Keyword – Politics
Trefwoorden – John Healey, Keir Starmer, Labour, Defence policy, UK news, Politics
Title – Polite but deadly: John Healey skewers Keir Starmer as he heads for the door | John Crace | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/johncrace
Link – Polite but deadly: John Healey skewers Keir Starmer as he heads for the door | John Crace | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-11T16:00:28.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/11/john-healey-resignation-worst-possible-time-keir-starmer

D uring Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions, the defence secretary was standing at the other end of the Commons, away from other cabinet members on the government frontbench. His expression gave nothing away as Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch blamed one another for spending too much on welfare and not enough on defence. In hindsight, he was possibly thinking “to hell with both of them”. Most defence secretaries go native sooner or later, imagining themselves to be embedded officers serving on the frontline. Tory Ben Wallace appeared to hate most of his cabinet colleagues by the time he resigned in 2023.

Less than 24 hours after PMQs, Healey had also resigned , his departure being all the more powerful for being so unexpected. This exit seemed to come out of a clear blue sky. There had been no briefings to the media in the preceding days. No threats to stand down if his demands were not met. All the arguments had taken place behind closed doors. A determination to do the right thing throughout.

His resignation letter to Starmer was polite but deadly . Amid the standard pleasantries in which he said what an honour it had been to do the job and listing the Labour government’s achievements came the killer lines. Rachel Reeves had failed in her duty to give the armed forces the bare minimum to safeguard the defence of the country. And the prime minister had been too weak to overrule his chancellor. Keir had always talked the talk about the security of the country being his prime priority but when push came to shove he hadn’t walked the walk. So Healey had been left with no choice but to act according to his conscience.

For Starmer, this was devastating. The wrong resignation at the worst possible time. He could brush off the departure of a health secretary. Wes had just been Wes. Always on manoeuvres. No one would really miss him. But Healey was in a different league. There wasn’t anyone who thought he had resigned as part of a self-promotion strategy. This was a resignation of a man who felt he had been left with no other choice.

The defence investment plan had been meant to be Starmer’s legacy. Not that anyone was allowed to mention the L word. Within earshot of the prime minister, everyone in No 10 is obliged to act as if he will lead Labour into the next election and a dreamland beyond. But Keir must know the game is almost up. Surely his family have had a quiet word. The drum beats from Makerfield are getting ever louder. This time next week Andy Burnham is odds-on to be an MP. After that it’s only a matter of when.

Now it looks like the Dip will struggle to see the light of day before Makerfield. Far from positioning himself as the prime minister who ringfenced the security of the country, Keir might end up being remembered as the man who put it at risk. By mid-afternoon on Wednesday, the wagons were circling. Kemi Badenoch and other opposition MPs were wasting no time in putting the boot in. Praising Healey to the heights – no flattery is more insincere than a politician pursuing their own advantage – while accusing Starmer of epic levels of betrayal. No one will care or remember it was the Tories who did most to hollow out defence spending.

The danger was not just coming from just the opposition. Tan Dhesi, the Labour chair of the defence select committee, spoke out against the apparent shortfalls in the Dip budget. As did the junior defence minister Al Carns. He described the Dip as not fit for purpose and Healey as a man who had given serious service.

Starmer appeared trapped. Unless he could squeeze at least £15bn more out of the chancellor, he would struggle to appoint a new defence secretary. Because who would want a job the previous incumbent had said was untenable from a lame duck prime minister? And Keir would be equally damned if Reeves did find the money. Because why had it taken the resignation of one of his most able ministers to do it? He was screwed either way.

Still, at least Healey’s departure was a distraction from the riots in Belfast that had spilled over into a second night on Wednesday with 12 police officers injured in the violence. No one seems to be listening to the wishes of Stephen Ogilvie’s parents as they appeal for calm. Then no one listened to Mark Nowak either. People now think they have a right to act on their anger. No one in Northern Ireland batted an eyelid when dozens of white women were killed by white men. Not worth getting out of bed for. But when a black man attacks a white man …

At times like this, the world seems to be tilting ever further to the right. Kemi tries to make the Tories ever more like Reform. First by promising to abolish the public sector equality duty and then telling the Spectator she would be happy to put Nigel Farage into No 10.

Reform meanwhile become ever more like Restore with Nige calling for “pure, cold rage” and then feigning amazement when he gets it. Restore now spend their time chasing Tommy Robinson as he makes helpful suggestions about areas with immigrant populations where it might be fun to riot. And Robinson has the endorsement of Elon Musk. Musk now has so many personalities, he isn’t quite sure who he is at any one time so sends avatars of himself out to chase the others to the extreme right. All the time sitting in his bedroom by himself as he becomes the world’s first trillionaire. Maybe you can call this following the money.

It was left to the Northern Ireland secretary, Hilary Benn, to try to make some kind of sense of this on the morning media round. Was the violence racially motivated, he was asked on the Today programme. Er, hello? When a mob of white people attack black people, what else are you going to call it.

He then tried to dial things down. “This isn’t who the people of Northern Ireland are,” he insisted. Except it clearly is who some of the people of Northern Ireland are. Because they are doing it. The attacks are happening. And older members of the country can clearly remember a time when violence was an almost daily occurrence with the police in the frontline. Most had hoped that was a thing of the past. But for some it has moved on from religion to race.

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – Digital music and audio, Film, Music, Vinyl, Cassette tape, Media, Technology, Culture
Title – The Guardian view on the analogue resurgence: the shock of the old | Editorial | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/editorial
Link – The Guardian view on the analogue resurgence: the shock of the old | Editorial | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-11T18:02:58.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/11/the-guardian-view-on-the-analogue-resurgence-the-shock-of-the-old

T en years after the last video recorder manufacturer ceased production, the first straight-to-video movie for two decades – This Is How the World Ends – was released this month. The resurgence of vinyl began long ago; sales are at their highest level for over 30 years . But record buyers enthuse about the warmth of their sound and the generous visual expanse of album covers. In contrast, the new movie is shot in HD; the director acknowledges that those watching it on video will see a cropped, fuzzier image. The point of the exercise – beyond creating a buzz – lies not in the inherent qualities of VHS, but the effect of its rarity on the viewer.

When everything is available in high definition with one swipe of your screen, cumbersome physical formats that must be hunted down appear both nostalgically inviting and strikingly fresh. Last year, Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl was released in multiple physical formats , including cassette and CD – technically digital, but also enjoying a revival thanks to its retro feel. The title track of her previous album, The Tortured Poets Department, mocked a lover’s attachment to his typewriter, notoriously favoured by hipsters.

Older adults may yearn for their past (as in last year’s BBC drama Mix Tape ). Younger consumers are seizing on formats that are new to them and the novel allure of an offline world. These media are often “presented as the remedy for our digital ailment” – in contrast to new technologies depicted as “addictive, unnatural, unhealthy and harmful” – writes the communications lecturer ARE Taylor in The Analogue Idyll , a new book that he has edited. This year’s vogue for the “ analogue bag ”, containing items such as physical books and craft materials, is all about cutting screen time. Weekends away are marketed as digital detoxes. In the US, parenting influencers have boasted of turning back to VHS , not only to avoid inappropriate algorithmic recommendations, but also to teach patience.

In the age of AI, the yearning for the tangible, the imperfect and the human is especially potent. Unease at big tech’s exploitation of consumers is evident not only in the desire to own rather than lease songs, movies and books, but also the broader revolt against relentless optimisation and convenience. Vinyl “was more fun precisely because it was less efficient”, says David Sax in his 2016 book The Revenge of Analog. Listeners must cherish the easily damaged format and can’t skip or rearrange tracks without hovering over the record player. The music commands attention instead of fading into the background.

Yet businesses have found fresh opportunities in the backlash to the new and shiny. In 2023, Kodak released its first Super 8 camera for over three decades – with an LCD display and SD card. Apps make iPhone photos resemble old Polaroids. And This Is How the World Ends will ultimately be streamed.

The remark by the film’s director, Robert dos Santos, that for now “you need to be part of the club to watch this” will suggest to some a refreshing willingness to make demands on the audience and embrace the weird – rejecting the beigification of culture. Others will hear the old desire to distinguish oneself with rarefied consumption. There is plenty to enjoy in the analogue. But as Dr Taylor’s new book reminds us, old-fashioned formats are no more “authentic” than the digital ones – and individual consumer choices to retreat from the online world won’t fix its problems.

Keyword – Business
Trefwoorden – Food & drink industry, Christianity, Religion, Business
Title – What would Jesus drink? Welcome to the age of Christian energy beverages | Food & drink industry | The Guardian
Author – Lydia Bugg
Link – What would Jesus drink? Welcome to the age of Christian energy beverages | Food & drink industry | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-04T11:00:04.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/04/jesus-christian-energy-drink

By now, you’ve probably noticed the trend: every celebrity and influencer appears to be chasing the same prize. We’re deep in the era of the celebrity beverage.

Kim Kardashian has Update energy drinks. John and Hank Green have the Awesome Coffee Club. Blake Lively sells sparkling grapefruit juice. Even Danny DeVito, somehow perfectly cast for the role, is the face of a limoncello.

Why are beverages so endorsable? Maybe we’re not willing to trust Hulk Hogan with our dinner plans, but for a quick boost during a long workday? Sure – why not slam a can of Hogan Energy. Drinks tend to be profitable, relatively low-risk and especially ripe for celebrity endorsements. So it’s become one of the easiest, most popular markets for influencers and celebrities to dip into.

Now, another mega-celeb has entered the beverage game. Or rather, beverage companies have enlisted him in an effort to spread the good word about their product.

Jesus, it turns out, has a branding problem – at least according to the makers of these drinks. Too many people simply haven’t heard the message. “ God put it on our hearts to specifically preach the gospel through an energy drink ,” the creator of Yahweh says in an Instagram video defending the company against accusations that it exists mainly to turn a profit.

It is notable that while Christ has apparently been putting energy drinks on people’s hearts lately, he has not been putting it on many of their hearts to donate part of the proceeds to feeding the poor. Apparently, the main mission here is brand awareness.

Unfortunately, after trying the Yahweh energy drink, I don’t feel especially compelled to convert. If the goal is evangelism, Blessed Berry, with its heavy, medicinal notes, may not be the strongest missionary. In fact, the aftertaste lingered with some insistence, like Jehovah’s Witnesses evangelizing at your door even after you told them you were agnostic.

If you want a better-tasting first Christian energy drink, I recommend Preachin’ Peach from Agape.

The depiction of Jesus is less thirsty, but the peach flavoring is right on target: it tastes almost exactly like a peach lollipop. It’s not quite as aggressively peachy as a peach Nehi, but fans of that drink would probably enjoy this. Or, you know, fans of Christ dying for our sins.

Yahweh has zero calories, while Agape clocks in at 10, and, somehow, those 10 calories seem to matter.

Not all Agape flavors are quite as divine as Preachin’ Peach, however. “It’s really good. Berry isn’t my favorite flavor, right, so probably not the best one to start off with, but it’s kind of like the Welch’s Grape but like less heavy,” one Instagram reviewer said of Agape’s Blessed Berry flavor.

In later videos, however, he can be seen drinking a Monster.

Each case of Agape comes with a single sleeve cardboard gift box designed to be used directly for evangelism. Whether that’s evangelism for Christ or evangelism for Agape, you get to decide. Agape costs $40 for a 20-pack, so one can is roughly $3.30 for a 12oz energy drink. That evangelism tax is a little pricey.

The real standout in flavor, if not in branding, is 4gvn (as in forgiven, what Jesus does with our sins filtered through tech bro speak).

There’s no depiction of Jesus on the can, but the flavor Gospel Gummy tastes exactly like a gummy worm. I don’t know how they did that with only the 10 load-bearing calories needed. If you told me Jesus turned water into a gummy worm-flavored energy drink, I would have to believe you.

4gvn is hardly alone in the Christian energy drink ecosystem. There’s Praise Energy, whose mascot, Zion the Lion, is a cartoon lion sporting an “I ♡ Jesus” T-shirt and high-top sneakers. Then there’s Heir Lion, whose mascot feels like it should be a cartoon lion in an “I ♡ Jesus” T-shirt and high-top sneakers – but, confusingly, is not.

Are these brands helping raise awareness for Christianity , or are they just treating Jesus like an uncopyrighted Mickey Mouse?

After all, he already enjoys near-universal brand recognition. So perhaps the real question is not whether these drinks are good for Christianity, but whether Christianity is very good for energy drink sales.

Keyword – Film
Trefwoorden – Steven Spielberg, Film, Culture
Title – Tell us: which Steven Spielberg movie means the most to you? | Steven Spielberg | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/guardian-community-team
Link – Tell us: which Steven Spielberg movie means the most to you? | Steven Spielberg | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-08T14:05:12.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/08/tell-us-which-steven-spielberg-movie-means-the-most-to-you

On Sunday we published the best Steven Spielberg films chosen by directors, critics and super fans. Now we’d like to hear from our readers – what is missing from our list and which Spielberg movie means the most to you?

If you’re having trouble using the form click here . Read terms of service here and privacy policy here .

Keyword – Life and style
Trefwoorden – Gardening advice, Gardens, Plants, Life and style
Title – Want to bring summer joy to your garden? It’s not too late to sow nasturtiums | Gardening advice | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/alice-vincent
Link – Want to bring summer joy to your garden? It’s not too late to sow nasturtiums | Gardening advice | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T10:00:42.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/12/not-too-late-to-sow-nasturtiums-in-garden-summer

E very time I’ve moved into a place with a garden, I’ve arrived at the wrong time of year. There’s a huge privilege to gaining access to land that you can actually grow in, of course, so it’s a minor grumble, but we arrived at our last house in the dying days of a July heatwave, and this one in early August last year.

I’ve now seen three seasons unfold here, accidentally following the old adage to wait a year and see what comes up – in this case, mostly green alkanet and a rainbow of spring-flowering trees in the neighbouring gardens – and I’m finally feeling green fingered. But, as any experienced gardener will tell you, it’s a bit late, really.

Most fair-weather gardeners emerge around the late May bank holiday, dust the cobwebs off the furniture and descend on the garden centre, but I prefer to plant things between September and April. And yet, here I am again, frenziedly checking the weather forecast to see when it might rain so I can bed in my latest haul from the local community greenhouses.

I’ve felt late to everything this year, which, if I’m honest, is how things tend to go in my gardens. I nearly always plant bulbs in December, take cuttings into October and, this year, was scattering annual seed mix in May. This causes me the same kind of stress as trying to persuade my three-year-old to put his shoes on when we have six minutes to catch a train, but history would attest that things generally turn out all right. The things that want to grow, grow. The train is held at the previous station. Life moves on.

With that spirit in mind, I’ll be sowing nasturtiums in my very sad containers. Sad because anything halfway decent has been transferred to the garden (in autumn and winter, and nearly everything has settled in nicely, aside from the Emily Brontë rose, which is broodily sulking, as one might expect) and I haven’t had the mental space or depth of pocket to fill them up again. Hungry for a bit of joy and colour, and refusing to go to the garden centre, I’m going to be scattering nasturtiums over the lot.

I love nasturtiums. Astonishingly quick and easy to get going, they actively prefer poor soil (so leftover, nutrient-low pot compost is fine) and they seed so prolifically they’ll keep popping up for years. You can also eat the entire plant – leaves, petals and seeds – in salads or pickled.

Sown now, they can flower until November. Don’t dismiss them as just being orange: I’ve got some older packets of the dirty pink ‘Ladybird Rose’ ( pictured ) and scarlet ‘Red Troika’, while ‘Milkmaid’ and ‘Tip Top Pink Blush’ offer pretty pale yellow, and ‘Black Velvet’ reads aubergine.

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – New York Knicks, NBA finals, San Antonio Spurs, Victor Wembanyama, Basketball, NBA, Sport, US sports
Title – The New York Knicks have stopped believing in impossible. They may be a team of destiny | New York Knicks | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/claire-de-lune
Link – The New York Knicks have stopped believing in impossible. They may be a team of destiny | New York Knicks | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-11T11:32:05.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/11/new-york-knicks-comeback-nba-finals-team-of-destiny

W hat does a team of destiny look like? You know it when you see it. The evidence has been mounting for weeks – months, even – that this year, despite decades of precedent to the contrary, that team is the New York Knicks .

On Wednesday night, the proof overflowed in the hallowed halls of the Mecca. One of the most improbable comebacks in NBA history – and the largest ever in an NBA finals game – saw New York erase a 29-point deficit to beat the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4, leaving Taylor Swift and members of Haim leaping for joy courtside and the 58-year-old building shaking like a bounce house.

The irony, of course, is that these same Knicks have so often found themselves on the wrong end of heartbreak in those very halls. As recently as last year, the Indiana Pacers reminded them of the sport’s cruelest lesson: no game is over until the clock hits zero. In some ways, those Pacers were the last team to carry the sense of inevitability that seems to surround this Knicks squad. Their run, however, ended in crushing fashion with a Game 7 defeat. The Knicks appear mindful of that history. “It’s still 0-0” and “still a long way to go” were common refrains throughout their post-game press conferences on Wednesday night. Some, including head coach Mike Brown and players Jose Alvarado and Karl-Anthony Towns, showed visible emotion.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat this,” Alvarado said. “I was about to cry. I’m at Madison Square Garden, end of the fourth quarter, playing with these guys, and we’re playing for something special.”

Others, such as team captain Jalen Brunson and game-winning playmaker OG Anunoby , were more stoic. But the message was unanimous: as extraordinary as this victory was, there is still one more game left to win.

The Knicks have become something of comeback specialists in recent years. There have been multiple double-digit rallies during this 2026 playoff run alone, after a handful of stunning recoveries against the favored Boston Celtics last postseason. So they certainly have some experience in the art of the improbable. But perhaps the real preparation for nights like this comes from the heartbreak. Being on the receiving end of an unlikely comeback teaches you, in unforgettable fashion, that no lead is safe and no game is ever truly over. The scar tissue of past playoff disappointments, the callouses left after having a win ripped out of your fingertips – those can be life’s greatest teachers.

And beyond the wins and losses (and Knicks fans will be the first to tell you there have been plenty of losses), this is, in many ways, a team of castoffs. The Dallas Mavericks let Jalen Brunson walk, and that was after he was passed over in the first round of the NBA draft as a two-time national champion at Villanova. Karl-Anthony Towns was abruptly moved by the Minnesota Timberwolves after years as the face of the franchise. Josh Hart bounced around the league. Alvarado went undrafted. Even Brown was dismissed as coach of the Sacramento Kings not long after helping them “light the beam” .

“I think everybody, to a certain degree, at some point in life is overlooked,” Brown said late Wednesday night. “Just to have the ability to stay with it, stay with it, stay with it, stay with it, especially when you get knocked down, to me, that defines who you are. Even if you don’t have the quote-unquote ‘ultimate success’ that you think you deserve, if you get knocked down in life and you’re able to get back up and keep fighting, that’s a freaking win.”

The idea of a team of destiny raises an interesting question: how much control do we really have over our own fate? Is destiny a path laid out before us, something inevitable and immutable? Or is it something we create ourselves? Maybe it’s a bit of both. The Knicks found themselves pondering those questions after their historic victory.

“You’ve got to have a little luck in sports,” Brown said. “But you can also make your luck, too.”

Towns echoed the sentiment.

“Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes you make your luck,” he said. “We made our luck today.”

For most of Wednesday night, it seemed as though New York’s luck had finally run dry. Team owner James Dolan had spent the previous few days making himself the center of attention on a decidedly ill-advised media tour, while some fans half-jokingly wondered whether the bad vibes lingering from the Commander in Chief’s controversial – and sleepy – appearance at Game 3 had cursed the Knicks’ title hopes. The Spurs certainly played as if they believed it. Victor Wembanyama even went so far as to proclaim “I’m in your head” to the Knicks during the first half, and he may not have been wrong. Until he was.

Because that’s the thing about a resilient group like this one. That’s the thing about a team of destiny: however unconventional the path, however theatrical the punctuations along the way, it somehow arrives where it’s meant to. And for the 2026 New York Knicks, that journey is now just one win away from an NBA championship.

Keyword – Games
Trefwoorden – Games, Culture, Adventure games, Puzzle games, PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox
Title – The 7th Guest Remake Review – a spirited reboot of a ghost story classic | Games | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/sarah-thwaites
Link – The 7th Guest Remake Review – a spirited reboot of a ghost story classic | Games | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-11T12:00:22.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/jun/11/the-7th-guest-remake-review

T he 90s were a gold rush for adventure games. LucasArts kicked off the decade with its legendarily irreverent Monkey Island games. Then, Cyan Worlds materialised to deliver a series of atmospheric and boundary-pushing odysseys with Myst and Riven . Nestled between these primary genre texts is The 7th Guest, a lesser-known but still notorious adventure that earned plaudits for its unique FMV visual style, blending live-action filmed footage with pre-rendered 3D backgrounds. It was remade originally for VR, and now has been reconfigured into something playable on PC and consoles, its digital cobwebs cleared and tricky puzzles tinkered with for a fresh (or nostalgic) audience.

We are dropped into the ectoplasmic shoes of an amnesiac apparition, arriving at the gloomy haunted home of a toy-maker. Armed with a time-bending lantern and a Ouija board-shaped map, your job is to solve a historical whodunnit by literally illuminating events from the past. It’s a melodramatic, surprisingly campy adventure that effectively evokes the overzealous CD-Rom horror of its original era.

The dilapidated design of the manor can take some of the credit here, with its dusty ornate chandeliers and garish framed portraits lining the halls. But it’s the haunting spectres that make the most impact as you work through the story. To capture the original games’ full-motion storytelling, this rendition uses volumetric video capture on 3D models, creating an uncanny visual effect. This anachronistic look bolsters the game’s unnerving atmosphere, and I quickly became obsessed with stalking the figures and watching the polygons pop and bounce as if in response to the flamboyant performances of the game’s cast.

Set dressing aside, the real meat of The 7th Guest Remake is its puzzles, which scale from approachable to migraine-inducing. You’ll find yourself rerouting a model train to attach cabooses, playing a theremin to explode runic vases and restructuring the squares of a musty quilt to re-create the cycle of life. Because the answer to each puzzle is crystallised in the past, you’ll need to use your mystic light to explore and scour each area for clues. This could have easily become tiresome over the game’s six-hour runtime, but the well-executed visual trickery and careful theming of each bedroom and rumpus room keep it from feeling like work.

The only problem with this spirited remake is that controlling it can be a nightmare. While you can move around the manor freely, shining your light on whatever you please, when you want to interact with something, you’re back to a finicky point-and-click system. You have to wait for a skeleton hand icon to appear on an item before you can engage with it, and the tracking of your inputs isn’t reliable at all, leaving you stuck nudging your mouse around a millimetre at a time to try to pick something up or press an intriguing button. This may be a result of the transition from VR, but given that The 7th Guest was a point-and-click game in the first place, the controls feel egregious.

It’s easy to see why The 7th Guest was so beloved in the first place. Vertigo Games has given this classic a well-deserved facelift, ratcheting up the impact of its theatrical story and unique historical atmosphere. Frustrating mechanical woes aside, it still feels like essential reading for puzzle-lovers who wish to experience one of the classics that shaped the adventure game genre.

The 7th Guest Remake is out now; £17.99/$19.99/€19.99

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Ukraine, Russia, Europe, World news
Title – ‘Highway of death’: the Ukrainian drone campaign menacing Russian logistics | Ukraine | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/peterbeaumont
Link – ‘Highway of death’: the Ukrainian drone campaign menacing Russian logistics | Ukraine | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-11T04:00:06.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/11/highway-of-death-the-ukrainian-drone-campaign-menacing-russian-logistics

R ussian forces call it the “Novorossiya” route, the crucial main supply line that snakes through the Ukrainian territories under Moscow’s occupation, linking Rostov-on-Don in Russia to Melitopol, Mariupol and Crimea via the Sea of Azov coastline.

In recent months, however, Ukrainian forces have given the R-280 a new name – “the highway of death” – in reference to the Ukrainian drones that dominate the airspace above the road, hunting down convoys of Russian military traffic.

The road, which has been almost completely closed to civilian traffic since late May, is particularly important to Moscow because it constitutes the main land corridor for supplying Russian forces in the south that avoid the exposed Kerch Bridge to Crimea.

Drivers have recorded video footage that not only shows burnt-out trucks on the side of the road, but in some instances captures the drone attacks themselves.

Traffic was suspended this week on the Chonhar Bridge – a key section of the road connecting Russia-occupied Kherson province to Crimea – after a series of Ukrainian drone strikes. Ukraine’s 1st Separate Assault Regiment said on Tuesday: “We see all movements and totally control the enemy’s repair works. We are ready to make our long-range adjustments at any moment.”

Ukrainian drone operators, including those of 412th “Nemesis” brigade, say dozens of trucks and tankers have been destroyed as part of an intensified effort known as the “middle strike campaign”.

The campaign is aimed at Russian targets located between 20km and 200km behind the frontline, with a focus on logistics and supply lines. Last month, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said such strikes had quadrupled since February.

“There are now twice as many strikes at distances of 20km-plus compared with March,” Zelenskyy said on 5 May, “and four times as many compared with February. And there will be even more. This is a priority area.”

Three weeks later, Ukraine’s defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, was more explicit. The intention, he said, was a “logistics lockdown”, and extra funds and drones were being funnelled to the most effective units.

“Our task now, as directed by the president, is to maximise the middle strike and, in coordination with the military, create a complete logistics lockdown for the enemy,” Fedorov said. His formula is simple: the enemy “will no longer feel safe even at a great distance from the frontline”.

The impact on the Russian supply line has been remarkable. On Tuesday, Robert Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, said military cargo traffic along the highway had fallen by 71% over the past two weeks.

Ukrainian drone units are coy about the precise details of the new tactics, but a central component of the effort appears to be the use of swarms of drones to attack logistics routes including roads, railways and bridges in numbers that seem to have caught Russian forces by surprise.

US-produced Hornet drones have reportedly featured heavily in the Ukrainian attacks, their operators assisted by AI to identify truck traffic.

The winged drones, which are the size of a large surf board and have a range of about 150km, have been used to patrol and bomb Russian convoys almost continuously. One immediate impact has been fuel shortages in Crimea.

Ukrainian forces also appear to have been utilising a new, locally produced 2 metre-long lightweight fixed-wing drone, known as the Morrigan, which can be launched from a sling shot or a rail, removing the need for a road or airfield.

A Russian official quoted on the Meduza independent news site also suggests that airdropped mines are being used.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-installed head of the occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, described a “comprehensive remote mining system” that detonated on movement, warning drivers to “limit trips unless absolutely necessary”.

The end result has been roads littered with the charred hulks of destroyed Russian trucks, as convoys have tried to move off the main roads to avoid detection.

The new Ukrainian tactic has been noted by independent analysts, including the US-based Institute for the Study of War thinktank. In a recent update, it said: “Ukrainian intermediate-range strikes are already achieving notable operational effects, including degrading Russia’s ability to use the key Russian highway connecting Russia to occupied Crimea and GLOCs [ground lines of communication] around Donetsk City.”

On 21 May, Vladimir Saldo, the Kremlin-appointed governor of Russian-occupied Kherson region, signed a decree introducing restrictions on civilian truck movements on the R-280 where it runs along the Sea of Azov.

In an indication of the Ukrainian success, Saldo compared the strikes to the siege of Leningrad: “This is cynical barbarism. In its cruelty, these actions are reminiscent of the fascist blockade of Leningrad, when the enemy tried to intimidate people, sever connections between territories and break the will of the civilian population.”

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Pope Leo XIV, Migration, Spain, The papacy, Catholicism, Christianity, Europe, World news
Title – Pope Leo rails against migrant deaths on visit to Spain’s ‘dock of shame’ | Pope Leo XIV | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ashifa-kassam
Link – Pope Leo rails against migrant deaths on visit to Spain’s ‘dock of shame’ | Pope Leo XIV | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-11T16:47:55.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/11/pope-leo-migrant-deaths-spain-dock-of-shame

The constant flow of people embarking in small, rickety boats to migrate abroad should force a reckoning as to why we have built a world where so many “must risk death to seek life”, Pope Leo has said as he warned: “We cannot grow accustomed to counting the dead.”

Thursday’s speech in the Canary Islands, on the final leg of the pontiff’s week-long tour of Spain, contained Leo’s most pointed comments to date on migration.

Standing near a memorial to the many who had braved the fierce swells of the Atlantic in the hope of carving out a better life in Europe , the pope railed against the world’s “indifference” and called on leaders to treat migrants more humanely.

“Even today, monsters lurk in these seas: mafias that traffic in despair, traffickers who enslave women and children, and those whose indifference allows the poor to be swallowed up by exploitation or oblivion,” he said.

Last year, an estimated 1,906 people died attempting to cross into Europe along the perilous Atlantic route.

Flanked by rescue ships and a simple wooden cross cobbled together from the wreckage of migrant boats, the US-born pope said it went against Christian values to “regard as foreign the cry of those who shout from the night”, and he warned that history would condemn those who did so.

“May history not accuse us of turning the pain of those who suffer into a common sight along our shores,” he said. “Today, here by the sea, every individual that arrives asks us what remains of our humanity. Sooner or later, it will be known whether we protected life or whether we yielded to indifference.”

The event was held at the dock of Arguineguín in Gran Canaria, which burst into the spotlight in 2020 after arrivals along the Atlantic route swelled. As Spanish media showed migrants left to sleep on the rat-infested dock and others who had gone weeks without blankets or showers, the wooden jetty became known across the country as the “dock of shame”.

After hitting a peak of more than 46,000 arrivals in 2024, the number of people crossing via the Atlantic route has dropped sharply. Rights groups have said EU cooperation with countries across Africa appears to be emphasising deterrence while turning a blind eye to the risk of rights abuses.

In his speech, the pope singled out Europe, urging people to see the tragedy of migration as a “call to conscience” for all of those involved. “Europe cannot claim to uphold human dignity while growing accustomed to the Mediterranean and Atlantic becoming graveyards without headstones,” he said.

The comments come as the EU pursues an increasingly hardline on irregular migration, from Italy’s escalating crackdown on the NGO rescue ships that ply the Mediterranean to a new bloc-wide law that critics say mimics the US administration’s ICE system.

In recent years, Spain’s Socialist-led government has sought to position itself as a notable exception, including by championing its efforts to regularise more than half a million undocumented people.

On Thursday, the pope expanded on this to call for “legal and safe pathways” for immigration, international cooperation to fight human trafficking, and funding to rescue migrants in distress at sea.

“Human dignity has no passport and does not lose its value when crossing a border,” he said. “Every boat that arrives does not bring only migrants, it brings with it a question: what kind of world have we built, if so many brothers and sisters must risk death in search of life?”

He capped off his speech by casting a wreath of flowers into the sea, accompanied by a moment of silence, to mourn those who had lost their lives while in transit.

It was an echo of a gesture made by Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, who visited the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013 and denounced the “globalisation of indifference” towards migrants.

Thursday’s event also featured testimony of first responders, humanitarian workers and migrants, including that of a Nigerian woman who had risked all to enter Europe. “I had to choose: live in suffering, or cross and risk it all. Die trying, or stay and not have anything,” said the woman, whose journey led to her being trafficked into prostitution and led to her baby being snatched from her.

Leo responded by telling her she was a blessing from God and deserved happiness.

Later, he said: “Dear migrants, before saying anything else to you, I want to bow before your dignity,” inclining his head slightly. “You are not just numbers or files. You are people who have left behind families and homes. You have dreams that no one has the right to despise.”

Keyword – Books
Trefwoorden – Biography books, Jonathan Swift, Books, Culture
Title – The Twitnam Summer by Hester Grant review – Swift, Gay and Pope’s season in the sun | Biography books | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/kathrynhughes
Link – The Twitnam Summer by Hester Grant review – Swift, Gay and Pope’s season in the sun | Biography books | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T06:00:37.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jun/12/the-twitnam-summer-by-hester-grant-review-swift-gay-and-popes-season-in-the-sun

I n 1726 Jonathan Swift , dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, crossed the Irish sea with the manuscript of Gulliver’s Travels in his luggage. Beneath the child-friendly chatter about a sailor marooned on an island full of tiny Lilliputians, the book was a scabrous satire on the corruption of public life under the politically ascendant Whigs, whom Swift regarded as a pack of moral pygmies.

Swift’s ultimate destination, though, was not Whitehall but rather the idyllic Twickenham – “Twitnam”, as they knew it – home of his old friend, the poet Alexander Pope. Here he intended to work out a plan for anonymous publication of his sulphurous masterpiece, one that would not land him in legal trouble. In Pope he could be sure of a sympathetic co‑conspirator. Both men were members of the Scriblerus Club, an unofficial association of dissident wits who nonetheless set great store by literary collaboration. Pope was equally disaffected with the state of the nation, although his loathing was directed towards the philistine Hanoverians, who had arrived from Germany in 1714 to take up the British throne. Pope, whose Catholicism disqualified him from royal patronage, made a big point of not having to scramble for favours from the court. Instead, he emphasised the superiority of his life of suburban independence on the banks of the Thames.

The third hero of Hester Grant’s enjoyable dip into the world of early Georgian satire is John Gay, author of The Beggar’s Opera. The musical comedy comprised a savage takedown of Robert Walpole, leader of the all-conquering Whigs, whom Gay regarded as no better than a highwayman and a thief. Unlike Swift and Pope, though, Gay reserved his invective solely for his writing. The rest of the time he was a sunshiny soul, fond of a drink and hopeless with money, forever scrounging a bed for the night. In the summer of 1726 he fetched up at Twitnam to stay at Pope’s exquisitely designed villa, which came complete with an underground grotto furnished with flints, shells and glittering glass.

It wasn’t all lovely. Grant is very good on the less salubrious aspects of life in the 18th century. Take Swift’s regular trundle between Dublin and London. An expensive carriage ride meant sealing yourself into a fetid, jiggery box with five strangers while trying hard not to vomit into their laps (Swift was vulnerable here thanks to Ménière’s disease, which played havoc with his balance). Then there was the endless lying around in grubby lodgings in a small port such as Holyhead while you waited for the tide and weather to turn in your favour. Factor in luggage that travelled separately and was virtually bound to go astray, and it is no wonder Swift got the reputation for being a misanthrope.

Less successful perhaps is Grant’s decision to organise this group biography around the proposition that these few weeks in 1726 were some of “the most consequential in English literary history”, marking a “pivotal moment” in each man’s career. The stubborn fact remains that  Swift had already written Gulliver’s Travels by the time he turned up at Twitnam, while Pope was still labouring on a tedious translation of Homer, which he was doing for the money (he was never quite the free spirit he liked to suggest). His masterpiece, The Dunciad, about the stupidity of the Hanoverian court, would not see the light of day for another two years. John Gay, meanwhile, spent the high summer of 1726 doing his usual shilly-shallying: it would be 1727 before he got down to writing The Beggar’s Opera.

There is, of course, a case to be made that these summer weeks were a kind of creative laboratory, which produced several proofs of concept that would ultimately bear fruit in literary masterpieces. But Grant has to work very hard to convince the reader that these three clever men were doing anything different from what clever people always do when they get together: gossiping, chatting and going off on a hundred different tangents. In her previous book, which concerned a largely unknown set of siblings, the Sharps, who rose to social and political prominence in the 1780s, Grant did an excellent job of maintaining a sense of cohesion. Here she writes as beautifully as before, yet fails to make a persuasive case for braiding together three already very famous literary lives.

The Twitnam Summer: Friendship, Satire and the Writing of Gulliver’s Travels by Hester Grant is published by William Collins (£25). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.