Kenyan minister orders halt to construction of US Ebola facility

Decision comes after Aden Duale was held in contempt for ignoring previous high court ruling to stop work

The Kenyan health minister told a court he has ordered a halt to preparations for a US-run Ebola quarantine facility, after being held in contempt for ignoring a previous stop-work order.

Kenyans have strongly opposed the plan, and deadly protests have erupted since the facility was announced in May for US citizens evacuated from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is grappling with a large-scale Ebola outbreak.

Nigel Farage: I can spend £5m gift on Ferraris or bet on horses if I want

Reform leader says it is ‘purely private matter’ and it is not hypocritical to criticise Keir Starmer for receiving glasses

• UK politics live – latest updates

Nigel Farage has said his £5m gift from a crypto billionaire is “not any of your business” as it was given unconditionally to be spent on anything from Ferraris to gambling on horses.

The Reform UK leader bristled at questions about the £5m gift from the British Thai-based businessman Christopher Harborne in two radio interviews on Tuesday, saying it was “a purely private matter”.

Europe heatwave live: ‘London is cooking,’ says UN chief as UK forecast to hit 38C; France has hottest night since records began

António Guterres urges world to act on fossil fuels as continent braces for record-breaking heat; French PM to hold emergency meeting after heat deaths

• Tell us: how is the heatwave in the UK and across Europe affecting you?

• Two children found dead in car in France as heatwave hits Europe

Italy’s health ministry has declared a red heatwave alert in 15 cities including Milan and Rome on Tuesday and said the number would go up to 16 on Wednesday.

During a red alert – the highest level – the ministry advises people to eat light, stay indoors in the hottest parts of the day and sprinkle themselves with cool water.

World Cup 2026: Martínez says criticism of Ronaldo and Portugal ‘unfair’; England face Ghana – live

⚽ All the latest news from day 13 of the tournament
⚽ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail Martin

Our man in the camp David Hytner goes under the hood (nailed it) of England’s preparations for the Black Stars.

Thomas Tuchel shares his view on what Ghana will bring in Foxborough: “I expect more ball possession. I expect Ghana to rely on counterattacks because they are very physical, very fast and dangerous.”

UK’s former Brexit negotiator says Burnham should ditch much of Starmer’s EU reset if made PM – Europe live

As UK marks 10 years since the EU referendum, David Frost says outgoing prime minister’s team ‘didn’t think hard enough about the choices and the processes’

Whoever becomes the next UK prime minister will have plenty of political space to move closer to Europe, polling expert John Curtice has said.

His comments come as many domestically and in Europe begin to question whether the potential future British prime minister will move further away or closer to the EU than Keir Starmer.

“Labour’s vote is something like three-quarters to four-fifths pro-Rejoin [the EU] vote.

Labour has always had much more potential political opportunity to be able to go further in terms of our relationship with the European Union, but it does mean that the Labour Party has to end its hang up about the ‘Red Wall.’”

“Actually the reason why public opinion has shifted from what was, 52:48 in favour of Brexit no being roughly 60, 40 rejoin is partly to do with the fact that leave voters are less likely to say they would vote to stay out, than remain voters … say rejoin.

There is a bit of a gut [feeling] there, but we have to remember now that there are 10 years worth of our population who were too young to vote in 2016.

And if you actually look at the perceptions of the people who did not vote in 2016, whether they were too young or not, they, and their perceptions of the consequences of Brexit, including on the economy, look much closer to the views of remain voters than those of leave voters.”

U.S. lifts Iran oil sanctions. And, federal judge rules SAVE voter tool unlawful

The U.S. has temporarily lifted oil sanctions on Iran as peace talks continue. And, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration's data system, known as SAVE, is unlawful.

‘When my brother died, it separated us’: the grief and trauma pulling apart siblings of homicide

When André Robinson Jr was shot and killed in Oakland in 2020, his family was upended – how do siblings navigate the fallout from violent loss?

The Robinson family once looked forward to Sundays. It was the day they would gather with dozens of their closest relatives and friends to eat, laugh and catch up. “Sunday was the day that we cherished the most,” said RoShanda Robinson, the oldest child in the family.

But in the fall of 2020, these get-togethers abruptly stopped. A day that used to include bountiful meals and booming laughter suddenly became a painful reminder of life-changing loss.

Can the UK kick its cod habit? Fish and chip shop favourite slips down the menu as prices soar

The cost of the traditional takeaway has doubled since 2019, and more outlets are trying to tempt customers with cheaper options such as coley, pollack and hake

In late April, visitors to Harbour Lights in Falmouth, Cornwall, may have raised an eyebrow. The fish and chip shop was in the midst of a “cod-free week”, its owners having removed cod from its menu entirely.

It was the second time owner Pete Fraser had undertaken the experiment, 15 years after the first. He also removed cod from his shops in Penzance and Helston, replacing it with coley, pollack, hake and hoki. The result was very different. “Some of the feedback we had, which certainly wasn’t what we got when we ran it years ago, is ‘Can you repeat this?’ Before, it was like, ‘Have you guys lost your head’?”

Childbirth room? It’s next to the period room … the astonishing Kerala homes designed for women’s bodies

The tharavad is a traditional style of housing designed for and run by women. Our writer went on a pilgrimage to find her own family’s – and uncovered a way of life fast disappearing

A chance conversation with a distant family member led me to Palayil, the name bestowed on my ancestral tharavad. The latter is the name given to a house designed around women. Ours had stood, in some form, since at least the 17th century. My great-grandmother, Palayil Sreedevi, was the last woman in my line to live in one. It was in the southern Indian village of Tholanur.

My great-grandmother belonged to the Nair community, a matrilineal caste with its origins in the state of Kerala. Historically, it was a martial nobility that served royal dynasties. For centuries, Nair boys left home at 12 to train as soldiers before being dispatched to serve the Travancore royal family. When men returned, they often slept in outhouses – satellites to the tharavad of women.

Air pollution is a fixable problem – just look at how London and New York have cleaned up their acts | Sadiq Khan and Michael Bloomberg

We’ve shown that rapid, measurable progress is achievable in our cities. Here’s how that can now be replicated worldwide

• Sadiq Khan is the mayor of London. Michael Bloomberg is a former mayor of New York City

Some public health threats make global headlines: Covid-19. Ebola. Famine. When these disasters hit, photographs and videos of people suffering and dying spur countries to respond, international bodies to cooperate and individuals to donate supplies and money. Yet one of the world’s deadliest threats gets almost no attention at all, because it is largely invisible to the public and mostly absent from media coverage: air pollution.

Every day, billions of people are inhaling air that is shortening their lives and making them sicker with every breath. Every year, air pollution kills more than 8 million people worldwide. That’s more deaths than HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined. It hides in plain sight and strikes without mercy, leading to heart and lung disease, cancers and other deadly conditions.

Sadiq Khan is the mayor of London. Michael Bloomberg is a former mayor of New York City

Actor James Handy's alleged killer found mentally incompetent for prosecution

A judge has found that a man charged with murder in the stabbing of actor James Handy isn't mentally competent for criminal court proceedings.

When falling housing prices are good news — and when they're not

Denver renters are celebrating falling housing costs. But sometimes cheaper housing is a sign of economic decline. How can you tell the difference?

The Breakdown | End-of-season rugby union awards: best games, players and more

From that crunch classic in Paris to the Red Roses’ trailblazing and Rhys Carré’s try, our pick of the moments that made the 2026-27 season

Best games attended
1) 14 March, France 48-46 England. Thirteen tries – including four for Louis Bielle-Biarrey – and a last-gasp winning penalty from Thomas Ramos. Truly magnifique.

Millions of bees escape after truck crashes in Texas: "Remain indoors"

The owner of Moore Honey estimated that only about a quarter of the 408 hives would survive.

Sizzle reels: nine films to watch in a heatwave

Whether you fire up the outdoor projector or Netflix and chill in a cool, dark place – let the escapism of cinema be a balm amid the punishingly hot weather

As you will no doubt have noticed, it is quite warm out. Historically warm, in fact. By the end of the week it is likely that the UK will have seen its warmest June day since records began. The Met Office has issued a red warning, recommending that people stay out of the sun entirely. Which sounds an awful lot like code for “stay inside and watch films.”

But which films? It seems only right to watch something that reflects this apocalyptic weather somehow. Here are some suggestions:

N.Y. House primaries test Mamdani's influence, and more races to watch today

Voters are going to the polls Tuesday for contests in New York, South Carolina, Maryland and Utah.

‘I’ve had a huge life, so I needed a big budget’: Madonna says biopic was scrapped after ‘falling out’ with studio

‘Maybe they just didn’t believe in me,’ the pop star said of Universal, which was set to make a film about her life starring Julia Garner

Madonna says that the long-gestating movie about her life that she was personally overseeing was cancelled after she fell out with Hollywood studio Universal over the size of the film’s budget.

Speaking to Interview magazine, Madonna said: “We had a falling out, me and Universal, regarding budget because I needed – I’ve had an extraordinary life. I’ve had a huge life, so I needed a big budget.”

David Squires on … the big names putting on a show at World Cup

Our cartoonist on the heroes, villains and superstar performances in week two of the tournament

• Buy a cartoon | Some of David’s favourite works

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

New Yorkers vote as Democrats weigh competing visions in era of Trump

Democratic primary elections to test strength of party’s left flank as old guard faces string of challenges

New Yorkers were voting on Tuesday in a slate of Democratic primaries poised to reveal the strength of the party’s left flank and shape the battle for control of the US House of Representatives in November.

Voters in Maryland and Utah will also nominate congressional candidates on Tuesday, while South Carolina holds a series of runoff elections for candidates who did not receive a majority of the vote earlier this month.

Mystery of hit on Tren de Aragua leader: is it linked to US mining plans in Venezuela?

Trump boasted of assassinating Héctor Guerrero Flores but details are scarce and experts doubt it will harm drug trade

At 10am on 9 June, a huge explosion rattled Las Claritas, a ramshackle town on the edge of a vast goldmine carved out of the Venezuelan Amazon.

“The blast was so powerful that my sister’s house shook, and she was 10 kilometres away,” said one miner, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons. “Imagine the impact.”

Rory Kennedy revisits Boeing in new film sparked by whistleblower’s death: ‘We’ve got to stay at this’

Film-maker talks about her documentary on John Barnett, the Boeing whistleblower who killed himself in 2024

It is widely recognized that for the Kennedys, tragedy has come often and from unexpected quarters. The filmmaker Rory Kennedy, born six months after the assassination of her father Robert Kennedy, has known her share. But in 2024 it was a loss outside the political dynasty that shook her to the core.

John Barnett, a quality inspector turned whistleblower at Boeing, one of the world’s biggest plane manufacturers, was found dead in his truck outside a hotel in Charleston, South Carolina. Affectionately known as “Swampy” because of his roots in Louisiana, Barnett had a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

In Iran, Trump’s victory claims only deepened a self-made catastrophe | Sidney Blumenthal

What the US president succeeded in obliterating was any rationale he offered for going to war

Before Donald Trump finally surrendered in his Iran war, he declared victory several dozen times, including on day eight– “We’ve already won!” – day 10 – “The war is very complete”– day 12, proclaiming he had won five times in 13 seconds – “We’ve won, let me say we’ve won. You know, you never like to say too early you won, we won, we won the bet in the first hour it was over”– and day 39 –“Total and complete victory, 100%. No question about it”– and claimed a deal to end the war was just around the corner 38 times. The first time he raised the prospect of peace, on day 24, he said the two sides had reached “almost all points of agreement”.

Trump boldly affixed his signature with a sharpie to the Memorandum Of Understanding on day 110, 17 June, at the Palace of Versailles, where the ruinous treaty concluding the first world war was signed. He seemed oblivious to the historical symbolism of the place, but bedazzled by its gold. “Versailles is not gold leaf – Versailles is the real deal,” he remarked.

‘Some are prayers, some are protests’: 76 musicians reimagine America the Beautiful

The iconic song has been given a diverse new set of versions thanks to pianist Min Kwon’s ambitious musical project

Despite what you may have heard, there is no definitive version of the song America the Beautiful.

Katharine Lee Bates wrote its lyrics as a poem in 1893, inspired by an ecstatic road trip from the Massachusetts house she shared with her longtime companion Katharine Coman to a teaching gig in Colorado. Over the next few decades, dozens of musicians set it to music, including New Jersey’s Samuel A Ward. His 1882 uniting of the text to a hymn he’d previously composed became, in time, a standard. In 1972, Ray Charles recorded the more or less definitive performance of it. But everyone from Pete Seeger to Tammy Faye Messner have tried their hand at Bates’s ode to equality between peoples and equanimity with nature. At Joe Biden’s inauguration, Jennifer Lopez belted it into a medley, while Carrie Underwood struggled through it at Donald Trump’s second one.

Peter Murrell jailed for five years after embezzling £400,000 from SNP

Estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon is sentenced for stealing from party over 12-year period

Peter Murrell has been sentenced to five years and three months in jail after he admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the Scottish National party while he was its chief executive.

Murrell stole the money over a 12-year period, splashing out on a luxury motorhome, a Jaguar SUV, Montblanc pens and luxury watches, a set of Lalique salt and pepper grinders and 2kg of coffee granules.

Iran's president heads to Pakistan as U.S.-Iran teams work on war-ending deal

President Masoud Pezeshkian's visit to Islamabad comes as technical teams were working on details of the deal, following high-level negotiations in Switzerland on Monday led by US Vice President JD Vance and Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf.

How Europe is grappling with extreme heat as red alerts issued in Britain, France, Spain and Italy

Several European countries issued red weather alerts as a fresh bout of extreme heat pushed temperatures beyond 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

Houseplant hacks: does putting gravel at the bottom of pots improve drainage?

Generations of gardeners have added stones to their pots before topping up with compost, but does it really help?

The problem
Most old houseplant guides suggest adding a layer of gravel or stones to the bottom of the pot before adding compost. It is presented as basic good practice; the thing you do to stop soil from retaining water, which can cause root rot.

The hack
This layer of gravel is said to improve drainage by providing a place for excess water to collect below the root zone, keeping roots above the waterlogged area and allowing air to reach them from beneath.

Goodbye, pilates princess – hello, gym goblin: how the just-got-out-of-bed look took over fitness

The colour-coordinated ‘clean girl’ athleisure aesthetic is dead. Now it’s all about mismatched outfits and vintage sportswear

At first, the goblins came for our downtime. Going “goblin mode” was a lifestyle confined to the home – to the bed, mostly. The “comforts of depravity” it brought (“watching 90 Day Fiancé on mute while scrolling endlessly through social media, pouring the end of a bag of chips in your mouth”, for example) weren’t compatible with doing anything productive.

Enter the gym goblin. The optics remain much the same – think ancient T-shirts, knackered socks, oversized cardigans – but the setting has changed, with goblincore devotees rising up from unmade beds, Diet Cokes in hand, to hit the treadmill. It’s Diana, Princess of Wales’s oversized college sweatshirts meets Josh O’Connor’s half-tracksuit look for the Disclosure Day press tour – and the polar opposite of the matcha-drinking, Lululemoned “clean girl” aesthetic that dominates fitness circles.

NBA draft 2026 predictions: a consensus at No 1 and a rising Mexican star

AJ Dybantsa is widely expected to have his name called first on Tuesday. But which other young stars are worth keeping an eye on?

AJ Dybantsa looked like a pro among college kids in his lone season at BYU, becoming just the fifth Division I player in the last 40 years to average more than 25 points per game while shooting better than 51%. Even beyond the numbers, Dybantsa’s natural length and ability to create his own shot make him look more like a future All-Star than Kansas’s Darryn Peterson, whose load-management habits stand in stark contrast to Dybantsa’s workhorse approach. Andrew Lawrence

‘Devastating’: lives of nurses and patients upended by Trump migrant crackdown

Withdrawal of TPS designation puts workers who fill vital role in peril – and risks further shortages in US health system

When Dolores Jacoby’s doctor told her there was little she could do to treat her acute myeloid leukemia, a deafening silence filled the hospital room, where she was surrounded by her family. Dolores had only recently been diagnosed with the rare aggressive cancer. Her beloved nursing assistant, Janeth, was standing just outside her room. After the doctor left, Janeth entered with a tray containing each family member’s favorite beverage. “If there’s anybody who can recover, it’s your mother,” she told John Jacoby, Dolores’s son, before leaving the room as inconspicuously as she had arrived.

It was 2012. More than a decade later, John still remembers that day in his mother’s hospital room in the San Francisco Bay Area clearly. “We had just heard the worst news of our lives, and Janeth injected life into my mom, into her veins, into the atmosphere, you know, for all of us,” he said.

How Trump's 'Complete and Total Endorsement' has reshaped the Republican Party

An NPR analysis of more than a thousand Trump endorsements in House, Senate and governor races over the last decade finds the president now picks candidates earlier — and in safer races.

As Republican Party looks to future without Trump in office, Utah could be a road map

In 2028, President Trump will not be on the ballot, leaving Republicans to decide the future of the party. Utah — which has a complicated relationship with the president — could be a starting point.

Morning news brief

U.S. lifts oil sanctions on Iran, Trump visits Pennsylvania to tout economic wins, judge blocks DOJ subpoenas targeting Minnesota officials.

StubHub UK fined almost £900,000 over ‘hidden’ ticket fees

Reseller is also ordered to refund more than 50,000 fans, while its rival Viagogo remains under investigation

• Business live – latest updates

The online ticket reseller StubHub UK has been fined almost £900,000 and ordered to make payments to more than 50,000 fans for not showing the full price of tickets at the time of booking, an illegal practice known as “drip pricing”.

The UK competition watchdog, which launched an investigation into the sales practices of eight companies including the rival reseller Viagogo UK last year, said StubHub must issue refunds exceeding £590,000 to customers.

SpaceX drops more than 3% following $400 billion selloff

Gains have been pared back at the space and AI company following an initial surge after its record-breaking IPO.

Artwork removed from National Portrait Gallery after row over Churchill’s role in Bengal famine

Turner prize winner Helen Cammock withdraws piece after 50 peers criticise claim former PM ‘starved people’

An artwork by a Turner prize-winning artist has been removed from the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) after a row about the role Winston Churchill played in the 1943 Bengal famine.

The Persistence video installation by Helen Cammock was taken down on Monday after a week of criticism as pressure mounted on the gallery.

The Morrigan review – spirit of pagan demon queen unleashed in Irish burial chamber horror

Archaeologists blunder into an ancient and unwittingly release a vengeful monster – with predictable and conventional results

In Irish folklore, the Morrígan is a powerful goddess of death and war. This horror movie imagines her as an actual historical figure: a pagan queen massacred with her followers by Christians. A quick scene at the start of the film shows the dirty deed. The Morrígan’s rage against misogyny has screamed down through the centuries – so it’s a shame the film frames her not as a feminist icon but a highly conventional horror movie nemesis; a malign vengeful female to be crushed and destroyed. There is nothing to punch the air about in the end.

Saffron Burrows plays an archaeologist called Fiona who has been repeatedly passed over for tenure at her US university. When Fiona presents her radical theory that the myth of the Morrígan may have a basis in real life, her slippery colleague Jonathan (Jonathan Forbes) is made the lead on the dig. Fiona is forced to bring along her rebellious teenager daughter Lily (Emily Flain), who has just been expelled from boarding school. And it is poor Lily who is possessed by the Morrígan when the archaeologists blunder into her burial chamber, unleashing demonic powers that were hidden underground by priests, like some pagan nuclear waste, 1,500 years ago.

Fantastic Kingdom by Helene von Bismarck review – an outsider’s guide to British politics

This stranger’s-eye-view of an eccentric nation promises insight but delivers only conventional wisdom

‘Continental people have sex lives; the English have hot-water bottles.” So observed Hungarian journalist George Mikes in How to Be an Alien (1946), one of the finest examples of a tradition in which foreigners explain Britain to itself. From Voltaire to VS Naipaul, outsiders have often illuminated national peculiarities, revealing contradictions so embedded in British life that they pass unnoticed. Helene von Bismarck’s Fantastic Kingdom is the latest contribution to this genre.

Von Bismarck, a distant relative by marriage of the Iron Chancellor, seems ideally placed for the task. The name alone gives her project a certain piquancy; there is something almost Pynchonesque about a German historian with that name attempting to decipher Britain for the British. Raised across Europe as the daughter of a diplomat, educated at the same Brussels school attended by Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen, and a frequent visitor to the UK for two decades, she possesses the combination of distance and familiarity that can produce genuine insight. Her grand theme is that Britain is a “bewildering, complex, and wildly contradictory place”: a monarchy and a liberal democracy; a state of four nations; hostile to immigration yet remarkably pluralistic; obsessed with hierarchy yet strikingly informal. These tensions provide the book’s organising principle.

Nissan ‘shelves all-electric Qashqai plans’ as it cuts costs

Firm has been developing full EV version of its top-selling model in Europe at its plant in Sunderland

• Business live – latest updates

Nissan has reportedly stopped developing a fully electric version of its Qashqai, its top-selling model in Europe, as the Japanese carmaker looks to cut a fifth of its models and slash costs.

The carmaker quietly halted development of a full EV version of the Qashqai at Sunderland, the site of the UK’s largest car factory, last year, according to a report by Reuters.

‘Geldof started flicking Vs at Farage’: the story of the Brexit campaign, told by those with a front-row seat

How five months in 2016 that encompassed Boris Johnson siding with Vote Leave, Jo Cox’s murder and David Cameron’s resignation shaped the UK’s future

David Cameron, having promised in 2013 that a future Conservative government would offer a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, announces the date of the vote: 23 June 2016. The next day, Boris Johnson, then the mayor of London, says he will campaign for leave.

Scottish fans’ friendly USA invasion exemplifies the joy of the World Cup | Philipp Lahm

Major tournaments bring people together and Scotland’s welcome presence adds to the case for a 48-team event

I could watch videos of the Scots online for hours. Wearing kilts, they marched through Boston playing bagpipes. In the stadium, the Tartan Army roared their team to victory against Haiti, their first World Cup win in 36 years.

Afterwards they went to a baseball game and, singing and wearing knee-length red socks, turned a Boston Red Sox home game into part of the World Cup – and one of its highlights, too. In the stadium they had the rules of this sport, which we Europeans find difficult to understand, explained to them.

Fit with just five minutes’ exercise a day? I don’t believe it | Devi Sridhar

Everyone these days wants to optimise their workouts, but when a study seems too good to be true, it usually is

• Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh

We live in an increasingly polarised world – and I’m not talking about politics, I’m talking about exercise. There’s a fitness community obsessed with constant optimisation and hacks: how can you get from 50 press-ups to 100, from an eight-minute mile to seven minutes, or increase your deadlifts from body weight to double or triple body weight – ideally using just “one weird trick” or novel method no one has seen before.

It seems as if no one is happy with basic fitness or steady progress. Or people are overly concerned with what’s secretly holding them back, from sleep to “I had a couple of glasses of wine … it ruined three days of my life” (that’s Steven Bartlett’s podcast).

Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh

Awake Awake by Fiona Mozley review – in pursuit of false memories

From the Booker-shortlisted author, a tantalisingly unreliable account of childhood, history and mental uncertainty

The historian and novelist Fiona Mozley acknowledged in a 2018 piece for the Guardian that the city of York had a major influence on both her careers. Childhood and adolescence in a place such as York, full of time and times, can generate conflict between “the desire to live in the past and the need to extract oneself from it”. Awake Awake, a follow-up to her previous novels, 2017’s Booker-shortlisted Elmet and 2021’s Hot Stew, engages with two types of memory: the personal and the historical. They’re not exactly at odds, but as far as living in the past is concerned they feed on one another in a complex, entangled relationship.

Narrator Mary Mooney – also a novelist, also from York, and whose first book is also shortlisted for a major prize – tells the story of her mental illness. Or she seems to. She begins in childhood. We’re introduced to her parents and her parents’ friends, religious academics in York; to her home in Cathedral Close; to school and her school friends, with whom she will stay in contact as she grows up. Life is a round of family occasions, church events and church politics, spiced with adventure and wild excitement in the countryside, mischief in the classroom. Detail is piled on detail and presented with photographic clarity, from her father, with his “large, pointed nose and grey eyes that looked greener than usual when he was outside in the vegetable patch”, to the fall of the Twin Towers, which she recalls seeing “on a television in the school staff room … looking through the door from the outside and glimpsing it on the tiny screen”.

Whoosh! Jacques Henri Lartigue’s world of colour – in pictures

The French artist is best known for his black-and-white images of high society, but a new exhibition shows us that he was also a bold and brilliant colour pioneer

Self-doubt, burnout … and Taylor Swift: why Toy Story 5 is the ultimate millennial girl movie

Nostalgia hits hard for anyone who has grown up with the franchise. But little could prepare me for the emotional punch of this latest film – and the very specific vulnerabilities it taps

Emily named her daughter Jessie. Any millennial woman watching Toy Story 5 over the weekend just about held it together before finally letting the sobs roll at this discovery. The film takes our yarn-haired cowgirl back to her first kid’s home, where she ends up at the tree they used to play in. An unearthed memory box is packed with photos showing Emily grown up, happy and cuddling the child she gave her beloved toy’s name to. Many thirty- and fortysomething women sat watching the scene in the cinema next to their own daughters; some were thinking of the ones they want but don’t have; and others reflected on a decision to be child-free. All of us, though, also took a teary minute for our own girlhoods.

Toy Story has always spoken to adults as deeply as it does to kids, and flock-herding feminist Bo Peep gave a lesson on living life on your own terms away from traditional expectations in the fourth film. But this reveal is the moment that truly tugs the hearts of women who grew up with the franchise.

Messi in a class of his own and rain stops play in Philadelphia – World Cup Daily

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Alexander Abnos and Mark Langdon as Lionel Messi becomes the all-time top goalscorer at World Cups, while there’s a huge storm delay in France 3-0 Iraq

Australia not planning a ‘truce’ to play for World Cup draw against Paraguay

• Both teams could progress with a draw in final Group D game

• Not in Australia’s nature to ‘take foot off gas’, says Jason Geria

Socceroos defender Jason Geria insists there will be no “truce” made with Paraguay in their final World Cup pool match in San Francisco on Thursday (Friday AEST).

Both nations will almost certainly progress with a draw, a result that would place Australia second in Group D behind the USA. Paraguay would also be likely to progress to the knockout round as one of the best third-placed teams.

Levitating penguins and predatory ants: Australian Geographic nature photographer of the year 2026 shortlist – in pictures

A hundred incredible images have been shortlisted by the South Australian Museum as part of this year’s Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition. In its 23rd year, the competition attracted 2,129 entries from 501 photographers in 17 countries. Entries were accepted covering content from across the ANZANG bioregion – Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea

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.

Amine Gouiri pounces to give Algeria victory and condemn Jordan to early World Cup exit

Algeria stormed back to beat Jordan 2-1 and eliminate the World Cup debutants with a match to spare ⁠thanks to second-half goals ⁠from substitute Nadhir ​Benbouali and Amine Gouiri.

Benbouali’s header cancelled out Nizar Al-Rashdan’s first-half opener and Gouiri poked home in a goalmouth scramble eight minutes from time to revive Algeria’s ⁠campaign after their opening 3-0 loss to Argentina.

Pajeon and japchae: Joo Won’s recipes for Korean-style vegetarian starters

Rather than being relegated to side orders, vegetables take centre stage in everyday Korean cooking, as these pancake and noodle dishes show

Vegetables play a central role in Korean cuisine, and they form the backbone of everyday meals, rather than simply acting as side dishes. They provide balance, nutrition, colour and variety, often through preparations such as kimchi, namul and seasonal banchan. Our vegetable cooking focuses on simplicity and preserving natural flavour, often using techniques such as blanching, light sauteeing, fermenting and pickling, and typically seasoning with garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce and fermented pastes such as doenjang and gochujang. This approach reflects Korea’s long tradition of plant-focused cooking shaped by seasonality, resourcefulness and the need for preserved foods. Together, vegetables create harmony and contrast within a meal.

Drug that delays onset of type 1 diabetes approved in England and Wales

Availability of teplizumab on the NHS – which postpones early stages of disease for up to three years – described as an ‘incredible moment’

The world’s first drug to delay the onset of type 1 diabetes is to be made available on the NHS in England and Wales, in the biggest breakthrough in tackling the disease for more than a century.

Millions of people have type 1 diabetes worldwide, which typically emerges during childhood or adolescence, and occurs when the pancreas makes little or no insulin. Insulin is a hormone the body uses to allow glucose to enter cells to produce energy.

‘Compound shock effect’: why the Middle East crisis and El Niño could spell disaster in south-east Asia

Millions of tonnes of the world’s food could be lost amid the uncertainties surrounding the strait of Hormuz and the dangers of a ‘Godzilla-strength’ El Niño

When the US and Israel launched the war on Iran, south-east Asian nations were amongst the first and hardest hit, as the closure of the strait of Hormuz cut off supplies of energy and fertiliser.

Governments across the region, heavily reliant on the waterway, raced to find ways to reduce their fuel use: in the Philippines, many government workers were put on a four-day week. In Vietnam, employers were urged to allow staff to work from home. In Thailand, offices were urged to set air-conditioning units to 27C.

Country diary: Birds of a feather in a noisy argument | Mary Montague

Queen’s University, Belfast: The corvids in the branches above me spring a surprise – there’s a black crow among them

The rain hurries me to shelter at the woods’ edge, but I’m scarcely under the branches of a mature sycamore when the canopy starts to thrash. Abrasive voices erupt from the foliage as a rabble of crows dispute. One leaps into a gap between the leaves, crouching, its ash-grey body low over a branch and fanning its black tail. The throat inflates to bray the bird’s anger. In response, the object of its fury hops on to the branch above it, all the while giving as good as it gets. Something niggles me about that one – I squint, then blink in surprise. It’s a black crow.

As a bookish youngster growing up in rural County Fermanagh, it took a while for me to grasp that the crows I encountered in real life were not, in fact, black. The hooded or grey crow is the common crow across all of Ireland. With its two-tone livery of grey torso and black extremities, it’s a handsome bird. The “hoodie” is also found in the north of Scotland. The closely related all-black carrion crow is a far more familiar sight throughout the rest of Britain, with sparse numbers along the east coast of Northern Ireland.

‘Nightmare’ shooting in Montreal leaves three dead including police officer and bystander

Videos showed suspect armed with a long gun shooting at police in Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood

A suspect armed with a long gun opened fire on Monday at a Montreal hotel, killing a police officer before officers returned fire, killing him, police said. A civilian also died but it wasn’t immediately clear who fired that shot.

The police chief, Fady Dagher, said a second officer was seriously injured in the shooting in the city’s Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood but is in stable condition.

Piglet, it’s a purple, psychedelic shapeshifter! The wild new creature prowling Winnie-the-Pooh’s wood

Is it an alien? A dinosaur? Is it going to kill us all? Our writer hits Ashdown Forest for the Big One Hundred celebrations – and finds its magic enchanting new generations

The rolling idyll of heath and forest, spinney and stream that gave us the Heffalump, the Woozle and, most famously of all, Winnie-the-Pooh, has a new fantastical resident. Creeping through the bracken, making strange cooing and purring noises, is a shapeshifting creature with a huge tubular nose and eyes inspired by adders. It shimmies with iridescent patches and the psychedelic purple of flowering heather in high summer.

Poppet, a puppet made by costume designer Jack Irving and brought to life by a team of 10 award-winning puppeteers, is performing for schoolchildren in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex. The primary school class squeal with delighted fear as the purple apparition transforms itself from caterpillar to bird to munching monster in sinuous moves.

Hannah Byczkowski: ‘The Traitors helped me become a better comedian’

The Traitors-winning standup talks about quitting palliative care work for the stage and the dangers of mistaking a cockatoo for a cocktail

How did you go from a career in palliative care to standup comedy?
I had a bit of a midlife crisis. I was being with people while they were dying, and I kind of lost all sensitivity for it. That’s when I realised that I’d come to the end of that career. I always wanted to do something creative, but wasn’t really sure how. I tried writing a book, then standup – and realised that’s what I wanted to do.

The show discusses craft projects with loved ones’ ashes …
People are doing some really weird stuff with them. People are getting ashes tattooed into them and people eat them, put them in a chilli.

Hannah Byczkowski: Killer is at Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh, 5-30 August

A thousand years old and 20 storeys high: tracking down Taiwan’s tallest trees

The country’s biggest tree – named Heaven Sword of the Da’an River – is a carbon-storing behemoth hosting whole neighbourhoods of wildlife. But this and other giant trees are under threat

The higher you climb up the gigantic, millennia-old trees of Taiwan’s forests, the more layers of habitat and life emerge. On the forest floor, ferns thrive in the moist shade. Flying squirrels and owls sleep inside the hollow tree trunks. Yellow bell-shaped rhododendron flowers spring from the lower tree canopy. Higher still, dense lichen spread. Up in cloud-drenched branches, a rare, hardy orchid, Bulbophyllum ciliisepalum, can be spotted.

“In one tree, every species has their preferred location,” says Dr Rebecca Hsu, assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute. “Every metre the temperature, the wind, the sun, the light is different.”

‘Navigating the unknown together’: me and my idiot AI boyfriend

I believe that chatbots have no place in a decent society, and am repelled by the topic of AI in general. But could I be seduced?

I received a text message from my editor: “Um, is it unethical to ask you to get an AI bf?? You can prob say no.”

Resentment. Contempt! Sorrow. Unease. I love text messaging. I have text message exchanges with, let’s say, 15 people a day. If you want me to do something, you should ask via text message. My editor knows this. She also knows, though it’s more complicated, that I love boyfriends. An AI boyfriend is a boyfriend who always, only texts back, immediately.

I find it hard to express my emotions openly. (No.)

I thrive to develop healthier, more trusting relationships. (Yes, though I prefer to use “thrive” correctly.)

I want a partner who supports my life aspirations. (Crossbow?)

I worry about being judged for what I want in a relationship. (Yes.)

'I like their money': Trump threatens lawsuits against ABC for reporting on Reflecting Pool

The latest action against ABC comes as the broadcaster faces two investigations from the Federal Communications Commission.

Banned on Broadway, a new generation of music software is shrinking musical theatre orchestras

Musicians are losing jobs, or stretched further in the gigs they can get, as KeyComp and other technologies replace human players in the pit

Few fans of Disney’s The Lion King would think to peer over the railing of Sydney’s Capitol Theatre orchestra pit. But if they did, they would find the musicians have plenty of elbow room.

During The Lion King’s Australian debut season in 2003, there would have been 17 players. Now there are just 11.

Lionel Messi breaks record for most career World Cup goals

Lionel Messi made history Monday as he scored the 17th and 18th goals of his World Cup career, a new record. Lilia Luciano reports.

Ukraine war briefing: ‘Our patience is not endless’ – Kyiv signals peace offer may expire

Full and unconditional ceasefire is a major compromise that Ukraine might ‘recalibrate and modify’, says UN envoy. What we know on day 1,581

Ukraine may revise its ceasefire offer to Russia if the UN security council fails to pass a resolution urging a full and ⁠unconditional end to ⁠the ​hostilities, Kyiv’s envoy to the UN has warned. Ukraine had changed ​the dynamic in the war with recent strikes, said Andrii Melnyk, adding that some 40% of Russia’s oil refineries had been damaged.

Melnyk told a security council session that Ukraine stoody ready for direct negotiations with Russia but “our patience is not endless”. “If the security council would further choose a wait-and-see approach, I cannot exclude that Ukraine may recalibrate and modify its offer. Ceasefire along the de facto ‌front line is already a great compromise.”

The envoy’s statement reflects growing confidence that Ukraine’s war effort is on the front foot, with Russian cities starved of fuel supplies and a “middle strike” campaign seriously disrupting supply lines to Moscow’s occupying forces. The campaign’s success has prompted Russian-held Crimea to halt civilian gasoline sales, Pjotr Sauer writes. All summer camps in illegally annexed Crimea on Monday stopped accepting children and new bookings until 1 September for security reasons, said Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of the illegally occupied peninsula. Aviation authorities temporarily closed Moscow’s four airports on Monday as air defences battled a wave of Ukrainian drones.

Ukraine’s military said it ⁠hit a plant producing electronics for missiles in Russia’s border Voronezh region on Monday and the Russian region’s governor said five people ⁠were killed and ⁠dozens injured ​in the attack. The Ukrainian general staff said precision air-launched cruise missiles hit the facility, which ⁠it described as a “critical component” in Russia’s defence production, making parts for missiles including the Iskander.

Russia’s Dubna satellite communications ⁠centre ⁠in ​the Moscow region was also hit, the Ukrainian general ⁠staff said. Russia’s state-run Tass news agency reported “a massive drone attack by the Ukrainian armed forces”. A top Ukrainian drone maker, General Cherry, meanwhile said that one of its factories had been hit – a rare disclosure.

In the early hours of Tuesday the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was put on air raid alert as authorities told people ⁠to seek shelter. Two people sought medical ⁠help after Russian forces struck the south-eastern ​region of ‌Zaporizhzhia, said the governor, Ivan ‌Fedorov. Three more ‌people were wounded in Sumy, in the north, late on Monday, emergency services said. A drone attack on Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv left one woman wounded, ‌said the mayor, Ihor Terekhov.

Earlier a Russian drone strike on Sumy in north-eastern Ukraine killed three members of one family, including a 13-year-old boy. “Their home was destroyed,” said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president. “An ordinary home – not a military target whatsoever.” The attack also wounded two others, regional military head Oleh Hryhorov said on Monday.

A Russian nighttime drone strike also killed a woman and wounded three people, including an 11-year-old boy, in the south-eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, regional head Ivan Fedorov said on Monday. Russia has continuously targeted Ukrainian civilian areas with drones and missiles, and the UN reports more than 16,000 civilian deaths in the war. Recent attacks have increased civilian casualties, with May seeing the highest monthly total since April 2022: at least 274 civilians killed and 1,763 injured.

A Russian drone attack hit a ship in the Black Sea, starting a fire and killing its Egyptian cook, said the Ukrainian deputy prime minister Oleksii Kuleba. Eight other sailors, including citizens of Turkey and India, abandoned ship on a life raft while the vessel “sustained significant damage and lost seaworthiness”, Kuleba said.

Clive Davis, legendary music executive, dies at age 94

Clive Davis helped shape the careers of music stars including Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen and Whitney Houston.

Children's book goes viral on TikTok, 40 years after being self-published

More than 40 years ago, a group of English professors at the University of Colorado wrote a children's book called "The Weighty Word Book." After a recent viral video post, the book sold more in a week than it had in nearly two decades. Tony Dokoupil has the story.

Remembering the life and legacy of Clive Davis

Clive Davis, the legendary music mogul who shaped the careers of several superstars, died Monday at 94. Carter Evans looks back on his life.

Iran war update: Vance puts positive spin on talks, but widespread skepticism remains

Vice President JD Vance said Monday he felt great about the progress made in more than 18 hours of Iran talks. Ed O'Keefe reports on the current state of the war.

Nancy Guthrie ransom note, believed to be from abductor, said she died, sources say

Authorities believe two ransom notes addressed to Nancy Guthrie's family — including a note that said she had died — were likely sent by the person or group of people who abducted her.

Tesla faces federal probe after Model 3 slams into Texas home, killing 76-year-old

Harris County authorities said that the driver, Michael Butler, said that he had been using Tesla's partially automated driving systems.

Daughter speaks out after mother killed by Tesla that crashed into her home

A speeding Tesla jumped a curb, slammed into a house and killed a woman inside. The man at the wheel survived, telling investigators the car was in "self-driving" mode. Jason Allen reports.

Ransom note saying Nancy Guthrie died was likely sent by abductor, investigators believe

A pair of ransom notes sent in February, including one saying Nancy Guthrie had died, were likely sent by Guthrie's abductor, investigators belive. Jonathan Vigliotti reports.

Trump says proof that vandals cut Reflecting Pool will be provided in court

President Trump has insisted that vandals, rather than questionable craftsmanship, are responsible for the enduring problems following the Reflecting Pool's $14.7 million sealant job.

Lost memoir of Hiroshima survivor found after decades in US archive

Written in 1947, Kiyoshi Tanimoto’s account of the horrors of the atomic bomb attack will be published in August and is being made into a film

The memoir of a man who survived the horrors of Hiroshima is to be published for the first time this summer after its discovery in a US archive.

The 230-page memoir was written almost 80 years ago by Kiyoshi Tanimoto, who witnessed the city’s destruction after the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. He will now be portrayed in a feature film by Takehiro Hira, whose acclaimed roles include the detective in the Netflix Japanese-British drama Giri/Haji. Pre-production begins in November, ahead of the shoot in February 2027.

Judge quashes 6 grand jury subpoenas against Minnesota officials

A U.S. District Judge ruled the Trump administration's use of grand jury subpoenas against Minnesota state and local officials was retaliatory and unlawful, finding no legitimate investigatory justification for them.

Ro Khanna challenges Elon Musk to televised debate after online DOGE battle

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., has been a critic of the Elon-Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency cuts.

A fire in LA has been burning for days. What’s taking so long to put it out?

While warehouse fires are often extinguished in a day, the Boyle Heights blaze is on its sixth day. Here’s what to know

Los Angeles firefighters are on their sixth day of battling a fire at a massive warehouse near downtown that stores frozen food.

Smoke has billowed from the warehouse, which was covered in solar panels and insulated like a freezer, filling the air surrounding the roughly 500,000-sq-ft (46,450-sq-meter) facility.

A timeline of Nancy Guthrie's disappearance as search stretches on

Savannah Guthrie's mom, Nancy Guthrie, was reported missing Feb. 1.

'We'll see' — Trump hedges on guarantee Iran won't use oil profits to rebuild military

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent authorized the import of Iranian oil and refined products into the U.S. through at least August.

Julián Alvarez sparks transfer frenzy by telling Atlético Madrid he wants to leave

• Argentina forward wants to ‘fulfil dream’ by departing

• Barcelona, Real Madrid and PSG linked with 26-year-old

Julián Alvarez has said he wants to ⁠leave Atlético Madrid to “fulfil his dream” following reported interest from Barcelona, Real Madrid ⁠and Paris Saint-⁠Germain.

“I ​spoke with people at the club [Atlético], with those I had to speak with, ⁠and the best thing for everyone is a transfer and I want to fulfil ⁠my dream,” Alvarez said after Argentina’s World Cup Group ​J win over Austria.

Met to expand use of live facial recognition into central London by Christmas

Technology to be used in six more areas next year as critics say tens of thousands of people will be forced into ‘digital police lineup’

The Metropolitan police is to expand its use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology, first into London’s West End by Christmas and then into a further six areas next year.

The new cameras will be fixed, and could be attached to street furniture such as lamp-posts. Critics said the new plans mean tens of thousands of people will be forced into a “digital police lineup”.

Trump plan would increase citizenship application fee by $570

A Trump administration plan would charge legal immigrants seeking citizenship $570 more in application fees while eliminating waivers and fee reductions for low-income applicants.

Senate passes landmark housing affordability bill after bipartisan breakthrough

The Senate passed a bill aimed at lowering housing costs on Monday after a major breakthrough and rare bipartisan consensus.

Senate advances housing bill to limit private equity purchases of single-family homes

The House is also expected to advance a sprawling housing package this week that's aimed at creating more supply and making homes more affordable.

6/22: CBS Evening News

2 killed, including police officer, in Montreal shooting; Nancy Guthrie's abductor likely sent ransom note saying she died, investigators believe.

Coke and Pepsi rolling out QR codes linked to ingredient information

The QR codes will take soda drinkers to a website listing more than 140 beverage ingredients and their nutritional content.

‘He’s the best’: magical Messi becomes World Cup’s all-time leading scorer

• Argentinian eclipses Klose to reach 18 goals at finals

• Check out the top scorers in men’s World Cup history

An exhausted Lionel Messi savoured the “special” feeling of becoming the World Cup’s all-time record goalscorer after his double gave Argentina a 2-0 victory over Austria.

Messi broke Germany striker Miroslav Klose’s record, set in 2014, by scoring his 17th goal on this stage seven minutes before half-time, adding another with the final action of the match. He had earlier missed a penalty and admitted his matchwinning contributions were necessary to wash away the taste of that aberration.

Arsenal make Villa’s Morgan Rogers their No 1 target in transfer window

• Champions expected to make an approach for forward

• Fee could be around £100m for Villa’s England player

Arsenal are expected to make an approach to sign Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa after identifying the England forward as their primary transfer target this summer.

The Premier League champions want to strengthen Mikel Arteta’s squad and are hopeful of bringing Rogers to north London, although he could cost up to £100m. Talks with Villa have yet to commence but they are expected to make contact in the coming weeks. The former European champions do not want to sell the 23-year-old, who also has interest from Chelsea and others, but Arsenal are confident of doing a deal.

House of the Dragon review – the orgy of carnage it should always have been

After two forgettable seasons, the Game of Thrones prequel finally comes into its own – blazing back on to our screens with the most epic dragon-based smackdown imaginable. Fans can breathe a fiery sigh of relief!

Ah yes, House of the Dragon! Unlikely as it is that a megabucks Game of Thrones prequel with a blue-chip cast could be forgettable, in its first two seasons HotD did not help itself, with the first either killing off its best characters too soon or recasting them to accommodate bewildering time jumps, and the second building and building to nothing. It returns for a third run without much wind in its dragon wings.

Breathe a fiery sigh of relief, then, at the news that this show has found its focus. The start of season three is a fine epic, balancing big battles with sharp two-hander scenes where dominance shifts and fatal personality flaws are forced out. Add the odd new face and a blast of comic relief here and there and you have proper Thrones.

Andy Burnham prepares for power as emotional Keir Starmer bows out

New Makerfield MP could get keys to No 10 unopposed after British prime minister’s resignation paves way for successor

• Who is Andy Burnham, the ‘man of the people’ likely to be next UK prime minister?

Keir Starmer has finally bowed to intense pressure to stand down as British prime minister as he conceded that he was no longer the right person to lead the country, leaving Andy Burnham all but certain to succeed him.

In an extraordinary day at Westminster, Starmer announced a timetable for his departure after months of growing discontent among Labour MPs and cabinet ministers, many unnerved by the threat from Reform UK before the next general election.

Burnham will begin to set out his policies next week with a series of speeches to demonstrate a symbolic shift from Starmer’s government, starting with the economy and devolution.

He is considering appointing Ed Miliband as chancellor in order to challenge Treasury orthodoxy but has not made a final decision. Sources said Burnham was aware of the potential risks with business and the unions opposed to the move, but could be prepared to make the argument.

Shabana Mahmood is expected to stay at the Home Office after the former Greater Manchester mayor praised the home secretary for “facing up” to the big issues on immigration during the byelection campaign.

Wes Streeting could be appointed to one of the top cabinet jobs, but did “not come with any leverage” to discussions, as campaign sources rejected his claims he had the numbers to run. Others have argued for him to be appointed chancellor to reassure the markets.

Starmer loyalists are still seeking a candidate who could stand against Burnham – depending on whether Miliband was chancellor. Darren Jones has been touted as a possibility, and although sources said he was not organising a run, they stopped short of a categorical denial.

Company owned by Trump donor won $1.7 million no-bid Reflecting Pool contract

The federal government awarded a company owned by a Trump donor $1.7 million to install a new water cleaning system for the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, records show.

6/22: The Takeout with Major Garrett

Vice President JD Vance says he feels great about progress on Iran talks; British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announces his resignation.

SpaceX stock tanks 16%, extending slump following post-IPO rally

A rally following the company's record breaking IPO on June 12 has cooled, with stock dropping the past three days of trading.

Clive Davis predicted music’s biggest stars like no one else | Alexis Petridis

The legendary music executive signed everyone from Patti Smith to Barry Manilow and changed the industry forever

• Clive Davis: music industry executive who signed Whitney Houston and Bruce Springsteen dies aged 94

• Clive Davis: a life in pictures from Diana Ross to Aretha Franklin

Clive Davis always claimed that his life in the music business was really kickstarted when he chose to attend the 1967 Monterey Pop festival: it was there he saw Janis Joplin and her band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and immediately bought their contract for $200,000, the first really high-profile signing of his career. But Davis was an unlikely fit at the most high-profile event of the Summer of Love: he was a Harvard-educated lawyer who had been “shocked” when a restructuring of Columbia Records saw him promoted from general counsel to the company’s president. He was sharp enough to spot which way the pop cultural wind was blowing – “a revolution in culture and philosophy”, he later recalled, “the Haight-Ashbury scene, with love peace and flowers” – but he was no one’s idea of a hippy. Amid a sea of paisley, batik, love beads and bells, Davis turned up to the festival clad in “khaki pants and a tennis sweater”.

It was an image he would often recall for comic effect – “I was the costumed freak surrounded by everyone with flowers in their hair” – but there was something rather telling about it too: Davis’s skill as what used to be called a record man lay in his ability to balance the progressive with the traditional. He turned one wing of Columbia into something of a home for artists associated with the burgeoning counterculture, swiftly signing Santana, Blood Sweat and Tears, the Electric Flag and the wonderful psychedelic soul band the Chambers Brothers. But he never lost sight of the other side of the company, which dealt lucratively in soundtracks and easy listening and was home to Barbra Streisand and Tony Bennett: at one juncture, he found himself simultaneously attempting to renegotiate the contracts of Bob Dylan and Andy Williams. When he founded Arista Records in 1974, he did exactly the same thing: it was a label that provided a home for both Patti Smith and Barry Manilow.

Judge blocks Trump administration's database of Americans' personal info

U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said the administration violated the law when it created a centralized database of Americans' personal records.

Polymarket launches probe after report alleges deceptive marketing

A Wall Street Journal investigation found that the prediction market paid content creators to produce videos of fake trades purporting to show big financial gains.

Companies are demanding states cut red tape. Data center-wary voters may think differently

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro touted a $20 billion economic development deal last June, the state's largest ever. It's caused Shapiro no shortage of grief.

The Guardian view on Labour’s leadership: Andy Burnham has a story. He must also have a plan | Editorial

Keir Starmer won power but never explained Britain’s crisis. The new MP for Makerfield offers a sharper diagnosis – and one that voters can understand

Political careers often end when circumstances demand qualities that a politician cannot supply. That seems especially true of Sir Keir Starmer. On Monday, he stepped down as Labour leader, hours before Andy Burnham arrived at Westminster to take his seat as MP for Makerfield.

Sir Keir’s achievements were real. He won a large parliamentary majority in 2024, provided more cash for the NHS and was steadfast in his support of Ukraine. He undoubtedly restored a measure of seriousness after years of Tory psychodrama. But the 2024 victory was always more brittle than it seemed: Labour’s vote actually fell from 2019 and Nigel Farage’s decision to stand candidates in 2024 fractured rightwing votes. Sir Keir won power; he did not change the political weather.

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.

The Guardian view on the death of Carlo Ginzburg: a historian who taught us to think about outsiders | Editorial

The work of one of Italy’s greatest scholars focused on ordinary lives oppressed by power and prejudice. That approach resonates today

Reflecting on the genesis of his most famous work, Carlo Ginzburg wrote that by immersing himself in the trial of a 16th-century miller burned by the Roman Inquisition, he turned a possible footnote into a book. Fifty years on, after being translated around the world, The Cheese and The Worms still stands as a supreme exemplar of historical research devoted to the lives of “the persecuted and the vanquished”.

Ginzburg’s death last week, at the age of 87, means that one of the last living links with a remarkable postwar generation of historians has gone. In its passion for reconstructing the fabric of lives previously thought too marginal to bother with, his writing had affinities with EP Thompson’s “history from below” movement and the Annales school in France. As the rise of 21st-century authoritarianism creates new generations of scapegoats and misfits, the approach of one of Italy’s greatest scholars speaks directly to our times.

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.

Meta's WhatsApp head to step down, will be replaced by Indian fintech founder Kunal Shah

Will Cathcart will step down as the head of WhatsApp and move into another role at the company. Kunal Shah will take over.

‘Institutional threat’: election of far-right leader raises fears for democracy in Colombia

Trump-admiring Abelardo de la Espriella has vowed to ‘disembowel’ the left and kill criminals like ‘rats and cockroaches’

When more than 20 women accused a Colombian evangelical pastor in 2012 of sexually abusing them, the defendant’s lawyer sought to discredit the allegations by telling the court that they were “trepadoras” – a pejorative term meaning social climbers.

He ultimately secured his client’s acquittal – although the case remains under review by the supreme court – but footage of the remark resurfaced during Colombia’s presidential campaign, sparking outrage among many progressive voters.