Keyword – US news
Trefwoorden – Donald Trump, UFC, US news, Trump administration, US politics, Sport
Title – Trump facing pressure to condemn UFC fighter for disparaging Michelle Obama | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/davidsmith
Link – Trump facing pressure to condemn UFC fighter for disparaging Michelle Obama | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T10:00:05.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/16/trump-pressure-ufc-fighter-michelle-obama

Donald Trump is facing growing pressure to condemn an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) competitor who used a White House appearance to push a sexist, racist and transphobic conspiracy theory about former first lady Michelle Obama.

At a UFC event on the south lawn on Sunday, the US president’s 80th birthday, Josh Hokit, a fighter, shouted into the microphone in front of Trump: “Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?”

Trump appeared to show a half-smile seconds after Hokit’s slur, CNN reported , while some in the audience burst into a laughter. The false claim can be traced to far-right echo chambers online. The president himself has a history of making offensive remarks.

Hokit’s outburst was widely denounced at the event, which critics had already derided as a tacky and vulgar debasement of the White House, ahead of the 250th anniversary of independence. Donna Brazile, a former interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, said: “Michelle Obama’s legacy speaks for itself. Shame on the vile comments from that UFC fighter.”

Sunny Hostin, a lawyer, journalist and co-host of The View on the ABC network, addressed the controversy on Monday’s show. “For a long time – and the roots are in slavery – Black women have been slurred and made to feel that they were unattractive, made to feel that they were masculine, made to feel that they didn’t have the femininity that a white woman would have,” she said.

“There is this intersectionality between racism and sexism that was on full display at the White House. The crowd laughed at the statement and the president of the United States smirked and never addressed what was said. That is beneath the dignity of the office of the president of the United States, and it’s beneath the dignity of the American people.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment but even Trump allies called for the president to break his silence on the issue.

Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, who endorsed and voted for Trump in the 2024 presidential election, said on Wake Up Barstool on Fox Sports 1 : “There was one moment I do think Trump has to denounce, and anybody associated with it has to denounce. And that’s that crazy fighter guy … he won the fight, he took the microphone, and he made a derogatory comment about Michelle Obama.”

Portnoy added: “When you have that on the White House lawn on an event you put on, I don’t care what you think about the Obamas or anything, that has to be an immediate denounce. I have no problem with the event. I guess you run that risk because these guys are lunatics. But that was the only thing. Trump should denounce it.”

Dana White, the UFC impresario, told Time magazine in a text message: “I understand that the Obamas are public figures, but I’m completely against saying nasty and false things about people’s families. Everyone knows my position on free speech but I hate that kind of nonsense.”

Robert Griffin III, a former American football quarterback who does not support Trump, but has called for understanding of his supporters, wrote on X : “What a disgrace. It takes a really small man to use his biggest moment to attack a woman by calling her a man. Especially with the history behind calling black women men.”

But some on the right defended Hokit. Dan Bongino, a rightwing podcaster and former deputy director of the FBI under Trump, tweeted : “The pearl clutching over a joke, made by a UFC heavyweight known for his post fight stand up comedy acts, is next level hypocrisy.

“The same people moaning and clawing at their faces over it have absolutely no problem calling President Trump and his supporters “nazis,” and “fascists,” so I’ll pass on the faux outrage. Thanks. And have a splendid day!”

Michelle Obama and her husband, former president Barack Obama, are regularly the targets of racist abuse. Earlier this year Trump shared a video clip on his Truth Social platform that depicted the couple as apes then deleted it after an outcry .

Keyword – Music
Trefwoorden – Jazz, Music, Culture, Windrush at 75, Windrush scandal, Black British culture
Title – ‘Windrush is a love story too’: Renell Shaw on paying homage to Black British life in his new jazz trilogy | Jazz | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/kevin-le-gendre
Link – ‘Windrush is a love story too’: Renell Shaw on paying homage to Black British life in his new jazz trilogy | Jazz | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T12:00:45.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jun/12/renell-shaw-jazz-musician-interview-windrush-suite-kings-place

A briefcase-sized console with a large, sleek keypad, the MPC One drum machine is an eye-catching piece of kit. It can’t be easily overlooked among the various synthesisers, guitars, amps, samplers and vinyl albums in Renell Shaw’s studio in Wood Green, north London. This month, when the 38-year-old musician plays a double-bill show at Kings Place, five miles down the road, the treasured black box will travel with him – and it has special sounds.

“On stage, I’ll have my score and the MPC, with my grandparents’ voices stored in there. They’ll be there with the band in front of me,” says Shaw, artist-in-residence for Kings Place’s Memory Unwrapped season, a series of musical performances that explore nostalgia, transformation and future.

The testimonies of his elders are an integral part of The Windrush Suite, the first of two extended compositions Shaw will perform that are entirely personal. “I needed to tell real stories, not just the facts, about West Indians coming over on a boat called the Windrush in 1948. Our story is of growth, and it’s a love story, too. I mean, my grandmother came over here from Jamaica looking for work, and my grandfather came over to chase my grandmother!” he chuckles. “When you approach migration on a human level, you connect with it, whether it’s your culture or not, because it can be about triumph over adversity irrespective of gender, race, age.”

Shaw is intent on presenting the Windrush generation as more than the “children of the empire” who, in prevailing narratives, helped to rebuild austere postwar Britain by making invaluable contributions to public services. The anecdotes he has recorded add gravitas to music that is eclectic if not cinematic, with jazz-inflected horns and classical strings blending with taut, crisp funk performed by a 12-piece group.

The group, meanwhile, has a wide span of ages, from 65-year-old marimba player Orphy Robinson to 30-year-old drummer Romarna Campbell via 41-year-old cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson. “Having different generations in the same room means the music carries lived experience, inherited memory and future perspective all at once,” says Shaw.

Known first and foremost as a bassist and producer (he has worked with soul-opera singer Carleen Anderson, rapper Speech Debelle and drum’n’bass act Rudimental), the London-born Shaw is also a talented composer, scooping an Ivor Novello award for The Windrush Suite in 2020. That piece and its sequel, Echo in the Bones , were originally performed on screens during the pandemic, with musicians all playing parts in different studios at a time when the world was in a state of isolation. Shaw bristles at the memory, but also puts a positive spin on lockdown. “One of the few good things about Covid was that all my favourite people were at home, so I could hire them to play my music, as they weren’t on tour!”

At the same time, “it was weird not having a live audience to respond to, even though there were ‘likes’ and ‘shares’”, says Shaw. For the marimba player Robinson, who mentored Shaw back in 2002 (we speak a few days after my visit to Shaw’s studio), the move from virtual to actual is even more resonant today given the creeping disposability of real musicians. “This is the time of AI, never mind what we went through with Covid,” he says. “I’d say that live gigs are more important than ever. We have to connect with an audience in the same room as us. It’s really got to be art rather than artificial.”

As upbeat as Shaw is about the forthcoming show, he is also keen to stress that the suites broach inconvenient truths that need to be told. Echo in the Bones chronicles the experiences of his parents, who were born in Britain rather than being Caribbean migrants. The oppression they had to endure, particularly police brutality at the height of the infamous stop and search SUS laws in the 1980s, is shocking.

“When I heard my uncle and dad talk about police, and being beaten in the back of a van, I felt that they understood that this didn’t have to be tolerated in a way that my grandparents hadn’t,” he says. “I think my parents felt like they had a level of ownership being born here, so there’s a bit less compliance, there’s more resistance in Echo in the Bones. I spent a lot of time talking to my parents, first-generation Black Britons of Jamaican and Dominican origin. I wanted to tell their story. They’re basically saying: ‘No, this is my country, we’ll fight back.’”

Shaw underscores that stance in songs featuring powerful lyrics penned by poet-vocalist Afronaut Zu, but he is sufficiently ambitious to lend to all his suites a comprehensive spectrum of mood and texture. Certain instruments were chosen for their unique qualities. The deft pattering of Robinson’s marimba – a large, handsome xylophone with wooden bars – infuses a strong African resonance to the music but it also sits well on the more classically inflected passages.

Another central element of Shaw’s sound world is provided by the Birmingham drummer Romarna Campbell, who has drawn plaudits for work with her own trio as well as collaborations with artists such as idiosyncratic Mercury prize-winning singer Benjamin Clementine. Campbell is adept at designing unique drum kits for every new project, often imaginatively combining acoustic and electronic components. She first worked with Shaw on the play Black Power Desk, a musical named after a controversial police surveillance unit founded in 1967 to disrupt burgeoning Black activism, and feels that this forthcoming performance enables her to flourish artistically.

Because Campbell was trained in both jazz and classical, she plays a wide range of drums and percussion. “I’m using bits of a standard kit, timpani and percussion related to the Caribbean, but it’s subtle, not overpowering. Making everything precise for what Renell has created is really important, so all these things are chosen and assembled very carefully. It’s like I’m building little spaceships.”

Seeing Campbell take off with both feet on the ground – musically speaking – while Robinson and co thread together the intricate parts of Shaw’s score should be even more thrilling on stage than it was in lockdown.

While looking forward to the in-person concerts, Shaw is also keen to challenge his audience as much as welcome them through the door. In October at Kings Place, he will also premiere Remember Us Tomorrow, the third and final chapter of The Windrush Suite, which focuses on newer generations of Black Britons. He promises the work will be as thought-provoking as its predecessors.

“I think audiences do not demand higher qualities of art in the way they used to, and so artists don’t feel the need to deliver higher qualities of art,” he states pointedly, before referring to a modern-day icon known for her political work, which was often as controversial as it was uncompromising. “I have to reflect the times, just as Nina Simone said, and make music that allows listeners to be more curious about the world. I’m trying to figure out how I can be me as I do that but I feel I’m on my way.”

Renell Shaw’s The Windrush Suite and Echo in the Bones are at Kings Place, London, on 25 June ; Remember Us Tomorrow is on 9 October .

Keyword – Life and style
Trefwoorden – Australian lifestyle, Dating, Relationships, Life and style
Title – The moment I knew: When he saw my unkempt hovel, he was so nonjudgmental | Australian lifestyle | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/doosie-morris
Link – The moment I knew: When he saw my unkempt hovel, he was so nonjudgmental | Australian lifestyle | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-13T20:00:23.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/14/moment-i-knew-unkempt-hovel-nonjudgmental

I ’d had a big, sparkly pop career in my 20s but by 2024 I was beyond my twink era, and getting by hopping from one weird gig to the next. Covid had really done a number on the music industry and, while my friend Paul Mac had kept me making music, I found myself drifting through a strange, boozy few years in Sydney. I’d been single since 2020 and my best friend was my cat.

Throughout that hazy time, I was as terminally online as ever. At 38 I was posting like a 20-year-old. One day, for no particular reason, I posted a track from the Dissociatives’ self-titled album from the mid-noughties. Paul, who I call my gay uncle, and Daniel Johns of Silverchair fame, had made just one LP together, and the obscure track, Thinking in Reverse , was one of my favourites.

To my surprise it earned me a little fire emoji reaction from the drag queen Karen from Finance, who I was vaguely aware of from their time on Drag Race. I didn’t think queens listened to indie music, so I was snobbily impressed and clicked “follow”.

As I looked over their Instagram posts I was intrigued by this self-made character and realised we had crossed paths over the years. It turned out in 2022 at the Gaytimes festival, as I scrambled to deal with a keyboard malfunction, Karen had performed a 15-minute-long Tina Turner medley to tide the crowd over!

Still, we had never spoken and I had never laid eyes on Richard Chadwick, the man behind the makeup. An online connection bubbled between us and occasionally, if I noticed we were in the same city (he lived in Melbourne), I’d suggest we meet up. But the stars never aligned.

As the 2025 Melbourne fringe festival approached, I was staying with a friend in the city. I popped on to Grindr only to be greeted with this familiar, very handsome face at zero metres away.

Richard, it turned out, was my friend’s flatmate. Not wanting to sully our finally meeting face to face by involving the app, I casually kicked open the door of the spare room I was in, hoping to catch him wandering by. When that didn’t work I started marching loudly around the house trying to get his attention. Little did I know Richard was suffering through a severe hangover.

Eventually my antics lured him out of his room and I got my first look at him, all sparkling blue eyes in a black band tee and a pair of basketball shorts. It was the first time I’d seen him out of costume. He had this beautiful warm smile and I threw my arms open at the sight of him. I knew as we were locked in that first firm embrace I was going to fall for him.

He must have felt something too because his hangover magically disappeared and he joined me at my gig. I spent the entire performance catching his eye in the crowd and singing my little heart out as if he was the only one there.

On the drive home we gushed about Silverchair’s highly underrated Diorama album. And put it this way: I didn’t need to make use of the spare room.

I flew home to Sydney the next day feeling elated but not expecting anything more. I was bowled over a few days later when he proposed taking a detour, after a show in Adelaide, through Sydney to visit me.

I hadn’t had a house guest in years and my apartment was a bachelor pad in all the worst ways. I was so embarrassed about it I booked us a hotel, but the room was so bad he insisted we go back to mine. There he got his first glimpse of who I was behind my performer’s facade – dirty dishes, hideous bed linen and all. He was so fine with the state of my house I could hardly believe it. This is a person who will not drink champagne unless everyone’s glasses match, yet my unkempt hovel didn’t receive much more than a side eye.

That is something I adore about Richard. Despite his own exacting standards, he is so nonjudgmental. I am a famously cynical guy. I see the worst in everything, especially myself. But Richard doesn’t; he challenges my negativity without ever making me feel bad about it.

When I get salty about some perceived slight, he asks me gently if it’s really something worth spending my energy on.

I didn’t even have a full-length mirror in my home when Richard started to stay, so he bought me one. Now when I send him my daily fit checks, I make my bed and tidy up before I take the shot. Not because I fear he will judge my slovenly ways but because his love makes me feel like the kind of person who deserves to have six decorative bed pillows and not sleep with their shoes on.

Brendan Maclean performs in the cabaret production Velvet Inferno at the Sydney Opera House, 24 July to 12 September

Tell us the moment you knew

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – European Union, Brexit, Keir Starmer, Labour, Foreign policy, Politics, UK news, Europe
Title – If the UK wants to rejoin the European Union, it first needs to understand it | Timothy Garton Ash | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/timothygartonash
Link – If the UK wants to rejoin the European Union, it first needs to understand it | Timothy Garton Ash | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-15T15:00:28.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/15/britain-rejoin-european-union-needs-to-understand-it-uk

A s Britain approaches the 10th anniversary of its vote to leave the EU, the British are beginning to debate rejoining what they call Europe. But, as in most previous British debates about “Europe”, this is Europe with the Europe left out. The discussion is all about what would be best for Britain economically and the British politics of getting there. Little or no account is taken of what the rest of Europe thinks or cares about. The other day, the Treasury minister Lord Livermore became the first member of the government to publicly endorse rejoining the EU. “Of course,” he told the House of Lords , “the UK will re-enter the European Union because it’s absolutely in our national economic interest.” As if we had only to knock on the EU’s door and – abracadabra! – we would immediately be welcomed back in.

If you asked all sitting British MPs to say when the European Council is next meeting in Brussels, I doubt that more than a handful could give you the right answer. In fact, I wonder how many could immediately tell you what the European Council is. It’s instructive to look at the agenda for that top table gathering of the national leaders of the 27 EU member states, together with the union’s key institutional leaders. Between 6pm this Thursday and lunchtime on Friday, they hope to discuss Ukraine, the Middle East, the EU’s next seven-year budget, global economic challenges, European defence and security, migration and illicit drugs. So they have, to put it mildly, a lot on their plate.

If you follow European media, or listen to Germans talking about Europe with Poles, or Italians with Portuguese, our sceptred isle hardly features at all. On both sides of the Channel, “Europe” is again being construed as not including Britain. The only major exception is defence and security, where the British are still seen as playing an important role. Poland’s Oxford-educated and once-anglophile foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, now coldly describes the UK as a “security provider”.

As for countries wanting to join, the EU has no shortage of them. There are already nine acknowledged candidates for membership, including small frontrunner Montenegro and the very large Ukraine (UKR is more important than UK to Europe today). This August, Iceland is holding a referendum on whether to resume negotiations for membership. A debate has opened up again in wealthy Norway. And let’s be honest, there are some in the EU – a minority to be sure, but a significant minority – who would not welcome Britain back.

All countries think mainly about themselves, but if there were a World Cup for solipsism, the British would effortlessly carry off the trophy. A new BBC documentary revisiting the 2016 vote painfully reminds us of the poverty of the British European debate. Here, amid a procession of the scheming boys who gave us the biggest act of national self-harm in our recent history, we again meet Boris Johnson, his thoughts as disordered as his hair. He sums up the core issue thus: “You either want the country to be independent or you think that we should create a federal Europe.” Actually, the entire mainstream of continental European politics today is precisely about finding a middle way between those two extremes. On the most charitable interpretation, Johnson has learned nothing and forgotten nothing since his time as a Eurosceptic Brussels correspondent in the early 1990s.

If you look at how the world is likely to develop in the next 20 years – a world of competing great powers and empires, with a militarily aggressive Russia, an economically aggressive China and a United States that will never return to its exceptional post-1945 level of transatlantic commitment – it’s obvious that the best bet for a middle power such as Britain is to be part of a bigger grouping of countries that largely share the same interests and values. Tony Blair, when freshly minted as prime minister, once rather ludicrously declared: “Britain should be bigger!” Every other European country, starting with France and Germany, can tell you that this is how you become “bigger”. The strategic goal of British policy should therefore be for the UK to become a full member of what, by then, will be a different European Union . And, with all due modesty, a sober analysis suggests that it would be in the long-term interest of the EU as a whole to have, as one of its 30-plus members, a Britain whose settled will it was to be among them.

It will, however, take a marathon of democratic persuasion to get us there. That persuasion will be needed on both sides of the Channel. In British opinion polls, there’s already a steady majority in favour of rejoining the EU and an overwhelming majority for it among younger voters – 68% of those aged 18-34, according to Ipsos. So time will be working for Breturn. But the politics will still be complicated. The person most likely to succeed Keir Starmer as Labour prime minister this autumn is Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester – if he wins the byelection this Thursday, the same day that the European Council convenes. He (or whoever succeeds Starmer) may still feel confined to negotiating within the party’s current red lines, which specify no return to the customs union, single market or freedom of movement. But the new government should immediately and boldly declare a much larger strategic ambition.

Labour should then fight the next election, due in 2029 at the latest, without any red lines, saying simply that it aims to achieve the relationship that will be best for Britain. Ideally, the entire emerging (very European-style) fragmented left-liberal block of Liberal Democrats, Labour , Greens and Scottish and Welsh nationalists would take that position. A lot is going to change in Europe over the next three years, and there may need to be some interim steps (membership of the single market, for example) in the next parliamentary term; but the democratic persuasion has to start now. In this dangerous post-American world, the best place for Britain is indeed “at the heart of Europe”, and the only way to be at the heart of Europe is to be a full member of the EU. The path is unknown, but the goal should be clear.

Yet every step will depend on the EU side, which holds most of the cards. So the British have also to understand where other Europeans are coming from, how their complicated union really works and what is, to put it bluntly, in it for them. And Britain’s elected representatives must learn to speak European, that unique multilingual language in which the advancement of national interest is subtly blended with the historically informed embrace of a shared European future. Is the current British political class capable of this? I hope it even more than I doubt it.

Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist. His new book, Europe in 7½ Chapters , will be published this autumn

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, Football, World Cup, Sport, US sports, Australia sport, Mexico, Czechia, South Korea, South Africa football team, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Qatar, Switzerland, Brazil, Haiti football team, Morocco football team, Scotland, Australia, Paraguay, Turkey, USA, Curaçao, Ecuador, Germany, Côte d’Ivoire football team, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, Tunisia football team, Belgium, Egypt football team, Iran, New Zealand, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Uruguay, France, Iraq, Norway, Senegal football team, Algeria football team, Argentina, Austria, Jordan, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo football team, Portugal, Uzbekistan, Croatia, England, Ghana football team, Panama
Title – Golden Boot: World Cup 2026 top goalscorers | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author –
Link – Golden Boot: World Cup 2026 top goalscorers | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-15T07:33:34.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2026/jun/04/golden-boot-world-cup-2026-top-goalscorers-winner

The Golden Boot is awarded to the World Cup’s top goalscorer, with assists used as a tie-breaker if two or more players finish level. The 2026 tournament has three former Golden Boot winners taking part: Kylian Mbappé of France (eight goals in 2022), England’s Harry Kane (six goals in 2018) and James Rodríguez of Colombia (six goals in 2014).

Mbappé and Kane are among the pre-tournament favourites to finish top scorer in North America, alongside Norway’s Erling Haaland – making his World Cup debut – and Argentina’s Lionel Messi.

Other pre-tournament favourites include Spain’s Mikel Oyarzabal and Lamine Yamal, Vinícius Júnior of Brazil and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo. However, history tells us not to discount a surprise package. Totò Schillaci, initially a back-up striker in Italy’s squad, won the Golden Boot in 1990, while Russia’s Oleg Salenko finished joint-top scorer in 1994, albeit aided by five goals in one game against Cameroon.

Golden Boot contenders have an extra match to rack up the goals in 2026, with a 48-team tournament meaning a round of 32 for the first time. Any team that reaches the semi-finals will finish the World Cup having played eight games, although the highest Golden Boot total ever – Just Fontaine’s 13 goals in six games for France in 1958 – remains an imposing target.

You can no longer have joint winners. If two or more players have the same number of goals and also of assists, the total minutes played in the final competition will be taken into account, with the player playing fewer minutes ranked first.

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – Tennis, Sport, US sports
Title – Ben Shelton bests fellow American Taylor Fritz in Stuttgart for first title on grass | Tennis | The Guardian
Author – Agence France-Presse
Link – Ben Shelton bests fellow American Taylor Fritz in Stuttgart for first title on grass | Tennis | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-14T16:14:32.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/14/ben-shelton-taylor-fritz-stuttgart

American top seed Ben Shelton beat countryman and defending champion Taylor Fritz 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 to win the Stuttgart Open ATP title on Sunday.

Grass court specialist Fritz had never previously lost a final on the surface. Shelton broke the second seed once in the opening set and once in the third to claim victory in 1 hour 48 minutes.

The 23-year-old, who played almost five hours of tennis on Saturday, looked on the ropes at times but fought off nine of Fritz’s 11 break points.

The title was the third for Shelton, the world No 5. He won February’s Dallas Open, where he also beat the ninth-ranked Fritz, and the Munich Open in April.

In doing so, Shelton became the fourth man this decade to win titles on all three surfaces – hard, clay and grass – in one season after Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Bublik and Novak Djokovic.

“I’m pretty exhausted but to play the way I did, against the quality of opponents I played, in very tight matches – and getting a win today over one of the best grass court players in the world is a huge boost for my confidence,” Shelton said.

Fritz praised Shelton after his “insane schedule this week”, adding that “it speaks to the kind of player he is – an amazing competitor”.

Shelton made Sunday’s final after a physically demanding Saturday. He finished off a delayed quarter-final earlier before battling to beat Jiri Lehecka in almost three hours in the afternoon.

Shelton had lost the first set in each of his three previous matches at the tournament but took the opener with a powerful and controlled performance. The miles in the younger American’s legs began to show, however, and Fritz romped through the second set, losing just one point on his serve. Fritz was again dominant on his serve in the final set but Shelton held firm, before breaking serve in the second-from-last game and then serving for the match.

“Taylor was completely unplayable for parts of the match today,” Shelton said, but added that his performance “gives me a lot of hope going into Halle and Wimbledon”.

Wimbledon begins on 29 June.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, Tunisia football team, World Cup, Football, Sport
Title – Tunisia confirm Hervé Renard appointment after sacking Sabri Lamouchi | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/guardian-sport
Link – Tunisia confirm Hervé Renard appointment after sacking Sabri Lamouchi | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T10:59:09.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/15/tunisia-sack-sabri-lamouchi-one-game-into-world-cup-2026-5-1-defeat-sweden

Tunisia have sacked their head coach Sabri Lamouchi and appointed Hervé Renard until the end of the World Cup, after losing their opening game 5-1 to Sweden.

Former Nottingham Forest manager Lamouchi had only taken over in January and was in charge for just five matches, but he has become the first coach to be dismissed after a single game of a World Cup finals.

A statement from the Federation Tunisienne de Football announced the “termination of its contractual relationship” with Lamouchi by mutual agreement. Renard will bring World Cup experience having led Saudi Arabia to a surprise 2-1 win over eventual champions Argentina in Qatar, and he also took charge of Morocco in 2018. The 57-year-old has also managed Ivory Coast, Zambia and Angola at international level.

The Tunisia statement added: “The agreement [to appoint Renard] also states to open negotiations after the end of participation in the World Cup, for long-term cooperation based on specific sporting goals.”

Renard will be in the dugout for Tunisia’s remaining Group F fixtures against Japan and the Netherlands. The thrashing by Sweden left the Eagles of Carthage bottom of their group, with Japan their next opponents in Monterrey (Sun 5am BST/midnight EDT kickoff).

It is the second time that Tunisia have removed a manager during a World Cup after Henryk Kasperczak was sacked following two defeats at the finals in France in 1998.

Speaking after the defeat by Sweden, Lamouchi admitted it had been a “painful” experience. “Starting the competition with this bad of a loss is indeed difficult,” he said. “We made too many mistakes, and this is not something that we can do. We are shooting ourselves in the foot, we are hurting ourselves.”

Keyword – Film
Trefwoorden – Film, Documentary films, France, Migration, Culture, Europe, World news
Title – Nightwatchers review – desperate struggle of migrant crisis under surface of picture-postcard ski resort | Film | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/phuong-le
Link – Nightwatchers review – desperate struggle of migrant crisis under surface of picture-postcard ski resort | Film | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T06:00:47.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/16/nightwatchers-review

W ith its rustic wooden chalets and spectacular alpine peaks, the French ski town of Montgenèvre has long been a popular holiday destination. Looking past these postcard-perfect vistas, Juliette de Marcillac’s absorbing documentary paints a very different picture, focusing instead on a humanitarian crisis that festers beneath the snow-white image of an idyllic locale.

A whirl of confusion and fear envelops the film’s startling opening sequence, which follows a group of desperate migrants trekking across the Italian border into Montgenèvre, with the hope of claiming asylum in France . Among them are pregnant women and even small children, many of whom suffer from frostbite, exhaustion and other life-threatening conditions. Their plight, however, is met only with intimidation and orders of arrest from the local police force.

Wading through the chaos are the titular nightwatchers – local volunteers working in migrant aid. The jagged handheld cinematography channels the urgency of their efforts, as the helpers offer warm clothes, hot water, and medical assistance to those in need. In the face of police intimidation, these acts of care are suffused with the fervour of resistance.

Much of the film unfolds with the gripping suspense of a thriller. A tense cat-and-mouse dynamic exists between the volunteers and the police, whose members are surveilling not only the border-crossing migrants but the nightwatchers themselves. Though largely observational, De Marcillac’s visual approach also emphasises sobering contrasts. At times, the camera pans from the slumped figures of the travelling migrants – many of whom have already walked for thousands of miles – to the gondola lifts and colourful billboards; the juxtaposition lays bare the hypocrisies that underpin the treatment of asylum seekers. When day breaks, Montgenèvre will once again open itself up to the throngs of tourists. Meanwhile, for those confined to the surrounding forests, their right to freedom of movement is cruelly crushed.

Nightwatchers is on True Story from 19 June.

Keyword – News
Trefwoorden – Jo Cox, The far right, Brexit, Politics
Title – How the murder of my sister, Jo Cox, changed Britain | Jo Cox | The Guardian
Author – Nosheen Iqbal
Link – How the murder of my sister, Jo Cox, changed Britain | Jo Cox | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T08:52:34.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2026/jun/16/how-the-of-my-sister-jo-cox-changed-britain

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Algeria football team, World Cup 2026, Kansas, Football, Sport, World Cup
Title – How Algeria won over a Kansas town – and became the World Cup’s unlikeliest love affair | Algeria football team | The Guardian
Author – Daniel Sperry in Lawrence, Kansas
Link – How Algeria won over a Kansas town – and became the World Cup’s unlikeliest love affair | Algeria football team | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T08:00:49.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/16/algeria-lawrence-kansas-world-cup-fans-adopted-team

You’ve probably seen it by now: The video of a sweet elderly man overcome with emotion, standing outside in the rain and thunderstorms of Lawrence, Kansas , as Algeria arrived at its base camp.

The video and several more have gone viral as the surprise love affair of the World Cup has emerged from what seems like the unlikeliest of places – at least to those on the outside.

Algeria and Lawrence, Kansas, are apparently a match made in heaven.

“Seeing five to six hundred people that first evening, fans that were waiting outside our hotel, it really gave me goosebumps,” said Algeria head coach Valdimir Petković ahead of Tuesday’s showdown with Argentina.

Lawrence is located a little over 40 miles from Kansas City, a roughly 40-minute drive from the Metropolitan area that is hosting the base camps of Argentina, the Netherlands, and England for the World Cup . All three are staying at boutique hotels around the city. Algeria? Well, they chose the humble Lawrence DoubleTree.

So where did this come from? According to Stan Herd, a local artist, you have to go back to April, when it was officially announced that Lawrence would host Algeria.

“I think everybody’s surprised at it,” Herd said. “We’re not.”

Local organizers wanted to make sure that the country felt welcome in their city, according to Herd. So much so, they’ve commissioned artwork, and signs appear on the lampposts with the phrase “1,2,3, Viva l’Algérie!” Even McDonald’s drive-thru windows have signs welcoming Algeria and soccer fans to Lawrence.

Herd says Lawrence is “a blue city in a red state”. The city of nearly 100,000 is home to 27,000 college students from the University of Kansas. Roughly 30% of that student population is minorities or international students.

“Make sure you mention Sajedah,” Herd said. “She’s the one who reached 70,000 Algerians [via social media]. She’s a University of Kansas student, and she made this happen.”

Sajedah wanted to find a way to bring her college town and her local Algerian diaspora together. Thousands of Algerians live in the southern suburbs of the Kansas City metropolitan area, along with Sajedah, her sister, and her mother, Karima. They helped organize the support of the team’s arrival at the airport, through the creation of an Instagram account and Facebook page titled “ L’Algerie fi Kansas City ”.

Two days after Algeria’s arrival, the account helped organize a gathering at Kanza Market, an Algerian-owned business in Olathe, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, roughly 40 minutes from Lawrence. Hundreds showed up, mostly Algerians from the community .

Two days later, thousands showed up at Rock Chalk Park, the home of the University of Kansas women’s soccer team, where Algeria trains daily. A blend of locals, soccer diehards, Lawrence residents trying to find out about all the hype, and the local Algerian community, ready to see its team.

Of all the mandated community sessions held by teams based in the Kansas City area, Algeria’s was the most community focused. Algerian music played over the loudspeakers the entire session. And the “clinic” ended up being a massive kickaround on the infield of the neighboring track stadium, with hundreds of kids kicking the ball around with the likes of globally recognized names like Riyad Mahrez, Ibrahim Maza, Aissa Mandi, and Amine Gouiri.

The University of Kansas Band learned the Algerian National Anthem and played it perfectly as the team came out to train. Mahrez made sure to share his thanks via social media the next day.

“We saw that there were so many US citizens who had scarves for us,” said Petković. “They showed so much support, and they really wanted to celebrate this moment with our team.”

Two brothers, Aaron and Ethan Downey, met Karima and Sajedah at the team’s arrival in Lawrence. When they reunited at the community session in Lawrence, Karima had gifts for the boys: Algeria jerseys in their correct size.

One was a diehard Borussia Dortmund fan who got his new Algeria jersey signed by Ramy Bensebaini. After he got his shirt signed, he bounded back up the steps of Rock Chalk Park, where Karima sat. The two shared a deep embrace.

“We as Lawrence residents didn’t adopt the team,” said Aaron. “I think the Algerians adopted us. They brought all the vibes, the culture, the acceptance, to the residents of Lawrence. I think that’s what made us so close and made this what it is.”

Everything that has taken place in the city of Lawrence flies in the face of many narratives. Herd bemoaned rhetoric and the disdain for immigrants that has come from American political figures and the dark corners of social media.

“There’s a lot of unnecessary anger at people who don’t look like us, and pray like us, and walk like us, and cheer like us,” Herd said. “In Lawrence, we are wide open to embracing something new. That’s the difference.”

Days later, both Downey brothers joined Herd, and 600 others, gathering around Herd’s field art rendition of the Algerian flag. They sang songs and danced around the flag, Algerians and native Lawrence residents hand in hand.

In tears, Karima said the support was beyond anything they could have ever imagined.

As Algeria take on Argentina on Tuesday, it will be the minority of support in the stands. Argentinians and Messi fans have descended on Kansas City in the thousands in recent days. And on the field, Algeria will be the underdogs at Kansas City Stadium.

But the events of recent weeks will, without a doubt, mean that a few local attendees will end up pulling for Algeria, the adopted team of Lawrence, Kansas.

“I hope that we can behave in the right way in terms of the way that we conduct ourselves on and off the pitch, that we can certainly give a positive response to absolutely everyone,” said Petković. “But, I hope that we can make it through to the knockout stage and maybe everyone from Kansas can travel with us to another city.”