Keyword – Fashion
Trefwoorden – Fashion, Life and style, New York
Title – ‘Simple, bold and remixed endlessly’: why the I ❤️ T-shirt is cool – again | Fashion | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/sinead-campbell
Link – ‘Simple, bold and remixed endlessly’: why the I ❤️ T-shirt is cool – again | Fashion | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T11:14:27.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026/jun/11/how-the-i-t-shirt-became-trendy-again-thanks-to-gen-z-and-anti-trump-sentiment

T he biggest faux pas a tourist can make? Dressing like one. Selfie sticks and oversized backpacks fall within this category, but there is one item that has seemingly transcended cringe and entered the realm of cool.

The “I heart” T-shirt is an instantly recognisable item. While it’s found in every souvenir shop in every major city across the world, there is no place the T-shirt is more associated with than New York . But what would ordinarily be found for sale at a stall on Canal Street for no more than $20 has recently caught the interest of a kitsch-loving, meme generation – and now it is making its way down the catwalk.

In fashion circles, designers have turned the T-shirt into more than a celebration of the city. Coach’s interpretation featured beaded hearts and pen-scribbled text, worn by Ella Emhoff, the model and stepdaughter of Kamala Harris, as she walked for the brand during New York fashion week back in September 2024. Matthieu Blazy’s Métiers d’Art show for Chanel, held in a subway station in December last year, styled a sequined version with a matching tweed set.

Then came the celebrities. Gen Z’s favourite supermodel, Alex Consani, wore the Chanel T-shirt at an event in Times Square in April, as did Teyana Taylor when she hosted Saturday Night Live in January. Amelia Dimoldenberg of Chicken Shop Date fame casually wore her own faded baby tee over a gown made by New York designer Miss Claire Sullivan on the red carpet at The Devil Wears Prada 2 premiere in the city.

The T-shirt is as synonymous with the Big Apple as a dollar pizza slice or an off-Broadway show – but where exactly did the design come from? Like all good New York journeys, it started in the back of a yellow taxi. In 1976, graphic designer Milton Glaser was commissioned by New York state and advertising agency Wells, Rich, Greene to develop a logo that would promote tourism in the city during an economic downturn and surge in crime. Glaser made the initial sketch while he was on his way to the advertising agency, inspired by Robert Indiana’s Love pop art image .

The New York state government has rarely succeeded in its efforts to uphold the trademark, faced with an uncontrollable amount of global knockoffs. The logo is ubiquitous, and has been imitated in memorabilia from all corners of the globe, from London to Paris to … Magaluf. It is perhaps the most salient example of city merch. Jose Filipe Torres, global director for nation and city branding at Bloom Consulting, says they are a sign that “the place has become aspirational”. “Fashion is effectively a third party narrating that city to a global audience in a context that shapes whether people want to visit, invest or live there.”

What started as a marketing ploy gradually transformed into a pop culture symbol during the 90s and early 00s. And here it is again now, catalysed by an online generation whose aesthetic sensibilities are governed by Pinterest boards of paparazzi shots and film stills from decades past.

The T-shirt’s resurgence also seems to move in tandem with the political shifts of the city. Just days after the September 11 attacks, actor Jenna Elfman wore a ripped and torn-up version by designer Rebecca Minkoff on The Jay Leno Show. Now, the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor has brought in a new brand of pride for the city – one that is egalitarian, embracing of difference and seemingly firm in its opposition to threats from the Trump administration. It has been met with enthusiasm across the world, making it stylish again to “heart” New York, regardless of whether you live in the city or not. It has become an anti-Maga hat, of sorts.

But brand consultant and content creator Miranda Shanahan thinks the T-shirt’s revival is more of a symptom of Laver’s law, whereby a trend follows a 20-year “emotional” cycle. “What feels hideous after 10 years becomes ridiculous after 20, then gradually ironic and desirable. The tourist tee’s cultural peak puts us at exactly the right distance for an ironic reappraisal,” she tells me. “They’re simple, bold and can be remixed endlessly for any city, subculture or in-joke – much like a meme template.”

British singer-songwriter Rose Gray has incorporated the tourist T-shirt into her onstage wardrobe, often coordinating with the city she’s performing in. “It’s such a simple way for me to show my love to a city and my fans,” she says. The first New York one Gray owned was passed down to her by her mum. “There’s this kinda tacky nostalgia I feel wearing it,” she says.

It’s a blend of nostalgia and irony, low culture and high fashion, that has elevated the T-shirt’s meme potential, and thus its virality. Much like the metropolis it was conceived to represent, it crosses boundaries. All at once, the tourist T-shirt is tacky yet trendy, accessible enough to be found in a souvenir shop and yet at the same time indicating a humblebrag of worldliness that says: “Look at me, I’ve travelled to this city.”

To read the complete version of this newsletter – complete with this week’s trending topics in The Measure and your wardrobe dilemmas solved – subscribe to receive Fashion Statement in your inbox every Thursday.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Canada, World Cup 2026, Football, World Cup, Sport
Title – Jesse Marsch says he had to ‘beg’ US players to sing anthem as he talks up Canada’s pride | Canada | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ben-fisher
Link – Jesse Marsch says he had to ‘beg’ US players to sing anthem as he talks up Canada’s pride | Canada | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-11T23:47:46.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/11/jesse-masrch-canada-us-national-anthem-world-cup

Jesse Marsch urged Canada to embrace the pressure of being co-hosts on the eve of their Group B opener and trumpeted his players’ pride at representing the nation, adding that when he was part of the US setup they had to sometimes “beg players to sing the national anthem”.

Canada will host their first World Cup game on Friday, with Bosnia and Herzegovina their opponents for the history-making match in Toronto.

Marsch, who became the first American to manage Canada upon his appointment two years ago and was the US assistant coach at the 2010 World Cup, said he loves the multiculturalism in his squad.

“When I first came, I had to learn a lot about what it meant to be Canadian,” he said. “Being a leader in this sport, I’ve always tried to create an environment where our differences make us stronger, not weaker. From the moment I stepped into the environment with this team, I was incredibly impressed by how much they loved each other, how much they were drawn to each other and how much, even though there were differences, their back stories had similarities: first and second-generation Canadian, Portuguese, French, Jamaican, Colombian, Scottish …”

The 52-year-old continued: “Every one of these boys is incredibly Canadian and the pride they have in putting on the jersey, representing the country, hearing the national anthem … in the US sometimes we had to beg players to sing the national anthem … these guys belt it out to the top of their lungs because they want to show the country how proud they are to be here, to be Canadians and to represent what Canada is.”

Marsch does not want his players to shy away from an occasion that is likely to be supercharged at Toronto Stadium, the smallest venue in the tournament. “We all know a home World Cup is special,” he said. “If you do this for a living, this is where you want to be. I came to Canada to lead them in a home World Cup; I wanted this responsibility. Nobody here is afraid of that. Actually, this is why we’re doing it. Yeah, it’s responsibility, yeah, it’s pressure, but that’s what we want, it’s meaningful. I love sitting on that coach’s box when the stadium’s full, the pressure is on and everyone thinks you’re an idiot.” Marsch said both midfielder Ismaël Koné and centre-back Moïse Bombito will be fit to feature and offered a positive update on Alphonso Davies, Canada’s captain who continues to recover from a hamstring injury. “We did an MRI with him yesterday [Wednesday], it showed very positive signs that he is healing incredibly well – almost completely – so we’re getting ready to ramp things up,” Marsch said of the Bayern Munich defender. “I think having his private physio here has been very helpful and the concentration on his body’s needs every day. We’re really hopeful over the next days and week that we can accelerate things and give him a chance to contribute soon.” Toronto’s fan festival for the opening match was evacuated halfway through Mexico’s victory over South Africa due to the threat of lightning, but Marsch dismissed concerns that weather could affect Friday’s match.

“All of us in North America are used to this … for Europeans it’s going to be a hot World Cup,” he said. “I remember back to 1994 … it was a hot tournament and it affected teams in a big way, so I think we have the benefit of some of those experiences, the Copa América, the Gold Cup, but there is no doubt as much as it’s a physical challenge, it’s a mental challenge. We have some familiarity with that … it’s going to be warm, but we’ll be ready.”

Keyword – US news
Trefwoorden – New Jersey, US immigration, ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement), US news, US politics
Title – Women held at much-denounced ICE detention camp sign on to hunger strike | New Jersey | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jose-olivares
Link – Women held at much-denounced ICE detention camp sign on to hunger strike | New Jersey | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T12:00:44.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/12/delaney-hall-ice-detention-strike

Dozens of women detained inside the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility in New Jersey announced their participation in a hunger and labor strike, advocates announced on Thursday.

The women, detained in unit 1 of the contentious privately run facility, also released a new list of demands. They are calling on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release women under 21, women with medical conditions and mothers. They are also demanding improved conditions inside the facility and for their immigration cases to proceed more quickly.

The Delaney Hall detention facility, run by the private prison company Geo Group, has in recent weeks become a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s efforts to engage in mass deportations. A group of over 300 men launched a hunger and labor strike last month, leading to demonstrations in support of the strikers and an aggressive police response.

The announcement that detained women in Delaney Hall were engaging in a strike came just one day after Trump signed a $70bn spending bill for immigration enforcement agencies and as immigrants in other detention centers participate in strikes of their own.

On Thursday morning, advocates, religious leaders and family members with detained loved ones gathered in front of the Delaney Hall facility to announce nearly 40 women were signing on to the strike. A series of speakers decried the conditions inside.

“Today, we stand with the women demanding release, safe living conditions, medical care, legal representation, family visitation, safe drinking water and protection from abuse,” said Archange Antoine, a minister with the Clergy Coalition for Liberation. “These are not radical demands – these are demands rooted in basic human rights.”

On 22 May, a group of detained men inside Delaney Hall announced a hunger and labor strike, making a list of demands including meeting with the New Jersey state governor, improved conditions, the release of sick and elderly detainees and for their cases to proceed in immigration court. At the time, a few women inside the facility joined in that effort, advocates told the Guardian.

Soon after the 22 May strike was announced, protesters outside the facility gathered in support of the striking detainees. Lawmakers have also come out in support of the striking detainees and to conduct oversight visits.

ICE officers responded to the protests by deploying pepper spray and using Tasers and batons. But later, amid national attention on the heated protests, New Jersey’s governor and Newark’s mayor deployed the state and local police forces who deployed teargas and arrested dozens in an effort to disperse the protesters.

After the detained immigrants’ strike began, advocates and detainees have claimed that ICE and Geo Group have retaliated against them by canceling family visitations, removing communication tablets from units and transferring detainees to other facilities. Advocates estimate about 90 people were transferred to other detention centers this week.

“We know that engaging in a strike is really hard,” said Catalina Adorno, a volunteer with Cosecha, an immigrant rights organization in New Jersey. “Not just because of what it does to the physical body, but also because we have seen that the guards and that ICE are retaliating against the strikers.”

The Delaney Hall facility opened last year after ICE signed a billion-dollar contract for 15 years with Geo Group. Since its opening, it has faced repeated accusations of substandard medical care, inedible food and neglectful guards. Multiple oversight visits by members of Congress have found conditions at the facility to match claims by detainees, according to the lawmakers’ accounts.

“We all want our family members home,” a woman, whose husband has been detained in Delaney for two months, said on Thursday. She requested anonymity for fear of retaliation by ICE. “He’s not a criminal. He sacrifices himself every day for his family and for his home.”

Amid the strike and protests, two 18-year-old women detained inside Delaney were released, along with all pregnant women, which advocates celebrated as a win.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied that a hunger strike is taking place at Delaney Hall.

“Another day, another hoax about ICE,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. “There is no hunger strike at Delaney Hall at this time. No detainees are being beaten or abused.”

“All detainees are provided with three meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries,” the statement continues. “It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody.”

The DHS statement also encouraged undocumented immigrants to self-deport.

Geo Group did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.

When the first hunger strike began on 22 May, a group of women detained inside the facility also wrote a letter to the public, denouncing the conditions inside. The letter was published this week by advocacy groups.

“Most of the women detained at this center were illegally detained by ICE,” the letter reads. “We were taken at the entrances of our immigration court check-ins, at our jobs, taking our kids to school.”

“The treatment we received from this center is deplorable from screams, racism, and bad medical attention,” the letter adds.

Other hunger strikes have been taking place at different facilities around the US. In California, detained immigrants inside the Adelanto detention center and the nearby Desert View Annex are currently engaged in a strike. DHS is denying that a hunger strike is taking place, but advocates claim that striking detainees have faced retaliation .

According to the American Civil Liberties Union , the Northwest detention center in Washington state has had nine separate strikes since 2026 began. Similarly, immigrants inside other detention centers, including in Texas, in Pennsylvania and in Michigan, have launched hunger strikes since mid-April, the ACLU reports.

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – Labour party leadership, Labour, Politics, UK news, Keir Starmer, Makerfield byelection
Title – As John Healey goes, the political vultures circle Starmer. And so continues our history of PM-icide | Simon Jenkins | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/simonjenkins
Link – As John Healey goes, the political vultures circle Starmer. And so continues our history of PM-icide | Simon Jenkins | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T11:00:44.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/12/john-healey-political-vultures-keir-starmer-history-pm-imicide

O ne thing is clear. British politics has yet to rid itself of the torments of the past decade. The resignation of Keir Starmer’s defence secretary, John Healey , and the armed forces minister, Al Carns , indicates that the prime minister lacks cabinet support for his chancellor’s desperately needed budgetary balance. This gives ever greater prominence to next week’s Makerfield byelection , its multiplicity of feuding parties adding to its uncertainty. But its purpose is plain, to enable Andy Burnham to challenge Starmer’s leadership of the Labour party.

Healey is not the first defence secretary to have had to fight a lone battle for his budget. But Starmer’s argument with most of his colleagues is not over policy or principle. It is personal. It reflects the raw ambition of rivals eager to exploit his unpopularity in office. Burnham has said a byelection victory would presage a leadership vote, and it is clear that the party’s paid-up members would probably go for a change. A small town in Lancashire has thus the privilege of staging a Downing Street coup.

At this point, the British constitution goes from eccentric to deceptive. Starmer’s “landslide” Commons majority of 174 might have ranked in size only with Tony Blair’s win in 1997, but Labour got just 33% of the popular vote in 2024. In terms of number of votes cast, it was fewer than the election in 2019, when the party, led by his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, lost.

Labour’s 411 MPs should have slunk into Westminster with their tails between their legs and a silent nod of thanks to Reform UK’s Nigel Farage as their seats were gained not by a swing to the left but by the split of the vote on the right. The historian Anthony Seldon has reckoned that any Commons majority of more than 50 tends to be insecure . Starmer has as many as 200 backbench MPs in vulnerable constituencies, hypersensitive to local public opinion.

Starmer’s majority was quick to honour the Westminster whips’ maxim that large majorities are a nightmare. Within three weeks he had suspended seven rebels over the two-child benefits cap. More revolts followed over winter fuel allowances, personal independence payments, trade union rights and policy on Gaza. Over the past two years, he has had a dozen MPs suspended .

Labour has regularly ridiculed the Tories for their recent habit of assassination. Conservative leaders have tended to fall like tinpot emperors. Edward Heath was ousted by Margaret Thatcher, Thatcher by her colleagues after an assault led by Michael Heseltine. John Major survived a challenge only by resigning and standing again . Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss were hounded out by motions or threats of no confidence.

Parliamentary Labour in contrast had been curiously well behaved; no Labour leader has been formally voted out of office by his party. Most have resigned after election defeats or colleagues hinting it was time for them to go, as with Blair after the Iraq war. The most severe threat to Labour was near existential, under Michael Foot in 1981 from the gang of four . But neither Roy Jenkins nor the others stood against Foot. They resigned and formed the short-lived Social Democratic party.

The reality is that many of the previous generation of British politicians – Jenkins, Denis Healey, Douglas Hurd, Heseltine, Kenneth Clarke, David Blunkett – never reached Downing Street. The British electorate was never offered them as an option. The smoke screen that is British party politics descended and blotted them out. The most prominent of leaders, Thatcher, emerged from nowhere as a stalking horse for enemies of Heath.

As it is, the nation’s leadership is chosen by old-fashioned party members, Labour’s currently numbering fewer than 250,000. MPs, who are surely best qualified to decide, can merely vet nominees. An eccentric minority of voters has the privilege of deciding between candidates whose qualities they can hardly know. It is what gave the Tories Iain Duncan Smith, Johnson and Truss, and Labour Foot and Corbyn.

It is hard to imagine a more damaging gesture for Westminster’s politicians to inflict on the country at present than a change in No 10. Most prime ministers admit that they make their biggest mistakes in their first two years in office. That must have applied to Starmer. But Britain has endured a decade of those two years. It would be madness to stage another repeat.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

Keyword – Music
Trefwoorden – Folk music, Music, Culture
Title – Brown Wimpenny: Long Live Brown Wimpenny review – Manchester folk collective get bawdy and shambolic | Folk music | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/juderogers
Link – Brown Wimpenny: Long Live Brown Wimpenny review – Manchester folk collective get bawdy and shambolic | Folk music | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T07:30:38.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jun/12/brown-wimpenny-long-live-brown-wimpenny-review

B rown Wimpenny arrive with a name suggesting the softness of a twee indie band, before you discover it belonged to a fourth great-uncle of banjo player Seth Lockwood, who emigrated from a West Yorkshire farm to the 19th-century US. Then you hear the exploratory, hour-long debut album of this sprawling young collective, formed in Sunday sessions in Lockwood’s Manchester living room. A band happy to show their music’s muddy roots, these expansive eight tracks nonetheless pulse with ambition.

The album begins with a high-reaching medley, building from an atmospheric fiddle-led instrumental over a low cello drone. Dusty live production makes a feature of the music’s cracks and creaks, but when Lockwood’s athletic banjo takes the lead, it carries the rest of the group with arresting dynamism.

The Sheffield Grinder/Black Joak, linking a northern industrial ballad to a bawdy London broadside, has similar energy, though accordionist and singer James Brown, who sounds like the Only Ones’ Peter Perrett fronting the Pogues, overplays the swashbuckling. Other adventurous blends include O’Keefe’s/Farewell to Whalley Range, beautifully led by flautist Ella Evans, and Often Drunk/Kings of Kerry/Teddybear Jig, which travels somewhere unholy before tipping into extravagance.

Belonging in the same world as Shovel Dance Collective and Goblin Band , they are clearly devoted to unearthing and celebrating folk music, but their foregrounding of shambolic rough edges risks sounding fetishistic, distracting from the songs themselves, lessening their impact. The group are strongest in quieter territory: in the gorgeous opening passages of Raglan Road, the dying minutes of Jesus at Thy Command, and the moving communal singing of Pratty Flowers (The Holmfirth Anthem). The least showy track, Old Molly Metcalfe, introduced by a sample of Yorkshire chansonnier Jake Thackray, is the album’s best moment, every strummed string, fiddle shimmer and soft harmony landing with emotional impact.

Also out this month

Magic Tuber String band ’s raging, broiling and beautiful Heavy Water ( Thrill Jockey ) explores the effects of a nuclear arms plant on the local landscape and the communities of rural South Carolina. Stunningly played folk tunes and field recordings create an astonishing world touched by magic and terror, from the mesmerising Blooms in the Rapids to the apocalyptic Sound of a Million Stars.

Norway’s Hytta Trio release a striking debut album Vindespel (self-released) , which mixes the hardanger fiddle’s folk roots with new music and jazz (its title means “wind chime”). Especially lovely are Dråpeslått (Drop Tune) and Sildreslått (Murmuring Melody), which take rhythms reminiscent of jigs and reels into stranger, dreamier spaces.

Frankie Archer ’s The Dance of Death (self-released) is also fantastic, a collection of nine “nu-ancient trad bangers” that does something tricky but terrific, injecting trip-hop atmospheres and beats into ballads while preserving their edge and avoiding glossy novelty.

Keyword – Travel
Trefwoorden – United Kingdom holidays, Wales holidays, Scotland holidays, England holidays, Travel, Isle of Skye holidays, Rivers
Title – ‘I’m hoping to meet a river goddess’: a wild journey through Britain’s mythic waterways | United Kingdom holidays | The Guardian
Author – Kim Willis
Link – ‘I’m hoping to meet a river goddess’: a wild journey through Britain’s mythic waterways | United Kingdom holidays | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-11T06:00:08.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/jun/11/wild-journey-through-britain-mythic-waterways-river-goddess

I t’s just past midday and I appear to be inside a rain cloud. Soaked to the skin, my walking boots squelching through tufts of grass and black bog mud, I can hear hundreds of streams rolling off this wide mid-Wales peak, each vying to be the fastest. I’ve hiked around more than 8 miles (13km) of Hafren Forest trails to the top of Pumlumon Fawr (Plynlimon), to reach a wooden post carved with the words Source of the Severn. And I’m here, alone, because I’m hoping to meet a river goddess.

It’s perhaps not as strange as it first sounds. Starting about 150 years ago, the folklorist John Rhys travelled across Wales to archive as many local myths as possible, and among them was the very tale that brought me to this peak: the story of the birth of the River Severn, in which three sisters – Hafren (Severn), Rheidolyn (Rheidol) and Gwy (Wye) – each choose their own route to the sea. My trip to the river’s source was itself a moment of mythically inspired travel, something that has been common practice in the British Isles for as long as we’ve told stories, not least as a means of passing them on.

Folklore is experiencing a revival in Britain, whether it’s in wild tales told around festival campfires or in the rise of Mabinogion-inspired romantasy fiction. I was here on my own adventure, travelling around the islands to rediscover our lost goddess myths and what they mean for modern womanhood, for my new book, No Fair Maidens . My journey took me from Somerset to Skye, from Gower to Eryri, and was less about archaeological sightseeing and more a journey into the landscape and waterways themselves: the river sources, lakesides, spring wells and seashores that feature so vividly in old lore.

Water, it seems, is often the site of powerful women and magical happenings. In Roman and perhaps pre-Roman times, Britannia was a network of waterways represented by goddesses, from Sulis’ hot spring in Bath to Coventina’s well near Carrawburgh on Hadrian’s Wall. For centuries, wells and river sources have been places of pilgrimage for people to bring their wishes, throwing in stones and coins and asking for help from forces unseen. They are also places where magic can sometimes cross over. In local Welsh myth, the Ffynone waterfall is regarded as a portal to the mystical Otherworld, where the goddess Rhiannon lived before riding her white horse into the real world to choose a husband. Up the road at Llyn y Fan Fach in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons), the mountain lake is known as the home of a beautiful nymph who agrees to marry a mere mortal, only to return to the waters, taking her large dowry with her, when he breaks their covenant.

The shores are also home to some of our most renowned female fighters. On the Isle of Skye, in the dark ruins of Dunscaith Castle on the edge of Loch Eishort, we meet Scáthach: a fearsome Scottish warrioress from eighth-century Irish mythology, who was tasked with training Celtic princes to become warriors. She was said to be invincible, wielding supreme combat skills and a giant spiked spear, leading many a man to seek out her tutelage. Today, it is easy to picture her on the battlements, battered by wind and rain, wearily awaiting the next wannabe hero.

Indeed, as I travel across the island, powerful women weave through our folklore so readily that they feel like a source code, even though their stories are mostly unmarked in the landscapes from which they come. In England on the River Stour, I hear the 12th-century legend of Gwendoline, who was said to have raised an army in Cornwall and seized the crown from her cheating husband’s dead hands, making her the mythic first queen of a peaceful, united England. Further down the road as I climb Glastonbury Tor, it’s the matriarchal myth of Avalon that’s calling me, the tale of a magical island of sisters bound by the powers of shapeshifting, healing and prophecy. It’s wild to imagine that Britain might once have been home to that benevolent circle of women.

It seems as if, across Britain, the landscape is brought to life through story. As I discuss in my book, exploring the island through the lens of myth and folklore invites us to see Britain in a different light; as a place full of wonder, where wild and strange things are possible. And with more of us investigating how to build a stronger, healthier connection with the natural world, folklore and myth can create a kind of bridge, inviting us to see waterways less as “resources” and more as living beings with their own stories and a curious will of their own. This is Britain, but not as you know it; and perhaps by travelling through the landscape with myths as our guides, we might find new inspiration too.

Back on Plynlimon, I was never quite sure how to go about meeting a river goddess, lacking the rituals and training our ancestors might once have known. But perhaps it was enough simply to know her story, so I could appreciate the land a little better. Whenever I see a river now, I can’t help saying hello, still in awe of how vast she has become, and how quickly she grew from nothing.

Kim Willis is the author of No Fair Maidens: A Wild Journey with the Lost Goddesses of Britain ( Doubleday , £20 ). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.

This article was amended on 12 June 2026 to replace an incorrect image: the original showed Llyn y Fan Fawr but was captioned Llyn y Fan Fach.

Keyword – US news
Trefwoorden – New York, New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs, NBA finals, NBA, Basketball, US sports, Sport, Culture, US news
Title – ‘Thank God for the Knicks’: New Yorkers abuzz after historic Game 4 comeback | New York | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/anna-betts,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/bryan-armen-graham
Link – ‘Thank God for the Knicks’: New Yorkers abuzz after historic Game 4 comeback | New York | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-11T17:30:04.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/11/new-york-city-knicks-basketball

New Yorkers woke up on Thursday morning – those who had even slept in the city that never sleeps – still jubilant after the Knicks men’s basketball team had made history the night before.

The team staged the largest comeback in NBA finals history to overcome the San Antonio Spurs in the dying seconds of the fourth game of the finals – and put themselves 3-1 up and within one game of a rare championship win.

The Big Apple is buzzing to its core. There was dancing, singing and chanting into the wee hours in the streets in parts of all five city boroughs but especially around midtown Manhattan. There, the New York Knickerbockers, to give the team its full name, had overcome a whopping 29-point lead by the Spurs at Madison Square Garden to turn dismay into delirium for home-town fans. The Empire State Building glowed as it was lit up in the team’s orange-and-blue colors.

Early the next morning, bleary-eyed commuters rushed to work, double coffees in hand after a late night, and pedestrians criss-crossing sidewalks and busy junctions had a spring in their step.

“Oh, man, I’m feeling fantastic,” 53-year-old Kiba Bones said in midtown Manhattan early on Thursday as he paused to talk for a few seconds. “It was epic, it was history made. Thank God for the Knicks.”

Bones, who was born and raised in the Bronx but now lives in Queens, said he watched the game at home. “Knicks in five,” he said, adding that the “last time we won was when I was born”.

Bones was referring to the fact that, if the Knicks win the fifth game this Saturday out of the seven potential games in the finals, they will be national basketball champions for the first time since way back in 1973.

Despite an absolute crowd frenzy outside the Garden as Wednesday night turned into Thursday, by the time the morning sun and humidity were starting to steam up Manhattan in an early summer heat bump, the streets had been cleaned and crews were clearing safety barricades.

Among the morning rush was a sea of orange and blue. Dozens of commuters were sporting Knicks caps and jerseys. Strangers wearing orange and blue caught each other’s eyes and nodded to each other knowingly.

“Let’s go, Knicks!” one man shouted across Seventh Avenue. The call was answered instantly by another with: “Knicks in five!”

Inside the arena after the winning shot on Wednesday night, even seasoned celebrities sitting in their prime courtside seats seemed floored.

Spike Lee almost collapsed in euphoric surprise after OG Anunoby’s winner dropped through the net. Jerry Seinfeld stood frozen with his mouth agape while Larry David and John McEnroe stared toward the court in apparent disbelief. Nearby, Taylor Swift threw her arms around Mariska Hargitay, then later danced, as fans leaped from their seats and roared in unison. Timothée Chalamet grasped his face in shock. In a city accustomed to spectacle, where a certain blasé detachment and cosmopolitan indifference are often treated as civic virtues, even some of its most recognizable faces appeared briefly overwhelmed and genuinely astonished.

Many of the heightened security measures introduced for Donald Trump’s appearance at Game 3 remained in place on Wednesday at Game 4 in anticipation of potential unrest. Beginning at around 4pm, authorities had sealed off several blocks around the arena, creating what the New York City police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, described as a “frozen zone”.

But within minutes of the final buzzer, thousands of orange-and-blue-clad revelers converged on the streets with fans streaming out of the arena, filling the streets around Penn Station and erupting into chants of “Knicks in five!” and “Fuck you, Wemby!”, referring to the Spurs’ towering star player Victor Wembanyama , that echoed through the midtown skyscraper canyons. At one point, they were joined by former Knicks guard Iman Shumpert, who strolled through the crowd wearing his No 21 jersey as supporters mobbed him.

Some scenes turned feral as supporters scaled street signs and traffic signals while shirtless women crowd-surfed overhead.

Some violence also erupted. The New York police department said on Thursday that across multiple locations, a total of 56 people were taken into custody, of whom 15 were arrested and 41 were released with criminal court summonses in incidents relating to the game. The NYPD also said that 10 officers were injured.

As the Spurs returned to their hotel after the game, videos posted to social media showed Knicks fans hurling objects toward Wembanyama outside the entrance, prompting the 7ft 4in Frenchman to duck and hurry inside.

The morning after, riders on the city’s packed subway trains could be overheard discussing key moments of the game – the mistakes, the Knicks’ defense and, of course, Anunoby’s winning put-back.

“The city feels alive,” one passenger said to a friend. “Knicks in five,” another responded.

In the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood not far uptown from Madison Square Garden, Jaynee Byrd, 31, who grew up in Queens and now lives in Brooklyn, paused to share that she felt hopeful that the Knicks would win the next game and secure the team’s first NBA championship in more than half a century.

“We got this,” she said. “We got one more game, that’s it, and we’re done.”

Byrd, wearing a shirt in the team’s signature orange-and-blue, said she too watched the game at home.

“Knicks in five!” she exclaimed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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