Keyword – Film
Trefwoorden – Film, Anya Taylor-Joy, JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Andy Serkis, Books, Culture
Title – Anya Taylor-Joy will make a brilliant elf assassin in Hunt for Gollum. But it’s a movie we don’t need | Film | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/benchild
Link – Anya Taylor-Joy will make a brilliant elf assassin in Hunt for Gollum. But it’s a movie we don’t need | Film | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-19T11:01:20.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/19/anya-taylor-joy–hunt-for-gollum-andy-serkis-lord-of-the-rings-tolkien

L et’s be honest: Anya Taylor-Joy would make a great elf. If any human being could flit from tree to tree as if woven from gossamer and starlight, or appear on a moonlit branch looking as though she had just been summoned by a haunted lute, it would be the star of The Queen’s Gambit, The Witch and Furiosa. She is perfect for Lord of the Rings, and it is no surprise whatsoever that she has been cast as the elf Seren in the forthcoming Andy Serkis-directed The Hunt for Gollum, as confirmed this week by the Hollywood Reporter .

You’ll probably have heard about the movie: Serkis is back as Gollum, Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf, and the whole thing is about a barely mentioned, if crucial, section of LotR in which Aragorn is charged with chasing down the snivelling, one-time owner of the One Ring before Sauron’s forces can get to him.

There is a pretty basic, if horribly torrid, resolution to this particular narrative in the book: Frodo has the ring because Bilbo left it to him when he set off to Rivendell at the beginning of the story. Dump it in the fires of Mount Doom and job done. Some of you might think that is why Tolkien himself spent only a handful of pages detailing this episode, despite the fact that it covers the best part of two decades of actual events. But that has not stopped Serkis, Peter Jackson (now a producer) et al deciding to go all in.

This is where Taylor-Joy enters the proceedings. Seren, not mentioned in Tolkien, we are told is a “trusted, lethal agent” of the elvenking Thranduil, who will once again be portrayed by Lee Pace from the Hobbit films. She is a Sindar elf, one of the clan that decided to stay behind in Middle-earth when many of their kin set out across the ocean to live forever in the Undying Lands, which means she most likely hails from the forest of Mirkwood. In Tolkien’s stories, it is to Thranduil’s halls in the north-east of the corrupted forest that Gollum is taken by Aragorn after the ranger finally tracks him down. It is there that Gandalf arrives to interrogate him.

This, broadly, we already know, so it is the hunt itself that must compel us if this new film is to feel like anything other than a piece of expensive gap-filler. The arrival of the previously unmentioned Seren, especially in the form of a high-profile actor Taylor-Joy, might give us some clues as to how the adventure pans out. Aragorn ploughing through Mordor and its miserable outer reaches never felt like a particularly enticing prospect. But what if he had a buddy to accompany him on the way? Enter Taylor-Joy. For what if The Hunt for Gollum is not really a Gollum movie at all, but Middle-earth’s strangest road movie about a hunky future king, a gorgeous woodland assassin, and a miserable cave gremlin who knows too much? Perhaps Seren and Aragorn begin as enemies, spend the second act bickering through the Dead Marshes like an elven Midnight Run, then slowly learn to respect one another after discovering that, beneath all the immortal woodland hauteur and mud-caked Ranger gloom, they are both trying to stop the same catastrophic information leak. Maybe Seren is Thranduil’s outrider, dispatched from Mirkwood to make sure this devious little creature does not bring the shadow of Mordor crashing through the Woodland Realm. Perhaps the whole thing becomes a moral three-hander on which the fate of Middle-earth depends.

And yet even here we would be retreading the same swampy, deathly ground that Jackson tramped through in The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Serkis would get a whole new opportunity to gargle his way through Middle-earth, McKellen would be handed one last crack at perhaps his greatest role, and Jamie Dornan would get the thankless task of stepping into Viggo Mortensen’s mud-caked boots. It could well be superbly realised, a brooding Middle-earth chase thriller, a gorgeous swamp opera, an arthouse psychodrama in blockbuster armour. But we’re still no closer to understanding quite why the whole thing actually needs to happen.

Keyword – US news
Trefwoorden – Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, Israel, Hezbollah, US politics, US news, Middle East and north Africa, World news
Title – Trump assured Musk and Carlson he wouldn’t go to war with Iran, new book claims | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/martin-pengelly
Link – Trump assured Musk and Carlson he wouldn’t go to war with Iran, new book claims | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-19T20:09:10.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/19/trump-musk-carlson-iran-war

Donald Trump declared he would not go to war with Iran last year, according to a new book, which claims he told Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk: “We’re not doing that.”

The US president is said to have provided the assurance during an Oval Office meeting with rightwing commentator Carlson and SpaceX CEO Musk – the world’s richest person, who recently became its first trillionaire – early last year.

According to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, though Carlson had criticized Trump from his perch as an influential rightwing media voice, Trump “solicit[ed] Carlson’s advice, believing he still had sway over a significant portion of the base”.

“Carlson had criticized Trump for refusing to knock [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu over the Gaza carnage; now he would make clear to the president that a broader war would be his ruin,” Haberman and Swan write. “‘They want you to go to war with Iran,’ Carlson said. ‘We’re not doing that,’ Trump answered.”

Trump is also said to have told Carlson: “I don’t think there’s ever been an American president as powerful as I am.”

“Struck by this hubris,” Haberman and Swan write, “Carlson replied: ‘Certainly not since FDR. Really, the only thing that could wreck it is war with Iran.’”

This year, on 28 February, Trump attacked Iran. An agreement ending the war was signed earlier this week.

Haberman and Swan’s reporting appears in a book, Regime Change, that will be published in the US on Tuesday. Excerpts have included accounts of Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran , Situation Room discussions about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and attempts to suspend legal rights amid an immigration crackdown.

Trump is also said to have “regaled” Musk and Carlson with “lingering” descriptions of injuries including “mutilated genitals and missing hands” caused by Israel’s 2024 “ exploding pagers ” attack on Hezbollah.

The US president told “horror stories of the destruction that the explosions had wrought” in the Oval Office, Haberman and Swan write.

“He had seen pictures, he said. Mutilated genitals and missing hands. He was horrified by the injuries, but fascinated as well, lingering on the scenes and the details,” according to the book. “One survivor, he said, ‘looked like a great white shark came and just took a chunk out of him. It was like a shark bite. It was horrible.’

“He grew volatile, repeating, ‘It’s horrible, horrible!’”

The Oval Office scene with Musk and Carlson is an example of extensive reporting about the ageing president’s increasingly erratic behavior.

Israel carried out its pager attack on leaders of Hezbollah , an Iranian proxy group, in Lebanon in September 2024.

Haberman and Swan’s depiction of Trump’s fascination with injuries caused by the pagers appears to have been informed by Carlson, a critic of Israel and the Iran war. Musk, who was then leading the “department of government efficiency” attack on the federal government at the time of the exchange, is depicted as “transfixed” by a golden pager presented to Trump by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Carlson’s words and those of Trump are presented in quotes, which the authors say indicates personal knowledge of words and situations.

“There was something else that captivated” Trump, the authors write. “Many of the devices had detonated in public, and it was hard to know who was holding a pager when it exploded. The indiscriminate nature of the killing and maiming had shocked Trump, and while he was taken by the ingenuity, he showed a measure of disbelief at its recklessness.

“He seemed at once enthralled and horrified.”

Keyword – Travel
Trefwoorden – Hotels, Beach holidays, Travel, Top 10s, Europe holidays
Title – ‘I half expected James Bond to appear with a martini’: readers’ favourite seaside hotels in Europe | Hotels | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/guardian-readers
Link – ‘I half expected James Bond to appear with a martini’: readers’ favourite seaside hotels in Europe | Hotels | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-19T06:00:24.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/jun/19/readers-favourite-hotels-europe-beach-glamour-affordable

Vesuvius views on the Sorrentine coast

The Hotel Villa Garden , Sant’Agnello is a ravishing but small, friendly, family-run hotel about 25 minutes walk from the centre of Sorrento. The view from the cliff-edge dining terrace over to Vesuvius is breathtaking and the stylish pool is a delight. The decor is crisp and sunny. It’s the kind of place where they bring you a free glass of rosé while you wait for your taxi to the airport. Very Billy Wilder. Very Avanti . Jan Colley

An idyllic island stay on the French Atlantic

We loved our stay at L’Hôtel La Jetée on Île de Ré (doubles from €85 B&B), which is perched on the corner of the Vauban fortified port of Saint Martin de Ré. An attractive courtyard garden filled with designer furniture is surrounded by floral balconies leading to light, airy and tasteful coastal-themed rooms. Breakfast was a real pleasure, taken in the courtyard or in the salon. The hotel’s front aspect overlooks the charming harbour with seafood restaurants and renowned ice-cream vendor La Martinière . Bike hire is available a couple of doors down for exploring the island (try a tandem) and the catamaran trip that leaves from the harbour is an elegant way to dabble in yacht life without the price tag. Anna Kennett

Beachfront bolthole in Galicia, Spain

Forty miles south of Santiago de Compostela, Hotel Nanin (doubles from about €100 B&B) has a great location right on the beach. We had a stunning view from our room, overlooking the pool and the bay. We came across this spa hotel on a road trip around the Portuguese and Spanish coast, and we’ve returned to it since. It is about a 30-minute walk into the town of Sanxenxo, where there are more beaches, loads of restaurants and a lively promenade. Louise

Five-star Italian luxury on the Adriatic

The abundance of hotels in the Italian resort of Rimini keeps prices competitive – I even found a good deal at the five-star Grand Hotel . If you ask for a room in the annex (doubles from €120 B&B), you can still enjoy the hotel’s facilities and services, including the open-air pool and palm-filled gardens. The wood-panelled library has fascinating photos of old movie stars and huge chandeliers. Fresh fruit in the generous breakfasts is brought in from Rimini’s daily market, and sunloungers on the nearby beach are reserved for guests. The whole hotel has an atmosphere of faded 1960s charm – I could have imagined Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni strolling in, champagne glasses in hand. Penelope

A Biarritz time machine, France

The hotel Eduardo VII (doubles from about €104 B&B) in Biarritz is in a three-storey wooden building that feels more like a private guesthouse than a hotel. It’s like a time machine that takes guests back to when Biarritz was the height of fashion and elegance. The charming building has kept many of its original features, including wood panelling, creaky wooden floors and ornate mirrors. Bedrooms are small but cosy. Having breakfast on the sea-facing terrace was a great start to our days there – making my husband and I feel like movie stars, ready to go out and shoot a scene in a Jean Luc Goddard film by strolling along the long sandy beach. April

Art deco vibes in Corsica

Just outside the little town of Piana, an hour’s drive up the Corsican coast from Ajaccio, is the wonderful Hotel les Roches Rouges (doubles from about €170 B&B). Built in 1912, it has a glamorous art deco vibe (and plenty of old photos on the walls). But it’s all about the view over the sea from the terrace, where the sun sets over the pink granite coastline, and you could sit all day and evening watching the colours flame and change. And the restaurant is wonderful, so you needn’t leave at all. Laura

An oasis in southern Tenerife

Southern Tenerife is associated with boilerplate package holiday hotels. But the 1920s time capsule Hotel Reverón Plaza (doubles from £181 B&B in September) is an art deco oasis, only steps away from the beach. Step inside from the street to sip champagne amid vintage wrought-iron furniture and antique switchboards. Skip the lift and take the stairs to see them glowing under century-old stained-glass windows. On the rooftop, an unpretentious pool serves up stunning 360-degree views of the sea and surrounding hills. At around £130 a night – complete with a fantastic Spanish breakfast – it’s an absolute steal. Erin

Faded grandeur on a car-free Greek island

On Kastellorizo, a tiny car-free island in the Dodecanese, the Megisti hotel (doubles in September from about £250 B&B a night) feels like a step back in time to the 1960s. You are immersed in aged, elegant glamour and half expect James Bond to appear in a white tuxedo and order a martini. Megisti’s spectacular setting and crystal-clear waters offers great views of loggerhead sea turtles that are often seen here as you walk around the gorgeous natural harbour. Karen Stewart

Beachside glamour in Norway

On the island of Stokkøya in central Norway, Stokkøya Strandhotell sits beside a sweeping white-sand beach that looks more Caribbean than Nordic. The stylish timber cabins (from around £160 a night), some built partly into the dunes, offer a design-hotel feel without luxury-resort prices. Days are spent swimming, hiking coastal trails or warming up in the beach sauna after a dip in the sea. Evenings mean local seafood and a drink at the laid-back Strandbar (beach bar). It feels wonderfully remote and glamorous in a distinctly Scandinavian way, yet remains surprisingly affordable for Norway. Sabine

Winning tip: spa bargain on a volcanic Italian island

As a lifelong backpacker, it takes a real bargain for me to entertain a spa hotel. Lo and behold I found myself on the island of Ischia, off Naples, where thermal waters are abundant and spa hotels are wildly affordable. The art deco Hotel Hermitage was a short walk from the ferry port, with views of the Aragonese castle, and comes complete with four thermal pools. For £50 a night [at the time, website rate now from around £90] I had my own large single room, balcony, delicious buffet breakfast and full access to the spa. The closest my backpack and I will ever come to true Italian glamour. Clare

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – USA, US sports, World Cup 2026, World Cup, Sport, Football
Title – USA soak in Seattle’s familiar support en route to making World Cup history | USA | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/pablo-iglesias-maurer
Link – USA soak in Seattle’s familiar support en route to making World Cup history | USA | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-20T00:31:43.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/19/usmnt-australia-seattle-environment

One does not have to go far in Seattle, Washington, to be reminded that it’s a soccer town. Two days before Friday’s 2-0 win for the US over Australia , all I had to do was get on the train.

Riding the light rail to lunch on Wednesday and hopping off at Westlake Station, I was a few blocks from Pike Place Market, the city’s famous waterfront gathering spot. The train car I’d arrived on had been overflowing with US jerseys and Australia kits. Riding the escalator up into the resplendent afternoon sun, someone tugged at my bag.

I’d been recognized, and it led to a few minutes of lovely conversation. Eventually the reader casually mentioned that he’d been a goalkeeper in the 1990s for the Seattle Sounders and the Portland Timbers, long before they joined MLS. It felt so random I couldn’t help but laugh.

In this part of the country, though, interactions like these can seem like the norm; uniquely associated with teams like the Seattle Sounders and Reign, Portland Timbers and Thorns, and to a slightly lesser extent the Vancouver Whitecaps. The men’s clubs have existed in fits and starts since the 1970s and their fans have navigated some of the leanest years in the history of American soccer, the dark ages between the time the North American Soccer League came crashing down in 1984 and the birth of MLS in 1996.

The Sounders eventually entered MLS in 2009 and were an immediate success. Along with teams like Toronto FC and a handful of others, they helped birth modern American supporters’ culture, and even in the early days their fans were never shy about taking credit, deserved or not. The phrase “Seattle invented soccer” became a running joke amongst MLS fans in other corners of the country. But like most good-natured ribs, there is a kernel of truth.

“Seattle was the boost that showed the world that MLS can [have] a popular, viable and meaningful soccer team in the United States,” MLS commissioner Don Garber told media ahead of Friday’s match. “I never expected the fanbase that they had here from the very beginning and still do. They kind of launched, along with Portland and a handful of others, like Sons of Ben in Philly, this concept of ‘supporters’ culture … Soccer has been here for 50 years. MLS is not what it is without the Sounders. That’s what I’m seeing outside. There is just joy in the streets.”

Seattle’s deep-seated appreciation for the American game gave Friday’s US vs Australia match a distinctly different feeling, obvious from the second one arrived at the stadium. The streets were flooded with US jerseys of every era, awash in denim, red, white and blue. The noise level inside the stadium was deafening even a half hour before kickoff, and the entire place was full well before the opening whistle. Amid discourse about empty seats at this World Cup , there was not a single one visible on Friday afternoon.

The sight of a full stadium is nothing bizarre in Seattle. The Sounders have sold out Lumen Field (the usual name for Seattle Stadium) for big matches since their inception and have averaged between 30,000 and 40,000 fans a match during the entirety of their existence. Perhaps the more unusual sight on Friday was the USMNT themselves, who have not visited the place in nearly a decade, owing to the stadium’s usual artificial turf surface, which has been replaced for the World Cup with the real stuff. US goalkeeping legend Kasey Keller, a veteran of four World Cups, knows the turf surface well, having played for Seattle at the tail end of his career.

“This is my dream,” said Keller. “People would ask me forever ‘Why isn’t the US team here more often?’ The answer to that question was always the artificial pitch. We can see now what’s possible. I’m hoping the [NFL’s Seattle Seahawks] look at that as well and says to themselves ‘we want to reduce a few injuries here’ and keep this grass pitch.’”

American soccer’s defining visual moment for the last 30 years or so has been the sight of the US beating Colombia in the group stage at the 1994 World Cup, a result that shocked the footballing world. After the whistle of that match, players wandered the pitch at Stanford Stadium. They clutched American flags and, eventually, did a lap of honor, of sorts. There were tears of joy in the stands and on the field alike.

Friday’s result lacked the shock value of the win over Colombia in ‘94 but shared much of the emotion. Players roamed the pitch waving at friends, family and everybody else in attendance. They gathered in a circle and bowed their heads, to the tune (quite aptly) of Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer.

“Today, even if I am not American, after the game I was emotional,” Mauricio Pochettino told the Guardian when asked about the support. “The atmosphere was amazing, the warm reception and the way that they supported us and celebrated the victory, they made it very emotional. I think it was an amazing and perfect connection between the stands and the team. I think it made us feel very proud.”

Nearly every US fan in attendance stayed put to soak in the result, eventually belting out a rendition of John Denver’s Country Roads, an ode to mountain life and a Seattle sports staple. Like everything else in the city, the stadium sits in the shadow of Mount Rainier and the lyrics felt apt. The sound, the visuals, all of it, felt beautiful, and at that moment, the idea of the US finding a better crowd to play in front of this summer felt a little hard to fathom.

“[At that moment], it’s just being proud of your country, you know?” said defender Auston Trusty, who entered the match in the second half. “I think Country Roads is a very American song, and to hear it in that stadium, with everyone singing along, it’s a dream come true. It’s feelings that you can’t really describe.”

Keyword – Life and style
Trefwoorden – Health & wellbeing, Children, Life and style, Netherlands, Health and fitness holidays, Walking, Fitness, Europe, Family, Schools
Title – Dutch children are unusually happy and healthy. Is it because of this walking ritual? | Health & wellbeing | The Guardian
Author – Hannah Docter-Loeb
Link – Dutch children are unusually happy and healthy. Is it because of this walking ritual? | Health & wellbeing | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T04:00:45.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/16/dutch-children-unusually-happy-healthy-avondvierdaagse-walking-festival

I shouldn’t have been surprised that the rain didn’t stop the Dutch kids. All day it had been thunderstorming, and the forecast didn’t look so great for the evening. And yet at 5pm, hundreds of kids started arriving – many by bike – with their parents to Amsterdam’s Westerpark, a beloved city park that caters to a more residential area of the capital. Today, it functions as a starting point: volunteers coordinate registration, and groups of children gather, decked out in raincoats and eager to embark on either a 5km or a 10km excursion around the surrounding neighbourhoods.

It’s the second night of Avondvierdaagse (which literally means “four-day evening walk”) , organised by a group of neighbourhood volunteers . It’s not a race, but if children complete every night, they get medals, a bouquet of flowers and, if they’re lucky, a lot of sweets. It’s not just Amsterdam; across villages, towns and cities in the Netherlands, hundreds of thousands of Dutch people are doing the same: every year, kids spend four evenings in early summer exploring their neighbourhoods with their school friends and parents as part of the Week van de Avond4daagse . Some places had celebrated earlier; others were walking the following week. A variation of the tradition has even made its way to Suriname, one of the Dutch former colonies. There are also four-day cycling and swimming events. According to the Royal Dutch Walking Association (KWbN), which helps coordinate the events, half a million people take part every year, in 700 locations across the country, powered by tens of thousands of volunteers.

“The event is just so Dutch – they don’t have this really anywhere else,” says fellow volunteer Judith van Oudheusden as we cycle from one checkpoint to another to catch the wave of kids at another part of the route. We are responsible for stamping cards to confirm they have completed this part of today’s 10km walk. A full card means they can get their medal on the last day, a feat many are determined to accomplish. Tonight they’ll be walking along the west boundaries of the neighbourhood, making their way through green city parks such as Erasmuspark and Rembrandtpark, and charming residential streets, catching a glimpse of the historic Molen de Otter windmill on the way back to Westerpark. Van Oudheusden participated in the activity as a child, she says, and then walked with her own children when they were younger. Volunteering is a full circle moment for her.

Avondvierdaagse originated from military ideology, explains Inger Leemans, professor of cultural history at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The first march was held in 1909 in Nijmegen as a military training event. But when the second world war broke out, different towns started to organise their own walks for soldiers. After the war, citizens were invited to walk along with them: the four-day marches in Nijmegen grew into an immensely popular event where tens of thousands of soldiers and citizens walked in solidarity. Aimed at older crowds, this is now the largest walking event in the world, with 45,000 participants from more than 80 countries, walking the same 30km, 40km and 50km routes each year. According to Arno van Gemert, a team leader for programmes and projects at KWbN, the Avondvierdaagse is like the event’s “little brother or sister”, mainly aimed at primary school children and their parents.

“It is interesting that this walk – with its military origins – grew into one of the national identity markers for the Dutch, a country that does not often self-represent as a military nation,” says Leemans, who also participated in the tradition when she was growing up in Leende, a village near the Belgian border. Most people now see it as a national event, comparable to other festivities such as King’s Day , a national holiday to celebrate the Dutch monarch’s birthday, involving street parties, flea markets, and lots of orange apparel. Avondvierdaagse even has its own traditional delicacy: half an orange, topped with a white Wilhelmina peppermint and wrapped in a piece of muslin, for kids to suck on as they walk. Many children were enjoying one along the route.

While the original walks were not necessarily to promote exercise, Avondvierdaagse has become a way to motivate kids to enjoy being outside and moving their bodies. “It’s important that children are physically active and can develop their motor skills from a young age,” explains Sanne de Vries, professor of physical activity in childhood at Leiden University Medical Center. Encouraging children to go through the whole week of walking – rain or shine – and rewarding them at the end can help build a positive association with physical activity. “Positive emotion that sticks is important.”

It also helps build resilience. “It’s been presented to them as a big challenge because it’s 5km and it sounds super hard,” says Fernanda Gomes, 44, who is walking the shorter route with her seven-year-old daughter, Alicia (who is snacking on the traditional orange as we speak). “Even if it’s raining, they do it and the message behind it is very great for the children.”

Dutch kids are consistently judged to be some of the happiest in the world. This year, a Unicef report again ranked them number one out of 44 western countries for overall wellbeing, and for mental health. Rich social relations were cited as a key factor. Research has shown that Dutch children have strong connections with their peers. In addition, many Dutch parents work part-time, so have more time to spend with their children. Children also have increased independence: parents let their kids roam more freely, and many start young, cycling to and from school by themselves.

Those social relations are at play at Avondvierdaagse: the walks are a chance for children to spend time with not only their parents but also their school friends, outside the classroom. Some even have matching shirts to represent their school: one reads “ Ren voor je leven ”, Dutch for “run for your life”. “It’s fun with friends,” says Robin Astill, 10, who is walking with her mum and a friend.

“I like that it’s something that happens each year and you get exercise out of it,” says Ansel Howard, 13. “It’s something that people have been doing for a long time and that you can do with friends and family and just enjoy.”

Parents also enjoy the Avondvierdaagse. Rebecca Astill, 46, participated when she was younger; as a parent, it’s a chance to explore more of her surroundings. She’s walked with her kids 10 times, first with her son and now with Robin. “You get to see more of your neighbourhood and walk through parts you don’t normally walk through,” she says. The organisers specifically pick out routes to expose participants to new places, and it’s a different route every year. “That’s the art and craft of the routemaster,” says organiser Philip Bueters, who walked as a parent with his own children years ago.

Astill also likes that it’s a social opportunity: a sentiment echoed by many other parents. “At school, you usually see other parents for a couple of minutes,” says Joost de Koning, 44, as his five-year-old, Noa, trails behind us at the beginning of a 5km walk. “But this is bringing the school community together.”

Avondvierdaagse is such a positive event, it’s hard to find any downsides to it. Some have questioned whether the walks are inclusive enough – for people with disabilities, for instance, or those from different cultural backgrounds. In Amsterdam, especially, the events’ participants may not necessarily reflect the diversity of the population, appealing more to higher-income parents in the neighbourhood.

Another problem: while the beauty of the event is its volunteer nature, it can be a huge undertaking. “In recent years, some events have had to stop because of a lack of volunteers,” says Bueters, who joined the neighbourhood organising committee when the last round of volunteers retired. “People are willing to chip in every now and then but not four days in a row.”

Avondvierdaagse is very much a communal effort. Locals provide their time, businesses donate food and flowers, and the KWbN supports the local committees (and provides the coveted medals) all because they know the importance of the event for the kids and the surrounding area.

“It has survived for decades because it brings communities together in a very simple, healthy and screen-free way,” says van Gemert of KWbN. As he explains, there is a specific Dutch word for it: Gezelligheid . The word doesn’t have a perfect English translation – perhaps cosiness or togetherness, but you know it when you see it. “It captures the Dutch spirit of being active outdoors regardless of the weather, combined with a highly organised community effort.”

And while Avondvierdaagse is uniquely Dutch, that doesn’t mean it needs to stay that way. “It’s not an invention of the government to make kids do sports; the formula can be copied,” says Bueters. Aicha Lagha, another volunteer, agrees. “I think it can be anywhere there is a community or you want to build a community,” she says.

And in Westerpark, as I wait at the finish line on the last day, when the sun is finally shining, that sense of community is strong. A few hundred metres from the finish line, volunteers hand out flowers, provided by a local florist. Family members wait patiently at the finish to celebrate the achievement: one grandma arrived 20 minutes early to make sure she could catch her seven-year-old grandson, walking with her daughter. “It’s a very special event,” she tells me, reminiscing about walking during her own childhood – “and that’s a long time ago”, she jokes.

As more and more kids pass the finish line, the area turns into a major celebration: children dance to Snollebollekes’ 2015 hit Links Rechts , jumping from left to right in a line during the chorus in what has become a national tradition of sorts. Some kids climb a statue for a photo opportunity. Parents are celebrating too: proudly taking pictures of their kids with their medals.

As I leave, Joost Klein’s 2024 Eurovision entry, Europapa (another local kids’ favourite), is playing for the third time in 20 minutes, and no one seems to care, nor do they mind that the weather seems to be turning overcast and rainy. They are more focused on the party. There are no English words to fully describe the feeling of pure joy that encapsulates the area. It’s just gezellig .

This article was amended on 16 June 2026 to clarify that Inger Leemans is professor of cultural history at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – Sport, Cricket, County Championship, Essex, Sussex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Durham, Nottinghamshire, Glamorgan, Surrey, Leicestershire, Somerset, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Kent, Middlesex, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire
Title – Ben Stokes builds up head of steam for Durham during England exile | Sport | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tanyaaldred
Link – Ben Stokes builds up head of steam for Durham during England exile | Sport | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-19T19:59:26.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2026/jun/19/ben-stokes-plays-for-durham-sussex-v-hampshire-and-more-county-cricket-live

Stokes looking lean and mean for Durham

At 10am at Chester-le-Street , Ben Stokes was looking lean and mean, shorn and sharp. No one in the Durham team ran faster or stretched lower during the warmup. No one stalked the outfield with quite such an aura.

Exiled from the Oval – where England were busy conceding a 352 run lead to New Zealand – after the curfew-breaking celebrations at the Rex Rooms, England’s resting/sacked/soon-to-be reinstated captain was turning out for Durham for the third time this season, and the first time at the Riverside. The 600 local children who rolled up for arts and crafts sessions had lucked out with a blue riband ticket, though they seemed more than happy with an autograph from Durham’s Graham Clark who patiently signed ribbons of outstretched pieces of paper down on the boundary.

Durham won the toss and chose to field, but on a day when wickets fell like confetti around the country, they were stubbornly sticky at Chester-le-Street. After Ben Raine and Matthew Potts, bowlers made more conventionally of flesh, rather than iron, were unable to break through in their first spells, the ball was handed to Stokes at the Finchale End.

By sheer force of will, Northants were bound to lose a wicket. By sheer force of will Stokes created a wicket off his fourth ball, only for Ben McKinney to drop Ricardo Vasconcelos at leg slip. In and out, midnight sweats. Vasconcelos sent the next ball singing through the covers, and would be unbeaten on 181 at stumps.

Stokes built up a head of steam. A bouncer hit Luke Procter on the helmet and a succession of short balls followed. Then some more. He wasn’t dialling this one in while he waited for the blazers to give him a call. Another over followed, and another, after six you wondered if anyone would be able to take the ball off him, especially after he had an lbw appeal turned down against Procter, please, he pleaded, squatting down on his heels – but no cigar.

During the afternoon rain break, Durham members Christopher Hackworth, Phillip Wright and Simon and Kim Ramsey sheltered under the concourse.

“The media has been over the top, you’d think he’d murdered someone,” said Hackworth. “Build the lad up, then knock him down, there’s got to be a balance. I’ve seen the same with Paul Gascoigne over the years.

“Durham members could tell you all the good things that Ben Stokes has done during his time with us. Last week when he was practising up here, I saw him talk to a dad and his lad for 15 minutes when he’d just finished practising and was looking sweaty. And I’ve never once seen him turn an autograph down.”

And sure enough he didn’t, when, at the end of the day, after 18 overs, and a wicket in his penultimate one (McKinney the catcher), two children presented him with some paper, and a fan asked for a selfie.

After play, Ryan Campbell, Durham’s coach, seemed pretty sure that this game was the last they’d see of Stokes for a while, he’d soon be back with England. “All I have seen is the same old Ben Stokes who loves being the Durham dressing room, who loves being around a cricket ground and who hasn’t missed a beat.

“The first thing he did when he was coming back was text the player group and say don’t be douchebags.”

Gus Atkinson, the other England player to break the curfew and be left out of the Oval Test team, played for Surrey at Sophia Gardens, bowling a miserly opening spell and grabbing two Glamorgan wickets.

Blue skies now at Chester le Street , after an eventful day. That’s all for now – have a lovely evening!

Close of play scores

Division One

Chelmsford: Essex 184 v Nottinghamshire 111-2

Sophia Garden: Glamorgan 244-6 v Surrey

Grace Road : Leicestershire 177-3 v Yorkshire 185

Taunton : Somerset 208 v Warwickshire 92-2

Hove : Sussex 121-3 v Hampshire 191

DIVISION TWO

Chesterfield: Derbyshire 197-5 v Lancashire 161

Chester-le-Street: Durham v Northants 388-6

Canterbury: Kent 356-7 v Middlesex

New Road: Worcestershire v Gloucestershire 258-7

And at Sophia Gardens, where Gus Atkinson grabbed two wickets but Chris Cooke’s hundred kept Glamorgan ticking over – 244-6.

Time for me to rewrite now for second edition, but do keep chatting BTL.

Stumps at Chelmsford, where Liam Patteron-White has grabbed career-best bowling figures of 6-43 against Essex .

Stokes does a little shoulder roll , as if he’s thinking about a go with the second new ball. Vasconcelos now 168 not out, Northants 349 for five. We’ve still got 13 over theoretically left. I think I’m in favour of a sharp cut-off at six o’clock, with runs added/subtracted for slow over rate, taking account of the weather. Most spectators/players have had enough after six hours.

A minute’s applause for Paul Hiscock

I missed that this morning there was a minute’s applause for legendary Essex journalist Paul Hiscock, who has died aged 79. Paul, a friendly fount of knowledge about the club, reported on Essex for more than 50 years. Rest in peace, Paul.

Saif Zaib can barely drag himself off after shovelling the dollydrops of Ben McKinney to Ollie Robinson for 61. Durham 302-4. A first-first-class wicket to McKinney.

Batting second was definitely easier today for reasons we may never discover.

Essex 184- Notts 91-2

Yorkshire 185 – Leicestershire 114-2.

Hampshire 191 all out – Sussex 90-2

Lancashire 161 all out – Derbyshire 129-3

Honours even at Taunton – Somerset 208-Warwicks 68-2

And the runs are (relatively) flowing at Sophia Gardens – Glamorgan 244-6 v Surrey; CLS – Northants 294-3, Canterbury – 268-5 v Middlesex and New Road, Gloucs 236-5.

Good late afternoon from Chester le Street where Durham continue to strain for a wicket, not helping themselves by dropping catches all over the place. Stokes has bowled 15 overs full of effort but with no return. The floodlights are on. Let’s dart about the grounds. Northants 278-3, two for Raine, one for Rhodes. Pretty runs for Vasconcelos ( 140) and Saif Zaib (45).

100 for Vasconcelos!

With six off Ben Stokes and then three through backward point off Ben Raine –a very good century for Ricardo Vasconcelos. Northants 176-0. A 12th century for Northants brings Vasconcelos level with Usman Afzaal – a name to bring back memories, three Tests during an England broken-finger crisis in 2001.

They’re taking an early tea here at CLS , and I’m going to have to write up for Friday deadlines. I will be back but apologies for being not very present.

Rain at Chester le Street

On come the covers. It isn’t heavy. But it is dark. The players trail off. Northants 163-0, Vaconcelos 88, Procter 56.

Lots of wickets everywhere, but here.

Lancs have ‘recovered’ from 74 for six, to 152 for nine – thanks to George Balderson’s 37. Three wickets to Abbas and Dal.

Essex 134-8 against Notts – Tom Westley’s 44 the only real scores. Four for Patterson-White.

Glamorgan 99-6 – two wickets for ATkinson, two for Abbott.

Yorkshire 139 for six on the Grace Road pitch with a Ben Stokes haircut.

Four wickets for Warwickshire’s Beau Webster in Somerset’s 144-7, Goldsworthy 50 not out.

And Hampshire 113-6 at Hove, a half century for Gubbins

Here, the lights are on. Stokes has his hands on the back of his head after a caught behind appeal is turned down.

Sorry all, slightly distracted there for a bit. Stokes now bowling again, but Northants’ top two are still together. Time to go around the grounds.

Back on at Chester le Street, where the clouds are settling greyly and heavily after lunch. Northants 104-0.

Lunchtime scores

Division One

Chelmsford: Essex 87-3 v Nottinghamshire

Sophia Garden: Glamorgan 71-4 v Surrey

Grace Road : Leicestershie v Yorkshire 89-5

Taunton : Somerset 94-5 v Warwickshire

Hove : Sussex v Hampshire 83-3

DIVISION TWO

Chesterfield: Derbyshire v Lancashire 106-6

Chester-le-Street: Durham v Northants 91-0

Canterbury: Kent 69-0 v Middlesex

New Road: Worcestershire v Gloucestershire 78-2

Just seen the score at Chesterfield. Oh Lancs. 81-6. Two for Abbas, two for Aitchison. Marcus Harris the highest scorer with 17.

And that is Stokes done and dusted for now: 6-2-16-0.

Over number six – but who is going to take the ball off him? A nice crowd in, like the man who got on the train at Durham and told the conductor he was hoping to see Stokes. A huge lbw appeal against a walking Procter, Stokes pleads, squats down on his heels but no cigar. Looked pretty out. Another maiden.

Stokes finishes his fifth over, a maiden, takes his cap and sunglasses from the umpires and marches to mid-off. Probably that’s it for now.

In and out of the wings , Graham Clark is signing more autographs than he’s ever signed in his life to enthusiastic school children. Northants 64-0.

Stokes polishes off his fourth over with one that lifts with feeling from a length past Procter’s nose.

Stokes building up a head of steam. A bouncer hits Procter on the helmet, who has to get a concussion check. A succession of short balls followed, which Procter ducks stoutly under. Vasconcelos fullstops the over with a pull for six.

Stokes gets through over number two, which unfolded without incident, apart from tumbling over in his follow-through second ball. And relax.

Vasconcelos dropped from Stokes’s fourth ball.

And now from the Finchale end , Ben Stokes… the first ball is a dot, the second flies down to fine leg off the thigh pad of Vasconcelos for four. Ball three: nothing. Ball four – ooops, a drop by Ben McKinney at leg slip. In and out, midnight sweats. Ball five: four through the covers in front of the watching groundsmen sitting on plastic chairs. Ball six – off the ankles to long leg for a couple. Ten from the over.

The Grace Road groundstaff have gone for a weird striped pitch today – beige ends and a grassy middle. It has been largely successful – Luxton and Whiteman both out, Yorkshire 40-2.

Stokes watch: the man warms up.

A dismal start for Somerset , as Etham Bamber rocks out Thomas and Kohler-Cadmore in his second over; and now Jordan Hermann is caught off Nathan Gilchrist. Somerset 21-3.

Atkinson watch

England’s other naughty curfew-breaker has taken the new ball for Surrey at Sophia Gardens, where Joe’s brother Billy Root is opening the batting with Asa Tribe. Glamorgan 7-0.

And good morning to Mike Daniels, in his scoreboard perch at Grace Road. “Yorkshire win toss and bat here. Looking forward to seeing if Will Luxton can build on his 100 against Warks last game.

“He’s looked very good when I’ve seen him and surely he might get a look in for the Lions soon?”

Ben Raine, with an old fashioned fast-bowler’s build runs in from the end, Ben Stokes stalks at midwicket. And Matthew Potts takes the ball at the Lumley end.

Fixtures

Division One

Chelmsford: Essex v Nottinghamshire

Sophia Garden: Glamorgan v Surrey

Grace Road : Leicestershie v Yorkshire

Taunton : Somerset v Warwickshire

Hove : Sussex v Hampshire

DIVISION TWO

Chesterfield: Derbyshire v Lancashire

Chester-le-Street: Durham v Northants

Canterbury: Kent v Middlesex

New Road: Worcestershire v Gloucestershire

Durham won the toss and will field

And, when the time comes, Stokes to bat at No. 5.

Stokes is now stalking over to some rubber stumps and bowling with vigour. Today is also schools day at the ground, so 600 lucky north east kids are getting a blue riband ticket.

Preamble

Good morning from Chester le Street , where Ben Stokes, lean and freshly shorn, is warming up with his teammates on a muggy Chester le Street Friday 250 long miles from The Oval. We’ll be keeping an eye on him, and around the grounds, where play starts at 11am. Do join us!

Keyword – Environment
Trefwoorden – Extreme weather, Environment, Hong Kong, World news, Slovenia, Croatia, France, Extreme heat, Europe, Asia Pacific
Title – Weather tracker: Severe thunderstorms sweep Europe and east Asia | Extreme weather | The Guardian
Author – Ed Walton for MetDesk
Link – Weather tracker: Severe thunderstorms sweep Europe and east Asia | Extreme weather | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-19T08:34:27.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/19/weather-tracker-severe-thunderstorms-europe-east-asia-heatwave-france

Severe thunderstorms swept across the Balkans last week, bringing widespread destruction to parts of the region. The storms developed as unstable hot air lingered over the Adriatic Sea while a cold front plunged south-eastward.

The front began its journey on 10 June in Slovenia , where the Slovenian Environment Agency recorded 65mph gusts at Ljubljana airport. Heavy rain also fell widely across the region with 23mm reported in Kranj.

Alongside heavy rain, hail the size of golf balls plummeted from the sky as the front edged south-eastwards towards Croatia . One of the worst affected areas was the Komenda municipality, where the local fire department reported damage to more than 100 buildings. Some homes lost their roofs in the violent winds.

In the early hours of 11 June, the storm edged south-eastwards into Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina before reaching Greece on 12 June.

Similar conditions have been observed on the opposite side of Eurasia. The Hong Kong Observatory issued a black rainstorm warning on Thursday. When a black warning is issued, outdoor workers are expected to take shelter until it is safe and schools are closed.

Hourly rainfall totals exceeded 70mm, only 10 days after the first black warning was issued on 8 June, bringing widespread flooding to the area. Rain is not the only hazard that struck the region as wind speeds of 50mph were recorded in the district of Tai O.

France has experienced heatwave conditions recently, with temperatures in the mid-to high-30s degrees celsius, affecting a large swathe of the country. The heat is expected to intensify further in the coming days, with temperatures forecast to reach 41C.

The heatwave has been particularly unusual because the most intense heat has been concentrated in northern and western France. These regions are typically cooler than areas such as the Rhône valley, which more commonly experiences the highest temperatures during heatwaves.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, World Cup, Football, Sport
Title – I don’t like the World Cup hydration breaks but trust me – they help the coaches | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/emma-hayes
Link – I don’t like the World Cup hydration breaks but trust me – they help the coaches | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-20T04:00:53.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/20/i-dont-like-the-world-cup-hydration-breaks-but-trust-me-they-help-the-coaches

I n the NFL or NBA, a head coach can sometimes affect momentum in the game during a timeout. Even as a head coach in American football you get three timeouts per half. In most cases in soccer, players have to problem-solve and think on their feet.

I’m not a fan of the hydration breaks that have been introduced at this World Cup , but they’re here for now and it is fascinating from a coaching perspective because the momentum has swung straight after several hydration breaks. That could suggest coach involvement has helped teams to tweak things.

Turning the game into four quarters – it felt inevitable it was going to head in that direction, and I hope it doesn’t carry on going in that direction. I don’t like it, but let me also be clear – when it’s hot, you really need it, for health and safety. So put yourself in Fifa’s shoes. If you only have drinks breaks in the hot cities you could be accused of giving certain teams an advantage with a chance for a tactical discussion over, say, a team playing in Seattle, where it’s cooler. Imagine turning around and saying: “We’ll only have VAR in some of the stadiums, not all.” You’re either going to have it or you’re not going to have it.

So I get why they have brought this in at every venue. It’s got to be fair across the board. And trust me, this helps coaches. The Netherlands coach, Ronald Koeman, said: “You can use it in different ways to your advantage and this is what we will be doing”. All the coaches will be utilising it.

I agree with Arsène Wenger; I want the ball in play more. I want goal-kicks taken quicker, I want throw-ins taken quicker. I want the ball in play for at least 60 minutes a game, so I like some of the new rule changes that have been introduced. The average ball-in-play time has been about 40 seconds down compared with 2022 at 57 minutes and 22 seconds, but when you factor in the hydration breaks and remove the time it takes for those breaks from the total match-time, the ball-in-play percentage has risen slightly.

There are already enough stoppages in games, so the last thing we want is more . But, for now, it’s there. On ITV, we used it by broadcasting tactical analysis, which was an idea of one of the producers and I felt I was doing what I do every day as coach; trying to simplify complex ideas in a concise way.

Viewers at home have a varying degree of knowledge around the game; some will be very knowledgable, while others may only watch football when the World Cup comes around, so I enjoy trying to be mindful of that.

The speed at which VAR has worked has also been noticeable; how quickly they’re making decisions and moving on. I don’t think it’s been disruptive in a way we’ve been accustomed to and has irritated us all in other tournaments or leagues. And being able to change key moments for reasons like mistaken identity and whether it is a corner or not are welcome changes.

The new rules making it harder for teams to get tactical information while a goalkeeper is receiving treatment is also a welcome change, even though somebody could still pass on information from further away. There’s still a lot of work to be done in these areas to make the game better, but in general they’ve made steps in the right direction.

The most significant change compared with 2022 has been the increase to 48 teams, up from 32. When you expand the number of teams in a tournament there’s always that conversation around a dilution of quality. The answer is clearly far from it. From Cape Verde to DR Congo, it has been great that so many nations started strongly. This is what opportunity provides: competition. You can’t develop until you are in situations where you can grow and get better. It’s great for the global nature of the game.

I loved Cape Verde’s performance in their draw against Spain . What struck me was how brave they were and not just out of possession. As Ange Postecoglou quite rightly said on ITV, Cape Verde weren’t passive. They didn’t just sit in and get picked off. They were stepping out in the right moments. They wanted to get on the ball. They wanted to go forward. They committed numbers going forward. They created chances. Even if they’re half-chances, I was impressed with how well coached they were. And their goalkeeper was heroic .

What has stood out has been the quality of the stadiums, the fans showing up and the real sense of “only the World Cup can do this”, namely bringing people together. The atmosphere in New York has been palpable. There are people wearing shirts for every team. Unlike 1994, you don’t have to walk into a bar or a restaurant and ask them to put the match on the TV. It’s already on.

The country is much more equipped to grow the game beyond this than in 1994 and you’re starting to really feel that. You expect to sense this fervour for the game in the more traditional football nations so, to witness that across the United States, has been wonderful to see.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Czechia, Czechoslovakia, European Championship, Football, Sport
Title – ‘That penalty changed my life’: Panenka’s pride 50 years on from special spot-kick | Czechia | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/gavinnewsham
Link – ‘That penalty changed my life’: Panenka’s pride 50 years on from special spot-kick | Czechia | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-20T04:00:53.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/20/antonin-panenka-penalty-50-years-on-czechoslovakia-west-germany-1976

A ntonin Panenka laughs like a bear might, a low rumble, suggesting mischief among the memories. He is sat in an office at Bohemians football club in Prague, recounting the story of his impudent, revolutionary penalty that not only won the 1976 European Championship for Czechoslovakia against West Germany but soured his relationship with the goalkeeper his spot-kick humiliated, Sepp Maier. “He went 35 years without uttering a single word to me,” he smiles.

But the feud went much deeper. “I read some articles that he even had a shooting target in his garage with my face on it that he used to fire darts at. We get on well enough now though.”

Saturday marks 50 years since that moment in Belgrade’s Red Star Stadium slipped into football folklore. With the final locked at 2-2 after extra time, Czechoslovakia and the reigning world champions found themselves in uncharted territory: the first penalty shootout to decide a major international tournament.

It nearly didn’t happen at all. The plan had been for a replay, until a request from the German FA pushed organisers towards penalties, a decision influenced, Panenka believes, by the fact Die Mannschaft had already booked their holidays.

By the time Bayern Munich’s Uli Hoeness blazed Germany’s fourth kick over the bar, the stage was set. Panenka stepped forward with the chance to win it. Then it happened. A brisk run-up, a momentary pause and the most delicate of stabbed touches. The ball floated, dead centre, as Maier hurled himself aside. For a heartbeat, it seemed to hang in the Belgrade air before dropping into the net. The Panenka was born.

In the decades since, many have tried it and succeeded. Zinedine Zidane clipped his against the crossbar and in at the 2006 World Cup final while Andrea Pirlo embarrassed a gurning Joe Hart at Euro 2012. Others have been less successful.

In 1992, Gary Lineker, one goal away from equalling Bobby Charlton’s record of 49 goals for England, duffed his against Brazil at Wembley. More recently, Morocco’s Brahim Díaz dinked his penalty into the waiting arms of the Senegal keeper Édouard Mendy in the Africa Cup of Nations final.

Panenka watches them all with pride and amusement. “It’s pure happiness to see these players using my penalty,” he says. “The only disadvantage is that I don’t get any royalties from it.”

It’s not for want of trying. “I used to think that every time someone takes one, they should have to pay me. Actually, back during the Communist days in Czechoslovakia, I spoke to some friends who worked at a patent office and tried to get it registered but they said it wasn’t possible which was a shame.”

Panenka’s penalty in the final wasn’t the first time he tried it. Two years before Belgrade, Panenka, a creative midfielder with Bohemians 1905, had started a friendly penalty competition with club goalkeeper, Zdenek Hruska.

Each day, the pair would stay behind after training and practise penalties. Ever the competitor, Panenka suggested a bet. He would take penalties and if he scored all five then Hruska would have to buy him some beers or some chocolate. If the keeper saved just one then Panenka would return the favour. But Panenka found himself losing badly and increasingly out of pocket.

Then came his brainwave. “I started to think about how the goalies always tend to dive towards one post or the other and I came up with the idea of just chipping the ball right down the middle instead. And it worked immediately,” he recalls.

Soon, the competition with Hruska tilted in Panenka’s favour. “I started winning our bets all the time which meant that I got all the beers and the chocolate. But that also meant I started to get fat.”

While Panenka attempted his penalty occasionally in friendlies and domestic games, it was still unknown outside Czechoslovakia as they headed into the European Championship in Yugoslavia , and that convinced Panenka to take it on to the international stage.

“I always knew that there was only one way I was ever going to take it, purely because nobody had done it before and nobody would ever think I would do it, especially in a final,” he says. “But I wasn’t 100% confident I would score – I was 1,000% confident.”

For Panenka, his penalty is more than just another opportunity to score. On one hand, he says, you have to have the personality to come up with the original idea itself but energy and work ethic is also needed to ensure having the right technique when the time arrives to take the penalty. “You can’t have one without the other,” he says.

Watch footage of Panenka’s penalty now and it’s unlike many of the versions you might see today. There is no theatrical meandering run-up and no staring down of the goalkeeper. It’s just a straight, aggressive run-up that persuades Maier that what is about to come is a shot struck with pace. Only at the last moment does Panenka kill his run-up, floating the ball into the air and leaving Maier diving helplessly to his left as the ball takes an eternity to drift and dive into the net.

It is, says Panenka, a thing of rare beauty. “I have seen it described as the ‘falling leaf’ penalty and I like that,” he reflects. “It works so beautifully.”

After the final, Panenka and his Czech teammates returned home to anything but a heroes’ welcome. “We expected at least some celebration or recognition but there was very little,” he recalls. “We said: ‘We are European champions!’ And they said: ‘So what? The league starts again tomorrow, so get back to work.’”

As Panenka returned to domestic football with Bohemians, however, his pioneering penalty had now become a weapon to employ sparingly. After Belgrade, he estimates he took another 15 penalties in his playing career, but used the Panenka only three more times, most notably in a European Championship qualifying victory over France in Bratislava in April 1979.

“The only time I ever missed was in a friendly against a small club in southern Bohemia. There had been a lot of heavy rain and the goalie was just stood in a big puddle so I don’t think he actually wanted to dive anyway,” he recalls. “He just stood there and caught it.”

Today, the 77-year-old Panenka and his penalty are known across the world, the result, he believes, of parents passing on this unique piece of footballing vocabulary – noun and verb – through YouTube and social media. But his popularity still surprises him.

Recently, he was on a plane in Madrid waiting to take off when another passenger recognised him. “Suddenly there was this long chain of people all wanting a selfie with me,” he smiles. “Our flight was even delayed.”

It’s possible to count on one hand those players whose names have become shorthand for invention, for a moment that bends the logic of the game itself. Some labels flatter, others fade, but the Panenka endures alongside the Cruyff Turn as something both daring and definitive.

Panenka shrugs at the idea of an ordinary alternative. Yes, a more conventional spot-kick might still have delivered a European title for Czechoslovakia, but it would not have rewritten his life, nor carved his name into football history.

Half a century on, what lingers is not just his medal or the trophy, but that choice – a split-second show of nerve that turned risk into immortality, and a footballer into folklore.

“The penalty I took really changed my life and the fact I’m still here 50 years later talking about it is absolutely amazing,” he adds. “I’m so happy I did it.”

Keyword – Fashion
Trefwoorden – Fashion, Life and style, Women, Women’s trousers
Title – Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: elegant but practical, capri pants are a perfect summer look | Fashion | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jesscartnermorley
Link – Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: elegant but practical, capri pants are a perfect summer look | Fashion | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T13:00:33.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026/jun/17/jess-cartner-morley-fashion-capri-pants-audrey-hepburn-vibes

I think we can probably agree that Audrey Hepburn would not have been seen dead in jorts. The baggy, grunge-adjacent knee-length denims that were everywhere last summer and are creeping back around are definitely cool. Totally a vibe. But elegant they are not.

The capri pant is an undeniably elegant solution to the problem of what to wear when jeans or tailored trousers are too hot and cumbersome, but you don’t want to wear shorts. For instance, when it is sunny while you are getting dressed, but you are going to be out all day and the forecast looks dodgy later on. Or when there is a heatwave but you still have to go to the office, so Daisy Dukes are not going to work.

Capri pants were invented in Munich in the late 1940s. Diminutive German designer Sonja de Lennart was frustrated that the Katharine Hepburn style of blousy trouser didn’t flatter her shape. She came up with a below-the-knee crop, ending with a little kicker of a slit at the hem and elongated at the top with a high waist. Presumably because she recognised that Munich pants was not the most alluring moniker for her new style, particularly in postwar Europe, she named them instead after the Italian island, to capture their sunny sprezzatura . American film costume designer Edith Head was an immediate fan, and dressed Audrey Hepburn in de Lennart’s capris for the 1954 film Sabrina.

Capris kicked happily around the south of France for a couple of decades before fading from vogue, but enjoyed a renaissance in the 2000s, when their retro glamour became a signature look for Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and The City, showing that the capri can work as well on city streets as on the beach.

They haven’t been around for a while, so we need to figure out how they fit into our wardrobes. It’s all about balance. You don’t want to go too literal on the 50s nostalgia, or they can get a bit cutesy. On the other hand, they have a specific set of proportions that need to be considered when putting your look together. You want your capri outfit to look intentional, not like you rolled your trousers up to go paddling.

It works kind of like this. Go sparingly on the milkshake-drinking-bombshell stuff. If you want to wear gingham, I would do a boxy short-sleeve gingham shirt but maybe not a gingham lace-up bodice top. Or you could wear a broderie anglaise top with your capris, but then I’d suggest a casual flip flop or thong sandal rather than kitten heels or mules. Just so that it’s not too cherry-on-top pretty, if you know what I mean.

You might consider a silk scarf, but perhaps tie it around the handle of your bag or in your hair, not jauntily at the neck. If you want a simple starter outfit, you won’t go wrong with head-to-toe black: a cap sleeve T-shirt, your little capris, and ballet flats. (Head and Hepburn knew what they were doing.) But if this all feels a little too midcentury and costumey for you, capris also work well with a bomber jacket or a zip-up windbreaker.

The right shoe is crucial. Anything too heavy throws the silhouette off, and showing some skin below the bend of the ankle makes the line much more graceful. The v-shape of a flip flop works well. For a little more coverage, a slender lace-up jazz shoe beats chunky trainers.

The joy of a capri pant is that it feels kind of snazzy, but is practical at heart. This is a piece that understands summer. You can run for a train. You can sit cross-legged on the grass. You can cycle (they are not also known as pedal pushers for nothing, after all). They may not have the ironic cool of a pair of jorts, but they have a founding myth, a film star and a sun-drenched Italian island behind them. They have summer romance in their DNA. They make life feel slightly cinematic. Jorts may have the edge, but capris have the pedigree.

Styling: Melanie Wilkinson . Model: Maria Diaz at Milk. Hair and makeup: Sophie Higginson using Sam McKnight and Dr Sam’s . Styling assistant: Charlotte Gornall. Earrings , £25.99, Pilgrim. Coat , £395, The Fold. Shirt , £110, With Nothing Underneath. Scarf belt , £22 Next. Trousers , £99, and shoes , £99, both Mint Velvet.