Why does hot weather put me in such a bad mood?

Not everyone experiences heat the same way, and studies show aggression, violence and road rage increase on hotter days

Recently, my husband and I embarked on what should have been a pleasant spring errand: a stroll to the local farmer’s market. But a passing heatwave had made it unseasonably hot outside. I cut him off on the sidewalk and he snapped at me, so I snapped at him for snapping at me. We spent the rest of the excursion in sweaty, stony silence. When we were almost home, he said, miserably: “I’m sorry! It’s just so hot.”

Our grouchiness was not simply a weakness of spirit. “Heat doesn’t just affect your body,” said Dr Susan Albers, clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic. “It affects your mood too.”

Published: July 9, 2026, 9:00 am

‘I saw it seven times in the cinema’: readers’ favourite films of 2026 so far

On the back of our editors’ choices of the year’s finest, we asked you to share your magical movie moments from the first half of 2026

The film that had me gripped right from its ridiculous and bizarre first scene at a Brazilian country road petrol station was The Secret Agent by Kleber Mendonça Filho. The gorgeous Armando is on the run from a corrupt private company official, who wants to steal his academic expertise for his own financial gain. It’s a deal that Armando knows will sully his academic reputation but by refusing to do so, he ends up with a target on his back from the resentful Ghirotti, who sent chills up my spine. This is a stunning movie. Liz, London

Published: July 9, 2026, 7:06 am

‘His legacy is cringe’: how Charlie Kirk became a meme among the young – even his supporters

Crude jokes about the Maga luminary are exploding online – less than a year after conservatives were suppressing any slander against him

Ten months since his assassination, Charlie Kirk’s name and likeness are still proliferating online. Just not the way the far-right activist would have wanted.

Audio of the gunshot that killed him has become a TikTok meme, as have ironic reposts of the apparent AI-slop song We Are Charlie Kirk, which was originally created as a posthumous tribute. He was the butt of a crude joke during the Netflix roast of the Hollywood star Kevin Hart in May. The next month, a viral tweet encouraged people to take “a shot” in his honor on Juneteenth. And a trend known as “Kirkification” has emerged, in which internet pranksters superimpose his face on to unlikely images, such as the Mona Lisa, a woman in a bikini, or Jeffrey Epstein.

Published: July 9, 2026, 4:00 am

Beat legend, ‘boy lover’: how should we reckon with Allen Ginsberg’s complex legacy?

As a series of star-studded events celebrates Ginsberg’s centennial, the keeper of his estate weighs the genius poetry – and provocative views – of the iconic writer

In 1985 Allen Ginsberg sat his friend, an out gay 17-year-old named Peter Hale, down and gave some advice: “Get a wife, settle down, and have kids.” At the time, Hale was enrolled in a summer program at Naropa University, a Buddhism-inspired college where Ginsberg, 59, ran the writing program.

“He told me not to live the life of the itinerant poet going around heartbroken, forever unfulfilled,” Hale tells me via video call. Ginsberg was, in Hale’s words, “very much a traditionalist”.

Published: July 9, 2026, 2:00 am

‘Ramones had leather jackets when they got spat on. We didn’t!’ David Byrne on touring with Talking Heads and taking advice from Lou Reed

As his American Utopia tour film hits cinemas, the musician answers your questions about his Scottish sense of humour, working with Brian Eno and his desire to direct another film

In May 1977, Talking Heads along with Ramones toured the UK starting at Eric’s Club in Liverpool. Did touring as punk exploded have an impact on you? SpiritofWacker
There was something really great about that tour because other than maybe a few singles the audience had never seen us, so there was a lot of curiosity and openness to us and Ramones, as different as we were. Later on, fans kind of decided they liked this band or didn’t like this band, but everything happened very quickly. I remember we did a show at the Roundhouse [in London] where somebody in the audience was gobbing on the bands and, of course, Ramones really didn’t like this. Understandably enough, they didn’t see it as a sign of – ha! – respect: “We’re with you so we’re gonna spit on you.” Ramones got more of that than we did, but at least they had leather jackets. We didn’t.

Ever since the Stop Making Sense tour, it seems to me that your live shows have been a quest to unchain the band from the physical restrictions of the typical rock concert. If that is so, where do you go from here? Lucifer_Sam
From various tours I’d realised that my guitar could be wireless. Then I did a tour with St Vincent where the brass players had started in marching bands, so were used to being mobile. I thought: “OK, what about drums?” I looked at drumline in American football and samba schools in Rio. I asked my longtime percussionist Mauro [Refosco] how many players we’d need to break down the drum kit into components and he said six. I took a big gulp and said: “I think we can afford it.” Then I discovered a Hungarian company which had invented a Midi keyboard on a self-powered rack. Suddenly, the whole band were liberated to move about, which democratised the concert experience for the musicians and the audience, who get to understand what each one does.

Published: July 9, 2026, 7:00 am

What is cyclosporiasis, the parasitic illness causing ‘explosive’ diarrhea?

Illness surging in Michigan and other US states is rarely life-threatening, CDC says – but it can have severe effects

Cases of cyclosporiasis – a parasitic illness that can cause “explosive”, watery diarrhea – have surged across the United States in recent days, health officials have said, with an abnormally large outbreak of almost 1,000 cases reported in Michigan.

Michigan typically reports about 50 cases a year, making the current outbreak the largest in the state’s history and one of the nation’s biggest in recent years. Ohio has also reported a sharp increase, with 177 cases as of 2 July, since the CDC’s last count.

Published: July 9, 2026, 3:00 am

US launches new airstrikes against Iran hours after Trump threatens to escalate

Iran responds by targeting US-allied Kuwait and Qatar and accusing US of striking near its sole nuclear power plant

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

The US has launched new airstrikes against Iran, hours after Donald Trump threatened to escalate the conflict unless Iran stopped attacking ships in the strait of Hormuz.

Iran, which was burying its former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday, responded by targeting US-allied Kuwait and Qatar and accused the US of striking near its sole nuclear power plant.

Published: July 9, 2026, 10:05 am

Maine progressives race to find Platner replacement as centrists call for ‘normie Democrat’

Platner’s former backers are seeking ‘real progressive’ to prevent nomination going to establishment Democrat

• US politics live – latest updates

Progressive groups and lawmakers who rallied behind Graham Platner’s insurgent bid for a US Senate seat are now racing to decide where to transfer their support after his withdrawal from the Maine race following yet another allegation of sexual assault.

The scramble and apparent heartbreak underscores the uncertainty facing the coalition surrounding Platner’s anti-establishment message, and the response from more centrist Democrats to proceed with caution. Organizations, voters, volunteers and elected officials that once saw him as a vehicle for a more populist progressive agenda are now weighing whether to unite behind a successor, or hold back until the party’s replacement process plays out.

Published: July 9, 2026, 9:56 am

IDF accused of ‘field execution’ of Palestinian driver bringing aid into Gaza

The local truckers association has said it may suspend operations, after several eyewitnesses decried the murder of Ahmad Esleem

A Palestinian driver bringing food aid from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) into Gaza has been killed by an Israeli soldier, according to eyewitnesses and the local truckers association, which said it may suspend operations in protest.

Ahmad Esleem was shot in the head on Wednesday when an aid convoy stopped because of a breakdown to one truck soon after entering Gaza, according to three accounts. Israeli soldiers ordered the drivers to dismount and one of them shot Esleem in the head when his hands were raised.

Published: July 9, 2026, 10:58 am

Legionnaires’ outbreak rocks New York as experts warn of rising climate threat

Officials say climate crisis ‘worsening our exposure’ to bacteria as at least 28 people sickened in Manhattan

A New York outbreak of legionnaires’ disease, a rare but severe form of pneumonia, highlights the microbe’s growing and disproportionate impacts in a warming climate.

At least 28 people have been sickened in an outbreak on the Upper East Side, a wealthy neighborhood between Central Park and the East River in Manhattan. Health department officials, seeking to stop the outbreak, have sampled water from nearly 160 building cooling towers to test for the bacteria.

Published: July 9, 2026, 7:00 am

France national team uses ICE deportation planes for World Cup travel

The plane that French team used after match with Paraguay flew 44 deportation-related flights this year alone

The French men’s national soccer team, whose star Kylian Mbappé is one of the world’s most outspoken athletes against far-right politicians, has been using a charter airplane company that is at the heart of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.

Images of the team posted on social media and flight tracking data show the French team have used Global Crossing Airlines (GlobalX) for at least three domestic flights between their World Cup games and base camp in Boston. That same airline charter company has operated more than half of ICE’s removal flights in 2024 and 2025.

Published: July 9, 2026, 2:00 am

Erika Kirk asks for all exhibits linked to husband’s killing to be made public

Widow of far-right activist Charlie Kirk asks judge for ‘transparency’ to head off conspiracy theories

Erika Kirk, the widow of the far-right activist Charlie Kirk, has asked a judge in Utah to allow the open courtroom display of every exhibit relating to her husband’s killing, saying she fears the proliferation of conspiracy theories.

Kirk’s motion came on the third day of a preliminary hearing in Provo at which the district judge Tony Graf will decide if there is sufficient evidence to move ahead with a trial for Kirk’s alleged murderer, Tyler Robinson, in a shooting at Utah Valley University last September.

Published: July 9, 2026, 9:05 am

Nato leaders surprised by Turkish president’s gift of guns after summit

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented engraved revolvers – with bullets – to his guests in Ankara, causing security concerns

What does a world leader do with a gun and six bullets? That was the conundrum Nato leaders faced after the Turkish president offered them each a revolver after the Ankara summit.

Keir Starmer was the first to mention the highly unusual gift presented by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to his guests. On the flight back from Ankara, where Nato leaders had gathered for two days, the British prime minister said he and others had received a revolver engraved with their names.

Published: July 9, 2026, 9:32 am

Mexico investigates whether US lied about role in capture of drug lord

Reporting suggests FBI involved in seizure of Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada García from Mexican territory in 2024

Mexico has launched an investigation into whether the US lied about its involvement in the capture and secretive transfer of a top Sinaloa cartel member in 2024, in what would be a potential violation of the country’s sovereignty.

The US has long denied it played any role in the operation to detain the drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, a founder of the Sinaloa cartel, inside Mexico. Recent reporting by the local media outlet Pie de Nota, however, suggested that the FBI was involved in his capture.

Published: July 9, 2026, 11:17 am

‘Injustice and pain’: Justin Baldoni makes first public statement on Blake Lively lawsuit

It Ends With Us director and his wife, Emily, shared five-minute Instagram video on ‘traumatic’ experience

Justin Baldoni has spoken out about his legal battle with Blake Lively for the first time.

In a five-minute Instagram video recorded with his wife, Emily, Baldoni talked about the “injustice and pain” that he says the couple endured in the year-long legal battle with his It Ends With Us co-star.

Published: July 9, 2026, 7:09 am

New York sues 3M, DuPont and others over 'forever chemicals' in consumer goods

State says companies hid environmental and health risks of Pfas for decades even as they began phasing them out

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New ⁠York sued 3M, DuPont and other companies ⁠on Thursday ⁠for ​causing a public nuisance by selling “forever ⁠chemicals” that they knew were toxic for use ⁠in consumer products.

The ​state’s attorney ‌general, ‌Letitia James, accused the companies ‌of hiding the chemicals’ environmental and health risks from consumers for decades, even as they ‌began phasing out some of the chemicals, ​which are known as Pfas.

Published: July 9, 2026, 8:54 am

Former US Olympian pleads not guilty to damaging reflecting pool amid Trump’s renovation

David Hearn is accused of destroying ‘American flag blue’ lining material on the bottom of the reflecting pool

David Hearn, a former Olympic canoe racer, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to damaging Washington’s reflecting pool after a $14.7m renovation project.

Hearn, a three-time US Olympian, was indicted last week on a single felony count of property destruction. He appeared in local superior court in Washington DC to enter the plea after he was criminally charged over the incident in mid-June.

Published: July 9, 2026, 7:52 am

US appeals court rejects Trump’s latest bid to delay paying E Jean Carroll $5.8m

US president contested judge’s order to release money after Carroll’s 2023 sexual abuse and defamation trial against him

A Manhattan federal appeals court late on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump’s latest bid to delay the payment of more than $5m to E Jean Carroll following her successful 2023 sexual abuse and defamation trial against him.

The US court of appeals for the second circuit made its decision hours after Trump filed paperwork fighting Manhattan federal court judge Lewis Kaplan’s order releasing this money – which has been held in a court-controlled account since June 2023. Trump denies all wrongdoing.

Published: July 9, 2026, 6:31 am

US air force cancels promotions over grading error in security test

‘Highly unprecedented anomaly’ meant 135 people given incorrect scores and wrongly informed of promotions

The air force has canceled the promotions of dozens of service members after discovering what it said was a grading error in a test of their security knowledge.

The “isolated and highly unprecedented anomaly” was announced in a press release on Tuesday, which said 135 airmen and women had been awarded incorrect scores on the security forces specialty knowledge test (SKT) and been wrongly informed they had earned promotion.

Published: July 9, 2026, 7:35 am

‘We will never use them’: the California universities stockpiling AR-15s, grenades and submachine guns

A 2021 state law allows campus police to own military equipment for civilian safety – students fear it may be used to quash dissent

For many public colleges and universities in California, keeping their campuses safe includes owning military-grade weaponry: AR-15s, stun grenades designed to cause temporary blindness and sonic weapons that resonate so loudly they are known in the armed forces as the voice of God.

According to California state law, campus police can only own military equipment if the college believes there is no other way to uphold civilian safety.

Published: July 9, 2026, 9:00 am

Licensed to drill? How a Trump-linked Texas oil company is elbowing its way into Greenland

Greenland Energy says billions of barrels of crude lie beneath territory and claims it has exploration permits – a claim flatly denied by Nuuk

On 10 June, a snowy-haired American in his 60s addressed the residents of a remote Greenland hamlet. He was there to tell them about a business venture supported by figures linked to Donald Trump. “So,” Robert Price said via an interpreter, “we have a project to drill for oil here.”

The Texas oil company that Price represents, Greenland Energy, hopes to prove that billions of barrels of crude lie underground by bringing in 300 shipping containers of drilling kit.

Published: July 9, 2026, 6:52 am

Flight of fancy: San Francisco moves to build private luxury airport terminal

City seeking bids to build and operate separate terminal, following Los Angeles, London and other cities

Sick of the TSA lines? Tired of playing musical chairs at the gate? Rather sit as far from your fellow airplane passengers for as long as possible, in the comfort of your own private, luxury airport terminal?

Soon you may get your wish. And San Francisco international airport wants to be your genie – for a fee.

This article was amended on 9 July 2026. A previous version said PS was owned by Gavin de Becker and Associates. De Becker is no longer associated with PS.

Published: July 9, 2026, 7:00 am

Costco accused in lawsuit of selling protein powder ‘tainted’ with toxic heavy metals

Seven consumers sue the retailer, alleging it violated consumer protection and false advertising laws

A group of consumers have filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Costco Wholesale Corporation, accusing the retailer of selling protein powder “tainted” with toxic heavy metals with no warning to consumers.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in federal court in Washington state, names seven consumers as plaintiffs. They allege that Costco violated consumer protection and false advertising laws by selling and marketing Orgain Organic Protein Powder as “high quality, clean, and nutritious without disclosing the presence or risk of heavy metals, including lead, cadmium, and arsenic”.

Published: July 9, 2026, 7:00 am

ICE raided their city, taking parents, spouses and friends. That’s not where it ends

Three families in Los Angeles on the devastating aftermath of ICE detentions and deportations that overwhelmed their city last summer

Last summer, Angelenos began to vanish.

Armed, masked immigration agents plucked people off street corners and out of their workplaces, in parking lots and department stores. Partners and primary breadwinners, grandparents and children, carwasheros and coffee shop regulars were arrested, detained and deported – disappearing from their neighborhoods.

Published: July 8, 2026, 5:00 am

From Greek epics to biblical blockbusters: the 20 best mythological movies – ranked!

Ahead of the release of Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey, we rate the top films based on myths, legends and fables

Featuring the young Henry Cavill as a Theseus who barely gets near a labyrinth, this Hellenic “reimagination” bags precious little deep mythological significance. But visuals ace Tarsem Singh at least gives it a strikingly theatrical and oppressive look. Unforgettable images include the Titans locked into their magical prison like ranks of table-football players, the sotto in su vision of the warring gods at the end and the campest Mount Olympus in cinema – like a gleaming Siegfried and Roy Vegas set.

Published: July 9, 2026, 5:47 am

My holiday from hell: I went to Ibiza at 16 – and am still haunted by what I saw in a bathroom sink

I didn’t see being a couple of years away from technically qualifying for an 18-30s jaunt to be a problem. But the booze, humiliation and a ‘mystery pooer’ made me rethink my entire life

‘First the bad news,” yelled our lairy Irish club rep as the coach drove us from Ibiza airport to our hotel. “All the great clubs: Amnesia, Space, Pacha … they’re CLOSED!”

A confused silence descended. “But the good news?” he yelled. “We’re gonna have a fucking amazing time anyway!!!”

Published: July 8, 2026, 9:00 pm

Little House on the Prairie review – this reboot will have you sobbing for a simpler world by episode four

Like tradwifery for children, this revamp of the 19th-century settlers show is a precision-tooled and well-oiled machine. It’s a cosy world full of faith, hope and the American way

I never actually watched an episode of Little House on the Prairie, though it bestrode my late 70s-early 80s’ childhood like a ginghamed colossus. This is for the simple reason that Michael Landon’s bouffant hair frightened me. Bouffant hair is such a bad thing. But so great is the power of both the cultural cringe and osmosis that even the most militant Britisher of a certain age has absorbed to some degree the story of the pioneering Ingalls family and its on-screen aesthetic. For the younger folk – it’s tradwifery for children.

The series was of course based on the books (and named after the third in the series, which was published in 1935 and hasn’t been out of print since) by Laura Ingalls Wilder. They in turn were an account, shaped for a young readership, of her childhood spent moving across the American West in the 1870s and 80s, settling and resettling in different states as her parents sought their manifest destiny.

Published: July 9, 2026, 12:01 am

France v Morocco: World Cup 2026 quarter-final – live

⚽️ World Cup kick-off: 4pm EDT/9pm BST/6am AEST
⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail Scott

France swanned their way through Group I. They elegantly survived the Senegal test. Took a two-hour storm break in their stride to see off Iraq. Then eased past Norway B thanks to Ousmane Dembélé’s quick-fire first-half hat-trick.

Then in the knockouts, things went from the sublime to the ridiculous. And here we are.

Published: July 9, 2026, 11:17 am

Christian Pulisic suffered leg fracture in US loss to Belgium, out for several weeks

• Milan forward was subbed out in a 4-1 loss

• Pulisic had been criticized for his lack of availability

Christian Pulisic suffered a microfracture and bone bruise in his leg in the United States’ 4-1 loss to Belgium in the World Cup last 16 on Monday, US Soccer announced.

Pulisic suffered the injury in the second half in Seattle and was removed shortly afterward. He underwent X-ray and MRI scans on Tuesday to determine the extent of the injury, which is expected to keep Pulisic out for several weeks. US Soccer said the federation and Milan are working collaboratively on his rehab plan.

Published: July 9, 2026, 10:31 am

World Cup quarter-final (and beyond) predictions: will anyone derail France’s title bid?

With the World Cup down to eight teams, our writers assess who’s left, identify the biggest remaining threats to France and make calls on who will lift the trophy

Lionel Messi. As he proved in thrilling style against Egypt, Argentina’s No 10 still has magic in his boots even at the age of 39. While his penalty record of four from eight attempts is much worse than you’d expect, he is clinical when it matters most. EA

Published: July 9, 2026, 12:15 am

The US delivered their best modern World Cup performance – and also let themselves down

Mauricio Pochettino’s team delivered several thrilling performances on home soil. The way it ended was somewhat less exhilarating

So now what? How are we supposed to think about this supposedly golden generation of the United States men’s national team who have fallen short of expectations at this World Cup on home soil?

How do we come to terms with the sense that this team beat Paraguay 4-1 in their opener – the most impressive performance in the program’s history – but also lost dismally against Belgium by the same scoreline in the last 16?

Leander Schaerlaeckens is the author of The Long Game: U.S. Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, which is out now. He teaches at Marist University.

Published: July 9, 2026, 3:00 am

Going first in a penalty shootout gives teams an advantage … or does it?

Thirteen of the past 15 shootouts at World Cups have been won by the team that went second

By Opta Analyst

After watching 120 minutes of football, you might not find observing a coin toss the most exciting dessert. Fans in the stadium care, though. Win a coin toss for a penalty shootout and you choose the end where they are taken – to much rejoicing from those behind the chosen goal. Another coin toss also allows the winner to choose whether to go first or second. But does that decision actually matter?

For years, the consensus was that going first in a shootout gives teams an advantage. Being able to take the lead and put scoreboard pressure on opponents surely has a mental benefit, and means they are more likely to face the dreaded “must-score” penalty. However, when Rubén Vargas tucked away the winning spot kick for Switzerland against Colombia in their last-16 tie, it continued a rather curious trend.

Published: July 9, 2026, 8:18 am

Jarell Quansah handed two-match ban by Fifa for sending off against Mexico

• England defender’s challenge deemed serious foul play

• Misses quarter-final as well as potential semi-final

Jarell Quansah has been given a two-game ban for his red card in England’s World Cup last-16 victory over Mexico, leaving the defender devastated. Fifa announced the sanction on Thursday, saying it was for serious foul play.

Thomas Tuchel must now decide what to do at right-back for the quarter-final against Norway in Miami on Saturday. Reece James, who has missed the last three matches with a hamstring injury, is a selection doubt but it is understood that he could have some involvement, which points towards him being a substitute.

Published: July 9, 2026, 10:02 am

US in talks with Fifa over capitalising on World Cup success with 2029 Club World Cup

• US officials have held talks with Fifa over tournament

• Unclear whether White House has been involved

The US has expressed interest in hosting the 2029 Club World Cup as it seeks to capitalise on the commercial and sporting success of staging the World Cup.

Fifa has held talks with US officials about its plans for 2029, but the World Cup co-hosts have yet to commit to a bid because the details of the selection process have not been confirmed. It is unclear whether there has been any involvement in the discussions from the White House or ­Donald Trump’s World Cup taskforce, chaired by Andrew Giuliani, who on Wednesday hailed the success of this summer’s tournament.

Published: July 9, 2026, 5:15 am

Wimbledon 2026: Muchova beats Gauff in thriller to set up all-Czech final with Noskova – as it happened

It’s a first all-Czech Wimbledon women’s final after Karolina Muchova saved a match point in a dramatic final-set tie-break and Linda Noskova was nerveless against Marta Kostyuk

Gauff does hold a 6-1 lead in their head-to-head, by the way, but I’m not sure we can read too much into that, as none of those matches were on grass. Gauff, arguably the best competitor in the women’s game, has made an art out of “winning ugly” – the phrase made famous by her former coach Brad Gilbert – and has consistently found a way to come through three-setters during this tournament even when she’s not been at her best. She may well need all that fight to combat Muchova’s mix of power and touch – which is so dangerous on grass – especially if Gauff’s serve and forehand wobble, as they sometimes do. Gauff’s backhand, though, is brilliant. Will temperament + backhand or power + hands prevail? It’s going to be so fun finding out.

And here they come to a big cheer from the crowd, not that it’s quite as warm as the red-hot weather, with the current temp around 33C, and not that Gauff can properly hear it either, because she’s got her headphones – and game face – on.

Published: July 9, 2026, 10:55 am

Tadej Pogacar demolishes Tour de France rivals on the Tourmalet to take ominous lead

• Four-time champion dominates 17km climb to win stage six

• French president Emmanuel Macron in attendance

Tadej Pogacar powered alone to the summit of the mighty Col du Tourmalet, deep in the Hautes-Pyrénées, and rode on to victory on stage six to Gavarnie-Gèdre, taking an emphatic overall lead in the 2026 Tour de France.

In the shadow of the towering cliffs of the Cirque de Gavarnie, and under the gaze of President Macron, Pogacar was imperious. Only his perennial rival, Jonas Vingegaard, was able to give chase and by the end of the stage, even his resistance seemed futile.

Published: July 9, 2026, 10:29 am

Republicans ask WNBA to protect Caitlin Clark from possible ‘racially motivated’ attacks

• Clark has been on the end of hard fouls during career

• Black players routinely receive racist abuse in WNBA

Eleven Republican politicians have written to the WNBA asking the league to protect Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark from “multiple attacks” on court.

Clark has been on the receiving end of hard fouls since she entered the league in 2024 after a stellar college career with Iowa. Recently, the Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas hit Clark in the throat during a game. Thomas was not called for a foul at the time but the WNBA later suspended her for one game. Thomas and her family received racist abuse and death threats after the incident.

Published: July 9, 2026, 5:32 am

Newcastle face sliding doors moment over Bruno Guimarães in summer of upheaval

With Saudi spending restricted and a glut of departures and arrivals the stakes are high for Eddie Howe, and his captain, amid uncertain times on Tyneside

Is it the end of the road for Bruno Guimarães and Newcastle or are they destined to share at least one more adventure?

With Arsenal anxious to add Eddie Howe’s Brazil midfielder to their armoury and Guimarães receptive to such advances, it remains hard to predict whether Newcastle’s intransigent resistance will be broken.

Published: July 9, 2026, 10:09 am

Team for now, not a squad for later – Spurs are spending big but what is it for? | Jonathan Liew

Tottenham’s strategies have changed over the years and this summer’s transfer splurge marks a sharp turn away from the Levy years

A couple of weeks ago, Sotheby’s in London concluded one of its biggest art auctions. In all, the sale of 25 modern and contemporary works raised almost £300m. Seated Nude With Necklace, by Modigliani, went for £41.5m; La Belle Promenade, by Magritte, went for £13.5m. And amid all the feverish commentary on the resilience of the London art market and the enduring appeal of post‑war pieces among the younger generation of collectors, one question above all presented itself: was this all for the benefit of Roberto De Zerbi?

Naturally, it would be premature to link the sale of a significant portion of Joe Lewis’s art collection to the lavish summer transfer spending of the football club he owns. But of course money is money, and in a summer where Tottenham Hotspur are spending an unprecedented £230m in the transfer market, funded in large part through cash injections from the Lewis family, the connections make themselves. Are Tottenham’s owners selling off the family heirlooms to pay for Jan Paul van Hecke? And on a wider level, what exactly are the Premier League’s 17th-best club playing at here?

Published: July 9, 2026, 12:00 am

NBA free agency winners and losers: Sixers cash in while Celtics pay price

From Philly’s blockbuster coup to LeBron James once again dominating the market, here are the early winners and losers from a frantic first week of NBA free agency

Once again, it’s time to pass judgement prematurely. After all, I would have my basketball writer card revoked were I to not evaluate before the dust has fully settled: that’s why they pay me the modestly-sized bucks, I’m told. So, without further ado, the Winners and Losers of week one of 2026 NBA free agency.

Published: July 8, 2026, 2:00 am

Manchester United insist new stadium ‘not vanity project’ despite prospect of more debt

• Plan unveiled for ground 350 metres from Old Trafford

• Working cost of stadium previously stated as £2bn

Manchester United have said their proposed new 100,000-capacity ­stadium may lead to further debt being loaded on the club but insisted it would be “a sanity, not vanity project”.

Plans for United’s new home were unveiled on Thursday and showed it would be built 350 metres north-west of the current Old Trafford. The club are about £1.3bn in debt and in March 2025 Omar Berrada, United’s chief executive, said £2bn was the working cost of the stadium.

Published: July 9, 2026, 7:00 am

The fight against AI data centers is important – but it’s just a starting point | Bruce Schneier and Nathan E Sanders

AI companies want to capture the value created by entire industries. That concentration of wealth and power is society’s greatest risk

Opposition to AI datacenters has emerged as a primary theme in US politics, one that – surprisingly – doesn’t fall along party lines. We applaud people coming together for constructive debate on any issue, and agree that communities need to evaluate whether any economic benefits these datacenters bring is worth their costs. Still, we worry that a focus on datacenters obscures the larger impacts of AI on people’s lives: the concentration of power of AI companies, and their widespread political and financial influence.

Local datacenter opposition is grounded in legitimate concerns about misallocation of land resources when housing is at a premium, pressures on already higher energy prices, and localized environmental impact. Unlike other resource-consuming and polluting industrial facilities, datacenters produce very few jobs. The fact that US opposition to datacenters seems to be most fierce among lower-income communities reflects righteous indignation with an inequitable bargain, where tech companies and developers profit from exploiting local resources but offer little in return. On a global scale, their carbon footprint could grow unsustainably if usage accelerates. And all this is in aid of a technology that many fear will propagate misinformation, take their jobs, or even cause existential risks for humanity.

Published: July 9, 2026, 8:00 am

Why are we so obsessed with Taylor Swift’s wedding? | Dave Schilling

With marriage rates in decline, the appeal of a big wedding that we can live vicariously is stronger than ever

Finally, after decades, I have something in common with Taylor Swift. It feels great to say that out loud, in public. No, I’m not famous, rich, particularly attractive, or a woman. I really, really can’t sing. Like, not even my karaoke is tolerable for human ears (dogs seem to be fine with it). No, our sole point of connection in the cosmic swirl of life is that we’ve both been married. I can’t compare this achievement to winning a Grammy or selling out Crypto.com Arena 16 times, but it has to be on the list somewhere.

My wedding did not come close to the upwards of $50m floated by People Magazine as the cost of Swift’s. We got the venue for free because my wife’s family owned it, which is its own sort of privilege. Lena Dunham didn’t attend, but I certainly sent enough invites. Still, getting someone to agree to tolerate you “till death do you part” is no small feat. Did we get divorced three years later? Of course. I can’t believe she dealt with me even that long. Will Taylor and Travis Kelce beat our record? Depends on how often he forgets to put the toilet seat down in one of their numerous homes across the country. That guy just seems like the sort to make that mistake regularly. Don’t ask me how I came to this conclusion. I trust my own eyes.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

Published: July 9, 2026, 3:00 am

Bonnie Tyler totally eclipsed her power-ballad peers, and created an astonishingly wide variety of pop

After hopping between country, disco and soft rock, Tyler found her groove with Jim Steinman-penned epics, shining through even the most overblown backing tracks

• News: Bonnie Tyler, 80s pop legend known for Total Eclipse of the Heart and more, dies aged 75
• From Swansea clubs to worldwide fame: Bonnie Tyler – a life in pictures

Bonnie Tyler had a peculiar career: two bursts of global success that seemed to have almost nothing to do with each other beyond the name that appeared on the records. Her first big British hits, 1976’s Lost in France and 1977’s It’s a Heartache, were superior examples of what writer Pete Paphides subsequently dubbed “medium wave pop”, the largely forgotten stuff that actually filled the charts and Radio One’s playlists at a time when reductive rock histories would have you believe the entire nation was gripped by punk. They were a little bit soft rock, a little bit country, a little reminiscent of reliable mid-70s hitmakers Smokie, and so catchy that no one seemed to notice that somewhere between their respective releases, Tyler’s voice had changed dramatically: possessed of a rather sweet tone on Lost in France, an operation to remove nodules on her vocal cords had caused her to develop a striking Rod Stewart-like huskiness by the time of It’s a Heartache.

It looked like It’s a Heartache would turn Tyler into a huge star: it sold 6m copies, and the accompanying album made the Top 3 on the US country chart. But said success proved difficult to sustain, compounded by the fact that her record label seemed bizarrely unsure what to do with her. Get her to cover Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, as on Louisiana Rain? Aim her squarely at the easy listening market via a version of Sometimes When We Touch? Encourage her to go disco, as on the fabulously camp (The World is Full of) Married Men?

Published: July 9, 2026, 2:38 am

Trump is bombing Iran again and blundering again. He has no grasp of his enemy | Sina Toossi

The president is behaving as if the battleground is the same, but it isn’t. Iran has leverage and knows it

And so to war. Again. After a ceasefire and a hiatus, Donald Trump is now into the second day of a new phase of bombing Iran, with the US military claiming to have struck 170 Iranian targets in the past 48 hours.

This is no surprise. Speaking at the Nato summit in Ankara this week, Donald Trump said he believed the US-Iran memorandum of understanding was “over”. He described Iran’s leaders as “evil, sick people” and threatened renewed military action and even a new blockade of Iranian ports, while also leaving the door open to further negotiations.

Published: July 9, 2026, 2:17 am

In Britain, Europe, and especially Las Vegas – maxxing the all-you-can-eat buffet is the people’s sport | Emma Brockes

As the all-inclusive holiday has a revival, I recall honing my buffet talents at the Pizza Hut salad bar in the 1980s. It's skill and science: exhilarating

School’s almost out and the holidays are here, which means for millions of Britons we have arrived at the start line for what might be called our biggest annual event: Wimbledon and the World Cup are one thing, but the all-inclusive and all-you-can-eat buffet olympics remains, I would argue, this country’s strongest competitive sport. Arriving at Luton airport before dawn last year, my children walked past the bars and with the innocence of the American-born said, owl-eyed, “Are they drinking … alcohol?” They are, my darlings, and will continue to do so from first light in the terminal until the last coach leaves the resort.

This is how it is now. Since Covid, vacation trends in Britain have skewed increasingly towards formalising this country’s latent maximalist instincts when it comes to enjoying our holidays. Between 2023 and 2024, bookings for European all-inclusive resorts rose by 30%, and the latest figures from Abta suggest that a quarter of British holidaymakers will now opt for the all-inclusive – meaning bottomless canteen-style food and drink, which, no matter how much we paid for it up front, I defy any of us not to experience as “free”.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Published: July 8, 2026, 10:00 pm

Populism unites Le Pen and Farage. But she is a step closer to power

Marine Le Pen is a convicted criminal. But now she’s running for office and there is still no credible candidate to oppose her

As the judge read out the verdict in Marine Le Pen’s appeal trial for embezzlement, the same conversation was playing out in living rooms and WhatsApp groups across France. What? Does this mean she can run for the Élysée after all? But what about the prison sentence? And the electronic tag (which Le Pen had promised she would not campaign wearing)? And what about her protege Jordan Bardella?

For a few hours, it looked as though the court of appeal had unexpectedly played a masterful hand by unequivocally upholdingthe far-right National Rally (RN) figurehead’s conviction for misappropriation of public funds. It handed her a fine of €100,000 (£85,000) and a commuted prison sentence, the remaining year of which would be served by Le Pen being electronically tagged.

Catherine Fieschi is a visiting scholar with Carnegie Europe and the author of Populocracy: The Tyranny of Authenticity and the Rise of Populism

Published: July 8, 2026, 9:00 pm

‘They said: wear angelic white’: British women who accused US airman of rape tell of American military trial

Two women who alleged they were raped by Tyrion Davis in Suffolk had to testify at an invasive court martial on a US base

Minutes after fleeing the home of an American airman, Rebecca called 999 in tears to report that he had raped her. She recalls vomiting at a police station in Suffolk as she described being repeatedly and violently attacked.

Officers took her to a sexual assault referral centre for an intimate examination. There, a nurse measured and photographed her injuries, including bruises and bite marks on her neck.

Published: July 8, 2026, 10:00 pm

‘New terrifying levels’: 10 people fatally shot by immigration officials in Trump’s second term

As Trump’s immigration crackdown continues, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s death marks another high-profile killing by ICE officers

Early on Tuesday morning, 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo took his coffee and a meal his wife had prepared for him, said goodbye to his dog, and left the house he built. He drove his white van, picked up three co-workers, and headed towards a construction site to work on some houses.

But Salgado never made it to work. During a “targeted enforcement operation”, officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot and killed Salgado and arrested the three other men.

Published: July 9, 2026, 6:00 am

Bonnie Tyler, 80s pop legend known for Total Eclipse of the Heart and more, dies aged 75

Welsh singer and Eurovision entrant’s other hits included Footloose soundtrack smash Holding Out for a Hero

• Alexis Petridis on Bonnie Tyler: She totally eclipsed her power-ballad peers, and created an astonishingly wide variety of pop
• From Swansea clubs to worldwide fame: Bonnie Tyler – a life in pictures

Bonnie Tyler, the Welsh singer whose husky yet commanding voice made songs such as Total Eclipse of the Heart into 1980s classics, has died aged 75.

A message on her Facebook page reads: “Bonnie’s family and team are heartbroken to announce that Bonnie unexpectedly passed away last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness that she was being treated for.”

Published: July 9, 2026, 2:15 am

Daphne Caruana Galizia screamed in panic before explosion that killed her, court hears

Businessman stands trial over death of Maltese journalist killed by bomb in her car after she reported on corruption

Moments before the explosion that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia, the journalist screamed in panic, a witness has told the trial of the man accused of ordering her murder.

Caruana Galizia was killed in 2017 by a remotely detonated bomb placed under the driver’s seat of her car, after writing a series of reports on political and financial corruption in Malta. The government’s handling of the investigation led to mass protests and ultimately to the resignation of the Maltese prime minister, Joseph Muscat.

Published: July 9, 2026, 11:03 am

Trump’s consumer protection head has earned grudging respect – but does he have the authority to do his job?

Chris Mufarrige has taken aim at Facebook scams and junk fees, but consumer advocates say he has an uphill climb

As the director of the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection bureau, Chris Mufarrige is the top enforcer protecting Americans against predatory companies.

He’s got an uphill climb, consumer advocates say.

Published: July 9, 2026, 7:00 am

LGBTQ+ cruise ship refused entry to Egypt days after Turkey turned it away

Scarlet Lady’s 2,000 passengers told of change as one of those onboard says they will ‘sparkle and spend elsewhere’

An LGBTQ+ cruise ship blocked from Turkish waters this week has been refused entry into Egypt.

The Scarlet Lady’s 2,000 passengers, including the Broadway performer Patti LuPone, woke on Thursday morning to find a note placed under their cabin doors informing them that the ship was urgently looking for alternative ports.

Published: July 9, 2026, 5:59 am

UK swelters in third heatwave of the year as western Europe counts cost of hottest-ever June

Britain expands heat alerts while estimates suggest June’s death toll could surpass 20,000 across continent

The UK is sweltering through the peak of its third heatwave of the year as countries around Europe struggle to recover from an early onslaught of baking summer heat.

Punishing temperatures pushed higher by fossil fuel pollution have broken records across the continent in recent weeks. Western Europe experienced its hottest June on record, scientists confirmed on Thursday, accompanied by high global ocean temperatures that could cause “mass-mortality events” for some species.

Published: July 9, 2026, 10:39 am

Experimental bathtub: the remote lake island trying wave power to boost energy security

Researchers on Beaver Island, in Lake Michigan, are trying to find a more reliable form of power using local resources

Beaver Island sits in the middle of the northernmost end of Lake Michigan, about 70 miles from the maritime border with Canada. The forested island, just a little bigger than San Francisco in size, is a popular summer destination for tourists and home to about 600 permanent residents. Getting there requires a boat or plane ride.

Getting electricity to the island is not as easy. Power comes from mainland Michigan through cables that cross roughly 30 miles of lake bed. Outages are common during extreme weather, or when there are problems with the sensitive wires. The devastating ice storm that walloped the state last year knocked out power to the island for weeks.

Published: July 9, 2026, 6:00 am

Species’ ingenious survival strategies no match for human destruction, red list reveals

Newly endangered animals include desert frogs and snails in extreme ocean depths, both threatened by mining

Life has colonised every corner of the planet by evolving ingenious survival strategies but these are increasingly being overwhelmed by destructive human activities, this year’s red list of endangered species has revealed.

Many snails, limpets and clams have adapted to life at crushing depths in the oceans on hydrothermal vents where water temperatures can reach 450C (842F). But an assessment for the red list found that two-thirds of the hundreds of mollusc species found only on deep sea vents were at risk of extinction because of deep-sea mining.

Published: July 9, 2026, 5:20 am

US chemical accidents rising as Trump rolls back protections, report finds

Deaths and injuries up as critics condemn administration’s ‘appalling’ plan to gut federal disaster management system

The number of US chemical accidents is rising just as the Trump administration guts protections against the disasters, a new analysis of federal data by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) non-profit found.

The report found the number of chemical accidents, explosions, fires and other emergencies that release chemicals into the atmosphere was up by at least 51% since 2021. Deaths and injuries were up at least 20%.

Published: July 9, 2026, 4:00 am

Graham Platner ends Maine Senate campaign after sexual assault allegation

Democratic nominee, dogged by controversy since entering contest, says ‘for the movement to continue, it can’t be me’

• Woman accuses Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner of sexual assault

Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine, is suspending his campaign following sexual assault allegations.

Platner announced his decision in an 11-minute video posted to social media on Wednesday evening, in which he angrily accused the Democratic establishment and corporate media of “using these allegations to take away all of the things we need to run a campaign” and acting “as judge, jury and executioner”.

Published: July 8, 2026, 6:37 pm

Trump to ask US supreme court to reconsider birthright citizenship ruling

Request for rehearing comes after Fox News report of Texas hospital advertising maternity services in Mexico

Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would ask the US supreme court to reconsider its ruling that the 14th amendment to the US constitution guarantees birthright citizenship in light of what he described as shocking new evidence: a hospital in Texas advertising its services to expectant mothers in Mexico on a pair of billboards.

“Signs and Billboards are being put up all over our Southern Border, and Mexico, advertising BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, with ‘Deliveries starting at $4000’, the president wrote on his social media platform, in what appeared to be a wild exaggeration of a Fox News report on just two billboards.

Published: July 8, 2026, 5:38 pm

Trump administration threatens states with criminal charges in elections fight

State officials call federal demands for voter data ‘truly bizarre behavior’ amid unproven noncitizen voting claims

The US Department of Justice sent letters to election officials in every state threatening potential criminal charges for officials if noncitizens vote, an escalation in an ongoing push by the federal government.

As Donald Trump’s administration pushes to exert greater control over elections, the justice department confirmed letters went out to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, “asking for voluntary compliance in a timely manner with their obligations under federal law to ensure only citizens vote in federal elections”.

Published: July 8, 2026, 9:22 am

Furore in Nigeria over fake federal agency set up in government HQ

President orders investigation after fictitious body given funding, triggering renewed scrutiny of alleged corruption

A fictitious federal entity that was allocated 1.3bn naira (£700,000) in Nigeria’s 2026 budget has precipitated a political storm in Africa’s largest democracy in the run-up to a general election set for January.

The fake agency came to light last October when Femi Gbajabiamila, the president’s chief of staff, wrote to the police alleging that his signature, along with official seals and reference numbers, had been forged by Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, who was claiming to have been appointed by the presidency to head the presidential foreign intervention promotion council (PFIPC).

Published: July 9, 2026, 9:20 am

Mosque effigy on loyalist bonfire in Northern Ireland condemned as ‘vile’

Amnesty says pyre to be burned on Friday in Moygashel is ‘blatant attempt to stir up anti-Muslim hatred’

A loyalist bonfire in Northern Ireland featuring an effigy of a mosque has been condemned as an incitement to hatred.

The effigy sits atop a tower of pallets that is to be burned on Friday night in the County Tyrone village of Moygashel as part of wider loyalist commemorations. Placards beneath the display read “secure our borders” and “end the threat of radical Islam”.

Published: July 9, 2026, 5:12 am

Less drugs, less care, less food: how aid cuts have hit Uganda’s 2m refugees

Africa’s largest refugee population has seen rations and healthcare slashed as funding levels drop

The skies are gloomy over the wattle-and-mud houses of Kiryandongo refugee settlement, home to more than 167,000 people. Spread across an undulating plateau, the crowded camp, 120 miles (200km) north of Uganda’s capital, Kampala, draws new arrivals every day as conflicts in Sudan and South Sudan add to the displacement toll. Of nearly 50,000 refugees who have arrived in Uganda since January, more than 1,000 have come to Kiryandongo.

Known for its progressive refugee policies, which include granting freedom of movement, land to cultivate, and the right to work and open a bank account, Uganda is home to 2 million refugees – the largest refugee population in Africa – who live in 13 settlements across the country.

Published: July 9, 2026, 4:00 am

VW workers protest in Germany over proposed job cuts and factory closures

Demonstrations at 18 sites set up as radical transformation plan put to board of Europe’s biggest carmaker

Volkswagen’s proposal to slash up to 100,000 jobs and close factories faced a major test on Thursday as it was formally put to its supervisory board, with protests at the company’s plants in Germany.

IG Metall organised demonstrations involving shop stewards and union council members at 18 sites at Europe’s biggest carmaker, including at its headquarters. The influential staff union told the chief executive, Oliver Blume, that he could not “pass the buck for failures of recent years on to the workforce”.

Published: July 9, 2026, 9:19 am

‘A counter-narrative of history’: Schomburg Center’s 100 years of celebrating Black culture

A Puerto Rico-born New Yorker’s relentless collecting on the African diaspora is still the core of a Harlem institution

Growing up in Puerto Rico in the late 19th century, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was told by his teacher that Black people had no significant history or accomplishments. He spent his life disproving the narrative by collecting art, books and artefacts that showed the opposite. At 17 years old, Schomburg settled in New York, where he used his collections to write articles about Black history for periodicals such as Negro World. In time, he became known as a pre-eminent historian and intellectual of the Harlem Renaissance.

“Schomburg always sought to collect the global Black experience,” said Barrye Brown, curator of manuscripts, archives and rare books at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. “When you look at what he was collecting, you see his vision of what the African diaspora is like … it is all around the world, it’s multilingual; there’s so many different experiences represented.”

Published: July 9, 2026, 5:00 am

Jack White: Frozen Charlotte review – brutal, squalid blues-rock that just about sells its own ridiculousness

(Third Man)
Following the superb No Name, White continues his fan service with stripped back songs and nasty, anarchic riffs – though it all ends up feeling a little samey

It’s a strange thing to say about one of the most prolific artists of his – or any – generation, but: Jack White has been undergoing something of a career renaissance of late. After firmly establishing himself as one of the most beloved and defining figures of 21st-century rock with his early-00s blues duo the White Stripes, White seemed to get bigger and bigger over the next decade-plus, releasing albums with well-liked side projects the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather, dropping a couple of fine solo albums, and helping spark the music industry’s vinyl revival with his label and pressing plant Third Man Records.

But, at some point in the mid-2010s – around the release of his third solo album, 2018’s Boarding House Reach, let’s say – White’s influence and celebrity seemed to be outweighing his actual output, with rising pop stars like Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo naming him a prime influence. Record plants the world over became backed-up, thanks to pop stars releasing dozens of gimmicky vinyl variants of their own albums, resulting in months-long delays for indie artists – hardly a problem White was responsible for (and likely one he himself was annoyed by), but certainly the result of a craze he had helped spark. At the same time, all the quirks and codes of White’s output – the specific colour schemes and sometimes arcane guiding opinions – threatened to overwhelm the immediacy and sharpness that had once been the core of White’s actual music.

Published: July 9, 2026, 4:00 am

Moana review – Dwayne Johnson’s demigod on autopilot in dull live-action remake

Johnson reprises his role from the original animation and has fine rapport with his young co-star Catherine Laga’aia, but the whole enterprise feels cynical and pointless

Disney’s animated super-hit Moana from 2016 – having been followed up by a dull sequel two years ago – now gets a competent but basically pointless and unexciting back-to-basics live-action remake. Screenwriter Jared Bush modifies his original script, Broadway stage veteran Thomas Kail makes his movie directing debut and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s songs are revived. Nineteen-year-old Australian Samoan actor Catherine Laga’aia takes the role of Moana, the headstrong teen daughter of a Polynesian chief; her wise and kindly grandma Tala, who recognises Moana’s heroic leadership destiny, is played by New Zealand actor Rena Owen.

Moana has to go on a quest to restore the heart of the goddess Te Fiti, the lack of which is causing an eco-crisis on her home island of Motunui. To do this, she must join forces with the swaggeringly arrogant demigod Maui, in which role Dwayne Johnson returns in his own actual person, which is almost as cartoonishly muscly and vast as the animated version. Maui has a spurious quest of his own, to retrieve the hook which is the source of his power and to do this he must confront his own nemesis. This is the giant crab Tamatoa, which as before is voiced by Jemaine Clement and is a character which is of course just a 3D animated version of the 2D cartoon original, like Heihei, Moana’s less-than-hilarious pet chicken.

Published: July 8, 2026, 8:00 am

Saccharine review – eating disorder body horror offers plenty to chew over

Australian director Natalie Erika James demonstrates the power of movies as vessels for cultural commentary in this intoxicatingly creepy production

The body horror genre has been around for a long time, nibbling at the edges of the zeitgeist, but it seems to be having a moment, or about to. Every new title (recent examples including The Ugly Stepsister and Together) arrives in the shadow of Coralie Fargeat’s hideously impressive The Substance, a rare example of a sticky-icky flick that spectacularly defied the high/low art divide and even snagged a handful of Oscar nominations. Also having a moment (a terrifically long moment!) are Australian horror movies, with recent years delivering oodles of critically acclaimed titles – among them Talk to Me, Late Night With the Devil, Leviticus, You’ll Never Find Me, You Won’t Be Alone, Sissy, Relic, The Invisible Man, Bring Her Back and Beast of War.

Into that Venn diagram overlay between “body horror” and “Australian” comes Saccharine, the new film from writer-director Natalie Erika James, which takes a bold route into exploring eating disorders and body dysmorphia, demonstrating yet again the great power and malleability of horror movies as vessels for cultural commentary. James has a knack for visualising core themes: first in her excellent feature debut Relic, a horror film about dementia that illustrates time’s deteriorating forces in individual images: a mouldy fruit bowl, an overrun tennis court.

Published: July 8, 2026, 8:00 am

The Odyssey by Homer audiobook review – a truly fantastic journey

Game of Thrones actor Anton Lesser brings poise and depth to this classic adaptation, conjuring monsters, heroes and Gods

With its gods, monsters and dizzying scale, Homer’s the Odyssey is deemed by many to be unfilmable, though it hasn’t stopped directors from having a go, including Christopher Nolan, whose blockbuster adaptation comes to cinemas next week. An audiobook would seem a smart choice, allowing listeners to deploy their imaginations to conjure dark sorcery, supernatural beasts and epic storms rather than leaning on CGI.

This classic recording, first published in 2006, is based on Ian Johnston’s much-admired translation. It is narrated by the Game of Thrones actor Anton Lesser, who brings gravitas and texture to this tale of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his efforts to get home after the 10-year Trojan War. Odysseus’s journey is fraught as he encounters the wrath of the sea god Poseidon in the form of a man-eating monster and a whirlpool that swallows ships. Then comes Calypso, the beautiful goddess-nymph and daughter of Atlas who keeps him on an island for seven years in the hope that he will stay as her husband.

Published: July 9, 2026, 7:00 am

Trouble Was by Charlotte Edwardes review – a sharp child’s-eye view of adult neglect

A young boy and his two siblings stay with their aunt in the West Country, in this haunting debut set over the long, hot summer of 1976

The summer of 1976 calls to my generation of novelists. We don’t remember it, but we remember the textures of daily life in that era, and a heatwave puts daily life under the kind of pressure that fuels fiction. In Guardian journalist Charlotte Edwardes’s first novel, Trouble Was, the scene is set by that heatwave with its attendant, escalating water shortage; the escalating marital and mental health crisis of the mother of three young children; a remote farm in the West Country. Though in some ways the pace is slow– not a criticism, the pace of school holidays with nowhere to go and nothing to do is also slow – the novel’s engines thrum from the first page.

Edwardes has taken the risk of a first-person child narrator, primary-aged Frank. Such figures are necessarily precocious – there’s a reason full-length novels by nine-year-olds are rarely written and never published – and tend to make demands on our suspension of disbelief, but in this case it’s convincing and compelling from the outset. The use of past tense helps, allowing both strikingly immediate observation and the feeling that the prose is in the steady hands of a remembering adult. Through the gap between Frank and the reader’s comprehension, the book conveys what the reader needs to understand about the adults’ lives. We know that most of the adults are also adulterers, that his mother’s mental illness is hereditary as well as situational, and that her efforts to fob off social services are just about adequate.

Published: July 8, 2026, 11:00 pm

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced review – bootyful high seas adventure, now with 20% more swashbuckling

PS5, PC, Xbox Series X/S; Ubisoft Singapore/Ubisoft
Ubisoft has removed all the boring parts of pirate life from its fantasy RPG, creating something more focused and fun

Edward Kenway isn’t your dad’s Assassin’s Creed protagonist. Neither sworn to ancient oaths nor given a noble destiny, he’s just a guy who likes coin, dislikes rules, and whose gold-chasing, rule-dodging lifestyle sees him embroiled in an ancient war between Templars and assassins quite by accident. After he’s shipwrecked with a man named Walpole who turns out to be a Templar, Edward assumes Walpole’s identity in the hopes of securing the bounty he mentioned.

Edward wears life lightly. The world around him is violent and chaotic, and those in his vicinity are more obsessed with double-crossings than a Mission:Impossible movie writers’ room. Ed just smiles, undeterred by it all, and gets on with plundering. It’s all just fun and games to him, and he is set on conquering the Caribbean on his own terms. He is a brilliant extension of the player, in that way, and that’s what this remake of the 2013 pirate-themed Assassin’s Creed does so well: the sense of freedom.

Published: July 8, 2026, 4:00 am

PlayStation says it will stop making physical games – and that should worry us all

Sony’s announcement spells the end of a whole ecosystem built by superfan collectors – and signals a troubling shift in the industry

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Sony’s decision last week to quietly announce the end of physical games production for the PlayStation in 2028 is one of the most perfect PR disasters in recent gaming history – and considering what has been happening with Xbox, that’s saying something.

First, there was the timing. Sony posted the news of its decision on the PlayStation blog, less than a week after admitting that it would be deleting 550 movies from the digital libraries of PlayStation owners due to the end of a licensing deal – thereby perfectly illustrating the dangers of purchasing digital products. (Surprise! You never actually owned them!) The move is in stark contrast with the company’s stance on this very issue back in 2013. When Microsoft was attempting to push Xbox One as a digital-first console with strict controls on the sharing and reselling of its games, Sony brilliantly mocked its rival with a short video on how easy it was to lend physical games to pals on the PS4. Oh dear.

Published: July 9, 2026, 1:46 am

LGBTQ+ inclusion in film at a three-year low, Glaad survey suggests

The advocacy group’s study finds a decrease in queer people of color and zero trans characters in 2025 films

LGBTQ+ characters are slowly disappearing from film in a trend that disproportionately affects LGBTQ+ characters of color, according to a report published today.

An annual study of films by the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Glaad has found that just 46 of 225 films released in 2025 contained LGBTQ+ characters, making only 20.4% of last year’s movies inclusive of the queer community.

Published: July 9, 2026, 6:00 am

Brian Potter, British songwriter behind hits for Glen Campbell, Take That and more, dies aged 87

Versatile Essex-born hitmaker known for Rhinestone Cowboy, It Only Takes a Minute and many more had been living with Alzheimer’s disease

Brian Potter, one of the most versatile and successful British producers and songwriters of his generation, has died aged 87. He had been living with Alzheimer’s disease in recent years, his daughter told Billboard.

Working with American songwriting partner Dennis Lambert, the Essex-born Potter was behind an astounding array of 1970s hits spanning pop, soul, soft rock, country and beyond. The best-known include Glen Campbell’s Rhinestone Cowboy, a US No 1 in 1975; It Only Takes a Minute, a barnstorming disco hit for Tavares and later Take That; Player’s super-smooth Baby Come Back, another US No 1; and Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got), one of the biggest hits for soul-poppers the Four Tops.

Published: July 9, 2026, 4:20 am

What a clusterpuck! Race to parody hockey hit Heated Rivalry results in multiple musicals

The horny TV series has inspired a whopping four comedy shows this summer. Their makers explain why musical theatre and steamy action are such good bedfellows – and why there’s no rivalry between them

Five minutes was all it took. The stars of Heated Rivalry barely had a chance to shed each other’s clothes before writer and composer Dylan MarcAurele started taking notes, knowing that the horny hockey TV series was going to be his next parody project. “I had this idea that it would be a one-night-only concert for friends,” says the New York-based writer of fringe hit Pop Off, Michelangelo! But then he got producer Alan Kliffer on board, and performances sold out before the script had even been written. “It was a no-brainer,” Kliffer says. “I trusted it would be good, and I was right.”

After a successful off-Broadway run, Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody is now heading for the Edinburgh fringe – and it’s not alone. Three musical spoofs of the series are hotting up at this year’s festival. With the show’s success – all perky keisters, swanky hotel shags, a secret sex cottage and just a smidgeon of hockey – Kliffer reckons it was inevitable. “You just know, at the end of the TV show,” he says, “that gay men everywhere will race to write musicals about it.”

Published: July 9, 2026, 4:04 am

R&B star Syd on her new album, the return of the Internet and Odd Future fallouts: ‘We only had three meetings as a group and I called two of them’

She was a member of the influential rap collective, then the alt-R&B hitmakers – but struggled to find her own voice. Now, after realising she ‘didn’t like anybody else’s beats’, she’s made a solo album that is truly hers

There was a time when Sydney Bennett really wanted “something to show for all of my hard work”. The 34-year-old singer-rapper-producer-engineer was a member of Odd Future, the anarchic Los Angeles rap collective that also included Tyler, the Creator, Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatshirt. In 2011, that group birthed the Internet, the indie-R&B band Bennett formed with her best friend, Matt Martians. Since then, Bennett has released two acclaimed solo records, collaborated with Beyoncé and Kehlani, and been nominated for a Grammy, alongside the Internet.

Still, around the time of her last album, 2022’s Broken Hearts Club, she started hoping for an award or public recognition. But then she bought a house – a nice spot on the same street she grew up on in Mid-City, LA – “and now I’m happy”. I look at her quizzically, sitting across from me in a private room in a hotel in east London, as she takes a sip of pineapple juice. It was as simple as that, I ask? She lets out a guffaw, flashing a set of perfect teeth. “I’m afraid it was,” she says, grinning conspiratorially.

Published: July 9, 2026, 12:00 am

You be the judge: should my friend stop expecting gratitude for splitting a freebie?

Gary got a free festival ticket and agreed to go halves on a full-price one for Rita, but now he won’t stop going on about it. He says calling it a favour is simply a fact. You decide who the party pooper is

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The way he presents it makes me feel as though I’m being a burden or that I now owe him something

Published: July 9, 2026, 12:00 am

My holiday from hell: my dad used Teletext to book us a cruise. Big mistake

We supposedly stopped at some lovely places – Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica – but all I can remember is lying next to my dad on the bed, willing the ceaseless motion to stop

For readers under the age of 30, Teletext will be a foreign concept. A window into a clunky proto-internet, the TV-based interface allowed viewers to look up data such as the weather, news headlines and sports scores from the comfort of their living rooms. Designed for unused frequencies on the broadcast spectrum, Teletext was a frivolous add-on – something most people didn’t use seriously. But for my dad, it became the portal to our holiday from hell.

When they were growing up, my parents could never afford to travel outside the UK and when they had children and enough money, they vowed to show us the world. That meant, when my mum and my older brother were involved in the planning, a trip around India or to a scorching Greek island. But in 2001 – for reasons lost to time – my dad took the reins of the annual family trip. I can only imagine he was flicking past TV channels when he decided to check the weather on Teletext and came across an advert from the travel agent Thomas Cook for a surprisingly affordable Caribbean cruise. He called the number on screen and paid the deposit right away.

Published: July 9, 2026, 2:00 am

‘You don’t know what they’re touching’: how to properly disinfect your home after you get sick

Germs can stay on hard surfaces for up to two days, and a proper clean down can prevent the spread to others

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Recently, I suffered from a nasty bout of the flu. As I emerged from my sickness-induced haze, I made a to-do list: restock my fridge, catch up on emails and most importantly, disinfect my apartment.

There’s nothing worse than getting sick only to infect your entire household. While the flu viruses stay on hands for only five minutes, they have been found to stay contagious anywhere from a few hours to two days on hard surfaces.

Published: July 8, 2026, 7:15 am

Can a sunrise alarm clock make crack-of-dawn mornings bearable? Surprisingly, yes

If you need to do away with an unsightly device that incites more nightmares than sweet dreams, try the viral Hatch Restore 3 Sunrise Alarm Clock

• The best sleep masks in the US in 2026: I spent nine weeks testing 32 masks, and these are my favorites

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The jolt of pre-programmed alarm sounds that come with most smartphones is upsetting enough to swear off alarms altogether. After doing an obsessive amount of research on alarm clocks that could make crack-of-dawn wake ups a little more bearable – and even enjoyable – I landed on the Hatch Restore Sunrise Alarm Clock five years ago. Since then, my husband and I have delicately woken up to the sound of birds and wind instruments, better rested than ever before.

Given the Hatch’s viral popularity – it’s now in its third iteration – I’m not the only one who loves it. If you, too, have been looking to do away with an unsightly device on your nightstand that incites more nightmares than sweet dreams, this alarm clock may be for you.

Published: July 9, 2026, 7:28 am

I was a flossing skeptic – this nifty electric flosser changed my mind (and dental habits)

I tried every flossing tool imaginable until I discovered the Flaus, a gadget that made my least favorite dental hygiene chore enjoyable

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Flossing can be yucky. I hate sticking my fingers in my mouth, dealing with icky strings or stabbing the gaps between my teeth with those little plastic swords that pile up in the trash. Water flossers solve those problems and then substitute their own: I hate how they dribble water down my face every time I use them.

So when I first tried the Flaus electric flosser, which claims to effortlessly glide between teeth with the same type of vibrations that power an electric toothbrush, I remained hopeful yet skeptical. Three years later, I’d have a hard time living without it. It’s so effective, I look forward to seeing the evidence of its sonic vibrations in what comes out of my teeth (sorry to be so gross) every time I use it.

Published: July 9, 2026, 7:26 am

I’m getting married again. How do I avoid the pressure to look perfect this time around?

It’s my job to unpack beauty culture – but I’m still not immune to it. Plus, it’s a particularly strange time to be a bride, beauty-wise

My 91-year-old grandmother had her 1954 wedding album out on her lap when I visited the other day. “I wanted to remember how beautiful I used to be,” she sighed.

Every time my mom comes across a photo of her own 1984 nuptials, she says the same thing: “Look at how skinny I was!” (Or, sometimes, “Can you believe Daddy wore a white tuxedo with tails?” Which I cannot.)

Published: July 8, 2026, 9:00 am

The rise of blue-space therapy: how the sea is helping people deal with trauma, anxiety and addiction

‘Sea cures’ are not new but the idea that exposure to oceans, rivers and lakes can be medicine for the brain is gaining traction

Watching the waves break across the vast, roaring ocean in front of him, Dave Phillips felt out of options standing on the cliff’s edge in Cornwall several years ago. The former British army corporal had lost a number of loved ones in quick succession, and the compounding effects of untreated post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from his military tours had become all-consuming.

“I’m from a generation where we didn’t talk,” says Phillips, 67. “I tried dealing with it myself and ended up standing on a cliff edge thinking, ‘Yeah, this is the way.’”

Published: July 8, 2026, 2:00 am

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: flip-flops are once again having a fashion moment. But please tread carefully

Love them or hate them, the versatile sandal is back – just choose the right ones and wear them the Copenhagen way

The flip-flop is an essential text of summer style. The Dalai Lama wears flip-flops. Surfers wear flip-flops. They are a beach classic, a staple of campsite shower blocks, non-negotiable after a pedicure. Like a pair of blue jeans or a cloth tote bag, they have a utility that transcends fashion.

But when flip-flops step out of their lane – when they become a fashion shoe, a public-facing shoe – rather than a shoe you leave by the back door – they raise hackles. Every single time we get a heatwave, a lively debate about whether flip-flops are acceptable in the office follows, without ever being resolved. When Jennifer Lawrence wore flip-flops under her Dior gown on the Cannes red carpet in 2023, there was an outcry over the perceived flouting of the film festival’s “elegant footwear” policy.

Published: July 8, 2026, 6:00 am

Pierpaolo Piccioli’s couture debut reimagines Balenciaga in his own colourful image

Italian designer brings sculptural silhouettes and playful palettes to storied house, while it is hats off to Giorgio’s niece at her second Armani Privé show

The house of Balenciaga takes haute couture very seriously indeed. Cristóbal Balenciaga was so horrified by the rise of mass-produced clothes that in 1968 he abruptly shuttered his brand and retired to his native Spain, announcing that “high fashion is mortally wounded”.

So Pierpaolo Piccioli, who now helms the house, approached the brief of his first Balenciaga couture collection conscientiously, despite having 25 years of experience at Valentino. At a preview, the haute couture war room where he worked on the show for nine months was plastered with images that ranged from a 1961 Balenciaga dress to Spanish golden age art – Zurbarán’s chic saints, Velázquez’s doll-like infantas – and a monumental Hepworth pierced megalith.

Published: July 8, 2026, 10:50 am

How to cook while camping, without a sausage or a marshmallow in sight

You don’t need any complicated kit to eat well while sleeping under the stars. Just take a stove, a spork – and these recipes

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Much as I love camping, I understand why so many recoil at the idea of spending their holidays sleeping in a field and sharing bathroom facilities with several hundred other people, plus the local spider population. But, having just enjoyed a week in Devon in a one-person tent, with an elderly terrier, I have to come out in praise of campsite cookery. Though we ate in some superb pubs, the meals that brought the most joy were the ones we threw together from the small village shops we passed. (Shout out to the Holne Community Shop and Tearoom for being so well stocked – and to the kind fellow shopper who gave me and the dog a lift back to the campsite with our loot.) It gave me pause for thought about the kind of meals you actually cook when camping … and by camping, I don’t mean sleeping in a van kitted out with a fridge and a cooker, nice as that looked while struggling with guy ropes. I mean when your only equipment is what you can carry on your back: ie a small gas stove or a disposable barbecue, a knife and a spork.

Joe Woodhouse has some lovely ideas here, and there’s plenty of advice in this collection of recipes from the likes of Ben Tish and Melissa Hemsley. But, for me, the trick is always to focus on one key ingredient that doesn’t need to be kept too cool (this will, of course, vary depending on where you’re camping), and base all your meals around it until it runs out, at which point you’ll need to track down a new one. Ours, on this trip, were chorizo – the cured, rather than the cooking kind – and feta. With those two flavour bombs, and the olive oil, chilli sauce and salt that should be on everyone’s packing list anyway, you can make a feast from almost anything you find en route. Claudia Roden’s spicy potatoes from Rioja would have been ideal, as would Thomasina Miers’ piperade with baked eggs and crispy chorizo, though we might have had to lose a couple of the spices in favour of Tabasco.

Published: July 9, 2026, 4:59 am

A brilliant and bonkers day out: how art and spectacle transformed a former Durham mining town

Bishop Auckland is abuzz with culture and family fun, thanks to the vision of Auckland Palace’s owners – and the new Kynren show featuring birds of prey, Viking raids and mythical beasts, which opens next week

Booming Hans Zimmer-style cinematic music reaches a crescendo, shaking my bones. Two turquoise macaws swoop within an inch of my hair and join a sky filled with nearly 250 birds. Hawks, kites, pelicans, and an owl soar and swoop around a pagan-looking wooden circle. Peacocks fuss at the makeshift river below, coaxed by two actors telling the story of humans’ relationship with nature. Grey clouds roll in, dark with rain. After all, we are risking an open-air performance in north-east England. I’m at a preview of Kynren: the Storied Lands, the latest gloriously unrestrained project in the market town of Bishop Auckland, 12 miles south of Durham.

I grew up near Bishop Auckland, which was once an important coal-mining and railway town. Last time I was here, its centre was dominated by discount stores. If, in 2003, you’d told teenage me that the high street would become an ode to art, history and culture, I would have laughed. Well, I would have grunted and turned up the Nu metal on my MP3 player.

Published: July 8, 2026, 11:00 pm

Why gen Z are ‘romanticizing’ their hangovers: ‘It’s lowkey a beautiful thing’

For young people, flaunting eye bags and bed rotting has become a cheeky rebuttal of body optimization culture

Picture a typical hangover: a morning spent curled under a comforter, chugging Gatorade and shame spiraling about what you might have said at the bar the night before.

Not so for the young people who are “romanticizing” their hangovers on TikTok and Instagram. Instead, they are flaunting their dark eye circles and raging headaches as the aftereffects of a good time, broadcasting their bad decisions to the world with a glowy sheen.

Published: July 8, 2026, 5:00 am

Graham Platner debacle puts Democrats in grave danger of blowing it in the midterms

The meltdown in Maine’s Senate race risks the Democrats’ opportunity to turn Trump into a lame duck president.

Two years ago Democrats had one job: stop Donald Trump from returning to the White House. It was the only thing that mattered, but with breathtaking political malpractice, they imploded.

This November Democrats have two jobs: win the House of Representatives and win the Senate to turn Trump into a lame duck president for his final two years. But once again the party, fond of warning that the stakes are existential, is in grave danger of blowing it.

Published: July 8, 2026, 8:26 pm

The curse of Donald Trump: where he goes, sporting defeat follows

The USMNT’s World Cup crashout is the latest episode to suggest the support and intervention of Donald J Trump brings bad luck

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Breaking a mirror. Walking under a ladder. Spilling salt. A black cat crossing one’s path.

After the events of this week, it feels safe to add one more item to the list of things said to bring bad luck: the support and intervention of Donald J Trump.

Published: July 8, 2026, 9:29 am

Tell us: do you support a national football team that you have no link to?

We would like to hear from people who support national football teams outside of their own countries

In order to play for a country at the World Cup, a football player must have a “genuine link” to that nation, such as familial ties or citizenship. But the rule does not apply to supporting a country.

We would like to hear from fans who have supported national football teams outside of their own countries at the 2026 World Cup. Perhaps you follow a certain player, or the football clubs the team is associated with? Maybe you just like their style? Whatever the reason, we’d like to hear from you.

Published: July 8, 2026, 3:07 am

Swans in Worcester and floating art in Venice: photos of the day – Thursday

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

Published: July 9, 2026, 5:28 am