Australia breeze past West Indies in Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final – live

Australia will face England or South Africa in final
Match preview | Email Cameron with your thoughts

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

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

Côte d’Ivoire v Norway: World Cup 2026 last 32 – live

⚽️ Kick-off time: 12pm local/1pm EDT/6pm BST/3am AEST
⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail Scott

Pre-match postbag. “This one is an interesting game. Ivory Coast are a team who when I looked at squad before the tournament, I was surprised at the number of good players they have and they’ve done well so far beating Ecuador and almost holding Germany (although yesterday might be putting that result in perspective). Norway are favourites but I’ve got to think the resting of so many players against France and basically throwing that game has put them under enormous pressure today. Lose today and that decision will come under enormous scrutiny. I heard the great Phillipe Auclair on World Cup Daily mention a lot of Norwegian fans were not happy with that and something like that can puncture the feel-good mood around a team. Despite all that, I’m going for Norway to win 3-1 with Haaland getting at least two goals” – John

“Will be an engaging match and both teams are quite physical and pressing in their game. But can anyone stop Haaland when he is in his groove?” – krishnamoorthy v

Wimbledon 2026: Swiatek battles through, Zverev in action before Serena Williams return – live

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

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

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

Trump threatens to abolish birthright citizenship through Congress after supreme court rules against him – live

President reacts to ruling to uphold birthright citizenship after justices strike down executive order aimed at ending longstanding principle

• Supreme court upholds birthright citizenship in blow to Trump agenda

• Justices allow states to ban trans women from female sports and strike down limits on federal campaign spending

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email

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

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

LeBron James reportedly leaving Lakers, opening door for union with Curry at Warriors

• 41-year-old won title with Lakers in 2020

• Reports have linked James with move to Warriors

LeBron James looks set to leave the Los Angeles Lakers, with ESPN reporting he has told the team he will continue his NBA career but with a different team.

James will turn 42 during the 2026-27 season but his long-time representative, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, said the 22-time All-Star intends to continue his playing career. However, he intends to do so away from the Lakers, with whom he won a championship in 2020.

‘I ran out of luck’: Dutch defeat ends economist’s run of World Cup winning predictions

• Joachim Klement’s model had predicted Dutch glory

• Neymar takes jab after Brazil defy Klement prediction

As shocks come thick and fast in the knockout stages of the World Cup’s last 32, arguably the biggest of them all lies off the field and at the door of the economist and football forecaster Joachim Klement, who has failed to predict the winning nation for the first time in four editions of the men’s tournament.

After correctly predicting Germany, France and Argentina would go on to lift the trophy in 2014, 2018 and 2022 respectively, Klement’s run is over after his “economic models” pointed him in the direction of Ronald Koeman’s Netherlands side this year.

Manhunt under way after Ukrainian-born tycoon injured by Monaco bomb

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

• ‘He isn’t political’: the Ukrainian-born oligarch targeted by a Monaco bomber

An international search is under way for a suspected bomber after a Ukrainian tycoon and his family were injured in an explosion in Monaco in an unprecedented attack that has shaken the normally ultra-safe principality.

Stéphane Thibault, Monaco’s public prosecutor, told reporters that a man entered an apartment block on Monday evening, left a package in the lobby and walked away. Moments later, as three occupants of a ground-floor flat approached the entrance, the package exploded, he said.

US-Iran talks over $6bn Iranian assets to restart

Two sides yet to have face-to-face meeting since signing deal to reopen strait of Hormuz

Talks at an indirect level between US and Iranian officials over unfreezing at least $6bn Iranian assets will recommence on Wednesday in Doha, Iran has said. The two sides are yet to have their first face-to-face meeting since signing a deal to extend the ceasefire and reopen the strait of Hormuz.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were in Qatar on Tuesday for talks covering regional issues including the Iran ceasefire and Lebanon, but Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed Al-Ansari, stressed these were with Qatari mediators. “They are not here for their negotiations with the Iranians,” he said.

I pushed myself too hard at the gym – and ended up in the hospital

Reckless exercise can lead to exertional rhabdomyolysis, a condition that has risen due to the popularity of high-intensity workouts

In January 2025, I attended my first bootcamp class.

I had spent the day hunched over my laptop, anxious and craving an intense workout that would dispel my worries. I booked the class at a nearby gym, and the five-star reviews promised the all-consuming exercise I wanted: “Militant style instructor, but very motivating,” read one. Another: “Hardest workout of my life; extremely rewarding.”

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

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

‘But we’re just 1% of emissions’: do smaller countries’ climate efforts matter?

Past and present leaders of wealthy nations such as UK and Germany have argued their actions are insignificant

On first hearing, it is a position that sounds reasonable. “When our share of global emissions is less than 1%,” Rishi Sunak argued when he was the UK prime minister in 2023, “how can it be right that British citizens are now being told to sacrifice even more than others?”

Sunak is not the only world leader to have cited such figures while delaying cuts to pollution. In 2019, Scott Morrison, Australia’s then prime minister, used his country’s 1.3% of global emissions to reject any suggestion Australia was not “doing our bit” on climate breakdown. In July, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, pointed to his country’s 2% share of global emissions while supporting loopholes in European climate targets. A few months later the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, followed suit, flagging the EU’s 6% share.

Blake Lively files to receive $8m in legal fees from Justin Baldoni and his studio

Attorneys slam ‘scorched-earth tactics’ from Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios over $400m countersuit against the actor

Blake Lively has filed for $8m in fees and costs that she says resulted from her battle against Justin Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios.

That figure is to cover the legal costs that Lively incurred from January to June 2025 in her fight against her director and co-star in the 2024 film It Ends With Us, as well as a petition for damages that was still pending when Lively v Baldoni was settled in May 2026.

Supreme Court upholds state transgender athlete bans in girls' and women's sports

The Supreme Court upheld state laws from West Virginia and Idaho that restricted participation by transgender athletes in girls' and women's sports.

Cleveland Fed President Hammack sees AI fueling inflation, says rate hikes may be necessary

"We've got inflation that's too high, and it's been too high for the past five years," Beth Hammack told CNBC's Sara Eisen.

GOP Rep. Tom Kean returns to Congress, says he was diagnosed with depression

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

Damning report on England maternity care ‘watershed moment’, health secretary says

Announcing creation of a maternity commissioner, James Murray says Amos report highlights ‘toxic’ culture in some NHS units

• Analysis: Transparency, standards and a new commissioner – but does maternity review go far enough?

Valerie Amos’s devastating indictment of maternity care has to be a “watershed moment” for how the NHS treats pregnant women and babies, the health secretary has said.

James Murray pledged that Lady Amos’s report would lead to significant improvements and that “toxic dynamics” which damage relationships between hospital staff providing childbirth care would be dismantled.

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

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

Italian MEP suggests government wants to ‘hide truth’ about Albania migrant centre

Cristina Guarda says delegation was denied access to cells in offshore detention facility, at which six people have attempted suicide

An Italian MEP has questioned whether the Italian government is trying to “hide the truth” about conditions at an offshore migrant detention centre in Albania after a delegation she was part of said they were prevented from conducting a full inspection.

Cristina Guarda, from Italy’s Greens and Left Alliance (AVS), said staff at the Italian-run facility in Gjadër had refused to give MEPs from the Greens/EFA group key information, such as how many people were being held at the centre, and that they had not been allowed to access their cells.

Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, striking down Trump's order

The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down President Trump's executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.

Unhappy families: Matthäus claims Germany travel plans caused World Cup rift

• Former captain says off-pitch ‘unrest’ key to shock defeat

• Having relatives there ‘was more important’ than results

Lothar Matthäus, the former Germany captain turned pundit, has blamed the team’s crushing World Cup defeat by Paraguay in part on the players’ dogged efforts to have their families, even parents, in tow, which he said had led to tension within the team and a lack of concentration on the football.

“While there’s a lot that needs to be processed about what happened on the pitch, what happened off the pitch also needs to be a topic of discussion,” Matthäus said.

Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, blocks Trump order

President Donald Trump attended oral arguments in the case, underscoring his staunch opposition to granting automatic citizenship to many immigrants' babies.

Supreme Court strikes down coordinated campaign spending limits

The Supreme Court struck down federal limits on the amount of money a political committee can spend in coordination with federal candidates.

Musical fruit or unsung hero? A beginner’s guide to cooking with beans

Long before becoming TikTok’s latest main character, food cultures around the world have been soaking and stewing beans to delicious effect. And yes, you can tone down the side-effects

For months, TikTok home cooks have been spilling the beans on the nutritional power of soaking and simmering pots of cannellini, borlotti and black beans. There are more than 13,000 TikTok videos under the hashtag #beantok, with cooks claiming the humble legumes have alleviated their anxiety, perimenopause and inflammation. Pair that with “fibremaxxing”, and the bean has found itself recast from back-of-the-pantry afterthought to wellness main character.

But for many cooks and chefs, none of this is new. Beans are native to the Americas and arrived in Europe by the 16th century, but they were so readily adopted into Mediterranean cooking that it’s now hard to imagine those cuisines without them. “The Tuscans are even known as ‘mangiafagioli’: bean eaters,” says food writer Emiko Davies, who points out that beans were once the everyday nutrition of a largely peasant population.

Editor's note: NPR retracts Justice Samuel Alito story

Waldmüller: Landscapes review – the rule-breaking radical whose ‘delicate fingers’ drove bourgeois Austria wild

National Gallery, London
He painted leaves, grass and even bark with the precision of a chef applying a micro-garnish with tweezers. The result? Looking at his work feels a lot like eating your greens

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1793-1865) is regarded as one of the most important figures in 19th-century Austrian art; an influential and admired teacher, and a somewhat radical figure regarding the established Viennese Academy. He worked during the Biedermeier movement which spanned the end of the Napoleonic wars until 1848 when various revolutions shook the ruling Habsburg empire and Austrian political elite. Biedermeier reflected the tastes and aspirations of a rising bourgeois society; terribly nice landscapes, genre scenes, floral and portrait pieces for the upwardly mobile drawing room. Within these genteel confines, Waldmüller intently focused on a more unflinching mode of depiction, concerned more with accuracy and integrity than the sentimentalising efforts of his peers, while also criticising the Academy’s teaching methods and eventually in 1857 even calling for the abolition of all academies.

If this collection of relatively small, minutely detailed landscapes is representative of an impassioned, radical painter tearing up the rule-book, it is far from obvious from their tightly controlled, rather unimposing visual appearance. Each shows a vista of a specific location – The Ruins of the Temple of Juno Lacinia near Agrigento (1846), View of the Dachstein from the Sophien-Doppelblick near Ischl (1835) – accompanied by captions which systematically list topographical details of note, followed by some light technical analysis: for the latter, “Waldmüller has distinguished the successive elements in the landscape with distinct changes in tonality, from the soft green of the valley to the blue-grey of the most distant mountains.” In the show’s only portrait, 1828’s Self Portrait as a Young Man, which incidentally dwarfs everything else here in scale, the caption draws attention to “his delicate fingers proclaiming his sensitivity and talent”: delicacy and sensitivity are the operative descriptors for the entire show.

Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship on constitutional grounds

The decision firmly rejected the executive order that Trump issued on the first day of his second term.

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

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

Supreme Court strikes down limits on political party spending

At issue in the case was a post-Watergate law that Congress passed to limit the amount of money individuals can give to political parties.

Spider-Man’s web of lies: what would actually happen if you were bitten by a radioactive spider?

Aside from perhaps a tingling in the nether regions, your newfound spidey abilities might leave you a lot worse for wear than the franchise would have us believe

This year, perhaps more than any other, is make or break for the MCU. Once such an unstoppable pop culture colossus that even Martin Scorsese had a take on them, superhero movies have spent the last half-decade wobbling dangerously. The recent commercial disappointment of DC’s Supergirl is a sign that the public is still fatigued from all the endless variations on a theme, and it is into this minefield that Marvel plans to release two huge movies in the coming months, in the form of Avengers: Doomsday and Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Will these films succeed where previous MCU films have suffered? Perhaps not now that science has revealed that Spider-Man is a lie. A new press release from Glasgow’s Kelvinside Academy has revealed precisely what would happen if Spider-Man was a real person who actually existed, and it isn’t pretty.

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

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

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

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

Starmer warns Burnham not to borrow to fund defence as he reveals £15bn plan

PM unveils long-awaited defence investment plan, which he says will mean hit to road, housing and energy schemes

• UK politics live – latest updates

Keir Starmer has warned his successor not to borrow more to pay for defence as he raided energy, transport and housing projects to plug a military spending deficit with an extra £15bn over the next four years.

The prime minister revealed his long-awaited defence investment plan (Dip) on Tuesday, after an 11-month government row that cost him a defence secretary and arguably contributed to his downfall.

Tricks to help you spend less money at restaurants

Personal finance and nutrition experts share simple strategies that make it possible to eat out without spending a fortune. One tip? You might have to let go of your fast food delivery habit.

Supreme Court upholds bans on transgender athletes participating in women and girls' sports

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who has long coached his daughters' and other girls' basketball teams at school, wrote the court's majority opinion.

Why is Elon Musk boosting an anti-immigrant film loved by the far right? | Mehdi Hasan

Does anyone seriously think this kind of amplification is harmless?

Elon Musk has long described himself as a “centrist”. He likes to pretend that he hasn’t changed his views; it’s the Democrats who have lurched to the left. He’s merely a free speech advocate; a self-styled “moderate” resisting the excesses of the “woke mind virus”.

But when you pay attention to his actual digital footprint – the tweets, the retweets, the algorithmic amplification – a very different, much darker picture emerges. The world’s richest person clearly isn’t interested in cultivating a neutral marketplace of ideas; rather, he has turned Twitter/X into a platform where far-right and racist content is repeatedly rewarded and amplified.

Stunning upsets in World Cup

Paraguay knocked out historic powerhouse Germany in the World Cup on Monday – and it wasn't the only upset. Morocco beat the Netherlands in a penalty shootout, sending the Dutch to their earliest World Cup exit ever. Nicole Valdes reports.

AI could make people dull, one scientist fears. Here's why.

AI tends to "play it safe within a user's preferences," nudging people toward more conventional choices, according to computational social scientist Sandra Matz.

Number of billionaires globally soars by 13% amid AI shares boom

Billionaires’ wealth grew by 25% on average in the year ended in April, research from Swiss bank UBS finds

• Business live – latest updates

The number of billionaires in the world has jumped by 13% to a record 3,302 people, new figures show, as the super-rich accumulate wealth at an accelerating rate.

Billionaires’ wealth grew by 25% on average in the year ended in April, compared with a 10.8% rise in average personal wealth around the world, the Swiss bank UBS found.

Wildfires in Colorado rapidly spread, destroying buildings and forcing evacuations

New wildfires have quickly spread across tens of thousands of acres in Colorado, forcing people to evacuate from their homes and destroying buildings. Rob Marciano and Jonah Kaplan have the latest.

JetBlue pilot says "we collided with a drone" while landing at JFK

The FAA is investigating after a JetBlue pilot said a drone "hit us right above the cockpit" while on its final approach to New York's JFK airport. JetBlue said a post-flight inspection found no signs of damage or any indication of a collision.

CBS Chicago journalists attacked by 3 men near Adler Planetarium

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

Dangerous heat spreads across the U.S.

Dozens of major U.S. cities are facing dangerous heat. It feels like more than 100 degrees from the Gulf to the Great Lakes. Rob Marciano has more.

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

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

• UK politics live – latest updates

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tap on the images below to fade between the visuals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is heterosexuality hopeless? | Arwa Mahdawi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Got a culinary dilemma? Email [email protected]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Caf says its aim is to make tournament world class

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grand Theft Auto workers seek union recognition after mass firings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Police units deployed across South Africa before anti-immigration marches

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Doves and food and fun’: the fight to save a farming pioneer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After Trump's reelection, these U.S. scientists found jobs in the U.K.

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

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

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

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

• All England CEO requests ‘financial information’ from players

• Resentment rising over stalling tactics in long-running dispute

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The summer trends hotlist … tomato ketchup’s got competition

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are Colorado's 2026 primary election results

Live election results: Get the latest on Colorado's U.S. Senate, U.S. House and gubernatorial primary races.

Venezuelans deported from the U.S. were killed hours later in powerful quakes

On June 24, 146 Venezuelans were deported from Texas to Caracas. Hours later, while the deportees were in a guarded hotel, powerful twin earthquakes struck.

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

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

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

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

Europe and US on collision course over next high representative for Bosnia

Diplomats from around world meet in Sarajevo in second attempt to agree on top envoy, as US pushes for its choice

Diplomats from around the world are due to meet in Sarajevo on Tuesday in an attempt to resolve a deep rift between the US and Europe over a top envoy appointment that could have a powerful influence on the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Disagreement has erupted over who should become the next high representative for the international community, a post with significant powers, in an overt test of political wills. The Trump administration is assertively pushing a business-driven agenda, potentially at the expense of Bosnia’s delicate postwar political balance.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Protein coffee? Brands cash in on functional beverage boom

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

How I survived the record Paris heatwave while seven months pregnant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Charlotte Higgins is the Guardian’s chief culture writer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Distance up to 74 miles
Duration 3-9 days

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Poppy seed potatoes and chicken kebabs: Nisha Katona’s recipes for home-style Indian favourites

There’s a common misconception that Indian cooking is time-consuming and usually involves a dizzying number of ingredients, but these two home standbys show you can create magic in mere minutes

My earliest memories are of cooking, sitting on the floor of my grandmother’s kitchen in Varanasi, northern India, dutifully combining water and flour to make dough or grinding spices between stones, both sensory kitchen tasks that became my playtime. The other kitchens of my life – those of my mother and aunt, my own kitchen at home and our restaurant kitchens at Mowgli – are still where I feel most at home, standing over a pot and conjuring aromas that waft through the house. There is a common misconception that Indian cookery is hard, and that for every dish you have to grind and roast and marinade, but that couldn’t be further from the truth: with a single stove ring, 20 or so minutes of fuel, one pot, a board, a knife and a spoon for stirring, you can create magic.

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

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

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

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

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

6/29: CBS Evening News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The 2026 FIFA World Cup schedule and how to watch

With 104 World Cup games being played in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, it's like "a Super Bowl every single day for five weeks," U.S. team captain Tim Ream told CBS News.

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

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

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

• Find more from The birth keepers series here

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

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