Keyword – Global development
Trefwoorden – Global development, Menstruation, Women, Pakistan, Society, South and central Asia, Women’s health
Title – ‘Period tax’ on sanitary products to be abolished, says Pakistan minister | Global development | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/kat-lay
Link – ‘Period tax’ on sanitary products to be abolished, says Pakistan minister | Global development | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T12:46:15.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jun/17/period-tax-sanitary-products-abolished-pakistan-minister

Pakistan plans to abolish “period tax”, in a victory for young campaigners who had taken the government to court over the charges.

Finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb announced that sanitary towels and related items were “daily necessities that are indispensable for women’s health, dignity and full participation in social activities”, and said he intended to remove the sales tax.

Commercial period products are used only by a minority of women in Pakistan because of their cost, according to research from Unicef . Most use cloth or homemade alternatives that can be unsafe and raise the risk of infection.

Two lawyers, 25-year-old Mahnoor Omer and 29-year-old Ahsan Jehangir Khan, brought a court case last year in a bid to get sanitary products zero-rated, so that they would not be subject to taxes of any kind. They said the charges amounted to a “pink tax” on women.

Their campaign was hugely successful on social media and a supportive petition attracted thousands of signatures.

Locally made period products incur the 18% sales tax in Pakistan, and imported products are subject to an additional 25% customs tax.

UN Women said the decision to abolish the sales tax was a welcome step that would help women stay in work and girls stay in school. It said: “Menstrual health is a matter of health, dignity and equality – not a luxury.”

Omer welcomed the announcement but said the fight was “ definitely not over ”, and that they would continue to push for the removal of all additional charges on period products.

Bushra Mahnoor, executive director of Mahwari Justice, a Pakistani period rights organisation, said the decision was “just one step towards combating period poverty” in the country.

She told CNN its most valuable effect was probably destigmatising menstruation, but that safe sanitary products remained unaffordable for the most vulnerable women.

She said: “Menstrual justice also means access to clean water, sanitation facilities, accurate menstrual education and a society free from period stigma.

“This moment is significant, but our work is far from over.”

The government will also no longer impose an 18% sales tax on contraceptives, Aurangzeb said.

Abolishing the tax on contraceptives was necessary in the face of “alarming” population growth, he added, saying: “Pakistan is the fifth-largest country in the world in terms of population … Family planning is a top priority of the government.”

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Morocco football team, World Cup 2026, World Cup, Football, Morocco, Sport, World Cup 2030
Title – Morocco’s average annual salary is $7,400 – some fans are paying double that for World Cup tickets | Morocco football team | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/leanderschaerlaeckens
Link – Morocco’s average annual salary is $7,400 – some fans are paying double that for World Cup tickets | Morocco football team | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T15:30:06.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/16/would-you-pay-twice-the-national-wage-to-see-the-world-cup-some-morocco-fans-are-doing-just-that

T hey had come from the United Kingdom and from Dubai. A surprising number had come down from Montreal. They had come from Morocco, of course, from Marrakech and Casablanca, to witness their team take on mighty Brazil. To support Morocco, the administrative, off-again, on-again champions of Africa , and semi‑finalists at the last World Cup in Qatar.

“We had a good World Cup in 2022 and a good African Cup of Nations,” Kamal Ait El Hadj said before the game, lounging in his seat in the New York New Jersey Stadium’s lower bowl. Soon enough, his section would be colored by Morocco’s blood red and splotches of green. “It was a minimum for me to be here.”

Ait El Hadj, a 47-year-old who “builds villas” in Morocco , figured his travel from Marrakech just for this match would set him back $5,000 (£3,700), even though he had a free ticket. He would go home after the game and planned to return for a last‑16 match – hopefully featuring Morocco – which would cost him another $5,000.

Houssam Jeboni, a 33-year-old fish wholesaler, was high up in the second tier. He said it would cost him $6,000 to follow his team through the group stage, from New Jersey through Foxborough and Atlanta, before flying home to Morocco via Miami.

Salma Sebti, sitting in the second tier behind one of the goals with her husband and daughter, had booked their travel for all three group matches as well. “And inshallah, we stay,” she said. They were here because she had a feeling the Atlas Lions required their presence to succeed. Sebti and her family would spend at least $15,000 on this trip, she estimated. They own a gas station in Marrakech.

We spoke to a dozen or so fans who had traveled from Morocco for the match and none of them reported any problems getting into the US, although some had faced waits in the immigration line as long as three hours. There was also consensus among them that Morocco are the rightful African champions.

But from those who managed to make it from Morocco to the Meadowlands on Saturday, a clear picture emerged of just who gets to witness this World Cup, of who can decide it’s “a minimum” for them, as it was for Ait El Hadj. After all, the average annual salary in Morocco is estimated to be less than $7,400 .

Morocco is a rising power in the global game. The rapidly developing country, which is building impressive infrastructure, has become the power player in African soccer and stands accused of wielding its swelling influence to wrest away Senegal’s continental trophy. In four years, Morocco will be the second African country (after South Africa in 2010), and the second Arab one (after Qatar), to host a World Cup , when it shares the duties with Spain and Portugal – and, briefly, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Judging from this random sampling, only Morocco’s well-off are sharing in the soccer spoils. In a soccerfootball-mad country like Morocco, as in many others, traveling to this World Cup is a luxury, costing what the average citizen would earn in an entire year or even two.

“I trust our team and I think this is our year,” said a 32-year-old Morocco fan who works in the travel industry and asked not to be named. He expected to spend up to $10,000 over 10 days. To him, this World Cup represents an appetizer for the one Morocco will co-host. “We will show the world we are ready to host the best World Cup in history,” he said.

He shared this abundant pride with Mohammed Smouni, the deputy director general of Morocco’s national railway. “We’re in training [to host],” he said.

Smouni is a World Cup regular, this is his fifth, and did not want to miss this fixture, the only group-stage contest between teams ranked in Fifa’s top 10, which would end 1-1 . “We got a taste in Qatar,” he said. He was in the stadium’s second tier beside his son, who had come from Montreal to meet him. “Seeing my team has no price.”

It did have a price, though – a $1,500 flight. A friend had given Smouni their tickets and was putting them up, making this a relatively affordable trip for him and his son.

That made Smouni one of the lucky ones. Ait El Hadj, the builder of villas, had saved up for a long time. But then he was lucky, too. “Not everyone can afford it,” he said.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is the author of The Long Game: U.S. Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, which is out now . He teaches at Marist University.

Keyword – Science
Trefwoorden – Archaeology, Infectious diseases, Microbiology, Science, Biology, World news, Russia, Europe
Title – Ancient DNA provides evidence of earliest known plague outbreak | Archaeology | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/iansample
Link – Ancient DNA provides evidence of earliest known plague outbreak | Archaeology | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T15:00:36.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/17/ancient-dna-evidence-earliest-known-plague-outbreak

The earliest evidence for an outbreak of plague has been uncovered at late stone age cemeteries in south-eastern Siberia where dozens of hunter-gatherers and their children were buried.

Ancient DNA collected from the remains suggests the disease tore through the sparse communities in devastating waves that began about 5,500 years ago, at least two centuries after the bacterium responsible, Yersinia pestis , first emerged.

The hunter-gatherers probably became infected after butchering or eating raw marmots , a risky practice that still causes plague deaths today . After spilling over from the chunky ground squirrels, the primary animal reservoir in the area, the disease spread from person to person, decimating families and others in close contact.

The work resolves a longstanding mystery of why so many children were among the dead at one cemetery in particular, named Ust-Ida, on the bank of the Angara River north-west of Lake Baikal, the oldest and deepest lake in the world.

While older hunter-gatherers might have survived past brushes with the disease and gained some immunity, young children were exceptionally vulnerable. At least two-thirds of the dead at two of the cemeteries were under 15 years old. Many who died shared graves with siblings or other family members.

“The archaeologists were keen to see whether ancient DNA analysis could shed any light on what happened and it absolutely did,” said Ruairidh Macleod, a research fellow who studies ancient DNA at the University of Oxford. “Getting the result that all these people were dying of plague was extraordinary but super exciting. We really didn’t expect to find this in prehistoric hunter-gatherers.”

The international team, including researchers in Copenhagen, Alberta, Cambridge and London, analysed dental pulp in the teeth of skeletons excavated from the cemeteries. The graves typically run parallel to the river, with bodies laid so the heads point downstream.

Tests on 42 hunter-gatherers buried at four cemeteries on the Angara river found that 18 of them (39%) contained Y pestis DNA, a higher proportion than is seen in some medieval plague pits. Given the high chance of false negatives, where infections are missed because the DNA is too degraded, the scientists suspect all those buried may have died from plague.

Writing in Nature , the researchers describe how the ancient DNA points to two distinct outbreaks, with the first starting about 5,500 years ago and the second 400 to 600 years later. Further analysis showed that Y pestis emerged at least 5,700 years ago, after splitting from its ancestor, a bug called Yersinia pseudotuberculosis , which can cause abdominal pain, fever, diarrhoea and vomiting.

The earliest evidence of plague in Britain is 4,000 years old , with traces of Y pestis found in the teeth of men and women excavated at bronze age burial sites in Cumbria and Somerset.

The hunter-gatherers most likely contracted pneumonic plague, which affects the lungs. The same bacterium causes other forms of the disease, namely septicemic plague, a blood infection, and bubonic plague, which leads to swollen lymph nodes, or buboes, in the armpits, neck and groin. Bubonic plague typically spreads through infected fleas and triggered devastating pandemics such as the Black Death, which killed half of the European population in the 14th century.

Scientists have questioned whether the very earliest forms of plague were deadly, because they lacked virulence genes that allowed bubonic plague to spread through fleas and rodents. The Y pestis found at the Lake Baikal cemeteries carried a superantigen, or toxic protein, that could trigger severe immune reactions, raising the risk of the disease being particularly lethal for children, the researchers found.

Samuel Cohn, a professor of medieval history at the University of Glasgow, said the work reached “groundbreaking conclusions” by identifying such early outbreaks in hunter gatherers, rather than in populations that arose at agricultural settlements. Isolated communities suffered in later outbreaks, however. During the Black Death, mountainous villages were hit in Snowdonia and across Tuscany, he said.

Plague outbreaks conjure up images of densely populated, rat-infested cities in the middle ages, but the latest work shows that small communities of ancient hunter-gatherers were far from safe. “To me that makes a lot of sense,” said Macleod. “If you’re a prehistoric hunter-gatherer, you’re going to be in contact with a lot more wild species than an early farmer, and it’s the wild species that are primarily the reservoirs of the disease, not the domesticated animals.”

Keyword – US news
Trefwoorden – US taxation, US news, Trump administration, New York, California, Illinois, West Coast
Title – Trump’s Department of Labor claims without data that states defrauded government | US taxation | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/michael-sainato
Link – Trump’s Department of Labor claims without data that states defrauded government | US taxation | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T13:12:55.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/17/trump-administration-state-fraud-claims

Keith Sonderling sent letters to 53 states and US territories demanding action to “combat waste, fraud, and abuse” within the unemployment insurance program, threatening to withhold administrative funds from states for the first time history.

“We are officially putting governors on notice,” said the acting US secretary of labor. “The American people will no longer tolerate the blatant waste, fraud, and abuse of their hard-earned tax dollars – no state should allow it either. If states allow it, they will suffer the consequences. This department is no longer afraid to use every lever available to ensure taxpayer money is protected.”

The agency did not provide data on fraud or alleged fraud in unemployment systems, but highlighted three Democrat-led states – California , New York, and Illinois – and made claims about each.

They say California owes $20bn to the federal government for a loan during the Covid-19 pandemic. California has struggled paying off the loan, as they did with a similar federal loan received during the 2008 economic recession, due to the current setup of how employers are taxed to fund unemployment. The unemployment payroll tax system in California has been unchanged since 1984 at a taxable wage ceiling of $7,000 on a workers’ wages and maximum tax rate of 5.4%, leaving the state with insufficient funds to cover its unemployment reserve while legislators on both sides of the political aisle have been working to try to resolve the issue.

The Department of Labor also claimed that New York loses an estimated $2m per day in unemployment insurance fraud and improper payments, but did not differentiate between the two. They also cited that Illinois has improper payments of $320m, at a rate of 14%.

Improper payments are not fraud , rather are most often cited as due to antiquated technology, with an estimated improper payment rate of 14.9% across the US.

While New York, California and Illinois have high improper payment rates compared to the rest of the US, several Republican states also have leading improper payment rates. Florida is reporting a 36.43% improper payment rate, more than double the rate in California at 16.85%, based on data from 2021 to 2024 .

“Fraud is still a problem and it hasn’t gone away since the start of the pandemic but this press release is part of the problem, why the fraud isn’t going away,” Michele Evermore, senior fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance, told the Guardian.

She noted that states should be able to seek help from the US Department of Labor instead of being blamed solely for the issue – with threats.

“No state wants to pay fraudulent benefits to criminal actors,” she added. “It should be an all of government, all of society response, instead of calling out governors they have a political beef with. It’s not the right way to soberly and stoically deal with a problem that everybody faces.”

Sonderling appeared on Fox News on Wednesday morning to discuss the letters.

“I will essentially cut off the states’ administrative funds and then they won’t be able to administer this unemployment insurance due to the fraud,” said Sonderling, who then claimed Democrat governors are the states with the highest fraud, without citing any evidence or data to substantiate the claim.

In May 2025, the Department of Labor sent letters to state unemployment agencies requiring them to return any unspent funds allocated in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a move criticized by unemployment experts for the disruption it would cause to states in the midst of modernizing their unemployment systems and efforts to fight fraud.

Estimated fraud during the Covid-19 pandemic in unemployment insurance across the US between April 2020 to May 2023 was between $100bn to $135bn , according to the Government Accountability Office, though the Department of Labor argued the estimate was overstated.

Keyword – Politics
Trefwoorden – Keir Starmer, European Union, Brexit, G7, Politics, UK news
Title – Starmer warns against ‘looking backwards’ to Brexit after rivals back UK’s return to EU | Keir Starmer | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/alexandratopping
Link – Starmer warns against ‘looking backwards’ to Brexit after rivals back UK’s return to EU | Keir Starmer | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T16:00:38.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/17/starmer-brexit-return-to-eu-g7-summit-labour-manifesto

The UK and the European Union should not waste time “looking backwards” to Brexit, Keir Starmer said on Wednesday, as he comes under pressure to reconsider rejoining the EU.

The prime minister reaffirmed his government’s manifesto commitment to not re-enter the bloc, but said there had been “real progress” with the relationship, which was “slowly but surely building”.

Starmer’s potential leadership rival Andy Burnham said last September he would like to see the UK rejoin the EU in his lifetime .

Wes Streeting, the former health secretary and another likely leadership contender, said in a speech last month that he would like to see the UK back in the bloc and called for a “new special relationship” with the EU.

When asked by reporters at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains if he would express a similar desire to rejoin the bloc, Starmer said he remained committed to “a clear manifesto commitment in terms of not rejoining the EU”.

He added: “That’s why we’ve gone for the closer relationship that we’re building. We’re slowly but surely building with the EU.”

On Tuesday, Starmer confirmed that the UK and EU would hold a “reset” summit on 22 July.

The summit, which will take place in Brussels, has been delayed several times, with talks deadlocked over a youth mobility scheme allowing under-30s from each respective territory to work, travel or study in the other.

As a result, some had speculated the summit would be postponed until the autumn.

António Costa, the president of the European Council, said: “Close EU-UK cooperation is essential for our shared European security, resilience and prosperity. We are working closely together to make our upcoming second summit on 22 July a success.”

Starmer said he had been “very clear” that he wanted a closer relationship with the EU. Listing his G7 summit achievements, he said he had held a “very successful” bilateral meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and taken part in meetings with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders over the future of Ukraine.

“One of the reasons that we’ve been able to make such good progress with the EU is, firstly, a joint recognition by myself and EU leaders that we shouldn’t spend the whole time looking backwards to Brexit and going over and over the Brexit vote,” he said. “We should look forward to what a relationship with the EU looks like.

“And the second [reason] is, we agreed that we wouldn’t do diplomacy by shouting into megaphones. We actually do it in a professional, quiet way, and we’ve made real progress with that.”

Keyword – Books
Trefwoorden – Books, Culture
Title – Tell us: what is your favourite beach read? | Books | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/guardian-community-team
Link – Tell us: what is your favourite beach read? | Books | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-10T13:58:57.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jun/10/tell-us-what-is-your-favourite-beach-read

Summer is here, which means lazy days at the beach or the pool with a great book by your side.

We would love to hear from people about their favourite beach reads. What books have you loved reading on holiday? What are the page turners that you keep returning to every summer and always recommend to friends? We would love to hear what books these are and why they make a great beach read.

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

Keyword – Film
Trefwoorden – Film, Drama films, Romance films, France, Comedy, Culture, Europe, World news, Paris
Title – Nino review – time is running out for young man faced with cancer in shrewd sperm sample portrait | Film | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/peterbradshaw
Link – Nino review – time is running out for young man faced with cancer in shrewd sperm sample portrait | Film | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T08:00:26.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/17/nino-review-tragicomic-tale-young-man-cancer-pauline-loques

F rench film-maker Pauline Loquès makes her feature directing debut with this meanderingly real-time-style portrait of a young man in Paris over a fraught weekend, somewhat in the manner of Agnès Varda’s New Wave classic Cléo from 5 to 7 . It is heartfelt and affecting, if a little flimsy.

Théodore Pellerin plays Nino, a young guy who has never quite got over the death of his dad, and who on the eve of his 30th birthday goes to the doctor due to slight pains while swallowing; he is told he has throat cancer, due to sexually transmitted HPV (or human papillomavirus) which he might have contracted years before. In a state of shock – baffled Nino persistently asks if he has got someone else’s test results – he is told that to preserve his chances of conceiving children he must provide a sperm sample for freezing right away, this weekend, before he begins chemo and radiotherapy on Monday.

As he faces this onerous task for which he is tragicomically not in the mood, poor Nino displays something between stoicism and numb inability to absorb the truth. He has a series of scenes and encounters in which his cancer is the unmentioned new elephant in his living room: he meets up with his ex, Camille (Camille Rutherford), but can’t tell her the news, leaving her with a postcard; he has a long conversation with his mum (a cameo for Jeanne Balibar) who has her own life to lead; he has to endure his own birthday party and then gets locked out of his apartment. He then has a fortuitous meeting with his school contemporary Zoé (Salomé Dewaels), a young mum. Smart, gentle Zoé has a connection with Nino, who is vouchsafed a sad vision of his future with her as a husband and father, a future which may never happen.

There are flaws in this film: the circumstances in which Nino finally provides that sperm sample are entirely ridiculous and there is a somewhat precious and self-conscious cameo for Mathieu Amalric. But in many ways it’s a shrewd sketch of the ways that real life, in all its embarrassment and banality, does not respectfully stop for bad news.

Nino is in UK and Irish cinemas from 19 June.

Keyword – News
Trefwoorden – UK news, World news, Photography
Title – AI arts and gold-mining in mud: photos of the day – Wednesday | UK news | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/natasha-rees-bloor
Link – AI arts and gold-mining in mud: photos of the day – Wednesday | UK news | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T13:44:51.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2026/jun/17/ai-arts-and-gold-mining-in-mud-photos-of-the-day-wednesday

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – Transgender, Sport, Society
Title – I’m a 14-year-old trans athlete. No one should face the vicious attacks I have faced | Lina Haaga | The Guardian
Author – Lina Haaga
Link – I’m a 14-year-old trans athlete. No one should face the vicious attacks I have faced | Lina Haaga | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T12:00:31.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/17/trans-athlete-no-one-should-face-vicious-attacks

F or as long as I can remember, I have known I am a girl. That certainty is as instinctive as knowing I am right-handed. It is difficult to explain to someone who has never been transgender or loved someone who is, but I have never lived this way to gain an advantage or take something from someone else. I live this way to honor what I know is true.

I transitioned at four years old. By sixth grade, my identity was public. I grew used to the double takes, the questions, the quiet skepticism. Most of it did not bother me. Curiosity, even when clumsy, is human. People understand gender differently, and I was taught to respect all ideas, just as I hope others respect mine.

But what occurred on 4 May was not respectful, nor was it curiosity – it was a blatant attack on the values I have always been taught to prioritize.

Days earlier, I competed in the Prep League Finals, a track championship for a small private school league in southern California. In the lane next to me was my older sister. Despite running on an irritated knee, my sister was chasing a likely victory in the 400 meters. She had won each of our prior races. So, when I crossed the finish line just milliseconds before her, I was as surprised as everyone else. My teammates rushed to me, cheering wildly. My sister wrapped me in a hug. My parents celebrated from the stands. It was a moment of joy, as simple, fleeting and shared as the victory of any other child.

Days later, the first headlines materialized across conservative media. To them, my victory wasn’t the typical celebration of a typical child; it was a crime, and I was a thief.

“Transgender heiress, 14, steals victory from her own SISTER at California race”

“Another biological male wins high school track championship”

“‘Trans’ Boy Beats Sister for Gold”

The comments were even worse:

“Put it in a padded room”

“Freak”

“Boy Shoulders”

“Monster”

“What a creep!”

Through each degrading claim and ostentatious headline, I realized the conversation was more malevolent than I anticipated. Not because of what they said about my performance, but because of what they said about my character. This was not a healthy debate about fairness in sports; it was about my worth as a person.

Countless adults absently unlocked their phones and devastated a 14 year old. It didn’t matter that my sister couldn’t have been prouder or that the scientific evidence on trans women’s advantages is mixed or even (and especially) that no child would upend their life for the chance of winning a race a decade later. It was far easier to comment than to question. Easier to react than to understand.

We can have conversations about fairness and equity in sports. In fact, we should. But the way we are conducting them is failing us. The line between debate and dehumanization has not just been crossed – it’s been erased. Opinion is being presented as fact. Disagreement is becoming ridicule. What masquerades as dialogue is amounting to something closer to public shaming.

And when the target is a freshman in high school, it is time we recognize that something has gone horribly wrong.

My plea is simple, but essential. Because if we ignore it, we risk continuing to take steps away from a respectful and constructive debate.

If you are a journalist or reader, a supporter or a skeptic, do the work before you speak. Seek out credible information. Hold your opinions to the highest standard of truth. Continue debating policies, questioning systems and expressing disagreement, but do not needlessly attack someone’s character to make your point. That is not thoughtful. It is not responsible. And, perhaps most importantly, it is absolutely not harmless.

Next time you choose to share your voice, remember that what lies beneath your finger is not just an upload button, but someone’s emotional wellbeing. Behind every headline, every comment, every repost, there is a person. There is a life that absorbs the gravity of your actions and the weight of your words.

If you want to begin taking steps toward positive change, I suggest you start listening to transgender people, reading reputable reporting and engaging with research. Organizations like the Trevor Project offer insight into the lived experiences of transgender youth. Outlets such as the Associated Press and PBS NewsHour aim for balanced coverage. Peer-reviewed studies in the British Journal of Sports Medicine or the National Center for Biotechnology Information provide a deeper scientific context. Remember that none of these sources is perfect, but they are a good place to start.

Because no child, transgender or cisgender, should be forced to endure the cruelty of uninformed adults.

Lina Haaga is a transgender student athlete

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, Erling Haaland, Iraq, Norway, World Cup, Football, Sport
Title – Norway’s Erling Haaland punishes Iraq with double on World Cup debut | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ewanmurray
Link – Norway’s Erling Haaland punishes Iraq with double on World Cup debut | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T00:17:03.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/17/iraq-norway-world-cup-group-i-match-report

Surely nobody expected anything different. Erling Haaland’s arrival on the biggest football stage of all involved a match-defining performance. Kylian Mbappé had laid down a marker with two goals in France’s win against Senegal . Haaland responded in kind, courtesy of a first-half double of his own.

The Manchester City striker’s quest for the Golden Boot depends on Norway enjoying a decent run in the event. Their hopes for that extended stay are so hugely reliant on Haaland. Theirs is a powerful combination. The name on the back of the shirt is different for club versus country – Haaland becomes Braut Haaland – yet the output is identically ruthless. This is a 25-year-old you simply cannot take your eyes off. Iraq did that twice and suffered as a consequence.

Haaland used post-match media duties to contradict the sentiment of his international head coach. On the eve of this game, Ståle Solbakken had branded Haaland the finest goalscorer in the world . Haaland pointed out his numbers had been bettered by Mbappé and Harry Kane during the 2025-26 season. He did, however, deliver a warning regarding his level of intensity. “I think today you saw the same energy [as before],” Haaland said. “Of course we have to be happy but also stay calm.”

The team that had waited 28 years for a World Cup return saw off the team that had not participated for 40. Iraq emerge with great credit from a match where the more than 30 world ranking places between the sides was not particularly obvious.

Norway will need to improve, especially in the defensive third, where they looked occasionally shaky. Mbappé will have taken note, with France to face Norway in the final game of this section. Yet this was Haaland’s day. Martin Ødegaard was less visible than his fellow A-lister, albeit the Arsenal man created his side’s third goal. The captain was substituted shortly afterwards, as if to save him for sterner tests.

Even in the final seconds of stoppage time, Haaland’s work was not done. His looping header from a Kristoffer Ajer cross made Aymen Hussein panic sufficiently under pressure from Kristian Thorstvedt to bundle the ball into his own net. Norway’s win had gloss applied.

It took a little over two minutes for it to become apparent what everybody bar a small band of Iraqis had come to see. Antonio Nusa played a glorious high pass ahead of the marauding Haaland. More than 60,000 people gasped. Uncharacteristically, the No 9 was unable to get the ball properly under control, but the ripples of excitement were obvious. Four minutes later, Haaland left Zaid Tahseen for dust before being unable to pick out Alexander Sørloth for what would have been a tap-in. Iraq responded through Ali al-Hamadi, who scooped a decent chance over the bar.

Norway are a team who have split opinion before this tournament. Underrated or overrated? Both views have been widely articulated. The star appeal of Haaland and Ødegaard sets them apart – and is hugely impressive for a nation of fewer than 6 million people – but there is also a clear depth of talent. Nusa was particularly lively here. Oscar Bobb, who would walk into decent international teams, was named among Norway’s substitutes.

This is rightly, then, portrayed as a golden generation of Norwegian footballers. With that comes expectation and pressure, especially against opposition as underwhelming as Iraq.

The journey of Iraq to reach the World Cup, both in respect of playing more qualifying games than any other nation and logistical challenges imposed by the Middle East war, is worthy of huge credit. Nonetheless, it will be a shock if they do not finish bottom of Group I.

The record books will show that Haaland’s moment, inevitably the first of many on this stage, arrived in the 29th minute. Nusa, who was bamboozling Iraq with his every touch, fed David Møller Wolfe. Haaland beat a path to the back post, from there he converted Møller Wolfe’s cross from all of two yards out. Cometh the hour. Haaland’s statistics remain absurd: this was his 11th goal in the same number of recent competitive outings for Norway. The record was to become even better.

What happened next was not in the script. Iraq became the latest underdogs to provide tremors in this World Cup. Not only was their equaliser of great quality, it served as the finest moment in the country’s brief World Cup history. Back in 1986 Iraq scored only once, in the 2-1 defeat against Belgium. This one was a cracker. Ali Jasim found Amir al-Ammari, who stood up a cross. Hussein was never the favourite to win the ball but outjumped a clutch of Norway defenders to plant a magnificent header past the diving Ørjan Håskjold Nyland. The scale of euphoria depicted perfectly the significance of the goal.

Haaland is prolific enough without opposition players teeing him up. Iraq held on to parity for barely three minutes. For reasons known to himself, Jalal Hassan paused rather than rushing to boot a back-pass clear. Haaland spotted the goalkeeper’s uncertainty, weird as it was for a player who has amassed more than 100 caps. Haaland’s shot rebounded from the goalkeeper then back from himself to restore Norway’s lead.

Iraq could count themselves unfortunate to be behind at the break. Møller Wolfe’s magnificent block denied Ibrahim Bayesh. In the final act of the half, Akam Hashem’s half-volley dipped just inches over Nyland’s bar.

The second period lapsed quickly into the instantly forgettable category. Hussein Ali could not keep a back-post volley low enough to trouble Nyland. Haaland could never be described as peripheral but Iraq could take heart from the fact Norway’s phenomenon had no chances between half-time and the hydration break.

Leeway for Norway was provided by a substitute. Leo Østigård leaped highest to meet Ødegaard’s corner, with Iraq not unreasonably questioning the level of grappling in the vicinity of the scorer. Hassan saved from Haaland, denying the striker a hat-trick and the usurping of Mbappé. This time, at least. Haaland is up and running.