Mexico v South Africa: World Cup 2026 opening match – live

⚽️ Kick-off time: 1pm local/8pm BST/3pm EDT/5am AEST
⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Wallchart | Email Daniel

Almost straight off the bat, ITV go to the politics – “Things that always litter a pre-tournament buildup,” says Neville. Er, do they? He goes on to say the football will take over, but Ian Wright, Roy Keane and Mark Pougatch make sure to stipulate we mustn’t let it obscure the continuing issues.

Gosh, the first montage of the tournament, of tournaments past, has me quite emotional – there’s a lot to take in, and that’s before I get going on Gary Neville’s shirt, straight off the peg from River Island c.1995.

Burnham’s momentum builds in Makerfield as byelection nears

Hundreds of Labour activists and MPs have ‘made the pilgrimage’ to the seat, where they are pounding the streets

For a few short weeks, the centre of political gravity in Britain has shifted from the Palace of Westminster to the bar of a former Labour club in Wigan.

In London, even as Keir Starmer insists he will fight to stay in No 10, the walls seem to be crumbling around him, especially with Thursday’s resignation of the defence secretary, John Healey.

John Healey quitting defence puts a time bomb under No 10. He is a loyalist: this is no ordinary departure

He served through the eras of Blair, Brown, Miliband and Corbyn in a party that knows and respects him. It will matter that even his patience has run out

John Healey is not a rash man. Slow to anger, calm in a crisis, loyal and yet beneath it all, formidably determined. He stuck at it through the Jeremy Corbyn years, much as he privately despaired of where the party was heading, keeping his thoughts to himself because all he wanted was for Labour to win again. When it did, under Keir Starmer, he became the understated anchor to a frequently gale-tossed ship of government; the solid citizen everybody liked and nobody distrusted, a natural choice for caretaker leader had Starmer ever fallen under a bus.

Or, perhaps, been pushed under a tank.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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Defence secretary quits with ‘blistering’ swipe at Starmer - The Latest

John Healey has resigned as defence secretary over the government’s military spending plans, in another significant blow for Keir Starmer.

In a scathing letter to the prime minister, Healey said the long-awaited defence investment plan “falls well short of what is required for defence” and that he would have had to take decisions that “could make Britain less safe”.

Nosheen Iqbal speaks to the Guardian’s policy editor, Kiran Stacey

Helen Mirren speaks out about being called ‘evil Zionist’ on the street in London

Responding to an incident in which she was verbally abused, the actor said that that ‘evil forces are rising everywhere’, as well as expressing support for MobLand co-star Tom Hardy

Helen Mirren has commented on being called an “evil Zionist bitch” while being harassed in the street in London, saying she was “attacked by mistake by a man who was maybe a little over passionate or maybe mentally not quite stable”.

Footage circulated last month of an incident, believed to have taken place last year, while Mirren was walking with her husband, film-maker Taylor Hackford. They were approached and filmed by an unidentified person, who commented on Mirren’s support of Israel and then launched a volley of abuse at her.

Pope Leo rails against migrant deaths on visit to Spain’s ‘dock of shame’

Pontiff calls on leaders to treat migrants more humanely as he concludes week-long Spanish tour in Gran Canaria

The constant flow of people embarking in small, rickety boats to migrate abroad should force a reckoning as to why we have built a world where so many “must risk death to seek life”, Pope Leo has said as he warned: “We cannot grow accustomed to counting the dead.”

Thursday’s speech in the Canary Islands, on the final leg of the pontiff’s week-long tour of Spain, contained Leo’s most pointed comments to date on migration.

Video shows angler freeing great white shark after surprise catch at Nantucket

Footage shows Elliot Sudal hauling the shark from the surf before releasing it within seconds, sparking online reaction

An angler who reeled in a rare great white shark at a Nantucket beach said he posted extraordinary video of the encounter to social media as an example of how to safely catch and release one of the ocean’s greatest predators.

Elliot Sudal said he was “testing the waters” off the Massachusetts beach he regularly uses when he inadvertently snagged the shark on Sunday.

See when the U.S. men's soccer team is playing in 2026 World Cup

The U.S. men's national soccer team, which last appeared at the 2022 World Cup, will face Paraguay to kick off its 2026 World Cup.

Man pleads guilty to assassinating top Minnesota Democrat and her husband

Vance Boelter changes plea in murders of Melissa and Mark Hortman as prosecutors agree not to pursue death penalty

The man charged in the political assassinations of the top Democrat in the Minnesota house and her husband, as well as the non-fatal shootings of a state senator and his wife, pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday after prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty.

Vance Boelter was charged with murdering Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota house speaker, and her husband, Mark Hortman, and with shooting state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman. Boelter came to their doors in the early hours of 14 June 2025, disguised as a police officer and driving a fake squad car.

Wegovy weight-loss pills to be available for patients in UK to buy

Regulator approval means patients who meet criteria will be able to purchase tablets with private prescription

Patients in the UK will soon be able to buy the Wegovy weight-loss pill, the medicines regulator announced on Thursday.

It is the first GLP-1 receptor agonist tablet for weight-loss to be approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), making the UK the third country to authorise the pills, behind the US and the United Arab Emirates.

Wholesale prices rose 1.1% in May, more than expected, on surge in energy

The producer price index was expected to increase 0.7% in May, according to the Dow Jones consensus forecast.

Pentagon "hazardous materials incident" prompts partial lockdown, evacuation

Hazmat crews deployed to the Pentagon on Thursday and a shelter-in-place was in effect for what authorities described as a "hazardous materials incident."

Polite but deadly: John Healey skewers Keir Starmer as he heads for the door | John Crace

The defence secretary’s departure was the wrong resignation at the worst possible time for the prime minister

• UK politics live – latest updates

During Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions, the defence secretary was standing at the other end of the Commons, away from other cabinet members on the government frontbench. His expression gave nothing away as Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch blamed one another for spending too much on welfare and not enough on defence. In hindsight, he was possibly thinking “to hell with both of them”. Most defence secretaries go native sooner or later, imagining themselves to be embedded officers serving on the frontline. Tory Ben Wallace appeared to hate most of his cabinet colleagues by the time he resigned in 2023.

Less than 24 hours after PMQs, Healey had also resigned, his departure being all the more powerful for being so unexpected. This exit seemed to come out of a clear blue sky. There had been no briefings to the media in the preceding days. No threats to stand down if his demands were not met. All the arguments had taken place behind closed doors. A determination to do the right thing throughout.

Unfortunately, I’m allergic to my adorable kitten – here’s what doctors advised

Cat allergies affect millions of people. Experts explain how to manage symptoms without necessarily giving up a pet

When I got a kitten in February, I thought I had done everything right.

I’d considered getting a cat for years and carefully thought through the decision. I am allergic to them, but I had lived with a cat before and managed symptoms like sneezing and itchiness with antihistamines. I rationalized that I’d probably be OK, especially if I found a “hypoallergenic breed” (more on that later).

Some Pentagon workers ordered to shelter in place as air quality issue is investigated

The Pentagon is the world's second-largest office building and is the workplace for thousands of military and civilian employees of the Defense Department.

Trump threatens to strike Iran ‘very hard, tonight’ and to take Kharg Island

US president warns of further military action as both sides accuse each other of breaching temporary ceasefire

• Middle East crisis – live updates

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump has said the US will take control of Iran’s oil and gas infrastructure and launch further strikes on Iran on Thursday night just hours after the countries exchanged fire for the second consecutive day despite a nominal ceasefire being in place.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the US would hit Iran “VERY HARD, TONIGHT”, claiming that most of Iran’s offensive capacity had been destroyed. He also said the US would seize Kharg, an island in the Gulf that handles about 90% of Iran’s oil exports and hosts vast storage facilities.

Police were warned for months about addresses targeted in Belfast riots

Exclusive: PSNI repeatedly warned by monitoring group for eight months after a so-called hitlist of addresses began circulating in far-right networks

A monitoring group repeatedly warned the Police Service of Northern Ireland over the past eight months that anti-immigration activists were circulating the addresses of properties that were targeted in this week’s Belfast riots.

The Accountability Project Northern Ireland, a volunteer group formed last summer to monitor anti-immigration activity online, sent dozens of reports to the PSNI between November 2025 and June 2026.

U.S. charges 3 for alleged smuggling conspiracy involving unaccompanied minors

The Justice Department announced it has charged three people in Ohio for conspiring to smuggle unaccompanied minors across the U.S. border.

Kieran McKenna leaves emotional legacy at Ipswich to last generations

Manager caught lightning in a bottle with three promotions in four seasons but his need for a break to prioritise a young family is refreshing

When the tears have dried, the adage will ring true for Ipswich and Kieran McKenna. They will smile because it happened and reflect that, despite the hurt, sometimes it is best to part while the love still burns. Perhaps they will also marvel at the unlikely magic football occasionally sprinkles. It is an industry in which people and places are thrown together, coming and going, sticking or not. When McKenna arrived in Suffolk four and a half years ago he could have been another hired gun; instead he transformed a community’s relationship with its club and left a legacy that should span generations.

All parties caught lightning in a bottle during a tenure that has ended after Ipswich’s third promotion in four seasons. McKenna will not lead them into another Premier League campaign and, hearing his voice crack repeatedly during an intensely emotional farewell address to the fanbase, anyone could have been forgiven for wondering why. Ipswich are in a better position to attempt survival than in 2024-25, when they had returned to the top in stunning fashion after 22 years away. His stock remains sky high among supporters and those who employed him. Then there is the matter of a contract that put him among the top flight’s better-paid managers.

Rise of the fraysexuals: how sexual interest fades in some long-term relationships

Those with this orientation find strangers more alluring than people they know well – and their sexuality is often misunderstood as an attachment disorder

Name: Fraysexuality.

Age: Twelve years, but only just picking up steam.

SpaceX heads for record $1.78tn float amid fears it is overvalued

Analysts say IPO that could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire has a ‘major disconnect’ on price

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is set to launch the biggest stock market float in history amid warnings that it may be overvalued.

The space exploration, satellite broadband and AI company will join the US stock market on Friday at a valuation of $1.78tn, after offering at least $75bn of shares to investors through an initial public offering.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup schedule and how to watch

FOX and NBCUniversal​ have the broadcasting rights for the 104 World Cup games being played in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Oracle shares tumble 11% on increased capital raise, cash concerns

Oracle beat on earnings and revenue, but negative free cash flow and the company's plan to raise more capital is weighing on the stock.

Toronto police officer shot while investigating US consulate attack

Suspect, 19, still at large after officer dies in hospital having been shot while searching an apartment

A Toronto police officer has been shot dead as police raided an apartment allegedly linked to the March attack on the US consulate, the city’s police chief, Myron Demkiw, said.

Demkiw said 43-year-old constable Marc Pinizzotto was shot while conducting an early-morning search warrant in the north-west of the city and later died at a hospital.

London council seizes social housing flat rented by Sierra Leone first lady

Fatima Jabbe-Bio kept tenancy in Southwark despite living for much of year at presidential lodge in Freetown

A social housing flat rented by Sierra Leone’s first lady has been seized by a London council.

Southwark council confirmed it had repossessed the two-bedroom home in Walworth previously occupied by Fatima Jabbe-Bio, whose tenancy was reported by the Times last year.

Father of baby killed by Israeli forces in West Bank recounts shooting – video

Footage has emerged of the killing of seven-month-old Sam Abu Haikal in the occupied West Bank. Video obtained by the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights shows the family’s car slowing down and stopping. The video has no sound and it is unclear when exactly the soldier opened fire at the vehicle. The Israel Defense Forces said its troops had 'perceived a vehicle accelerating toward them' and that one of its soldiers had 'responded with single shots toward the vehicle'. Video obtained by the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights, however, shows the family’s car slowing down and stopping. The video has no sound and it is unclear when exactly the soldier opened fire at the vehicle, but the clip appears to corroborate the account of Sam's father, Fahed Abu Haikal

• Video shows family’s car slowing before Israeli troops shot dead Palestinian baby

Can we separate the art from the person who made it? Not in the case of a monster like Rolf Harris | Paul Daley

I met Harris before his crimes came to light. Even then I sensed his public image was a facade

I’m not convinced by the old adage that we should never meet our idols because they are bound to disappoint us. I’ve never wanted to approach human exceptionalism quite so cynically.

Yes, I’m acutely, painfully conscious that the world is replete with terrible events and bad people. But I’m counting myself fortunate that purely by dint of birth I live somewhere (and I don’t just mean my neighbourhood) where human capacity for kindness, generosity and, yes, civility, are not the exception.

Paul Daley is a Guardian Australia columnist

I’m 17 and very sensitive to graphic content. Does this mean I’m immature? | Leading questions

Maturity has little to do with watching things you don’t want to, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. But it might help to be curious about why you feel differently from your peers

• Read more Leading questions

I’m 17, and feel like a sore thumb among my peers due to my aversion to almost everything stereotypically adult. I don’t want to consume drugs or alcohol, I’ve never been in a relationship and, in particular, I’m very sensitive to graphic content.

Earlier this year, I tried to warm myself up to several films featuring either explicit violence or sex, but a part of me felt uncomfortable beyond what was probably intended by the film-makers. The entire time, it felt as if I was pushing down my real self. After consuming various media, I quit the process of numbing myself, retreating back to only films and television with “moderate” or “mild” classification ratings.

Trump arch construction could take 20 hours a day for 2-3 years, documents say

The Interior Department is planning an aggressive work schedule to complete President Trump's arch near Arlington National Cemetery.

Exclusive discounts from CBS Mornings Deals

On this edition of CBS Mornings Deals, we show you items that will help improve your everyday lifestyle. Visit cbsdeals.com to take advantage of these exclusive deals today. CBS earns commissions on purchases made through cbsdeals.com.

Baldwin, Khanna propose new direct foreign investment review board to probe Trump's deals

Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Ro Khanna, both Democrats, raised concerns with President Donald Trump's courting of foreign investment.

‘I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way’: Kathleen Turner’s best films – ranked!

As she nears her 72nd birthday, we honour the actor whose ‘smoked honey’ vocals added to her vampy persona on screen, whether bringing Jessica Rabbit to life or crushing Michael Douglas between her thighs

Turner goes full-on drill sergeant for one scene as a dog-trainer, her forearms covered with scratches. Marley the irrepressible yellow labrador retriever knocks her to the ground and gives her a more vigorous humping than any co-star since William Hurt in Body Heat.

Wholesale prices see biggest spike since 2022 as energy costs climb

A surge in the Producer Price Index signals that businesses are paying more for goods and services, which could push up consumer costs.

As Trump sticks with Pulte, foreign surveillance program hurtles toward expiration

The U.S. House rejected a short-term extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The surveillance authority expires Friday.

SpaceX IPO won’t ‘break’ the bull market. But investors are worried about what comes next

As far as Wall Street is concerned, the stock market has what it takes to absorb the new supply.

Seth Meyers on Republicans claiming rigged elections: ‘You’re the ones undermining voter integrity’

Late-night hosts discussed Trump getting booed at a Knicks game and Republican attempts to undermine US elections

Late-night hosts spoke about Donald Trump’s delusions over his reception this week at a Knicks game and how Republicans are continuing to spread false claims about elections.

Sasquatch ‘sightings’ reignite fervour and scepticism about ape-like beast

Latest reports from rural Ontario add to tales going back decades about bipedal creature also known as Bigfoot

On a recent evening, residents in a corner of rural Ontario reported a series of strange encounters.

“The birds stopped, the wind seemed to die down, and it got oddly quiet. That’s when I noticed movement ahead of me,” one witness wrote. A “strong, earthy smell” hung in the air. Then, “a massive figure slowly stepped out from behind the trees, and my heart instantly started racing”. Moments later, it vanished back into the forest and “everything slowly went back to normal”.

Nearly 3,000 NHS patients a day receiving corridor care in England, figures show

Data published for the first time recorded 2,241 daily cases of A&E corridor care, with 699 patients also treated in other inappropriate settings

Almost 3,000 patients a day in England are receiving care in hospital corridors due to an unavailability of beds in A&E units across the country, according to official figures.

Corridor care occurs when a patient receives treatment in a setting that is clinically inappropriate and is deemed to be undignified and unsafe.

Healey quits as defence secretary in row with Starmer over military spending

Minister accuses Keir Starmer of putting UK’s security at risk at a time of growing international threats

• UK politics live – latest updates

The defence secretary, John Healey, has resigned over the government’s military spending plans, accusing Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves of putting the country’s security at risk at a time of growing international threats.

In a blistering resignation letter that further undermines the prime minister’s already fragile authority, Healey said the long-awaited defence investment plan (Dip) fell well short of what was needed to protect the UK at such a dangerous moment.

The Artist by Lucy Steeds audiobook review – a sensory feast in Provence

A reclusive artist is the reluctant subject of a journalist’s attention in a rich world of scents, scenery and secrets

When a British journalist named Joseph Adelaide tracks down a reclusive artist to his remote farmhouse in the south of France, his plan is to interview him for a magazine profile. Edouard Tartuffe is a revered painter who was taught by Cézanne and is known on the Parisian art scene as the “Master of Light”. But then he retreated from the limelight amid rumours of a feud with his former mentor.

Tartuffe – known as Tata – now lives with his 27-year-old niece, Ettie, and is blind in one eye. Joseph quickly learns that Tata also has an explosive temper and rules the household with an iron fist. On meeting Joseph, he barks that he will not be giving an interview but that his guest can stay on one condition: that he model for him for a new portrait.

Katia and Marielle Labèque: 55 album review

(Deutsche Grammophon)
The pianist sisters’ celebration of their 55 years of recording is a thoughtfully curated compilation that reveals the extent of their omnivorous musical appetites

In 1969, two teenage students at the Paris Conservatoire recorded Olivier Messiaen’s formidable Visions de l’Amen under the composer’s doubtless nerve-racking supervision. It was released in 1970. Fifty-five years later, Katia and Marielle Labèque’s musical curiosity is undimmed as this handsome three-disc tribute set demonstrates. A mix of new recordings and classics, it reveals the extent of their omnivorous appetites, from 20th-century modernism to minimalism and jazz.

Although best known as a two-piano duo, there’s plenty of four-hands repertoire here, including an iridescent new recording of Le Jardin Féerique from Ravel’s Ma Mère l’Oye alongside music by Bizet, Fauré (two movements from his Dolly Suite) and a finger-shredding Dance of the Earth from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Works by Gershwin, Bernstein and De Falla are among other highlights.

America's birth rate has plunged. Are smartphones to blame?

The iPhone was introduced in 2007, the same year the U.S. birth rate started to slide. The issues could be linked, a new analysis finds.

SpaceX IPO explained: The price is set, but retail allocation still up in the air

Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood, SoFi and Morgan Stanley's E-Trade are among the brokerage platforms making SpaceX shares available.

El Niño forms in Pacific as experts say it will likely turbocharge extreme weather

Meteorologists predict it will be the strongest of century, while UN secretary-general calls it ‘urgent climate warning’

El Niño, the climate phenomenon that supercharges weather around the world, has officially arrived and could intensify to historic levels in the fall, US officials said on Thursday.

US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) forecasters confirmed the formation of El Niño in the warmer than usual Pacific Ocean near the equator, which affects global weather patterns.

West Ham women’s team not told of David Sullivan’s restricted access to them

Sources say it would have breached regulations to tell WSL or team details of safeguarding investigation into Sullivan

Neither the Women’s Super League nor West Ham United women’s team were aware of the restrictions placed on David Sullivan’s interaction with the team, the Guardian has learned.

Sullivan, who is West Ham’s largest shareholder, has faced restrictions on his contact with the women’s team and their youth teams since 2023 because of a safeguarding investigation.

The Football Association opened an inquiry in the same year after receiving a complaint, which the Guardian understands was an allegation of sexual misconduct unrelated to football.

In a joint investigation by the BBC and the Times, seven women accused the 77-year-old of predatory behaviour, with alleged incidents dating back to the 1980s. Through his lawyers, Sullivan has said he denies the allegations.

Sources close to the playing squad at West Ham’s women’s side have said the team are appalled by the allegations, which they were not aware of before the story broke this week.

England ready to rock Women’s T20 World Cup, but far from home and dry

In theory the hosts have an easy route to the last four, but even a weakened Australia team are still, well, Australia

Just after midday on Sunday the England captain, Nat Sciver-Brunt, smashed the India captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, for six off Waterloo Bridge, straight into the Thames. The scratch-match, which involved all 12 competing captains, was part of a chaotic, eye-catching event to launch the Women’s T20 World Cup. Also involved were a red London bus, the International Cricket Council chairman, Jay Shah, and a day-long takeover of one of London’s busiest thoroughfares. A Women’s World Cup has never been this big, this important or this annoying for black cab drivers.

The England and Wales Cricket Board has poured a lot of resources into trying to achieve its stated goal of making this tournament “a movement, not a moment”. Last week Sciver-Brunt, Lauren Bell and Sophia Dunkley became the first cricketers to appear on a Piccadilly Circus billboard. The entire West End cast of Wicked are being transplanted to Birmingham on Friday evening, to perform the musical’s biggest hits as part of the tournament’s opening ceremony.

Trump keeps saying an Iran deal is close. Markets keep believing it

Analysts still assume that, despite the continued conflict, a deal will eventually be reached that ends the war and reopens the Strait of Hormuz.

Somali referee barred from US for World Cup is handed Super Cup final by Uefa

• Omar Artan to officiate PSG v Aston Villa in August

• ‘Football is made to connect people,’ says Uefa head

Omar Artan, the Somali referee prevented from officiating at the World Cup, will take charge of the Super Cup in August, Uefa has announced.

Artan found himself at the centre of controversy after being denied entry to the US, with the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, suggesting he was powerless to overrule Donald Trump’s administration. Somalia is one of 12 countries on a travel ban list introduced by the US president last year.

‘Once, Mandela was seen as the devil incarnate’: the TV show laying bare the true struggle against apartheid

From the activist who knew him as ‘Uncle Nelson’ to the campaigner who would go on to become a cabinet member, we talk to those involved in the struggle – and who feature in an eye-opening new documentary

We tend to look back at the campaign to end apartheid in South Africa, says Peter Hain – the activist who would go on to become a senior Labour minister – “as one of the great success stories of protests and Nelson Mandela as a global icon, and rightly so. But Mandela was considered the devil incarnate. He was denounced as a terrorist by Margaret Thatcher only a few years before his release. We were vilified.” It was nothing compared to what Black people in South Africa faced, he stresses, but still he was targeted – a letter bomb was sent to him, and he was framed for a bank theft. It was, he says, “a hard struggle, a bitter struggle.”

A new documentary series, Free Nelson Mandela, covers the three decades of campaigning until Mandela’s release in 1990 and his election as South Africa’s president four years later. What emerges is an inspiring reminder of the power of resistance and resilience – and the sacrifices so many had to make.

Global growth is slowing to lowest level since pandemic, says World Bank

Forecast for this year downgraded to 2.5% and inflation expected to jump as a result of war in the Middle East

Global economic growth will slow to 2.5% this year as a result of the war in the Middle East – the weakest since the Covid pandemic – as inflation and borrowing costs rise, the World Bank has warned.

The Washington-based development bank has downgraded growth forecasts for two-thirds of countries in its half-yearly Global Economic Prospects report. The bank estimated that global growth was 2.7% in 2025.

Japan reactor restart sparks fresh fears over nuclear waste storage

The reboot highlights a dire problem for the country's nuclear program. Japan is running out of space to store spent nuclear fuel and lacks plans for radioactive waste disposal.

England’s cricketers could face alcohol ban with Stokes captaincy still in doubt

• Rob Key says ECB needs time to consider future

• Key shocked Stokes was involved in nightclub incident

The England and Wales Cricket Board is considering imposing a complete ban on alcohol while players are on international duty. It is ­pondering the best response to the incident at a Chelsea nightclub that led to Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson being dropped for next week’s second Test against New Zealand and to the stream of embarrassing stories over the past eight months.

Rob Key, the ECB’s managing director of men’s cricket, admitted on Thursday it is hard to say the players can show they are to be trusted to behave responsibly. The two players broke a midnight curfew and were then ­allegedly involved in a fight that broke out in the early hours of Monday morning, though there is no suggestion that either were active participants.

Lola Young review – buoyant, brilliant return from British pop’s great oversharer

O2 Apollo Manchester
The Messy hitmaker is back after taking time away from live performance, and this charming, relatable set shows why she is such a gen Z icon

The rollercoaster ride towards international pop stardom seldom runs smooth, but few rising stars have been flung through its loops and freefalls as publicly as south London singer-songwriter Lola Young. In 2024, gen Z anthem Messy became her breakthrough moment, but social media scrutiny surrounding her open struggles with addiction and a stage collapse in New York last year brought live performances to a halt.

When the 25-year-old musician strolls on stage in a baggy black hoodie, she seems relieved to be here. Casual though the look may be, she is worshipped as a Y2K style guru, as evidenced by the young crowd: a blur of bleached mullets and denim jorts cry every word of her single Sad Sob Story!.

Welcome to Trump’s World Cup, a depressingly angry version of football uniting the planet | Barney Ronay

Ted Lasso will deliver a message of hope before the USA’s first game, in an America that is not a fit or desirable host right now

Shortly before 6pm local time on Friday night at the Los Angeles Stadium, the actor who plays Ted Lasso – the fictional manager of a fake team in a falsely heartwarming version of football – will tell hundreds of millions of TV viewers tuning in to watch the start of the American leg of the Fifa World Cup that football unites the world.

In an interesting twist, the actor Jason Sudeikis will do this at a time when the World Cup host is simultaneously bombing the second-ranked country in Group G, having recently murdered its head of state. The message of unity is one likely to be heard by the US president, Donald Trump, who has initiated six military conflicts in his second term, and whose brutally divisive immigration policies have now led to the barring of Omar Artan, the reigning African referee of the year.

Human remains found in sleeping bag in national park identified 26 years later

Forensic tests helped identify a man whose remains were found inside a sleeping bag in Washington state in 2000.

Bosphorus dolphins and a wakeboarder in a storm ditch: photos of the day – Thursday

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

After Karmelo Anthony's murder conviction, his mom says her son "didn't intend to hurt anyone"

In an exclusive interview with CBS News, the parents of Karmelo Anthony, the Texas teenager who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the murder of a fellow high school athlete, spoke about their son and the trial.

Bill Gates testifies to lawmakers about Jeffrey Epstein ties

Billionaire Bill Gates was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday testifying to lawmakers about his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Nikole Killion reports.

Hepworth in Colour review – salty Cornish seascapes compressed into immaculate sculptures

Courtauld, London
Barbara Hepworth’s elegant works, with their harp-like strings and splashes of blue, evoke the foamy breakers of St Ives. But should we really be surprised she used colour?

They say in St Ives that if you put your ear to a Barbara Hepworth sculpture, you can hear the waves breaking on Porthmeor beach. Well, maybe they do say that and maybe they don’t. But the sea definitely roars in the ravishing sculptures at the heart of this small survey of just one aspect of her work: her use of colour.

Hepworth’s favourite colours turn out to be – wait for it – blue and white, the colours of the sea: the white foamy breakers and the rippling waters that swaddle the Cornish fishing town where her home and studio are proudly preserved.

American Ja’Kobe Tharp smashes 110m hurdles world record at college championships

• 20-year-old finished in blistering time of 12.75sec

• First world record at NCAA championships since 1976

American Ja’Kobe Tharp broke the 110m hurdles world record with a blistering time of 12.75sec at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, on Wednesday.

Tharp’s effort in the heats of the 110m hurdles improved upon the previous world record mark of 12.80sec, set by Olympic champion and fellow American Aries Merritt in Brussels in 2012.

Greetings from a Seoul museum, where Buddhist masterpieces offer calm away from city bustle

The National Museum of Korea is home to the Room of Quiet Contemplation, which features two of South Korea's most treasured artworks: gilt-bronze bodhisattva statues from the sixth and seventh centuries.

From lardy cakes to simple scones: classic bakes that need no reinvention

The relentless desire to jazz things up is to blame for the disappearance of fond favourites. But there’s always pleasure to be found in old-school cakes

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I got into a small and pointless argument with a friend recently when she announced that a certain bakery chain (expanding across England with astonishing speed) was the only place in her London neighbourhood where she could buy scones. Surely not, I said. Then I thought about where, if I wasn’t going to make my own (pictured top), I’d find them near my own home, and realised she may have a point. (FYI, fellow N1 folks, Quince Bakery always has them on the counter.)

A few days later, I was asked to go on BBC Radio 4 to comment on the decision by Somerset’s Burns the Bread to stop selling iced buns, which naturally made me desperately crave an iced bun. But were there any to be found near me? No. Thankfully, I’ve since realised you can get an excellent example for just £1.60* at Raabs the Bakers on Essex Road in London. But, before this turns into a food guide to my neighbourhood, may I point you in the direction of Ruby Tandoh’s lemon zest-spiked recipe, or Helen Goh’s strawberry finger buns should you also suddenly have a craving for soft, pillowy dough with a crackly smear of sugar on top. Both would be just as good not jazzed up.

The 7th Guest Remake Review – a spirited reboot of a ghost story classic

PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch; Vertigo Games
This clever update captures the 1990s magic of the original… including some of the technical issues

The 90s were a gold rush for adventure games. LucasArts kicked off the decade with its legendarily irreverent Monkey Island games. Then, Cyan Worlds materialised to deliver a series of atmospheric and boundary-pushing odysseys with Myst and Riven. Nestled between these primary genre texts is The 7th Guest, a lesser-known but still notorious adventure that earned plaudits for its unique FMV visual style, blending live-action filmed footage with pre-rendered 3D backgrounds. It was remade originally for VR, and now has been reconfigured into something playable on PC and consoles, its digital cobwebs cleared and tricky puzzles tinkered with for a fresh (or nostalgic) audience.

We are dropped into the ectoplasmic shoes of an amnesiac apparition, arriving at the gloomy haunted home of a toy-maker. Armed with a time-bending lantern and a Ouija board-shaped map, your job is to solve a historical whodunnit by literally illuminating events from the past. It’s a melodramatic, surprisingly campy adventure that effectively evokes the overzealous CD-Rom horror of its original era.

Is there such a thing as affordable white burgundy?

These singular wines from France’s gastronomic heartland are expensive to make and to buy, but if you know where to look, they don’t have to break the bank

Everyone loves white burgundy. Made from chardonnay grapes, these wines from France’s gastronomic heartland, stretching from just south of Champagne to just north of Lyon, are singular: graceful, textured and full of joy. But prices tend to be less friendly; Doug Wregg from organic wine importer Les Caves de Pyrene says “affordable burgundy” is “almost an oxymoron” due to limited supply, labour-intensive production techniques and historic prestige. The recent slew of poor vintages has made those low yields even lower, and prices higher. But good examples do exist at under £25 a pop, which is where I’ve set my budget benchmark today.

That sum won’t get you premier cru meursault, or anything from the Côte d’Or, a narrow hillside of celebrated limestone slopes south of Dijon, but there is still plenty within reach. Not least aligoté, the region’s second white grape, which can reliably be found for less than £25 (try Majestic’s Famille Gueguen number at £15.50 a bottle on the “mix six” offer), but “white burgundy” always means chardonnay, which is my focus today. A sensible start is in the Mâconnais, the southernmost point of Burgundy’s wine-producing area, where warmer temperatures and clay-limestone soil make for a rounder style of wine. Almost every supermarket has an own-label Mâcon Villages – I spent many a tidy Friday night in my twenties in a south London park with the Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference iteration (now £12.50 – inflation!) and a large bag of Doritos Cool Original (a good pairing, incidentally) – and they tend to be easy, fruity table wines. Usually, they’re unoaked, too, removing a layer of process that helps keep the price down. That said, oak doesn’t necessarily mean better; rather, its absence arguably lets the terroirs sing louder. Wregg’s Domaine des Cadoles 2022 Mâcon Chardonnay in today’s pick is a lovely example, at once mineral and creamy.

Thai court sentences two Uyghur men to death for 2015 Bangkok bombing

Twenty people were killed and 120 injured in the attack at the Erawan Shrine, a popular tourist destination

A Thai court has handed out death sentences to two Uyghur men from the north-western Chinese region of Xinjiang for a 2015 bombing in the centre of Bangkok that killed 20 people.

The explosion occurred at the Erawan Shrine in the centre of Bangkok, an area popular with foreign tourists. As well as the 20 people killed, another 120 were injured. Five of the dead were from mainland China and two from Hong Kong.

Martin O’Neill hungry for more success at Celtic after being confirmed as manager

• O’Neill signs one-year contract with one-year option

• 74-year-old aiming for ‘more days like those’ after double

Martin O’Neill said his appetite was whetted by winning a double last month to deliver “more days like those” at Celtic, after he was confirmed as their manager on a one-year contract with a one-year option.

O’Neill had two interim spells last season and finished it by securing the Scottish Premiership title on a dramatic final day and beating Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup final.

The Knicks have stopped believing in impossible. They may be a team of destiny | Claire de Lune

New York’s 29-point comeback in Game 4 was the largest in NBA finals history. For a team forged by disappointment, it felt strangely inevitable

What does a team of destiny look like? You know it when you see it. The evidence has been mounting for weeks – months, even – that this year, despite decades of precedent to the contrary, that team is the New York Knicks.

On Wednesday night, the proof overflowed in the hallowed halls of the Mecca. One of the most improbable comebacks in NBA history – and the largest ever in an NBA finals game – saw New York erase a 29-point deficit to beat the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4, leaving Taylor Swift and members of Haim leaping for joy courtside and the 58-year-old building shaking like a bounce house.

‘This is honest art. Like Dostoevsky’: Tim Allen and Tom Hanks on Toy Story 5, tech peril and the joy of rusty nails

Pixar’s new film tells young viewers that technology has stolen their childhood and that parents need to wise up fast. Its stars answer your questions on the series’ radical new message

What is the thing you’ve learned most from this new film? Secretmission
Tim Allen [the voice of Buzz Lightyear]: It sounds really self-gratifying, but it’s taking about 20% less time to make a better product. I know now how to focus and isolate my voice. I don’t do as many takes. Sometimes they’ll even say to me: “I think we got it. You can stop.”

Tom Hanks [Sheriff Woody]: Really? I will sometimes ask: “Please tell me you have it because I’m so done with this.” I find it to be exactly the same as it was at the get-go, except maybe there’s a little more importance put on it. I don’t think anybody picks our takes doing a Toy Story movie lightly. But I found everything else is just one damn thing after another.

Crans-Montana fire bereaved ask for murder charges against bar owners

Lawyers ask prosecutors to upgrade charges from manslaughter in light of text messages discussing fire risk

Lawyers for victims of the deadly New Year’s Eve fire in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana have formally asked prosecutors to upgrade the charges against the bar’s owners after text messages emerged discussing the danger.

Forty-one people were killed and 115 injured in the blaze at Le Constellation bar, which investigators believe started in the basement when sparklers attached to champagne bottles were held too close to sound-insulating foam on the ceiling.

Why U.S. AI giants like Anthropic, OpenAI are launching major expansions in London

The U.K. capital has become a key growth target for many of the world's most talked about AI companies.

U.S. launches second day of Iran strikes. And, World Cup facts to know before kickoff

The U.S. launched air strikes on Iran for a second consecutive day. And, the World Cup kicks off today in Mexico City, where tensions threaten to disrupt events.

‘It’s torture’: prisoners’ letters expose subterranean Oklahoma ‘dungeon’ known as the tombs

Exclusive: Letters from inside the underground H Unit of Oklahoma state penitentiary allege beatings, vermin, degrading punishment and in many cases no access to a most basic necessity – natural light

• Oklahoma prison criticized for allegedly incarcerating people in squalid underground cells with no natural light

“Down here in the tombs, there aren’t any windows,” writes Tremane Wood from inside his cell, in a modern-day American “dungeon” that few people have ever heard of.

“It’s really like living in cave,” he writes in another letter. “It’s dark and damp. Sometimes this place drives people mad. The hardest part is the isolation.”

‘Dangerous for being free’: Mon Laferte on calling out injustice as Chile’s biggest pop star

The musician opens up about her mental health, government corruption and why conservative backlash won’t stop her speaking her mind

Mon Laferte has a sore throat. Halfway through our conversation, in a studio with no windows at the Sony offices above New York’s Madison Square Park, singer Norma Monserrat Bustamante Laferte meekly asks her manager for a latte without lactose, or coconut milk, if they have it. It’s the first truly hot day of spring. She’s in between arena dates across Latin America of her Femme Fatale tour. Tonight, she’ll skulk through Manhattan with rhinestone-studded eyelids and a Marilyn Monroe wig to film the Femme Fatale music video. Today, her hair is dyed red, cropped in spiky Marcel waves. She’s wearing a black slip dress and a pair of artful, lace-up tabis.

With a career spanning over two decades, Laferte holds more Latin Grammys than any other Chilean singer and is the country’s biggest female streaming star, with more than 18 million monthly listeners. In October 2025, Laferte released her 10th record, Femme Fatale, a jazz album that saw her step into a vampy alter ego; this month sees the continuation of the story with the companion album Femme Fatale Vol 2. Like the archetype, her vision of pop stardom is biting by design. “The archetype is the dangerous one, no? Dangerous for being free, secure,” she tells me in Spanish. “Femme Fatale is a name the press have given me.”

Poll: Most believe extraterrestrial life exists – and some think it's already here

Many have watched recently released UFO videos, but most still think the government knows more than it is saying.

Wimbledon announces record 20% prize money increase but players’ dispute continues

• All England Club announces 20% rise from last year

• Increase unlikely to appease tennis player group

Wimbledon has announced the biggest prize money increase in the history of the Championships, but a 20% rise still may not be enough to appease the demands of the top players in dispute with the grand slam tournaments.

The All England Club revealed a prize-money purse of £64.2m, a £10.7m rise from last year. There have been rises across all rounds, with the men’s and women’s champions receiving £3.6m prize money this year while players who lose in the first round will receive £80,000.

How We Watched the World Cup: Smelling Maradona – video

If you had the chance to meet Diego Maradona, what would you do? Smell him? That’s what our chief sports writer, Barney Ronay, did at the 2018 World Cup during Argentina’s first group game of the competition. To keep up with more of Barney’s adventures in his World Cup video diary, follow @guardiansport on TikTok.

Brazilian woman, 38, accused of years of ‘elaborate fraud’ by posing as a child

Amanda Maria Souza de Oliveira faces fraud charges after allegedly persuading family to take her into their home

A 38-year-old woman has been arrested in Brazil accused of pretending to be a 12-year-old girl to deceive a couple who took her into their home for more than a year.

Amanda Maria Souza de Oliveira was charged in the southern state of Santa Catarina with fraud and false identity offences.

Who you gonna maul? Why Paul Feig’s derided all-female Ghostbusters dazzles a decade later

Ten years ago, the Ghostbusters reboot was released into a firestorm of rage and revulsion. What did the onslaught show us about film, fandom – and does it stand up today?

Criticism of Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot began more than two years before its release. Specifically, it started the moment that the director of Bridesmaids and The Heat announced, in 2014, that he and writer Katie Dippold were to cast four women as paranormal exterminators. The fate of their film was all but sealed.

A year later, the first trailer for the film swiftly became the most disliked film trailer on YouTube – and then most disliked YouTube video ever. Such a concerted campaign of vitriol did not lessen with the film’s release.

From Vecna to Mr Burns: TV’s greatest ever villains

Violent drug barons, brutal monarchs, interdimensional murderers … television has no shortage of horrifying baddies. Here’s our pick of the worst

Javier Bardem biting off toes in Cape Fear. Richard Gadd stomping on heads in Half Man. Nightmare neighbour David Morrissey whipping up mob violence in Tip Toe. Yes, TV villainy is everywhere. Which got us thinking about the biggest baddies in small-screen history.

When compiling our list, we discounted children’s TV, which is a whole separate category. We also omitted reality TV pariahs, from Nasty Nick to Lisa Vanderpump, as well as talent show judges such as Simon Cowell and Craig Revel Horwood. Instead, we concentrated on comedy or drama, where villainy is at its fictional worst.

FBI agents driven out under Trump assault form support network: ‘I’m still a human’

Former intelligence officers sound alarm over ‘devastating’ impact of president’s bid to overhaul US security agency

For generations they have borne the mantle of strength and authority inherited from J Edgar Hoover’s Depression-era G-men, a label supposedly affixed after the arrest of Machine Gun Kelly in 1933.

Now hardened veterans of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are projecting a different face as they seek to fight back against what many say is the systematic undermining of the bureau’s values under a drive by Donald Trump to turn it into an instrument of retribution.

Return to Rwanda: the woman dedicating her life to ending gender-based violence

Sabine Nkusi, who fled Kigali during the genocide, leads initiative aimed at challenging stigma of sexual violence

As a 14-year-old, Sabine Nkusi witnessed the horrors of the genocide against the Tutsi in her home country of Rwanda. Fleeing Kigali with her parents, brother and sister, she saw women lying dead by the road, many who had been the victim of sexual abuse.

She vowed to God that if she survived, she would dedicate her life to trying to give dignity to women who suffered this unspeakable brutality. “I said to God … if I’m ever going to make it out of here … I want to be part of something … a vehicle to end that sort of violence.”

Kelsey Lu: So Help Me God review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Dirty Hit)
Aided by Jack Antonoff, Kim Gordon, Sampha and more, the cello-playing singer-songwriter’s abstracted yet tuneful second album is worth the seven year wait

Seven years separate the release of cello-playing singer-songwriter Kelsey Lu’s debut album, Blood, from its follow-up. Lu has suggested the long gap was an act of artistic rebellion against a music industry obsessed with providing a constant stream of new product – “tuning into my intuition, trusting myself and building a team to support that”, as they put it.

Perhaps they wanted to carve their own path after a cover version – of 10cc’s I’m Not in Love, used in HBO drama Euphoria – became their most successful song, or perhaps they simply didn’t have the time to make an album amid their plethora of other interests. They have scored two movies: the Bafta-winning Earth Mama and the Netflix documentary feature Daughters. They have collaborated with Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Yves Tumor, Mykki Blanco, Jamie xx, Boys Noize and visual artist Kevin Beasley and contributed a version of Manchild to a Neneh Cherry tribute compilation and more. They have been photographed by Nan Goldin for a Gucci campaign and staged a performance art piece at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. They have also appeared on stage with Debbie Harry, while dressed as Kermit the Frog, recreating the Blondie vocalist’s famed 1981 appearance on The Muppet Show.

How FIFA World Cup rules on extra time and tiebreakers work for 2026

Games are likely to be tied at the end of regulation at the 2026 World Cup, especially in the late stages of the tournament with a highly competitive field.

‘She slept in the hallway on a lawn chair’: how Bettina’s astonishing art outgrew her Chelsea Hotel room

The reclusive figure spent decades filling every surface of her apartment at the legendary New York hotel with artworks that rose in teetering piles. Some are now on display for the first time in Glasgow

When the artist Yto Barrada stepped through the door of room 503, up on the fifth floor of New York’s Chelsea Hotel, she was overwhelmed by what she saw. Every inch of the walls was plastered with Xeroxed word art, graphic reproductions of geometric sculptures, hundreds of photographs of passersby in the street below and collections of leaves laid out in grids. Piles of cardboard boxes and crates, full of yet more artworks, prints, books and maquettes, created teetering canyons through which Barrada had to turn sideways to navigate. Every visible surface was covered with sculptural forms in brass, marble and wood. In the midst of it all, on a small daybed surrounded by this aggregation of 40 years of fervent work, was Bettina, as the resident artist of the famous New York landmark was simply known.

“One sees Bettina and understands that some disaster has taken place, long ago,” writes Barrada in Bettina, the book she edited with the designer Gregor Huber, published by Aperture in 2022. Barrada was one of only a handful of people the reclusive artist had permitted to enter 503 since she moved into the Chelsea in 1972. Despite the bohemian buzz around the hotel, with neighbours including Patti Smith, Bob Dylan and many of Andy Warhol’s entourage, Bettina chose to lock herself away, devoting her life to conceptual works that seemed to flow unstoppably from deep within, a creative impulse she likened to a divine energy.

2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off with Shakira at 1st of 3 opening ceremonies

With matches being played in 11 cities across the U.S., Mexico and Canada​, fans are getting three World Cup opening ceremonies.

Don’t have time to watch 72 World Cup group games? Here are 10 not to miss

Watching 108 hours of football is not for everyone but there are some crackers in the group stage, including Scotland v Brazil, Netherlands v Japan and France v Senegal

By Opta Analyst

The days of watching every game at the World Cup are long gone for most of us. The expansion to 48 teams means 72 group games will be played just to narrow the competition down to 32 sides – the number we have had at the last seven tournaments. Fans will have to sit through 108 hours of group-stage football – plus a lot of injury time and drinks breaks – just to get to the number of teams we have become accustomed to since 1998.

Given the unsociable kick-off times for many supporters across the world, it is going to be difficult to watch every game. So, with that in mind, we have picked a more manageable number to make sure you watch during the group stage.

The best games of 2026 so far

If you fancy roaring around Japan’s open roads, scaling impossible mountains and playing with post-apocalyptic Pokémon, this year’s highlights mean you can do so without leaving your chair

How 'algorithm' got its name from a 9th-century Persian mathematician

In the 9th century, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Kharizmi helped solidify the concept of algorithms in mathematics and popularized algebra and the use of the zero.

Trump's pick for intel chief could imperil a key U.S. spy tool. Who is Bill Pulte?

Pulte's appointment has scrambled talks to renew a spy tool known as FISA 702, as lawmakers in both parties have been vocal about his lack of national security experience and role as a Trump loyalist.

Morning news brief

U.S. launches a second-round of strikes against Iran, inflation jumps to its highest level in more than three years, 2026 World Cup kicks off in Mexico.

You be the judge: should my girlfriend make better use of our shared calendar?

Jordan wants one catch-all digital resource for him and Charlene, so their social lives don’t clash, but she prefers to communicate in person. You decide whose time is up

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

I’m not trying to control her but having one shared calendar helps us plan our lives together

Frida Slattery As Herself by Ana Kinsella review – will-they-won’t-they in a skilful theatrical romance

This impressive and charismatic debut novel revisits an actor and a director over various collaborations

The central characters of Frida Slattery As Herself, Ana Kinsella’s debut novel, are the eponymous Frida, 23 when the novel opens, and John Reddan, five years older. Both live in Dublin. Frida loves acting but has never had a significant role, and didn’t even get into drama school. John is a writer-director who has just had a play put on at a “real theatre”. What’s compelling about Frida is not necessarily what she says, thinks or does, but the way she is, and a large part of that lies in the physicality Kinsella writes into her. Frida, we learn, is “addicted” to the theatre. “Every time she came off stage she felt like a prizefighter. The curtain fell in the community theatre and there she was, rolling her neck, bobbing on her feet.”

However, Frida’s acting aspirations are going nowhere. She eventually confides in her friend Catherine, who at university was a much more successful actor in student productions, but now has a proper job (“She owned an espresso machine and Frida lived in a bedsit”). “I just want something to happen,” Frida says. Catherine introduces Frida to John. They meet in Kehoe’s pub, then he asks Frida to accompany him on an errand which turns into a long, mystifying walk through Dublin, during which he interviews her. She asks in return what he is working on: “Are there any roles for women in their early twenties?” To which he responds, “Is that how you think of yourself, Frida? As nothing more than ‘a woman in her early twenties’?”

Fields of the Gods: Mexico’s football pitches from above – photo essay

In Mexico, football is played wherever space permits. The Reuters photographer Raquel Cunha spent three months taking photos of amateur matches across Mexico City and beyond

Across Mexico, a co-host of the 2026 World Cup, football pitches are laid out wherever communities can find the space. On the edges of towns, on highway underpasses, and even in a volcano crater, spaces are cleared that allow people young and old to share in the dream of the beautiful game.

In an impoverished neighbourhood in Monterrey, northern Mexico, 14-year-old Humberto Guadalupe, nicknamed “Messi” by friends and family, spends his weekends on the community’s only football field, surrounded by abandoned cars and dirt roads.

Humberto Guadalupe (left), 14, and Eduardo Reyes, 12, play football, followed by snacks organised by evangelists, in Monterrey

Thursday news quiz: A resigning boss, Buffy’s loss and a theatre getting cross

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

The men’s Fifa World Cup starts today, and the challenge before the quiz master is to stay up all night every night watching tons of meaningless group matches between the likes of Syldavia and Borduria to keep up a record of not having missed a single World Cup game since 1978, while also continuing to function as a normal living member of society, rather than as an exhausted zombie.

The challenge before you, however, is simple: 15 questions on topical news, general knowledge and popular culture. There are no prizes, but equally you don’t have to stay up for a 3am kick-off. Have fun. Allons-y!

Lightning stops play: how electrical storms could disrupt the World Cup

Under US rules, even a distant strike can suspend a game – and some will take place in Florida, the thunderstorm state

Hot weather will be a major concern at the World Cup, but lightning may also prove a particular problem. Under US safety regulations, a strike within 10 miles (16km) of a stadium triggers a 30-minute suspension of the game, during which players must leave the pitch.

The size of the safety zone was dictated by research on the distance that lightning can strike from a storm even with no clouds overhead. This is more than a theoretical risk. During a game in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1998, an entire team was killed by a single bolt of lightning. There have been many other deadly incidents.

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for spaghetti with mussels, parsley and lemon | A kitchen in Rome

Savour the glorious sound of mussels popping open and finish cooking the pasta in the shellfish liquor really to ramp up the flavour

If you put your ear close (but not too close) to a covered pan full of mussels, olive oil, garlic and a bit of white wine (not too much) over a lively heat, you will hear the sound – a cross between a crack, or that of a rip and an unzipping – of the mussels opening. To begin with, it’s intermittent, so you lift and look under the lid to reassure yourself that they are indeed starting to open … But there are only a few, so the lid goes back on. You shake the pan until, like popcorn, the mussels are off – crack, rip, unzip – at which point, get the lid off and the mussels out, so you can admire the liquor. Taste to see how salty it is and measure how much you have: you want about 200ml, so take some out, reduce or add water to get the proportions and taste to your liking.

Spaghetti (or linguine) with mussels is a recipe that benefits from finishing the cooking of the pasta in the sauce, which is also a great technique to know generally, because it can be applied to countless pasta recipes. The benefits of finishing the cooking in the sauce (or broth) are: deep flavour (because the pasta absorbs and gets completely coated in the sauce), shine and a slightly thickened sauce, thanks to the starch that seeps from the pasta and combines with the fat.

Country diary: A tiny orchid with mighty powers of deception | Oliver Southall

Wolstonbury Hill, West Sussex: The fly orchid looks like no fly I’ve ever seen – its target insect is a wasp. And if you see one being pollinated, you’re one up on Charles Darwin

Many British orchids are named for their animal or humanoid appearance. List some and you have all the characters for a nursery-rhyme tale of transformation and trickery: lady, frog, man, fly and spider. Today’s protagonist is the fly orchid (Ophrys insectifera), a subtle conjuror of alternate realities and a plant I’m fortunate to encounter yearly on my local South Downs hill. Favouring the dappled interface of chalk grassland and woods, it flowers here from mid-May. It’s hard to spot amid the bugle, wild marjoram, agrimony and dock, but once I have my eye in, I find upwards of 20 plants.

While they look like no fly I’ve ever seen, the tiny blooms do have an uncannily insectile appearance. This is mostly down to a special petal, the labellum, which is minutely modified for luring in pollinators. Up close, I can see how its edges are curved back just so, a sleight of folding which gives the illusion of volume. An iridescent blue patch at its centre suggests the sheen of folded wings.

Omar Artan scandal reveals Gianni Infantino for what he is: one of sport’s greatest cowards | Jonathan Liew

Fifa president has prostrated the organisation before Donald Trump and lost control of his own tournament as a result

Even the Nazis tried to tone things down a bit. Before the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, acutely conscious of how it might be perceived by foreign visitors, the Third Reich tried to soften some of its harder, more intolerant edges. Antisemitic signs and images were removed from shops and other public places. Der Stürmer was removed from newspaper kiosks. Paragraph 175, the country’s strict anti‑homosexuality law, was temporarily suspended.

By contrast, the 2026 men’s World Cup is being co-hosted in a country utterly indifferent to what a foreign visitor might think of it. In this respect, the US of Donald Trump is tonally different to any host of a major sporting event that has preceded it: a country that actively wants you to see the darkness in its heart, the inhumanity at its core, that gets off on your revulsion.

Young, ambitious and out of work: ‘I’ve gone from Oxford to zero jobs. It’s a bit of a fall’

About 1 million 16- to 24-year-olds are not in employment, education or training – and the obstacles they face are bigger than ever. Those unemployed for a year or more explain how they are coping

Thomas doesn’t leave the house much. Apart from walking his dog, the only other excursion the 24-year-old regularly makes is a “humiliating” weekly trip to Iceland, where he stocks up on seven £1 frozen meals, usually an assortment of bland curries with the occasional garishly sweet, takeaway-style Chinese meal. “You’re going in and buying seven and the cashier is 100% thinking: oh, that’s one a day,” he says.

Half the time, he doesn’t bother eating them. “You just sit there and go: I don’t want it again. I’ve had it for two days on the trot.”

The EU is inviting the Taliban to Brussels. Europe’s credibility lies in tatters

As ICE-style deportation rules come into force, the unsavoury circle the EU wants migrant deals with includes the Afghan regime. This is a nadir

I sometimes think of the former EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson, who just six years ago spoke of crafting a European migration policy with “cool heads and warm hearts”. What’s happened since is the exact opposite.

Governments across Europe – with the exception of Spain – are cracking down harder than ever before on migrants through measures they once dismissed as politically toxic. It is a dream come true not only for the EU’s far right but also for mainstream conservatives and centre-left politicians such as Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen.