Congestion pricing has transformed New York City streets – but can it survive Trump?

The first of its kind in the US, a new traffic toll in Manhattan has produced impressive early results while facing looming challenges

Every week, Stan Avedon drives across lower Manhattan, moving bikes between the two NYC Velo shops he’s managed for the last 15 years. What used to be a grinding crawl through some of the world’s worst traffic is noticeably less painful lately. “It’s like night and day,” he said.

Avedon’s transformed commute is the result of the most ambitious policy to hit New York in recent memory. Starting 5 January, drivers entering lower Manhattan began paying a $9 congestion toll aimed at deterring drivers and raising desperately needed funds for the city’s deteriorating public transit system.

Published: June 16, 2025, 12:00 pm

Violence is coming to define American political life | Stephen Marche

Spectacular violence like Trump’s military parade and real violence like Melissa Hortman’s assassination are part of a growing trend

America reached its apex of self-parody shortly after 7pm on 14 June 2025. In that moment, the background band at Donald Trump’s military parade segued from Jump by Van Halen to Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival, just after the announcer explained that M777 howitzers are made out of titanium.

Nobody, apparently, had considered the lyrics: “Some folks are born, made to wave the flag, they’re red, white and blue, and when the band plays Hail to the Chief, they point the cannon at you.” If this was some kind of surreptitious protest by the musicians, I salute them, but given the time and the place, sheer obliviousness is a better explanation. The crowd, pretty thin, did their best imitation of a cheer.

Published: June 16, 2025, 9:00 am

‘Always something I can watch’: why Spotlight is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers drawing attention to their mood-lifting favourites is a robustly made Oscar winner from 2015

Halfway through Spotlight, Tom McCarthy’s understated retelling of the Boston Globe’s investigation into child abuse in the Catholic church in Boston, is a moment that, even 30-plus rewatches later, still chills me. Spotlight editor Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton) travels to Providence to interview a fellow Boston College high school alumnus, where he and the victim, Kevin (Anthony Paolucci), make pleasant small talk about bygone school days. When the subject turns to the school’s hockey coach, Father James Talbot, however, the tone abruptly shifts. Kevin’s face hollows, his eyes deaden, and we see his soul drain from his body. “How’d you find out?” he says in a level, diminished tone that rings with years of trauma.

It is a measure of how polished every aspect Spotlight is that, in a cast boasting Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, world’s second-best Shrek Brian d’Arcy James, and criminally underappreciated performances from Liev Schreiber and Stanley Tucci, it’s a few moments from Paolucci (who has 12 credits on IMDb, all for small parts like this) that shows Spotlight at its most harrowing.

Published: June 16, 2025, 9:00 am

‘This is the looting of America’: Trump and Co’s extraordinary conflicts of interest in his second term

Bitcoin, internet, EVs, private dinners for hire – the list of pay-for-play and quid quo pro goes on, and on … and on

The South Lawn of the White House had never seen anything like it. The president of the United States was posing for the world’s media against a backdrop of five different models of Tesla, peddling the electric vehicles with the alacrity of a salesman on commission.

“I love the product, it’s beautiful,” Donald Trump said as he sank into the driver’s seat of a scarlet Model Y. With the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, beside him, he went on to enlighten the American people that some Tesla models retail for as little as $299 a month, “which is pretty low”.

Published: June 16, 2025, 11:00 am

Why a professor of fascism left the US: ‘The lesson of 1933 is – you get out’

Marci Shore made news around the world when her family moved to Canada. She discusses Trump, teaching history and how terror atomises society

She finds the whole idea absurd. To Prof Marci Shore, the notion that the Guardian, or anyone else, should want to interview her about the future of the US is ridiculous. She’s an academic specialising in the history and culture of eastern Europe and describes herself as a “Slavicist”, yet here she is, suddenly besieged by international journalists keen to ask about the country in which she insists she has no expertise: her own. “It’s kind of baffling,” she says.

In fact, the explanation is simple enough. Last month, Shore, together with her husband and fellow scholar of European history, Timothy Snyder, and the academic Jason Stanley, made news around the world when they announced that they were moving from Yale University in the US to the University of Toronto in Canada. It was not the move itself so much as their motive that garnered attention. As the headline of a short video op-ed the trio made for the New York Times put it, “We Study Fascism, and We’re Leaving the US”.

Published: June 16, 2025, 4:00 am

Terrible things happen in life - but it is possible to recover from them

We go to all sorts of lengths, often unconsciously, to hide from what has hurt us. But only by attuning to pain can we hope to heal

We can try as hard as we like to build a better life for ourselves and our loved ones, but the truth is that sometimes things happen that are very difficult to recover from. Terrible, traumatising, crushingly painful things. If you are someone who has experienced abuse; lost a loved one too young; lost a baby or a child; wanted a child and not been able to have one for whatever reason; suffered irreparable injury to your body and your mind; or survived any tragedy that has left you drowning in despair, a better life may feel absolutely and irredeemably out of your grasp.

I understand this. I have seen it many times in my consulting room, and although I have been very fortunate in my life, I have also known that feeling of certainty that there are some traumas that you just cannot recover from. When you’re in the middle of it, or stuck in its aftermath, that is all there is.

Published: June 16, 2025, 10:00 am

Suspect in Minnesota lawmaker killing visited other legislators’ homes, prosecutors say – live

Prosecutors said suspect Vance Boelter also visited the homes of two other lawmakers on Saturday while disguised as a police officer

A federal judge is set to consider on Monday whether to extend an order blocking President Donald Trump’s plan to bar foreign nationals from entering the United States to study at Harvard University.

US District Judge Allison Burroughs during a hearing in Boston will weigh whether to issue an injunction barring Trump’s administration from implementing his latest bid to curtail Harvard’s ability to host international students while the university’s lawsuit challenging the restrictions plays out.

Published: June 16, 2025, 5:35 pm

Israel issues Tehran evacuation order as Iran threatens to leave nuclear weapons treaty

Order similar to those issued in Gaza a further sign Israeli campaign is evolving towards war of attrition

• Middle East crisis – latest updates

Israeli forces have issued an evacuation order to residents of a large part of Tehran, warning them of the imminent bombing of “military infrastructure” in the area in a social media post very similar to those regularly directed at Palestinians in Gaza over the past 20 months.

The post on X was from the account of the Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic spokesperson, Col Avichay Adraee, and is a further sign of the evolving nature of the Israeli campaign against Iran, which began with attacks on air defences, nuclear sites and the military chain of command, but appears to have drifted towards a war of attrition focused on Iran’s oil and gas industry and on the capital.

Published: June 16, 2025, 4:50 pm

European leaders at G7 trying to bring Iran back to negotiating table

UK prime minister and French president among those pressing for de-escalation of conflict with Israel

• Middle East crisis – live updates

• US politics live – latest updates

European leaders at the G7 summit in Canada are trying to engineer an Iranian return to the negotiating table using Gulf leaders as intermediaries.

But Iran is demanding a joint ceasefire with Israel, while Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is resisting the move, and Donald Trump has yet to show his hand.

Published: June 16, 2025, 5:12 pm

At least 37 Palestinians killed in Gaza food site shooting, local authorities say

Death toll is highest yet reported in near-daily shootings since US-backed group began aid operations in territory

• Middle East crisis – live updates

At least 37 Palestinians were killed on Monday in new shootings in Gaza near food distribution centres run by private US contractors guarded by Israeli troops, local authorities said.

Witnesses blamed the shootings on Israeli troops who opened fire early in the morning in an effort to control crowds of hungry Palestinians converging on two aid hubs managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private organisation that began operating recently in the devastated Palestinian territory with Israeli and US support.

Published: June 16, 2025, 4:53 pm

‘Extremely disturbing and unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans

Department of Veterans Affairs says the changes come in response to a Trump executive order ‘defending women’

Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump.

The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers.

Published: June 16, 2025, 10:00 am

Syrian general says missing US journalist Austin Tice was killed

Bassam Hassan, a top general under Assad, reportedly gave news regarding American who went missing in 2012

A high-ranking Syrian general under former president Bashar al-Assad who is now in Lebanon has reportedly told US investigators that the American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in 2012, is dead.

Bassam Hassan was a top security adviser once accused of facilitating chemical attacks on civilians. In a recent meeting with the FBI and CIA, he claimed that Assad – who was ousted in December and has since fled to Moscow – ordered Tice’s execution, according to the New York Times and the BBC, which first reported the allegation. Each media organization cited sources familiar with the matter. Hassan’s claims remain unverified.

Published: June 16, 2025, 5:11 pm

Trump promises expanded immigration crackdown after ‘No Kings’ protests

Statement comes amid questions over whether Ice – reportedly $1bn over budget – is set to run out of money

Donald Trump has promised an expanded immigration crackdown in several large Democratic-led cities as apparent vengeance for “No Kings” protests against his administration on Saturday that drew millions of people – despite questions over whether the agency in charge of the effort is set to run out of money.

In new reporting on Monday, Axios claimed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) was $1bn over budget and set to run out of money in the next one to three months.

Published: June 16, 2025, 3:50 pm

Florida sheds 20 tons of invasive pythons in effort to curb its population

The increase in Burmese pythons had resulted in loss of animals native to the Everglades

It was a milestone moment in Florida’s 25-year war on invasive Burmese pythons: an eye-popping announcement that biologists had removed 20 tons of the slithering invaders from waters in and around the Everglades in little more than a decade, as well as shattering their previous record for a single-season haul.

The successes of the team at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida showcase the progress that has been made in efforts to reverse the snakes’ takeover of the state’s natural wilderness, even though experts concede they will probably never be completely eradicated.

Published: June 16, 2025, 1:00 pm

At Home Depot, Ice raids terrorize the workers who helped build LA: ‘They just come and grab you’

Undocumented laborers have long gathered in the chain’s parking lots hoping to get hired, but now there is a ‘terrible fear’

The white vans zipped into the parking lot of the Home Depot in central Los Angeles.

Pedro watched from the corner as masked federal immigration agents emerged before grabbing and handcuffing people.

Published: June 16, 2025, 11:44 am

Trump Organization unveils $499 gold phone raising new concerns on conflicts of interest

President’s family business enters sector regulated by US agencies while Trump wields executive power over them

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump has launched a mobile phone service and $499 gold smartphone, the latest monetization of his presidency by a family business empire now run by his sons.

The Trump Organization unveiled Trump Mobile on Monday with a $47.45 monthly plan – both the service name and price referencing Trump as the 47th president. The company will also sell a gold-cased “T1” smartphone in September etched with the American flag.

Published: June 16, 2025, 2:52 pm

Trump’s ‘revenge tax’ could threaten foreign investment into US, analysts say

Concerns raised that section 899 could backfire and also undermine dollar’s safe haven status

Foreign investment into the US could be threatened by Donald Trump’s new “revenge” taxes, analysts have warned.

A provision within the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will allow the US to apply higher taxes on foreign individuals, businesses and investors connected to jurisdictions that impose “unfair foreign taxes” on US individuals and companies.

Published: June 16, 2025, 5:00 am

Trump coveted a military spectacle but his parade proved underwhelming: ‘Just kind of lame’

Trump’s army parade was neither the totalitarian North Korean spectacle that critics had grimly predicted, nor the triumph of Maga nationalism fans craved

On Saturday, as a crowd of thousands of people near the Washington Monument listened, a loudspeaker dramatically announced the names of the US secretary of defense, vice-president and president. The final name received a modest roar that surely flushed the watching commander-in-chief with validation. With that, and with the boom of a 21-gun salute, the military parade that Donald Trump had coveted for years finally began.

A protester, Nicky Sundt, kept a lonely and mostly silent vigil at the side of the road. She held a sign depicting a cartoon Trump brushing back his comb-over to reveal a swastika emblazoned on his forehead. The placard said “Save our democracy”. Standing near her – as a “counterprotest to the counterprotest to the protest, or something,” as one of them put it – a group of pro-Trump men held court. One was draped in an American flag. Another had a giant picture of Trump, in a crown, with the exhortation “Trump for king”.

Published: June 15, 2025, 4:29 pm

‘No way to invest in a career here’: US academics flee overseas to avoid Trump crackdown

Budding scholars pursue overseas jobs amid attacks on education and research, prompting fears of an American brain drain

Eric Schuster was over the moon when he landed a lab assistant position in a coral reef biology lab at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (SIO). The 23-year-old had recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nanoengineering from the University of California, San Diego, into a fiercely competitive job market. He felt like he’d struck gold.

But the relentless cuts to scientific research and attacks on higher education by the Trump administration have turned what felt like a promising academic future into unstable ground.

Published: June 15, 2025, 11:00 am

Authoritarian-friendly Fifa fest shows why next year’s World Cup must be boycotted | Byline Heba Gowayed and Nicholas Occhiuto

The Club World Cup is being staged across the US as citizens from 12 countries are banned and masked agents demand people’s papers based on the color of their skin

International sporting events, spectacles of recreation designed to distract people from their day-to-day lives, are cultural and political branding opportunities for their hosts. For authoritarians, they have long been used as a tool to distract from or launder stains of human rights violations and corruption – a practice called “sportswashing”. Russia, which has a track record of violent repression and Qatar, notorious for labor rights violations, each paid millions in bribes to be able to host the World Cup in 2018 and 2022 respectively. “This is a new image of Russia that we now have,” Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, said after the tournament there.

This summer, the Fifa Club World Cup has come to the United States – the event includes 32 of the most prominent soccer clubs in the world, and is a much-anticipated precursor to next year’s World Cup, hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada. The Trump administration, however, is not using the opportunity to manufacture a positive image of the country, but instead is using the events as a platform to amplify its emerging authoritarianism.

Published: June 16, 2025, 2:19 pm

‘It’s about self-destruction’: director Serebrennikov on his bleak operatic vision of Russia

Staging of Boris Godunov explores the effects that Putin’s regime and war in Ukraine is having on the Russian public

On the stage of the Amsterdam opera house, a Soviet-era block of flats is sliced open in a cross-section. In almost every apartment, a television set shows images of crowds at a rally, cheering a vast Russian flag emblazoned with the Z pro-war symbol.

Meanwhile, police bang on the doors looking for dissidents, while another big screen on the stage shows very different images, evocative and melancholic photographs of provincial Russia. As the lights go down at the end of the performance, the final image is of a van in a lonely parking lot, a coffin loaded into the back.

Published: June 16, 2025, 11:46 am

‘Queer as a $3 bill’: celebrating 100 years of LGBTQ+ art for Pride month

A new exhibition at the Getty Center in Los Angeles looks back at a variety of queer art from 1900 to the present

As curator Pietro Rigolo was combing through the Getty’s archives in search of material for his new show, he came upon a strange sight – a $3 bill.

“I was in this section of the archive dealing with the Black Panther movement, the WPA, the gay rights movement and protest material related to HIV/Aids,” Rigolo told me during a video interview. “In there, I found this little piece of ephemera that was this fictive $3 bill. This specific banknote bears the portraits of Harvey Milk and Bessie Smith.”

Published: June 16, 2025, 5:18 pm

New York City’s new elevated waterfront – in pictures

Nearly 13 years after Hurricane Sandy flooded lower Manhattan, the first section of East River Park, designed to withstand storm surges, opens

Published: June 16, 2025, 2:00 pm

John Oliver on the juvenile justice system: ‘Makes no sense’

The Last Week Tonight host reacts to Donald Trump deploying troops to Los Angeles and digs into the cruel juvenile justice system in the US

John Oliver opened the first Last Week Tonight since protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) erupted in Los Angeles, prompting Donald Trump to send in 4,000 national guard troops and 700 active-duty marines. The deployment “felt completely over the top, especially when you consider troops will apparently be there for 60 days at a cost to taxpayers of roughly $134m,” Oliver said on Sunday evening. “Usually when that much is spent on something completely pointless, we at least get to see one of the Avengers in it.”

Oliver also skewered Ice’s widespread armed raids across the city, arresting undocumented immigrants by the thousands. “When everyone was warning about a slippery slope to authoritarianism under Trump, this is it,” he said. “Because masked government agents grabbing people off the street and deporting them without due process is authoritarianism. Sending in the military to crack down on protests against those actions is authoritarianism.”

Published: June 16, 2025, 3:29 pm

No kings, few fans: USA’s year of World Cups gets off to a flat start

Fifa’s much-hyped Club World Cup and Concacaf’s Gold Cup opened to crowds far short of what organizers might have hoped

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

That the two events should coincide was so perfect as to almost feel heavy-handed. Donald Trump’s comically underattended military parade lurched through Washington DC at the exact same time on Saturday as the overwrought opening ceremony unspooled for Fifa’s beleaguered Club World Cup, in a definitely-not-full Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.

Trump’s jingoistic birthday bust contrasted painfully with the multimillion-strong turnout at the “No Kings” anti-Trump rallies that gathered all over the country. The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, meanwhile – or “Johnny”, as Trump pronounces the name of one of his favorite allies in the sports world – had promised the opening match of the swollen tournament he forced down the soccer world’s throat would be sold out. Instead, attendance between Inter Miami and Al Ahly, a fitting 0-0 stalemate, was announced at a still-better-than-expected 60,927 in the 64,767-seat venue.

Published: June 16, 2025, 2:42 pm

Mankeeping: why single women are giving up dating

As the male social circle continues to shrink, their partners have to take on much more emotional labour – and many are opting to spend their lives alone instead

Name: Mankeeping.

Age: Semantically, about a year old.

Published: June 16, 2025, 1:20 pm

Trump’s parade isn’t what he was hoping for. It was a disappointing, sad affair | Moira Donegan

The uniformed soldiers marched irregularly, slightly off beat; the turnout was small and the crowd seemed defeated, low-energy and wilted

In one version of the story, you can blame the French. Evidently it was in France, watching the 2017 Bastille Day military parade alongside Emmanuel Macron at the outset of his first term, that Trump initially got the idea to stage an armed spectacle in Washington DC in honor of himself. Back then, the military said no. In a now-famous anecdote, Gen Paul Selva, who grew up in Portugal under its integralist regime, told Trump that such parades are “what dictators do”. James Mattis, his then-secretary of defense, reportedly revolted against the idea, saying he would “rather swallow acid”. Trump never got his parade.

Until now. Restored to power after an interregnum in which all American institutions failed to hold him accountable for his crimes and abuses, Trump has now set about a second term in which he is pursuing vengeance against his perceived enemies, using his office to enrich himself, and indulging all the impulses that were checked by his staffers and advisers back when anyone serious still worked for him.

Published: June 16, 2025, 2:00 pm

A Biden official says Israel committed war crimes. Who else will come forward? | Ahmed Moor

The administration lied to obscure a genocide. Now a former spokesperson is revealing the disconnect between words and reality

Politicians lie, and the people around them do too. When it’s convenient – when the whole world is pulsing with revulsion, for example – they begin to reveal flavors of the truth.

The Biden administration lied more than most, its public-facing members particularly. Its policy in Palestine was to embrace the Israelis in a “bear hug” – to smother them with love. And there’s thin cover for a genocide beyond lies.

Ahmed Moor is a writer and fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace

Published: June 16, 2025, 12:00 pm

I’m just a bride-to-be. Looking for a suit. That doesn’t make me look like a politician | Eleanor Margolis

As a gay woman I’d never really fantasised about my wedding, but I made a sartorial odyssey from Savile Row to Shanghai. Just don’t call it menswear

It’s a month until my wedding, and my suit has arrived in the post, unceremoniously crammed into a plastic postage bag. I wasn’t expecting it to come from China, but China is of course where things come from. Unbagging the crinkled jacket and trousers for my supposed Big Day felt a little deflating.

Although I’m not sure what I did have in mind. I’ve never fantasised about getting married. As a gay woman, this wasn’t even an option for me until 2013. In fact, the closest I ever came to daydreaming about this occasion was when I was around four and I’d inferred from Disney movies that “getting married” was the act of a prince ballroom dancing with a princess. The dancing was neither here nor there, but I knew I wanted to be the prince.

Eleanor Margolis is a columnist for the i newspaper and Diva

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Published: June 16, 2025, 4:53 pm

Trump is steamrolling congressional Republicans. What’s in it for them? | David Kirp

The budget bill was a reminder: the president and House speaker don’t care about lawmakers’ views. Why not just quit?

Like soldiers in a well-disciplined army, Republican members of US Congress do whatever Commander Donald Trump demands. While the foot soldiers may occasionally grumble, they quickly fall in line when Trump intervenes.

Republican representatives go through contortions to satisfy the bully in the White House: we hated deficits, goes the party orthodoxy, but now we vote for adding trillions to the deficit; we supported Ukraine, but now we cozy up to the Russians; we scrutinized cabinet nominees, but now we give our “advice and consent” to a cabinet of knaves and charlatans.

David Kirp is professor emeritus at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley

Published: June 16, 2025, 10:00 am

Starving, then shot. There is no longer hope for us Palestinians | Esraa Abo Qamar

The UN aid system for Gaza was safe and dignified. Today we’re humiliated or hurt by those tasked with helping us

Twelve-year-old Ahmad Zeidan’s mother was shot and killed in front of him as she tried to secure food for her starving family at one of Gaza’s new US-backed distribution points. He lay beside her body for hours, afraid to stand up and run because any movement might cause his death.

His mother’s death was one of many over the past few days at the hands of Israeli forces on the way to or at facilities operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). On Sunday 1 June, more than 30 were killed. On Monday 2 June, three were killed. On Tuesday 3 June, 27 were killed. Sunday 8 June, four killed. Tuesday 10 June, 17 killed. On Wednesday 11 June, 60 people were reported killed.

Published: June 16, 2025, 6:00 am

Hamilton reveals distress over ‘devastating’ groundhog accident at Canadian F1 GP

• ‘I love animals so I’m so sad about it. That’s horrible’

• McLaren chief warns Norris after Piastri collision

Lewis Hamilton has spoken of his distress after his Ferrari struck a groundhog during the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, describing the accident as “devastating”.

The incident occurred 13 laps into the race, damaging the underside of Hamilton’s car and leaving him distraught. He had qualified in fifth on the grid and had been hoping to make inroads on those ahead of him while managing his tyres. But the accident cost him half a second per lap and was followed by other problems with the car.

Published: June 16, 2025, 3:24 pm

The trial that has gripped Norway like a soap opera has ripped apart track and field’s most famous family | Sean Ingle

A court cleared Gjert Ingebrigtsen of many of the abuse charges made against him but the father and coach’s hope of reconciliation seems remote

The moment that ripped apart track and field’s most successful and eccentric family came in January 2022, after the 15-year-old sister of the Tokyo Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen was grounded by her father after school.

At that point, Jakob and his brothers Filip and Henrik, were all European, world or Olympic champions, having trained like professionals since before they were teenagers. They were also major TV stars in Norway thanks to the docu-series Team Ingebrigtsen, where they appeared alongside their coach and father Gjert.

Published: June 16, 2025, 5:21 pm

Spaun deserves his dream but US Open chaos did not get best from world’s elite | Ewan Murray

With thick rough around bunkers and pin positions on slopes, Adam Scott called Oakmont ‘borderline unplayable’

There should be no sense of demeaning JJ Spaun’s US Open glory if observers question the circumstances. Spaun, not so long ago a journeyman professional, played out his dream by holing out from 65ft on the final green at Oakmont.

Spaun is a prime example of how the penny can drop for golfers at different stages. Now 34, he is in the form of his life and bound for the Ryder Cup. When he talked later of being awake at three o’clock on Sunday morning because his young daughter was vomiting, his relatability only grew. Everybody loves an underdog.

Published: June 16, 2025, 4:58 pm

Nezza sings national anthem in Spanish at Dodgers as protest against immigration raids

• Performer says Dodgers told her to sing in English

• Protests have erupted across LA in response to raids

Singer Vanessa Hernández says she chose to sing the Spanish version of the US national anthem at Dodger Stadium on Saturday as a protest against recent immigration raids.

Hernández, who performs under the name Nezza, says she was warned by a member of the Dodgers staff before the team’s game against the San Francisco Giants to perform the anthem in English.

Published: June 16, 2025, 2:02 pm

Red Sox trade disgruntled All-Star slugger Rafael Devers to Giants in blockbuster deal

• Red Sox land pitchers and outfield prospect in return

• Devers signed $313.5m deal with Red Sox in 2023

The Boston Red Sox traded slugger Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday in a deal that could shake up pennant races on both coasts.

San Francisco sent right-hander Jordan Hicks, lefty Kyle Harrison, outfield prospect James Tibbs III and minor league righty Jose Bello to Boston for the 28-year-old designated hitter, who had bristled at his demotion from third base this year.

Published: June 16, 2025, 11:13 am

Malik Tillman double leads US to 5-0 rout of Trinidad and Tobago in Gold Cup opener

• US snap four-game losing streak with the victory

• Agyemang, Wright, Brenden Aaronson also score

Malik Tillman scored twice as the United States built a three-goal, first-half lead and ended a four-game losing streak by routing Trinidad and Tobago 5-0 on Sunday in a Concacaf Gold Cup opener.

Tillman scored in the 16th and 41st minutes for his first two international goals, both after giveaways by Alvin Jones, and Patrick Agyemang scored his fourth international goal in the 44th.

Published: June 16, 2025, 12:57 am

Messi drink launch affirms Spanish as new lingua franca at Club World Cup | Barney Ronay

Argentina superstar steals limelight again at tournament where South America is saying ‘no mas’ to European hegemony

Javier Zanetti looked suitably awed as he read aloud from the label of a Limon Lime Mas by Messi drink, up on stage at the Chase Stadium VIP reception suite, dressed entirely in silky black tailoring, and looking like an elite hired assassin on his way to the opera, albeit one whose speciality is downing his victims in an ice bucket of the Future Of Hydration.

To be fair, Zanetti didn’t have many options when it came to striking a tone. A few moments earlier he’d been introduced by a marketing manager who spoke about Lionel Messi’s new energy drink in tones of high-performance evangelism, gazing with doe-eyed wonder at the small plastic bottle in his hand and predicting that the “official hydration partner of the Argentine FA” (water: you’re out) would go on not just to make you less thirsty or become a popular choice in petrol stations, but to “inspire generations”. Here was a guy who has really drunk the Mas.

Published: June 15, 2025, 9:00 pm

Angel Reese becomes second-youngest WNBA player to record triple-double

• 23-year-old has 11 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists

• Caitlin Clark holds record for youngest triple-double

Angel Reese recorded her first triple double, Hailey Van Lith led a dominant performance by the Chicago bench with a career-high 16 points and the Sky pulled away from the Connecticut Sun for a 78-66 win on Sunday.

Reese, at the age of 23, became the second-youngest WNBA player in history with a triple double. Only Caitlin Clark had a triple double at a younger age; she had two while she was 22.

Fueled by Reese’s 11 assists – more than double her previous career high – Chicago put five players in double figures. The Sky bench outscored the Sun reserves 36-2 in the Commissioner’s Cup game.

Published: June 15, 2025, 8:03 pm

Lobbyist claims that New York anti-plastic bill would harm people of color called ‘misleading’

Bill that aims to reduce plastic packaging by 30% in 12 years faces staunch opposition by some business interests

The oil and petrochemical lobby is attempting to fend off a New York state proposal to slash plastic waste by arguing that it will disproportionately burden people of color, advocates and assembly sources say, despite widespread evidence that the plastic supply chain poses serious health risks to Black and brown communities.

In New York state, advocates are fighting to pass a wide-ranging bill to reduce plastic packaging by 30% in 12 years while dramatically boosting recycling rates and phasing certain toxic compounds out of packaging. The packaging reduction and recycling infrastructure bill would place a fee on large businesses that distribute plastic packaging, with revenue benefiting taxpayers – a scheme called extended producer responsibility.

Published: June 16, 2025, 5:16 pm

Ant no stopping us now: insect with potent bite continues march across US

Experts say Asian needle ant ‘not especially dangerous’ but warn some people have gone into anaphylaxis

Last year, Dan Suiter, a professor of urban entomology at the University of Georgia, received at least three calls from people who had been stung by an Asian needle ant – or knew someone who had been – and went into anaphylaxis, an allergic reaction that can be life-threatening.

While there is no new evidence on the continued spread of the ants in the US – detected now in 20 US states – Suiter and his colleagues are determined to raise public awareness of the risks the species poses.

Published: June 16, 2025, 12:00 pm

Tourists damage crystal-covered chair in Italian museum by sitting on it

Palazzo Maffei in Verona contacts police after visitors cause Van Gogh’s Chair to buckle while posing for photos

An Italian museum has contacted the police after two clumsy tourists almost wrecked a work of art while posing for photos.

Video footage released by Palazzo Maffei in Verona showed the hapless pair photographing each other pretending to sit on a crystal-covered chair made by the artist Nicola Bolla – described by the museum as an “extremely fragile” work.

Published: June 16, 2025, 4:01 pm

23andMe’s founder wins bid to regain control of bankrupt DNA testing firm

Anne Wojcicki made $305m bid for firm, which has lost customers since declaring bankruptcy, with backing of Fortune 500 company

23andMe’s former CEO is set to regain control of the genetic testing company after a $305m bid from a non-profit she controls topped a pharmaceutical company’s offer for it in a bankruptcy auction.

Last month, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals agreed to buy the firm for $256m, topping a $146m bid from Anne Wojcicki and the non-profit TTAM Research Institute. The larger offer prompted Wojcicki to raise her own with the backing of a Fortune 500 company, according to the former executive. The deal is expected to close in the coming weeks after a court hearing currently scheduled for 17 June, the company said on Friday.

Published: June 16, 2025, 2:20 pm

Sex-trafficking trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs enters sixth week

Lawyers for the music mogul deny allegations of sex trafficking or coercion, asserting that all sexual encounters were consensual and part of a ‘swingers lifestyle’

The high-profile federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs is entering its sixth week in federal court in Manhattan on Monday as the government continues presenting its case against the 55-year-old music mogul.

Combs, who was arrested in September, faces charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.

Published: June 16, 2025, 10:00 am

HBO’s the Mortician ends with subject ‘clearly implying crimes have been committed’, director says

Director of docuseries on California family-run Lamb Funeral Home says that if footage warrants potential criminal case ‘they should do it’

The subject of HBO’s critically acclaimed show The Mortician admits on screen that there are “three [things] altogether” which “can’t come back” and that he can’t talk about publicly – after the docuseries mentions deaths for which he was suspected of being responsible, including one that prompted a failed attempt to prosecute him on charges that he murdered a rival mortuary owner.

David Sconce’s haunting statements on the show’s third and final episode late on Sunday are “clearly implying some very serious crimes have been committed”, The Mortician’s director, Joshua Rofé, told the Guardian. But it wasn’t immediately clear what, if any, consequences there may be.

Published: June 16, 2025, 9:00 am

Bank unveils green loans plan to unlock trillions for climate finance

IADB’s proposals involve lenders using public money to buy up renewable energy loans in poor countries

An innovative plan to use public money to back renewable energy loans in the developing world could liberate cash from the private sector for urgently needed climate finance.

Avinash Persaud, a special adviser on climate change to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), who developed the proposals, believes the plan could drive tens of billions of new investment in the fledgling green economy in poorer countries within a few years, and could provide the bulk of the $1.3tn in annual climate finance promised to the developing world by 2035.

Published: June 16, 2025, 7:59 am

Americans don’t see US supreme court as politically neutral, poll finds

Just 20% of respondents to Reuters/Ipsos poll saw court is politically neutral, a view shared people from both parties

• US politics live – latest updates

Americans are divided on major issues that the US supreme court is due to rule on in the coming weeks, but most agree on one thing: neither Republicans nor Democrats see the nation’s top judicial body as politically neutral, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Just 20% of respondents to the poll agreed that the supreme court is politically neutral while 58% disagreed – and the rest either said they did not know or did not respond. Among people who described themselves as Democrats, only 10% agreed it was politically neutral and 74% disagreed, while among Republicans 29% agreed and 54% disagreed.

Published: June 16, 2025, 12:20 pm

Al Pacino becomes first film star to meet Pope Leo XIV

The actor, who is in Italy for a film about the Maserati car moguls, had an official audience with the pope alongside the film’s producer

Al Pacino has become the first major celebrity to have an official audience with the newly elected pope. The actor, 85, met the pontiff at the Vatican on Monday. He is currently in Italy shooting a film about car moguls the Maserati brothers.

After the pair’s introduction, the film’s producer, Andrea Iervolino, wrote: “We are honoured to announce that this morning His Holiness Pope Leo XIV received in a private audience at the Holy See a delegation from the film Maserati: The Brothers, including Oscar winner actor Al Pacino and the film’s producer Andrea Iervolino.

Published: June 16, 2025, 12:51 pm

Trump vetoed Israeli plan to kill Iran’s supreme leader – report

US officials say Israelis reported they had opportunity to kill Iranian leader, but Trump waved them off of plan

President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, two US officials told Reuters on Sunday.

“Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do we’re not even talking about going after the political leadership,” said one of the sources, a senior US administration official.

Published: June 15, 2025, 8:03 pm

‘No Kings’ demonstrator dies after being shot at Utah protest, police say

Man in custody after Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, 39, was apparently shot by member of event’s peacekeeping team

A demonstrator who was shot on Saturday during Salt Lake City’s “No Kings” protest has died, Utah police said on Sunday afternoon.

The man, Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, 39, had apparently been shot by a man who had been part of the event’s peacekeeping team.

Published: June 15, 2025, 10:35 pm

UK response to Air India crash ‘disjointed and inadequate’, say grieving families

Family members waiting for repatriation of remains say government response has been ‘painfully slow’

Grieving family members of three British citizens who were killed in the Air India plane crash have accused the UK government of a “disjointed, inadequate and painfully slow” response on the ground in India.

The family of Akeel Nanabawa and Hannaa Vorajee and their four-year-old daughter Sara Nanabawa are calling on the UK government to improve how it is communicating with the family members who rushed to Ahmedabad in Gujarat after the crash.

Published: June 16, 2025, 4:18 pm

Iran and Israel crisis: what does it mean for the price of oil?

Banks and forecasters say price trajectory will depend on how far the military and humanitarian crisis escalates

• Business live – latest updates

• Middle East crisis – latest updates

The escalating crisis between Israel and Iran has already triggered the largest single-day oil price surge in the last three years, and the question for many is how much higher the oil markets might climb.

The price of Brent crude has jumped by about $10 a barrel since the start of June to a high of $78 a barrel on Friday, amid growing concerns that the conflict could wipe out Iran’s oil exports or cut flows of crude from the wider Middle East region to the global market.

Published: June 16, 2025, 4:08 pm

Preparatory work to identify remains of 800 infants at Irish mother and baby home begins

Excavation crews begin sealing off site in Tuam, Co Galway, before full-scale dig starts on 14 July

Preliminary work aimed at identifying the remains of nearly 800 infants is starting on the site in Tuam, Co Galway, as Ireland continues to wrestle with the traumatic legacy of its mother and baby homes scandal.

Catherine Corless, a local historian who first sounded the alarm about the dark past of the institution run by nuns from the Bon Secours order, uncovered the names of 796 infants who are believed to have been buried there between 1925 and 1961, some in a disused subterranean septic tank. There were no burial records.

Published: June 16, 2025, 11:52 am

Air India plane crash: investigators to examine pilots’ voice recordings

Second black box from flight AI171 was found on Sunday, days after disaster in which at least 279 people died

• Business live – latest updates

Investigators are preparing to study the pilots’ last words for clues as to the cause of last week’s Air India plane crash after recovering the cockpit voice recorder from the wreckage.

The voice recorder was in the Boeing 787 aircraft’s second black box, which the Indian authorities said they had found on Sunday. The first, containing the flight data recorder, was located within 28 hours of Thursday’s disaster in Ahmedabad, in which at least 279 people died.

Published: June 16, 2025, 1:47 pm

‘It’s all fan-driven. People are in absolute raptures’: how mysterious masked rockers Sleep Token took over metal

They just headlined Download festival and their latest album went to No 1 in the US and UK – so why is Britain’s biggest metal band in a generation so hated by some?

On Saturday, Sleep Token headlined Download festival in Leicestershire. Topping the bill at the festival is something of a rite of passage for artists of a certain musical bent, proof that you are now among the biggest bands in metal and hard rock: Metallica, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Guns N’ Roses are all former headliners. Last month, Sleep Token’s fourth album, Even in Arcadia, debuted at the top of both the British and American charts. Their most recent UK tour took in the biggest venues in the country: the same is true of their forthcoming US tour. In 2025, Sleep Token could reasonably claim to be the biggest British rock band in the world.

But they wouldn’t, because Sleep Token operate behind a veil of anonymity. They have given virtually no interviews over the course of their career. The band’s frontman and chief songwriter is known only as Vessel; the other members are referred to as II, III and IV. They perform live wearing masks, hoods and body paint to conceal their identities and promote a fictional mythology: it’s too sprawling and complex to explain here – one fan has apparently produced a 35,000-word thesis on the subject – but it involves the band being a mouthpiece for a deity called Sleep. Their gigs are referred to as Rituals, their albums as Offerings, their social media posts frequently open with the word “Behold” and end with the word “Worship”. Like Hogwarts pupils, their fans are divided into “houses”: one is called Feathered Host, the other House Viridian.

Published: June 16, 2025, 1:55 pm

‘Oh no! It’s a Gruffalo!’ Julia Donaldson’s 15 best books – ranked!

Her rhyming tales have enchanted children and parents the world over – but which is the best? From a busker’s cat to a greedy rat, it’s time to rate the hits

• Parents: what is your child’s favourite Julia Donaldson book?

Although Julia Donaldson is best known for her work with Axel Scheffler, her books made with other illustrators yield their own delights. Illustrated by Rebecca Cobb, 2012’s The Paper Dolls has an irresistible sense of childlike wonder, following a string of cut-out dolls as they explore a house while trying to avoid scissors.

Published: June 16, 2025, 11:00 am

Red Path review – Tunisian drama tells traumatic story of Islamic State’s horrific cruelty

Based on the true story of the brutal murder of a teenage shepherd, Lotfi Achour’s sombre film honestly attempts to encompass the unbearable grief suffered by the family

A low cloud of misery and horror settles on this sombre movie from Tunisian writer-director Lotfi Achour, inspired by a brutal event in his country from 2015. A teenage shepherd called Mabrouk Soltani was murdered and beheaded on Mount Mghila in central Tunisia by members of Jund al-Khilafah (“soldiers of the caliphate”), the Tunisian branch of Islamic State, which habitually hides out in that remote, rugged region. They videoed their grotesque homicide, claiming the boy was an army spy and ordered his terrified 14-year-old cousin, who was with him, to carry the severed head back to his village as a brutal “message” – and this boy obeyed, in a stricken state of trauma that can only be guessed at. This horrifying event was to assume the status of national scandal in Tunisia two years later when the victim’s elder brother was also murdered by IS in the same place and on the same pretext. (Four jihadis were convicted in 2019 and another 45 in absentia.)

Achour’s film centres on the first event, while anticipating the second. Achraf (Ali Helali) goes up the mountain with his older cousin Nizar (Yassine Samouni), who brings his goats there because it is the only place with water for the herd to drink – and because it is beautiful. The nightmarish attack ensues and the village goes into deep shock; the head is kept in a refrigerator and despite the obvious danger of another attack, Nizar’s brother grimly resolves to lead a party of volunteers, including Achraf, back up into the mountain to recover the rest of the body so Nizar can be given a proper burial. All the while the heartless and prurient press gather at his home.

Published: June 16, 2025, 12:00 pm

Last Resort review – Jon Foo’s former soldier kicks try-hard butt in Die Hard knock-off

Foo has to rescue his family from some very, very bad guys in this formulaic and fun-lacking man-on-a-mission thriller

Our hero just wants a quiet life, but when terrorists committing a bank robbery take his wife and child hostage, Michael has no choice but to go up against the lot of them – battling both the bad guys and the incompetent good guys who can’t handle the situation. Sounds a lot like Die Hard, right? Yippee ki-yay, knock-off merchants. Jon Foo plays a down-to-earth ex-special forces soldier whose day watching cartoons on the sofa is ruined when the villainous Cooper (Clayton Norcross) marches his goons into a downtown bank and rounds everyone up, including Michael’s incredibly annoying wife and child. (In fact they are so irritating that you may find yourself wondering uncharitably if Michael shouldn’t just let the baddies get on with their day in peace.) Cue a man on a mission movie with a couple of twists but very few actual surprises up its sleeve.

The acting and script is, to put it kindly, uneven. The problem with ripping off Die Hard is that it’s not that easy: the underlying formula may be simple, but if you cut all of the action scenes out of Die Hard, you would still have an entertaining film. If you cut out all the action scenes from Last Resort, you would have an unholy mess. Moreover, the dialogue feels Trumpian, in the sense that it feels as if they are making it up as they go along. (Here’s a verbatim quote from the shouty lead villain: “Your daddy murders people! He kills them in cold blood! He cuts their feet! He cuts their hands! He tortures them! Oh no, he’s not so nice. He’s bad! He’s very, very bad! He’s bad!”)

Published: June 16, 2025, 10:00 am

Avant-Drag! review – queer artists light up the streets of Athens with joy and resistance

Drag is a tool of self-expression and of protest in this kaleidoscopic portrait of the city’s vibrant underground art

The queer defiance of Fil Ieropoulos’s kaleidoscopic documentary manifests not only through its subject, but also through its form. Centring on a group of drag performers and gender-nonconforming artists in Athens, this shape-shifting film celebrates a vibrant underground scene that thrives in a homophobic system, rife with state-sanctioned discrimination and violence. Introduced through an episodic structure, figures from the community light up the screen with their artistry and activism as they carve out a safe haven of their own.

In each of the vignettes, we get a glimpse of both the joy and the peril of navigating the city as a queer person. Decked out in extravagant costumes and makeup inspired by Leigh Bowery, Kangela Tromokratisch struts in towering high heels, while her drag performances, with their vaudevillian feel, parody heteronormative ideals of motherhood and marriage. Equally irreverent is Aurora Paola Morado, who weaves her Albanian heritage into her act as she takes aim at xenophobia in Greek society. For them and other artists featured in the film, drag is both a form of self-expression and a tool of protest.

Published: June 16, 2025, 8:00 am

‘Who else can we annoy with our show?’: Such Brave Girls, Britain’s most gleefully offensive comedy returns

Despite its twisted characters and unremitting plotlines, the Bafta-winning sitcom has become an unlikely hot property for the BBC. The secret, says creator Kat Sadler: dealing with things in ‘the most unenlightened way possible’

Few writers take criticism well, fewer actively court it. Kat Sadler, however, has an insatiable appetite for negative feedback. When crafting her BBC sitcom Such Brave Girls, the 31-year-old frequently runs the scripts past her younger sister and co-star Lizzie Davidson – but she isn’t looking for praise. Instead, “she wants you to tear it to pieces”, says Davidson. “She loves it.”

“I get off on it,” confirms Sadler, with matter-of-fact melancholy.

Published: June 15, 2025, 9:00 am

‘You can’t wear gold without diamonds!’ Hip-hop legend Slick Rick on bling, British roots and his 26-year break

He is the rapper’s rapper, adored by Jay-Z, and once called ‘the most beautiful thing to happen to hip-hop’. So why has he taken so long to release his new album? And can we please see his diamond-crusted Virgin Mary medallion?

Slick Rick is tucking into a late room-service breakfast in his Park Lane hotel room. He is back in London, the city his family emigrated from when he was a boy, because he’s launching a new album, Victory, his first since 1999’s The Art of Storytelling, which featured an array of guest artists – including Outkast, Nas and Snoop Dogg – paying homage to one of hip-hop’s legendary figures.

Even today, he remains the rapper’s rapper, the most-sampled hip-hop artist in history. Ghostface Killah has called him the greatest of all time. Eminem described himself as “a product of Slick Rick”, Jay-Z likened him to Matisse and Mark Ronson once gave a Ted talk dissecting his work. Questlove called his voice “the most beautiful thing to happen to hip-hop culture”.

Published: June 16, 2025, 4:00 am

‘I used to impersonate Hannah Montana – I can’t listen to her now!’: Lainey Wilson’s honest playlist

The country star loves the loud guitars of Bob Seger and belts out some Dolly after a few drinks, but which song makes her feel as if she can do anything?

The first song I fell in love with
I remember my grandma playing (How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window by Patti Page when I was five years old in the back seat of the car. I could never tell if she was singing “doggie” or “dolly”, but I loved it either way.

The first record I bought
My grandma used to babysit [US country singer] Tim McGraw, 15 minutes down the road from where I lived in Louisiana, so I bought his album A Place in the Sun from Walmart and my sister and I made up a dance routine.

Published: June 15, 2025, 8:00 am

The Genius Myth by Helen Lewis review – bright wrong things

From Picasso to Joyce, we’re hopelessly in thrall to the fallacy of the all-conquering intellect. Or are we?

What makes a genius? Pushed to define it, we might say it’s a combination of extraordinary talent and drive, often accompanied by a dash of eccentricity or madness. Ultimately, the designation is conferred by hype; it’s essentially an offshoot of celebrity, which is why, as journalist Helen Lewis notes in her new book. “A genius needs a story as well as achievements”. Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso all made pioneering breakthroughs in their respective fields while living unconventional lives that later became the stuff of legend.

Lewis wants us to look at these figures in a more clear-eyed way, and see them as the selfish characters they often were. The lustre of genius, she observes, can provide cover for a multitude of sins: “alcoholism, family abandonment, unfaithfulness, abuse, weirdness, failure to take responsibility”. Since others invariably have to pick up the slack, this amounts to a form of exploitation. Reflecting on Leo Tolstoy’s treatment of his wife, Sophia Tolstaya, over the course of their 48-year marriage, Lewis concludes that the Russian novelist “was a genius, and a parasite”.

Published: June 16, 2025, 8:00 am

Poem of the week: This Year Her Present by Victoria Melkovska

Gifts sent from a loved one abroad at first bring warmth and joy, then grave alarm

This Year Her Present

wasn’t a book —
my shelves sag under the weight of volumes
she’s given me over the last two decades
since I moved from Ukraine to Ireland;

Published: June 16, 2025, 9:00 am

The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine review – a polyphonic portrait of class and trauma in Belfast

The acclaimed short-story writer brings her characters vividly to life in this debut novel about a teenage girl’s assault and its aftermath

That we tend to regard the shift from the short story to the novel as a natural authorial progression perhaps speaks to a failure to recognise the shorter form as its own distinct discipline. Short stories are not novels in miniature, or parts of novels pruned to stand on their own. Without the luxury of space and looser pacing, they demand of the writer a linguistic precision and compression that, at its most radical, borders on the poetic, and which across the breadth of a novel would feel wearying. Novels need room to breathe. The writer expanding their scope therefore faces a difficult adjustment: guarding against density while ensuring they don’t get lost in the space.

For Wendy Erskine, the move to a larger canvas feels entirely unforced. Her highly praised stories, collected in 2018’s Sweet Home and 2022’s Dance Move, often display a certain capaciousness, a willingness to wander beyond the single epiphanic moment that is the traditional preserve of the short story. Now, in her first novel, she revels in the possibilities of an expanded cast, yet controls the pace and framing with all the precision of a miniaturist. The result is a novel that feels like a balancing act: at once sprawling and meticulous, polyphonic and tonally coherent.

Misty could end up with one of those lawyers like off the films, a young underdog, nice long hair like your woman, can’t remember her name. She’s been in loads of things. From the wrong side of the tracks, underdog, but sees something in Misty that reminds her of herself, you know what I mean? And works night and day. In libraries at midnight and grafting grafting grafting. And she turns a whole jury around, our girl. And those guys are going down and their lives are just grubbed up for all time.

Published: June 16, 2025, 6:00 am

‘Odd things happened when she was around’: the unnerving vision of Muriel Spark

From blackmail to burglary, the events of Spark’s life often uncannily echoed those of her novels – no wonder the author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie believed she could predict the future

“There is a supernatural process going on under the surface and within the substance of all things,” says a priest in Muriel Spark’s 1965 novel The Mandelbaum Gate. Spark believed herself wired into this process. The novelist was aware from the start of “a definite ‘something beyond myself’”, an “access to knowledge that I couldn’t possibly have gained through normal channels”.

“Somehow things happened, odd things, when Muriel was around,” recalled her friend Shirley Hazzard. “Everything that happened to Muriel,” according to her American editor Barbara Epler, “had been foreseen”, usually in her books themselves. If Spark wrote about blackmail, she too would be blackmailed; if she wrote about a burglary, she would then be burgled. Thirty years after toying with an idea for The Hothouse by the East River (1973), in which electrocution by lightning takes place down a telephone line, lightning struck Spark’s house in Italy, sending a current of electricity through the external wires and burning her upper lip.

Published: June 15, 2025, 11:00 am

‘How could you not be body dysmorphic today?’ The twisted selfie sculptures of Christelle Oyiri

She has created bronzes of herself with toned legs, tiny horns, a dissolving head and a monstrous tail. The Parisian artist and DJ, who is the inaugural artist of Tate’s Infinities Commission, explains why

‘When I was a girl at high school,” says Christelle Oyiri, “we didn’t talk about plastic surgery. Now it’s normal for 18-year-olds to talk about what kind of lip-fillers they’re going to have. Something extraordinary has happened over the past 10 years.”

What has changed? It’s not simply about keeping up with the Kardashians, though Oyiri recognises that the reality TV sisters have revolutionised the desires of some. “Kim Kardashian,” she says, “made it fashionable for women to want to look like how I and other black women look naturally because of genetics.”

Published: June 16, 2025, 7:00 am

The big idea: should we embrace boredom?

Smartphones offer instant stimulation, but do they silence a deeper message?

In 2014, a group of researchers from Harvard University and the University of Virginia asked people to sit alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes. The only available diversion was a button that delivered a painful electric shock. Almost half of the participants pressed it. One man pressed the button 190 times – even though he, like everyone else in the study, had earlier indicated that he found the shock unpleasant enough that he would pay to avoid being shocked again. The study’s authors concluded that “people prefer doing to thinking”, even if the only thing available to do is painful – perhaps because, if left to their own devices, our minds tend to wander in unwanted directions.

Since the mass adoption of smartphones, most people have been walking around with the psychological equivalent of a shock button in their pocket: a device that can neutralise boredom in an instant, even if it’s not all that good for us. We often reach for our phones for something to do during moments of quiet or solitude, or to distract us late at night when anxious thoughts creep in. This isn’t always a bad thing – too much rumination is unhealthy – but it’s worth reflecting on the fact that avoiding unwanted mind-wandering is easier than it’s ever been, and that most people distract themselves in very similar, screen-based ways.

Published: June 15, 2025, 2:00 pm

Is it true that … there’s no gain without pain?

Feeling the burn is your body’s way of signalling effort, but you don’t always have to suffer to make progress

The words may have been printed on gym vests for decades, but is “no pain, no gain” actually true when it comes to the benefits of exercise, such as improved cardiovascular health or increased muscle mass?

“Not strictly,” says Dr Oly Perkin from the University of Bath’s Centre for Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism (CNEM). “A better way of putting it is that you may make more gains if you experience a bit of pain.”

Published: June 16, 2025, 7:00 am

The kindness of strangers: when I left my card in an ATM in Argentina, a Dutch guy found it and saved my trip

I was travelling solo in 2009, carrying only one card with me. If Bart hadn’t helped, I would have been in a big mess

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

I was towards the end of a nine-week trip, travelling solo around the world. After that long abroad, I was just exhausted. So when I went to the ATM to get money out, I made a critical mistake.

At home in Australia, we take the card out and then we get our cash. In Argentina, where I was, it’s the reverse – first your cash comes out, then your card. So I put my card in, got my money and just walked away, leaving my card behind.

Published: June 15, 2025, 3:00 pm

The one change that worked: I stood up to my inner critic and I’ve never looked back

In my teenage years I had an eating disorder and a voice in my head criticised everything I did. But then I took control

I wish I could say that if my teenage self had a window to the future, she would be proud of the person I’ve become. But, in truth, I think she would dislike me just as much as she disliked herself. Back then, I could have spoken for hours about all of the reasons I hated the person I was. And that wasn’t something I believed would change. I used to be all-consumed by my inner critic: the critical voice in my head was much louder than any rational thoughts or words of affirmation others offered me.

I had an eating disorder. Each day was a monotonous cycle of exercising as much as possible and eating as little as I could get away with. I was miserable, and it was all because of the cage I’d built within my own mind. This is not something unique to people with eating disorders. I’ve realised, after sharing my story online, that so many people have this unkind voice in their heads, critiquing their every move. And that when you start to talk back, your life improves in ways you wouldn’t expect.

Published: June 16, 2025, 9:00 am

This is how we do it: ‘I prefer sex with someone who has erectile dysfunction’

Laila finds the 27-year age gap between her and Jeremy a turn-on. He says being in polyamorous relationships allows him to love different people in different ways

I respect Jeremy’s opinion and life experience and he makes me feel cared for

I also don’t experience jealousy. But I can feel insecure. I worry about being left for a monogamous relationship

Published: June 15, 2025, 10:00 am

My petty gripe: you don’t need to try before you buy a scoop of ice-cream – have some courage

Bigger, more consequential life decisions are made without a road test. Be brave. Take a risk. Live, laugh, lick

• Read more petty gripes

The customer asks for a sample, the patient server hands over a dollop of frozen dairy on the end of a stick, and the customer smacks their lips once, twice, three times then emits a vague sound of approval from Bananarama-stained lips. The ice-cream server doesn’t know where to look, or what expression to wear, as the customer gums at the glob of gelato. The customer asks for a taste of the vanilla. Then the chocolate.

This excruciating exchange happens daily in ice-cream shops and gelaterias across the world. Why many ice-cream customers – or as I call them, ice-cream cowards – feel entitled to samples before committing to a flavour, I do not know.

Published: June 16, 2025, 3:00 pm

My unexpected Pride icon: as a bullied teenager, I found safety in slasher films

Watching mild-mannered schoolgirls overcome serial killers such as Freddy Krueger and emerge as survivors spoke to my younger self in a way no other films could

I have always been morbidly obsessed with the horror film genre. As a small child, I’d gaze up at the posters of Freddy Krueger or Pinhead in our local video rental shop with a curious mix of fear and desire. I wanted to be scared, and I also did not. I was 11 when Channel 4 screened A Nightmare on Elm Street. My poor mum, assuming it couldn’t be that bad if it was on TV, let me record it. I watched through my fingers, drunk on anxiety, the anticipation of the kills almost unbearable. There is, I would argue, something quite queer about this complicated urge. Horror is titillating.

The golden age of the slasher movie was the 1970s and 80s. I’m sure film-makers were inspired by the cultural austerity of the Reagan era, the Moral Majority and the unfolding Aids crisis. But, as a child, I was blissfully unaware of those things or my burgeoning queerness. I just knew I wanted to watch these films.

Published: June 16, 2025, 12:00 pm

Summer in Europe’s lakes and mountains: 15 of the best holidays

With cooler air, fewer crowds and lower prices, the mountains make a great alternative to the coast

All Italians race to la spiaggia in summer, leaving the hinterland marvellously empty. Tuscany gets a lot of love, but travel one region over to Umbria and Monti Sibillini national park bewitches with views of the Apennines and eyrie-like, honey-coloured hill towns such as Castelluccio, soaring above a plateau of brightly coloured poppies, cornflowers and daisies. It’s a gorgeous spot for hiking, biking and tracking down a trattoria to dig into specialities such as wild boar with locally grown lentils. You’ll find some of Italy’s finest salami in butcher shops in Norcia, as well as black truffles on the menus of restaurants such as the Michelin-starred Vespasia, which is in a 16th-century palazzo. Alternatively, you could join a tartufaio and their dog to head into the woods on a truffle-hunting tour.
How to do it Organic farm Agriturismo Casale nel Parco dei Monti Sibillini (doubles from £84 B&B) has truffles and wild herbs in its grounds, and a terrific restaurant serving up local and homegrown produce.

Published: June 15, 2025, 6:00 am

My unexpected Pride icon: the diva women of fighting video games inspired me

As a young gay kid who was often teased and bullied for prancing around like a ballet dancer, I drew confidence from self-assured characters like Nina from Tekken

Growing up, fighting video games such as Tekken and Street Fighter were a core part of bonding during summer holidays for my brothers and I. For me, beat-em-ups were less about nurturing any masculine impulses toward strength and destruction, and more about the lore of the fighting game and its varied fighting styles, which played like a dance on the TV screen. That, and the ever-expanding rosters of sexy, glamorous femme fatales.

There is a joke I have often heard that you know a young boy may be of the lavender persuasion if he only picks female characters in beat-em-up fighting video games – the parents might think it’s because he fancies them, but really it’s a form of diva worship. That was certainly true for me.

Published: June 15, 2025, 12:00 pm

‘They just see you as an Arab’: Israel’s Palestinian citizens given cursory protection from attack

Deaths of four family members sheltering in supposed ‘safe rooms’ in Tamra highlight racial inequality of Israel’s defence of its citizens

When an Iranian missile bound for the industrial port of Haifa dropped out of the sky on the town of Tamra on Saturday night, it fell on Israel’s most vulnerable, and in one devastating flash, lit up the country’s deepest divide.

The missile demolished a three-storey stone house and killed four members of the same family: Manar Khatib, and her two daughters – Shada, a university student, and Hala, a 13-year-old schoolgirl – as well as Manar’s sister-in-law, Manal.

Published: June 15, 2025, 7:31 pm

Cyclists, rowers and an aerobatic display: photos of the day – Monday

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

Published: June 16, 2025, 1:11 pm