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Today — 1 June 2024The Guardian

USA v Canada: T20 Cricket World Cup 2024 opener – live

By: Rob Smyth
1 June 2024 at 21:49

The question of whether cricket can crack America, as per the cliche, feels unlikely to be answered (not least on a subscription channel, Willow TV), although this T20 World Cup is not a one-off moonshot, rather one shoulder to the wheel of a broader push.

“The match referee Richie Richardson is older than me,” writes Gary Naylor. “How can he look that good?”

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© Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

China’s Chang’e-6 probe lands on far side of the moon aiming to return first samples to Earth

1 June 2024 at 21:25

Spacecraft to collect samples from rarely explored area before attempting unprecedented liftoff from ‘dark side’ for trip home

China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe has successfully landed on the far side of the moon to collect samples, state media reported on Sunday.

The lander set down in the immense South Pole-Aitken Basin, one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system, Xinhua news agency said, citing the China National Space Administration.

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© Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

Zhilei Zhang knocks out Deontay Wilder after Daniel Dubois stops Filip Hrgović – as it happened

1 June 2024 at 21:17
  • Wilder knocked out by Zhang in likely final pro fight
  • Dubois stops Hrgović by TKO for interim heavyweight title
  • Liverpool’s Ball becomes WBA featherweight champion

Round 1

There’s the bell! Dubois, looking drier than you normally see fighters right before the first round, gets off to a positive start. He’s holding the center of the ring early and boxing behind a solid jab. Hrgović lands a crisp right cross. Then another. Oh boy. He’s punishing Dubois with the right hand, landing one after the other, turning his aggressive against him. Hrgović has landed no fewer than a half-dozen flush right hands in the first two minutes. Dubois holds on, showing indications of fatigue already.

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© Photograph: Richard Pelham/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Richard Pelham/Getty Images

Medvedev marches into fourth round as Zverev edges French Open thriller

  • Daniil Medvedev beats Tomas Machac 7-6 (4), 7-5, 1-6, 6-4
  • Alexander Zverev edges five-setter against Tallon Griekspoor

In Daniil Medvedev’s eight career appearances at the French Open, his performances have ranged from catastrophic to impressive with nothing in between. He continued to build his profile as a contender by returning to the fourth round of the French Open for the first time since 2021 with a hard-earned 7-6 (4), 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 win over Tomas Machac.

As Medvedev has learned to embrace clay-court tennis, still far from his favourite surface, he has compiled a unique record in Paris. The Russian has suffered five first-round losses, including on each of his first four appearances. Each time he has passed the third round, though, Medvedev has reached the second week.

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© Photograph: Mateo Villalba/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Mateo Villalba/Getty Images

‘We refuse to disappear’: the Hong Kong 47 facing life in jail after crackdown

1 June 2024 at 20:17

Last week’s conviction of dissidents came in the biggest case since introduction of a new national security law

The verdict wasn’t surprising but outside room no 2 of the West Kowloon courthouse, people still wept. The panel of Hong Kong national security judges had set down two days for the hearing but dispensed with the core business in about 15 minutes. In the city’s largest ever national security trial – involving the prosecution of pro-democracy campaigners and activists from a group known as the “Hong Kong 47” – almost all the defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to commit subversion.

Their crime was trying to win an election, holding unofficial primaries in 2020 attended by an estimated 600,000 residents.

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© Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

Ukraine war briefing: Kharkiv counts cost of Russian air strikes

1 June 2024 at 20:14

Ukrainians hold 70% of Vovchansk, says army; Zelenskiy in Singapore for security forum. What we know on day 830

A Russian missile strike on residences injured 13 people including eight children in Balakliia town, Kharkiv region, on Saturday, Ukrainian prosecutors said. Prosecutors also announced that recovery operations had concluded at the site of three missile strikes on Friday in the city of Kharkiv, with a death toll of nine, most in a badly damaged apartment building.

A military spokesperson, Nazar Voloshin, told national television on Saturday that Ukrainian forces controlled 70% of Vovchansk, 5km (three miles) inside the border, which Russian troops have been trying to capture.

The Ukrainian president, Volodomyr Zelenskiy, arrived in Singapore on Sunday to address the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum.

Russian forces fired a combined 100 missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight into Saturday morning, hitting energy sites, Ukrainian officials said. The air force said it shot down 35 of the missiles and all but one of the drones. Two thermal power plants were damaged, said their operator, DTEK operator.

Mourners and soldiers have laid flowers at a statue over the St Petersburg grave of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner mercenary leader who sent his forces into Ukraine for Vladimir Putin but then staged a mutiny against the Russian government before being killed when his plane was blown up. Putin, who said grenade fragments were found in the plane’s wreckage, called him a “talented” man who had made “serious mistakes”.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence has estimated that the number of Russian troops killed or wounded since the war’s outbreak “has now likely reached 500,000”.

Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, has told the BBC that “we have no Plan B for a Russian victory, because then we would stop focusing on Plan A” – helping Ukraine push back the Russian invasion. “We should not give in to pessimism. Victory in Ukraine is not just about territory. If Ukraine joins Nato, even without some territory, then that’s a victory because it will be placed under the Nato umbrella.” Estonia’s government has given more than 1% of its GDP for Ukraine’s defence – concerned that Vladimir Putin might also turn his attention to the Baltics to bring countries like Estonia back under Moscow’s control.

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© Photograph: Anton Vaganov/Reuters

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© Photograph: Anton Vaganov/Reuters

‘It seems like a dream but it is reality’: Real Madrid win delights Ancelotti

1 June 2024 at 19:14
  • ‘We are not going to sleep!’ manager says of celebrations
  • Jude Bellingham says: ‘Nights like tonight make it all worth it’

Carlo Ancelotti said that Real Madrid’s winning mentality helped them survive a major scare against Borussia Dortmund and claim a record 15th Champions League title.

The German side dominated the first half at Wembley and it required a string of fine saves from Thibaut Courtois, who has spent most of the season out injured, to keep them level at the break. Those missed chances came back to haunt Dortmund, with Dani Carvajal heading home from a Toni Kroos corner 16 minutes from time before Vinícius Júnior made sure of the victory – the ninth successive European Cup final Madrid have contested in which they have emerged victorious.

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© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Observer

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© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Observer

Did you pay for that? What is driving the massive rise in shoplifting?

1 June 2024 at 19:05

High streets across the UK are struggling with an epidemic of stealing. What’s behind this sudden crime wave and can anything be done to stop it?

A man leaves a north London branch of Aldi carrying two bags of groceries that he did not pay for. He hadn’t planned to steal, but after becoming exasperated with the slowness of staff attending to the various glitches and alarms of the self-checkout system, and assuming it would go unnoticed, decides to just walk out the door.

He crosses the road and heads towards home. It’s a busy part of town and this kind of thing happens all the time. He doubts anyone in the store even noticed. But a voice calls after him, a security guard has given chase. The man, slightly panicked, doubles down and quickens his pace, pretending not to hear, but the guard keeps shouting, pleading for him to stop. In an attempt to lose his pursuer, the man ducks into a newsagent. The security guard enters, finds the man pretending to browse the fountain pens, and challenges him. “Sir, you didn’t pay for that shopping.”

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© Photograph: Kellie French/The Observer

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© Photograph: Kellie French/The Observer

Predictive blood test hailed as ‘incredibly exciting’ breast cancer breakthrough

New ‘liquid biopsy’ will act as an early warning sign to anticipate risk of tumours returning

A new blood test can predict the risk of breast cancer returning three years before any tumours show up on scans in an “incredibly exciting” breakthrough that could help more women beat the disease for good.

More than 2 million women are diagnosed every year with breast cancer, the most prevalent type of the disease. Although treatment has improved in recent decades, the cancer often returns, and if it does, it is usually at a more advanced stage.

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© Photograph: Malcolm Park sciences/Alamy

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© Photograph: Malcolm Park sciences/Alamy

Rebel Wilson says idea only gay actors can play gay roles ‘is total nonsense’

By: PA Media
1 June 2024 at 19:01

Australian actor tells BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs performers should be able to play any role they want

Australian actor Rebel Wilson has said the idea that “only straight actors can play straight roles and gay actors can play gay roles” is “total nonsense”.

The Pitch Perfect star, 44, spoke to radio presenter Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs and was asked if women can get away with different jokes compared with men. “I’ve definitely said a lot of edgy jokes, and said them sometimes in very public places like the Baftas,” she said.

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© Photograph: Tricia Yourkevich/BBC Radio 4/PA

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© Photograph: Tricia Yourkevich/BBC Radio 4/PA

Stormy Daniels says Donald Trump should be jailed after felony conviction

1 June 2024 at 18:42

Ex-president should also be made ‘the volunteer punching bag at a women’s shelter’, says former actor, following guilty verdict

Stormy Daniels has called for Donald Trump to be jailed after he was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

The adult film star, who was paid $130,000 as “legal expenses” for her silence about her affair with the former US president, warned the presidential candidate is “completely and utterly out of touch with reality”.

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© Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

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© Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

CNN journalist says he was attacked at Turkish exile’s Pennsylvania home

By: Maya Yang
1 June 2024 at 18:26

Yunus Paksoy appeared to be filming a live broadcast outside home of Fethullah Gülen when man in SUV approached

A CNN Turkey journalist says a supporter of political movement founder Fethullah Gülen attacked him near the self-exiled figure’s home in Pennsylvania in an encounter that apparently unfolded live on air.

In a video posted Saturday, Yunus Paksoy appeared to be filming a live broadcast outside Gülen’s home, reportedly near the area of Saylorsburg, when a man driving a dark SUV approached him.

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© Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

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© Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

King turns to David Beckham to rebuild charity hit by cash-for-honours scandal

1 June 2024 at 17:31

Former England captain will become ambassador for foundation that was embroiled in controversy when Charles was Prince of Wales

King Charles has turned to brand Beckham to help him rebuild the reputation of his main charitable foundation after a cash-for-honours scandal.

Former England footballer David Beckham is to become an ambassador for the King’s Foundation, formerly the Prince’s Foundation, to help promote its work. Beckham met the monarch at his Highgrove home in Gloucestershire last month, where he was given a personal tour. The 49-year-old said he was looking forward to exploring a newly discovered shared interest with the monarch in rural skills, nature and the British countryside. They had also swapped beekeeping tips, said Beckham.

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© Photograph: Courtney Louise Photography/The King's Foundation/PA

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© Photograph: Courtney Louise Photography/The King's Foundation/PA

Real Madrid win Champions League final as Dortmund rue missed chances

1 June 2024 at 17:06

It is the competition that Real Madrid like to think they own and the reasons why were mapped out in graphic detail at Wembley. Yet again. Borussia Dortmund brought the punch of the underdog and they played with a stirring liberation in the first half, creating chances and, well, missing them. It was impossible to think they would not regret it.

Madrid reset at half-time and when they started to press, everybody knew they had seen this movie, especially the ending. If Vinícius Júnior was a symbol of Madrid’s travails in the first half – booked for a lunge at the Dortmund goalkeeper, Gregor Kobel; guilty of a lack of conviction, at times – he relocated his game to dazzling effect thereafter.

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© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Observer

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© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Observer

Stop using our songs: musicians who hit out at politicians using their music

By: PA Media
1 June 2024 at 14:20

Group behind New Labour’s 1997 anthem say they don’t want song used again – and they are not alone

The pop group behind Labour’s 1997 victory anthem Things Can Only Get Better has joined many other artists in requesting political parties refrain from using their songs.

D:Ream said they would deny any request from Sir Keir Starmer to use the track in the upcoming general election.

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© Photograph: Mick Hutson/Redferns

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© Photograph: Mick Hutson/Redferns

Derby trading on past glories as public interest dwindles beyond bubble | Barry Glendenning

1 June 2024 at 13:00

Epsom Classic has fallen behind other big meetings in the popularity stakes and the Jockey Club needs to act

If the Melbourne Cup is “the race that stops a nation”, the Derby is fast becoming the poor relation that passes one by. City of Troy’s troubled start in the 2,000 Guineas last month meant all eyes at Epsom Downs were trained on the stall occupied by the Aidan O’Brien-trained colt at the start of the 245th Derby but, outside an industry bubble that seems arrogantly complacent about dwindling public interest in what goes on within its interior, it is difficult to imagine much attention being paid to this impressive victory under Ryan Moore by the British population at large.

On this occasion, it was another O’Brien horse, Los Angeles, who played up at the start before finishing third behind his stablemate and Ambiente Friendly. In other stall-related shenanigans, the Richard Hannon-trained Voyage unceremoniously ejected his pilot as the starting gates opened under cloudy grey skies.

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© Photograph: Adam Davy/PA

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© Photograph: Adam Davy/PA

Borussia Dortmund v Real Madrid: Champions League final 2024 – live

1 June 2024 at 16:46

You’ll Never Walk Alone. It’s an anthem for Borussia Dortmund as well, and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most terrace-friendly ditty is currently ringing around Wembley. Up in the posh seats, the aforementioned Kloppo sings and sways in the emotional style. A pfenning for all of the conflicting thoughts running through the head of the former Liverpool boss right now. He looks healthy and happy and about ten years younger. Premier League management is a job of work all right.

Dortmund have Jurgen Klopp, so Real need a celebrity fan of their own in attendance. Step forward Jay-Z, who is at Wembley to support his Roc Nation Sports client Vinicius Júnior. In other news, the Wembley turf is looking lush, so while Jay-Z has 99 problems … no, you deserve better than that. I’m sorry for even thinking about it.

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© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Observer

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© Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Observer

‘It’s only because of your son that my daughter’s living’: overcoming the cultural barriers to organ donation

Culturally and linguistically diverse communities account for just 15% of organ donations made in 2023, but advocates say the more diversity among donors the better

When doctors told Mili Udani there was nothing more they could do to treat her seven-year-old son Deyaan’s brain haemorrhage, her “world came crashing down”. Only a week earlier they had been enjoying a holiday to see family in Mumbai when he began complaining about headaches.

After three doctors declared Deyaan brain dead, Udani’s cousin asked her if she had thought about organ donation. The question suddenly brought back a memory from a few weeks earlier.

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© Photograph: Nadir Kinani/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Nadir Kinani/The Guardian

Agony and the urge to pee: the growing evidence giving hope to chronic UTI sufferers

An Australian discovery has added weight to a long-held theory about the painful condition – but relief for most patients is still elusive

After enduring years of experimental and unhelpful treatments in Australia to treat her chronic urinary tract infections, Grace* took the drastic measure of flying to the UK to seek help for symptoms so painful she “could barely walk down the street”.

While common and uncomplicated cases of the infections, known as UTIs, are usually easily treated with a short course of antibiotics, this often does not work for chronic, recurring cases like Grace’s. Left untreated, UTIs can cause permanent kidney damage and life-threatening infections.

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© Illustration: The Guardian

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© Illustration: The Guardian

The moment I knew: as two pythons writhed above us, I realised our lives would always be intertwined

1 June 2024 at 16:00

Roberto Meza Mont and Craig Ruddy had been together a decade when their relationship reached a crossroads. Then two brazen reptiles showed them the way forward

Craig and I locked eyes on a Sydney street a couple of days after the 2001 Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. I was 23, new to Australia from Peru, and still shaking off the cobwebs of a conservative Catholic upbringing.

To me, Craig looked like someone from another planet: a lean, strong frame, curly beach-blond hair and a smile that seemed to light up the whole city. My English was basic but our shared sense of humour cut through the language barrier.

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© Photograph: Victoria Harris

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© Photograph: Victoria Harris

Tricked or forced out of Australia: the vulnerable women at the centre of a hidden domestic violence crisis

1 June 2024 at 16:00

Migration advocates say women are being threatened with visa cancellation along with sexual, financial, physical and emotional abuse

Priya* hoped a short getaway to south-east Asia would repair her marriage.

It was planned after months of abuse and coercion at the hands of her husband – which began almost immediately after arriving in Australia – that became so bad she feared leaving their Melbourne home, she says.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

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© Photograph: Jasper James/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Jasper James/Getty Images

Toby Jones praises ‘extraordinary dignity’ of Post Office accused

1 June 2024 at 15:58

Actor, who played campaigner Alan Bates in TV drama, calls Horizon scandal a ‘Hitchcockian nightmare’ at Hay festival

The post office operators prosecuted in the Post Office Horizon scandal have “extraordinary dignity” after living 20 years in a “Hitchcockian nightmare”, according to actor Toby Jones.

Jones played Alan Bates, a former post office operator and leading campaigner for justice for staff wrongly blamed for accounting shortfalls caused by faulty software, in the ITV drama that put the scandal back in the spotlight.

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© Photograph: ITV/REX/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: ITV/REX/Shutterstock

Four more boys arrested on suspicion of rape in Nottinghamshire

By: PA Media
1 June 2024 at 15:36

Twelve-year-old among eight now bailed after attack on teenage girl reported in Newark on 25 May

Four more boys including a 12-year-old have been arrested on suspicion of the rape of a teenage girl in Newark.

Nottinghamshire police received a report that a teenage girl had been attacked on Yorke Drive playing fields, Nottinghamshire, between 5.30pm and 7pm on 25 May.

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© Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

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© Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

Julia Gillard says progress on gender equality is ‘really glacial’

1 June 2024 at 15:03

Former Australian prime minister issues warning that young men’s thinking on the issue is going backward

Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard has said global progress on gender equality is “really glacial and slow” as she warned that it is going backwards among young people.

Gillard cited recent polling by King’s College London’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, which showed that 51% of respondents believe that men are doing too much to support gender equality, while 46% think that men are now discriminated against.

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© Photograph: Labor Party

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© Photograph: Labor Party

Woman who killed pensioner in queue row in Welwyn Garden City sentenced

1 June 2024 at 15:01

Myra Coutinho-Lopez, 82, who had dementia became confused at bank counter, leading to altercation with Courtney Richman, 26

A 26-year-old woman who killed an elderly pensioner with dementia during a row over a long queue at a bank has been given a suspended sentence.

Courtney Richman had been waiting behind 82-year-old Myra Coutinho-Lopez when the argument began on 6 December 2021 at a branch in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, a court heard.

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© Photograph: Family/Hertfordshire police

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© Photograph: Family/Hertfordshire police

Bad vibes and VAR: waiting game leaves fans frustrated over marginal calls | Jonathan Wilson

1 June 2024 at 15:00

With a vote on the technology looming, it’s debatable that the search for accuracy is worth the sacrifice of spontaneity

On Thursday, Premier League clubs will vote on Wolves’ proposal to scrap video assistant referees. The motion will almost certainly not achieve majority support, never mind secure the 14 votes out of 20 needed for it to pass. But what it may do is to shift the Overton window and lead to a serious review of VAR, an assessment of where it works and where it doesn’t. And that is something that is long overdue.

Consultation is unfashionable in the modern world. Politicians of all stripes act too often in effect by fiat, and that is as true in football as anything else. VAR was imposed for the 2018 World Cup with minimal research or conversation and accepted almost everywhere without anybody really investigating the consequences.

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© Photograph: Carl Recine/Reuters

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© Photograph: Carl Recine/Reuters

Sunak suffers poll blow as levelling-up cash-for-votes row erupts

New poll gives Labour its biggest lead since Liz Truss meltdown as ‘Tory towns’ gain most from new funds

The Tory general election campaign hit more trouble on Saturday as Rishi Sunak faced accusations of using levelling up funds to win votes and Labour opened its biggest poll lead since the disastrous premiership of Liz Truss.

As Sunak tried to fire up his ­party’s campaign before the first crucial TV debate with Keir Starmer on Tuesday, it emerged that more than half of the 30 towns each promised £20m of regeneration funding on Saturday were in constituencies won by Tory MPs at the last election.

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© Photograph: Carl Court/AP

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© Photograph: Carl Court/AP

Chad Daybell sentenced to death for murders of his wife and his girlfriend’s children

1 June 2024 at 14:44

Idaho case marked by Daybell and girlfriend Lori Vallow Daybell’s extremist religious beliefs about doomsday

Chad Daybell was sentenced to death Saturday for the murders of his wife and his girlfriend’s two youngest children in Idaho in a case marked by his and his girlfriend’s extremist religious beliefs about doomsday.

The sentence was handed down after an Idaho jury unanimously agreed that imposing the death penalty would be a just resolution to the triple-murder case. The sentence marks the end of a grim investigation that began with a search for two missing children in 2019. The next year, their bodies were found buried in Daybell’s eastern Idaho yard.

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© Photograph: Kyle Green/AP

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© Photograph: Kyle Green/AP

Doctor Who: Dot and Bubble – season one episode five recap

1 June 2024 at 14:35

Russell T Davies channels Black Mirror in a story of AI, shallow social media, and posh white supremacy. But, naturally, with added slug monsters

“Oh my hopscotch!”, as Lindy Pepper-Bean might say. The on-screen lead for much of this episode, Callie Cooke, is surely one of the most dislikeable human characters Doctor Who has ever produced. She is vain, shallow, self-absorbed and manipulative, and not afraid to cause her idol, Ricky September (Tom Rhys Harries), to die, and then lie about it. Regardless of the presence of the slug monsters, she is undoubtedly the villain of the piece.

It was strikingly stylised, and unusual to see an episode of Doctor Who mostly colour-graded to be pastel pinks and blues until the final subterranean act. The obvious target was the vacuousness of much of social media, but writer Russell T Davies struck out at wider themes, including the idea that AI might come to hate humans, and the arrogant privilege that comes with being, as Ruby Sunday put it, the “rich kids”. The inhabitants of Finetime had been sent off to a posh offworld boarding school and apprentice scheme for the wealthy and conventionally attractive, where they mostly partied. “Some of us get eaten” was both factually true for the story, and a bleakly observant pun for the viewer. Some people do get Eton.

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© Photograph: James Pardon/BBC Studios/Bad Wolf

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© Photograph: James Pardon/BBC Studios/Bad Wolf

‘The first TikTok election’: are Sunak and Starmer’s digital campaigns winning over voters?

The Tories and Labour are forking out more than ever on social media ads, but going viral isn’t easy. We speak to influencers and strategists about the messages and memes

Why would you hold an election in November? The question came from digital marketing guru Mike Harris and was asked in a message to his friend, Labour’s campaign manager, Morgan McSweeney, earlier this year. Digital advertising is more expensive in October and November because the internet is swamped with ads for Christmas and Black Friday, said Harris, the founder of communications agency 89up. Why not pick a cheaper time of year?

McSweeney shot back: “How about June?”

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© Illustration: Observer Design

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© Illustration: Observer Design

The Observer view on Donald Trump: utterly unfit for office, he should quit the race for the White House

1 June 2024 at 14:15

Teflon Don has become Felon Don, but the US constitution has no objection to him holding the highest office

It was the moment America, or at least America’s politicians and media, had been waiting for. It was the day justice finally caught up with Donald Trump. The former president’s manipulation of the 2016 election, by hushing up a sex scandal that threatened his chances, and his attempts to discredit a criminal justice system intent on punishing him, was famously thwarted. It was an all-time presidential and judicial first, a historic result that transformed Teflon Don into Felon Don, thanks to a jury of 12 ordinary men and women and a brave prosecutor, Alvin Bragg.

Looked at another way, however, last week’s much anticipated dramatic denouement of the criminal trial of the New York playboy, billionaire and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential candidate may turn out to be less pivotal than anticipated. According to the US networks, most Americans tuned out weeks ago, not least because cameras were barred from the Manhattan courtroom. One not untypical public survey found that 67% of respondents said a conviction would make no difference to how they voted this autumn. The 34 guilty verdicts were an overnight sensation. But they may not significantly shift the political dial.

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© Photograph: John Nacion/REX/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: John Nacion/REX/Shutterstock

Fired-up Bairstow can add Caribbean twist to England’s World Cup defence

1 June 2024 at 14:11

Campaign starts against Scotland with the Yorkshireman set to play an influential role in ensuring team hit all the right notes

But for a slip on the golf course, a cruel twist of fate that led to a cruel twist of a left ankle and a pretty sickening compound fracture, Jonny Bairstow might well be a fifth member of the England squad with two white-ball World Cup winners medals. As it is, the Yorkshireman goes into this T20 World Cup defence still looking to add to the 50-over title he was so central to back in 2019.

Slated to open in Australia two years ago, only for that incident on the tee to offer Alex Hales a route back in, Bairstow has now been repurposed as a firebrand No 4 after the peppy arrivals of Phil Salt and Will Jacks alongside Jos Buttler in the top three.

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© Photograph: Philip Brown/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Philip Brown/Getty Images

Police investigate theft of more than 200 Pride flags in Massachusetts

By: Maya Yang
1 June 2024 at 14:08

Flags were stolen overnight from prominent local traffic circle in Carlisle amid wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in US

Police are investigating the theft of more than 200 Pride flags in Carlisle, Massachusetts, that occurred just before Pride month – and amid a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ measures from US legislatures.

In a statement released on Friday, the Carlisle police department announced that it is investigating the theft of the flags, which were taken out of a prominent local traffic circle earlier in the week.

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© Photograph: MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle/Getty Images

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© Photograph: MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle/Getty Images

Modi’s alliance to win easily in India election, exit polls project

1 June 2024 at 13:41

Prime minister claims victory but opposition dismisses poll results as fixed and unscientific

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP)-led alliance is projected to win a big majority in the general election that concluded on Saturday, TV exit polls said, suggesting it would do better than expected by most analysts.

Most exit polls projected the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could win a two-thirds majority in the 543-member lower house of parliament, where 272 is needed for a simple majority. A two-thirds majority will allow the government to usher in far-reaching amendments to the constitution.

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© Photograph: Debajyoti Chakraborty/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: Debajyoti Chakraborty/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

Love him or loathe him, James Corden is back in the UK. So will the sniping now stop?

1 June 2024 at 13:41

After massive TV success in the US, the creator of Gavin & Stacey is about to appear on the London stage. But why do British audiences find him so hard to love?

James Corden is back in the UK and characteristically busy. Last year, the 45-year-old left his job as Los Angeles-based chat show host of The Late Late Show on CBS. A Christmas special is planned for Gavin & Stacey, the acclaimed BBC sitcom he created with co-star Ruth Jones. There’s talk of reviving One Man, Two Guvnors, the National Theatre’s critically lauded hit ­comedy that transferred to Broadway, winning Corden a Tony award in 2012.

And later this month, Corden will appear at London’s Old Vic in a short run of Joe Penhall’s new play, The Constituent, helmed by the ­theatre’s artistic director, Matthew Warchus. Corden’s first stage role since One Man, Two Guvnors, it’s seen as ­something of a departure (a gamble) for Corden – a serious work about the escalating risks of public service in politics.

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© Photograph: NBC/Nathan Congleton/Getty Images

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© Photograph: NBC/Nathan Congleton/Getty Images

Sabalenka and Badosa friendship a sign of shifting dynamics on WTA tour

French Open match ended in an embrace, reflecting a wider trend in what was once a tensely competitive locker room

As Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa stood by the player entrance to Court Philippe-Chatrier in anticipation of their French Open third-round match, they waited in perfect silence. There were no jokes exchanged and no small talk. This was business. The pair entered the court and put on a show, battling hard until the end.

Away from their numerous on-court battles, which have included three matches in the last three months, Sabalenka and Badosa refer to each other as best friends. It was not until the Tie Break Tens exhibition event before Indian Wells in 2022, while both players were ranked inside the top 10, that they connected. While they are hardly the first friends to compete on the court, their relationship seems reflective of the shifting dynamics in the WTA locker room.

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© Photograph: Robert Prange/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Robert Prange/Getty Images

Minnesota Democrat Dean Phillips calls on New York governor to pardon Trump

US representative and failed contender for president says Kathy Hochul should grant pardon ‘for the good of the country’

The outgoing Democratic US representative who failed in his presidential primary challenge against Joe Biden called on the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, to pardon Donald Trump over his criminal conviction for hush-money payments to influence the 2016 election “for the good of the country”.

Minnesota representative Dean Phillips, who was the first Democrat to call on fellow party member Henry Cuellar to resign following bribery charges against the Texas representative, urged for the pardon on Friday in a post on X.

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© Photograph: Charles Krupa/AP

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© Photograph: Charles Krupa/AP

Rose Tremain: ‘Sex scenes are like arias in opera. They have to move the story forwards’

1 June 2024 at 13:00

The bestselling author on how to avoid reader indifference, the advantage of writing historical stories and why she returns to Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates again and again

Rose Tremain, 80, published her first novel in 1976 and has gone on to become one of her generation’s most admired talents, garnering numerous literary accolades along with a damehood in 2020. Her 17th novel, Absolutely and Forever, is a slender yet profound coming-of-age story whose heroine, Marianne, is raised in the home counties in the 1950s. When she meets floppy haired, artistic Simon, fateful consequences are set to accompany a potent sexual awakening. Tremain lives in Norfolk with her husband, the biographer Richard Holmes.

How did Absolutely and Forever begin for you?
I have for years been haunted by the life and destiny of a close, very beautiful school friend, who fell in love aged 15 and thought she saw the map of her future before she was hardly older than Shakespeare’s Juliet. And then that future was snatched away. The idea that a whole life can be determined by a catastrophe that happens in early youth is both fascinating and tragic. The story of Absolutely and Forever changes the shape of the original and Marianne is more like me than my beautiful friend, but it has its roots in her story.

Absolutely and Forever by Rose Tremain is published in paperback by Vintage (£9.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

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© Photograph: Ali Smith/The Observer

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© Photograph: Ali Smith/The Observer

Filthy lucre is everywhere, but book festivals are an easy target for protesters’ fury | Martha Gill

1 June 2024 at 13:00

Hay and Edinburgh forgo pragmatism in turning their backs on the Baillie Gifford fund

How gratifying to chuck dirty money back in the face of a would-be benefactor. Such moments mark literature. Pip refusing funds from Magwitch, a convict. Will Ladislaw disdaining the charity of George Eliot’s corrupted Bulstrode. The statement is this: scruples do not belong only to the rich. There is a price at which I, too, cannot be bought.

And yet. In these great works of fiction, tensions are drawn out, questions raised. Ladislaw accepts support from another flawed man, Casaubon, of whom he disapproves. Hypocrisy? Or the observation that in a hard world pragmatism has its place – that beggars can be choosers only on occasion? And is Pip right to cast away the reformed and grateful Magwitch? Are all paths to atonement thus to be closed?

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© Photograph: Steven May/Alamy

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© Photograph: Steven May/Alamy

Chris Riddell on Donald Trump trying, and failing, to fill Abraham Lincoln’s boots – cartoon

1 June 2024 at 13:00

The former US president, convicted on 34 counts, pales into insignificance beside the former great

You can order your own copy of this cartoon

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© Illustration: Chris Riddell/The Observer

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© Illustration: Chris Riddell/The Observer

‘Once in a lifetime’: UK and European space scientists urged to join Nasa mission to Uranus

1 June 2024 at 12:44

Astrophysicists call for international cooperation on ambitious probe, amid growing interest in the mysterious planet

European space scientists have been urged to join forces with Nasa to ensure the success of one of the most ambitious space missions planned for launch this century.

Joining a robot spaceflight to the mysterious planet Uranus would offer “the opportunity to participate in a groundbreaking, flagship-class mission”, astrophysicists have said.

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© Photograph: Heritage Images/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Heritage Images/Getty Images

Bath set up Premiership final with Northampton by seeing off Sale

  • Playoff semi-final: Bath 31-23 Sale
  • Annett’s late try helps secure Twickenham trip

Bath are into the Premiership final for the first time in nine years but they are not a team who give their supporters an easy ride. At times it was Sale who looked the side most likely to meet Northampton at Twickenham next Saturday, only for a 74th-minute try from Niall Annett and 16 points from the boot of Finn Russell to keep Bath on track for the promised land.

Maybe it was the nerves associated with such a big occasion but not until the closing couple of minutes could home fans remotely relax. It is 28 years since their favourites were last crowned champions of England and the huge outpouring of joy at the final whistle showed exactly what this result meant to everyone connected with the club.

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© Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

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© Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

Domestic abuse drove our daughters to suicide, say families. So what stops coroners acknowledging that?

1 June 2024 at 12:22

As the number of abuse victims in England and Wales taking their own lives rises, pressure is mounting on coroners to acknowledge the role violence, control and coercion can play

Roisin, the only child of Dr Tony Bennett and Margaret Hunter, went to her bedroom in Darlington on 7 March 2022 and attempted to take her own life. She died in hospital nine days later, at the age of 19.

Roisin, known as “Roi”, excelled at sports; she was popular and had received high marks as one of the youngest students to study for ­dispensing optician exams. She had no record of self-harming, ­mental illness or attempted suicide. Her ambition was to go to university and qualify as an optician. Roisin had a warm, supportive family. So what prompted her to take her own life?

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© Photograph: Farknot_Architect/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Farknot_Architect/Getty Images

Being a politician was ‘very yucky’, ex-MP Rory Stewart tells Hay audience

1 June 2024 at 12:17

Former Tory minister admits at festival that he felt a fraud due to need to give the impression he was in three places at once

Former Conservative MP Rory Stewart found being a politician “very yucky” and felt like a fraud, he told an audience at Hay festival on Saturday.

Asked whether he would consider going back into politics, he said that he found being a politician “personally very, very unpleasant” and “didn’t like it”, adding: “I feel like a fraud all the time, in a whole series of ways.”

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© Photograph: Steven May/Alamy Live News/Alamy Live News.

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© Photograph: Steven May/Alamy Live News/Alamy Live News.

Record number of NHS mental health patients kept in hospitals longer than necessary

1 June 2024 at 12:00

Lack of care and support leaves patients stranded on units when they are clinically ready to be discharged

The number of patients stuck in NHS mental health units in England despite being clinically ready to leave has reached its highest level in at least eight years.

“Delayed discharges” of patients from hospitals in NHS mental health trusts reached 49,677 days in March, according to an analysis – a higher figure than in any month since at least January 2016, when NHS Digital started publishing the data.

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© Photograph: kieferpix/Getty Images/iStockphoto

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© Photograph: kieferpix/Getty Images/iStockphoto

‘He had a sarcastic turn of phrase’: discovery of 1509 book sheds new light on ‘father of utilitarianism’

1 June 2024 at 12:00

Unearthed notes owned by the renowned philosopher Jeremy Bentham reveal the roots of his influential ethics

One of the dangerous “fools” caricatured in a medieval printed satire called Ship of Fools is the Foolish Reader. He is shown in an illustration surrounded by his many learned volumes, but he doesn’t read any of them. This idiot, depicted with many others, including a Feasting Fool, a Preaching Fool and a Procrastinating Fool, was a warning to the wise by the German author Sebastian Brandt 530 years ago.

Now research at a London university has unearthed a rare English 1509 copy of this book once owned by the renowned English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. And the 1494 satirical allegory, which pokes fun at various kinds of public folly, sheds new light on Bentham’s influential ethics.

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© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

Europe must splash the cash (and seize it) to save 2024

1 June 2024 at 12:00

There is still an expensive war to fight, and if EU and UK politicians insist on using taxpayer funds for it, there will be little left to spend on public services

There were hopes that 2024 would be a good year. Economists talked of a soft landing, by which they meant a solid rebound from last year’s high-inflation, high-interest shock. A drop in inflation would spark cuts to the cost of borrowing while trade expanded, unemployment stayed low, and household disposable incomes increased.

This cheerful scenario was going to be played out across Europe and allow the EU and UK to pursue many of the goals, not least tackling climate change, that were delayed as ministers sought to protect business and household finances from the fallout from the pandemic and the Ukraine war.

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© Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

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