‘This is injustice’: how leftist zines were used to sentence anti-ICE protesters to decades in prison

Advocates sound alarm after zines were used as evidence to convict protesters of terrorism charges tied to 2025 protest at Texas ICE facility

It’s the day after Mother’s Day, the first one Elizabeth Soto has spent apart from her three children. Sitting in jail in Wichita Falls, Texas, her face is washed out by the overhead fluorescent lighting, and her dingy jumpsuit blends into the cinder block walls surrounding her.

Speaking through a glass separator, she tells me she celebrated the holiday with her children over the jail’s video-call system while they had dinner at their grandmother’s. “I’ve been a full-time mother all of their lives,” she said. “I’ve never been away from them.”

Published: June 24, 2026, 4:00 am

‘Glorious time to be a New Yorker’ as Lander’s win highlights Mamdani effect

Progressive supporters of mayor celebrate as former city comptroller’s critical approach to Israel helps defeat incumbent congressman Dan Goldman in primary

The polls closed at 9pm in New York on Tuesday. It took less than five minutes for Brad Lander, the Zohran Mamdani-endorsed candidate, to be announced the winner in the Democratic primary in the 12th district: a dominant victory that reinforced the power of New York City’s mayor and the durability of the progressive movement.

Cheers rang out at 9.04pm at the bar where Lander held his victory party, as the former city comptroller and former mayoral candidate was declared to have easily defeated Dan Goldman, the district’s two-term incumbent, in the Democratic primary.

Published: June 24, 2026, 1:00 am

The best American LGBTQ+ books, chosen by authors

From 20th-century classics to little-known treasures, Michael Cunningham, Hilton Als, Eileen Myles and others share their favorite books about LGBTQ+ life

• ‘Sheer outrageousness’: writers on their favourite LGBTQ+ movie characters

You could debate what the best American LGBTQ+ book is until the cows come home, but experts at least tend to agree on the first one: 1870’s catchily titled Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania by Bayard Taylor. Compared with the well-worn classics of the British LGBTQ+ literary canon – from Oscar Wilde to Jeanette Winterson and beyond – its US counterpart feels invitingly hazy: greener and ever-evolving to reflect the spectrum of queer American life.

To celebrate pride month and the upcoming 250th anniversary of America, the Guardian asked nearly two dozen leading queer writers for their favorite LGBTQ+ book from the country they call home. Read on for their choices.

Published: June 24, 2026, 1:00 am

From blond to pink to curly to cropped – my wild week of wearing a new wig every day

Glamorous, fashion-forward, fun – wigs are everywhere you look, with celebrities leading the way. But should you go for something flamboyant, or a more natural style? Time to test-drive a few

‘I think it’s the word – ‘wig’!” says Melanie Burrell, scrunching up her nose. “I prefer ‘hairpiece’.” It’s part of the reason why, when she opened her wig business in Glasgow in 2010, she called it Parrucche – the Italian word for “wigs” being a little more discreet, especially when it came to signage.

But the stigma once associated with wig wearing is quickly diminishing. Outside of Black and queer communities, where using hairpieces has long been commonplace, wigs were once associated with attempts to conceal hair-loss, or for fancy dress. But in recent years, their appeal has broadened. According to data insights company Statista, the global wigs and hair extensions market is predicted to reach $13.28bn this year. For men, toupees, now more commonly known as “hair systems”, are part of this resurgence.

Published: June 23, 2026, 9:00 pm

A moment that changed me: A telegram arrived – and I had to choose between my head and my heart

Should I follow the man of my dreams to work in a club in Tehran? Or take up a place at an elite university? Thankfully, my dad gave me advice I’ve lived by ever since

My parents did not expect me to land a place at university. I was not considered academic enough. And anyway, I was a girl. Instead, I was being primed for marriage. My mother didn’t see anything wrong with this. Born in Britain between the two world wars, when the scarcity of men had made them precious commodities, she had left school at 14, part of a generation often brought up to believe that matrimony was the only guarantee of a secure social and financial future. While romance and indeed love were a bonus, the unwritten clause in a marital contract stipulated that a wife must play her supportive part at home while the husband went out to work. Without the necessary qualifications for the role, the entire agreement risked failure.

In 1972, I was at college studying for my A-levels, but in the holidays my mother enlisted me on various “finishing” courses. Her intention was that I acquire the domestic skills to enhance my spousal eligibility, including how to cook, carve a roast and drive a Jeep to the shops, in case I landed a nice gentry farmer. Only now, almost 40 years after her death, do I realise how much she regretted the lack of educational and career opportunities open to her. Only now do I sympathise with her subconscious envy when they were offered to her daughter.

Published: June 23, 2026, 10:45 pm

North Korea’s ‘exponential’ nuclear program: why Kim Jong-un is racing to expand his arsenal

The heightened rhetoric from Pyongyang has left analysts asking why North Korea appears to need so many nuclear weapons

At a ruling Workers’ party meeting that concluded this week, Kim Jong-un declared that steadily expanding North Korea’s nuclear forces was the “most correct and unique way” to cope with an increasingly unstable world, citing what he described as growing threats from the US and its allies.

The remarks were just the latest in a recent stream of commentary from North Korea’s leadership that has seen Kim pledge to equip warships with nuclear missiles, double weapons grade production and expand the country’s nuclear arsenal at “an exponential rate”.

Published: June 23, 2026, 6:33 pm

Mamdani-backed candidates sweep Democratic primaries in New York City

JFK’s grandson Jack Schlossberg fails to advance in election to replace Jerry Nadler in Manhattan district

Zohran Mamdani’s growing influence over the Democratic party was on show in New York City on Tuesday as three congressional candidates endorsed by New York’s democratic socialist mayor won closely watched primaries, while voters in Maryland, Utah and South Carolina cast ballots in primaries and runoffs.

Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller who also ran for mayor last year before endorsing Mamdani, won his race comfortably, defeating the Democratic representative Dan Goldman.

Published: June 23, 2026, 9:26 pm

‘Extremely overwhelmed’: apartment renters face rising tide of fees

Guardian investigation: Renters at apartment buildings operated by industry giant Greystar complain they’re deluged by ‘unfair’ and ‘inflated’ fees. The company denies these claims

Tenants at apartment complexes operated by Greystar, the largest owner and manager of apartments in the US, don’t just pay rent. They pay a mass of fees that many renters have never heard of before.

These add-ons include “boiler management fees”, “variable refrigerant flow fees”, “solar rebill” fees, even “lifestyle fees”.

Published: June 24, 2026, 3:00 am

Israeli former leaders and security chiefs threaten legal action over ‘Jewish terrorism’

Leaked letter to PM and military demands action to stop violence against Palestinians in occupied West Bank

Dozens of Israelis from the country’s security, political and cultural elite have threatened legal action against their government over support for Jewish terrorism and an “ideology of ethnic cleansing” in the occupied West Bank, according to a leaked letter.

Two former prime ministers, former heads of all the Israeli security services, former judges, a Nobel laureate and the country’s most revered living novelist were among the signatories to a “final warning” over violence against Palestinians.

Published: June 24, 2026, 3:53 am

World Cup 2026: Infantino says hydration breaks not commercial; attendances on track for record high – live

⚽ All the latest news on a day packed with six matches
⚽ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail Daniel

How do we feel about the penalty that wasn’t?

I don’t really see how you can’t give it. Fatawu was in and Konsa launches into him, getting nowhere near the ball with no chance of getting at the ball – which makes it a red card too.

Published: June 24, 2026, 6:34 am

Farm workers at higher risk amid screwworm outbreak in US south-west

Those who work with animals are at greater risk for infection, but face challenges in accessing healthcare

Agricultural workers are among the highest risk group for human infection during the screwworm outbreak in the American south, yet they frequently face challenges in accessing public health – an ongoing concern amid zoonotic spillovers such as H5N1 bird flu.

Screwworm has been detected in goats and sheep in three Texas counties in recent days, bringing the total to 16 known cases among animals and none reported in people.

Published: June 24, 2026, 5:00 am

Meta pauses employee tracker for AI training amid privacy concerns

About 1,600 workers signed petition against tool that tracked staff keystrokes, mouse clicks and computer screen content

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has paused a program that tracked employees’ computer activity amid data privacy concerns and a staff backlash.

The owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp had introduced a tool that tracked staff keystrokes, mouse clicks and content displayed on computer screens in order to collect data for training its AI models.

Published: June 24, 2026, 4:38 am

Europe heatwave live: estimated 94 million people to experience temperatures above 35C today

UK issues rare red heat alert as 68,000 households lose electricity in northern France and Italy puts warnings in place for 16 cities

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

Grahame Madge, a Met Office spokesperson, said the agency is forecasting 39C as a headline maximum temperature on Thursday in the UK, most likely for somewhere in London or the south-east.

“It is possible we could see temperatures higher than the 39C if the final values are at the upper end of our narrow range,” he said, according to the Press Association.

Published: June 24, 2026, 6:22 am

Gracie the giraffe who loves to wander found safe after search with community help

Local sheriff’s office appealed for citizens to keep their eye out for Gracie’s ‘rounded ears’ – to distinguish from any other missing giraffes

For almost two weeks, residents of a rural Texas county have been looking, mostly up, for a missing giraffe called Gracie that wandered off from a private game ranch.

On Wednesday, it appeared the free-roaming mammal’s odyssey was over, after it was reportedly found safe a “little farther out than expected” from its hill country home.

Published: June 24, 2026, 6:22 am

Millions of stars light up largest and most detailed shot of Milky Way’s centre

The glittering image, taken by the European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope, heralds a new age of planetary discovery

The dazzling sight of more than 60m stars at the heart of Earth’s galaxy has been captured by a space telescope designed to reveal the mysterious dark forces that shape the universe.

Astronomers used the European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope to capture the largest, most detailed image ever taken of the visible light pouring from the centre of the Milky Way. The telescope’s camera is rare in being sensitive enough to separate individual stars in the crowded region known as the galactic bulge.

Published: June 24, 2026, 3:00 am

New York primaries show Zohran Mamdani has lost none of his political magic

The New York Knicks might have won in five, but the city’s mayor did it in three: a trio of candidates backed by Mamdani appear set to land seats in US Congress

• US politics live – latest updates

A man or a movement? That was the question being asked when Zohran Mamdani gambled his political capital on Tuesday’s elections in New York.

The answer from voters was emphatic: they prefer Mamdani and his brand of democratic socialism to the Democratic party establishment and its lukewarm version of capitalism. America’s biggest city has swung even further to the left.

Published: June 24, 2026, 5:31 am

Record profits, terrible service: something’s got to give for US consumers

Experts say consolidation and market power have left consumers paying more for less

• How do people in the US describe customer service in 2026?

When Delta Airlines charged Marie Duggan, an economic historian visiting Oaxaca, Mexico, $1,200 to change a scheduled flight to the United States, she was so angry she cancelled and booked a cross-border nighttime bus ride instead.

Duggan thought Delta’s price increase to fly to Phoenix instead of San Francisco, at twice the price of a one-way flight to Phoenix, was an insult and a rip-off. So she took a $250 flight on Aeromexico to Hermosillo, in the north-western state of Sonora, and then a $59 bus across the Mexico border.

Published: June 24, 2026, 4:00 am

Why off-duty cops in second jobs ‘kill and die more’ in recession-hit Argentina

Growing number of cases involve police working as rideshare drivers while carrying government-issued guns

When the gap between his salary and his family’s basic expenses began widening dramatically, Diego – like many other Argentinians – started working as a rideshare driver on top of his day job. He usually does a few hours at the end of his 12-hour shift; and more on his days off.

It would be just another story from recession-ridden Argentina, but for the fact that Diego is a federal police officer.

Published: June 24, 2026, 4:00 am

California teen plotted Columbine-type shooting at library that left two dead, officials say

Gunman, 18, faces first-degree murder charges after killing two people and injuring a child at library in Butte county

An 18-year-old gunman, who police said wanted to carry out a Columbine high school massacre-type shooting, was expected to face first-degree murder charges after killing two people and injuring a child at a northern California library Monday evening.

Chico police dispatchers received multiple 911 calls around 5.12pm on Monday where they could hear what sounded like screaming and gunshots, Billy Aldridge, the city police chief, said during a press conference on Tuesday. Aldridge said police were on the scene and had the suspect in custody within four minutes, crediting the rapid response time for preventing more deaths.

Published: June 23, 2026, 4:20 pm

Will California’s billionaire tax proposal make it to ballots?

Despite more than double the needed number of signatures to qualify for ballot, there’s uncertainty it’ll make it to voters

Hi and welcome to TechScape. Nick Robins-Early and Dara Kerr here, filling in for your usual host Blake Montgomery who is out on vacation. We’ll be talking about the fight over a proposed billionaire tax in California, the UK’s social media ban and SpaceX making a big buy in the AI arms race.

California ‘billionaire tax’ makes ballot despite opposition from tech moguls

Tech billionaires are spending unprecedented sums in California races. Experts say it’s the tip of the iceberg

‘It makes no sense’: 16- and 17-year-olds on UK social media ban

UK ministers lobby Trump to avert backlash against social media ban

Published: June 23, 2026, 5:45 am

‘We’re witnessing the end of the America that made our lives possible’: author Eddie Glaude on US’s 250th birthday

Glaude’s new book shows political turmoil historically reaching its boiling point around Fourth of July celebrations

“The mere presence of Black people at the Fourth of July celebrations, acting as if freedom belonged to them, exposed the lie at the heart of this ritual of remembrance by the nation: ours was not a nation committed to liberty and equality.” So goes the second chapter of the author Eddie S Glaude Jr’s latest book America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries.

The Princeton University professor’s new text illustrates how political turmoil has historically reached a boiling point around celebrations of the nation’s founding on the Fourth of July. The text is especially relevant now as the United States approaches its 250th birthday. Throughout the book, Glaude argues that since the very beginning, Black Americans have played a vital role in establishing this country. Their presence is a constant reminder that the mythological America – one of a white republic – does not exist. Celebrations of the nation’s founding, he says, reinforce myth-making at the expense of the truth. They’re treated as sacrosanct events, thus justifying the sanitization of the nation’s brutal history.

Published: June 24, 2026, 4:00 am

‘Smaller doses of exercise are a miracle cure’: 14 expert tips to protect your joints

Life is much easier if you look after your hips, knees, elbows and shoulders – especially as you get older. Rheumatologists and orthopaedic surgeons explain how to work out, what to eat and how to talk to your doctor

Our bodies are incredible machines, but we can take the mechanics for granted until something goes wrong. How can we maintain healthy joints throughout life and avoid surgery? Here, rheumatologists and orthopaedic surgeons give their tips …

Published: June 24, 2026, 4:00 am

‘You can’t make billions without hurting people’: Cory Doctorow on Elon Musk, the AI bubble and bosses’ cruel fantasies

The writer who coined the word ‘enshittification’ tells us why AI will never deliver what it promises – and why it still appeals so much to those in power

A “centaur”, in automation theory, is a person assisted by a machine, and a “reverse centaur”, hero of Cory Doctorow’s new book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, is a “human who is conscripted into acting as an assistant to a machine”. Every warehouse worker who ever had to urinate in a water bottle because they couldn’t otherwise meet the fulfilment targets set by an algorithm is a reverse centaur. Reaching into the future, everyone who has to sit in a self-driving truck to make sure it doesn’t crash, presumably on minimum rather than truck-driver wages, is a reverse centaur; as is every lawyer no longer on lawyer’s money checking Gemini’s command of precedent, every indie band scraping a living doing covers of AI-generated hits, and so on. That, anyway, is the promise: AI is coming for your job, and it is coming for your kids’ jobs, and there is no point fighting it because the future’s already here.

Wiping out the world of work, and with it our ability to sustain ourselves and live autonomous lives, is only the beginning, if you listen to AI’s architects. Elon Musk has called it the single greatest threat to human civilisation, Sam Altman has said it will “most likely lead to the end of the world” and Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, memorably forecast that AI would come to see us the way we see animals: cute to have around but ultimately a resource to be exploited. “AI people claim they’re about to create God, by teaching words to a word-guessing programme,” Doctorow says. “It’s grandiose.”

Published: June 24, 2026, 2:00 am

‘No one believed it’: how a YouTube video accidentally proved Libya’s sand cat really does exist

Wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir had no idea what he had found until scientists started to get in touch

When wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir uploaded 18 seconds of footage to YouTube, he thought little more about the small, pale cat seen digging a hollow in the sand in the remote dunes of south-west Libya.

The video, however, posted in 2017, turned out to be the first material evidence that the sand cat (Felis margarita), the world’s only felid adapted to true desert conditions, existed in the country.

Published: June 24, 2026, 4:00 am

The American Experiment review – Tom Hanks’ history of the US is absolutely packed with big names

Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Mike Pence … the heavyweight politicians stack up in this sincere biopic of the United States. It’s so pointedly wholesome it’s like drinking a kale smoothie on a wellness retreat

The Netflix homepage describes The American Experiment to potential viewers unwilling to read more than four words as “Sincere. Informative. Documentary series”. Well, my goodness, is it ever that, that and that! The five, hour-plus episodes about the creation of the United States of America to mark its 250th anniversary are as sincere and informative as you could wish. Possibly, at times, too much so.

Ken Burns fans can probably sit this one out. This is not a time for flair and idiosyncrasy. This is a time for self-consciously milestone TV executive produced by Tom Hanks that is so carefully bipartisan, so cognisant of the stains on the country’s history, so balanced in every conceivable way, that it feels like the televisual equivalent of consuming a kale smoothie on a wellness retreat.

Published: June 24, 2026, 12:01 am

‘Who is going to pay us when we’re replaced by robots?’ The Indian factory workers told to film themselves for AI

When workers had cameras attached to them, they found it funny at first. But novelty soon turned to concern

The first time the factory supervisors handed garment worker Lalita* a head-mounted camera, she burst out laughing. “The way people mount a CCTV camera on a wall, they mounted one on us,” she says.

The 32-year-old had been working at the garment factory on the outskirts of Delhi for nearly a year when management asked workers on her line to strap small cameras to their foreheads before starting their shifts. Nobody explained why.

Published: June 23, 2026, 10:00 pm

‘The family rift is as strong as ever’: how Brexit rocked our relationships

Remain voters recall how they dealt with division over 2016 referendum – and how they feel about their loved ones now

Ten years on from the EU referendum, we asked people how their voting experience had affected their relationships with friends and family.

Some spoke of painful family divisions that emerged between leave and remain voters, while others shared how, despite their political differences, they were able to move on with magnanimity.

Published: June 24, 2026, 6:00 am

From military brats to birthright citizens: how USMNT’s magnificent mess became its strength

For years the United States sought a single soccer identity. Instead, its best team emerged from a patchwork of backgrounds, cultures and development paths

In 1993, the United States Soccer Federation handed a contract to Rinus Michels. But the Dutch godfather of Total Football, operationalized through his on-field avatar Johan Cruyff, was not hired to coach the national team, or to coach anybody, really.

By this time, Michels, who managed the Los Angeles Aztecs of the North American Soccer League in 1979 and 1980, had already turned down the chance to manage the US men’s national team twice. Once, in 1983, when it would be entered, disastrously, into the NASL as Team America. And once more in 1991, when Bora Milutinović was appointed instead.

Published: June 24, 2026, 5:43 am

World Cup 2026: third-place table, who has qualified and who needs what?

With the group stage hurtling towards its end we look at who needs what to make the knockout phase

Teams level on points are separated, in order, by head-to-head points; head-to-head goal difference; head-to-head goals scored; overall goal difference; overall goals scored; disciplinary points; Fifa ranking.

Published: June 24, 2026, 12:39 am

Which footballers have refused to celebrate a goal against another country? | The Knowledge

Plus: is Dick Advocaat unique among coaches, long waits between World Cups and Dave Beasant revisionism

• Mail us with your all of your questions and answers

“Sweden’s Yasin Ayari has a Tunisian father and chose not to celebrate his first goal against Tunisia (he couldn’t resist celebrating when he scored later, though). Declan Rice did something similar after scoring against the Republic of Ireland in 2024, but what is the earliest example of a player not celebrating a goal at international level because of a connection to the opposition?” asks Michael Pilcher.

“I remember Breel Embolo, the Swiss international born in Cameroon, not celebrating after scoring against Cameroon at the 2022 World Cup,” replies Filippo Varanini.

Published: June 24, 2026, 12:00 am

‘I’m back’: Ronaldo’s relief after double kickstarts Portugal World Cup push

• 41-year-old heavily criticised after DR Congo draw

• ‘It felt like I’d already retired from football,’ he adds

Cristiano Ronaldo savoured the end of a “difficult, dark week” after scoring twice in Portugal’s 5-0 rout of Uzbekistan and becoming the first player to find the net in six World Cups.

Ronaldo and Portugal had come under heavy criticism after a flat draw against Democratic Republic of the Congo. There had been a particular spotlight on the 41-year-old Ronaldo, who had not scored in 10 major tournament games before Tuesday’s fixture. There have long been question marks over his continued ability to lead Portugal on this stage, but after the final whistle he shouted into a television camera: “I’m back, I’m back.”

Published: June 23, 2026, 1:46 pm

‘Not much faith’: the view from Brazil as they prepare to face Scotland

Debate is raging back home about whether Neymar, Casemiro, Endrick – and others – should be in the World Cup team against the Tartan Army

The big stars have turned up for the 2026 World Cup. Lamine Yamal returned to the Spain team to help them thump Saudi Arabia. Lionel Messi is the tournament’s top scorer, giving Argentina hope of pinning “la cuarta estrella” to their shirts. And Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Cristiano Ronaldo are all vying for the Golden Boot as their teams look towards to the next stage.

However, the five-time champions Brazil are failing to convince. They finished fifth in the Conmebol qualifying table with 28 points from 18 games, their worst ever qualifying campaign. Being competitive in a 2-1 defeat to France in March, before wins against Croatia, Panama and Egypt in friendlies, perhaps gave false hope.

Published: June 24, 2026, 3:22 am

Son mocked over military service and a drone shot down – will South Korea get chaotic World Cup back on track?

Hong Myung-bo’s squad has had to deal with issues off the pitch but a point against South Africa is enough to progress

The tacos that Son Heung-min ate were reportedly of the Al Pastor and Arrachera variety. The former Tottenham forward was mobbed after taking an Uber from South Korea’s training camp, perhaps the most-talked about base at this World Cup tournament, to downtown Guadalajara. The crowds were another signal, if any were needed, of the forward’s global popularity, though the online advice was that he should have gone to a better restaurant.

And he could do with better service too, as demonstrated by the 1-0 defeat against Mexico in the second game of Group A. The forward, who turns 34 before the quarter-final stage, was feeding off scraps as the Taegeuk Warriors played passively for a draw until a big error from Kim Seung-gyu – the goalkeeper was another taco muncher – gave the co‑hosts a goal from nowhere and a first place in the round of 32. For Korea, facing South Africa in the final game, a win would be great, a draw would be enough for second but defeat would mean either the lottery of third place or even a slip into fourth and guaranteed elimination.

Published: June 23, 2026, 9:00 pm

England’s gristly Ghana draw exposes limitations of Madueke and Gordon | Barney Ronay

Inverted wingers were unable to adjust their game, even when they kept running down the same dead end street

After the high: the comedown. You could probably have seen this coming. If only that rush after half-time in Dallas, where England surged with such alluring creative energy, hadn’t been quite so much of a buzz.

It turns out, however, that this is still an England tournament team. Nothing comes easily. The world will not bend to you. We can’t have nice things. Or only some nice things sometimes. By the end watching England struggle in Boston against a gristly and indigestible Ghana was like having your will, hope, sense of fun slowly sucked out of your body through a surgical drainage catheter.

Published: June 23, 2026, 4:48 pm

NBA draft 2026 first-round winners and losers: triumph of the tankers and the Jalen Brunson Effect

AJ Dybantsa went No 1 in a draft that proved to be low on drama, but loaded with generational talent

The tanking teams

Published: June 24, 2026, 5:26 am

Five breakout World Cup stars who could prosper in the Premier League | David Pleat

Alex Freeman has impressed from right-back while Eli Just is catching the eye with his body swerves and goal threat

It is not difficult to see why this old head on young shoulders is destined for a big career. In a Morocco team conditioned to play first-time passes, he sets the tone with his instant decisions. Bouaddi is in essence the deepest of the midfield three and he not only plays quickly but often finds a colleague in a more forward position. Strong on the ball, he can intercept from his central position and looks to continue his involvement after playing a pass. Bouaddi can tackle and shield a ball and finds space naturally. With his height, at 6ft 1in, technique and football intelligence, he will not be a Lille player for much longer. When Bouaddi gets forward he should try to be more positive – to be a more complete player he will need to have a few goals on his CV – but he is a real talent.

Published: June 24, 2026, 2:00 am

Screen epics: World Cup 2026 viewing parties around the globe – in pictures

Photographs from across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas show communities gathering to watch the greatest show on earth

Viewing figures for the 2026 World Cup have been massive so far, with footy-mad audiences lapping up the coverage. England’s victory over Croatia had a peak audience of 15.4 million on ITV, but that was nothing compared to Brazil where more than 30 million people watched as the Seleçao beat Haiti. In Japan, the Samurai Blue drew a crowd of more than 20 million to Nippon TV for their match with Tunisia, while crowds watching the game on their phones flooded across Shibuya Crossing to celebrate a goal (pictured below). Of course, the real blockbuster games are still to come: the 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and France reached an average live audience of 571 million viewers globally, according to Fifa.

Published: June 24, 2026, 4:00 am

Lazio Women to pay compensation after Cas pregnancy discrimination ruling

• Maja Göthberg lost contract after disclosing pregnancy

• First successful Cas case under Fifa maternity regulations

Lazio Women unlawfully ended the Swedish footballer Maja Göthberg’s time at the club because of her pregnancy, the court of arbitration for sport has ruled, ordering the Italian club to pay compensation.

The landmark case revolved around Fifa’s maternity regulations, which were enhanced in 2024. This was the first case in which Cas found a club unlawfully ended an employment relationship because of a player’s pregnancy and, significantly, the court found in the player’s favour even though she had not signed her proposed new contract at the time.

Published: June 24, 2026, 3:13 am

New York eyes 2042 Winter Olympics with Lake Placid-NYC bid concept

• Committee to study Lake Placid-NYC Games

• 2042 emerges as earliest realistic target

• State cites existing venues and IOC shift

The prospect of a Winter Olympics stretching from the Adirondacks to New York City has taken its first formal step toward reality as state leaders launched a year-long review into whether the two destinations could jointly host a future Games.

New York governor Kathy Hochul on Monday announced the formation of the Lake Placid-New York City Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games Exploratory Committee, a statewide group tasked with evaluating whether a future Winter Games built around existing venues and shared between the two locations could be delivered sustainably and responsibly.

Published: June 23, 2026, 1:19 pm

Manfred defends MLB’s response to Bible verses on players’ Pride caps

• San Francisco Giants pitchers wrote Bible verses on hats

• MLB had warned players over violation of league rules

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has defended the league’s policy over Pride celebrations in a letter to Republican senator Josh Hawley.

Most of MLB’s 30 teams celebrate Pride month with a themed game to acknowledge the LGBTQ community and its baseball fans. During a 12 June game against the Chicago Cubs, San Francisco pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker wrote Bible verses on their hats, which featured the Giants’ logo in rainbow colors, while pitcher Sam Hentges chose not to wear the themed cap at all.

Published: June 23, 2026, 5:14 am

Tiger Woods returns to introduce golf’s two-tier PGA Tour shake-up from 2028

• New elite series to include promotion and relegation

• 23-24 events spread across February to August

The PGA Tour has announced sweeping changes to its competitive structure, approving a two-tier system with promotion and relegation to take effect in 2028.

The elite-tier PGA Tour Championship Series will run from February to August and ​feature 23-24 events with $20m (£15m) purses, while the $4m (£3m) events on the Challenger Series will provide a path for players to earn their way to the top level.

Published: June 23, 2026, 10:21 am

The weirdest things a leak revealed about Peter Thiel’s secret club | Tayo Bero

The Dialog society grades its attendees on a hidden scale, tackles issues from sex to world wars, and offers matchmaking

What would happen if roughly 200 members of the global elite gathered every year for a top secret retreat? What would they do? What would they talk about? Who would be on the guest list?

Well, data leaked by the Swiss hacktivist maia arson crimew (who also brought us the justice department’s no-fly list back in 2023) is shedding new light on Dialog, the private social club co-created by the former PayPal boss Peter Thiel and the angel investor Auren Hoffman.

Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist

Published: June 24, 2026, 5:00 am

Is the world about to be overrun by trans mice? Not if congresswoman Nancy Mace has anything to do with it | Arwa Mahdawi

Mace’s TRANS MICE Act is designed to end ‘radical transgender-related experiments on animals’. But is this all a stupid misunderstanding?

First they came for your children. As Donald Trump has claimed without evidence (because facts are woke), US schoolkids have been getting gender-reassignment surgery in between classes. “Can you imagine you’re a parent and … you say, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much. Go have a good day in school,’ and your son comes back with a brutal operation,” Trump said during a rally in 2024. “What the hell is wrong with our country?”

Now it seems the woke brigade has come for poor little mice. According to Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace, who once called herself “Trump in high heels”, American taxpayers are funding transgender rodents. Last week Mace, who is leaving politics next year after coming last in her state’s Republican primary for governor, promoted a new bill called the TRANS MICE Act, designed to “put an end to the use of taxpayer dollars for radical transgender-related experiments on animals”.

Published: June 24, 2026, 3:00 am

What are Trump’s connections to the Tate brothers exactly? | Rebecca Solnit

According to Heidi Blake in the New Yorker, the Tate and Trump circles have overlapped at Mar-a-Lago. What does that mean?

Donald Trump has told many stories and denied many others about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. But those questions center on Epstein’s actions and crimes, which Trump says he denounces and wasn’t a part of. The White House has moved heaven, earth, the truth and much else to protect Trump from what the Epstein files might tell us about him. But there is a larger question about what Trump makes of Epstein’s values. Does he reject them, or does he endorse and embrace them? Looking to his administration’s ties to Andrew Tate may be instructive.

According to Heidi Blake’s thorough investigation of Tate in the New Yorker earlier this month, the Trump administration intervened last year to buffer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan from the consequences of their criminal charges in Romania. The Tate and Trump circles, she also reports, have overlapped at Mar-a-Lago.

Published: June 24, 2026, 3:00 am

If an AI chatbot misleads you, who is to blame? | Bruce Schneier and Nathan E Sanders

A court in Germany found that Google was responsible for what its chatbots say in search summaries. This is the accountability we need

Earlier this month, a German court ruled that Google is liable for its AI search summaries. Rejecting defenses like “users can check for themselves”, and that they generally know “that information generated with AI should not be blindly trusted”, the court held that the AI’s summaries are reflections of the company and “above all an expression of Google’s business activities”.

This is the latest skirmish in a decades-old battle over internet publishing. Historically, there were two different types of information distributors: carriers and publishers. A phone company is a carrier. It’ll transmit whatever you say, even discussions about committing a crime. Words are words, and the phone company does not know – nor is it liable for – the words you choose to speak. A newspaper, on the other hand, is a publisher. It decides the words it publishes, and what quotes to include in its articles. If those words or quotes are defamatory or otherwise illegal, it’s liable.

Published: June 24, 2026, 3:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: June 23, 2026, 3:00 am

Keir Starmer couldn’t beat the curse of Brexit – a politics poisoned by nationalism | Rafael Behr

The outgoing prime minister’s efforts to mobilise a healthier kind of patriotism fell flat. Andy Burnham may stand a better chance

Britain is not ungovernable, but the chalice of high office has been spiked with unusually fast-acting poison. Six prime ministers down in a decade. The spectacle of the lectern planted outside No 10 for a resignation speech has acquired the familiarity of ritual.

Since the Brexit referendum, the average tenure in Downing Street has been less than two years. That ballot isn’t directly responsible for ending Keir Starmer’s reign. He brought deficiencies to the job that have nothing to do with the EU. He took power without a clear sense of what he wanted it for and resented the expectation that he explain himself better. But those weaknesses were more cruelly exposed in our parched post-Brexit climate, a decade into the goodwill drought.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

Published: June 23, 2026, 10:00 pm

Louisiana man becomes first in region functionally cured of sickle cell disease

Daniel Cressy, 23, says path leading to completion of curative gene therapy is his ‘greatest blessing’

A young south-eastern Louisiana man recently became the first person in his region to be functionally cured of sickle cell disease, clearing the way for him to continue pursuing his dream of a career as a commercial pilot, according to his medical team.

Daniel Cressy’s successful completion of curative gene therapy at Manning Family Children’s hospital in New Orleans on Monday generated a measure of optimism within his state, which produces more cases of sickle cell disease per capita than any other in the US, according to the medical center.

Published: June 24, 2026, 3:00 am

Camp Mystic files for bankruptcy after 28 people died in 2025 Texas floods

Camp owners said total debt exceeds $10m in chapter 11 filing after catastrophic flood last July

Camp Mystic, the Christian summer camp in Texas where 28 people died in a catastrophic flood last July, has filed for bankruptcy, according to court records.

In a Chapter 11 filing, submitted Wednesday in the southern district of Texas, the camp’s owners said that the camp’s total debt “exceeds $10m”.

Published: June 24, 2026, 6:08 am

France confirms first Ebola case in doctor who had worked in DRC

French health ministry says patient’s contacts are being traced and that risk to European public is very low

The first case of Ebola has been confirmed in France, the country’s health ministry has said, in a doctor who had returned from a humanitarian mission to an area affected by the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The patient was transferred to a specialist facility and was in a stable condition, the ministry said in a statement. “All precautionary measures, including the patient’s isolation, were taken upon his arrival in the country, with transfer to the hospital under secure conditions to prevent any risk of contamination.”

Published: June 24, 2026, 5:11 am

Pound hits lowest level of the year against the dollar, as oil price falls to lowest since Iran war began – business live

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as drops in SpaceX and Tesla’s shares eat into Musk’s wealth

Segro have confirmed they have “unequivocally” rejected a takeover proposal from US rival Prologis, saying the £12.6bn bid falls “a long way short” of its true value.

In a statement to the City, Segro say:

The Board of SEGRO considered the Proposal together with its advisers and believed that the Proposal was opportunistically timed and sought to take advantage of the clear dislocation between SEGRO’s current share price and its highly attractive underlying business and strong prospects. This has been accentuated by major geopolitical issues which have adversely impacted trading valuations across the UK and European real estate sectors relative to the US REIT sector.

SEGRO has a clear strategy, supported by a strong balance sheet and a proven operating platform. Momentum is building in SEGRO’s occupational markets and the Company has a large and attractive development pipeline, including an exceptional data centre platform, as well as a long track record of delivery.

Published: June 24, 2026, 6:28 am

The Warriors come out to Broadway with Lin-Manuel Miranda musical

Miranda and Eisa Davis’s concept album based on the 1979 film is to be realised for the stage, co-directed by Jenny Koons and Hamilton’s Andy Blankenbuehler

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis’s concept album based on The Warriors, the cult novel and film about warring New York gangs, is to become a Broadway musical next year.

The album, Warriors, was released to critical acclaim in 2024 and followed the eponymous Coney Island clan’s odyssey back to the Bronx after being falsely accused of killing the leader of the city’s biggest gang. The original story was written by Sol Yurick, whose 1965 book was inspired by Xenophon’s ancient epic Anabasis, and it became a Walter Hill action film in 1979.

Published: June 24, 2026, 6:01 am

Bedford crash occurred after train passed red signal and was not stopped, investigators believe

Interim report says other train it hit had halted on line because warning system wrongly caused it to brake

The train whose driver died in the Bedford rail crash passed a danger signal without stopping – while the train it hit had halted on the line because its warning system had wrongly caused it to brake, investigators believe.

An initial report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) into the crash, which killed a train driver and injured more than 100 people, said it was not yet clear whether the train’s automatic warning system alerted the driver of the southbound Luton airport express from Corby that he had passed a red signal.

Published: June 24, 2026, 5:25 am

Different sperm whale ‘dialects’ detected on separate sides of the Mediterranean

Matriarchal groups in east and west exhibit distinct click patterns, used to form social structures

From “Howdy” to “G’day”, English – like other languages – is rich in dialects. Now researchers have found sperm whales on different sides of the Mediterranean show similar variations in their vocalisations.

Sperm whales communicate vocally using sequences of short clicks called codas. However, the rhythmic pattern of these clicks, known as the dialect, can differ between different matriarchal groups.

Published: June 23, 2026, 9:00 pm

Documenting Ireland’s vanishing boglands: ‘They hold millennia in their layers’

Photographer Shane Hynan explores the tension between the central role peat bogs play in Irish life and their wider environmental impact

“You can read Ireland’s history in the boglands. They hold millennia in their layers,” says photographer Shane Hynan of his project, Beofhód (meaning Beneath in English).

The boglands, known as portachs in Irish, cover roughly 1.2m to 1.5m hectares or about 14% to 17% of the country’s total land area. The raised bogs of the Irish Midlands are made of peat that forms at a rate of 1mm a year (0.04in) in low-lying, poorly drained basins or former lakes. As the historical geographer Kevin Whelan observes in the Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape, “the bog has been etched as deeply into the human as into the physical record in Ireland – to an extent unrivalled elsewhere.”

Eddie and Con footing turf for domestic use, Knockirr Bog, County Kildare, 2022.

Published: June 23, 2026, 10:00 pm

Scientists alarmed after two wildfires hit Greenland within a week

Researchers say it is ‘quite wild’ to see fires at such high northern latitudes happen so early in the year

Scientists have expressed concern after two wildfires broke out within a week of each other on the Arctic island of Greenland earlier this month.

Fires were burning close to Sisimiut, Greenland’s second largest town and a popular tourism centre, on 14 and 15 June, satellite imagery has shown, while a second blaze hit Kujalleq, on the island’s southern tip, on 17 June.

Published: June 23, 2026, 3:44 am

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

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

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

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

Published: June 23, 2026, 4:00 am

Admiral fired in Hegseth purge wins Democratic primary in South Carolina

Nancy Lacore will spearhead effort to flip Republican House seat in November’s midterm elections

A three-star navy rear-admiral fired by Pete Hegseth last year in the defense secretary’s purge of senior US military officials has won the Democratic primary in a closely watched congressional race.

Nancy Lacore secured the party’s nomination for the US House of Representatives in South Carolina’s first congressional district on Tuesday after defeating Mac Deford, a US Coast Guard veteran, in a runoff.

Published: June 23, 2026, 8:15 pm

Man arrested near Trump’s reflecting pool plans to fight obscenity charge

Christian Miles berated Oklahoma state troopers near Washington DC landmark subject to botched renovation

A Washington DC resident arrested this week near the National Mall’s reflecting pool told the Guardian he planned to fight the charges, as Donald Trump continues to blame vandals for the botched renovation of the pool.

After the Trump administration spent $14.2m renovating the body of water in front of the Lincoln Memorial to turn it “American flag” blue in time for the US’s 250th birthday next month, the pool has been beset with algae blooms and peeling polyurethane liner. Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the pool had been slashed with a knife.

Published: June 23, 2026, 4:28 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: June 23, 2026, 4:00 am

Ransom note about Nancy Guthrie's disappearance says she died, according to reports

Note reportedly said kidnappers didn’t mean to kill mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, but she died shortly after her disappearance

A ransom note related to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie – the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie – said the 84-year-old had died, CNN and other news organizations are reporting, citing law enforcement sources.

Some media outlets had previously reported receiving ransom notes tied to the case in the days after Guthrie’s disappearance in early February from her home in the foothills just outside Tucson, Arizona.

Guardian staff contributed reporting

Published: June 23, 2026, 5:10 am

Chinese supercomputer leapfrogs best US machines to be ranked world’s fastest

China’s LineShine debuts at number one in Top500 – a list sometimes viewed as a national measure of global tech prowess

A supercomputer in China now outranks its US counterparts as the world’s most powerful. It is the first time since 2017 that a Chinese computer has topped a list sometimes viewed as a measure of a nation’s technological prowess.

The LineShine computer in Shenzhen displaced top-ranked US computer El Capitan in the Top500 rankings released on Tuesday. It was LineShine’s debut on the list.

Published: June 23, 2026, 6:18 pm

Woman attacked by shark at Coogee beach wakes briefly from coma to say three words

‘I love you,’ Leah Stewart told her mother and partner after coming out of a coma on Tuesday

A woman attacked by a shark at Sydney’s Coogee beach has uttered her first words after waking from a coma 10 days after sustaining her injuries.

“I love you,” Leah Stewart told her mother and partner after coming out of a coma on Tuesday. She was bitten by a great white shark on 13 June.

Published: June 24, 2026, 12:37 am

Nearly a quarter of voters in Europe now back far-right parties

Analysis by more than 150 political scientists finds proportion who back such parties has increased nearly fivefold since 1995

Almost one in four voters in Europe now cast their ballot for far-right parties, research shows, a proportion that has grown nearly fivefold since the mid-1990s and climbed particularly steeply over the past three years.

Analysis by more than 150 political scientists in 31 countries found the proportion of Europeans voting for a far-right party in their country’s most recent national elections had risen to more than 23%, from about 10% a decade ago and roughly 5% in 1995.

Published: June 24, 2026, 4:34 am

German war hero Annika at her farm for struggling veterans: Jan Kraus’s best photograph

‘She was in Germany’s biggest battle since the second world war, but the army took years to recognise her PTSD. Annika now runs a farm with pigs and geese where struggling veterans come to stay’

Annika Schröder’s story is an amazing one. She was in the military here in Germany for almost 20 years. She joined when she was young, adventurous and needed to earn money – they let her do fun things like jump out of an aeroplane and drive a tank. But then she got deployed to Afghanistan, and within a month her unit got sent on a rescue mission, which is now infamous as the Good Friday Battle – the biggest German military battle since the second world war. She recovered two dead soldiers and one who was heavily wounded, but went on to develop severe post-traumatic stress disorder. It took the Bundeswehr (German army) over a decade to fully recognise that. Meanwhile she was discharged because they said she wasn’t fit to do her job any more. In 2025 there was a television documentary made about her life.

She now gets a full army pension that she can live off and has started what’s called a veteran farm outside Leipzig, where she keeps pigs and geese and two dogs. This image was taken in her kitchen there. Living self-sufficiently helps with her PTSD and while the dog in the picture isn’t an official support dog, it helps her feel calm.

Published: June 24, 2026, 6:26 am

Game of stones: how paintings of marble reveal a world of magical medieval mysticism

From trippy swirls to blood-soaked slabs, a new book mines gothic and renaissance art for the supernatural significance of the precious rock

When we think of marble, we think of it as a desirable commodity: of luxurious interior decoration, from deluxe kitchens to the most corporate of foyers – and of a roaring global market. Yet in the centuries prior to the enlightenment brought about by science and the birth of geology, marble captured the popular imagination as a mysterious, living structure with spiritual properties.

It is a way of thinking that’s alien from today’s knowledge, informed by the comfortable conclusions of empirical science: we know marble is a metamorphic rock created millions of years ago under extreme pressure and heat, deep below the Earth’s crust. In his new book, Divine Presence, creative director, author and one-time Wolfgang Tillmans muse Karl Kolbitz invites us to consider a pre-science mentality, when civilisations believed in the reality of miracles, dragons, astrology and the governance of an unknown but omnipresent divinity as a means of making sense of the world.

Published: June 24, 2026, 5:17 am

Deja viewing: the return of the cheapo compilation film

While movie mixtapes served a purpose in the pre-video era, Jackass, Demon Slayer, Peppa Pig and other theatrically released assemblages of old material risk looking like cynical cash grabs today

Johnny Knoxville has declared that the fifth Jackass movie, Best and Last, will mark the end of the franchise, and the trailer suggests a victory lap celebrating 25 years of broken bones, injured genitals and general stupidity you shouldn’t try at home. There are new stunts, and conversations with the cast about growing old gracelessly as they enter their 50s, but the most striking thing is how much archive footage there is. And the cast have not been hiding in interviews that it will be heavy on scenes from prior movies.

In other words, it’s the cinematic equivalent of a greatest hits album that has a couple of new songs tossed on to entice fans to part with their money. Or a clip show episode of a US sitcom which is based on flashbacks to older episodes, created so that overworked writers can reach their network-mandated episode count. But in the age of YouTube and streaming, when you can watch many a fan-edited Jackass compilation featuring the same footage, it is asking a lot of audiences to leave their homes and part with their money to see it.

Published: June 23, 2026, 11:00 pm

The Last Viking review – Mads Mikkelsen thinks he’s John Lennon in Von Trier-ish prankster comedy

Danish shaggy-dog story about a man with a dissociative disorder has a fun premise but wastes it on lots of goofy, humourless violence

Anders Thomas Jensen is an Oscar-winning screenwriter, director and veteran of the Dogme 95 years at Denmark’s Zentropa Studios. He now brings us this slapstick-violent black comedy and shaggy dog story of gruesome silliness. It is well acted but relentlessly and bizarrely unfunny. So unfunny as to be almost funny, but not really, in that the unfunniness approaches the condition of being itself a joke, though without really arriving. It could be that the spectre of Zentropa’s dark master of the prank, Lars von Trier, is hovering somewhere in the corner of the frame.

Mads Mikkelsen is cast against type as nerdy loser Manfred, an abuse survivor with learning disabilities whose tough-guy brother Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) robs a bank. Before being arrested, Anker gives poor twitchy Manfred the key to the railway station locker where he has stashed the loot, and tells him to get the cash once the cops have gone and bury it in the woodland behind their old family home where their dad used to brutalise them.

Published: June 24, 2026, 3:00 am

Dear You review – enjoyable Chinese romdram crosses generations as it tracks down a missing husband

Director Lan Hongchun’s family saga feels like a good old-fashioned novel as it goes in search of a man who has disappeared in Thailand

With a story that ranges from the 1940s to the present and, although mostly set in Bangkok, revolving largely around Teochew-speaking Chinese from Guangdong, this generations-spanning drama feels like a good old-fashioned novel. A romantic beach read, perhaps, the kind in which coincidences and random accidents cause misunderstandings that last for decades until the truth is finally revealed. It’s sentimental in places, sure, but there’s also a fair bit of salty, bawdy humour to cut the sweetness, lashings of period colour, and impressively naturalistic performances from a mostly non-professional cast. All that has helped to make this an unexpectedly large box-office hit in the People’s Republic last month; and for non-Chinese or Thai rom-dram aficionados anywhere, it’s well worth looking out for.

As the story opens in the 21st century in the Chinese city of Shantou, octogenarian Shurou (Iap Sok-jiu) is celebrating her 87th birthday, surrounded by adoring friends, family and neighbours who revere the matriarch, not least for managing to raise three kids on her own in the 1940s and 50s. Her shifty grandson Xiaowei (Hiau-ui), however, is less of a solid citizen and, having got into debt, he decides to travel to Bangkok to find out if Shurou’s husband Zheng Musheng, not seen for decades, could help out since he’s reputed to have made a fortune out there, endowed schools all over Thailand, and had a second family after abandoning Shurou.

Published: June 24, 2026, 1:00 am

Hold the Fort review – gory goings-on at the neighbours association get-together

A couple move from the city to a seemingly clean-cut suburb in this enjoyable comedy-horror that breezes through the grisly deaths of characters you won’t care about

In this short, sharp, comedy-horror-siege movie, youngish couple Jenny (Haley Leary) and Lucas (Chris Mayers) are the newcomers in a clean-cut – or is it? – suburban neighbourhood, having moved away from the big city. Lucas is a world-class red-flag-ignorer, while in contrast, Jenny is adept at spotting the signs that something is off. When the perky moustachioed head of the local homeowners’ association Jerry (Julian Smith) invites the pair to a party celebrating the equinox, he assures them “it’s to DIE for!” in the tone of voice Ned Flanders might use in a Simpsons Halloween special. Jenny immediately asks the reasonable question: “Why would you say it like that?”

Roles are soon reversed at said homeowners’ association party, as an ample helping of the local moonshine blunts Jenny’s natural caution, leaving Lucas to notice that they seem to be in the early stages of a wacky horror film. Hold the Fort jumps pretty much straight into the action, with straightforwardly drawn characters essentially replacing elaborate backstory or scene setting, allowing the film to clock in at a lean 75 minutes – if you’re in the market for a movie you can start watching at 9pm and still get an early night, that’s certainly a point in its favour. On the downside, the breezily sketched characters don’t have the time to earn a place in anyone’s heart, making for a sense of weightlessness; it doesn’t feel like anything happening here massively matters, even if the ensemble cast scream in shock and surprise and meet grisly deaths on a fairly regular basis.

Published: June 23, 2026, 11:00 pm

Pass the sick bag! Why I published a book on the art of the airline essential

One evoked a hellish trip from Delhi after passengers had drunk unsanitary water. Another conjoured up an era when planes were thick with cigarette smoke. And one man collected them all …

If, a few years ago, someone told me that I would spend most of my 2026 scanning hundreds of airline sick bags, I would have wondered what had gone wrong with my life. Especially if you also told me I’d become a keen enthusiast for the beauty of their designs. But, as it turns out, making my new book Sicko has been one of the most joyful projects I’ve ever done.

It all began in 2023, when I met Trevor Cunningham. Back then I was making a film about his support group called Ask Trev – a free advice and guidance service staffed entirely by people called Trevor (there’s an astonishing 140 of them contributing to what he calls “a Trevorlution”).

Published: June 24, 2026, 4:32 am

Kin by Tayari Jones review – a haunting tale of motherlessness

Two friends, united by their missing mothers, come of age in segregation-era America, in a cautionary tale about the limits of love

Annie and Vernice (or Niecy, as Annie calls her) are “cradle friends”, brought up in their home town of Honeysuckle, Louisiana, in 1950s America. The protagonists are defined by their motherlessness and their diverging drives to escape their individual tragedies and pre-written destinies. In this haunting novel of motherhood and sisterhood, Tayari Jones writes into unknowability – how far we can know another person, or indeed oneself.

The pair, who speak in alternating chapters, are “not the same, but still the same”. Each is tended to by mother figures – grandmothers, aunts – and gives meaning to each other’s lonely, questioning existence: “When you don’t have your mother, you don’t really know who you are.” Annie’s mother has abandoned her but is apparently alive in Memphis, and she makes it her obsession to reconcile with her; Niecy’s, on the other hand, is lost for ever, murdered by Niecy’s father. Where the former is holding out hope, the latter has none; and herein lies the fork in their futures. While Niecy chooses the sensible, stable life path – college, a traditional marriage – Annie spirals from tragedy to tragedy, consumed by thoughts of her missing mother. Call it destiny, or a kind of grieving.

Published: June 24, 2026, 1:00 am

The Family Man by James Lasdun review – the killings that shocked America

Alex Murdaugh’s conviction for the murder of his wife and son was recently overturned. Where does the truth lie?

In March 2023, 54-year-old Alex Murdaugh received two life sentences for murdering his wife and younger son at the family’s hunting lodge in Colleton County, South Carolina. Since the early 20th century, three generations of his family had been elected as state prosecutors in the “Lowcountry”, a sprawling stretch of lush, rancid swampland on the southern eastern seaboard, marked by severe economic and social inequality. The Murdaughs were the people who could send you to jail or the electric chair, all the while maintaining a veneer of good ol’ southern gentility.

In parallel with these public duties, the family ran a large law firm, specialising in personal injury. In a land of chronic alcoholism and rusty farm equipment, the Murdaughs conducted a brisk business in multimillion-dollar settlements for those who had lost a limb, a parent or their cognitive faculties thanks to someone else’s carelessness. But instead of passing on these life-changing wins to vulnerable clients, Alex Murdaugh used them to fund a lavish lifestyle, featuring big cars, prostitutes, opioid pills and a military-grade private arsenal. For good measure, he also embezzled many millions from his legal partners.

Published: June 23, 2026, 11:00 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: June 23, 2026, 1:00 am

‘Like a phoenix rising from its ashes’: queer Muslim life in France – in pictures

Camille Farrah Lenain’s tender photo book Made of Smokeless Fire was inspired by grief for her gay uncle Farid. ‘He left without answering the questions I had for him,’ she says

Published: June 23, 2026, 11:00 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: June 23, 2026, 3:44 am

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

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

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

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

Published: June 23, 2026, 3:03 am

Clive Davis obituary

One of the most powerful men in the American recording industry who promoted Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen, Janis Joplin and Barry Manilow

Controversial, ruthless and staggeringly successful, Clive Davis, who has died aged 94, was the most complete specimen of the old-school record industry mogul. Where his competitors might have enjoyed one or two periods of power and influence, Davis kept bouncing back over decades with fresh projects and new approaches to the music business. Though temporarily floored by financial scandals during the 1970s, Davis refused to be beaten and never lost his gift for creating chart-busting artists.

Above all, it was Davis’s discovery and promotion of Whitney Houston that cemented his reputation as a man with an almost supernatural gift for talent-spotting. Her 1985 debut album was the result of Davis’s careful nurturing and planning, and became what was then the bestselling debut by any female artist. She went on to enjoy colossal international success, and was credited with opening doors for many African-American artists.

Published: June 23, 2026, 8:44 am

How to turn under- or over-ripe strawberries into a brilliant no-churn ice-cream – recipe | Waste not

Two problems, one delicious and simple solution …

Over- and under-ripe strawberries have opposite problems but the same solution: roast them. This intensifies their flavour, and also allows you to add sugar to sweeten flavourless, under-ripe fruit, while at the same time cooking away any blemishes or unpleasant soft patches.

Published: June 24, 2026, 5:00 am

Shun Amazon with the 24 best anti-Prime Day deals from Best Buy, REI and more

Besides Amazon, plenty of other retailers are also lowering prices on great products our shopping experts can vouch for

• The best Prime Day deals on things our editors actually tested and love

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

Every summer, Amazon entices sweaty consumers with steep discounts on everything from slushie machines to tower fans in a tradition appropriately known as Prime Day. But you don’t need to sit out the savings if you don’t have a Prime membership (or just prefer not to shop at Amazon).

To compete with Prime Day, many of Amazon’s biggest competitors now dial their own prices to the lowest of the year during the same week. From Walmart to boutique brands including Cozy Earth and Caraway, everyone wants to lure you away from the Jeff Bezos-founded mega-retailer. And they’re willing to offer impressive discounts to do it.

Best kitchen deal:
Anyday Glass Round Dish Set and Cookbook Bundle

Best home deal:
Cozy Earth Waffle Bath Towels

Published: June 23, 2026, 12:00 am

These are the 42 best Prime Day deals our editors are texting their friends about

Our experts found and vetted the best Prime Day deals and sales. Here are our picks for nontoxic cookware, bedding, tower fans and more

• The best anti-Prime Day deals for Amazon skeptics

• The best wireless earbuds for iPhone owners are on sale

• Our favorite nontoxic, nonstick pans is now on sale

Prime Day is the wild west of online shopping. For every genuinely great deal, there are about seven duds dressed up in “best of” graphics. To prevent you from wasting your money (or time), our editors have cut through the chaos to find Prime Day 2026’s good stuff.

Every item in this roundup has been personally tested, vetted and loved by the Filter team. We’ve also factchecked the price history on each pick to spot “list prices” that never existed and fake markdowns. It may be overkill for a list of deals, but we take your wallet seriously.

Best kitchen deal:
Ninja Slushi Frozen Drink & Slushie Machine

Best home deal:
Levoit Tower Fan

Published: June 24, 2026, 4:49 am

Break up with your plastic food storage. Stasher’s reusable bags are nontoxic, durable and now on sale

Stop trashing plastic bags and start reusing these Stasher silicone bags that are so tough you can toss them in the oven – and now on sale for up to 59% off during Prime Day

• Our favorite nontoxic, nonstick pan is now on sale

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

If you’re sick of disposable little plastic bags and cling wrap that sticks to itself instead of your dishes, it may be time for an upgrade. Our editors’ favorite reusable silicone bags for food storage are on sale for Prime Day for up to 59% off. Originally $44.67, Stasher’s multicolored pack of three is now $18.04.

Our cooking and kitchen experts have recommended Stasher multiple times: “Why constantly buy new packs of plastic bags when you could spend $40 once on reusable silicone bags? An investment in a Stasher bag is one that will more than pay for itself,” Megan Wahn wrote.

Published: June 23, 2026, 7:15 am

Your summer binge-watch begins: the best Prime Day streaming deals for Apple TV, HBO Max and more

Some of everyone’s favorite shows are returning just in time for streaming discounts, including House of the Dragon and Ted Lasso

• The 30+ best Prime Day deals in the US on things our editors actually tested and love

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

Amazon’s Prime Day has returned, and its streaming rivals aren’t letting the retail giant keep the spotlight all to itself. As an entertainment journalist, I’ve rounded up the best streaming deals from Prime Video’s competitors.

The summer TV season is heating up, and some of America’s favorite shows are returning just in time for these streaming discounts, including new seasons of HBO Max’s House of the Dragon and Apple TV’s Ted Lasso. Several deals only run for two months rather than force buyers to make a long-term commitment, so if you’re looking to sample a few of the smaller streamers, this may be ideal for you. (Otherwise, wait until Black Friday for the most dramatic savings.)

Published: June 23, 2026, 12:15 pm

I could listen to gardeners chat for hours. It always sounds like they’re up to no good | Zoe Williams

Blame my uncle and his contempt for rules and regulations

My uncle has a mature and beautiful gingko tree, which also goes by the name of memory tree, which is a little ironic because he can’t remember where he put his hearing aid batteries, and yet he can recollect with pin-sharp detail the exact moment this tree’s predecessor was confiscated by a customs official on the way back from the unnamed country he was smuggling it in from.

“Smuggling” was a large and entirely wrong word for a tiny sapling that wasn’t harming anyone, he said, but they took it off him anyway and destroyed it, a decades-old outrage that felt pretty fresh. I’m a little hazy on how the current tree came to arrive in his garden, whether that first one was a decoy and he was packing two trees, but let’s just say that couldn’t possibly have happened because this definitely isn’t the same uncle who brought seven varieties of seed potato back from a family wedding in Germany in 1985, by putting them in my and my siblings’ pockets, because what kind of customs monster would search a child?

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

Published: June 23, 2026, 3:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: June 23, 2026, 2:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: June 23, 2026, 3:00 am

Tartan Army in the US and heatwave in Europe: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Published: June 24, 2026, 6:14 am