Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Iran, US-Israel war on Iran, World news, Mojtaba Khamenei, Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, Middle East and north Africa, US news
Title – Iran’s regime survived the war. Can it make peace with its own people? | Iran | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/saeedshah
Link – Iran’s regime survived the war. Can it make peace with its own people? | Iran | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T07:18:43.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/22/iran-regime-survived-war-make-peace-with-own-people

The Islamic Republic regime in Iran may have survived the war , but it now faces an even greater challenge: making peace with its own population.

Iranians are reeling not just from the shock of the war but also the killing of thousands of protesters by the authorities at the start of the year , and an economy in free fall. Instead of removing the regime, an initial declared aim of Donald Trump and the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, the war showcased the Islamic Republic’s durability after its leader and layers of other top officials were killed.

Now that the war appears to be over, the new generation of leadership confronts competing demands , from hardliners to stick to rigid principles of the Islamic revolution and a population exhausted by economic hardship and repression.

The war caused significant destruction and, the authorities estimate, pushed two million people out of work. Inflation hit 77% last month. Iranians’ living standards had already crashed over the last decade as a result of international sanctions and mismanagement at home, with economic anger triggering the demonstrations that snowballed in January into an attempt to topple the government .

There are glimmers of hope. The framework peace deal , signed by Iran and the US last week, offers economic reprieve, potentially unlocking hundreds of billions of dollars for Iran, with some of that windfall immediate. The longer-term economic benefits of sanctions lifting and money for reconstruction depend, however, on thorny further negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme.

The attack on Iran , and the bombing of civilians and civilian infrastructure, triggered a wave of nationalism – a rare moment of solidarity in the deeply divided country. There is a widespread belief that Iran won the war, analysts said.

“Trump and Netanyahu have managed to unite Iranians more than any Iranian politician could,” said Foad Izadi, an associate professor at the University of Tehran. “Even people who didn’t like the government, don’t want to send their children to school and not see them again, and they don’t want their local hospital to be bombed.”

Elham, an artist in Iran who describes herself as a leftist, said that the war and the bloodshed in January had forced a re-examination of beliefs about the west and protests. “The plan was to do to Iran what they did to Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan: a collapse and occupation,” she said. “There’s now an understanding that the idea that the US can save us is a lie.”

She said that the authorities ought to allow protests but “regime change” uprisings are taken over by outside interests and lead to violent crackdowns, like in January. Instead, she said, there should be grassroots movements, which could win freedoms more gradually.

“The state may not collapse, but society will collapse if we see a repeat of January every year,” said Elham. “We have to build new coalitions. Whether you are a reformer or hardliner, everyone has to take a step forward towards each other. We have to imagine our future differently.”

Even the categories of conservatives, hardliners and reformers were scrambled by the war. The peace negotiations split, at least for now, more pragmatic conservatives from ultra-hardliners who opposed any agreement with the US.

The idea of striking a bargain with the west had been associated with reformers. But the negotiations with the US were led by someone from the conservative camp, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of parliament. The deal received public support from the Revolutionary Guards, the military force often considered to be a vanguard for hardliners. Ghalibaf said last week that there must now be a focus on economic recovery.

Zeinab Ghasemi Tari, an associate professor at the University of Tehran, said the big nightly gatherings in public squares in towns and cities, which started during the war and still continue, represented something deeper than nationalism: a form of collective resilience and defiance. She said that while economic grievances remain, protests of the sort seen in January were tied to a now discredited pro-western outlook.

“We are seeing fewer reformists openly advocating for engagement [with the west], and more either recalibrating their positions or remaining silent,” said Tari. “The war has reshaped public consciousness in ways that are still unfolding.”

Even with more pragmatic figures in ascendancy, many are doubtful that the regime would be willing to use this moment of unity for reform. The new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei , believed to have been wounded in the war, is yet to appear in public or set out a domestic agenda.

Mehran Haghirian, director of research and programmes at Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, a London-based thinktank focused on West Asia, said that the Islamic Republic was not capable of change, as that required being open to the outside world.

“With the current system in place, it is impossible for it to alleviate the economic situation of the country,” said Haghirian. “It is a country ruled by a minority, so it will always have domestic opposition as its main consideration.”

Alex Vatanka, senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, said that the regime needed sanctions relief and economic recovery, or wartime solidarity would curdle back into the old conflict between state and society.

“The real challenge now isn’t deterring Washington; it’s whether Tehran can convert a moment of forced cohesion into a durable compact with its own citizens,” said Vatanka. “That is the harder and more existential test.”

Keyword – Wellness
Trefwoorden – Well actually, Health, Medicine, Life and style, Society
Title – How much preventive health screening should I be getting? | Well actually | The Guardian
Author – Keren Landman
Link – How much preventive health screening should I be getting? | Well actually | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T16:00:34.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/global/2026/jun/21/preventive-health-screening

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes when the tech entrepreneur and longevity influencer Bryan Johnson posted about his girlfriend’s “vaginal microbiome report” in April. (He said it was in the “top 1% of vaginas”.) While the vaginal microbiome is genuinely interesting, most clinicians don’t routinely recommend this test to patients.

As medical technology has become more powerful – and more marketable – the line between helpful screening and unnecessary testing has blurred.

Of course, some medical testing helps prevent premature disease and death. But the direct-to-consumer testing industry is increasingly promoting tests that promise reassurance but often deliver ambiguous findings. The results may lead to expensive follow-ups or leave people with the creeping sense that their body is full of hidden dangers.

Here’s what you need to know about screening tests.

What is medical screening?

Screening is medical testing that looks for medical conditions before you have symptoms. The best kinds of screening tests find treatable conditions before they have caused too much damage, and enable clinicians to reverse or cure the condition to prevent premature disability or death. Importantly, good screening tests don’t themselves cause harm, whether by breaking the bank or by causing new problems.

Blood sugar tests and blood pressure checks are examples of great screening tests. The conditions they flag – diabetes and high blood pressure – have long asymptomatic periods, causing damage to tiny blood vessels in the eyes, kidneys, brain and heart for years before people notice them. If screening finds these conditions early, treatment can stop them in their tracks. If not diagnosed early, these diseases take decades off people’s lives and cause blindness, kidney disease, strokes, heart attacks and other issues.

These screenings are cheap and easy. In addition, interventions to prevent these diseases from progressing – dietary and exercise changes, and medications that have been safely in use for decades – are way less likely to cause harm than good.

Is more screening better?

If knowledge is power, it might seem logical to get as much information as possible about your body. But that’s not always the case.

Experts use the term “overscreening” to describe overzealous testing that finds things that are untreatable, don’t need to be found or raise even more questions, requiring additional costly and potentially harmful interventions with unclear benefit.

It can be hard to get your head around the idea that more testing isn’t always better. Full-body MRI scans are a nearly perfect example. Popularized by techno-optimists and celebrity endorsements, they are sold by for-profit companies as a proactive way for healthy people to identify “silent killers” like aneurysms and solid tumors in their early stages.

MRI technology is great at detecting atypical anatomy, but it’s often unable to determine the significance of it. An astonishingly high proportion of the findings these tests identify are “incidentalomas” – tiny cysts, nodules or anatomical quirks of unclear significance. In one review of studies evaluating whole-body MRI screenings, 95% of participants had abnormal findings, about a third required further investigation, and fewer than 0.5% had findings suspicious for cancer.

“Humans are full of abnormality, particularly as they age,” says Gilbert Welch , a researcher of overdiagnosis at Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston. Many findings are irrelevant to a person’s health, but clinicians don’t know which are – so they often act on all of them.

What are the harms of overscreening?

By definition, incidentalomas are unlikely to cause harm. But they trigger cascades of additional testing, biopsies and specialist appointments – which all cost time and money, and may lead to discomfort and medical complications.

Even established tests can be applied too broadly or too frequently. For decades, experts have been arguing about the best cadence for screening mammograms, which look for breast cancers in otherwise healthy, low-risk people. Long-term data suggest that more frequent mammography screening substantially increases breast cancer diagnoses, especially of early stage disease. However, the practice leads to much smaller reductions in advanced cancer, and its effects on overall mortality are uncertain . Additionally, a large share of what these screenings find may never progress to cause harm. For older patients, more frequent screening may even raise risk of unnecessary invasive medical procedures.

Overscreening also creates worry and a sense of ill health, says Suzanne O’Sullivan , a neurologist at London’s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Before a hypothetical screening MRI, she said, you might feel perfectly healthy and happy. After a finding of uncertain significance? “I won’t feel healthy any longer,” she says.

When it comes to more routine screenings, note that for those with certain family and medical histories, experts typically recommend earlier and more frequent tests. For example, experts recommend earlier and more frequent colonoscopies for people with a close relative with colorectal cancer.

O’Sullivan thinks elaborate screening tests might be more useful when we understand disease progression better. In the meantime, “someone’s making an awful lot of money pretending to keep people healthy”, she says.

What should you do before signing up for the latest trending screening test?

Most primary care clinicians are well-versed on which screening tests are best for you at different stages of your life, and use evidence-based guidance to make their recommendations. They may also serve as a resource before you shell out for a direct-to-consumer (DTC) test.

The FDA doesn’t review all DTC tests, and it can be hard to find independent evaluations of each test’s accuracy and usefulness. You can also pose several questions to whoever’s selling a test you’re considering: does this test reduce deaths or disability, or just increase diagnoses? How often does it produce false positives or overdiagnosis? And is the treatment for what it finds safer than leaving it alone?

Ultimately, says Welch, the path to health involves doing “things your grandmother might have told you: eat your fruits and vegetables, go play outside”, and find meaningful activity and connection with others. “We’re teaching the next generation the path to health is by collecting data on yourself,” he says, but “you can’t test yourself to health”.

Keyword – Television & radio
Trefwoorden – House of the Dragon, Television & radio, Culture, Game of Thrones
Title – ‘My mum says I’m not working class any more!’: Olivia Cooke on power, privilege, and dividing audiences in House of Dragon | House of the Dragon | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rebeccanicholson
Link – ‘My mum says I’m not working class any more!’: Olivia Cooke on power, privilege, and dividing audiences in House of Dragon | House of the Dragon | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T09:00:27.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jun/21/olivia-cooke-interview-house-dragon-game-thrones-girlfriend

H ouse of the Dragon is a massive television series. Over two seasons, the prequel to Game of Thrones has seduced viewers with its plotting, backstabbing, candlelit meetings about war, and massive sheep-munching dragons. Olivia Cooke’s dad, however, did not get the memo.

We’re in London, on a stormy summer afternoon, and Cooke is sipping a bottle of neon juice (“Tell me if my teeth go purple”). Her dad texted her yesterday. She gets her phone and pulls up a photo of a television screen, with the first season of House of the Dragon loaded up and ready to go. “He said: ‘Raining outside, so starting a binge-watch.’” She laughs. “I was like, great, Dad, worked on it for six years, hope you like, kiss kiss.” What was his review? “Yes, I like it. Quite violent.” He was planning to watch another episode after he’d picked up Cooke’s nephew from school.

Cooke may be just 32, but to be fair to her dad, there is a lot of her work to catch up on. The actor grew up in Oldham. When she was 18, she moved to Vancouver to join the cast of another prequel, the Psycho spin-off Bates Motel . After that, she lived in New York for a few busy but unhappy years, before moving back to London, just before the pandemic (shooting the film Pixie in Belfast, she realised: “Oh my God, I don’t have to beat down my sense of humour any more”). She has made movies, starring in Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One and with Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal . She was a brilliant Becky Sharp in ITV’s adaptation of Vanity Fair and appeared briefly as the MI5 agent Sid in spy thriller Slow Horses. But House of the Dragon, in which she plays the scheming and morally murky Alicent Hightower, has been a gamechanger.

The series is based on the George RR Martin book Fire & Blood, and while it is never easy to be succinct about the world of Westeros, the rough gist of it is this: Alicent was childhood best friends with Rhaenyra Targaryen (played as an adult by Emma D’Arcy), and betrays her by marrying Rhaenyra’s father, King Viserys, to become queen. She then bore lots of ethically dubious blond heirs to the Iron Throne (season one), went to war with Rhaenyra for the crown after Viserys’s death (season two), and, in the finale, waved the white flag and made a deal to give up her son to Rhaenyra, in order to support Rhaenyra’s claim to be the true queen.

In short, you could say that as season three approaches, Alicent has a lot on her plate. One reviewer called her “the saddest woman in Westeros”, but Cooke is not so sure that the description fits. “I don’t think she really has time to reflect on how she is feeling inside,” she says.

Alicent has been a divisive figure among fans of the show, particularly in the earlier days, when the character worked against Rhaenyra’s claim to the throne. But Cooke has noticed that recently Alicent has been a focal point for some queer women and non-binary people. “Alicent is a product of the patriarchy,” she says. In season one, her marriage to the king was engineered by her father, though recent episodes have seen “an unravelling of everything that she’s learned, and she’s becoming liberated, in a sense. I don’t want to say that she is living the queer experience, because she’s definitely not, but I don’t know if there’s something that is relatable there.”

Other viewers are less supportive. “It can be quite vitriolic at times. I don’t want this to come across as ‘Woe is me’, because I’m very grateful for the job,” Cooke says, carefully, “but to field insults when you’re just walking down the street …”

I assumed that it would be mostly digital, but it’s in the real world, too? “Yeah! They want a picture with you, then afterwards, they’ll say, ‘I fucking hate your character, by the way,’ or, ‘Your character’s a cunt.’” What do you say to that? “I sort of laugh and say: ‘Well, you can delete that picture,’” she shrugs. “I don’t know what you can do. I just try and take it in my stride.”

Cooke got rid of her own Instagram six months ago. In person, she is funny and friendly, and when I ask her what made her ditch it for good, her reason is charmingly specific. “I was sick of seeing 21-year-old looksmaxxers being like: ‘If you follow a program, this is what you can do,’ and it’s a side-by-side picture of him at 14, going through puberty, and him now, saying: ‘Look at the transformation.’” Her algorithm had picked up on her morbid fascination with physical extremes. “It’s a lot. It’s very navel-gazy, and it distorts your mental image of your body and your self. And I think that has trickled into our industry, as well.” It was too much for her brain to handle, so she deleted her account and hasn’t looked back.

For a short period of time, she was a meme herself. “Was I?” she says, looking suddenly panicked. Not recently, don’t worry, I say, but the negroni … “Oh yes,” she replies, visibly relieved. When Cooke and D’Arcy were first promoting House of the Dragon, a clip of the pair discussing their favourite drinks went viral. D’Arcy had said their drink of choice was a negroni sbagliato (“with prosecco in it”). “Ooh, stunnin’ ,” Cooke replied.

“I just think it was interesting that in our attention-deficit economy, that after a very wide-ranging career, that was the thing I was most notable for,” she says today. “But like everything, it lasted for about 15 minutes.” Has she had to remove that word from her vocabulary? “What, sbagliato? That was maybe the second time I’d ever said it.”

No, I mean “stunning”.

“Oh! Maybe. Just initially. Out of annoyance.” She has often said that she can be contrary. “And I can get a bit of an attitude when it comes to these things, but it was all good-natured. It was just very bizarre.”

On the subject of unexpected hits, at the end of last summer Cooke starred in the very fun, very pulpy thriller The Girlfriend , which turned out to be another smash. In it, her character, the ambitious estate agent Cherry Laine, went head to head with her boyfriend Daniel’s mother, the rich art dealer Laura, played by Robin Wright , who also directed the series (Laura thinks Cherry’s a social climber; Cherry thinks Laura’s a snob). It was moreish and addictive, but its success took Cooke by surprise, simply because there is so much TV coming out on streaming every week. “I didn’t expect it to capture people’s attention like that.” But she can see why it did. “Girlfriend and mother-in-law relationships, that’s quite potent. There’s a lot of nuance and passive aggression to dig into and exacerbate and exaggerate.”

As with Alicent, audiences were divided about whether they supported Cherry or Laura. Cooke’s mum was on Cherry’s side – “I was like, yeah, because you can’t differentiate between me and any character I play” – though, given some of its more explicit scenes, her dad described it as “being a bit like a radio play for him”. Though considering that – spoiler alert – Laura had pretended her own son had died in order to get him away from Cherry, a shocking number of people were on the mum’s side. “Boy mums,” says Cooke conspiratorially. “A lot of boy mums were on Laura’s side.”

As well as all the flashy melodrama, it had a point to make about snobbery and the British class system. Daniel was from a rich family, and Cherry from a poor one. No matter how much she tried to fit in to his world, it was never quite good enough. “To try to get into those networks, it’s like trying to cut through steel with a twig,” says Cooke, poetically. “It’s impossible to penetrate, and Cherry had to learn the hard way. But it’s the same now. It’s really hard to navigate the upper echelons of society. I mean, not that I would want to,” she laughs. “But it’s a whole culture to itself.”

Cooke has spoken before about the challenges of being an actor from a working-class background, with a northern accent, and how the entertainment industry is built on the kind of networks and pre-existing connections that exist in those upper echelons of society. She jokes that her mum now scoffs whenever she refers to herself as working class. “She’s like, you’re not working class any more,” she laughs. “I think my sensibility is still working class. I just have become, against all odds, very successful in my field.”

When she was eight, Cooke started going to the Oldham Theatre Workshop, a youth theatre group that also nurtured the likes of Anna Friel, Suranne Jones and Joseph Gilgun. At the time, it was at the end of her street. “My mum was just like, ballet’s not worked out, let’s chuck her in there.” What went wrong with ballet? “My mum said I answered the teacher back too many times.” (When casting The Girlfriend, Wright said she chose Cooke because she had “moxie”.) Had she expressed any interest in performing before? “I was the eldest daughter of two, and a child of divorce,” she says, drily. “So there was a lot of ‘Look at me, love me’.”

She feels strongly that there should be more drama workshops available to young people, particularly from working-class areas. “There is a huge amount of talent to be found in these places, but you need to fund them, and it can’t just be the Harrow and Eton lot, because you’re only going to get one side of the story, and it’s not going to be truthful.” Without groups such as the Oldham Theatre Workshop, TV, film and theatre all starts to look the same. “It just becomes completely homogenised, and it’s fucking boring.” A pause, then she laughs: “She says, getting riled up.”

But talking about it is important, she continues. “I thought with a Labour government, these things would be prioritised, but it feels like it’s not.” There is less and less funding for the arts, and she is clear about what is being lost. “Even if you don’t want to be an actor, it’s important to have a place to go and express yourself, and not be locked in your room on your phone. You’re able to develop social skills. Children today are so isolated. And with the rise of the manosphere, the antidote to that is play, and showing boys that they can be tender and emotional, and that it’s beautiful and cool and mind-expanding to be on stage.”

Cooke has to head off to a meeting, about a top-secret script. She has three films coming out in the near future. There are two horrors: Visitation, in which she plays a nun, and Brides, which is more of a gothic romance. There is a film about the crime novelist Patricia Highsmith – originally called Switzerland, though it may now have a new name – which will be directed by Anton Corbijn. He made Cooke’s favourite film, the Joy Division biopic Control, so she was happy to get the chance to grill him about that.

Meanwhile, House of the Dragon is due to end with a fourth and final season. As ever, in Westeros, it’s impossible to say who will make it out alive. “In the book, I survive until the end of the story,” she says, meaning that Alicent might well be in with a chance. “So good behaviour-willing, I won’t get the chop.” Her dad, then, has got even more catching up to do.

Season three of House of the Dragon starts on HBO Max, Sky Atlantic & Now on 22 June.

Keyword – Global
Trefwoorden – Newsletter sign-up
Title – Sign up for The Long Wave newsletter: our weekly Black life and culture email | Newsletter sign-up | The Guardian
Author – Guardian Staff
Link – Sign up for The Long Wave newsletter: our weekly Black life and culture email | Newsletter sign-up | The Guardian
Publish date – 2024-10-16T12:47:09.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/global/2024/oct/16/sign-up-for-the-long-wave-newsletter-our-weekly-black-life-and-culture-email

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keyword – US news
Trefwoorden – Trump administration, US politics, Donald Trump, Washington DC, US-Israel war on Iran, Iran, Chicago
Title – Federal judge blocks Trump administration efforts to subpoena Minnesota governor Tim Walz and others – live | Trump administration | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tom-ambrose,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/lucy-campbell,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/vivian-ho,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/fran-lawther,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/robert-mackey,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rachel-leingang,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/fabiola-cineas,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/yohannes-lowe,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/niamh-rowe,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/michael-sainato
Link – Federal judge blocks Trump administration efforts to subpoena Minnesota governor Tim Walz and others – live | Trump administration | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T19:46:50.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2026/jun/22/trump-reflecting-pool-vandalized-lincoln-memorial-iran-us-politics-latest-news-updates

Federal judge blocks effort to subpoena Minnesota governor Tim Walz and officials

A federal judge has blocked efforts to subpoena Tim Walz and other Minnesota officials, calling it an attempt to “harass and retaliate against them”, the AP reports.

US district judge Patrick Schlitz ruled that the main purpose of the subpoenas – part of a Trump administration investigation into alleged obstruction of deadly ICE raids in the state earlier this year – was to “coerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil immigration law and to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so.”

Minnesota governor Walz said the ruling was “a victory for the rule of law and our democracy”.

Despite an adverse court ruling, the US Department of Justice is refusing to back off its claim that Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz , attorney general, Keith Ellison , and the Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey , should all be investigated for breaking the law by refusing to cooperate with federal immigration raids in the state that led to the killing of two peaceful protesters, Renee Good and Alex Pretti , by federal officers.

Earlier on Monday, the US district court for Minnesota unsealed an order from Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz rejecting subpoenas for the elected Democrats as politically motivated.

Schiltz, a former Republican Senate staffer who clerked for supreme court justice Antonin Scalia before being nominated to the federal bench by George W Bush , wrote that initiating an investigation “in order to ‘harass political opponents or to coerce them into taking official action – particularly official action that the federal government cannot directly require those political opponents to take – is a blatantly unlawful and unethical use the grand-jury process”.

Despite this stinging rebuke from a conservative jurist, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice insisted in a statement to the Guardian that it was simply investigating unlawful behavior.

“The Department takes the unlawful obstruction of federal law enforcement operations extremely seriously and will continue to act in full compliance with the law to investigate these matters”, the spokesperson said.

Here’s a more in-depth report on a federal judge blocking the justice department’s attempt to subpoena Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz , attorney general, Keith Ellison , and the Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey , from our Minneapolis-based Midwest political correspondent, Rachel Leingang.

A federal judge agreed to quash the US federal government’s subpoenas of leaders in Minnesota issued during the Trump administration’s controversial immigration crackdown on the state earlier this year.

The US Department of Justice issued subpoenas to the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz , the attorney general, Keith Ellison, the Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, and other local officials in the Twin Cities in January.

The department said it was investigating the officials for obstructing federal immigration enforcement. Local and state officials largely did not support the federal enforcement surge, during which federal agents killed two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in the streets.

The US district court for Minnesota unsealed an order from Chief Judge Patrick J Schiltz on Monday that showed the subpoenas were rejected as politically motivated. Ellison posted the unsealed order on Monday, saying the decision to quash the subpoenas was an “extremely rare step” by the court.

In the order, Schiltz wrote that the Trump administration had been “threatening and attempting to punish states and localities that have adopted ‘sanctuary’ policies”. He noted that initiating an investigation “in order to ‘harass political opponents or to coerce them into taking official action – particularly official action that the federal government cannot directly require those political opponents to take – is a blatantly unlawful and unethical use the grand-jury process”.

Read Rachel’s full report here:

Trump’s effort to subvert mail-in voting suffers another setback in Maryland

A federal judge ruled on Monday that Maryland election officials do not have to comply with a demand from the Trump administration to turn over the state’s complete list of registered voters, dealing another legal setback to Donald Trump ’s plan to subvert mail-in voting by asserting federal control.

In her opinion , US district judge Stephanie Agli Gallagher , who was nominated to the court by Trump in 2019, rejected the Department of Justice’s claim that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 required states to turn over complete voter rolls as “absurd”.

The Democratic election and voting rights attorney Marc Elias celebrated the decision in his Democracy Docket newsletter, writing:

Donald Trump desperately wants to build a national database of voters. His plan is to have his administration control who stays on the list and who gets removed. He has issued unconstitutional executive orders to accomplish this goal, and the U.S. Postal Service has proposed a new rule to do his bidding.

The problem for Trump is that his Department of Justice keeps losing cases that it needs to access this critical data. This humiliating string of defeats threatens to derail Trump’s signature plan to subvert the 2026 midterm elections.

This morning, a federal judge in Maryland handed the DOJ its ninth defeat in a series of 31 cases the department has filed to gain access to state voter files. The DOJ has yet to win a single one. The court wrote that it “joins every court to have addressed this issue in concluding that [a state voter file] is not a record or paper that a state must produce to the United States.”

Importantly, of the nine cases the DOJ has lost, five were decided by judges nominated by Trump.

As the Guardian reported in May, the US Postal Service could throw the upcoming midterm elections into chaos by requiring states to provide lists of voters who received mail ballots, according to a draft rule .

Nearly one in three Americans voted by mail in 2024 , but Trump, who wants to restrict the number of voters by limiting ballots cast by mail, signed an executive order in March that prohibits the USPS from delivering ballots to any voters not on a federal list of citizens deemed eligible to vote in each state by the Department of Homeland Security.

The USPS proposal to implement this order seeks to require states to give the postal service the names and barcodes tied to mail-in ballots for federal elections. The public will have until 2 July to comment on the proposed rule before the Trump administration can finalize it.

Vance says he did not feel snubbed by Iran’s foreign minister during viral moment before talks

Before boarding his flight home from Switzerland, the US vice-president JD Vance spoke to reporters on the tarmac and was asked if he felt snubbed by Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi , when Iran’s top negotiator came into the same room as him but did not greet the American.

“No,” Vance said. “I’ve spent a lot of time dealing with the Iranians over the last few months. Sometimes I find them extremely confusing as negotiators.

“What I did find kind of funny is that after that initial meeting, there was this, you know, sort of social media firestorm where everybody said the Iranians are going to leave, and then we proceeded to talk to them for like the next nine hours,” Vance added. “So I would just encourage the media, mistrust a little bit what you see coming out of Iranian social media. They could be confusing negotiators, but we feel like we’re making progress.”

Video of Iran’s foreign minister leaving the room without acknowledging Vance was indeed viewed millions of times on social media.

The vice-president also said: “We continue to make progress on these technical negotiations. We left a lot of our team, the Iranians left a lot of their team at the resort there to keep on working at it.”

Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said the investigation was “never about justice, law, and order, but the absence of it”.

“Subpoenaing political opponents because they spoke on behalf of their constituents violates the core tenets of our democracy and human decency,” he said, according to AP reports.

Frey also observed that criticizing government action is not a crime. “One of the defining strengths of our democracy is the ability to challenge those in power without fear of retribution. Elected officials have both the right and the responsibility to speak honestly about how government decisions affect the people they serve,” he said.

Keith Ellison , the Minnesota attorney general, said “it should disturb every American that Donald Trump is weaponizing the criminal justice system against people he disagrees with”.

Kaohly Her , St Paul mayor, said the subpoenas were “a politically motivated retaliation against our city for lawfully standing up to ICE and fighting for our residents”.

Walz says case is example of DoJ going after Trump’s political opponents

The subpoenas were first issued in January amid a violent immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to the killings of Minneapolis residents Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good.

As well as Tim Walz, the Trump administration issued subpoenas for Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey , the offices of the state attorney general, Keith Ellison , the Hennepin county attorney, Mary Moriarty , the St Paul mayor, Kaohly Her , and the Ramsey county attorney, John Choi .

On Monday, Walz – who was Kamala Harris’s running mate in the 2024 election – issued a statement after the ruling, saying: “The US justice department is pursuing criminal investigations into the president’s political opponents. This case was just one example of that, but we are seeing daily reminders of this administration’s lawlessness — in Minnesota and around the country. We all must continue to seek justice and uphold the rule of law.”

Here’s more from the AP on the federal judge’s ruling:

The ruling is the latest rebuke by the federal judiciary of Justice Department efforts to aggressively implement the Trump administration agenda in courts and target the president’s political adversaries through subpoenas and similar demands.

The judge ruled that there appeared to be “extremely weak to nonexistent” connections between the information sought in the subpoenas and any possible criminal violation. The subpoenas seek materials “that largely if not entirely relate to constitutionally protected conduct,” the judge wrote, noting that Minnesota has the legal right not to devote its resources to enforcing federal immigration law.

The Justice Department “is not conducting a criminal investigation,” the judge wrote, “but is instead using the grand jury process for other (unlawful) purposes.”

The evidence that the subpoenas were issued for unlawful reasons is overwhelming, the judge said, arguing that the Justice Department “has struggled — without success — to identify a single plausible investigatory justification” for them.

The DoJ has yet to comment on the ruling.

Federal judge blocks effort to subpoena Minnesota governor Tim Walz and officials

A federal judge has blocked efforts to subpoena Tim Walz and other Minnesota officials, calling it an attempt to “harass and retaliate against them”, the AP reports.

US district judge Patrick Schlitz ruled that the main purpose of the subpoenas – part of a Trump administration investigation into alleged obstruction of deadly ICE raids in the state earlier this year – was to “coerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil immigration law and to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so.”

Minnesota governor Walz said the ruling was “a victory for the rule of law and our democracy”.

Donald Trump said Iran will agree to have weapons inspections in future to ensure what he called “nuclear honesty”.

The president’s Truth Social post on Monday echoed comments made by his vice-president, JD Vance, who said Tehran had agreed to allow nuclear inspectors back into the country “as soon as today”.

Trump said: “Everybody is fully aware that Iran will agree to have Major Weapons Inspections in order to ensure “Nuclear Honesty” long into the future.”

California sues EPA over vehicle emissions rules

California sued the Environmental Protection ⁠Agency ⁠on ​Monday after the agency sent Congress landmark state vehicle emissions rules for ⁠potential repeal, Reuters reports.

According to the EPA, waivers under ‌the Clean Air Act ‌for California environmental regulations that had been approved under prior Democratic administrations should have been sent to lawmakers ‌under the Congressional Review Act .

However, California argued that this action was illegal and should be blocked by a federal court. The state has accused the ​EPA of seeking to “wave ​a ‌magic wand” ​and ​turn a waiver into a rule.

The Trump administration’s new Medicaid rules , issued this month as part of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act , require millions of low-income Americans to prove they are working, studying or otherwise active for at least 80 hours a month just to keep their health coverage. It’s a paperwork hurdle that could cost 5 million to 10 million people their Medicaid by 2028, the Urban Institute estimates. For the roughly 40% of Americans with HIV who rely on Medicaid at any given time, and the 85% who depend on it at some point in their lives, the new rules could cost them their lives.

“For people with HIV, that’s a matter of life or death, because if your treatment is interrupted, even for a short time, you can lose viral load suppression,” said Virginia Shubert, a senior policy adviser at Housing Works, the New York City advocacy organization dedicated to ending the HIV/Aids and homelessness crises. “It goes beyond the law, and it’s very cruel.”

In New York state, where HIV infection rates have increased in recent years, the Medicaid rules could lead to a surge of new cases. Half of all New Yorkers living with HIV, an estimated 55,000 people , rely on Medicaid for their healthcare, according to Housing Works.

Aside from cuts to Medicaid, the US House has also proposed cutting $225m from the Ryan White HIV/Aids program , which delivers low-cost care to about half of all people with HIV in the US. Several states’ Aids drug assistance programs, which supply antiretrovirals to uninsured people, are running out of money, forcing waitlists in states including Florida.

More here:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will begin a trip to three Gulf countries tomorrow amid negotiations with Iran to end the war, his spokesperson said.

Visiting the United Arab Emirates , Kuwait and Bahrain , Rubio will discuss “the memorandum of understanding with Iran, efforts to secure full and free safe transit through the strait of Hormuz, and the importance of peace and stability in the region,” state department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement.

US stocks are drifting near their records after trading resumed following a three-day weekend for Wall Street, the Associated Press reports.

The S+P 500 slipped 0.3%, coming off its 11th winning week in the last 12, and pulled 1.7% below its all-time high set early this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 131 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% lower.

In the oil market, prices eased following talks over the weekend between the United States and Iran . JD Vance said today that they had created a “good foundation for a successful final deal” (see my earlier post ).

An end to the war could clear the strait of Hormuz for oil tankers and allow for the undisputed resumption of deliveries from the Persian Gulf. Iran’s military had said on Saturday that it closed the critical waterway again, though US Central Command has disputed that.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil fell 2.8% to $78.29, closer to its roughly $70 price from before the war. Benchmark US crude oil fell 2.3% to $74.14 per barrel.

The lower oil prices, though, did not pull down Treasury yields in the bond market. Yields have been climbing because of speculation that the Federal Reserve may have to hike interest rates this year in order to keep a lid on inflation, which has been accelerating because of expensive oil caused by the Iran war.

Economists expect a report on Thursday to show a measure of inflation for US consumers sped up to 4.1% in May from 3.8% in April.

The US Treasury said it was temporarily lifting sanctions on Iran to allow the Islamic Republic to produce, sell and deliver crude oil and related products until 21 August.

“All transactions” that were previously prohibited involving the production, sale, and transport of Iranian-origin crude oil “are authorized through 12:01 am eastern daylight time, 21 August, 2026,” according to a license published by the Treasury Department, which administers US economic sanctions.

US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent cited Tehran’s commitment in ongoing negotiations to “free and open transit” in the strait of Hormuz and permission for International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to enter their country as a reason for pausing the sanctions.

Trump continues evidence-free and changing claims about reflecting pool

Further to our earlier post about the reported arrests made and federal citations issued after the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool was allegedly “vandalized”, Donald Trump has claimed that the pool “has been given a 300 foot long gash, chemicals have been illegally placed in the water, and the beautiful new grass field has been destroyed with a gigantic 86 47 chemically carved into it.”

It’s worth noting that on Saturday, Trump alleged a “250 foot gash” and has still not provided evidence of that, and now appears to be claiming it was actually 300 ft.

Also, authorities have been investigating the 86 47 that was recently etched onto a vast patch of grass on the National Mall. It’s unclear if Trump is referring to that as one of the subjects of the aforementioned arrests or federal citations, or if he’s just running through some of the “real problems” the pool has faced in general.

The Trump administration spent over $16m to renovate the reflecting pool , only for it to be swiftly plagued by algae blooms and peeling paint .

Here’s what the president posted on Truth Social:

Of the MANY Statues and Fountains that we rebuilt, renovated, cleaned, and fixed, the only one that was Vandalized was the Reflecting Pool, which is being taken care of, ASAP! It has been given a 300 foot long gash, chemicals have been illegally placed in the water, and the beautiful new grass field has been destroyed with a gigantic 86 47 chemically carved into it (Probably inspired by Dirty Cop, James Comey!). Please remember that there is a 10 year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things – Which will be fully enforced!

A reminder that “86” is frequently used across the restaurant industry to mean “stop” or to get rid of something, while Trump is the 47th president of the US. Former FBI director James Comey was indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this year over an Instagram photo he posted of seashells arranged to spell out “8647”.

The artificial intelligence industry is spending heavily in the 2026 midterms , hoping to secure influence over the technology’s first generation of legislation – and New York City’s primary has emerged as the key battleground.

AI-focused Super Pacs have raised roughly $100m this cycle, of which $44m has been spent so far, in dozens of congressional races across the country. Nearly half of all spending has converged on a single Manhattan race: tomorrow’s Democratic primary in the district of NY-12.

And much of that spending has targeted a single candidate: Democratic assemblymember Alex Bores , who is running to represent New York’s 12th House district. Bores, who worked in tech before his pivot to politics, has found himself at the unlikely center of a proxy battle for the industry’s tussle for regulatory influence.

Here’s Niamh’s report:

Vance says US-Iran talks have laid ‘very good foundation for a successful final deal’

Earlier, JD Vance said the US and Iranian teams made “great progress” in talks yesterday, with the help of mediation from Qatar and Pakistan, and had created a “good foundation for a successful final deal” to end the war.

“ The final deal is the house ,” the US vice president told reporters in Bürgenstock. “ We set the foundation. We haven’t built the house, but we’ve laid a successful foundation to get to a good place for the American people .”

He said Iran has agreed to invite International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors back into their country.

“ This is probably what we are most excited about as Americans ,” Vance told reporters, as he confirmed that he will head back to the US as technical negotiations in Switzerland continue.

Talking about the return of IAEA inspectors, Vance added that it represented “ a major milestone for the American people and the first step in permanently ending a nuclear weapons programme in Iran ”.

When asked how soon IAEA inspectors could come to Iran , Vance said: “I expect that will happen at the minimum this week, but we think even some of those conversations with the inspectors and with the IAEA could happen as soon as today.”

Vance also suggested that the US could agree to unfreeze Iranian assets for purchases of American soy, corn and wheat .

A progressive Democrat challenging a veteran congressman to represent the party in a closely watched New York race for US Congress has claimed the city has deteriorated on his watch.

Darializa Avila Chevalier, one of three allies that New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani , has endorsed in competitive congressional Democratic primaries in the city on Tuesday, is seeking to unseat incumbent Adriano Espaillat in the state’s 13th congressional district.

During a recent candidate forum held by WNYC, Espaillat – the five-term Democrat who chairs the influential Congressional Hispanic caucus – claimed Avila Chevalier was not experienced enough. “Getting results in Congress is not a PhD program,” he declared, referencing her studies at the City University of New York.

But in an interview with the Guardian, Avila Chevalier argued Espaillat had failed to produce such results since taking office.

“You just have to look around our district and ask: have things gotten any better in the nine years that he’s been in office?” she said. “I would argue the answer is no, because we’ve seen an exodus of over 200,000 Black New Yorkers leave the city in the last two decades.”

Trump-appointed official threatens prosecution after five arrested in relation to reflection pool problems

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

Five people have reportedly been arrested for vandalizing Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool in Washington DC , with Donald Trump insisting repair work will begin “immediately”.

CBS News reporter Emma Nicholson tweeted on Sunday that an administration official told her five people had been arrested for vandalizing the pool and another five issued federal citations, bring the total number of police reports filed to 14, including one related to an alleged 250ft gash in the pool.

It has been plagued by algae blooms and peeling paint following the controversial recent renovation efforts for America’s 250th anniversary celebrations next month.

On Sunday, Trump said he had personally surveyed the damage. “Work will begin immediately on fixing the seriously vandalized Reflecting Pool,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday evening.

“I just inspected it, and could only say to myself, and those gathered around me, WOW, who would do such a thing?” the president added, without offering further details. He said the pool would “probably” be drained as part of the repair works.

Three-time Olympian David Hearn, who was apprehended, told the Washington Post that he had merely stopped by the pool to touch one of the peeling pieces of paint liner to see how it felt, when he was arrested by US park police on a misdemeanor charge.

Trump gave no details on any other apparent arrests and exact details of such apprehensions remained scant on Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, said on Sunday afternoon that citations for vandalism had been issued and people caught vandalizing the 2,000-ft-long reflecting pool will be fully prosecuted.

“Anyone who is in a position of vandalizing or attempting to vandalize will face the criminal justice system in DC,” ‌Pirro told Fox News’s Sunday Briefing. Anyone adding products to the pool that can generate algae could face more severe charges, Pirro added, but did not offer statistics or specific details of arrests.

Read the full story here:

In other developments:

Donald Trump threatened to ⁠resume war with Iran even as his vice-president JD Vance met Iranian officials to begin peace talks in Switzerland. Also overshadowing negotiations in Bürgenstock was Tehran’s announcement it had again closed the strait of Hormuz, a threat made because of ongoing Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.

US political figures from left and right have voiced fresh objections to Trump’s provisional deal with Iran. Outgoing Republican senator John Cornyn posted a line on X from a Wall Street Journal article on how rogue regimes evade US economic warfare. Senior Democratic figure Susan Rice added to her recent description of the US-Iran deal as a “horrific surrender” by Trump, calling it “egregious” because “so many concessions were granted up front”.

At least seven people have been killed and dozens injured in several shootings in Chicago since Friday, police said, with Trump again calling for military intervention in the midwestern city. In a post on Truth Social, the president questioned why Illinois’s governor, JB Pritzker, had not welcomed military deployment.

Nine months after Trump ordered an anti-crime taskforce on to the streets of Memphis, a small band of dedicated observers is attempting to monitor its actions. They have alleged widespread intimidation by agents, who stand accused in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee of having tailed cars, surveilled homes and even “falsely arrested” one community observer.

Public health resources across the US are failing to keep pace with the rapid growth of online gambling , problem health advocates warned, after Trump endorsed the controversial nationwide surge of prediction markets.

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – Labour party leadership, Labour, Politics, Andy Burnham, Keir Starmer, Economic policy, Privatisation, Public services policy, Makerfield byelection, UK news
Title – The Guardian view on Labour’s leadership: Andy Burnham has a story. He must also have a plan | Editorial | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/editorial
Link – The Guardian view on Labour’s leadership: Andy Burnham has a story. He must also have a plan | Editorial | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T17:42:00.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/22/the-guardian-view-on-labours-leadership-andy-burnham-has-a-story-he-must-also-have-a-plan

P olitical careers often end when circumstances demand qualities that a politician cannot supply. That seems especially true of Sir Keir Starmer. On Monday, he stepped down as Labour leader, hours before Andy Burnham arrived at Westminster to take his seat as MP for Makerfield.

Sir Keir’s achievements were real. He won a large parliamentary majority in 2024 , provided more cash for the NHS and was steadfast in his support of Ukraine. He undoubtedly restored a measure of seriousness after years of Tory psychodrama. But the 2024 victory was always more brittle than it seemed: Labour’s vote actually fell from 2019 and Nigel Farage’s decision to stand candidates in 2024 fractured rightwing votes. Sir Keir won power; he did not change the political weather.

Although Mr Burnham is not yet Labour leader, the enthusiasm greeting him at Westminster suggested that many MPs regard his ascent as inevitable. If he were to enter Downing Street, Mr Burnham would become the seventh prime minister of the UK in 10 years. The Tory MP who shouted “ he’s not the messiah ” got laughs because it caught the mood: relief shading into perhaps unrealistic hope. But Mr Burnham is not Lenin arriving at Finland Station .

Sir Keir’s problem was that he offered incremental repair when the country wanted a moral vision . He could not explain what had gone wrong, who had benefited or what needed to change. Mr Burnham has a stronger grasp of the grievances that underpin politics. His enemies are legible and his story is simple enough for voters to repeat: Britain worked better before privatisation ; London has taken too much power for itself; communities have been ripped off; public control can restore fairness and pride.

Reports that Mr Burnham wants to break with Treasury orthodoxy are welcome. Cutting budgets of unprotected departments while waiting for interest rates to fall is not a strategy; it is drift. The influential thinktank Compass, close to Mr Burnham, published a policy paper – The Productive State – on Monday arguing that the state should lower the cost of essentials through public investment, ownership and coordination of key services so that real disposable income rises without relying endlessly on state subsidies.

The authors, Mathew Lawrence and Alex Williams, say that energy and water should be placed under national public corporations, while housing and transport would be organised at the city-region scale, with care and local services run through municipal providers. The political attraction of such a programme is obvious: it links the cost of living, growth, fiscal plausibility and public control in a way that mirrors Mr Burnham’s rhetoric. It also gives him the machinery of civic pride and regional renewal.

No other MP looks able to get the 81 nominations required to enter the Labour leadership race. If Mr Burnham is to become prime minister without a contest, he should seek the scrutiny that a contest would otherwise provide. A lengthy session before parliament’s liaison committee would be a good place to start. The public will not reward Labour for creating a new model of the state. They will reward it for making life cheaper, easier and more secure. Mr Burnham’s politics has offered voters a compelling diagnosis of what has gone wrong in Britain. Unlike Sir Keir, he has a story. The question is whether it has a convincing ending.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Albania, Conservation, Wildlife, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Environment, Europe, European Union
Title – ‘We want a new Albania’: protests against Jared Kushner-backed resort turn anger on government | Albania | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/helenasmith
Link – ‘We want a new Albania’: protests against Jared Kushner-backed resort turn anger on government | Albania | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T02:00:46.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/22/albania-protests-jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-resort-sazan-island-anger-government

F or Ina Shkurti, like so many Albanians, the island of Sazan has played an outsized role. As a child she bathed in its “always calm and emerald green” waters, as a teenager it figured in her dreams and as an adult it was an indelible part of the memory and desire that drew her back, every summer, to Vlore, her home town across the sea.

What Shkurti never imagined was that plans to build a mega-resort on Sazan – one of two luxurious complexes on Albania’s southern coast backed by Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner – would trigger a revolt , an uprising that has convulsed the Balkan state in a spasm of disgust over the perceived excesses of “a rotten oligarchic class” just as it hopes to complete accession talks with the EU.

“Am I outraged? Of course I am,” the cartographer said as the contours of the uninhabited outcrop came into view from a speedboat scudding towards its shores. “Sazan is our only island. It’s a small paradise that holds a special place in the hearts and minds of Albanians. Having some rich couple come in, develop it, and then deny us access, would be a crime.”

Not since the collapse of communism, more than three decades ago, has Albania been shaken by such collective fury. At 32, Shkurti, whose family emigrated to the US when she was 11, is typical of the tens of thousands, both in and outside the country, who have taken to the streets in what has become known as the “flamingo revolution” because of the threat posed by the proposed resorts to wildlife and delicate ecosystems on the sites.

“This government no longer represents us,” she said. “It has chosen to represent oligarch investors like Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner . These protests are not going to stop, even if they’re no longer exclusively about them.”

Every day, she said, friends from Albania’s diaspora were flying in to join the rallies. In the biggest so far, thousands converged on Tirana at the weekend, many travelling from the US and other parts of Europe , to add their voices to the wave of dissent.

I n a country with almost no tradition of civic unrest, the protests, both leaderless and non-partisan, have caught officials in Tirana and the EU off guard. Increasingly, demonstrators have in their sights a political establishment blamed for the country’s chaotic transition from repressive Stalinist rule. Fears of crisis are mounting.

Amid daily calls for his resignation, Edi Rama, the prime minister, has chosen to respond with nervousness, humour and barely concealed ire. But the veteran socialist, previously feted in Brussels for his visionary policies and an artist with a jovial disposition in more peaceful times, has also refused to back down. Elected for a fourth term last year on a vow to get the once isolated country into the EU, he has described the €1.4bn investment as vital if Albania is to become the Mediterranean’s “most attractive high-end tourist destination”.

“You have to ask where all of this is going,” said Afrim Krasniqi, the director of the Albanian Institute for Political Studies, who does not rule out demonstrators adopting “more radical” protest measures. “The government, it seems, doesn’t want to believe that all these people out on the streets are against it. This absence of dialogue, this lack of empathy, this refusal to want to find a solution, is dangerous.”

Three weeks have elapsed since the protests first erupted after bulldozers began clearing clusters of forest and ancient dunes to make way for construction in a protected conservation zone across the water from Sazan.

The Pishë Poro-Narta reserve, home to one of Europe’s last wild rivers , encompasses much of the Zvërnec peninsula, its sandy shores protecting an inland lagoon that is a major migratory route for hundreds of rare birds and more than 70 endangered species.

Tensions rose here – the first site slated for development – when opponents confronted private security contractors who had hastily erected a fence to keep the public out. In the mayhem that ensued, as demonstrators tried to scale the barrier, a local landowner was filmed being dragged by guards, his handcuffed body bumping over the rocky terrain as witnesses looked on aghast. Police officers, controversially, chose not to intervene.

In a podcast released the next day, Ivanka Trump waxed lyrical about the real estate venture and “this beautiful peninsula with a lagoon on one side, the ocean on the other” that she and her husband, as lead investors in the project, intended to transform. “It’s massive in scale,” she said of the plans to develop Sazan, a former Soviet-era military installation whose verdant landscape of wild fig trees and flowers is dotted with derelict buildings once used by personnel and their families. “Not only the island, but we have 5 miles of beachfront directly across from [it],” the US president’s daughter enthused, referring to the shoreline within view of this month’s violent scenes.

“People became very angry,” said Kostandin Xhaho, an environmentalist based in Vlore. “After all, Sazan is a historic monument. I’ve got friends who grew up in those buildings and both the island and Zvërnec are important habitats for flamingos, monk seals and loggerhead sea turtles. This idea of a 10,000-room resort being built on the peninsula sparked what I think you would call an explosion.”

The prospect of what critics condemned as the “the worst kind of global elite” plundering natural reserves in a country that remains one of Europe’s poorest soon tapped into deep anger over depredations highlighting other inequalities.

The development was granted preliminary approval after the Albanian parliament amended stringent laws safeguarding environmentally sensitive zones – although there is no evidence Kushner had any role in the change. Indicative of the perceived lack of transparency around the project, opponents claim the investors remain a mystery, their identities concealed behind a multi-layered shell company in the Netherlands. Continuing court cases over property disputes in Zvërnec have also played into popular anger.

“What we want is a new Albania,” said Justina Prenga, 24, who recently travelled from the northern city of Shkodër to join protesters in the capital, where cries of “Rama ik” (Rama resign) are heard nightly outside the shuttered 1930s building that houses the prime minister’s office. “We’re gen Z and we’re saying ‘enough is enough’, our country isn’t for sale.”

The outcry, she said, had gone “way beyond” the Kushners, even if her friends didn’t know “whether to laugh or cry” when in the podcast they heard Trump’s “Christopher Columbus-style” account of discovering Sazan. “We want this project stopped, but really, it’s about everything that is wrong with Albania. Sali Berisha should also resign. He made our country what it is today, so he should go to jail too,” she said of the main opposition leader, a former president and prime minister at one time barred from entering the UK because of his alleged links to crime and corruption.

Draped in a giant red and black Albanian flag, Lizander Saraci agreed. A risk manager at a private bank, he is typical of an older generation that has also joined the movement.

“It’s been more than 30 years and still our hospitals are terrible, our education system is shit, there are no jobs and everyone is leaving,” said the father of two, who frequently attends the rallies with his children. “The demonstrations are huge because people are tired of this injustice. They’re tired of all the corruption. One of our slogans is ‘stop the dictatorship of dirty money’ because we’ve learned from experience that similar projects only ever benefit a wealthy few.”

Last week, the European parliament also weighed in. In a resolution, MEPs backed the protesters, urging the government to halt further construction in protected zones. Some decried the “predatory capitalists” who had exploited legislation allowing strategic investors to accelerate similar projects – a law Brussels has branded unfair and long asked Tirana to repeal. EU officials say that without agreement on the environmental laws, accession negotiations cannot be concluded. “We would expect Albania, a year and a half away from this target … to have aligned itself with these [EU] standards,” Silvio Gonzato, the EU’s ambassador to Albania, told the Guardian.

Again Rama stood his ground as he reacted to the EU parliament’s vote, pledging to continue the Zvërnec development “based on an environmental impact assessment according to European Union standards”.

He has repeatedly called what is Albania’s biggest investment ever “a blessing” that will not only provide badly needed jobs but “ultimately result in approximately 25 % more trees and green space”.

Last year the 3 million-strong country attracted about 12 million tourists, many lured as much by its natural beauty as its affordability. “This is also about direction,” said Shkurti. “Do we really want that kind of development when, clearly, the infrastructure can hardly cope?”

B ut Rama has his supporters. Albert Pushka, the owner of a newly opened fish restaurant outside Vlore, is so enthusiastic he has named the enterprise Ivanka. When asked about the development, Walter Dimraj, 48, gave a Trump-like thumbs-up and said: “Albania has to grow up. It has to seize this chance. If we don’t do it, the Greeks will.”

Elpiniqi Merkuri , a psychologist who heads Vlore’s municipal council, is convinced the resort will help boost confidence at a time when the older generation still “cannot find the courage” to talk about the brutality of the past. “People tend to feel calmer and more optimistic when they see development, new opportunities and well-designed environments,” she said, as cows and sheep sauntered around the area where construction workers recently broke ground.

Standing by the salt flats overlooking the lagoon, Ledi Selgjekaj wishes she could agree. This is where the young ornithologist has come for the past five years, rising at dawn to monitor the behaviour and breeding patterns of shore birds.

“Back then, they had just begun construction work on Vlore’s new international airport,” she said, looking through her binoculars beyond the wetlands towards its tower. “And that is when we began to see ecological corridors being disrupted and jackals and other predators targeting wildlife in the lagoon.”

Flamingos and their egg-laden nests were especially affected, she said. “The airport, when it begins operating, is going to be a disaster. If these resorts go ahead it will be the kiss of death.”

Keyword – Life and style
Trefwoorden – Life and style, Sex, Relationships
Title – This is how we do it: ‘Sex was something to get through with my husband. With Jess, I feel desire’ | Life and style | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/olivia-ladanyi
Link – This is how we do it: ‘Sex was something to get through with my husband. With Jess, I feel desire’ | Life and style | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T10:00:27.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/21/this-is-how-we-do-it-sex-with-my-husband-desire-women

Meg, 35

I’d spent so many years visualising having sex with a woman

Before Jess, I’d only ever had sex with men. I’d been in a relationship with a man and had two kids with him, but felt completely disconnected from my body during sex – the only way I could orgasm was to shut my eyes and replay lesbian porn. Sex felt like something to get through. With Jess, I felt desire for the first time, instead of being the object of someone else’s.

Her Tinder profile said: “Smilier in real life, only in the area for three weeks.” I’d never kissed a woman before and had blown up my whole life to come out. When we kissed, my knees buckled and she called me Bambi – a nickname that has stuck. I rushed home and masturbated while thinking about her, then immediately told her about it.

I spent the first six months of our relationship getting out of my head and into my body. I’d spent so many years visualising having sex with a woman that I had to learn to orgasm without the internal screen I’d come to rely on. Jess was patient. She can read me from the inside out and knows when I’m stuck in a loop. Once, she noticed my mind drifting and said: “Stick with it.” I came immediately.

As a butch top, Jess gets pleasure from my pleasure and prides herself on taking care of me and the kids. That’s difficult for me to accept sometimes because I’ve always been the one in charge. Part of me feels like I don’t deserve to be taken care of, but handing over control to her is freeing. I love how visibly lesbian we are as a butch-femme couple. Mostly, I love how she talks to my kids – like they’re proper humans whose questions deserve serious answers.

We moved in together recently. Last night, the pressure got to me and I cried during sex. Will we still lose entire mornings in bed to mind-blowing sex when we have real-life stuff to manage? Jess is helping me learn how to relax – in bed, but also to walk away when I need to without feeling guilty.

One of the kids rolled her eyes and said: “Ugh! All you guys do is talk and kiss.” I’m excited to take Jess for granted, to do life together – even the mundane things.

Jess, 35

Meg desires me so openly that it feels liberating

Meg is the woman I’ll be with for ever – I felt that from very early on. But I knew she’d never dated a woman before, and there was a weight to that. I remember thinking: I hope I don’t give her a bad first experience.

I didn’t realise until later that she hadn’t kissed anyone but her husband in 12 years. She was confident and I was nervous, but then with our first kiss, the tables turned – suddenly I was on safe ground.

It was a big deal for Meg, and for me. It wasn’t just about sleeping with a woman – Meg had changed her whole life and there was no going back. She had to learn how to enjoy the entire process of sex, and not just rush to orgasm. Watching her experience desire for the first time was truly incredible. Seeing her discover what she likes and what she was capable of felt like a privilege.

Being a butch top isn’t about control for me. If anything, it’s the opposite. I see it as my job to take care of Meg in every way: practically, emotionally and sexually. I take the bins out, give her reassurance and make her come. But it’s more selfish than it sounds – my pleasure comes from giving Meg pleasure and looking after her, even though she doesn’t need me to.

The move has been stressful, but as a couple we’ve been incredibly steady, so I’m not worried. We’ve got this solid core that comes from being so sure about each other.

I grew up in a small fishing town, and although I’m proudly butch, in my younger years I questioned how conventionally attractive I was. But Meg desires me so openly that it feels liberating. She tells me how much she fancies me, and makes me feel so entirely loved. I never feel like too much.

It’s the best relationship I’ve ever had – and I hope it’s the last.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, World Cup, Football, Sport
Title – A history of World Cup red cards: high feet, lost heads and a covered mouth | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/richard-foster
Link – A history of World Cup red cards: high feet, lost heads and a covered mouth | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T15:15:24.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/22/world-cup-red-cards-history

A fter a fairly pedestrian first half of the opening match of the 2026 World Cup , the game burst into life in the second period. South Africa midfielder Sphephelo Sithole, who had been at fault for Mexico’s opening goal, compounded his error by being sent off in the 49th minute for denying a goalscoring opportunity. When Themba Zwane was dismissed, South Africa became the 15th team to have two players sent off in the same World Cup match.

There was time for one more red card before full-time, the Mexico centre-back César Montes seeing red in stoppage time and following in the footsteps of his manager, Javier Aguirre, who was sent off while playing for Mexico in the 1986 quarter-final against West Germany in Monterrey.

The Mexico v South Africa match was the seventh World Cup game to feature more than two dismissals. Referees have been unusually trigger happy with their cards so far at this tournament. When Belgium defender Nathan Ngoy received his marching orders in a goalless draw with Iran on Sunday, he became the eighth player to be sent off – already matching the total in the previous two tournaments combined (four in Russia and four in Qatar).

One of the four red cards in Russia four years ago came during a chaotic quarter-final penalty shootout, with Denzil Dumfries – penalised for taunting Argentina – becoming the eighth Dutchman to be sent off at a World Cup . Given their national team is associated with the finer points of the game, it is perhaps surprising that the Netherlands have been at the centre of so much rancour and controversy over the years.

They were involved in the only World Cup match that has featured four red cards – the Battle of Nuremberg , their 1-0 defeat to Portugal in 2006. The last-16 match featured 16 yellow cards, with the first booking coming when Mark van Bommel scythed down Cristiano Ronaldo with a robust challenge in the second minute. The Netherlands were not very subtle about targeting Ronaldo; only a few minutes later, his thigh felt the imprint of Khalid Boulahrouz’s studs and the second yellow of the match followed.

Ronaldo just about survived this twin assault, but he did not make it to half-time. He left the pitch in tears just after Maniche scored the only goal of the match, as some football broke out briefly. The ferocity soon returned and the first red card arrived just before half-time, when Costinha’s deliberate handball leading to his second yellow. Any hopes of the second half being less violent were quickly dashed. Petit, a half-time substitute, was booked minutes after arriving on the pitch. Amazingly, the total number of red cards could have been higher; Luís Figo was lucky that his head-butt on Van Bommel during a heated fracas was deemed merely a yellow.

The Netherlands were also involved in the World Cup match with the most yellow cards: that quarter-final against Argentina in 2022 . The referee issued 18 yellows (16 for players and two more to coaching staff) during a physical, bruising contest that Argentina won on penalties after a 2-2 draw. There was not much love between the teams by the end, with Argentina players infamously celebrating in the faces of the Dutch after the penalty shootout.

The Netherlands also adopted an aggressive approach in the World Cup final in 2010 , when they tried to unsettle a fluid Spain side with a series of rough challenges. There were 14 yellow cards in the match, with eight of the Netherlands’ starting XI booked. Maarten Stekelenburg, Wesley Sneijder and Dirk Kuyt were the only Dutch starters who did not go into the referee’s book.

If anything, the referee was too lenient. John Heitinga was sent off for two bookable offences, but Howard Webb decided not to show Nigel de Jong a red card for planting his studs on Xabi Alonso’s chest. The referee later reflected that it was a mistake. “One of the things I would change is the colour of the card for De Jong’s tackle,” said Webb. “Having seen it again from my armchair several times in slow motion and from different angles I can see that it was a red-card offence.” So much for Total Football.

Heitinga is the last player to be sent off in a World Cup final and the fifth overall. It was not until the 14th final, in 1990, that a player was dismissed, with Argentina making up for lost time in their defeat to West Germany. Pedro Monzón was sent off 20 minutes after he had come on as a substitute and Gustavo Dezotti soon joined him in having an early bath. In the 1998 final, the seemingly unflappable Marcel Desailly was sent off for a second yellow after he took out Cafu . Not to worry. France breezed to a 3-0 win against Brazil in Paris.

Zinedine Zidane scored twice in that final and went on to win the Ballon d’Or that year. Earlier in the tournament, as France were coasting to a 4-0 victory, Zidane was sent off for stamping on a Saudi player. That would not be his last red card at a World Cup. Eight years later he became the second Frenchman to be dismissed in a final after he head-butted the Italy defender Marco Materazzi (who had been sent off earlier in the tournament). It was an unsuitable epitaph for one of the most cultured, talented players the world has ever known. Zidane is not alone in being sent off twice at World Cups; Cameroon defender Rigobert Song saw red in 1994 and 1998.

The first sending off at a World Cup came on the second day of the inaugural tournament in 1930 in front of a crowd of a few thousand people in Montevideo. Plácido Galindo, the inaptly named Peru captain, received his marching orders (he was not shown a red card as they were not introduced until 1970) in a 3-1 defeat to Romania. The game was apparently littered with fights, one of which had to be broken up by the police.

Nearly a century later, players are still breaking new ground. Miguel Almirón made history when he was sent off in Paraguay’s 1-0 win over Turkey . There were no big fights in that match. Instead, Almirón saw red for the heinous misdemeanour of “covering his mouth while speaking to an opponent in a confrontational situation”.

This is an article by Richard Foster, who presents the It Started With A Kick podcast and is writing a daily World Cup quiz on the Seventh Heaven app, on Apple and Google Store .