Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – Formula One 2026, Formula One, George Russell, Motor sport, Sport, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes GP, Ferrari
Title – George Russell bounces back in style to claim pole at Barcelona-Catalunya F1 GP | Formula One 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/luke-mclaughlin
Link – George Russell bounces back in style to claim pole at Barcelona-Catalunya F1 GP | Formula One 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-13T17:37:19.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/13/george-russell-bounces-back-in-style-to-claim-pole-at-barcelona-catalunya-gp

Is George Russell’s run of rotten luck finally over? The Mercedes driver said he felt “like my old self again” after scorching to pole position for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. He was fractionally faster than second-placed Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari, who nearly snatched top spot with a dramatic surge at the last, capitalising on what is clearly a significant upgrade to the Scuderia machine.

Kimi Antonelli, Russell’s 19-year-old teammate, will aim for a sixth consecutive victory from third on the grid while Charles Leclerc of Ferrari said there were “no excuses” and that he felt “very ashamed” after crashing out spectacularly in Q3 and causing a red flag – a week after hitting a wall at his home race in Monaco.

After Hamilton’s somewhat unexpectedly strong pace for Ferrari , Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri of McLaren were fourth and seventh respectively, with the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar fifth and sixth.

To mark his 100th race for Mercedes, Russell secured his 10th pole, and the 150th for the team overall. On his arrival in Spain he said the pressure was off, having fallen 68 points behind the drivers’ championship leader, Antonelli, owing to a series of mishaps: the latest coming with what proved an incorrect pit-lane speeding penalty in Monaco.

The 28-year-old suffered notable misfortune in Canada last month , a battery failure costing him almost certain victory, as well as in China and Japan in March. But the notion he can race with freedom, and enjoy the benefits of Mercedes’ superiority, was supported by his phenomenal hot lap of 1min 15.717sec on the 4.657km circuit – enough to hold off the flying Hamilton by 0.064.

“Just really happy to be back in my groove,” Russell said. “It’s been a difficult few races, obviously bad luck, and some poor performances in there, but I went back to an approach I knew works for me.”

Asked if those changes in approach were technical or mental, he said: “Car setup, mentality … Going back to basics. These cars are so complicated … it’s challenging to get on top of things, especially when I’ve got a guy like this [Antonelli] next to me performing so well … I’m just glad to feel myself again, feel at one with the car again.”

On whether his exceptional pace for Ferrari was a surprise, meanwhile, Hamilton said: “For sure. It’s been a very, very tricky weekend. Really, really struggled to get on pace [and] never been so down before, in terms of the gap between Charles and I and everybody else … I think it was one second, in one session, going into the front row. I needed to make a huge leap going into qualifying.

“This is really down to everyone back in the factory. They’ve been working so hard, for them to bring this upgrade here … I can’t thank them enough. Tomorrow it would be nice, for once, be able to hold on to them [Mercedes].”

After his spectacular crash, Leclerc said there was no one to blame but him. “I tried to release brakes earlier, tried to carry more speed,” he said. “But I went on the dirty side of the track and lost the rear. There was not much to excuse myself. Today, and this weekend, I think everything felt really good. In these days I need to deliver and I feel very ashamed in general.”

Antonelli, despite his commanding lead in the drivers’ championship, was relatively downbeat. “I’m struggling with the feeling of the car, very low grip here, and I’ve just been attacking a bit too much in the corners,” he said. “In the last lap, I lost basically everything in the last sector … Definitely not the best performance … Still P3, and we focus on tomorrow.”

Leclerc remained upbeat for a race that may feature a three-stop strategy for some on a circuit that brings significant tyre degradation. “We can do great tomorrow,” he said, referring to his chances rather than Hamilton’s. Leclerc will start from 10th, behind eighth-placed Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) and Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) in ninth. “We can come back. I’m optimistic. But for now, the disillusion of ‘quali’ is all I can think of.”

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – US-Israel war on Iran, Israel, US news, Trump administration, Donald Trump, Strait of Hormuz, Lebanon, Iran, US foreign policy, Middle East and north Africa, World news
Title – Middle East crisis live: Iran says Israeli attack on Beirut show lack of US willing after Trump says peace deal will be signed today | US-Israel war on Iran | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/yohannes-lowe,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/fran-singh
Link – Middle East crisis live: Iran says Israeli attack on Beirut show lack of US willing after Trump says peace deal will be signed today | US-Israel war on Iran | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-14T13:16:49.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jun/14/iran-us-middle-east-crisis-donald-trump-peace-deal-strait-hormuz-open-pakistan-latest-news-updates

Iran’s top negotiator says Israeli attack on Beirut suburbs shows US lacks will or ability to fulfill commitments

Iran’s top ⁠negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, ⁠said ⁠on Sunday ​that Israel’s attack ⁠on Beirut’s southern suburbs showed the ⁠United ​States ‌either lacked ‌the will to ‌fulfill its commitments or the ability to do so, Reuters reports.

In ‌a post on X, ​he said continuing on the ⁠current path would be ​impossible if ​commitments ​could not ​be ‌fulfilled.

The deputy commander of ⁠Iran’s top ⁠joint ​military command, Khatam ⁠al-Anbiya central headquarters, said on ⁠Sunday that ​Israeli “crimes” ‌in ‌the southern suburbs ‌of Lebanon’s capital will not go unanswered, according to ‌state media.

The comments follow ⁠Israeli strikes on Beirut’s ​southern suburbs ​that ​Israel ​claimed targeted Iran’s Lebanese ​ally ​Hezbollah.

According to a statement on the Iranian foreign minister’s official Telegram account, Abbas Araghchi highlighted the fact that many observers now argue that his country has emerged more powerful from the war than the before (principally because it has shown its ability to impact the global economy through control of the strategic strait of Hormuz and attack US-allied Gulf countries, which are incredibly vulnerable despite the fact they are meant to be safeguarded under an American security blanket).

“This change in perspective is not simply due to the country’s defense capabilities; rather, it is rooted in the steadfastness, solidarity, and resistance of the Iranian nation, which were the main support of the country in difficult days,” Araghchi wrote.

The Iranian foreign minister also spoke of Iran’s importance in relation to regional security going forward. He wrote in his post: “The experience of the recent war showed that regional security cannot be based on eliminating or ignoring Iran.”

“The countries of the region have gradually come to the realisation that sustainable security, economic development, and regional stability are only possible through cooperation, understanding, and consideration of the common interests of all countries in the region, including the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Iran’s top negotiator says Israeli attack on Beirut suburbs shows US lacks will or ability to fulfill commitments

Iran’s top ⁠negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, ⁠said ⁠on Sunday ​that Israel’s attack ⁠on Beirut’s southern suburbs showed the ⁠United ​States ‌either lacked ‌the will to ‌fulfill its commitments or the ability to do so, Reuters reports.

In ‌a post on X, ​he said continuing on the ⁠current path would be ​impossible if ​commitments ​could not ​be ‌fulfilled.

The deputy commander of ⁠Iran’s top ⁠joint ​military command, Khatam ⁠al-Anbiya central headquarters, said on ⁠Sunday that ​Israeli “crimes” ‌in ‌the southern suburbs ‌of Lebanon’s capital will not go unanswered, according to ‌state media.

The comments follow ⁠Israeli strikes on Beirut’s ​southern suburbs ​that ​Israel ​claimed targeted Iran’s Lebanese ​ally ​Hezbollah.

Summary of the day so far

Here are summary of today’s development’s so far as we wait for any concrete details on a potential peace deal between the US and Iran:

The Israeli military has launched strikes on Beirut it claimed were targeting Hezbollah infrastructure. Smoke has been seen rising over the capital.

Lebanon civil defence says three people were killed in the strikes.

The attacks follow the IDF telling people in 29 villages in southern Lebanon to leave their homes ahead of strikes.

The attack on Beirut were launched despite ongoing efforts to secure a peace deal between the US and Iran. On Saturday night Trump said the two countries would sign the deal on Sunday

However sources told Iranian media that Tehran had ‘not yet’ made a final decision on signing the deal.

This follows Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, advising caution on Saturday. “We will have to wait and see about the exact date of the signing of the memorandum of understanding, although it will not be tomorrow,” Baghaei was quoted as saying. “The possibility of this happening in the coming days cannot be ruled out.”

Qatari mediators have traveled to Tehran on Sunday to finalise the agreement according to sources, suggesting there is more detail to be resolved.

No concrete details have emerged on the deal, but it is reported that Iran has agreed not to produce or acquire a nuclear weapon under a draft memorandum of understanding between Iran’s leaders and the US, according to a senior Iranian official speaking to the Reuters news agency .

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said on Saturday Islamabad was preparing for an electronic signing within 24 hours to be followed by technical-level talks next week. “We are closer to a peace deal than ever before,” Sharif wrote on social media.

Pro-government night-time rallies continue across Iran , and have now been held for more than 100 nights, with some people protesting an agreement with the US. A resident in the north-eastern city of Mashhad told Reuters in Dubai that some protesters chanted: “Death to the compromiser,” in an apparent reference to the foreign minister Abbas Araqchi.

Some images from today’s Israeli strikes on Beirut. The strikes are second strikes on the capital in a week.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on the Israeli statement regarding strikes on Beirut , but the group said it launched missiles and drones towards Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

Explosions heard in Beirut as Israel targets southern suburbs of Lebanese city

Israel says it has struck Beirut’s south suburbs, with explosions heard in the city. The Israeli military claimed the attacks on the Lebanese capital were in response to Hezbollah firing into Israeli territory.

The military were reportedly targeting Hezbollah targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the group’s stronghold known as Dahiyeh, according to a joint statement by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defense minister Israel Katz.

The Israeli military has “just carried out strikes in the Dahiyeh district of Beirut against terrorist targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, in response to Hezbollah’s firing toward Israeli territory”, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. The military said it had “precisely struck” a Hezbollah infrastructure site in Dahiyeh.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said a strike hit Ghobeiry, while an AFP correspondent reported hearing explosions from the southern suburbs.

Following earlier reporting that sirens had sounded in areas of southern Israel, the Israeli military has since said that they sirens were a result of false identification.

Reuters is reporting some of the supposed terms of the draft agreement between the US and Iran . The Guardian is been unable to verify these claims.

Senior Iranian officials have reportedly told Reuters that the under the draft memorandum with the US, Tehran must agree that it will neither produce nor acquire nuclear weapons.

Tehran must also dilute highly enriched uranium stockpile with the mechanism to be discussed in the next 60 days. There must be no uranium enrichment or expansion of facilities.

Under the draft memorandum the US will waive oil sanctions on Iran for a specified period, allowing Tehran to sell and receive revenues. The US must not impose new sanctions on Iran until a final deal is reached.

The US must also agree to release $25bn of Iran’s frozen assets including via direct cash transfers.

Iran will also be required to immediatley reopen the strait of Hormuz to all commercial vessels while the US will lift the naval blockade.

Donald Trump has said the deal would be signed today but Iranian media has said sources tell them that a final decision on signing an agreement has ‘not yet’ been taken by Tehran.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that sirens have sounded in several areas of southern Israel .

Earlier it has said that Hezbollah launched three projectiles towards northern Israeli communities in what it described as a blatant ceasefire violation.

The IDF told people to leave their homes in 29 villages in southern Lebanon, ahead of Israeli stirkes.

Iran media says Tehran ‘not yet’ taken final decision on US peace deal

Iran’s Fars news agency said on Sunday that Tehran has not made a final decision on signing the agreement under discussion with the United States to end the Middle East war, AFP reports.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has not yet taken or announced its final decision concerning the memorandum of understanding proposed during negotiations,” reported Fars, which is close to Iranian conservative circles, citing “a well-informed source close to the Iranian negotiating team”.

The prospective agreement has faced opposition from hardline Iranian figures, who argue that it does not serve Iran’s interests and would deprive Tehran of leverage over the strategic strait of Hormuz.

An Indian national died from medical complications aboard the vessel MT Celestial while it was docked at Duqm Port in Oman, the Indian embassy in Muscat said late Saturday.

“Necessary arrangements are being made for the early repatriation of the mortal remains to India,” the embassy said in a post on social media.

India has more than 300,000 seafarers working across global shipping fleets, according to government data. More than 18,000 Indian seafarers are employed in the Middle East, an official in the country’s shipping ministry said last week.

The death comes days after three Indian seafarers were killed in a US strike on a tanker off Oman, triggering criticism from the public and opposition parties.

Israel army issues evacuation order for 29 south Lebanon villages

The IDF has told people in 29 villages in southern Lebanon to leave their homes ahead of strikes, AFP reports.

The evacuation warnings come ahead of planned strikes, despite a ceasefire intended to halt the war with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, issued two successive warnings – first for 13 villages, then for 16 more, with the second targeting communities north of the Zahrani river.

Earlier, Israeli military said two drones, suspected to have been launched by militant group Hezbollah from Lebanon, struck northern Israel on Sunday but caused no casualties.

“Two impacts of suspicious aerial targets in Israeli territory were identified near the Israel-Lebanon border. No injuries were reported,” the military said.

In the wake of the strikes, two far-right Israeli ministers called for retaliatory strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh.

Qatari negotiators flew to Tehran in effort to finalise deal to end war with US, source and Iranian media says

Qatari negotiators flew to Tehran on Sunday morning as part of effort to finalise an agreement to end US-Iran war, a source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.

US and Pakistan leaders forecast a Sunday signing of a framework agreement to end the more than three-month-long war, but Tehran cast doubt over the timing as hardline protesters in Iran voiced opposition.

Iran’s ISNA news agency reported that an adviser to Qatar’s foreign minister had been dispatched to the Islamic republic, while another Iranian news agency Tasnim said the purpose of the visit was to “go over the latest developments regarding the diplomatic process”.

Donald Trump says a peace deal with Iran is scheduled to be signed today , which would see the strait of Hormuz opened. However, the US president warned if no deal was reached the US has “the ultimate alternative, hopefully never to be used again!”

In a Truth Social post, Trump said Iran “no longer want a Nuclear Weapon, nor will they have one, either through purchase, development, or any other form of procurement”.

Recent days have seen the most intense clashes between Iran and the US since a ceasefire came into effect in April . The US president has claimed about 40 times that a deal was on the point of completion, only to revert to threatening Iran with new attacks.

Officials from the US and Iran are trying to frame any deal as a victory. Abbas Araghchi , the Iranian foreign minister, said on state television on Friday that the draft agreement showed his country had emerged stronger from the conflict.

“Iran is the winner of the war with the US,” he told viewers.

Trump says Iran deal will be signed today but Tehran casts doubt on timing

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

Peace talks between the US and Iran grind on with Donald Trump on Saturday saying the US is set to sign a new agreement with Iran today , and claiming the deal would prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, while reopening the strait of Hormuz to international shipping.

In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump said: “The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL. Our relationship with Iran is a much different and better one than previous Administrations have had … Hopefully, this process will all work out quickly, easily, and smoothly. If it doesn’t, we have the ultimate alternative, hopefully never to be used again!”

In other key developments:

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said on Saturday Islamabad was preparing for an electronic signing within 24 hours to be followed by technical-level talks next week. “We are closer to a peace deal than ever before,” Sharif wrote on social media.

But an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, counselled caution. “We will have to wait and see about the exact date of the signing of the memorandum of understanding, although it will not be tomorrow,” Baghaei was quoted as saying. “The possibility of this happening in the coming days cannot be ruled out.”

Pro-government night-time rallies continue across Iran , and have now been held for more than 100 nights, with some people protesting an agreement with the US. A resident in the north-eastern city of Mashhad told Reuters in Dubai that some protesters chanted: “Death to the compromiser,” in an apparent reference to the foreign minister Abbas Araqchi.

Meanwhile, Trump discussed the efforts to end the Iran conflict in a call with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, Downing Street said on Saturday.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – USA, World Cup 2026, World Cup, Football, US sports, Sport
Title – England’s loss is USA’s gain as Pochettino finds a spearhead in Folarin Balogun | USA | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jeff-rueter
Link – England’s loss is USA’s gain as Pochettino finds a spearhead in Folarin Balogun | USA | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-14T10:00:41.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/14/folarin-balogun-usmnt-paraguay-world-cup

E ven after they conceded an early goal on Friday, Paraguay kept affording the United States ample room up the channel. As the ball reached Malik Tillman and Weston McKennie in midfield, their disoriented opponents never quite seemed to know how to station themselves to stem the tide. The US’s off-ball movement further complicated those efforts, dizzying Paraguay’s defense before it could establish an ideal structure.

“I just tried to run in behind,” McKennie said after the US had completed their 4-1 victory . “I think I realized early on that they were struggling to follow my deep runs. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. I keep trying to do it until they figure something out. I was able to find more space than usual, and it was fun. I really enjoyed to get on the ball as much as I did.”

Throughout a remarkable first half, the heart of the park seemed fully in the co-hosts’ control. The spacing between Tyler Adams and the more advanced tandem of McKennie and Tillman seldom proved an issue as Paraguay struggled to position themselves in the passing lanes. In those rare moments, the US weren’t shy to recirculate, knowing the on-ball acumen of the defensive trio.

Throughout the 2022 World Cup, the US at times resembled a club team , in part because of how effectively their midfield trio operated. In Qatar, Adams and McKennie were joined by Yunus Musah for an “MMA” engine room that kept the ball moving and shifted itself accordingly to be sturdy when defending. Musah’s club career has since stagnated and he was barely in contention for this summer’s World Cup, but Tillman’s progress and the emergence of others – such as Johnny Cardoso, Sebastian Berhalter, Tanner Tessmann and Aidan Morris – made Musah’s regression a non-issue for Mauricio Pochettino.

While the personnel have changed, the dimensions of the field have not. The extra spaces McKennie scampered into on Friday weren’t due to some quirk concocted by this summer’s co-hosts. It’s an evolution of Pochettino’s design, built on the back of the progress of the US’s best players since Qatar.

By the time the Copa América came around in 2024, the midfield seemed to be the only dependably functional facet of Gregg Berhalter’s USMNT. Teams could operate in a low-to-mid defensive block, allowing the US to advance into the attacking half where they’d quickly run out of ideas. It had become clear that the system was designed to funnel the attack through Christian Pulisic, and opponents planned accordingly.

The one real boon to emerge from getting grouped at the Copa was the validation of Chris Richards’s bona fides. At that point, he had two seasons under his belt with Crystal Palace, but only became a regular starter along their backline after Oliver Glasner arrived in February 2024. Richards’s partnership with Tim Ream kept the US in games, but wasn’t enough to produce positive results against Panama and Uruguay.

Richards has since evolved further. He’s become even more vital to Palace since Marc Guéhi’s departure, and logged the most minutes of any player in the club’s triumphant 2024-25 FA Cup campaign. He was similarly regular as the club captured the Uefa Conference League this past season.

Richards has gained confidence from his success with Palace as well as his recovery from an ankle injury sustained late in the season, and he didn’t put a foot wrong against Paraguay. He set a World Cup record for passes with a 100% success rate (83), and worked with Adams to assess the Paraguayan structure before dishing off to Ream (to his left) or Alex Freeman (to his right) to begin the next advance upfield.

“It felt good,” Richards told the Guardian in the mixed zone. “Honestly, I wasn’t second guessing myself. That was the main thing. Playing with pain’s OK as long as I’m not second-guessing myself.”

Up the field was the US’s most vital newcomer of this World Cup cycle. Folarin Balogun’s commitment to the US – despite his eligibility for England and Nigeria – was a massive coup for a program that operated without a dependable striker from 2016 to 2023. Famous for his finesse, Balogun isn’t shy to outmuscle opponents and buy his teammates time to get into dangerous positions.

Balogun’s upbringing in Arsenal’s academy has given him exceptional movement and excellent reading of the game. As McKennie and Tillman navigated the channels, Balogun could comfortably drift into the correct spots to get the service he needed, giving Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill plenty of practice at picking the ball out of his net .

Without the gauntlet of Concacaf qualifying, and given the team’s inconsistency throughout Pochettino’s reign, there was understandable cause for concern that this group wasn’t ready for the World Cup. After several weeks refining their movement, the US were more than comfortable shunting the ball up and down their lines to keep control of the game. It didn’t take long for the fans at Los Angeles Stadium to break into the polite applause that accompanies savvy recirculation.

Joining big clubs hasn’t always worked for this generation of US players. Musah’s move to Milan ultimately set back his development: he never settled into one role as the club changed coaches with regularity after his arrival in 2023. Gio Reyna’s struggles cost him precious refinement with Dortmund and Mönchengladbach.

But right now, the US have the type of players they have often missed in the past. They have Richards, a defensive anchor who was vital to his club’s FA Cup and Conference League titles. And they have Balogun, a striker who, despite some dry spells, ranked fourth on Ligue 1’s goalscoring charts.

Opponents have to contend with Balogun while still facing the threat of Pulisic, who led Milan in goals just a year ago and has been in rare form since the Senegal friendly at the end of May. Reyna provided a timely reminder of why the program remains so optimistic about him in spite of scarce usage at the club level. McKennie (Juventus) and Adams (Bournemouth) have established themselves as vital midfielders for Europa League qualifiers.

Of course, plenty of other nations can go toe to toe with the US on talent. The US’s Group D rivals, Turkey, will arguably be the first such foe they face. The Turks have dazzling attackers who ply their trade at Real Madrid and Juventus, the brilliant Hakan Çalhanoğlu pulls the strings, and the tidy Merih Demiral is in defense. By the round of 16 the US will probably resume underdog status, and Belgium, France and Spain could fall in the same side of the bracket should the co-hosts top their group.

But there’s time for the US to build a head of steam as they consider those obstacles. Fans should thank their stars for birthright citizenship – without it, the US would still be without Balogun, a striker who can stretch the field and make life easier for his teammates.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – France, Pete Hegseth, D-day, Europe, Trump administration, Second world war, US news
Title – ‘A point of resistance’: the Normandy village that said ‘non’ to Pete Hegseth | France | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ashifa-kassam,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/kim-willsher
Link – ‘A point of resistance’: the Normandy village that said ‘non’ to Pete Hegseth | France | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-14T05:00:35.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/14/normandy-village-legrune-sur-mer-protest-d-day-pete-hegseth

W hen news came that the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth , would be travelling to Normandy to mark D-day, some in the seaside village of Langrune-sur-Mer – where the afternoon ceremony was slated to be held – felt they had to speak up.

“We found it unbelievable that they could send someone who held views and values contrary to democracy, human rights, peace and Europe ,” said resident Chantal Richard. To her, the incongruence felt deeply personal. “We grew up going to D-day ceremonies, some of us had grandparents or parents whose lives were affected by this war.”

The view led Richard and the 40 or so other members of Langrune en Commun, a residents’ association, to sign a 179-word statement. Published days before the 82nd anniversary of the D-day landings, it called for Hegseth’s visit to be cancelled.

“The honour of Langrune, that of France and the memory of the young allied soldiers – American, British and Canadian – who died on our beaches in the name of democracy demand that this individual’s visit be cancelled,” it said.

Few in the association, which seeks to foster solidarity among residents and promotes environmentalism, expected it to have much of an impact. Preparations had long been under way to transform the village of about 2,000 people into the international host of the ceremony; the flagpoles had been carefully erected, the podium was in place and more than 400 high-ranking officials from across the globe were set to arrive in the village.

For the association, however, the hope was to have people reflect on the deeper meaning of the D-day anniversary, said member Julia Breen. “We celebrate it as a historical moment, but what does war mean today? What does it mean that we are safe but there are people being bombed right now?”

The short statement took on new life after Hegseth sparked global condemnation for using his D-day speech to condemn immigration. The villagers’ protest soon went viral, with media around the world taking note of their singular effort to stand up to the US defence secretary.

“It snowballed into something that we honestly did not expect at all,” said Richard. In the days since, the association’s website has been inundated with hundreds of emails from across the world. “We’ve been getting messages, mostly from the US, from people saying: ‘Thank you for speaking out, we support you,’’’ said Richard.

Some of the dispatches have been particularly moving, such as the one they received from a US veteran, said Breen. “He told us: ‘I’m going to find a bottle of French wine and I’m going to toast to you because you’re defending the values we fought for.’”

It was a reversal from the mixed reaction they had received after publishing the statement. At the time, some in the village, including elected officials, accused them of exaggerating about Hegseth and seeking to turn the wartime liberation of Europe into a political affair, said Richard.

The concerns about the association were seemingly unfounded, Richard added. “The person who turned the commemoration into a major political issue wasn’t Langrune en Commun but Pete Hegseth,” she said. “He didn’t come to celebrate freedom, democracy and peace, he came to push his far-right, anti-immigrant and warmongering rhetoric.”

Hours before the ceremony in Langrune-sur-Mer was set to take place, Hegseth spoke at the US military cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer. Against the stark backdrop of rows of white crosses, he told those gathered that Europe was facing a different “invasion” of its shores.

“Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different, dangerous ideologies,” he said, in remarks that prompted a prominent historian to accuse him of “grotesque stupidity”.

It was Hegseth’s only public appearance of the day. He had earlier told organisers that he would not be attending the afternoon ceremony in Langrune-sur-Mer but did not provide a reason for his absence.

In Normandy, the Socialist party group in the regional council noted that it had only taken a few hours for the villagers to be proven right. It described the remarks as a “desecration” in a statement to newspaper Ouest France. “The men buried in Colleville did not die so that we could close off beaches; they died to liberate a continent from an ideology based on the hierarchy of human beings and racism. To distort their sacrifice into an argument for hatred is to betray their commitment.”

In the US, Republican House member Michael McCaul described Hegseth’s remarks as “inappropriate” in an interview with broadcaster ABC News. “There’s a time and a place for these issues of immigration. That was not the day, not the anniversary of D-day. I think out of respect to the veterans, and myself being the son of a D-day veteran, those remarks were out of place.”

The criticism extended to Langrune-sur-Mer, where Breen described the remarks as “absurd, contradictory, nonsensical, and racist”. For Richard, it was a sign that the association had been right to speak up, even if they had been the only ones to do so.

“I think our statement helped people to come out from the woodwork,” Richard said. “If it gave others the courage to speak up and say that they think the same, that they’re not OK with the ideology of the Trump government, that’s a good thing.”

The sentiment was echoed by Breen, who said she was proud to be part of an association that had emerged as a small “point of resistance” against those who had looked to protocol as a reason to remain silent in the face of someone who “promotes rhetoric that is bellicose, racist, supremacist and imperialist”.

She was swift to add, however, that what they had done in Langrune-sur-Mer was far from extreme. “It’s crazy that resistance today is just about reminding the world of its values,” she said. “And that doing so seems like a radical stance.”

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.

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Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – UFC, MMA, Donald Trump, US politics, Sport, US sports
Title – From ‘human cockfighting’ to the White House lawn: the stratospheric rise of the UFC’s Dana White | UFC | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/bryan-armen-graham
Link – From ‘human cockfighting’ to the White House lawn: the stratospheric rise of the UFC’s Dana White | UFC | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-14T10:00:42.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/14/dana-white-ufc-donald-trump

R ising from the South Lawn of the White House is a 92ft-tall skeletal structure known as “the Claw”. Beneath it sits an octagonal cage surrounded by sponsor logos, temporary grandstands and thousands of seats for a mixed martial arts card on Sunday night to celebrate Donald Trump ’s 80th birthday and the Ultimate Fighting Championship brand.

The event has prompted comparisons to Idiocracy, Mike Judge’s satire of a future US where politics, entertainment and corporate branding become indistinguishable. Others have gone further, dismissing it as a “kleptocratic spectacle” .

Either way, the commercial trappings are difficult to overlook. Even commemorative “Freedom 250” coins bearing Donald Trump’s likeness are being marketed in tandem with the event at price points ranging from roughly $250 to $12,000.

Strange things are afoot at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, all of them giving rise to an obvious question: how did we get here?

The keys decoding this particular extravaganza lead to one man. If it feels like you’ve been seeing Dana White everywhere in the weeks leading up to Sunday’s event, you’re not wrong. The UFC chief executive has appeared on NPR , sat for an interview with David Remnick on the New Yorker Radio Hour podcast, landed a lengthy feature in Rolling Stone and appeared on the cover of Time magazine. It marks a striking turn for a fight promoter who has spent most of his career farming influence outside the traditional centers of power and respectability.

White has become the most recognizable carnival barker in American life since Don King. Unlike King, however, his influence extends well beyond the realm of the fight game. Over the past decade, White has evolved from sports executive into something rarer: a cultural power broker, political surrogate, Meta board member and one of Trump’s most trusted advisers.

And as White’s company stages its improbable White House takeover on Sunday night, the more revealing story may not be the surreal visuals of a private, for-profit sporting event on federal land but the man who helped make it possible. How did Dana White become one of the most influential figures in American politics without ever holding office?

A valuable demographic

The White House event rests on an origin myth that has become central to both men: Trump threw the UFC a lifeline when nobody else would.

The story begins in the early 2000s, when both White and Trump were at their professional low points. The UFC was a fringe spectacle banned in 36 states that the senator John McCain had branded “human cockfighting”. It was struggling to find venues willing to host its events. Trump, meanwhile, was navigating the fallout from his casino troubles and remained years away from the reality-television comeback that would restore his celebrity.

Their interests converged on the Atlantic City boardwalk. Trump’s Taj Mahal casino needed customers. The UFC needed legitimacy. When much of the sporting establishment wanted little to do with MMA , Trump’s resort hosted three events from 2000 to 2001 at a moment when the promotion was still fighting for acceptance.

Today, White tells the story as if the road from the UFC’s outlaw years to the White House lawn runs directly through the Taj Mahal. In reality, for much of the UFC’s rise from fringe attraction to multibillion-dollar powerhouse, Trump was almost entirely absent from the story the UFC told about itself.

That changed starting in 2016. As Trump became the leader of a political movement and White one of its most visible allies, the Atlantic City episode was retconned from a largely forgotten business arrangement into a foundational chapter in their mythology. The friendship may be genuine, but the centrality of the story is a more recent development.

The UFC, now valued at more than $12bn, is often presented as one of the great turnaround stories in modern sports business. The more consequential story, however, may not be the growth of the company itself but the audience that grew alongside it.

Boxing and MMA are typically grouped under the common banner of combat sports. Unlike boxing’s traditional fanbase, which skews older and more heavily Black and Hispanic, the UFC cultivated a younger audience that came of age on WWE, reality television and internet culture. Many consumed information through podcasts, YouTube channels and streamers rather than newspapers, network television or cable news. One industry executive years ago summarized the company’s core demographic to the Guardian as “white kids from the suburbs who grew up watching pro wrestling and aren’t married yet” – a demographic that would soon become one of the most coveted constituencies in American politics.

While other professional sports leagues pursued legitimacy through traditional broadcasters and corporate partnerships, White invested heavily in podcasters, streamers and internet personalities. No figure embodied that evolution more than Joe Rogan , whose rise from UFC commentator to one of the world’s most influential media personalities mirrored the growth of the promotion itself. The Nelk Boys, Barstool Sports, Theo Von and Adin Ross were not peripheral figures but central characters in a growing alternative-media ecosystem that commanded the attention of millions of young men.

By the time the political-consultant class caught up and began hand-wringing about podcasts and “the manosphere”, White had a two-decade head start in cultivating one of its most valuable audiences. That helps explain why Trump’s appearances at UFC events – he’s attended four as a sitting president – felt different from his appearances elsewhere. He was not entering hostile territory or attempting persuasion, but stepping into a community whose media habits, cultural references and distrust of traditional authority often aligned with his own political appeal.

The overlap extended beyond audiences and media platforms. Over time, White and Trump came to share a similar relationship with the press. Long before politicians began speaking of “fake news”, White was treating journalists less as intermediaries than as adversaries. He publicly feuded with reporters, mocked unfavorable coverage and frequently portrayed criticism as evidence of bias rather than scrutiny. Reporters who crossed the promotion risked losing access, while others became targets of public ridicule.

The hostility was not identical to Trump’s, nor is it clear who influenced whom. But the tactical parallels became increasingly difficult to ignore. By the time Trump emerged as the dominant force in Republican politics, he and White were operating from remarkably similar playbooks.

The similarities don’t end there. Trump built his reputation as a dealmaker while facing decades of complaints from contractors and vendors who said they were never fully paid. White built the UFC into a global powerhouse while fending off criticism from fighters who argued they received too little of the sport’s revenues. Operating in different industries, both men developed a similar reputation: relentless promoters who created empires, and critics who argued they kept too much of the value for themselves.

An American spectacle

The relationship, largely dormant and out of public view, moved to the foreground during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. White emerged as one of the candidate’s most loyal surrogates, speaking at the Republican national convention and vouching for a nominee many establishment Republicans still viewed with suspicion. He returned to the convention stage in 2020 and again in 2024, becoming a fixture in Trump’s political orbit.

As Trump’s influence grew, so did White’s usefulness. The UFC’s audience increasingly overlapped with a demographic both parties struggled to reach. When Trump sought appearances with Rogan, Theo Von and other podcast hosts during the 2024 campaign, he was moving through a media universe White had spent years helping legitimize, connect and amplify through the UFC.

During the 2024 campaign, Trump credited White with helping facilitate the Joe Rogan appearance that became one of the defining media moments of the election. White occupied a position few political operatives could match.

That helps explain the significance of White’s recent media blitz. In many of the interviews ostensibly promoting Sunday’s White House card, White spent as much time discussing Trump, politics and cultural influence as he did the fighters themselves. The shift is revealing. Dana White is no longer merely promoting fights. He occupies a rare position at the intersection of entertainment, politics and alternative media, helping connect figures who increasingly shape how millions of Americans consume information. The UFC increasingly functions as a parallel campaign arena: a place where Trump performs strength, bypasses traditional media and reaches voters who may never watch a cable news broadcast.

Which brings us to Sunday night. The temporary arena covering the South Lawn resembles something between Close Encounters and a giant arcade claw machine. More than $60m has reportedly been spent transforming one of the most recognizable pieces of public land in the United States into a venue for cage fighting. Viewed in isolation, the spectacle is easy to dismiss as another Trump-era curiosity.

But the White House card reaches far beyond the sports pages. It is the culmination of several trends that have been converging for decades: a quarter-century relationship between Trump and White, the rise of an alternative media ecosystem, a political alliance forged through mutual benefit and a sports promotion that has grown into a $21.4bn empire following its merger with WWE . In that sense, the White House’s semiquincentennial cage-fighting spectacular is not a departure from the US but a reflection of the new normal: loud, gilded, hypermediated and impossible to untether from politics.

The White House says the UFC is covering the costs of the event, which is expected to cost more than $60m to stage while commanding the resources of seven federal agencies. Yet the expense is best understood as an investment in a spectacle from which nearly everyone involved stands to benefit. The UFC gains unprecedented exposure while Trump gains a made-for-television celebration that coincides with both the 250th anniversary and his milestone birthday – a spectacle it appears even the G7 summit was willing to adjust its schedule for .

On Sunday night, fighters will make their entrances from the Oval Office to an octagon erected on the grounds of the White House. They are scenes that would have been unthinkable even five years ago, but they are the visible endpoint of a relationship that helped reshape our new world.

Keyword – Life and style
Trefwoorden – Family, Life and style, Photography, Art, Art and design, Music, Culture
Title – Jack Savoretti and Jemma Powell look back: ‘When she walked in I thought, ”There you are. The mother of my children”’ | Family | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/harriet-gibsone
Link – Jack Savoretti and Jemma Powell look back: ‘When she walked in I thought, ”There you are. The mother of my children”’ | Family | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-14T13:00:44.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/14/jack-savoretti-singer-songwriter-jemma-powell-artist-look-back

Born in London in 1983, Jack Savoretti is a singer-songwriter who has released eight albums. He married the artist Jemma Powell in 2010. Powell grew up in Sussex and worked as an actor, appearing in films including The Hole and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Her new exhibition, with Mary West, Through the Eyes of the Eagle, is at the Chancery Rosewood hotel in London until 18 July. Savoretti tours his new album, We Will Always Be the Way We Were, throughout 2026. They live in Oxfordshire with their three children.

Jemma

Jack and I had just met and were permanently attached to each other’s faces. It was the first music video of his I’d been in – I was an actor at the time, and furious that he was always auditioning my friends and not me. It took me getting a casting call for a Paolo Nutini video for him to panic and finally give me a part.

I was madly in love with Jack. I was mad, full stop. After meeting him, I lost the plot. We would have crazy fights, mainly centring around the intensity of how we felt about each other. We were young creatives trying to make our way in the world and really believed in each other. I’d go to his gigs in pubs and when people would walk in and say, “Who’s this guy?” I would reply, “He’s amazing. He’s going to be huge!” He was being rejected a lot, but I was – and still am – his number one fan.

We first met at a party. I got chatting to this lovely girl called Beatrice, and when I saw Jack come in, I said to her, “There’s a guy over there who I think is so gorgeous.” It turned out it was her brother. Jack and I hung out that night, and the next week he came to see me in the cafe I worked in. I remember being so red that I had to hug him so he couldn’t tell how embarrassed I was. He left, but I didn’t have his number so I visited the studio he was writing in. I knocked on the door of every single room and asked, “Is Jack here? He’s a singer, he’s Italian.” No one knew who he was, and I ended up getting fired from my cafe job as I’d told them I’d gone to post a letter but disappeared for too long.

Thankfully, I got his number from a mutual friend, and our wild romance continued until we had our first child, six months after we got married. That’s not to say our marriage is always calm. It’s often in a state of flux. There are times when he’s winning and needs to be strong for me, then it all switches around. There was a point a few years ago when Jack was having a midlife crisis. He wasn’t happy. I ended up saying, “Whatever’s going on here, it’s not working for you.” After that he snapped out of it.

Jack’s most annoying trait is that he is a sulker. It can last for three days sometimes and I feel it in my body, in my cells, because silence is toxic. He used to say I was too detached. The problem was I gave up drinking for two years and became Mrs Perfect. A bit sanctimonious. I was the handbag finder at the end of the party and felt very proud of myself. Fortunately for him, I’ll drink now and again.

We have three kids, four dogs and a cat, so we have to make time for romance. I’ll sometimes make his favourite meal – some kind of pasta, a pomodoro or pesto. He did like my ragu but he’s gone off it a bit. It helps that we giggle a lot together, too.

Jack and I both work at home, at opposite ends, our creative spaces bookending the house. We constantly give each other feedback, and sometimes he’ll ask, “Can I play you something?” and I’ll reply, “I’ve heard it all day. I can sing it for you if you like?”

Even after all these years, I feel the same as I did in that picture. Only instead of being deranged, I am full of pride that those two crazy kids settled down and built a life together.

Jack

We were trying to capture a day in our life for the video for my song Dr Frankenstein. That kiss wasn’t a suggestion from the director. It was a genuine moment. I must have had great chat, because I somehow got away with that choker.

The night I met Jemma, I was very hungover from a boys’ weekend. I needed to go home, but when she walked in I thought, “There you are. The mother of my children. My future.” My sister said, “Did you see that girl that was sitting next to me? She thinks you’re really cute.”

When we were introduced, I asked what her job was, and she replied, “I’m a fairy.” I thought she was being eccentric, as it was a party filled with actors – a lot of dramatic people. She then explained she was an out of work actor who also did parties for kids. That answer was refreshing and in that moment I lost it completely for her.

I was already recording my first album when we got together, but all the songs after that are written about Jemma. Harder Than Easy was the first track about our relationship – we got in a fight on an easyJet to Ibiza and I wrote it on the plane. What was the fight about? Our love was never enough, and we always needed more from each other. She was three years older and wanted romantic dinner dates, whereas I wanted to spend time with her and all my friends. We were the couple who were constantly causing drama. Everybody’s night was entertained and sometimes ruined by our fireworks. It still flickers every now and then, but the fire is never fully out.

When Jemma got pregnant, there was a dramatic change. She became a woman and her self-esteem was no longer dependent on anyone else. Having a family also changed how we related to each other’s roles. There was a time where I was away a lot on tour, but I wanted to be at home with the kids. Meanwhile, she wanted to see the world. We both knew there was a bit of resentment forming.

Then she got a big acting job in Rome [the thriller series Devils] and went away for three weeks, with Patrick Dempsey and Alessandro Borghi, two of the most beautiful men on the planet. I didn’t mind. Once our situations were reversed, the mutual respect we had for each other had grown.

Part of the reason our marriage has lasted is that we started when we were young. There’s a naivety that helps in the long run. When we met, my attitude was: let’s not wait until we are cynical, let’s figure it out as we go along. Another part is knowing when to give space and leave the other person to their own devices. It’s also important to be realistic about the ups and downs of marriage. To truly love each other, you have to hate each other. My advice is: find someone you can hate, because falling in love is easy.

Nobody back then, including us, would think that 20 years later we’d be where we are now. We’re still very much choosing to be in love. We have three awesome kids. We are blessed. We did it – and we’re still doing it.

Keyword – Life and style
Trefwoorden – Life and style, Sex, Relationships
Title – This is how we do it: ‘We act out our fantasies with costumes, music and props’ | Life and style | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/olivia-ladanyi
Link – This is how we do it: ‘We act out our fantasies with costumes, music and props’ | Life and style | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-14T10:00:40.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/14/this-is-how-we-do-it-we-act-out-fantasies-with-costumes-music-and-props

Edward, 60

When I dreamed about Jane in a latex catsuit, we had one made

When I met Jane through a dating website 22 years ago, I wasn’t looking for anything serious. As the single father of a troubled teenager whose mother left when he was a child, my life was stressful and dating wasn’t a priority. I came away from our first date thinking Jane was lovely, but there were no sparks and I didn’t expect to see her again. But when I found myself with a day off, I phoned to ask if she wanted to go for another coffee. I’m glad I did, because what we have is much deeper than a spark: it’s a love that just keeps growing.

In the early years, Jane offered me an escape from my stressful home life. We’d go for walks, to cafes and galleries, have fantastic sex, then return to our ordinary lives – her as a single mum, me as a single dad.

We moved in together after five years, and got married after 11. Now the kids have grown up and left home, it’s just the two of us. We’re no longer embarrassing parents kissing in the kitchen, and for the first time, sex can be spontaneous. There have been dinners that have ended up in the bin because all we want is each other.

A couple of years ago, I started experiencing erectile dysfunction. I miss the physical connection that comes with penetration, but it hasn’t affected our closeness. It upsets me more than it upsets Jane, but it just means we have to be more inventive.

I think of sex as playtime and have a vivid imagination. If I have a sex dream, we’ll often turn it into reality. When I dreamed about Jane in a latex catsuit, we had one made. The anticipation – having it measured, made and delivered – was as exciting as the outcome. My only worry is that the fantasies are always mine. Under the covers, I ask Jane about hers, but I haven’t found anything yet.

Jane, 58

The buildup is as important as the sex itself – even if it’s just going for a walk with nothing under my coat

Edward and I are very different – he’s creative and quirky; I’m analytical and vanilla. When he wakes from one of his vivid, lucid sex dreams, he’ll suggest we try it out. He desperately wants me to have fantasies of my own, but he’s got enough for the both of us – and when I try to think of one, it never seems interesting. Anyway, I already get so much pleasure from fulfilling his fantasies.

We storyboard, act out and film the scenarios that Edward invents with costumes, music and props. The buildup is as important as the sex itself. Even if it’s just going for a walk with nothing under my coat, planning the route and deciding where to park the car is all part of it. When Edward tells me what to wear, it’s a rush knowing how much it turns him on. It’s a real confidence boost knowing your husband is still physically attracted to you at 58.

The erectile dysfunction doesn’t bother me, but it really upsets Edward. He worries about the future, fearing it will never work again.

When we got together, when I was 36, both of us were coming out of broken relationships. After my husband left out of the blue, I lost confidence and, alone with two young children, I thought I’d never date again. It took a lot of talking to be reassured that I wasn’t going to be left like that again.

Two decades later, the sex is better as we now know what turns each other on. But I feel closest to Edward when we’re out walking together. The other day, I was cycling back from town and felt so excited to see him. We find constant delight in each other, and that’s only increased over the years.

Keyword – Money
Trefwoorden – Money, Scams, Technology, YouTube, Lloyds Banking Group, UK news, Business, Consumer affairs
Title – ‘I should know better’: tech expert lost £70,000 in one simple phone call | Money | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/shane-hickey
Link – ‘I should know better’: tech expert lost £70,000 in one simple phone call | Money | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-14T06:00:36.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/jun/14/i-should-know-better-tech-expert-lost-70000-in-one-simple-phone-call

When Tom Honeyands realised he had been defrauded out of £70,000 he was furious and embarrassed – and left wondering if he had given away too many details on his social media videos.

Honeyands was on a work trip to Tokyo when he got a call from someone claiming to be from Lloyds bank. The caller asked if he had made a recent transaction in Singapore and when he said no, the scammer said his account had been compromised and that security details needed to be reset.

The tech reviewer, who has 1.63 million subscribers to his “The Tech Chap” YouTube channel, believes they stitched together a profile on him based on videos he had uploaded.

“The only thing I can think of is that banking icons are on my computer home screen,” he says. “I make video content for a living and if someone sees Lloyds, that’s one bit of information.”

It was late at night when he was called by scammers, who, he suspects, knew that he was travelling because of posts on his social media feeds. The jet lag and late hour added to him being confused and tired, and he fell for the phishing scam.

“I was at a dinner, and it was difficult to hear. That definitely contributed to me not paying full attention,” says Honeyands, who answered a number of questions about his personal details.

“I feel like I am a fairly intelligent guy. I should know better. They knew my name, address, who I banked with, that I was travelling,” he says. “You can put together enough information to phone me and, just this once, it worked, which is pretty embarrassing.”

What it looks like

A fraudster calls and says that they are from your bank’s fraud team and that you need to take action to help them protect your money.

In Honeyands case the scammer claimed he had to cancel payments that had been made to the account and that codes would be sent to Honeyands to verify the cancellations. However, they were actually verifications for new payees.

Honeyands made 12 verifications over a few hours which allowed the criminals to make payments totalling £70,000.

It was only when Lloyds’ real security team rang him that he hung up on the criminals. “I had the hacker on hold and the actual bank security team on another line and was thinking, ‘Who is real?’,” he says. The real Lloyds caller told him to hang up on both, and then call back on the number on the back of his bank card, which he did.

What to do

Based on his experience, he advises people to be aware of what detail they are sharing online. “It’s like the old thing of not sharing social posts when you’re travelling because your house is empty. In a similar way, if you ever show pictures of your phone screen and it has your bank on it, then that’s one more bit of information for the criminals.”

Lloyds tells customers that if a call is suspicious in any way, that they should call back on a trusted line and use a number for the bank such as that written on the back of its debit cards.

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – Lewis Moody, Rugby union, Sport
Title – ‘The present is all you have’: Lewis Moody on living with MND and joining the fight to find a cure | Lewis Moody | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/donaldmcrae
Link – ‘The present is all you have’: Lewis Moody on living with MND and joining the fight to find a cure | Lewis Moody | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-13T07:00:08.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/13/the-present-is-all-you-have-lewis-moody-living-with-mnd-fight-to-find-cure-rugby-union

S unshine streams into Lewis Moody’s conservatory near Bath as we share a sofa with his dog, Ziggy, who has swapped his usual cheerful bounciness for a peaceful snooze. Moody has already explained how Ziggy licked away the tears rolling down his face, and the face of his wife, Annie, when they told their teenage sons that he has motor neurone disease . And now he says something extraordinary with a certainty that feels far stronger and more enduring than the mid-afternoon sunlight.

“It is a gift and a privilege,” Moody says of the lesson he has gleaned from the terrible diagnosis he received last October . “I’m not sure if privilege is the right word but MND helps you really understand what you love and what makes you happy. So you learn to apply your time in that direction and, invariably, being happy is about doing things that feel purposeful and spending time with the people you love and doing things that help others.”

It was Moody’s 48th birthday on Friday and the former rugby union international , who earned 71 caps and helped England win the World Cup in 2003, talks so calmly and movingly that his old nickname of Mad Dog becomes redundant. The ex-Leicester and Bath flanker has always been one of the most cherished men in rugby but the way in which he accepted the catastrophic news with such clarity and positivity is even more admirable.

Moody still looks a picture of good health and remains as disarming as ever amid the looming threat that, at some unknown point, his world will shrink amid a disease which can leave its victims trapped in silent paralysis. “The present is all that you have,” Moody says as he tries to live in the here and now rather than succumb to regret or foreboding. “I once read a quote that said: ‘Yesterday is dead and tomorrow isn’t born; there is only now.’ When you’re diagnosed with MND it presents you with that understanding. You realise it’s about prioritising the things that are important and, invariably, it’s the people you love.”

Moody ruffles Ziggy’s curly fur and looks up. “It simplifies everything and I’m a simple bloke anyway. Too much information consumes my brain. So after the diagnosis the immediate question was: ‘What’s next?’ Look after the family. What does that mean? Financial security. OK. Sort out the life insurance – done. Then the next part is how and when do I share the news? How do we make sure it has a positive impact?”

Moody knows I have interviewed Doddie Weir and Rob Burrow in the past, and written a book with Lindsey Burrow about the ravaging impact of MND, and it helps that I’ve seen the worst of the condition as well as the inspirational spirit of those families who celebrate life over an inexplicable medical calamity. I interviewed Weir when it was a struggle for him to talk, and spent a lot of time in the Burrow family home during the final six months of Rob’s life, and it is striking to see how well Moody looks.

He has just returned from a family break in Cyprus, which included watching his eldest son, Dylan, play in goal for England Under-18s. Moody looks tanned and fit and he has bought us some cake to munch during our interview. He still goes to the gym but, as weight loss is a regular side-effect of MND, he is being encouraged to eat as much as possible. And, so far, the disease has had a minimal impact.

“My finger strength is slightly diminished,” Moody says, “but otherwise, hopefully, there is nothing else at the moment. I can still do everything. It’s just a case of managing energy because, if you get depleted, it drops away quickly. I have to sleep more regularly and listen to my body but, touch wood, the disease is moving slowly.”

Moody discovered he had MND after a persistent but mild weakness in his left shoulder could not be resolved by a physiotherapist who sent him to a specialist. A battery of tests included “two nerve conduction studies related to motor neurone disease”.

Moody shakes his head when asked if he was shocked at that first mention of MND. “If you Google weakness in the shoulder, grip and circulation, it throws up MND. When I asked the doctor for the worst-case scenario he said: ‘Well, I can’t rule out motor neurone disease.’ From that point you’re waiting for your next appointment and these two conduction studies. They were the worst two weeks by far.”

Lindsey Burrow told me that, when she and Rob heard that he had MND, it was like a bomb went off inside her. “It was different for me,” Moody says, “because I’d prepared myself. I spoke to Annie and three mates, including Geordan [Murphy] and Leon [Lloyd] who are my two closest friends from rugby.”

Moody’s eyes are clear as, quietly, he says: “I cried then because in my head I’d almost told myself it was MND. So when the specialist confirmed it I didn’t feel surprised. But it was still horrible. Annie was incredibly emotional, as you can imagine, and she and the doctor found it difficult. We left in a haze.”

Was Moody offered a prognosis of life expectancy? “No, but they give you these statistics which are obviously not what you want to hear as 10% [of people diagnosed with MND] don’t last a year; 50% don’t last two years. But that means 40% survive longer than that. Think of Stephen Hawking [who lived and worked with MND for 55 years]. I know people living with it now, 12 years in. I know a guy who’s six years in and he’s still only got hand symptoms. Everyone is unique.”

Moody pauses as reality bites again. “It is harsh and, if it’s fast, it’s particularly cruel. So the only certainty in MND is that it’s uncertain – which is really hard.”

I ask Moody about the difficulty of telling his sons. “Dylan had heard of MND but my youngest just wailed in an emotional outburst. Ethan didn’t understand and he and his brother are very different. But once Ethan calmed down he said: ‘I want to know. Tell me everything.’ We shared that it’s a life-limiting condition but stressed that everyone’s different. It doesn’t mean that the statistics around MND will apply to me. So the more information we gave him, the more he could process it rationally.

“It’s the same for me. The more information I had, the easier it got. It still fucking hit me but I can process my emotions quite quickly. Of course they creep up, like grief, when you least expect it but it’s hardest when other people are upset and it’s your mum, your kids or Annie.”

Moody’s face soon lights up as he remembers how they celebrated Dylan’s 18th birthday in March. “It was wicked. His mates and my mates playing stupid drinking games and being silly. It was like being 18 again myself.”

His boys will join Moody and his friends on Sunday, as they cycle from Newcastle to Twickenham over five days to raise money for Doddie Weir’s foundation, which helps fund research into developing effective treatments and finding a cure for MND. They aim to reach £777,777 in honour of the number Moody wore as an openside flanker; but there will also be the simple pleasure of riding across the country with great friends and former teammates such as Martin Johnson, Jonny Wilkinson, Jason Robinson and Julian White.

“Julian’s never ridden a bike that hasn’t got tractor tyres on it,” Moody says of the former Leicester and England prop forward who is now a farmer. “We’re starting in Newcastle which was Doddie’s home club. We’ll have his wife Kathy and his son Hamish with us which is really cool. We met them at a dinner we had in December and Hamish, who connected so well with my boys, is hilarious.”

Moody faces a 500-mile bike ride and I ask if his weakened hand will cope with the pressure of holding the handlebars. “It’s great at the minute. The only thing I’ve noticed is fatigue in the shoulders so I’ve had to adjust the handlebars and seat so there’s more weight on my arse than in my arms. It’s a big arse, so it’s fine.”

More seriously, Moody adds: “The advice is avoid over-exerting yourself. So a good outcome for me is just getting through it. It’s not about doing it all if I can’t. But this is an opportunity to spend time with lads I’ve not seen for years. We spent the best part of a decade together, and came through some of the toughest scrapes and some of the stupidest nights out.”

Moody was a fearless competitor who suffered multiple concussions and ferocious hits – but he refuses to blame rugby . “I loved rugby and I knew there were risks running into people with your head and getting concussed repeatedly. I can’t look back now and go: ‘I wish I’d changed that.’ But the advancements in concussion protocols are wonderful.”

Rugby is far safer now and Moody totally supports his youngest son playing the game. He also points out that “the process is multifaceted and there’s not ever one thing that causes MND. It’s a multiple combination of factors and more research needs to be done.”

That urgent need for research drives Moody now: “Remember Doddie’s legendary quote when he got the scientists and MND researchers around the table and the chief dude says: ‘I’ve been working on this for 25 years blah blah.’ And Doddie’s like: ‘What the fuck have you been doing?’ Typical Doddie – hitting the nail on the head.

“I feel lucky I’ve arrived in a more hopeful place because of the people who came before me. I had this conversation with Kenny Logan [the former Scotland international] and said: ‘Mate, I feel like I’ve been given this baton by your boys, by Doddie, by Rob, by Ed Slater, and I need to get this over the line.’

“There is so much hope now. The specialists say it quietly because they don’t want to get too excited. But they are talking about a cure and, actually, they feel it’s round the corner. MND is not incurable; it’s just underfunded.”

Has Moody changed since his diagnosis? “Oh, it’s a good question. Have I changed? No, I don’t think so. How I view things has changed but I’m just more focused, clearer, engaged and ready to get a better version of myself.”

The afternoon stretches ahead of us and Moody allows himself to step outside the moment to reflect more deeply. “The times in my life where I felt really alive was when I felt the greatest adversity. For me, there’s probably no greater adversity than what I’m facing now. But so many people are doing amazing things in the MND space all the time. Many of them have no platform and don’t get attention. But I get the opportunity to help those individuals – and I want to impact that space with real purpose for all of us living with MND.”

The Lewis Moody XV Cycle Challenge Supports My Name’5 Doddie Foundation. To donate please visit https://lewismoodyxv-cyclechallenge.com/ . For more information visit https://www.myname5doddie.co.uk/