The Times of Israel reports that the eyesight of Dr Tal Weissbach, who was volunteering as a doctor at last night’s anti-government demonstration in Jerusalem, is at risk due to damage caused by being hit by a water cannon last night.
Prof Hagai Levine, a leader in the White Coats activist group, told the paper “According to witnesses, Dr Weissbach did not pose any threat and did not participate in any violent actions. Her injury was caused by the illegal use of force by the police.”
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Could Kylian Mbappé’s tournament be over? Will Cristiano Ronaldo, in the style of Kevin Phillips and Dean Windass, still be banging them in at 39? Why are there only two matches today? Are we going to have a summer? What’s for lunch? We’ll be seeking answers to all those questions and much more on today’s Euro 2024 news and buildup live blog. Email me with your thoughts. Let’s get into it.
Whitbread’s shares have jumped by 4.5%, as investors welcome the news that UK trading strengthened over the last quarter.
Well, grocery price inflation is not what it used to be, but it’s still a surprise to see Kantar report that the supermarket sector saw only 1.0% sales growth in the latest 4 week period…
An extract from new book Travelling follows the Canadian songwriter’s restless adventures in psychoanalysis and psychedelia from Hejira to Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter
In the 1970s, Joni Mitchell was reaching out, taking it all in. The shy girl and the party girl did a little boho dance inside her, trading places depending on what day it was. “I’m always talkin’, chicken squawkin’, bigawwk, bigAWWWK!” she yakked in Talk to Me, musicalising the women’s art of conversation as it goes off the rails. That song, from Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, is an extrovert’s embarrassing indulgence, the final shove from a pushy broad. Mitchell liked to run her mouth off. But then she would retreat into solitude. Reflecting on this period later, she’d describe the 1970s as a time when she moved away from the introversion that had reached its nearly claustrophobic peak on Blue and toward a new role as an observer, telling others’ stories as she encountered them on the road. Yet in another, fundamental way, she remained inwardly focused. She just had a different framework for doing so, one emblematic of the time. A silent listener sits across from her in Hejira’s songs as she recounts her excursions. Herself, in the role of analyst.
“I tried to run away myself,” Mitchell sings in Coyote, “to run away and wrestle with my ego.” Hejira’s opening salvo identifies her travels as both geographical and psychological. She ranges through her own mind as much as anywhere else, but her lyrics show signs of a new mindset. The scholar David Shumway identified the Freudian couch as the source. “Ambivalence is a characteristic of neurotic states, but it is also a product of the work of analysis,” he wrote in his book Rock Star. “Mitchell’s work depends heavily on the discourse of, if not psychoanalysis proper, then the therapy of the talking cure in a general sense.”
I came out as gay and set out to explore my sexuality without worrying what other people think. Even with this freedom though, I feel lost
I came out as gay in my late 20s, after years of deep repression (I had a traditional family, plus feelings of shame and fear). I very quickly fell into a relationship with another woman, who I loved dearly, but struggled to find the desire to explore my sexuality with her. I felt I could only do this on my own. After four years I ended the relationship. I was jealous of her freedom to explore her sexuality without shame. Depression and confusion followed. I questioned my queerness and my self-worth and set out to explore my sexuality without worrying what other people think. But even with this freedom I feel lost. I am trying to become part of a more queer culture and find my tribe but I don’t know who I am – I know I am gay, am I also non-binary? I’m now in my mid-30s and I’m worried this exploration of different lovers and ideologies and roles within sex is taking me further away from what I actually want: love and intimacy, plus the freedom and independence to know who I am sexually. But I am struggling to find independence free from shame and guilt.
You really DO know what you want: “love and intimacy”. Try to set aside the pressure of following ideology, of searching for a tribe, of trying to find a self-description; none of that is as important as knowing that you are a person with ordinary human needs who deserves to find love, pleasure, understanding and acceptance … and who is highly worthy of self-love and self-acceptance. Follow your intuition rather than your mind. Let it guide you to finding ways to getting your simplest needs met. You may not be able to choose your identity but you CAN choose to be happy – by ignoring the political voices around you and holding on to what is authentic for yourself.
Manchester City forward is the best attacking player in England but is yet to find his best form for the national side
History repeats itself. Twenty years since Sven-Göran Eriksson nudged Paul Scholes to the left flank to make space for Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in the middle, conditions are ripe for furious arguments about another creative talent being wasted in a team lacking balance, all because narrative has it that England’s coach is shoving square pegs in round holes again.
Phil Foden, then: what’s going on there? Why does he look so Scholesy? Two theories have been posited since his muted display during England’s win against Serbia: one, that he is being constrained by Gareth Southgate’s functionality; the other, that Foden’s struggle to impose himself in an England shirt has nothing to do with the system and is down to a player who needs to be more Jude.
Roberto Martínez does not bow to every whim of his superstar No 7 as forward’s career draws to a close
After all the years of propping up Portugal, there is no more of Cristiano Ronaldo putting the national team on his back. Now, he is well into his victory lap. “Your happiness is our happiness, captain,” was Sport TV’s caption to a reel of his best bits from last week’s 3-0 friendly win over the Republic of Ireland. In previous tournaments, Ronaldo’s every micro-move was replete with nuance, potentially a gamechanger, but there is now less of a daily soap opera feel around the team. “I see quite a calm team, I don’t see anyone anxious,” Ronaldo told reporters on the squad’s arrival at their Euro 2024 base in Germany.
That calm was not extended to Portugal’s first public training session on German soil. For the workout at Gütersloh’s Heidewaldstadion on Friday 8,200 fans turned up, tickets were reputedly changing hands for up to €1,000 (£850) and, inevitably, Ronaldo was hugged and jostled by a series of pitch invaders. Ever since the captain became a bona fide megastar at Manchester United, almost two decades ago, there has been a circus-like aspect to Portugal at major tournaments. Regardless of the residual elite quality of the squad, the periods before, during and after Cristiano will be eras of starkly different shades.
Real Madrid prodigy endured a tricky first season but might be coming into free-scoring form at the perfect time
“I’ve smoked a cigar, I’ve sung a song, I’ve danced with Eduardo; now I want to introduce you to a very interesting kid.” Carlo Ancelotti looked across at the thousands of celebrating Real Madrid fans spread out in front of him and at the 19-year-old standing nervously behind him, reluctantly thrust to the front by giggling teammates. “He’s very shy,” the coach told them. And then he handed the mic to Arda Guler, who said thanks, something about being a family, and hurriedly handed it back.
The normal thing here would be to say that, surely, Arda Guler needs no introduction. Identified as one of the emerging talents in Europe, he had joined Real Madrid, the world’s biggest club, for €20m plus €10m in incentives, one of which had just been met with a Champions League title. By the time he stood before those supporters in the centre of Madrid, Guler had been at the club and in the country for a year. But actually he did need an introduction, which was precisely why Ancelotti called him forward. This was a gesture of complicity, an expression of care, confidence, integration, an investment in all of their futures.
As it celebrates its 200th birthday, the RSPCA has lost its way - and is helping endorse indefensible abuse in factory farms
How does it happen? How does an organisation end up doing the opposite of what it was established to do? This month marks the 200th anniversary of the foundation of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: the world’s oldest animal welfare organisation. I wonder what there is to celebrate.
If you mistreat your dog or cat or horse or rabbit, you can expect an investigation by the RSPCA. If the case is serious enough, it could lead to prosecution. If you abuse animals on an industrial scale, you might face not investigation and prosecution, but active support and a public relations campaign to help you sell your products.
A smoky caesar salad with fried croutons and an anchovy aioli; and a zingy grapefruit, mint and creamy burrata salad with pistachio oil
Some think of salads as an exercise in restraint. For me, though, they are the opposite. Just think of dressings: delicious mixtures of vinegar, oil and almost anything else. Vinegars lend sparkling acidity to anything they touch, while a good olive oil is full of the right fatty acids, tastes wonderful and carries other flavours effortlessly. And, like all good fats, it really sates you. A great salad is a mouth-watering combination of fresh ingredients, a glossy dressing and all the crisp crunch you could want.
Every 21 June for over 10 years Claudine Doury has traveled from St. Petersburg to Maloyaroslavets in Russia, to the island of Lake Ives in Belarus, and to Kaunas, Vilnius and the Polish and Latvian countryside, to witness the summer solstice and bear witness to this very special time for peoples of the North. Called Kupala by the Slavs, Kupalès by the Balts, the night of the solstice is a traditional celebration whose roots lie in pagan festivals closely linked to the forces of nature and the worship of the sun
Emerging playmaker Fin Smith to start as a replacement
Chandler Cunningham-South picked for first Test start
England have preferred Marcus Smith to the fast-emerging Fin Smith as their starting fly-half for Saturday’s Test against Eddie Jones’s Japan. The choice at No 10 was always likely to be a keynote selection for the head coach, Steve Borthwick, and he has gone for the 25-year-old Harlequin rather than hand a first Test start to the Northampton playmaker.
The experienced Owen Farrell or George Ford have previously been relied on to set the tactical tone and, in their absence, the elder Smith has been awaiting an opportunity to claim the starting shirt. Until an untimely injury struck in January the latter had been poised to be England’s first-choice fly-half in the Six Nations but Ford eventually took the reins instead.
We took our teenage sons on quieter tracks – to Utrecht rather than Amsterdam, Baden-Baden not Berlin – and enjoyed a less frantic rail tour of Europe
We were sitting enjoying a quiet beer at a bar in Ghent when I realised we’d made the right decision. Ghent was humming but not heaving, cheerful but not chaotic. It was the first night of our three-week Interrail trip with our 18- and 16-year-old sons. Now, after a long train journey, the calm ambience of the medieval Belgian city left us feeling relaxed rather than exhausted.
An Interrail ticket opens up 33 European countries by rail and many people seize the opportunity to visit capital cities on their bucket list. A typical itinerary takes in big hitters like Paris, Prague, Rome and Madrid. We decided to do things a little differently.
The University of Nairobi’s new chancellor says the continent has vast potential – but to realise the promise of AI and green jobs, rich countries must honour their commitments
Africa has all the potential to meet pressing climate challenges with innovative solutions, according to one of the world’s renowned environmentalists. With its vast natural capital and youthful population, “this is Africa’s century,” according to Prof Patrick Verkooijen, chief executive of the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), and the new chancellor of the University of Nairobi.
But Verkooijen emphasises that support and investment from the global north is essential, highlighting that 65% of the world’s uncultivated land is in Africa, a continent with immense promise in its population, set to make up one in four people globally by 2050.
The Conservatives’ arrogance and incompetence won’t be missed, and the next UK government will have to rebuild trust
Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre
After a disastrous decade in which they blew up Britain’s relationship with the rest of Europe, shrank trade and made life miserable for cross-Channel travellers, the Tories can’t leave office soon enough for most continental Europeans.
“Good riddance!” is the cry from Lisbon to Helsinki as London’s erstwhile European partners hope that a new Labour government will start to rebuild relations with the neighbours that have suffered the most severe damage since the end of the second world war.
Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre
Lance Larson’s feature debut uses horror tropes to tackle themes of racism, immigration and post-traumatic stress disorder
Screened at SXSW last year but still relevant given the ongoing debate about immigration in the US, an especially live issue in election year, this offers a border-set ghost story that’s haunting in more ways than one. For a start, it’s not especially gory or scary; the tone is more melancholy and guilt-freighted, offering a study of masculine and, in particular, paternal anxiety that’s aggravated by divided loyalties. The main protagonist is Angel Waters (Roberto Urbina), a Mexican-American border guard who is the head of his small patrol unit not far from El Paso.
The son of a Mexican father he never knew and a white American woman who has recently died, Angel is now devoted to his pregnant wife Hannah (Kendal Rae, achieving a lot with a thinly written part); he only wants to do the best he can for the people who cross the border every day, even if he’s seldom thanked for sometimes saving their lives. For example, one day he shouts warnings in Spanish that the river isn’t safe to a lone stranger (Julio Cesar Cedillo) he spots trying to cross, and minutes later the man is swept away.
After a week-long delay to fix the problem, it only offered only £18.66 in compensation
Two months ago, our internet went down. EE arranged an engineer appointment with its partner firm Qube within 48 hours, but the visit was cancelled on the day. Another appointment was made for two days after that, but the engineer was unable to fix the problem. A week after the problem, an Openreach engineer attended and restored our service. EE’s compensation policy, in the event of total loss of service, entitles us to £48.80 plus £30.49 for a late-notice appointment cancellation. However, EE only paid £18.66. I was told compensation for cancelled appointments only applies to Openreach engineers and I wasn’t entitled to compensation for the seven-day delay because it recorded that there was no fault. HT, Hook, Hampshire
The auto-compensation scheme is not goodwill on the part of EE; it’s a requirement by regulator Ofcom. Under the rules, customers are entitled to daily payments of £9.76 if their service is not restored within two working days and last-minute cancellations require a £30.49 payout.
A gay man’s escape from persecution in Afghanistan is told beautifully through animation. Plus: the dreadful impact of one-punch killings. Here’s what to watch this evening
10pm, BBC Four
The breathtaking, Sundance-winning and Oscar-nominated animated documentary about a gay Afghan man’s remarkable story of escaping persecution hits the small screen. The man, “Amin”, is based on the director Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s friend, who in the 1980s made his way from war-torn Kabul to Denmark and revealed his tale through interviews, which are brought beautifully to life. Hollie Richardson
Soldiers were laying mines along border at time of blasts, says South, as it reveals separate incident in which it fired warning shots at troops from North
North Korea’s military has suffered “multiple casualties” after landmines exploded in the heavily armed border that separates the country from South Korea, local media reported on Tuesday.
Even lifelong Conservative voters seem tired of the Tories. Signs are pointing to a total party collapse
Who are the people who will still vote Tory? True, there are not many left, but a solid core of 20% of the population will opt for more of the same, the lowest percentage in polling history, says Prof John Curtice. That many still seem willing to re-elect those who did such national damage is, to put it politely, perplexing.
Do they really back the exceptionally mean-spirited and squalid bribery of their party’s prospectus? Well, the great majority have better things to do than read manifestos. But go out and talk to ordinary Tory voters and you find their state of mind out of tune with their party’s hierarchy. That’s why most traditional Tories have fled, ignored by the manifesto writers who press on with deeper cuts to collapsing public services, adding to the 4.3 million children going hungry.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
Guardian Newsroom: Election results special. Join Gaby Hinsliff, John Crace, Hugh Muir, Jonathan Freedland and Zoe Williams on 5 July
With little fresh detail on show, this biography offers instead a masterclass in insinuation and class-coded curiosities
Say what you like about the biographer Tom Bower, he hits the ground running: from the opening bars of House of Beckham, an epic symphony of snide, you know exactly where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. So, it’s Glastonbury 2017, and Beckham is “in deep conversation with Mary Charteris, a 30-year-old married party girl, the ultimate cool Sloane Raver.” She is, we learn, famous for “being present at parties where others enjoyed cocaine”. Is she meant to be a cokehead by association? Can one catch cocaine? How do you get famous for that?
It doesn’t feel especially fair-minded, but the more blameless victim in this take-no-prisoners prose style is syntax. After Charteris’s wedding in 2012, “everyone latched on to her father’s excited reaction to the unusually revealing dress she wore and on to her stepmother known as ‘Lady Mindbender’.” What does it mean? Excited how? Who’s everyone? Latched on to the stepmother in what way? In the end, trying to tell a story with no better sources than contemporaneous tabloid accounts, skating the same line between insinuation and defamation, while trying to introduce notes of both moral and factual authority, well, it can be done, but only if you’re happy to sometimes not make sense.
One of the world’s most remote populations must deal with a flood of multinational plastic, much of it tossed overboard by the factory fishing ships hoovering up sealife just offshore
Photographs by Akira Franklin
From a distance, the colourful beach at Ovahe seems a postcard-perfect mosaic of natural beauty. Craggy volcanic boulders, pockmarked from bubbling lava, jut from the sand, garnished by a necklace of pastel-coloured corals and seashells pounded to pieces by the wild, crashing surf.
As the waves pull back, however, another reality emerges. The sand holds few corals or shells. Instead, the high-tide mark is a multinational carpet of plastics polished into an array of bleached Coca-Cola reds and Pepsi blues.
Exclusive: Leaked recordings reveal chancellor ‘trying to achieve some of the same things’ as former prime minister
Jeremy Hunt said Liz Truss’s economic ambitions were a “good thing to aim for” and her disastrous mini-budget hadn’t left an impact on the economy, according to two leaked recordings obtained by the Guardian.
The chancellor was recorded at a meeting of students when he said he was “trying to basically achieve some of the same things” as the former prime minister, but that he was doing it “more gradually”.
GP, celebrity chef and astrologer among defendants in third trial linked to far-right Reichsbürger
Eight alleged members of the German far-right Reichsbürger are to go on trial accused of a plot to violently overthrow the state, in the third in a row of similar court cases being held across the country.
The defendants, including a GP, a celebrity chef and an astrologer, are accused of serving as the plot’s leadership council and, prosecutors say, were set to become a cabinet in waiting if the group’s plan to storm the parliament building and overthrow the government had succeeded.
Germany’s men kicked off Euro 2024 on Friday in Munich. The city is storied in football terms, but it also occupies an important place in Germany’s self-image for a different reason: Munich is home to BMW, one of the country’s car exporting powerhouses.
Yet it will not be the logos of BMW or German rivals including Volkswagen or Mercedes-Benz plastered on stadiums or television coverage. Instead, China’s BYD is the only carmaker to sponsor Europe’s premier international tournament.
While once there would be a lone photographer taking pictures of the happy couple, now videographers and ‘content creators’ are also invited to document the big day, and even the clergy have had enough
Hiking to the top of the highest local peak in full wedding dress sounded dramatic, adventurous and romantic. A visual representation of feeling on top of the world; a jaunty juxtaposition between gorgeous wedding finery and the wilds of northern England. The resulting photographs were striking and memorable, recalls the photographer behind this scenario, Scott Johnson. The couple were lovely and it was one of his favourite jobs – but he wonders how their guests felt, having been left for two hours while they went off to hike up a hill. “You’re invited by the bride and groom to spend a day with them and they disappear, so I can see where the angst comes from,” he says. “But it’s what the couple wants, so we have to say yes.”
Johnson, in his 40s, says he is old enough to remember when his wedding photography jobs lasted around three hours – he was there to capture the arrival at the church or register office, shoot the ceremony and take portraits and photographs for an hour or so afterwards. “You didn’t do any bridal preparation, or stay for the party.” Now, he says, couples want coverage from early in the morning until midnight or later. “I used to just take one camera and one lens,” he adds; now he brings a van of equipment. “Couples are much more aware of what can be done than ever before.” And, anecdotally at least, many couples want much more. “Some want the more stylised coverage,” he says. “You see wedding photography online where you’re thinking, that’s not a wedding, it’s like a movie shoot.”
The true number of black people who have died after contact with the police has been hidden, while their families are faced with delays and denials
In the early hours of Sunday 3 July 2022, two men, 300 miles apart, died after contact with police. One man was in Cornwall, and the other in Nottingham. Both men were unarmed, and had not harmed anyone. Both men were terrified; both had struggled with drug addiction; both were in the midst of a psychotic episode. Both were black. Both had called the police to help them.
Godrick Osei was 35 and a father of two. At around 2am, he placed two calls to his sister from his partner’s flat in Truro. He was in a paranoid state, and claimed men with guns were in the flat. Then he jumped out of the window, taking his partner’s phone. He rang the police himself, and said he was being chased by armed attackers.
Look to Simon Peckham’s return with Rosebank Industries for an example of where the market should place value
It’s a euros triumph already: the value of all the companies on the London stock market is greater than all those on the Paris exchange: $3.18tn plays $3.13tn, calculates Bloomberg.
Actually, we should probably contain our excitement. First, the position is not groundbreaking: until only a few years ago, London was miles ahead as the biggest stock market in Europe. Second, the current position could reverse in an instant: it would merely take a marginal improvement in the value of fashion stocks such as LVMH, Hermès and Gucci-owning Kering that are heavyweights in Paris.
Joining Grace this week is one of Ireland’s most acclaimed comics and host of the award-winning podcast My Therapist Ghosted Me, Joanne McNally. With a number of sell-out shows and tour dates in the US later this year, they discuss how Joanne uses comedy to process difficult periods in her life, how her mum is her favourite cocktail buddy, and what exactly she stole to get herself kicked out of the Scouts. Hot off her stint on the latest series of Taskmaster, and with an upcoming show at the Edinburgh festival fringe, the real question is: what is the banger of a sandwich Joanne McNally turns to whenever she’s shut off from the outside world and has a rare moment of peace?
New episodes of Comfort Eating with Grace Dent will be released every Tuesday
Now that the main parties’ manifestos have all been released, Ian Sample is joined by the global environment editor, Jon Watts, and the biodiversity reporter, Phoebe Weston, to find out what the manifestos have to say about nature and climate, and whether anyone is promising the level of action scientists are asking for
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