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Joy is unbounded and when it dies down perhaps the guilty will be held to account for cheating and facilitation: perhaps they won’t. Still, enjoy the moment
Oh dear. Such a shame to see the US lose at football after their insanely embarrassing president cheated for them. Still, it really brought the world together. The last time this many people cheered on a Belgian resistance, it was 1914 and the Germans had just crossed the Meuse. As you’ll be aware, the USA were dumped out of their own World Cup on Monday night by a wholly superior Belgium, after Donald Trump boasted that he’d personally intervened in three phone calls with Fifa president Gianni Infantino to get the red card shown to USA striker Folarin Balogun rescinded. Yes, the US cheats at football. Pass it on.
You’ve heard a lot about shithousery during this tournament. We have even, excruciatingly, seen a few American commentators attempt to use the word in conversation. Guys, please, just – no. It’s not for you. You have ’erbs, “a couple things”, and “a ways to go”. But let’s call the events of the past few days by the name they deserve in all the languages of the world: Whitehousery.
Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Tue, 07 Jul 2026 09:59:28 GMT
Too hot to sleep? From temperature-regulating mattress toppers to a fan quiet enough for the bedroom, here are our best buys for sweaty nights – and what to avoid
If there’s anything more uncomfortable than enduring a heatwave in Britain, it’s sleeping through one.
But hot nights are only going to get more common if the climate crisis continues its long march. While Britons are already accustomed to poor sleep – with the average adult getting just three days a week of good kip, according to the Mental Health Foundation – heat doesn’t help. Dr Allie Hare, consultant in sleep medicine and co-president of the British Sleep Society, says: “Being too hot during sleep can significantly reduce sleep quality and duration. In particular, it can reduce slow wave (deep) sleep, the stage of sleep that helps us awaken feeling rested.”
Continue reading...Tue, 07 Jul 2026 14:00:02 GMT
Following the film’s premiere, critics are already calling the historical epic a best picture Oscar contender. Here’s what they had to say
The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s three-hour version of Homer’s epic poem, world premiered in London on Monday night, and critics who saw the film there and at early screenings in the US have been sharing their takes on one of the year’s most hotly anticipated films.
“Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is a colossal origin-myth story of postwar disillusion and a loss of innocence witnessed by the dead,” wrote the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, ahead of the reviews embargo lifting next Wednesday and next Friday’s worldwide release.
Continue reading...Tue, 07 Jul 2026 11:11:23 GMT
Many of the millions who turned out for funeral wanted to show their opposition the killing of their leader, regardless of their broader views of the regime
As the multipurpose, multinational funeral of Iran’s former supreme leader Ali Khamenei moved to the Jamkaran mosque in the holy city of Qom, and then to Najaf in Iraq, Iran’s leadership was weighing the mandate it had been given by the millions who have taken to the streets of Tehran over the past three days.
Some hailed the moment as a referendum from the streets showing support for the clerical establishment, and called for the strategy of confrontation with the west to be intensified. Others said it was more about a wider national pride that was conditional on demands for change and an end to the war being met.
Continue reading...Tue, 07 Jul 2026 11:10:30 GMT
The author of Orangeboy, Indigo Donut and Is That Your Mama? plans to use her two-year term to ensure children isolated from reading get involved
When Patrice Lawrence got the call asking her to become the UK’s next children’s laureate, her first response was disbelief. “I was in absolute shock,” she says, laughing. She is only just beginning to process what it means to join a lineage that includes Jacqueline Wilson, Quentin Blake, Michael Rosen, Julia Donaldson, Malorie Blackman and, most recently, Frank Cottrell-Boyce.
“So many people who’ve gone before have had such an influence on my life,” she says. “Without Jacqueline Wilson, I wouldn’t write the kind of books that I do. She was such a trailblazer in social realism for children. And Malorie … well, Malorie only needs one name.”
Continue reading...Tue, 07 Jul 2026 11:30:06 GMT
Scientists call for better land management alongside reduction in greenhouse gases causing the crisis
When storm after storm battered the Mediterranean at the start of the year, drowning fields and sending water spurting from plug sockets, few people were fretting about fires.
But just four months later, the murky brown floods that swamped towns and fouled homes across western Europe have given way to angry red blazes and choking black smoke. Rampant wildfires burned 28,000 hectares (69,160 acres) in France and 50,000 hectares in Spain as of 1 July, more than double the average for that time of year, and more land has been charred by bigger fires in the week since.
Continue reading...Tue, 07 Jul 2026 14:57:52 GMT
Reform UK leader to stand again, saying people of Clacton ‘should be the judges of my actions’ and party will cover byelection cost
Q: Do you think the parliamentary commissioner for standards should investigate Nigel Farage’s gifts from George Cottrell?
Badenoch said that was a matter for the commissioner.
[Farage is] hinting at press regulation. For all of the criticism and the attacks, and I would even say abuse that I’ve got from the press, I’ve never once recommended curbing our free press. I think this is one of the amazing things about this country.
I would be very worried about a Reform government using government power to control the press. I don’t think that that would be right.
Continue reading...Tue, 07 Jul 2026 16:12:17 GMT
Duke of Sussex and other prominent figures lost their case over claims the newspaper used unlawful methods to source stories about them
Prince Harry and six other prominent figures are facing a legal bill of up to £50m after losing their case against the publisher of the Daily Mail over claims it used unlawful methods to source stories.
In an emphatic ruling that is likely to signal an end to new litigation relating to the phone-hacking scandal era, the high court dismissed all the group’s claims, stating that the claimants had not proved that any information had been obtained unlawfully.
Continue reading...Tue, 07 Jul 2026 15:43:10 GMT
Exclusive: health groups call on expected next PM to rip up agreement, which analysis suggests could lead to 229,000 excess deaths by 2036
Andy Burnham is being urged to scrap the UK-US trade deal on medicines as health organisations and doctors’ groups warn it is dangerous and prioritises pharmaceutical company profits over the lives of NHS patients.
Ministers have defended the agreement, signed last December, as a way of helping British drug exports to the US avoid tariffs and giving patients access to potentially life-extending drugs that would otherwise be denied.
Continue reading...Tue, 07 Jul 2026 13:56:20 GMT
Exclusive: Researchers warn of ‘major crisis in male reproductive health’ partly driven by obesity and diabetes
Men’s average testosterone levels have halved over the past 50 years, according to scientists, who say society is facing a male fertility crisis.
Total testosterone levels in men declined by 54% between 1972 and 2019, according to data presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in London on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Tue, 07 Jul 2026 15:41:59 GMT