsh faces multiple alternative inflation signs as Fed charts new course

Warsh has said that inflation is a "choice." The same could also be true of how inflation is measured.

Lone star ticks are covering much of the U.S. Here's what you need to know

It's a tick that hunts you down and transmits a potentially dangerous allergy to red meat. The New Yorker writer Burkhard Bilger discusses the lone star tick and the risks of alpha-gal syndrome.

Ben Jennings on Keir Starmer’s defence investment plan – cartoon

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Lethal Weapon star Danny Glover reveals Alzheimer’s diagnosis

The 79-year-old actor told media ‘I don’t feel like it’s the end of my life. There’s work to do. Your life continues’

Lethal Weapon actor Danny Glover has revealed he has been living with Alzheimer’s for several years.

Glover, 79, announced the news during an interview on The Today Show, during which he explained that he had been diagnosed “not long” after receiving an honorary Oscar in 2022. “I could live with it, in a sense. I’m sure as it advances, things are going to be different and changing,” he said, adding that his movements, speech and memory have slowed. However, the support of his family, who he said “have got my back”, was getting him through.

Justice Department sues Virginia, California over gun laws

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said "the Constitution is not a suggestion" and that "the Second Amendment is a sacred right belonging to all Americans."

Nominate your invertebrate of the year

We’re asking people from around the world to nominate their favourite spineless species for our third Invertebrate of the Year competition

Step aside World Cup heroes, there’s a bigger global competition in town. The whistle has been blown to launch the third Invertebrate of the Year contest.

We want you to nominate your favourite spineless creature for the hugely popular annual Guardian jamboree which celebrates the wonder and importance of the world’s invertebrates.

Nottingham Forest sack Vítor Pereira and turn to Oliver Glasner as replacement

• Forest had June break clause in Pereira’s contract

• Glasner will be club’s fifth coach in less than a year

Nottingham Forest will make Oliver Glasner their fifth head coach in less than a year after sacking Vítor Pereira.

Forest were offered the chance to appoint Glasner on a three-year contract after he left Crystal Palace at the end of the season and felt it too good an opportunity to turn down. The club had a break clause they could activate in June in Pereira’s contract, which they did late on Tuesday.

What’s really in a hotdog? Nutrition experts explain

Americans eat 20bn hotdogs every year, but experts say they’re also among the most highly processed foods

In 1969, the late writer William Zinsser toured a hotdog factory and described his visit in Life magazine, opening with the lines: “I’ve often wondered what goes into a hotdog. Now I know and I wish I didn’t.”

All these years later, his words still reflect our love/hate relationship with the humble wiener. We love eating them, but would rather not think about what’s in them.

Record-high temperatures expected in cities across U.S. through Fourth of July

More than two dozen states are under heat alerts, impacting around 200 million people across the central and eastern U.S. Dozens of cities are expected to endure record highs through the Fourth of July. Tom Hanson reports.

Brother of Baltimore Ravens’ Calais Campbell charged with mother’s murder

• Brother of Calais Campbell charged with murder

• Police found Campbell’s mother dead in Atlanta

• Family asks for privacy after mother’s death

The brother of NFL player Calais Campbell has been charged with murder after police found their 71-year-old mother dead at a home in Atlanta during a welfare check.

Arrest warrants say Nateal Campbell’s throat was cut and Ciarre Campbell was found in possession of a knife. Officers found her unresponsive when they arrived at around 12.30pm Tuesday, according to a police statement.

England has just had its hottest June on record, Met Office data shows

Chief scientist says dangerous heatwaves, which are getting more likely, ‘bring home the implications of climate change’

The month of June was the hottest in England on record, driven by a searing heatwave in the final days of the month, which for the first time had red heat alerts for three days, according to Met Office data.

The Met Office said provisional statistics showed Wales and the UK as a whole had recorded their second-warmest June since 1884.

Sony to stop making physical discs for PlayStation starting in 2028

After January 2028, new games will be available exclusively in digital format from the PlayStation Store and at retailers, Sony said.

Bayeux tapestry tickets generate nine-hour online queues as public scramble for access

Reports say up to 80,000 people waiting by mid-afternoon for chance to see historic artwork at British Museum

People keen to see the Bayeux tapestry faced online queues of up to nine hours when tickets went on sale for the first time on Wednesday morning.

The British Museum, which is hosting the wool-on-linen artwork from September, saw huge traffic to its ticketing website as a scramble for access began.

Trump accused of ‘disgusting’ greed after being paid over $2bn since return to office

Elizabeth Warren and colleagues demand tighter rules on political figures’ crypto dealings, citing disclosures of large-scale Trump family profits

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump has again been accused of “brazen crypto corruption” after financial disclosures revealed his family’s cryptocurrency ventures generated more than $1bn in his first year back in the White House.

A 927-page disclosure, released on Tuesday by the US Office of Government Ethics, showed that the US president had been paid more than $2.2bn last year in total, from real estate, golf resorts, branded merchandise, licensing deals and court settlements.

Americans are showing up for the World Cup in record-breaking numbers

While the U.S. isn't a bona fide soccer nation yet, the past three weeks have perhaps shown what it would feel like if it were.

Victor Willis, Village People lead singer, dies at 74

Victor Willis, lead singer of the disco group Village People, whose hit "Y.M.C.A." became a fixture at rallies for President Trump, has died at the age of 74, his wife and the band said.

‘This is the dark art’: new book claims pattern of personal attacks by Murdoch media empire

In a book dedicated to ‘the bullied’, two former News Corp journalists outline a behaviour pattern they call ‘getting Murdoched’, which they say harms individuals and public debate

In 2009, David Nutt, a professor of pharmacology who had served as the chief drugs adviser to the British Labour government, remarked at a public discussion about legalising drugs that alcohol was a serious social problem, more so than psychedelic drugs.

Soon after, he received a call from a reporter for the Sun, then the UK’s most prolific tabloid newspaper. The reporter asked: “What would you say if I told you we are going to do an exposé on your children’s drugs and drinking habits tomorrow?”

Funerals held for 14 Pakistani children killed in tutoring center collapse

Police are investigating whether negligence during construction work caused the collapse in the eastern city of Lahore on Tuesday.

Football Daily | France’s fab front four make them incomparable World Cup favourites

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We can all agree the Geopolitics World Cup has gone on far too long, so Football Daily is pleased to announce it is over. It monopolises everyone’s time, changes sleeping, eating and drinking patterns, leaving everyone tired and poorer. No one wants to stay up for further 2am BST kick-offs or attempt to watch a couple of games a day. Frankly, the process has been completely futile since the first ball was kicked.

Please hand over the trophy to France and save some carbon emissions (and the embarrassment of other teams). Just one of Mbappé, Olise, Dembélé, Rabiot or Barcola would be enough for most teams. They are currently the Duplantis of the football world, ironic given their last victim was Sweden” – Krishna Moorthy.

Responding to Antony Crossley’s letter, as an American, I agree there are important reasons to berate our country, but chocolate?! There are a large variety of high quality dark, organic, and fair-trade chocolates available here if one knows enough to avoid the corporate swill. You could berate America for its almost universally over-salted restaurant food but folk from a nation that exalts Heinz baked beans for breakfast (so disappointing!) should be careful about starting food fights. OK, I’m tuning back into Telemundo now. Cheers” – Steve Plever.

Please don’t turn Football Daily into a poetry forum (yesterday’s letters). I find the old jokes and football ‘analysis’ difficult enough as it is, OK?” – Z Snook.

Stop the poetry” – Jon Millard (and 1,056 others).

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Ai Weiwei: Button Up! review – skeleton chandeliers, a real-life temple – and too much silly Lego

Aviva Studios, Manchester
The artist’s latest show is a staggering takedown of colonial history, warfare and the migrant crisis, featuring buttons by the tonne and richly perfumed tea

History has repeated itself all over Ai Weiwei’s vast exhibition of monumental sculpture in Manchester. The flags of long-lost nations hang from the ceiling, bronzes looted by dead empires have been recast and reclaimed, dilapidated ancient ruins have been rebuilt. Everywhere you look here, you will find death, exploitation, greed and suffering from across human history, brought back to life and put morbidly on display. The first thing you see is a black glass chandelier made of skeletons – The Human Comedy – and a wall covered in images of the most powerful bombs ever invented. Like a head on a stake, this is art as warning.

This massive, ambitious exhibition is the Chinese artist at his most monumental, and as a result at his most effective. His subject matter works best at enormous scale, blown up, expanded, shoved in your face. Lining the back wall of this warehouse is a giant inflatable dinghy, 100 metres long, filled with figures in lifejackets. Think you can ignore the migrant crisis? Not here you can’t, because Ai has taken everyday, normalised tragedy and made it into a monument. He spent years interviewing hundreds of refugees, meeting people desperate for safety and a new life and produced a huge amount of work about it. This is the culmination of that project. Is it a good-looking work of art? Not really, but it makes a point, and makes it loudly.

Fears of Catholic schism as defiant sect ordains ultra-conservative bishops

Consecrations by Society of Saint Pius X bring automatic excommunication for bishops – and crisis for Pope Leo

A rebel group of ultra-conservative Catholics has defied Pope Leo by ordaining bishops without his consent, which they declared a “sacred duty” despite it causing their automatic excommunication.

In a ritual-filled ceremony on Wednesday, streamed live from the Swiss village of Ecône, the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) went ahead with the consecrations of four bishops, one from Switzerland, one from France and two from the US.

Venezuelan police officers arrested over alleged looting after earthquakes

Anger at authorities and government grows as local people, volunteers and rescue teams continue search for survivors

Four Venezuelan police officers have been arrested and are facing dismissal after being accused of looting cash from the rubble of a building that collapsed during last week’s devastating twin earthquakes.

Local people and national and international rescue teams continue to search for survivors in the aftermath of the back-to-back quakes, which have killed almost 2,000 people, injured more than 10,000, and left tens of thousands missing.

Who’s been invited? Will they need to sign an NDA? Seven things you need to know about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding

The pop and football giants’ combined star wattage will be united in matrimony this weekend – probably – in an event shrouded in secrecy. But here’s what we’ve gleaned

After an agonising 10 months’ wait, the wedding of the century is apparently here: if the reports are true, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce will be tying the knot this weekend, uniting the houses of sports and entertainment in holy matrimony. When the couple announced their engagement on Instagram in August, as part of a carefully coordinated album rollout/podcast promotion tie-in, it shattered platform records, drawing 14m likes in its first hour. (It’s now up to 37.4m.)

Yet it’s remarkable, given the couple’s profile and the investigative horsepower apparently dedicated to cracking this wedding wide open, just how little we know for sure in this, the (purported) week of the event. We’ve sifted through all the speculation, sources “close to the couple” and scarcely concealed grumbling from spurned guests to answer the burning questions.

It’s a truly Trumpian tragedy: he’s made billions of dollars but can’t buy love or respect | Emma Brockes

Potus pocketed over $2.2bn last year – but with an algae-filled reflecting pool and his State Fair a fiasco, what price happiness?

From certain angles, it might appear as if President Trump is having a tough month. He messed up the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, which he blamed on acts of vandalism no one has been able to stand up. The supreme court rejected both his bid to appeal against the $5m (£3.8m) civil judgment against him for defaming and sexually abusing E Jean Carroll, and his executive order to end birthright citizenship. And the war with Iran keeps rumbling on. And yet, after Trump’s mandatory financial disclosure report was released on Tuesday, headlines drew attention to the fact the president made more than $2.2bn in revenue in 2025 – more than three times what he pulled in the year before his inauguration. Contrary to appearances, perhaps everything is going exactly to plan.

It is always a question with Trump as to how much the wealth he has accrued in his second term in office is the spoils of strategy rather than the lucky result of his scattergun but industrial-scale hustle. Looking at the numbers in his financial report, one is reminded that before he became president, Trump piloted a series of failed businesses – six of which declared bankruptcy – and gave every indication of being a lousy businessman. It’s often pointed out that if Trump had simply invested the vast inheritance left to him by Fred Trump, his father, in a standard tracker fund, he would’ve made more money than through his lacklustre business career, and there’s nothing to suggest this was likely to change.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Sophomore slump: why is Netflix losing so many viewers for second seasons?

Hit shows such as Beef, The Four Seasons, Avatar: The Last Airbender and A Man on the Inside have suffered giant drops for their follow-up seasons

If you haven’t seen the second season of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, then at least you can console yourself that you’re not alone. Variety recently noted that, while season one debuted with 21.2m views in the first four days after its launch in 2024, season two has been viewed just 8.7m times – which isn’t nothing, but it does mean that the show lost 59% of its audience between seasons.

And this would be fine if it was an isolated case, but it is starting to look as if Netflix is struggling across the board when it comes to getting viewers back to shows they once watched in droves. The first season of Tina Fey’s relationship comedy series The Four Seasons had 11.9m views, but the recent second outing only garnered 4.4m; a drop of 63%. The opening week of Beef’s second season gained 2.4m views, a 58% drop from season one. The second season of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder posted an 80% drop in viewership. And people are only able to estimate the drop in views for Ted Danson’s A Man on the Inside, because the second season didn’t even crack Netflix’s top 10.

Private payrolls rose by 98,000 in June, less than expected, ADP reports

Companies added slightly fewer workers than forecast, with hiring targeted heavily toward healthcare-related sectors.

How Paris became a nexus for Black culture

It’s got Europe’s largest Black population, the world’s second-biggest rap scene and a long literary history. But even as diasporic culture takes hold in Paris, some ask when commercial success will lead to structural change

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We often imagine Paris as a city of cafes, couture and impressionism. But some of its most dynamic cultural currents stem from the French-speaking Black diaspora.

This week, I spoke to Achille Tenkiang, a Cameroonian-American culture writer with a love for the city, and Liz Gomis, executive director of Maison des Mondes Africains (MansA), a cultural institution based in Paris. They told me how Black French culture has gained visibility in the capital and beyond.

Tour de France 2026: stage-by-stage guide to this year’s race

The team time trial returns as this year’s Tour starts in Barcelona for the first time in race’s history

The first team time trial since 2019, past many of Barcelona’s prime tourist sites – La Rambla, Sagrada Familia – but with a novel format: riders’ times will be taken individually at the uphill finish. So rather than trying to finish four or five riders together, teams will wear out non-climbers early on, then have lighter men peeling off one by one in the finale – replicating the usual approach to a summit finish in a road race. Advance warning: Jonas Vingegaard’s Visma, Remco Evenepoel’s Red Bull, and Tadej Pogacar’s UAE Emirates are masters of this game.

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: still wearing stripes? It’s time to join the dots

Once dismissed as frivolous, spots are having the last laugh – popping up on celebs, catwalks and all over the algorithm

For years, stripes have been the thinking fashion person’s choice. The style equivalent of remembering to charge your phone overnight. Bracing like sea air, with a top note of French intellectualism. In stripes, you can captain a ship and feast on oysters.

Spots and dots are much less serious. From a distance, they could be smiley face emojis. Spots bounce and dance, whereas stripes are rigid. They are spontaneous and giddy, where stripes are rational. The polo scene in Pretty Woman, when Julia Roberts wears that chocolate polka dot dress, is an iconic fashion moment not just because it’s a great dress, but because the dress itself does so much storytelling. Those polka dots set Roberts apart as vivacious, adorable. The buttoned-up crowd around her does not stand a chance.

Sudan’s RSF committed crimes against humanity in El Fasher, Amnesty says

Report accuses paramilitary force of crimes including ethnic cleansing in systemic campaign against civilians

The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during its campaign to capture El Fasher, Amnesty International has alleged.

Many of the crimes, including murder, torture, rape, enslavement and sexual slavery, were carried out as part of a widespread and systematic attack against civilians and amounted to crimes against humanity, the human rights organisation said in a report released on Wednesday.